Category: Brands and Companies

All Brands and Company Names

Activity Tracker Fitbit Now Available For Windows Phone Users

Fitbit is one of the major players in the activity tracker market, with an estimated 67 percent of all trackers in the US shipping with the Fitbit brand last year. It’s also grabbed more than one million app downloads on Google Play alone, though it remains tight-lipped about the specifics of its App Store figures.

Fitbit is finally expanding its mobile scope beyond that of Android and iOS by launching a version for Windows Phone. The app is near-identical to its iOS and Android counterparts. Simply pair your smartphone over Bluetooth with a Fitbit device like the Flex or the One, and your data will sync automatically.

You can then use the app to monitor progress on your fitness goals by checking in on the steps you’ve taken and the calories you’ve burned. You can also log how much food and water you’ve had today. The Fitbit app is currently only compatible with Windows Phone 8.1 but the OS upgrade will be rolling out to all Lumia devices shortly.

This is a notable move by Fitbit as it has a potential to gain many new users on a platform that’s largely been ignored by the big-brand trackers. Fitbit is among the first to bring such a fully-featured native app to Windows Phone. Some previous third-party attempts have been decent, though they ultimately lacked key features such as real-time Bluetooth syncing, something the official app from Fitbit offers.

Fitbit is staking for the monopoly in the market. Hence, the still nascent market of Windows Phones is targetted by the company which was thought to have only 3% of the market in USA. Recently, the Windows Apps market has seen a lot of new apps rolling out. In just the last few weeks, both Adobe Photoshop Express and on-demand car service Uber have made their debuts as native apps. That doesn’t exactly signal the end of lack of app on the Windows platform. Although it does give Windows Phone enthusiasts some hope that the apps they wish for would soon arrive in their devices.

You can grab the app for your Windows Phone 8.1 device from the Windows Phone store, it’s free and available worldwide in English, with additional languages to come later this year.

July 30, 2014
Apple Acquires BookLamp, The ‘Pandora For Books’

After making a giant purchase of Beats for $3 billion, Apple has now acquired BookLamp, a book recommendation maker. Apple confirmed reports that it recently acquired book analytics firm BookLamp which is dubbed the “Pandora for Books”. The acquisition happened in April to bolster Apple’s fight in the e-book sales market, bringing better discovery and analytics to its digital storefront.

BookLamp’s most well-known product was the Book Genome Project, a platform that lets users find suggestions for books to read based on natural language analysis of other titles. BookLamp’s tech and talent could help Apple improve its iBooks service with better recommendations, search, and categorization.

The report also states that Apple has bought BookLamp’s employees and technology for a price somewhere between $10 and $15 million. Meanwhile, the BookLamp website now states it will no longer be available as “the company evolves its mission.” It hasn’t mentioned any details about being acquired by Apple.

Apple is thought to have acquired the start-up for the iBooks store, which offers e-books to iOS and OS X device owners but does not yet have an effective recommendations system for content discovery. Like the iOS App Store, Apple is likely looking to improve generated suggestions through BookLamp’s specialized software that can parse words and sentences to look for various metrics like genre, themes and even pacing.

There are several big ways Apple could be using BookLamp to bolster its own e-book platform. One option would be to use BookLamp to build a competitor to Amazon X-Ray, which lets readers see where and how often terms or characters pop up in a book. That could be useful for classifying books into categories or flagging ones with sexual or violent content as being unsuitable for kids — or simply providing feature parity with Amazon’s Kindle app, which offers X-Ray on iOS.

Considering Amazon’s headway into self publishing, it’s enticing to wonder whether BookLamp’s technology for screening manuscripts to figure out their market fit, or the other tools they were developing and using, may end up getting implemented under their new owner to determine what it should promote. BookLamp’s algorithms could augment Apple’s human editors who choose what’s highlighted on the iBooks homescreen.

The most obvious way, though, would be to use BookLamp’s content and style analysis to power individualized iBooks recommendations. Before it was snapped by Apple, BookLamp had raised around $900,000 from local backers.

With the WWDC release of the new Spotlight power upgrade and the acquisition of Swell, the radio curation app along with several other secret acquisition, it seems Apple is trying to give its best in class search boost to its ecosystem. Good curated content will simplify the life of many people and will attract them to the Apple ecosystem.

July 30, 2014

Apple Upgrades MacBook Pro with Retina Display to Better Processors

Today Apple refreshes its premium MacBook Pro with Retina display lineup, bumping up the CPU speeds and RAM, as well as dropping the prices of the high-end models.

Prior to this upgrade the base version of the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display featured a 2560 X1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch retina display, 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L RAM, and 128GB of PCIe-based flash storage and it had a price tag of $1,299. For the same price this model now comes with a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 chip and 8GB of memory.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features dual-core Intel Core i5 processors up to 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz and 8GB of memory, up from 4GB in the entry-level notebook. The 13-inch model can also be configured with faster dual-core Intel Core i7 processors up to 3.0 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz.

The top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a new, lower starting price of INR 179,900. The 15-inch model features faster quad-core Intel Core i7 processors up to 2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.7 GHz, 16GB of memory, up from 8GB in the entry-level notebook, and can be configured with quad-core Intel Core i7 processors up to 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.0 GHz.

“People love their MacBook Pro because of the thin and light, aluminium unibody design, beautiful Retina display, all day battery life and deep integration with OS X. The MacBook Pro with Retina display gets even better with faster processors, more memory, more affordable configurations and a free upgrade to OS X Yosemite this fall.”said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.

iLife and iWork come free with every new Mac. iLife lets you edit your favorite videos with iMovie, create new music or learn to play piano. iWork on the other hand, allows productivity apps, Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which make it easy to create, edit and share stunning documents, spreadsheets and presentations. OS X Mavericks, the world’s most advanced operating system, also comes free with every new Mac. With more than 200 features, OS X Mavericks is designed for ease of use while taking full advantage of the powerful technologies built into every Mac, including core technologies designed specifically for notebooks to boost performance and improve battery life.

MacBook Pro with Retina display and MacBook Pro are available today through select Apple Authorised Resellers.

The pricing is as followed:

Description	Price
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory, 128GB of flash storage and Intel Iris graphics.	94,900 (inc VAT)
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory, 256GB of flash storage and Intel Iris graphics	109,900 (inc VAT)
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.8 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 8GB of memory, 512GB of flash storage and Intel Iris graphics	129,900 (inc VAT)
The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.2 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.4 GHz, 16GB of memory, 256GB of flash storage and Intel Iris Pro graphics	144,900 (inc VAT)
The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.7 GHz, 16GB of memory, 512GB of flash storage, and Intel Iris Pro and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics	179,900 (incl VAT)
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is available with a 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 4GB of memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a 500GB hard drive	78,900 (inc VAT)

This update to the MacBook Pro line comes ahead of the release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which is scheduled for release this fall, and brings a number of new features to users, including much closer integration between Mac and iOS devices.

July 30, 2014

Xiaomi Mi3 Sells Out for the Second Time Within Minutes on Flipkart

Xiaomi has created a huge wave in the Indian smartphone market by bringing in a high-end handset at a low-end price. Xiaomi is the top smartphone manufacturer in China which went from zero to the fifth position in just four years. After creating a success story back home, they have launched their devices in the Indian market, which have stirred up a storm, even before the users could get a unit in their hands.

The first time, when Mi3 went on sale last week, it was sold out within 40 minutes of its availability. A reported 100,000 people registered for the phone before the day of sale on July 22. On the day of sale, Flipkart ran out of their entire inventory within a record 39 minutes and also managed to get the website to its knees.

The Xiaomi Mi 3 went on sale again via the website today at 2PM IST. However, same as the last time it sold reported 10,000 units within half an hour, 23 mins to be exact. The Flipkart page of the Xaiomi Mi3 thanked buyers for ‘tremendous response’ and also notified that next date for sale will be on 5 August while the registration for the next sale will start at 6PM IST today.

The Xiaomi Mi 3 runs a highly tweaked version of Android 4.4 KitKat, with MIUI version 5 on top. It comes with a 5-inch full-HD LCD display (1080×1920 pixels) offering a pixel density of 441ppi; a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8274AB) processor; 2GB of RAM; Adreno 330 GPU; 16GB of inbuilt storage; 13-megapixel rear camera; 2-megapixel camera, and 3050mAh battery.

