Hasta La Gadget!

Take the most daring Android phone yet, but make it faster, stronger and better (but blander). You have the Sprint take on the HTC Hero, which happens to be the best Android phone you can buy.

I said the original version of the Hero was “daring” and “ambitious, but tragically flawed.” (Read that review first.) If it was Batman, the Sprint Hero is Superman: Nearly perfect, but goddamn boring. HTC has taken the striking, aggressive angles of Hero v1 and flattened them out into a rounded, far more generic looking phone. It’s not hideous, but it’s lost its power to captivate as a geek fetish object.

Everything else about this version of the phone is better: The software, which is exactly the same content-wise on the HTC front as the first Hero, has been seriously optimized, so it doesn’t suffer show-stopping slowdowns anymore, even with a full set of HTC’s widgets running. Speedwise overall, it’s about the same as a G1 running the stock Android OS—bearable, but not exactly a blitzkrieg. (The iPhone 3GS is way faster, to compare.)

Interestingly, while HTC says the hardware is exactly the same—except for the CDMA chips to get it on Sprint’s network, obviously—there are some differences we noticed. The screen, while the same size, actually seems to look a little bit better on the Sprint model. Not worlds better, but if you look close, the difference is there. The colors are a bit more saturated, the viewing angle a little wider. Also, it’s got a bigger battery: 1500 mAh, compared to 1350 before. The bigger trackball is a plus, since it takes less thumb movement to get around, meaning less carpal tunnel problems in the future.

And, while it’s very possibly firmware at play, the 5MP camera shoots, on average, about twice as fast as the first Hero, and the metering in low light seems to be way better, too. Both of the shots above were taken using the same settings on each phone, with the old Hero running the original firmware it shipped with. (Still not great, but better.)

The only real new bits, software-wise, are a handful of pretty standard Sprint apps: Sprint Navigation, NFL Mobile Live, Nascar, SprintTV and Device Self-Service. Everything else, from the keyboard to the multitouch browser looks the same, just faster (and in the case of Flash in the browser, more reliable too, since we could actually watch videos this time around). Which is dandy, since HTC’s Sense UI, with its multiple desktops, social networking integration, widgets for weather, Twitter, settings and other enhancements, made Android great.

The real power of this Hero is that the best Android phone you can buy—it’s everything good we said about the first Hero, but with our biggest complaint, speed, fixed—is on Sprint and its solid 3G network—making it the first U.S. Android phone outside of T-Mobile—and it’s $180. Plus, the required Sprint Everything now has free calling to any mobile number, not a bad perk.

The princess might not kiss this Hero because it’s kinda ugly, but at least it’ll actually get the job done now. If you’ve been waiting for an Android phone not on T-Mobile, or one that’s finally just about ready for primetime, this is it.

HTC’s Sense UI makes Android way more usable and adds useful features like social networking integration


Almost all of original Hero’s problems are fixed


Android kinks, like no easy way to update all apps, meh store interface aren’t polished over


Jumbo trackball and more logical front placement marred by cheap front plate


Hardware blobbified into something boring and dull, not daring and awesome


Still not as polished as iPhone or Palm Pre
[Sprint]

Android has become many things to many people, but high-powered media devices haven’t latched on to the OS just yet. Much of it has to do with the Android’s immaturity: from what we hear, it doesn’t even support hardware graphics acceleration, much less embrace multimedia and games. Archos has punched through that barrier by porting over its existing media-happy application layer from Linux to make good use of the 800MHz OMAP3440 processor they’ve stuffed inside the brand new (much leaked) Archos 5 Internet Tablet. The tablet runs a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 screen, and can pump out 720p video (including WMV and H.264) over HDMI. Because it’s Archos’ own special sauce, the device also supports protected WMV and protected WMA (hooray PlaysForSure), a rarity for Linux. With the optional DVR Station the device can do VGA TV recording, though you’ll probably want to spring for one of the beefy HDD models, which offer capacity up to 500GB, but double the girth of the basic 0.4-inch thick flash player. There’s also 802.11n WiFi, a bit of a rarity in portable devices like this, and quite a treat for 2.4GHz-addled city dwellers.

But that’s all pretty regular Archos-ey stuff. The newness for Archos comes in the form of Android, which has been fairly seamlessly melded with the Archos layer — which hovers over the vanilla Android install when needed. The OS scales up pretty nicely to 800 x 480, which is a relief because the touchscreen keyboard is a bit of a chore with the 5’s resistive touchscreen. Since it’s not a Google-blessed device, you’ll have to score a copy of Gmail on your own time, but the regular Market is available if you want to risk going around the 5-optimized AppsLib store. Several third party apps are included out of the gate, including ThinkFree Mobile, which should be updated to allow for document editing in the near future. When plugged into a dock and paired with an optional mini-QWERTY keypad (or any regular Bluetooth keyboard and mouse) the 5 becomes a rather nice way to surf the internet on your TV. It’s missing in-browser Flash, but there should be an update to rectify that soon. Out of the house the tablet offers a high-end GPS experience, including hugemongous birds eye photo maps of major cities, and can tether with a 3G phone over Bluetooth for a bit of data. So, Archos 5 might not be Android’s killer device, mainly because it isn’t a phone and doesn’t make for pleasurable mobile data entry or consumption. Still, it’s doing stuff with media that the relatively sluggish crop of Android handsets have failed at so far, and hopefully will spur the community to greater heights. The player is available as of today, with prices ranging from $250 to $440, not to mention accessories galore. Check out videos of the tablet in action after the break.

Continue reading Archos 5 Internet Tablet makes an honest PMP out of Android

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 5 Internet Tablet makes an honest PMP out of Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here we go again… it’s Tuesday and the store’s been taken off-line as rumors of a new touch-screen tablet flood our tips box. That can mean only one thing: a new Android tablet from Archos. What, were you expecting something else?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs

Archos store is down, you know what that means? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google-designed Android operating system is clearly the flavor of the season as seen by the launch of LG’s latest phone. The new LG phone, unimaginatively named LG-GW620, will the company’s first Android-based device. It will feature a 3-inch full touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad.

LG did not offer detailed specs for the phone.

The new device is expected to be first available in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year. The company has not disclosed the pricing for the device and hasn’t said when it will be released in North America.

“Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers,” said Skott Ahn, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile. “This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”

LG’s Android phone comes on the heels of its rival handset maker Motorola introducing an Android-based device of its own called Cliq. A feature-packed phone, the Cliq has a touch screen, physical slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, the ability to shoot video at 24 frames per second, a standard headphone jack and GPS capability. The device also sports a custom-designed user interface that integrates email, text messages, social networking feeds from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and photos.

Other companies such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson are also looking to introduce new Android-based phones later this year.

Unlike Motorola, LG won’t focus on Android alone and will continue to churn out phones running Windows Mobile, says the company.  LG plans to announce three new Windows Mobile-based smartphones in the next few weeks and a total of 13 new smartphones that run Windows Mobile over the next 16 months.

See Also:

• Hands On: Motorola’s New Android Phone Nails Design, Fumbles Software
• LG Watch Phone Likely to Launch in August
• LG Announces Pricey But Elegant Prada II Phone

Photo: LG-GW620/LG

The good news: less than a week after a non-HTC company finally threw its hat in the Andriod ring, LG has followed suit with the release of their own smartphone built on the Google OS. The bad news: the device isn’t coming to the US.

The Korea handset manufacturer today announced the release of the LG-GW620, the company’s first Android phone, which, at first glance, looks more than a little like Motorola’s Cliq, announced in the middle of last week. The handset features a 3-inch touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The device will be hitting “select European markets,” later this year.