Founded in Beijing in 1984, Lenovo entered the smartphone market in 2012 and quickly became the largest vendor of smartphones in Mainland China and once become the No. 2 provider of the smartphones in the Chinese market. Since then it has been selling smartphones all over the world. As far as Nepal is concerned, Ambe Mobiles Pvt. Ltd. is the authorized distributors of Lenovo mobiles in Nepal since the October 2018. Currently, there are a plethora of retail shops of Lenovo smartphones in Nepal where you can buy Lenovo’s smartphones including the K5 Play, which has been launched recently. Lenovo K5 Play is not the only Lenovo smartphone available in the market. In this article, I will be explaining about all the Lenovo smartphones available in Nepal along with their latest price and full specifications.
Lenovo K5 Play
Lenovo K5 Play 5.7-inched phone and comes at the price of Rs. 17,999. The display on the handset features HD+ resolution in an 18:9 form factor. On the performance front, the smartphone boasts the Snapdragon 430 chipset backed by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
K5 Play also looks interesting in terms of camera. The phone enjoys a dual camera setup at the back. The camera pair on the rear panel is a combination of 13MP camera trailed by a 2MP depth sensor. When both cameras in action, the K5 Play can capture portrait images with blurred backgrounds as well. The phone does come with a fingerprint sensor, which resides on the back. In terms of battery, a 3000mAh battery fuels the device.
Lenovo K5 Play Specifications
Display: 5.7-inch IPS LCD display
Resolution: HD+ (720 x 1440 pixels), 18:9 aspect ratio, 282 PPI
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
CPU: Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Adreno 505
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB; Expandable up to 128GB via SD card (Uses SIM2 slot)
Lenovo S5 is another camera-centric smartphone in the Lenovo’s lineup. The smartphone comes with dual camera setup, which employs a 13MP monochrome sensor supplemented by a 13MP B/W sensor. Talking about the selfie camera, the phone has got a 16MP, f/2.2 camera on the front.
On the display front, the phone enjoys a tall 5.7-inch display. The contents on the display look sharp as the phone features Full-HD+ resolution. On the performance side of things, Lenovo S5 comes with Snapdragon 625 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage alongside. The storage can be further expanded to 128GB via SD card. However, it uses the SIM2 slot.
Talking about the software, the phone boots with Android Oreo (v8.0) out of the box with ZUI 3.7 on the top. And there is 3000mAh battery to provide the required horse-power to the device.
Lenovo S5 Specifications
Display: 5.7-inch IPS LCD display
Resolution: Full-HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels), 18:9 aspect ratio, 424 PPI
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
CPU: Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Adreno 506
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB; Expandable up to 128GB via SD card (Uses SIM2 slot)
Welcome to the PC Master Race!! Getting a new gaming PC or laptop can be a very joyful, happy and exciting time. Unboxing it, peeling all those plastics off, it’s just magical. Then you turn on you RIG and get presented with your new friend Cortana to show you around your hardware. Well, that is if you got a Windows system, MacOS for gaming is a horrible option.
What now? Here are top 5 applications you need to install on your new gaming RIG. Why? Because your new shiny hardware is only as good as the software you decide to install. We will publish a more advanced version of this list, but this is particularly focused on the newbies. But hey, even if you are an expert, you might have been missing out on something all these years.
Most gamers swear by the lack of use of this software. But I think it’s a pretty nifty application for all the Nvidia users out there. If you bought an AMD system, then try this forum because I cannot help you and try to not install the Raptr app because it’s pretty unsafe at this point.
What this software will do is a few things, one of which keeps your graphics driver up to date. ALWAYS KEEP YOUR GRAPHICS DRIVERS UPDATED, no matter if you are on Team Red or Team Green. Back to GeForce experience, you get game optimization which sets the right settings for each game for your graphics card. It doesn’t always work but could be a lifesaver in a lot of cases.
Then there is the in-game overlay that lets you show FPS, live broadcast your games (might want to do a bit more research for this), screen recording and instant replay. The game stream function, whisper mode, and battery booster are also pretty helpful if your GPU supports them. Download Geforce Experience
Steam
This list will include a few other apps just like Steam, but this one is the King of all. Honestly, if you do not know steam you are in for one of the most exciting moments of your gaming life. Although if you plan on not paying for your games you might as well skip to the 4th point. What Steam is, is basically a gaming library that lets you select from a total of 781 million games both paid and free.
Just open up the app and you will enter a world with AAA titles like PUBG, Tomb Raider, Minecraft Story Mode, CS: GO, Dota 2, Witcher III, the Call of Duty series, No Man’s Sky, and lots of other countless hours of pure joy. You can also buy and sell items from all these games in the steam market with other community members. There are countless other things that Steam does and is just a must have for a gamer. Download Steam from here
Origin, EPIC, UPLay, GOG.com, Blizzard and Microsoft Store
These are basically game distributors. All of them are very similar to steam yet unique in their own ways. Just a quick guide to all these stores: Origin has the FIFA series, EPIC is basically all Fortnite, Uplay has the Watchdog and Assassins Creed. The GOG.com can show off it’s few fantasy role-playing games. Blizzard Entertainment previously known as Battle.net is well known for Overwatch and finally, Microsoft bought Minecraft. Origin Epic UPlay GOG.com Blizzard Microsoft Store
uTorrent and a handful of torrent websites
We all know that one friend who does not shell out any money for games. Sure for most paying $30 for PUBG is nothing but that is also a huge reason why [trigger warning] Fortnite is so successful. So, we highly DO NOT PROMOTE PIRACY OR ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING OF GAMES but most people also shell out the money if they like a game that they pirated at first. Either way, try not to download games this way and support the developers.
Discord
There is a huge selection of apps just like discord but I found that this one was more user-friendly. Also, most of the friends in my gaming circle are already using this so why go for something else. So, what is Discord? It’s basically a communication app for gamers. Think of it like the facebook messenger, or Viber or Whatsapp, but more suited for multiplayer gaming. People who haven’t used this app won’t really know the difference, but once you do, it’s pretty hard to go back to the mainstream chat apps. Download Discord from here
OnePlus jumped into the ‘dual flagship in a year’ bandwagon with the 3T that was unveiled two years ago. The company then launched the 5T which was a considerable upgrade over the OnePlus 5. Like the previous years, this year too its new member the 6T is here, which is the successor to the widely popular OnePlus 6. And this new phone will probably be one of the most polarizing smartphones right now. Here’s everything you need to know about the newly launched OnePlus 6T.
Headphone Jack
Now, this heading might come as a surprise to some, but I have to talk about it here. OnePlus had run a couple of polls asking its followers on how important they found the headphone jack to be several months back. But with the 6T, the company has completely ditched it, mentioning this was done to free up space for a new technology. OnePlus has already come under huge criticism with this decision but buyers will get a dongle inside their box.
In-display fingerprint scanner
The technology that led to the lack of headphone jack on the OnePlus 6T is the in-display fingerprint scanner. Like some of the devices from Oppo and Vivo, this device too houses the sensor that is placed under the large display. It has been claimed that it will be able to unlock the phone in around 0.34 seconds. So, it will be interesting to see how fast this scanner is in real life. OnePlus also claimed that this technology was in stores since the OnePlus 5T, but the company found it to be a little slow for its taste then.
Battery
The battery front is one of the major areas where the OnePlus 6T has had an update over the 6. The device now comes with a 3,700 mAh battery which is certainly a welcome move. OnePlus had been stuffing a 3,300 mAh battery inside a number of its phones in the past.
That battery is coupled with OnePlus Fast Charge, the new substituted name for Dash Charge. It will be interesting to see how the charger holds up with the larger sized battery.
Camera
The OnePlus 6T comes with a similar camera setup like its predecessor, but a few features have been added to it. The camera app will come with Scene Recognition feature which will understand the surrounding and apply the necessary settings.
Like all the smartphones of the present time, OnePlus has taken its own approach to perfect night shots with its new Night Scape feature. This feature takes various aspects (HDR, details optimization, noise reduction, and multi-frame stabilization) into consideration to capture a good night-time image. This feature will also be available on the OnePlus 6.
