Samsung Galaxy S9000

Who says size doesn’t matter?

Don’t let them deceive you when they say size doesn’t matter, it sure does, especially for the case of Samsung Galaxy S i9000.

Samsung has added another Google Android smart phone to their range with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S i9000. The Samsung Galaxy i9000 is term as a special smartphone, and comes with the latest version of Google Android 2.1, why special? Read on.

The specifications seem pretty impressive, it features four inch Super AMOLED WVGA display with a resolution of 800 x 480, and has a five megapixel camera, and 1GHz processor.
One of the most interesting & impressive Samsung Galaxy S i9000 specs is the powerful camera. A 5 megapixel camera with autofocus lets you capture some of the best quality pictures and videos. This comes along with geo-tagging and face detection facilities and there is a secondary camera for video calls too.

The Samsung Galaxy S i9000 features Samsung’s custom ‘social hub’ user interface which has a range of social networking feature & wonderful social integration built in. On top of that the S i9000 also features A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and a micro SD card slot, so connecting to websites, social networks, chatting, Push Mail, etc is relatively easy.

The Samsung Galaxy S i9000 feature a range of pre-loaded applications which include Swype, Layar, ThinkFree Office viewer and DLNA.

Storage comes in a choice of 8GB or 16GB as standard, and the microSD card slot will take up to 32GB microSD cards, there is also quad-band GSM and tri-band (900/1900/2100) UMTS/HSPA connectivity.

Besides the camera, the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 comes packed with social widgets. The S i9000 makes Smart Life a reality with Social Hub, an integrated social networking feature that brings together social networks service (SNS) like Facebook and Twitter, along with your contacts and messaging services, into a single, easily accessible place.

Most of these smartphone usually have short battery life, but the case with S i9000, The battery is really powerful and can power up the phone up to 6 hours 30 minutes on talk-time.

Overall, I'm quite impress with their standard that Samsung can come up with this type of specifications. I think the current market competitor would be the HTC Desire, get it on...Android...

HTC Desire - Yeah iPhone Killer!!!

HTC Desire is the next big thing that has a more powerful processor and a larger screen, making it potentially more convenient for business users who find themselves loaded with tons of email every day, as well as techie who prefer anything other than iPhone.

HTC Desire uses a 1GHz processor, probably the fastest in the market right now, and the more powerful processor means the device is better able to run applications faster. This means not only working more quickly within individual apps, but also running multiple applications at the same time with faster speed. While I was testing the Desire, this is the first time that I did not experience any momentary wait or lag as what some would describe, like previous HTC models (you know, those hour glass rotating figure?).

Next, is the screen, one of the plus points for Desire, at 3.7 inch, this is definitely one of the largest on any smartphone around. Pixel wise, with 480 x 800 display and sporting with AMOLED technology, making it very pin-sharp and bright lit in all situation. This would come handy when you carry out multi tasks like reading emails, browsing the web, etc.

The HTC Desire runs Android 2.1 and has the latest version of HTC’s Sense user interface sitting on top. This gives you a very user-friendly touch screen system. Another plus point is the Leap feature, when you pinch-zoom on the main screen, it’ll automatically roll out the rest of the other seven screens in thumbnails, giving you the chance to choose which screen you want, rather than tap-scrolling with your fingers, and that’s something iPhone does not comes with, unless you paid for the apps…..besides, within the iPhone there’s G-Sensor, so when you turn it in your hand, the screen will rotate, giving you convenience in viewing the web pages in wide format…..yeah!

Each of the seven screens can be populated with widgets, which include shortcuts to applications, individual contacts, web bookmarks and folders. It would be easy to have entirely separate screens for work and leisure related activities.

Another interesting feature is the HTC own Twitter application called Peep, which includes FriendStream, that brings together most common social applications like Facebook, Twitter and Flicker. Besides, Desire also brings together contact details from Google, Outlook as well as Flickr in one place, so you don’t need to search high and low for various contacts anymore…cool.

Other standard Android features such as GPS, Wi-Fi and HSPA are all included, and of course, Google Maps.

Call quality was fantastic, we had no problem making calls & reeceiving them, and decent battery life too. Texting was wonderful, works exactly like the way you want it as with most touch screen smartphone.

Blackberry Bold 9700 - Small but powerful

Another champion on qwerty keyboard phone?

BlackBerry Bold was one of the outstanding devices in 2009, and its time for a refresh. RIM has updated their flagship model with a much sleeker and more powerful model – The Bold 2 or Bold 9700.

It's a sleeker, faster and more able device than its predecessor, and it shows. We're talking 16g lighter, 6mm less wide, 5mm less tall and a whopping 0.9mm thinner.
However, when it’s sleeker it only means smaller keyboard, and for big fingers like me would have to some getting used to. Outlook wise, it does have some similarity with Storm 2, but with a whole lot of keys jammed on instead.

The top of the phone houses two buttons: the lock and the mute keys. The former will turn off the screen and lock the keys, and the latter will mute the phone when ringing, but holding it down will put the phone into standby mode.

Using the new BlackBerry 5.0 OS, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a more powerful and intuitive device than its predecessors.

Navigation is achieved almost exclusively through the optical trackpad, although the keyboard offers easy to use shortcuts.

RIM has significantly sped up the performance in both the BlackBerry 9700 and the Storm 2, with both of them reacting to inputs and opening applications much faster than before.
You may accuse the Bold 9700 of being a little boring when it comes to design, the impressive thing is that everything is kept simple, which is why users have stick to BlackBerry for so many years.

You may not already know this, but the BlackBerry series is actually pretty good for messaging, what with this new-fangled email and all that these days.
Text messaging is a similar experience to the e-mailing – it just works because the phone is designed to be a communications device.

Threaded conversations are a boon, the keyboard shortcuts are there again (although not as many, as email obviously offers a richer messaging experience) and you can even send an IM or Facebook message to that person too (well, you could if Facebook Connect was allowed on our phone

One last thing that I must comment, the battery life on the Bold 9700 is fantastic compared to others in the range. It can easily last a whole day with normal use, and sometimes you'll even extend it into the next if you shut down Wi-Fi and push email when not needed.

In summary, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a fantastic device that replaces Bold, faster, more responsive and lighter. But I do miss the ball track pad though…anyway, it’s a good upgrade for RIM to introduce Bold 9700.

Jabra Extreme - Is this bloody earpiece really that good?

Jabra? I thought it was Ja Ja Brink, you know, that tall & ugly character from Star Wars? Anyway, Jabra is supposed to be known as advanced in technology to cancel noise and give you clear & crystal sound, but this is not the case.

Going through the catalogue and those fake PR write-up (Yo, PR Company, you got to do better than this), saying that ir uses dual microphones to intelligently filter out background noise by as many as 24 decibels of sound - twice the noise reduction achieved by first-generation Noise Blackout (12dB). Where got dual microphone? Also it states that Extreme is
Enhanced with automatic volume control that intelligently amplifies a soft voice, do you believe in this crap? If it's so intelligent, then I guess you need not be as hard-sell as now..

Besides the crap they are writing, this really tops it all: New and unique Ultimate-fit EargelsT specially developed for Jabra Extreme guarantee superior comfort, especially for working professionals who wearthe Extreme throughout the day for increased productivity and efficiency. Then you'll really look stupid walking around talking to yourself...man..what a disgrace!

Anyway, to cut the story short, you can forget about buying Extreme, for the price of S$128, you can definitely get something cheaper and better than this.

Jabra, if you are listening or reading this, then I guess you'd better not over promised on what you can deliver.

I've personally bought the Extreme, and man, it really sucks! Not only it did not reduce noise, and I can even echo during my conversation.

Only one thing I like about the Extreme, that is easy switch on by flick of a button, doesn't require you to continuously press on like the others bluetooth in the market.

Overall feel, not worth the money spent.

Dell M11X - A Gaming Netbook? You must be dreaming...

First, there's the Dell M15x, even though it’s good for gaming in terms of resolution, speed as well as graphic cards, but lugging around a big gaming book on your lap is no easy feat, meaning, your legs may break anytime due to the weight of M15x. However, the people at Dell, applaud for their innovation, decided to create a smaller gaming notebook, which comes in the size of a netbook instead, but, gaming on a netbook? Don't think any gamers in their decent mind would agree to that, but then, let's give credit to the innovation Dell had put in.

The M11x is not as small as a standard netbook, or as big in size as a notebook, it's somewhere in-between the two. With the lid closed the M11x is 32.7mm thick and 215mm long by 287mm wide with a weight of 1.99kg, which when you compare an Asus Eee PC 1101HA netbook with a similar 11.6’ display, is 286mm x 196mm x 35.5mm and weighs 1.4kg. M11x will be tout as cross between a netbook and gaming notebook.

As like the M15x, the design of M11x is simply futuristic. Let’s start with the power button. The shape of an alien head surrounded by light and the captivating large Alienware logo, you can’t help but be amaze by the little touches Dell puts in. Also, the lights around the keys on the keyboard and headlights on the front, the large Alien head on the rear of the screen and is always surrounded by an eerie white light, all of these lights can be customized through an easy to use interface to display any colour wanted. All these are mostly found on mostly on large gaming PC and now appear on a portable computer, with an 11.6’ screen that fills with bright colours and images.

Next, is the graphical power of the Alienware M11x. This is simply its outstanding feature, where I guess the great portion of our money went to. With an Intel 1.3Ghz SU7300 Core 2 Duo chip, an Nvidia GeForce GT335M discrete GPU with 1GB of GDDR memory, this lethal combination is good both for playing quite a fair bit of collection of games up to 30 frames per second on the GT335M and for switching over to the basic Intel graphics adaptor for less demanding tasks with prolonged battery life when needed. Gaming was indeed a joy on the M11x, and works exactly like renown home game console when we use the same set of games to play. We even plug the M11X to our 40’ LCD screen via HDMI and was surprised that it produced good quality solution. This device is capable to handle most of the games we installed, outstanding!

As for ports, M11x actually has quite a decent range provided. You have both the VGA and HDMI sockets, along with the rarely included Displayport socket. The usual range of memory cards are supported by a built-in reader, three USB sockets. What it really lack of is an optical drive. Most gamers like us would installed games via CD and without an optical drive, it somehow causes some inconvenience, and we have to installed our games via external CD. Most of us would know that without the CD in the drive, some of the game are unable to run due to anti-piracy measures. Given that this is a potable gaming device, lugging the M11x as well as the external drive just does not seems right.

Power! Most gaming laptop are very power hungry. The M11x is powered by an 8-cell, non-removable battery and is under a backing plate on the base of the computer, which can be accessed if push comes to shove with a screwdriver. Incidentally, the base also houses the exhaust fans and speakers, both of which become muted and blocked if placed on cushioning or bedding, which probably isn't the best place for the M11x to be used. When we exploit the M11x with full graphic cards running on our games, it lasted almost 3 hours. If we use it on a normal day to day usage of surfing, the M11x actually last close to 5 hours, amazing indeed, given the high specs of this potable computer.

Conclusion, besides the lack of optical drive, the overall feel and design of M11x is not too bad, but I won't buy it, as spending S$1,699 on this, I could get a very high specs desk top and blast my games away, who knows, I might even get surround sound or 3D with it, that is, if you are a true gamer.

Fujifilm Finepix HS10 - Long Zoom..very long zoom (Don't get naughty)

HS10 has what we usually call an Ultrazoom, non-DSLR cameras that can shoot long distances. Comparing those that’s available in the market, where most of the optical quality often takes a dive to reach such extreme lengths, with the control no difference from a point-and-shoot costing half the price, HS10 achieves the impossible with BSI image sensor tricks to improve quality and controls you'd normally expect only on an dSLR. HS10 is also able to shoot in RAW capturing format, whereby mostly dSLR offers, and the HS10 delivers relatively good image where I think most photo enthusiasts would love to have, but without the hassle of switching lenses.

Those who had used a dSLR will feel comfortable with HS10. It has an entire column on the left provides quick shortcuts to ISO, autoexposure, autofocusing mode as well as the white balance. On the other side are similar touches like an AE/AF lock and a dedicated navigation dial next to the mode dial. The only concessions to newcomers are the typical four-way shortcut pad and a dial split equal between the usual program, aperture, shutter & manual mode.

Features wise, HS10 works just like a dSLR, zooming in by rotating the lens, and with this, it allows control over the length which you wants to shoot. As mentioned above, HS10 comes with BSI sensor that offers an unique features called panorama capture mode. All you have to do is to place the camera across the object to take a panoramic shot, and the frames will be recorded continuously without much hassle. Some of the other cameras which I’ve tried that offers panorama mode often ends up images of misalignment even though you handle the camera smoothly, but not the HS10. The result was perfect, and the picture taken was seamless. Besides panoramic, HS10 has another feature called Pro Low-Light mode, which combines a few images simultaneously and form a sharp photo with lower noise levels, this is partly make possible by using CMOS sensor rather than the usual CCD, so it does have the benefits of good sensitivity to light and low noise. The camera shoots at up to ISO 6,400 without having to drop the resolution, though as always the actual usable range is considerably less.

Another additional feature which I really love from HS10 was the 3’ tilting LCD, that allows taking pictures from a difficult angle, especially when you have a big crowd in front of you, and you’re not tall enough to see what was on the screen, taking a shot was like a piece of cake. We had tons of minor tweaks available, like White Balance refinement, Sharpness, Color, and Film modes. Dynamic Range was adjustable, and we had an f/2.8 – f/11 Aperture range and base 30-second Shutter Speed in Manual Mode.

This year, most of the Fujifilm Finepix cameras produce quite impressive images, and of course, HS10 is one of them. The colours turns out quite natural, noise are minimal, and the camera allow us to manipulate the result that suit our vision.
Next, is the overdue upgrade of HD video for Fujifilm products. As far as I can remember, the previous Fujifilm’s product can only shoot in VGA, and not HD, and here, we have the HS10 to shoot up to 1080p. The result is a noticeable difference that you can use even to post up to YouTube and MetaCafe for the web to enjoy.

However, if you are expecting to use HS10 to replace the cam recorder, you will be quite disappointed. Even though it’s great for web video, computer or directly for TV, you can’t help but noticed there’s a visible amount of compression, and the camera is finding hard to keep up with the 30 frames per second without blurring the objects. Also, without the mechanical zoom, you may have problems producing movies either by jerking the scene, or some uneven movement are noticeably visible when you use the lens barrel.

In summary, HS10 is the closest you can get to find somewhere in the middle, between the sopiscation of a dSLR and the convenience of a point-and-shoot camera, and HS10 handles most of the shooting conditions well. This is the ideal bargain for any photographer who requires a very long zoom, easy control but not ready for a dSLR, and it does not really burn a hole in your pocket.

This is one camera I have no complain about, as it's not out to replace dSLR, unlike Sony...sigh.....

Motorola Milestone XT - Seriously, do you need HD on such a small screen?

Three months after their launch of Milestone in Singapore, Motorola has just released their Milestone XT, a much better looking, no-keyboard, high specifications using the very successful Android OS!

We got a nice hands-on with Milestone XT at Starhub shop, and we are indeed surprise with the updates when comparing with it’s predecessor.
First thing that surprises me was the outlook. Comparing it with Milestone, XT has a more chic look, not so business like, comes with silver trim, combine with ultra thin & fashionable design, keeps you up to date with the latest industry buzz and lets you create and enjoy the mobile internet experience that matches your lifestyle.

Another notable difference you will find on XT, is their video & camera functions. XT comes with a HDMI jack that you can hook up directly on to your HD TV for 720p playback. Of course, you can use it as a camcorder as well, which you can use it to record your video in high-definitions, and allowing you to play directly into your HD TV.

