I received the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet to use over the next few years. It runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb, and if you’re familiar with Android, you know that you need a Google account to access almost everything on it.

I started playing with it at the office earlier and so far, I’m impressed with the screen: the responsiveness, and the fluidity of swiping. I spent some time swiping between the 5 homescreens to make sure there is no lag, and it rendered very well.

It’s not difficult to familiarize yourself with how the tablet works. Like viewing all apps running in the background, adding widgets to any of your screens, killing a process, and taking a screenshot. There is a video loaded on the device that walks you through this process, if you have difficulty figuring it out.

It comes preloaded with loads of apps, and you can use it for quite some time before finding the need to download more. Preloaded apps (apart from Google-related) include: Amazon Kindle, Angry Birds HD, Drawing Pad (loads of fun), Facebook, Need for Speed Shift, Norton Security, Sound Recorder, to name a few. 

The tablet is 10.1-inch with an HD LED screen and weighs 1.46kgs. What I like about the back of the tablet is the rubberized honeycomb finish, which sits securely in your hand. And you know with that extra grip, it won’t slide off easily when holding it. 

The specifications of IdeaPad K1: Tegra T20 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 64GB SSD storage, Bluetooth, WiFi, MicroSD card reader, mini HDMI connector, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 5-megapixel back camera.

At the time of publishing, it is available on pre-order on Kalahari.net for R4,999.

Yesterday the Huawei (I have no idea how it’s pronounced) Ideos S7 Slim tablet launched locally.

It is a 7-inch tablet (I don’t know why, though – it’s too small for a tablet), runs Android 2.2 Froyo, lets you make video and voice calls (3G+WiFi), features Bluetooth 2.1, HD playback (720), HMDI out and has 2 cameras.

I was given a tablet because I was one of the first 25 guests to arrive. I switched it on today and was pleasantly surprised that there were loads of apps preinstalled: games like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, NFS Shift, Pinball, Super Snake & more; other apps like Twitter, Documents To Go, Navigation, RSS Reader and all Google related products. Saves you a lot of bandwidth if you had to download everything yourself.

I played a bit of Fruit Ninja but the experience isn’t anything like on the iPad – it’s not as responsive and the screen isn’t as fantastic. I haven’t done much else on it – I haven’t even removed the back cover to insert a SIM card. I’ll wait for the RICA/network issues to die down before getting another SIM card.

The last two images show a comparison to the iPad. The Huawei tablet is thin and long, not ideal if you are used to a more ‘regular’ sized screen. It could make a good e-reader substitute. The tablet is priced between R3,200 – R3,600 and is available from Vodacom or MTN. I think it might be a bit pricey for the target market and if you weigh the pros and cons with other tablets on the market.

Other news: I’ve created a separate Tumblr blog for my upcoming Taiwan trip. You can find it on http://taiwantravel.tumblr.com. I will post information leading up to the trip (if applicable) but I will be updating it while I am there. Please feel free to subscribe to it Thanks!

When the Motorola MotoDefy landed on my desk for review, I was a bit busy with My Digital Life, so I passed it onto someone who could get a review up sooner than me. But I had some free time afterwards and the Motorola guys let me play with it for a bit.

I’ve reviewed Android handsets before, and know what to expect. I’m not a fan of Android on a tablet and think it’s more suited for mobile phone, because it’s more personal.

The phone is light and slim, and fits comfortably in my palm. The 3.7-inch touchscreen is responsive, most notable when scrolling through the seven home screens.

One of the first things I did was remove the YouTube and Weather app shortcuts, so that it doesn’t eat my data. The very first time I played with an Android phone, I lost about R90 in two days because of feeds being pulled “in the background”.

As you know, Android requires a Google account to access Gmail, Gtalk, calendar, Marketplace, etc. I’m not big on using IM from a phone, so I don’t login to Gtalk, unless I’m testing a phone, which is only for a few minutes. I wouldn’t recommend it though; it just eats data and battery life.

I also haven’t used a Motorola phone before and I think, like I did with the Samsung Wave, that the hardware cannot be faulted. Android is what makes this phone what it is, and frankly why Motorola is still making phones. It runs on Android 2.1. Also, you need to remember, it isn’t a high-end smartphone, but a mid-level one (also, shouldn’t be compared with high-end phones as such).

They got the looks right, with it being light and I like that the phone doesn’t slip from your hand. It sort of “grips” into your hand.

The handset comes with MotoBlur, Motorola’s interface for the handset, just like the HTC Sense for HTC handsets. It is social network oriented and pulls your social feeds (email, news & weather included) all in one place. You need to create an account to use MotoBlur.

The phone has a decent 5-megapixel camera as well as camcorder, which isn’t too fancy – good enough to upload and share on social networks.

What I didn’t like about the phone is that the charging slot and 3.5mm jack is covered, and each time you need to use it, you have to uncover it. Can be a bit of a bother, but it is there because it is water resistant.

The screen is resistant to scratches by a technology called “Gorilla Glass”. It’s nice if you have a tendency to knock things about, or if you’re just clumsy.

In conclusion, I’d say this is a very good mid-range smartphone and should preferably be taken out on a contract – you don’t want sky-high data charges especially if it’s not controlled.

Technical specifications can be found on the Motorola website.

Yesterday I played with the Samsung Galaxy Tab (it was not given to me for review). My husband’s client gave it to him to create apps for them.

Anyway, my first impression was that it looked nice and I did (apparently what everyone else did) and put the ‘massive’ device to my ear and said “so this is how you’d look when making phone calls?” It’s kinda funny when you picture people walking around with that thing against their ear whilst having a conversation. I also liked the screen, it is responsive.

I’ve used an Android phone before so I know that you require a Google account to access market place and several built-in Google apps. I logged in with one of my Google’s accounts and downloaded a few apps: Facebook for Android, Angry Birds, and Comics. I logged into Facebook, posted an update and played Angry Birds.

Then I realised I should logout of my account since everyone using the tablet at my husband’s office will have access to my email. It is not a straight-forward process, you have to reset the device to do so, and this process wipes everything you downloaded. Hmmm.

I then went into the Facebook application and what do you know, there isn’t a “logout” button. Why? WHY?!! Does nobody care about the user experience? Oh wait, don’t answer that…

Why is everything such a mission with Android? People think Android is synonymous with cool, because it’s open source. Yes, it may be cool for developers, but nobody took the time to work around making processes simple/one-click, the way Apple does. Of course I’m going to compare it, since Apple owns 95% of the tablet market.

It is small things like this that makes the whole experience better. Imagine if the App Store was tied to your email? This is Google’s biggest problem. They tie your Google account to all their offerings and I find it sneaky. But Google and privacy is another topic.

Manufacturers are focussing too much on hardware, and quick to offer the best ‘up-to-date’ product, and just dumping Android onto it. Because they don’t care about the user-experience. I don’t know if Apple has made me this way: where I expect everything to be simple, less-complicated and uncluttered.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is priced at R5999 on kalahari.net, as a SALE price. Normal price is R7999. Thanks, but no thanks. Give me two entry-level iPads instead.

The HTC Hero is not as pretty as its predecessor, the HTC Magic. It has a chin that juts out, which isn’t as noticeable when in use. It weighs 135g, has dimensions of 112×56.2×14.35mm, which isn’t too big or too small and a decent screen size of 3.2 inches.

It’s the first Android-based handset to offer multi-touch capability, support Adobe Flash and offer the HTC Sense experience, which is more of a design experience that allows the user to customise the look and feel of their phone.

The Hero is widget-ready, and offers seven customisable home screens. In essence, the phone is pretty much useless without being connected to the internet. This handset was definitely made with the business person in mind and would be most cost-effective if taken out on a contract, with a data bundle.

From a consumer and prepaid point of view, having seven home screens is a bit ambitious. If on prepaid and using the Hero, your credit will be sapped faster than international bandwidth on a Friday night. Within two days, R60 worth of credit was gone. The weather on the main home screen updates in real time, automatically, which was probably the cause of it depleting so quickly.

Setting up Google accounts like Gmail, Gtalk and Calendar is fairly straightforward. Switch the phone on for the first time, and you’re prompted to log into various accounts ranging from personal e-mail to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

There’s also one-touch access to the Android Marketplace that has loads of free downloadable content, ranging from useful applications like Facebook, WikiMobile and YouTube, to rather pointless ones like an LED Scroller, DailyHoroscope and Pull My Finger.

With most smartphones, battery life is an issue. The HTC Hero just about lasts the day. It makes a huge difference logging out of applications that aren’t necessary from a cellphone, like your IM client.

SPECIFICATIONS
Screen: 3.2 inches (81mm), 320×480 pixels
OS: Android 1.5 with HTC Sense
RAM: 288MB
ROM: 512MB
Memory: expandable MicroSD (in the box)
Camera: 5MP with autofocus
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA, 3G

Written for Digital Life January 2010.

When I got my hands on the HTC Magic (G2), the first thing I noticed was how slim and sleek it was, compared to its predecessor, the HTC Dream (G1). I’m no fan of HTC (hardware or OS) but I think this model is one that is decent enough to use. The phone has 6 buttons (home, menu, back and search and call & end call) and a trackball in the centre. To the left top side of the phone you will find an additional button that adjusts ring volume.

This is the first touch user interface phone I’ve used without a stylus and it didn’t take too long to get used to. The home screen is customizable and allows you to drag and drop icons anywhere on screen. If you swipe your finger across the screen, in both directions, you will see two additional ‘screens’. The one to the left displays your Google calendar and the one to the right, Google search.

The virtual touch keypad is similar to the iPhone and it’s much quicker using one finger to type. If you’re accessing sites that require a login and you have complicated passwords, you might find it a bother alternating between alpha and numeric keypads. There is an accelerometer on board that detects when the phone is tilted; this then changes the view to accomodate the angle you’re using the phone at, but this function only kicks in when you’re composing messages, reading email and browsing the internet.

The biggest draw card of the G2 is that it’s run on Google’s open source Android (v 1.5 “cupcake”) operating system. The OS upgrade includes features like uploading videos to Youtube and pictures to Picasa directly, copy and paste within webpages and keyboard with “auto complete” feature. It is very user-friendly, slick – no lag between apps, everything is seamlessly integrated and it just works (ok that was just a playful stab at Apple). It comes pre-loaded with Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps, Google Search and Youtube. The first application I logged into was Gtalk, (the only IM I bother using) and my email & calendar synced automatically. Impressive.

Thereafter, every time I got a new email in my inbox, I got notification of it (an @ sign on the notification bar of the phone and a beep). I say inbox because I have a whole bunch of filters set up, (a lot of my emails go directly into my labels and skip the inbox), which I didn’t get notified for. These rules are the reason my sanity remained intact. I like that you can archive, label or delete emails from the device. Very handy.

If you’re relying on the phone for email and internet all day, additional to phone calls and SMS‘s, it would barely last the day. The first time I gave it a proper charge, I saw about 40% battery life by the end of the day, (which was a working day and could access my email and the internet at the office) I thought it should last me another day if used lightly. Not likely; by the next morning it was close to being dead. Very disappointing. If its any consolation, the G2 comes with an additional (USB) charger. While your phone is charging, you can see how far it has gone, percentage wise.

If there is anyone out there reading this and is seriously considering getting this phone*, I say get it – especially if you rely on Gmail, Google calendar and / Gtalk… that’s if you are not bothered by charging it everyday. Also, if you’re not aware, South Africans will not be able to purchase anything from the Android Market (unfortunately).

It feels weird using my Nokia N85 again.

*The HTC Magic is only available through Vodacom (@ R800 pm x 24 months on a Talk 500 package).
More info, specs etc for the HTC Magic can be found here.