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Facebook Developer Conference 2019 – Facebook is changing for better or worse

GadgetByte

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May 2, 2019

Facebook Developer Conference 2019 – Facebook is changing for better or worse

Facebook‘s largest annual event, Facebook Developer Conference or Facebook F8 2019 went by. And this year, they had quite a lot of announcements to make. To sum it all up, Facebook is changing – for better, or worse! Some changes might be welcome, while some…we’ll take some time getting used to. So, here are some of the announcements that matter in the event.

“The Future is Private” or is it?

For a company that people, these days, look upon with distrust, this is a bold announcement to make. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to other frequent allegations related to privacy, the company is not really doing well in the privacy department. But, Mark Zuckerberg seems to know all about it. He claimed that things were going to change.

Facebook will be making major changes in its policies. The social media platform will, apparently, now be more privacy-focused and secure service. It will highlight 6 major components – private interactions, encryption, reduced permanence, safety, interoperability, and secure data storage. The company is also going lengths to provide end to end encryption to Messenger’s, Instagram’s and WhatsApp’s video and audio calls. However, this version of Facebook won’t roll out soon…could take almost a year.

Facebook gets a make-over

This might be a mixed bag of emotions for some. The Facebook we’ve come to use and, maybe love, will soon be no more. It’s getting a massive redesign – both in the desktop browser version and the mobile app. It will be a more “cleaner” design, with the layout having a more white look. But it will have a dark mode too.

The “cleaner” look means not only the color but your News Feed will take a hit, too. The new Facebook, or, FB5, will emphasize more on Groups and Events and less on the News Feed. This is supposed to help people expand their social circles. I, for one, don’t really like this approach (not a social butterfly), but some might like it, though.

Messenger at Lightspeed!

For a messaging app, Facebook’s messenger seems a bit too, heavy, doesn’t it? And you’ll notice it more so when you’re maybe playing a heavy game, and a message pops up. Then, your phone will become somewhat unresponsive for a second. It’s not the same for all phones, but many struggle. And so, the company is taking steps to re-build the messenger app entirely, so that it’s size is reduced to less than 30 MB! This means the app will open and run faster.

Also, a standalone desktop Messenger app is in the works. So, if you don’t want to open Facebook on your browser every time you want to check your messages, this is good news. But you can also use the Opera Browser, with messenger built in! (Just saying!)

Another addition to the messenger app is that you can also directly interact with your “Close Friends”. This feature will be there, both on Messenger and Instagram, but it’s not yet clear how it’ll work exactly. But the idea is similar to that we have on Instagram, share your status messages and such in a more private and tighter friend circle.

Instagram Camera Redesign and new Mode

Instagram stories are one of the most used features of the app. But Instagram’s own camera is not as good as your real one. Granted, it won’t ever be…but the company’s trying to improve the camera on it so that you can improve the quality of your stories and posts.

Also, the camera redesign means the filters and camera modes appear in a wheel, making it easier to navigate and look for. There will also be dedicated buttons for broadcasting and such. In addition, there’ll be a new Create Mode which will allow users to create posts without adding images or videos to it.

Furthermore, they’re adding Shopping Tags feature which enables influencers to add tags related to various products on their posts. And people can click on the tags to directly buy the products if they like it. This feature is only open to influencers like artists, athletes, creators, publishers, and other public figures.

Facebook Dating enhanced

Facebook’s online dating feature – Facebook Dating, introduced last year, is seeing some upgrades. Now, it has a feature called “Secret Crush“, which allows you to create a secret list of friends you have a crush on. And if your crush thinks the same of you, and has you on their list, you’ll match! So, dating is more within your circle now…

Unfortunately, this is not available everywhere. This feature is now extended to 14 more countries, bringing the total to 19. It’s a shame this feature is not available here… I sure could use it!

Other Features

Besides these, there were a lot of other announcements made at the event.

In summary, Facebook is also trying to compete with Amazon – by improving its marketplace. It will be adding buying and shipping features allowing users to purchase goods directly from Facebook. But that feature is only in the U.S. right now.

Facebook’s online video calling through smart displays service, Portal, has been available in the U.S. since launch. And now, it will also be available internationally. The Smart Displays will also support WhatsApp calling with end-to-end encryption as well.

In addition, Facebook also launched two new products – two new VR headsets – Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. These headsets will both go for sale starting May 21, will ship to 22 different countries for some $400 each!

Apart from all these, Facebook is also improving it’s AI and machine learning to recognize Hate Speech and effectively filter them out. It’s a nice step from the company to minimize online bullying and shaming. Furthermore, Facebook is also training it’s AI to recognize images of things – i.e. it might soon be able to tell if you’re selling marijuana or vegetables using its services. The only problem with that is it might also be able to recognize you almost instantly. So much for privacy, right?

So, that was all the major stuff the social media giant announced at this year’s Facebook F8 2019. Yes, Facebook is changing, for better or worse. While some features mentioned above might not make it to our country just yet, it will soon be there. What do you think about these? Do let us know.

Full specs sheet of the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro are out

GadgetByte

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May 2, 2019

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Full specs sheet of the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro are out

OnePlus’s upcoming flagship phones, OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro are launching on May 14. DisplayMate also said that the OnePlus 7 Pro would have one of the best displays on any smartphones out there. Apart from that, most of the specs were under the veil. But thanks to the leakers, some of the major specs of the device have recently come into the limelight ahead of its launch.

OnePlus 7 specifications (Leaked)

The leaks went far ahead so we now have the exact dimension of the device as well. The phone measures 157.7 x 74.8 x 8.1mm. So the device will have a similar form factor of the OnePlus 6T. However, this time the phone will get a 6.2-inch display. So we can expect a slight increase in the size of the bezel. The phone will bring the reminiscence of the 6T, as it will have a tiny water-drop style notch on the top. The screen here will have Full-HD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. OnePlus 7 will also have a fingerprint scanner under the display.

As expected, the phone will get the latest Snapdragon 855 chipset with 6GB of RAM. On the software front, OnePlus 7 will flaunt Android Pie (v9) out of the box with its custom skin OxygenOS on the top. One of the major highlights on this device will be its big battery. While the major smartphone players like Samsung and Huawei are being parsimonious on the battery front on the lower flagship variant, OnePlus went all out and provided a sizable 4150mAh battery on the standard OnePlus 7. Plus, the phone will have 30-watt Warp Charge technology to refill the battery really fast.

Higher megapixel count in the smartphone cameras is being the new trend of 2019. And like most of the Chinese phones, the OnePlus 7 will also come with a 48MP primary camera. However, the leak hasn’t specified the type of lens and resolution of secondary camera. Likewise, we do not yet know the resolution of the front camera. But as far as the rumors go, the front camera will reside on the notch.

The leaks went further unveiling the price of the device. Giztop, a Chinese e-commerce website has listed the OnePlus 7 in its website with the price tag of $569. If the phone launches at this price, there are high chances that the device will clench the title of the best flagship killer once again.

