When Google launched the Nexus 7, many felt it revolutionized the tablet market with its high performance, accessible size, and very affordable price. It’s still one of the best 7-inch tablets on the market, and the device is even expected to get a refresh soon.

Thanks to its success, it was only a matter of time before other companies adopted this same strategy, and tried to possibly do better. The HP Slate 7 is one of those devices, which Hewlett Packard showed off at CES this year.

It’s affordable, has some decent specs, and runs stock Android. However, is it able to compete with the Nexus 7 — a tablet that wowed the 7-inch market? If you’re in a rush, jump straight to the video, otherwise, stick with us and see if the HP Slate 7 is as good as it sounds.

Design

As the name suggests, the HP Slate 7 is a 7-inch tablet much like the Nexus 7. In fact, it looks a lot like a Google tablet at first glance. I’ll try my best to keep this from being a comparison, but it goes without saying, the Nexus 7 is a good benchmark.

On the front, you have your black slate with a sizable bezel around the screen. A front facing camera is up top. In size, is has a similar profile, but it is thicker and noticeably heavier. This is mostly due to the metal spine that joins the back and front. It’s a thick spine that allows for easier gripping in a single hand.

The power button, microSD card slot, and headphone jack are on the top of the HP Slate 7, and the volume rockers are on the side. The speaker grill can be found at the bottom, and looking around the back, we have a rubberized material surrounding the rear facing camera.

It’s almost as if HP took the somewhat cheaper feeling Nexus 7 and gave it an industrial look and feel. The thicker profile makes the HP Slate 7 easier to grip in a single hand, and the added weight helps raise the build quality. The attractive, rubberized back can be found in some other colors, such as a vibrant red, but the grey still looks quite good on it.

All in all, HP has made a sturdy and attractive 7-inch tablet, and they should be commended for that.

Display

If the 7-inch tablet market is supposed to be more affordable, the HP Slate 7 definitely fulfills in that area. We’ll get to the price later, but know that the “you get what you pay for” saying is truer than ever here. Starting with the screen, the 7-inch LCD panel is actually, and disappointingly, lower in resolution than the majority of other devices. The display comes in at a mere 1,024 x 600 resolution rated at only 170ppi.

The HP Slate 7′s display looks decent from afar, but you can already notice some fringing in the colors that gets increasingly worse when you get closer. Just about everything from shapes and text looks jagged and pixelated, and even the general, everyday user will notice the lowered quality in the display. As I previously mentioned, this is one of those “you get what you pay for” tablets.

Performance

HP outfitted the Slate 7 with a dual-core Cortex A9 CPU clocked at 1.6GHz. It’s now slow by any means — it works just fine for the budget Slate 7. It slides through the interface just fine, but it does take longer for it to load the more intensive apps. Gaming is also decent, as the Slate 7 is equipped with a Mali-400MP4 — a respectable graphics package.

The budget tablet also has 1GB of RAM, which gets you some multitasking abilities. All in all, you can get around typical tasks without any problems, but expect some stutter and lag when you try to take on more intensive applications.

Benchmark scores are just where you would expect. AnTuTu places the Slate 7 below the 15000 mark, and Epic Citadel at just High Performance was only able to maintain 40 frames per second.

Hardware

Hardware on the Slate 7 gets a tad bit of a boost with the microSD card slot mounted on top. Being able to extend the 8 or 16GB of storage will help people get a lot more media usage out of this device, which is a nice addition. Other than that, you would expect to have the standard features, such as Bluetooth, which is included. Unfortunately, you don’t get GPS here, which means the Slate 7 is a last choice in navigation. It doesn’t have NFC or a gyroscope either. So if you try to play any games that require tilting the device, you’re out of luck.

Beats Audio is perhaps the only real addition that differentiates the Slate 7. As you might expect, it does its job, adding volume and some richness to music through headphones. It was a disappointment finding out that the outer speakers couldn’t do the same. They’re just not loud enough for more than one or two people trying to listen.

It really is hard to not be disappointed by all that is missing here. If HP could have pulled off the standard tablet experience at such a low price point, this tablet could have been seen as one of the top dogs in the 7-inch market.

Battery and camera

The HP Slate 7 is equipped with a 3,500 mAh battery, which HP claims will keep the device running for up to five hours. This is true, for the most part — after a couple of hours of YouTube usage, the battery drained to about 45% life. So when it comes down to it, overall battery life will depend solely on the degree of usage. However, a smaller battery offering is yet another blow to the Slate 7.

Cameras on tablets usually aren’t very good. Often they’ll be a 1.3-megapixel rear shooter at best, but they’re still a nice addition. However, HP took a step above and equipped the Slate 7 with a 3-megapixel shooter, which is a far cry from what the Nexus 7 offers. While it’s something the Slate 7 has over the Nexus 7, it’s probably something you won’t be using much anyway.

The camera app is as standard as it gets, and panorama functionality is really the only added mode. Pictures are also full of grain, lacks good color reproduction, and the decision to not include auto-focus adds to the troubles in the camera. The front facing camera is decidedly lower in quality too, capable of only VGA resolution and consistently washed out pictures.

Furthermore, if you need a camera on your tablet, it is indeed provided on the HP Slate 7 – but you’re probably better off taking photos with the camera on your smartphone.

Software

Finally, we arrive at the software. There isn’t much to say here, as HP tried to keep the Slate 7 as close to stock Android as possible. There has really been no changes here, and without a proprietary ecosystem like Amazon and its Kindle to back it up, this is about as close to vanilla Android as you can get.

Many of us prefer the Nexus user experience, and that’s just what you’re going to get. There’s not much else to say.

Hands-on video review

Price and final thoughts

It’s important to keep in mind that HP stripped a lot away to make the Slate 7 one of the most affordable 7-inch tablets on the market. At $169, the HP Slate 7 is only $30 cheaper than a Nexus 7, and it has twice as much storage and better performance all around. The downside is that there isn’t very good camera functionality, but it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the jump. I think it is.

I commend HP for putting themselves out there and offering a very affordable Android tablet. On the other hand, it’s a disappointment to see that something so well constructed doesn’t have much to show for it under the hood. On a positive note, perhaps the HP Slate 7 would prove to be an affordable learning tool for your children.

However, the fact that I had to think outside the box to justify the HP Slate 7 should tell you everything you need to know about it. Don’t discount it though — it’s worthy a try, especially in design, and I only hope it gets better from here on out.

Brad Ward contributed to this review.

The Samsung Galaxy S4, one of the most anticipated Android devices of 2013, is one of the best Android handsets on the market. On the other side, we have the Nokia Lumia 928 — the best that Windows Phone 8 has to offer right now.

The Lumia 928 and the Galaxy S4 can be looked at as the unwavering champions in the Windows Phone 8 and Android space. Both are powerful smartphones, but in some cases, it might be hard to choose which one is right for you.

Being the two performers that they are, we’re going to stack these two flagships against each other, to see how well they do. Will the Galaxy S4 with its subtle design changes and powerful hardware come out on top? Or will the Lumia 928 top Samsung’s Next Big Thing with its high build quality and simplicity?

If you’re in a rush, jump straight to the video, otherwise, stick with us to see how well these two great performers do.

Design and build quality

As you might expect, this is a battle of Android vs Windows Phone, but until we get to the software, this battle is purely Samsung and Nokia.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 sports the same tried and true design of its predecessor, the Galaxy S3. The device is covered in plastic, a material that many are growing tired of, however, the form factor of Samsung’s flagship makes it the best handling 5-inch screen device today.

It has a standard button layout — the menu and back button capacitive keys to the left and right of the centered physical home button. Then you have Samsung’s standard power and volume rocker placement. The Galaxy S4 has a removable back cover, giving access to its removable battery and microSD card slot. In the hand, its balanced lightness makes it as nimble as a device of its kind can get.

On the Nokia Lumia 928, instead of the typical rounded design, the handset brings that rectangular look we just don’t see enough of. Rigid corners and a flat profile makes for an easy grip, and with a four and a half inch screen, the device is easy to handle in one hand.

At the bottom front of the device, we have the capacitive keys, and buttons are on the right side of the device. Those are the volume rockers, power button, and the two stage dedicated camera button. Around the back, this white edition is accented by the camera optics atop of a black slit down the middle of the device. It’s a smartphone that is as easy in the hands as it is on the eyes.

Nokia’s high build quality standards hasn’t faltered at all either. Despite a drop on concrete there were only a couple of scuffs on the two corners.

With the sizes of both devices being similar, perhaps it comes down to aesthetics. You won’t have problems handling the Galaxy S4 or Lumia 928, though Nokia’s offering might be a tad bit easier due to the smaller screen. Otherwise, people have grown weary over Samsung’s repetitive design choices, especially when it comes to using a plastic material. So that might make some look for something more stylish and unique.

The Lumia definitely fits that category — it’s simplistic in its black and white profile, but it’s rectangular form makes the colors really pop. However, let’s not forget about that great 5-inch screen on the Galaxy S4. After all, it is the best handling phone out there.

Display

Speaking of the Galaxy S4’s screen, the 5-inch screen has become this year’s motif, though the displays found on these two devices have a lot more in common than you think. The S4 has a Super AMOLED display capable of 1080p and is rated at 441ppi. The Super AMOLED screen brings very saturated colors, and some may not find that appealing, so thankfully it’s customizable for those that want to tone it down. Sharpness is great, and it handles all media you throw at it — TV, movies, gaming, etc — beautifully!

Enter the Nokia Lumia 928, whose display is 4.5-inch in size with a 1,280 x 768 resolution. The lowered specs are somewhat expected due to the smaller screen, but the experience remains enjoyable. Text might not be as sharp as the S4 due to its lower 332ppi rating, but the general user’s eye will likely not notice the difference.

Similar to the Galaxy S4, the Lumia is also sporting a Super AMOLED panel, bringing that same color saturation that, this time, greatly compliments the interface of Windows Phone 8. Viewing angles suffer a bit in the 928, as angles bring a blue hue throughout the screen. Even with that said, it’s still a great display that brings a color experience similar to the Galaxy S4′s.

With the displays being very similar, it all comes down to how hungry you are for hardware. If you need a larger screen with a higher resolution and pixel density, Samsung’s offering is the right path to take. If you aren’t quite as picky, the Lumia will still be an enjoyable experience.

Performance

The performance results were pretty skewed. In most markets, Samsung outfitted the Galaxy S4 with one of the best processors out there — the Snapdragon 600 clocked at 1.9GHz, backed by the tried and true Adreno 320 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. This phone is extremely fast, thus it flies through multitasking with the greatest of ease. Even if a number of users reported very sporadic lag, it doesn’t hinder the otherwise good experience. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for one of the fastest cutting-edge phones out there, the Galaxy S4 is a great option.

On the other side, we have the Nokia Lumia 928, which sports a Snapdragon S4 Plus, a dual-core variant of the quad-core processor that powered a lot of the best phones from last year. It clocks in at 1.5GHz, and is backed by an older Adreno 225 GPU, and a mere 1GB of RAM. In the Android space, this would be considered a mid-range device, but the Lumia 928 reminds us that not all user experiences are created equal.

Don’t get me wrong, Windows Phone 8 isn’t any better or worse than Android — it’s just less resource demanding. The Lumia 928 is still very quick and smooth throughout its interface, and I have yet to cover multitasking on it. We’ll get to the software soon, but keep in mind that the Lumia sets out to do what it needs to do and does it very well.

Specs

We start with the Samsung Galaxy S4 — and all of its features you probably already know all about. Expandable memory and a replaceable battery is important for a lot of people — thankfully the Galaxy S4 supports both. Additionally, the S4 has an IR blaster that controls your TV, and then it has sensors for temperature, air gestures, hovering fingers, and even eye-tracking made it in this phone, for things like Smart Stay and Smart Scroll. It’s capable of a lot of things, and if you need the ability to use every feature on this phone, you’re going to love its unmatched functionality.

As for the Lumia 928, what you see is what you get, however, what you get happens to work really well. If the Galaxy S4 is good at what we’re used to and excels at trying to do more, than the Lumia 928 definitely excels at all the basics.

32GB of storage is available, and nearly all of it is available for the user instead of the OS taking up a lot of space like it happens on Android. Everything you’re already pretty familiar with is packed in the Lumia 928 — Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and Bluetooth.

Call quality is nice on the Lumia, as the speaker is louder than the standard one on the Galaxy S4. However, if you go too loud, the details in the call can sound blown out. The rear speaker is also louder than on the S4′s, but it has the same exact problem.

All in all, if you’re looking for a lot of functionality, the Galaxy S4 is the best, however, if you just want to get back to the basics, the Lumia is a great choice.

Battery and camera

The batteries on both devices perform very well. A 2,600 mAh battery is powering the Galaxy S4, while a lower, 2,000 mAh non-removable unit is in the Lumia 928. The capacity of the Galaxy S4 is much larger than the Lumia 928′s, though the Galaxy S4 is packing some more premium specs, so that does even out the playing field. However, the benefit here is that the battery is removable on the S4 for spares.

When it solely comes down to usage, both devices get through just about the same full day of work. What’s really impressive though is the standby time on either device. I left both phones alone for about a day and a half, connected to WiFi and never touched. When I activated them again, they both still had at least a third of life left.

The standby time certainly helps with overall longevity, as do the power saving features that can give you that extra edge. Power users may wish to take advantage of the removable battery in the Galaxy S4, but either device will perfectly suit your average user.

As for cameras, both are top notch in terms of quality. The Galaxy S4 features a 13-megapixel optics backed by an app that holds a lot of functionality. The app offers a ton of different modes for wouldbe smartphone photographers. These include cool things like Best Shot, Drama, and Eraser modes. Pictures are generally good, with a lot of nice details and vibrancy, despite some scenes with too much color looking washed out.

As you might expect, the Lumia 928 supports a lesser, 8.7-megapixel camera, but is backed by a lot of awesome enhancements — Carl Zeiss optics, PureView stabilization, and a Xenon flash. While the pictures aren’t as large as the Galaxy S4’s, they hold about the same quality, and both manage to achieve an attractive depth of field. PureView helps lower light shots really pop, and the Xenon flash helps out with that too. The Lumia 928 doesn’t have nearly as many modes, but more can be obtained by downloading add-ons or “Lenses” from the marketplace.

Both cameras pack some really great quality accompanied with highly functional apps. While the Galaxy S4 has all of its capabilities baked in, the Lumis 928 can be expanded through Lenses, and more are constantly offered. Either way, both cameras make taking photos a lot of fun.

Shot with the Nokia Lumia 928

Shot with the Samsung Galaxy S4

Software

And here we are at our our final destination — software, and you can pretty much predict how this is going to turn out. Samsung packed a truckload of software in the Galaxy S4 — S Health, Group Play, WatchON apps, you name it. While they all bring new uses to your typical smartphone, the decisive factor lies within navigation. By taking advantage of every sensor, there are a plethora of new ways to get around your smartphone.

Wave your hand or hover your finger over something and you’ll get a lot more out of what you are already doing. Finally, the Galaxy S4 benefits from one of the largest mobile ecosystems — the Play Store, which has grown a lot over the years.

Looking at the Lumia 928 and its ecosystem, it might remind you of Android during its early years. Not only is there a real lack of variety in the Microsoft Store, but it will also be a long time before any real growth can be seen by its users. As I said before though, the Lumia 928 succeeds in what is already baked into it.

Preloaded applications are included because they are reliable and work really well. Live tiles do a great job at showing you extra information, and in an elegant manner, too. There’s even social media integration in Windows Phone – you can use the Peoples app to sign into Facebook, which will allow you to see your news feed without the official application. The motif of Windows Phone 8 is supposed to remain stylish, while being intuitive.

One can argue that the Lumia is perfect is perfect for anyone who would otherwise get bogged down by such a large ecosystem like Android or iOS. What you see is what you get, and you can get back to the basics. When it comes down to it, you can get whatever you need done in either phone. It’s more of a decision of simplicity or extra functionality.

Video review

Price and final thoughts

The Galaxy S4 comes in at up to $700 for the base model unlocked, and the Nokia Lumia 928 comes in at a lesser price tag of $499 due to its lower specs. Similarly, on a new two-year contract, you’ll be looking at a $199 premium for the Galaxy S4 and $99 for the Lumia 928.

If you’re looking for the very best of Android, the Galaxy S4 is one of the top champions. It’s a great handset that gives people who want more exactly what they’re looking for. But if you don’t mind getting back to basics and don’t mind the lack of apps, the Nokia Lumia 928 and the stylish Windows Phone 8 operating system will be a great companion.

If the Windows Phone ecosystem gets a boost, it could easily become a credible threat to some of the big dogs out there. But until then, us Android lovers don’t have much to worry about.

Brad Ward contributed to this review.

The newly launched Nokia Lumia 928 has received a lot of praise from consumers and media, and has even been called a contender to the title of best smartphone of the year.

Sure, the still limited selection of apps for Windows Phone 8 is disappointing, but the Nokia Lumia 928 is still a great player through its hardware, design, and user experience. And, as Android lovers and mobile geeks, we’re always interested to see how the grass is on the other side. So let’s take a look at this bad boy, shall we?

If you’re in a rush, jump to the bottom of the article for the video, otherwise, stick with us for an Android user’s review of the Nokia 928.

Design and build quality

Remember a few years ago when Nokia phones were considered virtually indestructible? Their build quality was out of this world, and we tend to make a lot of nostalgic jokes about it these days. It’s been a long time since I held a Nokia phone, but let me tell you, Nokia’s still got it.

While the Nokia Lumia 928 is made entirely of glossy plastic, the device immediately feels very sturdy in the hand. High standards were set for the build quality of this device, that’s clear.

The Lumia 928 features rigid corners and a nearly flat profile. It isn’t a heavy phone, but it does have a certain heft, and because of its relatively small 4.5-inch screen, the phone is very easy to handle with one hand.

The front of the device is made up of the screen, a front facing camera, and the standard capacitive buttons at the bottom. Looking around the back, we see its white body and one black slit down the middle. This is the Carl Zeiss-powered camera next to the flash, and the speaker grill is at the bottom.

Finally, the microUSB port and SIM card slot are located at the top, while all of the buttons are on the right. From top to bottom, those are the volume rockers, power button, and the two stage dedicated camera button. It’s a fairly thick device, we have to say, but not overly so.

When it comes down to it, the Lumia 928 is an attractive device that is nice on the hand and on the eyes. While I didn’t do a dedicated drop test, the phone was dropped from about table height landing on concrete. Those jokes about Nokia phones? There’s more truth to them than you might think — despite falling on concrete there were only a few small scuffs around the corners, while some devices, in similar situations, would come out with a damaged screen.

This is a great testament to Nokia’s high build quality standards.

Display

If you follow smartphone trends, you might be disappointed to learn that the Lumia 928 doesn’t have a 5-inch screen. While some of us may have gotten used to larger screens on smartphones, the lack of one shouldn’t be looked at as a downside — this is because the display on the Lumia 928 is actually very well put together.

The AMOLED panel comes in at a 1,280 x 768 resolution and is rated at 332ppi. So, despite a smaller screen, you still get very nice saturated colors and good sharpness. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic style of Windows Phone 8 — the capabilities of this screen go way beyond the primary white and black colors. However, there are a few issues.

Viewing angles are decent, but, at even a slight angle, you begin to see a bit of a blue hue, and you’ll have even more trouble with it in broad daylight, since the screen’s brightness is just not powerful enough.

All in all, the AMOLED display is a great fit on the Nokia Lumia 928.

Performance

The Nokia Lumia 928 has a Snapdragon S4 Plus under the hood — not a Pro. This is basically the dual-core variant of the same processing package clocked in at 1.5GHz. It’s definitely not the fastest CPU around, but it still lets you smoothly fly through the 928 with little to no sluggishness.

Backed by the Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM, this phone gives you just what it needs for multitasking and optimal gaming. Of course, in the Android space, this might be considered a mid-range device, however, you have to keep in mind that Windows Phone 8 isn’t as demanding as Android, due to its more simplistic nature.

Hardware

The hardware under the hood of the Lumia 928 is fairly simple. We have 32GB of onboard storage without a microSD card slot. Being a Verizon exclusive phone, you’ll get the blazing fast LTE network. Additionally, there’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and GPS available.

Call quality is good, as the call speaker is very loud. Even having it cranked up at three quarter volume, there were no issues hearing the person on the other end of the line. However, if it is set loud enough, it can muffle out the details of the call.

Finally, the rear-mounted speaker is loud as well, but it unfortunately lacks richness and detail.

Battery and camera

On the Nokia Lumia 928 we have a 2,000mAh battery. It can’t be removed, so that might be a downside for some, However, it will get you through the day with ease, but, as you might expect, nightly charging will still be required.

As for the camera, the 8.7-megapixel f/2.0 rear Carl Zeiss optics, while a mouthful to say, is a very, very good performer. You can activate the camera app by pressing down on the shutter button. You can do this at any time — even when the phone is locked. When it comes down to it, the app is pretty standard, but there are some options that let you adjust ISO and exposure, and extra modes are available via downloaded add-ons, or so-called lenses.

Carl Zeiss, 2.0 aperture, and PureView stabilization work together to make the quality of the pictures very good. It’s certainly good for portrait shots too, which is great to hear for those just graduating.

The aperture brings depth of field while the Carl Zeiss optics bring some really good vibrancy and detail. Finally, PureView brings some stellar low light performance. Broad daylight and indoor shots looks great, and lower light shots will benefit a lot from the Xenon flash. All in all, this nifty camera will create some really great pictures, which is something Nokia is known for.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Software

There’s a lot to like about Windows Phone 8 — until you get to the user interface, though, it looks much nicer in its Zune-ified design than previous renditions.

What you get is a black or white background behind all of the elements in a color of your choice. The elements are customizable and simplistic. That’s not a bad thing though — the whole point of Windows Phone 8’s Live Tiles is to give you information you need in an easy way.

Live Tiles are basically homescreen shortcuts to all of your apps, however, in Windows Phone 8, they do a bit more than that. When you resize any tile into a larger tile, that tile will give you more information. For example, the photo tile will give you more info by providing previews of your most recently taken pictures and the music title will show you what song is playing. It’s a nice way of getting previews of what is basically a combination of notifications and widgets.

Swipe to the right and you’ll have your app tray. As you might have come to expect, yes, it is not as big as Android’s. Similarly to the BlackBerry Z10, it was hard getting a lot of the same experiences I get from Android to translate. Again, similar to the Z10, the solution was to use mobile HTML versions.

What I did really like about Windows Phone 8 was the social media integration. The People app can use your Facebook account to display a built-in feed of your friends’ activity, which means you don’t need to get the dedicated Facebook app. As for messaging, you can use Facebook Chat straight from the messaging app.

Windows Phone 8 is appealing because of its grand ability to do the basics in a very clean, functional, and unique way. If you’re not big on apps, the Lumia 928 is a great device to get because all of the things you would generally need are baked into the OS. Many, including myself, like the same color motif of the user interface — it makes the experience seem unique while staying intuitive.

If you’re okay with the “what you see is what you get” idea, Windows Phone will be a perfect fit for you.

Video review

Price and final thoughts

To wrap up, the Lumia 928 is only available through Verizon Wireless for $99 on a new two-year contract with the mobile operator. Otherwise, you can purchase the device for $499 outright.

While the hardware, screen, and price point may make the Lumia 928 look like a mid-range device in the Android space, it’s important to keep in mind that Windows Phone 8 is a different beast. It’s very stylish, unique, and sluggishness is barely there. Packed together, Windows Phone 8 coupled with the impressive Lumia 928 make a truly beautiful experience, despite the fact that the Windows Phone ecosystem has a long way to go before it catches up to Android and iOS.

Regardless, if you’re looking to see what the other side of the pond looks like, the Lumia 928 is a great device to take for a spin.

Brad Ward contributed to this review.

Sony kicked this year off with a bang by launching two incredible smartphones — the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL. They’ve still got a few tricks up their sleeves though, as the Japanese company, after a few short delays, just launched the Sony Xperia Tablet Z across the world.

Let’s take a look, shall we? We’ll go through the design, build quality, display, specs and software of the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. In a hurry? Jump straight to the video review.

Design and build quality

It’s a known fact that Sony is adept at designing smartphones, and that holds true for their tablets as well, namely the Xperia Tablet Z. If you’ve seen the Xperia Z, you’ll notice its design made a return in a much larger, 10-inch form. Much like the smartphone, the Tablet Z got angular corners and is flat all over, and it’s nice to see that Sony took that slate design philosophy literally.

While the design of the Xperia Tablet Z is extraordinary, probably the most impressive thing about the tablet is how thin and light it is — it comes in at a mere 0.27-inches thick and weighs 495 grams. Due to how thin and light the tablet is, the Xperia Tablet Z is very easy to handle and keep a good grip on.

Aside from the camera optics on the back, you’re getting a completely black textured back that looks really slick and doesn’t slip when in the hand. Similarly, the front of the Xperia Tablet Z is also completely black, and it’s quite clean, with the front facing camera and Sony logo placed up top. On the left side of the device you’ll find all of the buttons, including the standard volume rocker and iconic Xperia metal silver power button.

The speakers are on the bottom of both sides, and, as you would expect, the microUSB and microSD slots are at the bottom, which are covered by small bits of plastic covers. What’s up with those? Sony’s famous water resistance, of course! This entire 10-inch slate can be submerged in water and come out operational. While we’ve seen this a lot on smartphones, it seems to be a rarity for tablets, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

Display

A 10-inch tablet isn’t going to be very good without a nice display, and, thankfully, the Xperia Tablet Z excels in this area. It has a 10-inch 1,920 x 1,200 resolution screen rated at 224ppi. It’s very good, considering that this device will, in most cases, be far enough away from your face to make pixelation much less of an issue. Regardless, media and text still look stunning on this device.

Sony’s Xperia Z and ZL smartphones suffered from viewing angle issues, but fortunately they seemed to have disappeared in the Tablet Z. The display is even more beautiful, as Sony brought the BRAVIA Engine 2 to this device to bring more contrast and vibrancy. However, the color temperature tends to the warmer side.

While a rating of 224ppi isn’t very large compared to recent smartphone releases, the Tablet Z still looks gorgeous, and will be perfect for your Android needs, especially when it comes to media consumption.

Performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 is hitting a lot of devices on the market, such as the Galaxy S4 or HTC One. So it might be disappointing to find that the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is “only” running a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro, which powered last year’s smartphones. The proc is backed by the Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM, which means the device is far from being a slow performer. AnTuTu rates this bad boy right around where its smartphone counterpart ranks — the 20000 mark. When we put the device through Epic Citadel, it ran really smooth and ended with a very high performance rating.

The Snapdragon S4 Pro is not a bad processor — flying through the Xperia tablet’s UI was very fast. However, there are some brief moments of lag, but nothing that’ll truly hinder your experience. Multitasking with the Small Apps and going by app to app was as easy as ever, which further proves that the Tablet Z is a great performer for just about anything.

Coupled with its gorgeous screen, you’ll find the Xperia Tablet Z a formidable device for Android gaming and media consumption. Whether you’re working or playing, you’ll get everything done in a timely manner, and in style too.

Hardware

Hardware on the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is standard, but the big advantage that you won’t find on many tablets is water resistance. The microSD card slot that we mentioned earlier can expand your onboard memory by 16 or 32GB of storage. Then you’ve got the usual accelerometer, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, and an LTE version is available overseas.

There’s also an IR Blaster that allows for control of TVs and related devices, and if you’d like to take advantage of data transfer capabilities, the Xperia Tablet Z has NFC functionality too. The stereo speakers are side mounted, which is a lot better than being placed on the rear, however, the tablet sounds decent at best. Perhaps the sound quality was held back to help with water resistance. The sound isn’t very rich, but you’ll find that the volume levels are quite impressive.

Battery and camera

One of the Tablet Z’s best selling points is easily its 6000mAh battery. After running a whole season of Community, it only drained the battery to around half life after just over four hours. So you could get around eight hours of constant usage on a full charge out of this bad boy. However, not everyone is going to use a device like this for eight hours straight. With less rigorous usage, you could probably get up to two whole days of work and play before the Tablet Z runs out of juice.

Compared to its smartphone counterpart, the Xperia Tablet Z isn’t rocking a 13-megapixel camera — instead it touts an 8MP shooter. The app does get the same elements of Superior Auto and then the many different scene settings to help you get the perfect shot. Other than that, everything’s fairly standard — touch to focus, touch to capture, and burst shots. Of course, there are a few extras thrown in, such as HDR and sweeping panorama.

As for the picture quality, it’s decent at best. You’ll notice that it does not perform nearly as well as the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL’s cameras. Photos have a level of grain in full daylight shots. It’s more noticeable in lower light shots though. There’s even a lack of a flash diode, which puts the Xperia Tablet Z’s camera feel like any other camera on any other tablet. It’s not really going to blow anyone away.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Software

If you’re already familiar with the Xperia UI from Sony’s smartphone, it’s largely the same with the Tablet Z. The Jelly Bean 4.1.2 powered UI consists of mostly darker tones — a look that is largely reminiscent of Ice Cream Sandwich. The notification dropdown is kept on the bottom right and like a few different UI’s, it has some quick settings available. You can find Navigation on the bottom left while the Small Apps and Remote Control shortcuts have been centered, and all of your apps can be accessed via a tap of a button at the top right.

Other than these few location changes, the experience is pretty much what you’d expect, though, home screens, the app drawer, and settings pages are customizable with a few themes that simply change the color schemes if you’re not a fan of the default.

As for additions, you’ll notice the addition of Jelly Bean’s Google Now and Sony’s Small Apps, much like you’d find in the Xperia smartphones. The Small Apps are pretty cool, as they’re overlays that go over your current screen and help support quick multitasking.

One addition is the Clip manager, which lets you take an editable screenshot. There’s also the Walkman, which manages to be synonymous when it comes to good music players. Finally we have Sociallife, which combines Facebook, Twitter, and other social network feeds.

When it comes down to it, Sony has packed a great suite of software in the Xperia Tablet Z, making both productivity and media simple to access and do.

Video review

Price and final thoughts

Like most premium tablets (i.e. the Nexus 10), the Sony Xperia Tablet Z doesn’t come cheap — $499 for 16GB variant and $599 for the 32GB. It’s a very hefty price tag, but as they always say, you get what you pay for. The Tablet Z is one of the better performers out there and certainly one of the best looking, so in that sense, the price makes a bit of sense.

Let’s face it, there aren’t as many good tablets out there as there are smartphones, but the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is a welcome addition to the market. It may not be the best performing tablet out there, but it’s surely one of the better ones available. It’s great for work and play, and you’re destined to get hours of enjoyment out of this bad boy.

What do you think about the Sony Xperia Tablet Z? Is it a device you plan on picking up in the future or do you have your eyes locked on something else?

Brad Ward contributed to this review.

Sony is back in the game, that much is for sure. Not only has the storied Japanese company made its first profit in five years, but the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z have been hailed as masterpieces of industrial design and praised for their user experience.

But Sony isn’t just focusing on the high-end market. Plenty of people look for attractively-priced devices with decent specs, and Sony isn’t ready to ignore such an important demographic.

Enter the Sony Xperia SP, a mid-ranger that looks great, at least on paper. But will customers agree? As usual, we take a look at the Sony Xperia SP’s design, specifications, features, and software. In a hurry? Jump straight to the video review.

Design: a consummate Xperia with a gleam of light

From the first glance it’s easy to tell that the SP is a true Xperia. The phone retains the rectangular corners and flat sides of its more expensive siblings, but has a few twists that make it stand out. On the front, Sony opted for its typically minimalist appearance – the front of the SP is the screen and nothing else.

On the side, the distinctive silver power button makes an appearance, along with a volume rocker and a dedicated camera shutter button.

The Xperia SP has a solid, hefty feeling to it, conferred by the aluminum frame that runs along its edges. However, at 10 millimeters and 155 grams, it may be too thick and hefty for some users. On the back, you get the 8MP camera, surrounded by a plastic removable cover with a matter finish that helps with the grip.

The XP’s most distinctive design feature is the transparent strip of plastic on its bottom, which diffuses the colored LED notifications or lights up in rhythm when music plays on the phone. It may not be much, but this little feature is enough to make the Xperia SP stand out from a sea of drab mid-rangers.

At the end of the day, the Xperia SP is a balanced, well designed Sony device, that we think most users will enjoy, as long as they’re okay with its slightly bulky profile.

720p is so last year… or not?

The wave of Full HD devices that hit the market starting with late 2012 means that, for many people, a high-end device needs to have a 1080p panel. All Android smartphones that we consider high-end right now have that configuration. Where does that leave a 4.7-inch 720p device like the Xperia SP? Squarely in the mid-range category, but that doesn’t mean that the display of the SP should be dismissed as outdated.

Because it’s slightly smaller than the Xperia Z, the Xperia SP has a pretty good  pixel density at 319ppi. For the record, that’s only slightly lower than what Apple calls Retina, but way lower than the current cream of the crop of Android devices, which hover around 440 ppi, or more in the case of the HTC One.

In terms of quality, the Xperia SP seems to suffer from the same issue that plagues the Xperia Z and the Xperia ZL – poor visibility angles. Look at it dead on (like you are likely to do 90% of the time) and the display of the Xperia SP is beautiful. Turn it slightly and the colors wash out and the text becomes hard to read. It may not be a major problem for most users, but it’s there. Otherwise, most regular users and even power users will find little to complain about the Xperia SP’s display.

Specs and performance

Living on the bleeding edge of smartphone specifications isn’t for everyone. Quad-core and even octo-core processors are fine and dandy, but it’s easy to forget that most people actually don’t need that level of processing power in their phones. This introduction is necessary because some may be inclined to dismiss the dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor of the Xperia SP as outdated.

While it may be a year old, the S4 running at 1.7GHz does its job admirably, and powers the operating system without skipping a beat. The presence of an Adreno 320 GPU (the same as in the newer Snapdragon 600 series) and of 1GB of RAM helps provide the oomph required to take the device through the multitasking and graphics intensive applications.

One area where the SP outshines its sleeker sibling, the Xperia Z, is the quality of the sounds it outputs. The rear-mounted speakers are nice and loud, without distorting the sound on high volume. Sony endowed the Xperia SP with the assortment of connectivity options we’ve come to expect from every phone these days, such as WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and NFC. The phone comes in two versions that offer HSDPA and LTE compatibility, while there’s only one storage option available – 8GB. That isn’t much, especially for users who regularly consume media on the go, but the good news is the removable back cover of the XP hides a microSD card slot that makes possible the addition of another 32GB of storage.

Unfortunately, a removable cover doesn’t necessarily mean that a removable battery is present, and that’s the case with the Xperia SP. The good news is that the 2370mAh battery can go the distance, probably thanks to the less power hungry processor and display. We’ve tested it using a locally stored video played in a loop for a little over three hours, which drained 50 percent of the battery. That means that, provided you are not going too hard on the SP, the device can power through about seven hours of straight  media consumption, and get you through a day of moderate use.

The camera of the Xperia SP is in many ways similar to that on the Xperia Z. Both have Sony Exmor sensors at their hearts, though the SP has an older 8MP model, as opposed to 13 on the Z. Most of the software features present on the high-end model make an appearance on the Xperia SP as well – Superior Auto, HDR, touch capture, and Panorama. Ultimately, we found the Xperia SP to be a decent shooter, but the truth is even some devices from last year, like the Galaxy S3, do better in this department.

