Best of CES 2014

SAMSUNG

Samsung had a number of gadgets for us at its press conference, but the ones that truly grabbed the attention were the new PRO tablets. 

Available in screen sizes from 8.4 to 12.2 inches, the new slates are versatile and powerful enough to be used for serious work and entertainment purposes alike. Learn more about them below!

“We created the Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO series to kick-off a year in which Samsung truly establishes its leadership in the tablet market,” said JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Division, Samsung Electronics. “This new line offers the best-in-class content consumption and productivity, combining a stunning viewing experience with Samsung’s design legacy. The Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO truly demonstrate our commitment to providing our customers with extraordinarily versatile product offerings, tailored to tablet users of every description.”

That's quite a statement, yet even we can't offer much in the way of disagreement – these new slates pack some pretty awesome specs and are truly diverse in their appeal, as they offer just about every form factor. As you've probably guessed, these come in three sizes: 8.4-inches, 10.1-inches and the downright giant 12.2-inches, and yet here's the best part: practically everything about the internals is identical, with the exception of the amount of memory on board, the battery's capacity, weight and dimensions. That's great, seeing as all 4G LTE variations of the trio are packing Qualcomm's 2.3GHz bin of its mighty quad-core Snapdragon 800, while the Wi-Fi+3G models pack Samsung's promising Exynos 5420 chipset. That latter one runs ARM's big.LITTLE configuration.

Meaning that four powerful 1.9GHz Cortex-A15 cores are working alongside a cluster of four, more frugal 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 ones that take care of the mundane, background tasks, all the while conserving power. Best of all, Samsung has long promised that a future software update will make it possible for the octa-core chipset to utilize all of its cores at once, should those ever be required. Moreover, a healthy 2GB of RAM is being made available for the smaller, TabPRO 8.4 and TabPRO 10.1 slates, while the TabPRO 12.2 packs the still rare 3GB of RAM.

Asus

Asus had a lot to grab our attention with at its media event. Three new smartphones were made official along with a new Padfone mini model and the Padfone X for AT&T. An awesome Windows/Android convertible was also announced and you can learn more about it in the description

1) ASUS Transformer Book (4 in ONE) - detachable combo with Windows 8.1 and Android

ASUS just blew the serious computing doors open at CES with the announcement of the Transformer Book Duet TD300. Dubbed as the "world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet convertible," it lets you alternate between Windows 8.1 and Android 4.2 with a push of the dedicated Instant Switch button.

The detachable tablet part sports a 13.3-inch Full HD display, and up to an Intel Core i7 processor, as well as 4GB DDR3L 1600 RAM, and up to 128 GB SSD. The dock can add up to 1TB of storage more via a HDD, and it features most of the ports - 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, HDMI 1.4, audio combo jack, and a DC jack, while the tablet part sports a Micro SD card, headphone jack and a DC jack only. The 38WHr battery, estimated battery life around 5 hours in Windows 8.1 and 6 hours in Android 4.2.2. In addition, we get 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR connectivity.

The Transformer Book Duet is a pretty cool concept, which, however, comes a tad thick and heavy, with the tablet half measuring 342.7 x 216.3 x 12.9 mm, while the dock adds 340.9 x 217.6 x 16 mm, and the whole contraption together weighs around 1.9 kg, which is not the best achievement out there. Availability for the intriguing dual-OS convertible of ASUS will be announced at a later date, but the price is known, and it starts off at the very reasonable $599 level.

2) Padphone Mini 

Asus is giving a serious boost to its PadFone family of products this year, with not one but two new successors to the original concept. Dubbed the PadFone mini, the smartphone-that-becomes-a-tablet is hopping onto the mini craze bandwagon with a miniature, 4-inch smartphone and an equally compact 7-inch tablet dock.

Unlike the equally new Padfone X, we have quite some information on what the the PadFone mini has going for it in terms of hardware. The aforementioned 4-inch TFT panel sports a WVGA resolution of 480x800 pixels, or about 233ppi, while the tablet dock touts a slightly less-crisp 800x1280 pixel TFT display (~215ppi). In charge of all the brain-work are a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 chipset and 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM, both of which should provide a mostly smooth experience, considering the manageable pixel count.

On the photography front, things are looking even better, for an 8-megapixel Sony-made BSI unit with f/2.0 aperture and five-element lens is what we're dealing with. We're actually told to expect some pretty awesome low-light shots and an easy-to-use interface, thanks to Asus' proprietary PixelMaster software, though do keep in mind that this is likely more of a marketing talk than anything else. 

Published on: 2:26 AM 0

Sony Introduces Two Smartphones!

Sony finally introduced the long-rumored Xperia Z1S at its CES 2014 press conference. Basically, it is like an Xperia Z1 but made for T-Mobile. Accompanying them was a smaller handset - the Xperia Z1 Compact. Think of it’s as a shrunken down variant of the Sony Xperia Z1. 

The Xperia Series is everything you expect in a premium smartphone, beautifully crafted to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. Capture stunningly beautiful photos and videos using the same technology as featured in our compact digital cameras. Easily move all your valuable content from your smartphone to your new Xperia Z1 Compact with Xperia Transfer. Best of all, the Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z1s are waterproof* and comes in a range of colours.

Design :

Distinctively an Xperia device of some kind, more so when it boasts the usual design elements we’re accustomed to seeing with Sony’s lineup of Xperia smartphones, the Z1S is undoubtedly premium in almost every facet. It’s a solid effort no doubt, made more profound by its glass finish and sturdy metallic bezel. Everything meshes well together to give it that high-class feel to warrant it as a premier flagship smartphone.

Improving upon last year’s Sony Xperia Z, the Z1S has an IP58 rating, which means that it can completely submerged in freshwater up to 4.9 feet for 30 minutes – giving it a waterproof nature, as opposed being water resistant. And rightfully so, it’s able to show us right away that it’s not afraid to take a dip in water, as long as all of its side ports are appropriately covered. Interestingly, the 3.5mm headset jack is left exposed, but the folks from Sony assured to us that it’s treated to withstand water exposure – so there’s no concern about it being damaged.

Display :

The display of Z1s is almost perfect. At full 1080p resolution with Sony’s Bravia mobile engine, it’s as sharp and crystal clear as I’ve ever seen on a smartphone. It’s super bright too, even at 75 or 50% brightness. Its viewing angles are terrible, though, which is a common problem that plagues Sony’s devices. There's also a noticeably large bezel here that adds a sense of style to the Z1s, though some will undoubtedly (and rightfully) find it obtrusive.

The Xperia Z1 Compact is just as nice as the Z1S and has all its features – it’s just smaller. It’s the size that a former iPhone owner would love – a little wider than the iPhone and more comfy, but not a total screen monster. It is slightly thicker than the Z1S, but not by much.The Z1 compact sports a 4.3 inch diplay which has an average pixel density of about 340 and its sadly droped to the last generation 720p panels

Hardware and Performance :

The Xperia Z1s is fast. Super fast, even, thanks to a 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2 GB of RAM.  It’s also long-lasting thanks to a whopping 3,000 mAh battery. This thing should have no problem getting you through your day.

The Z1 Compact breaks a song and dance with a powerful 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, which, at that screen resolution, should run circles around all the benchmarks and 3D games you throw at it, and enables LTE connectivity, too, should your carrier support the tech. Aided by 2 GB of RAM, multitasking with the phone should be top-notch, and in addition to the 16 GB of internal storage (12 GB user-available) we get a microSD slot. The battery gets downsized to 2300 mAh from the 3000 mAh unit of the Z1, which, thanks to the power-hungry TN display, doesn't sport a good battery life anyway, which will hopefully not be an issue with the Z1 Compact, for which Sony quotes up to 12 hours of video playback on a charge.

Software :

The Xperia Z1s is still running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but updating it to 4.4. KitKat is already on Sony’s to-do list. It’s also running Sony’s custom UI that takes some getting used to but is most certainly worth the learning curve. It’s got some super cool features for both productivity and play – things like the hovering quick apps.

The Z1 compact surely runs on android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and we are expecting further android updates as it has enough RAM to run the latest android-KitKat. Overall the performance provided is snappy and does not has any kind of lag in the system.

Camera :

Surely the Z1s is a photo-centric thing, it’s packing number crunching 20.7-megapixel auto-focus camera. Thanks to the large sensor size, the pixels are of decent size, despite their greater number. The Exmor RS sensor is accompanied by f2.0 lens, Sony’s BIONZ for mobile engine and an LED flash. It’s not something we’d classify as class leading, but the 1080p video recording quality of the Xperia Z1S is still pleasant enough for us to accept. Sure, it might not produce the sharpest details, but its gradual exposure, clear audio recording, smooth recording, and instantaneous focus is something we gladly take with open arms.

The Xperia Z1 Compact also sports the same type of Camera As we have seen in the Z1s, the 20.7 megapixel camera takes excellent shorts not like the Nexus 5. It has the ability to record videos at full HD 1080p resolution.

Pricing and Final Thoughts :

Yes, these are the few flagship phones we can take into the shower with us. In addition, it’s a premium feeling and made smartphone that puts those other plastic ones to shame. However, knowing that we’re getting into that fun part of the year when NEWER flagship announcements are right around the corner, it begs the question whether or not the Sony Xperia Z1S and Z1Compact will be future proof. Since the phones are not yet released in India the overall price expected for this device is more than 25,000 INR. The phone is available for preorders for about 600$. 

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Published on: 6:14 AM 0