Hands On -- Engadget

hands on posts

Dell Adamo XPS coming 'in time for the holidays' for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!)

by Ross Miller posted Nov 5th 2009 at 12:01PM

Dell's finally run its finger along the edge and unhinged the last bit of details for its enigmatic, 0.4-inch-thin Adamo XPS. As it turns out those leaked specs weren't entirely off. We're looking at a LED-backlit 13.4-inch, 720p widescreen display, 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ultra-low voltage processor, GS45 integrated graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB thin-micro SSD, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. In terms of connectivity, there's 802.11a/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, location awareness, DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports (one on each side). The 20WHr Li-Ion battery can last up to 2 hours and 36 minutes, or you can get the optional 40WHr version instead for 5 hours and 17 minutes of claimed, lab-tested use. Other packaged goods include dongles for ethernet and VGA / HDMI, and for an added fee you can nab a DVD+/-RW drive, a Blu-ray drive, or an external hard drive measured at 250GB or 500GB in capacity.

At $1,799, the price isn't as bad as originally thought, but it's still far from great if performance takes any precedence for you over style. Earlier this week, we got to spend some time with the ultra-thin chez Dell's PR firm -- not enough to really get a feel for how it performs, but enough to admire the hardware and enjoy unboxing what we're told is the final retail packaging. We saw an expected launch date listed for this month, but a rep was quick to note the current line is officially "in time for the holidays" -- just in case the company misses Black Friday, of course. Read on for some more impressions and video unboxing / hands-on!

Gallery: Dell Adamo XPS unboxing

Gallery: Dell Adamo XPS hands-on

Continue reading Dell Adamo XPS coming 'in time for the holidays' for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!)

Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

by Richard Lai posted Nov 4th 2009 at 11:25AM

What we have here today isn't just another pair of ordinary headphones: Sony Ericsson's MH907s are button-free, minimalistic headphones that activate upon the magical touch of your skin. Well, your ears to be precise. You must bear in mind that the MH907s are exclusive to Fast port-equipped Sony Ericsson phones thus excluding the forthcoming XPERIA X10 -- so chances are you're already not interested. That said, we shall see if Sony Ericsson is really going to change things forever with these gleaming buds featuring SE's SensMe Control technology, or by just stopping everyone from using their 3.5mm headphone jacks. Read on to find out how these €39 ($57) headphones fared.

Gallery: Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Continue reading Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

HTC's HD2 has landed at Engadget (hands-on)

by Joshua Topolsky posted Nov 4th 2009 at 10:12AM

That's right... the HD2 has landed. Actually, we took the phone over to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other day, but didn't get a chance to show it off, so here we are. Sure, you've seen this guy in action in earlier videos... but it's still nice to get a look at this monster up close. We're still blown away by the fact that this is a Windows Mobile 6.5 device -- the skinning job that HTC has done here is nothing short of a miracle. So far we've found the phone to be snappy and responsive, but we're currently putting it through its paces. We'll have a full review shortly, but for now, feast your eyes on the photos below -- and start saving for that imminent US launch.

Gallery: HD2 hands-on

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 announced, we go hands-on

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 11:00PM

The first Android device from Sony Ericsson may have undergone an upgrade in the naming department, jumping from X3 all the way to XPERIA X10 (probably to avoid confusion with Nokia's X3 handset), but what lies under the hood is reassuringly in line with what we've been hearing. That is to say, a 1GHz Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, wide 4-inch capacitive touch display, 8.1 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a thoroughly tricked out Android skin named Rachael. Sony Ericsson stressed to us the symbiotic importance of both the new flagship device and "open OS" UI -- the X10 was presented as the patriarch of a whole new family of handsets, which we can expect to see in the first half of 2010, all sporting the beauty of Rachael and perhaps helping to bridge the gap between featurephones and, well, more advanced featurephones. So don't be shy, come along past the break to see our uncensored first impressions of both, along with hands-on video and pictures.

Gallery: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 announced, we go hands on

Continue reading Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 announced, we go hands-on

TomTom Car Kit for iPhone review

by Richard Lai posted Oct 29th 2009 at 4:05PM

Boy, TomTom sure has chosen the worst possible time to release its Car Kit for iPhone, and to make matters worse, its decision to not include the iPhone app is now set in stone. That's right, the hardware alone will set you back the cost of a TomTom ONE nowadays, and the $99.95 app works on the iPhone 3G and 3GS without it. So here's the question: is the car kit worth the extra $119.95? To find out, we got hold of a review unit for a sunny road trip around London. Surprisingly, the car kit uses Bluetooth to connect the GPS receiver and the hands-free function to the iPhone, even though there's a dock connector for charging. Bluetooth connectivity does have its advantages: according to TomTom it can work as a generic Bluetooth GPS receiver for any satellite navigation app -- including Google Maps -- on the iPhone, or any smartphones at all for that matter. TomTom even confirmed that the car kit could potentially compensate for the first-generation iPhone's lack of built-in GPS, but since its app won't run on anything but a 3G or 3GS we'll have to wait and see if that's actually useful. Meanwhile, the company is cooking up a compatible app for the original iPhone and the iPod Touch, which could make the car kit more worthwhile. Read on for our hands-on impression and test videos.

[Thanks for being our driver, Sam]

Gallery: TomTom Car Kit for iPhone review

Continue reading TomTom Car Kit for iPhone review

Motorola DROID first hands-on! (update: video, impressions, more pics)

by Joshua Topolsky posted Oct 28th 2009 at 1:51PM

We've got the DROID in our hands... and it is sweet. Moto claims that this is the thinnest full QWERTY slider on the market, and we're apt to believe it. The phone is incredibly slick and solid, and we're definitely looking forward to putting it through its paces. We'll have more photos, video, and a full review coming, so stay tuned!

Some quick observations on the phone:

That big screen is killer. Bright, crisp, and tons of room for your icons and widgets.
Speed is noticeably improved -- particularly when moving from app to app. We did notice that some of the home screen scrolling looked laggy.
Android 2.0 is definitely cleaned up -- but it's most definitely still Android
The browser seems significantly improved -- pages now load up in a fully zoomed-out mode, and the load times and scrolling are way snappier.
The keyboard takes some getting used to, and it suffers from a similar hand-position issue as the G1, but it's fairly usable. We think it'll be second nature once we spend some time with it.
Facebook is integrated into accounts, which means some of that BLUR functionality is here (though now it's part of Android 2.0 natively). The good news is that when you add a Facebook account you can choose to pull all Facebook info and contacts, or just info related to your existing contacts -- a real clutter buster.

Update: We've added a new gallery, and video is on the way!

Update 2: Video is up after the break! More coming too...

Update 3: And we've got a browser speed test to round things out.

Update 4: We've added another gallery of the car and home docks, which are pretty neat -- the phone detects the dock magnetically, and switches to the appropriate mode. We're told that there'll also be third-party docks, and that Google's the one behind the different interface modes, so this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Gallery: Motorola DROID first hands-on

Gallery: Motorola DROID closer look

Gallery: Motorola DROID car and home docks hands-on

Continue reading Motorola DROID first hands-on! (update: video, impressions, more pics)

Motorola Droid unboxing!

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 28th 2009 at 1:50PM

We just got a stack of Droid review units at Engadget HQ, and we're told that this is in fact the final packaging. The charger is just Micro USB, and that's really all you get in the box -- the docks will cost you extra. We're digging for pricing info on those, we'll let you know.

Gallery: Motorola Droid unboxing!

