Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom review: Lights, Camera, Android!

 

 

Introduction

Having cornered the Android smartphone market, Samsung now has smart cameras in its sights. The Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom is a crossover of an Android phone and a point-and-shoot camera, trying to put the best of both worlds in your pocket.

Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom official photos
It's a lot more compact than last year's Galaxy Camera and this year's Galaxy NX and, unlike both of them, it has full telephony features. So, it has the makings of a midrange Android smartphone but adds a big sensor, xenon flash, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and 10x zoom. These things are usually well out of the reach of a smartphone, which needs to be thin.
Thin the Galaxy S4 zoom isn't, but it's got other virtues.

Key features

• Android-powered phone/camera hybrid with 10x zoom lens with OIS
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; quad-band 3G with HSPA; LTE
• 4.3" 16M-color qHD (540 x 960)Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 3
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400 GPU; Exynos 4212 chipset
• 1.5GB of RAM
• 16 MP autofocus camera, 1/2.33" sensor, xenon flash, Optical Image Stabilization, 10x zoom, continuous autofocus and stereo sound; manual settings
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps, 720p @ 60fps, 120fps slow-mo
• 1.9 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• 8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
• microUSB port with USB host and MHL 2.0
• Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• IR blaster for remote control functionality
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; Smart volume
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Smart screen: Smart stay, Smart rotate
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 2,330mAh battery with great endurance

Main disadvantages

• Thicker and heavier than a smartphone
• Screen not HD, sunlight legibility could have been better
• Old chipset
• Shared camera interface makes framing tricky
• No FM radio

It's like a Galaxy S4 mini and a point-and-shoot camera had a teleportation accident and merged together. Of course, the chipset is a bit older than what the mini has, but still benchmarks well enough. The Zoom even kept the IR blaster.
It used to be that people took a few dozen photos a year. Now they will do the same in a day or two and share them with the world in an instant. And all that thanks to the ever-improving photography skills of phones. The Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom takes this trend to an extreme - its long zoom, OIS and capable flash keep it relevant where a phone would be all but useless.

Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom at ours
Combining two gadgets in one has its advantages - you only have to carry one device. You're buying only one device too. But just how good is the Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom at being both a phone

 

BlackBerry Q5 review: The apprentice

 

 

Introduction

 

 Smartphone makers believe in trickle-down economics. They build their portfolios top to bottom, looking to get as much bang out of the flagship as they can and, after the hype around it has settled, they bring out the more affordable packages to keep the cash rolling in. The big question - always - is how much of the flagship specs will trickle down the ranks.

Having delivered the latest BlackBerry 10 OS in a classic messenger form factor, a midrange package combining touchscreen with the iconic hardware keyboard was next on the Canadians' to-do list. The Q10 came at a price not a lot of people can afford, so the Q5 promises to deliver the same experience without sweeping the fluff out of your pocket.

BlackBerry Q5 official photos

At first glance, the Q5 has all the important checkboxes ticked. You get a dual-core Krait chipset, a 3.1" display of the same 720 x 720 pixel resolution and a four-row QWERTY keyboard for that serious texting and emailing.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri/quad-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE
• 3.1" 16M-color 720p (720 x 720 pixels) IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
• Four-row hardware QWERTY keyboard
• Dual-core 1.2 GHz Krait, 2GB RAM, Adreno 225
• BlackBerry 10.1 OS; Office document editor
• BlackBerry Hub is a unified inbox of all your communication and social networking accounts
• BBM with video chat and screen sharing
• 5 MP auto-focus camera with face detection and Time Shift; LED flash
• Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps; 720p on the front-facing camera
• 2MP front facing camera
• 16GB of storage, microSD card slot; Dropbox and Box.NET integration
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot; Wi-Fi sync
• Bluetooth 4.0
• NFC
• standard microUSB port, microHDMI
• 3.5mm audio jack
• GPS receiver with A-GPS

Main disadvantages

• BlackBerry World is still missing key apps
• Screen size is somewhat small by today's standards and the 1:1 aspect is awkward for video watching
• QWERTY keyboard could be better
• BlackBerry Maps may be even worse than Apple Maps
• No FM radio

The screen is no longer AMOLED, the camera has been downgraded from 8MP to 5MP and the CPU has been downclocked by 300 MHz. These are things, which sure make the Q10 the more desirable package, but not the kind that will dramatically change the user experience. It looks like the BlackBerry Q5 is much closer to the BlackBerry Q10 than its name suggests.

BlackBerry Q5 at ours

That, and the more affordable price tag, may actually help the Q5 convince more users than its bigger and more advanced sibling. We are about to see how much of that potential translates in real-life performance. Join us on the next page, where the Q5 gets unboxed and handled.

HTC One Google Play Edition review: One for Google

 

Introduction

 The Google Play Edition of the HTC One presents one of the hottest smartphone tickets this year in a whole new dimension. Gone is the home-brewed, Sense-d Android OS. Instead, users of the Google Play Edition of the metal-clad smartphone will be treated to a clean, unmodified Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, coupled with the promise for timely future updates.

HTC One Google Play Edition official photos
The hardware of the pure-Google HTC One has remained the same as what its "regular" sibling has to offer. The combination of a Snapdragon 600 SoC with a potent quad-core Krait CPU, 4.7" of a 1080p display, an optically-stabilized camera, and built-in stereo speakers is about as fine as its gets in the smartphone realm these days.
Here goes the full list of talents which the HTC One Google Play Edition has on tap.

Key features

• Stock Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
• 4.7" 16M-color 1080p Super LCD3 display with 469ppi pixel density; Gorilla Glass 2
• 32 GB built-in storage; 2GB of RAM
• 4 MP autofocus "UltraPixel" camera with 1/3'' sensor; 2µm pixel size; LED flash; OIS
• 2.1 MP front-facing camera with 1080p video recording
• Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 SoC with four 1.7 GHz Krait 300 cores; Adreno 320 GPU
• Quad-band GSM; Quad-band HSDPA; LTE support
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.0; NFC
• GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS support
• 2300 mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• Only a few of the HTC Sense enhancements are present
• Underwhelming 4MP ultra-pixel camera
• Camera app offers only basic settings
• Available only in the United States with no subsidies for $599
• 32GB version available only, single silver color scheme

Considering the HTC One has been selling for a few months now, the main highlight of the Google Play Edition is the presence of stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The unmodified OS, coupled with the One's powerful hardware and sleek design are bound to offer an experience straight from the dreams of Android purists.
Of course, plenty of people will argue that the HTC One Google Play Edition is an exercise in wasting precious cash. With the latest version of HTC Sense sporting functionality which closely resembles that of a Swiss army knife, it is not easy to make a case for spending six hundred dollars and the applicable taxes on an unsubsidized HTC One which comes with less functionality out of the box.

HTC One Google Play Edition live photos
Still, seeing one of the best smartphones of the year in a Nexus guise is an occasion worthy of celebration. We will therefore, put the purified HTC flagship through its paces and find out what it is capable of. As always, we'll kick things off with an unboxing, followed by a design and build quality inspection.