Sony Xperia SP brief hands-on

Sony announced the Xperia SP and L a couple of days ago. While the devices slipped under my radar during the initial announcement (hei, my life doesn't revolve around phones), it was the chance encounter with the new devices at the Xperia Z launch party in London on Tuesday that finally made me notice.

Of the two devices available for hands-on, the SP was the most impressive due to its great value of money when it finally gets launched in the next couple of weeks. Featuring a Snapdragon SoC with dual core 1.7GHz Krait processor and Adreno 320 GPU, the SP is a cutting edge device for those not willing to fork £500 for a phone. It has a 8 megapixel camera with backside-illuminated sensor, all the usual wireless stuff associated a 2013 phone should have including NFC (which will work with Sony Bravia NFC remote controls) and LTE (model-dependent). It will be available in three colours.

The 4.6" 720p display is a clear step up from the Xperia S, and while the pixel density (319ppi) won't blow your mind, it will still challenge your eyes. Unfortunately, the viewing angles is limited again, much like on the Xperia Z. At 155 grams, the SP is rather hefty, but isn't too uncomfortable to hold. The design is a clear evolution over last year's NXT line, conservative and yet has enough design cues to stand out from the sea of Android me-toos. My biggest gripe with the Xperia S was its rather annoying touch-(in)sensitive buttons, which has been fixed here as the buttons are now part of the display.

Blackberry Playbook review

For a couple of months now, I have actually been toying around with the idea of getting a cheap small tablet. It's just one of those geeky moments I regularly have when I just want something new to play. I had a brief stint with an Android tablet, where I was convinced that 10" tablets did not belong in my life. So when the fine folks at Phones4U asked if I would like to review the Blackberry Playbook, I didn't think of saying no. Welcome readers, to my first ever review of a RIM Blackberry product.

RIM no doubt makes some great business-class devices, but they have never been on my radar purely because I am not part of their target market. But as the Playbook is the first ever RIM/Blackberry/QNX product I ever review, it is actually refreshing to test something with a clean slate point of view. My only experience with anything Blackberry is whatever I see in shops.

Microsoft announced Windows 8 Surface tablet, shows OEM partners how it is done

Microsoft today announced a range of Surface tablets running on the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. No doubt some of you have read about it as it has been covered by every news site and blogs (sorry). There will be two version of Microsoft Surface tablets, one that runs on ARM processor and Windows 8 RT (Runtime), and the other an Intel-powered Windows 8 Pro tablet.

The Windows 8 RT Surface tablet will be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra-based ARM chipset. It will be available with either 32 or 64GB capacity and comes with a 10.6" HD touch panel. Microsoft has not announced pricing or availability other than it will be priced similarly to other comparable Windows 8 RT tablets at launch, sometime in September or October of this year.

The more exciting of the two Surface tablets is the (likely to be more) expensive Windows 8 Pro tablet. Again, no pricing has been announced but it is fair to say that it will be priced similarly to an Ultrabook/Macbook Air laptop. Considering it is essentially an Ultrabook convertible tablet, I expect it to be so. Unlike the Surface RT, the Surface Pro will be powered by an all dancing, all singing Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor, with capacities ranging from 64 to 128GB.

It will weigh 903 grams, hefty compared to ARM-based tablets like the iPad and Windows 8 RT Surface, but also light when you compare to Ultrabooks or other x86 tablets like the ThinkPad X220. The 10.6" display is full HD, meaning it has a resolution of 1080p, and will be protected by GorillaGlass 2. It will be available three months after Windows 8 is launched, so expect it around January or February of 2013. Both devices will come with built-in stand. A detachable cover with built in multi-touch keyboard will also be made available.

With the specs and facts out of the way, it is time for some wild speculations. I am going assume that the Surface RT tablet will be powered by either a Tegra 3 4-PLUS-1 SoC or newer next generation Cortex A15-based Tegra. I certainly hope it would be the latter or will be slightly disappointed that Microsoft has not gone for the more modern Qualcomm's Krait-powered Snapdragon S4 rather than the now architecturally outdated Tegra 3.

Price wise, I expect the Windows 8 RT tablet to start from £399 and the Windows 8 Pro slate to start from £699. This is effectively what I would be willing to pay personally for the base model of a tablet with similar specs, and is in line with my expectations on how each should be priced - depending on the built quality of course. Incidentally, a Macbook Air 11 with an Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor and 64GB storage costs £849.

