Review Gadget : Pantech Element Review

You've heard of singin' in the rain (and have likely seen the movie). You may have even attempted it once or twice, but tableting in the midst of a downpour? That doesn't exactly conjure the same whimsy and spontaneous dance numbers. Yet, Pantech's making such joyous, on-the-go content consumption possible with the aptly named Element. It's yet another addition to the growing stable of LTE devicespropping up AT&T's newly expanded 4G fort. Rather than run the risk of this being seen as another garden-variety Honeycomb tablet, though, Pantech's imbued this guy with waterproofing.

Of course, that's not all this skinned Android slate's bringing to the party. With a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 CPU complemented by 1GB RAM, a 1024 x 768 TFT XGA display and a healthy 6,400mAh battery, this impermeable tab stands on equal spec footing with its post-PC peers. At $299 on two-year contract, it's certainly priced to sell, but should you dish out the dollars for a middle-ground tablet from the likes of a lesser-known manufacturer? Does a limited and possibly frivolous imperviousness to water warrant your attention? Should you stash that plastic until Pantech confirms an ETA for that Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade? Find all this out and more after the break, as we force this 8-incher to brave the elements.

Review Gadget : Pantech Burst review

Consider the high-end smartphone. While you lust after those, Pantech is on the prowl, steadily adding to and improving upon its army of budget offerings in the US. It may not be as formidable a force as the Samsungs and Motorolas of the world, but the outfit is finally beginning to leave a mark. Once a complete unknown outside of Asia, the phone manufacturer is keeping itself incredibly busy on this side of the Pacific, cranking out low-cost devices for AT&T and Verizon. Now, Pantech's focus has turned to LTE, starting with the $50 Breakout on Big Red, followed by a smartphone and tablet option on Ma Bell.

The Pantech Burst is the inaugural entry-level LTE smartphone in AT&T's lineup, debuting at $50 with a two-year commitment. Don't let that bargain-basement price turn you off, though -- this thing's got plenty of mojo to back it up, which makes the Burst a stark contrast to its Verizon counterpart. But what can we expect from a budget-friendly handset? Is Pantech finally pushing out a device that will help it earn a new level of respect from American consumers? We're bursting at the seams to answer those questions and take the device for a spin after the break. (Yes, we just went there.)

Review Gadget : Motorola Droid 4 review

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. For a phone that single-handedly resuscitated the business prospects of its parent company, gave a much-needed boost to Google's fledgling Android and finally added a compelling product to Verizon's lineup, the Droid can't get no respect. Initially billed as the anti-iPhone, the OG flagship embodied an aggressively tech for tech's sake design ethos, with its masculine, hard-edged build, geeky OS and Lucasfilm licensed moniker.

That was all once upon a time. Now, two years later and sucked of its disruptive significance, the only legacy remaining for the red-eyed Droid franchise is its brand equity and QWERTY slider appeal. Aside from BlackBerry addicts, most consumers appear none too chuffed to see those slide-out keypads become the stuff of mobile lore, and instead prefer those increasingly ubiquitous slabs (namely, of the 4.3-inch-and-up persuasion). So, where did it all go wrong? Why is the Droid 4, now imbued with LTE, getting the B-list treatment? Does a $200 price tag and a host of minor spec bumps (a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1.3 megapixel front-facer and beefier 1,785mAh battery) merit another spin around the two-year contract pole? Head on past the break to see whether this former trailblazer can still do what it's namesake robot supposedly does.

Review Gadget : LG Spectrum review

Let's just get this out of the way, shall we? If the LG Spectrum looks familiar, you're not imagining things. It may have been a highlight at the company's CES press event last month, but the handset bears more than a passing resemblance to its older, more excitingly-named sibling, the LG Nitro HD -- and, by extension, the globe-trotting Optimus LTE. Beneath their 4.5-inch IPS displays, you'll find virtually identical guts, including a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1,830mAh battery and 4GB of internal storage, coupled with a 16GB microSD. There are some important distinctions here, of course -- namely, changes to the phone's shell and, of course, a shift from AT&T to Verizon. So, how does world-weary Optimus fare from its jump to Big Red? Find the answer past the break.

Review Gadget : Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx review

Most of today's smartphones, especially those of the LTE-enabled persuasion, have earned a bad rap for exceptionally bad battery life, with large displays and hungry radios that suck the juice out faster than a three year-old can down a CapriSun. The race to construct the thinnest phones on the market doesn't help much either, since whittling down handsets results in less space for generously sized battery packs. The Motorola Droid RAZR is currently the slimmest phone this side of the Pacific, offering a thickness of 7.1mm at its thinnest end, and the title likely won't hold for long as new phones like the Huawei Ascend P1 S aim to knock the RAZR off its throne. But at what point do we stand up and insist on adding a little extra heft for the sake of having a bigger battery?

