Android UK News, Reviews and Allsorts » Android Devices

HTC Desire HD (ACE) spotted in the wild – Video

Togsy — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:00:10 +0000

Remember that post a few weeks back about a possible large screen device heading for the UK under the name of HTC ACE? Well it turns out it will mostly likely be called Htc Desire HD (following traditional Htc progression) and will have a very similar form factor to the Evo 4G.

What we have learned is that there is the usual 8mp camera, 1ghz processor, 4.3inch WVGA touchscreen, 4gb built in storage, shipping with froyo, etc; all normal features you would expect to find in a new HTC Android device, but sadly it is lacking the front-facing camera of the Evo. This mythical beast is expected to launch in October – and we for one are very excited to see it.

UPDATE:

This video of the HTC Desire HD has just surfaced and it is indisputable proof that this phone is very much real, and likely to be launching soon. For the first time we are able to see the back of the device as well as the front in clear resolution; resembling the HD2 more than anything else, this phone is as HTC as they come.

UK goes Android crazy- Sales up by 350%

Togsy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:15:00 +0000

Wow- what a difference a year makes! – GFK is reporting that Android’s share of the UK market has increased from 3% in Q1 2010, to 13.2% in Q2 2010. That’s 350% in half a year and that is outstanding performance, even for a OS that we already knew was rapidly growing.

Globally we have seen Android increasing from 60,000 activations a day in January to 160,000 in June, and the Market up from 20,000 apps to 70,000 in a similar time-frame, which is concrete proof that android is working!

GFK is also reporting that advanced operating systems account for 66.6% of the contract market. This increase in Android adoption is likely due to the backing by companies like Htc, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and equally importantly the support of all major Network Providers (Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, 3, O2).

Overall it’s hard to see when it will stop growing and with Gingerbread right round the corner with a promised complete UI redesign we can’t see this growth stopping any time soon. The question is, when do you guys think it will reach the magic 50%, leave a comment below and start pondering!

Acer Streams into Media Phone market

Android UK — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:13:15 +0000

Looks like Star Pc manufacturer, Acer is finally bringing its top game to Android by releasing the forthcoming Stream.

This phone looks set to be one of the forerunners of the upcoming Android Media Phone revolution. This is a real monster under the hood, which has a focus on being a portable entertainment hub that will hopefully take the market by storm.

Nothing but the latest in handset technology has been crammed into this device- Wifi N, bluetooth 3.0, HD Video recording and Divx playback, its all here.When it comes to sharing video, you can either use the built in HDMI slot to connect to your HD Tv, or share it wirelessly via DLNA. It even sports Dolby digital!

Priced at £399 or 30 quid a month on an expansys deal it looks like it will be another great contender in the Android phone marketplace- hopefully we will find out more in August!

Click here to visit Acer’s awesome site and view the phone in 3d!

For more information and for Pre-orders visit the eXpansys site

Big News: We have a Forum and Device list!

Togsy — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:03:19 +0000

Anyone who has a sharp eye for detail will have noticed that over the past week or so two new items have been added to AndroidBloke along the top row of pages. Both of these items required a great deal of work and we are now proud to present to you our very own UK Android Forum and our Android Device List.

The Device List

This is a list of nearly all of the Android Phones that you can buy in the UK.

While it does not cover every phone, we are working on updating the list frequently to allow for the best possible user experience. This list was built with the intention of helping you decide what Android Phone is right for you by listing some current choices. To help you even further we have added extra useful information such as a detailed description, and what’s more, a list of the possible tariffs so you need look no further. Take a look at the example of the Htc Desire to the right.

We know that what’s great on paper doesn’t always mean great in practice, so as well as the description of the device, over the coming weeks we will be adding our own reviews of the devices to allow you to see what the phone is like and ask us questions about the specific device. We hope you will enjoy this great new feature.

The Forum!!!

This is the biggest news that we have had in a long time, and we feel that it is a great addition to our site and we hope you feel the same way.

We want this to be the place where you guys can chat with other Androidphiles (yes I think I just made that up) and talk about anything Android-based that you want. As you can see from the shot above there are at the moment 6 different catagories:

News and talk – this is where you talk about the latest and greatest news of Android
Android Lounge – Just chat Android
Apps and Games – Here you talk about apps you would like to see, or about you favourite apps
Android Devices – where you can chat about specific devices
All things rooted – for info about rooting you phone
Help – ICAE (In Case of Android Emergency)

At the moment it is not huge and we feel a lot more can be done to make it better, but that’s where you come in. The more time you spend on it helping and chatting with each other, the better a community it becomes. We are hoping to build on this and enhance it in many new ways.

Don’t be afraid to post, because you have to get the ball rolling, we have already started by asking questions and posting some thought-provoking ideas, but we can’t do it without your help.

So register( we won’t pass details onto anyone else) and start posting, because we will be announcing a great competition for our Forum members coming very very soon.

We hope you will enjoy our two great new features and please leave us some feedback and we look forward to hearing from you!

Official Android comes to large Huawei Android Tablet

Android UK — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:33:25 +0000

I am very excited to see that the Android team at Huawei towers have been busy getting ready to ship the first official Android 7inch Tablet. Official is good, because it means that in addition to its Android 2.1 OS, it will be rocking the official Android market and officially licensed google apps. This is the first android device to market that sports a near Ipad size 7inch screen and brings the Android OS to its largest screen to date. With a default resolution of 800 × 480 pixels there is lots more room to run your favourite Android Apps, in their full high res glory.

Online Store Expansys have been selected to be the official exclusive UK launch partner for the device when it launches towards the end of the month.

Key point Affordability!

The Ipad may have been the first to market, however the Huawei s7 looks set to be the first truly mass market tablet by being priced at a pocket friendly price point. Priced at only £299.99, it comes in at more than £130.00 cheaper than the basic Ipad Wifi only model but includes a lot of hardware that even the top of the range Ipad doesn’t have.

Ipad beating features

The Huawei S7 tablet comes equipped with all the now standard Android fare such as gravity, light sensor and 3G which are part of the premium Ipad package. On top of this it also includes a front facing camera, compass, removable battery and expandable Micros SD Card support all of which are surprisingly missing from Apple’s Ipad 3G To have all these built into this handset, really gives a fortune of opportunities to take tablet computing to the next level that users have come to expect from Android.

Currently the specs from Expansys don’t list it, but I have independently confirmed that GPS is included in the package.

Big Screen Android

Bearing in mind that none of these apps are optimized for the larger screen size at the moment , I am very excited to see if the apps improve productivity by taking advantage of the larger screen real estate.

The Tablet is due to hit Expansys in the next few weeks, you can pre-order the table by visiting the link below

Huawei S7 Android Tablet (WiFi, 3G, 7-inch Screen) – eXpansys UK.

Edit: The Expansys blog have posted their first hand’s on review with the device- check it out here:

Dell Streak Mini Tablet in the UK 4 June!

Android UK — Mon, 31 May 2010 11:15:23 +0000

Am very excited to confirm that Dell are shortly going to be unleashing their Dell Streak Tablet onto the UK Market on Friday this week( 4 June 2010). This represents the first major android tablet threat to go head to head with Apple’s iPad- and even though the sizes maybe different- the specs will no doubt impress.

Tablet+ Portability+Power

Weighing in at a massive 5inch screen the mini tablet maintains its portability whilst ensuring that there is enough screen size to do all the key tasks that you need out of it. Unlike the ipad, this is one handset that can be easily carried round and not consigned to the dedicated laptop/tablet bag. Its also tough enough to stand being lugged about with its toughened “gorilla” glass that can take all sorts of abuse and keep going.

Sporting the current Android Power Engine that is the the 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon, it also has 2 cameras, one front facing VGA for video chat and one 5MP camera –dual LED flash enabled.

For those Music/ Video fans, the Dell Streak will also act as a media hub with optional 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of upgradeable memory, means you will have a lot of space to fill up with your media files.

Current reports from Carphone Warehouse, indicate that it will run with Android 1.6 out of the box, along with Dell’s Enhanced Muliti-touch User interface. They have promised that this will be upgraded to Android 2.0 towards the the end of the year. ( Although I hope they do this a lot sooner)

Features confirmed include:

Facebook integration and Flickr uploading out of the box.
Built in Google Satnav

The tablet will be out in the next few days from O2 and Carphone warehouse.

For Full Specs:

Visit Dell Streak Coming soon page on Dell.co.uk

Carphone Warehouse Dell Streak Page

Motorola MILESTONE delayed past Magic December 11th

Android UK — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:39:08 +0000

Expansys have updated their website to reflect a further 4 days until the release of the Motorola Milestone in the UK. This puts the current estimated date at 14th/15th December which will be cutting it close to make it into those Christmas stockings.

Users have been remonstrating on the expansys Discussion Board, and knowing how great this phone is I can understand their frustrations at wanting the phone yesterday. I was very tempted to pre-order the phone yesterday, however with a massively dented Christmas credit card- I will have to wait until next year to partake in the Motorola Milestone experience.

A further interesting point is that this puts the handset firmly past the magic December 11th 2009 date where the following is confirmed:

There will be a new update to the Motorola Droid released
The new terms and conditions for the Android Market will come into force.

So far rumours about the 11 December date, have included an updated android market, the release of Android 2.1 and the release of a desktop client for Android. I am not sure how many of these rumoured items will come through, but I am certain that there is something being planned.

So for all the rioting customers on Expansys who are holding a mini revolution against Expansys-

Here is a rundown of the corrected information from their support boards.

Expansys may have stock in as soon as tomorrow (Expansys confirmed in a statement)
Yes it is unlocked and thus will run on any network
Yes it will receive future Android updates
Yes you can purchase Apps through the Android market using it
Yes you will be able to unlock it ( info supplied by Wired via T3) unless they fix the hole by then!

So don’t bother cancelling your pre-orders- your phone could be coming sooner than you think!

I personally wouldn’t want to rob myself of spending Christmas and New year showing off their shiny new Milestones to friends and family over the sake of a few extra days.

To keep yourselves occupied for the wait why not watch the Droid guided tour below to brush up on the new handset.

Or spend some time drooling over the amazing Verizon Droid adverts which I have converted into a nice Milestone Youtube playlist.

Motorola MILESTONE page at eXpansys UK.

Countdown to Motorola Milestone UK!

Android UK — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:15:54 +0000

After spending so much time staring jealously at our American cousins with their shiny new verizon Droids, finally our wait is nearing an end.

Expansys, the UK electronics retailer has announced that they will launch the UK exclusive for the Motorola Milestone in the run up to Christmas.

Since the handset’s launch in the USA, coupled with a mega $100 million marketing budget, the devices has gone on to become the fastest selling Android handset with estimates of as much as 700 000 units sold to date. ( according to cnet). If this trend continues, it will easily dwarf the sales of the trusty Tmobile G1.

The main selling points of the handset are

First Handset to be launched with Android 2.0 ( see my post on android 2.0 Eclair)
Thinnest Android phone with slide out keyboard
Massive 3.7inch high resolution display
Superfast Processor
Multitouch user interface
5Mp camera with Flash
Google Maps navigation -allows turn by turn directions using Google Maps.
is compatible with a stream of accessories such as a car mount and bedside dock, turning it into the ultimate alarm clock.

This is the second Motorola handset which has been launched onto the market after the Motorola Dext ( review coming soon!) . Unlike the Motorola Dext, the milestone is a branded “with google” handset, which means that it is unlikely to receive the much lauded, MOTOBLUR Customization. The handset is due to be delivered on 7th December 2009 and is up for pre-order now. This wonder handset will set you back £449.99 (or one really awesome Christmas present) or £50.00 one off and £35.00 per month on an 18month Tmobile contract.

Motorola MILESTONE page on Expansys.com UK.

Its DEXT Day- Motorola is back with force

Android UK — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:20:00 +0000

Motorola fired back into the market today with its gun’s blazing!

MOTO launched an opening salvo right into the path of HTC by debuting its newly minted Dext Handset on the Orange Network. HTC can’t be too happy about this, as the launch of this exciting device will not doubt overshadow the launch of its forthcoming Pay-As-You-Go HTC Tattoo phone over on Vodafone.

From today, Orange has promised us we will be able to pick up the handset from any Orange/ Phones4U or online shop and begin to enjoy the eye candy that is Motoblur ( check it out here)

If you want to see it in actionn or find out more check out the Motorola Dext online Demo or their Facebook page.

Being a G1 owner, I must admit, this is the first phone to have me genuinely excited and I was half contemplating going to collect one from the newly launched Orange multimedia store in Milton Keynes yesterday.

This handset has the distinct advantage of having Motorola’s unique Motoblur customization of Android which promises unified messaging (across facebook, twitter and email) as well as other benefits including backup and security in addition to the best of breed services from the most popular apps from the Market.

The main advantage of this phone is that it is the second UK handset released in the UK to sport a slide out qwerty keyboard. Coupled with the 5MP camera, this phone is a great debut for Motorola and seriously has me looking putting my G1 into my freecycle pile.

Look out for a detailed review of the handset in the next 2 weeks!

Motorola DEXT – MOTOBLUR – Android phone – Motorola United Kingdom.

Archos 5 flagship goes Android on September 14

Android UK — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:45:54 +0000

Back in May, Archos promised us an Android based media player. Looks like they have delivered and are due to announce that their Flagship MID (Media and Internet Device) Archos 5 will be built on Android. Since the original Archos 5 was built around Flash, it looks like Android’s burgeoning support for Flash has made porting across the software across a breeze.

Already Archos have been courting developers by launching Appslib their own market place for Android devices with larger screens. From the way the website is set out, it appears that Archos are also trying to get other manufacturers on board with Appslib which will hopefully mean more Android Media Devices in the long term.

We know that Google has it sights targeted at the Iphone, but could devices like the Archos 5 with some juiced up user interface, like the HTC Hero has , offer serious enough competition to unseat the Ipod Touch dominance of the market?

The existing Archos 5 site offers a glimpse into what we can expect in September.

Highlights for me are

Slimline design
All touch screen access to huge storage (at least 60GB)
Massive 5inch screen
HD Support
TV Recording Playback ( Via Archos DVR Station)
Support for PDF, WMV and Divx Support

All that coupled with existing Android functionality and Apps installation and we could be in for a really great Christmas stocking-filler. The only concern I have is how some of the apps designed for the smaller screen will scale up, however I am sure that this is nothing that a bit of tweaking can’t resolve.

Here’s looking forward to September.

(Thanks to Pocketables for the heads up.)