Tag: IFA 2017

Harman Launched Google Assistant And Alexa Powered Smart Speakers At IFA 2017

One of the biggest tech event of the year, the IFA 2017 tech show in Berlin has been a platform for various tech firms to debut everything ranging from Wi-Fi fridges to smartphones. Aside from the newly launched flagships like the LG V30 and the Xperia XZ1, smart assistants, luxury headphones, Bluetooth speakers and smart audio gear were some of the devices showcased at the IFA 2017.

Sinc the demand for smart speakers has surged in the recent past with the entry of Amazon Echo and Google Home, Harman is hedging its bets on smart speakers with the launch of two Google assistant and Alexa powered smart speakers.

Harman Kardon Allure

The Alexa powered, Harman Kardon Allure can be controlled via voice commands. The smart speaker lets you order pizza, play music, read the news, control your smart home appliances, make purchases from Amazon, and much more. Harman Kardon Allure features far-field voice technology which allows the speaker to hear commands even from a far distance. The speaker’s 360-degreeambient lighting that glows in time with the music. The Harman Kardon Allure is priced at $249.95 (approximately Rs 16000) and is available at Amazon.

KEY FEATURES

Amazon Alexa Voice Control

Dual-band Wi-Fi

Far-field Voice Recognition

Built-in four-microphone array with advanced noise cancellation

360-degree sound

Ambient lighting

Wireless Bluetooth streaming

JBL Link Series

The company’s other smart speaker offering includes Google Assistant powered JBL Link series, the LINK 10, LINK 20, and LINK 300. The Google Assistant built-in smart speakers let you stream music, ask questions, manage everyday tasks, etc, by waking the device by saying “Ok, Google”. The LINK 10 and LINK 20 speakers have the IPX7 waterproof design. Both the smart speakers have 5 and 10 hours of battery life, respectively. The smart speakers can be easily linked together using any home Wi-Fi network. The LINK 10, LINK 20 and LINK 300 are priced at $149, $199 and $249, respectively.

KEY FEATURES	LINK 10 \| LINK 20 \| LINK 300
Built-In Google Assistant	Yes
Chromecast built-in with multi-room music playback	Yes
Speaker output power	2x8W \| 2x10W \| 50W
Bluetooth	Yes
Battery Life	5 Hours \| 10 Hours \| NA
Dimensions (mm x mm x mm)	86 x 169 \| 93 x 210 \| 236 x 134 x 154
Waterproof	IPX7 Rating

Voice controlled smart speakers are one of the most upcoming trends of 2017. And with Amazon’s Echo, Google Home and Apple’s upcoming HomePod, it will be interesting to see how Harman’s smart speakers will stack against its rivals.

September 2, 2017

Samsung’s Gear Sport, Gear Fit 2 Pro And Icon X 2018 Unveiled At IFA 2017
Samsung announced the Gear Sport smartwatch, the Gear Fit 2 Pro fitness band and the Icon X 2018 wireless earbuds at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. All three wearables emphasize upon fitness features like the ability to swim in salt water with the Gear Sport and Fit 2 Pro. Though the Icon X 2018 earbuds launched with the ability to interact with Bixby, Samsung skipped the voice assistant’s support in the smartwatch and the fitness band .

Samsung Gear Sport

The new Samsung Gear Sport pushes further into fitness by adding few new features like 5 ATM water resistance for swimming, capacity to store 500 Spotify songs along with the already present heart rate tracker, GPS, and a rotating control bezel. Though the pricing details are still unavailable, the Samsung Gear Sport is expected to cost between $200 and $300.

Following are the specifications of the smartwatch –
- 1.2-inch circular AMOLED
- Tizen OS
- 20mm watch straps
- 4GB storage
- Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, NFC
- GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
- 300 mAh battery
- 5 ATM water resistance, MIL-STD-810G dust, and shock resistance
- Works with Android 4.4, iOS 9.0 or later
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro

The Gear Fit 2 pro, unlike its earlier variant, comes with a 5 ATM swim-ready water resistance. The fitness band appears to be competing with Garmin and Fitbit with features like onboard GPS, offline music storage for Spotify and improved heart rate and fitness tracking.

