News

HTC EVO 3D priced?

A little over a week ago HTC officially announced that the HTC EVO 3D was coming to the UK in quarter 3 of this year. HTC were not specific about the exact release date nor could they give any indication of the price but we did expect that it would exceed the price of the HTC Sensation by a small amount.

Today I was perusing the pages of Amazon looking at how their prices on smartphones stack up against the specialists that we know. Turns out that Amazon are not too badly priced, but still a bit more expensive than the specialist stockists. As expected really.

However, while looking at the like of the HTC Sensation on there I discovered that the HTC EVO 3D is already listed in Amazon.co.uk and is being offered for pre-order. The price is an eye-watering £569.99 which is £120 more than the HTC Sensation. Seems quite a high price to pay for the 3D screen when you consider the other spec is much the same as the Sensation.

On top of the £569.99 price tag Amazon.co.uk also says that the estimated release date is September 12th 2011. Now this I suspect is just an estimate but if HTC leave it till September for the EVO to go on sale I think that will be giving the likes of the LG Optimus 3D too much ground and the price difference between the Sensation and the EVO 3D is just too high.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks and see what the final price becomes. Watch this space!

Posted by: Matt

Samsung Galaxy Z not coming to UK?

A few days ago we spoke about the Samsung Galaxy Z, the Galaxy S2’s smaller brother. It’s already been offered for pre-order in Sweden and it was thought to be coming to the UK soon too. However, according to several sources that have apparently had word direct from Samsung the Galaxy Z will not be making a UK appearance after all.

Although it is entirely possible that Samsung will change their minds, they seem all too keen to put the Galaxy name on anything and offer it for sale. Personally though I had thought this one made a great deal of sense filling a small gap in the market. The 1GHz dual-care CPU and slightly smaller than Galaxy S2 screen with Super LCD rather than AMOLED screen set it up to be that little bit cheaper than the beefy S2 whilst still offering a great deal of spec for the money.

Don’t be surprised if we see this go on sale in a month or so!

Posted by: Matt

BlackBerry Desktop Manager 2.1 for Mac adds PlayBook support

Great news for BlackBerry PlayBook owners as RIM have just provided an update for BlackBerry Desktop Manager for the Mac to now include PlayBook support.

Until now if you had a BlackBerry PlayBook you’d have been forced to use the PC version of Desktop Manager in order to backup and sync your device or if you wanted to add media to the PlayBook it was WiFi or nothing, leaving Mac owners out in the cold.

Thanks to this version 2.1 update, Mac users can now automatically sync music, movies, and photos between the PlayBook and their Mac via iTunes and iPhoto over USB. Awesome!

If you want to download the update head on over to BlackBerry.com to find the latest version.

Posted by: Matt

The Samsung Galaxy Z

This one is not available here in the UK yet and has only recently become ready for pre order on the Three network in Sweden. To sum the device up it is clearly a cheaper and not quite so well specced version of its big brother the Samsung Galaxy S II.

So how is the Galaxy Z different.  To start with it is a smaller device with a 4.2 inch screen as opposed to the 4.5 on the SGSII. We also lose the Super AMOLED Plus screen and in place we get a S-LCD. The camera has been downgraded to a 5MP but is capable of recording video in 720P HD. It is not quite as sleek and slender but still packs a punch when it comes to specs. Running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread this new Galaxy could well be what many people have been looking for that could not afford or justify splashing the cash on a SGSII.

Lets just hope we get a UK announcement for this one. If the price is right I see it doing real well.

More specs can be seen below:

HTC UK gets a new boss

With the announcement of a new European office in Slough this week HTC has appointed Everything Everywhere director of devices Phil Roberson as its UK head.

The move follows former HTC UK & Ireland country manager Jon French’s promotion to a global role. In his new role, Roberson will be accountable for HTC UK’s performance, reporting to French.

During the last year Roberson is credited with brokering deals to get the iPad and iPhone on the T-Mobile network in his role as director of devices. He has also been championing the benefits of a multi-OS strategy within Everything Everywhere.

Prior to that he was head of terminals at T-Mobile. As well as overseeing the company’s handset portfolio his scope of influence extended to purchasing, trading, stock control and more.

