Lenovo Vibe Z, the Chinese company's flagship smartphone, was launched in India for a price of 35,999 a while back. The phone, also know by its codename K910, is the successor to Lenovo's K900, the flagship from last year. We had reviewed the K900 and found it to be a really good flagship at that point in time, and it's not surprising that the Vibe Z is modeled off the same. With improvements on the outside in terms of design and build and on the inside in terms of internals, is the Vibe Z Lenovo's best offering yet? How does it compare to the newer breed of flagships from other companies? Here is our detailed review of the Lenovo Vibe Z aka K910 to answer those questions.
Unboxing
We had unboxed the Lenovo Vibe Z when it launched earlier. The box is very similar to what Lenovo had offered with the K900, and here are all the box contents that came along with it -
Box Contents
Lenovo K910 is silver
Micro USB cable
USB charger plug – 1.5A
In-ear headset with mic
Information booklets
SIM ejector tool
You can check out the complete unboxing along with the video to find out what our initial impressions were.
Design, Build and Ergonomics
The ...
Lenovo Vibe Z, the Chinese company's flagship smartphone, was launched in India for a price of 35,999 a while back. The phone, also know by its codename K910, is the successor to Lenovo's K900, the flagship from last year. We had reviewed the K900 and found it to be a really good flagship at that point in time, and it's not surprising that the Vibe Z is modeled off the same. With improvements on the outside in terms of design and build and on the inside in terms of internals, is the Vibe Z Lenovo's best offering yet? How does it compare to the newer breed of flagships from other companies? Here is our detailed review of the Lenovo Vibe Z aka K910 to answer those questions.
Unboxing
We had unboxed the Lenovo Vibe Z when it launched earlier. The box is very similar to what Lenovo had offered with the K900, and here are all the box contents that came along with it -
Box Contents
Lenovo K910 is silver
Micro USB cable
USB charger plug – 1.5A
In-ear headset with mic
Information booklets
SIM ejector tool
You can check out the complete unboxing along with the video to find out what our initial impressions were.
Design, Build and Ergonomics
The ...
Obi Mobiles has announced the launch of its operations in the India after several reports. The company is based in Gurgaon and is promoted by Inflexionpoint, popular IT supply chain company co-founded by John Sculley, Ex CEO of Apple. The OBI Mobiles team is headed by Ajay Sharma as CEO, former head of smartphone division in Micromax and HTC and Neeraj Chauhan, CEO of Inflexionpoint for IT and Telecom supply chain aggregation.
Obi Mobiles has been exclusively launched in India currently and plans to invest $20 million this year to set up the supply chain, design centre and sales and aftersales in the key cities across India. It plans to launch affordable smartphones with superior technology, says the company. It plans to expand to other countries Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America in future.
It would be interesting to see the smartphone range OBI Mobiles plans to offer since the company promises value for money smartphones with latest technology. This would face huge competition from Indian players Micromax, Karbonn and others. Xiaomi also plans to enter India soon with their affordable smartphone lineup that is already popular in Singapore, apart from their home ground China.
Obi Mobiles aims to connect next 500 million phone users and works ...
Amazon has integrated Kindle documents to its own Cloud drive thereby by giving its users 10 GB Amazon Cloud storage, in addition to 5GB of storage. Kindle owners received an email from Amazon informing them that all documents sent to Kindle are now stored on Amazon Cloud Drive.
Users will be able to manage their documents from a new folder called “My Send-To-Kindle Docs”. This folder allows users to organize, share, send or delete files of various types like Word documents, PDFs, images, online news articles or blogs. They can also turn off auto saving of documents to the cloud. Prior to this, documents sent to Kindle were converted to .mobi format, but now those docs are stored in their original format to access them anywhere from Amazon Cloud Drive.
Kindle owners have also received additional 5GB of free storage in the Amazon Cloud Drive while they already have 5GB of free space. The move comes from Amazon as it is facing a tough competition from its rivals Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud and Dropbox.
However, it must be noted that Kindle features like bookmark pages or keep tracking of reading progress will not work on Cloud Drive. Amazon's New Kindle Paperwhite went on ...
Samsung and Amazon have entered into a partnership to launch Kindle for Samsung, a custom eBook service for Samsung Galaxy devices to offer books, newspapers and magazines, including over 500,000 exclusive titles. It would also launch Samsung Book Deals to offer 12 free eBooks a year to Samsung Galaxy smartphone and tablet users through the app.
Samsung recently launched Samsung Milk Music, ad-free Radio service powered by Slacker Radio for select Samsung smartphones in the U.S. The new Kindle offer is definitely is great thing since it covers a wider range of Galaxy devices and available for customers worldwide.
The Kindle for Samsung app would launch in April starting with the Galaxy S5 along with existing Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets above Android 4.0 worldwide. Samsung Book Deals would offer free ebooks from a selection of four titles every month.
Kindle for Samsung would be available in over 90 countries from Samsung apps in the next two weeks.
Nokia Lumia 2520 was a tablet that was announced in Nokia's Abu Dhabi event in 2013 and ever since, it hasn't really lived up to the hype. If you were one of the very few who got the tablet, then there is more bad news coming your way.
During one of its internal quality control process, Nokia seems to have found a problem with the device's charger. According to Nokia, around 30,000 chargers for Lumia 2520 are affected and are prone to electric dangers. Nokia has advised its buyers not to use the charger until they do something about it.
The Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet that was brought in countries - Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and UK are prone to risks and also the travel charger for Lumia 2520 brought in - Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, UK and the US are also in risk.
Speaking at this unfortunate turn of events for Lumia 2520 buyers, Nokia's EVP of Smart Devices Jo Harlow said "While there have been no confirmed consumer incidents related to this potential quality issue, product quality and safety are top priorities at Nokia. We apologize to the owners of the Lumia 2520, and we are working with ...
The Indian market is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, purely driven by the barrage of entry level Android smartphones. The market is so big that even Nokia wanted a slice of it, so it is not surprising to see the unending release schedules the companies resort to. One of them is the Indian manufacturer Spice, known for its low and mid range Android smartphones. In that line, we have here the Spice Stellar Mettle Icon for unboxing. This phone, priced at a low Rs. 6,999 in the market is one of the very few phablet sized devices in that price range. From the front, it unmistakeably looks like the HTC One, sans the loudspeakers. Watch it in action in our unboxing video here -
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVwEkw7pZcM
Box contents -
Silver Spice Stellar Mettle Icon
In-ear earphones with mic, styled like the ones that come with the iPhone
Scratch guard
micro USB cable
USB wall charger
Flip case
User manual, warranty and safety information
The best thing about the Spice Stellar Mettle Icon is its build quality. At that price, the sturdy aluminium body is a bonus, and it is even removable. The phone has a 5 inch FWGA display and a 1.3 MP front facing camera ...
Samsung has started rolling out Android 4.4 (KitKat) update for the WiFi variant (SM-P600) of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition starting from Columbia. Samsung confirmed Android 4.4 update for 14 Galaxy devices in the U.S, including the Note 10.1 2014 Edition, earlier this year. It was launched last year running Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). Sadly the Indian 3G variant (SM-P601) is yet to receive the KitKat update.
The KitKat update update brings a new user interface with rounded icons similar to the Galaxy S5. It also brings performance improvements, white status bar icons, wireless printing support, full-screen album art and more. The update is dated April 3rd, which is the latest. It is not clear when Samsung plans to roll out the update globally, but the cellular variant is expected get the update soon.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 got the KitKat update in India earlier this year. Other devices are expected to get the update soon.
Via | Image Via: XDA
LG has launched the Lucid 3 for Verizon Wireless in the U.S. It has a 4.7-inch qHD screen, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It has all the software features present on the other latest LG smartphones, including KnockON with 80,000 possible KnockCode combinations to unlock the phone, QSlide 2.0, QuickMemo and more. It works on Verizon's 4G LTE network.
