Introduction
The New Samsung S4 comes in a choice of ‘White Frost’ and ‘Black Mist’, is slim and lightweight with a stellar camera and excellent battery life. Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB plus up to 64GB through a microSD card. The handset is impressively fast and powerful with amazing new technology and the integrated Samsung Hub brings together all your media, book, gaming and educational needs.

Build
The S4 measures 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and weighs 130 grams. The power button is on the right, volume on the left, headphone jack at the top and the Micro USB port at the bottom. The SIM card, microSD slot and battery are accessible under the back cover. Below the screen is a physical home button with capacitive back and menu keys on either side. Along the top of the screen is a 2.1 megapixel front facing camera, earpiece grille and assortment of sensors and on the back a 13 megapixel camera with LED flash and a speaker that is loud and clear. To unlock the phone just hover your finger over the lock screen and a small beam of light follows your finger as you unlock.

Inside the S4 is Samsung’s own Exynos processor and 2GB of RAM.  The operating system is Android 4.2 with many useful Samsung features on top. The home screen has the Samsung’s big clock and weather widget and Touchwiz offers many options to hide or rearrange apps in the app drawer, pick and choose quick launch apps for the lock screen or change the order of settings and toggles and lots more.

There is an Easy Mode where you can simplify everything that is going on, shortcut a few common apps and hide almost everything else. You can turn off everything from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to some of the eye-tracking features.

Display
The GS4’s 5 inch 1920 x 1080 display is big and beautiful and the full HD AMOLED screen has 441 pixels per inch, is crystal clear with vibrant colours. The glass is rigid and responsive to touch even with gloves on.

Camera
The 13 megapixel camera is simple and fast to use and Samsung has redesigned the UI to match that of the Galaxy Camera Line with some new features added in.  Eraser Mode detects moving objects in your photo and automatically removes them. Drama Mode takes a series of pictures as a subject moves as if it was taken with long exposure. Animated Photo lets you take a few seconds of video and then decide whether part of the frame is still or in motion and you can share animated GIFS without leaving the camera app. With Dual Camera you can take a picture with both front and rear camera simultaneously so that the person taking the picture also appears in the picture. The Best Face and Best Photo features take five images in quick succession so you can choose the best from the list or adjust different aspects of the image to create the best photo. Sound and Shot mode lets you add audio to your photo if you want to add a message and with AllShare you can stream to and from other devices.

Battery
The battery has been upgraded from 2100mAh on the S3 to 2600mAh on the S4 will last a full day and is wireless compatible.

Software
S Health can track your steps, calories, sleep diet and much more and S Translator has live voice translation in over ten languages. WatchOn is a universal remote and search based TV guide app. There is a full suite of Office products plus a handy tool for scanning business cards and QR codes. With AirView you can hover your finger above the screen and over content to get a preview of extended information and AirGesture uses the built-in IR sensor on the top of the phone to detect movement from your hand or finger and lets you control your phone without touching it, whilst Story Album lets you create scrapbooks from your photos. There is also S Beam and NFC plus a new security feature called Knox that separates your personal information from your work data.  The new Smart Pause will pause a video when your attention is turned away and Smart Scroll will advance a webpage your reading as your eyes get closer to the bottom of the screen. The Mirroring features lets you send whatever is on the screen of your Galaxy S4 to a larger display.

Conclusion
The Galaxy S4 is a highly efficient and capable smartphone with many interesting features, full HD screen, improved camera, powerful processor and a removable battery

Introduction
The Optimus G Pro is a solidly built phablet with a practical design and a premium quality feel, ergonomically designed with rounded corners and soft edges. The frame and back cover are comprised of solid plastics and it combines a 5.5inch 1080p display and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor with an impressive set of proprietary applications.

Design and build
The handset measures 150.2 x 76.1 x 9.4mm and weighs 160g. The earpiece sits along the top edge next to the sensors and a 2.1 MP video-call-enabled camera. Below the 5.5 inch display is the Home button and capacitive Back and Menu keys. There is a status LED around the Home key which lights up in different colours depending on the notification – incoming or missed calls, alarms, calendar reminders, apps, etc. On the left is the Q-Slide key with the volume rocker below and on the right the Power/Lock key. On the top an IR emitter for remote control functionality next to the 3.5mm audio jack and the MHL-enabled microUSB port is at the bottom. There are two mics on the phablet – one at the bottom, which serves as a mouthpiece, and one at the top for noise-cancellation during calls and stereo audio capture during video recording. On the back is the 13MP camera lens with the LED flash and loudspeaker grille.  Inside are the microSIM card slot, microSD card slot and the 3,140mAh battery.  It runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. with the company’s own Optimus Ul, has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of built in storage, stereo FM radio, 4G LTE capable, Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS.

Display
The LG Optimus Pro has a massive 5.5 inch 16M colour True HD IPS Plus Full HD capacitive touchscreen making everything look stunning and the capacitive sensor will detect touches even if you are wearing gloves.

Camera/Video
The 13MP autofocus camera with LED flash takes excellent photos and comes with many options including a 15x digital zoom, flash, geotagging, timer, white balances, colour effects, ISO options, x scene modes, three focuses, a brightness meter, voice activated shutter, time machine option that enables the camera to take shots even before you press the shutter, HDR, panorama and VR panorama.

1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound, HDR mode and Dual recording which lets you record with both cameras simultaneously.

The front facing 2.1 megapixel camera includes three photo sizes, two scene modes, white balances and colour effects, geo-tagging, timer voice shutter and beauty shot. You also get the option to save a mirror image of your picture.

Apps
The LG Optimus G Pro comes preloaded with both the “default” Android browser and Google Chrome. QSlide option lets you watch a video while using other apps.   QRemote uses the built-in IR sensor so you can use your phone as a remote control for your home appliances, QButton gives you access to any of LG’s Q services or shortcut to any app of your choice and it doubles as a camera shutter key.

Other apps include QTranslator, SmartTag (NFC Tags), Video Editor, Video Wiz, AhnLab V3 Mobile 2.0 (antivirus), SmartWorld (LG’s app store) SmartShare (DLNA) and Safety Care which can send messages to a pre-determined emergency contact when the phone hasn’t been used in a given amount of time. The message shows your location making it easy for a contact to find you.

Battery and Performance
The phablet has a 3,140mAh Li-Po battery and comes with a spare battery unit and the charging dock serves as a stand for the handset. The G Pro supports wireless charging too.

Calling and Messaging
Phone calls are loud and clear as is the external speakerphone.

SMS, MMS and email. Email capability is excellent and it is easy to add multimedia to a message by hitting the attach button next to the text field and selecting one of the available options such as images, videos, voice recordings etc.,

Keyboard
The LG Optimus G Pro offers a standard QWERTY keyboard which features both portrait and landscape typing. The keyboard fills up the screen nicely and offers great ergonomics with ample spacing between keys, still leaving enough room above the keyboard for you to see what you’re actually typing. There is a dedicated setting that enables keypress vibrations.

Music Player
The Now playing interface places a big album art image in the centre with controls above and below it. By swiping the album art left or right you can skip back and forth through songs.

Conclusion
The Optimus G Pro has a solid build quality and design is incredibly fast with an amazing 1080p display. Excellent battery life and comes with a spare battery, huge display with wide viewing angles. Strong performance; fantastic multitasking software; excellent camera features and a mammoth 5.5-inch screen with many innovative apps.

Introduction
The Sony Xperia Z is a rugged, tough, dust resistant, waterproof, precision engineered HD smartphone. It is IP57 certified which means it can be submerged in up to one metre of water for 30 minutes.

Its unique OmniBalance design has rounded edges and smooth reflective surfaces on all sides, is highly durable with tempered glass and an anti-shatter film on the front and back. It comes in Black or White (O2 in the UK exclusively offering the handset in purple).

Build and Design
The headphone jack is at the top, SIM slot and volume rocker on the right with a silver standby button in the middle. The microSD and charging ports are on the left, all with watertight covers. On the front is the 5” screen and a 2.2 megapixel camera and on the back a 13.1 megapixel camera.

The handset measures 131.6 x 69.3 x 9.8mm and weighs 151g. The 5 inch full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel display is razor sharp and super bright and the 1.5 GHz quad-core processor runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS along with Sony Xperia UI. There is 2 GB of Ram and 16 GB of on board storage and a Micro SD slot (up to 32GB), NFC, Bluetooth, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity.

Switching tasks is easy with the on-screen buttons and you can share music, photos and videos from smartphone to NFC enabled Sony devices, including headphones, speakers and now TVs. It’s also got enough processing power to run almost any game or application.

Battery
The Li-Ion 2330 mAh battery has a power saving feature called Battery Stamina Mode increasing the battery life up to 4 times by shutting down battery draining apps whenever the screen is off and starting them up again when the screen is back on.

Calling and Messaging
Calls connect easily and with the HD Voice element call quality is excellent.

Latest messages and notifications can be viewed via Android’s notification bar and when sending a new SMS you can write a note or draw a picture and send it as an MMS.

Camera & Video
The 13.1 MP camera has auto-focus, burst mode, LED flash 1080p HD video recording, and HDR video. The superior auto and noise reduction enables you to effortlessly capture excellent pictures and videos. Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine 2 tweaks colours and contrasts giving you an amazing viewing experience.

Video
You can select scene modes from landscape, beach, party, sports and more and with Sony’s HDR mode videos look even better.

Maps & Apps
The Sony Xperia Z comes loaded with Sony Apps including Walkman for music, Play Station Mobile, Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited. There is a Note Taking/Doodle App and a Sony Car App with help from navigation to music selections. Plus the standard suite of Google Apps including Google Maps and hundreds of thousands of apps to download from Google Play.

Conclusion
The Sony Xperia Z with its beautiful design, is waterproof and dust resistant, has a quad-core processor giving super-fast speeds, a large super bright screen, well managed battery life and an excellent camera.

Introduction
The Doro PhoneEasy612 is a well-designed handset offering users the safety of an emergency feature.  It has extra-large buttons and an easy to read display, designed to be as simple as possible to use.

Emergency Functions
The key features of this phone are the loudspeaker and the emergency button situated at the top back of the clam. You can set up to five phone numbers on your emergency list who will all receive a text message when you press the button and the first number on the list is dialled for a voice call. If they do not answer within 25 seconds the next number on the list is called and so on.  The numbers will be dialled three times before the handset gives up. To ensure that the call is not answered by an answerphone you can set the emergency function so that the person called needs to press zero on their phone to confirm they are real and not an answerphone.

The ICE (In Case of Emergency) function allows you enter critical information about yourself including  name, age, height, weight, language, blood type, emergency contact details, doctor’s details, health insurance details, as well as any medical conditions, allergies, vaccinations and medication. There is a free text field for any other information accessible via the phone’s menu. This information in an emergency can save lives, however the emergency services will need to be aware that the information is on the phone.

The emergency button can also be set so that the alarm sounds on the phone via the loudspeaker, calling people to help you in an emergency. The alarm stops when the call is answered.

Design
The handset has a rubbery finish making it easy to grip. It measures 101 x 52 x 20mm and weighs 103g, is 100mm long when closed and 190mm when open. It has a large bright colour display measuring 49x36mm with 320×240 pixel resolution and a 2 megapixel camera.  Internal storage is small at 10MB, an FM Radio, image viewing for your photos, alarm, calendar and a couple of built in games. There is an LED status light on the front, volume buttons on the left side and a 2.5mm headphone jack and micro-USB charging port on the right side. Bluetooth is supported for use with wireless headsets or hearing aids. It comes with a charger stand, a long lanyard and a printed manual. The large icons and text displayed on the screen makes it easy to read and use and there is an extra-large font option if required.

The main menu is simple to use being a series of pages that you scroll through with the up and down buttons on the keypad. Each page shows just a single large icon related to its function.

Above the standard number keys on the keypad there are three shortcut buttons marked A.B and C which can be used for speed dialing friends, family or medical services. Next to these is a button to take you to the SMS screen and above there are the double height buttons for call answer and call end. To complete the layout above these are the left and right soft keys with the dedicated camera button in the centre.

Camera
The 2 megapixel camera takes decent photos and you can adjust the zoom and light sensitivity using the up/down and volume adjustment controls with options to send captured images to others and use them as wallpaper or add to the phonebook.

Battery/Charging
The handset has an 800mAh Li-on battery, chargeable by the USB lead or by connecting to the desktop charging dock. It is easy to slide the phone into the dock and is designed to make it impossible to put the phone in the wrong way round. The excellent battery life has 12 hours of talk time and approx.3 weeks of standby time.

Audio
The PhoneEasy 612 has extra-loud and clear sounds. The ear piece is a slightly louder than a normal phone and at full volume it remains very crisp and clear.

