I thought it would be a good idea to kick start the first post of 2013 with a feature on the new gadgets I have been using to capture the photos you see on this blog and what I think of them. Also, these short reviews may be useful in case you are thinking of buying them for use this year.
HTC One X vs iPhone 5
Just a few months ago, my iPhone 4 developed an overheating issue. The battery, when full charged, could not last more than 30 mins when in use. Whenever I wanted to use some apps or to answer a call, the phone would heat up rapidly and shut down automatically when it got too hot.
As the phone was out of warranty, I brought it to some small repair shop for assessment. A faulty motherboard was determined to be the issue and cost of the unauthorised repair was about US$120.
After delibrating, I decided not to repair it and managed, to my surprise, sell it for about US$180. I think the buyer bought it for the parts or to resell after repairing. Anyway, I was just glad I got rid of it.
Once the phone was sold, the other task at hand was to select a replacement phone. I figured that since I have been using iPhones for the past 4 years (from iPhone 3 to iPhone 4), I would give an Andriod phone a shot. Also, I wanted a big screen phone. My brother who has been using HTC phones for some time bought the HTC One X recently and I thought it look pretty good.
I looked around some more. The next nearest phone matching my requirements is the Samsung Galaxy. Since I have never been a fan of Samsung products and the HTC One X was touted and reviewed many times by numerous publications as the best Andriod phone around that time, I bought the HTC One X.
The first impressions of the HTC One X is good. It felt solid when holding it, the bigger screen, compared to the iPhone, makes typing a SMS and surfing the net a breeze. However, despite the phone having a good unibody and solid feel, it did not feel as well put together like the iPhone. The voice quality matches the iPhone too but not when you put it in a speaker mode.
Photo taking wise, the quad core allows photo taking really fast in quick bursts. Photo taking in low light conditions also proved to be better than the iPhone 4.
The Google Play app store provides plenty of apps too. Andriod is also a superior OS compared iOS.
It took me a while to get acquainted with the HTC One X. Everything went well or so I thought, for three months.
I soon found the battery life of the phone to be abysmal and needs to be charge twice a day for even normal use. Each charge took several hours. The GPS function also acted weirdly when I am using the Nike GPS app for my jogs. The font size for SMS also changed the size on its own. Other ergonomics faults soon proved to be frustrating with the main bugbear being the process to silent the phone and volume control adjusts too easily when the phone is put into a pocket.
Needless to guess, I changed to an iPhone 5. At least the battery lasts me a workday most of the time.This time I got the white one since my previous two iPhones were the black version.

Canon S100 Camera
I have always fancied the Canon Powershot S Series. Since the Canon S90 was launched, I wanted to get one. Finally on Black Friday, I got the S100 at a good deal on Amazon as they were clearing stocks to make way for S110s which includes wifi and a touchscreen.
After tsome initial shots, I am impressed with the s100's near DSLR photo quality and output especially at low light conditions. This is a great camera to carry around on days when I dont feel like carrying my DSLR camera and in restuarants taking food photos when the lighting isnt ideal for phototaking.

Let me show you some sample photos taken with the camera:


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