Smartphones

Samsung Galaxy Zoom and Nokia EOS: a new breed of camera phone

Sam Kieldsen — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:37:02 +0000

These upcoming mobiles are set to offer image quality far beyond any smartphone currently available

Squeezing a camera into a phone is always going to be a compromise, but a pair of upcoming models look set to offer far better image quality and versatility than we’re used to.

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Why you should buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active over the “vanilla” S4

Sam Kieldsen — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:34:10 +0000

Samsung’s latest smartphone is set to be the most powerful ruggedised mobile ever made

The thing about tough smartphones is that, once you get past the fact that they can happily get drenched, survive a drop onto the pavement from five feet and let you play Candy Crush Saga in arctic temperatures, they tend to be a bit rubbish. There’s always the feeling that, in order to achieve that toughness, the manufacturers have cut down on design, features and power.

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No compromise on power

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As we say, there’s no compromise on features and power. Android 4.2.2, a 5in 1080p screen with an iPhone 5-besting pixel density of 443ppi, 1.9GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and an 8MP camera make this as fully-loaded a smartphone as you could wish for. There are even the Air Gesture, S Health and S Translator exclusive apps from the original S4.

So you’ve basically got the Galaxy S4 in all its glory – plus a helping of ruggedised extra glory heaped on top. The only price you pay is having to put up with a bit of extra girth to the phone body. Samsung has yet to reveal the UK price and release date for the Galaxy S4 Active, but it’ll be available in the US (from AT&T) for $200 on a two-year contract.

It isn't the only S4 variant Samsung is working on, either. There'll soon be a scaled-down Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and a photography-focussed Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom in the shops too.

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Is this the HTC One Mini?

Sam Kieldsen — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:27:07 +0000

The clearest leaked shot yet of the rumoured phone emerges, alongside a list of specs

The HTC One Mini is apparently a real thing, and the above picture is apparently it.

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Sam Kieldsen

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom officially announced

Stephen Graves — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:44:40 +0000

Bonkers camera-smartphone hybrid is the first phone to pack 10x optical zoom

Good news for shutterbugs with limited pocket space: Samsung has taken the wraps off its Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone-camera hybrid, cramming a compact camera with 10x optical zoom and a stripped-down Galaxy S4 into one body like some sort of technological Doctor Moreau.

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Stephen Graves

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Stuff Cool List 2013: How HTC designed the world’s most desirable phone

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:52:57 +0000

The HTC One's masterful design and build has seen it eclipse its Android, Windows and even iOS rivals as the best-made mobile on the market

Although the Android platform has made great strides in recent years, it's still tainted by a lingering whiff of cheapness.

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Design challenge

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Claude Zellweger of One & Co., the aptly-named San Francisco-based industrial design studio responsible for the One’s hardware, tells us that the phone’s design sprang from three key principles; it had to be simple, crafted and human.

So, simple. “In this increasingly dense media and information landscape that we live in, I think people are looking for products that are simple in their gesture and proposition,” says Zellweger. “What that means for the product is we want something that has simple, clean geometry to look at, as well as fewer part breaks, fewer elements. Really just only what's necessary on the product.”

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Mass Production

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What about crafted? “It was really important for us to achieve something that feels like it was almost made by hand," says Zellweger. "Although it's a mass-produced product, it has that quality.”

And the last one, human? “I think the important thing for us here is that although we're holding a piece of amazing modern machinery in our hands, it feels like it just belongs in your hand.”

How did One & Co. set about ticking these boxes? For simplicity, they decided upon an aluminium unibody so that there’d be very few visible “parts” on the phone’s exterior. Starting with a piece of aluminium, they co-inject a special kind of polycarbonate into channels to create the antenna; this plastic is melted together with the metal to create a single block. This block is then welded to another piece of aluminium and machined so that it appears to be a single, seamless body – run your fingers over it and you won’t feel a bump or step.

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Screen

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Not even the camera or stereo speaker grilles disrupt this seamless flow: the former is so thin that it sits totally within the body; the latter are so precisely machined that they feel more like a texture change than a surface change. And then there’s the screen, a piece of Gorilla Glass that appears to bleed over the One’s edges. Zellweger calls it an “endless screen”: “In order to achieve that, we had to come up with a new way to attach the glass to the rest of the metal frame. We were asked to put a lot of reinforcement around the screen, and in the end we were able to remove all these elements and just have the screen almost flow over the edge of the device.”

There are other little touches of genius at work too, like the way the power button doubles as an IR window – again reducing the number of elements on the phone’s exterior.

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Ergonomics

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It’s the sheer amount of metal used that ensures the HTC One hits its designers’ “crafted” mark. Because of the injection technique, the aluminium body itself becomes the antenna. “[The One] extends the expertise that we’ve had with metal over the years, starting with the HTC Legend, and then continuing with a series of other products," says Zellweger. "I think that we’ve perfected it this time. Also we’re able to add more metal overall, more than anyone’s ever put on a phone.” Yes, not even Apple, erstwhile master of aluminium unibodies, has managed to pull off a smartphone as metal-dominated as the HTC One.

And that final element, “human”? It’s about ergonomics. Yes, the One looks lovely – but if it feels like a brick in your hand all that’s for nothing. It had to feel comfortable to hold – and yet it still had to be thin. “We had to pick our battles,” says Zellweger. “We didn’t want to create something that felt like a blobject, or like a bar of soap; yes, it’s comfortable, but it’s not appropriate at all for what we’re doing here.”

What One & Co. did is give the one a curved, lofted surface on the back. “In order to achieve that, we had to reconfigure very fundamentally the way that components are laid out on the inside of the product. So there was a tremendous amount of pushing and pulling with our internal engineering team to achieve those thin sides.” The One, for example has a special battery that’s thinner in the middle.

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Future

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This component wrangling meant the phone could taper at the edges – a curvature from left to right that makes it feel “right” in the user’s hand. “That bevelling helps you feel the edges less, and also to reduce the perceived thickness of that sidewall.”

It all adds up to a phone that is by far the most desirable on the market: nothing can touch the HTC One when it comes to industrial design, build quality and engineering. That's why it sits proudly atop the Stuff Smartphones Top 10, having trounced its Android rivals – and why it's earned a place in the Stuff Cool List 2013.

And the most exciting part is that HTC is just getting started – with phones like the rumoured HTC One Mini and HTC T6 set to build on the HTC One's design language. We’ll leave the final word to Zellweger: “This is a mile for us in terms of design; we’ve invested a lot into it in terms of the manufacturing processes, and we want to make sure that really haloes across the brand. You’re definitely going to see this design language stay and develop over the course of time.”

The Cool List is Stuff's annual round-up of the most exciting, most beautiful, most desirable and most innovative things in the world. Read the Cool List 2013 in the July issue of Stuff magazine – out now

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom photos leak

Luke Edwards — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:09:34 +0000

Sammy's smartphone-cum-camera has slipped out for an unplanned photoshoot of its own

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, that features a ‘proper’ 16MP camera, has leaked in photographic form online. The irony does not escape us.

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Luke Edwards

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S4 Zoom

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One official looking snap (above) has appeared on SamMobile thanks to an anonymous source. TechTastic, meanwhile, has taken delivery of a handset – and promptly popped up some pap-snaps of their own. Specs have yet to be confirmed, but according to TechTastic, we can expect a 4.3in qHD display, 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 16MP snapper, and 8GB storage with microSD support. Android 4.2.2 will be leading the software charge when this phone is officially unveiled on June 21st. [TechTastic and SamMobile]

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41MP Nokia Lumia EOS photos leak

Esat Dedezade — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 09:28:57 +0000

Nokia's long-rumoured Windows Phone with an insane megapixel count has been snapped in the wild

Rumours of a 41MP Nokia Lumia EOS smartphone have flittered around for quite a while now, and convincing new shots of the device seem to confirm that it's on its way.

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Esat Dedezade

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Nokia Lumia EOS – pixel packer

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The photos (acquired by ViziLeaks) show off a polycarbonate Lumia 920-like device with a noticeable bump on the rear – no doubt there to house the impressive sensor.

The 41MP camera will also reportedly be paired up with a Xenon flash, a combination that'll make the Lumia EOS a top contender for the best smartphone camera out there, pitted as it is against the likes of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Nokia is also rumoured to be creating new camera software for the upcoming handset to take advantage of its impressive imaging smarts.

We expect Nokia to reveal its new superphone in July, so stay tuned. [ViziLeaks via GSMArena]

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Active officially unveiled

Luke Edwards — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:42:47 +0000

The Samsung Galaxy S4's tougher cousin has arrived – packing waterproof strength with S4 smarts

Samsung has officially unveiled its ruggedised version of the Galaxy S4, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.

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HTC One Mini rumours surface

Esat Dedezade — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:21:04 +0000

Scaled-down HTC One set to take on Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini in bantamweight battle

HTC could be stepping into the ring against the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini with a scaled-down phone of its own. Expected to be called the HTC One Mini, the handset has previously appeared in rumours as the M4, with a 4.3in display, dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM.

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HTC T6 to take on Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Stephen Graves — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:30:59 +0000

It's the battle of the phablets as specs for HTC's 5.9in phone leak

HTC One not big enough for you? The Taiwanese manufacturer is reportedly beavering away on the T6, a 5.9in quad-core phablet that's set to do battle with the similarly monolithic Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom with 10x optical zoom coming in June

Esat Dedezade — Fri, 31 May 2013 12:26:16 +0000

Samsung could unleash a smartphone imaging beast next month alongside the S4 Mini and Galaxy S4 Active

Samsung could get snap-happy at its press event on June 20th, with reports that it'll unveil the Galaxy S4 Zoom alongside the tougher Galaxy S4 Active and a shrunken down Galaxy S4 Mini.

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HTC One coming with stock Android interface

Sam Kieldsen — Thu, 30 May 2013 16:46:29 +0000

It’s official: Google’s standard “Nexus experience” will soon be available on HTC’s flagship phone (in the US at least)

The HTC One, probably our favourite Android phone of the moment, will shortly be available with the stock Android experience – in other words, the same version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean that you’d find on a Google Nexus 4. And for many, that'll make it even more appealing than it already is.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini puts power in your pocket

Luke Edwards — Thu, 30 May 2013 09:38:43 +0000

Meet the little brother to the S4 – unlike the S3 Mini, this lives up to the powerful S4 name

If your dinky digits can't wrap themselves around the Samsung Galaxy S4, there isn't a great deal of choice out there – even Apple has gone bigger with the iPhone 5. Fortunately Samsung has come to the rescue with the newly-announced Galaxy S4 Mini. It may not quite match the specs of its big brother – but it's not as embarrassingly underpowered as its Galaxy S3 Mini predecessor.

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Apple iPhone 5S and budget iPhone could be revealed at WWDC

Esat Dedezade — Wed, 29 May 2013 12:59:33 +0000

Apple could surprise us all with an early reveal of the next-gen iPhones. And so too could Samsung, if the latest rumours are to be believed..

Taiwanese website Digitimes' sources have reportedly told it that Apple could reveal two new devices – the iPhone 5S and budget iPhone – as early as next month.

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Apple iPhone 5S to have double the screen resolution of the iPhone 5

Luke Edwards — Wed, 29 May 2013 11:56:16 +0000

The 720,000 pixels of the iPhone 5's Retina display will be doubled to 1.5 million in the iPhone 5S

Apple’s iPhone 5S should feature 1.5 million pixels, double that of the 720,000 pixel iPhone 5. It’ll also come with a thinner bezel but the same 4in display.

According to Chinese news site Wei Feng Network the iPhone 5S will feature a display that isn’t 1080p but will still cram in double the pixel count of the iPhone 5. Since it will also feature a thinner bezel – like the iPad Mini – but will retain the same 4in screen, it should be smaller in overall size.

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