Google will launch the next version of Android OS (Android Q) in October of 2019. And it promises to bring a ton of impressing features. And of course, solve what the current Android Pie lacks. Also, as usual, some smartphone companies are already providing their users Android Q Beta to their users. Google, OnePlus, and Huawei (yes, some P30 series devices received Android Q Beta) are on the top spots in that list.
But Samsung is still busy on releasing Android Pie updates on its current Galaxy devices. A time will come when Samsung will step ahead and announce the names of all the Galaxy devices to get the Android Q update. However, that day might be far away. Because we are not quite sure when the South Korean tech giant will do that. Nonetheless, if you are anxious to know if your Galaxy device is qualified for the update, here’s a list to find out.
When it comes to rolling out updates, Samsung offers two major software updates on all of its devices (smartphones and tablets). This means that, if you’ve bought a phone/tablet with Android Oreo or Android Pie OS out of the box, you will get the Android Q update. Of course, those who received the Pie update first will get Android Q first, too. But if your device featured Android Nougat or anything below that at the time of purchase, we’re afraid, there’s no Android Q for you.
List of Samsung devices to get the Android Q Update
So, here is the preliminary list of Samsung Galaxy devices that are qualified for the Android Q update:
This list has been prepared after acknowledging Samsung’s traditional update policy. So when the South Korean giant releases the official list, expect a few changes. But sooner or later, the aforementioned devices will certainly get the Android Q. And the recent news about the Galaxy J7 Nxt and J7 Pro getting the Pie update is assuring.
Even if your smartphone or tablet is past its eligibility to receive software updates, Samsung will still continue to provide regular security updates as long as it’s not more than three years old. The Samsung devices, which were launched more than three years, will get the security updates but only if Samsung finds it necessary. However, some of the devices like Galaxy S7 and Galaxy A5 (2016) will also receive quarterly updates even in the fourth year.
Last year, before the official release of the Android Pie, Samsung had also allowed its users to test the Beta version of the OS. And we can expect the same this year. However, at this point in time, we are unable to predict, which Galaxy devices would probably be allowed for the Beta testing. Nonetheless, the probable guess would the flagship Galaxy S10 devices.
Like a few smartphone OEMs, Vivo is set to unveil an entirely new series of smartphone this year. With the tagline “Fully Loaded”, the Z-series is meant for people who want a feature-packed smartphone that doesn’t compromise on anything. For its opening, Vivo will be releasing the Vivo Z1 Pro in a number of countries.
Vivo Z1 Pro Overview
Vivo has been teasing the features of the Z1 Pro for several days now. The design of the device has already been unveiled, and the phone features the under-display selfie camera or a punch hole camera. The Z1 Pro is expected to sport a 6.5-inch display. The fingerprint scanner will be a rear-mounted one, as the design on some of the pictures suggests.
One of the major USPs of the Z1 Pro is the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chipset. This SoC supports Adreno 616 GPU, and while Vivo hasn’t yet mentioned anything about the RAM count, we can expect it to be 6 or 8 GB. As for the software, the Z1 Pro will run on Android v9.0 Pie with Vivo’s own FunTouch OS on top.
The official images of the Z1 Pro suggest towards a vertical triple camera setup. The phone might have a wide-angle camera and a depth sensor accompanying the primary lens. What we do know is that the device, like a few Vivo phones, has a 32-megapixel selfie snapper.
The Z1 Pro has a 5,000 mAh battery that is accompanied by an 18W fast charging.
Vivo Z1 Pro Specifications (Expected and Confirmed)
Display: 6.5-inch display with Full HD+ resolution
Vivo has already confirmed that the Vivo Z1 Pro will be available on Flipkart in India. However, the company hasn’t yet mentioned anything about its pricing.
Huawei garnered the biggest growth in the wearable market in Q1 2019. The company achieved 282.2% growth in year-over-year sales. It also managed to secure the third position with a 10% global market in the wearable business. And all the credit for this success goes to their noteworthy devices. The Huawei TalkBand B5 and Band 3 have also played a good part in that success. And making their mark in the international market, the Huawei Band 3 and TalkBand B5 have recently made their way to Nepal. These smartwatches are now available for purchase in Nepal via Huawei’s retail outlets and some online stores.
Huawei TalkBand B5
The TalkBand B5 comes with a 1.13-inch AMOLED display with 2.5D curved glass on the top to offer a seamless feel. The display on this device also happens to be touch-sensitive. So users can easily access the features by simply tapping and swiping the screen. But the unique part of this smartwatch has to be its design. Unlike most of the smart wearables out there, the display on the TalkBand B5 can be popped out. And the popped out unit can be used as a Bluetooth headset to have a conversation on a phone call or to listen to the music. To offer premium listening experience on such occasions, Huawei has also included a trip-core audio chip for a high-definition voice and two microphones for better noise reduction.
The wearable also supports some handy features like Caller ID, call muting, and speed dial option to quickly access a contact in order to call them. And this feature-packed is also quite safe from water, dust, and moisture. It has received IP67 certification for that.
On the storage side, there is 0.5MB (512KB) of RAM and 16MB of flash storage. Yes, it sounds trivial and it’s understandable because the smartwatch is not intended to store your files and photos. The in-built memory is merely for storing pre-installed apps. Sideloading of other apps is also not possible in this one. Nonetheless, you can unleash more of its features by connecting it to a smartphone. The TalkBand is compatible with Android 4.4 or newer version of Android. Similarly, in the Apple devices, the smart device should have iOS 9 or newer version of iOS.
Being the fitness-tracking device the B5 is also dexterous when it comes to analyzing various physical activities and health-related conditions. The B5 is furnished with TrueRelax Technology, which not only analyzes the heart rate variability but also evaluates the stress level. There is also a 24-hour continuous heart rate monitoring feature. And the company has integrated Huawei’s TruSeen 2.0 heart rate tech for the accurate measurement of the palpitation of the heart. Similarly, for sleep tracking, Huawei’s sleep tracking technology Huawei TruSleep 2.0 comes into action. This feature uses cardiopulmonary-coupled dynamics spectrum (CPC) in order to monitor complete sleep structure including REM (deep sleep). With the data from this tech, the smartwatch performs an in-depth analysis of the various stages of sleep and determines the quality of sleep. The wearable also presents recommendations to improve the sleep cycle if the user isn’t getting proper sleep.
As far as the power is concerned, the device flaunts a 108mAh battery, which promises 3.5-days of back on standby and 6-hours of talk time. Talking about the price, the smart wearable is now available for purchase at Rs. 22,500.
Huawei Band 3
The Huawei Band 3 falls on to the affordable side when it comes to the price. The Band 3 comes with a slightly smaller 0.95-inch display, which also happens to comes with AMOLED panel. The touchscreen display on this device is capped with 2.5D curved glass.
Diving into the fitness-tracking prowess, it’s great to see the device powered by Huawei TruSeen 3.0 technology. This tech when combined with all sort of intelligent sensors and smart AI algorithm, the Band 3 can precisely monitor the heart rate of the users. For the sleep monitoring, you get the Huawei TruSleep 2.0 tech inside the device. This tech analyzes the sleep cycle and identifies the six most common sleep-related issues. And to help the users overcome such issues, the device also presents 200 potential recommendations to its users.
Like most smartwatches, the Huawei Band 3 also smartly identifies the various exercise or sports activities. Walking, running, riding, cycling, and swimming are a few of them. Talking of the swimming, you can go up to 50 meters down without damaging the Band.
Talking about the price, Band 3 is available for purchase at Rs. 6,500.
After all the issues between Google and Huawei, which should be common knowledge by now, Huawei is looking right and left for alternatives. And it should, too. After all, the company has less than 2 months left until Google bans the company completely! While Huawei did shed light into its own OS, Hongmeng (or ArkOS outside China), we’re still unclear about its features. But, it seems that Huawei is also looking for other alternatives, and has found one in the form of Sailfish OS!
This is a rather strange development, yes. Because for a company working on their own OS for a long time ago, looking for another alternative seems curious. There were even reports about Huawei’s new OS being 60% faster than Android! However, that was according to some preliminary tests, and since the new OS might not have all the functionalities that the Android OS has. This can, of course, make the new OS appear faster, too.
In addition, some reports claim that Huawei’s own OS is not fully ready. By now, their OS is suitable only in entry-level to low-tier devices. Hence, this new move…the alternative comes in the form of Sailfish OS.
Huawei’s Alternative Sailfish OS Overview
If you haven’t heard of this before, we don’t blame you. It almost never comes up anywhere near Android or iOS. This is a Linux based operating system for mobiles. And it was created by former Nokia employees in Finland. Right now, Sailfish OS is owned by the Finnish company, called Jolla.
One of the main advantages of Sailfish OS is that all of it is open source. Meaning? Well, for Android, only its platform, AOSP (Android Open Source Platform) is free, the actual operating system is not. But for Sailfish, you can do with it as you please.
Another important feature Sailfish offers is its privacy settings. Jolla, the owning company, only collects information from users necessary to run its services and doesn’t sell your information to third party vendors without your consent. It won’t even collect your data without your consent! And this would be a smart move on Huawei’s part as it, currently, faces accusations of violating privacy and stealing information.
In addition, Sailfish offers pretty similar features to Android and iOS. It has a better gesture-based navigation system as well. Plus, there’s Android app compatibility, but they have to be manually sideloaded. Of course, the solution is a new dedicated app store, which, of course, requires a considerable amount of effort.
Huawei’s Implementation
Huawei, while it will use Sailfish, will use a version of it. Technically, a forked version of the Sailfish OS named Aurora OS. What that means, is that it uses the same source code, but slightly modified. But Aurora OS is owned by the Russian telco, Rostelecom, which is also an investor in Jolla. Also, that is currently in use, by Russian government agencies and state-owned corporations. And if you’re wondering about the strange Russia-China partnership, Huawei, actually, recently signed an agreement with Russia to develop their 5G infrastructure as well.
