canvas turbo Design and Features

Design and build
After taking the phone out of its Apple-esque packaging, the Turbo comes across as well built and feels great to hold. The aluminium chassis feels durable and there isn’t any chrome to mess up the aesthetics. The upper and bottom sections around the back are plastic for the radios to work and these have the tendency to pop open from the sides if you drop the phone from waist height. It’s probably a good idea to have a cover on at all times. The buttons have a good tactile feedback but the area around the SIM slots have a crude finish and don’t sit flush with the phone.

A much better attempt compared to its predecessor

 There are the usual slots all around the phone, including two micro-SIM slots. Memory expansion is sorely missed however as that’s something we’ve taken as a given in Chinese phones. Due to the aluminium chassis, the battery is also non-removable. Overall, we think Turbo is a marked improvement over the Canvas 4 in terms of aesthetics and build quality. We’ll still give a nod in Gionee’s direction for the E6 for aesthetics and attention to detail but that’s just our personal opinion.

The 13MP shooter

Features
The Canvas Turbo uses Sharp’s Continuous Grain Silicon (CGS) technology which enables lower power consumption and more components like the display controller and LCD interface to be integrated into the panel. This reduces the need for extra components to be connected to the display which makes room for a more compact and slimmer phone. The Full HD resolution of the IPS panel also provides crisper text and sharper colours. The display is bright and sunlight legibility is pretty good as well. There doesn’t seem to be any scratch-resistant protection however which is a little worrying.

Some new handy features

The A250 uses stock Jelly Bean as much as possible apart from a different icon set and few of their own apps. The UI is smooth and not as laggy as Gionee’s offering but it’s still not ‘Project Butter’ smooth. Along with ‘Blow-to-Unlock’, we now have an app called ‘ifloat’ which lets you quickly access some apps no matter what you’re doing or which app you’re in. This app also enables a Facebook Chat Heads-style alert for missed calls and messages. You can reply directly from these pop-ups without having to switch apps, which is cool. There are also a whole bunch of gestures to play around with.



Coming to some of the specifications, the Turbo is powered by the MediaTek MT6589T quad-core chipset, running at 1.5GHz. There’s also 2GB of RAM onboard so performance in benchmarks is pretty much the same as we’ve already seen in the Elife E6.  

Media
Micromax hasn’t changed much in the audio and video department as it’s exactly the same as the Canvas 4. What we really liked is the volume level and quality of the loud speaker, which is very good.

Media playback is pretty good

We also get the Samsung-esque video player with oversized controls and features like ‘Look Away’ and the pop-out video player. We easily managed to play a 1080p video while chatting on Whatsapp in the background without any discernable lag. The default video player managed to read most video formats with ease from MOV to MKV. FM radio is also present. Out of the 16GB of internal memory, there’s 12.4GB that’s available for the end-user. While this may be an issue considering there’s no expandable memory, the iPhone 5 on iOS7 leaves you with about 13.1GB (16GB model) and we don’t see people complaining, so that’s that.

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canvas turbo Design and Features

Design and build
After taking the phone out of its Apple-esque packaging, the Turbo comes across as well built and feels great to hold. The aluminium chassis feels durable and there isn’t any chrome to mess up the aesthetics. The upper and bottom sections around the back are plastic for the radios to work and these have the tendency to pop open from the sides if you drop the phone from waist height. It’s probably a good idea to have a cover on at all times. The buttons have a good tactile feedback but the area around the SIM slots have a crude finish and don’t sit flush with the phone.

A much better attempt compared to its predecessor

 There are the usual slots all around the phone, including two micro-SIM slots. Memory expansion is sorely missed however as that’s something we’ve taken as a given in Chinese phones. Due to the aluminium chassis, the battery is also non-removable. Overall, we think Turbo is a marked improvement over the Canvas 4 in terms of aesthetics and build quality. We’ll still give a nod in Gionee’s direction for the E6 for aesthetics and attention to detail but that’s just our personal opinion.

The 13MP shooter

Features
The Canvas Turbo uses Sharp’s Continuous Grain Silicon (CGS) technology which enables lower power consumption and more components like the display controller and LCD interface to be integrated into the panel. This reduces the need for extra components to be connected to the display which makes room for a more compact and slimmer phone. The Full HD resolution of the IPS panel also provides crisper text and sharper colours. The display is bright and sunlight legibility is pretty good as well. There doesn’t seem to be any scratch-resistant protection however which is a little worrying.