OnePlus 7 Pro specifications (Leaked)

Measuring at 162.6 x 76 x 8.8mm, the Pro variant will be slightly bigger and thicker when it comes to the size. Unlike the regular OnePlus 7, the Pro variant gets 6.64-inch notch-less AMOLED display, which refreshes at 90Hz. OnePlus has also upped its game this time by including Quad-HD+ resolution, which is quite an upgrade over the Full-HD+ resolution on the OnePlus 6T. With curvy edges on the sides, the display on this device will house a fingerprint scanner underneath it.

On the camera front, OnePlus has segregated the pro version from normal one by including an extra camera on the back. That means, just like the Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+ and Huawei P30, the OnePlus 7 Pro will come with camera triplets on the back. The primary 48MP shooter will be accompanied by an ultra-wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera. On the front, the phone will have a pop-up style selfie camera just like the Vivo V15 Pro and Oppo F11 Pro. However, there is no information regarding its resolution.

Powering the device will be snapdragon 855 with 8GB of RAM. The device is also expected to come with 10GB of RAM and we have seen benchmark leaks of the device with 12GB RAM. So we can expect three variants of the device in terms of RAM amount. The Pro version will get a slightly smaller 4000mAh battery and like the regular one, it will have support for 30-watt Warp Charging.

MSI PS42 Modern 8RA Review – A regular ultrabook…but from MSI!

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GadgetByte

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May 2, 2019

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MSI PS42 Modern 8RA Review – A regular ultrabook…but from MSI!

When you see a dragon logo on a laptop, it’s mostly meant for hard-core gaming. But this one, with the same kind of dragon logo ventures quite a different territory. MSI is a household name when it comes to gaming, and it’s not been very long since the company charted to the ultra-book territory. This is a line that’s mostly dominated by the likes of Apple and Dell XPS, or HP and stuff. But they have their Prestige lineup comprises of ultra-books, and there are quite a few laptops in there now. Among them, the MSI PS42 Modern 8RA is the latest – a refreshment to last year’s PS42 8RB.

MSI PS42 Modern 8RA Specifications:

Design: Aluminum body, brushed metal texture, subtle white Dragon logo on the lid, 1.2 kg
Display: 14″ Full-HD matte display (1920 x 1080), 72% NTSC Color Gamut
Keyboard: Island-style full-size keyboard, 4-level back-lighting, No num-pad
Trackpad: Glass surface trackpad, Windows Precision Drivers, Fingerprint sensor with Windows Hello
Ports: 2 x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1, 2 x Type-A USB 3.1, 1 x HDMI, 1 x audio jack, 1 x SD card reader
Wireless connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth V4.2
Processor: 1.8 GHz 8^th-gen Intel i7-8565U WhiskeyLake
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 @ 2400 MHz (single channel, dual slot)
Graphics: NVIDIA MX250 graphics, 2 GB VRAM
Battery: 4-cell 50 Watt-hour
Storage: 512 GB NVMe SSD
Price: Rs.149,000

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Design

This laptop really gives a good first impression. Packed in a very sleek and compact box, it’s very different from what we’re used to seeing from MSI. But of course, it doesn’t really stand out from other ultra-books. Still, the fact that this one is an MSI ultra-book is enough excitement.

With an all-metal build and a subtle white MSI logo up top, it looks like your typical ultra-book too. Except that this one looks somewhat more elegant and classier. Maybe it’s the brash look or the brushed texture on the outer aluminum lid, or even the color, I can’t really say. But it just looks kinda different from other such ultraportables. Also, the brushed metal texture on it doesn’t really attract fingerprints, which is another plus for this laptop.

This laptop also weighs very less, about 1.2 kg, and is pretty comfortable to carry around. Build quality, though, takes a slight hit. The keyboard deck area is pretty sturdy, but the lid flexes quite a bit.

The back has air vents on each side, so even if this is an ultrabook, they did consider including a good cooling system. And yes, it does have dual fans inside that does the job well.

When you open the laptop, the first thing you’ll notice is this vent or grills up top that surrounds the circular power button, that appears to be the speakers. I, too, mistook it for the speaker, but they’re actually located underneath on both sides. This just seems to be some kind of an air vent, or a strange design choice, hard to tell which.

Ports and Connectivity

The port selection is, pretty standard. You get two USB As, an HDMI, an audio jack, and an SD card slot. What’s noteworthy is you get two USB-Cs. But it’s a shame that none of them supports Thunderbolt 3 or can be used to charge the laptop with. However, there are these LED indicators for battery, WiFi and power.

MSI PS42 Modern 8RA Ports

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As for WiFi, you get the standard 802.11 ac WiFi, and there’s Bluetooth 4.2.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Being an ultrabook, this laptop misses out on the number pad. But otherwise, you have a full-sized keyboard. Of course, I mean that in the sense the keys are larger and well-spaced than some other ultrabooks. The keys, however, are a bit mushy for taste, and with very less key travel (0.9 mm), typing doesn’t feel very good. But since the keys do give off that clicky feedback, it makes up for some of its shortcomings.

But one good thing is that you get full-sized arrow keys, which are rare for ultra-books. Another good thing is the backlighting. It’s only white, but there are 4-levels to it, and so, this helps immensely. However, this is not a new feature by any means.

The trackpad, here, too small for taste. And that is made even smaller by the curved edges of the top. There just isn’t enough room to move around. The only good thing about this is that it has Windows Precision Drivers, so tracking and gestures are fairly accurate. Plus, you do get a fingerprint scanner, which is a nice addition. And that works pretty well, too.

Display

The Prestige lineup boasts about good displays. And upon first look, it does appear so. There are minimal bezels around the sides, making the display almost edge to edge. But with small bezels comes the awkwardly placed web-cam, which points straight to your nose. And as usual, the webcam quality is nothing to go on about.

Anyways, back to the display, the Full HD panel looks good. I mean, with the IPS LCD, it is your de-facto display for ultra-books and does not look anything extraordinary, but it is good nonetheless. Brightness is good enough at about 300 nits, and dark scenes in movies (for instance, Game Of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3) are visible enough that you don’t have to squint to see them.

And since it’s a matte display, it’s pretty visible outdoors too. The 14-inch display has enough crispiness for good video and multimedia experience, and the color range is also another plus point about the display here.

With an acclaimed 100% sRGB and about 72% NTSC Color Gamut Coverage, this can be a suitable machine for content creators as well. But of course, this is not the most ideal laptop for that. You get other laptops with much more color accuracy than this one. Still, this, for an ultra-book is pretty good. And since it enables you to change the color modes right from the desktop itself, that’s another plus point.

Performance

The MSI PS42 Modern 8RA is a great performer. It packs the latest 8^th-gen Intel i7-8565U Whiskey Lake processor. And these new Whiskey Lake processors are capable of getting more performance on demand. The base clock remains the same about 1.8 GHz but the boost clocks can go up to 4.6 GHz, which is actually higher than some other gaming laptops can go.

And that, apparently, helps during heavy workloads. However, all of that is on paper. In real usage, I never felt a lot of difference. Also, even though this is a U-series processor, made for power efficiency, it seems to handle everything fine. Light 1080P Video editing and stuff run quite well, while a whole lotta tabs on Google Chrome is also not enough to slow it down. There are slight instances of lags, here and there, but that is nothing beyond expectations.

Maybe it’s partly due to its 16 GB DDR4 RAM – which is quite a good amount for an ultra-book. Also, it’s got two RAM slots but only a single stick inside, so, if you want to upgrade it, you can. But, again, if they had made it a dual channel with 8GB RAM on each slot, that would’ve offered better performance.

A dedicated graphics card helps gaming and video editing. It’s nothing high end – just an Nvidia MX250 graphics with 2 GB Video Memory. And when I say gaming, do not expect anything high end. You’ll be able to play CS: GO or Dota 2 or FIFA 19 on high settings and still get good frame rates. Games like Fortnite do run at medium and you’ll be able to play games like Assassin’s Creed Unity, but that’s about it. But even so, this is actually good enough for a non-gaming laptop.

Storage wise, you have a 512 GB of NVMe SSD, which is pretty good. Most ultra-books shy out at 256 GB. However, this doesn’t, and that helps a lot for content creation. The storage speeds are also decent enough, so, yes, these are the makings of a laptop for content creators.

I didn’t really feel this laptop struggle in the thermals department, either. During gaming and heavy workloads, it does kinda get warm, but heat management is really good – thanks to the dual fans and this ventilation on top. When it does get hot, it is concentrated towards the top vents, so, the keyboard area remains cool enough.

Battery

Moving on to the battery, you get a 4-cell 50 Watt-hour battery, and they claim up to 10 hours of battery life. However, as these claims by laptop companies go, this is not true at all. During office workloads, when your usage consists of normal spreadsheet and occasional web browsing, it will last slightly over 7.5 hours.

With vigorous browsing and media consumption, you’ll get close to 6. And if you’re doing some heavy editing and stuff, expect no more than 3 hours. But still, it will last a typical work day for you, so, that’s still good enough.

Conclusion

To sum up, MSI’s venture into ultrabook territory looks somewhat promising. With this PS42 Modern 8RA, it has improved from the 8RB. Yet, there is a lot of room for improvements. The build quality still needs work, while the keyboard and trackpad need to see improvements as well. I’d like this laptop better if it had a dual channel RAM. And the speaker quality needs more improvement than anything else.

Good things about it include performance, display, battery life, and overall design. So, you can say this is a pretty good laptop. Maybe, I had high expectations from this one, because, it’s an MSI laptop after all. But after using it, all I can say is MSI has not done as good a job as it does with its gaming rigs. But, I’m still positive that MSI will improve in this sector as well.

The MSI PS42 Modern 8RA is priced at some $1300 for the base model, which comes with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. There are quite a few configurations available, so, prices are set accordingly. Our particular model costs about Rs.149000 in Nepal, and as far as ultrabooks go, this one seems priced well enough.

However, if this is too much money to spend, there’s also a smaller sibling – the PS42 Modern 8 MO. That one doesn’t have a dedicated GPU and is an i5 model. But most of the things remain the same. And that comes at a price of Rs.115,000.

So, strictly speaking, the MSI PS42 Modern 8RA is not the best one out there. But it certainly gets the work done.

Samsung’s summer offer – Instant Cashback on their hottest flagships!

GadgetByte

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May 2, 2019

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Samsung’s summer offer – Instant Cashback on their hottest flagships!

We all know Samsung to offer their customers discounts from time to time on various of their devices. They regularly conduct cash back offers on their phones, mostly those, which have been in the market for some time. However, this time around, the company is offering cash backs on their latest hottest flagships! This Samsung’s summer offer, get instant cash back on the Galaxy S10 or Galaxy S10 Plus!

Samsung Galaxy S10 Price

The Galaxy S10 is the primary flagship device from the company. It features a premium glass body, protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Also, it’s 6.1″ Dynamic AMOLED display is protected by a Gorilla Glass 6. As for the camera, you get a triple camera set up at the back – a 12 MP primary camera, another 12 MP 2X telephoto camera, and a 16 MP ultra-wide camera. Also, the selfie camera is a 10 MP shooter. The phone runs on the Exynos 9820 and has 8 GB of RAM. This phone comes only in 128 GB in Nepal but does have expandable memory. With One UI running the show, it’s a pretty great phone, with its major drawback being the small 3400 mAh battery.

This phone, whose initial price was Rs.110,900 is now up for grabs for Rs. 8000 less! That means you can get this phone for Rs.102,900 at MRP (Maximum Retail Price). Maybe if you’re lucky, you can get it for even less in some places!

Samsung Galaxy S10+ Price

Also, the Galaxy S10 Plus is a slightly buffed up version of the Galaxy S10. It’s got a slightly larger 6.4″ Dynamic AMOLED display and has similar Gorilla Glass configuration. It’s got the same rear camera set up while there are dual cameras in the front – the same 10 MP primary camera and an 8 MP depth sensor. You get the same processor and the same amount of RAM. But the battery is larger at 4100 mAh, and so, overcomes the drawbacks of the regular S10. It comes in two variants – a 128 GB variant and a 512 GB one.

When introduced, this phone cost Rs. 123,500 for the base variant and Rs. 154,500 for the 512 GB model. And now, with Rs.8000 cash back on both, the base variant is available at Rs. 115,500 while the other costs Rs.146,500!

In addition, the semi-flagship Galaxy S10e is available for Rs. 74,000 from its original price of Rs.94,000! If you ask me, all of these seem a pretty good deal. But maybe, if we wait for some more, there might be a chance of another price drop! We can only hope…

Samsung Galaxy A20 Review: Samsung’s New A-Lister?

GadgetByte

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April 30, 2019

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Samsung Galaxy A20 Review: Samsung’s New A-Lister?

If you don’t know by now, Samsung is in line to create a football team of its own. No, it’s not for the Premier League or any other league. It’s a team to tackle the likes of Redmi, Realme, and Honor. Up until last year, Samsung was constantly criticized for its lack of answer to the budget-oriented Chinese brands, however, 2019 seems to be its year, as the Korean giants have already come up with quite a lot of ‘winners’. Hoping to clinch that same title is the Galaxy A20, a budget phone, that costs Rs. 20,500 in Nepal.

Samsung Galaxy A20 Specifications

Display: 6.4-inch (1560 × 720 pixels) HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-V display
Processor: Octa-Core Exynos 7884 (Dual 1.6 GHz + Hexa 1.35 GHz) processor
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB, expandable up to 512GB via micro SD card
OS: Android 9.0 (Pie) with Samsung One UI
Rear Camera: 13MP with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, 5MP secondary camera with f/2.2 aperture
Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.0 aperture
Dimension: 158.4 x 74.7 x 7.8mm
Others: 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio, fingerprint sensor
Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS
Battery: 4,000mAh
Price: Rs. 20,500

Design

Now from the time I have been holding the Galaxy A20, I have always wanted to talk about its feel on hands. Yes, this is built from plastic. And well, if you still think budget phones cut cost on the build quality, think again.

