Oops and Wows in Smartphone Technology (2016 Edition)

Featured

GadgetByte

-

December 21, 2016

Oops and Wows in Smartphone Technology (2016 Edition)

Every setting sun is bringing us a day closer to 2017. As 2016 is coming to an end, we decided to make a flashback to review the year. And here we will be discussing the oops and wows in smartphone technology, we encountered so far in 2016.

Oops of 2016

1. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 burst

Though not of much change in its signature design, Samsung brought its flagship device packed with enticing features like Iris Scanner and an enhanced camera. The initial impression of the device has blown everyone’s mind. The device not only blew people’s minds but also ended up getting itself blown up. Samsung blamed the battery for the explosion and called out the devices for the battery replacement. However, the battery replacement idea did not turn out to be a sustainable solution. The series of explosions did not stop even after the battery replacement. Hence, the manufacturers fall under the obligation to call back all the devices and to discontinue the sales and shipments.

2. Removal of 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

With the introduction of Earpods with the lightning connector, apple decided to cut the journey with 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple faced controversy for this decision; however, Apple put forward the word “courage” as an answer. Apple publicizes this tantrum as a revolution in audio technology, however, there was nothing much of change to called it a revolution. The only change Earpods got was the connecting jack, though Apple levied a whopping amount of $29.50 for it.

Surprisingly courage is not the answer why Apple kill 3.5mm headphone jack. One of the reasons why headphone jack departed from Apple is that the lightning port is proprietary to Apple. So if a third party makes that accessory, they have to pay for it. It is a direct revenue stream for Apple. Falling under this greed, Apple kills 3.5mm headphone jack from iPhone 7 and 7 plus which have made the users inconvenient to listen to music through the Earpods while charging; as the charger and Earpods use the same slot.

3. Death of Blackberry

Formerly known as Research in Motion (RIM), Blackberry Limited was the first smartphone vendor in the world, specializing in secure communications and mobile productivity. Until 2013, Blackberry had a dominant position in smartphone market share. However, with the peaking of consumers’ craze in Android phones and iPhones, Blackberry devices were slowly swept from the race.

Traditionally, Blackberry devices were relying on Blackberry OS developed by Blackberry Limited. To keep its winning streaks on, BlackBerry decided to get rid of its obsolete OS. So in 2013, Blackberry introduced BlackBerry 10, a major revamp of the platform based on QNX operating system. With BB10 as OS, Blackberry released BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Classic, BlackBerry Passport, and the BlackBerry Leap. However, in the Android and iOS dominated smartphone community, BB10 does not turn out to bring an acute taste. In 2015, BlackBerry re-focused its business strategy and began to release Android-based smartphones, beginning with the BlackBerry Priv slider and then the BlackBerry DTEK50. Though having Android OS on its system, Blackberry failed to entice the consumer. So being fed up with the futile attempts, on September 28, 2016, Blackberry announced it would cease designing its own phones in favor of outsourcing to partners.

4. Scam of the cheapest phone

Ringing Bells Company announced Freedom 251 as the cheapest phone costing a mere amount of $3.64 (Indian Rs. 251) in February 2016. The news put everyone in astonishment. When even the low-end devices are costing the price of 50$ and above, the $3.64 announcement sounded fishy. At the end, Freedom 251 turned out to be a scam. The initially marketed Freedom 251 turned out to be Adkom Ikon 4, which costs a price around $55. Actually, the device was found in disguise with the application of whitener on the Adcom logo.

As Adkom device exposed under the veil of Freedom 251, Sanjeev Bhatia, founder and Chairman of Adcom, was found saying in a statement. “To clear the air, I would like to underline a few facts pertaining to case, as this scam exhibits the potential of maligning our brand name Adcom, which is our trademark since 2001.”

The price issue of the device brought a lot of suspicions since the amount of the device mentioned was sufficient just to buy the charger. Ringing Bells also suffered from the investigations as the Noida Police registered a FIR on them. The Chinese manufacturer Adkom does not make an abrupt legal move though they mentioned their unawareness about the use of their brand and product by the Ringing Bells.

Wows in 2016

1. Huawei P8 Lite Saved Man’s Life

Is not it great if your smartphone lets you communicate with people, listen to music, surf internet, take photos and even save your life? This could be everyone’s dream and this dream came out to be true in 2016. The device, which took the bullet and saved its owner’s life is Huawei P8 Lite. Huawei P8 Lite is the predecessor to the P9 Lite, which received a price drop in Nepal a few days back.

The lucky person, whose smartphone acted as a bulletproof shield is 41 years aged, Siraaj Abrahams. The South Africa inhabitant Seeraj said that robbers shot him and stole $20 he had with him. After the shot of the bullet, he fainted. According to the report, the bullet caused his heart to pause for a moment but he pulled himself from the mouth of death. After the incident, he received P9 Lite as a replacement for its prior phone from the Huawei. Moreover, the Managing director of Huawei’s Sub-Saharan Africa region took Siraaj and his family out for a lunch. The company has also offered a free VIP entry to Siraaj for all the home matches of the Ajax Cape Town football team, the team sponsored by Huawei.

2. Trend of Dual camera

Sometimes greater quantity offers a better quality and just like that having a dual camera in a smartphone ensures a greater quality in photography. The dual camera started in smartphones with the arrival of LG Optimus 3D and HTC Evo 3D in 2011. However, dual camera in these devices was brought with a sole purpose to capture 3D images or 3D videos. The trend of the dual camera for an enhanced photography started since February 2016 with the arrival of LG G5. In G5, there is a main 16 MP sensor and a second 8 MP sensor. The information of these two sensors does not combine to create effects in photos. The dual camera approach in LG G5 was for a straight shooting. The 16-megapixel camera offers regular photos, but the second lens is wide-angle.

Huawei P9 turned out to be the second in the trend of the dual camera for enhanced photography. However, it ended up being the pioneer for its dual camera concept. In P9, between the two lenses, one is for monochrome, another is for RGB colors, and the merging algorithm equipped in the phone intelligently merges the colors from the RGB sensor and the details of the monochrome sensor.

The Apple iPhone 7 Plus also features two cameras on the rear, both of 12-megapixels. Both of the cameras offer optical image stabilization, however, with different focal lengths. The first camera offers 23mm zoom, which is sort of wide but not super wide like LG, but wider than the old iPhone camera. With these devices, the trend of the dual camera started. Following one of the above concepts, many smartphone manufacturers are toiling to furnish dual camera in their device too. As far as the continuity of this trend in coming days, there is more yet to see.

3. Official announcement of Nokia to come back

When Google released Android OS in 2008, others smartphone manufacturers started releasing their products with Android OS on their system (except for iPhones). However, at first, Nokia did not cut the journey with Symbian OS. But sometimes later it made a leap to Windows OS and started producing windows phone. Despite the trend, Nokia decided to be persistent with Windows phones. However, the persistence does not pay off. And finally, Nokia became obliged to bend the knees. Nokia has now decided to bring devices with Android OS on their system. For now, lets not dig into the rumored specs of the devices. The officials have already declared about the announcement of the device at MWC 2017, which will be in February. So all we have to do now is waiting.

4. Midrange phones becoming more stronger

It takes a lot of courage to buy a flagship model since every brand releases their masterpiece packing with one or more features that lure our eye. Getting an upgrade from one flagship to another definitely, blows one’s wallet. And such flagship model gets obsolete as another device comes to surpass its specs. So, smartphones manufacturer focused on bringing mid-range phones packing with alluring specs and making economical enough to save the puncture in your wallet. As this trend continued, 2016 turned out to be a great year for mid-range phones.

5. Modular phones of LG and Motorola

The modular smartphone is a concept introduced to reduce electronic waste, lower repair costs and increase user comfort. In modular phones, the different components of the phone can be replaced or upgraded in modular design. Though Google suspended the Project ARA, LG and Motorola kept the spirits of modular smartphones alive. Following the trails of modular phones, LG G5 and Motorola Moto Z Droid came into the limelight in 2016.

6. Google Tango phone

With the collaboration with Lenovo, Google brought up its Tango phone and Lenovo phab 2 pro presented itself as a first Tango-enabled smartphone. Basically, Tango is a technology platform developed and authored by Google. With the use of computer vision, Tango enables mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets to detect their position relative to the world around them without using GPS or other external signals. With this platform, developers can create user experiences that include indoor navigation, 3D mapping, physical space measurement, environmental recognition, augmented reality, and windows into a virtual world.

7. 6 GB RAM in a smartphone

Apple’s iPhone and Samsung devices have dominated the smartphone market share and these manufacturers are renowned for their flagship devices. When the two biggest smartphone giants are providing 3 GB (iPhone 7 plus) and 4 GB (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge) of RAM, another smartphone came ahead of them to surpass this feature. In 2016, the Chinese company OnePlus brought its flagship device OnePlus 3 (later came as 3T) with a whopping 6GB of RAM. As smartphone has been a multipurpose device, this amount of RAM will ensure a lag-less performance. If other manufacturers follow this trend, we will never have to worry about the phone lags anymore.

Lenovo ZUK Edge announced with Edgeless display and 6GB of RAM

GadgetByte

-

December 21, 2016

0

Lenovo ZUK Edge announced with Edgeless display and 6GB of RAM

Edgeless displays are now official, let that sink in for a second. The edge to edge display is now going to be the next smartphone trend and is taking the market by storm.The edgeless display provides an immersive feeling while using the phone but they are pretty much fragile considering the fact that you’ll have no place to wrap up the cover on your phone. Adding to the list of phones with the edgeless display is the Lenovo’s new ZUK Edge which packs more than what meets the eye.

Lenovo ZUK Edge being launched at the end of the year pretty much packs up every spec that made it to this year’s flagship phones, including the Edgeless display. The display is a 5.5inch Full HD panel which sums up 86.4 percent of the front. Also, the cool thing up front is that the fingerprint sensor(home button) is lodged behind the glass giving it a stealth look. Fingerprint also incorporates blood oxygen heart rate sensor. The phone also comes with altimeter and UV Sensor. For audiophiles, it comes with a Dirac HD Sound for HiFi audio.

2016 won’t be complete without 6GB of RAM and ZUK Edge has got that covered as well, it also comes in a 4GB variant. To keep things backed up it comes with 64GB of internal storage without any expandability options. Powering the phone is Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821Chipset which opens a whole new world of VR and fast charging for smartphones. Optics wise it sports a 13MP Camera on the back with PDAF and 8MP camera on the front.

ZUK Edge is running on Android 7.0 Nougat with Lenovo’s own UI on top. The phone features USB C for charging and data syncing as well as a separate headphone jack. Backing up the phone is a decent 3,100mAh battery. ZUK Edge will start selling in China at $330 for 4GB variant and $360 for 6GB Variant.

Specifications ZUK Edge:

DISPLAY	5.5 inches 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 PPI pixel density)
CHIPSET	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821
CPU	Quad-core (2×2.35 GHz Kryo & 2×1.6 GHz Kryo)
GPU	Adreno 530
OPERATING SYSTEM	ZUI 2.5 on top of Android 7.0 Nougat
INTERNAL MEMORY	64GB
EXPANDABLE MEMORY	Not Available
RAM	4GB/6GB
REAR CAMERA	13MP
FRONT CAMERA	8MP
SIM	Dual Nano SIM
BATTERY	3,100mAh (Quick Charge 3.0)
COLOR(S) AVAILABLE	Ceramic White, Titanium Black
PRICE	$330 (4GB), $360 (6GB)

Gionee S6s Review: Is this the Perfect Smartphone for Selfie Maniacs?

Yural Maskey

-

December 20, 2016

3

Gionee S6s Review: Is this the Perfect Smartphone for Selfie Maniacs?

Gionee recently launched a metal-clad smartphone, the Gionee S6s, in Nepal for Rs. 25,999. The phone features a premium look and feel, full HD display, and an 8MP selfie-centric camera. But, like with all the smartphone reviews, the question is if the phone is worth all your money? We review to find out.

DESIGN

The Gionee S6s has a full metal jacket with a curved body. Comparing with the existing midrange phones like Huawei GR5 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, the Gionee S6s feel more premium and well built. It weighs satisfactory at 166gms and measures just 8.3mm in thickness. It offers capacitive buttons with haptic feedback, but are not backlit. The curved body offers better handling and doesn’t feel uncomfortable even after continuous use.

1 of 4

DISPLAY

The Gionee S6s sports a 5.5-inch 1080P display with gorilla glass 3 protection. Unlike the predecessor Gionee S6 that comes equipped with AMOLED display, the Gionee S6s houses an IPS LCD panel. It’s necessary not a bad thing as the IPS LCD panel offers true color reproduction and excellent viewing angles. However, i would have liked even more if the display was AMOLED since I like oversaturated colors. The display is also slightly dim with average sunlight legibility but gets the job done most of the time.

SOFTWARE

The Gionee S6s is currently running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Amigo OS 3.1 layered on top. I am not a big fan of Amigo OS since I am more of a stock android user. The Amigo UI lacks App drawer and is difficult to manage apps on the home screen. The quick access panel can be accessed by swiping from down to up which is awkward and eccentric for an android user.

The UI is heavily customized with lots of bloatware which results in a lot of RAM consumption. Even without any apps open, the UI consumes around 1GB of RAM.

HARDWARE

The Gionee S6s is powered by a 1.3Ghz Octacore Mediatek Processor (MT6735 SoC) with 3GB of RAM. The MT6573 SoC is a decent performer for browsing, navigating, chatting, etc. However, we are looking at a 64bit Cortex A53 processor cores and Mali T720 GPU which doesn’t live upto the expectation while playing high-end games and heavy multitasking.

The phone feels warm on the back after using for more than 30 mins, but its nothing to get worried about. It doesn’t have any overheating issue to get worried about, but the phone does reach above 50 degrees while playing high-end games and it’s unplayable afterwards.

The 3GB of RAM is a welcome presence. However, unoptimised software means it consumes around half of the RAM without doing anything. The phone comes with 32GB of ROM and if that’s not enough a microSD slot with which you can expand the storage for upto 256GB.

CAMERA

The Gionee S6s features a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture lens, phase detection autofocus, and LED flash. During daylight, the photos comes out decent at first impression, but there is nothing to write home about. The color reproduction is inaccurate and the photos lack in details while you zoom in. Dynamic range is poor considering the price tag and HDR mode doesn’t do any miracle at all. The low light photography is mediocre with lots of noise.

The 8MP front camera is the phone’s biggest asset. It is easily on of the best front facing cameras I’ve ever tested and goes even head to head with flagship handsets like Galaxy S7. Also, the built-in high CRI flash offers a level of low-light usability that most rivals cannot match.

FINGERPRINT

The fingerprint scanner of the Gionee S6s is located on the back and works well. It’s accurate and fast and it’s better than Xiaomi’s redmi Note 3, but not as good as Huawei GR5.

CONNECTIVITY:

The Gionee S6s features a dual SIM slot with 4G VOLTE support, however, these are a hybrid SIM slot which means you can either insert 2 SIM card or a SIM card and a microSD card. The call quality is good thanks to an active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, but despite that it’s not as good as flagship phones. Other connectivity option includes WiFi b/g/n (no dual band, ac), GPS, Bluetooth, and FM Radio.

BATTERY:

The Gionee S6s has a sizeable 3150mAh battery which will easily make it through a day if you use it for two hours each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback. However, if you are a heavy user, you need to charge the phone twice a day. Speaking of charging, it lacks quick charge support and will take around 2-3 hours to charge from 0 to 100%. Overall, the Gionee S6s has an average battery life with 3.5 hours of onscreen time, but it has a good standby time.

CONCLUSION:

This year’s S6s is easily Gionee’s best Android smartphone to date. It combines attractive looks, excellent build quality, superb front camera, and Android Marshmallow out-of-the-box to go with an attractive price tag of Rs. 25,999. Having said that, you will compromise in 3 areas: performance, rear camera, and fast charging.

If Rs. 26,000 is all you can spend on a smartphone, and looking for a big display, excellent front camera, and premium looks, I believe that you will be hard-pressed to find a better option for your money than the Gionee S6s. However, let’s also look around to see what other phones can one get for the money Gionee is asking for the S6s. Here are some of the notable alternatives to the device:

Huawei GR5

Priced at Rs. 24,500, the Huawei GR5 offers a better rear camera, more powerful chipset in Snapdragon 616, however, it’s 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM is no match for the 3GB/32GB storage of the Gionee S6s.

2. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro

Priced at Rs. 25,499, the Redmi Note 3 Pro offers excellent performance with Snapdragon 650 Soc onboard. It also offers a good 16MP rear camera and a huge 4100mAh battery.

