Have you seen Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T ?!

Have you seen Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T ?!

Samsung Rugby Smart Smarttelephones are a dime a dozen these days, however rugged telephones are few and much between.  Most carriers have a tendency to supply simply one at a time, if any.  whereas AT&T has a pair of excellent rugged characteristic phones, proper now there's simply one choice if you're trying for a sturdy smartphone.  Luckily, it's the Samsung Rugby good $49. ninety nine at AT&T Mobility.  The Rugby sensible is tough, fast, and slick.  It has nearly all of the elements you'd need in an Android smartphone, wrapped up in a single sturdy package deal.  That makes it our Editors' selection for rugged smartphones. Here's more about Samsung Rugby Smart.

Samsung Rugby Smart Design, Rugged Tests, and name Quality

The Rugby good measures four. eight by 2. 6 by 0. 5 inches (HWD) and weighs four. four ounces, which is surprisingly mild and compact for a rugged telephone.  The again cowl is manufactured from textured black plastic, with a plastic silver lock to make sure it cannot be unlatched.  the remainder of the cellphone is encased in thick, grippy, rubberized plastic.  It seems to be and looks like a smaller cellphone that's been tucked right into a heavy obligation case.  the three. 7-inch, 800-by-480-pixel tremendous AMOLED show is attractive.  It will get very bright, and colours look sharp and wealthy.  Unfortunately, the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is tiny, and that i had some hassle getting used to typing on it.  There are 4 clicky, textured bodily perform keys beneath the display, and the headphone and energy ports might be sealed with hooked up rubber toggles.

The telephone meet U. S.  navy spec 810F for dust, humidity, rain, shock, and temperature.  When all of its ports are tightly closed, it will probably be submerged in as much as three ft of water for three0 minutes.  In testing, the Rugby survived lots of direct drops to the ground of the PCMag Labs, from heights as much as 5 toes.  It additionally withstood numerous extended dips right into a bucket of water.  which means it shouldn't have a lot bother standing as much as abuse at worksites, or the fingers of a careless proprietor.  Two caveats: Even when locked, the nook edges on the again cowl of the cellphone got here barely unfastened after a drop to the ground.  It was by no means in peril of popping off, however make positive that to maintain your eye on it after any large drops.  Additionally, the headtelephone and energy ports should be sealed for the telephone to be fully waterproof, however the entire level of an unintentional drop is that you simply didn't see it coming.  Still, protecting these ports closed when not in use ought to hold you fairly secure.

The Rugby is a world cellphone that makes use of AT&T's HSPA+ 14 community and 802. eleven b/g/n Wi-Fi.  It additionally works as a Wi-Fi hotspot with the proper service plan.  HSPA+ 14 speeds are good for 3G, however they're no match for AT&T's scorching new 4G LTE community.  Still, LTE protection is presently restricted and there aren't many LTE gadgets presently obtainable.  There is no rugged LTE telephone on the quick horizon, so should you wish a troublesome telephone, you're caught with 3G for now.

The Rugby good is a wonderful voice telephone.  Reception is good, and calls sound rich, clear, and pure within the phone's earpiece.  The speakerphone additionally sounds good and quantity is simply loud sufficient to make use of outdoor.  Calls made with the cellphone are very clear, with common background noise cancellation.  I had no hassle connecting to a Jawbone period Bluetooth headset ($129. 99, four. 5 stars) and calls sounded nice.  Unfortunately, i used to be unin a position to get voice dialing to work over Bluetooth, although i used to be in a position to make use of it in any other case.  Battery life was good, at eight hours quarter-hour of discuss time.

Samsung Rugby Smart Processor and Apps

The Rugby is powered by a single-core 1. 4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor.  It carried out effectively in our benchmark tests, besting most single-core devices, although it's nonetheless far behind the most recent in dual-core.

The telephone runs Android 2. three. 6 "Gingerbread" with Samsung's TouchWiz extensions.  There are some helpful preinstalled apps, together with Media Hub, a downloadable music and video retailer with affordable prices, and Social Hub, a mix Facebook/Twitter consumer.  There's additionally some bloatware from AT&T, together with FamilyMap and the U-Verse reside television app, that are each deletable.  different apps, like AT&T Navigator and an AT&T 'Featured Apps' store, are not.  The Rugby ought to be suitable with most every little thing within the Android Market, which at present has over 450,000 apps.

