You might ask, “so what?” And that’s a fair argument. I’ve never heard an iPhone 4 owner moan about the speed of the interface, or anyone who’s bought a recent Android phone for that matter.

But there is something psychologically satisfying about using a phone that jumps in response to commands; going back to my usual phone afterwards, things seemed to be in slow motion.

There are practical benefits too. Watch the clip below and you’ll see how well the K800 copes with complicated HD video.

HD here means 720p, with the 4.5in display having a 1,280 x 720 resolution. This makes the video look crisp, but with the addition of an Intel Wireless Display adapter (WiDi for short) you can even watch movies directly on your TV; no wires required.

This phone also includes an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting HD footage, but the limitations of the small lens and sensor were obvious in my test shots; then again, light conditions in the Lenovo stand at CES weren’t exactly favourable.

Other things to note about the K800 itself: it’s not the world’s most attractive design, with a square-jawed black finish and none of the slimness we’ve come to expect from modern phones, and it includes all the wireless radios you could ever hope for – including WCDMA HSPA+ for 21Mbits/sec downloads.

To a large extent, this is all moot: unless you happen to live in China, you won’t be able to buy the K800 (and even then you’ll have to wait until sometime between April and June). It should be seen, more than anything, as proof of the ability to squeeze an Intel Atom processor into such a tiny chassis.

So let’s get to the specs. Inside there’s a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU with 512KB of Level 2 cache; this is Intel’s Medfield smartphone platform, which has been long talked about but never previously seen in a proper product.

Note there’s just a single core inside the Z2460, with dual-core Medfield chips likely to debut in Motorola phones later this year. Nevertheless, according to benchmarks performed by Anandtech, this is a darn quick phone: a third quicker than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, and almost 20% faster in BrowserMark.

To put that into perspective, the Galaxy Nexus was previously the fastest phone Anandtech had tested, including the Apple iPhone 4S.

According to Intel, it’s also highly competitive when it comes to power consumption:

If those power graphs are to be believed (and we’ll hold off on that until we see some Medfield-based phones that we can actually battery test), the K800 is a definite victory for Intel, and a signal to ARM that it won’t have things all its own way in the coming years.

And going back to the question I asked right at the start – why does this matter? Because it opens up big possibilities for phones of the future, as they edge closer and closer to being what we used to call computers.

The phone watch is an idea that just isn’t going away, with a different spin of the concept produced pretty much every year at CES. But this time, Sony assures us, it’s really going to happen and it’s really going to be fabulous.

The video above shows some of the obvious limitations: if you’ve only got a tiny surface area on which to drag your fingers then it’s difficult to fit too much information on at any one time, and it’s also tricky to hit a tiny 60 x 60 pixel area on something as inherently unstable as your wrist.

Nevertheless, it does kind of work, and it’s worth noting that this screen is multitouch-enabled: press two fingers and it will go back one step. And we’re also pleased to see that it won’t only work with Sony phones (if you missed the news, Sony Ericsson phones are no more, having been sucked into Sony as a subsiduary); all you need is an Android phone with the appropriate app downloaded onto it.

Which leaves us with just one question: does anyone out there want one?

ARM and Nvidia are major mobile players, so it pays to listen when the firms announce new technologies. The latest developments from both serve up an interesting similarity with regards to how these companies are tackling one of the biggest annoyances of the modern smartphone: inefficient batteries.

ARM’s recent announcement, big.LITTLE, pairs one of its high-end Cortex A15 MPCore chips alongside an entry-level Cortex A7, which consumes much less power. It’s designed to seamlessly takes over when a device is tackling low-intensity tasks, so the power-sucking A15 is reserved for intensive games and apps.

Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset, meanwhile, uses a near-identical approach: the four cores on the main chip can be turned on and off to tackle everything from basic web browsing to high-end games but, if the phone’s in standby mode or you’re running low-power apps, those four cores will shut down, with processing power provided by a “Companion Core”. It’s based on the same Cortex A9 used by the main Tegra 3 chip but, crucially, it runs at 500MHz instead of 1.4GHz.

They’re both designed with power saving in mind – in fact, low-power processors are one of the main pillars of ARM’s business – but the fact that these workarounds have to be considered at all merely serve to highlight just how little innovation occurs in the battery market.

It’s clear that lithium-ion power packs just aren’t keeping up with the demands of modern devices, with more powerful processors and bigger screens hampered by batteries that aren’t much bigger or more efficient than those included in phones from a couple of years ago. While components, screens and apps have become more sophisticated and impressive, batteries are stuck in a rut.

It doesn’t seem like the problem will be resolved any time soon, either. Nvidia and ARM might be tacking on chips to handle low-intensity tasks but, as soon as you ramp up four Tegra 3 cores, your phone’s longevity is likely going to plummet, especially if it’s used on devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note, which has a whopping 5.3in screen.

One of the few drawbacks of modern smartphones is the daily charge: a ritual that sees people leaving phones attached to the mains at night or to their computers at work. Until a newer, more efficient type of battery arrives, this will continue to be the case – even if Nvidia and ARM are doing their best to give outdated lithium-ion hardware plenty of help.

With a 5.3in, 1,280 x 800 Super AMOLED display beaming forth, the Galaxy Note immediately grabs the attention. The display is eye-searingly bright, and colours are as rich and saturated as we’ve come to expect from Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology. The huge resolution gives the Galaxy Note a super crisp 285 ppi (pixels per inch) pixel density, which leaves it not too far behind the 326ppi of Apple’s iPhone 4 Retina display.

Small hands will struggle with the Galaxy Note’s 83mm width – not to mention the fact that persons of a smaller stature will look like they’re holding a full-sized tablet to their ear – but this giant smartphone felt perfectly manageable in my larger palms. The 9.65mm thickness gives the Galaxy Note a slim, dainty profile, and while Samsung made no mention of weight, it didn’t feel it unduly heavy.

There’s a trick hidden in the Galaxy Note’s bottom corner, however: a removable stylus that Samsung’s dubbed the S Pen.

This stylus partners with Samsung’s S Note software for making handwritten notes or even artistic sketches. It’s possible to choose from a variety of pen/brush types and thicknesses with the drop-down menu, and thanks to the Galaxy Note’s sizeable screen, inking feels natural and comfortable.

While it’s easy to scribble handwritten notes, or doodle to your heart’s content, you can also import pictures onto the canvas. While any photograph will do, it’s possible to grab a screenshot – from Google Maps, for instance – and then directly annotate it with the S Pen.

Basic handwriting recognition also allows you to use the S Pen within the Note’s messaging application. In our brief time with the Galaxy Note, however, it appeared that only single words could be converted, and there was a noticeable pause as the recognition process took place. Clearly, the Galaxy Note’s handwriting recogniton still has some way to go. Still, with Samsung planning to release the S Pen SDK to app developers, there’s a potentially bright future for pen-driven apps.

Happily, though, the S Pen makes a great partner with the pre-installed Swype keyboard – without a finger to obscure the view, we found it quicker to tap texts than ever.

Samsung’s also trying to tout the Note as a hybrid business device. With Juniper Networks’ Junos Pulse installed as standard – an SSL-enabled VPN service – and that high-resolution screen making remote desktop operation entirely feasible, the Galaxy Note is potentially more capable than a standard smartphone.

Going by the range of accessories on show, Samsung’s keen to stress the Note’s versatility. In addition to swish leather cases, larger styluses, docking stations and vehicle mounts, the appearance of Bluetooth keyboards seems to suggest that the Note is capable of much more than just phone, SMS and internet duties.

There’s no doubting the Galaxy Note’s potential. With a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor powering Google’s Android 2.3; 16GB or 32GB of internal memory; wireless networking that includes Bluetooth 3 and reaches up to dual-band 802.11n;  an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front-facing camera; GPS; and Full-HD video recording at 30fps, the Galaxy Note can hold its own against any smartphone on the market today.

But with no set price or mention of a release date, we’ll just have to sit patiently and wait for our very own review unit to arrive. Only then will we be able to tell whether Samsung’s over-sized smartphone is a genuine star in the making.

Binatone is a name usually associated with landline phones but, with that market dwindling, the firm has decided Android is the way forward.

Of three new Android products shown off at a launch event, the most intriguing is its iHomePhone 2 – an Android device that, as the name suggests, replaces your landline handset. It’s an unusual idea, but one Binatone is confident can work, with the £99 inc VAT gadget ambitiously aimed at both techies and novices.

The glossy handset sits in a circular cradle and certainly looks the part but we soon found problems. The 2.8in resistive screen is grainy, pallid and comes with its own stylus, and the inclusion of Android 2.1 means it’s already behind the curve.

It’s clear the hardware isn’t up to task. Even an empty notification bar took too long to judder towards the bottom of the screen and when we pressed the “Home” button, the desktop took several seconds to load – a lifetime on a phone.

Still, Binatone is excited about the product, enthusing that it’s more of a “living room ” device than a mere phone. To that end, the firm’s PR demonstrated Android’s stock eBook-reader app and FM Radio software, although both of these came with two obvious caveats: we don’t know anyone who’ll want to squint at a 2.8in screen and, with no Wi-Fi syncing, the handset will have to be docked to play audio through the speakers.

There’s no access to Android’s Market either – instead, the iHomePhone uses Giga Store. Binatone claims thousands of apps are available but, the ubiquitous Angry Birds aside, we couldn’t see much we recognised.

HomeSurf 705

Binatone also announced a tablet device. The HomeSurf 705 is a 7in Android tablet and, like the iHomePhone, it comes with an eye-catching price of just £99 inc VAT.

It also shares many of the same faults: no access to the Android Market, with the Giga Store making another appearance, and a reliance on Android 2.1, with no plans for the device to be upgraded in its lifetime.

Binatone wasn’t able to confirm the HomeSurf’s internals but our hands-on time didn’t exactly fill us with enthusiasm. While basic navigation, simpler apps and web surfing were all reasonably responsive, anything requiring more processing power seemed beyond its modest abilities. Whether it’s any better than the Storage Options Scroll is a question that must wait for our full review.

Still, at least the basics are present and correct: an 800 x 480 native resolution across the screen, 2GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot. We’re not hopeful but, at £99 inc VAT, it could at least prove to be a tempting bargain.

ReadMe Mobile

Binatone’s third new product is the ReadMe Mobile eBook reader. Again, it’s running Android 2.1 and again it comes with several quirks: its 7in, 800 x 480 TFT panel is not touch-enabled and it’s horizontally orientated by default – although it’s possible to switch to portrait mode once its weak processor has stirred into life.

However, doing so renders its Qwerty keyboard somewhat obsolete – a feature Binatone claims many of its customers have wanted for a long time. Beside the keyboard sits a touchpoint, similar to the BlackBerry Bold, and four cursor keys. They’re used for navigating the interface, but working our way through proved tortuous and the buttons themselves felt weak.

With a TFT rather than E Ink screen, there’s the issue of battery life, too: Binatone’s spokesperson answered the question “will it let you read Lord of the Rings” with an enthusiastic “absolutely not!”, and confirmed an estimated lifespan of two and a half hours.

Combine this with the £129 inc VAT price and, well, we’re not sure why you’d buy this over the tablet, which includes the same Android eBook app. Still, we’ll reserve final judgement until our review.

In the mean time, do you want an Android home phone, a £99 tablet, or an eBook reader running Google’s OS? Let us know in the comments.

Much has been written about the security of data in the cloud, and even more about the insecurity of the same. Until now, things have been somewhat quieter when it comes to how we access cloud-based data on the move. That, I suspect, is about to change.

Plenty of effort has been poured into securing online data stores, and plenty is made by the providers of those cloud services in making sure potential customers know about it. Which is why the bad guys are understandably looking for the soft targets, and at the moment that would appear to be Android apps.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: the smaller your business, the bigger the benefits of cloud computing. That rings especially true at the ‘free’ end of the cloud scale where the attraction of services such as those provided by Google can offer real bottom-line savings for hard pressed small business concerns. Security within the free or low-cost cloud isn’t somehow automatically weaker than that found at the expensive end of the cloud provision market either.

You can be sure that Google has invested heavily in securing the data at rest within those cloud bases, incorporating all the multi-layered protocols and synchronous replication processes you might expect. But perhaps it needs to invest more at the other end, the smartphone to be precise. What you need to ask yourself is whether Android could be the weak link in the cloud security chain?

Dan Wallach, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University in Houston, got the ball rolling when he revealed that his undergraduate security class had decided to listen in on the traffic to and from his Android smartphone, a Motorola Droid X running Android 2.2.1, with his permission of course.

With Android overtaking Apple iOS as the most popular mobile operating system, security of Android apps is going to become something we hear more and more about

The class used Wireshark and Mallory to sniff the data and quickly discovered that Google wasn’t encrypting traffic heading for Google Calendar (using the default Google Calendar app that came with the phone) which is a pretty bad start if you were expecting this kind of information to be kept secure and confidential in transit. Google is, I understand, planning on introducing encrypted traffic to Google Calendar on Android as part of an unspecified maintenance release in the future.

What really grabbed my attention, however, was while the professor had a Facebook account configured to specify fully encrypted traffic, the Android Facebook app ignored that and sent everything in the clear. Especially as Wallach notes “Facebook isn’t doing anything like OAuth signatures, so it may be possible to inject bogus posts as well”. Oh, and one of the requests that the class saw heading to the Facebook server was carrying a SQL statement, which doesn’t bode well.

Identity management specialist Phil Lieberman argues that the sending of data (other than passwords) in the clear is “absolutely typical of open-source software” and insists that there is little or no incentive for the software developer to do otherwise unless the destination system absolutely requires it.

Indeed, he goes further to warn that the Dan Wallach revelation is an “early warning shot” when it comes to the use of cloud-computing platforms and Android. “The stark reality is that computer science graduates rarely, if ever, receive any training on how to write secure applications,” Lieberman claimed. “So it should come as no surprise that many applications created by these same people are insecure”.

Certainly, with Android overtaking Apple iOS as the most popular mobile operating system, security of Android apps is going to become something we hear more and more about. Unlike Apple, which has had relatively little problem with malicious apps finding their way onto iPhones, courtesy of what some argue are Draconian controls over what reaches the App Store, the Android Market accepts anything that is uploaded and there are no such pre-publication clearance controls to filter out the insecure and downright dangerous.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that just last week we have seen the discovery of some 50 or so Android apps infected with the ‘DroidDream’ rootkit, which are capable of intercepting and diverting personal data. Of course, Google acts quickly (within minutes in this case) to remove such software as soon as it can when such a discovery is made, but that didn’t prevent people downloading them and being infected in the first place. The DroidDream rootkit also has the capability to download other malicious software which it can then install, so nobody really knows how many handsets are already infect or what they are infected with.

More alarmingly, those same infected handsets, or even the same apps, could be used to access business data in the cloud. Whereas much focus has been put on ensuring company data is properly encrypted when stored on mobile devices, that focus has to now widen to include the apps being used to access the data in the first place.

At the very least, security policy needs to encompass the usage of authorised apps only on any device used to access business data. Better still, ensure that processes are in place that control what data and services a mobile device can, and cannot, access. Either that, or as Phil Lieberman starkly says “use your smartphone to log into cloud and secure systems at your peril”.

On the edge of a narrow bench sat a rattly-looking development unit – the kind of device phone and chip makers use to test hardware before squeezing it into the shiny, sleek chassis I’ve seen so many times over the past three days. But that’s not the interesting part: ARM was using it to demonstrate the benefits of multicore mobile processors, the sort so many of the new devices this year are set to employ.

