HTC has launched it’s first phone on Desire range with Optical Image Stabilization(OIS). Desire 828 is a mid-range phone from HTC which is not all that power packed. It sports the same design language as any other HTC device and YES ! it features dual front facing stereo speakers.
Specs wise Desire 828 features a Mediatek SoC with 2GB of RAM and 5.5 inch full HD IPS screen up front backed up by 2800mAH of battery. Given the screen and battery size , Desire 828 comes with a mere thickness of 7.9mm. It sports a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. Desire 828 will run Android 5.1.1 out of the box with the promise of update of Marshmallow.
Specs:
5.5 inches (1080 x 1920 pixels) at 401ppi
HTC Sense 6.0 UI on top of Android OS, v5.1 (Upgradable to 6.0)
Dual SIM support.
Mediatek MT6753 Chipset
Octa-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU
Mali-T720MP3 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB Internal Storage, Expandable upto 2TB.
13 MP (4160 x 3120 pixels) Rear camera with OIS
5 MP Front Facing Camera (1/3” sensor size, 2µm pixel size)
Dual Front Facing Stereo Speakers with HTC BoomSound technology.
Samsung recently launched its latest midrange smartphones — Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 in China and they are preparing to launch these two phones here in Nepal too. Lately, Samsung midrange phones have not been of particular interest because of the competition offered by other manufacturers like Xiaomi and Lenovo. The Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 could be the solution for Samsung who dominated the android smartphone market in 2012 and 2013.
However, the Galaxy On5 and On7 series are no different from their other midrange E-series and J-series of smartphones. They feature the same design language which is entirely made of plastic, but this time with a faux leather back. The Galaxy On5 has a 5 inch 720p TFT display and the Galaxy On7 with a 5.5 inch 720p TFT display. Both these phones lack AMOLED technology in their display which comes as a surprise considering that Samsung opted for AMOLED technology on their E-series and J-series.
Both these phones are powered by Samsung’s in-house Exynos 3475 SoC with a quad-core Cortex A7 32bit CPU clocked at 1.3GHz, which is again a big let down considering the overgrowing presence of 64bit processor these days. Other specs include 1.5GB RAM, 8GB of expandable storage with microSD card up to 64GB, 8MP rear camera (13MP on the Galaxy On7), 5MP front snapper, Dual SIM with LTE, and a 2600mAh battery (3000mAh on the Galaxy On7).
In terms of software, The Galaxy On5 and the Galaxy On7 runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Touch wiz UI. Samsung’s latest music streaming app, Milk Music, comes pre-loaded on these phones. Nothing has been told about its pricing, but we expect the Galaxy On5 to be priced at Rs.15,499 and the Galaxy On7 at Rs.20,499.
Android is an open source platform built on top of Linux. Being an open source, if you have a peek knowledge about android programming, you can change a whole lot in this platform. The best thing about android is obviously all the customization it allows. But if you’re an android enthusiast or more precisely an android fanboy, you can’t just live with the customizations manufacturers allow on their device. That’s why you move a step further to unlock the bootloader, root your device, add some MOD’s, change the kernel or change the whole ROM itself for a whole new experience.
For most of users, they might be familiar with the unlocking bootloader, rooting or changing kernels, but they might have no idea what these terms really are or what functions they possess. Here’s a brief description about each of these terms related to Android.
Firmware:
Firmware basically refers to the Operating System you’re using on your android like the windows you run on your PC. A stock firmware is a software that comes pre-loaded when you buy a new smartphone. Firmware is flashed on the ROM rather than phone’s storage, like in the PC so that an event of crash or malfunction won’t wipe out the system. You may have also noticed software update section on your smartphone which basically means updating your phone’s firmware to solve some bugs or to add some new features.
Bootloader:
Bootloader of Stock Android
The bootloader in android is what BIOS is in Windows. It is the first that runs on your smartphone when you turn it ON and runs the instructions to boot an operating system, it’s kernels, and checks the disk partitions for errors or missing links. Bootloaders are usually locked and encrypted so that the system files are not hindered or modified to make sure the phone functions smoothly. So what is unlocking the bootloader?
