android 2.3

I nearly did a double take when lifting AT&T's HTC Vivid out of its cardboard box. It's one of the first HTC phones in a long time whose form looked cheap to my eyes.

Shiny black plastic all around with just a thin metal plate on the battery cover, the handset lacks the thoughtful build quality typical of most HTC phones, and very unlike recent phones like the HTC Rhyme, the Evo Design 4G, the Amaze 4G, and so on.

Now, perhaps this isn't exactly fair. After all, I argued with myself, doesn't substance … Read more

To absolutely nobody's surprise (twice), HTC today announced the HTC Rezound for Verizon, the first U.S. smartphone to use HTC-owned Beats Audio.

Originally known as the Vigor, the Rezound is HTC's stateside answer to Europe and Asia's HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio, which CNET got a chance to see in early October at CTIA.

The Rezound, which features the same integration with the Beats headphones as the Sensation XL, will run on Verizon's ultrafast 4G LTE network. In addition, it's packing a 4.3-inch 720p HD display, which should make mincemeat out of … Read more

Most Android smartphones sold for $100 or less are basic hardware shells that do an adequate job, but won't blow you away with their features. Not so the HTC Evo Design 4G. Sprint's fifth member of the Evo family is a slightly smaller (but hardly tiny) handset that's beautifully designed and imbued with a robust set of features, including 4G speeds and a decent front-facing camera.

The good: The HTC Evo Design 4G has an understated black-on-black design, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and two cameras, and is a world phone. It comes with 8GB of memory preinstalled.

The bad: The stubborn back cover is hard to remove and the speakerphone could be better. A dedicated hardware shutter button wouldn't go amiss.

The bottom line: The HTC Evo Design 4G gives you a lot of smartphone for the money--fast 4G speeds, a good camera, a strong processor, and a sophisticated design. It's an excellent choice for Sprint customers, except those who are specifically looking for a dual-core phone.

Watch the video, see the pictures, and read about all the pros and cons of Sprint's HTC Evo Design 4G.… Read more

Boost Mobile is showing Android lots of love these days, most of them for candy bar form factors. This week's announcement of the ZTE Warp is a perfect example. Luckily, Boost has one "Gingerbread man" QWERTY for Android fans who like a good keyboard: the Samsung Transform Ultra.… Read more

Samsung is a company with a penchant for sequels, and just a few months after releasing Exhibit A, here comes Exhibit B: the Samsung Exhibit II 4G.

The specs are modest to be sure, and very similar to the original. It starts with Android 2.3 Gingerbread running behind a 3.7-inch WVGA touch screen and powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. There's a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA camera. In addition to the usual Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth support there's also T-Mobile TV and the Samsung Media Hub.

Of course, there's also … Read more

Boost Mobile has cultivated a reputation for offering slick, good-looking smartphones--which is why I'm pleasantly surprised to see the ZTE Warp enter Boost's no-contract lineup.

ZTE isn't well-known in the U.S., and definitely not for higher-end devices, but the specs are promising so far. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread ZTE Warp offers up a 4.3-inch display, a 1GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.

The screen won't be the most brilliant with its 480x800-pixel resolution, but it should serve, and in theory the 5-megapixel camera could be pretty good--it all depends on the light sensor and the camera software. It'll all become clearer in a few weeks when we can get our hands on the phone.

The ZTE Warp goes public on November 2 for $249.99 without a contract. That's $20 more than Boost's Samsung Transform Ultra, which also runs Gingerbread, and has a 3-megapixel camera, a front-facing VGA camera, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.… Read more

It's been about a month since Boost Mobile and Samsung announced the Samsung Transform Ultra, but we only just got our hands on it at CTIA.

The specs are nothing to sneeze at--they include Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1GHz processor, a VGA front-facing camera, and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera--but the phone is much more compelling in real life than its numbers suggest, and it's more different from the original Samsung Transform than we'd expect.

It still has Sprint ID (the Transform was one of the inaugural phones to have that option), as well as that QWERTY keyboard, but the keyboard is a different model, and a bit flatter and less appealing in our opinion. What we do like are the four nicely tactile, physical buttons below the screen.

We'll soon put the Transform Ultra through our usual workout; but until then, check out the photos in the slideshow above. The Transform Ultra, by the way, is available now, and costs $229.99.… Read more

Even as we lick our lips over Google's upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update to Android, I'm impressed that even the more modest new Android phones are on board with Gingerbread.

The ZTE Score is one of them. First introduced exclusively through Best Buy, the Score is also Cricket's latest Muve Music phone.… Read more

Samsung may have crushed our CTIA dreams by pulling back on its biggest announcement here at CTIA, but thankfully it still introduced a number of new handsets.

The Samsung Transfix sits on the opposite end of the grandeur spectrum from the Galaxy Nexus we were all anticipating, but it's a good add for budget carrier Cricket. We got a chance to play around with it here at the show.

The Transfix runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on its 3.2-inch screen. That's a little small for our tastes, or would be if there weren't a slide-out keyboard … Read more