Samsung has confirmed that they will be putting the Note 7 to rest the old fashioned way. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units will be completely disposed off, as it seems Samsung wants no reminder of its failings. Samsung has already adjusted its quarterly estimates to account for $2 billion in losses.
The reality is that, short of Apple’s new recycling initiatives, smartphones are not really recycled. They end up in landfills causing huge environmental damage. Samsung has in all manufactured over 2 million Note 7s, and inefficient manufacturing along with no plans of smartphone recycling make the difficult-to-mine rare earth elements, like gold, silver, copper, platinum and aluminium among other components irrecoverable.
Now those with interest in mining phones should start hunting up dumping grounds where Samsung will lay the Note 7 to rest, however, it it is anything like Atari’s story, they might just show up in the future.
The Note 7 is Dead and with it Samsung has essentially lost market share, customer loyalty and a whole lot of goodwill for the fiasco, not to mention billions of dollars of losses and enormous environmental trash. But, in a last ditch effort to save face with Samsung owners atleast in the US, Samsung is offering US $ 100 in Samsung Credit (for future purchases) to those who exchange the Galaxy Note 7 with another Samsung device.
Samsung will still give you just $25 if you decide to rather switch to Apple, HTC or any other brand. The best option might be to avoid the exchange and get a full refund where available.
The Note 7 is not the only device affected with the battery issues, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are also reportedly prone to battery explosions and the Galaxy S7 Active limited to certain regions also has Battery explosion issues.
Samsung has had a horrible time getting control of the issue, and it still does not have a system in place for all the unofficial phones that pose a life risk in countries where the Note 7 has not been officially launched but available via the grey markets.
As promised the Google Pixel has gone up for Pre-Order in India starting 13th Oct. The Pixel and Pixel XL which are priced between Rs. 57000 and Rs. 76000 are a far cry from the pricing norm surrounding Nexus devices, which the pixel phones are replacing. The Phones will be available online on Flipkart and through several other outlets including Reliance Digital , Tata Croma among others. Flipkart is offering Rs. 27000 Exchange offer for a trade in of your old phone.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are Google’s answer to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus. DXOmark rates the Google Pixel’s camera at 89 a 3 points above the iPhone 7. The camera on the Pixel is a 12.3 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and a 1.55 micron pixel size. You get HDR Plus, without any shutter lag and smart bursts which select the best shot.
Google Pixel comes with unlimited online storage for Photos and Videos at full quality. The Pixel phones are the latest to run Android Nougat (version 7.1), the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Additionally, with Pixel you also get a customer care on call 24/7 with Google via the settings app. You can also share your screen live with the support agents for troubleshooting. The Pixel will come with a 5 inch display while the Pixel XL comes with a 5.5 inch display. Both have a AMOLED screen. The Pixel and Pixel XL run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with 4GB of RAM. The Pixel will get a 2770 mAh battery while the Pixel XL gets a large 3450 mAh battery.
OnePlus may have ended the production for their OnePlus 3 flagship phone, due to which the delivery times for the phone in most countries is between three and four weeks for the OnePlus 3 to ship. In India, however, stocks seem to be aplenty for both the Graphite and Gold colour variant.
OnePlus has faced major problems securing proper supplies of the AMOLED panels which are in short supply due to their popularity. One new news emerging is that the company will be halting production of the current outgoing OnePlus 3 smartphone and replacing it with an upcoming model which will feature an LCD display. The reworked handset is expected to be the OnePlus 3 Plus or the OnePlus 3 Mini which was recently caught on benchmarks with a 4.6 inch 1920 x 1080p display along with Snapdragon 820 and 6 GB of RAM along with 64 GB of storage.
The limited Edition Gold Model Stocks are sold worldwide, however India seems to be the only country with stocks. OnePlus will sell out the Graphite OnePlus 3 for the time being, till the next phone is launched.
Xiaomi is yet to launch the Redmi Note 4 in India. However we got an early preview of the device by ordering it from China. The Redmi Note 4 is an update to the Redmi Note 3 launched earlier this year and is expected to hit India in the next few weeks. Xiaomi may launch the phone in India with a Snapdragon chipset due to patent issues, but, we have heard news that they have been resolved. So we might see the Mediatek variant in India after all .
