Review Roundup: This week’s hottest reviews on TechRadar

Review Roundup: This week’s hottest reviews on TechRadar

iOS 7 interface issue avoidance via new app icons

There has been a great deal of talk in regard to an iOS 7 beta 7 release, but it looks as though this is highly unlikely to happen now, and so this has since led to speculation as to the iOS 7 GA. However, before that app developers have some work to do with their app icons.

In the build up to the launch of iOS 7 next month, Apple has been asking app developers to partake in what can only be described as an iOS 7 interface issue avoidance. They have been asked to submit larger app icons as part of the dramatic UI change when compared to iOS 6.

You can see in the image below just how different the icons are, and although they do not vary that much in size, there is still a difference that needs to be addressed. It is Apple’s intention to be ready so there will be no interface issues once iOS 7 is released to the public, which could be just a week after the (rumored) September 10, 2013 iPhone event.

According to 9to5 Mac the new iOS 7 icon size is 120 x 120 for the iPhone and 152 x 152 for the iPad, compared to 114 x 114 and 144 x 144 respectively for the iOS 6 version on those devices. It is clear to see the pixel resolutions have not changes by much, but just enough to cause issues of not addressed ahead of time.

iOS app developers will also need to address those round corners on iOS 7 apps, as they have rounded corners – looks like we will have a lot of updates the moment we download Apple’s new mobile operating system on to our devices.

Apple has already started to train their AppleCare employees, but more importantly their technical support staff on the many changes of iOS 7. The training began a couple of days ago and is expected to have them fully prepped by the second week of September. Verizon has already told their staff they cannot book any vacation between September 18 and the 22, which could mean this will be when Apple release their new iPhone/iPhones.

*http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2013/08/31/ios-7-interface-issue-avoidance-via-new-app-icons/

Smartphones: When is ‘big’ too big? (Smartphones Unlocked)

I’ve handled a lot of oversize smartphones in my years as a reviewer. That’s a bit of a trick statement, I’ll admit, since both handset screen sizes and our perception of them as large or small have grown throughout the years.

Today, phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Mega (6.3 inches,) Huawei Ascend Mate (6.1,) and Sony Xperia Z Ultra (6.44,) aren’t merely outliers giving niche users the come hither. They form a fully fledged category of XXL smartphone — that’s only getting bigger.

Samsung, HTC, and Nokia are all releasing, or rumored to release, new gentle giants in the coming year. These will join the six biggest cellular screens you can buy right now.

To appreciate just how much perception had shifted, we’ve got to think back. The original iPhone wowed with its 3.5-inch screen. Before Apple’s all-touch achievement entered the scene, the industry had never seen a cell phone screen so large, with such a roomy virtual keyboard.

Supersize me: Giants of the smartphone world (pictures)

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Fast-forward three years to 2010, when Dell made headlines (but not many sales) with its unprecedented, 5-inch Dell Streak. It was, for all intents and purposes, the industry’s first real phablet, though its screen size was ahead of its time and it suffered from feature and design flaws.

These days, a premium smartphone with a display measuring smaller than 4.5 inches is a point of suspicion and 5 inches is the new norm, even as users and reviewers lashed back against ever-larger “jumbo phones” just a handful of years ago.

Clearly, there’s a market for smartphones so large they spill into

tablet territory.

The case for jumbo phones

There are several good reasons why jumbo phones are taking off, and it isn’t only because of supply.

• Visual over audio : As people rely on smartphones more for computing than for calls, the viewing experience takes priority.


• Pixel power : Higher resolution displays can deliver fine detail and rich color. Of course, larger panels have long existed for TVs and even tablets, but the difference here is that you need more pixel density when viewing the smartphone about six inches away from your face.


• Hardware support : A larger screen is a power hungry screen that requires a higher-octane processor and a large enough battery to fire up a wider field of pixels fast enough and bright enough. The design must also be svelte enough to carry around without bulking up pockets.
  
  
  

  A stylus can add extra functionality to a large-screen device.

  
  

  
  
  (Credit:
  
  Sarah Tew/CNET)
  

  
  
  
  


• Building bridges : Buying one large smartphone is cheaper than buying a tablet and a smartphone. The price point is also significant if you’re purchasing both devices without a carrier subsidy, for the full retail price.


• The stylus adds a third dimension : Samsung’s Note series invented a different kind of two-in-one device by imbuing the Note with a pressure-sensitive stylus that can draw, click, and capture screen shots. Some aftermarket S Pen models, as they’re known, can also digitally erase.


• Underlying tech makes it easier to use : Biggo phones can be hard on the paws, and frustrating when you try to use them one-handed. Bluetooth headsets help balance out the phone-to-ear ratio, as well as outlier attempts like the HTC Mini+ companion device. Software considerations to shrink the keyboard and push it to one side also help, as do better voice recognition and gesture controls to bypass the typing and tapping.

Who’s buying

Interestingly, Samsung found that the people who wind up buying and using the company’s phablets come from a wider swatch of society than the company initially suspected. Marketing campaigns targeted business users for productivity, creative types who wanted a bigger canvas on which to draw, and an older audience who craved larger lettering on a bigger screen.

“The reality,” Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Marketing for Samsung’s mobile US branch, told CNET, is that the supersized screen is “a lot more accepted and a lot more prevalent than even we thought it would be…We saw a huge amount of adoption by [just] about everyone we sell phones to.”

Bidan also noted that different motivations drive different markets. In some Asian countries, the stylus makes it easier to quickly jot notes in written characters, and a collapsable antenna in some models (like Asia’s versions of the LG Optimus Vu series) makes it possible to watch TV shows.

In other regions, a phone like the Note 2 is popular because of screen size alone. In others, still, Samsung found that the high-end specs and large footprint make the phone a status symbol for the well-to-do.

An

Android-only trend? Not for long

Perhaps due to Google’s openness and Android’s reputation as a playground for developing new features, phablets have so far mostly run Android. Apple sticks with two tablet sizes (7-inch and 10-inch) and a grudgingly-growing iPhone screen.

So far, this summer’s unlocked Nokia Lumia 625 and the HTC Titan II — both with 4.7-inch displays — have been the largest-screen Windows phones to date (we called the Titan II “arrestingly large” back in April 2012.)

The trend, however, could soon evolve in Windows phones, if rumors of the uberlarge Nokia Lumia 1520 bear 6-inch fruit.

The popping point

Smartphone sizes are increasing, but even red-hot trends require checks and balances.

Every time a phablet lands on my desk to review, I look at it and think, “No freaking way. That monster is simply too big.” Inevitably, my hands stretch awkwardly trying to grip, navigate, and type.

What’s more, large phones are hard to jam into my back pocket, and if I try to make even a quick call without a Bluetooth headset (which I invariably do,) I suddenly feel like a munchkin in an ordinary world.

The 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega makes Web sites easy to read.

(Credit:

Josh Miller/CNET)

Yet, a few days — and maybe even a few hours — are all I really need to start appreciating the gifts of a more expansive screen. Web sites become easier to read, and movie trailers more inviting to watch. I may be more likely to grab a phablet with stylus to jot notes in a meeting than my old-school pen and paper notebook (yes, you heard me.)

As much as I relearn to love the phablets’ screen size, they will never be completely comfortable for me to use one-handed, something I find I do quite a lot. I do think there’s a place for these large-screen crossovers, both financially and features-wise, but there is also an upper limit to how big these phones should grow.

The good news is, we probably won’t see too many 12-inch tablets masquerading as cellies, at least not so long as portability is still an essential part of the smartphone’s appeal. Ask an expert analyst, like Jon Erensen, Gartner’s research director for mobile and semiconductors, and he’ll tell you that the 6 and 7-inch range is the magic number.

7-inch tablets are proving small enough to tuck into purses and even into some roomier pockets, and cheap enough for consumers to consider instead of a smartphone — or vice versa.

“You wouldn’t have both a large phone and a small tablet,” Erensen told CNET. “Screen size growth will slow down.”

That’s good news for lovers out there of the sumo screen, who should expect to see much more innovation and development in this space. The bad news? The awkward term “phablet” isn’t going away anytime soon.

(Credit:

CNET)

Smartphones Unlocked

is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.

*http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-6452_7-57600423/smartphones-when-is-big-too-big-smartphones-unlocked/?part=rss&subj=androidatlas&tag=title

HTC One Mini

The HTC One Mini has everything it should to bear the chic HTC One name: a gorgeously crafted hardware and software design, with solid performance chops to match.

But don’t think that “Mini” means you’re simply getting a shrunken HTC One. Instead, this only slightly smaller handset steps back the internals across the board — in video capture resolution, processing brawn, storage capacity, and extra features like the (absent) IR blaster and NFC. Make no mistake, this Mini is a fantastic midtier, midprice choice with enough stamina, speed, and style to go the distance.

The Mini sells exclusively with AT&T for $100 on contract at the full retail price, half the cost of the original One at its full retail price.

HTC One Mini versus HTC One

Credit: Lynn La/CNET

*Upgradable to Android 4.2.2

Design and build

The way HTC presents this phone, you’d think it’d be a fraction of the One’s size. In fact, HTC barely shaved down its dimensions. At 5.2 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 0.36 inch thick, the Mini loses only 0.2 inch in height and width compared with the One.

When it comes to body style, the Mini and One aren’t exactly mirror images, but they’re clearly cut from the same cloth. They share the same unibody shape, gently bowed-out back, and finely tooled details. To HTC’s credit, the Mini manages to look like a premium stunner despite the introduction of a plastic rim around the face and spines, because it keeps the aluminum back and face plates. Losing some of that heavy metal makes the Mini a lighter phone as well, 4.5 ounces versus the One’s 5-ounce weight.

Smaller HTC One Mini still dazzles (pictures)

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Screen size is a bit smaller, a 4.3-inch 720p display made using Super LCD 2 material instead of a 4.7-inch screen with 1080p resolution and Super LCD 3. Pixel pushers will note the Mini’s 340ppi versus the One’s pixel density of 468 pixels per inch.

Side by side with the One, the Mini’s LCD screen isn’t quite as colorful or bright at full brightness levels. The drop in resolution is also noticeable at such a close range, and colors aren’t quite as vibrant. On its own, however, Web sites are easy to read, photos and videos look good, and the screen is still visible at lower brightness levels, though it isn’t as punched up as it is at full brightness (of course.)

Both typing on the virtual keyboard and tapping icons did feel more cramped with the Mini’s relatively smaller 4.3-inch screen, especially compared to the One and to other phones with much larger screens. I have smaller hands and didn’t mind the size. For those who do, it helps that HTC will let you increase system font size, and that the virtual keyboard supports word-tracing.

Other changes are evident as well. The flash moves above the camera lens from the side, and the Mini’s power button gets a different finish (since the Mini lacks the infrared beam to control the TV.) The volume rocker also splits into two distinct parts that stand out a little more from the surface; I actually prefer this to the One’s shallow, ridged bar, though the buttons still weren’t quite as easy for me to find with my thumb at first. You just have to know they’re there.

The HTC One Mini (L) isn’t all that smaller than the larger, heavier One.

(Credit:

Josh Miller/CNET)

While the Mini uses the same main camera as the One — with a 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” sensor with an LED flash and 1080p HD video recording — the front-facing camera drops from 2.1 megapixels with 1080p HD recording to 1.6 megapixels with 720p HD video capture.

Beyond these tiny adjustments, the handset’s port placement and dual speaker grille proportions remain the same. You’ll plug the Micro-USB into the bottom of the phone and the headset jack into the top. As with the One, there’s no microSD card slot for extra storage, so you’ll need to make do with the Mini’s 16GB.

OS and features

When it comes to software, the Mini is happily up-to-date with Android 4.2.2 topped with HTC’s Sense 5.0 interface. Yes, BlinkFeed commands the main home screen by default with social networks, news outlets, and other content you set up. You can’t turn off BlinkFeed in the settings, but you can shunt it to a secondary or tertiary screen. I don’t mind it in as a second screen, myself, but I join my colleague Brian Bennett in wishing I could smoothly scroll through items in the feed rather than jump from group to group.

Otherwise, navigation and customization features remain the same on the Mini as they did on the original One, down to tapping the Home button twice to pull up recent apps and pressing Home to launch Google Now.

A plastic band around the spines modified the One’s all-metal chassis.

(Credit:

Josh Miller/CNET)

Those who are new to Sense from another OS or Android interface will need a little time to adjust to the look and feel, though it’s fairly quick to pick up and the layout is extremely easy on the eye. Uncover settings and you can customize a lot, from app arrangement to lock screen style, to the LED notification light. Sense may not have all the gestures and toggles of Samsung or LG phones, but you won’t get bogged down in features either.

You can read more about HTC Sense 5 in CNET’s complete HTC One review.

As part of any modern Android experience, the Mini contains all of Google’s apps and services, plus essentials like a clock, a calculator, maps with voice navigation, a music player, and so on. You’ll also find an FM radio and a few preinstalled apps (like SoundHound, a personal favorite, and myVPN) that are unobtrusively grouped into folders for music and productivity.