The unsung heroes of IFA 2014

ou can pretty much pick out the likely star products at IFA well before the first banner has been hung in

Berlin - a Z phone from Sony, check, a Note from Samsung, check.

But sometimes the really interesting products aren't the ones given whole sections of the big players' stands, but phones, gadgets and accessories that take a back seat.

TechRadar's time at IFA 2014 has been enlivened this time around by some of these very products, so without further ado, here are our favourite unsung heroes from IFA 2014.

Nokia Lumia 735

Yes, you have read that right: we have put a Nokia phone as one of the unsung heroes of IFA 2014.

The Nokia Lumia 735 is tailored to be the ultimate selfie phone, appealing to a more youthful demographic - it's a cheap and cheerful phone offering that even lets you enhance your mug shots with some effects and enhancements. And you can use the rear camera as well, providing a countdown beeper to help you time your shot.

It also comes with the new OS update Lumia Denim, a 720p display, a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and a 2220mAh battery. In short: there is enough here to entice you away from other affordable options.

Moto Hint

Hidden somewhat behind the Moto 360 hype was the Moto Hint, a wireless Bluetooth ear bud that's been designed to let you talk to your Moto phone.

Given that we have never been seen to utter anything to our phone outside of reviewing it, something that makes the process a little less mortifying is certainly a nice idea.

The Hint sits prettily in a charging dock thing when it's not in your ear and certainly does not look like you've wadded your ear with slightly dodgy coloured cotton wool to block out your other half's snores and forgotten to take it out in the morning. Which is a bonus.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha

It's no surprise that the Note 4 stole all the plaudits at IFA 2014, but spare a thought for the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, which absolutely rocked our world with its design and functionality.

Marc Chacksfield got his hands on the device in Berlin and he was positively lavish with his praise.

"I was smitten by its look and feel. The entire design of the handset is punctuated by premium," he said.

"If you can forgive its screen shortcomings and the lack of expandable memory, what you are left with is a beautifully designed phone that is up there with the likes of the HTC One (M8) and the iPhone 5S.

"It's a handset that proves Samsung is pushing the boat out when it comes to style."

Huawei Ascend Mate 7

Given how impressed we were with the OnePlus One, there's no reason at all that more Chinese manufacturers can come to the fore and provide us with some lower-price competition to the big players.

And Huawei looks to have done just that with the sizeable Ascend Mate 7, competing with the Galaxy Note 4 for the market formerly knows as 'phablet'.

TechRadar phone guru John McCann explained in his Hands on: Huawei Ascend Mate 7 review: "It looks and feels like a surprisingly accomplished handset, and at it's attractive price point it can really give the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 a run for its money.

Philips Spotify Connect wireless speakers

We're all big fans of Sonos, but it's not necessarily the best option for those people on a budget, so we were delighted to see the ever-reliable Philips putting its stamp on this corner of the market with the Philips Spotify Connect wireless speakers.

The Philips SW700M (priced at about £100) and SW750M (c.£150) are two lounge-friendly wireless speakers, offering some of the cheapest ways to ditch the cables in your audio setup.

As the name suggests they let Spotify subscribers stream away to their heart's content - and might well prove to be an attractive option.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active

Yes, it may be built for the outdoor workplace but the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active is sure to rope in other demographs as well. It is the slimmest ruggedised tablet on the market by some margin and can withstand pretty much anything you throw at it.

It comes complete with its own S Pen-like stylus, the C Pen, and it is the first of Samsung's tablets to come with a replaceable battery. Samsung has been consulting with a number of Fortune 500 companies to make sure this device is up to their outdoor needs so it is definitely one of the more interesting tablets around. 

Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/the-unsung-heroes-of-ifa-2014-1264455

Samsung grows bolder in latest Galaxy Note 4 teaser video

We’re just days away from Samsung’s Unpacked IFA event, where the Note 4 will take the stage to reveal itself before the waiting public. And to help make sure the crowd is suitably pumped-up, Samsung’s been dropping Note 4 teaser video after Note 4 teaser video, going back more than a week now. At first they were very non-specific, just conjuring up memories of the Note line in general, but then the next wave of clips started mentioning the Note 4 by name. Yesterday, Samsung did one better, and in another stylus-focused video, depicts its iconic S Pen sliding into what we can only assume is the new Note 4.

Unfortunately, this is just a silhouette of the phone (not unlike the images Sony’s been using for its own teasers), so there’s precious little to actually see here – and we’re not about to go counting pixels and working out dimensions.

It’s not without information, though, and suggests we’ll be seeing a S Pen that’s largely unchanged from the Note 3′s. That’s relevant for us now, as we spotted a very Note-3-looking S Pen in a recent video hands-on purporting to show a (lunchboxed) Note 4; should we be taking this as corroborating evidence?

Maybe, maybe not. The fact of the matter is, this is a marketing video, and while it’s noteworthy (no pun intended) to see Samsung get more comfortable making references to the Note 4 in the days leading up to the launch, we wouldn’t necessarily expect to confirm many technical details in still-quite-vague teasers like this one.

In a separate rumor, we hear a little about a possible retail date for the Note 4, suggesting that sales could begin as soon as this Saturday, September 6.

Source: Samsung (YouTube), TK Tech News
Via: BGR

Galaxy Note 4 Launch: Is Samsung Stumped for Innovation?

In the Samsung Unpacked 2014 event on Wednesday at IFA, Samsung announced its new flagship productsleft many people were unimpressed with the announcements. In fact, a number of the announcements from Samsung seem 'inspired' by the competition - and some, in fact, are made by a third party - which will give ammunition to people who see Samsung as lacking a unique vision of its own.

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Going beyond the cringe inducing presentation that had overtones of misogyny casually thrown in, the actual product themselves were largely uninteresting. The creation of the Note family, and the subsequent rise of the phablet category is something that Samsung can genuinely take credit for - something that the company kept reminding us repeatedly during the event - but it's been a long time since the original Samsung Galaxy Note was launched.

With the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung has ceded the chance to innovate and build something new that people would actually want to use - what we get instead is a change that serves to show off the technical prowess of the company, instead of looking at what users want or need.

In the past too, people have raised this point when talking about Samsung. The company has brought in so many "innovative" features in the past - remember the song and dance about Smart Scroll and Smart Pause at the Galaxy S4 launch? We don't hear much about them these days and we fear many of the features announced on Wednesday will experience the same fate.

The two new Notes are essentially the same phone, but the Edge includes a curve along the right edge, as a scrollable panel for information, notifications, and utilities. Samsung already explored curved screens with the Galaxy Round, which it had released last year. Reviews at the time pointed out that this innovation was hardly transformative of the way we use smartphones, and the fact that Samsung has released two variants of the Note suggests that the company also realises this fact.

Unfortunately, the other announcements from Samsung aren't exactly exciting either.
For one thing, in terms of design, the Note 4 has barely moved forward from the established style that Samsung has been using. This wouldn't be an issue if design wasn't one of the areas where Samsung has been hard pressed to stand out for a while now. The screen size remains the same as the Note 3, even though the display resolution has been bumped up significantly.
This increase in resolution will certainly help when the phone is used for VR, since each eye will see only around half the screen, but when it's taken as a whole, it seems like overkill - 5.7-inches is huge for a phone, but in absolute terms, that's still a pretty small display.
Then there's the question of "inspiration". Samsung has been accused of copying features from their competition in the past, and some of the things that were talked about on stage on Wednesday won't do much to dispel this belief.
Amongst the accessories shown at Unpacked, Samsung included something that the company is calling an LED cover - which shows information on the cover of the phone, letting you see things like the time, missed calls, incoming calls and some other notifications. That sounds really useful, and might be more familiar under the name HTC Dot View case.
Another thing that Samsung showed off was the panorama selfie mode, where you can stitch together multiple pictures from the front-facing camera to take group selfies. It's a really cool feature that will be fun to use - and Huawei got there first, when it launched the Huawei Ascend P7 earlier this year.
In fact, the coolest accessory shown on that stage was the one where Samsung's role was minimal - the Gear VR virtual reality headset. The Gear VR looks and works a lot like the Oculus Rift, but it uses an actual Galaxy Note 4 as the display, which also runs the games and other VR apps.
This is a genuinely cool idea, and one that Oculus and Samsung have been working together on for nearly 12 months now. The extremely high resolution of the Galaxy Note 4 makes perfect sense in this combination, as a 1440p screen basically means that each eye gets to see a HD image.
It uses the phone's processor and various sensors to carry out head tracking, though it can't be as accurate as the IR camera based approach being used in the Rift DK 2. What's really exciting about the Gear VR though is the software experience - it's our first look at what a polished Oculus interface could look like, and the results are exciting.
There's a VR store called Oculus Home, where you can discover, download and launch VR content. That means that users don't have to go back and forth between VR and a normal display to get to their content. Another really exciting feature is called Oculus Cinema, a virtual movie hall where you can play 2D or 3D movies, in a variety of theatre environments.
This is genuinely exciting stuff, and not just for gamers, but it just highlights the fact that the best part of Samsung's announcement was a product that was built in collaboration with another company. Whether the market rewards Samsung for its vision of going ahead with the partnership is another question altogether.
Yes, the Galaxy Note 4 itself comes with some interesting updates - the improvements to battery life and S-Pen the company talk about come to mind, even though they still need to be tested in the real world. The S-Pen is frankly the Note family's killer feature albeit one that is not well understood by its users. Most Note 3 users we polled informally admitted to rarely, if ever, using the stylus.
But what these improvements tell us is that Samsung is great at refining, and tweaking existing products. Coming up with something new, that people will be excited by and want to use, is a bigger challenge. The company is showing great technical prowess, but in an increasingly challenging landscape, is that enough to win the hearts and minds of consumers? Guess we'll find out when the new products hit the market.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 hands-on (Video)

The first day of IFA announcements is upon us, and Samsung really set the high bar with its Unpacked 2 event and the launch of its latest phablets. Of course, we just had to go hands-on with both of those beauties, and while we’ll get to the Galaxy Note Edge in just a moment, we’re starting things off with the latest flagship in Samsung’s phablet line, the Galaxy Note 4.

While the LTE-A Galaxy S5 may have beaten it to the punch, this is the first time a Samsung phone is debuting to a worldwide audience with a quad HD display. The 5.7-inch screen delivers a better-than-500-ppi pixel density, and with either a Snapdragon 805 or Exynos 5433 under the hood (with their respective Adreno 420 or Mali T760 GPUs), Samsung is giving this phablet the power to drive those nearly 3.7 million pixels.

The display is only scratching the surface of the Note 4′s improvements, and we check out the greatly enhanced S Pen sensitivity, the new design language with its Galaxy Alpha-looking edges, and how the custom Samsung software helps ties the whole experience together. Watch on to get our full take from our first Galaxy Note 4 impressions.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 specs

The day many of you (and us) have been waiting for has arrived. Samsung has finally unveiled its second flagship for 2014, the Galaxy Note 4 phablet. As it has historically done so in the past, the Unpacked event happened a tad earlier, before the official start of the International Radio Show in Berlin.

Those waiting to see a brand new design will be slightly disappointed, while those who preferred the looks of the Note 3 (and previous models), will be happy that there aren’t any major changes. You’ll have to check out the Galaxy Note Edge for that. However, we’re here to look at the internals Samsung packed inside the behemoth, so let’s check them out below!

 

Want more on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4? Check out our continuing coverage here!

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Design Tipped Ahead of Launch by Case Listing

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The design of Samsung's anticipated next-generation phablet flagship, the Galaxy Note 4, has been tipped again ahead of the launch. The South Korean giant is expected to unveil the device at its pre-IFA 2014 event on Wednesday, scheduled at 6:30pm IST.While the anticipated Galaxy Note 4 has been previously leaked in its full glory, now a case manufacturer has started taking orders on Amazon US (spotted by Tktechnews). Although the purported Galaxy Note 4 images don't reveal the complete design of the alleged smartphone, it notes that the cases will come 'in stock on October 30, 2014'.
While the date may also indicate retail availability of the Galaxy Note 4, it contradicts a previous report that citing a Samsung insider indicated the anticipated phablet will hit store shelves as early as September 15. The report noted that Samsung has notified its retail employees about the 'black-out periods for time-off ', from September 3 to 5 and September 15 to 28.
According to another report on Tuesday, a representative of European electronics retailer Media Markt said that the smartphone will go on sale in September or early October in Russia and will be priced at RUB 34,990 (approximately Rs. 56,700). Previously, the anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was listed at Indonesian retailer Erafone for IDR 9,499,000, which translates to roughly Rs. 50,000.
The retailer's listing had suggested that the anticipated Galaxy Note 4 will come in two variants - SM-N910S and SM-N910C, depending on region. The listing had mentioned a 2.5GHz quad-core processor (possibly the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805) variant and an octa-core processor (Exynos with 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 and four quad-core Cortex-A57 cores) variant.
Other purported Galaxy Note 4 specifications listed by Erafone include a Quad-HD (1440x2560 pixels) Super AMOLED display offering a pixel density of 515ppi on a 5.7-inch screen; 4GB of RAM; 16GB/ 32GB/ 64GB inbuilt storage variants; expandable storage up to 128GB (via microSD card); Micro-SIM support; 16-megapixel camera with OIS, and Android 4.4.3 KitKat.

