Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 review: first look

Friday, November 13th, 2009

There are lots of smartphones vying for our attention right now, but despite the underwhelming nature of its improvements, Windows Phone is generating some interesting handsets. The latest is Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X2 – the follow up to the distinctly average X1 we reviewed last year – and we had our first chance to play with one at the launch event last night.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a very similar handset to the X1, boasting a sliding hardware Qwerty keyboard, and an ingenious mechanism that kicks the screen up at an angle so it’s more comfortable to view while typing. It does so with a satisfying snap, too.

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BlackBerry Bold 9700 review: first look

Monday, October 26th, 2009

The Storm 2 might be attracting all the headlines right now, but it’s not the only phone RIM is championing right now. As we reported last week, its BlackBerry Bold 9700 (pictured left) has also just been announced, and we’ve had the chance for a brief hands on.

Those familiar with the BlackBerry range will instantly notice that the Bold 9700 is a lot smaller than the original Bold (pictured right). It measures 60 x 14.1 x 109mm and weighs in at a mere 122g. So small, in fact that it looks a bit like a Curve.

Those statistics might make the Bold 9700 more pocketable than its predecessor. But, worryingly, it also means the keyboard is smaller too. Given that the Bold’s amazing keyboard was its key selling point, this has the potential to ground the new phone before it’s had the chance to take off.

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BlackBerry Storm 2 review: first look

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

So RIM has dumped the mechanical click screen of the original Storm completely and has replaced it with a brand new system. And having spent nearly an hour in the company of its successor – the BlackBerry Storm 2 – I can confirm that it’s a huge improvement.

The Storm 2 uses a system of four software-controlled electro-mechanical actuators (which sit behind the screen), to give a sort of localised haptic feedback. Press the screen anywhere on its surface and it gives feedback in response – but this is like no other feedback vibration I’ve experienced before. Incredibly, pressing the screen feels just like clicking a button, and it’s very responsive too.

Coupled with the BlackBerry OS’s effective auto correction, I managed to get up to a rapid typing speed instantly, and because it’s multitouch, you don’t have to wait to finish one key press before beginning another.

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First look: RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Earlier today I got my hot hands on the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520, and thanks to our lovely art team we’ve managed to get a few nice photos to highlight its features.

Front on, the most interesting item is slap bang in the middle: a trackpad. This works almost identically to a normal laptop trackpad, except you press it to select on an item. Opinion in the PC Pro office is so far mixed: I found it intuitive, though it’s a little fiddly as you can’t jump about the screen as quickly as I’d like, whereas our esteemed news & features editor, Barry Collins, simply couldn’t get on with it at all. (more…)

A first look at the HTC Touch Pro

Friday, August 15th, 2008

If you keep close tabs on the smartphone scene – and PC Pro’s reviews section – you’ll know that we weren’t too impressed with HTC’s response the iPhone 3G, the Touch Diamond a couple of months ago.

We liked the fact that it buried most of Windows Mobile’s ugliness under an attractive, finger-friendly touchscreen interface, and we liked its fantastic VGA screen. We were also keen on its fantastic web browser – Opera Mobile 9.5.

But we hated its sluggish performance. The whole point of touchscreen interfaces is that they should be responsive, but this was anything but. Hit a control on screen and, like as not, you’d have to wait a second or so before anything actually happened. It was one of the most frustrating phones we’ve ever had the displeasure to use.

Would the same issues afflict its big brother – the Touch Pro, which arrived in the Labs today?

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BlackBerry Bold bursts into the Labs

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

We’ve just laid our sweaty mitts on the highly-anticipated BlackBerry Bold (aka the 9000 series) for the very first time in an hour long introduction to the product, and we have to say, we’re impressed.

For those of you who may not be completely au fait with the details (where have you been?), it’s RIM’s new flagship phone, but instead of simply relying on a (slow) GPRS connection – which we haven’t been impressed with before – the new device has a 3.5G (tri-band HSDPA) connection, and a new web browser.

The result is a completely revamped BlackBerry, with a new-look interface. The operating system has moved on to version 4.6 now and it comes complete with a slick new look and iPhone-style web browser, which gives an overview of web pages before allowing you to zoom right in.

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Just in: Nokia E71

Monday, June 16th, 2008

I was quite impressed by the handfeel* of the Toshiba Portégé G710 when I reviewed it last week, but it is as nothing to the E71. This drop-dead sexy beast is satisfyingly weighty, with the metal chassis perfectly fitting its boardroom looks.

So far, I also prefer the Nokia’s slightly larger keys. There’s no space between them, so theoretically you could accidentally nudge the wrong one, but this hasn’t yet been an issue.

Another big advantage is speed, with the Symbian OS here proving much, much more responsive than the Toshiba G710 running Windows Mobile 6.

One of Nokia’s biggest selling points, though, is ease-of-setup. Just enter your email address and password, the marketing chief claimed, and then worry no more – everything would just work. And with support for “thousands” of ISPs, it’s more likely than not that it will.

I tried it with my Gmail account, but initially hit a problem with the setup routine – it was using Vodafone Live! to connect rather than the usual Vodafone internet access point. Once I’d corrected this, though, it worked like a dream. Well, a slightly dull dream involving access to email via a phone.

I’ll keep on using the phone over the next few days, so look out for the full review soon.

*Handfeel. n. 1 Like mouthfeel, but in the hand.