Unlocking the bootloader is basically decrypting it to gain the root access. And what is root access? we’ll get to that later. When you unlock the bootloader, you can load some specific files into the system memory or ROM, so you can have that extra added features or access on your firmware. It’s usually for loading root files and Xposed files during startup so that you have the privilege of root access and Xposed Modules.
Rooting:
Rooting means getting access or permissions to your system settings. It’s like “running a program as administrator” in Windows. A root user in the terms of LINUX is called a Super User or SU, which you might be familiar with. By rooting your device, you have all the access to the system which you can modify or tweak according to your need. You can vary almost every aspect of the OS by rooting your device. But you need to have a good knowledge of what you’re doing or you might mess up the whole system. By rooting your device, you can install custom Kernels which can improve the battery life and performance of your device. Also, by simply installing root apps you can do a lot with your phone. Xposed framework is one the easiest and stable add-on for android out there to tweak its various aspects, with its different modules you can add a lot of functionality to your device making your device more functional and easy to use. The major cause for rooting, for most of the users, is to get rid of the boat
Xposed framework is one the easiest and stable add-on for android out there to tweak its various aspects, with its different modules you can add a lot of functionality to your device making your device more functional and easy to use. The major cause for rooting, for most of the users, is to get rid of the bloatware. Bloatware is the apps that come pre-loaded from the manufacturer on your new device, which, most of them, you might not need or use and takes a lot of memory out of the device. So getting rid of them will normally speed up the performance of the phone. But the backside of rooting is that it’ll void your warranty and if you’re not following proper guidelines, you might mess up the device and brick it.
Kernel:
The kernel is a bridge or an interface layer between software and the hardware. It is integrated with the “boot.img” file you find in the system. When software needs to do anything with the hardware, it sends a request to the kernel through which it reaches the hardware. Kernel decides when things will happen, like when you adjust the brightness slider, how much brightness will change or when you select a certain app, OS sends a request to the kernel to open the app, and when kernel grants it, then only the app will load and open. Every touch of your finger on the screen and the way system responds to it, depends on the kernel. So when you change a kernel, you completely change how the software of the device responds or works along with the hardware. With a new kernel, you can have added features like Double Tap to Unlock, off-screen gestures, under-clock or overclock the device and many more.
Custom ROM:
Custom ROM is replacing your stock firmware with a new or modified version of Android. With custom ROM, you get a complete UI overhaul, meaning if your device is Samsung and you’re using Touch Wiz, by installing a custom ROM you can have the UI of the HTC devices i.e. HTC Sense or like the Nexus Devices (stock android). These ROMs are just some modifications done over the original android source and made compatible with the device. Also, with custom ROM, you can upgrade your android version even if your manufacturer doesn’t provide you a firmware update. Also, custom ROM gives you a lot of handy functionality and features. Also changing your ROM sometimes can change your Kernel for better optimization with the ROM. And the size of these ROM’s is usually very low, helping to improve the overall performance of the phone. This is the beauty of Android, you won’t get this level of customization option in any other mobile platforms.
These are the basic things or terminology you have to know as an android user as it might come really handy. There’s always a risk when you try to alter your stock firmware so you’ve to strictly follow the guidelines mentioned in the online forums and tutorials. But there’s always a way to recover your android device but make sure to backup the whole system before you try anything.
Happy Modding!
While buying a smartphone users look for high-end specs, camera performance, thinness, lightness, battery backup and other factors but durability is one area where we rarely put our attention into. There are also rarely few phones which are marketed as durable; having water and dust proofing with some new iteration of Gorilla Glass protection or with a huge ugly rugged case.
But we haven’t seen any significant improvement on durability of phone with these features. Recently, Motorola launched the Droid Turbo 2 with the Moto ShatterSheild, which has raised the bars for durability in smartphones. It has by far the most durable screen. They also released a video where they demonstrated the drop test of Droid Turbo 2 along with couple of other phones.
The main focus of durability is on the screen, as shattered screen is one of the major problem we face with our smartphones. And it’s not cheap to replace them. Technology like Moto ShatterShield could really be the solution for this problem.
Motorola ShatterShield
The Screen has 5 layers designed to absorb shock and uses flexible AMOLED display:
Exterior Protective Lens – a protective layer with a proprietary hardcoat designed to guard against dents and abrasion.
Interior Lens – highly transparent layer that provides a clear protective shield that won’t crack or shatter.
Dual Touch Layer – in the event of an impact that damages the primary touch-sensitive layer, a second layer takes over to maintain touchscreen performance.
AMOLED Display –flexible display that absorbs shock and provides amazing picture quality.
Aluminum Chassis – a rigid aluminum chassis provides structural integrity and durability.
As mentioned above it has dual touch screen so in case one shatters another will be completely usable. Besides the protection, it packages great hardware specifications.
Specifications:
5.4 inches AMOLED 2K display
9.2 x 78 x 149.8mm
169 grams
Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2.0GHz
5MP front camera+ 21MP rear camera with dual LED flash
Two variants 3GB RAM + 32GB/64GB ROM
Android 5.1
3760mAh battery capacity with Turbo Charge.
So, this is the mark made by Motorola with the start of new generation of durable smartphones. It seems like our nightmares of shattered screen will be finally over.
Teletalk Pvt. Ltd., the authorised distributors of Gionee smartphones here in Nepal, has launched Gionee Elife E8. It is their first flagship phone in the Nepali Market. It’s a huge phone with 6inch of AMOLED display which will melt the phablet lovers. But it’s not the display that will make you drool, it has an almighty 24MP rear camera that uses technology similar to Nokia’s PureView also a dedicated camera button. Gionee Elife E8 sports metal edges with plastic finish which keeps everything intact making it thin at just 9.6mm.
Gionee Elife E8 is marked as a premium phone with a fine metal finish round the edges, an amazing display, stunning camera, fingerprint sensor and a big battery. But considering the price of the phone, one might find it disappointing that the phone uses MediaTek’s Helio X10 chipset instead of Snapdragon’s 800 Series (808 or 810). ON GeekBench 3 (Multicore), Helio X10 outperforms SD 810, but on real life usage SD 810 surpasses Helio X10 with flying colors.
Talking about Gionee Elife E8’s 24MP (5696 x 4272pixels) camera, its laser auto-focus can grab its target in between 0.08 and 0.2 seconds which makes taking photos really snappy and blur free. It also boasts six element lens covered with sapphire glass. Gionee claims Elife E8 can take pictures at upto 120MP resolution. It also offers lossless zoom. What’s incredible about Gionee Elife E8 is that, it comes with a dedicated shutter button which is rare in smartphone these days. Gionee Elife E8’s camera also comes with Optical Image Stabilization which makes its videos steady and improves the night shots. And it supports 4K (2160p) recording at 30fps. It offers a Professional Mode for manual control of various aspects of camera. All and all it’s a complete phone made for photographers. Also on the front it houses a 8MP(3264*2448 pixels) camera.
Full Specs|Gionee Elife E8:
6-inch Quad-HD AMOLED display, 2560×1440 @489ppi
2.0GHz MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core processor
3GB RAM
64GB internal storage
23.7-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash with OIS, 3x Lossless zoom, 4K video recording @30fps
I love One Plus Phones, but I hate the company for one simple reason–They don’t give a fuck about their costumers. The fact that you can only buy their phones with the help of an invite and they practically don’t sell phones offline is a deal breaker for normal customers. When they first came in, the invite system was a good move, since being a startup they cannot spend millions on advertisement and the invite system kind of created a good hype among customers.
However, in July, One Plus launched its second iteration– the One Plus Two for $389 with the same old invite system. The company said that the invite system will be improved by 500 times, but they failed to deliver. Moreover, Motorola launched its flagship MotoX Style for $399 which is a better value for money smartphone than the One Plus Two and you can buy one without the invites.
Today, One Plus announced its third handset–One Plus X; a phone that cost as little as $249 with superior hardware specs that puts all rivals to shame. The OnePlus X comes with a 5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) AMOLED screen and is powered by a last year’s flagship SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and 3GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage that is expandable via microSD card up to 128GB. It uses a hybrid dual-SIM slot, with the second slot usable for microSD cards. It features a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
Source: gizmodo.com
Source: gizmodo.com
The phone has a gorilla glass on the front as well as the back with metallic bezels on the side. The One Plus X is running Android 5.1.1 with Oxygen OS and should get Android Marshmallow 6.0 before the end of this year. The Phone comes with a non-removable 2525mAh battery.
Supports two nano SIMs Or One nano and a microSD card
13MP rear camera with LED flash
8MP front facing camera
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
4G LTE bands, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, FM radio, and Micro-USB
138gms
2525mAh battery
One Plus has said that the invites this time will only take one month at most and they will also be offering flash sale at the end of each month. I seriously hope that they won’t mess up the invite system like they did with the One Plus two.
Huawei Device Nepal has announced a new smartphone in a budget range–Huawei Y6. The phone offers some astounding specs at a pocket-friendly price tag of Rs.16,999 ($165). It is available for purchase from different Huawei outlets all across the nation.
The Huawei Y6 comes with a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280×720 HD IPS. Under the hood, the phone is powered by an entry-level Snapdragon 210 SoC with 1.1 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor and Adreno 304 GPU. It has 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage which is upgradeable upto 128GB via microSD card slot.
In terms of camera, the Huawei Y6 features an 8MP fixed focus rear camera with BSI, LED flash and F2.0 lens and a 2MP front snapper. It runs on Android Lollipop 5.1 with Emotion UI 3.1 skinned on top of it. The phone comes with a 2200mAh removable battery. It measures 143.5×72.1×8.5mm in dimension and is available in black and white color options. In terms of connectivity, the phone offers Dual SIM with 3G capabilities on both SIM slots, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, and GPS.
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has always been known for providing value for money smartphones and their latest model Honor 5x does a little bit more by offering a fingerprint sensor at a midrange price. The phone costs $157 for the 2GB version and $220 for the 3GB version.
The phone sports a same 5.5-inch display like its predecessor Honor 4x, albeit the Honor 5x comes with a 1080P resolution. It has a Qualcomm’s latest mid end chipset, the Snapdragon 616, that comes with a two 64 bit quad core processor (1.7Ghz quad core Cortex A53+ 1.2Ghz quad core Cortex A53). The processor is supplemented by a Adreno 405 for graphics. In terms of storage, the Honor 5x has 16GB of inbuilt storage with a provision of microSD card expansion slot that is upgraded upto 64GB.
The Honor 5x comes in a metal build construction and should feel premium for its price. It has a 13MP rear shooter with dual-LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, 28mm wide-angle lens, 5P lens, and Blue Glass IR filter. There is a 5MP snapper up front with f/2.2 aperture, 22mm wide-angle, 4P Lens, Blue Glass filter and a 88 degrees wide angle lens. The back is non-removable and inside there is a 3000mAh battery which supports quick charging 3.0.
In terms of connectivity, the phone supports 2 SIM slots with 4G LTE capabilities, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. The Honor 5x runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with emotion UI 3.1 layered on top of it.
We all have the problem of a sound coming from a tab and you never get to find it. From now on you will be able to mute every single tab in your Chrome browser for Windows, Mac and Linux. Right click on your desired tab and there you can hit the ‘mute tab’ to mute the tab. A speaker with a cross on it will be seen at the end of the tab you have mute.
Right Click Your Tab
Click Mute to Mute
Mute icon apper
This new feature was added in Chrome 46. If you don’t see this on your Google chrome either update to the recent version or download the Recent Google Chrome. This Chrome release also removed the “OK Google” command to trigger voice search.
Mozilla also are adding some similar functionality into their browser. Firefox 42 beta shows a speaker icon if a tab has a sound playing. you are allowed to mute or unmute the desired tab with a single click.
Colorsrecently launched the Colors Xfactor Elite E10, a phone that costs a little under Rs. 13,000 and runs Android Lollipop out-of-the-box. It also has a Quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. Should this be the smartphone any first-time buyer should consider? Let’s find out.
DESIGN:
Like any other pocket-friendly smartphone, the Colors Xfactor Elite E10 comes with a plastic build quality. The gold trim running around the edges is actually made out of plastic, but Colors has given it a metallic coating to add some gleam. It has a glossy back panel and despite made completely out of plastic, the phone feels premium in the hands. It weighs 148 gms and is comfortable to hold and work with one hand.
Let’s talk about its physical overview: On the front, there is A 5-inch screen and above it there is an earpiece, front camera, and ambient light sensor. Just below the screen, there is a row of touch-sensitive capacitive buttons for navigation, which is backlit. On the right-hand side, there is a power button and on the left are volume keys. We can find the micro USB port and headphone jack on top. There is a single speaker grill on the bottom. On the back side, we can see an 8MP shooter with dual tone LED flash. The back panel is removable giving it access to the battery, two SIM cards and microSD slot that is upgradable up to 32GB.
The screen is deprived of Gorilla Glass protection and we recommend you to get a screen protector to save the display from scratches. Also, inside the box content, you get a free flip cover that provides the phone with a little bit of protection too.
DISPLAY:
Colors Xfactor Elite E10 Benchmark Scores 350 and 1047 in single core and Multi-core Score resp.
The Colors Elite E10 comes with a 5 inch 720P IPS display. The screen is bright and produces accurate colors. However, it suffers when exposed to direct sunlight and has average viewing angles like other budget-oriented smartphones. The touch is very responsive and supports up to 5 fingers.
SOFTWARE:
What we really like about this phone is it runs on Stock version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. It’s the closest that you get to Nexus experience. The chances of this phone getting the Marshmallow update is also very high.
Colors have added some Gesture Control with which you can launch certain apps like Camera, Contacts, etc with ease. There is also double tap in feature that wakes up the phone with the double tap.
With flip cover, you get this neat looking watch face. You can get to quick settings if you swipe it. Where you’ll find options like message, settings, music etc. This is a pretty neat feature that we find really useful. You can even change it to digital mode, where you’ll also find the battery percentage, date and time.
PERFORMANCE:
The Colors Elite E10 has a quad core 1.3Ghz Cortex A7 32bit processor manufactured by spectrum. Since it’s a quadcore processor with 2GB RAM and runs a stock version of Android, multitasking is a breeze. However, this spectrum processor has a low performing cortex A7 cores which means it suffers a lot while running mid-end to high-end games. Having said that, the phone handles most of the casual games like temple run and subway surfers.
CAMERA:
The camera is one area where the phone disappoints. The 8MP primary camera once again points to the fact that Megapixel is not the only factor that matters. The camera is average at best with capabilities to take mediocre photos in daylight and grainy indoor photos. The front 2MP camera is also pretty average. You can take some casual selfies, but it’s nowhere near being a selfie camera.
The Colors Xfactor Elite E10 packed with 8MP Camera and an LED Flash
However, Colors have told us that they will be rolling out a software patch next week to fix the camera issue. We will let you know how much extent this update will fix the camera.
BATTERY:
Battery life of Elite E10 is also pretty average. The smartphone delivers one full day of battery life with light usage. Even with mediocre usage, you can eke out 5-6 hours of juice on one charge.
Colors Xfactor Elite E10, Removable back and SIM Slot and Additional Storage slot
The phone is deprived of quick charging and it takes approximately 2.5 hours for the rather small 2,000mAh battery of the smartphone to charge from 0 to 100% even with the bundled charger.
VERDICT:
As for the verdict, the Colors Xfactor Elite E10 is a decent smartphone for the price. It has a very good screen, runs stock android 5.1 lollipop, and has acceptable performance. However, camera performance and average battery life mean it is nowhere being a perfect budget phone.
