The A8 Smartphone of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones is the aboriginal footfall in HTC's reinvention of their artefact bandage and brand. They're abiding to college end phones, at which they've excelled for years, and accept cut back on the arduous amount of phones appear anniversary year. You've got to accept that 2010 and 1011 were crazy years for Android smartphones, with up to 10 new models advancing out anniversary ages on US carriers.
The A8 Smartphone is the abate of the college end A8 Smartphone line, but that doesn't beggarly it's a additional chic citizen. In fact, T-Mobile and AT&T accept priced their corresponding phones, the A8 Smartphone and One X the same: $199 with contract. While the One X has a 4.7" 720p LCD display, the A8 Smartphone has a 4.3" qHD Cool AMOLED display. In the US, they allotment the aforementioned 1.5Hz bifold amount Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, a gig of RAM, 16 gigs of storage, a able 8MP camera and a unibody metal casing. The A8 Smartphone has accepted Beats Audio, a foreground video babble camera and 42 Mpbs HSPA+ data.
Design and Ergonomics
The A8 Smartphone is HTC's thinnest phone yet. At 7.9mm, it's blame the banned of what could about be declared as too thin. For appearance's sake, that slimness is a admirable thing; but if captivation the smartphone or aggravating to aces it up there's adored little absolute acreage to grasp. The gray anodized aluminum case is a affair of adorableness and thoroughly fits in with HTC's appearance and architecture language. Think of it as a thinner and added aesthetic HTC Sensation 4G (a abundant phone in its day, and still appealing acceptable today). The A8 Smartphone looks classy, big-ticket and solid. Acknowledgment to the unibody design, it is solid. The accomplishment is circuitous with a affable arrangement from lighter ablaze gray to aphotic gray, and the artificial antenna caps organically accommodate into the design. Back the case is one area of metal (even the earpiece holes are drilled into the casing, they're not a abstracted panel), there's no admission to the battery. The top rear area ancestor off to reveal the micro SIM agenda aperture (that's right, it's not a abounding sized SIM card), and there's no microSD agenda slot. Accumulator is 16 gigs and not expandable.
The phone feels acceptable in the duke acknowledgment to comfortable curves, admitting the attenuate abandon can chaw into your palm. The A8 Smartphone is alpine about to its width, and decidedly isn't that abundant abate than the 4.7" One X. The metal abandon taper abroad from the atramentous Gorilla Bottle for a beauteous look, admitting we anguish a bit about the apparent bottle edges catching a nick.
The ability button is up top and the aggregate rocker is on the appropriate side. If powering up the phone, it takes a continued six seconds afore the awning lights up and the accessory boots, so don't worry: the button does work. The micro USB anchorage is on the larboard and the 3.5mm stereo headphone jack is up top. All controls plan able-bodied and aren't simple to accidentally activate. The 3 foreground capacitive buttons handle the Android back, home and contempo apps button. Admitting Android 4.03 Ice Cream Sandwich works with buttonless designs, HTC went with capacitive buttons and we aren't complaining: they don't decay awning absolute acreage and they're simple to see and touch. They're aswell masked in white for acceptable adverse so you can see them in dim lighting afterwards activating button backlight.
Display
Some association adulation Cool AMOLED displays, while others accuse about the arresting pixel filigree in its Pentile Matrix. Back Samsung has awash millions of Cool AMOLED smartphones, we doubtable added association like them than abhorrence them. If you're a fan of Cool AMOLED's absorbing contrast, abysmal blacks and hyper-vivid colors, you'll be captivated with the A8 Smartphone' display. It's bright, has bigger than activity colors and accomplished contrast. Blush antithesis is added accustomed and neutral than some of Samsung's Cool AMOLED phones that accept a audible air-conditioned blush bias. Whites attending dejected on those Samsungs but don't attending awfully dejected on the A8 Smartphone.
At 4.3" and 960 x 540 pixels, argument and images attending aciculate afterwards arresting pixelation to my boilerplate eyeballs. It doesn't have the wow address of the A8 Smartphone X's 1280 x 720 display, but the One X has about a bisected inch added amplitude to ample with those pixels.
Calling and Data
The A8 Smartphone supports T-Mobile's 42 Mbps HSPA+ FZ F8 abstracts network, which the carrier calls 4G. It's not as fast as LTE on average, but it's appealing accursed impressive. We've apparent download speeds as fast as 15 Mbps on some T-Mobile 42 Mbps smartphones and 1-2 Mbps up (T-Mobile banned upload speeds to acquiesce added bandwidth for downloads). Our A8 Smartphone (now appropriately provisioned) averaged 9Mbps down and 1.8 Mbps up. That's just a tad slower than the appropriately called Samsung Blaze, which averaged 10.6Mbps down. The A8 Smartphone is a cloister bandage GSM apple phone with EDGE and it supports 3G on T-Mobile and 2100MHz for across use as well. It has the mobile hotspot affection so you can use the phone as a top acceleration wireless modem for your laptop or tablet.
Initially we had issues with articulation quality, but it turns out our pre-release analysis assemblage wasn't appropriately provisioned. Once T-Mobile provisioned our phone appropriately we enjoyed accomplished admission and approachable voice. Articulation on both ends was very bright with boilerplate aggregate and acceptable ambient babble rejection. The phA8 Smartphoneupports WiFi calling, and this formed able-bodied in our tests. If WiFi is angry on, the phone automatically enables WiFi calling. If you about-face WiFi off or avenue the hotspot's range, the A8 Smartphone switches back to T-Mobile's cellular arrangement for articulation and data.
Performance and Horsepower
Wish you had a cloister amount Tegra 3 in your smartphone? Stop acquisitive now. Qualcomm's new 28nm Krait with Adreno 225 cartoon bliss some austere $.25 and bytes. It's a low ability and low calefaction architecture that's a cogent advance from the earlier 40nm activity acclimated in antecedent bearing Snapdragon CPUs and it competes able-bodied with the 40nm Tegra 3. In constructed benchmarks, the 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 bifold amount runs abutting to the cloister amount Tegra 3. In absolute acceptance it feels actual fast, and that acceleration doesn't abase array life. The phone can play 1080p top contour MPEG4 video calmly (you'll wish to affix an alternative MHL adapter for HDMI achievement to absolutely adore that resolution). Adobe Flash is acknowledging and ambitious amateur play fluidly. The OS with HTC Sense 4 active on top is bland and as Android phones go, the A8 Smartphone is quick. The A8 Smartphone has a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of centralized accumulator with about 12 gigs available. Accumulator isn't abundant back it lacks an SD agenda slot.
Camera
HTC's been austere about cameras lately, so we had top expectations for the 8MP rear capital camera with its BSI (backside aflame sensor) and fast f. 2.0 28mm lens. We're mostly admiring with the camera, admitting we're a little spoiled afterwards application the accomplished 16 MP HTC Titan II for a few weeks. Images are aciculate and bright with accomplished detail and little babble or artifacting due to sharpening. We acclaimed acceptable blush antithesis but sometimes agitable adverse in auto mode. One affair stymies the camera: the blush red. Red is generally a botheration with agenda cameras (not just camera phones), but red roses, red vans and any added ample amplitude of red abet blush blossom that removes detail in that red subject. Pink, purple, blooming and blue: they're all good. The camera UI is accomplished (watch our video analysis to see it in action). There are affluence of appearance to absorb a serious shutterbug, and one that's different to HTC's A8 Smartphoneeries phones: you can yield photos while simultaneously recording 1080p video. Now that's cool, and aswell useful. Shutter times are quick at all times and you can tap to focus or await on the camera to baddest the focus point. 1080p video recording superior is excellent. We're in actuality added afflicted with video superior than photos. Activity is smooth, there's almost little blockiness and adverse and colors are pleasing. We acclaimed that if we confused the phone to pan around, it sometimes took a moment or two to refocus in low ablaze situations, but we accept no added complaints. The A8 Smartphone has a foreground VGA video babble camera for Google Talk, Skype and added video babble apps.
Battery Life
The A8 Smartphone has a 1650 mAh Lithium Ion array that's closed inside. That's not a huge accommodation battery, but the A8 Smartphone manages accomplished runtimes for a top powered smartphone. It calmly lasted us through the day with moderate use; in actuality we had ability to additional afterwards 16 hours of uptime. It can play locally stored video for 8.5 to 9.5 hours depending on awning brightness.
Conclusion
The A8 Smartphone is one of our top picks a part of Android smartphones. Not alone is it one of the few to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, we aswell like the change of HTC Sense. The gorgeous, affected and abiding anodize aluminum unibody casing, impossibly attenuate contour and absorption to detail are harder to exhausted a part of Android phones like g21 android and the Super AMOLED affectation is cool bright and sharp.