If you are in the market for a smartphone, this is the best time to buy one. Daraz Kaymu is offering very interesting deals this week in their Mobile Week 2017. Keep in mind these discounts ends on the 7th of July, so don’t wait around for long. Plus they are providing free shipping on selected phones all over Nepal.
Here we have listed some of the best deals under their respective price range along with the links to buy them.
Best Deals Under 10k
Micromax E451 (Canvas Pulse) : Rs 16,720 Rs 9,500 with additional Rs 500 discount using voucher code MW500
3. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 64GB : Rs 28,499 with JBL Go portable mini bluetooth speaker worth Rs 3,900 and Rs 2000 additional discount using voucher code MW2000
One Plus recently launched its flagship phone of 2017, the One Plus 5. The phone is already available in countries like US, India, and UK. However, the phone is now available for preorder in Nepal, and online retailer Kaymu has started taking preorders of the phone from through its official website.
One Plus 5 offers lots of improvements over its previous generations (OnePlus 3 & 3T). They have also fixed one of the biggest complaints they received, the camera. Their answer is the new dual-camera setup which the company claims to offer improvements over the previous versions. Their new phone doesn’t offer the much hyped bezel-less displays, but the whopping and a little gimmicky 8GB of RAM is sure to win over the enthusiasts. But, the version that’s available for preorder in Nepal is the 6GB version.
The 5.5″ Optic AMOLED screen with a 1920*1080 resolution is the same from last generation. But the new Snapdragon 835 SoC built on 10nm architecture is sure to deliver butter smooth performance and better battery life. Pair that with 6/8GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage, this device is a beast on its own. The phone runs on the latest version of Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Oxygen OS on top.
But the star of the show is the Dual Camera. With one 16MP f/1.7 lens and another 20MP f/2.6 lens capable of 1.6x optical zoom and a dual LED flash. The camera is capable of 4k video recording at up to 30fps. The front camera is a 16MP f/2.0 lens with EIS. These cameras are capable of taking great photos, definitely an improvement over the last generation.
Other things include Bluetooth 5.0, Dash Charge (20Watts), USB C, NFC, front mounted fingerprint sensor, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and a 3300mAh battery.
Price and where to buy the One Plus 5 in Nepal
The One Plus 5 is priced at Rs 59,499 for the 6GB RAM and 64GB ROM model. Although if you preorder it right now, you can get Rs. 4000 worth of Kaymu Voucher. Click this link to pre-order the One Plus 5 right now.
Do you think the One Plus 5 price in Nepal is little pricey? Or You think the Pricing is right? Let us know in the comment section.
Daraz Kaymu is not an unfamiliar name to the Nepalis who have internet access. The company is a leading online platform here and garners thousands of orders every day. It had organized ‘Black Friday’ on 2016 and had a steep rise in sales during the campaign. Fast forward several months and the company is back at it again; this time with Mobile Week.
Mobile Week, like its name suggests, is a promotional event for the sale of mobile phones. Customers will get to exercise discounts and deals, and even win some freebies and gift hampers.
The event has already started and will end on 7th July 2017. We got an exclusive look at some of the deals Daraz Kaymu is offering in its campaign, and we are quite impressed by it.
So, today we have listed out some of the deals that you should look and for. We will update the list gradually so keep tuning into GadgetByte Nepal to know about the best deals different brands will be offering.
Up until now, Daraz Kaymu is providing discounts on only select Samsung mobile phones. We will be updating other offers from Samsung as soon as possible.
We rarely see Apple providing deals on their latest iPhone models, but the Kaymu Mobile week is an exception. They are offering deals and freebies on iPhone 7, 7s, and SE.
One of the major highlights of the Daraz Kaymu Mobile Week is that customers will exclusively get to pre-order the recently launched OnePlus 5. The device has made headlines due to the inclusion of dual rear-facing cameras and 8 GB of RAM. Discounts are also available on all the other OnePlus devices currently sold in Nepal.
Among all the deals and discounts, the one that first caught my eye was Huawei. The Chinese company is offering a TV, 10 GB of Ncell data, JBL Flip 4 Speaker, lens kit and a whopping 50% discount on the purchase of its different smartphones. Daraz Kaymu will also sell one of the newer entries to the Nepali smartphone market – the Huawei P10 Plus.
Discounts and deals will also galore on some of Xiaomi smartphones. Customers could get JBL Go, JBL T110 or a 23.90% discount with the purchase of the devices.
Along with the deals and discounts provided by different brands, Daraz Kaymu is itself offering some discounts on mobile phones through voucher codes. Customers can use the codes at checkout to get extra cash discounts. Here are all the available voucher codes:
We all remember what happened to the Galaxy Note 7 in 2016. But now, after recalling the same device twice, Samsung is going to try a third time. And this time, it’s called the Galaxy Note Fan Edition.
The naming of the device comes from the promotional poster put on display in South Korea. This is purely targeted towards the core Note fans and those who want a last year flagship phone on the cheap.
galaxy note fan edition promo in South Korea
Samsung has just begun to recover from their PR disaster. If this device happens to show any battery issues, it’s going to be even worst for Samsung’s reputation. And with a risk that big, Samsung has placed a more stringent safety testing procedures in place. This is basically a way to counter the huge financial losses and environmental issues.
The new device is going to be exactly the same as before, except for the battery. The older batteries are going to be replaced by a smaller battery, so that’s reassuring. Right?With the newer Galaxy Note 8 just a few months away, this phone is going to have to provide something special.
The refurbished device is expected for the reveal in selected regions on July 7, for a price tag of $611. So, what do you think of the Note Fan Edition? Would you buy the refurbished smartphone? And what do you think about the pricing of the device? Comment below to let us know.
We see new mid-range phones ever so often and most of them come with similar pricing and specs so there isn’t much distinguishing factor between them. Some may come with bigger RAM, others with storage and some with sheer battery power. Today we’ve such phone from ZTE, the ZTE Blade A2 Plus which promises us with the best battery life possible. Let’s find out if the device delivers what it promises.
ZTE Blade A2 Plus: Specs Highlights
5.5-inch, full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS LCD display
Android v6.0 Marshmallow with MiFavor UI on top
Octa-core MediaTek MT6750T with Mali T860 MP2 GPU
4GB of RAM
13 MP rear-facing camera, Dual tone LED Flash
8 MP front-facing camera
Hybrid Dual SIM tray
32 GB Internal Storage
MicroSD card support (up to 256GB, uses SIM2 slot)
5,000 mAh battery
Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor
Price: Rs. 23,900 (Free Laptop Bag worth Rs. 1200)
First let’s start off with the feature focus of the phone, which is its massive 5,000mAh battery which has added some heft to it. It’s tagline “More Bigger Battery Larger Endurance” surely justifies the real life durability as well. With normal use, I could easily squeeze two days of battery life and with heavy gaming and frequent use, it lasted me until the end of the day which is what I would generally expect from a battery of this size. The phone comes with a lot of power saving modes if you want to get more out of the massive battery.
Also, accompanying the phone is a 5V-1.5A charger which fills up the device within 2 hours 15 minutes give or take.
Build
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Talking about the build of the device, the back comprises of metal finish and feels premium in the hand. The back also holds the fingerprint sensor and the camera parallelly. The top and bottom of the phone have a textured finish which goes well with its design. And on the front, the design feels uninspiring as it looks bland with nothing much going on. It has got capacitive navigation bar which is backlit. The lights turn ON when you press them but you can also always keep them ON. The phone is on the heavier side with 189 grams but feels sturdy nonetheless. And on the bottom, there are dual grills where one acts as a mic and another as the speaker.
Display
The A2 Plus comes with a 5.5 inch Full HD display and its colors are on the softer side. But you won’t notice that until you compare it with another device side by side. The colors of the display are tweakable with the use of MIRA VISION option included in the settings. Watching movies and playing games on this screen won’t disappoint you but make sure you keep your hands off the speaker grill as it can completely suppress the sound. The viewing angles of this display are excellent from multiple viewpoints. I like how the display gets really dim making it easier to use at night, also it gets bright enough to be seen in direct sunlight. The display is susceptible to fingerprint smudges so it can sometimes hinder your visibility in direct lights.
Performance
For performance, the A2 Plus has opted for MediaTek’s MT6750T octa-core chipset clocked at 1.5Ghz and comes with 4GB of RAM. The usual walkthrough in the device is smooth. The opening of basic apps are quick but the demanding apps surely take a lot of time. Titles like NOVA Legacy and Asphalt 8 are playable at low settings with low or no frame drops. Despite having a metal body, I could only feel a trivial amount of heat near the camera section while gaming for a longer period, this is definitely an attribute of having a low powered processor. And with 4GB of RAM, you can swiftly multitask between apps with ease. But the processor’s mediocrity is felt when you’re heavily multitasking with demanding apps.
Software
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ZTE’s Mifavor UI is running on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow which is pretty dated. As these phones never get Android updates, it’s outdated software can be a letdown for many people. Like with most of the Chinese UI, there is no app drawer and everything is right on your home screen. The phone comes with plenty of bloatware which fortunately can be disabled. The usability is straightforward with very few features for the launcher. If you swipe up on the home screen it will provide you with options to change the accent color of the UI, icon shape, and swipe transitions. There isn’t much you can do from the default launcher so if you want more functionality, you should opt for a third party launcher.
Most of the functionality here has been directed towards its fingerprint sensor. It has a clickable fingerprint reader, so there’s a lot you can do with it. A single click will take a screenshot, double click will turn on the camera and a long press will turn on the flashlight, however, these actions cannot be modified. I found these features handy for my daily use. But wait there’s more!
You can click pictures, answer your calls with a touch. Swipe down the fingerprint sensor for notification drawer, swipe up for recent apps and left or right swipe on the gallery will flip through images. I really didn’t use these features but they are there if you want to make use of it.
The phone provides options to hide SMS, photos, lock apps and so on. It also comes with its own health app called S Life which counts your steps and calories burned. It has Family Mode which by turning ON, you make the UI elements larger and easy to use. This feature is directed toward someone younger or older who finds using smartphone overwhelming. So overall, the phone has got minimal UI and features which will not intimidate you.
Camera
Jumping into the camera of the phone, the UI is basic and there aren’t a whole bunch of features to play around with. Literally, there’s just the filter menu to choose between the different color filters and nothing more as a standard option. The UI seems inspired from the days of KitKat.
At daylight, the primary 13MP Camera results in acceptable photos but the colors are warm and the details are not on point. And in low light, the camera suffers well with lag in viewfinder and inability to focus. The images in low light are dark and contain lots of grains.
The 8MP Front Facing Camera, however, results in well enough photos. At low light, the front camera uses the screen as a flash which enhances the photo to some extent.
Verdict
So, coming to the conclusion of the ZTE A2 Plus, the phone is really impressive when it comes to build and battery performance. If you want a decent smartphone with great battery life, then the ZTE Blade A2 Plus will suffice your need. But for the price, it feels comparatively deficient as there are better alternatives offering more for the same price.
Pros of ZTE Blade A2 Plus
Battery Life
As a battery oriented phone, it is essential to carry a substantial sized battery and also make sure it provides a justifiable standby time. With 5,000mAh battery and mediocre specs, the device easily makes it until the end of the day or next. Such backup comes handy especially if you’re someone who travels a lot and also not having to charge your device every now and then is a great relief.
Build Quality
Midrange phones are opting for metal bodies but substantially a lot of phones still lack this, so the ZTE Blade A2 has the edge when it comes to build quality. Although the phone is on the thicker side and is heavy due to the massive battery, it feels premium and has a solid build.
Usability/Fingerprint Gestures
Usually, phones with Chinese UI is hard to use with loads of feature crammed into every other corner of the UI. But the ZTE has taken a minimalist approach, you can take this as a lack of feature or you can just appreciate how easy it is to use the device. You can navigate with ease and sort how things work in a jiffy.
