News & Reviews:   tablet

Ever wanted a stronger flash for your teensy tiny built-in smartphone LED flash? Well, startup iblazr is currently developing such a flash just for smartphone and tablet users. The equally small world's first portable smartphone flash comes with 4 CREE LEDs that should provide 100 lux on 1m in video mode and more than 180 lux in flash mode. Less then 10mm thick, the iblazr flash connects through the earphone jack but since it has it's own built-in battery, it won't drain your smartphone. Due to its design it can be switched around for either your rear or forward camera. The free app that comes with it will let you control the brightness in either video or impulse mode. For more information check out the iblazr site.

Sony is rumoured to be developing a lens camera attachment that transmits images through NFC or WiFi to your smartphone or tablet. It can be mounted on any smartphone or tablet or it can be used separately. The wireless lens is rumoured to use the same 20.2MP Exmor R sensor and f/1.8 Zeiss lens used in the Sony RX100MII. A second version with a smaller sensor but larger zoom is also supposedly in the works. The mount system looks to be compatible with any smartphone or tablet as it looks like a magnetic lock of some sort.

Imagine an x86 tablet doing a benchmark for Android devices like AnTuTu and you'll get some pretty high scores. Imagine that with the Samsung ATIV Q, one of the most powerful x86 based tablets in existance and you'll get AnTuTu scores that beat out everything else in the market. Thanks to the dual nature of the Samsung ATIV Q it was able to run the AnTuTu Benchmark and got an AnTuTu score of 54861. So far, the highest AnTuTu score was previously Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 devices with AnTuTu scores of around 33000 points.

Of course, this is by no means a fair apples vs oranges comparison since the Samsung ATIV Q is packing a very fast Intel Core i5 and 4GB of RAM while even the fastest smartphone is still limited to 2GB of RAM and a much more energy efficient processor and chipset. Will we ever see Intel Core i5's in Smartphones or smaller sized tablets? Probably not, as for that market, Intel is using the Atom based Silvermont range which have so far still not beaten the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. It does point towards a more promising future for Intel in mobile (and more powerful devices for us) if they manage to pull off the same sort of performance for the processors meant for the mobile market.

While Intel already made the big launch for their Haswell or 4th Generation Intel Core Processors back during Computex Taipei 2013, they recently launched the new processor range officially in Malaysia. For those who don't follow Intel that closely, the new 4th Generation Intel Core Processors codenamed Haswell, bring a number of new features to the table which include:

• a new single System-on-chip (SOC) design
• 50% longer battery life
• lower power requirements
• built-in graphics on par with entry and mid-range discrete graphic cards
• 4K video decode
• better Intel vPro business scurity

According to Samsung, they've just released the World's thinnest Windows 8 tablet with the Samsung ATIV Tab 3. Tech specs for the Samsung ATIV Tab 3 include:10.1-inch display (1366 x 768 pixel)

• Intel Atom Z2760 processor
• 2GB LPDDR2 RAM
• 64GB eMMC storage
• Camera (720p HD)
• Battery (10 hours)
• 8.2mm thick | 550g
• Supports 1x micro USB 2.0, micro HDMI, micro SD
• Windows 8

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

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.

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.

Most of the smartphones and tablets in the market are running on ARM-based processors such as those from Qualcomm and Samsung, especially the Android systems, Intel is making big steps to try and break into the mobile market. One of the most major of which is their new Atom microarcitecture called Silvermont. While there are already a number of Intel powered smartphones and tablets (Lenovo K900, Asus FonePad, etc.), they hardly compare to the hordes of ARM based smartphones and tablets already in and coming to the market. ARM is already coming out with a number of new processors targeting both the midrange and the high performance markets so there is a lot riding on the success of Intel's Silvermont.

We've only just scratched the surface with 4G LTE, especially here in Malaysia with only Maxis and Celcom offering it (and rumours that DiGi may be offering 4G LTE soon as well). This isn't too different in the rest of the world as well, as 4G LTE adoption has yet to gain the same acceptance as 3G. Regardless of this, Samsung are currently working on 5G technology which they hope to bring to the masses by 2020.