First there was a Jet, it was speeding too fast and gone out of control and plunges to the sea. It creates Waves strong enough to make everyone on board of the Jet swept across the sea and landing them on an island. They were abandoned by the Jet and the next thing they can do was to look at the Wave, hoping one day there might be someone came to the rescue. This isn’t the LOST series. This is what happened to Samsung Jet owners. A series of mis-promises that Samsung gave to Jet owners. Jet owners were lost, the only saviour is the Jetdroid. Worst of all, Samsung is urging Jet users to upgrade to their new handset Samsung Wave. Well, this is reality, this is business. Anyway, enough of some history lessons. Let’s move on to the real deal here. Samsung Wave S8500, the new handset from Samsung which bundled with loads of new tech never seen before in other phones. The most marketed ones are the Bada OS and Super AMOLED screen. Does it lives up to the hype?

Before the content goes on, pictures first:

And here are the hardware specifications for Samsung Wave S8500:

• 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird Arm Cortex processor
• 512MB of available RAM
• 1.5GB phone storage, with 400MB available only
• 480×800 Super AMOLED capacitive touchsreen @ 3.3inches
• 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash
• HD video record at 720p @ 30FPS
• Bada OS(Operating System)
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Connectivity – EDGE, 3G, WiFi(supports Wireless-n,802.11n), HSDPA 7.2Mbps, GPS, A-GPS
• Video and audio playability – DivX, WMV, Xvid, h.263, h.264, mp3, WMA, ACC+
• 1500mAh Li-Ion battery

From the specifications above, Samsung Wave S8500 is indeed a very powerful gadget device. Being the most notable one is the 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird Arm Cortex CPU. This CPU is tested to be faster than the 1GHz Snapdragon processor which was found in most high end Android phones like the Google Nexus One, HTC Desire and Sony Ericsson Experia X10. Apart from that, having a fast brain a.k.a processor means nothing if the brain capacity doesn’t have enough space for fast data processing, thus Samsung bundled as much as 512MB of RAM which is quite generous indeed.

As far as the design is concern, the phone was wrapped in a aluminium build with an exception on the top and bottom which is consist of some high quality plastic build. And as for the screen, Samsung decided to upgrade its much touted AMOLED screen for this Wave. It is now Super AMOLED. I won’t go into a technical detail of the difference between Super AMOLED and AMOLED. From a general user perspective, minus out the higher contrast ratio, there weren’t much difference if you compare it side by side in an indoor environment. But taking out to a full blast of sunshine, you might started to note the difference. Super AMOLED is able to produce some readable visual on the screen while AMOLED is completely washed out. Don’t get too excited though, Super AMOLED is only comparable to the standard TFT screen right now, I mean under the sunshine. Don’t expect to get a clear clarity of the screen like what you get back during monochrome days.

The next big thing from this phone is the Bluetooth 3.0 and wireless-n connectivity. These two are pretty new, and you might not find it in your computer right now.

Bluetooth 3.0 is an upgrade over the previous Bluetooth generation, it provides transfer rate of 24Mbps. One thing about Bluetooth 3.0, the faster transfer rate is not done by the Bluetooth chip itself. The Bluetooth hardware only manages the connection establishment, while the data transfer is done via the 802.11 protocol. So, technically, any phones with Bluetooth and a 802.11 build-in is capable of having a Bluetooh 3.0 upgrade. nextpage–>

HTC Wildfire

I start with the recently released Android incarnation from HTC. It is called the Wildfire. Well, catchy name, designed wise might not well suited to its nomenclature though. That might be changed if you get the red version of Wildfire. Oh, before I forgot, there are four colours available. Brown, black, red and white silver. Personal preference, white silver is the one to get. Thus, I’ve attached the picture here in silver.

….and the boring brown like you have seen in Desire as well.

More pictures available here http://www.htc.com/uk/product/wildfire/gallery.html

I have to say, great job HTC. The colours availability is quite an advantage, and it gives consumers more choices.

Okay, physical appearance aside. Let’s see whether this Wildfire is as beauty as skin deep.

• 528MHz Qualcomm processor, same as HTC Tattoo
• 384MB RAM, 512MB ROM
• 3.2inch TFT capacitive touchsreen @ 240×320 resolution
• 3G, WiFi, EDGE, bluetooth
• 5MP with LED and autofocus camera lense
• GPS hardware with A-GPS
• 1300mAh Li-ion battery
• Android 2.1 OS (Eclair)

One word about it, the specs is nothing to shout about. 528MHz MSM7225 Qualcomm processor and the TFT screen is kinda outdated, well, that’s what you get at what you paid for. The rest of the specs is kinda standard these days. Did I mention the price? Contract-free at RM1200(USD350) is almost halfed of the cost of Desire and almost RM500(USD160) cheaper than the HTC Legend. But on the other hand, with 1300mAh battery capacity, you can expect to get a long usage on a single charge. Engadget reported of having 12hours of 3G connection, which is quite impressive.

Upgradability to Froyo is no where to be seen. That might be changed if the sales of Wildfire is really wild though. But with HTC Sense UI and at an enticing price, this phone is the budget Android phone to get. Or is it? Let’s look up for the next contender from Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy 3

Samsung attempted budget Androids back a year ago with Galaxy Spica, though didn’t welcomed much by the masses. Now Samsung made an upgrade for its Galaxy phones lineup. Of course, this review isn’t about the super expensive high specs Galaxy S, this one is called Galaxy 3. I certainly have no idea about the naming convention that Samsung trying to use here, as there were no Galaxy 1 or 2 before this. Anyway, here are the specifications.

The buttons situated on the left and right is actually touch-sensitive button employed with capacitive touchscreen technology, while the center button is a 5-ways navigation D-pad which also brings up the menu once pressed on the centre.

The upside about this phone is the Touchwiz 3.0 interface which Samsung uses. It isn’t as elegant as the HTC Sense UI, but it was certainly better than the standard UI found on the vanilla version of Android Eclair. Another plus point is the support for various video codecs natively, so you don’t have to get any 3rd party apps to watch any short clips in DivX or WMV format. Kudos to Samsung for this.

The major downside, yeah, you saw it. Is the lacked of LED flash and the lowly 3.2MP camera. While some may argue this is more to smartphone, but hey, having an LED flash does helps a lot. Another complain is the WQVGA screen ratio. 400×240 is not the standard available on phones these days. Which means, the apps you downloaded from the Android market might not be supported on your phone.

Anyway, Samsung Galaxy 3 was just announced, so you might not get it that soon. Pricing should be at the range as HTC Wildfire. Based on the specs, I suspect it could be cheaper. Falling to the range of Sony Ericsson X10 mini is great. next page >>

• Nokia 5800 Express Music
  

  Nokia 5800 Express Music

Basically the best bang for buck touchscreen smartphone out there. It has almost all the features you looking for; 3.2inch TFT LCD  resistive touchscreen, 3.15Mp camera, wifi, 3.5mm audio jack, multimedia playback capabilities and tonnes of Symbian apps available. With an added bonus; square bulky plastic build which acts as an antithesis to the featureless yet beautiful iPhone. If you don’t mind the extra bonus, costing at ~RM1k(USD 310), this phone is a real bargain.

• Nokia E63
  

  Nokia e63 Smartphone

Yet, another smartphone from Nokia dominates this recommended chart. It is actually the hugely popular Nokia E71 with chopped off hardware; without the aluminium casing and the front facing VGA camera. Priced under RM1k(USD310), choosing between this E63 and 5800 XM is a no brainer; E63 for better faster texting and for those who dislikes touchscreen. Otherwise, go for 5800 XM for bigger screen and touch ability.

• Sony Ericsson W705 Walkman
  

  Sony Ericsson W705

I would say, the best budget Walkman series so far. Walkman phone from my opinion, is basically dead. It was sad to see these great series of Walkman phones just died at a mere 4.5years old. It is a small brother to W995. At the same price range as Nokia 5800 XM, it isn’t a smartphone though. Purely aim for music lovers who need a phone with great music capabilities. Untill the price of W995 drops further more, this is the best wifi- enabled Walkman phone which doesn’t hurt your wallet that much.

• Samsung Corby Wifi S3650
  

  Samsung Corby s3650 Wifi

With its cute trendy design, Samsung’s original Corby managed to win the hearts of many. It draw sales big enough to convince Samsung in making another revision; same phone with an added wifi capability. This phone is targeted at youngsters in mind (girls especially), and it’s basically an anti-gadget-freak phone. And at the cost of under RM750(USD210), this phone is a big recommendation for the average teenagers. On top of that, its build in Dolphin internet browser is a bonus. Good mobile internet experience is at least a guarantee here.

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Installing an OS for a handset(Android in this respect) is not as straightforward as it is for a computer.

1. You have to get the bootloader to boot up the Android OS. Thus, needing to mod the bootloader comes with the handset.
2. Since 3rd party OS will be installed on the SD card for safety reason(you won’t screw up if it fails), it would be necessary to initialize the SD card upon booting as well.
3. Compiling the Android OS which includes all the necessary drivers for booting up the handset. Initial stage may only need the crucial parts only like the AMOLED screen, CPU, memory controller, storage controller and the touch input.
4. Get all the hardware drivers

Of course, the above mentioned are just a rough explanation, but you get the idea here.  It isn’t easy and these people dedicated to make this possible deserves an applause.  On top of that, they didn’t get any payment whatsoever. But it was sickening for seeing people asking the status of the project all the time. Reminds me of stupid Project Manager in an IT firm.

If you are deemed to be skillful enough , please pay a visit to  Jetdroid Group

**Omnia II which shares almost similiar hardware as Jet, already has been successfully ported an Android OS onto it. But it was slow and some hardwares were not usable.

This new Motorola Android phone is the next evolution from Droid. Sleek is what makes this phone shine. It was already selling in Korean market and the States should get this phone by this month. What distinct this phone with any other phones is its ability to output HD content through its mini-HDMI port. The rest of the specifications are 3.7inch touchscreen, 8mp autofocus camera with xenon flash and 720p video recording.

New Android phone Galaxy S from Samsung

Boasting a 4inch AMOLED screen, this phone is beautiful. While not as sleek as others, it doesn’t feel cheap and quality of the build is there. While the 5Mp camera is kinda letdown, it was supplemented by 720p HD video recording capability. For storage, it has 16gb build in memory and expandable via microSD. No doubt, its triumph card is its crisp and clear AMOLED screen.

HTC desire with Android 2.1 operating system

HTC manufactured Google Nexus One. You can expect HTC to sell one with similiar features. And what you got now is the HTC Desire. It was basically a Nexus one with slightly sleeker design and slightly more RAM. What made up the Desire? 1GHz Snapdragon processor,  576MB Ram, 5mp camera and of course  Sense UI. Availability circa Q2-Q3 2010.

During the heydays of Nokia 3310, people are only limited to WAP based mobile internet. It was so limited and nobody bothered to surf net using their mobile back then. Few years later, phones with 65k colours TFT LCD are booming like mushrooms. There are at least few people used their phones to surf some WAP sites via GPRS/EDGE and that’s including me. The Sony Ericsson T610 is classic, serving me for 4years before I decided to retire it.

With the introduction of iPhone, the mobile industry was revolutionized. Mobile service provider is selling the phone with data package. It’s very enticing since most service provider absorbed the hefty price of the iPhone by signing up with the consumers with 1-2years contract(not in Malaysia, a 2year contract still cost a premium). Mobile provider take note of this idea and introduce it with other phones as well like the HTC android series. Although 3G was introduced many years before iPhone, not many afford to use this data service without a data plan. It was iPhone who revolutionize the service provider in providing affordable data plan + voice call + cheap phones (again, not in Malaysia).

What’s next after 3G? For your sake, it isn’t iZzi 4G network (refer to my intro paragraph). Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the next step after 3G. While it was only considered as pre-4G as it doesn’t meet some of the requirements to be adhered to the 4G specifications. Some countries already initiated trial and testing and branded it as 4G. Some of the countries including Stockholm and Oslo. The latest was Singapore where SingTel demo the technology by streaming HD content to a tablet PC.

LTE will be absorbed into 4G family though it doesn’t comply with the 4G standards. As far as business is concern, carriers will most likely to market it as 4G instead of “pre-4G” or “3.9G” which represents the correct term.

Here are the specifications of LTE:

• Downlink speed of 100Mbps.
• Uplink of 50Mbps
• idle to active at ~ 100ms
• reduced latency at 10ms
• IP based wireless network, no more analogue voice packet. Voice calls are being done via VOIP.
• IPv6 support. IPv4 no longer sufficient to sustain this much of connected device by then.

Basically, LTE is fall short of the bandwidth requirements as 4G; downlink speed of 1Gbps when client is stationary and 100Mbps for mobile operation. And also the efficiency of the burst rate.

The true 4G technology will be LTE-Advance. Its specification were only finalized at late 2009.  Apart from that, mobile-WiMax is competing with LTE-Advance to get the nomenclature. I say, both will complement each other and hardware manufacturer will probably support both technology in the same package. In the mean time, HSDPA 3.5G is not even utilized fully. There are no killer applications that can take advantage of that massive bandwidth for mobile by factoring in the cost. Untill bandwidth becomes cheap, don’t try to watch Youtube HD on your mobile.

iPhone with it's ubiquitous interface

One thing I really impress with Apple is their creativity and marketing. They are able to inject much ideas on a phone which really brings much wow to all of us. Pinching (another word for zooming in iPhone), land scape mode with auto rotate, intuitive menu design and colours … are just some of the fun features which you can’t find in any phones at that time. Even before Apple roll out iPhones to network carriers, Apple has been doing intensive marketing for their new phone. The Macworld Expo which Steve Jobs did a demo on the fruit phone is very interesting back then. Guess what, they got itself free marketing by having this video of the demo spread around the internet by link exchange and word of mouth. I still remember viewing that video and immediately, “I must get this phone” is what appears in my brain. But wait, Apple is known for its overpriced product, new phone like this wouldn’t be cheap. And yes, it’s pricey. It cost and arm and a leg without subsidy from network carriers. Apart from that, it lacked basic features like MMS, retrieving SIM card info and that includes all your contacts which you saved in your SIM, 3G, pathetic camera, custom ringtone…etc, thus making the first version of iPhone a no no to me. But Apple has been upgrading their iPhone consistently since then; added 3G support, better camera, faster processor, and better LCD screen just to name a few. What we have now is iPhone 3GS, a big upgrade software and hardware wise compared to the first version of iPhone.

Android OS

Android phones on the other hand, is kinda different from the iPhone. First of all, it’s an open source platform. Secondly, it(the OS) was developed by Open handset Alliance and it’s up to any manufacturer to implement any hardware they want. The end result was, a very customizable platform where manufacturer can easily use this OS on any of their new phones as long as it meets the hardware requirements. So, you can have a budget phone with Android installed and another one with all the high end features. Even better is, the Android can be skinned with customizable menu. Take some of the Android phones as example; HTC Hero, Sony Ericsson Rachael and Moto Droid. 3 of them are different in the UI design as HTC and Sony Ericsson re-design the whole UI on Android while Motorola decided to use the vanilla version of Android 2.0. While being open source, this OS is not as intuitive and fun-looking compared to iPhone’s proprietary OS which is version 3.1 now. To be honest, it was quite plain and boring. But that changed after looking at the Sony Ericsson Rachael’s UI (below).

Impressive? Ya, thats the same feeling I had back when I first watch iPhone preview demo.

Same as iPhone OS, Android lacked basic features in the earlier version though not as much as iPhone. But with consistent updates from Google, many of the features were added in every new version. The newest version Android 2.0 is very impressive. It supports higher resolution, optimized for faster hardware speed and better virtual keyboard. Sony Ericsson Rachael is based on Anroid 2.0 for your info.

As usual, I detailed out both platform in simple point forms.

Why you should get iPhone?

• Good internet device. Its mobile Safari browser tops every other mobile browser.
• A true smarter-than-usual-smartphones (sorry Samsung Jet). Has over 100,000 applications available for download and has very good build-in organizer applications.
• Top notch user interface, fool-proof in other words. You don’t have to spend whole day to configure certain settings.
• Great design; either physically or internally(the OS). Appealing for fashion conscious and show-off types alike.
• Very good touch interface and user input. With capacitive touch technology and a 3.5″ screen, giving inputs to the iPhone is non other than just contact your finger and the screen only. The keyboard is well designed and big enough (landscape mode) for swift email/sms typing.

..and why you shouldn’t.

