For the thousands around the world who watched Microsoft's Xbox One reveal event over the Internet and on their Xbox 360 consoles earlier this week, it was about an hour filled with some fresh information on the company's forthcoming console, though it also left them with a lot of questions.

However, while the press attending the event - held in a tent on Microsoft's rainy Redmond, Wash., campus - got the same info and left with many of the same questions, we were also treated to brief tours of some of the Xbox facilities.

Among the rooms we saw were a fabrication shop where engineers 3D-printed dozens of controller models to enable a better ergonomic design for the Xbox One gamepad; a test chamber where dozens of robotic fingers pressed controller buttons repeatedly to measure the peripheral's endurance; and a severely sound-dampened audio room that puts the new Kinect's voice-command recognition through its paces.

Perhaps the most interesting and illuminating - in some ways, literally - section of the tour was a room consisting of a large display, a couch and one of the new Kinect sensors. Here we were able to see for ourselves how much better this new sensor will be over the current model and how it'll improve game play, video chats and overall interaction with the system's interface.

On the face of it

The engineers told us that the new sensor will be able to scan a larger room area, enabling tracking within a virtual box that's nearly twice what the current Kinect can view.

Not only will this provide quality reading of people closer and farther away from the sensor - so those with small living rooms will be able to use it - but also those farther apart laterally, so you don't have to pack everyone into a tight group directly in front of the Kinect.

It will also track up to six people (or "skeletons," as the engineer told us) as opposed to the two the current sensor can monitor.

The Kinect's resolution has also been radically improved. You not only get a 1080p color camera that enables high-quality Skype video chats, but it's a 3D scanning device that is strong enough to discern buttons and folds on a shirt, as well as whether you're moving your fingers, if you're facing the sensor or not, and even your facial expression.

The ability to better track faces means it'll be better at determining each player's identity for signing in the proper profile and offering other personalization.

Raising your IR

Microsoft has even boosted the Kinect's infrared vision, which results in a number of dramatic improvements.

No longer will you have to play in a well and evenly lit room for the sensor to recognize your gestures, and conversely you won't end up with sunshine blooms interfering with the Kinect.

We were shown how it could still track a person's movements in a totally dark room as well as how a bright flashlight beam shone on the person wasn't even viewable by the sensor's IR mode.

On what sounded like a science-fiction-esque promise, we were also told that the new Kinect's IR capabilities would be able to track your heart beat, by detecting the flow of blood under the surface of your face.

While my first thought was the inevitable tabloid headline ("Xbox Console Spots Owner's Heart Attack, Skypes 911"), the engineer stated that it would be extremely useful with exercise software to monitor the user's heartbeat, so it could offer a better workout and keep the person from under or over exertion.

Though the proof will fully come from using the new Kinect in real-world software tests - which we're expecting to try out more at next month's E3 trade show in Los Angeles - we're hopeful that the changes will enable smoother use with the Xbox One, but also enable more people to take advantage of the voice and gesture command functionality.

More importantly, though, we're praying that the Kinect's necessity in the hardware daisy chain won't result in the console raising too many Big Brother concerns.

Most portable hard drives lack glamour. They're tiny workhorses, useful for doing backups and transporting large files and little else. Patriot's Aero goes way beyond those basics, offering WiFi connectivity, tablet compatibility via custom apps and a rechargeable battery.

This versatility may not seem useful at first, but we think that's more due to lack of imagination than lack of utility. A product like this, with the ability to do so much, opens up possibilities you hadn't really thought of before. Its limitations, like limited documentation and a somewhat confusing user interface, though, make it suitable only for those willing to work around the rough edges.

Form Factor and Function

The Patriot Aero is 8.6cm (D) x 13.9cm (W) x 2.44cm (H) and weighs 295 g. That's a bit larger and heavier than some portable drives, but most portable drives don't include a rechargeable battery. The Patriot Aero's lithium-ion battery can deliver up to six hours of continuous streaming. The unit charges with a standard cell phone charger, reducing the number of things you need to bring on a road trip.

What's a rechargeable hard drive good for? For one thing, if you're using it as an external hard drive for your laptop, hard drive access won't drain your laptop's battery. There are a lot of other uses, though, which might not immediately come to mind. For instance, you could use it as a portable media server on a bus or car trip or while camping.

PC Connectivity

Like we said, what sets the Patriot Aero apart is its versatility. As you'd expect, it offers the basic functionality of a portable hard drive. You can connect it to a PC using the standard USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 interface. This USB connectivity, though, is mutually exclusive with its most impressive feature: WiFi connectivity. Unfortunately you can't use these two features simultaneously; enabling one disables the other.

In WiFi mode, it can function as a network file server or as the WiFI hub of a mini network. It's easy to imagine where that might come in handy. For instance, if you have a group of laptops in a hotel room and need to share large files, the Aero would be a perfect impromptu file server.

The Patriot Aero also functions as a bridge to the wider Internet. Acting as a WiFI access point; you connect your computer or tablet to the Patriot's WiFi network. The Aero can connect up to eight devices at the same time. You then connect the Patriot to your WiFi router which is connected to the Internet. The Patriot Aero passes through your Internet traffic to the Internet-connected router. This has some upsides; you can use the patriot to extend your WiFi range, for instance. There are some downsides too, however. We noticed some performance degradation in download speeds using this setup.

There are some serious limitations, though, if you are trying to use this as a network drive. The main one is the lack of Ethernet connectivity. The only way to link it to your network is via WiFi. That's inherently less secure and less fast than an Ethernet connection. But the Patriot Aero is designed mainly for use with mobile devices; that's where it really shines.

Tablet and Mobile Connectivity

What really sets the Aero apart is its ability to connect with tablets and other mobile devices. The company has apps available for iOS, Android, and the Amazon Kindle Fire which let you use the Aero as a file server. This lets you get beyond the tight storage limitations of a portable device. Though this is most useful for streaming high quality video or storing large music collections, but there are many other possible uses. For instance, if you had a large archive of digital books in PDF format, large PowerPoint presentations, or even of photos.

The setup for this is reasonably straightforward if you're used to configuring something like a WiFi router. However, the app interface is spartan and potentially confusing, and the documentation is extremely sparse. Someone unfamiliar with setting up this kind of device is likely to be quite dumbfounded, especially since

The basic process is that the Patriot Aero becomes your WiFi access point. You connect your mobile device to the Patriot and then use the Patriot Connect app (or a web interface if you are connecting via a PC) to configure the Patriot to use your WiFi router to connect to the Internet. This second step isn't necessary, though. You can use the Patriot as a local file server without also connecting to the Internet.

Once connected, we found the file serving functionality to work quite well. The easiest way to watch videos or listen to music from within the Patriot Connect app. However, with a little configuration, you can also use any SAMBA-compatible app to access the files on the hard drive. You can also copy files back and forth from the mobile device to the hard drive.

As we mentioned previously, the requirement that you connect your mobile device to the Patriot and then access the Internet via pass-through causes some degradation in speed. It's also an inelegant solution, since you need to switch your WiFi connections to the Patriot when you want to access files and away from it when you don't, since you won't want to take the performance hit.

We liked

The flexibility of this portable hard drive with WiFi connectivity and a rechargeable battery. We also liked native app support iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.

We disliked

Confusing user interface and very limited documentation. The WiFi pass-through also causes a sacrifice in speed when connecting to the Internet.

Verdict

As mobile devices start replacing traditional laptops and desktops, it's natural for people to chafe at the limitations on storage. The Patriot Aero provides an excellent, if not quite elegant, solution to this problem. It takes some time to configure and to determine how best to use its many capabilities, but once mastered it opens up a lot of possibilities.

Introduction

The last five years or so for AMD CPUs have been sub-spectacular to say the least. But things are looking up and one of the good news stories very much revolves around the new AMD A4-5000 APU, codenamed Kabini.

More precisely, it's the new Jaguar cores inside this APU that are making waves. That's because they're found in both Microsoft's new Xbox One console and the PlayStation 4 from Sony. Yup, AMD's Jaguar architecture is a very big deal.

So what exactly is it? Our first taste of Jaguar comes in the form of the quad-core AMD A4-5000 APU. It's fitted to what's known as a whitebook laptop. That's basically a non-branded system that exists primarily for the likes of us to assess the new chip and its associated platform (chipset etc) and tell you all about it. So, you can't buy this laptop off the shelf.

As for the A4-5000, it's a variant of what's known as the Kabini APU or Accelerated Processing unit. Thus it has four Jaguar cores and an AMD Radeon HD 8330 integrated graphics core.

The main thing to appreciate about this chip - and one of the things that makes for an intriguing thought in the context of those new games consoles - is that it's very much a mobile processor. In fact, it's pretty much an ultra-mobile processor.

Those Jaguar cores are a replacement for AMD's earlier Bobcat cores and that makes them more a competitor for Intel's ultra-mobile Atom processors than any full-power desktop or laptop CPU. The main difference with Jaguar and thus Kabini being that it's not designed to squeeze into devices as small as smartphones, as the latest low-power Atoms are.

Instead, super thin-and-light laptops and tablets are essentially the limit for Kabini. That's fine by us. There are plenty of alternatives in the smartphone CPU market. What we want from AMD is something to keep Intel honest in its core market and also provide an alternative in the burgeoning market for tablet PCs running the x86 version of Windows 8, including Microsoft's Surface Pro.

It would also be nice if Kabini could help provide a cut price alternative to Intel's sexy but pricey Ultrabooks - you know, systems like the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A or Acer Aspire S7. And that's exactly what it promises. Time to find out more.

Specifications

Let's get the specs of AMD's reference whitebook sorted and then we can concentrate on that fascinating AMD A4-5000 APU, eh?

It's a thin-an'-slim 13-inch laptop with a 1080p display. Storage-wise, we're talking 320GB of old school magnetic hard drive sadly, so we'll do our best to exclude that from our performance assessments. This chip really wants an SSD.

There's 4GB of RAM, 512MB of it reserved for the A4-5000's integrated graphics, more on which in a moment. As for the battery pack, it's a 3,000mAh unit.

And so to the A4-5000 itself. The fun starts with four AMD Jaguar cores running at 1.5GHz. Jaguar is the follow up to AMD's Bobcat low-power CPU architecture. It's in roughly the same ballpark as Intel's Atom CPU core, but isn't intended for smartphones. The limit in terms of mobile devices is tablets and super slim laptops.

Anywho, AMD has targetted a range of improvements with the transition from Bobcat to Jaguar. Highlights include increased IPC or instructions per clock, increased frequency at any given voltage and more finely grained power management.

As for the graphics part of the equation, AMD is calling the A4-5000's 3D core the AMD Radeon HD 8330. It runs at 496MHz and sports AMD's latest GCN graphics architecture. All told, it packs 128 of AMD's latest graphics shaders.

At this stage, two pressing comparisons hove into view. Firstly, we have the next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony, both of which sport precisely the same CPU core and graphics arhcitecture. Then there's Brazos, AMD's Bobcat-based APU and the A4-5000's progenitor.

Intriguingly, both the Xbox One and the PS4 have Jaguar cores running at 1.6GHz, so pretty much the same speed as the AMD A4-5000. Of course, they have twice as many cores, but there's a good chance some of those console cores may be reserved for non-gaming functionality. So in gaming terms, this chip might be almost level pegging with the latest consoles. Quite a thought.

Things aren't nearly as evenly matched on the graphics side where the PS4 has 1,152 graphics shaders, the Xbox One is thought to have 768 shaders and the A4-5000 has just 128 shaders.

As for the match up with Brazos, well, you get double the number of CPU cores and around a 50 per cent up tick in graphics cores plus an upgrade from AMD's older VLIW graphics architecture to the latest GCN graphics spec.

Performance

Cinebench 11: 1.45pts
Battery Eater 05: 235 minutes
3D Mark Ice Storm: 23,718
3D Mark Cloud Gate: 2,226
3D Mark Fire Strike: 231

Much of the subjective experience with this new AMD A4-5000 APU was spoiled by the use of a super sluggish magnetic hard drive in the test whitebook laptop provided by AMD. That's a pity, because it makes it very hard to get a proper feel for what it has to offer as a full-on Windows 8 chip.

But it's not a complete write off. Once applications and benchmarks have loaded, disk performance becomes much less of an issue, so what have we discovered?

Cinebench 11 is a good starting point. A score of 1.45pts is not hugely impressive. That makes the A4-5000 less than half as grunt as a quad-core AMD FX CPU. As for the match up with something like a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip, it's gruesome. The i7 is about six times faster.

It's not an even remotely fair comparison, we grant you, but it puts the A4-5000 in context. A fairer contest is with Intel's Atom. The Intel Atom D2700 dual core model typically scores around 0.75pts, so the AMD A4-5000 has it pretty much licked.

In the graphics department, well, there's really only so much you can do with 128 AMD GCN shaders. Remember, AMD's hottest desktop graphics chip, as found in the AMD Radeon 7970 board, packs 2,048 shaders clocked roughly twice as fast, which works out to a raw performance advantage of 32 times. Yikes.

For the most part, our testing reflects that modest graphics firepower. The more demanding passages in 3DMark are a genuine slide show, with frames taking multiple seconds to update.

This is not a true gaming chip. However, it does have just enough grunt for casual 3D gaming, especially with older titles. Just Don't expect to fire up Crysis 3 and experience free-flowing and fluid fragging. It ain't gonna happen.

More of an unambiguous upside is the A4-5000's battery life. We have to be careful to draw too many conclusions as this is not a retail notebook. But in the context of the modest 3,000mAh battery pack, the AMD A4-5000 looks like it should make for some impressively long lasting systems.

HD video playback is another strong point. CPU decoding of really high bitrate 1080p flash video is executed smoothly, albeit with the CPU cores dangerously close to maximum load. Normal bitrate 1080p video has the cores loaded to about 60 per cent, leaving a healthy amount of headroom.

Verdict

AMD's new A4-5000 is an intriguingly little chip in its own right. But the knowledge that it shares much of its architecture with the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony Playstation 4 really ramps up the intrigue. So what have we learned?

We liked

2D HD video playback is strong. That's a critical metric for a modern mobile chip and arguably more important than gaming, even if the latter is what marketing suits prefer to talk about.

We're encouraged by the A4-5000's battery performance too. Whitebook's such as these are rarely the last work in finely honed power management, so our good experience with this laptop will likely only get even better with final retail systems based on AMD's new APU.

We disliked

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AMD hasn't worked miracles with the new Jaguar CPU core design. Clocked here at 1.5GHz, you're looking at cores with less than one fifth the performance of the best current desktop CPU cores.

For the A4-5000 itself, that's not a major issue. It's not a full-one desktop chip and with four cores, it makes up for modest single-threaded throughput with a decent amount of multi-threading. But make no mistake, this is a low-power processor architecture. It's a long way off the pace of AMD's own full-power laptop processors, much less Intel's.

More generally, the fact that AMD specified this test whitebook with a 5,200rpm magnetic drive rather than a solid state drive obscured the APU's ability as a proper Windows 8 chip. Put another way, we're not completely sure how responsive it will feel configured with an SSD. Our guess is that it will make for a pretty nice Windows 8 chip. It's just a shame AMD didn't see fit to show it in its best light.

The graphics performance of the A4-5000 is similarly non-whelming. Based on AMD's successful and familiar GCN architecture, the limitations are down to the number of functional units AMD has squeezed in.

By today's standards, 128 graphics shaders is a modest count in a gaming context and there's no getting round that.

Final verdict

Despite those limitations, we're generally upbeat about the prospects of the AMD A4-5000 as a laptop and tablet processor. Battery life looks good, 2D video is strong and the CPU cores are likely just good enough.

What this chip reveals about the new games consoles, which share much of its technology, is much more worrying.

Put simply, games developers will desperately need to get to grips with multi-threading if they're to have any hope of getting good performance out of these new Jaguar cores. And even with threading fully optimised, we guestimate based on this chip that the PS4 and Xbox will have roughly half the CPU performance of a good Intel desktop processor. And that's assuming all cores are available to a given application or game. Yikes.

Introduction

As it doesn't have the essential telecommunication features the Canon PowerShot N clearly isn't going to take the place of a phone, but the manufacturer hopes that we will use it in conjunction with one.

Thanks to its manufacturer's camera making know-how and its 1/2.3-inch 12.1MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor and DIGIC 5 processor, the N should be capable of taking better images than the average smartphone.

Furthermore, because its lens has a focal length range equivalent to 28-224mm, it should also prove to be much more versatile than a phone when composing shots. And, if the 8x optical zoom isn't enough for you this can be extended digitally to 16x to produce the equivalent of a 448mm lens.

Although it's not app enabled, the PowerShot N has Wi-Fi technology built-in so that it can be connected to a computer or a smartphone to enable you to share images quickly. There's even a dedicated button that, after initial set-up, can be used to connect to a smartphone or tablet with one touch.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to test this aspect of the camera yet. But judging by the options in the Wi-Fi section of the menu, it should be pretty straightforward to set up.

For those who want to let the world know where they've been taking photographs, Canon has a free smartphone app that enables location data to be added to images from a smart device.

The PowerShot N is all about creating images quickly and easily, so naturally all the exposure modes are automatic. Program mode provided the most control, with aspects such as exposure compensation and white balance being adjustable. Alternatively, there are some creative shooting options with filter effect such as Fish-eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Soft Focus, Toy Camera Effect and Monochrome.

There's also Creative Shot mode, in which the Canon N produces six versions of an image, one untreated and the rest adjusted in a variety of ways depending upon what the camera makes of the image. The camera looks at aspects such as composition, focus, white balance, gradation and contrast and generates five alternative versions automatically.

It produces a variety of fun effects, with some dramatic crops, extreme colour and brightness and contrast shifts that replicate old film, cross-processed and black and white images. While it's a hit and miss process, it's fun, and it sometimes produces interesting images that will be a hit on Facebook and the like. We noticed that when shooting a couple of people, the camera often produces shots of both people by themselves as well as one with them together.

We have seen the Hybrid Auto mode before, but Canon has made it more easily accessible via the shooting mode menu screen. When this option is selected, the Canon N records four seconds of 720p footage before each shot. The camera uses the information from the clip to determine the best settings to use for the still image.

But the fun part is that the camera merges all the four second clips captured during the day to create a short movie. It should make for amusing viewing when the Canon N is used at parties.

Build and handling

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about Canon N is that it's almost square rather than rectangular. It also has a 2.7-inch tilting LCD screen that is touch sensitive. This capacitive device enables you to take control over key features such as the focus point and trip the shutter with a touch of the screen, and we found that it's nice and responsive.

With the lens collapsed, the Canon N is fairly compact and can be slipped into a jacket pocket, or in some cases a jeans pocket, so it's easy to transport and can be carried everywhere. It's also fairly light yet feels solid and well built, so you'll be happy to take it everywhere that you'd normally take your phone.

There are two rings around the lens. The first is used to zoom from one focal length to another – no great surprises there – but the other is the shutter release, and pushing it up or down trips the shutter. It takes a few moments to get used to it, but it means that the camera can be fired from a range of angles because you can always reach the shutter release.

As most setting selections are made via the touchscreen, there are only three buttons and one switch on the Canon N. One button turns the camera on and off, another switches to playback mode, while the third is the One Touch Wi-Fi button mentioned earlier.

The switch is used to select either the normal shooting mode with access to Program, Auto, Hybrid Auto and the filter effect options or Creative Shot mode. When Creative Shot mode is selected, touching the shutter release or using touch-shutter mode triggers the camera to take a sequence of shots that are then processed to create the six variations mentioned earlier.

Although it has flat sides and will stand upright on a tabletop or similar when the screen is folded home, when this is flipped out for easier viewing from above, the camera becomes unbalanced. This means that you need to hold the camera up to get a shot, so it's not quite as stable.

The Canon N's small size, smooth sides and flip-up screen mean it takes a few moments to work out how to hold it. It can be held up level with the eye or down at waist level. Some may find it easy to hold and use one-handed as the fingers of the right hand curl around the body and onto the lens rings (one of which is the shutter release). But it feels a bit strange with no real grip, and you may find your fingers slipping up behind the screen when it is tilted.

One disappointment with the screen is that it can't be flipped right up above the camera for viewing from in front to help you take self-portraits. Canon UK's David Parry tells us that making screens that flip through 180 degrees or more as strong as Canon wants them to be is difficult – and that means expensive.

Canon has also put large lugs on the left and right of the camera to attach the strap. As a result, the N cannot rest level on a flat surface when shooting portrait orientation images. This is a shame as it seems a logical way of shooting in some low light conditions. The problem could have been avoided if the strap was more like a lanyard and only attached on one side of the camera.

However, we are told that the company is planning on making a feature of the strap, with the possibility of users customising their straps or choosing decorative versions.

Performance

The technology inside the Canon N, including the sensor, has all been used elsewhere in Canon's compact camera range.

This means that the image quality should be respectable and on a par with the results from the manufacturer's other 12MP compact cameras such as the impressive Canon SX50 HS and Canon SX260 HS. These two cameras performed well when we tested them, and this bodes well for the PowerShot N's image quality.

Check out our Image quality and resolution charts, sample images and sensitivity and noise images on the following pages to see how the camera performed.

Early verdict

The Canon N will be available from early April, and is set to retail for around £269 in the UK (around AU$412) and $299.99 in the US.

It isn't intended to take the place of a DSLR or even a phone, but to complement them as a 'take-everywhere' type camera. And features such as the back-illuminated 1/2.3-inch sensor, tilting touchscreen and the ring shutter release should mean that it helps you get better shots than you'd normally get on your phone.

Despite the simplicity of the touchscreen interface and the high build quality, some may find its size and shape makes it a little awkward to hold. This could be a deciding factor for some, but we think there will be others that love it, and for these people it may help put some fun and spontaneity into their photography.

Image quality and resolution

As part of our image quality testing for the Canon N, we've shot our resolution chart.

If you view our crops of the resolution chart's central section at 100% (or Actual Pixels) you will see that, for example, at ISO 80 the Canon N is capable of resolving up to around 22 (line widths per picture height x100) in its highest quality JPEG files.

For a full explanation of what our resolution charts mean, and how to read them, check out our full explanation of our camera testing resolution charts.

Examining images of the chart taken at each sensitivity setting reveals the following resolution scores in line widths per picture height x100:

Full ISO 80 image, see the cropped (100%) versions below.

ISO 80, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 100, score: 20 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200, score: 20 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400, score: 20 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800, score: 14 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600, score: 12 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200, score: 14 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400, score: n/a (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Sample images

Click here to see the full resolution image

The Canon N had no problem focusing on this relatively uniform subject, and it captured plenty of detail across the frame. The colours are also natural.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

In Creative shot mode the camera takes a sequence of shots in quick succession and generates six different images of the scene - as shown above. The first image is a 'straight' version while the others have a variety of effects or crops applied.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Another Creative shot mode sequence. The photographer has no control over the effects or crops that are applied.

Sensitivity and noise images

Full ISO 80 image, see the cropped (100%) versions below.

ISO 80 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 100 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Introduction

Ricoh had a reputation for producing superb 35mm film compact cameras such as the GR I and GR21 that found favour with enthusiast photographers. However, despite producing high quality images, the company's digital compact cameras such as the Ricoh GR II and Ricoh GR IV haven't really attracted the same attention.

The Ricoh GXR, a compact system camera (CSC) that couples the lens and sensor into a single module that slots into the back, confused the company's fans and consequently also failed to sell in high numbers.

The new Ricoh GR, however, could be about to change all that, because its 16.2 million pixel sensor is an APS-C format device rather than a 1/1.7-inch unit as is found in the Ricoh GR IV.

At around £599 (approximately US$920 / AU$882) the Pentax Ricoh GR's price is also much more attractive than that of the Nikon Coolpix A and the overly complicated Ricoh GXR.

Furthermore, despite the 9x increase in the size of the sensor, the GR isn't a great deal bigger than the GR IV and it fits neatly into the average coat or jacket pocket. It's a similar size to the Nikon Coolpix A and Sigma DP1, and a little smaller than the Fuji X100S.

Features

Like the Nikon Coolpix A, the Ricoh GR's APS-C format 16.2MP CMOS sensor has no anti-aliasing filter, which should enable it to capture sharper details than a comparable sensor with the filter.

Omitting the filter brings the risk of moiré patterning in images with fine repeating patterns of detail, but it hasn't been an issue for the Nikon Coolpix A, Nikon D7100 or Nikon D800E. Even if it is a problem, moiré patterning can be dealt with using image editing software, but the Ricoh GR also has in-camera post-capture moiré reduction available.

Because it's a compact camera the Ricoh GR has a fixed lens, and, like the optics on the other APS-C format compact cameras, it has a fixed focal length. In this case it's a 18.3mm lens, which is equivalent to around 28mm in 35mm terms.

This and its small size makes the GR ideal as a 'walk-around' camera and well suited to shooting street and documentary photographs as well as landscape images when you're out on a hike and want to travel light.

There's also an optional adaptor available to transform the lens into a wider, 21mm optic. At the other end of the scale, an in-camera 35mm crop mode is available.

The lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, which means that there's plenty of opportunity to control depth of field.

One of the trade offs that Ricoh has made as a result of the larger sensor is that the lens can't focus quite as close as its predecessor. However, there is a macro mode that enables you to get as close as 10cm to the subject.

One of the problems with previous Ricoh digital compact cameras was their relatively slow responses. Ricoh is hoping that the new processing engine in the GR will address this, and it has a claimed start-up time of approximately one second, a maximum continuous shooting rate of 4fps, shutter release lag of 0.03 seconds and 0.2 second autofocusing.

Build and handling

Built from a sturdy magnesium alloy, the Ricoh GR is billed as the world's smallest and lightest APS-C format camera. It's surprisingly close in size to the Ricoh GR IV.

The front of the camera has a pronounced grip, which has a rubberised texture and gives good purchase, enabling the camera to be held one-handed. The layout of the buttons on the back of the camera also makes changing settings with a thumb quick and easy.

On the top of the Ricoh GR is a mode dial for speedily changing between automatic, semi-automatic and fully manual exposure modes. In a nod to Pentax, which is now owned by Ricoh, there's a TAv (Aperture and Time priority) option in which you set the shutter speed and aperture while the camera selects the sensitivity.

There are also three customisable groups of settings available via the mode dial. Just to the side of the mode dial is a lock button, which stops the dial from being knocked out of place. We found this relatively easy to depress with the finger of the right hand while rotating the dial.

A small dial on the front of the camera at the top of the grip is used for altering aperture or shutter speed, depending on the mode you're shooting in. When shooting in fully manual mode, this dial is used for aperture, while the rocker dial on the back of the camera controls shutter speed.

Exposure compensation is changed quickly using the plus and minus control, which doubles up as the zooming buttons during playback.

Ricoh is aiming the GR at enthusiast photographers, and these users will appreciate that several of the buttons on the back and side of the camera are customisable, giving you quick access to key features.

Changing autofocus point is done by default by tapping the F1 Function button and using the arrow keys to scroll around the scene to the point you want to use. After pressing this button, you can use the zoom control to check critical focus.

There's also an option to enlarge a section of screen around the active AF point to check focus as it is achieved.

On the back of the camera is a high resolution, 1.2 million-dot 3-inch LCD screen. It's not articulating, or touch-sensitive, but it appears to cope reasonably well with direct light, not suffering too badly from glare or reflections. The menu layout is simple and uncomplicated.

Performance

As yet we have only used a pre-production sample of the Ricoh GR. Naturally we are hoping that Ricoh has been able to transfer its image quality capability to the new camera.

Sample images, image quality and resolution and sensitivity and noise images follow on the next pages.

We are told that the sample we used was the final hardware, but the firmware is not final. This could mean that aspects such as the focus time and file write times change before the camera goes on sale.

While we have no complaints about the focusing speed of the Ricoh GR, it focuses relatively quickly with a slight backwards adjustment being visible, the write times with raw and JPEG shooting selected were poor.

We counted around nine or 10 seconds being required between shots. If this continues into the final working sample it could prove very frustrating.

Fortunately, things improved dramatically when we shot JPEG files by themselves, with next to no delay.

Early verdict

We're quite excited about the Ricoh GR. It's very nicely built, has all the control that we want and it can shoot both raw and JPEG files.

Although we have seen prints of a couple of impressive sample images from Ricoh, we will reserve judgement about the image quality until we have shot some pictures. However, Ricoh has a reputation for producing cameras that capture plenty of detail, with a tendency to reveal some noise.

Our only reservation at this point is the file write times. We hope that the production sample will make shooting in raw format, or raw and JPEG format, a realistic proposition. If it does the Ricoh GR could really grab the attention of enthusiast photographers looking for a pocketable alternative to a DSLR.

Given its comparatively low price, we're sure that Nikon and Fuji will be keeping a close eye on Ricoh GR sales.

Image quality and resolution

As part of our image quality testing for the Ricoh GR, we've shot our resolution chart.

If you view our crops of the resolution chart's central section at 100% (or Actual Pixels) you will see that, for example, at ISO 100 the Ricoh GR is capable of resolving up to around 24 (line widths per picture height x100) in its highest quality JPEG files.

For a full explanation of what our resolution charts mean, and how to read them, check out our full explanation of our camera testing resolution charts.

Examining images of the chart taken at each sensitivity setting reveals the following resolution scores in line widths per picture height x100:

JPEG

Full ISO 100 image, see the cropped (100%) versions below.

ISO 100, score: 24 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200, score: 24 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400, score: 20 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 12800, score: 16 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 25600, score: 10 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Raw

ISO 100, score: 26 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200, score: 26 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400, score: 24 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800, score: 24 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400, score: 22 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 12800, score: 18 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 25600, score: 12 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Sample images

Click here to see the full resolution image

The stormy conditions confused the Multi-zone metering system a little here, so this image is a little under-exposed, but there's detail in the brightest parts of the sky.

Click here to see the full resolution image

This is the raw version of the previous JPEG image and it's been brightened by 1EV in Adobe Camera Raw. The amount of detail in the grass is very impressive. It looks more natural at 100% than the JPEG version.

Click here to see the full resolution image

This was shot in low light and through glass (hence the occasional reflection), which gave the AF system a few issues. However, noise is well controlled (the sensitivity was set to ISO 1600) and the automatic white balance system has coped well with the artificial light. The exposure was set to 1/20sec at f/7.1.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Another example of the superb colour and detail delivered by the Ricoh GR.

Click here to see the full resolution image

The Ricoh GR produces some nice monochrome results using the Black and White Effect, but as it's also possible to use the Effects modes when shooting raw files, you can save a full-colour image at the same time.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Shooting with the aperture wide open (f/2.8) enables the background to be thrown out of focus, especially when shooting close-up like this.

Click here to see the full resolution image

The automatic white balance system has retained the warmth in this early evening shot.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Although this scene is quite bright, the camera's Multi-zone metering system hasn't underexposed the image.

Sensitivity and noise images

JPEG

Full ISO 100 image, see the cropped (100%) versions below.

ISO 100 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 12800 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 25600 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Raw

ISO 100 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 800 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 1600 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 3200 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 6400 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 12800 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

ISO 25600 (Click here to see the full resolution image)

Following a full day of presentations, interviews, tours, tech demos and teases of the Xbox One's game-changing potential, the powers that be at Microsoft finally let us get our mitts on the new hardware's controller.

While our time with the gamepad doesn't allow us to tear up the blacktop in Forza 5 or command a SEAL Team canine in Call of Duty: Ghosts, it does provide a peek at a few of the 40-plus improvements that have been made over its predecessor.

Before diving into six separate demos tailored to show off the controller's enhanced rumble tech, Microsoft senior product marketing manager, Navin Kumar, states "precision, comfort, and making gaming more realistic than ever" were the driving forces behind designing the new gamepad.

In terms of precision, Kumar points out that the analog sticks respond to inputs with 25 per cent less force, delivering a far more accurate experience. He also claims its d-pad allows for "crisper inputs, "perfect for "sweeping movements in fighting and sports games."

Feeling the full effect of 'impulse triggers'

While our hands-on time affords little opportunity to test this improved precision and accuracy, it does allow our thumbs and fingers to feel the full effect of what Kumar refers to as "impulse triggers." Like the 360's controller, the Xbox One gamepad features left and right triggers, used for everything from scoring headshots to flooring gas pedals.

However, the One's controller significantly ups the immersion of these interactive experiences thanks to the addition of motors housed in its triggers: in addition to the pair of rumblers located in the hand-grips - as they are in a 360 controller - the One's peripheral adds one each to both triggers.

It tickles... seriously

As demonstrated during our hands-on time, the tech is being used in a number of ways to intensify the immersion factor. With a press of the Y button, we're able to fire up a helicopter's propeller and a sports car's engine. While these interactions would yield near-identical vibrations with a 360 controller, they feel entirely unique through the One's triggers and sticks. By programming four separate motors, two of which now tickle the sensitive finger tips, the peripheral is able to convey astounding nuance and variety in its vibrations.

