We know that Xiaomi makes so many different countless products. One of which are laptops. There Mi Notebook Pro was a stellar try from Xiaomi, with a MacBook like but still a really nice design language. They were also pretty thin, light and at the same time managed to pack in external dedicated GPUs. This year, we get the refresh of the popular Mi Notebook Pro and the Gaming series Xiaomi laptops, they offer similar looks but really excel in the performance front.
The new Xiaomi Mi Notebook Gaming packs in a GTX 1060, an i7-8750H and 16GB of memory in a seriously thin 20.9mm metal body. This config will set you back about 8999 Yuan or $1310. This is, of course, the most expensive of the bunch.
The second configuration comes with a core i5-8300H, GTX 1060 and 8GB of RAM. All this for just 7999 Yuan or $1168. Then there is the 7499 Yuan or $1095 model for which you get a six-core i7, GTX 1050Ti and 8GB of RAM.
The cheapest variant costs 6699 Yuan or $978, which comes with the four core i5-8300H, GTX 1050Ti and 8GB RAM. All variants come with the same 256GB PCIe SSD and 1TB HDD combo. Xiaomi is also providing a really nice 2666MHz DDR4 RAM variant across the lineup.
Now, these are the next gen Mi Gaming Laptops, with new and improved cooling solutions, definitely a must with this hardware. Xiaomi did this by introducing three exhaust vents on each side of the laptop and eight at the back. Not just that, they have also increased the thickness of the pipes, increased the size of the fans and the motors of the fans itself have also been improved.
These Xiaomi gaming laptops also feature 2 x 3W speakers with Dolby Atmos support, 1.8mm of keyboard key travel with five programmable keys and four backlit color zones. Xiaomi has also managed to fin in 55Wh batteries in these 20.9mm 2.7Kg metal bodies.
Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro 2
This one is the successor of last year’s Mi Notebook Pro. It comes with a 16.9mm footprint which is official ultrabook territory. It does share a lot of design footprints with its predecessor, but with upgraded internals. No, it does not get the six core 45W chipsets, but the four core eight gen i7s are still somewhat of a sizable upgrade over its predecessor.
For this one, because of the size or rather the thinness, it only gets a GTX-1050 Max Q graphics for its top of the line segment, although anything more and we might face some serious throttling. The same 1050 Max Q chip comes paired with an i7-8550U processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB storage all for just Yuan 7599 or $1115.
There is also another variant with an i5-8250U processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and the same 1050 GPU. This one is a cool $200 cheaper than the other processor, which is either Yuan 6299 or $922. These laptops also come with fingerprint support, a huge 6-inch trackpad, a 1.5mm deep back-lit keyboard (key travel), UHS-II card slot, and a 60Whr battery that supports USB-C fast charging.
Both variants (Gaming and Notebook Pro 2) get the same 15.6-inch display comes with thin bezels, a nice 81% screen to body ratio according to Xiaomi. The display resolutions are capped in at FHD, with IPS technology. These panels cover about 72 percent of NTSC color space and are capable of up to 300nits of brightness.
Both models will be available for purchase in China from August 16th, with rest of the markets waiting on the availability confirmations. We hope we get to see these soon in the international market as they seem like really good laptops unless withheld by their thermal capabilities.
Cameras are a basic necessity today but equally, true is the fact that not all of us can afford one. But, what all of us do own is a smartphone. Recent developments in smartphone cameras have led us to believe that a smartphone may fulfill the needs of a photography enthusiast if not totally replace it. Smartphones nowadays are more focused on cameras than ever. So, we thought why not test the latest camera smartphones available in the Nepali market.
For that purpose, we took the Huawei P20 pro, One Plus 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus out on a photo walk with us. We took a lot of photos and judged them in various aspects of photography. Now, we have already tested the camera of the Huawei P20 Pro and deemed it be better than the other two. But, we really wanted to know the opinion of our users as well! Thus, we bring to you this poll where you can be the judge yourself. All you need to do is vote for your favorite photo!
Waiting to buy a smartphone but scared with the hefty price tag embedded with it? Then this could be the perfect time for you as Samsung has put forward huge discounts on its smartphones by naming it Samsung Great Monsoon Offer. The offer includes a cash back on four smartphones with the maximum discount of Rs. 8,000. The four smartphones to get the price drop are Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018, Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo and Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime 2.
Galaxy Note 8, the last year’s flagship and the most expensive of the bunch with a price drop of Rs. 8,000 is now available for Rs. 88,900. Similarly, Galaxy A8+, J7 Duo and J7 Prime 2 can now be purchased at Rs. 54,990, Rs. 25,990 and Rs. 26,490 respectively. The price drop has been effective from 6th of August.
At the present time, there are a lot of smartphones with requisite specifications. However, not all mobiles with requisite specifications come at an affordable price. That’s where Tambo mobiles come in. Tambo mobiles are the new uprising smartphone company in India. It has forayed into the Indian market with 3 new smartphones – TA 2, TA 3 and TA 4 and six feature phones, S2440, S2430, A2400, P1850, A1810, and A1800. Now Tambo mobiles have launched in Nepal too with a claim of “200 days replacement warranty and 365 days screen replacement warranty on all models“. The brand has today, been launched in Nepal. Other than Nepal, Tambo mobiles are available in India and Nigeria.
The brand has launched in Nepal with budget and feature phones. However, we are unsure about the models launched and the price. What we know is that All Tambo phones that are available in Nepal have features like Full View Display, Facial Recognition, fingerprint sensor, 4G VoLTE, etc and customers can buy Tambo mobiles from retailers and channel partners throughout Nepal from today.
Sudhir Kumar, CEO of Tambo mobiles, at the launch event, shared, “We are happy to introduce Tambo mobile phones in Nepal; Nepali customers will be able to purchase quality mobile phones in reasonable price. The service warranty 200 days replacement and 365 days screen replacement are never-seen-before offer to our customers. We commit to bring phones as per customers interest in the days to come as well”.
With an agenda to deliver delight, design, and durability the company features smartphones at an affordable price. This new company aims to be one of the leading companies and innovate for efficient and affordable smartphones. Also, it mainly focuses on supplying the demand of customers who are looking for either a cheap feature phone or an affordable smartphone that have the prerequisite aspects.
Tambo Smartphones
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Tambo Ta 2
Tambo Ta 3
The phones are categorized as Superphones and Power phones. The distributor unveiled that the price of a Tambo Mobile will start from Rs. 1000. So we can expect that the least expensive handset in the lineup will cost Rs. 1000 to the customer since we cannot any high-end smartphones at this price. Therefore, the Tambo Mobiles will be competing against brands like Micromax, Colors, and Lava.
With a number of brands tussling in the smartphone market to market to proper sale, the earlier stages the for the brand may be challenging. However, the mobile brand comes with 200 days replacement warranty and 365 days screen replacement, which might lure the potential customers to opt for the Tambo mobiles.
Since the inclusion of new brands and their new products is obviously exciting as it gives new and more options while buying a phone. So let’s hope that the brand will bring new and feature-packed handsets at the affordable prices so that the users can have maximum delight while using their handsets.
Tambo Mobiles was launched in India in April 2018. The company is all set to enter Nepali market starting the sales from the month of August. Shankaracharya Group has also been appointed as the national distributor of Tambo mobiles in Nepal.
We know Huawei to be one of the household names when it comes to smartphones. The no. 1 smartphone manufacturer in China, may be on its way to being number one in the world soon. It held the number 3 spot for quite some time, but 6 months into 2018, it overtook Apple, becoming the second largest smartphone seller in the world. While we all know that Apple just became a 1 trillion dollar company, but lost its position in the global market. This may be bittersweet for Apple, but right now, Is Huawei on its way to become the top phone manufacturer?
Now, there are so many numbers and statistics at play here and this might not interest you. What you need to know, however, is that Huawei saw a 40.9% increase in sales by the 2nd quarter of 2018. So, now, it occupies 15.8% market share in the world’s smartphone market, from 11% in 2017. Even with being blocked out of the US citing cybersecurity reasons, they continue to grow. Maybe that itself is one of the reasons for its rise? Maybe, because its popularity is increasing in the Asian and European markets.
