Samsung Ativ S review: A fresh start

Introduction

Microsoft's campaign is underway across the board with Windows 8, RT and WP 8 and all eyes are now set on Redmond's allies for a demonstration of fire power. Following some early warning shots from Nokia and HTC, Samsung are now free to fire at will.

Samsung Ativ S official pictures

Their Ativ S was the first Windows Phone 8 flagship announced and, respectful of chronology, the first we're about to properly review. The Nokia Lumia 920, the HTC Windows Phone 8X and the Ativ S are often painted as allies - but that's mostly rhetoric. To a certain point, they have little choice but to unite against the Android and iPhone hordes. On the other hand, these fine smartphones will be sworn enemies fighting over every user drawn close enough by Microsoft's upgraded platform.

And by the way, Windows Phone 8's appeal is easy enough to understand. It is now a consistent cross-device platform that will get app developers interested. Multiple-core-chipset and screen resolution support will help Microsoft-powered devices stand next to their Android and iOS counterparts as equals.

OEMs on the other hand are also giving potential users a good enough reason to be excited. Just look at what the Ativ S is offering to those who are willing to go with Samsung.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support


• Quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support


• 4.8" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 720 x 1280 pixel resolution


• Scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 2 display


• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 1080p@30fps video recording


• 1.9MP front camera


• Windows Phone 8 OS (Apollo)


• 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, 1GB of RAM


• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band


• GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support


• Digital compass


• 16/32GB of on-board storage


• microSD slot


• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic


• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor


• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack


• microUSB port


• Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and EDR, file transfers


• Impressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface


• Xbox Live integration and Xbox management


• Data Sense


• Class-leading JavaScript performance


• NFC support


• Samsung exclusive apps: Music hub, Chat on, Photo editor

Main disadvantages

• App catalog falls short of Android and iOS


• Competition has quad-core Krait CPUs already


• Costs more than the Galaxy S III SIM-free


• No FM radio
  
• No system-wide file manager


• No voice-guided navigation


• No music player equalizers


• No lockscreen shortcuts

So, there we are. The Ativ S is running an OS that has just had its potential unlocked by a major update. The hardware powering has been inspired by no other but Samsung's droid flagship, the Galaxy S III. OK, it's a different chipset, and a couple of CPU cores short, but most of the rest is there - from the HD Super AMOLED screen to the 8MP camera.

Windows Phone 8 has finally caught up with the industry leaders. There's a massive gap between Samsung's last generation of Windows Phone and the Ativ S. Goodbye, Omnia and, sorry to say, you won't be badly missed. They could've done better when naming the new lineup, that's for sure. But the fresh start most certainly called for a brand new name.

Samsung Ativ S live pictures

That's a minor point though - we can live with a name without a ring as long as the engine's got a hearty rumble. So, we're taking the Samsung Ativ S out for a spin and you're most welcome to join. Hit the jump to the design and build.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

4-inch Samsung Galaxy S III mini officially unveiled

No, we didnt scale the images wrong, it's the new Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini that was just announced in Germany. Brought on by an increasing demand for 4" droids with good specs, the S III mini wants to please people who find the 4.8" screen of its big brother to be just too big.

Bearing the S III title, the mini has the same nature-inspired design as the big S III and the Galaxy Note II. And it will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch with the same TouchWiz customizations that its bigger siblings enjoy, like S Voice and Smart Stay.

Samsung Galaxy S III mini official photos

Looks aside, the specs of the I8190 Galaxy S III mini doesnt quite live up to its name. It has a 4" Super AMOLED screen of WVGA resolution (and a PenTile matrix). Inside is a ST-Ericsson NovaThor chipset with two Cortex-A9 cores, ticking at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM and a Mali-400 GPU.

The main camera has a 5MP sensor and an LED flash and it's capable of shooting 720p video. There's a VGA front-facing camera too.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini offers quad-band 2G and tri-band 3G connectivity (with 14.4Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA), dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC. The internal storage comes in 8GB or 16GB versions and there's a microSD card slot if you need more.

Basically, the whole Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini is a Galaxy S/Galaxy S II hybrid (with almost the exact same specs as the I9070 Galaxy S Advance) that was styled to look like a Galaxy S III.

More Samsung Galaxy S III mini official photos

The dimensions of the phone are 121.6 x 63 x 9.9 mm and it weighs 111.5g and the battery has 1500mAh capacity.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini is expected to launch in November. If you want to be among the first to get it, Clove UK is already taking pre-orders. The current asking price is 298 (370, $480).

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Samsung Galaxy S III mini preview: First look

Introduction

The Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini is like a nostalgic return to the roots for the highly successful Galaxy S franchise. Quite similar to the original Galaxy S specs-wise, the new SIII mini aims to get as much of the Galaxy S III's personality into a smaller package that's easy on the thumb - and pocket.

The original Samsung Galaxy S III is currently the smartphone to beat, but to many it's too large of a slab to handle. A strong point can be made that a large screen is a must for a great browsing experience or video watching on the go, but not everyone is willing to put up a with the body size such a screen implies.

Samsung Galaxy S III mini official photos

The Galaxy SIII mini is ready to deal a serious blow to the competition in the midrange, by offering a more compact (and cheaper!) way to get the premium smartphone experience. An ambitious goal it is, but Samsung isn't afraid of a challenge.

Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 14.4 Mbps


• Form factor: Touchscreen bar


• Dimensions: 121.55 x 63 x 9.85 mm, 111.5 g


• Display: 4" 16M-color WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen


• Chipset: 1GHz dual-core processor, Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB RAM


• OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean); TouchWiz UX


• Memory: 16 GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot (up to 32 GB)


• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus, face and smile detection; 720p (1280 x 720) video recording at 30fps


• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, stereo Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, stereo FM radio with RDS, NFC


• Misc: built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype text input

Actually, the spec sheet is not even half as exciting as the SIII's. The mini version has the unmistakable styling of the flagship but that's about where it stops. At first glance, it's much closer to the original Galaxy S. In fact, it looks like Samsung is merely publishing a remastered version of their 2010 hit single.

Well, we hate to jump to conclusions. Perhaps, there's more than meets the eye.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini studio shots

We'll only know whether Samsung managed to get enough bang out of the middling specs when we are done with this preview, so let's waste no more time and get going. The hardware inspection starts right after the break.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung launches Galaxy Note II in India and Germany

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note II in India and Germany. In India the phone is being priced at ?39,000 whereas in Germany the phone will be sold for 699.

In case you're not aware of this device, the Galaxy Note II is an updated version of last year's Galaxy Note and is basically a stretched Galaxy S III. It has a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, up from 5.3-inch on last year's model and comes with the same pressure sensitive S-Pen stylus from the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Other features include a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, 16/32/64GB internal memory with microSD card slot and the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and S Advance to skip ICS, get JB

We've got some great news for those owning the NovaThor U8500-powered Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and Galaxy S Advance. Apparently the two mid-range smartphones will be getting the official Android 4.1 Jelly Bean treatment without any Ice Cream Sandwich jump in-between.

One of our readers from Bulgaria contacted the local Samsung branch, asking if the two smartphones will be getting Android 4.0 ICS. The surprise response was that the Galaxy Ace 2 and the Galaxy S Advance will be skipping on the Ice Cream Sandwich release and will be upgraded directly to Jelly Bean.

Of course, it could be that whoever is in charge of supporting the Samsung Bulgaria Facebook page got their facts wrong, but if that's not the case, the company deserves a pat on the back for taking such good care of its mid-range offerings. It will probably take a few more months for the update to be finalized, but we are really hoping it will come before the end of the year.

We'll be on the lookout for an official word from the Samsung on the global availability of the Jelly Bean update and we'll keep you posted if anything comes up.

Thanks, Grigorii, for sending this in!

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus benchmark confirms CPU, GPU

Last month, some info on the Galaxy S II Plus leaked, including pictures and most of its specs. We now hear that the smartphone has taken a trip to the GLBenchmark testing fields, revealing a bit more about its internals.

The benchmark's website confirms the qHD (960540 pixels) display, it also suggests the Galaxy S II Plus (model number I9105) will sport a 1.4GHz CPU, presumably a dual-core one. Previously we heard that the smartphone will be packing a 1.5GHz CPU, and given that the exact listed frequency is 1456 MHz, that might be what the final version of the device will actually offer.

We also learned that the GPU inside the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus (boy that's a mouthful) will be a PowerVR SGX 544MP. That's an architecture very similar to the iPad 3's GPU, but it will probably pack fewer cores here to prevent overheating issues.

Finally, the Galaxy S II Plus will be running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and that's as far as the benchmark results page is willing to tell. If anything, the fact that the S II Plus undergoes benchmarks hints it's development is nearing completion and it getting ready for an official announcement soon.

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The original Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 gets new goodies thanks to a software update

The original Samsung Galaxy Note was not left in the cold now that the sequel has been announced. The new Ice Cream Sandwich ROM N7000XXLRQ with a timestamp of 28.08.2012 is reportedly available to users in Germany via KIES or OTA and also as a direct download to everyone by the XDA community.

The novelties include an updated user interface – much like the one you may have seen on the Galaxy S III – and S-Cloud integration. Also the gallery has received the sidebar look that we saw first on the recently announced Note II.

German owners of the Galaxy Note are already receiving the update via KIES and even OTA, but everyone else can enjoy it to, but with a manual flashing. The ROM is available for download over at XDA.

The userland generated changelog so far includes the following:

• new launcher (as on the Galaxy SIII)
• new gallery with fancy 3D effects
• new contact list
• pop-up video can now be resized
• S-Cloud integration (no dedicated App but you will be prompted to sync your settings with Samsung)
• you can now save contacts in the S-Cloud too (like Google contacts)
• performance improved
• new gesture action added: call contact currently displayed if you raise the phone
• bloatware added (NTV, Lieferheld, ChatOn, myTaxi)
• unfortunately, the black clipping issues has not been fixed

Here are some screenshots to whet your appetite for the new build. You can find more at the source link below.

Screenshots of the updated Note UI

And in case you are interested, here’s a video of the new gallery in action:

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

New Jelly Bean ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S III surfaces

A new Jelly Bean test ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S III leaked today. The ROM version is DLI1 and the build date is today – September 3.

We already tried it out on our unit and it behaves notably better than the previous Jelly Bean leaked ROMs. However, there’s still the occasional force close, so this most certainly isn’t the final version of the ROM that will be seeded to the users. Some of the apps, like S Note are also missing, but those should be back in the next builds, we guess.

There are still things Samsung need to do on the Jelly Bean update, but we guess the final release is indeed just around the corner.

Hit the source link if you are interested in giving this ROM a try. There’s a neat tutorial there that will guide you through the flashing process, but you should proceed at your own risk as this move will most certainly void your warranty.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung announces Windows 8 based Series 7 and Series 5 AIOs

Samsung has announced three new members of the Series 7 and Series 5 range of All-in-One (AIO) desktop computers running Windows 8. The Series 7 includes a 27-inch and a 23-inch model whereas the Series 5 includes a 21-inch model.

All three models come with a 10-point multi-touch display that supports the full range of gestures you find in Windows 8. They also all have a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

The 27-inch model comes with a Intel’s third generation Core i7 processor 3770T processor, 8GB of RAM, discrete AMD Radeon HD 7850M graphics and 1TB hard drive. It’s priced at $1,699.

The 23-inch model comes with Intel Core i5 3470T processor with Intel integrated graphics, 6GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive. This one costs $1,099.

Finally, the 21-inch model (pictured above) has an Intel Core i3 processor with Intel integrated graphics, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive. This one will set you back by $749.

All machines come with USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, 1.3 megapixel front camera, wireless keyboard/mouse combo and Windows 8 64-bit. They will go on sale alongside Windows 8 on October 26.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Apple identifies the Samsung products it will seek to ban

Flying high on the heels of their victory against Samsung, Apple's legal team have identified the Samsung products, whose ban will be sought. The list includes eight smartphones and has been filed as a court notice.

The devices in question are members of the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II families. Here goes the full list of smartphones:

Samsung Galaxy S 4G

Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T)

Samsung Galaxy S II (Skyrocket)

Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G

Samsung Galaxy S Showcase

Droid Charge by Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Prevail

Apple's legal team have prepare a handy chart, which lists the patents infringed by each device. See it below.

As you can see in the chart above, the biggest offenders are relatives to the Samsung Galaxy S I9000. The number of infringed patents decreases in the newer devices.

The injunction hearing has been scheduled for September 20. We'll be sure to keep you posted on its outcome.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Indian bloggers accuse Samsung of mistreating them at IFA

Two bloggers are claiming that Samsung threatened to leave them stranded at the IFA trade show in Berlin after they refused to become promoters for Samsung products.

Samsung has since released an official statement which chalks everything up to a “misunderstanding” between the two parties.

The two bloggers, Clinton Jeff of Unleash the Phones and another who wished to remain anonymous, were part of Samsung’s Mob!lers program, which offers bloggers the opportunity to be flown to trade shows for event coverage at the expense of the program sponsor (in this case Samsung).

Jeff claims that throughout the entire process, he made it abundantly clear to Samsung representatives that he wanted to be there covering the event in its entirety as a reporter, rather than simply as a promoter for Samsung products.

Several days prior to his departure, Samsung asked Jeff to provide his clothing measurements for what was supposedly a closed-door event.

Upon arrival, Jeff and the other blogger found a Mob!lers booth waiting for them.

They gave us our key, a Samsung shirt that we’d have to wear for “orientation” the next morning, and we’d have to be down in five minutes to go for the uniform fitting.

They were then told to come the next day to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and that they would have to be in uniform over the course of the event, at Samsung booths, showing off Samsung products to members of the press.

Jeff again reiterated that they had, in no uncertain times, told Samsung that they would be there to cover the event, and not be “booth babes” for Samsung.

At this point, Samsung allegedly cancelled their return tickets and hotel reservations, instead offering to fly them back on the 1st, right after Samsung’s unpacked event, and only if they wore the Samsung shirt and presented devices to the press.

The two bloggers wore the shirts, but refused to present the Samsung devices.

Samsung has since released a statement on the matter:

Samsung Mob!lers is a voluntary community of active Samsung mobile device users, who are offered the opportunity to participate in our marketing events across the world. At these events, all activities they undertake are on a voluntary basis. No activities are forced upon them.

We regret there was a misunderstanding between the Samsung Mob!lers coordinators and the relevant blogger, as we understand he was not sufficiently briefed on the nature of Samsung Mob!lers’ activities at IFA 2012. We have been attempting to get in touch with him.

We respect the independence of bloggers to publish their own stories.

Long story short, this is pretty shady behavior on Samsung’s part, and they should certainly take most of the blame for the misunderstanding. There are a few red flags, however, which should have alerted the two bloggers that something wasn’t exactly right, the most prevalent being the request for clothing sizes.

Secondly, why would the Koreans offer to pay for airfare and hotel stay to essentially ransom two independent bloggers to simply promote their mobile devices at a trade show to other members of the press? Surely, they could have found a person or two in Berlin for that job and it would have cost them significantly less.

Our take is that Samsung’s excuse at a misunderstanding is not far from the truth – the two gentlemen were probably enrolled in a promotional program, and either Samsung wasn’t clear enough about what was expected of them, or the thought of being flown to a trade show to cover the topic they love simply rendered the bloggers blind to the fine print.

Fortunately, the story got its happy ending after Nokia kindly offered to pay for their hotel stay and airfare for them to stay until the 6th and cover the rest of the event.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Here is what Apple, Samsung and Google think on the verdict from the patent infringement trial

As you may know, the Apple vs. Samsung case reached its conclusion last week, and as a result Samsung has to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

And in case you’re wondering how the two companies feel about it, here go the internal memos sent to the respectful companies’ employees. Google also threw in its two cents on the matter.

The Apple note is sent by Tim Cook himself and says that Apple pursued the protection of its values, rather than going for money or patents. He is pleased that the jury found Samsung’s copying “willful”.

Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.

Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than we knew.

The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.

I am very proud of the work that each of you do.

Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.

Tim

Samsung, on the other hand, points that courts in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Korea had ruled the opposite of what the NDCA had. The company even goes on to state that Apple won’t win the hearts and minds of consumers by abusing patent law, instead of innovating – although I can see Apple fans accusing Samsung of just such a lack of innovation. It’s a matter of personal perspective, I guess.

[Internal Memo] Regarding the Jury Verdict in California

On Friday, August 24, 2012, the jury verdict in our trial against Apple was announced at the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The following is an internal memo that reflects Samsung’s position regarding the verdict:

We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers. However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company.

Certainly, we are very disappointed by the verdict at the US District Court for the Northern District of California (NDCA), and it is regrettable that the verdict has caused concern amongst our employees, as well as our loyal customers.

However, the judge’s final ruling remains, along with a number of other procedures. We will continue to do our utmost until our arguments have been accepted.

The NDCA verdict starkly contrasts decisions made by courts in a number of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Korea, which have previously ruled that we did not copy Apple’s designs. These courts also recognized our arguments concerning our standards patents.

History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation.

We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritize innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt.

Google also shared its thoughts after the trial. The search giant wanted to make it clear that the ruling doesn’t relate to the core Android OS.

The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims,

Most of these don’t relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office.

The mobile industry is moving fast and all players – including newcomers – are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don’t want anything to limit that.

We guess there are many sides to every story.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung announces the Galaxy Player 5.8

If you thought the Galaxy Note was big, wait till you get a load of this. Samsung has just announced the new Galaxy Player 5.8, where 5.8 is not just a random number but actually the size of the display. This should dwarf even the display on the upcoming Galaxy Note II, which is rumored to be around 5.5-inch in size.

Surprisingly, though, for something the size of a small country, the display has a resolution of just 960 x 540, giving it a pixel density of 190 ppi. Samsung has also dropped their favorite Super AMOLED in favor of LCD technology for this panel.

Other details are rather sketchy at this point; we don’t even know what the back looks like. What we do know is that the Galaxy Player 5.8 will have Android 4.0 and a 2,500mAh battery. It will also be available in 16GB and 32GB variants (with microSD card slots) and black and white color options.

The pricing and launch dates are also unknown as of now but we’ll let you know as soon as we find out. Perhaps Samsung will provide more details at its upcoming August 29 event or at the IFA 2012.

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Samsung gives a sneak peek at the upcoming Windows 8 tablet with keyboard dock

The Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin or IFA will commence by the end of this week and naturally a bevy of manufacturers will be displaying their latest and greatest this year at Berlin. With the event this close, you are bound to see some leaks and teasers and Samsung has just provided one of the latter.

What you see above is Samsung’s upcoming Windows RT tablet, complete with a keyboard dock in the background. There is no name, no specs, just a picture with a tagline “Ready to be smart?”.

It will be interesting to see what hardware this tablet will be running on, and whether Samsung will use the Exynos 5 Dual that they announced earlier this month.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung pushes back Tizen to 2013, Bada almost certainly dead

It's no secret that Samsung has for a long time planned to phase out its homegrown smartphone platform, Bada, and replace it with Tizen. While many of us hoped to see the first Tizen-running phone from Samsung this year, it seems like Samsung is going to be a bit too busy for that.

Instead, for the remainder of 2012, Samsung will be focusing on the development of Android devices, as well as on smartphones running Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8.

Tizen developers have blamed the slow progress on lack of development tools and poor software upgrades.

Either way, with Tizen on the (slightly more distant) horizon, it's probably a safe bet that we won't see any more Bada phones.

To check out a preview of Tizen on a developer device, go here.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Official Jelly Bean ROM for Samsung Galaxy S III I9300 leaks

Another proof that Samsung is hard at work on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for its Galaxy S III flagship has emerged. An official Samsung Jelly Bean 4.1.1 ROM for the I9300 has surfaced in an ten-minute long video, thus showing us what the TouchWiz-ed version of Google's OS looks like.

Here's the video itself.

As you have probably noticed, the visual change is not overly dramatic, compared to the current ICS interface of the I9300. The notification area has been improved at a first glance, along with the expectedly smoother scrolling and integration of Google's latest additions to Android.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung has sold 10 million Galaxy Notes worldwide

During the US announcement of Samsung’s latest Galaxy Note 10.1, we found out that the Korean giant has sold 10 million Galaxy Note devices worldwide. The news was brought by Younghee Lee – Samsung’s SVP and head of global marketing.

The number impressive includes sales of both the international Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 and its US sibling, the AT&T flavored, LTE sporting I717. Given that the T-Mobile version of the phoneblet has been on sale for only a week now, we don’t believe that it has contributed heavily to the above sales number.

While 10 million units in a little less than a year might not appear like much by Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S family standards, it is nevertheless an impressive feat for a device, which many branded as unnecessary when launched. The truth is that Samsung put the use of stylus as an input device back in fashion with its Galaxy Note family.

And now that everyone has noticed, we can reasonably expect the upcoming sequel to do even better than the original. What do you think?

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana