Samsung Galaxy Note 800 (Note 10.1) launched in India for Rs. 39,990

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 800 (Note 10.1) in India. The pre-booking for the 10-inch tabletstarted on the Samsung eStore last week. It packs in a 10.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800 pixel) TFT display, 1.4 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich). It has 5MP Auto Focus rear Camera with LED Flash and 1.9MP front camera.

It has S Pen input and apps such as S Note, S Planner, Adobe Photoshop Touch. It also includes unique features such as Smart Stay, Pop Up Play, AllShare Play and AllShare Group Cast that were present in the Galaxy S3. It also comes with My Education app for school students that offers over 10000 innovative and interactive free videos for students from class 1 to 12. This app also has assessment papers with test on real time basis, test results, admission dates directory of schools and colleges.

The connectivity features include, 3G (HSPA＋ 21Mbps), Bluetooth v 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz). It has 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, microSD (up to 32GB) and 7,000mAh battery.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 800 priced at Rs. 39,990 and is available across India.

Micromax A90 Superphone Pixel review

Micromax is well known for their low end budget hardware but they’ve also had a fair few innovative products over the years. Striking the right balance between performance and price is hard but it seems that the indigenous company might finally be on the right track.

We got our hands on the newly launched Micromax Superphone Pixel and put it through its paces. Read on to find out how this ICS running device fared.

Hardware

There’s absolutely no doubt that Micromax has learnt from consumer feedback. The hardware quality leaves little to complain about. The design of the phone is very reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S2 right down to the patterned back. The front of the phone is refreshingly clean with nothing to distract from the screen.

Micromax has gone in with an all touch design with onscreen buttons replacing the capacitive controls generally found below the display. The panel is covered with a Gorilla Glass display which should offer some manner of protection from scratches.

On the right we have a power key which works to switch off the display. On the left is the volume rocker key. Over all the phone has a very clean design with few buttons and distractions. The lack of a camera key was a bummer.

Coming to the screen, the Super AMOLED display is absolutely stunning. Resolution is WVGA which feels sufficient given the size and price point though we wouldn’t mind a qHD panel. The display is perfectly visible under sunlight and maximum brightness reaches eye searing levels.

The back of the phone houses an 8MP camera with LED flash. Overall, the design of the phone doesn’t leave much to be desired. One of the better looking and feeling mid range devices out there and more so at the enticing price point.

Performance

The chipset here is a MediaTek MT675 combined with a PowerVR SGX 531 GPU. A potent combination, Android 4.0 runs like a charm on it with no lags whatsoever. RAM is 512MB which might be a bit low for all the power users but is generally enough for day to day usage.

As indicated by the Quadrant scores, the A90 (2370) comes close to and in some cases even beats higher range devices like the Sony Xperia U (2248).

With a score of 3950 in Antutu, the A90 has decent scores for its class of devices. The dual core Xperia U fares much better here.

A score of 2900 in Sunspider Javascript is not bad at all for a device of its class. The dual core Xperia U scores marginally better at 2435 but in real life usage, the difference was minimal. Synthetic benchmarks tell only half the tale. In terms of usability, there is no reason to be concerned as the phone remains speedy even under fairly heavy usage.

Software

Software wise there isn’t much to say. The A90 is running stock Android 4.0 ie Ice Cream Sandwich with the only customizations being a few custom icons.

Micromax has also bundled in a few apps but most of them turn out to be useful ones like Whatsapp instead of bloatware. Given that the phone comes pre rooted, it shouldn’t be too hard for a user to remove these manufacturer installed apps. We really wish more manufacturers would go down this route instead of providing customers a sub par experience. We’re looking at you, Touchwiz !

Multimedia

The inbuilt storage on the Micromax A90 is 4GB of which about 2GB is available. Memory can be extended by 32GB via the microSD slot. The smartphone supports the usual mp4, mkv and avi file formats for video playback. The MediaTek MT6575 chipset supports video playback up to 720p.

Camera

The camera on the Micromax A90 is an 8MP unit which takes remarkably good stills in sufficient light. Low light performance predictably suffers with a fair amount of noise and visible banding.

Day light images are crisp and noise free for the most part. Auto focus is very quick as long as conditions are ideal.

Battery Life

For a 1600 mAh battery, you won’t expect battery life to be anything out of the ordinary. You’re in for a pleasant surprise ! The phone keeps going on and on. Between the optimized software, low power processor and fairly large battery, the A90 is able to squeeze in over a day of usage. Even after heavy usage, the phone always had battery life left over to use the next day in our tests.

Video Overview

You can check out a quick video demo of the phone below.

Conclusion

The Micromax brand name is still associated with low end cheap phones and this legacy baggage might hold back what is otherwise an excellent product. With the perfect mix of good performance, brilliant display and fantastic pricing, it is hard not to recommend the A90.

We loved the display and the fact that the phone comes with stock Ice Cream Sandwich. Additional RAM is one area where we believe Micromax could have worked on. We would wholeheartedly recommend this phone to anyone looking for a good Android experience on a budget.

Pros

1. Fantastic display

2. Stock Android 4.0

3. Smooth performance

4. Great battery life

Cons

1. Update to Jelly Bean unlikely

2. 512MB RAM may be limiting for power users

Voice Search arrives in 13 new languages

Norwegian restaurants in New York City.” I can type that phrase fast, but I can say it even faster—and when I’m on the go, speed is what I’m looking for. With Voice Search, you can speak into your phone to get search results quickly and easily. Voice Search is already available in 29 languages, and today, we're bringing support to 13 new languages for Android users—bringing the total to 42 languages and accents in 46 countries. In fact, 100 million new speakers can use Voice Search now, with the addition of:

Basque Bulgarian Catalan European Portuguese Finnish Galician Hungarian

Icelandic Norwegian Romanian Serbian Slovak Swedish

Each new language usually requires that we initially collect hundreds of thousands of utterances from volunteers and, although we’ve been working on speech recognition for several years, adding these new languages led our engineers and scientists to tackle some unique challenges. While languages like Romanian follow predictable pronunciation rules, others, like Swedish, required that we recruit native speakers to provide us with the pronunciations for thousands of words. Our scientists then built a machine learning system based on that data to predict how all other Swedish words would be pronounced. 

This update has already started to roll out, and will continue to do so over the course of the next week. How you get started with Google Voice Search depends on what kind of phone you have. If your phone runs Android 2.2 or later, and you see the microphone icon on the Google Search widget on your homescreen, all you have to do is tap the icon to start a voice-powered search. Otherwise, you can install theVoice Search app from Google Play . Note that you can only speak one language into the app at a time, and you may need to change your language settings to use one of these new languages.

As with other languages we’ve added, one of the major benefits to Google’s cloud-based model is that the more people use Voice Search, the more accurate it becomes. 

• 

  Review: Dell Venue Pro

  Pradeep 'Shifty Rat' Menon, Sep 05, 2011 1712 hrs IST

  What you'd get if Apple and Microsoft had an illicit affair.

  Stylish; Impressive screen.

  Heavy; Low quality camera; Multiple interface issues.

  Check specifications

  Write Review

  Expert Rating :

  

  Latest Mobile Prices

  

Expert Review

Dell Venue Pro
MRP: Rs 35,000
Street Price: Rs 24,000 (Flipkart.com)


What's peculiar about technology is the ever-accelerating speed at which it seems to evolve. Pretty soon we'll have intergalactic space travel, teleporting Subway sammiches, and iPhone releases every other day. Consider the phones we use, for example. I don't know how old the average TechTree reader is (12?), but I remember an age when mobile phones didn't have a colour display. Phones could just make calls and send messages, and that was a pretty big deal by itself.

Phones evolved, and now we can do some pretty crazy stuff with them. You can take 360-degree pictures, automatically scan and save visiting cards, point your camera at the sky and see stellar constellations, and even use your phone as an internet router. The Dell Venue Pro is among the newest phones out there, and I was curious about what new features I'd find on it. I had last used a Windows Phone a few years ago and I wanted to see how it would hold up against the Androids and iOSes.


The Package
The package, eh? The package from the guy who sent it to us was: the phone and its charger in a plastic bag. I definitely hope this isn't how regular customers get the phone - I'd be pretty mad if a salesman tossed a phone worth 35 grand into a plastic bag and threw in a charger as an afterthought. Anyway, it seems the package should contain earphones and a little leaflet (probably to reassure you about your impulsive buy).

You can polish a turd.

The phone is a beauty. It's large, sleek, and looks bloody expensive. It's a tad heavy and a bit unwieldy, but then we live in a world where people are dumb enough to walk around with iPads, so this is no biggie. The Venue Pro features a slide-out keypad bearing keys so tiny that you can only type with a safety pin. I didn't bother using the keyboard during the test period because, you know, I have fingers.

On to the tech specs: the phone runs on a 1 GHz (Scorpion Core) Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and has anAdreno 200 GPU thrown in for graphics muscle. It has 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of onboard storage space, but you can't add memory cards for additional space. Probably because Dell thinks you shouldn't be carrying more than 8 GB of data anyway. The most impressive thing about this phone is its display: a 4.1" AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen. It's unbelievably responsive and a delight to use, thanks to its clarity and rich colours.

The Dell Venue Pro's screen.

Alright, so the phone looks great. In fact, I used it for two whole weeks and almost everyone who saw the phone had to ask about it. Of course, I claimed it was mine, because there's no way in hell I'd admit to being a TechTree employee. This thing is a fine chick magnet, my lonely friends! Those swanky colours, the fade-in and fade-out menus, the techno ringtones, and the click-clack of the slide out keyboard is audio-visual foreplay for the dumb and pretty women around me. I had to play dumb to bond with them but hey, I added 10 new contacts to this phone. It's like the one app that I can never find on iTunes - iAttract.


Day 2 Of Phone Usage
The first day was a dream. The next was like the day after your wedding - reality hits home. It started when I decided to configure my phone service provider's internet settings. Simple enough. Hmm, go to Settings, then go to... ok, Phone? Oops, no. Umm, Network? Dammit. Mail? Internet Explorer?! Messaging?! MUSIC AND VIDEOS?!CALCULATOR!!!!!!!!!!


 

Revolution now means reverse evolution.

This couldn't be happening. My swish phone wouldn't allow me to tweak \ control \ access my network settings! The max I could do was swipe twice to disable 3G. I tried Wi-Fi next, and surprisingly, I could get on my WAN network. I was about to use Internet Explorer after many, many years - I was cornered. I had to do this. I poked the screen.

404 error.

I screamed, dropped the phone, and fell on the ground, rolling all over the dirty TechTree floor in agony. I wailed and kicked around and punched the furniture around me. I had a long tantrum, after which I took the rest of the day off and went home. This wasn't right - Microsoft would pay. I sat under a dim lamp in a corner of my room as I sulked and swore to avenge my pain.

However, I had to know my enemy well to defeat him. I returned a much stronger man to where I had dropped the Venue Pro and picked it up. No one steals a phone when they see a 404: Page Not Found error - it's the law of the jungle. I tried every possible thing to access the internet, but nothing worked. For a few minutes, I managed to accessGoogle.com, but the rest of the time was 404 Happy Hours. Buy one, get one free.

 He started it.

Meh. I decided to move on. I decided to personalize my phone at this point. Apparently I had to create a Windows Live IDfor a "wholesome" experience. So be it. At this point, it magically connected and let me finish registration. Then some random messages warning me to wait or die appeared. I looked away.

As I sat there clueless about what was going on, it demanded that I update my Facebook app. Glad that I had not been physically assaulted by the phone yet, I quickly clicked Yes. It did a few swanky things and soon I was on my Facebook page. You know how Facebook looks tacky on all mobile apps? Well, Windows just took it to another level. All I could do was see my homepage, my profile page and update my status, without my privacy settings.

Here's the best part. All your FB contacts are automatically added to your contacts list. People I'd never seen or met before were on my phone list. I had to scroll for a few hours just to call my mom to inform her that I was dying of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. You can't even have your favourite numbers at the top. Pretty soon I was just staring at the phone with my mouth open. To finally remove all the Facebook contacts, I had to reset the phone. No lies.

I gotta finish this. I spent the rest of the day running through everything, and found that there were a billion things you could not do. You know how you can add pictures to a contact? Well, you can't do that here. Hell, you can't even add a ringtone to any contact. Even worse, you can't set some favourite song as a ringtone. Wow. Just wow.

I found myself calling the wrong people often. This was because when you clicked a name, it would show the number in a large font and the contact name in tiny letters on the upper left corner. I even called people I'd never met before! You know how awkward it is when you call a Facebook contact you've never met in person?! It's downright creepy, Microsoft!

Hey, remember me?! From Facebook?

The Pictures section was again slick, but that's where it ended. It was as if the coding team was on vacation and they made the designers finish and launch the OS. The only options the Pictures menu allows is Set As Wallpaper, Delete,or Cancel. Hey, what about all the other things I want to do? Like email it, edit it, move it to another album, or mark all?


Camera
The camera was a lot of fun. Not because of awesome pictures, but because we had a game where anyone who took a non-blurry picture would win 500 bucks. Nobody won. The camera runs on two modes: Off and Parkinson's. In the light of day, the camera works decently. But walk into a room, or try to take a picture any time after 6 pm, and all you get is a blur. The awesome screen just amplifies the camera's shortcomings.

That's AWESOME!! What is it?

Music And VideosA-ha, the best part. When I plugged the Venue Pro into my computer for the first time, nothing happened. My computer and I just sat there, staring at each other. Since the guy who sent us the phone didn't send a driver disc, I had no clue what software came with the Venue Pro. I Googled  for "dell venue manager" and got nothing. After a few minutes of reading angry reviews, I found it. Turned out I had to use Zune to move stuff to the phone. I don't like it, but I persevered.

The Zune download went like this: first, it made me download the installer. Once it was installed, it said there were new "software updates", and made me download those too (why not just update the installer file, you jackasses?) and then, they made me download phone updates. I played along. Zune finally powered up - after flashing the intro screen for about two minutes. All this on a computer that could simultaneously and single-handedly launch 20 rockets into space.

If you thought iTunes sucks, you've got to see the Zune. You'll never utter a word about iTunes being inflexible again. It's like someone has a warm shotgun barrel against your nuts. It's their way or no way. Zune forced me to add all the songs on my computer and convert my videos, and all my private pictures. I was terrified because I figured my phone would automatically upload everything to Facebook too. It felt like the Great Robot Takeover that I had feared all my life. The way Zune takes over your computer is just tyrannical. I imagine this is what a cavity check at Chennai airport feels like.

Bitches need lurvv too.

After taking a few hours to add songs, I tried the music player. It was alright; but after what I'd gone through, anything would sound good. Kinda like the 50 bucks the warden gives you when they let you out of prison. I had no complaints and quietly moved on.

I had had enough of this phone, at this point. I didn't care about that stupid mobile version of Office, or Outlook, or theCalendar, or that ridiculous search function on the homepage. Oh yeah, what the hell is up with that? Do you think the first thing I think of when I look at my phone is, "I gotta run a Bing search"? Jeez.

I don't know about this new direction the phone makers have taken. You've got to get into the philosophy of a phone. What is a phone? What are you going to use it for? I get that they want to reduce confusion for the technologically-challenged customers, but they have to draw the line somewhere. Apple was the primary retard, but even it looks sane in comparison. It takes an idiot to go astray, but it takes an even bigger idiot to follow him. The whole "we will decide what to give you" attitude is absolute crap. I used to hate my Symbian phone before I used the Dell Venue Pro, but now I realize that at the very least, there's a filesystem on my phone. I can do a bunch of things with my stuff. Sure, the newer phones have many new utilities \ apps, but all the old and very essential functions are gone.

This is what happens when style replaces common sense. Seriously, I wonder what Microsoft's focus group was like: were they talking to high-schoolers? I can't imagine any adult using this phone. Ever. And I'm also curious about why they named this Windows, because there is absolutely no connection between the computer OS and this piece of shit. The only Windows this thing needs is one that you can throw it out of.


VerdictThis phone has layers. Multiple layers of fail, that is.

• Yes, you can make calls. After 10 minutes of going through contacts.
• Yes, you can send messages. Unless you accidentally hit the Search button and lose everything you typed, because the phone does not save drafts.
• Yes, it will give you more friends. But none that read TechTree.

Features: 1/5
Design And Build Quality: 3/5
Performance: 1/5
Value For Money: 1/5
Mojo: 1/5

Overall Rating: 2/5

AICTE to launch academic networking website and job portal

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has planned to launch an academic networking website along with an in-house job portal and a repository of doctorate papers to check duplication and cheating. The academic networking site proposes to interconnect 7.5 million students enrolled across AICTE-approved institutions linked through email IDs.

The AICTE is also readying Project Factory, a repository aimed at capturing abstracts of all post graduate projects in an online bank. These abstracts of research work will be available to industry stakeholders and research labs so that those interested can easily contact the student concerned and take it forward.

The AICTE e-governance project envisages an employment portal that proposes to store every student’s semester-wise results online and link it with his CV. This CV will automatically be forwarded to industry HRD heads whenever there is a vacancy suited to the student. This central database will link up with an industry database of 8,000 stakeholders and help facilitate the placement process.

AICTE had also recently deployed Microsoft Corporation’s Live@edu in more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The project will be implemented over the period of next three months. Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users.

Google launches Google Drive; upgrades Gmail to 10 GB for all users

Google has launched Google Drive, a cloud storage service where users can upload and access all of their files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. The service is offering new users 5GB of storage for free with upgrades starting at 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. Google also increased the free storage in Gmail from the existing 7.5 GB to 10 GB to all users.

“Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive. To install these apps, visit the Chrome Web Store—and look out for even more useful apps in the future,” Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps, Google has said in a blogpost.

Nokia 808 coming soon with 41megapixel camera

Also known as Nokia 808 PureView RM-807

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, May

Body	Dimensions	123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9 mm, 95.5 cc
	Weight	169 g

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	360 x 640 pixels, 4.0 inches (~184 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- Nokia ClearBlack display

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby headphone enhancement

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32 GB
	Internal	16 GB storage, 1 GB ROM, 512 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	Speed	HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, UPnP technology
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support

Camera	Primary	41 MP (38 MP effective, 7152 x 5368 pixels), Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Xenon flash
	Features	1/1.2'' sensor size, ND filter, up to 4x lossless digital zoom, geo-tagging, face detection
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps, lossless digital zoom, LED light
	Secondary	Yes, VGA; VGA@30fps video recording

Features	OS	Nokia Belle OS
	CPU	1.3 GHz ARM 11
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5, Adobe Flash Lite
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.1
	Colors	Black, White, Red
		- SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic - HDMI port - MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Voice command/dial - Document viewer - Video/photo editor - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh (BV-4D)
	Stand-by	Up to 465 h (2G) / Up to 540 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 6 h 50 min (3G)

Intel Inside Lava: Desperate Intel or a Lava Coup?

We don't understand why Intel tied up with Lava but we can certainly hazard a couple of guesses.

It signifies Intel’s first big step into the world of smartphones, hitherto a monopoly of ARM.

The immediate response is always the same.

“What?!” Some people think. Some choose to shake their heads in disbelief and others laugh thinking it’s a joke. But then when it’s stressed that it’s not a joke, the response is always the same.

“What was Intel thinking?”

I am, of course, talking about the recent revelation that the giants of the processor world would be making their grand entrance into the arena of smartphones inside the chassis of one manufactured by Lava. No wonder the initial response is the same.

For the uninitiated, here’s a rundown: On April 18th strong rumors emerged that the Lava Xolo X900 would be the first smartphone in the world to be powered by an Intel mobile processor. On the 19th, Lava and Intel collaborated on a launch event in Delhi where they revealed that, indeed, the rumors were true.

So, why is this, such a big deal?

Because Intel’s first processor for mobiles (codenamed: Medfield) has been a big deal for over two years ever since news about it was leaked back in 2010. For a market that solely relies on ARM architecture processors (manufactured by the Qualcomms and the Texas Instruments of the world), the entry of x86 processors has the potential of really shaking things up. It signifies Intel’s first big step into the world of smartphones, hitherto a monopoly of ARM.