On top of differentiating between an engine's powerful roar and a chopper's spinning rotors, the quartet of motors allows us to experience how it feels to pop off a few rounds from a hand-cannon and summon a fireball in the palm of our hand. While the former feels much like it does in any contemporary shooter, the latter - thanks to a slow rumbling build-up, leading into a more intense vibration - yields a sense of empowerment we can't wait to unleash the next time we barbeque baddies in an RPG.

Our final two demos, simulating a ticking heart and braking car, are the most impressive. The pumping brakes deliver a realistic halting sensation the likes of which we've never before experienced in a racer, while the heartbeat - delivered by alternating pulse-like vibrations in the two triggers - feels scary-real. In fact, we're guessing the latter effect will significantly up the fright factor in survival horror games; imagine navigating a dark corridor or derelict space station in complete silence, all while the protagonist's racing pulse thumps beneath your fingertips.

Early Verdict

Based on our time behind the Xbox One's controller - whose ergonomic design will feel comfortably familiar to 360 owners - the impulse triggers seem to hold the most promise and potential for putting players that much deeper in the experiences of rearranging zombies' ribcages with melee weapons, roasting trolls with fire balls, and racing across finish lines.

That said, a number of subtler features, such as magnetic sensor-equipped triggers and a battery case that no longer protrudes from the back of the controller, hint at the many ways the next-gen peripheral will provide more precision in your games and comfort in your hands.

Our hands-on time barely scratches the surface of its promised 40-plus improvements, but our satisfied fingers and thumbs are already anticipating what other surprises the Xbox One's gamepad has got hidden beneath its buttons, sticks, and triggers.

Check out the video below for a sneak peek at some of the Xbox One games you'll soon be getting to grips with:

Here in Vegas for CTIA 2013, Nokia continues to go all in on Windows Phone 8. The Lumia 928 is its latest plastic rectangle sporting Microsoft's mobile OS. It's a 4G LTE device exclusive to Verizon and it's available now for $99 with two-year agreement.

Actually, you can get it even cheaper than that. Amazon currently has it on sale for $49. Off contract its $500.

The Lumia 928 boasts specs that make it competitive with other WP 8 devices: a 4.5-inch 720p HD display, a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The main camera is 8.7-megapixels, and Nokia claims that it offers excellent low-light performance.

You've lost some weight, haven't you?

It's also one of the thinnest Lumia's we've seen, especially when compared with last year's Lumia 920. It's just 0.40-inches thick, 5.24-inches tall and 2.71-inches wide.

Like a lot of Lumias, the 928 feels very slick in the hand. We were actually a bit worried about it slipping from our grip. While we've always liked the size and shape of Lumias, there's something to be said for the rubbery grippiness of HTC's 8X and 8S. We also wondered if it might be the last plastic Lumia we see, since the metal Lumia 925 coming to T-Mobile is making quite a splash.

This is a carrier exclusive for Verizon, so there is some branding. There's a Verizon logo at the top of the display, and a 4G LTE logo on the rear.

Subdued, for a Lumia anyway

With both the 925 and 928, it seems Nokia is dialing back some of its bright color choices. The 928 comes in just black or white. Quite a change from the taxi cab yellow and lime green we often see from Nokia; we're personally missing the bright blue and deep red they usually offer.

The 928 sports a signature Lumia feature: wireless charging. It also brags about another Lumia trademark, a strong low-light camera. We weren't able to test this, as the showroom was too bright, but it's something we'll be looking at in our full review.

Early Verdict

Like a lot of Windows Phone 8 devices, Nokia's Lumia 928 looks sharp and it's priced to move. Even without the Amazon promotion, $99 gets you a lot of phone.

Our biggest concerns stem not from the 928 itself, but from from the whole Lumia line, which is becoming bloated and unwieldy. Nokia has a lot of Lumias on the market. There's the 900, the 920, the 925 and now 928. It's getting to the point where its hard to keep them all straight, let alone remember what phone is available on which carrier.

Still, if the Lumia 928 truly does have as a good a camera as it claims, that combined with its good looks, thin frame and nice price should help it stand out. We look forward to getting the 928 in for a full review.

Introduction

With the Nook HD, US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble entered the wide-open 7-inch tablet market, but with the 9-inch Nook HD+ it faces a single and much more daunting foe.

The full-sized tablet market continues to be thoroughly dominated by the device that defined it - Apple's peerless iPad. When even Google and its technically impressive Nexus 10 can't make an impression at retail, what hope does the Nook HD+ have?

With a super-sharp 9-inch display, a slim and lightweight body, and a £229/US$269 full price tag for the 16GB version - or £269/US$299 for the 32GB model - Barnes & Noble certainly has some notable bullet-points to put on the box. But does the user experience match the raw specs?

In that respect it needs to learn a few lessons from close rival the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, which got the price and performance just about right, but failed as a full-fat tablet experience.

The Nook HD+ wins instant points for its unique design. While you'd struggle to pick an Amazon Kindle Fire HD from a lineup of budget tablets, here we have a device that sports a couple of key visual flourishes.

Chief among these is the large hole-grip situated on the bottom left-hand corner of the tablet (in portrait view). It might be there to hook a lanyard through, but it also serves as a handy thumb-grip when handling the device, enabling you to get real purchase on it with a single hand.

Yes, unlike the iPad, this is a full-fat tablet that's light enough to hold in one hand - at least for brief periods. At just 510g (18oz), the Nook HD+ is almost 140g (5oz) lighter than the iPad 4. That's roughly the weight of an HTC One shorn from its body.

This has been achieved, inevitably, through the heavy (or should that be light?) use of plastics, though that's not to say the Nook HD+ feels especially cheap. It's no iPad mini on the premium components scale, but it feels fairly firm in the hand.

We did get some disconcerting flexing and creaking when we applied a little two-handed pressure, but in general usage it's a reasonably solid construction.

One slight negative from an aesthetic point of view is that typical bulging Nook bezel, which provides a raised ridge around the screen. With the aforementioned corner grip sitting flush with the screen, it makes the Nook HD+ look a little like a skinnier tablet that's been slid into some kind of protective bumper.

Still, the thick border aids handling, and will doubtless provide protection should you put the device down screen-first when in a hurry (shame on you).

Around the back, the Nook HD+ has a pleasingly tactile matt finish that reminds us of the Kindle Fire HD range. Curiously, there's only one speaker grille here compared to the dual setup of the smaller Nook HD.

In terms of hardware buttons, the Nook HD+ benefits from a physical home key on the front, although the tiny n-shape doesn't feel as reassuringly clicky as Apple's iPad equivalent. But then, it only has two simple functions to fulfill - to wake the device up and to return you to the home screen.

The other physical keys are even more vague, with the power button situated at the top of the right-hand side (again when held in portrait view), and the volume rocker just around the corner on the top edge, with a 3.5mm jack alongside.

These hardware keys are small and non-descript, and it takes a while until you can reliably hit them without having to look or feel around the edges.

One component that definitely punches above the Nook HD+'s weight is its 9-inch display. With a resolution of 1920 x 1280, it's virtually as sharp as the latest iPad's Retina display, and it's also remarkably clear.

If you're used to the colder, bluish tinge of the iPad, you might find the tone of the display a little yellowish, but it makes for an easier text-reading experience (Nooks are, after all, ebook readers above all else) and isn't as pronounced as, say, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7.0.

Finally, along the bottom of the device we have a proprietary 30-pin port rather than a universal micro USB port. If like us you love the fact that you can lug a single charger around for your Android tablet, Android phone and point-and-shoot camera, you'll find this particularly annoying.

There is some good news to be found along the bottom edge of the Nook HD+ though, in the shape of a microSD slot. Yes, unlike the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and the iPad, you can expand the Nook's memory by up to 64GB relatively cheaply.

All in all, the Nook HD+ is a well constructed tablet with a fine screen and an appreciable weight advantage over its rivals. It may not look the prettiest, but we'd back it to go a year or two without picking up any noticeable bumps or nicks, which is more than can be said for any iPad we've owned.

Interface and performance

Like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, the Nook HD+ is essentially an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with a heavily customised interface layered on the top.

Indeed, Barnes & Nobel has taken a leaf out of its formidable rival's (e)book in producing a simplified home screen that pushes media content to the fore, ahead of even core tablet functions such as email, internet or widgets.

Curiously, despite this simplified approach the Nook HD+ interface feels sluggish, with frequent and noticeable stutters throughout.

This can be seen from the first time you wake the device from its sleep, which seems to take half a second longer than it should.

Speaking of the lock screen, it's possible to access multiple accounts straight from here, as you would on a PC. This enables you to filter out unsuitable content for a child's profile, for example, or to remove the ability to access the internet or settings menu.

You can switch between these (or set up a new profile) at any time by hitting your profile picture at the top-left of the home screen, though it can take a good few seconds for the Nook HD+ to make the change.

Past the lock screen and into the home screen you'll find a content carousel that, like Amazon's Silk UI, features the most recently accessed apps and multimedia content.

This too seems afflicted by the general lethargy found elsewhere in the operating system, with the panning and scaling of the icons far from buttery smooth.

Admittedly the Nook HD+ is hardly powered by the most cutting edge of processors, but its 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4470 CPU should really be capable of running such a lightweight UI without a hitch.

In terms of general layout, though, the Nook HD+'s UI is more or less as clean and unfussy as that of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

Adding app and media shortcuts to one of the five home screens is a simple matter of pressing and holding on an empty area of the screen.

This brings up a nicely arranged sub-menu that separates items in categories such as Library, Apps and Wallpapers.

There's even a Bookmarks category that pulls out your favourite internet shortcuts from your selected browser (which is now Chrome by default).

Dragging these icons around the screen is far quicker and more fluid than any other tablet OS we've used. In fact, it's almost too easy to do - you just need to touch and drag, with no holding or confirmation phase whatsoever.

Below these secondary app icons (or to the right if held in landscape orientation) is a row of five fixed icons that provide a handy shortcut to key functions including Library, Apps, Web, Email and the Nook Shop.

At the very bottom of the home screen is a search command that enables you to scour your Nook for a particular app or piece of media.

Alongside this to the right is a multitasking command which - like the search function - remains constantly available in the Nook HD+'s permanent black border, regardless of the present app or task you're in. Pressing it brings up a list of recent tasks that can be jumped to instantly.

Disappointingly, these aren't thumbnails of the specific tasks as in the stock Android OS, but simply their representative icons. But at least B&N has given some attention to the matter of multitasking, unlike Amazon.

There's also a notification menu of sorts, although it lacks the tactile pull-down shutter operation of stock Android and most of its bespoke variants.

Rather, you simply press the top-centre of the screen to raise the notification pane. Items such as messages, app downloads and calendar appointments can then be jumped to with a touch or dismissed with a swipe, as usual.

Touching to the right of this notification area, which contains the time, Wi-Fi connectivity symbol and settings and battery icons, will bring up the settings menu.

