After weeks of speculation and leaks, Razer has launched the Razer Phone during an event in London. Launched as a gamer’s phone, the Razer Phone has flagship phone specifications. Razer poked fun at the price of its Razer products and announced that the phone will be priced at US $699 and ship it to the US and EU from the 17th of November.
There is no official word on the availability of the Razer phone in other markets including India.
Google has rolled out an update to the Google Assistant which enables the AI assistant to recognise songs. One of the more popular features introduced in the Pixel 2 phones is ‘Now Playing‘, wherein the Pixel2 can recognise songs playing and pull up links to buy or stream them. The catch here is that while Pixel 2 doesn’t use the internet to search for songs, the Google Assistant needs the internet to recognise the song and pull up results.
This feature will come in handy more than you think. If you are always reaching into your pocket and struggling to open Shazam just in time for it to catch the song and show a result, this feature can be priceless.
If you enter a cafe and want to know what song is playing, simply open up Google Assistant and ask ‘what song is this’. Depending on how fast your internet connection is, Assistant will pull up a card for you with the name of the song, the artist, lyrics, and YouTube, Google Play Music, and Spotify (not available in India) streaming links. If Google Assistant has voice set as the preferred input method and you’re in a loud environment, you will see a new “What’s this song?” chip as the first suggestion in the carousel.
The Google Pixel 2 was launched after the iPhone X but, thanks to it being available before the iPhone X the phone was put through its paces all over the internet. DXOmark is a portal that rates the camera of a smartphone on different parameters and the Google Pixel 2 came out to be the highest rated smartphone ever. The recently launched iPhone X was tested by DXOmark and was given an overall rating of 97, which is onepoint less than the Pixel 2.
In its summary, DXOmark said:
With a Photo score of 101, the Apple iPhone X achieves the best results so far for still images, edging out the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the previous joint leaders in the Photo ranking, by one point.
Its overall score of 97 puts the iPhone X into joint second place with the Huawei Mate 10 in the current DxOMark Mobile overall rankings, just behind the Google Pixel 2 with 98 points.
It is interesting to note here that despite clicking the best still images, the iPhone X falls short of the overall score of the Pixel 2 because of its video recording capabilities. The iPhone X is the only smartphone that records 3840 x 2160 px videos at 60fps.
For video, the X doesn’t quite rise to the same high-water mark, achieving a video sub-score of 89 points.
Photos are an extremely subjective aspect of smartphones, just like sound hence, scores by DXOmark can mean everything or absolutely nothing to a consumer. Still, having the second best smartphone camera in the world is no mean feat.
The iPhone X has dual 12-megapixel rear cameras, and it’s equipped with dual optical image stabilisation. The sensors are both larger and faster, according to Apple, and the main camera is equipped with a wide angle lens and has an f/1.8 aperture while the secondary telephoto lens has an f/2.4 aperture. In between the two cameras is a quad-LED True Tone flash. Both the front and back cameras have the portrait mode. The rear cameras have the portrait lighting feature, just like the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Would you prefer the Google Pixel 2 over the iPhoneX on the sole basis of their DXOmark scores? Let us know in the comments below.
The highly anticipated Apple iPhone X is now available to the consumers and has received great early reviews. it may not have broken the Pixel 2’s record on DXOmark, but, its display appears to be doing great. According to a report by DisplayMate, the 5.8 inch OLED Super Retina display of the iPhone X is the “most colour accurate” display.
The report was presented by DisplayMate President, Dr. Raymond M. Soneira and claims that the iPhone X display has “close to textbook perfect calibration and performance” through a built-in automatic colour management system. The system switches to a relevant colour gamut on the basis of the image displayed within the Wide DCI-P3 Colour Space that has an ICC Profile. This process helps in rendering correct colours, neither over-saturated nor under-saturated, the report mentions.
The display of the iPhone X is reported to have the highest brightness for OLED smartphones at 634 nits. This is higher than the 560-nit brightness of the Samsung Galaxy Note8. Similarly, the iPhone X has a Super Dim Setting that can drop down the display brightness to as down as two nits. The image contrast of the iPhone X was found to be “slightly too high”.
However, the viewing-angle performance of its display is apparently better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that are available in the market right now. The OLED panel on the iPhone X displays 22% decrease in brightness, this is less than the 30% that traditional OLED panels display.
