Samsung Galaxy Nexus review: Opening new doors

Introduction

Once again, it is the Nexus time of the year. This time, Google has left the Gingerbread cookies and, together with Samsung, has brought to us the Galaxy Nexus to deliver the Ice Cream Sandwich. And while a cold dessert is totally out of place this holiday season, the latest release of Android is more relevant than ever.
The Galaxy Nexus packs an impressive spec sheet, but it is (yet again) the OS which is the device’s main highlight. After all, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is widely expected to put an end to the fragmentation, which currently plagues Google’s mobile platform.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus official photos
Unlike its Nexus S predecessor, which was essentially a rebranded Samsung Galaxy S, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a completely different device from the current flagship of the company, the I9100 Galaxy S II. The latest Google phone sports a different GPU and chipset, which are, well, not as powerful as those found inside the Galaxy S II.
Here is a quick look at what the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has to offer, along with its main disadvantages.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM; penta-band 3G support
• HSDPA 21Mbps; HSUPA 5.76Mbps
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS with stock UI
• 4.65” Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution; 16M colors; oleophobic surface
• Slim profile at 8.9mm
• Dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU; PowerVR SGX540 GPU; TI OMAP 4460 chipset
• 16/32GB built-in storage; 1GB RAM
• 5 MP camera (2592x1936 pixels) with autofocus, LED flash; 1.3MP front-facing unit
• 1080p video recording @30fps; touch-to-zoom while recording
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• DLNA; Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 3.0 with ADP
• Charging MHL microUSB port with TV-out (1080p) support
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support
• NFC connectivity
• Accelerometer, gyro and proximity sensors; compass; barometer
• Back cover made of Hyper Skin material for increased grip
• Excellent audio quality

Main disadvantages

• Camera resolution is not on par with the rest of the high-end dual-core competition
• Below average battery life
• Lacks a dedicated camera key
• No microSD card slot
• No mass-storage mode (some files don't show up in MTP mode)
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is yet to be fully compatible with all apps from the Android Market
• No FM radio

A quick look at the key features of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will show you that the smartphone’s hottest hardware feature is its Super AMOLED screen with HD resolution – a first for a Samsung smartphone. The display combines amazing contrast ratio and superb viewing angles, with eye-popping size and resolution – a perfect match for the spanking new OS on board.
As far as the rest of the hardware is concerned, we heavily suspect that Samsung has intentionally omitted a couple of Galaxy S II features such as the microSD card slot and a superior 8MP camera unit. The superior screen of the Galaxy Nexus, while giving it a touch of exclusivity hardware-wise, will not be enough to cannibalize the strong sales, which the I9100 still enjoys.
The latest Google phone will be aimed at the Android purists – the crowd, which doesn’t like launchers or UI tweaks. And also the crowd that likes to get the latest OS updates from Google first. In this aspect, the smartphone is entirely in a league of its own.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus in our office
So is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus a proper flagship for the company, or is it simply an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich flag bearer for Google? This is what we’re trying to find out in this review.
We are going to continue next with an unboxing of the smartphone, followed by design and build quality inspection.

Meizu MX review: Amaze U

Introduction

This is easily a phone you can pretend doesn't exist. And you don't have to try too hard either. The Meizu MX is something of a chimera. An iPhone body and a droid mind. It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to. For a phone coming from China, the Meizu MX has no qualms with imitation. But it's not a characterless low-cost replica either.
Strictly speaking, the Meizu MX is an Android smartphone, but it goes to great lengths to emulate the Apple iPhone in its strengths and even some of its failings. The result is a unique Android experience that differs from iOS as well - it's a very curious device, the Meizu MX.

Meizu MX official photos
It's hard to deny that the Chinese company went all out loading up the MX for a fight. The phone packs a 4.0" ASV LCD screen of 640 x 960 pixel resolution (the same res as the iPhone 4/4S) and an Exynos chipset straight from the Samsung Galaxy Note (a tad faster than the one in the Galaxy S II).
Impressive stuff for sure, at least when you read the features off the specs sheet. Here are the rest of them, plus the disadvantages we found:

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and penta-band 3G support
• 21.6 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4.0" 16M-color ASV capacitive touchscreen with 640 x 960 pixels resolution; Gorilla glass
• Heavily skinned Android OS v2.3.5 ("Flyme OS")
• 1.4 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos chipset, 1GB of RAM
• 8 MP wide-angle autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection; Wide Dynamic Mode
• Up to 1080p video recording @ 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g and n support; Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• 16GB of internal storage
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Charging MHL microUSB port with USB host, TV-out support (1080p via an optional adapter) and S/PDIF-out for dock connection
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• VGA secondary video-call camera
• Full Flash support
• Document viewer
• File manager comes preinstalled
• Extremely rich audio and video format support
• Beefy 1600 mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• Looks too much like an iPhone knockoff
• microSIM card support only
• Sub-par viewing angles and sunlight legibility
• Plastic finish of questionable quality
• No dedicated camera key (volume rocker doesn’t quite cut it)
• Non-expandable internal storage
• Battery not user replaceable
• No FM radio

It's not all perfect, but the Meizu MX can certainly go against a lot of Android flagships and show them a thing or two. But can it match the highly polished iOS experience and the trend-setting iPhone hardware?
Tough question. After using the MX for a while, you get the feeling that Meizu went trough the trouble of emulating even the downsides of the iPhone. But then you notice things that you wish iOS and vanilla Android had. The same goes for some areas of the hardware.