The Texas Intruments OMAP 4 chip inside it is based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 architecture and in the video below it’s shown running Android 2.3 and Ubunutu 10.04 simultaneously.

That’s interesting from a technical point of view, you might think, but a little gimmicky right? Well, it’s closer to reality than you might think. The Motorola Atrix smartphone, launched to great fanfare at CES in January, boasts a very similar feature. Drop this in the rear of its ‘laptop’ dock and control switches to the larger screen displaying a desktop environment, allowing you to use the power of the phone just like a notebook. Motorola also has a desktop dock for the Atrix which allows you to connect it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

ARM also showed us a quick demonstration of how much more power the latest dual-core processors offer over their single-core counterparts. This time two bare boards, each sporting identical Nvidia Tegra 2 chips (again based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 architecture), with one running at full power and the other with one of its cores disabled, are seen rendering a sequence of locally cached web pages.

The dual-core processor streaks ahead, understandably, but it’s the margin of difference that’s the real eye-opener. Check out the video below – it’s quite revealing.

ARM envisages a time when the only computer you’ll ever need is your smartphone and with Nvidia announcing it will be putting quad-core mobile processors into tablets by autumn and smartphones by Christmas, that prospect looks to be approaching faster than anyone expected.

Is it a tablet? Is it a phone? No, it’s giganto-phone. Meet the Acer Iconia Smart, a phone so big that, if you had pockets deep enough, it would reach almost to your knee; so tall that two would make a decent pair of shinpads for a very tiny man.

You must be getting the message: it’s big. And that size is principally due to its enormous 4.8in screen, which boasts an equally huge resolution of 480 x 1,024. That’s almost as many pixels as a netbook, and enough to lend the Iconia tablet-like browsability.

But smartphone this most certainly is and, as if to prove that point, it’s running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The big question is, would you want as your main phone? We’re not sure about that, but for our money it edges in front of the Dell Streak for practicality.

Although absolutely massive, it feels more phone-like in the hand, and you won’t feel quite as much of a loon holding it to your ear on the bus. It’s longer and narrower than the Streak, measuring 64.5 x 13.6 x 141.7mm, and 35g lighter too, tipping the scales at 185g.

It’s not all about the size, though. The screen doesn’t scale the heights of the Samsung Galaxy SII’s Super AMOLED Plus display, but its LED-backlit and still looks darned good: bright, colourful and with sharp contrast.

The processor powering the Iconia is a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255, and it seems to have enough juice to keep Android running smoothly on that high-resolution screen. In our quick hands-on session with the phone in the Acer booth at Mobile World Congress, we didn’t notice any lag, slow down or stutter when scrolling through menus or sweeping from desktop to desktop.

On the rear is an 8-megapixel camera with a single LED flash, capable of shooting 720p video, while on the front is a 2-megapixel shooter for video calls. The phone also sports Dolby sound technology, a gyroscope and accelerometer for more accurate game control, and Acer’s clear.fi media streaming software is preinstalled. Rounding off the specifications are 14.4Mbits/sec HSDPA, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR and an HDMI port allowing you to pipe 720p video to your HD TV.

The one thing likely to knock the stuffing from the Iconia Smart’s hulking frame is, as usual, its potential stamina. With a screen so large you could plate-up a lunch-sized serving of sushi on it, we’d hoped for something a little more capacious. Alas, the 1,500mAh battery is no bigger than that found in most standard-sized smartphones.

That’s a shame as otherwise the big, brash Iconia Smart is a very exciting-looking device.

The HTC Desire won a coveted PC Pro Recommended award in our recent smartphones Labs, mainly for its winning combination of value and power. Its successor was announced this morning – the Desire S – and it has a tough act to follow.

The first thing to note is the physical design. It might not be quite as eye-catching as the Incredible S, but the Desire is a step up from its predecessor. Pick it up and it feels very light, yet try to twist or manhandle it and it feels as solid as a rock. That’s mainly down to its aluminium unibody chassis; just like the HTC Flyer, the Desire S’s body is carved from a single block of aluminium.

