Hasta La Gadget!

Android is our future, the stat mavens all agree, but for all its rapid growth, Google’s OS still suffers from a shortage of top tier differentiation. This has in part been down to LG and Sony — two of the world’s biggest phone makers — spending the majority of 2010 watching the battle for Android supremacy from the sidelines (the X10 disqualified itself when it announced it neither knew nor cared what Froyo was). 2011 might just be the year of redemption for both, however, as LG will soon assault the European market with a pair of truly desirable and powerful Android smartphones in the Optimus 2X and Black, while Sony Ericsson’s well leaked portfolio of new Xperias includes the Arc, Neo and Play, each one of them coming with Gingerbread preloaded. We’ve wrapped our mitts around a pair of these high-hope devices, one from each manufacturer, and photographed the living daylights out of them sat side by side.

We humbly submit that the Xperia Arc looks and feels far more refined than LG’s admittedly well designed Optimus 2X. The Arc’s curvature seriously makes it feel like the thinnest phone we’ve ever handled and its weight is also dramatically, unreasonably minimal. Another note of import is that the 2X comes with a 4-inch screen whereas the Arc offers a more generous 4.2-inch display, yet their overall dimensions are nearly identical. All in all, we’d hardly object to having either one in our pockets, but the Arc wins it for us in terms of aesthetic appeal. Of course, the Optimus 2X has a dual-core Tegra 2 heart beating within, it’s not all about looks, though in the case of this hands-on comparison, it kind of was. We’ll have a full review of LG’s handset in the coming days, while Sony Ericsson promises the Xperia Arc will land in Europe by the end of March. You can see more of the prototype unit we got to handle in the gallery below and there’s a video comparison of the two Android newcomers after the break as well.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. LG Optimus 2X… fight!

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. LG Optimus 2X… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a phone. It’s a laptop. It’s a desktop.

Motorola wants you to think its upcoming “superphone” is all of these. Soon, we’ll be able to find out.

The Atrix 4G, Motorola’s highly anticipated hybrid smartphone offering, will be available for pre-order beginning February 13. The phone will cost $200 with a two-year AT&T contract, and is expected for wide availability on March 6 or earlier, says AT&T.

Aside from the very sweet dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor pumping out 1GHz of power on both cores, the list of attributes found on the Atrix is fairly similar to other recent smartphone offerings. It’s got a 5-megapixel back facing camera, front facing camera for video chat, and is running Android version 2.2 (Froyo). The full gig of RAM is a nice eyebrow-raising amount, however. And the can expand its storage up to 48GB via SD card.

What is most intriguing about this phone is the Atrix’s ability to go multi-platform. Still want to play Angry Birds on your smartphone during your daily commute? Use the Atrix as you would any other smartphone. Need a laptop for taking notes? Plug the Atrix into the separately-sold laptop dock and bang away on them keys.

Have a big-ass monitor at home and miss the desktop computing experience? Hook that bad boy up to the Atrix’s HD multimedia docking station and use the phone like you would a PC.

Here’s the kicker: nothing in life comes cheap. If you want to buy the laptop dock on its own, it’s a cool 500 bucks. Or alternatively, if you want to grab the Atrix and laptop dock together, AT&T is offering a bundled package price — $600 with two-year contract, or $500 with two-year contract after a mail-in rebate and subscription to the Data Pro plus tethering add-on plan.

The HD multimedia dock isn’t a whole lot cheaper at $190, but with the dock you get a nice little Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, along with a remote control.

Will the high prices turn away crowds, or will the Atrix’s supermutant-like morphing capabilities be able to open the hearts and wallets of customers everywhere?

We’ll see come the next few weeks.

Photos: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

See Also:

• Hands-On With Motorola’s @$#%ing Atrix Superphone
• Big, Beautiful and Badass: The 9 Coolest Android Smartphones at …
• Hands-On With LG’s Optimus 2X Superphone
• Motorola, LG Flex Dual-Core Smartphones

All these upcoming NFC-equipped smartphones wouldn’t be worth much without places to use them, so it’s good to hear LG’s announcement this week that it’s working on providing the infrastructure for contactless payments. The Korean company has set its sights on Europe, where it’s conducting beta testing of point-of-sale technology that will facilitate paying for goods and services by swiping your phone near an NFC sensor. We’re not told whether that phone would necessarily have to be built by LG, though we imagine the company would be well served by including as many devices as possible and just taking its slice of the profits. Whatever LG does, it’s looking increasingly safe to assume that having NFC on your phone will be a legitimate asset in the coming months (and not just if you live in Japan).

