Hasta La Gadget!

Photos: Charlie Sorrel

Alright, we’ve just laid eyes on some internal Samsung documents and can bring you the official names and specs of the successors to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. Firstly, the Galaxy S II will tout a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz dual-core Orion / Exynos processor, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, and 24Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. All those stats were leaked earlier this morning, along with the image above, and we’ve once again seen the 8.49mm thickness for this device, although we now believe it is the measurement at its thinnest point — it’s likely that the S II will fatten up to 9.9mm, presumably to accommodate the camera module, one of the last remaining parts of smartphone construction that require extra girth (NFC being another).

As to the Galaxy Tab II, it is indeed the 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet we’ve been hearing so much about, with the added bonus of it being a Google Experience Device. That should mean no Samsung-derived skin customizations atop the stock Android 3.0 UI — exactly what we expect to see from the Motorola Xoom. Also matching the Xoom are the resolution, at 1280 x 800, and CPU speed, at 1GHz, though we couldn’t determine whether the Tab II will be a dual- or single-core tablet. Our money’s on seeing the Exynos 4210 appear in both new Galaxy devices, but we’ll have to wait until Samsung’s presser tomorrow to find out for sure. One more note of import on specs: we saw a 16GB / 32GB / 64GB storage listing, but couldn’t be sure what product it referred to — wouldn’t it be lovely if the Galaxy S II was the first smartphone to step past the 60GB barrier?

Finally, looking toward the future, Samsung is apparently working on a 4-inch WVGA display with 3D capabilities — presumably autostereoscopic like LG’s Optimus 3D — and an intriguing “Motion UI” control scheme. The latter will allow you to pan inside Google Maps and StreetView just by the movement of your phone, as well as zoom in and out of pages by tilting the handset up and down (a gyroscope will be required for both functions). Samsung also has big plans for LTE, with a focus on pumping out whatever you receive over the 4G connection to a nearby HDTV using dual display technology. The two applications we caught sight of were personal broadcasting, where your Sammy handset would act as an extremely sophisticated internet TV receiver, and cloud-based gaming. Here’s hoping we learn more about these future ventures tomorrow.

Samsung Galaxy S II and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab II confirmed for MWC, 4-inch 3D display, LTE-based cloud gaming coming later originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Poor Samsung can’t catch a break. First executive Lee Young-hee was misunderstood, saying that sales of the Galaxy Tab were “quite smooth” but the transcript of that conversation saying that they were instead “quite small.” Now the company is refuting another claim, that return rates for the Tab are near 16 percent. The company did so in a statement so tersely worded we can feature its entirety right here:

The return rate of the Galaxy Tab in the US as claimed by an North American market research firm is incorrect. According to Samsung Electronics Mobile Communications Business the return rate is below 2 percent.

So, there you have it. Below two percent, and right on par with what we’ve heard for the iPad.

Samsung refutes high Galaxy Tab returns, says rate is ‘below 2 percent’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR  |  Samsung Tomorrow  | Email this | Comments

The word “whoops” is probably a good place to start with this one. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal ran a story quoting Samsung’s Lee Young-hee as stating that initial sales of the Galaxy Tablet were “quite small.” Turns out that wasn’t exactly the right adjective. As you can hear in the audio clip below, she actually said sales of the thing are “quite smooth,” just like the chins on most of our interns. This mix-up is being blamed on a transcript provided by Samsung, but rather than point fingers we’ll just smile ruefully, shake our heads, and go back to writing posts about robots and things. And the Galaxy Tab? Well, sales may be moving right along, but it looks like returns are progressing quite smoothly as well.

Continue reading Samsung’s Lee Young-hee was misunderstood, Galaxy Tab sales are ‘smooth’ not ‘small’

Samsung’s Lee Young-hee was misunderstood, Galaxy Tab sales are ‘smooth’ not ‘small’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  electronista  | Email this | Comments

If you think Star Wars took place in a galaxy far, far away, you should probably prepare to have your perceptions of distance rocked. NASA astronomers believe they’ve laid their eyes what appears to be the most distant object ever spotted by humans… in the history of mankind, no less. The galaxy was first peeked back in 2009, but NASA has just confirmed (via that trusty Hubble contraption) that what it saw is actually the oldest known galaxy in existence. At a distance of 13.2 billion light years away, this galaxy is a staggering 150 million years older than the previous record-setting collection of stars. The cluster of blue stars is just a tiny galaxy, though — NASA says you’d need hundreds of these little groups to make up our Milky Way. Head past the break for a closer shot of the constellation, otherwise known as a nondescript red pixel.

Continue reading Hubble telescope sees furthest galaxy, 13.2 billion light years from Earth

Hubble telescope sees furthest galaxy, 13.2 billion light years from Earth originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reddit  |  NASA  | Email this | Comments