Archive for January, 2011

Samsung I7500 Android

January 19th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Just like the HTC Aria, the Samsung I7500 Galaxy Android phone was designed for users who don’t like carrying around large digital devices.

It measures 115.9 x 56 x 11.9 mm, a bit longer than the HTC Aria, and weighs 116.7g (1.7g more than the HTC Aria).

It’s based on a very advanced AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors in theory, out of which only 65,000 can be displayed by the phone’s software and hardware. Under the 3.2″ diagonal – 320 x 480 resolution screen it has a standard, mechanical (cell phone type) joystick for navigation with an OK button in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, it’s comfortable and efficient, but technologically primitive when compared to the optical trackpad used in the HTC Aria. There’s a whole year difference in the release dates of these two phones, Samsung I7500 Galaxy being released in June, 2009, still their processors and communication capabilities are very similar. The Samsung I7500 Galaxy supports both 2G and 3G networks, and data modes: GPRS and EGDE at 48 kbps max, 3G at 7.2 Mbps maximum download speed and 5.76 Mbps maximum upload speed and you can find here more about cheapest mobile broadband. Wi-fi B and G standards are also supported, while the Bluetooth 2.0 module with A2DP can only be used to connect a wireless headset, data (file) transfer through Bluetooth isn’t supported. Transferring files to and from a computer is very easy through the 54Mbps Wi-fi, USB 2.0 cable or simply removing the microSD card from the phone and inserting it into the computer’s memory card reader. Practically all three methods should work at about the same speed (3-20Megabytes/s, depending on the memory card’s speed).

The weakest link in the Samsung I7500 Galaxy Android phone is the insufficient amount of memory. Only 128MB of RAM is installed, enough only for early versions of the Android OS, up to v1.6 if I’m not mistaking. Internal storage was increased to 8GB, but I’m afraid that it can only be used to store pictures, video clips and music, because not a lot of great applications and games run with such low amount of memory and old version OS. The 528MHz Qualcomm processor can record video in up to CIF resolution at 30FPS, which means only 352 × 288 fast moving pixels, slightly better than QVGA (quarter VGA).

Pictures can be taken even in the dark with the 5Megapixel camera in resolution up to 2592 x 1944, assisted by the white LED (serving as flash). According to Samsung.com it supports microSD memory cards up to 32GB, while other – less-official – websites specify 16GB as the maximum limit.

The truly admirable feature of this phone is the extended battery life, up to 9 hours and 20 minutes talk time in 2G mode or up to 6 hours and 10 minutes talk time in 3G mode. Standby also differs in the two different transmission modes, up to 450 hours in 2G mode and 340 hours in 3G mode.

All in all it’s an acceptable phone with unexpected combination of features for an Android phone released in June, 2009. Advanced screen, medium resolution photos, low resolution videos, 8GB internal storage, 528MHz processor and only 128MB RAM. I would recommend it for WEB browsing and listening to music, because other, advanced applications may not run because of the old OS and poor hardware. It isn’t comparable to the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S.11

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Posted in Samsung

HTC Aria Android Phone

January 19th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Even though high-end Android smartphones are switching to big, high resolution screens and fast dual core processors, there are still quite a few cheaper models being released, which have very modest hardware configurations.

The HTC Aria android phone was released in June, 2010. It is relatively small, only 103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm and weighs 115g.

As a consequence it is very portable and fits in most pant and shirt pockets, without tearing the fabric in certain body positions. This thin and small design was permitted by the 3.2″ 320 x 480 resolution TFT capacitive touchscreen. HTC added a special navigation button, based on optics, not touch. This isn’t found on many phones of such small size.

The HTC Aria has 384MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, insufficient for OS updates. The processor is also relatively slow considering the time of its release, just 600MHz . Unfortunately this affects many capabilities, for example the 5 megapixel digital camera can only record video in VGA resolution, take photos in 2562 x 1944 resolution. Geo-tagging and face detection functions don’t really compensate for the lack of processor speed and system memory. According to gsmarena.com Android OS 2.1 is installed by default on HTC Aria, and there’s no possibility for upgrade. A 2GB microSD card is included in the retail package, which isn’t appropriate for music or video, so most users will probably change it shortly after the purchase. To change the memory card you’ll have to remove the back of the phone’s case, but it might be possible without switching the phone off, as the battery doesn’t stand in the way of the card slot. It blocks only the SIMM card slot.

Additional storage capacity is needed, because a lot of applications, video, music, games …etc. can be downloaded through a Wi-fi B/G connection near a hot spot or through a 3G connection at speeds up to 7.2Mbps. Cell phone carriers with no 3G service limit download speeds to 48 kbps in GPRS mode or to 236 kbps in EDGE mode. It’s unclear whether the 6 hour talk time refers to 3G mode or 2G. What we know for sure is that the battery’s capacity was reduced to 1200 mAh, probably because of the phone’s small size. It can stay in stand-by for up to 372 hours, but unfortunately this figure may be significantly smaller in 3G mode, as most websites don’t differentiate 2G and 3G modes. Most smartphones last up to 100% longer in 2G mode, so it would have been nice to see these specifications too, at least on the official website. Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP is supported for compatible devices at speeds up to 3Mbps, but transferring files to a computer may be faster through the USB 2.0 port or simply by inserting the memory card in a card reader. For listening to the integrated Stereo FM radio (and MP3s of course) there’s a 3.5mm audio jack on the top of the phone.

It supports simple stereo headphones with three contacts and handsfree compatible ones too with 4 contacts. Jack type is automatically detected by the phone and the appropriate features become available.

All in all the HTC Aria is a great Android phone, recommended for all mobile phone users who are used to small phones. As the picture shown, it’s even smaller than the iPhone, which has the same resolution screen, slower processor, but longer battery life.11

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Posted in Android Phones

Android Samsung I9000 Galaxy S

January 16th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Every manufacturer has at least one product that by accident or not is very well designed and becomes a success on the market. Apple has the iPhone, which cannot be manufactured quick enough. Since the first model’s release there have been quite a few moments when all stocks were depleted and if you wanted an iPhone you had to wait a couple of weeks or get one on the black market.

Samsung‘s best Android smartphone is arguably the I9000 Galaxy S.

The base model (released in March, 2010) was stuffed with every feature imaginable, while derived products, made for specific networks or market segments with slight modifications, were also very successful as they have kept most of the cool features.

First of all the screen of the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is huge. 4″ diagonal seems to be the perfect size for the 480 x 800 resolution. Based on Super AMOLED technology it still displays some of the sharpest images even under direct sunlight. Of course it’s a capacitive touch screen, and supports most of Samsung‘s technologies developed for the smartphone segment such as TouchWiz 3.0 UI, multi-touch input, Swype text input …etc. I can see how the accelerometer is practical, but the proximity sensor seems useless on a mobile phone. In principle that’s why it’s a mobile phone, so you can take it with you everywhere you go, and of you have it with you, then the proximity sensor doesn’t do its job.

One of the most impressive features of this phone is the high capacity (1500 mAh) battery, which lasts for up to 13 hours and 30 minutes on a 2G network or up to 750 hours in stand-by. While in 3G mode unfortunately figures are not very impressive, worse in fact than many similar smartphones. Connected to a 3G network it may give you up to 6 hours and 30 minutes of talk time or up to 576 hours in stand-by.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S phones come with two different internal storage unit sizes, 8GB or 16GB, but that’s not all they have. This large storage capacity is 100% available to the user, because these phones also have 2GB of ROM for the operating system and programs. Assuming that 512MB of RAM will be enough, Android OS will most likely be upgradeable to 2.3, 2.4 and whatever versions may follow (but not 3.0!). By default it has Android OS version 2.1 and upgrade to 2.2 is officially available. Too bad that at the time of its release dual core processors weren’t a standard yet. The 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 is barely enough to record HD 720p at 30FPS and run 2D/3D applications and games on the 480 x 800 resolution screen. On the Brazilian market it has an additional feature: an integrated ISDB-Tb Digital TV tuner. Something similar should soon be available for most smartphones, as even in the most primitive countries cable TV companies are starting to transmit digital TV channels through the airwaves in major cities.

