The Rogers One Number service has now officially launched and it effectively lets you enjoy unlimited calling, texting, and picture messaging from your computer. The kicker is that the person on the other end will think that you are using your phone. With Rogers One Number, your phone’s identity is carried through to the computer equivalent. It uses the existing Internet connection and minutes (and texts) used do not come out of your monthly bucket. You also get free Canadian long distance and, if you’re talking to another Rogers One Number user, you can have free video chats a la Skype or IM protocols too.

One other feature is the ability to transfer your call between your actual mobile phone and your computer, simply by pressing the corresponding button in the computer app or by dialing a special number on your smartphone.

You can get more information, as well as register, by visiting RogersOneNumber.ca. However, it seems that more than a couple of users have already encounted some problems. Some aren’t getting their PINs, others are being told that the service isn’t supported in their area code. It should also be noted that Rogers One Number does not work with business accounts, pre-paid accounts, or Alternate Line Service. And of course, there’s the issue of entrusting all your services to one provider.

[ source via Redboard ]

It used to be that you needed to find a WiFi hotspot, like at a coffee shop or airport, in order to get your laptop onto the Internet while you’re out on the road. The USB Internet sticks changed that, but they didn’t provide the kinds of speeds you grew accustomed to having through more conventional Internet access points. That changed with the arrival of LTE.

Rogers Wireless recently launched its LTE network in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa, supposedly giving you speeds that might be even faster than what you have at home or at work. I had the opportunity to try out the only Rogers LTE device (AT&T in the USA) at the moment — the Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U mobile broadband modem — and this is what I found.

Plug, Play, Surf

The USB modem works in much the same way that your cell phone does. You plunk in the SIM card, it connects to the network, and you go about doing your business. This is similar to what I got with the Nokia CS-18 HSPA+ Rocket Stick last year, but in a more flexible form factor and with supposedly much faster speeds.

The setup process is easy. You turn on your laptop of choice (it works with both Windows and Mac), you plug in the modem via USB, and you let the setup wizard do its thing. The whole configuration process only took a few minutes and I was online right away. It installs a simple application on your computer that lets you connect to the Rogers LTE network, send text messages, manage your data usage, and so on.

Flexible Form Factor

Whereas the Nokia stick looks like a big USB flash drive, the Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U is like a small card with a bendy USB arm sticking out the end. You can slide open the “card” portion to reveal the SIM card slot. It helps that the USB portion can be folded up when not in use, making the USB modem easy to stow in any laptop bag.

The form factor, while not tiny, is certainly small enough. As mentioned, the USB arm can bend, depending on how you want to use it, but it can also rotate 90 degrees too. This is handy depending on how your notebook is configured. Also included in the package are a USB extension cable and a display clip. This way, you can “mount” the USB modem on the top of your laptop lid, presumably getting slightly better signal strength.

So, How Fast is Rogers Wireless LTE?

Since the definition of 4G has gotten quite convoluted (the existing HSPA+ network is referred to as 4G by some folks), Rogers decided to describe its new LTE network as “beyond 4G.” Using 2×2 antennas, the current LTE technology has a theoretical maximum download speed of 150.8 Mbit/s. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’ll hit this peak speed very often, if ever.

To get a sense of the speeds I could get, I tried using the card in a few locations around Vancouver and Burnaby, testing the speeds with Speedtest.net. The speeds ranged considerably, even varying a fair bit when I was in the same physical location by tested against a different data center. Speeds in Burnaby (a suburb just next to Vancouver) ranged from 14Mbps to 18Mbps downstream. Looking at the coverage maps, I should have still been within the LTE network area.

However, getting into Vancouver itself, even when I was a good 7km or more away from the downtown core, I immediately saw results north of 25Mbps. One of the best tests I achieved clocked in at 43.42Mbps downstream and an astounding 13.49Mbps upstream, including an impressive 42ms ping. That was with connecting to the Burnaby server. From the same physical location connecting to the Vancouver and Calgary servers, I got 25.00Mbps and 13.21Mbps, respectively.

Needless to say, your mileage will vary greatly, even from the same physical location, using nearly identical circumstances. To be fair, I never got lower than about 13Mbps, which is still faster than many residential ADSL/cable Internet plans.

Pricing Plans and Conclusion

The cost of the Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U device itself is the least of your worries. It’s just $79.99 on a qualifying 3-year service agreement and a mere $169.99 without a contract. The monthly plans are what will put the bigger dent in your wallet. The LTE Flex Rate Plan starts at $47.93 and that gives you 2GB of data. This ramps up to $62.93 (4GB), $77.93 (6GB), and $92.93 (9GB) as you make your way through the tiers via actual usage.

There is a $52.93 introductory plan for 10GB, which is easily your best deal. I wouldn’t use LTE to replace your home or office Internet connection, since getting through 10GB is pretty easy if you consume much media at all, but this is a fantastic supplementary tool when you are on the go and don’t want to go hunting for Wi-Fi. The “beyond 4G” LTE speeds are quite impressive and are likely faster than what you’d get at Starbucks.

The caveat, of course, is that you need to be in the service area. LTE will expand into other markets eventually, but it’s good to know that this device will fall back on HSPA+ or even EDGE as needed. The flexible form factor helps and the high speeds will put a smile on your face. Just make sure you get that 10GB plan while it’s still around.

Related Links

- Rogers Wireless
- AT&T

I play a lot of games on my smartphone. The trouble is that a smartphone was never really designed for serious video game playing, and that’s where the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is supposed to come into the picture. It’s PlayStation certified and is purpose-built to give gamers what they want while still doing the usual Android smartphone thing too.

We caught brief glimpses at this phone earlier this year, but it has now launched through Rogers Wireless in Canada, 3, Orange,  T-Mobile and Vodafine in the UK, and Verizon Wireless in the USA. Is the so-called PlayStation Phone worth all these years of waiting? Let’s find out.

Specs at a Glance

The version that I received to review is white, but they’ve also got the regular black version as well. The two colors are functionally identical. And, not surprisingly, the most notable feature on this smartphone is the set of slide-out gaming controls.

We’ve seen these kinds of sliders in the past, but they’ve always revealed hardware QWERTY keyboards. That’s not the case you. You get a set of controls that mirrors what you’d get on a PlayStation gamepad: four directional buttons, four face buttons (X, O, triangle, and square), start and select. Instead of thumbsticks, you get a pair of optical thumbpads. There’s also a menu button on the face, as well as L and R buttons on the shoulders.

Doing a quick run through the rest of the spec sheet, we find a 1GHz Scorpion processor (Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon), Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 400MB internal memory, 512MB RAM, microSD slot, HSDPA/HSUPA support, 802.11b/g/n, 5MP camera, front-facing camera, aGPS, and a 4.0-inch 480×854 touchscreen display.

Build Quality and Design

The overall design is in line with other Xperia smartphones from Sony Ericsson. This was built to look more like a phone and less like a PSP, though there are some similarities to the PSP Go. The back is rounded, as are the top and bottom contours. Because of the sliding mechanism, the Xperia Play (at 16mm) is far from the thinnest phone on the block. It’s also not the lightest at a considerable 175 grams of heft.

The sliding mechanism feels reasonably solid, but I’d imagine that this will wear down over time. The gaming buttons feel very solid and should be able to stand up to the same kind of abuse you’d normally give your PSP. I did find the plastic back was a little too slippery, though, especially when in gaming position. Having the volume rocker between the L/R buttons is an interesting choice too.

And that’s the real crux of why someone would be the least bit interested in the Xperia Play. You can play all of the usual Android games — Angry Birds, YooNinja, etc. — but the key is playing games that are “optimized” for the Xperia Play. It is a PlayStation certified device, after all, even if it’s not a real PlayStation Phone per se.

What’s cool is that when you slide out the gaming controls, the handset automatically goes to the Xperia Play interface where you can choose your games. These are shown as fairly large tiles on the touchscreen, but what’s odd is that not all of your games show up here. I had other games that were supposed to be optimized for use on the Xperia Play, but I could only access them through the usual Android menu.

As far as controls, while I liked the idea of the optical trackpads in place of true thumbsticks, they didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped. I’m unsure whether they’re too sensitive or not sensitive enough, as I just didn’t get the level of precision and responsiveness that I need when I’m playing games. I tried Star Batallion (a flight shooter) and Hockey Nations 2011 for this purpose and I ended up resorting to the d-pad for the former. I mostly used the optical trackpad for hockey, but it still wasn’t perfect.

I’m not sold on the optical trackpads, for this reason, but I am sold on gaming on this phone. Madden was enjoyable, Crash Bandicoot was a hoot, and emulators would surely be a hit too. Battery life has me worried, though, since the phone could barely last a day even with very, very light usage.

So, How Does It Game?

Camera Quality

Other smartphones may have been upgraded to 8MP or even 12MP shooters, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is largely able to hold its own with the five-megapixel camera in tow. The flash is quite powerful and while the images will never compete with a “real” camera, they’re comparable to similar smartphones with similar specs.

• Sample Photo #1 (indoor, flash on)
• Sample Photo #2 (indoor, flash off)
• Sample Photo #3 (outdoors, cloudy)

What’s interesting is that while Sony Ericsson stuck with that TimeScape UI (albeit a fair bit simplified from its Xperia X10 days) for part of the core interface, the company didn’t do anything to skin the camera app. It’s the vanilla Android camera app, which has some options, but not really enough. I’m sure you could find some fun things in Android Market to help you with that, though, should you feel so inclined.

Conclusion

I get what Sony Ericsson was trying to accomplish with the Xperia Play. We’ve been wanting a real PlayStation Phone for quite some time and this is supposed to be it… except that it’s not. You see, Sony has the PlayStation Vita coming out pretty soon and it’s much more of a PSP than this phone can ever hope to be. The current crop of “PlayStation-certified” games that are “optimized” for this platform aren’t bad, but they aren’t that great either. For the most part, they’re still “just” cell phone games.

If someone really wants to play real PlayStation games on the go, they’ll pick up the NGP PS Vita. I think that if the Xperia Play came out a couple years ago, it had a real fighting chance of attracting some more interest. As it stands, I expect it to end up in the same pile as the N-Gage. The poor battery life certainly doesn’t help either, especially if you plan on playing any games at all for any duration of time.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is available now through Rogers Wireless for $99.99 on qualifying three-year contracts.

Manufacturer Specifications

* Battery performance does vary greatly on network and phone usage.

You have a lot of choices when it comes to Android smartphones. There are some very appealing devices from the likes of Motorola, HTC, and Samsung, for example. Over at Rogers Wireless, they’ve recently released the Acer Liquid MT. As you can imagine, this is the follow-up to the Acer Liquid E.

The newer model has pretty much the same form factor with rounded edges at the top and the bottom. As the name implies, they’ve also added in a significant dose of metal to replace the plastic of old. The four main Android “buttons” below the screen are capacitive and the touchscreen itself is marginally larger at 3.6 inches.

Quick Spec Sheet Check

As a speedy rundown of what else you can expect, the Acer Liquid MT ships with Android 2.2 Froyo, does the HSPA 14.4Mbps thing, and has integrated WiFi-N and GPS. Other highlights include the 5.0 megapixel camera (no front camera), 512MB internal memory, microSD expansion, and the special Acer UI.

A clever inclusion is at the very top of the phone where you find the 3.5mm headphone jack. It may look like any other piece of chrome, but hidden beneath that are three little icons: battery, message, and missed call. This way, you can see if you need to respond to an email or plug into the wall without having to unlock the phone.

A Phone in the Hand Beats Two in the…

In terms of first impressions, the Acer Liquid MT is quite the hefty beast. By going with more of a metal finish and choice of materials, this smartphone is decidedly heavier than its plastic-clad counterparts. It just feels heavy and bulky in the hands, which isn’t helped by the sizable bezel around the sub-4.0 inch screen.

If you’ve ever held the BlackBerry Torch 9800 in your hands, then you’ll have a pretty good sense of how the Liquid MT feels. It’s heavy and it’s substantial, which may or may not be to your liking. I much preferred the thinner and lighter weight feel of the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate over this phone.

A Word on the Interface

I’ve had a shot at a few of the different manufacturer-specific skins for Android. HTC does the Sense thing, Motorola has MOTOBLUR, and so on. The Acer UI is no exception, but I’m not really sure it’s my cup of tea.

For instance, I’ve grown accustomed to holding down the “home” button in order to bring up some of my most recently used apps. That isn’t how this works. When you hold “home” on the Liquid MT, the Acer UI pops up with your missed calls, local weather and so on. Instead, you get back to the home screen, swipe to the side, and see the history of your activity. I suppose this achieves the same thing, but I prefer the “hold the home button” approach.

The app arrangement, on the other hand, is reasonable. You have two lines of four icons each that are “docked” to the bottom of the home screen. When you swipe up to see the rest of your apps, these eight icons remain “locked” at the top. The rest of your apps are then arranged on pages, not unlike iOS.

General Performance

Even though it’s not quite a gigahertz processor, the 800MHz Scorpion processor and Adreno 205 GPU are able to hold their own for most of the daily activities that you’d have on this phone. Angry Birds was smooth, YouTube playback wasn’t a concern, and everything ran quite smoothly.

It’s not really enough to make this phone stand out from the rest of the Android-fueled crowd, but it’s holding its own too.

Using the 5.0 Megapixel Camera

No one should really expect a camera phone to be as good as a real phone, but there are lots of smartphones that are really starting to challenge that assumption. The iPhone 4 is one example. The Nokia N8 is another. Unfortunately, the Acer Liquid MT does not fall into this realm.

As you can see from my sample photo, there is very significant noise throughout. You pick up on some details, to be sure, but that grainy noise just isn’t acceptable. Here is another sample. To make matters worse, the camera won’t even work if you don’t have a microSD card inserted. It comes with a 2GB card, but be prepared to buy your own higher capacity storage.

Conclusion

The Acer Liquid MT has some interesting things going for it. The curved screen is an interesting approach and I like the “hidden” notification lights at the top. Performance is reasonable and it’s among the cheaper Android smartphones when you buy into a contract with Rogers. Having Froyo out of the box isn’t bad either, considering that only the Nexus S is currently shipping with Gingerbread.

On the flip side, there are more than a few downsides to this phone. I’m not a fan of the extra weight and thickness, for instance, nor do I like the heavy noise exhibited by the 5.0-megapixel camera. This is going to be a personal preference thing, but I’ll still take HTC Sense UI (or vanilla Android) over the Acer UI. It’s also a pain that not only do you have to remove the battery cover, but the battery itself to replace the microSD card… which is necessary for taking photos.

It’s too bad that Rogers doesn’t have a newer HTC Android smartphone (yet), but you’re better off going with the Captivate from Samsung if that’s how you swing. This Acer just isn’t as good, but I guess that is reflected in its relatively lower price.

We were all thumbs over the possibility of a PlayStation Phone for a very long time. We had the teaser stuff during the Super Bowl, but now Sony Ericsson has officially come forward with an official announcement for the Xperia Play.

The good news is that this is the world’s first PlayStation-certified smartphone. It’s also good that they finally ditched the all-caps XPERIA in favor of the more normal-looking Xperia. As expected, the Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3 and takes advantage of the recently announced PlayStation Suite initiative. That’s like PSN, but not really.

There weren’t any real surprises with yesterday’s announcement. We see the slide-out controls, 1GHz processor, Adreno GPU, and a wide range of content partners that include EA, Gamehouse, Glu, Namco Bandai, PopCap, and Unity Technologies.

Rogers Wireless has the Canadian exclusive on the Xperia Play, while the phone is destined for Verizon Wireless south of the 49th parallel. Both carriers are expected to launch the gaming phone in March. Let’s just hope for Sony Ericsson’s sake that this doesn’t become their version of the N-Gage.

[Sony]

The current Acer Liquid E is starting to look pretty dated next to its newer Android stablemates, so it’s about time for an upgrade. We first saw the Acer Liquid Metal in November, but now it’s back with a different name: the Acer Liquid mt. Because, you know, lower-case letters are cool.

The physical appearance of the phone, as you recall, isn’t exactly a huge departure from its predecessors. The main different, I guess, is that chrome finishing to provide a slightly more upscale look. Specs include Android 2.2 Froyo, 800MHz Qualcomm 7230 processor, 5MP camera, and 3.6-inch capacitive touchscreen.

The dealio, it seems, is that the Liquid mt will hit Rogers some time in the first quarter for $49.99 on a three-year contract. If you’re not one for contracts, you can get the Android phone for $399.99 outright. In the face of all these 1GHz and even dual core smartphones, the Liquid mt is the bargain-minded alternative.

No word on whether Roger’s pet dog will be getting the upgrade too, but I imagine Fido will get the hand me down a few months after Rogers has had its fill.

[Mobile Syrup, Acer]

The first Palm Pre was supposed to be an iPhone killer. It never really did live up to those expectations, but a buyout from HP looked as though new fire had started with the webOS platform. And the result. The Palm Pre 2.

First Impressions

The form factor is identical to the original Pre. The curvy appearance of a river stone allows for a compact 3.1-inch display, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 1 gigahertz processor.  The specs got a mild bump, being the first Palm smartphone with a five-megapixel camera, webOS 2.0, and HSPA 3.6Mbps connectivity.   WiFi, Bluetooth, Exchange support, and up to 15 days of standby battery life round out the specs.   I was really hoping that the HP-Palm synergy would be a bit more creative and inventive when it came to the Pre 2. Instead, what we got was a mild upgrade from the original.

At the same time, I’m happy to see a better build quality and materials, opting for a softer finish. The slider mechanism is still a little “wobbly” at times, though, so you’ll want to be gentle

The Interface and Performance

If you liked the original webOS, you’ll really like webOS 2.0.  The faster processor under the hood is a bonus, but gesture controls can take a little getting used to — there is a touch-sensitive strip beneath the screen for both horizontal and vertical swipes — but once you do, it’s quite the clean and easy interaction.

The home screen can be populated with a series of “cards,” which are thumbnail-sized versions of your open applications. What’s great is that you don’t need a real app “killer” in order to fully close them; just swipe them upward off the screen and they close. This is true multi-tasking and many apps come with push notifications.

For instance, I was using Bad Kitty for Twitter (based on the recommendations of the Twitter community) and you can set it to “push” any new tweets to a small message bar that’ll appear below the main screen icons. That’s pretty handy, but not even close to Microsoft’s out of the box tiles.

Whereas the original Pre seemed to suffer from performance issues, the gigahertz processor on the Pre 2 didn’t seem to have any trouble with more than a couple of apps running at the same time. I was able to play a game, run apps, surf the web, and watch YouTube videos all at the same time without any noticeable performance decrease.

Touchscreen and Keyboard

Remember that touch-sensitive strip I was talking about? It’s not quite as responsive as I would have liked. Sometimes, the upward swipe (to move an app into the home screen card view) wouldn’t be recognized. Sometimes, the “back” swipe would take more than a couple of tries. I almost wish they put in a BlackBerry-like trackpad in there.

Similarly, you may not be particularly impressed with the touchscreen. At just a hair over three-inches and with only a 320×480 pixel resolution, it doesn’t really hold up against the iPhone 4 or Galaxy S. That said, the smaller screen makes for a more compact (albeit not as skinny) device. There is a definite trade off, but I found the smaller screen to be adequate for most of my needs.

The keyboard, unfortunately, still suffers from many of the concerns carried over from the first Pre. You may still have some issues with the top row of keys, for example, because they’re a little too close to the edge of the upper half.

Even though the keys themselves don’t seem that much smaller than what I have on my Nokia E71, I had a harder time typing accurately on them. There’s not enough key travel and the “squishy” rubberized feel hurts my accuracy. I guess I could get used to it over time, but in terms of hardware keyboards, it’s not the best.

Camera, Games and Battery Life

As far as cameraphones go, the Pre 2 is decent but far from breathtaking. As you can see from my sample photo, the details can be blurry, the higher ISO results in a fair bit of noise, and the contrast can be completely blown out. That said, this is a phone and not really a camera. The Pre 2 camera is okay, but it’s not as good as what you get on an iPhone 4, for instance.

While the Palm App Catalog really pales in comparison to the iPhone App Store and Android Market, there is enough there to satiate the app needs of most smartphone users. Many popular games are ported to webOS, including Angry Birds and Need for Speed Underground. Gaming on the slightly smaller screen is still suitable and performance was not at all a concern.

Battery life was a concern. Even with relatively mild usage, I was barely able to make it through a regular 24-hour period without reaching for a wall outlet. Extend your gaming or YouTube-watching session a little longer and you’ll be charging multiple times a day. This is a common concern for many touchscreen smartphones, though, so your mileage will surely vary.

Bottom Line

The version of the Pre 2 that serves as the subject of today’s review is the locked model being sold through Rogers Wireless, but it will be identical to the unlocked model and the upcoming version coming to Verizon Wireless. You know, aside from that whole CDMA/GSM thing. Is the Pre 2 a vast improvement over its predecessor? Yes and no.  It isn’t a quantum leap from the first Pre (and the Pre Plus) as it is a mild evolutionary step. It’s like moving from the Bold 9700 to the Bold 9780. It’s better, but it’s not a huge difference.

I do appreciate the faster processor and upgraded camera, but something has to bedone about that hardware keyboard. It’s just not as good as what you get with a BlackBerry or a Nokia. At the same time, the interface is peppy, the card view is great, and the smaller form factor helps to carve out a special niche for the Pre 2.

You can get it through Rogers Wireless for $99 on a three-year contract or, if you prefer, the unlocked version is being sold directly by HP (USA) for $450.

Just coming through the wire today, it was announced that the Palm Pre 2 is now available through Rogers, complete with the new webOS 2.0 smartphone operating system. The Pre 2 happens to be the first Palm phone with a gigahertz processor. It has the same sliding form factor as its predecessor, so you get a QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen display (glass).

Other specs include the 5MP camera, Wi-Fi with mobile hotspot support, true multitasking, JustType universal search, Flash 10.1 in-browser support (beta), and something that they call HP Synergy. This is similar to what you got with the first Palm, populating your phone with info from Facebook, Google, MS Exchange, LinkedIn, and Yahoo! accounts.

Lock into a new three-year voice and data plan and Rogers will let you have the Palm Pre for $99. It’s a good time to be a smartphone fan. From Android to iOS to BlackBerry to WP7 and now to webOS 2.0, you’ve got a lot of options. Verizon Wireless details are yet to be announced.

Even though a lot of people have made the transition from using regular mobile phones to using fully-featured smartphones, there still appears to be a market for those in-between devices. Some people call them feature phones, others call them quick messaging devices (QMDs), some even call them dumbphones. Whatever you want to call them, they’re still here.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is a little different. Even though it is largely sold as a “feature phone” rather than a smartphone, it has real smartphone brains under the hood with its Symbian S60 5th edition operating system. Does this make it a really good value for people who want web connectivity and smartphone-like functionality at a “dumbphone”-like price point? You’ll soon find out.

Features at a Glance

The “Pro” part of the Vivaz Pro’s name comes by way of the hardware QWERTY keyboard that slides out the side. In essence, you get a phone that is very similar to the original Sony Ericsson Vivaz, but with a keyboard. The trade off is that the camera is downgraded to “just” a five-megapixel shooter. It retains its 720p HD video recording capability though, making this a reasonably suitable cameraphone.

Runing through the rest of the specs, we find tri-band HSDPA to go with the quad-band GSM, as well as a scratch resistant surface, handwriting recognition, 3.2-inch TFT resistive touchscreen, microSD expansion, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 720MHz processor.

First Impressions

If you’re expecting the premium build quality that you would get with a device like the Nokia N8. (which is only $50 on contract with Rogers now), you’re going to be sorely disappointed with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro. It feels very “plasticky” in hand, but on the plus side, it’s quite light at just 117 grams.

It’s also quite interesting that they went with such a curvature for the back cover. I guess this is supposed to give it a sleek and unique profile, but it just ends up making for a somewhat strange experience. This is exacerbated by the fact that the power button is towards the top of the back panel, partially recessed into the battery cover. From what I can tell, the keyguard can only be activated by tapping the power button, then choosing to lock the keys from the touchscreen interface. This is less than ideal.

Resistive Touchscreen without Kinetic Scrolling

I wouldn’t say that I’m terribly disappointed with having “just” a 3.2-inch display, but it is a shame that they went with a resistive screen on this device. Everyone is doing capacitive screens these days and going back to a resistive display felt archaic, as if I jumped into a time machine and went back to the days of Windows Mobile 5.

While there appears to be some kinetic scrolling in certain situations, this is not the case with the web browser. I’ve grown so accustomed to “flicking” my way around a webpage that it was quite jarring to see the page just stop deck on my movements. It also felt strange going back to using my fingernail rather than my finger.

The Web Browser

Bearing in mind that this is being marketed as a feature phone and not a smartphone (even though, strictly speaking, it may be closer to the latter), I was disappointed with the performance of the web browser on the Vivaz Pro. Web pages rendered, but there would always be a couple of issues.

When I tried to visit Mobile Magazine on the phone, for example, the entire header portion came muddled with a strange effect happening on our site logo which uses a transparency. It works, I suppose, but don’t expect to get the “almost desktop” experience that you would get with iOS or Android. It’s just not there.

The Hardware QWERTY Keyboard

I think it was a good move including the slide-out keyboard on this device, because I’d imagine typing on the resistive touchscreen to be quite a pain. The keys have a nice “squishy” or “rubbery” feel to them and there is a suitable “bump” to each key so that they don’t sit too flush with the phone. That’s a good thing. Key travel was pretty good too.

It might take you a little while to get used to the key layout, since it’s a on perfect grid rather than the staggered rows you find on a “real” keyboard, but it gets the job done for mobile e-mails, text messages, and whatever else you want to type on this phone.

Conclusion

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro currently sells for $75 on a two-year contract with Fido or $50 on a three-year contract with Rogers Wireless. Under both instances, you’re not bound to a true data plan. It’s not technically classified as a smartphone, so you can get away with the $10 unlimited browsing option on either carrier. If you opt for Rogers, they’ll toss in a free Bluetooth headset too.

If you really are hesitant about tackling a real smartphone with a real data plan, I suppose the Vivaz Pro can mostly get the job done. You can use the somewhat broken web browser to do what you need to do, but after you’ve used a smartphone, you can’t possibly go back to “half” a device like this. It’s like it’s trying to do the smartphone thing, but consistently coming up short.

When I think about the Vivaz Pro strictly as a “feature” phone, it’s adequate but nothing special. I’d give it a 6/10 or 7/10 with that mindset. If I were to consider the Vivaz Pro as a smartphone, though, it’d barely be passable for a 4/10 or 5/10. It just becomes an exercise in frustration. The only reason why I would want it is for the $10 mobile browsing option. I guess it’s better than something like the LG Neon, but not by much.

It used to be that HTC was the clear-cut leader in the smartphone arena, but many other companies are competing for the crown these days. HTC isn’t the only Android game in town and Samsung has really carved a nice-sized market share for itself with the Galaxy S line. Even more so as of recent with the introduction of the Google Nexus S. The Samsung Galaxy S is offered as the AT&T Captivate, T-Mobile Vibrant, Verizon Fascinate, Sprint Epic 4G and Rogers Captivate.

I had the opportunity to take this Android smartphone out for a test drive and, by and large, I was quite impressed with what it had to offer and how usable it was as a daily communicator. The Galaxy S Captivate may not be all that different from its other Galaxy S stablemates, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

Features and Specifications

As a quick rundown, the Captivate has many of the same features that you’ll find on the other Galaxy S devices, like the Fascinate. It doesn’t rock the hardware keyboard of the Epic 4G from Sprint, but this allows it to have a very impressive sub-10mm profile. It also weighs in at a feather light 125 grams, making it feel thinner and lighter than a certain iDevice competitor.

For my part, the most captivating feature on this phone had to be the four-inch Super AMOLED display. The 800×480 WVGA resolution is pretty much par for the course, but the colors really do “pop” off the screen. You’ll get tri-band HSPA (7.2Mbps), quad-band GSM, WiFi, GPS, Android 2.1 preloaded (Froyo update on the way), Bluetooth, and microSD expansion slot.

It Starts with an Amazing Display

If you’ve never had the opportunity to play with a Samsung phone rocking a Super AMOLED display, you’re in for a real treat. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that the contrast is positively brilliant and the colors are incredibly vibrant. Just looking at the regular old home screen on the device is a treat, but it gets even better when you play colorful games like Angry Birds or watch videos through YouTube.

Now, I’m normally the kind of person who prefers a hardware keyboard for its improved accuracy and tactile feedback, but I was able to type quite well using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard on the Captivate. This might be thanks to the slightly larger four-inch display, offering slightly better key separation both in landscape and portrait modes. There’s also Swype in there, should you feel so inclined, but I liked the QWERTY. There is some haptic feedback too (which you can turn off in the options), if that happens to be your kind of thing.

It’s Not Vanilla Android

As can be expected with all the Galaxy S devices from Samsung, the Captivate does not rock a “clean” installation of Android. Instead, it features the Samsung TouchWiz 3.0. This is quite an improvement over previous TouchWiz releases, but I wouldn’t say that it is a big selling point beyond regular old Android.

You get a total of seven home screens, each of which can be populated with your choice of shortcuts, scrollable widgets, and other personalizations. There are “live wallpapers” in there too, but you’d probably want to keep those to a minimum if you want to get better battery life out of this phone. Perhaps the biggest difference is how the apps are displayed in the main menu. Rather than having the usual vertical scrolling in Android, you get app “pages” much like the iPhone. I can’t say if this is better or worse; it’s just different.

Some pre-installed apps include the Daily Briefing (with news and weather), Feeds and Updates (for social media integration), Aldiko eBook, Layar, Samsung Apps, Social Hub, ThinkFree Office, Voice Recorder, and Write and Go. This is addition to the usual Google services like Gmail and Navigation.

Darn Those Touch-Sensitive Controls

Underneath the four-inch display are four soft keys: menu, home, back, and search. These are pretty standard fare among Android devices, but I found that the touch-sensitive nature led to some quibbles. I’d be in the middle of playing a game or surfing the web in landscape mode when I accidentally touched one of the touch-sensitive buttons, putting me somewhere I didn’t want to be.

This may have been only with the review unit I received, but I found that the phone sometimes thought I pressed the search button (which brings up the quick search box) even when my finger was nowhere near it. I understand that having a flush display and flush soft keys makes for a svelter overall appearance, but it is a source of some frustrations too.

Design and Battery Life

As can be expected with any modern smartphone rocking such a large display, battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate leaves a little something to be desired. Under moderate usage, I was barely able to get a day out of the phone. If I put on a slightly extended session of mobile gaming, this was shortened even further, linking me up with a wall outlet more often than I would have liked. This really is par for the course when it comes to phones like this, and it’s not as bad as the EVO 4G, but just be aware that you may need an extra battery or easy access to power on the go.

In terms of design, the somewhat larger bezel around the four-inch screen makes for a rather large footprint for the Captivate. It’ll still fit in most pockets, thanks largely to its slim profile, but it is a little bit on the big side. Two features that are quite positive, however, are the USB connector and the battery cover. Instead of a flimsy rubber flap, Samsung used a sliding door to protect the USB connector at the top of the phone. I like that.

Similarly, you remove the carbon fiber-look metal battery cover not by sliding it out, but by sliding the lowermost portion on the back of the phone. This gives the metal plate enough room to slide downward ever so slightly. The “click and lock” nature of that lowermost portion gives some reassurance that you won’t accidentally slide off the battery door unexpectedly.

Conclusion

Now that the Google Nexus S is available, you may have some second thoughts about picking up the marginally older Samsung Galaxy S platform. Don’t be. The Captivate is a seriously solid phone with a beautiful display, plenty of horsepower, and all the Google integration you’ve come to expect.

The build quality feels quite good, the slim profile is a plus, and the little details (like the sliding cover for the USB port) make this a great choice for Android fans. Better still, Rogers has reduced the price on this phone to $100 on contract, making it a good value to boot. Some other folks have voiced their concerns over the GPS and voice input accuracy, but I experienced none of these issues. Unequivocally, the Captivate is one of the best Android phones available through Rogers right now. That might change in the near future, as with so many other types of tech, but for now, the Captivate is a solid buy.

[Rogers, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint]