Huawei Ascend P1 review

Drastic product strategy adjustments appear to be a hot trend for smartphone manufacturers in 2012, and Huawei is one such example of a company doing its best to hang out with the cool kids. It's hard to blame it, of course: the OEM's previous success has been in its ability to crank out budget-friendly smartphones, feature phones and USB sticks like nobody's business and pushing them out to emerging markets. The story's even more dire within the US, as most carriers have kept Huawei out of the spotlight by choosing very few of its devices, white-labeling each one and selling them as prepaid. In an effort to gain awareness and improve its market share, Huawei's turned to establishing brand recognition and improving device selection as its focal points for 2012.

Barely a week into the new year, Huawei took to the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show to showcase the Ascend P1 and P1 S. These two smartphones, nearly identical twins with the exception of the P1 S' thinner profile and (oddly enough) larger battery, represented the first phase in the company's new product strategy. The pair were to be powerful new devices with a classy, stylish look and feel. This was a welcome move since Huawei's best product prior to CES was the Honor, a 1.4GHz single-core device with a 4-inch FWVGA display.

Until Huawei launches its top-tier Diamond series of smartphones (including the ultra-powerful D Quad), the Ascend P1 -- which is expected to arrive in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia by the end of the month at an unknown price -- will be the company's best offering. Naturally, we were eager to take this Platinum series (second tier) device for a spin. Is the P1 truly a sign of Huawei turning a new leaf? Does it hold its own against similarly specced competition? Follow us past the break to find out.

Hardware

On the outside, the Ascend P1 shares a somewhat interesting kinship with the Motorola Droid RAZR: it boasts an extremely svelte profile, has a hump on one end and offers the same display size and technology. That's not to say these two devices are twinners, of course -- the camera placement, materials used and Moto's bent corners are just a few ways they differ -- but the two smartphones do share a hefty helping of commonalities.

Like the RAZR, the P1 and P1 S have attempted to create a buzz around their slender build. With a width of 7.7mm at its thinnest point, our test unit is the beefier of the pair on the spec sheet (the RAZR hits 7.1mm at its most svelte spot). A phone's claims of slimness are only as good as its thickest point, however -- and using an old-fashioned ruler, we discovered that the camera's hump is an extremity that gives the P1 the same maximum thickness as the RAZR (roughly 10.5mm).

The P1 takes advantage of an incredibly lightweight construction, barely gracing the scales at a mere 3.88 ounces (110 g). Sure, we've seen plenty of other devices that weigh less than this, but generally the selection is much lower-end than what you'll find here. While we're not too fond of brick-heavy handsets, there's something about feather-light phones that exudes an aura of cheapness. The Ascend P1 is made of the typical inexpensive, glossy plastic we've come to expect on budget-friendly handsets, which leaves us a little concerned in this case -- a "Platinum series" phone shouldn't offer the same materials as many of Huawei's lower-end devices. Speaking of glossy, the phone does a better job picking up fingerprints than a Hoover vacuum picks up crumbs -- even with an all-white test model, they weren't difficult to spot.

As with a litany of other ultra-thin devices, Huawei's latest darling doesn't offer a removable battery in order to conserve space and shed precious millimeters. But to the casual observer gazing upon the Ascend P1 for the first time, it looks like the back of the phone doubles as a battery cover, since it just appears to have been snapped onto the frame like a set of Legos. Efforts to take off the back in order to find the battery cover will be fruitless. In fact, opening up the tab protecting the microSD port reveals one of the screws holding the back in place. As tacky as it sounds, at least it's hidden well enough to not be much of a concern for most parties -- unless, of course, the plastic hinge wears out its welcome after enough time. While the phone is durable enough for consistent everyday use, we would have appreciated a unibody design choice here.

Despite its build, the smooth, curved edges that lead from the side of the phone to its back make for a comfortable hand-holding experience. We can't make the same claim for most devices this thin, as the large majority of handsets less than 8mm tend to be a somewhat awkward fit in our average-sized palms. Our only gripe with the in-hand experience may or may not be a deal-breaker, depending on how you prefer to hold your phones: the top and bottom edges of the P1 are slightly pointed and may end up protruding into your hand like a sharp rock.

The aforementioned microSD port resides on the right edge of the Ascend P1, just barely below the power / wake button. On top you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port and full-sized SIM slot. The left side of the phone only houses the volume rocker. The front is outfitted with the 4.3-inch qHD display, flanked by a row of three capacitive buttons (menu, home and back) below and a front-facing 1.3MP video chat camera and speaker above.

Now we turn our attention, once again, to the back of the Ascend. This is where you'll discover a small bump housing an 8-megapixel, rear-facing camera and dual-LED flash, set up in a vertical arrangement on the top center of the phone (not dissimilar to the Samsung Epic 4G Touch and T-Mobile Galaxy S II). At roughly 10.6mm, the camera is actually the thickest part of the P1, which translates into a larger sensor size and, in theory, better images. A tiny noise-cancelling mic rests to its right, and the speaker grille can be found on the 9.4mm-thick hump at the bottom.

We were disappointed to find a meager amount of onboard storage: 4GB, to be exact, and the amount of user-accessible memory is even smaller. You won't be able to take advantage of the device's 8MP camera or its 1080p video recording prowess for very long, so you'll definitely need to grab a microSD card and throw it in to satisfy whatever memory requirements you may have. We were also saddened by the P1's lack of NFC, which means Android Beam and Google Wallet can't be used.

But, to the happiness of AWS users everywhere, the Ascend P1 houses a pentaband 3G radio (850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100) in addition to quadband GSM / EDGE -- great news for T-Mobile US subscribers as well as anyone interested in complete global roaming. As for the rest of the internals, we've compiled a handy spec sheet to peruse below.

	Huawei Ascend P1
Dimensions	5.02 x 2.55 x 0.30 inches (127.4 x 64.8 x 7.7mm)
Weight	3.88 oz. (110g)
Screen size	4.3 inches
Screen resolution	qHD 960 x 540 (256ppi)
Screen type	Super AMOLED (PenTile)
Battery	1,670mAh
Internal storage	4GB
External storage	None included, MicroSD compatible
Rear camera	8MP, dual LED flash
Front-facing camera	1.3MP, 720p video
Video capture	1080p HD, 30fps
NFC	No
Radios	Quadband GSM / EDGE; Pentaband HSPA+ 850 / 900 / AWS / 1900 / 2100
Network speeds	HSPA+ 21Mbps
Bluetooth	4.0
CPU	1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460
GPU	PowerVR SGX540
RAM	1GB
MHL	Yes
WiFi	b/g/n

Display

What you're looking at with the Ascend P1 is your run-of-the-mill 4.3-inch qHD display with a resolution of 960 x 540 (shining forth at a pixel density of 256ppi). It's super AMOLED, which will run cold shivers down the spines of PenTile haters everywhere. And to pre-emptively answer any question you might have about the RGBG matrix: yes, at that level of density, the pixels are visible. It likely isn't enough to bother anyone besides the aficionado; going from an HD display on today's flagship phones, it's easy enough to see the difference the lower pixel count makes. It's yet another commonality the phone shares with the RAZR, and you'll see absolutely no difference in resolution between the two. As an aside, the viewing angles on the Ascend P1 aren't quite as good as the HTC One X, but we were still able to get close to edge-on before the screen disappeared from our view

Software

Huawei may be planning to release a special custom Android skin dubbed "Emotion," but there's currently no trace of it on the Ascend P1. That doesn't mean the Chinese manufacturer hasn't placed its own stamp of love on the thing. While the default skin of choice happens to be nearly all stock (with the exception of the camera UI, themes and notification bar), you're also offered the opportunity to hit the menu button from the home screen and quickly switch over to a custom skin called "3D Home."

If you're familiar with the user interface found on the Honor and other older Huawei devices, you'll notice that the 3D Home experience closely resembles it. So much, in fact, that we felt as though we were transporting from Ice Cream Sandwich to Gingerbread in the space of mere seconds. First, let's tackle the name: the 3D moniker appears to refer mainly to the types of transitions and widgets that can be enabled within this particular skin. The animations aren't unique or new to the Android world, as we've seen enough cube-style UIs over the years to keep us from doing a double take at what Huawei has put together here.

Diving deeper into the UI, the resemblance to ICS is minimal, though Huawei has at least stayed true to the five-button shortcut bar layout and the use of Roboto. Long-pressing the home panel brings up the option to add your choice of 2D or 3D widgets as well as folders and shortcuts (all of which were left out of this menu on stock ICS). Wallpapers can still be accessed, but only by pressing the menu key, which -- incidentally enough -- throws together a whole smorgasbord of various options you'd never find available in pure vanilla form, such as app management, settings, transitions and application icon appearance (you can choose between two icon styles). The app tray is a 4x4-icon grid with no option to peruse widgets. You'll also notice two large buttons at the bottom: home on the left and an icon manager on the right. The latter option gives you the ability to quickly uninstall apps you don't want anymore, and it even lets you add folders within the app menu itself (similar to later versions of TouchWiz). That's one feature we'd love to see used more often.

Looking back at the mostly-stock Android build, there are only a few places Huawei lightly salted with its own flavor. One of the most obvious differences is the inclusion of a capacitive menu button (arguably, including any capacitive buttons at all is a glaring differentiator from the virtual keys found on the Galaxy Nexus), which isn't uncommon to legacy devices with the four-key setup.

The notification menu is nearly all stock, with one different feature staring you in the face: a set of five toggle switches (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Data Switch and Auto-Rotate), in a fashion very similar to what you'll find in most custom skins. The vanilla Android keyboard is available, but you're defaulted to Huawei's IME option, in which the keys are slightly taller than stock and the numbers can be accessed by swiping your finger from right to left (or vice versa).

The lock screen offers four quick-access points, consisting of home, phone, camera and messages. In addition to the usual suite of styles for opening your device such as Face Unlock, pattern, 2D unlock and PIN, Huawei's also added a "3D unlock" option. Notice a theme here? Again, it's nothing you'd need a pair of special glasses to see -- it's just a version of the standard 2D unlock screen with fancier logos and a circle in the middle that resembles a globe.

Fast boot is also included in the settings, and the name definitely fits: it took only six seconds to get from a cold start to the lock screen. To share a bit of contrast, we turned the setting off and the same process lasted 40 seconds before we saw the lock screen.

