Updated: CES 2013: what to expect
The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is one of the largest showcases of new technology in the world.
Hosted by the Consumer Electronics Association in Las Vegas, CES 2013 will open to press and exhibitors from every facet of the electronics industry, and TechRadar will be there.
We'll descend upon the gambling capital of the world for four days of basking in the glow of the latest computers, televisions, cameras, phones and more.
- Read more: 10 best gadgets and tech at CES 2012
TV tablets
Unfortunately this development is only U.S.-bound for now, but RCA's just-announced DMT580D tablet combines the cool of an Android slate with the boob tube fun of a TV. The slate comes with a dual TV tuner that picks up DTV signals and is compatible with mobile TV provider Dyle. Though it sounds like you have to stay in one spot while watching episodes of Dr. Who, RCA has come up with a neat way to give users all the functionality of a tablet while giving them the option to tune into their favorite shows when they're not at home.Google TV devices galore from new partners
Thought Google TV was going to lie low in 2013? Think again. Mountain View announced that Asus, Hisense and TCL will all reveal Google TV devices during the Vegas show while existing partners like Vizio and Sony are set to demo the recently revamped service on each companies respective devices. What "Google TV devices" mean exactly we don't yet know, but we're thinking anything from integrated screens to set-top boxes to IPTV boxes.10-inch tablet from Asus
Asus appears ready to rev up its tablet game with leaks coming nearly every week pointing to new slate ambitions. One of particular interest points to an Android tablet called (for now) the ME301T Memo Pad 10. The device is said to have a 10.1-inch display, Jelly Bean 4.1 and a Tegra 3 processor. While there's no for sure until we get the official word at the show, this slate looks promising, especially for the business crowd.Gorilla Glass 3 rumbles through the CES jungle
Corning is going bananas with ultra durable glass, announcing ahead of the Vegas show we'll see the third generation of its Gorilla Glass system at CES. Promising three times more scratch resistance than previous versions, Gorilla Glass 3 is built to last with nary a knick. We'll also see some Corning fiber optic cables for Thunderbolt hit the Vegas floor, too. Needless to say, we think Corning's offerings will have us jumping for device-saving joy.Optimus G2 goes prime time
LG is clearly excited for CES 2013 if a YouTube video posted just days before the event is any indication. Not only do we get techno music and quick cuts, we also get a glimmer at what very much appears to be a smartphone. It's not the most revealing video, but it offers the very real possibility of a thin bezeled handset, one that could very well be the Optimus G2. The device should be a 5-in follow up to the Optimus G, packing a 1920 x 1080 resolution with 440 ppi.
The unprecedented awaits
Out-of-the-box TV design from Samsung
Samsung is playing a mean wait-and-see game when it comes to its CES announcements, teasing Dec. 31 that the "true innovation" in TV is coming to Las Vegas sometime between January 8 and January 11. Promising an unprecedented TV shape and "timeless gallery design," this particular Samsung television offering looks to have a translucent screen, at least according to an eerie promo pic. We could also see a bezel-less, edge-to-edge display if totally translucent isn't in the cards. Whatever it has planned, we're mystified by Samsung's hints and hope we can wrap our heads around it come CES.LG goes hectic with Hecto projection system
LG and Samsung are in a bit of a battle when it comes to pre-CES announcements as the former announced it will bring out a Hecto 100-inch Laser TV complete with projection unit at the Vegas show. We're talking 1080p full HD images projected from a mere 22in away. We're talking the ultimate movie watching experience, including 3 HDMI ports, Smart TV and Digital TV functionality and a projection unit with bulbs that can last up to 25,000 hours before replacement. Hopefully we'll get word on pricing and availability on the Hecto unit come show time, but it'll be fun to watch a flick or two nonetheless.Serious Series 7 offerings by Samsung
Samsung has let it be known far and wide that it has some monitors and new laptops in store for CES 2013, including a first of its kind. First it revealed it will show two new Series 7 monitors come early January, the SC770 Touch Monitor and the no-touch SC750. The SC770 is the South Korean firm's first multi-touch monitor built around Windows 8. We'll also see an enhanced Series 7 Chronos at the show plus the first Ultra in the Series 7 family. Both feature Full HD screens though only one (hint: it's not the Chronos) will have more than one processor option.New Google TV sets by LG
This is more of a "100 per cent sure" than an "expect," but LG is primed to unveil some new Google TV sets come CES. We're looking at five different sizes of the GA6400 series, ranging from 42 to 60in, while the GA7900 will come in 47 and 55in iterations. The screens aren't going to be the most awe-inspiring sets at CES, but we're interested to see where LG is taking Google TVs heading into 2013.
Credit: PhotoRumors
Android-packing Polaroid with interchangeable lens
Polaroid's president and CEO couldn't have made it any clearer: "There will be an Android powered, interchangeable lens camera introduced by Polaroid at CES 2013." We saw a "smart" snapper at CES 2012, and can't wait to shoot around with this interchangeable lens version. From a leaked marketing photo, the snapper - possibly called the IM1836 - resembles Nikon's J1/J2 and features a whole host of goodies.Samsung Display's bendable screens
One of the more playful products we expect to see at the show are flexible screens from Samsung Display. Company reps confirmed to CNET that there will be a 5.5in bendy display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 HD and a pixel count of 267 ppi. Samsung's LCD-producing spin-off company is also throwing in a 55in TV version for our viewing (and manipulating?) pleasure. Things are going to get twisted down in Vegas, that's for sure.Ascend W1 and 'too powerful' D2
Huawei has not one but two phones confirmed for the Vegas show: the Ascend W1 and Ascend D2. The W1, as the "W" suggests, will be Huawei's first Windows Phone foray, while the D2 is getting an Android OS. While both should be fun to put under the microscope, Huawei's CEO has expressed trepidation that the 5in D2 will be too powerful and thus too expensive for the average consumer. It's 1080p display, quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 13MP camera are certainly specs to admire.Staggering 110-inch UHD TV from Samsung
Samsung isn't slacking in its CES plans, as rumors surfaced December 17 that the firm was planning to unveil a 110-inch Ultra HD TV come show time. A Korean tech site's source said the company also has OLED TV designs for Vegas, creating the perfect storm for a "my TVs are totally the best, yours' belong in a heap" showdown between Samsung, LG, Sony and even Westinghouse. All we want to know is: can we get a 110in set for the office?ZTE's Grand S does a 5-inch entrance
This phone was a bit of a mystery for a good 24 hours, before the CES press page gave us a helping hint at what the Chinese manufacturer's 5in handset would be called. The ZTE Grand S is set to debut January 8 at 1:30 p.m., bringing the company's first FHD smartphone and, according to the press blurb, "the world's thinnest for 5in FHD smartphones." It will be made of ceramic and feature "traditional Chinese style," whatever that means for a phone.Samsung announces major new product
Hold onto your oversized souvenir drink - Samsung has an earth shattering announcement planned for CES. At least that's what the South Korean company would have us believe in a teaser video it recently posted. While short on details, the video implores the world to "get ready" for something we've all been waiting for. We've touched on the rebranding rumors, the Galaxy S4 and even a QWERTY tablet. While Samsung could announce one, none or all three of these products, it could have a product up its sleeve that leaves up entirely blindsided. We kind of hope for that...A Red Ridge tablet from Intel
A recent filing at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission revealed an intriguing device illustrated with a label that read "Red Ridge." Red Ridge is Intel's Medfield-based tablet platform, and while that news is certainly noteworthy, what makes us think a tablet could show at CES is that the device tested was reportedly a "production unit." That means we could see a commercial model in a month's time - or just about when CES' doors open.A 110-inch 4K LED TV
Westinghouse isn't being shy about it's ambitions to present the "world's largest" 4K LED TV at CES. The company said as much in a press note. While it won't be the biggest TV out there (Panasonic's 152 incher takes that crown) it will be interesting to see how the company prices this puppy. Though it beats out Samsung's 85in behemoth in size, because it's a lesser manufacturer, we could actually see a price tag that the non-Jay Z's of the world can afford. Either way, it'll make watching football really engrossing.HTC might unveil a new phone or two
Mere months ago HTC released two killer devices into the marketplace, the Droid DNA and the HTC One X+. Apparently that wasn't enough for the Taiwanese manufacturer. If a couple of recent rumors are true, HTC has a couple more smartphones up its sleeve.
The first rumbling came back in June when a possible line-up of HTC Windows Phone 8 devices was leaked, the headliner being the 4.7in HTC Zenith. Then another WP8 device, the HTC Titan III registered on our radar thanks to a survey on Xbox Live. Now just a few days ago we caught wind of the HTC M7, which the rumors peg as a possible 5in flagship device.
If these leaks have any merit, big handsets would seem to be a running theme for HTC. After the iPhone went over 4in, everyone seems to be upsizing. Maybe this is HTC's new angle after it bowed out of the US tablet market?
LG gives CPU making a try
The rumor mill is turning even faster as the days wind down to CES 2013. One thread we keep seeing pop up is processors, and LG is the latest to jump in the mix. A report out of Korea has the tech firm producing in-house made CPUs next year, starting with chips for its web-capable Smart TVs. One chip could be the H13, with the H standing for home entertainment and the 13 for the year, and we could see it and others come early January.A tablet to take notice of
There's a good chance we'll see a good number of tablets at the show, but there's two we've heard about recently that could really turn some heads. Asus is reportedly working on a tablet with the model name ME172V, a slate that could reach no more than 7in, come with a microSD slot for expandable memory and flash a price that puts the Google Nexus 7 on notice. And while Samsung's Galaxy S4 is stealing most of the South Korean company's 2013 thunder, we've heard the firm might be planning a 13.3in tablet to take on Asus' Transformer series. The 13 incher would even feature a QWERTY keyboard dock.- Read more about Asus' 7-inch tablet and Samsung's 13.3-inch QWERTY possibilities.
Intel to outline new tablet chips
In the mood for some T-time? Intel is supposedly prepping the introduction of a next gen processor at CES 2013: the Bay Trail-T. The Bay Trail-T is rumored as a quad-core scheduled for a 2014 launch, though CES will see the series' debut plus info on what manufactures are building slates based off the Trail-T. A SoC sibling is also expected at the Vegas show. Dubbed the Valleyview-T, the chip could take on Nvidia's Tegra 3 and Qualcomm's S4. Look for long battery lives plus 22nm prowess, superior audio, boosted memory capacity and amped up graphics when used in conjunction with the Gen7 Intel GPU. There's even talk 3D video recording could be in the cards.Galaxy S4 with Full HD Super AMOLED display
As the major hardware manufacturer taking up CES real estate, it's no surprise Samsung should (so far) dominate the rumor mill. This one has a Full HD Super AMOLED display arriving at the show, but that's not all: chances are we'll see such a screen housed inside the Galaxy S4. A Samsung source reported that the display's resolution will reach 1920 x 1080 and a staggering 441 ppi, but the real point of interest is in the ultra-thin and energy efficient AMOLED technology. Fingers crossed Samsung decides to bring a SIV with such a screen as its CES carry on.Huawei Ascends take flight
With Windows Phone 8 reveals by Nokia, HTC and Samsung already in the books, it was easy to forget that a fourth manufacturer received a Microsoft nod to use the new OS. China's Huawei confirmed just a few weeks before the show that it will bring its WP8 dish to the party in the form of the Ascend W1. Though the Ascend W1 will be the last guest to arrive, it may turn out to be the phone everyone flocks to if a cheap asking price is tacked on. The firm may also introduce the higher-end Ascend W3, a phone with a 4.5in display that recently leaked online.World's largest Ultra HD TV from Samsung
Can you say "whoa?" Samsung is about to set mouths agape with an 85in Ultra HD LED TV, "the world's largest commercialized UHD LED TV." The company made the over eight million pixel tube official November 12, and we're looking forward to standing wide-eyed before the mondo television that probably makes the lights on the Strip look like dying flashlights.Samsung rebrands itself
Despite having the best-selling smartphone in the world and running an operating system on clip to eclipse all others, Samsung is reportedly preparing quite the rebranding at CES 2013.
While we don't necessarily anticipate a radical image reimagining, we do expect Samsung will take advantage of the stage (and a keynote speech) to introduce a new facet to its business identity – a refresh, as it were.
One of CES's exhibit categories is "Digital Health and Fitness," so Samsung will likely tack onto that theme with the introduction of products (or the retooling of current devices) that fit into the health and wellness category.
Samsung has reportedly hired a design team that's worked with Nike on some of that company's branding initiatives, so we'll likely see some dynamic stuff from South Korea in Vegas.
As Samsung continues to grow from an Asian powerhouse to a global one, how it sells itself to a broad international audience will be key to its future.
We expect Stephen Woo, president of Samsung Electronics' device solutions division, to set the tone of the company's refreshed self during his keynote address January 9.
The debut of Ultra High-Definition television
It took a while but CRT televisions have finally become the stuff of garage sales and trips to grandma's house, and 3D screens have just started to crack the home market. Now everyone's lovely flatscreen is about to become a little bit obsolete, thanks Ultra High-Definition.- What you need to know: Ultra High-Definition television
Still, everyone seems to be in agreement over the spec requirements set by the CEA, defining what it takes to be called Ultra HD. According to the group, Ultra means at least 8 million pixels, with a minimum resolution of 3840 x 2160, and an aspect ratio of at least 16 x 9.
Now the question is how big will the screens at CES 2013 be? There's debate between engineers as to whether anyone can even tell the difference between UHD and regular HD on a display that's less than 100-inches. And when will these TVs become affordable? Right now they're around $20,000 (UK£12,515, AUD $19,210), keeping them firmly in Donald Trump and Richard Branson territory.
Intel introduces a new mobile processor, stakes its claim
Intel is probably one of the most recognizable names coming to CES 2013, though it's not the only chipmaker making a stand on the Vegas exhibit floor. We expect Intel to show up big at the event, schooling the competition on how it's done, and very likely announcing a new mobile processor or two as well as some destined for PCs.
Intel is in an interesting position in terms of its mobile future: although it claims to have 20 Windows 8 tablets sporting its new Z2760 processor coming to market soon, the firm's chips are currently only found in six smartphones.
ARM and its licensees (Nvidia and Qualcomm) are making a killing in the mobile space and all are heading down to Nevada for the show, creating a perfect storm for one-up-man ship on the Strip.
ARM-based chips, while found in major money makers like the iPad and various Android tablets, aren't terribly up to snuff when it comes to processing prowess.
Yet Intel hasn't even breached the realm of relevancy smartphone space, making CES the time where it needs to stake that claim.
There's been talk that Apple may chuck Intel as its CPU provider in the coming years. Cupertino recently developed a poppy processor for its iPad 4 – the A6X – a chip that's reportedly twice as fast as those found in older iPads.
For that reason alone, Intel has got to show why it's relevant in mobile and why it deserves to be considered the top chipmaker in the world now and for years to come.
We'd love to see Intel not only announce a new mobile processor, but unveil a new partnership. It's got to prove it can work well with others (and capture consumer imagination) if it hopes to move deeper into smartphones and tablets.
Nvidia trumps out Tegra 4
Nvidia's Tegra 3 has done quite for itself this year, jumping into phones like HTC's One X+ and tablets such as Google's Nexus 7 and Microsoft's Surface. That doesn't mean Nvidia doesn't have its eyes to the horizon, and we believe the company will introduce its Tegra 4 processor come CES.
Word of the T40 (the new Tegra's model number) got going in April, with a report pointing to early 2013 as the time the Tegra 3's successor would ascend the throne.
At the time, it sounded like the Tegra 4 would fit four new Cortex A15 ARM chips, taking it way past the A9 Cortex chip summit.
