Hardware

The first thing you notice with the X10 is its lighter than the HTC Desire, not by a lot but enough. This is quite surprising considering its additional 0.3 inches screen size. When you turn on the device you get the usual Sony Ericsson splash screen which really hits home the screen, its very bright and crisp and although I thought it inconceivable that an extra 0.3 inches could make difference, it really does. Accuracy to touch is as good as can be expected from a capacitive screen and scrolling is fairly smooth, no pinch to zoom web browsing or picture resizing as the device isn’t multi-touch, this stood out as I’m used to that feature on the Desire.

The dedicated camera button has a half press to focus which is a feature that is oft missing from smartphones but really helps when taking photos. The X10’s photo ability is better than the Desire, when in good lighting the camera is excellent but as soon as the X10 hits low light, the camera quality is massively reduced. It has a photo light which is a LED lamp, this actually ends up leaving a bright central patch on the pictures but still leaving the rest of the picture dark.

Charging the X10 is done by connecting the charger in the top of the phone which for me personally is  awkward. I’m often on the phone in the late evenings to friends and family and this is usually the time the device needs charging, having the micro USB connector on top of the device means there is a cable tugging your hand while you have the X10 to your ear and makes for an uncomfortable call over long periods.

Battery has been hit and miss, my average usage is heavy and during the first couple of days the X10 would last just over a full day, however as the weeks gone on I’ve found more often than not I will be placing it on charge around 9pm in the evening. This is comparable to the Desire but I fancy in an out to out battery test, the HTC device would just edge out the X10.

Software

I think the software is what really lets the Xperia X10 down. First things first, its not really a direct comparison to the HTC Desire in that the X10 has Android 1.6, where as the Desire is Android 2.1. This means a few things, firstly and most importantly for me, no native Exchange support. I’ve had my Exchange mailbox now for quite sometime and its an indispensible feature of my daily life, so I was shocked to discover no support from the X10. There is however a set of applications included on the device called Moxier which gives basic ActiveSync support. It can receive push emails, sync contacts and calendar but there are some caveats. Contacts do not appear in the dialler when you begin to type a number into it, you also cannot edit or add contacts from the devices standard contacts menu, for these items you need to open the Moxier Contacts application.  The email application is vastly different from Androids standard email app and it misses the ability to multi select messages to delete. I get over 60 emails a day and that is important.

Sony Ericcson include there own interface on the device which adds some nice animations to menus, this interface also includes Mediascape and Timescape. Mediascape is a portal for viewing all your music, video and pictures. Timescape is a timeline view for all your messages, twitter feed, emails, pictures, video, music, call logs and weather. I found myself using this hardly at all as it uses small squares for each item which means it pretty hard to get any real world information from it.

Browsing is as you would expect of a 1Ghz webkit enabled device, rendering is smooth and quick and scrolling is fluid. I still think these Android powered super phones are a great balance for browsing on the move, 3.7 inches and above, 1Ghz processors and an all day battery life makes for a good mobile internet device.

The on screen keyboard is simply terrible, there is no other way to describe it. By default haptic feedback is turned off, meaning you don’t know if you’ve pressed a key or not. A little digging in the menus and I was able to enable it but this is when things got worse. The accuracy of the keyboard is poor but it has a pretty good predictive setup which would often display the right word for you early into typing the word. The keys towards to edges of the screen would pop up like you had pressed them but not actually add the character to the text, this is was made worse by the fact that the haptic feedback would signal that the letter had actually been pressed.

This is a killer, for a device that’s supposed to be at the centre of your social networking, its a big fail, a bad keyboard experience will be with a user every time he or she uses the device. It might be compounded by the fact that the Desire keyboard is actually very good. When you press a key, you get a letter, no false positives.

Conclusion

As the week has gone on I have actually enjoyed the Xperia X10 more and more, its grown on me, despite of the issues. Looking back what has struck me is that all of the problems that would effect me are all software based and could be resolved with an update. I think the Android 2.1 update would be a great start but reading through the news this is not going to happen until Q4 this year. That’s too long, for a company like Sony Ericsson, the update should be quicker.

I have developed a small soft spot for the X10, despite its annoyances. Would I swap it for the Desire permanently? Hell no.

The Desire has the luxury of coming with HTC Sense, Android 2.1 and a by far better keyboard.

If your looking for a super phone with heavily integrated social networking then its a no brainer, get the HTC Desire.

Make sure you check out Steve Paines coverage of the HTC Desire over at his X10 mini site. Also check out my initial thoughts of the Xperia X10.

As part of the bloggers sharing initiative, me and Chippy have swapped smartphones for a week. He has my HTC Desire and I have his Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The device arrived yesterday and although I didn’t have much time to properly test the device I got it configured into a usable manner.

My first thoughts are;

1) The screen is big and beautiful although the auto brightness sensor sometimes leaves the display looking dull.

2) The feel of the device is solid, its lighter than the Desire but this does leave it feeling not as robust.

3) Android 1.6 is lacking, I first noticed this with the lack of native exchange support. A third party application is offered on the device but its not as integrated as native support.

4) Camera is very good in light situations although pretty poor in low light.

5) The on screen keyboard is awful, it misses key presses even though the haptic feedback registers a press and certain keys require a long press, specifically keys towards the edge of the screen.

6) The browser is excellent as I would expect with Android coupled with a 1Ghz processor.

7) Battery life is on par with the Desire which considering my usage habits is pretty good.

I will post more thoughts as I use the device which will lead up to a short review. Don’t forget to check out Chippys coverage of the Desire over at Carrypad.

Screen

The screen is big and beautiful but even with the brightness set to its highest setting, readability in direct sunlight is heavily reduced. Here in the UK, direct sunlight isn’t such a problem, although over the last week we have had some good weather which has highlighted the issue.

My other complaint about the screen is it can be sticky, by that I mean your finger doesnt glide over, it sometimes sticks to the screen meaning a little more effort is needed. There circumstances for this are pretty specific, the screen and your finger have to be clean as when there is a little finger grease on the screen, this isn’t an issue.

Messaging

To be honest I actually think this is a problem with Android and not so much the Desire but I thought I would bring it up. I regularly send SMS messages to multiple people, most of the time the messages to the last two or three people in the list fail, which results in me having to select them one by one and resend from the undeliverable messages menu.

One thing that has been annoying is the home screen email notification, Ihave four email accounts setup on the Desire. When a new email comes in there is a notification from the menu which takes you directly the the relevant account, however if you press the home screen email icon you are taken to the last used email account which is often not the one where the new email is.

Like I said, none of the above are show stoppers for me, in fact all of them are minor items and certainly not enough to put me off keeping the device. It’s a matter of personal preference and how a device suits your needs. I need a fast device with a good browser and messaging capabilities, a camera isn’t a necessity although a bonus. This is why I whole heartedly recommend you get down to a local store and try a device before signing.

In the next couple of days I’m

swapping my HTC Desire with Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine’s Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Steve has been running a mini blog on his experiences of the X10 so far and I’m quite looking forward to trying out another super phone and comparing it to the Desire.

More on that soon.

]]> http://www.guyontechnology.co.uk/2010/04/28/desire-review-follow-up/feed/ 0 http://www.guyontechnology.co.uk/2010/04/26/htc-desire-review/ http://www.guyontechnology.co.uk/2010/04/26/htc-desire-review/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:11:57 +0000 Guy http://www.guyontechnology.co.uk/?p=510 I was only nine months into my eighteen month T-Mobile contract which subsidised my HTC Hero but the new generation Android smartphones were too much to wait for. The HTC Desire is one of the top five smartphones in the world today, devices I’m calling super phones. The addition of Android 2.1 meant it was the next logical device for me.

Hardware

For me the thickness of a device is important, my phone lives with me no matter what, its used for business and personal life and needs to not be bulking or difficult to carry, it must be able to slip into a trouser pocket and be unnoticeable until its required. At only 11.9mm thick its slim enough to achieve this and despite it being taller than a Apple iPhone, it feels smaller to hold. The 3.7 inch AMOLED screen feels bigger than it is whilst using the device but doesn’t seem to impact how big the phone feels to touch, probably due to the narrow bezels down the sides of the screen.

The Desire comes packed with a 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor which seems to be the standard for these high end super phones now, 576MB RAM, a full 64MB’s more than Google’s own Nexus One from which the Desire was spawned.

The optical joystick doesn’t move at all but instead senses movement over it, this works well for precision movement when editing text or wanting to move the text cursor in just a couple of letters. It makes up for the lack of precision on the capacitive screen which most smartphone manufacturers are favouring these days.

The feel of the device is of quality, as we have come to expect from HTC devices. The matt black finish on the back provides enough grip in your hand for you to be confident its not going to slip and the gently rounded corners enable you to hold it for extended periods without feeling uncomfortable and in both horizontal and vertical positions.

One of my favourite aspects is the screen, the first time you turn on the device your blown away by the crisp vibrant colours of the 480 x 800 pixels display, the difference between it and other devices I have used recently is staggering, it makes the Hero display look bland and flat. Using the capacitive touch screen is a learning curve for anyone who has come from a resistive touch device, for me it wasn’t a problem as the Hero’s screen was also capacitive, the accuracy isn’t such an issue on the Desire as it was on the Hero. The added screen space means you don’t need to be so precise and I have hardly found myself hitting the wrong button by mistake which shows this. The outdoor readability was poor until I discovered the hardware controls for turning up the brightness, three settings provide dim, medium and high settings all of which can be access from one button in the form of a widget.

As I have previously mentioned the camera is a significant improvement from the Hero. There is no lag when you press to take a picture which was a big issue for me on the Hero. The inclusion of an LED flash is very welcomed, it seems to fire twice when taking pictures in low light situations, a pre flash just before the picture then a simultaneous flash with the picture. Its not intrusive and has so far seemed to light a scene enough but not too much, although I would doubt its effectiveness outdoors in open spaces. The LED flash also means that whilst view finding there is not external light which can make for a difficult line up of the perfect photo.

Above are two photos taken using the Desires camera, both taken in an almost pitch black room, the only light source in the room is the TV, the left with the LED flash and the right without out.

My biggest concern before I received the Desire was the battery life, with the 3.7 inch screen and the additional processing power I assumed longevity would be less than the Hero. I’m by no means a light user when it comes to a smartphone, with an Exchange and Gmail account configured for push, two additional IMAP emails accounts being checked every hour, FriendStream checking for new tweets and facebook status updates on an hourly basis, an hours worth of calls, moderate text usage, MeeBo instant messenger connected all day and around 30 minutes of browsing the device still has 10% battery left by the end of the day. This is with the screen brightness set to medium, wifi on and managed by the operating system and location services turned off. The Desire has proven to be better on battery life than the Hero which has surprised me considering the additional horse power.

Software

The Desire comes with Android 2.1, Google’s latest revision of its operating system. Its also loaded with HTC’s Sense user interface which sits on top of the operating system much like TouchFlo did with my previously owned Windows Mobile devices. The user interface is a evolution from its previous incarnation which was present on the HTC Hero, a few nice additions like pinching on the home screen provides a ‘helicopter’ overview of all seven of the panels. Widgets out of box are similar to that of the Hero, with the added inclusion of FriendStream. This aggregates your social network feeds from Twitter, Facebook and Flickr into one big feed meaning you don’t need to check several different applications or websites to catch up.

