Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 2, Android Camera and first Windows 8 Phone

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Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 2 and first Windows 8 Smartphone

Samsung Galaxy Note II unveiled: 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, Android Jelly Bean and more S Pen functionality

Samsung Galaxy Note II unveiled: 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, Android Jelly Bean and more S Pen functionality -- Engadget
While we can't say it was a shock, Samsung's latest superphone has arrived -- and it's got a new stylus. The Galaxy Note II pushes the screen frontier to 5.5 inches wide, with another HD Super AMOLED display, this time at 1,280 x 720. Despite that expansion the phone is a mere 9.4mm thick, while it now houses a larger capacity (faster charging) 3,100mAh battery and a quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz. As the Galaxy Note was to the Galaxy S II, so the Note II takes some design riffs from the Galaxy S III, with the same rounded edges, glossy finish and extra software piled atop its Android base. There's also Samsung's reliable 8-megapixel camera sensor on the back, capable of 1080p video-recording.

The great news is that the Galaxy Note II will be launching on Jelly Bean -- no laborious waiting for those over-the-air updates for Google's very latest. Software additions are understandably heavily weighted towards the phablet's S Pen advances. The stylus itself now has a rubber nib, which Samsung reckons will offer an experience closer to pen and paper. User can add "Quick Commands" to their stylus gestures, while "Air View" allows you to peruse galleries and folders by floating the stylus just above the screen. Samsung's also added an Easy Clip ability to crop and share from anything beaming out from the Note II's 16:9 screen. Stylus functionality has been gifted to the calendar (S Planner) and the native email app, while the S Pen itself will now notify your phone if it's left behind. The device will launch in Titanium Grey and Marble White, arriving internationally before the end of the year. We've just managed to handle both the Galaxy Note II and that reformed stylus -- check out our hands-on here.
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Specs
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 - Full phone specifications
Display Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 1280 X 720
Size 5.5 inches
Chipset Exynos 4412 Quad
RAM 2 GB
Battery 3100 mAH
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Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy Note II | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Note II phablet, a significantly improved Android device that straddles the line between phone and tablet even more tightly than before. It's coming to the U.S. before the end of the year, Samsung confirmed.

The original Galaxy Note was a beautifully crafted, powerful device that initially struck us as simply too large for general use as a phone. It turns out that's just fine with over 10 million people to date, in a world where voice calls are quickly losing their luster in favor of messaging and social networks, and where having a huge, roomy screen pays dividends in productivity throughout the day.

In fact, the original Galaxy Note isn't even that old—it only came out in February on AT&T, with an Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" update and a T-Mobile version following afterward. The T-Mobile version arrived just over a month ago. But it turns out a lot has happened in the intervening time to move the technological bar forward.

As a result, the Galaxy Note II inherits dozens of improvements from the Galaxy S III flagship smartphone and the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, both of which we have awarded Editors' Choice in their respective categories. Samsung says the new Galaxy Note II runs ICS out of the box, and focuses on discovery, more advanced multitasking, and the ability to freely capture and express your thoughts. The company hopes the Galaxy Note II delivers particularly compelling experiences for socially advanced, creative services like Path, Pinterest, Flipboard, and Instagram.

I got to spend some time with the Galaxy Note II ahead of the announcement. You probably don't need me to tell you this, but in person the Galaxy Note II looks massive—even more so than the first model. The new one steps up from a 5.3-inch screen to a 5.55-inch panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio (instead of 16:10) and 1280-by-720-pixel resolution. That lowers pixel density ever so slightly, but in practice it doesn't matter much at this size, as fonts still look sharp. It remains relatively thin at 0.37 inches deep, and weighs a reasonable (given the size) 6.2 ounces, or about an ounce and a half more than the average high-end smartphone.

Working With the Stylus
To these ends, the note-taking and drawing software is much more comprehensive than before. Pop the stylus out of the bottom slot, and the screen automatically switches to a new interface showing various pen-focused icons. The pressure-sensitive stylus allows for precise drawing similar to that found on Wacom drawing tablets, with the ability to lay down more or less "ink" or "paint" depending on how hard you press down.

Hover over something with the pen, and it will pop up additional info and let you highlight things before you press down to select, which was quite slick in practice. It made it easy to select multiple photos and move them around, for example. Whenever the pen isn't touching the screen but is hovering close by, you'll see a glowing blue dot on the screen that follows wherever you move the pen. You can also clip and annotate text with the stylus.

To me, these kinds of things demonstrate the original promise of the stylus from back when pen computing was first pushed in the 90s. But the difference here is that now you can also operate the phone without one entirely, since it's also a responsive capacitive touch-screen phone.

Meanwhile, the new 8-megapixel camera app is especially fun, as you can overlay complex filters in real-time. One looks like a black and white pen drawing, which you can see previewed as you move the viewfinder around the room. It's like creating instant artwork; snap the picture and it's done. Then you can add color and layer paint on top of it if you want—or just draw from scratch on blank paper. You can also play videos that hover in small windows over what you're working on, similar to the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Otherwise, there's also 2GB of RAM and an oversized 3100mAh battery, the latter of which should be plenty to keep the Galaxy Note powered up throughout a day's work. The version announced today features a quad-core A9 1.6-GHz processor, which is something aboutt which we'd normally be very excited. But Samsung refused to give more specifics, or even say whether we'd see that processor here in the U.S. Remember that the HTC One X launched with a quad-core processor overseas, but the version sold here on AT&T had a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor (which was actually just as fast, more or less, thanks to better architecture).

There's a reason for that: So far, Qualcomm has provided nearly all LTE modems to date, which work most easily with Qualcomm CPUs. But other vendors have been saying they will ship LTE modems by the end of the year, which opens up compatibility with a range of other processors that can theoretically support LTE. And Verizon and AT&T, the nation's two largest carriers, are on record saying that they will only certify new smartphones with LTE support going forward.

Here's what Samsung says about a U.S. release: "Samsung Mobile is planning a U.S. version of Galaxy Note II, which will be available later in 2012. Exact timing and retail channel availability is not being announced at this time."

Overall, if you want a big phone—and despite our earlier instincts, lots of people do—the Galaxy Note II looks to be a seriously good device. Rest assured that as soon as possible, we'll review it separately on each carrier as it becomes available.
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Samsung Announces First Windows Phone 8 Smartphone, Ativ S
Samsung Announces First Windows Phone 8 Smartphone, Ativ S | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Windows Phone 8 is here. Samsung today announced the Ativ S, the world's first Windows Phone 8 smartphone, thus beating even Microsoft's key partner Nokia to the punch.

Unveiled tonight at a "Samsung Unpacked" event at the IFA trade show in Berlin, the Ativ S is part of an entire Ativ Windows 8 product line from Samsung, including two convertible Windows 8 tablets and a Windows RT tablet, the Samsung Ativ Tab.

Big and elegant, the Ativ S shows off what Windows Phone 8 can do that Windows Phone 7 couldn't. It has a 4.8-inch, 1280-by-720 Super AMOLED screen, a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, and a MicroSD card slot :shock:. On the back, there's an 8-megapixel camera; on the front, there's a 1.9-megapixel unit. It supports Wi-Fi (including 5Ghz), NFC, and Bluetooth. The Ativ S is a slim slab phone at only .35 inches thick, but packs a big 2300mAh battery to handle the big screen.

The star of the show here is clearly Windows Phone 8, which shares a kernel and Internet Explorer 10 with Microsoft's flagship PC operating system for the first time, as well as the Windows 8 tiled user interface formerly known as Metro. Windows Phone 8 is easy to use, looks bold, offers great Facebook integration, and works on much flashier phones than Windows Phone 7, which Microsoft's hardware spec relegated to mid-range devices.

We're sure to see more Windows Phone 8 devices soon, with HTC and Nokia announcements rumored for Sept. 5.

Samsung is the world's No. 1 mobile phone company by volume of units sold, but it recently suffered a billion-dollar blow when several of its popular Android phones were judged by a California jury to be infringing Apple's patents. By releasing the Ativ right now, Samsung shows that not all of its, ahem, apples are in the Android basket, and that the company can lead on various OS platforms.

The Ativ S announced tonight is a European model. While it will run on AT&T's HSPA network, it doesn't support the preferred networks or bands of any of the U.S. carriers. AT&T and Verizon want LTE, Verizon and Sprint want CDMA, and T-Mobile wants the AWS band. None of those are on this spec sheet. But Samsung is famous for adapting phones to every carrier, so I'm sure some version of the Ativ S is headed to the States.
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I am surprised this new windows phone, where is Nokia? specs are impressive, sounds like a regular high end android phone, SD Card slot, dual core proc, 4.8 inch display. if they can get few lacs of apps , what else Microsoft need.
 
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pratyush997

pratyush997

Inactive
^ i prefer droid cuz it got that faqin CFWs to experiment but wp is locked

^ i prefer droid cuz it got that faqin CFWs to experiment but wp is locked
 
reniarahim1

reniarahim1

Youngling
is samsung concentrating more on wp8 phones now as they are facing patent problems with android phones? they have announced wp8 phone before nokia which was not expected.

ajaymailed said:
Samsung Galaxy Note II unveiled: 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, Android Jelly Bean and more S Pen functionality

Samsung Galaxy Note II unveiled: 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, Android Jelly Bean and more S Pen functionality -- Engadget



Specs
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 - Full phone specifications


Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy Note II | News & Opinion | PCMag.com



Samsung Announces First Windows Phone 8 Smartphone, Ativ S
Samsung Announces First Windows Phone 8 Smartphone, Ativ S | News & Opinion | PCMag.com


I am surprised this new windows phone, where is Nokia? specs are impressive, sounds like a regular high end android phone, SD Card slot, dual core proc, 4.8 inch display. if they can get few lacs of apps , what else Microsoft need.
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Nokia is supposed to reveal the wp8 phone (probably a tablet too) on sept 5th. This was a surprise from samsung actually.
 
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A

ajaymailed

In the zone
abhidev said:
Samsung win 8 shouldn't be priced more than 25k...
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ghee and sugar in your mouth:p. But looking at specs, it pretty difficult for them to price it at 25K. Initial price should be more than 30K, may drop below 30K later like any other Android dual cores

is samsung concentrating more on wp8 phones now as they are facing patent problems with android phones? they have announced wp8 phone before nokia which was not expected.
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Its now good for Sammy to diversify, may be they will continue development of Bada OS too who knows. But i am expecting Nokias Winphone to have more features as they are primary partner, still specs like 4.8 inch Super AMOLED, 720 HD Display, 8 MP Cam, Dual Core Proc will definitely give good competition for Nokia. Samsung will probably drag Nokia into price war if they are really serious about it. Hope Samsung, Nokia & HTC release some good budget, mid range and high end Windows 8 Phone.
 
MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
Asking for the same features (CPU, 3G and Stylus in particular), albeit a bigger (5000 mAH) battery in a Galaxy Tab under 20k shouldn't be too hard eh ? :D
 
OP
A

ajaymailed

In the zone
guess what, Ativ S has aluminium construction instead of the cheap plastic feel of galaxy phones.
Samsung ATIV S Might Convince You to Switch to Windows Phone 8 | TechnoBuffalo
*s8.postimage.org/kza34ky1x/samsung_ativ_s_back_640x426.jpg
*s15.postimage.org/sii879u2z/samsung_ativ_s_in_hand_640x426.jpg
source: Samsung ATIV S Might Convince You to Switch to Windows Phone 8 | TechnoBuffalo
At long last, Samsung is ditching its love-affair with tawdry plastic and instead opting for a brushed aluminum chassis. Measuring in at just 8.7mm, the device will sport a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display (Gorilla Glass 2), 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8-megapixel rear cam (1.9-megapixel front) and 16GB or 32GB options. Additionally, both will have slots for microSD expandable storage, and come with a 2300mAh batter. Samsung just checked off some “Must Need” features for smartphone 101.
According to WindowsTeamBlog, the ATIV S feels “impressive.” Not too big, very thin, and ergonomic in the hand — perhaps, at least to my eyes, one of the best designed Samsung devices ever. Combine the handset’s looks with the luster of Windows Phone 8, and I’d say the company has a genuine competitor on its hands, not just in the WP stratosphere, but against Android and iOS. This is the stuff Windows Phone needs to make a push into the mainstream.

“The ATIV S is flat-out beautiful, and it has the guts to match,” WindowsTeamBlog wrote. Yep, sounds about right judging from the photos. All we know is that the device is “coming this year.” What I really want to interpret that to say, “Immediately.”
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unlike previous gen winphones, this one sounds like it has all the restrictions removed on memory, processor, SD Card slot etc. Combine that with a huge 4.8 inch AMOLED HD Display and a 2300 mAH battery, it will be gr8.
Samsung seems to have gone all the way with Windows 8, releasing a high end smartphone, Intel Core i5, Atom powered 10 inch plus Tablets and also a ARM powered Windows RT Tablet.


Ativ Smart PC Tablet
*www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-li...TIV-Smart-PC-Pro-Windows-8-tablets_id33880#6-
Display: 11.6 inch LCD
Resolution: 1920X1080
CPU: Core i5
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 256 GB SSD
 
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