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How would you change Huawei's Ascend P6?
Huawei's career trajectory from Chinese white-label OEM to brand mainstream users "know" really hit a milestone with the Ascend P6. After all, this was the device that was designed to blend the best of iOS and Android into a mainstream device that looked good. Certainly, the P6 was a knock-out, but when we placed it in James Trew's experienced hands, he found that it didn't have the brains to match its stylish exterior. What you were left with, then, was a device that impressed up until the point that you used it. Still, plenty of you will have picked up this device free on contract, so the question that we want to ask is simple: what would you have done differently? Head on over to the forum and drop some truth bombs.
How would you change Nokia's Lumia 925?
Like the kid who got picked on in school, Nokia's Lumia 920 took some time out, got a chemical peel and returned a few months later as the Lumia 925. In fact, by ditching the bright colors and bulky frame, the 925 presented itself as a mature, refined device that separated itself from previous Lumias. When we reviewed it, we found that the better looks weren't necessarily a perfect trade off against the 920's bigger storage and wireless charging. Still, we're sure that plenty of you leapt into the Windows Phone ocean with this device, so why not share with us how you found it? Head on over to the forum and spill your guts words.
How would you change HP's Pavilion 14 Chromebook?
In a way, How Would You Change is a bit like archeology, digging back through the gadgets of yesteryear to find out what we think of them now. We sat HP's Pavilion 14 Chromebook down in front of Myriam Joire, who did not have too many nice things to say about the device. Points of critique included the lackluster display, poor battery life and the fact that the company just hollowed out a Pavilion 14 rather than building something more tailored to Google's operating system. In fact, the conclusion of the review is just a list of other devices that you can buy instead. But if you disregarded her advice and picked one of these up anyway, why not head over to the forum and tell us what the last year has been like?
How would you change the 13-inch, mid-2013 MacBook Air?
Meet the new boss, broadly the same as the old boss. Except this variation of Apple's thin-and-light mobile PC was packing Haswell, Intel's power-sipping wonder chip, capable of giving the 2013 MBA its 12-plus-hour battery life and nippy speed. When we sat this down in front of Tim Stevens' hands, his only gripe was that the device was lacking a retina display, although we're probably still a year or two away from that taking place. Still, we imagine plenty of you out there picked up one of these devices, so why not hop on the forum and tell us if you'd have taken a MacBook Air with a four-hour battery life in exchange for some pixel-dense goodness.
How would you change Huawei's Ascend W1?
When I reviewed Huawei's Ascend W1 last summer, I was surprised at how much I liked it, considering its bargain-basement price. Microsoft clearly deserves plaudits for getting Windows Phone 8 to work on such low-power hardware, and Huawei made a real effort to produce a solid feeling, well-made device. Unfortunately, the inclusion of a forward-facing camera couldn't make up for a paltry 1.88GB of storage, and I couldn't recommend that you all buy the W1. Instead, I pointed people to the slightly more expensive Lumia 620 - but if you pressed ahead and snapped one of these up instead, what did you think of it? Hop into the forum and share your feels.
How would you change Acer's Aspire R7?
Head into the basement and dust off that Jerry Goldsmith CD, because this week, How Would You Change is looking at Acer's Aspire R7. With a hinged display, the laptop hybrid could fold down to a tablet, or be used with the screen essentially floating over the keyboard, a mode known internally as the Starship Enterprise. When we dumped it into Sarah Silbert's lap, she found that the only thing not to like was the slow CPUs, which Acer replaced a few months after. But what about you? Did your inner Trekker win out and compel you to buy an R7, and if so, what did you like, what did you hate and what would you have changed? All you need is a tall ship, a star to steer it by and to head on over to our product forums.
How would you change Sony's Xperia Tablet Z?
Welcome to How Would You Change, where we go through our old reviews asking if, now that you've had a year or so to use these devices yourself, what you'd have done differently. This week, it's Sony's Xperia Tablet Z, which reviewer Mat Smith found to be the company's best tablet yet. Unfortunately, he also found that Sony has a problem selling the merits of its devices, since it lacked a headline-grabbing standout feature like a pixel-rich display or custom software features. Still, we're sure some of you picked up this device, so now's your time to tell us what you do and don't like over on our product discussion forum.
How would you change Huawei's Ascend Mate?
Can a 6.1-inch smartphone ever be accepted in the mainstream? That was what Jonathan Fingas asked while reviewing Huawei's Ascend Mate, and found the answer to be a resounding "no." The handset offered a lot of things that did impress him, including a staggering battery life, big display and the company's Emotion UI. On the downside, the old(er) internals, 3G-only modem and modest storage meant that the device had "niche proposition" stamped all over it. But, what about you, out there? Did you buy one? If so, what did you like, what did you hate and what, if anything, would you change? Head to the forum and spill your brains.
How would you change ASUS' Transformer Book TX300?
Dana Wollman is so well known as Engadget's in-house laptop expert that, during Q&A sessions on the Engadget Podcast, people would call her "Laptop Lady." Points off for not learning her name, but the honorific still stands to this day, and her opinion on all things portable is one of the most revered in the business. When we placed ASUS' Transformer Book TX300 on her desk (before running away to a safe distance), she found that there wasn't much point to owning one. For a start, a 13-inch slate-plus-keyboard combo isn't really better than a transforming laptop like the Yoga 13 or XPS 12. The lack of a Wacom digitizer means that pen input was a no-go and launching just before Haswell seemed like bad timing. Still, the question we'd like to put to you is simple: if you bought one, what would you change about it?
How would you change Sony's Xperia SP?
You know the deal, we trawl our reviews archive, and then ask you what you think would have improved the product. This week it's Sony's Xperia SP, and in the hands of Jamie Rigg, it was deemed to be imperfect, but charming nevertheless. It was full of bloatware, had terrible WiFi reception and had a bland design, but the capable camera, snappy performance and long battery life more than made up for it. But what about you lot? Would you care to weigh in on what made this phone a delight or otherwise? Head on over to the forum.
How would you change Sony's VAIO Fit 15?
Welcome to How Would You Change, where we ask you to join our forum and talk about what you'd change about a product that has been out on the market for a while. This week, it's Sony's VAIO Fit 15. When we reviewed it, the general consensus was that the unit kicked off back-to-school season on a strong note. Sony's commitment to not scrimping on specs by including high-res screens and backlit keyboards earned high praise, and in fact the overall experience was generally better. In the demerits column was simply the fact that the battery life could have been longer and some wonky build quality issues. The question, therefore, is did your experience mirror ours? Use your indoor voice, please.
How would you change the Fitbit Flex?
Fitbit is one of the most well respected names in the quantified-self space, so we expected a lot of the Fitbit Flex. When we put the device in front of Terrence O'Brien, he found that it wasn't the most feature-packed, or the flashiest, but certainly the most well-rounded device on the market. That was despite the fact that the Nike Fuelband had a better display and the Jawbone Up had a better mobile platform. One of the reasons, of course, that the Flex won out was its cheaper price, and you can rarely argue with that. What we'd like you all to do this week is to sign up to our product forums and discuss what, if Fitbit came knocking on your door, you'd change.
How would you change Google Glass (Explorer Edition)?
It's always tough asking for people's opinions on a device when so few instances of the hardware are available. Even a year after its release, getting hold of Google Glass (Explorer Edition) is a long and expensive process that few outside of the tech fraternity will bother with. Still, we're fairly sure that plenty of you have at least tried a pair on - the last time we were in the same city as Alexis Santos, he was stopped every five minutes by curious passers by. Now, when we forced Mr. Tim Stevens to review it, he said that Google Glass was a fascinating prototype, with plenty of potential, but unless you're the sort of person who would describe $1,500 as chump change, you should steer clear. The two-hour battery life wasn't ideal, and there were more than a few privacy concerns that, in hindsight, have been borne out. Personally, the most exciting feature for me was the navigation coupled with the bone-conducting headphone, and there's nothing greater than having directions beamed directly into your cranium. Still. The question here is simple: if you had a meeting scheduled with Sergey Brin, what would you tell him (on our product forum) to change for version two?
How would you change Lenovo's Yoga 11?
