Xperia Blog revealed full render photos of the new Sony Xperia Z1. This will feature great sound and a 20.7mp G Sensor camera and the next upgrade to the Sony Xperia Z. So water and dust resistant. It will also have the latest snapdragon 800 chip.
Should be a great phone.
Samsung are releasing another screen size , this time at 12.2 inch screen
Is it me, but that is just too big to use comfortable as a tablet?
Image – Talk android
Acer announced the 6-inch Liquid S2 with 4K recording capability, a full HD IPS display and a Snapdragon 800 processor.The device sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED ring flash along with a 2MP front shooter capable of 1080p video, 2gb ram, 2,300 man battery and 4G. Acer also loaded up the S2 with several software enhancements on the camera side :quick first shot, favorite mode which lets you create up to five profiles with customized settings and effects.
Just who has a 4K TV to replay back those photos! And a 6 inch phone is just too big to use as a phone.
With all the new phones being announced, it would be ideal if there was some idea of release dates. Three UK has had leaked its release dates by an anonymous Engadget.
Nokia Lumia 1020 – 25th September
Sony Xperia Z1 – 24th September
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – 16th September
Sony Xperia Z Ultra – 9th September
And this just leaves the iPhone 5S by the end of this month hopefully.
And they secured former Android icon Hugo Barra from Google. Xiaomi announced that they have reached 1 billion downloads from their MIUI app store in one year. Xiaomi’s UI is based on Android firmware.
Since the company launched its MIUI app store, it has gained over 17 million active users with over 1.3 million daily searches. Add 5 million daily downloads and its certainly one to watch.
The other day the postman delivered a plain brown box, inside of which was the new Nexus 7 that I had ordered from Google less than 24 hours ago. That was the first surprise. The second was a Nexus 4. Google had reduced the pricing of this phone to £199 for the 16gb and £159 for the 8gb model. That represents great value. Also good timing, as I was due to be returning my Nokia Lumia 925 back to Nokia in a few days.
I recall when Google launched the original Nexus 7. That brought back bad memories. Poor build quality and equally bad customer service experience when trying to return the faulty tablet. It also had a poor screen and audio quality. So the first positive was a 24 hours from order to delivery. The second was the size of the box. It was a lot smaller than I thought. Opening the box and holding the new Nexus 7 immediately felt like a good experience. It was a solid well built tablet. Size wise, it is narrower than the iPad Mini, and as wide as the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. The N7 is the same thickness as the iPad Mini with a Smart Cover fitted.
Above is a photo comparison between the Nexus 4, new Nexus 7 and iPad Mini. Below is the from top to bottom, Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy Note, new Nexus 7 and iPad Mini.
So what does the new Nexus 7 represent? The best of Google in an unbloated format in a pocketable 7 inch tablet. The screen is fantastic with 323ppi and makes viewing the iPad Mini rather unpleasant. The N7 speakers are a dual stereo setup with surround sound powered by Fraunhofer (the MP3 inventors). They sound average and I wish they went louder. With several headphones I have tried, the N7 has plenty of guts to power some of my more demanding cans, and sounds above average in quality. I would use the N7 as my primary MP3 device.
Now, the biggest complaint is android on a tablet doesn’t work properly because of the lack of android optimised tablet apps. That statement is true if you have a larger screened tablet, like say the Sony 10.1 inch Xperia Z tablet. But to my surprise, I have not come across any apps that don’t look fine on the N7. I think its balance of width and height just work really well. Only one app does not work, and that is BBC iPlayer, although I am sure that will get updated soon. So in use I am really enjoying the N7. I also have not changed the default launcher. It just works fine on the N7.
Interaction with the N7 is excellent too. It is a breeze to hold it and type with two fingers. If it is purchased on a table, I have found it not so easy to type in landscape at the moment as the keys are too close together. The iPad Mini, with the Smart Cover is keyboard mode, is considerably easier to type using both hands and all fingers, therefore faster. I would also add, that if you do a lot of data input, I would suggest using a full size iPad. The on screen keyboard is so fantastic, I can approach 80 words per minute.
I have installed 80 apps, 32 of which were games, half a dozen 30 seconds videos, 200 photos and still have 21gb free.
The new Nexus 7 is £199 for the 16gb and £239 for the 32gb, and currently Google are offering free shipping. Would I recommend the new Nexus 7. Yes, but I would also recommend waiting a few weeks to see what other companies competing for the same space also release.
But I will leave you with one thought. My iPad Mini 64gb (which I have now sold) cost £439 new. For the same money you can buy a Google N4 smartphone and the new Nexus 7. And this is a problem Apple need to combat.
Update – Qi wireless charging is built into the N7 just like the N4 phone. I received a Zens charging pad and it works a treat with the N7. Also using Google’s full resolution auto photo upload service is fantastic. Take shots on the N4, view them after Google has auto awesomed them on my N7. Photospheres are incredible.
As mentioned in my First Impressions of the new Nexus 7, I also received the Nexus 4 smartphone.
Above, the N4 is shown on top, with the Samsung Note, N7 and iPad Mini at the bottom. The N4 is approaching one year old, and consequently has now been updated to the very latest android 4.3 software. This has improved the phone over its first release a year ago. Google is likely to release a replacement for the N4, the N5 which will offer potentially better specs but the cost will be higher than the reduced N4 pricing. Many reviews have been written about this phone, but I thought I would add my insight.
I have installed 100 apps/games. With this number of apps/games I needed a better launcher than Google’s to manage the ease of access of all these apps. The above screenshot shows Apex Launcher with more rows and columns and the icons reduced to 85% of size to fit more on one screen.
The phone fits nicely in the hand and is a pleasure to use. It is fast and nippy and not full of bloatware. Everything works very well. The loudspeaker is adequate just about. Headphone quality is good and has ample volume. The camera is 8mp and so far the photos I have taken are reasonable. I had heard the camera was below par, but for most people it will do nicely. However, compared to the Nokia Lumia 925, it is about 30% behind. Features like Photosphere are great fun, and now Google does full quality uploads to Google+ and then notifies you when it has auto awesomed your photos.
But the key message is sim free and unlocked you can buy the 8gb for £159 or 16gb for £199. Terrific value and I am happy with my new phone. For now that is 🙂
Update – Qi wireless charging is built into the N4 just like the Nexus 7. I received a Zens charging pad and it works a treat with the N4. Also using Google’s full resolution auto photo upload service is fantastic. Take shots on the N4, view them after Google has auto awesomed them on my N7. Photospheres are incredible.
LG G Pad is a full HD screen on an eight-inch form factor, similar to the iPad Mini screen size. It is equipped with a 1.7GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, has an 8.3-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display with a PPI rating of 273 PPI, and has 16GB of internal storage in addition to 2GB of RAM. There’s a five-megapixel main camera paired with a 1.3MP webcam, and everything is powered by a 4,600mAh battery. The G Pad 8.3 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, measures 216.8 x 126.5 x 8.3mm and 338g, while being available in black and white.
The new Nexus 7 still seems a better option though.
Hang on, Samsung only a few months ago released the S4 Zoom.
Now its just announced the Zoom again but with LTE across Europe, and has named Deutsche Telekom, Tele2, Telia Sonera and Orange as some of the networks that’ll carry it.
Just wonder how owners of the non LTE version will feel having only just bought it!
On the 4th September, Samsung will announce the new Note 3. But how does the original Note perform, that is now nearly 2 years old. The answer might surprise you.
Nearly 2 years ago I bought the Samsung Note on first day of release in the UK. Everywhere I went with it, people starred in disbelief at its size. I got asked loads of questions. Some people looked on in horror at its huge size. Nowadays, the Note is dwarfed by the Samsung Mega and Sony Z Ultra, both over 6.3 inch screen devices. So, I was very excited to receive in the post a second hand Samsung Note to see what had changed and how it felt against the current phones of 2013.
The first major difference is the Note is running Android Jellybean 4.1.2 instead of 2.3.6. 2 years of software updates have made a big difference. It is slightly faster than the original release, and predominantly bug free. I had no app compatibility issues. Every single game and app installed and ran just fine. With newly released phones you always get some apps or games that won’t work. The next major plus is 16gb is enough with a memory card in this old phone. Why? Well apps can be moved properly to the memory card out of the box. New android phones have less internal memory free and cannot out of the box move the entire app plus data to the memory card.
However, it is 2 years old, so has less ram and a slower processor. However, it is still a dual core 1.4 GHz Arm Cortex A9 with a Mali 400 GPU. That means lag does exist and opening and closing apps is not a zippy affair. But then it’s still acceptable. But the speed, or lack of is the most noticeable difference compared to modern phones. It still includes a number of sensors – proximity, barometer, gyro and compass.
Flash. Old phone. Older Web browser that does work with Adobe flash versus Google Chrome that doesn’t. Camera is a 5mp affair and perfectly useable, although not a patch on the Nokia Lumia 925 or Samsung S4. In fact speed wise, compared to the Nokia Lumia 925, the Note is like a snail.
I am not worried about the battery as I just bought a new one. Being removable helps! All accessories for the Note are now dirt cheap and extensive. Another bonus.
In terms of Samsung gimmicks, it has a number of useful motion controls and Smart Stay. Multi Screen mode is available too. Blocking mode and Easy Mode have been added since launch software. S Pen software and gestures exist. But the nice thing is none of the tricks are over the top, and most I would use.
So apart from the slower speed, the screen is old tech. It is a 5.3 inch super amoled 800 x 1280, 285ppi. Not at 440ppi and 1080p but nonetheless perfectly acceptable. I also discovered it has USB Mass Storage mode, something the newer Samsung devices do not include, just USB OTG.
You can still buy the Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 new for £350. On eBay for around £200. And yet it remains a capable device even 2 years later. It has advantages over the memory and moving apps/games on the memory card properly, USB Mass Storage Mode and Adoble Flash support built in to the web browser. It is cheaper to buy including the accessories.
The negatives are its slight lag and delay between apps closing and opening. The screen tech is not the highest. Newer flagship include better S-Pen support, screens, processor, camera and often include other hardware like an Infra Red Blaster.
But overall, it really surprised me just how useable the Samsung Note is, even after 2 years.
However, with just 4 days left, I am now really excited to see what Samsung include with the Note 3. Are you?
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