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éléments par Siamak Masnavi

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• 

  OnePlus now has the X factor: hands-on first impressions of the OnePlus X

  Publié: octobre 29, 2015, 1:43pm CET par Siamak Masnavi

  

  On 23 April 2014, a small Chinese company called OnePlus got a lot of press attention when it introduced the OnePlus One, an Android phone with flagship specifications for the amazingly-low price of $299 for the 16GB variant and $349 for the 64GB model.

  OnePlus introduced the world to its second flagship phone earlier this year, the OnePlus 2, during a virtual reality press event. Once again, OnePlus impressed reviewers with great specifications at a great price. Now that we have quickly gone over OnePlus's past, let's come to the present day and the launch of the company's latest Android phone, the OnePlus X.

  The question on my mind going into today's press event was: could OnePlus avoid some of the mistakes of the past (the problematic invite-only purchasing system, no support for quick charging, and the lack of NFC) and deliver another great affordable Android phone that did not suffer from the ordering/production issues associated with its predecessors?

  Like the OnePlus One, the OnePlus X comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (a SoC that was very popular with 2014 flagship phones) and 3GB of RAM. However, this time, we get a smaller phone since the X uses a 5-inch 1920x1080p AMOLED display protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 technology. We also get a 13-megapixel f/2.2 aperture rear camera, an 8-megapixel f/2.4 aperture front camera, 16GB of internal storage, a micro USB port for charging and data transfer, and the possibility to use either dual Nano SIM cards or one Nano SIM card and one Micro SD card for expandable storage (supporting up to 128GB cards available today and higher capacity microSD cards as they reach the mainstream market).

  There are two variants of the OnePlus X: the Onyx variant, which has a black glass back panel, and the Ceramic variant, which has a highly polished, glass-like Zirconia back panel. The Onyx version will be available for sale in India and Europe starting on November 5 (Nov 19 in United States) via the company's web site's, assuming you have an invite. You can start requesting invites starting today. As for the Ceramic variant, there will only 10,0000 made initially and they will go on sale in Europe before Christmas at a price of 369 euros (£269 in United Kingdom). You can't request an invite for the Ceramic version just yet.

  

  To make the OnePlus X easier to buy, after the first month of availability, there will be weekly time slots, advertised via social media, when it will be possible to buy the phone without an invite.

  It makes sense that OnePlus has decided to make the X essentially a smaller, more stylish, and more affordable version of the highly popular OnePlus One. Smaller because not everyone feels comfortable carrying and holding a large phone. More stylish since design is increasingly an important consideration for today's consumers. And more affordable because in late 2015 there are many other worthy rivals (especially from Motorola and Xioami, not to mention countless other lesser known Chinese OEMs) also offering beautiful design and similarly impressive flagship-level specifications at prices typically associated with mid-range phones.

  Not only does the X look great, but it feels great in the hand.

  

  The 5-inch AMOLED display (a first for OnePlus) has excellent brightness, contrast, color rendition, and viewing angle. The brushed anodized metal frame and the use of glass for the rear panel give the phone a nice premium feel but also makes it more fragile (I would definitely recommend keeping the phone in a case at all times).

  The single speaker on the bottom left side of the phone is reasonably loud and does not sound tinny. The maximum headphone volume seems loud enough to allow you to easily hear music or spoken audio even in busy/noisy environments. The earpiece volume seems similarly loud enough.

  

  The 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801, the Qualcomm Adreno 310 GPU, and the 3GB of RAM under the hood are more than good enough to handle even the most demanding of today's games. It was also wise not to go with a higher resolution screen since that would have been fairly unnecessary and  placed greater demands on the CPU/GPU, resulting in lower frame rates and reduced battery life.

  Talking of battery life, OnePlus says that the LiPo 2,525mAh non-removable battery should easily last a day and my initial tests indicate that you should be able to get at least four hours of screen time during a 20-hour day. It would have been great if wireless charging was supported, but OnePlus assures me that it should be able to fully charge the battery from zero percent with the supplied charger in under two hours.

  With regards to the cameras, they both seem decent enough and should satisfy most people but I am worried a bit by the lack of optimal image stabilization (which is important for taking photos in low light scenarios or when recording video while walking around) for the rear camera.

