Sony Ericsson has just announced the Yendo for the Indian market, we decided not to bother with the news and straight roll out the full review of the Device.
Lets start with BUILD QUALITY
The Yendo is essentially or completely made out of plastic, the back, front, top and bottom is made out of plastic, it squeaks rattles and bothers us with its cheapness. Throwing it around on the other hand dint affect the phone much and seems like a good option for somebody who drops their phone a lot. So we have mixed views about the build, but styling was poor and it actually just looks like a toy.
Multimedia and Camera
The camera on the device is a decent 2MP fixed focus camera, that may solve emergency needs. But cannot be considered for day to day usage. The picture quality was OK, but lack of focus and poor low light composition was a let down for us.
The audio on the other hand was solid and the sound quality was loud and impressive. The sound was crisp and bass and mid were quite accurate. Video on the other hand played slow and lag after lag during the playback made us nauseous.
Another thing worth mentioning are the included Earphones on the handsfree kit. One word “brilliant” , you possibly can’t find better bundled earphones.
Phone and Messaging
The performance of the device during phone calls was best in class, sound was super-crisp on either end with no network issues what-so-ever. Messaging is also fast and simple, We do miss a full qwerty keyboard as the device only has a standard num-pad style keyboard. Overall impressive.
Conclusion
The device is capable of offering a lot more than it does, and leaves you asking why wasn’t it done? The Ui is slow, unresponsive and has poor color integration. The phones crashes and lags, is poorly designed inside and out. Our recommendation is stay as far away as you can from this phone unless you really-really like how this device looks (i don’t know how you can).
Nokia has announced plans to roll out its new entry-level phone, “the Nokia X1-00”. The uniqueness of this music phone is its exceptionally loud speaker and that it offers a five-phonebook feature to enable up to five users to have their own phonebook on the same device.
The phone is said to be available in select markets starting in April and will cost around Rs 2,000 + Tax etc.
1.8-inch colour TFT display
Built-in loud Speaker rated at 106phon
Support up to 16GB micro SD card
Symbian S30 OS
Dedicated music keys
FM radio
3.5mm audio jack
Sudoku, Snake Xenia, Brach Rally, Forbidden Treasure, Vacation Solitaire games
Samsung has bombarded us with a bundle of Galaxy Phones this season, they are not stopping anytime soon. with several devices to come, we review the cheapest in the line up of Galaxy Phones the Galaxy POP.
Lets start with the Unboxing video.
Hardware
The device packs a semi decent set of Specifications
3.14” capacitive touch screen
1200 mAh Battery
3.15 MP fixed focus camera
Android 2.2
600 MHZ processor
Wifi, bluetooth
Proximity/ ambient sensors
Accelerometer
AGPS
Hardware navigation buttons on the bottom of the display
For an entry level Android phone thats quite a lot of specs, At the price bracket this device is in you can only expect dunb-phones. This device promises and delivers a lot more than you bargain for.
Display and Touchscreen
The Galaxy Pop features a 3.14 inch capacitive touchscreen LCD display, that has a native resolution of 240 x 320 px. While on the outset the device is fully capable and display is good while navigating through menus and using the phone in its basic functions.
The quality of the Display really shines( or blackens) when you actually put it to test while browsing the internet, or watching videos. The display has a poor case of pixel love. The website text is highly unreadable and you need to zoom in to high levels to get basic text to readable state. There is no auto reformatting of text , so you will constantly be panning and rotating your device to get one article or basic letter read in the browser.
Lets just say the Display on the Galaxy POP = FAIL
The touchscreen on the other hand is a marvel. Samsung has made an overall improvement in how the touch digitizer reads the input, thereby making the touchscreen technology used in their devices a brilliant aspect of their lineup. The new Galaxy POP is not left behind and utilizes the same new touch technology along with the optimized Android 2.2 makes using the phone a bit more cheerful.
Camera and Multimedia
The Camera on the Galaxy Pop stands at a semi decent 3.15 MP , the disappointing bit is that its fixed focus. The picutre quality is only decent and you will find yourself struggling to get the right focus even in the brightest of light conditions. The camera is a complete failure in low light situations due to lack of flash LED. You will also find that the video quality is as you would expect from a VGA video capable camera, half decent.
You do however get a huge array of selectable features in the Camera APP and thus letting you select b/ Several shooting modes, scene modes, it lets you add effects and choose resolution etc. Making the Camera app a “princess designed for a pauper”( camera hardware).
Multimedia features are let down by the overly poor (as mentioned earlier) low res display, video just does not cut it on this screen and is just a poor feeling once you get down to watching videos. Audio however is a story told differently , and throughout the new Galaxy series you will see that the audio quality goes from good to excellent as you progress up in the chain. The speakerphone on the Galaxy POP is very impressive and will not be a let down. The phone features an FM radio and thanks to android is capable of playing almost any file format under the sun thanks to its impressive array of Apps.
The included earphones also provide good isolated audio, with a little tweaking from a good equalizer,
Phone and Messaging
Every phone need to be good at one thing, “being a phone”. The Galaxy Pop does just that with the ability to impressively make phone calls the earpiece, microphone and loudspeaker do their job well and promise good conversation abilities. In our tests we found that the device had close to none calls dropped and almost full network bars throughout.
The swpe keyboard makes messaging and emailing on this a breeze, with a bit of learning curve you will find yourself texting away in a marathon. Although, if like us you prefer the normal keyboard, that option is available too.
Conclusion
The Galaxy POP is a semi decent low price entry level Android 2.2 device from samsung. But , we think you deserve better, the display quality is just not acceptable and lets you down on several levels. The phone is plasticy in build and looks like a toy at the end of it. It performs all the functions it intends to do, But makes you fell let down all the way. gaming performance is also average with several games blocked from the marketplace.
Battery Life
3.5 – 4 hours talktime (2g)
2 hours on 3G
4 hours of browsing the internet (3g)
5.5 hours of browsing the internet (Wifi)
9 hours of audio playback
2.5 hours of video
Quadrant benchmark score : 530-540
Price : downwards of INR 9,000/-
Overall we would recommend that you look at other options if display and gaming performance is your main criteria. Save your money for the time being or change your budget (if you can).
Samsung has just announced another QWERTY handset which boasts android. But, this time its a portrait QWERTY phone and is not too bad of a looker.
The Pro Has
4 row QWERTY keyboard
2.8-inch touchscreen
800MHz processor
3 MP camera
Froyo out of the box
Its already been announced in the UK by mobile carrier 3 , and should be heading India side soon. We will then have a full review for you guys iGyaan Style.
Full Press Release
Samsung Launches Latest Device in the Galaxy Family
Android powered Galaxy Pro comes packed with entertainment and social media features
LONDON, UK – March 7, 2011 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the Galaxy Pro Smartphone. Featuring Samsung’s integrated Social Hub Premium and innovative dual-input control via a touch-screen and full QWERTY keyboard, the Galaxy Pro is also the perfect business partner and social secretary.
The Samsung Social Hub Premium gives one-touch access to emails, instant messages and social networking accounts and benefits from the speed and control of the Galaxy Pro’s dual-input interface. Powered by the Android™ 2.2 ‘Froyo’ platform, the Galaxy Pro has access to over 150,000 high-quality apps and services from Android Market™, such as the latest games for entertainment, up to date interactive maps and news feed services.
Simon Stanford, Managing Director, Samsung Mobile UK and Ireland said: “The Samsung Galaxy Pro is the perfect device for everyone looking to manage their busy work and social lives. The Social Hub Premium provides a simple way for our customers to stay in touch with their friends and colleagues – via work and personal emails, Facebook, Twitter and text messages. You get it all in one inbox, which is so much more efficient. Running on Android 2.2 and with brilliant entertainment features it’s another great addition to the Galaxy range.”
