Motorola Moto X (Sprint)

Pros Excellent size for one-handed use. Fast. Good voice activation. Easy to launch camera. You can text from your PC.

Cons Limited storage. Very limited camera settings. Case customization is an AT&T exclusive. Bottom Line The Moto X adds some useful, unique tricks to a fast Android smartphone that's comfortable to hold in one hand.

By Eugene Kim

Motorola doesn't overdo things with the Moto X ($99.99 with 2-year contract). The size conforms to the human hand, not the latest trends. The relatively small amount of new features are actually things you'll want to use, not just gimmicks you forget about after the first week. The focus is clearly on usability rather than marketability here. It's a shame the Moto Maker customization is still exclusive to the AT&T Moto X, but the Sprint version is still a thoughtfully designed Android smartphone worthy of its flagship designation. Our Editors' Choice remains the Galaxy S4 for its speed, high-resolution display, and features galore.

We've reviewed the Moto X on a few other carriers already, so we'll just focus on some of the Sprint-model differences here. For a more in-depth look at features, check out our review of the Moto X for Verizon Wireless.

Physical Design, Features, and Call Quality
If you're not on AT&T, you're out of luck—the Moto Maker customization options are an exclusive to that carrier. The Moto X is still an attractive device, regardless of customizations, but on Sprint you'll be limited to black or white. Otherwise you get the same hand friendly dimensions, 4.7-inch AMOLED screen, and soft-touch plastic body.

Note: The slideshow below is of the AT&T Moto X with Moto Maker customizations. It's physically identical to the Verizon model, but Moto Maker is not available on Verizon.

The Sprint Moto X supports CDMA on 800/850/1900MHz, GSM on 850/900/1800/1900MHz and 1900MHz LTE. It's a global-ready phone that can be unlocked for customers in good standing with an account that has been active for at least 90 days. Overall, call quality was good. Voices came through loud and clear in the earpiece, and speakerphone was easy to hear in my tests, if a little harsh at top volume. Noise cancellation was very good, as even very loud construction site noise was reduced to a faint hiss and occasional pop. Transmissions through the mic were clear and easy to understand for the majority of calls, though I did noticed some slight muffling on a few test calls. Battery life isn't quite as good here, as the Sprint model turned in just 10 hours, 11 minutes of talk time—well short of the Verizon Moto X's 14 hours, 15 minutes in the same test. The AT&T model lasted almost 13 hours.

Bloatware, Camera, and Conclusions
The 16GB phone we tested came with 10.59GB of internal storage out of the box. Sprint added a few preloads here, including four carrier-branded apps and four third-party apps. All but the Sprint Zone app are uninstallable, and the preloads include useful apps like Quickoffice and Lookout Security. It's a nice change over some bloatware-laden phones we've seen, but I still found the Sprint Zone and its frequent notifications pretty annoying.

You get the same 10-megapixel camera and Motorola's Quick Launch camera trick, which lets you fire up the camera with a quick double flip of your wrist. I found the motion a bit awkward at first, but it is useful for quickly firing up the camera at a moment's notice. Test images were a mixed bag. Some shots indoors looked surprisingly bright, but a tad too noisy. In good lighting images looked sharp, with vivid colors and impressive detail. The Moto X struggles a bit with more challenging light, with inconsistent dynamic range—some shots were properly exposed, but others showed blown out highlights or details lost in the shadows. Overall it's an above-average camera, but still not quite as good as the Galaxy S4 or Apple iPhone 5s.

The Motorola Moto X is one of the few flagship phones that shows some restraint in its design. That's a good thing, as it's becoming increasingly rare to find a well-equipped phone that actually fits comfortably in one hand. Sprint's version isn't the best, that'd be the AT&T X with Moto Maker, but it's still an excellent choice and it's more affordable here at only $99.99 to other carriers' $199.99 price. Our Editors' Choice, however, remains the Galaxy S4, for its superior camera, sharper display, and bevy of features that will appeal to a wider array of people. 

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HTC 8XT (Sprint)

Pros Well-designed body. Windows Phone 8 is easy to use. Supports LTE.

