LG Optimus 7 vs Samsung Omnia 7
As the mad rush that followed the highly anticipated launch of Windows Phone 7 has more or less died down, it’s now time to step back and and take a good look at the handsets to decide whether you want to invest in one or not. We’ve already seen the LG Optimus 7 pitched against HTC’s 7 Trophy, but how will it compare when it stands toe-to-toe with its main rival from Samsung? With its big, 4-inch AMOLED screen, the Omnia 7 has set itself apart from the pack. But, which is the better phone? We engaged the two handsets in a tense spec-off to see which came out best…
Form Factor
- Winner: Omnia 122.4 x 64.2 x 10.99mm; 138.5g
- Loser: Optimus 125 x 59.8 x 11.5mm; 157g
Size is an important factor to consider when you’re shopping for a smartphone, as it’s something that you’re going to be carrying around with you all day long. Although smartphones tend to be on the larger side in order to accommodate their luxuriously large screens, it’s still important that they’re small enough to slip into a pocket. At 122.4mm long, the Samsung is shorter than the more elongated LG handset, while it’s also considerably lighter and slightly slimmer too. On account of its compact dimensions, the Samsung storms into the lead on the first round. Read more 
Developer Support for Windows Phone 7 and Android Increasing
According to a survey conducted by Millenial Media in collaboration with Digiday and Stifel Nicolaus, there is a significant shift underway away from the iOS platform to Windows Phone 7 as well as the Android Platform. Android will see the most attention from developers with an increase from 23% currently to 29%. In an interesting development Windows Phone 7 will move from a current 6% to 20% of developer share. The most interesting and fan-boy backlash inducing figure is that developers expect to reduce their projects for the iPhone from 31% to a surprising 8%. While these types of surveys should always be taken with a grain of salt, if things play out this way both Microsoft and Google will be able to provide competitive app libraries for the respective platforms.
Samsung Continuum vs. DROID X, DROID 2, Incredible, Fascinate
We just posted the “Top Things to Know” for the Samsung Continuum over at Android Life, but we also have this sheet which shows how the device compares to the rest of Verizon’s lineup of top Android phones including the entire Droid family. Wondered how its “Ticker” matches up against the Droid X, D2, or Incredible? What about the Fascinate? Here you go.
HTC Desire HD vs HTC Desire
While there’s no doubt that one is a more up to date and spec-wise superior handset, the question is: how much better is it? Sitting there with cash in hand, is it worth shelling out the extra on the HTC Desire HD or is the experience just as good on the straight Desire? Would you be best off going cheap and biding your time for the next upgrade instead? With the current market difference around £100, AIVAnet investigates.
Form Factor
- HTC Desire :119 x 60 x 11.9mm; 135g
- HTC Desire HD :123 x 68 x 11.8 mm, 164g Read more
HTC HD7 vs Samsung Omnia 7
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is finally here, complete with a selection of handsets to choose from. HTC’s flagship phone is the HD7 which is similar to the Android-based HTC Desire and is being widely tipped as the one to watch. However, Samsung’s Omnia 7 is sure be a serious contender as well with a similarly featured spec list. One, thing is certain – the two flagship handsets from the big players will have to battle it out to see who comes out as top dog. But which one wins the spec-off? There’s only one way to find out. Fight! Or you could just read our head-to-head…
Read more
Internet Explorer falls below 50 percent global marketshare, Chrome usage triples
According to Stat Counter, Microsoft’s browser has officially fallen below the 50 percent market share mark to 49.87 percent. Firefox holds relatively strong at 31.5 percent and Chrome is soaring with 11.54 percent having only launched just over 2 years ago.
In Europe, IE market share has fallen to 40.26% in September this year from 46.44% in September last year. While in North America IE is still above 50% at 52.3% followed by Firefox at 27.21% and Chrome at 9.87%. The rise of Google Chrome in North America has also been impressive and in June it overtook Safari for the first time.
Expectedly it’s the geeks and early adopters that appear to be driving Chrome’s growth. One reader highlights that fact by revealing that out of 55,000 visitors to his site from Hacker News (an entrepreneurial/early adopter community), only 1.13 percent were using Internet Explorer.
Android is number one OS among US phone buyers over the last six months
Android’s exponential growth has today been illustrated by Nielsen’s statisticians who present us with the above chart of recent US smartphone purchases. It shows that over the six months leading up to August 2010, 32 percent of American new phone buyers had grabbed themselves a device with Google’s OS on board, which is comfortably ahead of RIM at 26 percent and Apple at 25 percent. These results corroborate NPD’s figures on the matter — which peg Android at 33 percent of new US purchases — and reiterate the idea that Android is headed to a place whose name starts with D and ends with omination. One more chart showing total market share can be found after the break (hint: BlackBerry still reigns supreme overall).
HTC Desire HD vs Samsung Galaxy S
HTC has been leading the way for a couple of years now when it comes to Android smartphones, and it’s just upped the ante once more by unveiling the long-rumoured Desire HD, along with a 4.3-inch touchsreen and HD video recording. Meanwhile, Samsung has been gunning for a slice of the Android phone market with its usual tenacity, but can the Samsung Galaxy S compete with HTC’s new weapon of choice?
Form Factor
- Galaxy s 122 x 64 x 9.9mm; 118g
- HTC Desire HD : 123 x 68 x 11.8 mm, 164g
The Galaxy S is not only shorter and slimmer than the Desire HD, it’s also a great deal lighter. Although its lightweight design won’t put too much pressure on your pockets, is does mean that it doesn’t really have the feel of a premium phone. However, thanks to it’s sheer portability it beats the HTC in this round. Read more
Android web browsers speed test
Of course, look-and-feel and features aren’t everything–good old speed counts as well. To find out which browsers walk the walk on speed, we compared page-load speeds of Opera Mini, Skyfire, Dolphin HD, and Fennec, and contrasted those speeds with those of the stock Android 2.1 and 2.2 browsers. We tested all browsers on a Droid X phone, except for Fennec; the browser worked only on the HTC EVO 4G.
We chose our test Web pages for their diversity of content. ThrasherMagazine.com is extremely media-heavy, with a mix of video formats. Wikipedia is mostly text-based. PCWorld.com and NYTimes.com contain a mix of text, images, and ads. Amazon.com contains text, small images, and e-commerce elements. In all cases we tested the desktop versions of the sites, eschewing the stripped-down mobile versions.
For each browser we loaded up all five pages, measured the load times of each, and then averaged the five load times. We did this first for live pages (pulling them down from the Web, not from a cache in the browser), then for the cached (or saved) versions of the pages. Our results are contained in the chart below.
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