ASUS VG236H 23-inch 3D Display Review: 120Hz is the Future

Introduction
120Hz panels are definitely still market newcomers - in fact, look no further than Newegg, where there still isn’t a 120Hz category, much less a refresh rate field for drilling down products. The necessity for 120Hz panels arose entirely out of the ongoing 3D obsession across the entire consumer electronics segment, something that remains a difficult sell for many gamers. On a technical level, the necessity for 120Hz arises from the need to drive two discrete 60Hz images - one 60Hz image for each eye. In its current incarnation, consumer 3D technology relies primarily on active shutter glasses - parallax barrier 3D displays are still too expensive, and I’ve yet to see passive polarization methods used outside the movie theatre. But you probably already know most of the 3D story.

Though the 120Hz refresh frequency does make games playable in 3D, there’s another important benefit of using a faster refresh rate - everything looks smoother, and you can now drive up to 120 FPS without tearing. The ASUS VG236H was my first exposure to 120Hz refresh displays that aren’t CRTs, and the difference is about as subtle as a dump truck driving through your living room. I spent the first half hour seriously just dragging windows back and forth across the desktop - from a 120Hz display to a 60Hz, stunned at how smooth and different 120Hz was. Yeah, it’s that different.

If you’re the kind of person that cares about squeezing every last FPS out of your box - regardless of how you feel about 3D - don’t even bother reading the rest of this review, just run, don’t walk, to the store and get this 120Hz display. I’m serious.

ASUS’ VG236H isn’t perfect, like any product there are a few caveats. That aside, honestly, the completely unparalleled level of smoothness on a 120 Hz display has made me hyper attuned to just how flickery 60Hz looks on all the other LCDs I’ve got.

Oh and my initial skepticism about 3D? I’m still shocked about it, but I've completely changed my mind.

Let’s dive into this review.

Apple Mac mini Review (Mid 2010)

Six years ago I tried using a Mac exclusively for 30 days. The OS was 10.3, the hardware was a PowerMac G5 and Apple was still the quirky company with a 2% market share.

Five years ago I reviewed my third Mac, the very first Mac mini. In this pre-hackintosh world, Apple was enough of a curiosity that a $499 Mac made a lot of sense. It wasn’t fast, but with a 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 it was quick enough for most of what you needed to do with a Mac back then. Like many Macs, all it really needed was a memory upgrade.

Interest in Apple has obviously gone up since then. Apple’s resurgence coincided with the shift from desktop to notebook computers and thus the preferred entry platform for many into the Mac world were the PowerBook G4, MacBook and MacBook Pro.



The mini continued to receive updates, but its role in Apple’s lineup shifted. The need for an introductory Mac so that users might test drive OS X declined. The mini became a plain old desktop Mac for those who didn’t want an integrated display. For others it was a nice looking HTPC; an Apple nettop before the term existed.

The Mac mini arrived with a bang but was quickly relegated to an almost niche product. It wasn’t Apple TV-bad, but definitely not in Apple’s top 3. The fact that Apple didn’t overhaul the chassis in nearly five years exemplifies the mini’s importance to Apple. Nearly all other consumer targeted Apple hardware gets visual updates more regularly than the Mac mini.

All signs pointed to the mini going the way of the dodo. A couple years ago we regularly saw rumors of Apple killing off the mini entirely. The need for an ultra cheap introduction to OS X had passed. Apple’s customers either wanted a notebook or an iPhone, and if they wanted a netbook Apple eventually addressed that market with the iPad.

While the role of the Mac mini has changed over the years, so has hardware. Originally the mini was 2” tall and measure 6.5” on each side. Small for its time, but bulky compared to what companies like Zotac have been able to do with off the shelf components since then.


In 2005 very few companies were concerned about power consumption, today it’s even more important than overall performance. Intel alone has an internal policy that doesn’t allow the introduction of any new feature into a design that doesn’t increase performance by at least 2% for every 1% increase in power consumption.

What we finally got, after years of waiting, was a redesigned Mac mini:

The 2010 Mac mini looks more like an Apple TV than a Mac. At 1.4” high the new mini doesn’t sound much thinner than the old one until you realize that most of the visible thickness (excluding the pedestal stand) is even smaller than that.


The Apple TV comparison continues when you look at the ports along the back. Apple’s recent infatuation with mini DisplayPort continues, but there’s also an HDMI port on the back of the new mini. Apple thankfully provides a single-link DVI to HDMI adapter in the box for those of you who aren’t hooking the Mac mini up to a HDTV. The HDMI output supports a max resolution of 1920 x 1200 while the miniDP can drive a 2560 x 1600 display with an active miniDP to DVI adapter.

But it’s clear that the HDTV pair is something Apple thought of. The mini is no longer a way to get a taste of OS X, it’s a full fledged HTPC or Apple’s take on the ION nettop.

Internally the Mac mini is pretty much a 13-inch MacBook Pro. You get a 45nm 2.40GHz Core 2 Duo with a 3MB L2 cache (technically it’s the Core 2 Duo P8600). The chipset is NVIDIA’s GeForce 320M, identical to what’s used in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. There’s no dedicated frame buffer. The GPU carves 256MB of main memory out for its own use, which is a problem because the base configuration only ships with 2GB of memory.

The hardware may sound dated since it isn’t using Intel’s Core i3/i5 processors, but we’re limited by space. Apple is unwilling to ship any of its Macs with just Intel integrated graphics. Apple wants a huge installed base of Macs with OpenCL capable GPUs for some reason. And since NVIDIA isn’t allowed to build chipsets for the Core i-whatever processors, Apple would have to go to a three chip solution in order to have a Core i-whatever, Intel’s associated chipset and an AMD/NVIDIA GPU. In size constrained products (e.g. 13-inch MacBook Pro or the new Mac mini), Apple prefers to use a Core 2 generation CPU and a single chip NVIDIA IGP to fit the form factor and GPU requirements.

Styling and Use

The mini’s design is cohesive with the rest of Apple’s lineup. The unibody aluminum construction is less functional in a stationary desktop compared to a notebook that has to be rugged, but it’s nice to look at nonetheless.

At the front of the Mac mini is the opening for the internal slot loading 8x SuperDrive. The drive can write to DVD±R discs as well as dual layer variants. DVD±RWs and CD-R/RWs are also supported. There's no option for a Blu-ray drive.

Like all Macs, there’s no eject button - for that you’ll need an Apple keyboard (not included). There are actually no input devices included in the purchase price, so expect to add another $120 if you want an Apple keyboard and Magic Mouse ($140 if you want them to both be wireless). There’s no remote included either, although Apple’s IR remotes do work with the mini.

The power button is around back, as well as the power connector. The power supply is internal so all you have on the outside is a single white cable with no power brick.

Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800 and four USB 2.0 ports line the rear along with the miniDP and HDMI outputs I mentioned earlier. A new addition is the SDXC slot on the back.

The mini has a single internal speaker but you also get digital/analog 1/8” line in and line out jacks. If you’ve got an iPhone headset, just plug it into the headphone minijack and you’ll get both headphone and mic functionality.

The Mac mini ships with 802.11a/b/g/n support but has no external WiFi antenna. The antenna is located in the base of the unit, directly underneath the removable access cover.
The internal antenna behaves virtually identically to a notebook’s WiFi. In fact, I got very similar WiFi performance out of the Mac mini as I did with this year’s MacBook Pro. With a good access point, getting reception at around 60 feet away through walls in a house wasn’t a problem.

The only issue I had with the Mac mini’s WiFi was when I placed the unit in my theater room. The theater is enclosed in two layers of drywall and has a small closet with a metal equipment rack in it. With the mini in the middle of the equipment rack, surrounded by amps and a pre-processor, I couldn’t get more than 1.2MB/s to the nearest access point which was less than 30 feet away but outside of the room. While that’s still enough bandwidth for surfing the web, it’s not enough to stream HD video from a networked file server.

I wouldn’t fault the Mac mini’s WiFi however. I was simply asking too much of it. But keep this in mind if you don’t have ethernet running to a similar setup. Thankfully, I do have ethernet going to the rack and thus it wasn’t an issue.

Toshiba Satellite M645 Review

The Toshiba Satellite M640 and M645 offer a 14-inch laptop with solid performance and an attractive design at a modest price. As parents and students gear up for the back-to-school season, does the Satellite M640 below at the top of your shopping list? Keep reading to see what we think of this Core i5-equipped model with Nvidia discrete graphics.
Our review unit of the Toshiba Satellite M640 (M645-S4055) comes with the following features:

14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting

Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Intel Core i5 450M (2.40GHz)

Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics card w/ 1GB GDDR3 dedicated memory (Optimus switchable graphics)

4GB DDR3 RAM

500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Toshiba MK5065GSX)

802.11b/g/n wireless

Slot-Loading DVD SuperMulti (+/- Double Layer) with Labelflash

Warranty: 1-Yr Parts and Labor, 1-Year Battery

6-cell Li-ion battery (48Wh) and 75W power adapter

Weight: 5.26 lbs

Dimensions: 13.3 x 9.1 x 1.12-1.45 inches

Price as configured: $1,049.99 ($719 starting price)

Build and Design
The Satellite M640/M645 is the latest generation of multimedia notebooks from Toshiba and is designed to offer a perfect balance of performance and style. At first glance, the design of the M645 is pretty traditional with sculpted edges, a mixture of smooth and textured glossy plastics, and some attractive LED accent lighting. The exterior is covered in what Toshiba calls the "Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal." Personally, I call it black glossy plastic with a textured "chain" pattern imprinted in the surface to help hide fingerprints and dirt. Despite the silly marketing name for the finish, I have to give Toshiba credit here. The textured chain pattern gives you the modern look of the glossy plastics but doesn't look like a horrible magnet for smudges, dirt, or whatever else a student spills on a laptop.

The build quality of the M645 is very good with a durable main chassis that doesn't squeak, creak, or flex even under significant pressure. The screen hinges are a little loose, making it easy to open the laptop with one hand but also making it easy to accidentally move the screen if you bump the laptop. While we're on the topic of the screen, the screen lid doesn't provide as much protection as we'd like. If you press on the back of the screen while the laptop is running you'll see obvious distortions on the screen itself. In addition, placing more than one heavy textbook on the screen lid causes the lid to bend inward sharply toward the screen ... suggesting that the screen lid doesn't offer much protection.
The bottom of the notebook includes two access plates for the RAM, wireless card and the hard drive. Despite the fact that most people buying consumer multimedia notebooks don't perform upgrades, Toshiba engineers made is very easy to get inside this laptop. You only have to remove one screw to access the hard drive and one screw to get to the RAM and wireless card.

Screen and Speakers
The M645 has a 14-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is "very good" within the narrow vertical viewing angle sweet spot. The backlight is even and bright, contrast is sharp and colors are good though the colors are a little warm at the default settings. If there is a single obvious issue it has to be the narrow vertical viewing angles. While the horizontal viewing angles (side view) are nearly flawless, the colors become over exposed when viewed from above and significantly inverted and distorted when viewed from below. If you are using this laptop for color-accurate editing you will need to be certain you're viewing the screen from straight ahead.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard with LED backlighting on the M645 features Chiclet-style keys that are responsive and provide a little extra spacing to prevent typos. The keys are large and flat and have a glossy texture that shows smudges from your skin oils over time. There is no noticeable flex unless you apply significant pressure to the keys in the middle of the board. A individual key presses are quiet with virtually no "click-clack" noise while typing; making it an excellent choice for taking notes in a classroom or office meeting room. The keyboard also features dedicated multimedia keys above the keyboard and dedicated home, end, page up and page down keys.
The Synaptics touchpad is a fairly nice with a matte texture that provides smooth cursor movement. The touchpad drivers provide excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. This is a multi-touch touchpad with customizable gestures and overall this touchpad works exactly like you want a touchpad to work. However, the touchpad buttons have very shallow feedback with moderately loud clicks when you press the buttons.
Heat and Noise
The Toshiba M645 does a very good job producing low heat and noise. The self-adjusting fan speeds usually stay well below what you can hear in a quiet room, and the heat pours out of the vent on the right hand side. The location of the vent might bother people who use right-handed external mice, because the laptop pushes heat out where your hand is likely located. The only other obvious hot spot on this notebook is on the bottom right next to the heat vent. In general, the M645 stays very "lap friendly" as long as you avoid the area around the heat vent.