Also, the praiseworthy feature of the ZTE Blade A2 Plus is how well they have managed to make use of the fingerprint sensor. Out of the usual convention, the fingerprint sensor serves more than one purpose which comes really handy.
Cons of ZTE Blade A2 Plus
Camera
The first thing we look for in a new smartphone is its camera and the ZTE Blade A2 Plus’s Camera didn’t impress us that well. The Camera can be termed as average, as the images on the daylight are good with the slight lack of details and colors. Also, the lack of features in the camera UI has handicapped the users from getting creative with the camera.
The main issue here is when you open the camera UI in low-lighted conditions. The viewfinder lags a lot, leaving trails of objects as you struggle to maintain your focus on the subject.
Performance
After Camera, performance is the second thing people look for in a smartphone. The phone uses a mediocre MT6750T chipset which falls short when you push the device with heavy multitasking and extreme gaming. Opting for SnapDragon 625 would have been great for the performance.
Here are few of the alternatives of ZTE Blade A2 Plus:
A phone that uses Air instead of a battery to power itself might sound impossible, but now it exists. Although, you should note that this phone is only capable of making calls for now.
Nonetheless, it’s remarkable even to have this type of technology. This prototype phone relies on a technique known as backscatter. Here, the device can reflect the radio waves to function. It means that it uses analog technology instead of digital, which they say consumes less power.
The phone doesn’t have the best reception but it still works and that’s the more important part
The same team from the University of Washington in Seattle have also developed the ‘singing poster‘ and ‘passive Wi-Fi system’. These two inventions also rely on the same technology. This technology was inspired from the hidden audio bugs used by the Soviet spies during the cold war.
At this stage of the development, the prototype has a range of only 15 meters and includes a touch sensitive number pad with a small LED display. With the development process in progress, they are sure to improve their product with more and better features. But don’t expect a touch screen to come anytime soon as that would require almost a hundred thousand times more power to operate.
Picture credit: University of Washington
For now, this phone functions just like a walkie-talkie, you have to press a button to switch between listening and speaking. But they have promised the call quality to improve and an E-ink display for text messages for their next generation.
But still, these quirks are worth the benefits we stand to achieve from this device. If you think of the most important device that you don’t want to die on you, that would be your phone, and this promises the same.
The developers have also promised to price this device at a very reasonable rate. But for now, we can hope that progress continues at a steady rate without hiccups. You can read more about it here.
Interland is a web-based game designed to aware the people about internet security. This game is specially designed for kids to warn them about phishing, internet harassment, internet security and other internet safety concerns. This game comes under Google’s “Be Internet Awesome” initiative to help children of today learn the fundamentals of digital citizenship.
Although this game is designed for kids, it is fun for adults too. I played this game for a few hours and found it to be interesting and fun. It is the product of countless inputs from educators, YouTube videographers, internet safety and literacy organizations. In terms of medicine, Interland feels like a syrup rather than a tablet for kids to swallow which is a good thing.
For playing the game, you just log-in to Interland and select one of 4 areas. They are King Kingdom, Reality River, Mindful Mountain and finally Tower of Treasure.
1. King Kingdom
This area makes us aware of the impact of cyber bullies. The beings in this game are called internauts. In this land the internauts are sad and we must share kindness to them in order to make them happy. We must also protect the fellow internauts from bullies. To complete all tasks, you have to either press a button to put a barrier between the sad internaut and the bully or simply report the bully using a microphone.
2. Reality River
Reality River enlightens us about the dangers of phishing. The goal of the game is to cross a river. To cross the river all you have to do is correctly choose the given option. Even if you choose a wrong option, don’t worry because you will get another try. The main initiative of the game is not to trick you to lose but to educate you about phishing. After answering all the questions correctly, you finally get to the river.
3. Mindful Mountain
The objective of Mindful Mountain is to teach us how information is to be shared. It teaches the players to share useful knowledge and discard sharing any junk information. Here you have to bounce light through mirrors to reflect information to the desired internauts.
4. Tower of Treasure
The Tower of Treasure is a password security game. The internaut has to run and collect letters in the form of blocks. They will also have to dodge obstacles using either the right, left control or jump key. It resembles a Temple Run-style endless game.
In a Nutshell
All in all, Interland is a wonderful way to teach kids about the dangers of the internet and precautions one must take while using the internet. Here in Nepal, this is also great for parents and grandparents who are not aware of all the harmful things on the internet. Have you guys tried this game? Have your parents or grandparents played this game? Let us know in the comments below!
One of the awaited phones of the year, the Nokia 6 is finally arriving in Nepal. The phone is finally set to launch in August this year. Nokia has won back lots of fans with their new range of phones, and they expect the same from Nepal with the release of this device.
Nokia 6 Price in Nepal (Expected): Rs. 27,500
Their previous releases in Nepal, Nokia 3310 and Nokia 3 were a fan favorite in Nepali market. Launched less than a month ago, these phones have allegedly sold out. The Nokia 3310 was one of the remakes of the old best selling 3310 giving buyers a feeling of nostalgia. The Nokia 3, on the contrary, provided good specs at a budget.
Nokia 6 Specs:
5.5″ 1920*1080 IPS LCD screen
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
Snapdragon 430 SoC (4 x 1.2 GHz Cortex A53 & 4 x 1.5 GHz Cortex A53) 64-bit processor with Adreno 505 GPU
32GB/64GB ROM with expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
3GB/4GB RAM
Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
16 MP back camera with dual-tone LED flash, PDAF, 1.0um sensor, f/2.0 aperture
8 MP front camera with 1.12um sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 84˚ wide-angle lens
Colors: Matte Black, Silver, Tempered Blue and Copper
Nokia 6 Price in Nepal (Expected): Rs. 27,500
The expected price of the phone is Rs 27,500. Do you think the Nokia 6 price in Nepal is noteworthy considering the competition? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
gWith ever evolving realm of smartphones, improvements on specs is a constant progression. Brands proclaim to have the best of a certain aspect, but, front camera and battery is something less heard of. Today we’ve got the new phone from Gionee, the Gionee A1 Plus which promises us both; a super selfie camera and a durable battery life. Let’s find out if the Gionee A1 Plus delivers what it has pledged.
SPECIFICATIONS OF GIONEE A1 PLUS:
6.0 inches (1080 x 1920) @367ppi
Weight: 226 grams
Amigo OS 4.0 on top of Android 7.0 Nougat
MediaTek MT6757T Helio P25 Chipset
Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.4 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU
Mali-T880MP2 GPU
4GB RAM
64GB Internal Storage, Expandable up to 256GB
Dual 13 MP + 5 MP Rear Camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus
20MP Front Facing Camera with f/2.0 aperture
Non-removable Li-Ion 4550 mAh battery with fast charging
Build:
The Gionee A1 Plus comes with a metal clad body with a hefty weight of 226grams. It looks pleasantly beautiful despite the common industrial design aesthetics. With 6-inch of display, the phone has a huge footprint which has been contributed by its thick top and bottom bezels. The phone feels chunky on the hand and it is impossible for single-handed usage. I really wished the phone was a little less heavy and the bezels were small as this could have really helped in making the phone handier.
Display:
Gionee A1 Plus comes with a 6-inch Full HD display with 367ppi. The display is stunning with bright and vibrant colors. You have the option to change the color composition and set it to be Warm or Cool. Watching high-resolution content and gaming is a joy on this display. There’s no color shift even viewing the display from a different perspective. The display gets bright enough to comfortably use the device outdoors in direct sunlight.
Performance:
With a high price tag and all the other great specs, we expect the phone to come with a powerful chipset. But that’s not the story here! Powering the Gionee A1Plus is the MediaTek’s Octa-Core Helio P25 Processor, where 4 energy efficient cores are clocked at 1.4GHz and four performance cores are clocked at 2.5GHz.
Considering its flagship status, opting for the Helio X20 would have been a better alternative. Even with that, for the daily usage, this phone won’t disappoint you as it crunches through everything you throw at it. The opening of apps are quick, playing high-end games with good frame rate is feasible and any task that requires high performance can be done. Although with its metal construct, playing high-end games for long hours didn’t result in noticeable heating.
The phone comes with 4GB of RAM. Gionee seems to have imposed strict memory management on this phone as most of the recent apps running in the background are killed quite early. Power Management seems to be at play as keeping running apps in the background consumes power. This action guarantees the Super Battery that Gionee promised with the phone. At most, you can switch to and fro between 2-4 apps with ease for a brief period.
Software:
Chinese UI are assuredly cluttered, most of them come with OEM’s own set of apps. Amigo UI based on Android 7.0 Nougat on the Gionee A1 Plus is no different in that prospect. It comes with its own Play Store(GStore), wallpaper app (Mood Wallpaper), calendar, notes and a whole load of Google Apps. I found most of them fairly useless so I froze them right away. And yeah, there’s an inbuilt option to freeze unwanted app! It also has no app drawer so starting with your first boot, your home screen is pretty much full of apps.
A1 Plus UI
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UI Update App
Desktop Setting
Gionee Weather App detail
Gionee Weather App
Home Screen
Launcher Menu
Settings
System Manager
Also, the quick toggles from the bottom are hard to get used to. Often, I’d just scroll the content on my display when summoning the toggles panel swiping up. Swiping down from the top will give you the notification panel. Diving inside Settings, there are few notable features like:
Edge Bar: quick access to your important apps by swiping left or right on the fingerprint scanner.
Eye Protection: cuts off blue light from the display by applying a yellow tint.
Suspend button: floating bubble for navigation actions and shrinking the display for a one-handed mode.
Power Manager: Switch between power saving modes.
And Chinese UI wouldn’t be complete without a System Manager app. The one in this phone lets you clean up the cache, scan for virus, and control networking.
The fingerprint scanner on the Gionee A1Plus is blazingly fast. Compared with the OnePlus 3, it was a tad faster without exception. As the fingerprint sensor also acts as a home button, it has to be hard pressed instead of touch to function. I found it really troublesome and wished it was touch enabled instead of a hard press.
Hardware:
The phone houses capacitive navigation keys, where the centered home button acts as a fingerprint sensor. On its sides, back and recent buttons have a minimal dot indicator. These buttons can also be swapped.
On the right side, it holds volume buttons and power button with tactile feedback. The power button has a distinct orange tint making it easier to turn on the phone on low light. On the bottom, it has micro USB port and speakers. Gionee A1 Plus comes with Maxx Audio enabled, so the audio experience with its speaker and earphone is good.
Gionee A1 Plus comes with Maxx Audio enabled, so the audio experience with its speaker and earphone is good.
Camera:
Gionee market their phones as the Super Selfie phone and they are among few OEM’s that put effort into bringing forth a plausible selfie camera. Gionee A1 Plus houses a massive 20MP Camera on the front, which sounds superior compared to its primary 13+5MP Camera which doesn’t even sum up to 20! But the quality of photos has more to do with aperture, the size of the sensor and many aspects than just the megapixel count. So, putting the front camera to test, I had great results with it. The images were bright and natural, they contained plenty of sharpness and details to make them worthy of social media uploads.
At low light, the images look decent but they contain few grains and dark spots which the front flash fixes to an appreciable amount. The camera also comes with face beauty mode which I found ridiculous. It’ll revamp your face making it look unnatural. But despite that, looking at the camera’s output, the Gionee A1 Plus is worthy of the tag Super Selfie.
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Dual Camera is not a rare scene on smartphones anymore. They serve different purpose ranging from wide angle shots, digital zoom and bokeh effect. The Dual Primary Camera (13MP+5MP) on the Gionee A1 Plus assists in taking images with Bokeh effect.
In general, photos have good dynamic range, colors are close to natural and the details are soft. The shutter speed is fast and the default setting gets you great results, so most of the time you can just pull out your phone, take the photo and walk away with a great result. Images at the low light are not that great with loads of grain and lack of sharpness.
For Bokeh photos, there’s portrait mode. You can adjust the aperture to maintain the level of depth on photos. The results were jumbled with the Portrait mode. With few photos, I had perfect bokeh on the subject where the subject’s outline was properly maintained and with others, the blur intruded the subject itself, going inside bounds. So, for the perfect photo, you might have to experiment with the portrait mode a few times.
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The camera comes with a bunch of modes that will prove helpful. You have a dedicated professional mode which provides options to fine-tune shutter speed, White Balance, Exposure, and ISO. There’s also night mode, time-lapse, slow motion, GIF, card scanner and even translation. These features eliminate the need of third-party apps that provide similar functionality.
Connectivity:
For Connectivity, Gionee A1 Plus comes with dual nano-SIM tray with support for 4G LTE. It has standard connectivity options like WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and has USB OTG support. The phone also has got IR Blaster which is accompanied by the Peel Remote app. Sensors-wise it has got a compass, Proximity, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, and Magnetometer.
Battery:
Coming down to the second feature highlight of the phone, the Gionee A1 Plus comes with a befitting 4,550mAh battery. As we’ve mentioned earlier, the phone has been heavily optimized in terms of memory management and equipped with different power saving options to provide the best battery life possible. With regular use, the battery can last for two whole days. If you are a power user with constant engagement on the phone then it will provide 6 to 7 hours of screen on time. The phone comes with an 18W charger which charges the phone from 0 to 100% in little under 2hours.
Verdict:
Before looking into any aspects of the Gionee A1 Plus, first, you have to consider its size. Large phones are not for everyone, they are clunky and hard to manage. If you are cool with this aspect then you can begin to weigh in its pros and cons.
Pros of Gionee A1 Plus:
Big and Beautiful Display:
With a huge display, consuming content is more fun and interactive. Watching movies, and playing games is an absolute joy with this phone. Also, a large display provides you with options to get more creative. Editing videos, creating music and multitasking becomes seamlessly easy on a big display.
Amazing Camera:
With a bold tagline of Super Camera, Gionee has managed to deliver what it has promised. Both the rear and front camera are well capable of producing great results. For Selfie Lovers, this is the phone you can’t go wrong with! Also, the added functionality of the camera enables you to be more innovative with your photos.
Superb Battery Backup:
Carrying a huge phone basically, means sacrificing a proportionate amount of battery to your display. Gionee has managed to provide optimal battery backup with economic backlighting on its display, strict memory management and battery saving options. You can fully charge the device and forget about the battery for two whole days. Despite the durability of battery, the best part is how fast it gets juiced up. Even with heavy usage if you manage to drain your battery, you can fully back it up within 2 hours.
Audio and Fingerprint Sensor:
Inaccurate fingerprint sensors are annoying! You don’t want to repeatedly force your finger to unlock the device only to get a fingerprint error. That’s not the story with the Gionee A1 Plus, it has one of the fastest fingerprint sensors I’ve used and it has never failed to recognize my fingerprint.
The phone also comes with Maxx Audio enabled making the audio experience much better via both loudspeaker and earphones.
Cons of Gionee A1 Plus:
Chipset:
For what it’s priced at, a high-end chipset would have been more sensible. It’s not that the phone is slow or anything but a more powerful SoC would have been more pragmatic. With a similar price tag, the OnePlus 3 provides the higher end Snapdragon 820. Even opting for a MediaTek’s Helio X20 would have made it just that better.
Footprint and weight
The size of the phone is a personal preference and this might not be a con for everybody. But size plays a vital role as you’ll be using the device on daily basis. Usually, a handy and more manageable phone is better preferred.
With a large footprint, the phone is seemingly heavy. Samsung’s C9 Pro with similar size and configuration is almost 40grams lighter than the Gionee A1 Plus. Along with size, the weight of the phone also determines the ease of use on daily basis.