  As for software, like the OnePlus 2, the X comes with version 2.1.2 of OxygenOS, a lightly-skinned customized version of Android 5.1.1. OxygenOS comes with a dark mode optimized for AMOLED displays. There is also an FM radio app called "OnePlus Radio" that allows you to listen to nearby FM radio stations when you have your headphones plugged in.

  

  So, having said all that, the question I need to answer is does OnePlus X offer enough in today's highly competitive Android market to succeed and to keep its fans happy? What I can say with certainty is that in terms of design and features, at this size, the closest rivals are HTC's A9 and Sony's Z5 Compact, both of which sell for more than twice the price of this phone. In short, I expect the OnePlus X to be a massive hit with consumers.

  Siamak Masnavi received his PhD in computer science (from University of London) in 1992. Since then, he has worked as a research scientist and technical author for IBM and Canon, respectively, and as a software developer for Symbian, JPMorgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has also done some work as a freelance journalist for publications in United Kingdom and Russia. Since January 2009, he has been writing apps for iOS and Android.

  
• 

  10 things you should know about Motorola's Moto G (3rd Gen)

  Publié: août 11, 2015, 12:09pm CEST par Siamak Masnavi

  

  The Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen), also known as Moto G 2015, had its launch event on 28 July 2015.

  Since then, there have been many reviews of this device, but there are some things about the new Moto G that you you should know about to help you decide whether this is the right phone for you.

  The new Moto G is a midrange phone, and not a budget phone

  So many journalists/bloggers reviewing this device have referred to it as a "budget phone" meaning that it is relatively cheap when compared to a much more expensive "flagship phone" such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6. But Motorola sells this phone all over the world and people's budgets are not all the same. For example, for someone on a salary of $200 planning to buy their first smartphone, a $200 device may not seem at all budget-friendly and the term "budget phone" may even be offensive. Also, in 2015, there is so much competition in the Android phone market that you can get perfectly good phones (current models) for less than $100. Two examples are the Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) and the Xioami Redmi 2. And if you don't mind a slightly older device, the original Moto E, which was updated a few weeks ago to Android 5.1 Lollipop, can be bought for around $60.

  As with any other phone, whether or not it offers sufficiently good value for money depends on where you live, because this determines what choices are available in that market and the prices YOU would be paying as opposed to a reviewer based in a different country. For example, the 16GB version of the Moto G (3rd Gen) is available through Moto Maker in United States for around $220, whilst the same device sells for around $305 in Germany and $320 in United Kingdom. Even within such affluent countries, you can buy the Moto E (2nd Gen), which was only launched in February/March 2015, for under $100.

  It should be clear by this point that the new Moto G is a mid-range device and, as such, it must be judged against other mid-range Android phones selling for roughly similar prices (i.e. $200 - $300).

  Also, it is worth noting that most (if not all) reviews till now have been done with review units (supplied by Motorola) that have been fitted with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM and yet many reviewers keep applauding the $179 starting price for the 8GB model (with 1GB of RAM), ignoring the fact that the multi-tasking performance of an Android phone with 1GB of RAM can be quite a bit worse than with 2GB of RAM. Furthermore, Android Lollipop does not properly support the storage of apps on microSD cards, which means that 8GB of storage allows for installation of very few apps.

  There is no official guarantee of an upgrade to the next major version of Android

  When Motorola Mobility was owned by Google and it launched the 1st generation of the Moto G (November 2013) and the Moto E (May 2014), it promised to stand behind these two devices and guaranteed to update them to the next major version of Android. And it used this guarantee very successfully as a major selling point for these two devices.

  On 30 October 2014, however, Lenovo announced that it had completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google. Sadly, now that the Moto family has established a reputation for fairly speedy Android updates, it seems that Motorola Mobility’s new owner is not very adamant about maintaining the "guaranteed update to the next major of Android" promise for the new Moto G since you can no longer find a mention of this either on Motorola’s site or in the press pack handed out to reviewers. In fact, at the launch event in London, I asked one of Motorola’s marketing people if the new Moto G would definitely be receiving an update to the next major version of Android (i.e. Android M) and the answer was that they were working on it and hoping to provide this update but they were not guaranteeing it.

  The rear camera is not exactly the same as the one in the Nexus 6

  Based on reviews and discussions in user forums that I have come across, it seems that many people are assuming that the rear camera used in the new Moto G is identical to the one used in Motorola’s 2014 flagship, the Nexus 6. This is not strictly true since the Nexus 6 camera had the benefit of coming with an optical image stabilizer to help out with camera shake and/or low light photography/videography.

  There is no NFC support

  As was the case with the previous generations of the Moto G, there is no NFC support. NFC support matters if you want to be able to more easily arrange pairing between Bluetooth devices (such as a NFC-equipped phone and NFC-equipped headphones) by just touching them to each other. Lack of a NFC chip also makes the new phone unable to support the current Google Wallet or the upcoming (in Android M) Android Pay mobile payments at NFC-enabled point-of-sale systems at cafes/restaurants such as Starbucks and at retailers such as Best Buy and Staples.

  There is no magnetometer

  The previous generations of the Moto G had a magnetic field sensor and the dropping of this feature in the new Moto G means no more support for digital compass and metal detection apps. More importantly, a magnetometer is useful in navigation apps such as Google Maps since it allows such apps to auto rotate the maps you are viewing depending on your physical orientation.

  There is no gyroscope

  In a phone, both the accelerometer sensor and the gyro sensor track movement of the phone. Whereas the former measures the linear acceleration of movement, the latter measures its angular rotational velocity.

  Unlike the 2nd generation of the Moto G released in 2014, the new Moto G does not come with a gyroscope. This means that the Google Camera app is not able to offer a Photosphere option and VR apps such as Google Cardboard that consist on the presence of such a sensor will not work properly. Motorola probably realized that this did not matter too much since the Moto G's 720p screen is too low resolution for use with VR apps since you need at least a 1080p screen to minimize the "screen door effect" and thereby have a decent experience.

  There is no LED notification light

  Unlike in the previous two generations of the Moto G, the new Moto G does not offer the much-beloved LED notification light. This feature allowed you to glance at your phone even from across the room and quickly find out from the flashing LED if something had happened that required your attention.

  Motorola says that it was able to drop this feature since the need for it is obviated by the introduction of the "Moto Display" feature (this momentarily flashes on the lock screen the icons of those apps for which an important notification has been generated). Although it is nice that this feature was borrowed from new Moto G’s more expensive older sibling (the original Moto X), that phone had an AMOLED rather than an LCD screen, which meant that rather than powering on the whole screen just to show a couple of lines of notifications, only a small portion of the screen needed to receive power. Motorola seems to realize that some people might be worried by the extra power requirements of the Moto Display feature since the customer support documentation on its site states the following: "Even though the display fades in and out to ensure you are notified of the important stuff, we use very little power (just a few percent of the total battery capacity)".

  It remains to be seen if buyers of the previous generations of the Moto G will be happy with the absence of the LED notification light in the new Moto G. If the reactions in Reddit’s "MotoG" subredit community are any indication of how purchasers of the new Moto G are are likely to react, I think it is safe to say that there is bound to be some degree of disappointment.

  The phone is water-resistant, and not water-proof

  The new Moto G offers an unusual combo of a removable back cover and IPX7 water resistance. The phone is water-resistant in 1m of water for up to 30 minutes. IPX7 means that you don’t need to worry about using the phone in the presence of rain, snow, or splashes of water, but you should not attempt to wash it by holding it under a tap, or to take it with you to the shower or to the swimming pool.

  The Micro USB port offers OTG Host support

  The USB On-The-Go (OTG) support feature, which was also present in the previous generations of the Moto G, allows you to use your phone as a PC by attaching (via a cheap OTG adapter) USB peripherals such as flash drives, external hard drives, keyboards, and mice.

  The microSD card slot can handle cards larger than 32GB

  Motorola's spec sheet and almost all reviewers state that you can expand storage by using a microSD card up to 32GB in capacity, but this is incorrect -- at least, all the 64GB and 128GB microSD cards I have tried so far seem to work just fine. You should be able to just insert your memory card into the phone and ask the phone to format/erase the card from within the Settings app, but if you have any difficulties with this method, you should be able to format the card in a PC using a FAT32 disk formatting utility.

  Despite the limitations mentioned earlier, the latest generation of the Moto G brings enough features to the table to keep it competitive against mid-range offerings from major OEMS such as Alcatel (OneTouch Idol 3), Asus (ZenFone 2), Huawei (Honor 4X), LG (G3), Samsung (Galaxy A3), Sony (Xperia M4 Aqua), and Xioami (Mi 4i).

  The one feature not discussed in this article (because every review talks about it) is Moto Maker design studio (currently available in six countries), which allows the buyer to customize the colors used for the front/back of the phone and to choose a name or short message to be engraved on the back of the phone.

  This feature -- previously only available on Motorola’s flagship model, the Moto X -- is a true unique selling point for Motorola since no other OEM offers anything like it. In a world where individuality is increasingly a rare commodity, Motorola’s approach to hardware customizability is a breath of fresh air and transcends the new Moto G into something special -- a phone that allows you to express your creativity and, in a sense, become a phone designer, thereby owning a phone that is yours in more ways than one.

  I am going to end this article with a confession: I am a huge fan of the Moto E and the Moto G and have, in fact, bought (for myself, my friends, or my relatives) every version of the Moto E and Moto G up to this date because Motorola’s very light UI on top of stock Android made me feel like I was getting an almost Nexus phone at a bargain price (especially true since Google decided last year to sell Nexus devices at a profit rather than at cost). Furthermore, in the case of the Moto G family, the ability to easily change the phone’s back plate with a "Shell" or "Flip Shell" in a different color made me feel that I could keep my Moto G looking forever young and fresh.

  Currently, I am in the process of testing Microsoft’s Lumia 640 XL as my main phone to find out how hard it is for someone who has primarily owned and used iOS and/or Android devices to live solely within the Windows ecosystem. Therefore, I am not really interested in buying an Android phone at this time. But what if I was? If I had a $300 budget, what mid-range Android phone would I buy with my own money in August 2015?

  To me and many other tech journalists, the three main rivals for the title "2015 Best Mid-Range Android Phone" are the new Moto G (the version with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM), the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3, and the Asus ZenFone 2 (the version with the 2.3GHz Intel processor and 4GB of RAM). It is true that both the OneTouch Idol 3 and ZenFone 2 offer higher resolution screens (1080p vs. 720p) and faster processors than the new Moto G.

  If, however, you are like me and use your phone more for getting work done than for gaming, then the new Moto G’s combination of solid build quality, simple yet attractive and unobtrusive UI, decent sound quality, excellent bright screen, good front and rear cameras, water-resistant body, and front/back plate customizability means there is really only one choice.

  
• 

  Motorola Moto E hands-on

  Publié: mai 13, 2014, 12:43pm CEST par Siamak Masnavi

  

  On November 13 2013, Motorola showed the world that it was possible to make a powerful smartphone that runs the latest version of Android and sell it for under $200 without a contract. Unsurprisingly, Motorola had a huge hit on its hands with the Moto G (top selling phone in Brazil and Mexico).

  Six months later, Motorola is showing once again that it is very serious about capturing an even bigger share of the budget smartphone market by announcing a 4G version of the Moto G (selling for GBP 149 in the UK in the coming weeks) and, more importantly, introducing an even more inexpensive smartphone, the Moto E.

  The unlocked version of the phone is available from today in United States (USD129 on Motorola.com), from May 19 in the UK (GBP89), and starting from the end of the May, in other markets.

  But if the Moto G is doing so well, especially in developing markets such as India and Latin America, why is there a need for the Moto E? The answer is that most people in developed markets already have at least one smartphone and big growth in smartphone adoption is only expected to come from developing markets and there are hundreds of millions of people in such countries for whom even $200 was unaffordable. Moto E is Motorola's answer to this problem. And what a great answer it is.

