CES recap

Last week I covered CES for Engadget in Las Vegas. It was a lot of hard work with little sleep, but it was also a total blast!

In addition to reporting on several of the new devices announced at the event, I was interviewed by T3ch H3lp (video), and I bumped into some hard-to-find, already released phones.

Take a look at my pictures (slide show) of the Meizu M9, Dell Venue, ZTE Blade/Orange San Francisco, and HTC EVO Shift 4G after the break…

Unboxing the Google Nexus S, part 1

It’s here! The Google Nexus S has landed. First impressions? I don’t have much to add to what’s already been said.

Surprisingly, this phone feels better put together than the other Galaxy S devices. It’s definitely an improvement over the Nexus One, and a worthy successor. Read on…

Quickie: Nokia E73 (Mode)

Back in June I received a Nokia E73 from the friendly people at T-Mobile – basically a variation on the excellent Nokia E72. I used it briefly but got interrupted by the arrival of other things. More after the break…

Quickie: LG Sentio

Oh how things have changed in 6 months! Last summer, the PR folks at T-Mobile sent me this LG Sentio review unit. I played with it briefly and promptly got distracted by other shiny things. Read on…

Pictures taken with the Motorola Charm

On paper, the Motorola Charm features the same lackluster 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera as the Motorola Devour.

Based on the abysmal quality of the Devour camera, my expectations were extremely low. Thankfully, the Charm performs a lot better…

Unboxing the Motorola Milestone XT720, part 1

What would happen if you cross-bred the original Droid, the Droid 2, and the Droid X? You’d get the Motorola Milestone XT720.

It takes the 3.7″ screen (854×480 pixels), Cortex A8 processor (bumped up to 720 MHz), and 256 MB RAM from the original Droid. It borrows the blue-ish/silver industrial design from the Droid 2. And it shares the lack of keyboard, 8 MP camera (with mechanical shutter), and HDMI output with the Droid X.

It only runs plain-ish Android 2.1, but it spices things up with a Xenon flash and an unlocked GSM/HSPA radio that supports AWS 3G (1700 MHz band used by T-Mobile USA and Wind Canada).

Intrigued yet? Take a look at my unboxing video. Pictures to follow.

BlackBerry 9800 (Torch) vs. Motorola Droid 2 camera

Torch sample pictures (slide show):

Droid 2 sample pictures (slide show):

Two QWERTY sliders hard at work – one portrait with a small 3.2″ screen running BlackBerry 6, one landscape with a large 3.7″ screen running Android 2.2 – and both quite multimedia savvy.

Two 5 MP autofocus cameras ready to play – one with a single LED flash and VGA video recording, one with a dual LED flash and 480p video recording – and both with a two-stage shutter button.

Can the BlackBerry 9800 (Torch) and Motorola Droid 2 mix business with pleasure? Find out after the break…

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Tab, part 1

When it rains, it pours – a few days ago the PR folks at both Verizon and Sprint each sent me a Samsung Galaxy Tab to play with :)

There are no major differences between them. Both support 3G (CDMA) plus WiFi, both feature a 7″, 1024×600 pixel capacitive display plus twin cameras (3 MP rear-facing autofocus with LED flash & 1.3 MP front-facing), and both run Android 2.2 (FroYo).

The Verizon model (unboxing video above) is completely black while the Sprint model (unboxing video after the break) features a sexy white back cover…

Unboxing the Motorola Droid Pro, part 1

Last week I received a Motorola Droid Pro review unit from the lovely people at Verizon. It joins the ranks of the Droid 2 and the Droid X, but adds some unique features…

Most obvious is the QWERTY keyboard, which looks and feels exactly like a BlackBerry keyboard. There’s a pretty decent camera (5 MP autofocus with dual LED flash) and a global radio (CDMA + GSM/HSPA) on board. Sadly, the portrait layout means the screen is smaller (3.1″) and lower resolution (HVGA – 480×320 pixels) than its siblings.

I’ve already recorded the launch of this phone for Engadget during CTIA, but check out my unboxing video and expect some pictures soon!

Samsung Galaxy S camera shootout

4 carriers, 4 phones, 4 variations, 4 cameras!

Samsung’s Galaxy S for the US market – the Vibrant (T-Mobile), Captivate (AT&T), Epic 4G (Sprint), and Fascinate (Verizon) – share the same core specs, but diverge in appearance and implementation.

How do these similarities and differences affect camera performance and user experience? Find out after the break…