Samsung’s Note device has always been a unique offering for smartphone enthusiasts. However, it does come with a hefty cost, usually around $1000. One might argue, it’s good only because there was virtually not a single competitor providing a similar device? A device with a stylus to be specific! That’s about to change as a new player, that goes by the name of Moto G Stylus, has just been announced. It costs $299, which is a fraction of what Samsung is asking for their Note devices.
Moto G Stylus Specs Overview
Despite currently having a mid-range lineup that is in total disarray and with only a few handful devices that can be branded as a success, Motorola is planning on going toe-to-toe against Samsung in this front with the Moto G Stylus.
Moto G Stylus is Motorola’s first phone with a Stylus pen. It is not pressure sensitive as the Galaxy Note devices and it lacks the Bluetooth connectivity too, but it gets the job done. There’s a Moto Note app with which you can write down notes, sketch, and doodle. There’s a hole on the right side where the Stylus is kept.
On to the specs, there’s a triple camera setup on the back. The primary lens is a 48MP f/1.7 sensor. The second lens is a 16MP ultra-wide Action Camera that shoots smooth wide-angle videos. You cannot shoot 16MP ultrawide images though, which is strange. The third is a 2MP macro lens.
Display-wise, you get a 6.4-inch FullHD+ 19:9 1080P IPS panel with a tiny punch hole residing on the left top. It houses a 16MP selfie snapper. Battery wise, you get a 4000mAh capacity with 10W charging done via a Type-C port.
In the performance department, the Moto G Stylus is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset aided by 4GB RAM and 128GB eMMC storage. For the asking price of $299, I think Motorola should have gone with atleast 6GB RAM and Snapdragon 7-series chipset. They could have also offered a faster 18W charging. So, looking at the specs, it remains unclear if just a stylus be enough from Motorola’s side to compete with the Midrange phones priced at $300.
Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
Battery: 4000mAh battery with 10W charging
Motorola Moto G Stylus Price
The Moto G Stylus is priced at US$299 and will be first available in the U.S starting this spring. Availability for other markets including Nepal has not been detailed yet.
Will technology help solve the crisis around us or just create more of it? This question or a different phrasing of the same thing arises whenever a group sits down to talk about technological development. And I won’t lie to you, many-a-times I cannot decide which side to choose. However, a new development has really restored my faith in technology. A new report published claim that scientists have created an electricity generator which can generate 140V electricity that can power 100 LED bulbs from one drop of water.
Yup, you read that right. 100 LED bulbs powered by a single raindrop. This development has set a new bar for energy-harvesting technologies.
Basically, this new droplet-based technology has a very high energy-conversion efficiency. And it’ll hopefully help us all tackle the growing energy crisis of the world.
140V electricity from one drop of water
This exciting research was performed by a group of scientists at the City University of Hong Kong. Their report shows that a drop of 100 microlitres of water released from a height of 15cm can generate a voltage of 140V.
Now hydro-power is not a new thing. It is already used in various parts of the world including Nepal. However, its potential has not been fully realized due to the limitations in the current tech. But now, maybe this development will be “the“ big breakthrough in solving the energy crisis.
Currently, droplet energy generators make use of the triboelectric effect to generate electricity. This basically means that electricity is generated when two materials come into contact with each other. However, it has a very low energy conversion efficiency due to the small size of the charge.
This is where the new research jumps in with its solutions for the limitations. Firstly, they have used PTFE, a material with a quasi-permanent electric charge. When droplets hit the surface of PTFE, a charge builds up gradually in its surface, until it reaches a saturation point. This feature helps to negate the bottleneck of the past approaches.
Secondly, this new design somewhat resembles the field-effect transistor. The generator has two electrodes. One made of aluminum and other made up of indium tin oxide with PTFE coating.
As soon as water droplets hit the PTFE coated electrode, the original setup gets converted into a closed-circuit. As a result, the stored charge is released and electricity is generated.
Furthermore, reports suggest that this generator is not affected by lower relative humanities. This concept can be used on any surface where liquid particles come into contact with solid. Basically, places such as boat hulls, coastlines, and even umbrellas. Now, this is something that everyone should look forward to! Do you think such technology where a significant volume of electricity generated from one drop of water is sustainable in the long run? Share your thoughts with us.
