WiMAX or LTE (long-term evolution) – which is superior? It, of course, depends on who you talk to. The vendors have their own stories, and the operators theirs. For the consumers, it is not about technology. It is about speed and seamless connectivity, and not having to buy different devices to operate on different platforms.
From the technical viewpoint, both are next-generation technologies for the wireless world. The choice between WiMAX and LTE hinges on the needs of the operator and the market demands, but the fact is, there seemingly is an insatiable appetite for data on the go.
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology primarily for fast broadband.
Also a 4G mobile technology, LTE allows a peak download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on mobile phones, compared with 20Mbps for 3G and 40Mbps for WiMAX.
“For operators, the choice of technology depends on a number of things including available spectrum, legacy inter-working, timing and business focus,” says Nokia Siemens Networks head of sub region, Asia South, Lars Biese.
To deploy either technology, operators will have to commit tens of billions of dollars in network upgrades for the new mobility landscape, which now includes social, video, location-based and entertainment applications and experiences.
In many countries, the current generation of mobile telecoms networks is 3G. Those in Malaysia are deployed by the four mobile players – Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Biese reckons LTE is the next step for mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA in the move to future networks and services.
The common belief is that the natural migration path is from 2G to GPRS, from GPRS to 3G, and from 3G to LTE. But IDC Asia/Pacific’s telecom research director Bill Rojas has a differing view. To him, LTE is a totally new set-up.
“GSM and GPRS were part of a migration. In Asia, the players may put LTE on top of 3G, but this will not cover the entire population. The concentration will be on urban centres. For full coverage, the operator needs to build more than 30% new cell sites,” Rojas says.
It has been reported that LTE’s main advantage over WiMAX, in addition to speed, is that it is part of the popular GSM technology and can allow backward compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.
LTE is relatively new compared with WiMAX. The world’s first public LTE service was made available only at the end of last year by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo.
Some people may said that LTE means "Late To Evolve"... However, LTE is fast catching up with WiMAX even though the WiMAX Forum, an industry organisation, stresses that its platform is at least two years ahead in terms of equipment availability and testing.
The Global Suppliers Association (GSA) says there are more than 59 LTE network commitments in 28 countries. In comparison, according to the WiMAX Forum, there are 559 WiMAX networks worldwide.
“To date, all existing GSM and WCDMA (3GPP) operators and CDMA (3GPP2) operators have committed to LTE as the technology of choice for their mobile network evolution, and by 2013, it is expected that there will be 20.4 million connections activated on LTE in the Asia Pacific,” says Biese.
On the other hand, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wing K Lee claims that mobile WiMAX is the only commercially proven technology that has been deployed on a large scale.
Nevertheless, market dynamics will determine the outcome of the race.
There are four WiMAX spectrum holders in Malaysia, namely, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications, which is the only one that has yet to roll out services commercially.
Rojas of IDC says both technologies can co-exist, but to him, WiMAX is still the purest 4G network. Naturally, the promoters of LTE have the opposite view.
That aside, Lee of YTL Communications points out that LTE and WiMAX serve the wireless broadband market and both technologies fundamentally share the same technological foundation. Therefore, they have more similarities than differences.
Should they then be merged, as suggested by US-based Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, given the overlap in the technologies?
While the debate rages on, the mobile operators in Malaysia still have a little bit of time to decide on which route to take to add capacity. This is because they have not fully exhausted their 3G spectrum. Even the WiMAX players have not fully exploited their 2.3G spectrum.
At some point, Rojas believes, the Malaysian Government will have to decide on spectrum allocation for LTE. Until then, do not expect the operators to fast-track their network expansion, even though some may face bottlenecks soon.
Furthermore, the Government needs to be certain that LTE is what the market needs. “Without (additional) spectrum after 3G, operators will have to move to LTE using the 3G spectrum,’’ Rojas says.
Whatever is on the minds of the players and industry regulators, one thing is clear – the need for speed is growing by the day, and the planning for spectrum allocation should start before we hit bottlenecks.
Some industry players have also called for the Government to refarm spectrum so that there is a coordinated approach to spectrum allocation and assignment. Not that there isn’t, but given that spectrum is becoming a rare commodity, the Government should make sure that the spectrum awarded is put to good use.
Rojas expects major commercial roll-outs of LTE and WiMAX in Asia this year and next, but devices remain an issue in the world of 4G. At the same time, experts say it is about time that the industry focuses on a single device that works on all platforms.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Is WiMAX or LTE the better 4G choice in Malaysia?
WiMAX or LTE (long-term evolution) – which is superior? It, of course, depends on who you talk to. The vendors have their own stories, and the operators theirs. For the consumers, it is not about technology. It is about speed and seamless connectivity, and not having to buy different devices to operate on different platforms.
From the technical viewpoint, both are next-generation technologies for the wireless world. The choice between WiMAX and LTE hinges on the needs of the operator and the market demands, but the fact is, there seemingly is an insatiable appetite for data on the go.
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology primarily for fast broadband.
Also a 4G mobile technology, LTE allows a peak download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on mobile phones, compared with 20Mbps for 3G and 40Mbps for WiMAX.
“For operators, the choice of technology depends on a number of things including available spectrum, legacy inter-working, timing and business focus,” says Nokia Siemens Networks head of sub region, Asia South, Lars Biese.
To deploy either technology, operators will have to commit tens of billions of dollars in network upgrades for the new mobility landscape, which now includes social, video, location-based and entertainment applications and experiences.
In many countries, the current generation of mobile telecoms networks is 3G. Those in Malaysia are deployed by the four mobile players – Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Biese reckons LTE is the next step for mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA in the move to future networks and services.
The common belief is that the natural migration path is from 2G to GPRS, from GPRS to 3G, and from 3G to LTE. But IDC Asia/Pacific’s telecom research director Bill Rojas has a differing view. To him, LTE is a totally new set-up.
“GSM and GPRS were part of a migration. In Asia, the players may put LTE on top of 3G, but this will not cover the entire population. The concentration will be on urban centres. For full coverage, the operator needs to build more than 30% new cell sites,” Rojas says.
It has been reported that LTE’s main advantage over WiMAX, in addition to speed, is that it is part of the popular GSM technology and can allow backward compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.
LTE is relatively new compared with WiMAX. The world’s first public LTE service was made available only at the end of last year by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo.
Some people may said that LTE means "Late To Evolve"... However, LTE is fast catching up with WiMAX even though the WiMAX Forum, an industry organisation, stresses that its platform is at least two years ahead in terms of equipment availability and testing.
The Global Suppliers Association (GSA) says there are more than 59 LTE network commitments in 28 countries. In comparison, according to the WiMAX Forum, there are 559 WiMAX networks worldwide.
“To date, all existing GSM and WCDMA (3GPP) operators and CDMA (3GPP2) operators have committed to LTE as the technology of choice for their mobile network evolution, and by 2013, it is expected that there will be 20.4 million connections activated on LTE in the Asia Pacific,” says Biese.
On the other hand, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wing K Lee claims that mobile WiMAX is the only commercially proven technology that has been deployed on a large scale.
Nevertheless, market dynamics will determine the outcome of the race.
There are four WiMAX spectrum holders in Malaysia, namely, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications, which is the only one that has yet to roll out services commercially.
Rojas of IDC says both technologies can co-exist, but to him, WiMAX is still the purest 4G network. Naturally, the promoters of LTE have the opposite view.
That aside, Lee of YTL Communications points out that LTE and WiMAX serve the wireless broadband market and both technologies fundamentally share the same technological foundation. Therefore, they have more similarities than differences.
Should they then be merged, as suggested by US-based Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, given the overlap in the technologies?
While the debate rages on, the mobile operators in Malaysia still have a little bit of time to decide on which route to take to add capacity. This is because they have not fully exhausted their 3G spectrum. Even the WiMAX players have not fully exploited their 2.3G spectrum.
At some point, Rojas believes, the Malaysian Government will have to decide on spectrum allocation for LTE. Until then, do not expect the operators to fast-track their network expansion, even though some may face bottlenecks soon.
Furthermore, the Government needs to be certain that LTE is what the market needs. “Without (additional) spectrum after 3G, operators will have to move to LTE using the 3G spectrum,’’ Rojas says.
Whatever is on the minds of the players and industry regulators, one thing is clear – the need for speed is growing by the day, and the planning for spectrum allocation should start before we hit bottlenecks.
Some industry players have also called for the Government to refarm spectrum so that there is a coordinated approach to spectrum allocation and assignment. Not that there isn’t, but given that spectrum is becoming a rare commodity, the Government should make sure that the spectrum awarded is put to good use.
Rojas expects major commercial roll-outs of LTE and WiMAX in Asia this year and next, but devices remain an issue in the world of 4G. At the same time, experts say it is about time that the industry focuses on a single device that works on all platforms.
From the technical viewpoint, both are next-generation technologies for the wireless world. The choice between WiMAX and LTE hinges on the needs of the operator and the market demands, but the fact is, there seemingly is an insatiable appetite for data on the go.
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology primarily for fast broadband.
Also a 4G mobile technology, LTE allows a peak download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on mobile phones, compared with 20Mbps for 3G and 40Mbps for WiMAX.
“For operators, the choice of technology depends on a number of things including available spectrum, legacy inter-working, timing and business focus,” says Nokia Siemens Networks head of sub region, Asia South, Lars Biese.
To deploy either technology, operators will have to commit tens of billions of dollars in network upgrades for the new mobility landscape, which now includes social, video, location-based and entertainment applications and experiences.
In many countries, the current generation of mobile telecoms networks is 3G. Those in Malaysia are deployed by the four mobile players – Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Biese reckons LTE is the next step for mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA in the move to future networks and services.
The common belief is that the natural migration path is from 2G to GPRS, from GPRS to 3G, and from 3G to LTE. But IDC Asia/Pacific’s telecom research director Bill Rojas has a differing view. To him, LTE is a totally new set-up.
“GSM and GPRS were part of a migration. In Asia, the players may put LTE on top of 3G, but this will not cover the entire population. The concentration will be on urban centres. For full coverage, the operator needs to build more than 30% new cell sites,” Rojas says.
It has been reported that LTE’s main advantage over WiMAX, in addition to speed, is that it is part of the popular GSM technology and can allow backward compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.
LTE is relatively new compared with WiMAX. The world’s first public LTE service was made available only at the end of last year by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo.
Some people may said that LTE means "Late To Evolve"... However, LTE is fast catching up with WiMAX even though the WiMAX Forum, an industry organisation, stresses that its platform is at least two years ahead in terms of equipment availability and testing.
The Global Suppliers Association (GSA) says there are more than 59 LTE network commitments in 28 countries. In comparison, according to the WiMAX Forum, there are 559 WiMAX networks worldwide.
“To date, all existing GSM and WCDMA (3GPP) operators and CDMA (3GPP2) operators have committed to LTE as the technology of choice for their mobile network evolution, and by 2013, it is expected that there will be 20.4 million connections activated on LTE in the Asia Pacific,” says Biese.
On the other hand, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wing K Lee claims that mobile WiMAX is the only commercially proven technology that has been deployed on a large scale.
Nevertheless, market dynamics will determine the outcome of the race.
There are four WiMAX spectrum holders in Malaysia, namely, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications, which is the only one that has yet to roll out services commercially.
Rojas of IDC says both technologies can co-exist, but to him, WiMAX is still the purest 4G network. Naturally, the promoters of LTE have the opposite view.
That aside, Lee of YTL Communications points out that LTE and WiMAX serve the wireless broadband market and both technologies fundamentally share the same technological foundation. Therefore, they have more similarities than differences.
Should they then be merged, as suggested by US-based Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, given the overlap in the technologies?
While the debate rages on, the mobile operators in Malaysia still have a little bit of time to decide on which route to take to add capacity. This is because they have not fully exhausted their 3G spectrum. Even the WiMAX players have not fully exploited their 2.3G spectrum.
At some point, Rojas believes, the Malaysian Government will have to decide on spectrum allocation for LTE. Until then, do not expect the operators to fast-track their network expansion, even though some may face bottlenecks soon.
Furthermore, the Government needs to be certain that LTE is what the market needs. “Without (additional) spectrum after 3G, operators will have to move to LTE using the 3G spectrum,’’ Rojas says.
Whatever is on the minds of the players and industry regulators, one thing is clear – the need for speed is growing by the day, and the planning for spectrum allocation should start before we hit bottlenecks.
Some industry players have also called for the Government to refarm spectrum so that there is a coordinated approach to spectrum allocation and assignment. Not that there isn’t, but given that spectrum is becoming a rare commodity, the Government should make sure that the spectrum awarded is put to good use.
Rojas expects major commercial roll-outs of LTE and WiMAX in Asia this year and next, but devices remain an issue in the world of 4G. At the same time, experts say it is about time that the industry focuses on a single device that works on all platforms.
Is WiMAX or LTE the better 4G choice in Malaysia?
WiMAX or LTE (long-term evolution) – which is superior? It, of course, depends on who you talk to. The vendors have their own stories, and the operators theirs. For the consumers, it is not about technology. It is about speed and seamless connectivity, and not having to buy different devices to operate on different platforms.