3. Meizu M3 Note

Priced at Rs. 24,995, the Meizu M3 Note offers slightly upgraded hardware specs like Helio P10 SoC and 4100mAh battery. However, the 8MP front snapper of Gionee S6s is twice as good as the 5MP front snapper found on the M3 Note.

LG Gpad III with 10.1 inch Screen Launched

Featured
LG

GadgetByte

-

December 20, 2016

0

LG Gpad III with 10.1 inch Screen Launched

Just when we thought tablets are just another tech that seems to be dying, LG has launched GPad 3 tablet with a 10.1-inch screen. 7 and 8-inch used to be the standard size for tablets, but these are replaced by similarly sized phablets in the market. So from the looks of it, to create a separate market for tablets, manufacturers are leveling up the screen size and the Samsung’s Galaxy View with 18.4-inch display makes it pretty much clear.

The LG Gpad III 10.1 sports a full HD panel with the resolution of 1920*1200(224ppi) which is idle for multimedia consumption. It is powered by an octacore Snapdragon 617 clocked at 1.5Ghz which is coupled with 2GB of RAM. The tablet also comes with 32GB of onboard storage and supports expandable storage up to 2TB!

The phablet also has 4G support just so you can talk on your massive tablet (something which you shouldn’t do in public). It also comes with 5MP front and rear camera which could be helpful for video calls. Gpad III 10.1 also comes with a kickstand and can be adjusted 70 degrees for comfortable use and viewing. Connectivity wise it comes with 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS and USB C for charging and data syncing. It measures 256.2 x 167.9 x 6.7 mm and weighs 510grams. It is backed up by a decent 6,000mAh battery. GPad III 10.1 is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and is running TimeSquare UX which helps the tablet to be used as a clock, calendar or digital frame.

Really the use of tablets for general users seems to be vague. No one will buy a $350 tablet and use it as a desk clock. The market for tablets is really small, for my use, I may use it as a screen for my DSLR or Teleprompter or maybe as a second monitor but there’s not a whole lot of use of giant tablets for general users. Early 2017, another variant of Gpad III will be launched with a stylus then it might be a useful tool for artists and creators.

DDoS attack and measures to Fight DDoS attack

GadgetByte

-

December 19, 2016

0

DDoS attack and measures to Fight DDoS attack

White hats are in an ongoing battle with black hats for protecting the Internet from DDoS attacks. According to Abhor Network, more than 2000 daily DDoS attacks are observed worldwide.

In 2016, we saw the largest DDoS attack till date on Dyn (a DNS provider). During the attack, Dyn’s servers were loaded with more than 1.2 Tbps of data which crashed the company’s servers. This attack caused major websites like Twitter, Amazon, Reddit, and Netflix to go down. The attack was carried out using IoT devices infected by Mirai malware; which means the attacker might have used your routers, Smart TVs, mobiles, computers and IP cameras to do the DDoS attack.

Since the attackers have started using your Internet-connected devices to launch dangerous attacks (without your knowledge) against Banks, Telecom, and Media (that speak against some political agendas), it is about time we(users) become aware of DDoS.

What is DDoS Attack?

DDoS is Distributed Denial of Service attack. In this attack, hackers use compromised systems (called botnets) to make online services unavailable to clients. During the attack, the attacker simply overfloods the service provider’s servers with fake traffics from multiple sources (botnets). This causes the servers to crash. Thus, the intended audience are deprived of the services.

In simple words, DDoS attack is like window shoppers swarming your business denying genuine customers from getting your service.

Symptoms of DDoS Attack:

According to Wikipedia, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has identified symptoms of a denial-of-service attack to include:

unusually slow network performance (opening files or accessing web sites)
unavailability of a particular website
inability to access any website
a dramatic increase in the number of spam emails received (this type of DoS attack is considered an e-mail bomb).

Additional symptoms may include:

disconnection of a wireless or wired internet connection
long-term denial of access to the web or any internet services.

Why is DDoS attack so dangerous?

A large-scale attack can affect Internet connectivity of entire geographical regions.
Anyone can buy a week of DDoS attack at just $150 in the black market. Source: Trendmicro Research
There can be millions of Botnets since many devices these days are connected to the Internet. This makes the attack more dangerous.
There are more than 2000 attacks per day.
Small businesses are an easy target because it is cheap and easy to attack services that don’t have DDoS countermeasures.

How to Fight DDoS attack:

Be prepared by recognizing the symptoms of a DDoS attack.
Get extra bandwidth for your website. This will give you time to fight the DDoS without your service going down.
Monitor your website traffic regularly. Use Web Analytics tools.
If you think you are under attack, contact your ISP or Host Provider.
Use DDoS mitigation specialist companies if you can afford.

In conclusion, spread the words about DDoS attack to everyone you know who owns or wish to own a website. Also, prevent your devices from being compromised– I will write about it on next post. For now, let’s fight DDoS attacks together.

How to enable (hidden) Multi-window mode in Android Marshmallow easily

GadgetByte

-

December 19, 2016

0

How to enable (hidden) Multi-window mode in Android Marshmallow easily

Google released Android 7.0 Nougat few of months back. It packs tons of features making the Android experience amazing (as if it wasn’t already!). Only a few devices have received the nougat update, though, which is a bummer since Nougat has so much to offer.

One of the major features of Android Nougat has to be the split-screen support. Samsung’s and LG’s flagship device users have known this feature for quite some time, though. Browsing through Facebook while watching a YouTube video or reading an article on Gadgetbyte Nepal while going through your Instagram feed does sound fun.

I know we can install Custom ROMs and get this feature, but not everyone likes Custom ROMs (me included). So today, I will be explaining an easy way to get the Multi-window mode in your Marshmallow running devices. For this mode to work, you will have to root your Android phone.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WON’T BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR DEVICE GETS BRICKED WHEN YOU ROOT IT.

Here are some requirements to enable multi-window mode on Android:

rooted device running on Android 6.0.x Marshmallow
BuildProp Editor app from Google play store

Download BuildProp Editor here

Now, follow these instructions carefully and you’ll be good to go.

Open the newly installed BuildProp Editor app and grant it root access. The root access pop-up appeared on my device after a little while so have some patience. (Note that you will HAVE to give the app root access.)
Tap the search icon on top and search ‘ro.build.type’.
Select the ro.build.type command.
Change the value from user to userdebug
Tap save.
Now reboot your device.
After the device restarts, go to Settings > About phone and tap on the Build Number seven times.
Go back to settings and open Developer Options.
Under “Drawing” category turn on the Multi-window mode.
BOOM! Split screen mode unlocked!

Now you can select the multi-window mode from your recent app menu, as easy as that.

I have had no issues using this function and apps’ performance has been stable. It works fluently and is really useful. Unfortunately, you can’t re-size the windows, but hey you got dual window mode!

Are there any hidden Android functions you know? Let us know in the comments. And stay tuned to Gadgetbyte Nepal as we will be posting more on rooted Android devices.

ZTE Mobiles Nepal introduces Warm Winter Offer

Featured
ZTE

GadgetByte

-

December 19, 2016

0

ZTE Mobiles Nepal introduces Warm Winter Offer

The unforgiving winter is here, giving us chills and making us wish our warm cup of coffee never ends. To beat off the winter chills, Evolution Enterprises, the authorised distributor of ZTE mobiles in Nepal, has announced the Warm Winter Offer where on every purchase of smartphone you can scratch and win all the winter essentials you can think of ranging from Room Heater, Thermos, Electric kettle, power bank (coz winter is all about power cuts), selfie stick and cash back offer.

Most of the products are from Baltra including Heater, Electric Kettle, and Thermos. There are two variants of Powerbank, one with 2,600mAh capacity and another with 10,000mAh capacity. To learn more about ZTE phones available in the market, click this link.

ZTE recently launched 2 phones in Nepal — Axon Mini and Axon Elite. Priced at Rs. 25,900, the Axon mini sports a 5.2-inch 1080P AMOLED display, octacore Snapdragon 616 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage (expandable via microSD upto 128GB), 13MP back camera and 8MP front camera — both assisted by a LED flash and a 2800mAh battery.

