Category: Android

Everything You Would Want To Know: Samsung Galaxy Round

Samsung announced the Galaxy Round just two days back, the Flexible OLED technology was first introduced by Samsung at the CES 2013 in the month of January. Ever since then we have got rumors suggesting Samsung is to announce the curved display phone. The rumors came out to be true as Samsung did officially launch the Curved Display Smartphone, the Galaxy Round. The device is very much identical to Samsung’s latest Note, the Galaxy Note 3. The Galaxy Round has the same leather like stitching at the back of the device, and both the devices also share the same screen size, the difference is just the curve for the Galaxy Round.

The Galaxy Round is the first of its kind smartphone available in the market, for now the device is only available in Korea. However we assume that it should be available to all markets soon.

The Samsung Galaxy Round has a 5.7 inch Full HD Super Flexible AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and 386 ppi. No doubt, the Korean company said such a curved screen smartphone is the first in the world. Moving further, the Galaxy Round is packed with a 3 GB of RAM along with a 32 GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable upto 64 GB via Micro SD card. The device has a 2800 mAh of battery, which is a bit low if compared to the 3200 mAh for the Galaxy Note 3.

The Samsung Galaxy Round is powered by a 2.3 GHz Krait 400 Quad-core processor with a Snapdragon 800 Chipset (the much awaited chipset for ‘Samsung’ devices in India) and an Adreno 330 GPU. The device sports a 13 MP camera at the back along with LED Flash and a 2 MP front camera. The 13 MP rear camera does videos at 2160p @30fps and 1080p @60fps.

The Galaxy Round is available in the Korean market and is launched in the luxury brown color for now. The device measures 151.1 x 79.6 x 7.9 mm and weighs 154 grams. If we talk about the connectivity option on the Galaxy Round, we will again see something very similar to what we saw on the Galaxy Note 3 as the images of the Galaxy Round clearly shows the USB 3.0 port.

Now, we all know all these specifications and features are amazing but what is the benefit of the curved display ? the company has not made it clear either, but we did see a video that showed the roll effect which showed the battery status and other notifications by just wobbling the device around. Samsung is introducing a new feature called “Round Interaction,” which will allow users to look at information such as missed calls, battery life, and the date and time when you tilt it on a flat surface with the screen off. Samsung also claims that switching between home screens will feel like one continuous transition, and has worked on new tilt- and tap-based interactions for the music and photos apps. The phone itself doesn’t flex, but the curved or smile shape makes it more comfortable to hold, Samsung says.

[youtube id=”UIEExKSjWi4″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

Questions like, will the device be comfortable holding up to the ear while talking?, will the device fit in the pocket easily ? remains unanswered as these can only be answered when we get our hands on the device. The company has not shared its plan to launch the phone in other markets yet, but we will update you on this with time. The device is priced at 1.09 million won (around $1,013), you can check out some images below:

October 11, 2013
Nexus 5 Images Leaked Again: Nexus 5 Revolution Be Ready

Case maker SPIGEN leaked the Nexus 5 images yet again with a photo showing back of the device. The recently leaked image shows the large camera sensor at the back of the device which is supposedly a 8 MP camera as per the manual that leaked out previously.

According to an earlier leak by SPIGEN, the Nexus 5 will launch on October 31, but the latest information shows October 30 is the date. Earlier this month, the rumored Nexus 5 showed up with leaked battery, pricing and storage details. The report showed us that the 16 GB Nexus 5 model will supposedly be priced at $299, while the 32 GB Nexus 5 might be priced at $399.

However, the rumoured specifications of the Nexus 5 are a 4.95 inch full HD IPS LCD display, supposedly the device will be powered by a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core processor with a Snapdragon 800 chipset along with a 2 GB of RAM, 8 MP camera, a 1.3 MP front facing camera. The device is believed to be run on Android 4.4 KitKat. While these are some leaked specification, the official news should not be away. Stay tuned!

[via]

October 11, 2013
Instagram Update for Android Adds Enhanced Video Control

The Instagram 4.1 version for iOS users has the ability to straighten photos from a long time now, with today’s update for Android, users can now enjoy the same feature on the smartphones running on Android OS.

The latest Android application update, which will supposedly hit Google Play store today, brings the photo straightening feature and some more add on benefits as the new update enables sound and data usage controls for the video.

While you enjoy these additions, one feature of Instagram still remains out of the reach for Android users. Cinema Stabilization is a feature that iOS users have been enjoying from a long time now, but this update does not seem to give Android users a chance to get benefit of it. However, the update is still not active but is expected to hit your devices some time today.

October 11, 2013
HTC One Max Leaks Out With Specifications, Android 4.3 and Sense 5.5

The HTC One Max leaks out again, within this week we have seen many leaks hinting the HTC One Max. Just few days before we saw the images of the device with the branding of US telecom provider Verizon, and now what we have is leaked specifications that were shared by the editor of Nowhereelse.fr. The image shows some specifications that we are already aware of, like the same 5.9 inch full HD screen resolution and a 3200 mAh battery.

The new specifications that were listed, suggested that the One max will feature a quad-core 1.7 Ghz processor along with a Snapdragon 600 chipset. If rumors are to be believed the device will be packed with a 2 GB of RAM, 16/32/64 GB of inbuilt storage and the device will run on Android 4.3 along with Sense 5.5.

As mentioned, these are leaked specification the official news for the launch should not be away. Stay tuned!

[via]

October 10, 2013
Sony Z1 F Launched With 4.3 Inch HD display
Japanese carrier NTT Docomo has announced the Sony Z1F, It has a 4.3 inch(720p) Triluminos Display with X-Reality engine and a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, the device is powered by 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Sony Z1 F has the same 20.7 MP rear camera along with Sony’s G lens and a 27 mm wide angle f/2.0 aperture custom 1/2.3 Sony Exmor RS image sensor, BIONZ image processing engine. The device does full HD recording at 1080p and has a 2 MP front camera.

The Z1 F can be considered as the mini version of the Sony’s flagship Z1, but if you consider other same smartphones like the HTC One mini and the Samsung galaxy S4 mini, all these phones have been compromised when it comes to hardware. But, in this case this device has the same of the features that his brig brother introduced to the market, like the phone itself being waterproof, same camera, same processor and alot more. The device weighs 140 grams.

Sony Xperia Z1 f specifications:
- 4.3 inch TRILUMINOS HD (720×1280) display
- 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800
- 2 GB of RAM
- Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
- 20.7 MP Exmor RS sensor with BIONZ image processor engine
- 2 MP megapixel front facing camera
- 16 GB inbuilt storage
- 2300 mAh battery
The Sony Xperia Z1 is available in Lime, Black, White and Pink. colors. It would be available from NTT Docomo from late December 2013. No word on pricing and availability in India yet.
October 10, 2013
Rumour : Next Version Of Google Hangouts To Replace Stock Messaging App

The next version of Google Hangouts for Android will likely replace the stock Messaging app with a single, unified Hangouts version that detects whether the respondent is also using Google’s new multi-platform chat-and-conference service, and if so will send the message over data, and if not will send it via SMS.

The revelation was made by Android Police who, after hearing rumours of the service consolidation in Android 4.4 KitKat, received some pretty convincing screenshots showing Hangouts sending messages “via SMS.”

Messages sent via SMS will show “via SMS” next to the timestamp so that you can always figure out the protocol used for each message delivery. You can request delivery reports for sent SMSes – a feature that is part of the SMS protocol that some of you may be using regularly.

The fundamental question is whether this will be an Android 4.4-only thing, and how it will work with previous versions. It’s not like Google can update Play Services and all of a sudden hundreds of millions of Android users have a single, unified SMS app. More likely, Hangouts, like many third-party SMS apps, will ask to become the “default” and take over the role of the stock messaging app. Nexus devices will probably receive an update to remove the legacy Messages app and go forth with just Hangouts.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

[Via]

October 9, 2013
HTC Desire 500 Available Online for 21490 INR

HTC has finally launched its latest smartphone in India, the Desire 500 is now available for 21490 INR in India. The HTC Desire 500 will be available in stores starting wednesday.

The HTC Desire 500 is powered by a Quad-Core 1.2 GHz processor along wth a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset. The device has a 1 GB of RAM along with a 4 GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable via Micro SD. Desire 500 sports a a 4.3 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The device features a 8 MP rear camera with LED flash and a 1.6 MP front facing camera. HTC Desire 500 is capable of recording at 720p and also features Beats Audio.

The Desire 500 is packed with a 1800 mAh battery, the device runs on Android 4.2 with Sense 5.0. The phone measures 131.8 x 66.9 x 9.9mm and weighs 123 grams

[via]

October 9, 2013
Microsoft to Launch Remote Desktop For Android and iOS Devices

Microsoft will launch the Windows Server 2012 R2, and will release its Remote Desktop app on Windows, Windows RT and OS X, but also on iOS and Android, probably by end of this month.

The press release further shows, with Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, available for download in application stores later this month, to provide easy access to PCs and virtual desktops on a variety of devices and platforms, including Windows, Windows RT, iOS, OS X and Android. However, this is the first time Microsoft’s remote desktop is available for rival platforms, but having said that this could be a problem for current apps which perform the same function.

The remote desktop for the iOS version will support iOS 6 and 7, while the Android variant will support everything from Gingerbread upward. No information is available on the date of the release yet.

[toggle title=”Press Release “]Microsoft unleashes fall wave of enterprise cloud solutions
Oct. 07, 2013
New Windows Server, System Center, Visual Studio, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, SQL Server, and Dynamics solutions will accelerate cloud benefits for customers.

REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 7, 2013 – Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced a wave of new enterprise products and services to help companies seize the opportunities of cloud computing and overcome today’s top IT challenges. Complementing Office 365 and other services, these new offerings deliver on Microsoft’s enterprise cloud strategy.

Satya Nadella, Cloud and Enterprise executive vice president, said, “As enterprises move to the cloud they are going to bet on vendors that have best-in-class software as a service applications, operate a global public cloud that supports a broad ecosystem of third party services, and deliver multi-cloud mobility through true hybrid solutions. If you look across the vendor landscape, you can see that only Microsoft is truly delivering in all of those areas.” More comments from Nadella can be found on The Official Microsoft Blog.

Hybrid infrastructure and modern applications

To help customers build IT infrastructure that delivers continuous services and applications across clouds, on Oct. 18 Microsoft will release Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2. Together, these new products empower companies to create datacenters without boundaries using Hyper-V for high-scale virtualization; high-performance storage at dramatically lower costs; built-in, software-defined networking; and hybrid business continuity. The new Windows Azure Pack runs on top of Windows Server and System Center, enabling enterprises and service providers to deliver self-service infrastructure and platforms from their datacenters.

Building on these hybrid cloud platforms, customers can use Visual Studio 2013 and the new .NET 4.5.1, also available Oct. 18, to create modern applications for devices and services. As software development becomes pervasive within every company, the new Visual Studio 2013 Modern Lifecycle Management solution helps enable development teams, businesspeople and IT managers to build and deliver better applications, faster.

Enabling enterprise cloud adoption

Recognizing that most enterprises will take a hybrid approach to cloud, Microsoft wants to help customers utilize their investments in on-premises software solutions toward the adoption of cloud computing. On Nov. 1, Microsoft will offer Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers access to discounted Windows Azure prices, regardless of upfront commitment, without overuse penalties and with the flexibility of annual payments.

As another part of this effort to reduce cloud adoption barriers, Microsoft on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Equinix Inc. Building on recently announced partnerships with AT&T and others, this alliance will provide customers with even more options for private and fast connections to the cloud. Customers will be able to connect their networks with Windows Azure at Equinix exchange locations for greater throughput, availability and security features.

Governments are among the most demanding enterprise customers. To help U.S. federal, state and local government agencies realize the benefits of public cloud computing, Microsoft is introducing its Windows Azure US Government Cloud. This will offer U.S. government customers a dedicated community cloud for data, applications and infrastructure, hosted in the continental U.S. and managed by U.S. personnel. Windows Azure has been granted FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board Provisional Authority to Operate, making it the first public cloud of its kind to achieve this level of government authorization.

Data platform and insights

As part of its vision to help more people unlock actionable insights from big data, Microsoft next week will release a second preview of SQL Server 2014. The new version offers industry-leading in-memory technologies at no additional cost, giving customers 10 times to 30 times performance improvements without application rewrites or new hardware. SQL Server 2014 also works with Windows Azure to give customers built-in cloud backup and disaster recovery.

For big data analytics, later this month Microsoft will release Windows Azure HDInsight Service, an Apache Hadoop-based service that works with SQL Server and widely used business intelligence tools, such as Microsoft Excel and Power BI for Office 365. With Power BI, people can combine private and public data in the cloud for rich visualizations and fast insights.

