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LG announced their latest flagship, LG G2 during early August. G2 is one of the first smartphones to come with a Snapdragon 800 SoC. Among the many features, that LG introduced in their new flagship, one of the key aspects was that the 13-megapixel camera on the G2 comes with Optical Image Stabilization(OIS).
The camera on LG G2 looks pretty good and we have camera samples right here. The LG G2 can shoot up to a maximum resolution of 4160 x 3120 pixels. In terms of video recording capabilities, the LG G2 has the 1080p Full HD 60fps recording mode which isn't quite common. Also, the Snapdragon 800 SoC is capable of 4K video capture and record, but the LG G2 does not let the users capture 4K videos like the Galaxy Note 3. The 1080p videos shot at 60 fps are quite amazing as well.
In addition to the 13MP rear camera, there is also a 2.1MP camera at the front which shoots 1080p videos as well.
You can check out the camera samples right below. We have shot various photos in daylight and you can judge the camera quality of the LG G2 for yourselves.
[gallery link="file" ids="82737,82725,82726,82727,82732,82731,82730,82729,82728,82733,82734,82735,82736"]
We will reserve the judgement of ...
Apple not only changed the smartphone industry with their iPhone, but they also made a huge impact on the handheld gaming industry. Since the iPhone 3GS, iOS devices have become an integral part of the handheld gaming platform. It became very clear when the developers of iOS games had more revenue than the handheld console game developers. However, one of the things that has been holding back the gaming experience on the iOS devices is the lack of proper physical gamepads. Despite the many number of third party gaming accessories, iOS devices have lacked native support for gamepads until iOS 7.
With the latest version of iOS, i.e iOS 7, Apple brings native support for gamepad. ClamCase, one of the popular accessories maker for iOS devices, is taking advantage of it by launching GameCase which gives the iOS device a complete Xbox like controller. GameCase will support all the games using gamepad API and developers will not need to add any special code to make the GameCase work as it will directly use the native API. The Bluetooth add-on also promises long play times as it comes with a hefty Li-ion battery. The GameCase gaming case is expected to arrive only ...
HP announced the company's first Tegra 4-powered hybrid, SlateBook x2 with a 10.1-inch 1080p display back in May. Now the company has announced two new devices, Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by a Tegra 4 Cortex-A15 processor with 72-core GeForce GPU. The Slate 7 Extreme has a 7-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display, while the Slate 8 Pro comes with a 7.98-inch (1600 x 1200 pixels) display. Both these run on Android (version is not available yet)
TThe Slate 7 is just a re-branded NVIDIA Tegra Note tablet that was announced earlier this week. It has NVIDIA PureAudio technology with front-facing speakers and a dedicated bass-reflex port speaker. The HP Slate 7 Extreme features an integrated stylus pen and the NVIDIA DirectStylus technology that brings accuracy for pen input.
It has 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD and also a micro HDMI port to connect it to a larger display. The Slate 8 Pro comes with Kingsoft Office, HP File Manager, HP ePrint and HP Connected Photo for producing and managing content. It also comes with Beats Audio and HDR image capture. We still don't have lot of specifications of the Slate 8 Pro. Hope we would get them eventually.
The ...
Google Wallet, Google's payment solution was expected to make payments much easier and make NFC payments mainstream, but ever since Apple ditched NFC, Wallet hasn't really caught on. Google Wallet hasn't been on available on what is one of the most popular smartphone platforms, iOS until now. Apple just updated their iOS platform with a complete redesign in iOS 7 and it was available to the general public just a couple of days ago. And Google Wallet finally made its way to iOS app store just after iOS 7 went public.
Google Wallet comes intact with most of the features that it has in the Android version. The various features that are present in the iOS version include - transfer to friends, loyalty card tracking and nearby offers. One of the key features in the Android version of Google Wallet is the Tap-to-pay feature which requires NFC and since iPhones do not come with NFC, that feature is absent in the iOS version. In terms of Security features, all your wallet cards and other confidential information can be kept safe with a PIN. Also, when your iOS device is lost, the app can be remotely disabled through Google's site.
Google Wallet is ...
Samsung has finally started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos (GT-I9082). The update started rolling out for the Grand Duos starting from Russia last month. . The phone was announced in December last year running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). It was launched in India back in January.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos brings Quick Setting toggles in the drop-down notification bar, faster performance, lockscreen widgets, improved task switching, Daydream mode and lots more new features. Samsung confirmed Android 4.1 update for range of Galaxy devices last year, but they are yet to confirm the list of device that would get the Android 4.2.2 or the 4.3 update.
Samsung released regional language support for range of Smartphones and Tablet last month, including the Grand Duos. These features would remain even after the update. We also got couple of updates after the Android 4.2.2 update for stability improvements.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Grand Duos is 488.76MB and is available over-the-air (OTA) and also via Samsung Kies software. You can check for the update manually from the Settings, About, Software update.
HP has announced two new mid-range Android tablets along with the Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by Tegra 4. These tablets come with 7-inch and 10-inch display at a resolution of 1280 x 800. These tablets are powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A9 Marvell PXA986 processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). These also have front and rear cameras. HP unveiled the Slate 7 at the MWC 2013 earlier this year.
Both these tablets have 1GB of RAM, front and rear camera and a microSD memory card slot. These also have Beats Audio support. These have WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth and comes with optional 4G support with two years of free data up to 200 MB of 4G data per month n the T-Mobile network without any annual service contract requirements or term commitments.
No word on the internal storage or the battery yet. The HP Slate 7 HD and Slate 10 HD would be availabile in the United States in November. Pricing would be announced closer to the availability.
Samsung is leading yet another consumer electronics segment in India, and this is after conquering the mobile category. Yes, the company is now leading the rapidly growing tablet segment too, with 21% of marketshare according to CyberMedia Research's analysts. The overall tablet market too has massively improved in India, with about 1.15 million shipments in the last quarter - Q2 of 2013. This is a 27& QoQ increase and a huge 107% increase year-on-year. But the Indian market is predominantly 7 inch and other similarly sized small tablets, with about 70 vendors actively part of the whole market making it highly fragmented.
The above image shows you how much the Tablet market has grown when compared to the same quarter previous year. But even more surprising is the list of top three Tablet vendors in India -
You read that right. Datawind, the manufacturer of the popular and cheap UbiSlate tablets is the second most popular vendor in the Indian market, with about 12.5% marketshare, right next to Samsung. All the more surprising fact is that these numbers do not take account of the Aakash tablet, which spurred a huge amount of pre orders and subsequently disappointment. The third player in the ...
While we have already seen renders of the purported Nokia Asha 500 and its dual shot style shells, the bigger news to report here is that Whatsapp is finally coming to the Asha software platform, which includes the highly popular Asha 501 too. If the above leaked press image is to be believed(usually very trustworthy because of @evleaks), Whatsapp will finally arrive for the new Nokia Asha series. This has been THE highly requested app on Nokia Asha 501, and we are glad to see that it is indeed coming, but when is the question.
As you can see from the press image above, the Asha 500 sports a really cool-looking dual shot shell that Nokia made popular with the Lumia 620. Expected to run on similar hardware as the Asha 501, the Asha 500 too will possibly hit a similar price point and the status area indicates that the device will be Dual SIM and will have WiFi too, much like the 501.
If you had read our review of the Asha 501, you might know that we really liked the device, but in turn of the latest events(Microsoft acquiring Nokia), we were doubtful on what will happen to the Asha ...
Samsung India recently announced that they would release couple of Android mid-range Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos (GT-S7392) is now available in India from online retailer Snapdeal. Even though Samsung has not announced the smartphone officially, it is available in China in a different name. The phone has a 4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display similar to the Galaxy S Duos and also comes with Dual SIM support with Dual SIM always-on feature that automatically forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if a user is on the phone with SIM 1’s number.
It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 3-megapixel rear camera without a front-facing camera. However this comes with proximity and ambient light sensors similar to the S Duos.
Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos Specifications
4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 GHz dual-core processor
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
11.1 mm thick and weighs 128.5 grams
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
3MP rear Camera
512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory that is expandable up to 32GB with microSD
3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0 and aGPS
1500mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos comes in Black and White colors and is priced at Rs. 8,490. The phone has not ...
LG just sent invites for the launch of the new G2 here in India. We've previously taken a look at the handset at IFA and found the hardware to be seriously impressive. We're already working on the review and here is our unboxing of the LG G2. Under the hood is the latest Snapdragon 800 processor paired with 2GB of RAM. There's also very interesting hardware design going around here with all the physical buttons placed at the rear of the phone below the camera module.
The screen is a 5.2 inch Full HD panel and has an edge to edge screen with almost zero bezel on the sides. The camera is a 13MP unit with optical image stabilization built in. The phone has 16GB of storage paired with a micro SD card slot. You also get WiFi ac support because of the Snapdragon 800 processor being used. The operating system is Android 4.2.2 with LG's custom interface layer on top of it. We're not huge fans of this OS layer and have taken a look at it previously on the LG G Pro as well. We'll have more on the LG G2 closer to launch, in the meanwhile you should ...
Earlier today, trading stopped for BlackBerry's stock and now we know the reason. The company has reported a net loss of $950 million and will be laying off 4500 employees. This comprises of almost 40% of the entire workforce. The company plans to reduce expenses by almost 50% and will retain about 7,000 jobs worldwide.
The heavy losses are on account of extremely poor sales of BB10 based handsets. The company sold 3.7 million handsets in the last quarter with the majority of them being BlackBerry 7 based devices. This news come hot on the heels of the launch of BlackBerry's new large screen BB10 device, the Z30. BlackBerry's service revenue accounts for half of the company's cash flow and has shown a mild amount of growth as well.
"Our enterprise business continues to reflect the trust that governments and businesses have placed in the BlackBerry platform, Security matters and enterprises know the gold standard in enterprise mobility is BlackBerry," said Thorsten Heins
Revenue for the company is down to $1.6 billion from the $3.1 billion in the last quarter with the majority of it being from the services division. At its current rate, the company will burn out of cash sometime in ...
As the race to improve smartphone optics flares up, we've also seen a variety of interesting offshoots. These range from cameras with built in Android case in point being the Galaxy Camera, Nikon S800C or phones with a more full featured captured module. The Galaxy S4 Zoom and the Nokia 808, 1020 would fall in this category. The problem however is the size and thickness tradeoff being made here.
Sony is trying to change things up a bit by introducing a brand new category of products into the mix. The QX10 and QX100 are Sony's attempts at letting you have a point and shoot camera that works with your phone and fits in your palm but isn't permanently attached to the back of your phone. If that sounds weird, you're right. But we decided keep our reservations about the product aside and give it a proper spin. Read on to find out what we think about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 smart lens.
Hardware
The QX10 is a fairly diminutive little lens that has a few essential buttons on it and little else. There'a slot for an adaptor to latch on and under the camera lens is a tripod mount.
Other buttons include the power ...
LG announced their latest flagship, LG G2 during early August. G2 is one of the first smartphones to come with a Snapdragon 800 SoC. Among the many features, that LG introduced in their new flagship, one of the key aspects was that the 13-megapixel camera on the G2 comes with Optical Image Stabilization(OIS).
The camera on LG G2 looks pretty good and we have camera samples right here. The LG G2 can shoot up to a maximum resolution of 4160 x 3120 pixels. In terms of video recording capabilities, the LG G2 has the 1080p Full HD 60fps recording mode which isn't quite common. Also, the Snapdragon 800 SoC is capable of 4K video capture and record, but the LG G2 does not let the users capture 4K videos like the Galaxy Note 3. The 1080p videos shot at 60 fps are quite amazing as well.
In addition to the 13MP rear camera, there is also a 2.1MP camera at the front which shoots 1080p videos as well.
You can check out the camera samples right below. We have shot various photos in daylight and you can judge the camera quality of the LG G2 for yourselves.
[gallery link="file" ids="82737,82725,82726,82727,82732,82731,82730,82729,82728,82733,82734,82735,82736"]
We will reserve the judgement of ...
We have two of Sony's best here - biggest of the Sony Xperia lineup, the Xperia Z Ultra and the very popular Xperia Z. The Xperia Z Ultra is the company's first attempt at a phablet device while the Xperia Z was meant to the company back into the race.
The Xperia Z Ultra was launched in July while the Xperia Z was launched way back in January. Lets check out how the Xperia Z Ultra and Xperia Z compete against each other.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqrtIdpY5QQ
Design, Build Quality
The Xperia Z Ultra looks like a bigger version of the Xperia Z in terms of design and build quality. The Xperia Z Ultra is water and dust resistant just like the Xperia Z. The Xperia Z Ultra is one of the biggest phones out there, but it is also the slimmest device with a Full HD 1080p display.
In terms of dimensions, the Xperia Z Ultra is way bigger than the Xperia Z. The Z Ultra is 4 centimeter taller and 2centimeter wider than the Xperia Z, but is 1.5mm thinner. In terms of weight, the Xperia Z Ultra is heavier at 212g while the Z weighs around 146g.
On the front of the phones, we have the display ...
LG launched their latest flagship, LG G2 in August, a month before IFA 2013 and the Optimus G Pro was announced way back in February. G2 is meant to be a direct competitor to Samsung's Galaxy S4 while the Optimus G Pro is aimed at the phablet market and as a competition to Galaxy Note 2. Check out our quick hands-on comparison video right below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bubDpakA9s
LG G2 is one of the first to come out with power lock and volume rocker at the back of the phone and it comes with extremely small bezels. Optimus G Pro has very solid build quality with a metal rim running across the device. The G2 is made of plastic and feels considerably lighter than the G Pro.G2 has no on screen buttons and navigation is restricted to on-screen keys which occupies valuable screen real estate. On the G Pro, we have traditional physical home button flanked by capacitive touch keys on both the side.
G2 is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 800 SoC clocked at 2.2GHz and Adreno 330 while the G Pro is powered by quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC clocked at 1.7GHz and Adreno 320. Both the phones have 2GB RAM and have 16/32GB ...
The very popular BlackBerry messenger (which was exclusive to BlackBerry devices so far) has now gone live on the iOS App Store. To be available around the globe over the next 24 hours, the application is now available on the New Zealand App Store.
The application is also expected to hit the Android Play Store any moment. The App Store description points out of some of the features that sets BBM apart from the likes of Whatsapp which has accumulated a huge market share of its own.
Instant Chat:
• Immediately know when your messages have been delivered (D’s) and read (R’s)
• Know when contacts are responding to your message
• Say it with a variety of emoticons for every mood and emotion.
Chat and Share with many at once:
• Groups – Create or join a group and chat, share pictures lists, and appointments with the whole group. You can even be in a group with people who aren't part of your BBM contact list.
• Multi-chat – Invite multiple contacts to participate in a chat together.
• Broadcast – Send a message to multiple BBM contacts at one time.
There’s more to share with BBM:
• Share voice notes
• Share photos
• Share URLs
Stay in control:
• With 2-way opt-in, ...
Oppo is likely to be the official hardware partner for Cyanogen and the company dropped a hint towards this on YouTube with its new trailer. Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik himself has announced that he would attend the Oppo N1 launch event in Beijing on September 23rd. This might be for discussing a hardware partnership with the company. Recently Cyanogen announced the Cyanogen Inc and has also secured $7 million in startup.
The Oppo N1 might come with an optional and officially supported Cyanogen ROM says Android Police and Steve Kondik might demo it live in the N1 launch event. Oppo uses the company's own Color ROM. Since Oppo's devices come with unlocked bootloader, you have option to try out other ROMs and also test out the beta versions of their color ROM from their forums. Oppo is capable of making solid devices and the Oppo Find 5 is a fine example of this.
Since the video is short, we can't make sure what we can expect from Cyanogen at the Oppo N1 launch next week. We've embedded the video below. Do check it out and we'll have more on the partnership as soon as we find out.
httpv://youtu.be/lV1c8nzDp5s
BBM for iPhone is here! Yes, for real. Here are some screenshots of BBM or BlackBerry Messenger running on an Apple iPhone 5 with iOS7. BlackBerry announced few months back that it was bringing the BlackBerry Messenger service to iOS and Android and has kept its promise. The app is a free 30MB download which has gone live on the New Zealand iTunes app store as of now. It would be going live on the Indian App Store later today and will be available worldwide. You can either use your existing BlackBerryID (If you were using a BlackBerry device in the past) or create a new one. You need to verify the associated email account to get things working.The App is a 30MB download and is releasing on 22nd September. The app has been optimized for the iPhone 5 and runs on iPhones running iOS 6.0 or later. We did not have any trouble getting the app to run on iOS 7. I setup BBM on the BlackBerry Q10 which is a BlackBerry 10 device with one BlackberryID account and the iPhone 5 with another BlackBerryID account so that I can test the chat functionality. After some initial hiccups it ...
BlackBerry Messenger for Android was supposed to go live yesterday, but it didn't happen. BBM for iPhone went live briefly, but now the app has been pulled from the app store. BlackBerry has announced just now that they have paused the roll out of the Android due to issues caused by leaked the Android APK.
This unreleased version saw more than 1.1 million active users in the first 8 hours, even before the official release says BlackBerry which caused several issues, and BlackBerry has been working on address it throughout the day that caused the pause in roll out. These issues have not impacted BBM service for BlackBerry, says the company.
The company says the team is working to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, and it will happen soon. Lucky users who have already downloaded BBM for iPhone will be able to continue to use BBM, but the leaked Android app will be disabled.
BBM for Android would see country-based roll-out and BBM for iPhone would continue to roll out. You can check out the screenshots of the BBM for iPhone. We will let you know once these apps go live.
Gionee Elife E5 was announced in early July and falls in the mid-range Android smartphone range. On paper, it has a specification similar to Samsung's yesteryear flagship, Galaxy S3. It comes with a 4.8inch HD SuperAMOLED display, a quad-core processor, Android 4.2.1 Jellybean, 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. The Gionee Elife E5 is powered by MediaTek MT6589 processor, has 1GB of RAM and comes in a pretty well designed package. Elife E5 is currently available for Rs. 18,999 in the market.
The rear camera on the Gionee Elife E5 is an 8MP auto-focus camera that comes with Back Side Illumination(BSI) sensor. There is an LED flash to help you take photographs in low-light conditions. The rear camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps. The front camera is a 5MP fixed focus camera with wide-angle lens that fits more into the frame. The front camera records 720p videos at 30fps.
You can check out the camera samples right below. We have shot various photos in various conditions and you can see how the camera on the Elife E5 performs.
[gallery link="file" ids="82748,82749,82750,82751,82752,82753,82754,82755,82756,82757"]
We reserve the judgement of the camera quality till the full review. What do you think of the camera quality of Gionee ...
Priced at Rupees 44990/-, Sony Xperia Z1 is already available in stores, in India. It was first introduced to the world at IFA in Berlin, earlier this month and Sony has been surprisingly quick to bring this flagship device to India. The Z1 has a 5 inch Full HD display and is powered by a super fast Quadcore Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2 Ghz. The Android 4.2.2 handset has some of the most tempting add ons with the box.
The Sony Xperia Z1 box comes swamped with freebie stickers all over it. Its a small white box with the additional accessory boxes in individual packaging. Xperia Z1 is a water proof phone, yet a phone cover worth Rupees 2990/- accompanies the box. Another accessory that comes complimentary with the Z1 box is a portable charger priced at Rupees 2,790/. The android phone boasts of a 3000 mAh battery but a having a free portable charger couldn't harm anyone!
The 5000 mAh Li-ion Polymer portable battery can charge the Xperia Z1 twice, if it is fully charged. The portable charger can also charge Apple products like the iPhone or iPad.
The protective hard cover that ships with the phone doesn't look all that great and ...