Samsung has added a tiny strip on the underside of the house display and app web page that permits you slide via web pages simply by dragging a finger over it, which is useful.  The Rugby additionally shares one among the motion-activated UI options we first noticed on the Galaxy S II : you are able to flip the telephone over to mute the ringer or every different sounds which can be taking part in.

Samsung Rugby Smart Multimedia and Conclusions

The Rugby comes with 2. 61GB of free inside storage.  There's an empty MicroSD card slot below the battery that takes playing cards as much as 32GB.  Our 32GB and 64GB SanDisk playing cards each labored positive.  All of our music check information performed again with out a hitch, and sound high quality was wonderful over wired three. 5mm headphones.  All of our check videos, besides for DivX, performed again flawlessly as well, at resolutions as much as 720p.  Sound high quality for music and video was advantageous over a pair of Altec Lansing BackBeat Bluetooth headphones ($99. 99, three. 5 stars), however occasional clicks and pops got here through, even when no audio was enjoying.

The 5-megapixel digital camera is strong.  Shutter speeds are good, at about . eight second.  photographs look sharp, each indoors and out, with common colour element.  The video digicam information 720p video at 30 frames per second indoors and out.  There's additionally a 1. 3-megapixel ahead going through digital camera for self portraits and video chat.

for a similar worth because the Rugby Smart, you are able to get a telephone on AT&T that's lots extra powerful, just like the dual-core, 4G LTE-compatible LG Nitro HD ($99. 99, four. 5 stars) or the HTC Vivid ($99. 99, four stars), however neither are notably powerful.  The service gives the rugged Motorola Tundra ($199. 99, four stars) and Samsung Rugby II ($99. 99, four stars), however these are characteristic telephones with restricted capabilities.  proper now, the closest competitor is Verizon's Casio G'zOne Commando ($179. 99, three stars), however its options are fairly dated.  The Samsung Rugby sensible is the most effective rugged smartphone accessible proper now, making it our Editors' selection.

Benchmarks

Continuous speak time: eight hours quarter-hour

Samsung Rugby Smart Price is $99.99

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Hot Release! Samsung Galaxy Note from AT&T

Hot Release! Samsung Galaxy Note from AT&T

Samsung Galaxy Note says it makes a cellphone for everyone, including, apparently, individuals with large fingers.  That's the one potential rationalization for the Galaxy be aware "phablet. " whereas its measurement verges on a tablet, its software program and utilization scream "phone. " That leaves the be aware an unlucky tweener, and this too-big telephone is tough to like. Here's more about Samsung Galaxy Note.

The be aware isn't the primary phone-tablet hybrid.  the thought has been knocking round because the 1990s, and that i have a recording of phablets all through historical past right here on PCMag.  The word might be the best-engineered system of its kind, however there's one thing about this bodily measurement, versus the typical measurement of the human hand, which isn't fairly working. 

Samsung Galaxy Note bodily Design, telecellphone Calls and Internet

The Galaxy be aware ($299 with contract) appears to be like like a Samsung Galaxy S II cellphone blown as much as an impractical dimension.  At 5. eight by three. three by . 4" (HWD) it's slender and beautiful, with a gorgeously sharp, 5. 3-inch, 1280-by-800 tremendous AMOLED display exhibiting colours so deep you are able to fall into them.  There's an 8-megapixel digicam on the again and a 2-megapixel unit on the front, in addition to normal MicroUSB and three. 5-mm headset jacks.  A reminiscence card slips right into a slot beneath the again panel.

The cellphone is slim and gentleweight.  It's simply method too extensive.  whereas I can grip the Galaxy notice safely in a single hand, it doesn't go away any leeway for my fingers to really transfer round the contact display screen.  for many people, it is going to be completely unattainable to make use of this cellphone one-handed.  I've been attempting to take action and failing miserably.  Most notably, I can't attain the vital "back" button with my thumb when cradling the cellphone in a single hand.  I couldn't even reply a telephone name with one hand.

however (literally), I gave the Galaxy observe to Jeff Wilson, who has the biggest palms within the office, and he cherished it.  So for guys with fingers like baseball mitts, this seems to be simply the suitable dimension.

The Galaxy be aware is a nice phone, though it's a bit odd to carry as much as your head.  i used to be involved that the microphone can be to date away from my face, it might trigger subjects with background noise, however that isn't a difficulty betrigger of Samsung's aggressive noise cancellation know-how.  Reception was respectable.  Sound high quality by way of the earpiece is excellent; voice tones are splendidly warm, with excellent quantity.  The speakerphone is loud sufficient to make use of open air.  Transmissions via the mic, altered by the noise-cancellation software, sounded a bit computery, and the noise cancellation didn't knock out the entire background noise from a passing bus.

The Galaxy be aware attached with out bother to our Jawbone period ($129, four. 5 stars) Bluetooth headset for each voice calls and multimedia sound, together with triggering the comparatively correct voice dialing.

The Galaxy word works on AT&T's 4G LTE community in addition to each AT&T's and worldwide HSPA+ 21 communitys.  I received completely superb LTE speeds of about 10Mbps down and 4Mbps up.  AT&T's 4G community isn't obtainable throughout the country—it at the moment covers 23 metro areas—but you shouldn't be disenchanted with HSPA+ 21 both.  The be aware connects to Wi-Fi 802. 11b/g/n, together with mechanically sniffing out and hooking as much as AT&T's paid Wi-Fi hotspot community.  The Galaxy be aware works as a tethered modem or Wi-fi hotspot with the suitable plan.

I acquired eight hours, half-hour of discuss time on the big 2500 mAh battery.  That feels low, though it's lengthy sufficient to not issue into your shopping for selections.  I'll retest the telephone over the following few days. 

Samsung Galaxy Note Taking observes on the observe

The Galaxy observe is simply in regards to the dimensions of a Moleskine notebook, and note-taking is considered one of its premier options.  The be aware comes with somewhat plastic stylus referred to as the S Pen, which tucks right into a slot within the underside.  utilizing the S Pen, you may draw or take notes in Samsung's S word app, Autodesk's Sketchbook Mobile, or anyplace else you select.  The S Pen additionally permits just a few tricks—for instance, taking snapshots of net pages and doodling on them.

utilizing the S Pen is slightly awkward, though, as a result of it's so brief and thin.  i discovered it tough to make use of with out touching the display with the aspect of my hand, which disrupted the enter.  issues acquired simpler after I put the S Pen within the bigger S Pen Holder ($59. 99), which gave my hand some extra distance from the display screen.

This isn't a standard capacitive stylus.  It's primarily based on Wacom technology, and it's each extra exact than a daily stylus and pressure-sensitive, at the very least within the S be aware app.  I couldn't discover every different apps, together with Sketchbook cellular and Evernote's Skitch, that correctly took benefit of the strain sensitivity.

And rather a lot is misplaced when you're translating from pen to touchscreen.  I've spent years taking notes with out looking, and the Note's S Pen stylus lacks the tactile chunk of pen on paper that helps to information my hand.  Digital ink is simply a bit bit annoyingly slower than common ink, too.  It's "Why I Hate contact Screens," throughout once more.  you are able to take notes with it, certainly, however it's an inferior expertise to utilizing a daily pen.

What's the benefit of S-Pen over just-plain-pen.  digital notes are captured and filed, and may be shared simply.  you are able to annotate internet pages or different issues you see on the display.  A stylus can be good for artists, because it could actually fake to be totally different brushes and such.

however for note-taking, a LiveScribe Echo pen ($99, four stars) with a paper pocket book is way superior.  You get the tactile response of bodily paper with the submitting skill of digital notes, alongside with synced audio notes.  And for drawing, the Galaxy be aware is a bit small. 

Samsung Galaxy Note Phablet Phails With cellcellphone Apps

I name the Galaxy be aware a "phablet," however from the angle of Android it's purely and solely a cellphone.  That's an issue.  The Galaxy notice runs Android 2. three. 6 on its 5. 3-inch, 1280-by-800 display screen.  if you open the Android Market, you don't see any pill apps—those usually require Android three. 0.  which means no Autodesk Sketchbook professional (only Mobile), and not one of the Adobe contact apps can be found.  Apps which have each pill and celltelephone variations load the celltelephone model.

This makes for lots of wasted house and wasted alternatives in app person interfaces.  Take TweetDeck, as an example.  The Galaxy notice has room for 2 columns on its chunky screen, however the cellphone model of TweetDeck, assuming a smaller screen, solely exhibits one column.  Ditto for fb.  The built-in Gmail app may have room for a aspect index or preview panel, however that offers you a single-column view as effectively.  the sport EVAC HD offers with the issue by placing an enormous black border round its sport board.

the very truth that that is a big cellphone gut-punches the online looking expertise now and then, too.  Many internet sites—such as our own—detect the Galaxy notice as a "phone" and thus show clunky WAP pages designed for gadgets with tiny screens.  as a result of that is Android 2. three and never four. 0, there's no method to set the built-in browser to power desktop web page mode; you need to obtain the Dolphin HD browser to do it.

This has at all times been the issue with outlier devices, just like the Galaxy be aware and Kyocera's dual-screen Echo (3 stars) for dash.  App builders goal the mainstream, so that they don't optimize experiences for these weirdo units.  The weirdos finish up left with a world of app experiences that don't fairly match.

Fortunately, Samsung redesigned the calendar app to take higher benefit of the big screen, with tabs on the suitable hand aspect.  however except and till 5. 3-inch, 1280-by-800 units develop into a typical size, you'll be left hammering squarish pegs into barely rounded holes with apps on this telephone.  A promised improve to Android four. 0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" might assist repair the awkwardness, however Samsung isn't keen to say when that improve will come (or if it'll even be this 12 months. )

Samsung and AT&T each stuffed the Galaxy observe filled with the same old extras.  There are two film retailers, for instance: AT&T's mSpot retailer is painfully overpriced with $5 leases, whereas Samsung's Media Hub is "more reasonably" priced with leases round $3.  The cellphone additionally comes with Kindle, an AT&T QR code reader, AT&T household Map, each AT&T and Samsung app stores, and a few different gewgaws preloaded. 

Samsung Galaxy Note efficiency and Multimedia

All that aside, the Galaxy word performs the means in which you'd count on a dual-core 1. 5Ghz, Android Gingerbread cellphone to perform: that is to say, swiftly.  It benchmarked within the identical class with different top-of-the-line telephones just like the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx ($299, four. 5 stars) and the LG Nitro HD ($2four9, four. 5 stars), though its shopping and graphics scores had been a bit of low, most likely reflecting the extra pressure of filling up that high-density display screen.

The Galaxy word is a wonderful video player, because of the large display screen.  It has 10. 8GB of free storage to start, and also you may pop in a reminiscence card as much as 64GB.  It performed all of our check video information as much as 1080p HD decision with out a hitch by means of its speaker and by means of wired headphones, though we had some slight issues with lip sync when utilizing stereo Bluetooth headphones.  To play movies on an enormous TV, you are able to use a $30 MHL adapter (not included) for HDMI output.  The MHL output has one annoying quirk: to activate it, you want to enter the Gallery app; solely then will it mirror your phone's show in your television.

The music participant additionally helps all of our take a look at formats, and music sounded good by wired and Bluetooth headphones.

The 8-megapixel rear digicam is among the sharpest we've examined.  It's fairly quick at 0. 7 second to focus, and photographs look nice.  shiny skies are nonetheless blown out, as we see on most mobile-phone cameras, however in any other case each indoor and out of doors images are sharp and clear.  The film mode information very easy 720p movies at 30 frames per second indoor and out, and 1080p movies at 30 frames per second outdoors, however a rather wobbly 24 fps indoors.  The front-facing, 2-megapixel digicam takes respectable nonetheless shots, however oddly can't file motion pictures.  it really works with video chat apps, although. 

Samsung Galaxy Note Conclusions

Samsung says it makes a cellphone for everybody.  In that way, it's the anti-Apple.  Apple makes one telephone for as many individuals as possible; Samsung makes an almost infinite quantity of teletelephones for various tastes.

i do know the Galaxy notice isn't for me, and that i have bother determining who I'd advocate it to.  however make note: this phablet works simply positive.  when it comes to our lab tests, all techniques are go.  It's a four-star implementation of a two-star concept.  The Galaxy notice works well; I simply don't suppose the world wants the Galaxy notice.

