Unbox/Review: Cherry Mobile Stellar

A couple of months ago the Cherry Mobile Stellar debuted in the market, together with other spectacular Cherry Mobile products. Now, the kind folks at Cherry Mobile decided to loan us a review unit to try and make sense why they’re one of the Philippines’ top local brands.

The Cherry Mobile Stellar is a dual-SIM, mid-tier smartphone running on Android 2.3 with a Qualcomm 7227T 800MHz CPU. It’s perfect for those looking for an performer phone on the Android that is not too shabby and not too expensive.

Read our unboxing and review of the Cherry Mobile Stellar and see if you’ll want this phone on your pocket.

Design

The Cherry Mobile Stellar looks like your typical Android phone. On its face, the Stellar has your standard Android buttons coupled by a flashing LED and light sensors near the earpiece. The capacitive touchscreen panel is as wide as an iPhone’s and is responsive enough for everyday use.

The back panel is made of smooth plastic and carries the 5MP camera with flash designed with a chrome lining. Here’s also where the Stellar‘s speaker grill  is located. The grill would’ve looked nicer if the alternating dotted pattern was let go and was replaced by a uniform grill. The back panel is easily snapped and contains dual-SIM slots at the top area near the removable battery dock.

The earphone jack and the lock/power button is found at the top of the Stellar. The right panel meanwhile houses the microSD card slot, the shutter button, and the volume buttons. The physical buttons are soft to the press and are nicely located, save for the lock/power button which is very hard to press.

The Cherry Mobile Stellar is very light at 123.3g, already with a battery. Mind you, Motorola’s Droid RAZR weighs at 127g and even Nokia’s latest entry the Lumia 710 weighs at 125.5. With all its lightness, the Cherry Mobile Stellar may seem cheap at first glance.

Display

The Cherry Mobile Stellar sports a 3.5″ HVGA capacitive touch panel (320×480 resolution) with a decent viewing angle. The screen is nothing stellar (pun intended), just what you would expect from a mid-tier Android smartphone (not as ugly as the LG Optimus L3′s display, then again there’s no challenge on that).

The main screen on boot would greet you with a Cherry Mobile tone and logo followed by a Stellar boot screen. If you’re not a fan of company boots with quirky start-up tunes, as compared to clean quiet boots, this phone will irk you every time you turn it on. After the boot, a default Cherry Mobile wallpaper will serve as your home screen BG but is replaceable afterwards.

Most Android users will feel right at home with the user interface of the Stellar. Like most Android phones, you have a set of the most useful applications waiting for you on the home screen. Swiping it from right to left would reveal other apps and widgets such as the weather, calendar, appointments and the like.

If you’re constantly connected to the web, updates from applications such as Twitter would continually be fetched automatically and would be shown in a one-line format in the phone status area. A very nice addition especially if you’re multitasking.

One feature of the 2012 Cherry Mobile Stellar is its built-in SPB3 Shell, a feature which alters the home screen drastically and makes it look like a spinning panel of 3D app cards. At stand-by, each of these cards plays its own unique animation, the one pictured below playing a rotating Earth with green locator lines.

You can add or subtract cards to your heart’s desire. You can even alternate with the normal Android UI while the shell is active. The sad thing is, as it’s only an add-on, the SPB3 Shell fails to automatically load at boot and you have to activate it manually. Then again it’s only a minor annoyance.

Performance

The Cherry Mobile Stellar is great for everyday use, especially if you like to check your email, your Twitter and Facebook stream, and whatever takes place online. The only snag with everyday usage the Stellar hits is in its landscape keyboard feature. There’s only a certain area which the space bar would activate if it’s on landscape. You’ll be lucky if you’ll get a space on one try; the Stellar usually reads my space presses as Cs or Vs. There’s also the occasional accidental period press.

Powered by a 512MB RAM and a Qualcomm 7227T 800MHz processor(also from the makers of the Snapdragon processor), the Cherry Mobile Stellar sails past a barrage of lags with flying colors, as witnessed here while running the all new Angry Birds Space.

Surprisingly, the in-game sounds sometimes come late after the animation and moments later the phone itself would play catch-up and run normally. There’s also this thing with the Cherry Mobile Stellar not loading applications properly, which would lead it to bring to you a Force Close dialog box. Pressing the OK button fixes the problem. You can try and run the application after a force close. Another frequent Force Close recipient is the Google Maps app. For some reason it just crashes on its own.

Other applications such as Fruit Ninja run smoothly on the Stellar. Remember that 2.3 Gingerbread is supposedly optimized for gaming, so there’s that. Aside from that, you’ll have no problem running social networking apps. Oddly though, I can’t find the Temple Run app at the Google Play store while using the Stellar.

Video and Audio

Audio admittedly isn’t one of the strong suits of the Stellar. Music coming out of its loudspeaker, as one way of putting it, sounds “canny”. The whole back panel vibrates as you are playing songs, which of course might give you the palms.

Videos on the other hand, play wonderfully and smoothly, as long as they’re HD. Non-HD vids on the other hand makes the Stellar‘s screen look dated.

Kara playing on YouTube at the Stellar screen

Another issue I had with the Stellar is its lock screen-to-online video screen transition while buffering. If you have a video on buffering and leave the Stellar for a while, the moment you try to play it again you would be greeted by another Force Close dialog box. You have to try several times and press a couple of “Wait” buttons for the video to run again. So if you like watching videos online, just make sure you have a dedicated internet line that can handle such requests quickly.

With an expandable microSD up to 32GB, you’re sure to be able to load up with all the apps, videos, and audio files you can gather.

Camera

Didn’t have a chance to test out the camera as I don’t have a spare microSD. Yes, the camera won’t run, and the Stellar won’t even let you load Dropbox photos if you don’t have a microSD card installed. But with the Cherry Mobile Stellar‘s 5MP camera paired with a LED flash, you’ll be sure to capture enjoyable images even in the dark.

Battery

The Cherry Mobile Stellar would last up to, give or take, 84 hours on stand-by on my tests. This drastically changes if you have background apps continuously running even if you’re not connected to the internet, in this case your battery would go from a hundred to zero in 9 to 10 hours without usage, even faster if you leave your phone connected. The phone would last throughout the day with average use of apps, surfing, videos, etc.

Another interesting feature of the Cherry Mobile Stellar is its battery indicator. Once the battery reaches a low enough level, the battery indicator would blink red. Plugging it to the wall would give the indicator a steady red which means it’s charging; the indicator would turn green when the battery’s full.

Battery is replaceable.

Box

The Cherry Mobile Stellar box contains the phone unit itself, a charger and a USB cable, stock earphones, an instructions manual, and a warranty card. No Cherry Mobile logo sticker here.

Verdict

For P6,999.00 (with a free bluetooth headset), the Cherry Mobile Stellar is really shines against other smartphones in its price range. You can get yourself a Samsung Galaxy Y or an LG Optimus L3, but with a grand more you’ll be able to own the Stellar and ultimately do yourself a favor by avoiding small screens, over-saturated colors, below average pictures, a cramped screen, and an underpowered device.

So there you go. Share this Cherry Mobile Stellar review on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, especially if you have friends looking for mid-tier phones.

The Cherry Mobile Stellar was formerly priced at P9,999.00, now 30% off at P6,999.00.

‘Till my next installment.

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Unbox/Review: Cherry Mobile Stellar

Unbox/Review: The House of Marley Smile Jamaica Headphones

The House of Marley, a Bob Marley-inspired brand of audio products, recently launched officially in the Philippines. Now, the guys over at the House of Marley were kind enough to give us a pair of their entry-level Smile Jamaica headphones.

The Smile Jamaica series, the lowest in the House of Marley in-ear headphones echelon, are one of a kind, with all its funky Rastafari colors and all. With its supposed Earth-friendly materials, it brings green and quality audio technology to a whole new level. And what better way to know if the Marley brand stands up to its name than to review it.

Read our unboxing and review of the House of Marley Smile Jamaica headphones and see if its perfect for the green audiophile in you.

Box

In line with its Earth-friendly theme, the House of Marley’s Smile Jamaica comes in a packaging made up of recycled pulp, plastics, and paper. Tipping the front cover open reveals the headphones in a standard boxed arrangement i.e. one resting higher than the other.

On the side of the box lies a QR code which, when scanned, leads to a 404. The back meanwhile contains information on the features of the product and the social network URLs of the brand.

(Related: House of Marley PH Launch)

Unsheathing the packaging’s contents reveals the Smile Jamaica itself, two pairs of different sized ear tips of your chosen color (shown is the Curry variant), an information leaflet, a warranty leaflet, and a Rasta-inspired pouch specially designed for the headphones.

Design

The Smile Jamaica comes in four funky color patterns: Curry (yellow tip, green aluminum, ring light-colored sapele and beech wood), Fire (red tip, silver aluminum ring, dark colored sapele and beech wood), Lily (pink tip, gold aluminum ring, dark colored beech wood), and Rasta (blue tip, bronze aluminum ring, dark colored beech wood). Earthly colors if I’d say so myself.

Each base comes with a painted-on House of Marley logo.

The silicone ear tips are soft to the touch and has a matte-like finish. It’s not your ordinary rubber or plastic tip that loses its ability to stay snug in your ears once it gets coated in bodily fluids.

The in-ear design carries a 18Hz-20kHz frequency response that offers deep bass. Inside the FSC-certified wood head is an 8mm driver and a 16-ohm impedance dynamic micro speaker equipped with a neodymium magnet for better sound quality (sound quality also depends on the music format being used).

The cord of the Smile Jamaica series bears the color of the Rasta (see: Ethiopian flag) and is made of a 52″ fabric that helps reduce tangling when in and out of use. It’s also specially engineered to cut down on static noise so you’ll always get that clear sound. The only downside in having a fabric-covered cord are the loose threads that may arise from too much use or getting snagged in pointed objects that, of course, would totally ruin the headphones’ looks.

The Smile Jamaica comes in a standard 3.5mm jack. The connector itself is gold plated to ensure better conductivity, resist corrosion, and—although I’m still skeptical about this part—significantly improve data transfer rates from the music device to the earphone heads (the key aspect of every gold-plated data delivery product). The connector’s angle also turns at a right angle (as against to the common vertical jack) which could prove helpful or annoying depending on the user. If, for example, you love pocketing your iPod, having a right angled-jack would put more strain on the connector ending than a vertical jack.

Performance

The Smile Jamaica definitely is one of the better entry-level in-ear headphones out there. At a small sum, you’ll be experiencing noise-cancelled deep bass with throbbing eardrums to boot.

We tested it with bass-heavy music from Skrillex (dubstep), Armin Van Buuren (trance), Tiesto (house), and a little rock from Avenged Sevenfold and Sum 41 (all in 386kbps .mp3 format) and it all boiled down to one conclusion: Awesome. Trying to spare nothing, we also played 3D music on the set and got the same results. Listening to 3D music on the Smile Jamaica was like being in a noisy crowd with someone whispering directly in your ears. Then again, most decent headphones nowadays would offer the same effect, albeit with minor or major differences.

The House of Marley’s Smile Jamaica was also pitted against a Pioneer SE-CL07 in-ear headphones, and although they might sound the same, the Smile Jamaica scored a few points higher than the latter in my score sheet. (To Pioneer’s credit though, their products are incredibly tough. Even water won’t stop the SE-CL07 from running, and to think that it’s not designed to be waterproof)

The only downside (or upside, depending on how you view it) of all in-ear headphones are its noise-cancellation technology. With the Smile Jamaica, you won’t hear a thing from the outside, which may lead you to accidents.

Verdict

At P1,399.00, the Smile Jamaica probably might be the best in-ear set at its price range. Mind you, higher-priced audio products doesn’t necessarily mean better sounds, just more bass (looking at you Dre). The only culprit in this otherwise perfect pair are the funky colors of the fabric cord and the susceptibility of the cord and earphone head itself to damage and wear and tear. Other than that, it’s a total buy.

One more thing, with every purchase of the House of Marley products, a part of the proceeds goes to the Marley family’s charitable institution, 1Love.org. You’re not only buying a world-class audio product, you’ll also be helping the world’s youth.

Smile Jamaica Technical Specifications

Frequency Response: 2 Hz to 20+kHz
Driver: 8-mm neodymium
Impedance: 16 ohms
Connector: 3.5mm, gold-plated
3 sets of silicone tips
52″ fabric cord
Cotton carrying pouch
Recycled material

Smile Jamaica Availability and Price in the Philippines

House of Marley products are available at selected National Bookstore branches, Anson’s stores, Power Books bookstores, Duty Free Puregold establishments, and at S&R membership shopping warehouses (one located in Taguig and one in Pasay). Being the lowest at the House of Marley in-ear products, they sell for P1,399.00.

‘Till my next installment.

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Unbox/Review: The House of Marley Smile Jamaica Headphones

Unbox/Review: Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N

Dual-SIM phones are fairly popular in the bar phone category, but would the introduction of the concept in the smartphone market prove successful? That said, the good folks at Alcatel Philippines loaned us one of their latest Android dual-SIM smartphones, the One Touch Glory 918N, for a test run. Let’s see if this dual-SIM Android is worth its price in the market.

The Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N is an entry-level Android running Gingerbread 2.3.5 powered by a 650MHz MTK 6573 chipset. And as “old” as it looks, would this be the solution to your network provider dilemma?

Design

The Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N looks somewhere pulled out of the premium line and put onto the affordable class. It’s available in both black and white colors, but its design pattern would be more visible in the latter. Nothing extravagant here: Simple yet elegant as they say.

The face of the phone shows the rather small (by today’s standards) 3.2-inch screen, three standard Android buttons (haptic-feedback capable), and Alcatel’s trademark home button. Aside from the well-put brand logo on the screen, the lower part of the phone shows the diamond pattern which doubles as a grip improver.

At the left side of the phone is the USB charging port. The other side meanwhile carries the volume buttons and power/sleep/wake button, so well-placed that it flows with the chrome plastic lining perfectly, not to mention the ease of access when trying to increase or decrease your phone’s volume or waking it up.

The back panel of the Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N is where the 3.0MP camera (no flash) and the speaker grill are located. The camera portion is raised by a few millimeters from the body of the phone and has the words “3.0 MPXL” written next to the lens itself, which of course the phone would be better off without design-wise. The One Touch section of the back panel is bare and is, like the camera portion, raised by a few millimeters. Constant putting down of this phone on all types of surfaces will inevitably wear the logo out.

The headphone input is located at the top center of the phone. The bottom portion of the Glory 918N is totally void of any input mechanism.

As for the feel, this small thing weighs enough, the right kind of heavy.It also doesn’t feel as plasticky as it looks, and the diamond pattern of the phone really feels great on the hand.

Display

The Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N sports a 3.2-inch HVGA touch capacitive LCD panel with a 320×480 resolution. For its price range, there are phones out there that offer larger screens and better display specs on paper. In contrast, the Glory 918N offers less on paper but more once you turn the phone on.

The 3.2-inch hands down is small, but the display is amazing for its price. Regardless of the screen protector you’ll put on the display (one is already included in the box by the way), you’ll enjoy decent colors and decent viewing angles.

The home Android UI of the Glory 918N is the straightforward no nonsense type. Its app icons are of the circlish square category, imagine Nokia’s MeeGo (now called Tizen) on the N9, but on Android. More on games and videos later.

The only problem with the display is its seeming lack of sensitivity to touch. This problem seems to be prevalent in entry level Android phones. Typing messages on the Glory 918N proves to be a challenge with the small screen coupled with sensitivity problems. Otherwise, the phone display is passable. 

Performance

Running the Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N is a 650MHz MTK 6573 processor coupled with a 256MB RAM. What seems to be an underpowered phone initially would impress even the toughest of critics (to be fair, it really is an underpowered phone when compared to high-tier smartphones, but a tough competitor in its bracket).

The single-core Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N scores a last-place but respectable 876 on the Quadrant Standard. But don’t let the numbers fool you.

Screen transitions, even at full animation enabled, brings no trouble to the Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N. Standard must-download games such as Angry Birds Space, Fruit Ninja, and Basketball Shoot doesn’t show any sign of slowing down or lagging, albeit a longer initial loading time. Websites render quick and fast (website loading time also depends on your internet connection speed). And unlike my experience with the Cherry Mobile Stellar, videos being watched at the Glory 918N get streamed flawlessly, even if you let the phone sleep. No hangs, no force stops.

