Author: Rishi Baruah

Samsung Galaxy A7 | Hands On

Yesterday, Samsung Forum 2015 kicked off in Bangkok Thailand, and the company took the opportunity to announce a couple of devices. One of them was the new Galaxy A7, the slimmest Galaxy smartphone yet, measuring only 6.3 mm. They claimed that the phone has been packaged with premium hardware for a superior social experience. We decided to check the smartphone out for ourselves. Here are our first impressions:

Galaxy A7 vies to expand the services provided by Galaxy A5 and A3. The A7 is exactly like the big brother of the A5. Except that they’ve upped the notch on specifications, the look and feel of the two devices is exactly the same. The use of metal gives this device an extremely premium feel. The device will be appreciated for its classy design.

Samsung Forum 2015 Galaxy A7 9 — The Galaxy A5 and the A7, size comparison.

On the front bottom, below the screen of the device, there are the touch capacitive buttons, and in the centre is the Samsung’s typical oval style Home Button. At the bottom we have the main USB slot/Data synching port and 3.5 mm jack.

The metal handset is equipped with a 5.5 inch, Full HD Super AMOLED display, which is a step ahead of the A5. This one delivers an excellent viewing experience. With the bigger screen and good display, watching videos and browsing the internet was a breeze.

The company has also added Adaptive Display Technology which intelligently optimizes the screen brightness and the color saturation.

Coming to the camera of the device, it is equipped with a 13 MP primary camera and a 5 MP front camera, along with Advanced Selfie features like Ultra Wide Shot, GIF shooting modes and Auto Selfie modes (Palm and Voice Selfie.) We checked out the camera, and it served the purpose well.

It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and comes packed with 2GB of RAM. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Octa-core processor which allows users to easily perform data intensive tasks. On the first go, the UI seemed really fast and responsive.

All in all, with its nice accents of metal, the big brother of A5 is a good addition to Samsung’s portfolio. Priced at Rs. 30,499, it may appear to be expensive but is unique in its own way!

SPECS	Samsung Galaxy A7
Operating System	Android OS, v4.4.x (KitKat)
Screen Size	5.5 inch 1080×1920 pixels
RAM	2 GB
Battery	2600 mAh
Processor	Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615
CPU	Quad-core 1.7 GHz
Internal Storage	16 GB
Expandable Up to	64 GB
Front camera	5 MP
Rear Camera	13 MP
Price	Rs. 30,499

The handset is available online at the company’s official India e-Store in black, white and gold colors.

February 17, 2015

Samsung Forum 2015 : Super-Slim Galaxy A7 Goes on Sale, Priced at Rs. 30,499

You’ll be hearing a lot of news about Samsung today. The reason is the Samsung Forum 2015 which kicked off today in Bangkok Thailand. The company, today, unveiled the new Galaxy A7, the slimmest Galaxy smartphone, measuring only 6.3 mm. It has been packaged with premium hardware for a superior social experience, claims the company. It aims to provide powerful multi-tasking performance with classy design, the Galaxy A7 vies to expand the popular services provided by the Galaxy A5 and A3.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Mr. Asim Warsi” author_title=”Vice President, Marketing, Mobile and IT at Samsung India.”]

Galaxy A7 is a combination of stylish metallic unibody design with powerful performance and premium user experience. Keeping the modern design philosophy in mind, we have designed Galaxy A7 to empower consumers to enjoy the iconic design and flagship features with an assortment of appealing colors. This is another step towards our efforts to offer premium devices to a broad range of consumers which will further drive our market leadership.

[/quote]

The finely crafted metal handset is equipped with a 5.5 inch, Full HD Super AMOLED display to deliver better viewing experience while watching videos or browsing the internet. The Adaptive Display Technology intelligently optimizes the screen brightness and the color saturation. It is also equipped with a 13 MP primary camera and a 5 MP front camera, along with Advanced Selfie features like Ultra Wide Shot, GIF shooting modes and Auto Selfie modes (Palm and Voice Selfie.) The handset offers Private Mode, which adds extra security for important files and documents. In addition, the A7 also has Multi Screen app function capability.

It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and comes packed with 2GB of RAM. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Octa-core processor which allows users to easily perform data intensive tasks. It is backed by a 2,600mAh battery.

The handset is priced at Rs. 30,499 and is available online at the company’s official India e-Store in black, white and gold colors.

February 16, 2015
JBL Go Portable Speakers Now Available in India for Rs. 1,999

JBL GO wireless portable Bluetooth speakers are now available for the Indian market, exclusively on Snapdeal. The speaker will be available for an attractive price of Rs 1,999.

The JBL GO is a square, box-like device, integrated with buttons for power, Bluetooth, volume and call answering along with a mic. It is also installed with an echo and noise-cancellation technology which works when it is connected to a phone. This ensures there would be no sound distortion while talking on the phone.

It is backed by a 600mAh battery that ensures up to 5 hours of audio playback.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Tony Navin” author_title=”Senior Vice President, Electronics and Home, Snapdeal.com”]

The portable Bluetooth speaker market is booming in India and JBL has taken the lead in gaining significant mindshare in this space. Snapdeal has become the preferred destination for bluetooth speakers with the widest range of products at best prices. Being the largest marketplace with instant access to over 40 million users across the country, it gives brands an opportunity to launch products with instant reach to all our users. JBL Go on Snapdeal will be accessible to consumers across 5000 towns and cities. The product in itself will be a trendsetter in the market and we are excited about this launch.

[/quote]

Click here to buy the speakers now.

February 10, 2015
Flipkart Offers Big Discounts on 2nd Gen Moto X and Moto G, Moto E Price Slashed

If you’ve been mulling over the idea of switching up your device to a better model, this might be the good news you needed to brighten up your Monday. To celebrate Motorola’s one-year tie-up with Flipkart, the two have joined hands to bring out offers. You can now exchange your old smartphone for a brand new Motorola handset at a discounted rate.

Motorola is offering discounted rates up to Rs. 4,000 on Moto G (2nd Gen) phones and Rs. 6,000 on the Moto X (2nd Gen). In short, the discount brings down the price of the Moto X and the Moto G to Rs. 25,999 and Rs. 8,999, respectively. Another exciting offer is that Motorola is giving out free Moto Deck Speakers, if you decide to go for the Moto X (2nd Gen). As always, the discount rate depends on the phone model you are exchanging.

Other than the Motorola range, the Google Nexus 6 phones are also available discount of up to Rs. 10,000 on exchange, another offer with Rs. 10,000 off if bought along with a Moto 360 Smart Watch – the two offers cannot be combined. These exchange offers are valid only till 15^th February, so make sure to spread the word.

Though there are no exchange offers available on the Moto E handsets, price of the phone has been been slashed by Rs. 1000 and is now priced at a mere Rs. 5,999 on Flipkart.

Want to get a user feedback on the devices? Click here for our full reviews.

February 9, 2015
Kolkata On Its Way To Become India’s First WiFi Connected City

Kolkata has just taken the first step in becoming the first ever WiFi city in India. The city’s first WiFi zone will be implemented at Park Street and will be inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee. The service is provided by Reliance JIO, which will be free of charge initially and will be available next in the Ghariahat-Gol Park area of south Kolkata.

Reliance JIO spokesperson quoted-

We have already laid cables along a 500-km stretch of the city. While the major part of Kolkata has been covered, work is in progress in some pockets. We are aiming to bring the entire Kolkata Telephones area under our 4G coverage. It might take another eight months to a year to do the job

Once the Park Street hotspot is launched, any WiFi enabled device can log on into the internet zone using a password provided. Smartphone users will be able to log in with a click on the WiFi option. “As a long-term believer in the power of social media, I think the city should be proud of this development. However, we need to be patient during the rollout phase for it takes time,” said Derek O’ Brien, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP.

New Delhi too is on its way to develop this facility soon. We have already seen a rollout of free WiFi in parts of Delhi like Khan Market and Connaught Place.

February 5, 2015
Multiple Angle Viewing Feature For YouTube Is Now Under Trial

Viewing videos on YouTube is now going to be more entertaining and dynamic. YouTube is now working on a feature that allows the viewers to switch between different camera angles while watching a video. This feature is in its experimental mode right now and there is only one video which showcases this feature.

The video is of a live artist performance by Madilyn Bailey, a popular indie artist. The YouTube team took her performance and turned it to a multi angle video. The views show up with thumbnails and disappear once it commences. Angles can be switched using keyboard shortcuts. Though while switching, it may cause slight lags during playback. YouTube is allowing a selected few users to help in the testing of this feature.

This feature would be very gladly welcomed by sports, entertainment and concert viewers. Multiple angles would enhance the viewing experience. YouTube spokesperson told to Mashable

We want to give artists as many ways to connect with their fans as possible, and this experimental feature brings fans even further into creating the experience they want.

YouTube says the process of making these videos are automatic on the user’s side, though the technology is not yet ready to be scaled by everyone. Making of these kind of videos would involve additional production cost for the video-makers.

YouTube had also announced in January a 360-degree video viewing as well and an offline viewing mode for its mobile app, which would allow users to watch a video without any data plan of Wi-Fi connection for 48 hours.

February 5, 2015
Instagram Now Updated To Play Videos Continuously

Instagram, now owned by Facebook, started out in 2010 primarily as a photo sharing service. The Video sharing feature was introduced in the 2013. Despite timelapse apps being introduced, Instagram was still best known for photos.

Instagram introduced a new update for its video feature that may prove beneficial to advertisers. It may seem that Instagram might have been inspired by Vine, a video sharing service, who had introduced the loop feature back in 2014.

The looping feature can be seen below:

http://instagram.com/p/ylOFR9qrMk/?modal=true

Videos uploaded on Instagram will now loop continuously from the start till the end, and cannot be paused in the middle until scrolled down. This would ensure that the user would actually watch the videos, including the video ads, in their feed.

This update is seen like a gift for advertisers, who believe that this will boost the probability of their videos on Instagram to be seen by Instagram’s 300 million users worldwide. Instagram also assures that the looping videos won’t consume more data than its previous format.

February 4, 2015

Author: Rishi Baruah

SPECS

Samsung Galaxy A7