After months of speculations, Huawei has finally launched the ‘Premium Edition’ of the Huawei GR5 2017. The device is simply a beefed-up variant of the regular Huawei GR5 2017 which has made its name for the dual cameras on its back.
Talking about the smartphone, the Huawei GR5 2017 Premium Edition comes only with two changes. Its Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 655 processor is now coupled with 4 GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the device will now come with 64 GB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 128 GB via a microSD card. Huawei has priced the GR5 2017 at Rs. 35,000, and with its purchase customers get a 12,500 mAh power bank, a Bluetooth speaker and a selfie stick for free.
The uplifted RAM in the Huawei GR5 2017 Premium Edition could indeed help in a better performance. It hasn’t been long until the regular version of the device received Android v7.0 Nougat update. Since these are the same devices with the difference being bumped-up RAM and ROM, it will be upgradeable to the latest software Google offers.
The Huawei GR5 2017 Premium Edition has finally hit the Nepali smartphone market albeit a bit later than expected. Nonetheless, the device is finally available for Nepali customers. Whether or not the device can vie against other smartphones in its price range is yet to be seen.
Huawei GR5 2017 Premium Edition in a nutshell:
5.5 Inch Full HD IPS LCD Display
Android v6.0 Marshmallow, upgradable to v7.0 Nougat
If you are willing to buy a smartphone but befuddled with thoughts to choose the right one, then you are in luck as the General Mobile GM 5 Plus is currently on sale. With the 20% off on the rated price of Rs. 24,999, General Mobile GM 5 Plus is now available at Rs. 19,999. This is a limited time offer from Thulo.com, which expires until the stock remains.
Overview of General Mobile GM 5 Plus
5.5″ IPS LTPS Full HD (1080×1920 pixels), 2.5D Display
Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Octa-Core 64 Bit
Android 7 Nougat (upgradable to 7.1.1)
3GB LPDDR3 RAM
32GB Storage (expandable up to 128GB)
Rear Camera: 13MP AF with Dual-tone (Dual-LED) Flash
Front Camera: 13MP AF with LED Flash
Type-C connector, GM Turbo Charger
Hybrid Dual SIM tray
Non-replaceable Li-Po 3100mAh Battery with Quick Charge 3.0
Verdict on General Mobile GM 5 Plus
When most of the smartphones in the price range are limiting themselves with HD display, General Mobile GM 5 Plus is a great device with Full HD display yet with the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The performance on the phone too is snappy with the decent Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC and 3GB RAM combination. In addition, the phone takes good photos with a 13MP sensor on the rear. The rear camera, aided with autofocus has Dual-LED flash to evade the degradation of picture quality on the low lights. The front one too fails to disappoint by taking remarkable selfies. The front camera indifferent to the rear bears same megapixel count of 13MP with autofocus but with mono-LED flash.
The phone though has Quick Charge 3.0, which juices up the battery up to 60% just in 30 minutes, though, the battery capacity of 3100 mAh seems mediocre. Despite providing greater specs, the phone failed to add a fingerprint sensor, which the users find the most reliable means of security on the phone these days.
Remarkable display, snappy performance, and outstanding camera are the plus point on the phone. Also, the phone comes with the Android Nougat and promises timely updates on the software after the official release from Google. So, to sum it up, the phone seems a good buy for the price of Rs. 20,000 if you are good without a better battery backup and a fingerprint sensor.
Ncell, the largest ICT service provider in Nepal has built fame in providing offers and packs to satisfy its customers when its competitor, Nepal Telecom seems quite aloof in the matter. And continuing the tradition, Ncell has brought another new offer with the name ‘Ncell Monsoon Offer.’ The new offer includes gifts for every Ncell users (prepaid and postpaid) without any cost in the activation.
Types of gifts in Ncell Monsoon Offer
The gift includes 100 MB data, 20 MB data, 10 MB data, 15 minutes talk time bonus, 15 minutes night talk time bonus, 10 minutes day talk time bonus and 20 bonus SMS. After the activation, users can get one gift among the bunch, which can be data pack, talk time or SMS.
How to activate?
The activation is easy. For the activation, you just need to dial *17124# or send a message to 17124 typing ‘A’(without the inverted comma). After a moment, you will receive a notification that confirms the activation. In addition, you will get a message, which will mention the type of gift you received.
Validity of the offer
The gift you receive will expire at midnight. However, as this is a 30 days offer, the gift will be renewed after every midnight for next 30 days starting from today.
Oliz Store is currently offering the One Plus 3 and One Plus 3T for Rs. 39,990 and Rs. 49,990 respectively. One Plus 3 was previously priced at Rs. 49,990 and 3T was priced at Rs. 54,990.
Both the One Plus 3 and One Plus 3T would still be a good buy, despite its successor One Plus 5 being launched a few days ago. I would personally go for the One Plus 3 since the difference between 3 & 3T is not huge.
Handset Highlights of One Plus 3 & 3T:
5.5-inch Full HD Optic AMOLED display 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 processor (One Plus 3)
Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 processor (One Plus 3T)
6GB LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB (UFS 2.0) storage
Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with Oxygen OS 3.1 (upgradable to Nougat 7.1)
Dual nano SIM slots
16-megapixel rear camera
8MP front-facing camera (One Plus 3)
16MP front-facing camera (One Plus 3T)
Fingerprint sensor
3000mAh battery (One Plus 3); 3300mAh battery (One Plus 3T) with Fast charging
Online e-commerce giants Kaymu is also organizing mobile week sale starting July 3 where they are all set to launch the One Plus 5 smartphone for Rs. 59,999. The company is also rumored to offer One Plus 3 at Rs. 37,000.
A major cyber attack has been causing huge disruption across the globe in many companies and governments. It has just been a little over a month since a malware: WannaCry affected thousands of devices around the world, but now a new threat from a new virus named the GoldenEye ransomware has come to light. Originally, this malware had been identified as Petya, that first started circulating in 2016. The current attack now appears to be a Petya offshoot with many added refinements such as stronger encryption.
Though the actual impact of the malware across the globe is yet to be measured, Bitdefender Labs has said that it has had its biggest impact on companies in Ukraine. According to Bitdefender Labs, Chernobyl’s radiation monitoring system, law firm DLA Piper, pharma company Merck, a number of banks, an airport, the Kiev metro, Danish shipping and energy company Maersk, British advertiser WPP and Russian oil firm Rosneft have been the targets so far. Many other companies in the US, Germany, Norway, Russia, Denmark and France are among those to have confirmed issues so far. Seeing this cycle of spread, The GoldenEye seems to be specifically targeting European countries. However, reports stating that the ransomware is all set to get through inroads and attack India is also being circulated. Bogdan Botezatu, a Bitdefender Labs researcher said on Wednesday that GoldenEye /Petya operators have already received 13 payments in almost two hours which is $3.5K USD ($3,500) worth in digital currency.
As we said earlier, it has not been long since we escaped from the attacks of WannaCry. More than 200,000 victims in 150 countries were infected by that software, making them unable to access their files. The malware had originated in the UK and Spain last month, before spreading globally. But it seems like the threat is even more serious than the last time. Cyber security experts have warned that this time the virus is much more dangerous as it has no ‘kill switch’ and is designed to spread rapidly though networks even without any human intervention. To add to the fright,as sources from MailOnline have reported, Marcus Hutchins, who prevented the previous WannaCry attack by discovering a way to stop it from infecting new computers, said that even if users pay the fee their files could now be lost forever. He further went on to add that the company that hosts the email account which the ransomware asks you to contact closes the account and thus, there won’t be any way to get the files back. However, he also adds that as it’s still early days, no one has been able to find a fix yet but researchers are now working together to make the malware decryptable.
One of the greatest concerns after the discovery of this ransomware is that GoldenEye relies on the same EternalBlue exploit as WannaCry. EternalBlue affects every version of Windows between Windows XP and Windows 10 that have not installed the latest security updates released by Microsoft.
Ransomwares are those malwares that hold data to ransom, scrambling it until a payment is made, usually requesting virtual currency Bitcoin because it cannot be traced to a user.
GoldenEye is not just another ransomware as it’s more thorough than them. Researchers from Bitdefender Labs have said that in addition to encrypting individual files and holding them for ransom, GoldenEye also encrypts NTFS (New Technology File System) structures and has a specialized routine that forcefully crashes the computer to trigger a reboot. And, for now, there’s no way to workaround it–if your device is affected by GoldenEye, you’ll either have to cough up the $300 ransom or bid farewell to that particular computer.
So, for now, let us see some ways to avoid ransomware attacks. Here’s a list of prevention measures compiled by
Norton Antivirus:
1. Use reputable antivirus software and a firewall
2. Back up your computer often
3. Set up a popup blocker
4. Be cautious about clicking links inside emails or on suspicious websites
5. If you do receive a ransom note, disconnect from the Internet
In the price range beyond 30,000 in Nepal, we, the customers, want a phone that is primarily focused on the performance. But, the mobile companies are doing just the opposite. They are producing phones secondarily focused on the performance and primarily focused on something else. So, we take on Gionee A1, primarily focused on selfie and battery, to find out if it impresses us or rather disappoints considering its price tag of Rs. 30,000.
Gionee A1 Review After 2 Weeks:
Gionee A1 Review After 3 months:
Key Specs of Gionee A1:
5.5-inch (1920× 1080 pixels) Full HD in-cell display with 2.5D curved glass
Gorilla Glass 3 on the front; Full Metal body on the back
1.8 GHz Octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor with Mali T860 GPU
4GB RAM, 64GB Internal memory, expandable memory up to 128GB with micro SD
Android 7.0 (Nougat) with Amigo OS 3.5
Dual Hybrid SIM (4G + 4G)
13MP rear camera with LED flash, PDAF, f/2.0 aperture, 1/3.0+” sensor, 5P lens
Gionee A1 is a stylish looking metal-clad phone with a design that is not so distinctive from the crowd. Yes, we’ve seen a lot of metal phones lately but the premium metal used in the phone can be realized once the phone lands on the palm. The phone is a bit heavy at 183gm and is noticeably thicker at 8.3mm. Despite its bulkiness, the phone feels good on the hands with slight curves around its edges and back. But honestly, I found the phone to be a little slippery in my everyday use. The unit I reviewed was a black one but still, it attracts noticeable smudges and fingerprints on its back. However, the power button and volume rockers on the right edge aren’t as tactile as I prefer them to be.
All in all, the phone has a lovable design but had it had a lesser weight to it, it definitely would have been a well-designed phone in its price range.
Display
The phone’s 5.5inch Full HD in-cell technology display is arguably the best one in the price range. It produces nearly accurate colors and has a good level of contrast too. The brightness is sufficient enough for the outdoor usages. The best part is the option to switch white balance among cool, neutral and warm.
I fell in love with the display from the very first time I turned the phone on and after two weeks of using, the feeling is just the same. As far as the display protection is concerned, it has an unspecified version of Corning Gorilla Glass. At the time of review, the glass got more than quite a few scratches so my recommendation is to apply the display protection that comes with the phone itself.
Performance
Under the hood, Gionee A1 comes with an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P10 processor, backed by Mali-T860MP2 GPU and coupled with 4GB of RAM. This configuration isn’t the best in the price range. However, a moderate user might find this configuration to be good enough giving a smooth and responsive user experience. But once you start pushing the device with a couple of games and few other apps in the background, you can feel the device’s sluggishness. While playing few heavy titles, we noticed the frame drops and the phone got noticeably warmer in our gaming sessions. More on the heating issue, the phone kept getting warmer not just while gaming and stretched camera sessions but also on several other occasions. However, in real world use, the app loading and app switching were buttery smooth. Lastly, the fingerprint sensor is satisfyingly fast and accurate.
