Smartphone slugfest

Larger, faster, thinner, more, er, powerful, er? The new batch of smartphones is the most electric yet. The competition at the top end of the smartphone market is tighter than a Greek pawnbroker. Supercrisp, often expanded screens and ever-more powerful dual-core processors are now the norm but it’s not just the hardware that’s got its mojo rising, of course…

The Nokia Lumia sports Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the iPhone 4S has iOS 5, RIM proffers BlackBerry OS 7 and Android handsets will soon start employing Ice Cream Sandwich, the most significant new version since Android launched. The software is the power behind the throne in smartphone land, but which combination of hardware and OS currently rules all?

HTC Titan

For a phone of such titanic proportions, with a mighty 4.7-inch “Super LCD” screen, the HTC Titan doesn’t feel cumbersome, and the screen’s excellent contrast ratio makes for tasty viewing, whether it’s video, photos or the worldwide web. The 1.5GH z Snapdragon processor keeps lag firmly at bay. The big news here, though, is that Titan runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. The new platform offers enhanced live tiles and deeper Twitter integration as well as a superbly swift internet browser – still no Flash, though. Mango is pretty darn good. It’s easy to use, with a responsive feel under the finger. The live tiles work like Android widgets, constantly updating information on your home screen with no need to open apps. Microsoft’s People, a more stylish version of Friendstream, works very well too, tracking all your social networking correspondence. However, despite all the positives, WP7 still doesn’t feel like a fully-fledged OS. It’s more fun to use than Android, but lacks its functionality and apps – you’ll find essentials but little else in the Windows Marketplace. Microsoft insists on a separate camera key being present on every handset.

The Titan’s huge screen also makes it easy to compose your pictures, although the added size can lead to shaky, blurred snaps. The battery life is more than acceptable even with all that sexy live updating going on. With average use the power meter only drops below 50 per cent around eight o’clock every evening – that’s more than good enough in our eyes. The Titan is a big screen with an improving OS underneath, but the HTC Sensation XL – practically the same handset running Android 2.3 instead – is still an all-round better bet for now.

Motorola Razr

The mobile icon is back, powered by Android 2.3 – not Ice Cream Sandwich – and still looking sexy The original Motorola Razr was one of the most successful mobiles of all time. Motorola then flogged it to death with an endless parade of lacklustre follow-ups, before putting it out to pasture. But now it’s back. Visually more like Moto’s unloved Slvr than the Razr – no flip front here – this does feel incredibly well built and hefty, and the OS, Android 2.3, has been pimped to within an inch of its life, with re-sizeable widgets, a “floating” menu system and a universal inbox to aggregate all your social networks, emails and texts. Shame you only get five homescreens to spread the funky new apps across. The screen’s great. Motorola has borrowed some technology from Samsung in the form of a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED. It’s not quite as snazzy as the Samsung Galaxy S II, but the qHD resolution increases the sharpness, really bringing media and the internet to a level of clarity that’s not far off the iPhone 4S. The camera is an eight-meg/full HD effort. However, the snapper on the Razr didn’t wow us like the iPhone, as despite a quick shutter speed, shots often came out a little grainy. The 1080p video was impressive but not remarkable, though it does cope quite well in low light. Helped by the excellent screen, the Razr is a very good media phone. The audio is as good as it gets on a phone, and it’s easy to search for music videos of favoured artistes, browse your computer’s video collection and more. It’ll even find song lyrics for you automatically. The battery struggles to last the day but it’s not unbearable and overall this is a cracking phone. Moto’s Android offering allows plenty of customisation, looks good and could, at a push, be used as a weapon. There’s a lot to like.

Nokia Lumia 800

The Lumia 800 brightens up Nokia’s prospects, courtesy of Windows Phone Mango Nokia’s been in the doldrums for years, but its new collaboration with Windows Phone 7 may be the catalyst to turn things around. The Lumia 800 arrives packing the latest Windows Phone Mango OS and mimics the design of the Nokia N9 – much admired when it launched in September, but destined never to hit India – with a curved polycarbonate chassis that’s light, tough and feels great. The ClearBlack OLED screen is top notch. With the edge-to-edge display secreted beneath curved Gorilla Glass, it’s easy to read even in direct sunlight. The camera is similarly cool. It lacks the shooting speed of the Xperia Arc S and the iPhone 4S, but picture quality is clear and vivid and the ability to quickly post to Facebook and tag your buddies in an instant is a handy feature of Windows Phone 7.5. Microsoft’s Mango OS is fast becoming a decent competitor to Android and iOS, although it’s still a way from being their equal, thanks to a few UI niggles – you have to convert all your videos to MP4 and WMV for instance – and a near absence of apps. However, when it’s working well, Mango is in many ways a more fun experience than Android. The way you can link together contacts with a swish of a finger is a joy, and the simple Live Tiles interface helps you access information in a trice. Nokia has added a bit of its own spit and polish with the free Nokia Drive satnav service – it’s a tad basic but it gets you from A to B without fuss and lets you download region-wise maps and voices in different languages. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop called this the, “First real Windows Phone.” We’re not sure HTC et al would agree with that, but it is certainly the best Windows Phone to date.

BlackBerry Bold 9900

If you like your touchscreen with an added dose of QWERTY the Bold is still the one for you Anyone who classes themselves as a business person, an ardent communicator or a NEET with anger-management issues surely must have tried a BlackBerry at some point in their life. Those who love the brand should know now that the Bold 9900 is, in our view, the very best BlackBerry to date. Slide-out keyboards seem too fussy, and we’d take iOS 5, Android or Windows Phone 7 on a fully touchscreen device over BlackBerry OS 7 any day. But the keyboard and smaller display of the 9900 make it a great communications device that fits in any pocket. The keyboard is as good as we’ve seen on a BlackBerry. The keys are well spaced and have a decent travel, allowing very brisk typing. The addition of a touchscreen makes web browsing a much easier experience than on earlier models, where you had to rely on a slightly dodgy optical trackpad. The Bold 9900’s screen is as also good as it gets at this smaller size, with the very sharp, VGA resolution cramming in the pixels and making internet viewing, movie watching and so on much more fun than you might imagine. The camera is adequate without being spectacular. While it can capture HD video, quality is the worst on test, with a significant amount of graining in low light. Similarly disappointing is the battery life too, with RIM’s famous power management going curiously awry here – we found we were recharging at the end of the day; standard for a smartphone these days. That aside, this is the finest handset RIM has ever crafted. It’s not cheap, the OS seems dated and visually similar to the previous iteration, but that physical keyboard is still top dog when it comes to messaging.

Sony Ericsson Arc S

Sony Ericsson has decided to rebuild the Arc. Should you troop in to the nearest phone store? It’s strange to see a phone re-released less than six months from the original, but then Sony Ericsson does have a tendency to favour quantity over quality. Nonetheless the Arc S is an improvement on an already decent phone, with a power boost from a 1GH z processor to a 1.4GHz turbo processor. It’s still single core, so upcoming apps and games geared towards dual-core devices may be a struggle, but for most tasks it’s speedy enough. Like many Android handsets, it launches without the latest OS – it’s on Android 2.3 Gingerbread rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, but that may be because Sony Ericsson is keener to push its own addition to the OS: Timescape UI. This gives you a quick guide to all of your calls, messages and social network updates. But it’s not Ice Cream Sandwich. You only get five home screens, so despite the 4.2-inch screen being massive, some of you may still have to be picky about where you place the innumerable apps on offer. The screen uses Sony’s Bravia Engine tech, which really enhances colours and contrast. Similarly, the patented Sony Exmor R sensor in the camera means better low light shots, even without the LED flash. However, the Arc S’s 720p video, though not bad, is easily bettered by the crisp 1080p offerings from the dual-core handsets on test. The Arc S is a nice looking phone, with a contoured chassis that snugly fits your palm. It does feel plasticky, and the headphone jack is awkwardly placed if you are playing music straight from your pocket. With a fine camera, svelte looks, decent battery life and a relatively low price, the Arc S is good value, even without a dual-core chip. You have to live with a spec that feels six months out of date, though.

Apple iPhone 4S

It might look like little’s changed, but the iPhone 4S is packing serious power under the hood With an iPad-matching, dual-core A5 processor, a camera that’s even better than the previous winner and iOS 5, it is our dreary duty to inform you that, yes, this is still the best smartphone that (quite a lot of) money can buy today. iOS 5 employs the same icon layout as previously, but this time it’s joined by an Android-like notifications bar that keeps you informed about and gives rapid access to all your messages, updates, missed calls etc. The BBM-style iMessage offers free communication with other Apple devices. The umbilical cord to iTunes has been cut; you can now sync wirelessly, or not at all, with iOS updates, contacts and the rest coming over the air from iCloud. A bit like on an Android phone. Siri is the most talked-about (and talked to) feature of the 4S. Your faithful PA with AI uses sophisticated speech analysis to set alarms, fire off texts or search the web at your spoken command. It could do with location-services compatiblity though, and remains more of a cool gimmick than a necessity for anyone who has the use of their hands. to most of us, the 8-meg/1080p camera is as good as any you’ll find in a smartphone, and arguably the best. Enhanced optics offer super-sharp results, with anti-shake tech creating more reliable results on video. The battery life was a big post-launch gripe, with reports of power draining fast on standby. However, an OS 5 update seems to have fixed these issues. With Apple making confident additions to an already winning formula, the iPhone remains ahead of the chasing pack for another season. It’s not a cheap product, but the extra cost still just feels worth it.

This material is translated or reproduced from T3 magazine and is the copyright of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2011. Used under license. All rights reserved

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