Oppo A7 was first launched in Nepal towards the end of 2018. The device came with a decent design and battery performance and was primarily targetted at the South Asian users. The device now is experiencing some massive price drops. But does the price drop compensate for the old age of Oppo A7 in the competitive mid-range segment of Nepal? Let’s learn more about it.
Oppo A7 Overview
The Oppo A7 is an attractive looking smartphone with a waterdrop notch. This makes the A7 look similar to the Oppo F9 on the front side, with an almost similar 6.2-inch display with minimalistic bezels all around. What’s different here is the resolution of this display as the new device comes only with an HD+ configuration which is quite a disappointment if you consider its price tag.
Another area where the Oppo A7 isn’t attractive is underneath the hood, at it is powered by the Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450. This CPU is coupled with 4 GB of RAM, Adreno 506 GPU along with 64 GB of internal memory. The onboard storage is expandable up to 256 GB via a microSD card.
Talking about the camera setup, there are dual 13- and 2-megapixel cameras on the back with f/2.2 and f/2.4 aperture respectively. On the front lies a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. There is a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner on the device, and it will probably be equipped with the face unlock feature.
The battery is the major talking point of the Oppo A7. It houses a large 4,230 mAh battery that should last for a longer time period with the HD+ display. However, the Oppo A7 lacks fast charging technology which will most probably be a hassle to all users.
Oppo A7 Specifications
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+
CPU: Octa-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 14nm
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
GPU: Adreno 506
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with ColorOS 5.2
As of now, the price of Oppo A7 in Nepal is Rs. 24,490 for its 4/16GB variant. However, being nearly two years old now, the stocks are pretty limited.
Model Name
Old Price
New Price in Nepal
Oppo A7 (4/64GB)
Rs. 35,790
Rs. 24,490
Even the price drop doesn’t compensate for its old age. We can’t really recommend you Oppo A7 powered by Snapdragon 450 when we can get Redmi Note 8 with Snapdragon 665 at an even cheaper price.
Samsung just announced the new Exynos 9820 SoC, the direct successor to their current flagship Exynos 9810. Samsung says the processor will hit mass production by the end of this year, meaning it should make it’s way to the new Galaxy S10. The new Tri-Group CPU has a 2+2+4 setup and a new Mali G76MP12 GPU. The 9820 is based on the new 8nm LPP (Low Power Plus) FinFET process and comes with a new modem capable of 2Gbps download and 316Mbps upload speeds.
Putting numbers to context, the new SoC will offer:
20% boost in single core performance
15% boost in multi-core performance
50% enhancement in power efficiency
40% better graphical improvement
35% better power efficiency in graphical processing
7x faster in AI related tasks
The camera capabilities have also been improved, with the new processor capable of 8k@30fps video recordings. The processor is also capable of 4k@150fps, a few huge numbers straight from Samsung. The new CPU now supports up to a 22MP sensor at the front and the rear. If you want dual sensors, it can do two 16MP camera setups. All this capable of HDR recording at 10bit color with encoding and decoding support of 8k@30fps or 4k@150fps.
The new Tri-Cluster CPU setup includes two 4th gen Custom CPUs for highest levels of performance. The next two cores include Cortex A75s for performance and four Cortex A55s for maximum efficiency. No frequency numbers advertised in the launch today. There is, however, a new GPU, the Mali G76MP12 which should match its performance with the likes of Qualcomm and Apple’s GPUs at their best.
There is also a new dedicated NPU, similar to Huawei and Apple’s neural engines implementations. Then there is the new modem that can do speeds of up to 2Gbps (LTE-A Cat.20 8CA) downloads and 316Mbps (Cat.20 3CA) uploads. Finally, there is a security chip that stores and manages personal and biometric data such as face recognition and fingerprints in isolation.
PC gamers are a dying breed, with more people opting for PUBG mobile rather than the real PUBG. What is even sadder is people playing mobile PUBG on their PCs. But there are still a lot of dedicated gamers out there who swear by the PC Master race or even console players for that matter. So, this list is for all the PC gamers, a guide to choosing the right gaming monitor for your setup.
It’s 2018 and we’ve got 8k monitors up for grabs. But not everyone can afford one nor are their GPUs capable of handling them. So, choose a monitor, or rather the resolution of the monitor according to your GPU. If you own a GPU that’s below a GTX1060, get a 1080p monitor. For 1070 and above, you can still opt for a 1080p display but try for a higher refresh rate.
As for 4k gaming, at least make sure it has a GTX1080Ti. If you bought the RTX series from Nvidia, then the RTX2070 performs more or less like the GTX1080. The RTX2080 is similar to the GTX 1080Ti, and finally, the RTX2080Ti is in a league of its own. All these comparisons only work if you do not factor in their real-time ray tracing features.
As for AMD users, the RX Vega 64 is the closest when it comes to performance with the 1080Ti. More so, it’s comparable to the GTX1080, if a bit slower. The RX Vega 56 is a close match to the GTX1070. The bottom of the line GTX1060 matches its performance with the RX 580/870, but all NVidia counterparts are just better in my opinion.
Once you decide on the resolution and the refresh rates, you can then go on to their color reproduction. Anything from 70% sRBG color coverage or above should do just fine. The more important number here is the response rate. If the monitor says gaming, it probably has a low latency, so anything below 10ms should be fine as well (lower the better).
Either way, the more you pay, the better you get any way you look at it. You can also look out for G-Sync (Nvidia users) or FreeSync (AMD), which will help a lot with tearing. If you have more money to spend, then start thinking about bigger panels, ultra wides or curved monitors. Here are a few Monitors I found on Daraz that should be worth a look:
Vivo has added a new mid-range smartphone to its arsenal with the launch of the Vivo Y95. This device is among the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 439 chipset inside.
Vivo Y95 Specifications
The Vivo Y95 is the latest device to feature the minimalistic notch which has gained a lot of attention for providing bigger screen real estate on the smartphones. This notch comes with a tall 6.2-inch IPS LCD display that has a 1520 x 720 pixels resolution. The display has a 19:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 270.
The Vivo Y95 runs on Android v8.1 Oreo with Vivo’s skin, Funtouch OS 4.5 on top. Under the hood lies an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439, like I mentioned before. This new low-end chipset has a 12nm architecture. The CPU of the Y95 is aided by 4 GB of RAM and Adreno 505 GPU. In terms of storage, the Vivo Y95 comes with 64 GB of memory that is coupled with an expandable memory.
Camera wise, the Vivo Y95 has a dual camera setup on the rear. It features a 13-megapixel primary camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor alongside it. Up front, the Y95 comes equipped with a 20-megapixel selfie shooter.
One of the major USPs of the phone is definitely its battery. This smartphone has a large 4,030 mAh battery inside that will pair well with the HD+ display it sports. The back of the Y95 houses a fingerprint scanner and the front-facing camera will also work for Face Unlock.
Vivo Y95 Specs Overview:
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+, 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439
GPU: Adreno 505
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with Funtouch OS 4.5
It’s been a few days that Huawei has added another one of its mid-range contenders, the Huawei Y9 2019. As the name sounds futuristic with 2019 in its name, I had to test it out whether it really does perform like a device from next year. So, here is the full review of the Y9 2019!
Huawei Y9 2019 Specifications:
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.2 on top
Display: 6.5-inches IPS LCD FHD+ screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio
So, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a successor to the Y9 2018 launched some 6 months ago and a lot has changed during this time. The display that was 5.9 inches has grown to 6.5 inches and you have the infamous notch upfront, which is a tad bit bigger than what we are used to like on OPPO F9 (Read Review) and Vivo V11 Pro (Read Review). What has also changed is the processor but let’s finish off with what’s on hands first.
So, coming back, the display here is an IPS LCD panel with FHD+ screen resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display is humongous and is a perfect fit for multimedia consumption. Watching videos on the vibrant large screen is a treat to the eyes. Also, the minimum bezels add more points to the good viewing experience. Only if the notch was a bit smaller, it would have been so much better.
The phone gives you good sunlight legibility, so no problems will be felt outdoors.
But sadly, the display lacks any sort of protection, which is a bummer. Well if you look at the trend, very few Huawei phones come with display protection. I think this is an issue Huawei seriously needs to address.
Design
Design wise, the Y9 2019 is an impressive lad. This one has a curvy body which is a fresher look than what we have been seeing on other Huawei phones. It is not very heavy but still has that heft to it that makes it feel pretty premium.
This one is a slippery phone but we case our phones anyways. Also, my careless usage routine has resulted in some scratches overtime but surprisingly they are not that noticeable at the back but up front, they are clearly visible.
And this is not a glass back for sure but it has not made me feel sad about the phone as the Y9 2019 looks and feels good on hands. Also, talking about the aesthetics, you get all the buttons on the right, the dedicated SIM and memory card slot on the left; the single speaker grill, micro USB port, noise cancellation mic and a headphone jack at the bottom, with only the primary noise cancellation mic at the top.
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At the back, there is a fingerprint scanner, the dual camera setup, an LED flash, and the Huawei branding. The notch houses dual selfie cameras. Also, the Y9 2019 very cleverly hides the speaker grill right above the notch and in the rightmost corner, there is also a LED notification light.
Now, this I think is really cool! I mean with all the notches taking over, I have missed the LED light, but, well I miss it no more. Overall, the minimalist design has fairly impressed me.
