Windows Phone 8.1: All you need to know!

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April 4, 2014

Windows Phone 8.1: All you need to know!

Microsoft finally unveils the most-awaited, necessary, functional, demanded (and add more…) update to its mobile OS line-up. Yes, the Windows phone 8.1 is official and it is set to drop jaws with the new update!

Microsoft officially unveiled the latest revision of its mobile platform – Windows Phone 8.1 at the Build Conference yesterday. The new release brings a lot of new features and improvements to the OS. Though many features were already leaked through YouTube videos prior to the launch, the event was still unique and unsurprisingly surprising! Okay, Lets take a Quick Tour of best 5 features as well as major changes from the latest iteration of the mobile OS from Microsoft.

1. Cortana

Undoubtedly, Cortana is the most awesome update Windows phone 8.1 has to offer. Its a voice-guided virtual assistant that helps you through almost anything in your smartphone (just like Siri or Google Now). The Bing-powered Cortana plays an important role in WP 8.1 letting you set reminders, calendar events, call people, give you information about places you have or plan to visit. She also knows sports, gives weather info and basically everything you would expect from a virtual assistant. She’s going to be accessible through the Search key and features advanced voice recognition. This allows you to ask Cortana to search the web as well.

Cortana can help you with anything and everything.

P.S. To watch awesome Cortana videos and demos head here.

2. Action Center

Action Center is the notification center in Windows phone 8.1

Windows phone finally get’s its own customizable Notification tray (no Live tiles aren’t gone) called the Action Center. It can be accessed by pulling out from top and its a one-stop for all your notifications as well as the quick toggles as seen on Android OS.

3. Customizable LockScreen and Start Screen

Windows Phone 8.1 allows applications to take control over the lockscreen and change the theme or alter its functionality altogether. This could open doors to some serious Lockscreen featured apps.

Moreover, the Start Screen is customizable too. You can add photos as the Tiles background which gives a cool parallax effect while scrolling! Pretty Neat! Also you can display a third row of icons (if you want to) on the same screen.

4. Word Flo Keyboard

Windows phone 8.1 has got a new and cool keyboard option similar to the Swype Keyboard which they call it “Word Flo”. They say it assists you tremendously while typing.

5. Sense Apps

Battery Power Sense is the familiar app that tracks what software uses the phone’s resources most and gives you a handy overview of how your phone’s battery gets drained. Data and Wi-Fi Sense will give you greater control over how you use your network. Wi-Fi Sense is a cool new addition that gives you the ability to share the internet connectivity of your secured Wi-Fi networks with your Skype, Facebook and Outlook contacts without having to give the password. It also allows you to find and connect to free open Wi-Fi networks automatically.

Miscalleneous changes:

There are many small changes that have been done to maximize the ultimate user experience. Some of them are:

> Store

>Volume Control

>Multitasking improvements

> Navigation Bar

Windows phone 8.1 now supports virtual keys aligned in a bar called the Navigation Bar. It certainly expands the horizons for phone manufacturers to “not include” hardware functional keys in the device.

>Enterprise Solutions

The latest instalment of Windows Phone comes with VPN support. Now, you can punch in your VPN settings into the phone and surf the way more securely. WP 8.1 also supports S/MIME, which allows you sign and encrypt your email.

> Camera changes

The camera app is progressively changed in the Windows phone 8.1. There are more on-screen toggles and customizable options for the toggles. Also the Camera features three modes: Still mode, Burst Mode and Video mode.

Availability

The Windows Phone 8.1 update will be officially released in a few months (that’s as specific as Microsoft got), while new devices running it will start shipping in late April/early May. It’s not specified which WP8 handsets will be treated to the update at this point, but we guess the list will be quite extensive.

Registered developers though, can get their hands-on the OS as early as April 10th.

We will come up with a video of the features as soon as we get our hands on the OS.

So, what do you think of this major OS overhaul from Microsoft? Let us know!

Windows 8.1 Update set to bring back the Classic Start Menu!

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Yural Maskey

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April 3, 2014

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Windows 8.1 Update set to bring back the Classic Start Menu!

While announcing different awesome things like Windows Phone 8.1 and a “new” update to Windows 8.1, Microsoft has somehow managed to tease the developers with this: A Classic Start Menu in Windows’ latest iteration of update.

Coming to Windows 8.1 in a future update, it has the look of the Start Menu Windows users have experienced for years, but adds the Live Tiles that has been the part of Microsoft products quite a while now! There are no details as to when this update shall arrive for now.

Terry Myerson- Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, made the announcement as part of an example of how universal Windows apps will be able to run in a window (and on Xbox), although users craving something familiar will probably just be happy to see their old Start Menu again.

Terry Myerson:

Finally, I previewed some work we are doing for the next iteration of Windows, which builds on the journey we began with Windows 8 just over a year ago as well as the releases we’ve done since then. In particular, I showed some early thinking on how the user experience in Windows will evolve in a way that will help developers’ apps make their way to users across devices and form factors.

We set out to do this is a thoughtful way – one where we could enable more productivity for customers working in desktop mode, while building smart bridges to the new modern user experience and ensuring customers can get access to all your great apps in the Windows Store no matter where they are in the experience, or which device type they’re on.

As I said today, these are glimpses of our roadmap, with a particular focus on the parts of our roadmap that are most relevant to our developer partners. We’ll continue to invest in these and many other areas to build a great platform and experiences for developers, customers and partners and you’ll hear more from us when this work is closer to being ready to ship out to the world.

So, is it a YAY or NAY to this addition?? Let us know!

Panasonic Smartphones to arrive in Nepal

Yural Maskey

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March 31, 2014

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Panasonic Smartphones to arrive in Nepal

Allied Trade Link, the authorized dealer of Karbonn phones in Nepal, will be bringing Panasonic smartphones to the Nepalese market. Fortified by the success of smartphone market, Panasonic, the global leader in consumer technologies, has recently entered the smartphone category. Panasonic is better known for its world class electronics home appliances and audio systems. We expect Panasonic smartphones to penetrate Nepalese market before ICT2014.

Panasonic P31, the latest offering from the company is canon in-line with the brand’s promise & tag line “Play Life, Ur Way“. The company had been heavily teasing the P31 in the run-up to the launch, with each teaser focusing on a particular software feature. With Gesture Play, users can draw to unlock the phone and even get to specific apps by using pre-assigned gestures . Pop-I Player lets you watch a video over any other screen, just like Samsung, LG and Micromax phones. A Music Café app helps in library management and adds additional audio tweaks, while Ultimate Saver helps you manage your battery use and can be tweaked to prolong battery life in emergencies.

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Panasonic P31 has a 5-inch display with a disappointing FWVGA resolution (480×854 pixels). We would have hoped for at least a qHD display at this size, but hopefully Panasonic has calibrated the display well enough to eliminate pixilation. The display has an oleophobic coating to prevent oil smudges.

It has a 1.3GHz Quad Core processor (probably MediaTek), running on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) with 8MP Full HD capable Autofocus camera & 2000 mAh battery. The smartphone should be priced around Rs.20000. Panasonic also says it has used a Heat-Sink design which lets the phone remain cool even when the CPU is running at full tilt.

Panasonic T31 is an entry-level android smartphone and shall be priced around Rs.12000 in the local market. It offers a 4 inch screen, dual core processor and a 512 MB of RAM at affordable price. For more models of Panasonic smartphones click HERE

Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus Review

Yural Maskey

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March 30, 2014

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The Karbonn Titanium S5 plus is one of the budget smartphone of early 2014 to get released in Nepal. The successor of the older Titanium S5 is priced at Rs.16500. The improved and upgraded version has premium specifications for a low price. But is it punching above its weight?

Pros:

1. Value for money

2. Best design seen on a budget smartphone

3. Quad-core processor at low price

Cons:

1. Average Camera performance

2. Overheating issues while playing High End games

A brief look of the handling of device is shown in the video below:

Design & Build

The design of the Karbonn titanium S5 plus is best you can see on a budget smartphone. You have a glossy plastic build, with a chrome finish on the edges. The back cover is removable and you can have access to the Battery. So, you can carry 2 batteries if you are energy hunger nerd.The plastic build is not rigid, so we suggest you to buy flip cover or a back cover for the protection.

Display

Titanium S5 sports a 5 inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 960 *540 with a pixel density of 220ppi. Though the display is qHD resolution, not HD, but the screen is sharp enough and it looks beautiful. The color reproduction from the LCD panel is fairly good and you won’t notice any pixelation while browsing internet or reading e-books.

User Interface

It runs on Android Jellybean 4.2.2 and the interface is highly customized. But the interface is snappy and fast. The OS is handled pretty well by the handset and we didn’t notice any lags in the overall performance even when we run about 6-8 apps at the same time. If you don’t like the User interface, you can always switch to third party launches.

Hardware

The Titanium S5 Plus has a MediaTek MT6582 quad core processor ticking at 1.3 GHz and a 1 GB RAM to aid multitasking. It has a MALI 400MP2 GPU for graphics. It has an internal storage capacity of 4 GB which can be expanded via a microSD card by 32 GB.

Benchmark Scores

For a smartphone Under Rs.20000, It notches fair good scores. With a tally of around 17000 in Antutu, above 5000 in Quadrant and a 61.2FPS in Nenomark, the device is top-notch considering its price tag.

Antutu Scores

Quadrant Scores

Gaming Performance

The Titanium S5 plus is capable of running casual games like temple run 2, subway surfers, minion rush with ease. The touch response and the sensors work perfectly fine. However, when we play high end games like MC4,DT2, Asphalt 8 Airborne, etc. the Processor and GPU is incapable of handling it with ease and we will notice dropped frame rates and overheating issues after playing it for a lengthy period of time, which is standard on almost all budget Android smartphones.

Battery

With a MediaTek processor which consumes less power than other high end processors, the 1800mAh battery will last for a day for average users. But it could have been better if the Battery was around 2200mAh.

Camera

The Titanium S5 Plus makes do with an 8MP rear camera with LED flash which is not better than the 5MP unit of the Moto G in terms of performance. It gets a VGA unit up front. The picture details of the rear cameras are not up to the mark. The color and sharpness are also pretty average. The rear snapper is capable of recording FHD videos. However, the videos produce noise during low light. To conclude, the Camera performs mediocre.

Wrap up

For a budget of around Rs. 16,500, we believe the Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus is more than a decent option if you are looking for good performance and sexy looks. The device performs very well bearing in mind the segment it falls in and we would definitely suggest this smartphone. Go for it!

Nokia Lumia 630 leaks in a video!!!

Yural Maskey

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March 29, 2014

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Information on Nokia’s Lumia 630 (codename: Moneypenny) has been in the press in the past few months. But till now, all we knew is that the device is being positioned for the entry-level crowd, and that it will sport Windows Phone 8.1, an update that we’re expecting to see in early April. But no more, Nokia Lumia 630 leaks online in a revealing video, showing off many early looks at what the 8.1 update will have to offer. The video and OS, however, are in Chinese, but its easier to the get the idea of off the video.

Check out the video below for a brief walkthrough of the Lumia device.

The focus here isn’t so much on the Lumia 630 as it is on Windows Phone 8.1, what with its virtual keys, Action Center, and many other big changes noted by WPCentral. Some features that can be observed include a new stock photo apps, stock camera layout, new podcast app and an updated store layout, among many other features. Surprisingly, the one major feature that’s not shown in the video is Microsoft’s rumored Cortana virtual assistant, which we’ve already seen plenty of.

Nokia is promising “more Lumia” at an event next week on April 2, so chances are good we’ll get a nice glimpse at the 630, and maybe more. Previous specs we’ve seen rumored for the Lumia 630 include a 4.5-inch 800×480 display, quad-core Snapdragon 400 chip and 1GB of RAM. We might also see the device with a 5-megapixel camera, though there doesn’t appear to be a flash (which is kinda odd!)

What do you think of the device? Excited? Let us know!

SOURCE: WPCENTRAL

HTC One vs HTC M8

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Yural Maskey

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March 28, 2014

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New M8 comes with a bigger screen, sexier design and impressive internals, the One M8 might just have what it takes. Even better, HTC has added a new Duo Camera that lets you take 3D-like images, and well as a host of other new features. So how does the One M8 stack up to the One M7? Let’s take a look.The Major Specs battle listed ,

HTC One Vs. HTC One M8: Key Differences

	HTC ONE	HTC ONE M8
Display	4.7-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution (469ppi)	5-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution (441ppi)
Processor	1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor	2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
Camera Sensor	4MP UltraPixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture	4MP UltraPixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture
Front Facing Camera	2MP	5MP with f/2.0 aperure
Depth Sensor	No	Yes
Size	137.4 x 68.2 x 9.33mm, 143g	146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35mm, 160g
Expandable Storage	No	Yes – up to 128GB
SIM	MicroSIM	NanoSIM
Battery	2,300mAh	2,600mAh
Navigation Keys	Physical Keys	On-Screen

Here is the Video Review of the HTC One vs HTC M8 by DROID LIFE

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zqos9l7VfI]

HTC One (M8) is finally Here !!

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Yural Maskey

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March 27, 2014

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HTC has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone HTC One (M8) at an event in New York and London on March 25, 2014.

The HTC One M8 becomes first HTC smartphone to have Dual rear Cameras .

New HTC One M8 specification

NEW HTC ONE DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY

SIZE: 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35 mm
WEIGHT: 160 grams
DISPLAY: 5.0 inch, Full HD 1080p

NEW HTC ONE PROCESSOR

Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 2.3GHz quad-core CPU

NEW HTC ONE SOFTWARE

Android 4.4 with HTC Sense 6
HTC BlinkFeed

NEW HTC ONE MEMORY

Total storage: 16/32GB
RAM: 2GB
Expansion card slot supports microSD memory card for up to 128GB additional storage (card not included)

NEW HTC ONE BATTERY

Capacity: 2600 mAh
Embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery
Talk time: Up to 20 hours for 3G
Standby time : Up to 496 hours for 3G

NEW HTC ONE CAMERA

Duo camera

Primary camera: HTC UltraPixel camera, BSI sensor, pixel size 2.0 um, sensor size 1/3in, f/2.0, 28mm lens
HTC ImageChip 2
1080p Full HD video recording with HDR video
Secondary camera: capture depth information

Front camera

5MP, f/2.0, BSI sensor, wide angle lens. with HDR capability, 1080p Full HD video recording
Gallery with UFocus™, Dimension Plus™, Seasons, Foregrounder, Image Match

NEW HTC ONE NETWORK

2G/2.5G – GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz

3G – WCDMA:

EMEA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
Asia: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
AT&T: 850/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps
Sprint: 850/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA up to 14.4 Mbps
Verizon: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 14.4 Mbps
TMUS: 850/AWS/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps

CDMA:

Sprint: 800/1900
Verizon: 800/1900

4G – LTE:

EMEA: 800/900/1800/2600 MHz
Asia: 700/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1800/1900/2600 MHz
Sprint: FDD 800/1900 MHz , TDD 2600 MHz
Verizon: 700/AWS/1800/2600 MHz
TMUS: 700/AWS MHz
NEW HTC ONE SIM
Nano SIM

NEW HTC ONE SENSORS

Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor
Gyro sensor
Barometer sensor

NEW HTC ONE CONNECTIVITY

3.5 mm stereo audio jack
NFC

Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX enabled
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz)
DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer,
HTC Connect
micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection (Special cable required for HDMI connection.)
Support consumer infrared remote control

NEW HTC ONE SOUND

HTC BoomSound
Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
Sense Voice

Here is the Hands On Review of The New HTC One Flagship Phone .

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUjtcAlzQLk ]

WHEN TO EXPECT IN NEPAL

When is it out? The HTC one M8 could be available for purchase starting from May,2014
What will it cost? The HTC M8 will cost around Rs.70,000 to Rs.80,000

Samsung Galaxy S5 |Release date & price in Nepal|

Yural Maskey

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March 27, 2014

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Samsung Galaxy S5

IMS, International Marketing Services Pvt Ltd, the Authorized distributor of Samsung smartphones in Nepal will be launching the Galaxy S5 smartphone on the 11th of April,the Global launch date of Galaxy S5. IMS might also launch the Gear 2, Gear Neo and Gear Fit smart watches.

The Galaxy S5 will be priced between Rs 80,000 and Rs 85,000. The exact pricing will be announced later but some retailers reveals that the price will go down after some days to Rs.70,000.

An octo-core version coming to Nepal

The variant of Galaxy S5 to be launched in Nepal runs on Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa 5422 processor with four 1.9GHz Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 cores. This is a true octa core chip, meaning it can run all eight cores simultaneously if necessary. Unlike the Exynos version of the Note 3, however, the Exynos Galaxy S5 does record video in 4K. Samsung will provide the 16 and 32 GB variant in all four colors: blue, black, white and gold.

What is it? The sequel to the Galaxy S4 – a more refined phone with fewer gimmicks
When is it out? The Samsung Galaxy S5 is available for purchase starting April 11
What will it cost? The Galaxy S5 will cost around Rs.80,000 to Rs.85,000

At a Glance:

IP67 certification – water and dust proof
Android 4.4 KitKat with new and improved version of TouchWiz UI.
5.1″Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels (432 PPI)
Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa 5422 processor
2 GB of RAM
16 MP camera capable of shooting 4K videos.
2800mAh battery
Color:blue, black, white and gold

Features:

a built-in heart rate monitor, located next to the LED flash.
Finger Scanner
Ultra Power Saving Mode- If my Galaxy S5 is down to only 10% battery, it can still last up to 24 hours in standby.

So,what do think of the new Samsung Galaxy S5?

Karbonn Titanium Hexa, Octane Plus and Octane to arrive soon in Nepal

Yural Maskey

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March 24, 2014

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Karbonn Titanium Hexa, Octane Plus and Octane to arrive soon in Nepal
Karbonn Mobiles, an Indian smartphone manufacturer, has announced three new smartphones recently – Titanium Hexa, Titanium Octane Plus and Titanium Octane. All three will be available in India by the end of April. So, we should expect them to hit the Nepalese market at the start of May.

Karbonn Titanium Hexa

Karbonn Titanium Hexa is the first smartphone with MediaTek’s newest MT6591 hexa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. The chipset is based on the Dual-Cluster, Dual-Active architecture, which allows all the six cores to run simultaneously. So, we expect the performance to boost drastically.

Key specs of Karbonn Titanium Hexa

OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Screen: 5.5-inch IPS display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor: MediaTek’s MT6591 hexa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Storage: 16 GB (microSD up to 32 GB)
Primary Camera: 13 mega pixel with LED flash
Secondary Camera: 5 MP
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS with A-GPS support
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity
Battery: 2050 mAh
Expected Price in Nepal: Rs.30000

Karbonn Titanium Octane Plus

The Octane Plus sports a 5-inch Full HD IPS panel and is powered by MediaTek MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz. With a 2GB of RAM and Mali-450MP4 GPU, we anticipate this device to run high end smartphones with ease.

Key specs of Karbonn Titanium Octane Plus:

OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Screen: 5.0-inch IPS display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor: MediaTek’s MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Storage: 16 GB (microSD up to 32 GB)
Primary Camera: 16 mega pixel with LED flash
Secondary Camera: 8 MP
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS with A-GPS support
Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Battery: 2000 mAh
Expected Price in Nepal: Rs.32000

Karbonn Titanium Octane

Titanium Octane has almost same specs as the Titanium Octane plus except a 5-inch screen has been trimmed down from 1080p to 720p and the RAM has been downgraded from 2GB to 1GB. It has the same MediaTek MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz. Rumored at around Rs.26000, The Titanium Octane will be the most affordable octa-core powered smartphone available in the country today.

Key specs of Karbonn Titanium Octane:

OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Screen: 5.0-inch IPS display with a HD resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels
Processor: MediaTek’s MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Storage: 16 GB (microSD up to 32 GB)
Primary Camera: 13 mega pixel with LED flash
Secondary Camera: 5 MP
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS with A-GPS support
Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Battery: 2000 mAh
Expected Price in Nepal: Rs.25000

Samsung Game Pad now in Nepal

Yural Maskey

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March 23, 2014

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Samsung Game Pad is available in Nepal for a price of Rs.6000. You can buy one of these bad boys from any Samsung Smart Café, the official reseller of Samsung Mobiles in Nepal. The Android Wireless Game Pad is a must-have item for every gamer.

WHY BUY A GAME PAD?

• Play games more comfortably with full control

• Use it with a wide range of Android devices

• Connect easily using Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC

• Just press ‘Play’ to access the game list quickly

With the Game Pad, you don’t have to rely on your phone’s touch screen. It has an 8-way directional pad, two analog sticks, four action buttons, and two trigger buttons. You can play games like Asphalt 8 Air bourne, Need for speed, Sega’s Virtual Tennis etc and get the best out your gaming experience.
It allows you to control games easily and with expert precision and the Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology provides seamless connectivity. Your smartphone or tablet can be mounted directly on the pad, or connected to your TV, monitor or any other large screen for the ultimate home gaming experience.

Samsung Game Pad is compatible with other Android Smartphones as well, but all these smartphones should have Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean or higher. Smartphones with a screen size between 4 and 6.3 inches can be mounted directly on the Game Pad.

FULL SPECIFICATION

Body Design

Black Colour

Game Key

1 x Directional pad
2 x Analogue Sticks
4 x Action buttons
2 x Trigger buttons
Start / Select button

Function

NFC support Easy Connection
4 ~ 6.3 inch devices, Adjustable Holder Range
Auto Connection
PLAY button

Connectivity

Charging Connector Micro USB
BT 3.0 + HID Bluetooth

Battery

Type: Rechargeable Li-Ion

Physical Dimension

137.78 x 31.8 x 86.47mm Dimensions
195g Weight

Source: SAMSUNG OFFICIAL