Hasta La Gadget!

Shopping for a smartphone can be an exciting and arduous experience. Along with the promise of something new and fantastic, it brings the fear of commitment, and even worse, the prospect of saddling yourself to a lousy device for two years. Fortunately for you, Engadget spends tons of time playing with the latest gear and we’re constantly on the lookout for what’s coming next. If you’re wanting to take the pain out of shopping for a smartphone, you’ve come to the right place. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: your one-stop resource to finding the best and most exciting handsets on the market today.

Before you dive in, however, we’ve introduced a few changes to the buyer’s guide, so take a minute to prepare yourself for what’s in store. First and foremost, you’ll now find alternate selections to supplement our top picks. This should already be familiar to many of you, which is the same format we use for our seasonal gift guides. The next one is a biggie: we’ve dropped the QWERTY selection. By and large, manufacturers and carriers alike have shifted their focus away from keyboard-equipped smartphones, and you’ll rarely find more than one option on any given carrier. That said, if you still insist on the tactile experience, you’ll always find everything you need to know in our reviews. Finally, whenever possible, you’ll now find prices from Amazon Wireless, which allows us to provide you with more compelling budget selections and highlight the substantial savings that you can score by circumventing the carriers. It’s not like they need your charity, anyway.

If you’re curious to see how it all unfolded — and we know you are — join us after the break, where we round up the very best smartphones of the season.

Continue reading Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, Google, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, LG, T-Mobile

Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The One line hasn’t seen much carrier love lately, but that’s all set to change next month. Beginning September 2nd, the littlest member of that smartphone troupe — the One V — will be hitting Cricket’s lineup at $270, no contract necessary, and notching two milestones in the process. Aside from offering subscribers a belated first taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, the Sense-skinned 3.7-incher’s release also counts as HTC’s official hardware debut on the network. In case you’ve forgotten and need a bit of a spec refresher, the odd-lipped Legend throwback bucks the de rigeur multi-core trend for a single 1GHz Snapdragon S3 CPU running Android 4.0, a 5-megapixel rear camera powered by ImageSense tech and, for better or worse, features Beats Audio integration. It’s no heavyweight as current smartphones go, but if you’re keen to push things forward, this lil’ fella packs a considerable punch. Check out the company’s official presser after the break.

Continue reading HTC One V makes the leap to Cricket’s lineup September 2nd for $270

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

HTC One V makes the leap to Cricket’s lineup September 2nd for $270 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software

Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virgin Mobile USA, one of the smaller mobile carriers here in the USA, has just announced that they will finally roll out the HTC One V to the masses in this part of the world. Back in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, HTC announced a trio of smartphones from the HTC One Series, and they are the high end HTC One X, the HTC One S, and the HTC One V. The HTC One X is the flagship device, while the HTC One S delivers performance and style in a single device, with the HTC One V being a working man’s phone – without sacrificing on decent performance and looks, of course.

Available for $199.99 a pop with a 2-year contract, the HTC One V’s strong point would be its camera that boasts HTC ImageSense which is said to deliver improvements in all parts of the camera, including the lens, sensor and software. These enhancements will work together to deliver fast image capture, beautiful photos even under conditions that are deem to be photo unfriendly (low light, no light and bright backlight), alongside Video Pic which allows you to shoot still images while recording 720p HD video simultaneously.

Your ears will also benefot from authentic sound with Beats by Dr. Dre Audio. At least it comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as the operating system of choice, accompanied by a 3.7″ display, a 1GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel camera. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HTC One V headed stateside for MetroPCS, US Cellular and Virgin Mobile, HTC One V ROM ported onto the Desire S and Desire HD,

HTC had broadcast its intentions to bring the One V to the US this summer, and that’s exactly what it’s doing, even if it’s keeping the formalities to a minimum. Virgin Mobile has started selling the entry Android 4.0 phone without fanfare at a very tempting $200 contract-free — certainly the lowest American price we’ve seen so far for joining the Sense 4.0 party. The hardware still won’t floor anyone, but Virgin Mobile Live is tossed in to perk up the experience. Should Google’s platform just not be your bag, you’ll also be glad to know that Virgin has recently started taking online orders for its prepaid iPhones, which officially hit the shops on Friday. With their $550 and $650 no-contract prices, though, some may question just how Retina their displays really need to be.

[Thanks, Marcus]

HTC One V quietly pops up at Virgin Mobile USA for $200, iPhone tags along for online orders originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Virgin Mobile (One V), (iPhone 4), (iPhone 4S)  | Email this | Comments