The Xiaomi has launched the Redmi Note 4 in India for a starting price of Rs. 9999. for the 32 GB Storage plus 2GB RAM variant and is available in a new colour. With the 3 GB plus 32 Gb variant for Rs. 10,999 along with a 4GB plus 64 GB variant for Rs. 12999.
At an event held in New Delhi, Hugo Barra announced the next iteration of the Redmi Note series which did exceptionally well for the Chinese brand in India. The Redmi Note 4 was launched in China in September The Redmi Note 4 has a 5.5 inch LCD display which has good visibility indoor and outdoor, along with wide viewing angles. The front houses a 5 MP camera, and the rear a 13 MP shooter with decent colour optimisations. The Redmi Note 4 will come with MiUi 8 in India, and will be sold in the company’s typical Flash Sale model on Flipkart.
The Redmi Note 4 is going on sale in India in three variants one with 2GB of RAM and 32 GB of Storage and second with 3GB RAM and 32 GB Storage and finally 4 GB of RAM with 64 GB of storage, all will support 128 GB microSD cards. The Unibody design is 8.5mm in thickness but the rear edges are tapered to give a better in hand feel. The front glass also has a 2.5D glass that blends in with the frame of the Redmi Note 4.
The Redmi Note 4 has a bottom firing speaker which sits next to the charging port, which is still a microUSB port, where we would have liked a USB C port in 2017. The Redmi Note 4 is available in a Gold, Grey and a Matte Black colour. The Black variant will be available for Sale at a later date.
The Redmi Note 4 has a 4100 mAh battery, and in India has been launched with a Snapdragon 625 chipset along with Adreno 506 GPU.
Fresh new information coming in for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8. New reports suggest that the new Samsung Galaxy S8 will feature an iris scanner along with an autofocus front camera. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be the first big phone from the company after the failure and recall of the Galaxy Note 7.
The new Samsung Galaxy S8 is already expected around MWC in February sporting a large display to body ratio crossing 90% and a new buttonless fingerprint sensor that sits behind the display. Samsung is pulling all stops to ensure that the Samsung Galaxy S8, just like the Galaxy S7 is a huge success. The company will also be removing the 3.5 mm headphone jack and bundling wireless earphone inside the box of the Samsung Galaxy S8.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be available in two sizes according to reports, that include the 5.7 inch Samsung Galaxy S8 and the 6.3 inch Samsung Galaxy S8 plus. The phones will also see S-Pen compatibility and Samsung is expected to introduce the S-pen as an extra-optional accessory. Samsung will also launch more accessories, including a keyboard case and new s-window flip cases for the phones.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to hit markets including the US, UK and India in March of 2017 sporting a price tag of US $799 for the base model Samsung Galaxy S8. the phones will offer storages upto 256GB, something that Samsung has already done with the recent launch of the Black Pearl Samsung Galaxy S7 in select markets.
Moto’s next G series phone the Moto G5 Plus is headed to the Indian market early 2017. The Moto G4 was an extremely successful smartphone for the company and with the Moto G5 Plus, Lenovo owned Moto may be changing the design a little bit. Some leaks have already shown of renders of the phone and what appear to be leaked pictures.
However, some exclusive information gathered by iGyaan reveals that the Moto G5 is expected to show up with a Moto M style construction where the use of metals may be liberal. The Moto G5 Plus will sport a 1920 x 1080 p display with a 5.5 inch screen size. Running on a Snapdragon chipset the Moto G5 Plus will also come with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB / 64 GB storage options.
Moto will not be skimming on sensors as a new design fingerprint scanner will appear on the front of the Moto G5 Plus along with gyro, accelerometer, magnetometer and NFC capabilities. The Moto G5 Plus will also sport impressive battery life and turbo charging for a battery which will be 3000 mAh +.
The Moto G5 Plus will also sport a 12 MP main and an 8 MP front camera, both capable of 1080p video while the rear camera will offer manual shooting modes and slo-mo video capabilities. Moto will launch the Moto G5 Plus with Android 7 Nougat out of the box and will be updated to Android 7.1.1 soon after.
The Moto G5 Plus will launch at Rs. 14,999 and will be available in several variants, namely the Moto G5 plus, Moto G5 and Moto G5 Play , which will be launched in subsequent months with basic changes to specs. The Moto G5 Plus is expected to launch with two confirmed colour options of silver and gold along with a possible matte black variant.
The Taiwanese company HTC has launched the new HTC U Ultra and U Play which show a new design language for HTC. The HTC U Ultra and U Play also have a new AI which according to the company “learns from U” called the Sense companion. The HTC feature a secondary display like the LG V20, which helps the user to interact with the Sense Companion.
The Companion will work with Apps you use and information that you constantly use and add to your phone. The Companion app will also predict things like traffic, bad weather and other issues you way run into when you travel. The Companion is a deep learning AI and will learn overtime to give you the results that most importantly work with you. The Companion also uses 4 always-on microphones that allow for voice recognition.
The HTC U Ultra is a larger 5.7 inch display with a 2560x1440px resolution and a Super LCD 5 with Dual Display and Gorilla Glass 5 (64GB model) or Sapphire Glass (128GB model).
The HTC U Ultra features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset along with quad-core cpu setup offering up to 2.15GHz. The phone will be available in either 64GB or 128 GB storage capacities with 4GB of RAM. The U Ultimate will also offer flex storage with upto 2TB microSD cards (when available). The U ultra comes with a 12MP HTC UltraPixel 2 with 1.55 micron pixel size, with a BSI sensor PDAF and OIS.
The Front camera is a 16 MP shooter with 1080p video and a BSI sensor. The phone will be available in either a single sim or dual sim variant and will support all the latest networks including VoLTE and WiFi Calling. The HTC U Ultra is 7.99 mm which and features a 3000 mAh battery and Quick Charge 3.0.
The HTC U Play on the other hand features a smaller 5.2 inch display with a Full HD (1080p) Super LCD with Gorilla Glass. It will run on the MediaTek Helio P10 chipset and offer either 3GB or 4GB of RAM and 32 GB and 64 GB Storage options. The main camera is a 16 MP BSI sensor with 1080 p video capture while the front camera is also a 16 MP camera. The HTC U Play also has a smaller battery with just 2500 mAh of juice and 5V/2A fast charge.
The HTC U series also comes with biometric voice unlock using the 4 mic combination.
The HTC U series also includes a new U Sonic technology that is built into the in-box earphones, that use sonar to map out the users ear-drums and deliver customised sound.
Samsung has ended its Beta program and skipped the Android 7.0 update to directly seed the Android 7.1.1 to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge starting January. Samsung has traditionally been the slowest to roll over to the latest version of Android, and usually the next S series launch makes the update available. However, this time it seems that the company will start pushing the update on Jan 17th in a phased manner. Meaning, not all devices will get the update at the same time.
Android Nougat 7.1.1 was made dev friendly in November and the Google Pixel devices were the first phones to run this build of Android. The new update will bring some new changes to the user interface and also enable the new multi gender emojis.
Samsung was the first company to ship multi window in their large size phones, now with the official update the S series phones will also get that ability. Samsung had recently announced that the company will skip 7.0 and seed 7.1.1 directly to keep up with the competition, thus confirming this rumour.
“We have to ensure that our final rollout of the update is free of any bugs and, and can be pushed OTA without causing damage to the devices of users Data. We have taken proper steps to ensure the rollout is smooth and the Samsung Galaxy users are happy” – Samsung India spokesperson.
Samsung is also prepping for the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8 plus which is expected to launch in the end of February with S Pen support and a larger screen to body ratio than before. The next major Galaxy phone should be launched at MWC 2017.
Xiaomi is all set to launch the Redmi Note 4 in India on the 19th of January. This launch will help Xiaomi replace the dated Redmi Note 3 with a new and more current Redmi Note 4. The Redmi Note 4 was launched in China in September
The Redmi Note 4 has a 5.5 inch LCD display which has good visibility indoor and outdoor, along with wide viewing angles. The front houses a 5 MP camera, and the rear a 13 MP shooter with decent colour optimisations. The Redmi Note 4 will come with MiUi 7 However gets a quick update to MiUi 8 once you boot the handset.
If you cannot wait for the phone to be launched in India, and want to avoid flash sales you can buy the phone here : http://igy.me/2jBBIyD The phones bought from China will support CDMA, but, when Xiaomi launches in India, the phones will be restricted to GSM, 3G and 4G LTE. The phone runs on a Deca Core Mediatek Helio X20 Chipset and has a whopping 4100 mAh battery. India might get a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset based phone, like previous launches.
Samsung may have to make some hard choices this year with their Samsung Galaxy S8. Rumors are already pointing to the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack and the inclusion of the wireless headphones. Samsung may have a lot of disappointed fans due to this move. But, just like with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, consumers will move on from this.
The new image leak of the Samsung Galaxy S8 from Chinese website notorious for leaks indicates a thin top and bottom bezel on a the old dual edge display, except this time there is no home button and fingerprint scanner. If the image is an actual leak, the Samsung Galaxy S8 could very well be the first phone with a fingerprint sensor that sits behind the display, hence, removing the need of a separate component.
If the design is real, and it appears to be either real or an exceptionally good replica, then the Samsung Galaxy S8 may also lack touch capacitive buttons and utilize on-screen buttons from the Android OS. Alternatively the controls could be on either side of the Samsung logo seen at the bottom.
A lot of phones were launched in 2016, in all sizes and at different prices. However only a few made an impact on the market and one the consumer like the ones in our list.
Redmi Note 3
2016 started with the budget market getting a big hit with the Redmi Note 3, top specs for the price it was available at, the phone shook up the market, and made people want more for their money. Our full review of the Redmi Note 3 is here.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
The flagship market then got what is possibly the most good looking phone of 2016, with the S7 Edge and its IP68 water resistance set a high benchmark for many phones to come. Still considered the best looking phone of 2016, and the best phone Samsung ever made.
LG G5
LG hit the market with the LG G5, making a crazy impact on the way we were looking at phones in 2016, Modular phones, like the concept prototype Project Ara were far from reality, LG however teased us with the LG G5 and showed us that Modular phones were possible today. While LG’s idea with the LG G5 was excellent the execution was far from flawless. However, the idea tickled us and we were hooked.
HTC 10
HTC’s return to fame, the HTC 10 gave the Taiwanese smartphone maker a new lease on life making the company relevant again. One of the best build qualities and spec set, along with features like AirPlay and the new BoomSound speakers mixed with great cameras. This was just the phone HTC needed. Our Review is here.
OnePlus 3
The Hype this year was more than ever, the OnePlus 3 lived up to expectations of hardware and price as the company launched a spec’d out phone with excellent performance and brilliant cameras. The OnePlus 3 made 6GB RAM an everyday thing as other companies are hoping to catch up. OnePlus also topped up the feature set with the OnePlus 3T sort-of filling up the tank with a little difference to spare.
Moto Z & Z Play
The Project Ara phone from Motorola may not have seen fruition, But, Lenovo owned Moto did launch a modular phone that was much more usable than the LG G5. With tons of mods and an open development platform funded by 1 Million dollars, the possibility of more 3rd party accessories joining the mix made this design a successful execution. The Moto Z is incredibly slim and well built offering great looks and specifications.
iPhone 7 & 7 Plus
Apple makes an impact on the market each year, either with a new form of gate (Antennagate, BendGate or Hissgate) or with an interesting new feature that has buyers scrambling for iPhones. in 2016 Apple made a comeback Black colour of the iPhone in two finishes, both were loved by the market and made the idea of a black coloured phone popular again. Apple also added a dual camera setup on the iPhone 7 plus and overall excellent optics on both the new phones bundled with excellent performance.
Google Pixel and Pixel Xl
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL replaced the Nexus phones, and also the philosophy of Nexus devices. the Pixel phones are built entirely by Google and offer up the best Android experience to boot. The Pixel phones also have the best cameras in 2016, pegging them against Apple and the iPhones. Google also made the Pixel phones more expensive, leaving a lot of consumers angry.
Note 7 : DONT BUY THIS ?
This would have been the phone of the year in all possibly ways, but Samsung jumped the gun a bit. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was the Smoking gun for Samsung, the company even launched it a whole mont before the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Due to the disastrous battery issues, the Note 7 was recalled leading up to the largest tech recall in history. The Note 7 was globally recalled, and cost Samsung a lot more than money.
Mi Mix
Sure Xiaomi was supposed to launch the Mi Note 2 , but they also announced another phone, a non leaked smartphone with excellent features. A bezel less Mi Mix was launched late 2016, making all smartphone manufacturers scramble to the draw board. With a premium design and spec set, Xiaomi made a lasting impression in the tech community.
Buy it here : http://igy.me/2izuBCq
With no real indicators on what the future handsets the brand name “Nokia” will have in stock for us. HMD global, the manufacturer of said return of brand Nokia is apparently planning a flagship device with the top notch Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and 6 GB of RAM for the Nokia re-launch lineup.
The news, not verified, but carried by publications throughout the technology space, claims that the flagship phone will also feature Nokia’s iconic Pure view camera, albeit in a 23 MP variant, and not the original 41 MP seen on the 808 . The camera will sport Zeiss lenses just like previous generations Nokia devices.
The Nokia powerhouse will also pack up-to 256 GB of storage and feature all the quirks, including NFC payments, wireless charging and OIS equipped front camera. The Nokia flagship phone will be launched at MWC 2017 in Barcelona , and will come with a 5.2/5.5 inch QHD display with an AMOLED screen.
For those confused there are few things to remember, this will not be a OnePlus competitor but rather a flagship competitor to take on the likes of the Galaxy S8 and dare we say even the iPhone.
The phone will come with a single sim capability and will not have expandable storage a lot of other features that flagships of next year are expected to have. To say the least, the Galaxy S8 is rumoured to have an all glass front with a near bezel less display with an embedded fingerprint sensor and waterproofing that is expected to be better than last years Galaxy S7. Nokia may fall behind these flagships with the lack of lead up time for the tech that other companies are starting to stuff into their phones.
With that in mind, Nokia may have a better chance making a flagship killer and not a flagship competitor, considering some of the biggest Nokia users, exist in the developing nations, where price is a major factor. The people waiting for Nokia phones, have a lot of expectations, and the comeback for the smartphone maker will be nothing short of legendary.
The thing here is that HMD Global, is not Nokia, not the essence but just the name, and will that live up to expectations. If it does live up to the expectations, will it last is the question? We, and most of our readers sure hope it does.
The Moto M has gone on sale in India on online shopping website Flipkart. The Moto M comes in two variants one features a 3GB RAM and 32GB storage the second shows up with 4GB RAM along with 64GB storage, priced at Rs. 15,999 and Rs. 17,999 respectively.
The Moto M is the first phone from Moto featuring an all metal body along with a rear placed fingerprint sensor.The Moto M is available with an exchange offer of up to Rs. 15000, dependant on your phone and will also give an additional discount of Rs. 2000 over and above the exchange price. There are also bank offers for specific banks and credit cards, which you can check by Clicking Here.
The Moto M has a 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with a 2.5D curved glass and a 1920x 1080p Full HD resolution. It runs the MediaTek Helio P15 processor with a 2.2GHz quad-core CPU and a Mali T860 MP2 GPU.
The Moto M supports Dual-SIM Cards, and runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The SIM tray is a hybrid tray which will accept a microSD of upto 128 GB in the second SIM Slot.
The optics on the Moto M include a 16-megapixel rear camera with PDAF and an 8-megapixel front camera The Moto M does support VoLTE and has a 3050 mAh battery with Fast Charge support and the phone comes with a 10W rapid charger in the box.
Lenovo Owned Moto is hosting an event on the 13th of December to launch the Moto M smartphone in India, with a suggested retail of Rs. 17,999. The Moto M runs a 64-bit MediaTek Helio P15 chipset with a 2.2GHz CPU and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM. The M is also the first Moto phone with a rear placed fingerprint sensor showing design hues of the Lenovo design house.
The Moto M will come with 32GB of inbuilt storage and have microSD card expandability(up to 128GB) via a hybrid SIM slot with a Micro-SIM or microSD card in the second SIM slot.
The gold colour is a feature that a lot of Moto fans want, and the M will only be sold in the Gold colour. Moto M sports a 16 MP main shooter with PDAF and f/2.0 along with an 8 MP front camera. With a 3050 mAh battery the phone will support a turbo charging via the supplied turbo charger Type – C in the box. The USB – C port and NFC included in the phone make it sound like a good deal for the expected price.
The Moto M will sit between the Moto G4 Plus and Moto Z Play giving the phone a 5.5-inch full-HD 2.5D IPS display with a pixel density of 401ppi.
Samsung’s upcoming 2017 flagship the Galaxy S8 along side the bigger rumoured brother set to replace the Samsung Note 7, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus will come without a 3.5mm headphone jack if rumours are to be believed.
Samsung will also replace the dated micro-USB port with the new USB-C port along with include the new powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipsets. Samsung will follow Apple’s lead to remove the 3.5 mm headphone jack in order to make the phone slimmer. The Galaxy S8 is now an edge only variant, which means no flat screen Samsung Galaxy S8 will be launched, same seems to be the case with the Galaxy S8 plus.
