Huawei P10 Plus, the flagship smartphone from Huawei launched back in MWC 2017 is on its way to make an entrance in Nepal. Though Huawei had already accelerated the advertisements since long, the launch date has been revealed only today. And, the most awaited flagship from Huawei is launching on June 23, 2017. The phone is likely to have a company of Huawei GR5 2017 Premium Edition at its launch event. So, this Friday, Huawei will launch two phones in Nepal.
P10 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch display with the protection ensured by Gorilla Glass 5. The phone is powered by Huawei’s own HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor. On the software side, Huawei P10 Plus comes with Android Nougat out of the box with EMUI 5.1 on the top.
Huawei Mobiles Nepal teases the P10 Plus Launch in Nepal with a Banner in the streets of Kathmandu Valley.
Memory wise, the phone comes with two variants; one with 64GB of internal memory and 4GB of RAM and other with 128GB of internal storage capacity and 6GB of RAM. On the optics section, the phone has embraced a dual-camera setup on the back. The dual-camera setup includes a 20MP (monochrome) and 12MP (RGB) sensors lying on a horizontal configuration. This assembly has enabled the device to take astounding pictures even on low lights and with 2X optical zoom. The rear camera setup is also assisted by OIS (optical image stabilization), phase detection autofocus and Dual-LED (Dual-tone) flash. The rear camera is capable of shooting 4k videos at the frame rate of 30fps and Full-HD videos at 60 fps. The front-facing selfie camera has an 8MP sensor with an aperture of f/1.9.
The device is juiced up by a whopping 3750 mAh battery and in order to avoid the lingering of the phone with the wall charger, the charging mechanism uses SuperCharge fast-charging. Huawei P10 Plus, however, lacks the wireless charging.
Huawei P10 Plus key specs
5.5-inch (1440 x 2560) display with 2.5D curved glass and Gorilla Glass 5 protection
EMUI 5.1 on top of Android 7.0 Nougat
HiSilicon Kirin 960 Chipset
Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU
Mali-G71 MP8 GPU
64GB/4GB RAM, 128GB/6GB RAM, Expandable up to 256GB
Three years ago, OnePlus surfaced into the world of a smartphone with its first flagship – the OnePlus One. It was one of the most polarizing devices ever which started to gain popularity even with the annoying ‘invite system’. The performance and features the One delivered at half the price of other flagship phones truly confirmed its tag as a ‘flagship killer’. Three years and 4 devices later, the Chinese company has come up with a camera-centric smartphone which does not compromise on performance by any means.
[Update: One Plus 5 is now available in Nepal. It is priced at Rs. 59,500 and is available from retail shops and e-commerce stores (Oliz store & Kaymu).]
The OnePlus 5 features some similar looking designs both at the front and back. While OnePlus didn’t opt for features like water resistance and edgeless display, it did go for the flagship processor of 2017 and an increased amount of RAM.
Talking about the new product, OnePlus’ head of North American communications, Eric Zarshenas, said, “We’re pretty conservative. We’re trying to do only stuff that we think benefits the user. We believe in the mission of making the best overall offering. It’s not about being the first. It’s not being different. And that doesn’t necessarily get us a ton of press.”
Design and Display
The OnePlus 5, like I mentioned before comes with a pretty familiar design. At the front, the device looks like its predecessors, the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T with the difference being a little bit of curve on its four sides.
The design at the back has been a subject of much discussion as it shares its looks with the iPhone 7 Plus and the Oppo R11. There are dual cameras at the top left which is accompanied with dual LED flash.
The metallic back of the OnePlus 5 is made from anodized aluminum. This time around, the antenna bands have similar placement like that on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Unlike what almost all of the leaks suggested, the OnePlus 5 comes with a full HD display resolution. At the time when most companies are going with quad HD displays, OnePlus has stuck with the 1080p panel. Maybe this helps in cutting the cost of the device. Plus, unless a user is using a VR, he/she probably won’t notice any noticeable difference. The display has a length of 5.5-inch and is an Optic AMOLED panel. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which ends in a 2.5D curve.
2017 has been the year of edgeless and InfinityEdge displays. But the OnePlus 5 has a more traditional look with 16:9 aspect ratio.
Camera
Undoubtedly, OnePlus is cashing in on the OnePlus 5’s dual rear-facing cameras for its sales. In the launch event/video, the presenters took some time to explain its cameras in detail. The device is equipped with 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel primary cameras with the former featuring a large f/1.7 aperture and the latter featuring f/2.6 aperture.
The camera on the OnePlus 5 has features such as Portrait mode, Optical Zoom, and Histogram. Just like the OnePlus 3 and 3T, it has a built-in manual mode to modify the camera setting according to user’s preference.
While the camera looks to be absolutely great on paper, we could yet be seeing another ‘more megapixel doesn’t necessarily mean better picture’ case here. The Verge and Mr. Mobile, popular review channels on YouTube, have already slagged off the quality of the camera with The Verge even going a step forward and calling the camera ‘mediocre’.
Processor and Hardware
OnePlus had already announced that its newest flagship would be powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 2.45 GHz clock speed. This wasn’t much of a surprise as OnePlus devices always boast flagship processors. Like the OnePlus 3 and 3T, the OnePlus 5 is aided by 6 GB of RAM. The company is also offering an 8 GB RAM variant which is available in the 128 GB model. For the smartphone, the Chinese manufacturer is using LPDDR4X RAM. The OnePlus 5 has Adreno 540 GPU under the hood. There is, however, no slot for expanding the internal memory.
There is a front-mounted fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 5 which has the capability to unlock the device in just 0.2 seconds. And yes, it does house a headphone jack.
Software
The OnePlus 5 runs on Android v7.1.1, again, just like the OnePlus 3 and 3T. It has OxygenOS on top which is like a stock version of Android on steroids. Users can expect a lot of customizations which can help in some useful system level changes.
The OnePlus 5 now comes with better calibration and a reading mode which can turn the screen calibration into a monochrome mode when certain apps are selected.
Battery
The OnePlus 5 houses a 3,300 mAh battery which is supported by OnePlus’ very own dash charging technology. We expect the device to last for 4 – 5 hours of screen-on-time under heavy usage. But Dash Charging’s fast charging will surely charge up the device in under no time.
The 3,300 mAh battery is surely a bummer for heavy users like me. I am currently using the OnePlus 3 as my primary device and even with around 5 hours of screen-on-time, I sometimes have to charge my smartphone twice a day.
Price
Carl Pei said at the launch event that all tech websites got the pricing wrong as the OnePlus 5’s baseline model is priced at $479 (6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage). The higher end model, which has a whopping 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal memory will set you back $539.
While the pricing might come as a disappointment to the OnePlus fans, this price tag was expected as the device comes with dual cameras and also because OnePlus has lately started to give attention to advertisements.
OnePlus will go on sale from the 27th of June, 2017 in the international market.
We are yet to receive a word regarding its launch in Nepal. But, according to some close source, the OnePlus 5 is all set to launch in July with an expected price to be around Rs.59,999. The phone will be available from oliz store and kaymu.
Here’s everything you need to know about the OnePlus 5:
5.5-inch, full HD Optic AMOLED display
Android v7.1.1 Nougat with Oxygen OS
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
6/8 GB of RAM
64/128 GB Internal Storage
Rear-facing cameras: 16 MP Sony IMX398 sensor with f/1.7 aperture and EIS + 20 MP Sony IMX350 sensor with f/2.6 aperture
Dual LED flash on the rear
Front-facing camera: 16 MP Sony IMX371 sensor with f/2.0 aperture
Vatsal Impex Pvt. Ltd, the authorized distributor of Xiaomi products in Nepal, has launched Mi TV 4A 55-inch in Nepal, albeit at a very high price. This is the third Mi TV in Nepal following the launch of Mi TV 4A 43-inch and 49-inch.
Mi Nepal launched the 55-inch Mi5A TV for an introductory price of Rs. 1,44,999. This introductory price will be valid for the next 5 days and will end on June 25, 2017. The regular pricing of Mi TV 4A 55-inch Rs. 1,59,999. You can buy this new Mi TV from Mi showrooms located at Labim Mall and Pako New Road or any authorized Mi retail outlets in Nepal. Plus, You can also book the TV online from Mi Nepal’s Official website. But before you make your buying decision, let’s take a look at what the TV has to offer for its hefty price tag.