Back in the old days, Yoga was all about sitting quietly wearing earth tones, so when Lenovo announced a range of transforming laptops, we were delighted. While the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 was a revelation, the, um, Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 was a significantly more underwhelming proposition. That's because it was running Windows RT, Microsoft's poorly-handled attempt to beat Android tablets with an operating system that looked like Windows, but couldn't run any Windows software. When Dana "The Laptop Lady" Wollman reviewed it, her opinion could be summed up with this single quote: "what good is a Windows laptop without the ability to run legacy x86 apps?" So, what about you, gentle folk of Engadget? Did you buy one? Has the experience improved to the point where you don't miss your legacy software? Why not share all on our product forum or write a review of your own?
How would you change Nokia's Lumia 520?
Like Samsung, Nokia's smartphone strategy has always been focused around choice. Sometimes this results in products that are so very similar that it's impossible to tell the difference. That's not an issue with Nokia's Lumia 520, the ultra-budget device that was totally swallowed in the shadow of the 620. Sharif Sakr swaddled the phone in derision, criticizing its poor performance, bad camera, unevenly-lit display and poor build quality. For many of you, we imagine you wound up getting this handset for price reasons alone, so the question that we have to ask is simple: what did you like, what did you hate, and what would you have changed? You can shoot the breeze in our forum, or why not write a review of the phone yourself?
How would you change Samsung's Galaxy S4?
Samsung's Galaxy S4 is one of the most popular smartphones on the market, and we'd wager that a hefty proportion of our readers use it as their daily driver. When we placed the device in front of our mobile expert Brad Molen, he was full of praise, with one or two exceptions. In his mind, the only thing that kept the Galaxy S4 from a perfect score was a tired design and some user interface decisions that didn't really work. But what about you? Did you love this device as much as he did, and if not, why not tell us? You can share your opinions by crafting a product review of your own, or why not discuss what you'd have done differently on our forum?
How would you change the BlackBerry Q10?
BlackBerry was slow to see the danger of touchscreen phones, which meant that BlackBerry 10 was a year or so too late to arrive. When it did, however, the company launched the all-touch Z10 first, alienating the keyboard-loving faithful that clung to BlackBerry in its darkest days. But when the Q10 finally came, our Tim Stevens found it to be painfully average -- and the subsequent year hasn't been kind to either the device or the company. But lets talk about the hardware itself, talk to us about your experiences and what, if anything would you change? While you're thinking that way, why not try writing a review of the device, too? Just hit the "Review Device" button and you can add your voice to that of our critics.
How would you change Kobo's Aura HD e-reader?
Canadian e-reader company Kobo had a dream. That dream was to ignore commercial convention and ask its most hardcore of users what they would want from their dream e-reader -- a bit like How Would You Change, in that respect. The result was the Aura HD, a 6.8-inch slate with a high-res (for an e-reader) display, impressive storage and a best-in-class front light. In our opinion, the hardware was gorgeous, but the software left a lot to be desired, not to mention that Kobo's bookstore isn't as strong as Amazon's. Still, what we want to ask is, if you bought one of these, what did you think of it? Head on over to the forum and spill your brains.
How would you change the Lumia 720?
Just like the Star Trek movies, we've mostly preferred the even-numbered ranges of Nokia Lumia handsets to the odds. We heaped praise on the 620, for example, with equal vitriol being poured onto the 520 that nestled beneath it. The Lumia 720 suffered the same fate when we reviewed it, finding that no matter how gussied-up the outside was, the low-power internals were an instant turn off. But what about you? It's likely that plenty of you only had room in your budget for this device, so was the experience as bad as you'd expected? Why not hop into our forum and talk yourself some Lumia.
How would you change Sony's NEX-3N?
Sony's NEX-C3 is the centerpiece of every Engadget kitbag thanks to its light weight and good performance What then of its 2013 replacement, the NEX-3N? We praised the low price, but the lack of a microphone input or accessory mount meant that it wasn't going to replace its predecessor in our hearts. Thankfully, fantastic image quality saved Sony's blushes, but what about all of the shooters out there that wound up buying one? $500 for one of these with a 16-50mm power zoom lens made it a bargain, but was it worth it? Head on down to the forum and share your feelings.