Just below this is another original Nook flourish - a circular icon containing the words 'Your Nook Today.' Press this to get local weather information from AccuWeather, as well as multimedia recommendations based on your recent library activity.

Internet and email

Internet

Following a recent update, the Nook HD+ uses Google's own Chrome web browser by default.

This is largely a positive move, since Chrome is pretty much the best tablet browser around. It works here just as it does on any other Android tablet.

You can add and flip between tabs by touching on the appropriate section along the top, launch searches or type in specific web pages in the unified URL field just below this, and access your bookmarks and other settings from a still-rather-clunky drop-down menu to the right.

However, you will have to make do without some of the neat functions of the original Nook browser, such as an offline reading mode and the ArticleView reader mode.

Still, a download of Pocket or some other decent reader app will cover this loss.

And the general familiarity and speed of the Chrome mobile browser - not to mention its ability to sync bookmarks with the desktop version - makes it a worthwhile trade.

Performance on the Nook HD+ is good, with web pages being rendered predictably well on its crisp HD display.

However, there seemed to be a slight lag when it came to scrolling and pinch-to-zooming on web pages.

Image-rich websites such as TechRadar really didn't seem to perform all that well on the tablet.

Email

The Nook HD+ comes with its own native email app, as represented by the fixed email shortcut on the home screen. Naturally this can be supplemented by specific email apps, particularly Gmail.

As default email apps go, though, the Nook's is as good as any. It's extremely quick and easy to set up your account - just the email address and password are typically all that's needed - and you can also feed multiple accounts into it without things getting too confusing.

A nifty colour-coded tagging system enables you to bundle all of your disparate emails together into a combined view.

Alternatively, you can switch between each account by touching the Mailbox command at the top of the screen.

As has become the accepted standard for tablet apps, the basic email app layout involves a split between folder options on the left and a list of individual emails on the right.

Tapping an email opens it out to the full page in portrait orientation, or three quarters of the page in landscape format.

The email app handles embedded images and HTML newsletters very well indeed, with no noticeable formatting or performance issues throughout our test.

It's here that you'll likely come into contact with the Nook HD+'s custom keyboard the most, and it acquits itself reasonably well in terms of accuracy and layout.

However, without a word suggestion system or a swipe-based input option we soon headed for the Google Play Store to seek out a more fully featured alternative such as SwiftKey.

Fortunately such a move is now at least possible, following the recent addition of the Google Play Store to the Nook HD+ package. More on this on the next page.

Movies, music and books

And so we come to the core reason for the Nook HD+'s existence - media consumption. Like the Amazon Kindle Fire series, Barnes & Noble's tablet is designed to be the focal point for thousands of books, movies, magazines and newspapers through the Nook Shop.

With the recent addition of the Google Play Store, you can now open that out to music as well.

With such a wide variety of HD content available for the Nook HD+, then, that microSD card slot starts to look like an inspired inclusion - and one that other Android tablet manufacturers need to emulate if they're going to continue offering 16GB entry-level models.

Transferring content from PC to Nook can be achieved the old-fashioned way, using the bundled USB cable to hook up directly. It's then a simple matter of dragging and dropping the relevant files.

Movies

Watching films on the Nook HD+'s 9-inch display is a joy. Indeed, with a 1920 x 1280 resolution, Full HD 1080p content feels perfectly at home on the tablet.

Of course, nothing eats up storage space like Full HD films - the HD version of The Bourne Legacy that B&N provided with our test device took up a whopping 7.31GB of space. If you plan on carrying a lot of high definition films around on your Nook HD+, we'd recommend going for a full 64GB card.

Playback quality is unimpeachable. The Nook HD+ handles the extra detail levels with aplomb - and more importantly without stutter.

As with virtually every tablet we've ever used, headphones are a must. The sound emitted through the Nook's single speaker grille is pretty crisp, but it obviously lacks clear stereo separation and low-end punch.

Thanks to the relatively low weight of the Nook, it's also a lot more comfortable to sit holding the device in your lap for two hours than it is with, say, an iPad.

You can find your own transferred videos in the Library section in among all your other media, or you can go through the Gallery.

In terms of file support, you're fine for MP4, 3GP and xVID content, but like with its little brother the Nook HD we couldn't get DivX files to work on the Nook HD+.

On the plus side, UltraViolet is fully supported, so you have a ready home for all those digital movie files you've been acquiring through your DVD and Blu-ray purchases.

In fact, you can sign into your UltraViolet account directly from the Nook HD+ settings menu, making transfers a doddle.

Of course, you can also rent or purchase films and TV shows from the Nook Shop.

New HD film rentals seem to cost £4.50 to £5 (US$5 to $6), with SD versions generally around the £3.50 ($4) mark. New HD films tend to be around the £14 ($20) mark to buy and keep forever.

Naturally, older films are cheaper - around £3.50 ($4) for an HD rental and £8 ($15) for an outright purchase.

When the Nook Video service finally launches, you'll also be able to stream TV shows and films directly to your Nook.

Add in the Google Play Store and its own vast selection of video content and you won't be stuck for something to watch on your Nook HD+ any time soon.

Music

Music is not Barnes & Noble's speciality, so with the recent software update it's wisely handed such matters over to Google.

Google Music is the new default music-playing app for the Nook HD+, and it's as slick and intuitive as it's ever been.

It can be located in the Apps folder, and booting up a transferred music file from storage for the first time will offer you the option to play through Google's service or the Spotify app, which also comes pre-installed.

Playing tracks appear in the notification bar, alongside pause and skip controls, though there are no lock screen music shortcuts.

Of course, Google Music isn't just a music player - it also offers you access to any music tracks you've uploaded to the cloud through the service (up to 20,000 tracks for free), enabling you to stream or download them directly to your Nook.

The Google Play Store also has a fairly comprehensive library of MP3s to purchase and download.

While it's not quite as extensive a selection as, say, Amazon's, it's generally decent and extremely competitively priced.

Needless to say, our advice to use headphones applies even more with music than it does with movies, since that single rear-pointing speaker array really doesn't cut it.

Books and magazines

While B&N doesn't do music, it certainly does do books and magazines. It's what the American company is built on, after all.

Sure enough, the top two categories in the Nook Shop are books and magazines, and there's a massive range of both to browse through and download.

There are plenty of books available for under £2.99 ($2.99) in all categories, while you can also subscribe to magazines and newspapers from within the appropriate section.

In both cases you can download free samples to get a taste of the book or magazine before committing to a purchase.

While B&N has the literary side of things pretty well sewn up on the Nook HD+, you also have access to Google's own books and magazines through Google Play.

The reading experience itself is very accomplished, with a reliable swipe-to-turn system and the ability to annotate, share and look up text with a press and hold on appropriate sections of text.

Pressing the arrow at the bottom of a page brings up further settings menus and options, which enable you to skip ahead, change the font size and type, play with line spacing and even tinker with the background colour.

The Nook's HD display renders plain text very crisply, and that slightly yellowish tinge we mentioned before actually seems to make the screen a little easier on the eye than the harsh iPad display.

It's still no replacement for a dedicated ereader, but if you're just reading a few pages a day it's more than up to the task.

The magazine reading experience, meanwhile, is really something special on the Nook HD+.

B&N has provided a lovely page-turning animation that reacts contextually - so if you swipe from the top corner of the page at an angle the page will 'fold' accordingly, revealing a part of the following page.

Gimmicky? Most definitely, and you'll doubtless overlook it after the initial novelty phase wears off.

But it makes navigating these digital magazines a surprisingly tactile experience that's second only to, well, a physical magazine.

You can also 'cut out' pages from your magazines and save them to a virtual scrapbook for later reference, which is a genuinely useful feature.

Apps and games

Apps

As we've already mentioned, the Nook HD+ now comes with access to the Google Play Store for apps - and it's a good thing too, given how poor the default Nook Shop is.

It's still presented front and centre here, but we predict that you'll swiftly forget about it (or at least attempt to) in favour of the vastly superior Google alternative.

Where the stripped back Nook Shop interface works reasonably well for books and movies, here, with a series of already basic app icons, it comes across as inefficient, unfinished and unappealing.

Navigation feels curiously cumbersome, with excessive horizontal and vertical scrolling for seemingly too few visible apps.

Speaking of too few apps, the selection in the Nook Shop is woeful. Off the top of our heads we can state that there's no Facebook, no Pocket, and no Feedly - and there are plenty more major omissions besides.

Even more inexplicable is the decision to unify the Nook Shop search function, so that seeking out the above three apps returned loads of unrelated books and magazines as well as apps.

You have to select apps from the additional drop-down Refine menu in order to narrow the field down, which is ridiculously clunky.

Thank goodness for Google Play, then. While you might find a couple of apps that don't run on the Nook, as we noted in our Nook HD review, most of the big hitters are present and accounted for.

This means around 700,000 apps are at your fingertips, many of which won't cost you a penny.

Google Play has really come into its own in recent years, and the latest redesign is a thing of stylish-but-functional beauty. It certainly puts Apple's App Store to shame for speed, intuitiveness and functionality - if not quite yet for range.

One tiny issue that the late addition of the Google Play Store has created is a split between official Nook apps and those from the main Android app store. This has been handled reasonably - if not exactly elegantly - by adding an 'n' to the icons of any apps downloaded from the Nook Shop.

On the plus side, the Google Play Store will recognise that you have a different version of its apps installed and offer you the ability to upgrade them, so there's really no compatibility issue here - just a spot of untidiness.

Games

The games situation on the Nook HD+ reads much like the wider apps situation - a woeful default provision dramatically bolstered by the belated introduction of the Google Play Store.

Suffice to say, if you thought the range of general apps was poor on the Nook Shop, you won't believe the meagre games offering.

There's no dedicated section for games on the Shop, only a sub-category in the main apps menu.

We won't mention all of the major titles that are missing here (there are fewer than 2,000 titles on there in total), suffice to say that we hadn't even heard of nine out of the 11 games highlighted in the meagre Must Have Games selection under the Apps category - and we're avid tablet gamers.

So let's move swiftly on to the Google Play games offering. As with apps, the Android gaming scene has improved immeasurably in recent years, thanks to the platform's sky-rocketing popularity and Google's improved support.

The result is a selection of games that's still notably inferior to Apple's, but is comfortably the second best mobile games offering out there.

Thanks to the capable dual-core TI OMAP CPU and PowerVR SGX544 GPU at the tablet's core - the same as can be found in the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 - the Nook HD+ will run the vast majority of games on the Google Play Store, and run them well at that.

You might think it would suffer for the lack of a modern quad-core CPU, but the truth is few if any games really take advantage of such a multi-core setup.

We tried one of our favourite games for testing out a device's gaming chops, FireMonkey's 3D arcade racing extravaganza Need For Speed Most Wanted, and found that it played well, with just the odd stutter here and there.

Considering the game has to push out some highly detailed 3D models to the Nook's HD display - which means a large hike in pixels to be rendered - that's pretty impressive.

Naturally your 69p ($0.99) casual wonders such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope will play like a dream.

Battery and connectivity

Battery

Barnes & Nobel claims that you can get up to 10 hours of reading time and nine hours of video time out of a single charge of the Nook HD+'s 6,000mAh battery, but a brief glimpse at the small print should tell you to take these claims with a pinch of salt.

These figures were obtained with Wi-Fi tuned off and power saving mode switched on, which cuts the screen brightness to less than half, effectively reducing the Nook HD+ to an extremely dim - and somewhat dumb - media player.

In moderate real life use, which involves cranking the brightness right up, leaving the Wi-Fi on and using the tablet for occasional web browsing, a little reading and the odd five minutes of gaming here and there, it's more than up to the task of lasting a couple of days like any other tablet.

We also applied our standard battery test of running a 90 minute 720p video with notifications and Wi-Fi on and screen brightness set to high, and seeing how much juice was left at the end.

The average result was around 77%, which is about par for the course, but works out to be far short of the nine hour best-case scenario that B&N quotes in its blurb.

Connectivity

There are no connectivity surprises with the Nook HD+. It's a Wi-Fi-only tablet with no 3G option, so don't expect to be able to download a new page-turner while you're sat bored on a beach this summer. Unless said beach has Wi-Fi connections, of course.

Bluetooth support is also included, as expected.

In terms of physical connections, we'll reiterate what a joy it is to have expandable memory in the shape of a microSD slot on the bottom of the tablet.

It really does open up the storage possibilities without adding a massive price premium. Alongside this is a custom 30-pin connection for charging and hooking up to your computer.

Again, we'll state what an annoyance this is when a standard micro USB port would have been easier on the eye and a whole lot more convenient.

As it stands, you'll have yet another charger to lug around with you on your travels.

Hands on gallery

Official gallery

Verdict

The Nook HD+ is an undoubtedly flawed device that, at launch, looked like a poor proposition relative to its rivals.

But Barnes & Nobel has since adapted its offering, to the point where the Nook HD+ is now seriously worthy of your consideration as a budget full-sized tablet.

At £229/US$269 for the 16GB version, its full price matches that of its closest competitor, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, while offering the same performance, a slightly superior display, expandable storage and - crucially - access to the Google Play Store. Currently reduced to £179 in the UK Nook Shop, it's now cheaper too.

We liked

The Nook HD+ sports a truly excellent screen that brings high definition media content to life.

It's also extremely light for a full-size tablet, making it as easy on the arms as its crisp picture is easy on the eye. If you're after a cheap but high-quality media player for a long journey, these two factors alone make it a serious contender.

We also applaud B&N's belated inclusion of the Google Play store. While it might muddy the user experience ever so slightly, it more than makes up for it by massively expanding the range and quality of multimedia content available for the tablet.

There are also a couple of original features that we approve of, including the possibility of setting up multiple accounts. Tablets are often shared among multiple family members, and this thoughtful touch increases that feeling of ownership - not to mention security and parental control.

We disliked

Screen aside, the Nook HD+ isn't a particularly pretty tablet to look at. Its bulging bezel makes it look like a much sleeker tablet has been slipped into a cheap case.

For all the improvements that access to Google Play has brought, the Nook Shop is still at the core of the Nook HD+ experience, and it's sorely lacking. For apps and movies it's now practically redundant, and even its book offering has been compromised somewhat.

Beyond that, the Nook's custom UI continues to leave us cold. It's sluggish, sparse, and the potential for personalisation is severely limited compared to other Android tablets.

Ultimately, in general use it's bettered by any 'normal' Android tablet you care to mention.

Final verdict

We found the 7-inch Nook HD to be uncompetitive in a crowded field, but the Nook HD+ may well have carved out a niche for itself as an ultra-affordable full-sized tablet.

Its custom UI is clunky, its own media store is a bit of a write-off, and it won't win any awards for its looks. But for HD multimedia kicks on a budget, there aren't many better-value alternatives out there.

It's far from the best Android tablet experience available, but with its recent UK price cut, fine HD screen and all-new access to the Google Play Store, the Nook HD+ has somehow suddenly become worthy of consideration - certainly above the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, at any rate.

Introduction

The Huawei Ascend G510 sits somewhere in the middle of the Chinese company's Android range, squaring off against the likes of the Sony Xperia U, LG Optimus L5 II and the Windows-toting Nokia Lumia 620.

Huawei, the name everyone knows but no one can pronounce, has established itself as a company no longer tied to the white label, network-branded handsets. Previous offerings in the form of the Huawei Ascend G300, Ascend G330 and Ascend P1 are starting to give way to the Ascend P2 and Huawei's phablet, the Ascend Mate.

The Huawei Ascend G510 has a full price of £130 (around AU$200 / US$200), meaning it is likely to land in the hands of teenagers, students and first time smartphone buyers alike.

The phone itself is a very smart affair, the all-glass front and black bezel taking design cues from, well, just about every smartphone ever designed. This is by no means a bad thing, with the Huawei Ascend G510 looking like a premium phone, rather than aiming at the lower end of the spectrum.

Under the hood, Huawei has chosen to power the Ascend G510 with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, sat alongside a 5MP rear-facing camera sensor, and a 0.3MP front-facing sensor, and also comes fitted with NFC and DLNA streaming capabilities, and DTS sound.

To make use of this hardware, Huawei has retrofitted the Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean software with its own custom UI, called Emotion.

With the Huawei Ascend G510 measuring in at 134 x 67 x 9.9mm (5.3 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches), it sits nicely in the hand, and the 4.5 inch screen is the right size for one handed use. At 154g (5.4oz), the Huawei Ascend G510 is by no means the lightest of handsets, with it sitting noticeably in the pocket.

The glass face of the Huawei Ascend G510 holds no physical buttons, but there are three soft keys hidden in the bottom of the bezel. The only physical buttons are the volume rocker and power/lock, situated on the top left-hand side of the Huawei Ascend G510, with the uncovered micro USB port in the bottom-left.

We initially found the positioning of the power/lock button awkward, given its usual position on the right-hand side, or top of smartphones. This faded after prolonged use though - it's just a case of getting used to it.

The three soft keys that we mentioned earlier are situated within the lower portion of the black bezel. From left to right are the Back, Home and Menu buttons, with there being no LED light behind them making it a little awkward to find the right button, especially while in the dark.

The top of the Huawei Ascend G510 houses the 3.5mm headphone port.

Huawei has generously made the back cover removable, enabling you to carry extra batteries around, as well as giving you access to the microSD and SIM slots. The back of the phone holds the 5MP rear sensor, as well as the LED flash, speaker, microphone and obligatory branding.

The box holds no surprises, with the Huawei Ascend G510 bringing the separate USB plug and charger/data cable that we have become accustomed to, as well as a set of cheap headphones that doubles up as a hands-free headset.

In all, the Huawei Ascend G510 makes a decent first impression, with the all-glass front alluding to a premium device. After extended use the phone can feel a little heavy, but it's a sturdy device, one that we imagine won't fall to pieces if you drop it (not that we're saying you will).

Interface

Every manufacturer worth its salt is providing even the most basic level of customisation to its Android devices, from HTC's Sense to Samsung's TouchWiz overlays.

For the Ascend G510, Huawei has ditched its HAP (Huawei Android Platform) 5.1 software that graced the likes of the Huawei Ascend G300.

In its place, Huawei has released its Emotion UI overlay.

Unlike some of the minimal changes that HAP5.1 brought, Emotion's customisation is far more aggressive, with the complete removal of Android's app drawer.

This move is intended to make the Android OS a little less confusing, making it a lot more similar to iOS on the iPhone.

While we can see the appeal (iOS is a fantastic operating system) we were disappointed, with Emotion giving the Huawei Ascend G510 more of a 'My First Smartphone' feel that doesn't befit a device of this build quality.

Couple this with the numerous system apps that appear on the Huawei Ascend G510, the home screens (you can have up to nine) soon begin to look a little cluttered.

Thankfully Android, much like iOS, enables you to create folders on the home screens.

This means that you can bundle all the apps that you are never going to use into one small folder, since you're unable to remove them.

Another niggle we found with Emotion UI is the inability to access the Settings menu by using the Menu soft key.

This is a minor inconvenience, given the Settings icon sat on the main home screen, and the Quick Settings found in the notification bar, but it gave Emotion a slightly less intuitive feel.

The Quick Settings, though, are a godsend. Becoming increasingly popular on Android devices, this is a feature we have long been fans of, enabling you to switch different aspects of the phone (such as Mobile Data or GPS) easily, and helping to prolong the battery life.

Like HTC Sense, the Emotion UI is customisable, with there being different themes on offer.

While there's not a whole lot to choose between for each theme, we liked the ability to change. Changing the icons as well as the wallpaper almost gave the phone a new feel.

Widgets-wise, there wasn't a whole lot on offer. Huawei does offer a master widget, that can hold smaller widgets inside.

While this means that you can fit your favourite widgets into one screen, we don't see a major advantage over having them separate.

The transition effect between the home screens is also customisable, showing that Huawei has given Emotion some real thought.

The lock screen comes with the ability to load up one of three different apps quickly; the camera, contacts and dialler apps.

This proved useful when we needed to access the camera quickly, but we were left disheartened because the app choice isn't customisable.

One app that we found particularly useful is the Profiles app.

With an app icon on the home screen, and quick access via the notifications bar, you can set up different profiles for different scenarios. The defaults for these are Normal, Sleep, Meeting and Outdoor, with you being able to add your own.

Within the app, you can control volume and brightness levels, the length of time inactive before the Huawei Ascend G510 goes into sleep mode, and you're able to turn off different modes such as GPS and mobile data. We generally had Normal mode enabled, but it was great to be able to turn off multiple services before bed, or when going into meetings.

This meant we saved data, stopped ourselves from being woken up by 3am phone calls and prevented our boss from screaming at us for receiving a call (ironically during a meeting about not receiving his calls at 3am).

The 1.2GHz processor coped well with what we had to throw at it, the dual-core innards keeping everything running fairly smoothly, although the slightly low 512MB of RAM didn't help. Speeds of transitions are by no means anything to write home about, but equally we weren't left disappointed by long waiting times.

Contacts, calling and messaging

Contacts

Interestingly, after all the levels of customisation that Huawei has put into its Emotion UI, the contacts and calling apps on the Huawei Ascend G510 seem almost devoid of any real attention.

With no pre-bundled social media apps, other than Google+, Huawei appears to have missed a trick by not putting Facebook or Twitter apps on the phone in order to make use of Android's account aggregation. Thankfully, these apps are downloadable from the Google Play store.

We also feel that Huawei was wrong to not have a way of finding the same contacts from across your different accounts, but linking multiple contacts together is a breeze, if a little time consuming, done manually.

The contacts app is an attractive affair, the bright colour scheme being pleasing to the eye, especially when placed against Samsung's much darker contact system. In reality, it's the stock Android offering, so we were a tiny bit disappointed that Huawei hasn't added any level of customisation here.

The brand has kept the groups and favourites tabs for the Huawei Ascend G510, making it easier to message only select contacts. This is a feature that we have commented on in the past, and it is something that we are glad has managed to be included, since it is really useful if you have your contacts managed well.

