There does not seem to be a clear channel of communication over at LG with their customers when it comes to operating system updates of their Android-powered smartphones. We have had hot-and-cold responses concerning the LG Optimus 2X and LG Optimus Black’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich treatment, ranging from having the update coming our way before a denial, followed by a confirmation for the LG Optimus 2X recently – but even that seemed to be limited to South Korea only.
Here is some visual proof that will definitely keep owners of the LG Optimus Black happy, where the latest retail boxes of the LG Optimus Black come with “Android 4.0 ICS upgradable” stickers. No idea on whether this is a legit image though, nor where can such boxes be found, but they are labeled in English, so you can be sure that South Korea is not the country where these LG Optimus Blacks will be sold. Do you think the image itself holds water as being legit?
If you’ve embraced Motorola’s vision of tablets warmly enough to have picked up a Xyboard 8.2 or 10.1, your loyalty is being rewarded. Both the WiFi versions and Verizon’s Droid Xyboard variants should be receiving their Android 4.0 updates starting now, with everyone onboard over the course of the weeks ahead. Don’t anticipate a Droid RAZR-style visual revamp: much like Google’s regular jump from Android 3.2 to 4.0, the changes involve subtler components like the improved built-in browser and Face Unlock. The release is no Jelly Bean update, but we’d still call it a big step forward for fans of sharply-angled slabs.
This week we’ve had a look at the next slide-out QWERTY smartphone to hit the 4G LTE universe in the Motorola PHOTON Q. This device represents some of the best and the worst in the smartphone market today, starting with Motorola’s lovely take on a QWERTY keyboard, complete with light-up keys that feel rather nice to tap away on. The Sprint network, on the other hand, has been a letdown – both to the operating system and the hardware it’s working with.
Hardware
This device feels nice to use, the touchscreen works rather nicely, and the display is both bright and sharp. In the hands-on and unboxing video you’re about to see below this paragraph, you’ll notice that this device has Motorola moving into the no-button universe, relegating the physical buttons to the sides and the inside of the smartphone. The slider is a bit more loose than we’d like to see on a device that costs several hundred dollars right out of the gate, also.
Motorola made a bit of a strange choice with the plastics on this device. The back has a texture that should be made to grip, but because it’s so nearly-flat and linear it slips. That said, the bulk of the device does make grip more than possible, this keyboard-toting unit made to use by the working person.
The buttons around the side of the device are easy to work with, the display is a great size for web browsing as well as watching videos – qHD at 4.3-inches and 960 x 640 pixel resolution. There’s a bar of LED light under the speaker grille above the display that is rather nice and bright – if you like having a little circle of light, you’re going to love having a bar like this.
The display, also, can get amazingly bright. Brighter than you could possibly need it to be, in fact, with Automatic Brightness not bringing you up to full brightness even when you’ve got a full battery. Motorola is going up and over the mark when it comes to retina-burning insanity. It’s pretty awesome.
Software
Motorola is also bringing an extremely unique set of abilities to Android. If you’ve got your standard web browser on your home screen, for example, you can place your finger on it and swipe upward to attain a pop-up window with bookmarks. This same ability works in different ways with several built-in apps on this device.
There’s also a modified look and feel to the settings page, icons across the whole build, and the lock screen. Motorola also brings back the three-circle widget that’s able to show time, date, weather, battery life, and quick access to settings. A swipe across any of the three circles here brings on an alternate view or function.
This device once again brings Motorola’s webtop software interface when you plug it in to HDMI, and there’s once again a lovely collection of accessories available to you even before the device hits the market. Motorola continues to be smart with their microHDMI/micro-USB combo on the side of the device as it works with most of the smartphone/tablet accessories they’ve released over the past year. Motorola’s attention to accessories goes so far as to bring on an “Allow Bluetooth bypass” option in settings, allowing you to turn on voice actions from afar.
Motorola is owning their presentation of Android here, that’s for sure. Have a peek at this Quadrant benchmark result to see how the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor is helping Motorola bring you a high-powered QWERTY smartphone, too. This is certainly one of the more powerful devices in the slide-out QWERTY keyboard-toting category, that’s for sure.
Speed Tests
Unfortunately we’re forced to speak up against the carrier here in that, just as it was with the last device we reviewed on this network, connectivity was lacking in a major way. Speed tests were essentially impossible as the device was unable to make the connection long enough to test, for the most part – and that’s not just on 4G LTE.
Up in Minnesota we’ve been able to get the symbol for 3G to appear on the device, but we’re extremely suspicious of how real that signal actually is. Buyer beware – make sure you take your device out into the field to see if you can get coverage before committing.
Camera and Battery
The camera is pretty decent, with both 8 megapixel photos and 1080p video working like a charm. Motorola’s camera interface is interesting, certainly, and does offer a few filters that are nice – but for the most part you’ll want to stick to straight up plain-old photos anyway. Video similarly does have some nice detail to it. Have a peek below at examples of both.
Battery life on this device is quite nice, though again we’ve been unable to work with 4G LTE – that would be the biggest battery drainer. As of now it’s the bright display, which if you do set to automatic, you’ll have a perfectly fine time dealing with. Without the display on full blast, you’ll have more than 10 hours with medium usage on your hands.
Wrap-Up
As it stands, this is a rather nice piece of hardware on a surprisingly less than acceptable network. If you’ve used this carrier before and you’ve had a lot of luck, then certainly you’ll be good to go with this device. But if you’re new to the smartphone universe, we’re currently recommending that you stay away – or at least test your device out on a test run before you commit.
Motorola has once again brought on a solid piece of hardware, with a QWERTY keyboard that is easy to use and a processor from Qualcomm that has a fire in its belly as it has on each of the devices it’s been released on thus far. This device will be available throughout the USA immediately if not soon!
The saga of Samsung’s Galaxy S Relay 4G (né Galaxy S Blaze Q) continues. In this latest episode, we’re presented with an annotated set of pictures showing each side of the device — courtesy of Samsung’s very own US support site. Of course, this further confirms the handset’s new name, which is just as terrible as the old name. No matter — if you’re a fan of QWERTY sliders this is definitely a phone to keep an eye on. While the full specs remain a mystery, previous leaks have confirmed HSPA+ 42Mbps support for T-Mobile’s AWS network, a 4-inch screen (probably not HD) and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor (likely a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4). There’s still no word on pricing or availability, but an official announcement can’t be far behind, right?
When the LG Optimus Vu first launched the phone was exclusive in South Korea and Japan. We mentioned a few days ago that the Vu would be coming to the United States next month. The US isn’t the only country where fans of big-screen smartphones will be able to get their hands on the Optimus Vu.
Select countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America will see the international version of the Optimus Vu in September. This big device “blurs the line” between a typical smartphone and a tablet. The line blurring comes in the five-inch display with a resolution of 768 x 1024.
With a screen that size, this could be a smartphone with a big screen, or a tablet with a small screen. The display has a 4:3 aspect ratio and for a large screen, the resolution is rather low. This international version ships with Android 4.0 and supports 3G network access. It has 32 GB of storage, an eight megapixel rear camera, and a 1.3 megapixel front camera.
The biggest difference between the US version and the international version is the processor. The US version will use a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor. This international version uses a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor. There is no indication of a specific launch date in September and there is no official announcement of the price or carriers at this time.
Extra-large phones often skew towards the, shall we say, pricey side. Micromax is keen to democratize this desire for the gigantic with the Superfone Canvas A100 (shown here on the left). A 5-inch LCD puts the Android 4.0 smartphone fully in phablet territory, but the inside is reasonable enough that those in the company’s native India won’t break the bank: an 854 x 480 resolution, 5-megapixel rear and VGA front cameras, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 4GB of built-in space and a microSD slot keep the dual-SIM phone down to Earth. Micromax also has us covered if we want a slightly more hand-portable size. The Superfone Pixel A90 touts a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 Super AMOLED screen and brings in the added punch of an 8-megapixel rear camera on top of the A100’s baseline hardware. Either comes with the designer’s Siri-alike, AISHA, and should already be on Indian shelves with a slight twist in pricing — the bigger Canvas A100 is the more affordable of the two at a modest 9,999 rupees ($180) off-contract, while the A90’s slightly more exotic technology carries a 12,990-rupee ($234) price.
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Not that we were on pins and needles wondering what Motorola’s September 5th event would contain, but what vestige of mystery was left may just have been sapped away. A quartet of Motorola tutorial videos newly uncovered by YouTube user revowii walk users through the unannounced XT926, better known in unofficial circles as the Droid RAZR HD. It’s all about the looks in this leak: other than the conspicuous link to Verizon, what’s mostly validated here is the expected use of a customized Android 4.0 with on-screen navigation keys, much like the Atrix HD in AT&T’s corner of the universe. Earlier murmurings have the Droid RAZR HD carrying the same Snapdragon S4, 720p screen and LTE as well, which could leave the CDMA voice network, NFC and possibly increased storage as the only real differences. We’ll know the full truth in about two weeks’ time, but those who don’t mind a peek into the possible future can hop past the story break to indulge in some video time traveling.
Motorola is bringing on a brand new slider to the market with a QWERTY keyboard and the ability to connect to 4G LTE in the Motorola PHOTON Q. We’ve got our hands on this device today and are finding its lovely 5-row keyboard to be just as nice as past DROID products we’ve seen from the manufacturer, brought on here with the speed of a dual-core processor and some nice rounded corners to keep you comfortable. The bright and sharp 4.3-inch 960 x 640 pixel resolution qHD display as well brings on a powerhouse for the manufacturer’s line of like-minded smartphones.
You’ll find that this device falls right in line with the whole Motorola family that’s been released over the past few weeks and months. This means that if you’ve got a XYBOARD or a RAZR in one hand and this in the other, you’ll know good and well that they’re part of the same Motorola design generation. The slider is strong, the keyboard is lit all around each of the keys, and the whole package brings on the best Motorola device in this form factor that the manufacturer has ever produced.
The dual-core processor inside comes from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon S4 – an impressive beast in and of itself. You’ve also got a large LED notification light above the speaker grill that lights up whenever you’ve got something new coming in via email, Twitter, or whatever else you’ve got popping in on the mobile web. The back of the device is curved so as to allow easier gripping – new and a bit unique for the OEM.
There’s 1GB of RAM here, 8GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot to expand your memory by 32GB. You’ve also got a VGA camera on the front, an 8 megapixel camera on the back, and a beast of a device all-in-all ready for your summer and fall season of mobile computing. Stay tuned as we give this device a once-over here on SlashGear with a full review coming up next week!
Education-minded minds at Samsung have come forth with a deal made perfect for the upcoming school season: the Galaxy Tab 2 Student Edition bundle. This bundle includes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (7-inch tablet) in a limited edition white color included in a package with a keyboard dock and a USB adapter as well. This package will be sold by Samsung for a competitive $249.99 to keep up with recent releases of rather inexpensively priced competitors such as the Nexus 7 by Google.
This package takes on the already neat Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (see our full review) and adds on a keyboard dock and a USB adapter so you can use a variety of accessories right along with it. This USB adapter will allow students to use USB thumb drives, USB mice, and more. Also right out of the box the tablet will be including the app Polaris Office so students working in a variety of document formats can make their learning experience swift and easy.
This tablet has a 7-inch TFT (PLS) display at 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, works with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and has a 8GB of built-in memory. You’ll be working with Bluetooth 3.0 as well as wi-fi for connectivity, theres a microSD card slot so you can add up to 32GB of additional storage, and you’ve got an integrated IR-blaster so you can control your television like you would a standard remote control.
The tablet measures in at .41 x 4.8 x 7.6 inches and weighs in at 0.76 pounds in all. This device also has GPS, stereo speakers, and two cameras – a VGA camera on the front for video chat and a 3 megapixel camera on the back for photos and video.
The deal only lasts from 8/19 until 9/1 and will be popping up at Best Buy, Amazon, Tiger Direct, Costco and Fry’s. Each of the devices on their own would be a total of $350 USD, and again, the limited time only price for the package in the end is $249.99. Samsung also has the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 on the market now for just about twice that amount, but there’s certainly some perks to consider – check out our full review of the Galaxy Note 10.1 right this minute as well!
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There does not seem to be a clear channel of communication over at LG with their customers when it comes to operating system updates of their Android-powered smartphones. We have had hot-and-cold responses concerning the LG Optimus 2X and LG Optimus Black’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich treatment, ranging from having the update coming our way before a denial, followed by a confirmation for the LG Optimus 2X recently – but even that seemed to be limited to South Korea only.
