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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sony Xperia Acro S! Ex Dream Phone


SONY XPERIA ACRO S!

EX-DREAM PHONE!


UNBOXING TIME:




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Sony Xperia Acro S vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2 HERE
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            It has been a long while since I did a review. For this one, I will review to you, one of my ex-dream phone. This was what I originally intented to ask for Santa last Christmas, but I went with Samsung Galaxy Note 2, after almost a month of love with Note 2, I got a brandnew Xperia Acro S. I was very excited to unbox and review this one as another dream came true.
            A little something I wanted to share is why I wanted this phone but then decided to pick a Note two. Almost a year ago, I had Xperia Mini Pro, Blackberry 8520 and Nokia N86. I was pleased with the three but I did not want to exhaust my sim card so I decided to buy a phone that packs their three features: Xperia Mini Pro had Bravia Engine and it was Android, Nokia N86 had an amazing camera and Blackberry had good audio output earphones attached. Instead of going with a second hand mainstreamed Samsung Galaxy S2, I decided to buy a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S. I was extremely satisfied with the phone but the lack of internal memory and front camera made me want more. From then on I had continuously changed and swapped cellphones to find the one. I had luck with Samsung Galaxy S2 SkyRocket but it was stolen L After the Skyrocket, I purchased another S2 but it was a Gangnam S2 and it brought me nothing but headaches and troubles. As I walked pass a Sony store I fell in love with the Acro S, I had wanted it as my main phone since October, as it had been the improved version of my beloved Xperia Arc S, and my decision was dead-locked to get one for Christmas. As I continuously reviewed rebranded phones, Cherry Mobile Titan, Cherry Mobile Flare, Cherry Mobile SkyFire, MyPhone A919 Duo and CloudfoneThrill 430x, I came to the conclusion that Dual-Cores was out of date. Yes I know Sony’s phone will trump any other rebranded phone out there, but still, if I wanted something it better be full worth the money spent. Two of my classmates had Note 2 and I was extremely impressed so I decided to choose it since it catered my requirements for a cellphone.
            Well that’s the story of my Note Two, for this review, I like to look back if what the decision I made to move on with Xperia was a great move or I could have had the one with the cheaper price tag.

1. THE PACKAGE (9.7 out of 10)





1.1 The BOX

            The box looks very nice, looks simple and elegant and it feels expensive, it’s a relatively huge box as compared to all my other phones as it was almost double in length but half the height. The box speaks for itself: I’m not a mainstream phone! Try Me!

1.2 What’s in the Box?



                Since my Xperia Arc S, Sony had always had the best package, as it offered nearly everything you need. Opening the box you see your magnificent looking phone and yYou get an amazing in-ear headset, a charger, your micro usb cable, manuals and a dock. Since these came from Sony you can be assured that they are durable, strong and reliable. (It has been a year and I still use my Sony Xperia Arc S Green Heart Charger). The package did not include an HDMI Cable but the dock is a nice addition.

2. PHONE SUPERFICIALITY (9.5 out of 10)










                Not Skinny But Still Sexy! Nothing best describes this phone but these words. It is thicker than your average phone but it fits your hand nicely and it has that feel that this is not a mainstream phone, it also has a nice touch that when you hold it for the first time, its as if you’re going to have the time of your life. The front houses the front camera with three capacitive buttons, the back houses the 12MP Camera, Flash and speaker, the bottom houses the mic, the top houses the 3.5mm jack, microUSB port, and the HDMI port, and the sides houses the camera shutter, power button, volume rocker, the sim card slot, NFC and the microSD slot. WOW THAT IS SOME SERIOUS NUMBERS OF BUTTONS ON A PHONE. The reason for this is its non-user replaceable battery. With all those buttons, I still think this is one of the sexiest phone out there.

3. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION



3.1 Speakers (8.9 out of 10)

                Acro S became my dream phone because I knew it would be an improved and better version of my Arc S, to my delight, earphones attached, this phone offered great audio output, the sound quality is simply amazing. Though I have to point out that its loudspeaker is not as loud as you would expect even if its xLoud is on. Though I highly doubt anyone would use its loudspeaker frequqntly, as long as it offered great audio output headset attached, it was ok for me.

3.2 Display / Video Playback (9.2 out of 10)



                The screen looks bright crisp and vibrant, a definite improvement over Arc S and a definite skyrocket compared to rebranded phones. The greatness of the display is further amplified with Sony’s own Bravia Engine. For media playback, it was able to play almost any video and it was able to play a 1080p video, unfortunately, I used MX Player Pro to play the movies as the stock video player had limitations on filetypes.

3.3 Gaming (7.9 out of 10)





                Obviously, Acro S will never compare well if compared to the Note 2 so I decided to compare it with respect to the former Gaming King, Motorola Photon 4G. If you had been a follower and a reader of my blog you would know that the only HD Game I play before my Note 2 was NBA 2k13, unfortunately for this phone, and it saddens me to say this but it showed significant lags and the players looked messed up. Now that HD Gaming is out, for mainstream gaming, it was a delightful experience as games such as Fruit Ninja, Temple Run2 and 1 and Jetpack Joyride played as smooth as Anne Curtis’ skin. For gaming on Dual Core processor, Motorola Photon 4G is still the undisputed Champion.
           
3.4 Camera (9.8 out of 10)












These Images are from Xperia Acro S.
Arc S had the best camera of all the phones I had before my Note 2, ever since Arc S days, I had become a fan of Sony in imaging department as they delivered best bunch of photos, give it their Bravia Engine and it was miles beyond rebranded phones and definitely amongst the top. The Acro S was no disappointment as it continues Sony’s legacy as one of the best camera phones on the market, there are a bunch of options to choose from. For neophytes and newbies with camera options better read THIS. The 12Mp camera of the Acro S is definitely one of the best to date. The Auto-Focus does not disappoint and it takes pictures quickly.


3.5 Need for Speed (9.1 out of 10)



RAM and Clockspeed Review

                Many of you might wonder, what are RAM and the Clockspeed for? Should I go for higher RAM, fewer clocks or vice versa? The answer depends on how you use the phone. Random Access Memory (RAM) is used to determine how many apps your unit can run simultaneously. So bigger RAM means you can multi-task much more applications without worrying about lagging on the system.
                Clockspeed is used to determine how fast your system will run a certain application. Simply put, higher Clockspeed means faster phone. THIS IS THE GENERAL IDEA ON RAM AND CLOCKSPEED. Factors on speed are also determined by the chipset architecture, GPU, etc.
Coming across a bunch of Dual-core phones, Motorola Photon, S2 i9100, S2 SkyRocket, S2 SHV E110s, Cherry Mobile Titan and Galaxy S Advance, Cherry Mobile Flare, Myphone A919, Cloudfone Thrill 430x, Acro S performed significantly better than Rebranded phones and SLIGHTLY better than that of  the S2 and Galaxy Advance. The new Krait Architecture really worked well as it is nearly as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S3. The 1GB RAM has become a standard for today’s high end phone. Multi-tasking on Acro S rarely shows lag.

3.6 User-Friendliness (9 out of 10)

                Out of the box, you get a slightly out-dated Ice Cream Sandwich. Jellybean has been planned for this device so don’t worry! If you can’t wait, tons of Custom Roms are available on xda-developers to suit your taste. If you are the phone geek, you would know that custom roms will be the life of your phone and installing one will significantly improve your phone’s performance! Hooray for branded phones! As for those who does not care for custom roms, sporting Android, Acro S gives you a veru user friendly interface, coming from another OS will not be aproblem as Android is pretty easy to learn and you will be customizing until its unique. The Playstore will keep you preoccupied for quite some time.



3.7 Battery (7.2 out of 10)

                For the past few months I have slowly disregarded this equation:

ANDROID= BAD BATTERY LIFE

This equation was slowly disregarded as even rebranded phones tend to manufacture phones with actually impressive battery life. Unfortunately for the Acro S, it does not have a bad battery life its good but far from great. If you will use this for gaming battery will drain quickly, it can definitely last a day on light usage but why did you get an expensive phone for texting?  Also this phone has a non-user replaceable battery so be careful not to drain and kill its battery (commonly termed as Dead Batt). Its real sad that seeing Sony is siginificantly behind in sales for smartphones, they still do not manufacture phones which has a factor to turn heads back around to their favour. Undeniably, Samsung holds the title in Smartphone section, if Sony won’t make a comeback, we might live in a world controlled by Samsung and Apple. For the Company’s sake I surely hope Xperia Z will turn things around.

Miscellaneous:

            I forgot to mention, this phone is said to be water and dust resistant.


CONCLUSION



THE RIGHT CHOICE (8.99 out of 10) 
* Performance is 70%, Package and Looks are both 15% for the total of 100% YEHEY I KNOW MATH :))

                After all this time, holding and using the Acro S felt like a dream come true, it was a nice looking phone packing a lot of features with an almighty camera, though the battery life and unimpressive HD gaming prowess can surely make or break the deal. After spending some time with this phone, I can safely  and proudly say I made the right choice last Christmas. Don’t get me wrong Acro S is not bad, but I’m pretty sure you can get more with its price. Compare it to other dual cores, it shows slight advantage, compare it to quad cores, it fails to deliver at the same level. Of course, it will always boil down to you, the consumer. If I did not have any friend with a Note 2 I would definitely choose this over other phones, yes including S3 and One X. I don’t care if they are the superior ones, I’m the one who will use it and I prefer Sony over Samsung or HTC. Finally, the Acro S offers the same Android experience with other dual cores but with a slightly better camera. As for today’s standard’s I don’t think it fares well in the market. It up to you, guys if you want it or not :D




Thursday, January 24, 2013

TEMPLE RUN 2!


TEMPLE RUN 2!










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DOWNLAOD TEMPLE RUN 2 HERE

The sequel to the smash hit phenomenon that took the world by storm!
With over 170 million downloads, Temple Run redefined mobile gaming. Now get more of the exhilarating running, jumping, turning and sliding you love in Temple Run 2!
Navigate perilous cliffs, zip lines, mines and forests as you try to escape with the cursed idol. How far can you run?!
FEATURES
★ Beautiful new graphics
★ Gorgeous new organic environments
★ New obstacles
★ More powerups
★ More achievements
★ Special powers for each character
★ Bigger monkey!!!
Become a fan of Temple Run on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TempleRun
Follow Temple Run on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TempleRun

This is a direct copy paste from google play store :)
REVIEW:
If you have been a fan of my unboxing videos you would know how much I love Temple Run <3
Now comes the second! :D

Monday, January 21, 2013

NOKIA BH-503! YEARS OF GREATNESS


NOKIA BH-503! YEARS OF GREATNESS




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FOLLOW ME O TWITTER I FOLLOW BACK PowerBondSeven

               Nokia BH-503 has been out on the market for almost five years now. During that time, I was uninterested with this device as my phone, back then, was a mere Nokia 6630 which was incapable of playing the radio or even playing music, It could play mp3s but I did not stress it so much as it could only carry 256MB card, it was able to hold up to 1GB memory card but it became painstakingly slow.
            A few days ago, my classmate I saw my classmate using one and I was surprised with its loudness, I tried it for myself and WOW! I used it on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and it was just divine. Honestly I have never been fan of this kind of earphone as I found them bulky, I always preferred in-ears, but this one changed that. After that fateful day, I purchased one for myself.
            This review is not going to be as comprehensive as my review for cellphones, if they were even close to that, this review will only cover observations and personal opinions about this majestic headset, so read on and find out more!


1. THE PACKAGE AND LOOKS





            The package is pretty standard; you get your headset, with actually useful, for the first few times, manual. It also comes with a small pin charger. For a headphone typish headset, this does not look as bulky; it is also light and fits perfectly on most, if not all, necks.

            The right has all the controls such as volume, call, previous and next buttons.

2. AUDIO QUALITY






                Here’s where it gets interesting, being a Bluetooth headset, one may argue that it will not deliver sound quality as good as those hardwired ones. I am happy and proud to tell you it has an amazing sound output, it easily trumps those CDR King Ear buds and it has better quality than that of Sennheiser MX170s and A4Tech MK650. Its quality was almost identical to Note 2’s stock headset. If you are a bass head, you would definitely love this.
            Initially, I thought making a call with this would be bad as the mic is placed far from your mouth, to my surprise again, calls are loud and clear. I don’t know much about Bluetooth headsets, but I’m sure that my assumption that finding a good quality one is not easy to find.

3. CONNECTIVITY
           
            Another major factor for this Headset is its connectivity to virtually everything Bluetooth enabled. If you have been a follower of my blog you know would know I have quite a number of gadgets, I tested the headsets on numerous phones and laptops and BH 503 works well with EVERYTHING I tested it. I’m not exaggerating, EVERYTHING I could possibly connect to it, it connects and delivers the same great ear party every time. YES! ALL OF THE BUTTONS WORK. YES EVEN ON ANDROID PHONES. Here are the list of devices I tested it with:

Cloudfone Thrill 430g
ASUS Laptop
Nokia 6630
Nokia N86
HTC Wildfire S
Samsung Corby 2
Nokia C7
Nokia N95
Nokia C1
Nokia C3
Samsung Galaxy Y
Samsung Galaxy S3
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S
Samsung Galaxy S Advance
Sony Ericsson Xperia Active
Samsung Galaxy Pocket
Samsung Galaxy S2

            If that’s not many to you I don’t know what is. (It is important to note that I don’t own most of the device, they belong to my classmates <3).

            For its range, I can say it ranges to about 15 feet.

4. BATTERY


            Being a Nokia product, I have high expectations for this one; all my Nokia phones had great and amazing battery life, happy to say this one also has that same astounding feature. I purchased this headphone January 16, 2013, and up until now, January 21, 2013, I had only charged it once. The battery life is just amazing! The box’s 75 Minute Music Time on 20 Minute Charge is true.

CONCLUSION
           
            This Nokia BH-503 is a definitely money well spent. I only spent P600 (approx. $10-15) for this original headset (yup this is actually a second hand unit). This costs about P2000 for the original and P800 for the so-called OEM, I haven’t tested the OEMs yet, I’ll update you if I get a hold of one. Overall, this is one impressive piece of headset, hassle free music control, great sound quality, good range, good call quality, and its amazing compatibility to virually everything bluetooth enabled, everything just seemed perfect. If you would ask me if I would recommend this? I would non defiantly say YES. :D

Friday, January 11, 2013