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Aug 31

E-Ink concept double-display smartphone hands-on

Big-screen smartphones may be the fashion, but how about two sizable screens on your next handset with negligible battery impact. SlashGear caught up with E Ink at IFA today to check out the company’s latest prototypes, intended to spur some imagination among potential hardware partners. The mockups have a working e-paper screen filling the back, and a (non-functioning) LCD up front, offering two ways of displaying content simultaneously. And, while these might be concept devices right now, E Ink confirmed to us that there’s at least one vendor looking at using the idea. Read on for a video demo.

As E Ink sees it, an LCD or AMOLED screen on a phone is great for multimedia and browsing, but is wasted on showing text or other persistent data like network status and battery level. Instead, the whole rear of the phone – also typically wasted space – is filled with an e-paper screen, that consumes minimal battery life (only requiring power when the content is changed).

The e-paper display itself is incredibly thin, and even with a protective plastic coating – making it just about shatterproof – is roughly as thick as a typical phone battery cover. E Ink’s concepts used functional e-paper, and plugged into a driver unit as per in our video demo were able to change on the fly; the LCD was simply printed on.

What could a twin-screen smartphone of this sort be used for? E Ink has a few ideas, though is leaving most of that to OEMs. An ereader app is the obvious choice, though you could also show a digital boarding pass for a plane (even if you had no battery life remaining on your phone to drive the regular screen), QR codes, or mapping directions. Alternatively, the panel could be used to show promotional information, such as vouchers for nearby stores, or even sponsored messages in return for free call, message and data credit.

E Ink couldn’t tell us which companies it has shown the idea to, and which have said they’d be interested, but did say that at least one was working on something. The first such device could hit the market by 2013 at the earliest.

E-Ink concept double-display smartphone hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 31

Dell XPS 10 hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ditching the keyboard from your Windows tablet is a big theme at IFA this year, and Dell’s XPS 10 is no different. A 10-inch Windows RT slate with a detachable keyboard slice – that also, unlike with some firms we’ve seen, accommodates a second battery – the XPS 10 crept out of its box and into our hands here at IFA today. Read on for our first impressions.

At first glance, the XPS 10 looks like a mash-up of Dell’s old netbooks and the current XPS ultrabooks. The plastic casing feels sturdy in the hands while still remaining lightweight – Dell isn’t allowing people to talk about exact specifications yet, including most of what’s going on inside the slate section – though the company has used a Snapdragon S4 processor, Qualcomm has already confirmed.

Up front there’s an HD-resolution multitouch display that proved responsive at whipping through Windows RT’s Metro-style start screen. Although it’s just 10mm thick, there’s both microUSB and microSD connectivity, though the lower section comes with extra connectivity too as well of the battery. Overall, combined slate and dock can run for up to 20hrs, Dell promises, comfortably exceeding a couple of work days.

Tug out the slate – the mechanism uses a single lock-slider, and proved a little tricky on the pre-production model we were using, though Dell says that will be addressed by the time the XPS 10 hits the market – and it’s a lightweight way to browse, view video, and use basic Office apps. It has to be said, it doesn’t feel as instantly high-quality as the new iPad, but neither does it feel cheap or as though it’s likely to break.

Windows RT tablets aren’t going to be a rare sight by the end of the year. Dell will have to price the XPS 10 competitively if it hopes to grab a slice of the Windows 8 market, never mind if it wants to challenge the iPad and Android models.

Dell XPS 10 hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 30

Windows 8 makes manufacturers touchy at IFA 2012

Posted in: Today's Chili

This week in Berlin at IFA 2012 we’re seeing a large amount of manufacturers bringing on touchscreens and convertible, transformable, or otherwise completely strange Windows 8 computers. There’s everything from a flipping screen to a flat horizontal interface, and so many tablets that we don’t know where to begin. One thing they’ve all got in common: they’re attempting to make use of Windows 8′s ability to work with interactive touchscreens and gestures galore.

