Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0

What a difference a year makes. Last May we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 at a time when the compact tablet market remained in the shadow of the iPad and a legion of 10-inch imitators.

There was no Google Nexus 7, no iPad mini, and no Amazon Kindle Fire HD. In such an environment, the keenly priced if modestly specced Samsung 7-incher was a respectable choice.

Since then the aforementioned devices have sent the compact tablet market into the stratosphere, offering potent combinations of price, performance and unique features. As such, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 needs to do a heck of a lot more to impress us here in 2013.

Samsung has once again hit a pretty sweet sub-$200/£200 price point. At the time of writing you can pick this unassuming 7-inch tablet up for $179.99 (£180) - that's less than the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 hit the market for, and more pertinently it's slightly less than a brand new second generation Google Nexus 7.

The trouble is, when it comes down to it, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 isn't even in the same league as the first generation Google Nexus 7 in terms of specs and performance. But we'll come onto that later.

We'll start with a typical piece of Samsung design. The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 follows the same visual template as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and, by extension, the Samsung Galaxy S4. This means it's a functional, solid, yet plasticy piece of kit.

It lacks the understated class of the latest Nexus 7 and the sheer premium feel of the iPad mini, with details such as a glossy white plastic back panel and silver plastic rim feeling dated and unappealing.

As ever with Samsung's designs, though, the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 somehow feels sturdy and well built despite its cheap appearance. You can imagine it surviving a fair few drops with scarcely a scratch to show for it - though we didn't put this to the test.

This 7-inch tablet is clearly intended to be held and used in portrait mode first and foremost. The orientation of the Samsung branding and of its two capacitive hardware buttons tells you as much, as does the way the tablet sits comfortably in a single handed grips when aligned this way.

At 300 grams the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is 44g lighter than the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, 8g lighter than the iPad mini and just 10g heavier than the 2013 Nexus 7. It's pretty much average for the modern 7-inch tablet, in other words, and while it doesn't exactly feel light in the hand it was undoubtedly comfortable to hold for extended web browsing and gaming sessions throughout our test period.

As mentioned, the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 adheres to the established Samsung design manual, which extends to its hardware controls. Whilst other manufacturers are ditching or stripping back this element in keeping with Google's reference Nexus designs, Samsung continues to supply its devices with three core controls.

Central to these is a physical lozenge-shaped home button, which is also used for bringing up the multitasking menu (through a long press) and Samsung's Siri-like S Voice feature (through a double press).

Either side of this you have two capacitive buttons. On the left is a contextual menu button, whilst on the right is a back button. Whether you prefer this approach to the virtual commands included in stock Android is a matter of personal preference, but there's certainly something to be said for the consistency and familiarity of Samsung's approach.

On the right of the device you have some reliably clicky buttons for power and volume, which are ideally placed for that aforementioned single-handed grip, and up top you have a standard 3.5mm headphone port.

Flip over to the bottom of the device and you'll find the expected microUSB slot and two small speaker grilles, emphasizing that this is device that's meant to be operated in portrait. Movie watchers and landscape gamers will need to employ a set of headphones to get proper stereo sound, but we'd always recommend that anyway.

Our issues really begin with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 when you move beyond its conservative external design, though. Powering the tablet is a dual-core 1.2GHz Marvell Armada PXA986 CPU. Hardly a cutting edge component, and certainly well off the pace of the quad-core chips found in both generations of Nexus 7.

1GB of RAM is respectable, but again half that found in the new Nexus 7 and other modern Android devices.

There's a choice of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, and once again you can opt to expand this by up to 32GB via a welcome microSD slot, which is readily accessible behind a somewhat flimsy plastic door on the lower left-hand side.

If the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0's internal specs are underwhelming, wait until you lay your eyes on its 7-inch LCD display. Viewing angles are good thanks to IPS technology, but its 1024 x 600 resolution feels woefully out of date next to the 1280 x 800 offered by last year's Nexus 7, let alone the 1920 x 1200 display featured in this year's model.

With a deeply unimpressive pixel density of 169ppi, text and images have that fuzzy non-descript appearance that we thought we'd left behind with the advent of HD displays.

Testing Ubisoft's vibrant Rayman Jungle Run game on the device resulted in decent performance and a clear enough picture, but those luscious 2D worlds that burst with so much color and detail on other modern devices simply felt muted and indistinct.

Frankly, we can't see any meaningful improvement over the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 screen - and even that felt below par more than a year ago.

On the plus side, while we wouldn't call it razor-sharp we didn't notice any of the outstanding responsiveness issues that we found with last year's model, and we had little problem hitting links and other small command prompts on the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0's 7-inch display. Thank goodness for small mercies.

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Sony vs. Samsung: Whose TV belongs in your living room?

Who makes the best HDTV: LG or Samsung? Samsung or Sony? Toshiba or Panasonic? We hear these questions all the time. So, if those questions are so common, why are the answers so uncommon? Well, the trouble is that such queries are extremely broad. Answer one way or the other and you can count on getting branded as a fanboy.  You can’t just say “brand X is the best.” That’s ridiculous. The best at what? Everything? We don’t think so.

But we recognize that anyone asking these questions clearly needs some kind of nudge in one direction or the other, or maybe just some guidance with their research. With that in mind, we’ve decided to pit one brand against another in an ongoing series until we’ve exhausted as many variations as possible; because the truth is, different brands do exhibit distinct characteristics and understanding those characteristics can help make a buying decision easier. Here we go.

Sony was once the undisputed king of televisions; its older Trinitron and newer Bravia series are often regarded as synonymous with the concept of a premium TV. But then along came a little South Korean company called Samsung, which has worked its way up to become the number one TV manufacturer in the world, snatching a little over 26 percent market share.

