What's the first thing you should do when you get the N8? Considering it packs the biggest image sensor embedded in a phone yet, Carl Zeiss optics, and an eight-digit pixel count, it seemed obvious to us that the answer was to take it on a picture- and video-taking stroll around London. On our way out we saw our iPhone 4 looking all sad and lonely, so we went ahead and brought it along as well. Below you shall find one gallery of pure, unadulterated N8 sample shots, another interspersed with the iPhone's results for comparison's sake, and a final one with side-by-side 100 percent crops from each image taker. Once you've digested all of those, we suggest hopping past the break and tucking into some tasty video comparisons for dessert.

Naturally, all the images are entirely unretouched (but for our masterly watermarking) and the iPhone 4's HDR hocus pocus has been left off. We've also provided a zip file containing all the full-res imagery shot with the N8 in a link below.

A quick note is also merited about the N8's resolution. The sensor's display ratio is 4:3, which means that full 12 megapixel shots are only available in those dimensions. The camera software, however, defaults to shooting 9 megapixel snaps at the increasingly popular 16:9 ratio -- this is done simply by cropping away the "excess" bars at the top and bottom of the image, meaning that the 9 megapixel images are giving us identical performance as the 12 megapixel ones, they're just chopped down (from 4000 x 3000 to 4000 x 2248) for the sake of convenience. Now, on with the show!

Continue reading Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: camera showdown

Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: camera showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you're a numbers geek, you're trying to be scientific about your next smartphone purchase, or you just like pretty colors, you might appreciate DisplayMate's latest report rounding up examples of all (well, most) of the latest and greatest display technologies out there: IPS LCD, Super AMOLED, AMOLED, and TFT, represented by the iPhone 4 and Droid, the Galaxy S, the Nexus One, and the iPhone 3GS, respectively. Noticeably missing is SLCD, the technology HTC has been using to make up for lost ground on its AMOLED shortage from component supplier Samsung, but we've got a hunch DisplayMate's hard at work at adding that into the mix.

Anyhow, considering the sheer number of variables the firm takes into consideration -- everything from color depth, to brightness, to reflectance, to color gamut -- there's no clear-cut winner, but the Droid and iPhone 4 are obviously a cut above the rest with generally higher scores and better performance across the board. The Galaxy S' Super AMOLED turns in a decent performance, too, but takes a little hit for its 16-bit color depth and blown-out colors. Of course, if you consider any of these -- even the crappy TFT on the 3GS -- to a phone from five years ago, it still looks like science fiction... so you really can't go wrong, can you?

Latest smartphone displays pitted in no-holds-barred deathmatch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile's official street date for the G2 is Wednesday next week, but we knew some pre-orderers would be getting the phone early, and it looks like we've already got an unboxing to show for it. Rugged, free-spirited tipster Silverwolfe did the honors, and even managed to size the phone up against the original G2 while he was at it. Check out a few shots below, or hit up the source link for the full gallery.

T-Mobile G2 gets an early unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today at San Francisco's Mobilize conference, a company by the name of Tango launched its video calling application, appropriately called... yes, "Tango." Like Fring, it's available for both iOS and Android devices, and handles calls over 3G and WiFi. Like FaceTime, no account is required to initiate calls.

We chatted with Eric Setton, CTO of Tango, who gave us a demo of the application (on video) using an iPhone 4 and EVO 4G. We also tested Tango by installing the application on an iPhone 4 and Nexus One, and it works as advertised -- although it only appears to initiate calls with people already in your contact list. Tango relies on the XMPP protocol used by Jabber and Google Talk to initiate calls via a centralized server, but the actual calls are peer-to-peer over 3G and WiFi. Call quality scales dynamically with connection performance. Currently, the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and 4th generation iPod touch are supported, as well as devices running Android 2.1 and higher (not 2.0 as mentioned in the video).

Give it a try and let us know how it works for you -- and remember, it takes two to tango. Follow the break for the video demo!

Continue reading Tango launches 3G and WiFi video calling on iOS and Android, no account required

Tango launches 3G and WiFi video calling on iOS and Android, no account required originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like that quad-core Armada processor won't be having apps for breakfast after all -- confronting Marvell's Jack Kang at Mobilize 2010, he told us the chips proved too power-hungry for devices without a dedicated cord. That doesn't mean we won't see them soon, however, as the man let slip that it's actually the quad-core chip that will appear in a new game system, though we can probably rule out the Nintendo 3DS for the same reason as the phones.

Marvell's still hoping to get in the mobile market in a big way, though, and that's what the tri-core Armada 628 is all about, which uses low power profiles to save battery life. According to Kang, however, the system's actually a little more exciting than that -- its two up-to-1.5GHz cores kick in when the system's under a multimedia strain, but actually shut off completely for day-to-day use, relying instead on the third 624MHz processor which slowly sips your battery juice. All we know is, we'd better find out which devices will sport these chips, and soon -- our curiosity is beginning to gnaw.

Marvell's quad-core Armada processor won't see tablets or phones, destined for a mystery game platform originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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