The company also talked about the new Studio Lighting feature which helps take better portrait shots.
Software
OnePlus had claimed “a whole new UI” with the 6T, but even with the over 800 optimizations claim, that was not the case. However, users will like the Full-Screen Gesture 2.0 which now will let you switch between the recently used applications.
Display
On the front, the OnePlus 6T now has a depleted chin and a tiny notch which is shaped like a waterdrop. And as the notch shrunk on the 6T, the phone had to bid farewell to the notification LED. This notch is surrounded by the Full HD display which OnePlus has been opting for since the OnePlus One. This time though, the screen is the tallest one on any OnePlus phone measuring 6.41-inch with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6.
In terms of pricing, the OnePlus 6T will go on sale for the starting price of $549 internationally for the 6/128 GB version. It will go on sale starting 1st November on T-Mobile’s store, while OnePlus will be selling it from its official website from the 6th of November. The 8/128 GB variant will be available for $579 whereas the highest-end one, the 8/256 GB is priced at $629.
It has already been confirmed that the OnePlus 6T will be available in Nepal starting the 11.11 sales Day of Daraz. The expected price of this device is around Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 72,000.
Now Lenovo might not be the go-to phone in the Nepali market now. But there was a time when Lenovo was also a popular smartphone brand. And now, maybe the company is looking to make a comeback. And so, Lenovo launches two new phones in Nepal, namely, the Lenovo K5 Play and the Lenovo S5.
Lenovo K5 Play Overview
The Lenovo K5 Play is a relatively new smartphone in the market. The international market saw the phone a while ago in April, and it is here in Nepal now. This budget phone does have some compelling features for its price as well, and with that, it might be looking to set itself as an Entry Level go-to device.
The K5 Play features a 5.7″ Max Vision Display (as Lenovo calls it). The resolution is only HD+ with 720 x 1440 pixels, but it is a budget phone. Since it launched a few months back, it hasn’t caught on the notch trend of 2018. So, it has bezels on the top and bottom, but the sides are practically bezel-less.
It packs a dual camera setup at the back, which comprises of a 13 MP primary sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 2 MP depth sensor. The selfie camera rests at 8 MP. While that may be not as appealing, it certainly seems well enough for a budget phone. Under the hood, this phone runs on an Octa-core Snapdragon 430 chip coupled with 3 GB of RAM. While the international market also gets a 2 GB RAM variant, we, in Nepal, do not.
Also, the phone has 32 GB storage and is expandable up to 128 GB via microSD. In addition, you also get a fingerprint sensor at the back, which is a must-have feature these days. This phone is priced at Rs.17,999 in Nepal.
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
The Lenovo S5 looks like its getting ready to compete in the mid-range department in Nepal. A phone which also launched back in March for international markets, this phone is now making its way here.
This phone comes with an all-metal build, giving a premium finish design. So, it is also one of those phones which is not on-board the notch train. There are bezels on the top and bottom, with pretty much non-existent bezels on the sides. It also features a 5.7″ IPS LCD display but has a Full HD+ panel at 1080 x 2160 resolution. Lenovo also calls it the Max Vision display, but since the term goes for both HD+ and FHD+, it is a confusing term.
This phone, too, packs a dual camera at the back. It features a 13 MP primary camera with f/2.2 aperture and PDAF, while the secondary camera is a 13 MP monochrome sensor, which is helpful in gathering more light from the surroundings. The selfie camera measures a good 16 MP.
Inside the skin, an Octa-core Snapdragon 625 powers the phone. While it may be a bit underwhelming, it should perform good enough combined with a 4 GB RAM. It packs 64 GB of storage, which is expandable up to 128 GB with microSD. The phone also has a fingerprint sensor at the back. Also, the phone packs a 3000 mAh battery. Also, this phone is priced at Rs.26,999, which, in 2018, belongs to the lower midrange section in Nepal.
Lenovo S5 Specifications:
Design: Full Metal design
Display: 5.7″ IPS LCD Full HD+ Max Vision Display (1080 x 2160) resolution
Storage: 64 GB (expandable up to 128 GB via microSD)
Battery: 3000 mAh
Price in Nepal: Rs.26,999
These phones are now launched under Ambe Mobiles Pvt. Ltd., who are the new distributors for Lenovo phones in Nepal. So, what do you think of the phones and their pricing? Justified? Do let us know.
When we hear Alienware, we think of a thick, huge, heavy, well cooled (at least most of them) gaming laptops. They also come with impressive internals, adequate RGB lightings, and lots of configurable options. But the new Dell Alienware m15 shatters most of those stereotypes, with a thin, light, and seriously good-looking laptop. Plus, going by all the reviews we have seen, it allegedly stays pretty cool too.
Dell Alienware m15 Key Specifications:
8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H 6-core processor
Up to 15.6″ UHD display
Up to 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM (2x16GB)
up to 2x1TB PCIe M.2 SSD
Up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q design
Killer 1550 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
Display
The Alienware M15 is currently available in 15″ variant available in an FHD 60Hz for the 1060 OC GPU. The one with 1070 gets either an FHD 144Hz display or the 4k 60Hz one. Although here, the FHD panel’s brightness caps out at just 300nits and 72% of sRGB color gamut. If you want the full 100% color gamut, you will need to shell out the extra for the 4k one, which also bumps the brightness to 400nits. The bezels have also been decreased significantly.
Performance
All of the options come with the same processor, Intel’s Core i7-8750H with 6 cores and 12 threads. With 9MB of cache size and up to 4.1GHz turbo boost clock speeds, it’s one of the best mobile processors on the market. Yes, there is the i9 too, but it’s currently not available but should launch very soon.
As for RAM and storage, you get up to 32GB of dual channel 2666mHz memory option. There there are all the storage options, which you can configure to a maximum of two 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD. There are obviously options to put in an SSHD and Intel’s Optane SSD as well.
Gaming performance
There are two graphics options, one with a GTX1060 OC and another with the 1070 Max Q design. For obvious reasons, the screen resolution and Hertz are capped out according to your choice of graphics memory. The GTX 1060 comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory whereas the GTX 1070 comes with 8GB of GDDR5 memory. Either way, both will deliver smooth gaming experience, and from what we hear, it runs pretty cold as well thanks to the Alienware Cryo Tech v2.0.
The motherboard in use here is Intel’s Mobile CM346 Chipset. It comes with a Killer 1550 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0. There are two battery options, one is 60W and the other a 90W. You get a 180W power adapter, along with port selections like Alienware’s proprietary graphics amplifier port, Thunderbolt 3 port, Superspeed USB 3.1 ports, and a few other essentials. There are two color options including an Epic Silver and a new Nebula Red.
Dell Alienware m15 Price in Nepal & Availability
The Dell Alienware M15 price starts from $1,379.99. As for availability in Nepal, the Alienware M15 is available in Nepal for the starting price of Rs. 2,20,000 from laptop stores like ITTI and Bigbyte.
Last year, when Daraz brought Black Friday to Nepal, it was a huge hit. But if you think you’ve seen it all, you’re in for a bigger surprise! Now “what is it” you may ask? It’s 11.11 Sales Day– Alibaba’s Singles Day Shopping Festival, and the world’s largest. And now, it’s coming to Nepal! More discounts, and better deals? Well, yes…and a lot more! After all, Daraz is organizing the biggest sales day on November 11!
Alibaba’s Singles Day Shopping Festival takes place every year on November 11. And it’s the greatest combination of commerce and celebration of consumerism. And last year, the numbers involved in the festival were overwhelming. A record sales equivalent to $25 billion dollars on a single day! So, that should be enough to give you a faint idea of how big it is.
Now, it makes its way to Nepal. Daraz is officially welcoming 11.11 this year onwards. While it’s called Alibaba’s Singles Day Shopping Festival, it’s not only for the single ones out there like the name suggests. It will be known as Daraz 11.11 Sales Day in Nepal. Of course, it’s not only for the single ones out there like the name suggests.
It was already announced on 24th of October, but in an event on 28th October, Daraz unveiled more of its strategies and more about the largest sales event. So, we now know what the 11.11 is all about. If you thought Black Friday was big, the 11.11 will be the biggest! It will include huge discounts, exclusive product launches, crazy flash sales, brand vouchers and unbelievable offers from your favorite brands.
Of course, we are yet to know about the kinds of deals the e-commerce site will offer on that day, but the company claims it will be unbeatable. Daraz is also preparing to unveil and launch some new products exclusively on that day. We already know that one of them is the Pocophone F1, but there are a lot more to come.
And while 11.11 is the elephant in the room, Daraz is doing a lot more to pave better roads for e-commerce in Nepal. After its acquisition by the world’s largest e-commerce platform, Daraz has a lot of cool plans for the future – it’s own and Nepal’s e-commerce as well. It started with the Daraz app, which now has 400,000 active users. And the company claims that the app is now better with AI! Also, the app will now also let you see official stores, offer brand vouchers, let you know about daily flash sales and provide better customer service interaction.
What’s more? Daraz also claims to have new and improved Daraz Seller Center, which will make for better service to the customers. The company will also be expanding its network via more Daraz Hubs in more and different places! In addition, Daraz will now have its own delivery fleet! That means, we get quicker and timely deliveries! Also, here’s another interesting concept! Daraz University. Yes, you read that right, will also come into initiation, which aims to educate sellers about selling on the Daraz website and improve their business.
However, Black Friday will now be no more in Nepal. But as the saying goes “When one good thing ends, a better one awaits”, we have the 11.11! And so, this might just be true in this case.
We will surely let you know more about this grand sales day in the further days. In the meantime, do tell us what do you think about Daraz 11.11 Sales Day? Will it be a hit or a miss? Do let us know in the comments.
The Meizu M8 Note is a premium budget smartphone for the Chinese market. It follows the growing trend of good internals, matched with equally good design in a very compelling price bracket.
The new Meizu smartphone comes with a brand new Snapdragon 632 SoC from Qualcomm. It’s an octa-core processor with four Cortex A73 and four Cortex A53 ones. The same is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but we might see more storage options in the future.
It comes with a 6.15-inch LCD display with FHD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) resolutions. The display has an aspect ratio of 18:9, can achieve a brightness level of about 450 nits and covers about 83% of the NTSC color gamut.
The back has a dual camera set up just above the rear fingerprint sensor and weirdly below the flash. The two cameras include 12MP+5MP sensors aligned in a vertical position. The front has an 8MP (f/2.0) selfie camera with face recognition support.
The M8 Note runs on Android Oreo with Flyme OS on top. It has a 3,600mAh battery with 18W fast charging that Meizu calls mCharge. Being a budget-friendly smartphone, the port selection includes a micro USB and a headphone jack.
The smartphone is currently available for reservation at Meizu’s official website and offline stores for 1298 yuan or $187. It will officially go on sale on November 1 at 00:00 in China.
The Xiaomi Mi A1 was the first collaboration between Android and Xiaomi. It was Xiaomi’s first take on the Android One platform, and it paid off well for the Chinese company. With the successor MI A2, Xiaomi is trying to emulate the success as its predecessor by offering pretty capable specs at a midrange price. So, let’s find how the Xiaomi MI A2 stacks up against today’s competition.
Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C, no headphone jack
Dimensions: 7×75.4×7.3mm; Weight: 168g
Battery: 3010mAh with quick charge 3.0
Colors: Blue, Gold, and Black
Price: Rs. 30,999 for 4/64GB (free soft case + Type-C Dongle)
Design
Right off the back, I have to say that the Mi A2 feels very premium. The slim, light and sleek body with the metallic back looks great. Now even though its counterparts like say OPPO F9 or Huawei Nova 3i come with glass back or uniquely designed backs, the device has followed the footsteps of the A1 for the back material.
The metal back also has advantages as glass backs are fragile. So, the overall design and the fact that it is really light and thin really impressed me.
Display
Upfront, you get a 6-inch IPS LCD panel. Like with every phone at this price range, you get a Full-HD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display here is sharp, but since I recently reviewed the Oppo F9 and the Nova 3i, you could easily notice that it’s not quite bright and it obviously suffers under sunlight as well.
Talking about the colors here, well, it is not that accurate and looks a bit dull for me. So, if you are someone who is into the multimedia experience on your smartphone, you might want to look elsewhere. The plus point, however, is the protection. With Gorilla Glass 5 at the helm, it hasn’t suffered from any sort of major scratch during my 1 month of use.
Camera
The camera is the aspect, where the MI A2 truly shines. The phone features a dual camera setup on the back, which is the combination of 12MP and 20MP sensors. The Mi A1 was not that good of a camera phone, and the Mi A2 claimed that it had improved considerably.
xiaomi mi a2 camera sample
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I did take plentiful images during my review period. And the images so captured were really great. The Mi A2 definitely comes out on the top on a lot of scenarios, and considering its price tag, the camera performance is impressive. The phone captures quite decent images with great details and sharpness. Dynamic range and color accuracy are also good. The secondary camera on the rear side helps with better low-light images due to its wide aperture. And that’s definitely the case here as the pictures look true to life.
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The portrait shots from the rear cameras will also impress you. They have good edge detection and the amount of blur looks natural in them. But, to get better portrait shots, the subject must be at a suitable distance from the camera and there must be a fair amount of light. Portrait images in low light settings lack proper edge detection and overall, images do not look very appealing.
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As for the selfie camera, the MI A2 has received a huge upgrade over its predecessor. The phone comes with a 20MP camera, which not only boasts high megapixel count but also promises better quality in the images. And the images captured from the phone speak for themselves. The selfie camera also has a portrait mode which is purely software. However, it is not that great as the back camera it fails to detect the edges properly.
In terms of videography, the Xiaomi MI A2 can shoot 1080 and 4K videos at 30 fps. The phone lacks OIS but it does have EIS to make up for it. EIS does a better job while shooting 1080P videos, but fails to work while shooting in 4K.
To check out all the images in high resolution, Click here.
Software
The software here is the pure form of android. Yes, there are some preinstalled Mi apps, but apart from that, the phone looks really clean. This is exactly what I like. It’s currently on Oreo 8.1 and Xiaomi has already promised the Android Pie update. I did receive an update for software improvements, but Android Pie is not yet here. I was expecting the device to be one of the first to receive it, but that has not been the case here.
Performance
Now, the performance. Xiaomi’s smartphones excel in the performance aspect and the MI A2 is no exception. This phone truly rocks with the Snapdragon 660 chipset. Combined with the stock android, it easily handles almost all of the tasks thrown at it. Running and multitasking light apps and games is blazing fast. The apps and games open and load quite fast after you start them.
It can also run high-end games smoothly too. I played high-end games like Dead Effect 2, Overkill 3, Asphalt 9, and Galaxy on Fire 2. And all of them ran pretty well. It also runs PUBG in medium settings, and without any lags or stutters.
And If you compare the Mi A2 against other smartphones of its price range, you’ll see that it excels more than the others, and one of the examples are benchmarks. The GPU also stands out as the Adreno 512 GPU is quite a bit faster than its competitors.
In terms of RAM and storage, there are several variants available. But the review unit I got had 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. And that’s all. Note that it does not have a micro SD card slot. So, you will not be able to expand the internal storage any further. Although 64GB of memory is enough for me, it might not be enough for some.
Connectivity
Also, the phone doesn’t have the 3.5mm headphone jack. So, I was forced to use the USB Type C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle to connect with my headphone. The dongle which by the way comes with the phone is tiny, so I misplaced quite easily And yes, there’s the hassle of having to carry one at all times.
Other than that, I am fairly impressed with the connectivity on the handset. I did not face any issue while browsing the internet on both the Wi-Fi and the mobile data. And talking about the phone calls, I used both the NTC and Ncell SIM cards on the phone and the cellular reception and the call quality was great.
Battery
Another thing I didn’t like about the Mi A2 is the battery. Massive batteries on its phones are one of the Xiaomi’s fortes. However, that lacked in the MI A1 and it continues in the MI A2, and this time I blame the slim and trim design for it. The phone comes with a relatively smaller 3010mAh battery, which struggles to provide a backup for a day even on the normal use.
Initially, during my review period, the phone used to get drained really fast even when left idle. I found out that this issue was because of the bug on the fingerprint sensor. With this bug, the CPU gets clocked at maximum speed and it consumes more power. After knowing about the bug, I disabled the fingerprint sensor and since then I have not encountered such fast battery draining issue. But still, it has not been able to provide backup for one complete day. And the problem could be fixed with later software updates. For now, there’s no word on it.
And talking about the battery charging time, the phone gets fully refilled in 1 hour and 45 minutes with its 5V / 2A stock charger. As the phone claims to support fast charging, I tried using other fast chargers as well. But I didn’t find any significant difference in charging speeds.
Verdict
To sum it up, the MI A2 is a great phone for its price. The capable chipset, good design and a remarkable set of cameras are the best things about this phone. And the presence of the stock Android is surely the icing on the cake.
That being said, the handset is not perfect by any means. An average display, a smaller battery, no microSD card slot and the lack of 3.5mm headphone are few downsides the phone offers. Other than that, I think for 250 dollars or Rs. 31,000 in Nepal, it’s a great value for money.
So, what do you think about the Xiaomi MI A2? Can you live with its downsides or would you skip this one and choose another? Do let us know in the comments.
A lot of Android devices have been facing one issue constantly over the years – lack of updates. Be it software updates or security patches, lots of manufacturers find it hard to provide the latest and greatest from Google to their customers. This has been one of the reasons why lots of people still stick to iOS. Google looks set to change all of that with an agreement that requires OEMs to provide security updates to its users for at least two years.
According to a contract obtained by The Verge, Google has now made a contract with Android phones and tablet manufacturers that states that the second party must provide four security updates in its first year, and that has been set as the bare minimum. In the second year, manufacturers will be required to provide the updates, but Google hasn’t exactly specified the exact number.
This contract is applicable for the tablets and smartphones launched after 31st January 2018. Google has made this mandatory for the devices that have at least 100,000 users. After 31st January 2019, all devices that come under the company’s “security mandatory models” will be in line to receive the security updates.
Google recently had to change some of its business and working model in the European Union (EU). According to The Verge, this contract’s terms appear in the same licensing agreement with the EU.
Likewise, the Californian company will also make sure that the updates received by the devices are under 90 days old. Google will be able to “withhold approval of future phones”, which will definitely come as a bummer for the companies.
This move from Google will definitely be welcomed by all Android users. It comes at a time when the Android world is fragmented into bits and pieces, and it’s good that the company has finally taken this initiation.
Almost every smartphone has some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI) embedded these days. Phones ranging from low-range to high-range price segment come with processors that help run the technology. MediaTek has been making AI-supported chipsets for a while now, and the company has announced its new product that provides a 13% increase in performance all while boosting the AI technology by 10-30%. The new chipset is the MediaTek Helio P70, that is the successor of the Helio P60 which is powering a lot of mid-range smartphones right now.
The Helio P70 has a few updates and upgrades over its predecessor, but it comes in the same 12nm form factor. It has the same octa-core processors with the same four ARM Cortex A73 that has an upped clock speed of 2.1 GHz. The other four Cortex A53 cores have a clock speed of 2.0 GHz.
The Helio P60 is a well-performing chipset by all means. Helio P60 had done an impressive job on the Oppo F7, Oppo F9, Vivo V11, and many other handsets when it comes to real to real life usage. However, the devices powered by it faces a couple of stutters a couple of times while gaming. MediaTek has optimized the P70 to fix all of those issues and improve the overall gaming performance on the phones.
Likewise, the Helio P70 comes with CorePilot 4.0 that conducts thermal management for a cooler user experience. This technology also helps with a better battery life on the smartphones.
In terms of connectivity, the Helio P70 comes with a faster connection speed without a significant decrease in battery life.
The new chipset from MediaTek will let the devices equip dual rear-facing cameras measuring 24-megapixel and 16-megapixel, or just a 32-megapixel single camera. The camera(s) will let users capture better HDR-enhanced photos with extra details.
It looks as though MediaTek is focusing on the Helio P70 now. We could see smartphones running on the new platform in November.