So, to sum it up, different smartphone excels at different aspects. The Gionee A1 Plus delivers what it has promised for, an awesome camera and durable battery backup. But you’re getting more than just that, it has an amazing display, swift fingerprint sensor, and a premium build. For those who love big displays, admire taking lots of photos and want a solid battery life, then the Gionee A1 Plus would be a great pick. But if you want something portable which would deliberately have better performance then you might have to look at other alternatives.
Here are few alternatives of the Gionee A1 Plus:
OnePlus 3
5.5-inch Full HD Optic AMOLED display with 2.5D curved
Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
2.15GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 64-bit processor with Adreno 530 GPU
6GB LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB (UFS 2.0) storage
Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
Dual nano SIM slots
16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, Sony IMX298 sensor, 1.12-micron pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, OIS, 4K video recording at 30 fps, 720p slow motion at 120fps
8MP front-facing camera with Sony IMX179 sensor, 1.4-micron pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video recording
Dimensions: 152.7×74.7×7.35mm; Weight: 158g
Fingerprint sensor
Bottom-facing speaker, dual microphone for noise cancellation
4G LTE with VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (MIMO), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C
3000mAh battery with Dash Charge
Price: Rs. 39,999
Oppo F3
5.5-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
1.5 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750T 64-bit processor with Mali T860 GPU
4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
Dual SIM (nano + nano)
Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with ColorOS 3.0
13MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, PDAF, 1/3-inch sensor, 1.12um pixel size, f/2.2 aperture
16MP front-facing camera with 76.4-degree wide-angle lens, 1/3.1-inch sensor, f/2.0 aperture and secondary 8MP front camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 153.29×75.24×7.3mm; Weight: 153g
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
3200 mAh battery
Price: Rs.32,990
Xiaomi Mi 5
5.15-inch (1920×1080 pixels) Full HD display with curved glass
1.8GHz Snapdragon 820 64-bit Quad-Core processor with Adreno 530 GPU
3GB LPDDR4 RAM with 32GB (UFS 2.0) internal storage
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with MIUI 7
Dual SIM (nano + nano)
16-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Sony IMX298 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, 4-axis OIS, 4K video recording
4MP front-facing camera with 2um pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, 80-degree wide-angle lens
Fingerprint scanner, Infrared sensor
Dimensions: 144.55×69.2×7.25mm; Weight: 129g
4G LTE with VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band (MIMO), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC, USB Type-C
The biggest drawback of the Samsung Galaxy S8 was its fingerprint sensor placement. The technology to put the fingerprint sensor under the touch screen was just not possible by then. But now Qualcomm has officially announced the new Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that works through glass screens.
Qualcomm says the fingerprint sensor will work through surfaces like OLED displays, metal, and glass surface. We will start seeing devices with this technology from early 2018 and they claim it will be compatible with all Qualcomm devices as well as some other platforms.
Based on the Piezoelectrical Effects, the Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor will also be able to detect your heart rate and blood flow making it more secure. And it works underwater as well. This new sensor can scan through an OLED panel that is of 1200 µm thick, metals of up to 800 µm thick and front glass cover of up to 650 µm of thickness. This is huge step comparing that with traditional fingerprint scanners that can only scan up to 400 µm of thickness.
This tech works by sending ultrasonic sound waves through the finger’s skin, allowing it to capture a 3D image of the user’s fingerprint and unlock the device.
According to Qualcomm’s schedule, manufacturers should start receiving samples of this new technology from this month. Likewise, devices should start releasing with this new fingerprint from the first half of 2018.
With bezel-less trend on the hype these days, manufacturers like Samsung and LG will benefit greatly with the release of this new technology. And with the ability to detect your blood flow and heart rate, it will also be more secure. Remember the hackers who used the photo of a man’s fingerprint to unlock their phone? They are going to have a harder time cracking this one.
As the leak suggested, Chinese brand Vivo already has a working prototype that was showcased at MWC Shanghai. The two companies, Vivo and Qualcomm, worked together to make this possible.