Samsung Social Hub Premium is ideal for juggling work and personal communications, managing multiple social networks and receiving high volumes of messages and emails. The Social Hub Premium brings together email, SNS and IM accounts to a single inbox, for simplified, instant access to all communications. Twitter feeds and Facebook updates, work and personal emails and text messages are collated in one central contact list. Furthermore, the Galaxy Pro is equipped with the “Think Free” Office Document Editor, for viewing and editing MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on-the-move.
The Samsung Galaxy Pro’s dual-input is a combination of a touch-screen and QWERTY keyboard, for swift, accurate typing, the QWERTY keyboard provides desktop-computing accuracy, while the touch-screen offers fast fingertip control. Together, they provide an efficient and enhanced user experience.
The Samsung Galaxy Pro is equipped with a 3.0 Megapixel camera for still image or video capture. Pictures can be viewed on the clear and bright 2.8″ display before being uploaded online, supported by WiFi and Bluetooth capability.
The Samsung Galaxy Pro will be available during the second quarter in the UK market followed by other European countries, Middle East, South East Asia and India.
While we will tell you that, Nokia Global – Announced that the E7 has been announced for Select Markets and should be shipping in countries in and around EU – UK, etc, anytime now. We just got word from Nokia Sales Rep Jatin Kaushik , That, the device is already slated for India and may come as early as next month.
The QWERTY flagship from Espoo has
A 4-inch Clear Black Display
Latest version of Symbian
8 megapixel camera
16GB of onboard memory,
Aluminum body
Slideout keyboard
On a different note : we expect the device to be slated at the 26,000/- Price mark (you could expect higher)
Full PR
All-in-one business smartphone, the Nokia E7, arrives in stores
Espoo, Finland – The highly anticipated Nokia E7 will begin arriving in stores in select markets this week, with broader availability building up quickly in several markets.
With its tilting 4 inch ClearBlack display, full qwerty keyboard and a fast access to a wide variety of apps directly on the homescreen, the Nokia E7 is the key to having a successful day in or out of the office. Importantly, the device supports business applications from leading enterprise technology partners including Microsoft and IBM.
Key features of the Nokia E7
– Easy access to private and business email
– Create, edit and share office documents and view PDF files with Adobe Reader
– Fast, secure intranet access with the built-in VPN
– High-resolution photos and HD video with the 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash
– HDMI connectivity to project files, videos and images onto large screens
– 16 gigabytes of on-board flash memory
– USB-On-The-Go, enabling easy file sharing by connecting a USB stick to the smartphone
For business users, Nokia E7 provides direct, secure and real-time access to email, calendar, contacts, tasks and the corporate directory through Microsoft Exchange servers, as well as Office Communicator Mobile, developed by Microsoft for Nokia smartphones, which brings presence and corporate instant messaging.
Additionally, a wide range of entertainment and social services available on the Nokia E7 make it the perfect off-duty companion, and the Ovi Store offers a wealth of apps such as Bloomberg, Angry Birds and Sports Tracker.
The new arrival offers drive or walk navigation in 80 countries. The latest commercial version of Ovi Maps, available immediately via Ovi Store or Ovi Suite, adds visibility to subways, trams and trains, real-time traffic, safety alerts, visibility to parking and petrol stations, speed limit warnings, and improved search and location sharing capabilities.
Sony has just announced 3 new headphones in Japan, sticking to product numbers as model names. The MDR-XB1000 cans offering enhanced bass. The MDR-XB41EX and MDR-XB21EX earbuds will come in a choice of several colors , with Sony’s own Bass enhancement technology, and new sound isolating processor.
We spoke to Sony India, A rep was able to tell us that the earbuds are confirmed for May 2011 launch, the HPs may come later.
The Yendo is essentially or completely made out of plastic, the back, front, top and bottom is made out of plastic, it squeaks rattles and bothers us with its cheapness. Throwing it around on the other hand dint affect the phone much and seems like a good option for somebody who drops their phone a lot. So we have mixed views about the build, but styling was poor and it actually just looks like a toy.
The camera on the device is a decent 2MP fixed focus camera, that may solve emergency needs. But cannot be considered for day to day usage. The picture quality was OK, but lack of focus and poor low light composition was a let down for us.
