The Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.2 looks like a mobile phone, but it is actually a compact Android tablet that follows on from last year's Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and 5.0.
The Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.2 looks like a mobile phone, but it is actually a compact Android tablet that follows on from last year's Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and 5.0.
The Apple iPad 3 is Apple's third-generation
tablet, and it improves on what was already the tablet to beat with
an impressive specification set. It is not as revolutionary
or outlandish as some rumours were suggesting - this latest iPad
is more of a logical evolution of the previous device, but it must
leave competitors wondering how they are going to catch up.
The biggest change is perhaps not noticeable until
you start using it - the iPad 3 now has a 1536 x 2048 pixel 9.7"
display, with four times the pixel of the old iPads. As with the
iPhone 4
and 4S,
Apple call this a "retina display", meaning that the pixels
are too small to see. The first iPad had a pretty much off-the-shelf
panel that must have been very cheap to develop, but Apple can be
sure that this new iPad will sell in enough quantities to justify
creating a completely new class of display.
Inside
is a dual-core Apple A5X processor with a four-core graphics GPU. We
don't know how that will compare with some of the monster four-core
CPU Android tablets coming up this year, but we suspect that Apple's
design will be very competitive. Raw processing power is nice, but
there's more to making a tablet than that.
On the back is a 5 megapixel camera (Apple call
this the "iSight" camera) with a secondary "FaceTime"
camera on the front for video calling. The iPad
2 had just 0.7 megapixels at the back but it could capture 720p
HD video. The iPad 3's camera can capture 1080p video, but then
Apple are also making a big deal of being able to edit digital images
right on the iPad. Yes, the iPad 3 makes a really bulky camera,
but it does mean that you can manipulate them straight away before
emailing them off somewhere, and there are a number of other interesting
built-in imaging features with a mass of related apps available
to download as well.
Surprisingly, the iPad 3 is actually thicker than
the old iPad 2, coming in at 9.4mm thick compared to 8.8mm for the
iPad 2. In reality it isn't a big deal, but it is also about 10%
heavier which is definitely going the wrong way, coming in at between
652 and 662 grams compared to 601 to 613 grams for the iPad 2.
As
before, there's either a WiFi-only version or one that also supports
cellular networks - we used to call that the 3G option, but (in
the US at least) the new iPad is a 4G device capable of running
on AT&T or Verizon's LTE networks. These versions are different
from each other inasmuch as the Verizon one also has support for
CDMA/EVDO in addition to the GSM/EDGE/HSPA+ support found on the
AT&T one.
The operating system is iOS 5.1 which is just like
iOS 5 except better. As well as countless improvements to the operating
system, the iPad 3 also comes with a speech-to-text dictation
system, but not the excellent Siri feature found on the iPhone 4S.
The iPad 3 is available with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
of internal flash memory. Inside is a 42.5 watt-hour battery capable
of giving up to 10 hours of web surfing time on WiFi. The whole
package measures 241 x 186 x 9.4mm.
Prices for the iPad 3 vary in the US, starting at
$499 for the 16GB WiFi-only version, going up to $829 for the WiFi
plus LTE 64GB version, that is about the same at the iPad 2's pricing.
The good news is that the very capable iPad 2 is dropping in price
by $100 and is now starting at $399.
Officially, Apple are calling this just the
"new iPad" and not the iPad 3, although we suspect that
the iPad 3, iPad HD or iPad 4G names will become a common way of
differentiating it. The iPad 3 should start shipping in the US,
UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Japan and some
other territories from March 16th with many more European countries
by the end of the month.
Expected
2012 14th March 2012
Some years ago - before touchscreen phones were all the rage - the trend with mobile phones was that they kept getting smaller and smaller with every generation. That was OK because most phones used to be pretty basic, but recent smartphone are more like computers and because you can do a lot more with them, then the display sizes have been getting bigger and bigger.
JCB have been dabbling in the phone market for a while,
sometimes in partnership with others as with the Motorola
DEFY+ JCB Edition and sometimes under their own brand,
as with the original JCB
TOUGHPHONE which was built by Sonim.
Their recent range appears to have been sourced from Power Idea Technologies of China who sell the same handsets to a variety of resellers worldwide. These simple but rugged devices have gained a pretty good reputation with users, and it's no surprise to see that at least two of the three new phones announced are from the same firm - the JCB Toughphone Sitemaster 2 and JCB Toughphone Sitemaster 3G.
The Sitemaster 2 is an IP67 certified GSM-only "candy bar" phone
with a 2 megapixel camera, a torch and an FM radio. The Sitemaster
3G adds 3G support but is only specified to IP54, which is still
pretty darned tough. These are both fairly basic devices, but
certainly with enough features to get the job done in most cases.
The most interesting device is the JCB Toughphone Pro Smart,
an IP67 certified Android 2.3.5 device with a 3.2” display, 5 megapixel
camera and an 800 MHz processor. From the press photo we've seen,
this is a pleasingly chunky device and is one of a very small number
of rugged Android devices on the market. Again, JCB have bought
this in from somewhere else (we don’t know where) and the exact
same handset it also going to be available in other markets as the
Caterpillar CAT B10.
These handsets look pretty good for a niche market. But do they go far enough? We feel that there's a real niche market for smartphones that are even more rugged than this. What about a rugged smartphone with a big screen and proper buttons or a tethered stylus so you can use it while wearing gloves? With a battery that will actually last a day on a charge? Yes, we know there are a couple of tablets like this, but something that can slip into a coat pocket would be nice. How about it, JCB?
Their recent range appears to have been sourced from Power Idea Technologies of China who sell the same handsets to a variety of resellers worldwide. These simple but rugged devices have gained a pretty good reputation with users, and it's no surprise to see that at least two of the three new phones announced are from the same firm - the JCB Toughphone Sitemaster 2 and JCB Toughphone Sitemaster 3G.
 Left to right: JCB Toughphone Sitemaster 2, Sitemaster 3G, Pro Smart. |
These handsets look pretty good for a niche market. But do they go far enough? We feel that there's a real niche market for smartphones that are even more rugged than this. What about a rugged smartphone with a big screen and proper buttons or a tethered stylus so you can use it while wearing gloves? With a battery that will actually last a day on a charge? Yes, we know there are a couple of tablets like this, but something that can slip into a coat pocket would be nice. How about it, JCB?
It is perhaps hard to believe that the Apple iPhone has been around for five years. Announced in January 2007 and then shipping in the US during June of that year, the iPhone is one of the most iconic and influential mobile phones ever made.
The Motorola RAZR MAXX is a almost identical to the RAZR Android smartphone, but with a much bigger battery. The RAZR MAXX is based on the DROID RAZR MAXX, available on Verizon Wireless in the US, however this particular RAZR is heading for China with no word of a European version at present.
The Nokia 808 PureView is among the smartphones that generated a lot of buzz during MWC 2012, and is still heavily discussed in the blogosphere. And rightfully so, as it packs the biggest and baddest camera sensor that has ever found itself inside of a smartphone so far – 41 megapixels, 1/1.2” in size. But camera aside, is there anything else that can make it stand out?
Samsung Galaxy Pocket is a smartphone for budget-conscious consumers offering an 832MHz single-core processor and a 2.8-inch display with QVGA resolution. On its back it has a really basic fixed focus camera of 2 megapixels, and a 1,200mAh battery resides under its back cover. You also get a 3.6Mbps 3G radio, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, and 3 gigabytes of on-board storage. All of that is confined inside of a body with a thickness of 12 millimeters. The device itself tips the scale at the The first of LG's "L-Style" series of fashion smartphones, the LG Optimus L3 is a compact but not particularly powerful Android handset due to hit the shops later this month.
The main features with the Optimus L3 are a smallish 3.2" 240 x 320 pixel display and a 3 megapixel camera with an 800 MHz processor and 384MB of RAM plus 1GB of internal storage, we would hope that this comes with a microSD slot.
There's a relatively large 1500 mAh battery, and the Optimus L3 measures 103 x 62 x 12mm. It runs Android 2.3 and it comes with all the usual Android features such as 3.5G support, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth.
