Nokia 808 PureView

When the Nokia 808 Preview was announced earlier this year its 41MP camera sensor (for a maximum output resolution of 38MP) made headlines all over the tech industry. Not only does it feature the highest-resolution sensor of any mobile phone camera, but at the time of writing, the 808 PureView features the highest-resolution sensor of any current camera outside of highly specialist (and very costly) medium format equipment.

We've been eager to gets our hands on an 808 since the phone was announced, and a loan sample finally arrived in our Seattle office recently. We've been using it ever since. Please note though that this article doesn't touch on the 808 PureView's performance as a phone. That's not what interests us. We want to see what it's like as a camera... 
Key Photographic/Video Specifications

    38MP maximum resolution (in 4:3 aspect ratio - output size: 7728 x 5368 pixels)
    1/1.2" CMOS sensor, pixel size: 1.4um
    ISO 80-1600 (+ auto)
    Five white balance presets (including auto)
    Exposure compensation +/-4EV in 0.3EV steps
    Carl Zeiss F2.4 8.02mm lens (26mm, 16:9 | 28mm, 4:3 equiv)
    Focus range: 15cm – Infinity (throughout the zoom range)
    Construction:
    • 5 elements, 1 group. All lens surfaces are aspherical
    • One high-index, low-dispersion glass mould lens
    • Mechanical shutter with neutral density filter
    1080p HD video (up to 25Mb/s) with 4X 'lossless zoom'
    Stereo recording with Nokia Rich Recording - rated up to 140db

Features

The Nokia 808 PureView's large CMOS sensor has 41MP total, outputting a maximum of 38MP (resolution drops to 36MP in 16:9 aspect ratio). Such a high resolution sensor would be little more than a stunt if the camera specifications aren't up to scratch, but Nokia has designed the 808 to be a serious photographic tool. As well as some pretty impressive hardware, Nokia has also included a raft of enthusiast-friendly photographic features in the 808 including manual control over white balance, ISO and exposure (via exposure compensation and bracketing). Exposure compensation is as good as it gets though, in terms of manual exposure control - the 808 does not offer PASM modes (not unsurprisingly).

While it might sound counterintuitive to shoot a 38MP camera at 3MP, it actually makes a lot of sense in a device of this type. Apart from anything else, if you are one of those people whose first reaction to this product was to scream 'you don't need 41MP in a camera phone! The world has gone mad! The sky is falling in!' in a sense you were right - most people simply don't need to capture such high-resolution images on a phone.

But what you probably do want from a cellphone camera is good image quality, decent speed and responsiveness, and wouldn't it be nice to have a zoom, too? That's what the 808's lower-resolution PureView modes are designed to allow.
PureView (3/5/8MP)

Putting optical zooms into cellphone cameras is hard. Really really hard, which is why manufacturers tend to include digital zooms instead. Effectively just cropping and upsizing, conventional digital zoom kills image quality. Normally, the instinct of any serious digital photographer would be to run away from 'digital zoom' features for precisely this reason. But the 808 is very far from conventional.


In Nokia's words, 'pixel oversampling combines many pixels to create a single (super) pixel'. In theory then, at 28mm (equivalent) - i.e., without any 'zoom', the camera's 3MP PureView output should give the best critical image quality, followed by 5MP, then 8MP, and then 38MP. When fully zoomed in, all four output modes will give the same pixel-level image quality, since at this point there is no oversampling going on  -as incated by '1:1' in the graph above.
PureView 'Zoom'

How much you can 'zoom' using the 808 depends on what output resolution mode you're in. If you're shooting at full resolution you can't zoom at all - you're stuck with the lens' native 28mm (equivalent) focal length. In 3MP PureView mode you get the equivalent of a 3.6X 'zoom' - this drops to roughly 3X in 5MP mode, and about 2X in 8MP mode. The table below shows four images, taken at the 'longest' extent of the 'zoom' in each of the 808's output resolution modes.



source:http://www.dpreview.com/

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HTC Desire X Review: Finally, A Pre-Paid Device Worth Buying

12 months ago, HTC pledged to slim down its product offerings and only focus on hero handsets. Despite that promise, the handset maker seems to be camping on most of the alphabet for its current set of products. One of them is a top-end pre-paid handset: the HTC Desire X. Pre-paid devices used to carry a stigma of being underpowered and under-specked, but this handset is here to set the record straight.

What Is It?

The HTC Desire X is a 4-inch, $299 prepaid handset from Optus. It sports a 1Ghz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s running on the Optus 3G network rather than the new 4G offerings.

What’s Good?

Just because you’re buying a pre-paid handset doesn’t mean you have to buy something rubbish. This handset restores quality to the many mediocre pre-paid offerings of late.

The Desire X looks and feels a lot like a 4-inch version of the One S — HTC’s mid-range post-paid handset. It’s running the Sense UI on top of the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

Unlike a lot of Android handsets we have seen before, the Desire X is smooth and fast. The Sense UI doesn’t detract from the overall Android experience like it occasionally does on other handsets and the fact that it comes out of the box with Ice Cream Sandwich installed means that the Desire X is more advanced in software than a lot of post-paid handsets are these days.

It puts in a Geekbench 2 performance worthy of its specs, meaning that the Desire X is pulling all the power it can out of that dual-core 1Ghz processor to score the 660 we got in our tests.

As far as the 1650mAh battery is concerned, you’ll have to charge it once a day, but you won’t be hunting for a charger with an eye on the percentage numbers at 3pm every afternoon.

The other solid performance comes from the screen. Everytime I go eyes on with the HTC One XL, I’m impressed by the screen’s brightness and vivid white quality. The same carries through on the Desire X: it’s a screen that performs beautifully despite its 480 x 800 pixel resolution.

What’s Bad?

Just while we’re on the screen, it’s worth noting that — despite the brightness — glare makes it almost unusable in sunlight.

With every handset, we look at what could have been.

HTC could have bolted 4G, Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, a bigger camera and larger speaker on the device, but then it wouldn’t have come in at $299. There are concessions that need to be made to hit that price point. Despite these omissions, though, the Desire X is still a great handset.

It’s also worth noting that the all-plastic construction of the Desire X may put some people off.

Should You Buy It?

The Desire name carries weight, especially in Australia. The original HTC Desire was the jumping off point for Android in Australia when it was carried on Telstra way back when. Now that HTC is looking to simplify its offerings, the Desire name has been shifted into the realm of pre-paid handsets. It’s not all bad, though.

The HTC Desire X carries the sexy design of the HTC One S with the specs of a top-end pre-paid device. At $299, it hits the perfect price point for what it is, while standing head-and-shoulders above other mediocre pre-paid offerings on Opts’ network.

If you’re in the market for a pre-paid handset that doesn’t suck, get the HTC Desire X.


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iPad mini

Apple has not yet even acknowledged the existence of the iPad Mini, but pricing and configuration information for the much-rumored tablet is allegedly already appearing in a consumer electronics giant's inventory system.

The iPad Mini will come in 16 different memory and wireless configurations, according to an inventory system screen shot obtained by Mobile Geeks. The screen capture allegedly comes from the internal inventory system of Media Market, Europe's largest electronics retailer

The page -- in German -- lists pricing for various configurations in Eros, presumable with Europe's 19 percent value added tax already factored into the price. Prices will start at 249 Euros ($322.60) for a Wi-Fi-only 8 GB iPad Mini, with other memory configurations of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB also available. The high-end 64GB cellular version is listed at about $650, presumably with 4G LTE capability.

 iPad Mini rumors have been swirling for months, with various sources reporting that the device will feature a 7.85-inch display and go on sale for a price that's far cheaper than Apple's current, larger tablet.

Apple has reportedly already begun mass production of the new tablet, which is expected to be introduced on October 23. However, one Asia news outlet reports that production issues will delay its debut .

Apple has reportedly ordered 10 million units of the unannounced tablet for the fourth quarter, roughly twice what Amazon reportedly ordered for the Kindle Fire for the same quarter.


Release Date

Right now, the best rumor we have for a release date says the event will be held October 23rd.. Apple typically releases products one or two Fridays after its keynotes.

For what it's worth, the 23rd would manage to steal a good amount of thunder from the October 26th Windows 8 release date, and shipping on November 2nd would put the Mini out just a few days before the presidential election.

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HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE Coming to Verizon this Week

Verizon has finally announced a launch date and price for the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE, a mid-range Android smartphone that is going to be introduced on Thursday. This model was first unveiled in May.

HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTEOne of the definining features of phones these days is screen size and resolutiuon. The latest model in the Incredible series will have a 4-inch display -- neither particularly big nor small. This  will have a qHD (960 x 540) resolution, again putting it solidly in the middle.

It is going to run Android OS 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. The HTC Sense 4.0 user interface will be layered on top. It will have 1GB of RAM, but for storage the device will depend almost entirely on a microSD memory card, which the user will have to provide.

The Incredible will also feature Beats Audio which provides a high-end audio experience for users watching videos, listening to music, or playing games. It will also include an 8MP rear-facing camera, plus a front-facing one that can be used for video chatting.

In addition to supporting Verizon's speedy 4G LTE network, the handset will have Wi-Fi, NFC, DLNA, and Bluetooth 4.0. It will come with a 1,700mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery.

The HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE will debut on July 5 in Verizon stores and on this carrier's website. It has been priced at $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.


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Is Jelly Bean Or iOS 6 Better?

One of the biggest debates in the world of smartphones right now is whether Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or Apple iOS 6 is the best. If you are debating between phones like the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3, here are some thing's that you may wish to consider.

iOS 6 vs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: should you go with an iPhone 5 or Android?
iOS 6 is intuitive and it is very organised. However this streamlining means that some of the tasks that you would do quickly in iOS 6 would take just a few seconds in Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean is the more open OS and you can customer it more than iOS 6, hence setting it up to match your usage patterns.
Apple has given out an apology for their Apple maps, which has replaced Google Maps. Therefore if you rely heavily on your smartphone for navigations, you may be wise to choose an Android phone like the Samsung Galaxy S3 or HTC One X, which still has the Google Maps app.

If you want your handset to talk to you and be helpful by way of a virtual assistant, then you might like Siri. It is simple and fun to talk to, with iOS 6 expanding its abilities to now launch apps. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has Google Now of course which is similar but minus the humor and easier usage (this though means lesser functionality with Siri).
iOS 6 now comes with integration for Facebook and Twitter and you can post updates outside of the app. In the case of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you can integrate it with pretty much anything. We’re talking about not just social networks but anything you download from the Google Play Store. While this is awesome, yu have to be aware of what you install on your Android device as it can take over any of the native functions.
The speed of iOS 6 used to be awesome and something which Android couldn’t match. However Jelly Bean has earned a great deal of praise and now is on par with iOS 6 thanks to features like Project Butter which make the browsing experience of the interface much more smoother.
If you are still unsure about which of the operating systems is the best for you, your best bet is to get both handsets in your hand and try them out by navigating around them. Basically Android offers unlimited combustibility while iOS 6 just works off the bat.

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I miss 5 things about Android

It wasn’t until this spring that I made the switch from iPhone to Android. Before then, I had put my iPhone aside for days at a time while I tested a new Android device, but I always went back to my iPhone. Frankly, I never really gave Android a chance.

Two weeks ago, I made the switch back — to the faster, bigger iPhone 5 — because I assumed that, as a long-time iPhone user, I would enjoy it far more now that it, too, had LTE speeds. And there’s much to like about my new phone but, much to my surprise, I really miss Android. In fact, after a few weeks with my new iPhone 5, I realize that I like Android better.

1. Widgets

It wasn’t until I didn’t have weather on my home screen that realized how often I check it. Should I take an umbrella? Is the high 70 or higher (the cut off for pants versus shorts in our house)? I also had my family calendar and favorite music app loaded there. Yes, I could just tap an icon on my home screen, but I love the immediate gratification of widgets.

2. Notification Center

It's certainly handy to check text messages, incoming important mail, tweets and other notifications from a pull-down within virtually any app. But iPhone stops there. With my Android phone, I also had direct access to frequently used settings, like turning on and off GPS and Bluetooth to save the battery life, as well as the settings app. With iPhone, I need to browse to and open settings where everything is buried a couple of layers deep.

3. Automatic App Updates

Every day, at least one of the more than 100 apps I have loaded on my iPhone needs updating manually. With Android it happens automatically, unless the app privileges change. You simply get a notification.

4. Micro USB Charging

I was never a fan of the old Apple connector, but I was disappointed when Apple chose to go with Lightning over micro USB, the connector Android and many other devices use. Yes, Lightning has technical benefits over micro USB, like the ability to output video through a Lightning-to-HDMI cable (when that becomes available), but I was never without a charging cable with micro USB.

5. Maps

I used Google Maps on my Android phone all the time — for local search, traffic, turn-by-turn spoken navigation and transit directions. So, like many others, I was really disappointed by the poor quality of Apple Maps. Apple has apologized to users and has even created a new section in the App Store pointing people to better map applications. I just put a link to the Google Maps mobile site on my home screen. Still, I’d love to see Google Maps back as an option.






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