Many praises have been given to HTC ever since its recent diversion into the self-branded handset space. Being the newer, more functional, but bulkier sibling of the million-selling Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro now zooms its way into CDMA networks on both Sprint and Verizon.
In traditional phone wrecking fare, we give the Touch Pro some good words, some bad words, and we rip it open for amusement. Read on!
HTC Touch Pro Review
Greats
HTC has done well in this phone (probably more than any other Windows Mobile phone) to cover up, well, Windows Mobile. With its TouchFLO 3D streamlining a lot of the WinMo functions for touch use, it’s definitely much more pleasant to use. Given normal circumstances, a regular user wouldn’t even see much of WinMo except the Start button and the typical icons on the top right. The interface is fluid and it runs really smoothly without too many hiccups. The Sprint color schemes are also pleasing to the eye.
Moreover, the resistive screen is among the best of the resistive world. The screen is very bright, there’s minimal distance between the film and the screen, and it’s very solid underneath. With the minimal distance, it almost feels like a glass screen. It’s easy to glide your finger across and doesn’t require much effort. Traversing the menu on the bottom of the TouchFLO 3D panel feels very satisfying.
Finally, Windows Mobile. As annoying to use as it is, Windows Mobile presents functionalities that aren’t offered on any other phone. In the true sense of the word, smartphone, the Touch Pro provides access to everything you’ll need on a handset. It gives you a good connections manager, task manager, a bevy of standard applications, and even lets you manage memory statistics and whatnot.
Middle-Earth
In the land of Tolkien, Middle-earth is presented as a place of struggle where people battle for control. In this section, each of these functionalities and characteristics struggle to find their way between good and evil. First up, comes the aesthetics. The chrome sides and the glossed and tinted metallic front are quite the stunner. The logos from Sprint and HTC are also among the best and the sleekest. Unfortunately, the back cover feels rather cheap, as it’s basically a thin sheet of plastic. Also, the sheer size of the device is a pretty big downer. Those looking for a QWERTY device may be expecting the size, but in hand, it feels even bigger than the pictures.
Build quality. The phone is generally quite solid with front facing buttons that look great and give a good feeling when depressed. However, here is where the back cover ruins things again. The cover creeks a little when you firmly grasp the device, and considering the amount of use by a smartphone like this, the lack of foresight on this part really hurts it. Also, the sliding mechanism is definitely not as smooth as the XPERIA X1′s nor the G1′s. The bottom of the screen module scrapes over the keys, resulting in an inelegant transition.
Speaking of opening the device, the keyboard is another mediocre solution. Having a massive 5 rows of keys is great in theory, but the final implementation is why it’s in this section rather than the Great section. The keyboard is very useful. It types fast, and the keys are all where you would expect it to be. There are, however, minor annoyances. The grippiness of the material coupled with the flatness, causes you to subconsciously revert to using nails — which gets rather tiring. The space bar is also ridiculously small and the placements of the symbols are awkward to get used to. When we did however, we flew through the emails and text messages, with a moderate amount of effort. It’s good, but it’s not great.
Processing. The phone uses a Qualcomm MSM7201A processor that handles most of the dirty work. Running Windows Mobile is perfectly fine, and it swallows everything you throw at it. The TouchFLO 3D interface runs smoothly most of the time, but accessing some of its functions will expose some lag issues. When syncing and sideloading onto the computer, Microsoft’s ActiveSync works as it should, but slows down file tranfers dramatically when compared to Mass Storage mode. ActiveSync ended up at 1.4MBps while Mass Storage gave me about 3.2MBps. The speeds are expected as the hardware architecture is very similar to the XPERIA X1, but its still nowhere near as fast as the Bold’s blazing 15MBps mark.
Gripes
Windows Mobile. Similar to the XPERIA X1, the most annoying thing about the phone is the use of Windows Mobile. It’s unattractive and totally does not work well with the thumbs. It’s greats in functionality are totally leveled with its gripes in usability. Let’s hope Microsoft finishes their updates fast.
ConclusionAll in all, HTC has done a good refresh to the Diamond, adding in much better functionality with the QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, it’s still bulky, it still has a resistive touchscreen, and in the end it’s still Windows Mobile. I don’t mean to completely bash WinMo 6.1, but it’s totally outdated and is dying for a refresh.
In the end, the Touch Pro targets current users of the Tilts and other hardcore smartphones. The sheer bulk of the phone isn’t much different and totally not comfortable in the pocket, but the new look, and the fresh TouchFLO 3D UI definitely are worth taking the plunge over — if that’s what you’re looking for.
phoneWreck Score: 8 slides out of 10
HTC Touch Pro Teardown
We chose to do this teardown, because most people have noted the insides of the GSM teardown and its highly similar architecture with the GSM Diamond. Instead of the Qualcomm MSM72xx processors, the CDMA Touch Pro uses the Qualcomm MSM7501A along with the traditional Qualcomm chipset – including the Qualcomm PM7540 and the Qualcomm RTR6500. So check out the block diagram below!
