The Moto Razr has been one of the most iconic mobile phones of the connected era. The touch screen smartphone paved the way for a candy bar only design, leaving other form factors far behind.
2019 is an interesting year as it has shown off a newer possibility for a display design, the foldable display smartphone. This new foldable display technology was first publicly launched by Samsung, followed swiftly by Huawei and many others.
This makes it the idea time for Motorola to show off their Foldable Moto Razr concept. The device will be based on a foldable plastic OLED panel that will allow the brand to retain the clamshell design of the original phone.
The device will also be packed with the Snapdragon 855 chipset along with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The new leaked image also shows off the packaging of the phone and the display notch on the top of the screen. You can also partially see the hinge mechanism.
The image is not very high resolution and could possibly be a good quality render. However if Motorola is indeed working on a foldable Razr phone, this is pretty close to what it should look like.
The patent filings of the device are very close to the image now leaked. But it is still unclear if Motorola will proceed with launch after the recent issues with the Galaxy Fold.
Motorola will ideally add another screen on the front of the clamshell fold, which may be used for notifications or front facing selfies. However, the first generation Moto Razr may only have the one Foldable display, reserving the secondary display for the redesign in 2020.
Every once in a while a radical design for a smartphone tries to break the norm. In doing so it forces the entire industry to follow in its footsteps. In the past few years, we have seen many smartphones attempt this. Curved screen devices, bendable phones, shatterproof phones, modular phones and now even foldable phones.
However, the last real change in the industry was back in the year 2007 when the first iPhone changed the perception of the industry and made the capacitive touchscreen a norm. Last year we saw a radical shift from notches to a full display front. Pop up cameras, slider mechanisms and even punch hole cameras in the front display.
This year we have already seen the foldable phone, in many forms. And while that as a category may take some time to catch up. Vivo has plans to make the Apex a reality.
The Vivo Apex is a unique phone, it has no ports, no notches, no speakers, and no buttons. To make things more interesting it does not even have a front facing camera.
The company has pushed the phone as a flagship prototype, just like last year’s Apex the Vivo Apex of 2019 will end up being a smartphone. When and under what branding we are unsure.
The entire display on the front of the phone is a fingerprint sensor. This is extremely handy when you are using the phone. The fact that you don’t need a particular point on the phone to work as a fingerprint sensor and that the entire display can be a fingerprint sensor is really useful.
The Vivo Apex has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. since the phone is missing ports, charging is done via a mag safe style connector that magnetically attaches to the back of the phone to charge and sync the device.
Buttons are replaced by pressure sensors that are located in three areas, one for the power button, and two for volume buttons. They are sensitive and provide haptic feedback, however, are finicky and you might hit them while the phone sits in your pocket.
The earpiece is replaced by a resonating glass module that uses the front display as a speaker. The same tech converts the back glass into a. loudspeaker. The company has managed to leave a small cutout under the display for the microphone though.
The Vivo Apex is a concept phone, a concept that might become a reality soon, a buttonless and port less phone is what a company like Apple would like. This reduces the chances of failure and also lowers repairability costs.
This may not be ideal for the user especially those who like physical interaction and feedback. The Apex is a usable concept, something that has the potential to be a future phone. At this time, however, we prefer clickable buttons.
Foldable phones are all the rage in 2019. And even before Samsung could show off their first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, many devices were teased and one was even on display at the CES 2019.
The Samsung Galaxy Foldbecame the first device to be launched by the electronics giant, and with that, the company officially opened the market to potential competition. Samsung’s foldable phone was soon followed by Huawei Mate Xwhich also showed a new falcon wing design and a more premium price bracket. Samsung wants to retail the Galaxy Fold for US$ 1980 while Huawei Mate X was launched for US$ 2600.
Investors in Xiaomi’s supply chain reveal that the Chinese electronics company will launch their foldable phone as soon as the end of April or early June. Xiaomi will hold a separate event in China which will be a global launch of the product followed by several localised launches in its important markets.
