Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Pebble Steel Unboxing and First Impressions

It’s still very early days for smartwatches but Pebble, the Kickstarter success story, already looks like a veteran. Pebble, the first Smartwatch that ignited the whole market frenzy for wearable devices, has been out for a long time, so long that it already got a facelift through Pebble Steel, mainly for people looking at a premium version of the original. It was exactly that, a premium version of the Pebble, adorned with steel, glass and leather, while the original was fully plastic and silicone. There was also a general shift in design and a better overall finish, with minor changes to the power connector and the addition of a LED at the front. These changes also command a premium, with the price at $249, almost matching the recently launched Android Wear devices. We had finally got one a while back, the stainless steel version, so here’s the unboxing of the Pebble Steel, in case you are looking to get one –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z7Frxqsnfo

Read our review of the Pebble Smartwatch

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Xiaomi responds to privacy concerns: “MIUI does not secretly upload photos & messages”

Thanks to whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden, privacy has become a public topic of discussion these days, which is always a good thing. On that note, earlier today, an article from ocworkbench claimed that Xiaomi’s Redmi Note smartphone is uploading data to Chinese servers, without explicit user permission. Considering Xiaomi is from China, a country which has been accused of spying on civilians in the past, the issue made its way to mainstream internet thanks to the virality of social media. But it was just one part of a story. We had reached out to Xiaomi to understand what the other side of the story is like, and they finally have an answer. Hugo Barra, the company’s public face for its International operations, has taken to social networks, to explain how the company is, in fact, not invading user privacy.

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Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Live Folders and Cortana to India

Microsoft has just announced the next minor update to their mobile platform, called the Windows Phone 8.1 Update. The update brings the highly awaited Cortana personal assistant to markets like China, with extra localization, as a beta and countries like India, Australia and Canada, as an alpha. Apart from Cortana rolling out to other countries, the update also brings some extra user-facing additions like support for Live Folders on the start screen and better VPN support and so on. The update is rolling out next week for phones running on the developer preview and will eventually roll out later to Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the coming months.

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Oppo Find 7 Camera Samples

The Oppo Find 7 that we reviewed earlier, is aimed at the top end market with class leading tech and.. that includes the camera of course. Following the tradition, the Find 7 too comes with a 13 megapixel camera, just like the Find 5 and later, the N1. It’s the same stacked CMOS sensor from Sony that you find on many devices these days, like the Galaxy S4, K900, Vibe Z etc, but of course it has been featured on Oppo’s own devices too. From Find 5 to N1, there has been a lot of changes, few in hardware and many in software, but the Find 7’s combination of the both has reached the peak level in terms of capabilities, we’d say. With a six element lens, dedicated ISPs for image processing including a really fast and stable HDR mode, the Find 7 adds a bunch of new tricks like Ultra HD video recording, 50 MP photos, 32 seconds of long exposure photography and then some more. To explain this better, here is a full walkthrough of the camera interface and its features, along with camera samples, in our camera review of the Oppo Find 7 –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFsyvxkihD4

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LG G3 Camera Samples

You might have seen our review of the LG G3, which details a lot of the flagship’s features, but when it comes to the camera, the Korean company has sought to keep things almost the same as its predecessor. The LG G3 comes with the same Sony made 13 megapixel stacked CMOS sensor as the G2, complete with dedicated ISPs for fast image processing. The f2.4 aperture is not class leading or even fast, by today’s smartphone standards, but seems to be clear at the least, helping in taking sharp pictures. Coupled with OIS+, the new laser autofocus module and the dual tone flash, LG takes the successful combination from the G2, one step ahead. To explain all the features and the camera samples, here is our long dedicated camera review of the LG G3, skip past the video for the full resolution samples –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZDa6BDLPbY

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Xiaomi clarifies: All Mi 3 phones in India have Gorilla Glass 3

One of the major uncertainties regarding the recently launched Xiaomi Mi 3 (our review) smartphone was whether the phone was protected by Gorilla Glass or not. This has been a confusion ever since the company launched its India specific page, but thankfully, @MiIndiaOfficial, the official Twitter account of the company has clarified that all the Mi 3s in India have Gorilla Glass 3 protection for the screen. The clarification puts an end to all the speculation that surrounded the screen’s protective capabilities, as Gorilla Glass has been known to be very tough, since its inception.

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LG G3 Review: Ambitiously Regressive

Ever since the Nexus 4, LG has been consistently upping its flagship game. The company’s first decent flagship device, Optimus G, was the start of a wonderful intra-company relationship in which LG started pulling resources from within its own divisions, like the one for display, the one focused on Chemistry for battery technology, etc. It then culminated into the G2, which was, in fact, as popular as the Nexus 4 at some point, known for its edge to edge design, good camera, screen and great battery life. The G3 is the LG’s ambitious successor, which fixes the few complaints the G2 had related to storage expansion and a removable battery, and adds interesting new technologies to differentiate itself. LG boasts itself as one of the firsts in the industry to have a quad HD display on a smartphone and also touts the new laser autofocus system that can be reliable, even in low light. Armed with all these features, can the LG G3 take on the Galaxies and the iPhones of this world? More importantly, is a Quad HD display really necessary? Lets find out in our full in-depth review.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plLo-HdsWKk

LG G3 prices announced for India – 16 GB – Rs 47,990 – 32 GB – Rs. 50,990

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Oppo Find 7 Review: Leading the race to the top

The idea of a Smartphone flagship is a race to the top where companies constantly try to 1up each other with class leading technology and innovative new additions to their top end smartphone, every year. The Find 7 is Oppo’s entrant into this increasingly crowded flagship rat race, meant to appeal to the buyer seeking cutting edge technology. The Chinese manufacturer has been playing this game since the Find 5, and for the second time, they have captured the pole position by introducing a Quad HD display in a smartphone way ahead of any one else. But the race has already started and the gap has closed, with new uncertainties and the competition rapidly stepping up its game. One of the major uncertainties is the need for a Quad HD display on a smartphone. With a 1080p display on its younger sibling (the cheaper Find 7a, read the review here), the Find 7 finds itself facing a tough argument from the user “Is a Quad HD display really needed?”. But even then, as a top end flagship, can it endure the onslaught from the competition and retain the pole position it wanted initially? Find out in our full review of the Oppo Find 7.

