Best Phone Blog

The new HTC HD7 is the phone that is being billed as the ultimate in entertainment and it seems that the phone will not let down HTC in that department though. The phone, despite offering the best in terms of entertainment is very light on your pocket. This is because the phone has very compact dimensions and measures just 162 grams.

The phone houses in a massive touch screen display that measure in at 4.3 inches. The best possible way to utilize this screen is to watch movies, and you can do so in High Definition because the phone’s massive 16 GB of internal storage lets you do that without a sweat. The phone has a 1 GHZ processor that makes HD video playback and many other high end functions easy. The phone also has 576 MB of RAM and 512 MB of ROM available.

A 3.5 mm stereo output lets you enjoy the videos and songs that you would have stored in your phone on any other headset should you not decide to use the phone’s fantastic speakers. The phone comes with Dolby Mobile and SRS surround sound technologies. The phone also has a stand that comes out from the camera and this lets you enjoy the movies without actually holding the phone. Being a Windows Phone 7, you can enjoy Xbox LIVE integration that lets you play Xbox games on your phone.

The phone not only lets you watch HD movies, but record them as well. This is because the phone’s 5 megapixel camera comes with options like flash, autofocus and so on to capture the best possible videos. HTC has revealed that the phone will be available with T-Mobile contract. You can also enjoy the phone without a contract options by buying it outright.

HTC has launched a new phone that is being billed as the ultimate in the gaming smartphone segment. The new HTC 7 Trophy has a number of features that would certainly make sure that it lives up to the name.

The new HTC 7 Trophy features a touch screen that measures up at a hugely impressive 3.8 inches. The screen is also capacitive and has a 480 x 800 resolution that will make many a phone to go red with envy. The phone has a 5 megapixel colour camera that has options like auto focus and flash to make even the most novice of mobile phone users look good at taking pictures. The camera also has built-in scenes like candlelight, landscape, and portrait that would easily match the environment of your subject, letting you take even better pictures.

The phone has 8 GB of internal storage that lets you store your songs and movies. The phone has Dolby Mobile and SRS surround sound technologies in it, and these offer excellent virtual surround sound. The phone supports audio formats like m4a, .m4b, .mp3 and .wma. The gaming experience offered by this phone is second to none. This is because the phone comes with Xbox LIVE integration that lets you stay in touch with your friends and compete with them over your favourite Xbox game titles on the phone itself. This means that you are never far away from the ultimate gaming experience.

The HTC 7 Trophy has features like GPS that offers free navigation using the Bing Maps application. The phone runs on a 1300 mAh battery that provides talk time of nearly 400 minutes in GSM mode. The phone is expected to be released later this week and will be available on a two year £30 a month deal.

The great marketing maxim that you shouldn’t be tinkering with a successful product goes out the window with the HTC Desire Z. The Taiwan-based leader in smartphones HTC did just that. It took its highly successfully HTC Desire released this March and decided it can reach more markets by adding a full QWERTY keyboard in a slider form factor.

HTC didn’t sacrifice much of the slim profile of the Desire as its QWERTY version has a 14.2mm profile making it one of the slimmest QWERTY sliders on the market.

Feature Desirability

Apart from that, HTC traded the beefy muscles of the older Desire’s 1GHz Snapdragon for a less endowed by just as capable 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 under the hood. At least you now get the latest Android v2.2 to run the HTC Desire Z. You give some, you lose some, right?

But for all intents and purposes, the two are almost identical, with the same 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display all the bells like proximity and accelerometer sensors, Swipe and multitouch input technologies, 480 x 800 resolution and 16 million colors. The display is S-LCD which is no less as good as the AMOLED in the first early batches of the Desire which now uses the same screens, thanks to Samsung’s inability to meet the HTC needs.

The new Desires features quad band GSM on 2G with class 32 GPRS/EDGE connectivity speeds and a dual band UMTS on 3G with HSDPA at 14.14 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.7 Mbps data speeds. Local data transfers get WiFi 802.11 b/g/n for hotspot surfing, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v2.0 and an in-built GPS receiver with A-GPS.

Imaging gets a 5-megapixel shooter with autofocus, LED flash, face detection, geo tagging and video recording at 720p high definition. Mobile entertainment starts with its Stereo FM receiver with RDS, a 3.5mm audio jack and wireless A2DP stereo listening option.

HTC puts in a generous 1.5 GB of user memory coupled with a 512 MB RAM for its OS files. You also get a 32GB microSD support. A 1300 mAh Li-ion battery delivers up to 9.8 hours of call time on 2G, 6.6 hours on 3G with a standby time of 430 hours.

If the HTC Desire looks and seems like a Smarpthone you’ve already seen before, it’s because it actually is. The newest Smartphone from HTC is actually a revamped model of the HTC Google Nexus One which saw its release in January of this year. The only difference between the two is that the Desire has been blessed with the immaculate Sense user interface. In this regard, the Desire definitely makes more sense than its Nexus counterpart. Forgive the play on words. We just couldn’t resist it.

Mirror Image

One of the reasons why the Nexus One was so impressive was because of its sizable high resolution touch screen display. At 3.7” and with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, it remains to be one of the baddest in the business. The same holds true for the HTC Desire which has the exact same AMOLED capacitive touch screen. The dimensions of the two are almost exactly the same as is their weight – a virtual mirror image.

More of the Same

In terms of their features, it’s more of the same for the HTC Desire and the Nexus One. Voice and data connectivity options are similar and so are their built-in cameras which are both at 5-Megapixels. An expandable external memory of 32GB, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and an A-GPS-capable GPS receiver are some of the other prominent features shared by these two Smartphones, and they’re definitely impressive features, especially considering how reasonable the HTC Desire deals are.

Sensing a Difference

While both handsets have the famed Android OS on board (both have the Eclair), what allows the HTC Desire to stand out is its Sense UI. The proprietary HTC user interface enhances the already impressive Google mobile OS as it integrates a lot of new features on the Desire. One of the shortcomings of the Nexus One was its lack of widget and application power. With the Desire, all these criticism can be thrown out of the window.

The newest Android handset from HTC is heading straight to the UK via Vodafone. This new Android smart phone has spent its development under the radar only to later surprise the tech community with its impressive features and practical hardware setup. With this announcement, at least four network operators will be offering the Android handset (T-Mobile, 3 UK and Virgin Mobile). With this level of competition we should be able to enjoy some pretty nice HTC Wildfire deals upon release.

Going in a different direction than the HTC Desire, the Wildfire is practically a low to mid range smart phone that still brings plenty of useful features on the table. While users cannot expect the same speed and performance that is normally found in other of the recently launched Android handsets, we can at least expect the Wildfire to be significantly cheaper than its Snapdragon bearing predecessors. Social networking is a major feature on this Android handset as it has integrated features for Facebook and Twitter.

The device also comes with a 3.2 capacitive touch screen with an accelerometer and multi touch, a 5 mega pixel camera (with flash and autofocus), a 3.5 mm audio jack and of course, support for WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, microSD cards and more. Hopefully, when the Android 2.2 Froyo update for the HTC Desire comes out this coming June 23, an update for the Wildfire will also be released (version 2.2 of the Android OS brings native support for Adobe Flash and AIR as well as tethering and other useful features).

Vodafone has already released the new plan details for this handset. According to Vodafone’s official website, the Wildfire is free with the two year 15 GPB monthly tariff which gives users 300 minutes of talk time and free texts -but no internet data allowance. While so many networks have already confirmed the device (and the price as well), it appears that nobody can still give a definitive release date for the Android smart phone.

The all new HTC Wildfire is for those people who want great personalisation from the Android platform, but who’s budget doesn’t quite stretch to the £400+ that is required to get hold of a Desire. Yes the HTC Wildfire offers a more reasonably priced option and should be available for free on a contract priced between £15 and £20 per month. This is where we believe that HTC and Google can steal a march on their rivals, Apple. Apple has the premium marketplace all but sewn up, but we reckon that it is the budget handsets where the battle will be won and lost. You see there are an awful lot more users who can afford £100 on a handset that can afford £400+ and the more users that an operating system has, the more developers want to develop apps for it. I’m sure you can see where we are going with this, let’s just say that whoever wins the budget battle for OS supremacy, will win the overall APP battle and our reckoning is that Android may just take it in 2010.

It may seem like Elan Microelectronics is standing up for fellow Taiwan-based HTC with this new lawsuit. Elan is filing a single patent infringement case against Apple, and despite the fact that they have already filed a similar case against the American giant last year; there is also the fact that Elan filed the same lawsuit against Synaptics Inc and won.

In truth, Elan Microelectronics has nothing to do with HTC, though it is quite probable that Apple has painted a big red target on itself by attacking the small manufacturer in their fight against Google’s Android operating system.

Anyway, the lawsuit covers the use of multi touch technology. And while we were inclined to assume that this lawsuit would not do much against Apple, the fact that it won against Synaptics (responsible for many touch pad technologies and more) shows that there is more to this than meets the eye.

Even bigger are Elan’s demands: “Apple is violating Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, by importing its iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook and Magic Mouse products into the United States, that infringe Elan’s U.S. Patent No. 5,825,352. (the “352 patent”). Elan also alleges that the importation of Apple’s iPad products, which Apple has indicated will be available to consumers on April 3, violates section 337. Elan is requesting that the ITC issue a permanent exclusion order barring the importation of those products into the United States, as well as a cease and desist order barring Apple from selling any of these products in the United States that it has already imported.”

Talk about going in for the kill. While many only assumed that this was exactly what Apple wanted to get from their lawsuit against HTC, the same deal is already being brought down upon them. Regardless of how this turns out, Apple will have to settle this soon or things will certainly get messy as stocks stop coming into the US.

Get to know more about the new lawsuit against Apple at the Consumerist.

While Apple may be the older company, HTC has been in the mobile industry longer. Before the iPhone, HTC had already made a name for itself with its smart devices and Pocket PCs. They even attracted the attention of Microsoft who turned HTC into a partner in developing Windows Pocket PC.

When HTC grew, they ventured into the mobile phone industry where they became a partner for Google’s Android OS. They made the HTC Dream –the first Android smart phone, and the Nexus One –the first Google branded Android device. It is because of these that the recently claimed lawsuit from Apple accusing HTC of patent infringement comes as an insult to HTC’s long history in the industry.

A few days ago, Peter Chou stated that “HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

The HTC CEO also said “From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

The lawsuit covers 20 patents for hardware and software, focusing on HTC mobile phones that use the Android OS. Google has also reacted by stating that they will stand behind and support HTC in this case. Despite not being directly involved, Google recognizes the lawsuit as Apple’s own tactics against the Android OS.

For more information about HTC’s defense against Apple, go to ZD Net.

We all know that Apple is suing HTC, and that as much as Apple denies it, this is a move to disable the manufacturer for one of their biggest competitors Google. So here’s a quick rundown of how things are.

The actual lawsuit has basis. Apple own patents to technologies which they believe that HTC is using on their mobile phones. The fact that Apple has scrounged up 20 hardware and software patents mean that they have been sitting on their patents for quite a while, hoping for a viable target to make the mistake. HTC, being close to Google, proved to be the perfect prey. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that HTC is at fault. More often than not, nobody simply knew that Apple was holding those patents or that they existed in the first place.

HTC has already spoken and they say that they will be defending their products and innovations. Google will be backing up their Android partner developer on many this lawsuit. HTC on the other hand will have patents of their own to show.

Apple’s goals are a little simple than actually getting a favorable verdict. Should the litigation process end up stalling or suspending the activities for HTC and its offices, then Apple would have already been able to cripple one of Google’s better partners.

Apple would have nothing to gain by directly attacking Google, nor do they have a case against the company. However, by choosing to attack HTC, Apple is able to indirectly affect the sales and availability of many upcoming Android devices.

So far, there is no where yet on how the progress of the investigation goes. With the number of technologies in question many expect the proceedings to drag on for weeks.

Get to read more about the Apple lawsuit against HTC at Softpedia.

As the middle of summer approaches we thought that we would compile a list of the hottest handsets on the planet right now and then tell you the cheapest contract that you can get them on. We opted for the middle ground of an 18 month contract on all handsets, although you can save even more by going for 24 or even 36 month deals, although we have no idea why anyone would want to commit for that long! So here is what we found
1) Nokia N97 deals – The hottest Nokia handset on the planet right now, we’re not sure that there is anything that it can’t do. It is a little pricey at £40.00 per month, but for that you are getting 800 minutes and unlimited texts on T-Mobile and let’s face it, a phone like this deserves a big monthly allowance.
2) Nokia 5530 deals – If you don’t want the QWERTY keyboard and want to pay about half the price of the N97, then the Nokia 5530 is the one for you. Just over £20.00 gets you a wopping 600 minutes and unlimited text messages on Vodafone. You also get the added bonus of an Xpressmusic subscription for unlimited download of tracks.
3) Sony W995 deals – Sony Ericsson have produced a superb phone here, although the camera does not quite live up to the one on the C905 (no more LED flashes please). However the music functionality is excellent. You can get the W995 for £21.00 per month with 400 minutes and 500 texts on Orange.
4) HTC Hero deals – The best Android phone out there and a true iPhone rival in our opinion. The ting is with HTC is that you always know there is something better just around the corner. However until that is made known you can get the Hero for £31.00 per month on Vodafone with the ever popular 600 minutes and unlimited texts.
5) Samsung Jet deals – Another Android phone and one that hasn’t received the marketing push it truly deserves. We love this handset and with the ever increasing amount of Android Apps available we reckon it is well worth spot number 5. 400 minutes and 3000 texts on Orange for £21.20 per month is a bargain as well.
6) Blackberry 8520 deals – The latest Blackberry to hit the shelves sticks to its well known looks and design. You know what they say, if it aint broke, don’t try and fix it and this is exactly what Blackberry have done. Our pick is the O2 deal with 600 minutes and 500 texts with £170 automatic cashback for £35.00 per month.
7) HTC touch diamond 2 deals – A very much improved version of the original touch diamond, the interface is much more user friendly and it looks great too. O2 win the day here, offering 400 minutes and 500 texts for under £30.00
Samsung Pixon 12 deals – For the serious mobile phone user, the Pixon 12 sports a much better camera than the original handset, but you are looking at a £40.00 per month deal with 900 minutes and unlimited texts.
I’m sure we have missed some great phones out and if you find a deal that you think should be on here, let us know in the comments section and we will let everyone know.