Because tablets are larger than the regular smart phones this means that tablet manufacturers are able to put faster CPUs, more memory and larger batteries into they devices. This means that they can generally do many of the regular tasks that we do on our PCs, for example many people take their large laptops on the train to work with themselves in order to start work on a document early or reply to emails that come in first thing, or they just want to pass the time playing poker. A tablet can do all of this also but is much smaller and easier to carry whilst still being more than powerful enough to handle a larger game or to do any ordinary work task that you throw at it, and often with their touch screens it is an easier and more user friendly way of working. This makes things like slots games on sites like http://www.riverbellecasino.com/ a lot easier on the train when you don’t have to hit people with your elbows trying to game using a small touchpad alone whilst balancing a laptop on your knees. It’s better for your eyes as well, as you can see details in the game better on a tablet screen than when using a smartphone.

Outside of working you can use your tablet for entertainment such as searching and browsing the web; most tablets do this with ease and because of the built in HTML5 support you can also play in browser games like those found at online casinos or watch videos on sites like YouTube. There are many other things that you can use these devices for and all it takes is a simple search to find out more.

Display

When you first see the Note II, you’re gonna notice the screen. No other way around it. It is one of, if not the largest display available on a phone. The Note II features a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. While it looks great, the low pixel density of 267dpi is a pretty big letdown. After using an HTC One X for months, and now an EVO LTE, that low of a pixel density is hard to enjoy, because everything just looks blown up. Overall, I think the screen is great, but the low dpi made me reach for a different phone when given the option.

Performance

The Galaxy Note II, unlike the Galaxy S3, releases in the U.S. with a quad-core CPU in tow. The Note II features a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos being backed by 2GB of RAM, making it fly through tasks. Seriously, I had a hard time trying to make this phone even stutter. Games looked amazing. The Mali-400MP GPU that comes with the Note II is amazing. After playing a few 3D games on the Note II, it was almost unbelievable how smooth they ran. In terms of benchmarks, the Galaxy Note II receives a 6,068 in Quadrant. This is well above other devices like the HTC One X and S.

Connectivity

The Galaxy Note II that I am reviewing is running on Sprints LTE network. If you arent in a place that is supported with LTE, you have to drop down to Sprint’s 3G network, which leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not sure if its just my area, but the Galaxy Note II was consistently pulling 717KB/s down, and 367KB/s up. Seriously, it’s that slow. My HTC One X that runs on T-Mobile’s Edge data gets around 1.3MB/s down. If LTE isn’t supported in your area, and you don’t have access to WiFi often, you may want to consider switching carriers. Aside from the terribly slow data speeds, the Note II has amazing call quality. While my signal wasn’t always full bars (almost never), the Note II didn’t drop any of my calls, and the other caller could easily understand what I was saying. As far as connectivity goes, its really a hit or miss depending whether or not your supported by LTE.

Miscellaneous

The Galaxy Note II includes many feature other than those previously stated. One of the trademark icons of the Note series is the S Pen. With the Note II, the S Pen gets revamped, giving users a slew of new features including hover-over, a notification when you walk away from the pen, and more. Samsung baked a lot of cool, often overlooked features into the Note II, similar to what they did with the motion settings in the S3. One such feature, is when you have the S Pen out, if you tap the lock screen to unlock it, it actually looks like its splashing ink into the water. I don’t know why I found this so amusing, but I did, and I spent way too much time continuously unlocking the phone. Along with the S Pen, the Note II ships with Android 4.1 Jellybean with Samsung’s TouchWiz Nature user-interface that was released with the Galaxy S 3. While I prefer Stock Android over TouchWiz, there are some cool features that are included that just make it less unlikable.

Final Opinion

The Galaxy Note II is a large phone with a large price tag  hitting carriers at $300 with a new two year contract. For that $300, you get one of the most powerful devices on the market, with a screen that is big enough to pass for a tablet. If the display is too big, then don’t get it. If not, then the Galaxy Note II is a great contender for your next phone.

Over the years, Android phones have gradually, and drastically, increased in size. From the 3.2-inch G1 to the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II, phones just keep getting bigger and bigger. For the most part, though, the aspect ratios of Android devices have all been 16:9, making them relatively easy to navigate. Apps are also able to scale up to fit the larger displays. LG, however, has decided to break that trend and released a 5-inch phone with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The LG Intuition is is much wider and shorter than your average Android phone and is available now on Verizon Wireless.

Specs

• OS: Android Ice Cream Sandwich
• Processor: 1.5 GHz Dual–Core Processor & 1GB RAM
• Memory: 32GB internal memory
• Display: 5.0″ XGA IPS Display, 16.7M Color TFT, 1024 x 768 Pixels
• Wi–Fi Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth v3.0 + HS
• 8 Megapixel Rear–Facing Camera, 1.3 Megapixel Front–Facing Camera
• Battery: 2080 mAh
• Dimensions:5.50″ (H) x 3.56″ (W) x 0.33″ (D)

Review

LG has not had much luck in the Android phone space before. In the past, their devices have launched with quality control problems and buggy software. The G2x was expected to be one of the best Android phones ever, but fell short of those expectations due to serious hardware issues with the device. LG is now following Samsung’s suit and entering the phablet game. Though, LG has put its own twist on their phablet. The 5-inch display may not seem all that large, but the 4:3 aspect is the real kicker. The Intuition is a odd-looking device unlike any other Android device out there.

Display

The LG Intuition features a 5-inch 1024 x 768 display. That equates to 256 pixels per inch and a 4:3 aspect ratio. The screen’s quality is superb. Text is crisp and colors really stand out. However, the aspect ratio is utterly pointless. I understand that LG needed to stand out from the Galaxy Note, but using a 4:3 aspect ratio was not the way to do it. In some cases, it doesn’t seem quite as crazy, such as web browsing, but in all other cases, it’s more of a hassle than a feature. When you attempt to watch a movie on the device, you’ll be greeted with huge black bars on either side of the video. The video size is essentially the same as it would be on a 4-inch device.

LG offers the ability to correct aspect ratio issues you may have with certain apps by placing the same black bars on either side of the app. By default, the apps will be stretched to fill the whole display. Which, for text heavy apps, looks just fine, but when you get into apps like Instagram that are image heavy, it looks horrible. Again, the 4:3 aspect ratio seems more like a hassle than a feature.

Design

Much like the Galaxy Note, if you use the LG Intuition out in public, you’ll get some pretty strange looks because of its size. It is a whopping 3.56 inches wide, slightly wider than a credit card. It’s nearly impossible to reach from one side of the device to the other while holding it one handed, which is a really big downside of the size.

However, aside from the size, the device is actually very well designed. It’s just .33 inches thick and 168 grams heavy. The back will not scratch or attract fingerprints easily, which is always great.

On the right side of the device is the volume rocker, while the left of the device is bare. On the top is the micro-USB port hidden under a sliding door, the power button, the headphone jack, and a screen capture button. The bottom is also bare.

Performance

The LG Intuition features pretty much the same specs as most other high-end Android phones…..released last year. It’s powered by a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 processor with 1GB of RAM. However, even though it’s powered by a last generation processor, the Intuition can still handle the average task pretty well. Gaming was decent, though going into more advanced games such as Dead Trigger, I did experience some lag. Scrolling through menus and home screens was, however, pretty smooth.

Software

The Intuition ships with Android 4.0 and LG’s custom skin.

The software on the LG Intuition looks suspiciously like Samsung’s TouchWiz, but sadly, once you start to use it, you’ll notice it’s nowhere near as polished as TouchWiz.

First off, the browser is absolutely dreadful. Load times are long, pinch to zoom is laggy, and the interface just looks bad. To bring up the tool bar, you to pull up a very tiny menu at the bottom, and with my large fingers, I found myself accidentally hitting the capacitive buttons.

The device also comes with loads of bloatware, which is not removable. Some of those apps include Color, Verizon Apps, Real Racing 2, Shark Dash, and more.

LG’s software has come a long way since their first Android device, but it still has a long way to go. There are still many inconsistencies and bugs throughout the OS, but like I said, it’s greatly improved.

Camera

The device is packing your standard 8MP camera. There’s not really anything that stands out with the camera. If anything, it’s worse than the competition. Pictures, especially indoors, can be washed out and dull, though outdoor shots turned out ok.

The camera app does feature some features (some may call gimmicky) that are cool, such as the ability to say “Say Cheese” and automatically capture a picture. There is also face tracking where it will automatically find and focus on a face.

Data and Phone Performance

The LG Intuition is compatible with Verizon’s blazing fast 4G LTE network. Currently, this network is available in more than 330 markets, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and covers more than 400 million Americans.

Using the speedtest.net app, I was able to consistently get 20-25mbps up and 5-9 up. ESPN’s mobile site loaded in a speedy 6 seconds.

The speaker was decent as well, though I did notice quite a bit of crackling when I would turn the volume up all of the way.

Microphone quality was great and people often couldn’t tell I was on a cell phone while using the Galaxy S III.

I was very impressed with the device′s GPS performance as well. In a pair of commutes, it stuck onto satellites and updated my position more quickly and accurately than other phones I’ve used.

Battery Life

One thing that has been disappointing on nearly every Android phone is the battery life. Sometimes, I can make it through a day, but others I can’t. With the LG Intuition, however, I could usually make it through a day with the 2080mAh battery in the device. Battery life was pretty good. A day for me consists of web browsing, music, Twitter, Google+, and some texting. I usually kept the display at 75%, though I didn’t notice that much change when cranking it up higher.

Usually with a device that has LTE, you experience a pretty significant battery drop of over other HSPA+ devices and that appears to be the case with the Intuition. On a day with heavier LTE usage, my battery was far worse than days spent mainly on WiFi.

Stylus

Much like the Galaxy Note, the Intuition comes with a stylus, dubbed the Rubberdium Stylus. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed with it. The tip is made out of rubber, which affects the accuracy greatly in my testing. In all honesty, it feels like the stylus was an afterthought. There’s no built in holder for it on the device like with the Note, so it’s a lot easier to lose than the Note.

Overall

Pros

• Good performance
• Good display
• LTE

Cons

• Awkward form factor
• Apps don’t always scale correctly
• Poor, inconsistent software
• Stylus feels like an afterthought
• So-So camera

Don’t buy the LG Intuition. There’s no reason to. With the Galaxy Note II coming to Verizon this quarter, you’ll do so much better with it than with the Intuition. The Intuition is just awkward. It’s nearly impossible to hold with one hand. Apps also don’t scale correctly in some cases and even though LG offers tools to correct that, it doesn’t always look right. Also, what’s with the stylus? LG offered no integration between the device and stylus, so I really have no reason to use it.

Just don’t buy the LG Intuition. Go with the Galaxy Note II if you need a phablet, if not, the Galaxy S III is a great device.

As pretty much everyone has expected, the press conference that Google will be holding next Monday will unveil the next-generation Nexus phone. With all of the rumors in the past six months, it has boiled down to one, LG manufactured Nexus device that runs on the same internals as the Optimus G (4.7-inch 720p display, quad-core S4 Pro CPU, etc.), dubbed the Nexus 4. A head of Product Planning over at LG, Amit Gujral, has now confirmed both the Nexus 4 and the Android 4.2 update, which may be Jelly Bean, or Key Lime Pie. Gujral mentioned that ”Google will unveil the LG Nexus on October 29 and the phone will be available in the Indian markets by the end of November,” and also confirmed the 4.7-inch display as well as the quad-core S4 Pro CPU. Does this disappoint you? Were you hoping for more than one Nexus? Do you think the 8GB rumors were also true? We will have to wait until the 29th for official clarification from Google.

PhoneArena

T-Mobile sold the original Galaxy Note for all of a week and this could be why. The fine folks at TmoNews have gotten their hands on a leaked internal document that claims the Galaxy Note II will be available in both white and grey on October 24th. What’s interesting about that date is the fact that Samsung is holding an event in New York City on the same day. During that event, the company is expected to announce U.S. availability for the Galaxy Note II. So does that mean we’re looking at same day availability for every carrier’s Galaxy Note II or just T-Mobile’s?Either way, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on further Note II news.

[Source: TmoNews]

When Motorola announced the original Atrix 4G one of the big selling points of it was the WebTop accessory lineup. WebTop was software that allowed users to dock their phone into a laptop dock and use it to power the laptop.

Motorola, which called this software the future of computing, announced this weekend that it will be discontinuing this software due to the lack of adoption and poor execution by the company. The biggest downside to the WebTop laptop dock was the fact that it cost $500 in addition to the phone.

Motorola’s Webtop app helps users extend their smartphone experience to larger screens. While consumers around the world have adopted Webtop and the concept spurred a lot of innovation in the industry, the adoption has not been strong enough to justify continued resources being allocated to developing Webtop on future devices. We have also seen development of the Android operating system focus on the inclusion of more desktoplike features. Beginning with Photon Q and Droid Razr M/Droid Razr HD/Droid Razr Maxx HD, we will no longer be including Webtop on our products moving forward.

Did you ever use Motorola’s WebTop accessories? Let us know in the comments!

After teasing the project last week, Rovio officially took the wraps of a Star Wars themed Angry Birds game today. Angry Birds Star Wars will be available on Google Play and the Amazon App Store on November 8th. The app features stages based on settings like Tatooine and the Death Star. There will also be a big merchandise portion to the game, with toys and clothes based off of the game hitting Toy ‘R Us shelves on October 28th. Rovio’s CEO claims this is the “best Angry Birds game we’ve ever done.”

Do you still find Angry Birds entertaining or has it grown a bit old to you? I know it has for me. Maybe a Star Wars themed game will change that.