HTC One review

HTC One

Samsung and Apple better beware – the HTC One combines stunning design, a supreme screen and explosive power to offer one of the best smartphones around.

It's got a full HD screen crammed into 4.7-inches, which brings a 468ppi – well above what's needed for the eye to discern, and it does definitely bring sumptuous sharpness throughout the use of the phone.

On top of that there's a CPU and RAM combo that is barely bettered, a more-than-enough 32GB of storage and top-end Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G / 4G connections, all topped off by a completely re-imagined version of HTC Sense. What's not to like?

It's at the sharp end of the smartphone price scale, although can be had for around £34 per month on a two year deal in the UK, which isn't too bad at all compared to the competition. On a SIM free deal, it's actually very impressive: £480 for the phone without having to monkey about with a network.

That's the same price as you'll now have to fork out for a PAYG version of the phone, so it's worth checking it out if you don't want to have to pick up a contract.

The design of the HTC One is something that you simply have to experience in the hand. Where those that pick up the Samsung Galaxy S4 will go ' Oh, it's a bit plastic, isn't it? But ooh, it's quite light' and those who encounter the iPhone 5S will, to a person, say 'Ooh, it's very light isn't it? You don't expect it to be that light!' those that try the HTC One will simply intone: 'Oh, that's really nice. Really, really nice.

And do you know why? Simple: the HTC One is one of the best-designed phones on the planet. Not content with inventing a new machining process to allow the body to be all aluminium, the Taiwanese firm has extended the screen to the edges of the chassis further than ever before, meaning you're getting a 4.7-inch Full HD display without the additional heft you'd probably expect.

It's even thinner than its predecessor, the HTC One X (we know, that naming strategy leaves a lot to be desired) and as such slides nicely in the pocket.

It's not light either, weighing more than most of the competition, but rather than feeling overweight, combined with the metallic chassis is oozes a premium build. Samsung is probably hoping not a lot of people hold this phone side-by-side with the new S4 as otherwise the buying choice is going to be a lot more of a worry for the Koreans.

On top of that, there's a whole host of little design wins that delight when you first try the HTC One. For instance, the machined holes that allow sound toe emanate from the dual front-facing speakers (can you say BOOMSOUND?) looks amazing, and the lines on the back of the phone give a nice textured movement to things, helping to break up the constant greyness of the aluminium.

You could argue that straight on it looks far too much like either an iPhone 5, with its chamfered edges, or a BlackBerry Z10 front on, and you'd have a good point as this phone doesn't reinvent the rectangle-with-rounded-edges formula that we're so used to, but in the hand the curved back brings a whole new dimension to things.

There's a zero-gap construction at work here as well, which means that you won't find any gaping distance, holes or light leakages to make you feel like you've not spent your hard-earned cash on something wonderful.

The volume control on the right-hand side of the phone is in the same dazzling metal, and contrasts nicely with the rubber/plastic that makes up the sides. Our sample actually showed a fair amount of wiggle in this area, and slightly detracted from the overall premium feel.
The power button resides on the top, and doubles as the infra-red blaster - however, this is one of the poorer points as it doesn't have a whole lot of travel.

Similarly, the placement of this button, even on a phone that's been shrunk down while accommodating a larger screen, is still a bit inconvenient. We had to shuffle the phone around in the palm to turn it on and off on many occasions, and a lot of the time we couldn't use our thumb to hit the whole of the screen without jiggling the phone up and down.

That's another problem with the design: it's pretty slippery thanks to the metallic chassis. We thankfully only ever suffered two serious drops when we were about a foot off the carpet (basically scrabbling for it to turn off the alarm in the morning) and a more alarming one stepping out of a cab, but there have been a few near misses when trying to manoeuvre around the screen.

If only that power button was on the side, or a physical home button unlocked the phone, this whole issue would be negated for a large part.

But as we mentioned, HTC has wandered away from the physical buttons - where once it put a trackpad in the Nexus One, now it's stripped the capacitive buttons down from three to two, with the multi-tasking option going the way of the dodo. You can still get the same functionality by double tapping the home button, but it's not the same.

Overall though, you can guess we're impressed with the construction and design of the HTC One. We're not even looking at final hardware here - although we appear to have got lucky with our sample, as there are few design flaws in sight - so the chances of metallic chipping ('because that's just what it does....' OK, Apple) are slight to say the least - providing you don't fling it on tarmac. Seriously, we tried that... don't do it.

We thought we'd scuffed it so many times during our test, but each time it was simply a slight amount of dirt or dust that wiped right off.

iPhone 5S review

iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5S: a phone that looks like the iPhone 5, but goes so much further under the hood. Is that going to be enough to impress the baying hoardes?

We've been here before: the iPhone 'S' conundrum. The new phone comes along, taking the shell of the previous model, adds some new bits and pieces, and then claims to be an entirely new phone.

Which it is, of course. But also it isn't. Well, mostly is. To be sure, it's the kind of move that only Apple can pull off with any kind of conviction: the notion that it can take the same chassis, have a little tinker, throw in a new CPU, slightly better battery and camera, and call it an all-conquering device.

But then again, such is the clamour to know all about it, is that such a bad move? There are literally millions of people the world over who can't wait to see what the next handset from Apple will be, and there was no surprise with the iPhone 5S.

There are a few who question whether it's 'fair' to launch a phone and then append an 'S' to the same thing a year later - Apple's response would likely be that nobody is forcing you to buy the new hardware. And that's a fair point. Yes, this is a phone that bears far too many hallmarks of its predecessor. And yes, this is the third time Apple has done this.

It's also managed to try to pop it onto the market complete as one of the most expensive smartphones out there, even on 3G plans. You'll be looking at post £50 a month to get one without an upfront fee in the UK, and £549 will be the price if you want the low end model, pushing all the way up to over £700 for the 64GB variant.

But if it was such a bad business move, if the market wasn't willing to accept such a thing, then Apple would have folded as a smartphone brand years ago... or at least been lagging behind the competition.

That said, times are changing in the smartphone landscape. Where before Apple was able to just create the phone it wanted, and forget the competition in the knowledge that it wasn't going to have to worry about losing consumers to a competitor, now it's been forced to realise that there are at least four decent options for a consumer to think about if they want to get a rather good handset.

Apple is obviously aware of this change, be it the aluminium unibody of the HTC One, the new fight into low-light cameras or the need for a strong processor as a headline to shout about. And to be fair, it's addressed these needs to some degree or other on the iPhone 5S.

Be it the all-new Touch ID home button (which is excellent, more on that later), the huge jump in CPU power or the fact the camera has, once again, been improved no end, the new iPhone is clearly Apple's attempt at bringing as much as it can to the party without having to re-design the whole concept all over again.

There are many that think releasing the same design twice is cheeky, and there are others who realise that sometimes there's no need for change. It's easy to fall into the former camp, and while Apple will happily point out it's not forcing anyone to buy its phones, its acutely aware the competition is now scarily strong and it needed to bring its best to stay relevant.

Nokia Lumia 1020 review

Nokia Lumia 1020

Nokia first debuted its headline-stealing 41-megapixel camera sensor on the 808 PureView back in 2012. 

Its image quality impressed critics, but its Symbian software was dead on arrival. Nokia has brought the PureView technology back with the Lumia 1020, this time paired with the same Windows Phone 8 software found on its other Lumia phones.

Along with the unusual image sensor, the Lumia 1020 has a 4.5-inch, 1,280x768-pixel display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 4G connectivity and a bright yellow, one-piece polycarbonate body.

You can get the Lumia 1020 free from £37 per month on a two-year contract or SIM-free from £550. It's far from cheap, so does the camera and colourful body justify the expense?

Should I buy the Nokia Lumia 1020?

The Lumia 1020 is able to capture the best quality images I've seen from a phone, thanks to its large, high-resolution sensor and manual camera-controls. Even in full automatic mode, the Lumia is able to capture superb images with impressive dynamic range and a high level of detail.

It might be brilliant as a camera, but it doesn't particularly impress as a phone. It has many of the same specs as the much older Lumia 920, including the screen resolution and dual-core processor. The Windows Phone 8 app store is still poorly stocked and often receives recognisable apps months after Android or iOS.

If you're an enthusiastic photographer who values image quality above all else and would love to always have a good camera in your pocket then the Lumia is for you -- no other phone comes close. Otherwise, you might be better off looking at Android phones. The Sony Xperia Z1's camera impressed -- particularly with its underwater skills -- and the vast selection of apps in the Google Play store provides a wide choice of editing and sharing options.

Nokia Lumia 1020 - Design and build quality

There's absolutely no question that the 1020 is part of Nokia's Lumia line. Its body is a one-piece polycarbonate affair in the same squashed oval shape as the Lumia 920. My model came in a bright yellow colour, but they're also available in black or white if you're not fond of such vivid hues.

It's physically extremely similar to the 920. It has the same 4.5-inch screen size, with the buttons on the side, and the ports and the speakers in the same place. It's slightly thinner though and at 158g, it's a bit lighter too. The 1020's enormous camera unit on the back makes it easy to distinguish between the two though.

The black disc that makes up the camera pokes out of the phone's body by about 3mm. At first glance it looks like it might get in the way, but I didn't find it any more difficult to slide into my pocket than the 920 and it was perfectly comfortable to hold. It also acts to slightly tilt the display towards you when it's sat on your desk, which I appreciated.

The one-piece polycarbonate body makes the phone feel extremely sturdy -- there are no flimsy back panels or loose edging to damage here. There's little flex in the body and the solid materials should easily be able to put up with a few good knocks. The buttons too have a satisfying click to them, so the 1020 feels like an extremely well built piece of kit. My only issue was that the matte yellow plastic scuffs easily, but some buffing with a cleaning cloth sorts that out.

Around the edges you'll find volume and power buttons as well as a dedicated camera shutter button. There's a micro USB port on the bottom and a 3.5mm headphone jack on top. If you get the phone from O2 you can snag an exclusive 64GB model, which has plenty of room for all the high resolution snaps you could want. The standard model has 32GB of storage, which is still pretty capacious. There's no expandable storage option though, so you'll want to transfer your pics to a computer if you've been snap-happy on holiday.

LG Optimus 3D review

LG Optimus 3D

The LG Optimus 3D has one thing going for it. It's the first mobile phone to offer glasses-free 3D. 

So, if that's what you want, go ahead and buy it. But, if you think 3D on a phone is as useful as a chocolate teapot, then there's no other compelling reason to invest in this big, heavy beast of a phone.

The Optimus 3D is available from Carphone Warehouse for free on a £35 per month contract. You can also buy it SIM-free and unlocked for around £490.

In the 3D zone

The Optimus 3D packs a 4.3-inch touchscreen that displays 3D pictures and videos without the need for daft glasses, unless you normally wear glasses anyway. All the phone's pre-loaded 3D content is gathered in one place in an app called 3D Zone. Getting at it is easy via a shortcut on the home screen or the dedicated hot-key that sits on the side where the camera button would normally be. Outside the 3D Zone and the camera app, the rest of the Optimus 3D is in normal 2D.

The 3D effect on the phone is clear and easy to see. However, it suffers from the same drawbacks as all glasses-free 3D. It's slightly dimmer than a 2D version, because the screen's pixels are split into two images. You can also see tiny vertical dark lines, for the same reason. It only works in landscape mode, and you have to hold the phone at just the right distance from your eyes to get the effect without nauseating double-vision.

If you don't fancy the 3D effect, you can turn it down with an on-screen slider when you're playing 3D games or watching 3D video.

The Optimus 3D comes pre-loaded with a handful of apps, games and videos so that you can start enjoying the third dimension right out of the box. But after that initial thrill, most of the 3D content you'll be watching is likely to come from YouTube or from your own efforts on the phone's 3D camera. There are a handful of 3D games available from the phone's Gameloft app, most for around 99p. But 3D content in the Android app store is non-existent, so far. We'd love to see a 3D channel in the Android Market, but until that happens, you may struggle to get content that really shows of the phone's capabilities.

You're the director

The plus side of this dearth of content is the fact that it may inspire you to create your own masterpiece on the Optimus 3D's camera. Stills and videos were both easy to shoot in 3D and looked properly chock-a-block with depth. But we were annoyed that the camera seemed to default back to 2D every time we turned it on. We'd rather that it stay set to 3D if that's how we've left it.

Since we didn't have a troupe of Lipizzaner stallions or a performance of Swan Lake, we filmed a Rory waving around a mug to show of the phone's 3D prowess.

We can see the appeal of shooting stills and videos in 3D if you have a 3D television. The Optimus 3D has an HDMI port, so you can easily hook up the phone to your telly for watching your creations on the big screen. Alternately, you can connect wirelessly if your TV supports DLNA.

The quickest way to share your 3D videos is by popping them up on YouTube, where they can be viewed by anyone with a pair of red and blue anaglyph 3D glasses. We thought that uploading videos should have been easier, though. You can do it from the gallery index page, but not from the video viewer once you've opened the movie.

Thankfully, sharing 3D photos is easy to a plethora of services from Twitter to Picasa. However, uploading a 3D image to most of these services simply results in two, 2D images (see below), not a red-blue 3D image like on YouTube.

You can also choose to flatten your images so that you can upload them without seeing this double image.

Phonezilla

Of course, all this assumes that you're desperate for a phone that shoots, and shows, 3D. But if you're not sure whether 3D is for you, it's a different story.

Having 3D on board makes the Optimus 3D bigger and bulkier. Compared to the Optimus 2X, LG's top-of-the-line dual-core phone without 3D, the Optimus 3D is 30g heavier, 4mm wider and 2mm thicker. That means it clocks in at 129x68x12mm and 168g.

There's no question that you get a lot of phone packed into that size. It has a huge 4.3-inch screen and two 5-megapixel cameras to shoot in 3D. But if you're not that bothered about the third dimension, there's no reason to cart around such a huge phone.

Don't forget that the 3D only appears in a handful of games and videos on the phone, and you have to hold it in the right position to see the effect. So, overall, 3D doesn't feel like a fundamental part of the phone. Depending on how much you enjoy it, it's either icing on the cake, or just a gimmick. We're leaning towards gimmick, but if you love 3D films and telly, you may feel differently.

Android in command

If you're committed to shouldering the extra heft of a 3D phone, the Optimus 3D is a solid smart phone.

With Android 2.2 Froyo on board, it's doesn't quite have the latest version of the software, which is now up to 2.3 Gingerbread. However, you don't miss out on many features by being a mere point version behind. For example, one of the most important features, Flash, is present and correct in the excellent browser.

The Optimus 3D has access to thousands of apps in the Android market, and support for Google apps like Maps and Gmail is second to none.

However, LG's version of Android isn't quite as smooth as some of its competitors. Although it seems to be improving its user interface design slowly but surely, many of its custom tweaks to Android don't add much pizzazz. For example, the slide-up lock screen lacks the straightforward appeal of default Android, or the glossy style of a competitor such as HTC. Overall, we think it's just a hint less stylish than Samsung, which also struggles to improve Android on its own phones.

We do enjoy LG's useful, unadorned widgets for Facebook and the calendar, however. The on-screen keyboard is also usable, if unspectacular.

The outside of the Optimus 3D matches the inside. It is workmanlike and unsurprising, with a dark metal strip along the back that fails to add much interest.

Conclusion

The LG Optimus 3D can stand tall as the first phone in Britain to deliver glasses-free 3D. If you're planning to invest in a 3D camcorder anyway, or you're a 3D addict with a telly to match, the Optimus 3D does a solid job creating and displaying 3D on the move. But if you're not that bothered about 3D -- or the paltry content that's currently available -- the Optimus 3D isn't much to get excited about. It's a powerful, zippy Android smart phone, but it's on the chunky side and it lacks stylishness inside and out.

We'll have to wait until the autumn before the Optimus 3D's main competitor, the HTC Evo 3D, shows up on shelves. In the meantime, we prefer the slicker, lighter, 2D-only Samsung Galaxy S 2 or HTC Sensation to the Optimus 3D.