Some new handy features

The A250 uses stock Jelly Bean as much as possible apart from a different icon set and few of their own apps. The UI is smooth and not as laggy as Gionee’s offering but it’s still not ‘Project Butter’ smooth. Along with ‘Blow-to-Unlock’, we now have an app called ‘ifloat’ which lets you quickly access some apps no matter what you’re doing or which app you’re in. This app also enables a Facebook Chat Heads-style alert for missed calls and messages. You can reply directly from these pop-ups without having to switch apps, which is cool. There are also a whole bunch of gestures to play around with.



Coming to some of the specifications, the Turbo is powered by the MediaTek MT6589T quad-core chipset, running at 1.5GHz. There’s also 2GB of RAM onboard so performance in benchmarks is pretty much the same as we’ve already seen in the Elife E6.  

Media
Micromax hasn’t changed much in the audio and video department as it’s exactly the same as the Canvas 4. What we really liked is the volume level and quality of the loud speaker, which is very good.

Media playback is pretty good

We also get the Samsung-esque video player with oversized controls and features like ‘Look Away’ and the pop-out video player. We easily managed to play a 1080p video while chatting on Whatsapp in the background without any discernable lag. The default video player managed to read most video formats with ease from MOV to MKV. FM radio is also present. Out of the 16GB of internal memory, there’s 12.4GB that’s available for the end-user. While this may be an issue considering there’s no expandable memory, the iPhone 5 on iOS7 leaves you with about 13.1GB (16GB model) and we don’t see people complaining, so that’s that.

Read More

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

There are a numbered few launch events in the year to count down the days to, and Samsung's Notes have long booked themselves a prominent spot on the list.
Samsung were the first to cross a line many thought would never be crossed. Of course, an onslaught of phablets was to inevitably follow - but not as soon perhaps as Samsung themselves must've thought. The original Galaxy Note was a shocker back in 2011 with a Super AMOLED HD display of the then whopping 5.3" diagonal.
Whether it was shock, surprise or disbelief, the competition didn't bother with a retaliation plan. Oh well, now everyone wants in on the phablet game, and there are even gadgets lately that have Note-killer written all across a bigger screen, better camera or a waterproof body.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 official images
But it may as well be Samsung's turn to act like they're not impressed. The Galaxy Note 3 made its scheduled splash at IFA, boasting a bigger display of more than double the resolution, the latest processing muscle, the groundbreaking 3GB of RAM, and all that within a tighter, thinner body.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, penta-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE
• Form factor: Stylus-enabled phablet
• Dimensions: 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm, 168g
• Display: 5.7" 16M-color 1080p (386ppi) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Chipset, N9005 LTE model: Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800, 2.3GHz quad-core Krait 400, Adreno 330 GPU
• Chipset, N9000 HSPA model: Exynos 5 Octa 5420, 1.9GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 + 1.3Ghz quad-core Cortex-A7, ARM Mali-T628 MP6 GPU
• RAM: 3GB of RAM
• OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Camera: 13MP camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 32GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot, up to 64GB
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 3.0 port with backwards compatibility with microUSB 2.0, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
• Battery: 3,200mAh battery
• Misc: S-Pen support, S Note, Scrapbook, Action Memo, Air Commands software to take advantage of S Pen

Samsung didn't step out of their comfort zone in terms of screen size - and this has been stretched beyond belief by competitors rushing to make up for lost time. Instead of going for the latest in imaging and waterproofing, focus is on what the Note is all about - bringing the smartphone experience on a bigger canvas, and a pen to make good use thereof. This time the Note isn't only about scribbling over screenshots and taking memos.
Once the S Pen is pulled out, the Air Command appears on screen to give you options to draw and doodle around, but also place apps (more than one) on parts of the screen while you're browsing the app drawer, homescreen, browser, etc. The S Pen is now a genuine multitasking tool.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at HQ

