Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Top 6 Smartphones with Big Screen


Today, we have hundreds of smartphones available in the market. Most of them are coming with big screens these days. 

With so many huge smartphones on the market, here are some of the best with big screens.

The six best gigantic phones are following:

1. Samsung Galaxy Note 4


Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 features an enormous 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display that’s as beautiful as it is huge. But the Note 4, which runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, is more than just a pretty face. That’s because Samsung made sure that the handset’s screen is as functional as it is big.

Its Multi Window mode lets you interact with two onscreen apps at once, and a new Pop-up View that allows you to open as many apps as you want in resizable windows, the Note 4 is a multitasking monster. And its excellent S Pen stylus, which lets you write on the Note 4 just like a notepad.

And with a 16-megapixel camera and optical image stabilization, the Note 4 captures some seriously impressive photos.

With so much going for it, it’s easy to see why Samsung’s Note 4 is one of the best big-screen phones.

2. Apple iPhone 6 Plus


Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus is the company’s first attempt at a giant smartphone. Packing a massive 5.5-inch Retina HD display, the iPhone 6 Plus is a full 2 inches larger than the very first iPhone that debuted in 2007.

To compensate for its significant footprint, Apple equipped the iOS 8-powered 6 Plus with a special Reachability feature that pulls the top of the screen down to within reach of your thumb whenever you double-tap the home button.

What’s more, a new landscape view takes advantage of the phone’s larger display by letting you view apps like Mail, Calendar, and Stocks in a horizontal landscape orientation rather than the traditional portrait view.

The 6 Plus is also the first and only iPhone to get an 8-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization.

3. Nokia Lumia 1520


The first big-screen Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 1520, is also among the best Microsoft handsets.

With its 6-inch display, the 1520 bumps right up against the line between phone and tablet. But the Lumia 1520 is more than a big-boned behemoth. It also offers impressive performance and a slick interface.

There’s also a whopping 20-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and the Nokia Camera app, which lets you control everything from the camera’s ISO to its shutter speed settings. And it’s available in an eyeball-searing bright green.

The downside? Well, because it runs on Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 1520 doesn’t have access to the same apps as Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus or its Android-based competitors. This is the downside associated to this smartphone.

4. LG G3


LG’s G3 is one of the rare smartphones that sports an enormous display yet won’t be mistaken for the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, despite its 5.5-inch display, the G3 is only slightly larger than Samsung’s 5-inch Galaxy S5. That’s some impressive space saving.

Like the Galaxy Note 4, the Android KitKat-powered LG G3 also offers multitasking by letting you open two onscreen apps at once, as well as multiple resizable windows apps. And as with many of the other contenders on this list, the G3’s 13-megapixel camera comes with optical image stabilization.

The G3 takes some flak for its Rear Key button, which sees the power and volume buttons move from the side of the handset, like a traditional phone, to the back panel. Once you get acclimated to its odd design, the G3 is a certified winner.

5. OnePlus One


The OnePlus One is the odd man out in this roundup, as it’s easily the least well known of the group. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook this 5.5-inch handset. That’s because you can buy this smartphone off-contract for just $300. That’s more than $300 less than your average smartphone.

But don’t think that just because the OnePlus One is inexpensive. On the contrary, this smartphone easily rivals its biggest competitors. Thanks to its gorgeous display, excellent sound, and slim design. It’s also incredibly fast and offers an impressive battery life.

The One is also the only phone in this group to run on the highly modified and customizable CyanogenMod for Android.

Well, it’s the only smartphone on this list with a camera that doesn’t offer optical image stabilization. And it’s rather hard to get your hands on one. At the moment, you have to sign up for an invite to be able to purchase the handset.

6. Google Nexus 6


Before its unveiling, Google’s Motorola-made Nexus 6 was known by the folks in nerd circles by its codename, “Shamu”. It turns out that there was good reason for the moniker, because with a 6-inch display, this Google phone easily dwarfs all of its predecessors.

Beyond its enormous screen size, the Nexus 6 also gets a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. But the Nexus 6 gets special recognition for being the first smartphone in the world to come preloaded with Google’s new Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system.

And as a Google phone, the Nexus 6 is also guaranteed to get the latest Android updates as soon as they’re available, rather than having to wait months for your handset manufacturer to provide a modified version of the operating system.

This one is a real big-screen smartphone with a pure Android experience.

The Winner:

Each of these big-screen smartphones is a winner in its own right, but there can be only one true king among the giant phone category, and that is Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4.
With its beautiful display, excellent multitasking capabilities, long battery life, top-notch camera, and included stylus, the Galaxy Note 4 easily offers the most for money.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Most Realistic Colors on Galaxy Note 4’s Display

Color accuracy is one of the most important factors that go into making a good display. No one wants to watch a movie where the protagonist has a slightly unhealthy blueish hue. With that in mind, DisplayMate decided to pit this year’s six best mobile displays against one another to see which one actually offered the most true-to-life color reproduction.

DisplayMate tested six devices: The Apple iPhone 6 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, the iPad Air 2, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, and the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. On these products they measured for five areas of color accuracy: full color gamut, facial skin tone, organic color, blue region, and white point.

All the displays exhibited fairly good accuracy for general viewing, but the winner in the study was the Galaxy Note 4. The Note 4 scored or tied for the highest ranking in each of the areas tested. In close second were the Surface Pro 3 and Galaxy Tab S 10.5. The iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 Plus, while scoring highly for skin tone accuracy, ended up ranking last and second to last, respectively, while the 2013 Kindle Fire HDX ranked fourth.

But there’s still plenty of room for improvement for all of these mobile displays in the future. Using software, companies can adjust color filters on OLED or LCD displays to get even better color accuracy. Right now, this is done almost exclusively using hardware and display material chemistry. For example, displays could offer different color modes when text is primarily onscreen versus when images are onscreen since a bluish white hue that’s amenable for reading text isn’t ideal for photographs. Adjusting the display calibration depending on the amount of ambient light will also improve the experience.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Motorola Droid Turbo : The Smartphone with a lasting battery

It really annoying when your phone’s battery doesn’t last through the workday without needing to be recharged.

This is the exact situation that Motorola and Verizon’s new Droid Turbo, is meant to help you avoid. Packing a massive battery, available for $199 with a two-year contract the Turbo can last up to 48 hours on a single charge.

The Turbo is more than just a giant battery. In fact, it’s easily one of the best smartphones Motorola has to offer.

The Droid Turbo  uses Kevlar to help give it stability while keeping its weight in check. Turbo is available with either a metalized glass fiber back panel or with a ballistic nylon panel.

The ballistic nylon option gives the Turbo’s back panel the feel of an old backpack and also helps keep the phone from slipping out of your hand. The metalized glass fiber  gives the Turbo’s back a soft-touch feel that makes the phone more pleasant to hold.

Unfortunately, the ballistic nylon-clad Turbo is actually pretty fat. Measuring 0.44 inches thick, the Turbo is chubbier than Moto X (0.39 inches), as well as Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and Apple’s iPhone 6 (0.27 inches). And at 6.2 ounces, the Turbo is heavier than the Moto X (5.1 ounces), the Galaxy S5 (5.1 ounces), and the iPhone 6 (4.6 ounces).

Motorola strapped the Droid Turbo with a gorgeous 5.2-inch AMOLED (active matrix of organic light-emitting diodes) display, which produces vibrant colors. And with a screen resolution of 2560 × 1440, the Turbo’s display is seriously sharp. 

The Turbo’s AMOLED screen technology made reds and blues look positively alive. Colours were more accurate on the iPhone 6, but I think most people would prefer the Turbo’s screen. The competing Galaxy S5, however, offered the best display of the group, producing absolutely gorgeous colors, with the Moto X not far behind.

The Droid Turbo runs on Google’s Android 4.4 KitKat operating system - not the latest release, Android 5.0 Lollipop. 

KitKat is an excellent operating system. And unlike other Android phone makers that modify the OS with their own overlays, like Samsung’s overly complicated TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense, the Droid Turbo’s version of Android is unmolested. It’s as easy to navigate as Google intended.

Like Motorola’s Moto X, the Droid Turbo comes loaded with the company’s impressive Moto app suite, which includes Moto Actions, Moto Assist, Moto Display, and Moto Voice.

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