Battery Life
In the "balanced" power mode with 75% screen brightness, the Satellite M645 lasted for four hours and nine minutes of non-stop use while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty good for a notebook with a stock 6-cell battery, but we're seeing more and more notebooks with this level of performance deliver five hours or more continuous run time, so we'd have to call this "average." That said, the battery can last even longer if you lower the screen brightness and occasionally let the system go to sleep. Of course, if you're running applications that stress the processor, hard drive, or Nvidia graphics then you can expect the battery life to drop even lower.
Pros:

Attractive design

Excellent performance

Great keyboard

Cons:

Weak screen protection

A little expensive as configured

MSI Wind U230

It's an odd introduction because the MSI Wind U230 is a newer model with older hardware built in. The K10.5-based ultramobile processors from AMD are starting to trickle onto the market, but MSI is opting to offer the U230 using an Athlon Neo X2 L335 based off the older K8 core. Despite the venerable core that debuted with the Athlon 64 so long ago starting to show its age, it's still at least a reasonable alternative to people who don't want to suffer with Atom's "just enough" performance along with integrated graphics that get worse with each progressive generation (at least the GMA 950 could drive an HDMI port).


MSI's Wind U230 comes with specs that may seem somewhat familiar to those of you who read our review of the most recent Acer Ferrari One (a line with an unfortunate history of underpowered AMD hardware at exorbitant prices):
recent Acer Ferrari One (a line with an unfortunate history of underpowered AMD hardware at exorbitant prices):


MSI's U230 brings to the table the hardware we've come to expect from AMD's last generation Congo platform. AMD's original ultramobile left a lot to be desired, but a 1.6GHz dual core processor coupled with the capable ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics shores up the overwhelming majority of weaknesses in Intel's Atom platform. The K8 may be old kit, but it still features out-of-order execution and superior performance clock-for-clock against the Atom, and the Radeon HD 3200 is capable of doing very light gaming. More importantly, though, the HD 3200 brings full high definition acceleration to the table, an improvement only heightened with the release of Adobe's hardware-accelerated Flash 10.1.

The rest of the U230 is fully-featured, offering up a 320GB hard drive, wireless-n capability, Bluetooth, and Gigabit networking. MSI also makes the interesting and very consumer-friendly choice of opting to include a single 2GB DIMM for memory and leaving a memory slot free rather than installing a pair of 1GB sticks. That leaves the U230 open to upgrade later, and unlike smaller netbooks, the bottom panel of the unit also allows the user to change out the hard drive proper. And finally, because of its larger form factor, the U230 sports a bigger keyboard than netbooks have and a full 720p (768p) resolution screen instead of the scrunched down 1024x600 found on most smaller machines.

Of course, there's an exchange one must make for all this goodness. Even ignoring the price of the U230, which is competitive without being particularly hungry for success, the extra performance provided by AMD's Congo platform takes a heavy toll on heat and battery life compared to Atom-based netbooks. Atom and the accompanying GMA 3150 may not do a heck of a lot, but they can usually do that little bit for a solid eight hours on a standard 6-cell battery. Congo-based notebooks are lucky to hit half that, and they'll often run a heck of a lot warmer in the process.

Apple's iPhone 4

I'm not sure how this keeps happening. The first year I waited at a mall for 5 hours to get the original iPhone. The following year my friend Mark Rein convinced me to see a midnight showing of Hellboy II and then wait outside of an AT&T store all night to get the iPhone 3G. You'd think I'd learn by the third year but once more I was in line at the mall hours before the Apple store opened to get the 3GS. This year I thought it would be different. Apple offered free overnight shipping to anyone who wanted to pre-order the iPhone 4. Figuring everyone would go that route I decided to beat the FedEx trucks and just show up at the mall at 6AM. I'd be in and out in a little over an hour, which would give me a head start on battery life testing on Apple's 4th generation iPhone.

I promise that not all of my decisions play out this poorly. Those who pre-ordered the 4 and requested overnight delivery got their phones early and my one hour wait turned into six hours at the mall, for the fourth year in a row.



It's a self fulfilling prophecy. Steve gets up on stage, proclaims the iPhone 4 to be the biggest introduction since the original iPhone, and the public flocks to Apple stores to fork over $200 on day one and around $2500 over the course of two years for the privilege. But this isn't 2007. Apple has real competitors in the smartphone space. Android phones have grown in features, polish and popularity. Even Palm entered the race with a competant offering, and Microsoft isn't far behind. It's easy to start a revolution when everyone else is doing the wrong thing, but what about when more companies actually get it? Was Steve justified in his excitement over the 4? That's what we're here to find out today.

Straight on it looks like just another iPhone. You get the black face with a shiny trim. From the side it is the redesign that Apple has needed for a while now. It’s not revolutionary but it’s the type of improvement that makes its predecessor feel old. And that’s exactly what this does. Have a look for yourself:

iPhone 4 (left) vs. iPhone 3GS (right)

The straight lines, smaller dimensions and lack of unnecessary bulk make the 3GS feel like a car from the 90s, unnecessarily curvy. The styling is now so much more compact. Compared to the iPhone 3GS the 4 is around 5% narrower (but no more difficult to type on) and nearly 25% thinner. It even makes the Nexus One look dated:

The iPhone 4 is slightly heavier than the 3GS (4.8oz vs. 4.7oz). You feel the added weight but I wouldn't call it heavy. The front and the back of the iPhone 4 are both made out of glass, and they protrude beyond the stainless steel band that wraps around the phone (more on this controversial decision later). While this gives the 4 an amazing finish, it also makes carrying the phone nerve racking. Coupled with the smaller, more dense form factor I’m now deathly afraid of dropping and shattering this thing. Apple has done a lot to reinforce the glass, however there have been enough reports already of shattered iPhone 4s for me not to feel very safe. Only Apple would think to make the two surfaces most likely to hit something out of glass. It's like making mouse traps out of cheese, something bad is bound to happen.


iPhone 4 (left) vs. iPhone 3GS (right)

The physical buttons (but not their layout) have changed on the 4. The ringer switch has shorter travel and feels sturdier as a result. The volume rocker has been replaced by discrete volume up/down buttons, also very sturdy in feel. The power/lock button is also now made out of stainless steel. Only the home button remains unchanged, although it does seem to make a deeper click when you use it.

The speaker moved to behind the right grill at the bottom of the phone instead of the left. The dock connector thankfully remained unchanged. It looks like Apple is committed to maintaining this connector until it makes the jump to something wireless (or optical?).




The iPhone 4's logic board shrinks in size thanks to further component integration, making room for a much larger battery. The 5.25Whr battery in the iPhone 4 is a 16% increase from what was in the 3GS, and 95% of what HTC put in the EVO 4G. While raw performance improved, it's clear that Apple's focus this time around was battery life. Again, we'll dive into specifics later in the review.

Moving back outside Apple surrounded the phone with a stainless steel band. This band doubles as the 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth antennas. And if you hadn't noticed, it also moonlights as a giant elephant. Let's talk about it.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy

The strongest Android phone currently on the planet, Samsung I9000 Galaxy S, has hit the Indian shores. The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S has the biggest Super AMOLED screen in the market with a size of 4 inches. The Galaxy S is available in two versions, 8GB and 16GB. But I have only seen the 16GB in the Indian market (Kolkata).

Read more: Samsung I9000 Galaxy S Price and Specification http://techie-buzz.com/india-telecom/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-released-in-india.html#ixzz0vFYuB6q5
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution


Network
HSUPA 900/1900/2100
EDGE/GPRS 850/ 900/1800/1900
Dimension
64.2 X 122.4 X 9.9 mm (119g)

Display
4.0” WVGA(480x800) 16M SUPER AMOLED
mDNIe(Mobile Digital Natural Image engine)

Samsung Android 2.1 (Eclair)
Samsung Apps / Android Market
Various applications downloadable

Social Hub
Integrates SNS, email, and calendar accounts
Android Samsung UI
Multiple Homescreens
Hybrid Widgets

Processor
1GHz CPU Speed
Battery (Standard) Li-pol, 1,500mAh
Talk time : 2G/ 769 minutes, 3G/ 391 minutes
Standby : 2G/ 750 hours, 3G/ 625 hours

Camera
5.0 Megapixel AF camera
Self Shot, Action Shot, Add me, Cartoon Shot, Smile Shot

Video
HD Video Player & Recorder (1280 x 720) @ 30fps
codec: DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1
format: 3gp(mp4), AVI(divx), MKV, FLV, H.263Sorenson