Big changes might be on the way for Microsoft Surface laptops. And that’s all because of a major announcement made by Microsoft today. They have announced that they will be merging their hardware and Windows team.
Labeled as ‘Windows + Devices’, this division will be headed by Panos Panay. The creation of Surface laptops is credited to Mr. Panay. Therefore, this merger spells big things for Surface Laptops. Previously, he leads the hardware division that was responsible for keeping the Surface laptops updated.
However, the merger will not take place officially until February 25. The news about the merger was sent out via a mail by Mr. Panay.
His excitement regarding this merger was clearly reflected in the mail. Basically, this merger between the hardware and the Windows team has been put into action in order to provide the best user experience. One, that runs all the way from OS to Microsoft apps and service connected devices.
Currently, most laptop manufacturers are going all in for dual screens. And Microsoft too hopes to be a part of it. Thus, they believe that designing hardware and software together is the key to it.
Why is Microsoft planning this merger??
Hopefully, this merger leads to the success of long term Windows bets. These include dual-screen, silicon diversity, connectivity, app platform, and much more. Moreover, a single point of leadership in Windows Client Experience might also lead to accelerated innovation and improved execution.
This merger is in line with what has been Microsoft’s sort of key policy since 2012. They have placed special emphasis on taking advantage of their hardware products. Thus, it makes sense for them to follow the same steps for Surface laptops too.
Currently, the Surface lineups generate almost $4 billion in revenue for Microsoft. And the primary objective of this merger would be to better it.
Furthermore, this merger will have another domino effect. That is, Joe Belfiore, the previous head of the Windows team will now lead the Microsoft Office team.
Let’s hope this merger leads to much better days for the Surface lineups and Microsoft in the future.
In 2019, we witnessed the advent of the age of the foldable phones. It all started with a concept which has since been implemented by some of the biggest names in the smartphone world. But this technology does come with issues of damage and durability. Companies are working on it too. Samsung recently patented UTG to make the screen more scratch-resistant and durable. While Samsung is working on to add a protective layer on top of the screen, Apple sets to redefine the technology with its latest patent for foldable devices.
Problems with the foldable phones so far
The foldable smartphones launched so far are far from perfect. For instance, let us look at the Samsung Galaxy Fold which the company had to postpone the launch because of the issues. For a foldable phone, durability is the primary concern. When you fold your phone in half, your phone may develop creases. The creases, in the long run, may damage the phone. Also, the gap around the hinges (or the folding mechanism) may cause damage to the phone by allowing air, dust, water and other external factors to enter the phone through it.
Apple’s solution to the above-mentioned problems is an entirely new foldable mechanism. It has been documented in its patent titled “Electronic devices with flexible displays and hinges”. The patent first caught the attention of the public after it was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Design
The patent reveals a display supported by housing that consists of two flaps. The flaps are further divided into two portions- the first portion and the second portion. The display overlaps an axis. In an unfolded configuration, the two flaps of the display will provide support to the display.
To fold the display, one must rotate the two flaps of the housing towards each other. while folding the device, the display bends along the axis and the two flaps maintain a minimum bend radius (adequate distance between the two flaps) courtesy of the second portion of each flap rotating relative to the first portion.
Hinge mechanism
The display will come with a flexible OLED display (Organic Light Emitting Diode). The two flaps will extend parallel to the display. The hinge mechanism or the folding mechanism may be based on a rack-and-gear arrangement or other arrangements that maintain a minimum distance between the two flaps.
We are unsure if Apple will actually implement this design in its upcoming devices. This isn’t the first time Apple has filed a patent for a foldable device. Back in 2019, Apple was granted a patent for the same. But the patent does ensure that Apple is interested in the concept of foldable smartphones. And possibility remains that Apple may indeed release a foldable iPhones somewhere in the future.
Check out our comparison between Samsung Note 10 and Samsung Note 10 Lite
Last year, Samsung showed some signs of resurgence in the midrange and entry-level smartphone market segment. With the new M-series and revamped A-series, Samsung tried to regain its market segment at the lower end of the smartphone market segment. Samsung looks to carry that momentum into the new year. And the first M-series phone for this year looks to be the Samsung Galaxy M31. This phone will come with upgraded specs to last year’s Samsung Galaxy M30 and Samsung Galaxy M30s. Though there has been quite a lot of rumors about the specs of the Samsung Galaxy M31, the highlight of the Samsung Galaxy M31 so far is the 64MP quad-camera setup.
The latest bit of information about the specs of upcoming Samsung Galaxy M31 come from three Indian YouTubers who first noticed the Samsung Galaxy M31 64MP camera teaser poster on the internet.
Technical Guruji
The first one of the two is Gaurav Chaudhary, a.ka Technical Guruji, who took to his twitter handle to reveal the teaser poster. This particular poster came had no serious information about the actual camera sensor. Rather, it revealed that #MegaMonster is on its way referring to Samsung Galaxy M31. But Technical Guruji confirmed that there is going to be a huge upgrade in the camera department. Until this, we were thinking that it would come with a 48MP quad-camera setup. Though it was an upgrade to Galaxy M30s in terms of the number of sensors, the fact that the primary sensor remained the same didn’t excite us much.
Geekyranjit
The concrete information about the primary sensor was revealed by Geekyranjit through his twitter handle. The picture he shared came with all the elements of the picture shared by TechnicalGuruji but it came with added information about the primary sensor. According to the picture, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy M31 will come with a 64MP primary sensor.
C4ETech
YouTuber known as C4ETech has shared another photo confirming the massive 6,000 mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy M31. It is an upgrade to last year’s 5,000 mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy M30. However, M30s already has a 6,000mAh battery. The battery department is where the Samsung Galaxy M31 will have an upper edge over its competitor.
We believe that Samsung Galaxy M31 will come with a quad-camera setup at the back. The phone will come with a 64MP primary camera. The sensor is thought to be Samsung’s own Isocell GW1 sensor. As with the Samsung Galaxy M30 and Samsung Galaxy M30s, the primary sensor will be accompanied by an ultra-wide-angle sensor and a depth sensor. This time around, Samsung will also include a macro senor. Good news for people who are actually into macro photography. It is reported that the camera sensors will be arranged in an L-shaped camera module.
Samsung joining the quad-camera bandwagon?
Since Realme launched the Realme 5 with the quad-camera setup, almost all of the brands in the mid-range price segment have joined them creating a trend. Right now, almost all of the smartphones leading the race in the mid-range segment to come with the quad-camera setup. It includes Realme XT, Redmi Note 8 Pro, Realme X2. And now, Samsung seems to have joined the list with its Samsung Galaxy M31.
The recent teaser of the camera specs adds to the information we already have about the specs of the upcoming device. The Samsung Galaxy M31 will come with Samsung’s Exynos 9611 chipset under its hood. While we were expecting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 665, the Geekbench database revealed that it will be powered by the same Exynos 9611 which powers the Galaxy M30s. It will come with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3Ghz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7Ghz. Graphics will be handled by Mali- G72 MP3. The Geekbench database also suggested that the phone will come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage onboard. It will come with the latest Android 10 with Samsung’s One UI 2.0 on top.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Certification
Further details about the phone emerged after it went through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certification tests. These certifications confirmed that the phone that went through the Geekbench test as SM-M315F was indeed the Samsung Galaxy M31. The phone went through the certifications as SM-M315F/DS where DS reveals it will be a dual sim phone. The phone will come with support for dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth 5.0. It will support Wi-Fi frequency bands of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
The Samsung Galaxy M31 launch is nearer than it has ever been. If the recent price-drop of Samsung M30s is any indication, we might be able to see the phone no later than next month. However, we expect the phone to go official along with Samsung Galaxy M11 within this month after Samsung unveils the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. Considering the competition in the mid-range segment, the device should come with aggressive pricing.
Check out our comparison between Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Lite!
2019 was a year of mixed feelings for Huawei. Despite the ban, Huawei managed its biggest-ever revenue to date. However, Huawei’s global sales showed a significant drop in the last quarter of 2019, which the company looks to improve on this year. And to start it off, Huawei has launched the Huawei Y6s in the budget price segment in Nepal. Can the Huawei Y6s battle against the like of Redmi in its price range? Let’s learn more here.
Huawei Y6s Overview
Display and Design
Huawei Y6s comes with an IPS LCD screen of 6.09-inch diagonal length. The display comes with a 1560 x 720 resolution and a pixel density of 283 PPI. On top of the display, there is a waterdrop style notch to house the selfie camera. Except for the Huawei branding at the bottom of the screen, the front looks similar to any other budget smartphones available in the market right now.
At the back, there is a single-camera setup accompanied by an LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is also mounted at the back of the device. The dual-tone pattern at the back looks inspired by the Google Pixel lineup of smartphones. The volume rocker and power button are placed on the right side of the device.
Processor
Under the hood, it packs MediaTek’s MT6765 Helio P35 processor. It is backed by 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage onboard. However, you can expand it up to 512GB through the microSD card slot. The graphics are handled by IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU.
Camera
Huawei comes with a single 13MP camera at the back. The sensor has an f/1.8 aperture. The phone comes equipped with a rear LED flash. On the front, there is an 8MP camera housed inside the waterdrop notch. It has an aperture of f/2.0.
Software and Connectivity
The phone runs on Android 9.0 (Pie) with Huawei’s EMUI 9.0 UI on top. Interestingly, the phone has retained the Google Mobile Service amidst the ban. It comes with all the necessary sensors such as ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, and Gravity sensor. For security, you have a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. The phone supports 4G VoLTE, WI-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and 3.5mm audio jack. The phones come with a non-removable 3,020mAh battery which can be charged through a micro-USB port. Since it is a budget-oriented phone it doesn’t support fast-charging.
Huawei Y6s specifications:
Display: 6.09 inches IPS LCD with 283PPI
Chipset: MediaTek MT676 Helio P35 SoC; 12nm Mobile Platform
CPU: Octa-core (4 x 2.3GHz Cortex-A53+ 4 x 1.8GHz Cortex-A53)
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
RAM: 3GB
ROM: 64GB; expandable up to 512GB
OS: Android 9.0 with EMUI 9.1 on top
Rear camera: 13MP, f/1.8 with LED flash
Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.0 with LED flash
Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Accelerometer, Gravity, and proximity
Battery: 3,020 mAh; 5V/1A
Huawei Y6s Price in Nepal and Availability
The Huawei Y6s officially landed in Nepal on the 6th of February. The price of Huawei Y6s in Nepal is Rs. 16,790. With this, the Huawei Y6s is a direct competitor to the famous Redmi 8. However, looking at their specs, the Redmi 8 (priced at Rs. 16,499) seems like a clear winner with its glass body, dual cameras, better chipset, and a bigger battery.
Model Name
Price in Nepal
Available stores
Huawei Y6s
Rs. 16,790
Authorized mobile retailers
Check out how Huawei is preparing for its Google-less future!
When Escobar Inc. announced the Escobar Fold 1, Roberto Escobar bashed Apple for deceiving people with their overpriced products. He shared his plan to beat the top smartphone brands by introducing phones that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars at a fraction of the price. They did release Escobar Fold 1 under $350 which was quite commendable. And now they have released Escobar Fold 2, which tries to replicate the Samsung Galaxy Fold but comes at a fraction of the price. With the launch, Escobar Inc. has, in a way, declared, a war against the South Korean tech giant.
Why Samsung?
Many may not know this, but Escoabr Inc. was not allowed to showcase their extremely cheap Escobar Fold 1 in the Consumer Electronic Show 2020. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) decided that it wouldn’t have been “a good thing” to include Escobar Fold 1. However, Olof Gustafsson blamed Samsung for the cause:
“Samsung is afraid, afraid of us being present at the same event side by side while we present a much superior product, sold at a better price. In fact, they use their power to silence us. They forget that Pablo Escobar was there long before them and will be there long after.”
So this time around Escobar Inc. has targetted Samsung. In its official website, Escobar Fold 2 is described as the Real Samsung Killer Phone. In one of the promotional videos, the narrator narrates:
REST IN peace samsung. Escobar is upset. Escobar always wins.
The video shows girls smashing Samsung smartphones such as the Samsung Fold and Samsung J2 Core.
Escobar Fold 2
Escobar Fold 2 is very similar to Samsung Galaxy Fold that was released last year. Except for the few tweaks done on the Escobar Fold 2, the design and specs remain the same as that of the Galaxy Fold.
Design-wise, the Escobar Fold 2 looks similar to Samsung Galaxy Fold except for its gold-plated branding. It comes with a 4.6-inch display which can be expanded to up to 7.3-inch screen. Even the camera cut-out on the front looks similar, If it wasn’t for the Pablo Escobar wallpaper, people would easily mistake it for Samsung Galaxy Fold.
Both of the devices are powered by Snapdragon 855 chipset. They come with a massive 4,380 mAH battery and USB Type-C port for charging. Both run on the latest Android 10 out of the box. Also, the side-mounted fingerprint sensor looks similar.
However, Escobar Fold 2 comes with only five cameras against Samsung Fold’s six. To recall, the Samsung Fold came with a triple camera setup for both the main camera and the selfie camera. Escobar Fold 1 has a dual-camera setup for the selfie camera.
Escobar Fold 2 Specifications
Body: 7.49 x 5.28 x 0.30 inches; 320 gm (with battery)
Main Display: 7.3-inches Flexible AMOLED, 1536 x 2152 pixels
Secondary Display: 6-inch Super AMOLED, 720 x 1680 pixels
Resolution: Full-HD+ (1920 x 1444 pixels); 4:3 aspect ratio; 308ppi
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855; 7nm Mobile Platform
Storage: 128 / 512GB (expandable up to 256GB via a dedicated SD card slot)
Software: Android 10
Fingerprint sensor: Yes (Physical)
Connectivity: SIM (Nano), Dual-Band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C,3.5mm jack
Battery: 4,300 mAh battery; 5V/5A
Colors: Black, Gold
The Escobar Fold 2 comes at a price tag of just around $400 for the 128GB variant. It sounds crazy as Galaxy Fold with similar specs comes at a price tag of $2000. However, there will only be around 200,000 Escoabr Fold 2 available for purchase.
Is it too good to be true?
Though the idea of getting Galaxy Fold’s specs at a cheaper price is exciting, it does raise a flag. To begin with, Escobar Inc. hasn’t started delivering the Escobar Fold 1 despite taking the orders. So, we aren’t sure about the Escobar Fold 2.
Check out our comparison between Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Lite!
Long before the advent of modern-day touchscreen smartphones, BlackBerrry ruled the smartphone market. If you have memories of using phones in the early 2000s, you would know what I’m talking about. Thanks to the keypads of that time, messaging wasn’t fun and the push notification which we can’t live without these days was something unheard of. That is why BlackBerry phones with nostalgic physical QWERTY keypad became everyone’s favorite. But that’s coming to an end now – a recent tweet implies that we will no longer see any phone under the iconic BlackBerry brand, as its mobile adventure has finally come to an end.
But didn’t they quit in 2016?
The Reason
BlackBerry started losing its ground on the smartphone business since the arrival touchscreen devices. It all started at the beginning of Apple’s iPhones. BlackBerry has no real answer to Apple’s iOS. It is why the company’s first all-touch smartphone – the BlackBerry Storm couldn’t regain the company’s status in the market. Android only made the situation worse for the brand. The company tried to bounce back with BlackBerry 10 OS in 2013 but in vain. It even switched to Android in 2015 with the BlackBerry Priv but it was already too late.
Following the disappointments in the smartphone market, BlackBerry, in 2016, decided to end all the hardware development and to outsource that function to partners. Those partners were TCL Communication, BB Meriah Putih and Optiemus Infracom. While the other two had licenses for South Asia and Indonesia, TCL had a license for the rest of the world. Since then, BlackBerry has been focusing on the software business while its partners have been bringing out phones under the brand.
BlackBerry, TCL adventure – The End
After acquiring the near-global license right form BlackBerry, TCL launched quite a few smartphones under the brand such as the BlackBerry Motion. Other notable ones are those under the BlackBerry Key series of smartphones such as KeyOne, Key 2, and Keys2 LE. Even TCL rebranded the Alcatel Idol 4 to launch it as BlackBerry DTEK50.
BlackBerry’s end confirmed
The latest tweet by BlackBerry Mobile twitter handle has revealed that BlackBerry won’t be renewing its license agreement with TCL Communication. The agreement is set to expire on August 31, 2020. TCL will have no right to design, manufacture, or sell any new BlackBerry mobile devices. However, TCL will continue to provide support for the existing portfolio of mobile devices including customer service and warranty service until August 31, 2022. Since TCL has the near-global rights, the end of the BlackBerry-TCL license agreement might rest the BlackBerry-branded devices forever.
The announcement makes us believe that it’s actually TCL Communication which is not willing to renew the agreement. Afterall, TCL will start selling high-end smartphones under its own name from this year. TCL already has a smartphone under its belt in the form of TCL Plex. Now, it looks to expand its smartphone portfolio with the upcoming TCL 10 series lineup of smartphones which include TCL Pro, TCL 10 5G, and TCL 10L. We will know more about these devices in the upcoming World Mobile Congress. As of now, these phones will be launched no later than Q2 2020 after they are officially unveiled in the MWC 2020.
Also, check out our comparison between Samsung Note 10 and Samsung Note 10 Lite!
*flashback to 10 years ago* “Hey, whaddya wanna be when you grow up?” “An astronaut!” “A scientist!” “A doctor!” “A chef!”
Videography really hadn’t caught up with the mainstream crowd back then. But now, borne by the overwhelming popularity of the internet, every kid on the block (figuratively of course) wants to be a YouTuber or a vlogger. No, I’m not complaining about that at all; do what makes you happy, more power to you! After all, I’m a fan of good cinematography myself. While a regular camera or a smartphone alone will do the trick for your basic video shooting purposes, you’ll need something more to get those cinematic shots. Something to hold your device in place so your footages don’t come out all shaky and nauseating like that of 2008’s Cloverfield.
Well, that’s what gimbals are for! It stabilizes your videos by electronically adjusting the 2 or 3-axis (depending upon the gimbal’s configuration), due to which the camera rotates about an axis only. But of course, not everyone has access to expensive professional camera setup and thus an equally expensive DSLR gimbal. Modern-day smartphones’ cameras have gotten crazy good these days and while you obviously can’t get a DSLR-level output, footages from a smartphone are commendable, to say the least. Therefore today, we are comparing two of the best mobile gimbals you can buy right now in Nepal – the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 and the Zhiyun Smooth-Q2. You can find the video samples of each gimbal in our review video down below, where most of the footages have been shot from the Huawei Nova 5T.
DJI Osmo Mobile 3
We at GadgetByte have been using the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 as our go-to mobile gimbal for the past year and the newer Osmo Mobile 3 has been a welcome upgrade. This 3-axis gimbal comes on a lightweight and foldable design with some other interesting features. For a couple of thousand rupees more, you can get the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 Combo which includes a mini tripod (stand) and a carry case, which is the one we have.
Specifications
Dimensions:
Unfolded: 11.22 x 4.92 x 4.06-inches
Folded: 6.18 x 5.12 x 1.81-inches
Weight: 405gm
Compatible Phones:
Weight: 200+/-30gm
Width: 2.44 – 3.46-inches
Thickness: ≤ 0.37 inch
Battery: 2450 mAh Li-Ion; 17.64Wh; 7.2V; Up to 15 hours*
Charging: Under 2.5 hours (via a 10W charger)
Gimbal Range:
Pan: -162.5º to 170.3º
Roll: -85.1º to 252.2º
Tilt: -104.5º to 235.7º
Max Controllable Speed: 120º/s
Tracking: ActiveTrack 3.0
Slow-motion: Up to 1080p @240fps
Connectivity: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0, USB Type-C
Companion App: DJI Mimo [Google Play Store | Apple App Store]
Price in Nepal: Rs. 18,900 (for DJI Osmo Mobile 3 Combo)
Build & Design
DJI Osmo Mobile 3 has everything going for it and what we liked the most about it is its design and build quality. The company is emphasizing on eased prolonged usage with its lightweight structure. Also, the rubber handle has a grippy and ergonomic design due to the 15º angled rubber handle. Moreover, the button placement is commendable as well.
You can easily reach out to any button with zero trouble. A little room for improvement that we found is that, though the trigger button on the back works fine, it isn’t clicky enough. The LED notification is just as good and doesn’t blare into your eyes either.
Videography & Stabilization
Now let’s get to stabilization, which is unsurprisingly fantastic. The videos are smooth as they can get. The Osmo Mobile 3’s improved ActiveTrack 3.0 intelligently track’s human subject’s movements while keeping them in the center, which only works on “Follow” and “Tilt Locked” mode, and not on the “FPV” mode. This can be easily triggered by a single press of the trigger button on the back. Here, the “Sports Mode” helps capture stabilized footages even in high-speed scenarios. We tried it and the resulting videos were still solid as a rock.
The Hyperlapse and Timelapse videos come out great as well, with the ability to set interval, recording duration, and capture path. Additionally, the Gesture Control allows you to trigger the shutter remotely via the “Palm” or “V” gesture. Also, you can shoot 180º and 3 x 3 matrix style panoramas.
Design
1 of 3
With phone
Folded
Unfolded
Furthermore, DJI has embedded the Osmo Mobile 3 with a bunch of video-presets using which you can generate cinematic footage with ease. Though the small 2450 mAh battery may be throwing you off, don’t worry. It lasts long enough and charges pretty quickly too. The DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gets you the smoothest videos, no surprise there. We tried shooting videos in almost every mode including Sport, and there were no jittery or unstable results. And since carrying around this gimbal is easy due to its light-weight and superb grip, we could easily shoot videos for hours.
App: DJI Mimo
Coming to the app, you can connect your smartphone and the gimbal via the DJI Mimo app. It has an easy-to-navigate interface with lots of features and the pairing is instantaneous. Through the app itself, you can edit and share your videos with the DJI community or other social networking sites. Through the app’s camera, you can meddle around various settings including that of the gimbal itself. Since you can’t change the Follow mode (Follow, Tilt-Locked, FPV) from the buttons on the stabilizer, you can only do that via the app.
DJI Osmo Mobile 3 Rating (1-10)
Specifications
Score
Design
8.5
Features
9
Stabilization
9.5
Ease of use
9.5
App
8.5
Value for money
9
Overall
9
DJI Osmo Mobile 3 vs Zhiyun Smooth-Q2
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Zhiyun Smooth-Q2
Emphasizing on compactness and portability, the Zhiyun Smooth-Q2 is another great mobile gimbal. A cool feature that you get on the Q2 is the Vortex mode, which lets you take 360º barrel shots on the pan axis. Also, it has a big battery that lets you charge your smartphone via the stabilizer itself through its Micro USB port. However, there’s a strict warning to not use this port to charge the gimbal itself. Let’s find out more.
Specifications
Dimensions: 8.03 x 4.02 x 1.65-inches
Weight: 450gm
Compatible Phones:
Weight: 75 – 260gm
Width: 2.17 – 3.39-inches
Battery: 4500 mAh Li-Ion; 16.2Wh; 5V; Up to 17 hours*
Charging: Under 3 hours
Gimbal Range:
Pan: 360º
Roll: 265º
Tilt: 305º
Direct Control of Native Camera: Yes
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C
Companion App: ZY Play [Google Play Store | Apple App Store]
Price in Nepal: Rs. 18,900
Build & Design
While the Osmo 3 emphasized on its build quality and design, Zhiyun is taking a different route with its Smooth-Q2 gimbal – the portability. This thing is small, adequately small. Despite its size, the Q2 is heavy on the hands because of the aluminum build.
If you’re using any gimbal for the first time, the Zhiyun Q2 might be a little challenging since it is comparatively a little difficult to get used to. Adding to the portability, the phone holder here is easily removable. While traveling, you can have the phone holder clamped into your phone, so you easily swap in the phone into the gimbal when necessary.
Here, due to the compact form factor, the button placement is far from ideal. However, we didn’t encounter any difficulty operating them.
Videography & Stabilization
The video stabilization here is great. For optimal results, however, you’ll have to hold the gimbal like you would hold a remote – with a slight downward tilt. When holding it normally, the motor on the back is prone to appear in the footage, especially when shooting from a wide-angle lens.
Even when shooting videos on a high-speed scenario, the gimbal does a great job of stabilizing the video. Moreover, the Zhiyun Smooth-Q2 has a feature called the “Vortex Mode”. With this, you can shoot cool 360º videos which you can’t with the DJI Osmo Mobile 3. Similarly, though the Q2 doesn’t come with a stand, its base is flat enough to place it in smooth-enough places.
App: ZY Play
“ZY Play” is the Zhiyun Q2’s companion app. The app is pretty simple but you’ll occasionally get an advertisement pop-up from Zhiyun itself, which is unskippable and lasts a couple of seconds. Now that’s poor UX right there. You are essentially restricting your users from quickly accessing your product. Besides this, there’s no other complaint from our end. Ultimately, there’s a minimal level of settings you can play around via the app since you can get to most of them via the stabilizer itself.
Zhiyun Smooth-Q2 Rating (1-10)
Specifications
Score
Design
9
Features
9
Stabilization
9.5
Ease of use
8
App
7.5
Value for money
9
Overall
8.67
Conclusion
So, that was it for our comparison of the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 and the Zhiyun Smooth-Q2 mobile gimbal. Both devices offer excellent video stabilization, with plenty of features as well. The DJI Osmo Mobile 3 is very easy to use and offers a great number of functionalities, while the Zhiyun Smooth-Q2 adds portability on top of being an excellent standalone stabilizer. Both have their own perks and it may come to personal preference regarding which one is better of the two.
MediaTek launched its first-ever gaming chipsets last year and they were awesome. Helio G90 and G90T despite being mid-range gaming processors, were really up to the competition. We got to see the G90T in the Xiaomi Note 8 Pro and suffice to say the performance was really wonderful. And now after almost a year, the company has decided to expand the G lineup with the Helio G80 chipset.
The Helio G80 comes as a third chipset in MediaTek’s range of budget gaming processors. And this one slot right between the G90/G90T and G70.
Built upon a 12nm process, the Helio G80 offers an Octa-core CPU. The CPU consists of two ARM Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Moreover, six ARM Cortex-A55 cores are there too. And they are clocked at a maximum frequency of 1.8GHz.
As for GPU, it has ARM’s Mali-G52. It is the same one that was there in the Helio G70. However, this one is overclocked at 950MHz whereas G70’s offered the only 820MHz.
Helio G80, as other G series SoC’s, is focused at gamer’s looking for high performance at an affordable price. Therefore, it comes with a host of MediaTek’s special features. These include HyperEngine mobile gaming enhancements, multi-camera support, integrated Voice on Wakeup (VoW), and more.
VoW helps to considerably lower power consumption for voice assistance services. And the HyperEngine offers smooth gaming experience as seen on Helio G90. Moreover, the other benefit of HyperEngine is the switch to LTE + WiFi connectivity during gameplay. Especially helpful during slow internet connection. Moreover, it also actively manages CPU and GPU performance for stable gameplay.
Helio G80 availability
The Helio G80 is expected to launch later this month in India. And soon after that it should be available in the global market as well.
It is really appreciable that MediTek is coming up with a mid-range, low-cost solution for gaming enthusiasts. Moreover, their gaming chipsets do not compromise in the performance side either. Hopefully, the Helio G80 won’t disappoint either.
Meanwhile don’t miss out on our review of Xiaomi Note 8 Pro, the first high-profile smartphone with Helio G90T.