Samsung will also finally make the jump to 6 GB of RAM on the new S8 and S8 plus phones along with 128 and 256 GB storage options. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus sold in Asia will carry a new Exyos chipset.
While earlier reports suggested that Samsung will use a 4K display on the S8 , this may not come true in this iteration of the smartphone and may be the case with 2018’s flagship Samsung phone. In an attempt to kill the Note series, the Galaxy S8 plus will be sold with an optional S Pen accessory which will give it all the functionality of the Note phones.
Samsung will focus heavily on aesthetics and camera with the Galaxy S8 and S8 plus, so a slight new reduced bezel design is in the works. Especially after Xiaomi has shown off that it is possible. The Galaxy S8 and S8 plus will feature new style of fingerprint sensor that sits behind the main glass of the phone, allowing for additional security while keeping the front surface clean.
Samsung is utilising two sensors of 16 MP capability in the Galaxy S8 and with allow new “depth” effects, and unlike the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, where only the plus variant got the two camera setup, in Samsung’s case both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 plus will feature the dual camera setup.
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will also feature the iris scanner shown off in the infamous Note 7 handset.
The OnePlus 3T will go on Sale on the 14th of December on Amazon.in, and Prime users will get early access on the 12th of December. The OnePlus 3T comes to India after it’s global launch last month and an impressive launch price of Rs. 29,999 for the 64GB OnePlus 3T in either the Soft Gold or the Gunmetal variant, if you’d rather get the 128 GB you will need to shell out Rs. 34999.
The design and aesthetic of the OnePlus 3T is identical, the Gunmetal colour adds a whole lot of stealth to the phone replacing the silver antenna lines with a more suiting black finish. The OnePlus 3T upgrades the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 to the new Snapdragon 821. The OnePlus 3T improves certain aspects of the OnePlus 3 including better battery life with a 3400 mAh battery and an improved 16 MP front camera.
Inside the box in a typical OnePlus fashion is the Dash Charger and USB type C cable along with a Sim Ejector tool and documentation. No earphones are included in the Box but OnePlus does sell earphones separately.
Watch our Unboxing Video and stay tuned for the Full Review. You can also leave your questions in the comment area below.
OnePlus has launched the OnePlus 3 in India for Rs. 29,999 for the 64 GB Variant and Rs. 34,999 for the 128GB variant. The OnePlus 3T is an incremental update to the OnePlus 3 which was a super successful phone from the company. However, the OnePlus 3T increases the price range from Rs. 20-30k to Rs. 30-40k especially if you consider the 128 GB variant.
The OnePlus 3T features a new Snapdragon 821 chipset, 6GB RAM and a larger 3400 mAh battery. It also improves on the optics including the front camera making it a 16 MP shooter. The OnePlus 3T retains most of the design of the OnePlus 3 but will be available in a new Gunmetal colour.
The OnePlus 3T will be sold on Amazon.instarting December 14th, and Prime members will get early access on December 12th between 2-3pm.
OnePlus will launch the renewed OnePlus 3T in India on 2nd December. The phone features a Snapdragon 821 chipset and 6GB of RAM, with an upgraded 3400 mAh battery and 16 MP front camera.
The Pricing of the OnePlus 3T is presently unknown but it is likely to be more than the Rs. 27,999 price of the OnePlus 3, reaching or crossing the Rs. 30,000 price mark.
The OnePlus 3T retains the 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080p Optic AMOLED display. For cameras the OnePlus 3T has a Sony IMX 298 Sensor at a 16 MP resolution with a 1.12 µm pixel size for the rear. The Front camera is also a 16 MP sensor with a Samsung 3P8SP Sensor and 1.0 µm pixel size.
The OnePlus 3T will be available in two colours the Gunmetal Grey and the Soft Gold, just like the OnePlus 3. Overall the phone has minor improvements over the OnePlus 3 and a lot of existing OnePlus 3 owners may not find them enough to update to the newer handset, with 128 GB storage being the only real push.The OnePlus 3T launches with Android Marshmallow, with no real confirmations of Android 7 rollout, and December being touted as the month when the rollout of the next Oxygen OS will happen.
The OnePlus 3T will also not support Daydream VR according to an official announcement by OnePlus, despite the fact that the hardware is capable of handling Daydream capabilities.
