I’m going to skip talking about the Xyboard name for as long as I can. Ok. The name is ridiculous; I’m moving on. As Verizon’s newest tablet, the Xyboard has a lot of weight on its shoulders from the Xoom and Galaxy 10.1 debuts. Motorola has certainly impressed me recently, but can their smartphone success translate into tablet success? Is this a worthy successor to a less-than-one-year old tablet? If you’re looking for a 4G LTE tablet, absolutely, and here’s why.

Hardware

The look and feel of the Xyboard is one of Motorola’s highest efforts over the past few months. With shaved corners and a very thin exterior, the Xyboard feels almost like an 8″ tablet. Unlike the Xoom, the frame is solidly constructed throughout and it can rival the Galaxy 10.1 for thinness, though it is heavier than the Galaxy 10.1. Thanks to Motorola’s consistent foresight in adding a mini-HDMI output, you can play the Xyboard on your big screen which you can’t with the Galaxy 10.1.

The rest of the Xyboard’s exterior is minimalistic with a black/silver aluminum frame and a power and volume rocker on the back instead of the sides of the device. I do like what Motorola does with these buttons, and I definitely think this is a more natural positioning for your hand. However, the buttons are too flush with the back and don’t offer a satisfying click whenever they’re pressed so you may miss them or not press them if you’re not paying close attention.

Screen/Camera

The high-res screen is beautiful, as it should be, but I didn’t think it was anything overly spectacular. It could get very bright, but the automatic brightness wasn’t the most intelligent sensor so I was stuck with a blinding light while reading at night. Unlike the RAZR but similar to every other tablet I’ve tried, the screen can get very smudgy. I was wiping it off with a cleaner every other day just to make it look respectable. The colors and overall screen seem better than my Transformer too.

With the camera, I have been fairly impressed with Motorola’s latest offerings. You don’t expect to have the greatest camera on a tablet, but on the Xyboard it is more than serviceable.  The photos can speak for themselves:

While not the sharpest photos ever, they are some of the better I’ve taken with a tablet. I even got a little artsy with these.

Software Performance

Even coming from Ice Cream Sandwich on my phone, the Honeycomb bugs and lags are more evident than ever to me now. While these two versions of Android are very close to each other, ICS offers a host of new features that make you wonder why it wasn’t included on the Xyboard. The launch window for this tablet wasn’t rushed like the Xoom’s was, and I think Motorola could have pushed back the launch to make the Xyboard the first tablet with ICS instead of being the Xoom 2.0. All that being said, Honeycomb runs smooth on the Xyboard even with the bloatware from Motorola and Verizon.

The overall layout from Honeycomb isn’t changed by Motorola which is a blessing considering Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay, and despite the custom ROM on my Transformer and at least triple the apps, the Xyboard is faster changing through screens and doing other normal OS functions than other tablets I’ve used (Transformer, Tab, Xoom). It is a bit overclocked at 1.2Ghz, but with an OMAP processor instead of the Tegra like in the others. Still, I have to question the reasons not to add the newest Tegra 3 since they should have a good relationship with Nvidia after the Xoom opened the floodgates for multi-core processors.

App Performance

Like I mentioned, the Xyboard has a little faster processor out of the gate than my Transformer, but it by no means blew the Transformer out of the water (with a lot less installed on it too). Angry Birds and Osmos were a second or so faster than my Transformer. Games like Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Shadowgun and Osmos ran wonderfully, and I noticed very little lag when switching between all of these at the same time. I thought it was interesting that the Xyboard kept apps running in the background instead of shutting them down after a while. When I went to pull up Osmos for the second time, the Xyboard brought it straight up to the menu screen instead of starting the whole game over again. Very convenient although I don’t know if this is the Xyboard itself or my Transformer shutting down the app too quickly.

The problem with Motorola devices on Verizon, usually, is the plethora of useless bloatware because both Motorola and Verizon believe heavily in it. Motocast, V Cast, VideoSurf, Slingbox, Netflix, and Blockbuster all come pre-loaded. Will you use one of these apps? Maybe, maybe not. But you certainly won’t use two or more because they all directly compete with one another! I know each company has deals with other companies, but directly competing apps that you probably don’t want shouldn’t be on the same device.

Final Thoughts

My first thought with these devices is usually, “Who is this made for?” With the Xyboard, I really can’t decide. It’s not for early adopters because they already bought the Xoom, and it’s not for power users because the Transformer Prime has a quad-core processor. It’s a slim device but without the weightlessness of the Galaxy 10.1, and only Verizon’s LTE makes this a stand-out device. While I didn’t see many flaws with the Xyboard (great design, runs smoothly, mini-HDMI), I also don’t know what makes someone want this instead of a cheaper Xoom or even iPad from Verizon.

If the Xyboard would have been released when the Xoom was, it could have blown most of our expectations away for a first-gen Android tablet. However, it’s launch is in the middle of an Android OS upgrade and a processor power-battle. The Xyboard’s design and slimness make it a great upgrade from the Xoom, but for Motorola’s next tablet, I want them to make a device that will usher in the next generation of tablets instead of releasing the best tablet at the end of the era.

Bigger is better. Well, unless we’re talking about the Toshiba Thrive. While we had a mostly favorable review of the “Honeycomb Hulk,” certain elements of the design were a bit awkward. Months after the original Thrive’s release, Toshiba hits a little closer to the mark with the Toshiba Thrive 7.

Playing Bruce Banner to the Honeycomb Hulk, the Thrive 7 has a more sensible build, is more palm-friendly, and makes more sense to own if a user doesn’t need the full 10-inch screen of a tablet. What’s less clear is if the Thrive should be considered over the Galaxy Tab 7, Amazon Kindle Fire, and host of other 7-inch screens. How does the Toshiba Thrive 7 stack up when compared to other devices in its class?

There’s only one way to find out, so let’s get  to it.

