Samsung Galaxy S5 First Impressions

Samsung announced the successor in the Galaxy S line, the Samsung Galaxy S5 at MWC in Barcelona.
Btw, congrats to +Samsung Mobile for selling over 200 million Galaxy devices as of February 2014!

The key points highlighted by Samsung in the Unpacked event were:

• Design
• Camera
• Performance
• Connectivity
• Security

Key features of Samsung Galaxy S5 are:

• LTE Category 4
• Capacitive button for Menu is gone. Multitasking it is!
• Wifi 802.11AC with MIMO(Multi input multi output)
• Camera features (Advanced HDR, Improved UI, Fast Focus)
• Built in heart rate sensor
• IP67 Water and dust resistant
• Samsung Knox security
• New Ultra Power Saving Mode.

New UX:

• Inspired by Prism effect
• Clean
• Big icons in App drawer
• Settings has new layout.

Display:

• 5.1" Full HD Super AMOLED display
• Super dimming and bright screen 2-500 cd/m^2(depending on situation)
• Adaptive display.

Camera:

• Fast Auto Focus
• Advanced HDR
• Selective Focus:Similar to DSLR cameras
• 16 MP sensor
• 0.3 seconds auto focus: fastest on a smartphone
• HDR in video recording
• Real time HDR.

Speed/Connectivity:

• Advanced LTE (Category 4) with all carriers
• USB 3.0 port instead of microUSB for fast data transfers similar to the Note 3
• Wifi 802.11AC with MIMO: first in Smartphones (also in the Google Nexus 10)
• Download Booster: Use LTE with Wifi for enhanced download speeds.

Ultra Power Saving Mode:

• Turn screen to black and white (possible due to the AMOLED display)
• Only essential feautures are enabled: Calls and SMS
• 10% battery can last 24 hours on standby.

Security:

• Fingerprint scanner on the home button
• Make payments by swiping finger on screen
• Private mode: secret files and folders.

Kids mode:

• Only enabled apps.

Heart rate monitor:

• Placed below the camera, the first in a smartphone
• Keep your finger on the sensor for 1-2 seconds and it scans your heart rate.

Colors:

• Electric Blue, Shimmering White, Charcoal Black and Golden(named Band Aid edition by MKBHD) in specific markets

Availability:

• Starting to sell from 11th April in 150 countries. No info on pricing.

Specs:

• Android 4.4.2 Kitkat
• 2.5 GHz Quad core / 2.1 GHz Octa core depending on variant
• Adreno 330 GPU
• Sensors: : Accelerometer, RGB Ambient light, Geomagnetic, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer, Temperature & Humidity, Fingerprint Scanner and Heart Rate Sensor.
• 2 GB RAM
• 5.1" Full HD Super AMOLED display
• 16 MP main camera
• 4K video recording
• 2.3 MP front camera
• 2800 mAH battery with 20% better battery life than the Samsung Galaxy S4
• Dimension-wise, the Galaxy S5 is 142.0 x 72.5 x 8.1mm and weighs 145g

Verdict:

I think the Samsung Galaxy S5 is not bad at all. It builds on what worked for the Galaxy S4. It all depends on the price now. Let me know in the comments whether you liked it/buying it or hated it :P

Samsung Galaxy S5 hands on video:

Samsung Galaxy S series evolution:

So that's it guys, hope to see you soon. If you liked this article, please also read my other articles which are listed on the right and share it with your friends who love Android too! Also, if you want to make sure you are one of the first persons to get notified when we write more awesome stuff like this, add me in your circles, +1 or follow the blog via e-mail!

Samsung Gear Fit Announced at MWC

All eyes were on the Samsung Galaxy S5 at the Unpacked event but Samsung also announced a new wearable fitness device with a curved display at MWC in Barcelona.
Pics:

Key features:

• Lightweight: 27 gms
• Heart rate monitor
• Swappable straps
• Curved 
• Hypoallergenic straps
• Instant notifications
• Control device: Reject a call, Reply to a message, snooze/dismiss alarm
• Compatible with 20 Galaxy devices

In my opinion, the Samsung Gear Fit is a pretty good wearable device and would recommend anyone to buy it although we have no idea about the pricing at the moment but will probably be launched alongwith the Galaxy S5, Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo on 11th April.

Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo announced

Samsung announced the successor(s) to their smartwatch, Galaxy Gear, on 23rd February at MWC. Note that these smartwatches do not have the Galaxy branding because they are no longer based on Android but on Tizen OS(Samsung's own). The first Tizen device announced by Samsung was their NX300M camera. 

The Gear 2 has the following improvements/changes from the Galaxy Gear:

• Can be used as an independent music player
• Better processor (Dual core 1GHz)
• Water resistant IP67 water and dust resistant
• Based on Tizen instead of Android
• Slimmer camera
• New home button
• IR blaster
• Lesser battery capacity (300mAH) but better battery life(2-3 days)
• Heart rate monitor
• Swappable bands
• Slimmer and lighter

No info at this moment about the pricing, availability or phone compatibility (most probably we'll come to know about that tomorrow at the Samsung Unpacked event).

The two variants means there should be some difference, right? Well, here they are:

• The Gear 2 Neo has no camera
• Neo is 55 gms while Gear 2 is 68 gms(due to lack of camera)
• One more color option for Neo.

Changes mentioned in Unpacked event held on 24/2/2014:

• Camera, mic and speaker moved to bezel
• Swappable straps
• New home button
• More watch face option. Option of changing font, wallpaper
• Notifications: Calls, messages etc.
• Standalone Music player
• Extended Ecosystem
• IR Blaster
• More apps
• Gear 2 SDK for developers released
• Gear 2 Neo cheaper and lighter
• 17 Galaxy devices supported
• 3 days battery life
• Water and dust resistance

So that's it guys, hope to see you soon. If you liked this article, please also read my other articles which are listed on the right and share it with your friends who love Android too! Also, if you want to make sure you are one of the first persons to get notified when we write more awesome stuff like this, add me in your circles, +1 or follow the blog via e-mail!

IR blasters in modern smartphones

Way before bluetooth or any other wireless form of transferring files between two devices were invented, you may recall that many of the Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices that once comprised the market were equipped with infrared transmitters and receivers for the purpose of transferring files. But, bluetooth had to be invented because of two reasons: infrared transfer only worked for very small distances(not greater than 15 cms) and they were EXTREMELY slow(in the order of 10-30 k Bps). 

Despite of it's disadvantages, smartphone manufacturers found another implementation of IR blasters: TV remotes. In my opinion, this is an ingeniously clever idea. I mean, think about it. If there are 4 people in your house and each person has his/her own smartphone then what is the use of 3-4 remotes  lying in the living room(TV, Set top box, Home theatre etc.) If you lose your remotes(everybody does) there is no guaranteed way of finding them but you can just call on your phone if it gets lost inside your own house. Heck, there are even apps on the Play Store that let you use these IR ports for your Air Conditioner! 
2 of the best Android phones of 2013: Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One sport IR blaster for this purpose. You can see the IR blaster, which is a black circle, on top edge of the Galaxy S4, right to the headphone jack (when looking in front of the screen) but you might be thinking "Where is it on the HTC One?". It is cleverly hidden beneath the power button by HTC (kudos!) Samsung even included IR blasters in it's tablets including the Note 10.1 and Note 8.0 

Looking at the rise of the IR Blaster (sounds like a villain, doesn't it? :P) Google decided to include an API for building an app that makes use of these IR blaster if it is present on the device. "Android 4.4 introduces platform support for built-in IR blasters, along with a new API and system service that let you create apps to take advantage them.Using the new API, you can build apps that let users remotely control nearby TVs, tuners, switches, and other electronic devices. The API lets your app check whether the phone or tablet has an infrared emitter, query it's carrier frequencies, and then send infrared signals.Because the API is standard across Android devices running Android 4.4 or higher, your app can support the broadest possible range of vendors without writing custom integration code." Quoted from here. Of course, this means that it only supports sending signals and not receiving them. 

So that's it guys, let me know in the comments section what you think about IR blasters coming again inn smartphones. Also, any suggestions are welcome. If you liked this article, please also read my other articles below and share it with your friends who love Android too! Also, if you want to make sure you are one of the first persons to get notified when we write more awesome stuff like this, add me in your circles, +1 or follow the blog via e-mail!