Motorola Cliq (T-Mobile)

The Motorola Cliq ($200 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile) caught my attention because of its sleek design and its innovative MotoBlur overlay for Android. Overall, the new features lived up to my expectations, and I applaud Motorola for doing something different to separate itself from the Android pack. The Cliq isn't perfect, however: Its camera disappoints, and it doesn't ship with the latest version of Android.

Like the T-Mobile G1 and the Samsung Moment, the Motorola Cliq has both a touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard. I haven't spent enough time with the Samsung Moment to compare it and the Cliq in depth, but I can safely say that I much prefer the Cliq to the G1. It feels sturdier, more streamlined, and more comfortable during use.

Measuring 4.5 inches long by 2.3 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, the Cliq falls somewhere between the G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (T-Mobile's other Android offering) in size. Weighing 5.7 ounces, it is slightly heavier than other current smartphones--the iPhone 3GS, for example--but it doesn't feel bulky. The Cliq feels as though it has a high build quality, thanks in part to the glass display and metal trim around the handset. I'll take heavier materials over cheap-feeling plastic any day.

The 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch display dominates the phone's face. Though a 3.1-inch screen is large enough to support watching a video or navigating around the interface comfortably, Motorola didn't use the available real estate very efficiently. The Cliq sets a noticeable amount of space aside to accommodate logos; I wish that Motorola had made this area smaller and the screen larger.

Three hardware buttons appear beneath the display: Menu, Home, and Back. These buttons are nicely raised, easy to press, and brightly backlit. A volume rocker, a charging port, and a ringer switch lie on the left spine of the phone; and the lock/power button and camera shutter occupy the right. The 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top of the phone.

A physical keyboard is necessary because the native touch keyboard on the current version of Android is far from perfect (as we noted in our reviews of the T-Mobile MyTouch and the HTC Hero). I appreciated the raised, dome-shaped keys, but I didn't like their mushy feel in comparison to the responsive clickiness that other QWERTY keyboards (such as the BlackBerry Tour's) possess. I suspect that I'll get used to the keys with more use, however. The keyboard is spacious, and I liked how large and easy-to-find the Alt, Search, Space, Sym, and Undo keys were (they're a different color than the other keys). A four-way directional pad sits to the left of the keyboard and serves as a handy navigation control if you don't feel like using the touchscreen.

Call quality over T-Mobile's network was very good. I made a few calls on a busy street corner and could hear my contacts perfectly. Motorola says that the phone incorporates two microphones as well as noise-cancellation technology. Callers on the other end of the line told me that my voice sounded very clear, although one noted a faint hiss during our call.

The Motorola Cliq is the first phone to showcase MotoBlur, Motorola's skin for Android. Before we delve into Android, however, I should note that the Cliq doesn't ship with the latest version of Android OS 1.6 (more deliciously known as Donut). T-Mobile says that it won't announce any plans for 1.6 at launch, but the company did mention the ease of making over-the-air upgrades via MotoBlur, so perhaps you can expect one later in the year.

When you start up your Cliq for the first time, you have to register for a MotoBlur account. This establishes a registration record of your phone on the MotoBlur servers so you can receive updated information without interruption. You then choose which social networks or accounts--such as such as Facebook, Last.fm, MySpace, and Twitter--you want to associate on your Cliq. MotoBlur then aggregates all of the information from your networks and delivers it to the phone.

The best example of how MotoBlur organizes this information is your contacts. The application collects all of the contacts from your various social networks. If you're friends with the same people on multiple networks, MotoBlur condenses all of their information into a single listing to avoid duplicating data on your phone. You can then see each of your contacts' current information--birthday, status update, current profile picture, e-mail address, phone number, and the like. You can view your communication history with a particular contact as well as viewing that person's activity on different social networks.

When your friends update their information in one of the supported social networks, MotoBlur will update their listing on your phone. To see how quickly the updating would occur, I used my PC to change my picture on Facebook via the Web. My picture updated in my contact info on the Cliq in less than 30 minutes.

Android is easy enough to get the hang of, but it lacks the aesthetic appeal and intuitiveness of some other OSs. This is where MotoBlur comes in: MotoBlur uses Android's live widget capabilities to bring all of your messaging and social networking activity to the phone's homescreen.

At first glance, MotoBlur is a bit overwhelming: Text, talk bubbles, and images fly out at you in every direction. And the text and icons don't pop out as much as the ones on iPhone OS or the Palm Pre do. Fortunately, you have five homescreens to fill with the widgets and applications of your choice, which helps reduce the clutter (a small indicator at the top of each page tells you which page you're on--much as on the iPhone. In addition to the standard Android widgets (Music, Clock, Calendar, and Search, to name a few), you'll see four MotoBlur widgets: Messages, Status, Happenings, and Weather.

As its name implies, Messages delivers your most recent unread texts, social network messages, and e-mail messages to the homescreen in a speech bubble. The sender is identified at top of the message in bold, so you can easily tell whether the message is important or just spam. A snippet of the e-mail appears, but when you tap on it, you jump the full message, at which point you can reply or delete it. You can also view all of your messages in a universal inbox similar to Palm's WebOS--or you can view your messages by account, if you prefer.

MotoBlur's Happenings widget gives you instant access to your social networks from the homescreen. Facebook, Gmail, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter, Yahoo, and other social networks are constantly connected and continually updated on the app. Honestly, I found Happenings a bit annoying. Do I really want some random former classmate's status popping up on my phone?

Status is fairly self-explanatory, too: You can use it to update your status to one or all of your social networks from your phone. This feature is pretty convenient because you don't actually have to open the application to enter a status update; instead, you can do it from the homescreen.

MotoBlur's best feature may be its ability to track your lost or stolen phone via GPS and remotely wipe it. And since all of your data is stored in the MotoBlur cloud, you won't have to reload everything into your new phone.

The Web browser loaded pages quickly; but the Cliq doesn't support Flash, so certain videos and pages won't load. Though Flash 10 for Android is coming soon,you'll just have to hold out until it is available. The browser itself is reasonably easy to use: You can open multiple windows, bookmark pages, and search for words on a page.

Holding down the dedicated shutter button launches the camera application. My outdoor pictures looked great, with bright, accurate colors and sharp details. Snapshots taken in dimly lit indoor settings didn't fare as well, however. Some test images had yellow or blue color casts and looked grainy. One shot of an acoustic guitar had a noticeable amount of noise in the lines of the wood. In addition, the shutter speed is disappointingly slow, and you can't adjust it, so you'd better make sure that your subject stays put for a good 3 seconds to ensure a decent shot.

The Android music player is straightforward and easy to navigate. You can download DRM-free tracks from the Amazon MP3 store, which is a nice alternative to iTunes. Music playback sounded good (though slightly tinny) through the included earbuds. Video playback looked great on the Cliq's 3.1-inch display--but again, I wish that the display were a little bigger.

For hardcore social networkers, the Motorola Cliq is a dream phone. You get fast access to all of your accounts and a well-designed QWERTY keyboard for typing long messages. If you aren't into social networking or if you want to keep that information limited to your computer, you may be turned off by the Cliq. The T-Mobile MyTouch 3G might be a better Android option, or you could choose one of the many BlackBerry models on T-Mobile.

Motorola Droid: Impressive Features, Gorgeous Hardware

The first time you pick up the Motorola Droid ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon; price as of 10/28/09), you'll notice its solid feel and heft--there's a lot going on behind the crisp, 3.7-inch touchscreen. Making good use of Android 2.0's new features, the Droid is a powerful Web surfing and communications tool that has a chance of living up to its hype. The Droid's biggest flaw, however, is in its hardware design: The keyboard is shallow and flat, which can make typing uncomfortable.

At 0.54 inch thick, the Droid is slightly beefier than the 0.48-inch-thick iPhone 3GS, but it still has room for a 40-key, slide-out QWERTY keypad. At just under 6 ounces, it's about an ounce heftier than the iPhone 3GS. When closed, the 4.56-by-2.36-inch Droid is almost the same size as the 4.5-by-2.4-inch iPhone 3GS.

Motorola is quick to point out that the Droid's 480-by-854-pixel display offers 409,920 pixels, more than double the 153,600 pixels that the 480-by-320-pixel, 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone 3GS offers. The Droid's resolution also compares well against that of Android 1.6-based phones such as T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, which has a 3.2-inch, 480-by-320-pixel display.

The Droid's keyboard doesn't occupy the full length of the phone; a four-way directional pad with a select button sits on the right side. The keys are backlit, but since they're mostly flat, you'll need to keep an eye on what you're typing until you get a feel for the phone. A small lower lip protrudes from the bottom when the phone is closed, revealing only the Verizon logo and the microphone. Like other Android phones, the Droid has an accelerometer and reorients quickly when you hold the display sideways.

Unfortunately, the handset has a few hardware-design quirks. The keyboard is so shallow--and the keys themselves are so flat--that our testers (with various hand sizes) had trouble using it. In addition, the top keys are very close to the ledge of the display, so your fingers are constantly knocking against it. The Droid is also missing physical Talk and End keys, which are pretty much standard on every other cell phone ever made. You must access these controls from the call application.

The Droid, which supports the 1900MHz and 800MHz CDMA EvDO bands on the Verizon Wireless network, comes with a 1,400-mAh battery rated at 270 hours of standby time and 385 minutes of talk time. It also has a preinstalled 16GB memory card and offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 support, which includes the use of stereo headsets and a Wi-Fi adapter.

The phone provided excellent call quality, even in a New York hotel lobby full of noisy Phillies fans headed to Yankee Stadium for the World Series. Parties on the other end of my calls reported no problems.

Especially snappy is the Droid's Web browser, which loads images quickly thanks to the powerful 550MHz processor and speedy hardware-accelerated graphics. Though you are at the mercy of your 3G high-speed data network coverage, once you're in it, Web surfing is breezy and smooth. Video from sites such as YouTube looks equally impressive; the playback of a high-definition YouTube cartoon ("Sita Sings the Blues") was excellent, with no stalling or audio dropouts. Audio also sounded great piped through a pair of high-quality headphones. The straightforward music player supports playlist building, album art, and shuffle and loop playback modes. You can purchase DRM-free music at the Amazon MP3 store via the preloaded app on the device.

Preinstalled on one of the three home screens are icons labeled Messaging, Phone, Contacts, Browser, Maps, and Market. Notably absent on the Droid are Verizon's V Cast services, which include live streaming videos and other entertainment offerings. A new Power Control widget allows one-touch control over power-hungry features such as the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters, the GPS receiver, and the backlight. You can turn off data synchronization to save additional power, too.

As in Android 1.6, in 2.0 a universal search from the phone's home page delves into the contact list, browser history, and other content in the phone, as well as on the Internet. And as with all Android devices, you'll need a free Google account to take advantage of the phone's key features, including the contact list and the calendar, which are synchronized with your Web-based account.

You'll also find the familiar notification bar at the top; you can expand it by touching it and dragging it downward. At the bottom (or the side, in landscape mode) is a slide-open launch window with icons for all of the installed applications and links to the settings menu and other phone features.

Android 2.0 builds on the Google Maps features introduced in Android 1.6 by adding a Layers option that lets you place extra location-enabled features on top of the map you're viewing. A Wikipedia layer, for example, generates icons for locations on your map that have Wikipedia entries.

Since Google Maps navigation is voice-enabled, you can say the name of your destination to get turn-by-turn directions. One nice aspect of the new navigation features is the nifty use of Google's Street View: As you approach your destination, an interactive photo of the actual location pops up with an arrow to point you in the right direction. Instead of having to look for a building number, for example, the Street View provides visual confirmation that you're in the correct place--or at least mighty close to it.

The dedicated camera button provides quick access to snapshot and video taking. The Droid's 5-megapixel camera includes a dual-LED flash and supports DVD-quality video recording and playback at 720 by 480 pixels. As in Android 1.6, in 2.0 you handle the camera and video capabilities in a single window. The camera has a respectable amount of advanced features, such as scene modes, color effects, and white balance controls. Snapshots that I took outdoors looked great, especially on the Droid's stunning display. Indoor shots, however, suffered from a significant amount of graininess. The dual-LED flash tended to blow out colors and details for indoor shots, as well.

Another nice touch is how the Droid interacts with its accessories. When you place it in its car-window mount (sold separately; price not yet announced), the Droid automatically enters "Car Home" mode, in which it looks more like a stand-alone GPS device. Large icons labeled View Map, Navigation, Voice Search, Contacts, Search, and Home fill the screen, and the display rotates as needed.

When you insert the Droid into an optional tabletop dock (sold separately; price not yet announced), it sits at a good angle for watching videos or just poking through e-mail. It immediately switches to a sort of alarm-clock mode and displays the time in large figures while providing other information, such as the temperature, in smaller type below.

The challenge for Android app developers is to take advantage of 2.0's new features, including its ability to link apps more closely to the contact list. As you view a contact, you will see a floating set of icons for the services the person is connected to, such as Facebook. Note that while most existing apps should run fine on Android 2.0, some that were optimized for Android 1.5 and 1.6 may have to be tweaked for the new version.

The Motorola Droid certainly stands out among the growing Android army due to its superior hardware and enhanced 2.0 software. But will the Android Marketplace catch up to the iPhone's App Store? Therein lies the key to success for the Droid. The Droid certainly lives up to its promises and does a lot of things the iPhone doesn't. The iPhone will probably keep its smartphone throne for now, but it will have to deal with a powerful new competitor.

Google Nexus One: Outstanding in Some Ways, but Missing Key Features

Note: This review has been updated to reflect the February 2, 2010 update of multitouch support.