The reason may be a modification of the designs, the introduction of some new innovative features and being a bit more affordable than the likes of Apple and Samsung. Huawei’s flagships feature specs that can compete with that of Apple and Samsung’s. Combine that with innovative approaches like the triple camera of the P20 Pro, and you have a hit. Also, all that is available for slightly lesser prices than that of Samsung’s high-end flagships.
However, Samsung still takes the lead with 20.9% market share globally. But that being said, Samsung is losing its share, and has gone down by 10.4% than last years’. Its flagships, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ saw quite slow sales. Granted that they still remain unbeaten in aspects like display, but that doesn’t seem enough for consumers. So, they might be launching the Galaxy Note 9 a bit earlier, before other companies release their flagships this year. They might be the top players, but we cannot be certain for how long.
And on this side, Huawei is more optimistic than ever. They forecast more than 200 million sales by the end of 2018, and boast they might become the top sellers by the end of 2019. Also, with Samsung’s declining market share, this is quite possible. This is a difference, we are seeing even in Nepal. The streets of New Road which used to be full of “Samsung” billboards, are now replaced with Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo. Huawei is coming up with great phones in the mid-range sector like Nova 3i and in the high-end sector like Nova 3, in addition to their flagships and expanding their Honor series as well. In addition, they might be integrating specs rumored to be available in Next year’s Samsung’s flagships into their rumored flagship, the Mate 20 series. This, if it happens, will clearly set them apart.
What are your thoughts on Huawei’s phones? Do you think they should be at the top? Or do you feel someone else should be there? Do let us know.
When the world is swooning over bezel-less screens and large displays, Xiaomi has other ideas. The Chinese smartphone manufacturing giant has very recently launched two new feature phones – Xiaomi Qin 1 and Xiaomi Qin 1s. Now, who knows what they’re thinking, but these phones do come with some AI capabilities too.
Xiaomi Qin 1 & Qin 1s Specs Overview
The Qin feature phones (pronounced “shin”) remind you of the days of keypad phones, like the ones of Nokia, that were extremely popular. They feature a 2.8″ screen with 320 x 240 resolution and a clean retro body design. You also get a 1480 mAh battery, which is quite large for such a phone. Xiaomi claims it can last you up to 15 days, which maybe true, considering you won’t use it for much as these don’t have a headphone jack, nor any cameras. And if you do ask why should you buy one of these? Well, these phones pack serious AI features. For starters, real-time voice translations up to 17 international languages (according to some sources); and they, apparently, can “talk” to its users. Also, you have WiFi, dual-SIM, and infrared zappers as well.
Out of the two models, the Qin 1s is the more powerful one. It features a Spreadtrum SC9820 chip with two 1.2 GHz Cortex A-53 processors and 256 MB RAM. You also get a 512 MB storage on it. Running on “MOCOR5” OS, it also let’s you access 4G networks and GPS features.
Its lesser sibling, the Qin 1 runs on a MediaTek MT6260A chip with ARM7 processor. And it only has a mere 8 MB RAM with 16 MB storage. Also, this model can only support 2G networks, and runs on “Nucleus” OS. Compared to its elder sibling, it doesn’t sound like much, does it?
Both these phones were launched in China, and their availability in other markets are unknown. The Q1 will cost 199 Chinese Yuan or about $30, while the Q1s will be 299 Chinese Yuan, or about $45. Both of these will be available from September 15th. If they were to be launched in Nepal, would you buy them? They could serve as good “backup” phones. Plus, with real-time translations, we probably wouldn’t need to learn any other languages, maybe?
Chinese phones are doing quite well in Nepal, mostly due to their competitive pricing. And so, Vivo has launched the Vivo Y85 in Nepal. The Vivo Y85 is in the mid-range section and packs the specs accordingly. It also features the modern smartphone looks, tall screen, dual cameras, fingerprint scanners and all.