Again, the processor integrates the GPS, audio codecs, and also the USB controller. Shown on the main PCB (below), we see that Anadigics has won the design for the dual-band CDMA power amps, with EVDO Rev. A capabilities. Samsung, in traditional memory fashion, has gotten the win for the memory chip with integrated NAND Flash and RAM.
On the other side of the PCB, we have the processor and most of the rest of the chips. The USB PHY is an SMSC chip, similar to pretty much the rest of the HTC devices. Texas Instruments has its Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chipset, BRF6350BL and WL1251B respectively, with the WL1251FE power amp.
Shown below is the screen module. Here we see an Epson IC for what we believe controls the resistive touchscreen, as it’s also found on the XPERIA X1. Also interesting to note is two ICs for microcontrollers, from Atmel and Cypress.
Finally, we have the rest of the parts of the device. The camera module and the board comparing the USB are shown below. The other interesting thing to note is the four torsional springs implemented just to slide the device. In fact, the small and light cover, uses a dual torsional spring, just to hide the ribbon.
Finally, everything together! Enjoy!
If you have questions, comments, concerns, humorous anecdotes, be sure to let us know.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is one device that’s not afraid to brag. It’s got the looks stylings of a sophisticated modernist, an interface to temporarily boast, and the price tag that’ll blow up your mind and your surrounding minds.
So how does this device actually stack up? We give it a good review and we blow it up as well, to find out whether the boasting continues on from inside the device.
As a bit of context, Sony Ericsson has been stuck in a rut for the past couple years with slim successes on all mobile fronts, and it doesn’t help that the economy has been, well, in shambles lately. With R&D centers closing down left and right, they need hope. The XPERIA X1 is hoping to be that hope, with HTC driving a lot of its development on the hardware side. It’s fully launched in the UK, with a pending release of the X1a in the US.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Review
Greats
This device is one of the most gorgeous devices I’ve seen. Not only does it look good, it feels like a million bucks (it actually does cost a lot though). The sliding mechanism is the smoothest and most solid mechanism to date and actually tilts the screen slightly towards you. It works, and it works well. There’s absolutely no give to the device due to its brushed aluminum components. Heck, the battery door is fully aluminum, the base of the keyboard is aluminum, even the keys feel aluminum (we’re not sure they actually are though).
Sony Ericsson/HTC has also done an amazing job on the fine details. Look at the hidden notification lights! There are accented front buttons, rubberized feet, and the curved sliding is gorgeous.
And of course, the screen. The X1 sports one of the first WVGA (800×480) screens, and it’s beautiful. Colours are vibrant, small texts are clear and very visible, and watching the included Casino Royale trailer is more than satisfying. It’s sad that they’ve chosen to run with a resistive touchscreen rather than a capacitive, but Windows Mobile 6.1 is definitely a beast to run without a stylus, especially with the small fonts that it so brilliantly displays. Of course, they’ve given it one of the best resistive displays, with very fine film-to-screen gaps. It’s also quite responsive.
Finally, thank you SEMC/HTC for including a 3.5mm headphone! Media is a pleasure to use with one of the “Panels” (more on that later), sporting an interface very similar to Sony’s Xross Media Bar employed on the PS3 and PSP. It makes it easy to sort through your videos, music, and pictures, with an elegant background.
So-So
Unfortunately we had to rate the widely touted “Panels” as so-so, comme ci comme ca, or the officially official “meh”. While it’s brilliant in concept, it’s less attractive in implementation. The Panels interface essentially provides you with up to 9 different “desktops” that you can use, customize, and even download. Many of these actually look very cool and are dedicated for various functions (Calendar, Media, RSS Readers etc.), but that same fact is also the bane of its existence. Constantly using it is a pain as it’s takes up to SIX seconds to fully load a panel! Fun Fact: In the time it takes to load a panel, Usain Bolt can run 62.4m! The Panels interface actually uses a pixelated screenshot that it brings up with the animation. After the animation, it’ll slowly load your actual interface. The fact is, using Panels is a nuissance to use regularly.
Another so-so, is the keyboard. The 4-rows of keys is definitely useful for regular typing though, and it’s even laid out with a staggering QWERTY effect that makes it easy to get used to. Unfortunately, this keys are very flush and rather soft, giving it subdued tactile feedback. Technically, this is a general complaint about slide-out keyboards, because they have to be nearly flush so that the screen can slide on top. Nevertheless, it still hinders this from being a great keyboard.
