Buy Cheap Stylus 500 Digital

HTC Jetstream review Engadget

14.11.11

Again, HTC's known for its aluminum unibody enclosures and the Jetstream certainly doesn't break from legacy. That said, it is a whole-hearted departure from the metal ribbon and tri-coloring we've become accustomed to seeing on the company's other devices, like the Rhyme , Sensation and even the Flyer. The ID element at play here skews more industrial, giving off an impression of sophistication and luxury that matches up to its ridiculous asking price. The brushed metal finish fills up over three quarters of the device's back, and is broken only by two grey strips of plastic: one located just below the speakers that surrounds the micro-USB port and mic on the bottom, and the other a combo of soft touch and textured plastic up top that houses a subwoofer to the left and an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash to the right. It's here, under the camera's diagonally ribbed casing, that we find both the SIM and microSD card slots neatly tucked away and easily reached. The tablet's 7,300mAh battery, however, is not accessible, but you shouldn't have much need to worry about replacing it. Over on the left side of the device, you'll find the unbroken volume rocker, with the power button and 3.5mm headphone jack sitting atop the device's upper right perimeter. A 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera is situated just right of center on the screen's upper bezel. You'd think that with a dual-core Snapdragon chipset running at 1.5GHz under the hood and 1GB RAM, this tablet would be the epitome of elan and alacrity. Alas, it doesn't appear that HTC optimized the Jetstream to take advantage of the power that lies beneath. Instead, that beastly processor lies mostly dormant, chugging along and treating users to a sputtery, less-than-smooth experience. Sure, navigation through the homescreen feels zippy and responsive for the most part. But there are definite moments when the device fails to recognize your touch or, worse, tricks you into believing it hasn't registered your input when it's merely an issue of lag at play. These performance shortcomings aren't necessarily consistent either. We've definitely found the tablet to be a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde, performing well for a short jag and then devolving into stutters and application force closes. The screen's accelerometer, thankfully, doesn't fall prey to the trap of oversensitivity. True, it takes a moment for the orientation to switch around from landscape to portrait, but we actually appreciated the delay here. Too often we shell out for a high-end gadget that leaves us high and dry after a few hours of moderate use. You won't find that to be the case with the Jetstream, as the tab excels at wisely conserving power. True, it doesn't quite pack the overall punch of other 10-inch rivals, but the Jetstream's 7,300mAh battery provides more than enough gusto to get you through a few days. As we mentioned previously, the battery's not removable, so you don't have the option of swapping it out for something with a greater charge, but that's just the thing -- you won't have to worry about that. Having had the tablet in our possession for a couple of weeks, we can happily report that you'll be able to manage at least two days worth of usage on HSPA+ only and a little over a full day with LTE. That's with brightness set to automatic, WiFi off, the 4G network on, Google Talk running in the background, one Gmail account, and Twitter actively synced. We even made use of the tablet as an e-reader during this two-day stretch, loading books on the pre-loaded Amazon Kindle app and reading for hours at a time. We should also note that it's definitely possible to squeeze up to four days out of a single charge even with light use, so long as you power the tablet down at night. When you boot the tablet up for the first time (and wait the 20 or so seconds it takes), you'll greeted by the outsized flip clock and weather animation widget the company's become synonymous with, as well as those 3D carousel transitions. Sadly, your enthusiastic first meeting with the Jetstream's initial start up will be short lived. Waiting there to receive your ire on the primary homescreen, and in considerable force within the app tray, are a boatload of pre-installed applications spread across the slate's five screens. It looks as though both HTC and AT&T took turns to see who could fill up the Jetstream's 32GB of storage with more crapware. For a tablet that comes loaded with over 50 applications, the vast majority are largely ignorable. Complementing (and we say that with a heavy dose of sarcasm) the OEM's typical assortment of Android apps are a suite of AT&T's own: Code Scanner, Family Map, Navigator, Wi-Fi Hot Spots, Featured Apps, my AT&T. Third-party apps also make an appearance with Amazon Kindle, Facebook, The first time you use the pen to tap on the screen, a tutorial will open, introducing you to the feature's limited functions, including the stylus' erase and highlight quick buttons. This directs you to a menu shortcut on the lower left of your homescreen that, when selected, displays a mini palette that takes you through the various Pen Options, much like on the Flyer. From here you can choose amongst a range of pen styles, colors and thicknesses to be used for scribbling on a screengrab or for thoughts jotted down on the included Notes app. HTC's handwriting recognition software is truly impressive, as it faithfully recreated the strokes of our messy cursive and more legible print, though we wouldn't go so far as calling it useful. You'll notice a tiny delay between the pen's movements and the onscreen scrawl, but it's not enough to hamper the rate of your writing and you can always use the erase button to backtrack over your mistakes. What will get in the way is your own clumsy hand. We noticed that any gentle contact between our palm and the Jetstream's display would immediately activate the keyboard. It's the same quirk we'd previously seen on the Flyer and one that could seriously impede your furious note-taking. That said, there's not much apparent use for the Scribe nor is there a simple way to discover compatible apps. We attempted a quick search for "HTC Scribe" in the Android Market and saw only four matching results, while a query for the less specific "stylus" yielded about 70. Sure, you can use the pen to break up the monotony of finger swiping and navigate the tablet, a handful of apps and even sling shot a few Angry Birds with the digitizer, but it's likely a feature you'll play with several times before losing it the mess of your things. Which brings us to Scribe's major downfall -- there's just nowhere on the device to store it. Unlike it's Gingerbread-based sibling, there's no included case here to stash away the Scribe pen. It's this glaring omission which leads us back to our original conclusion: the Jetstream's pen input is less of an integrated killer feature and more of a straight-up gimmick. Our gripes with the tablet's dull display and schizophrenic performance are mainly exacerbated by its $700 cost. At this high of a price, you'd expect greater pixel density and smoother performance to accompany the sleek and sturdy metal build. And with LTE-enabled versions of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xoom offering improvements in both these areas, and coming in at cheaper price points on Verizon - $500 and $630, respectively -- it's hard to fathom signing on the dotted line with AT&T. That's not to say future software updates, namely those of the Ice Cream Sandwich variety, won't remedy the tablet's sporadic operating tics -- they most likely will. Really, it all comes down to a choice of network speed and battery life over display and performance, as that's the Jetstream's main trade-off. If you need a tablet to last you through a span of two working days with an always on 4G connection, then by all means, this is your device. But if you're crunched for cash and are still keen to claim this tablet as your very own, then we'd recommend holding out for the eventual price drop. That, or you can always hop over and buy what Big Red is selling -- like the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Source: