The last quarter of 2009 is here and we are getting a great Android flavored holiday. The news of the Motorola DROID being localized as the Motorola Milestone has confirmed the coming of Éclair to UK shores. Sony Ericsson on the other hand has announced that 2010 will see the arrival of the Snapdragon 1 GHz powered Android smart phone, the XPERIA X10.
HTC has been releasing several Android devices throughout the year. T-Mobile now releases its own Android mobile phone. Dubbed the Pulse, this new Android phone targets the low budget market with its lowered manufacturing costs allowing the device to be sold as a pay-as-you-go-device.
The Android from Huawei
Electronics manufacturer Huawei just made their first mobile phone debut at the last Mobile World Congress and showcased an Android device. They are definitely showing their design knowhow and learned experience with their first device with the Pulse’s well made button interface and mobile phone design.
Despite a few nuances with the actual response time (which we attribute to the processor), the phone is still a superb piece of work providing many smart phone capabilities and functions for a very good price. The choice of having Huawei as a manufacturer for T-Mobile definitely pays off in the end, the T-Mobile Pulse stands as the cheapest Android smart phone available.
Good Hardware for a Good Deal
The key factor with the Pulse is that it has a cheap price, but not cheap hardware. The 3.5 inch capacitive touch screen is larger than the average screen on an HTC phone, and it even has multi touch capabilities. For some reason, other T-Mobile Pulse reviews do no point out the impressive 5 mega pixel camera in this phone; with the quad band network support, A-GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, EDGE, 3G HSDPA and GPRS capabilities, the Pulse is a true 3G smart phone that you can get at a low price.
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is the second Android phone to be launched this year. It is a massive improvement over its predecessor in a number of ways. Not only is the phone sleek and stylish, it also has an impressive set of features to match. Featuring on the high end of the price spectrum, you can get the T-Mobile myTouch 3G only if you are prepared to burn quite a large hole in your wallet!
Appearance wise, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is at the top of the charts. The glossy outer casing comes in three different colors- white, black, or merlot. Lack of the physical keyboard is what makes the phone considerably thinner than the previous Android phone. The thickness of 0.65 inches allows you to slip the phone into even the smallest space without any problem. You can even operate the phone in one hand as the grip on the sturdy body is excellent.
The 3.2 inch screen is top class, as it allows you to display up to 262000 colors at a high 480 x 320 pixels resolution. Edges of the images are crisp and clear with all the colors nice and bright. You can adjust the backlighting and brightness to suit your preferences. Even the 3 panel home screen can be customized. The Android interface is easy to use and you can access all the panels by just sliding your finger across the screen. Such customization and ease of use only adds to the seduction factor of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G.
The media player on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is decent as it allows you to play MP3, AAC and WMA. This is nowhere near top class media players on Walkman phones, though you can download songs over the air via 3G or Wi-Fi. The 3.2 MP camera is also pretty good as it can take decent photos with reasonable quality.
HTC… a name that, phone geeks as we are, we’re rather familiar with. We know that they used to have one of those ridiculous Taiwanese names that are created by people with a vague/comedy grasp on English, before deciding that they’d probably be better off shortening ‘High Tech Computer Corporation’ to simply HTC Corporation. Smart move. We know that their tag line, ‘Smart Mobility’ sums up very well what they do, dealing as they do mostly in the higher-end of mobile communications (i.e. smartphones). And we know that they are so very small in size and stature that they get roughed up in the playground and get their lunch money stolen and their phones rebranded by the likes of T-Mobile. Because the T-Mobile G2 Touch is little more than the HTC Hero, simply re-branded to suit T-Mobile’s needs.
Which is a shame, because we think more people deserve to know the name of HTC (its new name that is, probably best to keep the old one under wraps). They’ve been the predominant makers of Google Android-based phones since that wonderful platform was released. And the HTC Hero / T-Mobile Touch is one of those. Even if it looks, well, bizarre, it’s a full-featured phone that’s well, f’ing fantastic in almost everyway. But all those T-Mobile aficionados out there are never going to know this, are never going to see past the T-Mobile stickers and stamps, and might even never know that HTC built this thing from scratch.
Hey ho, such is the way of the world. Let’s just hope that one day HTC become big and strong and start to fight back for themselves. In the meantime, have a little look at this T-Mobile G2 Touch review, or at the official page for a less wistful rundown of all the specs, stats and features this baby’s got on board.
What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot as it happens. Although, at the same time, nothing at all.
Hmm… apologies there, that’s about the worst opening to a blog ever. But then, seeing as how today we’re considering one of the worst-named phones ever, maybe it’s apt. And, to be fair (to us) we’ve already blogged about this phone, because the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is simply the HTC Magic under a (terrible, terrible) new name for the sake of T-Mobile wanting to pretend they have something vaguely new or exclusive to offer. (Read this T-Mobile myTouch 3G review, or have a look at the official site for a full, rant-free rundown of everything this thing has to offer).
I mean, can you picture the scene… you’re at a wedding, some annoying young cousins are bugging you while you’re eyeing up a bridesmaid, so you offer your shiny phone to them to play some games or delete all your contacts or similar, anything to give you some time to schmooze the boozy gal in the silly dress. But then, after you say to these kids something like “here, little boy, you want to play with myTouch? If you use myTouch I won’t tell anyone, and you’ll keep quiet, right? You’ll keep your mouth shut about myTouch.” And suddenly the bridesmaid no longer wants to talk to you, and you’re being dragged apart by your limbs by various uncles and grandparents.
Why, T-Mobile, why do you have to make such a sickeningly awful attempt to almost kind of pretend you’re not trying to be the iPhone, but in doing so make it seem as if you’re the worst kind of jealous, envious, overreaching imitation. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G, seriously? May god have mercy on you all.
The last quarter of 2009 is here and we are getting a great Android flavored holiday. The news of the Motorola DROID being localized as the Motorola Milestone has confirmed the coming of Éclair to UK shores. Sony Ericsson on the other hand has announced that 2010 will see the arrival of the Snapdragon 1 GHz powered Android smart phone, the XPERIA X10.
What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot as it happens. Although, at the same time, nothing at all.