Pocket friendly Android

Budget smartphones hunters will be thrilled by recent announcement of several value for money Android handsets for the local market, all below the price of RM1000.

Top of the list will be the Samsung Galaxy W, which feature a phenomenal upgrade from its predecessor the Galaxy Ace. Screen resolution sees an increase from HVGA resolution to . Even more impressive is the processor speed which has been bumped up from a modest 800MHz to a speedy 1.4GHz, along with higher RAM and ROM. Cameara resolution is maintained at 5MP but then again, the Ace has one of the best 5MP snapper around. It was even better than then flagship Galaxy S and many of the 8MP units presently available. The good news however is that video recording has also been upgraded to 720p HD resolution. Its exterior design is a fresh departure from the conventional design commonly used by Samsung and it somehow reminded me of a Blackberry. However, it's not as good at creating a slim illusion, looking a little thicker even though both the W and the Ace share the same 11.5mm thickness. The Galaxy W has been announced for a price of RM999.

Even more affordable will be the Galaxy Y, which many cited to be the replacement for Galaxy Mini. I doubt that though as spec wise, there is hardly any upgrade. In fact, the screen shrunk slightly to 3" of low res display and the camera been downgraded from 3.15MP to a mere 2MP. And even though it now has a faster 832MHz processor, it isn't bundled with a graphic accelerator like the 600MHz processor in Mini. The Galaxy Y is a budget phone at RM499 and it looks like a budget phone with a screen that is too small for its body.

Right between the two is HTC Explorer, priced at RM759, with a spec slightly lower than The Wildfire S. HTC tends to be pricey due to their preference for premium material for the housing and to my best knowledge, this is the first HTC phone to be launched at a price tag below RM1000 so compromises is to be expected. This unit seems encased in a soft plastic material that will probably be great to hold but I can't say I appreciate its aesthetic. We also get 3.2" display, 3MP camera running on a 600MHz processor. The HTC unit has the advantage of being skinned with the very popular Sense UI.

The Galaxy W seems to be the best choice here, being more able than last year flagship. It's also the most expensive among these few but we could argue that the rest are simply too far behind. Finally, the still unannounced Sony Ericsson Neo V deserve some attention with specs very similar to the Galaxy W. If the price matches, it would give the W a good fight with its sheer good look alone.

Meego got me go-ing

I recently had a chance to fiddle with the new Nokia N9 recently and my reaction to that was
"What was Nokia thinking?"

To start off, the N9 has got an odd design. It has a curved display when the other's are flat and sharp corners when the rounded corners are the norm. Except for its two rounded sides, all other surface is flat. It has no button on its face and this new level of minimalist design squeezed a 3.9" screen into a body only marginally bigger than the iPhone. The phone looked rather blocky but its slim profile and display curved glass that almost cover the entire front from edge to edge gave it an unusual appeal that screams one of a kind. It's a trick of course as the display isn't really as big as the glass itself but it makes it look really good. I can't say I like the overall design although I must admit the design of the display over the AMOLED screen really capture my eyes. Don't judge it merely by the photos though as the N9 looks better in real life.

As unusual as the design of the phone is, it is the OS inside that everyone is excited about. Here is how the N9 basically works. Unlock the phone by switching the unlock button or by simply double tapping the screen. We will see a screen that shows all the updates of your friends or whatever news you subscribe to. One swipe and we arrive in the menu screen, through which we access all settings and apps. Another swipe will take us to the task switcher, for quick access to any unclosed application. That's it! That is all we need to know to start using the N9. It's almost as intuitive as the iPhone, plus some extra functionality, like iOS Expanded Edition.

Back to the question earlier, what was Nokia thinking?

They finally have something that excite the world which they co-own, which may become their golden ticket back to the number one spot, and their decision is to let it go and focus on Window Phone, which they will never own, and which other manufacturers could use as well? Again, what was Nokia thinking?

I cannot say for sure they made a mistake but the decision is made and it is unlikely the N9 will be receiving much after sales software support / updates. It doesn't even have Whatapps while Nokia alredy made a deal to have Whatapps developed for its non-smart feature S40 platform. Maybe that is why it wasn't released in the US or Europe and instead, we in Malaysia are the 'lucky' one to have it. Because we are less demanding for such updates.

Whatever it is, at least Intel is smart enough to realized Meego generated too much excitement to be discontinued and found a new partner in Samsung to continue its development under the name Tizen. Even if Tizen really grow, I can't imagine Samsung rolling out new updates for a Nokia device. Furthermore, Nokia still owns the beautiful rounded icons design used in Meego's menu.