Besides the HD function of XT, the camera is another worth mentioning. It comes with 8 mega pixel with xenon flash that takes relatively good pictures, and along build-in stitching functions for you to take your panoramic shots separately, after which, you join them together for a wonderful panoramic picture. Use this function to impress your partner on your artistic flair.

I must admit, Android does have an abundance of free apps available, so user can choose what kind of apps they are keen on. Sources reveal that since XT is built on open platform, the preloaded software on your handset updates automatically, regularly renewing the phone with more features and better performance, cool...don't need to look for updates everytime...

XT gives you access to thousands of apps and widgets from Android market, in fact, till date there are approximately 50,000 + Android Apps available. A suite of Google applications including Google Maps with Latitude, Gmail and YouTube are also integrated onto the device. It brings that experience to life, and makes it simpler, faster, and more fun than ever.

The upgraded live wallpaper, with up to five home screen panels, allows more space for customization. You can even group different widgets, such as your calendar, contacts, email, clock, and dozens of others the way you want to, so that you see what you want, where you want.

Another accolade worth mentioning is the Chinese handwriting recognition software that comes with XT. It allows you to write Chinese characters by scribbling on the screen, and XT instantly recognized the word which I must say is quite impressive, beats using hangyu pinyin anytime.

In general, XT comes as a replacement for Motorola Milestone launched in March 2010, and Motorola is quickly climbing the ladder of becoming another smart phone manufacturer that offers integrated solutions for the consumers, which I think is a good effort from them, in order to stay afloat in the current competitive mobile, smart phone market.

But, to be honest, they should launch the XT instead of Milestone, so those guys who bought Milestone 3 months earlier must be cursing and swearing...Motorola, wrong move, unless you are able to absorb the earlier version of Milestone and give those existing owners the XT...no, I think not!

Motorola, if you are reading this, do plan your launch of products carefully, don't invite unnecessary criticism! The consumers will think that either you took them for a ride or you had mis-judged your marketing planning.

Pioneer XW NAV1 - For iPod

Small in Size, BIG in Sound Quality!

With a name like XW NAV1, you would expect Pioneer to have their product’s design to be futuristic or avant-garde, but really, the design of XW NAV1 really does look apple-rish or apple-friendly and you know immediately it’s meant for iPod, iPhone but not the iPad.

As per most dock you can find in the market, Pioneer’s NAV1 uses a standard docking set-up for an iPod dock, placed directly in front of the speaker. A small LED indicates the present set-up, and sits below the controls from the top. One of the extra features you can find is slot for CD/DVD drive(which most after-market iPod speaker are lack of), power on/off switch, function buttons for play/pause, stop, eject and volume, and last but not least, a hidden USB port that sits below a small plastic flap, which looks quite flimsy to me.

Pioneer’s NAV1 remote control comes in full size, like those you have for TV, with directional controller buttons, volume buttons, etc, which looks quite impressive to me, given that most iPod docks remote control are really small in size and very difficult even to adjust the small little buttons on them.

Pioneer are known for their home & car audio systems, so the first perception that I have in mind for the NAV1 was just another gimmick blasting out the tunes you keep in your iPod, but am I very wrong.

The tunes coming out from NAV1 was almost perfect, delivering smooth audio across a variety of genres with minimum distortion when we blast at high volume, and also, it depends whether you have the surround sound being turn on.

For me personally, I had a blast with the NAV1, as it does deliver the smooth sound quality I’m looking for in a iPod dock. The structure and exterior looks wonderful with minor setback, if it only has digital radio, that will make the NAV1 complete.
We did try using USB drive to test on the NAV1. We notice the menu options was quite slow when you choose your track on screen, and every single selection response lag behind couple of seconds. Perhaps Pioneer might want to rectify this situation? Of course, if you are using iPod, I bet those problems do not even exist.

Next, we connect NAV1 to our TV in the office, and it’s pretty straight forward especially NAV1 comes with HDMI out for DVD only, and immediately, we have a wonderful DVD play back on our screen, watching movies. However, when we try using the iPod video sources, we were surprised that it’s not really supported and image a little blury. What a waste…anyway, nothing is perfect.

Retailing at an affordable price of S$399.00, the NAV1 was a steal when compared to some of it’s direct competition in the market. Having more features as well as aesthetics’ are quite soothing to the eyes, especially when it’s available in white..hmm..

If you're in the market for an all-in-one dock and can utilise the DVD playback as well, then the NAV1 is worth considering.

Really, die die must try..no kidding!

Sony NEX-5

Sony Alpha NEX 5 Review

Compact with exchangeable lenses!

Sony NEX-5 is a very compact designed system camera, which falls under the Alpha series. The dimensions and weight are so compact that it earns the title as the world’s lightest and most compact system camera, with the quality of dSLR.

Sony NEX-5 comes with 14.2 Megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, which is as good as the present Alpha dSLR cameras, whereby the advantage falls on the image sensor. NEX-5 supports the recording of 1080i AVCHD video and has several innovative features like Sweep panorama and Auto Dynamic range.

Another unique feature of NEX-5 is the 3D Panorama Sweep, whereby the Panorama mode is used to create a 3D image that can be viewed in 3D on Sony’s BRAVIA 3D LCD. You hold down the shutter release button, move the camera in one smooth movement from right to left, take a perfect panorama photo. The Sweep Panorama mode has two resolutions: standard in 8192x1856 pixels or in an extra wide format of 12416x1856 pixels.

Even though Sony NEX-5 comes under the Alpha umbrella, the camera does not use the same Alpha mount for lenses. The new format developed is called E-mount, and with that, comes several new lenses as well.

However, if you owns Alpha lenses, fret not, a special adapter makes it possible to use your existing Alpha lenses, but available only as optional.

But, if you uses your Alpha lenses, the autofocus function can no longer be used. The new lenses that have been developed are standard 18-55mm f/3.5-6.3 lens with Optical SteadyShot, a 16mm pancake lens and an 18-200mm tele lens.

Sony has managed to keep NEX-5 body at the remarkable weight of 239 grams, making it one of the lightest around. However, when the standard 18-55mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens is mounted, you will find it quite difficult to handle as it’ll no longer be compact, lenses sticking out which makes it uneasy to handle since there’s no contour on the side of camera for grip.

The NEX-5 has a 3-inch format LCD screen equipped with Clear Photo LCD Plus and Tru Black technology, that reduces reflections and allow higher contrast, especially when used under sunlight, but the best feature is you’re able to rotate the screen 80degrees upwards as well as 45 degrees downwards, allowing difficult angle to be shot, especially for short person like me.

Anywhere you look at the NEX-5, it does not resemble anything like a dSLR camera, when this is more evident for their shortage of buttons, which dSLR are full of it. At the top of the camera, it comes with a large format on/off switch, a shutter release button, a review button and a special video-recording button. At the back of the camera, it house a multifunctional dial with button in the middle and under the dial, another button for the remaining functions.

NEX-5 may be delivered with an external flash, but mounting it doesn’t make the camera sexy. Given the choice, you might want to use the slot for optical view finder or external microphone, which the later is good for video recording.
As with all Sony’s user, you can expect the picture quality to be quite pleasant, which can be comparable to entry level dSLR, but not the top notch Alpha series. I guess you catch the drill here…

I guess Sony has done a good job with Alpha NEX series as this camera is targeting the masses like the amateur using a compact point & shoot camera with much better quality, but doesn’t want the complicated experience of dSLR cameras. Sony will be reaping their success in this target group. Check out at the nearest Sony dealers or Sony outlets.

Now wait a minute....my personal experience? Shit, better skip, and buy yourself a real dSLR camera, this is like a dSLR wanna-be and I bet all camera lovers would give this a miss, caused, there's no grip, no feel and no shiok...