Nokia Lumia 800 review

Nokia Lumia 800

The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first Windows Phone handset to spring from the Microsoft / Nokia tie-up announced roughly a year ago.

The Nokia Lumia 800 shares its exterior styling with the previously substantially less hyped Nokia N9, a Meego-based smartphone, although the screen size is reduced from 3.9 inches (854 x 480 pixels) to 3.7 inches (800 x 480 pixels) to conform to the Windows Phone spec list.

The CPU, however, increases from the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 to the 1.4GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon/Scorpion which certainly helps add snap to the Windows Phone Mango operating system.

The Nokia Lumia 800, although being the more expensive of the two Nokia Windows Phone offerings (the other being the £299 SIM-free/£199 PAYG Nokia Lumia 710) shares the Nokia N9's 16-bit AMOLED ClearBlack display whereas the Nokia Lumia 710 sports a 24-bit ClearBlack TFT.

This being said, even though the colour depth is theoretically deeper than in the Nokia Lumia 710, AMOLED screens are seen as better than the older TFT technology due to the more vivid colours and better contrast ratios.

Moving away from Nokia comparisons, the Lumia 800 also has to compete with the likes of the HTC Titan and HTC Radar Windows Mango phones. When we compare screen size we find the Nokia Lumia 800 feeling a little small with the HTC Radar and HTC Titan entering the fray with 3.8-inch and 4.7-inch screens respectively although all competitors are limited to the same 800 x 480 pixel resolution.
Obviously the iPhone has managed to be a success with a smaller screen at 3.5 inches, but the trend towards bigger displays is increasing all the time, and we have to say we're fans of those over four inches thanks to the improved internet and media experience.

This means that the pixel density on the Lumia 800 is a little sharper, but in our side by side comparisons we noted very little difference between them.

When it comes to internal storage the Nokia Lumia 800 and HTC Titan are equal with 16GB of fixed internal storage, with the Nokia Lumia 710 and HTC Radar weighing in with 8GB a piece.
Based on the two manufacturer's product specs it soon becomes apparent that the Nokia Lumia 800 is intended to compete against the HTC Titan and the Nokia Lumia 710 with the HTC Radar.

When compared dimensionally with the HTC Titan (131.5mm x 70.7mm x 9.9mm and 160g) we note that the Nokia Lumia 800 (116.5mm x 61.2mm x 12.1mm and 142g) cuts a very slim profile, with a lighter yet reassuring weight.

The physical appearance of the Nokia Lumia 800 is a dream to observe and handle, with its smooth curves fitting snugly to the hand both with and without the protective case provided in the purchase packaging.

That said, if you're used to handling the current crop of super slim handsets doing the rounds in today's phone shops, you can't help but feel the Lumia 800 is a little on the chunky side, even compared to the iPhone 4S thanks to it being around 10 per cent thicker.

However, that's not to say it isn't an attractive device, with its large 3.7-inch AMOLED screen pushed to the sides of the chassis and a cool curved polycarbonate shell gives the phone a very premium feel indeed.

Nokia has worked very hard on the unibody design here, using top-mounted flaps to cover the charging port and SIM slot, but sadly leaving the battery inaccessible. Intriguingly, we're seeing a microSIM here, which seems to be the fashion for the next wave of smartphones.

The battery is something we can get on board with as this isn't the first Nokia device to have an enclosed power pack and makes sense if it allows a greater design freedom.

There was no easy option for battery removal on the Nokia N8 or Nokia E7, for example. The problem is that with a charge lasting no more than a day, the option to switch out the battery, as with the Nokia Lumia 710, would have been nice.

The microSIM is somewhat more of an annoyance, since we couldn't even carry an old Nokia as a back-up because the SIM card is a different size.

SIM card adaptors are available, but use them at your own risk since they have a tendency to wedge in some phones. Add to this the frustration when you find that some operators charge for providing a microSIM when on a standard SIM contract.

The SIM to microSIM switch comes down to the simple issue of space. In the phone, the microSIM sits within the metal assembly bottom right.