EE: iPhone 5 4G customers will have to sign up with Orange or T-Mobile first

Pocket-lint

Would-be iPhone 5 EE 4G customers who want the iPhone 5 on day one will have to buy the new iPhone through Orange or T-Mobile first, EE, the parent company of all three brands, has told Pocket-lint.

Because the EE brand,offering the UK's first 4G network won't be live at the time of the iPhone 5 release, customers looking to buy the new iPhone 5 will have to first buy the phone with an Orange or T-Mobile contract before transferring it across to the new EE 4G network a in the coming weeks, EE says.

It means that the first wave of customers won't be able to enjoy 4G speeds on 21 September or perhaps even during he first couple of weeks.

"We will be making it very easy for customers to transfer across,"  a spokesperson reassured us when we expressed our concern over the confusion such a move will make for consumers.

Asked what deals would be available on the new network and whether you would be able to carry across your new iPhone 5 deal, EE said details would be announced closer to the launch. That suggests customers will be expected to pay a premium for the new 4G speeds, but EE could try to price it in similarly to the Orange and T-Mobile price plans to fend off competition from Vodafone and O2.

O2 has already announced it will be offering the iPhone 5 from £26 a month if customers sign up for a 24-month contract.

EE is the only network in the UK to be able to offer 4G surfing speeds.


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Nintendo details Wii U games console's December release

Nintendo details Wii U games console's December release

BBC NEWS

Continue reading the main story

Nintendo has revealed it will launch two versions of its Wii U console in Japan on 8 December.

                                            The Wii U can be controlled by a new touchscreen                                                                           game pad that can also run games on its own

The basic edition will cost 26,250 yen ($337; £210) and a premium version 31,500 yen ($405; £251).

Details of the international release will be discussed in New York later.

Nintendo's stock has fallen 29% since March on fears users may opt instead for updates to the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, expected to be announced in 2013.

The difference between the two versions of the Wii U is that the basic model features 8GB of storage, while the premium version has 32GB and additional stands for the games machine and its touchscreen controller.

Consumers wishing to buy an additional GamePad controller will have to pay 13,000 yen ($167; £104).

The device features a touchscreen offering players to ability to carry out in-game tasks, such as checking their inventory or setting an explosive, while the main action continues on their television. Gamers can also continue to play a title using the device when they do not have access to their main screen.

Nintendo has claimed it would help "revolutionise" gaming.

However, the gadget has been criticised for lacking multitouch - the ability to recognise different fingers on a hand.

It also faces a challenge from both Sony and Microsoft who have introduced similar facilities for their existing consoles: the PlayStation 3 can be controlled by the firm's Vita handheld, while the Xbox 360 can be connected to existing tablet computers via software called SmartGlass.

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iPhone 5 release date and all the details

Pocket-lint

Everything you need to know


The iPhone 5 has landed. Apple has chucked it all out the window, re-invented the wheel and still come home in time to watch Blue Peter. Or maybe not - it all depends if you are an Apple fan or not.

Either way, there is a new iPhone in town and you want to know about it. Thankfully so do we. So much so in fact that we have nearly worn out our keyboards bashing out this in-depth round up of iPhone 5 goodness. Read on to discover everything you need to know about the new iPhone 5 and crucially, the iPhone 5 release date.

Size: 7.6mm thin

Apple has changed things up with the new iPhone 5. Working in pairs, the iPhone 4 was a big departure from the 3GS, the 4S a spec update and the 5, another big change from the 4. Apple has recognised the need to offer a bigger screen with the new iPhone, but hasn’t sacrificed much in terms of weight or design. The iPhone 5 measures just 7.6mm thin.

Constructed from glass and aluminium, the iPhone 5 is put together with Apple’s usual top-quality materials and built like one single, seamless object. This means no removable battery.

Weight: 112 grams

Things have somehow become bigger but even lighter, with the iPhone 5 weighing 112 grams, 20 per cent less than the iPhone 4S.

Display size: 4-inch

As we've already noted, Apple has gone bigger in the screen size, as well as changing the display format. Things are now 16:9 and apps play out on a larger 4-inch screen. This should put to rest any reservations potential iPhone purchasers had about Apple’s lack of screen compared to competitors.

The 16:9 screen means some apps can run in widescreen but with a set of black borders on either side. Once developers update them, the apps will naturally lose the borders. Expect this to happen just as quickly as Retina display apps arrived for the new iPad.

Display resolution: 1136 x 640, 326 ppi 

Apple has punched the screen res even higher for the iPhone 5. In order to retain those Retina display credentials, the larger screen offers a 1136 x 640 display resolution with the new iPhone 5. The result: likely one of the sharpest screens currently available on a smartphone.

This bigger screen has been optimised to show more. Apple now has a fifth column of apps and four icons at the bottom, as well as larger and wider apps themselves.

Display quality: IPS, 44 per cent more colour saturation. 

Apple loves IPS and so do we. Everything from the new iPad to the Retina MacBook Pro has an industry leading display. IPS has been working wonders for the likes of Asus and Amazon with its Kindle Fire HD, and there are no exceptions here.

Apple has also further improved colour saturation with the iPhone 5. Now you get 44 per cent brighter colours from the screen, bringing the display in line with that of the new iPad. There's also reduced glare in direct sunlight.

Network connectivity: LTE

Wait, what’s this? 4G I hear you say. Yup that’s right, Apple has entered into the 4G mobile game with the new iPhone 5. Network selection will vary by country, but it looks like those who want it will finally have access to high-speed mobile internet on an Apple phone. Apple has included a LTE to bring just about every possible form of 4G to the iPhone 5. In the UK, you'll be able to get 4G LTE on the iPhone 5 with EE.

Processor: A6 chip, 2X faster than iPhone 4S

Not content with the already potent powerhouse in the new iPad, Apple has planted a new A6 chip into the iPhone 5. This should bring yet more impressive apps as well as an even more responsive iOS. Expect this to make the new iPhone the fastest handset Apple has yet produced.

So fast in fact that Apple is touting a 2X speed increase over the iPhone 4S with graphics also being twice as quick. Pages, for example, opens 2.1 time times faster than on the previous iPhone. Games such as Real Racing have proper reflections and real time mirrors.

The processor is also 22 per cent more efficient, meaning it shouldn't have any major impact on the battery life of the new iPhone 5.

iOS 6

We already know quite a bit about iOS 6 but we are yet to get our hands-on to play with it. That's about to change, as the new iPhone 5 is announced. Shipping with iOS 6 brings with it a tonne of new iPhone features. Take a look at the lot of them here.

Rear camera: iSight, 8 megapixel

The iPhone 4S made quite a storm with its camera at launch. Apple wasn’t about to let this change with the new iPhone 5. Slapped on the back is an 8-megapixel sensor loaded with iSight tech.

The result is the best shooting experience yet on an Apple device and one which should be able to compete with the likes of the Nokia Lumia 920. Just see what happened when we pitched the iPhone 4S against the Nokia Lumia 920.

Boasting a 3264 x 2448 resolution, f/2.4 lens with hybrid IR filter, dynamic low light and sapphire crystal cover, this is the best camera Apple has put together by far. iOS 6 also brings new image processing tech that should improve the ability of the iPhone 5 to process shots in low light.

On top of that there are things such as a new Panorama mode capable of a 28 megapixel image and shared Photo Streams in iOS 6: Apple really has packed the new iPhone full of camera tech.

Front camera: 720p capable

iOS 6 adds the ability to make FaceTime calls over 3G. As such Apple has pumped up the front-facing camera resolution on the iPhone 5, with hopes that more people will start using the video calling service. Let's hope all the resolution makes things look just that little bit better.

A BSI sensor with face detection like that on the rear-mounted camera puts the front-facer not that far off the rear. There is also improved video stabilisation, making those all-important high-res video calls over 4G just that little bit sweeter.

Video capture: 1080p/30fps

It wouldn’t be right if the new iPhone didn’t feature at least some sort of 1080p video capability. No surprises then that you get that same HD resolution recording as found in the iPhone 4S.

Connectivity: LTE, Ultrafast Wi-Fi, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, dual channel up to 150Mbps

Yup that's right, the new iPhone is LTE capable. This means ultra-fast mobile broadband and access in all likelihood, to EE's 4G network.

A clever dynamic antenna for auto switching connections should help save on power. Wi-Fi also takes a speed jump, running all the way up to 150Mbps should you have a connection that fast.

Storage: Up to 64GB

Apple’s usual trio of storage options is on offer here, with a gradually increasing price scale to match. No microSD though, but then are you really surprised?

Battery: Beats the iPhone 4S

LTE and that more powerful processor demands a bigger battery. Apple has kept quiet on the actual size of the unit, but has given some time estimates to the battery. Eight hours on 3G and 225 hours of standby put the iPhone 5 ahead of the 4S, despite the LTE and extra processor power.

Three microphones, Wideband Audio

Apple has included a trio of microphones on the iPhone 5, as well as a clever noise-cancelling ear piece with wide band audio. The result should be the best-sounding calls yet on your iPhone. This does require carrier support however and only 20 so far are involved. EE is one of them.

Lightning: 8 signal dock connector

Apple has redesigned its dock connector for the iPhone 5 to bring it up to date with the rest of the phone's technology. Called Lightning, to go along with Thunderbolt, it is 80 per cent smaller, more durable and has a reversible connection.

Apple has naturally announced an adapter for the 30-pin connector to use it with the 8 pin, so accessories shouldn't be defunct.

iPhone 5 release date: 14 September pre-order, 21 September shipping

Rumours were true then. The phone is going up for pre-order in both slate and white on 14 September and should turn up at houses on the 21. Expect things to sell out quick. Very quick.

iPhone 5 price: from £529


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Guide to UK 4G LTE network from EE: Phones, coverage and more

 IT Pro Portal

EE, as the telecoms operator is now known, clearly set out to impress the sizeable audience at its 4G launch and rebranding event at the Science Museum in West London yesterday.

Having walked bleary-eyed journalists through the vast sculpted tributes to the country’s technological milestones, EE was seemingly telling us that its own 4G network rollout was just as significant as any of the scientific and engineering breakthroughs featured around the cavernous venue.

Indeed, EE’s CEO Olaf Swantee said in his speech that 4G will become “as important to the country as roads and railways”; before the company played a succession of striking visual promotions and even shoved out Boris Johnson to talk of the imminent advantages for 4G’s first beneficiary, London.

But beneath the fanfare and PR, what does all this 4G business really mean for Joe Public?


What was announced
The new high-speed networks have now been switched on for testing in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. A further twelve cities, highlighted in EE's presentation slide below, will be covered by 4G before Christmas.

In terms of EE itself, the company has streamlined its name from Everything Everywhere, and launched a new brand to sit alongside its original subsidiaries – which will also be called EE, just to be confusing. This means EE, T-Mobile and Orange will all supply data plans under the overall umbrella company of EE. However, only the new EE brand will sell 4G contracts. Muddying the waters a little, current Orange and T-Mobile users may now see an EE icon at the top of their screens, even though they are still receiving only a 3G connection.

The operator repeatedly assured us yesterday that transferring to the new 4G network will be made “easy” for Orange and T-Mobile customers, but price plans won’t be announced for a “couple of weeks” yet. Expect these packages to be a little more expensive. A spokesperson told us that EE recognises “consumers are prepared to pay a premium for speed.” As for Vodafone, O2 and other customers, remaining bands of the UK’s 4G spectrum will be auctioned off to these operators towards the end of the year, meaning non-EE 4G networks won’t be available until mid-2013.

Getting 4G

But regardless of what operator you are currently with, if you want mobile 4G you’ll need a 4G LTE enabled handset; no 3G phones will be able to upgrade to the new network. EE has provided a list of the first phones that will be compatible with its spectrum, which includes new releases like the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, as well as refreshed 4G versions of phones already on the market, like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One XL. We are promised lots more handsets to be launched on EE's network “in the coming weeks and months."

A 4G SIM and price plan are also required, and the user will need to be in an area covered by the new spectrum. The first cities getting 4G are listed in the image above, while EE says 70 per cent of the country will be covered by the end of next year, and 98 per cent by the end of 2014. So 4G coverage should be available to almost everyone in two years’ time, though, as usual, our countryside dwellers will have to wait a little longer than the rest for the latest broadband connectivity.

What’s so good about 4G?

But why invest the time and money into this new technology? At the crux are the data speeds that are around five times as fast as 3G. Experiments at the event yesterday testified to these claims, with 4G devices on EE pulling in over 25Mbps (megabits per second) compared to just 5Mbps on 3G handsets. With mobile users going online from their devices more than ever, the higher speeds will be apparent and useful. App downloads, video streaming, social networking, game playing and general browsing should be lightning-fast compared to what we’ve become used to.

Citing incidents when the higher 4G speeds are most striking, EE’s Chief Marketing Officer for Consumer, Pippa Dunn, said you can skip to any point of a streaming video without a moment of buffering, and upload large files in a fraction of the usual time. Dunn claims to have downloaded an HD film in six minutes using 4G when it would usually have taken half an hour, and also adds that real-time mobile gaming is now a real possibility.

10 times faster broadband at home

The EE onslaught isn’t all about mobile either. Signing up to the company’s new fixed-line fibre broadband packages will bring connectivity ten times faster than the UK average broadband speed, the company claims. EE's fibre broadband will initially be available to over 11 million homes, which equates to around half of the UK population. As with mobile, price plans have not yet been revealed, but consumers are advised to keep checking EE’s swanky new site for all the information they may need. And rest assured, ITProPortal will be keeping tabs on all things 4G and fibre broadband over the coming weeks, as the revamped EE begins its quest for UK network hegemony.

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Samsung UE40ES6800 review

IT Pro Portal

Samsung’s TVs look great in the TV adverts with their flashy designs and cutting-edge tech. But they’re usually showing you the expensive range-topping models, which are beyond the budgets of most buyers.

But at just over a grand, the UE40ES6800 brings Samsung’s edge LED expertise to a more affordable price bracket than the flagship UE40ES8000 (£1,499) and the £1,299 UE40ES7000.

It’s from Samsung’s midrange 6 series, also home to a couple of cheaper 40in sets (the £879 UE40ES6300 and £979 UE40ES6710) plus the step up UE40ES6900.

This model comes complete with all the Smart TV trappings of its flagship sets – delivered via built-in Wi-Fi – with dual-core processing, LED Micro Dimming and 400 Clear Motion Rate for smooth onscreen movement.

Design and connections

Although the UE40ES6800’s design is slightly less luxurious than the 7 and 8 series sets, that doesn’t mean it’s been hit with the ugly stick. The look is glamorous thanks to the shiny silver frame surrounding the black bezel (which is thicker than on the step-up sets) and a lip at the bottom sporting the Samsung logo.

The silver table stand is the four-pronged ‘Quad’ version as opposed to the curvy stand used by the UE40ES8000, but it has more panache in one prong than some 40in sets have in their entire bodywork. On the whole the ES6800 is a remarkably slim and beautifully built set.

On the back is a decent selection of sockets, although you only get three HDMI inputs when some similarly-priced rivals offer four at this price. They support 3D and one of them also offers Audio Return Channel functionality.

There are three USB ports, which let you connect a few flash memory devices or external hard-disk drives – useful for media playback or recording from the built-in Freeview tuner using the set’s PVR function.

Elsewhere there are AV inputs (component, composite and analogue stereo), Scart input (using an adapter cable), Ethernet and optical digital audio output for sending sound to an external system. Additionally you get headphones output, RF in/loop, PC in (via HDMI) and a common interface slot.

Surprisingly the set also provides a Freesat HD tuner, and for that reason you’ll find an LNB socket on the back. All of the jacks either face downwards or sideways, making life easier when wall mounting.

Features

Samsung has stripped away many of the futuristic features of the series 7 and 8 sets, such as motion control, face recognition and voice control, plus the on-board motion processing is 400 Clear Motion Rate as opposed to the ES8000’s 800 mode.

But despite that, the spec is still amazing for the money. There’s a glut of connected technology, including Samsung’s Smart Hub web portal and AllShare DLNA media sharing – all courtesy of the built-in Wi-Fi connection (or via Ethernet if you prefer).

Smart Hub’s line-up of apps is getting better all the time – even more so given that it’s the only smart TV portal that offers ITV Player.

And, aware that video content is what most people want from a smart TV service, Samsung throws in a healthy range of other video apps, including BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, Netflix, LoveFilm, YouTube, PictureBox, Dailymotion, Vimeo and more.

You can also install games, puzzles, sports, lifestyle and educational apps – the vast selection is still among the most generous on the market – although most of these aren’t worth bothering with. Social networking is covered by Facebook, Twitter and Skype. New content can be downloaded from the Samsung Apps store.

In addition, you can access specific zones – Fitness and Kids – as well as Family Story, a way of sharing photos with a network of other Samsung owners. Fitness offers workout videos and tools for monitoring your progress, while Kids includes an assortment of cartoons and educational aids. There’s also a web browser and Your Video feature that provides details about Smart Hub’s movie content.

The UE40ES6800 is fully 3D compatible, and as a bonus you get two pairs of active shutter specs free. The set will convert 2D material to 3D, which means you’re not only restricted to watching 3D Blu-ray discs. You can also download Samsung’s ‘Explore 3D’ app within Smart Hub and enjoy a range of extra content.

AllShare DLNA functionality lets you stream music, video and photos from servers on your home network (PCs, NAS drives). I tried it out and the Samsung supports a decent range of video formats including DivX HD, AVI and WMV HD, although it wouldn’t play my AVCHD or 1080p MKV files, plus the network connection dropped out after trying to play them. Not good. On the music side, the set will play MP3, FLAC, WMA, and AAC but not WAV.

Playback from USB devices is a lot less problematic – both MKV and AVCHD played smoothly.

Go beyond the standard picture adjustments (backlight, contrast, brightness, sharpness, colour and tint) and you’ll find a range of advanced settings, including Black Tone, Flesh Tone, Colour Space, White Balance, and Gamma. A separate menu handles all the processing modes, such as LED Motion Plus, noise filters and colour tone, while another menu handles all the 3D settings. It’s a comprehensive suite of image tools that let you get the best out of this set’s LED panel.

Operation

Like most of Samsung’s 2012 products, a lot of love has gone into the onscreen menu system. The main Smart Hub menu (accessed by pressing the colourful logo in the middle of the remote) is pure eye candy, using crisp HD graphics with vibrant colours. When you enter zones like Fitness, the backgrounds are designed with pastel-drenched panache.

Despite its sophistication, the layout is beautifully simple and uncluttered, placing key apps along the top next to a small live TV screen, with other services like Family Story and Fitness running across the middle. The main functions, such as AllShare Play, the EPG, web browser and TV channels, are found at the bottom, each denoted by a cute icon. It’s fabulous.

The setup menu is drab by comparison, but we like the way it explains every option when you highlight it. A useful Tools menu provides contextual options for whatever you’re watching, while a Freeview info banner gives a detailed synopsis about every programme up to a week in advance – some banners limit you to now and next info.

The full EPG is designed with similar flair. It squeezes a live TV screen, synopsis and six-channel programme grid into a single screen without feeling cramped. It’s quick to respond, and puts some useful shortcuts along the bottom.

The web browser loads pages at super fast speed, but on the downside it’s really awkward to use with the remote. The arrow cursor is slow to move around the screen despite the dual-core processor at play, while the alternative link browsing method is long-winded. I gave up after five minutes in pure frustration.

But that’s not the fault of the remote. It’s a terrific zapper, blessed with a logical layout and surprisingly good build quality. The buttons are flush with the surface, and press down with a solid click. Almost all the major features have their own button, and everything is clearly labelled. The silver detailing and Smart Hub logo in the middle are pure class.

Should you, for some reason, not like this remote, then you can download Samsung’s remote app for smart phones and tablets.

Performance

The UE40ES6800’s picture performance is very impressive but doesn’t quite reach the world-beating standards of some rivals in its price class (like Sony’s 753 series) or step-up Samsung sets.

Don’t rely on the set’s Dynamic or Standards presets though – their excessively high contrast levels look garish and emphasise noise. Go into the picture menu, tweak the levels and the Samsung begins to deliver pictures you can really believe in.

With 2D Blu-ray discs and Freeview HD channels, the image is naturally vivid and punchy, which makes brightly-lit scenes look engaging.

Colours are also decent, reproducing strong tones with pleasing richness but avoiding garishness. That said, it lacks the tonal sensitivity of the best LED sets, making skin tones seem a little waxy.

Contrast wise, the Micro Dimming technology proves adept at making dark bits look fairly solid while simultaneously making light areas within the same scene look crisp.

We’re not talking about the blackest of blacks though – some tell-tale grey mist is visible during dark scenes, subtly reducing the density of the black areas and interfering with the clarity of shadow detail.

Motion handling is good with the ‘Clear’ mode selected within the Motion Plus menu, which eliminates judder and blur without making everything look unnatural or introducing excessive artefacts.

I tried out tricky test patterns from a professional calibration disc showing fast-moving trains and camera pans, and the Samsung copes brilliantly. That pays dividends when watching sport. Wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics on Channel 4 HD is displayed with impressive fluidity, keeping detail nice and crisp as the players glide around the court.

Despite suffering the same contrast and colour drawbacks as above, 3D images are still dazzling and absorbing. Layering is clear, detail is razor sharp and the overall image looks punchy through dimmed active specs. What little crosstalk there is doesn’t ruin your enjoyment either.

SD images from the Freeview tuner suffer from the same haziness and shimmering seen on most LED sets, a result of Freeview’s inherent noise being accentuated by the set’s picture processing. But it’s perfectly watchable, with strong colours and smooth movement.

Sound

I’m actually fairly impressed by the UE40ES6800’s sound quality. Many LED sets are too treble-heavy but that’s not the case here – the sound has a nice balance to it, with palpable bass backing up the authoritative midrange and crisp treble.

That means speech is consistently intelligible and music has reasonable depth. Movie action scenes are conveyed with an expansive, dynamic flavour, which is useful if you can’t be bothered to switch on the home cinema system.

Verdict

Although the UE40ES6800 lacks the aesthetic razzle dazzle of Samsung’s pricier sets, and the picture prowess of Sony’s latest LED efforts, it makes up it with a superb range of smart features, good multimedia support and a wonderful operating system.

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My Take:

This particular attractive Samsung TV set starts another fight with the new Sony Bravia TVs and LG Cinema 3D Smart TVs, but is the beauty more than skin deep? Leave your comments below.

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LG Optimus 4X HD review

IT Pro Portal

Every handset manufacturer has its top-of-the-range model, and that model tends to have everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it including a pumped up screen size and resolution, and usually some serious thought put into chassis design too. So it is no surprise that, as a flagship handset, the Optimus 4X HD is a phone brimming with great features. Large? Yes. A little unwieldy perhaps? Yes. But undoubtedly powerful, albeit with a few annoyances.

The chassis design is definitely distinctive. The bruisers out there might not like the white with sliver trim approach, which they might see as a little bit Primark. But there’s no doubt that the double rim of silver round all the edges with its inner strip of patterned white plastic on the long edges is a look that’s different.

The faux leather finish to the back is reminiscent of LG’s Prada range of phones, and I don’t much like it, but it is more grippy than a flat finish and that matters with a handset of this size. At 132.4 x 68.1mm, I found it a bit big for my relatively small hands to grasp and it isn’t a lightweight either at 133g. The LG Optimus 4X HD is thin though – just 8.9mm thin. The coveted Samsung Galaxy S III is only slightly thinner at 8.6mm. That thinness means there’s a lip around the top-mounted headset slot, which is a small but neat little design feature.

So, I’ve mentioned the size of the LG Optimus 4X HD. It has a 4.7in IPS LCD screen and while that is bettered by the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 4.8in, it matches the HTC One X’s dimensions and equals them both for resolution with 1,280 x 720 pixels on offer.

The screen has great viewing angles and good colour reproduction, and watching video in particular was a pleasure. On a screen this size it is easy to expect tablet-like service from applications, and so websites that default to mobile versions are a real pain. The screen does really attract fingerprints though, a little more so than the average in my view.

I said earlier that LG has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Optimus 4X HD. So what does that mean? Well Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) of course, plus Nvidia’s Tegra 3 SoC, with it’s quad-core CPU running at 1.5GHz and a battery power saving fifth core on hand. These are supported by Nvidia’s 12-core graphics GPU and 1GB of RAM. It is stunningly fast and data renders in a jiffy, though I did meet the occasional stumble. The camera was a little slow to focus, for example. And the handset ran slightly warm when the processor was being pushed too. Not enough to worry me, but enough to be noticeable.

There is a generous 16GB of storage, but LG has installed quite a lot of stuff onto the device and out-of-the-box my review handset reported 11.8GB free. That’s still a fair amount, of course, and you can boost it with microSD cards. The slot is easily accessible under the backplate.

NFC has been built in. There’s no HDMI slot but the LG Optimus 4X HD supports MHL – that’s Mobile High Definition Link – through the USB connector. You don’t get a cable, but they’re easy enough to obtain.

LG has included an above par battery. With 2,150mAh on offer it ought to deliver quite well. In fact, though, I had the usual problem of having to charge in the late afternoon or early evening to be sure of enough power to get me through to the next morning. And if I went into manic gaming mode I was seeking mains power after a couple of hours of gameplay.

There is a front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel camera on the back, which produced some good results. There’s no dedicated camera button but the volume rocker doubles as a shutter button and even caters for continuous shooting when held down. I bet other hardware makers will steal this neat trick. I did find that autofocusing took a while to kick in, which is irritating. As for video, it can be captured at 1080p.

LG has of course skinned Android and added some of its own widgets, but the skinning is fairly light touch. I like the ability to fiddle with the unlock system to choose pattern, pin, swipe, password, or using the front camera for face unlock, or even having no lock screen at all. It is nice to be able to select the clock type and unlock app shortcuts for the lock screen too.

The skinning isn’t all software related. The Google Recent Apps touch button has been replaced with the more traditional menu button, while you get access to recent apps with a long press of the Home button. I’m happy with that.

The music player is not much to write home about but I do appreciate that LG has bundled a set of round in-ear buds. They’re not the best quality in the world, but they are reasonably good at blocking out other sounds, and the Dolby Mobile technology is joined by a number of other effects such as bass reducer, treble booster and vocal boost, which do seem to have an effect on sound quality and might prove useful.

LG adds a few apps into the Android mix, with the almost obligatory FM radio among them and a nice memo app for jotting things down. This and Polaris Office really are usable for serious stuff on a big screened handset like this.

Verdict

LG hasn’t quite managed to pull off a complete win here. Battery life disappoints if you push this handset hard, and the hardware design could have been sleeker. With Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) now here, the phone is a tad behind the times, and the camera isn’t without its issues. Still, the large screen is fantastic for email, general writing, video and web, and if you are looking at the top of the tree then this phone sits well next to the Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X.

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My Take:

I have seen this one in person and I must say LG really can produce stunning display screens not only for their Optimus smartphones but also for their Cinema 3D Smart TVs.

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The British Wildlife Photography Awards 2012

The Telegraph

The winners of the 2012 British Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced. These awards recognise the talents of the UK’s best amateur and professional wildlife photographers. The awards are uniquely British, with all of the images taken of British animals in their natural habitats. Thousands of photographers across the country entered this year's competition.

All of the images from the British Wildlife Photography Awards are included in a beautiful hardback coffee table book, British Wildlife Photography Awards: Collection 3, AA Publishing, £25, out 10 September. The images will be on display in a free exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London from 17 September before embarking on a nationwide tour. For more information please visit www.bwpawards.org


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