Hasta La Gadget!

Sony Ericsson’s MWC presser today may have been all about its new Play, Pro and Neo members of the Xperia family, but the CES debutant we know and love as the Arc was out in force as well. So, we thought, why not throw together our thoughts on this phone and splice them with a gallery of delicious new images plus some video action to boot? The first thing to note is that the Xperia Arc will be shipping globally in March and Sony Ericsson is aiming for the broadest possible operator coverage. Focusing on the handset itself, we’ve been wildly impressed by its design since first laying eyes on it, there’s something fundamentally attractive about the Arc’s look, something less tangible than its ridiculously slim profile. Sony Ericsson has used a similar plasticky material on the back as it does in the Neo, which doesn’t overwhelm us with any sensations of reassurance or quality, but seems to do the job. Guess some corners had to inevitably be cut along with the fat on this phone’s body.

The 4.2-inch screen is bright and lucid, though we’d warn against expecting too much from the Bravia Reality Display marketing. As we’ve mentioned before, the display enhancements only kick in when you’re consuming multimedia. Still, general performance looks more than satisfactory. Hard buttons around the body are well arranged and designed, a contrast from the fiddly keys we found on the Xperia Pro. What was consistent with the rest of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia crew, however, was the Arc’s inability to execute its pinch-to-zoom widget summary screen. It’s an ambitious function — gathering all your widgets from each screen into one cohesive overview — but, basically, it’s laggy as hell. Aside from that, general UI responsiveness could also stand some improvement, but we like where Sony Ericsson is going with the whole thing. If it keeps up its promise to repent from last year’s sins with relation to Android updates, the company has a very good chance of striking it rich with the Xperia Arc. It’s a phone that can truly get by on its looks alone. Video after the break!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc video preview (video)

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc video preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We said it at the Show and we’ll say it again, Sony Ericsson just doesn’t know how to keep a secret. One of its phones set for launch at Mobile World Congress 2011 has just slipped the net (again) and this time we have its full product name to boot, the Xperia Neo. You’ll be familiar with this Android 2.3 handset already from mobile-review‘s thorough preview a couple of weeks ago, though at the time it was known under its codename of MT15i. This latest hands-on look at the hardware is similarly positive about the Neo, describing it as a well constructed phone and praising Sony’s Android modifications as restrained and actually useful. Talk about a 180-degree turn from the way things used to be.

There’s another reason to be excited about this phone, however. Back in December, Sony Ericsson registered trademarks for Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, and… an Xperia Duo. We expect all four to be out and about at MWC this year, and we may have already seen the latter device in yet another bit of leaked photography.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo named and previewed in one fell swoop, bringing Gingerbread to MWC 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GSM Arena  |  Tech Radar  | Email this | Comments

This won’t be the first (or by any means last) video you’ll see the Xperia Arc starring in, but it is the most comprehensive look we’ve had so far at this finely crafted Android Gingerbread handset. The guys over at HDBlog.it have somehow sourced both the silver and black variants of Sony Ericsson’s upcoming 4.2-incher and they’ve given the pair a nice and thorough video overview. They happily report that Timescape and Mediascape, Sony Ericsson’s pervasive features in the earlier X10, have been scaled down to mere widgets, making them “far less intrusive” and resulting in the rest of the UI being “faster and easier to use.” Make the leap past the break to get the full dish on SE’s latest and greatest.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc subjected to a thorough video preview

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc subjected to a thorough video preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  HDBlog.it (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Immediately following its big 3DS price and release date unveiling, Nintendo had on hand dozens of new titles playing on what we’d surmise is final hardware (or at least near-final, given its February 27th Japanese launch). Our first hands-on experience was just over six months ago during E3, at which point we were very impressed with what we saw. Did this playthrough garner the same excitement? Have our decidedly older but not much wiser selves become jaded by the novelty of it all? Venture on after the break to find out.

Continue reading Nintendo 3DS in-depth preview, slight return (update: more videos!)

Nintendo 3DS in-depth preview, slight return (update: more videos!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Remember those eccentric ASUS Android tablets at CES? Yeah, it’s all a bit of a blur for us as well, but turns out both the Eee Pad Transformer and Slider prototypes just made it to the BETT (British Educational Training and Technology) Show in London this morning, so we decided to wander along to get our hands dirty again. Sadly, the Transformer had a bit of a rough ride from Vegas and remained dormant, but we were still able to admire its sturdy keyboard dock with great key press travel. And in case you’ve forgotten, said dock is also an external battery that doubles the juice up to 16 hours. UK shoppers will see this slate popping up in the stores around May or June for £379 ($597), and its docking kit for £100 ($158).

We were more fortunate with the functioning Slider prototype, even though it had the same sliding issue we saw at CES. But fear not, as we were told that the engineers are already reworking the mechanism, and here’s hoping that they’ll do something about the flexing keyboard as well. As for software, we didn’t have time to test everything, but we were surprised by the general snappiness of the current Froyo test build. And speaking of which, we’re not too sure what the plan is with ASUS’ Android roadmap — even though we were told at CES that Honeycomb will be on these tablets at launch, the folks we met today said that they’ll be shipped with Gingerbread instead; and even then, there’s no time frame for the 3.0 upgrade just yet. Anyhow, this is less of a concern for the Slider given its July or August launch, but it’ll cost you a hefty £429 ($676).

Additionally, both tablets will see their 3G variants in the UK a quarter after their respective launches, but regardless, it’s never too soon to start a petition for your carrier to spread the ASUS tablet fever.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and Slider: another look originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments