The HTC Touch Pro2 is making the rounds to the various carriers; first showing up at T-Mobile, then to Sprint, and now Verizon Wireless. Verizon's version of the Windows Mobile smartphone isn't all that different from the other models, delivering a powerful business device capable of handling all your e-mail, productivity, and communication needs. The carrier also presents an enticing offer by selling the Touch Pro2 for $150 less than its competitors ($199.99 with a two-year contract), but just remember that you will need to sign up for a qualifying voice and data plan. While Verizon doesn't include as many extra services as the Sprint model, the HTC Touch Pro2 is definitely a welcome addition to the carrier's smartphone lineup, as it provides a more full-featured and robust device for Verizon's corporate customers whose needs aren't met by the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 or HTC Ozone.
Design
The Verizon HTC Touch Pro2 has a similar design to the other versions of the smartphone but most closely resembles the Sprint model. They share features like a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom as well as tapered edges that give the rather bulky phone a sleeker look. To differentiate itself somewhat, Verizon worked with HTC to add a couple of distinctive touches to the smartphone, such different shortcuts on the QWERTY keyboard, a Sleep button on top of the device (the End key doubles as the power on/off button instead), and a lovely world map pattern on the back speaker.
For the most part, though, there isn't a huge variation in design among all the HTC Touch Pro2s, which is fine by us since we love the extra-large touch screen and roomy QWERTY keyboard. For more information about the smartphone's design as well as HTC's TouchFlo 3D user interface, please read our full review of the Sprint HTC Touch Pro2.
The HTC Touch Pro2 offers a spacious touch screen and one of the best QWERTY keyboards we've ever used on a smartphone.
Verizon packages the HTC Touch Pro2 an AC adapter, a USB cable, a SIM card, international adapters, an extra stylus, software CDs, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.
Verizon packages the HTC Touch Pro2 an AC adapter, a USB cable, a SIM card, international adapters, an extra stylus, software CDs, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.
Features
Verizon has been in need of a solid business smartphone for quite some time now. The Samsung SCH-i760 was probably the last model to really fill that role, since last year's HTC Touch Pro proved to be a huge disappointment with its buggy software, sluggish performance, and meager onboard memory. Fortunately, the Touch Pro2 steps up to deliver the goods and provide the carrier's corporate customers with a powerful device that can handle all sorts of tasks.
The Verizon Touch Pro2 runs Windows Mobile 6.1, providing you with such standard personal information management and productivity tools as Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, Adobe Reader LE, a calendar, a task list, a voice recorder, and more. For your messaging needs, Microsoft Direct Push Technology provides real-time e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via Exchange Server. Verizon also offers Mobile Email for access to your POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts.
We think you'll also be happy to hear that the carrier will offer an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5, which brings new features such as Microsoft's My Phone backup service, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and an enhanced Internet Explorer Mobile browser. Verizon did not provide an exact date for the upgrade but did say it would be sometime before the end of 2009.
The Touch Pro2 is a dual-mode phone, which means it supports both CDMA and GSM networks to allow for world roaming capabilities. Here in the States, the smartphone will work on Verizon's network just like usual but will then automatically detect and switch to a compatible GSM network when traveling overseas. (Note that you can't swap out the included SIM card for an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card since the phone is locked down to Verizon's network domestically). In all, you'll get voice coverage in 220 countries and data coverage (e-mail and Internet) in 175 countries. Even better, the Touch Pro2 supports the 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA band, so you can get 3G support overseas. Just be sure to check the international roaming rates for voice calls and text messages before you head off on your trip: Verizon's rates can get pretty pricey in some areas, ranging from $0.69 up to $4.99 per minute. You can find the carrier's international plans here.
The HTC Touch Pro2 is a world phone and ships with a SIM card.
Other phone features include speed dial, smart dialing, voice commands, a proximity sensor, text and multimedia messaging, and support for Verizon's Visual Voice Mail service. Like the other Touch Pro2 models, the Verizon version includes HTC's Straight Talk Technology, which was developed to enhance the sound of the speakerphone (see Performance for more on this) and offer a better conference calling experience. The address book is only limited by the available memory, and each entry can store multiple numbers, home and work addresses, e-mail, birthdays, and more. In addition, the handset now offers Facebook integration so you can link a contact's Facebook profile to their individual card, if you so wish. Also, from a contact page, you can view their status updates, any messages or e-mails you've exchanged with the person, and call history, so you don't have to search through each individual app for that information. It's definitely handy and makes for a smarter contact management system.
The Touch Pro2 offers Bluetooth 2.1 with support for mono and stereo headsets, hands-free kits, object file transfer, dial-up networking, phone book access, and more. In addition to using Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network, you can also get online with the phone's integrated Wi-Fi and the smartphone comes preloaded with the Opera Mobile Web browser, so you don't have to deal with the more clunky Internet Explorer Mobile.
Unlike Sprint, Verizon doesn't offer many of its services on the Touch Pro2. VZ Navigator (domestic and global) and Family Locator are available as add-ons so you can get voice-guided directions and track your loved ones' whereabouts with the phone's built-in GPS. However, you won't find any of the carrier's entertainment services, like V Cast Video or V Cast Music, supported on the Touch Pro2. This isn't anything new, as Verizon often forgoes the entertainment options on its business devices. Understandable but still, you know what they say about all work and no play.
The TouchPro2's camera had problems with indoor shots.
Fortunately, there are other means of amusement. The smartphone ships with a dedicated YouTube app and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile provides playback of various music and video formats, including AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV. The Touch Pro2 also has a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, but picture quality wasn't all that impressive. Even after messing with the white balance and brightness settings, indoor shots came out somewhat grainy and with an amber tone. Video quality was pretty much what we expected; the picture wasn't the sharpest and it was hard to distinguish objects in dark environments, but otherwise fine for shooting occasional clips, especially if that's all you got. The HTC Touch Pro2 can accept up to 16GB cards through its microSD expansion slot.
Performance
We tested the dual-mode HTC Touch Pro2 in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless service and call quality was mixed. On our end, call quality was excellent. We enjoyed rich-sounding audio with very little to no background noise or disruption. We also had no problem using an airline's voice-automated response system and didn't have any dropped calls during our testing period. Unfortunately, friends didn't have quite the same experience. Callers complained about tinny voice quality, which only got worse when we activated the speakerphone. Once again, we had the opposite reaction and was impressed with the clarity and volume of speakerphone calls. We were able to pair the Touch Pro2 with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.
Armed with a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7600A processor and about 198MB user storage, the Touch Pro2 was able to keep up with most of our demands throughout our review period. The accelerometer was quick to change screen orientation when we rotated the phone for viewing e-mails, photos, and Web pages. There were occasional moments of sluggishness, such as launching the camera/camcorder and reviewing images, but the delays were minimal, especially compared to previous Windows Mobile devices. From the home screen, there's a pull-down task manager in the upper right-hand corner where you can view running programs and close out of apps to optimize your smartphone's performance.
Using Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network, CNET's full site loaded onto the Touch Pro2's Opera browser in 45 seconds, while the desktop versions of CNN.com and ESPN.com came up in 40 seconds and 49 seconds, respectively. As a navigation device, the Touch Pro2 delivered with good tracking abilities. We used the device in San Francisco with the Verizon's VZ Navigator app, and on the several occasions we used it, the smartphone was able to find our location within 2 minutes or less. We were also impressed at how much more accurate it was in providing a street address when we used the "Where am I?" feature. Many times, we've had devices be at least a block off when trying to come up with our location, but the Touch Pro2 and VZ Navigator were just one building number off. We also planned a trip from the Golden Gate Bridge to CNET's downtown headquarters. Route calculation was pretty fast and voice directions were clear; that said, we much preferred the map layouts of TeleNav's app, which were simpler and more clear at a glance.
The HTC Touch Pro2 features a 1500mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 5.3 hours and up to 13.5 days of standby time. We are still conducting our battery drain tests but will update this section as soon as we have final results. According to FCC radiation tests, the Touch Pro2 has a digital SAR rating of 1.41 watts per kilogram; the smartphone's Hearing Aid Compatibility rating is M3.
I'll admit, I've never used a pen tablet before. I guess, in that respect, I'm Wacom's target customer. Its new line of multitouch-enabled tablets are designed and priced for budget-minded consumers, and unlike many of its more professional brethren, Wacom aims for a look that's simpler than ever before.
As someone at the CNET offices remarked, there's no mouse in the box with this edition of the Bamboo Fun. The reason for that, mainly, is that multitouch is the major focus, which requires the use of multiple fingers. Perhaps Wacom also wanted to simplify the focus to fingers and pen and reduce the gadgetry, or maybe it wanted to save money on the number of items thrown in the box. Regardless, the truth is that I never knew there used to be a mouse, and I didn't miss it.
Made of a single, sleek, Mac-like slab of silver plastic, the Bamboo Fun is ringed with a white border that defines the pad space, as well as contains a set of four programmable buttons along one side. A red cloth loop holds the comfortable, cordless, pressure-sensitive pen in place along the other side. The Bamboo can be set up for left- or right-handed users, flipping its button placement.
Included software drivers enable multitouch on Windows XP, Vista, and 7 as well as Mac OS X. For Mac owners, many of the familiar multitouch controls are enabled. For newcomers, additional Wacom-specific controls can be selected through its control panel. Touch can also be turned off completely for the apprehensive, making the Fun a pen-only device.
The Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch (and its smaller sibling, the Bamboo Pen and Touch) seamlessly switch between pen and touch, deactivating the other if one's already being used. In pen mode, the pressure-sensitive stylus works beautifully for simulating brushstrokes in painting programs, such as the included Corel Painter Essentials 4.0. A side button controls context-sensitive controls, and can be used to let the pen cut and paste text as well as operate photo and graphics software functions.
The smaller, black, plastic Bamboo Pen and Touch costs half of what the Fun does ($99 vs. $199), and has all the same features. It's a great bargain choice for many, and some might even prefer its more portable form for travel. On the other hand, the Fun Pen and Touch seemed like an ideal size for more serious graphic work, and we didn't find it to be too cumbersome.
Driver installations and software setup for the Bamboo were easy to complete, and tutorials were very thorough in explaining the various functions that the tablets could provide. As touchpads, they work as seamless and equally effective extensions to pads, such as the ones on the MacBook Pros, minus the click element underneath (you can tap to click or use the side buttons instead). However, the multitouch simply seems like excellent dressing to the main pen functions, which are the real reason to buy such a pad. Although Wacom does make penless versions of the Bamboo Touch ($69), we can't see any reason to buy one. Spending the extra thirty dollars is a very wise idea. Wacom makes a pen-only touchless version, too, but again we'd say the combination of pen and touch is the way to go.
Some desktop users and professionals--although they would likely have higher-end Wacom tablets, anyway--might regret the lack of a mouse in this configuration. But they're missing the point: these tablets reach out to a laptop crowd, and to those already addicted to multitouch (myself included). As an extension of a touchpad, these are great devices. And we'd recommend them more for laptop users (as Wacom seems to as well, showing the Bamboo plugged into a laptop in an illustration on the box). They work as advertised, and for the price, their effectiveness is hard to beat.
by Scott Stein (cnet.com)
Though Sound ID isn't as well-known as Jabra and Plantronics in the Bluetooth headset world, its headsets have stood out because of their comfort and sound quality. Indeed, Sound ID boasts a deep understanding of the science of hearing because of the company founder's otology roots. Its first headsets (the SoundFlavors and the SM100) were very expensive as they were designed more for those who are hard of hearing. The company's more recent efforts, the Sound ID 200 and the Sound ID 300, are geared toward the everyday user.
The Sound ID 400 is its latest and greatest headset yet, with several noise-reduction and clarity-enhancement technologies we've seen on previous Sound ID products, like "Personal Sound" modes, an "environment-awareness" mode, and of course noise-canceling. It is also compatible with an optional Sound ID Remote Microphone, which works like a single-focus hearing aid when placed near a desired sound source. With all its features, the Sound ID 400 is most importantly comfortable with very good sound quality. The Sound ID 400 is available for $129.99, and the optional Remote Microphone is $79.99.
The Sound ID 400 looks practically identical to the Sound ID 300 and the Sound ID 200. Measuring 2.1 inches long by 0.6 inch wide by 0.3 inch thick, the Sound ID 400 has a very slim stick design and it's wrapped in a rather nice matte-black soft-touch plastic. The design is overall quite boring, but it's good if you like the minimalist look.
On the front surface is a tiny LED dot that acts as the status indicator. The multifunction call key is on the top and the volume/Personal Sound key is on the left side. Both keys are terribly skinny and small and are a bit hard to access when worn; we had to reach in the folds of our ear to get to them. Still, they're easy enough to find by feel since they're raised above the surface.
As we said, there is only one volume key, so you have to cycle through several volume levels to get to the right one. The Personal Sound modes (which we'll get to later) do reduce the need to adjust the volume as much, but we still would have preferred a separate volume rocker.
When you flip the headset around, you'll find the charger jack at the bottom and the earpiece at the top. The earpiece is covered with Sound ID's own Real Comfort Ear Loop. Made out of rubber, the earbud is tapered to a narrow point like a spout so that it fits snugly in the ear. Attached to the earbud cover is a round loop so that it fits in the ear without the need for an ear hook. Still, the Sound ID 400 comes with a regular earbud cover and an ear hook if you prefer that style instead. There are also two additional Real Comfort Ear Loop sizes for different-size ears. We're definitely fans of the Real Comfort Ear Loop; it is really amazingly comfortable and secure at the same time. The ear loop can be swiveled to fit either ear.
If you hold down the volume button during a phone call, you will switch the headset to a different Personal Sound mode. There are three Personal Sound modes; Normal, Moderate, and Strong. Normal mode indicates a more natural-sounding voice without as much background noise reduction, while the Moderate and Strong modes have much more aggressive noise reduction at the expense of natural voice quality. There's also an additional Demo mode that shuts off the noise-canceling altogether so you can hear what it's like without any noise reduction. Like with the volume, you have to cycle through all of these modes to get to your desired one.
If you hold down the volume button in standby mode, you will activate/deactivate the Environmental mode. This essentially amplifies the surrounding noise around you when you're not on a call. The idea is that you don't need to take your headset off during a face-to-face conversation. While we think it's a neat idea, we didn't think it was absolutely necessary. Also, when the Environmental mode is on, there was almost too much amplification, resulting in a little bit of background buzz.
The Sound ID 400 is also compatible with Sound ID's Remote Microphone. It acts almost like a hearing aid, especially when you're having a conversation with someone in a very loud environment. Simply pair the two devices, place the remote microphone next to a sound source, and you will hear the sound without much background noise. You could also place the microphone next to the television so you don't have to raise the volume, or you could put it next to a speaker in a lecture if you're a little hard of hearing.
Other features of the Sound ID 400 include the normal answering, ending, and rejecting calls, last-number redial, automatic volume control, a low-battery indicator, and the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone and vice versa. It also has multipoint technology, which lets it connect up to two devices at once.
We paired the Sound ID 400 with the Apple iPhone 3G. We were very pleased with the sound quality overall. The Personal Sound modes combined with the noise-canceling Noise Navigation technology results in crystal clear sound on both sides. On our end, we heard our callers loud and clear for the most part. Whenever we encountered particular bad background noise, like in the train station for example, we would simply switch to a different Personal Sound mode to reduce the background noise a bit. This works quite well, though remember that the stronger the Personal Sound, the less natural the voice.
On their end, callers heard us very clearly as well. There was a bit of static and echo at times, and not all environmental sound was blocked, but it was good enough for everyday situations. Call quality was even quite good in wind noise, which we tested by talking in front of a fan. Callers could still hear us, though they said we sounded a bit muffled at times. We also did a test with the Noise Navigation turned off completely, and the sound quality was audibly worse than when it was enabled.
The Sound ID 400 has a rated battery life of 7 hours talk time and eight days.
by Nicole Lee (cnet.com)
Performance The Samsung Go N310-13GB's emphasis on aesthetics—the rubbery design, the glass screen, and the pebble keyboard—and more than nine hours of battery life are a great combination for the college crowd and fashion-conscious commuters on a tight budget. At $450, I don't think it's worth the slight premium over netbooks like the Toshiba mini NB205 ($400) and the HP Mini 5101 ($430), which both have bigger keyboards, along with trendy designs and terrific battery life. But prices will come down, and if you can spot a terrific deal, the N310-13GB would be a great find.M by Cisco Cheng (PCMAG.COM)
Embattled by cutthroat pricing and limited in the parts they can use, netbook makers have to be craftier than ever to come out on top. The Samsung Go N310-13GB ($450 street) is dealt the same Intel Atom parts and basic features as every other netbook, but its looks might pique your interest. The bright orange exterior is one of four colors available with this model, and the edge-to-edge glass screen and "pebble" keyboard are sure to impress. Performance-wise, the 66-Wh battery is not only big, but turned in more than nine hours of battery life. If you're willing to pay a slight premium over top-notch netbooks like the Toshiba mini NB205 and the ASUS EeePC 1000HE, the N310-13GB won't disappoint.
Design
Draped in orange, the N310-13GB conjures up images of a life preserver or a ruggedized piece of luggage. The rubbery texture that surrounds the entire frame has the ability to withstand wear and tear, as well as your grimy fingers. Netbooks like the NB205 and the HP Mini 5101 achieve the same effect with their texturized chassis, whereas the shiny coats on the Acer Aspire One (D250-1165) and the Lenovo Ideapad S12 are smudge magnets. The round edges make the N310-13GB look more oval than boxy, which is another design element that shouldn't be overlooked. At 2.9 pounds, it's as heavy as the NB205 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, but, in the case of the N310-13GB, that weight's mainly attributable to the large 6-cell battery.
A 10-inch widescreen and 1,024-by-600 resolution would be a drab combination if it weren't for the edge-to-edge glass screen. The glass does its best to enhance the multimedia experience, covering the borders of the screen as well—hence the term "edge-to-edge." The N310-13GB has a tiled or what Samsung calls "pebble" keyboard, similar to the ones found in the 1000HE, the NB205, and the 5101. Depending on where you apply the ruler, the keyboard measures anywhere between 92 percent and 94 percent. It's slightly smaller than the full-sized typing experiences found in the NB205, the Samsung N120 (12GBK), and the S12, but that doesn't mean touch typists can't adjust to it. While typing up this review, it took me about 20 minutes to get used to the keyboard. The touchpad and mouse buttons are an important part of the user experience as well. They are properly spaced apart so that the pinch you make (with your thumb on the mouse button and index finger on the touchpad) when navigating isn't like picking up a needle.
