![]() ![]() Things were less rosy on the opposite end of my calls. Voices occasionally sounded a bit scratchy and muffled but the audio is fairly loud, and it works well if you're driving or outdoors. The speakerphone on the phone's rear isn't bad either. That said, the folks I spoke to occasionally sounded a bit distant, and there were a few instances where our chats peppered with slight bits of static or scratchiness. It isn't a foolproof solution, and loud noises will still drown out audio, but it's still a nice touch. The point is to boost call clarity by circumventing ambient noise, and it works well enough: despite all of the construction going on outside CNET's office, I could hear everyone I spoke with during my test calls fairly clearly. The technology is present in a few Kyocera phones, like the Hydro Edge and Torque. The receiver transmits audio by pushing vibrations through the hard cartilage in your ear. The Icon is equipped with what Kyocera calls a Smart Sonic Receiver, instead of a traditional speaker. In my test calls I could generally hear my calling partners just fine, though they occasionally sounded a bit distant, and there were a few instances a static or scratchiness on my end. Screenshots by Nate Ralph/CNETĬall quality is a bit of a mixed bag. Network performance improves considerably outside of San Francisco (right), and results in Quadrant were fair (left). The less intensive Real Racing 3 sped along with nary a hitch, serving up a stutter-free experience. In hardware-intensive games like Dead Trigger 2, I could eke out a decent frame rate by dialing the quality settings down to medium. The Icon fares rather well in the gaming department too. I never ran into any lag or stuttering while flipping through menus, and apps loaded in a nice and timely manner. The Icon's quad-core, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 CPU can't really stand up a juggernaut like the Samsung Galaxy S5, but it's definitely no slouch. ![]() Things get a little bit better when you dial the recording quality to 720p or lower, but it remains a disappointing experience. Couple that with the same sluggish autofocus as the still camera, and you've got moving pictures with subjects that are pretty much unrecognizable. While the Icon can technically record 1080p video the phone struggles to perform, capturing a slow, juddering mess. The camera performs best in well-lit indoor environments, though details are still lost to noise. This is a great feature for the uninitiated, as it simplifies the smartphone experience without locking away any of the device's potential - Samsung offers a nigh-identical feature on its own phones. ![]() The app tray transforms into an alphabetical scrolling list of installed apps, and the notification shade (which you can still drag down to access) becomes accessible via an Alerts button running along the bottom of the phone. Icons become larger, and commonly used ones are automatically fixed to the primary home screen where they can't be moved. To start, you can choose between two user experiences: Standard mode behaves like your typical Android smartphone, while Easy mode transforms the phone into something like a souped-up feature phone. The Icon isn't too heavily skinned, but there are a few minute differences from the stock Android experience. There are no game changers here, but they could prove useful to some - if not, you can always disable (but not remove) them, and ignore them entirely. Finally there's MagniFont, which lets you tweak text readability by increasing or decreasing the phone's font size. MaxiMZR lets you prevent certain apps from using background data when you're not actively using them, potentially saving you some battery life. EcoMode can tweak settings like screen brightness, haptic feedback, and vibration when your battery dips below a certain level. ![]() You will of course be missing out on a lot of the new features introduced in Android 4.4 KitKat if the phone never gets upgraded.Ī few of Kyorcera's own tools have also come along for the ride. The phone is saddled with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but that still includes access to Google Now, you can still issue commands by way of "Ok, Google," and you can set up lock-screen widgets. You won't be able to remove the Boost Zone app, which serves as Boost Mobile's account management tool, as well as a third-party app marketplace. Swype comes pre-installed, which is a nice touch, and all of Google's stock apps are present and accounted for. The Kyocera Icon seems absolutely slathered in bloatware, but there's little you can't uninstall - most of the "apps" are actually links to the Google Play store, so you can get rid of those shortcuts. ![]()
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