Sony Xperia SP camera sample – Click to enlarge

Sony Xperia SP camera sample – Click to enlarge

Software: Xperia UI redux

If you’ve ever played with the Xperia Z, ZL, or even some of Sony’s devices from last year, you will feel right at home using the SP. Basically, the user interface of the device is a mélange of elements from Ice Cream Sandwich (the color schemes), Jelly Bean (Google Now and more), and Sony additions like the Walkman app and the Album photo gallery app.

In addition to the preloaded apps we’ve mentioned, Sony also added its trademark Small Apps, a suite of applets that are accessible from the recent apps screen, which help users do some light multitasking. In terms of design, the UI of the Xperia SP tends to be minimalist, but in a pleasant, non-obtrusive way. Sony tried to keep it simple, and for the most part, the result is great.

Hands-on video review

Pricing and final thoughts

The Sony Xperia SP is available for roughly US $500 unlocked, which is a decent price for a device in this class. The SP isn’t currently ranged by any American carrier, but it should come for $100 to $150 on a two year contract. Now for the big question – is it worth it?

If you are a spec fiend, there isn’t anything on the Xperia SP to get you excited. You’ll be better off with an Xperia Z (if you prefer Sony), Galaxy S4, or HTC One.

However, if you are a budget-conscious customer that wants to get the most bang for the buck, the Sony Xperia SP is an excellent choice. It costs far less than current high-end devices, and it’s able to hold its own respectably.

What do you think about the Sony Xperia SP? Vote in our poll or tell us in the comments.

Bogdan Petrovan contributed to this review.

With the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung tried to capitalize on the growing popularity of its stylus-equipped series. The Note 8 aims to strike a balance between the (relative) portability of the 5.5-inch Note 2 and the display real estate offered by the Note 10.1. For some, the 8-inch device, with its thin profile and easy to hold form factor may be the ideal Note, a device that unlocks the true potential of the S Pen.

But others have criticized the Note 8, arguing that Samsung cut too many corners in order to keep the price of the device at a reasonable level.

Regardless on which side of the debate you position yourself, the Note 8 is an interesting device, that is worth your attention. Let’s take a closer look at the Galaxy Note 8’s design, build quality, specifications, features, and software. In a hurry? Jump straight to the video review.

On the 8-inch bandwagon

It is fairly clear that Samsung targeted Apple’s iPad mini with the new Galaxy Note 8. At 8-inch, the Note is slightly wider than 7-inchers such as the Nexus 7 or the Galaxy Tab 7, but the device is still narrow enough to be hold with one hand, although many will find it unruly. The fact that the device is just eight millimeters thick certainly helps with the handling.

Design-wise, the Note 8 is a typical product of Samsung’s design language that was first exemplified in the Galaxy S3. In fact, the tablet looks a bit like someone at Samsung took a Galaxy S3 and flattened it with a roller. The bezels surrounding the 8-inch display are relatively narrow, and, on the bottom, we find the typical Samsung button setup, with a central physical Home button flanked by two capacitive keys. The presence and placement of this button setup indicates that the Note 8 was primarily designed to be used in portrait mode.

On the back, Samsung opted for the typical plastic back cover, which helps with keeping the weight of the device low at 338 grams. The plastic is, however, prone to collecting fingerprints and becoming a little slick to the touch. The sides of the Note 8 are rounded, but not rounded enough to make the grip of the device uncomfortable.

Display: you get what you pay for

With the barrage of full HD devices coming our way, it’s easy to become spoiled and look down at new devices that don’t belong to the full HD club. The Note 8 features a TFT display of 1280 x 800 resolution, which will certainly not blow your mind, but might be just good enough to offer an enjoyable experience.

The TFT panels boasts a 189 ppi density, well below the level of 300 ppi at which pixels become indistinguishable for all but the most eagle-eyed of users. This means that, while the images and text will look decent at a normal (for a tablet) viewing distance, the pixels will be distinct once you bring the tablet closer.

Contrast levels are reasonably good, but if you’re used with AMOLED screens, such as that of the Note 2, the TFT will look a little dull to you.

Ultimately, the display of the Note 8 will do just fine for reading, and is likely you will find it enjoyable for other activities, but don’t set your expectations too high.

Quad-core performance and an S Pen

Swiping through the colorful TouchWiz, it’s visible that the Exynos 4 Quad processor that powers the Note 8 does a great job. The 1.6GHz CPU has no trouble powering the system with little to no stutter and the Note 8 got an adequate 18,000 score in the AnTuTu benchmark. For reference, the newest devices out there, powered by the Snapdragon 600 processor, go over 25,000 points, while devices from last year hover between 15,000 and 20,000. Assisting the CPU in graphics-intensive and multitasking applications are the Mali-400MP GPU and 2GB of RAM. Overall, the setup ensures a snappy user experience.

The Galaxy Note 8 offers two versions of storage, 16GB and 32GB, which can be expanded thanks to the SD card slot on the side. The device we tested didn’t have phone capability like international versions have, but we think that few users will really miss it. (For a discussion of the pros and cons of having a tablet that can make phone calls, check out our Asus Fonepad review.) Another absent feature is NFC, probably removed to minimize costs.

Of course, the defining feature of any Note device is the presence of the S Pen stylus, which lets users write, diagram, or simply navigate through the interface of the Note 8. The S Pen is slotted in the bottom right corner of the device, and removing it awakes the tablet, a handy ability for quick note taking. The S Pen is one of the unique benefits of the Note 8 and it doesn’t take too much for it to become an extension of your hand.

 Battery and camera: move along folks

The Galaxy Note 8 is equipped with a non-removable 4600mAh battery, which, in theory, should get most “average” users through two days of moderate usage. In our tests, the Note 8 endured a full day of moderate to heavy usage, which is certainly important with a device designed for productivity. However, power users should be cautioned that several hours of intensive use can deplete the Note 8, leaving them scrambling for an outlet. Overall, we rate the battery of the Note 8 as decent, but not spectacular.

Tablet cameras are notorious for their poor optics (not to mention the ridicule you will be exposed to for using them). The Note 8 is no exception – the 5 megapixel back camera lacks a flash, and we feel that Samsung put it in there to cross a point off a checklist, rather than as a true selling point. The shooter can take some decent images in adequate conditions, but don’t think of it as anything more than an emergency/backup camera for the times your primary camera is out for some reason.

Camera sample – click to enlarge

TouchWiz and S Pen apps

The Galaxy Note 8 runs Samsung’s colorful TouchWiz Android 4.1.2 implementation, with a few modifications made to accommodate the S Pen. Some of the tweaks include power widgets in the notification dropdown and a couple of navigation additions like palm motions.

The most appealing and potentially useful software features of the Note 8 are related to the S Pen, which gives you many new ways of performing otherwise unwieldy little tasks, such as taking notes or annotating documents. Like the S Pen on the Note 2, the stylus on the Note 8 features Air View functionality, which shows previews when the users hovers the tip of the stylus over certain elements. For instance, you can read a message without opening it or preview an image folder by hovering the S Pen over it.

The S Pen also enables gestures, made in conjunction with the button, such as the cut out, the ability to capture a portion of the screen for scrapbooking or for quick messaging.

Quick Commands lets you flick with the stylus on the screen to open a customizable menu of various little tasks, which can be a useful ability for multitaskers.

Speaking of which, Multi-window, the ability to use several apps at once on the 8-inch screen of the Note, is present.

Hands-on video

Pricing and final thoughts

The 16GB, Wi-Fi only version of the Galaxy Note 8 is available in the United States for $399, a price that isn’t exactly cheap, but not unreasonably high either. It’s clear that Samsung made some compromises in the specs and features department to be able to offer the Note 8 at that price point, but does the end result justify the financial effort?

The answer boils down to one point – do you care about the S Pen, and if so, how much are you willing to pay to have it? The stylus is the biggest selling factor of a device that is in most regards average. The camera is lackluster, the battery life is only decent, and the software is standard fare if you don’t care about the S Pen features. On the plus side, the Galaxy Note 8 offers great performance and the display is relatively good, making it a good option for media consumption and gaming.

In the end, the price of the Note 8 may be justified by the presence of the S Pen and the functionality it brings to the table. If you are not impressed with it, or if digital scribing isn’t your thing, you may be better off with a cheaper competitor of a similar size.

What do you make of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8? Is it worth the price? Vote in our poll and let us know in the comments.

Bogdan Petrovan contributed to this review.

The last few months brought us an interesting development. We’ve all been used to cracking jokes about the Galaxy Note series and how it blurred the line between smartphones and tablets. But that line has been fully erased when Samsung, Asus, or Lenovo decided to integrate phone capabilities into their tablets and call it a day.