The Redmi Note 4 has a 5.5 inch LCD display which has good visibility indoor and outdoor, along with wide viewing angles. The front houses a 5 MP camera, and the rear a 13 MP shooter with decent colour optimisations. The Redmi Note 4 will come with MiUi 7 However gets a quick update to MiUi 8 once you boot the handset.
For the China variant the price is Rs. 13500 and it can be shipped to India. The phones bought from China will support CDMA, but, when Xiaomi launches in India, the phones will be restricted to GSM, 3G and 4G LTE. The phone runs on a Deca Core Mediatek Helio X20 Chipset and has a whopping 4100 mAh battery.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 has turned in the Achilles’ heel for the South Korean electronics giant, leading to irreparable damage to the company’s reputation.
The new smartphone which was touted by many as being the best Android Smartphone of the year initially started to catch fire while charging. The company then issued a global recall of the smartphone, which in itself was poorly executed, while reports of more Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S7 Edge, Core Prime and some other previous models of Galaxy Note catching fire and exploding emerged.
The flagship of the year may officially be dead
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Earlier Airline authorities FAA and even the DGCA in India had banned the Note 7 to the extent that the phone had to be kept off during the flight, while replacement units, ones with the green battery icon could be used.
However, a replacement unit of the Galaxy Note 7 with a green icon, exploded aboard a US flight last week. This makes even the replacement Note 7 units unsafe.
Samsung, while temporarily, has killed the production of its Note 7 handset, and may dispose 2.5 Million Recalled phones along with 1 million replacement units it had manufactured. While the company is still struggling to recall the 2.5 million phones that are already out in the world, Samsung officials shrugged off reports of overheated batteries, calling the incidents “isolated cases” related to issues of mass.
The Galaxy Note 7 replacement process has also been stopped, meaning, you no longer can replace your affected Galaxy Note 7 phone with a new replacement Galaxy Note 7 with a green charging indicator.
Many Galaxy Note 7 handsets sold via non official channels remain in countries like India, where a process to recall them has not ben instated, making the handsets a risk to several consumers who continue to use the phones.
According to reports from Korean publications Samsung is moving hard and fast towards the Samsung Galaxy S8. The upcoming phone will apparently ditch the home button for a full screen experience killing the top and bottom bezel as well.
The full display front will still house a fingerprint scanner, but it will be under the touchscreen OLED Display and not in a button. The display will be a big play for Samsung for the Galaxy S8 launch allowing Samsung to fill the front side of the phone with an edge-to-edge display.
Samsung will keep the Dual Edges seen on the S7 Edge, while rumours in the past have mentioned a 4K display for Samsung’s next years flagship.
Samsung is barely moving on from the Note 7 Explosion fiasco, a launch of its next model flagship may actually save the hugely affected mobile business.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is also expected to appear with a new Exynos chipset for Global markets and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 830s Chipset for the US and select other markets. Samsung will launch only one S8 with the edge display removing the non-edge phone from its lineup.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be the first Samsung phone to feature a dual-camera setup on the rear camera. However, unlike Apple iPhone 7 Plus, the 16 megapixels and 8 megapixels sensors will not be used for a zoom feature. Samsung will also jump on the RAM cart with 6 GB of RAM and offer 128 and 256 GB storage options.
Each year at around the same time Apple revises it’s iPhones, secrecy ensues prior to their launch. However, with the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus very little was left to imagination. Apple has solved some of the basic problems surrounding the iPhones in the past, while adding some new tricks. And, while the removal of the headphone jack seemed to be a problem during the launch, no one seems to be complaining now.
[section label=”Design”]
Design
Apple has made subtle changes to the design of the iPhone 7, for starters the edges are more rounded off and comfortable to hold. The antenna lines on the back of the phone have been moved out of sight, and if you get either the black or jet black colour the antenna lines are nearly invisible.
