MWC 2011 - Rollin' with Motorola, Samsung & Huawei
We dropped by Motorola's and Samsung's booth and swung by Huawei's conference during MWC. Here are some highlights of what we saw offered during the hectic event.
Remember CES 2011? Motorola kickstarted the year with new directives in their business, as well as with the release of Atrix 4G and Xoom, both of which made appearances at MWC as well. However, we still haven't gotten any official word about their availability in Asia Pacific, though we must say we would love to see the Atrix in Singapore due to its unique ecosystem of accessories (i.e., the "infamous" laptop dock). This time, the two devices share their stage with two other upcoming handsets, the Motorola Gleam and Pro. Both phones have not been announced for the Asia market yet.
At the Motorola Booth, the Atrix
4G takes center stage, alongside the Laptop Dock. Availability for the
phone has not been confirmed for Asia Pacific yet, but Motorola has
previously mentioned that they are looking at the international market.
The flashy Motorola Gleam comes with swanky LED lights and a metallic LG-lesque body. Don't expect high-end smartphone capabilities here - the Gleam is a feature phone that is meant for users who just need a simple phone for communication.
It's a big hint when a phone sports a QWERTY keypad and when it has the word "pro" in it. Yes, the Motorola Pro is catered to the working class with the best of both touchscreen and physical typing controls.
Ah, the Xoom. Just to recap, the 10.1-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) Xoom sports a dual core processor (NVIDIA Tegra 2), the latest Gingerbread OS, and a 5.0-megapixel rear camera. This time, we were allowed to manhandle the tablet (previously, we were not allowed to try the units at CES). Performance was smooth, with the Xoom handling both graphics and games well.
Remember the Atrix? The phone has a unique feature - alongside a Laptop Dock, the handset transforms into a fully functional computer while retaining its mobile capabilities.
Here's a short Angry Birds video played on the laptop dock with the Atrix docked (so effectively, you are playing it from the mobile phone through the dock). You can easily adjust the game to full screen on the laptop. As you can see below, the trackpad replaces the touch controls.
It is of little surprise that we found the Samsung booth at MWC literally littered with the Samsung GALAXY S II, a refreshed and updated version of its flagship Android phone, the GALAXY S - check out our coverage on the GALAXY II and the GALAXY Tab 10.1 here. The rest of the newer phones in the GALAXY family like Ace, Fit, Gio and Mini also made appearances here along with the Nexus S (of which needs no introduction - for an extensive review on the device, check out our article here). But for now, we take a quick look at both Samsung GALAXY WiFi 4.0 and 5.0 which were both officially announced on the 15th.
It is clear that the Samsung GALAXY S II takes center stage at the Samsung booth.
Don't be mistaken, the Android 2.2 Samsung GALAXY WiFi series are not smartphones - like its namesake, they only come with WiFi capabilities, which means no mobile network or 3G connectivity. Yes, think of the WiFi gadgets as the Android equivalent of the iPod Touch - PMPs with smartphone capabilities. The WiFi 4.0 and 5.0 are almost identical in specifications, with a few differences. Take for example, the 4.0 comes with a smaller 4.0-inch SLCD screen while the 5.0 comes with a bigger 5.0-inch TFT screen, so it boils down to whether you prefer a better viewing experience over size or vice versa. If you are looking to get one with more internal capacity, the 4.0 might tickle your fancy as it comes in 8 / 16 / 32GB variations as compared to 5.0's 8 / 16 GB choices (both also allow up to 32GB for microSD cards).
Samsung GALAXY S WiFi 4.0 (left) and Samsung GALAXY S WiFi 5.0 (right). Both are possible to be upgraded to 2.3 Gingerbread at commercial launch according to the official press release.
Some of the mobile accessories available for sale at the Samsung booth. We spotted phone and tablet covers as well as the official Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories like Vehicle Dock Kit and Keyboard Dock.
Huawei isn't new to the international market, but in Singapore it is. They have been pretty quick with their releases these days with a number of Android devices released last year, including the Huawei IDEOS S7 tablet. At MWC, we dropped by Huawei's conference where they unveiled the new IDEOS X3 and IDEOS S7 Slim for the very first time. Both products will be commercially available in April 2011. We are quite sure that these will make an appearance in Singapore, though representatives cannot confirm this at the moment.
At the conference, Mr. Victor Hsu, Chief Marketing Officer, Huawei talked at length about the Huawei's directions and goals amidst the convergence of smartphones and tablets and the changing landscape of Internet usage.
The Huawei IDEOS X3 comes with a 3.2-inch capacitive HVGA touchscreen and showcases a unibody design with rounded edges.
The X3 will be running on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS, effectively making it the first Android 2.3 device for Huawei. The IDEOS X3 will be priced below USD200 without contract.
The 1GB Snapdragon equipped S7 Slim runs on the rather outdated Android 2.2 OS and will not be upgradeable to the latest 3.0 Honeycomb OS - Huawei has also mentioned that the latter will be reserved for future tablet devices. This issue might be a thorn in its flesh since most Android tablets shown at CES and MWC are already on Android 3.0.
The tablet comes with a rear 3.2-MP camera and a 03-MP front camera.
The S7 Slim measures at a reasonably slim 12.5mm thickness, and will be priced below USD300 without contract.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.