Our source also reveals that Xiaomi plans to sell the Foldable device at a US$ 999 price mark. Which will make it the cheapest foldable smartphone. Xiaomi will also bring the phone to Europe for €999 and to India for Rs.74999.
If Xiaomi manages to launch the Foldable Mi device at such an aggressive price it will surely be able to gather some attention for the product.
Part of the reason Xiaomi will manage this low pricing is the display. While Samsung and Huawei are using higher quality OLED panels manufactured by Samsung and BOE display. Xiaomi will use Visionox Technology OLED displays. Visionox has developed the foldable displays as per Xiaomi’s requirements. Xiaomi has also funded development and manufacturing resource infrastructure costs for Visionox Technology to be able to develop this display. The company recently filed a patentfor the foldable display.
If Xiaomi manages to launch the Mi Fold / Flex at the above price, it will surely generate enough excitement to warrant sales for the phone. The smartphone will continue to have flagship specifications including the Snapdragon 855 chipset and 8GB to 10GB of RAM.
Samsung has had a rough couple of years. Post the recall of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung laid low and didn’t advertise their devices much. A strategy which may have been well thought of. However, it had drastic implications on the brand’s sales. Samsung continued to sell its flagship phones like the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus and even the Galaxy Note 8 was well received. What took a hit was the sale of budget devices, which is where the Galaxy M30 fits in.
The fragmentation within Samsung’s own lineup of products also didn’t help the company push numbers. Between the Galaxy J series, the On series and many others they experimented with, Samsung was losing ground fast to their Chinese counterparts.
The Galaxy M series is Samsung trying to understand the market. A complex economy driven by specs and not durability or after sale service. A market that is more prone to price cuts and discounts than any other. And a consumer who frequently changes his/her phone simply because a new model is available.
Has Samsung finally cracked the market with the M series and namely the Galaxy M30? Let’s find out in this Review.
Build Quality and Design
It is not difficult to see that Samsung has taken many of its design cues for the Galaxy M30 from the existing smartphone market in 2018. The tear drop notch display, the gradient back and a bezel less front. The cameras at the back also sit flush with the phone and so does the fingerprint sensor, which is usually depressed on some devices. the phone feels premium and has a robust frame. The device does not bend, wiggle or rattle from anywhere.
The build is plastic which means it scratches easily and the back despite its nice metal finish may start to lose lustre soon. There is also no ingress protection, whether water or dust, although expecting that in this price bracket may be too much in early 2019. We expect that to start happening towards the end of the year.
The phone is 8.5mm thin despite the large battery and thick plastic build. It fits quite comfortably in the hand and does not feel heavy.
Display
Samsung really has cracked the market here. The Samsung Galaxy M30 features a Super AMOLED display with a 2280 x 1080 px resolution and a 394 ppi density. The display is not only punchy and colourful, it is bright and easy to view indoors and out. The viewing angles are excellent and Samsung has managed to accurately set the colour profile. Although for those with specific requirements the display colour can be optimised.
It also has the always on feature which as the name suggests keeps the screen on at all times to display clock even when the device is locked. Noteworthy, this feature only draws less power from the battery. Therefore, the users can keep this feature turned on without stressing that it would affect the battery performance.
The display covers over 90% of the front of the phone although a considerable chin dawns the bottom of the front. The camera cutout is minimal and if you enable Face Unlock, a small light runs across the camera notch while you try to unlock the phone, looks fancy.
Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy M30 features three cameras at the back; a 13 MP primary camera and two 5 MP sensors, one which measures depth. While the other is an UltraWide sensor. While the ultra wide sensor is great for the occasional landscape shot or group photo. The primary camera is great for everyday usage. You get accurate color and good low light performance ( which you do not with the ultra wide sensor), and some of the Live Focus features will be used throughly by owners of the phone.
The phone camera UI is familiar and easy to use, and the camera produces good results consistently. Images are sharp, in focus have good color and contrast. The HDR works great and there are some manual controls for ISO and shutter.
The video is restricted to 1080p, but again the video result is good and colour is accurate. You can also stretch the video to the display format of 2280x1080px for widescreen video.
Rear Live Focus
Rear Auto
The front camera also produces good results with quick and accurate focus and sharp images. A 16 MP f/2 shooter at the front means you can get good results in low light. Software based live focus is available on the front camera as well.
Hardware and Performance
The Galaxy M30 runs on the Exynos 7904 it is a 14 nm chip with an Octa core CPU and a Mali-G71 MP2 GPU. The way the cores are laid out allow for better battery management, with two 1.8 GHz performance cores and 6 1.6 GHz daily cores. And while it is easy to fault Samsung for not using Snapdragon chips, Exynos chipsets work well and have consistently delivered long lasting performance on Samsung devices, also because much like Apple, Samsung optimises the hardware well with the software.
That being said, some of the performance scores leave a lot to be desired from the Galaxy M30 especially in comparison to the Snapdragon devices.
The phone does manage to run most games well and even PUBG works on high graphics even though medium is recommended, with good performance from the device. The phone also has a game booster which allows users to disable notifications and calls while allowing focus and allocating hardware resources to the game. Thereby improving the overall gaming experience ever so slightly.
The Galaxy M30 is also available in both 4 GB and 6 GB variants, and if you are serial gamer and have the extra money the 6GB version will allow for more simultaneous apps and a smoother overall gaming experience.
Daily usage from the phone is impressive, and while multitasking is good the phone does seem to lack a certain fluidity, which could be more and Android Oreo thing. Since the phone ships with the older version of Android out of the box.
Software, UI and Multimedia
Another thing that has kept Samsung users unhappy has been their slow Android updates and less refined UI. While Samsung has had consistently one of the best UI skins for Android, it has been fragmented and difficult to operate through. The new One UI solves that with smoother animations and a minimalistic design. But, the Galaxy M30 does not have that yet. Samsung plans to update the whole M series to Android 9 and with that the One UI, when and how is presently unknown.
The UI is pretty refined on the Galaxy M30 and Samsung has included navigation gestures, with the ability to disable those annoying bottom tabs. The gestures work great but certain things are missing from the phone. There is no Samsung Pay or even Pay mini yet. The Always on display is missing despite a Super AMOLED screen and the dark mode seen on the newer A series phones is also missed on the M30.
However, all these are simple software related issues and can easily be resolved with a software update.
The phone does support HD streaming and has the Wildvine L1 certification. The display and speakers are great for consuming content and the phone also has Dolby Atmos for enhanced audio via headphones.
Phone, Battery and Security
The Samsung Galaxy M30 takes two SIM cards in dedicated slots along with a third slot for microSD expansion ( 512 GB worth). Both SIMs support VOLTe and also LTE data connectivity. Call quality and network strength is good and audio both from the speaker and microphone is impressive. The phone also has good noise cancellation for the microphone and manages to cancel out most of the background noise during calls.
With a massive 5000 mAh battery the Galaxy M30 offers multiple day battery life. With a conservative approach you can see your phone run into day three. With heavy usage we found the phone to have upwards of 20% battery at the end of the day, this is with several hours of gaming and video consumption.
Talk Time : 8 Hours
Music Playback : 36+ hours
Video : 10+ Hours
Gaming Online : 4 Hours
( Battery life tests are done in controlled conditions, and may vary from scenario to scenario)
The fingerprint sensor is fast on the Galaxy M30, and easy to setup. Samsung offers the ability to lock down certain folders and apps, along with certain other features. The phone also offers a less secure face unlock which helps quickly unlock the phone using the camera.
Other Mentions
The Samsung Galaxy M30 also offers a 15 Watt charger inside the box. The phone has a USB C port which makes it somewhat future ready.
The Samsung Galaxy M30 also has a very low SAR value of 0.409W/KG Head.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy M30 is a fantastic flagship to the Galaxy M series. It is priced well and offers some really good features including a Super AMOLED display and a 5000 mAh battery. And while the Redmi Note 7 Pro’s recent launch in India will make it difficult for users to decide, ( A comparison of the two will be out shortly), Samsung also made decisions difficult with the launch of the Galaxy A30. Samsung does offer best in class service and support which will help a buyers end decision if they plan to use the phone for a long time. Plus the added Samsung brand name may help aid the decision. Either way the Samsung Galaxy M30 is a compelling device, and if you are considering buying it, the decision of buying it will be a good one.
The Motorola One Power was launched with Android one and promised quick updates to next iterations of Android OS. The company has kept its initial promise of updating the phone to Android 9.0 Pie before the end of 2018. The update starts rolling out today and is a staggered release so all may not see it immediately.
Along with the new OS update, the Motorola One Power will also get a performance boost, and improvements to battery management according to Motorola. The One Power will also now support face unlock and swipe gestures, native to Android 9.0 Pie. Since the Motorola One Power is an Android One device, it is much easier for the brand to push out security patches and OS updates.
The Motorola One Power went on sale in October and is still available for a price of Rs. 15999. The One Power was Motorola’s response to the growing demand for an online only device. Because, Motorola is now operating in the offline market the prices for its devices have risen. The Motorola One Power was answer to the growing demand for a good all rounder device at the fifteen thousand price mark.
The One Power has a HD+ screen with an 19:9 aspect ratio along with a storage capacity of 64 GB expandable up to 256GB via a dedicated microsSD card slot. 4GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Octa-core processor. The Motorola One Power has a 16 MP + 5 MP main camera setup with a 12 MP front camera.
Amazon is fast becoming the country most popular market place, however it is also losing money fast. The company suffered a loss of Rs. 6,287 crore for the FY 2017-2018 from Rs. 4,831 crore compared to last year. The venue for Amazon in India however, grew 54% to Rs. 5,018 crore from Rs. 3,257 crore.
According to Amazon the increase in the losses was due to improvements in the Amazon India infrastructure. The company spent big this year to increase its fulfilment centres and improve technology which includes the launch of the GST equipped Business Amazon. The company also increased its total spending to Rs. 11,305 crore compared to Rs. 8,087 crore done by the e-commerce giant last year.
Amazon hopes to rake in large incomes from the three waves of sales the company had in the month of October and the ongoing Diwali Sale. The company also expects business to be up in the month of November and December 2018 due to large festive shopping.
The company pays its full time directors of Amazon Seller services about Kandula Raghava Rao and Noorulamin Mohd Saheb Patel a combined Rs 5.5 crore in salaries a year. The company also claims to have filed Rs. 96.8 crore “under protest” in taxes to income and service tax departments. Amazon has grown substantially and now services 99% pin codes in the country.
Amazon’s Rival in India, Flipkart India Private Limited reported a nine fold net loss of Rs. 2064 crore as compared to Rs. 245 crore in the previous financial year. One the flip side, Flipkart’s revenues rose by 39.11% to Rs. 21,658 crore from Rs. 15,569 crore.
OnePlus launched the OnePlus 6T early this week. Alongside the new smartphone the company also launched a new colour variant of the OnePlus Bullets Wireless earphones. According to the company, a red colour was demanded by the community and the company has decided to deliver.
The OnePlus Bullets wireless were originally launched with the OnePlus 6 early this year, and were really popular with the OnePlus fans. The earphones have a unique feature, which allows users to play or pause music by simply connecting the magnetic back sides of the earphones. The new red colour has now been listed on the OnePlus website.
While the earphones are built well, and have loud sound, they have been under constant criticism. They have been found to be poor on the lower end side, something Oneplus claims to have addressed with improvements in the signal processing of the wireless sound. OnePlus users can also adjust the EQ settings as per their requirement by going to Settings > Sound & Vibration > Audio Tuner
The Bullets wireless continue to the have fast charging with 10 mins of charge delivering 5 hours of usage. While the earphones themselves are made of aluminium, they have rubber ear tips in various sizes and wing tips to secure the earphones. With an inbuilt microphone they are also great for phone calls.
Apple has updated the iPad Pro models and removed the Touch ID and Home Button. Apple has also replaced the lightning connectors with a more efficient USB C port and added Face ID with a 3D depth camera. Apple claims that the company sold more iPads last year than the entire notebook lineup of all of the biggest notebook vendors.
