We are Live at the Samsung Forum 2011 and we got some hands on time with the new Samsung Galaxy S Personal Media Player which was just announced for India. Check out the images below and Stay Tuned for the demo Video.
Video Hands on (iGyaan Exclusive)
Key Features
* 141.3 x 78.2 x 9.9 mm * 5.0 inches ( 400 x 800 pixel ) LCD Capacitive Touch Screen * TouchWiz UI * Multi-touch input method * Touch-sensitive controls * Swype text input * Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate * Digital Compass * 5 MP Camera with video recording, auto focus and LED flash * 2 MP front camera * Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo) * 16GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 48GB * Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB * GPS with A-GPS support * 1 GHz Processor * Image and video editor * 2500 mAH Li-Ion battery
We are Live at the Samsung Forum 2011 and we got some hands on time with the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which was just announced for India. Check out the images below and wait for the demo Video.
HANDS ON VIDEO
FULL PRESS RELEASE
Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 and GALAXY Tab 8.9
World’s thinnest Smartphone that lets consumers experience more with less
The GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 feature Samsung’s own TouchWiz user interface implemented on the AndroidTM 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform, offering superior multi-tasking and enhanced user interaction and navigation.
Super Fast
The new GALAXY Tabs support HSPA+ network speeds of up to 21Mbps as well as Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity to deliver rapid mobile download speeds and reduce data transfer times. Also, the GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 include a 1GHz dual core application processor for a powerful multimedia and web browsing experience.
Thinner & Lighter
The GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 are the thinnest mobile tablets available. The GALAXY Tab 10.1 weighs 595 grams and 8.9 weighs 470 grams. Combining the GALAXY Tabs’ ultra-thin form factor with a lightweight design adds to the outstanding mobility of these two products.
Customized User Experience “Samsung TouchWiz UX”
Samsung’s TouchWiz user experience is designed with a Live Panel menu users can customize to display a variety of content on the home screen including digital pictures, favorite Web sites and social network feeds. In addition, the interface includes an application tray of commonly used features such as task manager, calendar and music player which can be launched while other major applications are also in use, including large file downloads and document editing. This Mini Apps Tray provides a mixture of convenience and flexibility previously unheard of with tablet devices.
The Ultimate Entertainment Hub
The GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 are pre-loaded with Readers Hub and Music Hub giving consumers instant access to more than 2.2 million books, 2,000 newspaper (49 languages), 2,300 magazines (22 languages), and 13 million songs. The devices are also designed with Samsung’s Social Hub, which will aggregate email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar and social network connections into a single interface.
The GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 feature a 3 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera, providing smooth transition and seamless 1080p HD video and Flash playback for a rich entertainment experience.
Ready for Business
The GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 include an industry leading suite of solutions designed to give enterprise customers and IT managers more security. Developed in collaboration with industry-leading partners such as Cisco, Sybase, SAP and Citrix, Samsung’s enterprise mobility solutions will provide flexibility and connectivity for mobile workforces, ensuring that users are able to operate more efficiently on–the-move.
GALAXY Tab 10.1
GALAXY Tab 10.1, with its WXGA TFT LCD display (1280 x 800) powered by 1GHz dual core AP, is 8.6mm thin and weighs only 595g. It is the perfect device for sharing and enjoying media content with family and friends. In addition, with its surround-sound stereo speakers and support for Flash 10.2, the GALAXY Tab 10.1 will deliver premium entertainment experience whether watching videos, movies or playing games.
GALAXY Tab 8.9
At just 8.6mm thin and weighing only 470g, the GALAXY Tab 8.9 is the perfect device for today’s mobile professional. Whether writing emails on a trip or reading an eBook on the couch, the GALAXY Tab 8.9 provides the ultimate tablet experience without compromising mobility.
The Micromax Bling 2 is the upcoming Handset from Micromax that is exclusively targeted at the ladies. This one has Android 2.2 directly to boot. Here are the remaining images with more information and a video preview coming shortly.
Spice has launched a new Android Smartphone, the MI-310 running Android 2.2 Froyo to compete in the mid-range mobile market. Read the review for more details.
BUILD QUALITY AND HARDWARE
The MI-310 has a stylish aluminium body which gives easy access to the battery and internally fitted Micro SD card. The Power/Unlock button on the top of the phone is flush with the bezel which may cause some difficulty while unlocking the device. It has a 320×480 pixel, 3.15 inch capacitive touch screen display which displays vivid images and videos and there are no complaints there. The phone also comes with a stand-alone camera shutter button, volume buttons and a small touch-sensitive trackpad for easier scrolling.
The overall construction of the phone feels quite sturdy and its quite comfortable to hold and use. It has an inbuilt memory of 85 mb with a Micro SD slot expandable to 16Gb, built in GPS with AGPS support, 3G compliance with HSDPA access (7.2 mbps), bluetooth 2.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g, a 2.0 MP camera with digital zoom and video recording and an internal FM radio. As far as sensors go the phone has a built in proximity sensor and accelerometer. While in a call, the proximity sensor sometimes fails and causes your cheeks to start pushing buttons on-screen, which can get quite frustrating. (A factory reset of the device however fixed this problem for us)
MULTIMEDIA AND CAMERA
The 320x480px screen is quite vivid and does a great job of displaying videos (even in HQ) and photographs. The audio output of the loudspeaker is pretty loud,and is sufficient while on the move. The in-ear headphones that come with the phone are quite comfortable and the sound quality is clear and crisp. The high notes are quite sharp and the bass is quite deep. The phone doesn’t come with any games, but there’s LOTS of games that can be downloaded from the Android store. The inbuilt Android Music and Video player support many formats and are quite user friendly. The phone also comes with an in-built FM radio which can scan and store pre-set channels and favourites.
The 2.0 MP camera leave a little to be desired but is quite easy to use with the stand-alone camera shutter button. Video recording is a breeze. The two things that would make the experience better are better focusing and the addition of a camera flash. The phone comes with all the standard camera effects for video recording and image capture. We did notice that Video capability on this camera was much better than still images.
PHONE, MESSAGING and BATTERY
The Spice MI-310 is a very easy to use phone. It has a very large phonebook, and the ability to sync your contacts with Gmail, FaceBook etc. The biggest issue we faced with this handset was the microphone. At some point during the review the diaphragm of the mic got stuck and we got REALLY BAD voice quality. Now we dont know if this was a problem with the design of the phone or just this particular piece but this is something to be wary of a little air dusting and light whack to the microphone fixed the problem. There were no signal issues for voice calls but we faced repeated issues with the HSDPA network. Eventually the phone refused to connect to 3G and remained in EDGE mode or WiFi (when we were in range). Switching the mode to WCDMA only via an app from the Android MarketPlace fixed this issue.
When it comes to typing on the on-screen keyboard, its a bit of a hassle in portrait mode (we have big fingers), but works brilliantly in landscape mode. The best thing about messaging is the speech to text function. The bottom strip of menu buttons (standard on most android phones) are a bit too sensitive and may cause unwated tension while typing. The phone has decent battery life, lasting for approximately 3-4 hours talk-time and around 48 – 60 hours standby depending on usage.
CONCLUSION
The Spice MI-310 is good to look at, lightweight and is feature packed for its price. The display is quite vivid and getting a capacitive touch screen for this price is amazing. The fact that this is an android phone opens up many avenues for customisation through the Google Marketplace. However, there were slight problems that we faced with the microphone, the proximity sensor and the 3G which after resolution can make this device the only one in this price bracket with the brilliant spec list.
Intex is the next in line to draw a similar projector phone after we reviewed the GFive Projector phone, Spice recently launched the popkorn (which is headed for testing to us). The the V3Show Mini Theatre IN 8809 has similar styling when compared to the GFive phone, infact they almost look identical. We wouldn’t be surprised if the companies were using the same base Chinese Handset.
Specs include
2.4 inch 262K color QVGA screen
Dual GSM SIM
Dual band
WAP, GPRS, JAVA
2 MP camera
87 MB internal memory
16 GB MicroSD card support.
Social networking
Motion sensor and mobile tracker
Hindi language & English
Opera Mini and Bolt
118 mm x 51 mm x 17.5 mm
Weight 142 g
1000 mAh
Standby time up to 168 hours.
MRP. 6499/-
Check out the review video of the similar GFIVE Projector Phone
We have had this device for quite some time, and we are now ready to tell you how this device fares in the market.
Lets start with the usual suspects
BUILD QUALITY and HARDWARE
The Galaxy Ace is possibly the best built Samsung Galaxy phone in India, till date. We feel, that the device is better built than the Galaxy S /Sl and all the lower end Galaxys put together (3,5, pop, etc). The back panel of the Galaxy Ace is the best texture we have seen on any device and the chrome metal side bezel squares off the phones looks with the likes of the iPhone 4. Solid and rigid, beautiful glass front and great styling.
In terms of Hardware the device features a whole bunch of interesting specs including a 320 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches Capacitive touch screen which is very-very responsive. A snappy 800 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset which is quite capable of handling the phones processing and delivers good gaming and graphic performance. A 1350 mAh which despite its size fared out well.
The device is missing the standard Android search button like the FIT and the POP.
Quadrant Score : 595
DISPLAY and MULTIMEDIA
Although 320 x 480 is no Retina display and is nowhere near high resolution, the display is simply stunning and the less pixel count is actually no problem, the text is clear and vivid the 16m color resolution does the display justice and in this price bracket, delivers a whole lot more than one can expect. The touch screen is also super smooth and performs excellently. Kinetic scrolling and pinch to zoom in and out, all of which are displayed in the video review, work great.
The sound quality from the loudspeaker is not as great as the sound volume. You can really blast the audio from the speaker. The speakers are great if the volume is moderately controlled.
The bass is well matched along with mids, but, start to clip at high volumes and you are left with a squeaking sound. This will also only happen on audio files which are tweaked to sound louder, regular music plays fine. Video quality is excellent, with a tiny bit of shuttering when the video clip loads, everything after that is as smooth as butter.
Video looks good and there is no denying the fact that every Android user will watch atleast a video per week on his phone, and you will love it on the Samsung Galaxy Ace.
CAMERA
The Device is missing a dedicated camera shutter button! Why Samsung? why is it so difficult?
The camera is a performance star, the auto focus is good and the light density on the sensor is excellent. Low light compositions are pretty decent, not as great as they could have been if Samsung had placed the flash a little further away from the camera, a surge of white crosses the camera , and the pictures come out faded when the led is on. When its offa low light compositions look passable. So either way the pictures are average in low light, Impressive in daylight / Apt lighting.
Video however is poor and HD video is missing from the whole circuit. 320×240 (QVGA) (20 fps) video is just as bad as the numbers look, and we are sorry to say you will not be making any videos with the camera. We also tried several other Camera apps from the Android marketplace, but to no avail video quality was poor throughout. we will soon have a sample video up.
PHONE, MESSAGING and BATTERY
The Samsung Galaxy Ace handles Cellular networks beautifully and with 3G connectivity we got good download speeds up to 2.5Mbps (network constrained) in prime areas of Delhi. No relative call drops , actually one in about 3 weeks of testing. The call quality was superb, a whole lot more than we expected this device to deliver. Earpiece and mic are well balanced and perform brilliantly.
Messaging is fast with the built in Swype Keyboard, If you don’t like it well you can download literally a dozen other keyboards from the marketplace and test them. Choose the one you like and keep it. The key factor however here lies in the touch sensitivity of the screen. The accuracy with which the device handles touch inputs is far superior than the likes of HTC wildfire and Dell XCD 35. But, those are last gen phones anyway. Keyboard performance is excellent mainly because of the touchscreen.
Battery life on the Galaxy Ace was also shocking, with tweaked performance the device gives about
4 Hours Talk time 3G
5.5 Hours on 2G
Audio Playback (screen off) 12 hours
Video Streaming – 2 hours
Video Playback (offline) 4 Hours
Internet Wifi/3G 4-5 Hours
Conclusion
With the market flooded with Android devices we are yet to see a device in the 15k bracket that will live up to our expectations. But, then again our expectations are ever increasing and the market always fails to deliver. The Samsung Galaxy Ace however comes pretty close, and then falls back. The lack of a simple dedicated camera button, no HD video, a missing dedicated search button are simple things that could have been included.
Price : INR 15, 499/-
In an ideal scenario this device would have all the above and a bit more juice.
Here is the Unboxing Video of the HTC Incredible S, The video also contains a comparison of the device with the Desire HD. Check it out and stay tuned for the Full Review.
Samsung has bombarded us with a bundle of Galaxy Phones this season, they are not stopping anytime soon. with several devices to come, we review the cheapest in the line up of Galaxy Phones the Galaxy POP.
Lets start with the Unboxing video.
Hardware
The device packs a semi decent set of Specifications
3.14” capacitive touch screen
1200 mAh Battery
3.15 MP fixed focus camera
Android 2.2
600 MHZ processor
Wifi, bluetooth
Proximity/ ambient sensors
Accelerometer
AGPS
Hardware navigation buttons on the bottom of the display
For an entry level Android phone thats quite a lot of specs, At the price bracket this device is in you can only expect dunb-phones. This device promises and delivers a lot more than you bargain for.
Display and Touchscreen
The Galaxy Pop features a 3.14 inch capacitive touchscreen LCD display, that has a native resolution of 240 x 320 px. While on the outset the device is fully capable and display is good while navigating through menus and using the phone in its basic functions.
The quality of the Display really shines( or blackens) when you actually put it to test while browsing the internet, or watching videos. The display has a poor case of pixel love. The website text is highly unreadable and you need to zoom in to high levels to get basic text to readable state. There is no auto reformatting of text , so you will constantly be panning and rotating your device to get one article or basic letter read in the browser.
Lets just say the Display on the Galaxy POP = FAIL
The touchscreen on the other hand is a marvel. Samsung has made an overall improvement in how the touch digitizer reads the input, thereby making the touchscreen technology used in their devices a brilliant aspect of their lineup. The new Galaxy POP is not left behind and utilizes the same new touch technology along with the optimized Android 2.2 makes using the phone a bit more cheerful.
Camera and Multimedia
The Camera on the Galaxy Pop stands at a semi decent 3.15 MP , the disappointing bit is that its fixed focus. The picutre quality is only decent and you will find yourself struggling to get the right focus even in the brightest of light conditions. The camera is a complete failure in low light situations due to lack of flash LED. You will also find that the video quality is as you would expect from a VGA video capable camera, half decent.
You do however get a huge array of selectable features in the Camera APP and thus letting you select b/ Several shooting modes, scene modes, it lets you add effects and choose resolution etc. Making the Camera app a “princess designed for a pauper”( camera hardware).
Multimedia features are let down by the overly poor (as mentioned earlier) low res display, video just does not cut it on this screen and is just a poor feeling once you get down to watching videos. Audio however is a story told differently , and throughout the new Galaxy series you will see that the audio quality goes from good to excellent as you progress up in the chain. The speakerphone on the Galaxy POP is very impressive and will not be a let down. The phone features an FM radio and thanks to android is capable of playing almost any file format under the sun thanks to its impressive array of Apps.
The included earphones also provide good isolated audio, with a little tweaking from a good equalizer,
Phone and Messaging
Every phone need to be good at one thing, “being a phone”. The Galaxy Pop does just that with the ability to impressively make phone calls the earpiece, microphone and loudspeaker do their job well and promise good conversation abilities. In our tests we found that the device had close to none calls dropped and almost full network bars throughout.
The swpe keyboard makes messaging and emailing on this a breeze, with a bit of learning curve you will find yourself texting away in a marathon. Although, if like us you prefer the normal keyboard, that option is available too.
Conclusion
The Galaxy POP is a semi decent low price entry level Android 2.2 device from samsung. But , we think you deserve better, the display quality is just not acceptable and lets you down on several levels. The phone is plasticy in build and looks like a toy at the end of it. It performs all the functions it intends to do, But makes you fell let down all the way. gaming performance is also average with several games blocked from the marketplace.
Battery Life
3.5 – 4 hours talktime (2g)
2 hours on 3G
4 hours of browsing the internet (3g)
5.5 hours of browsing the internet (Wifi)
9 hours of audio playback
2.5 hours of video
Quadrant benchmark score : 530-540
Price : downwards of INR 9,000/-
Overall we would recommend that you look at other options if display and gaming performance is your main criteria. Save your money for the time being or change your budget (if you can).
Android, Android and more Android! Are you already sick of it? We sure are not!
The latest flagship Android smartphone from Dell’s stable is less of a shocker. Check out our Review
The Build Quality
For the Dell Venue , we have two independent views when it comes to build. The front of the device is this shiny, rugged and curved gorilla glass. The chrome trim and good tactile buttons make it an added bonus. But, the poorly designed back cover and cheap plastic utilization suddenly turns our view around.
The overall construction of the device is pretty solid and delivers where most leave off squeaking and rattling. The Dell Venue seems really bulky in the hand and not as refined as the Desire HD when you hold it in your hand.
Hardware Specs
The Dell Venue like others in this price range comes with a whole set of Top notch hardware, But in this age of technology, what was top notch yesterday is a poor mans tale today.
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash(Bah!)
4.1 inches, 480 x 800 pixels, AMOLED, 16M Colors capacitive touchcreen.
(Now this is wow! resolution still a tad low if you ask us)
Android 2.2 (why not 2.3, why, why ?)
Those are the only specs worth talking about the rest comes down to the usual WiFi, BLuetooth, MicroUSB, MicroSd- upto 32Gb.
Overall hardware is good and the performance of the device is also good. But, the Quadrant Score shows a whole new story, averaging from 600-700 on the scorecard. The result is simply pathetic!
Multimedia and Camera
Now this is where the Dell Venue raked up on the Points. The Amoled screen is simply superb! The Blacks are so deep that you don’t see the difference between the screen and the surrounding bezel.
The video performance is extraordinary thanks to the display, and possibly the curved glass front. The display makes video on this almost lifelike –
Now, if only we could stretch the display (rolls eyes)
The Loudspeaker is best in class period, Dell has somehow managed to stuff their Android lineup with superior quality speakers. Surprisingly, no one seems to talk about them, But, how could they not? These Phones have possible the best in device speaker we have heard ever. The bass is so good it makes you want to play he song over and over again. The speaker delivers quality sound with high volume, great bass and mid, trebles can be tweaked.
Camera on the Dell Venue is an 8 Megapixel snapper which has autofocus, touch to focus, macro mode and the works when it comes to effects/ brightness settings and timer etc. Images look not so great on the device but great on a computer screen. This may be due to a mis-calibration between the Amoled screen (which displays colors differently) and the Camera, who knows? This however didnt bother us much, and we were happy as long as the images were the way they should be.
Video on the device is also good and smooth – 720p HD video with a whole flurry of effects and settings makes the video mode a lot of fun to use. The 1Ghz chip allows for fast processing and you can download several apps from the marketplace and do your editing right on the device.
Phone and Messaging
We always stress that a smart phone should at first be a smart – PHONE. The Dell venue was a bit of a let down in performing that, we got frequent signal drops and connection failures. It even failed to get a proper signal at times. The “no service” signal bothered us for quite some time, a couple of reboots and it was gone.
3G Connectivity was (the best word for it ) a “Bi$%h” we couldn’t get the damn thing to connect to 3G.
Messaging on the other hand was a breeze the onboard keyboard comes with swype and a bunch of other input options, The reponsiveness of the touchscreen along with clear letters makes typing fairly simple and quick. This makes emailing and sms on the Dell Venue a fun exercise.
Gaming and Internet
We never talk about gaming in our reviews, But, this time we just had to make an exception. The Screen (have we mentioned before how much we love it) makes gaming so much fun with the deep colors, it almost makes you never want to stop, become game playing zombies tilting the device and driving your car, shooting the other zombies or blowing up those crazy “egg stealin” Pigs.
Uhhhhh. Brains!!!!
Internet browsing is a breeze, kinetic scrolling, accelerometer, pinch to zoom and slide to scroll work brilliantly without showing any form of LAG. Did we mention the greatness of the Amoled display? makes browsing and reading on websites atleast 4x better. The Venue comes preloaded with flash for the browser so seamless internet for all the folks.
Battery Life
The Venue had a phenomenal battery life in our tests.
Phone Calls : 5.5 hours
Web browsing 8 – 9 hours
We couldn’t test web browsing over 3G because well the damn device wouldn’t get a connection. piff!
Video Review
Conclusion
A strong device from Dell, in terms of build and hardware capability, Beautiful screen, great battery life.
But it all boils down to poor connectivity and phone call ability and that has let us down a lot. Unless phone calls is not your main criteria for buying a “Phone”,
So here it is, a lot of people asked us for it and we tried, tell us how you like our first Hindi Video of the Micromax EG333 mobile handset. For those, who don’t understand Hindi, an quick english version is also included.
