CES is officially now in top gear and we can say that with supreme confidence now that we've had the obligatory onslaught of new tablets. What we perhaps didn't quite expect though was that so many of those new slate machines would happen to all have the same manufacturer's logo on the back. Introducing Samsung's four (4!) new tablets.
In the video below, we pit Moto G vs Samsung Galaxy S4 in a comparison test to see which of the two smartphones offer best value-for-money.
By the exceedingly high standards Samsung sets itself, the release of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 this year haven't quite lived up to standards for some people. Both devices remain two of Android's most celebrated handsets, but with competitors stepping their games up and the Korean giant seeming to coast in the eyes of many, we've already heard some big promises of next year's marquee Sammy handsets pushing the envelope. Following on from some recent nuggets of info, it looks as though there could be a vastly improved 20-megapixel camera on the way with the forthcoming Galaxy smartphones, and although the number of megapixels is just a footnote in the story of a camera, Samsung's desire to impress would suggest it's more than just bluster.
Nobody could accuse Microsoft of being on a charm offensive of late. In fact, it's more likely that the finger would be pointed at them for doing the complete opposite after the Redmond firm set about Apple in various Windows RT ads, pitting its own tablet machines against Apple's wildly popular iPads. It seems that Apple's isn't the only one to find itself in the firing line though, after Microsoft apparently decided that if you're going to go toe-to-toe with one huge international technology player, then you might as well go against two.
Whether you love or loathe the Korean electronics outfit's products, it's a fair assessment that the mobile world wouldn't be the same without Samsung. Tenacious and audacious in equal measure, the company seems to know no limits when it comes to experimenting with new technologies and ideas, and now Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung plans to release a smartphone with a wraparound display in 2014.
You'd have thought, given that Samsung has recently garnered negative press for its benchmark faking tactics, that the Korean giant would be keeping its nose clean, but after an investigation by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the company has to pay a fine of hundreds of thousands of dollars for negative comments made about competitors. As with the benchmark scandal, the issue dates back some time, and with Samsung having also been caught out paying for positive reviews, the investigation will now see Samsung pay the penalty.
The fierce competition in the mobile industry is a definite win for the consumer, however, it is particularly annoying that choice of product is almost always defined by the region in which one resides. Some nations seem to have all the luck at times (looks at the United States), but with the Asian OEMs continuing to command large chunks of the smartphone market, more and more devices are built with exclusivity for the likes of Japan, Korea and China. The Samsung Galaxy J, which has just made an appearance in Japan, is like the Galaxy S4, in that it has been given a spectacular spec upgrade on what was supposed to be, or at least what we all thought was the "new" flagship.
There's been a significant amount of speculation whether or not Samsung is on the verge of announcing a device with a curved display. We've been treated to leaked information from internal sources as well as the odd sneak previews of the device for good measure, but now we have official word that the smartphone does indeed exist. Samsung themselves have announced that the Galaxy Round is in production and will be released almost immediately in Korea.
Here's our full video comparison of Apple iPhone 5S vs Samsung Galaxy S4. It seems fit to put iPhone 5s and Galaxy S4 through a rigorous comparison to see which one actually comes out on top.
It seems that the suggestion that Samsung is copying Apple by launching a golden smartphone has irked someone at the company. In fact, it seems to have irritated them enough that the firm's official Samsung Tomorrow blog has been used to point out that Apple isn't actually the first phone maker to gain the Midas touch. Samsung, as it takes great pains to point out, has something of a history with gold-colored phones.