Camera
Coming to the cameras, it has a circular 13Megapixel unit with SONY IMX 258 on the back that slightly perpetuates. This primary camera is accompanied with dual tone LED flash. The camera performance when tested on different lighting conditions gave satisfying results. The photos taken outdoors came out well detailed with a good amount of saturation. The low light photos did have some noise but the camera has a night mode that helped in boosting the ambiance on low light photos. The HDR mode works well and gets triggered when needed if set on Auto.
Gionee A1 Rear Camera Samples
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HDR photo
The camera app is a bit cluttered but supports different swiping gestures. Like, you can switch cameras by swiping from the bottom and swiping from the top reveals different camera modes like Time-lapse, slow motion, GIF, and others. You can switch between video, photo, face beauty, panorama and other camera modes by simply swiping from the left or right. For manual control, it has the Professional mode that lets you set shooting speed, exposure, ISO, White Balance and the focus on your own.
Since it’s a selfie-centric phone, it has a 16 MegaPixel front camera with f2.0 aperture. I made a decision based on selfies taken indoors, outdoors, with and without beautification and found out the phone to be pretty impressive for selfies. However, indoor selfies weren’t as detailed as the outdoor ones. And, I wish if the selfie unit came with autofocus instead of fixed focus. The phone also has a front firing flash that assisted a bit while taking photos in the night. But night selfies were a bit washed out and came with lesser details. For a beauty mode enthusiasts, this phone won’t disappoint. Plus, beautification can be enabled while taking videos and doing video calls.
Software
Gionee A1 UI Screenshots
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The Gionee A1 boots on Android 7.0 nougat with Gionee’s own custom UI “Amigo OS” on top of it. So, this UI is far from stock Android and has been heavily customized. If you haven’t used a Gionee phone before then you might find the UI confusing at times, just like I did. If you are against bloatware, you’ll hate to see a bunch of pre-installed apps on the phone including 4 games, ADW launcher, UC Browser, along with few others. Luckily, most of them can be uninstalled. Personally, I find Amigo OS to be a bit cluttered and far from my liking. For instance, the settings menu has been heavily rearranged and I had a hard time remembering which is where. So I preferred searching for the settings other than going through the setting menu and sub menus.
Since the software is based on Android Nougat, you get all the Nougat sweetness like the split screen mode, quick reply from notifications and grouping of notifications from the same app. Additionally, the A1 has an edge bar functionality that can be accessed by swiping on the fingerprint sensor and it allows to launch your favorite apps and tasks. In addition, the phone also supports different smart gestures as well.
Battery
Gionee A1 Battery Performance
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The A1 houses a 4010mAh battery that sounds pretty heavy on paper but in real world use, the battery life wasn’t as expected. Yes, there were times I got up to 5hours of screen on time but that was on a moderate use with no or short gaming session. The screen on time in this phone was a mixed bag since the results differed each day ranging from 3.5 hours to 5 hours. However, the charging time was one of the best aspects of this phone. Started charging from a dead battery, I could easily get 23% and 98% of charge in 15minutes and 90 minutes of time respectively. To fully charge the phone, it took me 1hour and 47minutes to be exact. So the phone’s fast charging capabilities are worth mentioning. The phone gets warmer even while charging, though the company claims just the opposite.
Verdict
Gionee A1 Gallery
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To wind it up, there are a few points where Gionee A1 impressed us and at the same, there are few other where the phone disappoints. The phone’s display, camera, and fast charging capabilities did impress us but its performance, bulkiness and cluttered software seriously disappointed us. So, if you are a moderate user who’s after a phone with fast charging, good cameras, and great display then you can never go wrong buying a Gionee A1. But if it’s the phone’s performance that you prioritize the most then there are quite a few other options that you might be interested in.