Cons Low-res screen. Too little built-in storage. Too similar (and in some ways inferior) to a year-old phone. Bottom Line The HTC 8XT smartphone would have been an interesting 2012 launch for Sprint, but coming a year after the similar HTC 8X, it's just meh.

By Rob Pegoraro

The name of HTC's 8XT leaves you guessing how this Windows Phone 8 model should represent an advance over last year's HTC 8X. So do its features and performance. Introduced very late in Windows Phone 8's product cycle, this decent, midrange phone is pretty, but it doesn't stand out enough to draw Sprint customers over to a new OS.

The 8XT ($99.99 with contract) adds a microSD card slot and louder speakers to last year's 8X, but downgrades both the screen and onboard storage to 2011 territory. Looking at the results relative to other phones, it's unclear why Sprint chose this phone as its introduction to the Windows Phone world, and why the carrier didn't wait instead for the next fresh round of OS updates and phones.

Physical Features and Storage
The 8XT shares the 8X's good looks. It's a trim, tapered slab of a phone at 2.6 by 5.2 by 0.39 inches (HWD) and 4.2 ounces, with a grippy plastic backside that should help ensure you don't launch it at the nearest concrete surface by mistake. A dedicated camera button eases photography, and the 4.3-inch LCD screen makes single-handed use routine instead of a learned habit.

That screen's relatively low 800-by-480 resolution, in this era of 720p and 1080p mobile devices, leaves text on many Web pages looking either blurry or slightly pixelated. The 8X has a 720p screen, so this is a major downgrade. As for the rest of its content, Sprint contributed music and movie apps and support for Microsoft's great Data Sense feature, which tracks how much bandwidth individual apps use; HTC provides a weather Live Tile for the Start screen, a couple of camera apps and a "Make More Space" utility that shows what's eaten into the roughly 4.8 gigabytes of storage available out of the box. 

Theoretically, you can augment the 8 GB of storage on board, but this phone has the least accessible user-accessible SIM card and microSD card slots I've ever seen. To crack it open, you're supposed to mash your thumbs against the back while holding the front in place with your fingers. In practice, it felt like I was choking the life out of the thing, and I have yet to liberate either slot from its plastic prison. So you're left with either tiny onboard storage, or screaming frustration as you try to fit the memory card in.

Calls, Internet Access And Battery Life
The 8XT's voice quality leaves plenty to be desired. Calls sounded muddier than on Nokia's Lumia 1020, and its noise cancellation left my voice sounding slightly squashed. The lack of sidetone (hearing your own voice in the phone's speaker) may lead to you yelling at callers without realizing it.

The 8XT paired up properly with a Plantronics Marque M155 headset, but Windows Phone's limited voice-recognition talents held it back—it had trouble understanding requests to dial a clearly enunciated series of digits. 

This phone's LTE support, in turn, stumbled on Sprint's slower and patchier LTE network. While Sprint now claims to have 150 cities, they're missing some very large metro areas. In the Washington, D.C. area, it's still not officially launched, but in the surprising number of places the 8XT showed a 4G connection, the Speedtest.net app never clocked that connection running faster than 13.91Mbps down. That's slower than T-Mobile's HSPA+, much less AT&T or Verizon's LTE. Most LTE results fell below 10 Mbps. Unlike the 8X, the 8XT does not speak GSM in addition to its CDMA and LTE, making it a poor traveling companion outside the U.S.

HTC also ditched the Verizon 8X's cordless-charging support, but you're far less likely to miss that. The 10 hours, 32 minutes of talk time was good but well short of the advertised "up to 14 hours," while 24 hours spent sitting inert on a desk left the battery with only 33 percent of a charge.

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MiFi 500 LTE by Novatel Wireless (Sprint)

Pros Removable battery. Solid Wi-Fi range. Supports Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.

Cons Very basic on-device display. No external antenna port. No global roaming support. Bottom Line The Sprint MiFi 500 is a solid workhorse wireless hotspot for Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.

By Sascha Segan

Need a solid, workhorse hotspot to use on Sprint's network? The Novatel MiFi 500 LTE (free with contract) is a reliable choice, besting its main competitor the Netgear Zing on our tests of speed and range. The Zing beats it out for an Editor's Choice based on its flexibility (especially with its optional desktop cradle), but the MiFi 500 is the one to go to if you need to blanket a larger area with Sprint Wi-Fi.

Physical Features and Management
The MiFi 500 LTE is a nondescript little brick, when compared to the zingy Zing. It's a plastic puck, 3.8 by 2.4 by .7" (HWD) and 3.35 ounces, made of shiny black plastic on top and soft-touch gray plastic around the sides. The back is removable, so you can replace the 1800mAh battery; I haven't found replacement batteries on the market yet, but I'm sure they're coming. The MiFi lacks an external antenna port.

There's a big gray power button on the top face, as well as a few physical navigation buttons. Hit the power button and the dim little OLED screen lights up with signal strength and battery indicators. By flipping through onscreen menus, you can find the Wi-Fi network name and password, check which devices are connected to the hotspot, check signal strength in dBm, and activate WPS setup.

You get many more management options on the simple, clear Web-based management portal. There, you can monitor your data usage, and set up your 2.4GHz-only 802.11 b/g/n network using VPN passthrough, DMZ, port filtering, and port forwarding.

The MiFi supports up to 10 Wi-Fi devices and can connect to an eleventh as a USB modem; plugging it into a Mac or PC it works right away, without installing any drivers. With an extra driver, it gives your PC GPS support.

The MiFi 500, unlike the Zing, is not world-capable. It only works on Sprint's 3G EVDO and tri-band LTE networks. Also note that Sprint's "unlimited" sales pitch doesn't apply to hotspots; all hotspot plans are capped, costing $34.99 for 3GB, $49.99 for 6GB or $79.99 for 12GB.

Performance
Testing Sprint's new LTE network in New York City is an exercise in frustration. It's spotty and inconsistent, strongest in remote parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. I had to use the Sensorly mapping app to find individual towers that Sprint had activated in Manhattan and Queens, and even then, the network showed a weird behavior with upload tests truncating early.

The reason to buy the new MiFi and Zing is that they support Sprint's new tri-band approach to LTE. Sprint has been taking its existing 1900MHz LTE network and supplementing it with 800MHz, which does much better at penetrating buildings, and 2600MHz, which should provide scorching speed in urban areas. Unfortunately, Sprint's buildout there is even less developed than their 1900MHz buildout, and we haven't had a chance to test the mixed coverage.

But you get what you get, and you try not to get upset. We tested LTE with the MiFi and Zing in five locations. In three of them, the MiFi was considerably faster. In one, the Zing prevailed, and in the last one, the MiFi dropped to 3G while the Zing pulled out decent LTE speeds.

Indoors, the MiFi showed much better range than the Zing. While the Zing's speeds started to drop off after about 50 feet, the MiFi held on well to about 100 feet.

The Zing also showed slightly longer battery life than the MiFi—although remember, the MiFi's battery life really wins because the battery is replaceable. I got 7 hours, 40 minutes with the MiFi compared to 7 hours, 55 minutes with the Zing.

Conclusions
If you're looking for a Sprint hotspot and need long WiFi range without a cradle, the MiFi 500 is your pick. The Netgear Zing is more manageable and flexible, it roams worldwide, and it supports external antennas, so it's a better choice for most people.

If you have a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi, I'd say hold onto it for now. Sprint just hasn't built out enough of its tri-band LTE network for the advantages to kick in quite yet. I'd peg early 2014 for when these hotspots will start opening up speed and coverage advantages over the Tri-Fi.

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Netgear Zing Mobile Hotspot (Sprint)

Pros Excellent display and management features. External antenna ports. World capable. Supports Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.

Cons Relatively short Wi-Fi range. Bottom Line The Netgear Zing is a great-looking, very easy to manage wireless hotspot for Sprint's LTE network.

By Sascha Segan

Zing! Netgear's new Zing hotspot for Sprint ($49.99 with contract) pours on some of the flashiest features we've ever seen, but they're genuinely useful. This hotspot's flexibility and manageability, combined with its support of external antennas, global roaming, and Sprint's new tri-band LTE network, make it our new Editor's Choice for a Sprint hotspot over the competing Novatel MiFi 500.

First of all, about this Netgear thing: In April 2013, Netgear bought Sierra Wireless's AirCard division. Sierra was one of the "big two" hotspot and modem makers, along with Novatel Wireless, and I've been reviewing its Sprint modems for eight years. So while Netgear is a new name in the hotspot business, it's really an old player.

Physical Features and Management
The Zing, also known as the AirCard 771S, is an attractive gray plastic brick at 4.3 by 2.7 by .6" (HWD) and 3.95 ounces. The recessed power button is on the top edge. On the bottom, dual plastic sliders protect external antenna ports—always a welcome sight. You can boost the Zing's reception and Wi-Fi range with a third-party antenna or Netgear's external cradle, the 77XS, which unfortunately isn't on sale yet.

Snap off the back and you come upon a large 2500mAh, removable battery. Why so big? There's a 2.4-inch, 320-by-240 passive resistive color LCD on the front, and it's on a lot of the time.

Power up the hotspot and you're presented with a pretty rich range of options. Immediately, you see signal strength, battery percentage (not just bars), your network name and password, and how much data you've used for the month. Since Sprint's "unlimited" promises don't extend to hotspots, that's helpful. All of Sprint's hotspot plans are capped, costing $34.99 for 3GB, $49.99 for 6GB, or $79.99 for 12GB.

On-screen settings let you change the SSID and password using an on-screen keyboard, block devices, and set up a "guest Wi-Fi" network where the devices can't see your main network. The hotspot supports up to 10 devices total, plus one plugged in via USB. Using Ethernet-over-USB, the hotspot worked as a USB modem for both a Windows 8 PC and a Mac.

More management is available from a Web-based management console. There, you can more closely monitor your data usage by network type, control Wi-Fi setup, encryption and MAC filtering, and implement UPnP, VPN, port forwarding, and filtering and a basic firewall.

Netgear also offers an "AirCard Watcher" Android and iOS app which lets you manage most of the hotspot's settings through an attractive native interface. Between the on-screen menus, the Web-based interface, and the app, this is the most easily managed hotspot I've seen.

Performance
Testing Sprint's new LTE network in New York City is an exercise in frustration. It's spotty and inconsistent, strongest in remote parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. I had to use the Sensorly mapping app to find individual towers that Sprint had activated in Manhattan and Queens, and even then, the network showed a weird behavior with upload tests truncating early.

The reason to buy the new Zing and MiFi is that they support Sprint's new tri-band approach to LTE. Sprint has been taking its existing 1900MHz LTE network and supplementing it with 800MHz, which does much better at penetrating buildings, and 2600MHz, which should provide scorching speed in urban areas. Unfortunately, Sprint's buildout there is even less developed than its 1900MHz buildout, and we haven't had a chance to test the mixed coverage.

But you get what you get, and you try not to get upset. We tested LTE with the Zing and MiFi in five locations. In three of them, the MiFi was considerably faster. In one, the Zing prevailed, and in the last one, the MiFi dropped to 3G while the Zing pulled out decent LTE speeds.

Indoors, the MiFi showed much better range than the Zing. While the Zing's speeds started to drop off after about 50 feet, the MiFi held on well to about 100 feet.

The Zing also showed slightly longer battery life than the MiFi. I got 7 hours, 40 minutes with the MiFi compared to 7 hours, 55 minutes with the Zing.

Finally, the Zing works on foreign (900/2100MHz) HSPA+ networks, and even on AT&T's (850/1900MHz) HSPA+ network if you get the SIM card slot unlocked by Sprint. That takes 90 days of on-contract use from your purchase date.

Conclusions
Netgear designed an attractive, flexible and capable hotspot here, and we think it's the best choice for Sprint. No matter how bad Sprint's LTE network is at the moment, it's only going to get better, and the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands will play key roles in that improvement. The Zing's easy-to-use on-screen data counter and management tools let you get the most out of your Sprint connection, even if it isn't unlimited.

We'd only turn to the Novatel MiFi 500 if we need range and don't want to drop the Zing into a cradle, as it showed better Wi-Fi range than the Zing did. And if you have a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi, I'd say hold onto it for now. Sprint just hasn't built out enough of its tri-band LTE network for the advantages to kick in quite yet. I'd peg early 2014 for when these hotspots will start opening up speed and coverage advantages over the Tri-Fi.

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University of Maryland Technology Start-Up Boot Camp, Oct. 22; Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder of Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel), to Keynote

Learn, be inspired and network at this intensive, one-day workshop about how to launch and grow new ventures, headlined by prominent leaders of this region’s entrepreneurial community. Hundreds of like-minded students, faculty, and professionals attend each year. The Boot Camp is FREE to University of Maryland students, faculty and staff. The cost is $75 for all others. Lunch is included.

Keynote Speaker: Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder, Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel)

9:00 a.m.: Introduction

Dean Chang, Director, Mtech Venture Programs; Director, Technology Advancement Program, University of Maryland

9:05 a.m.: Welcome

Darryll Pines, Dean, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Hugh G. Courtney, Vice Dean,
Professor of the Practice of Strategy, Robert H. Smith School of Business9:20 a.m.: Launch Zone: Why the University of Maryland is a Great Place to Create a Startup

9:20 a.m.: Undergraduate Student Perspective

Greg Waldstreicher, Co-Founder, DoseSpot, 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine College Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, 2010 UMD $75K Business Plan Competition Winner

9:40 a.m.: Graduate Student Perspective

Matt Dowling, Co-Founder, Remedium Technologies, 2010 Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Global Venture Challenge Winner, 2009 Global Security Challenge Winner, 2007 UMD $50K Business Plan Competition Winner. Additional comments by Tim Askew, former CEO of CSA Medical

10:00 a.m.: Faculty Perspective

Carol Espy Wilson, Founder, OmniSpeech LLC, 2010 UMD $75K Business Plan Competition Winner, 2010 Maryland Daily Record Innovator of the Year. Addtitional comments by Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder, Nextel Communications Inc. (now part of Sprint Nextel Corp.

11:30 a.m.: Keep the Wolves at Bay: Firming Up Your Intellectual Property Against Competition

11:50 a.m.: Company Formation, Operating Agreements, Employment Agreements, and Stock Plans

Samuel E. Feigin, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP

Mark Kass, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP

1:10 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Startup Nuts & Bolts: The How To's of Incorporating, Stock Certificates, Taxes, & More

Benjamin Banneker Room
Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch

Juan Ramon Jiménez Room
Intellectual Property and Legal Questions and Answers

1:50 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
University IP Disclosures, Patents, and Licensing: What Every Researcher and Company Should Know

Gayatri Varma, Executive Director, University of Maryland Office of Technology Commercialization

Brent Goldfarb, Assistant Professor, Management & Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Benjamin Banneker Room
$500 Open Elevator Pitch Competition, Alla Corey, Program Manager, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Juan Ramon Jiménez Room
Intellectual Property and Legal Questions and Answers

2:50 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Funding a Prototype: MIPS and the Maryland Proof-of-Concept Alliance Grants

Benjamin Banneker Room
Biotechnology Startup Workshop: Market Research, Grants, and Other Resources

3:20 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Is Early Stage Investment Dead? New Rules, New Paradigms

Ed Barrientos, CEO, Brazen Careerist, Managing Partner, Zeitgeist Holdings, Visiting Angel, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Craig Dye, Director, Mtech VentureAccelerator Program

Bob Proctor, Blu Venture Investors

Janet Yang, Principal, Novak Biddle Venture Partners

Benjamin Banneker Room
Open Questions and Answers for Biotechnology Startups

Register to attend from:
www.bootcamp.umd.edu

Friday, October 22, 2010
University of Maryland,
College Park

Sponsors

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