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MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF Review – Ticket to the Lights Show

GadgetByte

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December 1, 2018

MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF Review – Ticket to the Lights Show

We have a festival of lights every year called Tihar. And when that was just around the corner, I got my hands on the MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF edition. And when I turned it on, my festival of lights started a bit early. The MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF is lit! And I mean that literally…

But what else does the MSI GE63 Raider RGB offer besides a light show? Well, the GE-series from MSI aren’t as powerful as their GT siblings. But the idea behind the GE series is to combine higher-end features like the 120 Hz screen, and individually lit keyboard in a more affordable lineup. And on top of that, the GE Raiders don’t compromise on power either.

MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF 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, 330 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 GTX 1070
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 Web-cam (@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 head-phone 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.250,000 ($2000 international)

Design and Build

First things first, the design. Design wise, it’s your typical MSI gaming laptop. A metallic body with that Red Dragon shield. It is pretty similar to the last generation MSI GE63 Raider…except that this one has the RGB Mystic Lights on the lid too! That’s some pretty awesome stuff, and what’s more? These lights are programmable with all the effects of the MSI’s Steel Series individually lit keyboard. And that is very cool!

Besides that, you have a solid metallic build all over. Even the keyboard deck is made out of metal, with only the bottom panel made out of plastic. The metal body all over gives you a great feel of touch. The ventilation is shifted to the underside and and the sides, with large exhausts at the sides and the back of the deck. This laptop, at 2.9 cm is bulky, but is still ergonomic nonetheless. This unit weighs some 2.5 kg, and that’s quite heavy to be carried all day long.

The build, with its heft, feels quite sturdy. Though I’ve never had any complaints with MSI’s construction of their laptops. But it is a gaming laptop, with quite a lot of stuff packed inside. And so, I’m still scared of dropping it. It also packs giant looking speakers underneath that chassis, but giant as though they maybe, the speakers don’t sound as loud as expected from the size.

MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF ports

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You get enough ports – three USB As, a USB-C, head phone jack, HDMI, Ethernet and an SD card slot. The USB-C doesn’t support Thunderbolt 3, however. There’s a separate input jack for a mic as well. The USB A ports glow red – and besides looking cool, they also help guide you to insert your flash drives in the dark.

Keyboard and Trackpad

This laptop packs the Steel Series Engine 3 Keyboard, which is built for gaming, and features the individual key lighting. You get over 16 million colors on the keyboard lighting, and there’s a dedicated switch right beside the keyboard beneath the power button to switch effects. There’s also a button to turn the cooler boost on / off as well. The keyboard has a lot of features packed into it, and it can take a while to explore all of it. It’s steel series 3, I probably don’t have to say much about that. But overall, the keys give good feedback, there’s good amount of travel and the typing’s pretty comfortable too.

The trackpad is large and feels nice. It has Synaptic Drivers, so, the gestures are not very accurate, but overall usage is pretty good, though. The tracking is nice and smooth, and the dedicated hardware buttons feel tactile. No complaints in the keyboard and trackpad department.

Display

The display is another great thing about this laptop. A 15.6” Full HD display gives you great viewing experience. Add the 120 Hz refresh rate and a 3 milliseconds of response time to it, and this becomes one of the fastest laptop screens on the market. Gaming feels very fluid on the screen, and maybe I cannot comprehend all of that, but gamers are gonna feel right at home.

This screen, however, is a TN LCD panel, but the super fast response time means it has to be a TN panel. But even for that, the image quality is good enough, but due to that very reason, the viewing angles on it are not very good. However, the screen is anti-glare, so, you will face very less problems with any reflections on it.

Everything else about the display is simply great. The color accuracy is there with 100% SRGB. It also has a 94% NTSC Color Gamut coverage, which is great for gaming and also good enough for editing or such stuff. There’s also the MSI True Color mode, which claims a 100% Adobe RGB, but of course, that is not quite possible on a 1080 panel. Full brightness measured around 330 nits, which is a bit better than some other laptops. But still, I’d like it have a little bit more brightness.

Performance

The inclusion of an 8GB GTX 1070 graphics card is what compliments your fast screen. You also have the latest 8^th gen Hexa-core i7-8750H processor combined with 16 GB of RAM. No doubt, it’ll handle any kind of work you throw at it. With this, there’s no such thing as too many tabs on your browser, or too many apps open or things like that. Heavy applications like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere run without any kind of stutters whatsoever.

Also, with a 256 GB SATA M.2 SSD and a 7200 RPM 1 TB HDD, your storage needs are pretty well covered.The laptop actually has two NVMe slots, but packs SATA drives. Still, the SSD that comes with it gives you good enough read write speeds. On our tests, it gave us up to 2606 MB/s of read speeds and 1189.7 MB/s write speeds.

Gaming on this laptop is also amazing! You get a good amount of Frames per second even with quite Graphic Intensive Games like The Witcher 3 and Fortnite on Ultra Settings. Lesser graphic intensive games like Dota 2 or CS:GO are even better…it just does everything well! There is also a GTX 1060 variant available, but if you want the most out of games, then go for the GTX 1070.

As usual, MSI’s tuning and monitoring software, the Dragon Center is also here on the GE63 Raider. With this pre-installed program, you can adjust system performance, keyboard lighting, power settings, fan behavior, and display values. From there, you can set how you use your laptop – in low power mode, or performance boost, or such.

There are various modes on the cooling fans as well. Mostly, and advanced cooling options will do the work too, but if you hit the cooler boost option, it can give you the best frame rates on your gaming or while doing something intense like rendering a video. This is quite a nice touch, and the fact that you can do it with a single button on the side makes it even better.

Thermals

The thermals on this laptop are pretty good as well. The temperature levels it can get to can be large sometimes, but even with that, there is very less thermal throttling, which are not really noticeable. Even with the cooler boost on, the highest external temp we recorded was a 50.4-degree centigrade while playing Witcher 3, but there was no throttling whatsoever. It seems the large Cooler Boost 5 system with dual fans and seven heat pipes do their job really well.

Battery Life

The battery on the laptop is poor though. It has a 6-cell 51 Watt-hour battery, which is pretty small considering the laptop’s size. Few gaming laptops give you a battery life that last you a day, and this is no different. It gives you about 45 minutes of gaming time on high settings and with the lighting on, and about 2 and half hours on regular usage. You absolutely have to carry the charger around with you, and that thing is also pretty heavy.

Verdict

If you want to talk about the negative aspects of the laptop, you kinda have to nitpick on the small things, but this laptop does the major parts pretty well. It is a very powerful laptop that has great regular and gaming performance. The display is a good one, too, and there is no thermal throttling whatsoever. It is only the small stuff that’s lagging behind. For example, the metallic build and texture is great, but it catches your finger smudges easily, and are difficult to get rid of.

And maybe people rarely notice the web-cam on gaming laptops, but the 720p web-cam on this laptop sucks. The quality is muddy and pretty much unusable. Also, the speakers on this thing aren’t as good as expected from a laptop of this caliber. Now I already talked about the viewing angles on the TN panel. So, while I’m at it, this laptop is pretty hard to open up. Inside, this laptop has two NVMe slots with one SATA drive, and two RAM slots, which makes quite the room for upgrades. But this thing is very hard to open, so if you do want to upgrade it, you have to be extra careful.

So, that’s pretty much it about the MSI GE63 Raider RGB 8RF. Some small stuffs might bother you, but other than that, every thing major about it is just good. And on top, the RGB Mystic Lights are sweet icing on the cake.

But of course, such a laptop won’t come cheap. This beast costs about $2000 dollars internationally, and Rs.250,000 in Nepal. But I believe that if you want a great gaming laptop, why not go all out? You get top of the line performance with the fastest screen around, and of course, a light show of your very own!

Oppo Planning to bring R-series smartphones in Nepal

GadgetByte

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November 30, 2018

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Oppo Planning to bring R-series smartphones in Nepal

Over the years, Oppo gained a fair amount of popularity in Nepal. Because of the alluring design and the selfie-centric approach, the smartphone brand managed to accumulate a respectable market share in Nepali smartphone market. Till now, the company had been selling F-series midrangers and A-series budget phones. But the company is now hoping to expand its horizon. And its plans of introducing the flagship R-series smartphone directly reflects its intentions.

Lately, we have seen a lot of innovations from the Oppo. Be it a teardrop display on the Oppo F9 or a pop-up camera module in the Oppo Find X, the smartphone it awe-inspired us greatly in 2018. But long before these innovations, Oppo’s R-series smartphones had already made their mark in the smartphone world. In 2014, Oppo launched the Oppo R5, which the company boasted to be the thinnest smartphone yet with a mere thickness of 4.85mm. In such a thin stature, the smartphone maker had also managed to inject some top-of-the-line gaming hardware to make it an ultimate gaming phone of that time. Oppo also collaborated with a gaming studio to create a game so that it could educate the users about the gaming potential of the device.

Oppo R9s is yet another unforgettable Oppo phone. This smartphone was the bestselling smartphone in the world last year. On Singles’ day in 2017, this camera-centric device stood out as the best selling handset on the Tmall, which is one of the most popular e-commerce websites in China.

It does not end there. The R9s surely have taken ages to gain the title of the bestselling smartphone of the world. But another Oppo smartphone, which goes by the name Oppo R11 clenched the title of the World’s number one Android phone in less than four weeks.

Recently, the Chinese smartphone maker introduced Oppo R17 Pro, which also features some amazing specs and aesthetics. In its alluring body, the phone packs three cameras at the back, features an AMOLED display with a tiny notch on the top, comes with a praise-worthy 50W fast charging and many other interesting features.

Also Read: Oppo Mobiles Price in Nepal

Since the Oppo R-series smartphones bring lots of amazing features on the table, it would be great to see the R-series smartphones making its debut to Nepal. So are you guys excited for the upcoming R-series smartphones? Drop your thoughts down below!

[socialpoll id=”2529080″]

DJI Osmo Pocket launched: A pocket sized camera gimbal

GadgetByte

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November 29, 2018

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DJI Osmo Pocket launched: A pocket sized camera gimbal

Here’s an idea: What if you could shoot 4K videos with great stabilization, yet didn’t have to carry around all that heavy gear? Well, DJI said “Hold my beer”, and came up with the DJI Osmo Pocket. This device is a combination of a 4K camera and a gimbal that fits in your pocket!

This device is quite small in size – only 4 inches tall. But within that, it packs a 12 MP 1/2.3″ sensor with f/2.0 aperture, and a 1″ touchscreen. The camera has an 80-degree field-of-view and can record 4K videos at 60fps, similar to DJI’s Mavic Air or the Mavic Pro. Those who are familiar with any of those devices might know what to expect from the DJI Osmo Pocket.

The Osmo Pocket also features Dual Mics for recording audio. Now, we don’t know what kind of audio from a small device such as this, but DJI’s never let us down. The camera sensor is also no bigger than what we see on the smartphone cameras of today, but the 3-axis stabilizer gimbal offers far more superior stabilization than any seen on any kind of smartphones. In addition, the Osmo Pocket also offers many of DJI’s advanced shooting modes on this small device – like object tracking, face tracking, time-lapse, and auto-panorama.

This means that you can get drone like footage in the size of a GoPro. But of course, GoPros can handle a lot more wear-and-tear than drones can. But this costs only about $350, and for all of this, it looks like a great little device.

This small gimbal-camera-stabilizer also packs an 875 mAh battery, that can last slightly more than 2 hours while recording on 4K at 30fps. On the touchscreen, you can easily toggle through your settings and frame your recordings. And yes, the 1″ screen doesn’t make for great visibility, but you can also connect your phones to it via a USB-C or Apple’s lightning port with an interchangeable mod on the side. With that, you can get better access to your recordings and better controls, using the company’s new app.

This device is available for pre-order as of now and will start shipping sometime in mid-December. The company also plans to sell various accessories for the Osmo Pocket, like a mount, Wi-Fi controller, water-proof case, etc. You can find more information about this neat little device on the company’s official site.

Nubia Red Magic Mars goes official with dual heat pipe technology and shoulder buttons

GadgetByte

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November 29, 2018

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Nubia Red Magic Mars goes official with dual heat pipe technology and shoulder buttons

Gaming smartphones are gaining momentum, and ZTE wants a piece. Following the Red Magic, the new Nubia Red Magic Mars is now official and is now even better, both inside and out. But do these updates help it stand up against the likes of Black Shark, Razer phone or the ROG gaming phone?

Also Read: Razer Phone 2 gaming smartphone launched

nubia red magic mars launched — Source: GSMarena

Starting off with the specs, it comes with the latest, at least for now, Snapdragon 845 SoC, Adreno 630 GPU and 10GB of RAM. Quite a good start for a gaming phone and up on par with the competition. The display is fairly large at 6-inches, FHD+ resolutions, 18:9 aspect ratio and the LTPS LCD display technology.

That’s all good and everything but what makes the Nubia Red Magic Mars special is that trademark RGB light strip on the back. There is also a new IEC technology, basically dual heat pipes for better cooling. Then comes the shoulder buttons, simply put, two touch-sensitive areas on the sides of the phone.

Also Read: Xiaomi Blackshark gaming smartphone launched

But that’s not where the goodies end, you also get stereo speakers with DTS 7.1 audio better audio experience. A linear motor has also been installed inside the phone to create “4D shock” haptic feedback. As for undisturbed gaming sessions, you can also find a dedicated esports button. For a more enhanced gaming experience, you can also opt-in for an optional Bluetooth gaming controller.

Following the gaming-oriented luxuries, the smartphone also comes with usual smartphone features like a camera. A 16MP f1/8 lens at the back and an 8MP selfie camera at the front. It also comes with a battery, a huge 3800mAh unit. The smartphone runs on Android 9.0 Pie with Red Magic 1.6 on top, with a few gaming oriented bloatware here and there.

The nubia Red Magic Mars starts at CNY 2,700 for the 6/64GB version while for CNY 3,200 you can get the slightly better 8/128GB version. If you want the full-fledged 10/256GB model, that will cost you CNY 4,000.

Nubia Red Magic Mars Specifications:

Display: 6.0″ LTPS IPS FHD+ display w Dinorex T2X-1 scratch/shock resistant glass protection
Dimensions: 158.2 x 75 x 9.9 mm, 193g
OS & UI: Android 9.0 Pie with Red Magic OS on top
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC
GPU: Adreno 630
Storage: 256GB/10GB; 128GB/8GB; 64GB/6GB
Rear camera: 16MP, f/1.8
Selfie camera: 8MP, f/2.0
Gaming features: “ICE”, “LED back strip”, “4D shock”
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio jack, USB-Type C port
Sensors: Fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
battery: 3800mAh (5V/3A; 16W fast charging)
Colors: Meteorite Black, Flame Red, Camouflage

Gionee on the verge of bankruptcy as the Chairman gambles away company’s money

GadgetByte

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November 29, 2018

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Gionee on the verge of bankruptcy as the Chairman gambles away company’s money

Another Chinese smartphone brand is on the verge of biting the dust. And as the title suggests, it is none other than the Gionee itself. Over the years, the smartphone maker had gained quite a goodwill because of its camera-centric and big-battery oriented devices. But the manufacturer is facing downfall as it had been unable to pay the money it owed to its financial institutions, suppliers, and advertising and marketing agencies. Adding all the money it owes, the company now has the debt of around CNY 17 billion, which translates to $2.45 billion. And the gambling habit of its chairman Liu Lirong seems responsible for this sudden collapse of the organization.

The company managed to sell around 40 million units of Gionee handsets in 2016. All thanks to the company’s cost-effective backed by an advertising campaign endorsed by top celebrities, the brand managed to garner quite a lot of popularity. Gionee had also been ranked on the sixth position, just behind the Apple in terms of handset sales last year. But now the company is on the verge of bankruptcy and Chairman Li Lirong takes the entire blame for the scenario created.

Li Lirong has accepted that the company owes a total of 17 billion Yuan. And on that 17 billion Yuan debt, it owes 10 billion Yuan to the banks, 5 billion Yuan to upstream suppliers and about 2 billion to advertising agencies. The Chairman also stated that his gambling losses were around $1 billion. He also accepted using company funds for his personal benefits. However, he did not accept his gambling habit to be entirely responsible for the downfall of the company. He disclosed that the company had been losing no less than 100 million Yuan per month on the average since the beginning of 2013.

At the current status, the company has been unable to pay the debt to its 400 suppliers. And among the bunch, 20 core suppliers even have filed a lawsuit against the company. In the recent meeting between the company representatives and the suppliers, the debt figures were out. Now Gionee is in the situation if it denies the production of Gionee phones further, it will go into liquidation. But although the company is in shambles, there are still some of the residual smartphones available in the market. And Gionee has plans to provide warranty on all of its residual devices until all of its units are sold out completely.

Lenovo K5 Play Review: A Powerful Budget Smartphone with a Soury Software

GadgetByte

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November 29, 2018

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Lenovo K5 Play Review: A Powerful Budget Smartphone with a Soury Software

It has already been two years since I last reviewed a smartphone from Lenovo. So, I was really excited when I got my hands on the Lenovo K5 Play. This phone falls on the budget segment, the area which is more competitive now than ever! So, in this review, I will be talking about the aspects that I really liked, and some that I didn’t, and I hope it will help you choose the right device!

Lenovo K5 Play Specifications:

Design: Polymer Glass
Display: 5.7″ IPS LCD display with HD+ resolution (720 x 1440 pixels)
Rear Camera: Dual Camera setup, 13 MP with f/2.2 aperture + 2 MP depth sensor
Front Camera: 8 MP with f/2.0 aperture
Chipset: Octa-core Snapdragon 430 chip
RAM: 3 GB
Platform: Android 8.0 Oreo
Storage: 32 GB internal (expandable up to 128 GB via microSD
Battery: 3030 mAh
Price in Nepal: Rs.17,999

Design

The first thing you notice about a smartphone is the looks. And the K5 Play, for me, kind of nails the looks. This blue color I have here looks great with that glass-like back. Yeah-yeah, I know this is plastic, and metal backs feel more premium, but take a note of that price. I think this design will appeal to many.

The compact form makes the device easy to browse around, and the texture on the power button makes the phone just easy to use. I really like smartphones that carry a weight, and even with the plastic body, the K5 Play feels comfortable on the hands, unlike other plastic devices.

Display

There is still a shortcoming here, though. Lenovo has transformed the screen to 18:9 aspect ratio, and although the bezels have been shrunk down, I still think this is nowhere near the bezel-less craze smartphones are following these days.

These bezels have sandwiched a 5.7-inch display in between themselves. Yes, this is a 720p panel, and yes, it isn’t that sharp, but I have liked it nonetheless. It gets quite bright, and the colors are reproduced nicely. There is ample saturation, and I have really enjoyed watching multimedia contents on this phone.

Hardware and Security

However, the sound that comes off while watching contents on the Lenovo K5 Play isn’t that loud. There is a single downward facing speaker on the phone, and like all other budget phones, that sound it produces is not that pleasing. But you can’t expect much for the price, can you?

On the back of the phone resides a fingerprint scanner that works 100% of the time but is kind of slow. And unlike the S5 which it was launched alongside, the phone lacks the face unlock feature.

In terms of memory, the device features 32 GB of onboard memory that is expandable up to 128 GB via a microSD card slot.

Performance

Even with the budget price, the Lenovo K5 Play has done well in terms of its performance. With the Snapdragon 430 and 3 GB RAM inside of it, the phone handled my normal usage that consisted of browsing through social media, web pages, and playing the lighter games.

I even tested PUBG on it. I had no expectations with it when I ran the game for the first time, but to my surprise, it did well. Yes, there are lags and frame drops, but it still does a respectable job. And even though Johnson had some issues with running Asphalt 9 on the Xiaomi Redmi 6, I played the game on the K5 Play, and there weren’t any noticeable lags.

So, I am confident when I say this, the Lenovo K5 Play is one of the best performing budget smartphones of 2018!

Software

However, this well-performing smartphone is soured by the software. Two years ago, I had praised Lenovo for the software its smartphones run on. And I was kind of hoping the same with the K5 Play, but that was not really the case.

We are now at a time where the skins on top of Android equip a lot of customizations that help with the overall user interface. While some of those customizations are gimmicky, I still like a lot of them. It helps to make the phone easier to use. And like those OEMs, Lenovo too has made its own version of a customized skin that packs in a couple of extra features. But the major disappointment was the swipe up for the control center. Clearing the notification is kind of weird too. You can only swipe in one direction to clear it. And just to add your own personal wallpaper you must toggle the HD desktop wallpaper option.

I also haven’t been able to change the Sleep time interval of the display. Whenever I tap on the sleep button, the settings app just restarts.

Camera

Let’s talk about the cameras now. During night time, the pictures that come out of the dual cameras on the back are kind of a mess. They lack the colors and saturation and have noise written all over them.

The cameras also find it hard to focus properly, which results in blurred out shots some time. The selfie camera also finds it hard to take good pictures, and here is a picture to support that claim.

The results in a well-lit environment, however, contradict the night-time ones. The color reproduction is done nicely here, and even when you zoom into the pictures, there are ample details. The shadow details are preserved in the images.

The saturation is near to natural too. Lenovo was a well-known brand for making smartphones with good cameras, and I think that hasn’t changed this time around.

The portraits from the dual cameras are good too. Here is one without the blur and one with it. I mean this surely doesn’t look like a portrait from a budget device.

The selfies, however, could have been better. They are what you would call “social media ready” but the colors, though, they aren’t popping. Also, the background is a little overexposed at times. The same goes for the videos as they are a lot shaky, although the details and colors are quite nice.

Battery

The other area that I like about the K5 Play is the battery life. Even with my heavy usage, the phone gave me a screen on time of around 4 hours and twenty minutes. So, if you are a light user, you can expect it to run for a day straight, probably with more than 5 hours of screen-on-time!

Conclusion

So, what do I make of the K5 Play? Well, it’s a well-performing smartphone with a good camera. It even runs the graphics-heavy games, and the dual cameras on the back are not just a gimmick. And although there is still that unpolished software inside, which I do not like at all, the phone feels like it’s a good investment if you are looking for a budget smartphone.

Pros	Cons
– Good Display	– Software and UI
– Great Cameras	– Hybrid SIM slot
– Value for money

Huawei’s Hot Offers for the Winter is here

GadgetByte

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November 29, 2018

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Huawei’s Hot Offers for the Winter is here

“Winter is coming!” or rather, it is here. And in this chilly weather, Huawei’s got some hot offers for you! Their campaign is titled “Cold Winter, HOT Price Offers”, in which they’re offering three phones at various discounted prices. And they are the Huawei Nova Y9 2019, Huawei Nova 2 Lite and Huawei Y5 Lite. But the offers are only there for a limited amount of time.

Huawei Y9 2019

Although its name suggests 2019, The Huawei Y9 2019 is another great mid-range handset of 2018. It has a pleasing large display, good enough set of cameras, and the Kirin 710 chipset at the helm. This is a phone that doesn’t excel in any particular aspect but performs well enough in all aspects. An average all-rounder, so to speak.

This phone was introduced for Rs.34,900 here. But now, as a part of Huawei’s offer, you can buy the Huawei Y9 2019 for only Rs. 31,490!

Display: 6.5-inches IPS LCD FHD+ screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
CPU: Octa-core (4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 710
GPU: Mali-G51 MP4
RAM: 4 or 6 GB
Storage: 128 or 64 expandable up to 256 GB
Rear Camera: Dual 16 MP f/2.0 + 2 MP f/2.4 depth sensor
Front Camera: 13 MP f/1.8 + 2 MP f/2.4 depth sensor
SIM (s): Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 4,000 mAh battery
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.0
Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Compass
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.2 on top
Price in Nepal: Rs.34,900.
Offer Price: Rs. 31,490

Huawei Nova 2 Lite

Also known as the Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 internationally, the Nova 2 Lite can be categorized in the budget segment. It features an HD+ display with no notch, average cameras, and an average processor too. But it does have a shiny body that makes for a somewhat appealing looks.

This phone that costs Rs.23,900 is available, now, for Rs.21,990. With the offer though, it could be a good purchase.

Display: 5.99 inches IPS LCD, HD+ resolution (1440 x 720), 269 PPI pixel density
Rear Camera: 13 MP sensor f/2.2 aperture with PDAF + 2 MP depth sensor
Front Camera: 8 MP
RAM: 3 GB
Internal Storage: 32 GB
CPU: Octa-core 1.4 GHz
GPU: Adreno 505
OS: Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 on top
Battery: 3,000 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery
USB: MicroUSB 2.0
SIM(s): Dual sim, dedicated slot (Nano-SIM, Dual standby)
Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, compass, etc.
Price: Rs. 23,900
Offer Price: Rs.21,990

Huawei Y5 Lite 2018

This is also a recent addition to Huawei’s budget lineup. And it made debut alongside the Nova 2 Lite as well. It features an HD display, 8 MP rear camera and has low internal specs. However, it does have a good battery. This can be a good phone, for someone who doesn’t use all the complex features of a smartphone, like maybe somebody’s grandparents.

This phone costs Rs.13,900 and now, as a part of the offer, this phone costs Rs.11,990. Again, with the offer, this phone might be a good buy.

Display: 5.45″ IPS LCD HD+ display, 1440 x 720 resolution
Camera: 8 MP with LED Flash
RAM: 1 GB
Internal Storage: 16 GB
CPU: MediaTek MT6737M processor
OS: Android Go Oreo (Android 8.1)
Battery: 3020 mAh
USB: micro USB 2.0
Price: Rs.13,900
Offer Price: Rs.11,990

Out of these three phones, we believe that the Huawei Y9 2019 is the best deal of all. That phone, though tagged as a “Jack of all trades, master of none” does an okay job in most aspects. So, it can make for a good mid-range device. But do purchase these phones soon, if you plan to. The offer won’t last for very long.

And what do you think about these offers? Will you be buying these phone in this offer? Or pass on them?

Lenovo S5 review: Everything is just ‘okay’!

Pratima Adhikari

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November 28, 2018

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Lenovo S5 review: Everything is just ‘okay’!

While Lenovo phones were popular some few years ago, we don’t hear the name very often now. But the company has made a come back here in Nepal with the Lenovo S5 and K5 Play. Today we have the Lenovo S5 – a phone that falls into the lower mid-range segment, with its price tag of Rs.26,999. Granted that this is a phone from some 6 months ago, some of the things might be a little outdated. But can it still stand against the phones of today? Let’s find that out in this Lenovo S5 review.

Lenovo S5 Specifications

Design: Full Metal design
Display: 5.7″ IPS LCD Full HD+ Max Vision Display (1080 x 2160) resolution
Rear Camera: Dual lens setup, 13 MP primary with f/2.2 aperture + 13 MP monochrome sensor
Front Camera: 16 MP lens with f/2.2 aperture
Chipset: Octa-core Snapdragon 625
RAM: 4 GB
Platform: Android 8.0 Oreo
Storage: 64 GB (expandable up to 128 GB via microSD, hybrid slot)
Battery: 3000 mAh
Price in Nepal: Rs.26,999

Also read: Lenovo Mobiles Price in Nepal

Design:

The first thing that you will notice about this device is the looks of it. There is nothing much striking about it, although it does resemble some Xiaomi phones. It’s an all-metal unibody construction with an aluminum frame surrounding the sides. And though the phone is not a glass body, it does look and feel good on hands. I have the black version here but there is also a red version available.

As for the aesthetics, you get a clean look at the back, Dual cameras, an LED light, a fingerprint sensor, and the Lenovo branding. The looks seem minimalistic but the ever so slight protruding cameras cause some imbalance when the phone is kept upside down. Looking at the front, it’s evident that there is no notch game going on and honestly, I don’t mind that. The phone is slim and well does not ditch the headphone jack here. Down below, you get the single speaker grill, the primary microphone and the USB type C input which I am happy to see.

Up front, at the top, you get the speaker input, proximity and light sensors along with the selfie camera. Similarly, the right handles the placement of the power button and volume rockers along with having the SIM tray/ MicroSD card slot on the left.

Display:

The display measures 5.7 inches and well, has an 18:9 aspect ratio which is a standard all smartphones follow. But the bezels surely take away the charm of an edge to edge display from this phone. But the display that has a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels does justice to the price. The display is colorful, vibrant and sharp. However, during the review time, I have always wished it provide me better sunlight visibility.

The design and display department of this phone is okay. I mean, it’s not excellent but it’s not bad either.

Performance and Storage and Software

For the price, the Lenovo S5 does well with performance too. You get the SD 625 chipset along with Adreno 506 GPU and well this combination works good enough. PUBG is playable at low settings and it ran well with only a few stutters. And also, the phone handles gameplay well even on the heating aspect. But battery drainage is an issue during long hours of gaming. However, it’s the same in almost all the phones so, there is not much to complain. Multitasking is fast enough although app opening is not blazing fast. Navigating through is also smooth enough.

But, I cannot not mention the fact that for a similar price, you get the Mi A2 Lite with Stock Android which brings me to the Software side of things. Well, the phone has ZUI on top of Android and I feel that it is yet to mature to a fully functioning good UI.

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What I mean by that is, some features it has of the iOS and some of Android and the combination is not very appealing to use. The upward swiping action center is confusing because most of the times I have just wanted to put on the navigation keys. Similarly, the notifications can only be deleted if you swipe towards the left, which is again very confusing. I have used this device for almost 2 weeks now and I am still having difficulties getting used to it.

In the storage department, you get 4GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage which is what we expect for the price so no complaints here as well.

While we are still talking about the performance, the fingerprint sensor is a bit slower than what I have been experiencing on other phones. Although the sensor gets it correct 9 out of 10 times. Likewise, the touch sensitivity is not that great either, I had some light touch times and the S5 did not receive it well.

The speaker at the bottom is just average. Good news is that it has a notification LED light but only glows in altogether 3 colors, so my notifications were not missed.

Battery:

The phone comes with a 3,000 mAh battery that is enduring and will back you up for a day. However, gameplay results to massive battery drainage and will leave you juiceless on intensive prolonged gaming. On normal use, the battery fares well. It takes you over two get it fully running which is a pretty long time. However, you get a USB Type C here which is something missing on even some phones priced more than this one.

Cameras:

Cameras on this one is a mixed bag. Sometimes, you get good results and sometimes, you just lose hope. Most of the times, good lighting conditions result in good pictures. The annoying part is that the images take a lot of time to process. To be exact, it takes around 2-3 seconds to produce an image, which means you will have to be very patient. But the image quality is not bad by any means. The images do lack a bit of punch but the detailing is good enough. If you are wondering what the megapixel count on this one is, it’s a 13 MP shooter at the back with another 13 MP Monochrome sensor. Black and white pictures look good but I wished it could be a depth sensor.

Lenovo S5 Back camera samples

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There is a portrait mode too but the depth sensing is purely software and well, they are just okay. But you can adjust the intensity of blurs after taking pictures, so that’s cool.

Lenovo S5 Portrait image samples

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Night shots are grainy and noisy and if your hands are not stable enough, you could get your images to be shaky.

As for the selfies, they look good in good lighting conditions, when the lighting becomes darker, you will start noticing grains in your pictures. Here are a few samples for you to judge.

For high-resolution samples, click here

You can see in the pictures, they are not that punchy but the selfies don’t look bad. So, the 16 MP selfie camera fares well enough.

Lenovo S5 selfie samples

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Talking about the videos, you can record videos up to 4k, however, they are not that stabilized. The autofocus does not work very properly either.

Conclusion:

So, to conclude, I would say that the Lenovo S5 is an okay phone overall. What I mean by this is all the aspects of this one are neither extraordinarily good nor strikingly bad. It can give you a performance that is “okay” in all aspects.

However, it is also worth considering that there are other options from Xiaomi that might give tough competition to this one. The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI would be some phones challenging this one. However, anyone buying this phone will not regret in overall usage. However, I am not a fan of the software though!

Realme U1 debuts with Helio P70 at the helm

GadgetByte

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November 28, 2018

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Realme U1 debuts with Helio P70 at the helm

Realme, OPPO’s sub-brand is a pretty well-known phone brand. Mostly, because of their affordable phones with good internal specs. And after a series of Realme phones, a new one has surfaced. Known as the Realme U1, this phone is the first to feature the new MediaTek Helio P70 chipset.

OPPO Realme U1 Overview

And since it is from OPPO, it is not surprising that this one is a selfie-centric phone. Well, the other Realme phones may not have been as selfie-centric, but it’s OPPO. So, to include a good selfie camera is a given. Anyways, the design is more-or-less very similar to the Realme 2 Pro. And the display as well, with the same 6.3″ Full HD+ LTPS IPS LCD panel with the tear-drop notch, the phone looks quite identical.

In terms of camera, the rear camera consists of a 13 MP primary sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 2 MP depth sensor. The rear camera setup seems inferior to the Realme 2 Pro’s and with a narrow f/2.2 aperture, I don’t expect much from the rear camera. However, as aforementioned, the selfie camera is a big 25 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture. And with this, we can be pretty confident that it will take great selfies.

Underneath, the Helio P70 powers this phone. This is the first phone to have this chipset, and it is the upgrade to the Helio P60, which was a good mid-range chipset. The Helio P70 claims better clock-speed enhancements, feature enhancements, and better power efficiency. Other than that, it also claims a steady 60 fps in gaming via optimizations, which is good as the only 60 fps you’ll see on this phone are in the gaming department (because there is no 60 fps video recording of any kind). Also, the new chipset also monitors the power usage and temperature constantly. But only time will tell if its claims hold up.

As for the Realme U1, it comes in two RAM / storage configurations: 3 GB / 32 GB and 4 GB / 64 GB options. Also, there’s a dedicated microSD card slot for your storage expansion needs. The phone has a good-sized 3500 mAh battery, but there is no fast-charging whatsoever. But, it still retains the 3.5 mm headphone jack, and FM Radio. In addition, the phone will run on the ColorsOS 5.2 on top of Android 8.1.

The phone launched in India for INR. 12000 (US $170) for the 3/32 GB and INR. 15000 for the 6/64 GB. The Realme brand is, right now, only available in India, and so, won’t be launching in Nepal anytime soon. But what do you think of this phone? Do let us know.

Realme U1 Specifications:

Display: 6.3″ LTPS IPS LCD Full HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels), 2.5D Gorilla Glass protection
Rear Camera: Dual camera setup, 13 MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture + 2 MP depth sensor
Front Camera: Single, 25 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture
CPU: Octa-core Helio P70
GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
RAM: 3 GB or 4 GB options
Storage: 32 GB or 64 GB options
Battery: 3500 mAh
Ports: microUSB, 3.5 mm headphone jack
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
OS: ColorOS 5.2 on Android 8.1
Price: INR.12000 (32 GB), INR.15000 (64 GB)

Lava Iris 88 price slashed

GadgetByte

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November 27, 2018

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Lava phones may not be as popular as some other brands out there, but they still have a hold in the Nepali smartphone market. And the Lava Iris 88, the company’s phone which launched in the Nepali market back in June, got its price slashed. The phone which initially launched for Rs.14,290, and was available for Rs.13000 in recent times. And now, with another price slash of Rs.1000, it is now available for Rs. 11,999.

Lava Iris 88 Specifications:

Dimensions: 146.5 x 70.2 x 8.65 mm
Display: 5.45-inch HD+ display; 93.8% screen to body ratio
Chipset: MediaTek MT6739WW
OS: StarOS 5.0 based on Android Oreo (v8.1.0)
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: IMG 8XE 1PPC
Storage: 16GB
Rear Camera: 8MP w Flash and Bokeh effect
Front camera: 5MP w FaceID
Sensors: Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity
SIM: 4G
Connectivity:Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, A-GPS
Battery: 3000 mAh
Colors: Grey and Gold
Price in Nepal: Rs. 11,999

Lava Iris 88 Overview

Being a budget phone, the specs of the phone may not impress you today. But for the money, we can say it packs decent specs. It features a 5.45″ HD+ display up front with 18:9 aspect ratio.

The phone sports an 8 MP camera at the back with Autofocus, LED Flash, and is capable of shooting portrait images. The front camera is a 5 MP sensor which also assists in Facial Unlock. Yes, even for a budget phone, this device has that feature. This phone is powered by MediaTek MT6739WW chipset and supported by 2 GB RAM. Also, it has an internal storage of 16 GB, and you can expand that up to 256 GB using a microSD card slot. This phone also packs a 3000 mAh battery.

So, for a super budget phone, you can say this is good enough specs, don’t you think? With this price, it can compete with the newly entered Xiaomi Redmi 6A as well. So, what are your thoughts on this super budget phone? Do let us know.