LG Lucid 3 specifications
4.7-inch (960 x 540 pixels) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 GHz quad-core processor
Android 4.4.2 KitKat
5MP rear camera with LED flash
0.3MP (VGA) front-facing camera
1GB RAM, 8GB Internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
Dimensions: 131.5 x 66.0 x 9.9mm; 123 grams
4G LTE / 3G (HSPA+21Mbps), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS
2,440 mAh battery
The LG Lucid would be available online and in Verizon Wireless stores starting April 17 for free after $50 mail-in rebate debit card and a new two-year activation. It is also available from Verizon for $299.99 without contract.
Sony Mobile has released their official Xperia Keyboard on Google Play Store. Google released their stock Google Keyboard on Google Play last year, but it is still not available globally. The Xperia Keyboard is available widely, but it is limited only to Xperia devices running on Android 4.4 (KitKat), says Xperiablog.net. The version of the Xperia Keyboard on Google Play is 6.4.A.0.6, compared to 6.3.A.0.18 available on other Xperia devices running on KitKat. Releasing stock apps on Google Play would definitely be easier to push updates, instead of rolling out an OTA update every time. Motorola has most of their apps such as Boot Services, Camera and Gallery and more on Google Play and also updates them periodically. Google released the stock camera app on Google Play earlier this week that works on most devices.
Here is the official changelog for Xperia Keyboard after the latest update
Backup and sync - Connect your keyboard to the new Backup and sync service using your Sony Entertainment Network account, to ensure the same keyboard experience across all your Xperia devices, present and future.
New improved keyboard layout for Thai.
Download Sony Xperia Keyboard
HTC has been known to be lavish when it comes to marketing and this was evident when they roped in Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. last year. This time, it is not some big name in the Hollywood, but the man behind Samsung's commercial - The Next Big Thing is here which targeted Apple's iPhone.
According to Bloomberg, HTC have hired Samsung's former Marketing Head and now he seems to be serving as an advisor to HTC's Chairman Cher Wang. Samsung's ex Marketing Head, Paul Golden, will hope to turn the tide in HTC's favor before it is too late as the company has just recorded three straight quarters of losses.
In an interview at HTC’s Taipei headquarters on April 8, the company's Chairman, Cher Wang had said, “We just have to communicate well with our customers. I believe if we can communicate better, we will do better.”
HTC had announced the HTC One M8 last month and the device has garnered mostly positive reviews from the tech community, but will that be enough? Will bolstering the marketing department do any good for HTC's future?
Last week Google launched a limited period sale offer for Explorer edition of Google Glass in the US. Today, the company is debuting a home try on kit program for the Glass to its potential buyers. This is a great opportunity for users who are skeptical about spending $1500 for the device.
Google is giving buyers a chance to explore the Glass at home before they actually buy it. It must be noted that these trial devices are the not the original Google Glass but a dummy model with exact size and specifications, according to an email posted on Reddit that was first noticed by 9to5Google. This program is aimed at giving prospective buyers a feel about the Glass and how will it look on them.
The Glass website does not currently advertise Google's try-on program however, a certain email has been circulating the web and reaching some potential buyers. Of Course, Google is not giving the buyers this trial offer for free. The company will put a $50 hold on their credit card and the user will have to return the Glass after 10 days of trial, after which the $50 charge will be refunded.
The latest move from Google is a ...
Spice launched the Mettle Icon Mi-506 with Metal build recently. We brought you the unboxing earlier this week, here we have the benchmarks of the device. It is powered by a dual-core MediaTek MT6572 SoC with Mali-400 MP GPU clocked at 1.3 GHz. It has a 5-inch (480 x 854 pixels) display, runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and has 512MB of RAM. Let us check out the synthetic benchmark tests.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Kq05LCjtQ
Quadrant Benchmark
The Stellar Mettle Icon scored 3306 points in the quadrant benchmark and grabs the second spot.
AnTuTu Benchmark 4
The Spice Mi-506 managed to score 11119 points in the AnTuTu benchmark 4.
Vellamo 2 HTML5
It scored 1687 points, better than most other smartphones in the Vellamo 2 HTML browser benchmark.
Vellamo 2 Metal
It scored 499 points in the Vellamo 2 Metal CPU subsystem performance test, better than the Xperia E1 dual.
Linpack Single Thread
It clocked around 58.2 MFLOPS in the Linpack single thread benchmarks.
Linpack Multi-Thread
In the linpack multi-thread benchmark, it clocked around 86.6 MFLOPS.
NenaMark 2
It clocked 40.3 FPS in the NenaMark 2 GPU benchmark, better than the Mettle 5X. Other benchmarks crashed. We will be bringing you the complete review of the smartphone next week.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 (P5200) has been listed on official Samsung India eStore at Rs. 36,340. It was announced back in June last year and packs a 10.1-inch (1280×800 pixels) display, powered by a 1.6 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). It has a SIM slot and supports 3G connectivity. Samsung launched the 7-inch and 8-inch variants last year and introduced buyback offers for these tablets recently.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 specifications
10.1-inch (1280×800) IPS display
1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor
Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
3MP rear camera
1.3MP front-facing camera
7.95mm thick and weighs 512 g
1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory and expandable memory up to 64GB via microSD.
3G HSPA+ ,WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), WiFi Channel Bonding, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS + GLONASS
6800 mAh battery
It is not clear why Samsung is launching the tablet months after it was launched in other countries, since the company has unveiled the Tab 4 series running Android 4.4 (KitKat). The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 comes in White colors. It is currently out of stock on the eStore currently.
Sony has a lot of phones and a few tablets in its Sony Xperia Z lineup which started way back during CES 2013 with the Sony Xperia Z. Sony had announced that it would be updating the list of the phones in the Xperia Z lineup to Android 4.4 KitKat during Q2 and now, there is information that the updates are well on their way and will likely be coming during May 2014.
According to the XperiaBlog, Sony has updated its site with information that the Android 4.4 KitKat update for a few phones is coming during May 2014. The phones that will be getting the update include - Sony Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR and Sony Xperia Tablet Z.
With the Android 4.4 KitKat update, Sony has updated its custom UI skin over the Android layer minimally. Sony may not include all the features that is found in the Android 4.4 KitKat version on Sony Xperia Z2, but to get a look of the UI and how it will perform, you can check out the Sony Xperia Z2 Android 4.4 KitKat UI demo video right below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-v7CoZoYa8
Emerging markets and China have resulted in an uptake in global smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2014, according to a latest report from Trend Force. The market research firm says that smartphone shipment worldwide hit 266.9 million units and improved by 1.13% in the first quarter of 2014.
The Chinese smartphone manufacturers’ increased 4G smartphone production is key to the smartphone industry higher than anticipated Q1 growth.
said Avril Wu, Assistant Vice President of TrendForce in an official release.
According to Trend Force, smartphone shipment is predicted to increase by 6.7% QoQ to 284.5 million units in second quarter globally. The report attributed the growth in smartphone market to upcoming flagship phone launches from Apple and other companies.
Giving insights about brand wise ranking in Q1 of 2014, the report stated that Samsung took the top spot with worldwide market share of over 34.9%, due to its low to mid ranged smartphone shipments. On the other hand Samsung's rival Apple registered a decline in global smartphone shipment from 19.4% in Q4 2013 to 13.6% in Q1 2014. Lenovo (without Motorola), Huawei and LG took third, fourth and fifth spot respectively with 7.5%, 5.2% and 4.4% in terms of worldwide smartphone shipment.
According to IDC's report Smartphone market crossed ...
ZTE has launched ZTE Star 1, a mid-range smartphone with LTE support in China. It has a 5-inch full HD display, powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928) processor and runs on Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) with custom skin on top. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
It is just 6.58mm thick, has a metal frame and a glass back. It also offers Dolby experience.
ZTE Star 1 specifications
5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD OGS display with 178-degree wide viewing angle
1.6 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928) with Adreno 305 GPU
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
8MP auto focus camera with dual LED Flash,f/2.0 aperture
5MP front-facing camera with 88 degree wide angle lens
4G LTE / 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB OTG, GPS
3.5mm audio jack
2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 64GB with micro SD
2300 mAh battery
The ZTE Star 1 comes in Pink, Black and White colors and is available for pre-order in China at 1399 Chinese Yuan ( Rs. 13540 approx.). It would go on sale in China later this month and the China Unicom version is expected next month.
The next big thing from Apple is their next iPhone which will be called as the iPhone 6, but that doesn't stop leaks from its even further product lineup which includes the likes of a successor to the iPad Air. The Apple iPad Air 2, as it will be called, is rumored to come with Touch ID fingerprint scanner that was present in the iPhone 5s.
A Dutch website One More Thing has posted showing what is expected to be the front panel of the upcoming iPad Air 2. The image reveals an integrated assembly of the display panel and the display which could be a move away from the current generation iPads which have separate display and front panel arrangements. The new integrated approach could help Apple further reduced the thickness of the iPad Air or make room for a larger battery.
Macrumors was able to talk to iFixit who were able to confirm that the integrated display and front panel could be a possibility as Apple is already using the same in their iPhones as well as Retina MacBook Pro. Though this could drive up the repairing costs, Apple isn't the company that bothers about repair costs.
The next generation iPad Air ...
In the recent times, things have been going good for Motorola in the sales department. They have managed to sell Moto G so much that it has been their most sold smartphone till date. One of the key factors contributing to the success of Motorola Moto G was its timely launch in the Indian smartphone market at an excellent price point.
Motorola is rumored to be launching another budget smartphone, but this time, it will come with entry level specifications and is expected to be priced below the Moto G. According to a Brazilian website - Technoblog, Motorola will be launching a new entry range device in May.
The specifications of the new rumored entry level smartphone include a 4.3inch display of unknown resolution(mostly WVGA or qHD), 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage, 5MP rear camera, 1900mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. The leaked specifications also point towards a very slim smartphone - a thickness of just 6.2mm.
Like the Motorola Moto G, the upcoming device - rumored to be called as Motorola Moto E will come in many variants and will also include a dual SIM option. Interestingly, a variant of the device is also ...
Google Play Store allows developers to respond to the reviews and feedbacks of the users on their applications in the Play Store and soon, Microsoft will be doing the same. Microsoft had recently announced that it will let developers respond to user reviews and feedbacks.
Microsoft seems to very serious about the concern of users as it says that developers who misuse this feature will lose the privilege. It has also announced that no personal contact information is being shared and that all communication will take place through emails and Microsoft will deliver them to you.
Microsoft will also allow users to report questionable behavior of the developers using the reporting link in the details section of the application description. Microsoft has also said that it will be a slow and methodical update, so it would take some time before all developers would be able to reply to user reviews on their applications.
Following the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia, the Finnish company will be renamed as Microsoft Mobile Oy. Multiple sources have confirmed that the name change may be in effect as soon as end of April if the transaction completes within the estimated time frame.
Under the terms of the sale, Microsoft will assume all rights, benefits and obligations of the Nokia Devices and Services business, including Nokia’s agreements with suppliers, customers and partners which pertain to the Devices and Services business. Therefore, the purpose of this letter is to update you that the current terms and conditions that you have with the Devices and Services business will not change.
Please note that upon the close of the transaction between Microsoft and Nokia, the name of Nokia Corporation/Nokia Oyj will change to Microsoft Mobile Oy. Microsoft Mobile Oy is the legal entity name that should be used for VAT IDs and for the issuance of invoices.
Initially spotted in a leaked letter to suppliers, we've received further confirmation via mail from Nokia regarding the privacy and data protection terms once the sale gets completed. Not many consumer facing changes are expected post the sale and indeed the mail mentions that Microsoft will ...
