Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 launches stateside August 16th starting at $499

Posted on 15/08/2012 by Joseph Volpe

Samsung Galaxy Note 101 launches stateside August 16th starting at $499

If you didn't see this one coming from a mile away, then it's clear you haven't been paying much attention. After countless leaks and even an early August availability from online retailers, Samsung's ready to make its S-Pen slate, the Galaxy Note 10.1, official for the U.S. market. The TouchWiz-skinned Android tablet is set to hit retail shelves tomorrow, August 16th, and will be offered up in 16GB and 32GB WiFi-only configurations priced at $499 and $549, respectively. For the money, you're getting an ICS tab outfitted with a 10-inch 1,280 x 800 TFT LCD display, quad-core Exynos 4 CPU clocked at 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM, microSD storage expandable to 64GB, 1.9-megapixel front-facing / 5-megapixel rear cameras and a 7,000mAh battery. The device, first introduced this past February at Mobile World Congress, stands apart from its capacitive rivals thanks primarily to the addition of a Wacom-like digitizer panel optimized for the company's handwriting recognition software and a slew of stylus-specific, pre-loaded apps, like Adobe's Photoshop Touch and Samsung's own S Note. Prospective owners will be able to choose from two neutral launch colors, grey and white, when it goes on sale this Thursday.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 launches stateside August 16th starting at $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ZTE Tania waves Windows Phone flag for China, makes official mainland debut

Posted on 09/06/2012 by Joseph Volpe

When it rains Windows Phone in China, it pours. After HTC claimed top honors for being the first to bow a Redmond-powered handset in the region, the floodgates opened with Nokia quickly doling out its Tango wares and, now, ZTE. The company, formerly a white label manufacturer, has finally gotten its Tania act together, releasing the not-so-secret phone on China Unicom with a slight upgrade to its previously announced spec list. Though most of what it offers falls in line with WP hardware requirements -- 800 x 480 display, 512MB RAM -- the processor's been bumped from 1GHz to 1.4GHz, giving the 4.3-incher a welcome speed boost. Interested parties can also look forward to a 5-megapixel rear shooter, 4GB of storage, as well as black and white color options. If you're living in the land to the far east and like the live tile approach, you might want to consider this as your next.

ZTE Tania waves Windows Phone flag for China, makes official mainland debut originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 23:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Focus 2 arrives at AT&T today, a slice of LTE-equipped Mango for $50

Posted on 20/05/2012 by Joe Pollicino

Not long after Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" looked like it would never see the light of day, the Windows Phone 7.5 device made its official debut at CTIA, dubbed as the Focus 2. As expected, the phone is officially on sale today at AT&T retailers across the US, giving folks another option aside from the flagship Lumia 900 for a fix of LTE and Mango on the network. To refresh your memory, you'll find a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and VGA camera up front, and a 5MP shooter on back that capture 720p video. Internally, there's a 1.4GHz single-core CPU (exceedingly par for the course for Windows Phone at this point) and a 1,750mAh battery to hopefully ensure you'll have enough juice to get through the day. Despite the speedy connectivity, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Focus 2 packs a paltry 8GB of non-expandable storage and only comes in Glossy Pure White -- but for fifty bucks under a new two-year agreement, we won't kvetch too much. Our full review is coming soon, so hit the source link for more details in the meantime.

Samsung's Focus 2 arrives at AT&T today, a slice of LTE-equipped Mango for $50 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 May 2012 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung announces 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad as basis for Galaxy S3

Posted on 26/04/2012 by Sean Buckley

Looking for something a bit more solid than a third-party benchmark? We can do that. "Already in production the Exynos 4 Quad is scheduled to be adopted first into Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone that will officially be announced in May," the horse's mouth reveals. Samsung boasts that the new 32nm 1.4GHz quad-core processor flaunts twice the processing power over its predecessor, thanks to its High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power technology. The net energy savings? About 20-percent. "The application processor is a crucial element in providing our customers with a PC-like experience on mobile devices," explains Hankil Yoon, Senior VP of Product Strategy Team at Samsung, "Samsung's next Galaxy device, which will be officially announced soon, offers uncompromised performance and ground breaking multitasking features, thanks to Exynos 4 Quad's powerful performance and efficient energy management technology." Sammy says it's shopping the new processor around to other handset manufacturers (like Meizu), noting that the Exynos 4 Quad is pin-to-pin compatible with the Exynos 4 Dual (the brains behind the Galaxy S II and Note), which gives designers the ability to update product designs with minimal costs. Check out Samsung's full press release after the break.

Continue reading Samsung announces 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad as basis for Galaxy S3

Samsung announces 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad as basis for Galaxy S3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did the Samsung Galaxy S III just appear in Vietnam? (video) (updated with statement)

Posted on 20/04/2012 by Mat Smith

Whoa, there. We're still weeks away from an official big stage unveiling, but it looks like Samsung's next Galaxy phone is already out there. Vietnamese site Tinhte, which has past form on these kind of things, has got its hands on the GT-I9300 -- purportedly the Galaxy S III if Samsung decides to follow its own naming convention. According to the specifications leaked, Tinhte reckons the phone houses a 4.6-inch display at 720 x 1184 resolution (roughly 320 DPI, picking up Android's XHDPI classification -- thanks Rawat), while a quad-core 1.4 GHz processor works on keeping the Ice Cream Sandwich OS running smoothly. Other hardware mentions include 1GB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera, 16GB of storage plus microSD capability. In a side-by-side comparison with the Galaxy Nexus, it looks like the phone's display is incrementally larger, although we're unable to tell the precise size, nor whether we'll be treated to Super AMOLED Plus or some Pentile substitute.

According to Tinhte, the 2,050mAh battery will arrive with NFC capabilities baked in, like the Galaxy Nexus before it. There's an iffy plastic rim surrounding to the whole device that has apparently been added not to ruin the surprise of how the device looks ahead of its official launch. While we've seen some similar hardware leaks already, this video makes a very strong case for it being the real deal. Take a look for yourself right after the break, alongside a picture of the back.

Update: It looks our source link has disappeared and the video has now gone private. Fortunately, we grabbed our own copy of the video and you can find it below.

Update 2: We reached out to Samsung for a comment, and here's the not-so-surprising response:

"We will be able to tell you more at the 2012 Samsung Mobile Unpacked."

Continue reading Did the Samsung Galaxy S III just appear in Vietnam? (video) (updated with statement)

Did the Samsung Galaxy S III just appear in Vietnam? (video) (updated with statement) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Lumia 900 review

Posted on 04/04/2012 by Joseph Volpe

Nokia Lumia 900 official

Nokia Lumia 900 to hit AT&T on April 8th with $100 price tag in tow (video)

Nokia Lumia 800 review

Long-awaited, heralded, longed for, lusted after, overdue, deal breaker, savior, second coming, dead-on arrival, revelation, last gasp, comeback, hail mary pass, flagship... finally! If that string of descriptors hasn't already tipped you off, Nokia's Windows Phone messiah has arrived stateside to either silence critics or give' em fodder for further nay-saying. Ensconced in a polycarbonate frame that's similar to the N9, the Lumia 900 on AT&T's LTE network is widely understood to be Espoo's first true stab at building a presence for a mobile brand that's ubiquitous everywhere but here.

To understand the gamble the company's making with the Lumia 900, one need only look to another critically acclaimed, yet interminably stalled overseas import: Kylie Minogue. That foreign pop siren, a music industry veteran, has repeatedly failed to empty mainstream American wallets with her scattered hits, despite enjoying chart domination across the globe. Indeed the formula for US success is a fickle one. No matter the product category, the crossover membrane can sometimes prove too thick to permanently breach, often resulting in a "one and done" mentality marked by an inevitable retreat to more conciliatory European shores.

For the time being, though, it appears that Nokia's going all in, ready to see its folie à deux with Microsoft through to the end. Indeed, with an irresistible on-contract price of $99, it would seem both parties are counting on this to be the mass market magic bullet they've sorely needed. So, can the Lumia 900, a single-core 1.4GHz handset hampered by a so-so 800 x 480 display, prove this tech alliance wasn't ill-struck after all? Can an attractive industrial design and simplified UI triumph over seemingly modest specs? Will Nokia end up retreating to its overseas kingdom? Abandon those fanboy caps all ye who tag along, as we put this Finnish smartphone under the hot lights.

Gallery: Nokia Lumia 900 review