I’ve some personal message to Gionee and that is,
“Dear Gionee, please stop with your love for MediaTek chipsets. I am personally looking forward to seeing a Gionee phone powered by more Capable Snapdragon chipset. For instance, you could have used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 instead of Helio P10 that sounds pretty neck-to-neck on paper but in real world use, SD625 wins over Helio P10 big time.”
If you weren’t impressed by the Gionee A1, here are some other options you can consider:
If you already have a budget of 33K, the best is to add 10K more and buy the OnePlus 3 instead which will checkmark all the boxes for a phone with the Snapdragon 820 performance worth the price.
But if you’re tight on budget and don’t feel like adding money to your budget you can actually buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4SD instead and save some of your money. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4SD (4GB/64GB) is priced at 28,500 and has a much better performance with 14nm Snapdragon 625 as compared to Gionee A1.
Coolpad’s Cool 1 dual is another phone to consider in the price range of around 30,000. This phone will easily address your needs if you prioritize on rear camera and gaming performance. Priced at Rs. 30,996, it comes with a dual 13MP rear camera and a powerful Snapdragon 652 processor.
Daraz Kaymu is well-known for the platform it provides for sellers to sell and buyers to buy products online. Established 3 years ago, the company is one of the leading online platforms not just in Nepal, but in lots of South Asian nations as well. It is up and running in countries like Myanmar, Srilanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for some time now.
Daraz Kaymu had successfully organized Black Friday 2016 last year, and following this success, the company is set to organize Mobile Week 2017. Kaymu claims that buyers will be able to grab some of the best deals and rates on mobile phones and accessories while this campaign lasts. Customers will get to exercise up to 50% discount on the products.
The event which will run from 3rd July to 7th July will see customers getting good deals on products from famous mobile brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Nokia, Micromax, etc. We expect the OnePlus 5 to be exclusively available for preorder in this event. Also, the Huawei GR5 2017 4GBvariant is set to launch on the Mobile Week.
According to the officials at Daraz Kaymu, the main motive of organizing this event is to give the best value for money on the mobile phones Nepalis buy by letting them exercise different deals and discounts. Mobile Week 2017 has already been held in Pakistan and Bangladesh this year. And on the 3rd of July, the campaign is set to start in Nepal and Myanmar at the same time.
Daraz Kaymu organized a press meet to explain about their campaign.
In addition to the price drops and exciting discounts, Daraz Kaymu is offering free gifts and vouchers to the shoppers on the Mobile Week.
Interested customers can visit Kaymu.com.np for the sale which will start on 3rd July (midnight) and will also feature accessories like Smartwatches, Headphones, Bluetooth Speakers, Powerbanks, etc.
Infocus is still not a household name for the Nepali people. The company which had great plans for the Nepali smartphone market when launched here back in 2016, hasn’t made that many sales like other smartphone brands. The company looks set to change this trend by launching the yet unreleased Infocus M5s here in Nepal. In their social media account, Infocus Nepal has started to tease the launch of the smartphone. Talking about Infocus M5s, it is powered by a low-end processor but does come with Android Nougat and a huge battery.
Specifications wise, the Infocus M5s features a 5.2-inch IPS display with the resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. Protection for the display is still unspecified but it does edge out on a 2.5D curved arc. The device is powered by a Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor which is aided by 3 GB of RAM and Mali-T720 MP2 GPU. The Infocus M5s runs on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat with Infocus’ InLife UI skin on top.
