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Apple has officially announced that the iPad Pro will be available for purchase on the official Apple website from the 11th of November 2015. The company has further said that, later this week, you might even find the iPad Pro at Apple Stores and certain carrier locations. However, let us note at the onset itself, that these dates will not apply to India, and as of now there are no details as to when it will release here.
https://youtu.be/4AZR8a5XVSs
The iPad Pro comes in two variants – Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi plus cellular. So, the Wi-Fi only iPad will e available at $799 (Rs.53,018) with 32GB internal storage, while the Wi-Fi plus cellular version will be priced at $1,079 (Rs.71,597) with 128GB of internal memory. The Apple Pencil will arrive at $99 (Rs.6,569) and the smart keyboard at $169 (Rs.11,214). Along with this Apple is also providing an iPad Pro smart cover in polyurethane at $59 (Rs.3,914) or silicon at $79 (Rs.5,242).
“The early response to iPad Pro from app developers and our customers has been incredible, and we’re excited to get iPad Pro into the hands of customers around the world this week.” – said Philip Schiller, SVP Worldwide Marketing, Apple.
Apple is also going all out in the customer services department by announcing that a user purchasing the iPad Pro from a physical Apple Store will also be given the option of getting their device set up for them by an Apple Store representative. Furthermore, these customers can also have their email and other apps set up for them at the store for free.
Before you buy anything though, let us give you a small recap of the iPad Pro’s features. It comes with a 12.9-inch IPS screen carrying a 2048 x 2072 resolution with a pixel density of 265ppi. It runs on the Apple A9X SoC which is under the hood and has a 4GB of RAM inside. On the camera front, it comes with an 8MP primary camera and a 1.2MP camera up front. The battery is expected to last you about 10 hours of use between charges.
Let’s see when this much anticipated Apple device arrives in India. It would be interesting to see the response of the Indian market to the iPad Pro after the unexpectedly low sales of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Watch this space for all the latest updates.
Diwali is right around the corner and we are all receiving and sending gifts to one another. However, picking the right gift is always a very tricky affair. So, in order to make it slightly easier for you, we bring you a list of smartphones in different ranges that could help you pick your Diwali present.
Low-Range Smartphones (Rs.5,000 – Rs.10,000)
1. Moto E 2nd Generation: Motorola has been doing quite well this year with its budget smartphones and the Moto E 2nd Gen is definitely one worth sending out as a Diwali present.
This phone boasts a:
5MP primary camera with auto focus, HDR and 0.3MP front facing camera
4.5-inch (11.43 centimeters) quarter HD IPS capacitive touchscreen with 960 x 540 pixels resolution
Android v5 Lollipop operating system with 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad core processor, 400MHz Adreno 302 GPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory expandable up to 32GB and dual SIM (GSM+UMTS)
2390mAH lithium-ion battery
You can buy this phone on Amazon India for Rs.4,999.
2. YU Yuphoria: This smartphone from Micromax’s YU comes with:
8MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera
5-inch (12.7 centimeters) HD IPS capacitive touchscreen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and 294 ppi pixel density
Android v5.1.1 Lollipop operating system with Snapdragon 410 quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory expandable up to 32GB and dual SIM (GSM+GSM)
2230mAH lithium-ion battery providing talk-time of 7 hours and standby time of 160 hours
Android Lollipop with CyanogenOS 12 and OxygenOS – 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad core processor, 578MHz Adreno-330 GPU, 3GB RAM, 64GB internal memory and single Micro SIM
Multi-touch IPS 5.5″ (13.97 cm) Corning Gorilla Glass 3 (full HD 1080 x 1920 pixels @ 401 PPI) touch-screen by JDI with LTPS technology
Long lasting 3,100 mAh Li-Po battery and best-in-class camera (13MP Sony IMX214 rear with dual LED flash & 5MP front with 1080p@30fps); 6 lenses to avoid distortion and color aberration, 4K resolution video with stereo recording
4G LTE, Bluetooth v4.1, GPRS, NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Miracast
This phone is exclusively available on Amazon India at a Diwali price of Rs.17,999 instead of Rs.19,999.