Of course, Huawei is not going to use the very same version. There will probably be a Chinese version first, followed by an international one later. Some reports already claim Huawei running some devices with the OS for first-round testing.
Will Sailfish OS Sail for Huawei?
Now, this is the million-dollar question! Of course, using this OS seems like a smarter move for Huawei than develop its own. This way, it will save a lot of money and effort to advertise the new OS and build all the other aspects from scratch. Also, with the credibility of Sailfish OS and privacy, the accusations surrounding Huawei might fade away too.
But if you look at it from another perspective, then, we can’t really say. Huawei is, right now, a victim of the US-China Trade War. And for it to partner with a Russian company (US and Russia aren’t really tight, either), doesn’t look all bright for the company.
As for the technical feasibility, apart from the effort required to developing an alternative for sideloading of Android apps, there isn’t much difficulty. So, for now, Huawei’s future OS is still in question.
And, by the time of this article, there have been no announcements or news from the company regarding this.
Netflix is a well-known video streaming site. Its database includes tons of popular video contents, some of which are developed by the company itself.
After all of its accolades and success, Netflix is set to take a step into the gaming industry soon. The Californian Giants will launch two new video games this year with others following.
However, rather than developing the games itself, Netflix will collaborate with Next Games, a Finnish game developer. They will launch their first game dubbed ‘Stranger Things 3: The Game’, a game based on one of the most popular series – Stranger Things. The game will launch on July 4 next month which is coincidentally the same day the series’ 3rd season is releasing. The Game will be available for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4 on the same day. Likewise, a new location-based puzzle game will be released in 2020.
The announcement for the games was made at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), one of the biggest gaming conferences.
Netflix also announced that another game will be coming out later this year which will be based on ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’, a series that is a prequel to The Dark Crystal. This game will also be made in collaboration with the same developer. Netflix hasn’t yet confirmed the date for this game’s launch, though.
During the event, Chris Lee, Director of interactive games at Netflix, said, “We’re looking for opportunities to extend the universe of these shows and films into other mediums. To me, it was really obvious to try to do that into video games.”
Netflix has already developed videos that interact with the users and develop the storyline according to their preferences. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was definitely a game changer and it seems like that was the first step into Netflix’s interest in the gaming industry.
Do you think Netflix will do well with games just like its video streaming service? Do let us know!
A truly bezel-less display, no notches, no punch holes, just a big clean screen. Yes, it’s the Samsung Galaxy A80 we’re talking about. And complementing the bezel-less characteristic is not your regular pop-up camera, it’s a camera that flips around, so basically, we’re looking at a rear camera, that’s also your front camera. Interesting, isn’t it? But, what else does this upper mid-ranger has to offer? Find out in this review!
Samsung Galaxy A80 Specifications:
Design: Glass body front and back, Aluminum frame
Display: 6.7″ Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels)
Rear Camera: Triple, 48 MP primary lens with f/2.0 aperture & PDAF + 8 MP Ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture + 3D TOF sensor
Front Camera: Rotating rear camera (48 MP primary lens with f/2.0 aperture & PDAF + 8 MP Ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture + 3D TOF sensor)
Let’s start with the best thing about this phone, the display. It is this huge 6.7-inch screen with such minimum bezels that you sort of want to watch videos in it, all the time. And needless to say, you will have a great experience playing games as well.
It’s Samsung’s Super AMOLED panel so, no doubts, it’s nothing less than excellent. You get two color modes to choose from, natural and vivid. The natural option makes the display have a natural color tone while the Vivid mode makes it look punchier. And you can choose various temperature modes to suit your needs in the Vivid mode too.
The dark theme going around looks really cool and you can even custom schedule it like you can turn it on during the night and shut it off at daytime or you can keep it on all the time.
As for brightness, you get a pretty good amount, both indoors and outdoors. And it can go up to very low, so using it under your blanket is not going to strain your eyes a lot. Plus, you have a Blue light filter option for better protection, which is not something very new, but a helpful feature to have.
But, those default wallpapers that are given are too less. The ones that are given are not too many to choose from and the others you got to purchase. If you are someone who likes the default Samsung experience and when you get a near flagship device, you would want some more choices at least.
Enough complaining though. As a whole, the A80’s display is to die for. Although not QHD like you get on the S10 or Note 9, but a good FHD panel that won’t fail to impress.
Design:
Okay now, the Galaxy A80 is a huge phone and pretty heavy to that. And as soon as you hold it, you will know what I am talking about. However, it is not ergonomic because the upper portion is way heavier than the lower, which should not be a surprise considering the rotating camera module sits on the top position.
The unit we received is in sort of an off-white color which looks very unconventional and appealing at the same time. There are metal frames surrounding it that add to the durability. The glass back looks and feels good on the hands. But as mentioned earlier, the phone is considerably heavier than the others and it’s large, so it might not be the most comfortable for people with small hands.
At the back, the cameras are placed horizontally at the top with a slight partition distinguishing it from the rest of the body. The cameras protrude out ever so slightly but nothing that creates imbalance.
Talking of buttons, the power button resides on the right while the volume buttons are placed at the left side and thankfully there is no Bixby button this time, so you won’t have to worry about those accidental pressings.
The phone is also considerably resistant to scratches, as even on such long usage there has not appeared any scratches on the back or on the front. So, that’s pretty impressive!
Talking about the front, the phone is protected by the older generation in Gorilla Glass 3 which is disappointing because Samsung seems to be cutting corners in the wrong areas. And since this is a premium device, it’s legit to expect more.
Down below, there lies the SIM slot, a USB Type C port, and single firing speaker grill. Does anything seem missing? The headphone jack and MicroSD card slot maybe? Those, evidently are gone.
About the SD card slot, since the A80 comes with 128 GB storage inside and that would pretty much be enough. So, judging the design, it would be an 8 out of 10, 2 fewer points for being slightly heavy and bulky.
Cameras:
Cameras on this thing are the same both on the front and back, after all, it’s the back camera flipping to become the front as well. As for now, let’s run down the camera specs first. The primary is a 48 MP Quad Bayer sensor that captures 12MP images via pixel binning, there’s an 8 MP ultra- wide angle lens and third is a 3D ToF sensor.
Let’s start with the images from the primary sensor. At first glance, you will love the images. The colors are nice and punchy and the overall image quality seems very good. Only what seems missing is the details.
Samsung Galaxy A80 normal images
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You do have an option to capture images in 48MP mode, but there is very less difference in details among the two. Maybe slightest color shifts sometimes and a little bit more sharpness, but other than that, there is nothing remarkably different among the images of the 48 and 12 MP.
Samsung Galaxy A80 12 MP VS 48 MP camera samples
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12MP - A80 Shot
48MP - A80 Shot
12MP - A80 Shot
48MP - A80 Shot
12MP - A80 Shot
48MP - A80 Shot
12MP - A80 Shot
48MP - A80 Shot
Comparing the A80 against the S10+ to check details, you will find both to have fewer details in their pictures. But the colors are ever so slightly punchier in the S10+ while the A80 produces near to natural colors. So, in terms of color reproduction, we found the A80 doing a better job.
Samsung Galaxy A80 vs S10 comparison shots
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S10
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There is a 3D ToF sensor, first of its kind in a Samsung phone, which is one of the best things about the phone. As a result, the Live focus portrait images are too good. The background blur looks so natural and pleasant. There are quite a few options for blurs which you can change even after taking images, so that can be really fun.
Samsung Galaxy A80 portrait samples
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As for the wide-angle images, colors and details are better on the normal shots. The wide-angle images are not bad though. They pack in good colors although not as good as the primary but if you are looking for some good wide-angle shots, you can definitely get some from this camera.
Samsung Galaxy A80 normal vs wide angle shots
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Likewise, the wide-angle images are slightly wider in the S10+ and the colors too are better in it. So, for wide- angle images, the S10 is a better choice.
Samsung Galaxy A80 vs S10 wide angle shots
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A80 Wide angle
S10 Wide angle
A80 Wide angle
S10 Wide angle
There are two features the Galaxy A80 lacks when compared to S10, there’s no telephoto zoom lens and you can’t shoot 4K @60fps.
You can take 4k videos at 30 fps, but its void of any kind of stabilization while the 1080p at 60 fps gives the best outcome with good enough stabilization though slight wobbles can be noticed at times. But, all of the videos look slightly washed out a bit. So, all in all, the video capabilities on the Galaxy A80 is not as good as S10.
Also, Night time images are not comparable with the S10. Just look at these images for comparison.
Samsung Galaxy A80 vs S10 night time photos
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A80 Night Shot
S10 Night Shot
A80 Night Shot
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Samsung Galaxy A80 normal Vs night mode samples
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Night Mode
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Night Mode
There’s a dedicated night mode feature on the Galaxy A80, which the S10 recently received. And like the S10’s night mode, it does a good job in improving details and saturation and brightness levels.
About the selfies, the first thing you notice is how the skin tone is remarkably color accurate. The details are fine and the selfies look great overall.
Samsung Galaxy A80 selfie samples
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However, it’s a bit disappointed here as the selfie cameras do not get the same privileges as the rear camera. First thing is, there is no autofocus in the selfie camera, the focus is fixed at an arm’s length. Secondly, no 4k videos in the selfie part, the max it can do is 1080p.
However, what you can do is take wide angle selfies, a feature not even available in the S10. The wide-angle selfies look slightly on the darker side but nothing to fuss about.
