When Logitech announced its new Mini Boombox back in November, our advice was to give the portable speaker a listen before handing over your money. The advice wasn’t due to any personal vendetta against Logitech, rather, it had everything to do with company’s claim that the tiny speaker could offer an “immersive sound experience” for just $99.99 — a quote attributed to Azmat Ali, Logitech vice president of tablets and mobile in the accompanying press release. That’s a bold proclamation for a device measuring just 4.55 x 2.8 x 2.28 inches and weighing half a pound. Fortunately, we received a unit in-house for review allowing us to put it head-to-head with our favorite battery-powered portable speaker, the Jawbone Jambox.
A3000 Android 2.2

Hardware
You can tell a lot about a piece of consumer electronics by the care used in its assembly. So, look at that Mini USB cut-out, just look at it — that was my first impression of the device. Wait, back up, my first impression began at the unboxing where the Mini Boombox was found ensconced in the kind of chintzy plastic that would make a fast-food-beverage top blush with supremacy. Once free of its packaging waste, I was taken aback by the feathery weight of the speaker as I began removing the massive sticker positioned along the top of the device to indicate the location of the invisible capacitive-touch buttons. However, instead a clean removal, the sticker left a nasty residue which had to be rubbed into tiny beige balls of glue, skin, and paper, and then surgically plucked from the device. It was then that I noticed the mangled USB cutout.

The penny saved on the $99.99 price tag doesn’t justify these kinds of manufacturing and assembly shortcuts. The out of box experience left me completely underwhelmed and the speaker hadn’t even been turned on.

The Mini Boombox features two speaker drivers powered by a 10-hour rechargeable battery that receives its electrons courtesy of a supplied USB charger or laptop jack. Controls include an on / off switch, a 3.5mm AUX input, and a glowing red panel of capacitive buttons along the top that activate (and illuminate) with a touch for music and Bluetooth call control. The Mini Boombox supports the A2DP and HFP 1.5 Bluetooth profiles for audio control and hands-free calling support, respectively, and a square Logitech logo on the front of the speaker glows blue when paired with a Bluetooth device.
G1 Android 2.2

The Logitech Mini Boombox measures 115.6 x 71.2 x 58-mm (or 4.55 x 2.8 x 2.28 inches) and weighs 229-grams (.5-pounds) making it about 25 percent larger by volume (and 35 percent lighter) than the 151 x 57 x 40-mm / 347-gram Jawbone Jambox it competes with. And other than the physical design and all important acoustic guts, the Mini Boombox offers all the same features as the Jawbone Jambox — on paper anyway.

Sound
Once the capacitive touch panel is activated — sometimes taking up to a second to respond to the first touch — you can control the Bluetooth audio features on your phone (we tested with an iPhone 4 and Lumia 800) like volume, play and pause, and track skipping backwards and forwards. A double tap of the phone / Bluetooth icon initiates a call to the last known dialer and a single tap hangs up. Speaker phone quality was decent and offered far more amplification than any smartphone so no complaints there. But the true test of any speaker isn’t voice quality.
HD7 Android 2.3

Wrap-up
The Mini Boombox is simply not worth $99.99 in our estimate. The impeccably built Jawbone Jambox costs $199 (or less: it’s been on sale for $150 recently) and provides a far more enjoyable listening experience that can be personalized and expanded with additional features. Better yet, the Jambox can, at times, live up to Logitech’s hyperbolic claim of creating an “immersive sound experience” especially when listening to music tracks recorded for three-dimensional binaural listening. A Bluetooth speaker is a luxury, so our advice is to save up for a Jambox and relish the experience instead of loathing the Mini Boombox.