  Having played with the device for an hour, I can say that the feel and build quality is very reminiscent of the Moto G, with seemingly very little noticeable drop in performance compared with that device. My only concern is that Moto E has no front-facing camera; so if, like me, you are a heavy user of video chat apps such as Skype, I recommend spending the extra money and getting a Moto G. But when compared to smartphones from other manufacturers, at this price level, I can confidently say that the Moto E is the clear winner.

  

  Siamak Masnavi received his PhD in computer science (from University of London) in 1992. Since then, he has worked as a research scientist and technical author for IBM and Canon, respectively, and as a software developer for Symbian, JPMorgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has also done some work as a freelance journalist for publications in United Kingdom and Russia. Since January 2009, he has been writing apps for iOS and Android.

  
• 

  Initial thoughts and impressions from the HTC One (M8) launch event

  Publié: mars 25, 2014, 6:46pm CET par Siamak Masnavi

  

  Earlier today, Mihaita Bamburic wrote about HTC's new smartphone, the One (M8). Here, I am going to convey my initial thoughts and impressions after some hands-on time with the device.

  With all the leaked specs, photos, and videos of the HTC One (M8) preceding the announcement, I was worried, before coming to the London launch event, that I would not be too impressed when I finally got the chance to see the phone for real. Thankfully, I was wrong.

  HTC has managed to take a great phone, 2013's multi-award winning HTC One (M7), and improve it in several key areas.

  First, although the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor was quite fast already, HTC's decision to use a 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in the M8 makes the M8 as fast as any of its recently announced top rivals, i.e. LG G Pro 2, Sony Xperia Z2, and Samsung Galaxy S5.

  Second, by increasing the size of the Full HD (1080p) screen from 4.7 inches to 5.0 inches, while causing the pixel density to decrease slightly (468 ppi vs. 440 ppi), HTC may have settled on what is likely to be the optimum screen size for most of its target audience.

  Third, the increase in the resolution of the wide-angle front camera from 2MP to 5MP means that the M8 may now be the best phone in the world for taking selfies or for video chats (e.g. via Skype or Google Hangouts).

  Fourth, even though the primary rear camera, sadly, still only has a 4MP sensor, the inclusion of the secondary rear camera, which is responsible for capturing depth information in the scene, means that after you have captured a photo, you can use the camera app's UFocus feature to change which part of the picture is in focus (and which parts get blurred).

  Fifth, the bigger battery (now 2600 mAh) and more efficient use should lead to up to 40 percent longer battery life than before.

  Sixth, the M8's new amplifier and the 20 percent louder speakers should result in an even more enjoyable experience when using the dual front-facing speakers to listen to music or watch movies.

  And finally, the support for secondary storage in the form of a microSD card slot (allowing up to 128GB cards to be used) provides plenty of room for books, photos, music, and movies.

  If you already have the 2013 edition of the HTC One, you may not feel that the main improvements I have listed above are sufficient to warrant an upgrade to the 2014 model, but after spending the past hour playing with the HTC One (M8), I feel that it would be a very worthy upgrade for anyone who has anything older than a 2014 flagship phone from one of HTC's main rivals.

  
• 

  5 things you should know about Samsung Galaxy S III

  Publié: mai 4, 2012, 12:41am CEST par Siamak Masnavi

  

  Earlier today, Samsung unveiled the newest member of its Galaxy S family of Android-based smartphones, the Galaxy S III, at London's Earl's Court Exhibition Center at a press event dubbed "Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012". Was it the disappointment that some people predicted? Hell, no! Not to me, at least. And I am going to tell you why.

  Right up to today's launch event, there were many rumors/predictions saying that we would see a device with a 4.6 - 4.8 inch Super AMOLED screen, Samsung's new quad-core processor (Exynos 4420) running at 1.4 GHz, 1GB of RAM, and 4G connectivity (at least in markets that currently support it). All of these predictions came true. But there's more -- five things that set Galaxy S III apart from other Samsung smartphones and those from competitors.

