Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Round 1 – Apple iPhone 5s vs Google Nexus 5 #SmartFone13

The second leg of the “Best Smartphone of 2013” championship‘s Round 1 begins today with an interesting battle. It’s the Apple iPhone 5s, the Cupertino company’s latest flagship device vs Google’s latest iteration of its famed Nexus line, the Nexus 5. Apple and Google might have been close partners before, but ever since Android happened, Apple has been seeing Google as a threat. For sure, Android has very well catapulted into leadership in the market, but most of it is attributed to third party players like Samsung. With that said, Nexus 5 is Google’s own, only made by LG and the iPhone 5s is well, the best iPhone till date, as all the new iPhones have been. Both these phones take an evolutionary approach, with the 5s differentiating with its Touch ID fingerprint sensor while the Nexus 5 has its humble approach to keep the phone affordable. Out of these two, which one would you pick? It’s time to cast your votes.

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Oppo N1 to be globally available for $599 starting December 10th

Oppo N1, the Chinese company’s top end flagship that we unboxed earlier, will be available for purchase globally for $599, starting December 10th of this year. The N1 is a 5.9 inch device that aims to be address the current trend of gargantuan phones that bridge the gap between phones and tablets. But Oppo adds its own twists in the form of a rotating camera that lets you take full 13 MP resolution selfies, a rear touch sensor called O-Touch that lets you navigate the screen easily and the choice of your operating system in the form of feature rich Color OS or AOSP based Cyanogen Mod. These features and choices make the N1 a little bit more interesting than the other 6 inch devices, let alone the magnificent build quality. Anyways, if you are looking to get this phone, you will be able to purchase it at OppoStyle.com which ships globally and even some other retailers depending on your country, for 599 USD or 449 EURO.

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Round 1 – Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Sony Xperia Z1 #SmartFone13

We initiated the first round of polls for the SmartFone championship for the best smartphone of 2013 today. Samsung Galaxy S4 and the LG G2 were the first contenders, but, as we had pondered earlier, Samsung seems to be the only company with two flagship devices in their portfolio, which cater to different audiences at the same time. So we thought it is fair enough that Samsung has another device in our polls. On the other hand, Sony, the company that had been so late to the party on the past few years finally sped up with the launch of the Xperia Z, one of the world’s first 1080p phones, but it has already gotten a replacement in the form of a Sony Xperia Z1, which takes the speed up a notch, having all the latest specifications in a similar package, and with a great new camera. So, how do these two compete? Which one is your pick?

UPDATE: Comprehensive victory for the Sony Xperia Z1!

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Round 1 – Samsung Galaxy S4 vs LG G2 #SmartFone13

As a part of the SmartFone 2013 competition, which we are running for flagships and budget devices simultaneously, today marks the initiation of the Round 1 polls. Over here at the flaghips side, we have the polls between the two Korean consumer electronics conglomerates – Samsung and LG. Wanting to be in every household, these devices from the world’s largest consumer electronics companies tick every check list item for a flagship device, with one of them even bucking the trend with weird back facing buttons. So, which one these two is your pick? Vote in our poll below.

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Which is the best smartphone of 2013? Vote for your favourite! #SmartFone13

Remember “Battle of the Flagships 2012” that we conducted last year? Well, it’s back this year, only in a different name. Yes, we have another set of eight devices that launched this year, which have not only served as the respective companies’ flagships but also have been iteratively innovative in most of the cases. We have carefully selected these eight devices, which we personally think have a chance at the best flagship device title, so which one would you vote for? Dive in below for more.

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Google Nexus 5 Review

Google Nexus 5 Review

The Google Nexus One was strictly a developer device, with promises of instant updates and stock Android experience. It did not retail at prices that undercut the competition($530) but managed to become the only device that had the latest Android version. The Nexus S was similar, but with Galaxy Nexus, Google managed to price it surprisingly lower than the competition with similar hardware, thanks to introduction of the Google Play ecosystem. Somehow, from being a costly developer device, the Nexus became a highly desirable and affordable device, that brought users the best Google experience.

Video Review

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1qKZAXVVbw

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HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE officially get Android 4.4 KitKat from today

We saw Samsung and HTC post KitKat kernel sources for their Google Play edition devices yesterday and it has naturally led to the official Android 4.4 KitKat OTA update for both the devices starting its roll out today. Google announced this officially through their Android Google+ account and it seems like the devices will start getting the update anytime now. Both the devices had their own KitKat versions ready for a while now, but the green signal has been officially lit and hence these devices now join the ranks of Nexus 5, nexus 4, 7 and Moto X as the only devices running Android 4.4 KitKat right now.

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Dell Venue 8 Pro Review

The tablet market is peculiar. It started out with a form factor of the iPad with 9.7 inches of screen real estate, and then suddenly, small tablets were all the rage, with the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 kickstarting the now popular form factor for tablets. Apple had to follow suit of course, with the iPad mini, and even if they wouldn’t want to admit, it has definitely cannibalized the bigger iPad, as noted by the falling ASPs. It is telling that the price alone wasn’t the reason(Nexus 10 is cheap too) for this form factor’s success, although it played a huge role.

Microsoft was a late entrant to this market. Windows 8 was supposed to take it by storm, but with a UI focused on landscape use, 10 inch tablets entered the space and they were met with little to no interest. It is also due to the lack of interest in this big widescreen form factor, as noted earlier. Out came Windows 8.1 with much better portrait support, better snap modes with no resolution dependencies and now, we finally have a whole range of 8 inch Windows tablets from several OEMs, with surprisingly affordable price tags. One of them, which really caught our eye, was the Dell Venue 8 Pro. Armed with the new x86 Intel Atom BayTrail processor, full blown Windows 8.1 and a price tag of 299$ for the base version, is Dell Venue 8 Pro THE small tablet you deserve? Lets find out in our in depth review.

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

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Google Nexus 5 in Black vs White: Which one should you get?

The Nexus 5 launch in India is probably one of the quickest launches for any Google device here. With quick launches come quick and tough purchase decisions, and one of the major questions that arise if you are looking to get a Nexus 5 is, which colour? Should one go for the Nexus 5 in white or the Nexus 5 in black? Are there really any other differences between the two apart from the colour? We find out exactly that in a quick video comparing the two Nexus 5 variants, immediately after getting the black version, watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3Z1X43ITM

Check out our Unboxing of the Google Nexus 5, in case you missed it earlier.

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Nokia Music is now MixRadio, offers personalized radio with PlayMe

Remember the Nokia Music app and service that launched along with the first Lumia devices? Well, that’s now rechristened as Nokia MixRadio as the service has evolved from an a-la-carte store to a streaming service, most notably with its Windows app. The Mix Radio experience is more in line with current demands of music discovery and free streaming, like Pandora and Spotify. Well, technically, it requires a music unlimited subscription that comes with most of the Lumia devices that are on sale today, but you get the personalized radio service now, which aims to be much better than the Mix Radio offering that was offered before.

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Waze – crowd sourced traffic and navigation app now available for Windows Phone

Waze, the crowd sourced traffic navigation app, was recently bought by Google for its own mapping data. The Waze team however had launched their Beta testing well before the acquisition, so as a result, we now have a fully featured and bug-fixed Waze navigation app for Windows Phone. Waze works best by crowd sourcing real time traffic data to provide you the best navigation routes, which will save time as well as contribute your data to the community for better results for all. The app which can run in the background on Windows Phone will constantly collect traffic data when in the navigation mode, and will also report on speed traps and accident zones.

Download Waze for Windows Phone 8 here

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Instagram BETA now available for Windows Phone 8 devices, no video support yet

Easily the most awaited app launch for Windows Phone is here. Yes, Instagram is now available for download on the Windows Phone 8 platform. It has been conveniently labeled a “BETA” as it most definitely lacks video support at launch, but if the developers at Instagram are to be believed, the new feature are coming in fast, so there’s no reason to worry. Just ahead of the holiday season, it’s good that Windows Phone finally has the most wanted app, even though in a public BETA, on it’s store.

Download Instagram BETA for Windows Phone 8 here

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Oppo R833T mid range smartphone revealed in China

While flagships like the N1 keep coming, Oppo has sought to gain marketshare and mind share with its mid range devices too. It started with the Oppo R819, and now a new Oppo R833T mid range smartphone has been revealed in China. It’s a 4.3″ device with modest specifications, which is similar to the ones we have here in the Indian mid range market. The device runs on a 1.3 GHz Quad Core Cortex A7 processor and has 1 GB of RAM, with 4 GB of internal storage augmented with a micro SD expansion slot if needed. There is also a 5 MP camera on the back with a single LED flash and this phone unsurprisingly runs on the company’s own Color OS, with Android 4.2.2 underneath. The phone is undoubtedly aimed at the low-mid end range of smartphones which is the fastest growing segment in a market like China or India.

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Oppo’s N1 coming soon to India, hints at local stores and customer support

Oppo hints at N1 coming soon to India, with customer support

The Oppo N1, a huge 5.9 inch device with a focus on the camera and some new innovation like a rear touch panel, was announced for the Chinese market a couple of months back. The device, at 3,468 Yuan = 570 USD = 35,700 INR is set for a global December availability. But even then, the sticking point for many, including users from India, has been the local availability and customer support. It looks like Oppo is planning to fix that because they have just hinted in their forums, regarding their Indian plans for availability and customer support. This is a big step for the Chinese company which has, so far, concentrated only on its home and US/European markets.

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Xbox One Smartglass apps for Windows Phone and Windows 8 released ahead of launch

The Xbox One is all set to release on November 22nd in 13 countries, and as a precursor, Microsoft has unveiled the new Xbox One Smartglass app for Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices. The Smartglass v2 is a massive improvement over the previous version that worked with the Xbox 360. It now talks directly to the console via WiFi Direct, whereas previously, it needed internet and your live ID to talk to the console and there was always a bit of lag sending over commands or executing actions. Now that the latency is massively reduced, the handshake and resuming of connections between the game and the Smartglass app should be very quick and seamless. In case you didn’t know, Smartglass is the definitive second screen screen experience for the Xbox, with keyboard input, touch control and second screen apps for games and videos taking center stage.

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