GadgetByte Nepal

Xiaomi, the company well known for copying the design language of others, somehow managed to get an innovative tagline with the release of Xiaomi Mi Mix. The Mi Mix got a warm welcome in the smartphone industry for its bezelless design, at least on the three sides of the screen. But, the Doogee launched a new phone at the Global Sources fair in HongKong named “Doogee Mix” that doesn’t just sound like Mi Mix but also looks like Mi Mix. That said, these two phones have pronounceable differences as well and that’s what you’ll find in this post.

Doogee Mix: What We Know so Far

Doogee, the Chinese company that is popular in its homeland for producing quality budget phones, recently managed to get international attentions with its latest release. There are two reasons for that. The first being the tri-bezelless screen and the second being the pricing. The phone that looks like Mi Mix will cost you less than half of its price. The rumors claim the phone to be a sub$200 one. Plus, not just the design but the specifications of the phone look equally impressive on paper. As far as the naming is concerned, the company says it came up with the name “Mix” as the combined form of Minimum and Maximum. The phone with smaller form factor sports a maximum display. The display is said maximum not because of its size but for its design that has been stretched to three sides of the phone.

Coming to the differences between Mi Mix and the Doogee Mix, the first is the screen size. The Dooze Mix has a smaller screen size of 5.5inch, Full HD IPS LCD screen. This new cheap bezelless smartphone comes with Helio X25 processor, 4GB RAM and the 64GB storage. The rumors claim there will be a higher-end variant of the phone that will have Helio X30, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.  Unlike the Mi Mix, the phone has a slim physical earpiece on the top and the front mounted fingerprint sensor. For the cameras, it has a dual lens (16MP + 8MP) on the back and the 8MP unit on the front chin. The phone runs on Android 7 Nougat and houses a 4050mAh battery.

Verdict:

Well, the phone looks and sounds interesting but the fact is the phones like this will never make to the market outside of its homeland, China. So, it’s better not to expect availability of the phone in Nepal. However, this phone launch is hinting towards the bezelless era of smartphones. We now can expect to see more phones with smaller bezels and larger displays not just in flagship ranges but in mid and budget ranges as well.

Apex Digital, has launched Smart Diary in Nepal last week. The diary is available for purchase exclusively at any Apex Digital Smart Stores. The diary comes in three different colors (pink, green and black) and is priced at NRs. 3,999. The smart diary comes with 10000mAh battery pack so that you can charge your phones on the go. Additionally, you can also find a flash drive with a capacity of 8GB placed beautifully on its clip.

A Closer Look at the “Smart Diary” from Apex Digital

The smart diary from Apex Digital comes in three different colors of Pink, Green, and Black. Not just the colors, these diaries differ in the texture used on their covers as well. The Green one has a little rough texture to it and the black on has a smoother on and that of pink is just in-between. The diary gives a nice feeling to the hands while carrying. Thanks to the leather like material on top and padding used inside of it. The diary has a magnetic clip to it and the detachable flash drive is placed well in it. When opening the diary from the front there’s nothing much different about it with some card compartments underneath the cover and first page to mention the personal information. Turning further, you’ll find some important emergency numbers followed by the map of Nepal. The following three pages have the month calendar for the year 2017. Thereafter, comes the regular diary pages for keeping the memorandum.

It is at the last page of the diary that you’ll find the instruction paper. In case, you’re wondering what’s so smart about the diary then it comes after turning the last page. That is when you’ll find three different connecting cables of the power bank with the capacity of 10,000mAh. The first USB cable connector is for charging the power bank itself. Next two cables are for charging your iOS or Android device with lightening port or USB type B port, respectively. There are also four LED lights for the indication of battery level of the power bank. To turn on the power bank there’s a button alongside the battery indicator. When you’re done charging your device, just detach your device and the power bank will turn off by itself after few seconds from detachment.

Verdict:

Well, it’s kind of a new product and we don’t get to see many of such products in Nepal. As far as my opinions are concerned, I’d say this isn’t the diary for everyone. It is for those who keep carrying three things, pen drive, power bank and a diary, separately almost like every day. With a purchase of this smart diary, you can have all those three things more organized.

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But in my daily use, this dairy was a little heavier than the last ones I used, it may be because the 10000mAh battery pack contributing good weight to the overall weight of the diary. It won’t be out of place to mention the diary itself and the pages used in it are of good quality.

MasterCard has just introduced a new card with a fingerprint scanner. This means you will not have to enter or remember your PIN codes anymore.

The way this works is there is a fingerprint sensor located on the upper right corner of your card. You will have to get your fingers scanned by your bank. They allow you to store up to two fingerprints and both of the fingerprints need to be yours.

These new cards will no longer have a magnet strip. Instead, they will come along with a chip and pin due to security reasons.

The early adopters from South Africa say that the authentication process is quick and overall more convenient that entering your PIN. Mastercard does plan to roll out this tech globally in 2017. The only obstacle now is that your bank needs to adopt this tech before you can use it.

Sony yesterday launched the all new range a series professional mirror-less camera, the Sony A9, for basically intended for wildlife and sports photography. However, it doesn’t mean it will not serve your general photography needs like events, lifestyle, and vlogs.

The new Sony a9 comes with 24.2 megapixels, high-speed, blackout-free continuous shooting at up to 20fps. It has a 60 AF/AE tracking calculations per second 10, a maximum shutter speed of up to 1/32,000 second and scattered 693 AF points.

The camera is priced at $4,500 and will begin shipping in May. The lens will be available for $2,500 and begin shipping in July. I personally think the camera is definitely going to threaten the existence of the 1Dx II and D5 from Nikon with the price tag it carries. Sony says it has also improved its battery which was the biggest drawback on Sony A7rii and they have also introduced joystick on the side of the screen for easy focus movement and selection.

Regarding its availability and price in Nepal, it’s yet to be confirmed. However, it surely will catch the attention of Nepali photographers who are just keen on using Canon’s or Nikon’s. I personally being a commercial photographer cannot just wait to get the hands of this camera .

A subsidiary of the Apex Group, Apex Digital is proving to be a successful store in a short period of time. Apex Group opened its first smart store in the form of Apex Digital in October last year. Fast forward six months and the company looks set to open its ninth smart store in Nepal.

With the slogan of “Bishwas Chari, Nepal Bhari”, Apex Digital has been opening lots of stores outside the Kathmandu Valley and all over Nepal. It has smart stores up and running in places like Dang, Narayangadh, Itahari and Kathmandu valley among others. The company is undoubtedly the first of its kind to emphasize its stores in all places of Nepal.

En route to opening 40 chain stores by 2074, Apex Digital opened its ninth smart store at Mainroad, Biratnagar. At the store, customers will get an on-hand experience and get to use the smartphone for a while before buying them. Mr. Prakash Subedhi, the Brand Manager of Apex Digital, said, “The Smart Store at Mainroad, Biratnagar – a place you need to visit where the customers can have hands-on experience with touch, feel and compare various brands of mobile handsets and accessories under one roof.”

Apex Digital is currently selling smartphones from multinational brands like Samsung, Nokia, OnePlus, Oppo, HTC, Gionee, ZTE, Xiaomi, Lenovo, ZOPO, and Micromax. It also sells branded accessories of these products.

On the occasion of the grand opening of the store, Apex Digital is giving gifts to their visitors where every store visitor’s name will be up for a special lucky draw. Also, buyers will be able to enjoy 3 months of replacement guarantee on every product they purchase. This offer is, however, valid only for a short time.

Mr. Pratik Dhungel, the Retail Manager of Apex Digital, said, “The company, on the occasion of the opening, has announced various attractive discounts and special gifts. On every purchase of mobile handsets, the customers will receive a special gift hamper.”

ZTE Axon 7 was termed as the flagship killer of last year. Price at $400, it offered a lot of great features like AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820, 4GB RAM, 20MP Camera, Stereo Speakers and the list goes on and on. The phone was also pretty solid and hit all the right spots for a flagship phone. Now ZTE is taking naming convention from Apple and launching the new upgraded version of ZTE Axon 7, the Axon 7s.

Nothing much has changed in the Axon 7s apart from the upgrade to the processor. The Axon 7s is powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor which is an upgrade from the 820 in Axon 7. Apart from that, the visual change we can see is the speaker grill. The speaker grill takes up most of the upper bezel of the phone and looks really disturbing on the render. According to ZTE, most of the specs of the phone will remain the same but despite having said that, hasn’t completely revealed all the specs of the phone. So we speculate, the display is going to be the same 5.5-inch Super AMOLED  with a QHD resolution. Also, the rear camera is going to be the same 20MP shooter and we might see an upgrade on the front to 16MP from 8MP. There’ll be 4GB of RAM and 64GB Internal Storage. Backing up the device will be a 3250mAh battery. Not to forget, the phone also comes with a forced touch display.

ZTE also announced the release of ZTE Axon Max which will come with the similar specs as the Axon 7s but with a larger 4,100mAh battery.