Alright, enough about the outsides, let’s get into what’s inside this one. Huawei’s latest addition of mid-range chipsets, the Kirin Hisilicon 710 is what powers the device. Needless to say, we have seen this processor on the Huawei Nova 3i, and as I said in the review, this 12 nm energy efficient chipset is a good performer. It can handle almost everything you throw at it.
And as PUBG has become one of the prominent standards for testing games, well I had some sessions of it and the phone experiences some jitters while playing at medium settings. Also, you will experience some frame drops now and then. Otherwise, the phone has taken on my everyday usage pretty well. Moving on, other games run quite well and multitasking, as well as app opening, is pretty fast too.
But something that has bugged me is the phone loses it while multitasking with messenger running in the background. But I really hope a later software update will fix this.
On the software side, the Y9 2019 features Android Oreo 8.1 coupled with EMUI version 8.2. Huawei is pretty good with updates these days, and as this phone is from the future, I have high hopes for software updates.
Huawei Y9 2019 software UI
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Anyways, as it is with all the Huawei phones, you do get some useless apps onboard and sad is the fact that not all of them can be deleted. Furthermore, it’s the same EMUI have we have been seeing on all the Huawei phones. There are tons of customizations you can do as per your liking, for instance, keeping or ditching the navigation buttons, changing your viewing preferences and so forth. You can customize the shortcuts on the taskbar as well. There is a simple mode too, that basically makes the app icons larger, which again may be useful for some people.
Battery:
The huge 6.5 inches display makes the Y9 2019 hungry for power which is well, provided very generously by the 4,000 mAh battery and I must say the battery life is very good indeed.
It gives you more than a day of backup, I mean on a single charge, you can last for one day and a half. Well, this is on normal usage, but even on intensive use, you can expect it to last for a good amount of time.
The phone will take you 2 hours and 30 minutes to give you a 100% juice. Well, with this its evident that there is no fast charging support here. But unlike some Samsung phones, it does not take ages to charge.
Here’s the most annoying part: This is the Huawei Y9 2019, a phone from the future, a phone from 2019 and it still has a micro USB. It’s true. Okay, the lack of Fast Charging is somewhat justifiable here but a micro USB port is a serious bummer here.
Anyways, to be fair the battery life is very enduring which may be an area to cover up for the absence of fast charging.
Camera:
Huawei’s usual quad camera setup makes its way here as well. The Y9 2019 has four cameras in total, two at the back and two at the front. If this sounds familiar, it is the same as that of the Nova 3i (Read review). But the setup comes with a slight difference between the two.
At the back, the Y9 2019 has a 16 MP f/2.0 primary camera with 2 MP sensing depth-sensing camera. The Nova 3i had a 16 MP f/2.2 camera. Likewise, the front of the Y9 houses a 13 MP f/1.8 aperture camera along with a 2 MP depth sensor. This is also slightly different than the Nova 3i having 13 MP f/2.2+ 2 MP cameras.
What this means is that the Y9 2019 captures more light than the Nova 3i due to its wide f/1.8 aperture and the pictures at low light conditions will also appear brighter than the Nova 3i.
Now talking about the quality of pictures, you can see they are sharp, no doubt on that. But the colors are a bit too punchy for my liking. This means the phone automatically over saturates the pictures. Other than that, pictures come out very colorful. However, the autofocus is a tad bit slower on this new Huawei device.
Huawei Y9 2019 Back camera samples
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There is a 2 MP depth sensor which means there is a portrait mode as well. And I must say that the bokeh images are great. I mean, have a look at these samples, even though the edge detection is not that proper, the images look good overall.
Huawei Y9 2019 Portrait
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The background blur can be adjusted to our liking and pictures seems pretty pleasing. But sometimes, the images tend to lose some details but most of the times, they seem very nice.
At low light conditions, the images are bright. But then again, the images are not free of noise and grains. Similarly, the autofocus becomes slower during this time.
Huawei Y9 2019 Low light images
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Now talking about the AI mode, well, it does a good job with the images containing skies in it. Also, other times it does not make a lot of unnecessary enhancements. But then again, the images are already saturated, so there is actually no need for an Ai mode. Here are few samples for you to judge by yourself.
AI vs non AI images
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Without AI
With AI
Without AI
With AI
Moving on to the selfies, the first thing I noticed is that there is no inbuilt beautification in the cameras, which is well a good thing. There is a beauty option though, but only in the portrait option, which is strange. Anyways the normal selfies are good enough, they do not look fake.
Huawei Y9 2019 selfie camera samples
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Similarly, Portrait selfies look good too. In very well lit conditions, sometimes the background seems exposed but other than that it fares well.
Huawei Y9 2019 portrait selfie samples
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In artificial lighting, there is a slight loss in details, but the pictures are well lit. Selfies in low light conditions appear a bit grainy.
Huawei Y9 2019 artificial lighting images
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Talking about the video quality, there isn’t any kind of stabilization here so you know what to expect. You can record videos in FHD at 60 fps but the quality is just average to my liking. Also, autofocus in videos is just subpar.
Talking about other features, the fingerprint sensor is pretty swift and so is the Facial recognition on this one.
Now, it’s the selfie camera recognizing your face, so you cannot expect it to be that secure. For me, the fingerprint sensor was my go-to unlock mechanism. Other than that, the speaker at the bottom gets distorted at high volumes and they are moderately loud.
Similarly, WiFi reception is pretty good too, and the good news is that there is dual-band WiFi ac, which was a feature lacking in the Nova 3i. Well, it seems some feedbacks are well taken by the Chinese company.
Likewise, call quality is good along with network reception. With these, I faced no problems what so ever. But something I would like to say is, the vibration of the phone is not that good. I have missed a few calls because of the reason!
Conclusion:
To conclude, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a very good upgrade from the Y9 2018. A larger display, better design, better performing cameras and Kirin 710 is pretty dope. Similarly, this device can be a perfect fit for multimedia consumers.
The phone is priced at Rs. 34,900 which is good enough for those specs but I think Huawei should have priced it a bit aggressively. Because the competition is getting really fierce if we take into account the pricing set by Xiaomi Nepal. There is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 (Read Review) for a similar price and even if you go 4 thousand less, there is the Mi A2 (Read Review) waiting.
So, with so many competitors against the device, the Huawei Y9 2019 seems like a hard bargain! But you also get an overall package of a good smartphone here, so you can make your pick.
A few months back, Samsung launched the Galaxy J2 Core smartphone with Android Go version of the OS on its system. It was the first Android-Go powered smartphone in Samsung’s lineup. And it was basically brought to lure people into cheaper smartphones instead of the feature phones. This time to offer more choices in the budget smartphones’ lineup, Samsung launched yet another Android-Go smartphone. The recently launched Android Go handset goes by the name Samsung Galaxy J4 Core. And it possesses somewhat richer specs when compared with the J2 Core.
Samsung Galaxy J4 Core Specs Overview
Budget handsets rarely come with a bigger display. But that’s not the case in the J4 Core. The smartphone comes with the tall 6.0-inch display. On the resolution front, the handset fancies HD+ resolution in an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. But IPS panel has been used on the display. So the users won’t be getting the deeper blacks and brighter whiter, which are usually found on most of the Samsung phones.
And a Quad-core CPU drives the processes inside the phone, which clocks at 1.4GHz. On the software front, J4 Core boasts the Android Oreo (Android Go Edition). And talking about the storage, there is 1GB RAM and 16GB of storage. Since the apps and processing are optimized in the Android Go version, even with the 1GB RAM, we can expect the phone to load and run light apps and games without any sort of issues.
On the optics front, the phone is equipped with an 8MP on the back and a 5MP shooter on the front. This is exactly the same setup seen on the J2 Core. But what has been the major upgrade from the J2 Core to the J4 Core is the battery. The newbie flaunts a humongous 3300mAh battery over the 2600mAh on the J2 Core.
The pricing of the smartphone is still under the veil and availability is still a secret. But since the smartphone is already on Samsung’s official website, it may not take long before we get more information regarding the smartphone.
We were already thrilled with the Huawei P20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy A7 2018, which had three cameras at the back. And adding a surplus camera at the already crowded back, Samsung had launched a smartphone recently in the international market. Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 is the phone, which rose in the smartphone market with four cameras at the back. It was the first smartphone to have quad camera setup at the back and it is still the sole smartphone to possess this quirky feature till date.
[Latest Price: Rs. 43,990] [Last updated on July 24, 2019]
Overview
The camera is the striking feature of the handset. And as mentioned earlier, the smartphone carries four cameras at its back. The primary rear camera on the A9 2018 embraces a 24MP sensor, which comes with an f/1.7 lens. There is also an 8MP camera module with an ultrawide angle lens, which increases the field of view. The additional 10MP camera module on the phone features a telephoto lens, which can be used to capture images with 2x lossless optical zooming. And lastly, there is a 5MP depth sensor, which comes into play while capturing the portrait images. Talking about the front camera, the phone boasts a 24MP sensor featured by an f/2.0 lens. Since Samsung has a good record of providing quality cameras on its phone, we can expect the cameras on the phone.
On the performance front, Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 comes with Snapdragon 660 chipset with 6GB of RAM alongside. In terms of memory, the A9 2018 flaunts 128GB of onboard storage, which can be substantial for most of the users. Additionally, there is a dedicated slot for a micro SD card to push the storage limit further.
Talking about the display, the phone comes with the tall 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display. The handset features Full-HD+ on the resolution front boasting a 392PPI of pixel density. So with this display setup on the phone, we can expect to view sharp, crisp and vibrant contents on the phone.
The phone also looks note-worthy in terms of horsepower. With 3800mAh battery, the battery backup looks dependable. There is also a fast-charging feature to squeeze power juice to the phone in a relatively shorter time. Talking about the colors, the phone comes in Caviar Black and Lemonade Blue options in Nepal.
Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 Price in Nepal
[Latest Price: Rs. 43,990] [Price Last Updated on: Rs. 43,990]
The Galaxy A9 2018 is Samsung’s first online smartphone in Nepal sold exclusively at daraz.com.np. The phone is priced aggressively at Rs. 54,999. The pricing is the cheapest we have seen as compared to other countries like India (INR 40,000 ~ Rs. 64,000) or Europe (€599 ~ Rs. 79,000).
After the notched display trend to get larger displays on smartphones, companies, now, seem to be going after the traditional fingerprint sensor. Many phones are replacing it with the futuristic In-Display Fingerprint scanner. While the technology made debut commercially on the Vivo X20 Plus UD, the Vivo V11 Pro is the one with it in South Asian markets. But what else does it have besides that? And is it worth it’s price tag of almost Rs.50000 in Nepal? Find out in this Vivo V11 Pro full review.
Vivo V11 Pro Specifications:
Design: Polycarbonate body with In-display fingerprint scanner
Display: 6.41″ Full HD+ Super AMOLED display (2340 x 1080) with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 402 PPI
Rear Camera: Dual Camera setup, 12 MP primary lens with f/1.8 aperture + 5 MP depth sensor
First, the design of the phone. The design is attractive, yes, but it kinda feels cheap on the hands. Of course, that has to do with its plastic back. The construction of the phone feels quite sturdy, and with its glossy finish, it can be easily mistaken for glass. But the phone’s light weight gives it away. The back is also a fingerprint magnet, attracting quite a bit of smudges. The phone is durable, no doubt, but it is very slippery.
The polycarbonate back held its own on some drops, but unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the front. The front is a 2.5D curved screen with Gorilla Glass 3 Protection, which cracked easily on a single drop. But luckily, for an AMOLED panel with an in-display fingerprint sensor, replacing the screen was relatively cheaper than I anticipated. (Cost me Rs.8800 (NRs.) to be precise)
Back to the design, the phone is quite big in size, but it is slim. Still…one handed usage is difficult. All the buttons are on the right, and the bottom houses a single speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack – which feels like a bliss in 2018, and a microUSB port. The fingerprint sensor is embedded in the display itself, and while that may make the phone appear futuristic, the microUSB feels silly, and that too, on a premium mid-ranger device! Of course, it is a cost cutting decision, but it doesn’t feel right in the final stages of 2018.
The color I had, i.e. Starry Night Black, is strikingly eye catching. It has a dual-gradient color that goes from blueish purple at the bottom to inky black at the top. There are also some sparkles at the bottom, which is probably why it’s called Starry night. The color at the bottom shifts from blue to purple, depending on the viewing angle. And while that reminds of Huawei Nova 3 and Nova 3i, the Vivo V11 Pro has its own additions that make for its stunning looks. If only, the back was metallic, it could have been my favorite design on a smartphone so far.
Also, the Vivo V11 Pro comes with a case in the box, and I recommend you use that on your phone. Because, even though the polycarbonate back is strong, it’s glossy finish is easy to scratch, and it is prone to slight discoloration with prolonged usage. So, if you want to avoid micro abrasions on it, do yourself a favor, and slap a case on it.
Overall, the phone looks striking, but fails to feel that way. It would have been great if the phone had a metal construction, because, for something that costs 49,500, a plastic back is another downer.
Display
Up front, the upgrade to Super AMOLED panel has made quite a difference! You get better color accuracy, with deeper blacks, punchy colors and better contrast overall. And even with an AMOLED screen, sunlight legibility is quite good. You’ll have no problem looking at the screen outdoors in different angles, whatsoever.
The screen is a large 6.41” with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. There’s a small water-drop or a tear-drop notch (whichever you like to call it) on top that houses the selfie camera. The front speakers are also located right above the selfie camera, and that design is cleverly minimalistic. But one thing that you need to know is that you cannot hide the notch in the settings. It is there to stay. But even with the small notch, the arrangement of the notification and information stats is kinda haywire. It’s not very well organized to fit all your notification icons.
The bezels are ever so slim and that makes the screen appear larger than it already is. The tiny bezels on top also accommodate the IR sensor for the facial recognition. Even with this minimalistic design, the phone cleverly manages to include all that’s necessary. The Full HD+ resolution of 2340 x 1080, makes for a 402 PPI pixel density, and for a large screen such as this, it makes for quite the viewing experience.
The in-display fingerprint sensor occupies the bottom of the screen, and is visible only when you lift the phone in your hands. There’s the Always On display option, which shows you the time, and battery level, but sadly, won’t show you notifications. And since the tiny notch means no LED notification lights, this is another inconvenience you’ll have to get over. However, you can also customize the time to turn on and off the Always On display, which is a handy feature to save battery.
Camera
As for cameras, the Vivo V11 Pro packs a dual camera setup of 12 MP with f/1.8 aperture and a 5 MP depth sensor. The primary camera does a great job while capturing pictures. And I was thoroughly impressed by its ability to capture details. In good lighting, the sharpness of the images will impress you.
Sample Pictures
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cloudy wide
cloudy wide
sunny greens
sketch detail
flower color
color accuracy
details
minor details
broad daylight
daylight hdr
color
food color contrast
food color cpntrast
oversaturated yellow
It represents colors accurately enough and your basic photography needs will easily be fulfilled. Low light images do get some noise, but the camera manages to brighten up the images.
What I mean is, even at very low light, the camera bumps the lighting to make it appear as if it was taken in better lighting conditions. If you look at these images, you’ll know, because even with the bumped up lighting, the grains in the images give it away.
Low Light bump up
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Night shots, however, are not usable. They’re a mixture of noise, grains and everything unpleasant. However, with a source of light around, the pictures will maintain their composure.
Night Shots
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evening hdr
evening
night
night light source
flash
The depth sensor does a good job of background blurs and edge detection, but as it is with bokeh shots, these are always a hit and a miss. You can also choose to blur the foreground instead of the background, but of course you wouldn’t do that. In good lighting, the portrait shots come out great. However, in low light, the edge detection suffers, and aren’t satisfactory.
Portrait shots
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bokeh focus
indoor bokeh
group bokeh
As with most phones of 2018, the cameras are AI integrated, and while it comes into play at certain times, you won’t really notice the difference. The AI Portrait Framing option will help you focus on the necessary areas of your picture, but again, it’s not very accurate. You also get the AI Face Beauty feature in the back camera, but I don’t find it very useful. Of course, some of you out there would love this feature, as it can help remove all the blemishes and spots on your face, and make you look pretty.
As for the selfie camera, it is a 25 MP lens with f/2.0 aperture. And while the front camera can take good resolution pictures, I didn’t quite like it. Mainly due to its tendency to overstep beautifying aspects of your face. Now, there is a separate beautifying options in the selfie camera, but even with all that turned off, it sneaks up on you. So, if you want to look natural in your selfies, you simply can’t! But, for those who want to enhance themselves, you’ll like the selfie camera.
Selfie
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group selfie
normal selfie
bokeh selfie
beauty mode selfie
However, portrait shots with the selfie camera are still good, even though it’s all software. If you can get over the facial enhancements, you might like the overall results of your portrait selfies.
For high resolution image samples of the Vivo V11 Pro, click here
For videos, the Vivo V11 Pro is capable of taking 4K videos, but the lack of Image Stabilization makes this feature less useful. The camera lacks any kind of image stabilization – neither OIS nor EIS, so, you’ll need the steadiest hands you can find for your videography needs. However, the quality of the videos is good enough.
But Slow Motion on the Vivo V11 Pro seems half baked. For such a price, I expected it to have some sort of super slow-mo, but it actually doesn’t. The regular slow motion will not impress you any, and you might not even use it all that much, as it’s not that handy.
Overall, the camera offers a lot of bells and whistles, most of which, won’t come in handy for everyone. Instead of those half-baked extras, improvement over the basic camera features would have been better, like the inclusion of image stabilization. And Vivo needs to work on the facial enhancement features in their further phones.
Performance
There’s not much to say in the performance department. With an octa-core Snapdragon 660 chipset combined with 6 GB of RAM, the phone is quite powerful. The transitions between screens are fast, and multi-tasking is very smooth. It can keep apps open in the background for a considerable time too.
Gaming on it is also amazing, especially because of its large screen with the small notch. Regular games face no constraints, and even heavy games like PUBG runs very well on the highest possible settings. You can play it in HDR settings in High Frame rates, without any kind of lags or stutters.
I didn’t really notice much heating on the phone either. That maybe due to the plastic build, but even so, the thermal levels were lower than on other phones of similar construction. So, from a gaming perspective, this phone is a good choice.
The In-display fingerprint sensor, as exotic as it sounds, actually doesn’t perform that well. And by that, I mean, it’s a bit slow and sometimes, fails to recognize your fingerprints. Now given that it’s not your regular sensor, I can understand its slow speed. But the fact that it fails sometimes even when you press it nice and hard, it gets you thinking. However, the effect when you press the sensor are some cool extras.
The Facial Recognition is the one that impressed me, but also got me concerned about security. Now, it’s because, while the speed at which it can unlock your phone is superb, it can also do so at quite sharp angles. And if you think that’s fine, it unlocked the phone even when my face was half covered. The phone unlocks faster with the Facial recognition than the fingerprint sensor, but my only concern is…is it really all that secure?
Let me also mention that this phone doesn’t have the Widevine L1 certification. This means that you can stream contents from Netflix or Amazon Prime at 540p at the max. The Pocophone F1 received criticisms due to this, but there are many phone which still run on the Widevine L3 certification. So, I’m just putting it out there, because it’s not as big a deal for all of us, especially in South Asian market.
In terms of software, the Vivo V11 Pro runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with its FunTouch OS 5.1 on top. And yes, we’ve always been saying that this uncannily resembles the iOS, but Vivo doesn’t seem to mind. I, on the other hand, don’t like this all that well.
iOS-like FunTouch OS
1 of 9
homescreen
no app drawer
vivo transition animation
notification shade
quick settings
multitasking
settings
dialer
quick access sidebar
There are plenty of bloat-ware in here, but you will get used to them in time. However, no search option in the settings menu, and having to slide up for the toggle settings menu feels a bit odd. The phone does come with Vivo’s own theme store, but they are also pretty heavy and won’t appeal to you that much.
Battery and Storage
As for storage, the phone is available in 64 GB and 128 GB variant, but the one we get in Nepal is the 128 GB variant only. If that’s not enough, there’s a dedicated microSD card slot, with which you can expand your memory up to 256 GB.
In terms of battery, the phone packs a 3400 mAh unit, which, may not be that big, but it can last you all day long. With regular to semi-heavy usage with constant use of social media apps and light gaming, you will still end up with more than 25% charge at the end of the day. If you’re a heavy gamer however, you might want to carry a charger around.
The charger is a microUSB, but it comes with Vivo’s Dual Engine Fast Charging. Now, while the name sounds futuristic, its fast charging doesn’t seem to be faster than other fast charging standards on other phones. It is par with the Oppo’s VOOC charge and OnePlus’ Dash charge. So, nothing extra-ordinary, I guess.
Conclusion
The Vivo V11 Pro gives off a futuristic vibe with its large screen to body ratio, minimalistic design on the front, and its in-display fingerprint scanner. It has a few aspects in which it shines. For instance, the Super AMOLED display is great, it is pretty powerful, the rear camera picture quality is good, and the battery life is outstanding.
I have mixed feelings about its plastic build, the extra add-ons of the camera, in-display fingerprint sensor and the facial recognition. What I didn’t like is the selfie camera, the microUSB port, and the phone’s OS.
For something that costs close to 50000, even though the design looks good, I think a metal build is mandatory. The cameras’ extras need a bit of improvement, if it’s here to stay. The selfie camera’s beautifying feature also needs a bit of work as well. Also, a micro-USB port in 2018 is a downer. But, it has that dual-engine fast charging, so, I guess we can let it slide.
To conclude, the Vivo V11 Pro costs Rs.49490 and for all that it packs, it seems to me a good deal. The areas it cuts corners in are quite clearly visible as well, but most of them are easy to get over. This phone excels in the basic features, but the extras they provide need some work. Hope Vivo addresses them for their future phones.
HP is undoubtedly a huge name in the portable PC market. The company’s Spectre-series brought something relatively new to the table, not that it was revolutionary but it was fresh nonetheless. Well, the new HP Spectre 13 x360 2018 is now even fresher, cleaner, sharper and in fact better in any way possible.
The Spectre 13 x360 is now available in two colors, Dark ash silver, and Poseidon Blue, the latter $10 more expensive than the former. The HP Spectre 13 x360 comes in an all-new Aluminium chassis with a blue Sandblasted finish. It also features narrower bezels and a smaller footprint than it’s predecessor.
The HP Spectre 13 x360 comes in a much more angular and sharp design choice than before. A striking feature for me was the USB C port at the edge of the chassis [picture of it below]. If you put numbers to the context, the new laptop is now 14.5mm thick and 1.3Kgs heavy.
The HP Spectre 13 x360 comes with 8th Gen Intel processors. It’s based on the Whiskey Lake architecture, the third refresh in their 14++nm process. There is an increased Turbo clock speed, native USB 3.1 Gen 2 support, integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and support for Intel’s own Optane memory. It’s also even more power efficient than before.
The particular processors used here in this laptop are the i5-8265U and the i7-8565U. Both are Quad-Core processors with Intel UHD 620 graphics solutions. The i5-8265U has a base clock speed of 1.6GHz and can go all the way up to 3.9GHz. The i5 however only gets the opt for 8GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM.
The i7-8565U, on the other hand, starts at 1.8GHz and goes all the way up to 4GHz. For this one, you can either opt in for 8GB or an optional 16GB RAM with the same speeds. Jumping from i5 to an i7 is a $120 upgrade while for the 16GB of RAM, you will need to shell out another $80.
As for storage, the PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD solution on the HP Spectre 13 x360 starts from 256GB. For $100 more, you can opt for a 512GB variant. Add $200 more for a 1TB version and finally $400 more for the 2TB upgrade. So, it’s basically $100 for 256GB of fast PCIe NVMe storage.
You get three display options here. The first one is a base FHD IPS WLED display with edge-to-edge glass multi-touch display. Add $40 to that and you get the same display with an Integrated Privacy screen [watch the video below]. Then there is the $160 upgrade form for a 4k IPS display.
All displays cover 100% of the sRGB color gamut with 400 nits of brightness and are touch sensitive. While the 4k panel will suck up more power, the FHD display comes with an ultra-efficient panel with just 1W of power consumption. This is one of the main reasons why the HP Specter 13 x360 can reach 22.5 hours of battery runtime.
Talking more about the battery, it stands at 60Wh. In real life usage, HP claims a boost of around 37% over its previous generation. That comes to a total of 22.5 hours, assisted heavily by the low power consumption panel and a pretty power efficient CPU.
Connectivity department also sees a huge improvement, going as far as to add an optional 4G LTE modem. The system does come standard with Intel Wireless-AC 9560 802.11b/g/n/ac Gigabit Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 combo. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD card reader, 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2x USB Type C 3.1 Gen 2 port and 1x USB 3.1 Type A Gen 2 port.
Security was also a priority while designing the laptop. It comes with the usual fingerprint reader, pre-installed TPM module, a SureView privacy display and a mechanical switch that disables the webcam electronically.
HP also announced a 15-inch variant of the HP Spectre 13 x360 that comes with an optional Nvidia GTX 1050Ti MaxQ design for added graphical power but lacks the LTE modem. The bigger one also gets Quad-Speakers, a full Numpad, and a respectable battery life claim of 17.5 hours. It however only comes with a 4k panel and weighs about 2.1Kgs.
The HP Spectre 13 x360 is already up for sale here for a base price of $1,149.99. The 15-inch version starts at a slightly higher $1350. Both laptops are pretty great at this point, with HP opting to not just update the internals but also the overall design of the laptop. It will be interesting to see how other manufacturers, especially the XPS makers react to this laptop in their next refresh.
HP Spectre 13 x360
Display: 13.3″ FHD or 4k resolution panel, 100% sRGB, Touch, Gorilla Glass protection Processor: Intel Core i5-8265U or Intel Core i7-8565U Graphics: UHD Graphics 620 RAM: 8GB/16GB DDR4 2400MHz Storage: PCIe NVMe SSD 256GB up to 2TB Weight: 1.3KGs Battery: 60Wh Connectivity: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9560 802.11ac (2×2) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 Combo, Gigabit 4G/LTE modem Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, Hall effect sensor, ambient light sensor, fingerprint sensor Dimensions: 12.16″x 8.58″x 0.57″ Price: Starts at $1,149.99
By now, if you haven’t heard of the Pocophone F1, you probably are cut out from the rest of the world. It is a phone that has caused a stir around the world. Flagships specs for the price of a mid-ranger is the major selling point for the phone. For a price of some $300, it houses the latest flagship grade processor and such internals, albeit on a plastic body.
And even after three months of its initial release, the phone is still in many’s wish-list. And in a country like ours, where we mostly receive new products later than the international market, it’s exclusive launch by Daraz Nepal is a great news! Daraz announced that it will be exclusively selling the Pocophone F1 through the website on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day, for a price of Rs.34000! And that is another great news for us consumers.
The pre-booking of the phone was available since November 1. You can still do it through here. And the pre-booking facility was very well received as well. People are crazy excited about the Pocophone F1. We can tell as the pre-bookings have exceeded 3000! Daraz expected to sell that many Pocophone F1s in the 11.11 Sales Day itself. However, in just a few days after the pre-bookings started, that number has exceeded. And it continues to do so.
The Pocophone F1 features a 6.18″ Full HD+ display with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio, with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. Also, it sports a dual camera setup which of a 12 MP primary lens and a 5 MP depth sensor. As for the selfie camera, the phone packs a 20 MP lens. It runs on the Snapdragon 845 and comes in two RAM options. A 6 GB / 128 GB or 6 GB / 64 GB version and an 8 GB / 256 GB variant. However, we’ll only get the 6 GB / 64 GB variant in Nepal. The phone also houses a large 4000 mAh battery with Fast Charging 3.0.
As for those of you, who have registered for the Pocophone F1, you guys will be notified through email on November 11, 12.00 A.M., i.e. on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day. You will also receive notifications through the Daraz App. So, if you haven’t downloaded the app yet, you better do it now. Not only can you get great offers and discounts, but there are also mystery boxes and a lot of surprises awaiting you on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day!