LG working on an NFC payment system for Europe, planning launch in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Heads up high-speed data fans — more carrier-exclusive smartphone and tablet offerings are headed your way.

On Wednesday morning, T-Mobile announced its Galaxy S 4G smartphone and G-Slate tablet. The phone will be available sometime this month (we’re speculating a release in conjunction with the forthcoming Mobile World Congress), while the tablet has an even more vague drop date of “spring” availability. Neither have confirmed price points as of yet.

The Samsung-manufactured Galaxy S 4G isn’t drastically different from its 3G predecessor, the Vibrant. It’s got a 4-inch capacitive touch screen (like the Vibrant), a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor (see: Vibrant), plus a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p video and a pre-installed 16-GB microSD card (Vibrant, Vibrant, Vibrant).

In fact, except for the newly-installed front facing VGA camera for video chat and 4G-capable ST-Ericsson radio, this thing ain’t much different than a Vibrant. (The 4G does, however, come with Inception loaded onto the phone in its entirety, instead of Avatar, like the Vibrant.)

But Samsung’s first Galaxy series of smartphones did break the 10 million sales mark in early January, so popularity and user-familiarity could outweigh a lack of product innovation.

The T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG (yes, that mouthful of a title is accurate) is a bit more exciting to us. The 8.9-inch capacitive touch screen will be capable of both playing and recording 3-D and full HD video content, complete with in-box 3-D glasses to watch your 3-D home movies with (here’s to hoping they aren’t the cheap cardboard kind).

The “with Google” branding counts for something as well. The G-Slate will run the much-anticipated Android version 3.0 (a.k.a. Honeycomb), Google’s Android OS update “optimized for tablets.” And just like the forthcoming Honeycomb-powered Motorola Xoom tablet, it’ll be running on a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.

The tablet will also include a back facing 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video as well as taking snapshots, and the front facing 2-megapixel camera comes stock for all your video chatting needs. The 32GB of on-board storage will hold your glut of jpegs and video files.

While the new Galaxy S 4G isn’t wowing us on pure spec-power alone, we’re excited to see what the G-Slate has in store for us.

Photo: Galaxy S 4G/ Courtesy of T-Mobile

See Also:

• Report: T-Mobile to Offer Upgraded Samsung Vibrant 4G
• Wired Explains: What U.S. Carriers Mean by ‘4G’
• Wired Explains: Everything You Need to Know About 4G Wireless …
• Hands-On With T-Mobile’s 7-Inch Tablet, Due Feb. 2
• Verizon Memo Leaks Motorola Xoom Pricing: $799
• Motorola Previews New Android Tablet, Droid Smartphone

Though it was technically announced back at CES, T-Mobile just barely talked about the LG G-Slate there, spending more time chatting up Dell’s Streak 7 and letting Motorola’s Xoom get virtually all of the Honeycomb attention. Well, that’s changed today with a handful of official new details: turns out the G-Slate features a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 32GB of internal storage, both a gyroscope and accelerometer, and — this is key — stereoscopic rear-facing video cameras capable of 1080p 3D capture, one of which doubles as a 5 megapixel still camera with LED flash. There’s also a third 2 megapixel camera up front for video chat over T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network or WiFi. Going back to that 3D business for a moment, you’ll need glasses (it’s unclear if they’re active or passive) to enjoy recorded or downloaded 3D content on the G-Slate’s 8.9-inch display — but you’ll also be able to output 1080p video over HDMI to the external display of your choice. Pricing is still an open question, but the companies are now comfortable enough to say that we can expect it “this spring,” so go ahead and start thinking about all the blooming springtime plant life you’ll be filming in three glorious dimensions. Follow the break for the full press release.

Update: While T-Mobile hedges its bets with a “spring” launch, LG says that it’ll be hitting US soil in March as one of the first Honeycomb tablets. The honor of being first will almost certainly go to the Motorola Xoom — Google’s in-house “dogfooding” tablet.

Continue reading LG G-Slate fully detailed by T-Mobile: 3D viewing and recording, available March (updated)

LG G-Slate fully detailed by T-Mobile: 3D viewing and recording, available March (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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