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3

There are a numbered few launch events in the year to count down the days to, and Samsung's Notes have long booked themselves a prominent spot on the list.
Samsung were the first to cross a line many thought would never be crossed. Of course, an onslaught of phablets was to inevitably follow - but not as soon perhaps as Samsung themselves must've thought. The original Galaxy Note was a shocker back in 2011 with a Super AMOLED HD display of the then whopping 5.3" diagonal.
Whether it was shock, surprise or disbelief, the competition didn't bother with a retaliation plan. Oh well, now everyone wants in on the phablet game, and there are even gadgets lately that have Note-killer written all across a bigger screen, better camera or a waterproof body.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 official images
But it may as well be Samsung's turn to act like they're not impressed. The Galaxy Note 3 made its scheduled splash at IFA, boasting a bigger display of more than double the resolution, the latest processing muscle, the groundbreaking 3GB of RAM, and all that within a tighter, thinner body.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, penta-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE
• Form factor: Stylus-enabled phablet
• Dimensions: 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm, 168g
• Display: 5.7" 16M-color 1080p (386ppi) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Chipset, N9005 LTE model: Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800, 2.3GHz quad-core Krait 400, Adreno 330 GPU
• Chipset, N9000 HSPA model: Exynos 5 Octa 5420, 1.9GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 + 1.3Ghz quad-core Cortex-A7, ARM Mali-T628 MP6 GPU
• RAM: 3GB of RAM
• OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Camera: 13MP camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 32GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot, up to 64GB
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 3.0 port with backwards compatibility with microUSB 2.0, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
• Battery: 3,200mAh battery
• Misc: S-Pen support, S Note, Scrapbook, Action Memo, Air Commands software to take advantage of S Pen

Samsung didn't step out of their comfort zone in terms of screen size - and this has been stretched beyond belief by competitors rushing to make up for lost time. Instead of going for the latest in imaging and waterproofing, focus is on what the Note is all about - bringing the smartphone experience on a bigger canvas, and a pen to make good use thereof. This time the Note isn't only about scribbling over screenshots and taking memos.
Once the S Pen is pulled out, the Air Command appears on screen to give you options to draw and doodle around, but also place apps (more than one) on parts of the screen while you're browsing the app drawer, homescreen, browser, etc. The S Pen is now a genuine multitasking tool.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at HQ

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Sony Xperia Z1 best review

Sony's got a plan and it's sticking to it - while other makers pile software feature upon feature, the Japanese focus on their historical strengths, such as beautiful, durable design, photographic excellence and enviable display tech. That in short is what the Xperia Z1 is all about.

Sony Xperia Z1 official images
The upper Xperia echelon is known for its slim design and the Z1 is no exception - 8.5mm doesn't sound wafer thin, but not until you realize that inside this phone's body there's a 1/2.3" sensor and a 3,000mAh battery. The sensor is 70% bigger in terms of surface area than what smartphones usually get (1/3") and large sensors require bigger optics, hence thicker phones. The same goes for high-capacity batteries.
Of course, the big, high-resolution sensor will give the Xperia Z1 a leg up on the competition in the imaging department. But Sony is also responding to Nokia's propensity for name-dropping (ZEISS lenses) by using its own sensor brand and lens design, plus a BIONZ image processor.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; 3G with 42Mbps HSPA; 150Mbps LTE
• 5" 16M-color 1080p capacitive touchscreen Triluminos display (441ppi pixel density); X-Reality engine
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with custom UI
• Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400 CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset
• 20.7MP autofocus camera with a 1/2.3" Exmor RS sensor and F/2.0 Sony G Lens; Info-eye, AR effects
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound; live video streaming to Facebook
• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• IP 58 certification - dust resistant and water resistant
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 16GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 3,000mAh battery

Main disadvantage

• Quite big even for a 5-inch screen phone
• Non-user-replaceable battery
• Below average loudspeaker performance (probably due to the enhanced waterproofing)
• No proper video playback decoders (XviD, DivX) out of the box

With no unsightly humps (looking at you, Lumia 1020 and Galaxy S4 zoom) the Xperia Z1 makes the OmniBalance design shine. It's an aluminum frame, with durable glass panels on both the front and back, and design accents like the aluminum power key and the color notification light.
Don't forget the IP58 certification, which means the phone will easily go swimming with you so you can take it in the pool or wade into the sea. Water resistance is good all year round, not just summer vacation - a spilled glass can turn a $600+ gadget into a paperweight. You or someone you know has at one point stood over a bag of rice hoping to bring their wet phone back to life.

Sony Xperia Z1 chilling in our office
And unlike their treatment of the Xperia Z, this time around Sony is using the best chipset on the market, the Snapdragon 800. Also, a good deal of work has gone into the screen, another point the Xperia Z was criticized on. Finally, the Sony Xperia Z1 even manages to shame the competition by having expandable storage, even though this complicates the waterproofing process.

Read More

Sony Xperia Z1 best review

Sony's got a plan and it's sticking to it - while other makers pile software feature upon feature, the Japanese focus on their historical strengths, such as beautiful, durable design, photographic excellence and enviable display tech. That in short is what the Xperia Z1 is all about.