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Two Samsung Galaxy Note Variants Now Fetched at a Discounted Price

Samsung formally reduced the prices of Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note3 Neo that they offer in India.

These two wonderful smartphones comes now with new price tags on their official Indian online store.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is now cheaper at a price of Rs. 40,698, down 15.19% from its original price of Rs. 47,990, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is now cheaper at Rs. 29,570, down 12.47% from its original price of Rs. 33,990.

The South Korean communications giant is enticing the new slashed priced for the Galaxy Note variants through advertisements in various newspapers and TV broadcast stations in India.

Last April, 2014, the Galaxy Note 3 Neo had received a price slash from Rs. 38,990 to Rs. 33,990. On the other end, Samsung unleashed the Galaxy Note 3 in India at an entry price of Rs. 49,900 last year and now comes with a reduced price. Galaxy Note 3 Neo was also put up on sale last January this year.

Samsung is popular for its habit of reducing the prices of its devices as Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini also received price cuts last May, 2014. Just a month ago, the company also lowered the price of its Gear Fit fitness band from Rs. 15,450 to Rs. 12,100.

Samsung, however, divulge that Galaxy S5 will not receive a price cut as what reports have said that Samsung Electronics has lowered the prices of its Galaxy S5 series. To date, Galaxy S5 still carries a price tag of Rs. 51,500.

Note that 1 USD = 60.9678 INR as of 8/3/2014.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus: We've updated our Galaxy Nexus review to reflect the Android 4.1

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus was the world's first phone to run Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich andAndroid 4.1: Jelly Bean. It's an upgrade that keeps it as relevant as ever and we've updated our review to reflect the changes.

now just under a year later it's the first phone to run

There are some gadgets in geek-world that are announced and we just could not wait to touch. The Nokia N95, the original iPhone, the T-Mobile G1 and Palm's first Pre.

The Galaxy Nexus fitted firmly in that category back when we first reviewed it and in many ways, coming back to it now, it still does.

The big selling point here is not so much the handset – it's what powers the Galaxy Nexus. With Android 4.0 Google redrew its Android OS in probably the biggest overhaul since it launched and the Galaxy Nexus was the flagship device for that OS.

Despite the fact that many handsets are still stuck with Android 2.3: Gingerbread, Google hasn't stood still and the result of their hard work is Android 4.1.

It's an evolution rather than a revolution, an attempt to refine what the company did with Android 4.0. But it's no less exciting for it and once again the Galaxy Nexus is Google's standard bearer, bringing smartphone users their first taste of the new OS.

On top of that, the specs include a fantastic Super AMOLED HD screen, dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 5MP camera and NFC support, to name a few.

The Nexus itself is fairly big, with dimensions of 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9mm, though it's actually slightly smaller than Samsung's flagship handset, the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Although it's slightly smaller it's also a little bit heavier at 135g compared to the latter's 133g. It doesn't feel enormous, really it's at the upper end of what we'd consider to be an ideal size for most users, but you can tell you are not using an iPhone 4S.

The front is probably as minimalist as you can get. It's all black and being built from the ground up as an Android 4.0 handset there are no buttons in sight.

In fact, all you have on the front is the screen, front facing camera and the brightness sensor, plus a cheeky little light beneath the screen that you don't even know exists until you get an email and it begins to pulsate.

The sides are fairly unremarkable with power/standby on the right along with three charging pins (for a dock accessory), volume on the left, nothing up top and the bottom housing the charge/sync socket and headphone jack.

The whole handset has a curved shape much like that on the Samsung Galaxy S3 but it's not too severe.

The rear takes its design cues from the Samsung Galaxy S2 with a snap on cover that feels slightly coarse to give a good grip. It has both Google and Samsung branding on it.

You won't find an SD slot on the outside, or indeed, the inside. Ridiculously, this – the flagship Google handset which is so set up as a media device – has been crippled by having NO expandable memory. Words fail us. And they may fail you when you realise that 16GB internal storage is your lot.

But the screen, when lit up, looks fantastic. It's 4.65-inches with a resolution of 720 x 1280, giving it a pixel density of 316ppi. It really is super sharp. We would have expected nothing less with Samsung's mobile displays among the best out there, but it's cracking for internet and video.

There is no doubt about it – this is a premium handset and is up there with the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of marketing position.

If you want one, there's good news: the price has dropped to just £21.50 per month on contract and £295 SIM free.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S: If you're after a tablet with an impossibly great screen... this is it

The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 are Samsung's latest flagship devices, built to show off the very best

of the company's hardware and software prowess.

They're designed as upgrades to the Tab Pros we saw earlier this year, with some spec bumps, a slightly evolved look and, of course, different screen sizes, just in case you were foolishly expecting Samsung to follow any kind of pattern as far as display dimensions are concerned.

• Buy Samsung Galaxy TAB S 10.5 WI-Fi+lte 16GB SM-T805NTSAITV Netbook at Amazon Germany for €509.00

Apart from the screen sizes there's very little difference between the Tab S models, so this review combines the two tablets into one. I'll talk primarily about the 8.4-inch model and include additional observations about the 10.5-inch version where necessary.

It's a brutal battle down at the budget end of the tablet market — one that Apple refuses to get involved in — but here we're very much at the premium end of the scale. The Galaxy Tab S devices have been built to go toe-to-toe with Apple's slates, a brave and perhaps foolhardy undertaking.

First impressions are good, though: these devices feel like they're made by a company that has perfected its art. Both models have a 2560 x 1600 pixel WQXGA Super AMOLED screen, which works out at 287 pixels-per-inch on the larger model and 360ppi on the smaller one.

The internals are identical, comprising 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera and 2.1MP front-facing camera. The Samsung Exynos 5 Octa CPU inside these tablets combines 1.9 and 1.3GHz quad-core processors with the faster taking over from the slower when required at the expense of some battery life.

Those are some eye-popping specs when you consider that the iPad Air gets by on a mere 1GB of RAM, for example, or that the 2013 Nexus 7 offers a resolution of just 323ppi on its 7-inch screen. There's much more to a device than raw specs of course, but on paper at least Samsung has produced a true champion.

The pricing of these slates matches Apple's iPad line. The Wi-Fi Tab S 8.4-inch will set you back £319 (US$399.99, AU$479.00) the same as the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad mini and the Wi-Fi Tab S 10.5-inch comes in at £399 (US$499.99, AU$599.00) the same as the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Air.

3G/4G versions of the tablets that can access mobile networks with a SIM card are also on the way, as are 32GB models.

Aside from the iPads and the Sony Xperia Tablet Z2,, the Galaxy Tab S doesn't have much competition. You could put it up against the likes of the Nexus 10 (though it's starting to show its age) but really with most other Android tablets going for less powerful innards and lower prices, Samsung has the premium end largely to itself. Has it produced an iPad rival that Android users can be proud of?

Key features

Samsung has never been one to shy away from packing in as many bells and whistles as it can, and the Tab S is no exception. Like the Galaxy S5, the tablet boasts a fingerprint scanner that you may or may not prefer to a PIN code.

It recognised my print every time, but because you need to swipe the home button rather than just put your finger on it, the process can be fiddly - especially the larger tablet, which meant some precise holding to make the function work.

Multi-faceted

There's a multi window feature for multi-tasking which works as advertised, letting you chat while browsing the web or control your music while poring over Google Maps and so on.

It's of more use on the larger tablet and at this stage multi-tasking on a tablet feels kind of superfluous — once you get a keyboard up on screen as well everything starts to get really cluttered.

You can run a selected number of apps side-by-side using Multi Window, if you really want to

Tablets are built for single-tasking and there doesn't seem to be any real need to try and turn them into fully fledged computers, but if you think you're going to find the feature useful then by all means power it up.

The way that Samsung has implemented it works fairly well and managing open windows and apps is straightforward. However, only the main native apps and a few extras such as Facebook and Evernote support it, so you can't go multi-tasking crazy.

Phone and tablet together

Another Samsung extra is SideSync, enabling you to link a phone with your tablet — you can then send and receive voice calls, transfer data, send texts and more.

Unfortunately, it only works with a few Samsung phones (the S5, the S4 and the Galaxy Note 3) which limits its appeal. Like Multi Window, it feels like a niche feature created just to show off rather than to meet any particular need, but to some it will be a great innovation.

You get some nice free gifts and bundled apps included with your purchase of a Tab S

There are 30 different gifts bundled with the Tab S, covering subscriptions to sites like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to an in-flight Wi-Fi deal with Gogo and a free game or two. 

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The Galaxy SIV is here - but does it pack enough of a punch?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is now over a year old and if you haven't heard it's been replaced in 2014 byGalaxy S5.

the Korean firm's latest flagship offering, the

Its replacement hasn't spelt the end for the Galaxy S4 however - it's still on sale, at a lower price point, and Samsung is continuing to churn out software updates for it.

The latest software upgrade arrived in the form of Android 4.4 KitKat and we're currently putting the Galaxy S4 back through its paces with the new software onboard. We'll be updating this review shortly with the latest findings.

One of the most impressive things about the phone was the fact the size hadn't changed from the Galaxy S3 - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), meaning there's no extra heft to try to work with in your palm.

• Here are some top tips and tricks to get you started on your Samsung Galaxy S4:

However, despite this fact, the screen on the S4 has been increased once more, to a 5-inch display with Full HD resolution. OK, so it's no longer a big deal when compared to the 5.5-inch QHD offering on the LG G3, but that doesn't mean it's not a greatly impressive screen.

The Galaxy S4 borrowed a lot from the other top smartphones. Both the Sony Xperia Z1 and the HTC One have screens that rock the same resolution, but neither of them have the jaw-dropping clout of the Super AMOLED HD screen on offer here.

On top of that, there's a much faster processor packed under the hood, ample storage space for media thanks to an expandable memory card slot, and the likes of 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and pretty much any other connection you care to mention on board.

Samsung has tried to supplement this with a tranche of software upgrades too, meaning a more powerful camera, a better way to communicate with your friends and consume media, and interestingly a big push into health through dedicated apps too.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has unsurprisingly dropped in price on contract and it can be had around £23 per month, which isn't too bad for a handset which is still pretty well specced.

It can also be had for just £380 SIM-free at Carphone Warehouse, while if you fancy a PAYG deal EE is offering the Galaxy S4 for £339.99, which makes it a decent proposition... and it's much cheaper than the equivalent 16GB iPhone 5C too.

But before we dissect all the possibilities the phone has to offer, let's look at the design. As we mentioned, it's impressive in its form factor, thanks to the sub-8mm thickness, and at 130g it manages to still be light without shaving off so much heft that you feel like you've got a flimsy piece of plastic.

That's probably the biggest compliment we can pay the Samsung Galaxy S4 - where its predecessor felt a little bit cheap in the hand, the S4 manages to bring a much more solid build and better construction to boot.

So while the "faux metal" band makes a comeback on this model, it looks a lot more premium. And there's very little flex in the chassis when you hold it tightly, which was another problem with the Galaxy S3 at times.

It can get dented very easily though, and be careful not to crack your screen if you do so - we've heard of a few instances where this has happened to S4 users, although that can be said of many other polycabonate smartphones.

That doesn't mean that the phone is completely remodelled from the S3 - it's very similar in appearance, so much so that a number of people asking to see it during our review thought we were palming them off with our old S3. The polycarbonate chassis remains, but that brings with it the faithful battery cover, which conceals a removable battery and microSD slot.

We're not so fussed about the battery being able to drop out of the phone - so few people carry around a spare battery, and nowadays portable charging blocks are becoming so cheap and light that they make much more sense too.

We'd almost prefer something like the Sony Xperia Z1, which has a refined and packaged chassis but doesn't need a removable battery: it makes use of a slot instead for the memory card. This integrated nature would make for a slightly more premium feel to the phone.

However, it's a small gripe with the S4, as while the cover feels flimsy, it's better than it was on the S2 and the S3, and they both sold like hot cakes.

In the hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 feels much better than any other Samsung phone we've held (apart from the gargantuan smartphones the brand used to make - the i8910 Omnia HD might have been built like a brick, but it felt wonderful to hold). The screen's spread towards the sides of the phone means a much narrower bezel, and the effect is certainly impressive.

It might look very similar to the S3, but when you take the Samsung Galaxy S4 up close, you really start to appreciate the nuances.

We'd say it feels a lot more like the LG Optimus G range now - when we first picked it up, we were struck with how similar it felt in terms of sturdiness and the polycarbonate construction to the LG Optimus G Pro.

It's since been mimicked once more by the LG G2, which is a real competitor to this handset - it's got the same uglier plastic case, but much improved innards at the same price.

That's no criticism, as the device is well built, but it has a similar rounded feel. This is intriguing given the history of the two companies, and shows more of a leaning towards the plastic shell from the Asian brands in general.

Buttonry has barely changed from before - the power button has been shifted slightly on the right-hand side, and is now much easier to hit. Samsung has clearly taken some lessons from the Galaxy Note 2, which has a really well positioned power/lock button.

The volume key is less easy to hit, and could be lower down in our eyes, but the travel on both of these buttons is satisfying, and you'll always know when you've hit them.

The plastic used on the home key has been upgraded too, with a more solid feel under the thumb when you press down to get back to the main home screen. The two buttons flanking it give you access to menus or take you back from whence you came, and while both are easily hidden, they light up nicely with an even glow when called into action.

There are loads of sensors on the front of the phone above the screen, including cameras to track your eyes, a 2MP camera for HD video calling and a proximity sensor for knowing where the phone is in relation to your ear. On the white review unit we had, their presence looks rather ugly either side of the generous earpiece, but on the darker models this is less of an issue.

The other notable addition to the design of the Galaxy S4 is the infra red blaster on the top of the phone. This enables you to control your TV, satellite box, DVD player, amp and even air conditioner. Again, this isn't a new feature, but it works well in practice, and despite being small is powerful enough indeed.

Other than that, there's not a lot more to say about the design of the phone, as it's just a little underwhelming. We know it's unfair to lambast a brand for not overhauling the design every year, but in the One X and the One, HTC has proven that it is possible to offer up a new design each time around and still keep things attractive.

Looking so similar to the Galaxy S3, you can't help but feel Samsung has gone a little too Apple and created something more in keeping with the Samsung Galaxy S3S - a minor update to a great phone to keep those coming out of contract happy that they have a premium phone to upgrade to.

We do implore you to get the phone in your hand before making a judgement though - while it's not got the best design on the market when it comes to materials, it's a big step forward compared to the Galaxy S3 and allows for a grippy and easy-to-hold phone, with a whopping screen inside.

It still feels cheap as chips compared to the iPhone 5S and HTC One though.

But to just dismiss it for being plastic would be doing the S4 a disservice as it has so much more going for it than that, but it's worth remembering that to a lot of people, the way a phone looks is as important as how much RAM it's got on board and how fast the CPU is - if not more so.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S: If you're after a tablet with an impossibly great screen... this is it

The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 are Samsung's latest flagship devices, built to show off the very best of the

company's hardware and software prowess.

They're designed as upgrades to the Tab Pros we saw earlier this year, with some spec bumps, a slightly evolved look and, of course, different screen sizes, just in case you were foolishly expecting Samsung to follow any kind of pattern as far as display dimensions are concerned.

Apart from the screen sizes there's very little difference between the Tab S models, so this review combines the two tablets into one. I'll talk primarily about the 8.4-inch model and include additional observations about the 10.5-inch version where necessary.

It's a brutal battle down at the budget end of the tablet market — one that Apple refuses to get involved in — but here we're very much at the premium end of the scale. The Galaxy Tab S devices have been built to go toe-to-toe with Apple's slates, a brave and perhaps foolhardy undertaking.

First impressions are good, though: these devices feel like they're made by a company that has perfected its art. Both models have a 2560 x 1600 pixel WQXGA Super AMOLED screen, which works out at 287 pixels-per-inch on the larger model and 360ppi on the smaller one.

The internals are identical, comprising 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera and 2.1MP front-facing camera. The Samsung Exynos 5 Octa CPU inside these tablets combines 1.9 and 1.3GHz quad-core processors with the faster taking over from the slower when required at the expense of some battery life.

Those are some eye-popping specs when you consider that the iPad Air gets by on a mere 1GB of RAM, for example, or that the 2013 Nexus 7 offers a resolution of just 323ppi on its 7-inch screen. There's much more to a device than raw specs of course, but on paper at least Samsung has produced a true champion.

The pricing of these slates matches Apple's iPad line. The Wi-Fi Tab S 8.4-inch will set you back £319 (US$399.99, AU$479.00) the same as the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad mini and the Wi-Fi Tab S 10.5-inch comes in at £399 (US$499.99, AU$599.00) the same as the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Air.

3G/4G versions of the tablets that can access mobile networks with a SIM card are also on the way, as are 32GB models.

Aside from the iPads and the Sony Xperia Tablet Z2,, the Galaxy Tab S doesn't have much competition. You could put it up against the likes of the Nexus 10 (though it's starting to show its age) but really with most other Android tablets going for less powerful innards and lower prices, Samsung has the premium end largely to itself. Has it produced an iPad rival that Android users can be proud of?

Key features

Samsung has never been one to shy away from packing in as many bells and whistles as it can, and the Tab S is no exception. Like the Galaxy S5, the tablet boasts a fingerprint scanner that you may or may not prefer to a PIN code.

It recognised my print every time, but because you need to swipe the home button rather than just put your finger on it, the process can be fiddly - especially the larger tablet, which meant some precise holding to make the function work.

Multi-faceted

There's a multi window feature for multi-tasking which works as advertised, letting you chat while browsing the web or control your music while poring over Google Maps and so on.

It's of more use on the larger tablet and at this stage multi-tasking on a tablet feels kind of superfluous — once you get a keyboard up on screen as well everything starts to get really cluttered.

You can run a selected number of apps side-by-side using Multi Window, if you really want to

Tablets are built for single-tasking and there doesn't seem to be any real need to try and turn them into fully fledged computers, but if you think you're going to find the feature useful then by all means power it up.

The way that Samsung has implemented it works fairly well and managing open windows and apps is straightforward. However, only the main native apps and a few extras such as Facebook and Evernote support it, so you can't go multi-tasking crazy.

Phone and tablet together

Another Samsung extra is SideSync, enabling you to link a phone with your tablet — you can then send and receive voice calls, transfer data, send texts and more.

Unfortunately, it only works with a few Samsung phones (the S5, the S4 and the Galaxy Note 3) which limits its appeal. Like Multi Window, it feels like a niche feature created just to show off rather than to meet any particular need, but to some it will be a great innovation.

You get some nice free gifts and bundled apps included with your purchase of a Tab S

There are 30 different gifts bundled with the Tab S, covering subscriptions to sites like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to an in-flight Wi-Fi deal with Gogo and a free game or two.

None of them are particularly life-changing but they might sweeten the deal if you're sitting on the fence about picking up one of these tablets.

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Hot new Galaxy Note 4 teased by Samsung in these four new videos

With the Galaxy S5 having been something of a dud for Samsung, its upcoming new phablet launch couldn’t even Apple can’t ignore it anymore, and Samsung’s top spot in the phablet world is at risk for the first time. Apple is expected to launch a brand new iPhone with a 5.5-inch display at some point before the holidays this year, leaving Samsung precious little time to spread the word about its next-generation Note-series phone, which is set to be unveiled next week during a press conference.

possibly be more important. The supersized smartphone space is now heating up to the point where

Samsung has teased its new Galaxy Note 4 several times in the lead-up to next week’s event, and now the company has released four new video teasers to get smartphone fans excited for the upcoming big reveal.

FROM EARLIER: Samsung shows off Galaxy Note 4’s not-so-secret weapon in new teaser video

Following a few less obvious teasers, Samsung’s newly uploaded YouTube videos actually mention the Note 4 by name, just to ensure that there’s no confusion.

The videos focus on people who currently use the Galaxy Note 3 for business and pleasure, walking through the various functions made easier by the phablet’s large display and S Pen stylus. Then, the people find out that the Note 4 is on the way and, needless to say, they get rather excited.

All of Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 4 teaser videos are embedded below.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.4 (SM-T807T) for T-Mobile Gets Certification From FCC

Launched a while ago, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is definitely a great tablet that not only offers a great slim design, but also high-end specs like the Quad HD display. Today, we find that the 4G LTE version designed for the American operator T-Mobile received certification from FCC. As you may noticed, right here on GSMDome we reviewed the 8.4-inch model of this great tablet.

We expect that in the package to get the same exact specs like the 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 2.560 x 1.600 pixel resolution, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz, an Adreno 330 GPU, 3 GB of RAM memory, 16 or 32 GB of storage, and a microSD card slot up to 128 GB.

Even if the specs looks more than good, a few weeks ago some users encountered problems with the deformation of the back cover, a problem caused by overheating. So if you’re going to buy such a tablet keep up in mind that some models can arrive with the back panel defective from factory.

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