HTC updates a classic, courtesy of the upcoming HTC Desire C

Posted on May 18, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

It’s always exciting to hear that a powerful new Smartphone is debuting on the market, but after the veritable blitzkrieg of new products in the last six or seven months, you must be feeling at least a little fatigued. We here at Mobile Madhouse certainly are – it’s hard to keep up with these telecommunications giants, even though we think we’ve done a great job with our fabulous iPhone 4S cases, HTC One X cases, and, of course, our recently-unveiled range of Samsung S3 cases!

But it’s nice to sit back, sometimes, and review a device that’s a little less hyped. A sedate, but still enjoyable device – a device such as HTC’s Desire C. It’s an updated variant of HTC’s original Desire, repackaged in a smaller frame and containing several natty new features for the discerning user.

Accordingly, it lacks the raw, thunderous power of cutting-edge Smartphones such as the One X. But it retains an excellent array of features: it overlays HTC’s proprietary GUI, the Sense 4.0, over the most recent version of Android (also 4.0, the Ice Cream Sandwich OS) for a user experience that is equal parts intuitive and attractive, without sacrificing any of the functionality you’ve come to expect from Android. Pre-packaged Beats Audio software means lossless sound quality, which will be a true boon for music-lovers, while the 5 Megapixel camera and supported geo-tagging technology ensures you’ll never be left in the lurch in terms of visual power.

Ultra small and thin, and very attractive; it’s also fairly cheap, with a scheduled price of just under £180 when it arrives on May 28th. This makes it a very attractive low-to-mid range Smartphone, in terms of both capability and affordability – not too powerful, granted, but with a price-tag that won’t break the bank, either.

This is certainly good news for you, but even better news for us – since we expect the money you save to go towards one of our upcoming high-quality HTC Desire C cases, instead!

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The BlackBerry Curve 9320 debuts

Posted on May 15, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

The mobile phone market isn’t the same as it once was. People have come to expect a lot of fringe features from their mobile of choice; where once they were satisfied to make phone calls and send texts, now they rely on their phones for internet access, editing photographs, and eating away their lunchtimes. (Don’t deny it – you wolf down your sandwich to get to Angry Birds, too!) However, for the discerning consumer who’s not looking to spend hundreds on a state-of-the-art Smartphone, there are few better choices available in the feature phone market than an entry-level BlackBerry. And you’re in luck, because a new one has just debuted: the BlackBerry Curve 9320.

In terms of aesthetics, you’re not going to see much difference from its progenitor, the Curve 9300 (also known as the BlackBerry Curve 3G): it has the same small casing (60mm across, 109 tall, and just under 100g in weight), the same modest screen size, and the same QWERTY keyboard, eschewing touchscreen interaction in favour of ease of use. There are some subtle differences, though. The headphone jack is now located at the top of the device, instead of the side, making it easier to listen to music on-the-go; and the formerly flattened keyboard is raised up slightly, to enable both easier typing and swifter complex key movements (such as copying and pasting, or undoing). Really, though, that goes without saying – sans touchscreen, the Curve 9320 needed to makes its input as intuitive and painless as possible.

Despite its compact size, the battery size is 1450 mAh, permitting an impressive 432 hours of stand-by, which is approximately 5 hours of talk-time, and over a day of music playback potential. But, of course, there are some trade-offs for the casual user: the much smaller screen size (comparative to the larger Smartphones) means a pixel density of only 164 ppi, at around a 320 x 240 resolution. Additionally, you can expect to run out of space much faster, with only 512 MB of storage – on other mobiles, the SD card slot is an optional extra, but on the Curve 9320 it’s a practical necessity, if you’re seeking any kind of information storage whatsoever.

With that said, you can’t reasonably expect a feature phone to have anything like the range of options offered by a Smartphone. If you preorder the Curve 9320, you’ll be shelling out less than £200 for a device that still possesses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and its own radio. Other phones may be stronger, faster, and even better looking – but, to a man, they’re all a lot more expensive. For a stripped-down experience that’ll take you right back to the mobile market of old, it’s hard to see how a casual consumer could go wrong with the BlackBerry Curve 9320.

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Google Android: the beginning of the end?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

Since its release in late 2008, the proprietary Google operating system, Android, has gone from strength to strength. Nowadays, it’s regarded as a solid contender to the iOS, Apple’s proprietary operating system – an impressive feat, considering Android’s compatibility with so many variant Smartphones. Compare this to Apple, whose iOS is limited solely to their iPhone, permitting a much greater degree of specialization. However, this has led to some very serious problems with the sustainability of Android – chiefly, it suffers badly from device fragmentation.