The long battery life combined with the (still analog) TV-out makes it excellent for holding long presentations, although we don’t have an exact measurement of how long it can function with the TV-out enabled. It should last 20-30% less than during normal work on its own screen.

On the internal storage + microSD card you can keep a lot of music to listen to through the 3.5mm headphone jack. For pretentious users it’s not recommended to use the integrated speaker, because its quality doesn’t compare to haedphones with large soft speakers or one with advanced acoustics, which you put inside your ear.

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S has two cameras. The main camera has 5Megapixels, and only this one can be used to for recording HD video. The secondary camera can only be used for video calls and recording in VGA resolution, much worse quality of course. A new Samsung I9000 Galaxy S with 16GB internal storage should cost around $750. Everyone who can afford it should buy it for its great 2G mode battery autonomy and high 3G speed (up to 7.2Mbps download and 5.76Mbps upload). I didn’t mention Wi-fi because even B/G standards are more than enough for any smartphone, so supporting N standards is clearly overkill for the Galaxy S.11

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Posted in Samsung

HTC Evo Shift 4G Android

January 14th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Smartphone manufacturers are racing to improve their products.

We’re in 2011 and most 3G phones still access the Internet at speeds below 3Mbps using a 3G cell phone carrier.

HTC EVO Shift 4G can already be ordered online from AmazonWireless for example, with a service plan on Sprint Networks of course, as this specific smartphone is made only for Sprint’s spreading 4G network. Compared to other 4G phones the HTC EVI Shift 4G isn’t very impressive. It uses a 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 processor, which is pretty old if you’d ask me, but HTC has added extra storage, 2048MB of ROM and 512 RAM.

By default the phone comes with Android OS v2.2 and contrary to what we know about sub-1GHz ARM processors, it supports HD recording in 720p resolution. An explanation for this would be the use of an improved graphics accelerator chip or the unofficial websites didn’t get the correct information about the processor. Logically a 4G smartphone released in 2011 shouldn’t be based on some 1-2 year old components. According to Amazon.com the HTC EVO Shift 4G s able to access the Internet through 4G networks at speeds up to 10Mbps, in reality meaning 3-6Mbps average. It may not seem much, but this speed can already be classified as Broadband, while the older 3G of Sprint could only provide up to 3.1Mbps maximum speed, meaning 600kbps – 1.4mbps average.

We can safely say that 4G is at least two times better than 3G, when we’re talking about Sprint networks of course. Other providers may choose to improve their services, if they haven’t already done so. In my country for example there are already 21Mbps 3G service providers since the second quarter of 2010. Users reported constant speeds of about 10-16Mbps in big cities, where signal strength is best, but very few people use high-speed 3G services. The big majority of customers in my country still use 3.6Mbps or 7.2Mbps devices, because these services are the cheapest and you have to admit that even 3Mbps is a pretty decent speed for wireless networks.

The Wi-fi module is a bit of a mystery on the HTC EVO Shift 4G, because Amazon reports only B/G standards, which would mean a maximum of 54Mbps theoretical speed limit, while GSMArena specifies B/G and N, and also WiMAX router functions.

If the processor works at only 800MHz speed it may have some problems with multitasking and also with the high resolution 3.6″ screen. The 480 x 800 resolution is usually paired with a 1GHz+ processor and maybe even with an added 3D chip for games. Digging for processor specs, I have stumbled onto a relatively full feature list of the processor used in this phone. As it turns out it should in fact have 1GHz speed and also an integrated 2D/3G accelerator. This would explain why the 1500 mAh battery can’t power it for more than 6 hours of talk time or 146 hours in stand-by.11

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Posted in HTC

Best Motorola Android Phone

January 12th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Motorola ATRIX 4G is expected to arrive to AT&T dealers all over the US in march.

It was announced in January, 2011, and it promises to be a high performance, comfortable to use device with long battery autonomy.

