The CEO of Realme India has revealed some interesting details of their new flagship phone, the Realme 5. The phone will feature a quad-camera setup, the main one being the 64MP sensor. Today the company announced more details on them, not the specs, just the camera setup.
Quad-Cam Setup
The Realme 5 will have a Samsung ISOCELL bright GW1 sensor, a first for any smartphone. That is basically the 64 MP sensor where all the hype revolves around. The other sensor, since it is a quad-camera setup will be the ultrawide, telephoto and a depth sensor combo.
The primary lens has a footprint of 1/1.72″ while the pixel size comes in at 0.8µm. According to the company, the camera will provide clearer images, better details even when cropped and zoomed. The camera sensor is of Teracell variety and will create 16MP binned photos.
As for the second sensor, it’s a super-wide-angle f/2.0 camera with a 119-degree FoV. The third is a dedicated microlens which allows users to shoot from up to 4cm with impressive details. And finally, a depth sensor to neatly tie up the quad-cam setup.
Placement of the cameras is in vertical order, same as on the Realme 3 Pro. Plus a yellow ring around the primary lens and a 64MP badge to flex on people who are stuck with just 48 megapixels. It will come with a dual-LED flash as well.
While the phone itself will get an official launch in China on August 15, we have very little knowledge about the device. It will be a flagship phone and a successor to the Realme 3. Whether the Realme 5 will be blessed with the 64MP sensor or not remains uncertain. For all we know, a Realme 5 Pro might be in the works. We might also see Realme move on from ColorOS with their own Realme OS. Plus being a flagship, expect the phone to break Realme’s 20k (Indian Currency) price barrier as well.
A new era of connectivity. That’s how 5G was introduced to the world. A revolution that pushes the boundaries for what humans can achieve with technology. And one such revolution that can be seen already is the 5G Powered hotel by Oppo.
The Oppo 5G hotel is the worlds first 5G powered traveling hotel, currently only operating in Australia. Its launch came right after the launch of Oppo Reno 5G in Australia. With its launch, Oppo aims to demonstrate real-world application of 5G to people all over the world.
Shipping containers turned into the world’s smartest hotel is how you can best describe the Oppo 5G hotel. And that too at a reasonable cost of $150 per night! This shipping container-cum-hotel will travel around places in Australia that have 5G access. The hotel has a black matte exterior and has one-bedroom rooms. The hotel’s integrated smart feature is what sets it apart from an average hotel.
The Oppo Reno 5G acts as the brain of the room as it basically powers everything there is. It controls television, mirror, gaming suite and the Google Home Hub system in the room. The Gaming Suite allows guests to experience high-quality gaming via the Reno 5G. The steam link connects it to a computer inside the hotel. Thus, guests have the option to play games on the PC or leverage its 5G capabilities to access games and run them anywhere inside the hotel using Reno 5G as a portable screen.
Furthermore, the devices’ connection to the mirror transforms the mirror inside the hotel to “Smart Mirrors”. The smart mirror is capable of rendering videos, provide perfect lighting for mirror selfies and many more.
Also, the rooms have integrated Google Home hub. Thereby it allows users to utilize features of a smart home. Using only their voice, guests can control the lighting of the room, play music and many more. All in all, they can immerse themselves completely in the technology around them.
Moreover, the hotel allows you to use a range of Oppo AR apps inside. For instance, you can view a collection of clothes in a virtual AR runway and choose one that you like. With 5G being much faster than 4G technology, the peak time congestion will probably be limited too. Thus users can enjoy buffer-free online content.
For now, the hotel is moving through Australia to places that have 5G access. However, if it renders successful, we’ll probably get to see it soon all over the world. By the look of it, this 5G powered hotel will bring a huge revolution in the hospitality industry. Established businesses will have to compete with up and coming “smart hotels”.
I haven’t seen the Samsung Galaxy Book S in person but I already like it. In the Galaxy Galaxy Note 10/10+ launch event, Samsung took the opportunity to launch a laptop as well. It’s a $1000 laptop powered by a Snapdragon processor and has an acclaimed battery life of 23-hours! But it’s also super slim… It’s literally less than half an inch thick, that’s impressive. It also feels premium. Cherlynn Low from Engadget, says the Galaxy Book S feels more premium than a Dell XPS 13 or even the MacBook Air. This is definitely looking to be one good laptop.
The Samsung Galaxy Book S features a 13.3-inch display. It’s a proper traditional laptop and not a 2-in-1 convertible or a 4:3 display, which was the first two things that came to my mind. With that out the way, the display itself is a Full-HD resolution touch panel. That might be a bummer for some, but you are also getting about 23 hours of battery life on a single charge. Other than that, the laptop is 11.8mm thick, and it also weighs just 0.96kgs.
Given the numbers, you can probably guess it’s a fanless design because it’s powered by the Snapdragon 8cx. Yup, the same processor or SoC in this case that was made for Windows-powered laptops. This might as well be the first time we are seeing this, apart from that demo Lenovo, more of a prototype rather than a finished product. But this one is here, and with that comes a big question, will it be powerful enough. It’s here to go head-on with low watt Intel CPUs and sure those aren’t perfect by any means but ARM CPUs have proven to be worst.
According to Samsung, the SD 8cx will offer 40% more CPU performance, 80% better GPU performance and adds memory bandwidth to the Snapdragon 850. Basically, it means more power with less power consumption totaling 23 hours of movie playback on a single charge. Sure the real-world performance will be much less, but it is really something to look forward to. And given the Qualcomm chip, the laptop was bound to have some sort of LTE integrations. It features support for Gigabyte LTE so you stay connected on the go.
Overview:
Well, the claimed 23-hour battery life comes from a 42Wh battery cell. It gets 8GB of LPDDR4X memory, 256GB or 512GB of internal storage which is expandable via a microSD card. Yes, this laptop has a Micro SD card slot that supports a max 1TB card and a SIM tray for that LTE connection. Other than that, you get a 720p webcam up front, Bluetooth 5.0, fingerprint sensor, AKG stereo speakers and Windows Hello.
It looks like a laptop, but it has the essence of a smartphone
Hassan Anjum, Samsung
But what about the port selection? For that, you get 2 USB port, one on each side. The left one is accompanied by a headphone jack while the right one remains lonely. Charging happens through one of the USB C port, and guess what, you can use the same charger from your smartphone. Both the ports are USB 3.1 standard, maybe Thunderbolt 3 would have opened it up to vast possibilities.
At least on paper, this looks to be a compelling device, given it’s $999 starting price tag. The laptop will go on sale starting September, available color versions will be gold and gray.
Squeezing a lot of gaming power in a slim & trim lightweight gaming laptop does come with a fair share of compromises. Also, such portable gaming laptopscost more than their slightly heavier counterparts. But at a time when the GTX models are getting price cuts, these slim gaming laptops are also available at great deals. In fact, so much so, that we think these are better than getting ones with RTX for now. To test that we got the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S – one of the slimmest gaming laptops out there, at an offer price!
Design: Metal chassis, with a dual-tone matte aluminum finish, 2.1 kg, 1.6 cm thickness, Smart AirFlow design
Display: 15.6″ Full-HD IPS display (1920 x 1080 pixels), 100% sRGB & 70% Adobe sRGB, 290 nits peak brightness, 144 Hz refresh rate, 3 ms response time
Keyboard: ASUS Aura Sync keyboard, 4-Zone Backlighting, 1.2 mm Keyboard Travel
Ports: 3 x USB A 3.1, 1 x USB-C, 1 x USB-C with Display Port and Power Delivery, 1 x audio jack, 1 x HDMI
Processor: Hexa-core 8th gen i7-8750H processor, Base-Clock @ 2.2 GHz, Turbo Boost Clock up to 4.1 GHz
Graphics: 8 GB NVidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q
RAM: DDR4 16 GB (Dual channel, upgradeable up to 32 GB)
Storage: 512 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Webcam: 720p Webcam
Battery: 50 Watt-hours
Price: $1300
Price in Nepal: Rs. 220,000
Design
ASUS claimed that this was the slimmest gaming laptop when it first came out, back in 2018. And I believe them. The laptop measures only 1.6 cm in thickness (when closed) and weighs around 2.1 kg, which is light, but there are lighter gaming laptops out there, like the MSI GS65 Stealth. But the weight makes for a better build quality, which is clearly noticeable. There’s little flex on the lid and on the chassis inside as well.
When the laptop is closed, ASUS’ boxy design shines through. I don’t know what is it with ASUS and boxy designs, but they have that flat and sharp boxed designs on most of their gaming laptops. The lid is no different – ASUS’ signature two-toned diagonal color finish makes its appearance here as well. One part is brushed aluminum, the other is smooth matte. Also, there’s the ASUS ROG logo on the side which glows slightly. In addition, there’s a golden stripe running throughout the edges of the laptop.
