Review : Sony PlayStation Vita

Mobile phones and tablets see updates and upgrades every year; consoles do not. However when they do, the difference is game-changing (pun intended). Case in point is Sony's latest portable console, the PlayStation Vita, which has been launched in India on February 22 after its much-publicised debut in Japan on December 17. Read on to find out if the hype is justified... 

Build quality

 

The Vita seems to be a console that's built to last. It's as sturdy as the first-generation PlayStation Portable. In addition, it is light but not so much as to feel cheap. In fact, it has a rather premium feel to it; unlike the fragile PSP 2000 or PSP 3000, or even the newly-released and tacky E-1000 series. This is one classy piece of gadgetry, complete with a metallic trim to boot. 

The analog sticks provide for tactile feedback and its buttons reciprocate with a satisfying click when used. Our only grouse: Slots for the memory card and games feel like they've been blindly taken from an economy-class camera - they're made of plastic, prone to breaking and feel out of place with the rest of the device. 

User interface

Unlike the PS3 and the PSP, the Vita sports a UI quite similar to what you'd expect on an Android smartphone or an iOS gadget like the iPad or iPhone. Dubbed Live Area, there are icons for each function , such as settings, friends lists, camera and the games you have installed. Navigating through it is quite simple and, again, similar to how most touchscreen devices operate: Just tap on whatever you want to access. You can't use any of the buttons, analog sticks or directional pad when browsing through the UI. 

Gameplay

I managed to play through Uncharted: Golden Abyss, a portable production of the PS3 series starring Sony titular treasure hunter, Nathan Drake (think of it as Tomb Raider, except with better writing and even better gameplay). And I'm happy to report that U:GA looks like a PS3 game in terms of graphical prowess. Slick water effects as well as gorgeous lighting and shadows make this title an absolute stunner and a sign of what is capable on this handheld in terms of presentation. 

And rather than using buttons, I preferred to use the touchscreen whenever necessary; be it for jumping across a cliff or simply tracing a path to navigate across the screen; it just felt a lot more intuitive ... 

Instead of using the analog sticks to aim, I ended up using the rear touchpad as it felt a lot more accurate. Both the touchscreen and touchpad felt extremely responsive, making the whole experience sublime - quite promising in terms of the innovations that developers can hope to bring to newer games in terms of control options. 

Battery life is just above average with the Vita copping out after 5 hours of gaming , movies and music. 

Videos, music and content

Speaking of music and movies, uploading such content to the console is pretty simple thanks to its Content Manager Assistant. You don't even need to touch your PC after installing it; and transfers happen with a few taps after you connect it to your PC via USB. 

Videos and photos look amazingly crisp on its 5-inch display with vibrant colours and great contrast, though sound is best experienced with headphones as the speakers don't quite do the job. exclusives are available too, including Escape Plan - a monochrome puzzle game with oodles of humour and Little Deviants - a collection of mini-games sporting a kitschy art; both of which are refreshingly different from the usual menagerie of sports, action and fighting games. 

In the near future, users can also expect social networking apps such as Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Foursquare that will be available for download from the PlayStation Store. 

The downside is that you'll be paying a steep price, between 1,999 and 2,799, for new game titles.

In conclusion

So, there's a great line-up of games and even more to come, good hardware and more than adequate media playback, but there's a catch. The cost plays spoilsport. Not only would you need to shell out at least Rs 19,990 for the Vita (Rs 24,990 if you want a 3G-enabled version), but you'll also need to buy Sony's proprietary memory cards for it. Reason? Some games such as Uncharted won't even start without them. With memory cards ranging from Rs 1,625 for 4GB all the way up to Rs 3,999 for 16GB, the Vita seems to be a rather expensive proposition. 

What to expect in near future

Unlike most launch line-ups that are filled with games featuring prettier graphics there's some merit in Vita's games. While Uncharted, FIFA and Marvel Vs Capcom are franchises that already exist on home consoles, they all make fantastic use of the variety of controls - including the touchscreen and rear touchpad - available on this handheld. If this wasn't enough, some fresh Vita.

Gorgeous iPhone 5 Concept Looks Insanely Great [PICS]

The iPhone 5 might not be arriving any time soon, but that hasn’t stopped artists and design firms from creating their own mock-ups.

After analyzing the various iPhone 5 rumors, Italian designer Federico Ciccarese came up with these gorgeous renders.

Ciccarese’s vision of the iPhone 5 predicts a slightly curved back. The body of the phone, in fact, looks similar to Apple’s Magic Mouse. The display is flat and “retina” in nature and the phone tapers off at the top and bottom.

The headphone jack has moved to the side to accommodate the new design and the back looks to be blasted aluminum, similar to what is used on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac.

This isn’t the first time Ciccarese has mocked up his own version of future Apple products. In addition to previously trying to design the fifth-generation iPhone (what would become the iPhone 4S), Ciccarese has also taken on concepts such as the iScreen, his vision of the rumored integrated television from Apple.

We love the way the mockup details the glowing Apple on the back of the phone. It’s the sort of design touch that we think Jony Ive and company could even appreciate.

Sony Announces Two New Xperia Smartphones

As expected, Sony unveiled its Xperia P and Xperia U dual-core smartphones at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Sunday. It was the first press conference for Sony since it spun off Ericsson, with Sony’s smartphones now originating from a division called Sony Mobile Communications.

The first new addition to Sony’s NXT series of Android smartphones, which already included the previously announced Xperia S, is the Xperia P (pictured above), with aluminum unibody construction. It has a 4-inch touchscreen that Sony touts as its “reality display,” and Sony says the screen’s WhiteMagic technology gives it wider viewing angles in bright light.

It’s also equipped with NFC and an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting stills and 1080p video. Available in three finishes, the Xperia P will ship in the second quarter of this year.

Along with that phone, Sony showed its Xperia smart dock, into which you can plug the Xperia P, which then connects to an HDTV using HDMI.

Next up was the similarly designed Xperia U smartphone, a dual-core 1GHz device with a 3.5″ Reality Display and a 5-megapixel camera. The Xperia U will also be available in the second quarter.

Sony didn’t mention if the phones were going to be running the new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system.

Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy Beam

Will the Samsung Galaxy Beam be the projector-phone to finally crack the U.S. market? I got a little time with it today, and the company hopes the new smartphone's thinness and brightness will have us all projecting our videos onto the ceiling.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam is a good-looking, midrange Android smartphone with one special thing: a Cyclopean eye up top that beams a 15-lumen image out the front onto whatever surface you can find. It isn't thick, at 12.5mm, and its soft-touch gray back is accented with a bright yellow band around the edge. The lens doesn't get in the way of slipping the phone into your pocket.

The phone's LED projector, which promises two years of nonstop playback and three hours of video on a charge, shot small but bright images around the conference room where the demo was held. Videos were sharp, and while the 15-lumen brightness didn't stun, it was more than viewable in a dark room. The projector has 640-by-360 resolution, which is a 720p video reduced by half.

To help people get started projecting, the phone will come with mood-maker animations including jumping sheep and constellations, Samsung Product Manager, Will Bin said.

Keeping the phone steady is a real problem, though, and the built-in speaker is far too weak to play a movie to a crowd. Samsung will offer dock and speaker accessories which will stabilize and amplify the phone, Bin said.

There's one odd spec out, though: the Beam runs the swiftly aging Android 2.3 when everyone's talking about 4.0. Bin said the Beam will receive a 4.0 upgrade, although he wouldn't say when.The Beam uses some low-cost parts to shave a few dollars off the price and get the projector in. It runs ST Ericsson's dual-core 1GHz U8500 chipset, for instance, which we haven't seen in a U.S. phone before. It also has a 4-inch WVGA LCD screen, HSPA+ 14.4 and Wi-Fi networking, 8GB of storage with a memory card slot, and a relatively large 2000 mAh battery.

Want to project your images? Hit the button on the top of the right side of the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam's projector lens is on the top of the phone. The projector runs for about three hours on a full charge.

The Galaxy Beam projects a clear 640-by-360 image onto any flat surface. I found it bright enough, and colorful.

The Galaxy Beam is going to need some accessories to reach its full potential. Samsung says a pair of amplifying speakers are coming, as well as a portable mount to hold it still when it's projecting.

LG Optimus 4X HD unveiled: Quad-core Tegra 3, Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.7-inch display

This week LG Electronics have released information on their first NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor toting smartphone, the LG Optimus 4X HD.This device has the Tegra 3′s four main CPU cores and the fifth low-power drive bringing this processor and therefor this phone the world’s only smartphone-sized 4-plus-1 core-toting smartphone device on earth. This device also comes with no less than the newest version of Google’s own Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest version of the group’s world-class mobile operating system. The Optimus 4X has the ability to output video to HDMI via its own MHL port, DLNA support, and a brand new version of LG’s user interface over Android with as much customizability as you can handle.

If LG failed to impress so far with the Android 2.3 phones it's shown off in the run up to MWC 2012, perhaps the Optimus 4X HD can turn things around. This 4.7-inch beast will hit Europe in the second quarter and is its first to feature a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 as its benchmark destroying CPU, a 4.7-inch True HD IPS LCD (1280x720) plus what appears to be a lightly customized version of Ice Cream Sandwich. Perhaps the only logical followup to its Optimus 2X that kicked off all the dual-core madness, it also includes a 2,150mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Despite that huge screen, at a depth of 8.9mm it's only slightly thicker than the superwide 4x3 Optimus Vu. Just like the Fujitsu prototype we spent some time with at CES, the Tegra 3 features a 4+1 "Companion Core" design, with a fifth low power unit available to take care of more mundane tasks without draining the battery. This is all pretty close to the leaked "X3" specs we'd heard, however there's no mention of NFC or HSPA+ just yet, only DLNA and MHL. Check out the machine translated Korean press release after the break for a few more specs.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Review: A Beautiful Desert

You might not recall, but when the BlackBerry PlayBook came out last year it was close—oh, so close—to being a respectable iPad competitor. But the omission of native email, calendars and contacts was a fatal flaw, both for reviewers and the buying public.

Now, though, PlayBook OS 2.0 is here, righting those wrongs and tossing in Android app emulation and a few other improvements for good measure. After spending ten months DOA, has RIM's great tablet hope finally come into its own?

Why It Matters

There has yet to be a tablet that genuinely challenges the supremacy of the iPad, critically or commercially. Honeycomb-based tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 sport impressive hardware, but the software is still half-baked. Smaller, cheaper tabs, particularly Amazon's Kindle Fire, are assessed with asterisks and caveats and contextual justifications. They're good for what they are.

And then there's the PlayBook. It's always had plenty of horsepower, and a UI design that flirts with excellence. Now that its operating system is finally up to speed and its price has hit rock bottom, the PlayBook has every opportunity to be your best iPad alternative. Except it's not, because it's a barren wasteland in desperate need of an app revival.

Using It

Overall, the PlayBook feels snappier with OS 2.0. Apps load a little faster. Pages and menus scroll a little smoother. Navigation feels intuitive and effortless. But as you get deeper into the PlayBook software and its apps, things start to feel less responsive. Apps with browser plugins, in particular, are choppy.

The core software additions—native calendar, email and contacts—are competent, and at times great. The Messages app mostly works, and collects your Facebook and Twitter communications in one convenient location; it just begs for a larger screen. Or at least letting multi-paned tiles slide back and forth on the screen would have been an adequate remedy. The Calendar app, on the other hand, is among the best I've used on any device. It's well-designed, fully functional, gets you the info you need quickly and intuitively, and pulls from more than just your enterprise or Google calendars (hello, Facebook!).

Android apps—when you can actually find one in BlackBerry App world—require no special configuring before launching. PlayBook OS 2.0 automatically opens them in PlayBook's Android App Player, and for the most part, emulation doesn't seem to stunt performance.

But here's the problem. I've checked my email. Gone through Twitter and Facebook. Been up and down my RSS feeds and poked around a few sites with the browser. It has been about 20 minutes and I'm not sure what else to do with the BlackBerry Playbook until another email arrives. I'm not sure there is anything else to do with the BlackBerry Playbook.

Like

Many of the gripes concerning the actual OS have been addressed. PlayBook has been made whole. Improved web browsing is probably the most important upgrade here aside from the inclusion of email and calendar, since there aren't really any apps to gather content from. You can be watching an inline flash vid on a page, and still scroll and pinch and zoom with few hiccups. Pages re-render more than I'd like, but it doesn't cripple your browsing.

Some of the smaller flourishes are welcome as well. You can now stick apps in folders. The accuracy of the keyboard and the suggestive text feature making typing all the more pleasurable.

Most of praises previously lavished on the PlayBook still stand. Solid industrial design, even better software, and surprisingly good multitasking performance. The gaping holes that made the PlayBook a loser haven't just been patched, they've been very ably plugged.

No Like

RIM may have solved the immediate problems it was capable of solving on its own, but there's still a giant cloud looming over the PlayBook. In fact, it's the same one that looms (loomed?) over the TouchPad. There are no apps. When BlackBerry enthusiasts are forced to get excited about RSS readers, and scrapbook apps intended as tech demos, and solitaire, you know you have a problem.

Try finding official apps for any of the online services you love on other mobile platforms, or even on the desktop. Yelp? Nope. Tumblr? Nope. Spotify/MOG/Rdio? Nope. NY Times? Crossword app only. Kindle/Nook? Nope, only Kobo. Twitter? Even the best third-party clients are lackluster and you have to pay for them. Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime? HA! You can rent/buy a movie TV from RIM's own video store portal, but that'll cost you.

And it's not like you can run janky versions of BBOS apps on the PlayBook either; RIM's phones are built on entirely different code than the QNX base powering the PlayBook OS. And considering we reportedly won't see a proper BB10 phone running QNX until this fall, developers probably won't have much incentive to develop for a single device that's underperforming in the marketplace.

And that's just selection. The lagginess of some apps—even RIM's native ones—can be frustrating. Trying to load stories in RIM's news reader will make you want to chuck the PlayBook through a glass window.

Should I Buy It

For $200, the 16GB PlayBook is, on paper, a way better buy than the comparably priced Kindle Fire. But what are you going to do with it? There are no subscription movie or music services. No games. (No, sorry, Angry Birds and Cut the Rope do not count). No magazines. At least there's a fourth place e-book retailer?

At seven inches, this is a device that begs for apps. The browser, while extremely capable, is limited by the PlayBook's physical constraints. Web pages are made for larger screens and higher resolutions. Apps make content digestible on smaller displays, and this screen certainly qualifies for needing that help. There's a reason netbooks died off so quick.

Could Android emulation fix this? Perhaps, but emulation can never deliver the same performance, and the lack of support for in-app purchases, VoIP functionality, and any app natively developed for Android means that we'll only be getting a very limited selection of Android apps.

Maybe the PlayBook has some great enterprise apps that make this useful in the corporate space. But guess what? The iPad functions just as well in the same setting. BlackBerry Bridge will be a nice added bonus for a very niche set, but a feature confined to one waning ecosystem doesn't exactly sound "killer." And regardless, no tablet should aspire to be a productivity/enterprise device first. They're for consumption more than anything.

Is the PlayBook much improved? Absolutely. The new OS is extremely pleasant, bordering on great. But a device like this needs apps to thrive. We are years away from HTML5 apps being as functional and accessible as their native brethren. Let's hope that by the time developers decide QNX is worth their time, it's not already too late.

5 Great Ultrabooks at Consumer Electronics Show 2012

If there’s a sure bet to come out of CES 2012, it’s that the shape of laptops is changing, getting thinner, sleeker, and much more portable. Ultrabooks have dominated the laptop news coming out of CES, with new products and updates coming at a dizzying pace. Intel has thrown a lot of money into the new category, hoping to bring some sexy back to Windows PCs now that the Apple MacBook Air has shown consumers what a fully capable and truly portable laptop can be.

Intel isn’t alone in thinking big about these little PCs; analysts at IHS (formerly known as iSupply) speculate that ultrabooks will make up 12% of the laptop market this year, and that by 2015, the number will grow to 40%. Looking at the slew of new offerings and the unexpected number of innovations, we can’t help but wonder if this estimate is a bit low.

Plenty have decried the ultrabook category as being a handful of Apple clones, but with the designs being touted at CES, it’s likely that by next year consumers won’t even remember how heavily influential the MacBook Air was upon the first crop of ultrabooks. The new ultrabooks range from boring to dazzling, with new models that flip around into tablets or feature nearly bullet-proof Gorilla Glass on every exposed surface. New features and market segments are pushing the ultrabook category in multiple new directions, bringing the light and thin laptops to the workplace while also redefining the convertible tablet. And it’s not limited to these five here; the ultrabook category has exploded in the last week, with updates from every major player and stunning entries from unexpected newcomers. With so many new takes on the concept, there’s simply no telling where ultrabooks will go from here.

HP Envy 14 Spectre

Last year, HP quietly slipped out its HP Folio 13, burying the announcement in an avalanche of other product launches. Not so with the HP Envy 14 Spectre. Weighing in under 4 pounds and only 20 millimeters thick, the most eye-catching aspect of the Spectre is the edge-to-edge glass that covers not only the screen, but the lid and palmrest as well. It’s a drastic departure from the plain aluminum chassis of the Apple MacBook Air, but it’s exactly the sort of bold move needed to bring ultrabooks into their own. 

The HP Envy 14 Spectre also packs a 14-inch 1,600-by-900 resolution display into its 13.3-inch chassis, and comes with Beats Audio, a physical volume knob, and full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elelments, Adobe Premiere Elements, and 2 years of Norton Internet Security. This is one laptop you’ll want to keep an eye on.

Samsung Series 9 (2012)

Samsung’s ultraportable Series 9 actually predates the creation of the ultrabook category, and helped set the bar for all that followed. With the newest iteration of the Samsung Series 9, Samsung is doing itself one better, shaving off 0.4-pound and coming in both 13- and 15-inch varieties. Throw in to the mix a 1,600-by-900 resolution screen, aluminum construction, a backlit keyboard, and a fistful of easily accessible ports, and it’s not hard to see why our own Eric Grevstad says he was impressed. Samsung may not embrace the ultrabook moniker—its laptops were thin before it was cool, after all—but there’s no question that it's setting the tone for the new category.

Lenovo ThinkPad U430u

Ultrabooks have been almost exclusively aimed at consumers, but if there’s any area that has been crying out for the productivity of a full laptop with the portable convenience of a tablet, it’s business. Lenovo has made its name providing reliable laptops to serious professionals, and the new Lenovo ThinkPad U430u continues that with an ultrabook for the desk set. Measuring 0.8-inch thin and weighing less than 4 pounds, the new thin ThinkPad will be coming equipped with Intel’s new Ivy Bridge Core i-processors, a choice of solid-state drive (SSD) or huge (up to 1TB) spinning hard drive. Lenovo has made a business laptop that you’ll want to take everywhere with you.

Acer Aspire S5

All ultrabooks are thin, as a rule, but Acer is slicing things paper-thin with its new Acer Aspire S5, which it touts as the “world’s thinnest ultrabook.” While that particular claim may not last long as newer models are announced, the 15mm (0.59-inch) thin Aspire S5 is also the first Windows system with the same Thunderbolt interface seen on Apple’s current laptops and desktops. Thunderbolt technology offers dramatically faster data transfer speeds than the current USB 3.0 or FireWire connections, and uits presence also suggest that the Aspire S5 will be equipped with Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processors.

Alongside the Thunderbolt port, the Acer Aspire S5 has USB 3.0 and HDMI ports behind an automatic “MagicFlip” cover panel, a solid-state drive (SSD) and Dolby Home Theater audio. Acer is also adding its Green Instant On technology, promising even faster boot and wake times than Intel’s RapidStart technology.

Lenovo IdeaPad YOGA

Last, but certainly not least, Lenovo makes the list again for the Lenovo IdeaPad YOGA. Coming in the second half of this year, the IdeaPad YOGA promises to be a game changer in the Ultrabook space, featuring a capacitive touch screen and running Microsoft’s touch-centric Windows 8 operating system. It’s the first ultrabook to include a touch screen, and thanks to Lenovo’s 360-degree, double-hinge design you can use the YOGA as a laptop, a tablet, or a standalone touch-screen computer. It’s also going to be equipped with Ivy Bridge processors inside and sport a soft-touch rubberized exterior with pebbled leather palm rest. The technological roots of the YOGA may be found in older convertible tablet designs, but it’s a giant leap forward for the ultrabook category.