Android Community |
- White ASUS Padfone 2 makes first appearance in new pictures
- Google Play Store Cyber Weekend Sale offering content at 80% off
- SwiftKey 3 available for 50% off for Black Friday
- Three announces Nexus 4 coming December 13
- Enable LTE on Nexus 4 in Canada with a simple code
- Samsung releases video of Galaxy Note 10.1 Premier Suite Upgrade
- New photos of the HTC Deluxe DLX leak
- LG Spectrum 2 Review
| White ASUS Padfone 2 makes first appearance in new pictures Posted: 23 Nov 2012 11:06 AM PST A lot of us are excited for the ASUS Padfone 2, but sadly we’re still stuck waiting for it to launch in certain regions. Today we’re seeing some brand new pictures that don’t make the wait any easier, with VR-Zone snapping some images of the white Padfone 2. We knew that ASUS was planning to launch a white version alongside the black Padfone 2, but today is the first time we’re actually seeing this white version rather than just hearing about it.
We have to say that the white Padfone 2 looks pretty sleek. The phone itself is all white, while the tablet is apparently white on the back and black on the front. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the front of the slate in any of the images VR-Zone posted, but the pictures we do see are enough to make us begin drooling. Other than the change in color, the white Padfone 2 will be the same as its black-colored sibling. That means you’ll still be getting a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, a 4.7-inch Super IPS+ display with 720p resolution, and a very nice 13MP rear-camera. Of course, you can also drop your Padfone 2 into the back of its 10.1-inch tablet dock and let the slate’s beefy 5,000 mAH battery take over, so between that and the phone’s 2,140mAh battery, you should have more battery life than you know what to do with.
Hearing all of that, it’s easy to see why folks are so excited for the ASUS Padfone 2, so the fact that it will come in black and white is just icing on the cake. Now all we need is a release date for the US and we’ll be set. Keep it tuned here to Android Community for more information! Device Info
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| Google Play Store Cyber Weekend Sale offering content at 80% off Posted: 23 Nov 2012 10:52 AM PST Who is still full from last night? As you all know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are going strong at the moment, and now we get to enjoy it too. As usual Google is getting in on the action and have officially announced their Cyber Weekend Sale on the Play Store. Google and multiple developers are offering content at up to 80% off this year.
I don’t know about you guys but after seeing a few videos of Walmart Black Friday smartphone sales where people were fighting, I think I’ll stick to Cyber Monday this year. Google isn’t just going for a day, they have deals planned for the entire weekend — although you might have to search to find them all. Obviously multiple developers are having their own sales — like SwiftKey 3 — but you’ll be able to find much more right from the Play Store. Google’s announced that movies, TV, music, books, apps, and basically everything they offer will be getting sales here and there all weekend long. They’ve already started their “Players Appreciation” best of 2012 Cyber deals as shown above, where tons of popular games are all on the cheap. Google Movies also have some stellar deals going on. You can get entire TV series for just $9.99, and tons of popular and classic movies like Jaws, The Social Network, The Big Lebowski (yes please) all on sale, or own them for $4.99.
Music has a long list of deals too where Google’s offering the top albums of 2012 for just $2.99. Get the entire Gotye CD, fun, and even Justin Bieeeeber all for cheap. For now we’re seeing a few apps here and there on sale but over the weekend many developers will surely be dropping their prices to take part in the holiday cheer. Stay tuned as we’ll report anything worth noting. Have a happy holidays and enjoy the deals!
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| SwiftKey 3 available for 50% off for Black Friday Posted: 23 Nov 2012 08:59 AM PST Black Friday is a day dedicated to deals. Shoppers wander around in a turkey induced stupor looking to grab insane deals for themselves and loved ones. Well, you can actually get some good savings without walking out of your house and braving the crowds thanks to generous app creators on Google Play. The popular keyboard application known as SwiftKey 3 is available for 50% off for Black Friday. Who doesn’t love saving money and getting an awesome application at the same time?
Besides making the app half off for SwiftKey 3, they also recently announced that they are bringing SwiftKey Flow to the market to go head to head with the popular Swype keyboard. It combines the predictive power of SwiftKey with the ease of use of gliding your finger over the screen to type. It is in private beta right now, and hopefully, it will available to rest of us soon. SwiftKey is definitely making some big moves. They are clearly trying to be the number one third-party keyboard provider for Android devices. If you are looking to save a little money, jump on this deal while it’s still good. If you wait too long, it’s going to jump back to full price!