When you open it though, a slight surprise awaits. This laptop is totally different from what you usually get. The keyboard is pulled down to make a large space for the air-flow. The trackpad is also on the side, and not at the bottom. And I got confused a lot of times and my hands went under the keyboard to try and find the trackpad. This, however, is ASUS’s different approach to achieving good thermals. Also, there are smaller air vents under the lid as well, which lift up when the laptop opens. The air goes in from the top and flows out the bottom. Those small vents also glow various colors, making it look cool.
So, the design is like this: You either like it or you don’t. It is a bit difficult to get used to because confusion ensues, and that trackpad is super difficult for left-handed people. But once you get used to it, you might find it cool.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard and trackpad, as I already put it, are a bit unusual. Their positions are way off, and difficult to get used to.
The keyboard looks small and feels that way too. Having a slim laptop means you won’t get as much key travel, so, keys feel mushy and there’s less feedback. However, the keys are well-spaced, and overall typing is comfortable. And once you get used to that mushiness, that disappears, too.
It also gets the ASUS Aura Sync RGB treatment. The keyboard has four-zone backlighting. Of course, the ASUS Armory Crate software allows you to modify the lighting effects to a handful of them. But you can also do that through the Function keys as well. Also, it has four levels. However, compared to some other gaming RGB keyboards, these feel a bit dim.
The trackpad, is, more or less, the same story. It feels tiny and hasn’t got enough space for full maneuverability. But the tracking is really smooth and accurate, which helps immensely. Also, the gestures are fluid and on-point. And even though it’s small in size, it gets the job done. Plus, there are actual physical buttons on the trackpad, with tactile presses, and that adds more to the trackpad’s niceties. The only problem is it’s very small.
Another cool feature about the trackpad is that it doubles as a number pad as well. There’s a dedicated key to switch between the trackpad and a Numpad. In the Numpad mode, the touch keys look cool and give off a futuristic vibe. Of course, if my whole keyboard was that way, I’d get pretty mad…but since you don’t have to use it all that much, it looks cool!
Ports
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus S, being one of the slimmest gaming laptops, also has a few compromises. For instance, it lacks an Ethernet port and an SD Card slot. That can prove to be somewhat of an inconvenience. But other than that, it does have enough ports for other purposes.
ASUS ROG Zephyrus S Ports
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Ports back
Left
Right
You get three USB-A ports, a USB-C, another USB-C Display port, charging slot, and an audio jack on the sides. Also, there’s an HDMI and a Kensington Lock Slot at the back. So, except for the SD card and an Ethernet, it’s got you covered. But most portable laptops skip those ports, so, can’t complain.
Display
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus S has the display of that of premium laptops. Of course, it was meant to be one, so, no surprises. The display size is a regular 15.6″ Full HD IPS LCD with slim bezels at the sides and on top. But the color production and display quality look top-notch. The colors on it are vibrant and lively, and the picture quality is awesome. Media consumption on this device is great! But what makes it even better is the 144 Hz Refresh Rate and 3 milliseconds of response time. It makes for a super-fluid display, not only while gaming, but also general usage. And that is clearly visible.
In terms of color science too, it has almost 100% sRGB, and about 70% Adobe RGB. So, display accuracy is quite good. It is also good enough for content creation and editing and stuff, so, this can be a suitable device to do that as well. The only compromise you’ll have for that purpose is getting an extra SD Card reader as it doesn’t have that port. Its brightness, at 290 nits, is also good enough, and this is more than what some other gaming laptops give you.
Performance
In terms of performance, there are no places to complain about. Since this is last year’s you actually get the 8th-gen i7-8750H with 16 GB RAM on dual-channel mode. And we know that to be a highly capable processor – just about 8-9% short of today’s 9th-gen ones. It can handle almost all kinds of tasks – from heavy editing apps like Photoshop, Lightroom and Adobe Premier. Also, some 20-30 tabs on your browser, is no sweat at all. In addition, the SSD is pretty fast, so, no complaints there, either.
For gaming, you get the GTX 1070 Max-Q. And due to the power-efficient Max-Q, the performance is not quite there with the regular GTX 1070. But for what it’s worth, it tries hard to deliver. You get good enough frames in your high-end games. Games like PUBG give off about 70-80 fps on High settings, whereas Battlefield V goes to the same lines on Ultra. Fortnite fares a bit better, reaching up to 75-85 on its Epic settings.
However, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S has a few tricks up its sleeve. Its Armory Crate software allows you to overclock the laptop somewhat to increase performance. While overclocked, I got about 90-100 fps on Fortnite on Epic settings, which is a slight improvement. Also, there was an increase in overall smoothness of gameplay.
However, the thermals are not really its strong suit. And that is strange because the reason for this strange design of the laptop is to improve thermals. But, I faced a lot of heating issues on this one. About an hour into gaming, and it heats up so much that even the keyboard becomes uncomfortable to touch! And that creates some throttling in the games. I had instances where my games would drop to about 15 fps for a few seconds. And not only high-end games like PUBG, but this issue was there on Dota 2 as well. Only CS: GO fared without it.
Battery
Another thing I am not quite satisfied with is its battery. It’s got a 50 Watt-hour battery, which lasts only about 2.5 hours on normal usage. So, don’t expect more than 40 minutes on gaming, but of course, that would be foolish to game on it on battery mode, anyway.
Extras
As for other aspects, most of them are pretty good. Its speakers are located under the display and are front-facing. Also, the sound quality on it is fantastic. So, combined with a great display, it is a good media consumption device.
And as for upgradeability, it seems to have four slots for RAMs. The laptop runs on dual-channel by default, but if you want to add more, then, there’s plenty. So, that is not a problem, either.
Conclusion
To conclude, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S is a good gaming laptop, made better by the current fall in prices of GTX models. It’s got a great design, great display, and some great performance. Sure, the thermals could use some improvement, but most portable gaming laptops tend to be like this. And since this is one of the slimmest gaming laptops out there…you win some, you lose some.
The same configuration of this laptop cost around $1900 when it first launched, which would equal to over Rs.300000 in Nepal, but right now, the price is like $1300. or Rs.220000 in Nepal. And for that money, I think it’s a pretty great deal. You’re getting the slimmest gaming laptop for that and it counts for something.
Also, this also means that you do not, right now, need to spend a lot in RTX-graphics enabled laptops. After all, there are no more than a handful of games that can take full advantage of that. And at a time like this, when GTX-enabled laptops are getting price cuts, those are better deals! So, if you want to get the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S 2018, go for it.
While the world is talking about the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, which launched only recently, Samsung has launched the 1st-gen Galaxy Watch Active in Nepal for an attractive price. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is a smaller and toned-down version of the Samsung Galaxy Watch. It sports, more or less, the same features of the Galaxy Watch.
Overview
This watch comes in a smaller form factor of 40 mm. And it’s definitely lighter, at 25 grams, making it more robust. Protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 3, it is, meant for the active ones, I guess. But even though it’s small, it has IP68 Water and Dust Resistance for up to 5 ATM or 500 meters.
The display is smaller, with considerably large bezels around it. But the 360 x 360 circular display has the Samsung characteristics – it’s bright, vibrant and good to look at. It runs on Tizen OS 4, has 768 MB of RAM and 4 GB storage, just like the Galaxy Watch does.
However, due to its small size, the battery is 230 mAh only. But that will last you around a day and a half, easy. Also, it features wireless charging as well, and with the Galaxy S10 series featuring Reverse Wireless Charging, it can be a good companion.
The most important feature on this one has to be the Heart Rate Monitor, which can now, also measure your blood pressure. It also offers Sleep Tracking, Fitness Tracking, various exercises, and overall health tracking. This watch can also detect up to 6 workout activities automatically, which is nice. But users are able to engage in about 39 activities on it.
What it doesn’t have are the speakers – so, no music playing or calling on this watch, which the Galaxy Watch enabled you to do. But then again, this costs half as much!
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is available on Samsung’s official online store SmartDoko.com for now, for an offer price of Rs.28,400. However, the original price of the Galaxy watch in Nepal for Rs.29,490.
Just roll back 3 years, for around $300, these were the phones we used to get, the Samsung Galaxy J7, the OPPO F1s, and the Vivo V5. And back then buying a high-end phone meant you are getting AMOLED displays, powerful processors and top of the line cameras. But today, things are totally different. You don’t need a high-end device to click good pictures and you don’t need a high-end phone in order to play high-end games. Because mid-range smartphones have come a long way. And let’s face it, everyone may aspire of getting a high-end device, but we can barely manage to pay for it. So, what people like us do is find the best of specs in a mid-range phone.
So, here, I will be talking about one such phone, the Realme X. I have been using it since its launch and, here, I will be sharing my experiences with it. So, Let’s get started!
Realme X Specifications
Display: 6.53-inches AMOLED, Full HD+, 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Sensors: Fingerprint (under-display), Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, and Compass
Price: INR 17,499 (~ NPR 28,000) for 4/128GB | INR 19,999 (~ NPR 32,000) for 8/128GB
Design:
So, starting off with the design, Realme seems to have worked on it and worked very well. I have to say that I love this off-white color.
The build is plastic all over with metal looking frames, but that is plastic too! But still, it does not miss that heft in it. It looks premium and the feel on hands is surprisingly good.
The back has this minimal approach with just the cameras and the Realme branding elegantly arranged in a vertical order. The power button resides on the right and the volume buttons are placed on the left. They are easily reachable and fairly tactile, so, things are good on that part.
The phone does not miss a headphone jack so no complaints on that part either. Just beside the headphone jack, you get the USB-C port and a single-firing bottom speaker, which I will talk about later.
Buttons and Ports
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USB Type-C Port
Power Button
Volume Buttons
Up top, you have a motorized pop-up selfie camera. And as far as the durability of it goes, Realme has assured that it comes with fall detection and protection features.
And I tried dropping it intentionally to test it and upon detecting a fall, the camera retracted in. Also, it’s made of sapphire glass that helps prevent scratches. And in my use, there’s been nothing to worry.
The only downside to this design is that the phone is huge and I am a person who is into compact phones, so I’ve had to adjust a little. It might not be the same for you though. Also, I have this white color which makes smudges look less prominent, so I’ve not had to spend much time cleaning it.
Display:
Now, the display is one of the best things about it. It’s a Super AMOLED panel, measuring at 6.53 inches and damn it looks good. There are very less bezels surrounding the display which add to great multimedia and gaming experience. And thanks to the pop-up camera, you get a clean screen with nothing hindering the looks of it.
It is also sufficiently bright outdoors. However, you can’t expect crystal clear vision under direct sunlight though.
The display also accommodates what’s called the in-display fingerprint sensor. It is an optical one not like the ultrasonic one, which you’ll find in the Galaxy S10 Plus. It works fine, it’s fast and accurate and gets it correct all the times. I even tried unlocking it with wet hands, and it did unlock, so this was my go-to unlocking method always.
Talking of unlocking, there is Face Unlock feature too here done through the pop-up selfie camera. It’s fast enough but it feels annoying to me when the camera pops up every time, so I didn’t turn it on altogether. But this a matter of personal preference.
There is also an Always-on display feature here but it only shows you the clock, date and battery percentage on the lock screen. I find it useful but not useful at the same time.
Other things about the display include a flicker-free mode which helps reduce eye fatigue caused by AMOLED displays. It’s also HDR10 compliant which means you can watch HDR videos on this one! And adding to the good side of things is the fact that the display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.
So overall, I must say that the display did well on my tests. It’s a solid thumbs up in this department.
SD 710 is a step below the 730, but in real life usage, honestly, there is not a table-turning difference. Yes, the 730 is more energy-efficient, utilizes better kryo cores, and offers a faster GPU, but again if you consider the prices of these phones and compare the difference in performance, you will realize that the Realme X is actually not a bad deal.
I played PUBG in high settings with almost stutter-free experience. I didn’t face any heating issues after gaming or doing intensive tasks either. Multitasking was fine, app opening and transitions are smooth too. My everyday tasks ran pretty well and I am pretty happy with the price to the performance from the Realme X.
But yes, if Realme had included the Snapdragon 730 in here, the price would be gone higher for sure.
“Snapdragon 730 is not a cheap chipset — it’s fairly expensive if you can go and ask Qualcomm,” Jain continued. “It’s the third-fastest chipset from Qualcomm, it’s the latest one — if I’m not wrong, there was one device announced on [Snapdragon] 730G, but I don’t know if it’s been commercially launched our not in the entire world — that would probably make [Redmi] K20 the first phone to be commercially launched with [Snapdragon] 730.”
“When you buy a chip early on, something like this, it’s a lot more costly. If you go to buy [Snapdragon] 730 two years down the line, it would, of course, be much cheaper.”
Talking about the memory options, you get two memory variants One with 4 GB RAM. 128GB storage and the other with 8GB of RAM 128 GB storage. No matter which variant you choose, you get flagship-grade DDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 storage.
And if you are confused which variant to choose, I think the 4 GB variant is a better value proposition. Also, 128 GB is the max storage you can get as there is no microSD card slot on this phone. But like I always say, 128 GB is good enough space, at least for me!
Now let’s talk about the software side of things. The Realme X comes bearing Android 9 Pie with Color OS 6 on top. Now, Color OS 6 has gone through some improvements from the past but still, I think it’s not refined enough.
For example, it always confuses me which side to clear notifications from. Also, you cannot shut down all the apps running in the background by clicking the clear button, whose sole purpose is to do just that.
Software and UI
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Also, you will get a considerable amount of bloatware in here, some can be uninstalled and some just have to be there, for eternity!
Having said that, the software does have many things to cheer for. It looks colorful, you get a lot of customizations which can come really handy like you can make the power button trigger Google assistant on pressing it long, and there are so many screen-off gestures which you might like.
But still, I think the Software could be one area where the Realme team needs to continue working on to make it better.
Cameras:
Now, let’s talk cameras. There are dual cameras at the back, first one is a 48 MP SONY IMX 586 sensor, seen on a more expensive Oneplus 7 Pro and Asus Zenfone 6 and the second one is a 5 MP depth sensor.
The pictures from the primary sensor are very good. The details on them are on point, the colors look good as hell and impressively, the HDR function works very well. Even in the harsh sunlight, the phone did surprisingly well.
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On harsh Sunlight
Normal 1x
Normal 2x
Also, the macro shots are just great! What you can notice in all these images is the saturation is a little bit more, which might not be natural, but I found many including my friends to like them.
Macro Shot
Macro Shot
Macro Shot
Macro Shot
There is also a chroma boost option, which enhances the colors but I preferred the normal images more.
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Normal mode
Chroma Boost option
Normal mode
Chroma Boost option
Normal mode
Chroma Boost option
By the way, you can shoot 48 MP images as well but by default, you get 12 MP images via pixel binning. So, if you want a high-resolution picture, you can go with 48 MP otherwise 12 MP works just fine. Just looking at them, you are not going to get a lot of differences.
The secondary depth sensor works well, if not great, for portraits. It does find it difficult to manage itself in hard areas like the hair. And blurring sometimes does not look very natural. So, the portrait images are not exceptional but good enough to not look bad.
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Now talking about night time images, we know almost all midrange cameras struggle to give good pictures in a low lit environment. The night time images from this one, I would rate 7 out of 10. Grains are visible here and there as you can see in these images. You have a nightscape feature though, which balances the exposure and improves details by a lot.
Normal Low Light Vs Nightscape mode
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Normal Low light Image
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Normal Low light Image
Nightscape Mode
Now, one thing I found majorly missing is a wide-angle camera. While taking samples, I dearly missed taking wide-angle shots. For example, the picture of this Bouddha Stupa here, it would have looked so good if it was a wide-angle shot.
So, this is a dear request to Realme, please put up a wide-angle camera in your next product offering because I feel like the cameras are the stand out feature of the Realme X.
Okay, selfies now. It’s got a 16 MP shooter. And the normal images look good to me although not very natural. The selfies are good looking. I clicked all the images in auto HDR that seems to have managed the exposure levels well. You also have a portrait mode for selfies, which is of course done by a software and they are surprisingly good.
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Normal Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Normal Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Normal Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Normal Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Also, you have a beauty mode here and you can choose how aggressively you want to get beautified. I usually took normal selfies but here some samples of beautified selfies for you to judge.
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Normal Mode
Beauty Mode
Now, videos! There is 4k video recording with 30fps in here, you have two options in 1080p, 30 and 60 fps and you can also record videos on 720p. My tests showed the 1080p at 30 fps yielded in the best results in terms of stabilization. Colors are good in all three resolution though. So, if you are using your hands to record videos, go for the 1080p 30 fps option.
There’s also slo-mo feature, 960fps at 720P, which for the price, I would say is decent.
So, overall, I think cameras on the Realme X is one of the strongest parts about the phone. This is a perfect point to shoot camera phone for the price, where you don’t have to tweak many settings to get a good picture.
Battery:
Now about the battery, you get a good enough 3765 mAh battery in here with a 20-watt VOOC 3.0 fast charging.
And the battery, for me, has endured pretty well. Now do consider that I am a pretty heavy user, I hang around YouTube a lot, and while I am not on YouTube, I am either playing games or making calls and chatting and stuff. So, with this pattern of usage, I got a strict one-day use with some juice left.
About the charging speeds, well, it can go from 0 to 55% in half an hour and to get fully juiced up, it takes around 1 hour and 10 minutes. That is fast, isn’t it?
Extras:
Talking about the extras, the phone has a single firing speaker at the bottom which is well loud but lacks dynamic range and richness. And if you are into rock and roll music like I do, you will understand what I am saying.
And even though it has Dolby Atmos support for headphones, in my tests, the output from headphones was just average.
Conclusion:
To sum things up, Realme X is an excellent phone for the price. You get top of the line camera performance, one of the best-looking designs, a fancy pop-up camera, and good performance. And I think comparing it with the Redmi K20 is kind of unfair because the prices don’t match. I think a costlier phone is bound to pack better specs.
Having said that I have two things bugging me about the Realme X. First is that the device does not have a wide-angle camera which has become a trend in mid-range and even some budget phones these days. Another is the software. And because the software is what the user is interacting with every time, it needs to be very refined and that is where Realme needs to do better in the future. And I seriously do hope the company takes these into account for its next offering.
That being said, if I were you and if I had like $250 right now, I would not think twice to get the Realme X as my daily driver.
We are just hours away from the Galaxy Unpacked event. The event will mark the launch of the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+. However, the chipset that will supposedly power these new devices has already been unveiled. Samsung unveiled it’s the new Exynos 9825 chipset ahead of its mega event. The Exynos 9825 is Samsung’s first-ever 7nm EUV mobile chipset.
The previous devices such as the Galaxy S10 series used the Exynos 9820, an 8nm processor. Thus, the biggest difference here is the smaller node size. Switching to a smaller node brings along an improvement in performance and power efficiency.
The Exynos 9825 is not the first 7nm processor in the tech world. It, however, is the first one to use EUV processing. The Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) helps in developing better processor. According to Samsung, the EUV allows them to use extreme ultraviolet wavelengths to print finer circuits. This results in the processor being much more power-efficient.
Basically, the Exynos 9825, is an octa-core processor. It has two 4th gen custom CPUs paired with two Cortex-A75 and four Cortex-A55 cores. So, it seems that the configuration is pretty much similar to its predecessor, the Exynos 9820. Furthermore, this chipset integrates the same GPU. It uses the ARM Mali-G76 MP12 GPU. It supports 8K 30fps or 4K UHD 150fps encoding and decoding.
In addition to all these, it also integrates NPU for tasks such as AI assistance in photography. Moreover, it supports USF 3.0 and UFS 2.1 storage along with LPDDR4X RAM. It has a built-in 4G-LTE modem. However, the Exynos Modem 5100 can be paired with it for 5G.
Talking about the camera support, Exynos 9825 supports the dual camera (16MP + 16 MP), 22MP on both rear and front. Display-wise, it supports 4k UHD (4096×2160 pixels) display and WQUXGA (3840 x 2400pixels) displays.
The CPU cores and GPU on Exynos 9825 might disappoint many as it is similar to its predecessor. However, Samsung has partnered with AMD to develop its first mobile GPU. Thus, we may see a new Exynos processor soon with an improved CPU core and a brand new GPU.
Xiaomi’s wide range of product lineups can sometimes be confusing. Their Redmi phones generally fall under the budget to mid-range category. The Redmi 7 was a solid budget phone, from them. And as usual, the Redmi 7 has the “A” variant – the entry-level lineup. And the Xiaomi Redmi 7A just made its way to Nepal.
Overview
The Xiaomi Redmi 7A has the typical looks of a budget phone, rocking the old school bezels on top and bottom. I don’t mind though, was not a big fan of notches anyway. The phone houses a 5.45″ LCD display with HD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The body is polycarbonate, which is, of course, typical of an entry-level phone.
There’s a single camera at the back – a 12 MP Sony IMX486 sensor. And this is actually the only phone in this price category to pack that! So, it might have the best camera in this segment…but of course, only time will tell. The selfie camera is a 5 MP unit with software-enabled AI portraits. Also, the front camera also acts as your security with Face Unlock, as there is no fingerprint sensor. But you can’t expect one for this price either.