This phone is light, yet is sturdy, I didn’t bend it like Jack from JerryRig would, but still, it can definitely take a hit! There is no hollow feel, you know, the one that a couple of devices have. It’s not glass like the one on its closest competitor the Redmi Note 7, but it still holds its own ground.

However, the back material catches a lot of fingerprints. Even the blue colored A20 I reviewed is quite a magnet. You will definitely need to carry a cloth to clean it as Samsung hasn’t included a case inside the box. And that has added in another problem, as I didn’t invest in a case. This glastic body is prone to scratches. Even when I kept the phone nowhere near keys or any hard objects, the back has developed a lot, a lot of scratches.

Display

Let’s talk about the display now. The Samsung Galaxy A20 has a tall 6.4-inch display bordering a small v-shaped notch on the top. This display is a Super AMOLED panel and the bezels aren’t that pronounced as well. While all of this is impressive and everything, the thing that Samsung hasn’t included here is full HD resolution. But with the Super AMOLED panel, that hasn’t really been an issue at all.

Apart from the issue of searching for that perfect sharpness while viewing videos or reading articles, this display is quite bright and quite colorful. The default wallpaper looks great and I haven’t yet changed it. Weird, I know.

Software and UI

What you will use most on the Samsung Galaxy A20 are the customizations the software offers. While the Galaxy M10 and M20 came with the older Android Oreo out of the box, the A20 runs on Pie with Samsung’s kind of new One UI on top. I recently reviewed the Galaxy S10, and the A20 has almost the same software experience as the flagship.

Although Samsung has the double tap to wake, I still think it has to include double tap to lock. I know, I’m nitpicking. What’s nice is the 100 GB of storage you get with OneDrive. The Microsoft apps obviously can’t be uninstalled, but I think I will take that for the extra cloud storage.

If this was a few years ago, reviewing a budget phone meant bashing about the software from Samsung. However, that has changed a little. The One UI, as I said, is light, but still, the apps take a little bit of time to open and the scrolling could have been a lot smoother on the phone.

Performance

The raw performance on the Galaxy A20 is smooth. The phone has the Exynos 7884 chipset inside. This is the mini version of the Exynos 7885 chipset that was used in a few Samsung phones like the Galaxy A8+ last year. And like its elder brother, it is a capable processor.

Even gaming on it is not that bad. I played PUBG on a medium setting, and there is only a couple of instances of lags on a single game. Once, a match did start with lags here and there, but once I got to the game, there were one or two minor stutters.

Also, while we are talking about performance, just like the A30, this device too has the messenger issue while gaming. If you’re playing something and you get a text message, the whole thing just slows down.

Except for these issues, there aren’t any. The RAM management is good, as I have had no issues with running 6-7 applications at the same time.

But still, for similar pricing, you get the Redmi Note 7 with a more powerful SD660 which is around 1.5 times better in terms of performance than what the A20 offers. So, if you are after performance, I won’t wait for the conclusion part to say this, the Redmi Note 7 is better than the A20, and if you are into performance, get the former!

Camera

The front-facing camera on the Galaxy A20 rests on the water drop notch up front. It measures 8-megapixel, and if we talk about the selfies, well they look great, that is if you don’t zoom into them as the photos will lose a lot of details. But still, the overall color is great and not overpowering.

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If you are in a bright area indoors, the selfies are good too but say the light isn’t that bright, then the above photo is what you get.

The front camera is also capable of capturing portrait selfies. It’s all the software that’s doing the work, and it isn’t doing that work well. The blurring is not on point, so I stayed away from the live focus of the selfie camera.

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Let’s talk about the rear cameras now. Like the M20 and A30, you get dual cameras: A 13MP primary lens and a 5MP wide-angle lens.

The best use of the camera, at least for me, has been while capturing wide shots from the smallest of the angles and to capture the scenery. The colors we get here is accurate when compared to the primary camera.

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Talking about the primary camera, the first thing you will notice is that it lacks details. The colors are great and everything but it lacks sufficient details. And if you take pictures that have bright colors, you will notice oversaturation. Samsung and oversaturation go a long way and it’s no different this time too.

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The images also are not that good in terms of dynamic range. But I do like how the photos are brightened up a little bit making the whole thing pop.

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Like the front camera, the rear camera also does software blur. And just like the front camera, the background blur is not that good, as the cutouts look unnatural. It misses the strands of the hair of the subject too. The same goes for the portraits shot on indoor lighting.

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However, one thing that bugged me with this phone is that the live focus mode has only worked on people. Anything else, it just shows up a tab with Finding Face written on it.

During night time, the photos have a lot of noise on them. You will also notice grains. While the day time shots have a warmer color tone to them, the night shots have a colder tone. And they are exposed if there is a source of light hitting on them. The shots also lack details, just like during day time but the saturation makes the photos pop if there are shades of colors on them.

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And finally, the videos. This device shoots full HD videos at 30 fps. And those videos are a bit wobbly as they lack any kind of stabilization. The colors are natural though.

Security

For security purpose, the Samsung Galaxy A20 has both the fingerprint and face unlock option. The fingerprint sensor is placed on the back of the phone and it is easily reachable. With the screen locked, the phone unlocks in around one second. However, with the screen on, the sensor can unlock the device in a snap. I have seen this issue on a couple of other devices too, and I think Samsung can improve this with a software update. For Face unlock, the A20 uses its front-facing camera. The option works great but takes a bit of time.

Extras

On the bottom of the phone lies a headphone jack along with the speaker grill. The sound from this mono speaker is clear but it’s not very loud. For storage purpose, the Galaxy A20 packs 32 GB of internal memory with an option to expand it via a dedicated microSD card slot.

Battery

The best part about this phone right here is its battery. The A20 has a large 4,000 mAh battery inside which has become a trademark on almost all the Samsung phones. At the very first, I talked about the A20 sporting HD display. And that couples well with the battery.

In my use of gaming for a while, watching videos on Youtube, going through a lot of websites, and using social media applications, I got a screen on time of around 6 hours and 30 minutes. How does that reflect on real life and the real day? Well, if you are a heavy user, who does a lot of things on their phone, the A20 will last you for a day, and if you are a moderate user who doesn’t do heavy tasks and doesn’t play games constantly, the phone will run for a day and a half easily. So, in terms of battery life, Samsung has definitely a winner on the Galaxy A20.

This battery takes around 1 hour and 40 minutes to go from 0 to 100% with its included 15W fast charger.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A20 is a member of Samsung’s huge lineup of the A-series. While it is more budget oriented, the device is definitely good at doing what it does although Samsung has cut a couple of corners for that. But still, it has a sturdy build and a vibrant display. The battery life is great and the camera, for that price is quite decent.

