Another video of the Touch HD this time showing how easy it is to customise the tabs on the bottom of the screen in TouchFlo 3d. We should have ours next week so expect a massive review with videos and high res pictures aplenty. Personally really looking forward to getting my hands on this device. Video after the break.
The Xacti HD700 is Sanyo’s weapon for its foray into the budget end of hi-definition consumer video. As seems to be the trend these days, it eschews traditional video tape for solid state storage for reasons of cost and robustness. In a rapidly growing market for cameras of this type how does it fair against recently reviewed competition?
What’s in the box?
General
The Xacti is entirely unconventional in appearance. It’s a bit like a cross between one of those widgets Captain Kirk used to point at misbehaving aliens and some kind of water pistol. In fact using it is like holding a gun – point, aim and shoot. More about that later.
The design is clean, simple and compact. It’s not much bigger than some mobile phones when the screen is closed. For this reason it’s eminently pocketable in a way that most videocams aren’t and therefore ideal for my travels on my motorcycle. It fits easily in the small amount of underseat storage I have or in the tankbag on top of the petrol tank. Fab!
The specification can best be described as very comprehensive for a budget camcorder.
Controls
Rear: (Left) stills record, (centre) zoom control, (right) video record, (lower centre) menu activate, (lower right) record/playback select, (bottom) 5-way multi-navigation switch for selecting modes and menu items, (top centre) full auto mode switch.
Underneath: HDMI socket, tripod mount.
Left: Power/standby switch (under the screen when folded).
Front: Flash.
Sanyo Xacti HD700 Specification:
Highlights:
Lowlights:
REVIEW
The Xacti is so simple to use that my other half can use it whilst sat on the back of my speeding motorbike and wearing leather gloves. If a camera passes that test then it’s usable. The usability is key because I found it opened up a whole new way for me to use a videocam and the portability meant I was more able to carry it with me more often.
Fold the screen out and it switches on automatically to either present you with either stills mode or video mode. Start-up is quick and I never found myself waiting which, is a real bonus because a camera with a tardy start-up means you miss the action.
Filming is just a case of pointing it at the action and pressing the record button for either stills or video. There’s two buttons here and I think this is slightly less intuitive than it should be – instead of one button for stills and one for video, I would rather have a single trigger for both with a two-way mode switch that selected either stills or video. You might think that the choice of the word “trigger” is a bit odd – it isn’t. I used it because using the Xacti is a bit like pointing a gun and then pulling the trigger. In practice it soon becomes entirely natural and much less fatiguing than a more conventional videocam. Conversely, at the same time it also feels odd because it does look like you’re holding a gun and taking aim!
The Xacti is capable of recording in HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second (fps). This is on a par with the competition and more than enough for action work. As I said previously, you should be aware that editing such large images is fairly demanding for any pc and some well-known photo-editing applications still aren’t HD ready. The Xacti has a variety of video modes that will also go down as far as 320 x 240 pixels at 30fps – ideal for YouTube or if you want to conserve space on the memory card. Talking of cards, the Xacti takes SDHC with an 8GB £10 card providing ample space and performance for nearly 2hrs of footage in HD mode.
Movie quality was fine. I had no criticisms of it at all. The anti-vibration feature wasn’t massively successful, although I think that using on a motorcycle at unfeasible speeds probably extended it beyond its design parameters (and no I am not going to fess up to how fast we were travelling – which reminds me – I must clean the bugs off the lens before returning it). The anti-vibration function is a digital one and does seem to have some minor effect upon sharpness of images but it worked well enough in general use.
As a stills camera the Xacti works well with a 7.1Mp sensor. It produces some decent results although composition is not always easy when having to rely upon an LCD screen in bright light. Of course, an optical viewfinder would help massively and this is something that is becoming increasingly rare on digital cameras and videocams. As I always say – if you want a stills camera then buy one, meanwhile the Xacti certainly is good enough for it to be your main stills camera if all you do is take snapshots.
Like the H10 I last reviewed, the Xacti has a 5x optical zoom. As I said before, this is quite limited when compared to conventional DV-cam opposition, but fairly typical for a budget camera. Again, like the H10, the lens zoom is a bit lethargic and something I think many cameras in this class suffer from. The slow zoom renders the camera less than ideal for sports footage. In normal general filming it’s less noticeable though.
Unusually for a camera in this price range, the Xacti comes with a very handy docking station for charging and connection to a desktop pc. This saves having cables hanging around.. Of note is the fact that the Xacti is Mac compatible. In this day of Windows-centric devices this is good to see and top marks are also awarded for including a comprehensive package of cables meaning that everything you might need is available out of the box.
The menu system itself is very easy to navigate and understand without having to refer to the manual although accessing it is a bit fiddly initially because the menu button is quite discrete. If you can use a conventional digicam then you can use the Xacti. That’s not to say it’s limited though – it isn’t. There’s enough flexibility to meet most needs in terms of customisation. If you are the sort of person who likes to avoid settings, then fear not – using a key on the screen it is possible to switch between simple menu mode and normal full menu mode. This has the effect of turning off all the detailed menus and restricting the user to just a few – quite handy if you want to stop a casual user from screwing up all your carefully chosen settings.
The battery is a removable 3.7v/1200mAh item which is charged via a conventional 5v power jack at the rear of the pistol grip. I never actually ran out of battery when using the Xacti so, it appears to have a good lifetime in general use. As readers of this erstwhile column will know, I loathe built-in, non-replaceable batteries so I was pleased to see that the Xacti is equipped with a removable battery. Whether a replacement is easily obtainable at a sensible cost is another matter altogether, but at least you have the option.
The overall feel of the camera in the hand is good due to its compactness and ergonomic design. However, it does all feel a little bit “loose” in terms of fit and finish. The screen moves when folded against the body, the battery cover is flimsy, the covers on the power jack and headphone socket are flimsy too and are just asking to be broken off eventually. The lens cover is a snap-on affair which is pretty shoddy and not in keeping with the rest of the camera. It is retained by a skinny strap that is more akin to a thread of cotton than anything else so it won’t be long before that is lost when it snaps. However, the cover does stay put and is not easily dislodged. Any owner would need to exercise some care to keep it in tip-top condition.
You can download a sample video – taken straight from the HD700 memory card with this link.
Conclusion:
Of all the videocams I have tested to date the Xacti is my favourite because it’s compact, easy to use and gives decent results that satisfy most of my needs. It is probably the best travelling videocam so far and because of this I used it more than the others. At about £250 from the likes of Amazon you get a comprehensive package and highly-specified and capable videocam.
Join me again soon for the next camera in the Camcorder Group Test or head over and look at Part 1 to see which cameras we are including or have a look at my Panasonic SDR-S7 review or my Toshiba Camileo H10 review.
Review by: Nigel
[ Post Tags: Sanyo Xacti HD700, camcorder, video cameras, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]
Until fairly recently a 2 megapixel camera was about al you could hope for when it came to phones with built in cameras. There are some exceptions to this of course, notably the Nokia N95 with it’s 5 megapixel sensor. However, recently there seems to have been a race among several manufacturers to be the first out there with an 8 megapixel camera phone.
Recently we saw LG enter the race with their Renoir, Sony Ericsson with the C905 and now Samsung with their new i8510 Innov8. I’m not sure who actually won the 8MP race but Samsung are the first to actually send us their phone for review.
The Innov8 is a fairly good looking candybar style handset with a slider that reveals a numeric pad and looks a little like a bigger N95. The screen is a generous 2.8" QVGA which does make the handset a little more chunky than I would like.
We’ll have a review for you in a week or so once we have had a chance to use the i8510 properly. Until then enjoy the unboxing video!
Samsung i8510 (Innov8) specification:
Posted by: Matt
Still struggling to come to terms with the poor performance of your iPhone 3G battery while using HSDPA and all the other features of the phone, if you are well you should check out Steve’s Trotto’s review of the USB Fever Portable Power Station. The portable Power Stations allows you to charge your iPhone 3G on the go. With a 2400mAh Li-ion battery this should provide you with plenty of power to get through the day and more. Take a look at the video after the break to see how this device works.
While this may have little implication in the greater context of things, the iPhone Dev Team is close to finally coming up with an iPhone 3G baseband unlock solution which was missing when the iPhone 2.0 jailbreak was released. Since iPhones will still solely be available and activated through AT&T stores in the US and O2 in the UK through iTunes and in store contract signing, this latest news will have very little effect in the sales of AT&T. Nevertheless, this iPhone 3G unlock will surely be appreciated by those who wish to finally switch networks.
If you’ve been following us for a little while I’m sure you will have seen our Camcorder Group Test where we’re looking at 4 camcorders around the £200-£250 mark.
Part of the reason for starting off the group test was to see if we could find a new camcorder for filming our unboxing videos to (hopefully) improve the quality of the videos.I couldn’t decide which camcorder to use and there seemed to be a lack of direct comparisons or reviews to look at.
So the Sony HDR-SR11E Handycam doesn’t really fall into our group test as it’s towards the high end of the Sony HD consumer cameras. However we thought that the HDR-SR11E was worth a look to see what the extra few hundred pounds gets us. The obvious thing is the 60GB hard drive that the HDR-SR11E records its footage on.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to be using the HDR-SR11E Handycam to record my unboxing videos. I’ll be looking at the quality of the footage, ease of use, battery life and, among other things, how easy it is to edit the recorded footage.
For now, here is my Sony HDR-SR11E Handycam unboxing video, here you can get an overview of the camcorder as well as seeing what else is included in the package.
Sony HDR-SR11E Handycam Camcorder specification:
Posted by: Matt
We told you last week that the Touch HD would be officially announced last week at Gitex well thanks to Big MO ’s ever watchful eye, he has spotted a video from the HTC stand, again no English commentary but we have the full translation, its another video that shows the beautiful screen and resolution with great effect zooming pictures. Video after the break, enjoy and thanks again Big MO
My introduction to Velocity mobile went along the lines of:
Matt… "Can you have a look at a Velocity from me?"
Steve… "What’s that?"
Matt… "a new windows mobile, of course!"
At this point you are probably in the same boat as me, never heard of them, so let’s have a look at the new kid on the block with a little background.
Velocity Mobile, in collaboration with Inventec Corporation of Taiwan, designs and engineers 2G and 3G mobile devices and data cards based on Qualcomm and Samsung platforms. Its expertise spans market analysis and evaluation, design, software, quality assurance, sales and marketing and after-market support.
Established in 1975, Inventec is one of the world’s top three Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) for notebook computers with over 25,000 employees and revenues of more than $8 billion in 2007.
LONDON – September 10, 2008 – Velocity Mobile, a nine month collaboration between one of the world’s largest notebook computer manufacturers and a team of veteran wireless designers and engineers, today announced the retail availability of its first touchscreen phone, the Velocity 103. Built on the belief that the simplest solution is the best solution, the Velocity Mobile 103 combines an easy-to-use Odyssey Interface, Velocity Over The Air updates (Vota) and a sleek and attractive design, to change the way people think about and use smartphones. The unlocked Velocity 103 is available for pre-order online now through Expansys for £334.99 and will ship by the end of September.
Matt unboxed the 103 and the 83 earlier this month but we’ve had to hold back on the video until we got the ok from Velocity.
So lets start with the Velocity 103.
What’s in the Box?
The box itself is a smart design with a smoke effect semi transparent cover that allows the phone to be seen through the packaging from the off. In the box itself
I am not sure that this is a standard production unit or a test unit, it seems finished, and so I do assume that this is as you will receive it as is in retail form.
Velocity 103 Specification:
GENERAL
On the top of the device is a nifty and useful power slider button, sliding it to the left locks the device and keys, slide back to the right unlocks, slide to the left and hold prompts a shut down pop up. A little unusual, but welcome adaptation of the power button, it is handy in that it unlocks simply without multiple screen presses etc.
The right hand side of the device is the annoying microSD slot, annoying in that it looks as though you can pop it open and hot swap your cards, however there is a small tab that tucks under the back cover, meaning that you have to remove the back cover to open the slot cover. Don’t try to prise the cover open like I did thinking it was just new and therefore tight! Below this is a non telescopic stylus which is on the small side and is very similar in size to my Diamond stylus.
The bottom of the unit holds the miniUSB connector slot, and a rather fiddly back cover lock, microphone and reset button, followed by the 2.5mm headphone and video out hole.
On the left is the camera button at the top, up and down volume buttons, and a ‘Velocity button’ this will be covered later, and is configurable.
The Back holds nothing but the camera lens with portrait mirror and speaker grill.
Around on the front of the phone is the now preferred 2.8” VGA screen which is 640×480, at the top of which is the earpiece with an LED indication light for battery and signal. Left of this is the front facing camera.
Underneath the screen is the more customary, minimal, button layout, holding just the Send and End buttons flanking a small clickable trackball.
The phone itself feels reasonably solid, I must admit that the buttons don’t feel like they inspire confidence in particular the side buttons along with the back case lock, could have been better made. When the back case is removed this also feel on the flimsy side. It is on the larger end of the mobile spectrum, being similar height and width to the Omnia and Asus P750, as well as being 15mm thick.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Software
Velocity don’t seem to have messed around too much with the usual Windows mobile software, the additions of mention are:
VOTA – this enables a live check on the up-to-date software upgrades, data connection permitting. This operates quickly and with the on board speed available was easy to use, straight out of the box there was an update available which was downloaded and installed with no issues whatsoever. I couldn’t find an option to make the checks automatic or periodical which would have been an improvement.
![clip_image002[1]](https://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/media/tracyandmatts_blog/windowslivewriter/velocitymobile103and83review_11cc3/clip_image002-1-.jpg)
The only really unique point on this phone is the Odyssey Interface, as described by the makers,
‘Our interface is designed with purpose, not just to look cool. Its designed to look and feel familiar, to have interactions that you are used to and provide features that meet specific or multiple needs all optimised to the form factor of the device.’
![clip_image004[1]](https://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/media/tracyandmatts_blog/windowslivewriter/velocitymobile103and83review_11cc3/clip_image004-1-.jpg)
![clip_image006[1]](https://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/media/tracyandmatts_blog/windowslivewriter/velocitymobile103and83review_11cc3/clip_image006-1-.jpg)
In reality it is a nice feature where you can have your favourite/ most used program or files at the swipe of the screen, I found that this was a little hit or miss, and the preferred method was to use the Velocity Button the side of the unit, which worked much better. Also the ability to call on this function while in any screen was helpful, and was easy to use and a handy edition.
As I mentioned previously I am not sure if this was a pre-retail unit but I did have issues with a few of my regular Third Party apps, such as being unable to load MyMobiler, SMS Chat took a few attempts to load and in the end havd to revert to a previous version to get a good response. Yet others like my favourite TouchPal etc worked fine… this of course, could be that this is not a final version unit, or could even result in more regular VOTA updates.
The call quality and signal strength where fine and better than some. The 1410 mAh with moderate use lasted around the day, day and a half Mark. The camera is exactly as you would expect for a 2 megapixel fixed focus unit, this is not a dedicated camera replacement by any means, and definitely not in the realms of the 5,8 10 megapixels options appearing all over the place.
There is as mentioned a TV out, the options available are NTSC, PAL, PAL-M and PAL-N and on top of this the leads are included.
REVIEW
For me the Velocity is slightly too big and slightly too dull, (this is a great way to describe this PDA, thanks Matt). It is nice to see a predominantly British company having a go and I have another device from the same people to do a mini follow up on, when I have the time to explore its features, but I think this unit is still work in progress, the Camera is a major disappointment in this day and age.
Most of the other points I have covered off in the Software and overview sections, additionally…
The trackball works well, unfortunately I am not a fan of the trackball in the first place very rarely used it.
The slider on the top of the unit is nice to have, being used to the Lock switch on my Asus, I have been used to having this available, and in my review more devices should include this.
The 400 MHz chipset works very well and is speedy and efficient, it is somewhat let down at times from the slightly unresponsive screen, which again works well in the main, but occasionally requires 2-3 taps.
Conclusion
This is a difficult one as it is not as expensive as the current run of ‘top end’ phones, available at the moment. The 103 is not perfect, but it is capable, the specs are not bad overall. The VGA screen is great and on the whole the unit is quick and efficient.
The downsides for me are the build, the camera and I am not convinced that this phone has a USP (Unique selling point) that makes it standout enough in a crowd to scream ‘Buy me’. Looks wise it, again will not make itself instantly recognisable, going for the minimalist option is fine but I still prefer my gadgets to have loads of options and buttons, personally.
There is the company alternative in the form of the Velocity 111, which unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to play with yet, but I think I might be more interested in that form that this one.
If you are looking for a ‘cheaper’ unit with VGA, good speed, good call quality and you are not that bothered about having the latest known device, than have a look at this phone and draw your own conclusion, for me the negatives far outweigh the positives, unfortunately.
Following on from the Velocity 103 review – a Mini Velocity Review
Along with the Velocity 103 I was also given a Velocity 83, which was only a test unit and therefore is not yet available for a full review, so here are a few notes. Even the box itself is empty apart from the basic charger.
Velocity 83 Specification:
Around the velocity 83:
I did like the feel of this phone it is just about the right size to hold with regard to width and thickness, and the back, covered later, made it a nice comfortable to hold and use. In that respect it was nice to see something different that works.
There is nothing to be found on the top, no nifty slider here.
The left side is the home to a small start button, two further buttons of up/down volume, followed by the ‘velocity button’ which is used to bring up the Odyssey Interface covered earlier or customisable. And the covered Mini USB slot.
Opposite on the right side, is found the Power on button, reset button and the dedicated camera button, all of which are on the small cheap side they are not nice to the touch but purely functional.
The back is interesting not for the fact that it only holds the meagre 2MP fixed focus camera, but because of the feel and texture, I would describe it as being similar to a golf ball dimple effect, which works well in both feel and grip, not to mention that it remains fingerprint free.
Underneath is just the stylus holder.
The main face of the unit holds the 240 x 320 QVGA 2.8” touchscreen. Below which is the D-pad (not dial), and the basic send and end buttons.
As you can tell this is designed once again to be minimal, smart design, for me it is minimal to the extreme, as I have spoken about before I prefer my devices with a few more buttons.
REVIEW
Unfortunately I was not able to carry out a full review on this unit as it was purely a test unit, maybe in the future people who get time with this unit could update us as to the retail differences. What I can remark on is that this phone comes as with the new interface mentioned above, there was no VOTA but I would assume it would be included on the final version.
I can say this device also surprised me for be remarkably fast, with good reactions and speed, maybe this was because it was not loaded with the usual paraphernalia included on finished versions. But it was impressive, perhaps that is as good a reason as any for not dumping loads of applications and tweaks on a phone and let the buyer customise?
Also most all of the Third Party apps that I tried to install failed and the included software was also minimal. I can say that the voice calls where absolutely fine as was the signal strength and overall functionality of the phone.
This unit is due to be released in Q4 of this year so time will tell what conclusions can be drawn once it is finished. I am interested to know where it will fit in the price bracket, as it hasn’t got the VGA or quite the same spec as its sister the 103, and therefore could be a neat option for an even ‘cheaper’ device with a reasonable spec.
Reviews by: Steve
The guys over at Mobile Computer Magazine managed to get some hands on time with the recently announced iPaq Voice and Data Messenger devices. We discussed these on the last podcast episode and we were not that impressed with the specs, but take a look at the video after the break and see what you think.
Ok if your waiting patiently for the Xperia X1 you probably don’t want to see the series of videos we have after the break. A guy with a pair of white gloves, tweezers and a guitar plectrum strips the Xperia X1 down to its component parts and then somehow manages to put it all back together again and get this, there are no spare screws left at the end, quite amazing. Now should I try this when my Touch HD arrives?? If you can bare to watch, the videos are after the break.
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