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.

The Mega has a 6.3-inch screen, making it among the largest smartphones in the world -- among because the Sony Xperia Z Ultra has a 6.4-inch screen, winning the bigger-is-better award by a hair. 

Here’s the thing: How often are you really on the phone? Americans are increasingly skipping calls and opting for emails and text messages these days. It’s especially true among people under 21. So forget that it’s kind of silly as a phone and consider the other factors. That's where it gets interesting.

HARDWARE

If this review taught us nothing else, we at least discovered that the Mega makes for an amazing icebreaker in elevators, parties and anywhere else. The odds of hearing "Wow, that thing's a phone?" were, expectedly, incredibly high. Of course, novelty isn't typically a factor we consider when reviewing a phone, nor should it be; perhaps a few folks may think of this as an opportunity to cure their shyness, but we believe it's far more important to judge a smartphone by its actual merits rather than perceived social implications.

So how huge is the Mega, exactly? For the sake of comparison, let's toss out a few numbers. This new king of the hill measures in at 167.6 x 88 x 8 mm (6.60 x 3.46 x 0.31 inches) and weighs an outlandish 7.02 ounces (199g); it's much wider and taller than the Galaxy Note 2, which in contrast is 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4mm and 6.35 ounces. It definitely doesn't compare to the 5-inch Galaxy S4, which comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and weighs 4.59 ounces. Indeed, the Mega is no lightweight, nor is it for the tight-pocketed or weak-armed. I found that when holding the Mega to my ear, my phone conversations became increasingly uncomfortable as time progressed, and despite the fact that it fits snugly in your average jeans pocket, it's a buzzkill once you sit down. Conversely, the phone fares decently in loose-fitting pants pockets, but it's much more likely to fall out when you're sitting.

Even if you're not dissuaded by those dimensions, you'll be far more comfortable using the Mega with two hands. Sure, we were able to palm the device in one hand for reading, browsing or other similar activities, but our thumbs couldn't reach the back button located on the bottom-right corner of the phone. In order to make the phone work this way, we noticed that we had to hold the phone closer to the bottom, an action that was at odds with its center of gravity and significantly increased our chances of dropping it. Needless to say, it wasn't an ideal solution, which means the only times we were truly comfortable toting it around were when two hands were involved.

The Mega uncannily mimics the original Galaxy S 4's overall design to the point that it essentially looks like someone in Samsung's factory zapped it with Rick Moranis' machine in Honey, I Blew up the Kid. That is, unless you're looking really close. First, let's discuss how the two phones are the same. The overall button, port and soft-key layout is near-identical: volume on the left, micro-USB on the bottom, power on the right and 3.5mm headphone jack, IR blaster and noise-canceling mic on the top. On the back, the camera and LED flash are arranged vertically near the top and there's a speaker grille on the bottom-left corner. It's also available in the same two colors (white and black) with straightened edges, a glossy plastic chassis and the same checkerboard pattern. Among the few variations are a much larger battery with a double-decker microSD / micro-SIM slot setup. It's also missing a sensor on the front, and the power button along the edge is a bit closer to the middle of the device than on the original GS4.

As much as we'd like to see the specs rival those found on the Galaxy S 4, Samsung didn't craft the Mega with the high-end buyer or power user in mind -- our guess is that the Korean manufacturer will pull out all the stops with the Note III for that particular demographic. That said, it still makes for a solid mid-range device: it wields a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 720p LCD panel, 8MP rear camera, 3,200mAh battery, NFC, IR, MHL 2.0, 1.5GB RAM and numerous other notable specs listed in the table below.

The unit we received from Negri is the I9200, which features quad-band HSPA+ (850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100) and quad-band GSM / EDGE; the I9205 adds penta-band Cat 3 LTE (800 / 850 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600), to be specific. Users of the latter model won't enjoy faster data speeds in the US, but at least it will make for an enjoyable experience in other countries around the globe.

Samsung Galaxy Mega
Dimensions	167.6 x 88 x 8 mm (6.60 x 3.46 x 0.31 in)
Weight	7.02 oz. (199g)
Screen size	6.3 inches
Screen resolution	1,280 x 720 (233 ppi)
Screen type	SC-LCD
Battery	3,200mAh (removable)
Internal storage	8/16GB (4.8GB user accessible)
External storage	MicroSDXC (up to 64GB)
Rear camera	8MP, AF, LED flash,
Front-facing cam	1.9MP
Video capture	1080p, 30 fps (front and back)
NFC	Yes
Radios	Depends on market -- see hardware section
Bluetooth	v4.0 with aptX
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
CPU	1.7GHz dual-core Krait
GPU	Adreno 305
RAM	1.5GB
Entertainment	MHL 2.0, DLNA, IR sensor
WiFi	Dual-band, 802.11a/b/g/n, WiFi Direct
Wireless Charging	No
Operating system	Android 4.2.2, TouchWiz UI

DISPLAY

When we mentioned that the Mega uses a 720p display, you likely already assumed that it would offer a horrible viewing experience -- pixel density aficionados will scoff at the phone's 233 ppi, and indeed, we had the exact same expectation going into this review. However, it's not actually as bad as we had originally imagined. If you look close enough at the screen, the pixels definitely come out to say hello, but larger screens are also designed for longer-distance viewing than your run-of-the-mill 5-incher. So, from an ideal distance, the Mega is surprisingly decent. We would never turn down a 1080p display when offered to us, of course, but our overall experience wasn't nearly as disappointing as anticipated.

On the contrary, the bright LCD panel presented us with an unusually vibrant lock screen that always took us off-guard whenever we turned it on. We never felt like we had to crank up the display's brightness -- even in direct sunlight, which was a huge plus -- and we typically found ourselves happy keeping it at the halfway mark. Lastly, viewing angles were superb. On a more sullen piece of news, the Mega doesn't feature a Wacom digitizer like the Note series, so your attempts at using an S Pen here will be fruitless.

SOFTWARE

As long as this isn't your first time at the Samsung rodeo, the Galaxy Mega user experience won't require much getting used to; it's TouchWiz through and through, which means the UI will look basically identical to whatever Samsung smartphone you purchased two years ago. The main difference between now and then, of course, is the inclusion of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and the additional features it brings.

Although the user interface is generally the same on the Mega as it is on the Galaxy S 4, the former's repertoire of Samsung-branded features is much more limited here. Whether you consider that good news or bad is completely up to you, but the Mega lacks air gestures and several smart features such as rotation, pause and scroll. Additionally, it takes advantage of Smart Stay, Driving Mode, Safety Assistance and Air View. You won't find any option to change the screen's touch sensitivity here, though we have a feeling that this will come as a frustration to only a select few users.

Sure, the Mega's firmware is incredibly similar to what you'll find on the GS4, but Samsung has at least tweaked it to take advantage of the larger screen size. While we still consider this device a smartphone, the line between the phone and tablet categories is blurred when you consider the way most apps appear on it. For instance, a significant number of third-party apps (not to mention a few native ones) behave much like they do on a tablet -- Engadget's mobile app, S Planner and plenty more are this way -- and even the home screen rotates into Landscape Mode when you tilt it. Frankly, the Mega seems to have an identity crisis. On the one hand, there's no shortage of standard smartphone apps (albeit, with much more content fitting on the screen). Still, other apps look normal in portrait mode but then transform into their tablet versions as soon as you throw it into landscape.

While the Mega may look a lot like the original GS4 (hardware and firmware), Samsung didn't bestow its full litany of smart features onto the device. You can take advantage of Smart Stay, but Smart Rotation, Pause and Scroll aren't offered; Air Gesture isn't there; and a few GS4 camera modes didn't make the cut either (we'll discuss this in more detail in the next section). This may be in part due to the less powerful dual-core CPU inside, or perhaps it's just Samsung's way of ensuring it won't cannibalize GS4 sales. Either way, many of the missing features aren't essential to maintaining a good user experience -- heck, we turned most of them completely off during our GS4 review because they were a huge drain on resources -- so this won't be a dealbreaker for most potential buyers.

Finally, the Mega also offers Safety Assistance, Drive Mode and one-handed operation settings, which condenses the keyboard, dialpad and calculator. It doesn't resolve our inability to reach all of the capacitive keys, and we must admit that the two-handed typing experience on the Mega's full-sized keyboard is superb, thanks to the size of each individual key and the space in between them.

CAMERA

It's no secret that we've historically been fans of Samsung's work in the imaging department, and we don't have any reason to be disappointed in the company's choice of an 8MP sensor in a mid-range phone like the Mega.

One obvious benefit about using a camera on such a large device is the huge viewfinder (especially when you choose 16:9 mode, which takes images at 6MP), but we noticed this can be a double-edged sword if you're not careful; with big phones (and tablets) comes a greater chance of taking a blurry shot. Fortunately we were able to avoid this pitfall in most circumstances -- all it involves is a little extra concentration. We'd love the option of a hardware shutter key in these situations, but such things have become increasingly rare in the Android universe.

Photos snapped in the daytime were much more detailed than we originally anticipated, and colors were mostly accurate, too, with some slight oversaturation in others. However, shots taken in direct sunlight resulted in washed-out hues. Most images turned out well, but we had a few issues with exposure and the camera's dynamic range capabilities. Specifically, it would favor either shadows or bright areas -- but not both at the same time. The Mega's HDR feature helps ease the pain a little, but you're missing crucial seconds switching back and forth between modes. And while our review unit kept close to the GS4's camera interface, Samsung opted to ship the Mega without Drama Mode, Eraser and dual-camera features -- the most endearing of the bunch, if you ask us.

Low-light pictures were a mixed bag as well. Most shots were a bit noisy, but we were satisfied with the amount of light we were able to capture in city shots with the phone's f/2.6 aperture lens. The Mega's night mode predictably snatched up more errant photons at the expense of an increased level of noise; we also snapped way too many blurry images that ultimately had to be tossed out, since smooth nighttime pics require an incredibly steady set of hands.

PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE

The Galaxy Mega mainly shows its mid-range status with its processing power, as it possesses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8930AB). Granted, it takes advantage of a 1.7GHz clock speed and lower pixel count (when compared to today's 1080p flagships, at least), so you won't see much lag or delay with the majority of your work. Here's how its benchmark scores stack up against other devices.

	Samsung Galaxy Mega	Samsung Galaxy S 4 (Snapdragon 600)	HTC First
Quadrant 2.0	7,192	12,684	5,952
Vellamo 2.0	1,993	1,903	2,239
AnTuTu 3.2	13,627	26,143	11,267
SunSpider 1.0 (ms)	769	632	1,647
GLBenchmark Egypt 2.5 HD Offscreen (fps)	16	39	14
CF-Bench	13,342	28,111	8,208
SunSpider: lower scores are better

Given that the Mega shares some common software traits with the Galaxy S 4, while featuring a similar (yet higher-clocked) Snapdragon 400 chipset to the HTC First, we chose these two models for performance comparisons. As you can see, it bests the First in nearly every category -- with most scores clearly showing the advantage in clock speed -- and only loses in Vellamo. Strangely enough, the Mega wound up with a better score in this same test than the Snapdragon 600-powered GS4, while the latter phone whooped its 6.3-inch cousin in every other category. Comparisons aside, the benchmarks give us a solid indication that you're not going to run into any workload-related problems on the Mega.

We also discovered that gaming was a joy on the Mega: who would've thought that combining an Adreno 305 GPU with a huge screen would make for such a great experience? The speaker sounds loud and crisp, and we were able to crank out more than enough noise from our movies and music to stay happy. Even though the earpiece was a little quieter, it was still sufficient. All of our calls went through perfectly, with no drops or hiccups. GPS performance was also more than decent, though on a couple occasions, when traveling through the sparsely populated countryside, we noticed that the little-blue-dot-that-could was having some difficulty keeping up with us. This usually remedied itself after a few minutes (perhaps after we hopped onto a different tower), but it was a good thing we didn't have an immediate need for a change in direction. That tiny frustration aside, the performance is exactly what we'd hope to see on any mid-range Samsung phone.

Finally, if a phone is going to have a 3,200mAh battery (the Mega is second in size only to the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx), we expect it to hold a charge longer than nearly anything else on the market. The Mega didn't disappoint: although we were unable to put the device through our typical video rundown endurance test, we attended Microsoft's Build 2013 during our review period, and were able to push the phone through 17 straight hours of heavy use before we needed to recharge -- on both days we were in attendance. This means that you should easily get a couple days of less-intense use.

In the End

The Galaxy Mega is a very solid mid-range device, but the phone's make-or-break trait is -- you guessed it -- the size. If you prefer (or require) the ability to use your smartphone one-handed most of the time, you're not going to have a satisfactory experience. We would love to see the option of using an S Pen as a sort of compromise to persuade fence-sitters, but sadly its absence will act as more of a detriment to the phone's chances of success.

Even though the Mega was made to satisfy one group of people -- anyone who loves or needs an excruciatingly large smartphone -- we admire Samsung's willingness to dip its toes in the water and try new form factors. If nothing else, the Mega will mean something even more significant to its manufacturer than sales metrics: it's a forerunner for the company's future prospects in the "large phone" category, and a way for Samsung to figure out how to do an even better job with the upcoming Galaxy Note III. We figure Bigfoot will be just as happy with that device when the time comes.

Introduction

The middle child in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 series, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 forges its own distinct path in the tablet universe. But it's not just a clone of the Galaxy Note 8.0, Samsung's 8-inch, stylus-driven slate. Rather, this model's differently tweaked design reflects how quickly tablet technology has evolved in just the four months since the Note 8.0's launch.

Priced at $299.99, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 offers a display one inch larger than that of the $199.99 Tab 3 7.0, while being noticeably smaller and lighter than the $399.99 Galaxy Tab 3 10.1.

This model joins the growing realm of 8-inch tablets, a market that includes Apple's iPad Mini at 7.9 inches. Such tablets offer a satisfying compromise among screen size, weight, and price. However, while it would be easy to assume this model would closely resemble the Galaxy Note 8.0, Samsung has made several design tweaks. The Tab 3 has the same height as the Note 8.0, but is noticeably narrower, by more than half an inch. In that regard, it more closely resembles the iPad Mini. Like that tablet, the Tab 3 8.0 has narrower bezels running along the length.

While its physical design makes the Tab 3 8.0 feel light and well-balanced in hand, that narrower bezel ends up being an albatross. But we're glad to see Samsung bring a third display option back to its lineup; the Galaxy Tab 2 series had just 7-inch and 10.1-inch varieties, whereas the first-generation Tab series had an 8.9-inch model as its tweener option.

Better still is that the Tab 3 8.0 avoids the performance oddities we saw with its larger cousin, the Tab 3 10.1. That model uses Intel's Atom processor, whereas the Tab 3 8.0 uses Samsung's own Exynos processor. That chip powered the Tab 3 8.0 to good results in our performance tests. The slate didn't set any benchmarks on fire, but it wasn't the slowest of its competitive set of 7- and 8-inch Android tablets, either. Of note: Its battery eked out nearly an hour more than the Galaxy Note 8.0, and its browser performed better than the Note 8.0 on HTML5.

With its $299.99 price tag, the Tab 3 8.0 comes in at the higher end of the current generation of small tablets. It is pricier than the 7-inch tablets, including Samsung's own 7-inch Tab 3 and Google's updated, $229 Nexus 7. But it's less expensive than the iPad Mini at $329, and $100 less than Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 with its stylus.

Design

With the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, Samsung pushes the design ahead a notch ahead from its Note 8.0 cousin. The Tab 3 8.0 shaves 0.07 pound off the weight of the Note 8.0; at 0.69 pound, it matches the weight of Apple's iPad Mini.

The Tab 3 is also noticeably narrower than the Note 8, by a full half-inch. Its 8.3x4.9x0.3-inch dimensions make it taller and narrower than the Apple Mini, by 0.4 inch in either direction. These ever-shrinking physical specs are generally a good thing for portability: They mean you can more easily toss a tablet like the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 in your bag and forget it's there, or hold the tablet in one hand while reading a good book.

To put an exclamation point on the Tab 3 8.0's design finesse, let's compare it to the ultimate budget model, the $129 Hisense Sero 7 Pro. That slate is 0.1 pound heavier, 0.2 inch thicker, and 0.1 inch wider than the Tab 3 8.0—in spite of having a smaller 7-inch display.

The Tab 3 8.0's case has a similar, smooth plastic design to the Galaxy Note 8.0. The model we tested had a white back; gently curved, silver plastic edges; and a white front bezel (albeit with a cross-hatch pattern, as opposed to the Note 8.0's smooth design). The plastics have the same feel as on Samsung's phones, which is to say it feels sturdy, but also as if the materials are inexpensive. The tablet also comes in brown.

From the front, top, and bottom, the Tab 3 8.0 looks very similar to the Note 8.0. The buttons and inputs are all in virtually the same places, oriented around the portrait position. The headphone jack is at the upper right corner, along the top edge; the power and volume buttons along the right edge, along with the infrared sensor so you can use the tablet as a universal remote control with your home entertainment components. At the bottom edge sit two speakers, flanking the micro-USB port for data and charging. The Samsung logo and front-facing camera are centered above the display in portrait mode.

In fact, from the outside, you'd only notice three physical differences between the Tab 3 8.0 and the Note 8.0, beyond the obvious aforementioned difference in dimensions. The physical home button, centered in portrait mode beneath the display, is slightly more raised on the Tab 3 8.0 than it is on the Note 8.0. This makes the button marginally simpler to locate by touch. The MicroSD card slot is closer to the bottom of the left edge than the top, as it is on the Note 8.0; and, its door is designed into the silver plastic edging, as opposed to the Note 8.0's design into the bottom of the tablet, beneath the edging. This door is perhaps the only design flaw we found, as we found it unexpectedly challenging to set the door's stubborn plastic back in place after inserting a card.

It's worth noting that, like the 10.1-inch Tab 3, the Tab 3 8.0 has a similar problem with the touch targets for the capacitive menu and back buttons that flank the home button. As with the 10.1-inch tablet, we could touch a half-inch above and below the button and still activate the function. This is not the case on the Note 8.0, incidentally; on that tablet, only tapping the button itself will actually activate it. What surprised us, though, was that in spite of the inaccurate touch targets, we didn't have nearly as many accidental activations on the 8.0 as on the 10.1 unit. We suspect this is simply because of the tablet's smaller size: It was easier to hold, with the buttons in a different place than on the 10.1-inch tablet.

Of course, the front bezel is also visibly narrower than on the Note 8.0, a change that reflects the narrower dimensions. While the Tab 3 8.0 looks stylish and feels good in one hand, we actually found the narrower bezel a hindrance to one-handed tablet handling, as our hands often struggled to find a safe position that didn't activate the touch screen inadvertently.

Features

The Galaxy Tab 3's 8-inch display packs 1,280x800 resolution, the same resolution as on the Galaxy Note 8.0. That exceeds the resolution of the iPad Mini (1,024x768) and packs in a respectable 189 pixels per inch to the Apple's 169 ppi. The delta makes a visible difference: Text on the Tab 3 8.0 was sharper than on the iPad Mini, though not as crisp as on same-resolution 7-inch tablets, which have 216 ppi. And the new Nexus 7, with its 1,920x1,200 resolution, is in another stratosphere entirely at 323 ppi. While we always prefer higher pixels, the Tab 3 8.0 is what we'd call acceptably sharp, though it can't compare to the clarity of the Nexus 7.

The display itself was good, and produced accurate colors. But in a side-by-side comparison with the Galaxy Note 8.0, we saw some interesting differences. The Note 8.0's display is slightly brighter, something that was particularly evident in an app like Gmail, where we saw whiter whites and slightly darker text. In a test image, we saw near-identical color reproduction, but more natural skin tones and finer detail in the Note 8.0 versus the Tab 3. We don't know whether this is due to any differences in the displays themselves or to software variances (the Note 8.0 uses Android 4.1.2 while the Tab 3 uses 4.2.2).

Like the 10.1-inch Tab 3, the 8-inch model has the updated image gallery, with aesthetically pleasing and sharper image thumbnails that vary in size. We didn't see the same sluggish behavior as on the 10.1, but we did notice that high-resolution images had to take a moment to render sharply on screen.

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 has just 16GB of memory, with 11.3GB free, about the same as on the 10.1-inch Tab 3. The MicroSDHC card slot can accept up to 64GB cards, at least.

As with all Samsung tablets, the Tab 3 runs Samsung's TouchWiz UX software. This variant is similar to the Tab 3 10.1-inch's: It has some but not all of the features we've been introduced to in Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone and the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet. For example, the tablet has Smart Stay, which sends your tablet to sleep when you're not looking at it (we had mixed results with this, and preferred to disable the feature since the sensors often couldn't detect our eyes); but it doesn't have Smart Pause or Smart Scroll, both found on the S4. TouchWiz UX does continue to provide a menu with shortcuts to frequently used actions, a touch we've long appreciated on Samsung tablets; you can reorder these shortcuts, but not add to them.

Samsung provides a selection of pre-installed software, including Dropbox, Story Album (for auto-generating albums from your images), S Translator (a speech-to-text tool that requires you to set up a free Samsung account), Peel Remote (for use as a remote control), Polaris Office, and Samsung Watch On for finding TV shows.

The Tab 3 has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5 megapixel rear camera, with no flash. Neither will capture images that will challenge those from today's average cell phone, but they will do the job to capture a memory in the absence of any other device. The rear camera was similar to the Note 8.0's, but the camera's interface is completely different. The Tab 3 8.0's interface resembles that of the Galaxy S4 Smartphone, complete with the S4's special modes, such as Panorama, Sports, and Sound & Shot (which adds audio to an image file).

Audio output on the Tab 3 8.0 is best described as adequate, albeit a bit thin and high-pitched. This effect was especially pronounced at max volume. We preferred the audio of the Note 8.0, which sounded more well-rounded to our ears. As is typical of portrait-mode, downward-firing speakers, we found it easy to accidentally muffle audio when holding the tablet with both hands in landscape mode.

Performance & Conclusion

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 uses Samsung's 1.5GHz Exynos 4 (4212) dual-core processor, and has the unusual complement of 1.5GB of RAM. We found this processor highly capable, even though it was dual-core vs. the 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4 (4412) processor in the Galaxy Note 8.0.

In day-to-day use, we had no issues during movie playback. The tablet was responsive and smooth, even when we had multiple apps open. Gameplay was good, too, but Riptide GP lacked the splash detail and graphics finesse found in the same segments on the quad-core Note 8.0.

On our suite of objective benchmarks, the tablet yielded average numbers. We compared the Tab 3 8.0 to a set of 7- and 8-inch Android tablets representing a range of processors: Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0, the HP Slate 7 (1.5GHz Rockchip dual-core), the Hisense Sero 7 Pro (1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core), the Google Nexus 7 (1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro), and the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7(1.2GHz Mediatek MT8125 quad-core).

Let's take the example of Linpack for Android. Here, the Tab 3 was merely average on both the single-threaded and multi-threaded tests, coming in behind the Nexus 7, the Memo Pad HD 7, and the Note 8.0 ... and even being outscored by the Sero 7 on the multithreaded test.

However, the story was very different on the 3D graphics benchmarks An3DBench and An3DBenchXL. Here, the Tab 3 8.0 came in second, behind only the Note 8.0.

On Futuremark's 3DMark Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme, the results were mixed. The Tab 3 8.0 came in third on Ice Storm, behind the Nexus 7 and Note 8.0. However, it came in second on Ice Storm Extreme, edging out the Note 8.0 on this graphics-intensive test, in spite of the Note 8.0 having what should be a better processor.

And on GFX Bench 2.7.2, the Tab 3 8.0 came in second on the Egypt HD Offscreen test, and third on the more challenging T-Rex Offscreen. Again, the leaders this tablet traded off with were the Google Nexus 7 and the Note 8.0, which underscores how competitive the Tab 3's performance is, especially on graphics.

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0's boot time was quick. It was the third best of this group.

In browser-based tests, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 came in second behind the Google Nexus 7 on the SunSpider JavaScript 1.0 benchmark, and clobbered all comers on the Peacekeeper test.

Battery Life & Conclusion

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 lasted 8 hours and 49 minutes playing a 1080p video on continuous loop. That's a reasonable amount of time, and will at least last you through much of a day of use without requiring a trip to the power outlet. But it's not even close to the spectacular numbers put up by the MeMo Pad HD 7 (12 hours, 6 minutes) and the Nexus 7 (10 hours, 26 minutes).

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is a solid tablet, and a strong choice if you're looking for a middle-of-the-road screen size that makes reasonable compromises to balance price and portability. In spite of our design nits, we recommend this tablet because—app ecosystems notwithstanding—the Tab 3 8.0 does offer more bang for fewer bucks than Apple's iPad Mini at the same screen size. Google's new Nexus 7 is less expensive and a better performer, with a better display; but that model sacrifices the expansion slot and lacks the IR port, both conveniences that distinguish the Tab 3.

If your choice comes down to the Tab 3 8.0 and the Galaxy Note 8.0, the decision comes down largely to price and whether you feel you'd use the latter's stylus. If you love the idea of using a stylus on your tablet, the Note 8.0 is worth the $100 premium (though we wish it was only a $50 premium instead). If the stylus isn't on your radar, though, save the bucks and go with the Tab 3.

                                                                                                                                                                                             Source: Compshopper