Lava, on the other hand, is a mobile phone manufacturer of little renown. It is one of a bunch (that includes others such as Karbonn, Micromax, and Zen) that is popular because it sells very low-end phones for the budget market. Its portfolio doesn’t speak very highly of its prowess at making smartphones. In fact, right now the only Lava smartphone I could find in the market was the S12, sporting a 600MHz processor running Android 2.2.

So, you can understand why Intel’s decision to enter into a partnership with Lava has left many bewildered.

For this to make any sense, there could be three reasons why Intel made this staggeringly confounding move:

1. Lava was willing to let Intel have complete control over the way the Xolo X900 was designed, manufactured and maybe even marketed. If Intel had gone with a Samsung or an HTC or a Motorola, it would definitely not have had as much say over how the device would turn out as those manufacturers have clout in the market. Lava doesn’t and was therefore probably more flexible with the terms of the deal. Sounds somewhat plausible.

2. “Post-PC” seems to be the catchword of the season and regardless of how accurate it turns out to be, the popularity of the mobile platform as PC-competitors (in the form of tablets) cannot be denied. There is anxiety among the traditional players in the PC arena and that is best exemplified by Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 8 tablet ready and able to run on ARM processors. Seeing its biggest partner cozy up to ARM may have forced Intel’s hand. After all, ARM has a massive head-start in the mobile arena with a vibrant ecosystem of apps, operating systems and manufacturers whereas Intel has just reached the starting line. Quite likely.

3. Now, I may be reaching into the realm of science-fiction here, but hear me out. It could be possible that Lava actually impressed Intel enough to seal the deal. Maybe unbeknownst to everyone, Lava has been investing in R&D and has scaled up its manufacturing prowess and quality control. Highly unlikely.

Whatever the reasons may be, you can’t deny that the Intel-Lava partnership is a strange one. To an outsider, it looks like Lava has just pulled off a coup. Or was Intel just desperate?

But the question still remains. What was Intel thinking?

Android smartphones: The big fight

The high-end Android phone market is always busy, with companies releasing new flagship models every few weeks. Most people might not be able to afford some of these but it’s still fun to watch. This has never been truer before, with companies now pulling out all the stops with phones that have multi-core processors and HD displays. Today we have collected a small bunch of the hottest Android smartphones available in the Indian market. Each of these phones represents the pinnacle of the smartphone technology available today with the best of what Android has to offer and no matter which once you choose, you can’t really go wrong. 

Before we start, here is a handy comparison table showing all the main specifications of each of the phones we will be talking about today. 

HTC One X 

The one Android smartphone that’s currently making the news is the HTC One X and not without good reasons. The One X brings together everything that is great about the company and more in one device. For starters, it has this beautiful polycarbonate unibody design that not just looks great but also provides the phone a sense of solidity and ruggedness. Once you stop looking at the phone’s body you will find that there is lot more to ogle at on the One X thanks to its gorgeous 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 display that makes everything look crisp and vibrant.

Hands-on: HTC One X

Underneath this beautiful exterior lies a powerhouse of a processor. The Nvidia Tegra 3 is the first quad-core processor that we have seen on a phone. Thanks to its 4-PLUS-1 configuration, the processor employs a fifth companion core responsible for handling all the menial tasks whereas the four performance cores take over when things get too demanding. This helps save some power because the companion core consumes only a fraction of power compared to the performance cores. Apart from this there is also a 12 core GPU for taking care of all your games and 3D applications.

The HTC One X also has one of the quickest cameras around. Thanks to the dedicated ImageSense processor, the One X camera can start, focus, capture and move on to the next shot faster than any camera phone we have seen before. It also has a super fast burst mode along with 1080p video recording. 

If there are any complaints about this phone, it would be the rather large size, the love-it-or-hate-it Sense UI and the less than stellar camera quality. Otherwise, for approximately Rs. 35,000, this is one of the best smartphones you can currently buy. 

Samsung Galaxy Note 

With an enormous 5.3-inch display, the Galaxy Note is in a class of its own. Dell may have pioneered this category with its Streak but it certainly could not convince people to buy it, something Samsung had no problem doing despite the condemnation from the critics.

Samsung Galaxy Note Review
The biggest feature of the Galaxy Note (literally) is its display. 5.3-inches of glorious Super AMOLED goodness makes almost every other smartphone display pale in comparison. Whether it is web browsing that you like to do, or watching a movie or viewing some photos, the display makes everything look splendid.

The Note also comes with a stylus that helps you get creative with the touchscreen and the suite of drawing apps. There is also a fantastic 8 megapixel camera on the back with 1080p video recording that is one of the best in the business and a long battery life despite the enormous display.

But the large display is also its greatest problem, because it makes the phone itself really, really large; large enough to make you wonder if you should continue using the term ‘phone’ for it. This is definitely not a phone for people with small hands and even those with large hands will find it uncomfortable to operate single-handedly. 

Another problem with the phone, although temporary, is that it still comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread even though Android 4.0 has been out for months now. Samsung has announced, though, that the Note will be updated this quarter. 

If you can live with the phone’s disproportionately large size, the odd looks you get when you are out talking on it, the outdated version of Android and Samsung’s custom TouchWiz interface then the Galaxy Note is a solid alternative that really puts the ‘smart’ in ‘smartphone’. 

Samsung Galaxy Nexus 

The launch device of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus enjoys the distinction of being a Google branded phone, which gives it some advantages over others. One of them is that you always get the latest Android updates before everyone else and the second is that you get to enjoy the stock Android experience untainted by hardware manufacturers’ custom skins.

Really, the biggest reason why one would want to go with this phone is the software. Android 4.0 is a wonderful operating system and nowhere do you get to enjoy it better than on Google’s own phone.

Unfortunately, the hardware leaves a lot to be desired. The processor is from last year’s smartphones and has a hard time keeping up with the latest chips from Nvidia and Qualcomm. You may not notice this while using the phone, which remains smooth and fast but this difference will be clearer as time moves on and applications become more demanding. The camera is also average in terms of specs and performance. There is just 16GB of internal memory with no way to expand it further and the battery life isn’t particularly great. The only good thing about the hardware is the vivid 720p display but some may find the colors too saturated.

Review: Galaxy Nexus

Then there is also the problem of the phone not being sold officially in India. Samsung India had promised to release it sometime in March but the month has come and gone with no sign of the launch. However, you can purchase it for around Rs. 29,000 on eBay. For that price you get the pure Android experience that the Nexus series is known for along with the latest software updates but almost everything else is done better by its rivals here.

Sony Xperia S

Sony’s first handset after they dropped the Ericsson part of their name, the Xperia S brings a lot to the table. First of all, there is a 12 megapixel camera, which no other Android phone currently has on offer. And it’s not just a spec; if you’ve seen any camera sample from this phone you’d agree that it does in fact have a brilliant camera. Then there is also the 4.3-inch 720p HD display that has the highest pixel density of any mobile device available in the market today.

Then there is also the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor, which despite being last year’s chip still manages to give some of the newer processors a run for their money. Add to that 1GB of RAM and a generous 32GB of internal memory.

Sony announces Xperia S, Xeria P, Xperia U and Xperia Sola in India

What we really like about this phone first of all is the design, with its cool transparent glass strip at the bottom. The glass contains the icons for the buttons placed above it and interestingly, also acts as the phone’s antenna. The other good things about it is that it is the most compact of the smartphones in this bunch, despite having similar features. A lot of people don’t like having big smartphones and for them the Xperia S would be a perfect fit.

Of course, it also has its share of flaws, the fact that it is running Android 2.3 being the biggest one. Sony did promise Android 4.0 update for this phone but seeing that it launched recently it should have had the latest version of the OS out of the box. Other minor issues are lack of expandable storage space, non-removable battery and display viewing angles that are not on par with the other LCD and AMOLED units here.

With a launch price of Rs. 32,549, the Sony Xperia S is priced pretty well although we would advise waiting for the Android 4.0 update to come out first, by which time the price would have hopefully gone down further. 

It would be difficult to pick one out of these, considering each one is good at different things, but if we had to suggest one it would be the HTC One X. It’s currently the most all-round device available on the market and should fulfill almost every user’s needs. 

Having said that, if you are not in a big hurry, we would advise waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S III, which is expected to be announced in May and is likely to be a firecracker of a device, going by Samsung’s track record.