 There’s an obvious reason for this. A huge variety of Smartphones utilize Android, and the vast majority of them tweak it in some way, whether with custom overlays or widgets. Consequently, when a new version of Android is released, the manufacturer is loath to adapt their customizations for the newly-minted update, as it would require a complete re-haul of their software. This means they either drag their heels for months, or, worse, fail to update to the new Android at all, and continue releasing mobile phones utilizing an obsolete operating system.

 The situation is no better for developers, either. Imagine that you’re an independent developer, looking to create an application for a mobile platform. Are you going to opt for Android, which has literally hundreds of different permutations available? Of course not – that would necessitate testing your fledgling application on a huge variety of phones, many of them running long-obsolete versions of the OS. It’s a far more attractive prospect to develop for the Apple iOS, where you can single-handedly stress-test your new application on every device running the OS. Even enthusiastic Android app developers agree that their counterparts in Apple have a much easier job to do.

 These are the reasons why Google’s current version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (the 4.0 OS) is utilized on something like 5% of Android devices, compared to 60%+ of Gingerbread-using devices – that’s the Android 2.3 OS, for reference. The Android OS is starting to stall, as a consequence. Most would agree that Google devices running the OS, such as the Nexus mobile, are fine: shipping with an unaltered version, they streamline the Android experience and permit software updates as they are released. But that is, after all, Apple’s entire marketing strategy – and their incredibly lucrative iPhone is doing much better than Google’s proprietary devices, as a result.

 It remains to be seen whether or not their business practise is sustainable: the release of the Android 5.0, the highly-anticipated Jelly Bean OS, could spell either the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end, for Google’s telecommunications dream.

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The HTC One series examined

Posted on May 10, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

The HTC One series has been receiving a lot of attention recently. Well, I say that – it’d be more accurate to say that the HTC One X has been receiving a lot of attention. As one of the most powerful Smartphones on the market today, a lot of mobile enthusiasts have took up its banner while leaving its two little brothers, the One S and One V, in the dust. It’s understandable; the One X has the largest screen, the largest battery, the most processing power, the most storage, and – crucially – the best marketing, courtesy of its position as HTC’s current flagship device. Even casual mobile users can’t help but have heard of the HTC One X, a state of affairs ordinarily reserved for saturation-marketed devices like the iPhone.

But does the HTC One X truly deserve the kudos, and do the HTC One S and One V truly deserve to be castigated? In the interests of balance, we here at Mobile Madhouse have decided to publish a little comparison of the capabilities of HTC’s three One series devices. Below are the specifications of each model:

HTC One X HTC One S HTC One V
130g weight 119.5g weight 115g weight
1GB RAM 1GB RAM 512MB RAM
32GB Storage 16GB Storage 4GB Storage
8 MP, 1.3 MB front camera, 1080p HD recording 8MP, VGA front camera, 1080p HD recording 5MP, 720p HD recording
1800 mAh battery 1650 mAh battery 1500 mAh battery

It all seems to point in the favour of the HTC One X, until you get to the pricing arrangements: on eBay.uk, the One X could be expected to put you back by around £400 at a baseline price. The cheapest One S models, meanwhile, are just over £300, while the One V will barely put you out at £200 – £220. It’s a similar story on Amazon.uk: a new HTC One X is a whopping £449.99, counterpointing the One S, which hovers at around £250 – £350, and the One V, which dips as low as £235.

Indisputably, the HTC One X is a much more powerful device than its lesser kin, but just how much power does the average mobile phone user need? Words like “beast” and “monster” are thrown around with awe by One X enthusiasts – but how many of them are actually utilizing the 8 MP camera to its full potential, or filling the massive 32GB of storage space (exceeding many USB devices intended specifically for data storage)?

As a mid-level Smartphone, the One V is much more in line with average user expectations: it retains the majority of features of the Sense UI, as well as fringe features such as the dedicated imaging chip common to all HTC One series devices. In fact, were it not for the One X overshadowing its little brother, the One V may have entered the annals of Smartphone history as the first truly affordable mobile to ship with the ICS OS; as it is, it’s slipped into comparative obscurity.

The HTC One X, then, is the Concorde of the bunch, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport of the lot – an exercise in what can be done when you push the limits of engineering. Unquestionably, it’s a much more impressive device, and much more enviable to own. But just as the average person can’t reasonably expect to take Concorde for a spin, or blaze down the highway in a Veyron SS, the average mobile user shouldn’t be expected to shell out for a HTC One X – not when the One S and the plucky One V will do everything it was designed to do admirably.

Just, you know… with slightly less wow.

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Is it goodbye, Amazon Kindle, and hello, Google Nexus?

Posted on May 9, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

For a while now, there have been rumours circulating that Google are looking to branch out into the creation of tablets. A lot of people dismiss the notion, however; despite the huge amount of money and resources that Google can bring to the tablet, they argue the market ubiquity of the iPad means that Google would be in direct competition with Apple, in a marketplace they practically monopolize. These same people claim that Google wouldn’t be foolish enough to pour money into a tablet to compete with Apple when Apple hold all the cards – these people, as it turns out, were right!

Google aren’t going be competing with Apple – they’re going to be competing with Amazon. The specifications for the Google Nexus (the working name of their tablet) claim the device will have a screen in the region of 7, rather than 10, inches – much more in line with the Kindle than the iPad. We can conclude, then, that Google plan on taking on the market of smaller, more competitively priced tablets, which is a path that will take them into direct competition with Amazon, instead of Apple.

This is a much cleverer route to go down. While the Kindle practically dominates the market of smaller tablets, no significant competition has arisen, yet, to challenge them. Consequently, a strong new contender could deal a serious blow to Kindle, and open themselves up to a much larger consumer base than they could if dealing with the (heavily diluted) market of 10 inch tablets. The downside of this is that the Google Nexus will have to have a very low price indeed to stand a chance against the mighty Kindle.

Amazon’s market strategy, after all, is to sell their Kindles at a loss, and recoup the price via digital media sales (the e-books and streamed movies that the Kindle is famous for). Google will, presumably, adopt a similar strategy in order to stay ahead of the curve. They have an advantage from the offset – while Amazon relies solely on digital media, Google can also rely on advertising revenue: their ubiquity in the realm of search engines, coupled with their ownership of video giant YouTube, means that they can heavily subsidize any potential losses by leaning on advertisements to recoup lost cash.

So that’s their strategy – what are the specs of their device? Well, we know it’s going to have a screen in the seven inch range: a Samsung-branded panel running at a 1024 x 600 resolution. We also hear that the Google Nexus will have an Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset. In terms of OS, it’s likely the Nexus will ship with Android 4.0, the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, but don’t be surprised if Google takes the opportunity to ship it with Android 5.0, the upcoming Jelly Bean OS. As the creators of Android, it would be a savvy and showman-like move for Google to include Jelly Bean on launch, as it would ramp up anticipation to fever pitch.

It would also make sense from a software point of view. Industry insiders report that Jelly Bean is intended to complement laptops, netbooks, and tablets; with Jelly Bean installed, those devices will be able to dual-boot both the Android and Windows OS. This permits a much greater degree of versatility, as you can switch between the intuitive, simple Android for swift tasks, and the more powerful (but less convenient) Windows OS when you need a bit of oomph.  

 With a launch date set for July, most people assume that Asus are set to be the manufacturer of the Google Nexus, an impression bolstered by insistent rumours that Google is looking for a manufacturing partner in the Taiwanese market. This is unusual, and even slightly ominous; Samsung built the last two Nexus mobile phones, and last year Google spent nearly £8 billion acquiring Motorola (reputedly to provide extra muscle – and patents – in their continual legal spars with Apple). Why opt for a different manufacturer to produce what is arguably their most important product yet?

Why not tell us what you think? Whether it’s about the specifications of the Google Nexus, or your conspiracy theories about why Google is utilizing Asus – throw ‘em in the comments below! Who knows – maybe you have some information we don’t!

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The HTC Evo 4G LTE, American successor to the One X legacy

Posted on May 8, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

With the powerhouse Samsung Galaxy S3 finally out of the way, we can start focusing on other Smartphones. It might not have the same aura of hysteria surrounding its imminent release (probably because, as an American-only phone, it has much less capacity for market saturation than its predecessor), but the HTC Evo 4G LTE remains a powerful addition to HTC’s expanding catalogue of Smartphones, boasting an impressive array of specifications that bring it right up to the snuff with HTC’s flagship HTC One X. In fact, at first glance, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s essentially the same phone.

Highly anticipated as HTC’s first LTE compatible Smartphone, the Evo 4G LTE features a 4.7 inch display with 720p definition, a Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core processor, a 2000 mAh battery and around 1GB of RAM. In terms of visual and audio capacity, it has a fairly powerful 8 MP camera, capable of shooting high-quality 1080p HD videos, and Beats By Dr. Dre integration, intended to step up audio quality across the board. It’s expected to ship with Android 4.0, the quirkily-named Ice Cream Sandwich OS we’ve all grown to know and love.

So yeah – it’s essentially the HTC One X. There are a few key differences: the battery is slightly larger (it has 200 mAh more than the One X, which was widely criticized for poor battery life), the body is unibody aluminium (instead of plastic), and the processor is dual-core instead of quad-core – though, since the American release of the HTC One X actually used the exact same processor as the Evo 4G LTE, they’ll see even less difference between the two. But the main difference is the LTE compatibility. Though the Sprint network, which the HTC Evo 4G LTE is exclusively compatible with, has not yet launched its LTE service, it’s rapidly nearing the point when it will. Most industry estimates suggest the Evo 4G LTE is the reason why. Once Sprint has launched its LTE network, you can expect the HTC Evo 4G LTE to be one of the fastest Android Smartphones on the entire market: maybe not in time for the device’s release date (expected to be May 18th; preorders have already begun), but certainly shortly thereafter.

With smarter marketing, it might have gained as much notoriety as the Galaxy S3 – it’s a shame HTC weren’t more savvy about the possibilities of their latest device. But given the power of this device, at the very least we can expect an increasing slow burn of excitement for this Yank-exclusive release!

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Motorola Razr Maxx to debut in UK

Posted on May 4, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

Though our US counterparts have had the device for a few months now (under the name Droid Razr Maxx), the new Motorola Razr is going to be debuting in the UK this month. Dubbed the Razr Maxx, it’s not exactly a behemoth in the arena of innovation: its specifications are broadly similar to the last Razr, with the same 4.3 inch screen, the same 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, and the same 8 MP camera. Really, there’s one crucial difference between the Razr Maxx and the predecessor, and that’s the battery. Prepare to be shocked, because the old 1780 mAh battery has been replaced by a whopping 3300 mAh version. More or less unprecedented in the realm of Smartphones, Motorola project 17+ hours of talk-time for the Razr Maxx, a significant improvement on the 10 hours predicted for the last Razr. In addition, Motorola have stated that the Gingerbread OS common to the Razr range will have an upgrade to the Ice Cream Sandwich OS in the future.

 

 But as Sun Tzu might have noted, sacrifices have to be made in the pursuit of power. The old 7.1mm case of the Motorola Razr has been discarded, in favour of a bulkier (though still noticeably svelte) 8.9mm version; the new battery simply couldn’t have fit in the old body. That also means it’s got a bit more heft than its progenitor, weighing in at around 147g (counterpointing the old 129g). Still, it’s nice to see the Razr range – which has always had a reputation as a device for show-offs and celebrities, courtesy of its glamorous, ultra-slim frame and multitudinous media appearances – branch out a little, sacrificing some of its aesthetic appeal in favour of usability and convenience.

If you’re looking to purchase the device, it’s going to make a sizable dent in your wallet or purse, I’m afraid; at more than £400, its price is comparative to high-end devices like the One X, which boast a much greater range of features.

But then the One X isn’t quite as glitzy, is it?

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The Sony Hayabusa: Sony’s flagship device of 2012?

Posted on May 4, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

Sony hasn’t been having a great time of it lately. Back in 2009, they were considered the fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world, but they’ve since fallen to sixth place. Their sales have dropped sharply – from the incredible high of 2007, when they managed to move 103.4 million units, an incremental decrease saw them selling less than a third of that in 2011, a “mere” 34.4 million. Recently, though, they seem to be back on the upswing; after buying out their former partner Ericsson and rebranding themselves as Sony Mobile Communications, they launched their new Sony Xperia S, a fairly powerful and well-received Android Smartphone. Now they have plans for a new mobile release, slated for the summer, which has been tentatively dubbed the “Sony Hayabusa”. And tentative is certainly the right word, with only a single leaked image of a prototype device to be found.

Transliterated, Hayabusa means “Peregrine Falcon”, which is a little corny, I think you’ll agree. The other rumoured appellation, LT29i, seems more appropriate. Nevertheless, the Hayabusa seems destined to become Sony’s new flagship device for 2012. And it’s easy to see why – the leaked specifications for the device are pretty impressive. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, a 4.55 inch screen (larger than any mobile Sony has released to date), a powerful 13 MP camera (capable of filming in 1080p HD) and a 2200 mAh battery, this is the kind of device that could go toe-to-toe with industry frontrunners like the HTC One X, or the Samsung Galaxy S3, and stand a chance of winning.

As if that wasn’t enough, the case for the device is rumoured to be a mere 7mm thick. Considering everything crammed into it, that would be an impressive achievement for a HTC phone – but for Sony, who have a reputation for blocky, less-than-stellar designs, it’s not too far off miraculous. It’s certainly plausible, though, and in fact a clever strategy of production: by waiting until HTC and Samsung have manufactured their 2012 flagship devices, Sony has allowed the technology to mature, permitting more efficient miniaturization of components.

Without even a definitive price announced, anticipation for the phone hasn’t quite reached fever pitch just yet. But with a tentatively-scheduled announcement in June, and a July release date, there’s plenty of time for the Sony marketing juggernaut to pick up the slack.

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Samsung Galaxy S3 – The wait is nearly over!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by mobilemadhouse

The world of mobile phones has been abuzz lately with rumours about the new Samsung Galaxy S3 – and as a keen manufacturer of mobile peripherals, looking to move a fair amount of Samsung Galaxy S3 Cases on release, nobody is more curious about the device than us!

As the latest in the Galaxy S series, it naturally bears a more than passing resemblance to its two predecessors. Yet to compete on equal footing with the current reigning champion, HTC’s industry-leading One X, Samsung have really stepped up their game. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is noticeably beefier than the S2, with a square 1GB of RAM, a 12 MP camera (counterpointing the old 8 MP), and a larger screen providing stunning 1080p resolution.

But the heart of its appeal lies in its quad-core processor, the much-touted 1.4 GHz Exynos 4412 SoC processor. It’s based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture, a 32-bit multicore capable processor design, which was previously utilized by companies as far afield as Sony, Apple and Nvidia – whose Tegra 3 series powers the HTC One X. Samsung representatives claim it will “… [Meet] high performance needs while keeping power consumption very low.” It’s the obvious stepping stone for the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the full quad-core potential they’re looking for, and the enviable status of “most powerful Smartphone” that follows it!

Officially, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is not due to be unveiled until the 3rd of May, another week from now. Samsung will pontificate on its features in an event dubbed “The Next Galaxy”: a wry reference to both the new device, and the horizons it’s expected to breach. Here’s hoping our new range of Samsung Galaxy S3 Cases and accessories generates half as much buzz!

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iPhone 5 Release

Posted on September 23, 2011 by mobilemadhouse

After many months of waiting, anticipation is building to a fever pitch amongst Apple’s hugely loyal fan base, as the launch of the iPhone 5 is (allegedly) growing near.

Many iPhone Devotees were taken by surprise when the usual spring release of the latest handset was missed. But breaking with tradition is nothing new for an innovative company like Apple, and  a veritable storm of rumours has been brewing as speculation builds about just what the iPhone 5, (or iPhone 4S according to some) will offer. But the really big question is, when it will finally make an appearance.

It was reported on the 8th of September 2011 that Foxconn, the Taiwanese major original equipment supplier (OEM) for the iPhone is now producing 150,000 handsets per day of the new model. Suppliers of the glass screen and batteries are also rumoured to be operating at full capacity, suggesting that Apple is building up inventory for an imminent launch.

On 14th September, the CEO of France Telecom Stéphane Richard, speaking at a BFM Business conference, was quoted as saying that “If we believe what we have been told, the iPhone 5 will be released on 15 October”. Though he refused to disclose who had provided this information, a similar date was quoted from a supposedly leaked Best Buy memo, which quoted the 21st October as a North American launch date.

A multitude of other sources have speculated about an October release. Assuming this is the case, then an official announcement can surely only be days away, as a reveal 3-4 weeks before retail sales start is the usual Apple strategy, allowing anticipation to build, and queues to form.

Naturally, Mobile Madhouse is hot on the trail of this much anticipated new handset, and has been busy arranging the manufacture of the best iPhone 5 case. We have our production facilities standing by, ready to start the moment the new model is unveiled. Our hard work will ensure that we have a complete range of iPhone 5 cases available on launch day, including a beautiful new iPhone 5 leather case.

Pre-orders will be available very soon, make sure you are in the queue, as even our huge stocks will be snapped up fast!

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