From the technical viewpoint, both are next-generation technologies for the wireless world. The choice between WiMAX and LTE hinges on the needs of the operator and the market demands, but the fact is, there seemingly is an insatiable appetite for data on the go.
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology primarily for fast broadband.
Also a 4G mobile technology, LTE allows a peak download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on mobile phones, compared with 20Mbps for 3G and 40Mbps for WiMAX.
“For operators, the choice of technology depends on a number of things including available spectrum, legacy inter-working, timing and business focus,” says Nokia Siemens Networks head of sub region, Asia South, Lars Biese.
To deploy either technology, operators will have to commit tens of billions of dollars in network upgrades for the new mobility landscape, which now includes social, video, location-based and entertainment applications and experiences.
In many countries, the current generation of mobile telecoms networks is 3G. Those in Malaysia are deployed by the four mobile players – Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Biese reckons LTE is the next step for mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA in the move to future networks and services.
The common belief is that the natural migration path is from 2G to GPRS, from GPRS to 3G, and from 3G to LTE. But IDC Asia/Pacific’s telecom research director Bill Rojas has a differing view. To him, LTE is a totally new set-up.
“GSM and GPRS were part of a migration. In Asia, the players may put LTE on top of 3G, but this will not cover the entire population. The concentration will be on urban centres. For full coverage, the operator needs to build more than 30% new cell sites,” Rojas says.
It has been reported that LTE’s main advantage over WiMAX, in addition to speed, is that it is part of the popular GSM technology and can allow backward compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.
LTE is relatively new compared with WiMAX. The world’s first public LTE service was made available only at the end of last year by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo.
Some people may said that LTE means "Late To Evolve"... However, LTE is fast catching up with WiMAX even though the WiMAX Forum, an industry organisation, stresses that its platform is at least two years ahead in terms of equipment availability and testing.
The Global Suppliers Association (GSA) says there are more than 59 LTE network commitments in 28 countries. In comparison, according to the WiMAX Forum, there are 559 WiMAX networks worldwide.
“To date, all existing GSM and WCDMA (3GPP) operators and CDMA (3GPP2) operators have committed to LTE as the technology of choice for their mobile network evolution, and by 2013, it is expected that there will be 20.4 million connections activated on LTE in the Asia Pacific,” says Biese.
On the other hand, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wing K Lee claims that mobile WiMAX is the only commercially proven technology that has been deployed on a large scale.
Nevertheless, market dynamics will determine the outcome of the race.
There are four WiMAX spectrum holders in Malaysia, namely, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications, which is the only one that has yet to roll out services commercially.
Rojas of IDC says both technologies can co-exist, but to him, WiMAX is still the purest 4G network. Naturally, the promoters of LTE have the opposite view.
That aside, Lee of YTL Communications points out that LTE and WiMAX serve the wireless broadband market and both technologies fundamentally share the same technological foundation. Therefore, they have more similarities than differences.
Should they then be merged, as suggested by US-based Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, given the overlap in the technologies?
While the debate rages on, the mobile operators in Malaysia still have a little bit of time to decide on which route to take to add capacity. This is because they have not fully exhausted their 3G spectrum. Even the WiMAX players have not fully exploited their 2.3G spectrum.
At some point, Rojas believes, the Malaysian Government will have to decide on spectrum allocation for LTE. Until then, do not expect the operators to fast-track their network expansion, even though some may face bottlenecks soon.
Furthermore, the Government needs to be certain that LTE is what the market needs. “Without (additional) spectrum after 3G, operators will have to move to LTE using the 3G spectrum,’’ Rojas says.
Whatever is on the minds of the players and industry regulators, one thing is clear – the need for speed is growing by the day, and the planning for spectrum allocation should start before we hit bottlenecks.
Some industry players have also called for the Government to refarm spectrum so that there is a coordinated approach to spectrum allocation and assignment. Not that there isn’t, but given that spectrum is becoming a rare commodity, the Government should make sure that the spectrum awarded is put to good use.
Rojas expects major commercial roll-outs of LTE and WiMAX in Asia this year and next, but devices remain an issue in the world of 4G. At the same time, experts say it is about time that the industry focuses on a single device that works on all platforms.
From the technical viewpoint, both are next-generation technologies for the wireless world. The choice between WiMAX and LTE hinges on the needs of the operator and the market demands, but the fact is, there seemingly is an insatiable appetite for data on the go.
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology primarily for fast broadband.
Also a 4G mobile technology, LTE allows a peak download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on mobile phones, compared with 20Mbps for 3G and 40Mbps for WiMAX.
“For operators, the choice of technology depends on a number of things including available spectrum, legacy inter-working, timing and business focus,” says Nokia Siemens Networks head of sub region, Asia South, Lars Biese.
To deploy either technology, operators will have to commit tens of billions of dollars in network upgrades for the new mobility landscape, which now includes social, video, location-based and entertainment applications and experiences.
In many countries, the current generation of mobile telecoms networks is 3G. Those in Malaysia are deployed by the four mobile players – Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Biese reckons LTE is the next step for mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA in the move to future networks and services.
The common belief is that the natural migration path is from 2G to GPRS, from GPRS to 3G, and from 3G to LTE. But IDC Asia/Pacific’s telecom research director Bill Rojas has a differing view. To him, LTE is a totally new set-up.
“GSM and GPRS were part of a migration. In Asia, the players may put LTE on top of 3G, but this will not cover the entire population. The concentration will be on urban centres. For full coverage, the operator needs to build more than 30% new cell sites,” Rojas says.
It has been reported that LTE’s main advantage over WiMAX, in addition to speed, is that it is part of the popular GSM technology and can allow backward compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.
LTE is relatively new compared with WiMAX. The world’s first public LTE service was made available only at the end of last year by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo.
Some people may said that LTE means "Late To Evolve"... However, LTE is fast catching up with WiMAX even though the WiMAX Forum, an industry organisation, stresses that its platform is at least two years ahead in terms of equipment availability and testing.
The Global Suppliers Association (GSA) says there are more than 59 LTE network commitments in 28 countries. In comparison, according to the WiMAX Forum, there are 559 WiMAX networks worldwide.
“To date, all existing GSM and WCDMA (3GPP) operators and CDMA (3GPP2) operators have committed to LTE as the technology of choice for their mobile network evolution, and by 2013, it is expected that there will be 20.4 million connections activated on LTE in the Asia Pacific,” says Biese.
On the other hand, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wing K Lee claims that mobile WiMAX is the only commercially proven technology that has been deployed on a large scale.
Nevertheless, market dynamics will determine the outcome of the race.
There are four WiMAX spectrum holders in Malaysia, namely, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications, which is the only one that has yet to roll out services commercially.
Rojas of IDC says both technologies can co-exist, but to him, WiMAX is still the purest 4G network. Naturally, the promoters of LTE have the opposite view.
That aside, Lee of YTL Communications points out that LTE and WiMAX serve the wireless broadband market and both technologies fundamentally share the same technological foundation. Therefore, they have more similarities than differences.
Should they then be merged, as suggested by US-based Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, given the overlap in the technologies?
While the debate rages on, the mobile operators in Malaysia still have a little bit of time to decide on which route to take to add capacity. This is because they have not fully exhausted their 3G spectrum. Even the WiMAX players have not fully exploited their 2.3G spectrum.
At some point, Rojas believes, the Malaysian Government will have to decide on spectrum allocation for LTE. Until then, do not expect the operators to fast-track their network expansion, even though some may face bottlenecks soon.
Furthermore, the Government needs to be certain that LTE is what the market needs. “Without (additional) spectrum after 3G, operators will have to move to LTE using the 3G spectrum,’’ Rojas says.
Whatever is on the minds of the players and industry regulators, one thing is clear – the need for speed is growing by the day, and the planning for spectrum allocation should start before we hit bottlenecks.
Some industry players have also called for the Government to refarm spectrum so that there is a coordinated approach to spectrum allocation and assignment. Not that there isn’t, but given that spectrum is becoming a rare commodity, the Government should make sure that the spectrum awarded is put to good use.
Rojas expects major commercial roll-outs of LTE and WiMAX in Asia this year and next, but devices remain an issue in the world of 4G. At the same time, experts say it is about time that the industry focuses on a single device that works on all platforms.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Nexus One: the second choice after iPhone (Blackberry and Nokia is not a contender)
Google’s Nexus One not only looks the part but comes with enough firepower to make it a serious contender for the iPhone 3GS crown, (after Blackberry and Nokia N800 lost to iPhone).
What’s really special about this particular smartphone model is that it runs on the latest Android 2.1 operating system, and has many tricks under its sleeve to compete head on with the iPhone 3GS.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
TOO CLOSE: Useful as they are, the four touch-sensitive buttons are too close to the screen. Users would consistently tap the wrong buttons while texting or composing an e-mail, and even when playing games.
There are four touch-sensitive buttons placed slightly at the bottom of the screen for Back, Menu, Home, and Search functions.Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
STACK THEM UP: The Nexus One (on top) is 0.8mm thinner but 4mm lengthier than the iPhone 3GS.
There are plenty to choose from, including a swirling galaxy; blades of waving grass; and an analogue sound meter with a needle that moves to the music you’re playing.Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
ROLL TO NAVIGATE: Only one finger needs to be on the screen when playing games as a user can also use the trackball to navigate.
And they all work just as well as the iPhone versions, we might add.Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
NEXUS ONE
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.1
CAMERA: 5-megapixels
DISPLAY: 3.7in 16.7mil colours AMOLED, 800 x 480-pixel resolution
MESSAGING: MMS, SMS, e-mail
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth, 3G, HSDPA
PHONE MEMORY: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD, 8GB card included
BATTERY TYPE: 1,400mAh lithium-ion
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 250/7 hours (on 3G)
OTHER FEATURES: A2DP stereo Bluetooth, haptic feedback, second microphone for dynamic noise suppression, proximity sensor, light sensor
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 59.8 x 11.5 x 119mm
WEIGHT: 130g
PREDICTED PRICE: RM2,500 - RM 2,800
Nexus One: the second choice after iPhone (Blackberry and Nokia is not a contender)
Google’s Nexus One not only looks the part but comes with enough firepower to make it a serious contender for the iPhone 3GS crown, (after Blackberry and Nokia N800 lost to iPhone).
What’s really special about this particular smartphone model is that it runs on the latest Android 2.1 operating system, and has many tricks under its sleeve to compete head on with the iPhone 3GS.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
TOO CLOSE: Useful as they are, the four touch-sensitive buttons are too close to the screen. Users would consistently tap the wrong buttons while texting or composing an e-mail, and even when playing games.
There are four touch-sensitive buttons placed slightly at the bottom of the screen for Back, Menu, Home, and Search functions.Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
STACK THEM UP: The Nexus One (on top) is 0.8mm thinner but 4mm lengthier than the iPhone 3GS.
There are plenty to choose from, including a swirling galaxy; blades of waving grass; and an analogue sound meter with a needle that moves to the music you’re playing.Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
ROLL TO NAVIGATE: Only one finger needs to be on the screen when playing games as a user can also use the trackball to navigate.
And they all work just as well as the iPhone versions, we might add.Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
NEXUS ONE
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.1
CAMERA: 5-megapixels
DISPLAY: 3.7in 16.7mil colours AMOLED, 800 x 480-pixel resolution
MESSAGING: MMS, SMS, e-mail
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth, 3G, HSDPA
PHONE MEMORY: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD, 8GB card included
BATTERY TYPE: 1,400mAh lithium-ion
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 250/7 hours (on 3G)
OTHER FEATURES: A2DP stereo Bluetooth, haptic feedback, second microphone for dynamic noise suppression, proximity sensor, light sensor
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 59.8 x 11.5 x 119mm
WEIGHT: 130g
PREDICTED PRICE: RM2,500 - RM 2,800
Nexus One: the second choice after iPhone (Blackberry and Nokia is not a contender)
Google’s Nexus One not only looks the part but comes with enough firepower to make it a serious contender for the iPhone 3GS crown, (after Blackberry and Nokia N800 lost to iPhone).
What’s really special about this particular smartphone model is that it runs on the latest Android 2.1 operating system, and has many tricks under its sleeve to compete head on with the iPhone 3GS.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
Currently, the Nexus One is only available through the Google website for US$529 (RM1,690) and although the company ships the smartphone internationally, Malaysia is not on the list.
The phone is only 11.5mm thick, the Nexus One generally feels slimmer and sleeker than the iPhone. (It is however about 4.5mm taller than the iPhone.)
The glass-covered front is monopolised by the 3.7in capacitive touchscreen, which has a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
The display looks awesome with colours that appear to jump right at you. But, like similar screens, it fares poorly under direct sunlight and is also a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
TOO CLOSE: Useful as they are, the four touch-sensitive buttons are too close to the screen. Users would consistently tap the wrong buttons while texting or composing an e-mail, and even when playing games.
There are four touch-sensitive buttons placed slightly at the bottom of the screen for Back, Menu, Home, and Search functions.Useful as they are, we still found the layout to be somewhat annoying as we kept accidentally tapping them while texting, composing an e-mail message or when playing games.
Further down there is a glowing trackball to navigate and access the phone’s features.
Most users complain that apart from doubling as the camera button and notification light, there’s literally not much use in having it around.
After all, to navigate anywhere on the screen you can simply use your finger. And it’s faster that way too, we might add.
To be fair, however, we did find the trackball handy when playing games. It can be used to navigate in a game, enabling you to take one thumb off the screen, thus providing a bigger viewing area.
In comparison, on the iPhone you need to place both thumbs on the screen especially when playing racing games. This essentially blocks a large portion of the display from the eyes.
Moving on, along the left side you will see the volume rocker while up on top are the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Naturally, the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Other features include light and proximity sensors, accelerometer, HSDPA, WiFi, A-GPS and a microSD slot with a 4GB card included.
The Nexus One only offers 512MB Flash memory and 512MB RAM to run and store data as well as applications. There is a microSD card slot but unfortunately it is only to store data files.
STACK THEM UP: The Nexus One (on top) is 0.8mm thinner but 4mm lengthier than the iPhone 3GS.
There are plenty to choose from, including a swirling galaxy; blades of waving grass; and an analogue sound meter with a needle that moves to the music you’re playing.Also available are those that respond directly to touch, such as the Nexus neural network to create more colour lines as well as water that ripples.
Some like it, others don’t but one thing’s for sure — despite being a novelty feature that you would get tired of after a while, the animated wallpaper is still one of the cool functions that would attract people when they first look at the smartphone.
The Nexus One offers up to five homescreens, which you can add and delete shortcut icons, folders and widgets at will. The upper left hand corner of the screen is reserved for notifications.
Just like the iPhone, you only have a virtual keyboard and the spacing of the keys are narrower than the former. This poses a problem in the form of lots of mistyping.
There is no option to increase its width so you are stuck with the default layout.
Excellent touch-sensitivity is not the only feature that closely rivals the iPhone. The Android Market is another — an online marketplace that is what the App Store is to Apple’s iPhone. So far, Nexus got much smaller number of apps than the Apple Store for iPhone.
Anyway, we still can pick from games like Robo Defense and Gem Miner to must-have tools such as metal detectors and digital levels; as well as all social networking and instant messaging mobile editions.
ROLL TO NAVIGATE: Only one finger needs to be on the screen when playing games as a user can also use the trackball to navigate.
And they all work just as well as the iPhone versions, we might add.Also, Google doesn’t restrict users to apps that are only available on its Android Market. Being an advocate of an open platform, the company also allows users to install software directly from developer sites outside of the marketplace.
On the iPhone you can only do so if you “jailbreak” the device first — a move which is clearly not supported by Apple.
Also unlike the iPhone platform, Android apps are able to run in the background. So, if you accidentally pressed the back button, the app that you’ve already opened will still be where you left it when you come back.
Of course, the Nexus One works tightly with Google apps such as Sky Map. If you want to find out which constellation you are currently looking at, just point the smartphone to the night sky. It that cool or what?
Note however that only free apps are accessible for now as Google needs to work out the billing deal with local carriers first before the paid versions will be made available.
In other words, the smartphone itself needs to be officially available here before that can happen.
A sleek shooter
The camera department is another section in which the smartphone shines. Its 5-megapixel shooter is able to produce above average pictures compared to other camera phones we have used to date.
There are also autofocus, white balance, colour effect controls, digital zoom and three quality settings to help users take better pictures.
Overall images captured were clear and offered vivid colours. Images were also very detailed and low light performance was generally good. There was an element of graininess but this is to be expected from a camera phone.
With the built-in A-GPS you can also geotag your shots for your reference.
The Nexus One’s imaging capabilities don’t end there though, as it also features very capable video recording at up to 720 x 480-pixel resolution at 20 frames per second.
Colour reproduction is good and footage is pretty clear.
Beyond voice dialling
Like most smartphones in the market, Nexus One also supports voice dialling but the technology goes beyond that, offering users an enhanced voice recognition capability to enable them to simply speak to input text.
So when you don’t feel like typing, just press the microphone icon in supported applications to dictate your texts, e-mail, searches, notes and others.
Google Speech Recognition is tightly integrated into Android 2.1 on the Nexus One so to use this feature the phone must connect to the Internet as that’s where the transcribing is done.
It recognises several languages. However, most Malaysians can probably only choose either UK or US English as the option unless you can speak French, German, Italian or Spanish as well.
The accuracy is patchy, at about 60% to 70% success rate. Plus, you would also need to speak slowly and enunciate everything properly. Surprisingly, we got better results in the US English option.
As a phone, the Nexus One isn’t dramatically different from most GSM devices you have probably used. Suffice to say that the call quality is at par with others.
The dynamic noise suppression option is a surprising addition though. The feature makes use of the second microphone located at the phone’s back to isolate background noise from your voice when making calls.
Compared to other “tend to be an iPhone-killers” that have been positioned to dethrone the king, the Nexus One is probably the closest one to be able to do so at the moment after Nokia and Blackberry lost the battle.
It offers many of the iPhone 3GS advantages and more including fast operation, gorgeous display, elegant design, decent camera, plenty of apps to download and customise. Plus we also welcome its voice recognition capability.
However, it is not without its problems. For starters, application storage remains limited to the internal memory.
Of course, being a trendsetter also means you usually need to pay a higher price to be among the first to secure the phone. Price probably in the range of — RM2,500 - RM 2,800. I'm not sure how much the Low Yatt will mark up later.
The Android and iPhone platforms can be similar and yet vastly different. (Hint: Windows Mobile is the worse) There are also things beyond the technology platform such as brand loyalty — so at the end of the day it all boils down to what you consider the more important value when choosing one over the other.
NEXUS ONE
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.1
CAMERA: 5-megapixels
DISPLAY: 3.7in 16.7mil colours AMOLED, 800 x 480-pixel resolution
MESSAGING: MMS, SMS, e-mail
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth, 3G, HSDPA
PHONE MEMORY: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD, 8GB card included
BATTERY TYPE: 1,400mAh lithium-ion
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 250/7 hours (on 3G)
OTHER FEATURES: A2DP stereo Bluetooth, haptic feedback, second microphone for dynamic noise suppression, proximity sensor, light sensor
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 59.8 x 11.5 x 119mm
WEIGHT: 130g
PREDICTED PRICE: RM2,500 - RM 2,800
Sunday, 18 April 2010
AMD based netbook , Why there are always late
It is already well known that AMD has their own bechmark in high end computing product, especially for games and graphical works ( though I think Apple got extra mark on the second). However, they should not just ignore the huge desire from middle and lower rank users, which could contribute narrowing the gap between its competitor, Mr. Intel.
As I always said, AMD should go after the gaping hole between netbooks and thin-and-lights by releasing a low-power platform with solid graphics abilities, and it looks like the company’s finally coming around — AMD’s John Taylor just told us that the chipmaker will be releasing a netbook-class Fusion CPU / GPU hybrid codenamed “Ontario” with integrated DX11 graphics sometime next year. If Ontario sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it leaked in the past — it’s a part of the “Brazos” platform built around the low-power Bobcat core. Of course, AMD has been promising Fusion chips of all stripes for years now without a single shipping part, so saying that a Fusion chip will get it into the netbook game in 2011 is mildly amusing — while AMD’s definitely turned things around, it’s still incredibly late to the low-end party, and Intel’s solidly beaten it to the hybrid CPU / GPU punch with the Core 2010 and Pine Trail Atom chips. Add in the fact that NVIDIA’s Optimus-based Ion 2 chipset seemingly offers the extended battery life of Atom with the performance of a discrete GPU, and we’d say the market niche Ontario is designed to fill may not actually be so niche when it finally arrives. We’ll see what happens — a year is a long, long time.
As I always said, AMD should go after the gaping hole between netbooks and thin-and-lights by releasing a low-power platform with solid graphics abilities, and it looks like the company’s finally coming around — AMD’s John Taylor just told us that the chipmaker will be releasing a netbook-class Fusion CPU / GPU hybrid codenamed “Ontario” with integrated DX11 graphics sometime next year. If Ontario sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it leaked in the past — it’s a part of the “Brazos” platform built around the low-power Bobcat core. Of course, AMD has been promising Fusion chips of all stripes for years now without a single shipping part, so saying that a Fusion chip will get it into the netbook game in 2011 is mildly amusing — while AMD’s definitely turned things around, it’s still incredibly late to the low-end party, and Intel’s solidly beaten it to the hybrid CPU / GPU punch with the Core 2010 and Pine Trail Atom chips. Add in the fact that NVIDIA’s Optimus-based Ion 2 chipset seemingly offers the extended battery life of Atom with the performance of a discrete GPU, and we’d say the market niche Ontario is designed to fill may not actually be so niche when it finally arrives. We’ll see what happens — a year is a long, long time.
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