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Asus Vivobook S14 Review – Practical? Yes… Exciting? No!

Here’s the thing. There are great laptops, good laptops, and bad laptops. And only a handful can be called great. Most of them can only remain in a good category. We have one similar laptop here – the ASUS Vivobook S14 S430U, or just S14, in short. This is an ultra-book that came out in the first quarter of 2018. Let’s talk about if this ultra-book is still relevant.

Asus Vivobook S14 Specifications:

  • Design: Polycarbonate, Shiny metallic finish, Protrusion on the lid, 1.4 kg
  • Display: 14″ LED-backlit Full-HD matte display (1920 x 1080), 57% NTSC Color Gamut
  • Keyboard: Chiclet Keyboard, 3-level back-lighting, No num-pad
  • Trackpad: Glass surface trackpad, (PTP technology), Fingerprint sensor with Windows Hello
  • Ports: 1 x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x Type-A USB 3.1, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI, 1 x audio jack, 1 x microSD card reader
  • Wireless connectivity: Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth V4.2
  • Processor: 1.6 GHz 8th-gen Intel i5-8250U
  • RAM: 8 GB DDR4 @ 2400 MHz
  • Graphics: GTX MX150 graphics, 2 GB VRAM
  • Battery: 40 Watt-hour, Fast Charging – 60% in 49 minutes
  • Storage: 1 TB HDD
  • Price: Rs.110,000

Design and Build

Ultrabooks are generally, more or less, the same. They’re mostly known for their compact design, sleek looks, and lightweight. And this one is the same. It looks like any other ultrabook out there. Its mostly plastic, but has a brushed metal finish, both inside and out, to give a premium look and feel.

asus vivobook s14 design closed

The only thing that sets it apart is a bit of protrusion on the lid that extends a bit beyond the base. That raises the base of the laptop slightly when opened, which improves air-flow underneath. It improves both the thermals and prevents your lap from getting roasted from the heat. Plus, this means you can use it easily while laying on your bed too.

asus vivobook s14 design protrusion

Being a 14-inch model, it sacrifices a separate number-pad, but does leave out big spaces on the sides of the keyboard, which looks kinda unnecessary. The brushed lid texture attracts finger smudges quite a lot, but that’s very common, so, can’t complain.

asus vivobook s14 design back

At 1.4 kg, this isn’t your lightest ultra-book. I like Acer Swift 5 in terms of weight and portability. But being slightly heavy gives it a bit more sturdiness – there’s only slight flexes on the lid and the keyboard deck. So, you can say it maintains the balance between portability and build.

Ports

Ultrabooks are not known for a great selection of ports. And this one, tries to. With three USB-As, one of which is a USB 3.0, a USB-C (without Thunderbolt 3), an HDMI, an audio jack and a microSD card slot, the selection of ports is okay. But the microSD port looks a bit less practical. I mean, if you’re into editing and stuff, a regular SD card slot would be a lot more usable.

Keyboard and Trackpad

When you look at the keyboard, something about it gives a bit of a cheap vibe. Maybe it’s the hard silver color, but I don’t look how it looks.

asus vivobook s14 keyboard

On the other hand, the typing experience is just the opposite. With ample key travel and a good amount of spacing between the keys, typing is pretty comfortable. Also, there’s a good amount of tactile feedback on them.  There is also 3-level back-lighting, but that doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing. And the half-sized arrow keys will take some getting used to, but that’s how ultra-book keyboards are.

asus vivobook s14 trackpad

I also liked the trackpad. Its glass surface is very smooth and tracking is fairly accurate. The size is also great for an ultrabook, and it does a good job with gestures as well. You also get a fingerprint sensor on it, with Windows Hello feature, but that is optional, though.

Overall, if you don’t judge the keyboard by its looks, it’s actually good enough.

Display

As for the display, this laptop features a Full HD IPS LCD panel. It feels like the de-facto standard for ultrabooks. The screen offers decent brightness levels and good viewing angles. However, it is not bright enough to be used in well-lit areas.

asus vivobook s14 display

The color gamut coverage is where it falls short. With only 57% NTSC Color Gamut Coverage, this display is too dull to be used for editing stuff. It is fine for working and media consumption; even gaming – (for what games are playable), but this is not something I’d recommend for any kind of content creation. If you just use it for normal office usage and watching movies, there is nothing to complain about.

One thing I like about the display is that the bezels on the laptop are fairly slim. An even so, the webcam is exactly where it should be – at the top.

Performance

As far as ultrabooks’ performance is concerned, this one could use quite a bit of tuning. The hardware choice is great. You get the 1.6 GHz 8th-gen Intel i5-8250U processor. And it is backed by 8 GB of DDR4 2400 MHz RAM. On paper, that should make it zippy enough for a power efficient processor.

But the bottleneck here is its choice of an HDD rather than an SSD. Now, there are SSD variants for a higher price, but this model here only has an HDD. And if you’re coming from an SSD, then, you’ll find it very very annoying to use.

Get this for instance. If you’re someone like me who opens your Google Chrome first whenever you start your laptop, it’ll take like 20-30 seconds to fully open it. So, you need a bit of patience to work with it.

But once it loads up, then, it’s fast enough. You can have like 15 tabs open on your browser, and it’ll still hold its own. Using Photoshop is also smooth enough, but I didn’t do any video editing on it because of its color constraints. So, no telling if it can handle that.

Light gaming is supported by its dedicated GTX MX150 graphics with 2 GB V-RAM. Now that is an entry-level graphics card, so, don’t think you can play a lot of games on it. Games like FIFA and CS:GO can give you acceptable frame rates on medium settings while PUBG is barely playable at the lowest of settings. Dota 2 runs okay, and other than that, there aren’t many games you can play on it.

And even that needs some patience as you’re loading the games from your HDD. So, do yourselves a favor and get the SSD variant. Or even if you get one with an HDD, you can install an SSD as it does come with an M.2 SSD slot.

Battery

For an ultrabook, the battery is pretty average on it. You get a 40 Watt-hour battery, and that’s actually good for an ultra-book. But even so, I got only about 4 hours of battery life at most with my standard office usage.

Maybe it’s the sluggish HDD that eats up the power because I got about 6 hours on the Acer Swift 5 which has a slightly smaller battery of 36 Watt-hours. And since it doesn’t last a typical office day, you’ll need to carry your charger with you. So, it’s a good thing that the charger is as small as a phone charger.

Plus, it has got a Fast Charging feature in it, which can charge your laptop fully in some 1.5 hours. That’s something you don’t get on many laptops – and having one is very convenient.

Thermals

A power efficient processor can only do so much, so, the thermals aren’t a very concerning matter here. It can get a bit warm, but the ventilation is efficient due to the design.

Verdict

Something that really disappointed me in this laptop is the speakers. They are really quiet. If you’re working a full load and your fans are acting up, the speakers can easily get subdued. And if you’re watching movies or so, you should make sure nothing very heavy is running in the background.

To sum up, the Asus Vivobook S14 430U is just like any other ultrabook out there. It is practical with its thermal management, design and builds, enough ports, and okay performance. But this is not a very exciting device. I mean, nothing really stands out apart from the efficient heat management design. I cannot help but compare it to the Acer Swift 5, mostly because of the similar prices. And to me, that stands out because of its featherweight, while doing most things similar to better than this one.

If you get the SSD variant, you will like it, though. This is a laptop to get if you’re an office worker yet have to move around mostly. It is not suitable for content creators, though because of the display, but for the regular layman who wants an ultra-book, you can go for it.

Mi Notebook Air (2019) launched with some unimpressive specs but a stellar price tag

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Everyone wants to be the best, no matter if its individuals, or in this case, tech giants. In the case of ultraportables, it seems like Apple’s MacBook is the benchmark for all. We don’t disagree, it’s a really great laptop and even I would totally consider it if not for their price. This is where companies like Xiaomi or Huawei comes in, and today it’s the turn of the former to take a try. With their newly launched product, the MI Notebook Air 2019, can they give us a worthy MacBook alternative? Let’s find more about it along with the price and expected availability.

Overview

Currently only available in China, the Mi NoteBook Air (2019) get an all-metal chassis while weighing just 1.07 Kgs. The display size comes in at 12.5-inches with a Full-HD resolution and a bezel size of just 0.22-inches. You get Harmon Kardon audio and fast charging support on all models. Xiaomi claims it can charge 50% in just 35 minutes, but failed to announce its actual capacity. As for connectivity, you have USB C, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio jack, USB 3.0, and HDMI at your disposal.

Mi Notebook Air 2019

Internally, the choice of Core-M processors might not be so exciting, but consider a price of approx. $536, the m3-8100Y might not seem so bad. That’s the base model which gets a 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. BTW, there are three models currently on sale, and none of them come with anything over 4GB of RAM, which is a bit disappointing. We reckon a larger RAM sized variant is currently in the works. As for the rest of the models, you can compare them in this neat table below.

8th Gen processors are the way to go for now. Intel should seriously hurry up with its next-gen mobile processors. And judging by what we have right now, the 4GB of maximum RAM is a real problem here, but apart from that, the pricing is spot on.

Mi NoteBook Air (2019) Price & Availability:

Sales of the Mi Notebook Air 2019 have already begun in China. The base variant of the Mi Notebook Air starts at a price of US$536 (approx Rs. 60,000 in Nepal). This price is for the base Core M3 CPU, 4GB RAM, and 128GB Storage. We don’t expect it to launch in Nepal, however, it should be available from some laptop stores unofficially.

CPU Variant  RAM/Storage Price 
Intel Core m3-8100Y 4GB/128GB $536
Intel Core m3-8100Y 4GB/256GB $596
Intel Core i5-8250U 4GB/256GB $640

Xiaomi reveals 100-watt charging: Takes only 17 minutes to charge a 4000mAh battery

Innovations in the smartphone arena seem to be somewhat stagnant, looking at the recent years. Other than cameras, smartphone manufacturers barely seem to focus on other aspects. When it comes to charging technology, big players like Samsung and Apple are reiterating the same tech for a considerable amount of time. Up until now, Oppo and Huawei with their 50-watt and 55-watt charging technology, were the leaders in fast charging tech. However, Xiaomi surpassed both of them by introducing a new charging standard; which can inject power to the battery at double the rate than the former bests. Yes, you heard it right! Dubbed as Super Charge Turbo Standard, this new charging technology can push 100-watt power in a smartphone’s battery. Looks like they went all out in naming the tech, itself!

Demonstrating this awesome technology, Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin posted a video in Weibo. In the video, Lin compared the charging test of an unnamed Xiaomi handset with 4000 mAh to the Oppo R17 Pro, with 3700 mAh battery. The Oppo R17 Pro comes with a bi-cell battery design. It means that two 1850 mAh batteries are stacked together in series making a total capacity of 3700 mAh. And this device charges at 50-watt charging speed. While comparing the R17 Pro against the Xiaomi’s unnamed smartphone, the R17 Pro only reached 65% mark when Xiaomi device filled to 100%. And Xiaomi handset took only 17 minutes to get to that level!

This is surely amazing. Since most of the smartphones come with slow charging speed, it takes a lot of time to get the devices fully charged. And that problem is realized even more when you are in a hurry. With this new Super Charge Turbo technology, a 4000 mAh battery can charge up to 50% just in 7 minutes! And that could be enough for a day for most of the users on normal use. So I am really eager to see the tech implemented on the commercial phones.

However, we don’t have any sort of a time-line as to when this tech will be available commercially. However, Redmi President, Lu Weibing revealed that Redmi would be the first one to mass-produce Xiaomi 100-watt fast charger.

As fascinating as the technology sounds, safety is equally important while supplying a high amount of power in small and compact devices like a smartphone. In the case of Oppo, TÜV Rheinland has certified the handset marking it as a safe device to use. TÜV Rheinland is a German safety authority, which specializes in testing, inspection, and certification to ensure the safety of products. We haven’t yet heard about Xiaomi receiving such certifications. However, Xiaomi might consider that before getting it ready for mass production. Otherwise, the Redmi phone with a 100-watt fast charging could end up being another Samsung Galaxy Note 7!

DxOMark says Huawei P30 Pro has the best camera on a smartphone, yet again

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Huawei has been at the top of their game lately. Flagship after flagship they have delivered, and one of their standout features has been the camera. This time around, the P30 Pro’s cameras scored a new high of 112 points, given by none other than DxOMark. The score beats out its own elder sibling, the Mate 20 Pro, the Galaxy S10 and its direct predecessor, the P20 Pro by 3 whole points.

Rear Cameras

Let’s take a look at the P30 pro’s four camera setup first:

  • 40 MP, f/1.6, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF, OIS
  • 20 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.7″, PDAF
  • Periscope 8 MP, f/3.4, 125mm (telephoto), 1/4″, 5x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF
  • TOF 3D camera

So the primary camera is a 40MP quad sensor with an f/1.6 aperture lens that produces 10MP photos by default. It’s a 27mm equivalent lens with optical stabilization and a sensor size of 1/1.7″. This one uses RYB filter instead of your typical RGB Bayer-filter on most phones. Basically, this exchanges the Green pixels for Yellow, which in turn results in 40% more light getting into the sensor (so better low light shots). Huawei calls this the SuperSpectrum.

huawei p30 pro cameras

The second, an Ultrawide 20MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture. It’s a 16mm lens, same as the one we saw on the Mate 20 Pro. It has a 120-degree field of view, a must have for any flagship these days. According to the review, night mode has been improved this time around for the ultra-wide lens. Then there is the Time Of Flight camera for better depth mapping.

And finally, the telephoto camera, aka the Periscope lens. This allows you to reach 5x lossless optical zoom. As for the video capabilities, it scored 97 points, same as the Mate 20 Pro but a point lower than the P20 Pro for a few reasons. To summarize the video quality, it gets one of the best video stabilization, maintains good rendering of textures and details, but isn’t the best in low lights.

Also Read: Redmi Note 7 Pro is not coming to Nepal

Front Camera

Apart from the back cameras, the front selfie shooter tucked into the notch should play a huge role in one’s buying decision. Sadly, the P30 Pro lacks a bit on that front. The phone sits comfortably at the 4th spot, right below the Note 9, Pixel 3 and the selfie leader Galaxy S10. With a score of 89 points, the 32MP quad-Bayer sensor is good, just not the best in the business.

Conclusion

DxOMark has praised the P30 Pro’s zoom feature heavily, also claiming that its bokeh effects are the best on a smartphone. The noise levels and image details were also found to be excellent. They did specify some areas the phone could do with a bit more improvements, but as it stands, the Huawei P30 Pro is the best camera phone in the market. We will surely test it out in our full review very soon.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: A benchmark for the mid-range smartphones?

In 2019, Samsung flooded the entry-level and mid-range segment with a number of phones. Although the latest Samsung smartphones are too hard to keep track of, I was particularly intrigued with the Samsung Galaxy A50. Since it’s the least expensive smartphone in Nepal with triple rear cameras and an in-display fingerprint sensor, I was really eager to test how the device really fares on real-life use. And so, this is my Samsung Galaxy A50 review after two weeks of use.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Specifications:

  • Display: 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display
  • Resolution: Full-HD+ (2340×1080 pixels); 19.5:9 aspect ratio @ 403PPI
  • Chipset: Exynos 9610 Octa
  • CPU: Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.6 GHz Cortex-A53)
  • GPU: Mali-G71 MP3
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Storage: 64GB; Expandable up to 512GB (Dedicated SD Card Slot)
  • OS & UI: Android 9.0 (Pie) with Samsung’s OneUI on the top
  • Rear Camera: Triple camera – (25 MP, f/1.7, PDAF) + (8 MP, f/2.2, 12mm, (ultrawide)) + (5 MP, f/2.2, depth sensor), LED flash
  • Front Camera: 25MP, f/2.0
  • Sensors: Fingerprint (under display), Gyro, accelerometer, proximity, compass
  • Battery: 4000mAh with 15watt fast charging support; USB Type-C port
  • Colors: Blue, White, Coral, and Black
  • Price: Rs. 33,490 Rs. 26,699

Design

Let’s start the things with its design. Most of the midrange Samsung smartphones released in 2018 had a bland and outdated design, which looked like they were brought straight from 2015. But in the Galaxy A50, it’s a whole different story. The handset comes with a Glasstic back and a plastic frame. Apparently, Glasstic is the combination of Glass and Plastic molded together. With such kind of setup, the back feels as premium as glass yet weighs light as plastic. I really want to appreciate the trick Samsung used here to maintain the ergonomics.

samung galaxy a50 back

The device is very comfortable to hold, despite having a big battery and its curvy edges aids in the grip. The shimmering rainbow effect on the back is also a unique touch here, and looks absolutely appealing!

Although the Glasstic back has its own perks, it is also a proficient fingerprint magnet. And it’s really annoying. Plus the urge to clean the smudges is also quite a pain in the neck.

samsung galaxy A70 camera

Having a plastic frame and a Glasstic body, I am concerned about the durability of the handset in the long run. But I did not notice any creaks and bends on my use. However, there were some minor scratches at the back. To avoid that, you can put on a silicone case. And since it comes inside the box, you don’t have to spend extra bucks for the protection.

Display

On the display front, the phone gets a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel. When I reviewed the Galaxy M10 and M20, I was missing the deeper blacks and brighter whites of the AMOLED screen. And it’s finally back in the A50. The contrast ratio is not the only thing to be excited here. The tall and immersive display also deserves a fair bit of praise. It comes with a small notch on the top, which Samsung likes to call an “Infinity-U display”. The tiny notch in this device is less obtrusive so I didn’t have any issues at all. I would have preferred a smaller chin here. But since it’s a midrange phone, this is not something I can fuss about.

samsung galaxy a50 display

In an attempt to shrink down the bezels, Samsung also gave away the LED notification light. But it has an always-on display feature as the replacement. Since this feature displays all sorts of notifications, current time and date even on an off-screen, I find it more useful. However, it consumes more power than an LED indicator. So, you will have to sacrifice a fair amount of battery juice for this feature.

samsung galaxy a50 display

With Full-HD+ resolution at its disposal, the contents on the screen look really sharp. Color accuracy is also amazing and the viewing angle is decent in a similar fashion. There is also an in-display fingerprint sensor on the device. But I will get into that later.

Camera

Moving on to the camera side, a triple camera setup resides on the back. The rear camera setup comprises of a 25MP primary shooter backed by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 5MP depth sensor. The setup looks quite familiar with last year’s Galaxy A7 2018. But unlike the last year’s model, I found the camera on the Galaxy A50 to be slightly better. The colors are slightly more accurate than last year’s model as well. And the dynamic range is also quite appreciable here. However, details were not as crisp as the images from other smartphones available at a similar price.

samsung galaxy a50 camera

I also noticed that the resolution of the image to be around 12 Megapixels. Since Samsung has not spoken anything about the pixel binning or any sort of pixel merging technology, I couldn’t understand what’s going on here. But if you want to capture the high-res 25MP images, you can toggle the aspect ratio in the camera UI to “3:4H”. But when I do so, I didn’t notice any changes in the image quality and sharpness.

Talking about the ultra-wide-angle lens, I found it to be quite good. Although the images don’t pack plenty of details, the color accuracy was really good. I, actually, found it to be much better than the primary shooter. Just look at the images shown below. The red t-shirt of my friend looks oversaturated from the primary camera whereas the color looks natural in the ultra-wide-angle image.

The depth sensor, as the name implies, pulls in the depth information, and comes into action while capturing the portrait images. The portrait images look better than what we saw on the Galaxy M10 and M20. But edge detection is still not perfect. I noticed improper edge detection on multiple occasions, which Samsung needs to improve in its upcoming phones.

As far as the front camera is concerned, a 25MP selfie shooter handles the job while taking selfies and video calls. In terms of images, the 25MP selfie camera here also captures 12-megapixel photos by default, just like the primary rear camera. But you can toggle the aspect ratio to “3:4H” to get high-res 25MP shots.

samsung galaxy a50 front camera

Ignoring the resolution, I am pretty impressed with the selfies. The colors in the selfies look natural and match my taste. But while capturing portrait selfies, the software over-smoothens the skin, due to which, it looks unnatural at times. The edge detection is also not particularly impressive.

When it comes to videos, the phone can capture up to Full-HD videos, both from the 25MP main camera and 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera. Although the videos look decent from both the lenses, I liked the colors from ultra-wide-angle one. Since more part of the subject remains in the frame, the subject always seems to be the focus. However, the Autofocus from the primary camera is laggy and takes time while capturing videos. So, the videos can look jittery because of it. But in terms of stabilization, I found the primary shooter doing a better job. And there is EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) to handle that duty.

Apart from the normal video recording, the Galaxy A50 also comes with Slow Motion, Super Slo-Mo, and Hyperlapse features. With the Super Slo-Mo feature, you can capture some moments at 240 frames per second. This is quite a premium feature for a midrange phone.

For high-res images, Click here.

Performance

In the midrange segment, Samsung mostly lags on the performance side. But things have been a bit different lately. The smartphone comes with Exynos 9610 chipset, aided by 4GB of RAM. The 10nm chipset is the first to show up on any Samsung smartphone. The Octa-core CPU here uses four Cortex A-73 performance cores and four Cortex A-53 power-efficient cores. Although this setup looks similar to the Kirin 710 and Helio P70 chipsets, the Exynos 9610 outperforms both of them when it comes to the real-life use. Just look at these benchmark scores. The Exynos 9610 chip on the Galaxy A50 has a better score than the Vivo V15 and the Honor 8X in AnTuTu, 3D Mark, and GeekBench’s test. So I would have to say that the choice of the chipset is really appreciable here.

Vivo V15 (MediaTek Helio P70) Realme 2 Pro (4/64GB)

(Snapdragon 660)

Samsung Galaxy A50 (Exynos 9610)
AnTuTu v7 143452 128703 146360
GeekBench 4.3.2 (Single Core) 1542 1468 1719
GeekBench 4.3.2 (Multi-Core) 5751 5506 5554
3D Mark (OpenGL ES 3.1) 1268 1229 1303
3D Mark (Vulkan) 1252 1184 1394
PC Mark (Work 2.0) 8147 5778 5576
Android Bench (Seq. Read Speed) 307.87 MB/s 291.18 MB/s 502.23 MB/s
Android Bench (Seq. Write Speed) 175.7 MB/s 173.76 MB/s 189.92 MB/s

Let’s skip the geeky things and talk about how the device really fared on my day to day use. On my use, light apps and games ran without any issues. And multitasking and switching between apps were fairly smooth. The phone did not sigh even while playing the high-end games. I played graphics-intensive games like PUBG and Shadowgun Legends and both of them ran without any issues. PUBG stuttered sometimes while playing on high settings but I don’t know for sure if it was my internet or the phone. So I have to say that, the phone performed well on my tests. But Asphalt 9 was incompatible with this device, which I am not pleased about. Other than that, I have to nothing to complain about.

The device comes with 64GB of onboard memory, which is quite sufficient for my kind of usage. But even in the case of insufficiency, users can use the SD card. Samsung has provided a dedicated slot for the SD card, so users don’t have to eject the second SIM card out to expand the memory.

Software & UI

Talking about the software, the phone runs on the latest Android Pie out of the box. Samsung also gives its own touch on the software, adding One UI version 1.1 on top. And unlike Touchwiz and Experience UI, the One UI is really optimized. There is less bloatware and most of them can be uninstalled or disabled easily. Although the UI looks polished, some apps have cartoonish icons, which do not look good at all.

samsung galaxy a50 software

Keeping the things of the icons and bloatware aside, I genuinely liked how Samsung has focused on the User Experience in this new UI. The UI is easy to use. Navigating through the setting can be performed even with a single hand. That could be one of the reasons why the UI was named as One UI. Apart from that, Samsung has also enriched the phone with plenty of features. Among the bunch, I liked the Bluelight filter and Night Mode option very much.

Since these features prevent you from eye-stress, I recommend using these features to our followers. Plus turning on the Night mode also saves the battery juice since the Super AMOLED display does not consume power at all when the pixels are black.

Oh, I almost forgot. If you prefer gestures over the on-screen navigation buttons, there is an option to toggle that option as well.

Security

On the security side, the phone comes with Face Unlock and fingerprint sensor apart from the usual security stuff. And as I mentioned earlier, the fingerprint sensor in this device rests under the display. And it is the least expensive phone with that fancy feature. But unlike the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, the fingerprint sensor on this device is an optical one and not an ultrasonic one.

Although unlocking the device by tapping on the screen looks cool, the fingerprint sensor is rather slow on the Galaxy A50. It takes over second to unlock the device, which is quite frustrating. During my review period, I received an update on the fingerprint sensor. I expected a boost in the unlocking speed after the update. But I barely noticed any changes after the update. I found the Face Unlock feature to be much faster. So I had to rely on the Face Unlock feature most of the time. However, it’s not all that accurate.

Audio

On the audio front, the phone comes with a single bottom-firing speaker. And the sound output from this device is fairly loud. The speaker on the device also outputs a decent amount of mids and treble. When it comes to bass, it’s very subtle and not noticeable at times. The audio output started getting shrill at higher volumes. So, I just felt the audio output of the speaker to be okay at best.

samsung galaxy a50 audio speaker

But listening to music via headphones is a different story. The phone comes with a Dolby Atmos option, with which you can get better separation between the left and the right channels. With the Dolby Atmos mode turned on, I also noticed a boost in the audio volume. In addition to that, the Dolby Atmos feature also adds quite a depth in the music. So, I really enjoyed listening to songs via headphones in the Galaxy A50.

Battery

Moving on to the battery, a massive 4000mAh battery acts as a powerhouse in this device. With a big battery at its disposal, the phone also provides an amazing battery backup. On my normal day of use, the phone lasted for more than a day. At the end of the day, I always found the battery level to be 30% or more. So I must honestly praise the power efficient Super AMOLED display and Samsung’s optimizations on the software front to extend the battery life. If you are unsatisfied with the battery life, you can turn on the Power Mode and Ultra Power Saving Mode to prolong the backup to some extent.

samsung galaxy a50 charging test

When it comes to charging, you can refuel the device with a 15-watt charging. Although a 15-watt charger is not the fastest at this price range, it is commendable to see Samsung’s generosity in the midrange segment. Because even the flagship Galaxy phones also come with the same wattage of the charger. The phone took exactly one hour and 48 minutes on my charging test, which I consider decent.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A50 is a good phone at this price and ticks lot of right boxes. Vibrant Super AMOLED display, long-lasting battery, optimized UI, and capable chipset are rare features at this price. Although the in-display fingerprint sensor is more or less of a gimmick, it is still a fancy feature to have on a phone. With these nifty features, the Galaxy A50 is surely one of the best midrange phones in Nepal at the moment. And since the Redmi Note 7 Pro is confirmed not to land in Nepal and the Vivo V15 is slightly on the expensive side, the Galaxy A50 would be the phone to consider under Rs. 35,000 price segment.

Redmi Note 7 Pro is not coming to Nepal

Since the day Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 7 and Note 7 Pro, it took the smartphone market by storm. Yet even for lower midrange handsets, these smartphones packed plentiful of amazing features. Among the two, the Redmi Note 7 Pro was the more desired one. The smartphone packs Snapdragon 675 chipset, which is only found in the premium midrange territory. Also, the 48 MP camera was another impressive feature to create a buzz. Apart from camera and processor, the handset also embraces some premium-tier specs. Most of us were eagerly waiting for its launch in Nepal. But all those hopes shattered when we found out the device is not making its way to Nepal.

Yes, you read that right. It won’t be coming to the country. The argument could be Nepal may be a small market for smartphone sales. But not just in Nepal, that smartphone will not land in any other countries apart from India and China. We don’t know specifics about the Xiaomi’s product strategy but this verdict has already been passed by the Xiaomi officials. John Chen, Xiaomi’s Regional Director for Southeast Asia, in his recent Facebook post announced that the phone will not make a debut on the global scale.

This is truly saddening. Since there were rumors about the device to launch very soon, we were really excited about it. And this is a loss for Xiaomi as well. The phone was remarked as the midrange killer by many reviewers. And many of them had also recommended the handset to their followers. So, now, other smartphone brands will take its place and will make sales. For a quick example, the Samsung Galaxy A50 probably can remain unrivaled at its price for a long time.

And we are not sure, but there are rumors that Xiaomi is working on a global variant of the MI 9 SE. The MI 9 SE comes with Snapdragon 712 SoC, which is said to be slightly better than the Snapdragon 675. Apart from that, the phone gets a 5.97-inch Super AMOLED display. So, it should be more vibrant than on the Note 7 Pro. The MI 9 SE also comes with a triple rear camera, which is an upgrade over the 7 Pro as well. The base variant of the MI 9 SE comes with 6GB RAM and 64GB of onboard memory.

Xiaomi MI 9 SE looks and is similar to the Note 7 Pro in most of the areas, even better in some aspects. However, the battery on the MI 9 SE is only a 3070 mAh battery, which is a pure downgrade. Although the MI 9 SE offers superior specs over the Note 7 Pro. The Note 7 Pro, however, offers better value for money. For the 6 GB/128 GB variant, MI 9 SE costs 2,299 Yuan ($340) whereas the Note 7 Pro demands 1,599 Yuan ($240). So that replacement won’t be convincing.

What do you make of this news? Were you as excited for this device, too? Or do you think it was just over-hyped? Do let us know.

Samsung Galaxy A30 Review – A breath of Fresh Air for Samsung!

With Samsung refreshing its budget and mid-range lineups, the Galaxy A30 and A50 are the first to surface. And you’ll immediately notice that these phones are a breath of fresh air for Samsung. Today, we’ll be looking at the Galaxy A30 closely. And see if this low-tier mid-range phone can keep up with the cut-throat competition that surrounds it.

Samsung Galaxy A30 Specifications:

  • Display: 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display
  • Resolution: Full-HD+ (2340×1080 pixels); 19.5:9 aspect ratio @ 403PPI
  • Chipset: Exynos 7904 Octa
  • CPU: Octa-core (2×1.8 GHz Cortex-A73 & 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A53)
  • GPU: Mali-G71 MP2
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Storage: 64GB; Expandable up to 512GB (Dedicated SD Card Slot)
  • OS & UI: Android 9.0 (Pie) with Samsung’s OneUI on the top
  • Rear Camera: Dual camera – (16 MP, f/1.7, PDAF) + (5 MP, f/2.2, 12mm, (ultrawide)), LED flash
  • Front Camera: 16MP, f/2.0
  • Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, compass
  • Battery: 4000mAh with 15watt fast charging support; USB Type-C port
  • Colors: Blue, White, and Black
  • price: Rs. 28,490

Design

While the design of the phone is not something we haven’t seen before, it is new for Samsung. But I’ll tell you what is the first of its kind – its “Glastic” body! That is the construction of plastic and glass molded together. And it’s not as slippery as glass but is as durable as plastic. So, you get the best of both worlds. But it is, however, a fingerprint magnet.

samsung galaxy a30 back

The phone is large but has curved edges and tapered sides. So, it sits comfortably in your hand. It’s also not bulky and seems a bit lightweight, but is sturdy enough. The rear-mounted fingerprint sensor is also at the right spot and is fairly easy to reach.

samsung galaxy a30 review

By the looks of it, it appears as if Samsung put quite a bit of thought on this one. It looks cool, and is something you can show-off! Only those who don’t like such bigass phones might not like it, but for others, it is very likable.

Display

The display on it is a joy to use! It’s an AMOLED panel, so, not something you’ll find in others for the price. That already gives it an advantage over the competition. So, I think it’s safe to say that this is the best display around for the price category.

Its large 6.4” panel with Full HD+ resolution makes for a good viewing experience. It’s sharp, colors are punchy and vibrant, and there is not much you can complain about. There’s also ample brightness and is easy to operate outdoors under bright sunlight as well.

samsung galaxy a30 display

The notch is small, and U-shaped. Samsung dubs this the Infinity-U, and it looks…a bit odd, to be honest. Notches aren’t my thing, but those V-shaped notches look, better than the U-shaped ones. There’s a minimal amount of bezels around the sides, but there is a chin though, which, frankly looks disturbing.

One thing I’d like to mention is that the night mode, paired with AMOLED technology should provide more battery life. But, more than that, what it gives you, is a more immersive user experience with more depth! Everything is inky black, and that makes it so much better.

samsung galaxy a30

Plus, if you’re not a fan of Samsung’s color calibration, they also give you a bunch of modes to suit your needs. So, overall, a display that’ll beat the competition easily.

Camera

As for the camera, there are dual cameras at the back – a 16 MP primary and a 5 MP ultra-wide lens. And because this is a Samsung device, I had quite the expectations from this one.

samsung galaxy a30 camera

The images on it are quite good. Everything is good enough – from white balance to dynamic range and color reproduction. They pack a good amount of details, and the sharpness is there. If anything, the images might look ever so slightly washed out in some conditions. Overall, it does a good job under well-lit conditions.

With the wide-angle lens, you can definitely have a bit of fun! The wide-angle lens on this one is better than we saw on the Galaxy M20, and with it, you can take some stunning pictures. The color accuracy and sharpness does take a hit, but it does serve its purpose.

The portraits, too, are nice! As usual, edge detection can be a bit of hit and miss, but it is more on the accurate side. Sometimes, backgrounds tend to be a bit blown out. Also, you get the option to adjust the blur levels post picture. So, that’s a handy feature.

Low light condition is where it falls short – by a lot. I would say that under low light, it’s basically unusable. The images lack sharpness and details, and everything appears mushy and grainy.

If we talk selfies, generally, they’re great. The amount of details it captures are okay. But the images tend to look cooler. For portraits, it is mostly the same story as the primary camera. The background appears a bit blown out, but the edge detection mostly works.

So, I wouldn’t say the cameras are the best in the price category. We do get the ultra-wide lens on this, which we don’t get on others for a similar price. They’re not really “wow”, but they get the job done.

For high-resolution images, Click here.

Performance

This phone packs the Exynos 7904 processor, which kinda match the benchmark scores of the Snapdragon 636, or Samsung’s own 7885. But I feel like this is not the processor we should get for the price.

Well, the phone didn’t freeze or stutter anywhere, but everything was a tad bit slower to my liking. For instance, apps take like half a second to launch, and it can be annoying at times. It’s not that frustrating, it’s like something that won’t make that much of a difference but you can’t unsee it.

The performance from this one is also nothing exciting either. Multi-tasking and stuff is okay, and you can game on it pretty well. PUBG runs on medium settings by default, and every other game I tried, like Ocean Horn, Real Racing 3, Asphalt 9, and a bunch of others ran without any problems. The UI, too, is smooth to use.

However, heavy multi-tasking is not something it can handle. For instance, if you get a message on messenger while gaming, then, things start to freeze and it can get pretty frustrating.

Honestly, Samsung could have given it a slightly better SoC, but for the price to package ratio, I also think that would be a bit too much to ask. It is still a good performer, but hard to recommend, if someone’s utmost priority is performance.

Samsung Galaxy A30 Benchmarks

  • AnTuTu v7: 106,165
    • CPU: 45913, GPU: 23506, UX: 31011, Memory: 5735
  • AndroBench:
    • Sequential Read: 290 MB/s, Sequential Write: 102 MB/s
  • Geekbench 4
    • Single-core: 1326, Multi-core: 4114, RenderScript Score: 3675
  • PC Mark
    • Work 2.0: 7554
  • Andro Bench
    • Sequential Read: 311.72 MB/s
    • sequential Write: 190.1 MB/s
  • 3D Mark
    • Slighshot Extreme OpenGL ES 3.1: 1064
    • Slighshot Extreme Vulkan: 1159

Software and UI

Here, you get the Android 9 Pie with Samsung One UI. The UI is pretty standard and offers a lot of customizable options. There are a few Microsoft bloatware apps, which cannot be removed, but only disabled. But the Samsung bloatware apps like Samsung notes and such can be completely uninstalled.

samsung galaxy a30 software

The UI is pretty lightweight and feels modern. Enabling gesture mode helps in one-handed usage. There’s also a “Reduce Animation” option, which can minimize the animations on your phone’s certain operation, without turning the Developer’s Mode on. And that can help your phone get a tad bit faster.

I really like this UI from Samsung. It did address what we had been complaining about from a while ago.

Security Features & Extras

To me, it appeared as if the fingerprint sensor was not responsive enough. Maybe it’s the screen unlock animation, but it feels a bit slow compared to the ones on other phones. The Face Unlock is also not as fast. And while these features are showing up on a lot of phones, even on budget ones, Samsung has yet to improve on them. So, this was a bit of disappointment for me.

Battery

In terms of battery, you get a good-sized 4000 mAh unit, and so, the battery life does not disappoint. I usually got over 6 hours’ battery life on heavy usage, and that’s impressive. It’s pretty difficult to use up the battery in a single day. But you will need to charge it by the end of the day, though.

samsung galaxy a30 charging

There is the always-on display option, and if you keep that on, it can eat up like 1% of your battery every half-hour or so. But, since there is no LED notification, that thing will have to stay on, even if it means sacrificing your battery. You also get a 15W Adaptive Fast charging, which can take your phone from 0 to 100 in slightly under 2 hours.

Conclusion

So for the price of Rs.28490 or some $250 dollars, the A30 offers you a great design, a great display, excellent battery life, decent cameras, and a user friendly UI. What it lacks in is the performance department, and that’s where the other phones like Redmi Note 7 and Realme 2 Pro excels at. Those phone has also got slightly better cameras, except the ultra-wide-angle feature.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Great battery life
  • Good camera
  • Great display
  • Good design
  • Easy and friendly UI

Cons:

  • Slow performance
  • Face unlock slower than the competitors
  • Slow fingerprint

Huawei P30 Pro and P30 launched – a star is born!

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When it comes to flagship phones, companies try their best to out-do each other. And that kinda works in our favor. It’s us who get to see those cool pieces of technology, and with the latest devices announced from Huawei, it’s nothing short of “Wow”! The company announced two phones: the P30 Pro and the P30 at an event in Paris, successors to last year’s game-changing camera phones, the P20 Pro and the P20. With them billing them as #ReWriteTheRules, let’s see what these have to offer.

Huawei P30 Pro Overview

Since the ‘P’ in Huawei’s P-series stand for photography, it’s the cameras that see the most improvement. With a quad-camera setup at the back, that too, of Leica lens, Huawei’s flagships have been dominating the camera sector. In addition, with a DxOMark score of 112, I’m sure it checks all the right boxes.

The quad camera setup consists of a SuperSpectrum 40 MP wide-angle primary camera with f/1.6 aperture. Well, a 40 MP camera is no news in today’s times. But the special thing about this is that instead of your regular RGB Bayer-filter that is used in all other smartphone cameras, this one uses an RYB filter. Meaning that it swaps the green pixels for yellow, and yellow being the brightest of colors, it lets in 40% more light into the sensors. And that makes for great some great low-light shots! Aptly named, Super spectrum!

huawei p30 pro
Credit: The Verge

As for other cameras, you get a 20 MP ultra-wide angle lens, and this is the only thing that remains similar to last year’s Mate 20 Pro. You can capture all that you want in it, with that 120-degree field of view, or get some close macro-shots. The other lens is an 8 MP Periscope lens – meaning that it’s essentially a periscope (a more complex form of what you might have seen in your science labs as students). That lets you get up to 5X Optical Zoom. And if you want more, you can get up to 50X Digital Zoom! Sure, the quality takes a hit, but with this, you don’t need any binoculars! The final one is not exactly a camera sensor per se, but a TOF (Time-Of-Flight) lens. This one resolves the distance between the subject and background, for better portrait shots. Also, it possesses AR capabilities as well. However, we’ll have to wait for its full functionality to come around.

huawei p30 pro
Credit: Android Central

Besides the cameras, the Huawei P30 Pro has not changed much. You have a glass design sandwiched in an aluminum frame. You have a tiny water-drop notch up front on the 6.47″ Full HD+ OLED display, housing a 32 MP selfie camera. It seems they won’t be going QHD anytime soon, like the Samsung flagships. With the notch-size gone down, you don’t have an IR sensor for Facial Recognition now. But it does pack an Optical In-display fingerprint scanner.

Under the hood, their’s the Kirin 980 chip at the helm and an 8 GB of RAM. Internal storage starts at 128 GB and goes up to 512 GB. In addition, it’s expandable but uses Huawei’s proprietary nano-memory, which is kinda scarce. There’s a large 4200 mAh battery, with the 40W SuperCharge, along with its Reverse Wireless charging. The phone is also fully IP68 rated for Water and Dust resistance.

This phone comes in five different colors: Breathing Crystal, Amber Sunrise, Pearl White, Aurora and Black. Pricing starts at a €1000 for the base 128 GB variant, €1100 for the 256 GB and moves up to €1250 for the top 512 GB model!

P30 Pro Specifications:

  • Design: Glass body front and back, aluminum frame
  • Display: 6.47″ OLED display with Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2340 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio
  • Rear Camera: Leica Quad-camera setup, 40 MP SuperSpectrum sensor with f/1.6 aperture (RYYB filter) + 20 MP Ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture + 8 MP Periscope telephoto lens with f/3.4 aperture & 5 X Optical Zoom (50X Digital Zoom) + TOF (Time-Of-Flight) sensor
  • Front Camera: 32 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture
  • Processor: Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset
  • GPU: Mali-G76 MP10
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Storage: 128 / 256 / 512 GB, expandable via Nano memory up to 512 GB)
  • OS: Android Pie with EMUI 9.1 on top
  • Battery: 4200 mAh, 40-W SuperCharge, Reverse Wireless Charging
  • Sensors: Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, color spectrum
  • Colors: Aurora, Amber Sunrise, Breathing Crystal, Black, Pearl White
  • Price: €999 (128 GB) / €1099 (256 GB) / €1249 (512 GB)
  • Huawei P30 Pro Price in Nepal: Rs. 1,19,900 (256GB)

Huawei P30 Overview

The Huawei P30 is generally, a toned down, less expensive model of the P30 Pro. Flagships have been doing this for quite a while now. This is the successor to the Huawei P20. With a few cutbacks on the specs, it cutbacks a few 100 Euros in the price as well.

huawei p30
Credit: Expert Reviews

First off, there are only 3 cameras on the P30, not four. The term ‘only’ may be an understatement, but well, there is one camera, less, on the P30. You get the same 40 MP SuperSpectrum as the primary lens, but a slightly toned down 16 MP ultra-wide sensor. The 8 MP telephoto is also not your Periscope camera, so, it offers only a 3X optical zoom. Digital zoom, too, won’t go as far as 50X for sure. But the selfie camera is the same 32 MP lens. What it loses, is the TOF sensor, but its other lenses get the job done while capturing portraits. So, it is not much of a loss.

On the aesthetics side, most of it still remains the same as well. Unlike on the Mate 20 Pro and the Mate 20, both these phones have an in-display fingerprint scanner, albeit Optical ones. The P30 is slightly smaller, with 6.1″ OLED display and the same water-drop notch cutout.

Inside, Kirin 980 powers the phone with up to 8 GB RAM as well. The battery is slightly smaller at 3650 mAh. But it does have a 22W Fast Charging. This phone is also available in the same 5 colors and pricing starts at €800.

Both these phones come with Android Pie, with EMUI 9.1 out of the box. What’s more? EMUI 9.1 is heavily optimized to make it a lot faster and user-friendly, as per Huawei’s claims.

P30 Specifications:

  • Design: Glass body front and back, aluminum frame
  • Display: 6.1″ OLED display with Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2340 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio
  • Rear Camera: Triple camera setup, 40 MP SuperSpectrum sensor with f/1.8 aperture (RYYB filter) + 16 MP Ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture + 8 MP telephoto lens with f/3.4 aperture & 3 X Optical Zoom
  • Front Camera: 32 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture
  • Processor: Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset
  • GPU: Mali-G76 MP10
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Storage: 128 / 256 / 512 GB, (expandable via Nano memory up to 512 GB)
  • OS: Android Pie with EMUI 9.1 on top
  • Battery: 3650 mAh, 22-W SuperCharge
  • Sensors: Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, color spectrum
  • Colors: Aurora, Amber Sunrise, Breathing Crystal, Black, Pearl White
  • Price: €799 (128 GB)
  • Huawei P30 Price in Nepal: Rs. 84,900 (128GB)

Huawei Watch GT Active and Elegant announced expanding its smartwatch segment to a broader audience

After Huawei launched its more exciting flagship duo, they also added two new smartwatches to their Huawei Watch GT family. Dubbed the Watch GT Active and the Watch GT Elegant, both have the same impressive battery life. The design was the major changed factor for the two. This should help them capture a wider audience – for those who didn’t really like their old offerings. They have sold over a million units since its introduction last year, and this should only but add to their bragging rights.

Also Read: Apple’s “It’s Show Time” event announced a handful of amazing products

Huawei Watch GT Active

The Watch GT Active edition comes with a 1.39-inch 454×454 resolution AMOLED display. Its watch face measures in at 46mm, while the battery life is quoted at 2 weeks. Well, 2 weeks of “typical use” includes using the watch daily with the continuous heart rate scanner and “scientific sleeping function” every night. Huawei also claims, apart from these functions, they accounted for 90 minutes of exercise per week alongside all your notifications. Strap options for this one include Orange and Dark-green.

Also Read: Deals: Grab Samsung Galaxy smartphones from Daraz at a discounted price

Huawei Watch GT Elegant edition

As for the Elegant version, as long as battery life is concerned, you will have to charge your watch once a week. And that is also under the circumstances we mentioned earlier. Huawei adds you can extend your charging intervals to a month. Given you only use it as a timekeeper and turn off all those extra modes. The Watch GT Elegant has a smaller 42mm watch face with a 1.2-inch 390×390 AMOLED panel.

Huawei Watch GT elegant edition straps

The Elegant edition is available in Magic Pearl White and Tahitian Magic Black pearl alongside a ceramic bezel option. As for straps, you can get it in White or Black. This watch, in general, looks a lot different and should succeed in capturing a wider range of audience. As the name suggests elegant, this could be a favorite among people who barely considered a smartwatch in the past.

Triathlon Mode

These new smartwatches also get an all-new Triathlon mode. Basically, this is an exercise mode that includes open water swimming, outdoor cycling, and outdoor running. The watches will record all your said activities from start to finish including your transition times. The Watch GT Classic and Sports will also get this feature through a software update in the near future.

Huawei Watch GT Active, Elegant Edition

Finally, features like Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, optical heart rate sensor, barometer, and magnetometer come built into these tiny devices. Protecting those internal is the 5 ATM water resistance protection. As for supported devices, they will run on Android 4.4 and up or anything above iOS 9.

Pricing starts at around $280 for the Watch GT Active and $260 for the Elegant edition.

Apple’s “It’s Show Time” event announced handful of amazing products

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It hasn’t been much Apple pocketed out its devices every other day. We saw Apple announcing iPads, iMacs, and AirPods 2 in very quick succession. Well, that announcement has not passed even a week and Apple yet again organized an event. Dubbed as “It’s Show Time”, the event showcased a ton of products, which the tech giant promises to release for sale this fall.

Apple Card

Apple Card is the Apple-branded credit card for the iPhones. It is primarily a digital wallet that dwells on your iPhones. A physical Titanium card can also be accessed as a backup if needed. Being a digital wallet, the service generally is a platform for digital payment.

Being a digital form of credit card, the Apple card can also be used for making payments. And unlike the predominant digital wallets, which provides points as the reward, Apple is offering cash back on every purchase through the card. Users can get 2% cash back while making a payment through Apple Card online. The rebate increases to 3% while purchasing from Apple itself. But while making the payment through Titanium card, users will only get 1% of cash back. Apple is initially targeting the service to the US, which may be available in various other regions outside the US if Apple succeeds.

Apple TV Plus

Apple TV+ is a subscription-based video-streaming service with features more or less similar to Netflix. The service can be accessed through both offline and online means. And Apple has promised that it will not show any types of Ads while viewing the contents. Users can watch the content via Apple TV App, which is designed for iOS, Mac, Rocu, Fire TV, and Televisions from different manufacturers including Samsung.

Just like Netflix, Apple is also said to be working on its original shows. And the company is said to spill around $2 billion for the project. Apart from Apple Originals shows, users can pay and watch contents from HBO, Showtime, Starz, CBS All Access, and other services directly through the TV app.

Although this service sounds fascinating, Apple has not named the pricing for the Apple TV Plus yet. The service is slated to debut in fall and maybe the price will be divulged then.

Apple News Plus

As the name implies, this is a new Apple service with which, users can read and browse news from various newspapers and magazines. Apple says that it is in the favor of quality journalism and with this service it aspects to bridge the users and news more conveniently. However, Apple News+ is a subscription-based service. So you will have to subscribe to their monthly packages to be able to read their news feed.

The Cupertino-based company announced that users can read news and articles from over 300 popular magazines, leading newspapers conveniently after subscribing to the monthly plan. However, the service is confined to only the users in the US and Canada.

Interested ones can subscribe to the service if they have iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch models running on iOS 12.2 and Macs running macOS Mojave 10.14.4. The service will demand a price of $9.99 per month for the people residing in the US and $12.99 per month for the people in Canada. Till the date, there is no mention of the yearly subscription plans.

iOS 12.2

iOS 12.2 is the new software update for the iPhones and iPads. This new update primarily embraces the Apple News Plus service and four new Animojis. In new update also fixes the FaceTime glitch, which has been in the news for quite a while now. Apart from that, you can now ask Siri to play videos from your iPad and iPhone to an Apple TV.

Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade is a subscribe-based gaming service, which provides unlimited access to the games. Unlike Google’s Stadia, Arcade is not a cloud-based gaming platform. It is just a subscription-based game service for the games that are installable from the App Store.

In the event, Apple promised that there will be 100 new and exclusive games on the Arcade when it makes an official debut. And all these games will be playable in iPhones, iPads, Mac, and Apple TV. Games can be conveniently downloaded from the App Store. The subscribers can also try whatever games they like and whenever they like to play. They can also resume the games in other connected devices conveniently. And users can enjoy these games without having to watch any sorts. Apple was very specific that there won’t be any sorts of ads.

The price for the monthly and yearly plans of the subscription has not yet been mentioned. Nonetheless, it will launch this fall and we can easily find out after that. When it launches, it will be available in 150 countries. Apple also said that this service would be accessible amongst six family members per subscription. So you can easily play games among your friends and siblings.