Huawei teases cheap quad-core Android thrills with the Honor 2

Huawei has announced the Honor 2 Android smartphone, a quad-core device that could cost between $300 and $370 if it makes it to US shores. Its predecessor did, so there's a good chance it will do too.

Huawei has recently had more headlines dedicated to it allegedly posing a threat to US national security than its cut price, great spec Android smartphones for which it was once best known. With the announcement of the Honor 2, it could turn this around, provided it sees an international release sometime soon.

News of the Honor 2 seems to have originated from Huawei’s Weibo account, where the phone is named the Glory, a name repeated on the Chinese version of the manufacturers own website, where just to confuse matters it also listed as the “Glory Quad-core Love Shared Exclusive Edition.” Now that’s a memorable name for a smartphone.

So why are we calling it the Honor 2? Well, the original Huawei Glory U8860 was renamed the Honor in the USA and other regions (as well as the Mercury if you grabbed it from Cricket, or the Honour if you live in the UK), and Huawei’s CEO has also referred to the phone under this name, when he hinted at its impending release late last week.

Hopefully that’s cleared up any confusion over the name, so on to the most interesting part — the specification. Inside the Honor 2 is a 1.4GHz, quad-core Hass K3V2 processor of Huawei’s own design, plus 2GB of RAM. The screen measures 4.5-inches and has a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, providing an excellent 326ppi pixel density.

Android 4.0 is its operating system, and there is also an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video, 8GB of internal memory and a 2230mAh battery that could offer 72 hours of standby. This does make it a little larger than its competitors, as it measures 10.5mm thick and weighs 145 grams. Some may consider this to be a small price to pay for the bigger battery though.

Talking of small prices, there’s confusion over the Honor 2′s possible cost, with Engadget.com saying it will come in at a little over $300 — a bargain if so — while pocketdroid.net says it will be around $370. Whichever turns out to be correct, the Honor 2 will go on sale early next month, and given that the original Glory/Honor made it out of China, there’s a good chance its sequel will do as well.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Camera shootout: iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4S

Apple’s latest iPhone boasts an updated 8MP camera over its predecessor, but the question is how much better is it really? You have to take into account that the iPhone 5 is thinner, which always complicates matters on the camera front.

We’ve shot several photos with both the iPhone 5 and the 4S and we’ve picked the ones that have the same shutter speed and ISO to give each phone an equal chance.

One of the first things we noticed when we compared photos from the two phones is that the new iPhone 5 camera is slightly wider than the one in the 4S – 4.13mm vs. 4.28mm (or about 34mm vs. 35mm in 35mm terms). It’s a minor difference and shouldn’t affect your shooting habits.

The first pair of photos is of a building with a fine texture on its walls, which usually makes spotting the difference in resolved detail pretty easy. When it comes to the two iPhones, however, it is not.

The roughness of the wall is slightly more apparent in the iPhone 5 photo and the yellow and orange colors are slightly more accurate, but you really need to be looking at 100% to spot the difference

iPhone 4S • iPhone 5 • 100% crop

Then we picked a photo of a building in the sun and focused on the part of it that’s in the shade. Here the iPhone 5 demonstrates better contrast and a slightly lower amount of noise, plus slightly better sharpness.

iPhone 4S • iPhone 5 • 100% crop

The next image is of a petrol station’s banner in the sun. Here the images are almost too close to call, but the iPhone 5 shows slightly better color rendering and a bit less noise in the shadow area.

iPhone 4S • iPhone 5 • 100% crop

Finally, a photo that is mostly blue sky and blue windows (blue parts of images typically have more noise in the photos than the other two primary colors). Once again we see better contrast and lower noise in the iPhone 5 photo over the 4S one, though differences are pretty minor.

iPhone 4S • iPhone 5 • 100% crop

The iPhone 5 camera module had to be 18% smaller than the one in the 4S to fit into the thinner phone, so just not losing image quality would have been quite acceptable. Apple has actually managed to squeeze out slightly better photos, which is commendable.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Sony Xperia Tablet S visits our office, shows its fold-over design and customized Android to our camera

The Sony Xperia Tablet S left its Sony HQ home to spend some time with us. It carries over some design elements from its predecessor, like the 9.4″ WXGA screen and fold-over design, but it adds goodies like a quad-core processor (moving from Tegra 2 to 3), thinner aluminum frame and IPX-4 certification (splash proof).

The Xperia Tablet S is 8.8mm thick along its back, with a thicker “fold” on top. This makes the tablet easier to hold in the hand and is used to attach the tablet to various accessories.

Sony gave us a suede cover to test, which also serves as a stand (it can hold the tablet tilted at two different angles). It snaps into place and will hold the tablet upside down, but we wouldn’t shake it too hard. When you close it, you can use the elastic band to keep it shut.

The tablet is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, but the 16GB one will probably be the most popular as there is an SD card slot. That’s right, not microSD, but a regular-sized SD card slot, meaning you can expand the storage on the cheap.

Sony Xperia Tablet S in our office

The top of the tablet houses an IR port, so you can use the tablet as a remote control. The included app is quite powerful and can even learn new commands directly from a remote control, if your appliance isn’t on the (quite extensive) list of presets.

The Sony Xperia Tablet S really feels like something intended for home use with the Remote control app. It even comes with a Small app version, so you can always switch the channel.

Speaking of Small apps, they are floating apps that take up only a part of the screen and can be used along side regular apps. You can see them in action in the video below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

The Samsung Galaxy Note II hands-on video is here

The Samsung Galaxy Note II promises to be the champion that resurrects the stylus – the second-gen phablet is way more powerful than its predecessor and has learned some cool new tricks. We shot a hands-on video of the Galaxy Note II to give you a sneak peek at some of the improvements.

We start off with a look at the S Note app and test the pressure sensitivity of the new Note II. It can distinguish between 1024 pressure levels, four times as many as the old one, and it shows.

Also, notice the small blue dot that follows the S Pen even when it’s not touching the screen – it’s the new hover functionality.

When you’re in the browser, you can circle a part of the page to snap a screenshot of that area only, which you can later use in various other apps (everything form S Memo, through email and ChatON).

Towards the end of the video you can see the updated task manager and the new split-screen gallery.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com