The coveted "Google phone" is finally here, but the HTC Nexus One ($180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile, or $530 unlocked; prices as of January 12, 2010) isn't quite the superphone that Google intimated it would be. It lacks some valuable features--like multitouch and Outlook calendar syncing--that we've seen on competing models, and the Android keyboard can be difficult to use. That said, the Nexus One's speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor definitely sets it apart from the Android pack in performance.

One asterisk attached to the phone's performance involves its interaction with the T-Mobile network. The phone has run into some network issues, a distressing shortcoming on a phone with so many connected features. Nevertheless, it is a very good handset and marks real progress for the Android platform.

Design: Solid, but Not Groundbreaking

The Nexus One's hardware isn't especially innovative, and its design is unmistakably the work of HTC. In fact, it most strongly resembles a stretched-out HTC Hero. Still, the phone is attractive and well constructed. Its rounded corners, solid-glass display, and rubberized back make it a pleasure to hold. At 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick, the Nexus One has a slimmer profile than the Droid. It also weighs less: 4.8 ounces versus 6 ounces for the Droid. I didn't care for the drab two-tone gray color scheme, however.

Four touch-sensitive hardware buttons occupy the bottom of Nexus One's display: Back, Menu, Home, and Search. A trackball, like the one on the HTC Hero, lies below the buttons. Though I'm not a huge fan of the trackball on these phones--preferring instead to rely on the touchscreen--this trackball was fast and easy to use. The touch buttons are quite responsive, too, though you have to press firmly to activate them. An oblong power button sits atop the Nexus One beside the 3.5mm standard headphone jack. On the right spine is the volume rocker; and on the bottom of the phone, the micro-USB port. The camera lens and flash are located on the back of the phone, and the microSD and SIM card slots hide under the battery.

The Nexus One's 3.7-inch AMOLED display has drawn a lot of attention, and for good reason: The display is superb. Indeed, photos and videos of the phone don't do it justice. You need to view the display in person to see how text pops out and how photos dazzle, as well as how nicely the display showcases such new features of Android 2.1 as the scrolling menu and the 3D wallpaper. When you take the phone outdoors, though, you lose much of the display's visibility, especially in bright sunlight. This limitation will especially disappoint casual photographers who would like to snap lots of pictures with the phone's 5-megapixel camera--as outdoors it is quite difficult to see the images you shoot.

Android OS 2.1: A Few Cosmetic Tweaks

The Nexus One launch was not just about the hardware: This is the first phone to run Android OS 2.1. It hasn't been announced when--or if--other phones, like the Motorola Droid (which runs Android OS 2.0) or the current crop of Samsung Android phones (all of which run 1.5) will get this update.

Android OS 2.1 adds some lively visual and aesthetic tweaks to the otherwise bland operating system--such as interesting animated wallpapers of falling leaves or waving grass. These look good on the Nexus One's display, but they're a bit distracting and they seem likely to cut into the phone's battery life at least a little bit. (You can opt for traditional static wallpaper if you prefer.)

You get five homescreens (up from the standard three) for widget and shortcut personalization. Of course, that's nothing new for Motorola Cliq and HTC Hero users: The MotoBlur and SenseUI user interfaces from Motorola and HTC, respectively, also gives users five homepages.

One noteworthy omission from Android 2.1 is the tab for pulling up your main menu. This is a good thing, because you now have one-touch access to your menu via a central icon on your screen instead. The revised menu incorporates a rolling 3D-like effect, and the icons seemed to pop more onscreen than they did in older versions of the OS.

The photo gallery got a welcome makeover, too. When you open the app, your photo groups appear in "stacks." Tap on one of the group stacks, and you can view the photo thumbnails in a grid. Alternatively, you can flick through full-size photos in a slideshow mode.

The most buzzed-about new element in Android OS 2.1 is the voice-to-text input feature. Now you can speak your current Facebook status to your Nexus One--if you dare. In my casual tests, this input method worked fairly well, though I had to speak rather loudly and somewhat slowly in order for the Nexus One to pick up on what I was saying, even in quiet environments. The phone struggled to understand me when I muttered, spoke softly, or used colloquial terms. I can't say how often I would use a feature like this, day in and day out, but it's fun to play around with.

Though I appreciate the aesthetic tweaks in Android OS 2.1, other areas seem to have been neglected since the launch of the original Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. The music player is the same straightforward player that has appeared on previous Android devices; it supports album art, playlist building, and repeat and shuffle modes. You can add music via either the included USB cable or a microSD memory card, or you can purchase DRM-free tracks from Amazon.

No Outlook Calendar Syncing

To use an Android phone, you must have a Gmail account, but you can also set up POP3 and IMAP Web-based e-mail accounts easily, and you can sync your Outlook account via Exchange.

Unfortunately, you can't sync your Outlook calendar on the Nexus One. Google says that this feature is coming soon; but in the meantime, business users might want to delay jumping on the Nexus One. My colleague David Coursey further explains why in his article "Should Business Wait for the 'Enterprise' Nexus One?"

Superb Camera

Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of the Nexus One's camera. The Android camera app seemed a bit faster than the one I was used to, and I experienced less shutter lag than with other Android phones. Outdoor shots looked fantastic, though (as noted earlier) the display is difficult to see in bright light. A few of my indoor shots had a slight greenish tint to them (see the casual test shots at left and below); despite this, details in my snapshots looked sharp, with no detectable graininess or pixelation.

The 5-megapixel camera gives you four resolutions plus a flash, autofocus, infinity focus, a 2X digital zoom, white-balance and color-effect controls, and three quality settings. You can record video clips at lengths of up to 30 minutes at a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels (20 frames per second), but clips for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds.

Performance: Hit-or-Miss

What makes the Nexus One stand out from its competitors isn't its OS or its design, though. It's what lies under the hood. The powerful 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor makes the phone fly. Apps loaded almost instantaneously, and Web pages opened quickly. I especially appreciated the Snapdragon's power as I flipped through the Android 2.1's updated photo gallery app.

Call quality over T-Mobile's 3G network was quite good. Voices sounded clear and natural with ample volume. Callers on the other end of the line were generally pleased with the call quality as well, though some reported that my voice sounded a bit distance. Most of my contacts could hear me clearly, even when I was standing on a busy San Francisco street corner.

Some Nexus One users have complained that their phones frequently drop from 3G to EDGE--or lack a 3G connection altogether. I never experienced this, but I did run into some difficulties with the T-Mobile network. Most disturbingly, my Google account sometimes wouldn't load. I also endured several failed attempts to upload image files to Picasa, due to a "network error."

The Nexus One isn't quite the game-changer people hoped it would be, though it certainly trumps other phones in performance, display quality, and speed. The native Android soft keyboard is in desperate need of a redesign. And throwing in multitouch--to enhance the navigation and typing experience--wouldn't hurt. Is the Nexus One the best Android phone on the market? It's close, but I think the Motorola Droid has a slight edge because of its hardware keyboard--imperfect though it may be. No wonder Android watchers have pricked up their ears at the rumor that the next version of the Nexus One will have a keyboard and will target enterprise users.

If the network issues with T-Mobile continue to crop up, you may be well advised to resist picking up a Nexus One until the CDMA version comes out this spring or consider the version recently released for AT&T's 3G network.

HTC Droid Incredible Lives Up to Its Name

The best of the Droids on Verizon, the Droid Incredible ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon) impresses with its speedy user interface, gorgeous AMOLED display and fun Sense user interface. Other than some minor design qualms, this smartphone truly lives up to its name.

Design-wise, the Droid Incredible appears fairly similar to the Nexus One, but it is essentially a CDMA version of the HTC Desire, which launched last February in Barcelona, Spain. The Droid Incredible has an 8-megapixel camera (as opposed to the Nexus One and Desire's 5-megapixel shooters). The Droid Incredible also has a strange rubberized "topographic" battery cover, which I could have done without. While the Incredible is lighter, it doesn't feel as solid as the Nexus One.

While the Nexus One has four touch keys, the Droid Incredible has four physical hardware keys running along the bottom (Home, Menu, Back, Search). I actually prefer the Nexus One's touch keys, though, as it gives the phone a more streamlined look.

Another difference from the Nexus One is that the Droid Incredible has an optical mouse as opposed to a trackball. Like RIM BlackBerrys, HTC seems to be making a shift from trackball to optical (both the HTC Desire and Legend sport an optical mouse).

The Droid Incredible runs Android 2.1 with the revamped Sense interface, which offers some useful new functions for easy navigation. For more information about Android 2.1's features, check out our review of the Google Nexus One.

My favorite new Sense UI feature is Leap, which essentially is an elegant way of handling multitasking (a bit reminiscent of Palm's webOS deck of cards visualization). Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one. Thanks to the Droid Incredible's speedy 1GHz Snapdragon processor, this feature works extremely well, too.

Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and others. I find these social network feeds a bit annoying (do I really need to see everybody's Tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together?), but I suppose if you're an avid social networker seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.

One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.

Along with the standard Android applications, like as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, you also get HTC's Twitter app, Peep, and its photo geotagging app, Footprints. And, of course, you have easy access to Verizon's apps, like V Cast Media Manager, through the Android Market's dedicated Verizon channel.

Impressive 8-Megapixel Camera

While 5-megapixel cameras seems to be the standard for high-end smartphones for right now, expect to see a lot more 8-megapixel camera phones in the near feature. Overall, I was impressed with the Droid Incredible's camera, but I didn't think it was as good as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. You press the haptic mouse to snap pictures, which works okay, but I found myself wishing there was a dedicated camera key on the phone's spine. The phone just didn't feel as steady in my hands and sometimes my pictures looked a bit blurry. Otherwise, I was very impressed with my outdoor shots. Colors appeared bright and natural, details looked sharp. There was also very little shutter lag. My indoor shots looked good as well, though a few had a bit of yellowish tint. The flash also seemed a bit unpredictable as to when it decided to go off, as well. Many of my indoor shots were pretty well lit so when the flash went off, details and colors were blown out. Nighttime snapshots looked good, however-better than most smartphone cameras with flashes.

The Droid Incredible can shoot high resolution video up to 800-by-480, but you can't shoot 720p quality video. The camcorder is fine for quick clips, but I was disappointed by the slight pixelation in my videos.

Multimedia: Just Okay

I do wish that HTC would have updated the Sense media player. It is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's webOS player. Audio playback sounded good, though and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats.

Video playback over YouTube was as good as YouTube can be. I downloaded a few movie trailers, however, and was impressed the smooth playback, sharp details and clean colors. The Droid Incredible also supports Flash Lite, but I had trouble playing Flash content. I also encountered this problem with the HTC Hero on Sprint.

The HTC Droid Incredible might be the best Android phone available--it certainly is the best on Verizon. But how will it compare with the incoming iPhone 4G with its alleged front-facing camera and higher resolution display? Smartphone shoppers will have some enticing choices this summer, that's for sure.

HTC EVO 4G: A Multimedia Powerhouse

HTC has struck gold again with the HTC EVO 4G ($200 with a two-year contract from Sprint), which is easily the best smartphone available on Sprint and is second to the HTC Droid Incredible (Verizon) as the best smartphone available today. The EVO 4G packs powerful specs and a lot of features in a slick, stylish design. The biggest drawback is that not everyone will get to experience 4G connectivity, one of the phone's best features at launch--yet they'll still have to pay for it.

In addition to the phone's $200 price tag, EVO 4G owners will have to shell out $70 per month for unlimited data, as well as a mandatory $10 Premium Data add-on for 4G use. Given that only a handful of cities have WiMax coverage, this strikes me as unfair. Why should a user in, say, San Francisco have to pay that additional fee if they don't have 4G available to them?

Minimalist Design

Though I'm all for recyclable, minimal packaging, the EVO 4G's box is a little strange. A colleague pointed out that it resembles a tofu container. Other reviews have remarked that it looks like a microwavable meal. But really, it's what's inside the box that matters. The EVO 4G comes with the bare minimum: a Micro-USB cable, a USB wall charger, a 1500mAh battery, and an 8GB MicroSD card.

Design-wise, the EVO 4G is a bit imposing with its 4.3-inch WVGA (800-by-480-pixel) touchscreen, glossy black bezel, and blood-red detailing. Measuring 4.8 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches, the EVO 4G is also a bit larger than your average smartphone. Even so, it feels pretty comfortable to hold (and my hands are small), and I was able to use it with one hand without any issues. Like the HTC-built Nexus One, the four navigation buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Search) are part of the display rather than physical keys. This gives the EVO 4G a sleek, minimalist look. In my hands-on tests, I found the touch-sensitive buttons quite responsive, as well. The phone also has a much-hyped front-facing camera, which I'll cover later in this review.

Like the Nexus One, the EVO 4G has no dedicated camera key on its spine. The right edge houses the volume rocker. At the top of the phone sits the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. At the bottom is the HDMI port, along with the Micro-USB connector for both data transfer and charging.

Flip the EVO 4G over, and you'll find the 8-megapixel camera and dual LED flash, plus the phone's sturdy kickstand for tabletop video watching. When you pull out the kickstand, you see the aforementioned blood-red detailing. Remove the rubberized, matte-black battery cover, and you're greeted with even more color; the phone's interior and battery cover are both that same shade of red. HTC pulled the same design move with the Droid Incredible, as well as with the HD Mini (except that phone's interior is mustard yellow).

Honestly, the native Android keyboard isn't my favorite; the keys are too narrow and tightly packed, and its dictionary isn't always as on-point as the iPhone 3GS's. For an alternative, however, I recommend downloading the keyboard app ThickButtons, which follows a letter-by-letter algorithm to shrink the letters that you aren't likely to use and enlarge the buttons that you are.

Android 2.1 With Sense

Out of all of the custom skins for Android, HTC Sense is definitely my favorite. It is the easiest on the eyes, and it doesn't bog down the operating system by trying to do too much. The latest iteration of Sense features Leap, which is essentially an elegant way of handling multitasking; it's actually a bit reminiscent of Palm's WebOS deck-of-cards visualization. Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one.

Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and others. I find such social network feeds a bit annoying--do I really need to see everybody's tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together? But I suppose if you're an avid social networker, seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.

One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.

Along with the standard Android applications, such as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, the phone offers HTC's Twitter app (Peep) and its photo-geotagging app (Footprints). In addition, you get a handful of Sprint apps, like SprintTV, Sprint Navigation, Sprint Zone, and Sprint Football Live.

Multimedia Machine

I'm not really a fan of HTC's Sense music player. Why? The album art doesn't take advantage of the EVO 4G's large display while the app is in Now Playing mode; it remains thumbnail-size. The Sense player is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's WebOS player. Audio sounded good, though, and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats. On YouTube, you get a feature called HQ, which enables you to watch better-quality videos (if available). You simply press the HQ button in the corner of the video, and a crisper, larger video--one that actually uses the EVO 4G's entire screen real estate--will load. Better yet, no 4G connectivity is needed.

Video playback via SprintTV was a disappointment, however. The video stuttered quite a bit, and the sound didn't match up. According to other reviews I've seen, it wasn't much better over a 4G connection, either.

In Video: Sprint's HTC EVO 4G is One of The Best Android Smartphones Yet

Superb 8-Megapixel Camera

While 5 megapixels seems to be the standard for high-end smartphone cameras, the EVO 4G goes a step further with an 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash. As with the iPhone 3GS, you can touch to focus on a subject. The camera's user interface is pretty straightforward, too, and it offers a handful of advanced controls such as exposure, color, white balance, and various photo effects.

Photo quality was impressive, both indoors and out. Colors appeared vivid but natural, and details looked sharp. My only complaint was that the flash tended to blow out details and color in indoor shots (see below).

You can also capture HD video with the EVO's 4G camera. I was really pleased with how well my videos turned out, though the results don't hold a candle to those of a 1080p camcorder (see test video below). You can output your photos and videos in HD quality (720p) via the HDMI port. Of course, you'll have to purchase an HDMI cable--which is unfortunately sold separately.

To share videos, look no further than Qik, an application that will come preloaded on the EVO 4G. One of my favorite mobile apps, Qik allows you to stream live videos from your phone to your family and friends, as well as to share them via social networking sites like Facebook. And, yes, Qik supports HD-quality videos.

Last but not least, the EVO 4G sports a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera with video recording. This feature, paired with 4G speeds, opens up many exciting opportunities for app developers. I'm anticipating lots of apps with integrated video-chat clients. Imagine being able to play a multiplayer game while video-chatting with your opponents. Or, what if you could watch a video while simultaneously discussing it with a friend? The application possibilities are endless.

4G and Mobile Hotspot

Unfortunately, at this time we were unable to test the phone's 4G speeds and features, as 4G coverage has not yet rolled out in San Francisco. For more information on the advantages of 4G, see "4G Wireless: 20 Questions Asked & Answered." We'll follow up with more testing as soon as possible.

Sprint says its 4G network delivers peak download speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G average download speeds. Though Sprint has been talking about its WiMax service (provided via the Clearwire network) for a few years now, we haven't seen many WiMax-enabled devices outside of laptop cards and modems.

If you are in a 4G-connected area, you can use voice and data simultaneously. I'm sure you've seen those Luke Wilson AT&T commercials, so you know this is a necessary feature. Yes, you can look up a restaurant while you're on the phone making dinner plans with your friends (even though that's kind of rude). Really, though, the most useful purpose for this function is when you're connected to the mobile 4G hotspot: You won't be disconnected if you get a phone call.

With the built-in mobile hotspot, you can connect up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including a laptop, camera, music player, video player, and any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, to the 4G network. Connecting to the hotspot is simple: You can access it either by a dedicated icon on the Launcher or in your Settings menu. You then type in your SSID name, the encryption type, and your password, and you're good to go. The hotspot will cost you $30 per month on top of the $80 for the data plan and Premium Data add-on. Fortunately, there's no cap on data usage.

Solid Performance

We were able to test 3G performance, and overall I was impressed with how quickly multimedia-rich pages loaded over Sprint's network. Additionally, I was pleased with how clear my phone calls were in San Francisco. A few of my colleagues on the other end of the line noted that my voice sounded a bit tinny, but my voice was still sufficiently loud and clear--even while I stood on a busy street corner.

Like the Nexus One, the HD2, and the Droid Incredible, the EVO 4G runs on Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The EVO 4G was pretty speedy in my hands-on tests, even when I had multiple applications open. Applications launched quickly, too, though a few crashed on me (Sprint Football Live and Qik were the offenders).

Though Sprint hasn't released numbers for talk-time or stand-by time, I found that I was able to go a full day with moderate data usage without needing to recharge. 4G connectivity will definitely affect battery life, however, and we'll update our review once we're able to test it.

The HTC EVO 4G represents a huge step forward for both the Android platform and Sprint's 4G network. Unfortunately, it might be a little too ahead of its time, as 4G is fairly limited here in the United States. Aside from that issue, the EVO 4G is a winner with its solid hardware, multimedia capabilities, and speediness. Even if you don't have 4G connectivity in your city, you'll be pleased with this smartphone. But don't say I didn't warn you about that additional $10-per-month fee.

Got an iPhone 4? You may need duct tape

(CNN) -- Has it really come to this?

The most talked-about phone in the U.S. -- Apple's iPhone 4 -- has a design flaw that's best fixed with a sliver of duct tape, according to Consumer Reports.

"It may not be pretty, but it works," writes Mike Gikas on that nonprofit consumer group's electronics blog.

The patch -- which sounds like it'd be more appropriate for kitchen plumbing than for a phone that retails for $200 to $300, plus an AT&T contract -- is supposed to correct an apparent problem with the iPhone 4's metal antenna.

In a controlled test, Consumer Reports found that people who hold the iPhone 4 in a way that covers up an antenna connector on the phone's lower left side will experience poorer reception and possibly dropped calls.

But if you slap a piece of duct tape over that antenna connection, the reception problems go away, the group says.

"When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side -- an easy thing, especially for lefties -- the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal," Consumer Reports says.

"Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4."

Many others are testing the phone, too, and coming up with wacky solutions for the apparent reception problems.

Justin Horn, of the site WhenWillApple.com, suggests iPhone 4 users should wear a type of oven mitt called the "Ove Glove" when they need to make calls. The thick glove prevents dropped calls, he says.

"This test produced the best results with zero signal loss, even trumping the results I got with the bumper earlier!" he writes, referring to the "bumper" iPhone 4 cases Apple sells on its site for $29.

"Another plus, the Ove Glove is half the price of the bumper."

Apple did not respond to a CNN request for comment on this story.

On July 2, the company posted a public letter about the iPhone 4, in which it said reception problems were perceived, not real, and that a software update would fix the problem. Essentially, Apple said the formula used to calculate signal strength was flawed, so the number of reception-indicating "bars" on its phones did not correspond with actual phone reception.

"Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place," the Cupertino, California, company said in the post.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, was more blunt in an e-mailed response to a concerned iPhone 4 owner.

"Just avoid holding it in that way," he wrote.

When Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4 at an event in San Francisco, California, he said the phone's new antenna design was "really cool engineering."

In its letter about the phone, the company also says this illusion of reception trouble exists on all models of the iPhone, a point that Consumer Reports disputes, saying the reception troubles are limited specifically to the iPhone 4.

All of the fuss has led some tech pundits to say Apple should recall the phone.

"I know Apple's selling new iPhones like Rocket Pops on the 4th of July, but this is the kind of issue that's melting into the mainstream, fast, and it's going to leave a stain," writes Molly Wood of the technology site CNET. "When Consumer Reports starts advising mainstream consumer electronics customers against buying your product, you've got a problem, and it's time to address it."

Cult of Mac quotes public-relations experts who say a recall is inevitable.

And the tech blog Gizmodo has started a petition asking Apple to give out free cases to people who have purchased the iPhone 4.

"The bumpers will negate the iPhone's beautiful design, one of its major selling points, but at least we won't have signals dropping," the blog says.

Even so, these reception woes -- duct tape, oven mitts and all -- haven't seemed to stem demand for a smartphone that has been called the world's best.

As of June 26, Apple had sold 1.7 million of the new phones; the company called the iPhone 4's release the "most successful product launch in Apple's history."

Even Consumer Reports, which does not recommend consumers buy the phone with the apparent design flaw, rates the smartphone as the best on the market based on its features alone.

But despite the high-resolution screen, high-quality video camera and other standout features of the iPhone 4, "if you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix, we continue to recommend an older model, the 3GS," the model that pre-dates the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports says.

You can buy that phone on Apple's site for $99 with a contract. Hosts of other smartphones -- including the Droid and HTC Evo on the rival Android platform -- are, of course, also available.

Those may not be the trendiest phones on the market right now. But you won't need to wear oven mitts in July -- or risk getting duct tape stuck to your face.