Meizu MX in our office
We're still not quite sure what to make of the Meizu MX, so this will be an interesting journey. Just try to approach it with an open mind, if you dismiss it as yet another replica, you'll miss out on an impressive (if derivative) device.
Update, December 30: We updated the Meizu MX with the retail firmware, which runs the CPU at 1.4GHz (it used to be 1.2GHz before) and re-ran the benchmarks. Check out the results on Page 3.

Samsung Captivate Glide review: Thumbs ready

Introduction

The Samsung Captivate Glide for AT&T Wireless is long overdue. The market is brimming of dual-core Android devices and the slide-out QWERTY packing Samsung Captivate Glide has only just arrived.
Interestingly enough, it’s been a relatively quiet year for the fans of the hardware QWERTY droids. The offerings are few, while the potential users are plenty – good news for Samsung’s entry.

Samsung Captivate Glide official photos
In terms of specs, the Samsung Captivate Glide is rather closely related to the Galaxy R – the two major differences between the two phones can be found in the screen department and, of course, the presence of hardware QWERTY in the case of the Captivate Glide. The smartphone sports an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU with two 1GHz cores and a gig of RAM. The display has been taken straight from last year’s Galaxy S – not a bad a thing since the 4” Super AMOLED unit with WVGA resolution is still is one of the finest screens on the market.
Traditionally, we’ll begin by taking a look at the key features of the Samsung Captivate Glide, followed immediately by its main disadvantages.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) resolution
• Android OS v2.3.5 with TouchWiz 4 launcher
• 1 GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, 1GB of RAM
• 4 row slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; 720p HD video recording at 30fps
• Exchange ActiveSync support; virtual private network access and device encryption
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• 8GB internal storage, microSD slot; 1.3MP front-facing camera
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Charging MHL microUSB port and TV-out support
• Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• Document editor
• File manager comes preinstalled
• Rich video format support

Main disadvantages

• All-plastic body
• No dedicated camera button
• Lack of Galaxy S II branding, despite the eye-poking performance and software similarity

As you can see, there is plenty the Samsung Captivate Glide has to offer. Its hardware QWERTY is one of the most comfortable examples we’ve encountered. The Tegra 2 CPU on the other hand, while not a typical fixture for Samsung’s Android lineup, is certainly respectable in terms of performance.
Our initial disappointment came from the fact that the device lacks even the slightest reference to the Galaxy S II family, despite the fact that the Captivate Glide is properly equipped to be a part of it. On this instance, we believe that both Samsung and AT&T have overlooked the marketing potential which such a branding would have offered (Samsung Galaxy S II in all its different incarnations is still selling quite briskly).

Samsung Focus S review: Different kind of flagship

Introduction

The Samsung Focus S is the top dog in the Korean company’s Windows Phone lineup. It is the bigger brother of the Samsung Focus Flash in AT&T’s smartphone lineup.
The term “bigger” is almost entirely related to size here. Due to Microsoft’s tight hardware restrictions for their Windows Phone platform, the line between a flagship and a budget device is quite thin. Thus, the Focus S and Focus Flash share chipsets and CPUs. The differences between the two are in the screen size, built-in memory, and the camera units – here the Focus S is better equipped.

Samsung Focus S press pics
The Samsung Focus S, despite being a new release, should look quite familiar to you. In a rather clever fashion, Samsung’s designers have decided to shape the device as a twin to the highly successful I9100 Galaxy S II – not a bad idea given the fact that the Android powered handset is still selling like hotcakes.
As always, we’ll kick the review off with the key features of the Samsung Focus S, followed by its main disadvantages.

Key Features

• 4.3" 16M-color Super AMOLED Plus screen with WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with HSDPA (14.4 Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps)
• Windows Phone 7.5 operating system
• Ability to uninstall wireless provider’s proprietary apps out of the box
• 1.4 GHz Scorpion CPU, 512MB RAM, Snapdragon chipset
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging; 1.3MP front unit
• 720p video recording (the OS does not allow higher resolution yet)
• A number of Samsung proprietary apps, including a capable photo editor
• Bing Maps with free navigation
• 16GB of built-in storage
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Standard microUSB port (charging)
• Wi-Fi b/g/n; DLNA support; Wi-Fi hotspot capable
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• Accelerometer for screen auto rotation
• FM radio with RDS
• Office document editor
• Built-in A-GPS receiver
• Voice-to-text functionality

Main disadvantages

• No system-wide file manager
• Non-expandable memory
• No Bluetooth file transfers
• No USB mass storage mode
• Limited third-party apps availability
• No Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser
• Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing
• No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software, but lowers quality)

We’ve already encountered Windows Phone 7.5 Mango on several occasions. The OS has significantly matured with the latest update – it is now a viable alternative for those, who don’t want to go down the iOS or Android road.
Sadly however, Microsoft’s creation leaves no room for customization. You get the same experience, regarding of the device you’re using it on. This means that it is up to the hardware of the respective devices to win the potential consumer over – a welcome news for the Samsung Focus S, given its Galaxy S II pedigree.

Nokia Lumia 800 review: New beginnings

Introduction

It will take crowds erupting in delight to silence the ring of the "burning platform" speech in the Nokia Lumia 800's ears. The speaker being Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the burning platform Symbian.
As Nokia are starting over, the Lumia 800 would do well not to look back. It's certainly beyond the ifs and buts. A shadow still lingers though. And there are people out there - loyal Nokia users too - who would've jumped in the fire with MeeGo rather than the freezing waters of Windows Phone.

Nokia Lumia 800 official photos
But it was for others to decide. The N9 was ordered to share its impressive unibody design with the Lumia 800. Good decision by Nokia - not saying fair - to give its WP7 pioneer a strong start. There are some Windows Phone mandated changes like the touch-sensitive Back, Menu and Search keys and a hardware shutter key.
The screen lost 0.2" and 54 pixels in height to make room for the capacitive controls. The oddly positioned secondary camera is gone as well. Still, the image quality of the screen seems unchanged - and we quite liked that AMOLED unit.
What else has changed? Well, there's a new chipset, among other things. To make this short, here're the pros and cons of the Nokia Lumia 800.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Quad-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
• 3.7" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 800 pixel resolution
• Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display with anti-glare polarizer
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p@27fps video recording and fast f/2.2 lens
• Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Mango)
• 1.4GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, 512MB of RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Non-painted polycarbonate unibody, curved screen
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 16GB on-board storage
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port
• Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR
• Impressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface

Main disadvantages

• Display is much dimmer than the N9's display
• No Flash or Silverlight support in browser
• No USB mass storage (file management and sync pass only through Zune)
• No video calls and no front-facing camera either
• Non-user-replaceable battery
• No memory card slot (and no 64GB version like the N9)
• microSIM card slot
• No native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be transcoded by Zune

A strong showing by Nokia, but it's a bit late to the Windows Phone party. They do have the design experience from being in the business longer than almost anyone else and they have Nokia Drive as their ace in the hole.
The fate of the company rests on Windows Phone Nokias being a success and much of that weight falls on the shoulders of the Lumia 800. It won't carry it alone, but it's the leader of the pack, the attention grabber.

Samsung Exhibit II 4G review: Second time around

Introduction

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G is aimed primarily at commitment-challenged consumers. Being one of the quickest product sequels we’ve seen in a while, the device is marketed mostly as a Pay as you go phone, which offers you the full Android functionality at the affordable price of $200 with no contract required.
Being only the fourth largest wireless provider in the United States, T-Mobile has always positioned itself as the budget alternative to its significantly larger competitors. This year, the magenta colored provider has become even more aggressive in its pricing by offering all-you-can-eat monthly plans, which require no contract.

Samsung Exhibit II 4G official photos
In case the device looks somewhat familiar to you, you’ve probably guessed it right. The Exhibit II 4G is essentially the U.S. version of the Samsung Galaxy W. In order to fit its attractive price tag however, some of its hardware has been replaced with less capable options. The CPU of the Exhibit II is a 1GHz Snapdragon, compared to the 1.4 GHz Scorpion core of the Galaxy W. Its camera unit on the other hand, comes straight from 2008 with its 3.2MP resolution and VGA video recording.
As always, we will follow with the full breakdown of the Samsung Exhibit II 4G by going over its key features and main disadvantages.

Key Features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 1GHz Snapdragon CPU; Adreno 205 GPU; Qualcomm MSM 8255 chipset
• 512MB RAM; 1GB ROM; microSD card support (up to 32GB)
• 3.7” LCD display with WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution; 252ppi pixel density
• Front-facing VGA camera for video calls
• Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 launcher
• Rich video format support out of the box
• Wi-Fi calling enabled
• Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors

Main disadvantages

• Design is a bit dull
• 3.2MP camera with lowly VGA video recording; no dedicated key
• All plastic construction
• High amount of preloaded apps from T-Mobile
• No memory card enclosed

As you can notice above, the Samsung Exhibit II 4G will certainly not end up on your list of dream phones. It is not aiming for it though. With a decent spec sheet and software which comes straight from the top of the Samsung Android ranks, paired with a low price tag with non contract, the smartphone makes quite a lot of sense.