We recently received a unit for the new Micromax Canvas 4 A210 Unboxing and the smartphone has some interesting elements inside the box. The phone is an upgrade to the Micromax Canvas HD A116 and changes a few hardware aspects but major aesthetics and inbox accessories have been changed.
Micromax Canvas 4 A210 Unboxing
The box of the new Micromax Canvas 4 will remind you Apple’s packaging of the iPod touch with the phone put on top and the a clear top cover, the design of the packaging is reminiscent of Apple design. Inside the box you will get:
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210
Flat Tangle Free USB Cable
Flat Tangle Free In Ear Earphones
Extra Ear-Tips
Battery
USB Wall Charger
Documentation
First Impression
When we started the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 Unboxing we were surprised with the quality of inbox accessories, for once the company has truly focused on accessories that make the phone work. The USB cable is flat and tangle free so is easy to carry in the pocket and can be twisted and turned to result in its original form with little or no effort. The build quality of the Micromax Canvas 4 is far superior to any Micromax phone in the past, it is solid and robust with a steel shell and plastic back. The front is all glass with a 5 inch display with a now mediocre 1280 x 720p display (where most are promoting a 1080p display).
The form factor is very functional and handy, and not a lot of people will be impressed with Micromax’s software gimmicks like the Blow to Unlock feature. The Phone has a 13 MP camera which is now traditionally seen on flagships from Samsung and Sony, what is interesting here is the fact that the Micromax Canvas 4 has a 5 MP front camera which even major manufacturers neglect to feature. Micromax has also bundled several apps that allow for access to Micromax Services like MiZone and M! Security.
There is definitely some rattling sound in the unit we received and it comes from around the Sim Tray region. Check out our Micromax Canvas 4 A210 Unboxing video above and the Gaming Video below to get an initial idea of what the Device performs like.
The winner of our recently concluded Samsung Galaxy S4 giveaway is Priyanka Munjal! Congratulations! You have won yourself a brand new Samsung Galaxy S4!
The winners of the Samsung Rex 90 are as follows :
1. Sarthak Kohli
2. Ankit Sehrawat
The remaining runners up are as follows :
3. Udit Kapoor
4. Madhur Bhatnagar
5. Sathya Narayanan
6. Pritesh Panjiker
7. Devansh Arora
8. Satish Kumar
Congratulations to the remaining runners up! You have won yourselves iGyaan merchandise!
We will be contacting you all via email for verification. Meanwhile, do head over to our LG Optimus G Pro giveaway! Last few days left! Good luck!
With more than 65 percent of the market and an even greater degree of mindshare, there is no doubt the Apple iPad dominates the tablet market. And for good reason: Aside from the brief, ridiculous distraction that was the Joo Joo, the iPad was the first real consumer tablet to catch on. Plus, Apple has done a brilliant job of leveraging the iTunes ecosystems and the App Store to deliver a seamless and enjoyable tablet experience. For more than 2 years, no tablet could touch the iPad, but that’s changed.
The iPad is a great tablet, but it is not for everyone. Be it price, preference or special software requirements, many people choose alternatives to the iPad. Android tablets tend to provide a greater amount of control than the iPad, with the ability to customize the tablet and plug in USB devices without a special adapter. The newest alternative are Windows-based tablets, which come in two flavors: Windows 8, which is compatible with all Windows software, and Windows RT, which is a scaled down version of Windows that can only run a small subset of Windows software.
Here we present to you 5 alternatives to the Apple iPad, both from the Android and Windows stables.
1. Google Nexus 7
The most popular and widely appreciated Android tablet at the moment, the Google Nexus 7 sports a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM.
With such raw power under the hood, the Google Nexus 7 is still one of the best tablets available in the market today. The version of Nexus 7 available on the Play Store is the base version, which comes with 16GB of internal storage and Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s also a 1.2 megapixel camera on the front and the tablet runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out-of-the box, but can be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 as soon as you take it out of the box.
It might not have the Retina Display of the iPad, but again, it doesn’t cost a bomb like the iPad either.
Cost : Rs. 15,999
2. Google Nexus 10
With the Nexus 10, Google comes in direct competition with the king of the tablet word, the iPad. The Nexus 7’s big brother, the Nexus 10 has is more suited to match the specifications of the iPad.
The Nexus 10 hits the iPad directly where it hurts the most and that is, the display. Google Nexus 10 boasts of a 10.1 display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, which amounts to a whooping 299 pixels per inch (ppi) and puts even the iPad’s Retina display to shame, which loses to the Nexus 10 at 264 ppi. Thus, the Nexus 10 has the best display on a tablet at present in the market. the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2 and thus, you won’t have to worry about any sort of scratches on the device.
Under the hood, the Google nexus 10 is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and thus, you can expect it to keep pace with anything and everything you throw at it. Running on stock Android 4.2, you’ll get a pire Google experience on this tablet and won’t even have to worry about software updates as you would get the updates as soon as Google releases them.
Even with all these top of line specifications, the Nexus 10 manages to keep a lower price tag as compared to it’s rivals and currently retails in the US for $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB). In India, it is available at various online retailers for a price tag of about Rs. 34,500.
Cost : Rs. 34,000 to Rs. 36,000.
3. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Though it didn’t quite reach the sales figures Samsung expected, the Galaxy Note 10.1 still is a really capable alternative to the iPad.
A tablet with a big screen, a quad core processor and the might of the S Pen… known as a stylus to me and you.
Well, not just a stylus – with many levels of pressure sensitivity and the ability easily sketch and annotate on a wide range of items, the Galaxy Note 10.1 offers so much more than your average tablet.
In terms of Hardware the Tablets is packed to the top with top line hardware. Exynos quad chipset with Mali400mp GPU 2 GB RAM and 16GB +64GB expandability.
The Tablet has a high colour density 1280 x 800 px 10.1 inch display that allows you to really enjoy wathcing movies or playing games on this tablet.
The drawback? Pricing seems to be on the higher side. You can read our review of the tablet here.
Cost : Rs. 38,500
4. Sony Xperia Tablet Z
Weighing in at only 1.1 pounds and only 0.27 inches thick, the 10.1-inch Sony Xperia Tablet Z packs 2GB of RAM, an 8-MP rear-facing camera, 2-MP front-facing camera and 16GB of internal storage into a beautiful, sleek exterior.
On top of that, it boasts superior battery performance (three hours longer than average on our Laptop Battery Test) and NFC capability for seamless touch transfer between NFC-supported devices. The Android-powered Z also comes with a Remote Control app and an infrared transmitter that lets you use it to control your home entertainment system.
The Xperia tablet Z is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM.
While it’s not really available in India, it still is a really nice tablet if you could overlook its absurd pricing (which, if rumours are to be believed, will be coming down pretty soon).
With a higher resolution screen than the Surface RT, and running the full blown version of Windows 8 the Surface Pro is kinder on the eyes and more powerful under hand, making for a potent, portable offering.
Making your mind up about the Surface Pro is less about what it is and what it does and more about what you want out of a tablet. As a hybrid PC it’s an undeniable compromise – but that’s no bad thing.
It’s a bulky device with significant weight, but at the end of the day you’re pretty much getting a portable PC, and all that power means there’s a wealth of options available on the Surface Pro which you just can’t get on the more standard of tablets.
Honourable Mentions
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, Galaxy Note 8.0, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
What do you think? What tablet would you choose over the Apple iPad? Let us know below!
Micromax announced their latest flagship device this week, the Micromax Canvas 4. While they talked about how they received an enormous amount of pre-bookings, we can’t help but feel that most of the pre-bookers would’ve changed their minds after the launch itself.
The Micromax Canvas 4 only boasts of a camera update and a few software tricks over the previous flagship device, the Canvas A116 HD.
Below, we mention 5 devices (in no particular ranking) as alternatives to the Canvas 4, which cost about the same or less than the Micromax.
1. Micromax Canvas A116 HD
We’ll start with one from Micromax’s stable itself. The Canvas HD has the same 5-inch 720p display, the same quad-core MediaTek processor and Dual SIM capability. The only drawback? It has a 8MP rear camera as opposed to the Canvas 4’s 13, and a 2MP front as compared to the Canvas 4’s 5. And the Canvas HD is about Rs. 4500 cheaper than the Micromax Canvas 4.
So if you can live with the lower resolution camera, then you would be better off choosing the Canvas A116.
Xolo recently stepped up their device portfolio in India with multiple launches and aggressive marketing. One device that stood out was the Xolo Q1000.
Xolo Q1000 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad core processor. It features a 5-inch IPS display that has a resolution of 720×1280 pixels with a pixel density of 295ppi. The screen is made of scratch resistant Dragon Trail glass. The dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) phone runs on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
It has 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX544 graphics processor. The phone sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and BSI sensor and a 1.2-megapixel front facing camera.
The Xolo Q1000 offers 4GB of internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. The phone features 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity options. It has a 2,100mAh battery.
The Lava Iris 504Q has a 5 inch 1280 x 720p screen, 1.2 GHz quad core MediaTek MT6589 (same as that on the Canvas 4) processor, a mix of 8 MP and 2 MP cameras, 1 Gig of RAM and a 4 GB storage. Lava has added various software tweaks to appeal to the market like gestures for the image gallery and clicking pictures. It is essentially a Dual-SIM GSM + CDMA smartphone.
You also get a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G, and 2000 mAh battery.
We were really impressed by this device in our review and feel that it is a really capable alternative to the Canvas 4.
One from the big brand now. The Xperia L is undoubtedly better than the rest as far as the software aspect is concerned. On the specs front the Sony Xperia L sports a 4.3-inch display with 480×854 pixel resolution and is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8230 dual-core processor. It runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system and packs 1GB RAM along with 8GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card.
The Auxus Nuclea N1 will have a Full HD 1080p 1920 x 1080 resolution One-Glass Solution display with Active Matrix technology. It will come equipped with a MediaTek MT6589T Quad core Turbo 1.5GHz processor and a PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU clocked at 357MHz for the graphics. The Auxus Nuclea N1 will also come with other features such as Gesture control, Voice Unlock, Magnetic sensors etc. It is a dual Sim phone 3G +2G smartphone.
The Auxus Nuclea N1 will come with a 13MP rear facing camera with a BSI sensor and AutoFocus,along with an impressive 8MP front facing camera and will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. A Li-ion battery measuring 2800mAh will be used in this smartphone.
The internal memory and RAM have not been specified yet. The Auxus Nuclea N1 will go on a 10-day-pre-booking starting from 13 Jul 2013 at a price of Rs.15990 while the regular order price is set at Rs.18000 (same as the Micromax Canvas 4).