Calling

The Dialler app is much simpler, continuing in Emotion's design ethos. Presented with only the T9 dial pad, there are no links to the contacts app. Thankfully the buttons are large on the 4.5-inch screen, making them easy to hit.

Smart dialling is also supported. This intuitive feature doesn't appear on nearly enough handsets for our liking, and is very useful to quickly search out a contact if you know the name or part of their number. Dialling 323 calls up both Dad as well as any contacts with 323 in them.

All standard call features are supported, from the contact's photo to accessing the dial pad from within the call. The Huawei Ascend G510's speaker was also loud and clear, with none of our contacts complaining that they couldn't hear us at any point. We also found that signal was maintained very well.

Messaging

Being an Android-based phone, the Huawei Ascend G510 comes with every form of messaging that you would imagine, SMS, IM in the form of Google Talk, and email in the form of Gmail and an email app.

The SMS app is very functional. The conversation screen comes with the now almost standard text bubbles, but the pale green and white, with contact photos, is very pleasing.

The Huawei Ascend G510's Gmail and email apps are also the Android standard. The Gmail app is clean and covers about everything that you get on the desktop version, including multiple accounts.

For non-Google accounts, the standard email app covers POP3/IMAP email standards, also combining multiple accounts, mail checking frequency and mail size limits.

As expected, the Huawei Ascend G510 includes the native Android keyboard, which we have always found to be perfectly functional, if lacking some of the higher end features found on other dedicated keyboard apps.

Fortunately, as part of Huawei's customisation, there is the creatively-named Huawei Input Method. In practice, we found it to be fairly accurate (although when you make a mistake it takes a few button pushes to correct) and able to suggest the next word, much like the superb SwiftKey app. Swype-style input is, unfortunately, not supported.

The keyboard is intuitive, with a swipe down or long-press on the key to select the alternate input (6 instead of Y, for example) working well. The option of also having a T9 keyboard instead of the now traditional Qwerty offering is well received.

Word prediction and autocorrect can be disabled (though we struggle to see why), and the internal dictionaries can be updated.

Overall the messaging capabilities of the Huawei Ascend G510 are not anything special. The keyboard app is better than the stock Android one, and the SMS app is functional and attractive. Alternate messaging capabilities such as Facebook Messenger are available from the Google Play Store.

Huawei also includes both of the native Android input methods, in the form of the Jelly Bean keyboard, and Google's voice typing. We highly doubt that you will need to use either of these, like we did in our Huawei Ascend G300 review, as Huawei's Input Method keyboard is very easy to use.

With the 4.5-inch screen, we did find that we were a little stretched when trying to use the keyboard in portrait mode. The keyboard works a lot better when you use two hands in portrait mode, since the keys are well spaced. The spacing does, however, make it more difficult if you type one-handed.

Internet, maps and apps

Internet

Now a mainstay of any mobile device, decent mobile browsing is a must.

The browsing experience on the Huawei Ascend G510 is thankfully one of its biggest selling points.

The big screen makes viewing web pages easy at all zoom levels, with everything looking clear and crisp.

Unfortunately Huawei didn't spend any time customising the stock browser. That said, Google has spent a long time creating a functional web browser.

Curiously, as with many modern Android handsets, the Huawei Ascend G510 ships with both the stock browser and Google's more famous Chrome browser.

In reality, there isn't a whole lot to choose between on the two browsers. We'd recommend using Chrome, because it loaded pages quicker and it ties in more efficiently with the desktop and other mobile versions.

Neither browser supports automatic text reflow, but both support certain levels of zoom. The native browser requires you to pinch to zoom, and then double-tap the screen, with text reflowing then.

Chrome requires a double-tap, but only zooms to make the text fit the page, without customising the zoom level.

Both browsers plugged along nicely, dual-core processor not seeming to struggle with loading pages, and they loaded fast over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections.

Loading the full desktop TechRadar page over Wi-Fi took around six to seven seconds, so while not blistering pace, we didn't find ourselves wishing it along.

Offline viewing is also available, saving the pages as images. While functional, this means that there is no ability to open links within the page, even when your data connection returns.

Tabbed browsing is also supported on the Huawei Ascend G510 through both browsers.

At the top-right of the screen, by the URL bar, is a little icon/number that can be selected, showing up all the tabs that you have open.

Incognito browsing is also available through both browsers.

In all, we can't fault the browsing experience on the Huawei Ascend G510. As we mentioned before, the screen lets the phone down overall, because it's hard to make out in bright sunlight.

Browsing speeds are fast enough that you're not left wishing that the phone would hurry up, especially when loading dedicated mobile sites.

Apps

Google's Android operating system first launched with the Android market, which it has since rebranded Google Play, and now heavily populated.

Google Play is well organised, divided into categories with general apps and games being split up, and then both being split further still.

Games and Apps are also viewable by Top Free, Top Paid, Top Grossing, Top New Free and Top New Paid. This is useful to help filter out the poorer apps that aren't filtered otherwise.

One of the major bonus points that Android has over other operating systems is its customisability.

For instance, should you not like the messaging app or the keyboard, it is simple to download a new one, such as Handcent SMS or Swype. It is also possible to install custom apps from other sources, including other app stores.

In the way of pre-installed apps, the Huawei Ascend G510 does come with some useful, and some not so useful, apps.

Google apps such as Google+, Talk, Gmail, Google Play, Play Music and YouTube are all present, alongside the Mapping apps such as Maps, Local and Navigation.

We were a little baffled by the lack of a Play Movies or Play Books app, although these are both available from the Google Play store.

Huawei's own apps such as the Profiles app that we mentioned before, and the Flashlight app, are very useful additions, whereas the inclusion of an EA Games app is less so.

We can't work out why it has been included, since it doesn't appear to download new games. If it does, it isn't helped by the fact that (on our review model at least) there are no games in any of the games categories.

Maps

Google Maps is possibly the most well known Google product, after its search function. Thankfully, Google has made its mapping application available on Android since its inception.

It has been said time and time again, the Google Maps application is absolutely superb. We won't go into too much detail, since you've heard it all before, but Google Maps is one of the most comprehensive mapping applications we've used, more than eclipsing Apple's offering.

Google Maps also includes Navigation software. We've always been impressed by Google's effort here, not least because it's free. There are other sat nav apps available from the Google Play store, but when you're in a spot of bother, Google will easily sort you out.

GPS lock-on is fast, finding us in our car and being able to provide us a route around town in next to no time.

Camera and Video

There are no real surprises in the camera department, with Huawei blessing the Ascend G510 with an average-sized 5MP rear sensor, and a mere 0.3MP VGA front-facing sensor. The camera app has also been well thought out, being clean and free of clutter.

Taking around a second to load is by no means the quickest, but having a link on the lock screen does mean it is slightly easier to take a photo, should the unexpected happen.

By unexpected, we obviously mean a cat that has done a thing the internet would enjoy.

Within the app, Huawei offers just about every feature that you can expect from a modern smartphone camera; Single or Panorama shooting modes, different visual effects, white balance control, varying scene modes, ISO levels, exposure levels, a timer, picture size and geo-location.

In all, we don't see a massive need for these settings, since the 5MP sensor is never going to be used for more than a few candid shots, or for taking some holiday photos, so won't replace a decent digital compact camera. Then again, the best camera is often the one that you have to hand, so maybe there is a place for them.

We could point out our disappointment at the lack of a dedicated shutter button, but the exclusion is now a common feature on the modern smartphone. The major bonus that the Huawei Ascend G510 has is that it includes selective focusing, enabling you to touch the screen in the area that you want the camera to focus on.

It seems like a small point, but it really makes a difference. Shutter speeds are also fairly impressive, with photos being taken quickly. There is some noticeable slow down in low light conditions, but the inclusion of a flash is very handy.

Photos taken indoors and in low light conditions appear grainy, with the flash increasing the images contrast. Photos taken outdoors were a different story. While it was difficult to see the screen in direct sunlight, the photos taken were very bright, with decent levels of contrast. Check out the images for yourself below.

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Video

The video recording runs in the same vein as still photography. The app is just as clean, but offers far fewer options. There are no video effects, but there is the ability to change the white balance and add GPS location info to the video.

The major downside to the video recording is the video resolution. VGA 640 x 480 is the maximum resolution for both the front and rear sensor, which is, quite frankly, appalling. There is also the chance to record in 320 x 240 for MMS messages.

In all, we wouldn't recommend using the Huawei Ascend G510 to record baby's first steps or your first dance at a wedding, but it'll suffice to cover your dad dancing later on in the evening, as the drink starts to flow.

Media

While not proving that it has the capabilities to produce high quality media, the Huawei Ascend G510, complete with its 4.5-inch screen and DTS sound, was seemingly designed with media consumption considered very seriously.

Huawei has bolstered the 4GB internal storage (closer to 2GB after the operating system has taken its share of the space) with microSD card support. We're often left wondering why this isn't something that is present in a lot more devices, since it enables you to store a lot more data.

We've mentioned the screen throughout this review, and when talking about media consumption, the screen brightness issue raises its head again. The screen is bright when indoors, and is very clear, but if you plan to watch a lot of videos while sat in the park, we will have to suggest looking elsewhere.

Music

The media experience on the Huawei Ascend G510 is, on the whole, very pleasant. The music app is well thought through, and very attractive. A large angled album cover takes up most of the screen space, with the media controls at the bottom.

Tapping the album artwork brings up a list of songs from that album, and swiping the cover to the side gives you quick access to albums. Other media controls cover the basic play/pause, track skipping, repeat and shuffle buttons.

One advantage that Huawei likes to point out (with the logo adorning the back of the Huawei Ascend G510) is the DTS sound. Much like HTC has Beats Audio, Huawei has added extra software in order to enrich your audio experience.

That's the theory anyway - in practice we found that there was very little effect. Sound was richer, and seemed a little louder, but it was negligible. We doubt we would have noticed if we hadn't been listening for it.

We were a little disappointed that with all the customisation in place throughout Huawei's Emotion UI, there was no way of manipulating media through the notifications pane. It can't be too much to ask to put a play/pause button and a track skipping button alongside the track name. Other manufacturers manage it, after all.

Video

Video-wise, the Huawei Ascend G510 supports MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 playback. Surprisingly, Huawei doesn't have a dedicated video app to access from the home screen like it does with music. In order to watch a video, you must locate it in the pre-loaded File Manager app, then open it there.

Unsurprisingly, the video player is just the stock Android player, offering no functionality other than playing and pausing the video, or skipping to a select point in the video using the slide bar. With a screen of this size, this is something that we were very disheartened about, despite our concerns over the brightness.

FM radio

Until now we would have said that FM radio is becoming an almost standard feature on modern smartphones.

That said, the latest flagship Samsung device, the Samsung Galaxy S4, ships without this capability. We are always thankful for the inclusion of an FM radio, though.

As always, you need some headphones plugged in for this to work, though that doesn't mean to say that you can't play music through the rear speaker.

