Can the Galaxy Note 4 be more important to Samsung than the Galaxy S5?

Samsung already announced that it would unveil a brand new Galaxy Note on September 3. Even more, the company today released various teaser images in China, thus confirming that the new device is the long-rumored Galaxy Note 4.

The announcement of the Note 4 comes at a crucial time for Samsung. The South Korean company’s smartphone sales are slipping, and so is its operating profit - despite the fact that its Galaxy S5 flagship is available all over the world since April. Following a strong start, Galaxy S5 sales slumped after only a few months. There’s no denying that the S5 is one of this year’s best smartphones (as our review of it concludes), but there are simply too many nice alternatives to it - not to mention all the affordable, yet powerful handsets from China.

While the S5 has many direct rivals, this can’t be said about the Galaxy Note 3. There’s no other extra-large smartphone (or phablet, if you will) that can offer the combination of high-end hardware and software features that the Note has. The S Pen stylus and Samsung’s suite of specific apps for it make the device a unique one. We assume that everyone’s expecting the Galaxy Note 4 to be better than the Note 3 - thus, once more, this has the potential of being a handset with no direct competitors. Reportedly, the Note 4 will feature a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 1440 x 2560 pixels, a 16 MP rear camera, 3 GB or 4 GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 805 (or Exynos 5 Octa) chipset.

Samsung shipped 10 million Galaxy Note 3 units in two months from launch, and continued to ship millions more since then (the 10 million milestone was achieved in December last year). Do you think the Galaxy Note 4 can be even more successful, thus helping Samsung to return to high profit margins? If that’s the case, the Note 4 will be more important to Samsung than the S5, wouldn’t it? Feel free to cast your votes in the poll below, or weigh in in the comments if you have answers that go beyond a simple yes or no?

All about the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is a surprising change in the Samsung product strategy. It certainly has many of the Galaxy S5 key selling features, while staking on more premium material such as aluminum. But it's not another flagship, no, it's rather an offshoot of the Galaxy family tree - something that the Galaxy S5 mini could have been but is not. A strange bird, indeed.
   
Samsung Galaxy Alpha press photos
That certainly doesn't mean we don't like it. Just on the contrary. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha presents a nice departure from the Galaxy S5 design language. The sides are machined out of aluminum, while the back no longer imitates faux leather.
The Galaxy Alpha has a smaller screen than the S5 to make it much more pocketable and also, undoubtedly, to allow it to compete with the iPhone 6 directly.
Here's what makes the Samsung Galaxy Alpha tick.
Samsung Galaxy Alpha at a glance:
General: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA/LTE connectivity;
Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone with aluminum sides and a plastic back cover;
Dimensions: 132.4 x 65.5 x 6.7 mm, 115 g;
Display: 4.7" 720p SuperAMOLED touchscreen, 312ppi pixel density;
Chipset: Octa-core Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset, including a quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7, Mali-T628 MP6 GPU
OS: Android 4.4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz;
Memory: 32GB storage, no microSD card slot;
Camera: 12MP auto-focus camera, 31mm focal length, f/2.2; LED flash;
Video camera: 2160p video recording, but also 1080p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps;
Front camera: 2.1MP front-facing camera;
Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, standard microUSB 2.0 port, GPS/GLONASS receiver, 3.5mm audio jack;
Battery: 1,860mAh Li-Ion removable battery;
Misc: Fingerprint sensor; heart rate sensor;
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is surprisingly light, it feels sturdy and the back looks like it could take a lot of beating before it gets seriously scratched. The latter benefit is certainly something we've missed in high-end smartphones that we've seen lately.
Our biggest regrets in the specs department are the lack of water-proofing and the lack of a microSD card slot.
   
Samsung Galaxy Alpha live photos
We've got the smartphone for a few days to keep us company and we thought that we might as well come up with this quick preview of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, so you can have something to chew on, while we are hard at work on the full review. Enjoy!
Design and build quality
Samsung's shift in design has to be felt to be believed. No, really, on the outside the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is very similar to the Galaxy S5 mini. A keen eye will notice that the bezels above and below the screen are smaller, accommodating the bigger screen. The Alpha is also considerably thinner, if that's not obvious by first look.
Of course, the major upgrade to Samsung's design language here is the metal chassis. The sides of the phone are exposed metal while the front and back are covered in glass and plastic, not unlike Apple's iPhone 4 / 4s and Sony's Xperias.
  
Samsung Galaxy Alpha compared to the outgoing iPhone model
The Galaxy Alpha will inevitably draw comparisons with the iPhone - the flat metal sides are segmented by thin lines of plastic and look so familiar. Samsung's design features flared corners which improve handling a bit by preventing your fingers from slipping off the rounded corner. They also remind us a bit of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active.
The back of the phone is plastic, with the dotted pattern of perforated leather similar to the Galaxy S5 though here the pattern is finer and not resembling leather so much.
While the plastic isn't the most premium material, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha impresses with a mere 6.7mm thickness. It's the slimmest Galaxy device to date though not the slimmest smartphone in general.
The feeling of compactness is helped by the weight of 115g, few 4.7" phones weigh this little. The Galaxy Alpha feels tiny compared to the current crop of 5" flagships.
  
Galaxy Alpha in the hand • the flared corners slightly improve the grip
The Galaxy Alpha also compares favorably against iPhone 5s, which measures 7.6mm thick and weighs 113g. The iPhone 6 is expected to be bigger and thinner than its predecessor but it remains to be seen if Apple can keep the weight down. And it's the upcoming iPhone that Samsung has in its sights, not the 5s.
We can only suppose that the magic behing this reduced weight is the reduced battery capacity, which in this case amounts to only 1,860mAh. Indeed, the battery is removable, but it's still a measly capacity.
The front is made of glass though Samsung has not revealed yet whether it's the usual Gorilla Glass or not. Under the glass is a plastic that matches the back in terms of color and the fine dotted pattern. The Galaxy Alpha will be available in Charcoal Black, Sleek Silver, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold and Scuba Blue.
The front of the device features an earpiece, the usual sensor array (proximity,

Samsung Galaxy Alpha performance
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is the first device with Exynos 5 Octa 5430 that we've tested. The chipset features a big.LITTLE processor with four Cortex-A16 cores and four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and 1.3GHz respectively. All eight can run simultaneously so we can expect great multi-core performance.
The chipset also packs a hexa-core Mali-T628 MP6 GPU, the latest currently available Mali design. Processor and RAM share 2GB of RAM.
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box. Note that Samsung disables the ART runtime in its TouchWiz software, that's the faster optional runtime that debuted with KitKat and will be made default in Android L. An increasing number of apps is becoming compatible with ART.
Samsung Galaxy Alpha camera quality
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes with a 12MP camera. Samsung hasn't had a 12MP shooter in its lineup for ages so the Alpha isn't just borrowing the camera of another Galaxy. The image sensor has 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning it shoots widescreen photos natively.
The interface has been lifted directly from the Galaxy S5. The right column holds the essential keys - still and video shutter keys, the Mode button and the gallery shortcut. The left column has the front/back camera toggle, selective focus, HDR and settings shortcut.
 
 
Samsung Galaxy Alpha camera interface
The middle two shortcuts are customizable, the top and bottom ones are not. The Mode button is the other place you can quickly access shooting modes, including Panorama, Shot & more, Virtual tour, Dual Camera and Beauty face.
Shot & more combines Best photo, Best face, Drama shot, Eraser and Panning shot. Dual Camera takes a photo with both front and back cameras simultaneously.
Virtual tour shot is similar to panoramas except you can move forward, turn left or right, move some more. Selective Focus takes two shots and processes them so you can photograph a close-up subject and blur the background or blur the object and keep the background in focus. The third option is everything in focus, here's how those options look.
  
Near focus • far focus • all in focus
You can download new camera modes from the Galaxy App store (like Surround shot, a spherical panorama mode).
Here are some camera samples taken with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, we'll reserve comments on the image quality for the review.
  
  
Samsung Galaxy Alpha camera samples
And here are some HDR samples:
 
HDR off • HDR on
Video camera
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha joins the elite club of 2160p shooters. It can also capture 1080p video at both 30fps and 60fps and slow motion is available at 720p resolution. Note that the slowest option (8x) drops the framerate of the resulting video to 15fps, use 4x if you want to keep it at 30fps.
 
 
Options for the video camera on the Galaxy Alpha
For 2160p videos the Alpha camera records at 48Mbps bitrate, matching the Galaxy S5. Interestingly, audio recording is done at 256Kbps, double the bitrate the S5 uses and matching the venerable Nokia Lumia 1020.
Total bitrates go down from there - 28Mbps for 1080p@60fps and 17Mbps for 1080p@30fps. The audio bitrate remains unchanged.
An important thing to note is that switching to 2160p video mode puts an upper limit on video length - 4 minutes (instead of the usual 5) - and disables certain features like Dual Camera, HDR, video effects, taking photos during video capture and video effects.

First impressions
The classic rivalry has been between the Galaxy S and the iPhone but the Galaxy S also has to fight off Android flagships too. Now Samsung has introduced a phone to specifically battle the upcoming iPhone but a quick glimpse at it reveals it may pose a serious competition to the Xperia Z1 Compact, too (or whatever mini phone Sony comes up with this fall.

The exposed metal on the sides of the Galaxy Alpha gives the phone a sense or rigidity that plastic never quite manages. Even so we struggle a bit to call the Alpha a premium device - the plastic on the back and the design of the front are very much standard Galaxy affair, from mid-range to flagship.
Samsung's ubiquitous design is hurting the Alpha a bit, you have to tell the uninitiated that this isn't just another Galaxy S mini. This was perhaps a perfect opportunity for the South Korean giant to shakeup its design language.
That said, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha has proper flagship specs - the chipset is a little speed devil and the 12MP camera looks very promising. The phone also brings blazing fast connectivity, the trendy fingerprint reader and a heart rate monitor to boot.
The only place where the Alpha falters seriously in terms of specifications is the measly battery capacity and the lack of a microSD slot. We feel that engaging the Ultra Power Saving Mode might become a way of life for Alpha owners though.
We finally got what many were asking for - a metal Galaxy flagship. It's metal only on the sides but that worked well enough for iPhones, Xperias and Lumias. Whether the Galaxy Alpha can rise above its worn out looks (both hardware and TouchWiz software) and the screen/batter. For more information visit www.gsmarena.com

Super size

Sony Xperia Z Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Opinion http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/sony-xperia-z-ultra-vs-samsung-galaxy-note-2

Quality Smartphone

There's no denying that the HTC One X was an amazingly solid smartphone. On the surface it even looked like as good a package as its main rival at the time, the Galaxy S III, and having a head-start to the market it was almost expected for it to become a huge success.
The devil turned out to be in the details though, and the One X never quite managed to get the same traction as its Samsung rival. There must have been so many if onlys around the HTC HQ for missing an opportunity like that, that the company didn’t even wait for the successor to come and fix the issues, but released a refreshed model.

HTC One X+ official photos
Enter the HTC One X+. It's faster than its predecessor, offers more storage and an ampler battery – quite nice upgrades. True, they don’t make too dramatic a difference, but as we said – the starting package was pretty great already and it's just the details that needed polishing.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and 3G support
• 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4.7" 16M-color Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen of HD resolution (720 x 1280 pixels); Gorilla glass 2 protection
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with latest HTC Sense 4+
• 1.7 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPUs, low-power companion core, ULP GeForce 2 GPU, Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset
• 1 GB of RAM
• 32/64 GB of storage
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging
• 1080p and 720p video recording @ 24fps with stereo sound
• 720p front-facing camera for video-chat
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and auto-brightness sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• DivX/XviD video support
• Office document editor
• Beats audio enhancements

Main disadvantages

• No microSD card slot
• No dedicated camera key
• Non-user-accessible battery
• No native video-calls
• Video framing is tricky

Despite taking a few punches in this year's flagship wars, HTC isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, the updated One X+ comes at the perfect time to turn things around.

HTC One X+ studio shots
And while the One X+ is certainly better prepared, the challenge has also become harder. During the One X facelift, a new contender emerged in the face of the LG Optimus G and its quad-core Krait CPU. The LG flagship smartphone is certainly the most powerful currently on the market, but the One X+ is the more mature device and has Jelly Bean on its side.

Android 4.2 officially out, Jelly Bean still its name

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is now official, following Google's announcement of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10. There are a lot of new things to cover, so let's not waste any time.

Multiple user accounts

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean for tablets adds multiple user-support to the OS. This way everyone in the household can have an account, which once logged in, welcomes them to their own homescreen, background, widgets and apps. Even the games keep the individual high scores and levels.

Settings center in the notifications drawer

The expandable notifications were a welcomed addition in Android 4.1, but now in Android 4.2, you can also take various actions like toggling Wi-Fi, adjusting screen brightness, go to Airplane mode, and more.
To do so, just tap on the icon on the top right once you have the notification drawer on. It took Google a while to copy the time-saving feature that TouchWiz, SenseUI and many other manufacturer Android skins implemented a while ago. Still, it's good to have it backed in right into the OS.

Photo Sphere

With Android 4.0, Google introduced the Panorama capturing mode, and now with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean users will get a cool feature dubbed Photo Sphere. It's a panorama mode on steroids and allows you to capture photos in multiple directions (up, down, left, right).

After they've been captured and saved as JPEG files you can view them and navigate around the whole image. You can share the image on Google+ or, if you feel like it, contribute the Photo Sphere to Google Maps.
The feature itself was inspired by Street View, as the Product Management Director for Android Hugo Barra points out. He adds that the photos pack embedded XML metadata in them allowing you to easily share them on Google+ and put them in Google+ photo albums, where your friends can view them as well.
Google Now is updated
Google has added a lot of new cards to its Google Now service. It now can feed data directly from Gmail, which will provide new cards, such as package shipments info.
Google Now also got cards for events, restaurant reservations, hotels, and flights. Some of them, like hotels and flights will be location specific. There are also new cards like movie screenings, concerts, stocks, public alerts and developing stories & breaking news.
Naturally, most of them won't be available world-wide at launch, but make sure that Google will work hard to bring them to more and more places in the future.

Gesture Typing

Forget about Swype, Android's very own Gesture typing is the new cool kid on the block. It works in a manner very similar to Swype -- you just Swipe your finger over the letters you want to type, lifting after each word is complete.

Naturally, the Gesture Typing feature benefits from the already existing Android word prediction, so you can just click on the words the keyboard suggests. This comes in addition to the offline voice typing service that Google offers, which makes for an all-round great messaging experience.

Wireless TV integration

Better late than never, finally in this version of Android Google has allows you to wirelessly share the screen of your phone or display with a big screen TV set.

All you need to do is connect a wireless display adapter to an HDMI-enabled TV and then it'll start mirroring whats on your screen using DLNA. The new feature uses the Miracast protocol for streaming.
It's another feature most customs launchers had, but is only now making its way to the platform itself.

Widgets on the lock screen

Widgets are a major part in Android and now you can assign a widget on the lockscreen as well. Think of the Music player widget on the lockscreen, but now you can assign another one there, so it's always just a click away.

Daydream

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean isn't just business and no play. Google has integrated a little feature called Daydream, which is simply a sort of a screensaver. Once turned on, you can set it up to show photo albums, latest news from Google Currents and more when the device is either docked or idle.

Various improvements

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean has a lot going for it, including some minor additions. You can now use pinch-to-zoom in Gmail for enhancing reading, triple-tap to magnify the entire homescreen and the pan and zoom with two fingers, as well as added speech output and gesture mode navigation for the visually impaired users.
Expect Android 4.2 Jelly Bean to start its roll-out once the new Nexus family of devices goes on sale on November 13.

Apple iPhone 5 v Samsung Galaxy S II

When we review phones we try to put them in
context, and tie everything up with a
snapshot of the market and the closest
alternatives. Now, we usually keep droids and
iPhones separate because honestly they just
don't mix. But every now and then, they just cannot be kept apart. Never mind the risk of
explosion. Apple iPhone 5 • Samsung Galaxy S III So there you have it: the new iPhone 5
against the Samsung Galaxy S III. In case
you're wondering why this has taken so long,
we needed quality time with both phones -
not just to get the reviews in, but actually use
them day in, day out. Now we're ready to share our impressions and give you insights
that will hopefully help decide which one is
right for you. The two phones are polar opposites in terms
of design - starting from size, through the
design language, to the OS philosophy, those
two could hardly be more different. Apple has everything tightly locked down.
Perfection, as they see it, can only be
achieved in their walled garden. With Android
and Samsung there's little you're not allowed
to tweak (but be careful what you wish for as
the saying goes). It's not a battle of light versus dark, it's a
matter of values and beliefs - Zen-like
perfection and simplicity versus nothing-is-
off-limits freedom. Here's what kind of design
choices that led to: Apple iPhone 5 over Galaxy S III: Thinner, lighter, more compact More impressive build materials Sharper screen with better sunlight legibility
and more accurate colors LTE on all models Samsung Galaxy S III over iPhone 5: Bigger, higher-res screen NFC connectivity Standard USB port for data transfer and
charging microSD card slot for (cheap) storage
expansion Mass storage mode, USB Host functionality Native Google Maps 2GB RAM in some versions The new iPhone is taller and thinner than its
predecessor, but keeps the same screen
width and pixel density, and makes sure the
hand feel is not impaired. Apple also went
with a brand new connector design - the
Lightning port. The inconvenience of yet another standard aside, it is better in every
way and has allowed Apple engineers to build
a more compact phone. Samsung, on the other hand, went all out -
bigger this, more of that, let's get this in too.
It adhered to industry standards and the
Galaxy S III has a microSD card slot and a
user-accessible battery, which makes
extending the phone's life easier (e.g. expanding the storage or changing the
battery when the old one starts showing its
age). Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III
going head to head The differences in ideology are apparent in
the software too - Apple's design is best
executed by Apple, so they made their own
maps. It's not an easy task and it will take
years to get them right (it's how long it has
taken their competitors to get where they are today). Samsung on the other hand take advantage
of Android's open, extendable design and
piled on new features. There's barely a corner
left in the OS that doesn't bear their mark. We'll start by comparing the hardware of the
Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S III,
with the performance of the two contenders
in various real-life challenges to be examined
after that.

Will this be able to catch up with Apple Ipad

Google's Nexus line has welcomed its first tablet, the Nexus 7. With a promise of solid specs for a low price, the ASUS-made tablet is poised to storm the Android tablet market and maybe even steal a chunk of Apple iPad's market share.
              
Google Nexus 7 tablet by ASUS
The Nexus 7 is powered by one of the two chipsets at the heart of current flagship phones and tablets - NVIDIA's Tegra 3. You get a quad-core CPU and good graphics muscle at a time when the only quad-core tablets around are pricy 10" models.
The 7" screen might be a compromise to some, but others will see an advantage in the excellent portability. 7" tablets fit in a coat pocket or purse. Plus, WXGA resolution and 216ppi pixel density sound more than reasonable. For comparison's sake, an Amazon Kindle Fire offers 170ppi, and even the new iPad isn't too far ahead with its 264ppi.
Some corners had to be cut to get a quality product at Google's intended price point. Here's the summary of what ASUS and Google offer for $200/$250.
Key features
7" 16M-color IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels), scratch-resistant Corning glass
NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset: quad-core 1.3GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
8/16 GB of built-in memory
1.2 MP front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth; Android Beam
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
Accelerometer and proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor
4325 mAh Li-Po battery
Incredibly attractive pricing
Main disadvantages
The screen is a bit washed out and has poor sunlight legibility
Non-expandable memory
No USB mass storage or TV-out
No mobile data-enabled version
Front-facing camera only
Disappointing audio output
The Nexus 7 sure has its downsides, but it makes a killer tablet for web browsing, email or gaming. With the Samsung Galaxy Nexus price set at $350 (one of the cheapest dual-core droids, especially considering the screen size and resolution), it looks like Google's Nexus line has transformed from developer-oriented devices to some of the best Android buys.
But there's more to it than just bang for the buck - a Nexus gadget is a ticket to fast updates to the latest Android OS, an untouched Android at that (some don't really like vendor skins) and a great developer community pushing the gadgets beyond what Google had in mind for them.
   
Nexus 7 tablet at ours
So, is smart money on the Nexus 7 tablet or were there too many corners cut to make the price? Is the Kindle Fire shaking in its boots?