Sony Xperia Tablet S visits our office, shows its fold-over design and customized Android to our camera

The Sony Xperia Tablet S left its Sony HQ home to spend some time with us. It carries over some design elements from its predecessor, like the 9.4? WXGA screen and fold-over design, but it adds goodies like a quad-core processor (moving from Tegra 2 to 3), thinner aluminum frame and IPX-4 certification (splash proof).

The Xperia Tablet S is 8.8mm thick along its back, with a thicker “fold” on top. This makes the tablet easier to hold in the hand and is used to attach the tablet to various accessories.

Sony gave us a suede cover to test, which also serves as a stand (it can hold the tablet tilted at two different angles). It snaps into place and will hold the tablet upside down, but we wouldn’t shake it too hard. When you close it, you can use the elastic band to keep it shut.

The tablet is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, but the 16GB one will probably be the most popular as there is an SD card slot. That’s right, not microSD, but a regular-sized SD card slot, meaning you can expand the storage on the cheap.

Sony Xperia Tablet S in our office

The top of the tablet houses an IR port, so you can use the tablet as a remote control. The included app is quite powerful and can even learn new commands directly from a remote control, if your appliance isn’t on the (quite extensive) list of presets.

The Sony Xperia Tablet S really feels like something intended for home use with the Remote control app. It even comes with a Small app version, so you can always switch the channel.

Speaking of Small apps, they are floating apps that take up only a part of the screen and can be used along side regular apps. You can see them in action in the video below.

We’re doing our complete review thing on the Sony Xperia Tablet S, so stick around if you want to learn more on the slate.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Quad-core Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 finally lands in our office, shows what its capable of

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 got off to a rocky start after its official announcement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, after which it returned to the company’s R&D drawing board for a specs overhaul.

And several months later, here it is – the brand new Galaxy Note 10.1 with more powerful innards ready to take over the tablet scene. Or so it thinks.

Here’s a quick rundown. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is powered by the same Exynos 4412 chipset with a quad-core 1.4GHz processor and Mali-400MP GPU found in the Galaxy S III. And thanks to the 2GB of RAM, you get a truly multitasking-ready device.

However, the news aren’t so rosy in terms of screen. It’s a 10.1-inch PLS TFT screen with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels. Samsung are not using a Super AMOLED panel and the resolution is nowhere near FullHD.

Despite this little nitpick, the Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with a ton of useful features such as a microSD card slot, LED flash for the 5MP camera and 3G connectivity. At the front, there’s a 1.9MP camera for video chatting.

But the pièce de résistance of the Galaxy Note 10.1 is its special stylus called S Pen. With its help you can quickly write down notes, draw a funny picture or even make advanced modifications to a photo.

The latter is done thanks to the Adobe Photoshop Touch app, which comes for free on the tablet. It takes the Galaxy Note 10.1 to a whole new level, allowing professional as well as regular users to make photo adjustments while on the go.

Measuring 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.9 mm and weighing 583 grams, the tablet is going to find a comfortable place in nearly every bag and you won’t break any sweat carrying it around.

Samsung has thrown in almost everything its got in terms of software. The Galaxy Note 10.1 runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz 4.0 sprinkled on top. It adds really useful features to the stock Android experience like Mini apps, useful widgets and a few essential Samsung apps like S Memo, S Chat and more.

Check out our Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 hands-on video below.

We are tirelessly working on the Galaxy Note 10.1 review, hopefully, you will be able to enjoy it in the coming days.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

The tough Sony Xperia go lands at the office, stands in front of our camera

The Sony Xperia go is here and is ready to get the GSMArena review treatment. The rugged droid will be eyed by many as it seems like one of the best smartphones you can take to the beach with you.

The Xperia go is descendant of the Xperia Active, a tough little droid, which we met (and loved) at the end of last year. The new smartphone fixes two of the main shortcomings of its predecessor by offering a larger 3.5? LCD at the front and a beefier dual-core processor under the hood, so it’s certainly an interesting package.

The Sony Xperia Go is IP67 certified meaning it can withstand water up to 1 meter for under 30 minutes and is completely dust resistant. Additionally, the smartphone can handle the occasional knock and drop without being seriously hurt thanks to its reinforced glass.

Here’s our video of the Sony Xperia go in action.

As you heard we are not particularly fond of the Sony Xperia go back panel, but overall the smartphone feels really snappy and seems to provide a solid smartphone exeprience.

The Sony Xperia Go at HQ

We’re on the already working on a full-fledged review of the Sony Xperia go so stay tuned.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana

Samsung Galaxy S III lands in our office for a hands-on

The brightest star in the Samsung universe has landed in the office to get our regular hands-on treatment. The Samsung Galaxy S III is currently riding the hype wave as the most anticipated Android phone, and for a good reason.

Inheriting the burden of being one of the best Android phones around from its predecessor, the Galaxy S III has everything it needs to be on top of everything else. Let’s dive right in at what exactly that is.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is built around a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 2 for protection and an HD resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Samsung have gone for a PenTile Matrix, rather than a conventional RGB one, but at 300DPI the differences are indistinguishable. Regardless, the display looks stunning, blacks are deep and colors look sharp.

Samsung Galaxy SIII official shots

The same however, could not be said for the Galaxy S III’s looks. It’s not the most beautiful looking device out there, but contrary to people’s expectations it’s doesn’t look too cheaply either. Yes, it’s all plastic, but it feels good in the hand, and solidly built. In fact, Samsung are using a brand new manufacturing process named Hyperglaze.

The device weighs in at 133 grams and is 0.1mm thicker than the Galaxy S II, but due to its lack of the back chin, thickness is a lot more uniform. And despite its monstrosity (136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm) it’s not uncomfortable to hold at hand. Actually, it’s quite pocket friendly.

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III in our office

Under the hood of the Galaxy S III resides a Exynos 4 Quad chipset. It’s the best weapon in Samsung’s hardware arsenal at the moment and it crushed the opposition in the synthetic benchmark tests we ran. The main reason for this are the four 32nm Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 1.4GHz, which is as good as it gets until Cortex-A15 gets ready for prime time.

Expectantly, the Galaxy S III runs the latest version of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with refreshed TouchWiz UI, and it’s hands down one of the most complete software packages ever found on a mobile phone. The latest version of TouchWiz UI has so many new features: S-Voice, Direct call, Smart stay, Smart alert, S Beam, Buddy photo share, Pop up play and updated Gesture controls are some of the few new additions Samsung have thrown in.

But enough chit-chatting, take a look at the Galaxy S III in action in our short hands-on video.

Expect our lengthy preview to be available shortly. In the meantime is there anything you’d like to know more about the Galaxy S III? Post it in the comments section and we’ll do our best to answer your inquiries.

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Eliana Adriana Chandra Buana