Motorola Droid Review

Carrier: Verizon Manufacturer: Motorola Discuss this product Where to Buy Whats hot: Large, high res display, fast and slim, latest Google OS. Whats not: Multimedia syncing still not there, must remove battery to access microSD card. Editors Note: Want a smaller Android phone without a keyboard? Read our HTC Eris news. Motorolas in big need of a smashing success and Verizon needs to prop up its line of smartphones: is the Droid by Motorola the answer? Verizons huge marketing campaign claims so, with the usual anti-iPhone rhetoric (which we could do without) and mysterious bites of the Droids high end features. Indeed the Droid is a phone to be reckoned with and adds that special sauce to Verizons recently much improved smartphone lineup. The Droid runs Android OS 2.0 hot off the press, and this adds more syncing options such as MS Exchange, Google Maps 2.0 beta with spoken turn-by-turn directions and a few other tweaks. This is a vanilla Android phone with none of the customizations that HTC has done with the HTC Hero or Samsung has done with their upcoming TouchWiz-ified Behold 2. So the phone must stand on its hardware strengths, and those are good: a large 3.7" capacitive touch screen sporting the highest resolution yet on Android: 854 x 480, a hardware QWERTY keyboard, slim design, ARM Cortex A8 CPU (the same CPU found in the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre), GPS, EV-DO Rev. A, WiFi, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera and Bluetooth. Not bad, particularly the large display and ARM Cortex A8. Design and Ergonomics The Droid is a modern minimalist phone, lacking the trademark styling of HTCs Hero or the slim stone look of the Palm Pre. Its a basic rectangle, but its very slim for a QWERTY slider and it looks like a high class piece. Its solid and well made, and the slider moves with a smooth motion that clicks when opened or closed fully. The battery cover is made of metal with a grippy soft touch finish. The Droid is a phone for sophisticated types and business people, while the Motorola Cliq on T-Mobile is more of a plastic youth messaging device that happens to run Android OS (ver. 1.5). At 6 ounces the phone feels weighty in a good way, and its in the same size class as the iPhone, HTC Imagio and Samsung Moment Android phone on Sprint (though the Droid is thinner than the Moment). Its infinitely more pocketable than the HTC Touch Pro2 on Verizon since its gobs thinner, though its wide and tall enough that youll want to be careful when sitting down. the BlackBerry Storm2, Droid and HTC Imagio (all on Verizon). The 3.7" capacitive touch screen dominates the front face with just a small bezel and touch sensitive haptic buttons below. These buttons are: back, menu, home and search. Sorry, there are no hardware call send and end buttons-- youll need to use the on-screen phone shortcut for that. . . a dangerous proposition if youre on the move and need to keep your eyes ahead of you rather than on your phone. The display is responsive and a pleasure to use, which is true of most Android phones, and it wont leave you longing for an iPhone. Though the resolution is very high at 854 x 480, the OS scales well so text isnt painfully small and images are reasonably sized. The display is very sharp and clear but not as bright and color-rich as the Palm Pre or Samsungs AMOLED display phones like the Moment. It has an auto brightness setting that keeps things on the dim side-- turn it off and manually adjust brightness for a better experience unless battery life is an issue for you. The Droid has an accelerometer thats responsive without being too twitchy and a proximity sensor for calling without cheek-dialing. The keyboard is surprisingly small since Moto left plenty of room for a not terribly needed d-pad on the right. The size didnt bother us as much as the incredibly short key travel-- the price we pay for a thin phone. Thus typing isnt an absolute joy and the keyboard isnt as useful as the Samsung Moments, but its better than on-screen pecking using the default Android keyboard. The black keys are backlit with white masking and are easy to see in the dark, and there are shortcut keys for search and menu and the @ symbol requires no Alt key press.

Video Review

Heres our 10 minute video news of the Droid that includes comparisons with the Samsung Moment and Motorola Cliq Android phones as well as the HTC Imagio Windows Mobile 6.5 touch screen smartphone on Verizon.

Phone and Data

The Motorola Droid is a dual band digital CDMA phone that works with Verizon Wireless in the US. It has EV-DO Rev. A for fast data and fallback to 1xRTT. Wifi 802.11b/g is on board when youre not in a good EV-DO coverage area, but keep in mind you must get a data plan with this phone. Googles webkit-based browser (Safari on the iPhone and the Palm Pre browser are also webkit-based) does an excellent job of rendering full HTML sites in desktop fashion. Its also fast at rendering, and thanks to the Droids very fast CPU, its as fast as the iPhone 3GS. Flash support should come sometime early next year, but for now the integrated YouTube player that serves mobile versions of YouTube videos does the trick. Videos embedded in web pages such as the one youre reading right now show up in the Android browser, and when you click on the video it opens in the Droids YouTube player (similar to the iPhones handling of Flash video). The dedicated YouTube application is standard on all Android phones and offers standard (meh) and high quality (very good) playback options. We had no trouble streaming YouTube video at the high quality setting over Verizons EVDO Rev. A network with half signal strength (-101 db).

Speaking of signal strength, like many Moto phones, the Droid has excellent reception. Our office is in a Verizon black hole and most phones barely hold onto a bar of 1x and EV. The Droid never dropped EV, always had good data throughput and 1x stayed steady at about 50 to 60% signal strength. If youre in a marginal coverage area, this is the smartphone to get.

Call quality, even with a good signal was OK but not great. Callers said our voice sounded nasal but not underwater. On our end calls were loud and clear but sounded mechanical and digitized. We wouldnt call it bad, just artificial sounding. The speakerphone is uncannily loud. Unless youre at Yankee Stadium during the World Series just after Hideki Matsui hit a homer, youll have no trouble hearing calls, music and video on this phone. The large speaker grille lives on the back, but we didnt have to turn the phone over to improve volume or quality. The Droid works with Google Voice, Googles calling service that works over data networks rather than Verizons voice network. You must have a Google Voice account to use this feature, and the service is still running in invite-only mode.

Software and Android OS 2.0

The Droid is a full "with Google" phone which means it hasnt been heavily customized like the "powered by Android" HTC Hero and Moto Cliq. In theory this means the smartphone should be eligible for Google OS updates that are managed by Google and the carrier rather than requiring a customized new OS version created by the manufacturer (Motorola in the Droids case). It also means vanilla Android, and thats not a bad thing given the operating systems freshness and pleasant UI, but we do long for a bit of that special sauce as with HTCs Sense UI. Theres no MOTOBLUR here, and thats likely a good thing for the older and more business-oriented market the phone targets. That doesnt mean you cant social network your heart out. Facebook is pre-installed and in fact integrates with contacts beautifully without creating duplicates. It has a home screen widget so you can keep track of your friends. You can download Twitter clients with and without widgets and a variety of IM clients. Googles own Google Talk is the only pre-installed IM client.

Android OS 2.0 syncs with MS Exchange as well as Google. Theres support for syncing to other sources, for example Facebook. MS Exchange syncs calendar and contacts and picks up Exchange email. Android 2.0 still has that strange separation between Gmail and other email; theres a Gmail icon and an Email icon. Likewise SMS/MMS Messaging lives in the Messaging application. If you sync your MS Exchange calendar, that data goes into a separate Corporate Calendar application. HTCs integration on the Hero is tighter and they added syncing over the cable to Outlook in Windows in their customized Android build-- sorry Droid, youre second best.

Media syncing is still nonexistent. Want music or video? Load them onto a microSD card yourself-- theres no mollycoddling iTunes treatment here. The Droid has a decent music player that supports MP3 and non-DRM iTunes AAC format tunes. The Gallery handles video playback with limited format support: basically MPEG4 encoded in H.264 format. Fortunately thats a popular format and the same commonly used to rip content for the iPod and iPhone. Again, thanks to that Cortex A8 CPU, the Droid handled video playback from the microSD card very well. We tested it with a 720 x 360 pixel video encoded at 1,050 kbps and it played perfectly. Thats better than the HTC Hero and MyTouch 3G, both of which use and old and dreary 528MHz Qualcomm CPU.

As a business phone, the Droid does a decent job thanks to MS Exchange support but it falls behind Windows Mobile since it lacks an integrated Office suite that can edit and create MS Office documents. You can buy Documents To Go for Android for $15 via the Market if you need to edit and create MS Office documents. Quickoffice 2.0 is included and it can view MS Word, Excel and PDF documents (but not Office 2007 format files ending with .docx or .xlsx). it renders documents beautifully, including those saved as email attachments. PDF documents look great with full support for images. If you want to carry documents on a card for reference, youll need to install a free file manager from the Market since Quickoffice doesnt have an icon and thus theres no way to access documents.

The Motorola Droid and the Motorola Cliq (T-Mobile) Android phones.

Camera and GPS

The Moto has a very good 5 megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash. It takes sharp shots, particularly in well lit settings since the flash is overwhelming in dim settings. The camera UI is intuitive and fresh: theres a slider to switch between photo and video mode and a grab handle (a common Android convention) to pull out the drawer of settings. Images and video are saved to the microSD card and there are a wide variety of exposure, effect and quality settings. Our only complaint: autofocus is a tad sluggish.

Video recording is the star and the Droid can record 720 x 480 pixel video at 25fps (theres a lower quality MMS setting too). Video quality very good as long as the lighting is adequate. Dark settings equal blocky video but well lit scenes are natural.

Rare for a Verizon phone, theres no VZ Navigator; in fact the only pre-installed solution is free! Google Maps 2.0 beta is on board and it adds turn-by-turn spoken directions. Google Maps on Android has always been one of the best mapping and POI solutions on the mobile platform, but it lacked spoken directions and for that you had to use a paid service like VZ Navigator or Telenav. Since this is beta, we expect improvements over time, but as per usual with Google, its a great start. The guidance voice is a speech synthesized female who sounds robotic (somehow appropriate) but intelligible. Though Googles splash screen warns you the service is in beta and it might tell you to turn left into a creek or hop on a ferry, we found its directions logical and sane (and the same as what VZ Navigator would offer). It handled re-routing well but suffered a mini-meltdown when we chose the back entrance to a big box store (the kind thats so big it has entrances on 3 streets). Google Maps wanted us to circle around an adjacent block to get to the front entrance even though it knew we were on a street that formed the perimeter of the store and that we could have simply turned right to enter the parking lot or taken a right turn 100 feet down to reach the main entrance. Bad robot.

Battery

The Droid ships with a 1400 mAh Lithium Ion battery thats user replaceable. For a very large screen EVDO phone with a fast CPU, the Droid had very good battery life, easily lasting a day of moderate to heavy use. In addition to Google cloud services sync we had it check other email accounts at a 15 minute interval during business hours, took a 5 mile trip with the GPS, watched several YouTube videos, surfed the web for an hour total, talked on the phone for 30 minutes total and played music for an hour.

Conclusion

Its hard not to like Motos new robot. The Droid is a smashing smartphone that gives Verizons lineup a serious lift. The hardwares look might be polarizing-- folks seem to either love it or hate it, but its got a clean, modern and slim design. Its well made with one of the nicer slider mechanisms on a phone and that huge display makes you feel like youve got a mini computer disguised as a phone. Reception is excellent and data speeds and web page load times are likewise tops. Android could use some help in the friendly multimedia department with desktop media syncing and more supported video playback formats, but with a little effort the Droid is a very good music player and portable video player (drag them to a card yourself and convert videos to MPEG4 H.264 format first). Unless you have serious business needs that require BlackBerry push email or strong MS Exchange and Office support, the Droid is a top pick among Verizons smartphones.

Websites: http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/tplclick?lid=41000000022945338&pubid=21000000000096219, www.motorola.com

Price: $199 after rebates with a 2 year contract. $559 with no contract.

Specs:

Display: 3.7" capacitive 16 million color touch screen. Resolution: 480 x 854, supports both portrait and landscape mode, has accelerometer, haptic feedback and a proximity sensor. Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. 1400 mA. Claimed talk time: 6.4 hours. Performance: 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU (TI OMAP 3430). 256 megs RAM, 512 megs flash ROM with 250 megs available as internal storage. Size: 4.56 x 2.36 x 0.54 inches. Weight: 5.96 ounces. Phone: CDMA dual band digital with EV-DO Rev. A for fast data with fallback to 1xRTT. Camera: 5 megapixel with autofocus lens and dual LED flash. Shoots video with audio up to 720 x 480 pixels at 24 fps in .3GP format (MMS size video option also available). Max photo resolution: 2592 x 1936 pixels. Has 4x digital zoom. GPS: Built in aGPS that works with Google Maps. Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. Networking: Integrated WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR supporting headset, handsfree and A2DP stereo. Tethering not yet supported. Software: Android OS 2.0 (Eclair). Google apps: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Voice Search, Webkit-based web browser, YouTube player and voice dialing. Verizon applications: Visual Voicemail. Expansion: 1 SDHC microSD card slot, 16 gig card included.                                                                 ( Author : Lisa Gade ,  Source : mobiletechnews )

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Samsung Memoir SGH t929 Review

Discuss this product Where to Buy Review posted February 25, 2009 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief 2009 Party time, photography buffs! The Samsung Memoir t929 is the first 8 megapixel camera phone offered by a US carrier. T-Mobile has scored this impressive camera phone, and the only downside is it makes the 5 megapixel Samsung Behold released just 3 months ago on T-Mobile look like a second class citizen. Like the Behold and the Samsung Eternity on AT&T, the Memoir is a slate-design touch screen phone running Samsungs pleasing TouchWiz UI. Unlike the TouchWizzified Samsung Omnia i910 on Verizon, the Memoir is a high end feature phone and not a smartphone. The Memoir looks ever so convincingly like a camera, with design cues from retro Leica models. Its just a tiny bit bigger than the Behold (its thicker) and is smaller than the iPhone, though again, thicker. It features a 3" resistive touch screen with haptic (vibration) feedback, 3G HSDPA, a GPS that works with TeleNav, Bluetooth, an HTML browser, and music and video players. Theres an SDHC high capacity microSD card slot on the phones side (no need to open the back cover or remove the battery as with the Behold and Eternity). Youll need that to store lots of high resolution photos and video! Under doors: the USB sync port and microSD card slot. The left end is raised because the lens housing protrudes. The phones sides are completely straight, which makes it easier to handle but also makes it look thicker since tapered sides are slimming. The right side (when held in camera position) is textured, similar to a camera grip while the rest of the phone is matte black. The Memoir is more attractive and novel looking that the overseas Samsung Pixon and looks better than more standard slate-designed phones like the Behold and Eternity (assuming you like the looks of cameras). The front is dominated by the large display which acts as a viewfinder for the camera and as your window to all phone functions. Since the lens housing protrudes a bit, the phone doesnt lay flat on a table. The Samsung Memoir t929, Samsung Eternity and T-Mobile HTC G1. Though by no means slow, the Memoir isnt as super-snappy as the Behold and Eternity. Tap the Menu button at the bottom of the home screen and theres a 1 second delay before the programs menu opens up (it opens instantly on the Eternity and Behold). This is surprising since the CPU and RAM specs must be quite good to process 8 megapixel images, show them in the photo app and record/playback high resolution video. The phone handles video and photo playback well, and the camera application is fast in all respects. The Samsung Memoir and Behold The Memoirs haptic feedback makes text entry on screen seem more natural, and the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is large and easy to use (its the same as the Behold and Eternitys). If you prefer text entry via number pad, simply hold the phone in portrait mode; the QWERTY only appears when you rotate the phone to landscape mode. The phones accelerometer handles automatic rotation in supported applications (web browser, photo viewer but not the home screen or in Java applications). The photo viewer application moves to the next and previous photo when you tilt the phone right or left, and we found this very difficult to control. The large QWERTY on-screen keyboard appears in landscape mode. It has handy shortcut keys for www. and .com.

Video Review

Heres our 10 minute video news of the Samsung Memoir t929, covering design, interface, video playback, web browsing and a very detailed look at the camera application:

Phone and Internet

The Samsung Memoir is a quad band GSM world phone with 3G HSDPA on T-Mobiles 1700/2100MHz bands. It will not operate on AT&Ts 3G network, though it can utilize AT&Ts GSM/EDGE bands when roaming. As with the Behold, T-Mobile wants you to get their $24.99/month T-Mobile Smartphone Unlimited data plan with the Memoir if you wish to use the web browser, email and other Internet services. This plan includes 400 text/MMS messages and theres a Smartphone plan with unlimited messages for $34.99/month. Since this isnt a smartphone, were once again not thrilled; T-Mobiles competitors offer 3G feature phone plans for considerably less than their smartphone plans. As a consolation, you need not purchase a data plan if you dont wish to access the Internet or photo upload services bundled on the phone.

The phone supports T-Mobiles MyFaves service along with standard calling services like call waiting, speakerphone and voice dialing. Voice dialing is handled by Nuances excellent VSuite 3.1 voice command application which handles voice dialing, digit dialing and basic commands like "open calendar". To launch voice command, tap the VSuite icon on the widget bar of the home screen. Unfortunately, theres no hardware button for voice dialing so youll have to interact with the screen to start voice dialing or use a Bluetooth headset.

The programs menu.

The home screen with the camera widget open.

Even over 3G which supports higher quality voice codecs, voice quality was good but not great. Incoming voice isnt super clear and sharp, though you can easily understand what the caller is saying. The same is true of outgoing voice: its intelligible but not extremely clear and full. The phone actually sounds better with Bluetooth headsets like Samsungs own WEP200, Plantronics Discovery 925 and others. Call quality over Bluetooth stereo headsets isnt fantastic (the same is true of most phones), but music quality is very good.

T-Mobile lauds the Memoirs full HTML browser, and we suspect that full HTML browser and 3G data connection are the reason for the more expensive data plan. The Memoir upgrades to Netfront 3.5 from the Beholds 3.4 (the Eternity also runs 3.5), though the software controls and settings resemble the Beholds rather than the Eternitys. We really like the finger scrolling, easy zooming and hide-able on-screen controls, but found that bookmarking the current page took too many steps (tap the star icon to bring up bookmarks, tap add bookmark, tap the more button at the bottom of the screen, then select "add current" from the pop-up menu. In contrast, on the Samsung Eternity theres an add bookmark icon on the main control palette. For a feature phone web browser, the Memoir and Netfront do a very good job of rendering HTML sites: layout is largely intact, text is readable and we didnt crash the browser when visiting heavy pages though we did run into the limitations imposed by T-Mobiles web proxy. If we have to pay for a full smartphone data plan, why do we have to put up with feature phone style gateways?

The Memoir comes with a basic Java email client that supports AOL, Yahoo mail, Comcast, Compuserve, Earthlink, Gmail, HotPOP, Juno, .mac, SBC Yahoo and Verizon email accounts (other email accounts arent supported, sorry). As with other T-Mobile phones, loading Google Maps flopped since Google doesnt offer a signed version of their application (the Memoir rejected it upon download). We managed to install and run Opera Mini, a very good free web browser, by not going with the default version on the opera.com/mini website and instead selecting the version with multiple certificates. Unfortunately, the accelerometer doesnt work in most Java applications, so theres no way to browse in landscape mode. The on-screen QWERTY keyboard (only available in landscape mode) does work if you tap in a text field then rotate the phone to landscape mode-- go figure.

Multimedia

The music player handles MP3, AAC (unprotected iTunes format), WMA and Real Player. The phone supports both Mass Storage mode and MTP (Media Transport Protocol) for copying music files to the phones microSD card (the Behold lacks MTP, so the Memoir is a step up for those who wish to use this Windows transfer method). T-Mobile and Samsung include a stereo earbud headset which is fortunate since the phone uses Samsungs proprietary blade connector rather than a 3.5mm stereo jack. The headsets audio is OK for music playback, but if youre serious about using this as your portable music player youll want to buy a blade to 3.5mm stereo jack adapter so you can use better headphones or otherwise use Bluetooth A2DP stereo headphones.

The Memoir plays mobile YouTube content via its media player. This is the lower quality mobile YouTube optimized for smaller screened phones with less multimedia power, and the videos fill only a portion of the Memoirs 240 x 400 display. Quality isnt bad though, and the media player automatically rotates YouTube videos to landscape mode for playback. It can also play locally stored content (copy movies to a microSD card and youve got a decent iPod substitute thanks to the large and bright display). We tested it with some 240 x 320 MPEG4 files formatted for the iPod and iPhone, and they played very smoothly as long as the bitrate was below 650kbps.

Syncing and PIM applications

The Memoir has a calendar, address book, memo application and tasks. The address book is finger-friendly and scrolling is easy thanks to a draggable tab that moves quickly through each letter of the alphabet. As a lefty, Im thrilled that Samsung added a "one handed operation" setting for the address book that allows you to set it to left handed mode (the scroll control relocates to the left side of the screen so your left hand isnt blocking your view of the contacts list). There are fields for first name, last name, nickname, mobile phone, home phone, work phone, other number, group, 4 email addresses, 4 IM addresses, URL, birthday, anniversary, street address (street, city, state, country and zip), notes and a custom ringtone. The address book can store up to 2,000 contacts.

Samsungs "New PC Studio" Windows desktop syncing software supports their TouchWiz feature phones. Its a very cool desktop app that mimics a virtual desktop with user interfaces that are similar to the phones for address, calendar and more. As of this writing, that doesnt include the Memoir, though once the phone is released Samsung will post a driver update to support the phone. We tried to connect using the latest downloadable version of the Behold syncing software and it told us the phone wasnt supported, so we werent able to test syncing.

Camera One word: nice! The Memoirs 8 megapixel camera with autofocus lens and Xenon flash takes excellent photos. It also has the fastest focus of any autofocus camera phone weve tested. Though not as fast as a dedicated digital camera its fast enough to catch a crazy kitten in action with just a smidgen of luck. At max resolution, the camera saves photos to a microSD card quickly as well, and images average 2.2 megs each. Not only that, it takes excellent videos up to an impressive 720 x 480 pixel resolution at near 30 fps (actual averages 27 fps). Thats higher resolution than the top dog Nokia N95 and N96, though the 2 Nokia smartphones video quality is superior. Maximum photo resolution is 3264 x 2448 with a variety of lower resolutions as small as 400 x 240. The camera uses the entire touch screen as its viewfinder, with a control strip on the left and right sides and a zoom bar at the bottom. These auto-hide but a tap of the screen brings them back.

Click on a sample photo to see a larger version in a new window. Sample photos were taken at max resolution, highest image quality, center-weighted metering and auto scene and white balance settings.

Above: The viewfinder with controls visible.
Below: the options screen for focus modes (left) and shooting modes (right).

There are a wide variety of photo settings that rival a point and shoot cameras: focus (auto, macro, face detection), shooting modes (single, continuous, panorama, smile shot and mosaic), brightness compensation, flash (on, off, auto), self-timer, resolution, save location (internal memory or microSD card), scene (none, portrait, landscape, action, night, incandescent and more), effects, quality and metering (center, average, matrix), white balance, contrast, saturation and sharpness.

How are the images? Theyre definitely better than any other phone offered by a US carrier, including the 5 megapixel autofocus Samsung Behold and Moto Zine ZN5 on T-Mobile. Theyre natural, well-saturated, well-exposed and look as good as the average 5 megapixel point and shoot cameras images. The default sharpness is a little soft, though one can change this. Most camera phones oversharpen, so were not complaining-- better to add a little sharpening in Photoshop if needed. In outdoor shots, we give the Nokia N95 and N96 better marks even though theyre lower resolution. Its not just the number of pixels that counts-- the Nokia phones are a little sharper with better metering (less white out) and loss of definition on glossy subjects (see the berries photo above where the shiny fruit loses definition). As a serious photo buff Im being picky, and the average person would likely be thrilled at the results. But this camera phone will likely attract avid photographers, who are picky. For indoor shots, the Samsung beats the Nokia N95 and N96, whose indoor shots are weak given their lack of a Xenon flash. But clearly its more than just Xenon vs. LED flash, 1) the Samsungs Xenon flash isnt blindingly effective like high end Sony Ericsson camera phones, 2) even in indoor shots where none of the phones fired their flashes, the Memoirs had less chromatic aberration, less noise and more life-like colors.

Video quality is again better than any other US carrier camera phone, but not as good as the Nokia N95 and N96. While photo quality is a close race, the Nokia phones easily win for video recording. The Memoir can shoot up to 720 x 480 video with lesser resolutions including VGA (same as the Nokia phones max resolution) down to MMS size. The Memoirs video is decent but theres plenty of chromatic aberration, color noise and a lack of smoothness even though video is recorded at an average of 27 to 28 fps. But then, these two Nokia smartphones take impossibly good video thats smooth as butter. The Samsung can record audio with video, but the audio track sounds as if there were a thin sock over the mic, while the Nokia audio is clear and loud.

GPS

The Memoir has an internal GPS that works with TeleNav, a $9.99/month service that provides turn-by-turn spoken and on-screen directions, traffic information, POIs and maps which are downloaded over the wireless connection as needed. The GPS worked well in our tests, even getting a fix indoors near a window, and a cold start (just after a reboot) took 20 seconds while warm starts took 5 to 10 seconds. Thats much better performance than our Samsung Behold, which took a long time to get a fix and had trouble indoors. As mentioned, we couldnt use Google Maps since the Memoir wouldnt accept unsigned Java applications.

Battery Life

If you use the phone heavily, especially the camera, 3G and GPS, youll need to charge it nightly. Once the shiny newness wears off and youre not photographing everything that you see and surfing the web over 3G like mad, the Memoir will likely last 2 to 3 days on a charge. Standby times are good and the phone charges quickly (ours charged from 25% to full in an hour).

Conclusion

The Samsung Memoir should be one of the hottest phones of 2009. It has a wonderful touch screen interface courtesy of Samsungs TouchWiz user interface and the large haptic display. The camera is superb and its the fastest autofocus weve seen on a high resolution camera phone. The Memoir has a very good web browser by touch screen standards, an excellent on-screen keyboard, an accelerometer and proximity sensor-- all the right features to combat iPhoneitus. While it might not have iTunes, it does have a very good video player and a decent music player along with expandable storage to carry that media. This is an easy phone to recommend to those who like touch screens and are into photography.

Pro: Very good touch screen experience, attractive camera-like design, looks high quality. Has 3G and a good web browser by feature phone standards. The TouchWiz software includes a large selection of widgets (more than the Behold) and theyre actually useful (TeleNav, photo viewer, voice dialing and more). Super camera with fast autofocus. Easily accessible microSD card slot.

Con: Call voice quality through handset is mediocre. T-Mobiles data plan is expensive if you wish to access the Net and the data connection is proxied through a gateway. Limited email account support.

Web sites: www.t-mobile.com, www.samsungmobileusa.com

Price: $249 with a 2 year contract after $50 mail-in rebate. $499 retail with no contract extension.

Specs:

Display: 262,000 color TFT resistive touch screen with haptic feedback. Screen size diagonally: 3". Resolution: 240 x 400, supports both portrait and landscape modes via accelerometer.
Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. 1000 mA. Claimed talk time: up to 5.5 hours. Claimed standby: up to 300 hours.
Performance: 100 megs internal storage, can store up to 2,000 contacts.
Size: 4.17 x 2.11 x 0.55 inches. Weight: 4.4 ounces.
Phone: GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900MHz with EDGE and 3G HSDPA on T-Mobiles 1700/2100MHz bands.
Camera: 8 megapixel with autofocus lens and Xenon flash. 16x digital zoom, can shoot video with audio up to 720 x 480 resolution at 30fps.
Audio: Built in speaker, mic and Samsung blade stereo headphone jack (stereo headset included). Voice Recorder and Windows Pocket Media Player 10 included for your MP3 pleasure.
Networking: Integrated Bluetooth 2.0.
Software: Samsung TouchWiz UI. Nuance VSuite voice dialing (launched from on-screen widget). Netfront 3.5 web browser, Java-based email client, SMS/MMS messaging, Instant Messaging (AIM, Windows Live, ICQ and Yahoo), calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, voice recorder, music player, video player, world clock, stopwatch, timer, file manager, TeleNav Navigator, alarm clock, calculator and unit converter.
Expansion: 1 SDHC microSD card slot.
In the box: Phone, battery, charger, USB cable, printed manual, stereo headset and 1 gig MicroSD card.
                                                                      ( Author : Lisa Gade, Source : mobiletechnews )

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FAR CRY 3 REVIEW

iya, Far Cry 3. game yang menjadi the best game pc 2012 versi gamespot.com ini memang patut diacungi jempol. dengan fitur yang sangat memanjakan pemain terutama yang suka game FPS adventure. di sisi grafis Far Cry 3 sudah tidak diragukan lagi, game garapan ubisoft ini juga memberikan pengalaman gaming yang sangat memanjakan pemain.

Far Cry 3 menyajikan map yang begitu luas menjadikan explorasi map semakin seru. game ini juga memberikan fitur baru yang diantara yaitu memberikan pengalaman berburu, para pemain juga dapat menemui hewan-hewan buas dalam pulau ini, mencari tanaman sebagai sarana pengobatan diri serta kendaraan yang mendukung pemain untuk mengexplorasi Map. pemandangan yang indah juga disajikan dalam game ini karena terdapat pegunungan untuk view yang menyegarkan mata, kita juga bisa mengambil foto dengan kamera game.
dalam game ini pemain juga dapat mengupgrade kemampuannya, dan juga menemukan senjata-senjata baru untuk menyelamatkan kawan-kawan kita dalam perlawanan bajak laut yang sangat kejam, kadang kita temui kawan kita dalam keadaan ketakutan sebab mengetahui kejamnya para bajak laut tersebut. kita dapat pula mengumpulkan equipment yang mendukung, misalnya kulit hewan, dengan berburu kita bisa mendapatkan beberapa penghargaan. kita juga bisamengumpulkan uang dengan berbagai cara, misalnya dengan bermain poker, dan juga shotgun Challange.

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista/7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.6 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Memory: 4 Gb
Video Memory: 512 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 2900
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 10

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista/7/8
Processor: Intel Core i3 @ 2.9 GHz / AMD Phenom II X2 @ 3.4 GHz
Memory: 6 Gb
Video Memory: 1 Gb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 560 / ATI Radeon HD 5870
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 11

memang game ini cukup berat, namun pemain tidak akan rugi jika memainkan game ini. jangan lupa mendapatkan XP yang banyak agar kita dapat meningkatkan Skill yang kita butuhkan. ikuti terus jalan ceritanya, dan anda akan temukan hal-hal yang sangat mengesankan didalamnya

Ini adalah beberapa screnshoot (setting high)

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ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Review

by Charles P. Jefferies

The Internet affects our lifestyle in more ways than most of us care to admit, and the innumerable threats lingering on it can do likewise. A PC connected to the Internet should have a software security capable of actively defending the end-user from these threats. Today we look at one companys solution: ESETs NOD32 Antivirus 4 package. This comprehensive solution is advertised to protect from known and unknown threats while maintaining a low profile. Read on to see how it held up in our testing.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW
NOD32 Antivirus 4 is first and foremost exactly what it implies; a security suite aimed at protecting computers from viruses. NOD32 takes a proactive stance on antivirus and anti-spyware protection, actively scanning all forms of Internet traffic, including email and encrypted channels, and the hard drive. ESETs ThreatSense technology even allows the software to protect against unknown threats. The programs database is updated frequently, so the user will be protected against the latest threats. Other features of NOD32 include a removable media scanner; it automatically checks anything connected to the computer (such as a flash drive) for malicious threats. NOD32 has technology that helps it defend itself, so it will not be disabled or corrupted.

The Business Version of NOD32 Antivirus 4 includes additional features, including a Remote Administrator feature that allows gives administrators the ability to control a network from a single screen. Additionally, the business edition includes a Host-based Intrusion Prevention System, which defends against threats on the network that may have bypassed external network security.

ESET prides its NOD32 Antivirus 4 on resource efficiency; the company claims the software uses less than 44MB of memory and is "so fast you wont even notice its there."

INSTALLATION AND ACTIVATION

NOD32 Antivirus 4 has a standard wizard-based installer, making installation painless.

After accepting the license agreements, users can choose to perform a typical or custom install; we did a typical install, since that is what most users will want to do.

Activation can be done during or after the install. To activate the software, all users have to do is enter the username and password provided to them when they purchase the software.

Following the activation step in the install, users can choose to be a part of ESETs ThreatSense network, which allows computers connected to it to submit information about new threats to the company. We chose to enable this option.

The last step before the install is completed is choosing whether to enable an option that allows for the detection of potentially unwanted applications. This feature is not necessarily for security reasons, but more for system resource management: if NOD32 detects a program that is installed or being installed that could alter the computers behavior, it will let the user know. We also chose to enable this option.
Overall, the installation and activation procedure is simple and painless; it took less than six minutes to get through.

PROGRAM INTERFACE
NOD32s main program interface window can be accessed by double-clicking the programs icon in the system tray. There is no wait time for the window to open, which is a clue to how well optimized NOD32 is.

The program interface is clean and simple without looking boring. A navigation bar is located on the left, and whatever category is selected is highlighted in the navigation bar and displayed on the right. Items in the navigation bar are easy to identify thanks to large icons and clear text. All descriptions are given in plain English and friendly enough for the average Joe to understand.

Updating is done automatically and does not require user intervention. I performed the process manually once to see it in action. A manual update is as simple as clicking "Update."

There are two interface modes: Standard and Advanced. The Standard interface, shown at the top of this section, is what most will use; Advanced mode, shown above, uncovers a few options and categories that are otherwise hidden, including a Tools category and a few other screens, as shown below.

Under the Protection Status category, for example, users can get statistics and real-time activity graphs.

The Tools category shows log files and other information that most people would not care about. There is one significant feature in the Tools category: the Create rescue CD option.

This option allows users to create a CD/DVD that assist repairing an infected computer.

Overall, the program interface is clean, simple, and easy to navigate.

IN USE AND EFFECTIVENESS
NOD32 Antivirus 4 did not cause any interruptions during normal use. The only indicator it is even running is the occasional information system tray pop-up that the virus database was updated.

A nice feature of NOD32 is that these pop-ups are disabled while running full-screen applications, such as video games or presentations.

I tested the effectiveness of NOD32 Antivirus 4 by using several virus files from Eicar.org, an IT security website. The four files provided for download, which have different extensions including .com, .zip, and .txt, contain viruses. Please see the test description for extensive information on the tests. Good antivirus software should detect the files as threats.

NOD32 did better than detect the files as viruses – it would not even let me download them over the standard HTTP protocol. Using the SSL-encrypted protocol, NOD32 still detected the files and deleted them immediately upon download. The quarantine window shows the details of what happened:

NOD32 performs as advertised – it identifies threats at their source.

PERFORMANCE IMPACT
We evaluate the performance impact and system resource usage of using antivirus software in three ways:

1. Overall system performance measured before and after installation using PCMark05, a system benchmark suite
2. Memory footprint
3. Time it took to perform a full system scan

Our test system is an Acer Aspire 5735-4744; it has the following specifications:

• Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3200 (2.0GHz/1MB L2/667MHz FSB)
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu hard drive
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, stock install with all updates and Search disabled
• Atheros 802.11 Draft-N wireless

Overall System Performance Impact measured with PCMark05
Prior to installing NOD32 Antivirus 4, the notebook had the following performance numbers:

After installing NOD32 Antivirus 4, I ran the benchmark again:

Extremely impressive – NOD32 hardly touched system performance, with less than a two percent difference between the scores.

Memory Footprint

Antivirus 4 is claimed to use less than 44MB of system memory; we found it did even better than that. The Task Manager shows 21MB of usage. This means the software is using about one percent of the 2,048MB of available memory in our test computer – essentially nothing.

Time it took to perform a full system scan

A full scan of our test system’s hard drive containing 37GB of data took 19 minutes and 4 seconds. This is slower than Kapersky Anti-Virus 2009, which took 15 minutes and 40 seconds, but not significantly so.

CONCLUSION
NOD32 Antivirus 4 passed our tests with flying colors. We found it to perform exactly as advertised, which is not exactly a common thing in today’s world. This security solution is effective at combating viruses and detecting Internet threats, all while barely consuming any system resources. Antivirus 4 is a "set it and forget it" application; updates are performed automatically and the system is continuously monitored, all with essentially no user interaction. From its simple plain English interface to its pro-active defenses, NOD32 Antivirus 4 is a polished and user-friendly software security solution. NOD32 Antivirus 4 gets our recommendation for an excellent antivirus solution.

Pros:

• Effective at combating Internet threats
• Minimal resource usage
• Easy install
• Simple interface
• Non-intrusive
• Automatic updates

Cons:

• System scans not quite as fast as competing products

Source

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