Speeds of 1.8GHz are probably going to be average for the new processor, while by the middle/end of the year, 2.0 should be its cruising GHz.
If we're lucky, we might even see an Android or Windows 8 tablet poke about with the Tegra 4 inside.
Microsoft's show no more
The Consumer Electronics Show has long been Microsoft's chance to shine. The software giant has always given flashy presentations, usually involving celebrities. Shaq, Conan O'Brien, Ryan Seacrest, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and more have all appeared to help co-founder Bill Gates and current CEO Steve Ballmer show of the company's latest tech.- Read more: Microsoft's last keynote at CES 2012
Companies have moved quickly to fill the space left by Microsoft's exodus. Qualcomm has nabbed the open keynote slot. The telecommunications mogul will be giving its Born Mobile keynote on Monday, January 7. Meanwhile, satellite provider Dish and appliance manufacturer Hisense snapped up Microsoft's booth space in under an hour.
However, Venturebeat has quoted CEA president Gary Shapiro as saying, "Microsoft will have something" at CES 2013. While it's unknown what that something will be, there are plenty of possibilities. More Windows Phone 8 devices? A Microsoft Surface Pro running Windows 8? Its all in the realm of possibility.
LG unveils Smart TV platform underpinned by HP's webOS
While we expect LG to march out a bevvy of phones and TVs, including some we haven't seen before, what's really piquing our interest heading into the new year is word that it may launch a Smart TV service based on webOS.
webOS, the open source system developed by HP, could take the reigns from LG's antiquated NetCast Smart TV interface during the show, a move that wouldn't leave our jaws dropped.
HP delivered on its promise to walk out webOS to the public by September, a vow it made in January, and now it needs a big product and solid partner to get its face out there.
The marriage between the two should be equal – reports have HP providing the OS while LG will plug in its dual-core L9-powered motherboards.
If our expectations pan out, we'll likely see the death of LG's small screen partnership with the struggling Google TV service, a relationship LG championed at CES 2012 yet has since cooled.
Automotive electronics
The CEA estimates that factory-installed automotive technology will generate $8.7 billion dollars in 2013, so it's no wonder seven major car companies will be on the show floor. Audi, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia and Subaru will be joined more than 100 auto tech companies displaying the latest in-car tech. This is a record setting presence for the automotive industry at CES. Displays and presentations will include electric drive technology. GoElectricDrive TechZone will demonstrate electric vehicles paired with their respective charging stations, ones that can be used at homes and in public facilities. The Safe Driver presentation will show more than the typical hands-free devices, highlighting technologies that can help drivers park, watch their speed and avoid collisions. However, not everything between automakers and car tech designers is completely sunny. With so much hardware being put into cars before they even leave the factory, will the aftermarket industry be facing an all-time low? A presentation titled "Are Automakers Running the Aftermarket Off the Road?" will address the issue.
 |  |
HTC CEO sees innovative new smartphones making up for setbacks
HTC settled its patent dispute with Apple last year, but the Taiwanese smartphone and tablet manufacturer still has to overcome marketing hurdles in 2013, according to its CEO.
"Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing," HTC CEO Peter Chou told the Wall Street Journal.
"We haven't done enough on the marketing front."
While Chou didn't name Apple and Samsung specifically, the two companies have eaten into HTC's global market share and have a combined 106 percent of the smartphone profits.
The increase in iPhone and Galaxy S3 sales has been to the detriment of HTC's Android and Windows Phone-based devices.
The company's year-over-year marketshare slipped from 2.7 percent to 2.2 percent for the third quarter, according to market research firm Gartner.
Stuck in the middle is Chou
While Apple and Samsung are selling high-end devices in conjunction with hefty marketing, Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE are having success with budget smartphones. Many analysts believe that this leaves HTC stuck in the middle. Chou, who co-founded HTC in 1997, doesn't agree. Instead, he sees a better 2013 for his company, chiefly because of innovation. "Although we don't have as much money to counter [Samsung and Apple], the most important thing is to have unique products that appeal to consumers."A luck this year?
Chou's company is on the record as having said that its patent settlement with Apple will bring about better phones from the company. Likewise, HTC may get the boost it needs from its latest line of smartphones, including the HTC One X+, 8X and 8S. The first sign of whether or not HTC is still in trouble may come Monday, when HTC is supposed to release its preliminary fourth-quarter results.
| |
Head of Hulu leaving during tumultuous time for streaming video
Hulu's head honcho is leaving the company sometime during Q1 of 2013, along with Rich Tom, the company's CTO. The timing of their departure, though not outlined specifically, should be before April.
CEO Jason Kilar took to a blog post Friday to announce he will stay on to help transition the company to its new leadership before leaving.
Kilar offered little in the way of explanation, calling the decision difficult after more than five years at Hulu's helm.
Though replacements weren't announced and are likely not yet identified, Kilar said he'd reveal more as "dates and other items get solidified."
Testy time
Kilar's departure comes at an intriguing point in the streaming video industry, one marked by steep competition, emerging services and devices and a public keen on watching online content free of ads. Though Hulu grossed around $695 million (UK£432 million) in revenue in 2012 and signed more than 200,000 subscribers to Hulu Plus in the last week alone, competing services like Amazon Prime, Netflix and the forthcoming U.S. Redbox Instant service have made the streaming waters mighty unfriendly. Hulu Plus commands 3 million paying subscribers and is found on a host of devices like Apple TV, Nintendo's Wii and Wii U and Windows 8 tablets, as well as Android slates and smartphones. Netflix, however, boasts over 30 million members worldwide. A potential contributing factor to Kilar's sign off is the perceived cold blood between him and three of Hulu's parent companies - NBC Universal, News Corp and Disney - a development that has led many industry watchers to call the CEO's resignation inevitable. Kilar seemingly took the companies to task two years over how each distributed content on the site and interjected advertising where consumers didn't want it. With Kilar gone, we'll have to keep a close on Hulu's traditional media owner undermine the site's attempts to develop its own content and whether limiting outside content (or adding more ads) become the wave of Hulu's future. Though his departure marks a time of transition and likely significant change for Hulu and its streaming services, Kilar shouldn't be without a job for long. He used to work for Amazon and was on the short list to take over Yahoo! last year, so he stands a pretty good chance of finding employment somewhere respectable soon.
| |
BlackBerry Z10 parts leak seemingly confirms 4.3-inch display
A handful of parts for one of the upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices looks to have popped up online recently, looking to confirm some suspicions about the smartphone's specs.
The parts, obtained by ETrade Supply, include an LCD screen, touchscreen digitizer, and both the rear and front housing assembly for the BlackBerry Z10 model.
The LCD screen is a 4.3-inch display, of which ETrade Supply has obtained two different versions. The two displays have slightly different sensor and camera hole placements, while one also has a larger metal rim around the screen and the BlackBerry name branded on the front.
The screen without any BlackBerry branding could belong to an earlier prototype, or might be a separate model entirely.
Disassembled
The Z10 front casing shows slots for an HDMI-out port, micro USB port and a diagram suggesting it will take a SIM card under the battery. The rear casing meanwhile shows an SD card slot and covers most of the Z10's back, with a large gap where the battery and battery cover will go. The front and rear casing obtained by ETrade appear to be for different models based on how the screw placement aligns. Like the two screens, this could be due to parts from an earlier prototype or a second Z10 model. The entire casing is 5.2-inches tall by 2.9-inches wide, while the casing and screen assembled are about 0.37-inches thick.Not long now
The BlackBerry Z10 will be the touchscreen version of Research in Motion's new line of smartphones that will launch alongside the QWERTY-equipped Blackberry 10 N-Series. Two additional BlackBerry 10 devices were recently approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Details are scarce on the two unnamed BB10 handsets, though one could be tied to the mismatched screen and rear casing from the newly leaked parts. RIM is on schedule for its Jan. 30 BB10 launch, the only question is how many models will be revealed and made available following the event. As they say, the more the merrier.
| |
10 percent of Android devices have gobbled up Jelly Bean
Google released its latest set of Android usage statistics on Friday, revealing that Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 and 4.2) is now on 10.2 percent of Android devices.
The statistics were calculated by examining the devices that accessed the Google Play store over a 14-day period ending Jan. 3.
In addition to Jelly Bean's 10.2 percent, Ice Cream Sandwich stands at 29.1 percent, Honeycomb has 1.5 percent and Gingerbread 47.6 percent.
Earlier versions of Android, including Froyo, Eclair and Donut, still account collectively for 11.6 percent of Android devices.
Growing faster than ICS
Android dominated the smartphone market throughout 2012, both in the U.S. and internationally. The Google OS's expanding hold on the market may explain why Jelly Bean has been adopted more quickly than Ice Cream Sandwich was when it first launched. Jelly Bean gained 10 percent of the market share in the almost six months since its release in July, while after almost eight months Ice Cream Sandwich was still on just 7.1 percent of devices. As The Verge pointed out on Friday, Jelly Bean's faster adoption rate may also be related to the relatively minor changes it made to Ice Cream Sandwich, which was a more drastic update over its predecessors. In comparison with the shift to Ice Cream Sandwich, upgrading to Jelly Bean is relatively painless. Nevertheless, like Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich adoption is up significantly overall, with the older Gingerbread finally dropping below 50 percent of the total Android market.
| |
Asus and others set to unveil Google TV devices next week
Google is giving its good TV graces to a handful of manufacturers at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, likely in the hopes of jolting some life into its struggling small screen venture.
The company announced in a blog post Friday that three firms - Asus, Hisense and TCL - will unveil Google TV devices during the annual tech gathering.
Existing partners like LG, Vizio, Sony and others are also slated to demonstrate Google's revamped TV platform through each companies' individual offerings.
LG already set the wheels in motion when it revealed before Christmas that it will show off seven new Google TV sets at the show, with the largest screen size, belonging to the GA6400, coming in at 60-inches.
Time to shine
Google gave its struggling television platform an overhaul last November, updating it for speed and accessibility. The company has struggled from Day 1 to gain a following, both from consumers and big names like Samsung. Though the South Korean giant has announced a Google TV product, it has yet to follow through with actually releasing anything to the public. With the addition of Asus, Hisense and TCL, Google can count nine TV buddies, a decent pack if it hopes to keep growing its TV gig. The G-team also plans on showing its YouTube on TV feature on LG, Panasonic and Sony Smart TVs during the Vegas corral, so its presence will certainly be felt. TechRadar will land in Nevada before long and we'll let you know if the Google TV showcases hit the jackpot or go bust.
| |
Samsung says Galaxy S4 won't arrive before May
Those eagerly waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S4 may have to just keep on waiting, as the Korean firm is now saying that the handset will not launch until May at the earliest.
In an oddly candid use of social media, Samsung Lebanon answered a user's Facebook question of when the company's next Android smartphone will arrive.
While Samsung Lebanon didn't exactly say when the Galaxy S4 will be available, it did at reveal when it won't not be. "The Galaxy SIV won't be released before May 2013," Samsung Lebanon said on Wednesday.
The company elaborated on its answer Friday saying, "What we said is only trivial since all Galaxy S series are released between late April and early May, yet there's no way for anyone to know the exact release date :)"
TechRadar asked Samsung Mobile USA for comment and was told, "We do not comment on rumors or speculation."
No show at CES
The post-May launch seems to be supported by another bit of rumor popping up Friday that the Galaxy S4 won't be shown at CES 2013. Technically, the smartphone will be at CES, but according to South Korean site MT it could be restricted to showings behind closed doors with only the top executives from various wireless carriers. The MT report suggests that Samsung Electronics Vice President Jay Lee will be at the show conducting the private sneak peeks, where he will show the latest prototype model rather than the finished device. The report comes on the heels of an alleged leaked photo of the Galaxy S4 earlier in the day, which could actually be a picture of the prototype if it's legitimate. Most notably on the leaked image was the lack of any physical buttons on the smartphone's face, instead opting for an elongated screen with touchscreen buttons. It was already suspected that the Galaxy S4 could be a no show at CES, and could even skip the Mobile World Congress in February, as well. If Samsung is targeting May for the smartphone's launch, then anxious Android users should have some news to look forward to once April rolls around.
| |
Review: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
Introduction and Design
To say that Amazon has been the single most powerful catalyst in the e-book revolution would not be an exaggeration. Before the introduction of the Kindle, many who adored the printed page universally scoffed at e-book readers, claiming that such devices would never replace the traditional reading experience. But Amazon's hardware has been a real game changer, enough to force even the most ardent ebook critic to admit that Amazon's take was genuinely impressive, perhaps begrudgingly.
Yet in the recent years, the competition has become quite stiff. Mostly in the form of Apple's iPad, which offered the same functionality and form factor, but the ability to do much more. Even Amazon itself has tried producing a similar "do everything" machine, the Kindle Fire HD, which relies upon the Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.
But what about those who have no need or desire to watch movies, listen to their MP3 collection, and play games? What about those who just want to snuggle up with a good book, even if its just ultimately ones and zeroes?
Leave it to Amazon to change the game again. The latest device in the traditional Kindle line, the Kindle Paperwhite, is easily its best effort yet. Five years of refinements and improvements are clearly evident, resulting in what might be the finest pure ereader in the market today, even if it's not 100% perfect.
It comes in at just £109, which is again an impressive price for some top-end kit; yes, it's pricey compared to some e-readers, but there's no doubt this is one of the best.
Design
First impressions of the any new piece of hardware, while not indicative of the overall experience in the end, will contribute significantly towards toward one's overall opinion. We're happy to report that it's all smiles when one unboxes and handles their Paperwhite for the very first time. The WiFi only unit, which we're reviewing here, weighs just 213 grams and measures 16.9 cm x 11.7 cm x 0.91 cm, so it's a bit thinner than the previous Kindle model, the Kindle Touch. On a purely visual level, the Paperwhite appears to have quietly take design cues from both its predecessor and its Android driven cousin, the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, mostly due to its sleeker, simpler profile.
Indeed, it's by far the best looking traditional Kindle we've ever designed. Even those who have been turned off by previous models should have very little to complain about here. The slightly garish physical keyboard from earlier modes has become a thing of the past. It also drops the rather subpar cursor pad from previous generations as well.
Instead, the front of the device sports a smooth, black matte plastic bezel, with just the Kindle name on the bottom, in white. The edges are comfortably rounded, which is nice since your hands will be rubbing against them quite a bit. Due to its low profile on all counts, the Paperwhite is a joy to behold, and seems expertly designed to fit in one hand.
Again, the device is effortless to hold, thanks to a rubberized plastic coating. It allows for easy gripping and simply cannot slip out of one's hand, no matter how sweaty your grip becomes. There's an immediate impression that the Paperwhite is a device that's suitable, and comfortable, for all situations.
Amazon has produced protective cases for the Paperwhite, but it would be purely for decoration with this latest Kindle. The overall construction is rock solid and withstood quite the pounding, while showing zero wear and tear in the end.
Display
The Kindle Paperwhite's main attraction is its display. Like all of Amazon's ebook readers, it uses E Ink, which provides some real advantages over devices like Apple's iPad 4. The non-reflective screen can be read in direct sunlight, and it makes extended periods of reading easier on the eye. Yet the Paperwhite's screen is unlike those of previous Kindles models. First there's the increase in resolution. The previous model, the Kindle Touch, had an impressive 167 ppi (pixels per inch), which the Paperwhite manages to best with 212 ppi. Text, no matter the font, no matter the size, simply looked crisp, clear and incredible.
As impressive as high-density screens like Apple's Retina display might be, the Paperwhite is easier on the eyes. It simply does an excellent job of mimicking actual paper.
Another distinguishing feature is the front lighting, which is quite different from the traditionally backlit solutions. The screen is actually comprised of three separate layers: the first is the actual E Ink display, and directly on top of that is the capacitive touchscreen. On top of that is the fiber optic-like system that illuminates everything below.
Simply put, this is best E Ink display of the market today. There has also never been an e-book reader display that is so pleasing to the eye.
The goal was to ensure a reading experience with minimal eyestrain, even in the dark. Amazon has met this challenge handily. With 24 levels of brightness to choose from, no matter how sensitive to light your eyes might be, the Paperwhite can be adjusted for your best possible reading comfort.
Yet it's not absolutely perfect. Some might see the Paperwhite's 2GB of storage as a bit of a step back, since past models had 4GB. However, when you consider that this reduction is probably how the device achieved its minuscule form factor, and that the Paperwhite can still hold around 1,100 titles, it's not much of a sacrifice.
More irritating are some lighting irregularities near the bottom of the screen, which creates slight dark spots. We personally had no issues with the matter, but did notice them when using the Paperwhite in low light situations. They were hardly distracting, and since it was at the very bottom of the page, it never disrupted the actual text.
Yet enough people have complained for Amazon to issue a statement, in which they stated that their hardware is not defective, just not 100% perfect. A few might take issue, but probably the same amount of people who feel that 1,100 books makes a low-capacity ereader.
There's no doubt the non-uniform glow is disappointing, as the thought of a pure white display would be stunning; in reality it doesn't really matter in day to day use though, so we would barely even call it a negative.
Charging and Battery Life
Of all the traditional ebook readers that Amazon has produced, the Kindle Paperwhite has the least amount of buttons: just one, at the very bottom. There you'll find the on/off switch, the status light, and micro-USB port for charging with a PC. This is where in which the first serious omission is found: the lack of a headphone port. This means no text to speech functionality, which might be a flat out deal killer for some, if not many.
The reasoning for this is to keep the Paperwhite as light and small as possible; Amazon has already explained that the audio chip required, or even just a headphone jack, would compromise such goals.
The Paperwhite ships with a micro-USB cable (which is white, an odd choice since everything else is all black), so it can be charged by connecting with a computer. This is a bit inconvenient if you're traveling and don't have your laptop handy. Though Amazon does sell an AC adaptor for a reasonable £9, the "sold separately" attitude is a bit annoying.
Thankfully, the Paperwhite's battery performance lives up to the fine tradition that previous Kindles have established. Amazon claims that a single charge can last upwards of eight weeks, and with moderate use, the device can certainly hang in there. Various tests under an assortment of circumstances proved Amazon's jaw dropping claims to be true.
Though one does have to be mindful of usage to get peak performance. The new screen is quite sexy, but does take a toll on battery life, and so does keeping WiFi on. In the case of the latter, the solution might seem simple enough: just keep it off at most times, but that's easier said than done.
For starters, many users might want to have their last read page synced across all their devices, so having a consistent connection is nice. If you're upgrading from a previous Kindle, you'll be amazed how quickly the battery drains with everything turned on... but in reality, it's still going to be weeks at a time you can use it, even with the backlight.
Getting to storage size, consumers may scoff at the Paperwhite's mere 2GB of storage. However, when you consider that, according to Amazon's estimates, that's enough room for 1,100 titles, we there's more than enough for the most avid of readers. Still, the last Kindle had 4GB, so this can be seen as something of a step backwards.
Interface part one
The operating system that drives the Kindle Paperwhite is quite a departure from previous Kindle devices. Like the overall physical design of the Paperwhite hardware, it takes various cues from the Kindle Fire HD. Since there are no physical buttons, navigation primarily consists of screen swipes and other gestures. Tapping on the right of the display will turn the page forward, while tapping the left most portion of the screen will turn back the page.
Topping the upper portion of the screen is the Kindle toolbar, which on a purely visual level, is much like the upper portion of a web browser's window or many desktop application interfaces.
When inside a book, you have four basic tools. First is Fonts, where you can choose the size of the type, and as well typeface, from six options in total. Line spacing and margins can also be adjusted. It's worth noting that the menu appears like a pop up window that you'd find in Windows or OS X, right down to the X in upper corner, which can be used to dismiss the tool and get back to your book.
Next is the Go To menu, which allows you to navigate various portions of a book and jump between sections in a quick manner, depending on how the book itself is laid out.
X-Ray lets you explore the "bones" of a book, as Amazon puts it. It's essentially a more robust, in-depth version of Go To, it goes beyond the book itself. Selecting X-Ray provides a list of all the noteworthy characters, places, phrases, even themes contained on a single page, in a chapter, or the book as a whole.
Choosing a particular phrase or word provides additional background information. In the case of characters or locations in non-fiction, Wikipedia will be referenced. If not, curated information from that particular book's Amazon-selected expert handles the embellishment.
This feature does not use the web for reference; instead it refers to an additional file that comes with X-Ray-supported titles. As a result, when pulling up info, it's instantaneous, and no internet connection is required. That means you don't need a constant WiFi signal to use this feature, it just needs to be am X-Ray compatible title.
At this point not a whole lot of books support this new feature, but hopefully the numbers will grow over time. It's a great tool for keeping track of extended casts of characters.
Finally there's the Share button, which allows you to share portions of a book with other users. To select a word, simply hold your finger on it. Immediately, a pop will appear, asking if you'd like to highlight it. Here one can also find the definition of the word, provided that a dictionary is loaded on the device (there are countless free dictionaries provided by Amazon, but none are pre-installed; they must be downloaded first).
When it comes to adding a personal message, the on-screen keyboard will appear. It is here, along with the navigating the new operating system as a whole, in which Kindle veterans will note how much snappier everything moves along. While there is still a delay between action and result, it's nowhere near as slow and pokey as with the first generation of Kindle devices.
Though many who are used to more modern mobile operating systems, like iOS 6 or Android 4.1, might find it a bit of a culture shock. A few things feel like they should be faster, more immediate. However, given how little you'll interact with the operating system, compared to an iPhone or Android tablet, this is a minor inconvenience.
The only issue is when it comes to typing; there is a tendency for the Paperwhite to miss a text input, which will require you to go back and try again. Simply typing a tiny bit slower will solve the problem. Basically, if you don't type like you're hurriedly texting a friend, but simply making a notation, there won't be problem.
Interface part two
The very top of the Kindle Paperwhite toolbar has options that provide consistent controls, in or out of a book. First there's the Home button, which provides an immediate exit from a book to the launch page. Upon turning the Kindle Paperwhite on, this is also where everyone will start. At the upper left of the launch page are two sections, Cloud and Device. Cloud is your entire Amazon library. As noted, in addition to whatever books you might already own, you'll find a variety of dictionaries for download.
To navigate this portion of the Paperwhite, simple taps will not do. Instead, you'll swipe back and forth, like on an iOS or Android device. Upon getting all the way to the beginning of a sub-section, the Back button comes into play. It's a bit jarring, this little navigation inconsistency (simply tapping the Home button will suffice in most occasions), but it's nothing earth-shattering, and we got used to it quickly.
Next to the Back button is a light bulb icon that allows you to adjust the screen's brightness. As noted previously, there are 24 different levels, which should insure a comfortable degree of illumination in almost any circumstance.
The only quibble here, and it's a minor one, is how there's no immediate on/off, or toggle options. But again, the Paperwhite's OS is so snappy that the omission is not a true issue. Dragging your finger down your slider works well enough.
Then we have the Kindle Store button. Here you can browse books, newspapers, magazines, and more. It's easy to make purchases directly from within the device. The layout is similar to the experience of shopping with Amazon on the web. Any purchased material shows up in the Device immediately.
The Kindle Store is the device's killer app, and is even more impressive than the Paperwhite's advanced display. There's simply more reading material here than on any competitor's marketplace.
Right next to the Store button is the universal search function. When inside a book, it can be used to search for specific words and terms, though outside, in the main screen, it can search across all the items in your library, provided that they are installed on your device (meaning items in the cloud but not synced to the device will not appear). Inside the store, it can be used to look for all things within Amazon's ecosystem.
Finally we have more advanced options, including settings and sync related options. One can find special offers in the Kindle Store, as well as a means to organize one's library, by placing them in Collections. Though the most interesting item of them all is the Experimental Browser.
Experimental is putting it mildly. It's designed to serve up popular portals, often mobile versions, as well as full pages properly, but it's very tough to navigate, and is the only time in which the Paperwhite feels as if its over extending itself.
It's really not worth the bother, although if you've ditched the smartphone for some reason and simply MUST get online, enjoy feeling like you're using a dial-up browser while wearing a blindfold.
Connectivity
There are several different versions of the Kindle Paperwhite. The one tested was the Kindle Paperwhite 3G, which costs £169.
In some countries, such as the US, there are options to buy and ad-supported version... thankfully we're spared such a travesty in the UK.
3G is unlimited (within reason, although you'd struggle to download too much using it) meaning you can get hold of a new book without Wi-Fi whenever you're on the go. We found the 3G to be excellent in nearly every scenario, and even when it dipped to EDGE, things still downloaded without an issue.
It uses Vodafone's network to chuck books and newspapers down to the Paperwhite, so if you know you're in a Voda blackspot for the times you'd want to be buying new books, steer clear of this version. However, the chance to get daily content for free when on holiday is worth the £60 extra in our opinion.
The WiFi model costs £109, which will probably be OK for most people; after all, most will download books at home and read on the bus or train - but with no extra cost for data we like being future-proofed, even for the higher cost.
Unless you are downloading a new book literally every five minutes and absolutely cannot stomach ads in any form or fashion, the most expensive version might seem a bit excessive, but we love choice.
Hands on photography
Verdict
When Amazon introduced the Kindle into the virtually nonexistent ebook reader landscape five years ago, it changed the way many of us view and consume literature. It's nice to know that, despite all the stiff competition, that Amazon has not lost focus on what established this booming market, and that's an electronic reading that's awfully close to the paper experience.
The Amazon Paperwhite is an experience that is built upon impressive hardware and respectable software. While not quite perfect, it is without question the best pure e-book reader you'll find right now.
We liked
The physical design of the Paperwhite feels like a true evolution of the Kindle family. Whereas the previous models felt like a work in progress, the Paperwhite feels complete. Not only does it look sharp, but it feels great in the hand. The most impressive aspect of this latest Kindle is the screen, which is the absolute best in its class. The increase in resolution and adjustable levels of brightness results in a display that is the most eye-catching and functional of its kind, bar none. Helping things along is an operating system that longtime Kindle users will love, due to all the advances, especially in terms of speed. The Paperwhite's slim form factor and rubberized plastic body make it easy to grip and a pleasure to hold. It's durable, and weighs next to nothing. That, combined with its incredible battery life, make it an excellent ereader for travelers. Last, but certainly not least, is Amazon's massive and still growing library of e-book titles. You'll never run out of things to read, and it's doubtful that you'll find them cheaper anywhere else.We disliked
Almost every aspect of the Paperwhite is a hit, but not quite everything. Some of the omissions, like the lack of a headphone jack, prevent it from achieving ultimate ebook reader status. Bibliophiles who want text-to-speech will have to pass on the Paperwhite. Additionally, the lack of an AC adapter just feels silly. At worst, it might result in customers paying an additional shipping fee if they fail to realise it's sold separately, as £9 doesn't really break the bank, and the option is pretty clear to buy it on the website. Despite how wonderful the display is overall, those dark spots near the bottom were disappointing. Thanks to the format of Amazon's ebooks, they never obscured the text, but they mar what would be an otherwise perfect screen. The storage space does seem a bit paltry compared to other devices, but given that the Paperwhite can still fit over a thousand books, it gets a pass. Finally, brand new users might have a hard time coming to terms with the Kindle OS; the smart phone-esque gestures help, but the pokey typing speed might annoy those who are used to an interface that's a tad bit more responsive.Verdict
Minor issues aside, Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite is more aces than not. It has the same primary advantage of every Kindle and Amazon device: the largest selection of digital reading material anywhere. That alone puts the Paperwhite among the best devices of its kind.
With a wonderful physical design, a legitimately impressive screen, an operating system that gets out of the way, and the largest selection of digital reading material anywhere, the Amazon Paperwhite is the best pure e-book reader currently available.
It might not let you to visit Facebook, send Tweets, watch YouTube, or download the latest Kanye West album, but it displays ebooks, and in the absolute best manner possible. If that's all you're looking for, you can't go wrong with the Paperwhite.
| |
CES 2013: TechRadar at CES 2013: join us for the biggest event in the tech calendar
Next week sees one of the biggest events in the tech calendar - it's the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), one of the key global events for new tech launches.
Expect new kit from the likes of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Asus and LG as well as huge amounts of news from every firm under the sun including Intel, Qualcomm, and more.
TechRadar is hitting CES harder than ever before this year, not only bringing in our biggest editorial team yet, but also participating as a Consumer Electronics Association Official Media Partner for the first time.
We'll be covering as much kit as is humanly possible. As well as all the latest news, we'll also be bringing you cutting-edge analysis of the show. And we'll also be giving you the benefit of our first-hand experience of the new hardware in hands-on reviews with thorough photography.
The show is simply packed with stuff, so to make things easier we've got two things for you – our CES 2013 hub page will carry a curated flow of the latest and greatest news and essential hands ons.
Then there's our CES channel, which will carry all of TechRadar's CES content. Last year we posted in excess of 100 stories - this year we'll be doing even more.
The show starts Tuesday, but the press day is Monday and we'll be attending major talks by vendors including Samsung, LG, Intel, Sony and others.
All about CES
CES 2013 will take place over 1.87 million square feet at the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as at venues including Mandalay Bay and The Venetian on the world-famous Las Vegas strip. 3,000 exhibitors will be in attendance, marking the largest show floor in the event's 45-year history. For the first time in years, Microsoft won't be among them, having announced that last year was its last at the show. Apple is also a notable – but unsurprising - absentee.
The show has a long pedigree of key launches and has seen a number of firsts – including the VCR in 1970, the Laserdisc in 1974, Atari's Pong in 1975, the CD player in 1981, digital satellite in 1994, DVD in 1996, Xbox in 2001 and Blu-ray, OLED and 3D TV over the last decade.
The show has increasingly become a launchpad for phones and tablets, but one of the key growth areas in 2013 looks set to be automotive. A record number of automakers will exhibit at CES 2013, including Audi, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus and Subaru, across more than 100,000 square feet of exhibit space.
TechRadar's Best of CES Awards
Not only will TechRadar cover every nook and cranny of CES 2013, we're also revealing the winners of the TechRadar Best of CES Awards sponsored by DTS. The awards are designed to honor products that really shine - the most innovative gadgets and technologies that showcase groundbreaking design, technology, and user experience across 15 different categories. Winners like Most Unique Product, Best Tablet (in both Android and Windows), Best Digital Camera, Best Cell Phone (Android and Windows) People's Choice and Best in Show will be announced on Tuesday 9 January. Join in the fun all next week on TechRadar and check out us on Facebook and Twitter while we're at the show. Check out the TechRadar team while we're at the show Follow TechRadar's main accounts on Facebook and Twitter.- Paul Douglas – Global Editor in Chief
- Wil O'Neal – US Editor in Chief
- Dan Grabham – Deputy Editor
- James Rivington – Reviews Editor
- Alex Roth – Reviews Editor
- Kelly Johnson – US Operations Editor
- Michelle Fitzsimmons – US News Editor
- John McCann – Mobile Devices Writer
- Marc Chacksfield – Editor of Tech.
| |
Proposed Android mascots give glimpse into terrifying parallel universe
When Googler Dan Morrill lacked icons for his internal Android presentation before the OS was announced in 2007, he whipped up four little bots to spice things up.
His four mascots, made in Inkscape, provide a little look at what could have been had Google gone with these scary ADHD Teletubby Hypno-droids instead of the cool, calm Droid we know and love today.
The story's quite sweet, posted by Morrill himself on Google+. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll let him begin.
Story time
"In the before time, in the long long ago (which is to say, 2007), Android had not yet launched; publicly, it was all rumors. We were working harder than you could possibly imagine on the initial announcement on 5 November and the SDK launch a week later. "My job was developer relations, but I took a much-needed break of a couple hours and spent some quality time with Inkscape to create these... things. "See, we were prepping for an internal developer launch (meaning, we were going to ask Googlers to start fooling with the APIs and give us early feedback), and I had no eye candy for the slides we were putting together. Hence these guys. "They had a brief flurry of minor popularity amongst the team - enough to pick up the nickname "Dandroids", anyway. "But then Irina Blok (as I recall) presented her work: the bugdroid we all know and love. Funny how the professional work is of vastly higher quality than the amateur, isn't it? ;) Even so, these guys have the distinction of being the first proposed mascots for Android (that I'm aware of, at least.)"
| |
Review: Updated: Google Nexus 10
Overview
The Google Nexus 10 was only announced around a week ago but in many circles it had been anticipated since the announcement of the Google Nexus 7. After all, if Google was entering the tablet field directly then how could it resist the potentially very lucrative 10-inch market? And here we are, just a few short months after the Nexus 7's launch and Google is taking the fight to Apple, going head to head for tablet supremacy.
It's not going to be an easy fight for Google; the iPad has always been in a league of its own and has a serious head start, but Google isn't entering the fray unprepared.
At £319 for the 16GB model the Google Nexus 10 is £80 cheaper than the equivalent iPad 4. In fact even the 32GB model, with its price tag of £389 comes in at slightly under a 16GB iPad 4 and a whole £90 cheaper than a 32GB one.
Don't think that just because it's relatively cheap it's not a premium, powerhouse device either. With a retina-searing 10.05-inch 2560 x 1600 Super PLS display, it's even higher resolution than the latest iPad, with 300 pixels per inch against the iPad 4's 264ppi.
That makes it the highest resolution tablet in existence. With a display that beautiful it's reassuring to know that it uses Corning Gorilla Glass 2 to keep it in pristine condition.
It's no slouch under the hood either. With a dual-core 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos processor and 2GB of RAM it should have no problem keeping pace with the fastest Android devices. It comes with Android 4.2 out of the box and being a pure Google tablet it will be one of the first devices to get the next version of Android too, keeping it up to date and future proofed for as long as possible.
It's the same tactic used for the Google Nexus 7 - produce top end hardware at the lowest price possible to get people buying. It's even learnt a few lessons from the Nexus 7, as this time is isn't bothering with a cripplingly small 8GB model and making a 32GB version available from day one.
Early sales of the Google Nexus 10 have been extremely promising. Despite the slightly higher price tag compared to other tablets on the market, the Nexus 10 has sold out on Google's Play Store on multiple occasions, with buyers clearly entranced by the super high resolution screen and larger dimensions. It's remained a top seller over the Christmas period, and stock is starting to slowly creep back online, although it's currently only for the 16GB version.
Right now the Google Nexus 10 is Wi-Fi only, but if you want 3G or 4G you might not have to wait too long, as the Nexus 7 has just been made available with 3G, so we expect the Google Nexus 10 will follow suit.
Features
The Google Nexus 10 feels quite weighty, particularly if your last tablet experience was the Nexus 7, but at 603g it's pretty average for a tablet of this size, and comes in lighter than the iPad 4. With dimensions of 203.9 x 177.6 x 8.9mm it's slightly longer and thinner than a new iPad, giving it more of a wide screen experience for watching movies. The slightly curved edges make it comfortable to hold in two hands for long periods (one handed holding is pretty much a non-starter), though if you're planning to watch movies on it you might find that your hands start to ache before the credits roll, so it would be worth getting a stand of some kind for it or just finding something to rest it on. There are rumours of a pogo stand coming soon which would allow magnetic charging on the dock, but we're still awaiting official confirmation of that.
It's also not quite as comfortable to hold as the Nexus 7, not just because of their relative weights, but also because the back of the Nexus 7 is slightly soft and warm, while the Nexus 10 is cold, hard plastic through and through. Though on the plus side it's rubbery, which provides grip.
The Google Nexus 10's 2GB of RAM is double that of the iPad 4, Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 or the Nexus 7. While it's only a dual core device, each core is clocked at 1.7GHz, which is just about the fastest we've come across on a tablet, trampling all over the poor Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with its mere 1GHz dual core processor.
It also comes with Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC support, although the former spec isn't the low-power sensor technology we expect to come on most devices these days.
The Nexus 10 comes with an enormous 9,000 mAh Lithium polymer battery, promising 9 hours of video, 7 hours of web browsing or 90 hours of music.
In theory that gives it slightly more juice than a Nexus 7 but possibly slightly less than the iPad 4 with its monstrous 11,666 mAh battery.
Unfortunately, much like the iPad 4, the battery in the Google Nexus 10 can't be removed. So you don't have the option to swap in a spare when it runs down, while if it ever wears out you're out of luck.
Following suit from the Nexus 7, the front of the device is a single sheet of glass, with no buttons to spoil the lines. We've already mentioned how jaw dropping the display resolution is, but it's worth noting that it has superb viewing angles too. We tried looking at it in every conceivable position and from different distances and the display was always clear and sharp.
It even fares well in bright sunlight; well, the brightest we can find in gllomy winter anyway. It became harder to see but never became totally washed out. Plus you can turn the brightness up pretty high, which helps burn through the glare.
It's not a total victory though, as while the resolution is un-paralleled the contrast between colours is a bit muted - they're never as bright or deep as they could be - especially if you've seen the amazing Super AMOLED HD screen on the Samsung Galaxy S3.
There's a black border around the display that you can rest your thumbs on and a narrow speaker running the length of each of the shorter sides.
The 1.9 megapixel front camera lens can be found in the middle of one of the longer sides, which suggests that unlike its little brother, the Google Nexus 10 is intended to be used primarily as a landscape device. Next to it you'll notice an ambient light sensor, which will automatically dim the screen in low light.
At the opposite side there's a little indicator light that flashes whenever you get a notification, be it an email, a reminder or whatever else. When it's not flashing it's all but invisible.
The top edge of the Google Nexus 10 houses the power button, which is also used to sleep and wake the device. Just to the right of that there's a volume rocker. It's a great position as they're easy to reach whether you hold the tablet in portrait or landscape. Our only minor complaint is that the volume rocker is only slightly bigger than the power button, making it easy to mistake one for the other.
On the left edge there's a micro USB port, used for charging the tablet or to connect it to a PC or other USB device. Next to that there's a 3.5mm headphone port.
On the right edge there's a micro HDMI port, which was sorely lacking from the Google Nexus 7.
On the bottom edge there's a magnetic pogo pin charging port, which is used to connect it to a dock.
Turn the Google Nexus 10 over and you'll find a big speaker at the top, along with the main 5 megapixel camera lens, which is also capable of shooting 1080p video at 30fps. Below that the casing is a hard, rubbery plastic shell with the words 'Nexus' and 'Samsung' stencilled into it.
The Google Nexus 10 feels sturdy and well made and it doesn't look cheap, but it also doesn't look particularly premium. That's a bit of a problem, particularly when it's been positioned as an iPad 4 competitor.
It's not just the plastic shell that lets it down, as the rounded shape makes it look a bit childish - like a 'my first tablet'. And while we're on the subject of the plastic shell, the Nexus 7 was plasticky as well, but the mottled, slightly soft back on that was far more aesthetically pleasing and felt nicer to hold as well.
That's not the Google Nexus 10's only problem either, as with no micro SD card slot there's no option for expandable storage. Sure the iPad 4 doesn't have that either, but micro SD support has always been one of the key differentiators between Android and iOS - although Google has always been against it on the Nexus brand, so we weren't hopeful it would pop up here.
It's arguably a bigger problem here than on a phone too, because tablets are all about media consumption, so it's expected that you'll be loading it up with films, music and games.
32GB will still probably be enough for most people, but the 16GB version may quickly start to feel limiting. In any case, it's a not unexpected omission, but with such a wallet-pleasing price tag it's far from a deal breaker.
Interface and performance
When you turn the Google Nexus 10 on you're greeted with the standard Jelly Bean lock screen. It displays wallpaper, which can be changed to anything of your choosing. At the top the time is written in big white writing. Below that there's the day and date in smaller writing and lower still a padlock icon, which you can slide left to launch the camera, right to unlock the tablet or up to launch Google Now.
We've seen Google Now before on the first version of Android Jelly Bean 4.1; it shows 'cards' with useful information determined based on the time, day and your location, along with any custom parameters you've put in place. So for example it might display a card with the local weather every morning, along with one showing traffic details for the route you take to work.
Throughout the day it will update with upcoming calendar events and interesting nearby places. It's a great idea, a sort of visual virtual assistant, but it felt a bit too limited as it only had a handful of cards on offer.
Android 4.2 has seen it get a bit of an overhaul with loads more cards added. These include things like flight information, event, hotel and restaurant booking confirmations, movie times at local cinemas, interesting photo spots in the local area and more besides. All in all it makes Google Now a lot more full featured and a lot closer to fulfilling its potential.
As before, Google Now can be launched from any screen by dragging the home button upwards, and for anything that isn't covered by your cards you can initiate a voice search, which will either give a spoken answer like Siri or perform a web search and display relevant results.
It can also be used to perform simple actions such as launching apps and it does a pretty good job of understanding what you're asking.
Google Now is a great feature and it's now even more useful; however, it's better suited to phones than tablets, as you're more likely to have your phone on and with you throughout the day. Not to mention the fact that it requires a data connection and right now the Nexus 10 is Wi-Fi only, so you won't be able to use Google Now all that much when out and about.
Once on the homescreen it's standard, familiar Android through and through. There's a search bar at the top which can be used to search both Google and the tablet's contents through text or voice.
The voice search is the same as the one used in Google Now, so you can get spoken answers and launch apps with it.
At the bottom of the screen you'll find the standard Android dock, which initially has icons for the app drawer, the Chrome browser, Gmail, Play Books, Play Movies, Play Music, YouTube, and Google Play in it, along with a folder full of other Google apps such as Google Plus, Maps, People and Currents. Of course other than the app drawer these can all be removed from the dock or swapped for other apps and shortcuts.
There are five home screens available for you to fill with whatever apps, folders and widgets you want and you just swipe across the screen to flip between them. The screen is incredibly smooth and responsive as you'd expect from a high end tablet.
There's no sign of judder or slow down, just silky smooth transitions, which is impressive as even the quad core Google Nexus 7 has the occasional hiccup but in our time with the Nexus 10 it performed almost flawlessly.
A black bar at the bottom of the screen contains the back button, which cycles back to the previous screen you were on. To the right of it there's the menu button which takes you back to your homescreens; alternatively if you swipe upwards from it Google Now will open.
Finally, to the right of that there's the multi-task button. Tapping that brings up thumbnails of all your open apps and windows; tapping on one will switch to it while swiping across it will close it. It's worth re-iterating that none of these are physical buttons, they're software ones.
At the very top of each screen there's another thin black bar showing the time, the battery level and any active connections, such as Wi-Fi. Swiping down across the black bar brings down the notifications bar and this is a bit different to what we're used to. Previously there was just one notifications bar, but with Android 4.2 you get two.
Slide down across the left side of the screen and you get the familiar one with the time and date at the top and any un-cleared notifications listed. These include things like emails, calendar events and social network updates. It shows you the sender (where applicable) along with the first couple of lines of text to give you a preview of the contents, while tapping on it will open the full message or details. An icon at the top right of the notifications screen will let you clear it.
So far, so familiar, but if you slide down from the top right of the tablet screen you'll get a different notifications bar altogether, or rather, a settings bar. It's a thin black strip that takes up roughly half the width of the screen and is overlaid on top of whatever screen you were on, much like the standard notifications screen.
However rather than notifications it has options to adjust the brightness, turn aeroplane mode on or off, turn Wi-Fi on or off and more. You can also get to the main settings screen from here.
Despite the fact that they would both fit on the screen (in landscape orientation at any rate), you can't bring both of these bars down at once, as trying to bring a second one down will close the first.
Tapping on the app drawer at the bottom of your home screen brings up a list of all your apps. You can swipe between pages, much like you swipe between homescreens. Tapping on an app will open it while long pressing it will let you add it to one of your homescreens, delete it or view information on it (such as the size).
There's also a widgets tab in the app drawer, which lets you see a preview of how any widgets would look, while long pressing one lets you place it on the homescreen. When placing a widget or app, anything else on the homescreen will move around to accommodate it. You can also create folders to keep things organised.
Messaging and settings
The keyboard on the Google Nexus 10 is very accurate and responsive, there's never any delay when typing and unlike the Nexus 7 it features haptic feedback to provide more of a tactile sensation. Another new feature of the keyboard is 'gesture typing'. This works a lot like 'Swype' - an app which has been available on certain handsets for a while now. Specifically it lets you slide your finger across letters to create words rather than typing them. It's surprisingly fast and intuitive and for our money it works at least as well as Swype. There's also a fairly accurate voice option, which lets you speak what you want to type - although it's not accurate enough for us to have full confidence in it.
However you choose to enter text, the keyboard also does a good job of predicting what word you're trying to enter and auto-correcting any mistakes.
It's a big keyboard too, meaning that it's easy to hit the right key and as a result mistakes are rare to begin with. Despite the size there's still plenty of screen visible with it open, both in portrait and landscape. As always with Android if you don't get on with the keyboard there are plenty of alternative options available from Google Play.
The settings screen can be accessed either from a button on the notifications screen or from its own dedicated icon and as the name suggests this lets you tweak all the various options on the Google Nexus 10. For the most part it's identical to the settings screen on any other Android device, with options for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, display, storage, privacy and more.
However there is a new addition in the form of 'Daydreams'. This lets you set up a custom screen saver whenever the tablet is docked or charging.
There are options for a clock, photos from your gallery, moving colours or, perhaps most interestingly, stories from sources you're subscribed to on Google Currents. It's a minor feature and you may prefer for the screen to just turn off when plugged in (which is still an option), but it's a nice addition if you want it.
All in all the Google Nexus 10 is slick, fast and powerful. The current version of Android combined with top flight specs make it as smooth to operate as an iOS device.
It's almost as intuitive as well, but with an added layer of customisation available if you want it, making it suitable for both those new to tablets and the more tech savvy. It boots up in around 17 seconds and shuts down in around 14, times which are fast enough to make it a convenient device to use even just for a few minutes at a time.
Browser
Right now the only way to connect to the web on the Google Nexus 10 is via Wi-Fi. We expect a 3G version will turn up before long, but for the time being it's MIA. On the Wi-Fi front what you get specifically is dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n. It also supports Wi-Fi direct.
Browsing on the device is lightning fast, with text and image heavy full desktop sites loading in around 5 seconds. With the screen's 2560 x 1600 resolution pages look crystal clear and rarely need zooming at all. If you do decide to zoom in you can do so with a pinch or a double tap, and none of the shine is lost, with everything just as crisp and clear as when it's zoomed out.
Scrolling on the browser is generally fast and smooth, letting you glide around pages with ease and making it very fast to navigate. We say generally because surprisingly there were a few occasions where it seemed a bit jerky (namely content-heavy sites), but never enough to spoil the browsing experience.
The Google Nexus 10 comes with the Chrome browser, one of the best mobile browsers around and isn't a million miles away from the desktop version.
The top of the screen contains the address bar, which you can tap on to type an address or search query. There's also a microphone icon at the right hand side of it, which lets you use voice search.
To the left of the address bar there are forwards and backwards arrows, allowing you to move backwards and forwards through pages that you've visited. There's also a refresh button to reload the current page.
A star in the address bar lets you quickly bookmark pages while an icon at the far right lets you open new tabs, view your bookmarks, share the current page or access the browser settings screen.
The settings screen in turn has most of the options you'd expect, from auto filling in forms, to which search engine it should use, as well as options to save passwords, block pop ups and more. There's no Flash support, but in practice we didn't really miss it - although you will currently butt up against the lack of support until HTML5 video becomes more prevalent across the web.
If you have more than one tab open these will all be visible at the very top of the screen and you can switch between them with a tap. You can also open or close tabs from here, so there's no need to delve into the menu.
Bookmarks are shown as thumbnails and from the bookmarks menu you can see your most visited sites. If you enable syncing between devices you can also view and access tabs that are open in Chrome on other devices.
It's all very straightforward and intuitive but there are plenty of other browsers available for download if you don't get on with Chrome.
Whichever browser you use, the Nexus 10 is one of the best tablets on offer for web browsing. Pages are crisp and clear, they can be displayed in their full screen glory without the need to zoom in and sites load very quickly.
Movies, music and books
Media is the lifeblood of any tablet so we'll say it straight off - the Google Nexus 10 does not disappoint in that regard. Google Play will always be the first stop for media consumption. You can rent and buy movies and there's a respectable selection on offer. There are also thousands of books available to download.
Movies and books each have their own dedicated apps too, in the form of Play Movies and Play Books. These are primarily players, but there are also links in them to the relevant parts of Google Play for all your purchasing needs, and they work really well.
The Play Movies app displays images of all your side-loaded videos, along with information, such as the run time and a synopsis. It also displays suggestions for things to buy or rent - that may or may not be a good thing depending on your outlook, but it's not very intrusive.
The Google Nexus 10 can also support a wide range of codecs, with anything from MP4 to H.264 to DivX playing happily on the device. We even got some AVIs chugging away on here, so you'll be fully stocked in a way Apple can't / won't manage on the new iPad 4.
Once you actually play a video you get a progress bar along the bottom which you can drag or tap to move to different points in the video; tapping the video itself will pause it and an icon at the top right allows you to share it to supported services, such as YouTube.
It's a basic set of options but it covers the important stuff. More importantly HD videos look stunning on the Nexus 10 and they sound pretty good too, as even the internal speakers can reach a respectable volume, and being forward-facing mean the tablet can be happily used without headphones (as long as nobody else is around to annoy).
You're not limited to the stock player either, as there are dozens more available from Google Play, many of which are a lot more fully featured.
Movie Studio and YouTube
A 'Movie Studio' app also comes pre-installed and this lets you create video projects by filming or importing videos, then splicing them together, cutting bits and adding images and music or other sounds. It doesn't allow much depth, but again there are other video editors available to download, some of which are free.
There's also a dedicated YouTube app included with the Nexus 10, putting the entire YouTube library at your fingertips. This is nothing unusual as most phones and tablets come with a YouTube app, but it's quick, easy to navigate and gives you yet another way to consume media.
There are so many other video apps available to download though. For example there's a Netflix app on Google Play, which gives you full access to the streaming service on your tablet - assuming you have an account.
Play Books is pretty similar to Play Movies in terms of its features. There's an attractive display of all your books when you open it. Tapping on any of them will take you to the point you last read up to and let you continue reading.
Once again the high resolution screen makes this a joy, as text is crisp and clear. You can read in portrait or landscape and reading in landscape gives a great impression of a real book, with two pages visible at once. You swipe to turn the page and an attractive page-turn transition accompanies it.
You can have books read aloud, change the typeface and font size, add bookmarks and notes and more. As with most other things on Android you're not limited to the stock reader either, there are all sorts of others available from Google Play, including Kobo and Kindle, which have their own bookstores attached.
The Nexus 10 size, however, is not the most conducive to reading, as it's rather large and the screen expansive.
In addition to Play Books, the Nexus 10 also comes with 'Currents', which lets you set up feeds for websites that you like and then it presents up to date content from them in a layout that looks a lot like a magazine. It's a very attractive app and a great way of consuming web media.
Finding both books and videos on Google Play is easy to do, with an image focussed layout, categories and the ability to search for specific titles or authors.
Finally we come to music and Play Music really is an impressive beast. Not because of the options, they're fairly standard, allowing you to sort music by artist, album, song or genre and create playlists, along with an equaliser to play with.
You can also pause and play your music or skip track from the notifications bar and the lockscreen, so you don't lose control if you leave the player.
It's a decent selection of settings and an attractive player, with a carousel of album artwork that you can glide through to find what you're looking for, but it's nothing amazing. So why are we so impressed? Because you can upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud for free and stream or download them to any PC or Android device.
We'd wager that 20,000 songs is more music than many people even have and not only does it provide a handy back up, but it gives you access to them anywhere with an internet connection. This is the future of the cloud right here, or at least we hope it is, and it goes a long way towards overcoming any internal storage limitations.
The implementation isn't perfect, you can unsurprisingly only stream your music using the Play Music app (though there's nothing to stop you downloading it and then listening to it on other players). We also had some issues getting our music uploaded, first off it's incredibly slow - uploading 20,000 tracks will likely take days or even weeks.
Secondly, thousands of our tracks encountered errors during upload and were skipped over as a result. It seems that uninstalling the PC client and then re-installing it sort of helped, causing some of the missing tracks to upload, but we still encountered errors on a large number.
But if and when you get your music online it really is fantastic having free access to your entire library on the move - and it's much, much cheaper than the same service on iTunes Match or from Amazon, which only allow a limited amount of uploading (or none at all) before having to spend £21.99 to achieve the same thing.
For any music downloaded to the tablet you also have plenty of other players to choose from, so you're not totally tied to Play Music, and the internal speakers are decently loud.
Most of the media players (both Google's own and those available for download) have widgets too, which lets you access and control them from your homescreen.
In terms of supported file types for music and video you're looking at MP4, H.264, DivX, WMV, MP3, WAV, eAAC+, WMA and Flac, so a pretty impressive selection, but there are plug-ins and players available from Google Play that cover just about every unsupported file type, for example MKV's. So whatever format your media is in you should be able to get it to play one way or another.
Aside from downloading or streaming you can also get media onto the Google Nexus 10 by plugging it into a PC through the micro USB port. Once done you can access the tablet through Windows Explorer and easily copy and paste or drag and drop videos, music and books to and from it.
A micro HDMI port lets you hook the Nexus 10 up to a monitor or screen and view media on that, while Wi-Fi direct allows you to stream content to supported devices.
The only real failing on the media front is the lack of a micro SD card slot, and even with cloud storage for music that really is a big deal, as Google's free cloud service doesn't help for videos or games or for when there's no internet connection.
Its absence is no surprise, since Google seem to have shunned micro SD support for its whole Nexus range, but it's still disappointing. If you plan to use the Nexus 10 for media you should think very carefully about what size to buy, since that internal storage is all you get and it's very easy to fill 16GB.
It's a tough call as to which of the iPad 4 or Nexus 10 is the better media device. The Google Nexus 10 is far more versatile, with support for just about every file type under the sun, numerous players to choose from, widgets and free cloud storage.
The iPad conversely is a lot more locked down. It supports far fewer file types, everything has to be synced through iTunes and you're pretty much stuck with Apple's iPod player. But it's also got simplicity on its side - things either work or they don't and there's not much to get to grips with.
Then there's iTunes too, which has the edge over Google Play in terms of media content.
Where Apple once had an advantage with its Retina display Google have not only closed the gap but actually topped it in resolution terms at any rate.
That said the Nexus 10 isn't quite so impressive with its handling of colours, as they're never as deep or rich as some of its competitors - the iPad included.
If you're moderately tech-savvy and not already entrenched in iTunes, then we'd give the Nexus 10 the edge, but if you want to keep things simple or already have your whole library in iTunes, then the iPad wins.
Apps and games
Google Play is your one stop shop for apps and games on the Google Nexus 10. Android recently matched Apple for number of available apps, hitting 700,000. It continues to grow faster than Apple's app store too, so it will likely be the first to hit the big 1 million. Of course it also doesn't have the quality control and approval process of Apple's store, so a large number of those apps will be totally useless, but that still leaves hundreds of thousands of genuinely worthwhile ones.
Navigating the store is easy, with everything split into categories and you can also just search by name if you know roughly what you're looking for. Purchasing apps is easy too, as you simply register your bank details with Google and then you can buy and download anything in a couple of taps.
If you've already got an Android device you can also ask the Nexus 10 to sync with your account and automatically download any apps that you've previously purchased.
In terms of apps, as opposed to games, Android fares pretty well against Apple. Thanks to being such an open system there are many types of apps that you won't find at all on iDevices, such as new launchers, plug-ins that let you customise the lockscreen or notifications bar, new keyboards and more.
As a general rule if there's something you don't like on the software side, or something you wish you could do, there'll be an app to fix it. It can be very liberating and lets you set up your Nexus 10 exactly how you want it.
You're not even limited to using Google Play to find apps as there are several other stores around as well. There's a lot of overlap in apps between the stores of course, but they're not identical.
There aren't all that many apps on the Google Nexus 10 out of the box though. Other than the various media apps, it comes with a Calendar, which of course can be synced with your Google calendar and supports reminders.
There's also a calculator, a clock with a stop watch and timer, and a gallery (which syncs to your Google account - so any pictures you take on your phone can be viewed on your tablet and vice versa). Then there's the standard selection of Google apps - Maps, Navigation, People, Earth and Google Plus.
Plus of course you get the Gmail and Email apps that come with most Android devices. These are quick and easy to set up - in fact Gmail sets itself up, you can get push notifications for new emails and reading and composing emails in either of them is a breeze.
Where Android doesn't fare so well is games. Don't get us wrong, there's a huge selection available, but it's dwarfed by what's available on Apple devices and thanks to the huge number of different Android devices with different specs, many game developers are reluctant to develop for the platform.
Unfortunately it's a situation that's not likely to change for the foreseeable future, so if you plan on playing a lot of games on your tablet, an iPad should always be your number one choice.
That said, playing games on the Google Nexus 10 is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Once again the stunning screen really helps, allowing Android games to dazzle like never before. With its 1.7GHz dual core processor and 2GB of RAM it doesn't miss a beat in terms of performance either, effortlessly tackling HD games with no noticeable drops in frame rate.
Camera
The Google Nexus 10 has a 5 megapixel camera, along with a secondary 1.9 megapixel front facing snapper. As ever we're really not sure how useful having a camera on a tablet is. The front facing camera makes some sense as it could be used for Skype and other webcam things, but we have trouble envisaging anyone taking their tablet out to snap pictures on. If anything the front camera should maybe get a boost in quality, even if it meant dropping the megapixel count on the rear camera. Using the Nexus 10 has done nothing to change our minds about the usefulness of a camera on a tablet. It managed to capture some reasonable quality snaps but nothing particularly eye catching. In fact it can't even match the camera performance of most high end smartphones, which really makes it a bit pointless, since a smartphone is both more portable and by extension more likely to be with you when you're out and about. Plus taking pictures on a tablet inevitably leaves you looking ridiculous.
Still, if you do decide to use your Nexus 10 as a camera there are at least a few different settings to play with. You can turn flash on or off and pick between a handful of scene modes, such as 'action' and 'night'. There's also a panorama mode and the big new feature - 'Photo Sphere'.
Photo Sphere extends the panorama idea by letting you take full 360 degree photo's, which can then be viewed in a similar way to Google's 'Street View' service- letting you look up, down and around. In practice- like panorama shots, it's a series of connected photos.
Unlike panorama it doesn't always look particularly seamless with odd distortions often appearing in the image where someone has moved or photos have overlapped. Still it's a neat concept and a decent way of bringing a scene to life for those times when video is just too 2011.
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
Click here for the full resolution image
We're not sure whether Photo Sphere is much more than a novelty, but we reckon there will be occasions where it's of some use. Taking a Photo Sphere image takes a lot longer than a single photo or even a panorama- so if time is of the essence then you're best off resisting.
Video
The Google Nexus 10 can shoot video in full HD 1080p, but as with the camera we struggle to muster much enthusiasm for it, as we can't think of many occasions when we'd find ourselves reaching for our tablet to film on rather than our phone. Again, the one real exception is the front facing camera, as we could see that getting some use for Skype and the like, but the main video camera, not so much. Still, with just about every other tablet on the planet packing photo and video capabilities Google and Samsung would be foolish to omit it from this. The video camera's performance roughly matches photos when used indoors. It captures solid quality footage and doesn't take long to refocus when panning. The video camera manages a reasonable amount of detail in outdoor scenes, though some of that is lost on objects in the background. Fast moving vehicles appear slightly blurred but don't come out too bad.Battery life
The Google Nexus 10 comes with a pretty hefty 9,000 mAh lithium polymer battery. But although it's a big battery it's also got a big screen to power- slightly bigger even than an iPad's. Google and Samsung are claiming that it will offer 9 hours of video, 7 hours of web browsing or 90 hours of music. They're all pretty solid figures and in general the day to day performance matched them. For general mixed use the battery performed admirably, easily seeing out a day or more with a mix of web browsing, reading, listening to music and taking a fair few photos and videos. That's with it on all day and emails and Facebook updates being pushed to it.
But when watching videos it didn't fair quite so well, with the battery dropping by 1% every five minutes or so. We ran our standard battery test on the tablet- turning the screen to full brightness, putting emails and social networks to push notifications and running a ninety minute video from full battery.
At the end the Nexus 10 had dropped to 71%. That's a slightly faster drop than we seemed to experience anecdotally during general use.
The only difference was the screen brightness, so it seems clear that the screen is by far the biggest drain- particularly when turned to full capacity.
Thankfully you shouldn't need it on full brightness most of the time. Plus you can set it to automatically adjust the brightness based on your environment, which is probably your best bet if you want to make sure you're always getting the best experience while maximising the Nexus 10's battery life.
Indeed with the screen off, even with music playing, it can go around 40 minutes without a noticeable drop, so the 90 hours of music claim doesn't seem too unrealistic.
The gist of all this is that battery life will depend on what you use it for, but since most tasks require having the screen on and that's such a big drain it's ultimately pretty average. Not bad enough to let the side down, but not particularly impressive either.
Hands on gallery
Official gallery
Verdict
The Google Nexus 10 is an incredibly important product for Google. With the Nexus 7 it entered the tablet market, but was only really competing with other Android tablets - it was friendly competition and it was against devices that by and large had struggled to achieve much market share anyway. With the Nexus 10 it's inevitably going to be compared to its biggest rival and one of its most successful products: the iPad. In short it can't afford to get this wrong, so needs to hit the ground running in the larger tablet market and even then it's going to be an uphill struggle to make much of a dent in the iPad's sales. Google clearly realised this, because it has delivered a top-end device with a world beating screen (at least in resolution terms) and a modest-enough price tag; but is it enough to topple the iPad and take its place at the top of the heap?We liked
The display is one of the biggest talking points on the Google Nexus 10. At 300 pixels per inch it's the highest resolution tablet display on the planet. This is a huge coup for Google and Samsung, since the Retina display on the iPad has always been one of its big selling points. Thanks to having such a great screen it's also superb for watching movies, web browsing and playing games on, delivering a hard to match performance for all three. Since media is such a big part of the tablet experience that's a really big deal. It's a great performer too. Other than taking a while to process panoramic photos we never felt like it was struggling to keep up. It's fast and smooth whatever you throw at it. Android 4.2 isn't a huge change from Android 4.1, but it brings with it a few nice additions such as Photo Sphere and gesture typing. Being a pure Google device it will also be among the first devices to get subsequent versions of Android, so it's moderately future-proofed in that sense. Then there's the price tag, it might not be quite as rock bottom as the Google Nexus 7, but it's still a good £80 cheaper than the cheapest iPad 4, which makes it substantially friendlier on the wallet.We disliked
Let's not beat around the bush - the Google Nexus 10 isn't the most attractive device out. It's shown up by the Nexus 7 and blown away by the iPad in the appearance stakes. It doesn't look cheap as such, but it doesn't look great either. The biggest problem though is arguably its lack of storage. There's no micro SD card slot and the biggest version you can buy is only 32GB. If you want to load it up with movies, music and games then even with that you'll find that you quickly run out of space. Free cloud storage for music helps a little, but doesn't eradicate the problem. Ultimately unless most of your media is streamed you're likely to run out of space and the cheaper 16GB version will feel even more limited. The lack of a 3G or 4G version of the Nexus 10 is also disappointing. If Google want to be able to compete with the iPad it needs to be able to match what it can offer, and in this case the Nexus 10 is found lacking. We fully expect a 3G (and probably 4G) version will be made available at some point- maybe even quite soon, but we can only work with what we've got and right now we've got a tablet that can't connect to the internet in a substantial amount of places.Verdict
The Google Nexus 10 is clearly a brilliant tablet. It's got top-end specs at a mid-range price; that alone makes it deserving of attention. Add to that a generally stunning screen and near faultless performance and it really does start to look like an iPad beater. But after spending some time with it we can't quite be as enthusiastic as we'd like. The lack of expandable storage combined with the fairly limited internal storage really hampers its media capabilities. Since tablets are for most people a media-centric device that's a real issue and the single biggest problem with the Google Nexus 10, along with the screen offering slightly muted colours and contrast ratios. We don't want to end on a negative note as most of the other problems are little more than nitpicking and it really is an impressive device. If you want a 10 inch Android tablet this is easily one of the best there is, and in this price range it's absolutely the best. The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity arguably beats it, but it also costs a lot more. Looking away from Android we come to the biggest question - how does it fare against the iPad? The reality is that there's not that much in it. The iPad no longer boasts the highest resolution screen around and is left looking overpriced, while iOS 6 is starting to seem a bit old hat compared to Android 4.2. But it still tops the Nexus 10's display for depth of colour; it's got a much more premium build and is available with more storage and 3G connectivity. Ultimately, other than the price, there's little reason for Apple fans to jump ship to the Nexus 10, equally the Nexus 10 puts up enough of a defence to keep the Android faithful happy. If Google and Samsung were to retool it with a micro SD card slot and 3G and 4G connectivity then we might have a new king on our hands. But for now if we have to pick a winner we'd say that the iPad edges the victory - just.
| |
Review: Updated: Samsung Galaxy Ace
Overview, design and feel
UPDATED: The Samsung Galaxy Ace is still being touted as a top smartphone years after its launch, so we've updated our review accordingly. Should you consider it at all despite it's super-budget price tag? Once a bit player on the smartphone scene, famed more for questionable construction than standout handsets, Samsung has turned a corner in recent years, establishing itself as a genuine player on the pocket phone front and producing some of the most desirable handsets on the market. Following on from the success of the high-end Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy S2, the Korean tech behemoth expanded its range of intergalactic-named mobile phones, with the Samsung Galaxy Ace touching down last year as a mid-level handset. Tasked with raising the expectations of what is possible from a wallet-friendly smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Ace, which also flies under the flag of the Samsung GT-S5830, has since spawned a sub-series of its own, with the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 also landing on the market.- Read our Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 review
In terms of base specs, the Samsung Galaxy Ace boasts an 800MHz single-core Qualcomm MSM7227 processor.
This is now significantly below par for the influx of 1GHz CPU mid-range smartphones and even the odd dual-core entrant. But it lines up with that of the new Motorola Motoluxe, a handset one year the Samsung Galaxy Ace's junior.
Although available for free on a variety of pay monthly tariffs with a variable collection of inclusive minutes, texts and data allowances, it's now priced at just £90 on PAYG, and from £7.50 on contracts, making it a true budget smartphone.
However that doesn't mean it's any good of course - and with older software and yesterday's specs, why is it still being pushed?
Now cheaper than the likes of the 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display-packing, Windows Phone 7.5-powered Nokia Lumia 710, the Samsung Galaxy Ace remains in an area of the market flooded with competition such as the full QWERTY keyboard-touting BlackBerry Curve 9300 and the Android 2.3-powered, 8MP camera-hosting Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.
Many of today's high-end smartphones are following in the footsteps of the iPhone by being made available in an eye-catching white hue a few months after the original standard black model lands.
Samsung, with the Galaxy Ace, has killed two birds with one proverbial stone by offering the device with a pair of interchangeable back panels that take us back to the days of the Nokia 3330.
While not quite matching the rest of the "onyx black" smartphone in terms of colour, aesthetics aside, the packaged black rear panel offers a more user-friendly feel in the hand than its smooth, glossed white counterpart, with the diamond-cut uneven surface offering a certain amount of grip.
Sleek, stylish and well finished to the eye, in the hand the Samsung Galaxy Ace is - despite its budget plastic construction and weight-saving efforts - a surprisingly reassuring offering, with little flex when put under pressure.
Well-constructed, the Samsung Galaxy Ace features no unsightly seams or unnerving spaces between components, but does suffer from a selection of poorly placed buttons.
Despite featuring just three physical buttons (home, volume and power/sleep) two-thirds of these are placed in locations that lead them to be accidentally pressed all-too frequently.
When holding the Samsung Galaxy Ace in a standard manner in the left hand, the user's thumb lies across the increase aspect of the volume controls with the index finger wrapped firmly around the sleep/power button.
In the right hand, the power control is in prime thumb real estate, with the middle finger at risk of toggling the lower half of the volume seesaw.
More of an irritant than a debilitating flaw, the lack of foresight on Samsung's part of these core design aspects is something that often leaves us on edge and forces an unnatural, unbalanced grip in order to avoid accidental presses.
Reasonably chunky up top, the Samsung Galaxy Ace has been made fatter and more top-heavy to make space for the 3.5mm audio jack and covered micro USB port at the top.
Although helping smooth out the handset's design and remove unsightly docks, the micro USB slider is stiff and fiddly, making it awkward to gain access to the port with one hand.
Standing up well to the odd knock and bump against coins and keys, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's relatively robust exterior showed little damage from everyday use during our time with it. However, thanks to its largely plastic finish, it is a handset that is likely to show its age after a few months of use.
Helping redeem the handset's controls, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread-powered device's touchscreen base Android menu and back controls are a joy to use, with a large surface area that is highly responsive and helps provide a fluid user experience.
The target user base for the Samsung Galaxy Ace isn't one that will mostly care for the latest version of Android (first time smartphone users are key here) and while Gingerbread is creaking under the weight of the phone these days, we can't make a huge case for it to be rocking the latest version of Jelly Bean.
Lining up at an uninspiring 11.5mm thick, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is considerably chunkier than the minimalist iPhone 4S, but is a mere 0.2mm thicker than the flagship HTC Sensation.
In terms of weight, the 113g heft provides a reassuring feel in the hand, but, considering the 4.3-inch Samsung Galaxy S2 is just 2g heavier, users could be forgiven for expecting a lighter handset.
Arguably the most important component of any smartphone that uses its touch-sensitive display as a means of control as well as for content and media absorption, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's 3.5-inch screen is an acceptable offering that fails to stand out from the crowd on any front.
With a 480 x 320p resolution and 165 pixels-per-inch image density, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's TFT capacitive touchscreen is distinctly average, with images of an acceptable but far from inspiring or eye-catching standard.
While providing a passable viewing experience for video playback, image viewing and application use, the Samsung Galaxy Ace fails to live up to the high screen standards that have come to be expected from Samsung's mobiles.
It's far from the vibrant AMOLED offerings that have landed on a selection of Samsung's high and mid-range devices in the past 18 months. Indeed, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is some distance behind the latest 720p and 1080p Full HD screen that have hit the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, with muted colours and a lack of pin sharp detail.
Largely bowing to user command, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's screen can, at times, be a little unresponsive, prompting a couple of firm presses before registering a desired action.
Not all doom and gloom, the Samsung smartphone's screen, combining forces with the Android OS, automatically dims itself when the handset's battery is reaching the lower end of its abilities. to further eke out the remaining juice. Meanwhile the screen's Gorilla Glass layering helps protects against scuffs and scratches.
Interface
Having launched last year running Google's Android 2.2 mobile operating system, FroYo, the fast-evolving software means that the Samsung Galaxy Ace now comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread pre-installed.
However, things have moved on now, and even the budget handsets are coming with Android Jelly Bean, the latest version of the software which brings a host of improvements, so the Ace is starting to age really badly on that front.
If you're a first time smartphone buyer though, it won't matter too much - you should look at the alternatives, but for the price Android 2.3 performs just fine for the most part.
One of a broad range of varying-sized, differently-specified Google-filled Samsung handsets, the Samsung Galaxy Ace combines the Gingerbread OS with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. This creates a user experience that is tried, tested and a safe bet that appeases user needs without offering a revolutionary or inspiring environment.
Intuitive to use from the box, the Android-based platform plies the user with the standard array of Google apps pre-installed that are easily and handily arranged alongside a host of widgets and shortcuts across the somewhat limited trio of home screens.
Largely due to the handset's restricted 258MB of RAM and 800MHz CPU, opening applications is a stilted affair, with a slight pause preceding the arrival of the desired programme and its content.
This intermittent performance isn't limited solely to app openings, however. Bringing the phone out of sleep mode is sometimes farcically slow and stilted, often causing you to second-guess the button press - an irritating issue that starts a vicious loop of counteracting button presses.
Scrolling through menus and lists is also a little more stilted and jilted than ideal, with a smooth flowing start brought to abrupt stops shortly after. This slows the user experience and puts the device marginally behind some its similarly specced and even lower-end competitors.
It sports four main applications (Calling, Contacts, Messages and Menu) at the bottom of the screen, separating these from the cavalcade of applications at the top, similar to that found in the iOS.
It also has a nifty task manager widget to help you keep your battery life optimised by showing what you've currently got running in the background.
That said, the battery life isn't bad as it uses a standard Li-Ion 1350mAh, which despite being under-powered compared to other smartphones (the top end devices are nearly three times the capacity, but are far more expensive) manages to hold on OK throughout the day.
Another useful widget is the bar at the top enabling you to quickly switch on/off the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sync as well as increase the brightness of the screen.
Annoyingly, for non-gamers, there are a four pre-installed games that can't be uninstalled, clogging up memory and space on the menu screen.
Contacts and calling
No matter how many new headline-leading features are introduced to the increasingly smart range of smartphones, the core base of a handset will always be its ability to make and receive telephone calls.
On this front, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is a combination of acceptable and slightly disappointing abilities, with the standard Android array of contacts and calling menus once again proving easy to navigate, simple to set up and modify.
Courtesy of TouchWiz 3.0, contacts are easily joined to Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts, which is a definite plus for the social media moguls.
The History section of the contacts is handy because it not only shows your received and made calls, but also messages.
When making calls, however, the Samsung Galaxy Ace fails to come into its own. It offers a mildly disappointing communication experience that, while impressive in some areas, falls far short of expectations and the desired ideal in others.
Although offering good isolation of the contact's voice during calls, removing background noise and unwanted sounds well, the resulting in-ear factor is a very distant, slightly muffled and echoey sound.
This can make hearing your desired contact's comments a little harder that necessary, even when volume options are pushed to their maximum limits.
Thanks again in part to the handset's sometimes questionable screen responsiveness, answering incoming calls via the Android standard swipe to answer method can take a couple of attempts. This adds yet another unnecessary issue to the handset's arsenal that after a few occurrences begins to grate on your patience.
Messaging
The Samsung Galaxy Ace ticks all the essentials boxes while failing to add any marks in the other comments box and win praise for progressing beyond the norm.
The handset's messaging abilities are wholeheartedly standard, with a basic selection of options and features laid out in an Android-basic, user-friendly manner.
As with many of Samsung's recent market-headlining handsets, the Samsung Galaxy Ace makes the most of the company's TouchWiz UI, boasting the much-loved and highly coveted Swype input functionality.
A welcome inclusion and a standout favourite when composing texts, emails or general notes, the handset's Swype features enable you to compose messages quickly and with little fuss, simply by dragging your fingers between desired keys. This removes the need to make endless individual digital button taps to complete a message.
It's so popular it's even been included in the stock version of Android, known as Jelly Bean, as a method of entering text, and the other big keyboard makers like Swiftkey have integrated it too.
Swype on the Samsung Galaxy Ace is of further benefit when taking into account the otherwise cramped and compact nature of the handset's touchscreen keyboard when holding the device in a standard portrait manner.
Switching the handset to a landscape stance offers a more spacious, finger-friendly full QWERTY keyboard offering.
But thanks to its quick input shortcuts, the Swype software provides one of the best input methods beyond the physical QWERTY keyboards offered by a number of BlackBerry handsets.
Messages are displayed as threads, which makes it easy to follow a conversation.
Webmail and email are easy to set up and are fast to pick up new messages. The application is basic, but works well.
The Galaxy Ace also comes with a Social Hub app, which incorporates all messages you've received on different platforms including SMS, email, Facebook and Twitter.
On first glance, this sounds like an interesting tool, but when you use it you soon find out that messages on the social network platforms can only be read once the application opens up a web browser, meaning that it doesn't actually simplify anything.
Internet
The Samsung Galaxy Ace is again manageable, functional and easy to master when making use of its web functionality. Yet it fails to offer any inspiring functions or handset-defining features that would set it apart from the flurry of newer, more powerful competitors.
While in the handset's standard Android browser, bookmarks are easily set thanks to a tab by the search bar.
There's no functionality for scrolling forward through visited pages once you've skipped back using the back button, and the handset can't support multiple tabbed browsing.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace holds its own in terms of page loading times when accessing the web via Wi-Fi or 3G. This means that the phone is simple to assign to desired Wi-Fi connections offering acceptable sync times and a strong, unwavering connection throughout periods of use.
One considerable drawback from the Samsung Galaxy Ace's otherwise impressive internet abilities is its lack of dedicated .com hot button on the handset's keyboard.
Hardly the biggest flaw a smartphone can possess, the missing .com button is more of an irritant and one that is increasingly apparent when comparing the device to many of the other similarly priced devices available on the market.
When reading text-heavy web pages on the Samsung Galaxy Ace, you have to pinch zoom quite some way in before you can clearly read anything, which is something of a chore.
It doesn't support Flash, so it doesn't have that advantage over rivals. Saying that, for the mid-range price the Samsung Galaxy Ace comes at, it's a fair compromise, and you can download alternative browsers like Firefox Mobile to give extra functionality, although the old processor isn't always a fan of trying to keep up during these tasks.
Camera
A 5-megapixel camera was a strong offering on a mid-range handset when the Samsung Galaxy Ace originally launched a year ago.
But now the handset's rear-mounted image capturer seems little more than an ample offering that fails to meet the possibilities of the rest of the market, which can ably spit out quality pictures even at the budget end of the market.
Lacking a well-functioning dedicated macro shooting mode, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's rear-mounted camera struggles to focus when close to its target. Attempts at close-ups often leave the handset's autofocus feature confused, out of sync and responsible for poor quality, highly disappointing images.
Trying to rectify these close-up issues by using the camera's zoom opens up a wide array of new issues.
Although touted as boasting two-times digital zoom - a spec that is far from impressive - in reality this feature can only be used when shooting at a reduced image quality. The camera's upper limit of 5MP snaps doesn't enable any form of zoom, whether optical or digital.
There's no quick key to launch the camera for those sporadic happy-snap moments, and a tiny amount of on-board memory (only 158MB) means that the camera is disabled until the 2GB memory card that comes in the box is inserted.
More than capable of taking a selection of impressive images when given the correct lighting conditions, the phone's camera offers a choice of single or continuous shot modes, as well as smile-activated shutter and panorama shooting modes.
But the Samsung Galaxy Ace's camera is far from perfect, with the inbuilt LED flash often proving overpowering, highlighting some aspects of shots but causing others to be cast into deep stark shadows. It's of little use when pursuing the perfect snap.
Although a feature that is rarely used for its desired video calling purposes, the lack of a second, forward-facing camera on the Samsung Galaxy Ace is an omission that is becoming increasingly noticeable as the mid-range smartphone market leaps forward at a rapid pace and removes the chance to take portrait shots.
There are a variety of shot modes to choose from, and most of them improve the quality of the image.
OUTDOORS AUTO:
Click here for full-res version
INDOORS FLASH:
Click here for full-res version
INDOORS FLASH:
Click here for full-res version
PARTY MODE:
Click here for full-res version
LANDSCAPE MODE:
Click here for full-res version
INDOORS NO FLASH:
Click here for full-res version
INDOORS NO FLASH:
Click here for full-res version
Video
Failing to meet the HD standards that are today a prerequisite on mid-market smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Ace lines up with a maximum video recording resolution of just 640 x 480p and 24fps - a standard that is somewhat behind the rapidly progressing times.
Enjoying your footage on larger screens isn't a great experience at all. In fact, don't do it.
Struggling to regulate colours, shooting video on the Samsung Galaxy Ace in anything other than pure, untainted, faultless lighting such as a cloudless bright day is a recipe for troublesome output and a distorted appearance.
Watch our video sample from when we tested the Samsung Galaxy Ace when it was first released:
Often erring on the side of caution, the handset's colour management systems appear to often over-expose video content, giving footage an unwanted artificial yellow hue.
While struggling at times on the imaging aspect of video recording, a pleasant surprise in the Samsung Galaxy Ace's bag of tricks was its abilities to capture strong, clear sound when shooting video footage, offering good directional absorption and the isolation of unwanted background noise.
Usefully, there's a a rolling memory count, which tells you how much space on that puny 2GB card you're lapping up while you film.
Watch our video sample from when we tested the Samsung Galaxy Ace a year after its initial release:
Media
Despite microSD cards being a relatively cheap and readily accessible storage option, the lack of internal storage in the Samsung Galaxy Ace grates as an irritating omission.
Quashing the saying that the best camera is the one you have to hand, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's complete lack of innards means that without a microSD card, not a single snap can be stored on the device.
Featuring an inbuilt music player and FM radio, the Samsung Galaxy Ace has the potential - like most smartphones - of being a media hub. Sadly, thanks to a lacklustre inbuilt speaker, these possibilities are likely never to be fulfilled.
Detracting from its capabilities, the Samsung Galaxy Ace's speaker's poor performance sees little bass and tinny tones result in a poor audio experience that fails to bolster the uninspiring screen's imaging abilities when watching a film, rescued only by its placement.
Unlike many smartphones with speakers in unfriendly positions for holding the device without depleting the output, the Samsung Galaxy Ace has seen Samsung shift the audio provider to the rear central portion of the phone, meaning uninterrupted sounds are possible.
Video and music files are stored in separate applications (gallery and music respectively), which means if you want to watch a music video after a music track, you have to come out of one application and into another.
Video files are arranged in date order in the gallery and play in landscape mode only.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace is not the phone to be picking up if you want a dedicated video player on the go. It has the capability to playback a variety of media files, which is a bonus, but the combination of the poor, low-res screen and lack of internal memory means you'll need to invest in a microSD card before you even think about a movie marathon.
It's not a deal breaker at the price, but don't go thinking you'll get anything like the experience of a Galaxy S3 on this phone, as it's not even got an OLED screen to write home about.
Battery life and connectivity
Claiming a 420 minute standby life when left to rest on a 3G connection, it appears Samsung has oversold the abilities of the Samsung Galaxy Ace's 1350mAh Lithium-Ion battery. Test battery times depleted far quicker than the touted 7 hour mark.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace takes a considerable amount of time to reach a full charge, unlike the Panasonic Eluga Power, which is capable of reaching a 50 per cent charge after just 30 minutes.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace, like many smartphones, is the victim of battery drain, thanks to its power-heavy innards. In our tests it lasts around day, but if you're not planning on using your phone for hours on end (perhaps having it there to download the odd app, browse the internet from time to time and text) then you'll be happy with the power levels on offer.
In terms of connectivity, the standard array of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options are joined by GPS abilities, enabling you to use features such as Google Maps and assign geo-location tags to photos.
Helping the Samsung Galaxy Ace stand out from some of its competitors, the phone enables you to share its mobile connectivity abilities, with the handset able to provide an internet connection (where available) to a non-mobile device such as a laptop tethered to it via a USB cable.
It's still impressive to think that for £7.50 per month you can get a sat-nav, mobile hotspot, Wi-Fi connected networking device... one of the great things about Android phones is you know you're getting a wealth of connectivity no matter what the outlay.
Maps and apps
As well as offering a wide selection of downloadable content via the ever-present and newly named Google Play Market, the Samsung Galaxy Ace offers access to the bespoke Samsung Apps store.
Infuriately long-winded to set up and access on first use, the Samsung Apps store offers a largely similar array of app-based software as its Google-branded counterpart.
Things aren't a mere mirror image, however, since across a number of apps there are a range of price discrepancies.
Once the Samsung Apps store has finally kicked into life, the price differences become apparent with a variety of games, utilities and performance-enhancing Android apps on the Samsung store being a number of pounds more expensive when snapped up away from the Google-branded outlet.
Many games long past their peak are still on offer even if they've subsequently been replaced by franchise instalments.
There can be price differences and there's a lot less on offer - it doesn't really matter as you can just ignore it and use Google's excellent portal, but it may be initially confusing to some.
Maps
Google Navigation really is outstanding. This version of Android enables you to download a voice directions plug-in and, although the voice is very robotic, you can make that sacrifice because usability is top notch.
You can search for directions by speaking the place (which actually works!), typing in, or selecting a contact's address.
You can choose to have driving or walking directions, both of which are always accurate, from our experience. The GPS signal never falters and, unlike some sat navs (including Nav free and Nokia's Ovi maps), Google Maps tends to always select the shortest route – and even knew some shortcuts that we thought were our own little secrets!
Google Maps has improved fantastically over time, and while it runs rather slowly on this ageing phone, it still is a great app and asset to have in the pocket. You can sync your favourite locations from the desktop, tag where your friends live for easy access and although you don't have the power to see 3D buildings like the more high-end handsets, still get a rich mapping app to use.
Hands-on gallery
Official gallery
Verdict
We're going to re-write the verdict to this phone - it's now under £90 in the shops, is being touted as THE budget phone to buy and bundled with a lot of tablets, so it's only right that users get the proper decision on a phone that launched in January 2011.
Is it a good phone? No. It was a poor phone when it launched, and hasn't got any better.
We liked
A comfortable fit in the hand, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is still a well-designed piece of kit that, and thanks to its interchangeable black and white back panels, offers a design that will appeal to a wide range of users. Simple to use, the use of an older version of Android isn't the handicap it should be, and the price is just brilliant for a smartphone full stop on contract.We disliked
Sluggish to exit sleep mode, the Samsung Galaxy Ace never really gets into its stride, with an unresponsive and low resolution TFT display lacking the pop and wow factor that has come to be expected from Samsung-branded smartphones. Poor on the camera front, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is filled with the software required to become an all-round media hub but fails to back this up with accompanying hardware, since the handset's audio and visual abilities fall below the expectations of such an offer. A laggy interface doesn't bring confidence to the user, and if you're a first time smartphone user then you'll be disappointed if you think this is how all smartphones run.Final verdict
Would we recommend the Samsung Galaxy Ace? No, in most cases. There will be some people desperate to get their hands on a smartphone on a budget, but this is still not the phone to do such a thing. There are others out there that are cheaper and more powerful, and were brought out more recently too. The Android software from years ago may not be the biggest issue now, but consumers are being tricked into thinking this will be a relevant smartphone for two years, which simply isn't the case. If you're still using the Galaxy Ace in 2015, you'll be really, really disappointed in what's in your pocket when you see your friends using an iPhone 7 or Galaxy S6 which can probably hover or something. Samsung has already seemingly given up on software upgrades for this phone, and it will be woefully behind the times in a few months already, let alone two years. The processor couldn't keep up in January 2011, and now it struggles even more as apps become more data and CPU-intensive. The screen is last gen and the pre-installed apps, Google Maps aside, are a relic from the days when Samsung was still trying to 'make it' in the smartphone market. It's not a terrible choice, but with the plethora of deals being foisted on consumers (the chance to have an older tablet and the Galaxy Ace for £15, for instance) will lead to a lot of gadget apathy. True, you get what you pay for, and having a tablet and phone for that price is always going to be attractive, but there's a lot better out there for those that don't get sucked onto a contract and are smart enough to buy outright with a SIM only deal on top. In short: the Samsung Galaxy Ace is a phone from an era where Android was still formative, so newer apps won't run as well on it. The internals are last gen, the software isn't anywhere near cutting edge so we suggest you steer clear of it unless you're desperate to pay very little. It's not Samsung's fault... the Ace should be at the end of its product cycle now, where it was discontinued a year ago, but for some reason it pervades; we just suggest it should be bought with a lot of research first.
| |
ZTE P945 set to pack a monster 5.7-inch display
The ZTE P945 is set to be another high-end device from the Chinese manufacturer keen to establish itself as a proper smartphone firm and not a budget-oriented company.
Details and an image of the P945 popped up on the Evleaks Twitter feed, revealing a super-sized handset sporting a 5.7in 720p display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8MP camera and 3000mAh battery.
We can't be sure this is an official phone, but Evleaks has a relatively strong track record when it comes to uncovering handsets.
CES 2013 unveiling?
It's thought that the ZTE P945 will be unveiled alongside the ZTE Grand S (which is probably the international variant of the already announced Nubia Z5) at CES 2013 next week. In the image of the P945 you'll see China Mobile's logo on the back of the handset, with China expected to be the first region to get the handset sometime in the second quarter of this year. As for the rest of the world, well we'll have to wait and see. TechRadar will be at ZTE's press conference at CES, so we'll be able to bring you the full story when it breaks.
| |
Updated: Spotify quietly ditches music downloads - for now
Are you one of the eight people who bought music through Spotify? Well, you're out of luck. The music streaming specialist has suspended its download store.
Update: Spotify has sent us a new statement on the matter: "We recently updated Spotify to further simplify the service and pave the way for new features announced at the end of last year.
"In-app purchases aren't part of this update but we're not ruling out their return. Credits/gift cards already purchased are still redeemable."
Spotify still displays the option to 'get' songs but when you try and 'get' one, you're told "We're no longer supporting new download purchases on Spotify" and pointed in the direction of an FAQ page with more details.
The company is at pains to point out that you can still access your existing music purchases - and if you have credits or a gift card to use you'll still be able to use them to buy downloads. But new credits and download-friendly gift cards are off the table - for now, at least.
Download and out
Nobody knows how long Spotify has halted the download store for - or how long its no-downloads policy has been in place. If Pocket-Lint hadn't tried to buy a song earlier today, who knows how long it would have been before anyone noticed - proof, if it was needed, that it was not exactly Spotify's most popular feature. Spotify isn't letting any more details slip at this point; when we contacted the company, it responded only with "We're no longer supporting new download purchases on Spotify" and not much more.
| |
EA man urges Smart TV makers to embrace Android
The chief creative officer at gaming giant EA believes that the rise of Smart TV will bring a new gaming audience, but only if manufacturers stop making their own proprietary platforms and back something like Google's Android.
With CES 2013 on the horizon, there are several new Smart TV arrivals likely and the potential for connected gaming is clear.
But, speaking to the IPTV News site, EA CCO Richard Hilleman believes that TV companies need to consider abandoning proprietary standalone platforms and embrace more common offerings like Google Android - allowing games developers to code for bigger audiences.
Leverage
"Stand-alone platforms (Linux-based) have historically not leveraged our mobile, console or PC-based titles," he added. "Open platform systems like Android give us a lot of leverage and still have the freedom to redefine a new user experience. "We need to be able to aggregate some of the platforms to make product development cost-effective in the short term." Hilleman also believes that manufacturers need to be aware that different regions may well be seeking very different experiences. "I think the US and European markets will mostly be interested in products that don't fit in a console experience," he said. "Shorter duration game cycles - 20 minutes for connected TV, versus two hours at a time for console - Free-to-Play or small price points, and MUCH easier-to-learn gameplay will matter. "In the parts of the world that don't have high console penetration, I could imagine deeper, longer experiences working, but that will be an evolution. "I also think in Asia, it will likely be a very high Free-to-Play market in the long term."
| |
Week in Tech: Google's off the hook! So what now?
Good news for Google: it turns out that it isn't evil after all. That's the verdict of US anti-trust investigators, who've spent 19 months deciding whether Google has been behaving badly.
The answer? It has, a bit, but not in all of the ways its rivals allege.
Google has promised not to 'scrape' competitor data and to stop its subsidiary, Motorola Mobility, from demanding extortionate fees for essential patents.
That's small potatoes, though: the US FTC found that as far as the the big allegation was concerned, the claim that Google was deliberately stuffing rivals in its search results, there wasn't sufficient evidence to build a case.
The verdict is pretty much what people expected, but Google's regulatory woes aren't over yet: the EU is investigating it too, and its investigators are expected to come down much harder on Google than the FTC did, not least because Google's market share in Europe is much higher.
Connecting people
Google isn't the only tech giant facing an "interesting" 2013: in our annual list of Tech Trends for the coming year we're predicting misery for Microsoft, interesting - as in the famous "may you live in interesting times" curse - times for Apple, a rocky road for RIM and lots of new goodies. We're also expecting to see more things connecting to other things: "From cars to coffee machines, if it's possible to control it with an app, someone's going to find a way to do it." Our phones are already at the heart of everyday computing, but will they replace our PCs too? That's what Canonical, maker of Ubuntu, reckons: it's bringing Ubuntu to smartphones, and it "looks to bring the full desktop operating system to a touchscreen device, giving users a seamless transition between their computer and smartphone." It's a brilliant idea, says our columnist Gary Marshall, and it won't work. "The key phrase in the press release [is] 'ready to start working with partners'. That's tech-speak for 'we don't have any partners', and without widespread and enthusiastic OEM support any new OS faces an enormous uphill struggle," he says. "I hope I'm wrong, though, because [this] vision is bold and fun... the future is probably a mobile device that powers whatever happens to be nearby."Our predictions for 2013
So what else is coming down the pipe? We locked our experts in dark rooms with crates of energy drinks, refusing to let them out until they predicted the future, and they rose to the challenge: we now know what to expect from tablets in 2013, what to expect in mobile phones, what to expect from Google, what to expect from Apple and what to expect from business tech.
We've even worked out the odds on 2013's most likely news stories in our Tech Bets for 2013. Too much information? Then check out our iPad sister title Tech., which has all the tech news and predictions you could possibly need, along with some really good jokes.
It's CES next week!
The annual CES bonanza of tech titillation is about to begin, and we're already uncovering news of Gorilla Glass 3 and new phones. Once CES kicks off properly we'll be burning the candle at both ends to bring you all the latest gadget goodness: for the first time ever we're an Official Media Partner, and we're holding our official US launch during CES too. We know, we're excited too, and if you just can't wait for the news we've got an in-depth guide to what you can expect from this year's show. Oh, and there's one more thing: it's happy birthday to the internet - 30 years old this week.
| |
Sony eyes broadcast with online TV service
The fight for TV-watchers' eyeballs is just kicking off, and Sony is the latest player to be rumoured to be planning a 'net-powered TV service.
According to Variety's sources, the tech company is in "active negotiations" with at least two content companies with a view to licensing their programming.
Not a great deal more is known about this hazy internet TV service, other than that it's potentially set for a late 2013 launch in the US and the fact that Sony is staying tight-lipped on the whole subject.
Making believe
It's not the first time Sony has cropped up in rumours like these, but it's been some time since we last heard one - not surprising, given Sony's myriad financial woes over the past years. The television industry is notoriously tight knit though, particularly in the US where even Google and Apple have hit stumbling blocks trying to get their broadcast plans in place. But with word of Apple's iTV television set reaching fever pitch last year, it wouldn't surprise us if other tech companies are scrambling to get their televisual plans in place. Sony made a big fuss last year about how its products can all be networked - music, images and video can be shared between its home audio systems, phones, tablets and computers, not to mention its Smart TVs and the PlayStation 3 which already offer VOD apps and more. This television service sure sounds like a logical step for a company with fingers in the hardware, software and content creation pies but it would also prove a massive financial gamble for Sony. With deals supposedly still being hashed out, it's unlikely that we'll hear any more about this online TV service from Sony at CES 2013 but we'll be keeping our ear to the ground regardless.
| |
Is this the first real glimpse of the Samsung Galaxy S4?
What is supposedly the first press shot of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has emerged online.
The photo was first published by Sam Mobile, which claims to have received it from an "insider at Samsung", who was unable to provide any further detail on the Galaxy SIV.
Unsurprisingly, we're approaching this with plenty of caution after the deluge of fake snaps of the Samsung Galaxy S3 – just take a look at our gallery.
Button-less
The big talking point is the missing home button - will Samsung really do away with the physical button given that it has remained a Samsung staple even on its most recent handsets such as the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Premier?
Although the design of the phone shown here is very similar to that of the Galaxy S3, the screen appears elongated compared to the older phone suggesting we'll see onscreen Android keys – something which Google has wanted manufacturers to adopt even since Ice Cream Sandwich was launched.
We're not holding out any hope that this is the real deal as the image could easily have been faked, but this will surely open the floodgates to more images claiming to show Samsung Galaxy S4 over the coming months.
| |
Samsung launches NX300 Wi-Fi enabled CSC
Samsung has launched a new NX camera to sit in its compact system camera line-up, the NX300 features a 20.3 million pixel sensor.
The company says that the APS-C CMOS sensor is newly designed, while a wide ISO range of ISO 100 - 25600 is designed to improve performance.
Further features include a new Hybrid Auto Focus (AF) system for delivering fast, accurate phase and contrast detection, 1/6000 sec shutter speed and 8.6fps shooting should also mean moments are rarely missed.
A DRIMe IV imaging engine is included to boost colour performance and greater noise reduction, as well as supporting full 1080p HD video capture in both 2D and 3D format.
Shooting
On the back of the camera, a 3.31 inch AMOLED tilting touchscreen can be found, which should be useful when shooting from awkward angles. In order to shoot in 3D, consumers must purchase an additional new 45mm lens. The NX300 is also compatible with the other lenses in the NX system along with other accessories in the range. The camera is also Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant sharing of images and videos via social networking and email. Samsung NX300 pricing and availability has yet to be confirmed.
| |
New Asus 10-inch tablet breaks cover in time for CES 2013
Asus is no stranger to Android tablets so it comes a little surprise that the Taiwanese firm is possibly working on a new 10-incher.
Details on the Asus ME301T have surfaced on Icecat, revealing that the slate features a 10.1-inch display, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core processor.
There is 1GB of RAM and by the looks of it just a 16GB variant, which is a little disappointing considering a lot of tablets offer 32GB options such as the Asus-built Nexus 7.
A microSD slot could be included though as previous slates from the firm, such as the Transformer Prime and Transformer Pad Infinity, offer the expandable storage option.
Business time
The ME301T will be focussed more at the business market if product listings in Spain and Denmark are anything to go by, pegging the tablet at around the £250 ($400/AU$385) mark – although we're far from convinced by the legitimacy of the posts and the price seems very low. Apparently you'll be able to pick up the Asus ME301T Memo Pad 10 – we're not fans of the proposed name either – Wi-Fi only or with 3G connectivity allowing you to access the web on the move. Asus could unveil a host of new tablets at CES 2013 next week and TechRadar will be there to bring you all the latest, including any details on the ME301T.
| |
Review: Gigabyte Aivia Osmium
While the likes of the Mad Catz STRIKE 7 keyboard are a bit of a guilty pleasure for this here reviewer, I am infinitely more pleased by simpler, more effective keyboard design.
In fact, were it not for the fact I constantly mis-typed my passwords, I would still be using the plain black Das keyboard. Yes, the one with no key markings at all.
So when Gigabyte's latest Aivia range landed on my desk I couldn't help but go a little gooey. And when it lit up blue, I was all over the Osmium like a nun in heat.
The Osmium is utterly retro, but with enough modern extras to make it relevant in today's crowded gaming peripherals market. Take away the sturdy wrist rest and the individual LED backlighting, and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a Dell keyboard from the early 90s.
For a long while, people round here actually sought out the PS/2 mechanical versions for FPS gaming, such were their accuracy and response.
Expletive deleted
Let's get the gaming specific stuff out of the way first. The Osmium comes with onboard memory for five full gamer profiles, holding up to 70 different macros for the busy player. Flicking between the profiles is a matter of pressing the large rocker switch with the breathing Aivia logo on it. The five colours indicate the different profiles, and you can access the macro and shortcut functionality via the GHOST macro engine software. You'll have to head to the Gigabyte website to dig out the utility, but it's less than a 12MB download so shouldn't tax your ISP restrictions too much. As mentioned, you don't have to use the extra five 'G' keys as macros; you can mix and match between macro and shortcut as you see fit. For me, though, it's all about how good the Osmium is in general PC use. I'm typing this review on the board right now and it's seriously making me consider tagging this in and replacing the Corsair K60 I've been typing on for the last six months. The non-slip coating on each Cherry Red MX key means you won't slip, and the 2mm actuation point on each key means you can be quite delicate with your key-presses and still retain your accuracy. I'm also really impressed with the LED backlighting, easily accessed by a wheel switch at the top of the board next to the 'G' macro keys. Press the wheel down to toggle the lights on or off, and move it up or down to tune the intensity of the lighting on the fly. I find the top setting a little too bright in normal light - in the dark it would melt your face off like that Nazi officer in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Next to that is another, similarly useful wheel switch to look after the volume. Having both of these features accessible by a seemingly analogue wheel is very satisfying. My only real issue is the fact that gaming keyboards now have to cost at least £100 before they can be taken seriously. But considering the K60 is still around £80, the awesome Mionix Zibal 60 is knocking around at £100 and the Mad Catz STRIKE 7 will cost you your first-born male child, the Osmium's price isn't that bad.
| |
Mobile virtualisation and MDM
One of the prime ongoing trends of IT in the workplace is the rise of BYOD (bring your own device) in the business environment. More and more companies are allowing their staff to use their own mobile devices for work, and IT market intelligence specialist IDC has estimated that by 2015 more than 55% of smartphones used for work will be owned by employees.
But this has raised new challenges, especially around security, which are standing in the way of deployments in some businesses. As IT managers work on strategies to meet the new demands many are thinking seriously about mobile virtualisation how to manage the use of devices.
Virtualisation involves simulating the software used by the business upon the mobile device, enabling the user to keep their work and personal activities separate.
IDC has highlighted the potential in its Mobile Virtualization: Accelerating Innovation in Next Generation Services white paper, rating it as "the best solution to help businesses take advantage of BYOD while minimising the risks". The potential is increased by the number of solutions available from companies such as VMware, OK Labs and Red Bend, leading IDC to say these "can address most of the challenges that IT managers face in a post–corporate liable world."
Building at the root
Mobile virtualisation can be most effective when the facility is built into the root level of devices (Type 1 hypervisor), but this requires the participation of the manufacturer and is likely to be expensive. For businesses, using an app (Type 2 hypervisor) is often more cost-effective and gives them more control, but may not provide the levels of security and usability needed, or work with the variety of handsets used by employees. Once the virtual layer is in place, its control then becomes relatively straightforward as MDM (mobile device management) comes into play. For BYOD users, this control may not be wholly welcome, but with virtualisation, the personal aspects of their devices can be left alone with only the 'business' components under control of the MDM. MDM is evolving to respond to more app based working practices, becoming MAM (mobile application management), where specific apps are under the IT manager's control. Employees may not regard this as ideal as some of the apps will be inferior to others with which they are familiar, but it provides a level of security that can make employers more comfortable with the trend. Another approach is to use secure cloud based applications such as WatchDox, Citrix ShareFile and VMware Octopus, that give systems administrators firm control of the security features.Feasibility
It is also important to remember that a number of components have to work together to enable virtualisation, and it may not always be feasible to allow employees to use the latest smartphone they have bought. Also, MDM control will often rely on a specific application programme interface that must be built into the operating system the phone is using. Current examples include 3LM and Samsung's SAFE. Apple OS provides something of an anomaly, as the company keeps such tight control over its hardware and software that any form of virtualisation is very difficult to achieve. For the foreseeable future there is likely to be much more focus on devices operating on Android. IT analyst Gartner has predicted that the increase in BYOD is going to take MDM to a new level. In its Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software paper it concludes: "More data is being put on mobile devices today, and enterprises are fast developing their own applications to support their mobile users. "As mobile devices continue to displace traditional PCs, enterprises will look to their existing MDM systems to support more devices, enterprise applications and data. MDM vendors are moving beyond security to support enterprise and third party applications, data, and content — mobile document management systems. "During the next two years, we will continue to see MDM platforms broaden out and become enterprise mobile management system (EMMS) platforms, going beyond just devices. This broadening out of MDM EMMS will offer full solutions as more enterprises rely on mobile devices for more usage throughout the workday, displacing traditional PCs, especially for mobile users."Sensitive data
But virtualisation is not a complete solution. Employees can still access the personal side of their mobile device and send emails etc. that could contain sensitive information, and companies need to ensure they have robust data security policies of which everyone is aware. IT managers will have to take a view as to how much control and therefore restrictions they will place on their employees use of their data devices The IDC white paper says that companies need to look at both sides of BYOD: it can reduce the costs of device acquisition, but only if IT managers can find efficient methods to manage devices connected to their networks and ensure the integrity of corporate data. "Mobile virtualisation provides a cost-effective solution that will help IT departments provision an approved virtual phone that uses a standard baseline on employee-liable devices so that they don't have to try to support three or four operating systems simultaneously," it says. Business will have to find a middle ground where data devices can be used openly, yet have a level of lock down to appease system administrators, and this increasingly means a new form of MDM. Currently, MDM is a moving target that all IT managers need to track very closely indeed.
| |
TechRadar is an Official Media Partner for CES 2013
TechRadar is hitting CES harder than ever before this year, not only bringing in our biggest editorial crew yet, but also participating as an Official Media Partner for the first time at the annual show.
We're ecstatic about our role and the opportunity it affords us to bring you the most up-to-the-minute, in depth news and reviews in the days leading up to and during the Vegas event.
Not only will TechRadar cover every nook and cranny of CES 2013, we're also bestowing the TechRadar Best of CES Awards sponsored by DTS to highlight the products that really shine.
We'll honor the most innovative gadgets and technologies that showcase groundbreaking design, technology, and user experience in 15 different categories.
Winners like Most Unique Product, Best Tablet (in both Android and Windows), Best Digital Camera, Best Cell Phone (Android and Windows) People's Choice and Best in Show will be announced Tuesday, Jan. 9.
Party time
While we're in Sin City, we'll also host our official U.S. launch party at the Tao Nightclub at The Venetian. The shindig is going down Tuesday night and will feature performances by Far East Movement and The Crystal Method. While we're looking forward to letting loose, we know it'll be a great way to kick off CES week in proper Vegas fashion. Naturally you can turn to TechRadar for all the latest news, scrutinizing hands on reviews and hard hitting analysis coming out of Las Vegas starting next week. We can't wait for the show to start and hope you enjoy the wild CES ride!
| |
Get ready for ultra scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 3
Gorilla Glass is far from "primitive," and if an announcement Thursday about what its maker Corning has in store for CES 2013 is any indication, we should see some highly evolved products coming from the company.
The manufacturer plans to unveil Gorilla Glass 3 next week, a new glass composition that, according to an Engadget report, is markedly stronger than Gorilla Glass 1 and 2.
A Corning-made feature known as Native Damage Resistance is said to stymie flaws and scratches and uphold the overall retained strength of the glass even after knicks and dings.
What that means for the scratch-prone phone owners out there is a glass that's three times more scratch resistant, shows 40 percent less visible scratches and commands a 50 percent overall retained strength increase after glass is damaged.
Fiber time
Also coming to CES 2013 are Optical Cables by Corning, fiber-based, device-to-device connectors for Thunderbolt. The cables are long, strong and take the transmission range of copper-based cables to school, Corning said in a press release. Corning promised to reveal more on both products Jan. 7, so we'll bring you all the monkey business the company has planned for CES and beyond.
| |
Nexus 10 tablet back in stock at US Google Play store
The Nexus 10 tablet is once again for sale on the U.S. Google Play store website today, marking the first time the popular device has been in stock since the holidays.
This Samsung-manufactured 10-inch tablet now displays a much more pleasant "Shipping Soon" status on its official page, replacing the previous "Sold Out" text in an unfriendly red font.
Google promises to ship both the $399 16GB and $499 32GB models of the Nexus 10 to U.S. consumers "in less than one week."
Nexus 10 inventory has been stretched since its Nov. 13 release date, and remained sold out for many anxious holiday shoppers.
Tech specs are central to Nexus' popularity
The Nexus 10 has proved to be popular with consumers in part because of rave reviews and its powerful tech specs. Most noticeably, its screen rivals the "Retina display" of an iPad 4 thanks to a 2560x1600 pixel resolution. That's currently the world's highest resolution for a tablet. And yet, when it comes down to the price, the Nexus 4 vs. iPad 4 debate has Google's tablet winning with a $399 (compared to $499) starting price. To make the deal even sweeter, Google threw in a Jelly Bean - as in the latest version of its mobile OS, Android 4.2.Everyone wants to connect with a Nexus
Nexus 10 hasn't been the only Nexus-branded device in high demand on the Google Play store. The Nexus 4 smartphone and budget-friendly Nexus 7 tablet were also sold out throughout the holiday season. In fact, the Nexus 4 is still out of stock. It was snapped up by U.S. consumers when it first launched on Nov. 13, and Google has rarely resumed regular shipments. Nexus 4 hopefuls may have to rely on T-Mobile to find the elusive smartphone later this month, according to the latest reports. Both the Nexus 10 and Nexus 4 faced setbacks right out of the gate. Hurricane Sandy forced Google to cancel the New York City press conference intended to announce the devices. Hopefully Google's announcement and inventory luck changes by the time it brings the Nexus development completely in-house with a still-far-off Motorola-made Nexus device.
| |
Available Tags:HTC , CEO , Hulu , BlackBerry , Android , Google TV , Asus , Google , TV , Samsung , Galaxy , Amazon , Kindle , TechRadar , ZTE , EA , Sony , tablet , Gigabyte ,
No comments:
Post a Comment