Just because you’re the biggest doesn’t necessarily make you the best, though. While Samsung may be a TV titan, Sony hasn’t lost its chops, and over the past few years, its prices have come down a little. Aside from all that, these two companies make very different products. Let’s take a closer look at what differentiates the two.

Samsung has a sort of obsession with making the thinnest possible TVs with the thinnest possible bezels. The company’s F8000 LED/LCD televisions are virtually bezel-free, and, with an average depth of just 5/8-inch, they are about as thin as you can get. This changes some as you move down Samsung’s line-up, but you can usually count on Samsung to deliver a smallest-in-class bezel and cabinet depth. That doesn’t always play to Samsung’s advantage, however. We’ve seen some of the company’s mid-level televisions showing more edge light bloom because of their skimpy bezels. 

Sony makes a sexy TV, but it tends to show a lot less skin than Samsung does. Put another way: If Sony’s top-level TV’s wear miniskirts, then Samsung’s wear microskirts. Take a look at Sony’s W900, for example. Some might argue that a half-inch of difference in bezel width is splitting hairs, and we might tend to agree. For most, the bezel on Sony’s is plenty slim, and we’ve found that as you move down Sony’s line, the small amount of additional bezel can help hide some edge-light blooming.

When it comes to the TV’s stands, we’ve become indifferent. It used to be that we preferred Sony’s to Samsung’s considerably because Sony supplied higher-quality glass stands with its top-tier models. Now, both companies tend to use chromed-up plastic stands in various swooping shapes. Meh. 

For LED LCD televisions:

This would be so much easier if we were only comparing the aforementioned top-of-the-line models from the two manufacturers. In that sort of head-to-head, we would praise Sony for its outstanding color accuracy, but give a nod to Samsung for its above-par black levels. The thing is, the outstanding black level the F8000 achieves is thanks to an advanced local dimming technology that you don’t get with lesser models. And although Samsung’s black levels tend to be very good from model to model, the difference between it and Sony is much less stark without the local dimming involved. 

We will say this: Sony’s televisions have always had a certain look to them that is distinctly Sony, and a lot of folks love that look. If you’re one of those people that’s always loved the look of a Sony TV, then you should know that Sony’s still got it. 

On the other hand, Samsung makes TVs that can get exceptionally bright, and sometimes that brightness is necessary to combat lots of ambient sunlight. If you need an eyeball-scorching TV, Samsung’s LED backlit sets will usually do the trick. 

For plasma televisions:

Sony does not make a plasma TV anymore; it quit the plasma biz in 2006. That being the case, Samsung wins this battle by default. In terms of picture quality, plasma absolutely dominates LED/LCD technology. As a bonus, it’s less expensive, too. Side note: Samsung’s F8500 plasma is one of the five best TVs you can buy this year. 

We’re going to give this category to Samsung. Sony’s smart TV interface is mostly centered around the Sony Entertainment Network interface. You can access some more popular VOD apps such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant from a more simplified app menu, but actually using these apps will require that you register your device with Sony, and that means a trip to Sony’s website. It may sound like a little thing, but we’ve always found it to be a hassle. Also, Sony’s smart TV’s don’t support some key apps, such as VUDU. Oddly enough, Sony’s Blu-ray players support apps that its TVs do not – VUDU being one of them.

Samsung, on the other hand, has put a ton of effort into its smart TV interface, and it shows. Year after year, the visual aspect of the interface gets better, as do its app offerings (even though you won’t use half of them…ever). Also, Samsung offers a universal search option to help you find content across all available VOD apps (the downside is that you must use voice search) and it includes a recommendation engine which some find helpful in discovering new content. 

Not only does the user interface vary from tier to tier within each manufacturer’s line-up, but the term user interface is itself very broad. So, for the sake of this piece, let’s say the user interface has to do with the experience of navigating through a TV’s various menus in order to make changes to the settings. In that regard, the contest is a draw. Both companies provide a menu navigation experience that is intuitive enough to get through, and both leave something to be desired in terms of explaining what certain menu options actually do. Neither has reached perfection, but considering how complex these TVs can get, we’d have to say both brands have done a decent job. There are some manufacturers with pretty lame user interfaces, and we’ll be getting to them later in this series.

Unfortunately, this category gets decided on which remote we dislike the least. That’s right, if we’re to pick the lesser of two evils, we’re going to pick Sony and its remote controls. To be fair, this would be a draw, but Samsung decided go with this whole trackpad remote approach for its upper-tier televisions. And while we acknowledge it as being a very forward-thinking idea, it doesn’t work for us in practice.

The remote is also light on buttons, leaving most of the TV’s functions to be accessed with a virtual remote pad on the TV. Maybe we’re just old school, but we’ll take a wand loaded with buttons any day. And while we’re expressing our preferences, let us once again state for the record that all remote controls should be backlit. This is the 21st century; there are no excuses. 

At this point, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections are standard on both Sony and Samsung Smart TVs. This really shouldn’t be a consideration.

We hope you’ll walk away from reading this with some sense of how Sony and Samsung compare with each other. But we think the most valuable takeaway here is that you get out there and go put your hands on a TV and its remote for a while to get the feel of things. In our home-theater crash course, we suggest you forget about the sales guys on the floor and just start playing around. That’s what those TV displays are for. And if you want a more complete guide to buying a TV, be sure to check out our comprehensive TV buying guide. Have fun!

Caleb is a professional musician, amateur chef and A/V electronics guru. Growing up, Caleb was the guy you would find in the garage tearing apart vintage electronics while other kids rode bikes or played football. His early immersion in consumer electronics has led to countless car stereo, home theater and live audio installations which laid down the foundation for his current work as A/V Editor and reviewer at Digital Trends. Contact him on twitter (@caleb_denison) or via email (cdenison@digitaltrends.com).

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Review: Samsung UE55F8000

Stunning designOutstanding picture qualitySophisticated online featuresExcellent touchpad remote controlSmart interface can confusePoor picture presetsGesture/voice controls are unconvincingVery wide stand design

Samsung has an uncanny knack of kicking the new TV season off each year by unleashing its all-singing, all-dancing flagship TVs ahead of the competition, setting a high bar right away for rivals to aim for, and establishing a positive buzz around the brand that seems to carry it throughout the year.

It's no surprise, then, to find 2013's new television season being introduced by Samsung's latest flagship 55-inch LED TV, the Samsung UE55F8000, priced at £2,500 (around US$3,782/ AU$3,635).

And it's also no surprise to find this set packing an almighty punch on all three key fronts of design, performance and features.

The design boasts what appears to be the trimmest bezel ever - under half a centimetre across - as well as a gorgeously finished and robust rear that makes last year's ES8000 flagship TVs such as the Samsung UE55ES8000 and Samsung UE46ES8000 look flimsy by comparison. Underneath the TV is an arch design desktop stand that pokes out at each corner while curving around the back of the TV.

Features of the new Samsung UE55F8000 are dominated by a revamped smart TV system, complete with a brand new multiple home screen interface and the facility to 'learn' what you like to watch.

Meanwhile, a quad-core processor is there to enable some seriously smart antics, making the TV about 3.5 times faster than previous incarnations, and more capable of multitasking.

As for performance, for now let's just say that Samsung has finally solved its old problem with backlight inconsistency, instantly shifting its picture quality to a whole new level. More on all this later in the review, of course.

The Samsung UE55F8000's £2,500 (around US$3,782/ AU$3,635) asking price isn't cheap, it has to be said.

Its smaller brother, the 40-inch UE40F8000, sells for £1,450 (around US$2,194/ AU$2,108), and the mid-range 46-inch UE46F8000 costs £1,900 (around US$2,875/ AU$2,762), but of course these offer less screen real estate to enjoy.

So if the price of the UE55F800 is a bit high for you, but you want a big screen, you can step down to Samsung's F7000 models. These still offer more or less the same level of feature functionality, but save you a couple of hundred quid by not using such a high-grade panel/microdimming combination.

In terms of rival models, it's tricky right now given that no other brands have yet brought out their 2013 flagship TVs. Looking at 2012 models still on sale, though, easily the most persuasive competitor would be the Sony KDL-55HX853, which lacks the design prowess of the Samsung and boasts a less sophisticated smart services engine, but uses local dimming in its edge LED array to deliver exceptionally punchy pictures.

Otherwise the most intriguing model to put up against the Samsung UE55F8000 would be a plasma model: the Panasonic TX-P55VT50. This lacks the design finesse and aggressive brightness and colours of the Samsung model, but it delivers peerless contrast and exceptionally natural motion handling.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

With its bulky point-and-shoot camera shape and 10x optical zoom, Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom makes for a ridiculously shaped smartphone that defies pocketability. But the mashup device sure can shoot.

In fact, its image quality is on par with a good point-and-shoot camera, and its optical zoom makes it a more flexible camera than any other smartphone's. Unfortunately, the Zoom's awkward and uneasy design disrupts the phone's day-to-day functionality on a fundamental level, even if you're not holding it up to your ear.

Despite its strong photography skills, the Zoom -- which has no U.S. carrier partner (or pricing) yet -- is floundering for an audience. Nokia's smaller 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 edges the Zoom in pure image quality, and casual shooters who aren't willing to give up the convenience of a pocket phone will be happier with the 13-megapixel Samsung Galaxy S4 or 8-megapixel iPhone 5.

Editors' note: Thanks to CNET Senior Editor Joshua Goldman for additional camera testing and analysis.

We've seen some out-there phone designs in our time, and the Zoom is right up there. As a smartphone, the Zoom's large lens assembly and hand grip are completely impractical. It uncomfortably stretches out pockets and its 7.3-ounce weight drags on your arm if you hold it for a long time, say, to watch a video or play a game.

Like the LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy Camera that came before it, the Zoom's always-connected data stream lets you easily share and upload photos. However, the phone's bulk also makes it much harder to immerse yourself in the device as you would with a slimmer, more shingle-shaped phone.

Don't attempt using the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom as a telephone without a Bluetooth headset. Just don't.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

And woe unto anyone who attempts using this thing as cell phone without a Bluetooth headset. I tried it at length to see how it felt. Not only did I look utterly ridiculous, my hands got tired of holding the device after 15- and 20-minute calls. (Call quality was actually pretty good; you can read about that part below.)

As a camera, the Zoom works well. The large, round shutter button depresses with the right amount of give, the grip makes it possible to shoot one-handed, and the large zoom wheel turns smoothly without being too loose. Photographers accustomed to resting their thumbs on the camera's back will need to adjust so they don't tap the touch screen. Otherwise, shooting with the Zoom is smooth sailing.

The lens assembly takes up a lot of space on the back, owing to its 24-240mm zoom lens. To the left of the lens are the xenon flash and an autofocus assist light. A microSD card slot and tripod mount populate the left spine (if you're holding the Zoom like a phone), and on the right are the power/lock buttons, volume rocker, and shutter button. The headset jack and IR blaster live up top, with the Micro-USB charging port on the bottom edge.

The Zoom is clearly more camera than phone.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Like other Galaxy phones, the Zoom navigates with a central Home button flanked by capacitive controls for the menu and Back button. They also do double duty to bring up Google Now cards and recent apps.

One missing element is a charging indicator light, which would go a long way toward letting phone owners know when the Zoom has enough juice to shoot its heart out.

The Zoom is a smartphone, yes, but whether you buy it or not all comes down to its camera controls and image quality. You can fire up the camera and its 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor by holding down the shutter button, but you'll need to unlock the phone first.

To get to the shooter faster, you can set a lock-screen shortcut for the camera (as well as any other app). Going one step further, you can also program the Zoom to open the camera when you power it on.

You can open the camera faster with a lock-screen shortcut. Another setting unlocks the phone to the camera app.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Samsung has learned a thing or two about making its camera app easy to understand and use. There are onscreen controls to flip between front and rear cameras, toggle the flash, and turn on self-timer, geotagging, and autosharing. Icons make it easy to zoom in and out without touching the lens, and other buttons switch to video capture, open mode selection, and take the photo.

Tap an arrow at the bottom of the screen to pop open a long list of filter effects, like sepia, vintage, and fish-eye.

The Zoom's native camera interface has tappable controls.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

The modes are plentiful, even more so than on the other Galaxy S4 phones. You have auto, of course, and digital dials to set ISO, white balance, contrast, color correction, exposure time, and so on.

A category called Smart Mode bundles 25 presets, including panorama and macro, HDR (which it calls Rich Tone), and settings for night shots, food, action, and smiling tots. If all these are still too confusing, there is -- absurdly -- even a mode to suggest the right mode.

Using the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

One mode turns out be an editable list of shortcuts for your five favorite modes. It's a convenient way to get what you want quickly, but also seems a bit much. It might be simpler if Samsung just let you reorder and star your favorite modes instead so flagged ones appear at the top of the list.

Another shortcut reveals itself when you turn the zoom lens while on the home screen. Do this, and your onscreen cursor rotates around some common modes.

For the most part, Samsung has made camera app navigation intuitive. And I like how voice dictation, which takes the photo when it hears trigger words like "cheese" and "smile," works with the front-facing camera. I used this feature when I wanted to minimize hand shake.

Image quality
The Zoom doesn't claim to have the highest megapixel resolution of any smartphone camera or the crispest, clearest fidelity. Yet, in our tests, it produced some excellent images using auto settings, preset modes, and freehand controls. Still and all, the Nokia Lumia 1020 produced the all-around best shots with its larger sensor, cleaner processing, better low-light shots, and solid image stabilization.

Auto mode on the Zoom takes photos with crisp edges, and uses a warmer tone overall that sometimes pumps up yellows. Indoors, it often relies on flash where some other smartphone cameras (like the iPhone 5) do not. The effect is photos with defined faces that and less background detail. The tendency to use flash also created a less atmospheric nighttime scene.

Taken indoors with flash. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Whether you like this or not is a matter of taste; I personally prefer to see clear faces than worry about blinding my friends with flash. On the other hand, camera phones are increasingly improving low-light performance, which means that the flash should fire less often as smartphone cameras get better.

The Zoom's auto mode sometimes helped out by kicking over to another setting; I noticed this take place with night mode, though not macro.

The Zoom's killer feature is indeed that 10x optical zoom. Most of the time, zoom quality was terrific without much loss in image fidelity. I was really impressed with some images I captured while standing at the bottom of a statue, for example, or across the street. I found Zoom handy for taking photos of objects I couldn't physically get close to in time to capture the moment, like bystanders at CNET's office ping pong tournament (really,) or a scene across a busy intersection.

CNET camera editor Josh Goldman also got some really beautiful artistic shots using the Zoom's lens to blur the background and make the foreground pop.

This camera phone's zoom lens may be on par with other point-and-shoot cameras, but it wasn't absolutely perfect. Sometimes the camera failed to focus on objects, like facial features, no matter how often I tried. Zoom also wasn't great at fulfilling a macro function -- it's easy to get too close.

Speaking of close-ups, I was disappointed that close-ups in auto mode often didn't work. Strangely, a shot looked clear and sharp in freeze frame on the display, but blurry in review. I also noticed a little motion blur at times, even when subjects and I both kept still. The Zoom's image stabilization should cancel out minor hand shaking.

Must-see: Samsung Galaxy S4 shootout versus Lumia 1020, others

Macro mode presets were terrific, however, yielding rich detail on objects like flowers, textiles, lettering, and more. Even though using Samsung's modes requires premeditation, many of them do have a positive effect. I'm personally much more interested in the kinds of preset boosts you can get with food mode, indoor, and action than settings like best face and best photo that automatically select a more technically correct picture from a series for you to use.

In our tests, the Zoom took better photos in a lot of situations than the usual camera phones, with better detail and lower noise. In automatic mode, the differences between the Zoom, the original S4, and the iPhone 5 generally weren't astounding enough to make most casual photographers jump ship and buy a Zoom.

I took the photo of my cupcake first in automatic mode (L), and then using the food-friendly setting. The boost in color and contrast is evident.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Samsung gave the Zoom a focus-assist light, night mode, and indoor presets to counter its typical low-light Achilles' heel. The camera also defaulted to night mode when it detected I was outside at night and photographing city lights, which I found helpful.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (AT&T)

Let me cut right to the chase: The AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is as good as the Wi-Fi-only version, but it's overpriced for what you can get in the second half of 2013.

Unfortunately, even in a more hypercompetitive tablet market, AT&T follows Samsung's lead too closely and charges an arm and a leg for its version of the Note 8 -- $500 contract free (with a $25 monthly charge) or $400 when you sign up for a two year deal (and that doesn't even include the monthly service fees). You read that right: Those opting into the two-year contract pay the same initial price as the Wi-Fi-only contract-free version. Not exactly what I'd call a deal.

The Note 8's combination of features and price just doesn't compete with the newly released Nexus 7, which remains our number one small tablet choice. That unit delivers 4G LTE compatibility (the Wi-Fi version is available now; the 4G model, "coming soon", according to Google) on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile -- contract-free -- for a mere $350 (with 32GB of storage, no less). And even with its premium pricing, the iPad Mini (with a larger, but lower resolution screen than the Nexus 7) is competitive to the AT&T Note 8 -- $429 for 16GB or $529 for 32GB, both contract-free.

All of that's too bad, because the Galaxy Note 8 is actually a solid tablet. Indeed, if you have need for both a stylus and a 4G connection, the Note 8 is your best option. (The 10.1-inch Note is available for about $100 more and isn't as good a tablet as the Note 8.) You just might want to hold out for a price cut.

Design
Like the iPad Mini, the Note 8’s larger-than-typical screen necessitates about an inch worth of body width. So, depending on how you're holding the tablet, its more expansive frame may feel a bit awkward, especially if your hands are of the wee variety and definitely when compared to the Nexus 7 (2013). The Note 8 feels to be made of the same stuff as the Note 10.1, with a bit more metal along its edges thrown in for durability's sake. Its corners are smoothly rounded, but its more corpulent profile yields a slightly heavier device than the iPad Mini; however, you’d probably have to be holding one in each hand to notice the difference.

Side bezel width in inches (landscape)

The Note 8’s design isn’t as simple or as elegant as the Mini’s, but what it lacks in simplicity, it attempts to make up for in utility. On the bottom bezel sit three buttons: a menu key, home key, and the back key. Samsung has also added the ability to use the S Pen with the three buttons, something that was missing on the Note 2.

The 5-megapixel rear-facing camera is located directly in the top middle of the back, and although the placement feels natural when holding the camera in portrait, my fingers were constantly getting in the way of shots when holding it in landscape. The back button as well can be a nuisance with the tablet held this way. There were several times when trying to take a picture or playing Riptide GP that I accidentally hit it. Thanks to the inclusion of these buttons, we get back a small percentage of screen real estate that would otherwise be occupied by the Android nav bar. Somewhat inverse to that, while the physical home button is a very welcome addition, its convex nature makes it difficult to press with the stylus.

The S Pen of course returns with its pressure sensitivity in tow and writing with it felt a lot less cumbersome here compared with on the 10.1-inch Note. Though of identical length, the S Pen has a smaller radius than the Note 10.1's, and thanks to its flatter design is even less likely to roll away. The grooved pen button is a bit smaller than before, making it less likely to elicit accidental presses. The tablet includes palm rejection tech; however, if the skin on the knife edge of your hand folds in just the right way, making a "point," the tablet will, much to my frustration, mistakenly believe you're trying to write with it and accept inputs from it.

The 5-megapixel back camera is one of the better tablet cameras around; however, that's really not saying much.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

The front-facing camera sits off to the top-right corner on the front. On the bottom edge are two speaker grills, a Micro-USB port, and a slot for the S Pen. On the right edge sits a microSD card slot with an IR blaster, volume rocker, and power/sleep button on the left edge. The top edge holds the headphone jack.

Software features
Since the release of the Note 10.1, Samsung has been working to improve the user experience in its Note family of tablets, adding software enhancements that probably should have been there from the get-go. The Note 8 reaps the benefit of the company's hindsight as it includes not only the additions we’ve seen added to the Note 10.1, but a few unique additions of its own.

The AT&T version of the Note 8 ships with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and includes Samsung’s TouchWiz UI skin. Though some take issue with the somewhat Fisher-Price-ian look of the interface, Samsung of late has added a number of useful features to balance out the over-use of pastels. The most useful feature is the easily accessible shortcut tray that lets you turn off features like Smart Stay, Multi Window, Mobile Data, Wi-Fi, Reading Mode, and GPS among others by simply swiping down from the top of the screen and tapping the feature on or off.

Check latest price on amazon The S Pen and its thoughtful implementation into the OS is the reason the Note 8 is more than just another tablet.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Samsung's multi window feature allows for two select apps to run simultaneously onscreen with a fairly deep pool of compatible apps, including Twitter, Facebook, and Chrome and each window can be easily resized to support virtually any ratio. The feature feels more at home here on the Note 8 with the S Pen compared with on the Note 10.1, where it's more difficult to hold the tablet in one hand and use the stylus in the other.

S Note gets some notable improvements as well, and the dark veil of inhospitable-ness that greeted me in the first version of the app has thankfully largely dissipated. The app now includes a brief text tutorial to make jumping in a bit less confusing, and the interface has been tweaked slightly -- you can now easily load a completely blank sheet of "paper" -- toward the same purpose. Icons now present their purpose much more clearly when tapping them and can be further clarified by the new AirView feature, which lets users hover the point of the S Pen over a menu option, which in turn displays a text bubble of each option's functionality.

Typing in a Web site URL, composing an e-mail, searching for an app in Google Play, or doing pretty much any action that would normally cause a software keyboard to pop up at the bottom on the screen, instead triggers a notepad to appear. And instead of pecking away at each letter with the pen, you can simply write your entry directly into the text field. However, this feature must be enabled within each app by holding down on the settings button on the software keyboard and selecting the "T" icon. The pen-to-text translation software still misinterprets from time to time, however, and could use some better prediction software. Still, once enabled, it's an incredibly useful feature that gives using the interface a nice flow when using the pen.

The physical home, back, and menu buttons free up a bit of actual screen real estate.

Check latest price on amazon (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Reading mode simply alters page backgrounds in e-book apps to look more like paper rather than a stark, white background. It also uses the ambient light sensor to adjust the brightness to best fit the environment you’re reading in.

The Note 8 also comes with an exclusive version of Awesome Note HD. While the app has been available on iOS, the Note 8 is currently the only place you’ll find it on Android. Not surprisingly, it’s fully compatible with the S Pen. With a purchase of the Note 8, you also get 50GB of free space on Dropbox and a full version of Polaris Office.

Watch On
Watch On is Samsung's universal remote/video hub app that integrates streaming-video content and OTA and cable TV. It includes typical social sharing "this is what I'm watching" options and is a pretty effective and accurate TV guide, but the real standout feature is its powerful and potentially very useful search.

Hey look kids! It's a Sasmung tablet with an IR blaster!

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

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Hands-on review: Updated: Samsung Ativ Q

Samsung reckons its solved the Windows 8 / Android conundrum: stuff 'em both in one device.

But this isn't just a case of plopping in dual booting modes and letting the world work out how to get from one to another – both are operating from the same Intel Haswell chip and as such seem to fly along in both guises.

The design of the Samsung Ativ Q is impressive: with a 13.3-inch screen, it certainly feels more laptop than tablet, but the superbly high resolution display (QHD 3200x1800, which equates to a 275ppi) means that you'll be more than impressed whether you're checking out Windows 8 (the full-fat version, not the confusing Windows RT some users will have encountered) or Android 4.2.2.

The tablet/laptop hybrid is a well-designed beast, as while it's running all these different options it's not the chunkiest thing to plop in your bag. It's never going to take on the likes of the Sony Xperia Tablet Z in the design stakes, coming in at 1.29KG, which makes it quite hard to hold in one hand.

Samsung seems to think it's portable and easy to use as a tablet option, but in our tests it didn't appear to be that way at all - it almost felt like your digits were going to split in two after extended use.

It does come with a high-sensitivity S Pen to play around with though - this is a really useful choice on a tablet with a screen this size.

It's not fair to lambast the Ativ Q for weight when you consider what's included though - as there's the aforementioned Haswell chip alongside a fully-formed keyboard, complete with an old-school nipple in the middle to allow you to flick the mouse around the screen.

Samsung is making a big deal about the fact that the tablet has a million modes for looking at the screen (for a million, read four).

It can operate in tablet mode, with a quick push from the bottom settling it nicely above the keyboard. You can then tilt the screen upwards to activate 'floating' mode - although we're not entirely sure why Samsung has added that mode, as it looks like the screen is caught halfway between two settings.

Keep pushing that screen and the display will flip, and the keyboard will be used as a stand for easy breakfast eating of whatever you fancy browsing over the cornflakes. This mode impressed us the most, as it was both stable and offered the best way to interact with the tablet if you're not bothered about tapping away on the keys.

The specs of the Samsung Ativ Q are pretty decent for a tablet / laptop hybrid, with 327 x 217.8 x 13.mm dimensions making it a real boon in the back. You can plug in a USB 3.0 device, a USB 2.0 option, HDMI output, as well as a webcam capable of 720p HD video (perfect if you want to show the internet what you're up to) and a microSD card slot, which allows you to expand the 128GB SSD that's built in.

The battery life is predicted to last nine hours, with Samsung hoping that you'll actually be able to eke things out a little bit more than that with the Intel Haswell chip running things in the background. This is all supplemented with a 4GB RAM chip, as well as an Intel HD Graphics 4400 chip to enable users to have a good ol' gaming session on the go.

You can even use the device to steer racing games through the inbuilt accelerometer; however we struggled to hold it for long enough to actually do this, so while we're all for functionality, it was a little harder to see how that will be a real selling point.

Some will wonder how easy it will be to flip between Android and Windows 8, and the answer is very easy indeed. You can either jump back to Windows from Android by pressing the Windows button stuck on the bottom of the display, or you can jump the other way by using the dedicated Android icon, which appears as an icon in the Live Tiles area.

You could just jump into the traditional desktop zone and move through that way, but it's not the simplest method. The main thing to take away is that flipping between the two modes is exceptionally fast, and fingers crossed that won't slow down when you throw too many apps on there.

On the subject of apps, we were impressed with the way you could pin Android apps to the Start Screen of the Windows section, making it easy to open Google Maps without having to flip into Android mode. Most apps seemed to work seamlessly, and it was impressive that there was no lag.

The keyboard works pretty well, although the travel on the keys themselves is pretty poor, meaning you'll have to work hard to get up to a decent typing speed without making mistakes.

There are a few S Pen-dedicated apps, but the pen will work for nearly all native apps on the Ativ Q - with this device, we can really see the S Pen being a boon.

We would say there are a number of accessories available for the Samsung Ativ Q, but there's basically an overly-expensive looking cover that only those with no knowledge of the third party market will buy, and a wireless mouse, which only those... well, the same as the cover, really.

Samsung has lobbed a number of its own apps into the mix of the Ativ Q, but the real thing we liked the most is getting the best of both worlds on one tablet - the Q was an impressive beast either as an Android tablet or a Windows 8 device.

We can see this becoming a part of daily life without much of an issue, and while the weight is a lot more than you'd expect for an Android tablet, if you're considering a laptop replacement this should be a real part of your consideration.

We're still waiting to hear price, which will make all the difference, but should this sit somewhere palatable Samsung will have a real winner on its hands.

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Samsung unveils new Ativ and Galaxy products in London

HomeNewsSamsung unveils new Ativ and Galaxy products in London

Likevar urlStringForLink = 'via=t3dotcom&text=Samsung+unveils+new+Ativ+and+Galaxy+products+in+London+&related=t3dotcom: The latest tech news from T3&url=';var urlcheck = 'http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-unveils-new-ativ-and-galaxy-products-in-london';function get_short_url(long_url, login, api_key){ var link = ''; $.getJSON( "http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten?callback=?", { "format": "json", "apiKey": api_key, "login": login, "longUrl": long_url }, function(response) { if ( response.status_code != 200){ link = long_url; } else { link = response.data.url; } setLink(link); } );}function setLink(data) {if ( data != 'undefined') {$('.tweetLink').attr('href','http://twitter.com/share?'+urlStringForLink+data);} else {$('.tweetLink').attr('href','http://twitter.com/share?'+urlStringForLink+urlcheck);}}$(document).ready( function() {var urlcheck = 'http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-unveils-new-ativ-and-galaxy-products-in-london'; var debugLevel = '0'; //remove local, dev, stage prefixes from url if we are not on live if(debugLevel>1){ urlcheck = urlcheck.replace('www.local.', 'www.').replace('stage.www.', 'www.').replace('www.dev.', 'www.'); }var counturl = 'http://urls.api.twitter.com/1/urls/count.json?url='+urlcheck+'&callback=?';var count = 0;$.ajax({url: counturl,dataType: 'json',success: function(data) {//alert('success from twitter call ' +urlcheck +' '+ data.count);if( data.count > 1000 ){count = data.count / 1000;count = count.toFixed(1);count = count.toString() + 'k';} else {count = data.count;}$('.tweetcount').text( count );} });}); Tweet0$(document).ready( function() { //https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.t3.com/* * href="#" * onclick="popUp=window.open('https://plus.google.com/share?url=', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=400');popUp.focus();return false" */ $('.gplusConnect').click(function(e){ e.preventDefault(); popUp = window.open('https://plus.google.com/share?url='+ encodeURIComponent('www.t3.com/news/samsung-unveils-new-ativ-and-galaxy-products-in-london'), 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=400'); popUp.focus() });}); 0

Samsung has pulled back the curtain on a number of new gadgets at an exclusive launch event in London this evening

Samsung is the one tech company just refusing to touch the brakes at the moment. The South Korean powerhouse has revealed a shedload of new products in London this evening including phones, laptops and cameras.

Under the banner of the new Ativ brand, Samsung has offered up two laptops, one convertible tablet, one dedicated tablet and a monitor. There was also an official appearance from the leaked Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and the Galaxy NX camera.

Jumping on the convertible bandwagon, the Samsung Ativ Q makes like the Windows Surface Pro or the Toshiba Portege Z10t by offering you a 13-inch Windows 8 laptop that slides down to become a laptop.

We say Windows 8, but in fact the Ativ Q also comes loaded with Google’s Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. OS with full access to the Google Play store. You can use Android in tablet mode then switch to Windows for laptop duties. Documents and pictures will be simultaneously saved to both operating systems and you’ll be able to switch easily with a dedicated icon.

The 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 display isn’t quite 4K resolution, but we doubt you’ll be complaining because it's higher than anyone else has got. It’s got a brighter screen for using outdoors and comes with the S Pen stylus that Samsung has previously used on the likes of the Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.

Processing power is handled by an Intel Core i5 with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 and 4GB RAM. There’s also a 128GB SSD included to keep the speed up.

At 13.9mm thin and weighing in at a scant 1.29kg, the Ativ Q is certainly portable enough to make a dent in the Ultrabook world. And with the USP of a dual-OS on the cards, this could well be a coup for Samsung.

Long time admirers of Samsung’s flagship Series 9 laptop will be pleased to see the notebook has been given an overhaul to mark its entrance into the Ativ family. Two versions of the new Samsung Ativ Book 9 are to me made available; a premium “Plus” model and an affordable “Lite” version.

The Pro model is a fraction thicker than the original Series 9 at 13.6mm due to improvements to the backlit keyboard and touchpad. But Samsung has nevertheless kept the weight off at 1.39kg and has optimised the touchscreen for use with Windows 8.

The Lite model packs in a bit of extra heft at 16.9mm thick and 1.44kg in weight with the battery life also dropping from the 12 hours of the Pro to 8 hours, according to Sammy. Both models still make use of quad-core processors and Samsung’s own SSD drives. The South Korean company made a point of emphasising the wake time for the Ativ Book 9 Pro is an “instant-on” 0.9 seconds.

Rounding out the notable Ativ launches was the Samsung Ativ Tab 3 tablet. The latest 10.1-inch slate from Samsung bears the distinction of being the world’s thinnest Windows 8 tablet at only 8.2mm thin.

Like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, the Ativ Tab 3 will also arrive with the S Pen stylus and Samsung’s S Note 2.0 software that’ll decipher handwriting and convert it into beautiful digital text. The caveat? Unfortunately the screen is a mere 1366 x 768 resolution.

On board the Ativ Tab 3 is an Intel Atom Z2760 processor with a shared GPU and 2GB RAM. There’s a respectable 64GB hard drive and Samsung promises 10 hours of battery life, something we’ll be sure to put to the test when we get a chance to review this product.

While it’s true that Windows 8 tablets haven’t managed to challenge their Android or iOS brethren just yet, Samsung has added an extra incentive to the Ativ 3. The tablet will come bundled with Microsoft Office home and student edition for free and, while that might not have you queuing up on launch day, it’s still a feather in the cap for this product.