The Axon Elite, on the other hand, sports a 5.5-inch 1080P IPS display and is powered by a last year’s flagship Snapdragon 810 processor. It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of RAM. The USP of the phone is its dual rear camera 13MP + 2MP). The dual rear camera is used to produce bokeh effect by focusing the main object and blurring the background. It is backed up by a 3000mAh battery.

Huawei P9 Lite and Gionee P7 Max receive a price drop

GadgetByte

-

December 18, 2016

0

Huawei P9 Lite and Gionee P7 Max receive a price drop

If you are willing to buy a new smartphone for this Christmas or New Year then this could be good news for you. To add a surplus amount of happiness for this Christmas and New Year, two smartphone giants are offering a price drop on their devices. The smartphones to receive a price reduction are Huawei P9 Lite and Gionee P7 Max. As Huawei P9 lite and Gionee P7 Max receive a price drop, the presence of Santa could be felt this year. These devices have received a price reduction during the festive season, however, it is not an offer for Christmas or New Year; this is a permanent price drop.

Receiving a price drop of Rs. 3,700 from Rs. 31,999, Huawei P9 Lite is now available for Rs. 28,300. Offering Rs, 3,000 drops in its initial price of Rs. 21,999, Gionee P7 Max is now available for Rs. 18,999.

Huawei P9 Lite overview

Packed up inside an alluring metallic frame and an embedded square fingerprint slot on its back, P9 Lite has got a good aesthetics, the same aesthetics as its pricier sibling P9. However, the sibling surpassed this device in many respects. Bearing a Leica’s 12.3 MP dual camera on its back when this device remains stuck with 13MP Sony IMX 214 f/2.0 camera is the premium. Huawei’s in-house SoC, HiSilicon Kirin 650 powers the device, which is an octa-core processor. The octa-core chipset has an inbuilt four cores of Cortex A53 that works at 2.0 GHz speed and another four cores Cortex A53 that works on 1.7 GHz speed. On the display, Huawei P9 Lite inherits a 5.2” IPS LCD screen, which supports Full HD resolutions. Packed with a pixel density of 424 PPI, the display looks great. However, the lack of screen protection has made the device crack-prone and scratch-prone.

The 7.5 mm sleek device bears a 8 MP, f/2.0 front shooter which takes good selfies. However, the lack of front flashing LED has constricted its scope. The device is injected with 16 GB internal memory and 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM. The half of the internal memory is usurped by the system and if you wish to extend the memory; you have to sacrifice your wish to use two SIM cards in the device since this device employs a Hybrid slot. The another feature, which is not dominated by its flagship sibling is the battery. The device is fueled by a 3000 mAh non-removable battery, which lasts pretty longer. So, you do not have to constrict your interests to use your device longer.

Huawei P9 Lite Specs:

5.2 inches IPS LCD (1080 x 1920 pixels ) @424ppi
Android Marshmallow 6.0
HiSilicon Kirin 650 Chipset
Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
Mali-T830MP2 GPU
16 GB, 2 GB or 3 GB RAM
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G LTE
microSD, up to 256 GB (Hybrid slot)
Rear camera: 13 MP, f/2.0, autofocus, LED flash; 1/3″ sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, HDR
Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0
Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, compass
Non-removable 3000 mAh battery
Price ~~Rs. 31,999~~ Rs. 28,300

Could Huawei P9 Lite be a good buy?

Huawei P9 Lite sports good features in its own way. However, in the similar price range, we can get devices, which out-perform Huawei P9 Lite in one form on other. In a minor deviation of price, Gionee S6s, Huawei GR5 2017, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 or Samsung Galaxy J7 prime can be its competitors.

Gionee P7 Max overview

P7 Max made its arrival on October of this year with a 5.5” IPS LCD display. The display has a 267 PPI pixel density and supports a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The display is nothing out of ordinary as the devices in the similar price category offers similar or superior display specs. Mediatek MT6595 SoC powers the device, which is an octa-core processor that runs on the clock speed of 2.2 GHz. Under the hood, the device furnishes a 13 MP camera on its back. The back shooter is accompanied by a LED flash to ensure photo clarity in low-light photography. However, the 5 MP front shooter lacks this feature.

The device is injected with an internal memory of 32 GB and RAM of 3 GB. The 3 GB RAM of the device ensures a lag-free performance. The memory can be extended to 128 GB with the use of SD card. Talking about the sensors, the device is enriched with Accelerometer, proximity, compass. However, the device lacks a fingerprint sensor, which has been a common spec even in low-end devices. The phone is furnished with a 3100 mAh non-removable battery. The battery provides better backup to the device, so you should not remain adhered with the charger.

Gionee P7 Max Specs:

5.5 inches IPS LCD (720 x 1280 pixels ) @267ppi
Android Marshmallow 6.0
Mediatek MT6595 Chipset; Octa-core 2.2 GHz
PowerVR G6200 GPU
3 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM: Expandable up to 128 GB using SD card
Primary camera: 13 MP, autofocus, LED flash; Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama
Secondary camera: 5 MP
Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Non-removable 3100 mAh battery
Price: ~~Rs. 21,999~~ Rs. 18,999

Could Gionee P7 Max be a good buy?

Under this price range, 3 GB of RAM and 3100 mAh battery is a rare spec. This device could be the best buy in this price category. However, Gionee Marathon M5 Lite and Xiaomi Redmi 3S could still be a good competitor.

Two good smartphones, Huawei P9 Lite and Gionee P7 Max receive a price drop. After the end of this article, what are your thoughts? Aren’t you willing to have one of this device for this New Year? Give it some thoughts.

Huawei unveils Honor Magic; Device features AI, triple edge display and dual cameras

GadgetByte

-

December 18, 2016

0

Huawei unveils Honor Magic; Device features AI, triple edge display and dual cameras

In 2016, we saw Samsung release two flagships with dual edged displays (one backfired, literally), Xiaomi followed Samsung with its flagship Mi Note 2, and Huawei also went with dual edged display on Mate 9 Pro. So, we can say that 2016 was a for the breakthrough for dual edge displays, and next year we might see more flagship devices feature the technology.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Huawei Honor Magic:

DISPLAY	5.09-inch 2560 x 1440 pixels AMOLED display (577 PPI)
CHIPSET	Huawei Kirin 950
CPU	Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A72 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex A53) processor
GPU	Mali-T880 MP4
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Magic Live UI
INTERNAL MEMORY	64GB
EXTERNAL MEMORY	No
RAM	4GB
REAR CAMERA	Dual 12MP (color + monochrome) with f/2.2 aperture
FRONT CAMERA	8MP with f/2.0 aperture
SIM	Dual SIM
FINGERPRINT	Available
BATTERY	Non-Removable 2900mAh
FAST CHARGING	Available (90% in half an hour charge)
COLOR(S) AVAILABLE	Golden Black and Porcelain White
PRICE	CNY 3,700 ($530)

[socialpoll id=”2407859″]

What is VR and Why do you need it?

GadgetByte

-

December 17, 2016

0

Have you ever wondered what if you can be the game as the main character? What it feels like to be in places you have always dreamed about. How it feels like to interact with the virtual objects such as the furniture, bots, weapons, your favorite characters etc. Well, technology has the solution. Yes! you have heard it right. We are talking about VR(Virtual Reality) Technology.

The close replication of real environment using high-end computer technologies by integrating images, audios, videos and other sensory information which provide an immersive experience to the user by the combined effort of hardwares (gears, headset, etc) Softwares and some sensory peripherals and can interact with the object in this immersive virtual world. VR uses the head tracking and motion tracking technology for giving the rich immersive and vivid experience. As we have already stated in the previous articles that a gyro-sensor is necessary to access the VR technology in one’s smartphones. You can find the article here.

Availability of VR

You can enjoy VR in different variants. There are lots of companies in the international market to pioneer as VR renderer. The list goes like this:

(Note: The above list is not in any order specified.)

You may have heard about the AR(Augmented Reality). It’s totally different from VR. AR is the combination of the virtual objects in real world whereas, VR is the immersion of one in the virtual world irrespective of the real scenario. Pokemon Go™, Microsoft’s HoloLens, etc are the examples of it.

We can see VR Technology to be hatching in the Nepali market nowadays. There are plenty of retailers which provides the peripherals across various major cities of Nepal.

Scope of VR

We can be benefitted by VR by commencing its application to the following fields:

Education & Training
Video Games
Entertainment
Fine Arts
Media & Films
Engineering
Heritage & Archaeology
Therapy, Exercise & Fitness
Marketing & Commerce
Sports