Lenovo-owned Motorola has launched the Moto Z2 Force in India. It is priced at Rs. 34,999 in India and will go on sale at midnight via Flipkart and Moto Hub stores. Motorola has launched the device in India, almost six months after its global launch. Although the Moto Z2 Force is competitively priced, it won’t be long before the OnePlus 6 is launched at a similar price and Snapdragon 845 chipset.
Let’s unbox the Moto Z2 Force and see what we get inside:
Moto Z2 Force
Documentations
Sim Ejector Tool
Earphones
Type C to 3.5mm dongle
USB Type C Cable
TurboCharge Wall Charger
First Impressions
To maintain the device’s compatibility with Moto Mods, the Z2 Force doesn’t look too different from its predecessor. It is thinner for sure and has a very sturdy build. This time around, Moto has implemented s dual-camera setup on the back which has become a norm. At a price of Rs. 34999, along with the TurboPower Mod, the Moto Z2 Force is a great alternative to the OnePlus 5T.
Moto Z2 Force With TurboPower Mod
Moto Z2 Force Specifications
The Moto Z2 Force has a 5.5 inch P-OLED display with a 2560 x 1440 px resolution. The Z2 Force does not have Corning Gorilla Glass on top, instead has a plastic shattershield coating on top. This means that the Z2 Force will survive drops more than a regular device with Corning Gorilla Glass. However, thanks to the presence of a plastic coating, it would be more susceptible to smaller scratches.
Moto Z2 Force
Under the hood, the device has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. The storage is expandable up to 2TB via a microSD card. The fingerprint sensor is placed on the front of the smartphone as it retains the size and design of a ‘Moto Z’ device. As a result, the Z2 Force is compatible with Moto Mods.
Probably, a possible let down could be the missing of the 3.5mm headphone jack. However, it will come with a dongle inside the box to still use your beloved wired headphones.
Another modern element, which has now truly become a norm is in the camera department. The Z2 Force, like many flagship phones, has a dual 12MP camera setup on the back with an f/2.0 aperture. One of them has an RGB sensor while the other one has a monochrome sensor. The smartphone records 4K videos at 30fps. On the front of the device is a 5MP camera with a dual-tone LED flash.
Bose recently launched the next iteration of its highly popular noise cancelling headphones, the Bose QC 35 II. Priced at Rs. 29,393 in India, the Bose QC 35 II do not come cheap but, you get what you pay for. Bose is one of the most renowned audio accessories makers in the world and the QC series has garnered great reviews over the years.
Let’s unbox the new Bose QC 35 II and see what we get:
Carrying Case
Bose QC 35 II
Documentations
3.5mm Cable
Charging Cable
First Impressions
The Bose QC 35 II headphones have a really good build. They fit comfortably and the noise cancellation is spot on! For a price of Rs. 29393, these might not be everyone’s cup of tea but, if you travel a lot and prefer to listen to your music instead of all the noise, these are ideal for you.
The Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II has a battery life of up to 20 hours. It has Bluetooth 4.1 for connectivity and comes with a cable in case the battery runs out. Just like the QC 35, the same controls remain on the right ear-cup, audio volume, and the multi-function button for incoming calls and accessing Siri. And now, there’s a new Action Button on the left earcup to connect to your Google Assistant without having to grab your phone, unlock it, and find the app.
Bose Connect App
Like its predecessor, the QC35 II’s noise cancellation is fully activated when the headphone is on, but, the Bose Connect App now lets you choose to keep it on (high), turn it down (low), or disable it completely (off). The Connect App also lets you change the Action Button’s functionality, so you can control the noise settings from the ear-cup when you want, and switch back to your Google Assistant when you want.
The HTC U11+ has finally been launched in India at a price of Rs. 56990 and is available on Flipkart. Let’s unbox the HTC U11+ and see what we get inside the box:
HTC U11+
Documentation
Type C Earphones
Type C to 3.5mm headphone adapter
Sim ejector tool
Wall charger
USB Type C cable
First Impressions
At the time of its launch, the HTC U11+ represented a much-needed design shift for HTC smartphones. Although the HTC U11 was a breath of fresh air, it still looked like a dated flagship device due to its thick bezels. The HTC U11+ has thin bezels around the display, and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The device also has a similar build quality to the HTC U11, something that was highly appreciated in the earlier flagship.
Thin Bezels
The fingerprint sensor is now placed on the back of the smartphone. A lot of the design cues are similar to the HTC U11 but, we are not complaining. The HTC U11+ is one of the few smartphones that look and feel absolutely premium. The 3.5mm headphone jack is missing and it is time we make peace with this omission.
HTC U11
HTC U11+ Specifications
The HTC U11+ has a new 6-inch IPS LCD display with a 2880 x 1440 px resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top of the display and at the back. The tall display means the bezels on the HTC U11+ are thinner than the ones found on the HTC U11.
Similar to the HTC U11, HTC U11+ has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, an octa-core processor, and Adreno 540 GPU. The HTC u11+ further has 6GB of RAM and 128GB onboard storage which can be further expanded up to 2TB via a hybrid microSD card slot. The HTC U11+ is IP68 rated water and dust resistant and due to the thin bezels, the fingerprint sensor is now placed below the rear-mounted camera.
