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In our first part, comparing still photos, the Galaxy S5’s larger sensor showed a clear advantage in offering up a shallower depth of field for more photographic output.
Now we’re going to compare video performance in a series of real world tests. Brightly lit outdoor scenes, low light, tracking movement, and image stabilization. Will the M8 be able to eke out a victory here?
Galaxy S5 Video Tests
HTC One M8 Video Tests
Time for another installment of the most comprehensive camera test on the internet!
We’ve already discussed some of the improvements Samsung has made to their camera in our brief comparison between the GS5 and the One M8, so now let’s see those improvements in action!
Samsung stepped up the sensor size on the Galaxy S5, and it’s now similar in size to cameras like those found on the Lumia Icon and 1520. Let’s see how it compares to the rest of the smartphone landscape running through our real world tests!
Continue reading “Camera Test: Video Samples from the Samsung Galaxy S5 on AT&T”
Let’s get this out of the way right now. The One M8 camera is good. Maybe it’s even “very good”, but over the last year we’ve seen some excellent cameras bolted onto the backs of our phones by companies like Sony and Nokia.
The M7 was my favorite camera on an Android phone of last year, and was only bested by the likes of Nokia. It lost the resolution battle with only a 4MP sensor, but the combo of larger “UltraPixels” and Optical Image Stabilization made it one of the best devices to shoot on in indoor and low light environments. Outdoor pics were very good, low light pics were gorgeous, and video was nicely smoothed out by the stabilizing hardware.
My expectations were tremendously high for the M8.
The M7 was a revolution. Stereo front facing speakers on a phone. With one listen, it became my preferred multimedia mobile, and the standard by which I judged every phone and tablet which followed it. Every single audio review I’ve done since has been normalized against the M7.
It should come as no surprise that a newer phone will have better features than its predecessor. We call that “progress”, but considering how stellar the audio playback was on the M7, many of us had doubts that the M8 would be demonstrably better.
Well we were wrong.
Take a listen for yourself as we pit the former heavyweight up against the new champion. The M7 is dead. Long live the M8.
HTC One M7 Speaker Playback Test
HTC One M8 Speaker Playback Test
Continue reading “How much better are the BoomSound Speakers on the HTC One M8 vs the M7?”
Why “The Classics”? Because they’re public domain and I don’t have to shell out cash for them!
Google recently updated their text to speech app, and many android users wont realize that not only is this engine now a standalone app on Google Play, but digging into the accessibility settings, there’s now a “High Quality” mode, where you can download parts of the voice to live on your phone.
Seeing as how I come from a background of voice over production, do audiobook narrators and voice actors have anything to worry about? Let’s take a listen…
These were the top read and most shared stories from SomeGadgetGuy last week! LG ruled the week, but we also got in a few accessories. Nice little round up as we wrap up 2013 and the holiday buying season!
Let’s jump in!
5 – Using a Ballistic Hydra Rugged case for iPhone 5 on an iPhone 5S
The nice thing about how Apple updates the iPhone with a tick-tock system, cases for the iPhone 5 largely work with the iPhone 5S. If you’ve been looking for a rugged case for the 5S, this waterproof case might do the trick!
4 – Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight
This week, Chris took a look at a handy little portable charger + flashlight combo. RAVPower has become a favorite here at SGG, offering up very good mobile charging solutions at great prices. Looking to extend your phone’s run time out in the field, maybe this gadget will help?
3 – Ask Juan: Why won’t my Moto X show up as a USB drive on my Mac?
An opportunity to play a little tech support? On a tech blog? Who’d have thunk it? Robin has a problem with his Moto X and his Mac playing nice together. Seems this is a pretty common problem seeing how popular this post was last week…
2 – Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low”
I don’t do a lot of battery bench marking. It’s very time consuming, and usage is very relative. What’s heavy to one person is light use for another. That said, when a phone comes along with exceptional battery life, I at least need to point out how it handled real world activities.
1 – Camera Test: The LG G2 on AT&T – video samples from a 13MP Android with Optical Image Stabilization!
And the number one story from last week was a doozy! LG made some pretty bold claims surrounding the camera on the G2. It’s only the second Android with optical image stabilization, and it has three times the resolution as the HTC One. Did the G2 camera live up to the hype?
We’re nothing without you readers, and we certainly can’t compete against the big blogs by ourselves. We always greatly appreciate not only the likes, but the sharing on social sites like Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. The more we get to talk with other tech fans, the better we get, and soon we’ll be able to reward that participation with some fun contests coming up soon!
Thanks for reading, and if you feel we missed a big story this week, or you have a hot tip, please drop us a line on our Contact Page!
Our first Windows tablet to hit the SomeGadgetGuy Test Bench!
We never did get our hands on the first Surface, but Surface 2 is ready to go! We’ll playback some movie and music samples to see how it stacks up to phones and bluetooth speakers! The audio level for our tablet tests is normalized to compare directly with the HTC One, so listen back to that test and you’ll be able to hear how the Surface 2 stacks up!
Previous speaker tests:
HTC One
Lumia 920
JawBone JAMBOX
LG G2
Lumia 1020
HMDX Jam Classic
Galaxy S4 Active
Nokia Play 360
HTC One Mini
LG Optimus G Pro
iPhone 5S
Pantech Discover