In terms of functionality, the Huawei Ascend G510 found every radio station we expected it to. The app interface is also well designed, with the ability to auto-tune, or easily manually select using a small scroll wheel.

DLNA streaming

DLNA streaming is handled through a dedicated DLNA app. We are fans of the way that it keeps everything together and tidy, and the ability to stream media from our phone to our TV, or from our PC to our phone.

In practice, we don't see that there will be a massive need for DLNA on a phone of this price, but it is something we could have forgone in pursuit of saving a few pennies.

Photos

Photos are accessed via the Gallery app. The app itself is fairly attractive, with large tiles showing the most recent image from each folder. We were left a little disappointed though, as the Ascend G510 didn't pull in our Picasa or Facebook albums.

The Huawei Ascend G510 does also provide some basic photo editing, accessed by the menu button. These include image rotation, cropping, light levels editing, basic image effects (such as posterise or fish-eye), and colour levels including tinting, black and white and doodles.

These effects are fun to play with, and can make images brighter and more interesting, yet we don't see them being used often.

Battery life and connectivity

Battery life is something that is hotly contested from device to device. When buying a smartphone, you will at least expect a whole day's moderate usage from it, which is something that seems very fair.

That said, everybody uses their phones for different things, so it can be a bit more difficult.

If you plan to make the jump up from a feature phone - where batteries can easily last a week on a charge - over to the Huawei Ascend G510, there will be a bit of a shock. There's also a more minor shock for the more experienced smartphone users.

The 1700mAh battery that Huawei has equipped the Ascend G510 with is pretty poor.

Let's put that into some perspective. For all our phone reviews, we use a standardised test in order to ensure we draw fair comparisons.

After running the test on the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini - a phone with a much brighter 4-inch screen and a smaller 1500mAh battery - we were left with an impressive 80% battery life left. However, the same test yielded 68% battery on the Huawei Ascend G510.

After taking the phone off its charge in the morning, we did manage to squeeze a day's use out of the Huawei Ascend G510.

Unfortunately, when we say a day's use, that involved a constant Wi-Fi connection, checking emails every so often, sending a couple of texts, as well as some Angry Birds and Temple Run action. Heavier usage than that will mean you might want to keep a phone charger in your desk drawer at work, or in your bag.

Connectivity

You would struggle to call the Huawei Ascend G510 lacking in the connectivity department, since the only notable omissions are 4G and an infra-red sensor. These remain the preserve of flagship devices such as the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z.

Huawei has provided the Ascend G510 with HSDPA to 7.2Mbps and HSUPA to 5.76Mbps, as well as Wi-Fi 802.11 to b/g/n standard. It also has portable hotspot capabilities, should you need to provide your tablet or laptop with Wi-Fi when out and about.

Bluetooth is supported at 2.1 standard, so it's by no means the latest, but it is perfectly functional. Unsurprisingly, the Huawei Ascend G510 also comes with GPS and A-GPS support, as well as the far more surprising inclusion of NFC.

NFC is becoming increasingly popular among mobile manufacturers, mobile accessories and in retail outlets.

With NFC looking to become very popular over the next few years, seeing it appear on lower end devices such as the Huawei Ascend G510 is very promising, and great if you're tying yourself into a 24-month contract.

Also on offer are the previously mentioned micro USB connectivity, since it doubles up as a charging point, as well as the ability to stream wirelessly over DLNA.

Connection to a PC is done via the supplied micro USB cable. On the Huawei Ascend G510, you are prompted to select what mode you would like to connect with, from a choice of Media Device (MTP), Camera (PTP) or USB mass storage.

On many devices you won't see a real difference between Media Device and USB mass storage modes, since both enable you to drag and drop media freely between your PC and the phone. Huawei provides a decent filing system on the G510, meaning that anything you transfer can be easily accessed via the File Manager.

Hands on gallery

Official gallery

Verdict

Well, now you've read our Huawei Ascend G510 review (or skipped straight to this page), you'll have a pretty good idea of what we are going to say here.

We've had our chance to play with the Huawei Ascend G510, and while we encountered some problems along the way, on the whole the Chinese device held its own. And at its £130 (around AU$200/US$200) price point, Huawei could be on to a winner.

We liked

The design and build quality of the Huawei Ascend G510 is really impressive. The all-glass front and black bezel may look a lot like most smartphones that have ever been designed, but then if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Including a microSD port is also a major bonus, one that we are surprised isn't available on every smartphone going. It's also particularly necessary if you plan to store music and videos on the Huawei Ascend G510, since the internal storage is a bit small.

Shipping with Android Jelly Bean is also a major bonus, since it has the buttery smoothness and the added security that comes with the latest software.

The Huawei Ascend G510 is also a well connected device. NFC and DLNA streaming are still relatively new technologies, and until recently they've remained solely on higher end devices. Making its way onto cheaper devices will help NFC's adoption, and helps to future-proof the Huawei Ascend G510.

We disliked

When coming to Android customisation, just about every manufacturer has implemented some sort of overlay to the stock operating system, but Huawei's Emotion UI is one of the poorer ones we've seen. We commend its effort, since in many ways it provides a nice level of customisation, with different themes giving the Huawei Ascend G510 a new feel, should you choose.

On the flip-side, we feel that the omission of the app drawer is just one step too far, making it overly simple, and can make home screens seem cluttered if you don't spend time organising them.

With the inclusion of microSD support, it seems a little odd that we would mention the poor internal storage. That said, not every app can be moved across to the SD card, meaning that over time, the 2GB remaining space from the 4GB storage will become full.

We also have to mention the screen. While playing with the Huawei Ascend G510 inside, we found that it was more than usable. That all changes when you step outside. If you're lucky enough to get some sunshine, the screen becomes very difficult to see, which makes watching movies or taking photos very difficult.

Final verdict

We liked the Huawei Ascend G510. It provides some very nifty features at an attractive price point. The G510 shows that Huawei really does have the ability to compete against the well established smartphone manufacturers.

The Huawei Ascend G510 is definitely a phone that you won't be embarrassed to pull out of your pocket. Looks-wise, it is up there with some of the higher end phones. Not as high as the HTC One or the Sony Xperia Z, but then as their company's flagship phones, we can forgive that.

In everyday use, Huawei's offering managed to hold up under general use, but it started to struggle under heavier use. Watching a movie or playing games for any length of time manages to drain the battery a bit faster than we would like from a modern smartphone.

On the flip side, it packs in NFC and DLNA capabilities, which we expect to become more prevalent in daily life as the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread.

As with every phone, we can't tell you what to buy, since everyone has different needs. Overall, though, we would definitely suggest taking a look at the Huawei Ascend G510. With Android onboard, plus some nifty tech, it provides some stiff competition to the established competitors - the likes of the Sony Xperia U, LG Optimus L5 II and the Windows-toting Nokia Lumia 620.

You probably know Cat or Caterpillar as the guys in yellow and black, makers of construction equipment and those boots the cool kids were wearing for a little while. Now you can add smartphones to that list, thanks to the Cat B15.

Actually, the phone is made by Bullitt Mobile, a licensee of Cat, and this isn't its first smartphone rodeo. Its already made a couple of phones under the Cat name, and it launched the Cat B15 at MWC 2013 in Barcelona. This rugged device has been available in Europe for a little while, and is making its North American debut at a pre-show event for CTIA 2013.

Rubber outside, Jelly Bean inside

The Cat B15 has a rubber and aluminum shell with a sweet Android 4.1: Jelly Bean center. It's built to make calls and survive falls; with just a 5-megapixel camera and dual-core 1GHz processor, it's not designed for much else.

As we mentioned, the Cat B15 has been available in Europe for a while now, and can actually be purchased as an unlocked device directly from Cat for $349/£300. Representatives showing the device couldn't name the U.S. carriers that will carry it.

No 4G here, sadly

However, we'll tell you that the Cat B15 is a GSM phone, so therefore AT&T and T-Mobile are your likely candidates. No dice with GSM carriers Sprint and Verizon. It's also 3G only, so forget about up-to-date data speeds.

Like a lot of rubberized and ruggedized phones, such as the Kyocera Torque, the Cat B15 looks like a phone in a heavy rubber case. Phones like this are bulky by nature, but it does seem like Cat has slimmed down the B15 as much as possible.

Looks like a handsome screwdriver

The B15 is just shy of 5-inches, with a width of 2.7-inches and .58-inches of thickness. It also feels pretty good, and doesn't weigh too much, just 5.9 oz. Its rubber body casing and aluminum sides give it the look of a toolbox or an eye-catching screwdriver.

The display is a 4-inch 480 x 800 screen resolution. But get this: it's designed to detect and stand up to a wet finger, because the Cat B15 is waterproof at a depth of up to 1 meter, for thirty minutes. We actually had the chance to wet our digits and give the phone a swipe, and it did indeed work. Frequent snorkelers, we may have your next phone here.

The manufacturer also claims the B15 is "impervious to dust," which is likely thanks to all the rubber seals fitted in each and every port. The headphone jack seals up, as does the micro-USB charging port.

Treat it like a rented phone

It's also rated for a drop of up to six feet, which should be more than enough to survive a tumble from your hand to the floor. Cat representatives on hand were eager to drop the phone and prove this claim.

Getting back to the build, one of the things we like least about a smartphone case is how it makes the buttons difficult to push. Luckily, the B15's yellow rubber buttons weren't too bad. They didn't press as easy as an iPhone 5's unlock button, but they didn't take too much effort, either.

It opens up, no mallet required

You wouldn't think it, but the B15 actually has an open body design. It takes some doing, but you can unlatch the back and open it up to reveal a 2000 mAh battery and microSD slot. There's only 4GB of on board storage, so it's a good thing you can add an additional 32GB.

Of course, this isn't really a media centric or image snapping phone. The camera is only 5-mp and the processor is low-end, but flipping across menus and diving into the app drawer, the B15 was no slouch. We didn't detect any stuttering, and the browser opened with acceptable speed.

We'd guess that's Jelly Bean at work, as the B15 runs a version that's darn close to stock. We noticed just one toolbar that smacked of manufacturer meddling.

Early Verdict

When a brand like Cat enters the smartphone game, it's tempting to look at it as selling a name, not a phone. Cat has parleyed its black and yellow good looks and blue collar street cred into clothes, boots, watches and more. Its even appeared at London Fashion Week.

We won't know if Cat is a smartphone dilettante until we have the B15 in for a full review, but there's a good chance the phone could prove it's worth, and frankly, phones like this could use a little style. We've all seen far too many hideously shattered iPhones and over-the-top protective cases. If someone could sell a tougher phone to that crowd, not just construction workers, they'd be doing the world a favor.

Ultimately though, the B15 seems like a budget phone in a well-constructed case. It's 3G only, has a weak processor and camera, and the display is none to sharp. The battery is a bit small at 2000 mAh, which is worrying on a phone that should be reliable above all else.

However, the close to stock Android OS intrigues us, and we have to admit, we're charmed by the phone's sturdiness, and the eagerness of Cat reps to beat it up for us. Keep your eye out for our full review, and an update whenever we get some carrier info.