The smartphone is powered by a 3930 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0. The HTC U11+ runs Android 8.0 Oreo with HTC’s Sense UI on top.
The Edge Sense feature from the HTC U11 retains its place albeit new features and customisability. With AI gaining more prominence, HTC has provided both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to give people the flexibility and choose which AI assistant they prefer. You can assign a light squeeze to access Google Assistant, and a hard squeeze to access the Amazon Alexa and vice versa.
Edge Sense is now a remappable feature and can perform specific tasks depending on which app you’re in. If you have the YouTube app, you can remap the squeeze to take you to the subscriptions window or if you are in Google Maps, you squeeze to zoom in or zoom out. HTC has also added a new radial menu which can be accessed with a squeeze. It is a round shaped menu which customises on the basis of your usage.
The smartphone has a 12.2MP rear-mounted camera with an f/1.7 aperture with optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation. The camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and slo-mo 1080P videos at 120fps. On the front of the phone is an 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and fixed focus. The front-facing camera can record 1080P videos at 30fps.
The HTC U11+ is certainly one of the best-looking devices right now, especially with the translucent design. However, it will only be available Ceramic Black and Amazing Silver in India. At a price of Rs. 56990, the HTC U11+ competes with the likes of the Galaxy S8 which also has a great design and flagship specs. However, the Galaxy S9 and S9+are expected to make their way to the Indian market in March. The new Samsung flagship devices will have the 2018 flagship chipset Exynos 9810 in India.
Samsung recently brought out their gold-plated smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S6 Gold, starting at a price of Rs 58,900 for the 32GB variant. Here, we unbox the device – iGyaan style!
As you can see, the phone sports a 5.1 inch Super Amoled screen with a QuadHD resolution with a total of 577 ppi. Powered 2600 mAh battery, the handset is available only with fixed storage of either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB, which are all based on UFS 2.0 (Universal Flash Storage). With 16MP primary camera, it is capable of shooting 4K video as well.
Connectivity options included in the phone are LTE Cat 6, Bluetooth 4.1 and WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and globally unlocked variants will work on TDD and FDD LTE bands. The most eye-catching feature of this handset is its gold plate. It is also notable that the phone features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 glass panels on both the front and back. The metallic frame that holds the two panels gets a gold treatment too.
The curvy S6 Edge is priced at Rs. 58,900 for the 32 GB variant, Rs, 64,900 for the 64 GB and Rs. 70,900 for the 128 GB variant.
You can know more about the specs and features of the phone in the table below:
One of the Smartest Smart Phones to hit our country, The Samsung Galaxy S2 has gathered a lot of public attention. But, does it stand up to the challenge put out by Day-to-Day Smart-Phone use? Lets Find Out!
BUILD QUALITY, HARDWARE & DESIGN
The Galaxy S2 has a nice design, a sleek body and extra tough glass. But the build quality of the phone may not be up to the mark. The device features a total plastic construction that defies all laws of mobile phone existence. At just 8.5mm thick the device boasts an extremely slim profile. The back panel/cover is a flimsy piece of plastic that is fidgety to remove and put back on and also rattles when the phone is shaken.
The screen on the other hand is extremely tough, it also resists scratches and impacts without a question in mind. Overall, the build is solid, the plastics don’t bend easily and are not cheap to look at either. But are not nearly enough when you compare it with what you pay for the device.
In terms of hardware the two major things working for the Indian version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 are
Super Amoled Plus Screen – 480 x 800 px – 4.3 inches
1.2 GHZ dual core processor
The performances of these two major hardware components can be seen from the get go, and are attracting people towards the GS2. There is also 1 GB of RAM, giving an effective 853MB for usage (we really don’t know why only 853 is there totally). There is no NFC on the Indian Samsung Galaxy S2, and why would you need it anyway? The 8 MP rear camera with full HD video recording, a 2 MP front camera, 1650mah battery. You can also check out the full Spec Sheet Here
CAMERA AND MULTIMEDIA
The Camera on the S2 is brilliant; the screen viewfinder makes it even better. The colors are projected to the screen as-is, and are captured beautifully with the 8MP lens. The camera is fast to focus and has great exposure values. Tap to focus lets you select you subject and one click capture brings you an experience that’s hard to replicate. The camera app is also packed with a long list of settings and effects you can tweak and play around with. Shooting modes, scene modes, effects, image size, exposure values, white balance, noise reduction and anti shake to name a few.
Macro mode is exceptionally great as it can capture close-ups with great detail. There is also a timer, ISO settings, Metering selection, blink detection and geo-tagging. The S2 has a fully loaded camera app and a great camera lens to go with it. Overall performance of the camera is easily notable and can replace your point and shoot camera for day-to-day use. The flash is bright and has a great field of coverage.
Video capture at 1080p is smooth and without frame drops, although you can notice the autofocus on the camera struggle during the video recording output. Videos are clean and the microphone picks up sound just great. Video is so good in fact we actually shot an unboxing video on full HD with the Samsung Galaxy S2 – Check it HERE
Sounds from the speaker are actually louder than we expected. Audio quality is clear and speech notions can be understood easily. Why we emphasize on speech is because you will be watching a lot of videos and movies on the STUNNING AMOLED PLUS display. It is the best possible display from Samsung to date. With amazing depths of color and a great resolution (480 x 800) the display is very vivid. Colors are bold and there is no washout even at greater viewing angles. Some may argue that the colors on the screen are not what they appear to be, and the AMOLED screen gives a heightened look to a normal display/video.
The included earphones are not a great match with the S2, the bass on the earphones is poor, watching movies or listening to music. If you enjoy good depth, you wont enjoy the included earphones. The placement of the main speaker can also be bothersome, especially when you hold the device in landscape to watch videos or play games. You will find your fingers covering up the main speaker for a total loss of sound.
PHONE AND MESSAGING
Nice large dialer, good speaker, strong mic and excellent network performance make the Galaxy S2 a great phone aswell. We tested the phone capability over extended periods of use and failed to get one reason to complain about the device. It was pure performance for the phone through out.
The Keyboard on the GS2 is well spaced out in portrait and is very responsive during those long messaging sessions. You also have a huge list of settings that you can modify to make the keyboard a complete unit for you. From auto text to auto replace, modifiers and word learning, the keyboard is simply intelligent. You can also switch to the included Swype keyboard for a faster input experience. In Landscape, typing is fast and efficient and the keys are wide enough to compile long emails without breaking a sweat.
DATA & INTERNET
Getting a smartphone like this? Expect to get a 3G data plan if you don’t already have one. This phone turns you into an “on the go data monster”. With the constant need to feed information into the device the unit comes ready to handle all sorts of online activity, from social feeds directly on your homescreen to business mails in a secret box. You get the latest news, weather information and stock prices without ever needing to install an app or setup the device. 3G / HSDPA performance is somewhat good, we found that the device would drop the connection to the server and would require a restart of the data service from the settings app. We have never faced a similar issue with any other Android device an it appears to be a glitch in the software somewhere. Another thing to note, is that when the device is in this suspended data connection mode, the back of the phone starts to heat up incredibly fast which leads to an equally fast battery drain.
Wi-Fi Hotspot, also acts up (due to the network error we presume) and you will find your self constantly struggling with the error messages on the portable hotspot window.
BATTERY LIFE
If you haven’t read the section above we suggest you go ahead and read it. The battery life is largely affected by data mismanagement.
Values
2G
3G
3G with Error
Talk Time
upto 7 Hours
4.5 hours
1 hour
Standby time
36 Hours
24 hours
6 Hours
Web Browsing
8-9 hours
4-5 hours
–
Video Streaming
4 Hours
2 Hours
–
Music Streaming
14 hours
6 hours
–
Wi-Fi Values stand more or less the same with 2G data
GAMING
We though we would include this section just to clarify a lot of questions. While the device is perfectly capable of running high graphic games, you will not find us showing you videos of any such games for one simple reason. They don’t work on the device. Most games like Fast 5, NFS shift Asphalt, Assassins creed, Settlers crash on start up and some don’t show visuals. This is possibly a software -hardware integration glitch and perhaps the games are not designed to run on dual core smart phones. Other games like Angry Birds -All, Gun Brothers and our new favorite Age of the Zombies work perfect and without any issues.
DUAL CORE
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is India’s second phone to boast a dual core processor, and after our previous let down, we a happy to say that Samsung has managed to utilize the dual core- Android combo perfectly and has made it possible for the end user to enjoy the total experience. The phone is not only fast and responsive it is a super performer. All visuals play smooth, graphics and renders are fast all of this with tons of ram to spare. The Galaxy S2 also uses Android suspend multitasking which enables you to pause your ongoing app in real time and switch to another app, and then come back to the previous app without loosing data, or in our case lives.
There is the heating issue that is causing battery loss but we believe its due to the data glitch and can be resolved by switching data modes, or turning on data as and when required (which can be troublesome, but is a quick fix until Samsung can fix it). If you haven’t already seen the benchmarks, check them out here.
CONCLUSION
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is highest spec’d phone available in India through official channels, its thin and light, its got a beautifully vivid display and a dual core processor that’s on steroids. The Galaxy S2 is ready to perform from the get-go and looks good doing it. Yes its got a flimsy looking build and some overheating issues. But why do we feel okay looking past those? Possibly because poor build usually leads to a damaged display, but in this case the gorilla glass wont let that happen. As far as the battery drain- data error issue, Samsung is already working on pushing an update that will fix these issues.
[xrr rating=4.25/5 label=”We Rate The Galaxy S 2 : ” imageset=shiny_yellow_star display_as=fraction_stars]
Is it here Finally? Yes it is, the new Samsung Galaxy S2, The Epic Smartphone of the Year! (Till now Anyway) While we unbox the beauty check out the Hands On Pics below. Remember you got all exclusive news on the Samsung Galaxy S2 here at iGyaan.in.