When Acer’s Aspire Timeline Ultra notebooks made their first appearance at CES, these 14- and 15-inch laptops seemed like little more than the successors to Acer’s TimelineX series. Thin-and-light laptops, complete with optical drive and some likely reasonable prices. While there’s no mistaking that DVD burner and mainstream screen size, we now know a few things we didn’t then: the 15-inch version you see up there packs NVIDIA’s next-gen Kepler graphics… and Acer’s calling it an Ultrabook. Acer’s branding that there Ultra M3 as an Ultrabook because it’s less than 20mm (.8 inches) thin, but given that 15-inch display, numpad, optical drive and graphical horsepower, it’s hard to think of this as anything other than a mainstream laptop. If you accept Acer’s marketing scheme, though, this is the first so-called Ultrabook to ship with discrete graphics. (We’re expecting to see more — many more — of these.) As of this writing, at least, we don’t have a confirmed price, though Acer has said the pricing for the Ultra series should align with current TimelineX notebooks (which is to say, we’re hardly expecting this to be a $1,500 machine.) Until we know for sure, it’ll be hard to say how sweet of a deal this is, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about what it actually does. How does the performance stack up against regular ‘ol 15-inch laptop? Does it pummel your garden-variety Ultrabooks like you’d expect it to? Join us past the break where we break down exactly what this ‘tweener can do.
At first glance, the M3 is a rather unassuming machine. The matte black exterior is fashioned out of polycarbonate, save for the textured chrome Acer logo and aluminum lid. The only other interruption in the monochrome exterior are some small, silk-screened text on the hinge letting you know there’s “Professionally Tuned” Dolby Home Theater technology powering the audio — branding you’ll find stamped on most every recent Acer laptop. Open it up and you’ll find the palm rest and screen bezel swathed in the same ebony skin, while the recessed chiclet keys are surrounded by pewter gray plastic. There’s an Acer logo beneath the screen, a 1.3 megapixel webcam in the bezel, and Aspire Timeline U branding placed below the numpad on the right palm rest, along with the obligatory Intel, Windows, and NVIDIA stickers affixed nearby.
M70007T
Plastic skins rarely lend a laptop luxurious looks, and the M3 is no exception. For what it’s worth, though, the fit and finish here are decent, with the only exception being the DVD tray, which isn’t fitted as well as we’d like — when closed, the gaps to the left of and above the tray are noticeably wider than along the bottom and right sides. Make no mistake, though: even if those gaps were narrower, no one would guess based on looks alone that this is a premium machine.
Despite the use of such low-rent materials in the chassis, we’re happy to report that this hasn’t adversely affected the PC’s construction much. There’s zero flex in the palm rest, and while the keyboard could be coaxed to bend by pressing directly on the deck, typing on it produces no noticeable bowing. It’s a different story with the display, as it can be made to flex and wobble quite easily — an issue the M3 shares with an unfortunate number of its competitors, including some made of metal.
Kpad K-701
Along the front edge of the laptop resides a slim chrome power button, LED activity indicator, plus a second light to let you know the laptop’s charging status. Left and right speaker grilles are also located on the underside of that beveled front edge. On the laptop’s left side is an SD reader and a tray-loading DVD-RW drive, while the right side is home to just a Kensington lock slot. That leaves the rear for most of your connectivity options: dual USB 2.0 ports (plus one of the 3.0 variety), HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power port. That’s a pretty generous selection of sockets, and it compares quite favorably to other 15-inch thin and lights like Samsung’s Series 9. While the rear-facing location makes for an uncluttered appearance, it also makes for woeful ergonomics: reaching back there to connect peripherals, headphones and the power cord feels like a chore. Every. Single. Time.

Back when we first put fingertip to keyboard on the new Timeline Ultra, we found a few flaws with its grid, and we’re sorry to say they weren’t addressed in the laptop’s final form. As with so many other Ultrabooks, the keys suffer from a shallow throw, though in this case the Tab and F-keys are undersized, and there’s no backlighting. Like the rest of the chassis, the keys are made of hard, cheap-feeling plastic that left our phalanges yearning for the soft-touch buttons you’ll find on a MacBook Pro or Samsung Series 9. On the plus side, the spacing between buttons is ample, which should keep misfires to a minimum. And we’ve always had a soft spot for numpads, particularly on machines with some gaming chops like this one.
ScoPad
Another Windows laptop, another middling trackpad. The Acer comes equipped with a plastic clickpad from Elan, and while two-finger vertical scrolling is fairly reliable, there were times when multiple attempts were needed to pull this off. Another niggle: the lack of an option for two-fingered sidescrolling. Similarly, pinch-to-zoom works most of the time, but touch doesn’t always register, and when it does you’ll have to settle for some seriously chunky scaling. Four-finger swipes grant direct access to the desktop — a feature we found quite useful when it worked — but again, the trackpad sometimes missed our input, forcing us to try multiple times. It’s not all doom and gloom in clickpad land, though: single-finger navigation works as it should, and right, left and double clicks on the pad register as they ought to.

Until now, Windows fans have had precious few alternatives to the MacBook Air. Sure, there’s Samsung’s Series 9, but just like the original Air, it’s far from cheap. Since then, of course, Apple has cut the Air’s starting price to $999, while the Windows options — now marketed as Ultrabooks — are about to mushroom in number. And so far, they’re all starting in the (more reasonable) neighborhood of a thousand bucks, making these pinch-thin, long-lasting laptops accessible to the budget-conscious masses.

Acer’s Aspire S3 was the first to hit the market here in the States, and with an entry price of $899, it’s currently the least expensive. That it’s skinny (just 13mm thick, to be exact), should be a given, but it also claims to wake from sleep in two seconds flat and reconnect to known networks in two and a half. But, as the least pricey Ultrabook on the shelf, it also forgoes some specs you might have liked to see — namely, all-flash storage and USB 3.0. But does that matter much when you’re potentially saving hundreds of dollars? Let’s find out. The S3 has something of a split personality: understated elegance on the outside, something more pedestrian when you lift the lid. At first glance, it’s refined (but never ostentatious) thanks to a cool-to-the-touch brushed aluminum lid that doesn’t seem to pick up fingerprints. Make no mistake: this thing makes a strong impression.
Eken M003 UMPC
Its slender frame doesn’t hurt, either. At three pounds flat (1.4kg) and half an inch thick, it’s on par with the 13-inch MacBook Air (2.96 pounds / 1.35kg) and the 2.9-pound (1.32kg) ASUS Zenbook UX31. If you’ve handled a MacBook Air before, its skinny silhouette might not impress you but if (like yours truly) you’re used to schlepping a six-pound 15-incher, the difference will feel refreshing, and the ounces separating it from the competition will seem irrelevant. While we’re on the subject of comparisons, by the way, we’re digging the S3’s rounded edges and corners. One thing we dislike about the MacBook Air (or any Mac, really) is that although those sharp edges make for a bold design, resting your wrists on them or pressing your palms into them can make for a none-too-comfortable ergonomic experience. The S3 is softer in this regard, and it works.

The S3 also has a softer aesthetic under the lid, and that’s where the design starts to seem a bit cobbled-together. For one, the display has a habit of wobbling even when you set the machine down, which chipped away at our confidence in the build quality. Also, because the keys, deck, palm rest and bottom side are made of plastic, they seem mismatched against that striking metal lid. We’ll spend two paragraphs on the keyboard in just a moment, but for now, suffice to say the problem isn’t that plastic keys are uncomfortable to type on; it’s just that an all-metal keyboard (à la the ASUS UX21 / UX31) would have gone a long way in pulling together what’s otherwise a slick design.
Eken M001
Above the keyboard, a black, rubbery strip interrupts the beige deck. There, you’ll find a pair of LED lights along with a metal power button that peeks out even when the lid is closed. Like other Acer laptops, this one features Dolby sound, along with two prominently placed logos to match: Dolby’s Home Theater branding on one side of the keyboard, and its “Professionally Tuned” slogan. The bottom of the machine, meanwhile, is studded with four rubber feet — a homely sight, but not something you’ll notice when you’re using the machine.

Taking a tour of all the ports and openings, you’ll find that the front edge is completely blank, as are the left and right sides, save for a headphone / mic socket and SD slot, respectively. There’s also your requisite 1.3 megapixel webcam tucked in the bezel. Really, though, most of the action’s to be found on the back edge, where the vent, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out and the AC socket sit in a row. For comparison’s sake, the Air has two USB 2.0 ports and a Thunderbolt socket, whereas the UX31 has two USB 2.0 ports and one of the 3.0 persuasion. Meanwhile, Toshiba’s forthcoming Portege Z830 will have USB 3.0, HDMI and an Ethernet jack, while the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s will also have USB 3.0 and HDMI. Even the UX31, which has mini-HDMI and mini-VGA ports, at least comes bundled with USB-to-Ethernet and mini-VGA-to-VGA adapters.
Google Android 2.1
You might think that if you’ve seen one chiclet keyboard you’ve seen ‘em all, but the S3’s reminds us that some are more (or, in this case, less) tactile than others. Starting with some kind words, the keys have a pleasant, ever-so slightly textured finish, and the panel is rigid enough that it stood firm even as we pounded out stories on deadline. The problem is, there’s not much travel here, which left us craning our hands over the keys, typing deliberately to make sure our presses registered. As we said when we reviewed the current VAIO Z, typing on shallow keys is not unlike trekking around in flip-flops: you know how your toes roll into a claw, pressing into the rubber in an attempt to compensate for the fact that your feet aren’t well supported? Well, in the case of the S3, we found ourselves digging into the keys with concerted effort since there’s otherwise not much to latch onto. All told, the MacBook Air’s keyboard is the cushier of the two. (Then again, if we’re talking ergonomics, the Air is no ThinkPad either.)

For what it’s worth, though, we were able to type the brunt of this review on the S3 with only the occasional spelling error — and that’s despite the fact that all of the major keys (Enter, Tab, Caps Lock, Backspace and right and left Shift) are shrunken. The arrow keys are especially miniature here, so if you’re like us and regularly use them to highlight text, you’ll find yourself pining for a keyboard that’s a little less crowded. What’s more, the brightness and volume controls are located on those arrow keys, which means even if you don’t use them for anything else, they’re still unavoidable. Even when we first saw the S3 back in August, one of the first things to make an impression was that spacious trackpad. Even after spending more time with it, the integrated button still feels stiff — a flaw we were willing to chalk up to pre-production kinks when we got hands-on at IFA. Similar to the keys, the touchpad has a slightly textured finish, and while it sometimes made for a frictionless experience, it more often slowed us down, even as we tried to do something rudimentary like drag the cursor across the desktop. We also noticed that this giant clickable pad sometimes mistook our left clicks for right ones — a quirk we’ve noticed in other laptops whose trackpads have integrated buttons. At least this is something that can be remedied with a software update.

Despite all this, two-fingered scrolling generally works as promised — a pleasant surprise considering the grief multi-touch trackpads can cause when executed poorly. It’s not perfect, though: although pinch-to-zoom works reliably, you’ll have to concentrate a bit (and apply some pressure) to make text resize to the exact scale.

LG¡¯s play for US smartphone market share is simple: bring over the popular Optimus LTE from Europe, and tweak it for different carriers. The $199.99 (with a two-year contract) LG Spectrum for Verizon is the second such handset, after the Nitro HD for AT&T.
SUNNO A880
When I reviewed the Nitro, I called it the best LTE phone available on AT&T, and the Spectrum is every bit as good on paper: 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.5-inch IPS display, LTE connectivity, and an 8-megapixel camera. But the handset competition on Verizon¡¯s LTE network is considerably tougher than on AT&T, with the Galaxy Nexus, Droid RAZR (and RAZR Maxx) and HTC Rezound stocking Big Red¡¯s shelves. Can LG¡¯s flagship phone jump into a more competitive ring and hold its own? Read on for the full review.
Display
As with the Nitro, the display is the key feature of the Spectrum. For good reason, too: the 1280 x 720 IPS display is excellent; sharp and clear with extremely accurate colors. Samsung’s Galaxy S phones in particular have a tendency to give everything a warm color temperature, with a slightly red and orange tint, but LG’s displays are much more accurate. Viewing angles are also really good, with virtually no discoloration even when you’re off axis. My only real complaint is that the LCD looks like it’s set way below the protective layer of Gorilla Glass. Unlike the iPhone’s screen, which is laminated to the glass to make it seem like it’s right on the surface, the Spectrum’s display looks like it’s far away from your finger as you tap it. I do love Gorilla Glass, though ¡ª especially its ability to not scratch when I accidentally toss my keys and phone in the same pocket.
I could occasionally make out individual pixels on the display, but only at particular times ¡ª an all-white background, for instance ¡ª and with a lot of effort. I much prefer the Spectrum’s RGB striped layout to the PenTile display you’ll find on other high-end smartphones like the Droid RAZR and Galaxy Nexus. Even very small text was readable ¡ª more so, at some points, than on the Galaxy Nexus as I held them side by side. The blacks on the Spectrum’s screen render more like dark gray, though, so the Galaxy Nexus’ screen looks slightly better when you’re showing video or photos. The phone’s UI is filled with tiny text and big icons, which feels like it’s missing the sweet spot of this resolution, but as usual that’s a software problem. The Rezound, Galaxy Nexus, and Spectrum all have pretty much equally excellent 720p screens, and once you’ve used one of them it’ll be hard to accept a phone without a display this good.
SUNNO U6
Cameras
The 8-megapixel camera on the back of the Spectrum takes decent pictures, but I wasn’t wowed by its performance.
Autofocus is quick and simple, locking on without you needing to do anything ¡ª it just bounces when it’s ready to shoot. But it doesn’t work that well, and most of the photos I shot look as if the camera couldn’t ever find a real focus, and just shot something that seemed close enough. Using the tap-to-focus feature to force it to lock helped a bit, but even it wasn’t a total fix. There’s also a lot of noise in the photos, and in low light you might as well not even try.
Software
If you value your sanity, you’ll do two things immediately upon booting up the Spectrum: change the hideous moving wallpaper to something (anything) else, and install a third-party launcher like Zeam or Launcher Pro. The former is necessary because the live wallpaper further clutters the already-busy skin LG added on top of Android 2.3.5, and the latter because LG’s skin is really, really awful. It’s actually a bit better than the Nitro HD’s terrible skin ¡ª the icon borders have been removed, for one ¡ª but LG still pointlessly redesigned apps, menus and icons, and made things like the notification window and the app drawer unnecessarily confusing and cumbersome. As with the Nitro HD, there are a couple of redeeming elements: having power controls of any kind in the notification menu is nice, as is having calendar information on the lock screen. But I’d trade it all for a less-intrusive skin in a heartbeat, and would even settle for one that’s less of a blue-on-blue eyesore.
Verizon loves bloatware, and there’s no shortage of it on the Spectrum. Some of it is third-party content that you might actually like, like TuneWiki, Kindle, Netflix and NFL Mobile, but there are still plenty of game demos, apps for managing your phone and Verizon account, and the like. Especially given how complicated and confusing the app drawer is anyway, having it filled with apps you’d rather ignore is a frustrating move. (Speaking of Netflix, if you do buy the Spectrum make sure you check for updates immediately ¡ª LG just updated the phone to fix an initial problem with video streaming.)
WIFI H8 Mobile Phone
Wrap-up
The LG Nitro HD succeeds in spite of its UI skin because it has great hardware, a great display, fast LTE speeds, and only a few other phones on its network that can claim the same. Even that phone was a pretty blatant imitation of the Galaxy S II, though, and frankly, I wish LG had stuck with that strategy ¡ª the Spectrum¡¯s a much more unique phone, and not in a good way. It works well, and its internal hardware is impressive, but it still has a terrible UI skin, plus ugly buttons, an awful back, crowded ports and a poorly placed speaker. None of those problems can be solved with a root or a launcher app. Considering all that, plus its seriously steep Verizon LTE competition ¡ª the Galaxy Nexus, Rezound, and the Droid RAZR, to name a few ¡ª I can’t think of a single reason to buy the Spectrum.