Until we’ll have some test results, Motorola made public almost all technical details. First of all the screen has a 4″ diagonal, smaller than the Samsung Infuse 4G, still its resolution is higher, 960 x 540 or QHD (quarter HD). Apparently it’s based on traditional TFT technology, a bit strange in 2011, when even simple phones are starting to ditch old screens and go for an OLED, AMOLED, Super AMOLED or Super AMOLED Plus screen. There’s probably some dark secret behind these new kind of screens if Motorola decided to use an older type. On the other hand TFT-LCD technology is much more mature, it was tested and improved over more than 10 years, while OLED screens have been around only for a couple of years. Last year when I bought myself a new monitor I have chosen a Philips TFT with optics and power consumption comparable to LED-backlit ones, and I’m not sorry yet.

Aside from the high resolution screen, Motorola sneaked in a powerful 1GHz dual core nVidia Tegra 2 processor. In March this phone will arrive with Android OS 2.2, but based on the hardware specs a Honeycomb upgrade will surely follow. Comparing these two upcoming phones, the Motorola ATRIX 4G and Samsung Infuse 4G, I came to an interesting conclusion about the processors. Smasung will have a 1.2GHz single core processor and support FullHD recording, while the 1GHz dual core nVidia Tegra 2 can only record in 720p at 30FPS. If this isn’t caused by the difference in camera resolution 8MP vs. 5MP, then we need to see some serious benchmarks with both processors. x86 computer processors performance was improved by 25% when Intel introduced HyperThreading and by doubling the number of cores performance increased by up to 90%. So why would a 1.2GHz ARM core be faster than two 1GHz cores? This will probably be clarified soon, as small laptops are already sold with the same processors.

The Best Motorola Android phone, Motorola ATRIX 4G also comes with 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM. That’s already laptop-grade storage and system memory, so operating systems will become much more advanced in the near future.

Amongst other minor features, the Motorola ATRIX 4G can be connected to a FullHD LCD using a HDMI port, to playback full length FullHD (1920 x 1080) movies. Motorla didn’t mention anything like that, but if we look at the 1930 mAh battery which gives us up to 9 hours of talk time, then movie playback should be possible for at least half of that time.

Because of the strong processor, Motorola ATRIX 4G has a full version of Adobe Flash 10.1 player preinstalled. Coupled with the high speed Internet connection with up to 14.4Mbps download speed or a Wi-fi N connection, the streaming of FullHD clips becomes possible.11

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Posted in Android Phones

Samsung Moment Android Phone

January 12th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

Samsung Moment is a smartphone based on Android OS, made for Sprint networks, the first Android phone for Sprint actually.

It was announced in August, 2009 and released in November, 2009.

Today this phone can be considered old, because it’s based on a 800MHz processor, which runs Android OS v1.5 by default, but can be upgraded to 2.1 or even 2.2 if the bugs are fixed. Android 2.3 and 2.4 may be definitely out of reach for this device, not to mention Android OS 3.0, which requires much bigger resolution screens and dual core processors. On the plus side Samsung Moment has a 3.2″ AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen, which is only a couple of generations behind today’s best, the super AMOLED Plus. Unfortunately the resolution is only 320 x 480, still if you think about the maximum 3G speed (153 Kbps) of the device, you’ll realize that you don’t need a higher resolution. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard recommends it for texting, writing E-Mails and Internet browsing, maybe even gaming. It can also be used as navigation device, because it has an A-GPS receiver and a number of different map applications can run on it. There’s something fishy about these CDMA 800 /1900 (2G) and CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO (3G) networks. The Samsung moment relies on a 1440 mAh battery, almost the highest capacity available for smartphones, but it doesn’t offer more than 5 hours and 30 minutes of talk time. There isn’t too much memory, internal storage or extra feature which would account for such a poor autonomy, it has to be the unfortunate transmission standard.

FM radio is also absent, so the only music source is a Wi-Fi connection or a large microSD card.

