Samsung Galaxy S5 should grab your attention as it looks good, it performs very well, and it has everything you need to become a fixture in nearly every aspect of your life. But, like a candidate running for reelection, the GS5 gets where it is today based on experience and wisdom, not on flashy features or massive innovation.

With the exception of a few nonessential hardware and software additions -- like the fingerprint scanner and novel heart-rate monitor -- and a few design tweaks, you're pretty much looking at the same phone Samsung released in 2013. The S5 is more of a Galaxy S4 Plus than it is a slam-the-brakes, next-generation device; it makes everything just a little smoother and faster.

The 5.1-inch, quad-core Android 4.4 KitKat machine with a terrific 16-megapixel camera is well worth snapping up, both on-contract for about $200, or off-contract for about $650 (and about £570 in the UK and €700). However, it isn't the only phone worth your time. The gorgeous, all-metal HTC One M8 has a more sophisticated design, better speakers, and greater internal storage for about the same price (32GB versus 16GB).

Design

When it designed the Galaxy S5, Samsung didn't stray too far for inspiration. Indeed, from the front, you can barely tell the Galaxy S4 and S5 apart. The S5's rounded rectangle is stamped from the same steep-sided, silvery-trimmed mold as the S4's, but with an ever-so-slightly more capsule-shaped central home button.

The back panel motif is different, I'll give Samsung that. Tiny dimples cover a rear cover that's blessedly matte instead of coated in reflective gloop. In addition to cutting down glare, the more subdued surface masks accumulated fingerprints. The Galaxy S5 comes in black and creamy white shades, but Samsung has also shown it off in enticing copper and bright blue. Not every market or carrier will sell each color, but at least Samsung has decided to expand its palette to some livelier hues.

At the end of the day, the Galaxy flagship feels like it always has: like plastic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if Samsung is at all striving for loftier ambitions, it hasn't reached the heights of HTC's luxe brushed aluminum or even Sony's sleek style.

The GS5 is only a fraction larger than the Galaxy S4: it measures 5.59 inches tall by 2.85 inches wide by 0.32-inch deep, or 142mm by 72.5mm by 8.1mm; and it weighs 5.1 ounces, or 145 grams. Even though the extra hardware makes it a little taller and heavier than the Galaxy S4, I had no problem carting it around. Even outside my ridiculously heavy purse, which is usually home to at least two phones and a jumble of weighty items, the S5 stayed put in the back pocket of my skinny jeans, and stayed wedged in my hand during several-mile jogs. (Full disclosure: I may have also had a death grip on it.)

This new phone, too, has a 5.1-inch 1080p HD AMOLED display that's 0.1-inch bigger than the Galaxy S4's. That means that the screen's pixel density is just a breath looser, though you'll never notice the difference. Images are still extremely crisp and colorful, with high contrast and hard edges. HD photos and videos look especially lush.

TouchWiz interface

The GS5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with Samsung's latest proprietary TouchWiz interface extending the OS with extra abilities. Samsung has peppered this updated version of TouchWiz with tweaks that freshen up its look and feel. What's different is mostly subtle, like a Google services folder loaded onto the home screen, and an onscreen menu button in nearly every window, like the app tray, for instance.

If you're switching to the S5 from another Samsung phone, the new menu buttons may trip you up when it comes to customizing the home screens, since those controls you're used to for creating folders and selecting wallpapers are no longer there.

For example, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to delete an errant folder from my app tray. While we're on the topic, I wish Samsung had taken this opportunity to make folder creation in line with Google's drag-and-drop style. Here, you still have to premeditate needing a folder and clear a space for it on the home screen. I do like, however, that there's a menu button within the folder to customize its color.

From the main home screen, an always-listening Google search box awaits your hands-free voice dictation. The feature is very helpful, but only seems to work from this screen -- so this isn't the same all-encompassing experience you'll find in the Motorola Moto X, for instance.

Pull down the notifications tray and you'll notice two new quick-access buttons for S Finder, which operates like universal search, and Quick Connect, which helps you share content with other devices. Swipe right from the Home screen and you'll see the customizable My Magazine newsfeed that Samsung introduced with the Galaxy Note 3.

The S5's Settings menu is one area that's clearly received a visual overhaul with this new TouchWiz. You get a black backdrop, circular icons, and a choice of layouts. You can continue to break out settings into tabs, view them as a list, or plop them into a scrolling menu organized by collapsible subcategories. I prefer the tidy tabs, myself.

Features and apps consolidate

Sometimes it's hard to tell where TouchWiz ends and Samsung's apps and features begin. Since the Galaxy S5 already folds in the Galaxy S4's gestures and capabilities and then builds on top of them, I'll just share some newer items.

Let's start with Kids Mode, an optional, 58MB downloadable sandbox. In it, tykes play with approved apps -- even a camera, while keeping the rest of the phone's contents out of bounds. The cutesy interface won't appeal to older kids, who would probably prefer their own profiles if Mom and Dad want to keep their mischievous offspring from snooping, pranks, and unauthorized downloads.

If you're a fan of persistent shortcuts, you're going to love Toolbox, which you can toggle on in the notifications pull-down or through Settings. It's a floating circle that expands to reveal five shortcuts for apps like the camera and calculator. Everything's customizable, and you can move the circle if it gets in your way. I really like the notion, but it got in my way so often I wound up closing it for good. I'd love to be able to call it up with a triple-screen tap, perhaps.

Ultra power-saving mode is for those of you who forget your charger when you leave for a weekend trip. A quick press of a button turns off most connections and transforms your phone from technicolor to grayscale. Limiting color, apps, and activities boosts your phone's run time immensely; we're talking days, depending on how much charge you have left. Samsung says that with 10 percent battery left, you'll be able to make it another 24 hours before charging, a claim we'll test ourselves in the upcoming days.

Another new software tidbit, download booster, joins together your Wi-Fi and carrier data connections to give you faster download speeds. Since it works behind the scenes, this is another one of those features that most people won't actively notice, so long as it's doing its job.

One that you will see, and which Samsung hopes you incorporate into your daily routine, in the updated S Health app and widgets, to try to draw fitness-interest folks of all levels. A pedometer and exercise scorecard meets a built-in nutrition monitor and all-new heart-rate tracker (more on this below). The app looks more polished than before, and the home screen widget (which you can remove, of course) keeps an ongoing tally of your steps.

The new S Health is nice for casual observers, but it needs more rigorous on-screen stats if it wants to compete with sophisticated apps like Endomondo, which also tracks you on a map in real-time and makes elevation rates and pacing numbers easier to find. In S Health, you have to dig through a log for the finer details.

In a nod to criticism, Samsung has cut back on the number of its Samsung-branded preloads. You can still download the ones you want through the Samsung Apps shortcut in your apps tray, and through Galaxy Essentials, an item in your menu button. That's where you'll find apps like S Note, S Translator, a video editor, Samsung Smart Switch, and managers for Samsung's family of Gear devices -- the Gear Fit fitness band, and the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches. The Galaxy S5 will also pair with Samsung's original Galaxy Gear watch.

Inside the fingerprint scanner

There are two high-profile features that Samsung's Galaxy S5 waves over the HTC One M8: fingerprint-swiping security and the heart-rate monitor. Both work as well as advertised, as long as you execute them correctly, but at the end of the day, neither one strikes me as important enough to tip the scale in the S5's favor.

Let's start with the fingerprint scanner. It stores profiles for only three fingers, versus five in the iPhone 5S's TouchID system. It's easy enough to set up through the Settings menu.

On top of swiping to unlock, fingerprint scanning's other (optional) function will be to authorize transactions with PayPal, a Samsung partner. Instead of typing your passcode, you swipe your fingertip. This is Samsung's answer to the iPhone's in-app purchasing, and it works with any mobile site or app that accepts PayPal.

Heart-rate monitor a smartphone first

The Galaxy S5's other trick, the heart-rate monitor, is a neat one in theory because it's cleverly integrated into the camera flash module, and because it ties so well into the health app. However, it's one of those things I wouldn't personally use every day, even though I do exercise regularly. I'm not entirely who this feature is directed toward, though, since serious fitness geeks will likely want to invest in a more fully-functioning fitness band if they don't have one already. Still, it was fun to establish a baseline by placing my finger over the sensor.

Improved camera and video

Already on the forefront of smartphone camera tech, Samsung has bumped up the S5's camera megapixel count from 13 to 16. Images taken on automatic mode are characteristically colorful and clear, especially those taken in ample natural light. Samsung's new, co-processing power and Isocell sensor together make the camera quicker, low light images clearer, and some of the neat tricks you'll read about possible.

The camera's continuous autofocus is as eyeblink-quick as Samsung claims (0.3-second), which gives you a greater chance of nailing that action shot. Of course, most of the rushed-around world isn't going to wait for you to pull out your camera, so expect that you'll still shoot a healthy percentage of blurry dogs, babies, and unsuspecting passersby. Still, I do think fast focus raises your odds of success.

Low light has been a weak point for Samsung in the past, and the Galaxy S5 seems to have indeed improved photos taken without a flash in dim environments. They weren't quite as blurry, grainy, or dark as you'd get on the Galaxy S4.

Video captured in the phone's default 1080p HD resolution is equally beautiful and smooth. Colors pop. Video of my favorite testing subject, a BMX-style trick rider practicing outside of San Francisco's Ferry Building, faithfully reproduced his movements and the scene -- and that's the crux of what you need from smartphone video. However, if you duck into the settings, you can also turn on UHD video, or ultra-HD, which is also known as 4K video.

With the basics down, the Galaxy S5 can layer on the special effects and modes. The S5 packs in the same front-and-rear camera dual-shot feature as last year's model, and most of the same filters and modes. A new one, real-time HDR, is one of those simple additions that go a long way. With it, you can toggle this on-screen control to preview the scene with HDR before you commit to the snap.

Performance: Speed, LTE, battery life

If performance clinches the deal for you, the Galaxy S5 is one mean speed demon. Its 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor is at the top of its game, which reflects in both real-world and diagnostic tests.

 For instance, the graphics-heavy Riptide GP2 racing game was smooth, with all the surface effects and shadow lighting that sticklers for detail may notice. Navigation felt smooth and fast. Apps opened without much delay, and content loaded quickly. After using the Galaxy S5 for a week, the S4 definitely felt a tick slower.

Diagnostically, the Quadrant benchmark returned a result of 23,707, which is very, very fast. This means that apps will load quickly and smoothly and that games and videos will play back seamlessly, showing rich detail.

So, do you buy it?

The Galaxy S5 absolutely is a premium, fast phone that I would buy and use every day. Its improvements over the Galaxy S4 are small, but they add up to a smoother experience. The phone's high-quality camera won't let you down, there are plenty of features to keep you occupied, and the display is bright and beautiful. And even though it is plastic, the water-resistant seals are an extra perk if you often head to the pool, hot tub, or beach.

If those things matter to you, or if you've always been a Galaxy phone fan, then by all means grab the Galaxy S5. And of course, if you've ordered a Gear Fit, Gear 2, or Gear 2 Neo, or you already own the original Galaxy Gear smartwatch, it's a no-brainer; it's one of the select Samsung phones that will work with these wearables.

I would, however, skip the Galaxy S5 if you like metal covering your smartphone, if you don't need every feature under the sun, or if you prefer a cleaner version of Android. Also move along if you're on a budget -- in some regions, the Galaxy S5 costs significantly more than other premium handsets.

With Samsung officially unveiling the Galaxy S5 at Mobile World Congress, we finally have confirmation of the Korean company’s next flagship smartphone.

IT’S Superfast...

Samsung isn’t shy when it comes to loading its top-of-the-range phones with headline-grabbing specs, and the Galaxy S5 is no different. Centre stage is its quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, which runs at a blistering 2.5GHz. This chip, paired with 2GB of RAM, means the phone shouldn’t have any bother smoothly running any app you throw at it. One thing to note: it isn’t 64-bit – that’s probably going to be a feature of next year’s Samsung flagship.

The phone comes with Android 4.4 KitKat and a new version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. There’s no word yet on whether or not a stock Android Google Play or Nexus edition will be be available.

Meanwhile, a 2800mAh battery should give the S5 enough juice to easily last a day (Samsung claims 21 hours of talk time), and as with previous Galaxy S phones it’s swappable.

You also get a choice between 16GB and 32GB of expandable storage (you can add up to 64GB extra via microSD), and there’s a microUSB 3.0 port for quick transfer speeds.

On the connectivity front, there’s both 4G LTE (supporting the speedy Category 4) and fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2X2 MiMo, plus a feature called Download Booster which uses both Wi-Fi and 4G simultaneously to download files more speedily.

WATERPROOF

The rumours claiming the S5 would boast a metal body have turned out to be hot air – Samsung has stuck with a mostly-polycarbonate build. That said, from our hands-on time we can say it’s the best build quality a Galaxy S phone has offered thus far. The dimpled, matte soft-touch back is much nicer to look at and hold than the faux-leather hard plastic of recent Galaxy Note phones and tablets, and the overall feeling is one of solidity and quality.

One major improvement over the S4 is IP67 waterproofing, bringing the S5 into line with Sony’s Xperia phones. It’s sealed to prevent any water or dust getting inside, so you can dunk the handset into water for as long as 30 minutes and it won’t protest one bit.

Oh, and we have the vital statistics too: it weighs 145g and measures up at 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm.

It’ll be available in several colours, including Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold.

SCREEN: BIGGER, BUT NO QHD

In retrospect, speculation about the S5 toting a quad HD 2560 x 1440 screen always seemed a touch far-fetched, so we’re not particularly surprised to see that Samsung has retained a full HD 1080p resolution instead. The AMOLED screen, however, is slightly larger than the S4’s at 5.1in.

FINGERTIPS OF FUN

Samsung has fitted the S5 with a fingerprint scanner, which serves three main purposes. First, it can swiftly unlock the phone, which works much like the Touch ID sensor on Apple's iPhone 5s (albeit a little less snappy – but it’s much more accurate than the HTC One Max’s scanner).

The second function is instant online mobile payments via PayPal integration, and the third is to protect important documents with a Private Mode that's unlocked by your fingerprint.

Round the back, there's a heartrate sensor – the first ever seen on a smartphone, designed to play nice with Samsung's revised S Health app.

SUPERCHARGED AUTOFOCUS

The Galaxy S5's 16MP camera comes with an LED flash, a new advanced HDR mode and post-shot focusing: it takes two images every time you press the shutter, with the focus trained in different spots: one on the subject and one on the background. This means that, after the shot’s been taken, you can choose a defocussed or sharply focussed background (mostly for aesthetic reasons). But probably the camera’s best new feature is its super-fast autofocus, which Samsung claims is the fastest on any smartphone at up to 0.3 seconds.

Round the front, there's a 2.1MP front camera for video chatting and selfies.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Samsung has kept quiet on the price thus far, but we should find out some time ahead of the Galaxy S5’s 11th April launch. We'll keep you updated.

Vodafone, Three, EE, Phones4u and Carphone Warehouse have all announced that they will be stocking the Galaxy S5, though prices and tariffs have yet to be revealed. We'll be updating this page with more details and links as they come in.

The curved display on Samsung's Galaxy Round offers distinct advantages in reducing reflections and the high glossiness of flat displays, according to a report out Tuesday.

"There is widespread misunderstanding regarding curved displays. They aren't simply a marketing gimmick as has been widely reported," Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, a firm that does display testing and evaluation, said in a report published Tuesday.

"In fact, curved screens are a major and very important new display technology innovation," he said in his introduction to the report, which is based on his own in-house testing of a Galaxy Round.

Soneira's findings about Samsung's curved 5.7-inch OLED display include: 

• Concave screen: The curvature on the Galaxy Round is fairly small -- the left and right edges of the screen are just 2.66 mm (0.10 inch) higher than the center. "So the effect is subtle, but it's very important." 
• Improved screen privacy: Screen privacy is improved because the curvature makes it harder for other people to see the screen. 
• Lower reflectance: A curved screen cuts down on reflections. The curvature directs reflected ambient light "coming from behind away from the viewer's line of sight. This is very important because you want to minimize the amount of ambient light that is seen reflected off the screen." The screen also magnifies the size of objects reflecting off the screen which "substantially cuts down on the interference of light reflections." 
• Glossiness reduction: Flexible OLED displays are manufactured using a flexible plastic substrate, "so they don't have the glossy cover glass used on virtually all existing mobile displays." And without the cover glass, the OLED display appears to be right on the surface of the screen, which is "visually striking." 

The Galaxy Round -- which has the same-sized 5.7-inch display that is on the Galaxy Note 3 -- also features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 32GB of internal storage, 3GB RAM, and an up-to-64GB microSD card slot.

Samsung has finally launched the much-awaited flip phone in the Indian market, the Galaxy Golden, pricing it at Rs. 51,900. The device doesn't seem to have it store shelves yet however, and Samsung has not announced precise availability.

Flipkart is taking pre-orders for the smartphone however, at a price of Rs. 49,900. The South Korean giant first introduced the flip phone for the Korean market in August this year and said then it would be released in other markets soon after.

The Samsung Galaxy Golden sports two 3.7-inch Super AMOLED displays, on the inside and the outside of the top-half. The phone is powered by a dual-core 1.7GHz processor (unspecified chipset) along with 1.5GB of RAM, and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The phone also includes FM radio and will come in Champagne Gold colour. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS / A-GPS and Bluetooth.

For now, there is no official word on 3G connectivity, though third-party sites do list it, and at the price, we can assume. The Galaxy Golden comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera and also includes a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera. It includes 16GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable up to 64GB via microSD card. It packs 1820mAh battery, with no word on talktime and standby time.

The Samsung Galaxy Golden also comes with features such as Easy Mode, which features large fonts and icons that enables the users to access and search apps, and Hidden Receiver, which allows users to take calls without opening the flip phone.

Commenting on the launch, Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobiles and IT said, "At Samsung, we are committed to making lives easier and smarter for our customers and GALAXY Golden does exactly that. With its innovative dual display and premium golden finish, GALAXY Golden brings together the best of touch and type experience on a smartphone. This specially crafted device is aimed at consumers seeking seamless integration of stunning classic design and functionality to make their lives more efficient."

Samsung is taking a page from Apple with the introduction of a gold version of its Galaxy S4 smartphone.

"Introducing the new #GalaxyS4 Gold Edition - for a style that's uniquely yours!" Samsung said on its Saudi Arabia Twitter feed. "Elegance is a touch of gold," reads the tagline above a photo of a pink S4 edged in gold.

Introducing the new #GalaxyS4 Gold Edition - for a style that's uniquely yours! pic.twitter.com/XkFu4zceHT
— SamsungMobileArabia (@SamsungMobileME) September 25, 2013

On the Samsung Gulf Facebook page, meanwhile, the company tipped two gold options: Gold Brown or Gold Pink.

In accompanying photos, the smartphones had gold around their edges and the home button. Only the front of the devices were shown, however, so it's unclear if the rear of the smartphones are gold or the brown and pick colors found on the front.

No mention of the device was made on the company's other Twitter and Facebook accounts, suggesting that it might be limited to the Middle East at the moment. The company's United Arab Emirates website, however, currently only lists a white or black option.

The news comes several days after Apple introduced a gold version of its iPhone 5s smartphone, which flew off the shelves and helped Cupertino move 9 million iPhones over the weekend.

Samsung has introduced several variations on its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone, from the rugged Galaxy S4 Active and the smaller Galaxy S4 Mini to the camera-focused Galaxy S4 Zoom. There have also been other color options, like purple.

Few hours ago, Samsung confirmed that it plans to unveil a curved smartphone sometime next month; no word on color options.

BERLIN -- Samsung reckons people buy the Galaxy Note for the big screen, but stick around for the multitasking and S Pen features. So the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has beefed up both, bursting with new ways to bring your handwritten notes to life, and new ways to use two -- or more -- apps at the same time.

The new Note 3 was unveiled at technology trade show IFA in Berlin, alongside the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch and a 10.1-inch Galaxy Note 10.1.

The Note 3 has been confirmed for US carriers AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular, and T-Mobile, and will hit shops on 25 September in more than 140 countries.

Bigger but lighter 
The Note 3 sports a 5.7-inch, full high-definition screen, a slight boost from the Note 2's 5.5-inch display. But despite the bigger screen, the Note 3 is thinner and lighter, measuring 8.3mm and weighing just 168g. It's easy to hold in one hand -- in terms of weight, anyway; you can't work the screen with one hand unless you're the hitchhiker with the massive thumbs from that Uma Thurman film.

The screen is as bright, colourful, and responsive as we've come to expect. You can do everything with your fingertip, as on most tablets, but the S Pen stylus gives you even finer control.

Under that slablike screen is a beefy 2.3GHz processor with a whopping 3GB of RAM. All that power harnessed to a giant screen could empty the tank with alarming alacrity, but a 3,200mAh battery is there to ensure there's plenty of grunt left when you need it.

And the Note has plenty of speed, too: it has 4G LTE for connecting to the Internet at high speeds, with support for the fastest category 4 4G.

Around back is a 13-megapixel camera with LED flash. It's set in a textured, leather-effect rear edged in fake stitching. Perhaps stung by the criticism aimed at the cheap-looking glossy plastic of the Galaxy S4 and its ilk, Samsung is obviously going for the premium look of an expensive wallet, and, coupled with the classy metal rim, it actually works.

Still, I can't help but smile at the timing: Samsung's fierce rival Apple has just ditched stitching from its iOS software because it looked dated.