Samsung Galaxy A80 normal vs wide angle selfies
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Normal Selfie
Wide-angle Selfie
Normal Selfie
Wide-angle Selfie
The selfie portrait also does a commendable job on the other hand. The edge detection is good with true to life background blurring. There’s also a live focus video mode that misses out on edge detection yet is not bad to whine about.
So, all in all, the Galaxy A80 has good cameras. It’s on par with S10 during the daytime, however, when it comes to video and nighttime photography, the S10 is a much better performer.
Performance:
The A80 comes packing the SD 730 chipset and 8GB RAM which is indeed powerful. The SD 730 is an upper-midrange chipset made on an 8 nm fabrication technique. It is better than the chipsets in the SD 600 series of course and slightly lesser than the flagship 800 series.
And as far as real-life performance is concerned, it does a good job, if not the best out there. However, with that price tag, they could have gone for the best indeed but they chose otherwise.
As for the benchmarks, the 730 is slightly better than the SD 675 and SD 710 but lies far behind the 855. On the GPU side, it has the Adreno 618 GPU making it slightly better than other midranges. You can enjoy playing PUBG at the high settings, stutter-free most of the times. Other games run very well too. And the large display adds to the good gaming experience.
Normally the phone works fine. There won’t experience any sort of lagginess or such ever while using this phone. It functions smooth and won’t let you down.
A slight reality check though, the performance is stellar no doubts but if performance is your priority, you can get better flagship grade performance if you add a little more money. You have options of the OnePlus 7 or even the S10e for that matter.
Software and UI:
The Galaxy A80 comes with Android 9 Pie coupled with Samsung’s One UI out of the box. The One UI, as you might have seen on all the latest Samsung phones, is quite refined to say at the least.
The interface is clean and flows quite nicely. And the A80, on the software side, will feel like the S10. Everything is just so clean and brought down for the ease of one-handed use. Although one-handed usage is not recommended as the phone is large and slippery.
Back to the software, you get improved gesture navigation, a dark theme which is super cool, some additional battery settings, and a good friendly interface. There are also not many unnecessary things present to call it bloatware. Although the icons on the One UI look cartoonish, it’s not that bad to fuss about.
The fingerprint sensor is an in display ones like the Galaxy A50 and A70. This means it’s not an ultrasonic one like the S10. It’s an optical one that is not very fast I would say but will get the job done. When have we seems super-fast fingerprint sensors on Samsung’s midrange devices anyways?
There’s no Face unlock feature that is justifiable because then we would have to wait for the camera to pop out and rotate, which would make it slower and subject to criticism. So it’s better that we don’t have it at all.
Battery:
As for the battery, you get a 3,700 mAh unit inside, which is undersized for such a huge phone. On my tests, normally the battery lasts for an entire day and you will have to put it on charge at the end of the day. Normal tasks won’t drain the battery so much and if you keep features like Always on display off, you will get prolonged battery life.
The phone comes with a 25-watt fast charger which takes 30 minutes to get 50% juice, so around an hour and some minutes or so to get the phone fully charged.
Extras:
And one more thing. While the A80’s cameras look fun and everything, there is no explanation regarding the durability of the cameras meaning it holds great chances of damage. Similarly, the phone does not come with any sort of waterproofing, so you will have to be extra careful with near sources of water.
As for the audio, the single firing speaker has good loudness and less distortion in high volumes. Likewise, it packs a good amount of bass to go with your needs. Also, Using Type-c headphones, the audio from them was good enough.
Even the call quality is good. Samsung uses a piezoelectric speaker integrated into the screen, which works really well.
Conclusion:
So, in the end, it all comes down to whether you should buy the A80 or not. But that’s a tricky question because this one does cost a good amount of money, although little less than the flagship, and other than the rotating camera mechanism, it does fall back against S10 in a majority of the aspects like performance, cameras, waterproofing, and the like.
So, the choice is yours, are you willing to pay an extra premium and get the no non-sense S10 or pay less and get a unique phone with a rotating camera.
So, if you are a tech junkie who loves experiencing new tech and has the money, the Galaxy A80 is not a bad choice to go with.
Even with the trade war going on with US officials, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor still managed to launch their latest Honor 20 series. After a week after the Honor 20 series came out, and the smallest of the siblings, the Honor 20 Lite, made its way to Nepal through Kratos Technologies Pvt. Ltd. which is the authorized distributor of Honor phones in Nepal. Is Honor 20 Lite is still relevant in Nepal with its price and specs after almost a year of its release?
Honor 20 Lite Overview:
Design & Display
The Honor 20 Lite, appears to be the same Honor 10i that was launched back in March. And by the price, this is a mid-range phone. This phone sports a 6.21-inch ISP display with Full HD+ resolution. The display features a waterdrop notch on the top to accommodate the front-facing camera. Unfortunately, there is no Notification LED light on the device. Visual contents on the Honor 20 Lite looks sharp and pleasant.
Performance and Memory
Underneath its body, is a HiSilicon Kirin 710 processor that runs the show. Also, it’s aided by the Mali-G51 MP4 GPU and 4 GB of RAM. The processor is comparable to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660. It can handle most of the tasks almost all the tasks you throw at it. Multitasking is good but you would want to look for something else if you are looking for a device to play high-end games such as PUBG. The phone also runs on Android 9.0 Pie like the other two Honor 20 devices, with EMUI on top, of course.
Camera
As for the cameras, The Honor 20 Lite comes with a triple-rear-camera setup. The setup comprises of 24 MP primary lens with f/1.8 aperture, an 8 MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2 MP depth sensor. The shots pack quite a lot of details in them. Images are sharp but at times over-processing makes the color unnatural.
The ultra-wide camera is able to capture 120-degrees FOV but the shots lack details. The depth sensor doesn’t quite do the work it is supposed to do as it suffers from edge-detection issues. Also, the notch up front houses a 32-megapixel selfie shooter embedded on the notch.
Battery
In addition, this phone packs a 3400 mAh battery and has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. However, it lacks Type C port and fast charging support.
Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Accelerometer, Proximity, and Compass
Price: Rs. 32,500
Honor 20 Lite Price in Nepal and Availability
The official price of Honor 20 Lite in Nepal is Rs. 32,500 for the 4/128GB variant. It is yet to receive a price cut in Nepal. The phone is available through official Honor stores, and select offline stores in Nepal.
At a similar price, many would prefer Redmi Note 8 Pro with Helio G90T and more RAM and it is difficult to recommend Honor 20 Lite as it doesn’t carry the legacy of Honor 20.
The Nokia 2.2 is a budget-friendly device launched in the international market just a week back. When it was announced, the phone received quite a lot of appreciation. It was mainly for the software. The phone comes with an unadulterated stock version of Android Pie out of the box. As the phone is a product of Google’s Android One program, the phone will receive timely software updates and security patches from Google itself. The Nokia 2.2 is also one of the cheapest smartphones in line to get the Android Q update (as soon as it gets released).
Being a budget phone, other specs on the phones are quite modest. The phone comes with a 5.71-inch display with HD+ resolution. Going with the trend, Nokia has also incorporated a tiny water-drop style notch on the top. There is the MediaTek Helio A22 chipset to look after the performance on this device. And 2/3GB RAM is provided to complement the performance. Talking about the storage, the phone comes in 16GB and 32GB variants.
As far as the cameras are concerned, the phone gets a single shooter both on the front and on the back. The rear camera enjoys a single 13MP shooter, whereas a 5MP snapper captures the selfies. The 5MP shooter on the front also comes into action while unlocking the device via Face Unlock feature. All this package is powered by a 3000mAh battery.
Nokia 2.2 Specifications:
Display: 5.71-inch IPS display
Resolution: HD (720 x 1520 pixels), 19:9 aspect ratio @ 295PPI
Chipset: MediaTek Helio A22
CPU: Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU:PowerVR GE8320
OS: Android 9.0 Pie (Android One), Upgradable to Android Q
RAM: 2/3 GB
Storage: 16/32 GB, expandable up to 400GB via SD card
Rear Camera:13MP with f/2.2, Autofocus & LED flash
Front Camera:5MP
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity
Battery: 3000mAh battery with Micro USB port for charging
Nokia 3.2 Overview:
The Nokia 3.2 is a slightly bigger and a slightly better variant of the Nokia 2.2. It comes with a slightly bigger 6.26-inch display with a similar notch on the top. The screen here is enriched with HD+ resolution and is capped by the 2.5D glass to offer a seamless feeling.
Powering the device is a relatively new budget-oriented chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 429. The processor comes alongside the 2GB/3GB RAM for better multitasking. To store your files and photos, you get an option of 16GB and 32GB on the storage front. And this storage can also be expanded further up to 400GB making use of an SD card.
On to the imaging department, the phone’s got a 13MP shooter at the back and 8MP selfie snapper up front. The phone also features Face Unlock features, which basically registers the facial details with the front cam. For better security, you can also opt for the fingerprint scanner, which only comes in a 3GB/32GB variant.
Nokia 3.2 is also an Android One phone, which runs on the stock version of Android Pie. Google has promised to provide software update and security patches for this device for around two years. The Nokia 3.2 will also be one of the first phones to get the upcoming Android Q OS. As far as the battery is concerned, the handset promises a prolonged endurance with its massive 4000mAh battery.
Nokia 3.2 Specifications:
Display: 6.26-inch TFT display with a 2.5D arc on the top
Resolution: HD (720 x 1520 pixels) @ 269 PPI Pixel density
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 429
CPU: Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53
OS: Android 9.0 Pie, Android One
RAM: 2/3 GB
Storage: 16/32 GB, expandable up to 400GB via SD card
Rear Camera: 13MP with f/2.2, Autofocus & LED flash
The price of the Nokia 2.2 is INR 7,699 ($110) for the 2/16GB variant and INR 8,699 ($124) for the higher-end model. Similarly, when the Nokia 3.2 was unveiled back in MWC 2019, the price was announced as $139 and $169 for the 2/16GB and 3/32GB variants respectively.
