It is no secret that HTC has been in some trouble in recent years, and their recent phones have been dwarfed in sales compared to companies like Samsung. The fact of the matter is that HTC does not have the marketing muscle of companies like Samsung and Apple, but their previous HTC One X was still amazing (and our favourite Android phone of 2012).

And here we have HTC’s latest flagship, this time around simply called the “One”. So does it have what it takes to become the best Android phone on the market?

Find our video review below: (more…)

It is no secret that HTC has been in some trouble in recent years, and their recent phones have been dwarfed in sales compared to companies like Samsung. The fact of the matter is that HTC does not have the marketing muscle of companies like Samsung and Apple, but their previous HTC One X was still amazing (and our favourite Android phone of 2012).

And here we have HTC’s latest flagship, this time around simply called the “One”. So does it have what it takes to become the best Android phone on the market?

Body

The HTC One is the best feeling phone I have held in years. It is as simple as that. While it is indeed big, it is still quite comfortable to use. It is basically reaching the limits of what you might say is a comfortable phone to use, and I suspect most people will use it with two hands. Despite its rounded back, it never feels slippery in your hand due to a few well placed ridges (the previous One X felt particularly slippery).

I have always been bothered by phones that just simply don’t feel like high end devices. The HTC One is a perfect example of what a flagship phone should feel like. The front and back is made of aluminium, and it really feels like a real upmarket phone. It has chamferred edges which contrast well with the matte steel finish. (There is also apparently a black version arriving soon.)

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BlackBerry has left their fans without a premium phone since the Bold 9900, and instead focussed their efforts on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. The day has finally come that we can spend some hands on time with their new Z10 handset, which is major shift for BlackBerry. Gone are services like BIS and BES, but BlackBerry has finally caught up with its competitors with decent software and a great new gesture based user interface.

So is a BlackBerry without BIS and the lack of a physical keyboard still retain what makes BlackBerry a great device? (more…)

Finally, the much anticipated BlackBerry Z10 entered into the smartphone boxing ring. Being a current BlackBerry user myself and looking to update my phone, I was keen to get my hands on the Z10 to see if BlackBerry would be able to convince me to stay on their team. I was quite fortunate to get my hands on the rare white version and immediately peeled off those “fresh device” plastic covers protecting the screen and battery cover.

Set-up

Setting up the phone was a breeze and BlackBerry takes you through the ins-and-outs with an interactive video, teaching you how to use the new device.  The Z10 has no buttons on the front of the phone, and it takes some getting used to to unlock the phone merely from the touch-screen. This was quite a change for me with most BlackBerry devices having a keyboard with which to navigate around the phone. BlackBerry’s previous success was strongly based on making e-mails easily accessible and I found that they’ve put a lot of effort into letting you set up your e-mail accounts without any hassle. Even with my e-mail accounts at lesser known service providers, it was just as easy as setting up my Gmail account.

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The ultrabook category has clearly taken the market by storm – initially started as a standard defined by Intel as an answer to the popular Macbook Air, most PC manufacturers were very quick to build their own versions. The idea is simple – very light, subnotebook class machines, with high end specifications, which cost a little more than standard notebooks. Most of these ultrabooks are now on their second generations, so they are better than ever.

But the problem with a standard like the “Ultrabook” is that manufacturers need to think of ways to differentiate their own products. A few ingredients are found everywhere – low power Intel processors, speedy solid state storage, and very thin bodies. Very quickly these machines all look like copies of each other. As you will see below, Samsung bends some of these rules for the better, with a very unique offering in the Series 5 Ultra Touch.

Samsung’s latest 13 inch ultrabook is a great example of how manufacturers are quickly reinventing their ultrabook offerings.

See below our video review of the Samsung’s latest entrant into the ultrabook space.  (more…)

This week we posted our review of living with the iPhone 5, and asked the question of whether it is worth upgrading to. While the design is an evolutionary update as is the norm with iPhones, we still believe it is a great phone.

The iPhone is always a difficult phone to review, because by the time it reaches South Africa, interested people have already read everything they need to know about the phone. This time around South Africa got the iPhone quite late in comparison to previous years, and we were all too pleased when an iPhone 5 finally got delivered to us on launch day by Vodacom. First off, we did not want to rush a quick review of the device. We basically wanted to know one thing – is it still the gold standard in the smartphone world? And that meant spending a few weeks with it.

See below for our video review: (more…)

We here at BandwidthBlog have always had a bit of a soft spot for Nokia’s Lumia range. While the high end target market has completely moved away from Nokia in the last few years, you can truly see that Nokia is doing its best to convince people to come back to their way of thinking. After moving to Windows Phone, Nokia has really pulled out all the stops with their Lumia range – while beautiful hardware with innovative software means that the phones look great on paper, it somehow has not translated into sales for Nokia. The Lumia 920 continues with that formula, but everything is much improved in this latest generation of Lumias. We spent some time with new flagship, the Lumia 920, and once again walked away very impressed. (more…)

Once you get into video recording with a modern smartphone you quickly realize how versatile these devices are for even semi-professional grade recording. Cranking out 1080p video from such a small device is great, but you quickly run into a wall if you do want more stable shots. Because of its small size, the iPhone is not very stable to use for longer video use and no amount of Apple software magic can fix that. So what do you do?

That is where professional mounting solutions like the SmartPhocus comes in handy. We previously had some hands on time with the OWLE Bubo (see our review here), which was an impeccably machined kit, but was also quite heavy. Well, the designers have been at work, and this is the replacement. Made from a lightweight polymer, the Smartphocus tightly grips your bare iPhone 4 or 4S, giving it a much more comfortable grip. On the rear you can see the area where your iPhone slides in. (more…)