The original Samsung Note was huge — in both physical size and popularity. Samsung sold over 10 million
Galaxy Note 2:
In all, the new Note is like the old Note. Engadget likes what they see so far. That’s a good thing. It’s still a massive thing, likely too big for some users. But that’s fine with Samsung. The Note II shows Samsung’s swagger. It might not be the best selling phone in Samsung’s lineup, but it’s the most important.
Samsung is fresh off a huge court lose that could have sweeping effects. Early reports from phone resellers indicate that users are actually dumping their Samsung phones twice as much as normal. Gazelle.com, a site that buys old phones from owners, reports a 50% increase in Samsung smartphones buybacks over the past three days. That’s just nuts. But Samsung is plowing forward even though some devices could face a ban in the US.
The Galaxy Note II is the successor to the widely popular Galaxy Note. The original Note wasn’t the first 5-inch touchscreen phone, but it was the model to make it big. The 5-inch Dell Streak busted into the market in the summer of 2010 but failed to make much of an impact. The Streak shipped with outdated Android software and Dell failed to provide updates in a timely fashion. Plus, unlike the Note, the Streak wasn’t marketed to the general conumser; the Streak was intended for the business crowd.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Note one year ago at IFA 2011. The phone hit the European market in late October and went on to sell one million units prior to launching in the US the following February. Samsung went big with the Note’s marketing and went as far as showcasing it CES in a huge booth by having artists draw caricatures of show goers. It was a widely popular stunt, and the booth often had a massive line.
Samsung is likely to go even bigger with the Note II’s advertising. The original’s success shows that there is a large market for large screen phones. With the new iPhone using a larger screen, Samsung’s argument for huge screens could be made easier this time around. If nothing else, the Galaxy Note II is a fine halo device, designed to draw consumers’ attention to the Samsung brand — and to the Galaxy S III.
Consider the Chevy Corvette — it’s too expensive and not practical for every buyer, but it brings people into car showrooms and that’s the Note II’s job too. The Note II is physically huge. It’s not for everyone. But Samsung would argue that the Galaxy S III, the Note’s smaller and cheaper counterpart, is for everyone. Where the Note II is Samsung’s Corvette, the Galaxy S III is the Chevy Camaro, an everyday driver.
At $199 with carrier subsidies, the Galaxy S III is Samsung’s mainstay. The phone still features a large screen, but it’s rather small compared to the Note II. The GSIII lacks a stylus, tablet-ish flappy cover and, most important, the negative connotation that it’s too big.
Samsung clearly knows what it’s doing. It’s the largest phone manufacturer in the world and the Galaxy S III will rival the new iPhone in sales; the Note series will not. But it doesn’t have to in order to accomplish its mission. The Note II gives Samsung’s lineup a bit of variety while still keeping the manufacturing simply by using parts similar to that found in the Galaxy S III. This way Samsung can offer more models while keeping manufacturing costs down.
Expect to hear a lot about the Note II in the coming months. It’s scheduled to hit the Europe in October, with a wider release to follow shortly.
ATIV S :
That device in question is the ATIV (Ah-TEEV, not EYY-tiv) S, a rather handsome new handset that sports a (sadly unspecified) 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 1.9-megapixel front-facing counterpart to boot.
The spec sheet may not be the most riveting you’ll ever see — Windows Phone has never really required bleeding edge hardware — but the move puts the pressure on Nokia to unveil something tremendous next week.
The ATIV S features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display swathed in Gorilla Glass, which may make it a bit of a handful (its size puts it right up there in Galaxy S III territory) — but there’s little question that Samsung knows how to make a big device feel smaller than it actually is. The fact that the ATIV S squeezes all that into a brushed aluminum 8.7mm thick chassis (the Galaxy S III is only just a hair thinner at 8.6mm) certainly doesn’t hurt. What really lends the ATIV some star power is that it’s the world’s first Windows Phone 8 device, though it may be a while before the rest of us get to see how well the software complements the hardware.
Users will be able to pick up a 16 or 32GB model at some point in the near future — no one has mentioned availability yet — but they can rest easy knowing that at long last they’ll be able to throw a microSD card into their Windows Phone.
Samsung Series 9:
The most important new feature is the addition of the S-Pen that will allow you to take handwritten notes or draw sketches. In the Galaxy Note 10.1 review, the S-Pen felt like a great combination with a 10.1 screen. It should be the same with a slightly bigger screen. S-Pen apps were a joy to use. Yet, Windows 8 S-Pen apps remain to be seen.
Two different 11.6″ models will be available. The Series 7 sports an impressive 1920 x 1080 multitouch display compared to the more reasonable 1366 x 768 Series 5 display. Windows 8 should work well on those devices.
Unlike Sony with the VAIO Duo 11 announced this morning, Samsung gave us all the specs. The Series 7 model will come with an Intel Core i5-3317U processor (dual core 1.7 GHz), 4 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD drive. It will be available for $1,199. The Series 5 model will come with an Intel Atom Z2760 processor (dual core), 2 GB of RAM and a 64 GB SSD drive. It will be available for $749, or $649 without the nearly indispensable keyboard.
Even though the keyboard is detachable, it uses mechanical hinges instead of magnetic ones as on the Microsoft Surface. It looks more like a laptop than a tablet with a keyboard attached to it.
Both products come with the usual connectivity features, such as Bluetooth 4.0, and will be released on October 26.
The Galaxy Camera:
At the IFA conference in Berlin, Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Camera, a 4.8-inch Android-powered camera with WiFi, 3G (or 4G) connectivity, and a quad-core SoC.
See, digital cameras have lost their swagger. With the combination of pretty decent micro lenses and smartphones, the digital imaging sector has been left to the serious hobbyists and professionals. But Samsung, following a precedent set by the Nikon CoolPix S800c, is looking boost the point-and-shoot business with a dash of Android.
The camera has a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor with 21x zoom. But when you flip that bad boy over, you won’t see a little 2-inch LCD. Instead, you’ll be met with the familiar Android homescreen (Jelly Bean, no less), on a 4.8-inch 720p SLCD display.
An Exynos quad-core SoC will sit under the hood, along with a 3G (or 4G) radio, Wifi, an expandable memory card slot and a 1650mAh battery.
It’s almost like an iPod touch, but with a focus on images instead of music. With the success of Instagram, and the general popularity of photo sharing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Samsung’s digital camera performance see a slight bump thanks to the Galaxy Camera.
The GalCam will be sold by wireless operators in the fourth quarter of 2012, much like smartphones
Cradit: TechCrunch
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