  But, First the Hardware

  In terms of S3 hardware features, here's what Samsung announced today:

  • 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos processor supported by a new graphics processing unit (reportedly around 65-percent faster than the GPU on the Galaxy S II)
  • 4.8 inch (720p) HD Super AMOLED screen with a scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 2 coating
  • Very light (133g, or 4.7 ounces) and slim (8.6mm) design
  • Fast, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with back-side illumination for better low-light performance, as well as 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera
  • Plenty of storage options in the form of versions with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of on-board storage as well as a microSD slot (which should allow as much as an additional 64GB of storage)
  • Removable 2100mAh battery
  • NFC (Near Field Communications) for mobile payments
  • WiFi Direct (offering device to device file transfer speeds as high as 300 Mbps even in places where there is no cell signal or WiFi network)
  • Bluetooth 4.0 (which uses less power than Bluetooth 3.0)
  • Finally, HSPA+ connectivity for most of the world but 4G LTE connectivity for certain markets (initially in North American, Japan, and Korea)

  How do these specs compare to the Galaxy Nexus, this phone's closest sibling? Well, most notably, the Galaxy S III is faster (1.4 GHz quad-core processor vs. dual-core 1.2 GHz processor in addition to a faster GPU). Furthermore, it is slimmer (8.6mm vs. 9mm), and lighter (133g vs. 135g) despite having a larger display (4.8 inch vs. 4.65 inch). On a more subjective level, I would say that it has a better, more ergonomic design (supposedly inspired by the shapes of pebbles and leaves) and higher build quality.

  Now on to those 5 Things

  But the real focus of today's presentation was on Samsung's software innovations.

  1. Samsung introduced a new interface called "TouchWiz Nature UX" on top of Android 4.0, which tries to be more Zen-like than its predecessor (TouchWiz 4.0), using sounds and visuals inspired by nature, such as a pond-like live wallpaper used for the lock screen.

  2. The new phone tries to predict the user's intentions by using the camera, microphone, accelerometer and proximity sensor to perform clever tricks such as:

  • Keeping the screen awake while the user is looking at it (a feature known as "Smart Stay")
  • Allowing Siri-like voice control (a feature called "S Voice") for doing things such as searching for information, getting weather information, or organizing schedules)
  • Alerting the user to missed calls or text messages when the phone notices that there is a call coming from the person who has been trying to reach you

  It is too early to tell how well all these new features will work in practice, but just like Apple's Siri, they are features that are sure to make the Galaxy S III stand out in a very crowded market and that were designed to vow potential buyers in very Apple-like TV commercials (and that's meant as a compliment rather than criticism) which we will be seeing very soon.

  3. New features make sharing with friends and colleagues easier. For example:

  • "Social Tag" recognizes the faces of your contacts in photos
  • "Buddy Photo Share" recognizes faces in a photo and offers to send that photo via MMS or email to everyone in that photo
  • "AllShare Cast" uses WiFi Direct to mirror the phone's display to a compatible TV (ideally from Samsung), and if you don't have one of those, you can use the "AllShare Cast dongle" to achieve similar results to what you would get with AirPlay if you have an Apple TV
  • "Group Cast" allows for collaborative work with people on the same network

  4. There is renewed emphasis on expanding good, curated ecosystem, such as Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub apps. Music Hub is the most interesting since it offers scan-and-match functionality similar to what Apple offers with iTunes Match.

  5. Samsung is serious about supporting the enterprise by offering better device management and on-device encryption.

  Additionally, Samsung introduced a nice set of hardware accessories, such as a wireless charging station (similar to the Touchstone Charging Dock Palm introduced three years ago), flip cover, and car dock.

  Samsung packed a lot into today's one-hour presentation. If you hate Android, what Samsung showed today won't win you over and persuade you to go out and buy a Galaxy S III. But Samsung fans and, in general, Android fans who are always hungry for the latest and greatest phones are likely to forgive the Galaxy S III's PenTile display and appreciate its impressive set of hardware and software features.

  As for the majority of users out there who just want a really nice smartphone but don't care whether it is using iOS or Android, they are highly likely to be seduced by the very sexy Galaxy S III.

  Photo Credit: Samsung

  Siamak Masnavi received his PhD in computer science (from University of London) in 1992. Since then, he has worked as a research scientist and technical author for IBM and Canon, respectively, and as a software developer for Symbian, JPMorgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has also done some work as a freelance journalist for publications in United Kingdom and Russia. Since January 2009, he has been writing apps for iOS, webOS and Android.