The behemoth that is Samsung had their IFA 2014 event today and oh boy, there was some stuff shown that made my trousers a bit tight (Looking at you Note 4) there were also some things that made me wish i was blind, but just as I've done with Asus I'm going to write about the important things they showed today.
Galaxy Note 4
The Note 4 was a product we all knew were coming, and we knew most of its specifications because a lot of it had leaked a while before hand.
The Galaxy Note 4 from Samsung continues the trend of just owning the phablet (god i hate that word) market, and it really shows here, the 5.7" 1080p S-AMOLED panel form the Note 3 has been swapped out for a 1440p panel of the Same size and technology, and from hands on from people in the industry i trust (namely Taylor Martin from pocketnow.com) it looks pretty damn amazing, and doesn't suffer the issues that LG had with the G3,namely low contrast and brightness, though being a S-AMOLED screen the colours are incredibly vivid and over saturated, though that happen to be a feature i like.
The Note 4 continues the trend of Note devices in being the most powerful in Samsung's line up, the Note 4 comes in two version, one packing the new Snapdragon 805, and the other being the brand new, not used in anything else Exynos 5 Octa 5433, now there is a bit of controversy at the moment, as the 5433 is so new we don't actually know anything about it, some are saying its an updated 5430 (the 5430 is inside the Galaxy Alpha in case you were wondering) which is made of 4 Cortex A15's and 4 Cortex A7's with a Mali-T628-MP6 GPU in the Alpha to the exact same SoC but with the update Mali-T760 GPU to deal with the QHD screen, while others are claiming that the 5433 is a new 64bit chip using 4 Cortex A53's and 4 Cortex A57's, we just dont know as it's so new, but given the naming is in the 54XX series, I'm guessing its still a 32Bit A15/A7 cluster. the Snapdragon 805 is just a monster (though losing to the 5433) with 4 Krait 450 CPU cores and an Adreno 420 GPU, the Snapdragon 805 allows phones with 1440p displays function as fluid and as fast as 1080p devices running on Snapdragon 801's.
Galaxy Note 4
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| Image credit goes to Samsung from the Note 4 landing page |
The Galaxy Note 4 from Samsung continues the trend of just owning the phablet (god i hate that word) market, and it really shows here, the 5.7" 1080p S-AMOLED panel form the Note 3 has been swapped out for a 1440p panel of the Same size and technology, and from hands on from people in the industry i trust (namely Taylor Martin from pocketnow.com) it looks pretty damn amazing, and doesn't suffer the issues that LG had with the G3,namely low contrast and brightness, though being a S-AMOLED screen the colours are incredibly vivid and over saturated, though that happen to be a feature i like.
The Note 4 continues the trend of Note devices in being the most powerful in Samsung's line up, the Note 4 comes in two version, one packing the new Snapdragon 805, and the other being the brand new, not used in anything else Exynos 5 Octa 5433, now there is a bit of controversy at the moment, as the 5433 is so new we don't actually know anything about it, some are saying its an updated 5430 (the 5430 is inside the Galaxy Alpha in case you were wondering) which is made of 4 Cortex A15's and 4 Cortex A7's with a Mali-T628-MP6 GPU in the Alpha to the exact same SoC but with the update Mali-T760 GPU to deal with the QHD screen, while others are claiming that the 5433 is a new 64bit chip using 4 Cortex A53's and 4 Cortex A57's, we just dont know as it's so new, but given the naming is in the 54XX series, I'm guessing its still a 32Bit A15/A7 cluster. the Snapdragon 805 is just a monster (though losing to the 5433) with 4 Krait 450 CPU cores and an Adreno 420 GPU, the Snapdragon 805 allows phones with 1440p displays function as fluid and as fast as 1080p devices running on Snapdragon 801's.
The body of the Note 4 is a big step up for Samsung, gone is the faux metal trim of Galaxy devices of times past, just like the Galaxy Alpha, the Note 4 has an Aluminium frame and core, with Gorilla glass 3 covering the 1440p S-AMOLED screen, and the faux leather is returning on the back, but gone is the faux leather stitching, the fake leather now goes all the way to the edge and meets the actual metal frame, gone is the Bulky but useful MicroUSB 3.0 port, replaced by the inferior, though much less clunky MicroUSB 2.0 port, though Samsung has added a bit of charging magic to make that monstrous 3220mAh (removable) battery charge 50% in just 30 minutes, similar to the VOOC Charging in the Oppo Find 7 and 7a.
The Cameras have been significantly overhauled, the rear shooter is now a 16MP module (we aren't sure if it is ISOCELL or not) with "Smart OIS" which is a mix of digital and optical image stabilisation to give the best results, shoots 4K like the Note 3 did, the front facing camera is now 3.7MP and Samsung boasts an F1.9 aperture to make low light selfies slightly less of a muddled blur, it also happens to shoot 1080p video, speaking of selfies, on the stage, the 3 presenters (one of which being former Gadget show host Rachel Riley) took an incredibly awkward wide angle selfie with the audience, the result looked good, but in the same way that you look weird taking a selfie, you look weird taking a selfie and moving it left and right to get more things in the picture.
The S Pen is the other thing to be pretty majorly overhauled here at IFA with the Note 4, it's doubled its pressure sensitivity to 2048 levels of pressure, ass opposed to the 1024 from the Note 3, it's a tab thinner, and the colour of the S Pen is the same as the colour of your Note 4, so Pink Note 4, Pink S Pen, Multi-window has been changed pretty drastically, no longer called up from a tap and hold of the back button, Multi-windows can be done completely via S Pen now, so you no longer break the flow of what you are doing, you can now close apps into little chat head type bubbles and move them around, though I'd never use them, they seem to be legitimate improvements. Speaking of things I'd never use, the fingerprint scanner in all of its awkward swipe-ness is here and so if the heart rate monitor round back under the camera, they're the same as before, and i honestly dont have a lot to say on either of them.
Android 4.4.4 with the latest version of Touchwiz is on the Note 4, and one subtle but awesome change for me is the multi-tasking menu, whereas Samsung changed it for changes sake on the S5, taking the standard task switcher and basically adding borders before, Samsung has essentially aped the Android L task switcher for the Note 4 and it looks every bit as awesome as it does on L, I'm not a fan of pretty much anything Samsung does with their UI, but the task switcher is something i dearly miss going from the L preview back to Kit Kat.
No price, but its coming to every Carrier in North America, and I'm guessing its going everywhere the Note 3 did and more, so expect to see these, well everywhere
Galaxy Note...Edge?
The Galaxy Note Edge is a bit of a weird one, Take the Galaxy Note 4, that absolute monster that samsung just announced, now take a blow torch to the right side of the screen, now melt it half way, and you've got the edge, yes, Samsung finally is going to ship one of the crazy things they showed off at CES in like 2012.
Yes, the Note Edge utilises one of Samsung's Youm flexible displays, its a 2560x1600 display, but the "main display" e.g the flat bit stops at 1440 pixels wide, so the last 160 pixels is where the screen curves off the edge, effectively making the Note Edge have the same usable screen real estate at the 5.7" 2560x1440p Note 4.
Apart from the curve on the screen, which has some nifty software to let you use it when the rest of the screen is off, for a news ticker, or as an alarm clock, and in some apps the I chrome moves to the curve so you can use the full display for the important stuff, this is most apparent in the camera application where all the controls are off on the curve instead of being overlaid on the screen viewfinder.
No pricing details yet, but very surprisingly we know where (at least in north America) it's being released, on all 4 nationwide carriers, so AT&T,T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint are all getting the Note 4 and the Note Edge.
Gear S
What's that? you didn't ask for yet another Smart watch that only works with Samsung phones? what you also didn't ask for another Tizen powered smart watch? and you didn't ask for a huge monstrosity that takes up your entire wrist? well then stop reading here.
The Gear S by Samsung is everything no-one asked for, It's another Tizen powered Smart watch, that pairs with Samsung phones only and its just bloody massive, a 2" Curved Super AMOLED display at 360x480 that looks ridiculous on the wrists of men I've seen it on and it looks like futuristic handcuffs on the women I've seen it on, there is also a keyboard, oh yes, a keyboard on your 2" screen on your wrist, because everyone needs that, the keyboard is in an exclusive partnership with Fleksy which has some pretty amazing prediction algorithms.
It's a Dual-Core system, but they aren't naming who makes the SoC (though it's probably an in house Exynos 3 Dual or something), 512mb of RAM and 4GB of local storage, and the pretty amazing part about all this? there is a cellular radio in there, yes! you can turn the bloody watch over and slip in your SIM card, because why not, you re already replying to Emails and texts from your wrist, why not add in a radio and a mic and take calls as well,at least there is no camera this time. Heart rate sensor is still on the back just with the Gear 2,Gear 2 Neo, Gear Fit, Gear Live and Gear PleaseGiveMeANewName , it also seems to use the same terrible charging mechanism that has literally broken Gear Lives and Gear 2's , so there is that to look forward to.
They also announced the Gear Circle, which unlike its name suggests ,is not a circular Gear Smart watch, its a freaking bluetooth headset that wraps around the neck into a circle, kinda like the LG tones, the "brains" of the system wrap around the back of the neck and the two ear buds have magnets in the tops that clasp together at the front of the neck.
And all of this begs the question, who looks stupider, people that wear LG tones or people that will wear Gear Circles?
No price or release date, and I'm honestly not sure why Samsung even made this.
Gear VR
So Samsung made a VR headset, and it doesn't look like crap, which is a major plus, it's also wireless, another major plus and it uses your phone to power it and not an external computer, a huge plus, are you now ready for the negative that rips all those good moments from your hands? dont worry I'll let you say goodbye.
you done? Good
It only works with the Note 4, not the Note Edge, not the Note 3, not the Galaxy Alpha, not the Galaxy S5, it only bloody works with one of their phones, no no no no no, it only works with one of their phones, whilst i can kind of understand Samsung locking you into their phones with their smart watches, locking you into a single model for their VR unit is stupid to me, a VR headset is a niche product to begin with, and as big as the note line is, i still see far more Galaxy S's and iPhones than i see Notes, so you're creating an even smaller user base, what do you reckon is the percentage of people who buy Galaxy Notes and Also want a VR headset powered by their phone are? i cant imagine its very large.
There is a good thing about the Gear VR though, it's made in collaboration with Oculus, the people behind the Rift,and people love the rift, a major difference between the two? the oculus rift is tethered to your computer in many many ways, for power and for feeding the signal through to do whatever you want to do, whether that's play a game or watch a film, the Gear VR is a standalone product, you slot your New Note 4 into the housing and shove it on your head,that's it, another thing the Gear VR has over the Rift DK2 is the screen, for a long time Oculus has been saying we need higher resolution (preferably OLED displays) for VR for low latency and little to no pixelation, and although the 1080p S-AMOLED panel in the DK2 in pretty amazing (it's also quite literally a Note Display underneath) the 1440p S-AMOLED screen in the Note 4 is way better, smaller pixels so its more immersive, a higher refresh rate so less motion blur, QHD (or maybe even 4K) is whats needed for VR not to suck, we'll see how well the Gear VR does when people actually get their hands on it, but so far, the first impressions are positive.
There is a Bluetooth touch pad on the side of the Gear VR and a back and home button as well, on top is a focus ring for the lenses, a resizable head strap is there and that's it, Samsung/Oculus made the Note 4 a special "VR Mode" to go into when it's docked which is cool, but only time will tell if this will be a successful product.
As you have probably guessed by now, no pricing or release date info but we will know soon enough.
And last but not least... Swarovski?
Your eyes aren't deceiving you, i wrote Swarovski, the crystal company, yes Samsung literally excretes so much money they decided they can offer Swarovski backs for the Note 4 and a Swarovski encrusted Gear S, both are as gaudy and tacky as they sound, but here are photos of both so you can make an informed decision.
The Cameras have been significantly overhauled, the rear shooter is now a 16MP module (we aren't sure if it is ISOCELL or not) with "Smart OIS" which is a mix of digital and optical image stabilisation to give the best results, shoots 4K like the Note 3 did, the front facing camera is now 3.7MP and Samsung boasts an F1.9 aperture to make low light selfies slightly less of a muddled blur, it also happens to shoot 1080p video, speaking of selfies, on the stage, the 3 presenters (one of which being former Gadget show host Rachel Riley) took an incredibly awkward wide angle selfie with the audience, the result looked good, but in the same way that you look weird taking a selfie, you look weird taking a selfie and moving it left and right to get more things in the picture.
The S Pen is the other thing to be pretty majorly overhauled here at IFA with the Note 4, it's doubled its pressure sensitivity to 2048 levels of pressure, ass opposed to the 1024 from the Note 3, it's a tab thinner, and the colour of the S Pen is the same as the colour of your Note 4, so Pink Note 4, Pink S Pen, Multi-window has been changed pretty drastically, no longer called up from a tap and hold of the back button, Multi-windows can be done completely via S Pen now, so you no longer break the flow of what you are doing, you can now close apps into little chat head type bubbles and move them around, though I'd never use them, they seem to be legitimate improvements. Speaking of things I'd never use, the fingerprint scanner in all of its awkward swipe-ness is here and so if the heart rate monitor round back under the camera, they're the same as before, and i honestly dont have a lot to say on either of them.
Android 4.4.4 with the latest version of Touchwiz is on the Note 4, and one subtle but awesome change for me is the multi-tasking menu, whereas Samsung changed it for changes sake on the S5, taking the standard task switcher and basically adding borders before, Samsung has essentially aped the Android L task switcher for the Note 4 and it looks every bit as awesome as it does on L, I'm not a fan of pretty much anything Samsung does with their UI, but the task switcher is something i dearly miss going from the L preview back to Kit Kat.
No price, but its coming to every Carrier in North America, and I'm guessing its going everywhere the Note 3 did and more, so expect to see these, well everywhere
Galaxy Note...Edge?
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| Image credit goes to GSMArena.com and their Note Edge hands on |
The Galaxy Note Edge is a bit of a weird one, Take the Galaxy Note 4, that absolute monster that samsung just announced, now take a blow torch to the right side of the screen, now melt it half way, and you've got the edge, yes, Samsung finally is going to ship one of the crazy things they showed off at CES in like 2012.
Yes, the Note Edge utilises one of Samsung's Youm flexible displays, its a 2560x1600 display, but the "main display" e.g the flat bit stops at 1440 pixels wide, so the last 160 pixels is where the screen curves off the edge, effectively making the Note Edge have the same usable screen real estate at the 5.7" 2560x1440p Note 4.
Apart from the curve on the screen, which has some nifty software to let you use it when the rest of the screen is off, for a news ticker, or as an alarm clock, and in some apps the I chrome moves to the curve so you can use the full display for the important stuff, this is most apparent in the camera application where all the controls are off on the curve instead of being overlaid on the screen viewfinder.
No pricing details yet, but very surprisingly we know where (at least in north America) it's being released, on all 4 nationwide carriers, so AT&T,T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint are all getting the Note 4 and the Note Edge.
Gear S
 |
| Image Credit goes to Samsung from the Samsung News site |
The Gear S by Samsung is everything no-one asked for, It's another Tizen powered Smart watch, that pairs with Samsung phones only and its just bloody massive, a 2" Curved Super AMOLED display at 360x480 that looks ridiculous on the wrists of men I've seen it on and it looks like futuristic handcuffs on the women I've seen it on, there is also a keyboard, oh yes, a keyboard on your 2" screen on your wrist, because everyone needs that, the keyboard is in an exclusive partnership with Fleksy which has some pretty amazing prediction algorithms.
It's a Dual-Core system, but they aren't naming who makes the SoC (though it's probably an in house Exynos 3 Dual or something), 512mb of RAM and 4GB of local storage, and the pretty amazing part about all this? there is a cellular radio in there, yes! you can turn the bloody watch over and slip in your SIM card, because why not, you re already replying to Emails and texts from your wrist, why not add in a radio and a mic and take calls as well,at least there is no camera this time. Heart rate sensor is still on the back just with the Gear 2,Gear 2 Neo, Gear Fit, Gear Live and Gear PleaseGiveMeANewName , it also seems to use the same terrible charging mechanism that has literally broken Gear Lives and Gear 2's , so there is that to look forward to.
They also announced the Gear Circle, which unlike its name suggests ,is not a circular Gear Smart watch, its a freaking bluetooth headset that wraps around the neck into a circle, kinda like the LG tones, the "brains" of the system wrap around the back of the neck and the two ear buds have magnets in the tops that clasp together at the front of the neck.
And all of this begs the question, who looks stupider, people that wear LG tones or people that will wear Gear Circles?
No price or release date, and I'm honestly not sure why Samsung even made this.
Gear VR
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you done? Good
It only works with the Note 4, not the Note Edge, not the Note 3, not the Galaxy Alpha, not the Galaxy S5, it only bloody works with one of their phones, no no no no no, it only works with one of their phones, whilst i can kind of understand Samsung locking you into their phones with their smart watches, locking you into a single model for their VR unit is stupid to me, a VR headset is a niche product to begin with, and as big as the note line is, i still see far more Galaxy S's and iPhones than i see Notes, so you're creating an even smaller user base, what do you reckon is the percentage of people who buy Galaxy Notes and Also want a VR headset powered by their phone are? i cant imagine its very large.
There is a good thing about the Gear VR though, it's made in collaboration with Oculus, the people behind the Rift,and people love the rift, a major difference between the two? the oculus rift is tethered to your computer in many many ways, for power and for feeding the signal through to do whatever you want to do, whether that's play a game or watch a film, the Gear VR is a standalone product, you slot your New Note 4 into the housing and shove it on your head,that's it, another thing the Gear VR has over the Rift DK2 is the screen, for a long time Oculus has been saying we need higher resolution (preferably OLED displays) for VR for low latency and little to no pixelation, and although the 1080p S-AMOLED panel in the DK2 in pretty amazing (it's also quite literally a Note Display underneath) the 1440p S-AMOLED screen in the Note 4 is way better, smaller pixels so its more immersive, a higher refresh rate so less motion blur, QHD (or maybe even 4K) is whats needed for VR not to suck, we'll see how well the Gear VR does when people actually get their hands on it, but so far, the first impressions are positive.
There is a Bluetooth touch pad on the side of the Gear VR and a back and home button as well, on top is a focus ring for the lenses, a resizable head strap is there and that's it, Samsung/Oculus made the Note 4 a special "VR Mode" to go into when it's docked which is cool, but only time will tell if this will be a successful product.
As you have probably guessed by now, no pricing or release date info but we will know soon enough.
And last but not least... Swarovski?
Your eyes aren't deceiving you, i wrote Swarovski, the crystal company, yes Samsung literally excretes so much money they decided they can offer Swarovski backs for the Note 4 and a Swarovski encrusted Gear S, both are as gaudy and tacky as they sound, but here are photos of both so you can make an informed decision.
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| Image Credit goes to Phone Arena |
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| Image credit goes to Dan Siefert from the Verge |
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