Xiaomi also launched its latest flagship smartphone, called the Mi 4, at the company’s “The Journey of a Piece of Steel” launch event along with the Mi Band, a budget fitness tracker priced at just $13 (roughly Rs. 790).

July 29, 2014
Thermal Imaging is Finally Available For Your iPhone With FLIR ONE

Remember watching the Predator and thinking how cool it would be to see the world around you in thermal imaging? Though the technology has been around for quite a while and has been proactively used by militaries around the world. And we know consumer versions have been out for the benefit of campers and hikers, but nothing can come close to what FLIR ONE claims to offer.

FLIR ONE lets you use your iPhone as a thermal imaging camera. All you need to do is get the FLIR ONE case and the companion app and you are good to go do some predating. The FLIR ONE case itself comes with a thermal imaging camera which slides on behind the iPhone. The case is good to look at and bulks up your phone by just 110 grams and also makes the phone look good.

The case brings thermal imaging right on your phone

The technology can come handy in day to day use too and is not just limited for the outdoorsy folks. It can help people living in cold areas to find thermal leaks and make their heating more efficient. It will make it a lot easier to find your lost pet at night; it might make you feel a predator looking for its prey. It can also be used for driving on a foggy or rainy day.

FLIR ONE also has options for time lapse capture, paint and panorama functions. Apple might bring the time lapse feature with the iOS 8 update which might challenge the developers of this app to compete with Apple’s official offerings.

FLIR ONE will be available on Apple Stores and online retail portal in August. The pre-orders on the website will begin tomorrow. The case comes in Space Gray and will come with silver or gold versions later. It costs $349.99 and at this price only the serious enthusiasts will give it a try. Android users may have to wait for a while before they have an thermal imaging case, but maybe soon the technology might arrive pre-built into the future mobile phones.

July 29, 2014
Cortana Humiliates Siri in a New Commercial

Microsoft today launched a new commercial flaunting the power of their new virtual assistant Cortana by pitching it against Apple’s renowned Siri. The commercial cleverly demonstrates Cortana’s functionality while taking advantage of Siri’s shortcomings.

Titled ‘Happy Anniversary’, it shows a narrator giving certain commands to a Nokia 635 (with Windows Phone 8.1) running Cortana, and an Apple iPhone 5S running Siri. The narrator first asks the phones to remind him to wish his wife a happy anniversary the next time she calls, for which Cortana schedules an event-based reminder. He then asks both virtual assistants to remind him to buy roses the next time he comes near a flower shop, for which Cortana again schedules a reminder. Siri is unable to complete either of these tasks, as event-based reminders are still not part of Siri’s vast feature list.

Cortana’s voice interations are better than Siri and Google Now

Lastly, Cortana automatically provides the narrator with a traffic update, prompting him to leave if he wants to reach his destination on time. Again, Siri lacks this kind of functionality.

Siri ends the video by saying “Now that’s a real smartphone”. Ouch.

Microsoft will be introducing Cortana along with their Windows Phone 8.1 update. While it has been years since Apple and Google introduced their Siri and Google Now offerings respectively, Microsoft believes Cortana has some major advantages over the two. Microsoft also said this when they were releasing the Zune, hopefully Cortana would help Microsoft correct that error.

Microsoft says it has designed Cortana to feel more human-like than Google Now or Siri. It is currently the only virtual assistant that allows you to set reminders based on phone calls. A real human like interaction is possible with Cortana and Microsoft believes it is their biggest advantage over the two rivals.

Microsoft is clearly doing a good job building hype around the release of their latest Windows Phone 8.1 update. But is Cortana really better than Siri? Well, you be the judge of that.

By Pranav Arora

July 29, 2014
Panasonic Set to Launch the Eluga Series in India

Panasonic India are all set to launch their Eluga series of smartphones in the country. After a lot of teasing, the company has finally sent out invites for the launch event scheduled to take place on Wednesday, the 30th of July.

It is unclear whether the launch will include any new set of smartphones, or if Panasonic are only reviving the Eluga series that they launched in the European market in 2012. That series included the Eluga DL1 and the Eluga Power. It was later discontinued due to poor response. It is rumoured that this series will include a better chipset (SoC), and a higher quality display.

The company is currently promoting their latest P and T series of smartphones in India. Only last week, the company unleashed a trio of dual-sim smartphones – Panasonic T41, P41 and P61, priced at Rs. 7,990, Rs. 11,990 and Rs. 14,990 respectively.

