BlackBerry Tour camera

The BlackBerry 9630 (Tour) camera is identical to the BlackBerry 9530 (Storm) camera – if you’ve read my review of the Storm camera, you’ve read my review of the Tour camera :)

The Tour takes pretty awesome pictures for a business phone. It lacks the accelerometer present in the Storm, so there is no auto-rotation, but it features a dedicated two-stage camera button, which is missing on most other devices with a similar form factor, like the Nokia E71.

Pictures taken with the HTC Hero

Talk about déjà vu… Sure, the HTC Hero features a 5 megapixel camera, but compared to the 3 megapixel camera on other HTC devices, it’s just more of the same!

But I’m not complaining – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” :)

Quickie: Samsung Reclaim

The Samsung Reclaim reminds me of the Samsung Instinct s30 – it’s not particularly compelling, but then again, I’m not the target audience!

Is it green? To quote Jemery Clarkson: “Yes, very.” Some of the plastic parts are actually made of corn, but I don’t think this phone is any more biodegradable, considering all the electronics…

Quickie: HTC Touch Pro2

Quickie is a new column wherein I’ll provide quick reviews of devices I’ve used for a few days, complete with pictures & video, pros & cons, and camera samples.

The HTC Touch Pro2 (Sprint version) is a lot like the HTC Touch Pro, but bigger & heavier…

Motorola Droid camera

I’ve been using the Motorola Droid for a week now, and while the device is quite impressive overall, the camera is a mess…

“But wait,” you protest, “those shots look fine.” Sure, the Droid can take pretty decent pictures (slide show). But I’m a camera buff, and do you know how much effort I put into these?

Pictures taken with the Nokia N900

The Nokia N900 camera is really quite good. In fact, even with pre-release firmware, it walks all over the competition!

It’s no surprise. The N900 comes from a long lineage of great 5 megapixel phones from Nokia, such as the N95 and the N82. It features Carl Zeiss optics (with auto-focus and macro), a dual LED flash, and a sliding lens cover – as such, it’s virtually identical to the N97 camera…

Motorola Droid first impressions

It’s been less than a week since the Motorola Droid unexpectedly landed on my doorstep after making quite a fuss on the intertubes. So it’s time for a reality check.

Does this über phone live up to all the hype? The short answer: yes, absolutely! Does it challenge the mighty Nokia N900 to the throne of geekdom? The long answer: possibly, maybe…

Nokia N900 meetup

The Nokia N900 meetup was a great success! Props to Matt for organizing the event & taking pictures, and to WOM World for the food/drinks…

Thanks to all the people who attended, including Tomomi, Dennis & his wife, Kevin, Brett of Pixelpipe, and the Mozilla crew :)

One of the most interesting aspect of the meetup was a demo of Fennec on the N900. Check the video above, and the other videos of the event after the break.

Update: Dennis provides a summary of the demo of Fennec on the N900.

Unboxing the Motorola Droid, part 2

Sure, the Motorola CLIQ and HTC Hero are very nice, and the HTC Magic and T-Mobile G1 are pretty good, but this phone takes Android to a whole new level!

You’re looking at HAL 9000 the Motorola Droid, the first Android device with 2.0 (Eclair) and a 848×480 pixel screen – possibly the slimmest (and hottest) QWERTY slider ever designed…

Feast your eyes on my unboxing pictures, and if you’re still hungry for more, check out my unboxing video :)

Nokia N900 first impressions

I’ve been using the Nokia N900 since unboxing it 5 days ago, and I’m still blown away!

I wrote “the N900 is brilliant”, and it’s true – I have not been this excited about a Nokia device since the N95, and that was pre iPhone.

For better or for worse, the iPhone changed people’s expectations. Suddenly, having the best hardware was secondary to having the best software, services, and user experience…