Talking about the price in Nepal, Nokia Nepal officials assured that these devices would be priced competitively in Nepal. The officials also informed that the team is quite enthusiastic about the recent reduction in the excise duty. Although the price of these devices is still kept under the veil, it has been notified that the deviation of price in Nepal and India would remain well below 5% after the inclusion of taxes. And as far as the launch of the device is concerned, it is said to take place sometime in the fourth week of July.
When HTC launched the world’s first Android phone back in 2008, the HTC Dream, it kinda was a dream come true. At a time when iOS was setting a benchmark for the mobile operating system, Android came as a great alternative. And a remarkable one at that, both to the Java mobile platform and the premium but expensive iOS. While HTC’s Dream didn’t quite match all the expectations, they did become the pioneers of what we have today. And after that too, they made some awesome contributions in the smartphone industry.
Fast forward to today, the once-revered company is clinging to life with non-remarkable products in the market. With the launch of the HTC U19e and the HTC Desire 19+ launched in Taiwan, they’re repeating the same mistakes they did in the past. And despite being contrary to expectations of people that HTC’s phone brand was dead, these new launches won’t help the company any.
What Happened to HTC?
HTC’s present efforts in the smartphone industry is nothing worth mentioning. After enjoying glory until 2012, the company, now, has faded into near irrelevance. Google took over HTC’s design department, putting them in charge of new Pixel devices instead. And the company, which employed over 19000 people in 2013, now employs less than 5000 worldwide!
Of course, HTC had quite the vision. It went on to power the HTC Exodus, a blockchain powered smartphone. It was a risky bet already and didn’t quite take off…it still hasn’t. With its revenue declining year after year, it is almost out of the smartphone business. We already thought they killed it off, but the two new phones are a surprise, to be sure.
But HTC, as a company, is still surviving off of their VR movement. They have announced three VR headsets: a premium Vive Pro Eye, wireless Vive Focus Plus, and Vive Cosmos this year. And there are reports that the company will also launch its 5G Hub to provide broadband internet via 5G networks. So, the company might not die just yet, but the smartphone division seems bleak.
HTC’s Timeline: Glorious past
In order to analyze the future, it’s also necessary to look at the past. In the early years, HTC was one of the most impressive companies in the market. HTC started out as Windows PDAs and mobile manufacturer in 2004 and went mainstream since 2006. It’s success enabled it to take over a mobile manufacturing company, Dopod International, which aided in manufacturing more phones in 2007.
HTC Dream: world’s first Android phone / Source: Wikipedia
In 2008, after joining Google’s Open Handset Alliance (basically, the Android Open Source Platform), they launched the world’s first Android device – HTC Dream. However, they continued making Windows phones. And at a time when it was competing with Blackberry’s OS and Nokia’s Symbian OS, they smartly customized a smart skin (TouchFlo) with lots of features which can still be considered modern.
HTC Sense OS
Doing things with Windows phones that didn’t even seem possible, they were doing pretty well. And at the same time, running close to Google for development of other Android handsets meant astounding success in a short time. And later, HTC phones gave birth to HTC Sense, showing the customizable possibilities of Android, which drove the company to more prominence.
HTC Desire S
Later in 2010, HTC Desire took the smartphone market by storm. In addition to being the only worthy competition to the iPhone, it “did more and cost less“, which, ironically, was Apple’s tagline! By 2011, HTC was the biggest smartphone company in the US. Sales were increasing, and it was the golden period, for the company, because, that’s when it began to fall apart.
HTC’s Timeline: Falling off the edge
2012 was the year when the company began falling off the edge. It began losing much of its market share in the US to competitors like Samsung and Apple. It was their ambition to follow up with the Desire series, a move that would convert this small ODM to a smartphone giant. But, that backfired…
HTC One
Follow up phones like HTC Desire HD failed to bring anything new to the table. The HTC Desire lineup might have been, the company’s best. But it mostly failed to bring a compelling factor in them. By this time, competitors were catching up, where HTC, once used to reign. HTC One, in 2012, tried to correct its mistakes but failed to provide something different. It was a phone that got lost in the crowd. The phone did win various awards, but its sales were pretty low – lower than Galaxy S4 flagships from Samsung.
HTC One M8
Profits were at an all-time low, but they still staggered along. With the follow-up, HTC One M8, HTC finally did something new! It was different, not what people were looking for, but something they didn’t know they wanted – something ahead of its time. And things were looking up, with sales rising slowly.
But, again, in 2015, with HTC One M9, they fell down hard! With a bare minimum of improvements over the One M8, HTC seemed to be trying to catch up instead of innovating. As other companies had already caught up, HTC’s lead was not there anymore. Their software was the only thing that was keeping it alive, really, but when Samsung started catching up, there were no other advantages.