The 3.5mm audio jack can be found on the top, covered by a rubber cap. There’s also a USB 2.0 port on the side somewhere, also hidden under a rubber cap so no dust will get in while using it on the road or any dirty place. For now this is a real advantage of smartphones over small PCs. Smartphones can be put in airtight chassis because the processor doesn’t generate that much heat, while small computers need ventilation, holes where all kinds of dirt gets in. Don’t celebrate just yet. As the speed of smartphone processors increases, so will the cooling requirement increase, so if they don’t develop some real low-power technologies, then we’ll soon see phones with small fans inside, pushing out hot air from the processor. Chip manufacturing technology is slowly going towards 0nm size, but the catch is that it can never reach zero, so while electricity is used in chips, heat will be generated.

Samsung moment is still a great phone for Sprint networks, but I’m sure most users who have it since its launch, are bored of it. This year smartphone screen size will be around 4″ and average resolution still 480 x 800, but processors will be much faster and Android OS features will also be more exciting. Internet speed upgraded to 4G will also have a positive effect on the experience offered by the new devices, while 3G phones will slowly end up in drawers or recycled.11

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Posted in Samsung

Skype

January 11th, 2011 Alexandra Crivilaru

For every reason that you give me why we shouldn’t use Skype, I can give you 2 reasons why you should. First of all, if you are interested in video conferences using your computer and a webcam, there is no other application that can handle the challenge better than Skype. Trust me, I have tested this application over and over again and video quality is amazing, simply because the images move in real time and you don’t get any annoying pauses, as you do with other application that allow webcam chatting.

Aside from providing you with real-time video images, there are other benefits that Skype can bring, especially if you have a decent set of headphones and microphone. Calling quality is also great and you can use this application to make international calls just as you would use a regular phone. Depending on who you are calling, international calls have a starting fee of 0.017 euro per minute. It can’t get any cheaper than this. It can do pretty much what every other instant messaging program can do, you can play games with friends, send files, use emoticons, modify your status, set up an avatar and create conferences between yourself and different other users.

Skype Calls is one of the most powerful features of this application and you have the benefit of being able to make free phone calls to other Skype users. Don’t worry; there are only about 380 million of them! That’s right; Skype-to-Skype calls are absolutely free. Aside from being able to call another person on their cell phone or home number, you can also send text messages. It is like having a huge mobile phone. You can set up your voicemail for when you are not logged onto Skype and people can actually leave voice messages that you will be notified of once you log-on. There is also the possibility for you to forward calls to a phone when you know you are bound to receive important calls but do not have access to a computer to get online and use Skype.

Even if some of its features require you to pay a fee, most other features are absolutely free and since I never experienced any trouble with Skype (calls on cell phones were always very clear even if I was calling the other side of the world, video images were accurate even if my webcam is quite a cheap one) and never got any bugs or errors which I usually saw in other similar applications. Click this link if you wish to get your free version of Skype, courtesy of one of the best software websites in the world: Brothersoft.11

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Posted in Applications

Samsung 4.5 Inch Screen Android Phone

January 11th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

4G devices are surfacing as service providers also upgrade their infrastructure to support the new standards. This is not an easy task, because not even the upgrade to 3G was completely finished, so there’s a lot of work to be done. Newly started companies may have a slight edge if they enter the market starting with 4G services. In my country a national Internet service provider has done the same thing about two years ago with 3G. It purchased very cheap 3G phones that could do only voice and SMS messaging and later added 3G Internet to the list of services through USB modems. 3G Internet is still offered for free for customers who have wired Internet services too from this provider. They also give out free phones (without a monthly fee) to anyone with a minimum 1,5 year contract. Customers only pay for the calls they make, an these also have the lowest cost in the country.

AT&T is far from being in that situation, because it’s one of the oldest service providers in the US. The Samsung i997 Infuse 4G is specifically designed for AT&T, it probably won’t work in any other network.

It hasn’t been released yet, but it’s expected to hit the (AT&T) market very soon, in the first quarter of 2011. Many of its specifications were leaked, except for a few of the most important ones such as Android OS version and the capacity of internal memory.

What we know for sure is that it has a 4.5 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, the “Plus” probably referring to the bigger than usual diagonal. Well, this may be part of the explanation, but according to AndroidCentral.com the plus refers to the increased number of subpixels by 50%. We’ll see how this affects the resolution, however according to specialists this step was mainly taken to improve visibility outdoors. From this point of view color screens haven’t beaten the good old monochrome mobile phone screens.