Have a peek first at the Sony VAIO Duo 11 in our hands-on experience. There you’ll find what’s called a “hybrid sliding PC” that’s not entirely unlike the ASUS solution for a similar situation in the Eee Pad Slider – but here it’s working with Windows 8 instead of Android. And it’s a bit more chunky (as seen above). Next have a look at Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet 2 as seen below. It’s a tablet if you’d like as well, this time you pull it out and set it up in a keyboard dock rather than sliding.

The Dell XPS Duo 12 is a strange beast indeed – working with a flip screen on hinges – like a framed painting whose center can be turned around. There’s a keyboard in there somewhere as well. Have a peek at that below this paragraph as well – and note that we’ve only gotten “eyes-on” with this device so far, so there’s no telling how fabulous it’ll be in the near future.

The folks at HP have brought along several units to the show including a hybrid PC that runs Windows 8 and has the power of a full PC – rather than a tablet with “mobile power”. Here you’re working with what’s otherwise known as a tablet with a keyboard dock, but it’s described the other way around. Then there’s Samsung – they’ve brought out the guns with the ATIV Smart PC Pro sporting a very similar setup to the HP solution also in this paragraph. Here Samsung has brought on a lovely looking combo that’s not without it’s Ivy Bridge – another bit of hardware we’ve seen a lot of this year. There’s also an ATIV Smart PC that we got hands-on with as well.

Check out the rest of this awesome pageant of touch-friendly (and sometimes not so touch friendly) devices as they appear in Berlin in our IFA 2012 portal. And keep up with the Windows 8 tag as well through the future – some strange devices are afoot!

Windows 8 makes manufacturers touchy at IFA 2012 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 30

Sony HMZ-T2 hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Wearable displays have jumped in attention over the past twelve months, with the arrival of Google’s Glass driving interest, but Sony continues to push virtual big-screen entertainment rather than augmented reality. The HMZ-T2 Personal 3D Viewer was a quiet surprise at IFA, replacing last year’s T1 with a more compact, lightweight version using a pair of 720p HD OLED screens to create a virtually vast individual screen. Read on for our hands-on first impressions.

Where wearables like Google Glass focus on overlaying digital data on top of the virtual world, Sony’s headset hopes to take you away from it. The two OLEDs are enclosed in a white and black plastic visor – you can see your feet below you, but nothing ahead of you – and though they’re each only 0.7-inches diagonal, the effect is of watching a considerably larger screen at a distance of several feet.

The first struggle is getting it to fit. Perhaps I have an unfeasibly large head, but getting the adjustable strap – which pulls on like a baseball cap, from back to front – to sit snugly but still allow the visor to sit in my eye-line proved tricky. You also need headphones, either a set of in-ear buds plugging into the HMZ-T2 itself, or a separate pair of cans that you put on secondly. There’s a padded piece that rests against your forehead, and while we were able to ignore it initially, we could imagine it might get uncomfortable after watching a full feature film.

Once you’ve actually got it on, though, the result is impressive. The screens may be 720p not 1080p, but you don’t notice at that distance: the overall effect is of crisp visuals that are bright enough to be clear but not so much as to hurt your eyes. Meanwhile the 3D effect is excellent: none of the shimmer or shudder that you can suffer using regular 3D TVs.

Controls are hidden on the lower side of the headset, though they’re quite small and – since you can’t actually see them when you’re pressing them – could do with being larger for more straightforward navigation. A dual display switcher, meanwhile, allows for two players to game on the same console, one using the TV as normal and the other seeing their own personal view through the HMZ-T2.

Sony HMZ-T2 hands-on:

Sony isn’t talking price yet for the T2, though its predecessor came in at around $800. That gets you a big TV for home viewing or a couple of tablets for on the move, though the latter are never really going to provide the same visual experience as the former. The HMZ-T2, however, might well prove a sufficient alternative, and that’s before you get into the possibility of hooking up computers or other devices to take advantage. Expect it to hit shelves later in 2012.

Sony HMZ-T2 hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 30

Dell XPS One 27 Hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

The Dell XPS One 27 isn’t a new all-in-one PC, but with Windows 8 and full multitouch it really comes into its own. Fronted by a huge 27-inch Quad HD LCD – that’s 2560 x 1440 – and mounted on an adjustable stand, it’s an interesting alternative approach to all-in-ones to what we’ve seen from the other big name in the marketplace, Apple’s iMac.

Dell’s plastic bezel isn’t as attractive as the brushed metal of the iMac, but the materials don’t feel cheap, just more subdued. The company is aiming for business as well as home users, who might be more conservative but still want a machine that will last.

As for the stand, that’s reasonably stiff so as to support the heavy screen, but once you get it moving it’s no problem tilting and raising it to suit standing use. We’d like to see it lift a little higher, though being able to tilt the touchscreen back and interact with your fingers is a good compromise, and almost like a smaller version of Microsoft’s SUR40.

Windows 8 touch still has to fully convince the market, and while the Metro-style UI is suited to finger interaction, regular Windows apps have hopelessly small buttons on a 2560 x 1440 screen. How much of a problem that will be to end-users will depend on what software they use most often.

Dell will announce pricing and exact specifications for the XPS One 27 later in the year, when Microsoft releases Windows 8 officially.

Dell XPS One 27 Hands-on is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 30

Dell XPS 10 tablet eyes-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Dell is playing things coy with the XPS 10 tablet, keeping things behind glass for the most part, but we managed to coax the 10-inch slate out for some hands-off photography. Actually playing with the Windows RT tablet isn’t an option here at its IFA launch, unfortunately, but we’ve at least seen how slick Dell’s industrial design is for the metal slate.

It’s obviously from the XPS family, bearing the same crisp edges as the ultrabooks already on sale, and at 10mm thick it’s akin to the iPad that it will inevitably be compared to most frequently. The LCD screen is bright, crisp and vivid – again, Dell isn’t saying specifics, but it’s HD resolution and most likely an IPS panel, just as has been used on XPS ultrabooks – but we obviously couldn’t test touchscreen responsiveness.

The keyboard dock is slim and will suffer shortened key travel too as a result; again, that’ll take more prolonged access to figure out for sure. It’s also yet to be seen whether the top section of the slate will overbalance the dock, something we noticed affecting Samsung’s ATIV Smart PC Pro.

So, plenty of questions, and the specter over them all is price. Can Dell bring the XPS 10 in under the cost of the new iPad, and will that include the keyboard dock? We’ll know more closer to Windows RT’s official release date.

Dell XPS 10 tablet eyes-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Aug 30

HTC Desire X hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

HTC has a low profile at IFA this year, with only one new smartphone – the HTC Desire X – and a midrange one at that. More compact than the One X and One S (and likely to be cheaper, too), the Desire X resurrects a familiar name with an eye firmly on the mass market. We caught up with HTC to find out whether it strikes the all-important balance between affordability and performance.

It’s not hard to see that it’s an HTC phone. The company’s rather sober styling has stayed a constant in recent years, and the Desire X owes much of its two-tone curves to the One X. It’s a successful design, though whether it will stand out on store shelves amid more eye-catching phones remains to be seen. The white does better there than the black, with its matte silver around the bezel and the matte white backing.

In the hand, it’s solid if not entirely inspiring, though we can see the compact 4-inch screen being an advantage to those who aren’t persuaded by big-display handsets and phablets. Unfortunately that comes at a price – namely resolution – and at WVGA 800 x 480 the Desire X’s pixels are visible. It’s a shame, as the Super LCD itself has decent viewing angles and bright colors, and the laminated screen means there’s no gap between glass and display, so we wish HTC had opted for at least a qHD panel.