The phone features an elongated 6.22″ HD+ IPS LCD display with 19:9 aspect ratio on a plastic body. It does have a notch, and the design looks identical to the iPhone X, only elongated. With very slim bezels up front, the fingerprint scanner is located at the back. The back also sports its vertical dual camera setup of 13 MP + 2 MP sensors. An 8 MP sensor rests at the front with AI beautification mode. Vivo mostly focuses on the cameras, so, this one is no exception.
Under the hood, a MediaTek Helio P22 chipset powers the phone. The chipset is a mid-range performer, and combined with its 4 GB RAM, performance and multi-tasking should be breezy. The Y85 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with Vivo’s FunTouch OS 4.0 on top. It is available in 32 GB and 64 GB storage options, but we get only the 64 GB variant in Nepal. But it includes a microSD card slot anyway, so, you don’t have to worry about storage. Also, with a 3260 mAh battery capacity, it can provide enough usage time through out the day.
Vivo Y85 Price in Nepal
Latest Price: Rs. 29,990 [Last Updated on December 6, 2018]
The phone is priced at Rs. 29,990 and is available in Ruby Red and Black color options. For what it offers, the price seems good enough, considering it’s priced at Rs.16000 in India. Do you think this mid-ranger justifies its price with all it packs? What are your thoughts on this unit? Do let us know.
If you go down the memory lane and remember Huawei as a brand a couple of years ago, you will probably remember it as a brand that was struggling to keep with the likes of other companies in the budget and midrange segment. Now Huawei is competing against top flagships. The P6, P7, P8, P9 were never considered flagships. But in the last two years, Huawei has closed the gap against its competitors Apple and Samsung and is taking great leaps forward.
We already have a fair idea about the Huawei P20 Pro. I mean who does not know about triple cameras?? I have used this device for almost two months now and I will be talking about how the device has fared in my long time of use.
Huawei P20 Pro Specifications:
Display: 6.1-inch full HD+ (1080 x 2240 pixels) OLED display, 18.7:9 aspect ratio
CPU: Octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 970
OS: Android Oreo (v8.1) with EMUI 8.1 on the top
RAM: 6 GB
GPU: Mali-G72 MP12
Storage: 128 GB
Rear Camera: 40 MP with f/1.8 aperture + 20 MP with f/1.6 aperture + 8 MP with f/2.4 aperture, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), up to 5x Hybrid Zoom, PDAF, LED flash
Front Camera: 24 MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture
When I first saw the P20 pro, I instantly fell in love with the Twilight version and undoubtedly, this is something that has made the device stand out. For me, this is the most appealing color any smartphone has till now.
Sure, you have the notch sitting on top. But you also have an option to remove the notch and I think the phone looks good that way because it makes the bezels look even. But it’s totally your choice. I like the idea of a button/ scanner at the bottom. It’s the fingerprint sensor and a single button working as the home key and navigation button.
I found it interesting because it works according to your gestures, for example, you need to hold for going back to home screen, tap to go back and swipe to get to recently used apps. All this gives a different feel to the device and it’s totally fun to use.
The fingerprint sensor resides at the front & is very very quick in response but I found myself using facial unlock because of its swiftness and accuracy.
Something you will notice is that the device does not have a headphone jack. However, you get headphones in the case and you are supposed to plug it in through the Type-C charging port and I didn’t quite mind doing so.
On hands, yes the P20 Pro is a huge phone but it’s amazing that the device is very easy to carry. By looks, it may seem slippery but it I never had troubles with this one because it just fits right in your hands meaning that its easier to have a strong grip on the phone.
I used this phone without any phone case or display protector. The screen surprisingly does not have a lot of scratches to it. However, I wished the same about the back. In two months’ time, there were slight scratches and marks around the edges but the glossy finish makes the scratches appear less.
Display wise, the 6.1-inch 1080p AMOLED display produces accurate colors and viewing angles is excellent. Though it’s not 2K like the Galaxy S9+, but the display is crisp, vibrant, and bright. It is the display we would expect on a flagship and it has one that is really good.
With a darker theme, the OLED screen provides good contrast and black level. Similarly, you can adjust the color temperature as per your liking but I found the natural tone to be better.
Cameras
Huawei had made headlines with the Leica branded triple cameras and the fact that DXO has rated its camera with an outshining 109 score makes it even more appealing. One thing I noticed in all the pictures taken from this device is that the photos pack in abundant details. Now, I am talking about a lot of details and sharp pictures.
Huawei P20 Pro | Day Light Samples
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Normal Mode
In the normal mode, the colors in pictures are great, you get vibrant pictures with no chance of shaky images and shutter speed and autofocus is unbelievably high. There is a 3x optical zoom or a hybrid 5x zoom. However, you cannot zoom in through the 40 MP sensor while taking photos but that’s okay because the results are decent with great details.
You have an option to change the resolution from 40 to 10 or 7 MP but I recommend you use the 10 MP option because I found it to have a better dynamic range and color saturation compared to the 40MP photos.
Huawei P20 Pro | 40MP Vs 10MP Shooter
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40MP
10MP
Another thing worth noticing is about the Master AI. Now, I know that it is with all the right intentions that Huawei has included the AI option but there is still room for improvement in this area. There are things that AI des really well, for example, identifying scenery or sky or objects accurately. But what it adds to the normal pictures is an added punch to it. It tends to make the pictures a little more saturated and sharp, especially the ones that it recognized as sky or greenery. But the good news is that you can always disable it and get back to natural settings, which I found myself doing most of the times.
Huawei P20 Pro | Ai Vs Normal Mode
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P20 Pro AI Mode
P20 Pro Normal Mode
Adding to the camera setting options is the Night mode. The reason I am mentioning it separately is that the night mode does a commendable job preserving details in low light. The colors seem better and there is less noise in the pictures because it takes a long exposure shot that takes 6 seconds to capture a picture. Well, after the 6-second wait, you get very clean low light shots. What you have to keep in mind is that the night mode can only be used to take pictures of still objects.
Huawei P20 Pro | Normal Mode Vs Night Mode
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Normal Mode
Night Mode
There’s also pro mode that uses AI and automatically adjusts ISO, shutter speed, which is extremely convenient, at least for me.
Like the back camera, the 24 MP selfie camera also reproduces a smooth skin tone and I must say that the selfies are very sharp. Sometimes, when the environment is very bright, you might get overexposed images. But all in all, I have liked the selfie camera because I have actually got quite good selfies from this one.
Huawei P20 Pro | Selfie Samples
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Now moving on to the video department, the videos are stabilized and are of superb quality with a good amount of details. However, 4k videos have lesser stabilization than 1080p videos. So, it’s better you use the 1080P option. Also while taking videos from the beauty mode, the camera automatically decreases the quality to 720p, which well, is not fair.
Similarly, there are a lot of camera settings which may be confusing for some people as you have to dig in all of those, tweak in and out of different settings which may be a hassle for some. So, all in all, the cameras are exceptional as hyped.
Check out all the high-resolution camera samples here
Performance
What’s holding the phone inside is the powerful Kirin 970 chipset coupled with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. Sorry, no SD card slot here, but I think 128GB is more than enough.
Now back to the processor, we know that the Kirin 970 is not something new, it had been used in the Mate 10 pro last year. The performance of the chipset is good no doubts but Huawei could have opted for the Snapdragon 845 which is the latest and certainly shows better benchmark results.
In real-world usage, it shows flawless performance in terms of multitasking and gameplay. For example, I played one of the graphics demanding game PUBG and it ran with minimum hiccups. Likewise, other high-end games too ran very smoothly.
The back of the phone rises in temperature but not to the extent of worry or frustration. In the August update, Huawei is introducing the GPU Turbo feature in the P20 Pro which as Huawei claims is going to boost the GPU performance. Having known that the GPU performs good enough, with the new update what does Huawei have in the bag for users will be known then.
Software
On to the software, I must say that Huawei’s UI has gotten better with time and it’s actually pleasing to use. There are different theme options and you will never get bored of what’s there.
Huawei P20 Pro | Software UI
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I am a Samsung user, but the EMUI on the P20 pro has got be impressed. Like most other flagships, Huawei has also tried to give many features to the users, there is battery optimization features, there is knuckle gesture features, there are a lot of display settings, you can enable or disable the notch which are all good to know and I don’t mind having them on my device. During my time of use, there was one update I got on the device. But I expected more for some reason.
Battery
The Huawei P20 pro has a massive 4,000 mAh battery and complementing this battery size is Huawei’s own Supercharge feature. The device gave a full two days of usage on a single charge even on extensive use.
Also, it’s not powering a 2k display so you get a longer life but if put in comparison with the S9 and iPhone X, Huawei certainly has a lead on this one. The battery life is very impressive and other flagship manufactures need to learn a lesson from this.
Conclusion
So, yes. What do I think about the Huawei P20 Pro as a whole? I would say that it is the perfect Huawei device. I mean among the others Huawei has produced till now, this one is the best offering. And if you will get the P20 pro, it will surely be for the cameras.
Yes, the camera’s interface and the AI need a little reworking but those can be fixed in an update, so no worries. The performance is powerful and in my time of use, this device has never let me down. So, would I recommend this device? I would say yes. This device is a package for photography enthusiasts and people looking to get a worthy flagship.
It has not been so long that the Motorola introduced its affordable and mid-range handsets in the smartphone world. Namely known as the Moto G6 series and Moto E5 Series, the smartphones failed to make an impact in terms of sales. However, the smartphone brand is not giving up on bringing the new phones. The smartphone maker recently announced the Motorola Moto Z3 with quite an ambitious dream. During the announcement, Motorola stated that the Moto Z3 would be the world’s first smartphone to be upgradeable to the 5G technology. The company has the plan to bring Moto Mod, which would fit with the handset and would add the 5G connectivity when the technology launches in 2019.
In terms of display, the Moto Z3 comes with the 6.01-inch display. The display on the handset uses a Super AMOLED panel so the display will surely look vibrant with deeper blacks and brighter whites. The display on the handset features a Full-HD+ resolution in the 18:9 aspect ratio contributing to a pixel density of 402PPI. To ensure the safety of the screen from cracks and scratches during the falls, the display has been shielded with the Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Being the flagship handset from the company, the smartphone comes equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. The processor is powerful and the performance is reliable, however, despite being the flagship of 2018, the smartphone still uses a year old processor. But for the price tag it carries, that is understandable. The smartphone has also been provided with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage alongside. There is also a facility of the expansion of memory using the SD card and a dedicated slot has been provided for the purpose.
On the camera front, the Motorola Moto Z3 sports dual camera setup at the back. There is a primary camera of 12MP backed by another secondary camera of 12MP. The secondary camera provided on the handset possesses a Black and White Sensor so the users can get top quality monochrome images when in need. On the front side, there is an 8MP camera for taking selfies and for video calling.
There is also the side mounted fingerprint sensor, which has reduced the chin bezels to great extent. Another interesting feature on the smartphone is its splash and dust resistant body. However, it is not IP certified. The package of the Motorola Moto Z3 has been fueled by a 3000mAh battery. To reduce the charging time, the smartphone is provided with the fast charging feature, which injects 15W power into the device’s battery and speeds up charging process. Also, the 5G Moto Mod will have a 2000mAh battery and when used together, the 5000mAh battery combo provides a prolonged battery backup.
The big thing with the Motorola Moto Z3 is not its fancy design, sleek body, vibrant Super AMOLED display or the old yet powerful processor. The big thing with the Moto Z3 is its promise to provide 5G connectivity in the handset when the technology starts to roll out. The smartphone maker has promised that it will release a 5G Moto Mod in 2019 when the 5G technology gets started which when connected with the smartphone showers the smartphone with 5G connectivity.
Blackberry, the smartphone company that has seen better days, is still trying hard. With the Key Note 2 just behind them, they’ve launched their new series of smartphones – without the physical Qwerty keyboards. Blackberry and its Indian manufacturing counterpart announced the Evolve series which includes two new phones, called Blackberry Evolve and Blackberry Evolve X.