Features
The feature set is as plain as that of any other netbook. It doesn't have anything to set it apart like the 5101's internal 3G option, the NB205's Sleep-n-Charge USB port, or the S12's ExpressCard slot. The three USB ports, Ethernet, VGA-Out, 802.11g WiFi, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam are all standard netbook fare. The NB310-13GB does boast Bluetooth 2.1, however, a feature rarely found in netbooks. It also comes with a 160GB hard drive and, even though this configuration is only available online, you still get a one-year warranty from websites like Amazon, NewEgg, and TigerDirect.
With the exception of the battery, the parts are also netbook-specific. A 1.6-Ghz Intel Atom N270 processor and 1GB of memory didn't win the N310-13GB any speed trophies, but they were fast enough to keep up with the rest of the field in tests such as video encoding and SYSMark Preview 2007. More impressive, though, is the battery. While the words "6 cell" don't sound like big differentiators, digging further into the specifications show that the battery's capacity is 66 Wh (8850 mAH). This capacity is larger than that of the NB205, the N120, the 5101, and the S12, and what follows is phenomenal battery life: The N310-13GB scored 9 hours, 16 minutes in MobileMark 2007 tests—the best we've seen yet from a netbook.
Lenovo's ThinkPad brand is virtually synonymous with business laptops, and the company (like IBM before it) has spent years perfecting the nondescript black-box system, with its iconic TrackPoint and double set of mouse buttons.
We liked the 14-inch T400s ("s" for "slim") when we first saw it earlier this year (see that review), as it shaved some thickness and weight off the older T400 model. Now Lenovo is offering an enhanced version of the T400s, adding a multitouch touch screen and some custom touch-screen software. This is also the first laptop we've reviewed with the final shipping version of Windows 7 preinstalled.
The touch screen and accompanying SimpleTap software add a new wrinkle--one that had its appeal--but without a tablet-style swiveling display, we can see the real-world usefulness of adding touch to a standard laptop being somewhat limited.
It can be argued that Lenovo's build quality and attention to detail are second to none, and the T400s feels like a solid, heavy-duty machine that will stand up to a lot of action. ThinkPad buyers (either small business individuals or corporate IT departments) know what they're looking for and don't mind paying premium for it. The touch-screen T400s starts at $1,999, and includes Lenovo's ThinkVantage suite of business and security-minded software and hardware.
| Price as reviewed / Starting price | $2,489/$1,999 |
| Processor | 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 |
| Memory | 4GB, 667MHz DDR2 |
| Hard drive | 128GB SSD |
| Chipset | Intel GS45 |
| Graphics | Intel GMA 4500M (integrated) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Professional |
| Dimensions | 13.2 inches wide by 9.4 inches deep |
| Height | 1.1-1.3 inches |
| Screen size (diagonal) | 14.1 inches |
| System weight / Weight with AC adapter | 3.9/4.6 pounds |
| Category | Mainstream |
The basic design will be familiar to anyone who has used a ThinkPad in the last few years, with a black, buttoned-down look and the ever-present TrackPoint. Despite being fairly thin and lightweight, the T400s feels solid and sturdy, thanks to its carbon-fiber "roll cage" skeleton. Unlike most other laptops, the lid folds back a full 180 degrees, allowing the system to lie completely flat.
Lenovo spends a lot of effort constantly testing and refining its keyboards. For example, based on detailed analysis of user feedback, the Esc and Delete keys are much larger than normal. This is a traditional tapered-key design, instead of the wide, flat-topped keys nearly all consumer laptops use, and while it may not look as slick, the end result is indeed very comfortable and easy to use. Physical buttons for volume control, speaker mute, and mic mute are also useful.
The large touch pad is hard to see against the matte black wrist rest, but it has a subtle texture that helps your finger know where it's going. Nestled in the middle of the keyboard is a TrackPoint pointing stick--if you're a fan (or you grew up with one as your main laptop input method), it's indispensable. But, the need for a second set of mouse buttons, above the touch pad, eats up some keyboard tray real estate.
The biggest addition to this new version of the T400s is a multitouch display. Windows 7 is a very touch-friendly OS, making it easier for PC makers to add touch functionality. In this case, you can tap and drag Win 7 menus, folder, and files with your finger, as one would on a tablet PC--or there's a custom touch interface provided by Lenovo, called SimpleTap.
The SimpleTap interface lives as a small red button anchored to the side of the display. Tapping it opens the touch interface, which overlays your desktop, and provides a series of large button-like icons. As configured, it provides access to basic system functions, such as speaker volume and screen brightness. You can also turn on the small light above the display, turn the Webcam on and off, or even put the system to sleep.
By navigating to the exe file of any program, you can add a SimpleTap button for it to your collection, choosing its icon, background color, and location on the screen. Each of the small, square icons can also be dragged around to any location on the screen, or automatically regrouped in the center with the tap of a finger. The red button for launching SimpleTap can also be moved to any point along the outer edge of the screen by dragging it.
In practice, the SimpleTap software worked fairly well, although it wasn't as quick and responsive as the touch experience on an iPhone or iPod Touch (we have yet to find a tablet or touch-screen PC that comes close). However, when trying to use SimpleTap from any angle other than right in front of the screen (as one might when showing off a presentation to a group), the control was much less precise, and we often accidentally closed the entire app or sent the icons flying around the screen. Lenovo says the software is currently in beta, and will continue to improve.
A bigger issue, perhaps, is why you'd want a touch screen on a standard nontablet laptop. The practical applications seem limited, although we could see specific users finding tasks (media playback, photo manipulation, etc.) that could take advantage of it. As a $400 add-on to the T400s, it's certainly not an impulse upgrade.
The 14.1-inch wide-screen LED display offers a 1,440x900 native resolution, which is standard for a high-end screen this size (many less-expensive 14- and 15-inch laptops have 1,280x800 displays). The matte finish is a welcome relief from all the overly glossy displays we're exposed to on a weekly basis, and there's an antifingerprint coating that helps keep the screen looking good, even when using the touch functions.
| Lenovo T400s | Average for category [mainstream] | |
| Video | VGA-out, DisplayPort | VGA-out, HDMI |
| Audio | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks |
| Data | 3 USB 2.0 (1 USB/eSATA), SD card reader | 4 USB 2.0, SD card reader |
| Expansion | None | ExpressCard/54 |
| Networking | Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN | Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN |
| Optical drive | DVD burner | DVD burner |
ThinkPads are among the only laptops we've seen in a long time to still have ports and connections on the rear edge of the system. There you'll find both DisplayPort and VGA outs, plus two of the system's three USB connections (one is a combo eSATA port, the other is helpfully labeled as a powered USB port).
One odd configuration note: you're forced to choose between an SD card reader or an ExpressCard/34 slot; you can't have both (we got the SD card reader). Our review configuration also included a 128GB SSD hard drive, which is $200 more than a standard 200GB 5,400rpm HDD.
Windows 7 Professional will seem very familiar to Vista users, and somewhat less so to those still using Windows XP. You can read our full review of Windows 7 for a detailed analysis, but there are a handful of tweaks and features that seemed of particular importance to laptop users.
The most jarring change for many will be the displaced Show Desktop button. Instead of living on the left side of the taskbar, it's now in the system tray on the far right side, and without its familiar icon--it's just a tiny, glowing rectangle. Hovering over it with your mouse turns every open window transparent, except for a thin ghostly outline, and clicking the button, as before, minimizes every active window.
The revamped taskbar can also display thumbnails of all the windows you have open in a particular application (for example, Firefox browser windows), by hovering the pointer over the appropriate taskbar icon. Click on any of these tiny thumbnails to bring that window to the forefront.
Intel's high-end 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo SP9600 offers a good balance between energy efficiency and computing power. Compared with other systems with high-end Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, the T400s performed admirably, and often slightly faster than laptops only a few months old. We'll have to wait until we have more Windows 7 systems tested to determine if there is indeed a performance dividend in real-world testing. In hands-on use, the T400s felt quick and responsive, much as we'd expect from a $2,000 business laptop.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s ran for 3 hours and 33 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery. That's decent for a mainstream laptop, but not near the all-day computing holy grail for business systems. Our battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use.
Lenovo includes a one-year, parts-and-labor, mail-in warranty with the system, although for a high-end business laptop, we'd expect a three-year plan as standard. Upgrading to a three-year plan will cost an extra $100, or $186 for three years of next-business-day, on-site service. Support is accessible through a 24-7, toll-free phone line, and an easy-to-navigate online support site with a knowledge base and driver downloads.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Design
Given the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD's extra-large display, it's no surprise that the smartphone is on the bulkier side. The handset measures 4.8 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 5.2 ounces, and it's the longer length that makes it a bit of an uncomfortable fit in a pants pocket. That said, it's a very solidly built phone and not bad looking either with its black lacquered finish and silver accents.
However, the real head-turning feature of the smartphone is its 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen that displays 16 million colors at a 360x640 pixel resolution. AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix OLED; we won't get into the technical explanation here, but the advantage of an AMOLED display is that colors appear brighter, images and videos look sharper, and it consumes less power than standard LCDs. While we are still conducting battery tests, we can definitely say that the Omnia HD's display is stunning. Everything from menu icons to photos to Web pages looked smooth and vibrant.
Not only does the display look beautiful, but it's also functional. There's a built-in accelerometer so the screen orientation will automatically switch from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone. Meanwhile, a proximity sensor locks the touch screen when you're on a phone call in order to prevent any accidental presses as you hold the handset up to your ear. Both are responsive and unlike some handsets, the accelerometer works in all apps.
As with the first Omnia, the i890 Omnia HD uses Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, which lets you customize your Home screen with different widgets. There is a tray located on the left side with various applications, such as your calendar, music player, Facebook, and clock, where you can then drag and drop these widgets to the main screen so they're easily accessible to you from the home page. Once you've customized the phone to your liking, you can collapse and hide the tray by tapping the arrow button.
While the premise is the same, Samsung has made several enhancements to the user interface that makes TouchWiz much more easy to use and functional. For one, the company has expanded the widget list considerably and added two more panels on which you can add widgets. This prevents the home screen from being too cluttered and it also gives you the option to more neatly organize the widgets; for example, one panel can be dedicated to multimedia while another is for more personal organization apps. There's also a permanent toolbar that appears along the bottom of the display that gives you access to the phone app, your contacts, messages, and main menu. Pressing the latter will take you to a grid of all the core functions and applications of the smartphone.
As far as text entry, you get a soft QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode, while you only get an alphanumeric keypad in portrait mode. However, the keyboard is pretty spacious, so we didn't have too many problems typing messages.
Below the display, there are Talk and End/power keys as well as a menu button. On the left side, there's a volume rocker and a microSD expansion slot, while the right side features a lock button, a camera activation/capture key, and much to our delight, a Micro-USB port rather than Samsung's proprietary connector. The top of the unit holds a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and on back, you'll find the camera and flash.
Our Samsung Omnia HD came packaged with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a wired stereo headset, video out cables, a software CD, and reference material. Since the phone has not been released for the United States, the travel charger features a European/Asian plug so you will need to get an international adapter. Alternatively, you can use any Micro-USB charger. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.
Features
The Samsung i890 Omnia HD's headliner is its multimedia capabilities, so we only feel it proper to start with those first. Imaging is a strong point as the smartphone is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera that can record HD video. The camera offers a plethora of options, including six shooting modes, 14 scene settings, and eight resolutions as well as more advanced settings, such as ISO and blink detection. Meanwhile, you can record video in one of four modes and four resolutions. There are also some shared settings between the camera and camcorder, including white balance, anti-shake, and Wide Dynamic Range.
The Samsung i890 Omnia HD offers high-end multimedia features, such as an 8-megapixel camera and HD video recording.
Picture quality was indeed impressive. Most camera phones have had problems with our standard indoor shot (below), but the Omnia HD produced a very clear image with rich colors without any weird bluish or amber overtones. We also shot several videos at 1,280x720-pixel resolution and for a camera phone, the video quality was definitely good. The picture was sharp and action scenes weren't blurry or pixelated. However, we did notice that the camcorder had some trouble in bright sunlight as the picture was blown out.
Picture quality was excellent.
Once you're done shooting, the Omnia HD offers various ways to review and share your images with family and friends. The MediaBrowser is pretty cool in that it provides new ways to search and browse through your images. For example, you can flip through your images by tilting the phone left or right, though you can certainly use the onscreen arrows or finger swipes. There are also options to upload files to the Web or post them to various social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. If you're up for a public screening, you can do so via the included video-out cables or through a DLNA-compliant TV since the i890 Omnia HD supports this standard.
However, you can enjoy videos as well as music right from your device, thanks to the robust multimedia players. Supported video files include MPEG-4, WMV, H.263, H.264, DviX, and Xvid, and of course, you can watch content in HD resolution. The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+, MIDI, XMF, among other formats, and it includes advanced functions, such as 5.1 channel sound, an equalizer, sound effects, and visualization. The player's interface is quite nice with album art support and in landscape mode, you can scroll through with a feature similar to iTunes' Cover Flow. Other goodies include podcast support, a streaming media player, and an FM radio, though you have to use the included headset for the latter. With all these multimedia capabilities, one has to wonder about memory and we think you'll be pretty relieved as the i890 Omnia HD comes in 16GB or 8GB model and both offer microSD expansion slots that can accept up to 32GB cards.
The Omnia HD comes in 8GB or 16GB versions, but you can expand it even more via the microSD expansion slot.
Oh, but wait, there's more. On top of the multimedia capabilities, the Samung i890 Omnia HD is also a smartphone running Symbian's S60 platform, similar to the Nokia N97, though a departure from the Omnia, which ran on Windows Mobile. As we noted in our N97 review, the Symbian OS is getting fairly outdated, but Samsung does a nice job of masking it by adding its own fresh touch to the interface.
That said, as far as business use, the Omnia HD comes with Quickoffice for viewing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, but you will have to upgrade to the Premium Edition to do any sort of editing. In addition, e-mail setup isn't as streamlined as others. Whether you're configuring a POP3 account or your Exchange e-mail, you have to manually enter all the server information whereas a majority of smartphones these days automatically do it for you. The device comes preloaded with a good helping of other organizational tools, including a file manager, a PDF reader, a dictionary, a unit converter, and more.
Phone features include quad-band world roaming, a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, and text and multimedia messaging. The phone book is limited only by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts), and there's room in each entry for multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, instant-messaging handles, and birthdays. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a picture, one of 40 polyphonic ringtones, or a group ID. Bluetooth 2.0 is also onboard for use with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, object push, file transfer, serial port, basic printing, and dial-up networking. GPS/A-GPS is also onboard as well as a compass; however, our review unit didn't come with a mapping application so you may need to add one.
Given that the Omnia HD has not been released for the U.S., the smartphone, unfortunately, doesn't support AT&T or T-Mobile's 3G bands. It does have integrated Wi-Fi, however, and the smartphone's Web browser is excellent. It offers Flash support, keyword search, a page overview mode, and multiple windows, among other things.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1,800/1,900) Samsung i890 Omnia HD in New York using T-Mobile service and call quality was mostly good, though better on the caller's end than ours. We encountered some problems as sound occasionally cut out so we had often had to ask our friends to repeat themselves, which has to be annoying. Meanwhile, our callers were quite impressed with the clarity of calls and reported no major complaints. However, when we activated the speakerphone, they did say that there was a bit of an echo. We found the speakerphone quality to be acceptable; there was some slight hollowness but plenty of volume. We paired the Omnia HD with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.
The Omnia HD proved to be a very responsive device throughout our testing period. There was very little sluggishness when launching and using apps, though we did have a couple of issues when trying to view YouTube videos. When we launched the dedicated YouTube app from the home screen, the screen went into a slight freak out mode and went through a couple of cycles of going black and then coming back to life. Eventually, we were able to get onto the site and stream a couple of videos, which played back smoothly. Just remember to close out of the app when you're done since we forgot to do so and then couldn't play music or other video clips because of shared memory.
The multimedia performance really was top-notch. Video playback on the Omnia HD's AMOLED screen is brilliant and given the generous size of the display, there wasn't as much eye strain as with some other touch-screen devices. The smartphone's speakers also pump out plenty of volume as we accidentally discovered when we launched the music player without checking the audio levels first. We enjoyed rich-sounding tunes by plugging our Bose On-Ear Headphones into the device's 3.5mm jack.
Web browsing was surprisingly not that painful even with the lack of 3G. Using T-Mobile's EDGE network, CNN's and ESPN's mobile sites came up in 17 seconds and 7 seconds, respectively. Meanwhile, CNET's full site loaded in 57 seconds.
The Samsung i890 Omnia HD features a 1,440mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 10 hours and up to 10 days of standby time. The smartphone offered up an impressive 11.25 hours of talk time in our battery drain tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the Omnia HD has a digital SAR rating of 0.67 watt per kilogram.
Not satisfied with just leaking Microsoft’s under-wraps Courier tablet, Gizmodo went and leaked photos of alleged Microsoft “Pink” project phones, named Turtle and Pure.
A post published just moments ago reveals that the curiously named and shaped phones will be manufactured by Sharp, which will co-brand the devices with Microsoft.
Sharp originally produced the Sidekick hardware for Danger, which was bought by Microsoft two years ago. It seems this project, and these devices, are aimed at the same market.
So what will run the device? Our own Mary Jo Foley reported earlier that Pink phones will include Zune services and have their own app store.
No word on availability or price, naturally.
AMD on Tuesday launched its next-generation ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards, which the company says harbors “the most powerful processor ever created” inside.
While that title is up for debate — AMD says the graphics cards offer up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of computing power — what’s clear is that they will support Microsoft DirectX 11.
AMD’s starting with two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory.
The company says the cards can be used individually or in multiple-card configurations with ATI CrossFireX tech, and feature “6th generation evolved AMD tessellation technology, 3rd generation evolved GDDR5 support, 2nd generation evolved 40nm process technology, and a feature-rich compute shader, all geared towards delivering the best gaming experience money can buy.”
Backing the claim is this fact, the company says: “One ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card would have been one of the top 10 supercomputers in the world just six years ago.”
Whatever the accolades, the HD5870 model is built on a 40nm process and offers an 850MHz engine clock speed, 1600 stream processors, 153.6GBps memory bandwidth and more than two billion transistors.
The HD 5850 model will offer a 725MHz core clock, 1440 stream processors and slightly slower GDDR5 memory.
No word on price or availability.
