Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs. LG G Pro vs. Acer Liquid S2: Phablets unleashed

When it first came out a couple of years ago, the original Samsung Galaxy Note was welcomed with mixed feeling and reactions. Back then nobody would have thought that today we would be cheering the third installment in the lineup with an even bigger screen. Well times change, and in this industry, times literally flee.

But this time around, the Note 3 is not the only option. You see, Samsung may have opened people’s minds to the phablet realm, but it also inspired a lot of companies to launch rival products. Nothing wrong in that of course, as it leads us to this post where we pit the Galaxy Note 3 versus the LG G Pro and the Acer Liquid S2, with the latter being another fresh announcement off the IFA 2013 floor as well.

The Acer Liquied S2 as if jumped out of nowhere and wasn’t really expected. Acer rushed the opportunity prior to IFA 2013 to announce their 6″ Liquid S2 with a killer feature – its 13MP camera, which records 4k video. It’s not a slouch either with a Snapdragon 800 chipset ticking inside it, the phone runs Android 4.2.2 seamlessly.

Phablets require large hands and even then, they can be a bit unwieldy at times. That’s why specifications such as weight and width are crucial. Sadly, Acer hasn’t yet provided the weight of the Liquid S2, making the Galaxy Note 3 the lightest of the bunch as things stand now.

Samsung has really gone the extra mile to make the Galaxy Note 3 a true successor to the wildly popular Galaxy Note II. It has an updated innards (a Snapdragon 800) as well as an updated screen. It’s a 5.7″ Super AMOLED display of 1080p resolution, which catches up to the Full HD trend. Not to mention the updated S Pen and it’s plethora of new software tricks. You can read all about them in our IFA 2013 Galaxy Note 3 hands-on.

We put the LG G Pro here for a reason – it’s LG’s deliberate attempt to rival the Galaxy Note II and it outpaces it in almost every technical respect, except for the fact that there is no stylus included with it. Still, it’s interesting to see how it would fare against the latest Note 3 just as a reality-check whether it’s still relevant. Well, it’s time to find out – head over to the comparison table below.

	Samsung Galaxy Note 3	LG G Pro	Acer Liquid S2
OS	Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean)	Android OS, v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)	Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Display	5.7-inch Super AMOLED	5.5" IPS Plus LCD	6" IPS LCD
Resolution	1920 x 1080 pixels (386 ppi)	1920 x 1080 pixels (401 ppi)	1920 x 1080 pixels (367 ppi)
Height Width Thickness	151.2 mm 79.2 mm 8.3 mm	150.2 mm 76.1 mm 9.4 mm	166 mm 86 mm 9 mm
Weight	168 grams	172 grams	N/A
Processor	Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400?	Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300	Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400
GPU	Adreno 330	Adreno 320	Adreno 330
RAM	3GB	2GB	2GB
Storage	32GB / 64GB	16GB / 32GB	16GB
microSD card slot	Yes, up to 64GB	Yes, up to 64GB	Yes, up to 128GB
Primary camera	13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash	13 MP, 4208 x 3120 pixels, autofocus, LED flash	13 MP, 4208 x 3120 pixels, autofocus, LED ring flash
Primary camera features	Touch focus, simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, panorama, Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps	Touch focus, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, panorama, HDR, Video: 1080p@30fps, dual-video recording	Touch focus, geo-tagging, panorama, HDR; Video: 2160p@24fps, 1080p@60fps
Front camera	2 MP 1080p@30fps	2 MP 1080p@30fps	2.1MP 1080p@30fps
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Network	Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-band UMTS/HSPA LTE support	Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Dual-band UMTS/HSPA Dual-band LTE support	Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Dual-band UMTS/HSPA Tri-band LTE support
Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 LE with A2DP	Yes, v4.0 LE with A2DP	Yes, v4.0 LE with A2DP
NFC	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distinctive features	S Pen with pressure sensitive touchscreen	N/A	N/A
Availability	September	Available	October

What we have here is failure to communicate. These are three devices that didn’t heed the warnings that the world has had enough of giant phones. They’ve even forced the Oxford dictionary to add the word “phablet” to its database – that’s the length of their insolence.

It’s go big or go home and Samsung leads the pack with its pen-enabled Galaxy Note 3, which saw the light of day yesterday in front of a hyped up crowd both beyond the Samsung-made stage and in front of thousands upon thousands of PC and handheld screens. The Note 3 was a bigger affair than its predecessor (and we’re not just talking figuratively here) and one of the biggest to hit the stage (again, we’re dead serious).

Back in the day when LG officially unveiled the G Pro it was the Galaxy Note II killer it never thought would face. Interestingly, the G Pro still manages to be a worthy rival to the Galaxy Note III even if it doesn’t have the most powerful chipset under the hood, nor the fancy S Pen stylus. And since it’s been around for a while now, the G Pro should be cheaper to buy as well. Yes, it doesn’t pack 2160p video recording, but most people would be alright without it.

Make no mistake about it, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a fantastic tablet that shows the company’s burning desire to continue dominating the very market it built up. As a result, there’s no denying the fact that it’s the very best one in the market that’s available.

Nokia Lumia 928 vs Galaxy S4 impromptu flash shootout: xenon vs

Nokia Lumia 928 vs Galaxy S4 impromptu flash shootout: xenon vs. LED

While preparing the full review of the Nokia Lumia 928, we were quite curious what its Xenon flash is capable of. We had a Samsung Galaxy S4 around so we decided to do an impromptu shootout in low light conditions. We’ve prepared a set of samples from both devices for you to see, both with and without flash under the same conditions.

The entire marketing blitz surrounding the Nokia Lumia 928 has been built around its camera’s low light prowess. The samples we are about to show you now are not about that (or at least, not entirely).

With OIS built-in, the device surely commands plenty of attention, but now we are concentrating on the flash performance of the two models. Hit the break to see how they fared.

We are not going to pass a final verdict on the flash performance of the Nokia Lumia 928 just yet – we are still conducting tests of its performance. We are yet to take lots of camera samples to be able to discern how good of a job the Xenon flash does. Please consider this a work in progress.

And no, we don’t intend to turn this into a cameraphone shootout, it’s just what it is – a set of comparative flash camera samples, which we though you’d be interested in.

Nokia Lumia 928: Flash OFF / Flash ON • Flash OFF / Flash ON (no mistake in the order)

Samsung Galaxy S4: Flash OFF / Flash ON • Flash OFF / Flash ON

We will have the full review of the Nokia Lumia 928 up very soon.

GX1983: Samsung launch a new line of Italian menswear

GX1983: Samsung launch a new line of Italian menswear

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the name ‘GX1983′ is the code for a yet undisclosed Samsung device and despite the logic behind this theory, you’d be way off.

Just the other day, Samsung unveiled that they would be launching a new line of menswear; clothing designed, made and sold exclusively in Italy under the name, GX1983.

It’s fair to assume that one might be at a loss as to why Samsung would take a side-step into the fashion industry, but it is in fact an area of expertise that dates back nearly 30 years for the Korean electronics giant.

Samsung act as parent company to Korea’s Cheil Industries; founded back in 1954 and a big player in Korea’s textile industry, it made the jump to fashion in the 80′s, but here’s where things get interesting. Samsung had Cheil produce a men’s clothing brand in 1983 under a name you might just recognize, ‘Galaxy’, which brings us nicely back to the present.

Alongside Samsung’s strong position in the mobile world, particularly with the Galaxy family, they have decided to give new life to a clothing line that (now understandably) bears significant relevance to the company and so the Galaxy clothing brand created in 1983 is re-emerging in Italy under the name GX1983.

The new line of menswear will be produced in Milan and plans currently place it exclusively in the Italian market, but who’s to say Samsung won’t take their wears elsewhere down the line. Samsung say that the GX1983 line will include sets of both casual wear and sportswear in one, (I would assume not too dissimilar from the likes of Lacoste clothing designs).

So would you be interested in going toe to toe against the big Italian fashion houses knowing you’re wearing a bit of Italian-made Korean history? Let us know down in the comments.

Thanks to Geof for this one.

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Nokia Image Space lets you create 3D presentations of the places you’ve visited

Nokia Image Space lets you create 3D presentations of the places you’ve visited

Nokia Image Space sounds just like the next service allowing you to upload your images to the Internet directly from your mobile phone. B-o-o-ring! But take a closer look. It actually let’s you do much more.

With the help of Nokia Image Space you can easily create your own 3D presentations of the places you have visited (a feature quite reminiscent of Bing Maps’ Photosynth). The only things you need here are your trustworthy Symbian-powered Nokia smartphone with GPS receiver and compass aboard. Oh, that and a Flickr account.

Using the GPS the phone will record the coordinates of the place where the image was taken while the digital compass will record your orientation. Then you upload that metadata-heavy image with the mobile Nokia Share Online client.

And if there are enough photos taken in a certain area, the magic will happen: Image Space generates a 3D presentation using your photos. To view it, you need to have the Nokia Image Space browser installed on your desktop computer (of course, a laptop will do too, but not your phone).

Keep in mind that the Nokia Image Space is an experimental research project by Nokia Research Center and there is still some work to be done before the service starts working trouble-free.

Using Nokia Image Space you can also share your images with all of your Flickr contacts directly from your mobile phone. You are also able to leave comments, edit tags and photo descriptions, again, without using a computer.

The applications has been tested on a wide range of devices such as Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6720 Classic but is expected to work on many more phones powered by S60 (3.2 or 5.0), which also have an built-in compass.

There are some issues discovered (for example Nokia N97 has some sensor issues with the Image Space Capture app) and probably others waiting to be found, so if you discover more problems while testing the application, feel free to share them with us in the comments section.

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