Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories revealed

When the Samsung Galaxy S3 hits shelves on May 29th, it won't want for accessories – check out the line-up here

When the Samsung Galaxy S3 hits shelves at the end of May, it won't want for accessories. Samsung has taken the wraps off an impressive line-up of kit for its new flagship phone – read on for the details…

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – AllShare Cast Hub

The Galaxy S3's AllShare Cast feature lets you wirelessly share your phone's screen with other S3 users and DNLA-enabled devices over local Wi-Fi, AirPlay-style. If you want to go the whole hog and share your screen with an HDTV or HD projector, you'll need the AllShare Cast Hub.

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – Premium Audio Dock

With so many iPhone docks flooding the market, Samsung's aiming to compete on quality with its own-brand dock – a 100W tube amp that can connect using Bluetooth or a physical dock connector for charging.

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – S Pebble MP3 player

"But I have a phone that plays MP3s," you say. Ah, we say, but the S Pebble is rather clever – it's a dinky 4GB iPod Nano-sized affair (complete with clothes clip) that can connect directly to your Galaxy S3 for quick and easy transferring of tracks. It has a 17-hour battery life, supports MP3, WMA, OGG and FLAC formats, and – of course – is available in the S3's launch colours of Pebble Blue and Marble White.

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – C Pen Stylus

The Galaxy S3's 4.8in screen approaches the Galaxy Note's 5.3in display in terms of screen real estate, so why not go the whole hog and use this capacitive stylus – optimised for the S3 – for doodling and note taking?

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – Flip Cover

Samsung's created Flip Covers for its Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note smartphones, so of course its new flagship is getting the same treatment. The cover consists of a replacement back with an attached screen cover (several colour options are available) that flips back when you want to use the screen. The advantage of having a detachable back cover – unlike the iPhone – is that you can use a screen protector that doesn't add any bulk to your S3.

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – Wireless Charging kit

Wireless charging is one of the standout features of the Galaxy S3. Samsung's done away with chunky after-market charging cases and delivered this kit, consisting of specially-designed replacement back for the phone that incorporates all the necessary tech, plus a wireless charging pad.

Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories – Docks and covers

Samsung's designed a range of additional covers and docks to accompany the S3. The Desktop Dock and Battery Charger Stand both feature flippable designs for easier portability, while the Universal Vehicle Dock uses a gear-locking mechanism to snugly grip your smartie.
Samsung's Protective Cover shields your S3 against the elements, protecting the back and sides and offering a degree of moisture protection with rubber caps for the headphone jack and micro USB port. The 0.5mm thick Slim Cover doesn't offer the same level of protection, but is compatible with the Desktop Dock and Battery Charger Stand.

Why Apple has got it wrong and variety is the mother of invention. Or: “stick with Apple and nobody gets hurt”.

One of the great criticisms that is constantly being levelled against Android is the various form factors it’s forced to work on. Unlike iOS – which only ever needs to work on two – the nature of the Android beast is that the OS will find itself on a variety of devices of all shapes and sizes from a variety of manufacturers. (The other criticism is the fragmentation around the OS versions but let’s be blunt, that one is completely legitimate).
This issue is, according to the aforementioned criticism levellers, that when app developers are working with iOS devices, it’s easier to ensure a consistent user experience because of the simple and limited set of hardware and screen-sizes. On Android however, it’s apparently a Wild West of rough frontier-style formats where an app developer’s lifespan is shorter than a shot of rotgut whiskey.
Ignoring what the Retina display did to iTunes' rarefied air of cognac and cigars, these points about Android aren’t exactly wrong – but I think developers need to get used to it because a wide ecosystem of form factors are here to stay.
Tablets are a great example – we’re seeing a big shift from 10.1in to smaller sizes across a number of manufacturers – a move design to echo the portability of the eReader. At the same time, people are noticing many tablets don’t make it out of the house: they don’t need that portability. So we’ll see devices in the future – and Toshiba have a number ready to roll – that will expand the screen size considerably, making the tablet more of a portable TV screen as much as anything else. (In fact Toshiba’s 13.3in tablet the AT330 will come with a built in TV tuner for the Japanese market).

 At the same time Windows 8 is opening up its own Metro style app landscape which will need to work across tablet and laptops… and maybe both. The ASUS Taichi, shown off at Computex just days ago, is a Windows laptop that, when shut, reveals an HD IPS touchscreen. Similarly, the Transformer AiO, also from ASUS is an 18.4in all-in-one PC where the screen detaches to become a touchscreen tablet – albeit a huge one. Even more oddly, the Transformer AiO runs both Windows 8 and Android.

Even the humble single-function laptop is spreading its wings in new and varied ways. Toshiba released the Satellite U840W Ultrabook featuring a widescreen display with a 21:9 aspect ratio. It’s a bizarrely elongated looking beast but a truly clever idea.
The truth is that as individuals we have individual needs from our devices - sauce for the digital goose may not taste as great when poured on a gander. I’m a massive fan of the Galaxy Note, but I know people for whom it is too big. I cannot stand typing on a tablet, but I know people who’ve pretty much thrown away their laptops. And we’re not even looking at what the next crop of devices may be like, be they wearable, augmented or implanted (or, more likely, identical to what we’re using now and just thinner).
This is a big challenge for developers of all stripes, but I firmly believe that it’s in this situation of working to maintain to an enjoyable user experience for all, on all that we’ll see some of the true innovations – the rarefied flashes of genuine genius that comes from working under adversity.
Vive la difference - because it’s that difference that will be driving technology.