DisplayMate also mentions the highly discussed ‘notch’ at the top of the display. The notch, which houses the TrueDepth cameras for FaceID and ‘portrait mode’ selfies has a negligible presence on the front, taking up to 2% of the total screen area.
Ever since its launch, the Google Pixel 2 XL has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The integration of software, hardware and AI by Google in the Pixel 2 smartphones has been overshadowed by the growing complaints against the Pixel 2 XL’s OLED display. In a new software update, apart from the December security patch, Google has introduced new settings in the display menu, in a bid to improve the user experience.
The update also contains a fix for the faint clicking noise heard in some Pixel 2s as well as changes to the Pixel 2 XL’s display behaviour to mitigate against potential screen burn-in. About the new update, a Google community manager writes:
As we mentioned in our deeper dive, this update also brings planned UI changes which extend the life of the OLED display, including a fade out of the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen and an update to maximum brightness. These features have been carefully designed so as not to detract from the user experience. Since all OLED displays experience some degree of decay over time, we’ll continue to make enhancements which maximise the life of your Pixel screen.
With the new update, there will be a new set of three different options on both models: boosted, natural, and saturated under the Display settings option. Here is how Google described how the “saturated” setting would look:
The saturated mode puts the display into an unmanaged configuration, similar to how the Pixel 1 operates. The colors will be more saturated and vibrant, but less accurate (similar to most other smartphones which display more vibrant colors): we give consumers the option to choose the colour saturation.
Google’s definition of the saturated setting proves that even though this update has rolled out, the company still doesn’t want its users to use this setting. Google’s intentions are to keep the Pixel 2 XL looking accurate rather than eye-pleasing and unnatural.
OnePlus has announced that the new OnePlus 5T will be launched on the 16th of November at an event in New York. Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus 5T will be available in India from the 21st of November via a flash sale. After weeks of speculation and doubts around the existence of the OnePlus 5T, the much anticipated smartphone will be made official. In a blog post, Carl Pei said:
For those eagerly considering the OnePlus 5T, let me share a key piece of info to help you decide. Sales for the OnePlus 5T in North America and Europe start on November 21. The OnePlus 5T will be available in China on December 1. Early birds in India will be able to get their device through a flash sale on November 21, while official sales start on November 28.
The other co-founder of OnePlus, Pete Lau took to Weibo, the Chinese microblogging website to hint at what the OnePlus 5T might be priced at. It is worth noting that he did not announce the official price but, gave information about what the pricing strategy will be as compared to that of the OnePlus 5. Pete Lau mentions that the OnePlus 5T may be slightly expensive than the OnePlus 5, and could cost under CNY 4,000 (Rs 39000). He confirms that the OnePlus 5T may cost less than Rs 40,000 for the 6GB RAM variant. Similar to the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T is expected to be launched in two variants, one with 6GB/64GB onboard storage, and the other with 8GB RAM/128GB onboard storage.
As per a recent leak through a benchmarks website, the OnePlus 5T will have a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 px display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.
The listing reveals that the smartphone will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, an octa-core processor clocked at 2.4GHz and Adreno 540 GPU, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. These specifications are the same as the OnePlus 5 and is expected to be this way as the Snapdragon 835 is the best chip available right now. The OnePlus 3T was an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 3 because there was a faster chip available ion the market.
OnePlus 5T Leaked Image
The next piece of information is interesting. According to the listing, the OnePlus 5T is expected to have a 20MP front-facing camera as opposed to a 16MP camera found on the OnePlus 5. The back cameras are expected to be the same 16MP + 20MP (telephoto lens) as the OnePlus 5 with improved portrait mode capabilities.
With the official launch just a few days away, there are possibilities of more leaks surfacing online and it won’t be a surprise if we all know what the phone will look like before it is officially launched.
The Apple iPhone X, one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2017 went on sale on the 3rd of November across the globe. For the first time ever, Apple opted to use an OLED display panel on an iPhone and everyone loved it. However, OLED panels are notorious in facing screen burn-in issues is used for a long time.
To acknowledge this, Apple has published a support page to detail all the major visual changes of its OLED display. This includes some explanations about common OLED issues like burn-in and the colour shift at some viewing angles. Companies appear to be more diligent about its OLED panels since the Pixel 2 XL’s display debacle tarnished the phone’s overall great performance.
The support page highlights that Apple’s proprietary Super Retina technology overcomes the existing challenges of an OLED display by enabling high brightness and wide colour support alongside an enhanced colour accuracy.
With extended long-term use, OLED displays can also show slight visual changes. This is also expected behaviour and can include ‘image persistent’ or ‘burn-in,’ where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen.
To prevent the OLED display from acting up, Apple has given some instructions to all its consumers. Apple has recommended consumers to update their devices and use auto-brightness settings as frequently as they can. The display is also advised to be turned off when not in use, users are also advised to avoid displaying static images at maximum brightness for a long period of time.
The iPhone X has so far not shown any signs of screen burn-in issues and no complaint has surfaced online. Apple acknowledging the issues of an OLED panel proves that companies have learnt from the mistakes of Google and are willing to suggest precautions as well.
Asus has launched the Pegasus 4S, the company’s first ever smartphone with an 18:9 aspect ratio. 2017 has been the year of tall displays and thin bezels on smartphones. Right from LG G6 to the iPhone X to the newly launched Asus Pegasus 4S, thin bezels and tall displays have slowly become the norm. Asus launched the Pegasus 4S in China on the 5th of November but, the pricing of the phone in China has not been revealed yet.
The Asus Pegasus 4S has a 5.7 inch IPS LCD display with a 1440 x 720 px resolution. The display is sleek and tall and covers the front of the phone almost in its entirety.
The Pegasus 4S is not a flagship by any means, it has the MediaTek 6750T chipset with an octa-core processor and the most powerful cores clocked at 1.5 GHz. The smartphone has 3GB or 4GB of RAM with 32GB or 64GB onboard storage, respectively. The smartphone is powered by 4030 mAh battery which charges via a micro USB port.
The Pegasus 4S has a dual-camera setup at the back. One of the cameras has a 16MP sensor while the other one is an 8MP camera. On the front is an 8MP camera.
There is no word about the availability of the Pegasus 4S in markets other than China. If it does manage to enter other markets, it is possible that the phone will be rebranded as a ‘Zenphone’ smartphone.
HMD Global has launched the 3GB RAM variant of the Nokia 5 in India for a price of Rs 13499. The smartphone will be available exclusively on Flipkart for one week starting from the 7th of November. After this online exclusivity period, on November 14, the Nokia 5 will become available to buy via select retail outlets across the country.
The Nokia 5 will be available in Matte Black and Tempered Blue colour variants. The original Nokia 5 launched in August was available in Copper and Silver. Rest of the specifications are the same as the Nokia 5 which was launched in India in August.
The Nokia 5 has a 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 720 px resolution.
The smartphone has the Snapdragon 430 chipset with a 1.4GHz octa-core processor, the Adreno 505 GPU, 3GB RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. The onboard storage is expandable via microSD card up to 128GB. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside the home button which sits under the screen and in between two back-lit capacitive touch navigation buttons. the Nokia 5 is powered by a 3000 mAh battery which charges via micro USB port hence, there is no fast charging.
The Nokia 5 features a 13MP rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture, 1.2-micron pixel size and a dual LED flash. The camera records 1920 x 1080 px videos at 30fps. On the front is an 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and 1.2-micron pixel size.
Flipkart is currently listing a Jio-Nokia Additional Data offer on the purchase of the 3GB variant of the Nokia 5, offering up to 5GB of extra 4G data on every recharge of Rs 309 or above, limited to 10 recharges till August 31, 2018.
The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 was launched in China on the 11th of September at a starting price of CNY 2,899 (Rs. 28,300 approx.). The Mi Note 3 succeeds the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 which was launched in 2016 with a fair amount of upgrades. Let’s unbox the Mi Note 3 and see what we get inside:
Xiaomi Mi Note 3
Documentation
USB C cable
Wall charger
Sim ejector tool
The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 looks premium. It has a glossy finish to the curved back and the dual-cameras do not have a bump. The phone is very slippery and hence, we recommend that you use the soft cover that Xiaomi provides in the box.
The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 has a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 px IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 403ppi and a 94.4 percent NTSC colour gamut.