Here we are today with tablets like the Asus Fonepad (not a very subtle name, we know) that can be used as a phone, provided you’re willing to expose yourself with a 7-inch tablet at your ear. While the Fonepad is one of the few devices in this niche, we were eager to see how this affordable Intel-powered tablet fares against devices like the Nexus 7 or the Galaxy Note 8.

Is the Asus Fonepad worth your money? Is the phone calling capability a compelling reason to buy it? Is it a decent daily driver as a tablet? We find out in our Asus Fonepad review.

In a hurry? Jump straight to the video review.

Design: do we know it from somewhere?

Even at a cursory glance, it’s obvious that Asus hasn’t really tried to differentiate the Fonepad in terms of design. If you’re familiar with the Nexus 7, you will find yourself right at home with the Fonepad, with its unassuming lines and low-key overall feel. The biggest difference is the back of the tablet, which swaps the leathery finish of the Nexus with a brushed aluminum texture, similar to what you see on Asus’ Transformer devices. Overall, it’s a nice feeling device, with an industrial look that many will appreciate.

The bezels of the tablet are a bit large for today’s standards, especially if you tried devices like the iPad mini or the Note 8, but that’s mostly nitpicking on our behalf. On the back, you’ll find a small detachable cover that gives access to the microSD and SIM card slots.

Bottom line, despite the “fone” part in its name, the Fonepad is pretty much your average 7-inch tablet, just narrow enough to hold with one hand, like you would with a phone. But more on that later.

Intel inside

Asus has collaborated with Intel for the Fonepad, which is one of the first notable Android tablets to be powered by the chip giant’s mobile processors. In a sea of competitors powered by Snapdragon or Exynos chips, the Fonepad stands out as an “Intel Inside” device. But is it for the better?

Intel mobile processors have been known to top benchmark scores, but the SoC inside the Fonepad isn’t one of those record breakers. Asus used an Intel Atom Z2420 processor, single-core and clocked at a mediocre 1.2Ghz. We know what you’re thinking – single-core, in 2013. But the truth is the silicon inside the Fonepad is good enough to provide a smooth functioning of the operating system, with occasional hiccups in more demanding applications. Especially when running games like Into the Dead or Candy Crush Saga, the Fonepad struggled to keep up, with the PowerVR SGX540 GPU being a possible culprit. The 1GB of RAM probably doesn’t help either.

Save for the nuisances we’ve mentioned above, the Asus Fonepad is a capable performer in most situations. It just won’t blow your mind. The hardware picture is completed by 8 or 16GB of internal storage, an SD card slot, and the usual assortment of connectivity options. You won’t get NFC however.

Display – it’s nice, just don’t look at it from too close

We’ve been spoiled by tech manufacturers with full HD displays and staggering pixel densities, we admit it. So when the Fonepad came in with a 1280 x 800 resolution and a 216 ppi pixel density, we were underwhelmed. However, these two figures don’t tell the whole story of a display, and luckily the Fonepad does pretty good when it comes to color reproduction and vibrancy.

Overall, the visual experience delivered by the Fonepad is satisfactory, as long as you don’t hold it too close to your eyes, so the pixels don’t become bothering. The software offers some customization options, through an app called Asus Splendid, so you might be able to tweak it for a better experience.

Putting the phone into the Fonepad

Probably the most interesting thing about the Fonepad is the ability to make phone calls. The Fonepad is not the first to do this, but while phone call capability was a secondary feature for other devices, Asus has been quite vocal about it with the Fonepad. Once you get over the reluctance to think of the Fonepad as an actual phone, it’s surprising just how natural using the device as a phone feels.

The call and texting capabilities are similar to every other phone, and it’s very easy to think about the Fonepad as a very large smartphone. The only time the magic breaks is when you have to put the device at your ear and speak into it. It’s just so big. You could probably get used to it, though, and we guess you could even become accustomed with the stares you are likely to get when using the Fonepad in public.

Cameras and battery

This section is a mixed bag. The three megapixel rear camera of the Fonepad is the most disappointing part on the Fonepad. Even in bright outdoor conditions, the images are average, and once you decrease the luminosity, image quality plummets.

Camera sample: outdoors. Click to enlarge.

Camera sample: indoors. Click to enlarge.

The Fonepad excels, however, in the battery department. The 4270 mAh unit gives you nine hours of talk time, and about 10 hours of regular usage. Standby time is also great, so we think you can go through two days of regular usage before a recharge, especially if you activate the “ultra-saving mode”.

Software: mostly stock, with a pinch of Asus

The operating system is a lightly retouched version of Android 4.1.2. Asus made some relatively minor additions to vanilla Android, in the form of a power widget and a suite of floating apps similar to Sony’s Small Apps. These let you take advantage of the 7-inch display to do some multi-windowing, such as watching a floating video in one area of the display while working in another window.

The Power Widget

Floating apps

Multi-window: browser and to-do app

Other features worth a mention are Asus’ apps, like Studio, a photo editor, and Storybook, a slideshow maker.

Overall, we feel that Asus did well to keep its interventions to stock Android to a minimum. A benefit of choosing the Fonepad is the fact that you will likely get timely updates to the latest version of Android, an area where Asus excels.

Hands-on video review

Pricing and wrap-up

The Fonepad will set you back $249 in the United States, and just under €200 in Europe. At this price, it’s an interesting proposition, but it’s clear that the Fonepad won’t be taking home any medals for best in class.

We can’t recommend the Fonepad for everyone. The phone feature is interesting, but we suspect that only a fraction of users will actually use it. The device lacks the portability that we expect from a primary communication device, and using it alongside a phone implies either shelling out for a new SIM or the hassle of constantly swapping the SIM cards between the two devices.

Bottom line, don’t think of the Asus Fonepad as a replacement for your phone, but as a decent tablet with 3G that can actually take phone calls.

Bogdan Petrovan contributed to this review.

When J.K. Shin, Samsung’s mobile boss, took the stage in the Radio City Music Hall last month, the tech world paused in a second of anticipation. Would the largest smartphone maker in the world deliver again? Would the Galaxy S4 continue the legacy of a series of phones that fundamentally changed the mobile landscape? What we got instead of an answer was a sensory assault that left us enthralled, but also a bit bewildered.

Samsung packed so many new features in the Galaxy S4 that it’s a little difficult to keep track of everything. However, the Korean company took a risky bet when it opted to keep the design of its new flagship in line with last year’s Galaxy S3. And yes, the Galaxy S4 is still made of plastic, at a time when competitors opt for more luxurious materials, like aluminum and glass.

It’s safe to say that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is an evolutionary leap, rather than a radical break with the past, as its predecessors were. But does it live up to the hype? Will consumers be swayed by the richness of software features on the Galaxy S4 or will they long for a new mobile experience, embodied in a more premium design?

Join us for a detailed review of the hardware and software features of the Galaxy S4 or jump to the end of this post for our hands-on video review.

Design: derivative, but also impressive

There’s no getting around it. The Galaxy S4 closely resembles last year’s S3, enough to fool the untrained eye into confusing one device for the other.

Samsung’s designers slightly tweaked the contour of the Galaxy S4, making it a bit more rectangular, and added a chromed band on the side, which gives the handset a classier look, although it isn’t actually metal.

To accommodate the 5-inch display without increasing the bulk of the device, Samsung shrunk the width of the bezels. As a result, the device has a superior screen-to-body ratio when compared to the S3, with an added esthetic benefit granted by the central placement of the home button, which is now similar in shape to that of the Galaxy Note 2.

On the back, we have the removable plastic cover that has sparked so many debates in the past. Its detractors say it’s flimsy and that it fails to evoke the premium feeling that one would expect from a cutting-edge flagship. However, the cover allows for a removable battery and microSD card slot, two features that customers consistently look for when buying a device.

Samsung has given up on the glazed finish it used throughout 2012, opting for an elegant mesh pattern instead. We found it intriguing, though it does bear reminiscence to what LG has been using on its recent high-end phones.

The Galaxy S4 is actually lighter and more compact that the S3, an impressive achievement on its own. Moreover, it feels better in the hand, thanks to the flatter sides and its excellent balance. We’d go out on a limb to say that the Galaxy S4 has the best handling of all the 5-inch smartphones we’ve reviewed.

Bottom line, if you enjoyed the design and build of the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S4 will come off as familiar, but clearly refined. The trade-offs of plastic are hard to notice and the phone feels high-end, without becoming hard to use with just one hand.

AMOLED gorgeousness

If there’s one thing the phones in the Galaxy S line are known for, it’s the deep blacks and vibrant colors of their displays. AMOLED technology has come a long way since the early days, and its incarnation in the screen of the Galaxy S4 compares favorably to almost any other display out there.

The full HD panel of 441 ppi density is as crisp as they get, and the visibility, regardless of the conditions and viewing angles, is top-notch. The trademark strengths of the AMOLED panel are highlighted by the saturated, cheerful color scheme of the TouchWiz user interface.

Really, the Galaxy S4 sports one of the best displays on any smartphone, hands down.

Hardware

Samsung has always excelled at hardware, ever since the days it was one-upping its bigger competitors by packing the very best components into its products. While the new Galaxy S4 isn’t head and shoulders over its competitors (unless you consider the elusive Exynos 5 Octa processor a breakthrough), you won’t find better hardware on the market right now.

We reviewed the Snapdragon 600 version (coming to the US and most of the other big markets), and, as you’d expect, we found little to nitpick about it. It sails through the benchmarks, hovering around an impressive 25,000 in AnTuTu. Epic Citadel surrenders just as swiftly when faced with the graphics prowess of the Adreno 320 GPU.

It is worth mentioning that the speaker of the Galaxy S4 is pretty much how you would expect. It gets adequately loud and gets the job done, though it would have been even better to have it on the front like HTC’s BoomSound. Can’t win them all, it seems. Still, it is not overly tinny and should satisfy most people looking to share music or YouTube videos.

Sense all the things

Where the Galaxy S4 does shine when compared to the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, or the Apple iPhone 5 is the wealth of sensors that Samsung packed inside that 7.9 millimeter thin body. Besides the usual connectivity options we’ve come to expect from any decent Android phone these days, the S4 comes with a barometer, a temperature gauge, an RGB light sensor that calibrates the display according to the environment, an IR blaster (the HTC One and the Optimus G Pro have that too), an infrared sensor for air gestures, a magnetic sensor for detecting smart covers, and a digital compass.

All this laundry list of sensors is nothing without the software to make sense of all the data, but, for now, let’s just say that the Galaxy S4 is well equipped in this area. More in the software section.

Battery life

The Galaxy S4 draws its power from a 2600 mAh removable battery, which is 500 mAh more than the Galaxy S3. But the S4 has a bigger display and a beefier processor, so the difference in battery life is not that substantial in the end.

We’ve tested the Galaxy S4’s endurance in a movie streaming test (Netflix on Wi-Fi) that drew the last drop of energy from it in a little under four hours. In a less punishing test (browsing, watching local videos, sync enabled), the Galaxy S4 went through eight hours of continuous operation. Although not as impressive as the Note 2, for instance, we found the battery life of the Galaxy S4 to be satisfying. Plus, the replaceable battery can act as a safety net.

Not another smartphone camera

If, hardware-wise, the two cameras of the Galaxy S4 are not something to write home about, Samsung attempted to make the S4 shine through the software. A host of features gives users some new and potentially compelling ways to use their smartphone cameras.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera app

Besides the common options, like HDR and panorama, Samsung packed a Best Face mode that lets you pick the best face from a bunch of burst shots, Animated Photo (useful for making GIFs or cinemagraphs on the fly), and Sound and Shot, which lets you attach a sound clip to your photos.

Similarly intriguing are the Eraser mode and Drama Shot. Eraser mode looks at the background and the subject and tries to erase moving objects that happen to intrude in the picture, to the spite of habitual photobombers.

Someone got into the picture. Eraser mode to the rescue

Final image. Click to enlarge

Drama Shot works the other way, sort of. It lets you combine several instances of a moving object in one image. For instance, you could use this feature to photograph the arc of a football your buddies throw.

Drama shot in action

Drama shot, end result. Click to enlarge.

Some of these features might be gimmicky, but those who take the time to check them out could easily find some creative and interesting ways to use them.

From a technical point of view, the quality of the images snapped with the 13MP camera of the Galaxy S4 is excellent. Color saturation and details are well balanced, and overall, we feel that shutterbugs looking for a good camera phone won’t regret buying the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Check out a few Galaxy S4 camera samples (click to enlarge):

Software: features galore

The Samsung Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with the TouchWiz user interface on top. TouchWiz is much vilified in some circles, with critics calling it bloated and gaudy, an assertion that is obviously a matter of personal taste. However, even if you’re not fond of the eye candy-rich interface, you might want to give the Galaxy S4 a spin anyway. That’s because the beautiful 1080p AMOLED display really makes TouchWiz pop in a very eye-pleasing way. Where other UIs struggle to adapt to the high resolutions and pixel densities of modern smartphone screens, TouchWiz feels at home, offering users a pleasant, smooth experience.

The app drawer and settings dropdown.

We could spend the next thousand words describing all the features and featurettes that Samsung baked into TouchWiz in its attempt to make the Galaxy S4 the perfect “life companion”. We’ll restrain ourselves though, and tell you about the most important ones, such as the new air gestures, which take advantage of the phone’s motion sensors. Quickly explained, the phone “feels” your fingers as they hover above the screen. It’s an ability we’ve seen before, but Samsung took it to the next level by enabling it in many areas of the interface. Hover your finger over a folder, and you will see a preview of its contents; hover over a gallery, and the first pics will be shown in thumbnails; you can quickly see your last received text without even touching the screen. In short, Samsung transplanted the Air View functionality of the S Pen-equipped Note range to the Galaxy S4.

Hovering your finger over an album shows its contents

The air gestures can be just as interesting – you can jump to the next music track by flicking your hand over the phone or change the image that you’re viewing. With a wave of the hand, you can invoke the quick info screen that shows your notifications and phone status information. We see many potential use cases for these features, from quickly answering the phone when your hand is wet or dirty to skipping to the next track while jogging.

Navigating through a gallery with a flick of your hand

The much touted Smart Pause and Smart Scroll features do exactly what their names suggest. While their usefulness is less clear, some users will surely find them attractive. Other interesting additions are S Translator (though Google Translate does the same thing) and Group Play, which lets users share a track to up to five other phones. While we couldn’t test this last feature for obvious reasons, it does sound like something that some groups of users (okay, teenagers) would appreciate.

S Health deserves a separate mention. Samsung wants to make S Health the hub of all your diet, sports, and lifestyle activities. For instance, the app lets you calculate calorie intakes or log your weight. With the help of the slew of sensors, S Health becomes a great sports app – it can check the humidity and temperature to tell you about the weather, or count your steps to turn the phone into a pedometer.

Speaking of which, the Galaxy S4 is said to be compatible with accessories like heart rate monitors, wrist pedometers, and digital scales.

Check out other elements of the Samsung Galaxy S4′s user interface:

Hands-on video

Wrap up and final thoughts

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is coming over the next weeks to all major US carriers, at prices ranging between $150 and $249 on contract, and is expected to be widely available across the world. It’s likely that, if you will be shopping for a new smartphone in the next 18 months, the Galaxy S4 will come up as an option. So, what’s the verdict?

From our time with the Samsung Galaxy S4, we can say that it’s one of the best smartphones of all time, which, while not revolutionary, brings more than enough new stuff to the table to be worth an upgrade. It’s almost better in every way than its predecessor, has top-notch specs, and beats competitors when it comes to software and hardware features.

Samsung worked hard to perfect its product design (hardware and software) and it succeeded in most part. The caveats are the plastic build and the somehow over-the-top TouchWiz user interface, but if you are okay with that, the Galaxy S4 is a smartphone that we can fully recommend.

Bogdan Petrovan contributed to this review.

Once synonymous with smartphones, BlackBerry, the brand and the company, is now just a shadow of its former self. Blindsided by the emergence of iOS and then Android, the maker of the iconic BlackBerries now struggles to survive with the scraps left by the platforms it once dismissed as a fad.

Facing certain demise, BlackBerry had to start over from scratch. The result of the extreme makeover is BlackBerry 10, a brand new operating system, and the Z10, a full touchscreen device designed for the modern smartphone user.

As Android users and lovers, we were curious to see first-hand how the Z10 looks and feels. Is it really as revolutionary as it’s pegged by its makers? Has the clean slate approach really worked?

In a hurry? Check out the hands-on video at the end of this post.

To set the expectations from the get go, know that the Z10 and BlackBerry 10 are not, by any means, groundbreaking, at least not for a seasoned Android user. What they are is a very promising start for a brand new platform. In other words, BlackBerry may not be out of the woods yet, but no one can blame them for not putting up a good fight.

Looking at the Z10, we liked its subdued, yet elegant appearance, and the fact that the rubbery soft back cover can be removed to allow access to a replaceable battery and a microSD card slot. Especially the swappable battery should be a boon for road warriors and power users, which still make up the core audience of BlackBerry.

We Android users are spoiled with the very best specifications available on any mobile platform. Top of the line Android smartphones like the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One push the boundaries of mobile technology, effectively ruining the appeal of “normal” devices. And the BlackBerry Z10 is precisely that – a normal device, with components that would qualify as mid-range to Android specs junkies, which should, nevertheless, prove perfectly adequate to the vast majority of customers.

The specs on the Z10 are actually pretty similar to those of the US-bound Samsung Galaxy S3, the most popular Android device to date. The two phones share a similar processor and the same amount of RAM. The Z10 is powerful enough to zip through most tasks, with one, glaring exception – boot up time is rather slow. Luckily, after the phone comes to life, lag is almost inexistent.

The 4.2-inch display of the Z10 is, just like its specifications, adequate. It’s a far cry from the full HD eye candy that Android manufacturers like to boast about, but given its smallish size (coming from Android at least) the pixel density is sufficient.