• Overpriced. If there are no subsidy from telco, this phone cost a premium and it’s certainly not worth for that kind of hardware specifications.
• Poor audio output. For this beautiful phone, having lower-than-low-end speakers is certainly worth to give Apple a slap in their face.
• Poor call quality. Many have complained since the first iteration of iPhone, Apple simply never listen.
• Customization sucks. Skinning the OS or at least having different themes was not possible. Guess what, you can’t change the message tones and you’ll be bored with the default tones.
• Poor multimedia capability. Mp3 and video playback is sucks and it doesn’t support a myriad of common video and audio codecs.
• No Flash support. What? Yeah, having a great browser minus the support for Flash is certainly an Achilles’ heel for the iPhone. This limits to only capable of browsing plain&boring websites on the iPhone.
• No GPS. Another what? You are paying a premium for this phone and it doesn’t comes with GPS? Relax, there is A-GPS. If your position is badly covered by your telco’s signal it basically means nothing as A-GPS needed data from the internet.
• In summary, your iPhone is basically dead without internet connectivity.

Why you should get Android?

• Better hardware specifications. Supports higher resolution both camera and screen, and faster processor 1GHz like the SE Rachael.
• Decently bundled Google applications. Gmail, and Google maps with free directional navigation make it the winning key for Android 2.0 phones.
• Customization is better. You can get different themes and skin and you can customize your own tones.
• Google voice support.

..and why you shouldn’t.

• Applications from Android Market might not compatible with your phone. This is contributed by the fact that there are different hardware configurations for the same OS.
• Phone designs might not as appealing to some.
• A great variety of phone models and brand is confusing.

As confusing as it is, both platform has its pros and cons. Apple controls the hardware implementation which results having pathetic hardware specifications; high end smart phone with 3.2 megapixels camera only? Knock knock Jobs… But on the other hand, the brilliant human-device interface (the iPhone OS interface for your sake) + loads of apps available on Apple store, makes the iPhone an appealing choice for tech freaks who are looking for a smartphone. If you’re looking for a phone which packed a punch for its multimedia prowess, iPhone indeed sucks here. Forgot to mention, iPhone’s call quality is below average. >> next page
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The administrator menu can be accessed by keying in *#5239870*#. After that, select option No. 4 Internals. It’ll prompt you for a Master Key. Key in *#7092463*#, and enter Confirm thereafter.

To check your memory status, select the no.2 option Debug settings > no.7 Memory state > no.1 Current memory state. You will see Total heap Mem, Total allocated mem, Allocated mem and Fragmentation level.

Here are some explanations:

• Total Heap Mem: Possibly the RAM size of Jet.  It was amount at 122MB. You are seeing it as 119,900K as it was in Kilobytes, converting (multiply by 1024) it to MB will be equal to 122MB.
• Total Allocated Mem: I still couldn’t figure out the meaning of this. This memory is static and wouldn’t change with any applications opened and closed. Possibly the memory allocated for the Samsung proprietary OS.
• Allocated Mem: The amount of memory that you are using right now. Done some test by opening few widgets and applications and this amount will be slowly increasing. I’ve done a test by opening a large heavy flash content website in the Dolphin web browser and switch to Current Memory State via the task switcher.  I can actually see the amount is increasing over time and finally it reaches 110K before giving me error on insufficient memory resources. Keep in mind that this figure doesn’t update in real time. You’ll have to click the back button and access that menu again to see the updated figure.
• Fragmentation level: No idea of this. Fragmentation means nothing for solid state memory. But anyway, this figure stay at 0% at all time.

Samsung Jet

There is a new Jet in town. Featuring a high power Jet engine @ processor at 800MHz, this Jet is a new touchscreen phone from Samsung. It was claimed to be smarter than a smartphone. While I do agree that it was smarter than LG Arena. But smarter than a smartphone? Well, lets take a ride on this Jet.

On the first look, this phone features a 800×480 resolution at 3.1 inch AMOLED touchscreen. It is an improvement over some other phones which still uses the old TFT LCD technology. AMOLED’s advantage over TFT is its colour reproduction where it can produce sharper and more vivid colours. However, under direct sun light, I could barely read the menu from the screen. This is a common problem which existed over a vast range of other touchscreen phones.

Samsung Jet with new Touchwiz 2.0

The phone features a resistive type touchscreen technology. It’s not as responsive as a capacitive ones like the iPhone and LG Arena. But Samsung did much to the touchscreen sensitivity and I found it to be on par with iPhone’s capacitive touchscreen.

Upon booting up the Samsung Jet, you’ll be greeted with Touchwiz 2.0. A new version of Samsung’s touch interface. The left side of the screen features a widget bar, which reminds me of Windows Vista. YouTube, weather forecast, shortcut to Google, music player, are just some of the available widgets there. Scrolling down the bar will reveal more of the widgets.

Tapping on the menu icon on the lower right brings up the, erm… menu of course. It consists of three pages. Flipping to the next page is as easy as sliding the screen to the left or right. Much like a design copied over iPhone’s one.

Typing a text on a touchscreen phone is a serious concern for me as there were no tactile feedback using the virtual keys. Samsung Jet offers multitap input, handwriting recognition and QWERTY virtual keyboard in landscape mode. I’ll rule out the handwriting recognition as it couldn’t effectively recognize my handwriting accurately. The multitap was functional but slow. It will never matched with a true multitap keys. It was slow but it get the job done in the end. My favourite is the QWERTY virtual keyboard. With a smaller screen as compared to iPhone, the keys were smaller. I would have thought that mispressing keys is as prone as LG Arena QWERTY keyboard, but I was wrong. I find the accuracy of pressing the desired key is near to 99%. But in the end, using a QWERTY keyboard covered more than half of the screen, typing a long SMS or email wont be such a good experience as you only get viewable lines of less than 5.

Holding the cube button on the lower middle brings out the task manager. It lists out the opened applications and you can switch between applications from this menu. The design of this cube button is misleading as I initially thought that it brings out the cube shortcut interface.

The cube interface which is called Media Gate 3D user interface, is reminiscent of the S class UI from LG Arena. Instead of offering 4 sides only, Samsung Jet’s cube interface can be accessed through all 6 sides of the cube. The 6 sides of the cube offer shortcut to multimedia prowess of Samsung Jet. Such as the movie player, music player and the Dolphin web browser. To access the Media Gate interface, you’ll need to press the little button on the side situated just on top of the camera button. A little bit odd design as both the Media Gate button and the camera button look more like a volume controller.

The back of Samsung Jet

As far as multimedia capability is concern, Samsung Jet is no slouch. It features 5MP camera which is the standard for mid-high end phones. The 800MHz makes it fast and responsive when navigating over menus and widgets. However, Media Gate 3D cube is not as responsive which is a letdown considering when this phone is powered by a 800MHz processor. Capturing video can be done at a maximum resolution of 720×480 at 30FPS in MP4 format. >> next page
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LG Arena has a speedy processor. It features an AMD processor which runs at 600MHz. Data to the processor was being fed with a DDR RAM at 8MB; it was comparable to the veteran 80486DX2 era or early batch of Pentium machines. However, for a phone which has loads of features, 8MB was seriously a hardware implementation flaw. Given that the RAM was shared by all the phone’s applications; which includes web browser, music & media player and the graphic intensive S class UI ( user interface ), 8MB was really insufficient to run all these together.

Complain below were heard abundantly thanks to the massively tiny RAM.

• • Using the multitouch to zoom in a picture would have lag a second.
• • Carousel-like gallery browsing was slow. 1-2seconds delay.
• • You can’t multitask with more than 2 applications.
• • Webpage rendering is very limited when the page was big. Opening multiple tab was not possible either.

More discussions will be coming up in the next few days.

Updated, 29/07/2009:
There were problems using Wi-Fi for certain applications like YouTube and Java applications where you won’t able to connect the Wi-Fi via these applications. This is more on the firmware issue rather than the hardware.

There is a support forum for LG Arena users at http://www.mylgarena.com/. For existing LG Arena user, you can register yourself there and you can seek help of solving the problems existed in your phone. It’s good to keep track of the latest firmware and the feedbacks of your phone. Like the new v10O firmware actually solved wifi over youtube problem, where the previous firmwares were unable to play YouTube over Wi-Fi. However, the new firmware was purportedly removed the playlist option in the media player. It’s a good upgrade overall if you can live without playlist for your music needs.