F1 but no Z10

I managed to make some time for myself this afternoon after my ward visit. So, what should I do? Pavilion it was. I wanted to have a look at the new Blackberry Z10. I haven't used Blackberry before in my life but there was something about the new model which appealed to me.

I had a couple of offers at Low Yat, but thinking about the hassle of getting myself another telco account, plus running out space on my trousers to arty another phone, I decided against it. The sad thing was, the vendors there were insistent on me buying one before they allowed me to have a feel of the phone, which I thought was defeating the point. Plan shelved.

Next, I loitered at the mall's foyer after lunch before heading home. It looked like the F1 fever was hitting town. The foyer was filled with F1 cars from yesteryears. A nice sight, and something to keep me snapping away on my camera. Shame that the tickets still cost a bomb!

A Month With the Nexus 4

The first thing I did when I landed at Atlanta was to look around for a phone shop. What exactly was I looking for? Of course the Nexus 4. New stocks were just being released by Google and LG in the last couple of days after the supply ran dry form the launch.

The first couple of shops I went to has yet to receive a stock. But in was lucky the third time. It was a T Mobile vendor and I paid about USD 599 for a contract-free unit. And it was the last one. The stock only game in the same morning. No hesitations. I then got a rolling monthly data package to go with the phone and I was set! And that was about a month ago.

I hesitated to write about it earlier since for some reason I wasn't very happy happy with the camera. I then sorted out the quirks, and still something was missing. Somehow it lacked the charm of the Galaxy Nexus. It wasn't a disappointment. It was more about managing expectation.

Let's start with the good points. The camera was better then the Galaxy Nexus, but I doubt it if it trumped the Note II or the S3. My 4S produced better capture. But maybe it was the software. Downloading Snapseed improved matters. But only marginally. The camera has a few neat trick up their sleeves though software-wise. There was the panorama and the ability to produce a 360 degrees capture.

The processor was blazing fast. The screen wheezed through like a breeze, thanks to Jelly Bean and Project Butter. Calendar app and Gmail felt native - indeed they were. There was no lag whatsoever. My Nova Launcher screen loaded up without any hiccups. Switching between apps did not cause any stutter. Everything felt fast for the first time on an Android platform.

The screen was vivid and the resolution was as high as the iPhone, making reading a pleasure. It also came with Google Now, a smart update system which predicted what you would want to see on the home screen. Neat!

But there were price to pay for all this. My main woe was the battery life. It only lasted around 4 hours with constant use. I browsed around the forum looking for a solution but they involved compromising the Android experience by switching off updates and certain features. Nexus 7 ran without any problem - I also carry a 3G Nexus 7 unit with me. The battery lasts all day. I was sure that a software and setting tweaks may solve this, but at the moment, I had to live it still. Mind you, I used to have similar problem with the iPhone, but it was now sorted out. Even my Galaxy Nexus lasted longer.

And the battery issue would be enough to put off certain people, and I could relate to that. But this being a stock vanilla Google phone, was still the phone to have if you were like me appreciate reliability and getting the latest in terms of software, rather than having gimmicks on the phone screen. It helps to have a fast phone as well.

For those who wanted the latest in Google experience, definitely grab this phone if you must. It you already own one of the latest top of the line Android phone, or even still own a working Galaxy Nexus, you might as well wait for future software updates to sort out the kinks on the current batch.

Is That What It Is?

My brother-in-law was working in Singapore over the weekend, and guess what he brought himself with him from our Southern neighbour? He picked up an iPhone 5!

It was still in the box since nano SIM cards were still not available in Malaysia yet, until today. He would be going over to Maxis to pick up the SIM a bit later, and we should then see how the new phone performs ..... Jealous!!!!

I am with Siri

Finally, it was time for an upgrade. The home button on my iPhone 4 had been playing up for the last couple of months, but I never got around to find the time to upgrade the phone.

I was pleasantly surprised that all the shops were opened on Xmas day in Kuala Lumpur. And Bukit Bintang was teaming was people. Anita wanted to do some shopping there - there were plenty of bargain to be had there - as well as pick up some DVD from our "dealer". Mission accomplished.

While she was shopping, I roamed around and there were a few vendors selling the iPhone. After surveying around, I finally entered the Maxis store, and the rest was history ....

I will be putting up more review of the phone tomorrow after playing around with it. And the camera was just amazing ....