Oppo Find 7 is available in India for a price of Rs. 37,990

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 First Impressions

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is the Korean giant’s latest tablet for the enterprise, plain and simple. While it is very much the bigger brother of the Tab S 8.4 we just detailed, the form factor alone dictates a different destiny. Priced to match the iPad Air in the US, the Tab S 10.5 launched here, soon after the global launch, is unsurprisingly the higher end mobile version, priced at Rs. 44,800. Yes, a 10.5″ tablet that can make calls and even send SMS, but it will naturally be used for data, mostly. Tablets as a whole are mostly geared towards consumption, but companies have been trying to go at it from a productivity angle too, like the Surface and numerous other OEM based tablets. Samsung’s take on the Tab S 10.5 is based on the same idea, with a good amount of preinstalled enterprise focused apps. Armed with a Super AMOLED screen, the Tab S 10.5 aims to satisfy the office goer, and our first impressions video might help explain that cause a bit more, watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvaOvJWbggo

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 First Impressions

Samsung unveiled their new Tab S products in New York and surprisingly, they didn’t take much time to bring it to India either. There were two Tab S devices announced, S possibly standing for Super AMOLED, because, lets face it, these new Samsung tablets are all about the screen. In India, the Tab S 8.4 and the Tab S 10.5 were launched for Rs. 37,800 and Rs. 44,800 respectively, catering to the premium market segment with mobile-only versions, while in the US, Samsung has squarely targeted the Tab S devices at iPad Air and retina iPad mini price points with WiFi-only versions. These are clearly decisions driven by market necessities and strategy, so with that in mind, we took a look at the mini version of the Tab S first to detail our first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyjcfK6DXto

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Xiaomi Redmi Note Hands on and First Impressions

Xiaomi announced a total of three devices for the Indian market, the Mi3, the Redmi 1s and the Redmi Note. While the Mi3 is a flagship and the Redmi 1S occupies the lower end, the Redmi Note tries to sit in the median of the other two, with phablet ambitions and a similarly attractive price tag. The phone was announced for Rs. 9,999, a compelling price point for a phablet, especially with the kind of specifications it packs. The Redmi Note sports a 5.5 inch 720p screen, Mediatek’s MT6592 octa-core processor, a 13 megapixel camera and even 2 GB of RAM to support the processor. The spec sheet alone got us intrigued about the device in question, and hence we took it for a spin in front of the camera for a hands on video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNEhgoC_744

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Xiaomi Mi Pad Hands on and First Impressions

If there was one product at the Xiaomi India launch event we’d have really wanted announced for the Indian market, it’d be the Mi Pad. Launched just a couple of months back, the tablet with a 7.9 inch 20148×1536 screen resembles a lot of the iPad mini. The form factor, the size and even the UI pretty much gives the fact away that Xiaomi has its cross hairs squarely aimed at the iPad, and is not afraid to show it. Sporting a really powerful Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset on the inside, the mini tablet claims to be really fast and powerful, but will be available at a price lesser than what the iPad mini with a retina display is selling for. The 16 GB version sells for approximately 14k INR, which is about half the price of the retina-display iPad mini. With that said, we were really interested to check the device out in person, so here is a quick hands on video we made from the event, to see what the device is like –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6J8uA2mkE

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Microsoft just killed Nokia’s feature phones and X Android devices

Stephen Elop’s e-mail to Microsoft employees in the devices and services division and an internal e-mail from Jo Harlow, acquired by BGR, have officially made clear the future of Nokia’s feature phones and the recently launched X range of Android devices. Microsoft will no longer make the Android-based Nokia X devices, but “select designs” from that range will be running Windows Phone in the future. This is understandable, as the company had never been approving of this effort from the Elop-era Nokia, but the axing of the feature phone business, which Jo Harlow details as it being under “maintenance mode” is a tacit admission of the smartphone business completely taking over, and a failure of conversion that Nokia had wanted.

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Microsoft announces 18,000 job cuts next year, 12,500 are from Nokia

“Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture” reads Nadella’s latest mail to his employees which details Microsoft’s 18,000 job cuts next year. The Redmond based software giant has just announced that it wants to go lean and agile, in an effort to re-align with the company’s new vision, a product of the new leadership headed by Satya Nadella. Out of the 18,000 job cuts, 12,500 are from Nokia’s devices and services division the company acquired recently. This completely sends home the point that Microsoft is no longer interested in making phones, as the majority of Nokia’s full time working staff are from manufacturing facilities the company has, around the world.

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Flipkart confirms Xiaomi Mi3 exclusivity with launch teasers

Flipkart, one of India’s largest e-commerce retailers, has started teasing the Xiaomi Mi3 on its social media channels, tacitly confirming their exclusive deal with the Chinese company. Flipkart’s foray into exclusivity started with Motorola’s devices, as the company, recently bought by Lenovo, sought to take advantage of their previously lost distribution channel partnerships here. Xiaomi, on the other hand, is used to selling exclusively on its own websites, even outside China, without the overhead of a traditional distribution channel or advertising, so the Flipkart partnership must have been natural for them.

Looking for our Xiaomi Mi3 review? Go here.

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