News & Reviews:   smartphone

While the confirmation isn't exactly official, a leaked manual for a Snapdragon 800 powered Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone has recently surfaced from Samsung's own download center. This is probably about as close to 'official' confirmation we can get for this smartphone with the model number SHV-E330S. According to tech specs within the manual, the smartphone is using a new Qualcomm MSM8974 chipset with four Krait 400 CPU cores, an Adreno 330 GPU and LTE-Advanced support. While the name hasn't been confirmed yet, all of these specs point towards the rumoured upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 Plus which has all of the features listed.

The Samsung ATIV Q Hybrid Tablet combines the best of two worlds from two different categories by combining a tablet with an ultrabook and Windows 8 with Android in one single device. Featuring a multi-mode hinge on the keyboard part, the ATIV Q can be used as a tablet, a notebook computer, a touchscreen desktop and a floating display. It is also no slouch in terms of tech specs which include:

• 4th Gen Intel Core i5 Processor
• Intel HD Graphics 4400
• 4GB DDR3L RAM
• 128GB SSD
• Camera (720p HD)
• 13.3-inch Touch display (3200 x 1800 pixels, 275ppi)
• Supports S Pen (1024 levels sensitivity)
• 327.0 x 217.8 x 13.9mm thick | 1.29kg
• Battery (Up to 9 hours)
• Supports 1x USB3.0, 1x USB2.0, HDMI, RJ45 (dongle), HP/Mic combo, micro SD
• Windows 8 + Android

While this doesn't really come as a surprise (since it was revealed in one of their music videos) Samsung is now offering the Samsung Galaxy S4 in 5 colours which include:

• Blue Arctic
• Purple Mirage
• Red Aurora
• Brown Autumn
• Pink Twilight

The colours were revealed at their Samsung Premiere 2013 event, but you can already see 4 of the colours from their main Samsung site here. No news when exactly these colours will be made available but we're guessing they could be here in Malaysia in a couple of weeks or so, although Samsung usually release their Pink coloured smartphones as limited editions.

LG has confirmed that they will start mass production of flexible displays for Q4 of 2013. In a newspaper report, the company said that they will be making OLED displays that support ultra-high definitions (like the curved 4K display LG showed off at CES 2013). These panels will be produced at their Paju factory in Korea.

"We will apply a 4.5th generation glass-cutting technology for the OLED flexible displays. Monthly capacity for the line was set as 12,000 sheets."

HTC recently announced the HTC Butterfly S for Asian markets this July. While the HTC Butterfly did offer good specs in smartphone it didn't get that much hype as it was released almost at the same time as the flagship HTC One. At the time, it was still a rather impressive smartphone. The HTC Butterfly S comes into its own with this by offering some rather high-end specs which include:

• 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• 5-inch display (1080p)
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB Storage + microSD
• BoomSound Stereo speakers
• UltraPixel rear camera (Zoe) + 2.1MP front camera (wide-angle)
• Supports Bluetooth 4.0 + IR remote control
• 3200 mAh battery
• Android 4.2 + Sense 5 UI

In a recent set of benchmark tests, Qualcomm showed off their latest Snapdragon 800 chipset, which will appear in premium smartphones later in 2013. Already, there are rumours of a Snapdragon 800 powered Samsung Galaxy S4 Plus smartphone. The benchmarks carried out by Qualcomm are impressive to say the least. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 800 series will be Quad-core processors called the Krait 400 fabricated a 28nm. Each core will run at 2.3 GHz and the processor will use a new Adreno 330 GPU. The chip will also integrate a 4G LTE modem that can go up to 150 Mbps and support 802.11ac WiFi.

If you were wishing for a Samsung Galaxy S4, LG Nexus 4, Sony Xperia Z or HTC One without any contract but still at a subsidized price, then DiGi is the first telco to offer this type of deal. Covering four of the major smartphones in Malaysia, another thing setting them apart is that they all offer Google Edition versions although, we're pretty sure you won't get the Google Edition if you buy any of them except for the LG Nexus 4. While you won't be contracted for 12 or 24 months you will be signed on with a DG SmartPlan 58 but you can terminate the plan anytime without any early termination fee. In addition to this you will also get two months monthly fee waived. For more details on pricing check out the table below:

For those of you traveling overseas to the US, watch out, a species of ants native to the US are destroying electronic devices such as smartphones because they like to eat their insides. These ants are called Rasberry crazy ants and apart from wiping out other ants they like to eat electrical components, especially those inside smartphones and tablets. Small enough to fit into most smartphones or tablets (either through the ports or the jacks), these ants make things worse by releasing pheromones that attract other Rasberry crazy ants when they die. So if they make it inside your smartphone, start nibbling and get electrocuted, they'll just attract more of their smartphone guts gobbling pals.

We've all seen any number drop tests, torture tests and reliability tests from various sites, but does Samsung actually do any reliability testing of their own? Well, it appears they do, and not just in the usual rather amateurish way most other tech sites go about it. Imagine having dedicated machines to test dropping, tumbling, impact, heat and water submersion and you get an idea of how strictly Samsung tests the reliability of their smartphones.

Nokia has long been associated with Symbian as its main operating system, especially for it's feature phones. However, as of this summer in 2013, Nokia will stop shipping Symbian smartphones. The last Symbian smartphone will be Nokia's 808 PureView. Moving on from this, Nokia will only manufacture smartphones that run Microsoft Windows Phone OS.