Micromax Canvas 4
Related Products
Were you happy with the specifications of the Canvas 4? Have we missed out on any good alternatives? Let us know below!
Grand Theft Auto fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when Rockstar Games finally unveiled the release date for 2013’s most anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto V. And even though we have to wait until September 17th to get our hands on a copy, the fact that Rockstar is giving themselves so much time to work on the title should make us all a little more giddy.
So here we present to you everything you need to know about Grand Theft Auto V.
Characters
In a bold departure for the series, GTA V will split its narrative evenly between three very different protagonists.
Micheal : Rockstar is looking to retired former criminal Michael, Grand Theft Auto V’s lead protagonist, to explore the narrative of a man at his breaking point with everything and nothing to lose. In his early forties, he’s older than your average GTA star, and better off too, living in luxury with his family in well-to-do Rockford Hills, Los Santos’ equivalent to Beverly Hills.
Trevor : Whereas Michael is established and living the high life Trevor is stuck in a trailer park. He’s unhinged and untrusting. Trevor has a more reckless and impulsive personality than that of Michael’s, and this we’ve already seen that his headstrong ways are the source of much conflict between the main characters.
Franklin : Franklin lives in South Los Santos and is the most traditional protagonist of Grand Theft Auto V’s trio, ex-street gangster who’s always looking for new opportunities. Rockstar’s Dan Houser describes him as a “gang-banger in the post gang-banging world”. Aware that he’s on a fast-track to nowhere, Franklin associates himself with Michael and Trevor in the hope that they can teach him about the world of ‘real’ crime.
Map / Landscape
It will be split into two major areas – Los Santos (the city) and Blaine County (the countryside). None of the world will be sealed off at the start of the game. You can explore it all straight away.
The underwater areas look dense and busy. The ocean bed is littered with downed chunks of ships and liners, plus other divers exploring the wreckage. And yes, there are sharks swimming about.
Rockstar has promised that the world in GTA V is bigger than GTA IV, San Andreas, and Red Dead Redemption combined. The game will obviously be the largest open world game that Rockstar has ever created. Each and every building now has an explorable interior.
It’s a setting that provides plenty of scope for variety. The environments span the gauntlet from tacky commercial beachfronts to locked-down military bases; from desert lowlands to a fully scaleable Mount Chillad.
Mount Chillad is the stand-out landmark in Blaine County and the towering mountain is apparently the highest point in the game, taller than any of the skyscrapers in downtown Los Santos. Again, Rockstar has only teased fleeting glimpses of Mount Chiliad but one thing’s for certain: walking to the top — or even mountain biking, which is definitely in the game — will take a very long time.
Storyline
Rockstar hasn’t been very forthcoming about the actual storyline, but we do have a few key pieces of information. First—and this is one of the most unique features of GTA V—some of the storylines will require players to switch between the three main protagonists in order to accomplish the mission.
This means that players will need to keep track of each of their character’s roles throughout the mission and juggle the timing accordingly. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean that we’ll be screwing around with any uncharacteristic puzzle-based storylines.
It uses a Google Street View-style system. The map zooms out in stages, crosses across the map to the character you want to play as, then zooms back in with a slight pause when arriving at the new character. It takes a few seconds to switch between characters out in the open world.
The three main characters will have different special abilities. Michael has a bullet-time variant, Trevor can do double damage (and also has a unique melee attack) while Franklin can steer around corners in slow-mo.
Side Missions / Sports / Activities
There are plenty of distractions to take part in. Side missions include hijacking security vans and picking up hitchhikers. Sports events include yoga, golf, tennis, triathlons and bike races. Challenges include stunt jumps and flying challenges. You can also acquire property – player housing returns and you can also buy garages, marinas and businesses.
Mechanics And Vehicles
According to Rockstar, the combat and driving mechanics have been rebuilt from the ground up. The reason for this is unclear, but it probably has to do with the new vehicle types being added. So far, the developer has confirmed that players will be able to take control of bikes, ATVs, jet skis, planes, helicopters, and cars.
Planes will come with parachutes, helicopters will return. Car customisation includes paintjobs, wheels, window tints, grills, spoilers. You can also play with the way vehicles handle and feel, changing the suspension, engine and brakes. GTA 5 will have the largest selection of vehicles seen in a GTA game.
Some of the marine vehicles will come complete with diving equipment, to support excursions into the deep. The ocean will not have any form of signposting, so prepare to be fully immersed (literally) in exploration.
The dating and relationship mechanics have been removed from GTA V. Now I don’t have to answer my friends’ phone call while the army is shooting at me. That’ll be nice.
Weapons
The stars system for police returns. We haven’t seen what the different ratings do but we can say that at four stars, police snipers are called in. Auto-aim isn’t as rigid as GTA IV but like Max Payne 3, there will be variable targeting options, including free aim, soft lock and hard lock.
Weapons wheel selection from Red Dead Redemption is used here. This will have the largest selection of weapons from any GTA game. Weapons we’ve seen – sniper rifles, machine guns and sticky bombs. Weapon customisation includes silencers, scopes, extended mags and laser sights.
Multiplayer
This side of the game is still shrouded in mystery as Rockstar are saving concrete details on GTA V’s competitive multiplayer mode for a later date. Dan Houser sounds pretty upbeat about what his multiplayer team are building however, commenting: “We’re very pleased with the direction it’s heading. We’re ever closer to nailing the fun and excitement of open-world multiplayer”.
As Official PlayStation Magazine reports, the only solid thing we do know is that Max Payne 3’s Crew infrastructure will carry over to GTA V’s multiplayer, via Rockstar’s Social Club. Multiplayer sessions will support up to 32 players simultaneously.
HTC yesterday at a showcase event held in Thailand showed off the new HTC Butterfly S. A revamp of the HTC Butterfly, the new Butterfly S builds along the same design strategy but adding features from HTC’s popular HTC ONE.
Curved to fit in the hand the new Butterfly S has been splashed with a metallic finish making it resemble a “car paint job”. The color options for the handset are also not limited to two like last year, this year they include a white, a metal grey and a glossy red.
The HTC Butterfly S is packed with a lot of exciting elements including a 3200 mAh battery, a Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 chipset with a Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU and the Adreno 320 GPU. The front has a beautiful IPS LCD 3 display of a 5 inch size and a full HD 1920 x1080p resolution and a layer of Gorilla Glass 3. The design and the materials used in the construction of the HTC Butterfly S show to a great extent what the thought process of the company is when they are building a handset. The HTC Butterfly S is not only functional but looks really good.
The new HTC Sense 5.0 on top of Android 4.2.2 improves on the Blinkfeed experience as well as the Camera features, including enhanced ZOE file management amang many other improvements.
The HTC Butterfly S caters to a niche, an audience which liked the original Butterfly but wants more. Hopefully it reaches India in all three colors with a price tag in the OH-So-Affordable under 40k price bracket, here is hoping anyway! Check out the images below and stay tuned for Video.
In the 2004-2007 period, if you would’ve asked any teenage boy/girl about that one phone they wished they had, the answer would’ve been simple – the Motorola MotoRazr.
Right from its sleek, futuristic design to that V3i advertisement where a guy dressed like 007 (but travelling in the “metro”), uses his blade (read : MotoRazr) to cut through a woman’s dress and then fight her when she retaliates, everything about Motorola spelled success.
It was a period where when you looked anywhere, you would see someone on a Motorola RAZR. The company sold over 120 million units of that phone, making it the second most popular phone in 2005 and then along came the iPhone. Motorola who?
Last year, the company shut down operations in India altogether, after being bought by Google. So we ask ourselves, can we see Motorola charming us with its devices once more?
How It All Began
Motorola is an American company with many “firsts” in the field of science and technology. It started in Chicago in 1928. Company founders Paul V. Galvin and Joseph Galvin created the brand name Motorola for the car radio – linking “motor” (for motorcar) with “ola” (which implied sound)
Founders Paul V. Galvin and Joseph Galvin.
The Motorola car radio was released by the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1930, two years after the company’s founding in Chicago, kicking things off with a battery eliminator, aimed at letting battery-powered home radios run off of household electricity. In 1947, the company dropped its name for simply Motorola.
[pullquote_left] Motorola provided the radio technology for APOLLO 11’s moon landing. [/pullquote_left]
In 1973, Motorola took some major steps toward the technology that would define it in the decades to come, showing off the DynaTAC and demonstrating the phenomenon of cellular telephones to the world. It wasn’t until 1984 that the brick-sized phone would actually start making its way into the hands of consumers.
The Motorola DynaTAC Photo: Dan Forbes
Fast forward to 2004, the MotorRazr became the best selling clamshell ever made.
The Fall
Post 2007, after a certain turtleneck sweater aficionado introduced the iPhone to the world, everyone forgot about their love for Motorola and turned their attention towards Apple.
Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone in 2007.
And could you blame them?
According to the NPD Group, which released the sales numbers, four of the five best-selling handsets at that time were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features. The only one that wasn’t? The Razr.
At the high end of the market, Motorola’s designs didn’t keep up with consumer expectations, and the game-changing iPhone set back the company further. Motorola also got squeezed out by competitors at the lower end, where the cell-phone business had the most potential for growth globally.
Motorola failed to use its huge advantage in the early days of higher end handsets to become one of the leaders in the emerging smartphone business, which is now dominated by Apple and Samsung.
Motorola failed to make an impact in the tablet market with the Motorola XOOM.
After a stint with Android, including it’s XOOM tablet, Motorola gave up altogether and closed down operations in India last year.
The result? In August of last year, Google announced that it would be acquiring Mobility for around $12.5 billion, a deal that would close nearly nine months after it was first made public.
Who’s To Blame?
What Motorola failed to realize was that the cellphone market changed their buying decisions from “hardware”, to a “software decision”. People wanted to run real, native, apps on their phones.
In 2009, Motorola joint-CEO Greg Brown blamed Motorola’s own decisions for the company’s decline. While Brown did make the obligatory hat-tip at the economy – for exacerbating the situation – the executive mainly criticized Motorola’s planning, products and blindness to the changing needs of consumers.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Brown highlighted the absence of a RAZR replacement as a key failure for Motorola. That, together with a misplaced focus on the developing market and over-investment in budget handsets, meant Motorola missed the growing messaging trend.
[pullquote_right] Warren Buffet once said that when a manager with a great turnaround reputation encounters a company with a reputation for dysfunction, it is the company that will keep its reputation. [/pullquote_right]
Warren Buffet once said that when a manager with a great turnaround reputation encounters a company with a reputation for dysfunction, it is the company that will keep its reputation. And that’s how it panned out. Post Geoffrey Frost’s death in November 2005 after putting Motorola on the road to success, Garriques tried to build the next hit with the system.
Then after being unable to conjure up the same magic, Garriques left for Dell and the Motorola machine ran back to the security blanket of processes. Constant “safe pairs of hands” were used to replace him. Casey Keller was brought from Nabisco to do a job and failed too. The succession of replacements for Garriques just made things worse.
What Now?
Everyone loves a good comeback, whether it’s Manchester United stealing a win in the final minute of the Champions Trophy in 1999 or Mickey Rourke snagging an Oscar nomination for The Wrestler.
In Google, Motorola have their own version of Sir Alex Ferguson to take it back to the top.
In Google, Motorola have their own version of Sir Alex Ferguson, the recently-retired Manchester United manager who broke the “Old Firm’s” dominance in Scotland with Aberdeen, and Liverpool’s dominance in England. Google has the expertise and means to take Motorola back to the top.
The rumoured comeback phone, called the Moto X, will be built at a 500,000 square-feet facility in Texas that will employ 2,000 people by August.
Though Motorola boasts of a long, impressive history of mobile innovation, the present CEO, Dennis Woodside, acknowledges how challenging it is for the company to reach the same state of glory it enjoyed some time back. The company aims at hiring a large number of employees to manufacture a new generation of mobile phones.
“We like to be the challenger. So we’re filling the company with people who want to transform the company into a winner,” said Woodside.
There’s still a lot of life left in Motorola, which, bruises and all, remains one of the grand names in world technology.
“Motorola is still a huge business and an iconic company,” Brown says.
If things go according to plan — and Brown says he’s confident they will — the Motorola mobile business could again find itself on the leading edge of wireless, setting the pace of global innovation for the next century and beyond.
The company recently unveiled their new logo, with a clear emphasis on it now being a Google enterprise, and I personally think that the road to its comeback will be long and hard, but Motorola will reach its former glory in the coming years.
What do you think? Will Motorola be able to charm consumers again? Let us know in the comments section below!
Samsung today launched the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom today in India at a price of around Rs. 34,500.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom offers a blend of smartphone and camera, and is targeted at the many people who now use their phones as their main camera too.
Before you view our hands-on video you may want a quick recap of the key specs and features. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with resolution of 960 x 540, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal memory that’s expandable via microSD.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom also has a 2130 mAh battery, and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean skinned with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. The camera set-up includes a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), optical 10x Zoom, Xenon flash, HDR, panorama, and 24mm wide-angle lens. It offers full HD video capture, and there’s also a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera.
The Zoom’s big USP is its ability to take detailed shots of objects that are rather far away. Not only is the Zoom a first in terms of design, but it’s also one of the first smartphones to feature an optical zoom, as well as a digital zoom and optical image stabilisation with a 24mm lens.
It also has a myriad of shoot modes: 25 to be exact, which are as follows:
Smart mode suggest, Beauty face, Best photo, Continuous shot, Best face, Kids shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Macro, Food, Party/Indoor, Action freeze, Rich tone (HDR), Panorama, Waterfall, Animated photo, Drama, Eraser, Sound & Shot, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks, and Light trace.
The Samsung galaxy S4 Zoom has a similar shape as that of its predecessor with a bump along the right side for your hand to grip, but the device is considerably slimmer. The whole thing is also made of glossy white plastic rather than the textured rubbery material on the side of the Galaxy Camera. At 208 gms, it’s one of the heaviest smartphones around. It has a plastic ring around the camera lens to access camera options and settings.
Expect a full review of the device pretty soon. Meanwhile, you can watch our hands-on video below :
LG Recently launched their flagship in India, the LG Optimus G Pro and we are giving away One to one of our lucky readers. Simply enter the LG Optimus G Pro Giveaway below and thats it!
Don’t forget to share so your friends can also play.
Here are the Lucky Winners for the LG Optimus G Pro :
Winner: Vidit Chopra
Entry:
The LG Optimus G Pro will not just be my life companion but my ultimate companion. It’ll follow me from the serenity of Ladhak to the hussels of Mumbai. The G Pro would help me capture the panorama of the cafe while enjoying my cup of coffee at the corner cafe and checking my facebook news feed. I would make my friends jealous of the luscious brownie on Instagram later. Watching Ray William Johnson on the full HD, 5.5″ display to bewitching tunes of Nirvana. It’ll take my Android experience to a whole new level. It’ll be my shadow where ever I go.
Runner UP
1:Amolak Chandel 2:Chandan Babu 3:Rohit Sharma
Congratulations :
We will be contacting you within this week via your email.
For all the others, Please stay tuned for two new exciting giveaways.
Incase you have not already, check out our Unboxing and hands on Review below.
Micromax has let out yet another sensation into the market, or has it? Micromax today announced the new Micromax Canvas 4 A210, a double jump in model number but no real jump in specs. The phone is priced at Rs. 17990 and is available to purchase today.
Initial Impressions
At the first glance the phone will remind you of each and every Canvas phone you have seen till date, plastic design and glass front and the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is no different. The built quality is much improved over the previous edition Canvases but it is identical to many a smartphone already in the market. The bezel reminds you of a an iPhone with a stainless steel finish where the back panel is very Samsung.
Micromax has kept exactly the same specs of the Canvas HD with the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 and only bumped up the camera on the back and the front. The Blow to unlock feature, comes via an app and is very gimmicky and should cause a lot of problem for people. The interface is stock apart from a lot of Micromax bloatware and the performance seems shabby at first.
The cameras did not boot up on the device we were shown so we were unable to check them out, but the camera app is the standard camera app. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the company’s attempt at making a device which focuses on build quality vs the hardware, and it seems to most this will be a disappointment. The company is also promising good service and easy replacements for the devices, which can only be seen in the time to come.
The camera upgrade and design are not the only changes, Micromax has also reduced the battery to a 2000 mAh battery which may end up resulting in lower battery life. Has Micromax built up this phone too much pre launch to the extent that users got really excited? Is the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 overpriced? While we search for the answers check out the images and stay tuned for a hands on Video.
Are you keeping or canceling your preorder? Let us know below.
Micromax today launched the Micromax Canvas 4 at an event in New Delhi.
In terms of specs, the Micromax Canvas 4 sports a 5 inch 1920 x 1080 display. The phone is powered by a MediaTek MT6589 SoC. There will be 1 GB RAM, 8 GB internal storage and a 2500 mAh battery. It will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The phone is 144 mm high (5.67 inches ) and 76 mm wide (2.87 inches).
The phone has been aggressively priced as the company will expect to do large numbers in terms of sale.
You can watch our live hands-on with the Micromax Canvas 4 below :
We grew up listening to the classic Beatle ( or Kishore Kumar for most) songs that our parents used to listen to. As we matured, we formed our own taste and style in music, and the technology surrounding us evolved. And as consumers, we adapted to it. We embraced the technology, incorporating it into our lifestyle and thereby becoming routine. Music plays a vital role in our society.
Hence, it was only natural for most of us to own a portable mp3 player that we would listen to every day, everywhere. But dwindling sales have led many to believe that the days of portable media players are numbered. We take a look.
Why MP3?
Before there were any MP3 players, there were MP3s: invented in 1987 by a group of German scientists looking for a way to shrink video files so that they would be easier to use on computers. To achieve this they stripped out as much “extraneous” data as possible, supposedly the stuff we wouldn’t miss. This loss of quality is at its least discernable when listening on headphones with the volume cranked up, so by 1998 the first portable digital music player had arrived: the MPMan F10, created by South Korean company SaeHan. (It wasn’t a hit; SaeHan now mostly manufactures textiles.)
The world’s first portable media player.
Mp3 also known as MPEG Audio Layer 3 is used to compress audio files so they take up lesser hard disk space. It can be stored and played on many digital devices such as computers, mobile phones and portable mp3 players. Consumers use mp3 files to listen to and store music.
For example, “A four-minute song on a CD would create a file of 42 MB (megabytes), while the same song encoded to MP3 would be reduced to just 3.84 MB. This reduction means that the file requires one-tenth of the hard disc space, allowing 10 times as much music to be stored in the same space.”
Quick Adoption
These new Portable Media Players would hold 1000 songs, could be recharged within an hour and would cost around 3-4k at that time. They were compact, came in a bunch of colours and were the “in thing” during that era.
[pullquote_left]”The internet and easy-to-share programs like Napster and Limewire played the role of catalysts for Portable Media Players by providing easy and free access to music files.”[/pullquote_left]
By 2004, the digital music market was still wide open, with MP3 players comprising a small portion of all portable audio sales, and the biggest players wanted in. Apple had launched the iTunes Music Store in October of 2003, but wouldn’t sell a billion songs for nearly two years. Companies like Archos, Creative, and iRiver had been building players all along, but the early aughts weren’t for purely digital music yet. With the arrival of faster internet speeds and easy-to-share programs like Napster and Limewire, acquiring music was easier than ever.
This led to people opening up to the idea of carrying a portable, compact device to fulfill their music needs.
Apple – The Biggest Player
Apple was without doubt the biggest player in this segment. The iPod was a very clever piece of hardware that utilized new 1.8?”hard drives that Toshiba had developed for a market that didn’t exist yet. Encased in a pearl white and metal casing, the iPod utilized a moving scroll wheel (later, a touch-based one) that served a novel scrolling interface on a relatively large 2″ monochromatic display.
The first Apple iPod
The iPod would set the standard for Portable Media Players for years to follow, ignoring the plethora of buttons that plagued devices at the time, going so far as to omit a power button. But while the iPod hardware had many of the markings of a success story, its ecosystem (or rather, lack thereof) and price held it back from significant sales numbers for the first three years of its life.
During that time, numerous other companies realised the hidden potential in this segment of technology. MP3 players were substantially less expensive compared to CD players.
The Sony Walkmans were a hit among teenagers.
Companies like Sony, Philips, Cowon began churning out various different models of Portable Media Players. The Sony Walkman series gained popularity among teenagers.
Microsoft unveiled various versions of the Zune to compete with Apple.
Microsoft’s Zune was probably Apple’s closest competitor. The hardware was slightly bigger than iPod’s similar hard drive model at the time, but came equipped with a large 3″ color screen, an FM tuner, a segmented circular directional pad that favored the Media Center-derived Twist interface for navigating menus, and a pair of buttons on its face mirrored by a shallow concavity on the backside. The player’s software was also a direct descendant of the Portable Mobile Center OS.
The casing came in five iridescent color schemes. Connectivity was provided by a proprietary 30-pin connector similar to ones used by the iPod. But their success didn’t last long.
Non-Apple Portable Media Players were put to shame. Bruised. Battered. Beaten to death. All gadgets that attempted to outrank the iPod were ambushed and annihilated. Unless you held a personal grudge against Mr. Steve Jobs, or have had some downers with Apple in the past, you wouldn’t switch to a media player not belonging to the Apple clan.
The Demise
In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone to the world. People were awestruck. But right there, a small iPod logo on the device’s screen spelled the beginning of the end for portable media players.
The iPhone killed its own parent product.
The iPhone promised a music experience which matched that of the iPod. Except you could make calls, play games, surf the internet, all at the same time while listening to your favourite tracks. Why have two gadgets when you can have one?
We all love our shiny smartphones, but the latest stats on MP3 players prove that the sleek handset in your pocket is a cold-eyed killer.
Yep, according to Mintel’s research sales of the humble portable media players – and let’s face it that means mainly Apple iPods – have dropped by a massive 22 per cent year on year.
‘Microsoft will no longer be producing Zune players,’ the company recently said in a statement timed very close to Apple’s latest iPhone announcements – a good time for tech companies to bury bad news.
Earlier, mobile phones did not offer music playback and so consumers were forced to carry a separate MP3 player, but when the smartphone market took off in 2007, offering devices with huge storage and comprehensive media players, the MP3 player’s days were numbered.
Sales have been dwindling.
Despite Sony and Samsung each offering alternatives to the iPod with their Walkman and Galaxy ranges respectively, iPods dominates the MP3 player market; but their sales are falling continuously as smartphones continue to thrive, and while the iPod classic is still available, it features in none of Apple’s advertising and hasn’t received an update for more than three years.
I personally like using my 3rd generation iPod Nano and would’t trade it for anything, but smartphone provide me with the convenience of not having to carry two separate devices in the notorious Delhi public transport.
So while you may still use your portable media players while at the gym (though I’ve seen people use tablets to listen to music in the gym! Ridiculous!) or while out for a jog, the fact is that the end of MP3 players is near.
In a segment that is adding devices by the minute, it is imperative to pay attention to the design of your device to make it stand out. With the Lava Iris 504Q, Lava went for a simple and sleek design. No big bezel or funky colours hogwash.
At first glance, the Lava Iris 504Q is really similar to the HTC Butterfly. At the front there is a 5″ display with a HTC Butterfly like speaker grill at the top, and the proximity sensor, front-facing camera next to it. There are three touch-capacitive buttons under the screen, which are backlit and provide haptic feedback.
Towards the right of the device you have a power button, volume rockers towards the left, a microphone at the bottom and your 3.5mm headphone jack along with a micro-USB port at the top.
The slightly-curved back- cover of the device has a soft rubber like finish, even though it’s made of plastic, which gives it a really premium feel. It also makes it less prone to finger prints and scratches.
An 8 MP camera + flash, and a secondary noise-cancelling microphone grace the back of the device, which has its speaker grill towards the bottom left side. A small LAVA logo sits right in the middle of the device. Lava has managed to get a good balance of subtle branding and design to ensure the phone does not look overly flash and cheap.
With its dimensions of 140 x 73 x 8 mm and 140 Gms weight, it is really comfortable to operate.
The build quality is splendid as well, no squeaking noise, no loose parts. Everything about the Lava Iris 504Q feels downright solid. So a big thumbs up to Lava as far as build quality and design are concerned.
Specifications And Hardware
The hardware list on the Lava iris 504Q is pretty common on the market, a 5 inch 1280 x 720p screen, 1.2 GHz quad core MediaTek MT6589 processor, a mix of 8 MP and 2 MP cameras, 1 Gig of RAM and a 4 GB storage. Lava is trying various software tweaks to appeal to the market like gestures for the image gallery and clicking pictures. It is essentially a Dual-SIM GSM + CDMA smartphone.
You also get a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G, and 2000 mAh battery. Detailed tech specs are given at the top.
Display And Multimedia
The display on the Lava Iris 504Q is definitely one of the most impressive in this segment. It employs OGS (One Glass Solution) technology which basically means that there is zero gap between the screen and the glass on top of it.
With it being an iPS display, viewing angles were bound to be decent, but what impressed us most was the colour reproduction of the panel. Bright, vivid colours and deep blacks make the Lava Iris 504Q feel like a device from a segment higher than the one it is aimed for. Outdoor visibility is decent as well but the one thing that left us slightly disappointed was that Lava didn’t opt for a scratch resistant display.
Moving on to the mutli-media experience of the device, the Lava Iris 504Q has a custom Lava music player bundled along with it. The app, called Fusion, basically is a replacement for your stock music app, and provides a radio streaming option as well. If we talk about the audio quality, it is sufficiently loud and clear, but due the placement of the speakers, more often than not one tends to muffle the speaker while holding the phone.
Video playback on the Lava Iris 504Q was bound to be a joy, given its excellent display. Again, colours were rich and the phone can handle most formats including MP4, AVI, MKV and MOV. The screen size aids the multimedia experience by providing more screen real estate.
The stock browser on the Lava Iris 504Q is really impressive. Apart from smooth scrolling and zooming, it provides a host of options like offline reading and searching, which are found in Google Chrome. Text is sharp and easy to read, so overall the browsing experience is quite satisfying.
The Lava Iris 504Q’s benchmarks scores were decent. It scored above the Canvas HD in our tests. You can watch the benchmarks video below.
The Lava Iris 504Q has an 8MP camera with a BSI sensor. The camera app itself is well laid out and provides a bunch of settings and modes including HDR, Panorama, ISO settings, Exposure settings etc.
Starting with outdoor shots, the colours seemed slightly unnatural and overly saturated. The camera tends to over-expose images, and we were expecting slightly more from the Iris 504Q. Macro-shots though seemed much better. Good background blur and sharp detailing. The gesture feature, which we will talk about below, can be used to capture images as well.
Indoor shots were a big disappointment however. Even when there was a decent amount of lighting in the room, the Lava Iris 504Q clicked completely unusable images. The flash seemed too weak to aid the process of indoor imaging. So if low-light camera performance is one of your main requirements, you might want to give this one a miss.
Video recording is done at 1080p in mp4 format. While we did not find any major flaws with the quality of the video, the Lava Iris 504Q again over-exposed the shots a bit.
Network, Phone Call And Messaging
Phone call quality was very good and we have no complaints with the way the Lava Iris 504Q handles networks. The network holds good throughout the day and you will seldom find the need to wait for a network flash to get over.
The keyboard on the Lava Iris 504Q is quite similar to the stock Android keyboard. It is well laid out and can be customized according to your needs via the Google Play store.
The Lava Iris 504Q provides support for a GSM and a WCDMA SIM card. Network on both was strong throughout our tests.
Gesture Support
The Lava Iris 504Q packs in gesture support to separate itself from the herd of devices in this segment. While it may sound good on paper, we personally feel that it’s more of a gimmick than a useful addition. It does not work with all applications and when tried with the camera app, we were left searching for the option to turn it off. The Lava Iris 504Q kept clicking pictures even when we weren’t ‘swiping’ our hands in front of the display.
Conclusion
Overall, the Lava Iris 504Q is a smartphone that hopes to distinguish itself from the crowded budget smartphone market with its excellent display and simplistic design. While it may not lag behind the others as far as performance is concerned, we feel that Lava could have done a better job with the camera on the device. If you can overlook that, then the price of Rs. 13,499 seems right for the device.
LG today launched their new flagship device for 2013, the LG Optimus G Pro E988 in India (known globally as the E985). The LG Optimus G Pro has been priced at Rs. 39,900 will compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One in the Android Market.
In terms of specifications, the LG Optimus G Pro has a True Full HD IPS Plus LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, which features a 1.7GHz Quad-Core CPU and Adreno 320 GPU. A massive 3140 mAh battery and 2GB of RAM.
The LG Optimus G Pro has a 32 GB storage along with 64 GB expandability via microSD card. A 13 MP rear camera and a 2.1 MP front camera enable full HD video recording and LG was also the first to show off dual camera features with the LG Optimus G Pro, right before Samsung launched the S4 into the market.
The rear of the Optimus G Pro features a glittery digital cube pattern which is seen on the Nexus 4 and LG also says that the Optimus G Pro features a curved glass at the front, which gives it a 2.5D effect.
Inside the box of the LG Optimus G Pro are,
Warranty Guide
In-ear earphones with a set of ear-tips
USB to microUSB cable
3140 mAh battery
Wall charger
LG Optimus G Pro E988 Handset
LG had originally decided to launch the Optimus G Pro around the 20th of June 2013, but due to the conflicting price of US Dollar vs Rupee, The Optimus G Pro shipments were delayed. The LG Optimus G Pro is also price considerably higher than what LG had originally decided (around Rs. 35000) making it a tough seller, since the competition can continue selling stocks bought at earlier dollar prices. Samsung and HTC are also set to raise prices of handsets if the Dollar Price does not normalize in the coming days. Considering the price increase of the competitors the LG Optimus G Pro might sell better in the coming months.
LG might be enjoying the success of the Nexus 4 in India, and in order to retain that streak the company has launched the new LG Optimus G Pro E988 in India. The 5.5 inch smartphone from LG falls into the Galaxy Note 2 category of phone sans the stylus.The LG Optimus G Pro has a True Full HD IPS Plus LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels.
The Optimus G Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, which features a 1.7GHz Quad-Core CPU and Adreno 320 GPU, a massive 3140 mAh battery and 2GB of RAM.
The LG Optimus G Pro has 16/32 GB storage options along with 64 GB expandability via microSD card. A 13 MP rear camera and a 2.1 MP front camera enable full HD video recording and LG was also the first to show off dual camera features with the LG Optimus G Pro, right before Samsung launched the S4 into the market.
“LG’s Optimus G Pro sets a new benchmark in the over 5-inch display smartphone category which is catching on with consumers everywhere who aren’t interested in owning both a phone and a tablet,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Asian customers are leading many of today’s technology trends and we’re confident Optimus G Pro will find a large following in this region.”
The MRP of the Optimus G Pro is set at Rs. 42500, but the phone goes on sale in the country for a price of Rs. 39900. At this price the phone competes head to head with the likes of the Galaxy S4, the HTC One and the Galaxy Note 2, the three predominant Smartphones in this price range. The LG Optimus G Pro brings the Note 2 screen size and the S4 comparable performance in a single package. The LG Optimus G Pro also has a IR blaster and quick remote app to control your electronics.
Watch our old hands on of the LG Optimus Pro E985 below and stay tuned for an Unboxing and Hands on of the LG Optimus Pro E988.
