Mobilink brings you a remarkable phone in an equally remarkable way. The HTC One X is not only the world’s first Quad Core smartphone but it is also HTC prime attraction for the year 2012. The phone has a giant captivating 4.7 inch screen that stands shoulder to shoulder with the iphone retina display in terms of quality of experience....
The HTC One X brings the most desirable processor, an HD screen and an awe-inspiringly thin chassis as the company looks to recreate the success of the original Desire. The One X is a phone that intrigued everyone for a while, running a quad core CPU (Nvidia’s Tegra 3) plus one of the largest screens on any HTC and that’s...
A security related bug was discovered on certain HTC Android smartphones. This bug allowed any application that has access to the ACCESS_WIFI_STATE permission (something that the apps ask you before you install them) will let the application not only check on the status of your Wi-Fi but also have complete access to all your Wi-FI passwords.
The handsets that are reported to have this bug include the Desire HD, T-Mobile myTouch 4G, Desire S, Sensation, EVO 3D, DROID Incredible, and the Thunderbolt 4G. However, HTC is now reporting that the problem has already been solved on certain devices, although which ones exactly was not mentioned. It also said that the rest of the devices will require the update to be manually applied. The update is not yet available but HTC is requesting users to visit their website again next week for the update.
The bug was apparently discovered back in September 2011 by a couple of security researchers who then contacted HTC and Google, but was kept under wraps until now till the fix was deployed to a sizable number of the affected devices.
If you own one of the above mentioned handsets, check the HTC website mentioned above next week to see if there is an update available for you.
If 2011 was the year of the dual-core processors, then 2012 is shaping up to be defined by quad cores. Among these phones, what we can expect at MWC next month, the X3 looks to be one of the early challengers to HTC in the quad-core market.
The giant processor comes courtesy of the Tegra 3 chipset by Nvidia, and while the 720p screen measures in at a quite large 4.7 inches, it supposedly manages to retain a slim 9mm waistline. LG plans to stick in a 2000mAh battery to power it all.
Other features include 16GB of internal storage, 8MP camera, Touch capacitive buttons, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, and an NFC. Also, the X3 should definitely come with the latest Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, right out of the box.
We can expect the X3 by the end of Q2 this year.
HTC has gone from being an unknown manufacturer for bigger brands to become a leading Android smartphones. The Desire was a landmark phone in the fight against the iPhone, but now things have moved up a level. Today, with dominant market-share and increasingly polished handsets, the battle is between Droids. Into the fray drops the HTC Sensation XE, the new dual-core flagship smartphone from HTC. It’s certainly the best-spec’d HTC to date. We’ll review this super smartphone hereunder.
A typical HTC phone, having dimensions of 4.96 x 2.57 x 0.44 inches and 5.42oz, and combining a unibody metal chassis with soft-touch plastic inserts, the Sensation is slightly longer, slightly deeper, slightly narrower and a fair bit heavier as compared to its rival Galaxy S2.
A unique feature of Sensation is the aluminum frame that HTC has wrapped around the sides, back, and even a small portion of the Sensation’s front. It’s rigid, shaped from a single slab of metal, and makes this a sturdy and creak-free handset. A pair of soft-touch plastic inserts take up a third of the rear cover each, with the upper one protruding a little bit in front of the camera lens and LEDs, lending them an extra bit of protection.
It’s CPU boasts on a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon along with 768 MB of RAM. It’s available in Black colour only. It has an internal memory of 4 GB and can have a micro SD up to 32GB.
The HTC Sensation has a qHD (540×960) Super LCD with a Gorilla Glass display, measuring in at 4.3″. It offers greater pixel density than WVGA screens of the same size such as the Samsung Galaxy S II and a longer 16:9 aspect ratio. The glass display is also inclined, with a smooth raise towards the edges. We definitely appreciate the HTC Sensation’s aspect ratio when viewing movie content or using the phone one handed in portrait orientation thanks to it being narrower. The pixel density is also noticeably better when web browsing which is another plus. So while Super AMOLED Plus screens are generally more desirable, the HTC Sensation still looks immense, especially head on offering great brightness with good colour and contrast levels. Unfortunately, viewing angles can be likened to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, with colours tending to look a bit washed out when tilting the phone to the side, despite a great head on experience.
HTC has smacked Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread onto the Sensation, complete it with the latest HTC Sense v3.0 UI. As we saw on the Flyer, the newest Sense brings with it a useful Active Lockscreen with app shortcuts, more 3D effects in the seven-pane homescreen, and various tweaks throughout the UI that smooth over some of Android’s ruffles.
