Hitechnex: Phablets

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Meet Samsung's luxurious Galaxy Note 3, the sleekest blend of style and do-it-all features on the always-crowded smartphone market.</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (left) and Galaxy Gear work together to make the stylus and ‘smartwatch’ cool.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Styluses and watches weren't supposed to be "cool." Until now.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Meet Samsung's luxurious Galaxy Note 3, the sleekest blend of style and do-it-all features on the always-crowded smartphone market. Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 was my favorite smartphone of 2012, the only device I wanted to use more than that old reliable iPhone. In 2013, Samsung somehow makes things even better, yielding an absolutely splendid device.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">It's all about innovation. In recent years, Samsung has been at its best when it's delivered unique devices (think the Note 2 and last year's Galaxy Camera) instead of merely following a crowd focused on battery power (yawn) and "thin and light" (sigh). So this time around, it focuses more on its S Pen stylus and crafts an optional Galaxy Gear, a completely pointless (yet totally cool) watch accessory, just for good measure.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The resulting smartphone is the best Android device this year, even if you don't shell out the exorbitant $299 extra for the Gear.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">At a whopping six inches long, the Note 3 is far larger than even oversized devices such as the HTC One and Droid Maxx, but it never feels that way, still fitting easily into my jeans' back pocket. Samsung uses the real estate well, too, delivering a beautiful 5.7-inch full-HD display that makes movies and games look fantastic.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The Note 3 never feels or looks clunky, either. Samsung smartly ditches the cheap-feeling plastic back of this year's Galaxy S4, giving you a faux-leather back on the Note 3. No, it's not real (it's plastic, too), but, combined with the silver etching around the border, it adds a slight elegance to this phone. The grip and resistance against fingerprints help, too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The guts of this phone are impressive. A 2.3-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor runs Android Jelly Bean (sorry, not KitKat), and there's a solid 3 GB of RAM. In practice, that means swift handling of everyday processes and easy Web browsing. The Snapdragon is so powerful it lets you balance two apps at once via Advanced Multi Window, a setup that's perfect on this oversized phone.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">RELATED: REVIEW: SAMSUNG GALAXY S 4</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The Snapdragon allows the Note 3 to run games easily, too. That last bit is especially worth noting when you consider the size of the Note 3. As a handheld gaming device with on-screen controls, it feels natural.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Not that Samsung intended this to be a gaming machine. The focus here is on productivity. To that end, there's a solid 13 megapixel camera. Like the S4, the Note 3 cam is loaded with software features and it functions well.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">And then there's the S Pen, and this is truly the game changer. I fell in love with the S Pen last year and I haven't killed trees with awful reporter paper waste since. And this year's pen is even more appealing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The S Pen itself is slick and responsive once you remove it from its unnoticeable slot on the bottom right side of the Note 3. Removing it from this slot instantly brings up a menu of stylus-compatible apps for use.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">You can easily take notes with S Note or you can give Action Memo a try. This app converts your handwriting into texts or emails or contacts, and while it struggled to translate my reporter chicken scratch, in the right hands, it is a powerful, easy-to-use tool. The S Pen, meanwhile, is so easy to use that this phone is easy to recommend to students or reporters or anyone who takes plenty of notes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">It's a shame that Samsung's user interface isn't quite that good. This used to be my favorite Android UI, but it takes slight steps backwards here. On the positive side, the WatchON app, designed to let you control your TV via the Note 3's IR blaster, is brilliant and easy to set up, and it finally smoothly integrates AV receivers. The Note 3 also incorporates a numerical row of keys on its onscreen keyboard, a smart use of its real estate when you are texting.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">But the drop-down menu has gotten overcrowded and, especially if you use WatchON, and there are so many apps that it is easy to lose track of things. It is good to give users options, but stuffing all of them onto the easy-access drop-down is overwhelming. You will want to tweak this early on. Air Gestures, which lets you command the phone without actually touching it, are needless and the eye-tracking capabilities are as useless here as they were on the S4.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">RELATED: REVIEW: SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 ACTIVE SMARTPHONE</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Still, all that stuff is customizable, so it is more annoyance than anything on a tremendous phone. At $299 on contract, the Note 3 is the class of premium smartphones, a dynamic performer, and it only gets better if you add the Galaxy Gear, too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">To be clear, you don't need a Gear because this device is completely unnecessary. But anyone who has ever wanted to feel like a secret agent or Michael Knight from "Knight Rider" will have a blast with this smartwatch, which links easily to your Note 3 via Bluetooth and stays connected. You can take calls from the Gear and you can take pictures using the Gear's camera (yes, slightly creepy), and eventually, you will be able to add other apps to the Gear.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">It's a fun little add-on for those with a little extra income, although it's not quite there yet. The Gear takes calls easily and fluidly (and there's nothing quite like a bystander watching you talk to your watch), and the camera takes surprisingly solid shots. The Bluetooth pairing with your Note 3 is easy, too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">But at the moment $299 is just too much to pay for a device that doesn't have a full library of apps just yet. If you could, say, read your Twitter feed and text messages from your watch, that would be cool, and it would help eliminate the need to constantly pull out your oversized cellphone all the time. But as of this printing, there are no reliable apps that do that.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">The Gear, therefore, is an extraneous gadget that's cool but not necessarily worth the cash — but you can't fault Samsung for giving it a try. It's innovative and different, and it'll strike a chord with at least a few people who have the extra income, which is increasingly becoming Samsung's way. Just look at the newly released Galaxy S4 Zoom phone, or the company's expanding line of tablets.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">It's nice to see a company truly innovating, trying to develop interesting tech instead of simply copying and restyling the features that have been on the market for years. It's nice to see something different and unique.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">And it's nice to use the Note 3, the finest Android smartphone to date.</span></span><br />
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Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear

Meet Samsung's luxurious Galaxy Note 3, the sleekest blend of style and do-it-all features on the always-crowded smartphone market. ...

Nokia launches its first phablet and a budget Lumia phone from Rs 7,500 to Rs 46,900

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<span style="font-size: 20px;">N</span>okia has expanded the range of its smartphones with the launch of two new devices - Lumia 1320 and Lumia 525.</div>
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The six-inch 1320 phablet is priced at Rs 23,999 and will be available from January 13, while the four-inch 525 would cost Rs 10,399 and is available is the market.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">T</span>he 1320 features 1GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory (expandable up to 64GB) capacity as well as seven GB SkyDrive cloud storage.</div>
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It is powered by a 1.7Ghz dual core processor and has a 5-megapixel (MP) back camera, 0.3 MP front camera.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">T</span>he 1320’s comes packed with a 3400 mAh battery that offers 25 hours of talk time on 2G and on 3G the user gets about 21 hours talk times.</div>
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Though the phone comes with expandable memory, the battery is non-removable.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">T</span>he 525 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core 1 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM.</div>
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The phone has a 5MP rear camera  and 8GB internal memory.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">I</span>t comes packed with a 1430 mAh battery that delivers 16.9 hours talk time on 2G and 10.6 hours talk time on 3G.</div>
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He budget smartphone also features sensors such as ambient light sensor, accelerometer and proximity sensor.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">N</span>okia has partnered with Gameloft to offer premium games worth Rs 2,025 free.</div>
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Nokia India Director (Marketing) Viral Oza said the 525 can run apps like Instagram and Spartan Assault, and gives a "clear signal that Nokia delivers a better smartphone experience at every price point".</div>
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Nokia also announced that all new Nokia Lumia devices purchased till January 31 will get free 20GB Skydrive storage for a year by registering themselves on Nokia website.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">O</span>za also said that “By 2013-end, we had 14 devices in our Lumia portfolio, of which 10 were launch in the same year. These two new devices are an integral addition to our Windows Phone portfolio.”</div>
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These models will bring the smartphone experience at a more affordable prices, he added. Currently, the Lumia range is priced from Rs 7,500 to Rs 46,900.</div>
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Nokia launches its first phablet and a budget Lumia phone from Rs 7,500 to Rs 46,900

N okia has expanded the range of its smartphones with the launch of two new devices - Lumia 1320 and Lumia 525. The six-inch 1320 phab...

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear

Nokia launches its first phablet and a budget Lumia phone from Rs 7,500 to Rs 46,900

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