Under the hood, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, Adreno 512 GPU, 6GB RAM, and 64GB or 128GB onboard storage options. The onboard storage can not be expanded. The fingerprint sensor is placed under the glass at the front device, just below the display. The smartphone is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 through USB Type C port.
Out of the box, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 8.5 on top. As soon as you boot up the device, you get a software update which brings MIUI 9 with all of its features to the Xiaomi Mi Note 3.
Unlike the Mi Mix 2, the Mi Note 3 features a dual-camera setup at the back. The primary 12MP camera has a wide angle lens and an f/1.8 aperture and the secondary 12MP camera has a telephoto lens with an f/2.6 aperture. This setup is similar to a lot of dual-camera smartphones and offers 2X lossless zooming capabilities. It also has features such as Bokeh effect shots and a portrait mode very similar to the one on the iPhone 7 Plus. The front facing camera has a 16MP sensor with a 2-micron pixel size. Xiaomi has boasted about the phone’s ‘Adaptable AI Beautify’ feature, which the Chinese smartphone maker claims is a result of over half a year’s R&D. The feature uses AI-based algorithms to beautify selfies and has a different algorithm for men and women.
The OnePlus 5T will be launched some time in November and after teasing ‘something’ for weeks, OnePlus has finally opened up about its upcoming flagship phone. Before the launch, however, there are customary leaks to look at, and this one comes from a listing on GFXBench.
Contrary to prior leaked listings, this one suggests that the OnePlus 5T will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box and Android 8.0 Oreo. As expected, the OnePlus 5T is expected to have a 6-inch AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 px resolution. This is a heavily speculated feature and the main upgrade over the OnePlus 5 which has 5.5 inch AMOLED display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution. OnePlus, in a previous tweet showed off the similar footprint of the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T while increasing the screens size of the OnePlus 5T by 0.5-inch.
The listing reveals that the smartphone will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, an octa-core processor clocked at 2.4GHz and Adreno 540 GPU, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. These specifications are the same as the OnePlus 5 and is expected to be this way as the Snapdragon 835 is the best chip available right now. The OnePlus 3T was an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 3 because there was a faster chip available ion the market.
OnePlus 5T Leaked Image
The next piece of information is interesting. According to the listing, the OnePlus 5T is expected to have a 20MP front-facing camera as opposed to a 16MP camera found on the OnePlus 5. The back cameras are expected to be the same 16MP + 20MP (telephoto lens) as the OnePlus 5 with improved portrait mode capabilities.
OnePlus has also teased the city in which the OnePlus 5T will be launched. The image tweeted shows the intersection of West 34th Street and Broadway, located in Manhattan, New York City. The date of the launch has not been revealed as of now but, considering the social media activity of the company, it might be revealed sooner rather than later.
The newly launched Apple iPhone X is on the wish list of many people. Thank to a short supply and a huge demand for the new iPhone X, not everybody were able to get their hands on it. One man however, was caught at the Mumbai airport with 11 newly launched iPhone X phones, pointing to a likely racket. He was intercepted at the Mumbai Airport while arriving from Hong Kong.
A case has been registered against Bhavesh Virani, 28, who was found with 11 iPhones X packed pieces valued at Rs10.57 lakh. A senior AIU officer said:
We suspect many people would visit Hong Kong to purchase the phones and bring them to the country. Passengers can bring duty-free goods worth Rs50,000. The demand is high in India for the phones, but the supply is less, which paves the way for smuggling.
The AIU officer noted that it has become a growing trend of importing phones from countries where the price of an iPhone is considerably cheaper than that in India.
Gadget freaks are ready to pay extra to get the latest brand and model. We have kept a watch on certain international routes from where we suspect the phones will be brought to the country. We suspect Virani, who claims to own a shop in Andheri, to be a carrier.
The culprit will not be arrested since the seized products are worth less than Rs 20 Lacs but, a heavy fine will be levied since the phones are not prohibited goods. The AIU sources have said that the authorities will keep a close eye on international routes from where such phones can be smuggled into the country.
Samsung and Apple are the biggest smartphone makers in the world right now, and have been for a long time. While Apple has reached this stature by launching new iPhones at a premium price year after year, Samsung has amore diverse portfolio of Android phones ranging anything from US $150 to US $950. The two companies share a lot of business but, it is no secret that they never leave a stone unturned to mock the other one. Samsung, in a new advertisement has mocked the new iPhone X and how Apple is never a company to do something first.
The 1 minute long advertisement starts off in 2007 and chronicles the going craze for the iPhone. It then shows the things the iPhone has lacked over the years like water resistance (which was first introduced in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus). The Galaxy phones are known for their big screens and until the iPhone 6 was launched, the screen size of an iPhone was either 3.5 inch or 4-inch which was relatively smaller than the Galaxy Note of that time.
Samsung continues to mock the screen size of the iPhone as well and then, exposing another pain point of an iPhone user, Samsung mocks the lack of storage expandability in the iPhone. A lot of companies has followed suit since Apple got rid of the headphone jack but, Samsung is one of the few companies who continues to keep the headphone jack in its phones. It looks like Samsung has no plans of dropping the headphone jack anytime soon as it mocks the iPhone for not having a headphone jack.
Brands are rather coy about calling out a rival brand in their ads but, Samsung has gone all out this time with this new ad campaign about ‘Upgrading to Galaxy’. A few years ago as well, Samsung mocked Apple iPhone 5’s ad and the two companies have gone back and forth, taking jibes at each other.
It will be interesting to see if Apple will respond to this ad via either social media or with an advertisement in the coming days.
In what might be one of the most sensational deals in the tech industry, Broadcom is interested in buying Qualcomm. According to a report, Broadcom is currently in talks with advisers on how to best approach the potential bid, which is likely to be made official by the end of 2017. However, it is an iffy situation right now and sources from the company have said that Broadcom might even not go ahead with it if the pieces don’t fall into place.
Qualcomm is the largest maker of modems while Broadcom is the industry leader in terms of WiFi chips. A deal between the two companies would consolidate their stand in the industry and put them in a better position to negotiate with the likes of Samsung and Apple.
The sensational US $100 billion bid, if made, will not guarantee the deal. Qualcomm is not in a strong legal position right now considering a number of legal battles the company is embroiled in. Qualcomm is in the midst of a legal dispute with Apple, with the dispute having started in January when Apple sued Qualcomm for US$1 billion. Qualcomm countersued the American tech giant, Apple in April, sought injunctions to halt iPhone sales in the US and China, and filed a lawsuit over copyright infringement.
The legal battle for Qualcomm doesn’t end here, it recently sued Apple again for leaking software information to rival chip-maker, Intel. Qualcomm further said that it has proof of such a leak and that Apple has breached their contract by not allowing Qualcomm to audit its software handling by Apple.
It is yet to be seen if Qualcomm will indulge in a US $100 billion takeover considering its legal woes but, if it does happen, it will be the biggest ever takeover of a chip maker in the world.
OnePlus confirmed the existence of the OnePlus 5T (and the 3.5mm headphone jack) through a blog on OnePlus forums. Now, a new image posted on the internet appears to reveal what the front of the OnePlus 5T will look like.
Leaked promotional image
The image was clicked during the Paris Game Week. The Vainglory eSports team of Palmarini is sponsored by OnePlus which indicates that the image is probably featuring the OnePlus 5T phone. At the ongoing gaming event, various OnePlus 5 tethered units can be found at the OnePlus booth. In the image, it is visible that the mysterious device has a fairly larger and sleeker display than the OnePlus 5 lying next to it. There is also no fingerprint sensor on the front of the phone, thanks to the thin bezels. The display also ever-so-slightly curves at the edges.
Just like the OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5T is expected to be an incremental update rather than a drastic new upgrade in terms of hardware. The 5T is expected to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset as it is the current flagship chipset. The dual cameras at the back are also expected to be the same as found on the OnePlus 5. The OnePlus 5T will have a 6 inch AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 x resolution which translates to an 18:9 aspect ratio.
The smartphone is expected to run Android 7.1.1 Nougat with OnePlus’ Oxygen OS on top. The 2017 flagship will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with a combination of either 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage or a whopping 8GB RAM and 128 of storage which can not be expanded. The OnePlus 5T is also expected feature dual cameras on the back, one of the main cameras is a 20 MP sensor with an f/2.6 aperture, while the other is a 16 MP camera with an aperture of F/1.7 .
The OnePlus 5T is expected to be launched on the 20th of November.