Enter the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx. A mere two months after its predecessor was released on Verizon, this new contender came around to challenge the battery life of every single next-gen phone we've ever used. Its back end has been filled out somewhat to make room for a bigger battery, but at 8.99mm, it's still slimmer than a huge number of competing handsets on the market today. So what makes the Maxx different from the RAZR? Is it worth paying $300 with a two-year commitment -- a $100 premium over its original? Read on to find out.

Review Gadget : Sony Tablet P review (UK edition)

Sony's second Android tablet intrigued us. We're always willing to give another form factor a try and in the Tablet P (£500), we certainly had that. While the Tablet S's wedge profile stood it out a little from the rest of the prone slabs, the P piqued our interest with an unusual clamshell form factor. Once the two 5.5-inch screens are folded together, the tablet has a pretty tiny footprint and just about fits into a jacket pocket. It's the third PlayStation-certified device, arriving proudly emblazoned with the four symbol trademark, and a second screen capable of doubling-up as both a controller for games or as a laptop-style keyboard. However, those twin screens require some not-so cosmetic adjustments to the Honeycomb experience we're used to and this is where we're most interested in seeing how Sony fared. Is the unique design implemented well enough? How does it fare as a games machine? Can a clamshell pull potential tablet buyers away from the iPad and a legion of sameish Android tablets? Crack open our review to find the answer to those questions and much more.

Review Gadget : Toshiba Thrive 7 review

As 2011 draws to a close, it's fun to look back and think about how we began the year testing the first Honeycomb tablet, and are now ending it elbow-deep in me-too slates, many of them cut down to smaller sizes. So it should surprise no one, then, that Toshiba released the Thrive 7", a mini (and aptly named) version of the original Thrive, which went on sale last summer.

But in Toshiba's case, shrinking a tablet and calling it a day is a dicey proposition. After all, the 10-inch Thrive had some baggage -- namely, middling battery life, a chunky, toy-like design and a bug that initially kept it from waking after recharging. Indeed, the Thrive 7" looks near-identical, and even packs the same Tegra 2 chip, 16GB of storage and vanilla take on Honeycomb. Still, it brings an LED flash, keeps its big brother's 1280 x 800 display and costs less than the original did when it first came out. So are these improvements enough to make this smaller Thrive stand out? And how does it stack up against all those other 7-inch slates we've been testing lately? Let's find out.

Review Gadget : Pantech Pocket review

Hundreds of smartphones of all shapes, sizes and colors pass through the doors of Engadget HQ every year, so it's natural for a few oddball devices with crazy form factors to end up in our hands from time to time. The Motorola Flipout, LG DoublePlay, Kyocera Echo and Samsung DoubleTime are all instances of carriers trying something new, seeing what sticks. Of course, pushing out a phone with an unproven form factor is a huge gamble for a mobile provider, and as a result they only ship to stores in low volume and rarely receive any kind of marketing campaign at its launch. Indeed, the vast majority of these types of phones are low-end devices aimed at young adults and first-time smartphone buyers, but we still find it adventurous to take a break from the monotony of black slabs and try out something completely different.

Review Gadget : Meizu MX review

A quick tag search for "Meizu" on Engadget takes us all the way back to April 2006, where we saw the launch of the Chinese company's M6 Mini Player with MP4 playback. But in fact, if you go as far back as early 2003 (before Engadget was even born) you'll also dig up the Meizu MX, which was eventually launched towards the end of the year. Confused? Well, bear with us here: this MX was Meizu's first ever product, a simple 128MB or 256MB MP3 player that unfortunately bore much resemblance to the Cowon iAudio CW300, albeit with different guts. Was this a case of shameless cloning or just an OEM product being rebadged? Our money's on the latter, but only with Monopoly bills.

Review Gadget : Motorola Xoom 2 review

Motorola's Xoom 2 arrives at a point where Apple's iPad (first- or second-generation...) still dominates the tablet market. The original Xoom was the first tablet to arrive with Android Honeycomb, an OS dedicated to the tablet form. In the months since we gave it a middling review, plenty more tablets arrived, faster, thinner, and more longevous (like the Galaxy Tab 10.1).

So what now? Well, Motorola has recast its Xoom: it's made it faster, slimmer and lighter.
They've beefed up the disappointing screen found on the original, it's now a Gorilla Glass-coated IPS screen that promises 178-degree viewing angles. But Motorola has also cut more corners than the four you see before you -- ones that it hopes customers won't miss.

However, with a certain quad-cored, ICS-imminent transforming tablet already stealing the hearts of many an Engadget reader (and editor), does this slimline sequel do enough to make up for its past mistakes? Is there now enough in the Android market to make Google-powered tablets a viable alternative to the iPad? Is £396 ($620) now too much to pay for a 16GB Android tablet that's merelydual-core? We'll be sure to try and answer all these right after the break.

Review Gadget : Fujitsu LOOX F-07C review

For those who've been dwelling on this planet long enough, you might just remember a category of mobile computers by the name of UMPCs. In particular, think Sony's VAIO UX, the OQO devices and the elusive xpPhone. Alas, those Windows devices were -- and probably still are -- well ahead of their time no thanks to their battery life, bulkiness and sometimes cost; though for some bizarre reason, Fujitsu begs to differ. In fact, said company took one step further and released a hybrid device in Japan: the LOOX F-07C, a QWERTY slider phone that can switch between Symbian and Windows 7 at a click of a button. Interesting combination, right? Read on to find out how this weird device fares in real life.

Review Gadget : Droid Bionic review

It's been said that absence makes a heart grow fonder, so it was with very willing and eager hands this week that we received the Droid Bionic, Motorola's latest high-octane, robot-themed assault on Verizon Wireless subscribers. The phone was first announced at CES in the beginning of 2011 and we got to see it in the flesh just an hour later... but then the story took a tragic turn. The Bionic was attacked, killed and then reborn with all new internals.

Phoenix-like, the thing is now available for purchase on Verizon Wireless, $300 for a supposedly top-shelf device that packs both LTE connectivity and a dual-core processor. That makes it a first for Verizon, and it also happens to be the thinnest LTE handset yet to cross that carrier's airwaves. Oh, and it has the biggest battery yet, too. Was it worth the wait, then? Maybe.

Review Gadget : LG Thrill 4G review

Just a few weeks after the LG Optimus 3D got placed in the hot seat at our European offices, we're ready to give its American counterpart its fair share of warmth. Better known in the states as the Thrill 4G, this AT&T device is the latest smartphone to follow in the footsteps of the HTC EVO 3D by tossing an extra dimension into the mix. As it so happens, two rear cameras and some fancy special effects are just enough to change a person's judgement of the device in a split-second.

We get it. Few people want to spend their hard-earned cash on a gimmick. But like any other phone with a defining feature, there's more to this glasses-free 3D handset than meets the eye (pun intended). And after peering under the hood and seeing what the Thrill is capable of, there's a possibility this phone can hold its own against the competition in the same price range ($100 on AT&T). How does it differ from its European counterpart? Does the phone's 3D match up against Sprint's contribution? And how does this handset perform apart from that extra D? Join us as we dig through all three dimensions to get to the root of the Thrill 4G.

Review Gadget : AndyPad Pro review

Picture the scene: you're checking your emails on a shiny new device (worth two months pay) and from nowhere, a greasy-fingered infant is screaming at you to play. Reluctantly, you pass it over, watching your own hands cup the air beneath any potential drop zone, wondering how best to explain the jam-smeared calamity to your insurance company. Then you wonder if there isn't a useful, hard-wearing and cheap device you could let them play on without fear of bankruptcy. That's what prompted Norwich-based bedding magnate Andrew Kerry to conceive the AndyPad, an inexpensive, 7-inch Android tablet he could fling at kids. It wasn't long before jealous adults were demanding their own version, so a tooled-up edition of the device called the AndyPad Pro was born.

The tablet is currently UK-only and it retails for a lot less than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 (£280; $345 on Amazon) and Acer Iconia Tab A100 (£273 for the 8GB version; $328 on Amazon), and HTC Flyer (£330; $499 on Amazon). What's more, Verticool, an outfit founded by a man more famous for his Mattressman chain than any interest in technology, believes it can match the competition in a fair fight. Do the electronics giants have something to fear from the bargain-basement tablet or does it promise much and deliver little? Read on to find out.

Review Gadget : Pantech Breakout review

That pool looks cool and refreshing, and all of the kids are having the time of their lives. Problem is, it's in an exclusive club, leaving you to stare at it longingly from the opposite side of a chainlink fence. We know the feeling, and it ain't fun -- yet, the state of LTE in the US over the last year has had just a pinch of elitism due to its high cost of entry and exclusion from most rural areas. Devices running on the near-miraculous speeds haven't exactly been cheap, with handsets like the Samsung Droid Charge andMotorola Droid Bionic at an asking price of $250 to $300 on contract. Needless to say, lots of customers have felt the underlying feeling of inadequacy because their wallets may come up a Benjamin or two short.