Within the default ICS skin on the device, three different themes are offered. Essentially, all this does is change the wallpaper and appearance of the icons on the screen. This is a nice customization option if you don't like the look of stock ICS (we're obviously huge fans of it though), but in switching back and forth between themes we discovered -- to our frustration -- that the wallpaper settings on the default theme don't get saved. So when we returned to our original theme, we had to manually switch to our preferred wallpaper once more.

When we first received our test model, it was pre-loaded with a Chinese ROM. As such, Google accounts and the Play Store couldn't be used on the device -- even after attempting to sideload the APK files, we couldn't get the apps to work (though we could sideload third-party app stores without incident). It did, however, have Chinese apps and services not found on global versions, such as Mobile QQ, HiSense and Baidu Mobile. Oh, and a user guide, all in Chinese (even though we had changed the language settings to English). Huawei hooked us up with an international ROM, which we downloaded and installed via a microSD card. This treated us to a setup we're more accustomed to using, with full Google account and Play Store access.

Camera

The 8-megapixel autofocus shooter on the back of the Ascend P1 didn't blow our minds, but it didn't disappoint us either. Why the mixed bag? We found the color to be well-saturated in most cases and we were satisfied with the white balance, but the images didn't seem to turn out as crisp or detailed as those taken with the HTC One X -- especially when comparing shots at 100 percent zoom. It's a perfectly average camera when it comes to performance, but at least it comes fully stocked with features and offers respectable images when taken casually.

Even though the Ascend P1's skin is incredibly close to stock Android, Huawei chose to use its own user interface for the camera. The still / video toggle switch is on the top of the right sidebar above the shutter button, and the gallery shortcut is on the bottom. Changing LED flash modes and swapping to the front camera can be done using buttons located on the top left corner, and settings are accessed via an arrow on the left side. If you need to zoom, you can do so using the volume rocker.

Pulling out the settings menu, you'll find (from top to bottom) scene mode, filters, effects and miscellaneous settings. If you're looking to switch over to HDR, Panorama, Low light, Smile Shot or Group mode, you can do so in the scene mode section. Other various needs, such as picture resolution, quality, white balance, toggle switches for AF and face detection, brightness / exposure adjustments and ISO (up to 800 is available) can be found in the miscellaneous menu. Sadly, we were unable to find a true macro mode and had difficulty mimicking the feature using any other modes provided to us. We also couldn't hunt down a way to turn off the obnoxiously loud shutter and focus sounds. This may not come as a bother to most, since it's a solid indication to the photographer that the camera's actually doing what it's supposed to do, but we'd appreciate having the choice to shut it off when it gets to be too much. Lastly, the P1's shutter button is capable of locking focus and exposure, which we have found to be incredibly helpful in a whole smattering of situations in which the available light and exposure just aren't quite right for what you're trying to capture.

Touch to focus is ever-present in the P1 camera, which comes in handy whenever you want to focus on an object that doesn't happen to be in the middle of the viewfinder. It works well, subtly blurring out close-up items when you're attempting to focus on something in the background -- and vice versa. The P1 also allows you to use the built-in dual LED flash to help you focus on an object at night, prior to actually taking the shot. The flash is reasonably bright, although low-light performance (sans LED) could have been better. To get somewhat decent shots in these circumstances, your best bet is to find the "night" scene in the miscellaneous settings. Candlelight, low-light and HDR modes just won't get it done here.

One other minor detail we uncovered in our testing revolves around the responsiveness of the shutter button: on several occasions we pressed the button only to find that nothing happened (we suppose this is one silver lining to its inability to shut off sound), but after a more precise touch of the button, it would begin working without a hitch. Speaking of which, shutter lag is quite reasonable on the P1 -- we had to wait a full 1.5 seconds for the image to get captured.

Recording video on the P1 was a pleasant experience overall. The camcorder offers a max resolution of 1080p, and does a better job at it than most smartphones using the same specs. We didn't spot any motion blur and there weren't any laggy or choppy bits. Color was accurate, and the mics picked up our voice clearly, despite an incessant breeze that was attempting to dominate the conversation.

Performance and battery life

The Huawei Ascend P1 is equipped with a TI OMAP 4460 dual-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. It's a heavy hitter, to be sure, and it's already being used in other key devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Indeed, given the steady performance of the original ICS smartphone, that's a heritage we can get behind. Power users won't be disappointed in the Ascend P1, as it hardly skipped a beat during the extent of our testing. We rarely experienced lag when transitioning between Android skins (more on that later), websites loaded quickly without tiling and multitasking went off without a hitch.

Gaming was also a smooth experience with the PowerVR SGX540 GPU included in the OMAP 4460 chipset. We suffered from very little lag time when playing graphics-heavy titles such as Riptide, and the graphics were fairly well-detailed -- the only major exception to this was the fact that the water wasn't realistic enough. The jetski never appeared to float properly in the water, and when bobbing up and down it seemed as though it was surrounded by a strange grey mass instead of the aquatic goodness we've come to expect with the upper echelons of today's graphic capabilities. It may be enough to take a few hardcore gamers out of their element, to be sure, but most casual players will hardly notice at all.

In an effort to discuss comparisons, let's talk numbers. Check out the table below, which outlines how the Ascend P1 fares against a fellow OMAP 4460 device (the Galaxy Nexus) and a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 handset (the One S).

	Huawei Ascend P1	Samsung Galaxy Nexus (HSPA+)	HTC One S (global)
Quadrant (higher is better)	3,550	1,993	5,053
Vellamo (higher is better)	1,293	1,159	2,452
SunSpider 9.1 (ms, lower is better)	1,963	1,985	1,742
GLBenchmark Egypt 720p offscreen (fps)	32	28	57
AnTuTu (higher is better)	5,973	6,087	7,067
CF-Bench (Overall; higher is better)	6,192	6,189	9,547
Battery life (video rundown test)	6:40	5:15	8:30

Looking at the table, we notice that the Ascend P1 holds its own against another OMAP 4460 device that happens to run stock ICS. Quadrant scores are slightly skewed in favor of the P1's qHD display when compared to the superior 720p HD panel on the Galaxy Nexus, but the benchmark still far exceeds the margin of error we'd give to the lower-res screen.

Testing GLBenchmark Egypt offscreen, a test specifically designed to run at the same screen resolution in order to eliminate possible misrepresentation, the Ascend barely edged out the Galaxy Nexus in graphics performance. Nearly every other benchmark is neck-and-neck between the two phones, which indicates that the Ascend P1 is a decent alternative for anyone seeking the same kind of performance as Sammy's Nexus. That said, neither device came even close to matching wits with the Snapdragon S4-running HTC One S, a glaring fact that doesn't bode well for TI.

In our standard video rundown test, the phone lasted a full six hours and 40 minutes before needing a new charge. That's right around average, and exactly what we'd expect from a 1,670mAh battery. It also eked out a respectable total of six hours and 20 minutes when we used the P1 as a mobile hotspot (with one device connected and tethering at all times).

But how does the phone hold up in more common scenarios such as the regular workday? We managed to get the phone to go for 13 hours and 30 minutes in a real-life, daily use scenario (75 minutes of calling, 30 messages, 15 minutes of gaming, listening to music for an hour, watching 25 minutes of YouTube videos, taking pictures and video and checking email, Twitter and other social services every half-hour). Understandably, your mileage will vary depending on your own phone usage, but we have no reason to believe that the Ascend P1 won't get you through business hours, the commute home and up until bedtime. Moderate and infrequent users should get through at least a full day and a half without needing a juice pick-me-up. It's no RAZR Maxx -- no other phone is, naturally -- but it's surprisingly good for an average-sized battery.

The Ascend P1 is equipped with Dolby Mobile 3.0, which essentially is a set of profiles designed to enhance the sound of your multimedia. It reminds us too much of HTC's recent attempts to "improve the listening experience" by integrating Beats audio technology into its handsets -- activating Dolby certainly does result in fuller bass than the default, and it bests Beats simply by offering a litany of equalizer settings to choose from, but its weak point is the treble. Regardless of the EQ profile, we could never find a range of sound fully to our liking. Turning Dolby on was better than leaving it off, to be sure, but we prefer the ability to choose our own preferences instead of deferring to specific pre-loaded sets of equalizer settings.

Using the external speaker was a slightly different experience. Dolby was available when listening to music, but individual EQ settings weren't offered. Not that it really would have made an impact -- the only benefit we could determine was the fact that Dolby made each song louder (instead of better-defined), and the music was too soft to enjoy when the setting was turned off. While the speakers were loud enough that we could hear both calls and music from 30 feet away without straining our ears, voices sounded quiet and slightly muffled. Unfortunately, this was indicative of the overall call quality, as we achieved similar results with the internal speaker as well. We could hear the caller on the other end of the line well enough, but we also found ourselves pushing the volume rocker up to its highest setting more often than not.

Wrap-up

It's a sure sign of how quickly things can change in the mobile industry. The Ascend P1 was a top-notch phone -- in January. Five months later, the landscape has changed drastically: Huawei's "Platinum device" will be released in a world in which the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III are available as alternative options. The P1 is a good phone, but it's not in the same league as those big guns.

But was a device like the Ascend P1 meant to be the best of the best? Probably not. Heck, the very same manufacturer that produced this phone will debut the quad-core D Quad as its flagship at some not-too-distant point in the future. Rather, this device seems more practically suited to take on the next tier down -- a place which houses phones like the Galaxy Nexus and Droid RAZR. And at roughly $500 (prices vary by region), Huawei's inaugural dual-core device does exactly that in respectable fashion. It may not be love at first sight, but the P1 is -- at the very least -- a great first impression.

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How-to: Build a multi-talented HTPC for (roughly) $1,000

This is an auspicious year for building an HTPC or indeed any type of sub-$1,000 rig. Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors are about to exert a nice downward pressure on last year's finest, despite the fact that Sandy Bridge still holds up well for many people's needs -- and much the same can be said of AMD's Llano APUs following the arrival of Trinity. In fact, thanks to the market's regular churn, the HTPC parts we look at after the break could easily fall below their $1,019 total bill before you even pick up your screwdriver. (Okay, so we went slightly over $1,000. It's a free country.)

On the other hand, you'd have to be mildly loopy to drop serious cash on a PC that's solely for media consumption. Times have changed since our last build in 2009, and they're unrecognizable compared to the time before that. These days, even ARM-powered smartphones can handle 1080p in and out, nettops with Blu-ray drives can be had for $500and even totally silent fanless HTPCs are available for around $1,000 (albeit with very modest specs). From that perspective, this might actually be a terrible time to persuade people that spending a grand on a plain old home-built HTPC makes sense -- and that's why, after the break, we're not even going to try.

