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?
The market of fitness bands and smartwatches seems to be growing, with the likes of Samsung and Huawei getting on them too. They have introduced various fitness bands like the Samsung Galaxy Fit and Huawei’s Talkband 5. But it’s Xiaomi who is already a veteran in this regard, with its Mi Bands. The latest of the series is the Mi Band 4 and in this review, we’ll find out if the Mi Band 4 is worth getting.
Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Price in Nepal [Updated 2020]
You can officially buy the Xiaomi Mi band 4 in Nepal for a price of Rs. 4,400 from Daraz. This price of Mi band 4 is for the Global variant without NFC.
Features: Sleep tracker, 24/7 activity tracker, music playback controls, notifications, alarms, reminders, etc.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, Mi Fit App
Battery: 135 mAh
Display
The first and most noticeable change in the Mi Band 4 is on the display. For the very first time, Mi Bands feature a color display. The screen is larger than the Mi Band 3’s at 0.95″ and it’s an AMOLED panel. This also means it’s a touchscreen which allows you to navigate through various features.
The colored display also means that there are now watch-faces on this thing! Of course, for a small screen such as this, that’s not very useful, but at least, it’s there if you want. You know, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it… You get about 77 options in the watch-faces that you can set from the app. And to be honest, none of them are very good looking. But maybe, they’ll add a few more interesting ones in the near future.
Also, the display has a 2D curved glass protection, and it protects against daily wear and tears. But the complaint I have on the display is the huge bezels – it kind of steals the charm away. Since the band is as small as it is, the bezels look unpleasant!
But then again, I’d like to commend them on working on the brightness part. History is a witness that past Mi Bands were not usable outdoors or well-lit environments. But this time it’s bright enough to be usable at least. It’s still not as bright as I’d prefer, but there’s an improvement, which I have to say so.
Design
On to the design, it’s safe to say that there haven’t been any changes from the Mi Band 3. It follows the same design language – an elliptical device with a silicone strap that clips easily. Only this time, you get multiple colors options to choose from. But our unit was the regular black, which, frankly, is boring.
However, the band is light and very comfortable on the hands. And it’s easy to forget that you actually have it on. The silicone strap is easy to put on – simply clip it on, and it stays there. You don’t have to worry about the reliability of that either, in my 15 days of usage, it never fell off unintentionally.
Fitness & Features
The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 features a lot of improvements over its predecessor. The aesthetics might be the same, but there is various kind of small improvements. Sure it isn’t the most comprehensive health monitoring device, but you cannot ask more than what it offers for the price, either.
Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Activity tracker
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Heart Rate Monitor
Step Counter
There’s a Heart-Rate Monitor, just like on the Mi Band 3. Also, it’ll keep track of your daily activities like running, walking, cycling, etc. In addition, there is something called the Six-Axis-Motion-Control-Sensor, which will make the tracking of activities more accurate. And this helps even while swimming. The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 can monitor moves like Freestyle, Backstroke, Medley, etc. And so, it’s also 5 ATM Water-resistant.
Furthermore, the band can also detect some sports activities like Football and Basketball. Plus, there’s sleep tracking on the device as well. However, it only does the basics – won’t give you the full-fledged activity report as on some other devices like the Galaxy Watch.
As for other features, it works like any other fitness watch out there. You get the standard clock on the home screen. Swiping up / down cycles through the features: Heart-rate monitor, step counter, settings, and others. You can also control the music player on your phone by swiping right. But of course, all that is enabled only after you download the Mi Fit app on your phone and sync your Xiaomi Mi Band 4 with it.
After that, you’ll also be able to get notifications on it, change watch faces as aforementioned, check your daily activity logs, etc. Also, it lets you compare a set of data with your previous records. The app is also simple enough to use – the UI is very simple, and getting around it is no hassle.
Connection & Battery
The connectivity on the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is another one of its improvements. It comes with Bluetooth 5.0, which promises a more stable and faster connection. The distance is still 10 meters, though, so, I won’t be impressed until they can extend it to at least twice that!
As for the battery, the Mi Band 4 packs a 135 mAh battery, and it lasts really long. For instance, it had about 43% charge when I first got it. After 10 days of use, it still had about 3% left – and that’s an insane amount of battery life. Of course, I turned the continuous heart-rate monitor off for that, but still, this is a long-lasting battery. And so, when they say that it can deliver 20 days of battery life on a single charge, I believe them.
Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Conclusion
To sum up, the one thing I didn’t like about this band is its design. It’s gotten stale with the same design language repeating itself since the very first generation.
But all the other things are very likable. From the design to display to added functionalities and the battery life, it is a huge improvement. And the best thing is, it has tried to provide a lot of features for better user experience while being very affordable.
But that being said, if you’re a Mi Band 3 user, I don’t really see a good reason to upgrade to this one. Because, besides the color display, it keeps most things very similar in terms of features. However, since it’s cheap, upgrading won’t really cost you a fortune, either. But if you’re coming from older Mi Bands, then, jump on the bandwagon.
Also, if you’re new to the world of fitness bands, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is a good place to get started. It costs about CNY 169, but international prices are quite expensive at £35 for the base variant. The NFC variant isn’t available outside China.
ASUS has a wide range of laptops in their gaming category. But it’s safe to say that it’s their affordable lineups that are the most popular. And the Asus ROG Strix G531G is their latest affordable gaming laptop. which is their latest affordable gaming laptop. It has got the all-new 9th gen CPU and a GTX 16-series graphics card. And costs around $900. So, let’s find out if you are paying the right amount of money for this one in this review.
ASUS ROG Strix G531GT Specifications:
Design: Plastic body, with a dual-tone matte aluminum finish, 2.4 kg
Display: 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS LCD panel, 60Hz refresh rate, 60% sRGB
Processor: Hexa-core 9th gen i7-9750H processor, Base-Clock @ 2.6 GHz, Turbo Boost Clock up to 4.5 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, 4 GB VRAM, GDDR5
RAM: 8 GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz (Max 32 GB), Dual-slot
Storage: 512 GB PCIe Gen-3 NVMe SSD
Ports: 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x MiniDisplay display port, audio port
Connectivity: Gigabit LAN + Intel® 802.11ac (2×2) Gigabit Wi-Fi with Rangeboost support + Bluetooth 5
Speakers: 4W*2 speakers with Smart AMP technology/1.5W speaker for W/O Smart AMP technology
Battery: 50 Watt-hour battery
OS: Windows 10 Home
Price: $900 / Rs.140000
Design
Starting off with the aesthetics, there’s hardly any difference in its design language compared to the more expensive ROG Strix Hero and Scar laptops. It’s a bit bulky but surprisingly compact for the size. But it’s not really light though. With a weight of about 2.4 kg, this is a standard weight for a gaming laptop.
And about its looks – it looks different from other gaming laptops, as ASUS’s signature design is, classier than others. The outer lid is dual-tone with the brushed texture and the ROG logo on the side. One half is hairline brushed and the other is anodized.
The logo doesn’t glow, but that’s not a bad thing, because, this means you can also take it to your workplace without worrying about showing off too much. Of course, for some, glowing logos are more attractive. But that’s all preference, and if you look at it as a work-thing as well, it’s pretty good.
The build looks metal, but it’s actually plastic. And even so, the build is really solid. It shows even when you just hold the laptop and the fact that it doesn’t flex on the keyboard deck, it just makes a stronger case for itself. There are air vents at the back and on the bottom, and there are also some ports at the back. Overall, a classic ASUS laptop design.
Ports
ASUS ROG Strix G531g ports
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Ports back
Ports Left
As for ports, the charging port, HDMI and the Ethernet are at the back, whereas, others are on the right – three USB-As and an audio jack. But that’s all. You don’t get USB-C or an SD Card slot, either. That means there are not enough ports, at least, for me. You won’t be able to directly edit your photos or videos due to the lack of the SD-card slot. So, if you do that, you have to get a card-reader separately.
When you open the ASUS ROG Strix G531G, you’re greeted by a 15.6” Full HD IPS panel display, and you get two choices of refresh rate here – regular 60 Hz or a faster 120 Hz. Ours was the base variant, a 60 Hz panel, but still, the display is better than expected.
Viewing angles are actually good – better than some other laptops at this price range. But that also maybe because it cannot open up for more than 120-degrees. Brightness goes max up to 280 nits, but you get about 60% sRGB, which is, well, good enough for gaming, and media consumption, but not ideal for professional content editing.
And while the bezels are slim around the display, it’s not so for the bottom area. But even so, it didn’t stop them from making a bold move of removing the webcam altogether! Yes, you read it right, there’s no Web-cam in here…Strange!
Keyboard and Trackpad
Moving on to the keyboard…it’s your ASUS’s keyboard layout, so, it’s a bit different. You have the additional hotkeys on top for some functions that help take quick actions during gaming. However, what I don’t like about the keyboard is the size and the position of these arrow keys. They are small and placed imperfectly.
Other than that, I have no complaints with the keyboard. The feedback is decent enough, the key travel is also okay…and sounds are soft but audible enough to be satisfying. There’s only a One Zone RGB lighting on the keyboard and you can change the effects from the ASUS Aura software. Also, there are 4 levels of backlighting to adjust it according to your needs.
The trackpad is better than most other gaming laptops. It’s spacious, tracking is good and gestures are accurate. The physical buttons are also tactile. It uses Windows Precision Drivers, so, you get the gist.
Performance
On the power side of things, you get the latest 9th gen i7-9750H, which means great performance. And since it’s a high-end processor, there’s actually not much to talk about here. It only has an 8 GB of RAM in a single channel, but there are two slots, so you can slip another stick in and increase the performance with dual channels.
It handles things like video editing, and photo editing really well, but you might want to take the color accuracy into account. Just keep in mind that heavy apps run without any hitches.
On the gaming side, the GTX 1650, does as advertised. It’s 30% better than the GTX 1050 Ti but falls short of GTX 1060. But it does handle all kinds of games, in suitable settings. You get about 60 frames per second in Battlefield V on medium settings, and about the same on Fortnite on High settings. As for PUBG, you get about 45-55 frames per second on Ultra and 75-80 on Medium.
And as expected, the GPU is a bottleneck for the CPU, because while gaming, the GPU usage crosses over 80% every time but the CPU doesn’t go above 60%.
Still, rest assured that it will handle all kinds of games, and the temperature is also okay. What I mean is, it gets close to 100-degrees after like 2 hours of gaming, and there was also some amount of throttling. The dual fans do a good enough job, but it can’t handle long hours of stress very well, though.
Battery
As for the battery, it has 50 Watt-hour battery, which is, I guess, normal for a gaming laptop. It’s not enough, but it is what you get. And with this, you will get about 4.5 hours of battery life on normal usage but just about an hour or so on gaming. This means that you will need to carry around a charger.
ASUS ROG Strix G531: Conclusion
In conclusion, the ASUS ROG Strix G531 is a good laptop, for the price. It has the latest of Intel processors and does include a wide variety of graphics card options. The one with 1650 is kind of a bottleneck on the performance, but you can choose from a lot of configurations. And if you get the one with 120 Hz display, it’ll be even better.
On top of that, the stellar build quality makes it even more appealing. Sure, it’s not as flashy with only a single zone RGB, but that depends on your preference. I like it as it is, it makes its presence known as a gaming laptop, but in a subtle way. And that, in my opinion, is close to perfect balance.
Xiaomi is not a brand that pops up in one’s head when it comes to gaming laptops. Nonetheless, the Chinese tech giant does have a gaming laptop under their belt. However, as it was only launched in the Chinese market, and thus went relatively unnoticed elsewhere. But now Xiaomi has come up with its successor. Aptly named the Xiaomi Mi Gaming Laptop 2019, the device packs an impressive array of specs. The starting price of the device is roughly $1080 and expectation is that this device will generate a lot more buzz than its predecessor.
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Talking about the design, the device pretty much looks similar to its predecessor. The device has a 15.6” display and an 81% screen-to-body ratio. To back it up, there’s a 144 Hz screen that provides smooth game-play. The device is powered by the 9th gen Intel Core i7 processor. Furthermore, the device will have 16 GBRAM and a 512 GB SSD. A total of three variants of the device has been revealed, among which the top model packs an RTX 2060 while others rest at GTX 1660 Ti.
As for connectivity, all the variants have dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. They come with two 3-Watt speakers with Dolby Audio and a 1 MP HD webcam. Also, it packs enough ports for everything concerned.
Aesthetically, the keyboard is a four-zone LED-backlit keyboard with three different modes with a glass surface touch-pad. There’s a 55 Whr battery which is not very big, but should give you about 3.5 hours of backup.
The specs on this device look cool. Well, on paper at least. How it actually performs can only be judged when put to test. So, whether it actually is a game-changer that can usurp the established brands remains to be seen. Maybe it will disappear under the radar like its predecessor. Maybe not. Who knows right? We’ll have to wait and see how it all pans out for the Mi Gaming laptop 2019.
Most of us had seen the Redmi VP teasing about a 64 MP camera phone. Well, it seems that Realme is already ahead in that race! After all, its own 64 MP camera phone launching on August 8. The phone will have a quad-camera setup and will launch at an event in India. This launch will make Realme the world’s first smartphone makers to launch a 64MP camera phone.
Get ready to witness some of the world's first in smartphone camera technology at the #realme camera innovation event. Stay Tuned as we #LeapToQuadCamera and reveal the world's first 64MP Quad Camera technology on a smartphone. pic.twitter.com/iN6xde6Y7l
A 64 MP camera along with a quad-camera setup makes this phone an interesting one to look out for. Its competition with Redmi is neck-to-neck. However, this smartphone will probably propel them to another level. The company previously released posters teasing the presence of a quad-camera setup. The addition of extra rear cameras will make this set-to-launch device a first in Realme’s range of smartphones to have more than two cameras.
A photo shot from the 64MP AI Quad Camera was shared by the company’s CEO last month. And my-oh-my, does it have details! Back then the company was quick to announce the mysterious phone as the “new premium killer”. Nearing the release date, the phone still remains a mystery. All that is known is that the device will be equipped with Samsung’s 64MP GW1 largest 1/1.72 sensor. In addition to that, the pixel size too is of 1.6 micron-and that’s BIG.
Other than that, not much information is available about the device. Will it be a new addition to the Realme 4 series? Or will it give rise to another premium range of phones by Realme? It could very well be that all this is a marketing gimmick and all one gets as a quad-camera setup is a bunch of 2MP lens for sensor and macro. No one can really confirm anything at this point. But without actually seeing the device itself, all of them are just speculations. Well, the good thing is that there’s only one day left for the launch and we’ll soon find out how the device actually performs.