S Pen 
The distinguishing feature of the Note family is the S Pen, a dinky stylus stowed away in the bottom of the phablet. The Note 3 expands upon the S Pen's capabilities, making it more than an unnecessary accessory strictly for any old-timers who haven't yet figured out touch screens.

As soon as you unsheathe the S Pen from its cubbyhole, the Air Command wheel appears on screen, floating on top of the app or home screen. You can also call it up beholding the S Pen hovering over the screen and clicking the button on the side of the stylus. The onscreen wheel includes icons that give you shortcuts to assorted clever features that use the stylus.

The most basic use for the S Pen is to scrawl a note or memo; but those notes and memos can then spring to life. Say you meet a pretty young thing at your pilates class and end up jotting down digits. After waiting the requisite three days -- don't want to look too keen -- you can call your new friend by drawing a box around the scribbled number and hitting the call icon.

It's not as smooth as I'd like, though. Hitting the call icon launches the dialer with the number in it, whereupon you have to hit call again. Clever as this is, there's still a screen press or two too many, which might put you off your seductive chat once you do get through to your potential new love interest.

You can also bring to life addresses, links, or e-mail addresses that you've written down, by once again drawing a box around them and hitting the relevant icon to open the maps, e-mail, or browser apps.

Also on the Air Command wheel is an option to save snippets to a Scrapbook app. Draw a box around something you want to save, whether it's part of a Web page, an image, some text, or a YouTube video, and it's saved to the app. You can add your own tags or handwritten notes to each snippet, and later edit the saved text or open the Web page again.

The Scrapbook app syncs across Samsung devices, but unlike Evernote you can't access it online. Seeing as there's already an Evernote Android app, you might as well install that.

With the S Finder you can search your Note 3, looking not only for files, music, and photos by name but also by date or tags. And you can search handwritten notes, even for hand-drawn symbols like a star.

Type in a location, such as London, and S Finder will not only sniff out anything with the word London in it, but will ferret through your geotagged photos to find any snaps taken in London. You can refine the search by the past seven days, the past month or year, or other filters such as keywords.

More multitasking 
A bigger screen means more room for movies and games. That's all very well, but previous Notes came up with a next-level use for a big screen: simultaneous multitasking. When you've got all that leg room, why stop at one app when you can use two at the same time?

With Multi Window, you can divide the screen in half between two apps. On the Note 3, more apps support Multi Window. You can drag and drop stuff between two apps: no more cumbersome copying text, switching apps, pasting it, switching back, copying the next bit, and so on and so on.

Instead, just use the S Pen to select what you want -- some text, a link, a phone number, or whatever -- and slide it neatly to the other app.

You can grab the dividing line between the two apps and slide it about to choose how much space each app takes up. And you can even split one app in half to use the same app in two windows.

For example, why not have two separate browser windows open at the same time to compare information? Or two separate chat windows, to chat with two different people behind each others' backs? Just whatever you do, don't mix up which one's which.

If there's a pair of apps you often need to bring together, you can save them for quick access in future. And there's no limit to how many of these combinations the Note 3 remembers.

More than one app multitasking 
But why stop at two apps? Sometimes you want to use an app very quickly without disturbing your main app. So selected apps can be called up to quickly float over your main app then be just as quickly pushed to one side, waiting to be called on again. The clever part is, you can have as many of these quick apps open or minimised at one time as you'd like.

These quick access apps include the calculator, phone dialer, and the YouTube app. Grab your S Pen, call up the Air Command wheel, and select the option to call up one of the quick apps. Then draw a box or just a line where you want the app to appear -- any size, and anywhere on the screen.

Say you're browsing the Web and you see some numbers you need to crunch. Draw a box to open the calculator or phone app and do a quick sum or make a quick call from the numbers in your main app. If you're done with the quick app but think you may need it again, just minimise it.

It then becomes a small round icon floating above the screen, ready to be moved unceremoniously around, opened again for more speedy calculations, or closed -- exactly like the Facebook's Chat Heads, now I come to think of it, only with apps instead of old friends who post too many baby photos.

Take Note
As phones get bigger and tablets get more ubiquitous, it's good to see a device do something different that actually justifies the increased size. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3's multitasking features are particularly well-thought-out -- but whether you think it looks good in leather is up to you.

                                                                                                                                     Source: Cnet

Have you been wondering what Samsung's upcoming smartwatch was going to look like? Take a seat, because VentureBeat sneaked a first look at the upcoming wearable over the weekend.

According to the outlet, the prototype device features a three inch display, built-in speakers and a 4-Megapixel camera housed in the watch's wrist strap. VentureBeat describes the Samsung Galaxy Gear as lightweight but somewhat dwarfing, with a "clunky" large wristband and quite a bit of bulk. Although VentureBeat wasn't allowed to take pictures of the alleged prototype, it did manage to snag a few screengrabs from an internal promotional video -- showing off the device's camera, screen and touch menu system. The watch also is said to support Samsung S Voice commands as well as an assortment of pre-loaded health apps that include heart-rate and calorie monitors, as well a pedometer. Users can also take pictures of food and categorize it for later review.

Although the prototype seems to suggest that Samsung is marketing the device as a health accessory, those aforementioned features also fill the bill for a standard smartphone companion. VentureBeat also noted social media features, a functional call log and independent internet access via WiFi, meaning you should be use the watch without a smartphone if needed. The watch is also reportedly rated to last for more than ten hours on a single charge -- a little shy in longevity if it's your primary timepiece, but perhaps enough for a fitness-focused accessory. We'll find out more when Samsung officially reveals the wearable on Wednesday, but if you're itching for more info, check out the attached source for more images and VentureBeat's own artistic rendition of the prototype.

Do you think the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch is matching

your expectations? Let us know in the comments.....

Reveal date September 4
If official invitations that clearly point to the Note as the big reveal weren't enough, a Samsung executive confirmed the Galaxy Note 3's September 4 debut (alongside the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.)

Bigger than ever

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be larger than its 5.3 and 5.5-inch predecessors. Samsung co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun claimed the Galaxy Note 3 will feature a 5.9-inch display. I put my money on that measurement, though the most recent rumors suggest it will have a 5.68-inch1,920x1,080-pixel display. Even earlier, conflicting rumors indicated that Samsung had been testing other screen sizes.

Some models will reportedly feature an LCD panel, whereas others will see Samsung's own Super AMOLED screen tech.

Body shape
So far, leaked images suggest the Galaxy Note 3 will maintain the same design as the first two generations and will employ the same button layout. It would also make sense for Samsung to model the Note 3 off of its Galaxy S4 flagship design. While the screen size is larger, the overall footprint of the device is reported to stay the same.

High-end hardware
The Galaxy Note 3 will most likely come with different CPUs and GPUs depending on the region, just as older models did. Some customers could be buying a Note 3 with a 1.8GHz Octa-core Exynos 5420 processor, while other phones might ship with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset. Additional specs should include a 13-megapixel camera and a choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of internal storage, which will also vary by market.

Plastic body
Nothing suggests that Samsung will stray from the same plastic materials found in the last few generations of Galaxy S and Galaxy Note models.

Latest Android version
The Samsung phablet is expected to run the latest version of Android, 4.3 Jelly Bean, with many of Samsung's own custom software touches.

Three colors
The Galaxy Note 3 will be initially offered in black and white with a pink version arriving a few weeks later.

In stores by September
The black and white colors should be made available in the days following the announcement; the pink version could arrive by late October. According to ePrice (translate), the global model will be offered on September 27 with preorders starting on September 16.

4K video recording
Recent rumors suggest that the Galaxy Note 3 could record Ultra HD (3,840x2,160-pixel) video, though the phone's most common storage capacities (16GB and 32GB) and low 4K television adoption -- the reason you'd care about 4K video capture in the first place -- give us pause.

No Flexible display
Although Samsung has demonstrated this technology on multiple occasions,  Galaxy Note 3 s not getting a flexible display.

Advanced camera features
Reportedly, Samsung had hoped to bring OIS (optical image stabilization) and shutter functions to the Note 3; however, new whispers say this won't show up until the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Memory
The Galaxy Note 3 could be the first smartphone to feature a whopping 3GB RAM (translate), a staggering amount to be sure, and a figure that could vastly improve performance.

US carrier support
Since Samsung likes to offer its big device releases across numerous carriers, we should anticipate the same for the new Note model. With this in mind, we might expect Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular to make their own announcements officially backing the Galaxy Note 3.

Price
Perhaps the most important question surrounding the device, the cost of the Galaxy Note 3 still remains unclear. Historically, the Note series costs more than the flagship smartphones. In the US, expect it to come in around $250 with a two-year service agreement.                                                                                                                                                   Source: Cnet