iPhone 4S vs HTC One X vs Lumia 900 vs Xperia S

iPhone 4s,Sony Xperia S, Samsung Galaxy, HTC One X, Nokia Lumia 900

The battle for the smartphone marketshare is getting hotter. While Apple continues its dominance with iPhone, Samsung is slowly increasing its share. Nokia too aims to make an impact with flagship Lumia series. Smartphones form a key part of Sony's turnaround strategy too. HTC too has just launched a slew of new smartphones. 

As the marketshare battle goes on, here's comparing the hottest smartphones of these four companies against each other. So, here's how HTC One X, Nokia Lumia 900, Sony Xperia S and Apple iPhone 4S stack up against each other.


Display:

iPhone 4S vs HTC One X vs Lumia 900 vs Xperia S

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S features a 3.5-inch LED-backlit TFT screen with 960x640 resolution. 

HTC One X: The phone sports a large 4.7-inch display with a Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen that offers 720 x 1280 pixels. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. 

Lumia 900: Nokia Lumia 900 sports a 4.3-inch screen with 480 x 800 AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 217 ppi. The phone also has Corning's Gorilla Glass protection. 

Xperia S: Xperia S has a 4.3-inch scratch resistant TFT touchscreen with resolution of 1280x720 pixels


Operating System:

iPhone 4S vs HTC One X vs Lumia 900 vs Xperia S

iPhone 4S: The phone uses Apple's iOS 5.1. with iOS 5, Apple has overhauled the notification system, thereby removing one of the biggest drawbacks its mobile OS had. 

HTC One X: The phone comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. 

Lumia 900: The phone features the latest version of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. 

Xperia S: The phone bundles Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but is upgradable to Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich.


Processor:

THE NOKIA LUMIA 900

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S is powered by dual-core A5 processor. The company claims that two cores in A5 chip deliver up to two times more power and render graphics of up to seven times faster than iPhone 4. The dual-core graphics offer faster and improved 3D experience. iPhone 4S has a 512 MB RAM and the device is available in three models 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. 

HTC One X: One X comes with a 1.5GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processo and packs 1GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory. The phone also packs 12 core GeForce GPU for games and applications. 

Lumia 900: The phone packs a 1.4GHz Scorpion single core processor with Qualcomm APQ8055 Snapdragon chipset. The phone features 512MB of RAM and Adreno 205 GPU. 

Xperia S: The phone has a dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon with an Adreno 220 GPU. The phone comes with 32GB of internal storage and 1GB RAM.


Camera:

iPhone 4S vs HTC One X vs Lumia 900 vs Xperia S

iPhone 4S: The phone packs an 8 megapixel camera with f2.4 aperture. Apple has also included other camera improvements like backside illuminated sensor which Apple claims gets 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor. 

HTC One X: The smartphone includes a 8 megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection and 1080p@30fps video capture. There's also a front 1.3 megapixel 720p camera. 

Lumia 900: The phone sports a 8 megapixel 3264 x 2448 rear camera and can capture 720p video. Camera features include autofocus, dual-LED flash and geo-tagging. For video calling, Lumia 900 comes with 1.3 megapixel VGA camera. 

Xperia S: The smartphone comes with a 12.1 megapixel with 1080p camera on the rear. There's also a 720p front facing camera for video calling.


Connectivity:
iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S can run both on CDMA and GSM networks. With AirPlay feature, iPhone users can wirelessly stream the data phone to HDTV and speakers via Apple TV. In addition, with AirPlay Mirroring, whatever you do on your iPhone appears on the HDTV at the same time. 

HTC One X: The phone supports aGPS, stereo FM radio with RDS, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and microUSB. 

Lumia 900: Nokia's flagship Lumia 900 provides HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, NFC (Near Field Communication), and microUSB v2.0 support. 

Xperia S: The phone comes with HSDPA support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, NFC (Near Field Communication) and microUSB v2.0.


Battery:
iPhone 4S: Apple claims iPhone 4S offers as much as 8 hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours of browsing (9 on Wi-Fi), 10 hours of video playback and 40 hours of music. 

HTC One X: The One X packs a Li-Po 1800 mAh battery. However, the company doesn't specify the battery life. 

Lumia 900: The phone includes a Li-Ion 1830 mAh (BP-6EW) battery which promises seven hours of talk time. 

Xperia S: The phone provides up to 7hrs 30 min (2G)/up to 8hrs 30 min (3G) talktime.


Price:
iPhone 4S: : Airtel sells iPhone 4S 16 GB model for Rs 44,500, 64GB model for Rs 57,500 and 32GB model for Rs 50,900 (approx). 

HTC One X: The phone is available at a market operating price of Rs 37,899. 

Lumia 900: Xperia S: Xperia S handset is priced at Rs 32,549.


Courtesy: The Times Of India

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos Review

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos is the latest budget Android smartphone offering from Samsung's basket. It is very similar to the Galaxy Y Duos except that now there's room for a front camera as well. With dual-SIM Android phones buzzing around already, can this one hold its ground? We take a look.

Design & Build
The Galaxy Y Pro Duos in its candy bar form factor feels incredibly light at 112 grams. The phone fits comfortably in your palm. We received a metallic black unit which was well designed with curved edges on the top and bottom. The back panel is plastic-made and comes off easily. It is a touch-cum-QWERTY phone so it makes life easier. The screen dimensions seemed to have been reduced as a result. But this being a QWERTY smartphone, you can't really expect a big display.

The smartphone houses a 3.2MP rear camera and a front facing VGA camera for video calling as well. The power button is placed on the right while the volume rocker finds room on the left. The bottom houses the charging/USB port, while the 3.5mm audio jack is located on the top.

Once the back panel comes off, you see the battery, below which are the dual-SIM slots. The microSD slot is located on the top-right.

The QWERTY keypad is neatly laid out and feels very comfortable to use for typing. The standard Menu, Home, Back and Search buttons are distributed on either side of an Optical trackpad that also make navigation easier.

The Galaxy Y Pro Duos came with a charger, a USB cable, a pair of headphones, 3 pairs of earplugs, a warranty card and a quick start guide in the box.

Display
The Y Pro Duos sports a 2.6-inch capacitive TFT LCD display with a resolution of 320x240 pixels. The colours look decent enough even in broad daylight, although the text seemed a little blurry.

What's interesting is that the screen orientation is available in both portrait and landscape modes. The latter doesn't make sense at all with the screen size being so small and feels really weird.

Camera Quality
At 3.2MP, you can't expect wonders but even so, the camera is decent enough for a budget smartphone. There is no flash, so pictures taken in the dark won't impress you much, while images taken in day-light are just OK.

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos camera supports video recording upto a resolution of 320x240 pixels and once you shoot a video, you also have the option to trim them. Basic settings include white balance adjustments, resolution selection, self-timer and scene modes.

OS & Interface
The Galaxy Y Pro Duos comes with Android Gingerbread (v2.3.6) which seems outdated nowadays with Ice cream Sandwich Android phones already available in the market. Samsung's traditional TouchWiz interface allows for a satisfactory operability experience. There are 3 customisable homescreens and the menu isn't cluttered with too many pre-loaded apps.

The 832 MHz single core processor performs well enough to allow multi-tasking without too much lag. The device also comes with 384MB of RAM that feels very less and the memory can be expanded upto 32GB via microSD card slot.

Pre-loaded software
As we mentioned earlier, there aren't many pre-installed apps apart from the standard Google ones like Gtalk, YouTube, Maps and Gmail. Even must haves like Facebook and Twitter were missing. We however downloaded them from the Play Store and they worked just fine. Polaris Office is useful for accessing and reading your documents.

You can also access Samsung's stock app store, Samsung Apps to download free or paid apps after you've signed-up.

Performance
The phone is an average performer and there's no wow moment involved. Dual SIM functionality is limited in the sense that while you can keep personal and official numbers separate, you can use only one SIM at a time for calls. You can also choose your SIM preference from the notifications menu.

The standard Li-ion 1350mAh battery lasts for a full day without you having to reach for the charger . Both the 3G and Wi-Fi experience were good and the battery didn't give up on us while surfing the web, watching videos, making calls or running multiple applications.


The audio quality of the phone again, isn't very great on both, the speaker phone and the headphones that came along with it. A disappointing fact with regard to the FM Radio is that you can set only four radio stations at a time and not more.

When playing YouTube videos, they seemed a bit pixelated, though they played fine without lags.

We fired up a game of Angry Birds Space and the multi-touch experience wasn't smooth enough. You can't really see the target and have to guess your aim in most scenarios.

The stock browser supports Adobe flash and the surfing experience was decent without too many hiccups while using both 3G and Wi-Fi.

Verdict
With many budget dual-SIM phones flooding the market, the Galaxy Y Pro Duos doesn't put something extraordinary on the table. It is a decent performer that just about gets the work done. All features are pretty basic that you'd get with any budget Android phone. The introduction of an optical trackpad, though makes navigation easier can be confusing since it takes a while to getting used to with the touch screen in place. We're sure you've heard the phrase, 'out of sight, out of mind'. This one is sure to be in that list.


Pros
Optical trackpad makes navigation easy
Touch and type at an affordable price

Cons
Poor camera
No Multi-touch

Price: Rs. 9,500

Ratings
Performance: 3
Features: 3.5
Ease of setup: 3.5
Ergonomics: 4
Wow factor: 3
Value for money: 3.5
Overall: 3.5


Courtesy: Gadgets @ NDTV

Review: Huawei Honor

NEW DELHI: The name Huawei may not ring a bell for most phone buyers in India, but it is a huge multinational firm. The company is among the leading manufacturers of telecom equipment in the world and in the recent years has become a big player in phone and tablet market. 

Gartner, a market research firm, said in February that Huawei had 2.3% share in 2011 in smartphone market worldwide. This put it marginally ahead of Motorola and Sony Ericsson. 

After some success in its home country - China - the firm has started expanding operations abroad. Due to similarities in Indian and Chinese phone market - both are developing countries and price sensitive - consumers here are obvious targets for Huawei. Last year, it had tested the waters here with Ideos range of phones. This year it is more assertive. It has already launched Honor, a mid-range Android phone, and plans to bring Ascend D, the flagship device, soon. 

We have Honor with us today. With this phone, Huawei promises consumers best-in-class features at most competitive price. Not an easy promise to fulfill, we know. Let's find out if Honor can take on the competition in mid-range smartphone market. 

Looks good on paper Honor may not have superstar looks but it's not shabby either. The design is classic candy bar. It has a plastic body with two buttons - power and volume rocker - given chrome finish. Under the 4-inches screen, which has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, there are four touch buttons for Options, Home, Back and Search. The back cover, which has a textured finish, can be removed to access SIM slot and battery. 

With a thickness of 11mm and a weight of 140grams, there is nothing striking about Honor. But at the same time, it is functional design, which makes using the device very easy. 

Honor is powered by a single-core 1.4Ghz processor. It has 512MB RAM and 4GB storage, with option to add a micro SD card. The highlight of the device is 8MP primary camera with a LED flash. The phone can record videos in up to 720P resolution. A 2MP camera is provided for video chats. 

User experience
In terms of hardware, Honor is better many mid-range phone. But after using it for weeks, we feel that the hardware advantage has not translated into the user experience that can put Honor ahead of the pack. Let us elaborate. 

For most parts, Honor acts like a nice mid-range Android phones. This means it may not dazzle you with speed and superfast user interface but for all practical purposes the performance is adequate. Apps open without any lag, casual games like Angry Birds work very well, GPS locks in a snap, browsing experience is pleasant, and call quality is good. Media playback is average with the phone failing to play several file formats, like the ones encoded with DivX, but that is acceptable from a mid-range phone. Honor's speaker, though, is very loud considering its size. 

But there are two aspects that stand out. One for good reasons and another for, well, not being up to the mark. 

Good news first. The 8MP pixels camera in Honor punches above its weight. The photograph taken with it have decent amount of details and balanced colours. It doesn't perform very well in low-light but it is all same with most midrange smartphones. Videos shot in 720P resolution are acceptable. 

Now, the bad news. Honor's 4-inch screen is disappointing. It shows good colours and is sufficiently bright until you are not standing in sunlight. Viewing angles could have been better but they will not be any issue for most buyers. The problem is with the screen's touch sensitivity, which is a tad slow. It is not as slow or bad as what found on sub-10K phones but then Honor is not competing with these phones. While in many tasks - for example web browsing - it doesn't affect the user experience, playing games like Temple Run, which require flawless touch sensitivity, is difficult on Honor. 

Another problem with screen is 'ghosting'. It is especially apparent if you are using a Twitter app. While scrolling through timeline, display pictures of contacts leave traces. Ghosting may not be a problem in most cases but if it occurs - in our case it was during Twitter use - it will bug users. 

Battery life is good. When used for emails, Twitter, some photography, some gaming, some calls and lots of browsing the phone lasted over 10 hours on 3G connection. 

Worth its price
Huawei Honor is a decent phone for its price. Screen could have been better but given its good performance and a decent camera for still pictures, our experience with Honor wasn't bad. At the same time, it is not the kind of experience that can make us give Honor a clear recommendation. The phone has an MRP of Rs 19,999. At this price, its primary competitors are HTC One V,Samsung Galaxy S Plus, Sony Ericsson Neo V and Nokia Lumia 710. 

If you are out in the market, looking for a mid-range smartphone, you should definitely consider Honor. Just that before buying it, make sure you demo it at the store to see if you are comfortable with the touch response or not. 

Pros: Good camera for still photographs, lag-free performance 

Cons: Screen touch sensitivity is not optimum, out-of-box runs on Gingerbread and not Ice cream sandwich, the latest version of Android.


Courtesy: The Times Of India