Page 216 – GadgetByte Nepal

Hollyland microphones are now available in Nepal via Oliz Store

Raizel Tandukar

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May 27, 2024

Hollyland microphones are now available in Nepal via Oliz Store

It’s no secret that good sound is a gateway to enjoyable content. So, what can you do? Getting a good microphone is surely a place to start. And the fresh entry in the Nepali market — Hollyland, could be a good choice for you! Let’s discuss more about Hollyland, its microphones, and their price in Nepal.

Hollyland Microphones in Nepal Overview

Introduction

Hollyland is a wireless technology brand hailing from Shenzen, China. The company was established in 2013 and has been a key player in the content production market. It has a decorated portfolio including video transmission systems, cameras, monitors, wireless microphones, and wireless intercom systems.

The company aims to “make shooting infinitely easier” while “leading the industry development”. In the process, Hollyland stepped into the international market in 2016 and bagged the Reddot Design Award and PRONEWS Award Gold Award in 2022 for its various offerings. After this, its microphones also started gaining global attraction and eventually, Hollyland entered the Nepali market as well through Oliz Store.

Hollyland Microphone

1. Hollyland LARK C1 DUO

The LARK C1 is the most affordable Hollyland microphone you can get in Nepal. It is available in two variants — Type-C and iOS. The entire package contains two transmitters, one receiver with either a USB Type-C or Lightening (male) port, a USB-A to USB-C cable, two furry windscreens, a charging case, and a storage bag.

Additionally, these microphones have an omnidirectional pickup, a one-click noise cancellation feature, and a 200-metre operating range. Moreover, it offers sample rate and audio resolution of 48kHz and 16-bit respectively. You also get a 140 mAh internal battery offering eight hours of usage time.

2. Hollyland LARK M1 DUO

Next up, we have the Hollyland LARK M1 DUO which offers much of what the LARK C1 DUO offers. It does have some differences though. Firstly, the receiver comes with a USB-C female port. Meanwhile, you also get a 3.5mm TRS cable as well as a 3.5mm TRS to TRRS cable coupled with the package.

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3. Hollyland LARK M2 DUO

The Hollyland LARK M2 DUO is another microphone available in Nepal and is the successor to the previous entry. The audio resolution on this thing has been upped to 24-bit while the receiver has been redesigned into circular units. In the meantime, the contents in the box have also been updated.

Now you get three different receivers one with a USB-C connector, one with a lightning connector, and a camera mount one. Other than that, it also includes four clip magnets, a back clip, and a drawstring bag.

4. Hollyland LARK MAX DUO

Finally, we have the most premium Hollyland microphone available in Nepal — the LARK MAX DUO! It offers the same sample rate and audio recording quality as the LARK M2. However, it comes with an increased transmission range of 250 metres. Additionally, you also get a touchscreen OLED as a display and for controls.

Likewise, it also comes with a larger 490 mAh in-built cell with nine hours of battery life. In the box, you get two microphone transmitters, a receiver, a charging case, a 3.5mm TRS cable, two furry windscreens, two magnetic clips, and a storage back. In addition to that, you get one each of USB-C to lightning, USB-C to USB-C, and USB-C to USB-A cables.

Hollyland Microphones Price in Nepal and Availability

The Hollyland microphone price in Nepal starts from NPR 16,500 and goes all the way up to NPR 43,500. You can get these microphones through Oliz Store’s official website as well as their physical store. Other Hollyland products like wireless video transmission systems and wireless intercom systems are also available for purchase.

S.N.	Hollyland Microphones	Price in Nepal
1	LARK C1 DUO (Type-C)	NPR 16,500
1	LARK C1 DUO (iOS)	NPR 18,000
2	LARK M1 DUO	NPR 16,500
3	LARK M2 DUO	NPR 28,000
4	LARK MAX DUO	NPR 43,500

Meanwhile, check out our best action camera in 2024 video:

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ review: Now that’s a stylish design

Mintu

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May 27, 2024

0

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ review: Now that’s a stylish design

I think we all can agree that the budget segment smartphones are really boring these days. The best the budget segment has to offer is the Redmi 12 and the Moto G34 and that’s about it! But what if I tell you, for under 27,000 Rupees, this phone, The Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus offers an almost mid-range experience? It has a curved AMOLED display, a nice vegan leather finish, and a 100MP camera – all packed in at an affordable price. To be fair, this is not a 5G phone, but if you are someone who doesn’t care about that and if 4G speeds are enough for you, this phone actually ticks a lot of boxes. Let me explain one by one in this Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Review.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Specifications

Display: 6.78 inches AMOLED, 120Hz, 1000 nits (peak)
Resolution: 1080 x 2436 pixels (~393 ppi density)
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G99 Ultimate
Memory: 256GB Storage/ 8GB RAM
Rear Camera: 108 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/1.67″, 0.64µm, PDAF 0.08 MP (AL)
Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.2, (wide)
Battery: 5000 mAh, 33W charging
OS: Android 14
Speaker: Stereo
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2
Color: Temporal Orbits, Lunar Frost, Radiant Starstream, Magic Skin 2.0 Green
Buy Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Here

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Review

Design

Okay, I’m going to begin with what I love the most about this guy: its design. Tecno has provided a vegan leather finish on the rear side which feels nice, like really nice! I love this color too, but if you don’t prefer this color, there are other options too which come with a glass back.

Design

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Talking of the design, it’s surprising how thin this phone is and how Tecno has been able to fit in a 5000 mAh battery here. The frames here are plastic, but it look and feels very seamless. Also, look at the bezels here, they are almost non-existent and the little punch hole on the top just makes the display look very minimal.

Display

Display: 6.78 inches AMOLED, 120Hz, 1000 nits (peak)
Resolution: 1080 x 2436 pixels (~393 ppi density)

It’s a curved display that comes with a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel that has a 120Hz refresh rate, Full HD+ resolution, and a 1920 Hz PWM dimming. Tecno hasn’t mentioned the type of display protection here nor any sort of TUV Rheinland certification, but since this is a budget phone, I will let that slide.

Display

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Surprisingly, the display quality here is good for the price. Of course, it is not as contrast-rich or vibrant as what you get in say, premium midrange AMOLED displays, but the color reproduction and contrast are decent, much better than the IPS panels we get in a similar price range.

The 120Hz refresh rate also seems to be optimized decently here. I didn’t face much stutters here and the auto switch refresh rate switches the refresh rate from 60-120Hz pretty seamlessly most of the time. I do have to tell you that one or two times the phone would simply run at 60 Hz even with the auto refresh rate option turned on, but then it went back to running normally when restarted. So, that was a little bitter experience I had like one or two times while using this phone.

Tecno also claims that it has 1000 nits of peak brightness as well, which of course only comes into play while watching HDR content. But the phone is bright enough outdoors so no complaints. Also, you get an in-display fingerprint sensor here which is fast enough, so, overall, I am quite happy about the display on this phone.

And despite being a curved panel, I didn’t experience a lot of accidental touches here. As expected, you do not get HDR playback support on Netflix and YouTube here but it shouldn’t be much of an issue for a budget phone, right?

Audio

Likewise, you also get a dual stereo speaker setup, which is just decent, nothing extraordinary! It is loud enough but certainly is not 400% loud as claimed on the official site and the output is only decent.

Performance

Chipset: Mediatek Helio G99 Ultimate
Memory: 256GB Storage/ 8GB RAM

Under the hood, the Spark 20 Pro+ packs a 6nm fabbed Helio G99 ‘Ultimate’ processor. I’m a bit confused with this “Ultimate” moniker as the official site doesn’t mention an increase of CPU or GPU clock speeds. Anyway, we know the Helio G99 is a tried and tested chipset and for a budget price, it’s a good performer.

Gaming

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When it comes to gaming, you can play popular titles like PUBG and Call of Duty at a stable 40fps rate. On a High fps game like Mech Arena, it managed to provide a 60fps gameplay. And a 30fps output on Genshin Impact, of course on low settings! Well, despite being a slim phone, it doesn’t overheat, so that was impressive!

And besides gaming, running the day-to-day chores on this guy seems as okay as it should be! It’s not superfluid fast, but it caters well to a moderate user with a bit of social media usage, light gaming, and multitasking with 3-4 apps at once.

UI and Software

OS: Android 14

Alright, so with brands like Tecno and Infinix, the biggest concern I had previously was the software front. These brands were known to have sluggish bloatware-ridden software which didn’t provide a much refined experience.

UI

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But the HiOS 14 built here is actually nice. First of all, it comes with Android 14, which is somewhat of a slap on Redmi’s face since even their premium phones don’t come with Android 14 out of the box. Secondly, I am impressed that there isn’t much bloatware to complain about, which is really impressive for a budget Tecno phone.

On top of that, you also get a bit of customization options here and there are no ads anywhere. It also has this feature where it mimics the Dynamic Island notifications from the iPhone. It’s visible while plugging in the charger, low battery reminder, charge completion reminder, and so on.

But still, here and there, there are some things that are not refined in the UI here, at least not as well as Samsung or even Redmi. Having said that, I do think this is a good start and if Tecno keeps improving, the future looks good for them.

However., I don’t have much information on how many years of software updates this phone will receive though!

Camera

Rear Camera: 108 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/1.67″, 0.64µm, PDAF 0.08 MP (AL)
Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.2, (wide)

Okay, time to talk about the cameras. You get a triple camera setup here technically, but I’ll rule out the two from here: the two useless 0.08MP auxiliary lenses (Shaking My Head). So, the only one remains the 108MP primary camera. From this, the daylight images look like this.

Daytime

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As you can see, the 108MP camera captures good images under good lighting conditions. The details are good and the images look sharp. But the HDR processing can be weak in some conditions and I also feel the colors are quite on the muted side. It’s no issue if you actually prefer natural-like colors, but if you like a vibrant output, you might want to edit the pictures a little bit.

3X In-sensor Zoom

The 100MP camera is also capable of 3X in-sensor zoom too but the outputs are just “okayish”, nothing special.

3X

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Lowlight

When the sun goes down, the phone is not able to manage details. However, I found the dedicated night mode doing a great job at controlling exposure and sharpening the photos

Night time

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Portraits

Coming to the Portraits, the Spark 20 Pro+ clicks inconsistent pictures. You get a slight pinkish skin tone with a lot of beautification and you need really good lighting to get usable shots.

Portraits

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Selfies

Selfies are also on a bit oversharpened side, but it doesn’t look too bad. It clicks decent selfies for the price, I must say.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus

1 of 5

Videography

In terms of videos, it can shoot at 2K 30fps from both cameras. There is no OIS here but you do get EIS with 1080p 30fps recording. At 2k resolution, the quality of the videos is not bad but there is no stabilization. Even the 1080p videos are not that stable, so the Videography side of things is just okay here.

Battery

Battery: 5000 mAh, 33W charging

Moving on, as I mentioned before, you get a typical 5000mAh cell here which lasts for more than a day in normal usage. Even with some gaming here and there, it provided 8 hours of SOT. The 33W inbox charger tops it up in 1 hour and 25 minutes approximately.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Review Conclusion

So overall, I am honestly surprised by the Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus. I did think that the specs were too good to be true and I was expecting this phone to let me down in one aspect or the other, but no, it’s a really good offering for the price. Tecno has definitely raised the bar for how good a budget phone can be in 2024. Of course, the cameras and software need further refinement, but that’s not something a brand can achieve in a day, so I will give Tecno the benefit of the doubt.

So, overall, as I mentioned in the beginning, if you absolutely do not need 5G speeds, the Tecno Spark 20 Pro will give you a good experience at a budget price.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ Review Pros and Cons

Pros:

Vegan leather finish
Curved AMOLED display
Decent performance
Long-lasting battery

Cons:

Issues with the refresh rate.
Weak secondary cameras
Software only average

inDrive isn’t the same anymore, and it’s bad…

inDrive

Raizel Tandukar

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May 26, 2024

0

inDrive isn’t the same anymore, and it’s bad…

inDrive recently entered the Nepali market officially and brought in some changes along with it. But it hasn’t worked out well so far — in fact — it has affected the company adversely. Let’s discuss more about the issues with inDrive in this article, along with our opinion on what the company should do next.

inDrive Issues Overview

A bit about inDrive

inDrive is the second-largest ride-sharing app in the world in terms of download volume. It was founded back in 2012 by a group of Russian students. Formerly, it was known as “inDriver”, standing for independent driver. It was merely a social media group before it took its modern-day form.

At this time, inDrive is absolutely huge with their services operating in 47 countries across 700+ cities. Nepal also falls within the given number, with their services starting around mid-2022.

inDrive in Nepal

When the company arrived in Nepal, the landscape of ride-sharing was a bit different. The sector was in a grey zone of legality while still being operational. Furthermore, the service was almost monopolised by the Bangladeshi brand — Pathao. It was a fully registered company that charged up to 20% commission from its riders and provided insurance to them too.

It was going to be tough for inDrive to loosen the stronghold of Pathao. For this, it took rather drastic measures. Firstly, it did not charge any commission from its riders. Hence, riders could accept as many rides as they wanted and keep all the amount they earned by themselves. This made inDrive a more attractive platform than Pathao, where they had to give away nearly one-fifth of their entire income.

Not only was it attractive for riders, but it was an attractive platform for users as well. The fare on inDrive was comparatively cheaper than Pathao. The difference could be as much as 15% less for the same route. On top of that, it allowed users to bargain and choose a rider as per their liking all while having a massive pool of riders.

A combination of these factors made it an unstoppable force, rapidly rising in popularity. But it was only a matter of time before issues with inDrive started surfacing.

Issues

While inDrive was gaining momentum as the cheaper ride-sharing platform, it was also making waves as the unsafe one. For starters, to aggressively compete in the market while keeping the operational costs low, the company was not legally registered in Nepal. Given that, it did not even have a physical office. So, if an issue arose, people simply did not know where to fall back. Therefore, the riders on the platform were simply unregulated.

This also led to cases of scamming, verbal abuse, misbehaviour, and stalking — even. There was a series of social media posts of people, especially women, sharing their bitter experiences on inDrive. In addition to all that, the company does not offer insurance either to its riders or customers. Hence, if you ever happen to get into an accident then you are on your own.

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Now it’s registered

While the prevailing issues were there, the Nepal government decided to divert their focus on ride-sharing as well. The government recognised ride-sharing as a service-oriented industry and set forth criteria for its operation. The most important one is the provision of insurance to the customers. Now, inDrive was neither registered nor did it provide insurance. This led to the company and its riders into hot water. The Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police started penalising inDrive riders a fine of NPR 2,000.

As a result, a lot of riders quit or switched to other platforms to save themselves from unnecessary fines. In response, inDrive registered itself to control the situation. Meanwhile, the company also assured that it was working to provide insurance services. However, we are yet to see any development in that matter.

BUT… issues remain

All this has led to inDrive losing its ace. As soon as it became an official company, it started charging a 10% commission to its riders. In the meantime, it is also working on regulating its platform. Sources say it has temporarily banned a lot of its riders for varying reasons. On top of all that, inDrive also charged a commission on cancelled rides as well.

Because of all these reasons, inDrive riders were distraught and have consistently left the platform. This has directly impacted the overall app experience since it has become very difficult for the users to find a rider. In the meantime, the fare has also increased compared to the past.

Looking at all this, it does not look very good for the company. And they need to do something about it very fast.

What can be done?

inDrive was a free platform for the riders for nearly two years. Thus, it was only a matter of time before it changed its strategy and started charging commissions. However, suddenly doing so was not the way to go. The company should have taken a minimal cut of preferably 5% at first. The fact that it started charging 10% without even introducing insurance did not sit right with many riders. Hence, inDrive needs to first address this issue.

They can either adjust their commission or introduce insurance as soon as possible. Another major issue is once again with the commission. The fact that riders have to pay the commission even in case of cancellation is straight-up unfair. Therefore, they need to revisit their policy in this regard. If it refunds the commissions and all this is because of a technical issue then it needs to quickly sort this issue.

Besides that, the company could also introduce insurance as an optional feature. Here, the customer or rider has the say if they want their insured rides or not. If they do they’ll have to pay an extra rupee or two like in other platforms. Meanwhile, if they don’t then they can get cheaper rides or get a more cut from it.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that inDrive is taking a serious hit in rider availability and the overall experience. The company needs to sort all this out by striking a sweet spot between taking a rider-centric and consumer-centric stance. This will allow it to retain its consumer as well as rider base and remain the same ride-sharing platform we all know and love. We hope inDrive works on its issues and solves them as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, read our article on the best ride-sharing apps in Nepal as well.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ goes official in Nepal with curved AMOLED screen and Helio G99 SoC

Tecno

Dip Khatiwada

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May 26, 2024

0

Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ goes official in Nepal with curved AMOLED screen and Helio G99 SoC

Tecno has launched the Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ in Nepal with a gorgeous-looking curved AMOLED panel, Helio G99 SoC, and more. In this article, let’s dive into discussing the recently released Tecno Spark 20 Pro+, its official price in Nepal, Specifications, features, and more.

Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus Overview

Design and Display

The Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ comes in a visually attractive design with a curved finish. Additionally, its IP53 rating ensures resistance to dust and splashes. The Spark 20 Pro+ will be available in visually appealing color options, including Temporal Orbits, Lunar Frost, Radiant Starstream, and Magic Skin 2.0 Green. The latter option comes with a vegan leather back panel. While the rest come in a dual-tone finish the second and third options feature some eye-catching patterns.

Featuring a 6.78-inch AMOLED display, the Spark 20 Pro+ delivers a vibrant visual experience with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. The 1080 x 2436 pixel resolution and an impressive 89.0% screen-to-body ratio contribute to an immersive display. The inclusion of an Always-On display enhances user convenience.

Meanwhile, check all the prices and specs of Tecno smartphones here