However, if we talk about performance, if you can add some money, you get the Redmi Note 7 which definitely performs better than the A20. So, if you are performance-centric users, you might want to take a look at that phone, otherwise, the A20 will handle your day-to-day usage quite easily.

Pros	Cons
– Good build quality	– Performance could be better
– Vibrant display	– Glastic back scratches easily
– Great battery life	– Lack of details on photos

OnePlus 7 Pro gets DisplayMate’s Highest A+ rating

GadgetByte

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April 30, 2019

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OnePlus 7 Pro gets DisplayMate’s Highest A+ rating

Starting as a midrange killer, OnePlus has been upping its game since then. Fancy design, new and trendy technology and the best in class performance, that’s been on the OnePlus devices since its first phone. But apart from that, the Chinese smartphone maker also maintained its pace on improving other internals. Last few years, we saw some significant improvements in the camera front. Now seems like the company is taking a new leap on the display front. The phone just got the DisplayMate’s highest-ever A+ rating.

DisplayMate is the popular benchmarking platform, which tests the display of digital devices like TVs, Projectors, and smartphones. And this benchmarking platform recently announced that the yet unreleased OnePlus 7 Pro earned the ‘A+’ rating, which is the highest-ever rating DisplayMate provides. However, the benchmarking platform has not yet published the in-depth display shoot, which describes the attributes of the display used on the phone. Nonetheless, DisplayMate has promised to release it on May 14, the day when the phone is supposed to get official.

DisplayMate’s in-depth Lab Tests of the OnePlus 7 Pro OLED Display have just been completed, earning our Highest A+ Display Rating. Our in-depth Display Shoot-Out will be published here on May 14.

— DisplayMate Tech (@DisplayMate) April 29, 2019

With the A+ rating, the OnePlus 7 Pro joins the league with Samsung Galaxy S10, iPhone XS Max, and Google Pixel 3XL. But DisplayMate is yet to announce that if the handset has surpassed any of these players on the leaderboards.

Going by the rumors, the upcoming OnePlus 7 Pro will come with 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with curvy edges on the left and right. And this straightly points at the Samsung. Since Samsung is supplying its displays to big companies like Google and Apple, it won’t really be a surprise.

The screen on this device will be Quad-HD+ (1440 x 3120 pixels) in terms of resolution. If that happens, it would be the first time OnePlus opting for the resolution above Full-HD. The phone may come with a 90Hz refresh rate, which surely is would be a huge upgrade over the OnePlus 6T.

Mother’s Day Offer: Get ludicrous deal on the purchase of OnePlus 5T

GadgetByte

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April 30, 2019

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Mother’s Day Offer: Get ludicrous deal on the purchase of OnePlus 5T

Mother’s day is coming. And in this mother’s day, if you were planning to buy a smartphone for your mom, you are in luck. Oliz Store is offering a flat Rs. 5,000 off on the OnePlus 5T. Considering the upsurging price of midrange phones, this is quite a good deal.

Overview:

The phone comes with a 6-inch Optic AMOLED display. With Optic AMOLED panel on the board, the contents on the screen look all punchy and vibrant. The display also comes with Full-HD+ resolution because of which contents look sharp. 5T also comes with narrow bezels on the top and bottom without any sorts of notches and cutouts. The display also comes with Gorilla Glass 5 on the top to prevent scratches and scratches during the accidental drops.

Performance wise, the phone gets the Snapdragon 835, which was a flagship chipset two years back. But despite having an old processor, the handset outperforms the smartphones with top-tier midrange processors like the SD675 and SD710. The performance is complemented by 6GB of RAM, which suffices the needs of most of the hardcore gamers. On the storage side, the phone enjoys 64GB of onboard memory. However, there is no SD card slot for storage expansion.

Even on the camera front, the handset doesn’t disappoint. It comes with a dual camera setup at the back, which embraces a 16MP primary shooter backed by a 20MP secondary shooter. The secondary shooter comes with an Intelligent Pixel Technology to enhance the imaging capabilities during the low light scenarios. So apart from portrait images, you can also obtain some sharp shots in the low light.

On the software side, the phone comes with Android Pie with OxygonOS on the top. The battery here is not so great at 3300mAh but you get 20W (5V/4A) fast charging on the box. So you get the device charged up pretty quick.

OnePlus 5T Specifications:

6.01 inches Full-HD Optic AMOLED display with 1080P resolution, 401ppi
18:9 Aspect Ratio with 2.5D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Octa-core Processor clocked at 2.45GHz
6GB RAM
64GB Internal memory; No SD card for memory expansion
Android Nougat 7.1.1 upgradable to Android 9 Pie; Oxygen OS on the top
Dual nano-SIM slot
16 MP primary rear camera, 20 MP secondary sensor with Intelligent Pixel Technology
16 MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture
Fingerprint, Hall, Accelerometer, G-sensor, Electronic Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light Sensor, RGB, Sensor Hub
USB 2.0, Type-C, Supports USB Audio, 3.5mm audio jack
Dimensions: 156.1*75*7.3mm; Weight: 162g
3,300 mAh (non-removable), Dash Charge (5V/4A)
Original Price: 57, 500
Offer Price: 52,500 (Flat Rs. 5,000 off)

Buy OnePlus 5T here

Nubia Red Magic 3 with 90Hz display, Active cooling technology & big battery launched

GadgetByte

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April 29, 2019

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Nubia Red Magic 3 with 90Hz display, Active cooling technology & big battery launched

The gaming community is flourishing and the number of people getting involved in the e-Sports is burgeoning. Although PC gaming and console gaming is flourishing, gaming smartphones are not getting similar popularity. But that does not stop smartphone companies from launching gaming-oriented phones. Razer, ASUS, and Xiaomi have already tested their luck in the gaming arena. In that race, Nubia also stepped ahead with the value-packed gaming phone. Dubbed as Nubia Red Magic 3, the handset comes with industry’s first cooling fan, ICE 2.0 cooling tech, flagship processor, big battery, and connector pins for accessories.

Performance is always a thing of a concerned in the gaming devices. And the Nubia Red Magic 3 has that all covered. The smartphone flaunts the powerful Snapdragon 855, which comes along with up to 12GB of RAM. On the storage side, the phone gets up to 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage. With this setup, the Red Magic 3 is undoubtedly one of the best performers. If the handset leads the AnTuTu benchmark chart, it won’t be a surprise.

Being a gaming phone, the device also packs a plentiful of gaming features. Firstly, there is a dedicated noise cancellation mic, which helps to subdue to background noises for a better conversation with the gaming buddies. The phone has also been provided with two buttons on the top of the device. The fingerprint on this device also acts as a button and can come handy while gaming. Apart from these dedicated buttons, Nubia has included 4D smart shock feature. This feature understands various scenes in the games and adds vibrations to match the scenario.

But such capable hardware also produces quite a lot of heat while playing graphics-intensive games. For that Nubia has incorporated an actual fan to keep the temperature to lower and adjustable values. The phone is first of its kind to have such type of active cooling technology. The handset has also been provided with a second-generation ICE liquid cooling technology. This cooling combo lowers the temperature of the phone by 16 degrees Celsius. Nubia says the cooling effects offered by this cooling hardware can provide up to 500% heat distribution. The manufacturer also boasted that this cooling mechanism covers 32,000 sq. mm, which is said to keep the phone cool even in the extremely heated circumstances.

The Red Magic 3 comes with a geometric design, which screams all gaming. On the back, there is a V-shaped element, on which resides a pentagon-shaped camera. There is also a hexagonal fingerprint scanner just beneath the venting grills. Furthermore, there is an RGB LED strip, which gives an unadulterated gaming vibe. And despite having an actual fan inside the device, the phone is IP55 water and dust resistant.

The phone also gets a special gaming dock pins on its left. Making use of these dock pins, users can attach various gaming-oriented accessories including the Red Magic e-Sports box. This special type of box accessory has the ports for a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C, and an Ethernet port for fast and uninterrupted internet connection.

Talking about other features, there is a 6.65-inch AMOLED display on the front, which comes with sizable bezels. There is no any type of notches or hole-punch cutouts. The display comes with Full-HD+ resolution and is decently bright at 430 nits. The phone also comes with a 90Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch response rate. The 90Hz refresh rate is quite impressive but also devours a significant amount of battery juice on the go. So Nubia has included an option with which users can switch the refresh rate from 90Hz to 60Hz or let the phone switch it automatically understanding the scenario. Furthermore, there is a DC Dimming feature, which helps the users from eyestrain during the prolonged gaming sessions.

On the imaging part, the phone flaunts a 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor at its back. There is no secondary camera here. Maybe Nubia assumes that the gamers don’t have an affinity toward the portrait images. Nonetheless, the phone supports 8K recording and super slo-mo recording up to whopping 1920fps. The phone comes with a 16MP shooter on the front.

Even on the audio part, Nubia has been extremely generous. The phone features a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, DTS 7.1 channel, and stereo box 3D surround sound speakers. Software-wise, the phone boots on Android Pie out of the box with Redmagic OS 2.0 on the top.

Even on the battery front, the handset is pretty monstrous. It gets a massive 5000mAh battery, which also has support for 27-watt fast charging. Nubia claims that 10 minutes of charging lets the user play the games for 1 full hour.

Nubia Red Magic 3 Specifications

Display: 6.65-inch AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate, 430 nits brightness
Resolution: Full-HD+ (2340 × 1080 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Snapdragon 855; 7nm Mobile Platform
CPU: Octa-Core (1 x 2.84GHz Kryo 485 + 3 x 2.42GHz Kryo 485 + 4x 1.80GHz Kryo 485)
GPU: Adreno 640
RAM: 6GB / 8GB / 12GB LPDDR4x RAM
Storage: 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage / 256GB (UFS 2.1) storage
Software & UI: Android 9.0 (Pie) with Redmagic OS 2.0
Rear Camera: 48MP 1/2.0″ Sony IMX586 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, f/1.75 aperture, Dual LED flash
Front Camera: 16MP, f/2.0 aperture
Fingerprint sensor: Yes, Rear mounted
Audio: 3.5mm audio jack, Stereo front-facing speakers, DTS:X
Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Dual 4G VoLTE), WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, USB Type-C
Battery: 5000mAh battery with 27W fast charging

Price and Availability

Nubia launched four variants of the device. And all of them are going on sale starting from 3^rd of May. In terms of pricing, the base variant (6/64GB) costs CNY 2899 (~$431). The 6/128GB, 8/128GB, and 12/512GB variants are priced at CNY 3199 (~$475), CNY 3499 (~$520), and CNY 4299 (~$640) respectively.

MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8SF – Is RTX 2070 an overkill?

GadgetByte

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April 29, 2019

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MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8SF – Is RTX 2070 an overkill?

The MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8SF is a laptop for….well…people with deep pockets? Going into this laptop sure I was excited, I mean it costs A LOT!! Rs 2,92,900 is a serious amount of money to spend on a laptop, no matter the performance. So, if you are someone who’s been eying this system, well, I have some good and a few bad news for you.

MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8SF Specifications:

Design and Build: Metal body, plastic bottom panel, 38.3 x 26 x 2.9 cm, 2.5 kg
Display: 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080), 100% sRGB & 85% Adobe RGB, 94% NTSC Color Gamut, 250 nits peak brightness with Anti-Glare
Keyboard: Steel-Series Engine 3 Keyboard, Per-key RGB backlighting, 16 million colors, 1.6 mm key travel
Processor: Hexa-core 8^th gen i7-8750H processor, Base-Clock @ 2.2 GHz, Turbo Boost Clock up to 4.1 GHz
RAM: DDR4 16 GB (2x slots, upgradeable up to 32 GB)
Graphics: 8 GB NVidia GeForce RTX 2070
Battery: 6-cell 51 Watt-hours (up to 3 hours of backup)
Adapter: 230 Watts
Storage: 256 GB SATA M.2 SSD (2 x NVMe slots) + 1 TB 7200 HDD
Webcam: 720p Webcam (@30fps)
Connectivity: Killer Gb LAN, 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0
Ports: 3 x USB A 3.1, 1 x USB-C (No Thunderbolt 3 support), 1 x 3.5 mm headphone jack, 1 x 3.5mm microphone input, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Mini-display, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1 x SDcard slot
Price: Rs. 292,900

Design and Build

If there is one thing that disappointed me was the design. I don’t mean it’s bad in any way, it’s just dated at this point. Practical? Yes, Played out? A big yes. The design language has its own moments, a few curves here, a few RGB there, but it’s come to a point of boredom. Apart from my personal preference, the back panel has two strips of RGB going through which are highly customizable. The Keyboard is RGB, and the USB As light up red.

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This laptop is sturdy from almost any angle. The only dissatisfaction was the hinge, which just feels flimsy and so easily breakable. Although I have seen the same hinge on numerous other laptops across my friend circle and theirs have been working fine for over 2 years now. So if you are doubtful about the hinge, I wouldn’t worry much.

Display

The display is pretty nice, sure, aesthetics wise, bezels could have been smaller, but as far as the actual panel is concerned, the resolution, refresh rate, and color accuracy are up there with some of the best. For starters, it’s not IPS, maybe it’s a really good TN technology, MSI does state it’s of “IPS level”. With near 100% sRGB color coverage and great viewing angles, you aren’t compromising much (if at all). Since it’s not an IPS panel, you aren’t bound by slow response rates. The specs sheet claims 3ms, which we assume is GTG, and that’s pretty much the best for a portable PC.

And thanks to that powerful GPU, the 144Hz refresh rate will be utilized to it’s fullest extent. For gamers, this is just the perfect laptop display, and anything more will see you pay a lot (and we mean an unreasonable amount). It’s also not bad for other tasks here, photo and video editing, media consumption or even just scrolling through your news feed is much more fun on this one. Brightness is also above average at around 250 nits.