We were impressed with Acer’s Aspire 5750G; its processor wasn’t particularly powerful, but the dedicated graphics card made it a highly competent mid-range gaming monster. When we heard the company was producing an updated version, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it, but were surprised to see that the new 5755G isn’t just a simple processor upgrade - it uses an entirely new chassis.
Eken M003 UMPC
The laptop’s looks won’t blow you away, but the black texture-effect lid and gunmetal grey plastic body look smart and are a definite improvement over the previous model. There are plenty of ports, with a single USB3, two USB, a multi-format memory card reader and an optical drive that reads DVDs but not Blu-ray discs. Build quality isn’t particularly good, with some noticeable flex in the keyboard tray, but overall it feels better made than previous Acer laptops we’ve seen.
Eken M001
The keyboard has large isolated keys that were very comfortable to type on. Even though the laptop has a separate numeric keypad, all the major keys are full-size and spaced well apart from one another. The function keys have shrunk to around half size to accommodate this, but we feel it’s worth the trade-off. There’s not a lot of travel in each key, but the springy actions provide plenty of tactile feedback.
Google Android 2.1
Unfortunately, the touchpad is less impressive; the plastic finish creates slightly too much friction to make cursor movement feel fluid and the buttons use a single rocker bar with a noticeable dead spot in its centre which soon became annoying. It’s good enough for web browsing, but for more precise work you’ll want to connect a mouse.

The 15.6in screen has the standard 1,366×768 resolution that we’re used to seeing in displays this size; it’s fine for web browsing and watching 720p video, but we would have liked a slightly higher resolution given the price of the laptop. Image quality is only average, with slightly muted colours and a lack of contrast at the default settings. Viewing angles were disappointing, with a very small window of accurate colour and contrast, but there’s a huge amount of screen tilt to make up for it. The glossy finish is prone to reflections, making it quite difficult to work in sunlight.

The Ultrabook world is continuing its rise to glory as the Acer Aspire S3 (here with the Core i7 processer inside) runs the thin show at .68 inches at its thickest point. This is by no means the thinnest notebook on earth, nor is it the Ultrabook with the most impressive set of specifications, but this relatively basic (if any Ultrabook is basic) model has a stack of features and a full package that will satisfy any general use owner. This notebook has a 13.3-inch Active Matrix TFT display at 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, CineCrystal (glossy) and clear as day coupled with Intel HD Graphics 3000 and Dolby Home Theater v4 audio enhancement on built-in stereo speakers – that means good entertainment.
M700 PC
For those of you wondering, this device goes by the code S3-951-6432. You’ll find that the display has a perfectly bright and sharp widescreen view for your gaming, processing, and video viewing needs, but beware the glossiness of the display if you’re planning on using this laptop outdoors. Of course you’re not the type of person to go galavanting around the park with a laptop, so you’ll only be worried about your ability to have a great experience on the run. This notebook is made for your ability to both carry it around all day and provide you the power you need to use it for all of your daily activities be you a student, a journalist, or a graphic designer, all the same.
Zenithink ZT-180 II
The keyboard is one made for typing rather than gaming, and you’ll find that using the return key and the arrow keys will be a bit of a learning activity at first as they’re connected in space and not separated by the surrounding base of the notebook. On the back of the device you’ll find two USB 2.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port, and your power port. On the right you’ll find a full-sized SD card port (that also has the ability to read MultiMediaCard (MMC) units) and on the left you’ll find a headphone jack. On the bottom left and right near the front of the laptop are speakers, each of them part of the Dolby-optimized speaker system which together create a surprisingly nice sounding experience for movie-watching especially.
On the other hand, don’t expect to watch a movie with a group of too many folks to you left or two your right as the viewing angles aren’t too fantastically great here. Watch the hands-on video to see a basic view of how far you’ll be able to see, but note that it’s certainly not more than 60 degrees in any direction from straight on. Straight on though, and inside everywhere 60 degrees looks just as bright and sharp as a Core i7 processor under the hood would suggest. I’ve heard reviewers speaking on how the color accuracy isn’t perfect, and I agree, but the difference between this display and a perfectly tuned display for graphic designers and photography majors is so small that I doubt anyone in the field will have a big issue. Those of you in the photography business should take note though – perfection is needed!
X10 MID Tablet PC
Inside you’ve got Bluetooth 4.0, the multi-gesture touchpad is precise and makes for an easy to control experience all around, and the webcam is alright – good enough for video chat certainly. You’ve got 3.86 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 666MHz controlled by your HD 3000 graphics control unit, and a partridge in a pear tree. And that’s just the hardware. The whole thing looks rather nice too, if you don’t mind the similarities to the rest of the ultra-thin super-powered notebook competition out there. Take a peek at this tower of laptops to see the difference between the units your humble narrator has been using lately – up top you’ve got an 11-inch MacBook Air, next the Acer Aspire S3, a MacBook Pro 15-inch, and a gigantic mother of an Alienware gaming notebook M17xR3 complete with lots o’ lights – each of these units has a different purpose, and the size shows their power here, as it were – note that the MacBook air is from a few years ago so isn’t as pumped up as the line is today, and you can check the Alienware machine in action back at Arkham City.

The first time I laid eyes on the LG DoublePlay, I thought I was in love. I’m a former T-Mobile Sidekick / Danger Hiptop fan, you see, and both physical keyboards and rapid multitasking are near and dear to my heart. So when LG spit out a Android smartphone with not only a split keyboard, but also a 2-inch secondary display to swap between apps on the fly, I figured it was the phone for me despite its fairly low $99.99 pricetag on contract.

Besides, the pedigree checked out: T-Mobile’s Sidekick 4G impressed us earlier this year for the same price, and the LG Optimus One set a respectable bar for low-end smartphones back in 2010. What could go wrong?

Hardware / Design
Almost everything about the phone’s physical design, for one. It may look perfectly fine in the press pics, but the LG DoublePlay is an absolute brick in the hand, well over half-an-inch thick, and weighing nearly half a pound — heavier than even massive slabs like HTC’s EVO 4G, Amaze 4G, Titan and Rezound, and even a touch more than the tank-like Droid 3 and HTC Arrive sliders. In recent memory, only the Kyocera Echo, with its twin 3.5-inch screens and hefty folding mechanism, could balance the scales evenly. Here’s a handy comparison chart.
A910 Wifi GPS

To add insult to injury, there doesn’t seem to be any perceptible reason for the extra weight here. Unlike any of the devices I refer to above, the DoublePlay has a distinctly cheap feel. While it does have a solid sliding hinge with very little play and I like the gunmetal-gray and silver motif, it feels like a predominately plasticy device and it can creak when held. The phone’s ergonomics are pretty terrible, too. Remember how I said the DoublePlay was a brick? It’s also easy to drop, with smooth edges and a lack of grippy surfaces to keep it from slipping out of your hands.

Displays
Speaking of those screens, one of them is reasonably good, but unfortunately it’s not the big one. Despite the comparatively gigantic size of the DoublePlay in today’s market, LG opted for a 3.5-inch HVGA (480 x 320) resolution screen here, and from the distance you’ll typically be interacting with the phone, that 165ppi pixel density makes for grainy viewing. Given that free-on-contract smartphones often boast larger screens and 800 x 480 resolution, the $100 DoublePlay feels exceptionally dated in this department. The screen also exhibits some pesky ghosting when you scroll. Also, the screen washes out colors slightly and it loses brightness when viewed at off-angles, but we don’t really expect you’ll be sharing a messaging phone with a friend that often anyhow.

The way the screen handles sunlight is pretty interesting, though. There appears to be some sort of anti-glare filter beneath the glass that dissipates light to make the screen easier to read outdoors, though it simultaneously makes it look like your images are filled with tiny indigo dots.
i9220+ Wifi

By comparison, the tiny two-inch QVGA (320 x 240) secondary display is clear, bright and colorful, but it doesn’t really matter because of how little you’ll be using it.

Performance and battery life

The LG DoublePlay won’t blow away any benchmarks, but it’s pretty reasonably specced for the price. With a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 chip and 512MB of memory, it kept up with the Android UI just fine, and though I certainly wouldn’t want to view desktop-size web pages on the DoublePlay’s screen, they loaded rapidly over T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. If you’re fond of numbers, you’ll probably be happy to hear we notched scores of around 1200 in Quadrant, not bad for a single-core 1GHz phone, and we pulled down as many as 6Mbps when tethering over Wi-Fi.

Gaming

Similarly, while you shouldn’t expect the DoublePlay to run all the latest games, it certainly runs quite a few. Angry Birds Rio and World of Goo worked quite nicely, as did Air Attack HD, and we were even able to play Minecraft Pocket Edition, although we saw some noticable slowdown there. (Shadowgun also runs, but it stutters like mad.) Mind you, none of these games looked very good on the DoublePlay’s screen, and the device’s terrible rear speaker also doesn’t help matters there.

Reception and battery life

As long as we weren’t using the aforementioned speakerphone, call quality was fine, about what we expect from T-Mobile in San Jose, California. Coverage can be spotty in certain parts of the city, and the DoublePlay didn’t seem much better at picking up a signal there. We did have trouble getting a GPS fix on one occasion, but it might have been a fluke.

Battery life was actually surprisingly decent for a dual-screen device. With heavy use or as a 4G hotspot, we could drain the 1500mAh battery quickly, but we still got well over 24 hours with lighter loads. If you forget to plug it in at night, you can still spend part of the next day using the phone before it’ll need to be recharged.
Android 2.3 FG10

Camera
The camera on the LG DoublePlay actually isn’t half bad. You’ll definitely see a lot of grainy images indoors and after the sun goes down, but the five-megapixel sensor captures plenty of detail, colors were neither disturbingly vibrant nor unnaturally muted, and we generated some perfectly passable pictures when viewed at lower resolutions. Video quality isn’t bad, either, and the 720p footage actually looks relatively high-definition, unlike the “HD” material we’ve gotten from some cheaper smartphone and tablet cameras in the past.

Wrap-up
When I look at the LG DoublePlay now, I see a great idea that went terribly wrong. There’s plenty you can do with two screens, but this handset barely scratches the surface. More importantly, between conception and release the physical hardware morphed into one of the heaviest, bulkiest Android handsets out there. The phone’s not completely terrible, though. If you happen to like the gimmicks of a split keyboard and a second screen well enough to carry around a brick, the handset’s moderately peppy internals may actually serve you well. Charging $100 on-contract for such a phone seems outrageous, though, and you can do far better. If you have to have a QWERTY keyboard on T-Mobile, the Sidekick 4G offers a fantastic one for just $80 on contract, not to mention a far better screen, and if you can settle for an all-touchscreen phone, there’s the dual-core G2x and the Galaxy S 4G priced at $100 each. The bar is far too high now for the LG DoublePlay to compete.

A relative newcomer to the world of mobile computers, Acer laptops have been the recipients of numerous awards for design and innovation. The line features a selection of TravelMate PCs, the Aspire series, and the cutting edge Ferrari line up. Acer Ferrari notebooks, not only share a name with the Italian sports car maker, but also boast the inimitable Prancing Horse emblem. Thanks to persistence and quality, they have managed to carve out a niche for themselves in the market, and are now amongst the top five brands.
M700 PC
Acer is a Taiwanese manufacturer that offers a wide range of laptops of different prices and performance, but they are mostly known for their low cost range. Aspire One is one of the most famous and most popular model.

Acer of course does not only have cheap laptops but they also have a professional line called TravelMate, which most likely will meet all requirements of picky businessmen. Acer also produces the carbon fiber Ferrari-models which has been successful for years.
Zenithink ZT-180 II
Acer Aspire One was first release in 2008 but it still one of the most sold netbooks on the market. It is cheap, small, light weight, and has decent performance. Let’s face it, the netbooks are not performance monsters but if you consider all the parameters you shouldn’t be disappointed. However, don’t use a netbook to encode video or similar tasks, unless you are very patient.
X10 MID Tablet PC
Acer as a company has been around since the 70th but they haven’t really been designing their own products until 2000. All of Acer’s products are produced by factories in mainland China. Acer is not only a producer, they are also a distributor and they have their own computer retail chain in Taiwan. Acer has been a profitable company in recent years, mostly thanks to their popular cheap range of laptops.

Acer not only makes laptops, they also have a wide range of other products such as smart phones, tablets, monitors and projectors.

A relative newcomer to the world of mobile computers, Acer laptops have been the recipients of numerous awards for design and innovation. The line features a selection of TravelMate PCs, the Aspire series, and the cutting edge Ferrari line up. Acer Ferrari notebooks, not only share a name with the Italian sports car maker, but also boast the inimitable Prancing Horse emblem. Thanks to persistence and quality, they have managed to carve out a niche for themselves in the market, and are now amongst the top five brands.
M700 PC
Acer is a Taiwanese manufacturer that offers a wide range of laptops of different prices and performance, but they are mostly known for their low cost range. Aspire One is one of the most famous and most popular model.

Acer of course does not only have cheap laptops but they also have a professional line called TravelMate, which most likely will meet all requirements of picky businessmen. Acer also produces the carbon fiber Ferrari-models which has been successful for years.
Zenithink ZT-180 II
Acer Aspire One was first release in 2008 but it still one of the most sold netbooks on the market. It is cheap, small, light weight, and has decent performance. Let’s face it, the netbooks are not performance monsters but if you consider all the parameters you shouldn’t be disappointed. However, don’t use a netbook to encode video or similar tasks, unless you are very patient.
X10 MID Tablet PC
Acer as a company has been around since the 70th but they haven’t really been designing their own products until 2000. All of Acer’s products are produced by factories in mainland China. Acer is not only a producer, they are also a distributor and they have their own computer retail chain in Taiwan. Acer has been a profitable company in recent years, mostly thanks to their popular cheap range of laptops.

Acer not only makes laptops, they also have a wide range of other products such as smart phones, tablets, monitors and projectors.

If you want smartphone-like features (such as a touch screen) without actually springing for the complexity of one, the LG CU920 Vu TV could be the hidden gem for you.

While the cool factor of a touch screen has been best popularized by the do-it-all iPhone 3G and Samsung Instinct smartphones (which are labeled as smartphones because they’re powered by computer-like operating systems), cell phones can play in all the touch screen fun, too.
Despite the massive marketing budgets thrown at ballyhooing the iPhone 3G and Samsung Instinct, the lesser-known LG CU920 Vu TV for AT&T packs some smartphone-like charm without being run by a mobile operating system.
Hi7 Touch Screen

The Vu’s large, interactive touch screen is front and center as its primary differentiator and selling point. While the surface area of the touch screen is comparable to the iPhone 3G and Samsung Instinct, the performance of the Vu’s touch screen falls short.

You’ll find yourself having to push buttons harder and you’ll miss certain advanced features that come with popular smartphone touch screens. For example, the Vu doesn’t have smart abilities such as the iPhone 3G’s “pinch in” and “pinch out” finger feature for you to zoom in and zoom out of various areas.

For this reason, navigating the Web on the Vu can sometimes be difficult. You may find yourself having trouble clicking a certain link on the Internet because you lack the ability to precisely hone in on a particular portion of a Web page.

Vu is a TV Phone, Too

The second primary selling point of the Vu, though, begins to make up for the subpar touch screen. The Vu is a die-hard TV cell phone.

On AT&T’s high-speed 3G network, the Vu’s TV performs swimmingly. The content is streamed, which means it downloads as you view it. With a quality cell phone signal, you’re able to watch a wide array of live and pre-recorded television programming and actually derive useful entertainment and information value from it.
“The LG CU920 Vu TV”

The LG CU920 Vu TV
Image ? LG
AT&T Mobile TV is only available on the LG CU920 Vu TV and not the predecessor LG CU915 Vu TV model. AT&T Mobile TV typically runs an extra $15 per month or $30 for unlimited Web usage, email and mobile TV.L9 Wifi

Vu vs. iPhone 3G, Samsung Instinct in Size, Weight

The Vu’s size is in line with what you’d expect and want from this type of cell phone. It measures in at 4.25 inches tall by 2.16 inches wide by 0.51 of an inch in diameter.

In contrast, the Samsung Instinct measures in at 4.57 inches by 2.17 inches by 0.49 of an inch whereas the iPhone 3G’s height is 4.5 inches, width is 2.4 inches and depth is 0.48 of an inch.

The Vu weighs in at 3.16 ounces, which is noticeably lighter than both the iPhone 3G (4.7 ounces) and Samsung Instinct (4.4 ounces). The Vu features a 3-inch touch screen, which compares to a 3.1-inch haptic touch screen on the Samsung Instinct and a 3.5-inch multi-touch screen on the iPhone 3G.

Grave Vu Concerns

An area of grave concern, though, is the Vu’s battery life. Because this is a multimedia phone that’s designed for you to actually use the benefits inherent in watching television and listening to music, the Vu’s major downfall is having only 3 hours of battery life with standby time up to 10 days and 10 hours.

In comparison, the Samsung Instinct actually comes with two batteries that are each rated at up to 5.75 hours of continuous talk time. This compares to 5 hours of talk time on the iPhone 3G. Both touch screen rivals blow away the Vu in the all-important battery life area.
Vu is Too Pricey

In addition to not having other smartphone features (such as GPS), another major concern about the Vu is its price. You can snag an iPhone 3G for as low as $199 (the price will vary depending on your unique situation) and a Samsung Instinct for as low as $129.99.

AT&T has priced the Vu, which clearly falls quite short of these two smartphones, at the expensive price of $149.99 with a two-year service contract. That also forces you to buy various features (such as AT&T Mobile TV) and that price is also assuming you’ve mailed in a $50 rebate.
Q6+ Cell Phone

With no service contract and no features, AT&T says its full price for the Vu would ring in at a price tag no one would want to pay: $349.99. The Vu’s full feature set includes:

# A large, interactive touch screen
# AT&T Mobile TV
# HTML Web browsing
# Music player with customizable equalizer
# 2-megapixel autofocus camera with video
# Video share
# Cellular video (for pre-recorded content) over a 3G network
# Messaging: mobile email, instant messaging (IM) and MMS (multimedia messaging)
# XM Satellite Radio for streaming radio (this service costs extra)
# Bluetooth capability for music, TV and voice
# microSD port for more storage (Vu only has 120 megabytes of internal memory)
“The LG CU920 Vu TV”

The LG CU920 Vu TV
Image ? LG
Overall

When it’s all said and done, the LG CU920 Vu TV impresses the most in its ability to be more like a smartphone than most cell phones. That perk, though, is also its Achilles’ heel.

The Vu can’t come close to trumping the iPhone 3G or Samsung Instinct and even fails to price itself for less considering it can’t compete on features alone.