Most new-device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review. Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity. For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not ...

North America, Summer 2006: Talladega Nights is at the top of the box office; Nickelback and Hinder battle it out for butt-rock band of the year; and an acting student named Michael Fisher grows a pretty sweet mustache in an otherwise-sedate corner of Southeastern Virginia. But more importantly, a hotly anticipated and long-delayed mobile phone finally lands on Verizon Wireless retail shelves. It's a device poised to challenge RIM’s BlackBerry family in the QWERTY keyboard arena. A new Windows Mobile smartphone unlike any other. That device’s name: the Motorola Q. The Q changed the ...

For a while now, the mobile-tech review landscape has looked much the same. Reviewers like us craft lengthy written pieces packed with charts, photos, and videos, and readers like you ... read them. Sure, you have the opportunity to respond in the comments, and most good editors will answer questions there, but there's precious little real-time interaction between reader and reviewer. There's not much chance to ask questions, seek clarifications, or take a quick look at that one little detail. For a while, we've been trying to break down the wall between reviewer and reader - to allow you ...

There are a lot of things the fourth smartphone in Samsung's halo Galaxy S series is not.  It's not a reinvention, or a revolution. If it were a movie, the Galaxy S 4 wouldn't be the blockbuster revival of a flagging film franchise: the reboot that kicks a sagging series back into high gear. That's because the Galaxy S line has never been a disappointing one. For years, Samsung's flagship smartphone series has dominated the Android landscape, making the word "Galaxy" synonymous with Google's platform in much of the public vernacular. Last year's Galaxy S III accelerated that trend, ...

If you were to ask us last year if LG was capable of making a Galaxy Note or Galaxy Note II competitor, we probably would have chuckled a little bit and answered with a stern, straight-faced, "No." But LG is a living, breathing example of how much can change in just a few, short months. The highest-end smartphones from LG between 2010 and mid-2012 were not exactly memorable. The T-Mobile G2X, for example, was released with a handful of issues and quickly swept under the carpet. The LG Optimus Vu found itself on our Worst Gadgets Ever list, even while it's still available for purchase. That ...

For the last three years, Apple has dominated the tablet space. And for the majority of that time, true iPad competitors seemed bleak. Dozens of Android tablets were released between 2010 and 2012, yet, collectively, they barely made a dent in Apple's strong lead. In fact, in August 2012, the Cupertino-based firm held a mind-blowing 69.6 percent of the tablet (brand) market share versus the 9.2 percent, 4.2 percent and 2.8 percent by Samsung, Amazon and ASUS, respectively. Collectively, however, Android tablets are poised to overcome Apple's tablet market share in 2013, according to IDC ...

It's always interesting to review a new Sony smartphone. As opposed to many of its competitors, Sony doesn't only build phones to pay the bills. This is the icon that pushed consumer electronics into the mainstream in the last couple of decades by showing the world that being the first or the most innovative wasn't as important as being the best in the design and thoughtfulness of the product. This mentality has served them well in almost every market they currently lead, even if they weren't the first to take the punch. Sadly, as of 2013, this mentality hasn't served them well for either ...

There are two ways to look at the Surface Pro. You can either compare it to the other "consumer" style tablets out there which are generally considered smartphone-type devices with larger screens, or you can compare it to professional "ultrabooks" out there which are basically full-powered laptop computers compressed to fit in thinner form-factors. In some ways it's better than both of those device types put together, but in other ways it's not as good as either. Of course, your take-away is going to depend on which aspects of a mobile computing device are most important to you. Some would ...