Third time’s a charm…
Three’s a crowd…
She’s once, twice, three times a lady Nexus…
Three’s a magic number…
Good things come in threes… or is that sneezes?
Okay, so maybe there isn’t anything clever we can say to get you hooked, but do we really need to lure you in at this point? The Galaxy Nexus is, arguably, not only one of the best Android phones on the market, but one of the best phones, period. So, there’s no reason to expect the Sprint variant ($199 on contract) would be anything short of incredible. Still, there’s only one way to find out. Follow along after the break as we put the newest member of the Nexus family through its paces and see how it stacks up against its Verizon and unlocked siblings.

Continue reading Sprint Galaxy Nexus review

Sprint Galaxy Nexus review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After being shown up by many shinier, more powerful handsets last year, HTC is strong comeback this year.   The HTC One X leads the charge.
Design
We love the way the One X looks, which is easily identifiable from the horde of slate-style smartphones that bear similar styling.  Instead of an aluminum unibody, HTC opted for a [...]

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With roughly 98 percent of the desktop and laptop market spoken for, you’d be forgiven for thinking your only choices for powering your computer were Windows or Mac OS X. There is another way, though. Linux may only run on a tiny sliver of consumer PCs, but the number is growing and one of the biggest players propelling its popularity is Ubuntu. Since bursting on the scene eight years ago, the distro has grown to dominate the desktop Linux market and made plenty of fans (and a few detractors) along the way. Truth is, Ubuntu is completely unique and, at least compared to other distros out there, very user-friendly. It also happens to have a very active community of developers and users willing to lend help to those in need, which makes it appealing to Linux vets, enterprise users and *nix n00bs alike.

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin is part of the company’s LTS or Long Term Support series, and is guaranteed for five years of support through Canonical. That means the company is focusing less on cramming new features into this release and more on making it as stable as possible. So, if you’re familiar with Ubuntu, you won’t find much here that will blow your mind. Of course, the real question is whether or not the aubergine-loving open-source OS is for you, not whether there’s enough new tweaks to fill a book. So, without further ado, we present Ubuntu 12.04: the review. Join us after the break, won’t you?

Continue reading Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin review

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new DVR with a never-before-seen feature doesn’t come around every day, and if it’s the sort of amenity that works in every room of the house, without compromise, then we just have to review it. What would make the list? Try the Dish Hopper whole-home DVR, which can record six shows at once. Of course, there are specs and marketing claims, and then there’s real-world performance. Is this set-top box everything we could have dreamed of? There’s only one way to find out: you’ll have to meet us past the break and take a walk through our full review.

Continue reading Dish Hopper whole-home DVR review

Dish Hopper whole-home DVR review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Iconia Tab A510 hands-on

Acer Iconia Tab A510 with Tegra 3, Android 4.0 arriving in the US and Canada for $450

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 review

We’ll stop just short of quoting Top Gun here, but if it’s speed you crave, these next thousands of words could have you emptying your wallet. How’s that for an opening line? To be honest, it’s been quite some time since any of us Engadget editors booted up a brand new device and immediately let loose a stream of expletives — all expressing unbridled delight, of course. Such was the beginning of our meet-cute with Acer’s Iconia Tab A510, the company’s first Tegra 3 slate, and the second to ship with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Apart from that 1280 x 800 TFT LCD display, this 10-incher looks, feels and performs nothing like its predecessor, the A500. Turbocharged with that quad-core CPU and 1GB of RAM, this Android 4.0 tablet joins a crowded category with a generous 32GB in built-in storage and a reasonable $450 price tag to match. So, does that excellence lose its luster with more extensive use? Is your money better spent on any of the other umpteen tablets running ICS? Will the lack of a higher-quality display prove too much of a con for your exquisite tech tastes? Follow on as we probe the A510 for answers.

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A510 review

Acer Iconia Tab A510 review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today is officially Ivy Bridge day, in case you didn’t already know. Intel took the wraps off the latest member of its processor family and the internet wasted no time putting the flagship Core i7-3770K through its paces. The 3.5GHz quad-core desktop chip comes packing not only some architectural tweaks, but a brand new integrated GPU in the form of the HD 4000. Oh, and it does all this using a brand new 22nm manufacturing process and 3D “Tri-Gate” transistors. What does that mean for you, the user? Lower power consumption, better performance and, surprisingly, unbelievably fast media transcoding. When AnandTech turned its eyes towards Quick Sync, the on-die media transcode engine introduced with Sandy Bridge, the 3770K practically buried the competition. Using Cyberlink Media Espresso the new chip turned a DRM-stripped Blu-ray of Harry Potter (130 minutes of 1080p video) into an iPad friendly format in just seven minutes without taxing the CPU.

At idle, power consumption hasn’t changed much, but when TechSpot put the pedal to the metal things looked quite a bit different. The new i7-3770K sucked down just 147 watts, which was even four watts less than lower clocked i5-2500K. And, of course, it delivered much better performance. In fact, in Bit-Tech’s tests, the only chip that was able to routinely best it was the hexa-core 3960X Extreme Edition — and even that CPU barely eked out its victories. While AMD’s offerings simply can’t compete with Intel’s on pure performance or power consumption, it does still outrun run Chipzilla’s GPU. The HD 4000 is, undeniably, a huge step forward for the Core line, but it falls just short of matching the A8′s integrated Radeon on Tech Report’s tests. For more benchmarks than your heart can handle check out the pile of links below.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Bit-Tech
Read – TechSpot
Read – Tech Report
Read – Hot Hardware

Intel Core i7-3770K CPU review roundup: crossing the Ivy Bridge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS outs lower-end Transformer Pad 300 tablet

ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime review

It doesn’t feel like a year has passed since we reviewed the original ASUS Transformer and its innovative keyboard dock, but indeed time flies, and quite a bit has happened since then. The company has released the Prime, for starters, followed by two other high-end models. And now, the OG Transformer is going the way of the dodo, as the affordable new Transformer Pad 300 (aka the TF300) takes its place. Though this newest tablet was announced back in February, it’s only just going on sale in the US this week, starting at $379 for the 16GB version, and $399 for one with 32GB of built-in storage.

In addition to the fact that this replaces a truly memorable product, the TF300 is intriguing because it represents an even better deal for consumers: it borrows some design cues from the higher-end Prime, and also steps up to a similar 8-megapixel camera. Like the Prime, too, it runs an unskinned version of Android 4.0 and packs a quad-core Tegra 3 chip — something you don’t often see in a tablet this price. In short, the main differences between this and the Prime are battery life (10 hours versus 12), and the quality of the display (the 10-inch screen here offers 350 nits of brightness instead of 600). Those all sound like reasonable trade-offs and, frankly, they are. That’s our abridged review, over and done with in just two paragraphs, but meet us past the break if you’re craving a little more detail.

Continue reading ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 review

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Apr 2012 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They said it wouldn’t last. And they — pundits, analysts, bloggers, GSM fanatics — were right. WiMAX, that flavor of 4G found in the 2500MHz band, has proven to be more of a hindrance then help during Sprint’s transition from underdog to reinvigorated titan. Then there are the kerfuffles it’s endured standing on the sidelines — namely, watching one-time LTE partner LightSquared squander its regulatory good graces. Beleaguered would be putting it mildly; Sprint faces a treacherous climb uphill to the mobile Olympus where Verizon, AT&T and now-spectrum-rich T-Mobile sit — after all, it’s hard to change the tide of public perception, overcome the limitations of a dreadful 3G CDMA network and move away from weak third-party 4G signals. Yet, with all of those negatives working against it, a planned rollover to LTE technology might just be the panacea Sprint has so badly needed.

Right now, at least, a wish and a hope are all Sprint can dole out to existing subscribers toying with the idea of switching carriers. Its nascent LTE network, currently in testing across six US cities, hasn’t been cleared for launch, which makes its first 4G handset, the Viper 4G LTE, a dress rehearsal of sorts. And what a low-key affair it is: no cutting-edge aesthetics or kickstand here, just mid-range specs and a humble design made from recycled materials. But for anyone itching to surf those faster waves, LG’s dual-core, NFC-enabled workhorse could be a tempting buy when it goes on sale Sunday for $100 (with a two-year contract). So will the dangling carrot of faster 4G persuade consumers to choose this over all those other mid-tier Android phones? Let’s find out.

Continue reading LG Viper 4G LTE review

LG Viper 4G LTE review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Max Payne is one of the few mobile games I’ve really been looking forward to this year.  And while it is an amazing game, I do wish it was more than just a port of a decade-old PC classic — playing it on a handheld touchscreen device just never felt natural.
Not that the controls are [...]

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While Windows Phone is undoubtedly poised for an uphill struggle in the mobile platform wars, the Nokia Lumia 900 paints a promising picture for the both the Finnish manufacturer and Microsoft’s fledgling OS. Not only is it the best Windows phone in the market today, it’s also one of the best smartphone options currently in [...]

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