GadgetByte Nepal

LeEco is a Chinese smartphone company that most of us have certainly never heard of. It is just recent that the company has entered the technology market and has already started making huge waves. It is already competing with the likes of Xiaomi in China when it comes to Internet of Things.  It’s always good to have many options while buying an affordable smartphone and although the LeEco doesn’t have an official distributor in Nepal, the Le Pro 3, a flagship phone from Le Eco, is now available officially via mXpress.

Le Pro 3, on a first glance, looks like the OnePlus 3T and the similarity doesn’t end as there’s a lot of the internals that is similar as well. The phone comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p display and bezels are something to watch out for. It is also among the first phones to ditch the headphone jack in Android and instead relies on the USB C port for headphone and data transfer. The USB C on the device enables fast charging via Quick Charge 3.0. The phone comes with its own UI called the eUI which can take a little to get used to and as LeEco was a former streaming service provider, you get tons of streaming services and free contents along with it.

Le Pro 3 is powered by the quad-core Snapdragon 821 CPU with Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB of RAM. Optics-wise the phone comes with a 16MP Camera with f/2.0 PDAF and can shoot 4K (2160p) @30fps. The front boasts an 8MP Camera with f/2.0 aperture. For audio, the phone comes with Dolby Atmos Audio enhancement and a front firing speaker on the top. The speaker acts as an earpiece as well so you’re gonna get pretty loud and clear audio from it. The phone also includes a fingerprint sensor on the back.

Specifications of LePro 3:

• 5.5 inches(1080 x 1920 ) @403ppi
• eUI 5.8 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821 Chipset
• Quad-core (2×2.35 GHz Kryo & 2×2.0 GHz Kryo) CPU
• Adreno 530 GPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB Internal Storage (Not Expandable)
• 16MP Rear Camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF
• 8MP Front Facing Camera with f/2.2
• USB C 1.0
• Quick Charge 3.0
• Fingerprint Scanner
• Non-removable Li-Ion 4070 mAh battery

The phone is available via mXpress with the price of Rs.49,970.

Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing camera app (‘previously social-media’) in the world. At first, the whole idea of Snapchat sounded like a stupid thing, who would want to post pictures that only lasted for 24hours? who would want to send photos using time limits and for the love of god who would want to talk by snapping pictures? But that’s what we’re doing right now, aren’t we? and it has become so popular that other social media giants like Instagram are copying the similar concepts. Well, the company is doing more than just creating a camera app, they are also creating hardware that makes their experience more engaging.

It’s recent that Snapchat has entered the hardware front. A few months back they introduced the Snapchat Spectacles which was stylish and most importantly shot videos form your POV and uploaded directly to Snapchat. Although we couldn’t get the first-hand experience of the spectacles but it seemed really awesome and people seem to totally love it. Continuing the integration of hardware for snapping, Snapchat has recently hired a group of 50 hardware engineers whose goal is to make the perfect smartphone for the Snapchat users.

Well, the specs are kind of raw as it is a concept phone. It will come with a 360-degree camera, a separate front facing camera, a button to easily scroll through filters, one touch capture and sharing. The main goal of the phone is to let users snap and share everything while carrying the phone on a single hand. The phone will be camera focused so we can expect some major camera integration and to our disappointment, the phone will be running on android. If you have been using Snapchat on android, you already know how disappointing the image quality is going to be despite having a good camera. Although till they launch the smartphone (‘if they launch the smartphone’) we can hope for some optimization for the image quality.

The whole move towards the hardware front is because Snapchat had to do something different to make the users stick as their core functionalities are being implemented on other platforms. We don’t know how practical it is to buy a smartphone just to use Snapchat but a lot of things seem stupid at first until they don’t.

One question. How many of you are reading this on your phone while you are sitting down on your toilet? Well, if you are, I suggest you to keep your phone away. Why? It is because your device is getting contaminated with harmful bacteria that are in your toilet right now. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Well, you should be scared. These bacteria can harbor along the creases and edges of your mobile phone. And later, it can easily infect you.

A recent study conducted by Sony has found that around 75 percent of Americans used their mobile phones in their bathroom while as do 41 percent of Australians. And with the level of obsession we Nepali people have with our phones, I am sure that figure is substantial here too.

So, while it might look like you are saving your precious time multitasking, you are actually putting your health at risk.

Dr. Anchita Karmakar, general practitioner, explains, “There are water and air particles that harbor in the little creases of the phone. And phone covers and cases are usually made out of rubber, which is a warm and comfortable harboring ground for bacteria.”

That clears you of the misconception that the cover of your phone is keeping away the germs. The germs include harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli, salmonella, and shigella among others.

As Dr Karmakar further adds, “There’s a lot of water involved in the toileting process in Asia, so you wouldn’t want to take a phone in the bathroom for that reason”.

Therefore, it is better if you keep your phone away from toilets, and you should definitely keep it away from the public ones. Imagine tons of bacteria occupying your phone when you enter a public toilet at Ratnapark!

‘Even if you’re not using your phone on the toilet, you’re still holding it while you’re going in and out of the bathroom, and that’s enough to put bacteria on the phone when you haven’t yet washed your hands,’ Dr Karmakar says.

Also, since a lot of people use their phones while eating, be it for Instagram or just some website, the bacteria easily enter their digestive tract via their mouth. So next time you get sick, it could be because of this factor!

So what can you do to eradicate this risk? It is easy. Just stop using your phone in your bathroom and while eating. Oh and just so you know, one study claims that your smartphone consists of more harmful bacteria than your toilet seat.