2011 Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman review

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman! Yes, we now have another Android smartphone that carries the legendary brand name, the first one being the Sony Ericsson W8 Walkman. However, while the W8 was more or less a clone of the Sony Ericsson X8, the Live with Walkman is an entirely new device. It offers some decent specs as well, namely a 1GHz processor, 3.2-inch display, and both a rear and front-facing camera, which puts is right in the mid-range category of smartphones. But is it any good? Let us take it for a spin and find out...

The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman is designed for music lovers and tries to stay focused on things that matter to a presumably younger audience. To be honest, both the xLOUD audio enhancement and TrackID are available across the entire Xperia lineup, so no bonus points for the Live with Walkman.

There's an obvious effort though to make a familiar design more upbeat and attractive - bright color branding and flashing lights. The traditionally good social package in Sony Ericsson droids will be another plus for the younger users So, this looks like a phone with a pretty good idea of who its customers are. Hovering around the $200 mark, it is a reasonably priced package for the features offered. You could well be looking at free-on-contract deals too.

It's not a particularly hard one to recommend but this review will hopefully help us all look at the bigger picture. Android and Walkman have been known to work - let's see about the Sony Ericsson Live.

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2011 Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Review

The Samsung Galaxy Y is a smartphone approved for all audiences. Perhaps in hindsight, our Galaxy Note review should've been rated PG. But well yeah, we're always wiser in hindsight. Anyway, you don’t just wake up one morning wanting a superphone like the Note. You need a place to start.

The Samsung Galaxy Y is one little step above dumbphones. It won’t be long before you know how big this step really was. Android is friendly, especially in a package like the Galaxy Y, and highly addictive. And there's plenty to explore.

The Samsung Galaxy Y is most likely someone's first smartphone. It comes on the cheap so you don't have to ask yourself if you really need all the extra features. Soon enough, you'll be wondering how you could live without them.

The Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 has a design that resembles all its older siblings, especially the Galaxy S and the Galaxy Ace. It has a curvy body with a thickness not too much to mention about, and the front side has a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen (read that: Capacitive touchscreen, with a good touch response), and below that, is the 2 touch sensitive keys on the either side of the center home key. The touch sensitive keys on the left and right are menu and back key respectively, which are displayed only when the screen is active. The body is light, indicating the plastic cover which actually looks like a hard metal finish, except the back panel which is similar to what the Galaxy Ace has. The rear side has a camera and the speaker just beside to it, and the matte finish panel has the Samsung logo engraved near the bottom. The side panels are just similar to most of the other Galaxy devices, left side having the volume jack keys and the right side having the lock/unlock key.

The dimensions of the Galaxy Y are 58 x 104 x 11.5 mm, making it a compact and neat device with a light weight of just 98 grams.

The Screen is 3-inch capacitive touchscreen, with a screen being a low-grade one, which be reason no. 1 in the most favorable reasons for the low price. The resolution of the screen is 240 x 320 pixels, and the display is no where comparable to any of the screens of Galaxy S, S II, Ace etc. but still the picture quality shown is not the one that can be thrown aside. The video viewing and web browsing experience is not that good, given the small screen resolution for the 3-inch screen. Either the screen should have been smaller by half-an-inch or the resolution be higher to provide a better display.

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Our Apple iPad Review

Apple have always been trend setters – a lot of their products’ names become synonymous with the class of gadget they are a part of. Many people would say ‘iPod’ when they really mean an MP3 player. The iPad has all the potential to become equally synonymous to tablets and finally break them out of their niche market status. The iPad is a midway device – between a smartphone and a laptop (between an iPhone and a MacBook if Steve Jobs has his way).

As much as I liked Apple’s latest gizmo, I just couldn’t find a way to consistently use it. Sure, the iPad was more portable than a notebook, but it doesn’t run OS X. Instead, Apple decided that the iPad should run on iOS, the mobile version of its desktop operating system.

And therein lies my problem. OS X applications don't run on iOS. That means I can't run Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, the two tools that I need to stay productive. There are applications in Apple’s App Store that serve as quasi-substitutes, but paying more for a program that I already have (with fewer functions) isn’t what I need.

Key features

• Magnificent 9.7” capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels; oleophobic coating
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity
• Optional 3G connectivity (data only) with A-GPS
• 1 GHz Apple A4 CPU ensures great performance
• iPhone OS 3.2
• 16/32/64 GB of onboard storage
• GPS receiver
• Weight of 680 grams (730 grams for the 3G version)
• Very slim 13.4mm waistline
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 10 hours battery life and 1 month of stand-by
• Accelerometer and compass
• Compatible with every iPhone app without any modifications
• The cheapest version costs less than an unlocked iPhone
• iBook application
• The keyboard dock (purchased separately) easily converts the iPad into a nettop
• Handles a variety of formats – Microsoft Office files, Apple iWork files, PDF, RAW image files
• 720p video playback

Main disadvantages

• It’s not a computer but a big iPod Touch
• No multitasking yet (OS 4.0 will add multitasking)
• iPhone apps either leave a lot of unused screen real estate or look pretty bad when uspcaled
• No Flash support for the web browser
• No camera
• No standard USB port (you can get USB connectivity with an accessory but you need to pay extra)
• iTunes required for uploading content
• No kickstand – it cannot stand on a table without a dock or stand
• It’s pretty easy to drop
• No exchangeable battery
• Typing is quite uncomfortable (you can get the keyboard dock for less than some stands and it’s more useful)
• 3G model uses micro-SIM, instead of a regular SIM for the 3G models
• No memory card slot (you can get the camera connection kit, which doubles as an SD card reader)
• Mono loudspeaker
• Maximum TV-out resolution is 1024×768, which makes 720p video decoding pointless

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2012 ZTE Optik Tablet Review

Sprint has officially taken the wraps off the ZTE Optik and, as expected, the 7-inch tablet will be landing for a measly $100 on contract. Of course, to hit that price point you'll have to make some sacrifices, like signing up for a two-year agreement and an appropriate data plan. Not to mention you'll have to settle for a 3G connection -- there's no WiMAX or LTE in sight. Underneath the hood is a respectable dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon and 1GB of RAM pushing Honeycomb to the 1280 x 800 screen. There's also the usual Bluetooth and GPS antennas on board, as well as dual cameras (5MP rear and 2MP front-facing), 16GB of storage and a MicroSD slot for adding more. If you're not keen on locking yourself into a two year contract for a CDMA-only device, you can pick up the Swype-sporting tab for $350 obligation-free on the same day -- February 5th. Check out the complete PR after the break.

The phone will be available in Sprint’s network for $99.99 with a 2-year service agreement and the unlocked version costs $349.99. Obviously, the $100 price tag is somewhat misleading as you also need to pay the monthly data plan. The ZTE Optik will connect to carrier’s 3G network instead of WiMAX. Sprint offers four different data plan, 1GB for $19.99, 3GB for $34.99, 6GB for $49.99 and 12GB for 79.99. The ZTE Optik can serve up to five other devices with its built-in tethering feature, however Sprint subscribers need to pay for an extra of $29.99 for tethering plan.

Powered by Android 3.2, Honeycomb, the version of Android designed specifically for tablets, ZTE Optik is a dynamic e-reader, media player and portable computing device. It features a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm® Snapdragon® processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and 7-inch capacitive touchscreen that allows the user to get work done or stay entertained surfing the web, playing games and watching videos with Adobe® Flash® enabled websites. It has two cameras – a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera and front-facing 2-megapixel camera that enables video chat.

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