Zhesty.NET - Gadgets and Technology

Sure, some may have had a good ole laugh at the Streak 5, arriving with enough display real estate to border on tablet territory -- in fact that's what Dell sold it as. Fast forward a year, and it looks like that weighty slab of phone -- or tiny tablet, depending on your interpretation --was simply ahead of its time. Most phone manufacturers are now skating around the five-inch mark, and Samsung even went a little further. With the Galaxy Note recently paying a visit to the FCC, we thought it was time to see how these two barely-phones stacked up against each other. We're leaving the technical specs aside at this point -- you can check the reviews for those -- but we can still line them up and take plenty of photos of the resulting face-off.

We knew that Panasonic's mobile division was summoning its strength for a return to the Old World, and finally we have some detail: it's aiming to bring an "ultra-slim D-shaped" Android smartphone with a slim bezel, 4.3-inch qHD OLED screen, NFC and some rugged credentials to Europe in March next year. The manufacturer hopes to use Europe as a stepping stone to the US, China and the rest of Asia, aiming to broaden its range of Android devices and sell at a total of nine million of them outside of Japan by the end of March 2016.

It's no secret that we were downright smitten when HTC dropped 2010's proverbial bombshell: the EVO 4G. A knockout device that served not only as WiMAX's ambassador, but also catapulted us into expansive "superphone" territory with what was then a gargantuan 4.3-inch screen. Since then, however, subsequent EVOs haven't exactly been what we'd call up to snuff. The EVO 3D, while "good," made gimmicky trade-offs that kept it from being the home-run we'd hoped for. And others, like Samsung, who were once an Android wallflower have seriously stepped up their game -- so much so, even Google's repeatedly taken notice.

Where does that leave us with this year's EVO Design 4G? With middling single-core specs and a mid-range $100 on-contract price, things aren't exactly looking up for a device tasked with wielding a torch branded with the EVO's name. Does it pass muster as a device worthy of its ancestry? Or will the GSM and qHD add-ons keep it from diluting its predecessors good name? Well, frankly, there's only one way to find out, and that's to join us as we explore its intricacies past the break.

Why Sony chose to sit on this one, we have no idea, but the company just revealed that its software update for the 2011 lineup of Xperia phones -- which was released last month -- also adds browser support for WebGL. This means that if you're holding an Xperia Arc, Mini, Neo, Play, Ray... or any other of its most recent handsets, then there's a good chance you're wielding one of the first Android phones to support this modern graphics platform. Designed to bring advanced visuals and gaming to the web, the API holds roots in javascript and has been used to develop everything from Angry Birds to far-out music videos. Sony Ericsson first previewed its WebGL efforts back in February, and after all these months, its official arrival is a welcome one, indeed. For a quick demo video

Just to wrap up today's product launch extravaganza in Beijing, Lenovo also threw in its new LePhone S2 dedicated to the phone category in China (while insisting the 5-inch LePad S2005 is more of a tablet, but we'll let you guys do the debate). This 3.8-inch WCDMA phone is no match for many of the big players out there with its single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip, but other than that it should be pretty sufficient for the average user. The specs include a 800 x 480 TFT display, Android 2.3.4, 512MB RAM with 8GB ROM or 1GB RAM with 16GB ROM (neither comes with memory expansion), slightly different casing design for both models, eight megapixel 720p CMOS camera and a much lighter body compared to its two predecessors -- we're looking at a reduction from 165g to just 120g (including the 1,500mAh battery) at 10.9mm thick. Sadly there's no word on release dates or prices for the S2, so again, come back in a bit for our hands-on photos

Motorola's Droid RAZR takes enough pages out of the classic textbook of smartphone differentiation to assemble its own chapter. It sets a new standard for thinness in LTE devices, uses leading-edge display technology, resists flexing, glass breakage and water damage, has a striking design and thoughtfully selected materials, stretches battery life, matches with a bevy of optimized accessories, and enables remote file and media access via Motocast software . Who's it for? Just about any Verizon customer willing to pony up.

Its rival HTC has also long played the one-upsmanship game. It has invested in a software layer designed to have populist appeal. Moreover, it has catered to US carriers' priorities by being first out of the gate to support T-Mobile's 3G network (with the first Android phone, the G1) and Sprint's and Verizon's 4G efforts, as well as one of two to initially support AT&T's LTE network.

And the work has paid off. At its recent introduction of the Rezound, the company crowed that it had been named the best-selling smartphone brand in the US in Q3 and that it was the leader in 4G smartphones. (The NPD Group, my employer, supports the second claim but not the first.) HTC also noted that it had cracked the Interbrand 100 list of best global brands after only five years of brand promotion. The company's "partner" Beats Audio, in which the handset maker has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, also drenched its benefactor in praise. This was followed by expected statements of support from Verizon and Best Buy, which will sell the Rezound.

Wouldn't you know it, but a full year after we originally reported the story, Dell has finally made good on that promise to replace its BlackBerry smartphones with the company's own Venue Pro handsets -- for the most part, anyway. You see, of the 30,000 BlackBerry units currently in deployment, Dell has swapped approximately 15,000 of them. Still, the glass appears to be half full in Round Rock, with the company's Chief Information Officer, Robin Johnson, touting the alleged cost-savings of the switcheroo. For its part, RIM has called the move a sheer publicity stunt.