Author: Bharadwaj Chandramouli

Bharadwaj is a content creator who has been obsessed with technology since the early days of smartphones. He loves talking about tech, is a fan of good design and photography. You can follow him on Twitter @gadgetbuff_ to know what he's upto!

Realme 5 Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

The Realme 5 Pro is official. At a starting price of Rs. 13,999, the 5 Pro will replace the not-too-old Realme 3 Pro, with the main advantages in the upgrade being a Quad Camera setup, a refreshed design and the spruced up Snapdragon 712. The mid range market gets a new boost yet again and Realme pre-empts the competition which is already working on offerings for this hotly contested market segment. But the question always remains – Is the Realme 5 Pro the best combination of specs and value? Here’s our unboxing and first impressions of the device.

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10+ years of Apple and Mobile Gaming – Why do developers still prefer the App Store?

Remember Angry Birds? Doodle Jump? Temple Run? Around this time, after the App Store launched in 2008, the iPhones suddenly became the biggest portable gaming device in the world. Bigger than gaming giant Nintendo. This changed the world of games forever. Realising the scale of mobile gaming and its potential, so many easy to play mobile games hit millions of downloads making millions of dollars for tons of indie game developers. Even if the movement started more than 10 years ago, Apple occupies a highly important place making major strides in hardware, software and most importantly, the ecosystem. While we talk a lot about what Apple does in Hardware and Software, the most important sustaining role is played by the ecosystem players, to get to know the people behind these hit games paints the big picture. What kind of a role has Apple played in nurturing this ecosystem and why do these developers still prefer the App Store? Let’s find out.

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(Long Term) Samsung Galaxy A70 Review – Maximum Media

If there’s one thing I can never forget in my long term experience with the Samsung Galaxy A70, it is One UI. Gone are the days of Touchwiz and the annoying bleep-bloop sounds. Also gone are the days of Samsung’s illogically priced mid-range phones. In 2019, a renewed focus on the Indian market has brought the world’s no.1 smartphone maker back into attention, with them belting out smartphones at a pace faster than T20 matches. There are multiple M series smartphones and several A series smartphones, apart from the flagship S and Note series. In this review, we are going to take a look at the A series smartphone that is purpose built for “Maximum Media”. The Samsung Galaxy A70, powered by a Snapdragon 675, is a great phone for media consumption and a generally great experience, especially in the long run. There are a lot of good things to talk about, like the great display, the almost full-screen design and of course, One UI, but of course, like every other phone, there are a few missteps as well. We shall discuss everything in detail, in this long term review of the Samsung Galaxy A70.

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HUAWEI P30 Pro Review: A Leap Forward

Imagine the speed at which technology has evolved if in the last hundred years, we have gone from silent B/W films shot on celluloid to audio-rich 4K HDR videos shot on smartphones. Even if the camera and the computer had their own distinctly separate evolutionary paths, in the recent years, they have started to merge in very interesting ways. 2019 marks the second year of “computational photography” as the computer and the camera come together once again, on the Huawei P30 Pro, to push the limits beyond what’s possible on smartphones. In our extensive time with the latest camera flagship from Huawei, it is clear that in very key areas of photography, the P30 Pro has taken a visible leap forward in smartphone camera technology. But is that good enough to persuade the professional into buying the Huawei P30 Pro? Is it just for the photographers or is it for everyone? This is our review.

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Xiaomi Redmi Go Review: Every 500₹ matters

India is a big country, with a big spectrum of consumers buying smartphones. You can find almost every price category being contested upon by a large number of companies, big and small. While the 10-15K segment garners most attention, the lower end 5K segment is seeing a quiet but important upgrade. The Redmi Go (4,500₹) is for the first time smartphone buyer who is coming from a mostly-offline world. For them, every 500 Rs. matters indeed, as Xiaomi representatives emphasised at the launch event.

I’ve been using the Redmi Go for a while now to understand whether it is worth recommending to the first time buyer. This is my review.

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Lacie portable High Performance SSD review: For the Pros

Such high performance in such a small form factor that sometimes you wonder, wasn’t this only a dream not too long ago? The amount of computing power we carry with us has increased manifold and at the same time we are operating in a distributed computing environment. In this age of smartphones, laptops and iPads and kindles, storage has become portable beyond belief. In 1991, 1000$ got you a 20MB flash SSD that could be used inside computers for mission critical applications, today for half the price you can get a tiny futuristic slab of storage that will meet and augment all your high performance needs. The Seagate Lacie Portable SSD is for the pros who keep moving. Let’s find out why.

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Realme 3 Pro Review [Part 1]: OnePlus for the masses?

A fantastic camera for all conditions, class leading gaming performance, super fast charging and of course, amazing value for money. The Realme 3 Pro reminded me a lot of the OnePlus. Then I realized, of course it did… it’s brand OPPO and R&D that’s behind not only OnePlus, but Realme as well. All three companies share their resources, like fast charging, OS features, hardware expertise like camera algorithms etc between themselves. This made me think – At a starting price of Rs. 13,999, could Realme’s Pro series be OnePlus for the masses?

With this inquiry to begin with, I’ll proceed to answer the most important question in part 1 of this review – Should you buy the Realme 3 Pro? Read on to find out.

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TAGG Flex Bluetooth Speaker Review

You might have already seen this powerbank I’d taken a look at, from this company called TAGG. Like I said in that article, there is a big market for smartphone accessories and when it comes to portable bluetooth speakers in fact they would probably be the biggest segment. TAGG is a company that operates in this market. While it is rally hard for me to distinguish between a good BT speaker and a great one, it is certainly easy to find out if it’s bad. So, on that basis, let’s examine the TAGG Flex, a relatively tiny portable BT speaker with mic and some really good amount of sound. Whether it is of good quality, what all it has as features, how has it performed in the time that I had with the device. Is it good? Should you buy one? That’s what we are going to talk about, in this review.

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Now is the best time to buy the Apple iPhone XR [Long term Review]

5 months have gone by since I started using the iPhone XR and time with it has convinced me that this is, by far, the best smartphone experience I’ve ever had and am not even exaggerating. Coming from a world of infinite choice, it was quite interesting to have a completely different view of the Apple ecosystem. Because, in 2019, systemic changes in the infrastructure surrounding a smartphone have made me realize why the long held tenets of trust and user experience matter now more than ever. What has changed in these 5 months is also the price. NOW is the right time to buy the Apple iPhone XR and here’s my long term review to tell you why I think so.

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Samsung Galaxy S10+ Hands On and Photo Gallery

As promised, Samsung introduced its Galaxy S10+ smartphone at its Unpacked event in San Francisco last month, and it also went on pre-order in India last week. Just like other Galaxy S devices, this 10th gen Galaxy S+ smartphone from Samsung’s stable ticks all the boxes of what we expect from a flagship. Check out the hands-on and photo gallery. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S10+ Hands On and Photo Gallery”

Realme 3 First Impressions

Realme just launched its Realme 3 smartphone, successor of last year’s Realme 2  in India. Upgrades include a smaller notch, faster processor, improved cameras and runs Android Pie. Here are our first impressions of the phone.

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Samsung Galaxy S10e Hands On and Photo Gallery

Samsung introduced the Galaxy S10e along with the S10 and S10+ at its Unpacked event last week. We checked it out at the MWC this week, here is the hands on and photo gallery of the phone.
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Samsung Galaxy S10 Hands On and Photo Gallery

Much to our anticipation, the South Korean giant Samsung recently launched its Galaxy S10 flagship smartphone at an event in San Francisco recently. This 10th gen Galaxy S device from Samsung’s stable ticks all the boxes of what we expect from a flagship. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S10 Hands On and Photo Gallery”