HTC U11
Their next phones, HTC 10 and HTC U11, were good phones, and best (in some aspects). But like Nokia X, it was too little, too late! Other brands were simply too large, with similar or better features and a large market share. HTC couldn’t keep up. And after that, we know HTC’s U12 series, couldn’t really give their audience the “something new” they wanted.
Fast forward to the present, and here we are, with the company hanging on for dear life.
HTC Timeline: Other ventures
HTC Vive Pro VR headset
Of course, one of the reasons for HTC’s smartphone brand demise is its focus on other ventures, too. HTC was focusing on its VR Vibe Headsets, the ones they collaborated with Valve to create. And these were, far more attractive than the best of their smartphones. They were, and still are, selling well. And this might also have veered the focus out of their smartphones.
HTC Exodus
Another failure was their blockchain powered smartphone – the HTC Exodus. It was a risky bet, something that the world didn’t ask for, neither seemed to need it, actually. Well, for the cryptocurrency fanatics, it would have been a big deal, but there aren’t too many of that in the world, are there? And it is not quite a failure yet but hasn’t really paid off for the company.
Conclusion
So, how did this glorious company go from the heights to the pitfalls? Combine a set of terrible marketing strategies with a hint of narcissism, and you’ll get it. HTC’s marketing was never their strong suit…it kept its phones mostly in the dark.
And while their failures should have taught them something, they went back to try to create products for their old customers. But any brand living in their days of old are doomed to fail. Take Nokia for example. Of course, HMD Global’s revival is taking its toll, but, I doubt if HTC’s revival is right around the corner. Right now, HTC’s smartphone segment’s future, is bleak, at best.
While AMD is getting there alongside Intel for some time now, they haven’t quite hit the sweet spot in the graphics cards department. AMD’s E3 2019 briefing focused mostly on its Ryzen 9 3950X CPU. However, they also did present their new graphics. The new Navi architecture is AMD’s latest attempt towards putting a dent on Nvidia’s earnings. However, this is not enough to reach glory for Team Red Ryzen. But here are the two of the first Ryzen GPUs…the glory shall come soon!
Both of the new Ryzen GPUs are Navi-based graphics cards. The RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT are an attempt to compete against the RTX 2060 and the RTX 2070 respectively. With a price of $450, the RX 5700 XT looks compelling against the RTX 2070 ($500), and the RX 5700 ($380) against the RTX 2060($350)
These two GPUs target 1440p gaming, and by the looks of it, offer identical performance as their Nvidia counterparts. AMD also claims these graphics cards are a worthy upgrade to their Vega 56. But to my disappointment, these GPUs have blower style cooling. They did this to minimize the loud sounds their cards are known to output, apparently. With this, the company assured us that their cards cap out at 43 dB, max.
Radeon Image Sharpening
Another feature worth discussing it the Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS). Using a contrast-detection algorithm, the idea is to make upscaled games appear as good as native 4K. They claim to achieve this without compromising on the frame rates or awkward softening (like that on Nvidia’s DLSS technology). In addition, AMD claims it can work on thousands of games without developers having to support it.
That’s good news, but there is a small problem with this. Without the devs supporting it in their games, this cannot work on DX11 titles – only DX9, DX10, and DX12 along with Vulkan on Windows 10. So, the company is also working with some developers to integrate it directly into the games, which will be known as “Contrast Adaptive Sharpening“. And for now, the RIS is exclusive to 5700 series cards, but other cards will be able to use this too, in the near future.
This is AMD’s solution to reduce input lags, especially, in situations where the games overpower your GPU. And it will provide an edge in competitive gaming scenarios. It works by skipping a few frame rates (selectively) during the times when your CPU is waiting for your GPU to draw frames. However, it shouldn’t affect your gameplay in any way, according to AMD’s claims.
RDNA Graphics Chips
Right…so, by now, we can see that the only clear-cut advantage Nvidia seems to have over AMD is Ray Tracing. But that, too, hasn’t really taken off yet. And even in those games that do support it, you can’t tell the difference all that well. But still, AMD is trying to solve this shortcoming with their new RDNA graphics chips for hardware-related Ray Tracing. But it’s using the “select lighting effects”. So, for a foreseeable future, at least, we are looking at shader based ray tracing. This is similar to NVidia’s implementation of Ray Tracing for their graphics cards without Ray Tracing hardware.
However, AMD says the full ray tracing features may only be available through cloud gaming, like Stadia or GeForce Now. And that’s a bit confusing as both the upcoming Xbox and PlayStation are promising hardware accelerated ray tracing through Navi based GPUs for 2020.
Pricing and availability
Putting it all into perspective, these graphics cards from AMD are trying, but looks like they still have a lot to do; especially, if they’re to compete against the high-end graphics of Nvidia. But these are just the first Navi based cards and we expect some more to come. The RX 5700 and it’s XT counterpart will be available starting July 7 for $380 and $450 respectively. In addition, we will also see the Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition with deep black chassis, slightly higher clock speed (over 10TFLOP marks) for $500.
