Hands-on with the rugged NEC Terrain (Video)

Not long ago we unboxed and showed off the hardware of the NEC Terrain for AT&T. But you weren’t content with just that, you wanted to see us abuse it. Some people might call me “soft”. I have a desk-job. I drive a Prius. Other than the goatee, on the outside I’m not what most people would call “rugged”. While that may be what most people see, I also build stuff. I get my hands dirty. While I won’t claim to be as rugged as others who do really hard work every day, I can certainly ...

Continue reading »

The post Hands-on with the rugged NEC Terrain (Video) appeared first on Pocketnow.

NEC Terrain unboxing: The world’s most solid smartphone (video)

NEC doesn’t have a substantial presence in the Android market today. However, with its new device, the NEC Terrain, NEC makes a bold statement, billing the rugged device as “the World’s most SOLID smartphone”. The Terrain is rated IP-67 for dust and water immersion; and Military 810G for shock, extreme temperatures, and salt fog; yet it still manages to cram a push-to-talk button and QWERTY keyboard inside its rugged shell. As far as specifications are concerned, the first thing you’ll want to note is that it comes with a somewhat dated version of Android: Ice ...

Continue reading »

The post NEC Terrain unboxing: The world’s most solid smartphone (video) appeared first on Pocketnow.

Smartphone manufacturer getting out of the game

NEC is probably not one of the companies that first pops into your head when you think about smartphones. At least, that could be the case for markets in the West, but NEC has certainly managed to keep a public profile going with its Android lineup in Japan. We’ve even seen signs lately that the company was interested in broadening its international appeal, and the NEC Terrain launched on AT&T just last month. Despite this, it appears that NEC is hanging up its smartphone hat, and ...

Continue reading »

The post Smartphone manufacturer getting out of the game appeared first on Pocketnow.

NEC and AT&T announce ruggedized, hardware QWERTY Terrain

Back in April, news of an upcoming Android from an unusual OEM caught our eye, with a leak showing a ruggedized handset with a hardware QWERTY keyboard from NEC. The so-called NEC Terrain was apparently warming up for a launch with AT&T, and while we were at a loss for any specific details on the phone’s hardware (besides what we could pick up from the pictures), it was still interesting to see NEC turning its attention to the US market. After laying low for a couple months, the Terrain is back, and today ...

Continue reading »

The post NEC and AT&T announce ruggedized, hardware QWERTY Terrain appeared first on Pocketnow.

First Liquid-Cooled Smartphone Announced

Heat is a problem that many electronics are forced to deal with, to one extent or another. Push enough power through chips, and they’re going to get hot: the trick is what you then do with that excess heat. Many devices use a combination of fans and vents in order to deliver cooler ambient air to chips, but those solutions don’t exactly translate well over to smartphones. Instead, we’re largely forced to put up with phones that can get quite hot to the touch when running at full throttle. NEC might just have a workable solution ...

Continue reading »

The post First Liquid-Cooled Smartphone Announced appeared first on Pocketnow.

NEC Eyeing the US Market With a Portrait QWERTY Android?

NEC is no stranger to smartphones, but much like Sharp, it’s not a manufacturer we get to talk about much, with the lion’s share of its handsets never crossing the Pacific from Asia. It popped on our radar a little earlier this year when we saw the crazy dual-screened NEC Medias W at the Mobile World Congress, but that was the exception that proves the rule. Surprisingly, it now seems that an NEC Android could be fixing to come to US shores after all, upon a render leaking of the NEC Terrain for AT&T. As if ...

Continue reading »

The post NEC Eyeing the US Market With a Portrait QWERTY Android? appeared first on Pocketnow.

Galaxy S IV Processor Revealed, Samsung Wallet App, Windows Phone Future & More – Pocketnow Daily

Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 as they’ve not got both a retail price and a release date. Then we talk about Windows Phone 8, and how it seems that history won’t repeat itself when it comes to software updates. Then it’s some MWC oddities as we visit the NWC Medias W dual-screen Android smartphone. Samsung’s new wallet service is next, even though it looks exactly like Apple’s passbook. We end today talking about the Galaxy S IV and the processor selection we’ll get when released. All this and more after ...

Continue reading »

The Pocketnow Weekly Podcast, Episode 033: The Great MWC Wrap-Up

We think it’s pretty fair to say that MWC 2013 was one part IFA and one part CES: a few stark disappointments peppered among some really amazing stuff. We’ve seen technology this week ranging from the incredible to the absurd – from the third iteration of ASUS’s wild Padfone concept to the improbable debut of a Kyocera Echo lookalike. The big guys have come out to play, too, but they’re a little shy this time around: neither Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 nor Nokia’s midrange Lumias blew the roof off the joint. Even a few has-beens came out to confuse ...

Continue reading »

Dual-Screen Android: NEC Medias W Hands-On (Video)

It has been a while since we’ve seen a proper dual-screened smartphone. Sure, we just looked at the fascinating YotaPhone, which is very interesting for what it does, but we’re talking about phones with a pair of regular, full-color, full-motion screens. Following in the footsteps of the Kyocera Echo or Samsung Doubletime, ...

Continue reading »