Microsoft XBOX 360 Games Console Review

Introduction

The Xbox 360 console is Microsoft’s follow up to the original Xbox which hardly pulled up any trees. Released in November 2005, the 360 quickly became a worldwide hit. The main reason for this was that Microsoft were able to build up their market share a full 12 months before Sony released the Playstation 3. Since its release Microsoft has continuously added extra content to the console including its magnificent Xbox Live Service in order to keep one step ahead of Sony.

Different Versions

There are currently 3 different versions of the Xbox 360. All of these are able to play every single Xbox game ever released but with the higher spec models you get a lot of extras which, as the console matures will be essential items to futureproof the console. All 3 versions allow for HD gaming via the HDMI port which give you amazing looking content.

Arcade

This is the baby of the family. The Arcade version is perfect for novice gamers who are finding out what the Xbox 360 console is all about. The Arcade comes with wired controllers and a 256Mb memory module. The Arcade does not come with a hard disk drive which means that playing online via Xbox Live is not possible on most games due to the amount of disk space required to save games and extra content. A hard disk can be added at a later time but if you think you might want to go down this path then I would recommend giving the Arcade a miss and moving on to the Premium.

Premium

Microsoft are currently phasing out the Premium console but currently, this is the best selling version of the 360. This console is white, like the arcade but boasts a 60Gb hard disk drive and comes with wireless controllers as standard. Originally the Premium came with a 20Gb hard disk so if someone offers you one of these, kindly decline as it will be very old stock and will be more susceptible to breakdown.

Elite

This is where Microsoft would like all their gamers to be. The Elite is the newest of the Xbox family and has been given a nice shiny black shell as if to convey its superiority. In real terms however, the only difference between the Elite and the Premium is that the Elite comes with a 120Gb hard disk drive. Up until recently, it also came with the HDMI cable but for reasons only Microsoft can explain, they stopped supplying this, meaning that you would have to buy this yourself or make do with the composite HD cable which comes as standard across the range.

In the box

Whichever version of the console you decide to go for, the contents in the box are going to be the same with the exception of wired controllers for the Arcade and wireless for the other 2 versions.
The main item in the box is obviously the console itself.

This fills a good 75% of the box and is expertly wrapped so as to avoid any kind of damage in transit. The console ships with just one controller , this will be the same colour as the console although there is nothing to stop you using black controllers on the white console and visa versa. Continuing the gaming theme, you also get a headset to allow you to communicate with fellow players while online or friends in a normal private chat. The headset plugs directly into your controller, meaning that you could actually buy extra headsets for each controller should you wish to although for this to work all users will need their own Xbox Live account.The power supply comes in two parts. The part which connects to the mains has a big power block on the other end, there is then a separate cable which connects from this into the back of the Xbox.

The final component in the box is the composite display cable. This cable can either be set to SD for older TV’s or composite HD for newer TV’s. Regardless of which setting you choose, this cable will always fit into a scart socket on your TV. Although the composite HD is better quality than the normal SD picture, it is not a patch on proper HD so I would recommend getting an HDMI cable, should your TV support it.The setup of this console is really easy and, allowing time for unwrapping all the components, you should be up and running with a picture on your screen within 15 minutes.

Setting up

Once you have a display on the screen, there is still a bit of setting up to do. In order to identify different users on your console, you need to create individual gamertags. A gamer tag is what will identify you to friends and other in-game players whilst online. If you already have a gamertag from a previous Xbox or you have a Games for Windows Live account, you can recover these settings onto any other Xbox in the world. You would only do this if you had bought a new Xbox or you wanted to use your account at a friends house. It is worth mentioning that you may only have one Xbox where the gamertag is live, by recovering this onto one Xbox, disables it on any others where it may be active. I found this out to my cost when trying to transfer my gamertag to my sons Xbox. Although this worked fine, it disabled the account on my Xbox, meaning I then had to recover the account back onto my Xbox when I needed to use it again.If you are totally new to the Xbox then you can create your gamertag from scratch. As well as your gamertag, you can also create an avatar to represent you, much like a Mii on the Wii, this avatar will be how other Xbox members see you when browsing your profile. If you are setting up an account for the first time, you will be given one months free access to Xbox Live gold so that you can explore its potential before purchasing it in future.

Size

The Xbox 360 is a beast and completely dwarfs the Wii in its appearance. Weighing 3.5kg (the Wii is 2kg) and being 309 mm long, 83mm high and 258 mm deep (all these sizes assume the console is laid flat although it can be used on its side), you need to pretty much devote an entire shelf in your TV cabinet to the console.

When I first opened the box and saw the Xbox, it did surprise me as to how big the console was compared to my Wii. The Xbox however, is known for generating a lot of heat so it needs all the extra space to circulate the air in an attempt to stop it from overheating.

Dashboard

It is all very well having high tech hardware and mindblowing specifications but if the user interface is terrible, people are going to get frustrated with the system. The Xbox 360 dashboard is probably one of the easiest, intuitive interfaces you could find. It is split down into different sections, each giving their own unique content.

My Xbox.

This section shows you what game you currently have in your disk drive, this can be loaded from here. You can also see a list of the last 4 games you have played and get access to any game or movie you may have downloaded from the Xbox Marketplace. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can stream audio and video from your PC to your Xbox. Whilst this sounds good, in my experience, this takes an age to synchronise and when it is finally ready, video playback is jerky. If you do want to try this out though, My Xbox is the place to do it.

Spotlight / Insight

These 2 sections are very similar and offer features on up and coming titles as well as special offers on downloadable content. Articles in these sections vary from on screen text to actual streamed video of gamer interviews or footage of games. Although these are not essential to the Xbox experience, I do find myself watching this content at least once a week.

Game / Video Marketplace

The marketplace is an area where you can buy extra content for a game or actually rent a movie for 24 hours which is then streamed to your console. Any content bought from the marketplace is bought using Microsoft points as its currency rather than actual money. Personally I don’t like this method as I think its complicated to work out how much you are are paying for things. It would be much simpler if you could buy individual items by credit card.

Membership types

There are two types of membership type for the Xbox. These are namely Silver and Gold. I am not going to go into any detail about these here as I have a full review on the merits of these membership types elsewhere on this site. If you haven’t read (and rated) this review yet, I’d appreciate it if you would take a look after finishing this one.

Red ring of death

If you have done any research into the history of the Xbox 360, you will no doubt have heard about the Red Ring of Death or RROD as it is commonly known. In fact, if you were to read the broken English, scammer reviews I talked about in my opening paragraph, you would be lead to think that the RROD was the only thing an Xbox ever did. In older Xbox consoles the RROD was a common occurrence after many uses, a technical flaw in the design of the console meant that certain components were overheating and it was the wear and tear from this which caused the console to break. This would then light up all four quadrants on the front of the console in red as a measure to communicate to the user that there was a problem.

Microsoft to their credit acknowledged this fault and to this day, they will repair any console displaying these symptoms free of charge.
Newer consoles tend not to suffer from these issues due to a change of power supply. Although nobody can guarantee the problem is 100% fixed, the likelihood of getting the RROD on a console bought in the last 12-18 months is very much reduced.

Game Library

Most games that come out on the Xbox also come out on the Playstation 3. There are however a few exceptions which in my opinion, make the Xbox a more exciting proposition. Forza 3 is the most realistic driving simulation you will ever find, you can drive anything from your bog standard city cars right up to formula one style cars. These cars are supposed to handle exactly as they would in real life making for a very exciting game.

Grand Theft Auto IV actually came out on both the Xbox and the Playstation however the Xbox is the only place where you can play the extra chapters of the story. The Lost and Damned came out in April 2009 as a downloadable extra for 360 owners who already had purchased GTA4 and it was released on disk in October 2009 along with the Ballad of Gay Tony, again exclusively on Xbox. Although the PS3 also has its own exclusive content, it is not in the same league as the licenses acquired by Microsoft.There are other titles that are Xbox exclusives but these 2 are in my opinion the biggest ones to be released in recent months.

Accessories

As with all consoles you can go over the top with accessories. There are some that I would describe as being essential purchases however.The Xbox doesn’t come with wifi built in for reasons only known to Microsoft. To get the best out of Xbox Live, you really do need to purchase a wireless network adapter. Although you can bridge a connection to your PC or use other unsupported methods, I have found this adapter to be a great buy. For more information on this, please read my review on the adapter.
As the controllers are wireless, inevitably they are going to run out of battery juice. If you were buying AA batteries every couple of weeks, it is soon going to become an expensive game. With this in mind, Microsoft have released rechargeable battery packs that can be charged whilst playing. These cost about £12 and take roughly 6 hours to charge while you are playing. Personally I prefer an offline charger. I paid £20 for mine which takes 2 to 3 hours to fully charge but you cannot use the controller whilst it is charging.

The future

The future of the Xbox is very exciting. Microsoft have announced that there are no plans to replace the current 360 within the next 4 years or so. Instead, they are going to develop a new way of playing games around the current system. The next generation of gaming will actually involve they player becoming part of the game, a little bit like the Wii but far more advanced. Project Natal (the codename for the work in progress project) not only recognises a single movement like the Wii but recognises movement from 43 parts of the body meaning that your entire body now becomes part of the game.

Add to this voice recognition and even face recognition for accessing your account amongst other things and its obvious to see why Natal is going to be the next big thing in gaming. Originally, this was due out around Easter 2010 but this has now slipped until the Autumn. Microsoft really do need to get this out for Christmas as I have a feeling that this could be the present to have next Christmas already. Although no price has been set, it is rumoured that this will cost around £200 so even though Microsoft are not releasing a new console for a while, you will still have to pay the equivalent of one to own this much talked about device.

Downsides

Even the most brilliant of consoles do have their downsides. On turning the Xbox on for the first time your first thought will be how noisy it is. Compared to the Wii and PS3 there is no denying that this is by far the most noisy console. This is something that you will soon get used too however and it wont spoil your enjoyment one little bit.As already mentioned, wifi is not standard on these consoles, I do think Microsoft are taking the goodwill of customers to the limit with this decision, especially as much of the Xbox’s marketing and selling points are geared to Xbox Live.

Verdict

My friends had tried to convince me to buy an Xbox for a good 12 months before I actually took the plunge. I had always used the argument that I was happy with the Wii and that the Xbox just had fancy graphics. When I finally bought my Xbox, I saw that I was far wide of the mark. Sure, the graphics are amazing, especially in HD but the gameplay is second to none. I am not one of these who gets into the habit of saying ‘my console is better than yours’. In fact, I think the Xbox and the Wii complement each other nicely as they both offer games for completely different audiences. With the imminent arrival of Natal, I think the Xbox could start to threaten the Wii’s uniqueness but that can only be good for gaming in the future. Personally, I would steer clear of the Xbox Arcade version unless you really are at the top of your budget, the Premium and Elite versions offer far better value for money and are essential if you want to take your console online. Games on the Xbox are almost identical in look, feel, and quality as those on the Playstation 3. Where the Xbox gets its plaudits is for the online play where it is streets ahead of anything seen up to now. A console that can attract almost a quarter of a million gamers online, playing the same game at any one time (Modern Warfare 2 just after Christmas) surely must have something going for it. If I were in to games whether it be an occasional player or a dedicated gamer, the Xbox 360 would be the console I’d go for every time. I’d go for the Elite version, only because the Premium is being phased out and the Elite currently offers some good bundles for around the £200 mark. Bear in mind though that to play online, you are going to need to add another £60-70 on top of this price for your wireless adapter and/or your Xbox Live membership. When all is said and done, once you are all set up and playing with this console, you’ll love it, I can almost 100% guarantee that.

Sony Playstation 3 Slim Games Console Review

Sony rectified the problem with 2009's PS3 'Slim', a smaller and arguably sexier device. The Slim isn't just a cosmetic update however, it significantly ups the hard drive capacity, and is better for the environment too - using an estimated 34% less power when in operation. The latest version of the PS3 Slim comes in two formats - there's one with a 160GB hard-drive, and also a 320GB option.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY - where can I purchase my PS3 Slim from?

Currently, the 160GB PS3 Slim can be bought from amazon.co.uk for £229, whilst its higher capacity 320GB brethren retails at £269. Compared to the price of the Xbox360, the PS3 is the more expensive of the two machines - around £50 more expensive in fact. That said, if you're willing to buy a second hand PS3 Slim, then there are bargains to be had - from eBay for example, you can pick up a lightly used 160GB machine for around £170, which isn't bad at all. For the price you'll get a composite A/V input cable and one DualShock 3 wireless controller - unfortunately, if you want your console to operate in glorious HD, you'll have to buy an HDMI cable separately.

DESIGN & FEATURES - what does the machine look like, and what does it do?

In terms of its appearance, the PS3 Slim couldn't ever be described as glamorous - in fact it's fairly industrial looking with a moulded black plastic body and brutalist frontage. Discs are entered via a slot loading drive on the front right hand side, underneath which is a power on button, and an eject button. When you switch on the device, the menu system (referred to as Sony's 'XrossMediaBar') is really easy to navigate - perhaps not quite as user friendly and colourful as the Xbox360's, but it seems more grown-up, and there are more in-depth settings to tinker with. In operation, the device is very quiet (another improvement from the original larger PS3), so you can enjoy playing games or watching movies without a tumultuous internal fan noise.

CONNECTIVITY - hooking up the device to your other accessories

Handily, the PS3 Slim has an optical audio out port, meaning that you can easily connect it to your home cinema system and achieve Dolby 5.1 stereo surround (or Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio for that matter). The front of the console has two USB ports - which to be honest probably isn't enough. I would have preferred an extra USB port at the back (the original PS3 had one), so you could plug extra accessories in without having a messy cable coming from the front of the machine - ah well, you can't have everything I suppose!

For connecting to your TV, there's the HDMI out port, and also a composite A/V out. In terms of the network capabilities, the machine has in-built WiFi for the internet and playing games online. Speaking of which, the PS3 lets you play games online for free, unlike the Xbox360 where you have to pay for the privilege.

BLU-RAY / DVD PLAYER - How well will it play my movies?

One of the main reasons that many consumers decide to purchase the PS3 over the rival Xbox360 is due to its ability to play Blu-ray discs. In fact, so good is the quality of the blu-ray playback, that the PS3 is often ranked up there amongst the top standalone blu-ray players. The 1080p system even has support for 3D blu-ray discs - so if you've got a 3D enabled TV you'll soon be raring to go. You'll achieve the best results if you've got a TV which supports 24frames per second mode - here films will flow with a cinematic quality and generally look great. If you're watching regular DVDs on the machine, you'll get a nicely up-scaled picture, meaning that (providing you've connected to your TV via HDMI and have an HD ready TV) you'll achieve a better picture than you would from a normal bog-standard DVD player. I would recommend getting hold of the official Sony Blue-Ray remote which can currently be picked up for £14.99, as this makes controlling your movies a lot easier than doing it with your gamepad.

THE GAMES - availability & graphics

Of course, it's all very well having a well designed and feature-laden console - but if the game developers don't support it, then it's deemed a certain failure. That said, I'm happy to report that the PS3 is an extremely well catered for system, with a plethora of games to choose from. To single out just one title, the recently released 'Gran Turismo 5' is simply the most comprehensive racing game to have ever been made, and it's available only on Sony. I would similarly recommend 'Little Big Planet 2' - this Stephen Fry narrated platformer really does push the boundaries of creativity in the genre. Powered by the Nvidia graphics processor, games have the potential to be visually superb - technically more powerful than the Xbox360, although you won't notice a massive difference in practice. Unfortunately, the machine isn't backward compatible - so if you own a library of Playstation 2 titles, then sadly you won't be able to use them (although strangely enough PS1 compatibility is still intact). This is one advantage that the Xbox360 has over the PS3, as it allows you to play the original Xbox games without any fuss.

