We really want consumer technology manufacturers to take big risks and to surprise us this year. After all it’s in their best interest to do so, big successes come from thinking out of the box.
So, in this frame of mind, we’d like to share with you a couple of concepts, which we wish they would soon become actual products, that really peaked our interest.
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One of the key factors that make the user experience of Apple’s MacBook Airs great is the fast data transfer speeds, which rely on the thin-and-light laptop line’s speedy solid state drives (SSDs). When we reviewed the mid-2011 MacBook Air (MBA) we found that startup and resume was incredibly fast, applications launched quickly, while overall, the operating system was very responsive. This is in no small part because of the transition Apple had made to SSDs.
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There have been a lot of rumors surrounding a potential release of the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note tablet/phone in the US. Rumors culminated with a reportedly AT&T branded Galaxy Note press shot. Well, we can now say that Samsung’s behemoth is definitely coming to the US, judging from the large Galaxy Note advertisement taking up the entire entrance of the South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center where CES 2012 is taking place.
Despite being the largest smartphone to date, the Galaxy Note has been a win for Samsung, which has managed to ship over 1 million units since its release. A success that can be accounted to its 5.3-inch Super AMOLED HD screen (though Pentile Matrix), super-speedy dual-core 1.4GHz Samsung Exynos processor and Wacom-designed pressure sensitive S Pen stylus. The Note has a respectable 2,500mAh battery, weighs 178g (6.3 oz) and measures 9.65mm (0.38 inches) thick. You’ll also find an 8-megapixel rear camera, capable of 1080p video, a 2-megapixel front shooter and even GLONASS support.
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Depending on which side of the yin and yang debacle you fall into, you might have a color preference between black and white. So if you feel that you are better expressed by a white smartphone, and if that smartphone would be by any chance a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich then you’re in luck.
The as far as now all black and grey Samsung Galaxy Nexus will soon be released in white according to a number of UK retailers. Both Clove and MobileFun UK have the smartphone on release for the 6th of February for around £500 ($780)
Despite any deep emotions you might have towards the lighter end of the tone curve, you might want to check out our lengthy review of the Galaxy Nexus before taking the plunge.
We guess that ‘M’ stands for mid-range in Samsung’s latest Android smartphone the Samsung Galaxy M Style. The smartphone has just been released in South Korea and has some interesting specs. First off you have the 4-inch Super AMOLED display and 9.9mm slim design (0.39 inches). You also get a DMB TV tuner, 4GB of storage and a 1,650 mAh battery. However, that’s where the fun stops, as the phone has only a 3-megapixel main camera and VGA front camera, 1GHz single-core processor and is running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
The entire device measures 122.5 x 63 x 9.9 mm and will be available in platinum silver, blue black and lavender pink for the equivalent of around $500 without a contract. It’s priced below Samsung’s high-end devices like the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus.
There are no news whether the device will launch beyond Samsung’s home market.
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Samsung Mobile has had a good year, mostly because of the success of the Galaxy S II, the biggest selling Android smartphone to date. Samsung was also a launch partner for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as the manufacturer for the Galaxy Nexus (read our complete review here), while even the company’s mammoth 5.3-inch Galaxy Note has managed to ship one million units in two months.
Running on a potent Samsung Exynos chip, the Galaxy S II, still is the fastest smartphone out there, at least according to benchmarks. It makes sense that the company would want to maintain a good tradition, and of course sales figures, with a successor. Word on the street is that we will soon be seeing the Samsung Galaxy S III (SGS3) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, which opens its doors on February 27, 2012. Note, the image above is just a fan concept render, and not the actual Galaxy S III.
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Samsung has had a lot of success shipping its Android devices en masse. The Samsung Galaxy S II has broken all kinds of sales records and we are pretty sure the Galaxy Nexus is flying off the shelves now too. An unlikely win for the company, however, is the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note which falls somewhere between the being a smartphone and tablet.
It seems that the mantra ‘bigger is better’ is working out for Samsung, which has shipped over one million Galaxy Notes since its release in late October. Sales have been going well and are on the rise in Europe and Asia. US consumers have been importing the Galaxy Note from other markets but the announcement mentions that the device will launch officially on the other side of the Atlantic in 2012. No mention yet if it bring support for LTE however.
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We’ve been reviewing the Galaxy Nexus and we’ve found battery life to be quite decent for an Android device. However, if you want to squeeze every last minute possible out of your new favorite gadget, then Verizon is offering an extended battery for the LTE version of the smartphone. The Verizon-bound 4G LTE Galaxy Nexus comes with a 1,850mAh battery as standard but for $49.99 you can get the 2,100mAh extended battery, which you see above. That’s only a 13.5% increase in capacity but that could mean the difference between getting through a whole day with one charge or not, depending on your usage.
During our tests with the GSM HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus, we could consistently get by for around 15 hours and 30 minutes until battery went below 15%, and that was with the screen on for 2h 30m, not bad at all. A 13.5% increase in capacity could mean around 2 more hours of usage. The GSM Galaxy Nexus only comes with a 1,750mAh battery as standard but the LTE version, because of its radio, presumably consumes more battery.
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Are you feeling anxious to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) on your Samsung Nexus S and Galaxy S even if it means installing custom test ROMs? If the answer is yes, then read on.
The CyanogenMod team promised to bring ICS to its list of over 50 devices by early 2012 and already some alpha and beta builds of CM9 are making their appearance.
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We’ve been reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus over the past ten days and there is one thing that has particularly struck me when using the phone. The Galaxy Nexus has a very nice 4.65-inch 1280×720 resolution Super AMOLED display. With a pixel density of 316dpi, text and photos are very crisp, it’s practically impossible to distinguish between individual pixels. Nevertheless, the display’s color temperature seems to be slightly off, this is especially visible when viewing large white blocks and when brightness is lower. It is easier to spot when the Galaxy Nexus’ screen is viewed side-by-side with another display. You also have to look at the screen more-or-less head on, looking at the Nexus’ screen at an angle gives it a blue tint, similar to the Nexus S and other AMOLED displays.
In the image above (click to enlarge), the Galaxy Nexus is on the left, while on the right we’ve included for comparison an HTC Sensation featuring a 4.3-inch Super LCD display. There is a subtle but distinguishing difference between the two screens, the Galaxy Nexus’ whites have a yellow/orange tint. The shots were taken at a display brightness of around 80% for both smartphones. Setting the Nexus’ brightness higher reduces the effect (although even at maximum brightness whites still have a yellow tint), while putting it lower increases it. At low brightness, whites are a shade of yellow tinted grey.
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It comes at time in a glass-screened gadget’s life when it will be accidentally dropped. Some will survive, others will be shattered. A user over at XDA forums going by the name tamarian, was unfortunate enough to drop his new Samsung Galaxy Nexus from a height of 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) and onto some unforgiving kitchen tiles. You can see the result in the picture above.
The Galaxy Nexus’ 4.65-inch display doesn’t feature Corning Gorilla Glass, rather another type of fortified glass, which seems to shatter just as much; though 1.8m is a big drop by any measure. Our hearts are with you tamarian, we hope you can get it fixed soon.
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Although the actual release date of the Galaxy Nexus in the US has yet to be confirmed, the above holiday-themed ad has surfaced. The Verizon advertisement has the 4.65-inch Super AMOLED and Android 4.0 carrying Samsung Galaxy Nexus going for $199.99 with a two year contract on the company’s 4G LTE network.
The Galaxy Nexus has already been released in the UK, though a strange ‘volume bug‘ meant that the launch didn’t go as smoothly as Google and Samsung would have wanted. The UK HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Nexus has 16GB of built-in storage, whereas the Verizon LTE Nexus would have 32GB. More storage is always welcome, especially since the Galaxy Nexus doesn’t have a mircoSD slot.
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It seems that Galaxy Nexus owners affected by the admittedly frustrating volume bug will not have to return their devices for a replacement just yet.
Google has responded to the issue, verified that they are aware of the situation and have a developed a fix that will potentially arrive as an over-the-air (OTA) update automatically. From Google’s lips:
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We’ve seen it time and time again. New devices generally have teething issues, though many of these can be patched with a software update, others have more serious hardware problems. The iPhone 4 had the infamous ‘antennagate’ issue, the HTC Sensation its own Wi-Fi deathgrip and it seems the Galaxy Nexus is now joining the ranks of not so smooth product launches.
The smartphone went on sale in the UK last week, and a number of users are reporting that the phone’s volume controls behave erratically when it’s transmitting on a 2G network at GSM 900 (900Mhz). This ‘volume bug’ could be a result of radio interference on the 900Mhz band and it has been replicated by placing another phone on 2G GSM 900 next to the Galaxy Nexus. The bug is quite serious because it can mute your phone’s ringer and notifications.
Most of Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia and most of Asia use the GSM 900 band, so the number of users that could be affected is huge. Affected Galaxy Nexus devices behave normally when connected to 3G networks, so a temporary fix would be to force the phone to only connect on 3G, but that means you will be left without a signal where 3G connectivity is not available.
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Fujifilm X100S camera announced with fast AF and new 16.3MP X-Trans II sensor (hands-on video)January 6, 2013
Supposed Sony Nexus X images leakOctober 15, 2012
Asus 4.7-inch Padfone 2 demoed in video with new slimmer tablet dockOctober 14, 2012
Upcoming Google Nexus 4 smartphone by LG poses for camera in leaked picsOctober 11, 2012
Skype for Android with video chat official for some, unofficially for Galaxy S II, HTC Evo 3D, Thunderbolt, Sensation and othersJuly 1, 2011
Stuff-Review giveaway: win a B&N Nook Color, leather case and 4GB microSD cardOctober 12, 2011
Stuff-Review giveaway: win a PowerSkin silicon case with built-in batteryAugust 21, 2011
Connecting the Galaxy Nexus to your computer via MTP and the lack of USB Mass StorageDecember 10, 2011