I suspect Microsoft has decided not to release a detailed spec sheet as well as pricing information as Autumn 2012 is still a long way away and anything can happen between now and then (it's an eternity in tech). I still live in hope that Microsoft will change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 16:10 or even better, 4:3. It seems that only Apple and HP gets that 4:3 is the perfect aspect ratio for tablets. Still this is likely to be wishful thinking.

As for accusations that Microsoft has essentially sidelined their OEM partners, well tough luck. Hardware partners haven't been exactly doing their bit what with undesirable Windows Phone 7 smarpthones (bar the Nokia Lumia 800 and certain HTC devices) and Windows 7 notebooks. Hopefully this will inspire OEMs to develop something a bit more compelling than the me-too products they have been dumping on the Android market. I am still waiting for Lenovo to announce a Windows 8 ThinkPad tablet product, and if this will spur them to make a better product then so be it.

I am personally very optimistic and excited by Windows 8. Microsoft's foray into dedicated tablet hardware is well overdue. With a design that not only looks original and exciting, all I can say is finally some exciting alternatives to some pretty mediocre Android tablets. It is about time a manufacturer steps up and be willing to offer a decent alternative to the mighty iPad.

As the poster boys for Windows 8, I hope Microsoft doesn't deliberately cheapen the Surface tablets in order to get them on the market for cheap. They are OEMs whose business model revolves around just that. Microsoft would do well to set an example to OEMs via premium quality tablets aimed at promoting Redmond's swinging new OS to first adopters. Bring on Fall 2012!

Android Honeycomb still disappoints

I have been using the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for two weeks now, and while I love the hardware and design of the tablet, I can't say the same about the software. For those who have read my review of the Motorola Xoom, you will know exactly what I mean.

Both Motorola and Samsung has gave their respective tablets the necessary power, in this case a 1 GHz dual core nVidia Tegra 2 SoC and 1GB of RAM. Unfortunately both runs on Android Honeycomb, the Windows Me meets Vista of Android operating systems. The UI is confusing, intimidating and not consistent. Like, why can't I clear all my notifications with a single button? And why are the search button all the way on the top left, the app drawer icon on the top right, the notification bar on the bottom right and the navigation keys on the bottom left? Does Google actually think I like moving my fingers to all four corners? I am not some NBA basketball player with long fingers.

Every single Honeycomb tablet I have tried, from the Motorola Xoom to Asus Transformer Sony Tablet S to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 - all of these has the same performance issues. In fact the lag is so bad that it makes the HP TouchPad looks like a well engineered marvel. It's a real issue that even despite having a tablet in front of me most of the time, I prefer to tweet, check my emails, and even surf the web on my Galaxy S2 phone!

There is also a real lack of tablet optimised apps for Honeycomb. This is Google's issue and they must fix it. We know that they have effectively abandoned Honeycomb. I implore Google to look into fixing these issues, by either optimising Honeycomb or making sure Ice Cream Sandwich works darn well on these first generation tablets with Tegra 2 SoC. Don't go pissing on your early adopters Google or the first thing they do after they ditch you is pick up a Windows 8 tablet.

Motorola XOOM review

When Apple stunned the tech industry last year with their iPad and a few Android manufacturers were eager to get a slice of the tablet market. There was no tablet-optimised Android versions back then but that did not stop a few manufacturers from attempting to shoehorn Android Froyo (and Gingerbread) onto tablets despite them being created for smartphones. The public were clever and did not buy into it, with many purchasers commenting that Android in its then iteration was ill suited for large screens.

Google has since released an Android version called Honeycomb which was designed from the ground up with a 10" screen in mind. While still icon-based, the UI was completely overhauled, now sporting a layout more similar to that of a desktop OS. With the XOOM, Motorola was the first manufacturer to launch a tablet based on the OS. But can they catch up with Apple, who has also made improvements with their second version of the iPad? 

Do read my review of the Motorola XOOM hosted at FoneArena here.

Microsoft demonstrates Windows 8 tablet UI

Microsoft today demonstrated the new Windows 8 OS with tablet-optimised UI running on ARM-based tablets, inspired by the Metro UI as seen on their Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. The UI, which appears to be a shell with regular Windows running underneath ala Windows Media Centre for Media PC, looks very impressive and I for one can not wait to get my hands on it when it gets released in 2012.