It's a shame. Meego is such an easy platform to fall in love with and the N9 is really beautiful. Again, Nokia comes so close to creating a winner but it still couldn't reach the finishing line. One last time: What was Nokia thinking? Sigh...

The Nexus Prime!

Obviously Google had this planned from the very beginning. Very quickly after the announcement of the iPhone 4S, they released a teaser for their upcoming event on Oct 11, where they are likely to announced the new Nexus Prime.


The video hinted on perfect combination obviously refering to Android's latest Ice Cream Sandwich, which combine the best of Gingerbread for mobile and Honeycomb for tablet. We also got a glimpse of the Nexus Prime and it looks hotter than an iPhone. Nexus is the phone manufactured specifically to showcase Google latest Android platform. HTC manufactured the original Nexus before Samsung took over with Nexus S. While it was initially believed that Google will choose a different manufacturer for the next Nexus, they surprised everyone by sticking with Samsung.

While the previous Nexus phone already got a curved front, this new design took it to another level as the entire thing is curved and super slim. The previous only employed a curved glass over a flat display but given the dimension of this new Nexus Prime, the new device could very well be using a real curved display. After all, Samsung already got that technology which they showed off long ago. It certainly look like it would be an exciting design but we can only find out after the Samsung Unpacked event on 11th this month.

iPhone 4S - Do you want one?

The world was waiting for a 5 but all they got is an S. (Ha ha ha, go ahead and read that last part out loud.)

Unlike the launch of of the iPhone 4, the 4S barely excite the crowd despite its self proclamation as the most amazing phone in the world. So disappointed is the world that Apple's stock took a 5% dip. To be fair to Apple though, these disappointment really comes from an overtly high expectation. Any other manufacturers which release such update would be met with greater cheers.

So what is new with the 4S? It is still housed in the same beautiful exterior and its still excellent Retina display wasn't upgraded in any way. This design, when released last year blew everyone away. It didn't looked as much like a phone as it does as a communication device form the future. I got to admit that I was more curious how Apple will better the exterior design more than what they have to offer on the inside.

The camera itself was upgraded to 8MP and 1080p Full HD video recording. Samples photo from 4S was released by Apple and they look amazing. They are professionally taken of course but I believe in any hands, it would still produces photos comparable to those of the Galaxy S2. It's still a little nosier but it isn't too prominent.

A more subtle but important changes would be the antenna. The original design of an outside antenna wrapping the side of the phone sound like genius but when held with the left hand, disrupt signal to the point of dropped call. Only one of my iPhones totting friends has such complaint though, even if she choose to blame it on Digi instead. It remain to be seen how this slight modification would improve the signal.

On the inside the phone is running iOS 5 on a A5 dual core chip. Yup, the iPhone got dual core now albeit still capped at 1GHz compared to dual core 1.2GHz of the Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation. I remember however that Google themselves admitted that Gingerbread wasn't yet optimized for a dual core processor. Optimized or not, these Android monsters are already blazing fast in their performance. If the iOS are better at taking advantage of the dual core chip, it could potentially be, though I suspect, not perceptively faster than its competitors.

As for the iOS 5 which was introduced much earlier, it supposedly brings 2 noticeable addition. The notification area and possibly homescreen, both which are long available to Android devices. The iCloud integration shows potential though. This service let you store files in Apple server so it may be easily shared. For example, you take a photo and it shows up immediately on your PC for you to work on. The next generation of Window Phone devices will come with 25GB of free cloud storage but it is not clear yet what iCloud would offer.

The highlight of the 4S however is the integrated Siri Assistant, previously available as a free app for iPhone 4. It is basically a voice command app but with a bit of a human touch as it's smart enough to understand normal speech instead of instruction specific command. It's like having a personal assistant by your side as it answer your question, managed your schedule, take note and make contact for you. There are many a phone with voice command function but Siri took it to a new level of smart. As one of the key selling point for the iPhone 4S, the original siri in the App Store has been hastily removed. Too bad.

Now, that wasn't so bad was it? The phone has gone dual core with its camera upgraded in addition to the iCloud service and Siri integration. what more can we ask for? I am tempted to believe the disappointment really stems for the fact that it didn't get a brand new look. Unfortunately, that alone may be enough to convince most people to just stick to their 'old' iPhone 4 because there may be a new iPhone out there now but the previous model is still pretty good.