The T41 features a 4.5” IPS display, with 512MB ram and 4GB inbuilt storage. The P41 features a 5” IPS display, 1GB ram, and 8GB inbuilt storage. Lastly, the P61 features a 6” IPS display, 1GB ram, and 16GB inbuilt storage. All three run on a quad core processor clocked at 1.3GHz.

The invite describes the Eluga series as “Elegance for a new generation”, which doesn’t give us any hint as to what segment Panasonic will be targeting with it. However, if the smartphones are decently specced and reasonably priced, Panasonic could have a winner on its hands. They could steal some valuable market share from renowned competitors at the reasonably priced range. We expect more than one smartphone to be revealed, so they may even target different sections with different markets.

By Pranav Arora

July 29, 2014
Apple to Buy Radio Curation App Swell for $30 Million

In the year of acquisitions, Apple’s latest is a $30 Million purchase of a Radio curation service called Swell. The report was brought out by Recode which said that Apple is close to buying the service.

Swell is a Radio and podcast compiler app which is currently available to iOS device users. It is a great service which is often compared to Pandora but for talk radio. The service offers access to major talk radio content providers.

It is said that under the clauses of the agreement, the team behind Swell will also come work for Apple. Apple might want to utilize their talents to better their own streaming service which is one of their least appreciated products. Swell’s app developers were also working on an Android version of their app, but with this acquisition, that project is probably out the window.

Apple has been seen this year going on a spending spree with a major Beats Audio purchase and other such smaller ones. In total the company has completed about 30 plus acquisitions in the past nine months. With this latest purchase of Swell, the app will now be taken down from the app store by the end of this week. It might be reintroduced with the new iOS 8 release.

July 28, 2014
HTC is Apparently Working on a Windows Version of One (M8)

HTC was one of the biggest Windows phone manufacturers till January 2012 before Nokia raced ahead. HTC completely switched to the Android OS with the shutting down of the HTC 8S and 8X. Now it is being speculated that HTC is planning a return into Microsoft’s territory. The Taiwanese phone manufacturers and contemplating a Windows 8.1 based HTC One (M8).

The 8X was one of the last windows phone offerings from HTC

The update was reported by WMPoweruser, but there is no official confirmation at the moment. There is update on a specified release date for the device.

The phone is expected to hold the same specs as is in its Android sibling. So it might have One M8’s 2.5 Snapdragon 801 Processor. The dual camera system, which makes it stand out in the crowd and hopefully the aluminum casing, will not be compromised on.

HTC’s re-entry into the windows ecosystem as it will give consumers some options in a market of generic looking devices. This is definitely welcome news for Windows enthusiasts who were getting discouraged by the lack of choices.

July 28, 2014
Rumor : Motorola is Working on a New Nexus Device

Motorola and Google parted ways last January, but if rumors are to be believed, Motorola is working on a new Nexus device, codenamed “Shamu”, that is set to launch sometime this fall. A number of other reports have indicated that HTC has also been working on an 8.9 inch Nexus tablet for Google. It’s code-named “Volantis,” and probably has an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and a high-resolution display, among other things.

Now it looks like a new Nexus smartphone by Motorola is also on the way, although it is said to have a near tablet-sized screen.

The reports leaked by Android Police hint that the Nexus device is a 5.9-inch device with a fingerprint sensor.

Android Police seem confident that the rumor is true. “Point are deducted simply because hardware plans can change very quickly, even when a prototype device already exists,” Android Police writes. “We are confident that Shamu is a real device under active development, and fairly confident that it is a contender for the Nexus program.”

Being that it’s a Nexus contender doesn’t mean it’ll be the device consumers will be able to buy later this year. But Motorola is apparently working on a device, which is supposed to be “targeted at major U.S. carriers, and unspecified carriers in other parts of the world,” Android Police said.

It seems unlikely that a new Nexus device would appear before this fall, which is far enough away for the plans to change. But this report somewhere takes the sword off the Nexus program, which seems to be doomed. Not only is it still in play, looks like it may have a few great devices coming down the line.

July 28, 2014
Xiaomi Mi3 vs Moto G : Lets Fight!

Both Motorola and Xiaomi aimed big with the launch of these amazing devices. Xiaomi Mi3 is elegant with amazing specs and attractive pricing, while Motorola provided a great deal with the Moto G, which broke all sales records when it launched. We understand that Xiaomi Mi3 offers way betters specs, but since both the devices come within the same price range, we thought it was important for them to battle it out.

Xiaomi is expected to take on most of the market with the launch of Mi3 because of the simple fact that the newly launched flagship device runs Snapdragon 800 and available at the price Rs. 13,999.

Xiaomi Mi3, as a solid unibody product looks fantastic and the built quality is admittedly amazing. Overall feeling of the device is great. On the other hand we have the Moto G with its replaceable back panel and an array of color options for back panels.

Talking about specifications, Mi3 is equipped with a 1920X1080 px 5.0 inch display. While, the Moto G has a 720X1280 px which is at 4.5 inches. On the inside of Xiaomi Mi3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core chipset at 2.3 GHz. It also get Adreno 330 GPU where as with the Moto G, from the same price bracket, you get a quite a different set of specification. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 at 1.2 GHz with the Adreno 305 GPU, which is comparatively a disappointment.

In terms of RAM, the device comes with 2 GB, where as the Moto G has a 1 GB. While the internal storage of both the devices is 16 GB. What’s interesting in Mi3 is the powerful 3050 mAh battery while the Moto G sports a 2070 mAh one. We know Moto G has a phenomenal battery life, but we are yet to test out the Mi3 battery life which is expected to be pretty impressive as well.

In terms of camera, the rear of Xiaomi Mi3 fashions a 13MP camera with a 28mm lens which also a wide-agle lens camera. It has dual LED flash and 1080p recording capability. Whereas Moto G is again dwarfed with its 5MP camera and its 720p video recording capabilities with no fancy camera features.

The game changer is the OS both of the devices run on. The Mi3 runs on Android 4.4.2 which has been customized with MiUi5 which actually very different from what you see in Moto G. Moto G’s Android version is almost a stock Android interface with a couple of things added by Motorola. Motorola will also be fast enough to give you updates. It comes with Android KitKat out-of-the-box, nowadays. It is a possibility that it will get the Android L update as soon as Google launches it.

The Mi3 is 8.1mm in thickness, where as Moto G is a little hefty at 11.6mm. Moto G weighs 140 g where as the Mi3 comes at 145 g. The look, the feel, impressive specs and of course the attractive pricing, definitely puts Xiaomi a step above Moto G. If you were planning on getting the Moto G, you might want to reconsider.

July 28, 2014
Lava Rolls Out Android 4.4.2 KitKat Update for Iris 504Q+

Domestic smartphone maker, Lava International Limited, has just announced an Android 4.4.2 Kitkat update for LAVA Iris 504Q+.

The new update, as company said , will improve user experience through an enhanced user interface, superior battery life and software performance. The update also comes with new dialer app which will automatically prioritize contacts according to the most frequently dialed numbers in the phone book. Also the dialer will offer a true-caller like service which will match unknown number from businesses with a local listing on Google Maps.

The users of Lava Iris 504Q+ will soon get the upgrade notification; on tapping the notification, the user will be guided through the upgrade download and installation process. Alternatively, the users can download and install manually through “Check Update” functionality that can be found in Settings.

The update will be downloaded on the memory card only and the user needs to have the memory card inserted in the smartphone while installing. After installation, the Android KitKat software can run with or without memory card in smartphone.

The new upgrade is said to increase the performance of the device. The Lava Iris 504Q+ packs in 1GB RAM and an internal memory of 8GB, which is expandable up to 32GB via micro-SD card, giving users enough space for applications and multimedia content. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor and Mali 400 MP2 at 500MHz Graphics Unit.

Another noteworthy feature of the devices is its 10 MP rear auto-focus camera that is powered by Sony Exmor RS Sensor having sensor size of 1/3.2 inch allowing enhanced lowlight performance. Through its unique gesture control and voice command functionality, a user can click a picture by saying just “Cheese” or “Capture” or with a swipe of the hand in air. Lava Iris is available in Grey and Silver colors at the price of Rs. 11,900.

July 28, 2014
Xiaomi Issues MiUi Update to fix some Mi3 Issues

Xiaomi seems to be pumped up about its new Mi3 sales in India, and the company is hell bent on proving that they are here to stay. The new MiUi update comes just days after the initial batch of phones were sold in India. This update addresses some of the crashing issues that people have been facing, along with other bug fixes and add ons.

The new MiUi update adds a new “saver” feature in data usage, which will allow users to possibly save on data costs. The MiUi update also adds a new version of Block and optimises the online music page.

The file is 592 MB in size and will essentially do a software re-flash, so is recommended that you back up your data before you proceed.

The Xiaomi Mi3 competes with the flagships for a price that is considered lower than mid range. The Mi3 is powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset and features a 1920 x 1080p display, has a 3050 mAh battery and comes with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. MiUi comes on top of Android 4.4 Kitkat and hopeful the company will issue the next version of Android, currently known as Android L.

For more details on the Mi3, read our review here.

July 27, 2014
Xiaomi Mi3 Review : Get it Now!
The era of saying, “that’s a Chinese phone” in a negative manner may have finally ended, and that will be purely thanks to the fact that a lot of Chinese manufacturers are ready to put that norm to rest.

With Gionee taking the market horses by the reins last year, Xiaomi is the latest player and is ready to play in the heated battle zone with the right approach for India.

OVERVIEW

India is the most price sensitive market in the world, one of the largest markets for Mobile Phone users, even those who switch handsets frequently. The country is flooded with manufacturers and brands trying to reach a level of excitement in the mobile space. With the Xiaomi Mi3, the Chinese manufacturer hit the right note with Indian buyers, by simply launching the product. There was a huge demand for a good budget phone; However Xiaomi dissolved their overheads by launching the product at a marvellous price of Rs 13999/- for the 16 GB variant.

The stocks are very limited, and only those who preregister can buy the phone. Every few days the phone will go on sale on shopping website Flipkart, making it excruciatingly difficult to own one right now. What makes it more painful is the long list of dealers who have multiple accounts on Flipkart, waiting to snatch this phone, just so that they can sell for a markup.

Is the handset really worth all that worship? Let’s find out.

BUILD QUALITY AND HARDWARE

Let’s say this, finding a phone this well made, for this price, is practically impossible. The Xiaomi Mi3 is encased in a solid brushed aluminium shell and laden with Gorilla Glass 3 in the front. Possibly one of the only phones with a reinforced micro USB port, the Xiaomi Mi3 has held no bars in design and build quality.

The rigid frame also gives it fantastic looks and the rounded sides and edges relate to the fit in the hand, and it all feels great. Each time you pickup the Mi3 the first words out of your mind would be “No way this costs only Rs. 13999?.

Hardware wise, the Xiaomi Mi3 is pretty top notch, unlike its latest version; the Mi4, the Mi3 carries a Snapdragon 800 chipset with quad cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, a full HD 1920 x 1080p IPS LCD display made by Sharp or LG, 2 GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a whopping 3050 mAh battery. Apart from that you get the Adreno 330 GPU and Bluetooth 4.0 LE along with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.

Just putting the parts together will cost you more than a phone. However someone at Xiaomi has the right contacts with suppliers.

ANDROID AND MIUI

The Xiaomi Mi3 in India comes preloaded with Android 4.4.2 out the box, which is skinned with MiUi, a very iOS like skin which does not contain an application drawer. The UI is fast and snappy and offers a lot of customisations including themes which can be downloaded from the Mi Store. The Mi3 will give full access to the Play Store and allow for launcher downloads as well as launcher replacement if so be the case.

The UI is snappy and not laggy at all, the phone has good multitasking capabilities and will blaze through the live applications, despite few software glitches, that may often cause slowdowns and crashes.

PERFORMANCE AND GAMING

The phone is a beast for the price range. It does not break any records as per say, but is truly top notch in its price bracket, in fact pretty much compares to phones in double the price bracket. The phone runs through mostly all our tests and scores good results in our benchmark tests.

Test

Score

Quadrant Benchmark 20376

Antutu Benchmark 30537

Nenamark 60.0 FPS

As far as gaming is concerned, the Mi3 can handle anything that is thrown at it, basically, any game that exists on Android will run on the Mi3, which is mostly thanks to the heart of the handset being a Snapdragon 800 – one of the most stable chipsets when it comes to apps and software.

We gamed on the Mi3 extensively and found it to be seamless and smooth, although the 16 GB runs out, and it runs out fast. You would be better waiting for the 64 GB variant if gaming is your bit because space is tight.

The Xiaomi Mi3 is excellent in day to day use and offers excellent performance, whether its running apps or multitasking, you will not be disappointed.

MULTIMEDIA AND CAMERA

The Xiaomi Mi3 has a beautiful display with excellent viewing angles and a full HD resolution. Xiaomi has gone as far as calling it a “retina” display, because the panels are made either by LG or Sharp, both of which supply to Apple for the iPhone.

The display is big and bright, and you will enjoy consuming media on this phone, the audio is excellent out of the 3.5mm jack, and you will be happy with the overall experience. The onboard speaker is not overly loud, but can be adequate, of course, which could be different for different folks, we would have liked a better speaker though.

The camera is the best in class, with a 5 element lens and f2.2 aperture, the 13 MP shots are right on the money. The colours are accurate, and images are perfectly sharp. Low-light performance is excellent, and video is good. The front camera is good for 2
MP shots which will more than suffice for the selfie nerd in you.

PHONE AND BATTERY LIFE

Phone networks are strong, and network performance is good where we tested (Delhi/NCR and Mumbai), the phone supports 3G networks mostly globally and without issues in India. There is no 4G/LTE and expecting it would be inappropriate.

Battery life is impressive thanks to a well balanced chipset, which helped us get through almost two days without a recharge on the 3050 mAh battery pack.

Talk Time 6-7 hours

Music 19 hours

Internet 10+ Hours

CONCLUSION

Just a few months ago, Motorola broke the bank in India by launching the Moto G in this price bracket using a similar sale strategy (the Flipkart way). Now Xiaomi seems to have this in their pocket for the Xiaomi Mi3 and possibly for the Mi4 in the near future. There are several complaints, already of handsets with faulty Sim card trays, heating issues and handsets that refuse to boot or get charged.

Around 35-service centres will offer, support and Flipkart has a brilliant reverse pickup for faulty and dead on arrival products. So device and support “should not be” a problem. However, there is no clarity on who is behind the sales, an Indian partner or the company itself? How dedicated are they and how serious do the consider one of the larger mobile markets?

With confirmed news of the new Mi4 coming soon, and OnePlus showing interest in India, the Mi3 may be a miss for some. However for those who need a phone now, it doesn’t get any better than this. If you were considering a last generation Nexus 5, this overthrows that with half the price. Get the drift? Now get the phone!

Buy Now

[tw-column width=”one-half”]

GOOD THINGS
- Excellent Build
- Uber Hardware
- Stunning Looks
- Android 4.4 and MiUi
- Excellent Performer
- Great Battery
[/tw-column]

[tw-column width=”one-half” position=”last”]

BAD THINGS
- No Official Company to find
- Flipkart only Sales
- Limited Units
- Faulty on Arrival Units
[/tw-column]
July 27, 2014
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 inch : Benchmarks and Hardware

Samsung reincarnated Galaxy Tab Series with two powerful devices variants: Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and 8.4. Samsung has beefed up the processor, improved the screen and managed to make it even thinner. We tested Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5’s performance and hardware muscles and here’s what we found:

Galaxy Tab S 10.5 has an impressive line-up of core components. At the heart of this ultra-thin tablet lies a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa SoC, which has eight cores (four running at 1.9GHz, four at 1.3GHz), 3GB of RAM, a base storage allocation of 16GB and Mali-T628 MP6 graphics.

To test benchmarks, we started by running Quadrant Standard on the device. The device performed well up to its hype and got an impressive score of 25,553. The score is quite higher than Galaxy Note PRO 12.2, which stands at 17,396.

Following up, we ran AnTuTu Benchmarks on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5. The device scored 34,270, which is again pretty impressive. While the 8.4 inch variant of Galaxy Tab S lags slightly behind its bigger brother. Also, we ran the device through NinaMark 2 and the tab scored 59.8fps. The number is a little low as compared to other devices available in market such as Asus Nexus 7 and Sony Xperia Tablet Z. The multitouch score of the device was 10 which makes it a wonderful device for QWERTY typing.

Check out our full benchmark and hardware test video of Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 above.

July 26, 2014