Review: HP Z1

While HP's Z1 might seem like just another workstation at first blush, there's a lot to like about this extremely impressive all-in-one.

The market for all-in-one PCs has been pretty static over the past year or so, with Apple’s iMac and Sony’s VAIOs at the top of the heap, a bevy of cheaper and less appealing machines below, and precious little innovation. HP’s Z1 changes all that, with one of the most exciting chassis designs we’ve seen.

Initially, it looks like any other all-in-one: it’s a screen on a stand with a computer clamped to the back. Press the green button on the hinge, however, and the Z1’s 27in IPS screen can be tilted to a horizontal position. A quick tug on two tabs at the bottom of the screen, and the display lifts up like a car bonnet, revealing the PC’s insides.

It’s the Z1’s party piece and it’s deeply impressive. The screen lifts up smoothly on its own hydraulic cylinder – so the lid also closes gently – and the PC’s components are laid bare, most of them in proprietary caddies and enclosures.

On the left-hand side is the power supply, housed in a long, narrow metal shroud, and it’s connected to the PC with a standard 24-pin ATX power plug. The graphics card is a mobile part mounted on a desktop-style card and connected to the board via an MXM PCI Express x16 slot. Beside that is the hard disk, which is held in a plastic caddy that pivots in and out of the case, and also inside is a removable heatsink and optical drive. 

Almost all the main components can be removed with a quick tug of a green tab; a Torx screwdriver will be needed to remove the Intel Xeon processor and its heatsink. The motherboard itself is accessible, too: the DIMM sockets and SATA ports are easy to access, and the mobile Wi-Fi chip sits in a mini-PCI Express x1 slot with two more of these small ports free alongside it.

HP’s ingenious design extends further than the removable components. There’s only one 3.5in hard disk enclosure, but it’s home to two combined SATA and power connectors, with support for RAID0 and 1 included, so in theory you could install a pair of 2.5in drives. Alas, there are no preinstalled fittings, so this approach would require DIY bodging. Elsewhere, two daughterboards are pressed into service: one for the USB sockets, card reader and audio connections on the right-hand side, and another for the four small speakers at the front of the machine. There’s even a handy diagram of the internals on the inside of the lid.

It’s all put together extremely well, with cables hidden and routed between components, and we can’t fault the build quality: the huge stand and sturdy enclosure make for a solid-feeling machine. Its sheer bulk means the act of moving the screen up and down requires a bit of muscle, though.

Don’t for one minute think the internal design is the Z1’s only appealing feature: the IPS panel is a sterling piece of work. It measures 27in from corner to corner, sports a resolution of 2560 x 1440, and detail is pin-sharp. There’s no sign of backlight bleed and we have no issues when it comes to quality. The 473cd/m2 maximum brightness makes for a panel that’s bright without endangering your retinas, and the contrast ratio of 637:1 is fine. Colour accuracy is excellent thanks to a Delta E of 2.1 – better than almost everything else out there, and a fine foil for the similarly excellent iMac.

HP has specified the Z1 accordingly. Our review sample is powered by an Intel Xeon E3-1280, which uses the 22nm Ivy Bridge architecture, boasts four Hyper-Threaded cores, and runs at 3.5GHz with a 3.9GHz Turbo Boost. That’s a potent CPU, and its application benchmark score of 1.02 is in line with the performance we’ve seen from top Ivy Bridge consumer chips. It’s enough to put paid to most demanding tasks, and is assisted by 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard disk and a DVD writer.

The Quadro 3000M is one of Nvidia’s beefiest laptop graphics cards, with 240 stream processors and 2GB of GDDR5 RAM. We loaded up the workstation graphics benchmark SPECviewperf 11 and recorded an average frame rate of 26fps across its eight individual tests.

No matter what we threw at it, the HP kept its cool – impressive given the tight confines of its all-in-one chassis. The processor peaked at 81˚C – a little hot, but not dangerous – and the graphics card’s top temperature of 45˚C is perfectly manageable. There are a couple of hot spots on the exterior, with most heat escaping through vents at the top of the chassis, but we’re pleased that little noise escapes the Z1’s shell.

The catch is the price: our review sample will set you back well over $5000 and can’t just be purchased directly from the online store. 

HP does offer more affordable configurations that do pop up on the store. The entry-level model retains the excellent display, but comes with a Core i3-2120, 2GB of RAM and no discrete graphics, and weighs in at a much more palatable $2499. The cheapest model with an Intel Xeon features the 3.3GHz E3-1245, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard disk, and no discrete graphics for $2999.

The real advantage here, though, is the flexibility of the Z1’s design. With all the components so easy to replace and upgrade, the Z1 has the potential to last much longer than an iMac equivalent, for example, while still offering all the elegant, space-saving advantages.

The HP Z1 is, therefore, a uniquely appealing machine: it offers more than enough workstation grunt for intensive applications, especially ones that take advantage of Nvidia’s Quadro GPU (think video production, CAD and 3D rendering work). It also boasts a stunning screen, packed in a chassis that’s built with future expansion and ease of repair in mind.

With this in mind it is unlikely that mere mortals will ever get their hands on the Z1. It’s expensive, but as it’s the best designed all-in-one on the market, we’d say it’s a price worth paying, and a concept we’d love to see eventually turn in a more consumer-focused form.