According to recent reports out of Android Next and Tablet Community, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is about to get some pretty significant spec bumps before its released later this year. Android Next reports that the Note 10.1 may have ditched the expected dual-core Exynos processor for the quad-core Exynos with Mali 604 GPU [...]]]>

According to recent reports out of Android Next and Tablet Community, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is about to get some pretty significant spec bumps before its released later this year. Android Next reports that the Note 10.1 may have ditched the expected dual-core Exynos processor for the quad-core Exynos with Mali 604 GPU found in the Galaxy S III.

If true, the bump to a quad-core Exynos quickly makes the Note 10.1 one of the best tablets available on the market when its released later this year. The quad-core Exynos processor delivers exceptional performance, and should keep the Note 10.1 blazingly fast in both generic and heavy use situations. It has previously been reported that Samsung delayed the Note 10.1 to include the quad-core Exynos chip, but Samsung has denied those claims. We obviously hope Samsung is putting the quad-core Exynos chip into the Note 10.1.

When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 10.1 at Mobile World Congress in February, many were taken aback by the fact that the tablet didn’t include a slot for the signature S-Pen found in the Note series. Tablet Community reports that Samsung has gone back to the drawing board to include an S-Pen slot, and has managed to actually make the tablet thinner at the same time. In order to fit the newly-granted slot, Samsung had to slim down the S-Pen a bit. To account for those who want a thicker pen, Samsung will be selling a casing for the S-Pen that adds some heft to the accessory.

Again, these are just rumors at this point, though ones we hope will become reality once the tablet hits retail outlets. We’ll hopefully learn more about the final design of the Note 10.1 soon, as we draw ever nearer to an expected launch date.

Last week we had the chance to sit down with Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Markting at Samsung Mobile, as part of our ongoing Android Insiders series. The Galaxy S III is one of the largest Android product launches of the year so we wanted to talk about the Galaxy brand and what it [...]]]>

Last week we had the chance to sit down with Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Markting at Samsung Mobile, as part of our ongoing Android Insiders series. The Galaxy S III is one of the largest Android product launches of the year so we wanted to talk about the Galaxy brand and what it represents to consumers.

We also chatted about TouchWiz, unlocked phones, and customer loyalty programs, so check out the full interview below and let Samsung know how much you appreciate them taking the time to sit down and talk with the Android community.

Android and Me:  The messaging for the Galaxy S II was “Screen, speed, and content.” What should the Galaxy brand represent to consumers?

Ryan Bidan:  For us the Galaxy brand is our flagship brand. I want it to be defined to consumers as the best Android device experience period. In this case we happen to be talking about the Galaxy S III, our flagship Android phone.

A year ago when we were talking about the Galaxy S II, part of it was the market was in a very different place and what we needed to do with that launch was something different. We basically brought out a world beater phone that decimated the competition. It was hands down the best Android phone across the line and did a great job.

I think the market has changed quite a bit in the last year. I think there are a lot of really great devices out there. For most consumers this idea of “speed and screen”, those kind of factors, the speed particularly and the power of the hardware are becoming less relevant of a differentiator. You move from this place where it was megahertz, gigahertz, and cores and now we are trying to move beyond that. Is my quad-core really better than a dual-core from the next generation?

What we are trying to do here is define Galaxy S III as being the flagship device experience in totality from design, performance, and on-device software. I don’t want you to worry about what’s going on under the covers. We make all the components. It’s the best device available for you and it’s going to have the best experience.

Yes, its got a great screen and lots of power under the hood, but what I want you to think about is how great it feels to use, how fluid it is, and things we have done with the software.

AAM: How important is Samsung’s content ecosystem to the success of the Galaxy S III?

RB:  On the content side, it’s a bit of an open market for us. So you’ve got Google’s offerings, a lot of 3rd party offerings, carrier offerings, and in some cases you have Samsung’s offerings. For us it has always been about providing choice for the consumer. So in markets where there aren’t any 3rd party providers or markets where there aren’t solutions to provide that kind of content, we’ve gone out and done some of those.

Obviously the US market is very mature in terms of content delivery in a lot of ways. There are lots of incumbents in those markets, so our strategy has been more likely to work with them than provide solutions against them.

So that’s part one. Do I think that Samsung’s content ecosystem is important for the success of this device? Absolutely. I think a big part of the device experience today, the expectation around the device experience, is that ‘I’ve got my content. I can enjoy my content.’

And for Samsung, having various components of the ecosystem, it becomes how can I share that content. Whether it’s with my TV, or my tablet, or across other devices.

AAM: Specifically, I’m curious about Samsung’s Game Hub. I saw Samsung preview some new games at their Unpacked event like Gameloft’s Asphalt 7. Do you think we will see Game Hub in the United States?

RB: I think gaming as a content solution is very important. Do I think we need to provide great gaming solutions for our customers? Absolutely. Will that be in the form of Game Hub or some other way to deliver that content? I’m not 100% sure right now.

AAM: For a customer that purchased the Galaxy S II and loved it, what do you see as the key reasons to upgrade to a Galaxy S III?

RB: If I was talking to a specific user I would totally dig into what they are doing with their device today and tell them how much more awesome the Galaxy S III is. In general I think the things to look for are best in class hardware, a great camera experience - we got the 8 megapixel shooter and all the advanced features like burst shot and zero shutter lag, and we now got the HD screen with the 4.8 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display. It looks much better and has more information on the screen. And you now have Ice Cream Sandwich and the latest Samsung enhancements to it.

AAM: What is the future of TouchWiz going forward? There is no mention of TouchWiz in Samsung’s online marketing for the Galaxy S III. Is Samsung going to devalue it?

RB: My take on it, and the way I have characterized it is actually the opposite. What we are trying to do is not separate TouchWiz as a separate element, so much as help consumers understand it’s part of the Samsung device experience. It’s not this add-on, but it’s deeply integrated into how you experience this Samsung device.

Whether it’s lock-screen customizations, or gesture UX, or any of those kinds of elements that we have gone and extended, those kinds of additions to Ice Cream Sandwich that we think are interesting – that for us is now part of your Samsung device experience.

I don’t think calling out TouchWiz as a separate application or having it thought of as this separate thing is particularly useful.

AAM:  How do you see the market for unlocked phones in the US evolving over the next couple of years?

RB:  It’s a challenging one because the issue has always been the market in the US, or North America, is so very different than the rest of the world – the position of the carriers, subsidized devices, and all that kind of stuff.

I think unlocked devices are very interesting, but I think it’s very much an enthusiast audience at this point. It’s those people who would be willing to import the phone from overseas anyways. When we are talking about something like a Google Experience device, like the Galaxy Nexus, it is a very focused kind experience that [consumers] are looking for.

How do I think about the unlocked thing? From a consumer point of view I think it would be great to see more unlocked phones. I don’t think the North American consumer is necessarily ready for the market to become that kind of unlocked device market.

We expect our phones to be subsidized. We expect to go in a store and spend $199 or $299 for a flagship device. If we started going in and had to bear the true cost of what those devices were, the model might not be that appealing at the end of the day.

AAM:  Why should a smartphone buyer be loyal to Samsung, versus going out and getting the latest, greatest smartphone?

RB:  We are changing what we talk about with the Galaxy S III and defining a specific Samsung experience. What we are doing is trying to define and communicate reasons why you want to come into the Samsung ecosystem, but then also stay there. Things like unique features on our devices, great design, unique ecosystem opportunities, and [Samsung's] other device offerings.

I want to get you in the door with a great device experience. The Galaxy S III looks fantastic, runs awesomely, and has a lot of cool features. Then you see all the other things that you can do with your device, that you can only do with Samsung, whether it’s gesture UX, S Voice, AllShare Play, S Beam, that you can’t do with any other device.

AAM:  Have you ever considered doing a customer loyalty type program or is that something you leave up to your retail partners?

RB:  It’s interesting because we are making this transition to wanting to be closer to our consumer. So when I talk about things like wanting to deliver a Samsung experience, I mean to the end user. I want you to have a relationship with your Samsung phone regardless of what carrier you are on.

As part of that it means us needing to get closer to how those devices are actually delivered to consumers in the retail model and what that purchase process looks like. We are absolutely looking at all kinds of options around customer retention, loyalty, and trade up. Do I have anything to announce today? No, but it’s definitely something we are thinking about regularly.

AAM: Thank you for your time.

Set aside the differences in sharing things like photos and videos. Set aside the differences in how the app store and media purchases work. Hell, you can even set aside the differences in cost, hardware design and software design in general. And you’d still be left with the biggest problem Android faces over platforms like [...]]]>

Set aside the differences in sharing things like photos and videos. Set aside the differences in how the app store and media purchases work. Hell, you can even set aside the differences in cost, hardware design and software design in general. And you’d still be left with the biggest problem Android faces over platforms like iOS today: manufacturers are still releasing too many damn phones. It’s what affects a company’s ability to provide timely updates, what keeps accessory manufacturers from supporting more devices and what makes Android look like the the dumb-phone OS of the future.

Japan’s NTT Docomo has announced their latest lineup of devices in the “Next” and “With” series to be sold this summer; both feature a handful of Android devices. Actually, handful isn’t quite right. Maybe truck load. Or landfill. In total, NTT Docomo detailed 17 different Android devices. 16 phones and one tablet. There’s devices from Fujitsu, Panasonic, LG, Sharp, Toshiba, Sony and Samsung.

Now before I go any further, I want to make it known that I believe a certain level of choice is a good thing. But there can be too much of a good thing. Verizon has been guilty of it in the past. The biggest manufacturers in the world, like Motorola, HTC and Samsung, are all guilty of it. But what Docomo has done with their summer lineup of devices just blows my mind.

Are case makers stumbling around, trying to get several different designs made up for each of the 16 phones announced? Has Docomo sat down with all the manufacturers who are providing handsets to discuss how and when the next updates will be delivered to those handsets? Do popular Japanese app developers plan to run out and buy 16 new phones this summer to ensure app compatibility?

It seems to me that NTT Docomo is treating Android like the dumb-phone OS of the future. In the past, carriers like Docomo and Verizon here in the US would release dump loads of dumb-phones, all with the same OS, but slightly different variations. Some with bigger screens, some with physical keyboards, some with good cameras, etc. Those handsets were never updated to get rid of any bugs that made it through the pre-release process, cases were hard to come by, there was no such thing as accessories like stereo docks (even for the special music phones of the day). With the way phones were released, quality was an issue. There was never enough time spent on each device throughout the development process.

RIM was the first company to change the cycle by releasing a couple different models of BlackBerrys a year, all of them the same all around the world. Sidekick was also a part of the trend, and so was Motorola (at least for awhile) with the release of the RAZR. Apple has carried the torch and taken it even further by releasing only one device a year. Someone like Docomo is not only going against a trend that actually makes sense for consumers, they’re actually destroying progress.

Bottom line: Releasing too many phones hurts app compatibility. It hurts the update process. Handset quality suffers, and in turn, so do consumers.

Carriers and manufacturers, feel free to provide a rich portfolio of Android smartphones. Don’t feel bad trying different things. But for the love of all that is good with the little green guy, don’t do what Docomo has done. Just stop it.

With the European launch right around the corner, it was only a matter of time until the first Samsung Galaxy S III unboxing videos started to creep up on YouTube. Today’s video comes courtesy of Nicollo Rolli, editor in chief of the Italy-based HD Network. The video shows an unboxing of the retail version [...]]]>

With the European launch right around the corner, it was only a matter of time until the first Samsung Galaxy S III unboxing videos started to creep up on YouTube. Today’s video comes courtesy of Nicollo Rolli, editor in chief of the Italy-based HD Network. The video shows an unboxing of the retail version of the Galaxy S III, and compares the S III to the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus, HTC One S, and the HTC One X.

Check out the full unboxing video below, then let us know if the Galaxy S III will be your next Android smartphone in the comments.

The international Galaxy S II has already received the update to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, leaving the sized-up Galaxy Note behind on Android 2.3. Today, several European users are reporting that their devices have received an OTA update notification that brings their phone-tablet hybrid into 2012 with the Android 4.0 update.

Of course, this [...]]]>

The international Galaxy S II has already received the update to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, leaving the sized-up Galaxy Note behind on Android 2.3. Today, several European users are reporting that their devices have received an OTA update notification that brings their phone-tablet hybrid into 2012 with the Android 4.0 update.

Of course, this is a Samsung device, and Samsung has revamped their Touchwiz UI overlay for the Note, which looks a lot more like its Gingerbread variant. Other features in the upgrade include a new and improved S Note application, a new S Memo widget, and the Premium Suite Shape Match and My Story applications. Of course, you’ll get the performance improvements that come with ICS as well.

Owners of the AT&T-branded Galaxy Note will have to wait for the update to pass through carrier testing, which tends to add 1-3 months to the process. Hopefully that process has already begun, and AT&T Note owners will be getting their own taste of Ice Cream Sandwich very soon. We’re leaning towards the update coming sooner than later, as an AT&T-branded Galaxy Note was spotted at CTIA this week.

Any non-US readers out there getting the Android 4 update on your Galaxy Note?

Another year, another epic showdown between HTC and Samsung. Last year Samsung and HTC went head-to-head with the Galaxy S II and the Sensation. Both phones featured amazing specs sheets, but Samsung ultimately came out on top.

This year, the story’s pretty much the same. The only things that have really changed are the names [...]]]>

Another year, another epic showdown between HTC and Samsung. Last year Samsung and HTC went head-to-head with the Galaxy S II and the Sensation. Both phones featured amazing specs sheets, but Samsung ultimately came out on top.

This year, the story’s pretty much the same. The only things that have really changed are the names of the phones and a few key specifications. HTC has stepped up its game with the introduction of the One X, which went on sale across Europe in early April. HTC’s phone features a 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 display which wraps around the edges of the phone’s unibody polycarbonate shell. Powering the One X is a quad-core 1.5GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor paired with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

While the phone features incredible specs, the One X’s 8 megapixel camera with dedicated ImageChip and ImageSense technology is what HTC is using to really differentiate the phone from the competition. But things aren’t that simple.

The HTC One X may have the advantage of an early start, but Samsung’s plan to hold back the unveiling of the Galaxy S III gave them the opportunity to see HTC’s offering and make sure their flagship device was on par, or better. The Samsung Galaxy S III features a 4.8-inch pentile Super HD AMOLED display, Exynos 4 Quad processor and an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with zero shutter lag technology. The SGSIII is wrapped in a sleek 8.6mm polycarbonate shell with curved edges.

The spec comparison may be similar, but Samsung chose to equip its phone with a larger 2100 mAh battery and an expandable storage slot. Most consumers will gloss over these two features, but power users will certainly be drawn to them.

Each phone has its unique advantages, but we all know that it’s not always about having the best specifications. A manufacturer’s reputation plays a huge role in a consumer’s purchasing decisions. Picking the right Android phone is a daunting task and we don’t envy the uninformed masses who will need to choose between the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X.

I have not used the Samsung Galaxy S III yet, but that doesn’t really matter. Samsung has proven time and time again that they can deliver phones with incredible specifications, but the experience of owning a Samsung phone doesn’t even come close to what HTC has to offer. The HTC One X may not have a removable battery, but it doesn’t seem imperative to have more than a full day of battery life on a smartphone. When it comes to design, the HTC One X is light years ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S III which seems to take design cues from the Palm Pre which was released in 2009.

On the software side, HTC Sense is far better than any implementation of TouchWiz and then there’s always the question of getting software updates when new versions of Android are released. Samsung does a decent job of rolling out updates, but our research has shown that HTC has the best track record of updating its phones to the next version of Android.

Who do you think will be the winner in Android’s big summer showdown? Is the HTC One X good enough to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S III?  Let us know which features or specs have the most influence on your purchasing decisions and which phone you will be purchasing this summer.

Want to be the first to find out when Samsung announces details on the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III? They just opened up a registration page for the device and promised customers will receive the latest updates about their highly anticipated device in exchange for your email address.

Some will [...]]]>

Want to be the first to find out when Samsung announces details on the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III? They just opened up a registration page for the device and promised customers will receive the latest updates about their highly anticipated device in exchange for your email address.

Some will probably notice there is a field for carrier preference that lists AT&T, C Spire, Metro PCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon, but we wouldn’t read too much into that. However, Samsung did say the device will come to 296 mobile operators in 145 countries, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually landed on all those.

Could the Galaxy S III come to all these US carriers? Maybe...

We knew the Exynos 4 Quad chip inside the Samsung Galaxy S III was fast, and now we have the benchmarks to back it up. Brian Klug from Anandtech ran a series of performance benchmarks on the Galaxy S III and found it had the fastest graphics performance of any mobile device he [...]]]>

We knew the Exynos 4 Quad chip inside the Samsung Galaxy S III was fast, and now we have the benchmarks to back it up. Brian Klug from Anandtech ran a series of performance benchmarks on the Galaxy S III and found it had the fastest graphics performance of any mobile device he had tested.

These results are impressive, but keep in mind the US version of the Galaxy S III with LTE will likely have a different processor. Most insiders believe it could feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor, as seen in the AT&T HTC One X, but we are still waiting on the official specs from Samsung.

Make sure you hit up the source link for additional performance results.

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S III superphone, the latest in Samsung’s line of flagship devices. The Galaxy S III will go on sale worldwide starting in May, and apart from the traditional retail and cellular outlets, Samsung has introduced another way to get your hands on the device: glass Pin pop-up stores that [...]]]>

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S III superphone, the latest in Samsung’s line of flagship devices. The Galaxy S III will go on sale worldwide starting in May, and apart from the traditional retail and cellular outlets, Samsung has introduced another way to get your hands on the device: glass Pin pop-up stores that will be featured throughout London and (hopefully) elsewhere.

These pop-up stores will serve as showcases for the Galaxy S III, and you will presumably be able to purchase the device either unlocked or with carrier contract from these locations. Don’t expect Samsung to go ahead and open their own retail locations anytime soon, however, as these are temporary storefronts to coincide with the launch of their next flagship device. We’re not convinced that a standalone Samsung store is the best way to push Samsung’s products, though they certainly have enough devices to fill one.

If you’re in the UK, look for these stores to come to your location a bit later this month, likely focused around the London area. Those of us outside of the UK may have to wait a bit longer, if we’re to see these stores in our country at all.

What do you think? Like the idea of a Samsung standalone store for the Galaxy S III line?

Can’t get enough of the Samsung Galaxy S III? The device was just unveiled in London and now the hands-on videos are coming online. We scoured the web to gather up the best videos so you can see what the media is saying about Samsung’s flagship device. Check out the growing list after the [...]]]>

Can’t get enough of the Samsung Galaxy S III? The device was just unveiled in London and now the hands-on videos are coming online. We scoured the web to gather up the best videos so you can see what the media is saying about Samsung’s flagship device. Check out the growing list after the break and let us know what you think.

Find any more interesting videos of the Galaxy S III? Share the links in the comments below and we will ad them to our list.