Performance

An RTX 2070 and a Core i7-8750H, that’s enough firepower to run any triple-A title out there, but with a 144hz display, any game that runs under the said max refresh rate feels like a waste of display power, but we will get into that later. I ran a couple of games on this one, take a look at the FPS numbers:

Battlefield V: 75-90 (Ultra settings); 50-55 (RTX enabled)
Fortnite: 100-120 (Epic settings)
CS:GO: Above 144 (Ultra settings)
PUBG: 100-130 (Ultra settings)
Fifa 19: Above 144 (Ultra settings)
Apex Legends: 100-120 (Ultra settings)

So, to compare, these are amazing numbers, some of the best I’ve ever experienced actually. Of course, the equation does not take into consideration the RTX 2080 mobile (which I haven’t tested yet) or any desktop grade GPU (which would be an unfair comparison). As far as the 144Hz is concerned, you will be using it to the fullest.

Thermals

No matter how great the numbers are, if the laptop heats up, those are pretty useless. According to HW monitor, the internal temperatures rose up to about 90 degrees for the CPU and 85 degrees for the GPU, and that’s after an hour of gaming. As far as my external heat gun was concerned, it failed to cross the 50-degree mark across the keyboard, top deck or the palm rest. Plus I would like to add that there was no significant drop in FPS, or at least I didn’t notice any.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The Steel Series keyboard gets a big yes from my side. Call me biased but this could be one of the best keyboards on a laptop, it’s fun to type, easy to game, the key travel is nice and long and the feedback isn’t mushy nor is it harsh. Taking the game a step further are those individually lit RGB keys.

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What wasn’t a fun experience was that trackpad. It’s average at best, and that’s just not acceptable for a laptop at this price point. The physical buttons are great, they are tactile and functional. But the actual tracking was just a disaster. First off, it is far from accurate, it skips every now and then and if you want precision, well good luck.

Battery and Storage

The battery life is below average, let’s just leave it at that. It’s a tiny 51Wh unit, and the laptop runs for around 3 hours of normal usage. As for storage, you get a really really fast NVMe SSD, with reading speeds of over 3500MBPS. The SSD is a 256GB unit while you also get a 1TB 7200RPM mechanical hard drive for faster storage.

Connectivity

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As for connectivity, you get everything from USB As with red backlighting to individual audio jacks for headphones and microphones. You also get a USB-C port, a microSD card slot, a mini HDMI, full-sized HDMI, and an ethernet port. Then there is the Killer 1550i AC wifi for superb wireless connectivity, and a pretty nice sounding speaker system. MSI laptops have always had excellent connectivity options, and this one is no exception.

Conclusion

While all this is great, I feel that going for the RTX 2070 isn’t a must. Sure, it’s better than a GTX1070, but at a premium of over 50k, I don’t think the added fps is worth it. The advantages of an RTX card are pretty much nonexistent here and since you will be playing at FHD resolutions, this GPU is hard to recommend unless your budget for a new gaming laptop actually hovers around 3 lakhs. My only complains were the trackpad, battery life, and the dated design, which most people should be fine with. Apart from that, it gets an excellent display, great, connectivity options, spectacular performance + thermals and a lovely set flow of RGB lights.

Pros

Display
Performance
Thermals
RGB Lights
Connectivity
Build Quality

Cons

Battery Life
Trackpad

Redmi Note 7 Review: A good phone overshadowed by its ‘Pro’ sibling

GadgetByte

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April 29, 2019

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Redmi Note 7 Review: A good phone overshadowed by its ‘Pro’ sibling

Xiaomi’s Redmi series of smartphones usually set benchmarks in the budget and midrange segments. Most of their smartphones offer excellent value for money due to which Redmi phones often crush their competitors. But recently, there are Honor phones, Realme phones, Samsung’s value proposition A-series, and M-series smartphones. With so much competition, I was wondering what’s next for Xiaomi. To cope up the challenges, Xiaomi stepped up and announced a new sub-brand ‘Redmi’. Under the new sub-brand, Xiaomi dropped the bomb in the form of Note 7. When the phone was launched, it created quite a lot of buzz. And I was really interested to find out the recipe Xiaomi has used on this device to stay alive in the competition. so I tried to find that out in this Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 review.

Design

On the design front, Xiaomi has made a major change. Most of the Redmi phones launched last year had either metallic or plastic back. And most of them looked absolutely dull and unappealing. But Xiaomi has done quite an overhaul this time on the design side of things. The bland and outdated metallic back on the Redmi Note 5 and Note 6 Pro is now replaced by a glass slab. This is nothing new for a midrange phone but the switch Xiaomi made on this device is really worth a praise. It is praiseworthy because Xiaomi has included Gorilla glass 5 protection on its already premium-looking glass back. With Gorilla Glass 5 on the board, the phone will have better chances of survival during the accidental drops.

However, the frame is plastic, which I do not find particularly satisfying. With a plastic frame, the durability of the device is quite a thing of concern. And it’s even more concerning as we saw the device failing the durability test performed by JerryRigEverything and Technical Guruji’s durability test video. Although we won’t abuse our phones like the way they do so there is nothing much to be worry yet. And it is quite relieving that the phone feels sturdy on the hold and on the use.

Continuing with the glass back, Xiaomi has added a dual tone gradient finish on the back. And needless to say, it looks absolutely amazing. Plus, the Glass back on this device doesn’t attract much fingerprints like the plastic back.

Display

On the display side, the phone has got a 6.3-inch IPS panel. Just like most of the smartphones available at a similar price, the phone comes with Full-HD+ resolution. So the screen looks sharp while viewing the contents. But when it comes to the colors, they look quite washed out. With dull colors, I didn’t find myself enjoying much while watching the videos. But as far as the brightness is concerned, it does a good job. The screen looks bright and is legible even in broad daylight. So I have nothing to complain on the brightness part.

Redmi Note 7’s display also comes with a notch on the top. Since the notch is very tiny on this device, Xiaomi likes to call the display on this device a “Dot Notch Display”. The notch is very tiny and it isn’t as obtrusive. Maybe that’s the reason why Xiaomi’s has not added the option to hide the notch.

Although Xiaomi has cut down the majority of bezels on the top to increase the screen-to-body ratio, there is a thick chin on the button. The chin also houses a tiny notification LED. Yes, the LED notification on the chin looks awkward. But having one is obviously better than having none.

Although the presence of the LED indicator is a good thing here, I didn’t find it much useful. Just like the Redmi Note 5 and Note 6 Pro, the LED indicator on this device is small, dim and glows only in white. So it’s hard to identify the notification. I might’ve ignored some missed calls thinking it to be a useless Facebook notification.

Camera

The camera is the major highlight of this device. It comes with a 48MP primary shooter and it is the highest of resolution on any smartphone. But despite having such a high-res sensor on the board, the phone captures 12MP images by default. It uses pixel-binning technology with which it merges four pixels into one to output bright and sharp images. There is a pro mode as well, where you can capture 48MP images. I tried and tested out the camera on both the modes. But I found 12MP images to be more sharp and bright. And talking about the image quality, they look decent with plenty of details. However, I didn’t find the colors as accurate. The colors on the images look quite dull and faded and don’t look particularly pleasing. So you have to live with that!

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On comparing it with the last year’s Redmi Note 5 AI camera, I didn’t find much of a difference on the sharpness part. The colors look quite better here but still not so accurate.

But not to worry. This phone is compatible with GCam and images captured from GCam looks better when it comes to color accuracy. Just look at these samples and be the judge yourself. But since everyone are not quite aware of the GCam and it’s not easy to find and download. So I think Xiaomi should focus on the image processing part themselves in the coming days.

Stock Camera Aop Vs GCam App

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When it comes to low-light photography, Huawei’s Night Mode, Google’s Night Sight, and OnePlus’s NightScape feature are quite popular in the market. And Xiaomi has added a similar Night Mode feature in its camera UI. In this mode, the phone decreases the shutter speed to 1-2 second and takes some time to process the images to bring out details hiding in the dark. I tested the feature and it did bring images brighter than that captured from the normal mode. A slight increase in details is also can also be noticed in the images captured from the night mode. But noises and grains also pop in the images alongside the increased details. So you have to live with that. Although the feature is not polished, the inclusion of the feature is definitely a good thing. I hope Xiaomi will release an update to make the feature better.

Normal Vs Night Mode

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Alongside the primary shooter comes a 5MP depth sensor, which comes in handy while capturing the portrait images. And portrait images look amazing. Yes, it has the color accuracy issue but does really a good job on separating the subject and background. We can still see some imperfection on the hair but apart from that, the edge detection has really got better on this device.

Redmi Note 7 portrait images

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When it comes to the videos, the phone can record up to 1080p movies up to 60 fps. Despite having the hardware setup capable for capturing 4K videos, there is no such option in the camera setting. But with what I have, I record Full-HD videos at 30 fps and 60 fps. And the 30 fps videos were more stable. Despite having an in-built Electronic Image Stabilization, 60fps videos were still quite jittery.

On the selfie side, there is a 13MP shooter on the front, which rests on the tiny notch up front. The selfies too look good but the color seems quite washed out. The skin color also looks quite whitish even with the beauty effects turned off. Similar is the case while capturing the portrait selfies. Colors look quite off and there isn’t anything you can do about it. But apart from the colors, I really like the proficiency of the device while capturing the portrait images. Despite having a single camera, the edge detections were quite good.

Selfie Samples

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For high res images, click here.

Performance

Talking about the performance, the phone comes with the Snapdragon 660 chipset. MI A2, MI 8 Lite and now Redmi Note 7, the choice of the chipset is getting redundant in the books in Xiaomi. That doesn’t mean the processor is bad. It is a good performer for the price and I was pretty satisfied with what it did on my use. Normal apps run like a breeze and multitasking was fluid. Even while playing the games, the phone does a decent job. Light games run without a hiccup. And graphics-intensive games ran with some minor stutters. PUBG is playable at the medium setting with some occasional frame drops and Asphalt 9 followed the same suit. But considering the price, it was understandable.

As far as the memory is concerned, the unit I am using has 4GB RAM and 64GB of onboard memory. 64GB of internal memory can suffice the needs of the many. But in case of insufficiency, you can always expand it with an SD card. However, it will take up the SIM2 slot.

Software & UI

Now let’s talk about the software. Software-wise, the phone has got the latest Android Pie with Xiaomi’s customary AdUI. I meant to say MIUI but it is more or less the same. When you are connected to the internet, Ads appear here and there, due to which the phone looks like an Ad platform. And needless to say, it is terribly annoying. Please Xiaomi, don’t make your smartphones so cheap that you have to rely on Ads to make an income. Even after spending a chunk of money, nobody likes to see the filthy Ads popping here and there.

But other than the Ads, the UI is decent. There are tons of customization options to make every setting of the device match your requirements. However, Xiaomi has made some of the features to be location specific. The quick example would be the Face Unlock feature. It’s not available in certain countries so you’ll have to change your location if you want to trigger the feature. It’s been happening for quite a while now. And I couldn’t understand why Xiaomi does this type of discrimination.

Battery

Huge battery is the common trait of Redmi phones. And the tradition continued even in Note 7. There is a massive 4000mAh battery on the device, which provides an amazing backup. On the normal use, the phone backed me for more than a day. At the end of the day, I always found 30% or more charge left on the device. So I honestly have to praise its endurance.

Bigger batteries also have a downside though. It takes a lot of time to get them fully charged. And that problem exists on the Note 7 as well. Despite having support for Quick Charge 4.0, the phone comes with a 10-watt charger on the box. And the stock charger takes around two and a half hours to get it fully charged. Xiaomi recently teased 100-watt fast charging technology. So the inclusion of a mere 10-watt charger didn’t look quite plausible for me. In the upcoming phones, I expect Xiaomi to include a quick charger on the box.

The phone comes with USB-Type C port for charging the device. And it is the first ever Redmi phone to come with the Type-C port. Although it may not matter much to many, it’s a good step forward. Plus there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is good news for the audiophiles.

Conclusion

The Redmi Note 7 is a decent phone and is obviously the least expensive phone to feature a 48MP camera. It has got a 48MP camera, good battery life, a decent processor, and most importantly a great design. With the fancy Glass back and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the top, Redmi Note 7 is simply unbeatable at its price when it comes to the design. Although the 48MP is more or less of a gimmick and the shots from the stock camera app is not that great, you get amazing shots when you use the GCam app. So if you use the GCam, Redmi Note 7 is a good camera phone as well.

But the display is quite dull and if you are habituated with the vibrant displays, you will notice the subdued colors right away. So if you are into the good display, Samsung Galaxy A30 will definitely please you with its vibrant Super AMOLED display.

The major downside of the device is the UI polluted with Ads, which is absolutely repelling. So if you dislike such ads-filled UI like I do, you can also consider the Realme 2 Pro. The Realme 2 Pro comes with the SD660 so you will get a similar performance. But the UI doesn’t display the Ads, which is a plus point for Realme. The display and camera are also slightly better on the Realme 2 Pro. However, the Realme 2 Pro comes with last year’s Android Oreo and comes with a smaller battery. Also, the plastic back may not be pleasing for the most, especially, when you see a glass back on the smartphone available at the same price.

So weighing all the pros and cons, the Redmi Note 7 is a great phone. And since the device also comes with a variant with 128GB storage for just Rs. 27,000, the smartphone is the best midrange device you can get under Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 30,000 price segment. But you have to make a habit of ignoring the filthy Ads.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Decent design
Good performance
Appreciable Camera (With the GCam)

Cons:

Ad-laden
Dull-looking display
Lack of fast charger on the box