Components

So, our $1,019 HTPC suddenly seems obscenely expensive in the year 2012, which means it'll have to work twice as hard to prove its mettle. Just how will it do that? By returning to the fundamental idea of a what a do-it-yourself rig is all about: spending money only on the stuff you want, ignoring the bits you can live without and -- most importantly -- future-proofing the whole thing so that it can keep pace with your most unexpected whims.

What if we later decide to add an ever-cheaper SSD to speed things up? Or shove 5TB of storage into the chassis and use it as a NAS? Or buy a graphics card and a Logitech wheel for some racing action in the living room? By rights, a DIY rig ought to cut off none of these options. So, with that mind, let's pick some components. (Big thanks to QuietPC.com for loaning us the products.)

Chassis -- This PC will need to be powered all day long to record TV shows, let us remote in from the beach, backup files, stream music and take care of a billion other chores. Fractal's Define R3 has been around for a while, but it has a solid reputation and comes with dampening foam and a fan controller. If you can't get hold of the R3, then H2 from NZXT takes a very similar approach.

Power supply -- Our budget won't stretch to a totally fanless build that delivers everything we want, but we can still minimize noise with a fanless PSU. Seasonic's SS-400FL is expensive compared to regular power supplies, but it'll deliver stable wattage while contributing precisely zero extra decibels to your living room.

Processor -- Fair enough, AMD's Llano A8 chips are a great choice for an HTPC that will only ever be used as an HTPC, and indeed we list them as a good budget option further down this page. But for now we're aiming high: we want an Intel Core i5-2500K that delivers superior CPU power, overclockability and its own HD 3000 integrated graphics. We'll be bound to its stock cooler for now, but we're familiar with it and we know it's not too whiny. In future, a $40 third-party cooler could allow us to push those overclocks further.

Motherboard -- Overclock an HTPC? Hell, yeah. Why pay the full price for a processor and then not push it to the max? The Z68 chipset allows for this, but unlike the P67 it also lets us use the Core i5's integrated graphics, which is essential since we're not yet investing in a graphics card. The Gigabyte GA-Z68-UD3H-BA is nice and tough (albeit not "military-grade"), which means it stands a greater chance of surviving drops, elbows, and elbow-drops during installation.

HDD -- We actually have a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive that we'd love to use in this rig, but the $180 price tag is just too toppy. Instead we put in a regular Samsung 1TB HDD for $110. And we still feel ripped off, but we'll get to that later.

RAM -- Back in 2009, we spent $26 on 4GB of DDR2. This time we're getting 8GB of Crucial's XMS DDR3 for $49, but if you check back at Newegg occasionally you may well spot a $20 rebate offer.

Tuner -- This depends on your geography. We built our rig in the UK where the tuner market is less healthy and uses different broadcast standards, but Engadget's US-based HD team will happily recommend the Hauppauge CableCARD USB tuner pay TV, or the slightly pricier HDHomeRun for ATSC/ClearQAM. If you absolutely insist on keeping the price down, then a regular PCI Express tuner can be had for around $65.

Controllers -- We snatched the keyboard and mouse from an older PC to save costs. Once the PC was set up, we switched to mainly using Windows Live Mesh (free) for controlling the desktop from our main laptop, plus the Remote Kitten app (also free) for controlling Media Center using an iPhone. SplashtopHD is also very useful, but that costs.

Product	Shopping	Lowest Price
Fractal Define R3	Shop!	$109.99
Intel Core i5-2500K	Shop!	$219.99
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3	Shop!	$129.99 (after rebate)
Corsair XMS3 8GB	Shop!	$48.99
Samsung F3 1TB	Shop!	$109.99
Samsung SH-B123L Combo	Shop!	$71.41
Hauppauge CableCARD tuner	Shop!	$98.99
Seasonic SS-400FL PSU	Shop!	$129.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium	Shop!	$99.99

Installation

If you've built a PC before, then there's nothing unusual here -- these are all regular parts that fit together in the normal way. If not, then it's probably best to get a friend to help out, but in the meantime here's a quick summary of the build:

1. The PSU went into the case with a couple of screws.
2. We put the motherboard on a desk and loaded it up with the CPU, a good dollop of thermal paste and the stock cooler. We also put in the RAM.
3. The Fractal case comes with everything you need. We put in the motherboard holders, then then the mo'bo itself and then the secondary screws to hold it in place.
4. We connected up the intake and exhaust fans to the fan controller, which sits in one of the PCI slots. Fractal's bundled controller lets you dial the fan speed right down if CPU temperature is low, and lower RPM means less noise.
5. The optical drive and HDD all went in next, with the latter two getting their power connections from the PSU and their SATA connections (3Gb/s for the Blu-ray, 6Gb/s for the HDD) from the motherboard.
6. The fiddliest connections are always the case controls -- connecting the power button, reset button etc., to the motherboard. We deliberately left out the LED case light connection, because we want it to be as discreet as possible.
7. No point putting the case sides on until you know everything's working okay. We plugged Ethernet, HDMI, optical audio, tuner, mouse and keyboard into the back of the case and then switched on to make sure we saw the boot-up screen on the TV. We also checked that the fans were running properly. Then the sides went on, significantly reducing the noise. If you're going to get electrocuted, make sure it happens now rather than after you've wasted time installing software, etc.
8. The Windows 7 boot CD went in and once that was installed we moved onto the motherboard and tuner card drivers. We then ran Windows Media Center and scanned for TV channels.

Daily operation

The HTPC ran nice and quiet, which was a relief seeing as how the case and fanless PSU forced us to make major sacrifices in other areas. Idle noise was 35.1dBa, which was only a couple of dBs above background noise in the living room. This noise consisted mainly of the high-pitched whirr of the CPU fan, but it was barely noticeable -- to the point where if you got distracted, you'd have to re-focus your concentration just to make out the sound.

A battered MiniDisc player functioned as our DAC

For comparison, an old Dell business desktop gave us 41dBa at idle, a PlayStation 3 gave us 42dBa and an original Xbox 360 (not Elite) gave us 47.8dbA. It's said that a 10dB gain is perceived by human ears as a doubling of volume, which seems about right -- the Xbox sounded far louder than our HTPC. When listening to music, the sound of the PC was obliterated by a battered old Sony amp and speakers plugged into the motherboard's optical port via an equally battered MiniDiscplayer with optical-in that functioned as our DAC.

So far so good, but what about when the drives are utilized? Heavy HDD use gave us 40dB, while accessing HDD and spinning up a Blu-ray took this to a deafening 50dBA. Luckily, once a disc was loaded and running, sounds from the drive ceased almost completely and overall system noise remained close to the idle level while actually playing a movie -- the Samsung SH-123L was impressive in that respect. Nevertheless, the Samsung HDD was a disappointment considering how much it cost us: it was too clacky and louder than a 5400RPM drive ought to be.

A couple more stats before we move on: idle system power hovered around 44 watts, rose to 55 watts for live TV and 80 watts for Supreme Commander. CPU temperature stayed around 30 degrees and only rose to 40 degrees after an hour-long bout of Medieval II: Total War(played with a mouse on a cushion -- not ideal but still fun.) That leaves plenty of headroom for overclocking later via the BIOS, or using Gigabyte's EasyTune6 utility if you can get it to load up (we couldn't). The Windows Experience Index came out at 5.9 -- hampered by the HDD.

In terms of real-world tasks, we weren't left wanting

In terms of real-world tasks, we weren't left wanting. Windows Media Center handled recording and watching 1080i TV channels (using the terrestrial Freeview HD service in the UK) with no issues. Dropbox, Windows Live Mesh, Splashtop HD, Spotify, Logitech Media Server and other apps ran simultaneously behind Media Center and other apps without stressing the system. We didn't really test PC gaming (beyond Medieval II and a bit of Supreme Commander 2) because this set-up has no couch-friendly controller to make that a sensible option. Nevertheless, we did run a few Wii and N64 games quite happily using the Dolphin emulatorrunning with a WiiMote, a third-party IR bar and a Bluetooth adapter for the PC.

Remote Kitten was a mixed blessing as a Windows Media Center controller. The app worked 90 percent of the time but had to be restarted occasionally when it failed to connect -- no fun when you're missing your favorite show. We tried a couple of Android alternatives but found that they were deeply unfriendly in comparison and not worth the hassle -- ready money awaits anyone who can improve the current dearth of easy-to-use WMC controllers in Google Play. In contrast, Windows Mesh and SplashTop HD ran like a dream and made it easy to access and control the computer from a Windows laptop, Macbook Pro, HTC Flyer and various Android smartphones. The only downside was the fact that SplashTop still isn't compatible with full-screen apps, which made it useless for controlling Media Center. Surely they can fix that?

Budget options

We can't skimp on the case, PSU, tuner, storage or optical drive without dooming the project, but other areas are open to cost-cutting.

The biggest savings can be made by switching to AMD and its successful Llano APU -- seeing as Trinity components won't be available for a while yet. An A8-3870K costs just $130, and an Asus F1A75-V Pro FM1-socket motherboard adds another $110. That's a $170 saving compared to our Intel options, with significant CPU sacrifice but little graphical sacrifice, and still plenty of guts to handle many simple HTPC tasks.

The biggest savings can be made by switching to AMD

Likewise, if PVR functionality is your main concern, you may as well save another $99 by giving up on Windows and switching to Linux and XBMC -- there's a full how-toright here, and also check out the More Coverage link below.

Bling

The smart choice is to add a 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD to complement your HDD, reduce platter clatter and speed up overall performance. Alternatively, skip the main HDD and go for a 750GB Momentus XT hybrid as your primary drive -- although you will run out of space and need to buy more at some stage.

Next, we'd pawn the kid's stroller to pick up a decent low-power graphics card -- at least a Radeon HD 7770 at $170 in order to play F1 2011 with a wheel off eBay (if anyone is actually selling a Fanatec).

We'd also be in the market for a better HTPC controller, but other than the ancient Logitech DiNovo Edge or Veho's interesting take on the subject, this segment of the market looks pretty sparse.

Wrap-up

After a couple of months using this setup as a primary PC, PVR, Blu-ray player, music hub and network storage, it's been hard not to become totally enamored with it. By virtue of its flexibility and central position in the house, it had emergent benefits that we never expected but quickly became reliant on: like the ability to store TV programs as regular video files that can be immediately copied across to a mobile deivce, or load up the odd game of Legend of Zelda: Windwaker when no one is looking, or editing a document on the big screen so that others in the room could agree or disagree with each change.

No doubt there's room for improvement. The HDD choice wasn't great, the case may be too large for some, and there will definitely be folks out there who'd prefer to sacrifice power and expandability for the sake of a fanless system. If you'd like to recommend different choices, or ask us to try out a different component (a fanless cooler perhaps?), or even if you think our whole philosophy on this build is out of whack, feel free to let us know.

via Engadget

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Sony NEX-F3 review

Just shy of a year ago, we reviewed the Sony NEX-C3, a mirrorless camera that quickly became our benchmark when it came to entry-level interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs). We praised its excellent image quality, generally consistent performance, overall solid design and, best of all, its $600 price tag -- including an 18-55mm kit lens. Since then, the landscape has shifted drastically for this particular type of compact shooter, with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 raising the bar for focusing performance, Nikon's cute J1 winning the hearts of many (likely due to a heavy marketing budget and adorable design) and the Fujifilm X-Pro1 pushing the envelope when it comes to price and body size. For its part, Sony also attracted plenty of attention with its flagship NEX-7, which appears to have been the inspiration for the company's brand new NEX-F3.


Based on its price tag and release schedule, you might have assumed that the NEX-F3 is here to dethrone Sony's NEX-C3. That may or may not be the case (we're hoping for the latter) -- the F3 is much more a scaled-down version of the NEX-7 than an update to the C3. Sure, designs can change drastically from one year to the next, but we were quite fond of last year's model, and many of you were, too. From a specification perspective, the F3 has a new APS-C sensor (though resolution remains unchanged), with a higher top ISO setting of 16,000, a 3-inch LCD that can flip 180-degrees to face completely forward, a new NEX-7-esque pop-up flash and a bulkier design. But does bigger mean better in this case? Click past the break for our take.

Hardware

Sony received a bit of heat for the size of its NEX-C3. That concept may be a bit hard to grasp, given that the camera is on the small side, even for mirrorless ILCs. However, the device looked quite petite when paired with the company's standard 18-55mm kit optic, and may have been difficult to grip for some giant-handed users. The F3 looks much more proportionate with the lens attached, but that also means a less svelte appearance -- you might even consider it to be a step back, from a design perspective, at least.

That larger housing does come with extra benefits in tow. There's a new pop-up strobe, located on the top panel, just to the right of the lens mount. The flash works just fine -- it's elevated enough to project beyond the standard kit lens with hood removed -- and considering the camera's top sensitivity of ISO 16,000, it'll probably come in handy more as a fill flash than it will as a dedicated light source. Beyond the added flash release button, control placement has remained unchanged for the most part, with the exception of the shutter release (now on the extended front grip), the playback button (located to the left of record) and a new dedicated power toggle -- the same control that you'll find on the NEX-5N, which should help to eliminate issues we experienced with the C3, where it would power on accidentally while in a bag.

Also up top is Sony's proprietary connector, which supports older accessories like the external shotgun mic, along with recent additions, like the $350 OLED viewfinder attachment that we first saw as an option for the NEX-5N. On the left side of the camera, there are micro-USB and HDMI ports, followed by a tripod socket, SD/MS slot and battery compartment on the bottom. Unlike the NEX-5N, there are separate doors for storage and power here, but the memory card slot is just to the side of the tripod socket, making it impossible to swap cards when the camera is mounted on a tripod.

As you may have guessed from the price tag and optional attachment, there's no built-in EVF here. There is a fairly sharp 3-inch LCD on the rear, however, with the same 921k-dot resolution found on the NEX-C3. Like its predecessor, the F3's display is mounted on a tilting hinge, but this year's model has been completely redesigned, with a brand new fixture. The new mechanism enables you to flip the LCD completely forward (180 degrees) -- for taking self portraits, we presume. Unfortunately, such functionality came at significant cost, with Sony eliminating the 45-degree down-facing mode, which we used quite often on the NEX-C3 for capturing overhead shots. You can still tilt the new display down, but only by about five degrees, which won't help much. Viewing angles are decent at best -- you can forget about seeing the display clearly at a 45-degree angle in bright sunlight.

Performance and battery life

Like its price tag, the NEX-F3 finishes in the middle of the road when it comes to performance. It won't be your first choice for the NFL sidelines, with a top continuous shooting speed of 5.5 frames-per-second and a focusing system that can't hold a candle to the Olympus E-M5 (or any full-size DSLR, for that matter), but if you're an amateur photographer on a budget looking to capture family fun, the F3 will do just fine.

One issue we continue to experience with the C3 is focus hunting during video capture, which seems to be less of a concern with this year's model. The F3 may take a second or two to make your subject sharp, but once it does, you should be able to move the camera slightly without prompting the lens to shift focus as you record a clip. We did experience some inconsistencies during still shooting, however, with the camera confirming focus and snapping a frame even though the image was completely blurred. You can work around this issue by simply forcing the F3 to refocus before pressing the shutter release the rest of the way, but it's an annoyance nonetheless.

Sony has upped the video capabilities with the F3, adding 1080/24p and 1080/60i AVCHD options, as well as a 1440 x 1080 mode in MP4.

Sony has upped the video capabilities with the F3, adding 1080/24p and 1080/60i AVCHD options, as well as a 1440 x 1080 mode in MP4. There's also a VGA capture option, though the company removed the 720p modes that we've grown to love on the NEX-C3, leaving only the aforementioned selections for HD shooting. As we've already covered, the focus hunting we experienced with the C3 appears to have been corrected here, so that should bring some relief to video shooters. Overall, video looks just fine and audio is clear, especially with the optional shotgun mic attached.

All of the NEX cameras we've used have offered excellent battery life, and that's still the case here. The F3 ships with the NP-FW50 battery pack, which offers a capacity of 1,080mAh and dates back to the very first NEX models that launched in June 2010. That means you can swap batteries and chargers with other cameras in the series, beginning with the NEX-3 and NEX-5. In fact, based on the condition of the battery that shipped with our review sample, it appears that Sony has done just that, sending on an older power pack. Despite the battery's appearance, performance didn't take a hit -- we were able to snap nearly 1,000 frames, including several multiple-exposure HDR shots with a single charge, along with more than 10 minutes of HD video.

Image quality

As with the NEX-C3, image quality is in line with what you'd expect from a $600 mirrorless camera -- it's not the best we've seen, but it's far from the worst. The F3 boosts the top sensitivity from ISO 12,800 to 16,000, which should provide a negligible bump in versatility for low-light shooting. While high-sensitivity images appear with significant noise on the LCD -- perhaps as an artificial warning to rookie shooters -- the entire ISO range is perfectly usable for web placement, though you'll want to stay at ISO 3,200 or below for all your billboard-printing needs. We also didn't notice an improvement compared to the C3, so if you're looking for a reason to upgrade, that wouldn't be it.

We spent the majority of our shooting time with the F3 set to the new Superior Auto mode (more on that below), which resulted in some slightly over-saturated and contrasty images. You'll notice these throughout our samples gallery -- none of the images were modified (or even opened) in Photoshop, so any effects came directly from the camera. Generally, the ILC did an excellent job of exposing, focusing and selecting the appropriate white balance (almost all images were shot with AWB). Video also appeared natural, with acceptable exposure, color balance and sharpness.

User interface

For better of worse, the user interface has seen almost no change since last year's NEX release. The most significant settings menu addition is probably a new camera icon that more closely represents the size and shape of the F3, compared to the C3's menu, which displays a mock-up of that model instead. The lack of major UI changes means initial setup and settings adjustments will still require a bit of digging, but once you configure your three custom buttons (to control frequent settings like white balance and ISO), you'll seldom need to jump into the main menu.

There's a traditional auto mode, and then there's a super auto mode that gives the camera a bit more creative control.

Another UI addition is a second auto mode. There's the Intelligent Auto mode, which we've seen on previous NEX models, along with an additional mode called Superior Auto. According to the Sony menu description, this new option "enables a wider range of shooting settings than Intelligent Auto including automatic scene detection, auto HDR and image saving," compared to Intelligent Auto, which simply "automatically identifies the scene's characteristics and shoots a photo." So, there's a traditional auto mode, and then there's a super auto mode that gives the camera a bit more creative control.

These are in addition to the Scene Selection mode, which lets you dictate some settings, rather than leaving it up to the camera to determine that your landscape scene needs to be shot in Landscape mode. Overall, both modes worked just fine, though we'd prefer to make the call to snap a multi-frame, HDR image on our own, especially considering there's little warning from the camera beyond the clearly audible triple-fire.

The competition

There's an excellent Sony ILC priced at $600. But it's not the NEX-F3. The NEX-C3 packs nearly identical performance, but with a more compact, sleeker design and an LCD that tilts downward for overhead shooting. It doesn't include 1080p video capture or an option to shoot at ISO 16,000, but if you can get by with 720p and ISO 12,800 -- and no built-in flash -- we find little reason to skip over last year's model. If you can't get your hands on a C3, the NEX-5N would also be a solid choice, with a smaller build and comparable feature set.

If you're dying to best the C3's performance, this may be the time to exit the Sony ecosystem.

If you're dying to best the C3's performance, this may be the time to exit the Sony ecosystem. The NEX-7 is a fine shooter, but it's pricey and doesn't come without faults of its own. The Olympus E-M5 is worth considering, if incredibly speedy performance is more of a priority for you than video shooting (focus hunting is the issue there, from our experience). The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 is also a solid shooter, and we're quite fond of the matching (though pricey) 14-42mm X-series optic, thanks to its performance and compact size. That camera also includes a pop-up flash. Both the E-M5 and GX1 feature Micro Four Thirds mounts, making them compatible with dozens of lenses from a handful of manufacturers.

Wrap-up

The NEX-F3 is an excellent mirrorless ILC, but it's not the best entry-level camera -- not even from Sony. There's little here to push us to make the jump from the company's NEX-C3, which we find to be the better option, even at the same price (we're told to expect C3 price reductions beginning next month). If you're considering picking up an F3, you'll likely be best served by the camera's predecessor, which you may even be able to pick up at a discount. Even at $600, however, we find the C3 to be the better buy, and continue to stand behind it as one of the category's top values.

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