HTC knocks out the Beats HTC has officially unveiled the HTC Sensation XE, the first of many handsets to feature Beats audio technology. Essentially a refreshed version of the HTC Sensation, the XE packs a faster processor, better battery life and of course, the Beats audio tech which HTC recently acquired a controlling stake in. HTC Sensation XE …
Just have with my orange San Francisco. and I have to ask the question what do I get with a £500 mobile that I don't get with my SF(apart from a lighter wallet). Maybe I can play angry birds faster. If so that's not a great selling point to me.
I wonder whether we have reached a point, a bit like PC's processor speeds and camera sensors mega pixels where upgrading is pointless because the majority are not even using the power they have now, but phone makers are constantly pushing us to upgrade by telling us we will have more power and hope we will not notice that we don't needs it?
You're not wrong, OP. When e.g. ZTE Skate is £200-ish, how can this justify pushing three times the expense? Sure, there's a better CPU and no doubt other bits in there, but not threefold so. I know the bill of materials on phones and tablets typically aint cheap, but I'm sure a large part of that is market manipulation (i.e. because component manufacturer X can charge however many gazillion to Apple, they do the same for everyone else).
...Let's be honest if the kids at the back of the bus are going to be belting out crappy "music" at the maximum volume their phone allows, it sounds a whole lot worse when blasted through a tinny single speaker.
I actually value having decent built-in speakers (note - in the plural) for example, for when I want to listen to internet radio whilst doing DIY jobs about the house or sorting out the garden. Many phones are simply inaudible as soon as you start making the slightest background noise! If I do want to listen to music or a video on my phone (unobtrusively, whether at home or elsewhere) why do I have to carry/use headphones if I want half-decent sound quality?
I'm puzzled as to why the speakers in smartphones are one aspect that apart from not improving have actually gone backwards in quality in the last few years. The only answer I have come to is that they have lost out to the somewhat ridiculous quest for a phone with the thickness of a sheet of paper.
There are some good reasons to buy monster cables, especially their higher end hdmi cables with guaranteed bandwidths. Those reasons don't apply to your average home, so in that case it's a waste of money. But if you have a dedicated home theatre room, you don't want to rip out the wall to replace the hdmi cable going to your new and shiny 4k projector hanging on the ceiling in 2 years time, and then it starts to make sense to spend a few hundred quid on a more futureproof hdmi cable. There are some interesting youtube video's comparing cheap, medium priced and the hig end monster cables, with a skeptical audio-journalist and testing done at the Aussie moster cable lab. The results may be an eye-opener. :-)
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