Mi TV 4A 55-inch: Specs Breakdown
Unlike, last two Mi TV 4A launched in Nepal that topped out at Full HD, the Mi TV 4A 55-inch sports an Ultra HD (4K) screen. The screen has a wide viewing angle of up to 178°. Inside the TV, you’ll find quad-core 64-bit high-performance Amlogic T962 clocked at 1.5GHz and backed by Mali 450 MP5 750MHz GPU. The chipset is coupled with 2GB DDR4 RAM and includes 8GB emmc5.1 flash memory. The TV utilizes DTS-HD audio dual decoding and produces Dolby Audio. It is compatible with MiraCast and Airplay. It addresses wireless connectivity with WiFi 802.11ac network adapter and Bluetooth 4.2.
The Mi TV 4A 55-inch has very thin bezels around the display and the tv itself is thinner than the competition. The international version of this TV also comes with “voice-command” functionality that way you can control your TV with your voice. But it is yet to confirm, whether the model launched in Nepal supports this functionality or not. Plus, the Remote it comes with is a Bluetooth-enabled one but can be switched to IR-blaster mode as well.
Specs Highlights
Original Samsung/LG/AUO/CSOT panel
178 ° Viewing Angle
Quad-core 64-bit high-performance processor,
2GB RAM+ 8 GB ROM
802.11ac, 2.4/5Ghz dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2
HDMI 2.0bx 2 (with one ARC),USB 2.0 x 2 pcs, Ethernet,
Support HDR 10 and HLG
Dolby and DTS Audio
2x6W (distortion <1%) runway type full-range speakers
Nepa Hima Trade Link Pvt. Ltd., the official distributor of Sony products in Nepal, has started pre-booking of highly anticipated full frame mirrorless camera Sony a9 which was announced in April. The company has priced the Sony A9 at Rs.504,000 in Nepal and the prebooking starts from today till 30th of June. Prebookers get Rs.70,000 worth of free goodies which includes:
The Sony Alpha 9 which is intended for Sports and Wildlife photographers has already got worldwide attention. It’s aimed to compete against the Canon 1dx ii and Nikon D5. Here are some key highlights of the Sony a9:
24.2 megapixel 35mm full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with integral memory
High-speed continuous shooting of up to 20fps with AF/AE Tracking
Silent shooting
693 points wide-area phase detection AF with 93% coverage
5-axis image stabilization with effectiveness equivalent to 5 stop slower shutter speed
Nepa Hima Trade Link is also providing 12 months of warranty on the product. You can prebook the Sony A9 by filling up this form.
Australian start-up: Lingmo International has come up with a universal language translator earpiece: Translate One2One. The device is powered by IBM Watson artificial intelligence technology and is said to be the first ever translation earpiece that doesn’t rely on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, making it a perfect option for use in airlines and in remote area.
Provided that both speakers are wearing an earpiece, the device can efficiently translate conversations across English, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and Chinese. The device uses IBM Watson’s Natural Language Processor and Language Translation APIs and Lingmo’s machine learning applications for translations. The earpiece has a built-in microphone that picks up spoken words and allows the earpiece to translate speech in seconds. Furthermore, an iOS app is also available which offers Speech-to-text and text-to-speech translation for even more languages.
The device allows almost real-time translation of spoken word without any Internet or Bluetooth connectivity. However, this isn’t the first in-ear device to allow this sort of translation. Waverly Lab had showcased Pilot, a translation earpiece, at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Just like Translate One2One, Pilot can also translate languages without the internet connection by downloading language packs from a companion app. But, unlike Translate One2One, Pilot requires a cell phone connection to work offline. Waverly claims Pilot to be the first ever in-ear translation device, even so, Translate One2One is the first to go on sale. The Translate One2One will be on retail at $179 (£140), and is available now for preorder.
The earpiece which was unveiled at the United Nations AI for Good, is said to have overcome common translation hurdles such as regional dialects. To simply quote an example given by Danny May, founder and director of Lingmo International,”At a simple level, I might be using slang to say ‘that’s cool’ and it’ll translate to ‘that’s cold’,”. It is pretty obvious that current translation apps really struggle with the natural language and conversational context. More often than not, they simply just offer literal word-for-word translation which, generally, translates inaccurately. But as this new device is backed by IBM Watson, these obstacles have been overcome by it.
Furthermore, May adds, “By eliminating the friction of the traditional translation process, devices like Translate One2One will not only remove one of the biggest challenges for professionals when meeting and collaborating between cultures but also offers enormous potential for communities around the world.” This certainly makes the device worth the try.
It’s been awhile since we have seen something revolutionary in the smartphone space. We have always witnessed the ever ascending upgrade of SoC, RAM, Camera, and smaller bezels. But recently, there hasn’t been a distinct feature that could really wow the consumers. This monotony could come to an end now as a recent leak suggests phones with on screen fingerprint sensor is on its way and could make it to the market by the end of this year.
We’ve been hearing about the onscreen fingerprint sensor since last year and everyone predicted it to come with the Samsung Galaxy S8. Due to few difficulty with the technology, Samsung dropped it from the S8 and scheduled it for the Note 8, claims few rumors. But before Samsung or any other major brand could show off this technology, a leak from the Chinese microblogging site Weibo showed off the on-screen fingerprint sensor on a Vivo smartphone. Now Vivo might be a name least heard of, but it is the producer of the slimmest phone(Vivo X5 Max) and the first phone with 6GB of RAM(Vivo xPlay 5). So, this time around, Vivo could be the first phone to sport an onscreen fingerprint sensor.
Looking at the video, it seems the technology hasn’t been perfected for speed. It takes more than 2 seconds to unlock the phone. We’re already used to swift fingerprint readers so until the similar speed is achieved, phones with onscreen fingerprint sensor can take some time to hit the market.
The same technology is supposed to make headlines with the launch of 10th anniversary iPhone which is supposed to come with on-screen Touch ID. Besides this, rumors affirm Huawei P11 and phone from Xiaomi will be incorporating the onscreen fingerprint sensor. With such technology, the major concern would be of durability. What if we crack the screen? Only the future will tell!
With this ever growing number of mobile companies selling smartphones in Nepal, there are two ways that a company may impress the buyers. The first way to impress is with specs. That is by giving more than what competitors are currently offering. And the second way is with the price tag. And, this time around, ZTE Mobile Nepal is trying to impress its buyer both ways. The new ZTE Blade A2 Plus comes with the specs hard to find in its rivals and has been priced near to the international pricing.
The ZTE Blade A2 Plus sports a 5.5inch Full HD display with a 2.5D glass on top. Under the hood, the phone is powered by MediaTek MT6750T 64bit OctaCore CPU clocked at 1.5GHz and coupled with 4GB RAM. In case you don’t know, it is the same configuration as in Oppo F3 that is priced at around Rs. 10,000 higher than A2 Plus in Nepal. But, unlike other phones with 4GB RAM, this phone only offers 32GB of inbuilt storage. However, you may expand the memory up to 256GB by inserting a microSD card instead of your second SIM. The phone gets its juice from jaw-dropping 5,000mAh battery that is something we don’t get to see in many phones. However, this huge battery comes at a price of heavier weight and thicker body since the phone weighs 189gm and measures 9.8mm of thickness.
This phone with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor has a 13MP camera lens above the sensor. It addresses selfies with an 8MP unit on the front that utilizes screen as the flash. The phone supports fast charging and comes with 1.5Amp-9volt charger out of the box. The phone has few shortcomings like it doesn’t have a gyro sensor so this phone isn’t VR compatible. Another shortcoming is its software, that’s based on Android 6 Marshmallow. And, you can’t count on ZTE for future updates.
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
4 GB of RAM
32 GB Internal Storage
MicroSD card support (up to 256GB, uses SIM2 slot)
13 MP rear-facing camera, Dual tone LED Flash
8 MP front-facing camera
Hybrid Dual SIM tray
5,000 mAh battery
Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor
Price: Rs. 23,900
Verdict
The phone looks satisfying on paper considering it’s price. But whether it’ll be worth the purchase is something that will totally depend on how it performs in real life. So, we’ll certainly cover more on this phone in our future review. However, the phone had both positive and negative impressions on me. The 5000mAh battery and 4GB RAM fall in the positive impressions. Whereas, Android Marshmallow, heavy weight, and no gyro sensor fall in the negative impressions the phone had on me. For more coverage on the phone, stay tuned for its review.
You surf the internet all day long but there’s always a particular set of websites you run into. Usually, these are blogs, news site, and video directories which are basically the same with contents of their own domain. Today we have summed up 10 websites that might interest you or come really handy. So let’s begin!
What Every Browser Knows About You(WEBKAY):
With privacy being one of the most serious issues of the decade, our every move on the internet is being tracked. All of our personal information is being sold for targeted advertisement and all of this is happening simply through our browser. So here’s a simple site, that’ll preview all the information the browser knows about you. It’ll give you your location, sites you are logged into, your system hardware information, and so on. The best thing about this site is, it not only shows you what it knows but also suggests how you can hide that information!
MusicMap is a simple site where you can find other artists you may like if you listen to a certain artist. The search results would be based on – if People like this artist then they would also like these artists. When you search for the artist, you’d get a scattered search result. If two artists are close together, then the probability of liking that artist is high if not then it’s so-so.
Bored of couch surfing all day? How about a quick tour of the Mt.Everest? Explore Everest is an intuitive website which takes you on a journey to the top of Mt. Everest. You get an interactive audio experience of winds howling, a side altitude meter and a story line to keep you entertained throughout the journey. It doesn’t have Google’s 360 views which would have made it more fun to look around but still, it’s a great experience.
This one is a really interesting one and a useful one if you are a health student. This website helps you with speech synthesis. This will show you how your mouth is manipulated while producing different sounds. It lets you control your oral cavity, throat, and tongue to produce noise.
Here’s a basic walkthrough of the site:
move the body of the tongue to shape vowels.
touch the oral cavity to narrow it, for fricative consonants.
touch above the oral cavity to close it, for stop consonants
touch the nasal cavity to open the velum and let sound flow through the nose.
Photoskop is a perfect interactive tool for individual who are interested in photography. This site simulates the working of a DSLR and lets you control different aspects of it, teaching you how it affects the picture you’re taking. You’ll also be able to control scene(based on lighting), equipment and setup. There’s also a catalog to adopt what kind of photography you’d want to learn. Getting a DSLR sure is expensive, so you might just learn the basic skills with this simulation and apply your newly acquired knowledge in the real world. Since most of the browsers have already killed flash, this one needs Adobe Flash to run the simulation, so make sure to install it beforehand.
If you are someone who travels a lot then getting all the information of that country and its cities at hand is very useful. This is where thebasetrip comes in picture. This site will give all the necessary information from 650 cities of 230 countries. The site includes visa & embassy information, accommodation & flight prices, and apps to book one, currencies, costs of living, internet speeds, mobile data prices(with carriers), electricity sockets, general rules and regulations and more.
Quick Draw is a website by Google where you can draw doodle to see if the Google’s Neural Network can identify it. This site gives you an item for doodling and based on your drawing, the site passes various comments. It’s a fun website to kill your time. Your doodle is saved on the Google’s database which helps to train its Neural Network to be better at identifying objects. Also, all of this data is open source, so if you’re a developer you can easily use this dataset in your project.
This website is going to be handy for those who love reading. This is a simple site that tells you how much average time it would take to read a certain book. This has a straightforward UI where you have to enter the Name and Author of the book and it’ll deliver its reading time. Making an account on the site will give an added benefit of personalized reading time. First, it’ll give you few chunks of paragraphs to read and based on the time you take, it’ll predict the reading time of all the books you search for.
As an icing on the cake, Readism also comes with its own Chrome Extension which can tell you how long a certain web article will take to read.
In the past, we’ve reviewed tons of smartphones. At the time of our reviews, there have been times when one phone had the best display and the other had the best camera and then came the another with the best battery and the like. That way, we had different phones excelling in different aspects. But, can there be an Ultimate smartphone that proves itself to be best in every aspect? With this question in mind, I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy S8 for quite some time. So, Is the Samsung Galaxy S8 the best smartphone you can pick right now? Let’s find out from this review.
Key Specs of Samsung Galaxy S8
5.8Inch (18.5:9 aspect ratio) QHD+ Super AMOLED Display
Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection (both front and back)
12MP, f/1.7, 26mm Rear Camera with LED flash, OIS, dual pixel auto-focus; simultaneous 4k video and 9MP photo shoot, 4k@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@240fps
8MP, f/1.7 Front Camera (dual pixel auto-focus); 1440p@30fps, 1080p@30fps
3000 mAh Battery with Samsung adaptive fast charging
Dual SIM support
Color Option: Midnight Black, Maple Gold
Price: Rs. 88,900
Design
Samsung Galaxy S8 is undoubtedly the best-designed phone of the year. Just a year back, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge shared a lot of design elements with its predecessor and other Samsung phones. But the same cannot be said about the S8 which looks much different than not just any Samsung phones but all other phones currently available in the market. The S8 won the title of “best design” not just because it’s different but because it’s lovable in every way. The phone with a narrower body and taller screen that is curved on the edges and has a shrunk down forehead and the chin is something you can’t wait to put your hands on, after the moment you see it. The device is slightly thicker at 8mm and a bit heavier at 155gm than its predecessor but still feels pretty good in the hand thanks to its ergonomics. The glass on the front and back and the aluminum rails along the edges blend seamlessly giving a feeling as if the phone is using single design element.
To get an impressive screen-to-body ratio of over 83%, Samsung had to do few trade-off like removable of the physical home button and newer placement of fingerprint sensor at the back alongside the camera. You can find more coverage on the fingerprint sensor and home button on the hardware section down below. Other than the power button on the right and the volume rocker on the left, we now have another new button below the volume rocker for Bixby. I’ll address more on the Bixby, down in the software part of the review.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy S8’s 5.8inch Super AMOLED display with the resolution of 1440*2960 pixels is by far the best display on any smartphone. The Samsung calls it an Infinity Display since the display melds down to the edges with those curves on both sides. This display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio looks a bit narrower and taller than regular 16:9 displays. It is with this new display that Samsung has been able to pack-in 5.8inch display in a phone with a footprint comparable to last year’s S7 that had a 5.1inch display. The display is pretty sharp, has a great contrast and colors, and is much bright outdoors. The brightness can be set dim to a level that doesn’t burn eyes while using the phone before bed. Plus, the display also supports HDR contents.
Samsung Galaxy S8’s display comes with lots of tuning options. Those options include a Blue light filter, 4 different Screen mode, basic and advanced white balance tuning options and much more. The best of all is the option to switch screen resolution among HD+, FHD+, and WQHD+. The display has rounded corners matching those of the phone itself. However, while watching the video contents with 16:9 aspect ratio you’ve to opt for a cropped content or pillar boxing effect.
Performance
The Galaxy S8, powered by Exynos 8895 Octacore CPU and backed by Mali-G71 MP20 GPU that is coupled with 4GB RAM, is an exceptionally impressive performer. The phone is fast and responsive and smoothly handles whatever you throw at it. The phone has left no room for complaining when it comes to app loading and the app switching. Plus, it has noticeably shorter boot time. I tested its gaming performance by playing different heavy titles. And, I had a pretty amazing gaming experience without any glitches and without any dropped frame rates. However, the phone does get warmer after a prolonged gaming session or after stretched use of cameras.
Hardware
The phone comes equipped with a fingerprint sensor that has been repositioned to the back since the phone no longer has the Samsung’s traditional Home button. Instead of the physical home button and capacitive buttons, the phone now has on-screen buttons that are customizable. Plus the virtual home button is a pressure sensitive one that senses hard pressures and gives strong haptic feedback. Plus, you can always wake the phone by pressing on the spot where virtual home button resides. The major problem with the device is this new positioning of the fingerprint sensor alongside the rear camera that made me smudge the camera glass everytime I tried to spot fingerprint sensor unseeingly. The loudspeaker still resides on the bottom and produces decent sound though not the loudest. It’s 2017 and just like we wanted, Samsung has still been showing love to the 3.5mm headphone jack that resides on the extreme left on the bottom.
Camera
When it comes to cameras, it has a 12Megapixel unit with an f1.7 aperture on the back and 8MP unit with an f1.7 aperture on the front. Both cameras using Dual Pixel autofocus technology are found reliable on any time of the day. The photos from rear camera come out sharp, vibrant and have good depth in them. Be it a portrait, landscape, macro, indoor or outdoor shots, the camera produces impressive results. The Auto HDR kicks in right when needed and the focusing is quick and hardly misses. I took 100 of photos and only deleted around 7-10 of them for missing out on focus.
Galaxy S8 Camera Samples
1 of 10
Using "Selective Focus"
HDR Shot
Lowlight Photo
The camera app has a bunch of features along with the pro mode. But, with the auto mode that works so well, you probably won’t bother going manual. Other mentionable features are the selective focus that produces fake blurring in the background and the slow motion that allows shooting 720p video at 240fps. The regular videos can be taken up to 4K from the Back and 2k from the front. However, only the primary camera has Optical Image Stabilization that aids well while taking handheld videos.
The phone takes social-media-ready selfies and the shooting speed is fast too. The photos are good indoors and much better outdoors. The autofocus is pretty fast. The selfies come detailed but come with a bit of fine tuning even when the beautification is turned off. The camera app has inbuilt augmented reality face filters if that’s your cup of tea. Judging from the photos and videos I took at the time of my review, these are arguably the best cameras that I’ve ever tested.
Software
Samsung Experience UI
1 of 8
The Samsung Galaxy S8 runs on Samsung Experience 8.1 that’s based on Android 7.0 Nougat. Samsung has added a few flavors of its own and made the already good Android Nougat even better. Unlike TouchWiz, the UI now has shorter, sleek and smooth animations. Reaching the app drawer has now been made easier since you can reach the app drawer by swiping anywhere on the homescreen. The quick settings menu is far from what you find on stock Android and so is the settings menu. Like Samsung edge devices in the past, the edge panel functionality is still there that I used for first few days and now, I keep forgetting that it is there. However, you can reach people, task or app with a swipe from the edge when the edge panel is turned on. The icons on the S8 have rounded corners matching that of the display.
More to the Software is the Bixby which I was really excited about in the beginning. But after spending some time with it, I didn’t find it much useful. And, the Bixby vision is totally hit or miss. Since the Bixby is not fully functional as of now, so it’ll be too early to judge it. What annoyed me the most is the accidental presses on the Bixby button that keeps waking up the device when I didn’t want to. I just wish if there was an option to disable the button, if not remap.
Battery
Battery Usage Details
1 of 2
When it comes to Battery, after Note 7 debacle, Samsung is playing safe this time around. Samsung Galaxy S8 gets its fuel from 3,000mAh battery that takes one and half hour to fully charge with few minutes give or take. During the time of my review, I got somewhere around 4 hours of screen on time in a 15hours of battery usage. But I tried using the phone by setting the display resolution down to HD+, expecting better screen on time but to my surprise, the result was no different. Hence, S8’s battery performance is something that left me totally unimpressed. However, the phone supports Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charging that charges the phone from 0 to 100% in one and half hour with few minutes give or take. You can also charge the phone wirelessly but such wireless charging pad needs to be bought separately.
Extra Offerings
There are few extra features in Samsung Galaxy S8 that we don’t always find in many other smartphones. The first is the security unlock using the face or Iris. The face unlock is fast but is less secure and the Iris Scanner is exciting but feels slow in everyday use. The second is the Bluetooth 5.0 that offers faster pairing, better range and connects with two BT devices at once. The AKG earphones that come with the phone are of good quality as well. The breakage insurance and free Ncell data are also worth mentioning offers on Galaxy S8 in Nepal.
Verdict
Samsung Galaxy S8 Gallery
1 of 8
Finally, it brings us to the moment of truth. Is Samsung Galaxy S8 the ultimate smartphone that I always wanted? The answer is “almost”. The answer would have been a solid “yes” if it had front firing stereo speakers, fully functional Bixby, better battery and better-positioned fingerprint sensor or faster iris scanner or more secure Face Unlock. That said, Samsung Galaxy S8 with Bluetooth 5.0 and IP68 certification that comes with AKG headphones out of the box, is the best smartphone that you can buy right now. Since you won’t find the LG G6 in Nepal. I just don’t understand why Sony is not bringing Xperia XZ premium here. And, HTC will most likely bring U11 after six or 12 months from now. So, unless the iPhone 8 comes out, the Galaxy S8 is going to be the King of the mobile market in Nepal.
What I liked about the Galaxy S8?
First thing is its design. It’s undoubtedly the best looking phone that I’ve ever used.
Then comes its Infinity Display that is sharp, bright, produces good colors, has great contrast and has less or no color shifting even in extreme viewing angles.
There is no question on the device performance. And, the gaming experience was top-notch.
Galaxy S8 is without a doubt the best camera phone that I’ve ever reviewed.
What I disliked about the Galaxy S8?
Honestly, the fingerprint sensor positioning on this device is the worst placement for the sensor. I thought I would get used to it but the fact is, I didn’t.
There should have been an option to disable Bixby, if not remap.
I was expecting more than just 4hours of screen on time from a flagship device like the Galaxy S8.
Samsung should have avoided duplicate apps which just keep getting me confused on which one to use.
If you weren’t impressed by Samsung Galaxy S8 then here are some alternatives to consider:
iPhone 7Plus is an alternative to consider if you want better user experience. Since, unlike Android, IOS keeps things simple. Another reason to choose iPhone 7plus over the Galaxy S8 will be the timely updates. Since all the iPhones get worldwide updates the next day from it is announced but Samsung isn’t that known for timely updates. Other reasons for iPhone 7Plus to be a better buy than S8 is it’s slightly higher performance, better cameras with 2X optical zoom and better battery performance. But bear in mind, that iPhone 7plus costs a bit higher than the S8.
Huawei P10plus will be an another option to consider in the price range since the phone is launching within the month of June. It has whopping 6GB RAM and has a bigger battery of 3750mAh capacity. Plus, the flagship of Huawei wears Leica engineered dual lenses on the back that can be expected to perform better. Unlike Galaxy S8, it has stereo speakers and front mounted Fingerprint sensor. Though the phone’s pricing hasn’t been revealed, it can be expected to be priced near to the S8.
If you are after a flagship phone with good display and great cameras but think S8 doesn’t match your budget. Then you can still make a good deal buying the company’s last year flagships, the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. Both these phones are now listed on “value for money smartphones” after their last price-cut.
If you are friends with any previous pass outs or the current students of Tribhuvan University, you surely have heard about some random guy copying someone’s thesis. And even though you know copying is bad, some of you end up wishing you could do the same thing.
Well, if you are looking forward to copying a research, we suggest you to not to do so, as the oldest university of Nepal is looking forward to purchasing a plagiarism detecting software, and of course, it is ethically wrong,
According to Republica, TU has permitted a policy to control plagiarism in research papers of Master’s degree, MPhil and PhD. This has surely got to be a welcome addition as some of the students of the University are into plagiarizing research papers from a very long time.
Tribhuvan University’s Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Tirtha Raj Khaniya, who came into a huge controversy after reports suggested he had plagiarized whilst writing a paper for the NELTA journal, said, “This is an attempt to check irregularities. There is a serious trend of copying others’ contents and language without giving credit to the authors.”
All this comes as a move to discourage the ongoing plagiarism in the education sector. But some have criticized the university for the amount it looks set to buy the detection tool. According to some rumors, the software could potentially cost TU $20,000 to $60,000. But Khaniya has denied the rumored pricing saying it will not get as high as that.
But the fact that there is a free version of the application available has resulted in criticism of the biggest University of Nepal. Regarding this matter, Khaniya explained, “TU should have authentic full version software rather than the free version.”
Khaniya said, “We will go in line with the recommendations to implement the concept of the policy to work against plagiarism.”
Whatever the price Tribhuwan University pays for the tool, this has to be considered as a great addition to the ones who actually conduct research.
