LG Lucid Review

Screen

• 4-inches
• 480p resolution
• 233ppi
• IPS LCD

Ports & Buttons

• Bottom left edge MicroUSB/Charging port
• Top left edge volume rocker
• Standard headset/headphone port
• Top right edge wake/lock
• MicroSD port inside back cover, not under the battery

Back Camera

• 5MP
• 1080p HD video
• LED Flash

Front Camera

• 0.3MP
• Video calling

Wireless

• Verizon LTE 4G
• WiFi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 3.0
• DLNA
• GPS

Processor, etc

• 1.2GHz dual core
• 1GB of RAM
• 8GB of internal storage

Notables

• Feels pretty good in the hand
• Horrible app drawer
• Awesome camera app
• Customizable notification drawer shortcuts
• Gestures
• Stock dialpad widget
• $79.99 from Verizon Wireless with 2-year agreement
• $0.01 from Amazon Wireless with 2-year agreement

Droid 4

Specs

• 540×960 qHD PENTILE display, not 720p, but equivalent to iPhone’s retina display
• 4-inch screen
• 1.2 GHz dual core TI processor, which I’ve said before is better than the Tegra2
• 1GB of RAM
• 16GB of internal storage
• Does not come with an SD card, but can accept MicroSD up to 32GB
• 8MP camera with 1080p video
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• MicroHDMI-out
• DLNA (stream media over WiFi to supported devices)
• Physical Keyboard (with Caps Lock) that is automatically back-lit
• LTE

Other than the sleep/wake button, the ports, and the physical keyboard, this is pretty much just like the Droid Razr.

VerizonWireless.com: $199 w/ 2-year contract
AmazonWireless.com: $49 w/ 2-year contract

Just like the Droid Razr that I reviewed a couple weeks ago but with a fat back battery.

What this phone does right:

• Easily accessible USB and HDMI ports.
• Uses the standard spacing found on all Motorola phones now so it works with Moto dock connectors.
• Side wake/lock.
• Very loud speaker.
• Mic on front and back for noise cancellation and good audio capture for video.
• Comes with a cool AccuWeather live wallpaper app.

What this phone does wrong:

• Button order is odd.
• USB/HDMI ports on the top. Prefer them on the side.
• Motoblur skin makes app switching slow and adding apps to the home screen more difficult than it should be.

With a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and a confirmed ICS upgrade by Motorola this phone is a definite must-buy for Verizon customers that don’t need a physical keyboard.

If you need a physical keyboard, tune in to our next episode for the Droid 4 review!

LG Spectrum Review

Specs:

4.5-inch HD IPS display @720p
Gorilla Glass

4GB of internal storage
16GB SD card

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot

8MP rear camera with 1080p video
1.3MP front camera

Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon
Dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU
Adreno 220 GPU

Pros:
Beastly processor and GPU
Should handle ICS well if it is upgraded
Nice button configuration
OS customization that make sense and look good

Cons:

Power Door
Wake/Lock should be on the side

Motorola DROID XYBOARD 8.2

Specs

• 8.2” IPS Display, 1280×800 pixels
• 3 Speakers for automatic stereo sound
• IR blaster
• Micro USB charging port
• Micro HDMI port
• 3.5mm headset jack
• 1.3 MP front camera
• 5 MP back camera with flash
• power and volume control on the back
• 1.2GHz dual core TI OMAP processor
• 1GB RAM

WTF?

• speakers rotate to provide stereo sound, but the volume rocker doesn’t rotate
• no micro SD slot

Final Verdict

• Still very thin an sturdy. I thought 7” was the perfect size for a tablet, but 8.2” has really turned out better than I expected!

HTC Rezound Review

Ports & Buttons

• MHL port
• Capacitive function buttons
• Wake/Sleep
• Volume Rocker

Cameras

• 8MP / 1080p rear camera with dual LED flash
• 2MP / 720p front camera

Screen

• 720p S-LCD
• 4.3 Screen

Internals

• 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Adreno processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB Internal Storage
• Micro SD Card Slot
• 4G LTE

Software

• Android 2.3.4, HTC says that it will be updated to ICS “early 2012”, which sounds like 1st Half.
• Sense 3.5, which adds several great features to the base Android OS.

Verdict

• MHL port consolidates HDMI and power, but I don’t think this is a feature. You have to buy an adapter to output to your television. My EVO outputs (once rooted) using a standard micro HDMI cable and I have the option to charge the phone while using. An MHL port requires you to charge the phone while using the HDMI-out feature. This reminds me of the G1 which had the headphone and power ports consolidated into one.
• The screen is great, none of the Pentile grainyness.
• Beats audio headphones included is a great marketing strategy, whatever you happen to think of the headphones themselves.
• This phone is the ultimate convergence of the Incredible and G2/Thunderbolt HTC designs and I couldn’t be happier!
• The geek in me says don’t buy this when you can get the most up-to-date version of Android directly from Google with the Galaxy Nexus, but if that isn’t important to you or you just don’t like Samsung then I highly recommend this device!

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Droid RAZR Review

• Super AMOLED 4.3” qHD screen with 256ppi density
• Corning Gorilla Glass (yes, the real deal)
• 16GB SD included and 16GB built-in storage
• 1GB RAM
• World phone, plus Verizon 4G LTE
• 1080p video / 8MP camera with LED flash
• 720p video / 2MP front camera
• Dual-core 1.2GHz TI-OMAP 4430 processor
• HDMI-out
• 127 grams (iPhone 4S is 140 grams, iPhone 4 is 137 grams)
• Kevlar fiber back
• Internal nano-coating that resist splashes
• Full Microsoft ActiveSync support including encryption and remote wiping
• Smart Actions
• $299

Droid RAZR Laptop Dock

• Basically a 10-inch netbook powered by the phones’s hardware and software
• Includes full version of Firefox Browser
• $199

Pros

• First to market with a qHD Super AMOLED display
• Really awesome battery life on 3G, even when leaving the data on
• Smart Actions are the sort of thing Android should have built in by default

Cons

• Huge bezel!
• Crappy 4G battery life, but you do have the option to disable 4G

Verdict: Buy if you miss your old Motorola RAZR, otherwise buy the Galaxy Nexus.

We review the Laptop Dock, or Lapdock, for the Motorola Droid Bionic. This is an extra device you can purchase to turn your Droid Bionic into an Android laptop.

Hardware Review

Samsung Stratosphere

Android 2.3
4-inch Super AMOLED screen, 480×800
4GB SD Card expandable to 32GB
2GB+ internal memory
Like the Epic 4G on Sprint, but a better keyboard and the same weird hang up when sliding out the keyboard
better layout of keys, shape of surface of keys, and pressure/response
5MP back camera with LED flash
1.3MP front-facing camera
DLNA streaming
WiFi direct
1GHz Hummingbird Processor
768MB of RAM
Hotspot for up to 8 devices
LTE
Sysco AnyConnect VPN
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync