We at the Gadgets Magazine HQ have been waiting for Samsung’s latest and greatest to arrive at the lab for weeks now, but because of the demand for the device, it seems that they have been a little hard to come by. This afternoon, though, one happened to have landed on my lap, and you get to share the joy with us.

Behold. The Samsung Galaxy S4.

Well, the box, at least. The box is a very tiny, understated, recycled deal, and we rather like it. Nothing fancy, nothing terribly special. Once you tear into it though, you see the S4 itself, taking up most of the inside.

The phone itself has been called plasticky by some who have had the chance to hold it. That is a little true; it’s a little light for the size, but it feels solid. Nowhere near as toy-like as some people make it seem. It’s no aluminum unibody, for sure, but it’s pleasantly rigid, and not creaky at all.

We got the black model, whose back panel is covered in a nice, shiny, dark metal finish, despite being plastic. It lends to giving the S4 a more solid look than plain white, and works very well to make it feel like the top-tier device it is.

The bezel is very thin, and the front of the device is almost completely screen. It makes it look larger than it really is, despite actually being a little thinner than the old SIII.

The phone is also quite thin. Not so thin as to make handling it difficult, and just thin enough so that it disappears nicely into a pocket.

The screen is large, gorgeous and sharp and one of the best screens we have laid eyes on in the history of mobile devices. This is going to be a great phone on which to watch videos, view pictures and browse websites.

It doesn’t come with very much else, just a few documents, a simple wall charger and cable, and a nice set of isolating headphones. We’ll really be putting this phone through its paces, so stick around for updates on the Samsung Galaxy S4. 

The initial infatuation with the Z10, BlackBerry’s latest hero phone, has worn off, and it has shown that it’s more than just a pretty face. It has performed exceedingly well as a messaging phone, and while it doesn’t have the dizzying number of apps its more popular OSs have, what it does, it does pretty well. Of particular note is the camera on the device. It’s quite nice, and deserves a little more attention.

It does a pretty good job of capturing images up-close. this dragonfly was taken indoors, with only the outside light filtering in. Fine details come in pretty clear, and though it took the auto-focus a few tried to get the subject clear, the results were pretty good. The darker parts of the image are a little muddy, but more than satisfactory.

 This is a shot of our meting room/work area at home. I took this shot in the evening, with some harsh fluorescent lighting overhead. The flash popped in this shot, but didn’t really do much apart from wash out the chair that is located in the center of the image. Again, the detail is pretty fine, and the colors are true, if a little on the greenish side, probably because of the light. It takes shots in bright light very well, which is something to bear in mind should you find yourself outdoors without a dedicated snapper.

This shot was taken in the late afternoon, outdoors. The camera has a little trouble capturing both the bright petals of the sunflowers and the shadows underneath. The Z10’s screen showed the photo almost completely dark at the bottom, so I am quite glad it comes out a bit better on an actual laptop screen. Focusing time is much improved both because of the abundance of light and the larger frame I was catching. There was also movement when this shot was taken, owing to the wind, but the camera seemed fast enough to catch the photo without blurring.

This shot was taken again in the late afternoon, with the sun coming in through a restaurant window. The camera had no trouble focusing in the direct afternoon sun, and the shadows came out great. The image is a little darker than how it actually looked real life, but again, the detail is nice and sharp.

The camera isn’t perfect though. This shot was taken in a cafe, with some diffused yellow lighting. It took forever to focus on the subject, and even then, things were a little fuzzy. I noticed this to be the trend with low-light shots: it would have some trouble, and the end result wasn’t always the best. If there’s any room for improvement with the Z10 camera, it is with low-light performance.

We’ll have another update in a bit, and we’ll show you how the Z10 performs while taking shots of people in varying environments, and maybe a video or two if we can spare the space! Stay tuned!