Everything is run by a Snapdragon 439 processor, which can be regarded as a capable one, at least at this price. Supporting it is a 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. Also, batteries have always been the strong suit of Redmi devices. So, even this entry-level phone comes with a large 4000 mAh battery, which is impressive.
The company is also offering 2 years warranty on the purchase of the Redmi 7A.
Storage: 32 GB, expandable via microSD card (dedicated slot)
OS: Android 9.0 Pie, MIUI 9
Features: Wireless FM-Radio with built-in antennae
Battery: 4000 mAh
Xiaomi Redmi 7A Price in Nepal and Availability
The Redmi 7A is available only in the 2 GB RAM variant with 32 GB onboard storage. It is priced at Rs. 11,500. And it will be available on all offline platform across Nepal and Daraz.com.np starting August 9th.
Redmi has established itself as one of the strongest players in the smartphone world. The Redmi Note 7and Note 7 Pro were launched earlier this year and they are a force to reckon in the budget-to-mid-range segment. The success of those to phones propelled the company’s General Manager to announce the work in process of Redmi Note 8.
Redmi’s General Manager has claimed that the new Redmi Note 8 will be much powerful than its predecessor. Well, that’s a given. I mean a new phone that’s not powerful than its predecessor is no fun, isn’t it? Interestingly, the company has also announced a device with the new MediaTek Helio G90T. And this new news about Redmi Note 8 seems a little more than a coincidence to me.
Not only that, but the company also touted a 64 MP camera smartphone in the making. So, the speculation is that the Redmi Note 8 will use the Helio G90T processor. And along with that, it will have a 64MP camera setup. Well, it is a possibility. And that too a really exciting one. After all, the Redmi Note 7 Pro was about that camera prowess. So, it is possible that at least some variant of the Redmi Note 8 will have that 64 MP camera!
The recently launched Helio G90T is the most powerful processor in MediaTek’s G-series of chipsets. It is an octa-core processor comprising of Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 cores. It has two Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.05GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2GHz. Furthermore, it integrates the ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 clocked at 800MHz. It supports up to 10GB of RAM, USF 2.1 and eMMC 5.1 storage. In addition to that, CAT-12 LTE WorldMode modem and Bluetooth 5.0 are also integrated. Additional features such as HyperGaming Technology, enhanced AI camera, and a 90Hz refresh rate support for display makes this chipset an enviable one.
So the prospect of another addition to the Redmi Note series and the possibility that it will use a budget-oriented gaming processor makes the Note 8 a phone to look out for. We’ll probably learn more about the 64MP camera phone and probably the Note 8 after Xiaomi’s scheduled event on August 7.
RealmeandRedmi have announced their respective plans to launch a 64MP camera phone. Thus, it was only a matter of time before a new player entered the race. Well, the rumor mill has it that Samsung has reportedly announced its plans to launch a phone with a similar feature. However, the reports are all speculations as no official word from Samsung has come out yet.
But if the rumors are in fact true, it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to many. The fact that both Realme and Redmi will use Samsung’s 64MP ISOCELL GW1 sensorfor their 64MP camera phone. With Samsung having access to an in-house solution for the lens, this venture of theirs is not surprising. Nonetheless, what series this phone will belong to is still a mystery.
Famed tipster Ice Universe claims that the 64MP camera phone will be a new addition to the Galaxy A-series. Furthermore, he claims that the rumored phone will launch by September or the subsequent month. Claims were that the plan for a “64MP camera phone” was initially put to halt. However, a recent surge of brands readying the launch of a similar phone forced the company to rethink their plans.
Before this particular rumor surfaced, we’d heard a similar one back in May. As per that report, a certain Galaxy A70S will be the phone with a 64MP camera setup. Leaksters claim that the Galaxy A70S will be a small upgrade to the existing Galaxy A70. The difference, they claim, between the two phones will only be the upgraded camera hardware.
64MP packed camera phones will probably define smartphones in 2019. And these leaked rumors in some ways affirm that Samsung wants to be a forerunner in this age too. However, they face a more than capable competition from brands such as Realme and Xiaomi. Thus, it cannot be said with absolute certainty about who will emerge as the winner.
But one thing is for sure: smartphone companies are not going to stop beefing up cameras soon! Who knows when we’ll stop?
