According to various reports, we might get a glimpse of Samsung’s next smartphone as early as January’s CES or February’s Mobile World Congress.

Moreover, a Korean newspaper claims to have an early insight into the specs that phone - the Samsung Galaxy 4 (see mock up image, top) – will feature: a high-definition 4.99in display featuring a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels at 445 ppi, up from 306 ppi on the Galaxy S3.

GSM Arena, meanwhile, said the device could sport a 13-megapixel camera.

Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the South Korean company in September dismissed reports of a follow up to this year’s flagship Galaxy S 3 smartphone.

When we might see the Galaxy S4 is anyone’s guess. Recently, Samsung has unveiled its newest smartphones at overseas events. The Galaxy S3 made its debut in May in London, while the Galaxy Note 2 was announced at IFA in Berlin several months ago. As a result, an unveiling at MWC in Barcelona rather than CES in Las Vegas might make more sense, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Might the new Galaxy smartphone face competition from HTC’s Droid DNA? The smartphone-cum-tablet is potentially set for a UK debut in December and sports a 5in, 1,920 x 1,080 pixel display. Its Super LCD 3 display is coated with Gorilla Glass 2, with a density of 443 ppi.

Image credit (mock up): BostInno.com

by Stephanie Mlot

In the latest addition to its popular Nexus series, Google has given LG the chance to bolster its handset reputation by manufacturing the Nexus 4, which hit shelves for the first time this week. Incredibly, the search giant’s Play store exhausted its initial stock of the device in just half an hour on the first day of release, so to see what all the fuss is about we’ve pitted the Nexus 4 against the daddy of the smartphone arena, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Read on to put the specifications into context and see if the jumbo Note can justify its considerably higher price tag.

Size & Weight

The Nexus 4 measures 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1mm, but like nearly all handsets it will look dwarfish next to the huge Note 2. Samsung’s model measures 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4mm, making you far more aware of its pocket-presence than the Nexus 4. At 180g it’s also 41g heavier than LG’s phone, a gap that could easily have been larger given the size of the Note, so credit must go to Samsung for keeping such a large device fairly light.

Display

With a giant 5.5in screen, the Note 2 of course plays heavily on the visual element, but the Nexus 4’s 4.7in display is still large in anyone’s book and provides a worthy platform for your video and browsing needs. The latter’s resolution may also appear marginally sharper to the ultra-trained eye, with its 1,280 x 768 pixels and density of 320 PPI, going against the Note’s 1280 x 720 pixels and 267 PPI. The HD Super AMOLED Plus technology used on the Note’s face has been heralded for its quality, but the IPS LCD screen sported on the Nexus 4 provides worthy competition.

Storage & Memory

Whereas the new Nexus 4 only comes in 8GB and 16GB versions with no microSD card slot for additional storage, the Note 2 ships in 16GB, 32GB and even 64GB editions, with a slot available for even more capacity. Both handsets come with 2GB RAM but if you want to push the boat out, the Note 2 range offers far more room to dump your music, photos and other files.

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Processor

Powerful quad-cores face-off in the processor department, though the Note 2’s Exynos 4412 clocks in at 1.6GHz – a touch faster than the 1.5GHz recorded by the Nexus 4’s Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro.

Software

We’re dealing with the crème-de-la-crème of the Android family here, but by virtue of being the newest release, the Nexus 4 shades the software duel with the updated 4.2 Jelly Bean trumping the Note 2’s 4.1 OS. Rumours suggest Samsung’s flagship will be getting the upgrade in the first quarter of next year, however.

Camera

An 8-megapixel camera recording video at 1080p adorns the rear of each device, but the Note’s 1.9-megapixel front-facing cam is a little superior to the Nexus 4’s 1.3-megapixel unit, which may be a swaying factor for those who value their video calling.

Battery

The Note 2’s whopping 3,100mAh battery provides up to 16 hours of talk time (on 3G rather than 4G), whereas the Nexus 4’s 2,100mAh battery reportedly manages up to 10 hours.

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Connectivity

Data-hungry punters will be salivating at the thought of 4G LTE via EE’s new network on the Galaxy Note 2 – an experience Riyad Emeran recently enjoyed. For a high-spec device, the lack of 4G connectivity on the Nexus 4 is perhaps a little disappointing and the Note on EE will certainly offer more when it comes to downloading, streaming and browsing.

Price

The Note 2 is a premium device and probably the most capable handset on the market. Its pricing reflects that, at £468 from Amazon for the 16GB model SIM-free. The Nexus 4 was always likely to cost a fair chunk less, but its £239 (8GB version) price tag really does look reasonable in light of its strong spec sheet.

Verdict

The Galaxy Note 2 is almost peerless in its features and user experience, thanks to that glorious 5.5in display (which includes handwriting technology and a host of other nifty capabilities to be unlocked with a tap of your stylus), a powerful processor, a huge battery, and 4G LTE connectivity. The Nexus 4 cannot quite keep up, but this should not detract from a very strong list of specs that are supported by encouraging reviews of its performance.

It may be inferior to the Note 2, but is it £200 inferior? Probably not. Google and LG could really shake up the smartphone market with such a competitively priced device, and those looking for a high-end phone with a low-end price seem to be in luck. If, however, you are lucky enough to be unconstrained by budgetary concerns, then you are getting one of the best phones on the market by shelling out the extra cash on the Galaxy Note 2.

by Will Dalton

The Galaxy Note 10.1 was launched at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This tablet is just like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by default, and a very useful pressure sensitive S Pen digitiser which allows the user to more precisely take notes, sketch and draw on the device’s surface.

Other features include a quad-core processor – the Exynos 4412 clocked at 1.4GHz – with 2GB of RAM, a 10.1in 1,280 x 800 pixels display, a 7,000mAh battery, 16GB of on-board storage, a microSD card slot that takes card up to 32GB, AllShare play and cast, the Learning and Video hubs and Wi-Fi bonding capabilities.

Samsung has also included a number of applications like Photoshop Touch, Polaris Office or Peel Remote which make the tablet a great all-rounder.

The big price drop is likely to have been caused by the combined effect by the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10, produced by Asus and Samsung respectively, both of which are causing havoc in the Android tablet market.

by Desire Athow

Shares of Taiwanese firm HTC have jumped after it announced a global patent settlement with Apple.

On Saturday, Apple and HTC announced that they had settled a long-running patent dispute that began in 2010. The two firms have signed a 10-year licence agreement for using each other’s patents and dismissed  their ongoing cases, effectively being the first mobile giants to end a notable patent dispute.

HTC’s shares shot up seven per cent this morning to T$241.50 (£5.24). However, analysts say that although the licensing deal is beneficial, it will only provide a short term boost, with HTC’s future success depending on whether it can develop new handsets that are able to compete with market leaders Samsung and Apple.

“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation,” said Peter Chou, the head of HTC in a statement after the settlement.

Despite enjoying early success, HTC has struggled to compete in the smartphone market since 2011, when its sales began to decline sharply as consumers switched to flagship handsets like Apple’s iPhone 4 and Samsung’s Galaxy range. Last month, the firm announced a 79 per cent fall in profits since last year.

It is hoping to claw back some of its former glory and match some of the success of its rivals with the HTC Windows 8X and 8S, which run on the recently launched Windows Phone 8 operating system.

Apple sued HTC in 2010, accusing the Taiwanese firm of infringing on its patented technology. The case is considered Apple’s first major legal attack against Google’s Android platform. In recent years the tech giant has gone after the likes of Samsung and Motorola in courtrooms across the world.

by Monira Matin,

New research confirms that the Samsung Galaxy S3 was the world’s best-selling smartphone in Q3 2012, besting the sales performance of its direct rival, the iPhone 4S.

According to figures released by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold 18 million S3 handsets in the last three months compared with Apple’s iPhone 4S sales of 16.2 million. The sales of the S3 have jumped a colossal 230 per cent from June this year, when it sold just 5.4 million handsets.

The South Korean firm’s market share is now 10.7 per cent and its meteoric Galaxy sales have helped it post an operating profit in excess of $7 billion (£4.56bn) for the period from July to September – a fourth consecutive record gain.

“Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia,” analyst Neil Mawston told Reuters.

Although Apple’s sales of the iPhone 4S actually plunged by 16 per cent in the last three months, Mawston added that the tech giant was likely to catch up with Samsung in the following months due to the expected popularity of the iPhone 5.

The news comes just days after Samsung announced that it had sold more than 30 million of its flagship Galaxy S3 handsets since it was launched just five months ago, making it one of the fastest selling smartphones in the world.

Last month, the tech superstar released its 5.5in Samsung Galaxy Note 2, a smartphone/tablet hybrid that ITProPortal’s own Riyad Emeran got to spend some quality time with over the last week.

Samsung confirmed last week that the Note 2 sold 3 million devices in just 37 days.

by Monira Matin

by Chloe Albanesius

None of the recent Exynos system-on-chip, build by Samsung, come with a PowerVR GPU. The last one  was the Exynos 3 Single that powered the Galaxy S. All the recent ones, down to  the Exynos 5250, used an ARM Mali GPU. This either means Samsung has a new  Exynos SoC or that it is using a non-Exynos SoC from a rival semiconductor firm  (either ST-Ericsson or Texas Instruments); highly likely though that it is a TI  OMAP 4470 SoC.

Other purported rumours about the phone’s specification list include 1GB of RAM  a 4.64in 1,280 x 720 display, a rear 8-megapixel camera, a front 2-megapixel one with  either 8GB or 16GB onboard storage. That roughly matches that of the Galaxy S3, Samsung’s former flagship smartphone.

It will be interesting to see whether Samsung exploits the S3 moniker again  like it did with the disappointing Galaxy S3 mini.

by Desire Athow,                                            23 October, 2012

 
Looking closely at the leaked pictures appears to confirm some recent pics of iPad 3 casing indicating a larger (possibly 8MP) camera sensor; the Chinese publication also suggests it is a 5MP or even 8MP module. The boxed-up screens are marked with a Samsung logo, and sealed by Samsung tape.To complete the trio of iPad 3 leaks that have been doing the rounds in the last few days, is an image showing an A5X CPU on an ‘iPad 3′ logic board – not the A6 processor we have been expecting.

A local South African mobile network operator, MTN, has officially confirmed that it will bring the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the country.

Mike Fairon, the head of development and innovation at the mobile network, told Mybroadband.co.za “MTN has ranged the Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung [Galaxy] S3 as alternatives to the Samsung Nexus, as we believe they provide greater benefits to customers”.

Other networks have told the publication that they will offer the device when it becomes available, with some saying that they will sell it from July 2012.

The Galaxy S3 was rumoured to be launched on the 22nd of March at an event in France or at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but it looks almost certain that the device will instead be presented at a gig in Amsterdam on the 15th of March.

It is expected to replace the Galaxy S2 as the new flagship device for the company. Rumoured specifications include a quad core processor, 1GB or 2GB RAM, a 1280 x 720 pixel capacitive display (like the Galaxy Nexus), a 12-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 4.0, 16GB or 32GB onboard storage and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.