Gadgets

lava-agni-3-good-display-and-battery-life-but-camera-is-a-bit-of-a-let-down

Tue Oct 29 15:55:37 IST 2024

Lava's Agni series has been two of its best settling smartphones in the market that also helped the company forge its way back into the smartphone space a couple of years back. Now, the Agni 3 takes a bit of a different route with an extra display at the back and an added physical button on the side. Does the phone, at the base price Rs 20,000, have enough to take on the likes of OnePlus and Realme? Let's try and check:

The device is mainly made of plastic that doesn't feel cheap in the hand and has a matte finish to it so there's not too many smudges and fingerprints seen on it frequently. It has curved corners and the sides are made of alloy, and feels decent in the hand, not very premium but not something I would complain about. Weighing about 212 grams, the phone feels just about what you would expect for its size.

On the right side, you have the Action key, the power/lock key at the middle; while the left side carries the volume buttons on the upper half. The buttons are quite narrow and could have had a little more tactile for pressing and getting sufficient feedback that one has been pressed. At the bottom, you've the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB type C ports and one outlet for the loudspeakers; and the top carries the other outlet for speakers and the secondary mic.

Checking out the phone's back, that's where things get a little more interesting with a 1.74-inch AMOLED display tucked right next to the triple rear camera system on a big rectangular cutout. On this display, you can check notifications, use it as a display for taking selfie shots with the rear camera or just pet the dog or cat that's been set as a screen saver for it. I didn't find it particularly useful for anything else during my usage, but some may find it a unique part about it, too.

The device features a 6.78-inch (1200x2652) curved AMOLED with support for up to 120Hz refresh rates. The display in place here is not bad at all. I wouldn't say it's better than what OnePlus' Nord and Realme have been using for their offerings around the price point, but it can handle high resolution videos in terms of details and colour rendering well enough.

Coming to the triple camera system, you get a 50MP (f/1.9) main camera, an 8MP (f/2.5) telephoto camera, and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. Decent camera hardware in place, the image tuning does leave a bit on the table. You can expect to get clear shots outdoors in daylight, but as the scene becomes even slightly less suitable, with indoor lighting, or dim lighting conditions outdoors, the camera performance isn't very impressive.

The front-facing 16MP (f/2.0) camera is quick to load and capture, with decent dynamic range shown for selfie shots and suitable for video calls. The device is powered by MediaTak's 7300 chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa core processor, Mali G-615 MC2 GPU) with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB (or 128GB) UFS3.1 internal storage. The phone runs on near-stock Android 14 OS with a very additions made by Lava (and September security patch in place).

There are barely any third party apps pre-installed and no promotional notifications or ads pushed. You can configure the Action key to take a screenshot, open camera or open an installed app, with a single or dual tap or even a long-tap. The OS has no option to set the back button on the left side when you have buttons enabled (instead of gestures), which is a little odd miss. The day to day performance of the phone is satisfactory with the phone handling watching YouTube videos, checking photos, scrolling through social media apps and having music playing in the background without much trouble. You can expect to play a game like Monument Valley just fine while heavier games like Wuthering Waves can be played at low to medium settings.

Equipped with a 5,000mAh battery unit, I found the phone to last a whole day with about 10-15 per cent remaining for most of the time. It can be charged from 1 per cent to full using the bundled 66 watts charger in just over an hour without any heating issues to report. Notably, Lava also offers the phone without a charger in the box with a deduction of Rs 1,000 compared to when bought with a charger in the box.

Call quality, GPS and Wi-Fi reception on the phone is top notch for the price tag, and 5G reception was also not bad with decent experience for latching on to 5G when used as a Wi-Fi hotspot several times. The loudspeakers on the phone are fine but not that great in terms of their depth when watching videos or playing games.

All in all, the Lava Agni 3 is a well-performing phone when it comes to the display and battery life. While its software and general performance is satisfactory, the camera quality is a bit of a let-down. That mini display at the back doesn't seem a whole lot useful but some may still find it a nice little addition.

sony-wf-c510-review-fine-audio-quality-for-under-rs-5000-price-tag

Mon Oct 21 17:09:29 IST 2024

Sony has been one of the well-known audio brands in the country for a very long time and they have also had quite a few wireless personal audio offerings for a while, but nothing launched under Rs. 5,000 before. Now, officially priced at Rs 4,999, the Sony WF-C510 go directly against the likes of OnePlus and Oppo for the budget TWS. Let’s see what they really have in store.

The WF-C510 are quite lightweight, with each bud weighing around 4.6 grams. They follow the narrow canal-type design with their pill-shaped charging case. They are made of plastic with rubber silicon eartips, but they don’t necessarily feel cheap. While the earbuds are IPX4 splash-resistant, the case isn’t. Each earbud has clearly marked left or right on the inner half and mic on the outside for calls and noise cancellation. The buds come in white, black, yellow and blue, which is what I tried, and it has a slightly textured and matte-y finish case. The case has a USB type C port and physical pairing button at the back, and the charging LED at the front; plus subtle Sony branding at the top.

Also read | Beats Solo Buds: Compact and comfortable to wear

The earbuds are comfortable to wear for the most part, and their canal design helped them keep them in without any weird issues or uncomfortable feeling. While commuting, I didn’t need them to be adjusted in-ear frequently. The outside has physical buttons, which require a bit of pressure to be pressed, which isn’t very comfortable to do when the earbuds are, well, in your ear. Taking out your phone and doing it from the Sony Sound Connect app itself seemed like a better option to adjust volume or playback.

The WF-C510 come with Bluetooth 5.3 (no Bluetooth LE) with support for SBC and AAC audio codecs. You don’t get active noise cancellation but there are ambient modes. The earbuds sound nice and clear for most of the times that I tried them, especially given the price tag. You get clear dialogues and voiceovers for watching movies and TV shows, though there can be a slight lag when watching connected to Windows 11. Treble and mids are something handled well by the pair while also having refined beats and background instruments when in play at the same time.

Also read | OnePlus Buds Pro 3: Comfortable pair of wireless buds but sound quality could have been better

There’s rich and sufficient bass for most people such that balance is maintained for mid-highs. Ambient mode works well for keeping up with sounds and alerts around you while it does make a little effect on the sound quality. There's also multipoint support to connect two devices at once and it works fine.

You can expect to get a battery life of somewhere around 10-11 hours with no ambient mode and with no custom EQ set. The earbuds take about 90 minutes to charge in the case and a further three hours when the case is out of battery itself to charge both.

In brief, confusing naming aside, Sony’s WF-C510 are a comfortable pair of TWS that don’t sacrifice sound quality for the price tag. These can be considered if you have also used a Sony audio product before to give you a familiar experience at this budget.

apple-iphone-16-pro-review-small-but-meaningful-improvements

Sat Oct 05 13:42:08 IST 2024

Apple announced its new line-up of iPhone, Watch and AirPods a few weeks ago, with the iPhone 16 series going on sale in India recently. Starting at Rs 1,19,000, the iPhone 16 Pro at launch is priced a bit lower than the iPhone 15 Pro, which isn't common. I have been using one for a bit now, and here's the lowdown on it:

The new iPhone 16 Pro at first glance isn't too different in look and feel compared to its predecessor. But once you take it in hand, you realise it has a slightly bigger 6.3-inch display with narrower (and symmetrical) bezels. The frame is all titanium again while the front has a Gorilla Glass on top with the back having a tougher ceramic shield, as per the company. The Dynamic Island, front camera and one outlet for loudspeakers, ear-speaker grille are pretty much identical and neatly placed at the top. The left side locates the action button, volume buttons and the SIM card tray near the bottom. The right side has the elongated power/lock key as well as the new Camera Center, which is a capacitive plus physical button for the camera (more on it later).

The phone is IP68 dust and water-resistant and weighs nearly 200gm. I like how it feels in the hand and it didn't come across as slippery, either. The only thing that struck me was the oleophobic coating on the display which seemed to catch a little more smudges than the last time, but it's no big deal. The back has a familiar triple camera setup on a raised squircle in the corner with LED flash and LiDAR scanner and secondary mic; the Apple logo in the middle is glossy on an otherwise matte glass surface. At the bottom, you have the USB type C ports with the primary mic and one outlet for loudspeakers on either side of it. The phone comes in Natural Titanium (the one I tried), Desert Titanium, White Titanium and Black Titanium colour options.

Coming to the 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR (2868x1320) OLED display with support for up to 120Hz refresh rates - this is a top notch display with some of the best colour calibration you can get on a smartphone, without much surprise. It's bright and doesn't compromise on HDR output when watching something over, say, Netflix. There're good viewing angles with crisp and sharp colours that don't look oversaturated. True Tone seems to be a little more aggressive this time compared to last time, though, but it is not a hurdle when watching content.

Talking about the triple camera system on the back, you have a 48MP (f/1.78) Fusion main camera, a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP (f/2.8) telephoto camera. You can open the camera with a single tap of the Camera Center and futher use it with double capacitive touches to choose exposure, aperture, photographic styles or lenses. Once you've entered this little UI inside the camera app, you can exit it only by tapping somewhere else on the display. It does take a bit getting used to and I still find it a little less reliable when compared to simply using the onscreen controls to get around. The photos from the camera look crisp and sharp with a very iPhone-y look to it. HDR output seems to have been improved in terms of contrast and handling of shadows when indoors or outdoors. You can now also shoot 4K videos at 120FPS with Dolby Vision provided you have an external storage disk attached to the phone. Photographic styles, too, are a little better version of filters and do seem useful for different lighting conditions, including low-light shots when you may not be getting sufficient details by default. The camera app is quick and responsive whether taking photos or taking videos. The front-facing 12MP (f/1.9) face depth camera takes detailed and well-stitched shots for daylight and can hold its ground in low-light stills, not sure I see any significant improvements over the predecessor for this camera, though.

The device is equipped with the A18 Pro chipset (up to 4Ghz 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU and 16-core neural engine) along with 8GB LPDDR5X RAM with 1TB storage (also comes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB) and is running on iOS 18 that brings a lot of customisation options to the OS, including for Control Center, Home screen, and more.

Apple's event for the iPhone 16 series and others was themed around its AI take called Apple Intelligence, but other than things such as summarising Emails and Messages, there's no on-device AI to be found here. Apple intelligence update is still months away for the India market. For performance, I found the phone to be snappy with multimedia apps, social media apps, streaming apps, all working smoothly without any stuttering issues to be seen. I would say, though, the OS does seem to make 120Hz a little less frequent in use even though you've enabled it under Settings when compared to high-end Android smartphones. Control Center can now have multiple pages where you can add more Shortcuts, widgets as well as connectivity shortcuts. App icons on the home screen can now be moved anywhere on it, something long awaited by users.

Powered by a 3,582mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me about a whole day. Only when I had it charging with WiFi hotspot in use that it turned mildly hot at the back, which is much better than the iPhone 15 Pro. It now charges at near 35watts wired - charging from 1 per cent to full in about 80 minutes using a fast charger. You get a braided USB type C to C cable in the box (though the phone supports USB 3.0) and a SIM card tray ejector tool but no longer Apple stickers.

The loudspeakers on this phone are loud and clear with similar depth to the predecessor. 5G network reception seems to be a little better than the 15 Pro and I could use it quite reliably on the go even with WiFi hotspot over 5G or 4G used for multiple devices. WiFi as well as GPS performance on the device didn't show any glitches throughout my usage.

All in all, the iPhone 16 Pro brings in some small and some meaningful updates to the iPhone line-up. It isn't a huge upgrade over the iPhone 15 Pro or even the 14 Pro, as per the experience, but if you're on the lookout to upgrade to a Pro model from, say, iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 13, then this is worth consideration. There's no Apple Intelligence so that remains to be seen, but for now, what we do have, is something that fits well in the top high-end smartphones of today.

dell-xps-13-9345-review-snapdragon-powered-ultrabook-impresses-but-with-some-caveats

Fri Oct 18 15:45:55 IST 2024

Dell’s XPS 13 series of laptops have been some of the most well-known lineups of consumer laptops for years now. The company comes out with an upgrade every year or a little quicker at times along with a refreshed Intel chip. But this year, along with an Intel variant, we also have a Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered ultrabook.

The Snapdragon-powered Dell XPS 9345 is priced from Rs 1,19,000 for the base model to Rs 1,69,990 for the high-end variant, and I have been using the one that falls between these two—at Rs 1,52,200—for a few days, and here’s my review of it:

The XPS 13 9345 is a premium, slim laptop made from CNC-machined aluminium with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shielding on the palm rest. The 13.4-inch Corning Gorilla Glass Victus display ensures no glare effects with its matte finish.

The left and right panels of the XPS feature one USB 4.0 type C port each, with support for both DisplayPort and Power Delivery. There are no other ports at all. Dell could have at least added a 3.5mm audio jack and maybe a microSD card slot, if not a USB type A port, due to the slim profile. The sides also carry the vents and speakers. The keyboard features touch keys for the function row. You get a large trackpad along with a decently sized palm-rest space.

The keyboard on the XPS 13 is backlit and comes with decent travel. As a fast typist transitioning from my regular laptop, I would have preferred a little more definition to the keys. However, you quickly get used to it as you type more and more.

The trackpad is reasonably spaced and mostly reliable and accurate when navigating or using standard Windows gestures. There’s also no break between the trackpad and the rest of the deck, which we have seen before from Dell, but it might still take a little while to get used to it.

The 13.4-inch Tandem OLED display (2880x1800) supports a 60Hz refresh rate along with HDR and Dolby Vision. The display is quite bright but not the brightest when comparing laptops in this price range. With good viewing angles, it does not miss out on details when watching high-resolution videos or viewing images.

ALSO READ: Beats Solo Buds review

The touch display is also responsive whenever used for pinching to zoom, video playback and similar gestures. It’s a quality panel that justifies itself if you are doing any sort of graphics work on it. However, a higher refresh rate would have been a nice touch for that price tag, especially considering how well the display performs otherwise.

Dell XPS 13 9345 performance

Equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 chip (up to 3.4GHz 12-core CPU, Adreno X1 GPU, and up to 40 TOPS NPU) along with 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 512GB of PCIe 4 SSD, it runs on Windows 11 Home (24H2 version). The OS performed satisfactorily, apps and video playback on the device were not glitchy, and you get a smooth web browsing experience when using Edge or Firefox. Day-to-day performance was not something I had any issues with while using the laptop.

ALSO READ: Apple iPhone 16 Pro review

The Dell XPS 9345 is not meant for gaming, but you can expect it to handle a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 relatively okay. Being a Copilot+ PC, the Copilot+ key replaces the right CTRL key, which can be used to bring up the generative AI chatbot. You also get features like Studio effects camera for video calls, which worked okay when tried with decent lighting conditions around. The subtly placed full HD webcam does a good job at handling video calls without too many artificial effects in place by default, though there’s no physical switch to turn it off.

Dell XPS 9345 battery life and connectivity

The device is powered by a 55Whr battery and comes with a 60W USB type C charger. The laptop lasted me a whole working day almost every time, and didn’t show more than 2 per cent of loss on battery when closed lid on standby mode overnight. You can expect to get 12 hours of battery on a full single charge most of the times with display brightness set at 40 per cent.

The 8W total speakers offer good sound output that has depth as well loudness to be your multimedia player when indoors, including watching movies or a TV series. WiFi performance on the device is top notch with no connectivity troubles to be seen during my usage.

All in all, the Snapdragon-powered XPS 13 performs well on most counts. It would have been nice to have some more port connectivity options for working on the go. However, if you need only USB type C ports for your accessories and general usage, you can definitely consider this Dell laptop due to its reliable performance, long battery life, and slim profile.

beats-solo-buds-compact-and-comfortable-to-wear

Thu Oct 10 14:42:36 IST 2024

We covered the Beats Pill just a while back that come out shining for Beats’ India launch, but they also launched two other products alongside, with the Beats Solo Buds being one of those. These true wireless earbuds are officially priced at Rs 6,900; so, let’s try and see what they really offer.

The first thing you might noticed about the Beats Solo Buds out of the box is how much lighter plus smaller the whole case is. The pill-shaped slim case is so because it doesn’t have any battery on its own, meaning the buds don’t automatically charge when placed inside the case unless you plug it. On the top of the carrying case, you have the Beats logo; while the back side has the USB type C, and that’s about it.

The buds latch on to the case inside snugly with some ample use of the magnets inside meaning no wobbling or anything. Each bud has the same Beats logo on its top with the inside left or right. The whole package together weighs about 35 grams. These are available in Matte Black (the ones I tried), Article Purple, Storm grey and Transparent Red colour options.

The small nozzle design of the bud is comfortable to wear. You get three extra pairs of eartips of different sizes in the box (plus one pre-attached) but no charging cable. I didn’t find the buds to be irritating to wear along when worn for extended periods of time. The Beats logos on these earbuds are also the control buttons. These require to be pressed a little too hard to be called as suitable for a pair of TWS that you’re wearing in-ears.

The buds support Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and SBC and AAC audio codecs. You can have audio sharing when using iPhones to listen to the same music at the same time. Just like the Beats Pill, there’s no way to adjust EQ or sound output in any way, including with the Beats app. The sound quality on the Beats Solo Buds is decent at best. There’s good amount of bass and mid-bass with clear vocals to go with it. But noticeably, the background instruments and overall sound stage can be a little underwhelming from these buds. You wouldn’t have much problem with using these calls even outdoors. Having said that, there’s no active noise cancellation present here if you want to use these for flights, commutes or otherwise for cutting out on noise while tuning in to something. This ANC absence again seems like a bid of a miss for the price tag.

Coming to the battery life, the buds lasted me about 16 to 17 hours on one charge, which is not bad at all. Remember, there’s no battery inside the carrying case. The buds can be charged over USB type C and they go from 1 per cent to full in about two hours with support for fast charging.

All in all, the Beats Solo Buds don’t quite come across as a clear winner in any way, to put it briefly. They are compact, comfortable to wear and have good battery life. You don’t necessarily get a great sound quality for the price tag, nor you get ANC with it that some people feel is a deal breaker for them.

beats-pill-review-familiar-design-worth-taking-outdoors-for-your-personal-music-needs

Fri Sep 27 16:54:05 IST 2024

Beats officially marked its India kick-off with the launch of the Beats Pill, Solo Buds and Solo 4 a few weeks back. With the official price tag of Rs 16,990, the Beats Pill is a portable Bluetooth speaker that's aimed for listening to your music when indoors in the company of a few people, or even outdoors. I have been using this Beats speaker for a few days and here's how my experience has been so far:

The Beats Pill has a familiar capsule-like design with a lanyard (comes pre-attached out of the box) on the right side. The Beats logo sits at the middle, on the front with buttons--separate volume buttons, multifunction key and power/pairing key--at the top. The USB type C ports sit right in the middle of the back. The metallic grille makes for the front half; while the back is formed of soft-touch-finish silicon. It comes in Champagne Gold (the one I tried), Statement Red as well as Matte Black colour options. It's an IP67 dust and water-resistant gadget that should be okay to be carried for showers, beach or under rainwater. Weighing about 680 grams, the Pill isn't too heavy or surprisingly light for its size - it's just about what you would expect it when trying for the first time.

For control buttons, long-pressing the power button switches it on or off and longer puts it into the pairing mode with which you also get a notification sound (and the adjoining LED light blinks) to confirm it's in the pairing mode. The speaker vibrates a little whenever it's turned on or off along with a short sound to confirm. The multifunction button in the middle can be used for answering calls and muting mic, or play, pause and skip tracks; the same soft-touch keys feel click-y enough and are conveniently placed.

The Pill comes with Bluetooth 5.3 support along with SBC and AAX audio codecs support, but no aptX or any other codecs. It can be paired over Bluetooth as well as USB type C for lossless playback. Sound quality on the speaker is satisfactory for most genres, in my experience. It's tilted upwards at 20 degrees for the sound to go upwards. It can get sufficiently loud to fill a 15x15 room with a few people inside. You get clear vocals alongside smooth background instruments playback while not sacrificing on the bass and sub-bass, which are rich as you would expect from a Beats product. It can be a little too sharp at times when it comes mids and highs but generally, there's decent details that you wouldn't mind it.

It works with both Android and iOS devices - requiring the Beats app on Android if you want to check on features, while they are in-built on iOS. The app is barebones, though, as you can't set custom EQ or change even basic stuff like treble and bass output from the speaker. Also, while I didn't have any connectivity options, there's no multipoint connectivity support to attach more than one source device. You can, though, attach two Pills via the app to get better stereo output using both speakers at once.

Regarding battery life, I found the speaker to last more than 22-24 hours on a single full charge. You can charge it even from your phone over USB type C if needed (much slower), if charging with a power adapter isn't available at the time.

All in all, the Beats Pill pack in enough to take on the likes of JBL's Charge 5 and Sony's ULT Field 1. The speaker has clear vocals, good instrument as well as rich bass when it comes to audio quality. It also has a good battery life along with dust and water-resistance to make it worth taking outdoors for your personal music needs.

asus-65-watts-gan-charger-is-quite-compact-and-can-efficiently-charge-your-device

Thu Sep 19 13:11:25 IST 2024

GaN chargers are something we have been seen in the market for years now. Gallium Nitride, or GaN, are more efficient in terms of size and heat resistant than regular silicon-based charging. There are few smartphones and laptops brands that offer GaN chargers, and ASUS recently launched a 65-watt GaN chargers of their own that is priced at Rs 2,799 to charge your laptop and smartphone at once. Let's try and check how it fares:

The ASUS 65-watt GaN adapter is quite compact and not at all bulky compared to some other chargers we have currently in the market. On the top, you have the ASUS branding; while some safety and product details are on the right side. The two USB type C ports are side facing for when you plug it into a conventional Indian wall socket. Weighing less Than 120 grams, the charger is not heavy at all to be carried around in your backpack or handbag for work and travel purposes.

You get one 1.5-metre-long USB type C to type C white cable in the box that supports 5 amps current. It isn't a braided cable and is pretty much standard in quality of what you get with some smartphones from the likes of Motorola, but a bit longer, which is definitely needed considering you're going to use it with a laptop and not just a smartphone.

The GaN chargers can charge at 65 watts when one device is plugged in. I found this to be reliably 65 watts when charging an Android phone with support for fast charging. You also get support for Quick Charge 4.0, Power Delivery 3.0 and PumpExpress 2.0. It charged a OnePlus Nord 4 from 1 to 50 per cent in under 30 minutes and a Dell Inspiron laptop from 5 per cent to full in about two hours. When both USB type C ports are in use, the charger distributed power as per the devices connected (generally 25watts + 40watts at 3.25A max when used together) -- with the laptop being provided a little more power compared to the smartphone when put on charge simultaneously. The charger got warm mildly and never felt too warm or anything alarming during my usage.

We do have options from other brands such as Nothing's CMF and Belkin at a similar price but with an added USB type A port along with two USB type C ports. A full USB type A port as a third option can still be handy when you're carrying only one charger and have multiple cables (including more common USB type A to C ones) and devices to manage. The ASUS charger misses out on that, but it is a bit more compact in size and ligher in weight. So if you don't need that USB type A port, you can definitely consider this GaN charger, otherwise you got a lot of other options to choose from.

sonos-ace-headphones-comfortable-to-wear-and-good-battery-life-but-anc-can-be-improved

Thu Sep 12 15:39:47 IST 2024

When it comes to high-end headphones in the Indian market, we often think about Sony, Sennheiser, Apple and Bose for consumer offerings. There aren't too many brands with premium offerings that regularly come up with high-end mainstream consumer offerings. Sonos has launched its first ever over-the-ear headphones in India. At Rs 39,999, Sonos Ace is priced just above Sony and Bose's latest ANC headphones, but does it have enough to make it justifiable? Let's try and find out.

One of the first things you might notice about this pair of headphones is that the stainless-steel stem has only a small visible party as the bending mechanism sits on the inside. Available in White and Black colour options, I quite prefer the matte white ones with their subtle design plus it does not catch on to smudges quickly.

The external half of the earcups are magnetically attached and are removable. The inside of earcups is white and green with markings for left and right. The right cup on the outside carries the Sonos logo, the side houses the Content key (made of stainless steel again), ANC key and mic grille. The left earcup's side locates another set of mic grille (8 mics in total), circular power/pairing key as well as the USB type C port and a small status light. The middle band also has faux leather and memory foam around it for comfort. Both the earcups are slightly titled as per the respective side for a better fit over the ear. I found these to be comfortable to wear for over two hours on a single stretch at times without feeling fatigued or having any uncomfortable effects on the ears. The adjustable mechanism for size also helps while wearing them on for your head size and shape. Oh, and inside the box, along with a nice compact carrying case and a USB type C charging cable, you get a USb type C to 3.5mm audio back cable.

The Sonos Ace support Bluetooth 5.4 along with SBC, AAC as well as aptX audio codecs and powered by 40mm drivers. The Content key is a multi-purpose button -- slide it up to increase volume, slide it down to decrease volume, press it once to pause or resume playback. Pushing the ANC key allows you to switch between noise cancellation, awareness mode (transparency) or switching them off. Long-pressing the power/pairing key allows you to pair the headphones to a new device by putting them in the pairing mode. You can use the Sonos app on your paired phone to change settings, select EQ, multi-device connection, firmware updates or for adding more Sonos products to work with your older ones. The Ace paired with Android and iOS devices without any glitches, and it was convenient to add and pair for the first time, too.

When it comes to the audio quality, the Sonos Ace didn't disappoint and provided sound that could be termed as generally balanced and rich in details. The headphones aren't low on bass and offered clean and sufficient bass but I wouldn't say they are aimed at bass-heads in the first place. You get clear guitar strings and low-mids. It might be worth fiddling around with EQ in the Sonos app a little to match your preference since the headphones can sound quite a bit differently depending on your music genres when a different set of settings is applied. Head-tracing feature, when enabled from the app, works quite well and didn't result in distortion or jarring effects that happens at times with this feature on other headphones. I didn't see any major lag issues while using the Ace for watching TV shows, movies or YouTube videos. For active noise cancellation, the headphones did a decent job of cancelling out external noise, important you are wearing them with snugged fit for the effect to take place, but I felt Sony's WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max (way higher priced, though) do a little better in cutting out noise while also not taking a toll on overall sound quality with ANC enabled.

Sonos Ace also have something called audio swap, where you can swap your Sonos Arc soundbar connected to your TV and quickly to your Ace with a single tap of a button (over WiFi). I tried this briefly with a controlled setup and it worked smoothly, with full head-tracking and Dolby Atmos effect in place. You can only do this with one pair of Ace as of now.

When it comes to battery life, the Sonos Ace doesn't disappoint – with ANC switched off, it gave about 40 hours of playback time in total, and around 30 hours with ANC enabled. Of course, you can also use it wired – 3.5mm audio jack or USB type C, which I tried for enhanced lossless playback.

In conclusion, the Sonos Ace comes across as a good start from the company when I comes to personal audio. The Sonos Ace is really comfortable to wear, looks nice and has good battery life, too. While sound quality is generally good for the most part, ANC has some room for improvement. With all that said, it seems to pack in enough to take on the likes of Sony, Bose and Sennheiser in the longer run.

redmi-watch-5-active-chunky-budget-friendly-smartwatch-with-long-battery-life-and-bright-display

Mon Sep 09 13:38:34 IST 2024

Xiaomi's Redmi smartwatches and Mi bands have been some of the most popular items in their categories in India for years now. Redmi Watch 5 Active, priced at Rs 2,799 isn't their most affordable offering yet but it's still within the price range to be called a budget-friendly smartwatch. I have been using this smartwatch for a few days now, and this is how my experience been so far:

The Redmi Watch 5 Active comes with metal framing and detachable 22mm TPU double loop strap. There's a 2-inch rectangular LCD display on the front with somewhat large bezels around it. It's a large smartwatch than what we are typically used to seeing but felt okay to wear and walk around with without noticing it as something big and odd on the wrist. The right side features the home button that does an okay job of going back to home screen and when pressed again brings you to all the apps (press it again to get to all your app icons). The back, other than the sensors, carries the magnetic charging port as well as three mics and speakers.

The two-inch LCD IPS (320x385) display is bright enough for outdoors usage. Though not very sharp, it's fine for checking notifications, reading fitness stats and for navigating through the OS. Though raise-to-wake-up-the-screen works well, there's no always-on display option here, which might be a little disappointing for some people, considering this is a watch and it's a popular feature for smartwatches.

The Watch 5 Active runs on Xiaomi's HyperOS based on Android, but this isn't a full-fledged OS like they have on the Redmi Watch 4, but then that one is priced significantly higher (and not available here officially), so can't install your favourite third party apps. It does have Strava integration and built-in Alexa for voice commands.

Among sensors, there's heart rate monitor, SpO2 as well as stress monitoring and sleep tracking. I found tracking steps counting to be fairly reliable for day-to-day usage for things like brisk walking, indoor movement and running for shorter periods of time. Sleep tracking seemed strictly fine and nothing that I would specifically rely on this watch for regular check-ups. Stress monitoring wasn't very far from a high-end watch like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 7 but every now and then it did give readings that were like 10 to 12 per cent different from those two, which isn't unexpected considering the price tag.

The watch was reliable in showing notifications instantly when they arrive on the paired phone, but you can't reply to a message from the watch neither does it dismiss the original notification on the phone when you dismiss the notification on the watch. There are more than 140 modes for different sports and activities, including outdoor running, freestyle workout, hiking and board games, but no swimming since this is only an IPX8 water resistant device so can only withstand splashes and sweat for considerable time periods.

Swiping down on the homescreen brings up pending notifications, while swiping up shows connectivity panes and settings. The watch's animations didn't stutter during most of my usage and navigating from one sports mode to another also didn't really cause any glitches inside the OS. Also , you can not only install different watch faces but also change icons and fonts, which isn't common, so credit to Xiaomi for that addition. Supporting Bluetooth 5.3 for pairing with your phone via the Mi Fitness app, you can also have calls using the in-built mics and it does a fine job, if you really want to use it, the mics are not bad at all for outdoors usage, too.

The watch is powered by a 470mAh battery unit, which should last 18 days as per the company. During my 12 days of use so far, the watch has dropped from full to 55 per cent with the display brightness set close to 40 per cent most of the time.

All in all, the Redmi Watch 5 Active is a nice addition to Redmi's smartwatch offering. If you are fine with its large size, the watch doesn't disappoint when it comes to showing notifications or for things like steps counting and using voice commands to Amazon Alexa. It is missing out on always-on display and third party apps installation but you do also get long battery life and lots of watch faces to choose from.

hp-elitebook-ultra-g1q-review-good-looks-and-great-battery-life

Sat Sep 07 12:15:00 IST 2024

HP was the first to bring a Qualcomm Snapdragon Windows 11 laptop to India a couple of months back, though I did try the ASUS Vivobook S 15 that came out flying on most counts with the price tag. Priced at Rs 1,68,999, the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q is the company’s offering with ARM-based chips with AI loaded. I have been using this laptop for a couple of weeks now and here’s how my experience been:

The laptop’s look and feel are very similar to last year’s HP Dragonfly series – its lightweight at about 1.3kg and is thin, too. Made up of mix of plastic and recycled aluminium, the laptop feels premium and sturdy, except maybe the hinge part, which could have been a little stronger with tauter-like hinges instead of the less stiff ones used here. On the right side, you get a USB type C port and 3.5mm audio jack; while the left side houses two USB type C gen 4.0 ports (with DisplayPort) for data transfers and charging. The 14-inch (16:10 aspect ratio) display has relatively small bezels on the side with the 5MP webcam at the top with its physical shutter and HP branding at the bottom looking subtle enough to not be distracting. The area around the trackpad and the lid do catch smudges and fingerprints and may require a quick cleaning occasionally.

The 14-inch QHD (2240 x 1400) IPS touch-enabled panel is pretty good but not that great considering the price tag. It’s usable outdoors under direct sunlight and has 60Hz refresh rates. It has good viewing angles and is generally sharp for consuming content or reading but absence of HDR as well as higher refresh rates make this a notch below the competing notebooks. The trackpad is plenty large and generally reliable to work with for Windows’ gestures and tracking and clicking most of the times. Keyboard, on the other side, isn’t my favourite thing about this laptop. They keys don’t quite have enough travel – giving more of a trifling feel when typing quickly and I didn’t get used to how the keys feel even after using it for a couple of weeks. The Copilot key sits on the right in place of the right CTRL key and brings up Copilot generative AI for your queries, image generation and related stuff. The generative AI function was quick in response when I did try it a few times for suggesting some photos ideas as well as notetaking.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite - X1E78-100 chip (up to 3.4Ghz 12-core processor and Adreno X1-85 3.8TFLOPS GPU), 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB m.2 PCIe SSD, the laptop runs on Windows 11 Pro 24H2 version. Day-to-day performance of the laptop has been satisfactory for me. It handled Web browsing, editing documents, Email syncing in the background with OneDrive sync switched on without hiccups. It did show some issues when playing 4k videos locally or in the media player but after a restart and trying different browsers, it worked in the media player PotPlayer and in Firefox the Web browser much better than before. It handled multiple tabs in two Web browsers with a video playing in one just fine, too. Instant wake up also works nicely compared to Intel’s chips. Gaming isn’t something the laptop is targeted at whether you look at the display or the performance – you can expect to play a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 at around 25FPS and nothing higher. I didn’t notice any high fan noise throughout my usage of the laptop, though, and saw quiet fan with dual pipes for cooling solutions under the hood.

The dual speakers near the front are quite loud and clear and have decent depth to them for some bass, doing a good job for watching movies and TV shows when indoors or for making calls. Enable with WiFi and powered by a 59Whr battery unit, the laptop comes with a 65watt USB type C charger in the box. The EliteBook lasted me 12-13 hours quite comfortably most of the days and didn’t show more than 2 per cent loss in battery when kept in standby mode overnight, which is nice to see. It charges from 1 per cent to full in about two hours or so while working on it.

With the price tag, the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q does seem a bit steep given the performance and whole package. It is a good looking laptop with a nice display and good performance, and great battery life but the competition has similar offerings with a lower price tag, so you might be better off considering this when on a deal.

oneplus-buds-pro-3-comfortable-pair-of-wireless-buds-but-sound-quality-could-have-been-better

Tue Sep 03 14:46:57 IST 2024

After the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro, it is now time for OnePlus premium TWS – OnePlus Buds Pro 3. Available for Rs 11,999, this is a premium segment for any pair of earphones. I kind of preferred the original Buds Pro’s overall audio output over the Buds Pro 2’s, so interested in checking how OnePlus has improved the sound quality and whether it’s really worth this price tag.

The buds come in a pebble-shaped ivory case that has chrome finish around it and textured faux leather on the bodies. There’s OnePlus branding at the front; while the back carries Dynaudio branding that looks more like you’ve put up a sticker around. The USB type C port and LED indicator are at the bottom. There’s also the pairing button that sits on the right side. The buds magnetically fit into the case with no wobbling happening. Coming to the buds themselves, these have clear Left and Right marks next to the tips, with sensors near the top the aluminium stem and volume slide area in the inner part. The buds weigh about 5.3 grams each while the case adds a little over 50 grams. These come in Midnight Opus and Lunar Radiance colour options, latter is what I tried it; it’s nice and clean but I am not sure how long it would stay dirt-free.

I found wearing the buds to be pretty comfortable to wear and didn’t have to change ear tips (you get three pairs of different sizes on the box) from the pre-fitted medium size. During commutes and walking around, the buds didn’t fall off and didn’t require frequent adjustments either.

The Buds Pro 3 support Bluetooth 5.4 with dual connection, AAC, SBC and LHDC 5.0 (no LDAC and aptX) codecs along with Google’s Fast Pair (no Windows’ Swift Pair). These carry dual drivers (11mm woofer + 6mm tweeter) along with BES2700ZP DAC chipset. The buds can be paired with non-OnePlus devices by long-pressing the pair button for the first connection. I found no issues in connecting it with an Android device, a Windows laptop or an iOS device. For OnePlus phones, you can use the settings under Bluetooth to change stuff as per your liking and use HeyMelody on other devices. OnePlus Pad 2 showed fewer settings than their phones when paired, though.

Coming to the audio quality, I would say the Buds Pro 3 tend to be a little heavy on the bass in a typical OnePlus style. The highs with voices are well-handled but mids can be a little on and off depending on the track with lows overtaking the stage. The Dynaudio EQ presents are definitely worth checking to see which ones you might like; I preferred the Balanced and featured EQ presets with BassWave turned off eventually. You can of course add a customised EQ of your own, too. For pop and Bollywood tracks, vocals are handled well and offer fairly rich strings. The last two firmware updates did make a bit of a change, it seemed, with the last one making it less bass-y than the one before that.

There’s also something called Golden Audio that supposedly scans your ear canal and then asks you to various audio output questions to decide which settings might be best suited for you. It did make the overall soundstage a little larger for when I tried it with no ANC and transparency. Most of the times, squeeze gesture worked reliably but sliding to adjust volume did take getting bit used to and even then wasn’t as quick as simply changing the volume on the source device. When it comes to active noise cancellation, the buds did a decent job of cancelling out low decibels noises but I wouldn’t say it is their biggest strength by any means.

The mics quality is decent enough and can be used for making calls even when outdoors without much additional noise, though I can’t say they are particularly great considering the price. You can use one bud at a time and playback stops and resumes when one is removed and tucked back in, respectively.

Each bud carries a 58mAh battery unit with the case having 566mAh. I found the earbuds standalone lasting 9-9.5 hours with no ANC enabled and hour less with LHDC enabled. With ANC switched on always, and LHDC, expect something like 6 hours. With the case added, you can get six times more of playback. The case plus buds charged in about 75 minutes. It can also be charged using an induction wireless charger, but it took over 2.5 hours to do so when I tried on an ALOGIC Yoga charging stand.

Regarding latency for watching movies and playing games, the buds do a good job of handling bandwidth and rarely ever showed any noticeable latency between the audio and video playback in sync, at least when used with Android.

All in all, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are a well made and comfortable pair of true wireless earbuds. They are a bit heavy on the bass, offer clear vocals and highs, but not quite handle all genres like, say, the Samsung’ Galaxy Buds2 Pro and Sennheiser Accentum, which are two of its direct competitors.

samsung-galaxy-watch-ultra-review-a-decent-addition-to-the-premium-smartwatch-segment

Fri Aug 30 16:28:57 IST 2024

The premium segment in the smartwatch space is largely aimed towards serious fitness and outdoor sports enthusiasts. You have the likes of Garmin and Suunto in the premium range and not that long back Apple entered the segment, and now we also have Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (WiFi + 4G/LTE) model that I have tried for a few days is currently priced at Rs. 59,999 and isn’t the costliest compared to the names mentioned above, but it does have to be performing really well and give accurate readings in order to really stand out in that group.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra comes in 47mm size and three different colour options – Titanium Silver, Titanium Gray and Titanium White.

The first thing I noticed about the watch, same as when Samsung had just launched it, is its size – thickness and diameter. There is some titanium on the back and front with grade 2 titanium plus plastic making most of the watch and comes with IP68 dust and water resistance. Weighing a little over 60 grams, it features a 1.5-inch rounded display with as many as three buttons on the right (wearing it on your left wrist) – Quick button, Home button, and back button.

The quick button in the middle has been added as a shortcut to any app or workout you want to start with a single tap. The buttons are also large and convenient to press. It may be a little large for some people and isn’t perhaps the best watch in terms of how it feels on the wrist at first that I have used from Samsung but it didn’t feel like a big deal once I started using it.

The squircle-designed (nearly) 1.5-inch Super AMOLED (480x480) display is brighter than before and is sharp enough for your watch contents – short messages, notifications, maps navigation, steps and of course watch faces. You would be able to check stuff when outdoors under sunlight without much trouble. The straps are not difficult to put on once you get the hang of the mechanism, which takes like a minute (longer nails might help, too).

I tried the marine strap and there is two more options called trail and peakform. Under the hood, there’s 5-core 1 .5Ghz processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage plus plenty of sensors—accelerometer, barometer, bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor, electrical and optical heart rate sensor, infrared temperature sensor and the more usual ones like gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor and light sensor.

I haven’t tried many of the workout modes and activities that are supported. Running on WearOS 5 with Samsung’s One UI 6.0 on top, the watch has been smooth and responsive during my usage with fluid animations and apps running quite smoothly.

Swiping down on the home screen brings you connectivity options and settings; swiping up gives you all your apps at one place; swiping from left to right takes you to all your pending notifications and from the right to left brings you to health reading, step counts and further activities if you swipe the same way again. Long-pressing both back and home buttons switched on the siren, which is aimed at emergency situations or such.

In my brief experience so far – the heart rate is read quite accurately in terms of BPM, and steps count isn’t too bad either with accurate steps given when walking briskly outdoors or indoors in match an Apple Watch series 7. It shows target achievement notifications as and when done for running or walking reliably, too.

There is neat Energy Score that combines several data points such as sleep time, sleeping heart rate variability and full day’s activity, which remained within a small range, not changing much with minute activity changes in the day. You can also have Strava’s GPX files for uploading route workouts.

The watch is powered by a 590mAh battery unit, and it lasted me two days with exercise power saving and GPS turned on and another day with power-saving enabled. You can expect to charge it fully in nearly two hours. If you are an outdoors, adventurous and fitness-enthusiast kind of a person, you now have another mainstream option among smartwatches to choose from. It would definitely make more sense if you have an Android phone, especially a recent Samsung one, to take full advantage of all the nitty gritty features and connectivity options the Galaxy Watch Ultra has to offer.

alogic-yoga-3-in-1-pricey-wireless-charging-stand-for-your-iphone-airpods-and-apple-watch-all-at-once

Mon Aug 26 14:11:19 IST 2024

A lot of smartphones, wireless earbuds and smartwatch come with induction wireless charging nowadays. You simply place them on top of the charger and the charging starts without having to worry about any ports or separate cables requirements. Though slower than the good old, wired way, there are quite a few such third party chargers for your devices, with ALOGIC’s Yoga 3-in-1 wireless charging stand being one of those priced at Rs 3,999 that I have been using for a couple of weeks now.

The charging stand is a MagSafe wireless induction charger that allows you to charge your iPhone, AirPods as well as Apple Watch – all three at once. Available in white and black colour options, the stand itself is quite slim and lightweight and comes with the same-coloured standard 1.5 metres long USB type-C to C-cable in the box. When unfolded, the stand can magnetically charge your iPhone without worrying that it would fall off or slide down, with the AirPods and Apple Watch laying on the horizontal back sides flat. Opposite to the USB type C port at the bottom, there’s a white LED on the front that indicates whether there’s something getting charged with shorter blinks while it blinks more quickly when there’s nothing getting charged on it. Weighing 173 grams, the charging stand feels sturdy and well-built to hold and didn’t show any scratches or major marks during my usage.

When charging all three at once, it took about three hours to charge all devices (9V/3A, 12V/3A max. input)– with the phone being charged at 15 watts highest, AirPods and 5 watts and the Watch at 1.5 watts. I found neither of the three devices to be very warm during the charging time, something that I have seen several others struggle with. The slowest being the Watch to charge, which was a little annoying considering this is also one of those things you might want to charge just as you step out.

Regarding compatibility, other than all iPhones 12 onwards, the stand can charge other Qi compatible devices but would require a separate magnetic ring for the device to hang on to the stand when unfolded. For other two charging spots, apart from wall Apple Watches, you can charge other smartwatches such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch, (but not Watch Ultra), while Pixel Buds, Galaxy Buds2 Pro and OnePlus Buds Pro 3 can be put on the last spot.

Though a bit pricey at Rs 3,999, the charger does have its utility when travelling and you don’t want to carry too many chargers and cables separately for your devices. At your own place, though, you may not necessarily have a huge use for it if you already have all your devices charging wired. Importantly, the charger and the devices don’t run hot when used for hours.

oneplus-nord-buds-3-pro-review-scores-well-on-comfort-and-battery-life

Fri Aug 16 17:21:25 IST 2024

Along with the OnePlus Pad 2 and Nord 4, the company also launched the Nord Buds 3 Pro, not to be confused with the upcoming flagship OnePlus Buds 3 Pro. Available for Rs 3,299, it goes directly against the likes of the Oppo Enco Air3 and JBL Tune 235NC.

Let us try and check how these measure up.

The Nord Buds 3 Pro follow the stem-like design with a more curved design than what we have seen from Nord buds before. Both buds have two physical and one digital mic with the touch-sensitive area near the top of both stems. These come in an oval-shaped matte finish plastic case that has a small LED indicator and the OnePlus branding on the front and a physical pairing mode button and USB type C port towards the bottom.

Both earbuds are IP55 dust and water resistant but the case isn’t. The buds weigh 4.4 grams each while the case adds about 38 grams.

I found the buds to be really comfortable to wear along and didn’t have any trouble with their in-ear fit during my usage. The eartips snugged in well enough and didn’t drop while having them on for commuting or just walking around. You do get two extra pairs of different-sized ear tips inside the box.

When paired to a OnePlus device, you can change tap settings from pause or play to switching between noise cancellation and transparency mode, or either volume up or down but not both using the inbuild Bluetooth settings.

On a non-OnePlus device, you can sue the HeyMelody app. The tap mechanism works fine but isn’t the most reliable that I have tried on a pair of OnePlus buds in terms of accidental touches. These wireless buds carry 12.4mm drivers, support Bluetooth 5.4 with dual connection and have AAC and SBC audio codecs.

There is also Google Fast Pair for pairing with OnePlus’ own devices and other Android devices. Though there is no Windows’ Swift Pair, I didn’t have any trouble connecting it with Windows laptops.

Talking about its audio quality, the buds are a bit heavy on the bass, which is also what OnePlus mentions in its marketing material.

You do get clear vocals and decent treble but it isn’t the best for this price range with bass overtaking other background instruments at times. Detailed audio output isn’t this pair’s strength but for things like pop music and Bollywood tracks it does a decent job when it comes to high pitched notes and strings.

I found its active noise cancellation to be decent when compared to the likes of Oppo and JBL, with transparency mode doing a good job of amplifying your surrounding sounds when enabled. It of course sounds best with both noise cancellation and transparency switched off.

Powered by 58mAh battery on both buds and 440mAh on the carrying case, the buds last a whole week with 3-4 hours of daily use with ANC switched on for about half the time. And with no ANC, you can go a couple more days quite comfortably. With no case involved, expect to have 5 hours or so with an hour or so of ANC in use.

Voice quality when making calls with the pair on is sufficiently loud and clear and doesn’t struggle much when used outdoors, too.

The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro aren’t quite a home run when it comes to true wireless earbuds today under 4k. They do have long battery life and are really comfortable to wear for longer duration. While at the same time have decent sound quality at best compared to the competition.

oneplus-nord-4-review-great-display-and-battery-life-in-place

Tue Aug 13 13:52:20 IST 2024

OnePlus’ Nord series earlier this year saw the Nord CE4, which became one of the better performers under Rs 25,000 and the CE4 Lite, which didn’t come across nearly as well for Rs 20,000. Now we have the company’s Nord flagship, the Nord 4, which starts at Rs 29,999 for the base model and goes up to Rs 32,999 for the highest variant.

Let us try and see how well it performs and where it lacks.

The first thing you might notice when holding the Nord 4 is its distinct metal body from any other Nord 5G device so far. The glass plus metal dual tone at the back does give it a nice feel and look, with the protruding camera setup on the glass and the dual tone LEDs set quite far apart from it, while the OnePlus logo sits on the middle of metal partition.

The device has curved corners and flat sides. The front has a 6.74-inch (20.1:9 aspect ratio) display with bezels that aren’t completely symmetrical but are really narrow. The right side has the volume buttons and power/lock key; while the left side has the Alert Slider near the top corner.

The top houses one outlet for loudspeakers, Infrared port and secondary mic; and the bottom locates the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB type C port and the other outlet for loudspeakers.

I didn’t see the back catching on to fingerprints and smudges quickly. With that material, the phone weighs about 200 grams, which may not be to everybody’s liking but it isn’t too much for its size.

The phone comes in Obsidian Black (the one I tried), Mercurial Silver and Oasis Green colour options.

Talking about the 6.74-inch 1.5K (2772 × 1240) AMOLED display, it supports up to 120Hz high refresh rates. This is a bright and clear display with good viewing angles for reading texts and viewing high resolution images.

For HDRo10 content, too, it’s can handle contrast and colour depth quite well without struggling with darker scenes that we do see in phones at this price range at times.

On the back, you get a dual camera setup – a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The phone can take pretty nice and detailed shots in most occasion daylight. If you aren’t moving, the camera can capture the subject in good sharpness without overdoing it. Indoors and in low-light, though, the camera performance isn’t that great in terms of image processing. Night mode does help but it’s still not that great compared to the likes of the Realme GT 6T. Something like AI eraser feature does help quite a bit to remove unnecessary objects or maybe some extra reflective light in your image.

The front-facing 16MP (f/2.4) camera can take detailed and well-processed shots for your social media use and is more than capable of handling video calls.

The device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.8GHz octa core processor, Adreno 732 GPU and X63 5G modem) alongside 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage (base variant has 8GB plus 128GB UFS 3.1).

It is running on OxygenOS 14.1 based on Android 14 with the August security patch in place.

OnePlus promises four OS upgrades and six years of security updates for it. You get a few pre-installed apps out of the box while some can unticked for installation during the initial setup – both group of apps can be uninstalled without any fuss.

The phone handled regular tats, messaging, calling, watching YouTube videos at their highest resolution, scrolling through Instagram, playing Spotify in the background without any trouble.

A game like BGMI can be played on it at 60 frames per second with medium to high settings selected. I didn’t see any heating issues with the device other than only two-three times of charging it after the initial setup.

The Nord 4 is equipped with a 5,500mAh battery unit and comes with a 100 watts SuperVooc charger in the box that can charge the device in about 50 minutes.

The phone lasted me a full day almost every single time after a full charge and didn’t show any unusual battery drops during the usage.

Call quality and WiFi performance if the phone is top notch and so is its location lock-in for GPS. 5G network reception implementation didn’t show any issues for usage on the go even when tethered for WiFi hotspot.

The dual stereo speakers are pretty loud so that you can use it fit for your gaming and video playback indoors without losing out on depth from these speakers.

In a nutshell, the Nord 4 is a solid offering from OnePlus if you rank a smooth software experience for daily use up there; don’t mind its weight provided you do get long battery life and a metal unibody while not compromising on the display quality.

Its camera performance isn’t a home run, but overall, this is an Android phone worth considering if you’re looking for one around Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 35,000.

poco-m6-plus-review-decent-performer-for-regular-tasks

Fri Aug 09 13:46:42 IST 2024

The 15k price segment has been really getting competitive in the 5G smartphones race in the past few months with the likes of Moto, Samsung and Vivo bringing out new offerings.

Poco has also launched its new M6 Plus at Rs. 13,499 for the base model and Rs. 14,499 for the higher model, and here’s how my experience with it has been.:

The M6 Plus is a large device that features a 6.79-inch (21:9 aspect ratio) display with unsymmetrical bezels around it as the bottom one (chin) is noticeably much broader than other sides.

The phone, weighing 205grams, has Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and a plastic frame. The back, which is divided into two parts for slight differences in colour shades, also has glass but doesn’t necessarily feel very premium just as the price tag.

The right side houses the volume buttons and power/lock key at the middle; while the dual SIM card plus microSD card hybrid slot are on the left side towards the top.

On the top, you get the 3.5mm audio jack as well as the Infrared port; and the primary mic, USB type C port and single outlet for loudspeakers at the bottom. It comes in Misty Lavender and Ice Silver (which I tried) colour options and is a IP53-rated dust and water-resistant device measuring about 8.2mm in thickness that feels okay in the hand, considering the price tag.

The 6.79-inch full HD+ (2460x1080) LCD display supports up to 120Hz refresh rates and is just about okay in terms of brightness to use outdoors. The display has decent viewing angles and isn’t bad in terms of details for watching YouTube videos or viewing high quality images.

On the back, there’s a dual camera setup – 108MP (f/2.2) main camera and a 2MP macro camera. The phone took sharp but grainy shots when used for close-up shots, but did better in terms of colours when used standing still and the subject is also not moving in daylight. You can set the side-mounted fingerprint reader to open the camera app quickly.

The front-facing 13MP (f/2.2) camera is okay for taking sharp selfies in decent to good daylight conditions but in low-light it can struggle to maintain details and low noise. The device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 AE chipset (up to 2.3Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 613 GPU and x61 5G modem), 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 internal storage (base model has 6Gb RAM).

It is running on Xiaomi HyperoS 1.0.4 based on Android 14 with the June security patch. There are a lot of pre-installed apps on the device out of the box, which can be uninstalled, while you can disable notifications and things like Xiaomi’s own App Store if you want to.

The device can handle tasks such as watching a full HD video on YouTube, messaging over WhatsApp, Telegram, and scrolling through Instagram; having these open in the background and using the camera is just okay. This isn’t the smoothest Android phone you may have tried but it’s fine at handling these tasks on a day-to-day basis.

Equipped with a 5,030mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me a day quite frequently with about 15 per cent or so left by the end of the day. You get a 33watt fast charger in the box (along with a transparent protective case.

Coming to the single loudspeaker, it does an okay job for video and game playback.

GPS and WiFi performance on the phone didn’t show any glitches whole 5G reception was also okay when outdoors, you can reliably use It on the move.

All in all, the M6 plus is a decent performer for your regular tasks such as watching YouTube videos, using WhatsApp frequently, maybe clicking a shot when in daylight conditions and having 5G data on the go.

Anything more, and this phone might struggle a bit to keep up.

oneplus-pad-2-review-great-multimedia-experience-and-battery-life-for-work-on-the-go

Thu Aug 08 13:13:48 IST 2024

OnePlus launched its first Android tablet last year, which was received pretty well in what is not a very thriving segment for Android for a while. The new OnePlus Pad 2 is the company’s new premium Android tablet that is aimed for both work and play.

Priced at Rs. 39,999 for the base model and Rs. 42,999 in the higher variant, let us see if it can justify the pricing:

The OnePlus Pad 2 features curved sides except for the top where you can attach the Stylo Pen. The metal back carries the OnePlus logo and rear camera setup with nothing else on it. When in landscape mode, the top left corner has the volume buttons; while the power/lock key sits next to its adjoining left edge.

The six-speakers setup is spread across both left and right; the right side also houses the USB type C port. The curved bottom only features the pogo pins for attaching the keyboard.

The tablet has a 12.1-inch (7:5) aspect ratio display with symmetrical bezels around it. Weighing 584grams, this tablet it a little heavier than the original OnePlus Pad. The tablet is slim (6.5mm thick), big and it feels sturdy—you may not always feel it’s comfortable to hold with one hand for extended hours when, say, watching something on it, or taking notes, but it’s not too different from any other tablet this size. It would have been nice had OnePlus added a fingerprint reader to unlock the device, something that was missing from the predecessor, too.

The tablet features a 12.1-inch 3k (3000x2120) LCD display that supports up to 144Hz high refresh rates. This is a bright and sharp display that’s usable outdoors if you want to under direct sunlight. It has decent viewing angles and handles high resolution videos well in terms of colour reproduction. With Dolby Vision content, the display doesn’t struggle to handle dark scenes and throws sufficient punchy contrast and brightness to go with it.

The front-facing 8MP (f/2.0) camera is okay for video calling and maybe once one a while selfie shot but it’s not too great for anything else. Similarly, the rear camera – a 13MP (f/2.2)– is okay for an odd photo if you really want, considering how odd you may appear taking a photo with such a big device in both your hands.

The camera app, though, is quick and quite straightforward to navigate through various options.

The Pad 2 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (up to 3.3Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 750 GPU and x75 5G modem), 12GB LPDDR5X RAM along with 256GB (or 8GB + 128GB) UFS 3.1 internal storage (no 4G or 5G variant). This is running on OxygenOS 14.1 based on Android 14 with the July security patch in place.

You get a horizontal bar at the bottom with your most used and recent app shortcuts. You can drag an app icon from there to open two or three apps side by side, and then come back and open them again at once with a single tap as a shortcut with those apps gets created automatically. This helps in reading stuff and maybe checking something alongside, or messaging and watching something YouTube side by side.

The tablet didn’t have any issues in this process, nor did it slow down when scrolling inside apps or moving from one to another the conventional way.

Itt handled an intensive game like CoD: Mobile without any stuttering and didn’t show any heating issues either. The speakers on the tablet are loud and have enough depth that you wouldn’t mind using it for watching movies or TV show or even for playing games.

It really makes for the multimedia experience to be a strength for it, which is one of the most vital parts when considering any tablet.

The new Smart Keyboard (priced at Rs. 8,499) from OnePlus not has a separate back panel (plus the angled stand) rather than permanently attached. You can attach it magnetically or over Bluetooth. The keyboard and trackpad are now significantly bigger and the keys are decent but not the best when it comes to typing with a keyboard on a tablet; still it’s not that bad for writing long documents if you don’t have a choice.

The new Stylo 2 (priced at Rs. 5,499) has an 80mAh battery of its own and has material that feels and looks a little bit like leather though it’s not actually the case. You can draw and take notes. You can also swipe on the Stylo 2’s touchpad to do various things such as swiping or accessing annotation tools or bring up laser pointer for presentations.

There are some AI-related features such AI Toolbox and AI Speak that are slated to be available on the tablet with updates in the coming months but for now you’ve things like AI Eraser and Recording Summary (supports Hindi, English and Chinese) and both worked but weren’t flawless on the first try.

Powered by a 9,510 mAh battery unit, the tablet lasted me around 11-12 hours on a full charge when watching movies for a couple of hours, browsing the Web or social media apps for two hours or so with screen brightness set at 40 per cent most of the time. The bundled 67 watts SuperVooc charger can charge the device from 1 per cent to full in around 1.5 hours.

All in all, the Pad 2 comes across as a well-built Android tablet that has a really nice display and speakers for multimedia usage, battery life suitable for working on the go and the added accessories, especially the keyboard, are not too bad either.

It’s a pricey but a good option if want to run multiple apps side by side, or work and write on the go and don’t want to take a full-fledged laptop with you. And there certain misses, as mentioned – still no fingerprint reader and some hardware nerds may be put off by the use of UFS 3.1 instead of UFS 4.0 for a premium tablet.

realme-13-pro-review-good-cameras-and-battery-life-but-not-so-great-with-performance

Tue Aug 06 13:16:16 IST 2024

Realme has launched yet another device that’s priced at Rs 29,999 for the base model and goes straight against its own offerings GT 6T. That confusion continues once you try the device for a few days, too, which is how my experience went:

The 13 Pro+ looks much like the Realme 12 Pro+ except for the middle crease and that Hyperimage branding on the camera setup. The right side features the volume buttons and power/lock key; while the left side is kept all plain. The top houses the secondary mic and one outlet for loudspeakers; and the bottom carries the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB Type C port and second outlet for loudspeakers. The phone has curved edges to compliment the curved 6.7-inch OLED display, which houses the front camera near the top and in-screen fingerprint scanner towards the bottom.

The phone has narrow sides large but not too slippery and is comfortable to carry around. I tried the vegan leather back in Emerald Green and it also comes in Monet Gold glass back. The device sports a 6.7-inch curved OLED display with support for 120Hz refresh rates. The display is bright and does a good job under direct sunlight when used outdoors. It has vivid colours and I preferred to use it in the cinematic screen colour mode, which it made videos and images appear closer to the real colours.

The display does a good job for watching high resolution videos without sacrificing on details, though the curved part does make viewing angles and colour distortion bit of an issue. Under the hood, you have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset (up tp 2.4Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 710 GPU and Hexagon NPU) along with 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 internal storage (also comes in 8GB and 256 variant for the base model). It’s running on realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 with the June security patch in place.

There are a few pre-installed apps, as expected out of the box, such as Facebook, Agoda, LinkedIn, etc., though you can uninstall them. Realme has added some AI-related camera features, such as for the portrait shots, removing objects from the photo (not new), which we have seen on the Realme GT 6T. Again, not sure what Realme’s 13 Pro+ brings to the table when all this with a better chipset and arguably design is already available in their GT 6T.

While day-to-day performance is OK, I did see apps taking a second more when going back to an opened app before you can start using them. Gaming performance is okay at best, with the device struggling to handle GTA or Modern Combat at highest settings, something several phones at this price range can do. There are a few pre-installed apps, as expected out of the box, such as Facebook, Agoda, LinkedIn, etc., though you can uninstall them. Plus, no ad notifications and Hot Games could be disabled in one go.

Coming to the camera, this is perhaps the biggest strength of the device – a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera, a 50MP (f/2.65) periscope camera (both with OIS)m and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide camera. The camera performance here is well tuned, seems Realme has continued to work on it like they did for the GT 6T. You get detailed shots with good colour production in daylight while low-light shows are also quite decent in terms of low noise.

With zoom usable to say about 5x-10x at times for things such a social gathering or outdoors in decent lighting conditions. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.45) is all good for making video calls and takes clear shots for selfies in low to good lighting conditions, though it did have a little shutter lag to capture at times. Powered by a 5,200mAh battery life, as expected, lasted me a day more often than not and the phone charged from 1 per cent to full in slightly above one hour without any heating issues.

The loudspeakers on the phone are quite loud but nothing special for gaming and video playback that we haven’t seen in this price range before. 5G reception is really reliable and so is the GPS from whenever I had to use it. All in all, the 13 Pro+ lags behind some of the competition when it comes to performance and perhaps design department, including their very own Gt 6T that I would prefer for almost everything. Also, the device’s predecessor doesn’t seem to be a step down from the 13 pro+, which once again makes it a little hard to recommend.

asus-vivobook-s-15-s5507-review-great-battery-life-quality-display-panel-highlights-of-this-slim-arm-based-laptop

Sat Aug 03 21:22:40 IST 2024

We are slowly seeing Ǫualcomm-fitted Windows machines with Copilot+ feature in the market, with ASUS being among the first to bring it to the Indian shores. The new ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED (S5507) is an ARM-based Windows 11 laptop that’s priced at Rs. 1,24,990 and aims to be your one-stop work machine. Does it really fare well against the current competition from Intel and AMD, let’s try and see:

The Vivobook S15 OLED is an all-metal magnesium alloy laptop with a small hinge that goes 180 degrees for the display to become parallel to the ground. The lid outside has the ASUS Vivobook branding, the bottom has the vents and a rubberized column for feet. The left side carries an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB type C ports (can run a 4k display), a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The right-side houses two USB 3.2 gen 1 type A ports and battery indicator LED and processing indicator LED.

The trackpad is area is decent for basic Windows gestures and it’s plenty large in size while the single- zone RGB backlit chiclet keyboard is comfortable to type on with decent travel for keys, though it’s slightly noisy. This is a slim and relatively lightweight laptop that is comfortable to carry around if the 15-6inch (16:9 aspect ratio) size is your preference.

Coming to the 15.6-inch (2880x1620) OLED display, this is a really nice panel that scores well on the sharpness and colour calibration. It does a good job of handling various video highlights and supports up to 120Hz refresh rates. Its HDR output is also quite good, keeping in check shadow-y scenes and colour contrast with sufficient brightness in place.

Coming to the main talking point, the laptop is equipped with Ǫualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite X chip (up to 3.4Ghz 12-core processor, Adreno E7800 GPU and Hexagon 45 TOPS NPU) along with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM (that’s not upgradable) and 1 TB PCIe NVMe m.2 internal SSD. It’s good to see the laptop handle Microsoft’s Office apps, browsers like Edge, Firefox, multimedia apps like PotPlayer and even editing apps like Lightroom and Photoshop without any performance issues.

It would be safe to say popular apps with their ARM variants aren’t any bottlenecks here and you’re good to go if that’s what you use a big majority of the times. It can have a bit of an issue in plaing a

4k video in a multimedia player (the display doesn’t support 4K, but still), plus you might want to check your current accessories, which may or may not work considering this isn’t an Intel or AMD based system.

During my usage, I also noticed there’s no heating issues and the laptop remain relatively fine when it comes to body temperatures while

running multiple tasks at once. The one clear downside of this laptop is gaming – it’s just not close to its Intel, AMD and Nvidia competitors yet. So, games like Diablo or Overwatch would barely work and some other popular ones might not even load. ASUS has added Copilot+ for AI in the laptop. So, you get live captions, which worked for translating into English and Mandarin only for now; then you have Cocreator that gives artwork if you feed your sketches to it. There are also creator-related features under Windows Studio Effects to get better video in low-light, or creative filters (including animated and watercolour), as well as denoising.

Moving to the battery life, I found the 70WHr battery to last me a full working day quite frequently – over 12 hours with screen brightness at around 50%, and 1%-2% loss when left on sleep mode overnight. This is definitely one of the strengths of this laptop and it isn’t surprising to see considering the chip used here. ASUS provides a 90watts USB type C charger in the box that can charge the laptop from 1% to full in around 2 hours.

The speakers on this laptop are good and loud enough for watching videos and playing games with if you’re indoors and it’s not noisy around you. The 1080p webcam with a physical shutter is decent for video calls and so are the mics for any calls.

In a nutshell, ASUS’s first Ǫualcomm-powered attempt seems like a solid try – great battery life, quality display in place along with reliable performance for most work related apps. Gaming and maybe even third party accessories are two areas where they the platform can certainly keep improving, but if you’re looking for a work laptop and need smooth Web browsing, Office apps and no issues when resuming your machine from sleep mode, the Vivobook S 15 is surely worth your consideration.

review-samsung-galaxy-z-flip6-improved-battery-life-and-camera-experience

Wed Jul 31 22:58:11 IST 2024

With the unveiling of Samsung’s newest foldable devices, we saw the smaller sibling – the Galaxy Z Flip6. This is more on the compact side when folded and closer to a conventional phone when unfolded. Priced at Rs. 1,09,999 for the base variant, let’s try and see what this latest flip phone from the house of Samsung brings to the table.

The Galaxy Z Flip6, just like the Fold6, is a little slimmer and smaller in curves than its predecessor. You get the same angular 3.4-inch cover display and this time with Corning Gorilla Victus 2 protection on top. Measuring just under 15mm in thickness when folded, the phone has matte-finish aluminium frame. When the 6.7-inch (22:9 aspect ratio) main display is unfolded, the right side features the volume buttons and power/lock key; the dual SIM card tray slot sits on the left.

The bottom houses the primary mics, USB type C port and one outlet for loudspeakers; the top carries secondary mics. The dual rail hinge has the Samsung logo revealed when the phone isn’t fully unfolded. The front-facing camera on the main screen is next to the ear- speaker grille, which is a bit of an eye-sore compared to the other parts of the phone. The cover screen has a dual camera plus dual tone flash that make for the rear cameras.

The phone weighs 187 grams and comes in Silver shadow, yellow, blue, mint, crafted nlack, white, peach colour options – I tried it in blue and liked its overall look. It’s now an IP48-rated (somewhat) dust and water-resistant device and isn’t very slippery but unfolding it with only one hand can be tricky. The 3.4-inch HD (748x720) AMOLED display (FlexWindow) is pretty much unchanged from the last year. It is just bright enough to be used outdoors to view your notifications or change connection toggles, quick replies and so on. The main 6.7-inch fullHD+ (1080x2640) AMOLED display is sharp and vivid to look at, though I preferred using it in the natural screen mode.

It is good for viewing images and watching YouTube videos at their highest resolution without sacrificing on any details. Coming to the camera department, you now have a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera with a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. There’s a 'Camcorder Mode' with which you can access controls in the lower half of the main display when the device is unfolded at 90 degrees and you can record more stable or less shaky videos. Or, like before, get a preview of your selfie on the cover display while using the rear cameras. I liked the colour tones of the photos and preferred the 50MP in daylight but in low light, 12MP mode gave decent shots without too much noise provided your subject isn’t moving. The front-facing 10MP (f/2.2) camera is quick to use and takes detailed shots in decent lighting and is more than good enough for video calling.

The device is powered by Qualcomm’s slightly customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (up to 3.4Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 750 GPU and X75 5G modem) alongside 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS4.0 storage (also comes in a 512GB storage option). IT is running on One UI 6.1.1. based on Android 14 with June security patch installed. The phone handled having two apps running on the main screen fine and didn’t show any glitches while scrolling inside social media apps, watching high resolution videos or switching between Gallery and messaging apps. You can expect to play a game like Modern Combat 5 without any frame drop issue.

For AI features, translate and draw assist work well, there’s also notes assist for summarising your notes and voice recorder transcript summaries through Galaxy AI, and it worked well on the Flip6 recognizing both Hindi and English when used. The phone has a bigger 4,000mAh battery unit now and clearly has better battery life than the Flip5, with the phone lasting me close to a day 2 out of 3 days with moderate to heavy usage – all this while using the main display for 95% of the tasks.

It charges from 1% to full in nearly 1.5 hours at 25 watts using a compatible fast charger, which you do not get in the box (neither do you get any case). The speakers on the Flip6 are sufficiently loud and with decent depth for videos and gaming use. I also had a good experience the device’s 5G network reception to be shared with other devices over hotspots while on the go.

All in all, the Flip6 does have some meaningful upgrades from the predecessor – a tweaked design, better battery life and an upgraded camera. While this isn’t a huge leap in the Flip series, the reliable software experience and good hinge plus hardware in place could mean Samsung keeping its lead in the fold-flip phones for the time being.

cmf-watch-pro-2-distinct-looks-variety-of-colour-options-and-improved-software-experience

Fri Jul 26 22:32:47 IST 2024

CMF launched its three new products recently – a phone, a watch and a pair of earphones. I tried its new watch Pro 2, which is available for Rs 5,499, for a couple of weeks, and here’s how it went:

The Watch Pro 2 is made of aluminium alloy, but it doesn’t entirely feel so. The 22mm straps are silicon and the watch itself is quite comfortable to wear. It doesn’t weigh too much and sits well on the wrist without any points of discomfort. The top rounded bezel around the 1.32-inch rounded display can be replaced with another one, but I am not sure how many would like to do that considering it is priced at $19.0 (Rs 1,591) along with a pair of straps and isn’t officially available here.

The strap has sufficient pinholes and a single loop to go with it. Other than the CMF branding, the bezels also carry the crown button that’s rotatable for scrolling purposes while the bezels don’t do anything. Colour options include orange, dark grey (the one I tried), light grey and blue. It’s an IP68-rated dust and water-resistant smartwatch (but not for swimming).

The Watch Pro 2’s 1.32-inch AMOLED display is quite bright and usable under direct sunlight outdoors. It can be set to always-on, or you choose to set it to wake up when you lift your wrist. It shows up when you lift your wrist about 9 out of 10 times, so it isn’t unreliable that way.

Running on a custom OS (version 1.0.0.46) that’s not based on Android or anything, but you can pair it with both Android and iOS. Using the CMF Watch app, you can set watch faces (around 100, on the watch only 5 can be stored at once), change settings or sync data. You can sync data with Google Fit but it doesn’t always work flawlessly, breaking the sync in between at times.

Swiping right takes you to phone widgets like contacts, keyboard and music player while swiping left on the home screen brings you to your fitness activities. Swiping down takes you to settings widgets, and swiping up gives you pending notifications.

There’s a heart rate monitor, stress monitor as well as SpO2 sensors for blood oxygen along with an accelerometer. Heart rate monitoring seemed a bit off to me compared to a dedicated device while sleep monitoring as well as step count was within + - 5% reach of a high-end smartwatch, which is nice to see. You can make calls over Bluetooth and the speaker is not tiny while the mic does an okay job, too. Notifications from your phone work reliably but replying to them can be a little iffy with the preview going away.

Powered by a 305 mAh battery unit, the watch lasted me 5 days with always-on, heart monitoring enabled, but 8-9 days with both things switched off, but of course, a lot less if you use GPS for activities a lot of times. You can charge it from 1% to full in under two hours using the bundled charging cable.

In brief, the Watch Pro 2 does have its pros and cons – battery life and a variety of colours being a good point that people can pick from. While its software is smoother than the predecessor, things like heart rate monitoring and syncing with your phone as a true device to reply with is a bit of a hit-and-miss.

samsung-galaxy-z-fold6-subtle-design-changes-but-not-a-major-upgrade-from-fold5

Mon Jul 22 16:06:52 IST 2024

Samsung recently unveiled its new foldable and wearable line-up of smart devices in Paris and these are available globally including in India, too. The Galaxy Z Fold6 and Flip6 are its newest range of foldable Android devices in what’s becoming a little more competitive high-end market, at least globally with the likes of OnePlus, Vivo and Moto. I have been using the bigger sibling Galaxy Z Fold6 for a few days now, and here is how my experience has been using this Rs 1,64,999 device.

The first thing you might notice about the Galaxy Z Fold6 is, if you’ve tried the Fold5, is that it’s a little slimmer and lighter (under 240 grams) in comparison. The 6.7-inch cover screen (22:9 aspect ratio) is a little wider, too, making it a little more convenient to type on now. The crease on the main 7.6-inch screen (20.9:18 aspect ratio) inside is slightly less noticeable and less felt when you’re scrolling or pinching something on it with your fingers or thumb but it’s still not as smooth as the OnePlus Open. When unfolded it measures about 5.6mm in thickness and 12.1mm when folded. The dual-rail hinge doesn’t get exactly straight but there’s a bit of give with it, maybe for taking in some added pressure, but doesn’t feel flimsy in any way.

The right side has the volume buttons and power/lock key; while the left side (when opened) has the dual SIM card tray. The top houses three mics with one outlet for loudspeakers; and the bottom carries the other outlet for loudspeakers, USB type C port and primary mic. The back carries the triple camera system on a protruding circular cutout. One thing, though, the aluminium edges on the left side (hinge side) can feel a bit sharp when holding with your left hand, though it’s much better on the right side. The IP48 dust (not as fine as under 1mm) and water-resistant phone comes in Silver Shadow, Pink, Navy, Crafted Black and White colour options – I don’t mind the clean looks of the Silver Shadow option that I tried myself.

The interior main 7.6-inch QXGA+ (2160 x 1856) flex AMOLED display is a little brighter than before and is really sharp to watch your videos and to view images on. It’s usable under direct sunlight. The front-facing camera over it is camouflaged enough to not be a hindrance in your viewing experience. It’s wider but just slightly shorter than before. The protective film on the inner display is also now less intrusive and gels in better with the phone’s usage. The exterior Cover screen is a 6.3-inch HD+ (2376 x 968) AMOLED that slightly wider than before. It’s sharp enough and bright for outdoor usage, plus symmetrical and narrow bezels to go around it.

Coming to the camera performance, there’s a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS), a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 10MP (f/2.4) telephoto camera (with OIS). Other than the ultra-wide camera, the camera department remains pretty similar to the last generation. You can take sharp shots and it can hold its ground in low-light shots but can struggle with details at times. It’s not as good in providing details to your subject as Samsung’s own S24 Ultra. There are some added AI features such as Portrait Studio where you can get cartoon or watercolour version of your photos. You can also add something to you photos by drawing on it, and it generally worked well if you’re precise enough.

The device is equipped with the slightly customised Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (up to 3.4Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 750 GPU and X75 5G modem) along with a 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 internal storage (there are also 512GB or 1TB storage options). It’s running on One UI 6.1.1 based on Android 14 with the April security patch installed. The phone handles switching between apps, watching YouTube videos while having two other apps such as Telegram and Discord running side by side on the main display without any troubles. The phone didn’t heat up during my usage expect for the initial couple of days. You can expect to play a heavy game like Genshin Impact at 60FPS without any stuttering issues.

Samsung has emphasised on AI features for the phone, these include AI translator on the go, audio recording summary and Notes Assist. The voice recorder has a interview mode where it gives you an option to mute one person during playback. For some reason, I didn’t get the option to transcribe voice recordings so far. There’s also Drawing assist where you draw something roughly and the phone would process it into AI-generated art form.

Powered by a 4,400 mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me about a day on moderate usage and under a day with some heavy usage that included more main display time. The usage includes using the outer Cover screen for good 90 per cent of the time. The phone took about 1.5 hours to charge from 1% to full using a compatible fast charger (you don’t get one in the box, neither do you get a case) charging at 25watts speed when done wired.

The phone’s dual speakers are good but not that great in terms of depth. They could have been a little louder considering the phone’s size. Call quality and network reception on the phone, though, are really top quality, including 5G network reception on the go. WiFi, GPS as well as Bluetooth didn’t cause any connection or bandwidth issues throughout my usage.

All in all, the Galaxy Z Fold6 comes across as a more refined version of its predecessor when it comes to design, aesthetics as well as displays. It’s not a huge step-up from the Fold5 in terms of camera or battery experience while the price has been increased. So, if you already have a Fold5, I don’t see any major reasons you would already need to upgrade. But if you got the budget and looking for a foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold6 is a safe enough foldable Android smartphone that has most things covered

boult-mustang-derby-review-mustang-branded-tws-score-on-the-looks-part

Fri Jul 19 20:06:51 IST 2024

Being one of the more popular names in the budget personal audio space, Boult launches a new product every few weeks. But this time the company has partnered with Ford’s Mustang for a new line of true wireless earbuds (TWS) with budget pricing. Boult Mustang Derby is one of three new pairs under this branding. Available for Rs. 1,799, let’s see what these really offer:

The first thing you get after unboxing, other than the buds themselves, are the Mustang stickers for cars as well as headphones. Adds a nice touch to the initial impressions, in my opinion. The buds lie vertically in the case that has the Mustang branding at the middle and Boult branding near the bottom under the LED light, while the USB type C port sits at the bottom.

The Blue + Black dual-tone combo plastic case has a matte finish and doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. The buds are IPX5 splash resistant but the case isn’t. The buds have stem design with a mic and a small LED (somewhat pairing to the Mustang grille) each to indicate pairing. On the inside, other than the rubberised ear tips, you have pogo pins near the bottom to latch onto the case.

The buds are quite comfortable to wear and don’t drop from the ears when worn while walking around. The Boult Derby pair supports AAC and SBC audio codecs with Bluetooth 5.4 and features 13mm drivers. The buds are expectedly high on the bass and mids to lows, too. You can expect to get sufficient bass output for Bollywood as well as R&B genres for the most part. It produces clear vocals, but high to mids can tend to suffer a bit due to the extended focus on the bass part. So, the audio quality is also fine for listening to podcasts on the go.

Mic quality is decent though it can struggle to give clear audio on the other side when used outdoors with windy conditions, which isn’t surprising. It isn’t a full and the most balanced sound from Boult but it delivers for the price tag. Oh, and whenever you pair or unpair to your device, there’s a car engine sound starting or shutting down.

ALSO READ | OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite: Good battery life and display but that’s about it

You can pause or resume playback with a single tap on either bud and change touch control settings using the Boult Amp app on your phone. The TWS lasts about a week on a full charge plus charging case while using it for about 3 hours on a daily average. It charges in an hour from using a fast charger.

Wrapping up, the Boult Mustang Derby (Boult Airbass) are a pair of budget earbuds for people who prefer bass-heavy audio on a low budget that also looks a bit different with a familiar branding to go with it.

oppo-reno12-review-stylish-and-great-battery-life-but-camera-and-performance-take-a-hit

Wed Jul 17 14:14:58 IST 2024

Oppo recently launched its Reno12 series of smartphones, which includes the Reno12 5G that I have been using for a few days. The phone is priced at Rs 32,999 and comes as Oppo’s latest device from the series that often has photography at heart. Let’s try and see what the Reno12 brings to the table.

The first thing you might notice in Reno12 is the Sunset Peach colour on the back (also comes in Matte Brown and Astro Silver). It kind of looks like a painting drawn on the back with the Oppo logo engraved near the bottom and a double bordered rectangular cutout housing the triple camera system near the top left corner. Oppo definitely made the phone standout a bit from the crowd with this colour without making it appear too flashy or over the top.

The phone’s back has a smooth finish, the corners are also curved, with the narrow sides made of alloy. The front has a 6.7-inch curved display with 20:9 aspect ratio and with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 7i on top. The left side is left all plain; while the right side carries the volume buttons. The top houses the secondary mic, infrared port and one outlet for loudspeakers; and the bottom carries the dual SIM + microSD hybrid card slot. The phone is IP65 rated dust and water resistant, quite comfortable to carry around and doesn’t seem slippery either.

Coming to the display, the 6.7-inch full HD+ (2412×1080) AMOLED display supports up to 120Hz dynamic refresh rates. It is bright and has punchy colours, and I preferred to use it in the cinematic colour mode. It does a good job of handling high resolution videos and for viewing images with not too much colour loss due to the curves this time. HDR10 output isn’t bad either but it’s not the best that we’ve seen from Oppo in terms of handling scenes. The phone features a triple camera system on the back – a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS), an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. You can expect to take some vivid shots with the phone, some with punchy colours if your subject is still and you get decent enough lighting to go alongside.

The phone’s camera performance isn’t too great when it comes to low-light and portrait shots, it does seem a little stepped down from the previous two iterations. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.0) camera takes detailed and well stitched shots and isn’t too slow when used in low-light. There are a few AI features related to the camera where you can change somebody’s photo to an animated character or like a doodle, it works quite well, though not sure how much it adds up for the camera in general. AI Eraser is also there to remove people or an object from your photos.

The Reno12 is equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7300 Energy chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa core processor, Mali G615 GPU) and N55 NPU along with 8GB of LPDDRX RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage. It runs on Oxygen OS 14.1 based on Android 14 with the July security patch. The phone’s general performance has been satisfactory most of the times in handling social media apps, YouTube videos, switching between messaging apps, or checking multiple photos. It isn’t the most well performing smartphone today around Rs 33,000 with a somewhat subpar chipset in place for the price tag.

Games such as Wuther Waves and CoD: Mobile cannot be played at their medium to highest settings. The phone doesn’t heat up while gaming, though, but it’s not exactly a gaming performer if that’s falls in your use case. There are quite a few third party apps pre-installed on the phone, as expected, but you can uninstall them and disable some notifications (or disable it completely) pushed from things like App Market if you like to use the Play Store only.

Sporting a 5,000mAh battery unit, the phone comes with an 80watt SuperVooc charger than can charge the phone in under an hour. The phone quite often lasted me a day and din’t show any drastic battery drainage issues.

The phone’s 5G network reception is really good, with good coverage for working on the go. Its dual stereo speakers do a good enough job for using with videos and a bit of gaming when indoors. Regarding WiFi and GPS, I didn’t notice any glitches during my usage of the device.

All in all, the Oppo Reno12 is a bit underwhelming Reno device – whether in the camera department or its performance in general. Though it has a really nice and unique colours option and good battery life, there aren’t too many other things going for it compared to the likes of the Realme GT6T.

oneplus-nord-ce4-lite-good-battery-life-and-display-but-thats-about-it

Tue Jul 09 18:06:42 IST 2024

OnePlus Nord series is supposed to be a more budget-friendly series with the lite moniker being further lower down the price list. The Nord CE4 Lite starts at Rs 19,999, which is quite a competitive price segment in the smartphones space. How it stacks up, let’s try and find out.

The device is made of decent plastic materials with a 6.67-inch glass display on the front. It has curved edges and flat sides, with a box-like look to it. The bezels around the display are not too thick but these aren’t symmetrical. The back of the device looks nice, especially in the Super Silver colour that I tried (also comes in Mega Blue and Ultra Orange colour options). It features an oval shaped cutout that carries the dual camera and LED setup; while the OnePlus branding sits at the middle. The back does catch a lot of smudges and fingerprints quite quickly. On the right, there’s volume buttons and power/lock key near the middle; while the left side locates only the dual SIM card and hybrid microSD card slot. The top houses one outlet for loudspeakers; and the bottom has the 3.5mm audio jack, primary mic, USB type C port as well as the other outlet for loudspeakers. The phone weighs above 190grams and I didn’t find it particularly slippery to carry around.

Sporting a 6.67-inch full HD+ (1080x2400) AMOLED display with refresh rates of up to 120Hz, the phone doesn’t have a bad display. It’s quite bright and usable under direct sunlight outdoors provided you are using it at least 50 per cent brightness. The display has good viewing angles and does a good job when watching high resolution videos. Its colour calibration isn’t the best that I have seen from a Nord device. I did try different colour modes but still found it to be slightly underwhelming in terms of colour accuracy.

The phone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset (up to 2.2Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 619 GPU and x51 5G modem) along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 internal storage (base model has 8GB + 128GB configuration). It runs on OxygenOS 14 based on Android 14 OS with the June security patch installed. There’s no double tap to wake or lock the screen up option, which OnePlus has been using for years now. The phone’s performance has been decent at best during my usage. In their marketing material, OnePlus has mentioned about adding more third party apps than before something that a lot of loyal OnePlus users may not like. You can uninstall almost all of them, but it’s there out of the box. The phone handled scrolling inside social media apps, YouTube and Gallery without hiccups, but every now and then I did see apps such as Gmail showing glitches. Plus, animation dropped frames every once in a while, when switching between two apps. You can expect to play games like Monument Valley smoothly but nothing graphic intensive like Wuthering Waves on this phone.

Coming to the camera performance, the phone sports dual cameras on the back – 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS) and a 2MP (f/2.4) depth sensor. The camera can take some good shots in daylight provided you aren’t moving and neither is your subject. Slightly tricky lighting condition, even in daylight, the phone can struggle to capture details. Like the phone’s performance, the camera app, too, can be a little sluggish when switching between modes or when trying to take shots in the Pro mode. On the front you have a 16MP (f/2.4) camera that can take well-tuned shots in good lighting but can lack in sharpness when taking shots indoors, though it’s fine for making video calls.

Powered by a 5,500mAh battery unit, this is perhaps the phone’s biggest strength. I found it to last a day almost every single day during my usage with brightness set at 40 per cent most of the time, watching videos for two hours or so across different apps, using it for social media like Instagram and a lot of WhatsApp and Telegram usage as well. You get an 80 watts SuperVooc charger in the box and the phone charges from 1 per cent to full in just under an hour.

I didn’t find any trouble with the device’s WiFi, GPS as well as call quality on the go. 5G network reception was also quite reliable to be used as a WiFi hotspot source when working on the go. The dual stereo speakers on the phone are loud and do a good job for watching YouTube videos, though they seem to lack as much depth and details as some other Nord devices.

In a nutshell, the Nord CE4 Lite doesn’t quite perform up to par on several fronts, including performance as well as camera. It does have a good battery life and display to go with it, but it doesn’t come across as something worth recommending, especially since OnePlus’s own Nord 4 CE, yup, that’s priced Rs. 5,000 more, provided a significantly better experience in nearly every department, so you have better options from the likes of iQoo and Realme among a few others.

sony-s25-really-good-and-sharp-display-for-live-sports-and-hdr-movies

Sat Jul 06 13:56:28 IST 2024

Sony recently launched its Bravia 2 series of LED Google TVs in India that are supposed to provide great 4k videos along with HDR without going beyond the one lakh mark for the 65-inch model. Priced at Rs. 95,990 (available for Rs. 85,990), let’s see what the S25 is all about.

The TV has a familiar look and feel to Sony’s previous Bravia lineup. There’s no table top bundled in the box as before, though, and you would have to inform the company’s visiting installation guys what you would need between table top and wall mount. The S25 has narrow bezels around the display but nothing we haven’t seen before. The casing here is metal, including on the back, but the middle structure behind is all plastic. The left side on the textured back has most of your ports, including 3 HDMI 2.1 (one with eARC support), two USB type A ports, antenna alongside rear-facing optical in and LAN port (no 3.5mm audio jack). The other side carries the power input.

Coming to the display, the TV has a 64.5-inch LED IPS 4k (3840x2160) panel with support for up to 60Hz refresh rates. The picture quality here is really top both for the price tag. You get really punchy colours in the default standard mode, though I preferred the movie mode or slightly customised settings for watching sports, too, and found that the display didn’t sacrifice in details and contrast in pretty much all types of content. There’s Motionflow in place, but I preferred to have it turned off, especially while watching movies and TV shows, though some might like to have it turned on for watching live sports. Coming to HDR, the screen is sufficiently bright to handle HDR10 content, giving decent highlights and contrast and not getting bogged down by shadow-y scenes in movies, too.

Running on Android based Google TV, the TV is powered by Sony’s X1 processor, and I found it to be generally responsive and smooth in operating – whether switching between one OTT app to another or for going back and forth between YouTube videos, or for accessing videos from an external hard disk. The S25 also has good multimedia codec supports with pretty much all video and audio codecs that you would need for your personal files or streaming online. The TV also automatically recognises when you connect a PlayStation5 to it and adopts gaming mode for picture and sound profiles, but of course you can also change it to your liking.

Though there is auto low latency mode and variable refresh rate, for playing games, there is no Dolby Vision for this two-star BEE rated TV and the display doesn’t go beyond 60Hz refresh rates. Coming to the sound quality, the TV sports two 10watts each open baffle speakers with support for Dolby Atmos. The speakers, compared to the TV’s size, are just about decent in general. They can get quite loud for a 12x12 room and deliver decent oomph for watching YouTube videos. For your entertainment needs in the long run, it’s still suggested to get a decent audio system hooked on to it. I tried the GOVO GoSurround 975 soundbar with it and using it over HDMI eARC was smooth and hassle-free, including for Dolby Atmos output in movies.

The TV supports Chromecast of course as well as Apple AirPlay 2 with Apple Home support so you can control TV with Siri from your iPhone, too. With Sony Pictures Core (previously named Bravia Core), you get free 10 titles to stream in the app. The app has close to 80mpbs of bitrates with Dolby Atmos and IMAX content for some titles.

All in all, the new Bravia 2 series is a really nice and smooth functioning TV. It has a bright and sharp 4K display that does justice to HDR content, too, without blowing out colours or contrast. While its sound is decent at best, you do get a nice and familiar Sony design for your home.

moto-edge-50-ultra-review-premium-smartphone-flaunts-better-chipset-battery-than-rivals

Wed Jul 03 11:03:24 IST 2024

Motorola seems to be competing with high-end smartphones while being a little more affordable than its rivals. Its latest Moto Edge 50 Ultra has been priced at Rs 59,999 (introductory price of Rs. 54,999) looking to take on the likes of the OnePlus 12, Samsung Galaxy S24 and Xiaomi 14. Let us see how it performs and whether it cuts any corners to save on the cost.

The device comes in wood, glass and faux leather back panel options. I tried the wooden panel variant and found it quite distinct looking from the crowd of phones. The triple camera and dual LED setup on a slightly protruding rectangle that isn’t separated from the rest of the panel. The front has a 6.67-inch curved display (20:9 aspect ratio) that’s complemented well by the curved corners and a narrow side frame (8.6mm thick) that’s made out of aluminium. The front-facing camera and earspeaker grille are neatly tucked near the top. The under 200g phone can be a little slippery when placed on a flat surface but is generally comfortable to carry around, provided you’re used to having to bigger phones.

Sporting a 6.67-inch rt full HD+ (2712x1220) curved display with support for up to 144Hz refresh rates as well as 720Hz DC dimming. The display is bright and usable outdoors even in harsh sunlight. It’s a vivid and sharp display and I preferred to use it in the natural display mode that seemed a little more colour accurate and suitable for watching movies or TV shows. Output for watching HDR10+ content on it is also not bad at all, retaining details and not sacrificing on shadows and motion when playing something with fast moving characters.

Moving to the cameras, Edge 50 Ultra sports three cameras on the back – 50MP (f/1.6) main camera (with OIS), a 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide, and a 64MP (f/2.4) telephoto camera (with OIS) as well. The phone’s camera performance seems to be quite strong, given the hardware packed in. It gave clear and well-stitched shots in daylight for the subject. Plus, the camera app is quick to switch between different modes. I liked the Action mode for capturing moving subjects, including children and pets, though with AI turned off for slightly better details in low-light shots. The front-facing 50MP (f/1.9) with autofocus handles most situations well enough to take good selfies, including portraits in day to evening kind of light shots. The front camera can also shoot 4K videos but only at 30FPS (and not 60FPS).

Under the hood, the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset (up to 3Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 735 GPU and x70 5G modem) along with 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 internal storage. The phone runs on Android 14 with Moto’s Hello UX with the May security patch installed. The overall look and feel of the software is quite close to stock Android but with added features and some tweaks. The usual things like press the power button twice to open the camera or swipe the phone in chop-like gesture to open flashlight.

There’s no always on display but there is double tap to lock the screen. There are a lot of theming options, including the lockscreen, fonts and icons. The phone’s performance is really smooth and well optimised to handle animations and switching between apps. It played a heavy game like Wuthering Waves at 60FPS consistently. Having said that, Moto promises only three years of OS updates and four years of security patches, which isn’t at par with many others promising 5 or some even 7 years of updates. Plus, a better quipped chipset such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 isn’t too far in reach considering the competition, but then it all comes down to what are your priorities.

The phone is powered by a 4,500mAh battery unit, which lasted me a little under a day most of the times. Using the bundled 125watts TurboPower charger, you can charge the device in an hour. The charger can also be used to charge other USB-C devices such as a laptop via power delivery due to its better compatibility (not proprietary tech) compared to the likes of OnePlus and Realme.

The loudspeakers on the phone are quite loud and have decent depth to watch your videos and play games indoors around not too many people. WiFi and GPS didn’t show any glitches, while 5G network reception during my usage on the move was also quite reliable.

In conclusion, Moto Edge 50 Ultra is a well-made smartphone with a chipset that does most things well but not the most bang for buck in the price segment. The phone does have a capable set of cameras that generally performed well enough while its battery life remained decent at best.

dell-xps-14-9440-premium-design-and-quality-display-for-the-price-tag

Fri Jun 28 15:57:34 IST 2024

Dell’s XPS series has been among the most popular and acclaimed series of laptops in the market for quite a while. The company often chooses this to showcase their new features and capabilities for the consumer. The new XPS 14 (9440) comes with a newly designed function keyboard and touchpad along with some under-the-hood changes with a price tag of Rs 2,44,490. Let’s try and check what this Dell XPS really brings to the table:

The new XPS 14 isn’t the most ultraportable and slim laptop in the market today by any means. Having said that, its CNC-machined aluminium body is well made and has no flex or any weird creaky noises coming from anywhere. The keyboard now has touch key rows above it for the function keys – seen on a previous XPS 13 earlier, but still quite new for the laptop. These function keys seem as bright as the backlit keyboard. The keys on the keyboard are well spaced out and not noisy to type on. But the keys are a little stiff from most other laptops you would have used. It can take a little while before you get used to its feel. The haptic touchpad is another major change – it's now a glass haptic-based touchpad that has a click that feels and sounds a little different than usual, too. There’s also no noticeable crease to mark the four sides of the touchpad.

The 14.5-inch touch-enabled display has narrow bezels with the 1080p webcam hidden quite neatly at the top but has no physical shutter. The hinge looks like a usual affair until you check the back where it leads to continue with the vents underneath the display for air. The laptop can get a bit hot even with not too many heavy tasks going around. The left side houses two USB type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort 2.1 and power delivery. While the right side locates the microSD card slot, another USB type-C port and 3.5mm audio jack, the thermal intake vents are on both sides. There’s no USB type-A port (you get an HDMI and USB type-A to USB type-C converter in the box) or a charging indicator LED in place.

Talking about the 14.5-inch (3200x2000) OLED display, it’s a really sharp and smooth display that is also fairly usable outdoors in daylight. The display also has responsive touch and good viewing angles. It supports higher refresh rates of up to 120Hz variable refresh rates and Dolby Vision, though I couldn’t really try latter on it in some major way.

The laptop is powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H chip, Arc Graphic along with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of PCIe 4 SSD along with NVidia's GEForce RTX 4050 discrete GPU (30 watts). It runs on Windows 11 Home (23H2 version). The laptop can handle Office apps, multiple web browsers, plus, downloading a file in the background with some music in the background without any performance issues. Though it’s not exactly a gaming machine per se, you can expect to play games like Cyberpunk 2077 at high settings, at around 75FPS, and Civilization VI at high settings at about 90FPS, which is not bad at all. This can go further in terms of frames per second if you choose a different DLL upscaler from NVidia.

The XPS 14 sports quad speakers (8 watts) and these are really punchy and loud for your multimedia playback, giving a good experience for watching or playing something indoors. Powered by a 69.5Whr battery unit, the laptop lasted me about 8.5 hours or so give and take, and reliable for a full day of work with brightness set at about 40 per cent most of the time. It can be charged using the bundled 100watt USB type-C charger in about 90 minutes, which is not too long for a laptop.

All in all, the XPS 14 (9440) comes across as a premium offering from Dell that has a unique design, great display and good battery life. At the same time, its keyboard and especially trackpad might not be everybody’s cup of tea, and for that, you might first check it on your own before going ahead for your work (and some play) laptop.

govo-gosurround-975-review-goes-well-with-your-tv-good-audio-performance-for-the-price

Mon Jun 24 17:42:33 IST 2024

Soundbar for TVs has become quite a competitive market in recent years. It’s not that easy to be a distinct player especially in the budget segment. GOVO recently launched its Dolby Atmos-powered GoSurround 975 soundbar at Rs 12,999 to be your multimedia companion at home. I have been using it for a few weeks, and here’s how the experience has been:

The GoSurround 975 has a 2.1.2 audio system with a 6.5-inch sub-woofer included. The soundbar has two 2.25-inch upward firing speakers and as many 2.95-inch downward speakers. The soundbar has a matte finish to it and seems to have a decent plastic build for the price tag with no obvious loose ends or bends to report. The back of the soundbar houses all the ports – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, optical input, subwoofer input and power.

The remote control is smaller than a TV (similar in size to Chromecast with Google TV) and doesn’t feel premium in any way. Having said that, it does its job. The front has LED display to show you the current input source or to indicate power status (Red or White lights). You also have some rubberised control buttons on the right side of the soundbar to change input source, adjust volume and switch power on or off.

Connectivity-wise, the soundbar supports HDMI ARC, Bluetooth 5.3, as well as wired – both optical and 3.5 aux. Total output comes out to be around 400watts for the speaker system. You get a 3.5mm aux cable in the box, too.

When it comes to audio quality, the GoSurround 975 didn’t disappoint when used over HDMI connected to a smart TV for watching movies, TV shows or live sports. The soundbar is big on bass and delivers enough on the minds to high mids for handling your movies. You can choose between three audio modes – Movies, News and Music. These are loud and can be used to fill a 15x15 room without much sacrifice on the output quality for your music needs. Bass can be a little too much for music playback and there you can adjust from settings using the remote control.

The GoSurround 975 delivered clear dialogues and background noises in TV shows, which is something a lot of budget soundbars tend to struggle with. When it comes to handling Dolby Atmos, I found the soundbar to be just decent at best, which is pretty much expected at the price range. It can give a virtual Atmos effect if your source has Dolby Atmos to fill in your room (not a large hall) for movies, but don’t expect the experience to be anywhere like a high-end setup when it comes to Dolby Atmos.

If you’re looking to upgrade your sound setup at home to go with your TV around 12k, the GOVO GoSurround 975 is a worthy option. It’s high on connectivity options, sounds bassy and loud and delivers clear dialogues that your TV might not always do.

sennheiser-momentum-true-wireless-4-review-clean-and-balanced-sound

Thu Jun 20 13:34:49 IST 2024

Sennheiser’s Momentum series is quite popular in the wireless earbuds audio market, whether for headphones or earbuds.

The company recently launched its Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds that is priced at Rs. 18,990, making it a premium pair.

Do these have enough to justify the price tag? Let’s test and find.

The Momentum True Wireless earbuds 4 come in a very familiar carrying case with a grey fabric over it that feels nice to hold. The case has the Sennheiser branding on the op and USB type C port next to a small LED on the front.

The buds are IP54 water and dust-resistant and come with not only extra pair or eartips of different sizes (which is standard) but also some silicone rounded stability fins for a better fit. The earbuds are still squarish in shape with the Sennheiser branding at the middle next to the mics.

The inside part carries LED lights and pogo pins for charging inside the case.

The pair has decent heft to them but still do not feel too heavy or bulky. It comes in Black Copper, White Silver and Black Graphite (the one I used) colour options.

The pair supports Bluetooth 5.4 along with multi-device pairing (two devices at a time). It carries SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX Adaptive as well as LC3 audio codecs.

When it comes to the audio quality, this Sennheiser pair doesn’t feel any letdown and gives a warm output for most genres tried. With its ample treble output, the bass and mid-lows don’t suffer, giving a balanced audio quality in rock and sub-genres in the default settings.

Plus, vocals from the Momentum True Wireless Earbuds 4 is clean and clear, which is especially the case while playing Bollywood tracks. The pair rarely missed a beat or background note when playing something using the default EQ settings, though you might want to fiddle around with different presets as per your preference.

Regarding active noise cancellation, these buds do a decent job of cancelling out external noise while not sacrificing your music playback quality, too.

I wouldn’t say they are better than the Sony WF-1000XM5 when it comes to ANC, but these are still quite capable on their own and can be considered for their noise cancellation capabilities.

I preferred to listen to music on these with noise cancellation and transparency switched off though transparency also works well if you are in such an environment to keep a check on what’s going around you constantly.

You can switch between these with tapping the left bud or and the right bud for pause or changing tracks. The Sennheiser Smart Control app can also be used for changing settings and select EQ presets.

The buds lasted about 7.5 hours on a single charge with ANC turned off and about two hours less with ANC switched on and add to those three times of charge from the case (75mAh battery) itself.

You can charge the case with wireless induction charging as it is Qi 2 compatible, of course charge it using a USB type C cable. All in all, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 comes out performing well on most counts. They have an overall balanced output giving satisfying bass and treble. They also have good (though not the best in the segment) active noise cancellation) to go with battery life that’s going get you through most of your days.

oppo-f27-pro-plus-5g-good-display-and-sleek-design

Tue Jun 18 14:02:02 IST 2024

Oppo has recently launched its new F series smartphone – F27 Pro+, which is priced at Rs 27,999 for the base model. Let’s try and see if it delivers enough for the price tag. The F27 Pro+ features a vegan leather back with siloxane coating to go with it with the circular dual camera setup. The phone’s quite slim at just under 8 mm in thickness and weighing under 180 grams.

The phone’s 6.7-inch display has Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on top, while the phone is IP69 water, dust and high temperature resistant with SGS rating for higher strength and hardware toughness. I dropped the phone accidentally twice and didn’t see any scratches on scuffs on the display or at the back.

Sporting a full HD+ (2412 x 1080) OLED display with support for up to 120 Hz refresh rates, this is perhaps the best part about the device. It’s bright and sharp and does a good job of handling high resolution videos and images. No HDR support here, though, but it’s otherwise a really nice display that’s sufficiently bright for outdoor usage.

Under the hood, the device is equipped with MediaTek’s 7050 chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa core processor, Mali G68 MC4 GPU) along with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS3.1 internal storage (also comes in 256GB option). It runs on ColorOS 14 based on Android 14 with the May security patch installed.

The phone handles day to day task without much trouble – switching between apps and watching high resolution videos. There were some ghost touches and weird taps typing that’s mainly due to the curve. There are a lot of pre-installed apps on the phone and you can uninstall most of them and also need to spend a bit to disable things like Glance Screen if you don’t want these. Oppo has added AI Eraser tool for photos and it works quite well provided your photo is clear enough in the first place.

For gaming, this isn’t a very capable chipset considering the price tag – heavy games like Genshin Impact and CoD Mobile can’t be played smoothly anywhere close to their highest settings while games such as Monument Valley run fine without any glitches to report.

Coming to the camera performance, the rear houses a dual camera setup – a 64MP (f/1.7) main camera and a 2MP (f/2.4) portrait camera. The phone can take strictly decent shots in daylight when your subject is still and you aren’t moving either. It tends to take over-sharpened shots a lot of times and the pro mode comes in handy to adjust some settings every now and then. The front-facing 8MP (f/2.0) takes much better portrait shots than the rear camera in terms of details, edges as well as colour gradation. Overall, the camera performance does leave a little on the table especially considering it’s often one of Oppo’s strengths.

The phone is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery unit and lasted ma day quite frequently even on mid to heavy usage. It can be charged from 1 per cent to full using the bundled 67 watts SuperVooc charger in about and hour or so without any major heating issues.

5G network reception on the device is quite good and reliable for using it on the go. WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS didn’t show any glitches throughout my usage. Loudspeaker on the device is okay at best, not able to cover for the missing dual stereo speaker setup that has become pretty common at this price range.

In a nutshell, the Oppo F27 Pro+ comes across as a sturdy and well made device that leaves underwhelming impressions otherwise, including the camera performance and chipset capabilities at its price point.

lenovo-legion-7-pro-a-very-expensive-gaming-machine-with-a-great-display-and-keyboard

Sat Jun 15 14:13:59 IST 2024

Lenovo’s Legion brand of gaming laptops has gradually earned a decent name in the gaming market despite its niche target. The Legion 7 Pro (16IRX9H), a premium gaming laptop priced at Rs 3,55,179, aims to fulfil pretty much all your gaming needs with a slight bit of mobility with it.

Let’s try and see if it’s really worth that price tag: First things first, this laptop clearly prioritises performance over portability. It weighs a little over 2.6 kg while measuring an inch in thickness. Both the top and bottom casing is done out anodised aluminium and the laptop does feel really well-built with no obvious build quality issues.

The keyboard casing area is all plastic but it doesn’t feel cheap at all. The front side that’s parallel to the user has an LED strip that’s quite bright, adding a bit of a gaming character to go with that RGB backlit keyboard. The keyboard has a full number keys partition on the right and the keys here are some of the most comfortable I have seen on a laptop in a while. Even though it might not be this gaming laptop’s biggest USP, the Legion team has really made a quality keyboard with no flex issues that I could notice. The mouse trackpad is standard for a Lenovo laptop and does a fine job of tracking taps reliably and for basic Windows gestures.

On the left side, you have large vents, USB A 2.1 Gen 1 port and a USB C 3.2 Gen 2 with Thunderbolt 4; while the right side has more vents, another USB A 3.2 Gen 1 port along with the privacy shutter button for the webcam and 3.5mm audio jack. The back has some more vents most of the ports – LAN port, power connector, HDMI 2.1, another USB type C port but with fast charging at 140watts and DisplayPort 1.4. The I/O options are quite a lot and should be sufficient for pretty much all kinds of users. At the bottom, you have long rubberised short height stands and some more vents.

The laptop has a 16-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) IPS display with an aspect ratio of 16:10. This is a really nice and sufficiently bright display with support for higher refresh rates of up 240Hz. This is how you know it’s a high-end gaming machine. The display is sharp with good viewing angles and doesn’t have any retention issues when playing something fast moving, be it games or videos.

The Legion 7 Pro runs on Windows 11 Home (version 23H2) and is equipped with Intel’s 14th gen i9 chip (i9-14900HX up to 2.2Ghz and 5.8Ghz boost) plus Intel UHD graphics, along with 32GB DDR6 RAM, 1 TB of m.2 SSD, and nVidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Again, these tell you how high-end a machine this is. Some might even say that 4090 for a gaming machine like this a little bit of an overkill. You can expect to play games like Horizon Dawn Zero at above around 100FPS and above 130FPS if nVidia’s DLSS has been enabled for giving frame rates a boost. If you’ve plugged in power, then that GPU and highest resolution isn’t going to be a problem, but if it’s on battery, might want to tone down settings inside the game you’re playing, which is pretty much a norm for a gaming laptop.

Another thing is, you have to keep a watch on the laptop’s temperature when playing these games for longer hours, given temperatures these days. You should be using it with sufficient cooling space around. This is also a good laptop if you need to do video editing and some graphic designing work given its display as well as GPU power available underneath.

Battery life on the laptop is quite average, lasting about 4.5 hours with an hour of Dirt Rider while doing other tasks things such as watching YouTube videos, writing Word documents and downloading a large file in the background. This is with the display brightness at 50 per cent at most times and keyboard lighting switched on.

All in all, the Legion 7 Pro is a tank of a laptop that’s meant to give you plenty of gaming power when plugged in to a power source. It can handle some of the most graphic-intensive games at their highest settings smoothly and doesn’t let you down with its keyboard and display quality either. It might be advisable that you get a decent 4k display powered by the laptop to really use that GPU underneath to even a higher potential for your gaming requirements.

sony-ult-wear--unleash-the-power-of-deep-bass

Wed Jun 12 11:47:41 IST 2024

Sony’s flagship series of wireless headphones – WH1000XM – are touted to be amongst the best when it comes to audio performance done wirelessly on the go. But these are premium and often more than what you might be looking for. Sony has recently launched its ULT series of audio products, among which is the ULT Wear. A pair of wireless over-the-ear headphones that’s priced at Rs. 16,990 currently and aim to offer a lot of those goodies. Let’s find out how they really perform: The ULT Wear have the familiar Sony cup design but these do fold to fit in the neat cloth case that you get when you purchase it. The cups have enough 40mm earpads cushioning and the middle rod also carries decent amount of cushion. The cups are all plastic with somewhat tacky looking buttons, though. There’s nothing premium or attractive about it, I would have expected the buttons and whole matte-finish casing to be a little more premium in looks and feel. The left earcup carries these buttons – power/pairing key, Noise Cancellation/Ambient Sound key, USB type C port for charging only and 3.5mm audio jack along with the ULT button. On the right earcup, you can gesture up or down with your finger to adjust the volume, scroll forward or backward to change tracks, cup the whole area with your palm to change noise cancellation mode, and of course double tap it to pause or resume play. These gestures are responsive work reliably to not take out your phone every single time. There’s also noise-cancellation mics at the top of the cups that you can see if you tilt them a little.

I found the headphones quite comfortable to wear with good cushioning and fit for using them on the go. But the downside of that cushioning is that, given peak summers, you will get sweat on them if you’ve them on in a warm place and even for 10-15 minutes.