If you're wanting for a small pill, get an Amazon Kindle fireplace ($199, four stars) or maintain out for the upcoming Asus Eee Pad Memo, which can ship a very highly effective Android pill expertise for $2four9 this spring.  If you're a note-taker and sketcher who desires to show your scribblings digital, I'd advocate combining a LiveScribe Echo smartpen with a paper Mini Journal ($12. 95) and a smartphone with broader appeal, whether or not it's an Apple iPhone fourS ($199, four stars) or Samsung's personal Galaxy S II Skyrocket ($2four9, four. 5 stars).  That bundle presents a greater note-taking association for a greater diversity of palms than the gargantuan Galaxy be aware.

Here's some Samsung Galaxy Note Pictures

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Review for Samsung Focus 2 From AT&T

 

Samsung Focus 2

The Samsung Focus 2 ($49. ninety nine with two-year contract) is Samsung's first home windows cellphone with 4G LTE.  It's a follow-up to the Samsung Focus S ($99. 99, three. 5 stars) and smaller Focus Flash ($49. 99, three. 5 stars), two of the extra well-liked cell telephones to grace Microsoft's newest cellular platform.  however moderately than advance the design in any way, Samsung seems to have fused the 2 together, rounded the perimeters off, and known as it a day.  It's a high-quality choice, however there are definitely extra tempting choices.Here's more about Samsung Focus 2.

Samsung Focus 2 Design, Screen, and name Quality

The Focus 2 is actually a bit of white shiny plastic, albeit with a chrome accent band round the perimeters and a glass display screen.  It's simply four-tenths of an inch thick, and it weighs four. three ounces, which is on the skinny and mildweight facet for a telephone with these specs.  It feels fairly good in hand, contemplating it's fabricated from plastic and never a classier substance.  The bundled black USB cable and energy adapter look a bit odd when plugged into an all-white telephone.

The 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel tremendous AMOLED display is customary fare for home windows telephones.  It seems to be sharp and colorful, with deep blacks, good brightness, and decent-if-not-spectacular viewing angles.  Three brightly lit contact buttons sit beneath the display.  Typing on the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is simple and fast, and that i nonetheless love the little key click on sound on home windows telephones.

the main focus 2 is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), tri-band HSPA+ 21 (850/1900/2100 MHz), and single-band LTE (700MHz) gadget with 802. 11b/g/n Wi-Fi.  right here in ny City, LTE speeds had been on the low aspect of excellent in our tests, averaging eight to 10Mbps down and 1. three to 1. 6Mbps up.

name high quality was blended.  Voices sounded tremendous within the earpiece, with lots of obtainable acquire and a sharp, shiny tone.  Transmissions via the mic had been much less clear, though, and sounded excessively computerized.  That said, the telephone did a pleasant job of suppressing exterior sounds on a loud avenue.  Reception was strong.  Calls sounded high-quality by a Jawbone period Bluetooth headset ($129, four stars), and voice dialing labored completely.  The speakerphone is sort of loud and simply usable outdoors, though it sounds a tad harsh.  Battery life was high quality at 6 hours and 10 minutes of speak time.

Samsung Focus 2 Hardware, Apps, and Multimedia

Underneath the hood, you'll discover a single-core Qualcomm MSM8255 1. 4GHz processor and 512MB RAM.  As a correct home windows telephone 7. 5 (Mango) handset, the main target 2 ought to have no downside working any of the 80,000+ third-party apps within the home windows market.  Unfortunately, Microsoft has left it unclear whether or not all telephones will get upgrades to home windows telephone eight (Apollo) later this yr.

Like all home windows Phones, the main target 2 is enjoyable to use, with its sliding tile interface, clean animations, and clearly labeled icons.  Desktop webpages seemed sharp in web Explorer in our tests, however there's no approach to pressure WebKit pages to look the approach they do mechanically on Android telephones and iPhones—you both get archaic WAP or the total desktop website.  AT&T preloads its ordinary bloatware, together with the U-verse cellular television app, and AT&T Navigator, which delivers voice-enabled turn-by-turn GPS instructions and real-time site visitors alerts for $9. ninety nine monthly.