After the screens impact on you the next thing you notice is the speed of the device, never does it feel like its under load or struggling to copy with a task or application. Its a world apart from any previous device I have owned and in recent comparison with a friends iPhone, browser cold boots, page rendering and zooming were all quicker on the Desire.  This brings me on to browsing which is powered by the WebKit powered Android browser. When browsing the real web you certainly feel like the 1Ghz processor accelerates page rendering times, zoom and text reflowing are quick and very smooth. The browser can handle flash in websites which even includes several popular Facebook games, like ‘Whos got the biggest brain’. That alone shows the ability of the Desire when it comes to the real web, its the closest desktop browsing experience I have come to from this form factor.

I’ve not tested much video playback, mainly YouTube videos which have always been smooth and shown no signs of stutter or lost frames per second.

A video taken on the HTC Desire and uploaded straight to YouTube from the device, I’ve embedded it here but I recommend you watch it on YouTube in its full glory.

Conclusion

Right from day one of using the device I couldn’t help but be surprised by the speed, it really strikes you when compared to other phones and even the likes of the Apple iPhone. Thats a massive statement and its shows this devices presence when every major mobile network provider has signed up to offer the device to their customers. Using the device has been nothing other than a pleasurable experience and its ability to get things done in such a speedy manner certainly has impressed me.

[UPDATE] I’ve posted a follow up to the Desire review on some of the low lights so far with the device.

The Hero camera also had a short lag after taking the picture, this would often mean you miss that perfect shot and in low light situations you could almost guarantee the picture would be blurred.

The Desire has an LED flash and the significantly faster processor which most definitely makes the difference. In low light the LED flash brightens the environment but not overly so, the image is instantly taken, no delays and the inclusion of face recognition perfects focus on subjects, mainly my daughter so far.

For me, the colour reproduction is the stand out feature, maybe its just the devices screen but images look bright and crisp, I’ve uploaded two quick shots from the garden taken today straight from my Desire using the WordPress application.

I will have my full HTC Desire review online soon.

My only real issue with the device was its inability to see the applications which I had purchased and used on my HTC Hero. A number of people have reported this very issue and one user received this response from HTC support;

"Dear Andrew The explanation we have been given is that for all new ROMS released we have to supply Google with a "fingerprint" that identifies the ROM and this needs to be updated in their database with compatibility info and such so that the correct apps can be shown. Such as the market filtering out incompatible apps. We do supply these before release of all our ROM’s and devices however we have no say over how long it takes for Google to update their database. Best regards, Bjorn D HTC"

So for the last three weeks I and many other Desire users have been at the whim of Google, well wait no more. As of yesterday Google finally added the Desires fingerprint to their database and DRM protected applications are now available in the market.

So if your a Desire owner, get yourself on the market and see what you have been missing out on.

Well for the last couple of days I have been laid up in hospital with a severe throat infection. I’m a lot better now but that’s a different story.

I was lucky enough to have a few of my gadgets brought in for me which included my Asus EEE 1000H but not my gadget bag which contains my Palm Treo Pro. The Palm is perfect for tethering as it uses the Windows Mobile operating system. With it, I simply connect it to my laptop via the USB cable and open the internet connection sharing application which is built into Windows Mobile as standard and the computer is online, no additional software or configuration required.

So I have a laptop, I have a mobile but no cable to connect them. I had a look on the application market but the only real option is an app called ‘Wifi Tether for Root Users’. This turns your Android device into a router using the mobile network as a connection to the internet. It would have been perfect but I unfortunately couldn’t get it to work on my HTC Hero. A little searching later using the Hero’s browser and I stumbled across this forum entry on the applications Google Code pages. Its actually a Sprint Hero user with the same problem but the result was a beta version from the developers which works perfectly and finally allows my laptop to connect via wireless and access the internet!

Speeds from my hospital bed are in the region of 2Mbps which is perfect for catching up on feeds, emails  and the of course this post.

The beta version is available here to download but the usual rules apply, it is beta code and so be wary of that when installing on your device;

http://android-wifi-tether.googlecode.com/files/wireless_tether_1_61-pre1_htc.apk

The only complaint about using this method is of course the battery drain on the Hero, with both Wifi and HSDPA radio under heavy usage I can’t see the phone battery lasting more than 5 hours. I have a phone charger here so its not so much a problem but if you spend a lot of time on the move and require your phone to last I would suggest maybe another method of connectivity.

Also whilst typing out this post, the doctors have told me I can go home today which is great news.

I’ve had quite sometime with my new HTC Hero and as part of being a new user to the Google Android environment I have spent a fair amount of time finding applications to help with daily tasks. This has been made much easier with the 100,000+ apps in the Android Market.

So here are some of the apps I currently have installed;

Barcode Scanner – This should be the first app for any Android user as it not only can be used to scan every day products to search online retailers for pricing but its also used for navigation, say to a particular app in the market or a URL online.

Meebo IM – A simple but effective instant messenger to connect with the standard MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and AIM networks. As an added bonus it can also connect to Facebook chat.

Evernote – The Android version of Evernote is only in beta and only handles basic tasks but its far better than heading for the browser. It allows easy upload of photos and voice notes, a real must for anyone as disorganised as me.

Astrid – This fantastic ‘To Do’ app is simple but powerful in it’s own right but the icing on the cake is its perfect Remember The Milk synchronization and support for Smart Add.

beebPlayer – A nifty client for viewing the BBCs iPlayer online streams. Supports not only TV & Radio on demand but also can play live streams. It’s like having the BBC in your pocket.

wpToGo – A elegant, simple to use app for blogging to WordPress blogs whilst on the move. Has support for multiple blogs, image upload, links and much more. Worth noting this post has been written using this app!

Stream Furious – If like me you tune into online radio this app is perfect. It’s straight forward with an extensive of list stations built in, it also allows you to paste links to your favorite stations that may not be in its list.

Wireless Tether for Root – This app uses your phones data connection and spreads it via the WiFi adaptor just like a wireless router. Only downside is it requires you to root your device.

Abduction! World Attack – A nicely polished game for those moments of waiting around in queues, it involves you rescuing animals abducted by aliens. Makes excellent use of the accelerometer for game controls.

What the Doodle?!? – An online multiplayer version of pictionary which tasks you to drawing doodles on your screen and having other online players guess the object. Very very addictive.

These are just a few so far but ill check back soon with more.

Any other app suggestions then hit up the comments.

Well eight weeks ago in a moment of weakness I ordered up a new phone contract and a HTC Hero from Mobile Phones Direct and so the switch began.

For the first couple of days despite the very slick setup of the device and seamless integration with Google’s services, Facebook and Twitter I felt deep in the unknown, well out of my comfort zone. Once I began to play with the device and experiment further it all seemed to fall into place.

Hardware

First thing I noticed about the device is the chin, whilst its not a style feature it does add functionality in that it helps with grip on the device, I can hold the phone right at the bottom with one hand and because of the chin this feels very secure.

This then leads me on to the screen which is by far one of the best smartphone touchscreens I have used. Its the first capacitive touch screen I have used on a device other than an iphone and it feels perfect, touch is accurate, scrolling it sensitive but not overly so and coupled with the finger friendly Android interface its a joy to use.

The inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone socket had me reaching for my favourite Sony headphones once again and as a portable media player the Hero really works. There is even a skip, play and pause function on the device locked screen which means you don’t need to unlock it to change playback. Just small things like this make the device feel very rounded on the whole.

Battery life is good, with heavy usage I’m getting a around 36 hours, this is with the Wi-Fi and bluetooth radios left on, some browsing, push email and an instant messenger application running all day.

Software

I felt well out of my dept at first, its the first Android device I’ve used for more than five minutes and even  basic tasks like application management took time for me to grasp. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe this to be a fault of the operating system, more a user issue. I have been so used to Windows Mobile I found myself looking at the Hero aimlessly thinking about how I would complete an action in Windows Mobile, once I got over this hurdle usage fell into place which I suppose is the same for any long term user of an operating system.

One of the things that strikes you the most about the Hero is how tightly integrated with Google it is, simply entering your username and password syncs your Gmail messages, Google contacts and Google Calendar. Taking this a step further, entering your Facebook login details then matches your contacts to Facebook friends, synchronising their Facebook profile picture, birthday, status updates and uploaded pictures, all of this from the contact card on your device. It also enables instant sharing of photos and videos to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

The big story of the Hero is HTC’s new user interface, Sense UI. This is the medium between us as users and the devices functionality. We are used to HTC bridging this gap with Windows Mobile devices using TouchFLO and they certainly do deliver with Sense. It consists of a 7 panel view which can be switched between with a simple finger swipe side to side.  These panels house widgets, on the centre panel by default is the clock with a weather panel giving you the current forecast for your current location, then the three panels to the right and left of this are easily customisable with a whole host of available Android and HTC widgets.

The other feature of this interface is Sense preconfigured scenes, which have different uses. For example the Work scene contains world times, quick access to email, calendar, contacts and stocks information whereas the Social focuses on items like Twitter and SMS messages. Its very well thought out and means you can switch between these items based on what your day will entail.

HTC has go all out with applications for Android, there’s HTC Peep which is a full featured Twitter client and widget, the Stocks app which also has its  own widget and the interesting Footprints applications. This allows you to save your GPS location, add a picture, notes and categorise them. Useful for remembering the nice restaurant you found or noting a memory of a day trip somewhere. Other applications can be downloaded through the application market, its straight forward, simple and clean cut enough for anyone to be able to use and the number of applications on there is incredible, again something I have never experienced with Windows Mobile.

Browsing with the Hero is also a pleasurable experience, Androids browser is fantastic and comparable to that of Apples iphone but not quite as speedy. It reflows text perfectly almost every time a page is loaded and renders everything I have  thrown at it, including YouTube videos from the desktop site using the included HTC Flash. In fact browsing it so good on the Hero I find myself using it more for web stuff than any other device I have owned.

One of the other things i wanted to mention here was the radio management to conserve battery life. I configured my home Wi-Fi network on the Hero and it will use that network for its data needs, during this time the 3G/HSPDA radio is turned off, saving battery. I walk out of my house and the Hero loses connection to the home network, it turns the Wi-Fi into standby and enables the 3G/HSDPA radio. Whilst this seems like the obvious thing to do as a long term Windows Mobile user its not been the case with my previous devices.

Conclusion

Overall the HTC Hero is superb device, its slick, smooth, well integrated, well connected and also looks great. It is certainly smoothed my transition from Windows Mobile and shown me that great functionality can look good also.

If like me you push the boundaries of what your phone can do and your not interested in being tied into Apples policies then the Hero is for you. 

Since the switch I haven’t looked back and for a number of reasons. First off when I say lightweight I mean incredibly so, even with multiple tabs open only a fraction of the memory when compared to Opera Mobile and at no loss of performance or in anyway reducing the experience. The rendering is fast, probably the fastest I have experienced of the non server side rendered browsers. This coupled with the better HSDPA signal when using the Treo Pro mean that I am using my device for more and more browsing.

One of the other interesting points to note is a recent update to version 1.1.9 has changed the way certain sites are displayed. When visiting m.facebook.com or google.co.uk/reader I now receive the iphone version of these mobile sites,  which is a far better experience that the standard mobile versions of these sites. I hate to say that I’m grateful to Apple for giving the web masters of these sites an excuse to build a custom version for the iphone but in this case its a real bonus.

All of the above points are really making a case for me switching to the Treo Pro from my trust HTC Diamond on a permanent basis.