Samsung Galaxy S3 review

Feature set

Crammed full of features. We’re not sold on S-Voice but there’s still a fabulous eight-megapixel snapper that lets you share your pictures in all sorts of ways, plus 4G support for seamless media streaming.

Style and handling

The design is the same ‘inspired by nature’ type that we saw on the first Galaxy S III – and it looks great. But it’s not the sturdiest handset we’ve seen so don’t drop it.

Battery power 

You should get a good 24 hours out of a full battery – pretty good for a mobile sporting such a large, bright display. If you’re streaming media, the figure drops to a still-impressive seven hours.

Performance 

A quad-core chip sits under the hood, providing speedy, smooth performance and a good deal of futureproofing.

User friendliness

The operating system of choice here is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is beautifully accompanied by Samsung’s user friendly TouchWiz interface. The display measures 4.8 inches and is so bright it can be viewed in direct sunlight (if there ever is any).

Pros :
Really sharp,  colourful display; Snapper is crammed with features; Quad-core processor; support for 4G.

Cons :
S-Voice is disappointing; Few updates from first Galaxy S3.

Verdict:

Samsung has not changed a lot from the original Galaxy SIII apart from of course the addition of 4G support. However, the Galaxy S3 LTE is still one of the best handsets of 2012.

Acer Iconia Tab A210 Review

Acer Iconia Tab A210 review

Under the hood lurks an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, accompanied by 1GB of RAM, while built-in storage adds up to 16GB. It is also possible to hook up to another hard drive using the full-size USB port, which features along with a standard microSD slot.

Style and handling 

A solid body makes this tablet feel sturdy, and it resists scratches and scuffs as well.

Battery power

The battery will last overnight with moderate use.

Performance summary for 

Both HD media and multitasking ran smoothly, although you won’t get the best from media on the screen, which only supports 256 colours and is mid-resolution.

Pros :
Quad-core processor is futureproofed; good price; full-size USB port; user-friendly Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

Cons :
Dull screen; pedestrian design; better-specced, cheaper tablets available.

Verdict:

The Acer Iconia Tab A210 is a well-priced, quad-core tablet device but there are already cheaper tablets with better specs on the market.