HP Pavilion dv3 with multitouch screen spotted in the wild, we go hands-on

by Richard Lai posted Oct 27th 2009 at 7:28PM

Our curious British fingers managed to stumble upon a European HP Pavilion dv3 blessed with Windows 7 and multitouch on both the screen and the trackpad. The keyboard was great to type on with negligible flex, but the trackpad suffers from the same glossy issues on other recent HPs -- although it responded to our multitouch gestures better than the capacitive screen did. Our major annoyance came from the attempts to rotate pictures on the screen: we learned the hard way that the laptop (or Windows 7 itself) seemed to prefer more exaggerated rotation gestures than the MacBooks -- perhaps one would get used to it over time. The hinge is fairly solid, but we still preferred holding the screen while touching it. On a brighter note we totally dig the inclusion of an HDMI port and an eSATA port, plus you'll get up to seven hours of sweet battery juice from this 2.24kg (4.94 pounds) machine. Read on for our hands-on video and photo gallery.

Gallery: HP Pavilion dv3 with multitouch screen spotted in the wild, we go hands-on

Continue reading HP Pavilion dv3 with multitouch screen spotted in the wild, we go hands-on

Samsung Moment review

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 26th 2009 at 5:30PM

In the world of Android, it's not yet clear who's going to come out victorious -- QWERTY sliders or their keyboardless brethren -- but does there really need to be a winner? We say there's room for just about everyone in this open-source party, and Sprint is starting to round out its Android offerings by introducing the keyboard-equipped Samsung Moment to saddle up alongside the HTC Hero that was released a few weeks ago. In the scheme of things, the platform is still extraordinarily young which means that virtually every new handset that's announced brings "firsts" to the table; in the Moment's case, it's both the first Android device with an 800MHz ARM11 core and the first Android QWERTY phone with an AMOLED display (you'd have to go back to another Sammy, the Galaxy, to find the first AMOLED Android phone regardless of input method).

Being able to stuff Android, AMOLED, QWERTY, and 800MHz all into one sentence certainly sounds like a winning combination, but does the Moment deliver? Let's find out.

BlackBerry Bold 9700 gets handled, appreciated for its nuances

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 21st 2009 at 3:13PM

Our dear colleagues over at Engadget German have had a chance to play with RIM's just-announced BlackBerry Bold 9700 today, and every indication we've gotten is that this thing is a perfect -- if not extremely conservative -- successor to the first-generation Bold. Interface and network speed are both praised (both the 9700 and the Bold before it feature a 624MHz core, so there's some magic going on here) and the microSD card is now hot-swappable, meaning that you've got a theoretically limitless supply of storage space if you happen to be carrying around a pocketful of 16GB cards. Check out the full gallery below, and naturally, stay tuned for a review of this bad boy just as soon as is humanly possible.

Gallery: BlackBerry Bold 9700 hands-on

Sonos S5 ears-on review: a premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 20th 2009 at 9:00AM

We had the opportunity to hear a preview of the $399 Sonos S5 all-in-one speaker ahead of its 27 October US launch (November 10th in Europe). For comparison, we had it staged side-by-side with a pair of Sonos 100 speakers -- a setup that costs $678 ($499 for an amplified Sonos ZonePlayer Z120 and another $179 for the separate loudspeakers). Unfair, perhaps, since Sonos is actually positioning its five speaker (two tweeters, two 3-inch mids, and a built-in 3.5-inch sub) S5 with five dedicated amps against premium iPod speaker docks like the $600 Bose SoundDock 10, $600 B&W Zeppelin, or legacy $349 Apple iPod Hi-Fi. So how did it sound? About what we expected, which in this case is a good thing. Click through to find out why.