THE CONTROLLER - Introducing the DualShock3

New PS3 slim consoles ship with one control pad in the form of the DualShock3. If you need another however, you can purchase one for around £35 from Amazon. These black plastic controllers are comfortable to hold, feeling nice and sturdy in the hand. Utilising bluetooth technology, the DualShock 3 is a wireless pad - well, it's wireless until the internal lithium battery runs dry, and then you'll have to connect it via the (provided) USB cable to the front of your console to charge.

Of course, the DualShock3 has a force-feedback feature (hence the 'shock' part of its title) - and this is pretty much spot-on, being frequently used to create anything from small vibrations to full on, large scale rumbles. From what I have described so far, the DualShock3 may sound like a magnificent controller - but I don't actually like it a much as the Xbox 360's offering, due to the positioning of the left thumb-stick. It feels like it's too far to the right of the pad, meaning that your thumb has to stretch a little over the D-Pad to reach it.
If you don't fancy forking out all that money for the Dualshock3, then the QuickAct controller (listed in the Argos catalogue as the 'PS3 Compatible Dualshock Controller') is really good for the price - it's only half the cost of the official pad, and it performs just as well (that's if you'll forgive the lack of motion sensitive controls). At first glance, it would appear that the Quick Act controller is identical to the DualShock3, and it feels just as comfortable in the hands - the four main Playstation 'shape' buttons are a little smaller by comparison, but they feel nice and solid to the press. The two thumb-sticks are excellent - feeling tactile and smooth to move around, so no issues here. The triggers are very good too - spongy, with a quality which is better than the low price tag would suggest. The controller requires three AAA batteries to operate, and these slot neatly into a section on the pad's rear - in my experience, the batteries last a reasonable amount of time before they need replacing which is certainly a good thing.

FINAL WORD - a must have, or a must avoid?

Basically, the PS3 Slim is the best console that you currently can own - the blu-ray player is excellent, and as a games machine it's truly superb. Although more expensive than the Xbox360, the PS3 Slim offers real value for money, and this is because it can be used as an all round entertainment system. There's even a BBC iPlayer app which you can select from the menu, allowing you to wirelessly stream direct from the popular TV catch up service. The PS3 Slim's capabilities are further extended If you decide to buy the excellent 'PlayTV' add-on (£35 from Amazon), which connects to the console via USB and enables you to use your PS3 as a Freeview+ enabled hard drive recorder. Yes, there are a few issues which I have pointed out in the review (not enough USB ports, lack of PS2 compatibility, and controller issues), yet these 'problems' are simply insignificant when the console is viewed as a whole - highly recommended as an excellent device.

ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL INFO

AV Output: HDMI Out x1, AV Multi Out x 2, Digital Optical Out x 1
Memory: 256MB XDR Main RAM
Ethernet: X1 (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T
Bluetooth: 2.0 (EDR)
Blu-Ray Read Speed 2x / DVD Read Speed 8x
Dimensions: 290mm (W) x 65mm (H) x 290mm (L)
Weight: 3.2kg

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Mobile Phone Review

The first Samsung Galaxy Note quickly split opinion among phone fans, with many -- including us -- arguing that its 5.3-inch screen was just ridiculous. Others, however, were delighted at the extra screen space for movies, photos and web browsing and the gigantophone was a surprise hit.
Samsung is back to stretch our pockets again with the Galaxy Note 2. It's an even bigger 5.5-inch monster that offers the handy S Pen stylus, a wealth of built-in software and the latest Android Jelly Bean operating system.
With a blisteringly powerful quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM under the hood, is the Note 2 the ultimate mobile device or is it still just too big?
It's available now for free on two-year contracts starting at £31 per month, or £530 SIM-free.
A quick note before I go on -- the Galaxy Note 2 I tested did not have 4G. EE, the UK's only 4G network right now, has just announced it will be selling a 4G version of the Note 2 later this year, so if you want super-fast data with your maximobile, you'll have to wait a month or so.

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 2?

Before I answer that question, ask yourself one thing: is the Samsung Galaxy S3 too big? If your answer is yes, this really isn't the phone for you. It's barely even a phone at all. At 5.5 inches the Note is significantly bigger than the S3's 4.8 inches and blurs the line between phone and tablet even more than its gargantuan predecessor did.
The reason for its huge size is to provide a massive high-definition screen for watching video, looking at websites and -- obviously -- writing notes. Samsung's S Pen stylus might seem a tad old-fashioned, but it quickly won me over, thanks to the way it's integrated into most things you do on the phone in a really fun (and totally optional) way.
Bespoke software such as S Note lets you create magazine-style note pages on which you can pop down your photos, videos or map locations to annotate to your hearts content. Using the pen you can also activate commands with on-screen gestures, saving you having to jump into individual applications each time you want to do something.

Tiny-handed typists need not apply.

Samsung has also thrown in some helpful extras like the ability to watch video in a movable window while continuing to navigate around the interface -- helpful for quickly Googling something when you can't bear to miss a second of your film.
It's running on the cutting-edge version of Android known as Jelly Bean, which brings much smoother interface transitions as well as Google Now, the live information service that tailors info specifically for you, based on your location and search habits.
That's all powered by a monstrous quad-core processor that provided the best benchmark scores we've seen on a mobile phone. Rest assured this thing will tackle even the most demanding 3D games without breaking a sweat.
If your phone requirements start and end with text messaging and social networking, the Galaxy Note 2 clearly isn't for you -- check out a great value budget Android phone. If you want something just as powerful but a more manageable, pocket-friendly size, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the smaller iPhone 5 are the clear leaders right now. In a sense, the Note 2 is a completely different kind of product.
If your phone is your constant companion and you use it all the time for work, as well as browsing the Web and watching video, I think you'll find the Note 2 very fine indeed. It's a beefy beast, yes, but it more than justifies that girth.

Design and build quality

The Galaxy Note 2 is, in a word, huge. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given the size of its predecessor, but it still caused me to do a double-take when I saw it in the flesh.
It measures 80mm wide and 151mm tall, making it slightly narrower and longer than the original Note. That extra length allows it to pack in the 16:9 aspect ratio screen and also makes it marginally easier to sit in one hand. It's also 0.3mm thinner than the first Note, a microscopic difference you'll never notice.

For such a huge device, it's surprisingly thin.

It might be slightly narrower than the Note, but make no mistake that this is still a monstrous phone. Holding it in one hand is fine for simply reading, but you would need enormous Hulk hands to stretch your thumb across for one-handed typing.
Sending a quick text telling your mate you're going to be late while trying to steady yourself on the bus is an awkward task. I found one-handed typing quickly became uncomfortable. I strongly recommend simply waiting until you can properly hold it in two hands before typing anything longer than, "I'm going to be late."
It'll slide fairly easily into most trouser pockets, but its whopping proportions mean it's likely to cause something of a bulge and doesn't sit as comfortably as a normal smart phone would. If skin-tight jeans are your thing, you might need to invest in a new satchel for it -- or at least consider switching to those cargo trousers with the pockets in the knees.
If it's just unmanageable for you, take a look at the Galaxy S3 instead. The S3's 70mm width and 136mm length is still a stretch for small hands, but it's much more practical than the Note. Among 4-inch phones, the new iPhone 5 is the clear leader, but there are many less expensive Android phones of that size too.
The Note 2, then, is best seen as a small tablet. If you do most of your serious business on massive touchscreens but need something easier to carry around than a 7-inch slate, the Note 2 will certainly come in useful. Holding it in one hand and the S Pen in another, like an old-fashioned notebook and Biro, is really comfortable and allows you to scrawl long handwritten notes -- very difficult on phones under the 4.3-inch mark.
Apart from its size, the Note 2 looks similar to the Galaxy S3. It shares the rounded back and silver edges, together with the plain white colouring (or a lined-pattern grey that's similar to the S3's Pebble blue option). I found my white review model to easily pick up muck and grease, and I fancy the grey model will hide everyday scrunge much better.

The stylus -- sorry, S Pen -- slots in down here.

Around the edges you'll find a volume rocker and a power button, both of which have been moved down from their positions on the first Note to make them easier to reach with one hand. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top as well as a micro-USB port on the bottom.
The Note 2 comes with 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage. 16GB isn't a massive amount, and if you're a serial app downloader and enjoy glossy games from the Google Play store such as Six Guns or Nova 3 you'll find you quickly run out of room to accommodate their enormous installation files.
You can pop in a microSD card, expanding the internal storage with an extra 64GB. That at least allows you to store all your photos, videos and music to the card, leaving the internal space for apps -- I found I couldn't easily install apps to external cards, a problem I also encountered on the S3.

Screen

The Note 2's enormous frame supports a truly vast 5.5-inch screen. That's marginally bigger than the previous model's 5.3-inch display, although that boost comes just from the extra length.
Its 16:9 aspect ratio -- meaning it's much longer than it is wide -- is designed to let you watch widescreen videos without any annoying black bars. It certainly did the trick with my two test videos, which were displayed full-screen, taking up every available pixel on offer.
So how does it actually look? In a word: stunning. Thanks to the Super AMOLED technology Samsung uses, the screen is not only searingly bright, but also provides incredibly rich colours and deep blacks for a strong contrast ratio. It made the blue skies in my favourite snowboarding film Art of Flight look intensely vivid against the snow-capped mountains.

That monolithic screen in all its Super AMOLED glory.

The extremely bold colours on Samsung's previous AMOLED displays have sometimes bordered on the oversaturated. The Galaxy S2's screen was particularly bold and looked a little unrealistic when put next to the iPhone 4's more natural colour tones. While the Note 2 is certainly vivid, I wouldn't say it's overly so, and there are colour balance options in the menu if you want to go for a more subdued look.
It offers a resolution of 720x1,280 pixels, making it perfectly suited for tackling 720p high-definition content. It's roughly the same resolution as the original Note, which was already incredibly sharp, so I can't complain that it hasn't been increased this time around. It's the same resolution as the smaller Galaxy S3, which means that in terms of sharpness, the S3 has the edge.
Although it has the same number of pixels, due to the Note 2's bigger size, those pixels are stretched over a larger canvas and fewer pixels per inch results in a blunter screen. If you put the two phones side by side and look really closely you might just be able to tell a difference, but they're practically the same.

S Pen stylus

The Note 2 wouldn't be complete without a stylus for writing the eponymous old-school reminders. Samsung calls it the S Pen, and you'll find it tucked into a little slot on the bottom right of the phone, the same place as it was before.
Its location may not have changed, but the pen itself has. The rounded barrel shape has gone, replaced with a flat edge and a fatter design, which makes holding it steady while writing much more comfortable. It's slightly longer too, so there's a little more of it to get hold of.
Samsung's styluses use very narrow, hard nibs that offer a much more precise contact with the screen than the various fat, spongey tips you find on third-party styluses. Imagine the difference between writing with a ballpoint pen and a felt-tip marker pen.

It's time to get down to business.

It means you can prod with much greater accuracy at small icons, which makes hitting those tiny links in your web browser much easier than using your own chocolate-covered fingers. Making hand-written notes is easy-peasy, and there's enough room on the screen to let you show off your arty side with drawing apps like Sketchbook Mobile Express (or cheat at Draw Something).
Helpfully, the screen is able to ignore the palm of your hand when the stylus is in contact. That means you can write as you normally would with the skin of your hand touching the screen without it drawing random smudges as you move your mitt about.

Sketchbook Mobile Express, a pre-loaded app, helps you get creative with the S Pen.

Bear in mind though that there's only one stylus included, and if you're anything like me, you'll lose that within the week. The Note does have a sensor that can detect if you're walking off and the stylus isn't in the slot, but if you're travelling home on a noisy bus, I have no doubt it would be very easy to ignore.
I'd recommend making absolutely sure you properly replace it every time you use it. Hopefully Samsung will offer replacement pens so you can stock up and stop worrying.

S Pen software

Samsung has also crammed the Note 2 with dollops of nifty software that makes the most of the pen. S Note is the main event: it lets you write notes, paste in photos, videos and map locations so you can turn a boring list into a magazine-style page or a colourful mind-map.

The S Note app is a flexible, useful tool for making richly detailed memos.

When you've finished, you can save the note as either a JPEG image or as a PDF document for you to share with anyone -- Samsung users or otherwise. It's a useful little tool that makes it easy to jot down an idea alongside accompanying images. I found it to be very handy in at least a couple of situations -- adding directions to an attached image of a map was particularly helpful for my visiting mum, for example.
Samsung includes example notes showing you how best to make use of it, from creating financial spreadsheets and scrawling notes on them to sketching out ideas of how to redesign a garden. Your own results will naturally depend on your own artistic flair, but it's mostly straightforward to use.

Evidently Samsung's team has rather more artistic talent than us.

Another helpful extra is the ability to hold the button on the pen and then circle an item on screen. This will take a screenshot of the circled area, letting you paste it into whatever app you please. It's a very handy way of communicating what's on your screen with others without pasting in an entire screenshot.

The S Pen makes it easy to select an area of the screen to copy and paste.

The Note 2 also brings a feature called Air View. When you hover the stylus over the screen, but don't actually touch it, it brings up a cursor. With Air View, when you hover this cursor over certain items, it can bring up more information without you needing to click it. With the video player, for example, if you hover over the seek bar it shows a thumbnail of that part of the video, letting you easily skip ahead to a specific scene.

Hovering the S Pen over the seek bar helps you quickly find the section you want to watch.

Over in Samsung's S Planner calendar app, if hovering will show you a list of all events taking place on a day, or more details about a specific event. The same goes for Samsung's email app, where you can hover over the subject line or email body preview to show more information. Sadly, this functionality isn't built into the Gmail app.

Air View also lets you quickly see details about a calendar event without having to open it up.

Air View might not be a revolutionary feature, but I found I didn't need to keep jumping in and out of calendar entries or emails to see what was going on. Sure, you're only saving a couple of seconds each time, but those seconds add up.

It's just as helpful in the Samsung email app too, but it doesn't work with Gmail.

Another neat little feature is called Quick Command. When on a home screen, press the small button on the S Pen and swipe upwards on the screen. That brings up the Quick Command box, a list of commands you can activate with the pen. If you draw the '@' symbol followed by a contact's name, for example, then assuming your handwriting is legible then phone will bring up a new email to that contact.
There's a bunch of other commands too, such as writing '!' followed by a location to do a maps search or '#' followed by a contact to call someone. It worked pretty well in my time with the phone and it rarely struggled to read my words, so long as I made sure they were relatively neat.

Quick Command lets you perform certain tasks just by drawing icons.

These extra bits of software individually don't make the phone a whole lot better, but together they do their best to save you several screen-taps and therefore time. It takes time to learn them, but once I did I found them surprisingly helpful.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

The Note 2 uses the latest version of Android known as 4.1 Jelly Bean. It might seem logical to assume that a new device would ship with the latest software, but even though Jelly Bean has been around for a while now, many new devices don't come with it on board. Brand-new phones such as the Razr i and Xperia T offer the older 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and promise an update to Jelly Bean at some unspecified point in the future. Its presence on the Note 2 is definitely a point in its favour.

The Jelly Bean interface isn't a radical overhaul from Ice Cream Sandwich.

Why? Jelly Bean isn't immediately much different from ICS, but it has a few neat tricks up its sleeve. For one, it increases the frame rate of the interface, resulting in very smooth page transitions and menu scrolling. It also allows you to block notifications from the drop-down bar when you're heading out on a date and don't want to be disturbed.
One of the key additions is Google Now -- a new service that tailors info based specifically on your location and your search habits.

Google Now shows information like the weather, nearby bars and your travel times without you even needing to search.

Google Now can be accessed when you tap the Google search bar on the homescreen, rather than the swiping gesture seen on the Nexus 7 tablet. You'll see a Google search bar, your local weather information and a set of cards showing nearby restaurants. The idea is Google Now will eventually learn your movements and habits and offer advice based on them.
If Thursday afternoons usually see you trotting off to a meeting, for example, Google Now will be able to bring up a handy reminder beforehand, complete with directions and traffic information to your location. It will inform you of the best time to leave in order to get there promptly, taking into account the traffic situation.
This works on the Note 2 in the same way as it does on the Nexus 7. I was cheerily informed of the London Underground line status between my house in West London and the CNET UK office in central London and how long it would take me to get there, including the time it takes to walk to the stations.

Google Now was easily able to understand my question and give me directions to St Paul's Cathedral.

It also works particularly well with voice searches when you're in a hurry. When I asked, "How do I get to St Paul's?" It immediately asked if I meant St Paul's Cathedral and then brought up driving directions from my location. It would have taken considerably longer to load Google Maps and type the search in by hand.
Other than that, the Jelly Bean interface is fairly straightforward. You get the usual multiple screens to fill up with app icons and widgets displaying live information. Any apps you don't want on your main homescreen are stored in pages of apps similar to the grid-style screens of the iPhone.
You have full access to the Google Play store to download your choice of hundreds of thousands of apps, as well as Play Books and Play Movies for your reading and movie needs.

Samsung software

As well as all the S Pen software discussed earlier, Samsung's also chucked in a few helpful little extras.
On the homescreens you'll spy a couple of dedicated widgets for playing videos and music as well as a big S Suggest widget. S Suggest is Samsung's own app store and it attempts to recommend apps tailored for you. I mostly found it useless -- it showed me mainly apps I already had, or games such as SongPop Free that it would have no reason to think I would like. Still, it's a simple task to get rid of that widget.

Samsung pops some of its own widgets on the homescreens, but you don't have to keep them there.

You also get access to Samsung's various shops. The Music Hub lets you stream and download music from 7 Digital's catalogue for £9.99 per month or buy individual tracks for 99p. I'd suggest the Spotify app with a premium subscription gives you more for the same price, although it doesn't let you buy music.

Samsung's Music and Games Hubs don't offer much over the Google Play store or Spotify.

There's also the Games Hub for fun stuff and the Readers Hub for books, for which you'll need to sign up for a Samsung account. None of these services offer anything over using the Google Play store, so really they're just cluttering up your phone.
Much more useful is Pop-up Play. This is a feature we first saw on the Galaxy S3 and the Note 10.1 tablet -- it lets your video pop out of the player to float above the interface as you go about your other business. You can move it around so it doesn't get in the way and is a very handy way of quickly googling something without missing a second of your film.

Pop up Play lets you view your video in a window over the top of the Android interface.

You can also add notes onto the back of your photos. Head into your gallery and flip over any image saved there and you can scrawl some info about it using the S Pen.
A key use that sprung to my mind for this is to be able to write the name of someone you've met on a blurry night out and taken a photo of -- it could save the embarrassment of admitting the next day that you don't remember a thing about them. (Just be careful with that S Pen.) All your photos with notes attached display a little fold in the top corner, so it's easy to see which ones you've doodled on.

Photo Note lets you write on the back of all your photos -- a genuinely useful little touch.

Just like on the Galaxy Note 10.1, the Note 2 is able to show two apps side-by-side on the screen. For example, it allows you to have the Chrome browser open -- perhaps looking for restaurants -- while you're simultaneously searching for their locations in Maps.
Pressing and holding the touch-sensitive back button next to the physical home button brings up a list of apps for you to choose from. You can then pop them down next to each other on the screen. It's a little fiddly to do but if you regularly have to flick back and forth between apps to check information as you type you'll probably find it extremely useful.
At the moment there aren't many apps that can take advantage of it -- the essentials such as Facebook, Chrome, Twitter, Maps and YouTube are there though -- but it's likely that more apps will support it if it becomes a standard feature on all Samsung phones.
If you've bought a Note 2 really early then this feature won't be included as standard, but it is available immediately in a software update. It will however be preinstalled on all Note 2s sold from now on.

If you frequently flick back and forth between apps, you'll enjoy being able to use them side-by-side.

Other features you'll find on board include Smart Stay, which stops the screen from dimming while you're looking at it, Direct Call, which lets you hold the phone to your face when a contact is on screen to phone them, and Flip to Mute, which is pretty self-explanatory. Those are all present on the Galaxy S3 and work in exactly the same way.

Performance

Under the hood of the Note 2 is a 1.6GHz quad-core processor backed up by a meaty 2GB of RAM. That's a spicy lineup of specs and slightly outstrips the recent Galaxy Note 10.1, which offers a 1.4GHz clock speed. I found that to be extremely potent so I had very high hopes for the Note 2.
To see how it compared, I fired up the Geekbench benchmark test and hit a score of 1,998 -- the best score on this test I've seen from a phone. By comparison, our rooted Galaxy S3 only managed to achieve 1,116 on the same test and nobody would call that phone underpowered.

The Note 2 gave the best performance I've seen from an Android device on the Geekbench benchmark test.

A similarly impressive performance was forthcoming on the Quadrant benchmark test, where it clocked up a whopping 5,987. The S3 gave a lesser 5,289 on this test while HTC's One X only managed 4,904. Clearly, the Note 2 is packing some ferocious power inside its enormous frame and it's immediately evident that power is put to good use.

It also gave a stonking performance on the Quadrant test.

Swiping through the home screens is responsive and free of any kind of lag, nor is there any visible delay when opening the multi-tasking bar to swipe through currently running apps.
For most tasks, like social networking or reading your emails, you really don't need that much power. It definitely makes photo editing a far snappier affair, however, and helps it tackle high-definition video without breaking a sweat -- even when it's popped out and you're scooting around your homescreens at the same time.
It's also well poised to handle demanding 3D games from the Google Play store. I booted up Antutu's 3D benchmark and the Note 2 gave a score of 4,044, almost doubling the 2,304 achieved by the Galaxy S3. In my own use, I found it was able to easily handle the games I threw at it, maintaining smooth frame rates even in the more graphically demanding sections of 3D shooter ShadowGun.

Battery life

With such a humongous screen and a super-charged engine under the hood, you'd be right to expect the battery to be stretched to its limits. Thoughtfully, Samsung has included a particularly capacious 3,100mAh battery.
I found the battery to be easily capable of surviving a full 12 hours of use, even when I was playing numerous videos and downloading apps over our office Wi-Fi. I haven't been able to run our usual battery benchmark tests so I'll have to update this review with a more scientific verdict soon, but it's certainly looking promising.
If you're particularly worried about battery life, Android makes it simple to conserve juice. In the drop-down notifications bar you'll find a power-saving button that can limit the power of the processor, use a lower power level for the screen and turn off haptic feedback -- all of which should help squeeze out a little more life.
Turning down the screen brightness and turning off Wi-Fi and GPS services also greatly improve battery life, and are also easily switched off in the notifications bar. Plus you can carry around a spare battery, something you can never say of the iPhone.

Camera

On the back of the Note 2 you'll find an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash. That's the same camera spec offered by the S3, so I was expecting similar results, but I was a little let down by its efforts. It's a big old unit too, so you may feel a little self-conscious taking it out for a quick snap with your friends, although it's not quite as bad as those weirdos who take photos with their tablet.

This scene was exposed fairly well, but it lacked the clarity I'd hope to see on a high-end smartphone camera (click image to enlarge).

When shooting the famous CNET UK pool table, the Note 2 was able to accurately expose for the scene, keeping the bright building outside the window under control while still keeping the darker shadows in the foreground in plain view. The scene lacks definition overall, however, particularly when you look closely at the vending machines and the blue wall behind.

This disreputable looking fellow had the gall to make fun of me for "taking a photo with a tablet" (click image to enlarge).

I took the phone to a grimy Southwark pub to test its low-light performance and, like my subject, I wasn't exactly thrilled. While the overall exposure was fine, the image wasn't particularly clear and suffered from noise in the more shadowy corners. It also struggled to accurately focus on several occasions and has resulted in the normally devilishly handsome Nick Hide looking uncharacteristically out of focus.

Conclusion

The Galaxy Note 2 will divide opinion in the same way as its predecessor. While one person might loudly argue that it's too big and "looks ludicrous", another will appreciate the extra screen space for video and work tasks.
Whether or not the Note is right for you depends on which of the above camps you fall in. If you currently struggle with the 4.3 inches of the Galaxy S2, for example, it's not the phone for you. But if you basically want a more portable tablet, it's top of a list of two: this and the original Note. I was really won over by how useful the stylus turned out to be, and while some of Samsung's apps are pointless, much of its included software features are genuinely useful.
If you do plump for the Note 2, rest assured you're getting a searingly powerful piece of kit, ready and willing to tackle all sorts of creative and admin tasks on the go. Just make sure you've reinforced those suit pockets before you cram it in.

Samsung Galaxy Note N700 Mobile Phone Review

The Samsung Galaxy Note is an Android smartphone/tablet computer hybrid first introduced in October 2011.
You will hear people say that it is stupidly large; doesn’t fit your pocket and similar things. After nearly 5 weeks of using it, I now look at most other phones and I think that they look fiddly and awkward. For one thing on the smaller screens text messages that fit the Note’s screen ‘overflow’ and these smaller screens need to be swiped to bring the missing segment into view; web pages pose similar problems on other phones or, fit the screen but at a tiny resolution

The Note performed with flying colours. When I was near a strong signal I pulled maps onto the screen and used one of the stylus’ special features (see below) to capture screen shots. Whatever signal strength I had next day I could get these maps back from my micro SD card and work out where I was (even on one occasion when I was about 8 miles from where I should have been). The large, bright screen made viewing of the fine detail (like streams, contour lines and footpaths) possible even in sunlight.I have no problem with the size of the phone. It is the largest screen ( screen size is 5.3-inch ) on any phone available (as I write), the screen being larger than the entire size of iphones, but still fits into trousers’ pockets (however it wouldn’t if I wore tight jeans . It will also fit into my rucksack or handbag/ shoulder bag if I don’t wear pockets.

The screen is astoundingly large, bright and clear. The 2 dual core processors are fast and responsive and the software is very flexible. I personally find that the stylus which is supplied with the phone is very useful; not only because it is more accurate than a finger at picking out precisely the part of the screen you mean to tap but also because it has a button on it side which, when depressed, allows extra functions that your finger doesn’t access (like capturing an image of whatever is on the screen in a form that can then be edited and saved). The camera takes remarkably good pictures in bright even light i.e. most situations. Shooting an image against a bright light it struggles (as most cameras do) to produce the contrast and colour balance that your eye can see. It might just be my use of the camera because I haven’t found a way to manually override the exposure which could correct these issues.

In the dark without flash the images are rather noisy; but again this is true of most cameras that costs less than a few hundred pounds. Video is recorded even more successfully and plays back smoothly. Software includes editing functions for both still and video work and of course there are many more apps available through Play. Personally I can’t see me being likely to want anything more than the very good editing suite provided with the bundled software.



The Note comes with 16Gb onboard and is expandable with up to another 32Gb according to the manufacturer and another 64Gb according to some who tried larger microSD cards to see if they would work – they did. More than enough storage for work related files, music, videos etc.
So far, there has been one occasion when it inexplicably shut down. This was in the first few days of use and might have been something I did. Removing and replacing the battery solved the problem and it hasn’t re-occurred.I confess to a few niggling issues. Perhaps most concerning is that the battery doesn’t last as you would hope. It will need charging at least every day and more frequently if you are viewing for hours. To try and conserve the battery life I switch off completely overnight and at odd times when I know I can’t use it even if it rings. This process is made harder than necessary by a ‘shut down’ screen that appears so briefly that tapping the correct position within the brief window of opportunity is a really skilled operation. In the first two weeks it often took me three attempts to switch off.
And, while you are sticking out your tongue and contracting every muscle in concentration to achieve this aim, you find that you accidentally squeeze the ringer volume control (directly opposite the on\off switch) so that, after you switch back on you miss a call or text because you haven’t realised that the phone is in silent mode.
I have also had some trouble with what seems to be poor antennae for WIFI operation. At home I get a very strong signal and the phone works fine but in situations where other people get a weak but serviceable wifi connection my Note has struggled and dropped connection.As well as this note we took my small basic phone soothe person who did not have the note that time would still be able to use a phone. For most of my daily out of home phone needs my pay as you go is adequate, buy should I need much more than a basic phone then the note comes into its own

Samsung Galaxy SIII i9300 Review

The S3 is, like its two predecessors, a smartphone which means you can use it to surf the internet, take pictures and shoot video, listen to music, watch videos, play games and even make phone calls and send text messages!
Where the S3 differs most obviously however is in size. This is a much bigger phone in terms of length and has a screen which is a massive 4.8 inches while being less than a centimetre thick. The phone also has a quad core 1.4 Ghz processor and runs on the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. Other basic information you need to know if considering this phone is it weighs just 133g, measures 70.6 x 136.6 x 8.6mm and has an 8MP camera capable of recording full HD (1080p) footage. It is wifi enabled and Bluetooth ready and also has GPS installed.

 

 

In the Box

The box for the S3 is small but perfectly formed - you get your phone, a charger, USB lead and headphones.You can get the S3 in either white or pebble blue, which is a shiny metallic blue with a hint of silver. I opted for pebble blue when I got the phone. The charger plug uses the USB lead which I have mixed feelings about because I like to keep the USB lead beside my computer and it's not something I generally associate with charging. It seems Samsung have taken a leaf out of Apple's book with this set up (hopefully Apple won't sue!).
The headphones are white and I must admit I don't like them. They are of the in-ear variety with soft cups to protect your ears and have a volume control button attached which can also be used to pause and restart songs. The sound quality is a bit tinny and you really need to push the control buttons on them firmly to get any response.When I got my upgrade from Vodafone they threw in a phone charger and a phone case (complete with screen protector) free of charge.

 

Making Calls/Texting

Although this is a smartphone the main function is to make and take calls or send text messages.Like my Galaxy S, the S3 uses a swipe action across the screen to unlock the screen and to answer a call. When the phone rings there is a green button on the left and you swipe this to answer. If you want to reject the call then swipe the red button on the right.
If you want to make a call the "Phone" button is located on the bottom left of the homescreen , beside the contact list and Messaging function. You can either use the keypad to dial a number or pick one from the Logs, Favourites or Contact buttons on the top of the screen.I really like how easy it is to use this phone to call and sound clarity is generally good although that is something that is always going to be dependent upon how good a signal you have on your phone.

When the signal is bad I do sometimes get echo on the line (when I can hear what I have just said echoing back to me) or dropped calls but by and large sound quality is good. To end a call you simply press the red button on the screen.
Texting is equally easy and like the Galaxy S uses the conversational style of linking texts which I really like. This means texts you send and receive from one person are viewable on one page and makes it easy to view conversations you have with different people. The screen uses a qwerty keyboard for texting and has auto correct as well as predictive text. By and large I do like both systems but it's always worth checking exactly what comes up on your screen as auto correct has proven to be an auto error machine on occasion for me. The screen is very responsive too.You can choose from a wide range of ringtones for your phone. I always use mp3 music clips as my tones and these are easy enough to add to your phone and set up as tones. My only very minor gripe about the pre-installed ringtones is the fact the S3 doesn't have the Fairy Dust tone I used for texts on my old Galaxy S, opting for some altogether more obtrusive tones instead. I got around this by using an mp3 tone instead.

Smartphone

One of the things I didn't like about my Galaxy S phone was how tricky it could be to switch the 3G internet on and off, meaning I resorted to downloading an app to make this easier. Samsung seem to have taken this on board and instead of having to download an external app or dig around the Settings on the phone you can now access the internet by tapping at the top of the home screen which will give you the option to either connect to the web via wifi or mobile internet with one touch. Switching it off is equally easy.You can also use your phone as a wifi hotspot using the tethering function. This is useful if you want to use your mobile internet on a tablet or laptop and is easy to do by downloading an external app such as FoxFi.

The quad core processor on the S3 makes everything so much quicker, meaning restarting your phone is quick and painless. Similarly browsing the web is a quick process and because the screen is so large on this phone it's almost like having a mini tablet for surfing.I do find it easier to access several sites using apps than going in on the regular internet page and using either Google or the bookmarks to find a page. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook work much better through their respective Android apps. Downloading apps on this device is easy although I would advise you use a wifi connection when downloading so as to not eat into any data allowances you have on your mobile web.
Apps are available from the Google Play store (formerly known as the Android Marketplace) and to download them you need a Google account to access content. Most of the apps you will need for popular sites are free although there are others available to buy.

Camera

I've been impressed with the camera on the phone. It's actually got better spec in some regards than my regular camera (which is admittedly quite old now) and it's incredibly easy to use.

There is an app which you touch to take you to the camera and from then on it's almost self explanatory how to get a picture taken.
You can switch to video by touching the camera button at the top right of the screen. Similarly if you want to take a self-portrait the camera can be "turned" using the button on the top left of the screen. You can easily turn the flash on and off and select the shooting mode from a selection of choices along with effects such as sepia, negative and black and white on the camera screen. There is a zoom function which utilises the volume control buttons on the side of the phone. To take a picture you simply press the large button with a picture of a camera and your picture is available to view almost immediately via a small preview on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Similarly to shoot video the large button shows a red dot which you press to stop and start filming.Picture quality is very good - although the zoom function does tend to knock focus out a little. HD video is staggeringly good too - with razor sharp images and a microphone which is capable of picking up lots of detail in the sound.

Music and Video Player

You can also use Kies to back up contact lists, photos and anything else you may have saved to your phone. Kies has improved over time thankfully but you can bypass it altogether using the S3 if you like by just connecting your phone to the internet and then selecting your phone as an external hard drive. Once you have done this you can add media content without having to open Kies and do one of their regular software upgrades.The music player is easy to access via an app and easy to use - you can scroll through songs easily and skip or fast forward them quickly too. My only real gripe with the music player is when I transferred the music that was on my old Galaxy S to the S3 the artwork didn't transfer over too, but that's pretty minor.
Watching video content is equally easy and because the screen size is so big this is a great device for watching films on when traveling. Pictures are sharp and clear on the screen and sound quality is just as good as on the music player.

Overall

I loved my Samsung Galaxy S but I have been even more impressed with what Samsung have come up with in the intervening two years.
The S3 looks amazing and while I must admit I was a bit taken aback by the size of it at first I couldn't imagine using a phone with a smaller screen now. When I compare my phone to my iPod Touch the screen on the latter looks tiny.The internal memory on my phone is 16GB but you can buy the S3 with 32GB or 64GB hard drives. It's worth considering that the phone is capable of handling a 64GB external micro SD card in addition to the internal memory so you can expand your memory in a way that isn't possible with the iPhone.
Sound quality is excellent, touch response is fantastic and the Super AMOLED HD screen is quite simply the best screen I have seen on any phone. 

Battery life on the phone is good too - because it's so easy to switch 3G or wifi on and off you can preserve battery life to such an extent than a full charge will last a good 4 days before you need to charge again if using purely for phoning and texting. There's no denying 3G does drain the battery quicker than any other function however and if you use this regularly then you will need to charge the battery every day.
Obviously the S3 isn't going to be for everyone - if you just want a phone to text and make calls then this isn't going to be for you. The phone costs £425 to buy and you need to be using other functions on it to make it worth the money.The price tag is high but this phone is worth it - there isn't a single function it offers which is bad with Samsung quite literally having perfected every smart aspect of it, without forgetting to make it a functional phone at the same time.
This is easily the best phone I have ever owned - and unsurprisingly it's the best smartphone on the market right now - despite what Apple fans will try to tell you.

 

BlackBerry X10 Pictures Leaked

Not long to wait now until RIM's BB10 operating system launches, and with it a slew of new handsets. Here's one of them in the flesh -- the BlackBerry X10, part of the BlackBerry N-Series, according to N4BB.
As you can see, it's a QWERTY affair, with the keyboard taking up the lower half of the handset. Which should please BlackBerry stalwarts who aren't keen on giving up on physical buttons.
Don't fret if you like BlackBerrys but do want to ditch the keyboard, as RIM will also launch a range of completely touchscreen handsets for BB10. They'll be known as the L-Series, and we spied one a while ago. It's not a million miles away from a certain fruit-themed phone.

There's no word on the specs of the device, such as screen size or resolution, unfortunately. But still, you can get a closer look at the screen in the second snap, with two rows of app icons, along with shortcuts along the bottom for calling, search, and the camera. And from behind it looks like a classic BlackBerry.
BB10 launches on 30 January -- so a month to the day exactly. Many people think it'll be make or break time for RIM, after its recent troubles. There was a rumour a while ago that RIM would have to split the company in half and sell off its networking business, or join forces with Microsoft. BB10 has already been delayed twice, so let's hope 30 January is indeed the day it launches.
We'll bring you all the launch day happenings as they occur. Are you looking forward to BB10? Or is it too little too late for RIM? Can it compete with Android and iOS? Or should it buddy up with Microsoft and Windows Phone? Let me know in the comments!

Jelly Bean and Premium Suite Soon to be released to the Samsung Galaxy Note

Great News for owners of the origninal Samsung Galaxy Note. The Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 have already got the software update, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as well as Premium Suite.

That should bring a host of new features to the handset. It's good to see Samsung still looking after the original Note, seeing as it's no spring chicken. The 5.3-incher is over a year old, in fact, which is ancient in terms of mobiles. Samsung confirmed the news on its global website. It also ran down all the new features you'll see on your device. These include the split-screen Multi Window view so you can use two apps side-by-side, Facebook updates on your lock screen, as well as automatic tagging for photos, including the location and date, as well as what the weather was doing. There are new menus, and Page Buddy gives you a different home page for each accessory -- so plug in your headphones, and it'll take you straight to your favourite tunes, for example. Paper Artist gives you more editing tools for photos, and Smart Rotation flips the screen around depending on how you're positioned. Your photos should also be vastly improved thanks to 'best face', a feature that lets you pick the best expression from a burst of five snaps. And low light mode will improve your pics in dimly lit conditions, too. Android Jelly Bean brings new features like location- and search-based info provider Google Now, as well as Google's Siri-baiting Advanced Voice Search. There's no word on when the Premium Suite and Android Jelly Bean upgrade will hit UK shores, but rest assured, it's coming. It's been a bumper year for Samsung, and next year looks to be even better, with the company predicted to ship more than half a billion phones. Blimey. Still, it's good to see it looking out for anyone with an older handset.

If you have the latest software update or the new premium suite, let us know what its like. Post in the Comment section below.

Welcome

Welcome to TechNews a technology blog. TechNews provides you with the latest news, reviews and information on about the latest in gadgets and technology. We love everything to do with technology and on this blog you will see tablets, mobile phones, gaming consoles, smart television and much more. Please do visit our other blog. Velper, a blog about Self Improvement

We will have reviews on different providers such as Apple, HTC, Samsung, HP, Sony  and much more.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD Tablet - Review

The much awaited kindle fire HD was released a couple of months ago but I have been desperate to get my hands on one for ages. I reserved it on Amazon after a good deal of deliberation of whether I wanted a Fire HD or regular Fire. For a small increase in cost, I decided that it was worth it to go for the HD version as along with other perks it has a 16GB memory. You can also get a 32 GB version but I thought that 16 was ample room. If there is a question mark over storage space though just remember that you cannot buy a memory expansion pack but you get free unlimited cloud storage for your Amazon content. I bought the version that came without special offers so this cost me an extra 10 pounds too. This is a cheeky feature which switches off adverts and although I was a little disgruntled at paying extra, I would do it again, (although you have to phone up to get this feature unlocked, despite specifying it on the order!) Before I describe the Fire HD I will tell you that I am really pleased with it. I bought it primarily as a reading device but I was also really excited about having a mini tablet so I had a one stop shop for all my needs. My husband has the regular kindle which can be bought for a mere £60 now on Amazon but I wanted the bigger, better version, hence my wait for this new machine to come out. It certainly was worth the wait and it can rival many of the small tablets that are on the market; at this price you are getting so much for your money and I am really pleased with my purchase. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a great self improvement tool. There are many apps and books on the Kindle Fire HD to help you out and to improve you.

 

REKINDLING THE FLAME

My love affair with kindles has been rocky, I really protested about them when they first came out as I do have a huge library at home and hated to think that I would never get the joy of picking up a first edition or getting a book signed by the author. When my husband bought his first kindle, I learned that they are not there to replace your library; just compliment it. When I went to see my sister in Australia, I took my husband’s Kindle and although I was pleased that I had thousands of books at my fingers tips, I did not think I would get used to reading from a screen. I did though and I secretly really enjoyed it. I enjoyed not having to turn the page, bend over corners to save my page and lug heavy volumes around. From that moment on, I craved a Kindle of my own. On opening the box of the new Kindle Fire, it was clear that this is more than just a reading device. It has many similarities to the old Kindle but it is heavier for a start. The old Kindle weighs just 170g whereas this one weighs 394g. This was not shock and I knew what I was expecting but still it feels very different in your hand when you read from it. The back of the kindle has a soft rubbery back with a wide bezel. It has the kindle logo and Amazon logo emblazoned on the back. At the back you will also find the speaker grates where the Dolby Audio dual driver stereo sound comes though. At the front the old dated Kindle look is replaced with an ultra stylish vivid full colour display with touch screen. The old grey scale of the old Kindle seems a light year away from the technology used here. On front of the Kindle is a front facing 1.3MP camera so you can use it to Skype; genius. The front of the device reminds of the iPad, it has the sleek, finished design that is synonymous with Apple products. The length of the Kindle Fire is 7.6 inch with a 7 inch screen and the width is 5.4 inches. The Kindle Fire has a number of buttons integrated into the frame and these are the power button and volume rocker. Close by is also the 3.5mm headphone jack. The buttons are hard to find and I have spent many a minute fumbling to find them. They have done a great job of disguising them!

LIGHTING THE FIRE

The Kindle is powered by Android 4.1 and I find this is nippy and really user friendly. You can hold the Kindle in portrait or landscape position. You can tell which way you have the Kindle because at the bottom of the screen is a carousel of recently used functions, books, magazines, games or web browser. You can remove items from the carousel by clicking on them and holding them or you can relocate them to your favourites. Above the carousel is the list of categories where you can find your items, i.e books, newsstand, music, video etc. Each category opens up the library where you can view items held locally or items downloaded from the cloud. The carousel is quick and I love the feature but the menus can be quite slow when you launch them. They open then it takes a while for the content to load; this can be frustrating. You can pin favourites really quickly by clicking on the star icon, this makes it easy to find and locate content quickly. The Kindle Fire is already registered to your Amazon account so you have access to any thing you have already purchased. The Amazon store is seamless and making a one click shop is as easy as the name suggests. In terms of connectivity, the Kindle has extremely fast wifi and it also has Bluetooth so you can hook it up to a wireless keyboard or a good set of speakers. There is also a HDMI port so you can share your pictures and videos on the big screen. The Silk browser which is Amazon’s baby is superb and ultra fast thanks to the company’s impeccable web hosting abilities. I have set my Kindle up so that my emails can be received on the device, it is so simple and so easy and even downloading attachments and viewing them is flawless. You can put the screen in reader mode so that you can read emails or browse web on full screen and only read the text making for a much more pleasurable experience at times.

SOUNDS AND SCREEN

A full colour display a few years ago would have not been my thing in terms of an Ebook but on seeing first the regular Kindle and overcoming my issues with tha0074, I did not have qualms about it. Text is superb, crystal clear with excellent contrast. I have read quite a lot on it this past week, even taking it outside on the brightest day we have (Yes, yes I am aware it is October) and it performed well. I have held it close lamps too and as long as you angle the display correctly you will not get hardly any glare. The screen for viewing films and playing games is spectacular. The fire boasts a 1280x800 HD display that is incredible. Games are so vivid and movies in HD are awesome. Colours are bright, vivid and images come to life on the screen. This is superb for gamers and for movie watchers. I am so pleased I went for the HD version as it is certainly worth the money. The sound is good, when you hold it in you hands you will find it more than loud enough but it certainly will not fill a room. When watching a film you do get excellent bass with a surround sound feel to it but it just cannot carry very far. This is certainly a very personal experience. If you are wanting it to be louder than you can buy speakers to hook it up to. The Fire is designed to automatically optimise the sound profile based on the function you are performing, ie skyping, watching a movie and listening to music.

Comparing the Amazon Kindle Fire HD with its competitors

MEDIA, MUSIC AND MY BOOKS

I love reading and I will not lie when I say that the primary function of this is as an E
reader. Finding your books is easy and you can search, annotate and bookmark as easy as you can write your name. The function X-Ray makes life really easy if you are wanting to instantly find chapters or sections that mention names, ideas, characters or even places, as well as biographies and background information. X-Ray suits its name and you can really best the best out of what you are reading. If you have multiple devices, amazon uses Whispersync which synchronises your library, bookmarks and notes across all your devices. There is a massive array of books to choose from and there is a selection of free books to browse. You will spend hours pouring over the choices, honestly you do not know where to start. You can also download glossy magazines with a full colour layout, pictures and text and these are located in the Amazon App store. This is also the place where you can download your favourite games and applications. Once downloaded, the annoying thing is that they disappear into the carousel and although you can scroll through to find them, it takes longer than it does on a smart phone where everything has a neat little box on the screen.There are many free applications to choose from and some of the games are fun such as fruit ninja and angry birds. You can also access facebook and other social media sites though nifty applications. This is not the best place for high powered games though and on recently downloading a racing game, I found some limitations to the Fire’s abilities. It was sluggish and slow and could not keep up with the graphics. You can see why this only costs £160, it just is not built for functions like this. Movies and images are really fun to watch and you stream movies directly through the lovefilm service, I have yet to sign up for this but I think I will as it is quite a cheap way to see the latest blockbusters.

BATTERY LIFE

The battery on the Kindle fire is good and when you are reading you can get over 11 hours of life out of one charge. When I watched a film though, it really crashed the battery and it reduced the life significantly. A 3 hr film reduced the battery life by a half so I reckon you only get 5-6 hours of movie watching out of it. This is a bit disappointing but I expected it.
If you want to charge the Fire you will need to buy a charger unless you want to change it up via USB.

NIGGLES

The fire does have some niggles and it comes mainly from not being able to customise it. I want to be able to build my own homescreen so that I can find my apps easily and although I like the carousel, I would much rather have a full page of icons. The Kindle is geared to make you buy things through it, as you scroll through your own items you are invited to search for more songs from the artist and it is full of recommendations for books. They say it is intuitive but I find it annoying and I am glad I have disabled the adverts that come on the screen when the fire is on lockdown. I bought this to be creative and I do not like to be forced to view things I do not want to do, it is a bit cheeky really.

BURN BABY BURN

I do love my Fire and I am slowly making it into a one stop shop media centre filled with my favourite things. I love reading on it and it is a pleasure to read from. I can read for hours and hours at a time and finds it much more comfortable than holding a regular book. I love all the apps and content at my fingers and the browser is super fast. The wifi is quick and I have not lost connection yet. There are some minor issues like the constant advertising, the struggle to keep up with some games and slow loading menus but on the whole it is brilliant and I am really glad I bought it. It was worth the wait and it is funny how dated the old Kindle now looks. I bought a cover for the Kindle which was quite expensive but I would hate for anything to happen to the screen. It feels really robust and Kindles by reputation are quite sturdy and tough but I still think you need to do all you can to look after them. A good cover is needed and also means that in a two kindle household you can tell whose is whose. The best thing about the Kindle Fire is the screen, it is fantastic, so clear and bright and for this reason I recommend it and award it four stars. This will be your new companion!