GETINCASED

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active

Steve — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:18:13 +0000

Welcome back guys! As you are all well aware by now the
Samsung Galaxy S4 has been released to the world and is on sale globally as we type. What you may not know is that while the S4 wreaks havoc among the mobile industry, there are rumours of a bigger brother on the way. Make way for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, pictured to the right the device claims to be a dust and water proof upgrade of the S4. The image shown has come from GSM arena, a credible source among the mobile industry. Google also reveals that the internet is once again full of speculation surrounding the device. But what could we expect from the S4 Active?

According to the benchmark rumours, the device should come shipped with a 1.9GHz quad-core processor (most likely the Snapdragon 600), 2GB of RAM, a 5″ 1080p display at a pixel density of 480 and a Adreno 320 GPU. Pretty impressive specs but the main attraction of the device will no doubt be the rumoured water and dust proof qualities of the phone. It appears that all front-facing buttons are physical and slightly protrude from the bottom, a move that might have helped Samsung make it more resilient to the elements. As for that red backing, the four screws in the top and bottom corners add a nice rugged touch, but it does appear that the back is still removable if you look closely in the top left hand corner.

(credit: GSMArena)

In our opinion the device makes perfect sense for the Samsung and it looks fantastic! The physical buttons mean that the device could be operated with gloves on, this combined with the fact that the new S4 does not require the user to physically touch the screen to operate it, could mean a whole new potential market for the company. We can’t wait to see what happens with this device and will of course keep you all updated. In the meantime don’t forget to check out our Samsung Galaxy S4 Custom Case!

Competition News In other news we recently ran a competition over on the Getincased Facebook Page, the prize was a Ben Allen iPhone5 case and the winner was, Jamie Leigh Kirtley! Congratualtions Jamie, please send an email to steve@getincased.com or contact us via the Facebook page as soon as possible! Make sure you like the page for competitions on the near future! Thanks for reading guys…

Blackberry Q10 Has Arrived!

Steve — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:54:25 +0000

Hi guys, this week we have a closer look at Blackberry’s latest
release, the Q10. We took our first look at this
device back in February when it was announced along side the Z10, to read our first article on this phone just follow the link, Blackberry Q10. Since then the Q10 has been released both in America and in the U.K. The U.K release was met with high demand, with Selfridges in London having having exclusivity for the first weekend, selling out of the device in just 2 hours. On April 29th Selfridges reportedly claimed that the Q10 was their fastest ever selling consumer technology device. There is without doubt demand for this phone, but will it help Blackberry to stay relevant?

The Q10 brings a half touch screen, half keyboard to the table, something that is very rare in the day and age of full touchscreen phones. But what else does it have to offer? well the Q10 may be outwardly very different from the first BlackBerry 10 device, the touchscreen Z10, but internally it’s pretty much the same device. The 1.5GHz dualcore Snapdragon S4 Plus processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, are all identical, along with the microSD card slot, 8-megapixel rear camera, and 2-megapixel front camera. The Q10 also has WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC, along with a microHDMI port (which will need an adapter, not included, to plug into a regular HDMI input) alongside a microUSB port. the key difference between the two being the screen size. The Z10 comes in at 4.2-inch 1280 x 768 display, the Q10 shrinks that down to 3.1-inches and 720 x 720 resolution. Our Blackberry Z10 Custom Case is now available, just follow the link!

Hardware wise, it’s a broad but stubby device, at 2.62-inches across. Accommodating a physical keyboard does make for a thicker phone and a slightly heavier one, at 10mm and 4.9oz respectively. The weight is nicely spread, meaning it doesn’t feel top-heavy when you’re typing, and it’s easy to shift your fingers between the QWERTY and the touchscreen.

The new Blackberry 10 software of course makes an appearance on the Q10, this is largely gesture based and features a ‘hub’ which centres all your communications, email, text etc. We like this feature and believe it is one step closer to cementing the new OS as a key player in the market. You an get your hands on the black Q10 as we type, it will cost you roughly, £33 a month and £579.95 SIM-free. However for the white version you will have to wait, Carphone Warehouse will be stocking this in the near future. In our opinion the Q10 is a solid device and adequately takes care of those users who still prefer a QWERTY keyboard, we will of course let you know when cases are available for this device. In the meantime check out the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Custom Case!

New Products!

Steve — Sat, 04 May 2013 18:46:40 +0000

Welcome back guys, this week we have some exciting news in the way of new products! The long anticipated Galaxy S4 is now available in the custom case section of our website. Using our outstanding 3D sublimation process we can decorate this for you with a range of artist inspired cases, or with a design or photo of your choice! The new S4 features a 1080p 5 inch screen, latest version of Android and a design similar to the S3. Although it is slightly bigger than the S3 and packed full of features, to get your hands on it just follow the link, Samsung Galaxy S4 Custom Case.

To follow, we have expanded our range and now stock cases for both the Galaxy Note and Note 2. Incase you didn’t know the Note is the phone that looks slightly smaller than your average tablet! With 5.3 inch screens these phones have been a massive success with a Note 3 on the way in the near future, just check through our blog to find out more! To get your hands on them just follow the links, Samsung Galaxy Note Custom Case and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Custom Case.

Next up we are proud to announce that we now stock custom cases for the Blackberry Z10! Again, to find out more about the Z10 just check back through the blog! This full touch screen smartphone is taking the U.K and America by storm right now so to protectt yours just follow the link, Blackberry Z10 Custom Case.

To finish off we have expanded our range of tough cases, these cases feature a silicone insert which gives added shock resistance to your device! We have stocked these for the iPhone4 and 5 for some time now and they have been a great success, to build on this we have added 2 more devices to the range. The Apple iPod Touch Custom Tuff Case and the Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Tuff Case.

Thanks for reading guys, when you get your hands on any of the above please do let us know what you think of them via the Facebook page, Getincased Facebook Page! Pictures of all the above will again be available on the Facebook page very soon!

Samsung

Steve — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:45:34 +0000

Welcome back guys, to start this week off we’ve got another
Samsung round up for you! So as you probably are
aware of, Samsung are without doubt the biggest mobile manufacturer of our time. With handsets from the Samsung Galaxy S4 right down to the lower end with 7 of their 8 devices released this year being low end phones. This heavily contrasts with Apple and their strategy of one premium phone, but is this beginning to fail? Quarter 1 this year revealed a rise of 41% for Samsung’s profits and the first loss in the last ten years for Apple. The South Korean technology company made a net profit of 7.15 trillion won (around £4.2bn) for the period, up from 5.05 trillion won a year ago.

With the S4 released in America and on its way to the U.K very shortly, this is only set to rise. Analysts expect profits to rise further in the coming months. Bryan Ma, an analyst at IDC Asia Pacific, told Leisha Chi that the firm is doing “very very well”. Samsung senior Vice President states, “We may experience stiffer competition in the mobile business due to expansion of the mid- to low-end smartphone market,” is this a comment aimed at Apple’s future plans? We recently covered a potential low end smartphone for Apple here on our blog, just click the link to check it out. Plastic iPhone

So what is on the horizon for Samsung? Dominating the high-end smartphone market is no longer enough to satiate the ever-increasing demand for more growth. If Apple and Samsung are going to keep their stellar runs going, they will have to get more aggressive about the market for affordable smartphones, particularly in emerging markets where consumers are just buying their first mobile phone. The only problem is: the low-end market is fraught with established competitors such as the Chinese vendors that know how to build and sell phones on the cheap. Whether Apple will go for the lower end or just remain selling their previous iPhone at reduced rates, it remains to be seen. Samsung on the other hand, as previously mentioned, seem to be upping their game in this market. We may also be about to see the introduction of Smart Watches, click the link to see more.

What do you guys think is on the horizon for both companies? Please let us know via the Getincased Facebook Page as we would love to hear from you. While you patiently wait for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Custom Cases to be made available, you can get your hands on the Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case by following the link! Thanks for reading guys!

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Steve — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:35:45 +0000

So now the Galaxy S4 launch is out the way, it seems
we can look towards the next in Samsung’s line up for a
major product release. The Note series sports a range of 2 phones (phablets to be precise) that sport a whopping 5.3 inch screen size, hence the name phablet, phone and tablet. The Note 1 and 2 have had impressive sales figures. With the Note 2 recently eaching 5 million sales worldwide. So what exactly is in store for the next Note?

Sources in Korea report that Samsung is gearing up to outfit its next “phablet” with a flexible OLED display that will essentially equip the device with an “unbreakable” screen, according to European retailer 3G. This will be the first time we have seen OLED screens come to market in a Samsung device and the idea of a phone with an unbreakable screen sounds pretty cool to us!

Further rumours suggest that the device will feature Samsung’s famous Exynos 5 Octa quad-core processor as well as its Smart Scroll and Smart Pause eye-tracking technology. The latter rumour seems likely as its predecessor; the Galaxy Note 2 was equipped with the Smart Stay feature that prompts a device’s screen to remain on as long as its user is looking at it. Just as the Galaxy S3 has this feature, the upcoming Galaxy S4 is equipped with Smart Scroll and Smart Pause as well as Smart Stay. The device will also likely run Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie natively, as Google’s upcoming operating system will likely be unveiled at the Google I/O conference in May, with a release date projected for June or July.

If previous iterations of the handset are anything to go by we can expect Samsung to uncover the third generation Galaxy Note smartphone towards the end of August, in the run up to IFA 2013 in Berlin. This would mean that the Galaxy Note 3 would probably hit stores around October if previous cycles are maintained – but given the Samsung Galaxy S4 emerged earlier this year, could the same trick be repeated for the Note 3?

Here at Getincased we are more excited by the thought of the S4, but an unbreakable screen does sound tempting. We will of course keep you updated with the Note 3 but in the meantime check out our Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case!

Huawei Aluminium Casing

Steve — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:46:26 +0000

Welcome back guys, this week we are looking at Huawei
and a potential new release for the Chinese firm.
Back at MWC this year they release the ascend P2, which is rumoured to be the world’s fastest 4G phone, to see more of that just follow the link. The P2 is not out just yet so claims of it being the world’s fastest are yet to be secured. Since they Huawei have released a range of mid-range handsets but rumours have suggested a high end aluminium device is on the way. As you all know by know HTC have release the One, this features a slick unibody Aluminium shell and although no sales figures are available just yet, it seems to have gone down well in the media. Are Huawei about to try and take on the likes of Apple and HTC with a new premium handset?

There was talk of a new phone from Huawei sporting the following specs; a 4.9-inch 1080 x 1920-pixel display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera. The handset will be sold in a 16GB and 32GB versions and will run on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. At a similar time the pictures above and below were leaked on to the internet, suggesting that the specs above will be located in an Aluminium shell? Who knows if this is part of the same phone, but sounds likely.

The image shows a premium casing fashioned out of aluminium. As you can see, there is no screen on it, no buttons and no camera. At 6.3mm, the Edge will be thinner than Huawei’s current flagship, the Ascend D2 which was announced back at CES in January. The Ascend D2 is also made out of aluminium, its 9.9mm thin and has a 5 inch FHD IPS+ 443 PPI Super Retina LCD Display with a 1.5Ghz quadcore processor.

So with Huawei joining the premium smartphone club it would hint at this being the future? However a recent Samsung executive was heard to be praising the polycarbonate shell used on all their flagship devices. In our humble opinions aluminium makes perfect sense for smartphones. Firstly the aesthetics and high surface finish look incredible compared to plastic and secondly its much more hard wearing and durable. The only potential downside with a uni-body design is that of not being able to open it up and get to the battery. But then again, is this really an issue?

Thanks for reading guys and do let us know what you think via the Facebook page! Don’t forget to check out our Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case by following the link!

Smart Watches

Steve — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:46:49 +0000

So by now you have probably all heard of the pebble?
If not, it is Kickstarter’s most funded project to date,
raising an astonishing $10 million! Thats amazing and even more amazing when you consider their target was only $100,000. The Pebble is a smart watch, put simply, it connects to your Android or iPhone via bluetooth and allows you to receive alerts on your phone, such as text messages, tweets and GPS location data when your running or cycling, for example. Seeing as the Pebble campaign was launched in April last year it may seem like we are a little late with this one, but it is only recently that Kickstarter backers have began to get their hands on these watches! So the Pebble was successful, but is there room for more smartwatches and are they here to stay?

The Pebble sold 85,000 units from Kickstarter so there is no doubt there is a demand for these watches. However many people believe that smart watches are a bit of pointless accessory and are merely bridging the gap between smartphone and something much more exciting. Another factor against the smart watch is that they require regular charging. Forcing the user to remove the watch (every 3 days for the Pebble) to charge it up. The Bluetooth connection they require only drains the battery on your smartphone even faster.

However despite the probems, we have still seen rumours from both Samsung and Apple of potential smart watches. In February of this year rumours were flying around about a Samsung watch running Android, and potentially supporting some kind of e-reader, sounds ridiculous but who knows.

Apple have also jumped on the rumour mill with talks of an iWatch, shown below:

Despite the factors against it, it seems the concept of an Apple iWatch would be very popular. Back in 2011 Scott Wilson at MNML design, launched a kickstarter project by the name of LunaTik. The idea of the LunaTik was to house the iPod Nano and wear it as a watch. This was extremely popular and new versions are constantly being released.

So what is our opinion? Well, we believe that smart watches are a thing of the future and we will more than likely see versions of the pebble with from Samsung and Apple. However we are also inclined to believe that they still have a long way to go. The battery issue combined with the amount of processing power these things need is still an issue for us. We look forward to seeing the future of the smart watch. In the meantime don’t forget to grab our Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case and Apple iPhone 5 Custom Case by following the link! Thanks for reading guys.

Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One?

Steve — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:13:42 +0000

Well first things first, happy easter! We feel honoured that you
have torn yourself away from easter eggs long enough
to turn your attention to the mobile world. This week we bring you a quick comparison of 2 phones set to cause a storm this year. Firstly we have the Samsung Galaxy S4, to read more about the S4 just follow the link, secondly we have the HTC One. For those that need an introduction to the One, it is HTC’s latest attempt to climb back up to the top sales wise. It features a 4.7inch full HD display, aluminium uni body design and 1.9 GHz processor. The obvious difference between the 2 phones at this point in time is that the S4 is not available yet. However based on specs and our own humble opinions we have still managed to put together a comparison for you all!

Design: At one point Samsung’s phones were accused of looking too similar to the iPhone, but with the Galaxy S4 and HTC One it’s the latter which looks more like Apple’s smartphone. The HTC one has a squarer look but with rounded corners and a curved back. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S4 has a more rounded pebble-like design similar to the Galaxy S3. Personally we think going for the aluminium unibody design, similar to that of the Apple MacBooks, was a wise decision. The affordable smartphone market, aside from Apple, has a distinct lack of premium materials. HTC comes out on top here for us.

Screen: Things are similar in the screen department. As predicted, the Galaxy S4 has a 5in display with a Full HD resolution of 1080 x 1920. The HTC One also has a Full HD resolution but on a smaller 4.7in. Going purely on numbers, the HTC wins here since its pixel density is 469ppi against the Galaxy S4′s 441ppi. In real life this difference is not noticeable by the human eye. Put simply, these are two of the best displays on the smartphone market. Another minor difference is that the Galaxy S4 uses Gorilla Glass 3 which its maker, Corning, says is up to three times more damage resistant than Gorilla Glass 2 which the HTC One offers.

Camera: HTC has gone in a new direction with the One’s camera. The Ultrapixel camera is only 4Mp in resolution but captures 300 percent more light than a regular smartphone camera. Reviews across the web state the camera to be good and especially in low light situations. HTC’s bold move makes it pretty difficult to compare with the Galaxy S4′s 13Mp camera which we expect to be a good camera. Each rear camera can record video in Full HD 1080p quality.

Speed: The Galaxy S4 comes with an octa-core processor, pretty fast! However, the UK model will come with the same Snapdragon 600 chip. It’s clocked slightly higher at 1.9GHz and there’s 2GB of RAM so we still expect it to beat the HTC One, but not by as much as it could have. Each has the Adreno 320 GPU so there should be little difference here. More on this will emerge when the S4 is released!

Based on the stats given we would expect the S4 to last longer than the HTC battery wise, however we wll have to wait and see for final results here. The S4 battery is also removable, whether that matters or not is a totally different question!

Due to the unique software advantages, bigger screen and high spec design, we recommend you go for the GS4 over the HTC unless you want to save some money, $50 in the US. Although on contract it remains to be seen what the price difference will be. However design wise we would choose the HTC, based on the luxury feel of the auminium. Thanks for reading guys! Remember to check out the Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case by following the link.

Plastic iPhone

Steve — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:03:58 +0000

Welcome back guys, so now the S4 hype has
passed a bit (for now!) let turn our heads back to
Apple and their potential new release. If the rumours are correct, see the picture to the right, we may have a plastic iPhone on the way! It seems this new device would likely arrive in the usual Apple release perioid, June and July. Analysts suggest that the phone would come in at around the £220 mark. Seems pretty reasonable to us, but then again seems a little too cheap for an iPhone! But what else could we potentially expect form this device?

Well the image shows a lighting dock and rounded back similar to that of the iPod touch, looks legitimate and we think this device could feel quite nice in the hand. It seems obvious that the major cutback, apart from material, would be in the screen. All of Apple’s latest devices feature a retina display but we would imagine a cheaper version to have a considerably lower pixel count. It is likely that the phone would feature specs similar to that of the 4 or 4s.

So what are the chances of this actually happening? Well, Samsung have a broad range of the market covered with a wide range of handsets appealing to a wide range of people. Apple on the other hand only have one high end device. Some experts believe that everyone who can actually afford/want an iPhone has already got one! So it only seems natural for Apple to open up a bit and appeal to a wider market. We have seen evidence of this with the iPad Mini, and it is likely that in the future we will see an iPhone mini too. The Chinese claim that the price of the iPhone is simply too high( it retails for a lot more there), it seems almost ridiculous that Apple could ignore such a large a large market segment.

The image above suggests that Apple may be planning a release of coloured cheaper phones, the only problem is, at £220, does this render the iPod touch useless? We are interested to see how this pans out for Apple and would love to hear your thoughts. Let us know via the Getincased Facebook Page. We will of course be keeping our eye on this and looking to provide cases if it does come into fruition. In the meantime though you can get your hands on our Apple iPhone 5 Custom Case by following the link, and don’t forget the Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case! Thanks for reading guys!

Samsung Galaxy S4

Steve — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:47:00 +0000

We are a little late with this one guys as by now you have
all probably seen all the details of the S4… but for those who
haven’t were here with a round up! The S4 was released on the 14th in Times Square and for those who were lucky enough to attend, they witnessed the worlds first 8core smartphone! But
what else is on offer?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the S3. This may disappoint a few people as it seemed the only thing Apple have on Samsung is build quality and the use of premium materials. However they have stuck by the plastic casing and have chosen for a metallic plastic around the edges, apparently this feels slightly more premium than the S3 but is still plastic nonetheless.

Many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, but it definitely packs a few more features than its predecessor. We have already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4 features, as it’s been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs rumoured have turned out to be pretty bang on. Colour wise you’ve got a choice of ‘White Frost’ and ‘Black Mist’, which adorn the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, despite still having to pack in a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen. All this is impressive on its own but when you consider all this fits into a chassis smaller than the S3, we really could have a superb phone on our hands.

Feature wise they have lost the water like effect of the of the S3 but it does register your finger from up to two centimetres away, so a little beam of light will follow your digit as you unlock. It’s something you’ll definitely play with for ages. NFC is of course a feature on the phone along with a 13mp camera and LED flash. Another new feature on the cards is the ability to track your eyes, when watching a video, simply look away and it pauses, look back and it begins to play. Sounds great, but in reality if it doesn’t pause the second you look away, then you end up missing some of the video. Finally we have the new s health app which is a clear competitor for Nike and Apple’s partnership.

Sounds great and we cant wait to get our hands on one, we will of course be providing cases for the S4 but in the meantime you can purchase our Samsung Galaxy S3 Custom Case by following the link. Thanks for reading guys!