2. Mi 4 (16GB):
13MP primary camera with 4K UHD video recording and 8MP front facing camera
5-inch (12.7 centimeters) IPS HD capacitive touchscreen with 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and 441 ppi pixel density
Android v4.4.4 KitKat operating system with 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB RAM, 16GB internal memory and single SIM
3080mAH lithium-polymer battery
The Mi 4 which was originally priced at Rs.14,999 will now be available on Amazon India at Rs.12,999.
3.Micromax Canvas Knight 2 E471:
13MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera
5-inch (12.7 centimeters) AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution
Android v5 Lollipop operating system with 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory expandable up to 32GB and dual SIM (GSM+GSM)
2260mAH lithium-ion battery providing talk-time of 7 hours 45 minutes and standby time of 335 hours.
High-Range Phones (Rs.20,000 and above)
1. OnePlus Two:
The star smartphone of the year comes with –
13MP primary camera with f/2.0 Aperture, 1.3 µm Pixels, 6-lenses, Dual LED Flash, advanced Laser Autofocus with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and 5MP front facing camera
Designed with premium stainless steel frame and multi-touch IPS 5.5″ Corning Gorilla Glass IPS LCD (full HD 1080 x 1920 pixels @ 401 PPI, 1500:1 contrast ratio; 178 degrees viewing angle)
OxygenOS based on Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (64 bit with 1.8GHz Octa-core SoC) featuring 4G LTE, Adreno 430 GPU; 4GB LPDDR4 RAM; 64GB eMMC5 storage
3,300 mAh Li-Po battery; Dual Nano SIM, Fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C port and 3-way physical alert toggle switch
It is now available on Amazon India at Rs.24,999.
2. HTC One M9 Plus (Gold-Silver, 32GB):
20MP primary camera with sapphire cover lens, auto focus, BSI sensor and ultrapixel front facing camera
5.2-inch (13.2 centimeters) capacitive touchscreen with 1440 x 2560 pixels resolution
Android operating system with 2.2GHz,Mediatek MT6795T helio X10 octa core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory expandable up to 2TB and single SIM
2840mAH lithium-ion battery providing talk-time of 23 hours on 2G, 13 hours on 3G networks and standby time of 598 hours on 2G, 626 hours on 3G networks
The HTC One M9 Plus is available at Rs.39,705, which originally would have been Rs.53,900.
16 MP, 2988 x 5312 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash
This phone that is originally priced at Rs.58,699 will now come at Rs.39,990 this Diwali 2015.
4. iPhone 6:
This list would be incomplete without the iPhone, the iPhone 6 comes with –
4.7-inch (diagonal) Retina HD display with 1334-by-750 resolution
A8 chip with M8 motion coprocessor
8-megapixel iSight camera with Focus Pixels and True Tone flash
1080p HD video recording at 60 fps and slo-mo video recording at 240 fps
FaceTime HD camera
Touch ID fingerprint sensor
LTE1 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi
We hope this list solves at least one-quarter of your problems (all offers and prices are subject to vary as they are applicable only for limited periods of time). Until then Happy Diwali from us! Have a safe one.
Some of you may be aware of Gamergate. For those who don’t know, Gamergate was a controversy that began in August 2014. It concerned issues of sexism and progressivism in video game culture. Gamergate began when a former boyfriend of Quinn wrote a lengthy disparaging blog post about her, leading others to falsely accuse her of entering a relationship with a journalist in exchange for positive coverage. Quinn denied the charges, but in the internet world, things escalated quickly.
The movement resulted in women being harassed online, being driven from their homes in fear of threat and violence. Most of the harassment were coordinated through online discussion forums in websites like Reddit, 4chan and 8chan.
Things have changed since then. In the course of two years, the audience for gaming has become more diverse. “The fight has how become about how broad and welcoming the gaming industry can be. Australian Greens senator for Western Australia, Scott Ludlam told Mashable Australia the government has no direct role to play in Gamergate, but doesn’t rule it out entirely. “I don’t think the government has a role in culture wars,” he said. “Anytime a government is engaging in a culture war it always tends to end badly.”
There is a palpable tension in the going community over whether women and minorities will be included as the industry grows, and Ludlam understands this. But resolution won’t come via legislation. In the end the issue has to be dealt with internally.
“Ultimately, something like GamerGate can’t be sorted from the outside,” he concluded. “It’s a cultural hand grenade for this community that only it can sort out. It’s not going to get resolved by someone passing a law.”
Chinese smartphone vendor made a huge entry into the Indian markets with their OnePlus One. Initially we didn’t know what to expect of it, but eventually we were pleasantly surprised as OnePlus One arrived with top notch hardware for its time. Take a look at some of its specifications:
Today, we bring you some good news, that Amazon India is offering a Diwali Special offer on the OnePlus One. The smartphone which was originally priced at Rs.19,999 will now be priced at Rs,17,99 this Diwali.
The phone comes with superior specs and an impressive body. It comes in a sandstone version with chrome and metallic accents, logos, buttons and the Cyanogen logo printed at the back. If you are still not sure about whether to buy this phone or not, click here for other specs, details, unboxing and a hands on review to help you make your mind.
The internet has been abuzz with rumours suggesting that Instagram was experimenting with 3D advertisement techniques in order to exploit Apple’s 3D Touch and the Apple Pay technology on the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
According to rumours, Instagram was believed to be working on this new project in order to increase its financial gains. They wanted to do this by allowing users to make purchases directly from Instagram using Apple Pay and Force Touch.The iPhone’s new Force Touch technology would now offer Instagram users more than just two options -to buy or browse- when tapping on the Shop Now button to purchase a product. Easier shopping options would mean increased sales on Instagram, and therefore higher profits for the company.
The Force Touch feature, first introduced in the Apple Watch and the new 13-inch MacBook was recently also unveiled in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. ‘Force Touch’ is a feature that differentiates between three different kinds of touch, as opposed to two, and responds accordingly. A user can perform various tasks in a much simpler and more efficient fashion.
However, unfortunately for iPhone users, Instagram has rubbished all these rumours and explicitly said that are not working on any such innovation currently. Oh well, no harm done anyway except that iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users would have to carry on with the traditional ways of retail transactions, for now.
Last month we had mentioned HTC is planning to launch the Desire 728G in India. Today, HTC has indeed launched the phone at a price of Rs. 17,990. The smartphone is offered in Purple Myst and White Luxury colour variants and is available at major offline retailers.
“The new HTC Desire 728G Dual SIM brings distinctive design into a feature-rich smartphone, providing you with a great value smartphone which you can truly make your own. We want to provide a powerful, fully customisable experience to our customers, and the HTC Desire 728G Dual SIM brings this in abundance,” said Faisal Siddiqui, President, HTC South Asia during the launch.
The HTC Desire 728G Dual SIM is housed in a stylish, elegant body and boasts a clean yet striking finish. The device features a 5.5-inch HD (729×1280 pixels) display. It is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek octa-core processor paired with 1.5 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage expandable up to 2 TB via MicroSD card slot.
The handset also features a 13 MP primary camera with BSI sensor, f/2.2 aperture and LED flash, and a 5 MP front camera with 1080p video recording capabilities, a 2,080 mAh battery, and will run on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Other connectivity features include dual-SIM card slots, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS. The dual SIM, however, does not support 4G.
Online sales of the HTC Desire 728G have yet to begin. We’ll bring word as and when the device becomes available with online retailers in India.
Xiaomi has released two new devices in China, one of them is a fitness band called the Mi Band Plus (or Mi Band 1S) and the second one is the Mi Power bank.
Mi Band Plus Or Mi Band 1s
What’s different about Xiaomi’s new fitness tracker? Well, it comes with a heart rate sensor, which was not present in the previous edition of Xiaomi’s fitness tracker, the Mi Band.
