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The Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 lands in our office, we give it the hands-on treatment

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The little brother in Samsung’s latest big-screen duo, the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8, has made it to our office, and we’re giving you a quick look at it before getting our review under way.

As you may have guessed, the Galaxy Mega 5.8 contains a 5.8-inch screen, which ventures well into phablet territory, although not as much as the even larger display located on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3. Either way, join us as we take a look at this massive smartphone from Samsung. Read more »

US LG Optimus G Pro hands-on

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The LG Optimus G Pro made its way officially to the United States, so we managed to spend some quality time with the Yankee version of the Korean flagship. The smartphone is exclusively offered by AT&T for $199.99 with a two-year commitment.

As far as specs go, the US LG Optimus G Pro is practically identical with the Korean version which we extensively reviewed, save for the omission of FM radio. Highlights include a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC, 5.5” 1080p IPS display, 13MP camera, as well as every trick from the playbook of today’s crop of Android flagships. Read on to find out what’s different about the US model. Read more »

‘Karateka Classic’ for iOS and Android game review

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Last year we reviewed the new Karateka game on iOS. It was a remake of the 1984 game that was originally released for the Apple II. The original game has a cult following and although the 2012 remake was a decent effort it didn’t quite have the charm of the original.

Now Jordan Mechner, the developer who created the original game and worked on the remake, has released a port of the 1984 game for iOS and Android. Called Karateka Classic, the game is a blast from the past that lets you relive the classic gameplay on your modern smartphone or tablet. Let us take a closer look at it. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Fame battery test complete, numbers are inside

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Having just wrapped up our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Fame, we’re ready to share with you the results of our extensive battery performance test.

The Fame is the latest budget-range offering from Samsung, featuring a specs sheet that is far from impressive, but an Android Jelly Bean build that should hopefully result in increased performance from the 1300 mAh battery compared to last years’ Gingerbread devices. Let’s take a look. Read more »

Nokia Lumia 925 comes into our office, flaunts its new design, display and software

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The Nokia Lumia 925 recently took over the reins from the 920 as the new WP8 flagship. The Lumia 928 is similar but it’s a Verizon exclusive. Anyway, the 925 brings a much needed redesign of the body, a new AMOLED screen and several software improvements.

Just to be clear, the Lumia 920 didn’t need a redesign in terms of looks – it’s the thickness and especially weight that needed work. It weighed 185g, 2g heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Note II, which has a screen that’s a full inch bigger. Dropping to 8.5mm thickness from 10.7mm is a welcome change as well. Read more »

BLU Life One hands-on impressions

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With a 5” IPS LCD display, the BLU Life One sits above the entry-level Life Play, and below the phablet-proportioned Life View in the freshly launched smartphone series from the Miami based manufacturer. Given the increasing popularity which the 5” Android smartphones enjoy lately, the dual-SIM BLU Life One is likely to generate the most interest from potential users.

Save for the smaller display, the BLU Life One packs the same spec sheet as its bigger brother which we previewed a couple of days back. Read more »

BLU Life View hands-on impressions

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The BLU Life View is certainly not what passes as a budget-friendly Android smartphone these days. With a 5.7” HD IPS display, quad-core CPU, dual-SIM functionality, and a metal clad body, the handset looks like anything but a device with a sub-$300 price tag.

Roughly a year ago, the BLU Studio 5.3 turned our idea about a budget smartphone upside down. This time around, the Miami based manufacturer launched a trio of Life series smartphones, and the 5.7” View is leading the way as the flagship of the bunch. Read more »

RHA SA950i on-ear headphones review

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At a quick glance, the RHA SA950i on ear headphones look like they want to accomplish everything a headset can possibly do. Priced at $59.99, the headphones qualify as an entry-level model, yet their maker boasts that they deliver professional grade audio quality and superb ergonomics. To top things off, the RHA SA950i come with a pretty sweet three-year warranty.

Founded in 2008, the British audio company Reid Heath Acoustics’ (RHA) team spent three years in product research and development before releasing a product to the market. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, the young company has already established a name for itself by offering affordable, high-quality products and superb customer service – enough to make me plenty curious to put the RHA SA950i headset through its paces. Read more »

‘Circulets’ for iOS and Android game review

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Circulets is the newest two-player game from India-based Hashstash Studios. The game is now available for both iOS and Android.

Circulets involves collecting circles or ‘circulets’ towards your side of the screen. The one with the most points in the end wins the game. The game sounds simple and fun in theory and also looks quite pretty, so we decided to take it for a spin. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy Fame poses for our camera before its review

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The latest entry-level smartphone from Samsung has arrived, and we take the opportunity to give you a quick glimpse of it prior to our full review.

The Samsung Galaxy Fame is a single-core 1 GHz with a rather poorly sounding 3.5-inch HVGA screen with only 256K colors, but does run Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean to sweeten the pot. Read more »

Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 battery life tests updated with final firmware, check out the new scores

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The Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4, the Snapdragon 600 one, got a software update and while we felt like a new battery test was in order. A lot has changed since we released our first test and we were curious to find out how it has affected the smartphone’s power autonomy.

After the update, the battery life of the phone did improve overall. Here are the new results. Read more »

Apple iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4S long-term durabilty test

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Apple has received its fair share of criticism for its latest iPhone 5 flagship, ranging from lack of innovation to poor software support, and even inferior hardware quality when compared to the iPhone 4S.

But how do things stack up really? Join us as we take a look at how the iPhone 5 looks after several months of everyday use, as well as how it stacks up to its glass-clad predecessor. Read more »

Sony Xperia SP battery life test completes, impressive numbers are inside

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The Sony Xperia SP recently underwent our rigorous review process, and now we’ve got some battery result numbers to show you as well.

In many ways the “younger brother” of the new Xperia Z and ZL flagship duo, the Sony Xperia SP features the same Adreno 320 GPU as its older siblings, but without a 1080p screen to suck up extra battery life. Let’s see how it does. Read more »

Klipsch Image S4A (II) in-ear headphones review

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The Klipsch Image S4A (II) headset, as its name kindly suggests is the second generation of the manufacturer’s in-ear headphones, designed specifically for use with Android devices. Part of the company’s award-winning Image Series, the headphones aim to deliver good balance between sound quality, ergonomics, and price.

Klipsch products have been among the benchmarks in their field for a good reason – the company is one of the first in the United States to manufacture premium audio speakers. With a product range covering everything from in-ear headphones to professional cinema speakers, and heritage going back to the 1940s, there was plenty to look forward to when I opened the Klipsch Image S4A (II) box. Read more »

‘Badland’ for iOS game review

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Badland is a 2D action adventure platformer where you control one of the game’s unnamed creatures through a maze of deadly traps.

The game has already won several accolades, along with Apple’s Editor’s Choice award on the App Store. We decided to find out for ourselves how good the game really is. Read more »