HARDWARE

Toshiba copied the basic design philosophy from the original Thrive and created a mini-me for the 7-inch version of the Android tablet. The Thrive 7 is a long black slab with round corners and a front-facing camera made more distinct thanks to a metal half-circle wrapped around it. The back has a rubber grip texture, though this style is smoother and flatter than the larger ridges we noticed on the original Thrive. It also has the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor that chugs along nicely and opens users up to a higher class of mobile gaming.

The Thrive 7 has a 7-inch LED touchscreen. Other display types typically garner more praise for their array of colors, but the 7′s high resolution (1280 x 800) on a smaller screen looks fantastic. The downside is that you can’t do much watching since battery life was suspect. I managed to watch an episode and a half of American Pickers on Netflix before the 7 took a big battery hit, and web browsing and reading activities didn’t seem to last as long as other tablets do. For leisure activities like reading books in transit or browsing apps on the couch, you’ll be fine, but things get dodgy if you are out and about for extended periods of time.

* 16 to 32 GB of internal memory and a chance to expand with micro SD
* The device can be held in one hand comfortable and is very portable, which is excellent for readers and travelers.
* MicroSD, mini USB, and micro HDMI ports provide more options for connecting devices and expanding memory. That means more entertainment options than you might get with other devices.

* While the original Thrive put speakers on both sides of the device for its “stereo” effect, the 7 has both speakers at the bottom in portrait and right in landscape, which often get blocked by the hand.
* Battery life is disappointing.

CAMERA

Toshiba offers a 2 MP front-facing camera and a 5 MP rear camera with flash. You won’t win any photography awards with either, especially since the camera takes so long that your subject may have moved already. You’re looking at a 3-5 second delay from pressing the button to the picture actually being snapped. You can still capture images in decent lighting to showcase, or have a video chat while sitting in an airport lounge, but photo-taking is not this device’s strong suit.

The rear camera isn’t very good, but it gets the job done. Just be sure to watch where you put your hands because of camera placement. The lens is near the top or left of the device depending on orientation, so the natural way to hold a tablet in landscape will cause a user’s hands to block the lens. Either keep your hand at the bottom of the device or record with one hand (it’s light enough to permit that kind of operation.)

SOFTWARE

Little has changed about the smaller Thrive’s software since we last reviewed the larger version. The 7 is running Android 3.2 and has the stable of standard Google Mobile apps that have been built with tablets in mind. The difference is that Toshiba toned down the amount of pre-loaded software that bloated the larger Thrive. The 7 still has pre-installed apps, but they are limited to a few card and board games, Kaspersky Security, Need for Speed Shift, and Printer Share. I would have preferred to see even those left off, but at least Toshiba slimmed down more than just the physical design of the 7.

On the plus-side, the Thrive 7 has standard, regular, no sugar-added Honeycomb 3.2. Most of the other 7-inch tablets we’ve seen have been heavily customized. While that’s not automatically a bad thing, it’s good to know that people who prefer stock Android have an option. Aside from a few awkward attempts to unlock the device while it slowly switched between portrait and landscape, it was a smooth ride. We can’t speak to upgrades regarding Ice Cream Sandwich because there’s no official word on it, but fingers are crossed that Toshiba will provide an upgrade.

CONCLUSION

So what’s the bottom line on the Toshiba Thrive 7? On the surface, it’s a solid 7-inch tablet that has better gaming options than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, but it’s tough to say that its really a better buy with the weaker battery life.

The Thrive 7 tries to make up for shorter battery life with a longer features list: more port and storage options that are great, a well-performing screen, and a comfortable feel. The person who buys this tablet must be someone who tries the Galaxy Tab 7 and finds some flaw that pushes them into the arms of the Thrive. (He or she might actually be better served with that device.) While the original Thrive was a clunky piece of hardware with enough strong points to overlook those shortcomings, the Thrive 7 offers some of the same awkwardness with more comfort. If you don’t care about cameras on a tablet and keep a charger handy, you’ll enjoy your time with the Thrive 7.

With the proliferation of Android tablets on the market in the past year with specs ranging from cheap to spectacular, the decision to buy a tablet is becoming almost automatic. Now choosing which one is the right fit for you is much more complex. While most companies started with making a direct competitor to the iPad, Samsung was the first to focus on a different strategy, bringing their Galaxy Tab line to different sizes targeting very different user profiles.

But which one is right for you? I’m among those who found Samsung’s first foray into e-Reader 7″ territory with the original Galaxy Tab and its excellent successor the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (expertly reviewed here at Androinica) too small for my overall usage, but I know there’s lots of people, my wife included, who think that around 10″ is too big outside of the house and sometimes inside as well.

If thinking in between, you’re about to have another option with the CES announced Galaxy Tab 7.7 4G LTE, but after a couple of weeks of considerable use to get a good feel for it, I’m going to make the case for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 being a great all-purpose size that could be just right.

The slick and classy look and finish are consistent with the other recent releases in the Tab lineup, other than the bottom speaker placement, on both sides of the Samsung connector. It looks great and has a nice feel to it, and while the display isn’t quite as spectacular as the Super AMOLED Plus, the TFT does look great for all the videos, text and games that will find their way onto your device.

I’m not going to focus on the specs in this review, because they are very similar to the other form factors except for the size. You won’t be sacrificing anything in power and it stacks up very well with its big brother. There is a hardware volume rocker, 3.5mm headset jack, power button, microphone, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 3.2-megapixel rear auto-focus camera with a single LED flash. Available in 16GB or 32GB, white or grey, WiFi only or 4G LTE, you have a few customization options before you even pick one up.

Dimensions (W x H x D)
9.1 x 6.2 x .34 inches
230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm

Weight
15.8 oz.
453 grams

As thin as the other 2011 Tabs or the iPad2, and around 3/4 of the weight, you feel a difference immediately when you pick it up.

So where does this form factor really shine?

The Bed Test

Above all else this one beats the 10.1″ tablets hands down as something to hold while you’re reclining or lying down. If you like to watch a movie, read a book or play a game in bed before unplugging for the night, I heartily recommend this size rather than something bigger. While I tend to let my larger tablet rest on my body when using it in bed – which I’m sure my chiropractor would say is a surefire pain in the neck – this one can be comfortably held two handed above you for as long as you want at that point in the night.

