The Samsung Galaxy Note III will be out later this year and may feature
an unbreakable display. According to South Korean news site Asiae,
the display will be unbreakable thanks to flexible AMOLED technology,
measuring in at 5.9-inches and in full 1080p HD. As far as specs are
concerned, we’re still hearing a Exynos 5 Octa processor, 2GB RAM, 8
megapixel camera, bigger battery, and Android 4.2.2 onboard. However,
with Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie being announced at Google I/O,
the Galaxy Note III could ship with that. Either way, even if the Note
III doesn’t feature an unbreakable display, we’ll be sure to see a
better HD display, performance, and many new features that debuted in
the Galaxy S 4.
Google's own-brand smartphones and tablets have always been coveted,
as they're generally high-spec, have the latest version of Android, get
the latest updates first and they're always incredibly well-priced. With
the Google Nexus 4 starting to look a bit outdated compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z, it's no wonder that Google's looking for a successor.
GOOGLE NEXUS 5 SPECIFICATIONS
As with all of Google's own-brand products, the Nexus 5 will be
manufactured by a partner. Apparently, the manufacturer hasn't been
chosen yet, although leaked Nexus 5 specifications show that LG is once again in contention. According to the leaked information, the Nexus 5 will have a 5.2in
OLED display with a Full HD (1,920x1,080) resolution. It will have a
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor running at 2.3GHz, and 3GB
of PDDR3 memory. Phones will be available in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of
internal storage. Not everyone believes the initial claims that the Nexus 5 will be
such a high-end phone, though. More recent information challenges the Nexus 5 display rumours,
stating the phone will have a 4.5in, 720p IPS screen. A lower-spec
Qualcomm 600 quad-core processor running at 1.5GHz is supposedly also on
the cards. Google, of course, is refusing to confirm any of the specs rumours,
so we're going to have to wait a bit longer to find out what's going on
and who's really manufacturing the handset. It has also been rumoured that the Nexus 5 will get a smart GPS-assisted camera module.
According to a patent filed by Google, the Nexus 5 could tie the
camera's settings to the GPS, to help you shoot better pictures. The patent describes a system where the camera is aware of its
location, along with weather information from the internet. Combined
with other sensors on the device, including a light sensor, temperature
sensor and accelerometer, the camera's settings can be fine-tuned to
produce the best results. What is not clear from the patent application is whether the feature,
which is largely a software rather than hardware implementation, would
be exclusive to Google's own-brand Nexus product lines or a standard
function of Android 5.0, made available to other Android device
manufacturers
GOOGLE NEXUS 5 ANDROID
Most Google devices launch with a brand-new version of the operating
system, so it seems reasonable that the Nexus 5 will do the same. With
Android Key Lime Pie likely to be announced at Google IO, taking place
between May 15th to May 17th 2013, that would seem to be the likely
operating system for the Nexus 5. Key Lime Pie is likely to be Android 5.0. Its new features should
include Babble, a unified messaging client, and Google Games, an
iOS-like games centre. Other features haven't been leaked yet, but
further performance tweaks and a update to the user interface, should be
on the way.
When the Samsung Galaxy Note
phone and tablet hybrid - or 'phablet' as it's most commonly known -
was launched, there was initially some scepticism as to who would want
such a device. However, Samsung proved everyone wrong and the Note was a
success. Its successor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, received a warm welcome when it was unveiled at at the IFA show in August 2012.
While its flagship sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S3,
continues to sell in droves, the Note 2 hasn’t performed too badly,
either, shifting 2m units in November alone, proving demand for
so-called phablet devices is growing. No wonder, then, that just months
after its release, attention is turning to its suspected successor, the
Galaxy Note 3. We round up all the latest news and rumours to find out
what to expect.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 RELEASE DATE
Samsung is currently working on a developing a line of flexible OLED
displays for its 2013 smartphone range, which could hit shelves in the
next few months, according to The Sun.
The paper claims Samsung is looking to reduce investment in its
liquid crystal display (LCD) division to focus on organic light-emitting
diode (OLED) and plastic-based flexible displays, which can be bent and
twisted, which are rumoured to be unveiled in early 2013.
This means we could expect to see the Note 3 emerge before the Note 2
reaches its first birthday, although official release date rumours have
been thin on the ground so far.
There are also rumours
that the Note 3 will be unveiled at this year's IFA show in Berlin in
September - this would make sense, seeing as the Note 2 was unveiled at
last year's show.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 SCREEN
While most manufacturers are focussing on making their devices
smaller and slimmer, Samsung is reportedly going in a different
direction with the next-generation Note.
Some sources claim it could have an even bigger 6.3in screen. If
true, this could take it up to near-tablet status, as several leading
technology companies already have 7-inch tablets available, including
Google (Nexus 7) and Apple (iPad Mini). The oversized screen will
apparently also have a 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, the Korea Times
reports.
However, another source speaking to the same paper claimed that
the Note 3 will instead have a smaller 5.9in screen, which puts it
firmly in phablet rather than tablet territory. However, this is still
significantly larger than the 5.5in display on the Galaxy Note 2.
Yet, more recent information from SamMobile
points to the Galaxy Note 3 have a 5.99in screen with a Full HD
(1,920x1,080) resolution. According to the report, the Note 3 will have a
thinner bezel, so it will be the same size the Galaxy Mega 5.8, only
with a larger screen.
That kind of makes sense, as the Galaxy S4 in the same size as the
Galaxy S3, but the thinner bezel means that there's room for a larger
screen. We'd also agree that the Full HD resolution has to be correct,
as Samsung will want the best for its high-end phablet.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 CHASSIS
Some people were unsure about the Galaxy S4's plastic chassis which,
while lightweight and tough, doesn't look or feel quite as classy as the
toughened glass of phones such as the Sony Xperia Z or the metal body of the HTC One.
This is apparently giving Samsung cause for concern,
so according to news site SamMobile, the Note 3 could break with
tradition and ship with a metal rather than polycarbonate chassis.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 S ORB
The Note 3 is rumoured to be the first Samsung phone to have the S Orb
panoramic photo feature. This is Samsung's version of Google's new
Photo Sphere feature, which lets you take multiple photos in a
360-degree arc around you, and stitch the results up into a Google
Street View-style collage to upload to Google+.
The key difference between S Orb and Photo Sphere is that Samsung's
version will integrate with Facebook - a far more popular social network
than Google+.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 PROCESSOR
Samsung has unveiled its octa-core Exynos 5 chip, with eight
processor cores. Designed as a replacement for the Eyxnos 4 quad-core
chip powering the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 devices, and an
upgrade to the Exynos 5 Dual found in the Samsung-manufactured but
Google-branded Nexus 10 tablet, the Exynos 5 Octa promises significant
gains in performance and power usage.
The Exynos 5 Octa combines a quad-core next-generation 28nm 1.8GHz
ARM Cortex-A15 processor - an upgrade to the 1.6GHz Cortex-A9 chip found
in the Galaxy S3 and the 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex-A15 chip in the Nexus
10 - with a secondary quad-core Cortex-A9 processor running at 1.2GHz.
The idea, Samsung explains, is that when the phone or tablet is doing
lightweight work such as playing music, making a phone call or browsing
the internet, the more powerful Cortex-A15 cores can be completely
disabled and the Cortex-A9 cores used instead. The result, Samsung
claims, is an improvement in power efficiency of around 70 per cent
compared to the Exynos 4 Quad in the Galaxy S3.
The most recent information suggests that the octa-core Exynos 5
processor will be in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. However, that doesn't
mean that it will be available world-wide. While the Exynos 5 CPU was
launched with the Galaxy S4, the UK instead got a standard quad-core
processor instead. The reasons for this aren't exactly clear, but it may
be that Samsung follows a similar pattern with the Galaxy Note 3,
rolling out the octa-core version in some countries, while others will
get a fast quad-core chip instead.
It's been almost a year since the release of the original Optimus 3D
from LG, and in that time we've been watching 3D technology continue to
evolve. Undoubtedly you've seen the changes in your local cinema, and
even your living room, if you happen to have a 3DTV. While it still
hasn't permeated every aspect of our reality as in Total Recall or the
likes, it's at a stage of budding infancy. Since the Optimus 3D, LG have
been the only big-name manufacturer to stick to their guns in the 3D
smartphone market. There's been nothing official about a potential EVO
3D sequel by HTC and it's a safe bet to say that the cutting-edge of
mobile 3D technology can be found in the Optimus 3D Max. LG Optimus 3D Max official photos
It's hard to look at the 3D Max apart from its 3D viewing and
recording capabilities - after all, it has 3D in the title. But beyond
that, the phone can present some solid credentials, even by today's
standards. There's the dual-core processor, dual-lens 5MP stereoscopic
camera, as well as full HD capabilities. It's not as loaded as some of
the latest flagships, but it's got enough power to run whatever you
throw at it without a hitch.