The redrawn UI sits on top of Gingerbread and carries the premium feel from the construction across to the interface. From a design perspective, HTC Sense 3.0 is so considered, elegant and cohesive, that it’s on another level to any custom UI we’ve seen. Each widget now has a silky smooth 3D transition when swiping the homescreen, so the layers of the widget subtly separate. Widgets are pin sharp and there are some really attractive new ones, such as the gallery widget, a huge improvement over the static photo-frame. If you’re liking the idea of renting movies on the fly, the Watch widget, gives you quick access to HTC’s movie rental service. The 7 homescreens are also now on a revolving carousel system, so the last leads straight back to the first, and all with some rather slick SPB like carousel visuals in the process.
The lock screen is also a definite improvement, with a ring in the bottom of the screen and four application icons just above. Drag a shortcut down into the ring and you will unlock your phone straight in that application, or just drag the ring up to unlock where you left off. There are also personalizations you can apply to your lock screen, the most obvious being selecting your shortcut applications, or going further and selecting your lock screen background.
The camera on the HTC Sensation is an 8MP effort with dual-LED flash and autofocus – pretty much ticking all the boxes on offer aside from a Xenon flash, but then again some comprimises have to be made to keep the width down. The autofocus is a good feature though, and one we’ve seen from the likes of the Desire HD and Desire S in the past, where tapping the screen will alter the focus of the photo. This extends to exposure values as well, meaning that if you’re trying snap something in a darker area, the Sensation will work out the optimum light levels needed.
The HTC Sensation is a device with a stronger focus on video recording than ever before, with 1080p footage possible from the 8MP sensor, thanks to the dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor. A video light is on offer to help make shots look that little bit classier and at 30fps the footage we captured is nice and smooth, with no hint of the choppiness affecting the likes of the HTC Desire HD from before.
There can be no mistake that HTC is pushing the Sensation XE as a media smartphone. The inclusion of the Beats Audio earphones and the fact that Beats Audio is branded on everything to do with the smartphone gives that away.
If you’re not familiar with Beats Audio, it’s a breed of headphones and speakers developed by Dr Dre and a former Geffen records executive.
HTC claims that Beats Audio delivers the music “the way the artist intended” and we agree that the sound quality is infinitely superior. It’s more apparent on some songs than others, though. For example, ‘Hallelujah’ by Alexandra Burke sounded pleasant enough but not incredible, while both ‘Just The Way You Are’ by Bruno Mars and ‘Bright Lights Bigger City’ by Cee Lo Green sounded, frankly, phenomenal.
What Beats Audio appears to do is up the bass level and enhance sounds. During that Cee Lo Green song in particular, sounds were heard prominently that we wouldn’t normally have noticed. So much so that we thought someone was talking to us, and kept taking the buds out to ask “What did you say?”, much to the amusement of our friends.
To see the difference, you can easily turn the Beats Audio software off by pulling down the notification bar and tapping ‘Disable’ when playing.
The technology has been implemented incredibly well. There is a danger that this could have been a fad that was included half-heartedly, but that hasn’t happened, and HTC’s collaboration with Dr Dre really pays dividends here.
As for video playback, with the 16:9 aspect ratio, video fits very well on the screen and HD video plays back without a hitch. It needs to be encoded in MP4 format to play on the native player, though 3rd party apps such as Rockplayer play back other formats smoothly. The device is also comfortable to hold in landscape for extended periods, so is easy to recommend as a PMP.
The gallery is HTC’s standard gridded system, with some cool perks such as wireless network printing as well. Interaction with images is very predictable with pinch to zoom being silky smooth and images rendering instantly while looking great on the screen.
Web browsing on the HTC Sensation Xe is superb. Thanks to the screen resolution, text is legible and crisp from the page overview, and pinching to zoom is quick and smooth. Pages load up very fast and Flash video plays back smoothly. Text reflows to fit the display, which does stagger the process of zooming slightly. That said, it makes the reading experience more enjoyable.
As far as connectivity goes, you’ve got quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G along with Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, DLNA functionality as well as an FM radio.
The GPS was extremely quick, finding our location almost instantaneously on first boot.
HDMI connectivity comes in the form of the MHL port, enabling HD content to be outputted via the microUSB port to a compatible HD TV. With compatible devices, this will simultaneously export visuals and charge your handset, while non-compatible devices will only export visuals.
HSPDA is at an acceptable 14.4Mbps speed, with the upload speed bouncing in at 5.76 Mbps, both of which seem plausible in our tests – plus the lovely option of setting up your own Wi-Fi hotspot if you fancy chewing the battery in heartbeat.
HTC Sensation Xe offers various other features and built-in apps:
DLNA, Flashlight, Friend Stream, HTC Hub, Mirror, Music, News, Peep, Polaris, Office, Soundhound, Stocks, Teeter, Watch and Weather etc.
There is new entrance in the Sensation line of HTC phones, guys and it has come with Beats Audio as well. The HTC Sensation XL differs from its other peers in the lineup with the huge 4.7 inch LCD display, and the lower hardware specs. HTC made it with a single-core chipset, no memory card slot, and lower screen resolution than the other models.
Ignore Android for a moment, and you’re basically looking at the HTC Titan only in white rather than black: the XL and the Windows Phone share the same 4.7-inch WVGA touchscreen, the same 1.5GHz single core MSM8255 processor and 8 mega-pixel camera with 720p HD video recording support. There’s more RAM in the Sensation XL, 768MB versus 512MB but unfortunately the missing memory card slot and miserly 16GB of fixed storage (of which 12.64GB is available to the user). This is highly unimpressive especially when you consider HTC has included Beats Audio functionality and is pushing the handset as a multimedia smartphone.
As for the display, it’s tough to get too excited over WVGA(480 x 800 pixels) resolution, even if the panel itself is large and bright. HTC’s point of view at the Sensation XL’s launch was that its display choice was partly down to supply availability and partly down to cost and then promptly wowed us with the HTC Rezound for the US market, complete with a 720p panel boasting a higher pixel density than the well-esteemed iPhone 4S. In comparison, while the Sensation XL’s Super LCD has vivid colors and solid viewing angles, we couldn’t help but feel short-changed when browsing and reading email and ebooks.
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread is the order of the day here, though with HTC’s usual UI revamp. HTC Sense 3.5 is carried across from the Rhyme, with its lockscreen shortcuts, colorful widgets that look good on the sizable display, and exclusive apps like HTC Watch along with social networking integration in FriendStream. By now it’s all very familiar, though HTC is careful to buff up the visual gloss every so often.
HTC has been showing off a version of Sense 3.5 with the curved buttons as the bottom traded for two small, unobtrusive round buttons for opening your full apps list or bringing up the phone, but this hasn’t made it into the Sensation XL rather it’s the old style here, which means it matches its Sensation brothers.
One minor but noticeable change on the HTC Sensation XL is that the default weather widget has been scaled back to something smaller than what HTC fans are used to. The old style is still there, though, hidden away in the Personalize menu.
The Sensation XL comes with an 8-megapixel camera with an f2.2 lens and backside-illuminated sensor for improved low-light performance. There’s a dual-LED flash but only 720p HD video recording, not 1080p like its Sensation and XE, thanks to the limits of the processor. A 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera does video call duty.
As for video, the Sensation XL seems particularly dependent on good lighting, with anything less than daylight leading to dim, murky scenes. The touch focus is useful, but exposure seems to adjust in steps rather than smoothly, as the sensor struggles to catch up. We’ve definitely seen better on other devices, including from HTC’s own stable.
Media is firmly on HTC’s mind when it comes to the Sensation XL. In fact, with the bigger screen and Beats Audio, we’d say it’s pretty much the XL’s purpose in life.
The most important element is definitely the Beats Audio integration, with the special earphones included in the box.
We should point out that these aren’t the ones you’ll see on HTC’s Sensation XL product page, those are the Beats Solo HDs that come in a limited edition package. Most people will wind up with the deal we had, with the YourBeats in-ear headphones, the same as the Sensation XE, but in silver, red and white.
Web browsing on the HTC Sensation XL is superb. Thanks to the ultra big screen, text is legible and crisp from the page overview, and pinching to zoom is quick and smooth. Pages load up very fast and Flash video plays back smoothly. Text reflows to fit the display, which does stagger the process of zooming slightly. That said, it makes the reading experience more enjoyable.
As far as connectivity goes, you’ve got quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G along with Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, DLNA functionality as well as an FM radio.
HSPDA is at an acceptable 14.4Mbps speed, with the upload speed bouncing in at 5.76 Mbps, both of which seem plausible in our tests plus the lovely option of setting up your own Wi-Fi hotspot if you fancy chewing the battery in heartbeat.
Sensation XL offers various other features and built-in apps:
DLNA, Flashlight, Friend Stream, HTC Hub, Mirror, Music, News, Peep, Polaris, Office, Soundhound, Stocks, Teeter, Watch and Weather etc.
By R¤m¥
Initially known as HTC Bliss, the HTC Rhyme has been finally announced by the HTC, which unveiled that the smartphone would be first released by Verizon Wireless in the US.
As expected, the Rhyme looks pretty sweet. It is based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon (MSM8655 for Verizon) featuring a 1GHz single-core Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU and 768MB RAM. HTC Rhyme utilizes a 3.7-inch WVGA display and has 5 megapixel snapper with 720p camcorder, 4GB internal storage and the usual connectivity package.
HTC Rhyme runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and comes with the latest Sense UI 3.5 on top of it. There is also the HTC Watch service for on-demand Hollywood movies streaming.
The thing which differs the phone from other smartphones, is that there will be lots of exclusive accessories for the HTC Rhyme, including a docking station, a “Charm cable” (which is “connected to the phone and has a protruding small cube that glows” to warn users about incoming calls or messages), a “sports armband”, and a Bluetooth headset, most of them dressed in the same color as the handset.
Verizon will offer the Rhyme starting September 29, while other markets, including Europe and Asia, are expected to get it in October.
By Roman Butt
HTC, a company that builds smartphones based on Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems, is mulling a purchase of a new mobile OS, HTC CEO Cher Wang told the Economic Observer of China.
“We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse,” Wang said in the interview.
While such a purchase is far from a done deal, the fact that HTC is even considering it is telling. Nokia has close ties with Microsoft and its WP7 platform; HP folded its webOS business, and Google recently purchased Motorola Mobility. This leaves HTC — which has grown to be one of the biggest phone manufacturers in the world — exposed and dependent on two mobile operating systems whose owners’ priorities lie elsewhere.
It’s no wonder Samsung — another phone manufacturer that’s been very successful with Android-based smartphones — still pushes its own mobile OS, Bada, although it has had little success actually selling Bada-based devices.
If HTC wants a new mobile operating system, perhaps as a “spare” similar to Samsung’s Bada strategy, there are a number of avenues the company can take. It could try to develop one in-house, purchase an already finished product (such as HP’s webOS) or perhaps find a middle ground by extending the functionality of its own Sense, which acts as an additional UI layer on Android devices.
HTC is buying a 51% stake in Beats Electronics for $309 million, to introduce smartphones with Beats Sound Technology.
HTC and Beats are going to collaborate to innovate upon mobile audio, the initial result of which will be a line of HTC devices integrated with Beats sound technology, available in the fourth quarter. The smartphone manufacturer has already announced plans to release 8 new phones in Q3, but specific information on Q4 is not yet available.
Beats Electronics, a digital audio technology company founded by music producers Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, announced the partnership ahead of HTC’s scheduled “major news announcement,” to take place Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time.
HTC has been on an acquisition streak this year, having most recently acquired graphics chip maker S3 Graphics for $300 million and cloud-computing company Dashwire for up to $18.5 million. In both cases, analysts stated that the buys were made to own the companies’ patent portfolio, a move that hopefully bodes well for HTC, which is trying to give a better position to its products in a booming smartphone market.
By R¤m¥
It’s finally confirmed that Microsoft will start rolling out the Windows Phone 7 Mango update from 1st of September.
Although Microsoft has previously confirmed the Mango update will launch in the autumn and bring more than 500 new features to its mobile OS, yet it has failed to offer more precise details on the software update’s arrival.
On the other side, Nokia is expected to launch its Windows Phone 7 offering at Nokia World at the end of October, giving Microsoft an additional fortune in the coming-up Christmas.
With HTC, Samsung and LG all expected to release new Windows Mango 7.5 phones before the year is out, it will definitely make IFA one to watch for smartphone-lovers.
By R¤m¥
After launching many smartphones sucessfully and earning record sales, HTC plans to launch six to eight new smartphones in the third quarter of this year.
Maintaining its upward trajectory, HTC exceeded projections and reported smartphone sales of 12.11 million units in Q2 – a 25% increase compared to the first quarter.
HTC CEO Peter Chou says Q3 will be even stronger, as the company expects to sell 13.5 million smartphone units.
The launch of at least half a dozen new phones will fuel this growth. Chou says these will be middle or high-end models. HTC has no plans to launch low-priced smartphones in the near future.
VIA
By R¤m¥
Skype announced video-calling for Android in June, but the feature was only available on a few smartphones. But today, Skype rolled out a new version of its Android Skype app to 2.1 which brings with it video call support for an additional 17 of the most popular Android devices.
The full list of newly added devices include:
