Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10

When we placed Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 in front of Joseph Volpe, it was all he could do not to roll his eyes. Rather than any headline features, the slate was merely an improvement on the second generation, just with a newer version of Android and, interestingly enough, an Intel chip. When he was done with it, Volpe remained as underwhelmed as when he’d began.

In his words, it’ll adequately do what you need it to do, but it won’t look pretty, or dazzle you with performance. At a price of $399, he suggested you take your cash elsewhere – but we imagine some of you didn’t heed his sage counsel. So, if you bought one, what did you think of it? Dive feet-first into our forum and tell us what you would have changed.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 4

If you want an amazing phone, and are leaning large this time around, the Galaxy Note 4 is one of your two best options. It’s never had strong competition before, but this year you can choose between it and a brand new iPhone 6 Plus. The Note kicked off the phablet trend a couple years ago, but can it hold on to the crown? 

Comfort four times refined 

Apple may be new to the phablet game, but this is Samsung’s fourth time around the supersize block, and the result is a very comfortable phone, despite its bulk.had the usual discomfort when I tried to stretch my fingers to various corners of the screen with one hand, but that comes with any of these big designs. You will get used to the size after a week, and some of you will love it. It would be nice if Samsung included a Reachability feature like the iPhone 6 Plus has, which pulls the screen halfway down so you can easily reach all corners. There are some hidden settings to resize the screen and adjust the position of the keyboard, but none of them work as well as Apple’s elegant solution. Samsung’s 5.7-inch screen matches the outgoing Note 3, and slightly edges out Apple’s smaller 5.5 inches, but they’re all pretty close. Though its phones are usually all plastic, Samsung has added an aluminum bumper around the edges with a nice shiny edge to it, like an iPhone 5. That’s not a slight, either. This is the best-looking Galaxy Note yet, and the faux-leather back has much better grip to it than any iPhone. The Note 4 feels and looks like a premium piece of tech, which isn’t always the case with Samsung phones. We’re very impressed by the new look, though it does come at a cost. Yet again, there is no water resistance in the Note 4. That’s sad. Those hoping for a waterproof design should look at the Galaxy S5. 

Phablet features 

The Note 3 was a confusing mess of features, but Samsung reigned itself in with the Note 4, focusing mostly on enhancing how you use the S Pen stylus and multitask with apps. 

S Pen: If you like styli or have any desire to digitally write or draw on a regular basis, the Note 4 is the only phone for you. When you pop out the S Pen, the Air Command radial menu opens right up, easily letting you select some different ways to highlight text and take screenshots. The Note 4 also feels a little more accurate and faster at writing than the Note 3. Action Memo is the best app, and lets you scribble notes or doodles with fine accuracy. 

The S Pen makes it easier to select text when you’re typing, and will quickly, accurately convert handwriting to text. Multitasking: If you enable multitasking in settings, you can run apps either windowed on the homescreen, or in split-screen mode, with one app on the top of the screen and another on the bottom. When you tap the Recent Apps button on the lower left of the phone, it brings up a cascade of apps you’ve recently used. If you touch and hold on the top of any of these apps, it will run windowed on your home screen, where you can drag it around or minimize it into a floating icon. Some apps, mostly from Samsung and Google, have a split-screen icon that will move them to the top of the screen and let you choose which app you want to run in the bottom. Both features work very well. 

A similar interface 

The Note 4’s Android skin looks and feels very similar to its Samsung brothers. It runs on Google’s Android operating system (version 4.4) and has access to the Google Play Store for apps. Sixty five bloatware apps pile up to 7GB, but sadly that’s no worse than most Android phones these days, and you can disable the ones you don’t want to use. Built-in Flipboard support means you can swipe left on the home screen to access Flipboard. It’s a nice touch, but if you don’t like Flipboard, you’re out of luck. 

 A quality camera 

The Galaxy Note 4 has a fantastic 16-megapixel camera. Like the GS5, it’s a big step forward from older Samsung phones, and the Galaxy Note 4 has the best Android camera out there. The image quality we got on most shots was good, but, as usual for a smartphone camera, it couldn’t match the iPhone 6. It can produce pics with more pixels, but they aren’t as beautiful. In most low-light shots, the iPhone 6 produced more accurate, more vivid photos.

Samsung Galaxy A7 2015

Samsung is coming out with a new phablet that will incorporate a metal frame and comes at “competitive price point,” according to the Korean electronics maker.

The A7, unveiled on Monday, comes just a few months after Samsung announced its two smaller siblings, the A5 and the A3, in late October. The A7 is not only bigger, with a 5.5-inch high-definition AMOLED display, but also packs more computing power as it combines two separate quad-core processors. It also has a larger battery at 2,600 mAh, but still maintains a thickness of only 6.3 mm, making it actually thinner than the A5 and A3.

 The phone runs Android 4.4, has 4G LTE connectivity, and a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, along with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Inside is 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a microSD card slot to add more memory.

Samsung declined to comment on the phone’s price or availability.

The smaller Galaxy A5 and A3 models initially targeted the Chinese market, where the South Korean handset maker is facing intense competition from rival vendors such as Xiaomi and Lenovo.

In last year’s second quarter, Samsung lost its top position as the country’s largest smartphone vendor, amidst the entry of more lower-cost phones entering the market.

Samsung lost market share globally in the third quarter of 2014 to about 24 percent from around 32 percent in the same quarter in the previous year, according to research firm Gartner. The company’s smartphone shipments dropped to 73 million in the quarter from 80 million in the third quarter of 2013.

The company has guided that its operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2014 is likely to have fallen by about 37 percent, largely on account of competition from Chinese players.

The Galaxy A series could help Samsung regain its position. In China, the A5 and A3 are priced at 2,599 yuan (US$424) and 1998 yuan, putting the phones in the mid-tier range.

Phones under the Galaxy A series use a metal frame design, a feature that some reviewers wanted to see in Samsung’s Galaxy S5 flagship device.

Samsung’s new A7 device could end up being offered as a cheaper alternative to its Galaxy Note 4, a high-end product that can start at 5399 yuan (US $870) in China.

Samsung Galaxy S6 rumor

CES 2015 is behind us, which means it's time to start looking forward to the next technology smorgasbord: Mobile World Congress. New phones and tablets make the rounds at the annual conference held in Spain, but Samsung has yet to officially announce any word on its expected upcoming flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S6. So, what can we expect from a Galaxy S6? All of this is conjecture, of course, but here's our best educated guesses on the details of Samsung's next big phone. 

 Announcement and release dates: March to April is the mostly likely option -- possibly at Mobile World Congress, or maybe at a totally separate Samsung-only event. Both have precedents: The Samsung Galaxy S5 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2014 in February; its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S4 got its own splashy (and unintentionally controversial) launch event at Radio City Music Hall weeks after MWC in March 2013. Both phones went on sale a few weeks later. 

 CPU: Expect top-of-the-line guts for the GS6. Whether that's a Snapdragon 810 quad-core processor from Qualcomm (as found in the upcoming LG G Flex 2) or Samsung's own Exynos 7420 is anyone's guess. The company could also have different CPUs in different territories -- something it's done with past flagship phones. 

 Screen: The well-regarded Samsung Galaxy Note 4 packs an attractive AMOLED display, and it stands to reason that the Galaxy S6 would follow suit. Rumors suggest that the screen size will be around 5.5 inches. 

OS:Android 5.0 Lollipop will be the star of the show, coupled with Samsung's TouchWiz Android skin. But there's a curious wrinkle here: some rumors claim that Samsung is hoping to dial down TouchWiz on the new device, with the aim of improving performance. 

 Plastic or metal?: This is anyone's guess, though devices like the all-metal Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3, as well as the Galaxy A7, suggest that Samsung might be looking to spruce up its image with premium metal designs. 

 Camera and more: We can likely expect a beefy front-shooter, too. Like it or not, smartphones at CES 2015 were all about the selfie, so there's a good chance Samsung will pay close attention to the oft-ignored front-facing camera. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 both sported excellent cameras, though the former lacked optical image stabilization. That's becoming increasingly prevalent on kitted-out smartphones -- see the iPhone 6 Plus -- so it stands to reason Samsung would bake it into their latest phone's rear camera.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4's S-Pen -- the narrow stylus tucked handily inside Samsung's surprisingly successful, giant 5.7-inch Galaxy Note phone -- stands out in a crowd. No other popular phone comes with a stylus, and this one makes the most of its mouselike properties, and an ability to write and draw on the screen. 

Every day, I've used it instinctively to jot a list or note, and to keep the screen clean from finger smudges. The Note 4's specs also earn outstanding marks across the board, including its eye-poppingly vibrant display and a mostly-excellent 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. Rapid LTE data speeds and a robust processor join a host of other specs and features that easily make the metal-rimmed, Android-powered Note 4 easily equal to other top-rated handsets -- and often better. 

The phone's drawbacks, though present, are minor and few. As someone who enjoys the physical act of writing, I love the Note 4's stylus skills. However, if the act of putting digital pen to paper baffles you, skip this handset in favor of other big-screen phones that potentially cost less and perform core tasks just as well. This year's Galaxy Note makes only incremental improvements over last year's runaway Note 3, and if you don't use the S-Pen heavily, the Note "phablet" costs too much compared to competing large-screen phones like the LG G3. 

 The Note 4 sells for $300 on-contract and $600 off-contract in the US; £600 or £650 in the UK; and AU$940 in Australia. Scroll to the end for price comparisons.