Gallery: Sonos S5 ears-on review: the premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

Continue reading Sonos S5 ears-on review: a premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on)

by Richard Lai posted Oct 16th 2009 at 11:18AM

Remember the Eigenharp Alpha and Pico that we broke news of last week? Sure you do, but we bet you still haven't a clue how those long, elegant sticks work. The forty employees at Eigenlabs probably heard us simultaneously scratching our heads so they kindly invited us to their London studio for a quick demo, and boy, those musical wands look great up close, not to mention their remarkable flexibility for user configuration as well. John Lambert, Founder and Chairman of Eigenlabs, managed to sneak out of his busy schedule to give us the lowdown on the Eigenharps. It all started in his Devon barn about eight years ago and over time the Alpha was groomed into a 132-key beast, followed by the recently-developed, self-explanatory Pico. The defining character of both Eigenharps lies in their "completely new sensor technology" consisting of pressure sensitive keys, that can do dual-axis vibrato (not dissimilar to string instruments), accompanied by strip controllers for applying filters or pitch bend, or anything at all depending on how you configure them on their Mac software suite (Windows-support due in January). Likewise with the breath pipe: once you've loaded your library and presets you can switch from a Kenny G to a Daft Punk at the simple click of a key. Heck, you can even configure the air pressure sensitivity as well if you're tickling for a soft mood, or just feeling lazy. And those funky LED lights, you ask? Well, they're actually indicators for the different modes you're in rather than just being pretty. Watch the walkthrough videos after the break and you'll get a better idea.

Gallery: Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on)

Continue reading Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on)

Motorola CLIQ review

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 14th 2009 at 10:45PM

Palm and Motorola have taken very different paths to get where they are today; one began life as a scrappy Valley start-up founded by a tablet computing pioneer, the other traces its roots to all the way back to the early days of consumer electronics and the automotive industry. Yet somehow, through years (decades, even) of adventure, success, and misfortune, they've found themselves in exactly the same situation here in 2009: it's do-or-die time. Palm, of course, has elected to try its hand at resurrecting the very thing that took it to superstardom in the first place -- an elegant, tightly-controlled software platform of its own with hardware to match -- while Motorola has thrown virtually all of its remaining weight behind Android in the hope that it can catch a little mojo from Google's ecosystem.

For Motorola, it's the wireless equivalent of stepping up to the roulette table, putting what's left of your depleted life savings on red, and letting it ride just as you see security guards off in the distance coming to throw you -- penniless -- off the premises. It's a gamble of the highest order, but it's also a gamble Motorola's painfully aware that it needs to take. North America's only top-five handset manufacturer needs nothing less than magic (and a little luck) to earn its way back into the world's wireless elite -- and that risky play starts right here, today, with the CLIQ / DEXT.

So does the CLIQ pave the way to a New Motorola, or did the RAZR's checkered legacy ultimately dig a hole too deep to escape? Read on.

Gallery: Motorola CLIQ review

Continue reading Motorola CLIQ review

T-Mobile Pulse review over on Engadget Mobile!

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 9th 2009 at 4:28PM

This review has disappointingly little direct, I'm-going-to-go-buy-this-right-now relevance to North American Android fans -- but if you want to keep tabs on the sweet gear our friends over in Europe are now able to buy, head on over to Engadget Mobile where we've got an in-depth review of the Huawei-sourced Pulse for T-Mobile UK. With a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 3.5mm jack, and every spec this side of US 3G, it's a contender -- so if you're in the Old World, go have a look at what you're now able to buy, and if you're on the other side of the Atlantic, go check out another reason to be insanely jealous.

gCubik shows off its good side, and every other while it's at it (video)

by Ross Miller posted Oct 9th 2009 at 6:46AM

Remember gCubik? It's been a few months, but to recap, it's a cube developed by researchers from NICT that features textured surfaces that present you a different view on the "internal" image based on viewing angle, giving the illusion something is physically in the box. Theoretically, at least -- it's pretty low-resolution and in the early stages of development. We stumbled upon the device at the CEATEC showfloor this week and decided to snap some video while there. There were moments when the effect was lost, and getting too close completely blurred what we saw to the point of incomprehension, but again, this shows a whole heap of potential that's fascinating to us. See it for yourself after the break.

Continue reading gCubik shows off its good side, and every other while it's at it (video)