Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Coming to Sprint

Today's smartphones are capable of incredible things, but only if they've got enough battery power.

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Samsung Gravity Q (T-Mobile)

Pros Affordable. Works well as a voice phone. Physical full-QWERTY keyboard.

Cons Awful browsing experience. Feeble camera. Small collection of limited apps. Bottom Line The Samsung Gravity Q for T-Mobile offers a physical keyboard, but feels like a phone that landed a decade too late.

By Rob Pegoraro

Thanks to the Samsung Gravity Q's basic Web browser, 3-inch touch screen, physical keyboard, and Java-based games, it reminds me of a phone from 2006. On second thought, a phone that bravely challenged Palm's dominance in 2006. That's not automatically bad, at least for a feature phone. But at $153.99 (direct) on T-Mobile, the Gravity Q flirts with smartphone price, without any of the useful smartphone features. Steer clear of the Gravity Q's pull and you'll find much better deals on T-Mobile.

Design and Features
Does your closet have skinny jeans? The Gravity Q may not be the phone for you. It's not as long or wide as most phones but considerably chunkier, at 4.43 by 2.35 by .56 inches (HWD) and 4.19 ounces. Some of that heft, however, comes from its slide-out physical keyboard.

That could seem an odd addition on a phone optimized for voice calls instead of Internet use, but its 3-inch, 240-by-320-pixel touch screen would leave little room for a software keyboard. It doesn't feature a separate row of numbers, but does include four cursor keys, another old-school touch.

That display lacks a proximity sensor (the last touchscreen phone I used without one was the 2009-vintage HTC Hero), so your cheek can hang up on somebody. Instead, the screen times out after a few seconds, after which you have to press the power button to unlock it—even if you only want to put a call on speaker. Consider that if you plan on driving in places that ban non-speakerphone use behind the wheel.

The battery is easily user accessible, but you don't have to remove it to get at the microSD card slot—it's on the left side behind a plastic door. And you will probably want to pop one in, since out of the box the Q had all of 82,546 kilobytes available.

Call Quality and Apps
Voice calls came through clear, but with little discernible sidetone (the sound of your own voice, which can stop you from unintentionally yelling at people). In speakerphone mode, it may be a little too sensitive—in a voicemail I left to myself, I sounded louder than I intended. Nuance voice recognition software lets you place calls by saying a contact's name or number; it worked fine on the phone, but required multiple tries through a Plantronics Bluetooth headset.

The Gravity Q's 1,000mAh battery doesn't have to deal with the overhead of a smartphone operating system, but the phone expired sooner than most smartphones. In a talk-time test, it only ran 6 hours and 40 minutes—even if that handily beats Samsung's estimate of "up to" five hours. There's no Wi-Fi, so you can't count on that to stretch out its endurance. There's also no LTE, not that this phone could do much with that faster speed.

Don't be fooled by the touch screen—this phone doesn't run Android and the apps it does include are pretty basic. You can use the Web on the Q if you restrict yourself to particularly spartan mobile-optimized sites. Attempting to view a full-sized site can yield a "Page too large" error. The email client connected to an AOL IMAP account without any fuss—and that's about it for Internet apps. There isn't even a navigation app, contrary to this line in T-Mobile's sales pitch: "Get your real-time location on maps, driving directions, and more."

The contacts program can import vCards, but the calendar app didn't know what to do with standard .ICS and .VCS schedule files. Samsung throws in some basic, but helpful memo, to-do, calculator, timer, and stopwatch apps—and you can play Java versions of Pac-Man and a few other games.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The music player handled MP3, AAC and WMA files, but the video app balked at imported WMV and MP4 clips. The error message it displayed for the former was a masterpiece of concise unhelpfulness: "Try again." Transferring files from an iMac and a Windows laptop involved an irritating runaround: After selecting Samsung Kies from a menu, you get an error complaining that the phone isn't in Idle mode, then you hit the back button until the phone shows an "Initializing…" dialog and reports it's connected a moment later.

Pictures taken with the Q's 2-megapixel camera were predictably grainy and ill-exposed, but also surprisingly soft. There's no flash so low-light images are out. Its video quality— recorded at 320 by 240 pixels and 15 frames per second—was worse. There's also no front-facing camera.

Its relatively low price might make the Gravity Q attractive compared with more expensive smartphones, especially with T-Mobile's unsubsidized pricing. But with Google's terrific Nexus 4 newly discounted to $199, this is a painful way to save $46. If you absolutely must have a physical keyboard, we like the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G better, and it's even more affordable at $149.99. Also keep in mind that the Gravity Q is a poor fit for T-Mobile's smartphone-optimized rates; unlike other carriers, it no longer offers cheaper feature-phone plans that account for simpler handsets' diminished appetite for data. 

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Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW

Pros Prints, scans, faxes, copies. Duplex (two-sided) printing. Automatic document feeder. Ethernet. Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Direct.

Cons No additional paper handling options available. Bottom Line The Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW can be a good fit as either a heavy-duty personal MFP or a shared printer in a micro or small office or workgroup.

By M. David Stone

Small enough to serve as a personal multifunction printer (MFP), but capable enough to fill the shared printer slot in most micro and small offices, the Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW delivers everything most small offices need in a mono laser MFP. It's not as fast as the Editors' Choice Canon imageClass MF4880dw, but it offers better output quality plus some features the Canon printer lacks. This makes it a highly attractive MFP, and an Editors' Choice as well.

Like the Canon MF4880dw, the M2875FW offers Ethernet and Wi-Fi as connection choices. However, the M2875FW also adds Wi-Fi Direct, which lets you use Wi-Fi to connect directly to the printer from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop that offers Wi-Fi. You don't need an access point on your network, and you don't even need to connect the printer to the network. This can be particularly useful if want to connect the M2875FW to your computer by USB cable as a personal printer, and still want to print to it from your mobile device.

In addition to letting you print from an iOS, Android, or Windows smartphone or tablet over Wi-Fi, the M2875FW will also let you scan to and fax from your mobile device. And if the printer's connected to a network that's connected to the Internet, you can also print through the cloud.

Not so incidentally, if you don't need Wi-Fi, you can save a little money by getting the Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FD ($250 street). According to Samsung, it's the identical printer, but without Wi-Fi. Samsung also says that if you connect it by Ethernet to a network that has a Wi-Fi access point, it will it support the same mobile print features. All the comments in this review about print quality, speed, and features should apply to it as well.

Basics and Setup
Basic MFP features in the M2875FW include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network, and the ability to work as a standalone copier and fax machine. For scanning, the letter-size flatbed is supplemented by a 40-page automatic document feeder (ADF), which can scan up to legal-size pages. The ADF is limited to simplex (one-sided) scans, but menu options let you take advantage of the automatic print duplexer (for two-sided printing) to scan single-sided originals to two-sided copies.

Paper handling for printing is limited to a single 250-sheet tray plus a manual feed, which lets you print on different paper stock without having to swap out the paper in the tray. This should be enough for most micro- and small-office use, not to mention personal use, with the duplexer a particularly nice extra. If you need more input capacity, however, you'll have to look elsewhere, since Samsung doesn't offer any upgrade options.

Setup is standard. The M2875FW is a little large to share a desk with, at 14.4 by 15.8 by 14.3 inches (HWD), but it's small enough so you shouldn't have much trouble finding enough room for it. For my tests I connected it using its Ethernet port, and ran the tests from a system running Windows Vista.

Speed and Output Quality
Samsung rates the M2875FW at 29 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing a simple text file with little to no formatting. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at 10.0 ppm. That counts as reasonably fast, but not impressive for the price. The Canon imageClass MF4770n, for example, came in at 12.3 ppm. The MF4880dw's official speed on our tests is only 9.6 ppm, but that's in its default duplex mode. In simplex mode, it hit 12.5 ppm.

Output quality for the M2875FW is easily good enough for most business use, with text at the high end of the range that includes most mono laser MFPs, graphics dead on par, and photos at the low end of par.

For text, that translates to the printer being suitable for anything short of high-quality desktop publishing. For graphics the output is good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider it suitable for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Photos are good enough to print recognizable images from photos on Web pages, and potentially good enough for photos in newsletters and handouts, if you don't mind roughly newspaper-level photo quality.

The Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW does an unusually good job of offering lots of strong points and no real weaknesses. Its particular balance of speed, output quality, paper handing, MFP basics, and small conveniences—like Wi-Fi Direct and the ability to copy single-sided originals to double-sided copies—adds up to the proverbial more than the sum of its parts. That's enough to make it an excellent fit for a micro or small office and also an Editors' Choice.

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Here we go again: Samsung announces another huge phone with the Galaxy Note 3

Congratulations are in order for Samsung: The world’s most prolific smartphone manufacturer has managed to add yet another gargantuan device to its ever-increasing Galaxy lineup. The Note 3 phone-tablet hybrid naturally follows the Note II, adding a faster quad-core processor, a bigger battery, a higher-res display, and 4K video recording capabilities.

The improvements are minor, but they send an important message: The Note phablet line is a success, and won’t be going away anytime soon. We’re now looking at only iterative, generational improvements as these behemoth devices settle into the Samsung lineup.

The Note 3, which Samsung announced early Wednesday during the company’s IFA Berlin keynote, features a 1080p Super AMOLED display that measures 5.7 inches—just a bit bigger than its predecessor’s display, but less than an inch smaller than the display of the recently released Galaxy Mega.

Users can bring up Samsung’s Air Commands with the S Pen.

The Note 3 comes with a dockable S Pen stylus, as the Note models before it did, but Samsung has added “Air Command” features to the new device. When you hover and "click" over the screen with the stylus, Air Command brings up a circular menu that gives you quick access to Samsung’s proprietary pen apps: Screenwrite, Action Memo, Scrapbook, S Finder, and Pen Window (an app that allows you to draw a window on the screen to bring up an app you’d like to use). Most of the apps included with Air Command could be replaced with a more functional, likely cross-platform application from the Google Play store, though the substitutes wouldn’t be fully compatible with the S Pen. Samsung has clearly indicated that it intends to woo consumers with an all-inclusive package of custom apps, luring users away from the Google Play store and toward the proprietary Samsung ecosystem.

Power users will appreciate the device’s quad-core, 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, which Qualcomm announced earlier this year at its CES keynote. The new system-on-chip comes paired with 3GB of RAM and the Adreno 330 graphics processing unit, which will drive the pixels of Samsung’s demanding 1920-by-1080 screen, as well as enable UltraHD 4K video recording (which captures video at twice the size of 1080p). Note that this isn’t the first handset capable of capturing 4K video; earlier this week Asus announced its 6-inch Liquid S2 handset with the same Snapdragon 800 processor and 4K recording capabilities. However, you won’t be able to view the content at its full resolution unless you have a display that’s capable of playing it back.

The Note 3 comes in a variety of colors and designs.

Samsung stuck with its standard curved plastic chassis for the Note 3. It will also include a leather backing that houses a 3200mAh battery pack. Photo buffs will appreciate the 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, in addition to the Galaxy Note 3’s 4K video capture abilities. Samsung has also packed the Note 3 with Samsung Knox, a security suite that protects sensitive corporate data. On top of that, you’ll be able to use the Note 3 in conjunction with Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

The handset will be available in 32GB and 64GB variants on September 25 in most of the world. As for the United States, Samsung says only that the device will be available “later this year” on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

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Samsung jumps on smartwatch bandwagon with Galaxy Gear

Samsung officially announced its Galaxy Gear smartwatch Wednesday, revealing a slick slab of wearable computing that will initially work only with the company’s just-announced Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition tablet.

Limiting the Gear’s compatibility to just two niche devices is a curious move on Samsung’s part, and suggests that the company either wants to goose sales of its Note products or simply couldn’t offer compatibility with its much more mainstream mobile gear at launch. Samsung says that Note II, Galaxy S III, and Galaxy S4 users will get a software upgrade after launch that will allow them to use the Gear.

At first, the Gear is compatible only with the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition, both announced Wednesday.

“I believe it will become a new fashion icon around the world,” said JK Shin, Samsung’s president and CEO, at a launch event in Berlin Wednesday.

In terms of raw hardware, the Galaxy Gear is a 1.5-by-2.2-inch rectangular slab that’s constructed from stainless steel, measures 0.43 inch thick, and weighs 2.6 ounces.

You can control the Gear by voice or by swipe and tap gestures on its 1.63-inch touchscreen.

All data and notifications appear on a full-color, 1.63-inch touchscreen. The Super AMOLED screen boasts a 320-by-320-pixel resolution, and the battery is estimated to last through 25 hours of moderate use before needing a charge. The Gear is powered by a custom 800MHz single-core processor, and includes a gyroscope and accelerometer for physical gesturing and pedometer functions.

The Gear also manages to cram in both a 1.9-megapixel camera and speakers—the camera is integrated into the wrist strap, while the speakers are tucked into the clasp. The Gear features a solitary button, which when pressed takes you to the home screen. You control all other commands and functions via the touchscreen by a series of swipes (up to launch the camera, sideways to access apps and functions, down to go back).

Pranav Mistry demonstrates the gesture for making a phone call. Yes, it looks like you're talking on an invisible phone.

Raising your Gear-clad hand to your ear enables the call feature. Although you can place (and answer) calls using the Gear’s on-screen dialer, wrist-strap speaker, and two noise-canceling microphones, you can’t use it to read or respond to email—the watch will display notifications, but you must view the messages themselves on a Note 3.

The Gear can, however, understand S Voice commands to call your friends, send texts, set an alarm, and check on the weather. It also offers a Find My Device feature, which in conjunction with an Auto Lock enhancement will lock your smartphone any time the Gear is more than 5 feet away. It can also make a lost smartphone beep, illuminate, and vibrate so that you can locate it quickly.

The Gear will run a variety of apps, including some with augmented-reality features.

On the software side, the Galaxy Gear runs a modified version of Android and syncs to compatible Android devices via a Galaxy Gear Manager interface. The Galaxy Gear will come preloaded with a number of apps, including Evernote, Glympse (location sharing), Line (a messaging service), Path (a social network), Pocket (a “save for later” service), and two fitness apps—MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper. Samsung announced that users can download more apps through the Gear app store, confirming rumors that the company would be eschewing the Google Play store.

To take photos with the Gear, you simply aim and swipe the screen. While 1.9 megapixels won’t get you as far as “real” photography, they will facilitate what Samsung is calling “memography”—quick, spur-of-the-moment image capture. And, hey, who are we to turn our noses up at a camera inside a watch strap, let alone one that captures images in a single gesture?

You can take photos with the Gear's wrist-strap-mounted 1.9-megapixel camera.

Pictures can transfer automatically to a smartphone with Bluetooth 4.0 BLE. The Gear itself also offers an image browser, so you can see some of the pictures you’ve taken (as well as any you’ve transferred to the watch from the smartphone). And the camera doesn’t just take pictures—it also has augmented-reality functions that can translate foreign languages into your mother tongue, and provide more detailed information about a product you’re looking at.

“We want the possibilities of what you do with your Gear to be endless,” said Pranav Mistry, Samsung’s director of research, at the Berlin event.

There isn’t nearly as much fitness integration as was rumored. Still, the Gear does include a built-in pedometer to provide data to compatible fitness apps. Samsung has already dipped its toe into the fit-tech waters with S Health, so it’s surprising that the company didn’t announce any compatibility with that feature.

Image: Martyn WilliamsThe Gear will come in six colors at launch: jet black, mocha gray, wild orange (shown), oatmeal beige, rose gold, and lime green.

The Gear will be available in six colors, but it’s not as durable as you’d expect for a device that sits on your wrist. It’s rated IP55, which means that it can withstand dust and water jets for a few minutes. Sony’s recently announced SmartWatch 2 is rated IP57, meaning that it can withstand submersion in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes.

In all, the Galaxy Gear looks to be a great companion for a crazy-large, 5.3-inch, phone-tablet hybrid. The smartwatch itself is launching in the United States in October, and compatibility with other Samsung devices is also scheduled for that month. But the extended support can’t come soon enough: The Note line has been a surprising success for Samsung, but the Galaxy S III and S4 smartphones are the company’s mainstays, and they give the Gear its best chance of becoming a legitimate smartwatch “thing.”

Amber covers lifestyle and mobile tech, including fit tech, mHealth, travel, home automation and more. In her non-tech time she takes too many pictures of her cats, watches zombie movies, crochets, and plans out her next tattoos.
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Duly noted: Samsung announces the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet

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Nokia picks a fight with Samsung on Twitter

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Samsung goes even bigger with Galaxy Note 3

Samsung continues its tradition of testing the public’s appetite for supersized mobile displays with the new Galaxy Note 3.

Meet the Galaxy Note 3, the new Android phone from Samsung.

While the 5.7-inch phone comes in shy of the 6.3-inch display of its pituitary-affected Mega cousin, the Note 3 ups the ante over its 5.5-inch predecessor, the Galaxy Note II.

To be sure, the Note 3 is big. But not too big. I won’t bring up that annoying P-word the media uses to describe these extra girthy handsets. However, the Note 3 does indeed fit into that nebulous territory between phone and tablet.

The display is ideal for gaming and video, but can still comfortably be used for phones’ original purpose: making and receiving calls. While the Note 3 may stretch the practicality of pockets for some users, it feels comfortable to use in the hand and against your face.

The Note 3 feels good in your hand.

Despite some extra display space, the device is actually lighter than the Note 2 at a surprisingly feathery 5.9 ounces versus 6.4 ounces. The Note 3 is even a bit thinner at svelte 0.32 inches and it is powered with 3GB of RAM (compared to only 2GB with the Note 2).

The speedier engine comes in handy as the phone readily flips between screens and apps (more on that below).

Another great new design feature is the stitched “leather” backing (I couldn’t get an exact answer as to the make-up, but the animal-free backing has a truly “leather-like” feel to it). The phone feels nice in your hand and looks top-shelf, and Samsung could have lied to me and told me it was actual leather, and I might have believed it.

While Steve Jobs famously disdained all styli when it came to mobile gadgets, Samsung—wisely by most accounts—has demonstrated no fear when it comes to incorporating a digital appendage into its Galaxy Note line of supersized phones. And Samsung continues to flaunt that Jobsian wisdom with the just-unveiled Galaxy Note 3, complete with “S Pen” in tow.

With this generation, the stylus has a few additional tricks. Hovering over the screen will present a small dot on the screen and once “clicked,” it will unveil a fan of choices through a feature called Air Command.

Creating a Pen Window

The coolest new function from Air Command is “Pen Window,” which allows the user to draw a square window on the ample display in which to open a new app. So, for example, if you chatting with someone, you could open a new pen window by simply drawing a box and selecting the calculator app, which will then open directly into the dimensions of the box you drew.

You can probably imagine various situations when this feature would come in handy.

Furthermore, you can use Pen Window to open two windows of the same app. For example, you might be able to have two Internet windows open simultaneously on the same screen. Currently Pen Window will only work with a handful of secondary preloaded apps such as calculator, Internet, and YouTube. However a rep promises that more may follow.

Starting Sept. 25, the smartphone will be available in more than 140 countries around the world. It will also be available in the U.S. later this year on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and U.S. Cellular, Samsung said without elaborating on exact dates.

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Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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Spec standoff: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Sony Xperia Z Ultra

When smartphone leader Samsung Electronics introduced the original Galaxy Note, it didn’t have much competition, but since then interest for smartphones with 5.5-inch screens—and larger—has grown. So, the new Note 3 faces plenty of competitors, including the Xperia Z Ultra from Sony.

Here’s a look at how the Z Ultra, launched earlier this year, measures up to the Galaxy Note 3, announced on Wednesday at the IFA tech conference in Berlin, based on the basic specifications from each company.

How big can a smartphone become is a question both Sony and Samsung must have been asking themselves while developing their respective products. Sony decided to go with a 6.4-inch screen, while Samsung decided to be a bit more cautious at 5.7 inches. Both screens have a screen resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.

The bigger screen on the Z Ultra comes at a cost; the device weighs 7.4 ounces, while the Note 3 is lighter at just under 6 ounces. The Note 3 is also smaller: 5.9 by 3.1 by 0.32 inches compared to the Ultra’s 7 by 3.6 by 0.25 inches.

Like many new high-end smartphones, both the Note 3 and the Z Ultra have quad-core processors running at 2.3GHz and 2.2GHz, respectively. A 3G version of the Note 3 will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa processor, which has four ARM Cortex-A15 processors running at 1.9GHz and four additional Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3 GHz.

Buyers of the Note 3 can choose between 32GB or 64GB of integrated storage; there is also a MicroSD card slot for additional storage. That compares to the Z Ultra, which has 16GB of integrated storage plus a MicroSD card slot for additional storage. The Note 3 also has more RAM—3GB versus 2GB.

Smartphone vendors have recently given the cameras on their smartphones more attention in an effort to differentiate their products. The Note 3 can record 4K or Ultra HD videos at 30 frames per second (fps) using its 13-megapixel camera, which could be useful, as long as you are one of the few who can afford a 4K TV set.

The Z Ultra has a more traditional 8-megapixel camera that records video in 1080p.

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A Samsung smart watch and smartphones with bigger screens expected at IFA show

IDG News Service - A smart watch from Samsung Electronics, an Acer smartphone that can shoot 4K video and a Sony phone with a 20-megapixel sensor, plus a plethora of tablets and TVs are expected at this year's IFA consumer electronics show.

Consumer electronics manufacturers from all over the world are heading to Berlin for the show, which doesn't open its doors to the public until Friday. By then, though, most of the new products will have already been announced at press conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.

Samsung is expected to launch a smart watch, the voice-controlled Galaxy Gear, rumored to allow users to keep track of calls, messages and social networks. The device will also have calorie and pulse monitors, and apps that take advantage of those features, according to media reports. The smart watch segment is being increasingly hyped, but expectations should in this case be tempered by the fact that the Galaxy Gear is a first generation device, and few vendors get everything right the first time.

The Korean company is expected to launch a new Galaxy Note too. When it launched the first phone-and-stylus combination back at IFA in 2011, the form factor had its detractors. But Samsung has managed to create a new product category, in which it now faces stiff competition from the likes of Sony and LG Electronics.

The Note's screen size has increased from 5.3 inches to 5.5 inches and is expected to be 5.7 inches on the Galaxy Note 3, with a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution. The Note 3 will have a 13-megapixel camera and Samsung is also expected to stick with a MicroSD card slot, in addition to the 32GB or 64GB of integrated storage.

The device will be powered by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or Samsung's own Exynos 5 Octa processor. The company demonstrated a new model of the latter in July. The Exynos 5420 has four Cortex-A15 processors running at 1.8GHz and four additional Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3 GHz. It also has a six-core Mali-T628 GPU for improved graphics performance. Compared to its predecessor, the Exynos 5420 will also be more power efficient, according to Samsung. At the time, Samsung said the processor was scheduled for mass production in August.

Any large-screened new Samsung smartphone will probably have to duke it out with the Xperia Z1 Sony is expected to launch at IFA. In an effort to differentiate its new flagship from the competition it looks like Sony is taking a note from Nokia's play book by focusing on the camera, which will have a 20-megapixel sensor. The smartphone's specification is also rumored to include a 5-inch full HD screen and a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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10 features the Samsung Gear smartwatch must offer to preempt the iWatch

Your wrist may become the next great mobile battleground.

Rather than play catch-up after Apple releases its much-speculated iWatch, Samsung is set to announce a smartwatch of its own on Wednesday. Although other smartwatches are currently on the market, the now-confirmed Galaxy Gear would be the first smartwatch from an elite mobile-hardware manufacturer with a proven ability to create bleeding-edge devices with mass appeal.

On Sunday, VentureBeat posted images and details of what it described as a prototype of the Galaxy Gear, but the hardware is missing a number of features that Samsung will need in order to steal the smartwatch market before Apple can even enter it.

Johan Loekito / www.behance.net/jloekito

The above is a beautiful (but quite unofficial) 2009 design concept of what a Samsung smartwatch might look like.

The Pebble smartwatch, with its low-powered LCD screen, can last about a week without recharging. And Sony says its upcoming Android-powered SmartWatch 2 will run for three to four days under normal usage. Not bad.

According to a recent unsubstantiated report, Samsung’s Gear will offer 10 hours of battery life, though no one is sure whether that claim refers to continuous, always-on use or to mixed use, including standby. It had better be the former, because any smartwatch that requires midday charging is a smartwatch bound for failure.

The device’s rumored 3-inch-ish OLED screen would probably be the biggest battery drain. One possible solution to help conserve power is a display that would activate only when needed. For example, the screens on Motorola’s new Moto X and Droid phones remain dormant until the user picks up the phone, all thanks to a battery-saving function that Motorola calls Active Display. Using an accelerometer or other sensors, the Samsung watch’s display might activate when you twist your arm to look at it.

The Galaxy Gear would be wise to distinguish itself from existing Android-powered smartwatches such as the Sony SmartWatch 2 by having the ability to pair with iOS devices as well. Unfortunately, nothing in the latest unsubstantiated report suggests the Gear will support anything but Android.

Due to its unique placement on the body, a smartwatch would be the ideal device for gesture controls. For example, a flick of the wrist would let you ignore a notification, while lifting the watch to your face might prompt it to open S Voice (Samsung’s proprietary, Siri-like digital-assistant app).

Since their inception, mobile phones have bzzz bzzz bzzz’d with alerts for incoming calls, new voicemail, and social media notifications. However, a device that’s touching your skin at all times would have the opportunity to use vibrations far more dynamically.

The Gear would get bonus points for using vibrations at different locations around the wrist to signify different things. For example, a new email message might prompt a buzzing on the bottom of the strap. Or perhaps when someone mentions you in a tweet, you would feel a circle of vibration around your wrist.

The Gear should let you pay for your morning coffee simply by holding your wrist out to the counter clerk for a quick, easy transaction. A recent round of rumors suggests that the Gear will come equipped with NFC connectivity, indicating that mobile-payment functionality should at least be possible. Let’s hope the device uses its NFC radio to do some tricks we haven’t seen before.

@evleaksA screenshot of the Gear’s phone interface leaked to the press last week suggests that the device will have both NFC and Bluetooth connectivity, and will access both Samsung-branded apps and regular Android apps.

The smartwatch will be the newest screen to join our multiscreen lifestyles. As such, it would be great if you could, say, begin to read an email message on your Samsung smartwatch and then continue reading it on your tablet or laptop.

Due to a smartwatch’s diminutive size, a mega-spec camera is unlikely to fit. Still, we’d like to see a camera with at least some brawn to it (VentureBeat says the watch will pack a 4-megapixel sensor). How many times have you missed a great photo because you had to dig out a phone from your pocket, unlock it, and open the camera app?

A Samsung smartwatch with concise one-step camera access could solve that problem.

Because of where the device lives, a smartwatch is subject to more elements of nature than a pocket-based phone. Therefore, we’d like to see a Galaxy-branded smartwatch that’s at least as waterproof as the Galaxy S4 Active smartphone, which Samsung claims can survive being submerged for up to 30 minutes under 1 meter of water.

As a highly visible accessory, the Gear will need to come in a variety of styles for men and women. One-size-fits-all is not the right answer.

A smartwatch is a far more visible accessory than a smartphone, so people are going to want design options to express their unique personalities. The Gear should not be a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Also, Samsung should keep in mind that men and women wear watches differently: Women tend to favor the smaller wrist ornamentation, while men don’t mind sporting a big ol’ behemoth. Samsung’s designers would be wise to consider the wants and needs of female users, whom they have tended to disregard in the past.

Home security and control systems such as those from AT&T and Comcast commonly use smartphone apps to control devices and appliances inside the house. But a smartwatch might be an even better device for that. A couple of quick screen taps or gestures performed at the front door might be a good way to unlock the door, deactivate the security system, and turn on the lights—all without having to fish around for a smartphone.

Back in July, Samsung submitted a U.S. trademark filing for “Samsung Galaxy Gear.” The trademark is associated with “wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band, or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages.”

The filing goes on to describe a device that could be used for “the wireless receipt, storage and/or transmission of data and messages and for keeping track of or managing personal information; smart phones; tablet computers; portable computers.”

Last week, Lee Young-Hee, Samsung’s executive vice president, confirmed to the Korea Times that the company will indeed introduce “a new wearable concept device called Galaxy Gear at our own event in Berlin on Sept. 4.” She went on to say: “The new device will enhance and enrich the current smart mobile experience in many ways. It will lead a new trend in smart mobile communications.” She added that the Gear will not have a flexible display.

Keep tuned to this space tomorrow for our coverage of Samsung’s formal announcement of the Gear.

Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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It's the Samsung Galaxy Gear! Sort of. Perhaps. Mostly?

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Samsung starts mass production of DDR4 memories

Service Desk Comparative ReportGartner's recent magic quadrant for IT Service Support Management included no vendors as leaders or innovators. Learn why and how ITinvolve is delivering an innovative service desk solution that empowers IT staff through social collaboration and visualization to improve incident analysis and triage to speed incident resolution time.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Active review: Rugged and ready for adventure

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active $200.00 Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Active is the perfect phone for outdoorsy types who demand excellent performance out of their smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a ruggedized version of the the company’s current flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S4. Where the S4 is a fine fit for cubicle drones and people who spend most of their time indoors, the Active is for those who crave a little more excitement in their lives—thrill seekers and adventurers. It’s the phone for people who want a high-end handset but don’t want it to get in the way of their active lifestyle.

Image: Michael Homnick

While the Active is slightly larger and thicker than the standard S4, the two phones don’t look all that different from one another: Both feature 5-inch 1080p displays and a similar shape, but the Active has physical navigation buttons and feels weightier in your hand. Even with its added girth, the Active is comfortable to hold and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting it in or out of your pocket.

The phone is mostly constructed out of polycarbonate—a fancy word for plastic—but it doesn’t feel as plasticky as previous Samsung handsets. The top and bottom corners of the Active have a rubbery coating that makes it more resilient if it’s dropped, and the phone as a whole doesn’t seem as fragile as the S4. The physical navigation buttons are a little spongy, but they don’t feel loose and they seem like they can withstand some abuse.

Image: Michael Homnick

Much like the Sony Xperia Z, the Active is certified water-resistant in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The Micro-USB port on the Active has a small flap that you need to cover before taking the phone for a dip, but it’s pretty flimsy and seems like it’d be way too easy to damage through regular use. If you prefer land to sea, the Active is resistant to dust and the phone’s Gorilla Glass 2 display is slightly harder to scuff than screens on most other smartphones.

The Active has a removable battery and MicroSD card slot, and accessing them is fairly straightforward: You just pop the back casing off as you would on any other smartphone, no special tools required. Replacing the back cover is simple too, but you should take special care to make sure the waterproof seal is in place if you plan on using the phone around water. A sticker on the back of the phone tells you how to securely snap on the back cover; you can remove it once you feel you’ve gotten the hang of the operation.

The Active packs some impressive specs inside its water-resistant shell: A 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor gives the phone the power it needs to run pretty much any app or game you’d find in the Google Play Store, and the 2GB of RAM comes in handy when you’re running lots of apps at the same time. The phone has next to no lag, even when you are installing multiple applications at once, and games like Riptide GP 2 play beautifully on the Active’s large display.

Data speeds over AT&T’s 4G LTE network are quite good, with download speeds reaching up to 18 megabits per second here in our San Francisco office. Calls are loud and clear, though your mileage will vary depending on AT&T’s coverage in your area.

I got a full day of casual mixed use out of the phone (downloading apps, browsing the Web, playing games), and our official lab battery test rates the Active’s battery life at 8 hours, 1 minute. The Active lasted an hour longer than the Galaxy S4, but didn’t come close to achieving the same battery life we see in phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note II or Motorola Droid Razr HD.

Image: Michael Homnick

Unlike the standard Galaxy S4, the Active doesn’t feature wireless charging, but several third-party accessories can easily add that functionality if you really want it. You can always buy a higher-capacity battery for the phone, but that might compromise its resiliency against dust and moisture.

Samsung has a tendency to cram its phones with as many features as it can dream up—and that’s not always a good thing. Just setting up the phone requires you to jump through dozens of menus and pop-ups asking you to enable various extras and settings. It can quickly get overwhelming, and most of these settings come off as gimmicky.

The Active comes with all the same Samsung apps as the standard S4, most of which attempt to replicate the functionality provided by the Google’s own suite of apps. Why Samsung feels the need to package its own Web browser when the Chrome browser comes preinstalled is beyond me, especially when Samsung’s software is not as slick or intuitive as Google’s offerings.

Though the Active ships running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, it’s highly likely that Samsung will update the phone to Android 4.3 since it shares almost all of its specs with the company’s current flagship smartphone.

The 8-megapixel camera on the Active is a slight downgrade from the 12-megapixel shooter on the standard S4. Photos exhibit minor artifacting and the white balance is sometimes wonky when you’re taking pictures indoors. There are a variety of different shooting modes available including HDR, panorama, night, and best photo, but most of the time the auto mode will get the job done without much hassle.

The camera works underwater, and an aqua shooting mode lets you use the volume-up button to control the camera, since you won’t be able to use the touchscreen while the phone is submerged. (A problem we also ran into while using the Sony Xperia Z.)

Image: Michael Homnick

Samsung has a winner on its hands with the Active: It’s sleek, powerful, and won’t fall apart the first time you drop it or get it dirty. The downgrade in camera quality is lamentable, and some will absolutely hate all of Samsung’s software extras, but those are small concessions to make for a phone that you can use in the shower or pool. If you need a phone that can survive the great outdoors, then the Active should be your first choice. If you value your photos and don’t really spend much time being active, then the regular Galaxy S4 will suit you just fine.

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Samsung starts mass production of DDR4 memories

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Samsung Series 9 S27B971D

Pros Rich, accurate colors. Wide viewing angles. Stylish design. Lots of ports.

Cons Expensive. Weak dark grayscale performance. No USB 3.0 ports. Bottom Line The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D is an attractive 27-inch PLS monitor that delivers bold and accurate color reproduction and very dark blacks. It is well equipped and offers wide viewing angles but it has trouble at the dark end of the grayscale and is very expensive.

By John R. Delaney

The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D, Samsung's latest addition to its Series 9 family of desktop monitors, bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor, the Samsung Series 9 S27B970D. Both use a 27-inch PLS (Plane-Line Switching) panel to deliver bold, vibrant colors, both use the same circular base and adjustable stand to support the cabinet, and both carry exorbitant price tags. However, this time around the folks at Samsung switched out the glossy panel treatment for a non-reflective matte treatment and dropped the edge-to-edge glass design. Calibrated at the factory, the S27B971D's color accuracy is outstanding, as is its off-axis viewing performance, but its grayscale performance could use some work.

Design and Features
Like its predecessor, the S27B971D is a sharp-looking monitor. For this model, Samsung did away with the one piece shiny glass surface used on the Samsung S27B970D and went with a matte anti-glare coating that is non-reflective. The 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 panel is framed by textured black bezels capped off with a band of silver trim. Two moderately loud 7-watt down-firing speakers are embedded in bottom edge of the cabinet, but as with the Samsung S27B970D, a dedicated audio input is missing, which means there's no way to bring audio to the monitor when using a DVI signal.

There are no buttons, ports, or LED indicators on the cabinet itself; everything is contained in the base. As a result you can't mount this model on a wall. The base is round with a silver metal over black plastic finish. A thin silver mounting arm connects the cabinet to the base and provides 4-inches of height and 17-degrees of tilt adjustability but does not allow you to swivel or pivot the panel.

At the point where the mounting arm meets the base is a smallish control panel with four touch sensitive buttons including a power button, a menu key, a color mode key, a brightness key, and an input select key. At the rear of the base are HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort video inputs, an upstream USB port, and the power jack. The HDMI port supports MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) technology so you can connect the monitor to compatible smartphones and tablets and other MHL peripherals. There are two downstream USB ports on the right side of the base, but as with the earlier model, they support the older and slower USB 2.0 technology rather than the faster and more current USB 3.0 technology.

The OSD menus consist of Picture, Color, Size and Position, and Setup sub-menus. Picture settings include brightness, sharpness, contrast, dynamic contrast, and HDMI black level. There are also three response time settings that aid in reducing motion blur. The Color menu offers five modes including Standard, Cinema, sRGB, High bright, and Calibration. The Calibration mode, when used with the included Natural Color Expert software, allows you to save a custom color profile. Unlike the NEC MultiSync PA271W, there is no Adobe RGB mode. Other settings include individual Red, Green, and Blue intensity levels, a range of Color Temperature modes from 4,000K to 10,000K, and Gamma presets ranging from 1.6 to 2.7.

Samsung covers the S27B971D with a one-year warranty and includes DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI- MHL, and USB cables in the box. It also comes with resource CD containing drivers, a user guide, Natural Color Expert software, and a multi-screen utility that allows you to create multiple screen partitions.

Performance
The S27B971D is pre-calibrated at the factory, which explains it's excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy. As illustrated by the CIE (International Commission On Illumination) chromaticity chart below, reds, greens, and blues are all inside their respective boxes (each box represents the ideal CIE coordinates for color accuracy).

Grayscale performance was similar to what I saw with the Samsung S27B970D; the panel did a good job of displaying swatches of light gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test but the transition from gray to black was sudden at the dark end of the scale (the swatches should gradate evenly from gray to black). Colors appeared sharp and accurate and the picture remained bright when viewed from an extreme angle.

The PLS panel did a good job of displaying small fonts from the Scaled Fonts test. Text set to 5.3 points (the smallest on the test) was legible and well defined. The panel's 5-millisecond (g-g) pixel response did an admirable job of handling fast gaming action without much blur, and while some motion artifacts were apparent from time to time, you have to be actively looking for them to really notice them.

The S27B971D used 43 watts of power during testing while operating in regular mode. With the Eco Saving option set to 75-percent of full power it used 32 watts, and the 50-percent setting reduced power usage to 21 watts. However, the 50 percent setting is way too dim. By way of comparison, the NEC PA271W used 82 watts in regular mode, 77 watts in Eco mode 1, and 50 watts in Eco mode 2.

Rich, accurate colors and a striking design make the Samsung Series 9 S27B971D a good choice for users seeking a PLS monitor that looks as good as it performs. Its three digital inputs and built-in USB hub offer a variety of connectivity options, and the addition of a matte anti-glare screen means you won't feel like you're staring into a mirror when the screen goes dark. However, at just under a grand this is one pricey monitor; for that kind of money I'd expect better grayscale performance and newer USB technology. Our Editors' Choice, the NEC MultiSync PA271W, offers outstanding grayscale reproduction and is packed with features for the same money, and it has a panel that pivots 90 degrees.

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Samsung Xpress M2625D

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Samsung combines 2003 and 2013 tech with dual-screen, quad-core flip-phone

Samsung has unveiled an Android flip-phone with dual-touchscreens in China, which will likely be positioned as a premium device.

The phone, called the SCH-W789, is displayed on Samsung’s mobile products website in China, and has two 3.3-inch touchscreens, with one placed on the exterior and the other inside the phone. It runs Android 4.1 and can hold two SIM cards, a feature popular among phones in the country.

Both touchscreens have a resolution of 320 by 480 pixels. The phone uses a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, and is powered by a 1,500 mAh battery. In addition, the device has a 5-megapixel camera and also a microSD slot for expandable memory, according to product specifications on the website.

Rumors of the flip-phone had previously referred to it as “Hennessy.” In an email Thursday, Samsung declined to disclose its strategy for the product, but said the phone will be launched next week by mobile carrier China Telecom for 4999 yuan ($811). It is not clear whether the SCH-W789 will only be sold in China.

The SCH-W689 is like the best of 2003 and 2012.

In China, Samsung reigns as the nation’s largest smartphone vendor, surpassing rivals Apple and domestic vendors like Lenovo and Huawei. The company has been successful by offering a wide variety of handsets at both the high and low end, according to analysts.

It’s not the first time the company has introduced a dual-screen flip-phone in the country. The SCH-W689 is a similar phone that comes with room for two SIM cards, but uses Samsung’s own Bada mobile OS.

In 2010, the company also introduced another Android flip-phone in China called the W899. But the phone was specifically meant for high-end business executives willing to spend, said Jessica Kwee, an analyst with research firm Canalys. The W899 is currently sold for around 5800 yuan ($941).

Samsung’s newest flip-phone, the SCH-W789, is likely a premium device with limited stock, and made for people who want to differentiate themselves from other smartphone users, said CK Lu, an analyst with research firm Gartner.

“You can get a better phone, with a bigger screen, at a cheaper price,” he said. “It is very targeted for those people who miss the keyboard, and the clamshell design, and want something different.”

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Samsung SMART Camera gets smarter with Evernote integration

Dude, you got your Evernote in my digital camera!

Recognizing the growing importance of Evernote in the document and photo management space, Samsung is integrating the service into its WB250F SMART Camera. Now you'll be able to sync photos directly from the camera, without having to use a computer as an intermediary.

Like many new digital cameras, the $250 WB250F includes Wi-Fi, so you'll still need to be in range of a wireless network if you want to sync, but cutting out the middleman of having to download pictures to a computer should speed things up for those of us who are Evernote obsessed.

Samsung is also bundling three months' worth of Evernote Premium with the camera, giving you loads of extra storage space.

If you're not an Evernote power-user, this announcement might not initially seem a big deal, but those who rely on the system are likely to find myriad uses here. Let's look at a handful of potential use cases.

Documentation of events and items—The world has moved en masse to cameraphones, but even the best phone cameras don't give you the flexibility and power of a standalone digital camera. With high-power zoom, a better flash, and advanced options like color and style filters, a regular camera is always going to give you more to work with, not to mention overall better quality. For issues where resolution really matters—advertising, insurance claims, and such—a cell phone often just won't do. The ability to share very high resolution photos directly from the camera is a convenient time saver.

Easy sharing of photographs—Evernote is finding increasing utility not just as a personal database of documents and photographs but as a system by which teams can work on these databases together. Getting a digital photo from your camera to your co-workers generally means plugging it into your computer, copying the photos to your hard drive, then emailing them to those who need them. Even though you can send email directly from cameras like the WB250F, using Evernote to share photos is far easier and saves you the trouble of having to type in email addresses or select them from a tiny address book every time you want to send people a picture.

Instant backup—Another clever way to use Evernote is as a backup system. Considering how few of us back up our laptops or phones, how many people are really backing up their digital cameras? Evernote gives you another option for keeping backup copies of important photographs without having to connect to your computer directly. Just sync key pictures to the service and let a spare copy live in the cloud. Sounds like a perfect way to archive, say, photographic documentation of your property which you can use for insurance purposes.