In-line with the keyboard is the front keypad and navigational buttons. The optical joystick is easy to use, and rather fun, actually. However, it’s imprecise and requires you to use the actual arrow keys for quick, snappy, decisions. What gives everything a really bad flavor of mediocre, is the cross-use of these two. When using the keys, the overly senstive joystick senses your thumb and typically makes you over-traverse during menu selections. It’s quite annoying, especially when the items are too small for your finger.
Finally, processing. The processor in this device is able to chew through most applicational functions without a sweat. However, it seems that it has trouble running the Panels interface, for reasons listed above, and the the laggy and jagged animations switching from horizontal to landscape. Our guess is that graphical capabilities of this processor are not up to par with its intentions, while its raw computational abilities seem rock solid. We also tried some sideloading benchmarks, transferring movie files from PC to MicroSD card, and we were max out at 2MB/s through ActiveSync. In Mass Storage mode (activated through options), it was able to pull out close to 4MB/s. Decent, but definitely not up to par when compared to other phones.
Gripes
This phone doesn’t have too many gripes, since the complaints are usually validated by some design virtue. The resistive touchscreen is one of the best in its class, is gorgeous to watch, but a pain to stab at something small. The buttons are well laid out, easy to use, but a pain to type quickly without functional feedback.
Our largest complaint about the device, has to be the use of Windows Mobile 6.1. It’s natural flaws really have most to do with the annoyances of the phone. What Sony Ericsson has done is provide a simplistic overlay, but in the end, its a Windows Mobile phone through and through — built for functionality, robust, but rather old and crusty.
Conclusions
The Sony Ericsson is a rather pleasing device and feels rock solid. The greatest satisfaction from using it is that its aluminum shell, just feels so good. The screen is gorgeous and the Panels experience gives mobile UI a whole new flavor. Sony Ericsson’s first attempt at a Windows Mobile phone is definitely respectable (with HTC’s help), but these phones are really in dire need of Windows 7 or even 6.5. While Panels covers all the initial functions, anything deeper requires you to use Windows Mobile at its core, which is rather unpleasant.
phoneWreck Score: 8.5 panels out of 10
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Teardown
For this phone, we had to be particularly careful when we tore it open (we love our gadgets, after all). It was relatively easy, but hidden screws are always deadly. Luckily, the shielding on the chips were easily removed. But first, as always, the block diagram!
What’s interesting to note is the really smooth sliding mechanism. This is achieved through a curved backing of the screen with rollers clipped to the inside tracks.
Next up are the internals. The actual chips being used are very similar to the ones found on the G1 (teardown). Instead of the Qualcomm MSM7201A, it runs the MSM7200A. Included in this particular Qualcomm chipset is the PMIC, Qualcomm PM7540, and the RF transceiver, which we believe to be the Qualcomm MXU6219. Qualcomm transcievers are typically labelled with RTR, and we’re actually unsure what MXU stands for. But nonetheless, there’s no other IC big enough to be a transceiver.
The X1 also uses a Micron NAND Flash + RAM MCP, sporting 256MB RAM and 512MB storage. The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are run by TI with similar chips found on the G1, the BRF6350BL (G1 uses BRF6300C) and WL1251B (same as G1). The Wi-Fi is also managed by the same power amp, TI WL1251FE. Power amps, like the G1 are run by Avago for UMTS bands, and TriQuint for GSM bands.
Another interesting thing to note is the Mini-USB port. It’s actually eerily similar to HTC’s traditional ExtUSB ports. In fact, it looks just like it except that it’s symmetrical enough to only fit a Mini-USB connector inside.
There’s not too much to note on the front except the USB PHY, which we believe to be developed by SMSC. Again, similar chips with similar markings were found on other devices.
On the screen, there’s actually two PCBs. One controlling the main front buttons, the optical joystick, and a logic microcontroller from Atmel, and the other that we believe houses an Epson controller for the resistive touchscreen. Finally, on the right, there is a connection to the front CMOS camera. Both camera modules are shown side by side, below.
So there you have it! Hope that teardown helps some of you folks unwilling to open up such a pricey phone.
If you have questions, comments, concerns, humorous anecdotes, be sure to let us know.The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is a smartphone co-developed by HTC.
What does HTC, flavoured with Google, and served with a plate of T-Mobile give you? Apparently, its a a flavourful dream, as HTC liked to call it. Of course, we’re talking about the T-Mobile G1 here, and it’s an important device to discuss, because it’s one of the most forward-thinking phones out there, with Google’s baby resulted from an Open Handset Alliance marriage of 30+ parties.
What’s better than a G1? The G1′s guts you say? Alright then, we’ll tear it apart, give you some good old fashioned teardown analysis, and plenty of pictures. Click on for more!
Before starting to read the review, it’s important to mention that a lot of what the G1 is, is Android. As such, quite a bit of the review will go over some of the greats, and not-so-greats of Android and its applications. There’s a lot of content, because having Android on board entails a lot. Of course, if you don’t care, the teardown is right under =). Enjoy!
