Hasta La Gadget!

Several months after the first market availability of the original HTC One, the HTC One mini emerges as a compact amalgamation of everything that was right about its predecessor. Working with a smaller body, a lower resolution on a sized-down display, and a processor that’s not quite as powerful as the Qualcomm SoC on the HTC One, can this miniature second wave of a smartphone strike true for those of us with a smaller palm?

Hardware

This machine’s 720 x 1280 display (across 4.3 inches of screen real-estate) does not disappoint. While the HTC One is slightly sharper mathematically, we’re well into the “I wouldn’t have noticed if you’d not said something” zone. This machine’s display is so close to the surface of the glass that protects it, it’s difficult to tell that they are, indeed, two separate pieces of hardware. Right from the moment you turn this smartphone on, you can feel HTC’s efforts continue to hit top-notch.

The HTC One mini comes in at 132 x 63.2 x 9.25 mm in size and 122g in weight, shaving off just about as much on its left and right as it does on its top and bottom, feeling in the end to be essentially the same thickness – even if it is a smidgen different (0.05 mm thinner, to be exact). Where the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini feels like a shadow of the full-sized Galaxy S 4, the HTC One mini feels like a companion to the HTC One – more like an alternate reality approach.

While it would appear at a glance that the HTC One mini’s plastic ring around its edges were placed there only to be a differentiator for the final build between this and the original, it does serve to make one feel less fearful of dropping the whole unit. It’s not as if this ring is going to do a whole lot more to protect the front or back of the smartphone from a concrete slab ground, but there’s more of a sense of safety here, even if it does dare us to suggest that it makes the device feel more like a Samsung handset (it doesn’t).

Instead it would seem that the aluminum back panel and two speaker grill-filled front panels serve, with the single pane of Gorilla Glass up front, to keep this device well in the premium build universe. Up front you’ve still got the double-dose of sensors peeking out at you on the left up top, and one of two high-powered cameras up on the right.

There’s also a notification light up in the topside speaker grill – 12th hole in from the right, second row from the bottom – one single pin hole and a world of difference for those who demand such a shiner. This light serves to tell you the HTC One mini is being charged up, for the most part, but you’ll also find a set of checkmarks you can toggle in settings under “Notification flash”, including Calls, Voice mail, Messages, Calendar, Mail, and Alarms.

Behind the speaker grills up front are stereo speakers, working with HTC’s own branded audio setup BoomSound and sounding every bit as powerful as they do on the HTC One. It’s surprising, really, that HTC brings this premium feature to devices other than the HTC One – you’ll find it in HTC 8XT as well – though we’ve yet to test that unit for comparable ear-shattering. Here on the HTC One mini you’ve got the same best-in-glass speaker setup first delivered with the HTC One, top and bottom both.

On the right side of this smartphone you’ll find two volume buttons instead of a rocker – this is modified from the HTC One which used a single piece of metal with a circular pattern through its form. Up top is a standard-sized headphone jack alongside a power / lock button that, instead of having an IR-blaster built in, is simply a bit more aluminum this time around.

The left side of the HTC One mini holds this device’s single microSIM card slot which can be popped out with an HTC-provided pin, while the bottom holds one of two mic holes (the other is on the back panel) near an off-set microUSB port for power and PC connections. This is an offset port in that it’s not right in the center, where many major smartphones’ usb ports tend to find themselves.

The back panel of the HTC One is split into three – there’s a top section that’s roughly the same size as the bottom, then a center single panel that takes up the majority of the machine. This center panel holds the 3D alternate-shade of aluminum spelling out HTC as well as the second of two HTC One mini-bound cameras and a single LED flash. The second of two microphone holes sits on the left between the top and middle panels, the opposite side of the hole on the HTC One.

You’ll also find the Beats Audio brand intact here, this time a bit more subdued (at least on this light silver edition) than the original (which blasts the logo out in hot red). FCC and other certification data finishes out the package at the bottom in a silver so light you can barely see it.

Inside you’ve got 4G LTE and HSPA compatibility with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 (ready for LE/ Bluetooth Smart in Android 4.3 eventually) as well as aptX support for high-powered wireless audio. You’ll not be getting any NFC this time around, unfortunately – not a deal-breaker for most, but as the NFC universe expands, one must consider such a thing.

Software

The software is nearly a perfect replica of what’s found on the original HTC One here on the international edition of the HTC One mini. The big differences come in the app selection and the compatibility (or lack thereof) with certain functions due to hardware changes. No IR-blaster means no Sense TV, no NFC means no Android Beam. These are compromises you should be willing to make when you jump in on this miniaturized version of the full-sized hero.

The HTC One mini adds Mocana’s KeyVPN app right out of the box – this allows you to connect to secure networks, of course, and does so as one might expect. Google’s full suite of Google Play apps is here, including Play Movies, Play Music, Play Magazines, and Play Books, these running alongside HTC’s iterations with additions like “Music”.

HTC’s music app is the same as it was on the HTC One, here delivering the ability to play lyrics from songs and show wild animations during track playback. HTC also includes a simple PDF Viewer that can access the device’s own storage as well as cloud apps like Dropbox. Editing of PDFs is done by Polaris Office.

Dropbox is also – once again – included with the basic build of this HTC smartphone. You’ll also be seeing music sales with 7digital, music identification with SoundHound, and internet radio with TuneIn Radio. These along with Play Movies and YouTube have HTC making sure you’re going to be putting your BoomSound speakers to good use.

The first page you see when you enter past your HTC One mini’s lockscreen is a system called HTC BlinkFeed. This first appeared with the HTC One and continues here with its entire set of abilities still ready to roll.

You’ll be able to collect news sources and updates from your social networking profiles to create one big image-intensive collection of quick-views. Each of these rectangles is able to be tapped to expand, and you’re able to turn each of your news sources on/off at will.

The system is set by default to refresh only when on wi-fi, but you can change it to work with mobile data if you wish. By all eyeballing accounts, this and every other part of the UI in the HTC One mini appear to be moving every bit as swift as the original, despite the lower capacity for processing power in this smaller device’s interior architecture.

Performance

The HTC One mini works with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. This means it’s not quite up to the task of taking on the HTC One’s Snapdragon 600 with its four CPU cores, but here on a device with a smaller device with a smaller display with a lower resolution, the results appear the same. We’ve noticed no slowdown in everyday use, and we’ve not yet seen lag even when opening some of the most demanding games on the market. It would appear that we’ve reached a point in the smartphone chip-making world where the power has out-run the demand.

Have a peek at the benchmarks above and see what you think. While this device doesn’t make too much of an effort to break down any top-tier barriers, it’s well ready to do its own job, and do it well.

Camera / Battery

The camera here continues to work with HTC Zoe, Full HD (1080p) video recording and high-quality results on both the front and back-facing camera. The back-facing camera continues to work with the full HTC One-born UltraPixel setup, complete with results just as impressive as the original.

While it might seem that working with a slightly less powerful processor might result in lower-quality results in image processing, or at least slower processing therein, the differences are minor, if noticeable at all. This device has the same f/2.0 aperture in play as well as the same dedicated ImageChip 2 image processor – this is in addition to the main device processor, mind you.

What you’ve got is a system that shoots photos and video as well as the HTC One, with one difference: the HTC One mini does not work with Optical Image Stabilization. The big place this takes effect is in filming videos, which here can be a bit more “shaky” as a result. If you’ve never used the HTC One and felt that bump in quality, this change-over won’t make a difference to you.

Have a peek at a collection of sample shots above and let us know what you think of the system compared to the original. It certainly feels the same, and as always, it’s as much about the photographer as it is about the camera.

Battery

The HTC One mini works with a non-removable 1800mAh battery which, paired with Qualcomm’s battery conservation features in its Snapdragon processor and HTC’s own battery saver mode in this phone’s settings, you’ll be getting a massive amount of battery life on standby. In fact, if you leave your device in your pocket and turn off data altogether, you might just get a few days’ worth of life out of it.

If you’re a heavy user, on the other hand, this phone will need a charge by the time the day is through. If you’re doing nothing but streaming video and playing games, you’ll get no more than 8 hours out of the HTC One mini, while light users – email, chat, and the like, will easily get a full work day without plugging this machine in to the wall.

Wrap-up

In the end you’ll have to base your decision to purchase this device on whether or not you’re willing to make a trade-off in size and for a few odd features for a lower price point. If you’re not seeing this decision between the HTC One and the HTC One mini as a trade-of, and instead simply want a smaller device that fits your hand better than the original, then you’ll be good to go! In the end, this machine takes everything that was great about the HTC One and jams it into a smaller package.

Let us know if there’s anything else about this device that you’d like SlashGear to test – this is a living review, after all, and we’ll continue to update as you, the reader, would ask us to. We’re here to provide you with the information you want on the HTC One mini – the same being true of all our reviews – stay tuned!

HTC One mini Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia’s Lumia 1020 PureView might not need an introduction, but it may need an explanation. Announced with no small amount of fanfare (and hyperbole from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop) the new Windows Phone borrows Nokia’s photography tricks from the notably-niche 808 PureView of 2012, refining it with Microsoft’s OS and a more streamlined form-factor to make an attempt at the mass-market. That mass-market will get the Lumia 1020 on AT&T from July 26, but the 41-megapixel marvel has already been on the SlashGear test bench, so read on for our full review.

Hardware

To call the Lumia 1020 the most legitimately exciting Windows Phone isn’t an exaggeration. Nokia’s big reveal really found its feet when the company showed off how the PureView phone could literally be used to spot a needle in a haystack, the impressive optical zoom promising a degree of flexibility without optical compromise that nothing else on the smartphone market today can rival.

It’s still not a small phone. The camera bulge is reduced from that of the 808 PureView, a circular swelling rather than that Symbian handset’s generally bloated chassis, but it’s noticeable in the hand and in the pocket. There are some things – like a big CMOS and the six-part optics to go with it – that simply can’t be slimmed down entirely. The white of our review unit is a whole lot more discrete than the yellow version Nokia focused on during the unveil, and the familiar Lumia polycarbonate feels sturdy but not too heavy. We might have preferred the more grown-up styling of the Lumia 925, but the 1020 doesn’t embarrass itself.

Face on, and the Lumia 1020 looks like the Lumia 920 before it. Inside, things are much in keeping with that existing handset too. You get a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, along with a 4.5-inch 720p Super AMOLED touchscreen that has both impressive viewing angles and good outdoor visibility thanks to Nokia’s ClearBlack Display technology. It’s also one of the company’s Super Sensitive panels, promising to remain usable even if you’re wearing gloves.

LTE is supported on the AT&T review model we’ve been testing, along with HSPA+ and GSM/EDGE. You also get WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, and GPS, plus a 2-megapixel front-facing camera with a wide-angle lens above the display. Physical controls include the dedicated camera key that Microsoft mandates – here with two levels to lock the focus – along with a volume rocker and power/lock key. Ports include microUSB and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Software

Windows Phone 8 is a known quotient by now, already having taken the third spot in the smartphone charts, albeit still trailing Android and iOS considerably. The promise is better integration for those using Windows 8 on their desktop, notebook, or tablet, and Xbox for their gaming, though right now the actual extent of that symbiosis is relatively shallow.

Instead, you’re left with a mobile platform that is cleanly designed, highly approachable for new users, and – if you spend some time experimenting with the resizable Live Tiles of the homescreen – surprisingly flexible, though which continues to lag behind in app availability. The Windows Phone Market is getting bigger all the time, but developers still generally look to Google and Apple first, and that means that, while Microsoft’s platform is gaining in big-name titles, it’s usually with a delay from their appearance elsewhere.

Nokia has been doing its best to fill in the gaps, particularly with its location-based services provisions, and the HERE suite is surprisingly capable. There’s offline navigation, complete with turn-by-turn voice prompts, along with an augmented reality-style search system for points of interest which overlays venue information on top of a real-time view from the 1020′s camera. Like Google Maps, you can see public transportation options, too; Nokia allows you to pin common journeys to the homescreen, the Live Tiles of which show the next departure time.

Our long-standing feelings about Windows Phone still stand, however. It’s approachable but still feels immature, not helped by patchy third-party support. The situation is getting better, but it takes something stand-out to make the OS more appealing; thankfully that’s just what the 1020 PureView offers, in the shape of its camera.

Camera

Until you dive into the new Pro Camera app, it’s business as usual. It’s the new camera interface that we’re most impressed by, replacing Microsoft’s mediocre default with something that does a far better job of blending point-and-shoot simplicity with the sort of advanced features photography enthusiasts tempted by the PureView system might want to see.

Nokia overlays the key settings – white balance, ISO (100-3200), exposure, shutter speed, and more – in an array of concentric rings. It’s a system we’ve seen Samsung use on the Galaxy Camera, but where Nokia has diverged is in making each ring transparent, so that you can still frame the shot. Even better, the preview changes in real-time as you adjust each setting, making it abundantly clear how you’re affecting the end-result.

The outcome is an immediacy and clarity of settings that other smartphone cameras can’t compete with: rather than jumping between the settings page and the preview screen, in a trial-and-error manner, you see exactly what will happen with the changes you’re making. Nokia has said the Pro Camera app will appear on its other PureView-branded phones, and it undoubtedly won’t be long before it’s cloned for rival devices, but we can’t bring ourselves to be too upset about that since it’s a system we already wish was ubiquitous.

Although 41-megapixels is the headline number, Nokia actually aims for roughly 5-megapixel shots. By doing so – and keeping file size down, important since the Lumia 1020;s 32GB of internal storage is non-expandable – the Windows Phone can offer a lossless digital zoom, up to 3x in fact. Sliding a finger up and down the display zooms in and out.

However, it’s also possible to do post-photography lossless zooming, as the Lumia 1020 can actually capture both a 34-megapixel and 5-megapixel pair of originals simultaneously. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but in effect the higher-resolution image is the negative, and the lower-res the final print: by working with the “negative” the Lumia can offer the same lossless editing later on, cropping out a different 5-megapixel chunk however you please.

It’s a potential game-changer. Nokia calls this sort of post-shot editing “computational photography” but for most users it’s going to feel more like magic. You can effectively forget about initial framing and instead just snap the scene, and then come back to the image later and pull out the particularly interesting parts at your leisure. The Pro Camera app also supports basic editing tools, including straightening the frame if your aim is lax or the part you subsequently decide is most interesting isn’t at the same orientation as the overall picture.

It actually takes a little time to get out of the habit of laboriously setting up the framing before you fire off a shot. Until now, the most flexibility you’ve had working with digital images has been either tweaking the settings on a RAW file, or perhaps jumping around focus points with a Lytro. Neither can be the most intuitive experience, however, unlike how smoothly Pro Camera works on the Lumia 1020.

Click each image to compare full size versus zoom or cropped

Things aren’t quite perfect, though. It’s not so much the PureView system as the horsepower Nokia brings to run it all: Microsoft’s limitations around hardware means that the Lumia 1020 effectively has an 18 month old processor to power things. The Snapdragon S4 was new in early 2012, but is certainly showing its age now, and while it’s sufficient for keeping the homescreen Live Tiles running smoothly, Pro Camera is asking a lot more from it.

Even with 2GB of RAM, PureView experiences delays. It’s most obvious when you’re saving images, impacting shot-to-shot time. Whereas with rival phones you can keep hitting the shutter button and fire off frame after frame (admittedly at lower resolution), on the Lumia 1020 there’s a roughly 3.5s pause when the handset saves both the 34-megapixel and 5-megapixel pair. During that time, you can’t do anything with the phone, not even start playing with the settings for your next image.

Unfortunately, the lag is even noticeable when you’re shooting in 5-megapixel mode only, though there it’s reduced to around 3s. It stands at complete odds with Nokia’s own Lumia 925 (which also bears PureView branding, though “makes do” with an 8.1-megapixel sensor and optical image stabilization, and lacks the lossless zooming feature) where back-to-back shots are practically instantaneous.

So, the liberation from having to frame images is undermined, somewhat, by the knowledge that if you snap a photo at the wrong time, you’ll have to wait a short while before you can make a second attempt. Three and a half seconds might not sound like much, but if you’re spending it watching your subject do entertaining or interesting things that you simply can’t capture, it starts to get very noticeable.

Click each image to compare full size versus zoom or cropped

It’s tough to see the lag, as frustrating as it is, as a deal-breaker when you see the quality of the images the Lumia 1020 produces, though. The post-shot reframing would be pointless if the overall pictures coming out of the camera weren’t high-quality, but they look fantastic. It’s worth remembering that, if you don’t use the zoom to get in close, you get to take advantage of what Nokia calls “oversampling”: data from multiple clustered pixels in the high-res original is combined to get a more accurate final pixel in the 5-megapixel shot. The more clustered pixels the Lumia 1020 has to work with (i.e. the less zooming you’ve done), the better the final shot.

The takeaway, then, is that not all PureView images are created equal. Used with no zooming whatsoever, and in standard 5-megapixel mode, and you get the most oversampling benefit; at maximum zoom, or when you’re working with maximum resolution images, you get no oversampling at all.

As for video, there’s a persistent frustration at not being able to shoot stills while simultaneously recording video, but otherwise the 1020 PureView is capable of some solid 1080p recording. Audio quality is particularly notable, and the noise cancellation is effective.

Phone and Battery

Nokia outfits the Lumia 1020 with a 2,000 mAh battery, though that can be expanded using the optional camera grip which integrates an external power-pack, but which wasn’t available for our review. Alone, longevity depends greatly on what you’re asking the Nokia to do. With push-email turned on, and a typical mixture of calls, messaging, browsing, navigation, some photography, and multimedia playback, the Lumia 1020 lasted a regular day.

Lean on the camera, however, particular the Xenon flash, and you’ll find the power is crunched through more rapidly. Nokia’s “computational” approach to photography takes its toll on the processor, and that has an impact on how long the phone will last. With heavy use of the PureView-related features, we needed a top-up on the battery by late afternoon.

As for calls, we had no problems on AT&T’s voice network, with no dropped calls and good background noise cancellation from the Lumia 1020′s dual microphones.

Wrap-Up

It’s clear that the Lumia 1020 isn’t for everyone. The size of the phone, although considerably improved over the 808, is still more of a pocket-filler than the flagships running iOS and Android, and while the PureView system itself is impressive, not everybody needs the flexibility that it offers.

Yet it’s a legitimate halo product for Nokia, and a fitting device to bear the PureView brand. Where the Lumia 92x series spurred arguments over whether they were “true” PureView, given their more mainstream sensor sizes, the Lumia 1020 has no such crisis of identity. Fire off a frame at the right time, and the phone is capable of simply superlative shots, easily embarrassing just about every other smartphone camera out there on the market today, not to mention many point-and-shoot compacts.

Our reservations are down to the core hardware – and here we blame Microsoft, not so much Nokia – however, and the processing delay introduced as PureView’s computational demands bump against Windows Phone’s chip limits. The lag between shots is the big fly in the Lumia’s ointment, and there’s a sense that Nokia’s rush to get PureView and Windows Phone working together wasn’t quite matched with Microsoft’s own urgency to green-light newer, more capable processors.

It’s that, more than anything, that keeps the Nokia Lumia 1020 in its niche position. Stomach the intermittent pauses and the PureView camera system is incredible, but everyday users convinced by Windows Phone might find the Lumia 925 offers a better balance of optics, usability, and design. Nonetheless, when PureView delivers, it’s hard not to be charmed by Nokia’s photography obsession.

Nokia Lumia 1020 Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is a smartphone with a rather sizable camera on its back. While you’ll find this machine appearing to want o take the place of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, we’ve found it to be attempting to carve out a different category entirely. Here Samsung aims to cross-breed a smartphone with a high-powered pocketable camera. Can it stand the test of the average, everyday user, or better yet, the common hobby-level photographer?

Hardware

This machine comes in at 125.3 x 63.3 x 15.25mm (4.93 x 2.45 x 0.6 inches), quite a bit thicker than any smartphone or tablet from this generation of Samsung devices. It’s not especially wide, nor tall, coming much closer to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini than it does to the full-sized Samsung Galaxy S 4 if you’re not considering its thickness. It’s certainly not heavy at 208g (7.34 oz), either.

This device is made of the same materials as the Galaxy S 4, made mostly of the same light, hard, and rather crackable plastic across the bulk of its body. As a result, this device does not feel like it’s ready to hit the field the way the Samsung Galaxy Camera did at CES 2013. This device is ready for basic hobby photographers instead, as a sort of stepping stone between smartphone and what most would consider your average mid-to-high-level pocketable camera.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom works with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display at 960 x 540, that is: 256 PPI. Inside you’ve got 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot allows for MicroSDXC cards up to 64GB for storage expansion.

This device’s processor is a 1.5GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 4 (4212) (the same as appears in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0) paired with 1.5 GB of RAM that’s certainly not meant to bust the charts out with benchmark greatness, tuned instead, it would seem, to the camera UI alone. It’ll still be able to be your general smartphone engine as well, but don’t expect to be playing the highest-powered games any time soon – not without lag.

This device can connect to the rest of the device universe with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, infra-red with its IR blaster, and a variety of Wi-fi and Wi-fi direct-based Samsung-specific apps. Also included is an NFC reader and Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, an accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and light sensor – essentially everything on the market.

Wi-fi on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom kicks in at 802.11a/b/g/n. Depending on your region you’ll be able to pick this device up with 3G HSPA+ or LTE connectivity – the same goes for the processor, apparently, but we’ve yet to see another processor version in the wild – we’ll see what it comes with when it hits the states, if it does!

Software

This device brings Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz on top in an amalgamation that’s essentially the same as you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, limited only slightly in its abilities below the build you’ll find on the Galaxy S 4. This is one of a series of devices based on the hero of this generation of Samsung devices in the Galaxy S 4, each of them with their own little odd additions or exclusions therein.

Inside you’ve got WatchON for connecting to your television with your IR-Blaster, Group Play for connecting to other Samsung smartphones and tables live inside a local area network, and a full collection of Samsung-specific apps like ChatON to remind you that you’re part of the Galaxy S 4 team. As expected, Galaxy S 4 specific apps like Air View and Smart Scroll/Pause/ etc are absent, these being reserved for the hero – until the Galaxy Note III arrives, of course.

This device is not meant to be a competitor for the likes of full-fledged connected cameras, even those edging in on the smart space with Wi-fi connectivity. This device is half smartphone / half camera, and it’s not really dominating in either category by any means. Have a peek at a collection of benchmark results below and see how this device does in a mathematically measured way.

Can the Galaxy S4 Zoom go to war with the closest thing on the market today – or soon, depending on when you’re reading – in the Nokia Lumia 1020? Have a peek at the Galaxy S4 Zoom vs Nokia Lumia 1020 camera war we’ve got set up and check back when we’ve got the full 1020 review, too.

Camera / Battery

This device’s camera interface takes the abilities delivered – rather inspiringly, at the time – in the original Samsung Galaxy Camera – and brings them to a new level. While if this interface were brought to the Samsung Galaxy Camera itself, we’d give it a full thumbs up. Instead there’s just one thing holding this device back from being a next-level Galaxy Camera: its smartphone side.

As described a bit in the hardware section above, this device feels exceedingly fragile. Its hard plastic body on all sides save the display side feel as though they’d crack at the lowest drop, while the reinforced glass is just as hard as it’s ever been from Corning. The Galaxy Camera did not attempt to be the baby clone of the Samsung Galaxy S III – so too should the Galaxy S4 Zoom have skipped such a set of similarities. Once you’re past your fear of dropping this device, its camera features are actually pretty neat.

The Zoom Ring up front doesn’t just access this camera’s 10x optical zoom, it brings up a feature selection screen unique to this device. This “ring” shows a collection of shooting modes for the camera which are highlighted with the ring itself, selected then with a tap of the device’s shutter button. If only because we’ve literally never seen this combination of selection modes with a physical contraption such as this before, it stands out as one of the most interesting bits on the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

As you’ll see above in brief, this device works with the full collection of Samsung Galaxy S 4 camera modes, coming clean with – if it worked a bit smoother – the best of the bunch with “Smart mode suggest.” This mode detects what the scene might be in your camera’s viewfinder, giving you a choice of three possible best modes for your selection.

In the end though, it was the simplest Auto Mode that we ended up using most given the intended audience of this machine. Have a peek at a collection of shots and video below to see what you’ll be rolling with internationally. We’ll see if the quality of this machine’s shooter changes if it ever hits the USA in a carrier iteration when it happens!

Up front you’ve got a 1.9 megapixel camera that works surprisingly well – or is at least tuned to look superior even when shooting something so terrifying as the users’ face (as shown above).

The back-facing camera amalgamation brings on a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor paired with a 24-240mm 10x optical zoom and ISO 100-3200. This all works through a F3.1-F6.3 Samsung lens. You’ll have the ability to kick out ISO 100-3200 and up to 4fps burst photography – and the results are, on the whole, generally excellent enough for top-notch non-professional hobby photography.

NOTE: You can see additional original-quality full-sized images in our first Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom hands-on with photo examples.

Battery life is just about the worst we’ve seen in this generation of Galaxy devices, if you’d like to consider everything in the Galaxy Tab 3 and Galaxy S 4 lineup. If you’re planning on this being your daily driver as a smartphone, you’ll certainly need to charge it up halfway through the day if you intend on getting to the end. If you’re using it as a camera, you’ll want to bring another battery to help you make your way through a full workday if you’re at an event.

Above you’re seeing the device working it’s relatively decent stand-by abilities for the most part. And just supposing you are using this device and need more up-time than it’ll delivery on the regular, there’s always a replaceable battery or two you could be picking up. One size only: 2,330 mAh in the side alongside the microSIM card slot.

Wrap-up

While we’ve found this device to be taking one of several awards home for most unique device in Samsung’s most recent collection of smart devices, it’s not necessarily the best device for any one use-case. While we expected the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom to take the place of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, instead we’ve found it to be another entry point for new users to get in on the smart device universe through Samsung’s flavor of Android.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom connects well with the rest of the most recent collection of Samsung Galaxy S 4 devices, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares in the market with little to no direct competition. Stay tuned as we see what US mobile carriers think of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom in coming weeks, and if they’ll give it as much faith as they did the Galaxy Camera.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With the latest deliverable in NAS technology we’ve got the LenovoEMC PX2-300d with Milestone Arcus Network Video Recorder software embedded, complete with hardware you might recognize as a rather close relative of the Iomega PX2-300d in both looks and function – to a point. This is because both PX2-300d units are essentially made of the same basics on the outside, working now with the company’s upgraded brand name (LenovoEMC) and taking on the mantel of big-power small-footprint NAS for SMB. Here we’ve also got the very first NVR (network video recorder) to feature Milestone Arcus; video management software that makes the whole process as quick and easy as possible.

Hardware

While we’re not going to do a full-on comparison of this model to the PX2-300d we reviewed in the past, we can say this – even here seven months after we had that look, this NAS performs as good as ever. And for a machine that’ll be spending most of its time hidden away from the everyday eyes of the public, it certainly isn’t a half-bad looking unit to look at, either.

Inside the PX2-300d you’ll be working with an Intel D525 Atom dual-core 1.8GHz paired with 2GB of RAM. This architecture is paired with two enterprise-glass drives able to be configured at either RAID 0 or 1, both behind a lock-able door with an array of round holes for regular airflow.

With this door open you’ll be able to access two pop-out trays that are rather easy to work with while they lock in tight when you’re not making a switch. These trays support both 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives.

Also up front you’ll find an LCD display which shows off the basics – time and date when you don’t need the rest – network IP address or used/available capacity when your getting ready to connect or check your space. Display access is served by a single standard VGA out on this machine’s back working with MindTree software interface.

Also at this hardware’s back are two USB 2.0 ports, two ethernet ports (so you can connect two separate internet sources in case one fails, for example), and a power port. There’s also a teeny-tiny reset button there as well. The backside also features a rather silent-running fan that’ll blow air through the whole construct real slick – especially given the straight-shot openness from the back to the front. The front also features a single USB 3.0 port for good measure.

Software

Configuration of this system is extremely easy, especially when you’ve got a set of eyes as simple as the M1011 Axis Network Camera unit we’ve been provided. This system is able to work with a total of 20 surveillance cameras at once, the system attaching to them each with Milestone’s Arcus system with a simple icon for each camera.

NOTE: This setup supports a wide variety of cameras from several major brands – Axis, Bosch, ACTi, Canon, Panasonic, & others, and several different connections work as well. IP cameras (both Fixed & PTZ), USB, and analog cameras (connected via IP encoder) are all set to work right out of the box.

Each camera appears (if connected to your personal network) automatically. You can also do a simple search for any “missing” cameras found by their IP address as well, while a single configuration button appears for each of them offering up a collection of controls for Video like Codec (H.264 or MPEG-4, for example), Frames per second, and Resolution.

Each camera is attached to its unique given name and also has options for Recording and Motion Detection where applicable. You can set a single camera’s retention time for a certain period of time for a week and another for a period of minutes, and each camera’s disk usage is made plain from the front.

In addition to Arcus working on the base beast here, there’s both Android and iPhone/iPad apps made to access your camera network on the go. NOTE: At the moment the Android app doesn’t appear to be active, but we’ll let you know when it’s back up and running – it works essentially the same as the iOS app, in the end.

As it was when we first reviewed the PX2-300d, complete with its software build back then, this configuration affords you the ability to access data in your personal cloud with Amazon S3, Mozy Pro, and EMC Atmos. Axis Video Hosting is also available while OS X users may want to opt for an Apple Time Machine backup solution – every test we’ve performed with each of these connections has worked just as well as the last so far – including massive files from one location to another inside our own personal network.

In testing this drive for raw speed on a gigabit ethernet connection, this LenovoEMC PX2-300d unit kicked out 80 MB/s write speeds and 75 MB/s read speeds on average. That should be plenty fast for your standard SMB or home network needs on a regular basis.

Wrap-up

You’ll find this particular solution – complete with Milestone Arcus software – ringing in at $1,000 USD with four camera licenses attached. The majority of this cost kicked in with the drives and the Milestone Arcus software above the case on its own, but it’s the final amalgamation of software and hardware here that makes the case for a solid small network surveillance solution – you’ll want it all in the end.

This configuration includes a full year of Milestone Arcus software updates for free, and as the case is made to allow a variety of drives flipped in-and-out with ease, you can rest easy knowing you’ll be ready for any hardware upgrades you need in the future as well. While LenovoEMC lets it be known that several solutions are available for those with larger needs, this most “basic” package is exactly the place we’d be sarting. Unless of course you need a four-drive PX4-300d with 8TB and 16 camera licenses, of course – they’ve got that configuration available immediately if not soon, as well.

LenovoEMC PX2-300d with Milestone Arcus NVR Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Zeiss is a name best known for its camera lenses, but the company also has entertainment in mind with the Cinemizer OLED wearable display. A chunk set of oversized video glasses, where Google’s Glass takes the approach of augmenting the real world with digital tidbits, the Cinemizer blocks out the real world and allows you to replace it with 2D/3D video and motion-tracking games. Is all that worth the $750 price tag, however? Read on for the SlashGear review.

Hardware and Design

Video glasses aren’t new, though they’ve traditionally been oversized and clunky in their design. Zeiss takes a more streamlined approach: if it wasn’t for the blank white expanse where lenses might normally be found, you could mistake the Cinemizer for sunglasses when viewed head-on. Their depth gives the game away from any other angle, though, with large rubber eyepieces fixed to a thick display assembly.

Inside, there are two OLED displays – one for each eye – that each runs at 870 x 500 resolution. That’s obviously less than HD, in fact short of 720p never mind 1080p, and so while the Cinemizer has an HDMI input, you’ll not be seeing anything in Full HD resolution through it. That input is in the battery box, a compact black block that offers both HDMI and analog connections, along with a 450 mAh rechargeable power pack which Zeiss claims is good for up to 6hrs of runtime, depending on what you have connected.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, if you want to use your own headphones, though the Cinemizer has a pair as well. Those who would normally wear glasses get individual diopter adjustment for both sides, with dials shifting them from -5 to +2. As with any such system there’s a limit to how much you can accommodate – if you have an astigmatism, for instance, there’s no option to adjust for that – but if you wear a relatively straightforward prescription then you should be able to make the setup comfortable.

Comfort and Performance

Overall, the Cinemizer headset tips the scales at 120g, with the battery box adding another 60g to that, and the HDMI adapter a further 30g. However, since part of the weight of the video glasses themselves is supported by your ears, Zeiss quotes around 75g of weight on your nose specifically.

In practice, they’re comfortable enough for up to a couple of hours playback, but after that point they start to feel noticeably heavy. It’s a similar problem we’ve observed with other wearable displays; Google gets around it with Glass by only offering a monocular screen and trimming the battery down, bringing its wearable to 36g in total, but then again Glass isn’t exactly made for immersive movie consumption.

The sub-HD resolution means you’ll get better video performance from your regular TV, and the supplied earbuds aren’t exactly audiophile-standard. They lack bass, and the trebles don’t have the sparkle that rivals offer. Zeiss’ use of OLED means that the colors and contrast are at least impressively rich – though there’s a purple shadowing in paler areas of the display – and the rubber eyepiece keeps out most extraneous light. Zeiss suggests you’ll get the equivalent of a 40-inch TV viewed from 2m away, and there’s 3D support that looks clear and has minimal crosstalk.

Thanks to HDMI, you can easily hook up a console or computer to the Cinemizer, but our results are mixed. The 870 x 500 resolution means anything with significant amounts of text needs outlandishly large font sizes if the writing isn’t to be fuzzy, and most games assume there’ll be more pixels on hand whether they’re PC or console.

The Cinemizer also supports head-movement tracking, though we weren’t particularly impressed by how usable it is. For a start it’s an add-on dongle, which costs extra on top of the Cinemizer itself, snapping onto the earpiece and making the whole thing even more cumbersome. It hooks up via USB to your PC where it’s basically recognized as a mouse: moving your head left and right, or up and down, and the mouse pointer moves. In games, you can do the same thing, though we struggled to achieve the same efficiency of control as with a regular mouse. It’s also not full VR, as you might get with the Oculus Rift.

Zeiss quotes up to six hours of battery life when you’re using the AV input, or up to 2.5 hours when you’re using the HDMI port. In practice, we saw roughly that sort of runtime, though the battery invariably lasted longer than we could handle wearing the Cinemizer.

Wrap-Up

Personal video is a concept that has been around for some years now, each generation with its own advantages and, it must be said, flaws. With the Cinemizer, Zeiss addresses some of them – the headset isn’t quite so clunky as previous iterations from other manufacturers – but neither, with its separate battery box, various cables, and adapters, is it as streamlined as something like Glass.

Glass and the Cinemizer represent very different markets, of course, though it’s hard not to compare today’s wearables. The difference is, where Glass’ Explorer Edition is presented as a test move to iron out kinks, the Cinemizer is billed as a final product, complete with a $750 price tag.

At that level, it’s hard to recommend. The image quality is reasonable but lacks in resolution, and we can’t see gamers getting much use out of the head-tracking functionality, especially with the adapter itself costing extra. As wearable video displays go, the Cinemizer is probably the best we’ve seen, but we’re left unconvinced that the segment is mature enough to warrant the expense.

Zeiss Cinemizer Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.