Want something easy to read and digest about smartphone and camera? Discover Your Gadget (Dygadget) is what you looking for!
We simplify all specification for easy reading and understanding as well! We did review for smartphone and camera honestly and more on layman terms.
Remember the little tiny camera by packed with huge full frame sensor from Sony? Yup you got it right! Sony Cyber-shot RX1 just got a replacement, known as RX1R. It is exactly same with RX1 except, RX1R has no anti-aliasing (AA) filter.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1R Key Specification :
24.3 megapixels
Full frame (35.8 x 23.9 mm) CMOS sensor
ISO 100 - 25600
35 mm f2 lens
25 Number of focus points
3″ fixed LCD screen
1920 x 1080 (60, 50, 25, 24 fps)
The MSRP of the RX1R is exactly the same as the regular RX1 ($2800), which will continue to be sold.
My Opinion : Kinda disappointed the RX1R wasn't a huge upgrade from RX1. So for existing owner of RX1, move on for the next gen RX. This isn't worth it unless you prefer extra sharpness on ur images due to lack of AA filter.
Sony announced RX100 II too, as replacement for the first generation RX100. It features a new 20.2 megapixel 1-inch back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, which Sony claims is 40% more sensitive in low light than its predecessor. The 3-inch WhiteMagic LCD now articulates (84 degrees up, 45 degrees down), allowing for easier composition. Another major addition is a Multi Interface Shoe, which can not only accept an external flash, but also an electronic viewfinder or stereo microphone. The RX100 II also has Wi-Fi and NFC capability, which allows for one-touch photo transfer between camera and smart devices.
Sony Cyber-shot RX100 Key Specification :
20.2 megapixels
1″ (13.2 x 8.8 mm) CMOS sensor
ISO 200 - 25600
28–100 mm F1.8 - F4.9 lens
25 Number of focus points
3″ tilting LCD screen
1920 x 1080 (60 fps)
NFC
Wi-Fi
The RX100 II will be available next month for $750.
My Opinion : Physical design wise, nothing much change except the hotshoe and also tiltable LCD screen at the back. However, it is a huge upgrades in terms of sensor and also Wi-Fi enable. Sadly the lens still pretty slow on telezoom. Wish they could put f1.8-2.5 like Olympus did on their XZ series.
Finally, Sony Xperia Z Ultra goes official! It is the company first Phablet Android powered device. It all weighs in at 212 grams (over 50 grams more than the Xperia Z) but the body has been slimmed down to a mere 6.5mm uniform thickness. In addition, use the same design language as Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z - OmniBalance. It also come with TRILUMINOS display with Sony bravia engine which reproduces a greater range of rich, natural colours to deliver true and natural shades.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra will become direct competition for Samsung Galaxy Note range since it capable of pick up any pencil or pen with conductive tip and you can start writing or drawing on the screen. You can also write during calls, so you’ll always be ready capture your thoughts as they happen.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra Key Specification :
6.4 inch with 1080p resolution
2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 Krait 400
Adreno 330 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB internal memory with microSD slot
8-megapixel back facing camera with Exmor RS sensor
2-megapixel front facing camera
IP 58
LTE
3,000mAh
Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Sony Xperia Z Ultra will launch globally from Q3 2013 in white, black and purple. Pricing still unknown.
My Opinion : Finally! Sony managed to chase and even surpass all it's competitor in terms of hardware. They decided to skip S600 processor and went ahead with S800. Not to mentioned the ability to draw on the screen with pencil or pen it just sound good for artist! Now, I would love to see the review how good is the screen as well as is there any press pressure when using pen/pencil to draw.
It is time for Fujifilm X-M1 to join the mirrorless competition together with X-E1 and X-Pro 1. Fujifilm X-M1 is the company entry level mirrorless that packed with all spec same with it's sibling.
Fujifilm X-M1 Key Specification :
16.3 megapixel
X-Trans APS-C CMOS sensor
ISO 200 - 6400
3.0 inch tiltable screen
49 point AF
5.6fps burst
1920×1080 30p, 1280×720 30p video recording
built in wi-fi
The Fujifilm X-M1 will hit the store by July with price tag of $699.95 for body only.
In the same time, Fujifilm announce new kit zoom, the XC 16-50mm F3.6-5.6 OIS that offers a 24-75mm equivalent range and optical stabilisation, but has no aperture ring. The kit lens will come together with X-M1 with price tag $799.95.
Fujifilm also has introduced the XF 27mm F2.8, a compact 'pancake' lens. It's just 23mm thick and weighs only 78g, making it by far the smallest X-mount lens. unfortunately there is no aperture ring, so X-Pro1 and X-E1 owners will need to update their firmware to allow aperture setting from the camera's rear control dial. It'll be available in black and silver, at an MSRP of $449.95.
My Opinion : Great! I been hearing how great is X-Trans sensor rival against full frame sensor. The entry level Fujifilm X-M1 is priced at affordable range, ready to compete with all mirrorless on current market. If I wasn't fond on my Olympus camera, I wouldn't mind grab 1 for myself anytime. In fact, I am tempted to invest on Fujifilm system too in near future.
We know this day will come from Samsung. Samsung has announced the Galaxy NX: the world's first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera running the Android operating system.
Samsung Galaxy NX Key Specification :
20.3 megapixels
APS-C (23.5 x 15.7 mm) CMOS Sensor
DRIMe IV Imaging processor
ISO 100 - 25600
Samsung NX lens mount
Electronic viewfinder with SVGA resolution (800x600px)
4.8″ fixed LCD screen
1.6GHz quad-core processor
2GB RAM
16GB internal memory with expandable microSD
3G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi
4,360mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Pricing and availability still unknown but we wouldn't be surprise if it cost more than RM 3,000 and above.
My Opinion : Samsung has overtake apple in terms of smartphone. But how about camera segment? Samsung is trying to be difference from other competitor now in terms of mirrorless camera. Yes, they are not the first one using android OS powered camera but at least, their's not half baked. Now my main concern will be how's Android system handling the camera performance? Is the auto focus fast enough? Is the battery life good enough for me to use for whole day shooting? Will the camera have sudden OS crash? It is interesting concept but I am not convincing enough if the three question I asked doesnt satisfy me. Of course image quality is another section to argue. Meanwhile, I still prefer stick to a proper camera.
UPDATED : Our mistake. It seem like HTC Butterfly S is not waterproof anymore. We saw the picture that the USB pork wasn't cover up and we believe it wasn't waterproof.
Seem like HTC never take a rest. HTC Butterfly S officially announces to replace the company first ever waterproof phone, HTC Butterfly.
HTC Butterfly S Key Specification :
5 inch S-LCD 3 with 1080p resolution
1.9GHz Quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
2GB RAM
16GB Internal storage with expandable microSD slot
4MP back facing camera with Ultra pixel sensor
2MP front facing camera
3200mAh
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Sense 5
The HTC Butterfly S is expected to debut in Taiwan for NT $22,900 (US $766) in July.
My Opinion : Better spec than HTC One except it wasn't construct with aluminium. But, it come with expandable microSD card and also bigger battery, 3200 mAh. Not to mention all features like HTC Zoe, Boomsound and Blinkfeed.
The world thinnest smartphone is here! Huawei Ascend P6 marked 6.18mm thickness only and also weight at 120 grams. Not to mention the screen will work with glove on.
Huawei Ascend P6 Key Specification :
4.7 inch in-cell LCD with 720p resolution
1.5GHz Quad core K3V2 chipset Cortex-A9 processor
2GB RAM
8MP back facing camera (BSI, F2.0) with 1080p video recording
5MP front facing camera
8GB internal memory with expandable microSD
dual-SIM
2000 mAh
Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Huawei's Emotion UI
Most likely, Huawei Ascend P6 will available after July. Pricing still unknown at the moment.
My Opinion : The design look really premium and attractive. Though alot will say it look's like iPhone 5. Nevertheless, it is a beauty and a beast device. Nice slim profile, nice hardware though cortex-A9 seem like last year tech and nice front facing camera pixel :P
Finally another variant from Samsung Galaxy S4 line. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is the first hybrid smartphone and camera that offered Xenon flash and 10x optical zoom. Bear in mind it is still a smartphone and difference from Samsung Galaxy Camera.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Key Specification :
4.3" Super AMOLED display with 960x540 of resolution
1.5GHz dual-core processor
1.5GB RAM
8GB internal memory with expandable microSD
16MP back facing camera with 1080p video recording @ 30fps
24mm-240mm with f3.1-6.3
LTE
2330mAh
Android 4.2.2
Pricing and availability still unknown.
My Opinion : The spec is rather similar with Galaxy S4 mini. I am quite curious on the sensor size they use. If it is still 1/3.2, I really felt that no point getting this unless you're really desperate for the optical zooming. If the price is competitive with Galaxy Camera, I'll take Galaxy Camera anytime for bigger camera sensor, more optical zoom and quad core processor. I just lost the telephony function.
UPDATED : Not all iOS 7 features will be available at all iDevices especially the older generation. source from GSMArena
Sadly only iPad 2 get the least features which is iTune Radio.
In case you miss out last night keynote from Apple WWDC 2013, fear not! We are here to cover the brand new iOS 7 improvement compare with previous version.
New look
After 6 version on iOS, finally the 7th iOS version revamp a brand new UI. Apple decided to use flat design on both icon and also UI elements. All system icons are redesigned around a standardized grid to unify the look. It also features an animated wallpapers (not a live wallpaper in Android) and there's a dynamic parallax effect between the icons and the wallpaper as you turn and tilt your phone.
Multitasking
Finally a real multitask from iOS! Apple claim the new multitask system allows apps to update much more often, while not wasting battery.
Enhanced Siri
New UI which is card-based UI and new services to provide answers to your questions (Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing, take that Google). The new Siri also capable of controlling your iDevice (increase brightness, turn on Bluetooth) and it offers a new lively voice (both female and male) for English, French and German.
New Notification Center
The notification center seem a total revamped and it offer alot info such as birthdays, weather, upcoming events from the calendar, stocks and even some info for tomorrow. Notification center will show up on the lockscreen and once you dismiss a notification, it goes away on the other devices too so you don't have to see the same notification multiple times. Pretty good!
Toggles
I am very sure Android user familiar with toggles. To access toggles, just swip up from the bottom of the screen. The toggles able to control screen brightness and the music player, the new AirDrop feature, and AirPlay along with some app shortcuts, including a flashlight toggle.
New camera UI
As much as I like simplicity, the new camera UI in iOS 7 is totally simple! Clean and nice. The new camera features four modes – regular stills and video, square photos with color effects (hi, Instagram) and panorama.
New Photos Gallery
The photo gallery has new UI too and provided automatic Geo tagging now. It sort your photos based on where and when you took them with automatically putting a title to the album. Zooming out shows new auto-generated albums for multi-day trips and zooming out even further groups the photos in years.
Updates on Safari
The Safari browser for iOS has new 3D UI for switching tabs and you're no longer limited to only 8 tabs. The browser now features a single smart search filed rather than having two fields - one for URL typing and another one for initiating Google searches. Another features is allowed you swipe from the sides of the screen to go back and forth through your browsing history.
New App Store
Well not visually new but the new app store now allowed automatic apps update and also suggest apps based on your location.
Facetime
The new facetime now available audio only option.
AirDrop
No NFC? No problem. Got AirDrop! It uses a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection to share stuff with other nearby user.
iTunes Radio
The music player get revamped too to iTunes Radio.
Weather
Looking on the weather very quickly remind me of HTC weather. Anyway the new weather allowed yout o check forecast for the next five days. You can check the weather of one location or all of them at once.
iOS 7 is available for the iPhone in beta today (If you're developer). In the Fall, iOS 7 will be available on iPhone 4 and later, iPod touch 5th gen, iPad mini and iPad 2 and later.
So what do you think the new revamped iOS 7? I like the UI alot. Simple and nice. However I still love something more customizeable especially on my main home screen.
Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Ace 3, the entry level Android smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 Key Specification :
4-inch TFT LCD display with WVGA resolution
1GHz dual-core processor
1.2GHz dual-core processor (LTE version)
1GB RAM
4GB internal memory with expandable microSD
8GB internal memory with expandable microSD (LTE version)
5MP back facing camera, 720p HD @30fps video
VGA front facing camera
LTE (selected regions)
dual-SIM (selected regions)
1,500mAh
1,800mAh (LTE version)
Android 4.2
Price and availability still unknown.
My Opinion : Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 still maintain the spirit of the past generation of Ace devices but follow Galaxy S4 design language. Sadly those fancy features from S4 wasn't port over to Ace 3. In addition the LTE variant has difference spec than 3G version seem confusing. Why can't Samsung just standardize the hardware? Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 gonna rival against Sony Xperia L (which currently price under RM899 - come with bigger screen, better camera, NFC built in and Play Station certificated) so I am interested to know what's the price tag Ace 3 gonna be.
It has been almost a month since I got myself a HTC One. So I guess it is time and fair enough to have full review from me. Let's start with the specification and key features of HTC One.
4.7-inch Super LCD 3 with 1080p resolution (469ppi)
1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600
Adreno 320
2GB RAM
32/64 GB internal memory
4MP back facing camera with 1080p@30fps video recording (with HDR)
2.1MP front facing camera
NFC
2300 mAh
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Design & Built Quality
I do understand that in terms of design, everyone has their own preference. For me, HTC One does look beautiful though front design very much resemble iPhone 5 and Blackberry Z10. In comparison with Sony Xperia Z, I actually love Z design more. However, HTC One design just look simple, clean and as if it is one of your hand when you hold it. Well, of course the 4.7" screen size is good enough for my small palm.
HTC One is built by aluminium which definitely solid and feel nice..premium anyone? I admit I love this material but it came with a price. I have a black unit and black paint easily chipped off if accidentally scratches. The black unit also finger oil magnet eventhough it is easy to removed. The aluminium not completely solid either. It is still scratch able and easily dent. I have been taking care with it extra carefully this whole month and thanks goodness my unit still look perfectly brand new. For silver unit, the paint and finger oil won't happen. There are few users reported that the beatsaudio logo at the back easily fade off with a couple of sweat on the hand when holding the phone.
Casing is definitely needed if you wanna maintain the phone in perfect condition.
User Interface (UI)
HTC One running the latest Sense, 5.0. It came to my understanding that how much Sense 5 actually toned down compare to previous version. It has been toned down until the stage it very close to Vanilla Android. I like it very much. It just simple, fast, no fancy animation and nice looking icon. There are alot difference operation manner in Sense 5.0 compare with standard android. I'll talk more about it later. The total home screen has been strip down to 5 only including 1 of them occupied by Blinkfeed by default.
I have no complain on Sense 5. In fact, I love it more than Sony Timescape and Vanilla Android on Nexus now. Samsung Touchwiz never be my favourite from day 1.
Blinkfeed
All news under one homepage. It wouldn't hurt to have one since once in a while I enjoy scrolling around and reading the news headline. However it still lack of flexibility and customization. I can't add my own RSS feed.
Love it or hate it, the Blinkfeed gonna stuck in your first page of home screen. You can't remove it but you can choose not to use it. Just set other panel as your home and move on. Who know coming Sense/Android update from HTC enable Blinkfeed activation?
HTC Sense 5.0 operation manner compare with standard Android
In Sense 5.0, a long tap on empty home screen will zoom out the screen and allow you to add widget, apps and shortcut to your home screen. This apply too when you pinch to zoom out. During that mode, you can add, remove and set as home for the panel. As I mention earlier, you can add your apps to home screen via here. You can also go to the apps drawer and hold the apps to create a shortcut to home screen by dragging it to the top left (or uninstall it by dragging to top right). Yup it took extra 1 step compare to Android standard system.
In addition, whatever apps you drag out from the app tray will actually duplicated the app to the home screen instead of just bringing it out.
You cannot press back button to return to home screen from app drawer. You either click the app drawer to back to home screen, or simply tap the home button on your phone.
How to put app to your app tray? Just go to app drawer and simply drag the app you want to the tray.The apps will no longer appear in your apps drawer but in apps tray only. Weird right? What's more weird is the time and weather widget in the 1st page of app drawer. I guess HTC just love this too much since it even appear in your lock screen and Blinkfeed.
HTC One only had two hardware button. Thus, the home button actually playing three role, as home button, multitask button and also Google Now button. A single tap on the home button will result you return to your main home screen. Double tap it and you will go to your multitask window. Total 9 task can be display here. To remove existing task, just simply swipe it up. A long press on the home button will guide you to Google Now.
I couldn't get used to it all this operation manner at the first few day. However after a week of usage, slowly I adapted to it and right now I have no problem using it. It just a matter as a user you willing to learn or not. It wasn't that hard to accept it anyway.
Camera
HTC One came with 4 Megapixel camera. Yup you din see wrongly. It is 4MP. HTC try to slow down the Megapixel race compare with other competitor. As compensate, HTC One camera actually come with Ultrapixel Sensor. What is Ultrapixel sensor? To put it in layman term, Ultrapixel actually 2 times bigger than normal pixel in normal sensor.
The smaller the pixel, the less light each one collects. This results in more visible noise and other defects in both still images and video. HTC claim that the Ultrapixel Sensor can capture 300% more light than many of the 13 megapixel cameras on the market. Because larger pixels record more light and data, the photos display more shades and greater color accuracy.
The camera UI in HTC One is simple. The left side only come with three quick setting buttons which is flash, HTC Zoe and setting. However I dislike the lack of customization for quick setting. I have to take extra step whenever I wanna change some camera setting. I hope HTC Coming update at least slot two more quick setting option on left side which are switch between back and front camera and also ISO setting.
On the lower right are some effect that can be found from all previous HTC phones. Unfortunately I never fancy using it. I found myself enjoy using HTC Zoe more. Let's move on.
Picture and Video Quality
HTC has been claiming the Ultrapixel sensor is working well despite being 4MP. I agree. The camera has been served me well and I enjoy shooting using the camera. The only things I complained about the camera already been discussed on my first impression. However 4MP still 4MP. The photo suffer quite alot details loss when 100% crop is done. Of course, it look's great if you don't crop it.
I even went to Tanjung Sepat trip without bringing my main camera gear and shoot all the way with HTC One.
I am not gonna debate on the image quality on HTC One camera. You gonna be the judge. For me, it works very well and satisfied me. If I need something better, I can just grab on my Olympus E-P3 anytime.
HTC One capable to record full HD 1080p at 30fps video. In addition, the camera installed with 2 axis OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) which are yaw & pitch.
The OIS work pretty well and it is a bonus for people who love to do video with mobile phone. During my test with the video, it doesn't suffer focus hunting. In fact, it lock target pretty perfectly despite the target and myself move around aggressively. Thumb up to HTC One video and I won't hesitate using it to record video for my coming HK trip.
HTC Zoe
There are two things in HTC Zoe. First is on the camera itself and another 1 is the photos gallery. Just click the middle button on the camera to activate Zoe (you'll see Zoe word came out at bottom middle) and when you snap (the shutter button goes red), you're actually snapping 3 second video (sound included!). There are 20 frames in the 3 second video. You can edit the video with few retouch function from HTC Zoe.
Go to edit then retouch the photo.
You'll see a bunch of retouch you can do in the photo. It is fun to play around. My favorite is none other than Sequence Shot and also always smile.
If you still unsure how HTC Zoe works, here a perfect video demo for you to watch.
Another HTC Zoe function are actually in the photos gallery.
On your first click of gallery, you'll see a bunch of weird things inside (Assuming you already signed in native Facebook app). That's because Sense 5.0 imported all your Facebook friends photo into the gallery. You can actually just refresh the gallery to check out any new photo posted up by your Facebook friends.
It is annoying to me at first but I couldn't care less later since it just simply no way to remove it unless you remove the Facebook app from your account. Click in my photos (the one on top once you open your gallery) and you will be bringing into a another page.
By clicking the top left, you're given choices to choose between Albums, Events and Locations.
I am pretty sure HTC user familiar with Albums. It is default gallery UI for the previous Sense. Here, all photos are categorized depending on your pictures folder name.
What I gonna highlight and talk more about is the Events type album which integrated with HTC Zoe.
You can see all your pictures are categorized by date or name (if you rename it). Long press on it and you're given few options to view, delete, merge to, split to or rename.
By clicking into one of the events, you'll notice a big thumbnail that previewing some pics in the events. Yup, that's 30 second video created by HTC Zoe. Everything is automated! A 30 second video can be done with a snap of finger. Click the video thumbnail to customize the video.
Click on the top right option and click select content.
Here you can select contents in the same Events album to be apart of HTC Zoe video. Unfortunately only 13 items max and I wish there is an option for me to arrange the sequence as well. Done selecting your content just hit next and your video are done.
To enhance more, click the bottom right button and you're given choice for song and effect. Each song come with difference effect and you can only use the preset given by HTC. Done selecting just hit save and you're good to go to share the video to the world! As I said, everything is automated.
However HTC Zoe still got limitation that I wish HTC could update it in future to allow it be more flexible which are allow to arrange contents sequence and also insert own song into the video.
HTC TV
Infrared is back to the game. HTC One is packed with IR Blaster (which also act as power button) which allowed to act as TV Remote control. It is easy to customize as long as your TV model is in the list. I customize one for my house together with Astro (as cable box).
What I like more is it show all shows that currently showing on the TV and a click to the show I wanna watch, it instantly change the channel for me. You can easily set reminder and schedule the show as well.
Song and Video playback
I am not audiophile. But HTC One speaker is definitely loud and one of the best. I show it to one of my audiophile friend to listen and he was impressed.
Watching video in phone is awesome as well. As mentioned in the spec earlier, HTC One come with 1080p display with S-LCD 3. The native video player allowed screenshot of the video you're watching. This function is available in previous HTC Sense too.
Internal Memory
HTC One come with both 32GB and 64GB internal memory but no expendable micro SD. I got myself a 32GB unit and so far it is still enough for me. Guess I don't really store much stuffs in my phone and most of them are photos. I even got myself a USB OTG to compensate the loss of external memory card.
It is easy to use and safety removed too.
However the main reason for myself getting a USB OTG is not to mount a pendrive, but to mount my camera cable. I can easily transfer pictures from my camera to my phone for Instagram.
Battery
HTC One easily can has 3-4 hours on screen time for a single full charge. On normal usage it can easily last me a day (unplug on 6am and battery almost died on 10-11pm). There is once I am too busy with my work and didn't touch my phone that much and it can last me for 2 days. So does the battery life sound convincing for you?
However charging the phone is abit pain in ass. It took approximately 4-5 hours for full charge with the original charger from HTC. I am surprise the charger output power only 1A.
Verdict
No phone is perfect in this world. There are alot pros and cons in HTC One. It just the matter does it meet your requirement or not. For me personally, yes definitely. The speaker, the camera, the Zoe and also user friendly UI has become the main reason why I decided to change my phone to HTC One. I compared the same camera features with my friend who currently owned a Samsung Galaxy S4 and he agreed the HTC Zoe is more user friendly.
Alot features in HTC One work as it advertised but still lack of customization. Hopefully future update will improve it. Android 4.2.2 is coming to HTC One soon.
P/s There are rumors HTC will be releasing HTC One Mini (4.3") and also HTC One Max (5.9") that carried HTC One design language. The One Mini will have a strip down on processor and screen display and One Max will have S800 processor.