Let’s talk a little more about the heart rate sensor. Firstly, it is based on an optical heart monitoring technology which tracks the blood by illuminating the capillaries with LED. The heart rate sensor monitor will be available as an accessory to the Mi band package.
Apart from tracking one’s heart rate, the Mi Band Plus can also track steps and can estimate the calories burnt along with the distance covered. It is also capable of monitoring the quality of your sleep and can also reportedly nudge you with vibrations before your alarm wakes you up with a start. The Mi band Plus will also alert you for incoming calls and will let you unlock your phone with it.
With the functions out of the way, we can now move over to the slightly static design. The Mi Band Plus looks a lot like the Mi Band and comes with the same hardware and rubber strap. However, there is a slight difference in its weight by 0.5 gms and dimensions at 37×13.6×9.9 mm, which is just slightly larger than the Mi Band.
Mi Power Bank (20,000mAh)
Xiaomi has also announced the Mi Power Bank along with the Mi Band Plus or Mi Band 1S. This device will come with a capacity of 20,000 mAh and will come with a plastic body, as compared to the metal body that the company’s other power banks come with. Xiaomi has also mentioned that the battery within the device will be made by LG or Panasonic and will come with a conversion rate of 83 percent with a 5.1V and 3.6A output.
Both devices sound extremely promising, however, they have been released exclusively in China. The Mi Band Plus will be priced at $16 which is approximately Rs.1,062, while the Mi Power Bank is expected to be priced at $24 which is approximately Rs.1,593.
No word yet on when the devices will launch in India. We’ll update you as soon as we have more news on that.
There is a way for art to reach the masses if one knows how to promote it. Digital art has been trying to gain a following in both the digital, and the non-digital, ‘real’ world. The problem, though, is that real-life digital art in a physical form tends to fade away after a few weeks, while soft copies risk losing their aesthetic value.
To fight both these plagues, a team of artists have come up with a museum that provides both a real-life virtual reality exhibit, while at the same time does not lose out on the aesthetics. The dates for the exhibition are November 14th through to December 19th and the location is Brooklyn, New York. However, it can be accessed through Mac and Windows apps that can be run from home.
The museum is called the Digital Museum of Digital Art or DiMoDA, and it gives artists the ability to reach a wider audience without diminishing the impact of their work. The artists promise a trippy experience with 3D psychedelia artwork that is possible because of virtual reality. Things here aren’t fixed in place and you’ll be able to experience a 360-degree view of the art.
A generic digital art specimen.
The atrium of the museum is designed and modeled in 3D by Alfredo Salazar-Caro. Viewers wear the Occulus Rift VR headset to enter DiMoDa. Viewers will then immediately approach a number of ‘portals’ which can be used to access the ‘wings’ of the museum. Exhibiting artists have complete control to shape the virtual environment in which their works are installed inside the museum.
DiMoDA will present works by Claudia Hart, Tim Berresheim, Jacolby Satterwhite and a project by Aquanet 2001. The idea was conceived in 2013 by Alfredo Salazar-Caro and William James Richard Robertson, DiMoDA launches in November of 2015 with its first exhibition as a pavilion in The Wrong Biennale and a physical exhibition at TRANSFER in New York from November 14 through December 19th, 2015.
For the first time in the history of selling iPhones in India, Apple is offering a buyback on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus of up to Rs. 34,000 within a month of their launch in the country. The new iPhones are the most expensive in India as compared to other countries around the world. Thus, the buyback scheme is undoubtedly Apple’s attempts to boost its sales post a lukewarm Indian response to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Other than owing to the unexpectedly high price of the new iPhones, which falls between Rs. 62,000- Rs. 92,000, the fall in the price of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus from last year by Rs. 8,000- Rs. 9,000 has further led to reduced sales of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
One of Apple’s four iPhone distributors, Ingram Micro, has announced the buyback scheme in some Apple stores and a couple of other multi-brand cellphone stores in South India, soon to be available elsewhere in the country. This move will be followed by the other three distributors as Apple attempts to meet its target sales for the October-December quarter.
A senior executive of one of the leading trade partners in the country commented on this, “Earlier companies offering buyback used to give indirect subsidy to retailers to compensate and it was the retailer’s headache to sell the old phone, but this time the entire process is driven by Apple.”
The buyback scheme of Rs. 34,000 on the latest iPhones is against iPhone 6. The offer also includes some hi-end Samsung handsets as well. A separate website has been created by Apple where details of old handsets can be uploaded by retailers against which new models can be bought. This buyback scheme by Apple has followed a 7-11% discount on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus on major e-commerce websites in India. Is the new scheme incentive enough for you to give the new iPhones a try?
Pinterest has teamed up with Berkeley Vision and Learning Center to create a new feature on the addictive browsing website which will help enhance your search. This feature will allow you to select an item of your choice in a pinned photo and search for similar items within Pinterest. Basically, what we’re trying to say, is that, Pinterest is going to launch a new visual search feature within the website.
The new search feature works very simply, you just have to click on the search button, and then use an adjustable box over the photo to zoom in on the item of your preference. Furthermore, you can even add key words to specify your search.
“We optimize on visual similarity, not just duplicates to power Pinners to discovery exact results, as well as unexpected results that may be similar in style or pattern or shape.” says Pinterest engineer Andrew Zhai.
This new feature will also help you save time in two possible ways. Firstly, you won’t have to Google search an image, and can instead stay within the website and fine similar items that you might be interested in. Secondly, it saves us the time of browsing endlessly on this website. We all do it, and it is completely enjoyable, unless we have something very important to do and instead of doing that, we’re just browsing through Pinterest.
This feature will go live on today and will be available on iOS, Android and the web.
Set your smartphone to work as you sleep. Let it help cure cancer. DreamLab, which is a three year old collaboration between Vodafone Foundation and Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has started an initiative that attempts to use smartphones to get some help in curing cancer.
You need to begin by downloading the free app from Google Playstore and ensure that the phone is being charged. Next, choose the type of cancer research you want to support -ovarian, pancreatic, prostrate or breast, and then simply choose the amount of internet data you’d like to donate.
This initiative has been made live only in Australia as of now. If the nation there puts their smartphones together, it will provide Garvan with a supercomputer to be able to conduct cancer research more skillfully. Garvans’s head of the breast cancer unit, Dr. Samantha Oakes, said in an official statement:
“As a nation who loves their smartphones, we now have a tremendous opportunity to put them to good use and help find a cure for cancer. Together, we can come to a greater understanding of how to treat it more swiftly. With the help of game-changing innovations like DreamLab, I am hopeful that we will see cures of certain types of cancer in our lifetime.”
The Institute further stated that with 100,000 DreamLab apps working on smartphones in a nation which has about 5 million users, the rate of processing data would increase by 150,000 times and with a speed 3,000 times faster than the current one. The initiative seems a big step in the field of cancer research. Let’s see how long India would have to wait before something like this makes its way to the country.
Something happened today. There was a sudden burst of virtual reality news all at once that has people everywhere believing that technology has indeed taken the next step. Today, The New York Times has taken a step towards VR by introducing Google Cardboard with their magazine, YouTube updated their Android app to support virtual reality videos, and finally Samsung plans on launching its Gear VR this month. Take a moment to soak all that in.
So, talking about The New York Times, the American daily newspaper that started in 1851 has now taken a step into the future. It launched the NYT VR app that gives a virtual reality experience of news along with headphones and (optionally) a cardboard viewing device. According to a blog on the NYT website, the goal is “to simulate richly immersive scenes from across the globe.”
The app started with three portraits of children “driven from their homes from war and persecution.” The first is of an 11-year old boy named Oleg from eastern Ukraine, an 12-year old Syrian girl named Hana and a 9-year old South Sudanese boy named Chuol. To watch the 10-minute short film, you’ll have to download the app and thereafter the film can be downloaded. Though the films are promoted for VR headcount, they can still be viewed normally.