Sony Xperia Z1 official images
The upper Xperia echelon is known for its slim design and the Z1 is no exception - 8.5mm doesn't sound wafer thin, but not until you realize that inside this phone's body there's a 1/2.3" sensor and a 3,000mAh battery. The sensor is 70% bigger in terms of surface area than what smartphones usually get (1/3") and large sensors require bigger optics, hence thicker phones. The same goes for high-capacity batteries.
Of course, the big, high-resolution sensor will give the Xperia Z1 a leg up on the competition in the imaging department. But Sony is also responding to Nokia's propensity for name-dropping (ZEISS lenses) by using its own sensor brand and lens design, plus a BIONZ image processor.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; 3G with 42Mbps HSPA; 150Mbps LTE
• 5" 16M-color 1080p capacitive touchscreen Triluminos display (441ppi pixel density); X-Reality engine
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with custom UI
• Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400 CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset
• 20.7MP autofocus camera with a 1/2.3" Exmor RS sensor and F/2.0 Sony G Lens; Info-eye, AR effects
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound; live video streaming to Facebook
• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• IP 58 certification - dust resistant and water resistant
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 16GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 3,000mAh battery

Main disadvantage

• Quite big even for a 5-inch screen phone
• Non-user-replaceable battery
• Below average loudspeaker performance (probably due to the enhanced waterproofing)
• No proper video playback decoders (XviD, DivX) out of the box

With no unsightly humps (looking at you, Lumia 1020 and Galaxy S4 zoom) the Xperia Z1 makes the OmniBalance design shine. It's an aluminum frame, with durable glass panels on both the front and back, and design accents like the aluminum power key and the color notification light.
Don't forget the IP58 certification, which means the phone will easily go swimming with you so you can take it in the pool or wade into the sea. Water resistance is good all year round, not just summer vacation - a spilled glass can turn a $600+ gadget into a paperweight. You or someone you know has at one point stood over a bag of rice hoping to bring their wet phone back to life.

Sony Xperia Z1 chilling in our office
And unlike their treatment of the Xperia Z, this time around Sony is using the best chipset on the market, the Snapdragon 800. Also, a good deal of work has gone into the screen, another point the Xperia Z was criticized on. Finally, the Sony Xperia Z1 even manages to shame the competition by having expandable storage, even though this complicates the waterproofing process.

Read More

The Apple iPhone 5c best review

The Apple iPhone 5 is gone for good, abandoned and replaced by the fresh iPhone 5c. Initial rumors erroneously suggested that the lowercase letter stands for cheap, but it turned out that the Cupertino-based giant had color on its mind instead.
For the first time ever Apple broke pattern and released not one, but two new iPhones this year. The successor we all knew was coming - the iPhone 5s - is joined by the "unapologetically plastic" iPhone 5c, meaning that we no longer get last year's flagship as the second best iPhone on tap.

The Apple iPhone 5c
On paper, the Apple iPhone 5c stands as basically an iPhone 5 in a shiny new outfit that comes in a number of bright colors. And, if you think about it, that's the most logical thing to do - the colorful iPod lineup has been getting lots of praise on account of looks so it was about time Apple's smartphones got the same treatment. The iPhone 5c is so keen on showing how young and fresh it is, that the traditional black is not among its five paint jobs (white, blue, yellow, green and pink).
There's a catch though. The Apple 5c comes with a glossy plastic body instead of the sleek-looking aluminum chassis of the iPhone 5. The reasons for the switch will probably never be officially revealed, but it could be anything from supply issues to budget, to simply aiming to deliver a fresh new look to match the redesigned iOS 7.
Finding the truth is hardly the point here, though. What we are more interested in is whether the company that repeatedly bashed competitors about cheap plastic phones over the past few years has created a plastic phone that you can be proud to be seen in public with.
Before we continue, here's the Apple iPhone 5c review cheat sheet.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and 3G support with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• LTE support where carriers support it and CDMA support when sold by CDMA carriers
• 4" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 1136px resolution
• 1.3 GHz dual-core Apple Swift CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU, 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM, Apple A6 SoC
• iOS 7 with iCloud integration
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 1.2MP secondary front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE, AirDrop file transfer and sharing between iOS 7-running devices
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 16/32 GB storage options
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Excellent audio output quality
• Apple Maps with free voice-guided navigation in 56 countries
• Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
• Supports HD Voice (with carrier support)
• FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular
• Free iWorks office suite
• Free iMovie and iPhoto apps

Main disadvantages

• Slippery glossy plastics prone to scratches and fingerprints
• Thicker and heavier than the iPhone 5
• Proprietary connector
• No FM radio
• No stereo speakers, feeble loudspeaker
• No expandable storage
• Stuck with iTunes for loading content
• Mono audio recording in videos
• Non user-replaceable battery

The 7th iOS iteration brought a long overdue UI overhaul to the iPhone lineup, with Apple keen to demonstrate that the innovation well hasn't dried up. Flat, colorful and with a ton of new features, iOS 7 certainly puts the iPhone 5c in a better position in the smartphone race. Apple is also sweetening the pot even further by giving you the complete iWorks office package, the iMovie video editor and the powerful iPhoto app for free - content that otherwise costs more than $40.

