Smartphone News and Reviews, Latest Cellphones, Accessories, New Launches, Specifications, Details with Image and Video from Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Moto, HTC, Xiaomi, Oneplus, Meizu, Sony, Lava, Micromax Yu Mobile and More.
Airtel has decided to open up 1000 more stores by December, to give customers a first-hand experience about its 4G services and information about its low-priced handsets.
Reports suggest, that Airtel is in talks with Samsung, ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi to launch affordable 4G devices starting from Rs. 4000, later this year. Airtel is also said to be expanding, by opening many company-owned company operated (coco) retail outlets. There are already 300 stores, and the company plans to open a 1000 more by December.
According to statistics, Airtel is said to be spread across 1.5 million outlets in towns and villages and covers approximately 86.8 per cent of the population as of March 2015. Airtel, exclusively provides 4G services in over 45 cities via TD-LTE & FDD-LTE technology.
Other competitors like, Reliance Jio Infocomm are said to re-enter the telecom business with a smartphone priced at Rs. 4000 by December, which will offer voice and data services at Rs.300-500 per month.
With Airtel’s competitors also stepping it up, it is to be seen whether Airtel will be the largest 4G providing company. However, Airtel has not confirmed any of these sources.
Yesterday, Lava announced the release of its new smartphone – Lava Iris X1 Selfie. The company has priced the smartphone at Rs. 6,777. The device will be available for purchase next week on online retail stores and other multi-brand outlets.
The Iris X1 come with selfie-focusing features such as a 5MP front camera with LED flash supported by the Beaty-Fi Software for further editing. It also has an 8MP f/2.0 aperture, LED flash, rear camera. The camera comes along with various camera modes such as Panorama, HRD Mode, Video Mode, Capture Mode (Smile, Gesture, Voice, Touch), and Burst Mode.
The OS is Android 5.0 Lollipop based and the device comes with a dual-SIM with a 4.5-inch FWVGA (854×480 pixels) resolution IPS display, powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6580 processor clocked at 1.3GHz,and 1GB of DDR3 RAM.
The device also has 8GB of inbuilt storage that can be expanded up to 32GB by a microSD card. Other features include, 3G, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, GPS, and Bluetooth. It weighs 140 grams and comes with a 2000mAh Li-Po battery which is said to have up to 13 hours of talk time in 2G and 8 hours 30 minutes of talk time in 3G.
The Iris X1 Selfie comes in various colours, such as, Icy White, Royal Black, and Purple colour variants.
We had earlier reported that the Samsung S6 and S6 Edge would be announcing a huge price cut, due to the fall in their sales during the last quarter. Today, the exact amount of this price drop has been announced in Netherlands, Europe.
The Galaxy S6 (32GB) had originally been priced at 699 Euros (approx Rs.49,250), but will now be priced at 599 Euros (approx. Rs.42,199), which is 100 euros less. The Galaxy S6 Edge (32GB), on the other hand, has had a further drop of 150 euros, from 849 euros (approx. Rs.59,800) to 699 euros (approx. Rs.49,250).
The Galaxy S6 (64GB) will be for 699 euros (approx. Rs.49,250) and the S6 Edge will be 799 euros (approx. Rs.56,300). It is also rumoured that the Galaxy S6 edge + Phablet (32GB), will start at 799 euros, bringing it at par with the S6 Edge smartphone.
Despite the price cuts, the S6 and S6 Edge are still within the range of a high-end phone, however these discounts are expected to increase sales in the future.
It is to be noted that these price cuts are applicable only to the Netherlands, and might differ in other countries, including those, within the Euro zone.
Microsoft may be riding high on the Windows 10 rollout but it still feels the sting of the loss caused by the purchase of Nokia a few years back. Microsoft’s acquisition of the Finnish company was speculated to be a sure hit, only it didn’t. The Lumia devices never performed as expected and neither did Nokia’s Android devices. And just last week, Microsoft wrote off Nokia $7.5 billions on Nokia, considering the company brought the once-smartphone major for $9.5 billions. Thus, what was Microsoft’s loss became Huawei’s gain as the Chinese company became the third largest mobile phone vendor, displacing Microsoft without breaking a sweat.