I am pretty sure I sat next to Phil last year on a train and he was a very nice chap!

Posted by: James

Orange to refresh prepay tariffs and rewards

Rewards for users on prepay plans revised while call and text message charges rise slightly

Orange will refresh its price its prepay price plans and rewards in a move it said would make them richer to more customers. The changes are effective as of tomorrow (July 1).

Customers on the Dolphin and Monkey plans will receive 400 free text messages (an additional 100 SMS) plus free internet as a monthly reward for topping up £10 a month.

Canary plan customers will now be able to purchase the operator’s unlimited texts extra for £5 by texting ‘5’ to 6620.

In addition, call charges are rising from 20p to 25p on the Dolphin, Monkey and Canary plans while users on these plans, as well as Starter users, will be charged 12p per text as opposed to 10p.

An Orange spokesperson said: “Following a review of our pricing structure, we can confirm that Orange will be making some changes to its PAYG price plans from 1st July including improvements to Orange top up rewards and Extras. Orange PAYG top up rewards are now richer and Extras are available to more customers.

Source: mobilenewscwp

Posted by: James

Monte Carlo from Orange – Coming Soon

Look what just popped up on the Orange website as coming soon – The Monte Carlo. Clearly a follow on from the San Francisco this new Android device know in other parts of the world as the ZTE Skate looks to be a monster seller for Orange.

Prices are not confirmed yet but if the San Francisco was anything to go by then it will be extremely competitive. 

Sporting a 4.3 inch display the Monte Carlo will run Android 2.3, have a 5 megapixel camera and support both HD voice and UMA. Sounds pretty sweet if you ask me.

We will try to find out when we can expect the Monte Carlo to go on sale but in the meantime you can see more specs below.

HTC EVO 3D coming to the UK

The HTC EVO 3D has been on sale in the US for a short time already but today HTC announced that the EVO 3D would be coming soon to the UK market.

As the names suggests, the EVO 3D is all about 3D content delivery with a 4.3-inch qHD display that’s capable of delivering gorgeous 3D content in high-res without the need of glasses!

I had a chance to try the EVO 3D out last week and I can tell you it’s really impressive and you’ll definitely have to check out the 3D display for yourself.

Overall the EVO 3D is a bit like a super version of the HTC Sensation. It has the same size display, same CPU and memory and the same Sense 3.0 user interface. What’s different is that the EVO is definitely all about media consumption. Starting with the dual 5 mega-pixel cameras which allow you to capture stills and video in 3D. 5 megapixels may not sound like much but HTC have also gone back and reworked the cameras to improve the quality and they are now F2.2 which dramatically improves the low-light performance but there’s also a dual LED flash to help things along. The pictures you take in 3D can be sent to others in either 3D or 2D and as the 3D file format used is a standard one it should be compatible with other devices too.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo coming soon to Vodafone in red

Hopefully you saw our Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo unboxing video yesterday. If you like the look of the device you may well be interested to hear that Vodafone will be selling the red version of the handset in the near future which looks pretty sweet. The details have popped up on the Vodafone ‘coming soon’ page of their site where you can also sign up for email updates on when the device is going to start selling.

You can see a few highlights of the device listed below and of course keep an eye out for our full review in the coming weeks.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo gives you great photos every time thanks to its high-quality 8.1-megapixel camera. And when you want to talk face to face in a video call, there’s a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The main camera lets you take advantage of face recognition, so everyone in the picture is in focus. There’s also Exmor R technology, which is great for photos in even the lowest light. You won’t find these features on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY.

BlackBerry 9900 demoed – Video

If like me you are itching to get your hands on the forthcoming BlackBerry Bold 9900 you will love the following video which was recorded at an event in New York earlier this week.

The Research in Motion representative does a sterling job of demoing the best bits with this new flagship BlackBerry. In particular interest to me is NFC which I am hoping is really going to take off in the future.

If you are not aware of NFC then to summarise it is a new technology that will enable many rich and exciting experiences. Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).

You can see the video below along with a reminder of the BlackBerry 9900’s specs: