If you follow the scores of Apple bloggers on Twitter, you’ll have no doubt seen the commotion surrounding the release of Clear for the iPhone last week. It wasn’t just review talk either, as timelines filled up with everything from discussion on initial sales projections to singing the praises of the app’s advanced user interface.

Should you have missed all the excitement and are hearing about Clear for the first time here, you’re probably expecting it to be some fancy new game with console-quality graphics and a big-name studio behind it. Well, prepare for a surprise, and possibly a degree of disappointment too, as Clear is a to-do list app.

Yes, all that fuss concerned an app for keeping track of those important little jobs you don’t want to forget, that essentially repeats what’s possible with the Reminders app that comes built-in to iOS 5. It’s logical then, given the attention, to think Clear must offer a huge array of features that only just stops short of actually doing the task for you.

Except it doesn’t. In fact, it doesn’t really have any major features at all.

If you’ve already used Reminders, or some other to-do list software, you’re likely familiar with what Clear offers. You can build various lists based around certain subjects, then tick them off when you’ve completed the task. Clear‘s iTunes description tries to make the most of this by listing what kind of lists your can make – from reading lists to party guest lists – but ultimately, making lists is all it does.

Given that Clear costs £0.69 and iPhone owners already have the perfectly usable Reminders app for free, who and more importantly why, would you bother buying Clear?

The answer becomes obvious when you open the app and actually get started. Despite its humble feature list, it’s an absolute work of art when it comes to the design and user interface. Instead of buttons to push or boxes to tick, almost everything you can do with clear is performed using gestures, and it’s built around simple but striking boxes.

Here’s an example. Tapping the ‘My Lists’ option presents you with all the lists you’ve created so far, or you can use a swipe down instead. Tap the number next to the title and you’re shown all the entries, which can be scrolled through as usual, and to return to the menu, you pinch the screen. To add a new list or item you can swipe down or tap on the respective screen, then a swipe to the left or right either deletes or marks an item as completed.

Each movement is accompanied by a bow-stroke or a ping, the brightly coloured boxes in which you type information are perfectly legible and although it takes some practice, you’ll soon be swiping, tapping and pinching away through Clear without any trouble.

At least, that’s the theory. In practice, even after giving it a try, it becomes clear that the gestures can be a pain. Yes, you’ll be swiping and pinching, but as to whether you’ll be getting to where you want to be is another thing. Gestures are only as good as their intuitiveness, i.e. if you can’t remember what to do, they’re no good whatsoever. It’s also impossible to pinch the screen using only one hand.

So, it looks ace and has an interesting but not completely successful UI, but how does it do when it comes to performing its job as a to-do list? If all you want to do is add a few words like ‘milk’ or ‘pay gas bill’ it’s acceptable enough, but if you want to write something more meaningful, or have friends with long names, the 28-character limit is horribly restrictive.

If you love the idea of location-sensitive reminders, integration with other apps or creating deep to-do lists bordering on projects, then Clear isn’t for you. It really is a very simple, no-frills app.

But adding items manually into a reminder app is so last year, as with an iPhone 4S you can perform exactly the same task by talking to Siri. This takes only a few moments, involves one button press and the reminder syncs with your Mac too. It’s really no contest.

Clear is all about the design, which is great, and the gesture-based interface, which is even better. As an actual, functioning to-do list it’s not quite so successful, and you’ll need to memorise the gestures to get the most out of it, and even then you’ll be hampered by the app’s limited functionality.

Outside of anyone intrigued by the brilliant design, it’s difficult to recommend Clear, especially if you have an iPhone 4S, as talking to Siri is even more satisfying than using Clear‘s gestures.

Having used Clear for a week prior to writing this review, I’d be surprised if it replaced the Siri/Reminders combination for me, as no matter how cute the violin sounds are, and how cool it feels to swipe this way and that,  it just doesn’t feel as advanced as actually talking to your phone and it doing as it’s told.

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Following on from the announcement of the PF200 and N910 Android phones earlier this week, ZTE has made another phone official ahead of Mobile World Congress this morning. Named the Mimosa X, it’s another big-screen Android device, but this time boasts an equally impressive processor.

Just like its sister phones, the Mimosa X will run Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as standard, along with ZTE’s own user interface over the top, all displayed on a 4.3-inch touchscreen with a 960 x 540 qHD resolution.

Inside isn’t just another dual-core processor, but an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip, as seen on devices such as the Motorola Atrix 2 and the original Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet.

The Mimosa X is the first phone to use the Icera 450 modem too, which Nvidia purchased last year, and combined with a GeForce GPU makes it an all-Nvidia device.

It’s an interesting move by Nvidia, who admitted to AllThingsD that they missed the rush for high-end dual-core phones last year, and indicates it’s willing to use the Tegra 2 on mid-range phones while potentially securing the high-end business with the quad-core Tegra 3.

Aside from the big screen and speedy processor, the Mimosa X isn’t the best-specced phone out there, boasting a 5 megapixel camera and just 4GB of internal memory. This can be boosted to 32GB with a microSD card though.

Expected to go on sale in April, the Mimosa X will join the other two new ZTE phones at Mobile World Congress. Now all we need is a confirmed price, but if it comes close to the sub-$200/£126 cost rumoured for the USA, it’ll represent a great deal of tech for a small investment.

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Official press shots have surfaced online which showcase the forthcoming Ascend D1 Q from Huawei.

The images come via GSMArena and reveal what looks to be a high-end smartphone with a sleek form factor and attention to detail in component design. The display appears to be 4.3-inches or larger and the red on black design is reminiscent of the HTC Sensation XE, although the shape of the device points more towards the iPhone 4/Samsung Galaxy school of design.

The Ascend D1 Q is anticipated to be the first device of Huawei’s flagship Diamond range of handsets. Running Android 4.0 out of the box and widely expected to be powered by the  Nvidia-produced quad-core Tegra 3 processor, the unit is set to propel the Chinese manufacturer into the very top-end of the smartphone market.

It is being speculated that Huawei are looking to launch at least two Diamond handsets at MWC next week, however, only details of the Ascend D1 Q have surfaced so far. Additionally, a 10-inch version of the MediaPad is anticipated alongside hardware and software upgrades to match the device’s larger display.

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