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 : Prada phone by LG 3.0 review

LG and Prada have a history of collaboration; their debut phone arrived around the same time as the first iPhone, sporting a black and white display, a petite footprint and a 2-megapixel camera. Next, the Prada II brandished a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and arrived at a time when WiFi functionality was a big enough deal to note on the press release. Four years on, the pair have rolled their sleeves and attempted to reclaim a place among the top devices, with classy aesthetics backed up by a strong hardware and attractively customized software. This is the team's first attempt at an Android device, and on paper it's got some respectable specifications, including a 4.3-inch NOVA Plus display, a dual-core processor and an 8-megapixel camera sensor that appears to be the same one found on LG's 2011 flagship models. Granted, LG probably wasn't ever planning to include its latest HD IPS screen on a phone where branding was dominated by the other partner, but this smartphone still wants to appeal beyond its good looks.

It's now appeared in Korea and Western Europe and we were fortunate enough to borrow one from UK retailer Phones 4u for review. Are people willing to stump up the top-tier smartphone cash for a device with last year's specifications? Do people want a Prada phone? Might a fashionista be more likely to plump for an iPhone? Or is it too popular? And what about that monochrome skin? We'll talk it all out after the break.

Review Gadget : BlackBerry Curve 9360 review

The BlackBerry Curve 8300 emerged as one of the best smartphone ideas of 2007. It pre-dated the first Android handset by a full year, and unlike the original iPhone, it was priced within reach of the average consumer. It introduced the masses to the possibilities of a connected and capable handset, and was the primary catalyst for the BlackBerry's meteoric rise to household name. With each subsequent iteration, however, the Curve remained a handset geared toward first-time smartphone buyers, and that axiom feels particularly true today.

We're now presented with the Curve 9360 ($29.99, on contract), a device that's ostensibly hobbled in order to differentiate itself from RIM's higher-end offerings, most notably the Torch 9810 ($49),Torch 9850 ($99) and Bold 9900 ($199). Specifically, we refer to its lack of a touchscreen. The omission will certainly be a deal-breaker for some, but whether it causes the market to reject it as a whole remains unknown. For our part, we're most interested in the impact on the handset's usability and its relevance in an increasingly competitive environment. In other words, has RIM included enough improvements to keep its Curve franchise afloat, or will this iteration sink like a stone? Join us after the break, as we delve into the Curve 9360 and explore these finer details.

Review Gadget : Huawei Honor review

Phone makers love to take pride in the extravagant names they give their products, but it's likely that the Huawei Honor is more to its creator than just a decently-specced handset. After all, the introduction of the Honor -- followed by last week's announcement of the super-slim Ascend P1 S -- appears to represent a shift in the OEM's overall product placement strategy. Huawei has done a great job finding customers in emerging and prepaid markets, but now it has its sights set on cranking out noteworthy phones that will gain the attention of anyone looking for a high-end device.

Based on its laundry list of specs, the Honor isn't a high-end handset compared to some of its LTE and dual-core competitors. And yet, it's still the best device Huawei's offered to date, and it's clear the company's upcoming phones are only going to get better. So we're really eyeing the Honor as a step closer to the OEM finally realizing its ultimate goal. Does it live up to its name? Can the Honor play with the big boys, or is it nothing more than just an outward indication of the company's future? Read on to find out.

Review Gadget : Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile review

It's not the Nokia / Microsoft lovechild we've all been patiently awaiting here in the states. No, it's theother Lumia -- the low-end one. And it's headed for a berth on T-Mobile's airwaves next week, on January 11th. Rather than go big (or go home), Espoo's chosen to wade gently into the shallow waters of the US smartphone market, loading this budget Mango device with respectable mid-range specs and an irresistible price. The Lumia 710 is a $50 on contract proposition geared towards easing folks inept at the smarter aspects of wireless gadgetry into the 21st century. With a 3.7-inch ClearBlack LCD display, a1.4GHz Snapdragon processor aided by 512MB of RAM, a decent 5 megapixel rear shoot capable of 720p video capture and, of course, Windows Phone 7.5, it may do just that. The obvious hurdle keeping this able phone from flying off the shelves has little to do with performance and everything to do with Nokia's stateside brand recognition. So, join us after the break as we put this unassuming handset through its paces and determine whether or not the 710's training wheels are worth a Grant.

