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

Pick the Best Windows 8 Phone !

Windows Phones earlier versions sometimes had missing options, no SD card support and tight control of what apps could do to protect battery life, as well as the live tiles of the Start screen putting your friends at your fingertips or the quirky charm of your Xbox avatar waving at you.

In Windows Phone 8 Microsoft has fill in all those gaps without losing the positive aspects of what sets it apart from iOS and Android.

Microsoft’s Windows, particularly Windows 8, is growing increasingly popular not only with Nokia but Samsung and HTC have taken interest.

Now the question arises, " Which is the best Windows 8 phone “ in the market right now?

While we want to give you an answer, we can give you our best 5 Windows 8 phones to check for yourselves, based on the considerations of the phone’s basic functionality, look, capacity and price.

Nokia Lumia 925/1020

Let us begin with Nokia. It has an array of amazing units. Nokia Lumia 925 is perfect for photography. It is equipped with Nokia’s Pureview and 6 Carl Zeiss lenses to provide 8.7megapixels with Optical Image Stabilization that allows you to capture images even on low light environments. It is somewhat lined up up there with the Iphones and Samsung Galaxy S4 with its touch-screen technology of PureMotion HD + Amoled offering you 1280×768 pixels resolution. Nokia Lumia 1020 is the video and photography professional. With its main feature of 41MP camera, your videos and photos are taken in top-class clarity and detail. It is backed by the Nokia Rich Recording that provides distortion-free and stereo sound on your videos

HTC 8x/8s

HTC also has its wonders with Windows 8 units. It has windows phone 8X and 8S.  Windows phone 8X considered as one of the best Windows 8 phone for its high end quality. It has world class camera, perfect fit design, and wide screen with 1,280×720 pixels resolution. Its dual core 1.5GHz processor is capable enough, but there is no option for expanding its memory just like most Windows 8 phones. There is also the HTC Windows phone 8S.Its boldly colored design makes it classy and attractive. It has a high performing battery. Moreover, it has a superb studio quality sound and entertainment. Great photo qualities and camera options are also featured in this one of the best Windows 8 Phone.

Samsung ATIV S Neo

Next stop is the Samsung ATIV S Neo. It is Samsung’s best Windows 8 phone, because of its affordability and good performance. It has a wide screen display of 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.77 inches for easy touch and visuals. It definitely provides a good windows 8 experience. It has long life battery of up to Up to 15 h and it has good camera features 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus that can capture sharp details. However, the phone is a little bulky and heavy. It is not much of a style but still a high end one with reasonable price.

Huawei Ascend W1

If you are looking for a very affordable prepaid Windows 8 phone then Huawei Ascend W1 will be the best choice. It may not be a perfect device for some applications, but it has a strong battery life and expandable memory.  However, this device has several drawbacks. It has a low internal storage of only 4 GB and low camera specs 5 MP, 2592*1944 pixels. Still, being affordable and practical, this might be perfect for some people who don’t want to stretch more of their budget.

  

Published on: 8:26 AM 0