T-Mobile G1 Review
Greats
The G1 has a lot of meaning to the “1″ in its name. Not only is it the first phone to sport Google’s Android OS, it’s the first phone to use T-Mobile’s 3G network, its HTC’s first capacitive touchscreen phone, HTC’s first trackball phone, and their second attempt at a 5-row keyboard (correct me if I’m wrong). Of course none of these firsts compare to this device’s greatest achievement: the first “swoop” sliding mechanism. It shocks and stuns people the minute they see it and wins their hearts over temporarily. We could go on and on about how awesome the sliding mechanism is, but we wouldn’t be running a teardown website. The fact is, this phone has a lot of greats to back it up. These include its relatively decent build quality (varies across units, however), a massive 5-row keyboard, a responsive touchscreen, and great navigational tools to come along with it.
The user interface of this phone is also another winner. It seems like it’s difficult nowadays to have a regular desktop with icons and not be dumped into the stereotypical category of being a copycat of the #1 selling US handset to date. Google’s engineers, however, have been totally innovative in giving users a pull-down notification bar, a slide-out menu, and three different customizable desktops. The backgrounds even slightly move when you switch desktops, giving it a sort of, 3D effect. Very cool.
To back up the UI, the trifecta of Google Apps — Gmail, Calendar, and Maps — are hands down the best implementation on a mobile phone. Maps, on this phone, has turned into entertainment. With the inclusion of a GPS, accelerometer, and even a compass, it has a Street View mode that mimics what you actually see on the device. It’s an absolute joy to use. Of course, the regular functions of Google Map work as expected. It’s browser (Chrome’s little brother), is WebKit based and eats Javascript up like no tomorrow — provided you’re actually in T-Mo’s 3G coverage area. It’s safe to say that it’s among the best of mobile browsers, bested only by Safari and possibly Opera Mobile.
Another great for this device is its e-mail handling. Now if you are a Google user, prepare to be in e-mail and calendar heaven. Everything works amazing, and you can do all your little Gmail labelling and whatnot with the phone. If you aren’t a heavy Google user, you’ll have to sign your life away to Google. However, if you’re like us and you have multiple Gmail accounts, it’ll be difficult to manage the others as easily as your main account, since the actual Gmail app only manages your primary account’s e-mail.
Medium
With medium being the mediocre flavor in between SPICY and honey garlic chicken wings, the G1, unfortunately, has a few components which are medium flavored. First, it’s important to note that the G1 was targeted towards T-Mobile’s Sidekick users (and there’s quite a large following apparently). Everything from the trackball implementation, to the sliding mechanism, to the very typable keyboard, was all targeted at them. Sadly, the aesthetics also falls into this category. Matte black all around doesn’t give it an attractive, sleek, and sexy look, and neither does the ”Leno chin”. Fortunately, the chin does help with ergonomics and we found navigating in both portrait and landscape mode to be comfortable. Some other reviews have stated that it bothers with typing, but in our experience, our hands are way bigger to be bothered by a measly chin.
The OS is also another one of the G1′s “medium” attributes. Though the UI was definitely a winner, Android 1.0 definitely feels like version 1.0 (as echoed by Steve Ballmer and many others). There are some quirky bugs while navigating both in touch-mode and trackball-mode. There’s a lack of integration with the rest of Google’s suite of apps. No Google Reader, Google Docs, Google Picasa, etc. What you do have access to, E-mail, Calendar, and Maps, are probably amongst the best I’ve seen. And if that’s all you care about, this phone does those brilliantly.
The Android Market, Google’s key application into finding the apps that you need, is also down here in the mediocre section. While it’s implemented very nicely with descriptions, images, ratings, and sorting by popularity/date, the actual apps you find on the G1 aren’t anywhere near App Store level. While some of the apps — like the one good RSS reader — are useful, the problem is that there is no selection. Furthermore, the other essential apps like the video players, music players, and even most of the games are mediocre at best.
Gripes
Contact management. While Google has tried to give your phone a connected feeling, they have totally failed at the implementation. On import, it loads every single one of your contacts from Gmail. People you have barely know, people who you talked to once — and most likely, don’t want to talk to — all get imported and are stuck in your Contacts. With a long-standing Gmail account, this was one of the greatest pains ever. Of course, with a properly managed contact list, the concept is rather nice. It has capabilities to call/IM/SMS/e-mail/charter a map route to any of your contacts – even through Gmail. It’s just the actual management of the contacts is the problem.
Apps. We mentioned the lack of apps, but the gripes section needs an actual mention. First, the lack of Google apps, which we really wanted, is noticeably missing. Even more so, do we really have to resort to a third-party video player? It’s just plain annoying that many of the essential apps for the consumer aren’t there. It’s quite a big gripe considering this was a phone geared towards the consumer. Heck, if we were more whiney, we’d complain about the lack of PC sync, lack of exchange server support, and document support.
Another gripe about this phone is its battery. With a full day of 3G data usage, calling, Wi-Fi connections, mapping with Street View, and a few games, you’d be out by about dinner time. This is unfortunate, because we actually thought that this battery looked the coolest, with its sleek “htc innovation” tag line.
Finally, the damned ExtUSB port. Give it to HTC to falter in letting people use a standard 3.5mm audio jack. The stock headphones are ugly and subsequently forces us to bring our own iPods for media.. Thankfully, HTC is providing free adapters for new purchases (ours didn’t have one unfortunately). Moreover, sideloading music and movies (although a rather pointless endeavor), is a little slow for our tastes. The only redeeming factor is that your standard Mini-USB connectors plug in fine for both charging and PC connections.
Conclusion
What Google has done here is lay a foundation for what they envisioned a great phone to be. HTC focused on delivering a navigational machine. T-Mobile put its effort on making sure its 3G network was up to snuff and that enough people knew about the upcoming T-Mobile G1. On the three fronts, we believe they succeeded. However, a GREAT phone needs to be more than the sum of its parts. And in that regard, the G1 doesn’t come very close to it. It’s a great phone to use and serves as a good source of entertainment, but the forced Google integration, lack of Google apps, lack of media integration, horrid contact management, lack of a great Market, and the bland aesthetics, makes the device feel like it’s still in its beta stage. But then again, Gmail has been in “beta” for more than four years.
phoneWreck Score: 8 out of 10 wrecking balls
T-Mobile G1 Teardown
Note: We have aggregated information from various articles to aid in our teardown. These include Bob Widenhofer’s article featured on TechOnline, Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad featured on TechOn, and of course, our own sources (Thank you!).
The T-Mobile G1 was a mind-blowing experience to crack open. There’s an insane number of parts, and the way they put it together seems, well, complex. Make sure you give the sliding mechanisms a peek near the bottom. For starters though, we introduce to you, the block diagram.
The Qualcomm MSM7201A, which was previously used in later US iterations of the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro (teardown coming!), comes full force in the G1. Similar to the BlackBerry Storm, the GPS and audio processing components are embedded into the processor. Fortunately, HTC has had much experience using the processor, although it runs a brand new OS. Running alongside the processor is the transceiver and power management ICs, Qualcomm RTR5285, and Qualcomm PM7540, respectively.
For the actual PCBs, there are two main PCBs housing most of the components. The main PCB is shown directly below, while the “Chin” PCB that’s literally housed in the chin section, is shown underneath.
As shown above, Avago makes an appearance, providing amplifiers for both GSM and UMTS power amplifiers (ACPM-7381 & ACPM-7391), and TriQuint comes with its usual GSM power amplifiers (TQS 7M5008). The NAND Flash + DDR SDRAM is handled by a Samsung MCP. SMSC provides the USB PHY handling the connection from the processor to the PC. Asahi Kasei makes an interesting appearance with the first (to our knowledge) appearance of a compass IC.
Texas Instruments takes care of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips (both on the “Chin” PCB, shown above). The trackball, as noted by other teardowns, is the same module as the one on nearly every BlackBerry (except the upgraded trackball found on the Javelin). Another interesting thing is the two vibration motors included. One on the display module, and one on the main PCB. The display panels are shown below.
This part is pretty cool, because housed within the screen casing is four large parts. On the front of the actual casing (image above, below left) is the capacitive touch panels, with Synaptics handling the controllers and everything else touchscreen-related.
Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The back of the casing (shown below), showcases swooping action (we’re seriously too in love).
The translational springs on this puppy are strong as hell. But it needs to be so, since it has to drive a large screen around an arc. It’s interesting to note how much effort HTC seems to have put in to produce a clean swooping action. Perhaps we’re overthinking this.
With everything set to go, here’s your aggregated image!
If you have questions, comments, concerns, humorous anecdotes, be sure to let us know.
Since the BlackBerry Storm just came out, we thought it’d be necessary to stack the Storm against its main rival on the enterprise side: the BlackBerry Bold. On the outlook, the functions of the device are similar, although the BlackBerry Storm has a vastly different way of navigating than its larger brother. Furthermore, they’re offered on different networks, meaning different chips, different speeds, and even a different customer base.
So what does each device have to boast about? Read on!
Each chart in this post provides a relatively objective comparison between the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Storm. A green highlight indicates that the function executed particularly well, while a red highlight indicates that the function lacks in comparison. White indicates that it is on par with competition and is acceptable.
Technical Specifications
First up, we compare the actual specifications from the two phones. It’s surprising how much is integrated nowadays, as the capabilities of the Storm (on paper) stack up nicely to the larger and fatter Bold. Check these out below:
The exclusion of Wi-Fi on the Storm was designed out from the beginning, so it is very likely that given the circumstances, the Storm’s form factor (and the size of the PCB) could be capable of integrating Wi-Fi. The Storm is able to keep a slimmer profile due to the integration of GPS, audio codecs, high-speed USB, and graphical capabilities in one single processor, the Qualcomm MSM7600. On the Bold (teardown), each of these are separate ICs – SiRF, Wolfson, Cypress for the GPS, audio, and high-speed USB respectively.
The MSM7600 has interfaces that support CDMA2000/1xEV-DO as well as HSDPA/EDGE/GRPS/GSM, has a 400MHz ARM11 Apps Processor, a 274MH ARM9 Baseband Processor, and two high performance DSPs. Unfortunately, as this is their first implementation, and RIM’s first graphic-intensive device, the launch firmware and integration came up a little short. Most elements requiring the intensive processor capabilities, proved to be frustrating to use, and nigh unusable. The latest firmware (unofficial, but much improved) provided many improvements to the accelerometer, browser, navigation, and general bug fixes. We do think this processor is capable; however, we believe that there is too much for this one processor to handle.
Browser
BlackBerry Bold: Browser 4.6.0
BlackBerry Storm: Browser 4.7.0
In this section we compare the browsers of each phone. The BlackBerry Storm generally fared very well, with many improvements to speed, a more intuitive scrolling than the cursor in the Bold, and a large screen to boot. However, most formatting issues from the Bold still exist in the Storm. In some cases, like the media-intensive Gametrailers, the Storm was actually a step down in formatting from the Bold.
We’ve posted various websites, in order of increasing bandwidth usage. Note: this chart depends heavily on network availability and coverage – so take these statistics lightly. We made sure we had really good connections, but of course, speed varies heavily depending on your location. Update: We’ve split these tests into Javascript-enabled, and Javascript-disabled. Caches were cleared when performing these tests. And the Engadget site is the full site, not the mobile version.
It’s also important to note that, while the Storm has many improvements over the Bold, browsing is not up to par with its competitors. Browsing on the Storm is generally pleasant, but we really believe that RIM needs to redo their entire browser rather than improving upon it. Perhaps a WebKit development is in order, similar to its Safari and Chrome-lite competitors.
Update!! So it appears the Storm’s browser’s default settings turn off Javascript support, where as it supports it by default on the Bold. Running Javascript does slow down these numbers a lot, which accounts for the differences between the Bold and the Storm. We’ve updated the numbers above. We apologize for the wrongful comparison. But the comment remains: with Safari and Chrome-lite-ish blazing through Javascript, BlackBerry definitely needs an upgrade to its browser.
Sideloading
This section compares the sideloading performance of each phone. We found this section particularly important, because media content nowadays are increasing both in quality and in density. In the most recent iterations of BlackBerry, we found that dragging and dropping music albums, tv shows, and movies were particularly fast, which was good for porting content on the go. So, following a recent EE Times article comparing the Bold and other recent phones, we decided to do our own comparison of the Bold and the Storm comparing USB transfer times.
BlackBerrys were traditionally fast at sideloading, but with a whole new chipset and architecture, I believe RIM kept the Storm to the processor’s integrated solution. Unfortunately, their performance slowed down dramatically from past BlackBerry devices. This is unfortunate, since before, it was easy to keep BlackBerrys plugged into the computer for charging and loading purposes. Now, to transfer a movie, it was actually painful waiting for a movie or even a music album to transfer.
Camera
The cameras made it tough to determine a winner. The chart below illustrates this problem.
On one hand the BlackBerry Bold was quick and simple to use. Even under low light situations, the Bold took quick snaps of whatever was in front. On the other hand, the 2.0MP camera is limited, doesn’t have strong image processing capabilities, and is very susceptible to graininess under low light. The Storm on the other hand produces relatively decent pictures, even under low light. It has some sort of focusing mechanism even though none of its official specifications seem to list it. However, this focusing mechanism causes the picture taking to be insanely slow. If you wanted to ever “catch the moment”, you’d definitely miss the moment using the Storm. Granted, the moment afterwards would look pretty good.
Media Playback
The media playback capabilities have improved dramatically with each revision of BlackBerrys. Each sport a 3.5mm headset jack (unlike other smartphones) and have speakers that are decently loud when sharing a YouTube video with friends.
Nothing really beats the Bold in terms of sheer volume. It even sounds decent at loud volumes, without too much distortion. The Storm’s speakers on the other hand, are moderately loud, but sound like the treble on the equalizer has been maxed. There’s no mid or low-end sound coming out, which is rather disappointing. Also, the speaker placements on the Storm seem to be in an area where my middle fingers are constantly covering in landscape mode.
Finally the visuals. The Bold’s screen, while small, is stunning. It sports a high pixel density on the small screen, while the Storm’s screen uses the same pixel density, but on a larger screen. As a result, the Storm’s screen is not as piercing sharp, and the contrast ratio doesn’t appear to be as strong. However, the experience is definitely much more pleasurable with the larger viewing area.
Typing
BlackBerry’s are typically the best for typing. In traditional RIM fare, they harped on the unresponsiveness of touchscreens and the lack of tactile feedback. As such, they delayed entry until a viable solution was provided. So how does the typing actually stack up? Without beating around the bush, we know that typing is slowed on the Storm due to its lack of multi-touch integration. However, in this section, in an attempt to provide some objective results, we try to give our best shot at guessing what the fastest speed a user can potentially get at.
For each device, we timed how long it would take us to type out a paragraph from one of CNN’s latest posts. There are a lot of them, so we tried to find one relevant: Obama and his BlackBerry. The paragraph is as follows:
Before he ran for president Barack Obama quit smoking. Now that he’s won the job, he may have to break another addiction: Checking his BlackBerry for e-mail.The president’s e-mail can be subpoenaed by Congress and courts and may be subject to public records laws, so if a president doesn’t want his e-mail public, he shouldn’t e-mail, experts said. And there may be security issues about carrying around trackable cell phones.
In order to simulate typing in a real world situation, we memorized the paragraph to mimic the situation where the user knows what he/she is going to type. Furthermore, we simulated a professional environment, keeping punctuation in mind. Of course, being heavy BlackBerry users and typers, we utilized most default auto-correct words, and we knew where every symbol placement was.
At our optimal speed, using full knowledge of default auto-correct and symbol placements, we were able to obtain 38.8 words per minute on the BlackBerry Bold. There were a couple mistakes not caught by the auto-correct function, however by reading the sentence in context, you could make out the mistakes.
On the BlackBerry Storm, typing slowed down to 26.7 words per minute at the optimal speed. We emphasize the word optimal, because the Storm took an excess amount of concentration, thumb effort, and rhythm — way more than the Bold. We were able to type faster than the processor could handle many times, as we saw the light lag behind the thumbs. Furthermore, the symbol/numerical button also lagged, requiring us to wait for it to transition menus. This transition period caused a few errors due to anticipation of the keys. Also, while the auto-correct function worked hard to keep my words looking good, there were many more words that were nigh unrecognizable. It didn’t even correct “gor” into “for”.
Ultimately, as stated in my review, the BlackBerry Storm goes against what BlackBerry’s initially stood for: efficiency and effectiveness. We could type relatively fast (26.7 wpm is pretty good, in our opinion), but it required so much effort and focus to keep the rhythm going. In fact, we’re exhausted from typing an e-mail. Furthermore, the processor is barely able to handle that typing speed. I could see the highlights trailing behind my thumbs, and the symbol/numeric button and keyboard transitions delay any typing whatsoever. We’re not sure this is the result RIM would have wanted, especially since our iPhone typed that paragraph (in portrait mode), at 28 wpm (4 mistakes).
Conclusions
There you have it. A comprehensive comparison between the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Storm. All in all, the Storm seems to have taken two steps forward, and the same two steps back. It’s highly desirable form factor coupled with difficult use cases and unoptimized performance, give it a mediocre flavour. On the other hand, the Bold continues to stand for what BlackBerry’s have always been good at, and we hope that continues with any future iterations.
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Here at phoneWreck, we tear open, break apart, and analyze the latest and greatest handsets on the market. Most importantly, we do this for free. Why?
To empower you, the reader, the engineer, the network analyst, the ASIC designer, and even the general curious folks out there, with the access, knowledge, understanding of all that is: the mobile phone.
Many praises have been given to HTC ever since its recent diversion into the self-branded handset space. Being the newer, more functional, but bulkier sibling of the million-selling Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro now zooms its way into CDMA networks on both Sprint and Verizon.
In traditional phone wrecking fare, we give the Touch Pro some good words, some bad words, and we rip it open for amusement. Read on!
HTC has done well in this phone (probably more than any other Windows Mobile phone) to cover up, well, Windows Mobile. With its TouchFLO 3D streamlining a lot of the WinMo functions for touch use, it’s definitely much more pleasant to use. Given normal circumstances, a regular user wouldn’t even see much of WinMo except the Start button and the typical icons on the top right. The interface is fluid and it runs really smoothly without too many hiccups. The Sprint color schemes are also pleasing to the eye.
Moreover, the resistive screen is among the best of the resistive world. The screen is very bright, there’s minimal distance between the film and the screen, and it’s very solid underneath. With the minimal distance, it almost feels like a glass screen. It’s easy to glide your finger across and doesn’t require much effort. Traversing the menu on the bottom of the TouchFLO 3D panel feels very satisfying.
Finally, Windows Mobile. As annoying to use as it is, Windows Mobile presents functionalities that aren’t offered on any other phone. In the true sense of the word, smartphone, the Touch Pro provides access to everything you’ll need on a handset. It gives you a good connections manager, task manager, a bevy of standard applications, and even lets you manage memory statistics and whatnot.
Middle-Earth
In the land of Tolkien, Middle-earth is presented as a place of struggle where people battle for control. In this section, each of these functionalities and characteristics struggle to find their way between good and evil. First up, comes the aesthetics. The chrome sides and the glossed and tinted metallic front are quite the stunner. The logos from Sprint and HTC are also among the best and the sleekest. Unfortunately, the back cover feels rather cheap, as it’s basically a thin sheet of plastic. Also, the sheer size of the device is a pretty big downer. Those looking for a QWERTY device may be expecting the size, but in hand, it feels even bigger than the pictures.
Build quality. The phone is generally quite solid with front facing buttons that look great and give a good feeling when depressed. However, here is where the back cover ruins things again. The cover creeks a little when you firmly grasp the device, and considering the amount of use by a smartphone like this, the lack of foresight on this part really hurts it. Also, the sliding mechanism is definitely not as smooth as the XPERIA X1′s nor the G1′s. The bottom of the screen module scrapes over the keys, resulting in an inelegant transition.
Speaking of opening the device, the keyboard is another mediocre solution. Having a massive 5 rows of keys is great in theory, but the final implementation is why it’s in this section rather than the Great section. The keyboard is very useful. It types fast, and the keys are all where you would expect it to be. There are, however, minor annoyances. The grippiness of the material coupled with the flatness, causes you to subconsciously revert to using nails — which gets rather tiring. The space bar is also ridiculously small and the placements of the symbols are awkward to get used to. When we did however, we flew through the emails and text messages, with a moderate amount of effort. It’s good, but it’s not great.
Processing. The phone uses a Qualcomm MSM7201A processor that handles most of the dirty work. Running Windows Mobile is perfectly fine, and it swallows everything you throw at it. The TouchFLO 3D interface runs smoothly most of the time, but accessing some of its functions will expose some lag issues. When syncing and sideloading onto the computer, Microsoft’s ActiveSync works as it should, but slows down file tranfers dramatically when compared to Mass Storage mode. ActiveSync ended up at 1.4MBps while Mass Storage gave me about 3.2MBps. The speeds are expected as the hardware architecture is very similar to the XPERIA X1, but its still nowhere near as fast as the Bold’s blazing 15MBps mark.
Gripes
Windows Mobile. Similar to the XPERIA X1, the most annoying thing about the phone is the use of Windows Mobile. It’s unattractive and totally does not work well with the thumbs. It’s greats in functionality are totally leveled with its gripes in usability. Let’s hope Microsoft finishes their updates fast.
Conclusion
All in all, HTC has done a good refresh to the Diamond, adding in much better functionality with the QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, it’s still bulky, it still has a resistive touchscreen, and in the end it’s still Windows Mobile. I don’t mean to completely bash WinMo 6.1, but it’s totally outdated and is dying for a refresh.
In the end, the Touch Pro targets current users of the Tilts and other hardcore smartphones. The sheer bulk of the phone isn’t much different and totally not comfortable in the pocket, but the new look, and the fresh TouchFLO 3D UI definitely are worth taking the plunge over — if that’s what you’re looking for.
phoneWreck Score: 8 slides out of 10
Again, the processor integrates the GPS, audio codecs, and also the USB controller. Shown on the main PCB (below), we see that Anadigics has won the design for the dual-band CDMA power amps, with EVDO Rev. A capabilities. Samsung, in traditional memory fashion, has gotten the win for the memory chip with integrated NAND Flash and RAM.
On the other side of the PCB, we have the processor and most of the rest of the chips. The USB PHY is an SMSC chip, similar to pretty much the rest of the HTC devices. Texas Instruments has its Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chipset, BRF6350BL and WL1251B respectively, with the WL1251FE power amp.
Shown below is the screen module. Here we see an Epson IC for what we believe controls the resistive touchscreen, as it’s also found on the XPERIA X1. Also interesting to note is two ICs for microcontrollers, from Atmel and Cypress.
Finally, we have the rest of the parts of the device. The camera module and the board comparing the USB are shown below. The other interesting thing to note is the four torsional springs implemented just to slide the device. In fact, the small and light cover, uses a dual torsional spring, just to hide the ribbon.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is one device that’s not afraid to brag. It’s got the looks stylings of a sophisticated modernist, an interface to temporarily boast, and the price tag that’ll blow up your mind and your surrounding minds.
So how does this device actually stack up? We give it a good review and we blow it up as well, to find out whether the boasting continues on from inside the device.