The addition of the Jet-black colour and the regular black colour has been appreciated by everyone. However, the black color due to it’s matte finish is extremely slippery and the jet-black iPhone is prone to scratches and damage. The slight change in the camera’s position and the size of the camera lens on the back is attractive to some, while ugly to others. Apple refuses to make the camera flush since the iPhone 6, and with the iPhone 7 it seems to have grown bigger and outward.
[section label=”Build Quality”]
Build Quality
Apple has made interesting changes to the phone to make the iPhone 7 water-resistant with an iP67 rating. The whole insides of the iPhone 7 are lined with a rubberized seal, including a nano coating on the electronics.
Although several tests have shown that the iPhone 7 has a far better water resistance than Samsung’s iP68 on their phones. The removal of the headphone jack and rubber lining of several of the iPhone’s ingress points (including a physical home button) has also made this possible. The Sim Card tray too, now, comes with a tiny rubber gasket.
The removal of a physical home button and the replacement with a touch glass surface, helps with the water resistance and also improves the life of the home button. While the back remains a solid aluminium shell, reinforced to avoid any bending issues, the front is speculated to be Gorilla Glass 5. The rear camera lens has a sapphire glass composite, which essentially has a layer of sapphire towards the outside.
[section label=”Unboxing Video”]
[section label=”Hardware”]
Hardware
Apple has upped the hardware on the iPhone 7 considerably. Starting with a much faster chipset A10 Fusion Quad Core CPU and Hexa Core GPU. The iPhone 7 gets 2 GB of RAM along with large storage options of 32 GB , 128 GB and 256 GB.
The iPhone 7 camera has been improved with a new lens structure, wider f1.8 aperture OIS and wide colour capture. The inbuilt audio gets an upgrade to stereo speakers, and digital out via lightning and the battery is now a larger 1960 mAh unit.
The home button has been replaced by a pressure sensitive glass panel, much like 3D touch, it senses the amount of force applied and vibrates to give feedback to your actions.
[section label=”Performance”]
Performance
The iPhone is a fantastic example that more RAM does not equal more performance. At a time where most major manufacturers are shifting towards 4GB and some manufacturers are shifting towards 6 GB RAM in their phones, the Apple iPhone 7 comes with just 2 GB of RAM. A big far cry from industry expectations and norms. The Apple iPhone 7 is extremely quick to respond to actions and UI commands.
Compute times are incredibly reduced and there is no lag between app launches and swiping between applications. The benchmark scores on the iPhone 7 surpass many Android flagships, and so does day to day performance. Expect excellent gaming graphics and top tier responsiveness from the iPhone 7. The performance surpasses that of even the iPad Pro which is considered a very solid performer. Antutu score of the iPhone 7 is consistently above 174000 which is much higher than even the Note 7.
[section label=”Display”]
Display
Adding a wide color gamut the iPhone 7’s display is able to output cinema standard colours.
Our biggest gripe, however, has to be the lack of a better resolution display, and with a 1334 × 750 px display on the iPhone 7 we are truly disappointed. The resolution is far more noticeable when you have used a 2K display, or even a 1080p display.
In 2015 Sony managed a 4K display into a smartphone. we expected at least a 1920 x 1080 px display in the new iPhone 7. This display is an LCD IPS display, not AMOLED as per expectations everyone had.
iPhone 7’s display has excellent viewing angles and is 25% more bright when compared to the iPhone 6s. The display still includes their 3D touch technology which allows you to initiate a contextual menu if you hard press on the screen. This is becoming more and more prominent and usable in iOS 10.
[section label=”Multimedia”]
Multimedia and Gaming
The multimedia experience is impressive on the iPhone 7, with the wide colour display watching videos is excellent. The stereo Speakers deliver more than 100 db of audio output which is the highest in this category. One of the speakers on the iPhone 7 is forward firing and that helps in watching those endless Vines or Facebook videos.
Gaming is excellent as has been with each iPhone, Games are optimized well to work on iOS and that is exactly the case with the iPhone 7. With a mix of high end gaming performance on the chipset along with good audio from the speakers and responsive feedback from the touchscreen, you will like the gaming experience a lot. The new six core GPU handles graphics with ease and delivers an extremely smooth gaming experience.