Even more important for many people and their reading styles is that it is still small and light enough to read one-handed for stretches, especially if you like to read lying on your side. While you feel this the most in bed, its still significant on the couch or in transit holding the larger tablets can be tiring or at least awkward.

Got Kids?

10.1″ tablets are fun with kids (with a little help vs ads from Famigo), as long as parents are holding them. The 8.9″ is just small enough that even really little kids like my almost 3 year old son can hold and use them comfortably. So if you have men, women and children all using the same tablet like in my house, this is a significant consideration.

Typing Flexibility

The amount of typing you plan to do on the tablet and how you like to do it should be a major consideration. Yes, there are a variety of keyboards available to make creative use of the real estate on a tablet, but I found the defaults work quite well here. For larger tablets I find myself either laying them flat or relying on bluetooth keyboard or docking station like the Asus Transformer or Prime. If you prefer to lay the tablet down and type two-handed for longer messages, the keyboard is just big enough to make this work. On a 7″ or 7.7″ anyone with even average sized hands would likely find that awkward or even unusable. On the other hand, if you prefer to type with two thumbs, in portrait mode this works quite well, and if you have larger hands it can work decently well in landscape. For a short message, holding in one hand while typing one-handed with the other worked well too.  For a soft keyboard, this might be the best size so far, giving you a wide range of typing activities that you could manage on this tablet.

Portability

That inch or so in each direction makes a big difference in how this feels when you’re taking it with you. While its not going to fit in any kind of jacket pocket like a 7″ may, it would fit very well in just about any woman’s purse, messenger bags, folios, briefcases or even a small backpack. Its also light enough that you could be carrying it by itself from meeting to meeting.

That also makes the rear camera for photos and video a little more manageable than on a larger tablet, though you’re still far more likely to get use out of the front-facing camera for video calls and conferencing.

Gaming

Games look as great on this as they will on a larger tablet. For games that need a bigger screen to control your actions on the screen, this is plenty big enough.

You’ll also do well for games that are more optimized for phones and seem a little too stretched out on a larger tablet will give you sore wrists and fingers, but this size makes them a lot more comfortable, but without feeling cramped. That’s especially true for those that use the accelerometer a lot, then you may have found yourself with tired arms all too often on a larger tablet.

Reading

I would far rather read on it for long periods of time than a 10.1″ tablet. Its still big enough that magazines can look good, and you don’t feel constrained. Web browsing, e-mail and social networks all look great and give you ample room for finer tapping. If reading is your main activity, especially on the go, then the 7″ or new 7.7″ might be a better fit, but again this one does well.

Movies

Online video, movies, photos and other kinds of content look fantastic on this tablet, and I found the sound and speaker placement worked well. The viewing experience is significantly better than you’ll find on smaller tablets, and while you’ll always appreciate a bigger screen for movies, you won’t be unhappy if movies are one of your many uses for this tablet.

Final Verdict

My first impression was that this is a beautifully light and thin device with a great screen, feels great in your hands, and could be held for a long time and used effectively in many different different ways. After two weeks of regular use, that first impression rings true, and I think Samsung might have a really good idea here.

While I’ve read some reviews that believe that this size has too narrow of a potential user base, I would beg to differ. The Tab 8.9 plays out very well as a jack-of-all-trades general purpose tablet, and there isn’t a single type of usage where it isn’t at least adequate to very good. It might even be the best of all when it comes to being able to use the soft keyboard effectively in a variety of ways. Yes, if your focus is on using it as an e-Reader then you might tend toward the 7″, and the larger tablets give you a bigger movie experience and with a hardware keyboard are better if you do a lot of writing. But as a versatile and very mobile device, I think it has the potential to emerge as a real winner for a lot of people.

With this versatility married to full full Android Honeycomb (and later ICS) functionality and the Flash capability and access to the full Market that comes with that, you may find yourself using this particular size of Tab for more than you ever expected. I expect your whole family will enjoy every minute of it, which might be a downside in some families, because you may find that your tablet belongs to everyone else.

One word of advice: get out there and feel these different sized tablets in your hands before you buy. This is becoming a very personal decision, and bigger certainly is not better for everyone. Decide what matters most to you, and make sure the size works well for all of those activities.

What is your favorite form factor of tablet, and why? Have you given 8.9″ a try?

Coming out of the gate, the HTC Rezound had a tough battle. The Motorla Droid RAZR had already been released, and rumors of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus release date were in full swing. To make the Rezound stand out in this crowd, HTC partnered with Beats by Dre and added a few more of its trademark wine-red accents to make a sexy phone with a mass-marketable feature. I’ll breakdown whether the Rezound can stand up against the thin onslaught from the RAZR and Nexus, and if you should give it serious consideration.

Hardware

After handling the RAZR and buying the Nexus, the Rezound felt like brick. It’s almost double the size of the RAZR, and although I know HTC devices are generally bigger devices, I don’t know exactly why the Rezound had to be so big. With a device like the Thunderbolt, you could give HTC the benefit of the doubt. But if the RAZR can stick a dual-core processor, 8MP camera, and a 4G LTE radio inside its thin frame, you have to believe HTC fumbled with the Rezound’s design a bit.

Aside from the thickness, the Rezound is, of course, well-made. HTC added a rubber back cover with grip to the phone so it wouldn’t scrape and slide on a hard surface like almost every HTC phone has before it. Around the phone the Rezound comes almost bare with a headphone jack, volume rocker, power button, and, very fortunately, a look-a-like proprietary USB port (it tricked me when I first looked at the cable). My only real gripe about the physical hardware is I would like the volume rocker and power button to stick out of the phone more. It’s hard to find these buttons if you’re fumbling around with the phone and even harder to press them once you do find them. The buttons are a rubbery black which makes them hard to see unlike other HTC phones that have a gunmetal or shiny black finish to make them easier to see.

Screen/Camera

Beautiful. I wanted a 4.5″ screen, but HTC finally made a rock-solid display. The brightness, even when set to its highest, is more muted than my Nexus and blacks won’t blend into the background, but the pure 720p resolution of the screen makes apps and details look great without the pixelation of a Pentile display. I know a lot of people dislike anything above a 4.3″ screen, and I believe HTC lucked out somewhat in that the RAZR and Nexus are both big phones. A lot of people will be able to look at all three phones simultaneously and decide whether or not they can handle the bigger phones or opt for the only similarly-spec’d phone, the Rezound. I’ll also say that smudges are much more noticeable on the Rezound’s screen than either the Nexus or the RAZR.

Wow. The camera application on the Rezound is far and away the best I’ve used on a phone. With tons of features (panorama, action burst) and even more effects (dots may be the coolest effect ever), the Rezound has all these features conveniently located. The camera itself takes very quick pictures, and the pictures are gorgeous.

Software Performance

In a word – stale. HTC’s Sense UI overlay has gone through several iterations, all bringing improvements, but with the same look and style. If we look at Samsung’s Touchwiz, we see a marked improvement in speed, style, and enhancements. But Sense, aside from the lockscreen which is great, has the same look, feel, and flow that it has always had. While it does have speed improvements, it’s still the same curved dock at the bottom, the same personalization settings, and the same jerky app drawer. With the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) upgrade due the Rezound, I’ll be very intrigued to see how HTC will change the look and feel of Sense. I hope they freshen it up because it is the best of all the manufacturer overlays, but ICS looks beautiful on its own too.

I’m also pleased to report that the Verizon bloatware has been diminished a good bit. Instead of City ID or Tetris, you’re upgraded to Hot Pursuit and a barcode scanner. I genuinely enjoy HTC’s widgets, and I don’t really consider them bloatware, but with 3 e-mail apps bundled with the phone, it becomes a little extraneous. However, all of this didn’t seem to bog the phone down in the slightest as the Rezound is just as zippy as the RAZR when flying through screens or getting in and out of menus and apps. The battery life didn’t take much of a hit either. Without the LTE radio, I could see getting over a day of medium usage (but who wants to turn off LTE when you’re getting 20MB/s download?!).

App Performance

HTC makes really nice apps (the camera) and widgets (Friendstream), and I would recommend these almost as highly as third-party apps. For games and such, I put the Rezound up against my Nexus in speed and multi-tasking tests, and it fared pretty well. Like I said, neither Sense nor Verizon’s apps really slowed this phone down, and the Rezound was able to come away with a few wins against the Nexus.

My LTE speedtest showed consistently that the Rezound’s radio is better than the Nexus. I got at least a few MBs faster downloads than the Nexus almost every time. In multiple tests opening Angry Birds and Jelly Defense, both phones were neck and neck, but the Nexus edged the Rezound out 7/10 times. Finally, I wouldn’t worry about those intense games like Shadowgun or Heavy Gunner either. They work without lag or stutter, but I did miss the bigger screen for these types of games.

Final Thoughts

So what exactly makes the Rezound stand out? Sure, there’s Beats by Dre and the smallest notification light possible, but with the overbearing natures of the RAZR and Nexus, does the Rezound do anything they can’t? It’s thick body stands out, but aside from that, there are more compelling reasons to buy either the RAZR or Nexus. Maybe you want a smaller screen, HTC’s durable contruction or you even want Sense; but if a consumer is asked if they want a paper thin phone or ICS or neither, the consumer will usually choose either of the flashy features of the RAZR or Nexus, and I don’t have any compelling arguments against them.

However, the Rezound is another solid phone in HTC’s lineup, and you won’t regret this phone in the slightest (it will get ICS in the coming months). It has similar hardware as its competitors, and you know exactly what you’re getting with the hardware construction and Sense. Beats by Dre does sound great, much clearer than the competition, but it’s not as much of a game-changer as ICS or unimaginable thinness. For audiophiles or even Beats by Dre lovers, this is definitely the phone for you. With Verizon’s LTE and a shockingly fast 1.5 dual core processor, the Rezound is no slouch, and may be the best phone out, if you can stay away from the flash and style of the RAZR and Nexus.

You can get the Rezound at Verizon for $300 on contract, at Amazon for $150 on contract or at Wirefly for $150 on contract.

Spoiler alert: the ASUS Transformer Prime is the best Android tablet that money can buy. It’s usually considered bad form to give away the conclusion of a review in the opening paragraph, but there’s no use in trying to mask the obvious.

I could tease you for 1000 words and go on about how this device supercharges an already formidable Honeycomb tablet, but we’d eventually reach the same conclusion – the ASUS Transformer Prime is the optimal Android tablet. Yes, that pun was completely intentional. Let’s take a look at the device.

HARDWARE & GAMING

ASUS took everything that was good about the original Transformer tablet and elevated the Prime to be more premium and polished. The latest form-changer is thinner and has an aluminum back with a circular pattern that shines when the light hits it. Available in multiple colors, the aluminum build feels a lot better to touch than the grip texture on the Toshiba Thrive or the plastic posterior of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The edges are sharper and less round than those other devices, so the Prime doesn’t feel as good when held in portrait. And just like the original Transformer, the Prime benefits from an optional dock that turns the device into an Android-powered pseudo-laptop. (Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a dock for review purposes, so we’ll try to circle back in the future and update this post.)

The Transformer Prime has the distinction of being the first quad-core tablet running NVIDIA Tegra 3. The revamped architecture that we’ve detailed before gives the tablet an extended battery life (12 hours) and better performance thanks to a more efficient way of completing tasks. Best of all, it really advances the gaming capabilities of what’s previously been available in Android. Most impressive were the games that I’ve seen for the first time, namely Bladeslinger. The monsters-meets-Western slash and shoot game is just a preview version, but it’s already stellar in terms of scenery and elementary action.

Comparing existing games helps point out the bump in quality. Riptide GP has been one of my favorite games to play on Tegra 2 devices, but seeing what Tegra 3 is capable of knocked me off my imaginary jet ski. The increased computing power, lighting effects, and graphics rendering makes it possible to have more realistic wave movements and a top speed mode that draws in players. I had my doubts when NVIDIA said that people would notice that big of a difference with how water splashes when they’re busy trying to race in Riptide, but my eyes did pick up on the blur effects and improved rendering. I noticed similar upgrades when comparing how Shadowgun looks on my current tablet and how the explosions and opponents have more details and capabilities on the Prime.

• Solid specs of 1 GB memory, 32 – 64 GB internal storage, and ports for micro HDMI, microSD, and an optional keyboard dock that extends standard battery life from 12 hours to 18 hours. Dock sold separately for $149.
• 10.1-inch Super IPS+ screen with Gorilla Glass and 1280 x 800 resolution. Images look crisp, video playback is great, and there are many modes for customizing brightness. And this baby is bright. The colors look great as long as you don’t turn on Power Saver mode, which reduces color diversity to conserve energy. That Super IPS+ setting will tear through battery like nobody’s business after a while. I wouldn’t recommend reading books outdoors unless you have an outlet nearby.

• Some early reports suggest that there are some GPS bugs that may need to be addressed in a software update.
• Has a locked bootloader, so it’s not as hack-friendly as some other Wi-Fi tablets. A campaign has been started to urge ASUS to unlock it, but be advised that you may have to wait on a workaround before you’re able to load custom ROM’s.
• SonicMaster technology creates crisp sounding audio…on one side. The speaker is placed in a terrible spot, leading to audio being pumped from the right/bottom.

SOFTWARE

It’s not all fun and games; the Transformer Prime has some twists to Honeycomb to add to your experience with apps. The Prime has a slightly tweaked version of Android 3.2 with promises for an upgrade to 4.0 at an unannounced date. There’s a custom toggle switcher to change between IPS/Super IPS+ modes, change into power savers, and turn on auto-rotate, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. Users can revert to the stock app switcher, and there aren’t as many heavy changes that we’ve seen in devices from other manufacturers.

Instead, ASUS focuses on apps and widgets that enhance the software without cutting too deep into Honeycomb. The best of those widgets is MyZine, an almost full-screen pack that shows images from a chosen folder; a browser and music thumbnail; a weather snapshot; and a dashboard showing the number of unread emails, events, and books stored on the device. These aren’t earth-moving features, but they are simple and offer sensible utility.

Pre-installed software includes:

• App Backup – an app that creates backups of the apps installed
• App Locker – a tool to password protect select apps
• File Manager – the name says it all; the app is surprisingly decent
• My Cloud/Vibe/Webstorage – a trio of apps that provide cloud-based storage for your media and documents. It also provides links to Internet radio stations and content stored on your PC/Mac.
• My Library – An e-reading app that is pretty bad. Skip this and just download Aldiko, Google Books, Kindle, Nook, or one of the many other options.
• Polaris Office – A great mobile Microsoft Office suite
• SuperNote – a note-taking app for gestures or keyboard entry
• Zinio – A magazine reading app

The software is overall favorable, but there are definitely noticeable hiccups. In my testing of the Prime over the past two weeks, I’ve experienced multiple instances of excessive lag when switching orientation or slow responses to launch. I’ve experienced the same problem occasionally on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, so this is an issue that Android just can’t seem to shake. One would think that Tegra 3 would add some kind of computing power to stamp out the slow response times once and for all, but that’s simply not the case.

CAMERA

Tablet cameras are typically ”meh” because the use-case for them doesn’t require much. That didn’t stop ASUS from upgrading the Prime to an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash on the rear of the device. The photos and videos captured are of good quality, which is a sign of respect from someone who rates a rear camera as one of the least important things about a tablet. The front-facing camera, which is more likely to be used and thus more important, surprisingly didn’t see much of a boost. It’s still a 1.3 megapixel camera that isn’t as smooth or crisp as the rear lens obviously, but it’s good enough for the occasions when you’ll be video chatting. I had a video chat sitting next to a lamp in a poorly lit room and the other person on the line had no trouble seeing me. Here are a few samples

CONCLUSION

The opening paragraph already confirmed your suspicions that the ASUS Transformer Prime is the best Android tablet currently on the market. The question is: is it the best for you? At $499 for the 32 GB version and $149 for the dock, you’re close to spending the same amount of money that you would on a laptop. That’s a lot to ask, especially with the original Transformer costing $100 less for the base model, and other Android tablets starting go on sale for less. Yes, the Prime offers a premium experience that surpasses others, but it’s tough to say that paying that premium is worth it.

While the dock may be the main draw of the Transformer Prime, I’d say that the tablet is definitely worth a purchase if you’re tablet hunting. The Prime is the best Android device for gaming, should have a longer shelf life thanks to the Tegra 3 processor, and has a great screen that should fare better than its rivals in most situations. Like any device, there are areas in need of improvement. However, there are fewer things to change – or transform, if you will – in the pursuit of a phenomenal tablet.

The Nexus brand is a heavy burden to bear. Google introduced the Nexus One as the benchmark to which all Android phones should be measured, and for a considerable amount of time, that was the case. The Nexus S, with NFC and not much else new in tow, was harshly judged for failing to advance smartphones as much as the Nexus One did when it debuted.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G faces the same pressure. Bearing the Nexus name and being the first to introduce Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the masses, this is what all phones should aspire to. But after a long hype period and lofty expectations, there’s no guarantee that this will be a dream phone.

HARDWARE

As far as the weight that a “Google phone” carriers, the Galaxy Nexus represents itself well. The phone has a 4.65 Super AMOLED screen that flirts dangerously close with being too big, but the face of the phone is tall rather wide. The round corners and black body resembles a more mature Nexus S from the front view, and it also has the contour curved glass. Samsung opts for a more durable plastic that tougher and feels better than the material used in its other phones. The top of the device is very thin, but it gently slopes outward so that the bottom half of the phone is fatter. Coming from using a Droid Razr just days prior, the phone looks bigger than it should, but the light weight and palm-friendliness of the design will make you quickly forget that.

As for the internals, there’s plenty to gush over. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a TI OMAP 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 32 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, NFC, and 4G LTE support. The phone is fast in all aspects, and unfortunately, that includes battery life. We’ve come to accept that Android phones are typically not as good on battery life, and 4G LTE devices are the worst offenders when it comes to holding a charge. However, even that didn’t prepare me for what’s undoubtably the worst performing 4G battery I’ve experienced since the Thunderbolt. Doing my usual rounds of “normal guy use” (tweeting, browsing, playing games, answering email, and making a few calls here and there), the Galaxy Nexus lasted anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.

Even with LTE and auto-sync turned off, the Nexus didn’t perform as well as the Droid RAZR that I tested earlier this month. The Galaxy Nexus costs $299 on a two-year agreement, but be prepared to pay $349 because you’d be foolish to try to use the standard 1850 mAh battery that ships with the phone. The 2150 mAh extended battery sold in stores for $50 is a must-buy.

• 1280 x 720 resolution means this is one of the few Android devices with real HD. Large photos display better on the Super AMOLED screen with 720p resolution.
• 4G LTE, although a battery hog, makes a massive difference in download speeds. Coverage will vary in your area, but it’s a major selling point if you live in a LTE market.
• Software navigation buttons are great. Despite concerns about a lack of the capacitive “buttons” we’ve seen on previous phones, the Galaxy Nexus moves around fine (though it would have been better to have a dedicated search or persistent menu button)
• There’s a notification light! I’ve always been disappointed by Samsung’s lack of notification lights, but I see a flashing bulb near the bottom of the screen when notifications come in.

• Terrible battery life. Buy the extended battery, which doesn’t really add any extra girth to the phone, unless you want to recharge twice a day.
• Speaker volume is too low. I have to set ringer to full volume and struggle to play music because the phone isn’t loud enough.
• No microSD slot. Most people won’t care, but people with media beyond 32 GB or wish to interchange memory cards will be disappointed.

CAMERA QUALITY

The Galaxy Nexus features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the rear. The front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels, and both can be switched easily with the all new software available in Android 4.0. A full review of the camera quality, including photo and video samples, is available in this article.

SOFTWARE

The real star of the Galaxy Nexus is Ice Cream Sandwich. Yes, the hardware is good, but let’s be honest: aside from the screen resolution, there’s nothing distinctively better about the Galaxy Nexus when compared to any other Galaxy S II device. But when you compare the software between the two versions…well, actually, there is no comparison. Android 4.0 is the best UI around.

I’ve always understood the draw of vanilla Android, but mostly preferred the tweaks made to HTC Sense and Sony Timescape. But after using Ice Cream Sandwich, a custom UI is the last thing that I want to see on my phone now. While some of the icons are a bit too cartoonish for my taste, the overall look and performance of ICS is stunning. It’s basically a polished version of Honeycomb for phones. I love the soft navigation buttons and the ability to switch between or dismiss open apps. The redesigned apps for the browser, Gmail, and other Google properties are gorgeous, and the third-party apps that support ICS are starting to look just as simple and appealing.

We’ve run down the many great features of Ice Cream Sandwich on multiple occasions, so you can find it all here and here. So keep that in mind when I nitpick about annoying things like the contact system. A long-running problem with Google Contacts has been that user photos are stored at low-resolution, so they look terrible when appearing on Caller ID. That problem is even worse now that the People app stretches those pics even further. You could solve this by syncing with Google+, but that forces you to load thousands of contacts that you will never store on your phone, or assumes that everyone who you call uses Google+ (less than 20 people I know fit into that category).

And then there’s the elephant in the room – carrier interference. It would be nice if we could say that the only interference concerning the Galaxy Nexus were the two network outages that occurred in as many weeks recently, but we also have to contend with Verizon dictating what goes on the Nexus. The Nexus that was supposed to be Google’s flagship phone doesn’t support Google Wallet, despite the presence of NFC. A hacked APK is in the wild, but users shouldn’t be asked to install an APK from an untrusted source, especially when there’s no guarantee that it will have the same level of security as the official version that should have come with the Nexus. If that weren’t enough, the “Pure Google” experience has two Verizon apps of little worth (VZ Backup Assistant and My Verizon) that cannot be uninstalled. Users can at least disable those app to prevent them from running or appearing in the app drawer.

CONCLUSION

The Galaxy Nexus has been viewed as the dream phone for months now. It has the biggest screen, best resolution, great processor, fastest network, and the latest software. Best of all, the Galaxy Nexus will see software updates and improvements months before people on other devices can ever hope to. That’s the dream, right?

Well, that’s not so easy to answer because the dream phone struggles to stay awake thanks to poor battery life. The Galaxy Nexus isn’t a benchmark device from a hardware standpoint, but it’s definitely leading the pack on the software front. That is the most convincing argument why you should get this phone over another. The person who buys the Galaxy Nexus is someone who sees Ice Cream Sandwich and falls in love with Android as intended.

HTC, Motorola, and Sony have all pledged to continue their Android customizations, none of which look as good as ICS. While all of those manufacturers have phones that can match or outperform the Galaxy Nexus on a hardware level, none of them come close when comparing software and future-proofing updates. Nicks and all, the Galaxy Nexus experience is still remarkable thanks to ICS. This version of Android has advanced the OS to the point where I no longer feel comfortable referring to stock Android as “Vanilla Android.” There’s nothing plain about Android 4.0, and vanilla never tasted this good.

The Galaxy Nexus camera is not impressive. Sorry to dig the knife is so quickly, but that’s just the reality of it. The 5 megapixel camera with LED flash will not wow anyone or part the heavens as so many people who anticipated the Nexus hoped it would. The only thing that this device promises is that it will take pictures fast and respectably.

And when I say fast, I mean fast. The Galaxy Nexus has a zero-lag focus feature that takes a picture as soon as the user taps on the capture button. While other Android phones have been slow to focus and capture moments, the Galaxy Nexus recognizes faces and focal points within a second, then snaps the picture even faster. The camera software is otherwise basic, but there are some silly effects to alter photos and videos, as well as some hipster filters. Of more common and practical use, it allows users to toggle flash, choose 1 of 5 lighting modes, adjust exposure, and choose 1 of 5 scene settings designed to record the right image.

It’s not always successful in that mission because the Galaxy Nexus images sometimes capture a lot of noise rather than the comparatively smooth photos captured on an HTC Amaze or Samsung Galaxy S II. It also doesn’t seem to capture color as accurately. That has nothing to do with megapixels and everything to do with lens quality and processing software. While the Galaxy Nexus does capture images very quickly, the results are not as good as what we’ve seen on other Android devices. You won’t notice or care if you’re just taking a picture every now and then, but shutterbugs who rely on their mobile phone will notice that this camera is good, not great.

Specs & Notes

• 5 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
• LED flash for snapping photos and staying on when filming video in low-light
• Films video in up to 1080p HD video
• Does a surprisingly good job capturing images in low-light situations
• Captures time lapse video (intervals of 1 to 10 seconds)
• Apply live video effects and background images
• Capable of taking panoramic photos

Here are some sample photos and videos to see what the Galaxy Nexus can create.

No, I won’t go on about how the Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE took seemingly forever to arrive. I won’t talk about how poorly the launch was handled or how I should have been writing this post weeks ago. In the end, all that matters is that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE is here. It’s in my hands and not on my screen teasing me with leaked photos and release dates. I can finally touch the once mythical device and talk about it in real terms.

It’s been 24 hours since I got my Galaxy Nexus and I’ve been equally impressed and troubled. I’ve been Impressed because the form factor is just that – impressive. With a massive 4.65 inch screen, I expected the Galaxy Nexus to be ridiculously large and bulky. However the device is tall and comfortable, not big and bulky. You will definitely notice a difference between you’re existing phone and the 67.94 x 135.5 x 9.47 mm dimensions of the Galaxy Nexus, but it will not be a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination.

The Galaxy Nexus LTE has a curved glass, Super AMOLED screen with 1280 x 720 resolution. Gorgeous. That’s all that needs to be said about it. I’ve seen previous reports of suspicions about discoloration or questions about pixel density, but I’m just not seeing what people are talking about. The screen has so far looked great in displaying, text, photo, and video. It’s a joy to look at, especially when I see how snappy the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor handles Ice Cream Sandwich.

I’m not as impressed with the camera, but I expected as much. The sensor on the Galaxy Nexus is not as good as what’s seen in other mobile phones, so picture quality isn’t going to win any awards. However, I will give the Galaxy Nexus credit for being fairly decent at capturing photos in low-light conditions, something most phones can’t say. I’ll post a full gallery later to show things off.

Now for the one thing that has worried me most since I took the Nexus home – battery life. This is too early to really gauge battery life, but things aren’t off to a great start. I know that you’re supposed to give Lithium batteries a couple of charge cycles to really get a sense of how they’ll hold up, but the battery died on me in less than 4 hours yesterday while I was downloading apps. Our friends at Android and Me said that they got more than 8 hours with plenty of juice left, so I’m hoping that I have a defective battery. I’ve disabled 4G since I live just outside of the coverage area, and I’ve decreased screen brightness in hopes that things will improve. I’ll be playing with the Nexus religiously and will be back with more impressions throughout the week, so I hope to have better news to report.

I haven’t had my hands on a Samsung device in a while, but I’ll admit I am a bit biased towards them. I like plastic vs metal casing, a sleek black design appeals to me more than slate gray, and I’m a sucker for AMOLED displays. The Samsung Stratosphere is Samsung’s answer to the Droid 3, and with all of my favorite features, it should be my favorite QWERTY-phone. However, when placed into context of its release and what it’s capable of, the Stratosphere will probably go unnoticed by consumers and for good reason.

Hardware

With only a single processing core to power it, we know the Stratosphere’s target audience. It’s aimed at the lower-end market who need a keyboard, and while this isn’t a bad target audience, it is a crowded one. Like I stated, the Stratosphere has to compete with the ever-popular Droid lineup and the LG Enlighten. To battle these other phones, the Stratosphere was released with Verizon’s LTE radio, but hardware-wise it’s in the same ballpark as its competition.

Around the phone are all the basics: headphone jack, volume rocker, power, and USB-out. I dislike Samsung’s stubbornness to never add a notification light and to put the power button in such an awful spot. However both cameras are in the “better-than-average” range, and the keyboard is nicely spaced out with menu, search, home, and back buttons for convenience. There was a lot of this give-and-take spec-wise with this phone. LTE is a speed demon, but the single processor can’t handle it all the time. The Super AMOLED screen pops with vibrant colors while turning the screen on can be annoying.

The keyboard slideout was fairly solid, but not nearly as durable as the Droid 3. After months of use, I can easily picture the keyboard dangling by some wire. Coupled with the fact that you WILL open the keyboard every time you press the power button, Samsung should have thought a little more about the Stratosphere’s design instead of shipping it out right before the holiday rush.

Screen/Camera

I adore SAMOLED screens, and the Stratosphere is on-par with the first batch of Galaxy S phones. It’s an average-sized screen, and the colors, of course, pop, but in the world of SAMOLED HD and Super SAMOLED+, the Stratosphere gets left behind. It isn’t a bad screen, nowhere near, though it makes me think these mid-range phones are released just to fill the gaps between big releases. It has the potential and specs to push what we’ve come to expect from these type of phones, but Samsung doesn’t give the Stratosphere enough attention to show it’s prowess.

The 5MP back camera is a very solid mid-range camera, and Samsung adds some nice functionality to its camera app. Is it the leader of its group? No. Is it good enough to take family vacation pictures? Yes. The front-facing camera is in the top-tier at 1.3MP (better even than the iPhone 4s), but I had to ask, “Can this phone handle multitasking while video chatting?” The advanced features that this phone comes with can’t take advantage of its aging hardware. Then, they added a VGA camcorder. Samsung, if you’re reading this, more people use the camcorder feature than the front-facing camera; upgrade the one that people are going to use.

Software Performance

Ah, Touchwiz, my old frenemy. With recent upgrades, especially on the Galaxy S II phones, Touchwiz has become very user-friendly with added enhancements to the Android OS. Now, the Stratosphere isn’t a Galaxy S II, but it’s Touchwiz interface is better than what was on the first-gen Galaxy phones. It’s more like Touchwiz 3.5 instead of 4.0. There is no panning or tilting, but the look and feel is definitely the new Touchwiz. It runs much smoother than what I used to have on my Fascinate, and the overall user-friendliness is great for first-time Android consumers.

Samsung also seems to add some very good apps like Allshare and their own media center filled with movies and music, Media Hub. Allshare allows you to stream content over the internet to your PC or any other streaming device. Media Hub is an entire market itself. It can rival Google’s newest additions to the Android Market, save for games. Let’s Golf 2 and City ID are seemingly ageless in Verizon Wireless years, and all the other extraneous Verizon add-ons are here taking up your RAM as well.

App Performance

I have to say, as much as I want it to be the case, Samsung devices never seem to perform that well when opening or switching in and out of apps. They always seem to have a hiccup or just bog down a bit, and the Stratosphere didn’t break this perception for me. While apps run smoothly and rarely have the slightest jilt, their “click to play” time is always on the lower side. This won’t and shouldn’t bother many people, but it’s an observation I’ve had for a while, and unfortunately the Stratosphere falls into the same Samsung pitfalls.

Of course, the Angry Birds test fared very well against my Xperia Play, only a second or two behind it. I don’t believe it could run graphically intensive games like Shadowgun or Hockey Nations very well, but more casual games, the games generally intended for the same people this device is intended for, will play perfectly well.

Final Thoughts

The Stratosphere certainly won’t be confused with the Galaxy S II, RAZR, or Galaxy Nexus, and it’s release date puts it at a great disadvantage. It is a glorified, albeit slimmer and lighter, version of the Epic 4G on Sprint. That being said, there are multitudes of people that can’t live without a keyboard, coupled with Verizon’s LTE network, people will buy this device. 4G is the Stratosphere’s only redeeming quality over the LG Enlighten or Droid 3, and in that respect I would recommend it over those two devices. The battery is good for a 4G device, not as good as the Enlighten, but it won’t die on you right away either.

If you can’t live without a keyboard (I promise, you can), then the Stratosphere is your best choice since it has 4G. It doesn’t have a dual-core processor and doesn’t really have a hope of receiving an update to Ice Cream Sandwich. In other words, the future’s not too bright for the Stratosphere, though it definitely has a keyboard.

The Motorola Droid and Motorola Razr were both game-changing phones. The Razr introduced a slim, stylish phone at a time when devices would never be considered sexy. The Droid had a similar impact on the smartphone industry, but not because of its looks. What made the Droid special was that it was a powerful phone that moved Android from fringe geeky cool to mainstream “You gotta have this” technology.

With the Droid Razr, Motorola attempts to marry the game-changing attributes of its two most important brands of the modern smartphone era. The phone is once again sleek and sharp like the latter half of its name would imply, but bold and limit-pushing like the former. So how successful is Motorola at merging form and function in its latest phone?

Hardware

It’s not hard to see why Motorola went with the Droid Razr name considering that this phone is thinner and tougher than most. The device has a protruding brow that houses the speaker and camera, but the main body of the Droid Razr is only 7.1 mm. The large slab of black and smoke gray curve in at the edges and feel incredibly comfortable to hold. Well, if you don’t have tiny hands. With a 4.3 Super AMOLED screen and rather large-but-still-thin exterior, this isn’t a dainty device.

A slender build is what one would expect from a phone called Razr, but the phone is tough even by Droid standards. The screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, which we’ve seen remain pristine despite being scratched repeatedly by keys and dropping higher than six feet. Keys are also no match for the rear of device that has a special coat from Kevlar, the same company that makes bullet proof vests for police officers. The Droid Razr won’t stop a bullet, but it will stop the normal dangers of life from destroying the big beauty in your pocket.

While I’d love to rant and rave about the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (TI OMAP 4) and great form factor some more, the Droid Razr screen is not so beautiful. No, it’s not ugly either, but the tint seems slightly darker than I’m accustom to seeing on Super AMOLED displays. Unless held at a distance, text can seem dot-heavy in icons or reading apps; the capacitive buttons at the bottom of the screen are especially dotty. Most users won’t notice the difference between the Razr and another SAMOLED, but people who place heavy importance on-screen quality will.

More Droid Razr Specs available here.

• The Razr supports Verizon’s phenomenal 4G LTE network. That means you’ll get incredibly fast speeds when available, but also that it will eat through your battery faster. The difference is that battery life is better than any other Verizon 4G phone. Count on 6-13 hours depending on your usage patterns and settings.
• The Droid Razr also supports the Lapdock 100, a separately-sold accessory that can switch into a pseudo-laptop. The “webtop” system plugs into the phone and can browse the web with a special version of Firefox or control your phone apps with a keyboard. The Lapdock has productivity potential and it charges the phone while in-use.
• We rarely talk about call quality in phone reviews (insert ironic joke here) but the call quality is really good on the Droid Razr. Sound on both ends was better that I’m use to hearing.

• The Droid Razr has the best battery life (comparatively) of any Verizon 4G device that we’ve tested. However, the battery is locked away and not removable. This is not good for people who want to keep a spare battery or do a battery pull on the occasion that the phone loops on a glitch. This was a design necessity but may be a bummer for some users.

Click here to continue reading about Software, Camera, and final conclusion