The tracker is priced at $200 in the US. As far as features are concerned, here’s a list of few of them –
- 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED touch display with Gorilla Glass 3
- Tizen OS
- 4GB of onboard storage
- Support for Spotify music downloads
- 50 meter (5 ATM) water resistance, MIL STD 810G dust resistance
- Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi
- GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
- Heart rate tracking
- Barometer
- 200mAh battery
- Works with Android 4.4 or iOS 9.0 and later
Samsung Icon X 2018

Samsung unveiled an updated version of the Icon X headphones at the IFA 2017. The Icon X 2018, much like the original wireless headphones include heart rate monitoring along with the increased battery life. Instead of a 90 min battery life( in the Icon X), The new Icon X 2018 now has 5 hours of battery life when streaming audio from a phone. In addition, Samsung has made a chargeable battery case with the included USB-C cable. Other features include tapping the headphone which activates the Running Coach feature – provides aural feedback on your progress.

The new Icon X headphones also support Samsung’s voice assistant which can be accessed by tapping and holding the earbud to access voice control on your paired Galaxy phone. The Icon X 2018 headphones are designed to work only with Samsung phones running Android 4.4 and above. The headphones have internal storage of 4GB per bud. As for specifications,
- Colours available – Black, Gray, Pink
- 4GB of Onboard Storage (per earbud)
- Bluetooth v 4.2 connectivity
- Accelerometer, IR, Capacitive Touch
- OS compatibility Android 4.4 or later
- Battery – Earbud: 82mAh / Charging Case: 340mAh
Samsung usually hosts two separate events at IFA every year, one for its electronics and one for mobile. This year, the company decided to host one event combining the announcement for both smartphones and electronics. Samsung also hosted another major event in New York, where it revealed the Galaxy Note 8.
September 2, 2017
Sony Launches The Smart Speaker LF-S50G To Rival Amazon Echo, Google Home

Sony has launched its first smart speaker, the LF-S50G powered by Google Assistant at a price of USD 199 (Rs 12,700 approx.). The smart speaker will enter the market dominated by the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home.

The inclusion of the Google Assistant means that it will work almost identical to the Google Home and has plenty of power to fill “the average room” with sound, Sony claims. The smart speaker looks very similar to the Apple HomePod with a white speaker mesh wrapped around a metal frame. It is, however, a little taller and slimmer than the Apple HomePod, and there’s a slender silver base which houses the power port and two buttons. It has two microphones, which is same as Google Home, however, Apple’s HomePod has six and the Amazon’s Echo has seven for improved audio recognition. Both microphones on the Sony LF-S50G are positioned on the top of the speaker, with a rubberized cap to ensure splash resistance.

Since the speaker is powered by Google Assistant, it’ll work for timers, Google searches, your calendar, controlling your smart home, and more. The top of the smart speaker also supports gesture controls. A rotation of a finger clockwise over the top of the speaker will increase volume, and movement in the opposite direction reduces it. You can also skip back and forth between songs by moving your palm over the top of the speaker, left to right to skip forward, and the other way to skip back a track. The smart speaker is equipped with a 360-degree speaker setup, a downward woofer, and an upward tweeter, delivering sound in all directions.

The smart speaker from Sony boasts something that the Amazon Echo and Google Home miss out, a small matrix-dot display. It can provide you with useful info such as the time and the volume level and, seamlessly disappears in the speaker mesh if you do not want it.

Sony says the LF-S50G release date is set for mid-October with a retail price of $199 (Rs 12,700) and will be available in Blue, White, and Black colour variants, but, there is no word about the speaker entering the Indian market, yet.

September 1, 2017
Sony Xperia XA1 Plus Launched With Helio P20 Chipset And 23 MP Rear Camera

Sony has launched the Xperia XA1 Plus at IFA 2017. The company pitched the third smartphone in the Xperia XA1 series as a ‘super mid-tier smartphone’ with a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 px display, 23MP rear camera, and a 3,430mAh battery.

In terms of design, the Sony Xperia XA1 Plus inherits the traditional all metal, thick bezel design as seen in its earlier variants. The smartphone’s power button on the right-hand side also doubles as a finger print scanner. The XA1 Plus features a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 px display, whereas the earlier models, the Xperia XA1 and the XA1 Ultra featured a 5-inch display and a 6-inch display, respectively.

The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus has the same MediaTek Helio P20 chipset with Mali T-880 GPU used in the XA1 and the XA1 Ultra. The smartphone is available in two variants, a 4 GB RAM variant and a 3 GB RAM variant which will only be available in the US and South America. The XA1 Plus has 32 GB of onboard storage which is expandable up to 256 GB via a microSD card. The smartphone runs Android 7.1 Nougat, unlike the newly launched Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 compact, which run the latest Android 8.0 Oreo. The Xperia XA1 Plus is powered by a 3,430 mAh battery and comes with Qnovo adaptive charging and Pump Express+ 2.0 quick charging support.

On the camera front, the XA1 Plus features Sony’s 23MP camera with an f/2.4 aperture, same as the one found on its XA1 siblings. On the front, the smartphone has an 8 MP camera.

The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus is available in three colour variants, black, blue and gold. Unlike a lot of smartphones from Sony itself, the Xperia XA1 Plus misses out on water resistance.

Sony is yet to announce the price for the mid-range Xperia XA1 Plus, which is due to go on sale globally in late September.

September 1, 2017
Sennheiser Debuts 3 New Earphones Including 10-Hour Wireless Option

Sennheiser has launched three new earphone models at the IFA 2017 in Berlin yesterday.

The trio of new earphones include Sennheiser’s wireless CX 7.00BT, a wired IE 80 S and another wireless model, the HD1 Free.

HD1 Free

The one that top’s the list is the new addition to Sennheiser’s HD1 Wireless earphones, the HD1 Free. On the design front, the new HD1 Free are significantly slimmer as compared to Sennheiser’s first HD1 In-Ear Wireless. Apart from the slimmer design, the HD1 Free will feature custom machined steel in-ear sound tunnels, magnetic earpieces, a three button remote and microphone for calling and playing music. The wireless earphones can last 6 hours on a single charge, support Bluetooth 4.2, AptX, and AAC and come with a leather carrying case. Pricing details are yet to be announced but the Sennheiser’s HD1 Free will be available for purchase from October.

CX 7.00BT

Featuring a minimal neckband-style design, the CX 7.00BT last 10 hours on a 1.5 hour charge. These in-ear earphones support NFC for one-touch pairing and can be used as both wired or wireless earphones. The CX 7.00BT I includes four sizes of ear adapters and unlike the HD1 Free, the CX 7.00BT support Bluetooth 4.1. The earphone’s multi-connection capability allows simultaneous pairing with up to 2 devices and has 3-way calling support. The CX 7.00BT in-ear wireless earphones are available at Amazon at a price of Rs. 11,990.

IE 80 S

An update to the previous IE 80 variant, the newly launched IE 80 offers enhanced fit and customization. The latest model of the IE 80 comes with a “unique” equalizer function, interchangeable cables and ear tip options. An additional smart remote cable with one-button control and an inline microphone for making calls or controlling music is also available. The IE 80 S comes with a carry case for storing the earphones and accessories and will go on sale from September.

September 1, 2017
Sony launches Wireless WF-1000X Earphones At IFA 2017

Sony has launched a pair of wireless earbuds at the IFA 2017 in Berlin along with the Xperia XZ1, XZ1 Compact and the Google Assistant powered smart speakers.

The Sony WF-1000X has a 3-hour battery back up and cost USD 199 (Rs 12,700 approx.). The earbuds weigh at 7 grams without the charging case and about 70 grams with the case. The earbuds connect to an audio source via Bluetooth 4.1. The Sony earbuds also feature NFC and a Noise Canceling switch button. The charging case takes 3 hours to charge with the earbuds in it. The earbuds automatically turn off when not in use, to prevent battery drain and feature Adaptive Sound which automatically detects your activity such as traveling, walking, and waiting, then adjusts ambient sound settings to you.

The smart sound feature allows you to switch between different modes to let ambient noise in order to keep listening to your music and also not miss out on important conversations or announcement. You can customise these modes via the Sony Headphones Connect app.

The Sony wireless earbuds are priced closer to the Apple AirPods at USD 199 than the B&O Beoplay E8 and even offer features such NFC and Noise Cancellation. As far as its availability in India goes, there is no official word on it and the price in India is also expected to be different than the global markets.

September 1, 2017
Bang & Olufsen Launches Truly Wireless Earphones To Rival Apple’s AirPods

Bang & Olufsen has launched its competitor to the Apple AirPods at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. The B&O Beoplay E8 are Bang and Olufsen’s foray into truly wireless earphones and are priced at$299 (Rs 19,000 approx.), which is almost double the cpost of the Apple AirPods.

The B&O Beoplay E8 is built out of aluminium, stainless steel, and textured rubber, while the included carry case is covered in leather. The earphones have Bluetooth 4.2 and weigh 13 grams without the case. The charging and carrying case weighs 45 grams and gives a twice the additional charge for the earbuds. The earbuds last up to 4 hours of playing time at moderate volume on a single charge. They charge through a micro USB cable which comes bundled inside the box. There is a multi function single button on earbud for volume control, play/pause, transparency mode, and calls. The loudspeaker inside the earbuds has an electro-dynamic driver with a 5.7 mm diameter. The Beoplay E8 will be available in two colours, Black and Charcoal Sand and will retail at a price of $299 (Rs 19,000 approx.).

The Beoplay E8 does not offer features such as NFC, and costs significantly more than the Apple AirPods and Sony WF-1000X. There is no word on its availability and price in India as of yet.

September 1, 2017
Sony Xperia XZ1 And XZ1 Compact Officially Launched With Android Oreo

Sony has officially unveiled its high-end flagship, the Sony Xperia XZ1, and its smaller sibling, the XZ1 Compact at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. A successor to the Xperia XZ Premium, both the Xperia XZ1 and the compact variant with a full metal frame, hasn’t strayed too far away in terms of design.

Both the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact will run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box and will be amongst the first devices to launch with the latest Android OS.

The newly launched smartphones are equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, similar to the one found in XZ1 Premium. Both the XZ1 and XZ1 Compact have 4GB RAM with 64GB and 32G onboard storage respectively. Both the phones are powered by a 2,700mAh battery.

The Xperia XZ1 has a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 px HDR display(while the XZ1 Premium featured a 4K display), while the smaller variant, XZ1 Compact has a 4.6-inch 1280 x720 px display. Both the smartphones feature Gorilla Glass 5 for durability and are rated IP68 for water resistance. The devices sport a boxy all-metal design which helps with antenna performance, claims Sony.

Sony has used its “Motion Eye” camera system in both the devices. According to Sony, “Motion Eye” system uses a 1GB memory-stacked camera which has five times faster image processing that other smartphones. Ditching the trend of the dual camera setup, Sony went with a single camera at the back with a 19MP 1/2.3″ Sony IMX400 camera lens with an f/2.0 aperture. It includes features like Predictive Capture which will click the picture seconds before you actually hit the shutter button. Sony has used SteadyShot electronic stabilization for video instead of optical image stabilization for images.

The primary camera can also record super slow motion 720p video at 960fps in addition to recording 4K videos at 30fps. On the front, the XZ1 has a 13MP camera, while the XZ1 Compact has a wide angle 8MP camera.

An additional camera feature in the Xperia XZ1 is the 3D scanning mode, which allows the camera to scan an object and save the image as a 3D image.

Sony will be launching Xperia XZ1 and the XZ1 Compact with Android 8.0 Oreo, making them the first phones aside from the upcoming Google Pixel 2 devices and Nexus lines running the OS. The smartphones will be available in Black, Snow Silver, Horizon Blue, and Twilight Pink. The Sony XZ1 will be available for purchase from 19th September at a price of US $699.99 via Amazon or Best Buy, while the XZ1 Compact will be available for sale from 4th October at a price of US $599.99.

September 1, 2017
Motorola Launches The Moto X4 With IP68 and Dual Cameras At IFA 2017

Lenovo-owned Motorola launched the Moto X4 at the IFA 2017 in Berlin with a dual-camera setup at the back and a familiar design.

The Moto X4 has a 5.2 inch 1920 x 1080 px IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass on top for protection. The smartphone runs stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with TurboCharge capabilities. The company claims that the 15 mins of charge can give up to 6 hours of talk time. The Moto X4 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, 2.2 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 508 GPU, along with 3GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage which can be expanded up to 2TB via microSD card. The phone has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.

Motorola also announced that Amazon Alexa voice assistant services will make its debut in the Moto X4. This isn’t the first time that Alexa has made its way onto a smartphone, the Huawei Mate 9 was the first smartphone to feature the voice assistant. Since then, we have also seen Alexa make its way to the HTC U11. Motorola also states that the Moto X4 will allow you to share the sound from your device with up to 4 different Bluetooth devices at the same time.

The Moto X4 has a dual-camera setup at the back. The main camera is a 12MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, and the 8MP secondary camera with an f/2.2 aperture is equipped with a wide angle lens. The dual-cameras allow users to have depth effect shots, bokeh effect shots, ultra-wide angle shots, and selective focus shots. On the front of the device is a 16MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and an LED flash. The cameras record 4K videos at 30 FPS.

The smartphone will hit the European markets in September at a price of EUR 399 (Rs 30,000 approx.). There is no official word on its availability in India, yet.

September 1, 2017
LG Launches The LG V30 At IFA 2017 In Berlin

LG has officially launched the LG V30 today at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. The LG V30 will succeed last year’s V20 and is a significant departure from the design language of LG’s V series. The LG V30 has a design similar to the LG G6 with thin bezels and rounded edges, and an 18:9 aspect ratio display. The LG V30 is available in four colour variants – Aurora black, Cloud silver, Moroccan blue and Lavender violet

The LG V30 has a 6 inch 2880 x 1440 px OLED FullVision display, LG’s first, with an 18:9 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. LG’s nearly edge-to-edge OLED display has HDR 10 format for high level of colour contrast and as announced, the smartphone will be Daydream compatible.

The LG V30 is powered by a 3300mAh battery with wireless fast charging which supports 3.0 quick charge. The smartphone runs Android 7.1.2 with LG’s UX 6.0+ on top which offers a few customisation options. A big omission from the V30 is the secondary display, which was a signature in the previous V series devices. Instead, LG has introduced a Floating Bar which displays shortcuts and can be disabled when not required. The LG V30 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 2.4GHz octa-core processor, 4 GB RAM and 64GB/128GB onboard storage with up to 2TB of expandable storage via a microSD card. The V30 has IP68 rating for water and dust resistance and MIL-STD 810G rating for durability.

LG has partnered up with Bang & Olufsen this time around to deliver sound quality ideal for media consumption and the B&O logo appears on the rear of the smartphone just below the fingerprint scanner. Thanks, to the partnership, LG V30 incorporates a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC powered by Bang & Olufsen with few sound presets like enhanced, detailed, bass and live. The smartphone also has support for Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology for high-resolution audio streaming.

Aside from the rear mounted fingerprint scanner which also doubles as home button, LG has introduced few new security features in the LG V30 such as facial and voice recognition. The voice recognition will even work along with the music playback.

On the camera front, the LG V30 features a dual-camera setup at the back. As LG had announced, this smartphone has the first ever inbuilt camera unit to feature a 16MP crystal clear lens made of glass with an f/1.6 aperture and another 13MP wide angle lens with an f/1.9 aperture. Compared to the f/1.8 aperture cameras on the iPhone 7Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S8+, the camera on the LG V30 will let 25% more light to pass through. The glass lens also delivers greater light-collecting ability than a plastic lens as well as better colour reproduction. The camera will feature laser detection AF, optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation. On the front side, the LG V30 sports a 5MP wide-angle camera with an aperture f/2.2.

The LG V30 is designed for cinematic videography, claims the company. The smartphone’s CineShot movie mode and cine effect enables users to apply color palates. Other features include point zoom, which allows you to tap anywhere on the screen to lock your focus and zoom and the LG’s CineLog format for easier color grading.

Juno Cho, president of LG Electronics Mobile said, “The V series has always been demonstrating new practical mobile technologies that contribute to high quality content creation and the V30 has not lost sight of its roots, with its F1.6 Crystal Clear Lens Camera and Cine Video mode, the LG V30 is designed to help create professional-looking content without professional-level complexity.”

No details about the pricing or availability of the flagship LG V30 have been revealed yet.

August 31, 2017