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| Three announces Nexus 4 coming December 13 Posted: 23 Nov 2012 07:49 AM PST We have some good new for customers of Three in the UK. The carrier just announced that the Nexus 4 is coming to the UK-based wireless carrier on December 13. If you’re in the UK waiting for the Nexus 4, that wait it coming to an end. Three is offering the device on a contract and prepaid option. Options are always a good thing, and Three is taking care of its customers in that regard.
In case you are unaware, the Nexus 4 comes with a 4.7-inch screen that looks beautiful. It comes with a solid 8MP camera. It also comes equipped with a beastly quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5Ghz processor. It also comes with Android Jelly Bean installed out of the box. For a complete breakdown of the Nexus 4, make sure to check out our review. It goes into every detail about the phone and our own Chris Burns was quite impressed overall. If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, the Nexus 4 is definitely one to consider.
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| Enable LTE on Nexus 4 in Canada with a simple code Posted: 23 Nov 2012 06:56 AM PST If you are in Canada, there is a way to finagle LTE onto the Nexus 4, according to the guys at XDA-Developers. Sadly, it only works in Canada, so the rest us are left out of this one. If you are in Canada, by simply entering a code hidden away in the phone you can LTE speeds. It almost seems too easy, but multiple users in Canada have tried it, and are showing data speeds that are right on par with you would expect to see from a 4G connected phone.
All you have to do is go to the phone app on the device and enter a short code. The code is *#*#4636#*#*. After that, go to the Phone Information screen and click LTE Only from the menu. If you are on Rogers, you may have to enter the following APN:
Of course, you can feel free to try it out in other regions, but so far, no one has made it work outside of Canada. If you manage to get it going somewhere else, make sure to hit the comments section and let us know. [via Engadget]
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| Samsung releases video of Galaxy Note 10.1 Premier Suite Upgrade Posted: 23 Nov 2012 06:35 AM PST Samsung is getting ready to roll out the Android 4.1 Premier Suite for the Galaxy Note 10.1 soon. They just announced that it is coming to Germany, and now, they’ve shown off a video of everything the update offers for the device. The video is a whopping 12 minutes long, so it really goes into detail and shows off the new features of the update.
The video also breaks down how multi window works. The S Pen certainly makes the multi window feature work even better. It makes it easy to drag the size of the windows and make them bigger with more accuracy than you can get on your finger. For Galaxy 10.1 owners, this update looks like it’s going to be perfect. The video also breaks down the rest of the new features such as Air View and Easy Clip. I don’t want to spoil the whole thing for you, so watch the video for yourself and enjoy. If you are a Galaxy Note 10.1 owner, there is no way you cannot be excited for what’s to come. Hopefully Samsung pushes the update to the rest of the world sooner, rather than later. [via Sammy Hub]
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| New photos of the HTC Deluxe DLX leak Posted: 23 Nov 2012 05:52 AM PST The giant HTC Deluxe DLX has had some new photos leak on the web. A single press photo leaked a little while back, and this time, we are getting more photos to wet our appetite and keep us excited for the device to hit the market. Of course, we have no idea when the phone is going to drop. In fact, we don’t even know when the phone is going to officially revealed by HTC.
The new photos confirm the three rumored colors for the HTC Deluxe DLX. As expected, it will be available in black, brown, and white, and based on the pictures, it looks pretty slick in all of the new colors. Other than the colors, these photos don’t tell us very much about the phone. What we do know is that it’s based on the Droid DNA from the US and the Japanese J Butterfly. We also know it sports a 5-inch Super LCD3 full-HD display. It should feature a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor and 2GB of RAM under the hood. It will likely be running some version of Jelly Bean as well. With major events such as CES and MWC 2013 right around the corner, it’s a good assumption that HTC would announce the phone at one of these events. Only time will tell, but with the photo leaks and everything coming out about this device, we have to assume that it going to announced and given a release window soon enough. As always, we will keep you posted.    [via GSM Arena]
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| Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:46 PM PST Mid-range smartphones are a mixed bag — most of them are decent, but at the end of the day, they usually still leave something to be desired. However, every once in a while, a mid-range device will come along that's worthy of its accolades and has flagship specs at a budget price. The LG Spectrum 2, which is available now at Verizon for $99, seems to be one of those devices. It's based off the LG Optimus LTE II that was released in Korea earlier this year. LG and Verizon made a few changes to the design and specs, and ended up spitting out the Spectrum 2 to US users. The phone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip, 1GB of RAM, a 4.7-inch 720p HD IPS display, and even NFC and wireless charging capabilities — not a bad combination of features, but we have to see if the handset can use them advantageously. Let's find out what this thing is capable of.
Hardware The Spectrum 2 is a beast of a phone, both on the inside and outside. It's 4.7-inch screen makes the device a huge object to hold. Obviously, it's not as big as the phablet-style smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note series or the new DROID DNA from HTC, but if you're upgrading from a smaller device, there will be a lot to get used to since the Spectrum 2 has a much larger footprint.
At 0.36-inches thick, the Spectrum 2 is still fairly thin, but it doesn't beat out most of today's handsets — most of which are a few hundredths of an inch thinner. That's not a big difference at all, but the sheer size of the phone gives you the illusion that the phone is a lot thicker than it really is. However, the added thickness makes it little easier to hold in your hand compared to some other handsets that we've played around with. On the inside, there's a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC (MSM8960) that combines a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait processor with Adreno 225 graphics — the same chip that's in Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III smartphone. Unlike it's international brethren, the Spectrum 2 only has 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB, but it has 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded with a microSD card. It also has a big 2150mAh battery that LG says will provide over 10 hours of talk time and almost 20 days of standby time. On the back there's an 8MP shooter capable of recording 1080p video, with a 1.3MP front-facing VGA camera for video chatting. The 720p HD IPS display is one feature that I liked the most from the Spectrum 2. It has a pixel density of 312ppi, which is right up there with the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X. The display offers insanely great touch responsive, and the viewing angles are pretty fantastic as well. Text, images, and HD video were crystal clear and very sharp. I definitely wouldn't go as far as saying that the Spectrum 2's display is one of the best, but I guarantee that it won't get many complaints.
The buttons and ports on the Spectrum 2 are fairly standard, although there are a few distinct differences from what you would traditionally see on an Android device. First, the volume buttons are actually two separate buttons, rather than just one rocker button. While it's only a discrete change, it gives the Spectrum 2 a point boost in the looks department. The power button is also surrounded by a blue LED notification light, which is also a pretty discrete feature, but it definitely adds to the sleekness of the phone's design. The four soft buttons at the bottom are also illuminated by blue LEDs instead of the traditional white LEDs that you see on most handsets, which definitely sets the Spectrum 2 apart from the crowd looks-wise. Other than that, you have you your headphone jack on the top-left and the microUSB port on the left side towards the bottom, with the speaker situated at the bottom-left on the back. Other amenities include WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 4G LTE. Also included is NFC and even wireless charging capabilities, which a lot of mid-range devices don't have. However, while the phone does come with a wireless charging battery cover in the box, it's useless without the accompanying charging pad that has to be purchase separately. The Spectrum 2 comes with two NFC tags as well, which you can use to quickly change settings on your phone for different situations, and you edit the tags using LG's built-in Tag+ app. Overall, the Spectrum 2's hardware is reminiscent of some top-of-the-line handsets that are currently dominating the Android device market. While it may not quite be up to snuff with LG's current flagship handset, the Optimus G, the Spectrum 2 is certainly worthy of such an accolade, and it's not everyday that you come across a mid-range budget device that's deserving of top-tier status.             Software The Spectrum 2 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with LG's Optimus UI on top. It doesn't detract from the traditional Android user interface, but there are a few pre-installed features and apps that add to the experience. There's QuickMemo, which allows users to screen capture anything, like a webpage, photos, and even videos, and then write, draw, or jot down a memo directly on the screenshot using your finger (or stylus). There's also LG's NFC app Tag+, which lets you edit the settings associated with the two NFC tags that come with the phone — one designated as “Car Mode” and other as “Office Mode.” Obviously, you can make the two tags do whatever you want, but by default LG set up these two modes to get users started. The Tag+ app is extremely easy to use. I’ve never messed around with NFC before, so I wasn’t how difficult or easy it would be to set up NFC tags, but LG’s app makes it extremely easy thanks to the no-frills user interface.
Other than that, it's the typical Android interface that we've seen on other LG devices like the Optimus G and Optimus L9. There's a highly-customizable home launcher, and tons of different animation effects. While it could definitely benefit from an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update, the Spectrum 2 uses Ice Cream Sandwich to its fullest potential. Camera The Spectrum 2's main camera has an 8MP sensor that's capable of shooting full 1080p HD video. Photo quality is certainly respectable, and possibly just above average for a smartphone camera, although it's certainly not the best we've seen. It takes great outdoor shots, and indoor photos are fairly good as well, as long as there's ample lighting. While many cameras struggle during low-light situations by introducing a ton of noise, the Spectrum 2's camera seemed to be guilty of that and then some — color balance would mess up big time with most photos taken in low light. I don't mind a little bit of noise, but an off-balance of colors can turn a not-too-bad photo into a really bad one.
As with LG's other devices, there's quite a few settings and presets that users can change around on the Spectrum 2. You can adjust things like the exposure, ISO, and white balance, as well activate the voice shutter, where you can say "cheese!", and the camera will take a photo without pressing any buttons whatsoever. However, I would have to say my biggest beef with the camera software is that there's absolutely zero shutter animation, so it's really hard to tell if the picture was snapped or not because nothing happens on the screen. The only way to tell is to look in the corner at a small icon that shows the most recent photo that you took. It's not a huge negative, but it's a small aspect takes away from the usability of the camera. Video quality is pretty decent, especially outdoors with plenty of light. Obviously, you'll definitely experience a lot of noise if you shoot inside a relatively dark room, but that's to be expected. The videos have decent contrast and saturation, but it's nothing too spectacular. It takes average video that definitely works in a pinch if you don't have your main camera around, but I have to say that the video could easily replace the video capabilities on most point-and-shoot cameras.       Battery The Spectrum 2's battery packs in 2150mAh of juice, which is definitely respectable. On moderate usage with a couple of heavy-usage sessions here and there, I was able to go over 24 hours from a full charge until it reached about 15%. The Spectrum 2 also fares well on standby mode, even with things like WiFi and data turned on — the battery only dropped a few percentage points overnight. While the battery will definitely take a hit during a two-hour-long gaming session, moderate usage (checking email, browsing, etc.) will easily get you a full day before having to plug it into the wall, and maybe even two days if you stretch it. The screen seems to be the biggest battery drainer, so if you really want to extend your battery life, lowering the brightness by a few notches will do wonders.
Benchmarks & 4G LTE The Spectrum 2's Snapdragon S4 chipset definitely performs, and we've witnessed that in several top-tier handsets in the past. In AnTuTu, the Spectrum scored just over 7,100, which edges out the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus, and it scored a 5,200 in Quadrant, beating out the HTC One X and nearly doubling the performance of the Galaxy Nexus. Swiping through screens was flawless and I hardly noticed any lag whatsoever. It's extremely snappy and quick when navigating your way around the menus and the different screens. I did notice a little bit of stuttering in Chrome, but it honestly wasn't much of a hindrance on the user experience, and only the paranoid will really notice it.
Honestly, the Spectrum 2 can handle anything you throw at it, and the Snapdragon S4 chip has proven to be one of the best smartphone chips on the market. While it certainly isn't the quad-core S4 Pro chip, the 1.5GHz dual-core in the Spectrum 2 is nothing to laugh at at all. And the same goes for the handset's 4G LTE capabilities. Verizon's LTE network is crazy fast, and the Spectrum 2 is a great vehicle to take along for the ride. I ended up topping out at 25Mbps download speeds and 15Mbps upload speeds — this is faster than my base-level FiOS internet at home. Of course, we've certainly seen faster speeds in bigger cities, but getting that kind of speed here in Fort Wayne, Indiana is something that should make anyone smile.
Wrap-Up At any normal time throughout the year, I would say that the $100 subsidized price tag of the LG Spectrum 2 is worth every penny, but considering how you can get a Samsung Galaxy S III for next to nothing during the holiday season, I'd be lying if I said that you should pay $100 and go for the Spectrum 2. All of the holiday sales definitely puts LG's new mid-range device in a tough spot, but considering how you can grab comparable phones for much cheaper is a no-brainer.
That's not to say that the Spectrum 2 isn't a good device — it is! It performs like a beast and has a great-looking 4.7-inch display. And while there are a few minor flaws that may or not bother some people, the $100 everyday price tag is a bargain for this device — just not during the holidays.        Device Info
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Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
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