The Pantech Breakout is the fifth phone in Verizon's LTE lineup, and the first clear departure from the piggy bank-busting prices that its predecessors command. With Big Red boasting a 4G lineup full of monotonous 4.3-inch behemoths, we've been anxiously awaiting something different. Something --anything -- that could likely appease a different set of customers eager to take advantage of this speedy network. The 4-inch Breakout certainly is capable of appealing to a wider demographic, but with an uncharacteristically low $100 price tag with a two-year commitment, does it ooze cheapness or is it a fair bargain? Follow us after the break to find out.

Review Gadget : BARNES & NOBLE Nook Tablet Review

Back in April, the Nook Color underwent a magical change of sorts: a software update that transformed the device from a color screen e-reader into an honest to goodness Android tablet. It was the company's first swipe at the space -- a backdoor approach that beat out fellow e-reader manufacturers like Amazon and Kobo. Its follow-up, the Nook Tablet, marks the company's first out-of-the-box shot at the consumer tablet market. Not to mention, it also goes head to head with the Kindle Fire, a device that's sure to be one of the best-selling gadgets of the holiday season, thanks to its price and wide content selection.

Does the Nook Tablet have what it takes to topple the Kindle Fire? Do the product's benefits justify its $50 premium over Amazon's device -- or the recently discounted and soon to be upgraded Nook Color for that matter? Find out the answers to these questions and so, so many more, after the break.

Samsung Wave 3 hands-on (video)

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Had enough Samsung this morning? Well, how about a little more Samsung, then. Also on the company's laundry list of new devices is the Wave, which was announced earlier this week. The Wave 3 is the highest end of the three new devices carrying that name, packing a zippy 1.4GHz processor, which seems to handle tasks with ease. Like most of the rest of the products introduced here at IFA, the screen is the centerpiece of the device, a brilliant 4-inch WVGA unit. Also like the rest of Samsung's handsets, the hardware is really terrific on the Wave, glossy screen complimenting a brushed aluminum back.

The handset runs Bada 2.0, which means that we're not likely to be seeing the thing in the US any time in the near future -- Samsung has largely backed away from US support for the mobile operating system, though it promises to expand its selection of applications from third-party app developers. Also new on the software front is ChatON, a mobile messaging service which we were unfortunately unable to give a spin here in Berlin.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro hands-on with Video

We've just gotten to grips with Sony Ericsson's new compact smartphones, the Xperia Mini and its keyboard-equipped sibling the Xperia Mini Pro, and have a gallery of shots for you below. Hit them up now and we'll have hands-on impressions and video coming shortly.

The Xperia Mini has wonderful size when it comes to width and height, but we have to ask: why so thick? The Mini Pro is only slightly thicker despite having a fully-fledged slideout keyboard, so it would have been nice if the keyboard-less Mini was more svelte.

Review Gadget : HTC Sensation XL review

The HTC Sensation XL has landed, leaving a sizable footprint behind. While it picks up the naming convention from HTC's previously dual-core flagship series and some Beats audio accreditation on the way, it looks pretty damn familiar to another member of the family. Yes, the family's Windows Phone flagship, the Titan certainly tickled our fancy -- no other phone had landed on that nascent OS with such a screen. But the Sensation XL faces phones both bigger (and onlyslightly smaller) in the increasingly crowded world of Android. At around $723 (£450), is the XL's single-core processor enough? Is that glossy WVGA screen still sharp enough at this size? How does this one compare to previous Sensations, and perhaps more importantly, Samsung's even bigger not-so-heavyweight? Keep reading after the break to find out.

Review Gadget : HTC Rezound review

The Motorola RAZR and Samsung Galaxy Nexus seem to be the two Verizon LTE juggernauts enjoying the lion's share of the spotlight, with the HTC Rezound's sandwiched smack dab between the two of them. But that doesn't mean the device has any less to offer -- you might even say it's entitled to some bragging rights. It's not the thinnest phone, nor does it have Ice Cream Sandwich (yet), but being the first carrier-branded handset in the US boasting a 720p HD display should carry a lot of weight.The Rezound-- as you might have gathered from the name -- is also the first HTC gizmo in the States to integrate Beats Audio. So does it fare well against its LTE competition? Is it enough to take your mind off of the Nexus? Read on below to find out.