Coming to the audio quality, the ULT Wear supports Bluetooth 5.3 and SBC, AAC plus LDAC audio codecs. As emphasized by Sony itself, the headphones are big on the bass. Perhaps a little too much you might feel that it can take some toll on the other aspects of your music. Changing EQ in the Headphones Connect App does help, making the sound brighter using the Brights EQ preset. Pressing the ULT button on the left earcup switches between ULT1 and ULT2 EQ presets. The headphones are loud and have punchy tones as long as you’ve done your hit and trial for sound instead of the default out-of-the-box settings. It also helps in making the bass clearer without sacrificing on the vocals and instruments in the background. Noise cancellation on these headphones is pretty decent, cancelling out on low-pitched noises outside and indoors consistently and keeping the audio in check that a lot of headphones at this price point and under can struggle with.

Mic quality on these headphones is decent at best, more suited for indoor usage as it doesn’t cut out on noise with windy outdoor conditions when used for calls. Initial pairing is quite straight-forward and using multi-connect, you can use it with two different Bluetooth source devices.

Talking about its battery life, it lasted me about 30-32 hours in total with ANC switched on for about half of that, so it would last more with ANC switched off at all times, so battery life’s definitely a strength of this Sony pair. And of course you can also use these with the bundled 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio 1.2 meters cable if it suits your audio source.

Concluding this review, the new Sony ULT Wear, other than having much simpler naming scheme than the flagship WH1000XM series, does offer some bits at a much lower price. It has good ANC performance for outdoor and indoor use while giving solid battery life, too. It has overemphasized bass and requires you to tweak EQ settings a bit just to see where your preference lies to get cleaner vocals as well as treble along with that bass. So, if this does match your taste, then you can consider this new Sony pair, but if not, there’s a lot of other pairs to choose from in the wireless space these days

poco-f6--solid-performance-for-the-price-tag-with-reliable-batte

Wed Jun 12 15:53:21 IST 2024

Poco’s flagship F series has seen its ups and downs since the first launch of the F1. The F5 brought back some of its glory, being one of the best performers in its price range earlier this year. Now, the F6 is starts at a price of Rs. 29,999, trying to compete in a pretty competitive segment. Let’s try and see what all it can do well:

The Poco F6 features a 6.67-inch display (20:9 aspect ratio) with a glass panel back and rounded corners. It has thin bezels with the bottom bar slightly thicker than the other ones around the display. The phone’s right side carries the volume buttons and Power/lock key in the middle; while the left side if left all plain. The top side houses one outlet for stereo speakers, infrared port and the secondary mic; and at the bottom you have the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB type C port and the other outlet for loudspeakers. The phone feels decent but nothing great to call it premium to go with the price tag. It doesn’t catch smudges very quickly but requires a quick wipe once in a while.

Sporting a 6.67-inch full HD+ (1220x2712) AMOLED display supporting up to 120Hz refresh rates as well as HDR and Dolby Vision playback. It’s a brighter display than the one on the F5 and usable under direct sunlight. The display has good colour contrast and viewing angles to go with it. HDR is handled better than the predecessor, too, in terms of details and shadow scenes when watching a TV series in HDR.

The device sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen chipset (up to 3Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 735 GPU and x70 5G modem) along with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS4.0 internal storage (also comes in 8GB plus 256GB options). It runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS 1.0.2 OS based on Android 14 with the march security patch in place. Performance is clearly one of the better parts about the F6. There’s no issue to report for playing YouTube videos at the highest supported resolution, scrolling inside WhatsApp, Instagram or viewing images in the Gallery app. You can expect to play graphicintensive games like Genshin Impact and CoD: Mobile smoothly without any frequent frame drops.

Having said that, the device does get quite a bit hot when playing such games for over half an hour. On the other hand, there are a lot of pre-installed apps on the phone out of the box, which is

expected from a Poco smartphone. You can uninstall most of these and also disable things like Glance for Mi, but you get notified about enabling them more than initially. It’s a feature-rich OS with some added AI bits now such as AI editor for editing photos, which does work well for things like detecting and copying text from photos or removing objects from your photos if the shot is clear enough.

Coming to the camera performance, the F6 sports a dual camera system on the back – a 50MP (f/1.59) main camera and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera – this isn’t the phone’s strength by any means. It can take some sharp shots in good lighting condition and OIS can help a bit on low-light shots, but don’t expect to get well stitched photos with colour accuracy. Image processing seems to be one thing Poco can focus a little more on to ger their camera. The front-facing 20MP (f/2.2) camera can take some nice shots with good focus and isn’t bad among other phones at this price range when it comes to low-light shots, including for video calls.

Powered by a 5,000mAh battery unit, the phone ships with a 120 watts fast charger in the box. I found the phone to last me a day quite frequently even with some heavy usage on the go at times. There weren’t any battery drainage issues during my usage. The phone charges from 1% to full in a little over an hour but it get a bit warm almost every single time I charged it. Also, it can charge at slower speeds if you’re gaming alongside.

Dual speakers on the phone are really loud and clear and definitely usable for your video playback and gaming needs. 5G reception on the phone was reliable but not as good as the Realme GT 6T and OnePlus 12R when using it as a WiFi hotspot on the go. Call quality and WiFi reception of the phone were glitch–free.

All in all, the Poco F6 is a good performer if you want a smooth Android performer under Rs. 30,000 but at the same time, don’t particularly value rear camera performance as much. On top of that, there’s also a quality display and reliable battery life to make it a considerable option around Rs. 30,000.

google-pixel-8a-review-packs-in-a-lot-of-things-pixel-8-offers-at-a-much-higher-price

Sat Jun 01 11:00:50 IST 2024

The Google Pixel A series of smartphones started as more of a more budget-friendly offering compared to their higher-end brothers, but gradually this price point has been increasing and getting closer to the higher-end offering itself.

The new Pixel 8A starts at Rs. 52,999 for the base model. Is this price tag justified? Let us try and find out:

The Pixel 8A looks and feels a lot like the Pixel 8 in the hand with less protruding camera visor on the back and a polycarbonate back with matte finish that doesn’t catch on to smudges and fingerprints quickly. The 6.1-inch display (20:9 aspect ratio) has the dated Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top. The device’s right side has the Power/lock key and the volume buttons at the middle part; while the left side has only the SIM card tray in the lower half.

The top locates the secondary mic; and the bottom has one outlet for loudspeakers, USB type C and primary mic. The ear-speaker grille is neatly tucked in along with the front-facing camera in the top-middle part.

The phone isn’t very slim and is a little heavier than what you might expect it to be before picking it up for the first time. It has rounded corners and doesn’t feel slippery at all with no visible issues when it comes to the build quality. I tried and liked its Porcelain colour, while the phone also comes in Aloe, Bay and Obsidian colour options.

The 6.1-inch full HD+ (1980x2400) OLED display supports up to 120Hz refresh rates, and it is honestly the biggest upgrade over the Pixel 7A and that’s not just for the higher refresh rates but also better colour reproduction. It has good viewing angles and has what it takes
to handle higher refresh content. Its HDR output is pretty much on par with the Pixel 8’s, which isn’t too bad. The display is bright enough and usable under direct sunlight, too.

The device sports a very similar dual camera setup – a 64MP (f/1.89) main camera, a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera with added ultra HDR support. The phone can handle daylight and to some extent low light shots arguably better than any smartphone around 50k today.

It gives crips shows for still subjects and features like top shots can help in a moving situation at times.

One thing I noticed is its slight shutter lag when taking shots in low light,
which is what’s otherwise a reliable camera performer. The cameras have not been upgraded on the hardware front, though. The front-facing 13MP (f/2.2) camera takes generally well-calibrated shots with not too much skin sharpening and overexposure.

Powered by Google’s Tensor G3 chipset (up to 2.9GHz octa core processor, Mali-G715 GPU and Titan M2 security coprocessor) it comes with 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage (also comes in 256GB UFS 3.1 for the higher variant). The phone does your day-to-day tasks without any stuttering or lags.

It can handle your video calls, YouTube videos, multiple Chrome tabs and music playing in the background just fine. Regarding gaming, it handles CoD: Mobile smoothly and Genshin Impact quite well too. The only place where I saw some frame drops was when switching to a 2160p HDR video in the YouTube and you initially see a bit of a hiccup but a second later it’s all fine.

It is Google’s own take on Android and it is smooth, responsive and without any third-party apps that you would have to uninstall out of the box. At the same time, it is not quite most feature-rich Android flavour out of the box – things like double tap to lock and wake the phone, quickly checking devices connected to your WiFi hotspot and data connection speeds on the status bar are missing. But what you do get is AI features such as Circle to Search and Best take for the camera. Oh, and 7 years of software updates, which is pretty nice to see.

The phone is equipped with a 4,492mAh battery unit and comes with a USB type C to C cable in the box along with a USB type A to C converter in the box (no charger). It generalled me a little under a day on heavy use and a day on moderate use. One thing, as seen on previous Pixel devices, is it charges rather slowly compared to many smartphones in this price range. Supporting up to 18watts, the phone charges from 1 per cent to full in over 1.5 hours using a compatible power delivery charger.

The dual speakers on the phone have good depth and are loud for your gaming and video playback needs indoors. It sounds quite crisp and the only thing it sometimes struggles with it quick are dialogues in a video.

When it comes to 5G, the Pixel 8a has been a better performer than how the Pixel 8 was at its launch, which is due to the updates Google has released to improve the 5G performance on both devices. Though it is still not quite as good as many other 5G devices even at lower prices, (including the OnePlus 12R), it’s not much more usable for your data needs on the go.

Concluding this review, the Pixel a series of smartphones isn’t quite as a budget option as it used to be. It’s now much closer to the elder brother in terms of pricing and performance. So, if you were looking for a Pixel device, the Pixel 8A might make more sense compared to the Pixel 8 given their Indian pricing.

asus-vivobook-s-14-oled-2024-a-good-work-laptop-with-decent-battery

Sat Jun 01 11:05:46 IST 2024

ASUS has been among the most popular brands in the PC space, especially the laptop side, when it comes to the Indian market for a while now. The Zenbook has been doing fine in the higher end segment, and the Vivobook has come a long way in terms of hardware improvements and tweaks since it first launched years back. Now, there’s the new Vivobook S 14 OLED (M5406) launched at a base price of Rs 89,999.

The laptop is made of aluminium alloy with the hinge going back as much as 180 degrees. The hinge, though, is quite small and not very noticeable, giving it a bit of neat look, one can say. The 16:10 14-inch display has narrow bezels around it and sports a webcam with physical shutter on it. The left side features HDMI 2.1, two thunderbolt USB 3.2 type C ports, microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack; while the right side carries two USB 3.2 type A ports along with two little LEDs for charging and processing status. The vents sit at the back and plus at the bottom along with the Harman-Kardon speakers.

The trackpad has now been increased in length and breadth, making it one of the bigger ones on a consumer laptop now. It has a metallic plate and feels nice and premium to use. During my usage, I found it to be tracking gestures for Windows and taps for clicks reliably for day-to-day use. The keys on the keyboard are single-source LED backlit and have decent travel to them. These keys produce lower click-ity sound volume than what usually laptops have at this price range, which a lot of people who work in quiet environments might like. Oh, and the keyboard has a Copilot key (in place of the right Control key) to bring up Copilot whenever and wherever you want to (no additional subscription provided). I am not exactly a fan of having it but then I didn’t really need to use Copilot frequently, either, yet. The keyboard’s RGB lighting can be customized via Windows’ Dynamic Ligthing settings in place, and it works nicely.

The 14-inch WUXGA (1,920x1,220) Lumina OLED display is a quality panel used by ASUS here. It’s bright, has good viewing angles at most angles, is a bit glossy, and produces sharp output for high resolution images and videos, too. Though it’s usable when outdoors during day, it’s not the best performer in these conditions for working. HDR output is also pretty good in terms of details and handling low-light scenes without sacrificing on colours and contrast with it.

The laptop packs in Ryzen’s 5 series chip (6-core 7535HS clocked at up to with turbo boost at up to 4.8GHz) and AMD Radeon graphics, along with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe m.2 SSD. It runs on Windows 11 Home OS (23H2 version). You can also get it in 8GB + 512GB configuration. The machine is capable of handling tasks such as running Office apps, multiple Edge and Firefox tabs, music playing in the background plus a file downloading in the background – I didn’t really see any major issues here. ASUS also seems to have made the sleep to wake up time a little less, or should I say not buggy, which we had seen several previous models, including Vivobook models. For gaming, though, there’s clearly a ceiling, as you can play a game like Fortnite and low to medium settings at under 60FPS and don’t expect get any further performance enhancements with other graphic-intensive games. Having said that, this isn’t meant to be your gaming centre, so it’s expected. The one weird thing I noticed, not sure if it’s intentional, is that the processing status LED stayed on instead of blinking or going off when the laptop was in sleep mode.

The built-in Harman-Kardon speakers are quite loud and clear sounding for a laptop and can be used for watching videos or event movies or series when you’re indoors with not a lot of chatter around. The Vivobook S 14 OLED sports a 75watt hour battery unit and can be charged from 1 per cent to full using the bundled 65 watts fast charger in about 2.5 hours or so. The laptop lasted me 7.5-8 hours on the go, which is acceptable and nothing outstanding for a work machine.

All in all, the Vivobook S 14 OLED is a well-built Windows 11 machine that can handle pretty much all your day-to-day tasks without any major barriers and that display and keyboard in place only make the experience better. It has decent battery life with little to medium gaming capabilities, which is what’s otherwise a good work laptop.

realme-gt-6t-great-battery-life-and-a-quality-display

Sat Jun 01 11:08:41 IST 2024

Though Realme has launched a lot of phones past year or so, its GT series hasn’t seen any new modes for the Indian market for two years or so now. The series is more known for its performance than anything else, and now the company has come with the new GT 6T, priced at Rs 30,999 for the base variant. Let’s try and see if this new offering is worth your consideration.

The Realme GT 6T comes with a 6.78-inch curved display with an entire plastic back and frame to go with it. The front has narrow bezels, and though all are not symmetric, the chin is also not very broad. The polycarbonate back sports the dual camera plus dual LED flash setup on a glossy rectangle near the top, while the realme branding is near the bottom. The right side features the volume buttons and Power/lock key near the middle – both are quite narrow but still comfortable enough to press; the left side is all plain. The bottom locates the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB type C port and one outlet for loudspeaker; while the top carries the other outlet with ear-speaker, infrared port and secondary mic. The display houses the centrally placed punch-hole front camera at the top and optical fingerprint scanner at the bottom. The phone weighs about 192grams and is slightly slippery but not too much. It does attract a lot of dust quickly, including on the lenses at the back and frames all around sides.

The 6.78-inch full HD+ (2780x1264) OLED LTPO display with support for variable refresh rates of up to 120Hz. This is a bright and clear display, perhaps the brightest in this price range and is readable under direct sunlight. The colour reproduction is also pretty good for watching high resolution videos and viewing images. There’s better HDR output than before in terms of handling sheer brightness and dark scenes to some extent as compared to previous models.

Coming to the camera performance, the phone sports dual camera setup on the back – a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera (with OIS) and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The camera performance seems to have better picture tweaking than before, but colour reproduction could have been a little better in low light shots. The phone can take detailed and vivid shots in good lighting with night mode giving slightly less grainy shots as compared to the realme’s 12 series. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.4) camera is pretty quick to use and takes well lit shots in decent lighting conditions, its dynamic range could have been a little better but it’s more than good enough for video calling, too.

Running on realme 5.0 UI based on Android 14 with the April security patch in place, the phone is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.8GHz octa core processor, Adreno 732 GPU and X63 5G modem) along with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage (also comes in 8GB + 128GB UFS 3.1, 12GB + 128GB UFS 3.1, 12GB + 256GB UFS 4.0). The phone is generally a smooth operator with no visible lags while watching YouTube videos, scrolling within messaging and social media apps or having Google Maps navigation working with music playing side by side. A lot of the third party apps run on 120FPS without any consistent drops in frames while scrolling. For gaming, you can expect to play a game like BGMI at a little under 60FPS at medium to high (but not highest) settings. There are no major heating issues or stuttering happening while gaming at such settings on the device but don’t expect to play the most graphic#intensive games at their highest settings with absolute smoothness here. There are a few third party apps pre-installed on the device (lower than what it used to be earlier) but these can be uninstalled the usual way.

When it comes to the battery life, the realme GT 6T performs among the best in this price range. Boasting (dual 2,750mAh batteries) 5,500mAh battery, the phone lasted me a day comfortably around 9/10 times despite using it on 5G on the go with WiFi hotspot in use for consecutive 2-3 hours, with brightness at around 35%, and so on. Using the bundled 120watts SuperVooc (and GaN) charger, you can charge the device from 1% to full in about in under an hour, and a little if smart charging has been enabled (it’s switched on by default).

The phone’s dual stereo speakers are quite a bit top-centric taking its toll on the stereo effect when playing music especially at high volumes, though otherwise, it’s quite loud, but nothing special. WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS performance on the device didn’t show any troubles and worked as these should. 5G network reception on it is not bad, too, with the phone latching on to 5G in areas wherever it’s available when outdoors, including on the go.

In a nutshell, the GT 6T is a welcome addition to the GT series, which hadn’t been launched in India for the past two years. It has feature rich software in place, smooth performance, not for most graphic-intensive games, but capable otherwise. To top it, its battery life is among the segment leading with no heating issues.

imoo-z7--the-smartwatch-that-puts-parents--minds-at-ease

Fri May 10 14:36:55 IST 2024

There are plenty of smartwatches available in the Indian market today—some good, some not so great. However, all of these are primarily aimed at adults who already have another smartphone and perhaps more personal gadgets to go about their daily lives. Oppo and Vivo’s sister company, imoo, recently launched its Z7 watch phone that’s made specifically for kids. Priced at Rs. 14,990, let’s see what it offers for kids and if it does so well enough.

The Z7 has a square 1.3-inch display with either Powder Pink and Blue color options. These straps feel premium and are pretty comfortable to wear, even for hours on the go. The watch isn’t too light for a kid, though, but then this isn’t supposed to be a conventional kids' watch, at around 65 grams. The right side of the watch has the power/lock button, while on the top side of the display, you have a front-facing camera. The left side houses the charging port, and on the back, it packs a SIM card slot and some sensors for health measurements. The top side locates a push button, by which the top of the watch comes off its base crown to reveal the rear camera (more on that later)."

The watch is equipped with a 740mAh battery, which comfortably lasts for two days. It takes under two hours to charge the watch from 1% to full.

Powered by a Speadtrum W317 chipset along with 128MB of RAM and 4Gb of internal storage, the Z7 runs on Android OS and comes with a few useful features for parents to keep a little check on their child’s wellbeing. You can install the binding app on your smartphone to make certain adjustments and settings to the watch. For instance, set contacts that the watch can make and receive calls with, check the location continuously, check the kid’s temperature and so on.

When you make a call to the watch, The 5MP rear camera and the 2MP front camera can be used simultaneously to see the background with the rear camera and the kid themselves from the front camera.

Swiping down on the Home screen brings you connectivity options. Swiping left is to go back to the previous menu, while doing so at the home screen takes you to the dialer and messaging. Swiping right takes you to apps (very few of them) and Settings. Apps include stopwatch,. AI scanner to detect items over the Internet, and App Center to install more apps from. There’s WiFi but it only supports 2.4Ghz networks and you can’t add a hidden WiFi SSD either. For calling and messaging, 4G connectivity via a SIM card is present. There's a PPG sensor as well as something mood detector (not exactly sure what it runs). Heart rate monitoring doesn’t seem like the most accurate of them all but it;s just there for the namesake, I guess. There’s temperature monitoring for the parents to keep a check on their kid’s body temperature as and when required. There’s no option for always-on display, though.

With some useful features like these, the Z7 is a pretty interesting watch that might fulfil a kid’s need to have a gadget with them while also giving their parents something extra to keep an eye on their child’s safety and health. I would have liked to see the companion app work a little more smoothly, the watch display to be a little brighter and also the watch offered in more than just two standard colour options considering this is meant to be worn by kids.

lava-prowatch-zn--unveiling-lava-s-first-smartwatch

Wed May 08 16:25:55 IST 2024

Lava recently entered the smartwatch space with the launch of its Prowatch series of smartwatches – Prowatch ZN and VN being the first two. The Prowatch ZN is the higher-end one that’s priced at Rs. 2,599 for the silicon variant and Rs. 2,999 for the metallic strap variant. Does it pack enough to be a contender in this already crowded segment? Let’s try and check:

The first thing you might notice about the Prowatch ZN is that it’s lightweight and the silicon strap is comfortable to wear along. Throughout my usage, I didn’t once feel any discomfort or irritation while having the watch on my wrist. The watch features a 1.43-inch circular display (metal dial) with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 coating on top. The right side has two physical buttons – both of which don’t exactly feel the nicest set of buttons on a smartwatch when you press these but they are responsive and work reliably enough. It’s an IP68 water and dust-resistant smartwatch with corrosive-free warranty of 1 year from the company (for the metallic variant).

The 1.43-inch (466x466) AMOLED display is just about bright enough to be usable under direct sunlight and handles text and UI elements fine. It’s a 60Hz display and is not a very sharp display but it’s good enough for the price tag and to not be a hurdle in your user experience – whether for reading notifictions or quick short replies to text messages. The Prowatch ZN is equipped with Realtek’s RTL8763EWE-VP chipset and 32MB RAM. There’s also 4GB of internal storage. The watch runs on Lava’s own proprietry operating system and requires ProSpot app on your smartphone to setup and sync data and notifications. General performance on this smartwatch is not bad at all – you can change watch faces without any issues, close and open pre-installed apps without any bugs noticeable. Animations are generally smooth but can be drop a few frames once in a while, but it’s not deal breaker. You can choose from 150 watchfaces, some are really suitable and good looking for this watch’s aesthetics with some other useful details also shown. This watch has SpO2, heart rate monitor, sleep monitoring and stress measurement along with the activity tracker. The fitness tracking on this budget smartwatch is actually not that off in terms of accuracy. When checked against a much higher priced Apple Watch Series 7 and Ultrahuman Ring Air, the Prowatch ZN was in the ballpark of 10%-15% quite a few times for steps measuring and Spo2 against an Spo2 sensor. Stress measurement notifications aren;t as prompt, as say, the onePlus Watch 2, but of course that one is priced 10 times this, so it’s not a fair comparison. So, for fitness it;’s basically good enough for step tracking, and maybe odd Spo2 measurement, but don’t rely on it for the latter completely.

The Prowatch ZN also features Bluetooth calling, so you can make and receive calls using the in-built mic and it works decently, howsoever awkward it might look to others around you, if you really want to use it.

Powered by a 350mAh battery unit, the Prowatch lasted 4-5 days on most full charges, and if always-on display for switched on, it lasted a little over 2 days, which is better than what most smartwatches can claim these days. You can charge the Prowatch ZN from 1% to full in a little over an hour without any heating issues to worry about.

All in all, Lava’s first take on a smartwatch does seem quite promising and value for money for this price tag. It doesn’t have the smoothest or most feature rich OS in place, but the Prowatch has a solid battery life, decent build quality, good display and is not bad for step counting either.

is-the-moto-g64-worth-it--exploring-its-features--performance--a

Tue Apr 30 12:05:27 IST 2024

Motorola has been more active in the Indian market over the past year or so when it comes to launching smartphones than it was before. The company has released products in both the budget and mid-range segments, with the new Moto G64 priced at Rs. 14,999 for the base model and Rs. 16,999 for the higher model. Let’s try and see what this Moto device brings to the table:

The Moto G64 features a matte textured finish back that doesn’t catch fingerprints and smudges too quickly. The front has a 6.5-inch 20:9 aspect ratio display with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 on top. The corners are curved, and the sides are made flat. The bezels aren’t too thick, but the bottom one (chin) is significantly thicker than the others on the sides, which doesn’t kind of stand out, sadly. The right side carries the volume buttons and Power/lock key, both of which aren’t exactly the most clicky buttons seen on a budget smartphone. The left side locates the dual SIM card plus microSD card hybrid slot tray near the top. The top only has the secondary mic with the Dolby Atmos branding, while the bottom houses the 3.5mm audio jack, primary mic, USB Type-C port, and one outlet for loudspeakers (the other one being next to the front camera). The phone is IP52 water and dust-repellant and weighs under 195 grams. It isn’t too heavy nor slippery for a phone with a 6,000mAh battery unit. It comes in Ice Lilac, Pearl Blue, and Mint Green (the one I tried) colour options..

The 6.5-inch full HD+ (1080x2400) IPS LCD display is a pretty good display, delivering well-calibrated colors and able to handle high-resolution videos and images without sacrificing quality. It’s a 120Hz higher refresh rate display that’s also bright enough to be usable under direct sunlight outdoors. It doesn’t have the deep, rich black levels of a nice AMOLED display, but it’s still a good LCD panel in itself for the price tag.

The back has the dual camera system on a protruding rectangular cutout – a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS) and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The camera performance has been pretty decent but nothing outstanding, in my experience. The shots are consistent and there’s no oversaturation seen on most occasions on daylight shots. For low-light shots, Night mode does help in retaining details and exposure but you might have to retake your shots to cut down on noise in the photo. The front-facing 16MP (f/2.4) takes about okay shots even in suitable lighting conditions and isn’t something much to write about for your selfie needs.

The phone is the first to be powered by MediaTek’s 7025 chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa-core processor and IMG BXM-8-256 GPU) and also comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB UFS2.2 internal storage (also comes in 8GB + 128GB configurations). The phone’s UI looks quite close to how it’s on the Pixel devices but it’s pretty different in use. Firstly, Moto has added quite a few third-party apps pre-installed out of the box. Most of which can be uninstalled without much fuss. There’s also something called Family Spaces 2.0 where you can share your device’s screen selected content with somebody to get assistance or remotely control another supported device. MotoHub allows you to customize themes, widgets, homescreen, and lock screen from a single place quite conveniently with a lot of options to choose from. The phone handles day-to-day tasks, watching YouTube videos, scrolling inside Instagram, messaging across multiple apps while having some Chrome tabs opened in the background without any major issues albeit a few frame drops here and there. It can handle low-intensive games okay, but games such as BGMI or CoD show a lot of stuttering and is clearly not meant to be played on medium to highest settings on this device. Powered by a 6,000mAh battery unit, the phone ships with a 33-watt Turbo charger and is PD3.0 compatible. The Moto G64 comfortably lasted me a day almost every single time and frequently had a bit of juice left for the next day, too. The bundled charger charges the device from 1% to full in about 90-95 minutes in one go.

The physical fingerprint scanner mounted on the power/lock key is reliable and quick enough to be used daily. The loudspeakers are decently punchy for gaming as well as videos, although they aren’t the loudest in this price range. The 5G reception on the device is really good, providing reliable network reception for usage on the go for your continued work. The call quality, WiFi, and GPS performance of the phone didn’t show any issues throughout my usage.

All in all, the Moto G64 comes across as a reliable device for those who want to have a reliable and stutter-free experience when it comes to calling, messaging, watching videos online, or playing music in the background while surfing the web. This isn’t a gaming-centric device by any means, where other devices such as the realme P1 seemed to perform better. Additionally, with a few pre-installed apps out of the box, the Moto G64 is a pretty good option for your first 5G device under 15k.

realme-p1-great-battery-life-and-refreshing-colour-options

Mon Apr 22 14:30:28 IST 2024

Another month, another new smartphone from the house of Realme but this time it’s a new series they are launching – P series, with the new P1 and P1 Pro. I have been using the P1 for a few days now, and this is how the Rs 14,999 phone performed:

The phone looks and feels in the hand like other recent Realme devices. With rounded corners, rounded watch-like camera setup on back and punch-hole front camera on the display – pretty familiar. But the device has a nice patterned back in Peacock Green (also comes in a Phoenix Red option) that I tried. The right side has the volume buttons and power/lock key but there is nothing on the left side. The top houses the 3.5mm audio jack, one outlet for loudspeakers and secondary mic; and the bottom houses the dual SIM card and microSD hybrid card slot tray, USB Type C and primary mic. The phone measures just under 8 mm in thickness and slightly under 190 gram in weight and is a decently comfortable device to carry around for a 6.67-inch display.

Speaking of that 6.67-inch full HD+ (2400x1080) AMOLED display, it’s a bright enough display that doesn’t struggle to be readable under direct sunlight. The display is fairly sharp and has punchy colours with smooth touch response and no major issues to report. YouTube videos in 1080p don’t lose out on much details though HDR output is strictly average, and text is sharp and readable whether for messages or email.

The phone boasts of a dual camera system on the back – 50MP (f/1.8) main camera, a 2 MP (f/2.4) black and white camera. The phone takes sharp and detailed shots in good lighting conditions with a little over-saturated shots at times. The low-light performance is expectedly not too great, with the photo looking grainy and the subject losing out on details quite frequently. An added mode called Street Mode gives you 27mm and 54mm shots. The front-facing 16MP (f/2.45) camera can take sharp but too smoothened selfie shots, switching filter and beauty mode off does help, but we have seen from better front cameras from Realme than this.

Running on Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 with the March security patch, the phone is equipped with MediaTek 7050 chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa core processor, Mali G68 MC4 GPU) along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage (base model has 128GB). The phone handles day-to-day tasks quite well and doesn’t show any slowdowns with little gaming thrown in. Games like CoD can be played at medium settings but don’t expect more than that. Playing full HD YouTube videos, with multiple Chrome tabs opened in the background and having a few other apps in the recent apps list didn’t trouble the phone’s experience. The software experience out of the box has been tweaked a bit with fewer apps pre-installed, but you be uninstall most of the remaining ones without much fuss. Realme has said two major OS updates and three years of security updates for the device, which isn’t bad compared to most other phones in this price range.

The device is powered by a 5,000mAh battery unit, which lasted me a day regularly, and the phone didn’t show any unusual battery drainage issues. The bundled 45 watt SuperVooc charger charges the device from 1 per cent to full in about 75 minutes. The overall battery experience is surely one of the best parts about using this device.

The dual speakers are loud enough for your gaming and video playback needs. 5G reception on the phone is on par with other devices in the price range with reliable network reception on the move, including for Wi-Fi hotspot. The optical fingerprint scanner is reliable and quick enough for daily use, something a lot of smartphones at this price point can struggle with.

In brief, the new P1 from Realme seems like a good offering for those who want a good design, refreshing colour, reliable day to day performance but aren’t into gaming much. You might have expected a little better camera performance in what’s otherwise a phone with a good battery experience.

the-oneplus-nord-ce4--evaluating-battery-longevity-and-software-

Sat Apr 13 14:36:03 IST 2024

OnePlus’ Nord series of smartphones, though not always super clear in terms of naming scheme, has been the cash cow for the company for the past several quarters. There’s Nord, Nord CE, and also Nord CE Lite, the latest being the Nord CE4, which is priced at Rs. 24,999 for the base model and Rs. 26,999 for the beefier model. Let’s try and see if the device packs enough to be a considerable option in this price segment.

The Nord CE4 comes in Celadon Marble and Dark Chrome colour options, with the former being the one I tried. I liked its slightly refreshed look and feel in the hand. The patterned back features the OnePlus logo in the middle, along with the dual camera and LED (that’s probably disguised as another lens) on an elevated cutout. The back is slightly curved towards the sides, making the device comfortable to handle.

The right side carries the volume buttons and Power/lock key near the middle, while the left side is plain. The top houses the infrared port, an outlet for loudspeakers, and a secondary mic, while the bottom features the dual SIM card plus microSD hybrid card tray slot, USB type C port, and another outlet for loudspeakers. The ear-speaker grille is right next to the front-facing camera, neatly tucked in on the display.

The phone weighs about 186 grams and is IP54 water and dust-resistant.

The 6.7-inch full HD+ (2412x1080) AMOLED display supports 120Hz, providing a bright and vibrant viewing experience with excellent detail for high-resolution videos and images. It handles HDR10 content adequately and meets expectations for handling shadows within its price range.

The phone features a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera with OIS and EIS, as well as an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. During daylight, the camera performs well, capturing sharp, well-focused images with a decent dynamic range and the PRoXDR effect. However, low-light shots tend to be grainy and lack detail in colour reproduction. The night mode does provide some improvement in clarity for subjects. The 16MP (f/2.4) front-facing camera with EIS performs well for taking selfie shots in various lighting conditions and is suitable for video calls.

The device is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 720 GPU and X63 5G modem). It’s running on OxygenOS 14 based on Android 14 with the March security patch installed. There are very few third party apps pre-installed on the device provided you don’t consent to installing additional ones during the initial setup. OnePlus has made a few small changes in design such as a bigger hotspot pop-up when you tap on the badge in the status bar, there are also now more options on long-pressing the app icons. The phone handles daily tasks such as messaging over multiple apps, calling, browsing with multiple Chrome tabs and playing some music in the background without any troubles. You get an 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage (also comes in 128GB for the base model). Though 8GB isn’t less, some people might have expected 12GB, but it doesn’t seem like a bottleneck in day-to day usage, including playing HDR content in OTT apps. But don’t expect to play graphic-intensive games like Genshin Impact at their highest settings with any stutters. The one Bug I saw is the now playing tile continues to show a track playing over Chromecast even after it has been paused and stopped and the playing app has also been removed from recent apps list. Otherwise, it is a reliable and smooth software experience with the company promising two major Android updates and three years of security patches.

The device is powered by a 5,500mAh battery unit and comes with a 100-watt SuperVooc charger in the box. The phone comfortably lasted me a day and then some most of the time. It didn’t struggle to last a full working day with moderate to heavy usage. The bundled charger is able to charge the device from 1% to full in about 35-40 minutes without any overheating issues.

Call quality, WiFi, and GPS all performed as expected on the smartphone without any major glitches. The 5G network reception is also decent, although not quite comparable to OnePlus’ flagship devices, especially in terms of continuous reception on the go. Nevertheless, it is still among the better-performing smartphones for using 5G. The dual stereo speakers are quite loud and punchy, similar to those of the realme 12 Pro+, making them suitable for gaming and video needs.

All in all, the OnePlus Nord CE4 performs as one of the better and smoother devices available around the 25k price point today. It offers a great battery experience, decent but not great camera performance, a good display, a comfortable design, and a more refreshing colour.

vivo-t3-5g--a-budget-contender-with-strong-battery-life-and-disp

Mon Apr 08 17:55:01 IST 2024

Vivo’s new T3 5G handset, priced at Rs. 19,999, is aimed at a highly competitive budget segment, which has seen a lot of new products in the last two to three months. Vivo has been among the top performers in the Indian market for a while now. Let’s try and see if the T3 packs enough to be a considerable option for its price tag or not.

The device features a crystal-patterned back panel with a dual camera plus flicker sensor. It has rounded edges and flat sides, with the right side carrying the volume buttons and Power/Lock key near the middle. The top has the secondary mic, while the bottom houses the dual SIM card and microSD card tray, primary mic, USB type C port, and outlet for loudspeakers. The other outlet for speakers is next to the ear-speaker grille on the display, which is tucked next to the punch-hole front camera. The phone comes in Crystal Flake and Cosmic Blue color options and is IP54-rated for water and dust resistance. Despite its 6.67-inch display with thin but asymmetrical bezels, the phone weighs about 185 grams, making it comfortable to hold and non-slippery to carry around.

The 6.67-inch full HD+ (1080x2400) AMOLED display supports up to 120Hz refresh rates. It is bright enough to be usable under very bright sunlight with the brightness cranked up above 60%. The display has decent viewing angles and punchy colors on the default color mode. However, the professional color mode offers more accurate color reproduction. Users have the option to enable high refresh rates or choose dynamic refresh rates from the display settings. The display does a good job of handling high-resolution videos in terms of details and colours.

The phone features a dual camera system, including: Main Camera: 50MP (f/1.79) and Bokeh Camera: 2MP (f/2.4). The main camera excels in capturing detailed shots in daylight conditions, exhibiting good dynamic range and color reproduction. However, the portrait mode's performance, even in favorable lighting conditions, falls short of expectations for this price range. It's worth noting that the flicker sensor does provide some assistance in mitigating ambient light effects, especially when capturing indoor shots.

The camera app is user-friendly and allows for easy adjustment of settings. The front-facing 16MP (f/2.0) camera effectively handles skin tones, particularly when filters and effects are disabled. This makes it suitable for social media usage and video calls. Overall, while the camera performance is decent, there may be an expectation for enhanced capabilities, especially considering this is a Vivo smartphone.

The Vivo T3 is equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 chipset (up to 2.8GHz octa-core processor, Mali G68 GC4 GPU), along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS2.2 internal storage (also available in 256GB). The phone runs on Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14 with the March security patch installed. The phone’s general day-to-day performance has been satisfactory – it handles switching between apps, scrolling inside social media apps, messaging, and calling without any issues. Its animation could have been a little smoother, given the higher refresh rate display, but it’s not a major concern. One can expect to play a game like BGMI at around 55 to 60FPS without too many frame drops and overheating issues. The OS is quite feature-rich but comes with a lot of pre-installed third-party apps. These can be uninstalled, but doing so would also require disabling some notifications and features like the lockscreen Poster, which is asked to be turned on more than once after being turned off during the device setup. Although Vivo’s own gallery app is stable to use, there’s no option to change the default app for it within the app settings, unlike for other features such as the browser and app launcher.

Boasting a 5,000mAh battery unit, the Vivo T3 lasted me a full day more often than not even at moderate to heavy use. The bundled 44 watt FastCharge charger is able to charge the device from 1% to full in around 75 minutes.

The stereo speakers on the phone are pretty decent, with the audio booster helping a bit for playback. However, they do tend to distort at higher volume levels. Call quality and WiFi reception are top-notch, while 5G network reception is decent enough to be relied upon for data needs on the go.

In conclusion, the Vivo T3 has several things going for it – great battery life, good display, and a decent gaming performance for the price tag. However, the software experience out of the box could have been a bit better. Hopefully, Vivo’s 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security patches policy can help keep the device running smoothly without any major bugs, making it a decent option under 20k (base model) for those valuing battery life and sturdy build quality over other things.

hp-omen-transcend-14--gaming-laptop-that-s-not-short-on-comfort

Thu Apr 04 11:17:23 IST 2024

Gaming laptops are often aimed solely at gaming. Seldom are they also slim and designed so that carrying them along for other activities isn’t a hassle. However, that seems to be the case with HP’s Omen Transcend 14 gaming laptop. Priced at Rs. 1,74,999, this 14-inch laptop isn’t heavy for your backpack. But does it have enough power and features? Let’s try and see.

The Omen Transcend 14 boasts two standout features: its design and display. The laptop measures about 18mm in thickness when closed and weighs approximately 1.64kg, making it one of the more portable laptops with gaming capabilities. It features an aluminum chassis with vents at the back, housing two ports – HDMI 2.1 and USB type C with power delivery and DisplayPort. On the left side, you'll find the 3.5mm audio jack and USB type C with Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort near the middle, while the right side houses two USB type A 3.2 Gen 2 ports in the far corner. The display sports thin bezels, except for a broader and more reflective chin that includes the Omen logo. The laptop's dual hinges are positioned on either side from the middle and are raised across other areas.

The keyboard is of a slightly different build and design compared to usual HP laptops, but it has decent travel and click-ability for its keys. These are four-zone RGB backlit keys (and not per key) with lighting that extends plenty on and around the keys. You can configure RGB using Omen Gaming Hub. The keys are comfortable for gaming or usual typing needs, even for longer periods of use. The trackpad next to it is large enough and performed decently when it came to picking up the usual Windows gestures for scrolling and switching between apps, but its click mechanism could have been a little more refined in terms of responsiveness.

The 14-inch 2.8k (2880 x 1800) OLED display is highlighted for its exceptional brightness and sharpness, making it suitable for various use cases. Additionally, it is noted as an IMAX-certified display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, catering to content creation needs such as video editing while maintaining HDR content quality, particularly for shadowy scenes. The display's 120Hz higher refresh rate is emphasized for vibrant visuals and punchy colours, meeting the requirements for both video and gaming. Furthermore, the display is praised for its good text rendering, viewing angles, and colour depth, contributing to its overall appeal.

The laptop is equipped with Intel’s 16-core Ultra 7 155H that can reach clock speeds of up to 4.8GHz for turbo needs, coupled with Intel Arc Graphics, 24MB L3 cache, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 (65-watt variant) GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB m.2 SSD. When it comes to gaming performance, the Omen 14 handled Returnal at around 70 frames per second when played at 1080p resolution, while Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition ran at around 47FPS, and Elden Ring maintained an almost consistent 60FPS at 1080p. However, for a demanding game like Cyberpunk 2077, it's unlikely to exceed 50FPS at 1080p resolution on this laptop. Despite this, it can still hold its own for the most part with the hardware and slim profile in place. The laptop’s fan can get a bit noisy during gaming, but it isn’t the loudest by any means. For general use, the performance meets the standard. It demonstrated sequential read and write speeds of about 6.9GBPS and 4.3GBPS, respectively, which is satisfactory.

The laptop runs on Windows 11 Home (version 23H2) and handles Office apps, web browsing, and background music playing without issues. However, it did show some performance issues when waking up from sleep, with the OS at times taking 10-15 seconds longer than expected. This occurred multiple times despite rebooting the laptop. Other than that, there aren’t many performance issues. The WiFi performance is top-notch for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. Overall, the laptop's gaming performance may not be the best, but it can handle general use and offers satisfactory hardware and slim design.

The bottom-firing speakers are quite loud and provide decent depth for bass and vocals, but they are not the cleanest or most depthful for your gaming needs.

The laptop is powered by a 71Wh battery and comes with a 140-watt USB Type-C charger, which can charge it in around two hours. The Omen 14 lasted around 4 to 4.5 hours on most workdays, and much less if you play games for longer, which is significantly less than what you would want from a laptop that's expected to handle heavy workloads.

All in all, the Omen Transcend 14 is a well-made 14-inch gaming laptop that looks nice and weighs less for a gaming machine. It offers pretty decent performance when it comes to gaming and boasts a great display. However, its battery life does disappoint compared to other departments. Nevertheless, it still comes across as a good option for those looking for a gaming laptop that isn’t too heavy to be carried and can handle most games at medium to highest settings.

oneplus-watch-2-better-than-original-oneplus-watch-but-still-some-way-to-go

Tue Apr 02 17:31:57 IST 2024

OnePlus has tried its hand at smartwatches a couple of times with its original Watch and Nord Watch, but neither really caught the attention of a lot of consumers. The Watch didn’t have great performance and software experience, while the budget-friendly Nord Watch hasn’t stood out against a number of domestic players. With the OnePlus Watch 2, the company has come out with first WearOS smartwatch. It’s priced at Rs 24,999, and goes straight up against the likes of Samsung as well as Apple. Can it pose a challenge? Let’s try and check.

The Watch 2 is made up of steel and has a round sapphire crystal-protected 1.43-inch watch face, weighing around 80 grams with the fluoro-rubber strap added in (which also has stainless steel buckle). The watch comes in only 47mm case size and 22mm strap size, which seems like a decent size to me, but may not be everybody’s tea of cup. The rubber strap is sturdy enough and smooth to wear and didn’t seem uncomfortable on the wrist at any time.

It’s an IP68-rated water and dust-resistant smartwatch that comes in two colours – Radiant Steel (which I tried) and Black Steel. The brushed and subtle steel gives a pretty look; nothing flashy like some other smartwatches. Plus, you aren’t stuck with the default strap and can get any other standard 22mm for the watch. During my usage, I didn’t notice any scratches or marks on the watch despite a few bumps with various soft and hard objects.

The right side has two buttons – crown and action button, both are multi-function buttons that can be long pressed or double pressed to open Google Assistant, a workout app, or any other installed app. Oddly, the crown button does scroll but doesn’t do anything such as scrolling on a page. The buttons feel nice and tactile with no cheap build and materials to be seen.

The 1.43-inch (466x466 resolution) display is bright enough to be used outdoors and is quite sharp and smooth to handle your notifications, iconography and text without any noticeable sacrifices.

Running on Wear OS 4 + RTOS dual architecture, to connect and sync the Watch 2 to your smartphone, you have to install an app called OHealth – initial setup and connection is straightforward. You can use the app to choose which apps on your phone can show notifications on the watch, choose from different watchfaces, or check your daily fitness metrics (you can do so on the watch itself, too, of course). Notably, if you change connected devices, you would have to reset the watch and restart with the O Health app.

