There’s a ton of options when looking for a new smartphone, some running on Windows Phone, some on iOS and others on Android, for the last one there’s even more options, but there’s only really a cool for those of you looking for a flagship model.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of these handsets, and is probably one of the most anticipated smartphones to be released this year.

With a few new features, the S4 is now the most powerful handset from the Korean manufacture, although its size still hasn’t changed, and never has the design.

Sized at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and weighing just 130g, the S4 now includes a massive 5 inch screen, with a Full HD Super AMOLED screen, that packs a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution with 441 ppi, meaning the S4 has one of the best screens on an Android device.

There’s two versions of the S4, one with a 1.9GHz Quad-Core processor and another with a 1.6GHz Octa-Core processor, the version you get depends on where you live, in the UK you will get the quad-core version.

Read this next: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review

In terms of design, the S4 is pretty similar to the S3, but does feel a little more solid and less flimsy in the hand when compared to its predecessor, with a more ‘premium’ looking design the fake metal band around the edge looks a lot better than it did before.

On the back you still have a removable cover, which allows you to access the SIM-card slot, microSD card slot and remove the battery.

Holding the phone is much more of a pleasurable experience than it was with the S3, with a slightly more curved design, it fits nicely in the palm of your hand, and unlike many other Samsung devices, it doesn’t feel too large that you can’t use it with one hand, in fact Samsung have now built-in some technology to help you with that, but we will go further into that later in this review.

One big change in the design is that the power button has now moved further up the right hand side, this makes it a lot easier to press, however that’s not the same case for the volume up/ down button, which can sometimes be a little tricky when thumbing around the pockets.

This is even more difficult with the S View cover on, which for some reason obscures the volume button entirely, of course this is just an optional accessory, so for some of you, that won’t matter.

Read this next: S View Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

Alongside the power button, the home button seems to have been designed a little better too, with a more solid feel, it’s a lot easier to press than previous models.

Next to the home button you will then find the touch-sensitive back and menu buttons, which can be set to either light up once pressed or stay constantly lit up when the phone is unlocked.

On the front of the device you will find a 2MP camera, that now plays a much bugger role than what is norm in handsets today, tracking the users eyes in order to scroll webpages, or even pause a video when they look away, as well as being able to take Full HD videos.

Next to which you will than find the proximity sensor, that allows the phone to tell when it is close to an object, such as your face.

And that’s not even the last one, as this phone is actually packed with various sensors and gadgetry for you to try out, most notable and probably the most useless, at least in my view, is the new infra-red sensor on the top. This allows you to control anything from your TV to your home cinema system, right from your phone with the use of the WatchON app.

We did use this feature once or twice in our tests, but we don’t think it’s a stand out feature.

Available for £47 a a month (lasting 24 months) on Vodafone’s RED XL package, the price of this phone is not one for the budget buyer, and although this package does include unlimited UK calls, texts and 4GB of data, if you’re looking for something on the cheaper side, the S4 probably isn’t for you.

However that’s something you should probably already know.

One of the best features with the new S4, is most defiantly its screen, with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution display, the S4 easily has the best screen available on a smartphone to date (at time of writing).

Using the same Super AMOLED technology that you will find across the Galaxy range, images look crisp and clear, with very high contrast ratios and a great level of brightness, the screen is great to look at both during the day and at nighttime.

Being a touchscreen, the S4 has also been updated with some new capacitive technology that makes the screen a little more sensitive, and allows the user to control the device whilst wearing gloves, a feature I can’t believe has taken this long to be implemented in touchscreen phones, as no one in their right mind wants to wear those horrible looking touchscreen capable gloves.

Running on Android 4.2 with Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay, the OS for the phone feels pretty similar to what was included with the S3, setting aside a few new tweaks, most of the system remains unchanged, and frankly int terms of its UI the S4 isn’t much of an upgrade from the S3.

There are a couple of new features that have come with Android 4.2 that I quite like however, the first is the ability to add a widgets such as the music player or even Spotify to your lockscreen, and control it without having to unlock your phone.

These can be resized on the go, by simply dragging them further down the screen,allowing you to display more information from your chosen widget.

Staying with the music player, Samsung have actually managed to add a good experience for listening to music with the S4.

Displayed in a clean manner, music collections can easily be accessed from either the in-built storage or from your microSD card, once they have been added, the app will then display them in an easy to view list, sorting them by artist, album and track names.

However it is quite similar to the iOS music player, which may turn up in a court case knowing Apple.

Setting that aside, I really like the music player, mainly due to its clean and easy to use design.

However as this is Samsung, that isn’t all the features available on the S4, with a ton of other add-ons to find, the music player gets a bit more confusing as you dive deeper, however once you get the used to them, the features do turn out to be quite useful.

Features like AdaptSound that can listen to a variety of frequencies and determine which ones you can actually hear, it will then boost the sounds to the perfect range for you, a great addition for anyone that might be getting a little too old for a smartphone.

As well as another addition that is also featured (as well as hidden) in the Note 2, called Music Square, it will analyse your music library and then rate it based on Joy, Passion, Excitement and Calmness, these can then be chosen better different sections of the square depending on the mood you are currently in.

And as with most other Samsung handsets, the video player is also spectacular. Much like the Note 2, the player is clean and easy to use, with only a few features to use at the start, you aren’t bewildered as soon as you try to watch a movie.

However as you can probably guess, the features are still there.

But some of them actually work, such as the multi-window found in other Galaxy devices, allowing you to simply drag the video player over the top of the app you are using for a distraction-free viewing experience.

However I don’t find myself as impressed with the new Smart Pause feature, designed to pause a video when it senses that your eyes have strayed away from the screen.

This feature doesn’t work to put it simply, and with a delay between the camera realizing you have looking away and actually pausing the video, its pretty pointless to put it bluntly.

The camera on the S4 is however, is pretty decent. With a 13 megapixel sensor, it’s a huge upgrade from previous versions of the phone, and with that all new auto mode, it can detect various situations you are shooting in, to make sure it takes the best picture possible.

Alongside which there is also the addition of a few new modes with the S4 including Drama Shot, Eraser mode, Beauty Shot, and even the now basic HDR mode.

All of which are awesome to use, however the Eraser mode is a little useless, which will take five consecutive shots and then allow you to delete any photo bombers from the frame. In theory this works great, but I’m not so sure it would work well in real-life, due to the fact it has to be activated before you can take the shot, you have to preëmptively be expecting someone to walk though your photo.

Within our tests, we found that pictures actually turned out pretty well, images are clear and all-in-all its pretty much perfect for the average user.

However if you’re looking for something with a little more, then it’s probably best to try out something that has been designed specifically to take photos, like the HTC One or even the Sony Xperia Z.

Read this next: Sony Xperia Z Review

The ability to make GIFs right from the camera is pretty cool.

The main features of this phone however, is its sensing ability’s, functions like Smart Stay, Smart Scroll, Air view and Air gestures, set this phone apart from the rest.

Starting with Smart Stay, a feature that a lot of you may already know from other Galaxy handsets, it will detect whether or not you are looking at the screen, and keep the display lit up as you do, look away an it will begin to dim the screen, or even lock the phone itself, a feature that works a lot better on the S4 than it has done previously.

Next on  the list is a new feature called Smart Scroll, a pretty cool idea, it will track your eyes and begin to scroll the page you are currently viewing as you look either up or down the screen.

We found this worked okay during our tests, although sometimes it can be a little too sensitive or just not sensitive enough, and you can look a bit of a weirdo when trying to scroll up the screen in public, as you have to tilt you head in extremely awkward positions in order for the camera to recognize that you want to scroll up.

Air View is also a not so new feature, already featured with the pen on the Note 2, it allows you to hover over an item to peek at its contents, although on the S4, you can just use your finger.

This feature is however limited to a select few applications, and I myself didn’t find it all that useful during our tests.

And that’s still not all, as we still have one more feature to talk about, called Air Gestures, this one allows you to navigate the UI without actually touching the screen, kinda making the touchscreen a little useless, it can be used to skip tracks, move between photos and answer calls without getting the screen dirty, a feature I can only see being useful with those who paint there nails, or work in muddy conditions.

Personally most of these features I would simply turn off, and in my view they simply seem be a way for Samsung to look like they have updated a phone that still takes a lot from the S3.

Other features like S Heath I could find a little more useful however, being one of the main features Samsung shown of during their announcement event for the S4, it allows you to track your weight, height, exercise regimes and even surrounding environments.

You simply tell it the weight you would like to aim for, and it will tell you how to achieve it.

Within the app you can also set a steps per day goal, which can be divided between running and walking, and it will track how many steps you have taken towards this goal during the day.

During our tests, I managed to get a pretty decent battery life, with the phone lasting most of day, and in some cases it was still awake in the morning, and this is whilst running pretty intensive applications, games and checking the internet constantly.

Overall the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a decent phone, and if you’re looking for a top of the range Android handset, it’s probably one of the best options on the market right now.

However at times we found the S4′s overlay and wide range of features to be a little overwhelming, and personally could not find much use for many of them, for other people, this may be a different case, but for me, I would prefer the phone if it was running stock Android.

You can pick up the Galaxy S4 from a wide range of carriers and retailer around the world, Vodafone (who sent us this phone for review), currently have the phone priced from free for £42 a month on their Pay Monthly contracts.

Benchmarks:

AnTuTu: 25479

3DMark Ice Storm: 10591

3DMark Ice Storm Extreme: 6571

Photos:

Product Shots:

Screenshots:

We finally get a cool new version of iOS7. It looks great, it feels great, and it brings new life to a very old feeling interface. The one question on my mind is how does it perform?

Let’s take a look at how iOS7 fares against iOS6 running on two 16gb iPhone5′s.

You can find more videos like this by subscribing to the Geek With Glasses YouTube channel.

It’s been long time since we first heard the rumors that Huawei would soon unveil the Ascend P6, and with press shots, specs and videos leaked on the net, it has been more or less guaranteed from start.

However now the rumors are finally over, Huawei have today officially unveiled the launch of the Ascend P6 during their press event earlier today.

Measuring just 6.18mm thick and weighing 120 grams, the phone itself is pretty slim, however it still includes decent enough specs, packing a 4.7 inch LCD Gorilla Glass 2 touchscreen display, with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and a new 1.5GHz quad-core processor.

Alongside which the P6 also includes 2GB of RAM, with 8GB of in-built storage, as well as a dual-SIM card slot, however in the UK this will become a microSD card slot, allowing for up to 32GB of expansion.

This is joined with a 2,000mAh battery, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as a 8MP Exmor sensor from Sony on the back, with a f/2.0 aperture, BSI and a 4cm macro view,that can shoot at Full HD 1080p resolution. On the front you will also find a 5 megapixel camera.

The P6 will run on Android 4.2.2 with Huawei’s Emotion UI overlay, and will be available in white and black, with a pink version launching in the future.

O2 and Carphone Warehouse are the first to announce availability for the handset, expected to launch in July for around £25 a month.

Only yesterday we seen leaks of the HTC Desire 200, but HTC have already decided to officially announce the new entry-level handset, revealing specs that are actually pretty decent for a budget phone.

Sized at only 107.7 x 60.8 x 11.9mm and weighing 100 grams, the Desire 200 is tiny compared to a lot of phones available on the market, but with a 3.5 inch screen that has a 480 x 320 pixel resolution, alongside a 1GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor and 512MB, it’s sure to get you by in the most basic of tasks.

Alongside which you will also find Beats Audio technology, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera that packs a f2.8 aperture and a 34mm lens for shooting video in SD quality.

The Desire 200 also includes a 1,230mAh battery, alongside 4GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot with expansion capabilities of up to 32GB and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The phone will be available in Taiwan from July 19th, launching around the world shortly after.

Earlier this week the UK carrier, Three claimed via its Twitter account that HTC had pulled the Android 4.2 firmware update would no longer be coming to HTC One, however that no longer seems to be true.

The UK retailer, Clove has today announced that they are now taking pre-orders in the UK for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, costing £390 including taxes for the SIM free version.

The phone will launch in the UK from July and will pack a 4.3 inch qHD Super AMOLED display with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution, an 8MP rear facing camera, 1.9MP front-facing camera, dual-core 1.7GHz processor,1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot and all running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

There’s also 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and LTE connectivity.

You can find out more at the source link below.

[Update] Phones 4U have also put up the S4 Mini for pre-order, available from July this year, it will be available from free on a £27 a month contract, you can find more information on their pre-order page here.

Source Clove

We already know that Motorola are about to release a new smartphone dubbed the Moto X, as it was revealed by CEO Dennis Woodside at D11 in May, but they didn’t announce any specs.

However the Twitter leaking star, @evleaks who have today revealed what they are reporting to be the specs for the phone.

According to the site, the Moto X will pack a 720p display, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, a 10Mp rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

However these are just rumors at the moment, but with evleaks track record, there probably correct.

• Source: @evleaks – Twitter

Rumors are today suggesting that HTC many be about to release a new budget Android device, reportedly dubbed the HTC Desire 200, its rumored to be designed in a similar way to the HTC One, but in a smaller device.

Rumored to include a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 resolution LCD screen, a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB storage space, microSD card and a 1,400mAh battery, as well as running on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, however rumors suggest it will run on Android 4.1.

There’s no word on pricing or a launch date yet.

Via: GSM Arena

If you have ever traveled abroad from Europe, you may well have been a victim to data roaming charges, they are a complete pain, charging users more when making texts and calls or even using data whilst abroad.

Thankfully the European Commission agrees, announcing the introduction of new rules in Europe that will end these roaming charges from July 2014.

This means that when a customer uses their connected device in another European country, they will be charged the same as they would normally be charged at home.

Defiantly one reason for the UK to stay in the EU.

Source The Telegraph

Image Via CNET

According to Kotaku, Logitech may soon unveil a new game controller for the iPhone 5, that will use the new API ffor 3rd part MFi game controllers, that Apple announces last week during their WWDC conference.

It’s been 6 years since we have seen any major change to our user experience on any iOS device, but iOS7 is about to change all that.

Apple has finally given us a fresh new look and feel to the ageing iOS UI and it’s about time! As Android gets more polished by the day, Apple really needed to step things up in a big way and I think they have done just that.

iOS7′s new design is not only fresh feeling and looking, but truly makes you feel like you have a whole new OS on your phone. It still has all the same things you have come to love in iOS, but added a bunch of things it was truly lacking. Let’s take a first look at the iOS7 beta build running on my iPhone5.

You can find out more about iOS 7 on Apple’s website.

Also make sure to subscribe to the Geek With Glasses YouTube channel for more content like this.

After posting a teaser photo of the Ascend P6 on Monday, Huawei are already back at it, posting not one, but two new teaser photos of the device ahead of its official launch next week.

As its yet to be announced, we don’t have many official details for the device, however rumors suggest that the P6 will feature a 4.7 inch HD display, with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.

Also suggested is a 2 megapixel camera on the front and a second 8 megapixel camera on the back for 1080p video recording.

The Ascend P6 is also expected to be running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

However at the moment, that’s just speculation and we will have to wait for more official news to be revealed next week.

In the meantime, check out the images placed both above and below his article.

Source Huawei / Twitter

Nokia has just sent out a bunch of press invites for an event they will be hosting in New York City on July 11th.

The invite titled, “zoom reinvented” seems to tease the introduction of a new device with a better zoom range to that of previous handsets, which could link to the large amount of rumors we have heard about an upcoming Nokia EOS handset.

Alongside this, the invite features a colour scheme similar to that of their Lumia handsets, which leads us to believe this new handset may be part of the Lumia brand.

However at the moment this all just speculation, so we will just have to wait for the official news on July 11th.

Via: EnGadget

Broadcom has today announced a brand new chipset for mobiles, dubbed the not so catchy BCM23550, some of its key features include a quad-core 1.2GHz A7 CPU with ARM NEON technology, as well as 21Mbps of HSPA+ downloads and up to 5.8Mbps speeds for uploads.

There’s also support for Dual HD displays with any 720p LCD or an external HD panel using Wi-Fi Miracast-capable displays.

With this, there’s also high-performance graphics based on the VideoCore IV multimedia technology, allowing better performance with rich applications.

Other features on the list also include

· Integrated image signal processor (ISP) with support up to 12 megapixels

· High quality H.264 full HD (1080p30) camcorder and video playback

· Power management techniques that increase efficiency of cellular RF chip and optimize performance based on workload demands

· HD voice support for high-quality voice calls with advanced dual-mic noise cancellation technology

· GPS/GLONASS, WLAN , MEMS, and Cell ID for the best indoor/outdoor location

· NFC solution supports all major NFC specifications including NFC Forum, EMVCo, and the China UnionPay QuickTap mobile wallet

· Industry-leading, lowest power 3G/2G dual SIM-dual standby to enable global markets

· Compliant with ARM TrustZone® and GlobalPlatform for system-level security

The BCM23550 is expected to be released in Q3 of 2013, check out the press release below for more information.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

There has been a lot of rumors about the Huawei Ascend W2 floating around for the last few weeks, and with a number of leaked photos, were sure that Huawei are about to reveal the handset officially.

And we might just be right about that, as Huawei have now teased an image of the smartphone that may just show of a special feature.

Posted on their Facebook page, the image looks to show the handset as being waterproof (being that it is in water and all.)

Alongside which, rumors also suggest the phone will pack a 4.3 inch HD IPS display with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 2,000mAh battery.

Alongside which, it is also expected to feature an 8 megapixel camera that can record in 1080p, as well as Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS functionality.

At the moment, that’s all simply a rumor, however as Huawei are hosting a press event next week, we should hear more about the handset, alongside the previously rumored, Ascend P6.

Source Huawei Facebook