Unfortunately the higher-ups at Samsung have declined to share any details on availability aside from the oft-used “later this year”. As soon as we have any updates about price or release dates, we’ll share the news.

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Review: Samsung PS64F8500

Remarkably bright for plasmaExcellent black levelsPowerful smart TV platformVery good sound qualityDithering in dark areasSmart system can confuseMinor initial image retentionMinor 3D crosstalk interference

Samsung is not, it would seem, a brand that likes chasing anyone. It seems almost obsessed with being the pace setter, the race leader, not the valiant runner up. This obsession has seen the brand invest vast amounts of research and development time in recent years in successfully hunting down seemingly unassailable rivals in the smartphone, tablet and LCD TV sectors.

Now, if the Samsung PS64F8500 plasma TV is anything to go by, Samsung's ruthless quest for world dominance now has a new quarry in its sights: Panasonic. Or more specifically, Panasonic's long-revered plasma TVs.

Samsung is hardly a plasma virgin, of course. It's served up numerous plasma television hits before. However, these previous plasma successes have mostly traded on value for money - when it comes to absolute picture quality, Panasonic has remained the king of the castle.

With the Samsung PS64F8500, though, the brand gets so close to upsetting this established order that you can practically hear Panasonic's teeth chattering.

As its name suggests, the Samsung PS64F8500 is a 64-inch TV - a damn fine size for movie fans, and a heck of a lot of television to be getting for a full price of £2,999.99 (around AU$4,620/US$4,575).

What's more, despite its very respectable price the Samsung PS64F8500 is no feature lightweight. On the contrary, its highlights include active 3D playback, a comprehensive multimedia playback system, a full iteration of Samsung's latest startlingly powerful and flexible smart TV/online platforms and a much more refined and uncompromising plasma panel design than anything the brand has unleashed before.

You can even wave your hands at and talk to the TV if you want to - things we've not previously felt inclined to do, to be honest, but which suddenly, thanks to recent significant firmware updates from Samsung's seemingly tireless engineers, have started to make sense.

Despite Samsung putting so much effort into the PS64F8500, the TV doesn't sit at the head of a long line of cheaper plasma models, as you might expect.

There's a 51-inch 8500 model that costs £1,899.99, but aside from that your only Samsung plasma options are the 60-inch and 51-inch F5500 models - priced at £1,299.99 and £899.99. These use less high-grade panels and video processing, don't have built-in cameras and don't support voice or motion control.

If you'd rather have a Samsung LCD TV, the obvious options to consider would be the brand's flagship F8000 LCD TVs - a range of outstanding sets that currently top out at 55 inches but will ultimately be joined by 65-inch and 75-inch models.

But you should note that the biggest two models in this series will likely be far more expensive than the Samsung PS64F8500.

So far as rival sets from other brands are concerned, the inevitable competition will be Panasonic. Where models we've already tested are concerned, the closest option is the Panasonic P65VT50. But we'll also soon be looking at the brand new Panasonic P65VT65 and flagship Panasonic P60ZT65 models.

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Review: Updated: Samsung Chromebook

This is technically the fifth iteration of the Google Chromebook – so long as you count Google's own CR-48 prototype.

Despite being the fifth Chromebook, this Samsung Chromebook (formerly known as the Series 3 XE303C12) shouldn't be confused with the Samsung Chromebook 550

If you know about Chrome OS already, you'll know that this laptop isn't like mainstream Windows laptops or even machines such as the Apple MacBook Air or the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Though it struggled with HD, SD video streams play perfectly well; no downloads, though

It doesn't run a conventional operating system such as Windows 8, Mac OS X Mountain Lion or even a straight Linux distro such as Ubuntu.

Instead, it is essentially a computer that does one thing: run a web browser.

In this case, of course, the web browser in question is Google Chrome.

Deciding whether or not the Samsung Chromebook is right for you is actually really easy. The first thing you have to know is that it's cheap. Really cheap.

The Chromebook is a great machine to take to a café to get some work done

At a launch price of £229/USD$330/AU$319, it undercuts most conventional laptops, and is cheaper even than the new iPad mini – though it's more expensive than the low-end Android tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

That's only part of the decision, however.

The other – indeed, main – thing you have to consider is whether you can live with a laptop that only runs everything in a browser, and therefore, with some caveats, depends on being connected to the web at all times over Wi-Fi.

There's no doubt that this is a Chromebook – look at that huge Chrome logo on the lid!

It's not hard to decide if this is something you can live with; take a moment, close your eyes, and think whether what you mostly do on a computer is done through a browser – or could be.

Because while you can install apps from the Chrome Web Store they're not really applications or programs as most of us would recognise them.

In fact, they're little more than links that sit in your launcher and point to URLs on the web. (Actually, it's a little more complex than that; web apps can, if their developers implement it, add extra features such as using local storage on your Chromebook, rather than solely depending on storage on the servers of the companies whose services you're using.)

Regardless of the technical caveats, however, it remains true that you can't install, say, Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop Elements on a Chromebook. That's not what the Chromebook is about.

You need two hands to open the Chromebook; the hinge is reasonably stiff

It's a slim, light, cheap, long-lasting little laptop that, partly because really the only thing it does is run a web browser and isn't based on Windows, is very secure, and if you live your life in web apps such as Facebook and Google Docs (or think you could), or especially if you are already immersed in the Google ecosystem of Docs, Gmail, Calendars and more, it's worth considering.

It comes with 100 GB of Google Drive free for 2 years.

Some applications such as Google Docs can work offline even if there's no Wi-Fi

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