The removal of the 3.5 mm headphone jack will be a big impact for those with a good collection of analogue headphones, however, the improved battery life means that you will seldom need to charge your iPhone while listening to music. If you want to use analogue headphones using the included lightning to 3.5 mm adapter is the only resolve for now. Lightning headphones have already existed and a lot of companies will be releasing headphones with that capability in the coming months.
Audio though the lightning port can be pushed in high resolution and several streaming apps will support the output. Music is extremely well balanced and the volumes can be cranked yup high without loss to quality, which will be appreciated by serious audiophiles.
Apple wants you to go the bluetooth route, and we are not convinced. The included lightning EarPods sound pretty similar to previous variants, and still sound tinny are poor constructed and they simply do not stay in the ear. The removal of the 3.5 mm headphone jack seems pre-mature but also necessary if Apple is to be believed.
[section label=”Camera”]
Camera
The iPhone 7 gets an improved camera combination as well, with a 12 MP optical stabalization equipped main camera and a 7 MP front camera. The rear camera gets an ƒ/1.8 aperture, and an improved six-element lens, now that you can see the images on the screen the camera shoots with a wide color capture. The LED flash is also extremely bright with quad LED array for a more accurate flash colour, and it works really well, with a firing range of upto 10 feet. Assisting the low light performance the ƒ/1.8 aperture mixed with OIS lets you expose for a longer period and get a better image without any shake.
The camera shoots video upto 4k resolution, although a capacity of 128 GB or 256 GB is recommended for budding iPhone video enthusiasts as the video file sizes are massive. The video comes out impressive with the wide color capture.
You also get 120fps slow mo for 1080p video and 240fps slow-mo for 720p video. The camera and photos app in iOS 10 works well to display live images, and organise all your image collections making them easy to find. The new search options let you search by location, with friends and by time when they were clicked.
The front 7 MP camera gets good wide colour selfies for a more natural looking image. The retina flash feature is now brighter and allows for some light fill. The display is 25% brighter on iPhone 7, hence you get a brighter flash for selfies. The camera lens on the front camera is also wider than before so you can fill more people in your pictures.
[section label=”iOS 10″]
iOS 10 and iCloud
One of the biggest changes to hit iPhones this year has been iOS 10, and while iOS 10 is not limited to iPhone 7, the usability is far more improved. The menus and texts are easier to read and navigate. You also have more options in control centre, and finally iOS gets widgets. However, the new interface is far more optimised and smoother. Apps load quicker and multitasking is far more efficient. More 3D touch features are available, and at the least you can 3D touch on any app, even those which don’t support it to share the app with your friends via email or iMessage. iOS 10 also syncs WhatsApp and Skype like VOIP and IM services with deep linking so your contacts app allows you to initiate WhatsApp calls and Skype calls directly.
You also get the WhatsApp call history in your main call history. Moreover, now when you are on a WhatsApp call, and you get a regular call, it rings in the background and does not disconnect ( or hold ) the WhatsApp call.
Apart from these aesthetic changes, Apple also brings more deep integration of Home, with smart connected devices that now Siri can operate for you. So if you have supported hardware like a thermostat or Philips Hue lighting you can simply ask Siri to control it.
Siri is far more responsive and understands a whole new set of accents, including the Indian accent, much better. With iCloud sync you can now co-share documents and spreadsheets via iCloud with others who can operate without owning any Apple devices, managing the files on a browser online. Big improvements on speed and battery life thanks to lowering the footprint of services and preferences.make the iOS 10 experience great. However a lot of features are still missing and sharing is still properly restricted to Air Drop or third party apps like Send Anywhere.
[section label=”Networks and Battery”]
Networks and Battery
Thanks to new network radios provided by Intel, network strength is far more improved and there is less switching between 4G and 3G for a better much more improved network performance, in comparison to the iPhone 6s the iPhone 7 delivers far better network and call quality. Thanks to a mix of the new A10 fusion chipset with two little cores and the major improvements on iOS 10 along with a larger sized battery.