The Infocus M5s is equipped with a 13-megapixel primary camera with f/2.2 aperture. The front-facing selfie shooter measures 8-megapixel and has the same f/2.2 aperture. But the main focus of the device has to be its 4000 mAh Li-Ion battery which has a standby time of 22.9 days on 4G according to the company. We are yet to receive any news regarding the pricing of the Infocus M5s.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Infocus M5s:
5.2-inch IPS display with 720 x 1280 resolution
Android v7.0 Nougat with InLife UI on top
MediaTek MT6737 SoC
Quad-core processor
Mali-T720 MP2 GPU
3 GB of RAM
32 GB Internal Storage
Rear-facing Camera: 13 MP with f/2.2 aperture, LED flash
Sroth Code, the same name, which had dropped their game Haku Run on the play store a few months back are back with another game called Tap Tap Turn. Allied with the promotion of Loot 2 movie, Haku Run was a hit with above tens of thousands of downloads. With the avatars of Nepali movie artists and familiar periphery within the game environment, the game was fairly exciting. But will this newbie able to follow the footsteps of Haku Run? Can it be an optimum boredom killer in a smartphone? Let’s dig into it.
How to play Tap Tap turn?
Tap Tap Turn game basically involves a rectangular box with four colors on its four sides. The primary task of the game is to pass the box through the colorful obstacles without letting the ball touch foot or ground. Death is inevitable in the game if the color of the front edge of the box mismatches with the color of the obstacle. For the gameplay, users are provided with two kinds of control, tapping on the left rotates the box in a clockwise direction allowing a switch in color and tapping on the right lets the ball leap evading the fall momentarily.
The game is currently available on Play Store and even available to play online. According to Sroth Code, launch on App Store is on due and will soon be released.
Tap Tap Turn game screenshots
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Verdict
The game is designed with three intentions – to test user’s right hand – left-hand coordination, mind-body coordination and the reflex of the users’. But to be true, the game does not bear a unique concept. The game seems inspired by the popular Color Switch game. However, the game is addictive. Since the install of the game on my phone, on every free time I get, I always opt to surpass my personal best. Though being a simple game, it is hard to get a good score. Frustrated from the frequent deaths, one always ends in scratching the forehead or pulling the hair in agony (well, that was in my case).
The game is free, so the users do not have to spend a dime to download and install the game. But at each death, ad pops up, which seems pretty annoying.
I wish the game had different modes to play on to adapt with the mood of the different users and their mood swings.
What do you feel about the game? Drop your opinion in the comment box.
Google Pixel is the first phone branded under Google’s name. Beforehand, Nexus devices used to provide the purest Android experience to its users. Google Pixel was a huge success despite having many drawbacks, starting off with its weird back panel with half glass and metal, no waterproofing and thick bezels up top and bottom. But it provided the best Android experience anyone could ask for, a great camera, swift performance, and regular security and version upgrades. The Pixel is already a year old and now it’s time for the Pixel 2.
We’ve been seeing renders and specification leaks about the Pixel 2 for a couple of weeks and recently a leaker from a reliable source of Android Police who claims to have used the new phone revealed the final specifications. Google was planning for three Pixel phones, one small, one medium sized and a larger one. The source claims that they revoked the middle one and only small (5-inch) and the bigger(6-inch) are in the making. So the Pixel and the Pixel XL for this year are codenamed walleye and teimen respectively.
The walleye will feature a 4.97 Full HD display. There will be no headphone jack and in its place, it’ll incorporate stereo speakers. There isn’t much significant change in the aesthetics. The side bezels are a lot smaller but the top and bottom bezels remain almost similar. The phone will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM and will come in 64 GB variant.
The taimen will sport a 6-inch 2.5K OLED display. The aesthetics of the phone will be similar to the Pixel XL but the glass panel on the back will not coat the fingerprint sensor. Also, the bezels for the larger one will be similar to that of the walleye. It will also be powered by the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB of RAM and will have 128GB storage.
Both the phone will carry only a single camera despite the trend of the dual camera in smartphones. Although much details about the camera haven’t been revealed yet, we can expect it to surface in the coming weeks. Also, the bezel-less renders we’ve been seeing might not be what the new Pixels will look like.
Pixel 2 is expected to launch in October with almost a similar price tag as the recent Pixel phones.
