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We’ve told you how to get your OnePlus 2 invites, we’ve told you about how the company will be giving away their invites and we’ve seen you flock the page with queries and requests asking us to give you invites. While we can’t deliver the last bit, yet, we bring you good news anyway.
Shortly after the OnePlus 2 was launched, 2 million OnePlus fans made reservations for the much awaited phone. Well, the good news is that the company has sent out its first wave of invites!
That’s right. While the company hasn’t mentioned exactly how many invites they’ve dished out, you can now check your mail to see if you’re one of the lucky ones to be acquiring the OnePlus 2, with an invite from the company itself. So, we do wish you all the luck.
If you haven’t received the OnePlus 2 invite yet, watch our hands-on and unboxing video to sense what the OnePlus 2 will look and feel like:
Most of us are aware of Flipkart’s The Freedom Day and eBay’s Aazadi Rocks special Independence Day sales. We are going to help you gauge which products you should buy, the five best deals and how to go about it.
Firstly, the Flipkart sale is limited exclusively on mobile apps. Secondly, it is advisable to compare prices at eBay before buying a smartphone or TV, since eBay’s sellers are closely matching prices with Flipkart. Thirdly, you can get an additional 10% discount if you use an SBI card to complete your transactions on the Flipkart app, with the minimum transaction being worth Rs.7,500 and the maximum discount on it being Rs.2,000 per card.
Now for the best deals:
1. The Nexus 6 (32GB)
The Nexus 6 is a large device, sporting a mammoth 5.96 inch super AMOLED display with a massive 2560 x 1440 px resolution. The sides of the Nexus 6, unlike its predecessors, is all metal and rounded-off. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 with a 3GB RAM, a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera with a 3220 mAh battery. Originally priced at Rs. 44,000 for the 32 GB it will now be available at Rs. 29,999 on Flipkart on exchange offers.
The HTC One M9+ comes with a 5.2 inch display with 1440 X 2560 pixels resolution, it is powered by a MediaTek MT6795T chipset with 3 GB RAM space. It also has a 20MP + 2MP Duo primary camera and a 4MP HTC UltraPixel front camera with a 2840mAh. Run by the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with HTC Sense 7, the 32GB variant was priced at Rs.49,500 and is now available for Rs. 35,611 on eBay.
The OnePlus One is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.5GHz Quad-core CPUs and an Adreno 330, 578MHz GPU with a 3 GB LP-DDR3 RAM. This device has a 5.5 inch diplay with a 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 3. For more information click here. This device was originally priced at Rs.21,998 for the 64GB variant and Rs.18,998 for the 16GB variant will now be available on Amazon at Rs.17,998 respectively.
This smart TV comes with an Ultra HD (4K), 3840 x 2160 display, a 3 x HDMI, 3 x USB and a built in Wi-Fi. The original launch price was Rs.69,990 and is now available on Flipkart at Rs. 35,990.
The device boasts of a 5-inch 720p display with 1280×720-pixel resolution and 294ppi. It is powered by a 1.4GHz Quad core CPU and with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, along with an Adreno306 GPU and is powered by a 2,470 mAh battery. The handset is available in two variants- 8GB storage with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage with 2GB RAM. The launch price of this device was Rs.12,999 and is now available at Rs.11,999 on Flipkart.
Recently, we received the unwelcoming news that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 will not be including any expandability options and will not have a microSD slot for expanding the memory. But, there still might be a chance that the device might feature the useful option.
According to a latest report, the device will be a supporting microSD card option. The report says the memory card slot will share the same slot as the second SIM slot. For double SIM users, this might present itself as a problem. Basically, one of the Micro-SIM card slots doubles as the MicroSD card extension slot. So, you can either use the expandability option, or you can use two SIM cards at the same time.
So, for single SIM users, storage might not pose much of a problem.
As far as we know about the device, the Galaxy Note 5 will have a curved back and is likely to feature a 5.4-inch or 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with curves on both the edges. The display is likely also to feature a 4K resolution. According to reports, the phone may also feature a 16MP rear camera and an 8MP secondary shooter.
The Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge + are officially scheduled to launch on the 13th of August.
Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, is known for purposely dropping hints before releasing their smartphones. This time is no different. We know that Xiaomi is holding an event in Beijing on 13th August, and many had been speculating that it could be the Mi 5. But, today, Amazon dropped in a hint, accidently or intentionally, about a new handset named the Redmi 2 Prime. So now, we know that Xiaomi may release, either both or one of the devices, during the event.
When Xiaomi released the Redmi 2 earlier this year at a launch event, the company also said that it would be soon launching a limited edition with better specs. According to the listing, Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime has a 4.7-inch display with high definition resolution and Asahi Dragontrail glass. The handset measures 134 x 67.2 x 9.4 mm and weighs 133 grams with a 2,200 mAh Li-Po battery that claims to offer 14 hours of talk time.
It is based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system. It is powered by 2 GB RAM and a 1.2 Ghz quad core processor (Snapdragon 410). Besides, the Redmi 2 Prime has an 8MP rear camera that comes along with an LED flashlight and a 2MP front camera.
The Redmi 2 Prime is said to come with 16 GB of internal memory and a 32 GB microSD card slot. Other than tha,t the phone has dual SIM (micro), 4G/3G connectivity, WiFi, micro USB port, Bluetooth and GPS.
Amazon removed the listing immediately, not before a screenshot was secured. There was no mention of the price or the availability of the device. Guess we will have to wait for an official announcement by Xiaomi.
What do you think the price range would the device fall in?
HTC Corp. has come under a lot of slack, for the past couple of years for being “confused, unoriginal and uncompetitive”. With their shares having fallen by 51 percent so far, the Taiwanese smartphone makers have reportedly announced, that they would be cutting jobs and discontinuing models so that they can focus on high-end devices, which they hope will enable them to compete with Apple Inc. and Samsung.
“The cuts will be across the board,” said Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang, “they will be significant.”
He also mentioned that the cost reductions would extend up to the first quarter of the following year, but no further information has been reported.
The company seems to have been losing its market share both in the high-end as well as the low ranged sectors, with Apple and Samsung electronics in the former and Chinese rivals at the latter range, taking over rapidly.
Reports suggest that Chang also mentioned HTC’s strategy for the coming quarter would be – to bank on selling high-end smartphones in India where the company is said to have 20 percent market share of phone priced between approximately Rs.15,946 and Rs.25,514.
However, while most analysts are still skeptical of HTC’s stable continuance, it is to be seen whether this strategy will work for them or not.
Regardless of how the smartphone sales for other companies are doing, OnePlus has skyrocketed to making up to 2 million reservations for its new device OnePlus 2, as of Thursday. This number has established the company’s place in the industry for the foreseeable future.
“Over 2 MILLION reservations for the OnePlus 2. Thank you for your overwhelming support!” reads OnePlus’ Twitter account.
The company is said to have had 1 million reservations within hours of the unveiling of OnePlus 2 and took only a week for reservations to hit the 2 million mark. This number is special for the OnePlus company since its benchmark to date has been 1.5 million units for the OnePlus One and this also means that more people are looking to buy new devices from this company.
Reports suggest, that OnePlus will be sending out invites to customers in USA, India and Europe on the 11th of August 2015.
The new iOS 9 beta showed us two new interesting features – firstly it allows your phone connectivity to switch to your data connection, when the Wi-Fi signal is low and secondly, it allows Wi-Fi calling for AT&T subscribers.
As of now, the iPhone can connect, or attempt to connect to a known Wi-Fi hotspot that is within range, even if the connection is too weak to transmit data. So, the solution to this problem has been to disable the iPhone’s Wi-Fi radio. However, with the the “Wi-Fi Assist” option in the iOS 9 beta, one can go to the “Cellular” menu in the Settings app, and enable the feature, it will then force your device to switch to a 3G or 4G connection when the Wi-Fi signal drops. The feature also notifies you by making the icon turn grey, indicating that the Wi-Fi is being switched off.
Reports also suggest that the iOS 9 beta enables Wi-Fi calling for AT&T subscribers, providing them with incoming and outgoing calls to a local wireless network, and thereby offering a more reliable connection, enhanced audio quality and better battery performance.
However, the iOS 9 beta is exclusive to only developers, for now. Reports suggest that this has been done in order to “avoid causing too much aggravation with bugs or poor performance.” Therefore, one might have to wait for a few more days/weeks until the iOS 9 becomes public.
Asus Zen Festival 2015 has begun in New Delhi today. On this occasion, the Taiwanese handset maker has launched four new devices: ZenFone 2 Deluxe, ZenFone Selfie, ZenFone Max and the ZenFone Laser.
We are serious about the Indian market which is growing tougher day by day and that is why we want to do something different. We will showcase more products and share their prices at the Zen Festival
Asus managing director, Peter Chang.
The Zenfone 2 Laser has three variants. The first variant, Zenfone 2 Laser 5.5, has a 5.5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) display, with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. It is powered by a Snapdragon 410 quad-core 64-bit processor paired with 2GB of RAM and offers 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card. It gets its juice from a 3,000 mAh battery and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop wrapped under ZenUI.
The second variant has almost the same specs as the first, except that it comes in a 3GB RAM variant with Snapdragon 615 SoC. The third variant (ZE601KL) has a 6-inch screen with a 1080p display. This particular variant also supports dual SIM and 4G LTE connectivity.
But, this is not the highlight of the device. This phone is made especially for budding photographers. It sports a 13MP primary camera along with a 5MP front snapper. The camera includes laser autofocus that will be able to focus on a subject in less than a second, as claimed by Asus.
The Zenfone 2 Laser 5.5 (ZE550KL) with 2GB of RAM is priced at Rs. 9,999, the 3GB RAM variant with Snapdragon 615 SoC is priced at Rs. 13,999 and the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser 6 (ZE601KL) is priced at Rs. 17,999.
Meanwhile, at the ongoing festival, Asus also showed several tweaks and improvements to the Zen user interface. You can read more about the ZenFone 2 Deluxe and the ZenFone Selfie by clicking on the respective links.
More products will be showcased at the event. Keep checking iGyaan for the latest updates.
Asus, at the Zenfestival, has launched the Zenfone 2 Deluxe, Zenfone 2 Laser and Zenfone Selfie in India. Apart from this it has also unveiled another smartphone called the Zenfone Max, however, the company has not yet revealed the price of the smartphone and is said to be waiting until October to do so.
They did announce the biggest feature of the Zenfone Max – its 5,000mAh battery, which is said to last for more than a day after a single charge. The battery can reportedly also be used as a power bank to charge other devices.
Other features include, a 5.5-inch display with Gorilla Glass 4 protection, the Snapdragon 410 chipset processor with 2GB RAM. The camera comes with a 13-megapixel f/2.0 aperture at the back and a 5-megapixel selfie camera. In the same category is the Gionee Marathon M4, which comes with the exact same battery capacity.
Today Asus has launched three new smartphones in India during their Zenfestival. One of the devices launched, is called the, Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe. The smartphone comes with a price tag of Rs. 22,999.
This device is packaged with a back panel showcasing a new texture – a diamond cut design with crisscross patterns, and a colour that changes shades when you move the phone. Other specifications include a 5.5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, a 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core 64-bit processor along with a PowerVR G6430 GPU and 4GB of RAM.
It also comes in two variants with different storage capacities – 64GB and 128GB, which can further be expanded to up to 64GB by using a microSD card. The primary camera comes with a 13MP f/2.0 aperture, and a Real Tone LED flash and a front camera with a 5-megapixel selfie camera, f/2.0 aperture.
It features dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS and is powered by a 3,000mAh battery. the operating system runs on the Android 5.0 Lollipop wrapped under ZenUI.
Here are the specifications:
Features
Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe
Display
5.5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels)
Processor
2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core 64-bit
OS
Android 5.0 Lollipop wrapped under ZenUI
GPU
PowerVR G6430
RAM
4GB
Storage
64GB/128GB
Expandability
up to 64GB
Rear Camera
13MP f/2.0 aperture, and a Real Tone LED flash
Front Camera
5-megapixel selfie camera, f/2.0 aperture
Connectivity
dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS
Airtel, has been launching its 4G services in various parts of the country, such as Bangalore and very recently Delhi. However, today it has launched its all India 4G services. To use this, you will have to swap your SIM card to one that supports 4G connectivity. Airtel has made this change very easy and efficient by ensuring a swapped SIMs within 10 minutes and a 4 hour doorstep delivery system.
The pricing of the 4G connectivity remains the same as the 3G, making it an affordable switch – something Indian customers always look forward to. Airtel is also launching an app called Wynk, that allows you to watch movies and videos on smartphones, as well as allows you to download and watch movies offline.
Various Airtel 4G services include an infinity plans which allows you to make unlimited calls with more data than usual, however not unlimited. The two cons of the 4G so far are – firstly, it uses up too much battery life and secondly, that it doesn’t have an unlimited data plan as yet.
With Airtel being the first mobile company in India to launch the 4G services, it is to be seen whether they capture the 4G market or not. Other companies such as Vodafone, are catching up to the 4G fever.
Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other companies, already use processors that have been developed by their own company. Now, Xiaomi would also like to follow suit. As of now it uses either Qualcomm or MediaTek in its devices, apart from the Xiaomi Redmi 2A, however, reports suggest that it might be gearing up towards creating its own mobile processors and even launch it in 2016.
Reports also suggest that this new processor would only be used for the low-end Redmi series, and that the Xiaomi Mi 5 is expected to sport a Qualcomm chipset. It is said that Xiaomi has recently hired Qualcomm China Head Wang Xiang, although the company itself has not confirmed anything officially.
Currently, Xiaomi is scheduled to host an event on the 13th of August 2015, where the company will unveil the MIUI 7, and is expected to reveal the Xiaomi Mi 5 as well. The event is to take place at the China National Convention Centre.
Meizu, a Chinese company, began its smartphone venture with the Meizu M8 is 2008 and back in June 2015 revealed its M2 Note in China. As of today, they have announced the phablet in India, and have priced it at Rs. 9,999. The M2 Note is said to go on sale exclusively on Amazon.in, starting on August 10th, 2015.
This device comes with a 5.5 inch full HD display with 1920 X 1080 pixels resolution, powered by the MediaTek MT6753 octa-core 64-bit processor and 2GB RAM. Other features include a 16GB internal storage with an extendable microSD card slot, a 13MP f/2.2 primary camera with a dual – tone flash and a 5MP wide-angle selfie camera and supported by a 3,100mAh battery.
The connectivity options include dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi dual-band 802.11 n/g/b/a, and Bluetooth 4.0. The device runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Flyme 4.5 OS.
Following are the specifications:
Features
Meizu M5 Note
Display
5.5-inch 1080p
processor
MediaTek MT6753 octa-core
RAM
2GB
Storage
16GB (expandable)
Rear Camera
13-megapixel
Front Camera
5 megapixel
Battery
3,100mAh
OS
Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Flyme 4.5
Connectivity
Dual-SIM, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Price
Rs. 9,999
At this price, the Meizu M2 could face tough competition from Yu Yureka Plus and the Lenovo K3 Note. What do you think?
Samsung has been gearing up to reveal its flagships for 2015; the rumour mill has been abuzz with details of the new phones. There have been several images leaked of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and today, the spec sheet for both phones have been leaked.
Speculated specifications for the Galaxy Note 5:
Display
5.7-inch Quad H, 2560 X 1440 pixels resolution
Processor
Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core SoC
Storage
32GB of internal storage
RAM
4GB
Rear Camera
16MP OIS
Front Camera
5 MP
OS
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz UI
According to leaks the Galaxy Note 5 will feature a 5.7 inch diplay with a 2560 X 1440 pixels resolution with a pixel density of 515 ppi. The phone is said to be powered by the Exynos 7420 Soc, also found in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Other features include a 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, a Mali-T760 GPU and 32GB of internal storage, a 16 MP primary camera and a 5MP front-facing camera, all supported by the Android 5.1.1 version.
Image Source: Antutu.com
The Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, on the other hand, is said to be similar to the Note 5 with a smaller display of 5.5 inches and a 2K resolution with 534 ppi. It is said to be powered by the Exynos 7420 chipset along with a 4GB of RAM space, Mali – T760 GPU, 16MP and 5MP cameras.
Image source: antutu.com via gsmarena
If leaked AnTuTu scores are to be believed, then it is said, both the devices will manage to increase and outperform current Samsung performance. The Note 5 is said to have a score of 69,702 and the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus has a 68,345.
Samsung has not verified any of the rumours, so we might have to wait till the August 13th unveiling to confirm all of it.
We mentioned earlier that LG may come out with a smartphone that caters to that sect of customers that still appreciate the good old flip phones. Well, now it’s official. LG has launched a flip phone called the Wine Smart that will cater to a global audience.
“Our goal with LG Wine Smart was to create a smartphone that fans of flip phones could embrace. Consumers shouldn’t have to miss out on the smartphone revolution because they prefer a particular phone design over another. With LG Wine Smart, they won’t have to.”
This phone will not just release in its home market, South Korea, but also in select nations like France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Japan, followed by other regions. The pricing and availability of this phone is yet to be announced by the company and will be done at the time of launch.
LG Wine Smart has the same features as the LG Gentle as shown in the picture above
The Wine Smart is a sort of upgrade to the previous LG Gentle and it is also better compared to the phone that the Korean company released last year, under the same name. The company stated:
“Thanks to the positive response to the original Wine Smart introduced in Korea last year, LG optimised the latest model with more advanced multimedia features to make the transition from feature phone to smartphone as seamless as possible.”
Specifications wise, the new LG Wine Smart has the same features and specs as that of the LG Gentle that had released last month. The LG Wine Smart smartphone features a single 3.2-inch LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 320×480 pixels. This means it doesn’t have the front half screen that most flip phones are spotted with. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and the flip phone is powered by a 1.1GHz quad-core processor alongside 1GB of RAM. It also has 4GB of inbuilt storage along with an expandable storage via microSD card.
The phone sports a 3-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while also including a 0.3-megapixel front camera. It has a removable battery of 1700mAh. Apart from 4G LTE, the LG Wine Smart includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB, and 3G connectivity options. It measures 117.7×58.7×16.6mm and weighs 143 grams.
What one can look forward to is the fact that the Wine Smart will come in two colours; Wine (Burgundy) and Navy Blue. The second thing that might either strike you or put you off, in an era of touch screens is that the flip phone features a T9 keyboard that will bring back good memories or perhaps frustrating ones. Lastly, the phone sports a leather-like finish on the rear panel.