You can also connect a pair of wireless earbuds over Bluetooth directly with the Watch 2 to listen to music.

The Watch 2 has plenty of sensors, including accelerometer, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor, optical pulse oximeter, geomagnetic sensor, light sensor, barometer and PPG. Expectedly, there’s no blood pressure monitoring and ELG here, and it only comes with Bluetooth + WiFi connectivity option and no 4G/LTE.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 chipset along with lower-powered BES 2700 chipset, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, general performance, animations, swiping, opening apps and checking notifications work without any lag and the watch is able to handle widgets quite well.

What doesn’t quite work well seems to be its fitness tracking, when it comes to accuracy. The Watch 2 was able to notify stress detection almost every single time it detected some heart rate variability, but things like sleep tracking and steps count seemed off.

Comparing it with Apple Watch Series 7 and Ultrahuman Ring Air, the steps counting as well as sleep tracking was off for the Watch 2 in the range of overestimating by around 15 per cent to 20 per cent. Though changing its positions did help a bit, it still wasn’t very reliable.

There are dedicated modes for badminton, skiing and tennis.

The OnePlus Watch 2 is equipped with a 500mAh battery unit and is charged with a pug-like accessory with a USB type C port (no permanent cable attached). It charges from 1 per cent to full in around an hour at 7.5watts. The Watch 2 lasted me a 2-3 days on average, with always-on display and animations turned on. This got further extended to 3-4 days with always-on display turned off, so yeah, it would be safe to say it’s among the best performers when it comes to

battery experience on a smartwatch today. That low-powered chip and RTOS to go with Wear OS are really working well for the battery department.

OnePlus’s The Watch 2 is a better watch than its predecessor. It has quality build (albeit only one size available), a nice display and has great battery life, but it doesn’t quite do justice as a fitness and activity tracker.

Having said that, the company says the two years of software updates can improve on some of those missed targets. It might make it a competitor to the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6.

nothing-phone--2a--review--a-unique-blend-of-design-and-customis

Wed Mar 27 17:37:37 IST 2024

Nothing is a relatively new player in the smartphone market, having recently launched its third phone, the Nothing Phone (2a). The company appears to be performing well in the mid-range segment with its unique-looking devices and distinctive names, which set them apart from established brands. Priced at Rs. 23,999 for the base model and Rs. 27,999 for the highest one, the Phone (2a) targets a highly competitive market segment that is currently seeing an influx of 5G devices. Can it be considered a recommendable option? Let's explore further.

The Phone's biggest USP, at first glance, is its transparent back, which houses LEDs. This feature is reminiscent of Nothing's previous two phones, although this time the back is made of plastic and has fewer LEDs, which are only located in the top half. On the back, you can see the screws, coil, a red block, and a few other components. The dual camera setup is positioned near the top and is surrounded by LEDs. The device is available in black and white color options (although there is also a milk color, but it's unclear how it can be obtained). The black variant quickly attracts a lot of smudges and fingerprints, and if this is a concern, it would require frequent cleaning.

Moving to the front, the 6.7-inch display, topped with Corning's Gorilla Glass 5, is surrounded by thin and symmetrical bezels. The front-facing camera is located at the top-middle, underneath which the ear-speaker grille is positioned, appearing as a bit of a blemish at the top. The device weighs 190 grams, has rounded corners, and features matte plastic sides that provide a grippy and comfortable feel, despite not being a compact phone by any means.

The 6.7-inch full HD+ (1084 x 2412) AMOLED display features variable refresh rates ranging from 30 to 120Hz. It is bright and remains usable under direct sunlight, although you may need to increase the brightness if it has not been done already. The display is vibrant, with punchy colors and deep blacks, making it capable of handling high-resolution videos and images effectively. While it can handle HDR content okay-ish in terms of color contrast, don't expect much more.

The phone features a dual camera setup on the back, comprising a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera with OIS and EIS, and a 50MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The camera performs decently for daylight and portrait shots, but it doesn't quite match the best in its segment, such as Realme and Redmi. It can capture detailed shots with still subjects, but in slightly low lighting, it tends to lose out on details and produce rather grainy shots. However, the ultra-wide camera performed slightly better in handling exposure and dynamic range. The camera app is quick and offers numerous options, which are easily accessible. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.2) camera can capture nice selfie shots with good exposure and is more than capable for video calls.

Running on Nothing OS 2.5.2, based on Android 14 with the February security update, the phone comes with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset (up to 2.8Ghz octa-core processor and Mali G68 MC4 GPU) along with 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS2.2 storage (also comes in 8GB + 128GB or 256GB variants). The phone’s Glyph interface, powered by LEDs on the back, adds a somewhat unique flavor to Nothing devices. You can choose to light up the LEDs for notifications, calls, or adjust the pattern for a particular caller or even a notification from an app, which can be useful when the phone is placed screen-down. Nothing OS itself has almost no third-party apps installed out of the box. It follows a dotted UI pattern for icons, UI elements, including widgets and Settings, which looks nice and clean, but of course, that’s subjective. By default, you have the dark mode enabled, which goes well with the overall aesthetics of the OS. Notably, there’s no Gallery app or even a compass app as part of Nothing OS.

The Nothing OS itself has almost no third-party apps installed out of the box. It follows a dotted UI pattern for icons, UI elements, including widgets and Settings, which looks nice and clean, but of course that’s subjective. By default, you have the dark mode enabled, which goes well with the overall aesthetics of the OS. Notably, there’s no Gallery app or even a compass app part of Nothing OS.

The phone's WiFi, Bluetooth, and call quality were all fine, but it did show some odd orientation behavior with its gyroscope, especially when using Google Maps while the phone is sitting idle. The 5G reception was pretty good and in line with competitors in this price segment, which is nice to see that a new entrant in this budget segment is not compromising on it.

The phone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery unit, which typically lasts about 22-24 hours, rarely requiring a charge during heavy use. The phone supports up to 45-watt charging (no charger and case included in the box) using a compatible PD charger, taking 60-65 minutes to charge from 1% to full.

In summary, Nothing’s new Phone (2a) isn’t a complete home run when it comes to performance and the camera, but it also has a lot of things to like about it – the software experience and customizable OS out of the box, good battery life, and a somewhat unique design, though you might only find Glyph still gimmicky. So, for those who value these things more, this is a considerable option around 25k today.

samsung-galaxy-xcover-7-review-its-a-tough-nut

Fri Mar 22 17:35:32 IST 2024

Samsung recently launched their XCover 7 smartphone that’s targeted towards enterprise users who want a smartphone that lets them perform their work tasks without having to worry about the phone’s handling. The XCover 7 is only available from Samsung’s site and for enterprise users at Rs 22,024 with the Samsung Know Suite subscription bundled for an year.

The very first thing you might notice as you unbox the device is its user-replaceable battery unit. Some of you might remember this to be a norm rather than exception in the smartphone space. The device allows you to change the battery while you have put the device on charge and put the new one in place without the device shutting down if you do it within 10 seconds. The back panel can be quickly removed with a slid opening given near the corner. Removing the back panel would also reveal the SIM card slot and microSD card slot. The diagonal patterned hard polycarbonate back and sides are pretty grippy and never felt slippery, having said that the phone weighs 240grams, which isn’t exactly light. It’s an IP68 water and dust-resistant device that is also MIL-STD-810H1 to be usable in tougher weather conditions, including rain and extreme temperatures.

The front features a 6.6-inch (6.4-inch if you exclude rounded corners) (20:9 aspect ratio) display with expectedly thick and unsymmetrical bezels around it. The display also has Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ on top for added protection. The left side has an XCover button that you can be mapped to open any app, but by default it’s set to open flashlight. The right side locates the volume buttons and Power/lock key, which can also be configured to open any installed app when double pressed. The top houses the 3.5mm audio jack and secondary mic ; while at the bottom you have pogo pins, USB type C port, primary mic and loudspeaker.

The 6.6-inch full HD+ (2408x1080) TFT LCD display with support for standard 60Hz refresh rates. This is not a spectacular display by any means. It’s bright and usable under direct sunlight, which would be an essential point considering the whole rugged theme. The display’s touch functionality doesn’t completely go away with some drops of water on it and is also usable while wearing gloves. Other than that, it’s sharp enough and okay for watching videos or viewing images for work but it’s certainly not Samsung’s best display for media consumption at this price point.

The phone sports a 4,050mAh (15watt) battery unit that lasted me nearly a day quite frequently. With WiFi hotspot switched on while using 5G and 4G/LTE depending on coverage on the move, the phone lasted over 20 hours on a full charge. Its 5G network reception is also decent, not quite best in the price segment when it comes to latching to 5G continuously, but still fine to not be a deal breaker. Call quality and GPS, though, performed without any issues with clear voice on both sides and quick location lock-in whenever required.

You get a 50MP (f/1.8) rear camera (with dual flash) that can read multiple barcode and QR codes at once. It produces strictly okay photos and isn’t something for showing off which places you visited or what food you had. But it’s usable for scanning documents, scanning QR codes, basically what its main purposes are. The front-facing 5MP (f/2.0) can fulfil your video calling needs and that’s about it.

The XCover 7 comes equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 6100+ chipset (up to 2.2Ghz octa core processor and Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU) along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB UFS (expandable to 1TB using a microSD card). It runs on One UI 6.0 based on Android 14 with the February security patch installed. The performance is expectedly not the phone’s strength. You can expect to perform messaging, calling, play full HD YouTube videos and scroll one social media app fine, but don’t expect buttery smooth animations and scrolling. The device takes about 2-3 minutes for a restart. The mono loudspeaker is quite loud for gaming and music playback indoors.

Except little quirks, such as you can’t use WiFi and WiFi hotspot at the same time, something you can on a number of smartphones, including from Samsung; it’s a full fledged Samsung device inside where you can customise the how the OS looks as per your preference.

In a nutshell, the XCover 7 is pretty much in line with what’s expected from a mid-range rugged smartphone – it’s physically a tough nut, requires no extra physical care, can take care of your messaging, calling and call recording needs with work related camera tasks, but not much more than that – all with a decent battery life.

unveiling-nothing-s-cmf-brand--are-the-neckband-pro-and-buds-wor

Wed Mar 20 16:38:13 IST 2024

In a short time, Nothing has made a notable presence for itself in the Indian tech space. The Nothing brand launched its sub-brand CMF a year ago, which consists of wearable tech products. While Nothing has recently launched its new phone (2a), we will take a closer look at it in a few days. Under the CMF brand, they unveiled the Buds at Rs. 2,499 and the Neckband Pro at Rs. 1,799. Let’s assess whether these products are worth it in these competitive segments.

The first thing you would notice about these products is their rather different orange color, which not many companies go for, whether in audio products or phones. The Neckband Pro manages to be a little more interesting than the Buds with its circular Smart Dial that doubles up as a button too. You can rotate it either way in order to adjust the volume, or press it, long-press it, or double or even triple press it for different functions such as noise cancellation, going to the next song, or going back to the previous song. The other side of the neckband features a small conventional button called the functional button that’s used to put the band into pairing mode or connect it to the previously connected device by double pressing it. The two earbuds attach to each other magnetically on the back to switch off, and they instantly switch on and then connect to your device when detached. It’s a very useful and reliable feature, especially if you use these for calls regularly. The Buds come in a square box case that doesn’t catch any smudges or fingerprints too quickly. On one corner of the case, you have a grey fidget spinner where you can attach a lanyard. You get two pairs of different-sized tips with the Buds. On the other side, you have the USB type C port alongside the pairing button. The Buds have a stem design and are all made out of plastic with silicone tips. The stems also carry the CMF logo in white. Both of these come in exactly the same color options -- dark grey, light grey, and orange. While the Neckbands Pro weigh about 30 grams, the Buds weigh 53 grams with the case (around 4.6 grams each otherwise).

In the audio department, the Neckband Pro comes with 13.6mm drivers. It supports fast pair for Android as well as Swift Pair for Windows. The pair didn't show any trouble in the initial pairing or at any other time, and they were quick to connect as soon as you detach the buds from themselves. They support Bluetooth 5.3 and allow you to pair and switch between two devices. With a total of 5 mics, I found the call quality of the Neckband Pro to be quite good and reliable. Even when outdoors, the pair didn't struggle to handle noise and provided decent voice clarity on the other side.

In terms of sound, you get a bass-heavy output with okay mids and lows to go along with clear vocals for most genres. For people looking for bass oomph to go with their music, the pair does deliver for the price tag, but it can get a little too heavy for those that prefer a more neutral tone. Regarding active noise cancellation, you can expect to cancel out some chatter and low volume music around you to get your work done, but nothing much else, which seems to fit the bill.

Regarding the Buds, they feature 12.4mm drivers and support the same codecs as the neckbands – AAC and SBC with Bluetooth 5.3. They offer very similar ANC to their neckband for outdoor usage, provided you get a good in-ear fit. I found them comfortable to wear even for a couple of hours and didn’t have to adjust them frequently when commuting. You can expect clear and loud sound from the Buds without sacrificing on mids and lows for rock and metal genres. For Bollywood content, they handle vocals quite well, but handling different instruments can be a bit of a struggle. In terms of call quality, they do a fine job, but the neckbands Pro outperform them outdoors. They have standard gestures to skip forward, answer or hang up calls, pause or play, and switch between noise cancellation. There’s a little bit of lag when used for playing games or for high bitrate 4K videos, and low lag mode is supported only on Nothing phones for now. You can use the Nothing X app for both products to tweak settings as per your preference.

The IP55-rated water and dust-resistant Neckband Pro is powered by a 220mAh battery. The IP54-rated water and dust-resistant Buds have a 45mAh battery for each bud, and the case has a 460mAh battery. The Neckband Pro is really good when it comes to battery life, lasting a week when used for 3-4 hours per day, including calls and music. The LED on one side indicates the charging status, the same as the small LED on the Buds’ carrying case. The Buds, on the other hand, can last around 6-7 hours and add two more cycles with the case. With ANC always on, this comes down to around 3.5 hours and three more cycles with the case on. Both of these also support fast charging with compatible PD chargers, with the Neckband Pro charging to full in a little over an hour, while the Buds took a bit over 2 hours with the case plugged in.

The CMF Neckband Pro and Buds are competitive products that seem to be overall good performers. The former stands out in terms of design, audio, and mic performance, while the Buds have a sturdy design and comfortable fit. However, they are not exactly a home run when it comes to gestures and battery life. Nevertheless, they can still compete with the likes of Oppo Enco Buds 2 and OnePlus Nord 2 in terms of audio quality.

lava-blaze-curve-a-budget-friendly-curved-smartphone-with-premiu

Mon Mar 18 17:51:30 IST 2024

Curved smartphones have been available for many years, with options ranging from flagships to mid-range and high-end smartphones. However, finding one for under Rs. 20,000 isn’t common. Lava’s new Blaze Curve comes with a curved display and a curved back, aiming to provide a premium look. Does it justify its base price of Rs. 17,999 (and Rs. 18,999 for the higher variant)? Let’s explore and find out.

The phone has a matte glass back with three protruding rings for the camera system and curved sides. The back doesn’t catch any smudges and fingerprints. On the front, the 6.67-inch display has Gorilla Glass 3 on top for protection and also houses a punch-hole designed front camera next to the ear-speaker grille, which doesn’t collect lint too quickly from what I have seen. The sides are all plastic and they do catch onto dust and fingerprints quite quickly. The top houses one outlet for loudspeakers and a secondary mic, while the bottom houses the dual SIM card tray, primary mic, USB Type-C port, and another outlet for loudspeakers. The left side is left plain, while the right side has the volume buttons as well as the power/lock key – these keys feel a little too narrow to use at first. The phone weighs under 190 grams and sort of reminds me of Samsung Galaxy S series and OnePlus phones from 4-5 years back. It does appear sturdy and premium-looking, standing out a bit from phones around this price range.

The phone’s highlight is the 6.67-inch full HD (2400x1080) AMOLED display, which supports up to 120Hz refresh rates and HDR content. The display is sufficiently bright for outdoor usage and has punchy colors, making text sharp and easy to read. It does a decent job of handling high-resolution videos and images, but struggles a bit with contrast and overall colors for HDR, which isn’t surprising given its price tag. Other than that, this is a pretty good display that doesn’t disappoint when it comes to watching standard videos.

The phone features a triple rear camera system – a 64MP (f/1.9) main camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. By default, the phone takes photos in 16MP from the main camera, and the performance is just about okay. At times, the phone tries to make highlights too punchy with HDR and struggles with the subject, even if it's still, in low-light shots. You can take decent and detailed shots if the light is adequate and your subject is still, but don’t expect much else from the camera performance here. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.5) camera does a fine job for taking selfie shots and making video calls, if you aren’t pixel peeping much in your photos.

The Lava Blaze Curve is powered by MediaTek’s 7050 chipset (up to 2.6GHz octa-core processor, MaliG68 MC4 GPU) with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB (also available in 256GB) UFS3.1 internal storage. The internal hardware is not lacking much for this price segment, but what’s missing is the latest Android OS – it runs on Android 13 with very little changed from vanilla stock Android. There are hardly any third-party apps, and Lava has added a couple of useful features, such as call recording and the ability to stream YouTube in the background even if you don’t have a YouTube Premium subscription.

There are some odd choices that have been made, such as the absence of an option to have the back button on the left side when using navigation buttons instead of gestures. Another thing I noticed is that the icons, such as 5G and VoLTE in the status bar, look a little off in terms of their pixel and alignment, but it's probably nitpicking here. You can expect the phone to handle social media apps, multiple messaging apps, watching YouTube videos, or playing music in the background without any issues. For gaming, it can handle BGMI and CoD at low to medium settings pretty well, but starts to drop frames and show stuttering for higher-end graphic-intensive games.

The phone comes with a 5,000mAh battery unit and a 33-watt power delivery charger, which charges the phone in about 70 minutes. I observed the phone to last a full day more often than not under medium to heavy usage. It didn’t show any heating issues either.

The loudspeakers on this phone are really loud and have decent depth to them for playing games or for music needs if you aren’t around many people. GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth performance also didn’t show any troubles. There’s also Quick Share for sharing files with other Android phones quickly, and it worked fine. The 5G performance of the phone is okay for usage on the go. I wouldn’t say it’s the best in the segment compared to realme and OnePlus, but it’s still good enough to not be a deal breake

Verdict: Lava has tried to keep this device look different from other devices under Rs. 20,000, and it seems to have done a good job in terms of design and build quality. While the camera performance isn’t satisfactory, the loudspeakers, display quality, and battery experience generally don’t disappoint. The company promises two years of Android OS updates and three years of security patches, and hopefully continues to add useful features and refine the software.

unveiling-the-realme-12---a-comprehensive-review-of-features-and

Thu Mar 14 15:17:16 IST 2024

Realme has been launching a range of new smartphones in the first quarter of this year and the latest one is 12 series – realme 12+ and realme 12. The realme 12+ follows a pretty similar design to the recently launched realme 12 Pro+, which was priced at Rs. 29,999, but this one is Rs. 20,999. The phone has a vegan leather back with a watch-like dial for the triple camera setup while a stitching line runs across the middle vertically. The curved corners and frame, though, unlike the realme 12 Pro+’s, is made out of plastic and the faux paint done on it to give it a metal look is quite clear once you hold the phone. The right side has the volume buttons and power/lock key, while the left side is all plain. The top locates the 3.5mm audio jack one outlet for loudspeakers and secondary mic; while the bottom houses the dual SIM card tray, USB type C port, another outlet for loudspeakers and primary mic. The phone measures about 7.9mm in thickness and weighs about 190 grams, and feels comfortable to hold. The 6.67-inch display has the front-facing camera in a punch-hole design and with the ear-speaker grille tucked in next to it, while bezels around it are slim they aren’t symmetrical, which is not surprising.

The 6.67-inch full HD+ (2400x1080) AMOLED display supports up to 120Hz refresh rates and is sufficiently bright to be used outdoors. It supports HDR10+ content though output isn’t too great compared to standard video, where it delivers punchy colors without much sacrifice to the contrast and shadows. The display has decent viewing angles and is sharp to read text and vibrant on and watch videos or view images.

Coming to the triple camera system – there’s a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera; an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP (f/2.4) macro camera. The main camera that’s a Sony LYT-600 camera with OIS is the highlight here, something we haven’t seen much of in this price range. The phone takes pretty sharp shots with very little shutter lag in good lighting conditions. The daylight shots showed decent dynamic range and didn’t appear to lack on depth of color range, including from the ultra-wide camera. Portrait mode is also something you might like on this phone, giving pretty good bokeh effect for a phone priced at this point, though at times the subject tends to be a bit oversaturated. Low-light shots do leave a bit on the table with some grainy shots and blurry subjects so you would have to retake your shots. The front-facing 16MP (f/2.45) camera is a fine performer for taking selfie shots for your social media use or making video calls.

The realme 12+ is equipped with MediaTek’s 7050 chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa-core processor, MaliG68 MC4 GPU) along with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS3.1 internal storage (also comes in 6GB + 128GB option). The phone can handle regular tasks of playing high-resolution videos on YouTube, browsing web pages in Chrome, scrolling through social media apps, switching between messaging apps, and calling without any hiccups. You wouldn’t have a problem with that performance part, but what might irk some users is its experience out of the box. Running on realmeUI 5.0 based on Android 14 with the February security patch, the phone has a lot of third-party apps, some not popular ones, pre-installed. You can uninstall and remove notifications first, though it doesn’t take very long, it still seems like a required step to make the software experience better in what’s otherwise a feature-rich skin. For gaming, something like Asphalt 9 did fine but you might notice the phone warming up a little after playing for about half an hour. And don’t expect to play any further graphic-intensive games on the smartphone at high settings. Also, realme UI seems to be a little extra aggressive in closing background apps and processes on this phone, where you would have to wait for a slight bit when you switch back to an app and start from where you left off.

Powered by a 5,000mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me a full day frequently and didn’t show any battery drain issues. With the bundled 67-watt SuperVooc charger, you can charge the phone from 1% to full in about 60 minutes.