There seems to be a huge amount of evidence that points to the fact the Samsung Galaxy S4 is going to be a superb handset. It might not have a new form-factor, but the hardware more than makes up for this oversight. From the limited number of Galaxy S4 reviews, this is a more than capable phone, and even though I’m an iPhone 5 owner, I know when Apple’s latest handset has been beat.
One subject that always comes up with a handset made from polycarbonate is its strength, but more so how will its screen hold up in everyday life, and if it was accidentally dropped. Above you will see a Samsung Galaxy S4 corning GG3 test, which is a drop test compared to the S4, S3 and the iPhone 5.
We’ve seen so many of these tests over the years, but it’s great to see a Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. iPhone 5 toughness test to see which of the two comes out on top.
There are several tests before we get to see how the Gorilla Glass 3 screen of the S4 compared against the iPhone 5. The overall result is that the GG3 did not help protect the S4 as we would have hoped, but it did do better than the S3, which is an improvement. What is remarkable is how the iPhone 5 managed to tie with Samsung’s latest flagship handset. If you are displeased with the result, then maybe you should hold off and go for the rugged Galaxy S4instead?
If you do have a broken screen and you are unable to get your handset replaced, then you’ll be glad of the fact that the Galaxy S4 is very easy to fix. You have to wonder what would have happened in this text if the S4 was bigger, maybe the size of the Note 2? Speaking of size, we recently discussed what you believe would have been the perfect screen size for the S4?
Galaxy S4 Puts More Features Into the Same Package
The Galaxy S4’s dual camera app lets the photographer appear in a movable inset within the photo or video.
“We’re No. 2,” went the old Avis slogan. “We try harder.”
There’s a world of wisdom there. When Apple designed its originaliPhone, it had zero market share; the company had nothing to lose by taking risks. As a result, the phone teemed with bold ideas.
But as the iPhone became more iconic and more important to Apple, the company’s courage to shake things up has dwindled. Why mess with a great thing?
That timidity gave Samsung the opening it needed. Its Galaxy S phone went after the iPhone with all guns blazing, and soon became a cellular celebrity in its own right.
When it was a distant would-be, Samsung had nothing to lose. “Let’s try making the screen really huge!” “Let’s try hand gestures!” “Let’s try eye recognition!”
But now here’s the Galaxy S4, the fourth incarnation of Samsung’s best-seller. (All four big United States carriers will offer it for prices from $150 to $250 with a two-year contract, or around $640 up front.) And here’s the funny thing: Now Samsung is starting to play it safe.
The Galaxy is still a beautiful, high-horsepower Android phone. But basically, it’s an updated Galaxy S3. If this were Apple, who adds the letter S to denote a slightly upgraded model (“iPhone 4S,” for example), Samsung might have called this phone the Galaxy S3S.
The S4 is the same size as the S3 (well, seven-tenths of a millimeter thinner). It’s still huge, more Jumbotron than index card. Good for maps and movies, bad for small hands.
And the S4 is still made of plastic — lightweight and grippy, but not as classy as the iPhone’s glass or the HTC One’s metal.
All told, nobody at the office will notice that you’ve bought the latest and greatest.
Yet Samsung has managed to cram better components into this wafer without increasing its size. The bright, supersharp screen is now 5 inches diagonal, up from 4.8; the margins have shrunk.
The battery is 20 percent bigger, too. That doesn’t necessarily mean much improvement in the one-day battery life, because the larger screen drinks up more power. Fortunately, you can still pop off the back panel and swap batteries, which you can’t do on an iPhone without a blowtorch. You can also expand the storage with a memory card; the iPhone can only watch with envy.
Most of the other changes in the S4 are software features. More than ever, Samsung’s design approach this time was, “Throw everything in and see what sticks.” There was absolutely no filter. There’s also no consistency, coordination or unified direction; it’s just a big, rattling cargo bay crammed with features.
A few examples: SMART SCROLL This is the S4’s much anticipated eye tracking. Like its predecessor, the S4 can recognize your eyes; it can, for example, dim the screen when you look away, to save battery power. In the S4’s video app, playback pauses when you look away (usually).
Better yet, the Web page or e-mail message you’re reading scrolls when you tip your head, or tip the phone a little bit. No hands! It’s unpredictable and gimmicky, but hey — it’s innovation, right?
AIR VIEW Point to the screen without actually touching the glass to get a pop-up preview of something. For example, point to a calendar square to see a pop-up preview of that day’s events, or to a Gallery thumbnail image to see the full-size photo.
Unfortunately, this feature is inconsistent. Why does it work in the Mail program, but not the Gmail program? (For that matter, why does Android require one app for Gmail, and another for other e-mail services?)
AIR GESTURES A sensor sees when you’re waving your hand — a feature that “really adds value when you’re eating with greasy fingers,” Samsung says. You can scroll a Web page or e-mail message by flapping your hand, or accept an incoming call with a wave. When the phone is locked and dark, waving makes the screen light up long enough for you to see the time, battery gauge and notification icons.
Back at the Consumer Electronics Show 2013, Lenovo announced its flagship smartphone, the K900. Looking at its impressive hardware specifications, the 5.5-incher features the next-generation Intel Atom Z2580 "Clover Trail+" dual-core processor with Hyper Threading technology clocked at 2.0 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB memory.
Among other impressive things, the phone has a 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) screen resolution, a 13-megapixel primary camera based on Sony's Exmor BSI sensor, and the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system.
When it comes to performance, the first benchmark score reveal the real power of the latest flagship smartphone from Lenovo. Surprisingly, the device edges out the Samsung Galaxy S IV AnTuTu benchmark test by a small margin.
Looking at other smartphones, like the HTC DROID DNA and the Samsung Galaxy Note II which both use a quad core processors, the K900 achieved about 10,000 higher score.
According to latest rumours, the K900's release date is April 17th and could cost just $480.
The giant Korean phone makerSamsung is rumoured to be producing yet another “massive” 6.3-inch Android smartphone. The new device will be larger than the current Galaxy Note.
According to a Korean website ETNews, Samsung is perhaps experimenting with the 6.3-inch device if it is acceptable by users. ETNews termed it as a “smartpad” or a phone cum tablet combination (phablet).
The news apparently was leaked by an unknown Samsung official as stating, “As of now, smartphones and smart pads are separate gadgets, but the two will converge into one product under Project Möbius.” The massive device is rumoured to be launched as the Samsung Galaxy Mega.
The rumour also indicated that the Samsung Galaxy Mega will debut in June and will feature Google’s latest operating system – Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
Other specs rumoured is a dual-core Exynos processor, an 8MP main camera, a 2MP front-facing camera and available in both black and white colour models only. The humongous phone is likely to be aimed at a mid-range market.
There is no news as regard to pricing or availability yet, and Samsung said it does not comment on rumour and speculation.
Samsung Electronics America said on Tuesday that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will hit the North American market this Thursday, April 11. It will be offered through participating offline and online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy/Best Buy Mobile, h.h. gregg, Newegg, P.C. Richard & Son, Staples and TigerDirect.com. The price? A meaty $399.99.
Sporting an 8-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) screen, Samsung's new Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" tablet packs an Exynos 4412 quad-core SoC clocked at 1.6 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Also thrown into the hardware mix is a 1.3MP camera on the front, a 5MP camera on the back, and a microSD card slot allowing up to 64 GB of extra storage. Dual-band Wireless N connectivity allows the tablet to access 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz network channels, if available.
"A mid-sized addition to the Galaxy Note family of products, the Galaxy Note 8.0 has the power and advanced technology to enable multi-tasking at home, at work or on the go," the company said. "The Galaxy Note 8.0 is the perfect size for entertainment and productivity, with unrivaled multimedia performance in a compact format. The S Pen has evolved to improve everyday usability with Air View, and Multi Window now supports more apps to perform tasks simultaneously allowing users to do more."
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is the first tablet to feature Samsung WatchON, a new search and recommendation service for finding TV shows and on-demand video content. The tablet also comes with a built-in IR blaster so that it can be used as a universal remote, and a Multi-Windows functionality so that apps like Facebook, Chrome and Polaris Office (20 supported apps total) can be open on the same screen, side-by-side.
The new 8-inch Samsung tablet also features a Reading Mode which adjusts color and brightness to an optimal level for reading. It also allows users to customize fonts and themes so that ebooks, magazines, documents and Web pages are easy to read. All of this is backed by a 4,600 mAh battery promising up to 9 days of usage time and up to 30 days of standby time.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 will be available this Thursday in white for $399.99. Optional accessories sold separately in mid-April will include Book Covers in white, grey, pink or green, as well as USB and HDMI adapters, and a travel charger that connect via the device’s microUSB port.
PC gaming is poised to break free from the desktop—it just needs a device that delivers fast frame rates and lush graphics in an affordable, portable package. Enter the Razer Edge Pro, a Windows 8 tablet built expressly for playing PC games on the go. The hardware even comes with an optional controller accessory that turns the tablet into a handheld game console.
But Razer's pitch goes way beyond gaming. The company is marketing the Edge Pro as a multi-purpose machine that can replace your laptop, desktop, tablet, and, yes, even your Xbox, PS3 and Wii. After using the premier version of Razer's new tablet as my primary device for a week, I think it comes close to delivering on its multi-disciplinary promise—if you're willing to make some compromises.
First, the good news: It works. Thanks to a Core i7 processor and discrete Nvidia graphics, the tablet is powerful enough to run Far Cry 3 and Dishonored at decent frame rates. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run legacy desktop applications, including essential gaming utilities like Steam, uPlay and the launchers for World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. The Edge Pro also easily chews through productivity applications, handling the processor-intensive Photoshop with aplomb.
The bad news: Whether you’re playing games, watching movies, editing images, or writing tablet reviews, the Edge Pro requires significant compromises. In terms of raw processing performance, sure, the tablet can do everything. But in terms of ergonomics, convenience, display quality and price, the tablet falls short of more specialized, cheaper devices. We reviewed the highest spec'ed version of the Edge Pro, and at $1450, it proved to be a luxury product for hardcore PC gamers only.
But at least it's a luxury product that solves a nagging PC gaming problem: Finding killer performance in a reasonably portable package.
Durable chassis with a disappointing display
Compared to the Surface Pro, Razer’s matte black Edge Pro feels chubby. It weighs roughly 2.25 pounds and measures just over 20 mm thick, whereas Microsoft's high-end tablet is just 2 pounds and 13.5 mm thick. Razer’s tablet is durable: it doesn’t have the advantage of Gorilla Glass or a fancy VaporMg chassis, but it survived a week gallivanting around San Francisco in my crowded messenger bag without so much as a scratch. Its composite aluminum body feels cheap to the touch, yet holds up under significant wear and tear.
Even when using the Edge Pro as a regular Windows 8 tablet, sans accessories, the weight of the hardware is noticeable.
While certainly functional, the Edge Pro's 10.6-inch, 1366-by-768 pixel screen is a letdown when watching movies, playing games or doing pretty much anything that’s predicated on visual fidelity—in short, everything that the Edge Pro is designed to excel at. It’s a serviceable platform for playing Skyrim, but I can’t help but envy the iPad's Retina display or even the bright, 1920-by-1080 screen on the Surface Pro. The Edge Pro looks shabby by comparison, and it’s just not bright enough to use in direct sunlight. This is hardly a deal-breaker, but it does mean you’ll need to draw the shades during daylight gaming sessions.
The 10-point capacitive touchscreen is big enough for playing games, as long as you run them full screen. I had no issues browsing the web or using Windows 8 apps, but I felt cramped while trying to manage multiple desktop applications on the Edge Pro’s limited real estate. It’s a problem that’s easily solved by hooking up the tablet to an external display, but you’ll have a difficult time doing so without purchasing the dock accessory, as the Edge Pro tablet itself sports just a single USB 3.0 port.
Bottom line: To use the Edge Pro as a full-fledged desktop PC replacement, an HDTV gaming console or a mobile gaming machine, you must invest in Razer’s portfolio of pricey peripherals.
If you choose to shell out $99 for the Edge docking station—which packs three extra USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI out port, a mic jack, a stereo port, and a jack for the power adapter—you won’t have any trouble outputting to a full 1080p display. I connected the tablet to both a 24-inch Gateway monitor and a 40-inch Mitsubishi HDTV via HDMI, and it effortlessly drove each display at 1920-by-1080. To this extent, the Edge Pro actually doubles as a decent desktop gaming PC—if you’re willing to pay for the docking station and deck it out with a keyboard, mouse, monitor and headset.
Razer earns respect for cramming so much processing performance into a tablet chassis. But with PC power comes PC problems. Play a processor-intensive game like Dishonored for more than a minute, and you’ll feel the heat—literally.
Despite the integration of heat-dissipating grilles along the top-rear edge of the tablet chassis, the tablet consistently became almost too hot to handle during gaming sessions. I passed it around to a few friends and nobody found it painfully hot, but we all agreed that the Edge Pro is uncomfortably warm to the touch while running PC games. It’s not a deal-breaker, but Razer might consider adding “lap warmer” to the Edge Pro’s already lengthy list of functions.
As far as fan noise, the Edge Pro emits a noticeable hum during processor-intensive use. I found it inoffensive and easy to ignore, but your tolerance may vary.
Best-in-class performance
The Edge Pro’s go-for-broke hardware helped the tablet earn top marks in PCWorld's suite of performance benchmarks. Razer sent us the premium version of the tablet, so our tests were able to tap into a 1.9GHz Core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a discrete NVIDIA GT 640M LE GPU alongside the standard Intel HD 4000 graphics chip.
Our review unit, which you can order now on Razer’s website for $1450, also came with a 256GB SSD. The standard $1300 Edge Pro comes with a more modest 128GB SSD. And if you want to spend even less money, a cool $1000 will get you the basic Edge tablet, which sports the same discrete Nvidia GPU, but comes with a Core i5 processor, a 64GB SSD, and just 4 GB of RAM.
The top-of-the-line Edge Pro tablet runs contemporary PC games like Crysis 3 at playable framerates.
The premium-priced Edge Pro delivers fantastic performance that helps justify its $1450 price tag. For one, we saw 73 frames per second running Dirt Showdown at native resolution. That’s more than twice what Microsoft’s Surface Pro was able to deliver in the same test, and confirms that the Edge Pro is the best gaming tablet on the market.
Razer’s beast also outperformed the Surface Pro, The Acer W700 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 in our PCMark 7 suite of productivity tests, including our Photoshop CS6 image editing tests and the 3DMark11 graphics rendering tests. Granted, the Edge Pro has a lower native resolution that the competition, and this makes it easier for the tablet to deliver high frame rates in games. But when you view all the benchmark results together, it's clear the machine is purpose-built for performance.
The flipside of all this fantastic performance is poor battery life. The Edge Pro was pitiful in our battery rundown test, burning through a full charge in just under four hours—six with the extended battery attached. Of all the Windows 8 hybrids we’ve tested, only the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist fared worse. And that’s just in our lab tests, which are actually a little forgiving because they rely on looping video playback and automated PCMark 7 tests to drain the battery. While running demanding PC games on the Edge Pro, I routinely ran the battery dry after two to three hours of continuous play.
This presents a significant problem for real-world use: The utility of a portable gaming machine that can only run for a couple of hours is dubious at best. The brief battery life isn’t an issue if you’re just puttering around your Steam library from the comfort of your couch, but it’s a complete deal-breaker if you’re on a long plane trip or otherwise isolated from a power outlet for more than a few hours.
The 256GB SSD in our review unit was more than spacious enough to install Windows 8, a few productivity programs, benchmarking software, and a handful of games with large storage footprints (Skyrim, Far Cry 3, XCOM and Sleeping Dogs) with plenty of space left over. Even the 128GB SSD in the basic version of the Edge Pro seems spacious enough if you don’t load it up with an excess of music, movies and games. The 64GB SSD in the base Edge tablet concerns us, though, given the storage requirements of Windows 8 and most modern PC games.
Accessories required
It’s impossible to discuss the Edge Pro without delving into its accessories, which Razer sells separately at premium prices. Three are available at the time of this review: a $99 Docking Station, a $249 Gamepad Controller, and a $69 Razer Edge extended battery, which inserts inside the Gamepad Controller. Razer's engineers are also working on a keyboard dock, which should be available by the holidays. Its price is still unknown, but it's slated to support the extended battery.
The docking station resembles a sleek USB hub. Along the rear are three USB 2.0 ports, audio out and mic jacks, an HDMI 1.4 port, and a power jack for the Edge power supply. The idea is to set up the station next to your PC or TV, plug in all the requisite cables for your display, mouse, keyboard, and so on, and then just plop the Edge into the dock when you get home and use it as your desktop PC or gaming console.
Plug the tablet into the docking station (sold separately) and use it's suite of ports to hook up three additional USB devices and drive external hardware via HDMI and audio out.
I did both, and I’m happy to report the Edge Pro performs very well in either capacity. It’s a little challenging to find decent PC games that support multiple players using gamepads, but my friends and I had a fantastic time playing through Double Fine’s The Cave on a 40-inch HDTV. The Edge Pro performed equally well when docked with my mouse, keyboard and 24-inch monitor—the extra screen space and input control make the Edge Pro shine as a desktop replacement.
Of course, if you’re away from the docking station and want to play anything other than simple touch-based games on the Edge Pro, you’ll need to either plug a controller into the tablet’s sole USB 3.0 port, or jack into the optional $249 Gamepad Controller, which cocoons the tablet in a considerable amount of extra hardware.
The Gamepad Controller gives you console-style button controls—a welcome feature when playing many PC games. But the accessory is also a hefty investment in terms of both price and poundage: When you slot in the extended battery, the machined aluminum chassis adds more than two pounds and almost four inches to the tablet. This expanded form factor is manageable, but I needed to curl up on a couch when using the Edge Pro in all it’s mobile gaming glory for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. The ergonomics are challenging, and many seating positions just won't work.
The Edge Pro is at its best—and heaviest—when jacked into the gamepad chassis (which conceals a slot for an extended battery.)
The chassis is sturdy—there’s no danger of snapping the thin supports that link the hand grips to the shell—and conceals motors that deliver surprisingly satisfying vibrational feedback during game play. Razer’s design clearly duplicates Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for Windows gamepad, with two analog joysticks, a directional pad, four face buttons (A, B, X, Y), and the requisite Start and Select buttons.
Six triggers crown the two cylinders—three on either side—and all are within comfortable reach of your index fingers. Using the directional pad and face buttons isn’t as comfortable, because each button cluster is nestled about an inch beneath an analog stick. This is a cramped arrangement, and when you're quickly moving your thumbs back and forth between the controls, fatigue sets in quickly. Given how much real estate is available on each cylinder, it’s hard to understand why Razer built the buttons and sticks so close together.
Can a tablet really fulfill all your gaming needs?
The Razer Edge Pro is the most powerful Windows 8 tablet PCWorld has ever seen. Sure, it’s not as sleek as the competition, but the extra girth is an acceptable compromise in exchange for the power of an Nvidia GPU and a Core i7 processor.
More importantly, it’s solid proof that Razer can successfully build a Windows tablet that runs the latest PC games at playable frame rates. The Edge Pro is expensive and cumbersome, but it works: It lets you play Skyrim in bed, and that alone makes it a must-buy for a subset—a very, very rich subset—of PC gaming enthusiasts.
My biggest problem with the Edge Pro is that it’s so clearly a luxury product. Razer built a Windows 8 tablet that only gamers could love, and even then only if they shell out almost two grand for the premium model with all the optional accessories. For that price, you could pick up an Xbox 360, a Nexus 7 and enough hardware to build your own gaming PC, andstill have a little cash left over for games. The Edge Pro simply isn’t a practical replacement for any device save perhaps a Windows tablet, and even there it can’t match the price, portability or convenience of the Microsoft Surface Pro and its Type keyboard covers.
The Edge Pro is an amazing piece of kit, but it's hard to recommend it to anyone but a hardcore PC gaming enthusiast. If you want a Windows 8 device for any other purpose, you'd be better served by a Surface Pro or a Windows 8 hybrid, at least until Razer improves upon the Edge Pro's design shortcomings. It's just a few ounces, inches and dollars from being a game-changing product.