HTC Desire X hands-on video:

As for the camera, it’s a good example of why megapixels aren’t everything. HTC’s own research continues to suggest that photographic performance is one of the key factors buyers make when they pick a new phone, and so while the Desire X may only have a 5-megapixel sensor, it’s backside-illuminated for improved low light performance, and paired with an f/2.0, 28mm wide angle lens. We’ll have to wait until review units are available to see how well the Desire X actually uses all that, but based on the track record with the One series devices we’re quietly confident.

Also like the One series is HTC Connect, the company’s media streaming system. That hooks up to certified speakers or receivers over WiFi or WiFi Direct, and can currently squirt across audio from the phone’s music apps. However, HTC plans to expand that to support video streaming in the future, and while so far only Pioneer has signed up, the expectation is that more manufacturers will jump on board soon.

UI is the Sense 4.1 we’re familiar with from the One series, running on top of Ice Cream Sandwich with a 1GHz dualcore Snapdragon S4 keeping things churning with 768MB of RAM. That’s less than we usually like to see in an Android smartphone – 1GB has generally become the standard, with more devices showing up at 2GB in recent months – but we didn’t notice any immediate stuttering or lag. The Desire X is, of course, a phone built with a semi-budget price in mind, so HTC had to save somewhere; the same is visible in internal storage, of which around 2GB of the total 4GB is available to the user. A microSD card slot can be used to add more.

Unlocked, HTC expects the Desire X to come in at under €300 ($377), though contract pricing isn’t finalized. If HTC can work with carriers to significantly undercut other midrange models from Sony, LG, and Samsung when the Desire X hits shelves in Europe and Asia come mid-September 2012, then it could grab a slice of first-time smartphone buyers. So far Phones 4U has revealed one free-on-contract deal, in the UK, from £20.50 per month; that sounds a little high to us, though if you opt for a £26 tariff you get a free set of Beats Solo headphones. Nonetheless the risk, as always, is that bigger and more capable phones are often available for just a little more.

Aug 29

Galaxy Note II: Air View and Quick Command demo

Posted in: Today's Chili

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II may have some slick new hardware, but it’s software where the company is making its most significant changes to everyday usability. Two of the biggest enhancements are Air View and Quick Command, using a combination of the S Pen digital stylus and gesture recognition, and taking advantage of Wacom’s active digitizer technology. Head on past the cut for a video demo.

Air View also works with contacts – showing phone number, email and other details when you hover over entries in your address book – and messages, along with calendar entries and content in other apps. When you’re playing back video, meanwhile, you can trace the nib across the timeline and see thumbnails of the coming scenes, which makes a big difference in finding a particular spot. Windows pen-enabled tablets have long used stylus hover to mimic hovering the mouse pointer over something without necessarily clicking, and it’s a welcome improvement to the Note II’s interface.

Galaxy Note II Air View and Quick Command hands-on:

Quick Command is a mashup of sketched shortcuts and quick launching: hold down the barrel button on the side of the S Pen, swipe up the screen, and the dialog loads. Samsung’s most proud of how it can be used to flick off a speedy email – handwrite “@ Simon” and a quick note, and a new mail opens up addressed to “Simon” and with the message pasted into the body; if you have more than one Simon in your contacts, you’re presented with a list of the options. Unfortunately it can’t be used with Google’s Gmail app, only Samsung’s customized Mail version, though other S Pen improvements will be opened up to third-party developers when v2.2 of the SDK is released on August 30.

Other features of Quick Command include settings toggling or loading other apps, such as drawing an equals sign to boot up the calculator, and you can create your own with your choice of shortcut sketches. What’s not clear is how much of the new S Pen functionality will be brought to the original Note, Samsung telling us that hardware differences will mean only select features will be ported back.

There’s more on the Galaxy Note II in our full hands-on.

Aug 29

Samsung Galaxy Note II vs 10.1 tablet

Posted in: Today's Chili

There are now several devices on the market that Samsung has added its “Note” brand name to, this week adding the Galaxy Note II for a larger screen than the original with a whole new styling in its case as well. With the birth of the Galaxy S IIIcame the dawn of a new smooth generation of aesthetics for Samsung, this spilling over first into the tablet universe with the Galaxy Note 10.1 then hitting the Galaxy Note II. With this tie-up came brand recognition that was all Samsung’s own, and with two devices on the market with the same styling and many of the same abilities, its become time to make with the comparisons.

With the Samsung Galaxy Note II you’ll be working with a 5.5-inch display at 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution – if you’d like to know how this and the rest of the features and abilities compare to the original Galaxy Note, head over to our Galaxy Note war posted earlier today. This device compares to the original Galaxy Note quite readily, while with the Galaxy Note 10.1 on the market we’ve got a device with a much more giant display and similar backbone. The Galaxy Note 10.1 has a display that measures in at 10.1-inchs with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. The Galaxy Note II uses HD Super AMOLED technology while the Galaxy Note 10.1 uses TFT LCD.

Both devices are able to take microSD cards, but the Galaxy Note 10.1 is not equipped, as the II is, to take 64GB cards. The Galaxy Note 10.1 has a 5 megapixel camera on the back and a 1.9 megapixel camera on the front, this matching the Galaxy Note II on the front while the smaller device has a much more powerful 8 megapixel camera on the back. You’ll certainly want the Note II if you want to take high quality photos, that’s for certain. Both devices also us S-Pen technology and have a Samsung S-Pen embedded within them for easy carrying.

The Galaxy Note II is the smaller of the two devices at 5.95 x 3.16 x 0.37 inches while the Galaxy Note 10.1 rings in at 7.1 x 10.3 x 0.35 inches – quite a bit larger, but actually just a bit thinner. Both devices use Bluetooth 4.0 and are able to connect with Wi-fi, but the Galaxy Note II will also be able to connect to mobile data as well – carriers to be announced soon. The Galaxy Note 10.1 may also be able to connect to mobile data in the future, but at the moment it’s just a wi-fi machine. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be appearing on the Galaxy Note II while the Galaxy Note 10.1 currently has Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Jelly Bean on the way “very soon.”

Have a peek at our hands-on with the Galaxy Note II from IFA 2012 to get a bit more information on this next-generation device and see our Galaxy Note 10.1 review to get a full in-depth look at the tablet device already on the market.

Aug 29

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Samsung‘s second ATIV Smart PC hybrid, the Smart PC Pro, is the more serious of the Windows 8 docking pair, packing a more powerful processor but giving up battery life along the way. Under the hoot is an Intel Core i5 CPU with 4GB of RAM and up to a 256GB SSD, while runtimes are up to 8hrs. Read on for our first-impressions.

At first glance it would be easy to mistake the Smart PC and Smart PC Pro, though the latter is slightly thicker and – when you snap the slate out of the keyboard dock – noticeably heavier in the hand. It still has an S Pen for digital handwriting and sketching (Samsung unfortunately didn’t leave a stylus to hand to actually test) but you now get a 1080p display, which is bright and colorful (though still falls short of the resolution on, say, the new iPad).

The power under the hood pays dividends, though. Apps loaded quickly and we were able to flick between them with no lag, though the software isn’t final; we couldn’t get screen rotation to work, and we couldn’t write S Note memos with our fingertip.

The keyboard is perhaps the weakest point. Key travel is unsurprisingly shallow, which isn’t a deal-breaker, but the light weight of the ‘board means the Smart PC Pro is prone to rocking back from the weight of the top section. Add to that the somewhat plasticky feel, which is less tactile than the slate part.

Of course, “more serious” also means “more expensive” and the ATIV Smart PC Pro carries a heavy premium over its more humble sibling. Samsung will be asking $1,119 for the tablet with a 128GB SSD when it hits shelves on October 26 in the US.