Samsung ATIV Tab 3 hands-on (video)

Samsung ATIV Tab 3 handson

Well, we’re no closer to finding out whether or not this is indeed the world’s thinnest Windows 8 tablet, but we can confirm that the ATIV Tab 3 is stunningly thin. In fact, it’s as svelte as its iOS and Android competitors, hitting an astounding 8.22mm. Samsung’s following the design lines of its Galaxy range — aside from the Windows button beneath the screen, obviously. At a distance you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the ATIV Tab 3 and recent Galaxy Tabs. We like the unified approach here — it should make it much easier to identify a Samsung device at first glance. Of course, that uniformity also means that the devices all feel similar too. That is to say, cheap and plasticky.

With an Intel Atom processor inside along with 2GB of RAM, It feels light and responsive. Apps launched pretty quickly, but we weren’t able to really punish the CPU and unreliable WiFi made testing the browser impossible. The 1,366 x 768, 10.1-inch screen pairs with an S-Pen that’s housed in the bottom right corner, which isn’t quite as useful as it is on the Note range… at least not yet. The don’t-call-it-a-stylus comes with dedicated software, including improved handwriting-to-text, Easy Clipping and Air View all now working within Windows 8, not to mention S Note. The ATIV Tab 3 will be shipping in early August for $699, with a keyboard cover included. For now, we’ve got more impressions after the break.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Samsung’s Shape-Shifting Ativ Q Isn’t Pretty, But Running Windows 8 And Android May Make It A Worthy Workhorse

Ativ Q

Samsung just pulled back the curtain on a new line of Ativ Windows notebooks, but perhaps the most interesting of the company’s new Ativs is a 13.3-inch convertible tablet it hopes will appeal those prepping to head back to school. The shape-shifting Ativ Q sports a tablet mode, a video-friendly formfactor with the screen held near vertical, and a more traditional notebook configuration that reveals its built-in QWERTY keyboard, but it’s got an even niftier trick up its sleeve.

While the Ativ Q boots into Windows 8 there’s also a dual-OS mode that allows the users to switch to stock Android 4.2.2, thereby allowing for Microsoft productivity staples such as Office to live in close proximity to the Google Play Store and the usual gamut of Android apps. It’s a cake-and-eat-it-too tablet. Or a tablet for someone who just can’t decide between Windows or Android.

The Ativ Q also supports the classic Windows desktop mode – and since the tablet includes Samsung’s S Pen stylus (which pulls out from a slot in its side) the tiny menus of classic Windows aren’t as fiddly as they would otherwise be to navigate on such a device.

Samsung said photos and files can be shared between the Windows and Android OS modes. Switching between the different OSes seemed fast during my brief hands on, although it’s relatively easy to accidentally revert to Windows. The Ativ Q is not a native Android device, being as it’s not booting directly to Android, but Samsung made a point of demoing a handful of Android games, including Angry Birds, running on the Ativ Q to show it is capable of handling such apps without a significant dip in performance.









The touchscreen display is QHD with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,800, which works out to a pixel density of about 275 PPI. The aspect ratio of the screen means the device feels quite long and narrow (not unlike plenty of other Windows convertibles). The entire device also feels very hefty – it’s not a tablet you want to hold in your hands for long — and it’s relatively thick, at 13.9mm wide. It is a serious bit of kit to lug about, but if you consider it as a laptop replacement rather than an iPad competitor then that’s perhaps to be expected. It’s certainly not the world’s most elegant slice of portable computing but Samsung is obviously hoping its flexibility is what will make it stand out.

Pulling up on the side of the screen when the device is in tablet mode lifts it out on a built-in hinged stand so it can be angled in a variety of ways, including a so-called “floating” mode suitable for presentations when a standing speaker needs to look down at the screen. The display can also be angled steeply up, with the keyboard entirely out of sight, to view videos. And it can be moved into a typing mode where the display is tucked behind the built-in keyboard.






This keyboard felt unpleasantly plasticky to my fingertips but it was relatively roomy, despite taking up less than half the width of the device. There’s no space for a trackpad but Samsung has added in an optical nav key in the centre of the keyboard if you prefer not to use the touchscreen, plus three physical selection keys at the edge of the keyboard to act as mouse keys.

Samsung has sited the device’s CPU and components inside the flexible stand portion of the device, rather than inside the screen or under the keyboard. It said it wanted to keep the hot parts away from the bits the user touches. Whether that’s a huge advantage remains to be seen, but it does mean the screen is thinner than it might have been otherwise, so probably a little easier to move around.

The screen has a Windows touch-key on the front which returns the user to the Windows 8 homescreen, There’s a tile on that interface for switching to the Android OS (and another for Windows Classic). When using the device in the Android scenario, there are additional nav keys along the bottom of the screen for switching back to Windows. The device being demoed during my hands on was running stock Android 4.2.2, rather than having any TouchWiz overlay.

Samsung said pricing for the Ativ Q will be confirmed later, and the price tag is likely going to be the deciding factor on whether this hybrid beast flies. It’s not what you’d call stylish or elegant, and its weight puts its portability in doubt, but it has the potential to be a bit of a workhorse -– with both Windows and Android, and tablet and QWERTY functionality on tap.

Samsung Galaxy NX Camera: Android + Interchangeable Lenses

Samsung has just launched the Samsung Galaxy NX Camera at an event in London, and it is an Android camera that features interchangeable lens, making it the first of its kind. As we expected when Samsung introduced the original Galaxy […]

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

    

Samsung Shows Off New Tablets, Galaxy Camera

Samsung Shows Off New Tablets, Galaxy Camera

Samsung introduced two new tablets today: the ATIV Q, a hybrid PC-tablet device, and the ATIV Tab 3, a remarkably thin Windows 8 tablet. Also, an interchangeable-lens camera that runs Android.

    

Hands-On With Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Zoom, The Smartphone With A 10x Optical Zoom Lens

Galaxy Zoom

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Zoom steers its Galaxy brand into slightly new territory, by creating a hybrid smartphone-cum-pocket-camera. Unlike pretty much every other cameraphone around, the Zoom has a 10x optical zoom lens protruding from its rear.

In short, it’s a phone with two faces: one pure Galaxy smartphone, the second resembling a classic point-and-shoot camera. It’s a curious move that’s likely to grab consumers’ attention, but there’s a bigger question here — what’s it like using it?

If you only look at the Zoom’s phone half, you’d quickly discover it’s largely standard mid-range Galaxy fare — the usual TouchWiz interface runs atop Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and there’s a dual-core 1.5GHz chipset powering the show. It felt fast and responsive during my brief hands on, and the 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED screen was bright and plenty big enough for all the typical smartphone uses, without being as huge a pane as Samsung’s flagship high-end smartphones.

The Zoom has a removable battery, accessible via a side door near the camera grip that also covers the SIM slot. Your usual selection of ports is accounted for too, though the microSD card slot, headphone jack, and micro-USB charger port are joined by a tripod mount on the base.

Samsung’s camera-centric chimera has a surprisingly pleasing feel, considering it’s considerably heavier than the company’s usual, plasticy smartphones. Despite the extra heft the overall feel is balanced. You won’t be putting it into the pocket of your skinny jeans as it would certainly drag you down, but the extra weight doesn’t feel too unwieldy. Perhaps because it looks so camera-like that the expectation is of more weight from the get-go.

The look of the device is exactly that of a hybrid. Holding it from the phone side it looks exactly like the Galaxy S4 Mini. Indeed, ignore the camera half and it is basically that phone, says Samsung. Turn it around and it’s a point and shoot digital camera.  The only odd moments come when you’re holding it like a camera, so it’s in landscape orientation, but using the phone’s Android homescreen or menus. These stay in portrait orientation. Of course the camera app interface supports both landscape and portrait orientations, as do other apps – such as the web browser – but homescreens remain portrait-only.









Construction feels solid. There’s plenty of plastic on the device but the lens enclosure is metal. The edges of the phone also have the same brushed silver bands as the rest of the S4 range – albeit that appears to be plastic, rather than metal. The camera ergonomics work reasonably well, with a nicely shaped front ridge for gripping with your right hand. This is the same shiny plastic as the rest of the casing, so there’s no rubberised covering to aid grip.

The positioning of the phone power key (on the left of the top edge, when holding the phone in the camera stance) is potentially slightly awkward as it is close to where your left hand rests when you’re using the camera in landscape mode. There’s just about enough room to avoid it but a few accidental strikes are probably inevitable.

Now we’re getting to the fun part. The Galaxy Zoom has a 16MP sensor with optical image stabilisation, 10x optical zoom and a 24mm lens. Photo quality was difficult to assess in the relatively dingy conditions of the press room where the device was being demoed, and with limited hands-on time, but test shots did display a fair amount of noise. Exposure could also be uneven, and lower light shots came off with some noticeable blur, despite the image stabilisation tech inside the device.









Overall photo quality looked fair, but left plenty to be desired. Shooting in brighter outdoor conditions would undoubtedly result in crisper detail but as with many cameraphones the Galaxy Zoom appears to be a middling performer in less ideal lighting conditions (not that the average consumer will immediately realise that). The Zoom’s tactile optical zoom lens and physical camera looks are likely to win over a portion of Samsung’s target user based on their familiarity with the traditional camera form factor. Samsung cited “busy mums” as one target – i.e. people who take a lot of shots, and care about the results, but aren’t as discerning about image quality as camera pros.

Samsung has added an ‘expert’ mode to the Zoom’s camera interface for users who want to play around with a few more controls. This mode allows manual tweaking of setting like EV brightness, colour tone, saturation, sharpness, contrast, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance and metering. However  the typical Galaxy Zoom user is likely going to be sticking with its auto mode or consumer friendly ‘smart mode’ which offers a carousel of pre-sets to pick from, such as landscape, dawn, best face (which takes a series of shots and lets you pick the best one) and kids shot. The latter plays a baby-friendly noise to attract the subject’s attention so they’re looking at the camera before it snaps the shot. File that under ‘parent friendly’.

Likewise, the mechanical operation of the zoom lens is likely to take a little getting used to as it’s sited close to the edge of the device which means the lens can push against your fingers if you’re wrapping your hand around the back of the device, causing your grip to slip. It won’t take a user long to get accustomed to the moving protrusion, however. When you’re using the device as a phone, so when the lens is at its most retracted, it does stick out into your palm, feeling a bit lumpy. It’s not actually too bad though — and gives something grippy to tighten your palm around.

On the top right of the device, when holding the phone in the classic camera stance, is its round physical shutter key. This looks like a traditional camera shutter button. It requires a very light touch for the initial focus depression, and more of a squeeze to take the photo as  you’d expect. The button felt nice and responsive during my hands on. It can also be used to jump right into camera mode from elsewhere in the OS by holding the button down.

When not in the camera application, turning the lens ring activates a camera shortcut menu where you can choose from a range of camera mode options – either by tapping  the touchscreen or turning the dial to move the selection then hitting the shutter to select the mode you want. Modes are also accessible from within the camera app via a touch key at the right hand side of the interface.

When using the lens ring shortcut, modes on offer are night, animated photo, macro, landscape, beauty face (a mode that automatically ‘airbrushes’ portraits), the gallery and an auto mode that pre-selects the mode to take the shot in, based on what the camera calculates is the most appropriate mode for the conditions you’re shooting in.

The zoom ring can also be used to navigate inside the gallery, including to zoom into shots to look at details. The navigation doesn’t seem especially well thought through, however, as you can’t apparently move through photos in sequence. To browse shots you have to resort to using your finger on the screen. The fly-by-wire feel of the lens ring is also slightly too loose to be entirely pleasing. Plus there’s a slight lag between you turning and the camera interface responding by zooming in/out. It’s not a huge lag, but does make it feel slightly unresponsive.

Overall, the Galaxy S4 Zoom feels like a well thought through concept — the combining of the traditional camera form with a smartphone works surprisingly well and doesn’t feel unbalanced. But the let down is not that it looks too ugly or feels too heavy or is just weird to operate. Rather what’s a bit disappointing is that the picture quality isn’t better. For a mid range cameraphone the Galaxy S4 Zoom’s photos are probably about as good as you’d expect. But with such a whopping zoom lens on the back it’s hard not to hope for a little more photographic oomph. Still, this device’s mainstream consumer target may well be perfectly happy with what its lens can turn out — and zoom in on.

Be Prepared For That Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Zombie Survival Crate ContentsEveryone who has been paying attention to television or movies for the last 35 years knows that it is coming and that it is inevitable. The dead are going to rise up and come after the living and we all need to be ready! There is no need to spend hours researching just what you will need. You can have it all delivered to your door in the Zombie Survival Crate.

A Phone Full of Cheap Apps Is Your Deal of the Day

A Phone Full of Cheap Apps Is Your Deal of the Day

After the holiday season, early summer is the second best time to pick up some discounted digital games. Steam’s summer sale is coming soon, but right now there are a ton of apps on sale for both iOS and Android, some of which are no-brainers, like the original Sonic The Hedgehog for $1. Actual smartphone not included.

Read more…

    

Samsung ATIV Q: hands-on with the company’s new Windows-Android slider (video)

Samsung ATIV Q: hands-on with Sammy's new Windows-Android slider

The products keep coming. The latest announcement from Samsung is a new addition to its ATIV range and it’s a hybrid in more ways than one. Similar to the ASUS Transformer Book Trio, announced earlier this month at Computex, Samsung just introduced its own dual-OS portable. It’s called the ATIV Q, and it combines Android 4.2 and Windows 8. Under the hood, the device is powered by a Haswell-series Intel Core i5 processor and manages to fit a 13.3-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen into a 1.29kg package that measures just 13.9mm thick. Other notable specs include an S Pen with 1,024 degrees of sensitivity. There’s space for the stylus to be stored in the bottom corner of the device. Hardware considerations have also been folded into the design, with the processor housed inside the ATIV Q’s hinge. Samsung says that this ensures that heat dissipates from the back of the device.

A software highlight from this particular Windows 8-Android team-up is the ability to share files (photos, documents… seemingly anything that can be opened with programs on the other OS) and share folders across the operating system divide. We can certainly see the usefulness in this approach — sharing images to your favorite Android social app and generally unifying how you use the hybrid, regardless of OS. The ATIV Q will launch globally in Q3, and we’ve been told “in time for the back-to-school season”, which sounds like sooner rather than later. We’ve managed to spend a bit of time with the new multi-talented slider: check out some first impressions after the break.

Update: We just added some video.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom hands-on: 10x telephoto, 100x intrigue (video)

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom handson, witty rejoinder here

It’s easy enough to describe the Galaxy S4 Zoom, since it’s essentially a Galaxy S4 Mini with a 10x zoom lens stuck on the back. But that sort of summary doesn’t do it justice. When you hold the phone-slash-camera and look at the optically stabilized image captured by its 16-megapixel, point-and-shoot grade sensor, you begin to realize that — at least for those who do a lot of snapping and sending — this combo of components holds some serious power.

Just like the first Galaxy Camera, it’s all about fun and immediacy: the ability to edit, organize and share decent-quality images using Android apps and cellular data connectivity. The key advantages are that the GS4 Zoom can work as a regular phone for voice calls, and that it’s just about portable enough to be used that way, whereas the Galaxy Camera was a lot bulkier. With these gains, the smaller zoom (10x instead of 21x) and lower-res screen (qHD instead of 720p) don’t overly faze us, so long as the final selling price takes it all into account. Ultimately, our only hesitation is the impending arrival of the so-called Nokia EOS, likely due on July 11th, which takes a totally upside-down approach to smartphone photography and is likely to be much more pocketable as a result. Those are two devices we can’t wait to put head-to-head, especially in terms of image quality, but our hands-on gallery (and impending video) might help to tide you over in the meantime.

Update: Hands-on video added.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Samsung Galaxy NX mirrorless camera: hands-on with an Android ILC (video)

Samsung Galaxy NX camera handson

After last year’s Galaxy Camera, Samsung split in two directions. It went closer to the phone with the Galaxy S 4 Zoom, shrinking the form factor (and some of the specs) for something that closer approximates a pocket-friendly device, and it got serious about interchangeable-lens cameras. This is the Galaxy NX, an ILC with LTE connectivity that’s capable of capturing at 8.6 fps and contains a hybrid autofocus system made by Samsung. In fact, the company says it’s behind every part of this new device, from the quad-core 1.6GHz Pega-Q processor, to the 4.8-inch LCD screen, to even the shutter mechanism. With a “DSLR-class” 20.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS image sensor we’ve seen on other NX cameras, new DRIMe IV image processor and ISO settings from 100 to 25,600, Samsung appears to be making a serious pitch for photographers interested in more than just an Instagram hook-up. This mirrorless shooter will be compatible with the full gamut of NX lenses, currently totaling 13. We paired the Galaxy NX with its 18-55mm OIS kit lens and tested it out for a bit. Read up on our impressions after the break.

Update: Now with a dollop of video from the Premiere event in London.

Filed under: ,

Comments