People and devices in the cloud

The proliferation of cloud applications, data and consumer devices is moving many enterprises to a bring-your-own-device model. The new release of Windows Intune, also available Oct. 18, combines with System Center Configuration Manager to help IT departments give mobile employees security-enhanced access to the applications and data they need on the Windows, iOS and Android devices of their choice. This unified management environment for PCs and mobile devices complements the new access and information protection capabilities in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Further, with Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, available for download in application stores later this month, to provide easy access to PCs and virtual desktops on a variety of devices and platforms, including Windows, Windows RT, iOS, OS X and Android.

Software as a service business solutions

The next major version of the company’s CRM solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Fall ’13 will be available later this month, helping make customer interactions more personal via contextual information for deeper insights than the previous version, delivered on a variety of devices.* The on-premises version is expected to be available later in the fall for deployment either in-house or hosted by a partner. More information is available here. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 is now available, offering small and midsize businesses interoperability with Office 365, full multitenant support, and a range of tools designed to support large-scale hosting of the application on Windows Azure.

More information on Monday’s announcements can be found at the Microsoft News Center.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* Devices include Windows 8 tablets and iPad tablets with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013; Windows Phone 8, iPhone and Android phone shortly following the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013.[/toggle]

October 9, 2013
Skype For Android Gets Update, Improved Video Quality
Did your phone updated to the latest change from Skype this morning ? If not, you might want to update it manually as the latest version of Skype on Android has got two new major updates, better video quality and a new tablet user interface. The company claims that you can now enjoy video chats with up to four times the resolution of older Skype versions, while using a phone or a tablet.

The user interface, tablets have got a completely new UI with the new 4.4 version of Skype, the new UI displays latest chats and calls which we have seen on the smartphones but is new for tablets.

Apart from changes, the new update also has some bug fixes like:
- Accessibility improvements with full support for TalkBack screen reader
- Updates that address incoming call issues, including one that was causing phones to reboot
- Additional changes to audio routing
- Display and UX enhancements when switching orientation
October 9, 2013
Samsung’s Curved Display Phone is Official, ‘Galaxy Round’ To Launch Tomorrow : Video

Samsung’s curved display phone has ended up all the rumors and is now official, after being shown up in leaked rumors earlier, the company has announced that it will launch the Galaxy Round tomorrow.

The highlight of the Galaxy Round is the curved 1080p 5.7 inch OLED screen, while Samsung is also aiming towards a bunch software tweaks for the smartphone. Other specifications include a 7.9 mm thickness and the device weighs 154 grams.

The device looks no closer to the prototype displayed earlier this year, you can check out the video below to know what the phone looks like and what are the special software tweaks Samsung has for its new Galaxy Round, one of them is the roll effect shown in the video. The new phone will be powered by a 2800 mAh battery, launching tomorrow in Korea the device is priced around $1,000. Stay tuned for more information on the Galaxy Round.

[youtube id=”UIEExKSjWi4″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

[toggle title=”Press Release “]Samsung GALAXY ROUND Pioneers the Curved Display Smartphone Experience

New device presents world’s first commercialized full HD Super AMOLED flexible display

Seoul, Korea – October 9, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today introduced GALAXY ROUND, the world’s first curved display smartphone. Samsung has been a mobile display innovator by introducing color TFT-LCD, AMOLED, and Super AMOLED flexible display for its mobile product. With this pioneering curved display technology, GALAXY ROUND blends the latest smartphone screen innovations with unique design features. The sleek and thin Samsung GALAXY ROUND which equipped with a 5.7″ Full HD Super AMOLED with 7.9mm thick and weighs 154g offers a comfortable hand grip feeling to user, and exclusive experiences of curved display.

As a result of its unique curved design, users can take advantage of round integration experiences like the Roll Effect that enables user to check information such as date, time, missed call and battery easily when home screen is off, and the Gravity Effect for creating visual interaction with the screen by tilting the device. For music, the Bounce UX enables users to control their music. When the GALAXY ROUND’s display is off while the music player is running, a short press to the left of the device will play the previous track while a short press to the right will play the next track. For pictures and videos, the Side Mirror feature enables users to gain access to list of the album content with a left and right tilt.

The large screen size of the GALAXY ROUND provides additional benefits to users. Useful One-Hand Operation features bring a user’s most desired controls closer to a preferred side of the screen. The device enables enhanced multitasking capabilities that allow users to fully utilize the larger screen through Multi Window, a feature that enables users to open more than one application on the screen, run simultaneous multiple instances of the same application or to easily share content between applications.

Samsung GALAXY ROUND is available in Korea with Luxury Brown, and more color will be available soon.

* All functionality, features, specifications, and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.[/toggle]

October 9, 2013
XOLO Q700i smartphone With a 8 MP Camera Listed Online at a Price of 11,999 INR

Xolo have secretly introduced a successor of its Q700, the Q700i has now been listed online on Flipkart for 11,999 INR. The Xolo Q700i is currently available on the online retailer, however, Xolo has not yet officially announced the device in India.

The device sports a 4.5 inch qHD display (OGS) with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. Xolo Q700i is powered by 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor along with PowerVR SGX544 GPU. Xolo Q700i is equipped with a 8 MP rear camera which has a BSI Sensor with image stabilization along with 2 MP front facing camera. The device has a 1 GB of RAM along with a 4 GB of inbuilt storage which can be further be expanded up to 32 GB.

Xolo Q700i runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is a dual-SIM device, it measures 135.8 x 67.5 x 10.2 mm and weighs about 151 grams.

October 8, 2013
Celkon Unveils Campus A15, 1 Ghz Dual-Core With Android 4.2.2 at a Price of 3999 INR

Celkon today unveiled a new device to add on to its campus series, the Campus A15 is the latest smartphone from the company.

The Celkon Campus A15 sports a 3.5 inch HVGA display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The device is powered by a 1 Ghz Dual-Core processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Campus A15 has a 256 MB of RAM and a 512 MB of inbuilt storage (165 MB for Apps & 12.15 MB for Phone storage), however, the memory is expandable upto 32 GB.

The Celkon Campus A15 also has a 3.2 mega pixel rear camera. The device has a 1400 mAh battery, the connectivity options in the device include, Bluetooth, GPRS, WiFi, micro USB and Dual SIM support. The Ceklon Campus A15 is priced at 3999 INR.

October 8, 2013
BlackBerry and Kik Settles Mobile Messaging Patent Suit

After 3 years of accused patent suit, Blackberry and Kik have finally settled the patent infringement case. Kik said in a statement that it is “very happy to put the BlackBerry lawsuit to rest,” the details of the settlement are not public, because it includes the confidentiality agreement.

BlackBerry initiated the suit weeks after Kik’s messaging service was in the market, grabbing 2 million users in the period of 10 days. However, Kik says it has 90 million registered users across iOS and Android, and is looking forward to 225,000 new joiners every day. On the other hand, BlackBerry’s BBM messenger has 60 million monthly users, which could have been more if the global launch of BBM for Android and iOS was not aborted in between of the process.

October 8, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 Review

Build Quality And Design

Just like the rest of the Galaxy series, the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a plastic-bodied phone with the same Galaxy S4-like template design. It has the same metallic edging, the silver-edged home button and shiny speaker grille. The back panel shares the same black and silver crosshatch pattern.

The Galaxy Mega 6.3 is absolutely huge. At 88mm wide and almost 198mm tall, this is the biggest smartphone we’ve ever reviewed. It weighs almost 200g, but it doesn’t feel overly heavy in the hand considering its size.

Moving around the device, there’s a microUSB charging port on the bottom, a volume rocker on the left-hand side, a power button on the right-hand side and a 3.5mm headphone jack up top. There’s a microSD card slot for adding additional storage under the flimsy battery cover.

Overall build quality is like any other Samsung device, but the mammoth screen size raises a few questions over the durability of the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3.

Specifications And Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 sports a 6.3-inch 720×1280 display and features the same camera as that of the Galaxy Mega 5.8. It is powered by a dual-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. The Galaxy Mega has 1.5GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and A-GPS. The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 comes with a 3,200 mAh battery and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The phone comes with 16GB internal storage capacity and has a microSD card slot for expanding the storage up to 64GB.

Display And Multimedia

The USP of the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is its display. While the sheer size of the display is impressive itself, we were also pleased with the colour reproduction. Samsung opted for a Super Clear LCD display instead of their AMOLED panel, and this makes it one of the better Samsung devices to use outdoors.

The thing that disappointed us though was the resolution of the display. At a time when companies are coming out with 5.5″+ Full HD displays on devices, and Samsung too will release the Note 3 with one, the 720×1280 resolution is a let down. A device of this size will by default be used for a lot of media consumption which involves a lot of text as well, so a 233 ppi pixel density is inadequate in our opinion.

The sheer size of the screen on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 though makes consuming media enjoyable and almost stress free, and the chipset is more than capable of handling HD video playback and streaming.

When it comes to general performance though, the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 left us disappointed. The phablet lags while performing even the simplest of tasks sometimes, like scrolling through your apps grid. Samsung could have gone with a quad-core chipset on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 given the fact that it is priced above the Rs. 30,000 price mark, but instead it chose to extend its profits margin by using a dual-core chipset.

We’re forced to believe this is poor optimization in TouchWiz more so than the capabilities of the chip though, as other Snapdragon 400 devices manage to perform smoothly, and the Snapdragon 600-powered Galaxy S 4 was also laggy until an update just before launch.

The speakerphone on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is fantastic, it is really loud, but not in a painfully distorted way, it sounds good through videos, music and even games.

[youtube id=”_oIoZgw6-oU” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing 1.9-megapixel camera for video calls. The camera app is almost identical to the one used on the Galaxy S4 and we particularly like the excellent scrolling carousel to change camera modes.

Video is captured at Full HD and employs anti-shake if you need it from the main UI, the front camera however- captures 720p video. You can also add some effects to your pictures in the Auto Mode. Shooting modes like “Best Photo”, “Best Face” and “Sound and Shot” worked really well on the S4, and they work just as great on the Galaxy Mega 5.8 .

Images are processed to give a punchy, high-contrast look that is high on impact, if not quite as great at producing an entirely natural look.

[youtube id=”Qv_q4IrY-sA” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

Software

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with the usual Samsung TouchWiz interface laid on top. Consequently, it looks and feels almost identical to the other high-end Galaxy phones, including the Galaxy S4.

The old elements of the TouchWiz UI are intact too, with features like Direct call (lift the phone from within a message to call), Smart Alert, tilting to zoom into pictures or gallery. Pan device to move the Icons or browse a zoomed in Image and even Flipping the device to Mute or pause.

Battery And Network

One might think that such an enormous screen, coupled with a big flat form, would mean that the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 battery life suffers. In fact, the very opposite it true. You can easily get a day and a half of moderate to heavy use out of this phone before it packs up. Given that there’s only two cores and that it’s not a 1080p screen, the quite large 3,200mAh actually goes a very long way, and that’s no small shakes if you’re looking at the Mega as both your tablet and phone.

One area the Galaxy Mega 6.3 shines is call quality. The rear speaker for speakerphone and the earpiece speaker are both quite loud, and they provide crisp, clear audio.

However, putting a phone as large as the Galaxy Mega against your head looks and feels odd. You may get used to it, but passers-by won’t any time soon.

Conclusion

The Galaxy Mega’s name definitely refers to its size rather than specifications. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 is only slightly cheaper than the Galaxy S4, while having a less advanced screen, a much less powerful processor, less RAM, a worse camera and – worst of all – diminished usability.

The Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a phone that might as well be the next big thing, but, the problem here may be that its just too big to be an everyday phone.

October 8, 2013
Optima Launches Smart OPS 80 and OPS 80Q Android Phablets

Sunstrike Telecom has unveiled two new phablets for the Indian market under its very own Optima Smart series, the OPS 80 and OPS 80Q. The Smart OPS-80Q is priced at 11899 INR and Smart OPS 80 for 6999 INR.

The Optima Smart OPS 80 features a 5.3 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex A9 chipset and a 512 MB of RAM. The camera on the device is a 8 MP rear along with a 1.3 MP front facing camera. The OPS 80 sports a 4 GB of inbuilt storage with an option to expand upto 32 GB via Micro SD.

Commenting on the launch, Capt. Chanpreet Singh, Managing Director, Sunstrike Telecom Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are proud to announce our entry in the premium smartphone market in India and we are sure that our innovation based products will charm their way into the hearts of young Indians. Our innovation based devices have wonderful features that are most sought after today and are certain to please the Indian consumer.”

Whereas, the OPS 80Q features a 5 inch qHD display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. The phablet measures measures 142 x72.2 x 9.9mm, runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor. OPS 80Q has a 8 MP rear camera with flash and a 2 MP front facing camera. The device includes 4 GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded up to 32 GB via microSD card and this phablet comes up with a 1800 mAh battery.

October 6, 2013