Last Updated on April 12, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake
After the big rumor of Dish to buyout T-mobile, the International AG holding company has done a great job at staying with it of late and they were one of eight US phone carriers to pick up the Samsung Galaxy S5. Yes, T-Mobile along with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, US cellular, Boost Mobile, MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile all picked up this year’s flagship for the first half of 2014. I say the first half because we are fully anticipating a new S5 coming in as many months.
Regardless of the future possibilities involving a prime S5, many people are on the last straw with their current handsets and cannot afford to wait any long for the newer version to come out. If you are one of those people and are looking to buy outright or subsidize the current S5 then you might be interested to learn that T-Mobile now is selling a gold variant.
The head of the design team Chang Dong-hoon opted to resign after it was widely regarded he would be fired because of the criticism the S5 got. It is covered with little dimple holes; many people like it, however, even more did not. Don’t let other peoples opinions sway you either way though. Even though it’s not my personal cup of tea I applaud the efforts of at least trying something new and making a smartphone that does look different other from the outline shape of the body. The gold S5 comes out on the 30th of May.
The Galaxy Note 10.1 is not coming in gold, it is just coming period. Before today, there was no such device under the T-Mobile name. Of course, this is the 2014 edition we are speaking of here and not the original 2013 model. The only other name to have the 2014 edition is Verizon now. Part of the reason for unfavorable sales could be it was announced during September of 2013 and released on the 10th of October 2014. How exactly bringing out a tablet in the middle of 2013 equals a 2014 edition I’m not sure and it seems most of the world didn’t either. It can be confusing, but looking past that and assessing it for what it is, there are some great specs to have.
Because of it’s earlier heritage, it started with the Android 4.3 TouchWiz UI. Since then it has been updated to the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat, although we are expecting Android 4.4.3 arriving very soon along with the Nexus devices Google supports first. From there it will do the rounds and we know the Note 10.1 will be one of them. The physical display size is obviously 10.1-inches and hence the name. It has very good screen resolution at 2560 x 1600 pixels. Right now the devices making a lot of noises are the ones with the QHD display just like the LG G3 has and the new HTC M8 prime and S5 prime will be catching up with later on. However, even with this Note’s age, it already has amazing pixels of a similar range so there is no reason to worry there.
Not many use tablets for cameras, but those that do will be pleased to know there is a rear-facing 8 megapixel snapper and a 2 megapixel front-facing snapper. It also has all the bells and whistles including LED, BSI, face detection, auto-focus, smile detection, burst mode, Geo tagging, Digital zoom, self-timer, panorama, ISO control and white balance.
Among the few negatives of this tablet arriving earlier than, 2014 was the inclusion of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 system chip. It is paired with the common Quad core, 2300 MHz, Krait 400 processor and the Adreno 330 graphics processor.
T-Mobile have announced that they are already accepting pre-order for the Note 10.1 and it will go on sale on the 4th of June. It will set shoppers back $23 a month for 24 months and $99 down to start.