Fresh Out the Labs : Back2School Part 2

This week was another great week of premières in the mobile world. On Tuesday, Motorola partnered up with Intel to unveil one of the first Android phone running on an Intel processor and yesterday, HTC revealed 2 new Windows Phone 8 handsets. Lets get right into it !

Motorola Razr I

The Motorola Razr I

In the last edition of Fresh Out the Labs, I wrote about Motorola's new line of Razr but they chose to release this version in a special event on Tuesday. The reason behind that is because it is their first phone that is powered by a processor made by Intel, the Atom. Usually, the processors you can find in smartphones are products from specialized manufacturers like Qualcomm, Nvidia or Texas Instruments. The Atom packed in the Razr I is clocked at an impressive 2 GHz which allows the phone to launch the camera app almost instantly. Speaking of camera, the device sports what is now the standard of 8 mega-pixel and a front-facing camera of 0.3 mpx. It also has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory expandable with a microSD card, NFC connectivity and the same humongous 2,000 mAh battery you can find in the other new Rarzs. It also comes with Motorola's innovative edge to edge screen with a resolution of 540x960 which is 4.3 inches in size. The phone will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but will be upgradable to Android 4.1 JellyBean like the other Razr. Currently it does not run Google's Chrome browser but it is said that a version supporting the Intel processor will come before or shortly after launch. It surely looks like an incredible device but since it is the first model to include an Intel processor, I would not buy it and be what some people will call Motorola's guinea pig.


HTC

The HTC 8X

HTC 

HTC has been one of the oldest partner in the Windows Phone endeavor and they always had great success with it. Their new line of Windows 8 handsets have been developed closely with Microsoft so the final product's hardware plays well with the new software. HTC presented two new devices yesterday, the Windows Phone 8X and the Windows Phone 8S. The 8S is the affordable version of the 8X so I am going to focus on the best of those two. The most appealing feature is the Beats audio technology that is integrated in both physical and software parts of the phone. It will run on a Qualcomm S4 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU and will be packing 1 GB of RAM. The 8X sports a 8 mega-pixel camera in the back, a much appreciated 2.1 mega-pixel front-facing camera and a dedicated physical camera button. It comes with NFC connectivity like most new cellphones, a 1280x720 4.3 inches screen and a 1,800 mAh battery. If we compare it to Nokia's latest Windows Phone, it lacks LTE connectivity, wireless charging and microSD card support. The microSD part is the most deceiving because it is supposed to be a Beats device, one that you would use to play a lot of music with so it kind of sucks not having the possibility of expanding the storage. Both phones will be available through Bell and Rogers here in Canada and will cost around 199 $. I can't wait to try one out for myself !

PAF