The WB250F SMART Camera is available in cobalt black, white, red and dark blue.

Christopher Null is a veteran technology and business journalist. He contributes regularly to PC World and Wired, and is a technology columnist for Executive Travel magazine.
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Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition (Unlocked)

Pros Beautiful display. Very fast performance. Runs stock Android 4.2. No carrier bloatware, non-removable Samsung apps, or OS update restrictions.

Cons Expensive. Plastic build doesn't look like $650. Some of Samsung's apps were actually useful, and they're missing here. Bottom Line The Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition isn't really what Samsung wants you to buy, but it's the purest form of Android on a phone anywhere—and that's a great thing.

By Jamie Lendino

If you're a fan of stock Android phones, raise your hand. OK, maybe that isn't all of you, but if you're reading this review, chances are that you may be one of them—or, at least, curious as to what all the fuss is all about. The Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition ($649), just like other versions of the phone, gives you five inches of beautiful 1080p display, a quad-core processor, a great camera, and a lightweight form factor. But unlike regular Galaxy S 4 models, this one also gives you Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean in its purest stock form—meaning without the unreliable OS update schedule, inconsistent UI, and carrier and vendor bloatware. It's a clear Editors' Choice for unlocked smartphones, even over the HTC One Google Play Edition.

Design, Setup, and Voice Calls
The Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition looks just like any other Galaxy S 4, and on the hardware side, it works like one, too. For more details, please read our review of the T-Mobile version. In this review, I'll quickly recap what makes the Galaxy S 4 awesome, and then dive into the Google Play-specific stuff.

Much has been made of the phone's plastic build. But really, the end result is that it's lightweight and super-thin; you'll only be disappointed if you're looking for the feel of an aluminum phone, in which case the HTC One Google Play Edition is a better choice for you. The Galaxy S 4 measures 5.4 by 2.75 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.6 ounces. The 5-inch 1,920-by-1,080-pixel, 441-ppi Super AMOLED display is covered in Gorilla Glass 3 and looks brilliant and vivid. Beneath the display, you'll find a hardware Home button, plus capacitive Menu and Back buttons; the combination makes for easy navigation.

This is a powerful unlocked phone, with 4G LTE (700/850/AWS/1900MHz), HSPA+ 42 (850/AWS/1900/2100MHz), and quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support, and there's also 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and NFC. That means it'll work perfectly on both AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, unlike the HTC One which lacks one of T-Mobile's HSPA+ bands. I tested the Galaxy S 4 with an AT&T SIM card for this review. Repeated, back-to-back Ookla speed tests confirmed that there's no difference between the Google Play Edition and other Galaxy S 4s with regard to data speeds. 

Voice calls sounded warm and full through the earpiece; this is a great sounding phone even without Samsung's processing software. That said, this is one place where Samsung's missing custom EQ can help even more, as the carrier-subsidized version is one of the best-sounding cell phones we've ever tested. Transmissions through the microphone were clear, albeit with a bit more background noise than the regular model. This version still sounds great, though; good hardware is good hardware.

User Interface and Performance
Now about all that software. Samsung spends a tremendous amount of time talking up its endless array of software enhancements on the Galaxy S 4. Some of them are a lot of fun, while others are barely functional or even downright annoying. And all of it adds up to a cluttered, inconsistent eyesore of a UI design that's more intent on pimping the company's own media services.

All of that is gone with this version of the phone. Depending on your philosophy, that's either a great thing, or a not-a-big-deal thing. You can tell where I fall on this spectrum, but many Android smartphone owners just ignore any bloatware they don't like. Besides, you can install and run any of Google Play's 900,000 third-party apps, and install and use only the streaming media and a la carte services you prefer. You do lose access to Samsung's nifty pull-down notification bar enhancements and dual-window multitasking, but commonly accessed settings like screen brightness are just an extra tap away on the Google Play Edition.

I was wondering if benchmark results would tell a story between the two versions of the Galaxy S 4, but they actually didn't. All benchmark results were within the margin of error, with an ever-so-slight edge to the stock Android version. Samsung's software isn't slowing down the handset much on paper, it turns out, but moving around the UI, the stock handset responds more quickly and consistently. Regardless of the model, though, you'll be thrilled with the performance of the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
On the multimedia side, you get 16GB of internal storage (12.65GB user accessible, as compared to only 9.62GB on the Samsungged version), plus a microSD card slot that accepts 64GB cards. The battery blocks the card slot, so you'll have to pull it and reset the phone in order to swap cards, but that's the price you pay for a phone that's barely over three tenths of an inch thick, and the HTC One doesn't even have a card slot.

Camera performance doesn't suffer with the Google Play version. Test photos from the 13-megapixel sensor looked a little sharper, if slightly more pixelated; it's as if Samsung's own software was smoothing out the edges of things, at the expense of sharpness. It's a really slight difference, though. Recorded 1080p videos were smooth and crisp at 30 frames per second, just like with the carrier-subsidized Galaxy S 4. You do lose access to the regular Galaxy S 4's various photo modes, such as Dual Shot, Best Face, and Drama Shot. At least it has Google's Photo Sphere, which takes 360-degree panoramas. There's also a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chats.

This brings us to the price, which is usually what kills it when it comes to unlocked phones. An extra $450 up front is a hefty price to pay for what amounts to a clean stock UI and access to some future OS updates. It's not like the current carrier-subsidized Galaxy S 4s are running an old version of Android, either; they've been shipping with Android 4.2.2 since launch. So really, this is about having the stock UI, future OS updates without excruciating delays, and zero preloaded bloatware of any kind.

If you want the best possible unlocked smartphone—or if the idea of a phone-sized Nexus 7 appeals to you—the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition is the one to get. It takes Editors' Choice away from the Google Nexus 4, thanks to the Galaxy S 4's faster performance, larger and sharper screen, and vastly better camera. Anyone who prioritizes the look and feel of the phone hardware itself will probably like the HTC One better, thanks to its beautiful aluminum body; just know that with the HTC One, you're getting a slightly smaller screen, no microSD card slot, no removable battery, a weaker camera, and a display that is a little less bright.

As far as whether this phone is worth springing $450 for over the regular model, given the various trade-offs involved, for nearly everyone the answer is no. But I can only imagine how things would be different if they were the same price up front.

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