The iPhone 7 has significant battery life improvements, thanks to a large battery, iOS tweaks along with the big little architecture on the new chips. With heavy usage that includes phone calls, video recording, IM, editing and general browsing of the internet, mixed with gaming and video playback the iPhone 6s would require a charge by 3 pm if the start time was around 8 am. Now in a real life scenario the day completes with 20% left in the charge. This is significant and will change the usage case scenarios for a lot of people. The charging is still restricted to the lightning port, and if you want a quicker charge you will need to buy yourself a 12 W Apple iPad adapter, which the iPhone 7 supports natively.
[table style=”table-striped”]
iPhone 7
Battery Life (non stop)
Call Time 4G
6-7 Hours
Internet
8 Hours
Video
10 Hours
Gaming
5 Hours
Music
18 hours
[/table]
[section label=”Conclusion”]
Conclusion
On the outset, the iPhone 7 appears not to be a major upgrade, the reality is far from it. Apart from all the Jet Black and matte black goodness of the antenna hiding new colour, the iPhone 7 also improves heavily on many other aspects. The phone is very well sealed and water resistant, to the extent of being considered waterproof. The build quality is much more improved, and the performance is best in class.
The camera has improved from previous generations and DXO mark grades it extremely high among already available phones. You will find improvements on audio quality, battery life, network, call quality and the new home button.
The iPhone 7 is a worthy upgrade, and a good one at that, but we still want a better display and to be able to charge the phone while listening to music.
But, we still want a better display and to be able to charge the phone while listening to music.
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Moto has announced that their latest line of Moto phones will be headed for the Android 7.0 update in the coming weeks. The phones include the recently launched Moto Z and Moto Z play.
Here is a quick Look at some of the new features in Android Nougat!
Google at their #madebyGoogle event announced the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. The new smartphones come with the Pixel UI.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL will be the first phone that comes with Google Assistant out of the box. The Google Assistant comes with their new machine learning AI which sits right on the Pixel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxIcH_0MH0
DXOmark rates the Google Pixel’s camera at 89 a 3 points above the iPhone 7. The camera on the Pixel is a 12.3 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and a 1.55 micron pixel size. You get HDR Plus, without any shutter lag and smart bursts which select the best shot.
Google Pixel comes with unlimited online storage for Photos and Videos at full quality. The Pixel phones are the latest to run Android Nougat (version 7.1), the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Additionally, with Pixel you also get a customer care on call 24/7 with Google via the settings app. You can also share your screen live with the support agents for troubleshooting.
The Pixel will come with a 5 inch display while the Pixel XL comes with a 5.5 inch display. Both have a AMOLED screen. The Pixel and Pixel XL run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with 4GB of RAM. The Pixel will get a 2770 mAh battery while the Pixel XL gets a large 3450 mAh battery.
Both phones come with two storage options at 32 GB and 128 GB and three colour options subtle named Quite Black, Very Silver and Really Blue.
Both the Google Pixel and Pixel XL come with USB Type C port, still retaining the 3.5mm headphone jack and the same cameras. Pixel is available for pre-order today in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany and the U.K. — India coming soon with pre orders starting 13th Oct. In India the Pixel will sell on Flipkart, Reliance Digital and Tata Croma stores.
Moto’s Flagship series the Moto Z and Moto Z play with modular capability have been launched in India. Both the Moto Z and Moto Z play will go on Sale on 17th October on Amazon and Flipkart. The Moto Z runs a Qualcomm snapdragon 820 with 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM and is only 5.4 mm thin with a 2600 mAh battery. The Moto Z has been launched for Rs. 39,999 in India and features a 5 MP front facing camera along with front led flash. The 13 MP main camera has OIS and Laser AF.
The Moto Z Play on the other hand is a slightly larger and more affordable handset launched at Rs. 24999 with a massive 45 hour battery life. Snapdragon 625, Adreno 506 along with 3 GB of RAM and 32 Gb storage make up the Z play’s innards. You also get a large 3510 mAh battery. The main camera is a 16 MP, f/2.0 sensor while on the front you get a 5 MP camera with a front flash. The Moto Z play is also made in India and retains the 3.5 mm headphone port, while the Moto Z is too slim to have a headphone port.
