Samsung Ativ S is a Windows Phone 8 smart phone with a 4.8-inch

Samsung has unveiled a Windows Phone 8 device in the shape of the Samsung Ativ S. Sporting a huge 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with 1.5GHz dual-core processor, the Samsung Ativ S also has HSPA+42 connectivity.

The Samsung Ativ S weighs in at 135g and measures 137.2 x 70.5 x 8.7mm, dimensions necessary to accomodate the large display. Samsung has also kitted the phone with an eight-megapixel camera and 1.9-megapixel front facing camera for video calls. Samsung continues its NFC push by embedding a near fields communication chip into the phone, though file sharing can also be made via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

With such top end specs, the Samsung Ativ S provides a Windows Phone 8 alternative to the Android powered Samsung Galaxy S III that has served the Korean manufacturer so well.

The Ativ moniker is the new brand name for Samsung's Windows devices ans as the eagle-eyed among you will have notices, it is "Vita" in reverse meaning "life" in Latin. No word on what Sony PlayStation has to say about this.

The Samsung Ativ S was unveiled at Samsung's IFA event in Berlin, where the manufacturer also revealed the Samsung Ativ Smart PC PRO  Windows 8 tablet with a detachable keyboard and the Samsung Ativ Tab a more conventional tablet device.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Pictures and details of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 may have been leaked earlier today but it's now official. The 5.5-inch "phablet" is real and it's a beast, we don't mind telling you.

For starters, as expected, it's run by a 1.6Ghz quad-core processor, with 2GB of RAM. The touchscreen is made up of a HD Super AMOLED 1280 x 720 16:9 display, and Samsung claims that it's thinner, lighter and brighter than on the phone's predecessor.

The device comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean from the box, and there's an 8-megapixel camera on the rear, 1.9-megapixel on the front. The rear camera is coupled with an LED flash, while many of the features found on the Galaxy S III have made it to the Note 2; Best Photo, Best Faces and Low light shot.

A wide variety of file formats are supported for music and video playback, including MKV, and 1080p movies can be played - albeit on a 720p screen.

Connectivity comes in the form of Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0 and Wi-Fi. And there's an NFC chip inside for contactless payments and wireless data transfer.

Network connectivity will vary between regions, with a 4G LTE chip included for territories that have a capable service, HSPA+ for those without. There's no word on whether it will work on Everything Everywhere's 4G network when it launches in October, but we'll update you as and when we find out.

The device measures 80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4mm and weighs 180g, while its battery is, as previously stated in the leaked reports, a 3,100mAh standard Li-ion version. Samsung hasn't made any claims on exact life expectancy yet, but the company does believe that reviewers will be "impressed".

There will be two colours of Samsung Galaxy Note 2 devices available on launch, including marble white and titanium gray, and 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions will be available. You will also be able to boost storage capacity by up to a further 64GB with a microSD card.

The S Pen has been improved too, being thicker, longer and more ergonomic to hold. And there are several new features that go along with it. Air View adds the ability to hover over an email or S-related application to preview content before tapping on them. And Quick Command lets you use the S Pen to take shortcuts.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 will be released in the UK in October, alongside European, Asian and Middle Eastern launches. Prices are yet to be revealed

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Samsung Galaxy Camera set to capture us wherever we are, using Android, to boot

There have been camera phones, phone cameras, cameras and simply phones but finally Samsung has come up with one that we’re not quite sure what it is at all. Meet the Samsung Galaxy Camera and find out exactly why you’re going to want one once you’ve finished reading this article.

The Galaxy Camera is a connected camera. There's a 3G and Wi-Fi version as well as a 4G and Wi-Fi version if you're lucky enough to have a supporting network. What all of that means is that you can connect your pictures to the cloud and the cloud to your picture whenever and wherever you like

As the name suggests, it runs on the Android OS - Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to be precise. Why that’s useful to you is that you can apply all the favourite capture, post-production and editing applications to your pictures that you normally enjoy on your Android smartphone; so, Instagram, Paper Camera or whatever you like. Beyond that, the connectivity means that you can upload to Facebook or Twitter or use on Skype - or whatever else you like to do - direct from the device too.


All very nice. So, why is this better than a smartphone? Well, you get a reasonable sized image sensor which offers far better picture quality. It’s a 16-Megapixel 1/2.3” BSI CMOS unit and it’ll capture light focused at it through a 23mm wide angle lens - again, a piece of glass far superior to that of a camera phone. What’s more, that lens will also offer you up to a whopping 21x optical zoom. Yes, optical, not digital.

You can record 1080p movies at 30fps, you can geo-tag with GPS, share and shoot at the same time and apply a whole host of different in-house filters and effects that Samsung has preoloaded into the Galaxy Camera. Finally, though, and what could really aid your photography is the biggest screen on any digital camera. It’s a touch-enabled 4.77-inch HD Super Clear LCD screen with a Retina Display-like pixel density of 308ppi. If you’ve not got your shot in focus, you’re going to know about it while you still have a chance to take another

So, can you actually make phone calls with the thing? Well, there’s a microphone for Voice Control, there’s a SIM for the connection, any app you need to make it possible from Google Play and we presume a speaker for video playback. So why the hell not?

                             The Samsung Galaxy Camera. A phone camera 

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Hands-on with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC aka the Series 5 Slate

Would a Series 5 Slate be just as sweet under any other name? We've already got hands-on with the ATIV Smart PC Pro (called the Series 7 Slate in the US) and now we're going to show you the wonder that is the ATIV Smart PC -- aka, the Series 5 Slate on this side of the Atlantic. And what can we say? It's a lot like the Series 7 we checked out, though this guy is of course a smidge thinner and lighter, given the fanless design and inclusion of an Atom-based Clover Trail processor instead of something in the Ivy Bridge family.

Another difference: that 11.6 inch display. It's still bright, of course, but the resolution is a lower 1,366 x 768, as opposed to the 1080p panel used in the Series 7 / Smart PC Pro. That caveat aside, the Series 5 / Smart PC is still pretty sexy, with that vibrant display and brushed metal back -- though, as mentioned in our hands-on with the dock, that beauty clashes a bit with the relative cheapness of the keyboard.

As you may have read, the two slates also have stylus slots, though the S Pen was nowhere in sight during our demo -- perhaps to keep it out of the hands of sneaky bloggers. In the meantime, we've got some hands-on photos, but we encourage you to refer back to our Series 7 / Smart PC Pro hands-on to compare the designs, and get a better feel for the custom apps Samsung has bundled.

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