The latest phones and gadgets tested and reviewed in our labs
Here is the FoneArena Motorola Milestone XT720 Review
At a time when Motorola was dying, a device they introduced brought back life into the company. The device was the MILESTONE or the DROID as it’s known in the USA. Motorola found this the perfect opportunity to get maximum sales and so they released a number of Android devices many of which included the MILESTONE/DROID badge such as the MILESTONE/DROID 2, DROID X/EXTREME/SHADOW and the MILESTONE XT720 which we are reviewing today.
The iPhone 4’s screen with its retina display certainly looks amazing but it can get scratches easily. You want to protect the screen and don’t want to spoil the look of the iPhone with a case. You need a screen protector. We check out Wrapsol’s iPhone Clear Screen Protector Film in this review
Package Contents:
Continue reading “Wrapsol iPhone Clear Screen Protector Film Review”
Otterbox is a company that makes some of the best protective cases for phones. So when I heard that they are making a case for the Nokia N900, I decided to review it. This is the review of the Nokia N900 Commuter Series Case from OtterBox and I describe what sets this case apart from the others.Cases always have a mixed reception. Some people use cases saying it gives protection to their device and sometimes improves the looks. Others say it adds unnecessary bulk to the device and that it also spoils the looks of the phone. I am amongst the former group of people. I believe that even if cases add some bulk, cases protect your device from scratches, bumps and falls.
Continue reading “Review – Otterbox Commuter Series Case for Nokia N900”
Thinking of protecting your iPhone 4 in a sexy case ? Proporta Leather case is the answer for you. Proporta is a leading manufacturer of all smartphone cases and accessories. The Proporta Leather Case comes with well designed high quality leather with interior design to protect your iPhone from dust, scratch etc. Lets have a look at it in detail. Continue reading “Proporta Leather Protective Case for iPhone 4 Review”
When I got my iPod Touch 4, I thought I’d just slap on it one of the 4-pack generic screen protectors I had for my iPod Touch 2 and put it in the Marware CEO Premiere case I used for the old one. As it turns out, the 4th generation iPod is smaller and thinner, so the screen protectors weren’t a good fit and the case was just too big. I had to get new protection gear for my iPod and I instantly turned to MobileFun.Co.Uk for it because I knew they’d have a large selection of iPod Touch 4 accessories. I picked the Martin Fields Screen Protector for iPod Touch 4 and the Antimicrobial Silicone Case for iPod Touch 4 and MobileFun were nice enough to send me one of each for review.
Continue reading “The Ultimate Ipod Touch 4 Protection From MobileFun”
Here is the FoneArena Samsung Galaxy Tab Review. This Android Tablet is one of the first Tablets to pose some serious competition to the Apple iPad in terms of specs. The Galaxy Tab was launched in India for Rs.38000(MRP) and is also available with multiple carriers in USA and Europe.
Here is a Silicone case for the iPhone 4 that protects your device against Germs and Bacteria . It also offers protects the phone from scratches. Meet the SteriTouch iPhone 4 Silicon Case
Continue reading “Proporta iPhone 4 Silicon with SteriTouch Review”
When we set out to write the Nokia N8 review on FoneArena, we wanted to bring you a diverse, all-encompassing, balanced opinion of the first Symbian^3 device and the long time coming imaging flagship from the Finnish manufacturer. We were lucky to have had review units sent to many of our team members and that’s how, all throughout last week, we took you through a full Nokia N8 review from 6 different writers, each one discussing a certain aspect of it.Our team members in India, USA, UK , Europe and Middle-East contributed to this review.
We all hope you enjoyed the way we handled this review and plan to bring you more of the same in the future. I will be wrapping it up today and sharing some pros and cons, based on our previous coverage of the device, so that you can decide for yourself.
With the hardware review of the LG Optimus GT540 done, it’s time to take a look at the software on the Optimus
The LG Optimus runs the Android v1.6 OS. Wait a minute did I say 1.6? yeah I did! Why 1.6? Well I don’t know why did LG arm this rather good device such an archaic version of the OS. This is a factor that will hurt the sales as the Samsung Galaxy 3 & 5 have Eclair running on them. In fact this version of the OS relegates to the level of the Indian manufacturers’ offerings. Certainly LG above them. I, however, hope that there is an update hiding in the works.
Being a resistive screen device, the top status bar, which houses the notifications and more, is absolutely hard to get a hold of. I found this to be quite an irritating factor and was quite put off with it.
The homescreen on the LG, is bland at best. With hardly any custom UI layer, the plain vanilla is anything but cool. LG could have definitely ported some of their S Class homescreen UI onto the Optimus, it would have really helped the Android OS a lot.
On the flipside, the LG Optimus we got, came with a lot of apps pre-installed, and the best part – all of these apps are which one needs and are not available by default in Android. I’m referring to the Advanced Task Killer and many more such apps. This is a great move by LG and certainly going to pamper the Optimus user.
Cool Iris implementation of the Android OS makes the gallery on the LG Optimus stand out and look pretty. This is one aspect where the Optimus simply blows other non-Android phones out of the water!
One thing that put me off the Android was the lack of support to anything but @gmail.com email ids. If I have a non @gmail.com id but a Google Apps email id, shouldn’t it have been supported? Bad dog! no donut for you!
The lack of an equalizer is bothering and begs one to wonder why is it not there??? Though Android has not given this feature, why wasn’t it made available by LG? A mid range phone like the Optimus should have had this by default. If an 8k phone has it, why doesn’t the LG? Another aspect which I found rather disturbing was the size of the font displaying the time, it’s SMALL! I felt I was being punished by LG for doing something.
DivX playback out of the box is like godsend! I can’t help but applaud LG for integrating this feature into the Android Optimus. It’s a game changer at this price point. Though the UI seriously needs work, the video player UI is not at all responsive and this seems to be an Android 1.6 problem and not an LG one.
The camera app on the Optimus is pretty decent and the feature set is very good. Now if only the Optimus had a flash!
Google Maps is an amazing app to have and it can be quite a challenge to tackle, but fortunately in the mobile space we have Ovi Maps, which is a potent competitor. Google Maps allows web synchronization, which means that you select and save points on the PC version of the map and when you fire up the maps on the phone, it’s all there.
But given the online nature of Google’s services, one needs an unlimited plan to do all of this.
The video editor on the Optimus was a nice touch and reminded me of the LG BL40. The Social Networking Sites integration is very basic at best. This is the reality across manufacturers and LG is no different. A missed opportunity for LG to showcase how ‘advanced’ the Optimus could have been.
The onscreen QWERTY keypad is quite cramped mainly due to the small screen. Had this been a physical keypad, the story would have been the opposite.
Moving onto the web browser, it’s slow. I had the Dell Streak with me during the same time and having tested the browsers on both, I found that it took a considerable amount of time for a page to load on the Optimus. The browser on the Optimus definitely needs tweaking.
The calendar on the Optimus allows for Google calendar syncing, which can be described in one word – wOOt! (Like you didn’t know Google calendar)
The Gmail client on the Optimus was good and the ability to view HTML by default was welcome and overall the experience was consistent with the web experience, given the contraints of a small screen.
The apps on the Optimus which you download and install gets listed separately, which is a nice way for you to know what’s a part of the box and what’s not. Good thing to have.
Weather widget is probably the only widget that I liked a lot.
Given all of this I’d give the Optimus a 7/10. The Android based device seemed quite capable of upping it to 8-9 had they done a couple of things – use the latest Android version & 2nd add features that Android does not have natively.
Whilst all this was being tested, we also had a chance to see how good or bad the Optmius fared when it came to battery life. Turns out that the Optimus has a rather good battery life. Heavy Users should be able to pull a bit more than a day… but not a day and a half. Going by how Android device battery life usually is, this is rather good. I’m sure Eclair or Froyo could bump the timings more, let’s hope something happens.
No phone review can be considered over until we’ve tested how good is it. The LG Optimus’s voice clarity is decent, there wasn’t anything different in it, but at the same time LG devices are know to make devices
Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Sunday, my name is Rita El Khoury and I’m going to tell you about the Nokia N8 connectivity and what you can expect of it. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!
Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 7 – Connectivity”
Hello and Welcome to N8 Review Week here on FoneArena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Saturday, my name is Sloan Bowman, and I will be covering the N8’s Phone, Messaging and Email features . Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions please feel free to comment.
Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 6 – Phone Calls, Messaging, Email”
Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Friday, our names are Jon Choo and Gaurav Hasabnis, and we have joined hands to tell you about the Nokia N8 apps and what you can expect of it. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!
Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 5 – Apps , Ovi Store and Ovi Maps”
The folks atHyperMac sent us the HyperMac Micro for review. The device serves as a portable charger for the iPhone and iPad. This is one of the most attractive devices we have seen and it does not look like a battery at all unless you get really close. On the inside it packs a 3600mAh battery which promises to recharge your iPhone 4 upto 3 times. It also works with the iPad but only extends the life by about 5 hours. That’s fine because the iPad packs a monstrous battery which won’t event charge via normal USB port. We are more interested about how this device works with the iPhone and it worked pretty well.
Continue reading “Review : HyperMac Micro Portable Battery Charger for Apple iPhone and iPad”
Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on FoneArena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Thursday, my name is Sandeep Sarma, and I will be covering the N8’s multimedia features . Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions please feel free to comment. Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 4 – Multimedia”
Hello and welcome everyone to the Nokia N8 Review Week here on Fone Arena! Each day of this week, one of our team members will cover one area of Nokia’s imaging flagship with all the do’s and dont’s. This should make for an exciting week and we’re all looking forward to that! Today is Wednesday, our names are Rita El Khoury and Sloan Bowman, and we have joined forces to tell you about the Nokia N8 software and what you can expect of it. Since the software/UI is a very objective and personal matter, we thought we would give you two real-world opinions of it, sometimes we’ll agree, other times we’ll have radically opposing impressions. Enjoy reading along and if you have any questions on that matter, leave a comment!
After tackling the Hardware and Camera in the previous days, two aspects where the Nokia N8 excels by anyone’s standards, we come to the most controversial aspect of the N8, the software or Symbian^3 and its UI. Symbian^3 is the first major software leap since Nokia brought S60 5th Edition on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Upon introduction, Symbian^3 was described as an evolutional not revolutional progression, meant to fix all the major issues that plagued Symbian’s first iteration with a touchscreen UI, and which were most heartfelt on the Nokia N97. Continue reading “Nokia N8 Review Week – Day 3 – Symbian^3 And UI”
