Samsung's new A7 smartphone is big, fast and thin

 

Samsung has long been criticized for making smartphones that look and feel cheap. This has not only been the case with its low-cost offerings, but also with its mid-rangers and flagships -- you don't need to look further than the Galaxy S line -- which is supposed to be Samsung's cream of the crop in regards to design -- to understand the problem.
 
Fortunately, Samsung has paid attention lately, proof being the introduction of the A lineup as well as the design changes made for the Galaxy Note 4 flagship, which will trickle down to future premium offerings. And, today, Samsung is expanding the A lineup by adding the A7 phablet into the mix. It is the biggest, most powerful and thinnest of the bunch.
 
A7 is a much-needed addition to the A lineup, as phablets are growing in popularity. By 2018, phablet shipments are expected to reach a third of all smartphone shipments, more than double their current share. Meanwhile, an increasing number of consumers are looking at more affordable devices, which is where A7 comes into play.
 
It ticks all the right boxes, for an affordable phablet. It packs a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display (with a resolution of 720 by 1280), is powered by an octa-core processor (more on this below), 2 GB of RAM, 2,600 mAh battery, 13 MP main camera, 5 MP secondary camera, 4G LTE or HSPA+ cellular connectivity, 16 GB of storage, microSD card slot, and NFC. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but an upgrade to Lollipop is sure to be in the pipeline.
 
A7 will be offered in two versions, one with 4G LTE and the other a dual-SIM model with 4G LTE and HSPA+ cellular connectivity. The former gets a Samsung-made Exynos 5430 octa-core processor featuring four cores running at 1.8 GHz and four cores running at 1.3 GHz, as well as NFC. The latter drops the NFC, but gains the extra SIM slot; its Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor has four cores running at 1.5 GHz and four cores running at 1.0 GHz.
 
Being a phablet, A7 is not exactly small, but it is sized appropriately for a device in its class. It comes in at 151 x 76.2 x 6.3 mm, which makes it smaller than, say, Apple's iPhone 6 Plus (it comes in at 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm). In fact, A7 is touted to have the "slimmest metal unibody on the market today". A7 weighs 141 grams, which is quite light for a phablet.
 
Samsung being Samsung, it also gives A7 some of its characteristic software features, like Auto Selfie and Ultra Wide Shot camera modes, Always Clear Voice Auto Control for noise reduction, Private Mode, as well as Multi Screen, among others.
 
Samsung says that A7 will be available in select markets, in Champagne Gold, Midnight Black and Pearl White. There is no pricing information yet, but expect it to cost slightly more than the mid-ranger of the lineup, A5, when it goes on sale -- a launch date has also yet to be announced.
 
~ Mihaita Bamburic

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Samsung details all the freebies you get by buying Galaxy Note 4, Edge

 

When you buy a Galaxy Note 4 or Galaxy Note Edge you don't just get a great phablet. On top of all the powerful features that Samsung packs in its stylus-toting flagships, it also throws in a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of freebies, most of which you may not even be aware of.
 
And by freebies I mean freebies that you may want to take advantage of, not free stuff that is nice to have but hardly useful. This is something that Samsung has been doing for quite some time, as it applies to other flagships in its portfolio like Galaxy S5, but is only now detailing the freebies for its Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge customers. The best known perk is probably the 50 GB of free Dropbox storage, which is good for two years.
 
But there are other value-adding freebies that you may want to claim. Samsung has partnered with prominent news publications Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, to give you free subscriptions to Bloomberg Businessweek+ (12 months), New York Times Breaking News (12 weeks) and The Wall Street Journal (six months).
 
You also get free subscriptions to popular services like Audible (three months), OnLive (three months), Parallels Access (six months) and Pocket (six months), a free eBook per month through Samsung's Book Deals (using Kindle for Samsung), unlocked paid features in some apps like AmpliTube LE and SketchBook for Galaxy, among other perks -- hit the link for the complete list.
 
To claim some of the perks, you only need to log in the respective app, which may likely come preinstalled on the device. Others may require an extra step, of downloading the app from Google Play or Samsung's Galaxy Apps. Personally, if I were to buy a Galaxy Note 4 or Galaxy Note Edge, I would immediately want to take advantage of the Dropbox offer for my photos, as 50 GB of free cloud storage is nothing to sneeze at when you consider the service only offers a mere 2 GB for free. The Parallels Access deal is also nice, as it opens up remote access to PC apps on up to five PCs.
 
~ Mihaita Bamburic

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Nexus 6 and Note 4 compared on video! Which one should you buy?

In the world of Android, there is rarely a clear-cut "best" smartphone. This is a good thing, as it signifies variety in the Android marketplace. In other words, consumers do not all have the same tastes; some like a smaller screen, some a larger screen and some even like having a stylus. However, with that said, even though people have different preferences, it is easy to identify the top flagship phones.
 
BetaNews has the two top Android smartphones in our lab. Yes, we have both the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Google's Motorola-manufactured Nexus 6. For the immediate future, these will be the phones of many consumers' desires. Deciding which of these two smartphones to buy is very problematic, but hey -- it's a great problem to have, right? Please read on, to see how the phones differ and which one you should buy.
 
Specs
 

 

Video Comparison
 
 
As you can see in the video above, consumers have some tough decisions to make. Unfortunately, this fight must be declared a tie -- for now. Ultimately, you can't go wrong with either phone, but your wants and needs will make one of them a winner for you. Yes, only you the consumer can decide the winner.
 
So I ask you, which one will you buy? Tell me in the comments.
 
Photo Credit: CYCLONEPROJECT / Shutterstock
 
~ Brian Fagioli

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Samsung's new Galaxy A5, A3 smartphones boast very thin metal designs

 

Samsung is slowly moving away from its oft-maligned, all-plastic smartphone designs of the past, in an attempt to convince consumers that it too can make premium-looking and feeling devices. The first smartphone to reveal what the future holds was Galaxy Alpha, announced just a few months ago. Then Galaxy Note 4 came along, stepping things up even further in the high-end segment.
 
And now we see how Samsung's vision will impact its less expensive Galaxy devices, as the company just took the wraps off Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 today, two mid-range to low-end smartphones featuring "refined full metal unibody designs" that happen to be very, very thin (for whatever reason): 6.7 and 6.9 mm, respectively.
 
"The Galaxy A5 and A3 offer a beautifully crafted full metal unibody, slim design, superior hardware and the best possible social media experience", says Samsung CEO JK Shin. "These devices make our advanced Galaxy experience even more accessible to young and trend conscious consumers". In fact, Samsung is calling Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 its "slimmest smartphones to date", thanks to those low profiles.
 
And when Shin says Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 are designed for "young and trend conscious consumers", he means it. Both smartphones have 5 MP front-facing cameras, which should take quality selfies. But they also support 4G LTE connectivity, which means that those selfies should be uploaded in no time to Facebook or Instagram. Here's what Samsung says: "Users are also able to quickly and easily share photos or videos on their favorite social media channels with the device’s fast network speed of LTE Category 4 standard".
 
Both smartphones ship with Super AMOLED displays, a feature that is rarely seen in below-premium Galaxy smartphones (like Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4). Galaxy A5 has the bigger panel, measuring 5.0 inches, with the higher resolution, of 720 by 1,280. Galaxy A3 makes due with a 4.5-inch screen with a resolution of 540 by 960. There's a similar thing going on inside. Here are the other noteworthy specs:
 
Galaxy A5: 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 13 MP main camera, 2 GB of RAM, 2,300 mAh battery; 16 GB of internal storage; microSD card slot; Wi-Fi 802.11n; Bluetooth 4.0 LE; NFC (only in the 4G LTE model); Android 4.4 KitKat. It comes in at 139.3 x 69.7 x 6.7 mm and 123 grams.
 
Galaxy A3: 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 8 MP main camera, 1 GB of RAM, 1,900 mAh battery; 16 GB of internal storage; microSD card slot; Wi-Fi 802.11n; Bluetooth 4.0 LE; NFC (only in the 4G LTE model); Android 4.4 KitKat. It comes in at 130.1 x 65.5 x 6.9 mm and 110.3 grams.
 
As you might have figured out after going through the specs, both will be sold in 4G LTE and HSPA+ versions. And, of course, they will feature Samsung's usual TouchWiz add-ons, like Ultra-Power Saving Mode and Adaptive Display.
 

 
Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 (pictured above) will be sold in Champagne Gold, Light Blue, Midnight Black, Pearl White and Platinum Silver, starting in November; the color names (trickling down from more expensive Galaxys) sound fitting for their upmarket designs.
 
I do have to wonder what Samsung means by "full metal unibody designs", as the backs of the two smartphones look like they are still made out of plastic (polycarbonate). That is not a problem in my eyes, as the design seems to work great for Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4 where the back cover can be removed to switch the battery and insert a microSD card. But that description may lead people into thinking that it will feature as much metal as an iPhone, which does not appear to be accurate.
 
~ Mihaita Bamburic

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Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 4 and curved-display Galaxy Note Edge at IFA

Samsung officially announced an all-new flagship phablet at IFA 2014 this morning. An iterative update over last year's Note 3, the Galaxy Note 4 features a 5.7-inch Quad HD 2560 x 1440 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 or Samsung Exynos 5433 SoC (depending on the region), and a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization -- a first for Samsung.
 
Memory remains the same at 3GB while internal storage now starts at 32GB, with a microSD slot that can take up to 128GB cards for expansion. The battery is just about the same size as last year's model (3200 vs. 3220 mAh), and Samsung says it will charge from zero to 50 percent capacity in just 30 minutes thanks to Qualcomm's QuickCharge technology.
 

 

The S5's fingerprint scanner and heart-rate monitor have made their way into the Note 4 as well, alongside an updated S Pen with improved tracking.
 
In terms of software the Note 4 runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Samsung's usual range of apps and interface tweaks on top of it. Among the highlights here are a new stacked card multitasking view, improved multitasking with the ability to have more than two windows open at a time, the ability to pin short notes to your home screen, and S Health specific improvements.
 

 

While the device itself maintains a similar design compared to its predecessor, one major change is the inclusion of a metal band that wraps around the frame of the Note 4 -- much like it was the case with the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Elsewhere the back is still textured plastic, which you can remove to access the SIM card, MicroSD memory card, and battery.
 
The Galaxy Note 4 be available from all major U.S. carriers, but Samsung hasn't shared specific details on pricing and launch dates.

Galaxy Note Edge

In addition to the new Note, Samsung also showed off a limited-edition version of the device with a curved edge screen on one of the sides. Dubbed Galaxy Note Edge, the phablet's differentiating feature is admittedly gimmicky, it'll be up to developers to exploit this extra bit of screen real estate in creative ways.
 

 

By default this edge acts as an app launcher, but there are a number of widgets designed specifically for it. Some examples mentioned or shown off by Samsung included tickers of sorts that let you flip through news or tweets, notifications, or app-specific toolbars. The idea is you get more functionality and information without disturbing whatever you're doing on the main screen.
 
The Galaxy Edge is also coming to all major U.S. carriers, and likewise, there's still no word on pricing or availability at this point.
 
~ Jose Vilches

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