The Sony Xperia L2 was launched at CES 2018 alongside the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra. The device has arrived in Nepal for the price of Rs. 26,000 which makes it another new addition to the already impressive mid-range price segment.
The Sony Xperia L2 has slightly less bezels than what we usually see on Sony smartphones. However, unlike the 2018 trend of minimal bezels and an elongated display, this device has a little chunk of bezels on the top and bottom sandwiching the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio display. The Xperia L2 sports a 5.5-inch HD display which is a major disappointment as the most of the smartphones of this price segment have already picked up on the full HD resolution bandwagon. This display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for protection against scratches and drops.
In the internals, the Sony Xperia L2 comes with the same processor as its predecessor. It is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6737T processor coupled with Mali-T720MP2 and 3 GB of RAM. The inclusion of 3 GB of RAM and a very average processor in a smartphone priced Rs. 26,000 comes as a surprise as mid-range phones feature 4 GB of RAM these days and have a powerful chipset. The Xperia L2 runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a few rumors hinting for an Oreo update. On the storage side of things, this device has 32 GB of onboard memory with an option to expand it up to 256 GB via a microSD card.
On the optics department, the Sony Xperia L2 has a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with f/2.0 engraved on its back. Up front, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture sits providing a wide 120-degree angle field-of-view.
The Sony Xperia L2 has a 3,300 mAh battery. This device has a USB Type-C port on the bottom and a fingerprint sensor on the back.
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Sony Xperia L2 Specifications:
Display: 5.5-inch HD display with Gorilla Glass 4
CPU: Quad-core MediaTek MT6737T
OS: Android v7.1.1 Nougat
RAM: 3 GB
GPU: Mali-T720MP2
Storage: 32 GB; Expandable up to 256 GB
Rear Camera: 13 MP with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash
Front Camera: 8 MP front-facing camera, f/2.4 aperture
Dual camera used to define premium flagship status a couple of years back. But over time, because of the people’s love for the dual camera and the fancy portrait shots that comes with it, the dual camera has been a mainstream feature these days even in the mid-range handsets. Despite this breakthrough, the dual camera still is a rare feature in the budget smartphones. And there is this recently launched Huawei Y7 Pro 2018, which sports a dual camera setup at the back. On top of that, the smartphone comes with the display that features 18:9 aspect ratio, which seems to be trendy these days. With these features, is the Huawei Y7 Pro going to set new standards for the budget smartphones? Let’s find out in this Huawei Y7 Pro 2018 review.
Dual Nano SIM (4G + 4G), WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, micro USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack
Color Options
Black, Gold, Blue
Price
Rs. 20,900
Design and build
Let’s get started with the design and build side of the things. At first glance, the Y7 Pro might feel like a metal body, but comparing side by side with the Huawei Y9 2018 and Nova 2i, you will quickly realize the Y7 Pro has a plastic body. This might turn you off, but the plastic construction has surely made the device light adding ease to hold and on the use. The glossy metallic frame has added a premium texture to the device and also prevents the flexes. Looks wise, it surely is a handsome lad, but I am not quite sure how the plastic body will endure for a longer period of time.
Display
Up front, the Huawei Y7 Pro features a tall 6-inch display with a trendy 18:9 aspect ratio. This tall display might interest the multimedia enthusiasts. However, compared with Full HD+ phones, one can surely feel the lack of sharpness.
Also, the display looks a little too faded and colors seem washed out. However, the display of the device was bright enough and legible even on the outdoor conditions. And I am thoroughly pleased with the presence of the ambient light sensor, which saved me from the hassle of adjusting the brightness level every now and then.
Performance
The Huawei Y7 Pro comes with a very, very average Snapdragon 430 chipset. We have seen this processor on many budget phones, but how does it fare on a $200 smartphone?
And Comparing it with other smartphones, it is evident that the Y7 Pro should have gone with a slightly powerful Kirin 659 SoC or Snapdragon 625 Chipset. So, bottom line: If you are a light user, you might not feel the difference, but you will notice minor lags when you try to multitask and execute heavy apps.
While digging into the gaming aspect, I didn’t find any issues while playing the light games like Dunk Shot, 8 Ball Pool, and Dunk hit ran really smoothly. So no complaints whatsoever. But when I played the Zombie Avenger, which is another light game, I had to endure lags more than once. When I played the heavy games like Asphalt 8, there were few evident stutters but the game was still playable. And talking about the heating issues, the device starts to heat up quite easily. Even while playing light games and apps, the temperature starts to rise gradually on the portion near the camera, however, it’s nothing of a major issue.
Software
On the software side, the smartphone comes with the Android Oreo out of the box. To spice up a little bit, Huawei added their own EMUI 8.0 on the top. I used last year’s Huawei Y7, Y7 Prime, and even the Nova 2i. I didn’t see much of a difference this time around. It seems a little polished but the amount of bloatware still remains the same. Most of the bloatware in the device is either redundant or useless. Since I prefer stock version of Android, the UI on the device didn’t please me much. However, I must honestly praise the addition of Eye Comfort feature in this handset. This feature filters the blue light from the display and prevents eye strain caused by the display while viewing the content on it. And I, being an avid reader found this feature surprisingly handy.
Camera
Huawei Y7 Pro houses a dual camera at the back. It is one of the most affordable smartphones to feature a dual camera on the back. Normal photos were fine and detailed most of the time. But sometimes, the colors of the subject in the images were little faded as per my liking.
Another thing I noticed about the Huawei Y7 Pro 2018 was the shutter lag on the camera. The slow shutter speed of the camera sometimes resulted in blurry images.
With dual camera onboard, the portrait shots were “OK” at best. It’s not as good as Huawei Y9 or Nova 2i when compared side by side. Despite the presence of substantial amount of details, the sketchy edge detection was noticeable almost every time I took portrait shots. However, it’s satisfying to see Huawei is trying to bring in some good camera features in its budget phones with dual camera setup, which is kind of rare at the moment in Nepal market.
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Moving on to the front, there is an 8MP selfie shooter with an LED flash right on the forehead chin. The front camera captures some excellent-looking selfies. There is also the Beauty mode for the people, who want beautification in their selfies in the real-time. This feature usually comes handy for the people like me, who hate to edit and process the images after taking the shots. Another cool feature I liked about this handset is the nighttime selfies. When there is really low light to take selfies, the sensor detects deficiency of light and triggers the front LED flash.
Security
On to the security side, there is no fingerprint sensor on the smartphone. Since Huawei had fast and accurate fingerprint sensor over the years, I was surprised to find empty back on the phone and nothing but logo on the chin bezel.
Typing pin/password and drawing patterns to unlock the phone is absolutely boring in 2018. Nonetheless, Huawei managed to add face unlock feature as a consolation. However, the face unlock feature in the Y7 Pro is little sluggish and took me a little more than a second to unlock the device. In addition, this sluggish Face Unlock feature doesn’t work at all in the dark.
So not just Huawei, I want to request all the smartphone manufacturers to kindly include a fingerprint sensor on their device. Not just for luxury, this feature has been an absolute need these days.
Battery
The handset comes with the 3000 mAh battery, which backed me for almost a day on the normal use. And the screen-on-time was around 5 hours. I was pretty satisfied with the backup is provided. With the stock charger of 5V, 1A, it took me around 3 hours to get the battery fully charged. But during the course of review time, I used a more powerful charger rated 5V, 2A which accelerated the charging process. And the battery got refilled in just 2 hours’ time. So, if the prolonged charging time bothers you as well you can spend a couple of bucks for a 5V, 2A charger.
Conclusion
To sum it up, Huawei Y7 Pro 2018 is kind of a mixed bag. On the good side, it has got a good design, trendy 18:9 aspect ratio, reliable battery life, and a good set of cameras. However, had Huawei included FHD screen and maybe its own Kirin Processor at this price range it would have been even better.
So, If you are looking for a better display and a more powerful processor, you will have plenty of options out there or you can also opt for it’s bigger sibling Huawei Y9 by investing more. But, if you are looking for a good camera phone, but within a tight budget range, then the Y7 Pro would be a good buy.
The Huawei Nova 3e, also known as the P20 Lite, was only recently launched in the international market. The smartphone which was available in China for a while is now available in Nepal for the price of Rs. 35,900.
The Huawei Nova 3e comes with a 5.84-inch 19:9 LTPS IPS LCD FHD+ display along with a notch. The processor inside is the same reliable HiSilicon Kirin 659 octa-core processor with Mali-T830 MP2 GPU. It comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage with an optional China exclusive 128GB of storage option. The Nova 3e supports expandable storage of up to 256GB, although you will have to sacrifice the dual SIM functionality.
Camera wise, there is a 16MP f/2.2 and a 2MP dual camera setup at the back. The rear camera setup supports up to 1080p video recording at 30fps. The star of the show here is certainly the 16 MP f/2.0 Sony IMX576 front camera.
Rest of the features of Huawei Nova 3e include a fingerprint sensor at the back, USB C connectivity support, and a headphone jack. The phone comes with EMUI 8.0 on top of Android Oreo 8.0 which the Huawei Nova 2i recently received here in Nepal. Finally, powering all of the features is a 3000mAh battery, in a 148.6 x 71.2 x 7.4 mm body.
Colour options include Black, Blue, Gold and Rose Gold. The device has launched in the price segment where smartphones like Oppo F7 and Vivo V9 are trying to leave a mark. For the price of Rs. 35,900, will the device pack a punch or not? Well, we will answer that in our full review.
Huawei Nova 3e Specifications:
Display: 5.84-inch FullHD+ IPS (1080*2160), 19:9 aspect ratio
Over the past few years, the Samsung J series has released some really good smartphones. But in recent times, Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, and even Nepal’s own Colors Mobile have really stepped up their game.
In the middle of all this, Samsung has come up a new smartphone dubbed the Galaxy J2 4G. It shares the exact same hardware as the regular J2, but this time with 4G connectivity. With a price tag of Rs 11,390, let’s find out if it can compete with the rest of its competitors in the same price point.
Samsung Galaxy J2 4G Specification
Display
4.7-inch qHD AMOLED
Processor
1.3GHz Quad-Core Exynos 3475
Memory
1GB RAM, 8GB Internal Storage, expandable (up to 256GB) via micro SD slot
Operating system
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Connectivity
Dual SIM (micro + micro) with 4G LTE
Primary Camera
5MP f/2.2 Aperture, LED flash
Front Camera
2MP f/2.2 Aperture
Battery
2,000mAh
Price in Nepal
Rs 11,390
Design and Build
The smartphone looks almost exactly the same as any other Galaxy J2 smartphone. Frankly speaking, the design language hasn’t changed much since the first Galaxy J2 back in 2015. It flaunts a plastic body with a removable back cover giving you access to the battery alongside two SIM slots and a Micro SD card slot.
It’s a very simple looking smartphone with two captive touch buttons and a classic Samsung home button at the front. On the back lies the 5MP camera alongside the flash and a loudspeaker. On the left, you will find the volume buttons, and on the right the power button. The bottom holds the micro USB port and the headphone jack lies at the top.
I did manage to drop the phone several times, and it came off without any serious damage, apart from the few dents and scuffs. This is one of the best-built smartphones out there, among its competitors of course. It has a sturdy design, with very few creaks and squeaks and a very wholesome feel in hand.
Display
Display shares the same story as the built of the device. The screen sizes in at 4.7 inches, which most people will find tiny and hard to use, especially with a resolution of 960*540 pixels. But frankly, it’s not half as bad, thanks to the AMOLED panel which produces good colors and an above average viewing experience.
The problem is, the display is usable, but comparing it with other smartphones with the same or even cheaper prices, you usually get at-least an HD display, which is a must on a smartphone in 2018. Also, the 4.7-inch display will be a deal breaker for most, considering there are up to 5.5-inch display options as well.
Software and UI
This is where the smartphone starts to show off its quirks. For some unknown reason, the J2 4G edition runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It’s a relatively old version of Android for a smartphone launching in 2018. Nevertheless, you will not feel like you are missing out on something. You might feel traveling back in time having this outdated OS in its system. In addition, you should also have to tussle with the lags and sluggishness due to the lack of RAM and processing power of the phone.
The UI itself lags a lot, with frequent shutters and reloading processes. It was a frustration when I failed to do anything slightly demanding with this smartphone. For the more basic users, who primarily use a phone to call and text, this phone will do just fine.
We can see that people eying a smartphone like the J2 won’t be bothered by which OS their smartphone is currently running. For the same reason, we didn’t let it bother us either. What does bother us is the lack of OS optimization which just makes the device pretty unusable and unpleasant.
Performance
Performance is not a strong suit for this smartphone, in fact, it’s one of the worst out there. It’s a budget smartphone that was meant to do the most basic tasks. Calls, alarms, cameras, browsing the web work well. What doesn’t work well are the full versions of any app. For instance, you will be better off using the Facebook Lite, Messenger lite or any stripped down version of an app.
I had a horrible time with the full versions of the apps which struggled to work at all. These apps really take a toll on the Exynos 3475 and the mere 1GB of RAM the device comes with. More noticeably the frequent UI restarts was a true frustration. This is a device that could really make great use of therecently released Android Go from Google. You can take a look at the benchmark scores below and judge the device yourself.
Storage
The smartphone comes with 8GB of onboard storage, which might be enough for some. Considering the phone struggles with the full version of apps, I installed and used the lite version of the apps. Such lite app relatively takes less storage space when installed and operated. Moreover, installing such light app left enough space available for me because of which I had been able to store adequate files in the onboard storage. Despite the memory management with lite apps, the internal storage was still insufficient for me so I had to employ an SDcard for the purpose.
Camera
Samsung devices have always featured good cameras but seems like this one is an exception. It’s has a 5MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture camera and an LED flash also capable of up to 720p video captures. No matter how hard you try, you cannot overcome its lack of sharpness. Lack of details was evident in the images and the colors were washed out most of the time.
Talking about the front camera, the 2MP f/2.2 aperture camera, almost all the time took blurred photos. A steady hand and a well-lit room might produce some decent selfies. It is also capable of video recordings of up to 640*480 resolutions.
We get that it’s a budget smartphone but just look at the competition. The Colors P85+ Selfie Pro has a 13MP rear and 8MP front camera which takes a lot better pictures comparatively.
Battery
The smartphone holds a 2000mAh battery, which will get you through a day’s usage. In terms of SOT, I got about 3 to 4 hours of usage, which I consider a day’s worth. Charging time is less than two hours, thanks to the small battery capacity.
Is the battery usable? sure! but competitors pack their smartphones with 3000 and sometimes even 4000mAh batteries. These smartphones boast up to 6 hours of SOT, especially considering the targeted buyers will expect a good battery life.
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy J2 4G Edition supports 4G connectivity, alongside Bluetooth 4.1, and 802.11n WiFi. 4G worked as well as on any other smartphone, the best result we got was a maximum of 7.34Mbps down, 10.43Mbps up and latency of around 23ms.
The sensors on the device include an accelerometer and a proximity sensor, which seem enough for day to day usage. Although the call quality wasn’t really something to brag about. Especially when you are on a crowded bus or on open roads, both parties failed to exchange conversations with ease.
Conclusion
You can buy yourself a Samsung Galaxy J2 4G edition for a price of Rs 11,290. For it’s asking price, the smartphone does a few things well. But with just 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory to spare, Samsung could have immensely made use of Android Go. Also, the small battery capacity was a huge bummer.
Buyers do have an option to use the Android Go apps from the Play-store whenever possible. But if in the near future, they do decide to create another smartphone with similar specs, Android Go does sound a lot more promising.
Budget smartphones are getting better by the day, and Samsung really needs to up their game in this segment. The J2 follows the same old tradition of a budget smartphone. It features an outdated software, sluggish performance, barely sufficient battery, and a really mediocre camera setup.
All of which you could avoid if you choose something like a Colors P85+. Even cheaper options like the Xiaomi Redmi 4A will give you an HD display, better performance, and a slightly better camera not to mention the bump in storage and battery while actually saving you money.
My personal suggestion would be to invest a bit more and go for smartphones like the Nokia 2, Huawei Y7 or the Redmi Note 5A. Plus if you plan on using the smartphone for about 1-2 years like everyone else, the extra money you invest on one will definitely be worth it.
Pros
Display
Build
Cons
Performance
Battery
Software
Camera
Alternatives
Colors P85+ Selfie Pro
Full Specifications of Colors P85+ Selfie Pro:
Display: 5.5-inch HD IPS LCD with 2.5D glass; Dragontrail Glass Protection
CPU: 1.3 GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6735
RAM: 2GB
OS: Android 7.0 Nougat
Storage: 16GB, expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card (dedicated)
Rear Camera: 13 MP with f/2.0 aperture, Auto Focus and LED Flash
We have seen an influx of Chinese smartphones in recent years. There are plenty of Chinese brands that offer great hardware specs for fraction of the price. The Umidigi S2 Pro offers full view display, metal unibody, and a dual camera setup. So, let’s see how this device stacks up against the mid-range bunch in our Umidigi S2 pro review.
Design
The first thing you will notice right off the bat is that bright red color of the phone. We particularly liked the bright color but you can opt for the more subtle black option. The phone has a unibody metal construct and the feel of the phone is premium on the hand. Being a tall phone, you can easily carry it around but it’s not ideal for one hand usage.
The phone has slipped too many times from my hands and from my pocket due to its slippery polished back. So, a back cover is a must and Umidigi has provided one inside the box.
If you are against a back cover, it is worth mentioning that this phone doesn’t get any scratches. During my review period, I constantly kept the phone in my pocket along with keys when I am driving. And surprisingly, the phone didn’t get any scratches. The phone also doesn’t attract any fingerprints and it’s super easy to just wipe off any dust from its surface.
The phone although is on the chunky side, the curve back does a good job of hiding its thickness. On the plus side, the phone is splash and dust resistance as well which is an awesome feature to see in a mid-range segment.
Display
The Umidigi S2 Pro comes with a tall 18:9 aspect ratio featuring a 6-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display. We would have loved to see an AMOLED panel which would have made the display punch better with deep blacks and high contrasts. Its competition like the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro has an AMOLED panel to enhance its viewing.
However, the display panel is bright and vibrant. I really enjoyed watching videos and playing games on this huge display. It also gets bright enough to be clearly visible outdoors and there are no color shifts at all with varying angles. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 4. You have MiraVision to change the Color mode and have some additional control over the display.
Performance
The Umidigi S2 Pro is powered by Mediatek’s Helio P25 octa-core chipset clocked at 2.5GHz. What’s offered here may not be a high-end performance chipset, but considering the price of $279, it delivers the power when you ask for it.
Normal navigation, scrolling, and all the basic tasks can be carried out without breaking a sweat. When it comes to gaming, the Asphalt 8 was well playable with no noticeable frame drops or lags. I also tried the new PUBG for mobile and it automatically rendered on low quality. The game was pretty much playable on low quality, but there were minor lags here and there as I played. The phone does heat up after a while of gaming but it stays constant and there’s nothing too serious so you can continue for hours.
The phone offers 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM. You can easily switch between multiple apps opened in the background without breaking a sweat. Turning on the battery saving options do affect the multitasking ability to some extent. Nonetheless, the phone is a capable performer and it would suffice the need of an average user.
Software
The phone is running on Android 7.0 Nougat, which is pretty outdated by today’s standard. This phone is running the heavily skinned UMI OS 2.0. Like any Chinese OEM’s there’s no app drawer and to my surprise, this is the only Chinese phone I know of that completely restricts the user from using third-party launchers. I couldn’t be more disappointed.
Adding to a load of disappointment is the bloatware and they are everywhere, so much so that you could fill up an entire screen with it. This bloatware includes Speed Up cache cleaner, a security app that also acts as a cache cleaner, an App Clean Up that clears the cache, so you get the gist here. There are also dual apps, quick touch, and others include an app store from UMI and theme store.
Umidigi S2 Pro | Software UI
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Home Screen
Notification Panel
Multitasking Panel
That’s already a lot of app on first boot to overwhelm anyone. Fortunately, some of them can be uninstalled and some stay with you for eternity. The inclusion of blue light filter and anti-theft are neat features.
Camera
For me, the purchasing decision of a smartphone comes down to the camera, and I believe it is the same for most of us as well. The Umidigi S2 Pro comes with the dual rear camera in a pair of 13MP + 5MP with f/2.0 aperture. The secondary lens is here for the bokeh effect. And the first thing I tried with its camera was the bokeh effect and it really didn’t impress me much. The bokeh effect just felt a complete hit or miss. Often times there would be a whole area outside the subject without any blur and sometimes half of the subject would be blurred out.
Coming to the image quality of the phone, the pictures it takes has a good amount of saturation with its image processing. If you love punchy colors in your pictures like that from the Samsung phones then you’d love what it has to offer. On Zooming in details as you can see in the images are well preserved in good lighting conditions. What I’ve noticed from the samples is, the phone increases the highlights making the images bright but despite that, the images maintain a very close to the natural color.
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The shutter is quite snappy so you can capture fast moving life as it’s happening. There aren’t plenty of shooting modes here, but you get few standard ones like the slo-mo which creates a jittery gif like slow motion video, time lapse, and color filters. The phone doesn’t offer pro mode, however. The S2 Pro is capable of shooting 4K videos but the quality is not up to par.
Now coming to the front 16MP camera of the device I thought it’d be fun but upon seeing the results I couldn’t be more disappointed with it. Images have pink tint overlay and even with enough light, the image contained few grains and dark spots. There is face beauty mode, and face cute mode with AR stickers.
Connectivity
Talking about connectivity, the phone lacks a headphone jack. And to deal with that the phone does offer USB C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle. The S2 Pro comes with dual nano-hybrid SIM Slot. With 128GB storage on board, you will rarely use any extra SD card with such enormous storage.
It has all the wireless connectivity options such as WiFi (ac), Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS.
Security
For security, you get fingerprint sensor along with face unlock. The face unlock is way slow when compared to the one on OnePlus 5T or even the Vivo V9. It takes about 1 or 2 seconds to unlock the phone.
Battery
One of the biggest assets of the phone is its mammoth 5100mAh battery. Now, this size is something that we don’t see often on smartphones and it’s here to solve one of our biggest issue of battery drainage. The phone is a beast when it comes battery life providing 2 days of backup. I would always have 40-50% battery left on my phone at the end of the day – my usage mostly included browsing social media, taking photos, and gaming.
The phone offers Pump Charge 2.0 fast charging that charges the device within 2 hours. It feels reasonable considering the size of the battery.
Verdict
The Umidigi S2 Pro definitely has got the hardware punch that we don’t see in the midrange phone under $300. The phone comes with a beautifully crafted metal body, ample 128GB of storage and a mammoth 5100 mAh battery.
This phone is definitely a good pick for someone looking for a good aesthetic, more storage, and a 2 days battery life. But on the contrary, the poor selfie camera and iffy UI can turn you down. But in my opinion, it’s a small tradeoff for all the goods you are getting for the price.
However, in Nepal, you need to pay an exorbitant price (Rs.54,900) if you buy the phone from the official channel.
If you are familiar with the Huawei Nova 2i, the Huawei Y9 2018 is not something new for you. Like the Nova 2i, this one packs industry’s top features like a bezel-less display with 18:9 aspect ratio, quad cameras, an FHD+ screen, etc. But all these come for a price of just Rs. 25,900 whereas the Nova 2i comes for seven thousand more that too with almost similar specs. So, is this phone really as good as it looks or is there something fishy going on? Let’s find out in on our Huawei Y9 2018 review.
I never had a complaint about Nova 2i’s design, I don’t have a complaint about Y9’s design either. The Y9 2018 looks sleek and stylish with the huge 5.9-inch screen wrapped around an aluminum alloy body with an 18:9 aspect ratio. I am using the blue variant which I have fallen in love with.
At the back, you will see a dual horizontal camera set up along with an LED flash and a fingerprint scanner just below it. Everything looks good and in place. I did not use a cover and I was impressed that this one does not attract smudge or fingerprints. The phone is comfortable to hold and looks good on hands.
However, one slight concern is that the device is slippery and tends to fall out of hands. It is in such instances that I have felt a need for display protection and as the Y9 provides none, you have to be very careful using it.
Display
The Huawei Y9 2018 has a 5.93-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with FHD+ screen resolution. The display is crisp and viewing content in it is a welcoming experience. If you are suffering from visual fatigue like I am, you will surely find the eye comfort mode useful.
Other than that, the viewing angles, color accuracy (slightly bluish tone), and contrast of the display are good and it also provides ample brightness for you even under sunlight.
Performance
Like the Nova 2i, the Huawei Y9 2018 features the Kirin Hi-silicon 659 processor along with the Mali T830 MP2 GPU. The device, I must say has handled all my multitasking needs without breaking a sweat. Never once has it broken down on my use. Although 3GB RAM seems ample for usage, I still would like to have 1GB more on my device because the others are providing it in the same price range.
Similarly, Huawei is providing 32GB of internal storage, which is a lot less! I mean, on today’s date, I would not want to do the hassle of getting a separate memory card. So, if you don’t add an SD card, you are certainly going to fall short on storage with the Huawei Y9 2018. Thankfully, Huawei has provided a dedicated microSD card slot.
There are a lot of apps onboard that weren’t useful to me, some I had an option to uninstall, some I didn’t. It would have been better if the company had chosen to keep the onboard apps to a minimum considering the low storage it provides, but seems like Huawei has not thought about this.
Gaming was fun in this device, well at low to medium settings. When you go higher on settings, you will feel lags. When I played Asphalt 8, at very low settings, the game ran well but at the medium to high settings, the game lagged. Low and midrange games ran quite well.
If you ask me about heating, I would say that this device does get warm after gaming. At normal use, I have not felt the temperature rise. However, I don’t mean that the temperature rises to become unbearable, but yes, it gets warm. It’s only common for devices to have that tendency.
Software and UI
The Huawei Y9 2018 comes with Android Oreo 8.0 coupled with EMUI 8.0. I feel like the UI on Huawei devices is very simple and same is the case with this one. There are customizable notification icons when you swipe downwards, you can change sliding transitions. You can get to the smart care feature by Huawei by swiping to the left, which well was not useful to me.
Huawei Y9 | Software UI
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home screen
folders
notification
multitasking
Like the Nova 2i, this one too supports smart gestures like swiping three down to take a screenshot or swiping a finger down the fingerprint sensor to get access to notification icons, tapping twice on the screen to turn it on, etc. I like it when companies include such features, I mean these are not very essential or extraordinary but still, it’s fun using them.
Back Camera
The Huawei Y9 2018 has a dual 13+2 MP camera setup at the back. If you look at the pictures I have clicked on this device, the images have a bit more contrast and the images are darker than normal. Similarly, when you are focusing on an object with a white background, it looks overexposed. So, the images are sharp indeed but come out over slightly exposed in a bright environment.
Something that I wanted to test was the portrait mode of this device. The images from the Nova 2i are very bright and punchy whereas from the Y9, they are bit dark and high in contrast. Similarly, both the phones do not have proper edge detection when it comes to portraits shots.
Huawei Y9 | Back Camera Samples
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I tested covering the secondary lenses of both the front and back camera, and yes like the Nova 2i, they properly function to create depth of field. So, you can be ensured that it’s the software that produces the blur, it’s the cameras themselves.
Front Camera
I have quite liked the selfies form this device mainly because it does not make your skin look fairer then it is. Mostly, when you take selfies from smartphones, your skin tends to look brighter, fairer and somewhat beautified. But this one is not at all like that. Again I would say that the images are a bit dark but it preserves the right amount of details. So, I have quite liked them. Not to forget, there is a dual 16+2 MP camera setup at the front too. Again, the images have slightly inaccurate edge detection.
Huawei Y9 | Selfie Samples
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Normal Mode
Bokeh Mode
Overall, I would say that I liked the cameras but when you compare it with Nova 2i, I would prefer Nova 2i.
Security
The fingerprint sensor is snappy on use but I have used it only a few times because I got used to using the facial unlock. It works 90% of the times but when its dark, it may not recognize you sometimes. Other times, its swift.
Audio & Call Quality
The speakers are positioned in the lower portion and are decently loud. But the fact that they get covered most of the times while playing games ruins the fun, so I had to be careful to avoid covering them. Other than that, call quality and network coverage are good.
Battery
Something that has thoroughly satisfied me about the Y9 2018 is the battery. The device has a huge 4,000 mAh battery that can back you up for a day entire after intense usage like gaming and watching videos. At light usage, like for social media, clicking pictures and the like, you get a life of nearly two days on a single charge.
The device took me 2 hours and around 10 minutes to get charged and a screen on time of 8 hours. I know the inclusion of fast charging support is fancy on today’s date but I think the addition of a battery this large in capacity is a balanced effort by Huawei.
Conclusion:
The Huawei Y9 is an affordable version of the Nova 2i which pretty much similar everything except for the cameras and storage option. Summing up, the things I have liked on this device are the display, design, and the most certainly the Battery life.
The cameras, though are not as same as the Nova 2i, but still, perform good enough for the price you are paying. The performance section, like the Nova 2i is decent and will suffice the need of an average user like me.
But if you are a heavy gamer, opting for the Galaxy J7 Duo would suffice the need as it comes with a powerful Exynos 7884 chipset. If storage and stock Android experience is your topmost priority, there’s Mi A1 with 64GB storage and pure android.
So, if you ask me if getting this phone is a good decision, I would say that if storage and gaming performance is not a concern for you, the device pretty much lives up to your expectations.
There was news flying in the social media about the appointment of Teletalk as the new authorized distributor of Xiaomi in Nepal. Since the news was around in the first week of April, most of the people thought it was a hoax. And it took time for the people to process the information and realize it as a truth. The main reason for the disbelief at first was a huge difference in the price of the smartphone than one set by the Vatsal Impex, which had been around the market as the sole authorized distributor of Xiaomi products in Nepal for almost three years. Probably, that’s the reason why Teletalk has been hailed by the public with higher votes ( 63% over 37% while writing this article) in our poll.
[socialpoll id=”2496255″]
In the early days, there were few smartphone brands in Nepal and Samsung had gained nearly 70% of the smartphone market share. People had few choices back then. During that time the brand Xiaomi emerged, which used to deliver products offering a good value for money: bang for the buck we would like to call it.
However, the smartphone from Xiaomi was not available in Nepal during that time. Despite the unavailability, the features packed in the smartphones lured people so much that they owned Xiaomi smartphone buying from the gray market. And a little later, when Vatsal Impex Pvt. Ltd. was designated as the authorized distributor of Xiaomi products in Nepal, everyone was excited.
But the things didn’t go as the way the customers expected. Soon After taking the job, Vatsal launched outdated smartphones like the Xiaomi MI 4 and the Redmi Note 2, which were priced exorbitantly. The smartphone launched thereafter were not cheap either. Vatsal Impex used to mark the price at 30-40% higher on every other smartphone that followed next. Sometimes the price was as high as 1.5 times the price in the India/China market.
Xiaomi smartphones are renowned for providing remarkable specs at the affordable prices. However, that hadn’t been the case in Nepal. Even in the long journey of three years, the pricing attitude of Vatsal Impex had not changed a bit. Probably that the reason why the officials find a new way to sort out the problem; by appointing a new distributor. When Teletalk was appointed as the new distributor, the price of the smartphone became really affordable. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (3/32GB) priced around Rs. 23,000 back then is now available for Rs. 18,999 and Xiaomi MI A1 priced at Rs. 29,999 (4/64GB) can now be purchased at Rs. 24,999 via Teletalk.
When Teletalk was delegated as the added as a distributor, the selling territory was also well defined. Teletalk was allowed to make sales outside the valley whereas Vatsal would do the sales inside the valley. For the sales coverage inside the valley, Teletalk was also permitted to make use of an online platform. So Teletalk partnered with SastoDeal to make sales inside the valley. Similar privileges were there for Vatsal too for selling its smartphones outside the valley. And for the process, Vatsal wooed Daraz for online transactions outside the valley.
Was it out of the shame or just to maintain the competition, we don’t know, but Vatsal Impex dropped the price as well. And the thing to note here is that Vatsal Impex dropped the price on the smartphones which are also being sold by the Teletalk. Vatsal Impex found it useless to slash the price on the smartphones that are not available through Teletalk. Probably that has been the reason, why people seem to go against Vatsal so fiercely. Their main rage for Vatsal is that if the things could be sold at such affordable prices then why such a loot? And why is there not a price drop on other phones?
Another main weakness seen from the Vatsal over the years is the late launches of phones in Nepal. Xiaomi Redmi 5 Pro, the most loved and most awaited phone is the fan base is still not available in Nepal. Probably these are the reasons that obliged the users to dislike Vatsal and opt for Teletalk among the two. Our followers have voted against Vatsal and preferred Teletalk in the poll. However, on contrary to our followers’ vote, our vote would be for the presence of both the distributors like now. So that there would not be a monopoly and each distributor would mark the price on their product competitively. And we (the customers/users) can own the Xiaomi smartphones at an affordable price.
Google wants to become the leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) company and the Californian company proved its determination in its annual I/O conference. The event started from May 8 and will run till May 10, 2018, in California. The Google CEO Sundar Pichai hosted the conference and many announcements on Android P, Google Home and WearOS among others have been made.
Highlights of Google I/O 2018:
1. Gmail will write your emails for you
Google announced a huge renovation of Gmail just a couple of weeks ago. It added the abilities to snooze emails and messages and make payments within Gmail iOS application. Yesterday and a new feature called ‘smart compose’ was introduced. Using AI, Gmail can now automatically complete writing emails. Additionally, it predicts and suggests phrases to be added to the email as we write.
2. Android P updates
Google has made many updates regarding Android P. The updates are set to make Android P more efficient and smarter than Android Oreo. The first feature is ‘adaptive battery’ which will help in the reduction of CPU usage by 30%. It will automatically close the apps that are not going to be used for the rest of the day.
‘Adaptive brightness’ will gain knowledge about the personal preferences through Artificial Intelligence and automatically adjust the brightness you prefer. Also ‘App action’ predicts what you want to do next. It stores the actions you usually do at the same time every day. So, if you always call your friend/ family at a specific time, it will remind you to do so at that exact time.
It is also launching a new Dashboard to Android which will let users monitor the time they consume using their phone. It keeps the record number of times the user unlocks their phone in a day, how long has been spent using specific apps and so on. Android P will also let people set timers on how long they want to use specific apps each day to control usage of the phone. This will be quite helpful for many people. And a new feature ‘Shush’ will be added which will put the phone in ‘do not disturb’ when it is placed face down on a desk.
3. Google Duplex has Assistant to handle your calls
The most astonishing highlight of Google I/O 2018 is the Google Duplex. It has made the Assistant very lifelike. The Google Duplex has no hint of a robotic voice. Duplex has made the conversation with your assistant more interactive and more human-like than any other AI has ever made. The company also is adding a new feature that allows you to ask multiple questions within the same request. In other words, you don’t have to say “hey Google” or “Ok Google” every single time making the interaction more unnatural.
Google Assistant is now smarter with a natural sounding voice which makes phone calls to book reservations and make appointments. And it doesn’t stop there. It can even handle back and forth Q&A.