Another clue about the operating system is revealed by the 1.2GHz single core ARM processor, which points to Android OS version 2.x. A developer working with Google leaked the information that Android 3.0 will not work on devices with a screen resolution smaller than 1280 x 720, nor with those which have a single core processor. These speculations however weren’t confirmed by Google, the owner of the Android operating system.

The 8Megapixel main camera suggests improvements in image processing, rumors say that the Samsung Infuse 4G will be the first phone with 1080p (FullHD) recording capabilities. For video calls the secondary camera can record video in resolutions up to 1.3Megapixels.

About the physical size of the Samsung Infuse 4G we know that it will be the thinnest ever used by AT&T. This raises some questions about the battery, which has to feed a larger screen with much more subpixels. A thinner body means less space for the battery, so I’m not so optimistic about this aspect, unless Samsung decided to use one of the newly developed battery technologies, available for use in all sizes and shapes, instead of the tradition Li-Ion batteries, invented a long time ago.11

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Posted in Samsung

Samsung Android 4G Phone

January 11th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

4G is the next next standard mobile carriers will have to adopt soon. Personally I’m a bit pessimistic about this new technology, because most cities and towns barely have GSM voice and SMS services, even 3G seems far away for them. The other sad fact is that the speed of these services are very low, even where the infrastructure is up to date with 3G or 4G standards. The average speed for 3G is just a couple of Megabits per second, wherever you go.

Samsung Epic 4G is an Android phone, released in the September of 2010, which supports 3G and 4G networks in theory. In practice it’s released only for Sprint networks.

It has a large 4″ Super AMOLED screen with capacitive touchscreen functionality. Resolution is still just 480 x 800, so it probably won’t run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, as this is rumored to require 1280 x 720 resolution screen. The processor is also to slow for these minimum requirements, only one ARM Cortex A8 core running at 1GHz speed. It’s enough for recording, playing and streaming 720p high definition videos, but originally it’s shipped with Android OS v2.1 and can be upgraded to 2.2 or 2.3 in the future.

There aren’t any significant changes in internal hardware compared to the first Galaxy S. Internal storage capacity is 512MB of ROM and RAM size is still just 512MB. As other PC operating systems have demonstrated, it’s essential to have fast, high capacity memory to allow the operating system to keep most parts of it in the RAM instead of flash memory, which is still very slow and relatively unreliable. As technologies advance, they were able to make SSDs (solid state drives, based on the same type of flash memory) faster and larger, but they had to introduce a more powerful ECC (error correction cycle) mechanism.

New technologies permit making smaller transistors, processors and RAM memory modules didn’t suffer the same decline in quality like flash memories, so using these components to the max instead of flash is the best solution. From the ROM (flash memory) the smartphone should load all data into the RAM when started up, and never touch the flash again until the next restart. This way loading speeds would be significantly reduced and multi-tasking would also be much faster on handheld devices.

Samsung Epic 4G (for Sprint) comes with a lot of preinstalled applications such as Mobile TV, widgets of most social networking sites, digital compass, video CODEC support for all kinds of formats, organizer, image/video editor, Word/Excel/PowerPoint/PDF document editor, Google search/maps/Gmail/YouTube/Calendar/Google Talk/Picasa integration, Flash Lite 3.1…etc. Java is also supported via third party application.

There aren’t a lot of 4G phones out there to compare it to, but the 5 hour 30 minute talk time with the 1500 mAh battery seems very poor. 3G smartphones usually last at least for 7-8 hours. Stand-by time is also incredibly low, only 300 hours, but I guess that most Samsung Epic 4G users will most likely recharge their phones daily anyway.

For small distance communication it has a Wi-fi B/G/N module also supporting WiMAX. Bluetooth 2.1 is also present with A2DP, although it would have been nice to see an updated version of this too on a 4G phone.

The GPS and QWERTY slide-out keyboard make it a great travel companion, assuming that you have the possibility to recharge the battery daily.

Another solution is buying a couple of external batteries, which connect through the miniUSB port and act as an AC charger. This specific model from Elecom stores only 1600 mAh of power, but there should be bigger and stronger ones available too, maybe from other manufacturers.

4G is good news for video calls. If the phone can compress video fast enough, then exceptional quality live video streams can be captured with the primary or secondary camera and transmitted to another 4G network member. Internet based video call services should also work much better while chatting with other smartphone users or anybody connected to a fast enough Internet service.11

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Posted in Android Phones

HTC Legend Android 2.2

January 8th, 2011 androidphonesplaza

HTC Legend came after HTC Dream and HTC Hero, with improved hardware of course and smaller physical dimensions.

The shapes of all three are very similar, but HTC Legend doesn’t have the slide-out keyboard, and probably that’s how it became thinner and lighter than the others.

It has a relatively large screen, 3.2″ diagonal, while the resolution is average, 320 x 480 (HVGA). Unfortunately the processor got a very slight upgrade, from 528MHz to 600MHz, not enough for HD recording and the newest versions of Android OS. The internal storage and the system memory size aren’t very encouraging either, 512MB ROM and 384MB RAM. HTC Legend ships with Android OS 2.1, which is the most appropriate for this hardware configuration. Even if you manage to upgrade the operating system to the 2.2 version (the official update is already out), the result will be a relatively up-to-date operating system on a half screen, as when the 2.2 version came out, most phones were already built with 480 x 800 resolution screens. On the plus side, Android 2.2 Froyo includes the latest version of Sense UI, which has suffered significant improvements since the previous version.

The connectivity options of the HTC Legend can be called complete, because it has everything except the infrared port, which is no longer a necessity in today’s devices. The Wi-fi module supports B and G standards. N is the newest and most popular one, but considering the very small amount of data you usually download to a smartphone you don’t need more than 54Mbps. In fact higher Wi-fi speeds aren’t possible yet anyway, because microSD cards simply can’t be written that fast. The theoretical limit for Wi-fi N in most devices is 150Mbps, although the standard can reach even 600Mbps transmission speed when professional devices communicate. Bluetooth 2.1 is also a version behind, but 3Mbps is usually enough for transferring files between smartphones or connecting high definition audio devices. High quality stereo sound has already been compressed down to 128kbps data rate, 320kbps if you are more pretentious, so a 3Mbps maximum data rate should satisfy even the most sophisticated needs in wireless headsets.

HTC Hero had a simple LCD-TFT screen, but HTC Desire and Legend were upgraded to AMOLED, the most efficient display technology to date. In theory this technology can save a lot of power, while images are very sharp and perfectly visible even on sunny days. Practically it needs a lot of improvements to reach the efficiency of the simple black LCD, which permitted phones of its time to display important information non-stop, without draining the battery. The main advantage of AMOLED screens is that (in theory) they can light up only the pixels they need, without wasting power on pixels that have to be black or very dark. LCD pixels are lit to the max by the backlight and the light valves block the way of the light towards the user’s eye. This is a waste of energy, as two parts of the specific pixel have to be active to achieve practically nothing, the passive, black color. Originally the OLED screen could light up any number of pixels individually to the required color, but the problem was that it needed a huge amount of power to light up all pixels at once. That’s why they added the Active Matrix feature, which significantly lowers efficiency, but it permits the use of OLED screens in portable devices, because it doesn’t stress electrical circuits when many pixels have to be activated at once. This is done by storing a significant amount of electricity in the back of each pixel in capacitors.

AMOLED screens are said to be 50% more efficient than traditional LCD TFTs, but the difference isn’t really noticeable in battery life. The HTC Hero Android phone (with TFT LCD screen) offers up to 8 hours of talk time or up to 750 hours in standby with its 1350 mAh battery, while the HTC Legend offers up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 560 hours in standby with the slightly weaker 1300 mAh battery. This difference is caused by a few additional features in the HTC Legend. The AMOLED screen may save some power, but the phone has a faster processor, more RAM, a proximity sensor, powerful LED flash for the digital camera and so on…11

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Posted in HTC
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2013-05-22 04:41:53