The phones come a few weeks after the global launch of the Moto Z series. The Moto Z force with the shatter-shield tech has not been launched in India and remains a US Verizon exclusive. The biggest feature of the Moto Z and Moto Z play is the capability to add mods that simply snap onto the back of the handsets. Mods include the JBL soundboost speaker for Rs 6,999, Moto insta-share projector mod for Rs 19,999, HasselBlad truezoom camera for Rs 19,999 and Incipio offGRID Power Pack Rs 5,999. You can also add shells to the mix including Wood & Ballistic Nylon – Rs 1099 and Leather for Rs 1599.
Moto Mods
Pricing
Launch Bundle pricing:
JBL® SoundBoost Speaker
INR 6999
INR 5999
Hasselblad True Zoom Camera
NR 19999
NR 14999
Instashare Projector
INR 19999
INR 15999
Incipio offGRIDtm Power Pack
INR 5999
INR 4999
Style Shells:
Wood and ballistic nylon
Leather
INR 1099
INR 1599
INR 899
INR 1299
Check out our unboxing and Hands on with the Moto Z along with Mods below.
Nokia has already announced it’s comeback to the market, this time with Android as their main operating platform. A new Nokia phone dubbed the “D1C” has been spotted son benchmark website GeekBench.
According to the information the D1C will use the new mid-tier, octa-core Snapdragon 430 SoC, with each core clocked at 1.4GHz. This will be backed up with 3GB of RAM, and run Android 7.0 Nougat. The phone is expected to be one of the devices from it’s budget lineup, with the name being a prototyping name.
The budget coming Nokia D1c scored 656 to 667 in single-core performance, while scores for multi-core performance ranged from 3,120 to 3,229
In May Nokia granted HMD Global a 10-year license to produce tablets and smartphones under the brand Nokia which will be manufactured in China by Foxconn. However, Nokia is believed to be working on two flagships for an End of year release which will run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, feature 4 to 6GB RAM and upto 256 GB storage. Nokia will also be adding their PureView camera tech to the flagship phones they launch here on out.
The Nokia D1C is expected to be a phone in the Nokia 5310 lineage with the branding ok Nokia 5320, as the name was spotted last month. The Nokia D1C is expected to launch for less than US $ 150 while in India the D1C should be priced around Rs. 8999.
This is possibly the best deal for a powerhouse phone for an excellent price. If you head over to lemall.com and buy the LeMax 2, you can buy the 4GB variant which would typically sell for Rs. 22999 is now available for Rs. 17999.
That is a steal price for this phone and definitely a good deal. The Lenovo Z2 plus launched earlier this week also comes at a similar price however the LeMax 2 does include better features. Firstly you get a 5.7inch QHD or 2K resolution display that is vivid and bright. It also includes CDLA audio for a great music listening experience. The LeMax 2 also features a 21 MP main camera with an 8MP front camera.
The price will get you the 4GB variant and make it one hell of a mid range priced powerhouse. Get it while stocks last!
Also on a side not you get an additional 10% cashback on ICICI debit and credit cards making the price a great Rs. 16199.
You can check out our hands on video along with comparison with OnePlus 3 below.
OnePlus 3 in the soft gold variant just went on sale for a price of Rs. 27999. The phone virtually identical to the OnePlus 3 launched a few months back features a subtle Gold colour, hence the name Soft Gold. Check out our video of the phone below.
OnePlus has been teasing the golden colour of the OnePlus 3 since launch, and while the unit was launched a month back in many parts of the world, India finally gets the golden child. If you read our review of the OnePlus 3, the real difference in the OnePlus 3 grey and soft gold colour is basically the colour.
Amazon will start selling the unit tomorrow onwards and the OnePlus 3 will come with 12 months of accidental damage protection, 12 months of double data on Idea network and Rs. 500 of kindle credit. Specs wise the OnePlus 3 runs on the Snapdragon 820 chipset with 6 GB of RAM and comes with 64 GB of storage. The 3000 mAh battery supports Dash-Charge and the front houses a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080p optic-AMOLED display.