The new iPad Pro models will be available in two sizes 11-inch and 12.9-inch. The 11 inch model has an 11 inch display that fits in the same size as the 10.5 inch iPad Pro and prices start at $799. The 12.9 inch has reduced dimensions because the screen size remains the same but Apple has considerably reduced the bezels on the iPad. The larger 12.9 inch iPad Pro will start at $999.
Apple calls the display, same as the iPhone XR, the “Liquid Retina” display. And has reduced the bezels on all sides. The iPad Pro models become the first iPad’s without Apple’s Home Button, or Touch ID. Apple has also removed the headphone jack and now apart from the quad speakers the iPad Pro also have USB C ports.
The Face ID is available both horizontally as well as vertically and will allow Apple to bring Animoji’s and FaceTime calls filled with emojis for iPad users. The iPad Pros get Apple’s new A12X Bionic chip with an 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU which is basically an upgraded version of what was launched with the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR.
The iPad Pro’s now offer great functionality for additional usage throughout the USB C ports for example all MacBook dongles will now work on the iPad Pro. This port will also allow external monitors to be connected to the iPad Pro. User will also be able to charge their iPhones, or any other devices through the USB C ports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjaKHqDbzSA
The 12 MP main camera allows 4K 6-fps video and is the same sensor seen on the wide side on the iPhone XS, or the exact same sensor in the iPhone XR. Apple includes an 18 watt charger in the box, and users will be able to use after charger like, MacBook chargers to charge up the iPad Pro quicker.
The new Apple Pencil also is redesigned, it attaches to the iPad Pro magnetically and charges wirelessly. Tapping the screen with the pencil will wake the iPad Pro and Apple has included other gesture capabilities for the Apple Pencil.
Huawei has launched it’s 2018 flagship phones the Mate 20 and 20 Pro. As is typical of Huawei they have tied up with Porsche Design to offer up RS variants of the phone with premium engineered design and prices. The Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS is run on the Kirin 980 chipset. The phone features face unlock along with in display fingerprint access.
Porsche Design
The front houses a 6.39 inch, 2K+ 3120 x 1440 px resolution display with a 538 PPI pixel density. The Huawei Mate 20 RS has 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage along with 256 GB expandability via microSD. The back has an exclusive leather wrapped design with a triple camera setup. One 40 MP Sensor with a wide angle lens and an f/1.8 aperture paired with a 20 MP ultra wide angle lens and an f/2.2 aperture. Finally a 8 MP sensor with a Telephoto lens and an f/2.4 aperture. The front has a 24 MP, f/2.0 aperture equipped snapper along with IR flood illuminator and depth sensor to allow for secure face unlock much like Apple’s Touch ID.
Huawei has emphasised on the AI capabilities of Huawei Mate 20 RS. This is because of their new Kirin 980 chipset which is the worlds first 7nm Mobile chipset. Huawei is also pushing impressive battery performance with a 4200 mAh battery. The Phone supports super fast charging upto 40 W using what the company calls HUAWEI SuperCharge. The phone can also handle Wireless charging upto 15 W with what the company calls HUAWEI Wireless Quick Charge.
The Huawei Mate 20 RS will be available in two colors a black and a red, both will have Leica branding along with leather stitched back with Porsche design logo. The PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 20 RS 8GB + 256GB will have a MSRP of EUR 1695. The PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 20 RS 8GB + 512GB will have a MSRP of EUR 2095. The phones will go on sale from 16th November, 2018. The Red color variant will be sold as a limited edition release in China.
The yearly launch cycle of the Google Pixel devices this year is on Oct 9th. New images have surfaced for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL showing off what appears to be a new colour. The new Pink Sand colour is in addition to the usual Black and White colours of the Pixel devices. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have been subjected to a host of leaksover the past months. A few stolen devices ending up in the hands of reviewers. We have seen unboxing videos and even reviews of the phones which usually are a tight kept secret from companies.
From the information that is available, the Pixel 3 devices are expected to have two front facing cameras. While the phones will have a main 12 MP f /1.8 rear facing camera on both the standard and XL variants. The Google Pixel 3 Xl will also be the first Pixel device to have a notched display. The front cameras and ear piece on the Pixel 3 XL will reside along with the required sensors in this notch.
Pixel 3 XL Sand Pink
Both the devices will run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. The phones will have a 5.4 inch 2160 x 1080px and 6.71 inch 2960 x 1440px display respectively. Both pixel phones will have 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of Storage in the base variants. However, may be offered in up to 256GB storage sizes. The smaller standard sized Pixel will be powered by a 3000 mAh battery while the larger XL will get a 3400 mAh battery.
Rumors point towards a one more different Green/teal colour also known as “Mint.” But industry experts claim that the Pixel devices will only be launched in three colours. The launch for the Pixel 3 phones is around the corner and we know almost everything there is to know about the phones. There is, however, still a slim chance that Google has been trolling the internet with these leaks. And the real Pixel devices will be completely different in design. We wouldn’t hold our breath on that though.
The Pixel phones should start around the US$ 699 price tag. This would peg them at around Rs. 50,000 in the Indian market. India is also expected to get the Pixel phones by the end of October 2018.
In a turn of events, before the official launch of the new 2018 iPhones, a new leaks from Apple’s own website shows off three new iPhone models.
iPhone Xs
iPhone Xs Max
iPhone Xr
The information was found in the project sitemap file which shows off the new iPhone names. The names were leaked in shopping links for cases for the upcoming iPhones. The cases and colours include Black, White, Midnight Blue, Productured, Stone, Taupe, Saddle Brown and many more color options.
The sitemap leak also shows that the 6.1-inch iPhone will indeed be called iPhone Xr, and it will be offered in six colors: black, white, red, yellow, coral and blue. The iPhone Xr will have a 6.1-inch display and offered in three storage options; 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB. The sitemap also shows that the iPhone XS, the smallest of the three will be available with three storage options: 64GB, 256GB and 512GB.
Apple will launch the next versions of the iPhone on 12th September 2018. The phones are expected to be based primarily on the iPhone X and launched as incremental updates. One of the expected iPhones to launch in 2018 is a new “affordable 6.1 inch variant. This may as well be dubbed the iPhone 9.
The 6.1 inch iPhone is expected to have an LCD display allow for comparatively more affordable pricing with respect to the flagship iPhones it will launch with. Developers have found information relating to the new iPhone in Apple Xcode. Apple’s Xcode shows names like “iPhone xx” and “iPhone9.7”. The code also reveals that the 6.1-inch phone will have the following model number : “N84”.
More information found in Xcode reveals that this new device will have a DCI-P3 LCD panel and will be powered by Apple’s A10 chipset.
2018 iPhone Lineup
Apple is expected to launch three new iPhones this year. With rumours speaking of dual sim options the 6.1 inch variant may be the most likely recipient of this feature. This variant will be aimed more towards markets like India and China. Apple will launch the new Apple iPhones on 12th of September with Pre Orders expected to begin 14th of September.
Pricing will be key, however, if Apple continues its upwards trend for pricing the flagship model may as well cross US$ 1200. This will make the smartphones far less affordable for users. However the device with a 6.1 inch display may be priced as low as US$ 699 making them a tad bit cheaper. This will offer a more affordable option for buyers.
The iPhone X will be upgraded and launched in two variants, most likely the iPhone XI and XI Plus. The plus variant may end up being the most expensive iPhone yet. Apple is expected to bump up performance for tasks like Gaming, AR and machine learning. New improvements for Siri with the launch of the iOS 12 are also expected on the new iPhones.
Apple will also pay good focus on cameras this time around, and with the focus of most brands on front cameras, the 2018 iPhones may finally have excellent front cameras with upto 4K video recording courtesy the high performing chipsets. Apple will also improve on FaceID features, but it is highly unlikely that TouchID will make a comeback with an in-display fingerprint sensor in the 2018 iPhones.