Apple iPhone 5c live pictures
Pricing remains the elephant in the room regarding the iPhone 5c, as it slides in just $100/€100 below the iPhone 5s. That's as much as the iPhone 5 would've cost had it not been discontinued and we have yet to see if this is a change for the better or worse. On one hand you are getting a fresh new design instead of one that's been around for almost a year, but on the other, you are losing the premium metal body while still paying the same price.
The high asking price also sends the iPhone 5c right in the way of the current Android and Windows Phone top-dogs, pushing its (now one-year-old) internals to the limit to keep up. It's certainly a curious starting point and we are excited to see how the iPhone 5c race develops. The unboxing and hardware tour is right after the break.

Read More

The Apple iPhone 5c best review

The Apple iPhone 5 is gone for good, abandoned and replaced by the fresh iPhone 5c. Initial rumors erroneously suggested that the lowercase letter stands for cheap, but it turned out that the Cupertino-based giant had color on its mind instead.
For the first time ever Apple broke pattern and released not one, but two new iPhones this year. The successor we all knew was coming - the iPhone 5s - is joined by the "unapologetically plastic" iPhone 5c, meaning that we no longer get last year's flagship as the second best iPhone on tap.

The Apple iPhone 5c
On paper, the Apple iPhone 5c stands as basically an iPhone 5 in a shiny new outfit that comes in a number of bright colors. And, if you think about it, that's the most logical thing to do - the colorful iPod lineup has been getting lots of praise on account of looks so it was about time Apple's smartphones got the same treatment. The iPhone 5c is so keen on showing how young and fresh it is, that the traditional black is not among its five paint jobs (white, blue, yellow, green and pink).
There's a catch though. The Apple 5c comes with a glossy plastic body instead of the sleek-looking aluminum chassis of the iPhone 5. The reasons for the switch will probably never be officially revealed, but it could be anything from supply issues to budget, to simply aiming to deliver a fresh new look to match the redesigned iOS 7.
Finding the truth is hardly the point here, though. What we are more interested in is whether the company that repeatedly bashed competitors about cheap plastic phones over the past few years has created a plastic phone that you can be proud to be seen in public with.
Before we continue, here's the Apple iPhone 5c review cheat sheet.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and 3G support with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• LTE support where carriers support it and CDMA support when sold by CDMA carriers
• 4" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 1136px resolution
• 1.3 GHz dual-core Apple Swift CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU, 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM, Apple A6 SoC
• iOS 7 with iCloud integration
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 1.2MP secondary front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE, AirDrop file transfer and sharing between iOS 7-running devices
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 16/32 GB storage options
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Excellent audio output quality
• Apple Maps with free voice-guided navigation in 56 countries
• Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
• Supports HD Voice (with carrier support)
• FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular
• Free iWorks office suite
• Free iMovie and iPhoto apps

Main disadvantages

• Slippery glossy plastics prone to scratches and fingerprints
• Thicker and heavier than the iPhone 5
• Proprietary connector
• No FM radio
• No stereo speakers, feeble loudspeaker
• No expandable storage
• Stuck with iTunes for loading content
• Mono audio recording in videos
• Non user-replaceable battery

The 7th iOS iteration brought a long overdue UI overhaul to the iPhone lineup, with Apple keen to demonstrate that the innovation well hasn't dried up. Flat, colorful and with a ton of new features, iOS 7 certainly puts the iPhone 5c in a better position in the smartphone race. Apple is also sweetening the pot even further by giving you the complete iWorks office package, the iMovie video editor and the powerful iPhoto app for free - content that otherwise costs more than $40.

Apple iPhone 5c live pictures
Pricing remains the elephant in the room regarding the iPhone 5c, as it slides in just $100/€100 below the iPhone 5s. That's as much as the iPhone 5 would've cost had it not been discontinued and we have yet to see if this is a change for the better or worse. On one hand you are getting a fresh new design instead of one that's been around for almost a year, but on the other, you are losing the premium metal body while still paying the same price.
The high asking price also sends the iPhone 5c right in the way of the current Android and Windows Phone top-dogs, pushing its (now one-year-old) internals to the limit to keep up. It's certainly a curious starting point and we are excited to see how the iPhone 5c race develops. The unboxing and hardware tour is right after the break.

Read More

HTC Desire 500 full review

Desire has long been the signature of the company's tier-2 lineup. With past offerings varying from capable midrangers all the way down to entry level, going for a smartphone bearing the Desire moniker has largely been a hit-or-miss affair.
The Desire 500 is HTC's latest attempt to ride the middle road between features and price, and it is the modern day equivalent of the HTC Desire X released late last year. The other way to look at it is as the more affordable alternative of the Desire 600 dual SIM, which we reviewed a while ago. That said, the one we're dealing with is the single-SIM flavor of the HTC Desire 500, but there is a dial SIM variant, too.

HTC Desire 500 official images
Although you won't find some of the latest bells and whistles on the Desire 500 - like an IR-port or a 1080p display - what you will get is solid quad-core performance alongside the company's latest Sense UI 5.0. Here's a quick rundown of the device's key strengths and most notable weaknesses:

Key features

• Quad-band 2G and dual-band 3G support
• 4.3" 480 x 800 pixel TFT capacitive touchscreen with 217ppi
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0
• Qualcomm MSM 8225Q Snapdragon 200: quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A5, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 203 GPU
• 8 MP autofocus camera with 1/3.2" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size; LED flash
• 720p video recording @ 24fps with stereo audio, slow-motion video
• 1.6MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• 4GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• FM Radio

Main disadvantages

• WVGA screen resolution
• Not the most powerful of chipsets
• Disappointing stills and video, no Full HD video recording
• No active noise cancellation for voicecalls
• Poor video codec support out of the box
• Limited inbuilt storage, only 1GB available to the user

The Desire 500 may not be a sports car, but the quad-core 1.2GHz processor would mean it should be a nice cruiser - and most people are after that in a midranger. The display resolution is not up there with the best on the positive side, the graphical sub-system doesn't have to draw as many pixels on the screen so this may even help with performance. Also impressive on paper are the camera capabilities, which despite not being able to handle 1080p, include 720p and slow-motion videos. As an added bonus the front-facing camera shoots in 720p as well.

HTC Desire 500 live photos

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HTC Desire 500 full review

Desire has long been the signature of the company's tier-2 lineup. With past offerings varying from capable midrangers all the way down to entry level, going for a smartphone bearing the Desire moniker has largely been a hit-or-miss affair.
The Desire 500 is HTC's latest attempt to ride the middle road between features and price, and it is the modern day equivalent of the HTC Desire X released late last year. The other way to look at it is as the more affordable alternative of the Desire 600 dual SIM, which we reviewed a while ago. That said, the one we're dealing with is the single-SIM flavor of the HTC Desire 500, but there is a dial SIM variant, too.

HTC Desire 500 official images
Although you won't find some of the latest bells and whistles on the Desire 500 - like an IR-port or a 1080p display - what you will get is solid quad-core performance alongside the company's latest Sense UI 5.0. Here's a quick rundown of the device's key strengths and most notable weaknesses:

Key features

• Quad-band 2G and dual-band 3G support
• 4.3" 480 x 800 pixel TFT capacitive touchscreen with 217ppi
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0
• Qualcomm MSM 8225Q Snapdragon 200: quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A5, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 203 GPU
• 8 MP autofocus camera with 1/3.2" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size; LED flash
• 720p video recording @ 24fps with stereo audio, slow-motion video
• 1.6MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• 4GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• FM Radio

Main disadvantages

• WVGA screen resolution
• Not the most powerful of chipsets
• Disappointing stills and video, no Full HD video recording
• No active noise cancellation for voicecalls
• Poor video codec support out of the box
• Limited inbuilt storage, only 1GB available to the user

The Desire 500 may not be a sports car, but the quad-core 1.2GHz processor would mean it should be a nice cruiser - and most people are after that in a midranger. The display resolution is not up there with the best on the positive side, the graphical sub-system doesn't have to draw as many pixels on the screen so this may even help with performance. Also impressive on paper are the camera capabilities, which despite not being able to handle 1080p, include 720p and slow-motion videos. As an added bonus the front-facing camera shoots in 720p as well.

HTC Desire 500 live photos

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