Videos/Unboxings
Just a few days ago HTC offcially announced the HTC One mini 2, successor to last year’s HTC One mini and little-brother to the HTC One (M8) released a couple of months ago.
As always, there had been a lot of leaks, speculation and rumours surrounding the mini 2 so much of the specification and design was alread ‘known’ but the full and official specification can be found below.
I’ve managed to get hold of an HTC One mini 2 and I’ve recorded an initial unboxing and hands-on video for you below. Covering the specification, hardware, side-by-side with the HTC One (M8) and a look at the user interface this is just a quick video for now, futher in-depth details and a review are to follow.
HTC One mini 2 specification:
SIZE: 137.43 x 65.04 x 10.6mm
WEIGHT: 137 grams
DISPLAY: 4.5 inch, HD 720p
CPU SPEED
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400, 1.2GHz quad-core CPU
PLATFORM
- Android™ 4.4 with HTC Sense™ 6
- HTC BlinkFeed™
MEMORY
- Total storage: 16GB
- RAM: 1GB
- Expansion card slot supports microSD™ memory card for up to 128GB additional storage (card not included)
NETWORK
2G/2.5G – GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G – WCDMA:
- 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
4G – LTE:
- EMEA: Bands 3, 7, 8, 20
- Asia: Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 28
SIM
- Nano SIM
SENSORS
- Accelerometer
- Proximity sensor
- Ambient light sensor
CONNECTIVITY
- 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
- NFCii
- Bluetooth® 4.0 with aptX™ enabled
- Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz)
- DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer,
- HTC Connect™
- micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port
SOUND
- HTC BoomSound™
- Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
- Sense Voice
CaMeRA
Rear camera
- 13MP, BSI sensor with f/2.2 lens
- 1080p Full HD video recording
Front camera
- 5MP, BSI sensor
- 1080p Full HD video recording
MULTIMEDIA
Audio supported formats:
- Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .flac, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 10)
- Recording: .aac
Video supported formats:
- Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .mkv, .wmv (Windows Media Video 10), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
- Recording: .mp4
Location
- Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS
- Digital compass
BATTERY
- Capacity: 2100 mAh
Archos have had a second try at an Android gaming tablet having some success with the first generation Archos GamePad. This time around it’s mostly all change with a re-design and some beefed up specs.
Coming with some red hot gaming preinstalled we have a look at just how gamer friendly the Archos GamePad 2 really is.
Archos GamePad 2 specification:
- 7’’: 1280 x 800 pixels, IPS,
- Quad-core A9 @ 1.6GHz
- Android 4.2
- 2GB RAM
- 8GB/16GB + micro SD
- 200.5 mm x 154 mm x 9.9 mm
- 400g
- Two analogue thumb-sticks
- Directional pad
- 6 front facing buttons
- 4 shoulder buttons
- G-sensor
- HDMI output
- Front webcam
Acer has announced a large amount of new devices in New York this past week. Another tablet on their roadmap is the Acer Iconia Tab 7, a familiar looking tablet with many stylings borrowed from other tablets already on the market.
Running on Android 4.4 the Acer Iconia Tab 7 improves of some of the spercs of the Acer Iconia One 7, launched the same day. A Media Tek MT8382 Quad Core 1.3Ghz runs the show with 1GB of RAM. A 7″ IPS HD 1280×800 display looks great with 8gb and 16gb variants available. A 5MP rear camera and 0.3MP fornt facing camera round out an attractively styled budget offering.
Acer unveiled the Acer Iconia Tab 7(¹) at its “A Touch More Connected” launch event in New York. Equipped with phone functionality and 3G connectivity, the Iconia Tab 7 is the marriage of the two most used consumer devices — a tablet and phone — together in a super portable, premium-looking design with a vibrant 7-inch screen. Users can use 3G to browse, keep in touch, stay current on news, events and social networks, as well as enjoy voice calls.
A slim design with premium look and feel
The slim Acer Iconia Tab 7 has a premium look and feel with a clean and simple design of anodized silver. The 0.89 cm (0.35 inches) thin body, narrow 11.6 cm (4.6 inches) width and light 298 g (0.66 lb) weight makes the Iconia Tab 7 extremely comfortable to hold and use with a single hand for phone calls and browsing, yet it’s large enough for reading text and enjoying video.Impressive media performance and imaging
Available with two screen options(¹), the vibrant 7-inch screen delivers crisp visuals with up to 1280×800 HD resolution and IPS(²) technology for sharp, truly vivid colors from wide viewing angles. Plus, customers can do even more with their Iconia Tab 7 thanks to its powerful quad-core processor. Dual cameras ensure users can capture all the most important moments, and it features Android 4.4 (KitKat) and up to 6 hours(3) of battery life.
Tap, swipe and pinch with fewer fingerprints
With all those taps, swipes and pinches, screens can get dirty quickly, but not with the Iconia Tab 7. Equipped with an anti-fingerprint coating, messy fingerprints and smudges are reduced while also making it much easier to clean.
The Iconia Tab 7 is equipped with a MicroSD™ card slot for extended storage and easy sharing. For further storage expansion, users can take advantage of AcerCloud™ (4) and enjoy seamless sharing of videos, photos, music and documents across multiple devices.
Pricing and availability
The Acer Iconia Tab 7 will be available in Latin American markets at the end of June with prices starting at $1,990 MX Peso; in Europe, Middle East and Africa middle of May with prices starting at €149.
It may look like an iPad Mini however the Archos 79 Xenon falls at the other end of the price spectrum. At £170 the Archos 79 Xenon is a good looking, good feeling Android tablet with a few eyebrow-raising specs.
This is one tablet to check out if you are looking for a cheap second option, one for the kids or family member who isn’t terribly fussy.
Archos 79 Xenon review specification:
Processor
- A7 Quad-Core 1.2GHz
Memory
- 1GB DDR3 RAM
- 8GB Flash
- Expandable to 64GB
Software
- Operating system: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
- Google Maps,
- Google Maps Navigation (beta)
Display
- 7.85″ IPS TFT Multi Touch
- Resolution: 1024 x 768
Multimedia
- Supported Digital Video Formats: MPEG-4,AVI,H.264
- Audio: Microphone, stereo speakers
- Supported Digital Audio Formats: MP3,WAV,OGG,FLAC,Vorbis,PCM,ADPCM
Networking
- Cellular Technology 3G
- Cellular Protocols HSPA
- Wireless Connectivity Bluetooth,Wi-Fi
Power Supply
- Lithium polymer Battery
Dimensions
- Width 13.4 cm
- Depth 0.8 cm
- Height 20 cm
- Weight 320 g
Interfaces
- 1 x microSD
- 1 x SIM card
- 1 x headphones
- 1 x Micro-USB
Archos 79 Xenon review video:
Go online anywhere with the ARCHOS 79 Xenon – specially designed for an on-the-go experience with both 3G and WiFi. Un-Sim-locked it accepts any 3G Sim card and has no provider restrictions.
The ARCHOS 79 Xenon features a powerful Quad-core processor and runs Android Jelly Bean with complete access to Google Play and all the Google Mobile Applications.
NB: This Archos 79 Xenon review is the first of our new video-review format. There’s a bit of work to be done yet but let us know what you think!
Although it’s quite a controversial topic, then benchmark performance of new devices always attracts a lot of interest.
At the moment, the two top Android phones are the HTC One (M8) and the Samsung Galaxy S5. In theory, the Galaxy S5 should be ahead of the M8, in terms of performance at least. The S5 has a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU whereas the M8 has a 2.3GHz quad-core CPU. Both run the Qualcomm 801 chipset and have 2GB RAM but the extra clock speed that the S5 has should definitely give it the edge.
There have been lots of Tweets and blog posts elsewhere questioning the performance of the Galaxy S5 and comments like “What’s up with the Galaxy S5 performance ?” seem not to be uncommon.
In the video below you can see me running a benchmark test on the Galaxy S5, side-by-side with the HTC One (M8). The results may surprise you…!
At the moment there is a strong battle between the flagship Android smartphones from both Samsung and HTC. We’ve already discussed the HTC One (M8) a lot on the site but this weekend we’ve finally managed to get hold of the Samsung Galaxy S5.
The Samsung Galaxy phones have always been popular with the S3 and S4 versions selling at both incredible speed and volume. This latest Galaxy S5 builds upon the previous versions and brings a 5.1″ Full HD AMOLED Screen, Quad-core 2.5GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and either 16 or 32GB of on board storage. If the on board storage isn’t enough for you then you can also add up to another 128GB with a microSD memory card.
Samsung have added other features such as a fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor to mention a few.
Samsung have been more conventional than HTC with their camera. Here you’ll find a 16 mega-pixel camera with phase detection autofocus. Rather different to HTC’s 4.1 Ultrapixel approach.
As ever, I’m starting off here with an unboxing and hardware tour as well as a look at the UI and OS features.
Samsung Galaxy S5 specification:
- 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
- 3G Network: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
- 4G Network: LTE (market dependent)
- Micro-SIM
- Dimensions: 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 in)
- Weight: 145 g (5.11 oz)
- Fingerprint sensor (PayPal certified)
- IP67 certified – Water resistant up to 1 meter and 30 minutes
- Display: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours, 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.1 inches (~432 ppi pixel density)
- Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- TouchWiz UI
- 3.5mm jack
- microSD, up to 128 GB
- Internal Storage: 16/32 GB storage
- RAM: 2 GB
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
- Bluetooth: v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
- NFC
- Infrared port
- microUSB v3.0 (MHL 2), USB On-the-go, USB Host
- Primary Camera: 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 1/2.6” sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR, 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, video stabilization
- Secondary Camera: 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call
- OS: Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
- CPU: Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400
- GPU: Adreno 330
- Sensors
- Accelerometer
- gyro
- proximity
- compass
- barometer
- gesture
- heart rate
- GPS with A-GPS support and GLONASS
- TV-out (via MHL 2 A/V link)
- Battery: Li-Ion 2800 mAh battery










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