There's 6. 18GB of free inner storage and no reminiscence card slot.  that would get somewhat cramped after some time.  A standard-size three. 5mm headcellphone jack sits on the highest fringe of the cellphone.  Music tracks sounded clear via Plantronics BackBeat Go Bluetooth headphones ($99. 99, four stars), and the inventory home windows cellphone music participant is a pleasure to make use of.  MP4 and DivX movies performed easily in full display screen mode, however one H. 264 check file i take advantage of stuttered extra typically than typical.  There's no Xvid assist.  I had no drawback transferring music and movies between the cellphone and my Lenovo laptop computer utilizing Zune software, apart from a slight driver hiccup throughout the preliminary set up.

Samsung Focus 2 digicam and Conclusions

The 5-megapixel digicam gives 720p audio recording, and consists of an LED flash.  There's additionally a front-facing VGA digital camera for video chats.  take a look at pictures appeared superb for this class of digital camera.  outside check photographs have been colorful, however the sky grew to become all white.  Indoor pictures lacked sharpness, although.  Recorded 1280-by-720-pixel (720p) and 640-by-480-pixel (VGA) movies appeared sharp and clean at 30 frames per second.  There's no picture stabilization, however the main target 2 adjusts to altering lighting extra easily than andifferent telephones I've examined.

the main focus 2's largest downside is Nokia—specifically, the stellar Lumia 900 ($49. 99, four stars), a home windows telephone with a bigger and extra vibrant screen, 16GB of inside storage, and a slimmer and classier design, all for a similar worth because the main target 2.  We're additionally extra assured Microsoft will ship an Apollo replace to the Lumia 900, given the company's tight relationship with Nokia.

when you have extra cash to spend and aren't dedicated to home windows Phone, our present Editors' alternative on AT&T is the HTC One X ($199. 99, four. 5 stars), which presents quicker LTE speeds, a dual-core processor, a stunning four. 7-inch high-definition display, and the most recent model of Android, though it's a considerably bigger telephone.  Finally, for those who need one thing small however powerful, the Apple iPhone 4S ($199. 99, four stars) has the most effective multimedia and third-party apps you may get, though it lacks LTE information speeds and has a smaller (if sharper) three. 5-inch display.  each the iPhone and One X supply 1080p video recording and have superior cameras too.

Benchmarks

Continuous discuss time: 6 hours 10 minutes

Samsung Focus 2 Pictures Below.

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Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T

 Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T the brand new flagship smarttelephone from the world's number-one cell telephone company, Samsung's Galaxy S III ($199. ninety nine with contract) is actually an enormous achievement.  in the event you love massive telephones with heaps of options, the GS3 will ship state-of-the-art efficiency with bonus sharing and media options that you're seemingly to proceed discovering a 12 months from now.  For its total efficiency and quality, the Galaxy S III  is our new Editors' alternative for touch-screen smartphones on AT&T. Here's more about Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T.

Editors' Note: The Samsung Galaxy S III fashions on all 4 main carriers are extraordinarily similar, so we're sharing quite a bit of fabric between our varied critiques.  That said, we're testing every system separately, so learn the overview on your provider of selection.

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T bodily Design

All of the brand new Galaxy S III fashions look the same, besides for the service brand on the again panel.  every is out there in darkish blue or white (AT&T additionally has a crimson choice coming this summer), and they're a few of the largest telephones we've ever dealt with.  At 5. four by 2. eight by 0. 3four inches (HWD) and four. 7 ounces, the GS3 is barely greater than the already-large HTC One X ($199, four. 5 stars), though it's nonetheless noticeably smaller and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy be aware phone/tablet hybrid ($299, three stars).   That said, that is not a telephone for people with small palms.

I'm not a fan of the large cellphone.  however I've given up on panning them as a result of each time I recommend these handsets are too big, I get pummeled by feedback from individuals who adore them.  big telephones are the factor.  I settle for it.

The all-plastic physique feels a little bit much less high-end than the unique supplies of the HTC One series, however the telephone is solidly built, and gentleweight regardless of its measurement.  The entrance of the cellphone is dominated by the four. 8-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel tremendous AMOLED HD display screen.  Yes, it's PenTile, which may typically look barely pixelated.  But, no, you almost certainly won't discover.  beneath the screen, there's a bodily deffectivelying button, in addition to light-up again and Multitasking buttons that begin out invisible, so that you need to memorize the place they are or change a setting to maintain them illuminated.  The 8-megapixel digicam is on the again panel, which, due to its reflective finish, doubles as a pocket mirror. 

The default automated Brightness setting makes the display too dim.  Kill it and pump up the brightness and it's fine, even outside.  It's not as brilliant because the One X's tremendous liquid crystal display 2 display, however it's advantageous.

in contrast to the competing HTC One X , the S III has a detachable 2100mAh battery.  Taking off the again cowl additionally reveals the microSD card slot, which helps playing cards as much as 64GB.

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T name high quality and Internet

If you're  in name quality, purchase the Galaxy S III.  Don't purchase andifferent cellphone.  You get superior name high quality options I've by no means seen wherever else, and so they make an actual distinction.  What's best: not like HD Voice within the dash HTC EVO 4G LTE ($199. 99, four stars), they don't require community assist.  Default name high quality is sweet.  quantity is on the excessive finish of average, with no distortion from loud inputs.  The speakerphone is loud sufficient to make use of outdoor.  The microphone does a superb job of cancelling background noise.  Bluetooth headsets work wonderful with Samsung's "S Voice" voice dialing system.

however as with so many issues here, name high quality will get richer when you burrow down into the GS3's settings screens.  A quantity enhance howeverton throws the telephone right into a super-loud, quasi-speakertelephone mode for noisy areas, however that's simply the beginning.  There's additionally an choice to set customized name EQ: The telephone performs you a sequence of quiet excessive and low tones and also you inform it which of them you may hear, after which it EQ's names accordingly.  that is fairly radical stuff.  I desire my calls sharp, with extra high-end, for instance, and the GS3 affords that.  This all makes the GS3 the perfect voice telephone on AT&T.

For data, the GS3 hits AT&T's super-fast LTE network, alongside with world HSPA+ and Wi-Fi on each the two. 4GHz and 5GHz bands.  Bluetooth four. 0 and NFC are additionally on board.  AT&T nonetheless blocks Google Wallet, however Samsung discovered its personal makes use of for NFC, which I'll get to under.

Our battery take a look at didn't full as a result of we ran out of time.  however that's good; we nonetheless had about 20 p.c battery left after a 9 hour, 17 minute name.  This telephone lasts, and contemplating the battery is removable, you may carry a spare.  That's one thing you can't do with the HTC One X.

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T software program and Performance

The Galaxy S III runs Android four. 0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" with an entire lot of unique Samsung extensions.  efficiency was glorious in my exams.  The Qualcomm S4 chip operating at 1. 5GHz is the quickest one we've seen in smartphones so far, and it's ready to tackle any app problem you throw at it, together with video games on the HD display screen.  Our benchmark assessments proved this, though they had been inside the margin of error in contrast with the One X.  each telephones are very quick.

unique new choices embody S-Beam, the power to switch recordsdata by tapping two telephones collectively and utilizing a mixture of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct; S-Voice, Samsung's reply to Apple's Siri; TecTiles, NFC-enabled accent tags that may change the settings in your phone, and plenty of sharing and tagging choices inside the camera, similar to the power to mechanically tag your friends' faces, and the power for a number of GS3s inside a number of ft of every different to mechanically share all of their photographs.

lots of those options work well, however they're virtually all buried.  The interface is one thing of a scavenger hunt.  Take sensible Stay, a neat new function which detects your face and retains the display screen from going black whereas you're trying at it.  i like it.  however it's not on by default, and the one approach to show it on is by going to the show space underneath Settings.  S-Beam is equally buried, underneath the wi-fi menu.

Samsung helpfully pops up varied screens telling you about varied cool gestures you may use, like elevating the telephone to your face to mechaninamey name somebody you're texting.  however it's lots of data to absorb, and lots of gestures that you've by no means used earlier than.  Tright here's a pointy studying curve right here.

evaluate this with HTC, which has been working to cut back distinctive UI components.  HTC's latest Sense four interface focuses on a couple of new options and makes them integral: enhanced sound, a quicker camera, and stable social networking integration.  Samsung presents lots extra, however it prices you lots extra psychological vitality to determine all of it out.

I'll additionally name out two minor disappointments.  The display screen rotated unexpectedly extra typically that I'd like.  Also, S-Voice isn't as seamless or as full as Siri.  It's a superb voice-dialing system, together with over Bluetooth, however I saved vocally stepping on its prompts when attempting to ask it extra difficult queries.

past that, there's the standard raft of bloatware from each Samsung and AT&T: I depend 15 pre-installed apps.  past that, there are the 400,000-plus apps within the Google Play retailer.

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T Multimedia

The 16GB Galaxy S III we examined has 12GB of accessible reminiscence and performs all of the same old music and video formats, together with MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4, H. 264, DivX, Xvid, and WMV information at resolutions as much as 1080p.

Samsung has personalized each the music and video gamers.  They aren't as handsome as HTC's, however they're purposeful.  alongside with the standard music navigation, there's a frill known as Music Square, which grades all your music on a 2nd scale from "calm" to "exciting" and "passionate" to "joyful," creating customized playlists by temper.  There's additionally an epic quantity of EQ presets, which change the sound in effective, if gimmicky methods.

The picture/video gallery integrates Google and fb albums, and allows you to kind your movies as an inventory or with thumbnails.  The flagship characteristic right here is Pop-Up Play, which might float a video playback window over different apps; i discovered it to be pretty ineffective.  Netflix and YouTube each look good and run on LTE with out any seen buffering.  The telephone additionally comes with Samsung's Media Hub music and video store, which has a stable lineup of curlease motion pictures and television exhibits at industry-standard costs of $4 to lease and $15-$20 to purchase.

in the event you would like to play your video on an enormous HDTV, you wish to make use of Samsung's AllShare system, which like most different wi-fi video techniques not often works as a result of your house community doesn't have the bandwidth, or a new-style 11-pin MHL adapter.  Our previous MHL adapters didn't work.

The 8-megapixel digicam takes good-looking, saturated pictures which are sharp with little noise, a minimum of in respectable mild.  In our low-light test, the shutter pace dropped to 1/40 second, which can trigger some softness when you don't have a gradual hand.  That's nonetheless higher than many cameraphones.  The 1-megapixel entrance digital camera additionally confirmed strong low-light efficiency.  The video mode captures 1080p movies at 30 frames per second indoors and out with the principle camera, which is extra than we might say for the HTC One X.

There are a ton of gimmicky digicam modes.  HDR is significantly slower than on both the iPhone fourS ($199, four stars) or the HTC One X, and confirmed a bent to create "ghost" photos after i attempted it.  Smile detection labored well, and Share Shot helps you to routinely stream pictures to different GS3s within the world.  Buddy Photo-Share tags faces with names primarily based on the photographs of their social-networking profiles.  these final two are buried within the digicam settings and whereas cool, you're not going to come across them simply. 

Samsung Galaxy S III From AT&T Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X are each top-notch, state-of-the-art telephones.  The GS3 wins our Editors' selection award narrowly, on function factors.  even when you don't use a few of its extra arcane features—and you won't—SD card support, the detachable battery, larger video recording body rates, higher voice dialing and name high quality nab the prize.

That said, the One X is barely smaller (and thus extra snug to use), is produced from higher-quality materials, has a brighter display, and has higher dwelling display widgets.  It's additionally a really sensible selection.  resolve for your self which one you want; you won't lose both means.

If these telephones don't attraction to you, you may go in two instructions.  AT&T subscribers intimidated by the sheer quantity of settings and choices right here ought to take a look on the Nokia Lumia 900 ($99, four stars), with its a lot extra peaceable however nonetheless highly effective home windows cellphone 7. 5 OS.  The petite-pawed, meanwhile, will nonetheless flock to the iPhone 4S, with its very sharp, however a lot smaller three. 5-inch display.



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