In fact, the Desire S looks very much like a large version of the good old HTC Legend, except without the optical navigation button. We wonder why it’s taken so long for the industrial design to spread to other areas of the HTC range, because what worked for the Legend, definitely works again here, and on the HTC Flyer.

Under the hood, the upgrade is more conservative. Bucking the trend, HTC has gone for a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor, backed by 768MB of RAM and 1.1GB of internal storage. It looks to be the same hardware as found in the Incredible S, with a similar level of connectivity, although its 5-megapixel camera has only a single LED flash to help it out in low light conditions. Meanwhile, the Desire S also runs the latest version of Sense  on top of Android 2.4, and it sports a 1,450mAh battery.

Rather than focussing on what the HTC Desire S includes, however, it’s possibly more enlightening to discuss what’s missing, especially in the light of other announcements at this year’s MWC. The Desire S has no Full HD video recording (1080p); both the Samsung Galaxy SII and LG Optimus 3D do. The Desire S has single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi where the SII has dual-band.

The SLCD screen remains at 3.7in with a resolution of 480 x 800; again both Samsung and LG’s stars outshine it, and there’s no sign of any kind of show-stopping feature along the lines of the LG’s amazing 3D screen either.

So is this the beginning of the end for the Desire? Will it fade tamely out of the limelight as new upstarts hog the stage? It all depends on the price. If HTC and the networks can get their hands on this early (it’s coming to O2 and Orange later this year), then it may replace the current Desire as our favourite smartphone all-rounder – the improved physical design will be enough to ensure that.

What it won’t do, though, is threaten the top table, where Samsung and LG are stretching out a somewhat daunting lead.

It doesn’t seem that long since we first laid eyes on the Palm Pre 2, but its successor, the HP Pre 3, is already here — or at least it will be this summer.

First impressions of the device are promising. Where the Pre 2 was a slight upgrade from the exceedingly underwhelming Pre, the Pre 3 is a “rip up the plans and start again” job.

To start, it’s a bigger device, with a 480 x 800 3.6in touchscreen, finally bringing WebOS into the world of big-screen smartphones.

HP’s gone back to the curves of the original too, with rounded corners and edges that make it look a bit like a high-tech bar of Imperial Leather. It’s a little dumpy, measuring 64 x 16 x 111mm, but it feels nice in the hand, and as with the HP Veer, the keyboard has been flattened and the lip removed, so it’s far more pleasant to type on than previous Pre handsets.

The slide-out keyboard still has those slightly rubberised, grippy keys – which we’ve always liked – but it’s the extra width that makes this a dream to type on. The individual keys have just the right amount of spacing, feedback and travel. It’s too early to deliver any kind of sweeping verdict yet, but in the keyboard stakes this may eclipse the RIM’s BlackBerry Bold for typing comfort.

Another big headline with the Pre 3 is its rip-snorting 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. Yes, you read that right – 1.4GHz. It’s single-core only, though, unlike so many of the new devices being announced at Mobile World Congress this year. And it backs up that processor with 512MB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of storage, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS and HP’s Touchstone wire-free charging system.

The camera, meanwhile, is a 5-megapixel unit with a single LED flash capable of shooting 720p video, and there’s also a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for making video calls.

As with the HP Veer, the Pre 3 also uses its Touchstone system to transfer data from the HP TouchPad, and if you own both devices, you’ll be able to answer calls and browse text messages received on the Pre 3 directly on the tablet over Wi-Fi. Unlike the Veer, there’s no magnetic port for charging, though there’s plenty of room for a physical micro USB port on this handset.

Worryingly, at a mere 1,230mAh, the battery doesn’t look very high capacity, meaning the Pre 3 might be plagued by short battery life. If HP can overcome that potential pitfall, we can see this being a rival in to the BlackBerry Bold.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed, because the keyboard looks great.