With the 3D Max, LG has improved on the original we saw last year while choosing to keep most of the internals the same.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
4.3" 16M-color capacitive LCD stereoscopic touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with LG 3D UI
Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP4430 chipset
1 GB RAM
8GB internal storage
Dual 5 MP autofocus cameras, LED flash; stereoscopic 3 MP pictures, face detection and geotagging
1080p@30fps video recording, stereoscopic 720p@30fps videos
Gorilla Glass 2
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
Stereo FM radio with RDS
microSD slot up to 32GB
Accelerometer, proximity sensor and an auto-brightness sensor
Front facing camera with video calls
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0, MHL TV-out
Smart dialing, voice dialing
DivX/XviD video support
Polaris Office document editor
Innovative gesture controls
Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement
Main disadvantages
Runs Gingerbread
Less than impressive camera performance
Still limited third-party 3D apps market
Questionable outdoor performance
Not the best dual-core performance,
Got rid of the microHDMI port, MHL instead
With such similar specifications, you're not going to see much
difference from a hardware standpoint. That said, the Optimus 3D Max is
2mm thinner and 20g lighter than its predecessor, and when held in hand,
it feels noticeably less bulky than the original. The 3D Max now looks
more like an "ordinary" smartphone. The camera bump of the original
Oprimus 3D is gone and, with a pleasantly textured back panel, the Max
has a much more streamlined design. Considering the minor upgrades, LG
has done well to make it a standard-looking package with an extra bonus,
rather than a huge device that looks like it must do something special. LG Optimus 3D Max live pictures
The Indian based company, Karbonn has
once again proved that, the most budget Smartphone is manufactures by
this company only. They are again out with their new Karbonn Titanium
S5. This flagship handset is priced at 11,990 and is currently
available at any online store. It has Jelly Bean version of Android with
1.2 GHz Quad core processor loaded in it along with range of features.
It showcase 5-inch IPS qHD display and the speed of Multitasking will
not be an issue with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB ROM. Karbonn Titanium S5
smartphone is dual SIM enabled. Let’s get you the full review.
Hardware
The Smartphone comes loaded with a 5
inch qHD display which offers 540 × 960 pixel resolution. I’ll not say
its slim but yeah not a fatty piece like Nokia, it measures only about
8.95 mm in thickness and pretty easy to carry around. It has Quad core
Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC clocked at 1.2 GHz and 1 GB of RAM with 4 GB of
ROM. And yes don’t forget about the 2000 mAh battery.
The earpiece given along is quite clear
and loud, to experience a great music and 4 GB of internal memory could
be an issue but can be compensated with the micro SD card slot provided
and can be expanded upto 32 GB.
Look And Feel
Putting it in your jeans pocket will not
at all be difficult with its well-built dimensions. It’s quite simple
and sober in its look. But it seems like that there is not enough
designs available in the market as the phones coming now a days have
almost the same look. Karbonn Titanium S5 also seems to have a design
similar to Samsung Galaxy S lV except for the button sections.
Tab, Home and Return are the three
capacitive touch buttons, which can be found at the lower portion of the
screen and front camera and some sensors at the upper section. Taking
it traditionally volume Rockers button is available at the left side of
the set and Lock/Standby buttons to its right. Hold it tight as, the
back side of it is made of smooth plastic having rear camera with LED
flash and the speaker grilles. Camera pops out of the device, if you see
it form sideways which can be the result of its low thickness. Since,
this time you would not be getting the grip, so typing and holding the
device will be little unscrupulous this time.
Display
5-inch display of S5 has the pixel
density of 250.33 ppi, resolution of 540 × 960 pixels and 16 M colors.
The combination will result in great display even on a sunny day and
Light sensors will do their job perfectly by adjusting the brightness
with respect to the environment.
The fantastic brightness control and
perfect colour saturation enables a true HD streaming with a 3D option
too. Reflection is always avoided with the genius IPS display.
The touch sensitivity would not make you
feel as if you are using a feather touch phone but is quite well and
suited to your slightest touch.
Multimedia
It has a great piece of processor
enabling it to great multimedia decoding. Comparing it to Canvas HD
which has got MediaTek’s Quad Core lags behind the S5 Qualcomm’s trust.
It supports over rich media content brilliantly. Full HD video playback
is supported with 30 fps. Initially on your purchase you would be
provided with some basic codecs like MP4, AVI, 3GP etc. but can be
increased by installing advanced players from play store. You need to
have 3D support player installed for extra features of 3D and other
video playback options.
Camera
Karbonn Titanium S5 comes with the
powerful 8 MP primary camera along with the powerful LED flash for
capturing pictures of impressive quality. With 2 MP front faced camera,
video calling is so nice. The color temperature and detailing will be
perfect in the outdoor clicks, while the LED will help you in getting
the better performance at indoor.
As the Karbonn Titanium S5 supports full
HD video shoots, capturing videos form the rear camera is so much fun.
Recording will contain some noise disturbance, but this is all you could
get at such price.
Gaming
The games which I played on the Karbonn
Titanium S5 are Temple Run 2, NFS shift, GTA 3 and obviously Angry birds
(all parts), and got medium to high frame rates respectively. It is the
best budget gaming device for now and among the finest smartphones that
could give amazing experience of HD and 3D games.
Performance And Battery Life
The 2000 mAh battery holds 6 hour of
video playback and allows the great talk time of 12 hrs. The gamers will
love it, as they now will get 4 hour of game play without any
disturbance. But a point of caution is there. Developers claimed that,
if the Karbonn Titanium S5 is only used for games than it could reduce
battery life and display quality. With 3G enabled, you can surf for 8
hours (quite worth for the price), if the battery is fully charged.
Connectivity
Both you Sim are not going to enjoy the
speed of 3G, as only Sim 1 is allowed to support 3G. But still you get
the maximum speed of 256 kbps on SIM 2 with better WAP, GPRS and EDGE
support. You can be assured that the network of both your GSM’s SIM will
not fluctuate with the wide verities of frequencies available in S5
includes GSM-900, UMTS-2100.
What we like
1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Quad Core processor
5-inch qHD display
1 GB RAM and 4 GB of ROM
8 MP camera with strong LED flash
What we don’t like
No support of 3G in SIM 2.
Smooth back panel, which gives your phone a chance to fall form your holding.
Verdict
This phone is loaded with features,
which should be priced at around 20,000, but thanks to Karbonn for
providing the Karbonn Titanium S5 at such a low rate. We are tagging it
among the best Android smartphone available below 15,000.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the most hotly anticipated smartphone ever
from the Korean brand, and with a glut of top end features, it's the
most powerful and desirable device Samsung has created yet.
One of
the most impressive things about the phone is the fact the size hasn't
changed from its predecessor - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x
7.9mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), meaning there's no extra heft to try
to work with in your palm.
However,
despite this fact, the screen on the S4 has been increased once more,
to a whopping 5-inch display with Full HD resolution. This means the
same amount of pixels you'd have seen on a TV that cost well over £1,000
four years ago is now riding around in your pocket. Let's
not pretend that Samsung is a pioneer in this area though: like a great
many features of the Galaxy S4, the phone borrows a lot from the other
top smartphones of the moment. Both the Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One
have screens that rock the same resolution, but neither of them have
the jaw-dropping clout of the Super AMOLED HD screen on offer here.
On
top of that, there's a much faster processor packed under the hood,
ample storage space for media thanks to an expandable memory card slot,
and the likes of 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and pretty much any other connection you care to mention on board. Samsung
has tried to supplement this with a tranche of software upgrades too,
meaning a more powerful camera, a better way to communicate with your
friends and consume media, and interestingly a big push into health
through dedicated apps too.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 costs the same
as the HTC One, give or take a pound or two, on contract. This will
still put it around £35 per month, which isn't too bad for such a high
design. But
before we dissect all the possibilities the phone has to offer, let's
look at the design. As we mentioned, it's impressive in its form factor,
thanks to the sub-8mm thickness, and at 130g it manages to still be
light without shaving off so much heft that you feel like you've got a
flimsy piece of plastic.
That's
probably the biggest compliment we can pay the Samsung Galaxy S4 -
where its predecessor felt a little bit cheap in the hand, the S4
manages to bring a much more solid build and better construction to
boot.
So while the "faux metal" band makes a comeback on this
model, it looks a lot more premium. And there's very little flex in the
chassis when you hold it tightly, which was another problem with the Galaxy S3 at times. That
doesn't mean that the phone is completely remodelled from the S3 - it's
very similar in appearance, so much so that a number of people asking
to see it during our review thought we were palming them off with our
old S3. The polycarbonate chassis remains, but that brings with it the
faithful battery cover, which conceals a removable battery and microSD
slot. We're
not so fussed about the battery being able to drop out of the phone -
so few people carry around a spare battery, and nowadays portable
charging blocks are becoming so cheap and light that they make much more
sense too.
We'd almost prefer something like the Sony Xperia Z,
which has a refined and packaged chassis but doesn't need a removable
battery: it makes use of a slot instead for the memory card. This
integrated nature would make for a slightly more premium feel to the
phone. However, it's a small gripe with the S4, as while the cover feels flimsy, it's better than it was on the S2 and the S3, and they both sold like hot cakes.
In
the hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 feels much better than any other
Samsung phone we've held (apart from the gargantuan smartphones the
brand used to make - the i8910 Omnia HD
might have been built like a brick, but it felt wonderful to hold). The
screen's spread towards the sides of the phone means a much narrower
bezel, and the effect is certainly impressive. It
might look very similar to the S3, but when you take the Samsung Galaxy
S4 up close, you really start to appreciate the nuances.
We'd say it feels a lot more like the LG Optimus G
range now - when we first picked it up, we were struck with how similar
it felt in terms of sturdiness and the polycarbonate construction to
the LG Optimus G Pro.
That's
no criticism, as the device was well built too, but it has a similar
rounded feel. This is intriguing given the history of the two companies,
and shows more of a leaning towards the plastic shell from the Asian
brands in general. Buttonry
has barely changed from before - the power button has been shifted
slightly on the right-hand side, and is now much easier to hit. Samsung
has clearly taken some lessons from the Galaxy Note 2, which has a really well positioned power/lock button.
The
volume key is less easy to hit, and could be lower down in our eyes,
but the travel on both of these buttons is satisfying, and you'll always
know when you've hit them.
The plastic used on the home key has
been upgraded too, with a more solid feel under the thumb when you press
down to get back to the main home screen. The two buttons flanking it
give you access to menus or take you back from whence you came, and
while both are easily hidden, they light up nicely with an even glow
when called into action.
There are loads of sensors on the front
of the phone above the screen, including cameras to track your eyes, a
2MP camera for HD video calling and a proximity sensor for knowing where
the phone is in relation to your ear. On the white review unit we had,
their presence looks rather ugly either side of the generous earpiece,
but on the darker models this is less of an issue. The
other notable addition to the design of the Galaxy S4 is the infra red
blaster on the top of the phone. This enables you to control your TV,
satellite box, DVD player, amp and even air conditioner. Again, this
isn't a new feature, but it works well in practice, and despite being
small is powerful enough indeed.
Other than that, there's not a
lot more to say about the design of the phone, as it's just a little
underwhelming. We know it's unfair to lambast a brand for not
overhauling the design every year, but in the One X and the One, HTC has proven that it is possible to offer up a new design each time around and still keep things attractive.
Looking
so similar to the Galaxy S3, you can't help but feel Samsung has gone a
little too Apple and created something more in keeping with the Samsung
Galaxy S3S - a minor update to a great phone to keep those coming out
of contract happy that they have a premium phone to upgrade to.
We
do implore you to get the phone in your hand before making a judgement
though - while it's not got the best design on the market when it comes
to materials, it's a big step forward compared to the Galaxy S3 and
allows for a grippy and easy-to-hold phone, with a whopping screen
inside.
To just dismiss it for being plastic would be doing the S4
a disservice as it has so much more going for it than that, but it's
worth remembering that to a lot of people, the way a phone looks is as
important as how much RAM it's got on board and how fast the CPU is - if
not more so.
The Xperia Z is a high end smartphone from Japanese manufacturer Sony. The Sony Xperia Z comes loaded with a lot of top features and it has all the right combination for satisfying a smartphone user.
OS & Processor
The Sony Xperia Z runs on Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) OS,
which can be upgraded to the next version of Jelly Bean - Android 4.2.
The phone incorporates 1.5 GHz quad core processor and 2 GB RAM for
smooth performance.
Hardware
This smartphone has a 5-inch display screen, which seems to
be the next fad in smartphones. This display screen offers visuals at
1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and 441 ppi pixel density. The Sony Xperia Z measures only 7.9 mm in thickness, which makes it one of the thinnest models in high end smartphones.
Camera
The Sony Xperia Z sports an exceptional 13 MP primary camera,
which is not yet common even in top level smartphones. This high
resolution camera is also supported by additional features like LED
flash, auto focus and digital zoom etc. There is a 2.2 MP camera loaded
in this device for video calls and self portraits.
Memory & Connectivity
Internal memory of this Sony smartphone is 16 GB, which can be used
for storing a range of applications and files. External memory is also
possible for up to 32 GB through a microSD card. Internet platforms
supported in this device include GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G etc. Other connectivity features available in this handset include Bluetooth, NFC and micro USB port.
Other Features
Like other high end smartphones, the Sony Xperia Z has
preloaded media players that can play files of many formats. FM radio is
available for accessing various radio stations. Users can download
games from Google Play and customize this Android smartphone.