Music
Music Player with SoundAlive
3.5mm Ear Jack
MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/OGG/WMA/AMR-NB/AMR-WB/WAV/
MID/AC3/IMY/FLAC/XMF

Memory
16GB/8GB+ MicroSD(Up to 32GB)

Android Browser
Flash Lite3.1, RSS reader
Multi-touch zoom

Light sensor
Accelerometer sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass

Additional Features
Layar Reality Browser powered by Tele Atlas
Swype, Write & Go
ThinkFree
Aldiko e-book

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S has a 4″ Super AMOLED capacitive screen with WVGA (800 x 480) resolution. As usual, a 3.5mm slot is present. The phone has a inbuilt memory of 8GB / 16GB, depending on the version you purchase. The external microSD slot is expandable up to 32GB. The Galaxy S has a healthy 512MB RAM and 2GB ROM.

The Galaxy has supports both 2G (GPRS: Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps | EDGE: Class 12) and 3G (HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps) connectivity. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA support is also present. The Bluetooth version on Galaxy S is 3.0 with A2DP support.

The camera is the only weak point in Galaxy S along with the plastic build. The camera is of 5MP resolution with autofocus but no flash at all. The video is recorded at HD (720P) resolution at 30fps. A secondary camera for video chatting is also present with VGA resolution.

The Android version on Galaxy S is 2.1 (Eclair). The processor inside is one of the best in the market, ARM Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor with a clock speed of 1Ghz. The processor is based on 45nm fabrication process. Stereo FM Radio with RDS support is also present. GPS with aGPS and Digital Compass support is also present. The video player on Galaxy S supports codec like .avi, Divx, .mkv, which is excellent according to me.

The battery power is of 1500mAh Li-Po battery. The battery performance on Galaxy S is excellent, in fact second best after Samsung Wave. The Galaxy S is available in Black and Grey. The price of Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is INR 28500 (US $608). Our team will be reviewing the Galaxy S soon, stay tuned for our review.



Read more: Samsung I9000 Galaxy S Price and Specification http://techie-buzz.com/india-telecom/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-released-in-india.html#ixzz0vFZ0f9St
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Motorola Droid X: Review

The Droid X is even more mondo than the other Android phone of epic proportions—HTC's Evo, also a juiced-up technical demonstration of how much fancy silicon can be stuffed inside of a phone. The ice scraper-cum-phone is hardware unabashedly designed to provoke the most raging nerd boner possible: 4.3-inch 854x480 screen (slightly higher res than the Evo's 4.3-inch screen), 1GHz TI OMAP processor (a methed-out rendition of the chip inside the original Droid and Palm Pre), 512MB RAM, 24GB storage, 8-megapixel stills, 720p HD video, DLNA compatibility w/ HDMI Micro out, three mics for noise cancellation and wireless N with 3G hotspot powers.


Screen: Apparently the Droid X has a 4.3-inch, FWVGA 854 x 480-resolution screen
Camera / Camcorder: The Droid X has a 8-megapixel camera, and records 720p video

Keyboard: Just like with the CLIQ XT, Motorola preloads Swype.

Space : with 8GB of storage space

Eight months after launch, the Motorola Droid is now a relatively old piece of kit. It’s amazing how fast the market is moving - the fact that an 8 month old handset is now obsolete is a testament to just how breakneck this pace is.

Motorola and HTC are now locked in a battle for dominance of the Android segment on the nation’s largest carrier. On one side is the HTC Incredible, on the other is the X and eventually the Droid 2. Across the aisle at Sprint, HTC has the EVO 4G. If you’re interested in a smartphone of the Android variety, you’ve got the most options ever right now, and the X is the newest contender. Let’s dive in.
Motorola Blur / Android: We confirmed that the Droid X was running Android 2.1 with some new sort of Motoblur (perhaps Ninjablur) skin. We didn't get to configure Blur with our social networks and contacts, but it didn't seem as "in your face" as the original. There's also a new navigation bar along the bottom that lets you easily jump to different Android panes. We can't really make a call on how we feel about this new Moto skin, but it does feel like a major improvement and it absolutely didn't slow down performance. We should also mention that preloaded on the phone was a Blockbuster application and a DLNA type app. Those two pieces combined with the fact that there will be a separate HDMI dock available has us thinking multimedia is the focus here.