Audio and Video

For a smartphone its size, the One Touch Glory 918N sure packs a punch with its well-made loudspeaker. Located just beside the camera, the sound waves go around your hearing range and not towards where it is pointed. It doesn’t lose its integrity and doesn’t degrade quickly. Even with something blocking the loudspeaker, it still plays at an audible manner.

For a more personal space in music, the Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N provides stock headphones. Don’t expect too much from it though.  It’s stock.

The videos meanwhile, render wonderfully in the 3.2-inch screen. YouTube videos, those of Flash, and most video formats, especially in HD, play flawlessly. No lags. And as previously mentioned, games look awesome on the tiny screen.

The Glory 918N is microSD expandable up to 32GB, so if you have plans of filling up this device with pictures, HD videos, audio files, and games, you’ll have no problem.

Camera

As previously mentioned, this phone carries a 3.0MP rear camera. Lacking a flash LED, the Glory 918N is a no-performer in low light conditions. But give it some light and it produces one of the most brilliant photos in the low-tier phone market. See samples below:

As seen above, photo quality is excellent even with just a 3.0MP camera thanks to the enhancing technology on Alcatel’s cameras. And that’s without autofocus lens. This dwarf of a smartphone can definitely go head to head with high-tier smartphones in the photography department.

Filters are non-existent in the Glory 918N, obviously because of limited computing power. This is why you should move all apps immediately to a microSD.

Battery Life

Something smaller doesn’t necessarily use lesser power. Moderate use of Twitter or Facebook probably, plus texts and a couple of minutes of casual gaming, all on medium brightness, would give you 16 hours of juice before recharging the phone’s 1300mAh battery. Playing, surfing, and doing activities on the Glory 918N continuously i.e. nonstop would give you 6 hours tops before going for the plug.

Turning off automated fetch requests from apps, setting the brightness on medium, turning off the WiFi when not in use, and putting the sound on an enough audible level would help extend battery life.

Battery is replaceable and is accessible through the removable plastic back panel.

Verdict

It is what it is: The Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N is truly an entry level dual-SIM Android to watch out for. Running an old configuration of the Android leaves you with limited possibilities, but if you’re after that then you’d better go fetch something else because what the Glory 918N ultimately offers you is your ability to be at two networks at the same time. That plus its power points, such as its display and camera makes this Android smartphone a total buy.

Davids still exist in this era of Goliaths.

The Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N sells for PHP5,999.00 but might be lower by a few hundred bucks depending on the store you’re buying from.

So there you go. Share this Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N review on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, especially if you have friends looking for entry-level phones.

‘Till my next installment.

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Unbox/Review: Alcatel One Touch Glory 918N

Unbox/Review: DTC GT2

It’s raining dual-SIM phones here and there; it may just be the next frontier in the mobile communications industry. Maybe that’s the reason why the kind people at DTC Mobile lent us the DTC GT2, a dual-SIM feature phone that looks and acts like an Android on first look.

The DTC GT2 is a touch screen feature phone that has heavy integration to social media, has dual cameras, and even lets you watch TV on its 3.2″ display. If you think “old skool is kool”, go ahead and read our DTC GT2 review.

Design

The DTC GT2‘s body is definitely inspired by the smartphones of today, with physical buttons reminiscent of Nokia’s past. The unit itself is available in chrome red and chrome black.

Around the display is a metal faceplate; it houses the 0.3MP front camera and the mouthpiece of the phone. The earpiece meanwhile has a metal grill installed, a feature that is almost standard in mobile units today.

The display of the DTC GT2 itself is a budget-sized 3.2″ resistive touch panel, which surprisingly is pleasing to use. At the bottom are the multifunction buttons (call, cancel, sleep, wake, power off, back, etc.) that are easy to press. Of course, this is no Android so no soft-touch haptic feedback-capable buttons here.

The nondescript volume rocker of the phone is located at the top left side (also usable for scrolling up/down menus). The shutter-release button on the other hand is at the lower right side, also very handy when waking your phone.

The rear side of the DTC GT2, save for the camera portion and the DTC logo, is also nondescript. The removable back panel is smooth plastic, easily smudged, and features two speaker grills located at the upper section.

The back panel removal process is where DTC takes a surprising turn: Instead of the usual lift-pull back panel on most Android phones (and feature phones as well), you have here a press-down and slide back panel. If you’re the type that don’t like to read instruction manuals, you better start reading them now.

The top portion of the phone is where all the magic happens: Located here are the charging pin, a micro 5-pin USB terminal, and the standard 3.5mm headphone input.

Display

The DTC GT2‘s 3.2″ LCD resistive touch panel is meager at best. Considering that, it still gets the job done. What you pay for is what you get so to say.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. In this respect, the DTC GT2 gives you two wonderful UI options: an iOS skin and an Android skin. You can even create iOS-styled folder in the same manner you would in the iPhone.

You need not worry about responsiveness with this phone since you only need to apply pressure when pressing the screen. It’s the sensitivity aspect of the display that will give you difficulties.

Performance

There’s not much to say about the DTC GT2 in terms of performance since it is set to specifications and not much else. That plus the real lack of benchmark to pit the phone against makes for a challenging assessment.

The GT2 relies on the WAP system of internet connection (it can’t connect to WiFi or 3G, but that’s expected), so unless you enable your network provider’s WAP, you won’t have nothing much to do with the pre-installed Yahoo!, Twitter, and Facebook. What you can do though is listen to the radio (the set comes with free earphones) or watch analog TV. Then again, the GT2 is having difficulties with TV reception.

In terms of snappiness, this DTC phone has a sufficient frame rate i.e. enough to be usable.

The dual-SIM dual-standby feature of the GT2 needs no emphasis since it’s the focal point of the phone.

Camera

The DTC GT2‘s dual cameras are not the brightest in the bunch, but it takes some decent pictures with the help of proper lighting and steady hands. Here are some photo samples in daylight conditions.

The GT2′s cameras are no performers at night, which means take a photo at the evening and you’ll get a noisy shot similar to those of CCTV stills.

The camera has some basic filters, and can capture video. It also has a zoom ability which is always a plus considering the limited nature of the phone.

Other Features

As mentioned above, the phone can play FM radio and is expandable up to 8GB through microSD so you can fill it with MP3s, videos, and whatnot. The GT2 rear area can be considered its main attractions since it carries two twenty-five cent-sized speakers.

Aside from the above, the DTC GT2 also comes equipped with a dedicated eBook reader. Just plug (to your PC) and paste (the .pdf). Gaming on the other hand is also of easy nature as the phone is JAVA-enabled which means you’ll have your gaming fill.

Battery Life

Judging the GT2′s battery life is subjective. If you’ll use it only for moderate SMS, FM, MP3s, and the like, its 1500 mAh battery can last you up to almost 36 hours or more before going dead. On the other hand, it may take less time for it to drain if you’ll enable WAP or play continuous JAVA-based games.

Verdict

The DTC GT2 is what it offers: A touch screen phone that’s right on budget. If you’re looking for an Android or iOS mimic that you won’t regret losing, a portable music and FM player that can blast sounds through the roof, a device that would ensure connectivity to two networks at any given time, or simply an alternate phone you’ll bring on the rough and tough, you should consider purchasing the GT2.

That wraps it up for this DTC GT2 review. Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

‘Till my next installment.

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Unbox/Review: DTC GT2

Unbox/Review: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20

In a time where bulky DSLRs are all the rage, portable point-and-shoot cameras seems to be all but forgotten. But at the rapid pace of technological advancement, it’s not impossible for these tiny palm-sized cameras to turn the tide around isn’t it?

Sony Philippines sent us one of their newest snappers, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20, the successor of the highly successful TX10, for review. Let’s see if this rugged, water-proof camera will change your mind.

Design

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20, designed for rugged camera environment, doesn’t look the look. It’s actually very stylish, maybe too stylish that it borders the “delicate hold with care” line. But don’t be fooled, this point-and-shoot camera is rated to survive 16 feet underwater, is dust and freeze resistant, and can survive up to 5 feet drops.

The first thing that one will notice with the TX20 is its feature sliding camera lens cover. For a camera designed for rough environments, this sliding cover doesn’t help apart from its slender design. It’s slippery and hard to grip.

Another downside of the sliding cover is its poor resistance to leftover water and dirt. The mentioned tends to stick around the insides of the cover, so unless you blast it with air there’s going to be something in there for quite a while.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 itself is small, even for the cameras in its class. It measures a thin 2.25in x 3.9in x 0.7in and weighs in at 4.7oz. Located on its top are all its physical controls. The other remaining controls are located at the touch panel itself.

The TX20‘s 3-inch, 16:9 high definition touch screen is properly sensitized, and so is its on-screen controls. If you are holding the camera screen-down on your palm though, it might call random touch screen presses which could probably lead you to restoring your settings, missing you that once in a lifetime shot.

There’s a stylus provided in the box for those having troubles managing the touch screen.

Sony has waterproofed the terminals of the TX20 by installing two orange rubber gaskets, found at both openings of the HDMI and USB ports and at the battery and memory card slot.

Performance

The TX20‘s boot time and in-between loading times are almost there compared to today’s standards, but it’s not as snappy as you’d imagine it to be. Still faster than a 650MHz smartphone though. How’s 1.5 seconds from boot to first shot sound?

This camera snaps photos fast, and there’s almost no shutter lag in between shots, so you’ll likely capture the moments your taking, albeit there’s the chance of blurry photos, depending on the user and the timing of course. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 also offers up to 10 continuous shots before processing the images. That means you can capture at least a second of real-time movement (one second in real-time movement has a lot of actions happening).

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 offers up to 4x optical zoom and up to 8x Clear Image zoom on its 16.2-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens. The camera also features Sony’s Exmor R CMOS technology, which enables the user to still take outstanding photos at low-light environments.

Video is at full HD with a 1920x1080i60 resolution in AVCHD. You can connect the TX20 directly to an HDTV and watch your freshly captured video from there.

Image Quality

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 can definitely hold its own weight against more powerful cameras. Unfortunately it comes up short in some points. More on this later.

Nikon D3100 18-55mm (left) and Sony Cyber-shot DC-TX20 (right) photos (Click to enlarge)

The images above are taken at the same light conditions (indoor sunlight) using a Nikon D3100 and the TX20. There are significant image quality differences, even at the TX20‘s Superior Auto mode.

Well-lit outdoor images however will enable the TX20 to have its photos pop out vividly. But sometimes it isn’t always the case due to over-processing issues. Given the resized images above, both images look fantastic. But upon closer inspection (images at original size, 3+ MB), images look soft and blurred.

Nikon D3100 18-55mm (left) and Sony Cyber-shot DC-TX20 (right) photos (Click to enlarge)

Side note: For a more “pro” looking shot, the TX20 offers a Background Defocus mode, blurring the background making photos look like bokeh shots.

Prominent sharpness is exhibited at the frame’s center, while softness is noticeable at the sides. Fortunately the TX20′s SteadyShot technology helps with lessening blurry shots (steady hands are also, of course, required).

It is recommended that ISO 400 is maintained when using the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20. Higher settings, paired with lens sharpness issues, produces noisy images and blurry details.

Sample images using the TX20‘s various native filters

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 also offers a variety of fun filters accessible with just a few touches of the screen. The only issue with the filters are the darkness of the Toy Camera option and the selective color processing of the Partial Color option, especially the on the different shades of red.

The HD video feature of the TX20 is reasonable. We had the chance to test it ourselves. Unfortunately we weren’t able to upload it. Instead, here’s a video of the TX20 courtesy of CNET:

Verdict

If you’re looking for a tough but stylish camera that you can bring with ease from the club to the beach, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 is probably for you. Not only is it tough, it also gives off awesome shots.

If you on the other hand are touchy about the pixels, you should go look somewhere up to the DSLR range.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 retails for P19,999.00, 12% VAT included.

And that wraps it up for this post. Share this post to your friends looking for a camera that’s light on the pocket and awesome at performance and style.

‘Till my next installment.

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Unbox/Review: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20