Review Gadget : Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (international edition)

Within an 11-day period last fall, Engadget published reviews of two different Samsung Galaxy tablets. At the time, we felt the company was turning into a caricature of itself, with slates in every conceivable size, including 10.1, 8.9 and 7 inches. Mostly, though, if we sounded exasperated with Sammy's "see what sticks" strategy, it was because the outfit unveiled not one, but two 7-inchers over the course of a month. One of these, the 7.0 Plus, went on sale in the US back in November, with mid-range specs and a mid-range price to match its in-between size. But that tablet always felt like a consolation prize next to our second contender, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, which brings a brushed metal back, 10-hour battery and Super AMOLED Plus, 1280 x 800 display. Even on paper, it always seemed promising. Special.

Maddeningly, though, those of us here in the states still can't buy one through the likes of Best Buy and Amazon, and though Verizon Wireless plans to sell an LTE-enabled version, we know scant few details about when it will arrive, how much it will cost or whether there will be an off-contract option. Luckily for us, our friends over at Negri Electronics hooked us up with an international model, one with 16GB of internal storage and WiFi, HSPA+ and EDGE / GPRS radios -- a doozy of a tablet that would cost you $668.50 if you were to import it to the US. (You can buy it domestically if you live in select markets like the UK.) So is the product novel enough to warrant that novelty price? Find the answer to that question and more after the break.

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 : Kyocera Echo review

It's not exactly difficult to put into words what the Kyocera Echo is -- it's a dual-screened Android phone, after all -- but it's a wee bit more challenging to wrap your head around who exactly it's for. The hardcore gaming contingent already has Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, and those obsessed with screen real estate have options spanning the gamut -- everything from Dell's 5-inch Streak to a veritable cornucopia of choices in the 4- to 4.3-inch range. So, where exactly does this oddball fit in? Quite frankly, we get the impression that it's doing its darnedest to carve out a market of its own, a thought that's reinforced by Kyocera's dedicated app development space and two-faced Simul-Task mode. Early critics (read: us) railed on the fact that double the screens meant double the trouble in terms of battery life, and there's no question that a second cell was included with our test unit. But are the advantages of having a second 3.5-inch WVGA touchpanel enough to overshadow the obvious pitfalls? Join us as we do a little soul-searching in our full review, hosted up just past the break.

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 : Galaxy Player 4.0 review

Apple users have the iPod touch, but what about Android fans? Where do they turn when looking for an app-running, connected media player -- basically a smartphone without the phone? Well, believe it or not, there are a few options out there (like the Philips GoGear and Cowon's D3) And one of the premier lines is certainly Samsung's Galaxy Player offerings which, as the name implies, borrow a few things from their beloved cellphone siblings. There's both a 4.0 ($230) and a 5.0 ($270) model which have four- and five-inch screens, respectively, but, besides the size, the two are practically identical in the specs department. We toyed with the smaller Galaxy Player 4.0 for a couple of weeks and our thoughts on Sammy's (somewhat pricier) answer to the iPod touch are right after the break.

Review Gadget : ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime review

Is there any tablet that's hotter than the Transformer Prime right now? (Please, don't say the Kindle Fire.) For weeks we geeks, early adopters and people who love their tech toys have been awaiting this, and none too patiently. Make no mistake: this will be one of the slickest products we test this year and it isn't just because the original Transformer had such an inventive design. The Prime is the first device packing NVIDIA's hot-off-the-presses Tegra 3 SoC, making it the world's first quad-core tablet. This comes with promises of longer-than-ever runtime and blazing performance (five times faster than Tegra 2, to be exact), all wrapped in a package measuring just 8.3mm (0.33 inches) thick -- even skinnier than the iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab 10.1. Throw in specs like a Super IPS+ Gorilla Glass display, eight megapixel rear camera and a confirmed ICS update in the pipe and even we seen-it-all Engadget editors were drooling.

All of which means we dropped just everything when a 32GB Prime showed up on our doorstep earlier this week, and soon enough, you'll have your chance to nab one too. ASUS announced today that the WiFi-only models will be available through online sellers the week of December 19th, and in retail the week after. (No word yet on 3G versions for the US just yet.) It'll start at $499 for the 32GB model -- not bad considering five hundred bucks is the going rate for a high-end tablet with 16GB of storage. From there you can get a 64GB number for $599, while that signature keyboard dock will set you back a further $149. Worth it? Read on to find out.

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 : LG Nitro HD review

AT&T's lonesome LTE duo -- the Samsung GS II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid -- just gained a new member with the recent launch of LG's Nitro HD. You may recognize this particular handset from its former life as the Optimus LTE, except here the phone's been rebranded with a moniker that more astutely conveys its blazing 4G purpose. There may be tough times ahead for the handset, considering the current crop of high-end devices hogging the spotlight. But if three's company, the Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound and Droid RAZR are sure to make this a standing room-only crowd -- an especially haughty bunch given their heavyweight specs. Which is why this sudden end-of-year release for the Nitro HD has us questioning the company's timing. Sure, it's no slouch when stacked up against the competition, with a 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 AH-IPS display, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm APQ8060 processor and 1.3 front-facing / 8 megapixel rear cameras. Yet at $250 on contract, the Nitro HD needs to outshine the legacy set by its best-in-class Sammy stablemate or, at least, offer a performance boost over the cheaper Vivid. So can LG's last second contender rise above the fray to win your holiday dollars? Will it succeed in outclassing its LTE compadres? Or is it a case of too little, too late for this metoo three! smartphone. Follow on past the break as we dive into the mobile nitty gritty.

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 : BlackBerry Torch 9850 review

Monza. It's a beautiful part of Italy, a majestic park split by one of the most historic racetracks in the world, and it was also the codename for this rather more homely looking phone. This is a handset that would go on to be known by many names (Storm 3, Touch...) before receiving its final moniker: Torch 9850. Why all the pseudonyms, and why choose to confusingly overlap this with the somewhat similar but rather different Torch 9810 that's also officially launching today?

Maybe RIM didn't know what to make of this keyboard-free phone. Maybe the company wanted to distance itself from the Storm. Or, maybe what we have here is a smartphone that's trying to find an identity by sadly ditching the feature that, for many, makes a BlackBerry a BlackBerry: the physical keyboard. How does this smoothie compare to the others, and is it worth sacrificing all the QWERTY wonder found within the 9810? Read on to find out.

Review Gadget : Samsung Conquer 4G review

It's peculiar how a simple number and letter can cause the price to skyrocket when added to the end of a phone's name. But that's exactly what the term "4G" does -- ultimately, making a phone or tablet compatible with a carrier's next-generation network seems to add value (and cost) in unthinkable ways. There's a growing concern in the mobile industry; Sprint's WiMAX 4G coverage, once a novelty in the United States, is now just one of the boys. It faces direct competition against its two (much larger) LTE brethren in Verizon and AT&T, and the Now Network is searching for other methods of utilizing its high-speed offerings. In doing so, the carrier wants to keep the value high without escalating the expense.

Enter the Samsung Conquer 4G, the latest addition to Sprint's blazing-fast lineup. Rather than going head-to-head with giants like the Photon 4G and EVO 3D, the company's strategy is to offer a WiMAX-enabled handset that's light on the wallet. It's not the least expensive of the bunch these days -- the Samsung Nexus S 4G takes the cake there -- but it's another option to toss into the network's growing lineup. So does this mid-range handset have a shot at living up to its namesake? Keep on reading to find out.

Review Gadget : HTC EVO 3D review

The first time we saw the rumored Supersonic we were blown away. HTC and Google had just wowed us with the Nexus One, and here we were looking at something even better -- a 4.3-inch phone with WiMAX wrapped in a white body. This prototype was buggy and had abysmal battery life, but it was real. Four months later it landed in our hands at Google I/O. We're of course talking about the EVO 4G which went on to become a runaway hit for HTC and Sprint as the first ever 4G smartphone in the US. And here we are a year later with the HTC EVO 3D, the legitimate heir to Sprint's mobile kingdom -- at least until the Motorola Photon 4G comes along. When we first played with the 3D-capable handset at CTIA we were suitably impressed, but we left with a lot of unanswered questions. How do the 1.2GHz dual core processor and qHD display affect battery life? Is 3D a compelling feature or just a gimmick? What is 2D camera performance like with the lower specced camera? Is the EVO 3D a worthy replacement for the EVO 4G? Find out in our review after the break.