Some 30 million children are displaced. Chuol, 9, escaped into a vast swamp in South Sudan when fighters swept into his village.
“This new filmmaking technology enables an uncanny feeling of connection with people whose lives are far from our own,” writes Jake Silverstein, editor of the magazine.
The New York Times has been at the forefront of journalism for 119 years. The NYT VR app is the future of journalism. The stories will provide you an immersive 360-degree video experience. NYT promises to post new stories told in virtual reality every month. The app is available for download on iOS and Android.
Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook have brought their forces together to develop drones that can provide broadband internet access from above the Earth. Both companies have reportedly registered new drone designs with the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Apart from this, Alphabet is currently planning a secret operation at the Spaceport America allegedly creating a solar-powered drone. With smaller drones gaining the attention of big business firms like Alphabet and Amazon with their project Wing and Prime Air respectively, Google and Facebook are working on a larger drone that will be able to operate even as high as 90,000 feet above ground level.
If their assessments are to be trusted, we can safely assume that these drones could possible be flying for weeks or months, thereby could also potentially provide cities and towns with high-speed internet in underdeveloped countries.
“We’re working on ways to use drones and satellites to connect the billion people who don’t live in range of existing wireless networks,” said Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in July.
This project was preceded by Facebook last year, setting up an initiative with Nokia, Samsung and others to provide online access to two-thirds of the world via internet.org. However, that was a lone project, this one on the other hand, is a collaboration with Alphabet which would in turn help both companies reach new users in their advertising market. All we can hope for is that this initiative churns out something good. What do you think of this collaboration? Feel free to post your comments in the comment section below.
Has the festive Diwali air gotten to you yet? It is, afterall, the season to be a shopoholic. There are plenty of great offers and discounts available these days, if you know where to look. Today, if you happen to pass by online retailers, you can avail some great discounts on laptops.
The offers have a time period so if you’ve been thinking about getting a new laptop, you may want to head over to one of these websites and add a laptop to your cart soon. However, before you do so, you might need a better idea of what’s on sale. We’ve broken it down in terms of price range. Have a look and decide the right one for you.
Laptops Under Rs. 20,000
Dell Inspiron 3551
Dell’s new Inspiron 15 3551 does make an impression thanks to its thinner profile and its surprisingly long warranty. Running times are also better than most of the competition. The graphics aren’t the best here and only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.
2.66GHz Intel Pentium N3540 N3540 processor
4GB DDRL3 RAM
500GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
15.6 inch screen, Intel HD Graphics
Ubuntu Linux 14.04 SP1 operating system
The laptop is currently available at Rs. 17,999, down from Rs. 20,990, which is a 14% discount.
Lenovo G50-30 80G001VNIN
The Lenovo G50 is also being offered at a 20% discount and is currently priced at Rs. 18,499. The laptop offers great performance for a low price. The G50-30 is apt for basic tasks like browsing, Skype or watching videos. The laptop only needs little power and operates quietly.
15.6-inch LED HD display
Intel Pentium Quad Core N3540 Processor
2.16 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz.
4GB DDR3L RAM
500GB storage and a 720p HD webcam.
Laptops Under Rs. 30,000
Lenovo G40-45 (Notebook)
Looking for a budget-friendly laptop is not an easy task. Especially one that packs enough punch to get you through the day. Interestingly, the Lenovo G40 series, which is famous for its affordable prices, is powered by AMD A8 processors; a mobile quad-core system-on-chip (SoC) that integrates a Radeon R5 GPU. This laptop comes with an optical drive and gives a decent batter life with its four-cell battery. Overall, the laptop gives you the most bang for your buck.
APU Quad Core A8
8 GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB HDD
Free DOS
Dell Vostro 15 3558
The Dell Vostro is designed primarily as working device. It is powerful enough for daily tasks. This display isn’t anything to brag about, but it is decent for this price range. There’s a great discount going on for the Dell Vostro right now. The laptop is priced at Rs. 24,999 down from Rs. 28,799 and is being claimed fast.
Priced at Rs. 30,499, the laptop is being offered at a 22% discount. This laptop provides great graphics with a 2GB AMD Radeon graphic card. That is one of the key selling points of the G50 80. The laptop won’t heat much when playing graphically intense games and also comes with 1TB of internal storage.
Intel Core i3 1.9GHz processor.
15.6-inch display with AMD Radeon R5 M230 2GB 3D graphics.
4GB RAM
1TB of internal storage.
HP 15-ac101TU
For a laptop at this price level, the HP 15 looks really good. Instead of a simple texture, HP has gone with a diamond pattern for the lid which enhances the aesthetic appeal. The laptop is a decent entry point for those looking at a basic Windows 10 OS. The HP 15-ac101TU wins has a slim and sleek design. There’s a 10% discount on this HP laptop. Offered at Rs. 30,990, the deal is 60% claimed as of now.
5.6-inch screen with Intel HD Graphic 5500
2GHz Intel Core i3 5005u processor
4GB RAM and 1TB hard drive.
Windows 10 pre-loaded. The deal is 60% claimed as of now.
Other great deals worth mentioning:
Apple Macbook Pro
The Macbook is currently the best in 50K or above range and is currently available at a sweet price of Rs. 50, 999 down from Rs. 78, 990 which gives you an amazing 35% discount. So if you’re looking for a high-end laptop right now, this is the one to go for. The deal is 76% claimed already, so you may want to decide fast for this one.
We’ll update the list as new deals come in. The prices mentioned above are subject to change as all mentioned deals are for limited periods of time only.
Nexus devices are traditionally examples of what Google wants from companies in the year to come. They are devices designed to run on the latest versions of Android keeping the performance at its best, being a design and performance benchmark of sorts that run pure Android. However this year google seems to have changed its philosophy and has launched two new Nexus devices. So is the cheaper Nexus 5X actually up to standards with what Google usually puts out, or is it Google’s shadow attempt at keeping the mid-tier market happy?
Build Quality and Design
The Nexus 5X made by LG for Google appears to have a little too much plastic, and is extremely light -so much so that it does not feel premium at all. Made entirely of plastic, barring the display, the device is rather flimsy looking. However, it does not feel like it will break easily, the plastic is rigid, but in no way feels anything close to the feel on the Nexus 6 or the Nexus 5 for that matter. No mention of IP ratings and you get an outdated Gorilla Glass 3 with a simple Oleophobic coating.
The design is not winning any points for now, the black Nexus 5X is fairly boring with a bump on the back for the camera. The back panel is extremely fingerprint and smudge-friendly and gets stained easily. Laying on a table the Nexus 5X is nothing out of the ordinary, and the complete use of plastic kills not only the aesthetic but a lot of the premium feel at the price bracket. Devices like the Moto X and Samsung A8 offer a lot more design and visual appeal. Push a little further in your budget and you get the Samsung Galaxy S6, one of the “prettiest” phones of 2015.
The great thing about the Nexus 5X is that, unlike the Nexus 6, it is very lightweight at only 136g grams and can easily used with one average sized hand.
Hardware
The hardware on the Nexus 5X seems to be a compromise, with Google sticking to Snapdragon 808 and 2 GB of RAM, the only major improvements are the cameras which now stand at 12.3 MP and 5 MP.
Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.2 / NFC / Type-C USB
Operating System
Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)
Price
Rs. 31,990/ Rs. 35,990
Camera
The new Nexus 5X and 6P have similar cameras, and they have to be the best Nexus cameras yet. While low light performance is questionable, the cameras do exceedingly well in good lighting. Good accurate colours, ample amounts of contrast and dynamic range are some the highlights of the cameras.
The main camera captures images just under the full resolution of 12.3 MP at 12.2 MP and UHD video. The front camera comes up with 5 MP pictures and 1920 x 1080p video. While the images are crisp and great to look at, the camera app does slow down once in a while and does not give the experience that is expected from Nexus devices. The rear camera gets laser assisted (IR sensor) auto focus, mostly seen on LG flagship phones, and works pretty efficiently in capturing focus points.
Video quality is great at 4k, but due to the lack of IS, the video tends to be shaky when shot by shaky hands. Sample below.
Android Marshmallow and Experience
The new Nexus 5X, just as each Nexus before it, comes with the latest version of Android, which in this case is Android 6.0 Marshmallow. With this new update you get improved UI features like an App search bar, a new Clock and lock screen messages.
You also get performance upgrades, a brand new RAM manager, standard support for fingerprint scanners and USB type C ports, and hence the new Nexus phones have those both.
Software updates like ‘Now on Tap’ allow you to look at Google Now throughout the UI. Apart from the usual “Ok Google” command, a long-press on the Home button makes the Google Now assistant scan whatever’s on the screen to find extra info online that might be helpful.
Privacy is now been updated and apps can no longer bypass this. A new security feature asks for passwords during boot, and not after booting to prevent unintentional battery drain if a non-owner tries to start the phone.
The new Doze feature is incredible at recognising when the phone is idle to put it in a rested state. This considerably improves battery performance on the Nexus 5X.
Performance and Battery
The Google Nexus 5X is losing out on one big thing and that is performance. Each year Nexus phones stand out as leaders defining performance standards for companies, however, this year the case is different. The higher of the two Nexus devices launched this year, the Nexus 6P, is more of a performance benchmark. The 5X is mostly being sold to cater to those who basically don’t like the idea of an expensive Nexus phone, as was seen last year with the Nexus 6.
The Nexus 5X runs dated and weak Snapdragon 808 chipset because, most manufacturers have preferred the 808 over the 810 pertaining its heat issues. The 808 scores considerably less on benchmarks achieving 48020 on Antutu which falls roughly below last year’s Note 4 by Samsung. So the Nexus 5X is not a flagship benchmark.
Battery life is assisted by the Doze feature and gives you extended use, especially if you have a long screen-off time.
The Nexus 5X will easily last a day for the average user going into the second day before requiring a charge. With a talk time of around 6 hours, we are not complaining.
Usage
LG Nexus 5X
Talk Time
5.5 – 6 hours
Internet on LTE
4 hours
Internet on Wi-Fi
5 hours
Gaming and Video
5 hours
Standby
6- 7 days
Conclusion
The Nexus 5X is available in India for a price of Rs 29,990 (at the time of review) for the 16 GB variant which is about Rs. 4,000 more than the US$ 379 price. At this price it lacks the essence of a Nexus phone. Its built in plastic lacks a QHD display and comes with 2 GB of RAM, the best advantage of the Nexus remains the quick updates. For a better hardware experience the Moto X Style offer better value for money, at the same price and has a QHD display 3 GB of RAM and better cameras, fast turbo charging and dual sim capabilities. More over you get expandability up to 128 GB. The Moto X style offers a near-Nexus Android experience and will soon get marshmallow.
You should consider one of the many other options instead of the Nexus 5X this year. For LG and Google the intent is wonderful and the phone brings back the brilliance of the Nexus 5, however the Nexus 6P is more Nexus than the Nexus 5X.
Dell’s new Inspiron 15 3551 does make an impression thanks to its thinner profile and its surprisingly long warranty. Running times are also better than most of the competition. The graphics aren’t the best here and only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.
The Google Nexus 5X is losing out on one big thing and that is performance. Each year Nexus phones stand out as leaders defining performance standards for companies, however, this year the case is different. The higher of the two Nexus devices launched this year, the Nexus 6P, is more of a performance benchmark. The 5X is mostly being sold to cater to those who basically don’t like the idea of an expensive Nexus phone, as was seen last year with the Nexus 6.
Battery life is assisted by the Doze feature and gives you extended use, especially if you have a long screen-off time.