According to Strategy Analytics, Huawei sold 30.6 million mobile phones and gained a record 7 percent market share worldwide. The report notes that Huawei is rising in all regions of the world and it gaining stronger foothold in China, thanks to the 4G handsets such as Mate7.
Microsoft sold 27.8 million units this year, with a 50% drop in sales compared to last year. Microsoft’s plan for cross platform OS never gained major traction, nor did the fact that Apple and Samsung scooped up most of the market share due to iOS and low-budget Android smartphones respectively, helped.
According to the report, Samsung is still the largest mobile phone vendor, with Apple coming in at second position. Here is the twist though: Samsung’s share dropped from last year while the opposite happened for Apple. Apple’s quarterly report shows its growth in China while Samsung’s downfall may have resulted from the increasing popularity of Xiaomi and OnePlus in the past year.
With the earlier announcement of the cheaper version of the Galaxy S5, that is, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo, leaks about the device have been pouring in. Just recently an online retailer, Belsimpel, a Dutch e-commerce website, has leaked the price of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo, quoted at EUR 429 (roughly Rs. 30,000). The device has been on pre-order on a lot of e-commerce websites and is rumoured to start shipping by the end of next month.
According to leaks, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo has a similar design as the Samsung Galaxy S5. However, it runs on the Samsung’s octa-core Exynos 7580 processor instead of the Galaxy S5’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC. The modem is advertised to be supported by Cat.6 LTE speeds of up to 300Mbps and a front camera of 5MP.
Other specifications include a display of 5.1 inch Super Amoled full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) resolution, and 2GB of RAM, being quite similar to the Samsung Galaxy S5.
The smartphone is said to come with Android 5.1 Lollipop. Camera-wise it features a 16MP rear camera with Auto-focus, which has been paired with a 5MP front camera. Samsung wasn’t available for comments to confirm the rumour and are said to be working on the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Galaxy Note 5 due to release on August 13th 2015.
The Windows 10 update for desktops, laptops and tablets is on a roll. Yesterday, Microsoft began rolling out the update yesterday and it managed to be downloaded by over 14 million people, worldwide. But serious questions were asked by consumers about the availability of the new operating system on their smartphones. The company said the OS will start rolling out smartphones from November. Today, the company has confirmed which Lumia devices will receive the updates first.
Microsoft announced that the devices which will receive the OS update are: Microsoft Lumia 430, Lumia 435, Lumia 532, Lumia 535, Lumia 540, Lumia 640, Lumia 640 XL, Lumia 735, Lumia 830, or Lumia 93. The firm announced the list which it said “will receive a free upgrade when available”, but vague wording made it unclear if these devices would be the first to be upgraded, or if they might be the only ones to get updated.
Nokia Lumia 640 XL will be receiving the Windows 10 upgrade.
Many notable devices like the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 630 and 635 are missing from the list. The company assured that the upgrade will eventually be brought to every device running on Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 or Update 2, with the most recent Lumia Denim firmware. But, Microsoft also said that not every Windows 10 feature will be available in the mobile version. One of them is the Windows Hello biometric security feature.
Windows 10 Mobile will be bringing in a lot of positive changes to the whole Lumia interface, introducing an updated Action Centre, new Microsoft Edge browser, and universal apps like Maps, Calendar and Photos, among others. Cortana would also be starred in the OS, now with cross-platform and cross-device integration stretching to Android and iOS, apart from desktops. Also new, are features like the One-Handed mode.
The Windows 10 Operating System is taking place on a global scale. Microsoft’s official online store has listed the Home version under Rs 7,999 and the Pro version for Rs 14,999. For those users who are using Windows XP and earlier versions, or are assembling new PCs or laptops need to purchase the software. And, for those who are operating original Windows 7 and Windows 8, you are eligible for the free upgrade.
Have you ever felt like wanting to watch a tv show or YouTube video on your phone, without having to hold it for an hour? Well, ExtraVerso is the answer to your problems. ExtraVerso is a phone cover that has been developed by Flavio and Benedetto, two young entrepreneurs from Italy, that helps us be lazier than we already are.
Here is what it does:
How it works is, the material on the cover has a suction effect on flat and glassy surfaces. The good thing about this material is that it doesn’t stick to your hands or pockets and doesn’t attract dust either!
The ExtraVerso sticks on glass, mirror, whiteboards, metal, marble, tiles and computer screens. The cover is made up of two parts- a 3M adhesive that has been developed for being repositionable without leaving any residue on your phone & a lateral bumper that protects the edges of your phone.
One of the best features of this cover is that it is not bulky. The cover + the lateral bumper only add 1.5mm of thickness to the phone, keeping it light and stylish. It also comes with various colours and designs and is even customizable.
A couple of things you might be able to do without having to hold your phone unsteadily are: shoot time-lapse videos, watch a cooking show while actually cooking, getting your make-up right, watching a tv show while eating, and of course take hands-free selfies with a timer.
The ExtraVerso covers and bumpers are available for all iPhone 5/5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy S6 phones. It has also been supported and pledged by many established designers & design houses such as Uber, John Galliano, Superga, E. Marinella, K-Way and Ermenegildo Zegna.
The price of the cover ranges from $20 to $999. However, the ExtraVerso only caters to a certain niche as of now, due to lack of funding, but hope to make the product available everywhere both online and offline, soon.
The new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is due for release on the 13th of August 2015, but with these recently rendered 3D images of the device, leaked today, theres no room for imagination, anymore. According to reports, the images have been leaked by designer Ivo Maric who says that these renders have been based on earlier rumours as well as the Galaxy S6.
source: Bgr
According to the rendered images, it sports a metal frame, and glass on the rear and back with the S Pen at the bottom. And if rumours are to be believed then the Galaxy Note 5 will feature a 5.7 inch QHD display, Exynos 7422 procesor, 4GB of RAM, 16MP Rear camera, 5MP front camera and a 4,100 mAh battery. It is also expected to feature a microSD card slot, something that is not availbale in the S6.
While it may not be as high profile as OnePlus or Motorola, Asus will launch three new phones next week at the ZenFestival, an event hosted by the company on August 6. The phones, named ZenFone 2 Deluxe, ZenFone Selfie, and the ZenFone 2 Laser are aimed to take on current hotshots in India – the likes of Xiaomi and Motorola.
The Asus ZenFone2 Deluxe features a 5.5-inch 1080p display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The phone is powered by an Intel Z3580 quad-core 64-bit processor with 4GB of RAM. The storage capacity provided by phone is 64GB, which can be expanded via microSD card. The phone uses a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. The dual-SIM phone supports 4G LTE and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZenUI.
The Asus ZenFone Selfie is aimed at selfie lovers, and has a 13MP rear camera dual-LED flash, as well as a 13MP front camera with a similar dual-LED flash. The ZenFone Selfie features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit processor with Adreno 405 GPU. It also features 16GB internal storage with 2GB of RAM, and 32GB with 3GB of RAM. Like ZenFone2, the dual-SIM phone supports 4G LTE and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZenUI.
The ZenFone 2 Laser is aimed at photography enthusiasts, with a 13MP rear camera with laser autofocus and a 5MP front camera. The device has a 5-inch display with a 720p resolution and is powered by a Snapdragon 410 quad-core 64-bit processor paired with 2GB of RAM. The device is available in an 8GB/16GB variant and runs on 2,070mAh battery. The dual-SIM phone supports 4G LTE and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZenUI.
Yesterday, we unboxed and posted a video of the OnePlus 2 on our YouTube channel, and we received many questions regarding the device. We chose some of the most common queries and made a video of it, answering each one of them. You can check out the video below:
Questions and their respective answers are given below:
Q. Does the OnePlus 2 have a Gorilla Glass? If yes, what is the version of the glass?
A. The OnePlus 2 does have Gorilla Glass, and it is the latest Gorilla Glass 4. The same is found on Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge.
Q. Where are the speakers located and are those stereo speakers?
A. People are easily confused about the speakers being stereo, as it is at the bottom of the device, next to the USB type-C connector.
Q. How is this device different from different devices?
A. Our full review of the OnePlus 2 will be out shortly, and will answer this questions.
Q. Does the OnePlus 2 has an LED notification light?
A. Yes, it does. Not only does it have an LED light, but the light can also be customized where we can change the colour of our notifications according to our wish.
Q. Will both the SIM cards run on 4G LTE?
A. Yes, both the SIM cards will run 4G LTE. But, we are not sure whether both the SIMs will run on 4G simultaneously, we will have to check it out.
Q. What is the SAR value of the device?
A. While the SAR value is available in the OnePlus website, for India, the SAR value is 0.729 W/kg for the head and 0.329 W/kg for the body which is well within the allowed numbers.
Q. What about the availability of the device as well as its covers?
A. The OnePlus 2 is going to be available in the US, the European Union as well as the Indian region starting from 11th August. In order to obtain the device, you will have to receive an invite first. The Indian sale will go live on Amazon.in, and India specific invites can be availed from Amazon’s website.
You will also be able to purchase changeable back covers at the time of sale. So, you can pick up a back cover of your choice.
Q. Does the OnePlus 2 support USB OTG?
A. The OnePlus 2 should support USB OTG, but since we do not have USB Type C OTG cable, we have ordered one and will be able to answer this question shortly.
Q. Is it worthy to upgrade from OnePlus One to OnePlus 2?
A. From a hardware perspective, the OnePlus Two seems like a worthy upgrade from the OnePlus One. The pricing is slightly higher than what we expected it to be. Also, you can skip the OnePlus 2 and wait for the next version or buy it later in the year, if they offer the device with some discount deals. If you bought the OnePlus One recently, you could stick to that as it will continue to receive updates.
Q. Is the fingerprint scanner better than GS6 and iPhone? Is it a deal breaker or maker?
A. We have been testing out the fingerprint scanner, and it works really well. It is fast and responsive to your fingerprint, and you can register five different fingerprints for unlocking the device and securing your OnePlus 2. It works as well as the S6 or the M9+. It is almost identical to those.
We feel the one on the iPhone 6 works slightly better because it reads the finger much faster than the one on the OnePlus 2. But we will be testing it out with a proper review of the OnePlus 2.
Q. Earphones in the box?
A. The box that we got is probably what the retail box will look like. And we did not receive any earphones. So, you will have to buy the earphones separately if you don’t have a pair of earphones already.
The OnePlus 2 has a 5.5-inch display and comes with the classic Sandstone Black back cover, which feels nice to hold. The back panel can be easily customised using OnePlus’ StyleSwap covers available in four variants – Bamboo, Black Apricot, Rosewood, and Kevlar. The covers can be swapped without any hassle, but it still takes some effort to remove the cover.
It is powered by a 1.8GHz octa-core 64-bit processor with 4GB of RAM. The processor is capable of 4K streaming. The device runs on Android 5.1 with OxygenOS. The device has a feature called the ‘shelf’, which is activated when you swipe to the left on the home screen; it opens your preferred contacts and recent apps.
OnePlus 2 comes with a USB type-C port, a first for any flagship smartphone. Reversible in nature, the USB type-C allows for faster data transfers and is compatible with almost every device with standard USB ports.
Overall, the phone seems to deliver what the company had promised. However, we’d advise you to wait for our review.
Check out the unboxing and hands-on video of OnePlus 2:
With the arrival of the Windows 10 update for PCs and tablets, the release of the software on smartphones too, was highly anticipated. A Windows executive announced today, that the Windows 10 mobile may finally arrive in November.
“Obviously, there’s some duplication in engineering, sales and marketing, but it doesn’t change our strategy around mobility. Windows 10 Mobile is coming and it’s coming strong. Our core platform is Windows 10. It’s mobile in nature, not just the device, but the experience people will have. So there’s a big emphasis on the… mobile phone side of it. But there’s more thunder on that coming later in the year,” Doherty.
Reports suggest, that if the Windows 10 makes its debut in November, one can also expect the launch of the rumoured Lumia 950 (codename Talkman) and the Lumia 950 XL (codename: Cityman) around the same time. Currently, the time-frame suggests that these two devices may be launched in New York in late September or October.
Image Source: iafrica.com
Microsoft is having a separate launch for the Windows 10 mobile so as not to be outshined by other product launches.
The answer to this question could be, yes. The iPhone could finally have a wireless charging pad and here is how. The WiPower, discovered by Qualcomm will help in the process:
“WiPower has added the ability to have the device itself made of metal. This advancement maintains WiPower’s existing ability to charge devices requiring up to 22 watts today, at speeds equal to or faster when compared to other wireless charging technologies.”
The main reason why Apple never released a wireless charging pad was because all its iPhones came with a metal body which interfered with any wireless charging pad. But now with the WiPower, which is itself made of metal, will help solve this problem. The WiPower is supported by the Rezence standard, which uses different technology than the more commonly used Qi standard. Although this shouldn’t be a problem for iPhone and iPad users, since their software is compatible with Rezence.
It is said that with the use of this technology could help you charge both a WiPower enabled iPads and iPhones, simultaneously. It can also use the bluetooth smart connection to determine the proper charging requirements for devices.
Rumours suggest that the iPhone 6 and 6Plus will also have metal backs although they may not support wireless charging. However, an iPhone 7 with a metal body could include the wireless charging software.
The Samsung S6 arrived in India on the 10th of April 2014, it was touted as being the only Samsung smartphone that could perhaps finally compete with the other high-end smartphones such as the iPhone 6.
It’s specifications included a metal body casing, a 5.1 inches display with1440 x 2560 pixels resolution, a16 MP, 2988 x 5312 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash camera, an internal memory of 32/64/128 GB with a 3 GB RAM, a non-removable Li-Ion 2550 mAh battery and run by Quad-core 1.5 GHz with the Android OS, v5.0.2 (Lollipop), upgradable to v5.1.1 (Lollipop). Despite this Samsung reported a fall in sales in the second quarter with the mobile division down by 8.9 percent and the mobile in particular, dropping 7.3 percent.
Their solution is to bring in certain adjustments pertaining to the price of the device, although these adjustments have not been described by the company, an insider says that one can expect a price cut on the Samsung S6. The original launch price of the device quoted as Rs. 61,900 for the 128GB variant.
Samsung seems to have a history of price cuts post the launch, due to low sales or otherwise. Samsung which was once the wold’s largest smartphone selling company is now lagging behind in sales due to its customer base shifting towards other competitors such as Apple, and now Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei.
Do you think these price cuts are unfair to users to have already bought the phone at its quoted launch price? Perhaps the price cuts will increase Samsung sales or people might wait for prices to drop again.
All of us remember the Motorola Razr, which was all the rage back in 2005. It has since been taken over by other new slick phones such as the new age touchscreen android and iOS devices. But, Samsung and LG are back with the same design, perhaps to pinch the nostalgia within us.
On the 27th of July 2015, LG announced the Gentle, a flip phone that runs the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop. Following this Samsung, today, launched a flip phone called the Clamshell smartphone. Both phones have been released in South Korea and will be exclusively sold in Korea until further notice.
The LG gentle is a 4G LTE- equipped phone, has a 3.2-inch (480 x 320 resolution) display, 1.1GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 3-megapixel camera and 4GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card). It runs Android apps, in whatever limited capacity, and its 1,700mAh battery is likely to last for days since the phone doesn’t devour power from tons of pixels and 3D games.
The Samsung Clamshell on the other hand has an 8GB storage, 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera, a 3.80-inch display and a battery capacity of 1800mAh. However, the Galaxy folder comes with a single touchscreen.
As of now we still do not know which Android version the Samsung phone runs with, neither do we know about the processor type or RAM. But from whatever has been revealed, it seems like a grade above the LG Gentle.
The flip phones were discontinued previously, perhaps because it could not keep up with the increasing needs of the modern day society, and was henceforth taken over by the smartphone which provided us big touchscreens that are easier to use, have better cameras, can connect to the full Internet and feature lots of apps.
So, do you think the re-launch of this design is practical? Let us know, in the comments below.
Many are probably wondering what the fate of the OnePlus One will be, right after the release of the much anticipated OnePlus 2. Well, general Manager of OnePlus India, Vikas Agarwal, says that the device will not be discontinued but the price of the product will most definitely drop.
The OnePlus One is presently priced at Rs 18,998 for 16GB and Rs 21,998 for 64GB, though the exact price after the drop, has not been announced yet. Meanwhile, the company has announced its aim to sell around one million handsets by the end of this year.
Till then, it is suggested that the OnePlus 2 will be a better and easier buy since it has a lot more to offer due to heavy demands.