Two areas where BlackBerry could improve its future flagships are the battery life and the cameras. We found battery life to be somehow inconsistent on the Z10, with periods of low activity seemingly draining the battery without an obvious reason. The 8MP camera does a decent job in great lightning, but it shows its limitations in less than ideal situations. One could argue that taking pics is not one of the preferred activities of BlackBerry’s target group, but the truth is BlackBerry can’t afford to focus solely on enterprise and productivity features.

Camera sample – click to enlarge

Camera sample – click to enlarge

Which brings us to the software department, likely to bring the biggest shock to new users and the old faithful alike. The new BB10 operating system is completely new and unlike anything you’ve seen before, from BlackBerry or other mobile platforms. For one thing, its user interface is based mostly on swipes. There is no reassuring home button, and in fact, there are not many buttons at all. For someone used with Android’s UI, the change can be refreshing, but also a bit confusing.

To access your active apps, you swipe up from the bottom of the app you are currently running. This reveals a list of up to eight active apps, whose thumbnails are updated in real time. In a way, this turns the apps into a kind of widgets, which can potentially be very useful.

To reach the Hub, BB10’s unified messaging service, you swipe up and then right. Notifications from all your messaging apps are available there at a glance, and the Hub can be accessed from any part of the OS.

The Hub is one of the highlights of BB10, with another one being the predictive keyboard. Unsurprisingly, BlackBerry worked hard to provide a worthy digital alternative to the iconic Qwerty keyboard that so many users still swear by. The effort seems to have paid off, as we found the typing experience on the Z10 to be excellent.

One of the biggest challenges of starting a new mobile platform is creating a healthy app ecosystem. While BlackBerry succeeded at attracting many developers to its new operating system, and gave it a shot in the arm by supporting ported Android apps, some important apps are still missing from BlackBerry World. Two examples are Spotify and YouTube, and depending on what you like to do on your device, there is a good chance you’ll find many other apps that are available on Android or iOS, but have yet to make it to BB OS.

To draw the line, the Z10 is a refreshing, modern, and capable take at what a smartphone should be in 2013. It may not have the breadth of features of Android, or its flexibility, but, once you get used with it, it lets you get things done quickly and efficiently.

The deliverance for BlackBerry may not lie in the Z10, but the phone and the operating system that powers it are certainly a leap in the right direction.

While the Nexus 4 and the Sony Xperia Z are two very different smartphones, they both represent a turning point for their manufacturers. At the time when these devices were launched, both LG and Sony were in a delicate position, struggling to make a good impression in order to show that they were still top-tier phone makers. Fortunately, the Nexus 4 and the Xperia Z proved to be hits, with consumers and critics alike.

But which one is better, the affordable Nexus 4 or the sleek, yet tough Sony Xperia Z? To answer this question, we’ll look at several important aspects that make up the smartphone experience. One thing is clear - it looks like it’s going to be a close call.

For a video comparison between the Nexus 4 and the Sony Xperia Z, you can jump to the bottom of the post and see us take the two devices for a quick spin. Or, you can join us for the full treatment as we take a closer look at the Google Nexus 4 vs the Xperia Z.

Display

With the Xperia Z, Sony made its triumphant entry into the select full HD phone club. At five inches across the diagonal, the TFT capacitive touchscreen on the Xperia Z runs at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, with a density of 441 ppi. The high density panel of the Xperia Z is bested only by the slightly smaller HTC One, which offers 469 ppi.

The Nexus 4 is fitted with a 4.7-inch IPS display running at a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels, which translates to 318 pixels per inch. While the LG Display panel on the Nexus 4 is not as amazingly crisp as the one Sony put on the Xperia Z, we can’t give this round to the Xperia just yet.

Once you take a closer look at what these displays have to offer, you’ll find that the Nexus 4 is visibly superior to the Xperia Z in terms of contrast and color reproduction. In addition, the Xperia Z’s display exhibits some of the worst viewing angles we’ve seen on any 2013 Android flagship.

Verdict: Although the Sony Xperia Z has the crisper display, the Nexus 4 makes up the difference thanks to better color accuracy, contrast levels, and viewing angles.

Design and Build Quality

In addition to the tempered, scratch resistant glass that protect their displays, both the Xperia Z and the Nexus 4  feature glass backs. But this is where the similarities between our two contenders end when it comes to design.

While the Nexus 4 is a compact smartphone with rounded corners that can be easily used with just one hand, the squarish form of the Xperia Z may take some time to get used to. In addition to the more angular corners and the slab-like appearance, the display on the Xperia Z is a bit larger, though the screen-to-body ratio is not as good as on the Nexus.

Translating all this into numbers, the Nexus 4 measures 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm (5.27 x 2.70 x 0.36 in) and weighs in at 139 g (4.90 oz), while the Sony Xperia Z measures 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm (5.47 x 2.80 x 0.31 in).

Unfortunately, while the Xperia Z can be appreciated for its elegant allure, its footprint does not help with the smartphone’s overall maneuverability.

Where the Sony Xperia Z loses in form factor, it gains by featuring IP57 dust and water resistance. If this is something that matters to you, it’s worth mentioning that the Sony Xperia Z is the only high-end Android smartphone to come with this feature.

Verdict: While the Sony Xperia Z is unique in its resistance to elements, the Nexus 4 is the more compact smartphone and easier to handle of the two. This is one is a close draw.

Internal Hardware

CPU, GPU and RAM

As far as performance is concerned, you’ll find that both the Nexus 4 and the Xperia Z feature top of the line hardware specs. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro system on a chip (SoC) is a tried solution in the high-end segment of the market, and still represents one of the best choices currently available on the market.

The 1.5 GHz quad-core Krait processor is paired with 2GB of RAM memory, and an Adreno 320 GPU. Even if you’re a power user, you’ll find no performance issues with either of the two phones.

Internal and Expandable Storage

The Nexus 4 comes with either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, with no option to expand the storage via a microSD card. In the other corner, the Sony Xperia Z comes in a single variant, a 16GB model. However, it can accept microSD cards of up to 64GB in size.

If 16GB is not enough space for you (although for many people it is), the Sony Xperia Z is definitely the choice to make here.

Cameras

The Sony Xperia Z is equipped with a 13.1MP Sony Exmor sensor for its primary camera and a 2.2MP front camera for video conferencing, while the Nexus 4 uses an 8MP primary camera and a 1.3MP front camera.

During our tests of the two smartphones, we found that the Sony Xperia Z takes higher quality pictures than the Nexus 4, although even the latter should suffice for your casual point-and-shoot needs.

3G and LTE

If you’re looking forward to use your next smartphone on any network across the globe, you should know that the Nexus 4 only supports HSDPA networks, while Sony’s device supports 4G LTE.

Battery

Our two devices use similarly sized batteries to power all the high-end components we’ve mentioned above. The Xperia Z holds a slightly larger 2330 mAh battery than the 2100 mAh unit on the Nexus 4, although during our tests we found that both devices come with decent battery life.

Power users will have to look elsewhere though, as neither the Nexus 4 nor the Xperia Z can make it through a day of power-intensive usage, such as media playback or web browsing. Moreover, replacing the battery once it’s out of juice is not an option, meaning that constant trips to the power plug will be necessary.

Verdict: The Xperia Z takes this round thanks to its LTE compatibility, a slightly better camera, and the inclusion of a microSD card slot.

Android implementation

The Nexus 4 runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and a stock variant at that. As with all Nexus smartphones, the Nexus 4 represents Google’s vision on how the Android OS should be implemented in a smartphone: no bloatware, a clean UI, as well as timely OS updates.

The Sony Xperia Z currently runs on the older 4.1 version of Jelly Bean, with Sony’s Xperia UI overlaid on top. Design wise, the Xperia UI is more similar to Ice Cream Sandwich, although all the functionality of Android 4.1 is still there.

Sony’s media ecosystem (along with the companion apps) is placed front and center in this implementation of Android.

Verdict: While the UI design is subject to personal preference, instant updates are a soft spot for many Android smartphone users, this one included.

Hands-on video

Conclusion

Deciding between the Nexus 4 and the Sony Xperia Z is not easy, as both smartphones have their advantages and disadvantages.

The Sony Xperia Z comes out in front when it comes to its LTE connectivity, the fact that it is water and dustproof, as well as thanks to a slightly better camera.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a compact smartphone that features what’s still one of the best displays around, and that will be updated timely to new versions of Android, the Nexus 4 is the choice to make.

Another factor to consider is that, in the small number of countries where Google ships devices through its Play Store, the Nexus 4 is priced at $299 for the 8 GB model and $349 for the 16 GB model. That’s roughly half the amount you’ll have to shell out to purchase an unlocked Sony Xperia Z.

What do you guys think? Is the Google Nexus 4 preferable to the Sony Xperia Z thanks to its more compact form factor and attractive pricing? Are you impressed by the Xperia Z’s dust and water resistance? Let us know which way you swing in the comment section below!