4. Google Map will use your camera to display data
With this feature, Google Map will pair with your camera and computer vision technology with Streer View to navigate you to your destination. Here, Google will pair up with Street View data and AR, and turn-by-turn experience will be provided. Google Lens can identify buildings, texts, or even dog breeds, just by pointing your camera at the object.
Google has also introduced a new shortlist feature. It shows you new restaurants and firms that are trending among other users. However, Google hasn’t confirmed whether this feature will come in Google Maps.
5.New Assistant Voices
Google now has six new virtual assistant voices – including singer John Legend’s. And thanks to Duplex, it might speak like we do. It can train kids, customize Google Routines, and order carries outs. Amazon Echo will face some tough competition now with similar devices running on Google’s software. Smart Display with Google Assistant will be launched in July.
6. Android P beta is now available
Android P beta has now been made accessible by Google. Google is launching its public beta to 8 manufactures. So, the new beta is available to handsets like Pixel, OnePlus, Nokia, Sony, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and the Essential phones.
7. Google News will be curated by AI
Yes, it’s true. Google news app is renovated and is being powered by AI. The firm’s AI analyzes all the contents published on the internet and organized all the data, articles, images, videos and storylines. It looks for data that is interesting and puts them for your briefing. Among the thousands of true as well as fake headlines and news, Google News lists out the news that is written and shot by award-winning national reporters, journalists, and insightful bloggers.
8. Smarter Lens
Google lens has also received a long-awaited update. The Lens includes smart text selection which will help the camera to understand words. In other words, it can copy text from the real world like books, menus, tags, and then paste it into the text field on the smartphone. Another feature of Lens is that it can identify price of clothing, food, landmarks, and fashion as well. Although it isn’t perfect yet, it does the job.
9. Smarter editing powers in Google Photos
Google Photos has added a major AI-powered feature that can B&W photo colour correction, brightness correction and suggested rotations. It has powerful tools to edit, modify and sort photos.
Huawei has rolled out almost all of its recent smartphones with the Oreo version of Android. However, if you take a look at the devices launched around a year ago (like the Huawei Nova 2i), the smartphones were still waiting for the Oreo update.
Well, the wait is over now because the Huawei Nova 2i has just received the Android v8.0 Oreo update. The device now runs on Oreo with EMUI 8.0 on top. Previously, it featured Android Nougat 7.0 with EMUI 5.1 version before the update.
With the Android Oreo 8.0 and EMUI 8.0 update, there are subtle changes in the UI, that might not be noticeable. For instance, you now get an option to snooze notifications in the notification bar as per your liking. Similarly, you get an enhanced notification bar. Likewise, the device supports better app launching with the new Oreo 8.0 update.
Apart from that, there is a new Picture-in-Picture mode that helps you create a picture-in-picture window while the app is open or after you leave it so that you can continue with your tasks. The device, with this update, is also said to have a better and optimized battery life and a quicker app opening time. Also, there is a smart text detection mode that Huawei has included in its latest update.
Although there are not many changes that have happened with this update, it’s good to know that your device runs on the latest version of Android considering some devices in the same price range are still running on stale versions.
However, all of your Huawei Nova 2is may not get the update all at once. The time of the update is different in different places. So, if you have not received an update, its most likely that you will receive in very soon.
Daraz is the leading e-commerce company in South Asia, which was showering the people in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Nepal with its lucrative online services. These days, the e-commerce website had created quite a buzz with the mouth-watering deals on the smartphone likes Xiaomi Redmi 4Aand the Nokia 8 and also the laptop deals. The same website has now been acquired by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. This step is heavily remarked by the Tech pundits as Alibaba Group’s plan to expand its e-commerce business in South Asia. Those pundits have also predicted that this step would subject to revolutionize the online business scenario in the developing countries like Nepal.
With this acquisition, Daraz will now present itself in the market with high hopes and would look forward to leveraging Alibaba’s leadership and experience in technology, online commerce, mobile payment, and logistics to drive further growth in the five South Asian markets. And the most interesting thing is that this market has a combined population of over 460 million in which 60% of are under the age of 35. So Alibaba has great potential to succeed in the South Asian market too.
Founded in 2012 in Pakistan, the e-commerce portal had been the online marketplace in South East Asia expanding its territory in the countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. And it also had garnered substantial goodwill and growth over the years. Spreading the awareness regarding the online sales and purchases, the e-commerce had been able to serve 5 million customers. Over the years, the company started to sell the products ranging from consumer electronics to household goods, beauty, fashion, sports equipment, and groceries. And during that period, it has also able to create an e-commerce empire consisting of 30,000 resellers making the sales of over 500 brand products.
Despite the press release of the acquisition, the amount of money spent by Alibaba Group to acquire Daraz has not been divulged yet. Nonetheless, with so much of goodwill and penetration of Daraz in the market, we can assume that the e-commerce titan will find it easy to grow and deliver its services in the constituent countries. We can also expect that the presence of Alibaba in the countries like Nepal would ensure cheap and easy shipping of the foreign products. With the presence of Alibaba in Nepal, we can expect things, services, and products to be cheaper than they used to be. However, the company’s further plans have not been revealed yet, so nothing much can be said yet.
Other than that, the viewing angles, color accuracy (slightly bluish tone), and contrast of the display are good and it also provides ample brightness for you even under sunlight.