Calling
The clamshell design means that there is no need to lock the keypad before putting the phone away. Once the clamshell is shut the keypad is protected so numbers cannot accidentally be dialled. There is an external display that shows incoming caller ID and any missed calls or messages.

Summary
The Doro PhoneEasy 612 has been designed to make it as easy as possible to use with an emergency assistance button on the back, it is hearing aid compatible has an easy menu and a large keypad. An excellent choice for elderly phone users or for people who just want to make calls, send texts and take photos.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc. (Sky) the satellite TV giant, is set to become the UK’s second largest home broadband provider behind BT, following a £200m deal with Telefonica to acquire its 02 and BE consumer broadband and fixed line telephony business.  The acquisition is due to be completed by the end of April 2013 subject to regulatory clearance.

Sky will pay £180 million to Telefonica UK for the consumer broadband home and line rental customers served by 02 and BE, with an additional amount not exceeding £20 million payable on the successful completion of the customer migration process by Telefonica UK.  02 and BE customers will be migrated onto Sky’s fully unbundled networks, supported by a nationwide all-fibre core, which reaches 84% of all UK homes.

This acquisition will mean that Sky will become the UK’s second largest broadband provider behind BT, adding more that 500,000 of Telefonica UK’s telephony customers to Sky’s own 4.2 million broadband customers and four million telephony customers (as at 31 December 2012).

Sky has established itself as the UK’s most popular triple-play providers with 3.6 million triple-play customers (A third of its base).  The transaction will help Sky meet the growing demand from customers to take multiple products.

Any existing BE and 02 users are unlikely to see any changes until later this year although some BE customers have reacted angrily to the announcement, as BE is known for its technical services, such as static IPs and line bonding which Sky has yet to confirm it will provide. However BE did not offer a high-speed fibre service like Sky.

Telefonica UK is to focus its energies away from the home broadband experience in favour of delivering best-in-class mobile connectivity, following its recent £500 million investment in next generation 4G license.

The Blackberry Q10 is the new QWERTY keyboard smartphone which is an extremely well built device and the ideal handset for both business and personal use.  The BlackBerry Balance feature splits the phone into Personal and Work modes with separate apps, files and settings for each. The “Work” mode signs into LinkedIn and reflects the security setting from your business and “Personal” mode signs into Facebook. The smartphone has many excellent features including an advanced touchscreen, physical QWERTY keyboard, 8MP camera and 4G connectivity, WI-FI, Bluetooth and NFC.

Design and Build
The handset is ergonomically designed making it easy to hold, with rounded edges and soft touch black plastic, a stainless steel chassis and glass screen with a textured glass weave finish on the back.

It measures 120 x 67 x 10.4mm and weighs 139g. The power switch is on the top along with the 3.5mm headphone jack and the volume keys are on the right. The microUSB port and separate HDMI socket are on the left and there is a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, a micro SD slot for expansion and a Li-Ion 2100 mAh battery.  The 3.1” square touchscreen uses Super AMOLED technology and has a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels. It’s perfect for watching videos and with 4G connectivity has access to ultra-fast internet speeds.  On the back is an 8 MP camera with a 2 MP camera on the front for video calls.

Powered by the new BlackBerry 10 software and fully controlled via the touchscreen. All the apps and features are designed to blend into each other. Just swipe up on the screen from any program and your open apps will appear in a tile arrangement and with the Blackberry Hub you can collect messages and notifications from any screen which makes it easy to keep in touch with family, friends and work colleagues.

Messaging and Video
You can chat to everyone with a BlackBerry smartphone for free and there is the additional BBM video which lets you to talk face to face with your contacts. The Screen Share feature allows you to share photos documents etc., displayed on your Q10’s screen with any of your BBM contacts.

Camera
The 8MP camera takes great photos and with the advanced Time Shift feature can capture shots milliseconds before and after you take a photo enabling you to scroll back on individual faces, to open people’s eyes or catch a smile and you can wind back through whole photos and then combine them to get the perfect shot.  It is also capable of Full HD video.

Keyboard
The 35 key physical QWERTY keyboard is backlit and each row of keys is separated by a horizontal silver fret which spaces out the buttons making it easier to type. The letters are angled to different degrees to improve typing speeds.

Conclusion
The BlackBerry Q10 smartphone is extremely well built, has a 3.1” touchscreen, good sized QWERTY keyboard, 2100 mAh battery, 4G connectivity and BlackBerry operating system making this handset ideal for work or personal use.

The Huawei Ascend Mate is a quad-core Android smartphone with a 6.1 inch HD IPS+LCD display and is designed to fit comfortably in one hand. The smartphone will be available in two colours pure white and crystal black however the release date is not yet confirmed.

The handset measure 164 x 86 x 9.9mm and weighs 198 grams. The huge display has a 1280 x 720 resolution, has vivid colours and excellent viewing angles and is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass coating. Video and pictures look fantastic.

Inside is Huawei’s Hi-Silicon 1.5GHz quad-core CPU with 2GB of Ram and 16GB of internal storage. It includes a micro SD card slot and will initially ship on Android 4.1 skinned with Huawei’s Emotion UI. Inside is a 4050 mAh battery and on the back an 8 megapixel HDR camera with a 1 megapixel HD camera on the front for video calls. Huawei’s power saving technology can give up to two days ordinary usage on a single charge and it boasts the fastest battery charging capability of smartphones in its range giving a saving of over 30% of battery charging time.

To make one handed operation easier Huawei have adapted the interface so that the virtual keyboard can be offset to use only the left or right-hand part of the screen and with ‘Magic Touch’ making the screen highly responsive, you will be able to use the Ascend Mate even with gloves on.

The Ascend Mate has dual MIC noise reduction technology, Dolby sound system and stereo recording and it features an Augmented Reality navigation application to help reach your destination. ‘Smart Reading’ gives quick reference to dictionaries, Wikipedia and Google Search pages, and ‘Swift Sharing’ to upload pictures, videos and other files faster than other smartphone users in a Wi-Fi environment.

There is a re-designed set of icons for most apps and with the Emotion UI all apps sit either on the home screens or the dock with pop-up apps sitting over already open applications.

The Ascend Mate is the perfect smartphone for international travellers as it supports five frequency bands along with the global roaming function and the dual-antenna design supports high power data transmission.

Details
The Samsung ATIV S is powered by the new Windows Phone 8 operating system and has lots of new features. It’s beautiful and simple design along with its high performance will do everything you need, It looks and feels amazing, is easy to use and the perfect smartphone for both work and play.

The handset is extremely slim at just 8.7mm and weighs 135 grams. The 4.8” Super AMOLED touchscreen has a 720p resolution. There is a 1.5GHz snapdragon S4 dual core processor and an Adreno 225 GPU along with a 2300mAh NFC enabled battery. The 16GB or 32GB of internal storage and micro SD slot rated up to 32GB gives up to 64GB in total and 1GB of RAM. There is an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus on the back and a 1.9 megapixel camera on the front for video calling. The Windows Phone Keyboard is one of the easiest to type with. It has smart auto correction as well as straight forward text selection.

At the top right of the Ativ S is the lock/power button, an extra microphone and 3.5mm Audio Jack. The volume rocker is on the left hand side and at the bottom a micro USB charging point and microphone with the dedicated camera button is on the bottom right. Below the 4.8 inch screen is a physical start button. At the back is the removable back plate for access to the battery, expandable Micro SD slot and the micro SIM card.

Display
The 4.8 inch 1280 x 720 AMOLED HD high contrast display brings videos and images to life in clear and bright detail and the screen size lets you see more apps and tiles at once making multi-tasking very easy.

The Live Tiles on the home screen update with information such as the Weather, Facebook and more and the information changes as the apps they are linked to receive updated information. The tiles come in lots of different colours for easy personalisation.

Camera
The 8 megapixel, f/2.6 rear camera produces sharply focused photos with accurate colours, and the Windows Phone 8 viewfinder software helps to fine tune image details such as exposure, filter-based effects and white balance for great shots. The dedicated camera button makes it easy to access the camera mode. You can record video up to 1080p with excellent sound and continuous focus and the front facing 1.9 megapixel f2.8 camera is ideal for video calling.

Apps
The 1.5 GHz dual core processor lets you run multiple apps and open windows extremely quickly and the micro SD support up to 32 GB gives access to even the biggest files wherever you go.

Users can download Samsung-exclusive apps from Samsung Zone with many being preinstalled on the ATIV S including ChatOn (Samsung’s own instant messaging app), Music Hub, Samsung Now for news and weather and Photo Editor. Live Wallpaper lets you customise the lock screen. Skydrive allows you to store up to 7GB of photos, videos, documents and presentations for free and you can create and save from your PC or access and edit files from your phone.

The mobile version of Microsoft Office Suite includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Documents can be accessed through Email, Office 365 or Cloud Storage with the Bitlocker protecting you from data loss or password theft by offering 128 bit encryption to your files.

Battery
With excellent battery life the 2300 mAh removable battery will last a whole day and there is an extra connector to the battery for the NFC antenna.

Conclusion
The Ativ S is the first Samsung model based on Windows Phone 8. It has a beautiful design and amazing hardware, sounds great and has an astonishing display.

Design and Build
The Sony Xperia T is a top level distinctive-looking smartphone, also known as the Bond phone. It has a matt finished unibody with curved back panel. The shatter-proof and scratch-resistant glass at the front, gives excellent protection.

The handset weighs 140g with dimension of 129.4 x 67.3 x 9.4mm. The 4.6in display has a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution at 323 ppi, is fitted with Sony’s own Mobile Bravia Engine which improves image and video playback, increases contrast and really shows off photos. It runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS with Jelly Bean scheduled for the spring. There is a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, a micro SD card slot for expansion up to 32GB and an 1850 mAh battery. The 13MP camera is a class above and produces excellent results.

On the right hand side there are three silver buttons, volume, camera and power along with the SIM and micro SD cards hidden behind a flap. The micro USB power slot doubles as a mini HDMI output is on the left hand side and at the top of the phone is the 3.5mm headphone jack. The back, home and multitasking menu buttons are incorporated into the display.

Features
There are 5 home screens which can be used to create folders, add apps and widgets and a handy SmallApps system which overlays various apps over the page you are looking at, such as a calculator, stopwatch or notes. It has the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC along with DLNA certified for streaming content to a compatible TV.

Camera
The Sony Xperia T has a 13Mp rear camera with an LED flash and the addition of quick-capture features produces some great pictures. The camera is a standout part of this smartphone.

Video footage can be recorded in full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution and the front facing 1.3 MP camera provides very good video or skype chats at 720p.

Battery
The Sony Xperia T has a non-removable Li-ion 1,850 mAh battery with up to 7 hours of talk time or 16 hours of video playback.

Audio/Video
The new Walkman music player is excellent and easy to find your way around and Music Unlimited provides access to millions of tracks. Sony has also added in an equaliser enabling you to adjust the sound to suit and xLoud technology boosts the volume by up to 30 per cent.

Watching video on the 4.6” HD Reality Display is excellent and as the handset is slightly thicker at each end is easy to grip in landscape mode and makes the most of videos and gaming. Sony has its own video store, Video Unlimited, or sign up for Google Play.

FM Radio
There is an FM Radio that uses the headphones as the antenna.

Gaming
The Xperia T has PlayStation Certification which enables you to enjoy Sony’s new PlayStation Mobile distribution service.

Connectivity
One of the main marketing points of the Xperia T is the inclusion of NFC which allows you to share your digital media with other devices.

Contacts
Managing contacts on the Sony Xperia T is easy just add selected contacts to your favorite list or organise them into groups. You can also add different ringtones for different people.

Calling and Messaging
The Sony Xperia T features smart dialing. Enter a number and you are given the option to send a text message or email. If you are a WhatsApp user the contact card will automatically display the option to send a WhatsApp message instead of a traditional SMS. During a call you can switch to speakerphone leaving you free to look something up without cutting off the call.

Messaging is easy, once in the messaging hub all your texts will appear with the most recent at the top of the list displaying both received and sent messages. There are shortcut tiles underneath the message enabling you to add pictures, files or notes. If you are receiving a message or Facebook update a small blue light on the front of the screen will flash and it will turn green if you receive an email.

Maps/Apps
Like the majority of Android handsets, the Xperia T comes with Google Maps and the multi-touch capacitive screen lets you zoom in and out of maps as well as rotate the display.

TimeScape comes with its own widget that will collect all your social network feeds into one place and you can add Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Apps load very quickly and you can customise the keyboard, add secondary key functions like numbers and punctuation or choose voice dictation. It comes loaded with both the stock Android browser and Google’s Chrome.

There are a number of first-party apps such as TrackID, QR Reader, Media Remote, WisePilot and Sony Select among others and the usual Android apps such as Google+ and Movie Studio as well as YouTube app. Google Play Store gives fitness apps, music apps, games and movies and any new apps are highlighted on Google Play home page so that s easy to see the latest additions each time you log in.

Verdict
The Sony Xperia T is a powerful phone that does everything you would expect from a high end Android device.

Design and Build
The Galaxy Note 2 is a phone and a tablet in one with a beautiful bright screen, great battery life, is extremely fast and LTE compatible.

It comes in titanium grey or marble white, weighs 182.5g, dimensions 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4mm with a 5.5 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

There is a rounded home button at the bottom of the screen with two capacitive buttons either side. The power button is on the right edge and the volume rocker on the left, the charging micro HDMI cable port is at the bottom with the 3.5mm headphone jack at the top and at the bottom right had corner is the new S-Pen. There is 1.9 Megapixel front facing camera and at the back an 8 Megapixel camera with flash and loud speaker. Behind the replaceable cover are the mcroSD card slot which can be expanded to 64GB and the micoSIM slot. The Exynos 4412 chipset contains a quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU with 2GB of RAM. NFC support and a long lasting 3100 mAh battery.

Features
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top giving 7 home screens instead of the Android standard 5, its own web browser, app drawer with apps like S-Note, Smart Stay which keeps the screen on as long as it detects a face in front of it. S-Suggest and S-Planner plus Google Now.

The new look S Pen has a flat edge which makes it easier to grip. There is a button which allows you to change how the capacitive screen reacts to its touch and a feature that you can enable to make the phone emit an audible warning if you walk away without the S Pen docked.

Battery
The Li-Ion 3100 mAh battery is replaceable so you can always carry a spare and is capable of lasting a full 12 hours of use.

Camera
The 8 Megapixel rear facing camera has auto focus and an LED Flash, 1080p video recordings at 30fps. It has the usual picture editing modes and features including Face Detection and Best Photo are there as well. The flash is bright and colours impressive. With the S Pen you can add quotes and doodles to pictures and you can also add notes onto the back of your photos. The front facing 1.9 Megapixel camera for video calls is capable of HD recording.

Gaming
Google play store and the Galaxy Note 2’s massive screen provide the perfect platform for portable entertainment. Apps are accessed via the app drawer at the bottom right of each screen along with four other customisable shortcuts.
Contacts

You can access contacts on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 either through the phone or the contacts section – both of which have shortcuts at the bottom of the screen.

Calling and Messaging
Once in a call, you can take notes with the S-Pen and with the standard Gmail app and Samsung’s own Mail app you can add your own messaging solutions such as Facebook and Twitter, Viber, Tango, WhatsApp, Windows Live Messenger and Skype.

Messaging includes Google’s Voice dictation with words appearing as you speak or with the S-Pen you can tap out words by just scribbling them on to a virtual pad at the bottom of the screen.

Browsing
The screen is big enough to display web pages beautifully with lightning fast speeds.

Video
Watching videos is a pleasure. That HD display looks stunning and you can stream the audio to Bluetooth headset too so you can enjoy movies completely wirelessly. There is an outdoor setting to make it easier to see in bright sunlight.

Music
The music play has been improved with support for playlists and an equaliser that sounds amazing when listening with headphones. Music Square allows you to choose different types of music depending on which corner of the square you press. Also Samsung has updated its Music Hub which scans your phone for tunes and matches them to other music that you might like.

Radio
You can launch the FM radio from the home screen or control it with your voice if you want to change station.

Apps and Maps
With Google apps you get the standard Google Suite including Google Books and Google Play and for Maps, Google Maps is free and simple to use. Samsung has also included S-Voice. So you can fire up simply by saying ‘Hi Galaxy’ to your Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

S-Pen
When you take the S-Pen out of its holder at the bottom right, the phone vibrates quickly and brings up a splash screen full of S-Pen-capable pre-installed apps, enabling you to create anything from a simple note to a magazine or diary entry.
For drawing, it’s simple enough, and will provide you with hours of fun. You can write mathematical formulae and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 will decipher it for you.

Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has a huge screen and is a powerful piece of kit with a quad-core processor, the latest Android Jelly Bean Operating System, a handy S Pen Stylus and a wealth of built-in software.