Hasta La Gadget!

This time last year, HTC had two Android smartphones for the mainstream: the 3.7-inch Desire, outfitted with the latest and greatest, and the 3.2-inch Legend, which was humbler in specs but offered the novelty of an aluminum unibody construction. After seeing that strategy pay off handsomely, the company’s come back in 2011 with a similar proposition. The 4-inch Incredible S is now the higher-end device, while the 3.7-inch Desire S is the smaller, aluminum-shelled handset. What’s curious this time, however, is that the Desire S has exactly the same 1GHz Snapdragon inside it, the same graphics, same WVGA resolution, and the same 768MB of RAM as the Incredible S. Throw in the fact it comes with Gingerbread preloaded and a few new tweaks to the Sense UI and you’ve got to wonder if this might not be the more, um, desirable of HTC’s new Android duo. Only one way to find out, right? Full review after the break.

Continue reading HTC Desire S review

HTC Desire S review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We understand that it’s hard to take two steps rather than one, but a solid list of specifications isn’t going to make the Torch 2 look any less last-decade. For whatever reason, RIM’s design department seems to be stuck in an era where last-generation is the new next-generation, while it’s internals team has seemingly managed to escape. For those who couldn’t disagree more regarding the exterior, you’ll likely be elated to know that the impending handset will boast a blisteringly fast 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, 8GB of internal storage, 768MB of RAM, a microSD expansion slot, 5 megapixel camera and a 35-key backlit keyboard. You’ll also get a microscopic 2.8-inch LCD with a woeful 640 x 480 resolution, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack, A-GPS, dual-band 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a 720p movie mode. So, one down, one to go — time for a reread, is it RIM?

[Thanks, bighap]

Full specs leak for BlackBerry Torch 2, 1.2GHz Snapdragon can’t overcome ugly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take the 1GHz Scorpion core residing in Qualcomm’s current flagship Snapdragon, the MSM8x55, duplicate it, overclock the resulting pair by 50 percent, and give them improved graphics in the form of Adreno 220. What do you get? A barnburner by the unsexy name of MSM8x60. Yes, the 1.5GHz Mobile Development Platform Qualcomm loosed on the world at CES earlier this year has found itself prostrate on a test bench, where it has produced some of the finest graphical performance scores yet seen on a mobile device. The taxing OpenGL ES 2.0 test you see above shows the new Snapdragon doubling the frame rates churned out by Motorola’s mighty Atrix 4G (which admittedly has to work harder thanks to its higher-res display) and completely embarrassing older generation hardware like the EVO 4G. That’s a theme carried on throughout AnandTech‘s benchmarking, which you may explore in full at the source link. If you’re wondering when this world-beating dual-core chip will be coming to market, the answer is that it’s already inside HTC’s imminently upcoming EVO 3D and Pyramid devices, albeit running at a tamer 1.2GHz. Exciting, eh?

P.S. – Do take note that the Qualcomm dev platform was plugged into the wall during these tests and was not subject to any power management software that may have otherwise restrained its performance as on the retail chips under test. Moreover, the Egypt benchmark can only run at native resolution, which is what’s causing some seemingly aberrant results such as the iPhone 4 (960 x 640) ranking below the iPhone 3GS (480 x 320).

Continue reading Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660 destroys the competition in majestic benchmark run

Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660 destroys the competition in majestic benchmark run originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like the steady stream of leaked HTC Pyramid pictures shows no signs of slowing down. While we’ve recently seen shots of the back and the front of the device, we’re now getting the full monty, courtesy of xda-developers. Thankfully, Mr. Blurrycam toned things down this time around: there’s a spread of the phone with its battery cover removed, and screenshots detailing additional specs. The HTC Pyramid is expected to land on T-Mobile at some point with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 768MB or RAM, a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) display, font-facing camera, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, HSPA+, and Android 2.3.2 (Gingerbread) with Sense 3.0. Hit the source link for more photos.

[Thanks, egypt and Andrew]

More HTC Pyramid pics leak, now with less blurrycam and extra specs originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The PlayStation Phone. We’ve had quite the intimate history with this gamepad-equipped slider, learning of its secretive existence way back in August and then handling a prototype unit in January, so you’ll forgive us for feeling sentimental and still entertaining our pet name for it. The Sony Ericsson marketing gurus renamed it the Xperia Play when it finally went official at MWC this year, but the PlayStation connection remains as strong as ever. Aside from the D-pad, iconic game keys, and two touchpads, this device comes with a little app named PlayStation Pocket, which will be serving up dollops of classic PlayStation One gaming to all those with a taste for it. Yes, the Sony influence is strong with this one, and the Android Market will be joining the fun with Xperia Play-optimized titles from third-party developers. So all we really need to know now is whether the Android smartphone underpinning this smash-bang fusion of old and new school entertainment happens to be any good. Shall we get Started?

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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