Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Oppo R819 Hands on First Impressions

Only yesterday we saw Oppo reveal its latest smartphone, the curiously named R819. After a critical success of the Oppo Find 5, which we think is one of the best Android hardware available on the market, the company has sought to reach lower price points with a smaller and a more mid-range device. We see the R819 as Oppo’s effort to claim volume as encouraging market results have cropped up at home. And surprise! We’ve already got the R819 here in our labs and here are our first impressions of the device in detail, read on!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FkjkL-ndM
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Oppo R819 now available for a AUD 399$ pre order in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong

We just saw Oppo reveal their latest smartphone, the R819, an effort to make a well engineered smartphone that’s not too hard on your wallet. Speaking of your wallet, we have just been notified that the R819 is now available for pre order in three countries, namely Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. For 399$ in AUD, the device seems a bit pricier for the specs, but since this is just a pre order price, we reserve judgement until Oppo reveals their global price in USD. People from Hong Kong can get it for HK$2,798 and the Japanese can get it for 36,000 JPY, all from the third party retailer online retailer Expansys.

Update: The official Oppo Style site has now listed the R819 for a 349$ USD(roughly converts to 21K INR) pre order.

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Oppo reveals the R819, 4.7 inch 720p display in a 7.3mm thin and 110g light body

Oppo, the Chinese company well known for its flagship product – the Oppo Find 5, has just revealed the latest product in its portfolio, the R819. The Oppo R819 comes with a stunningly svelte frame, measuring just 7.3mm in thickness and weighing 110g in weight. Although this is thicker than the company’s own 6.65mm Finder smartphone, it is still a considerable achievement due to all the modern specs the device boasts. It has a 4.7 inch 1280×720 resolution IPS screen that promises to have really good viewing angles thanks OGS(One glass solution). Other specs are pretty normal, which includes a 8 megapixel camera and a MediaTek MT6589 Quad Core processor. It runs on Android 4.2.1 JellyBean but can run Oppo’s own Color ROM as well as the stock Android ROM thanks to the unlocked bootloader out of the box.

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Meizu MX2 Review

The first words that usually come to our mind at the mention of a Chinese phone are cheap, unreliable and poorly built. But it didn’t take long to see that these are plain misconceptions, especially with devices like the Oppo Find 5. The Meizu MX2 invoked similar reactions from us, as we were starting to use and test this gorgeous device. As a company that has been widely known for making iPhone clones like the M8, the Meizu MX was a refreshing change and a departure from the cloning legacy, and the MX2 is an improvement upon its predecessor in good measure. So, how good is the Meizu MX2? Read on to find out.

Video Review

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZyNfDELx3c

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Sony’s Lens Camera leak shows off external lens attachment on a Xperia Honami

Sony has been known for its innovative attempts at consumer technology, but the leak you see above takes it to a whole new level. What you see, is a Sony Lens Camera. It’s a lens, and a camera, yet it doesn’t have a viewfinder like a normal camera. This is where the Xperia i1 Honami comes in, acting as a wireless viewfinder to the Sony Lens. This crazy contraption is actually inspired(?) from a critically acclaimed Wireless ViewFinder Interchangeble lens(WVIL) camera concept shown off by a company called Artefact, way back at CES 2011. Here’s a video demo, to help you ease you into the concept of a wireless viewfinder lens camera –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDIZImKrhg8

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HTC unveils Robert Downey Jr. in its new “Change” ad campaign with a new teaser

HTC was rumored to be in talks with Robert Downey Jr. for a while now and today HTC have officially signed up Robert Downey Jr. for a two year deal. According to the press release, this is HTC’s most ambitious campaign till date and the “Change” brand is expected to bring a “change” in HTC’s Digital, PR, Social and other activities. The beginning of the Change platform will be marked by ads that star Robert Downey Jr and will be hitting the media on August 15th.

robert-downey-htc

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HTC One Max press image leaks online

HTC has been having a tough time keeping its big “One Max” under the wraps. The HTC One Max is expected to be HTC’s entry into the phablet market and will directly take on Samsung Galaxy Note series which is also due a refresh in the coming month. So far, we have had some photos about the alleged HTC One Max going about the internet and HTC have officially teased the launch of HTC One Max with a teaser video, now we have a supposed press image courtesy of popular leakster @evleaks.

htc-one-max

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Is Motorola making the next Google Nexus?

Rumours of a Motorola made Nexus device were ripe once Google acquired the mobile giant, but plans never solidified, citing reasons like “Google not impressed with Moto’s devices” etc. With LG taking charge of the program last year with the Nexus 4, Motorola was left to work on the Moto X, a Google inspired smartphone that is possibly the first device to come out of this acquisition. But this was no Nexus, it didn’t run the latest operating system nor updates will be pushed by Google, so yet again we were deprived of a Moto Nexus, but if recent rumours are to be believed, especially coming from a prolific tipster from Texas(where Motorola assembles its Moto X), the chances of Motorola making the next Nexus 5 device are rather high.

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Nokia Asha 501 – Made in India, by India, for India

Sriperumbudur, a quiet town outside of Chennai, is now increasingly known for its sprawling automobile factories, electronic SEZs(Special Economic Zones), and of course, hot job opportunities. Several automobile and mobile phone giants are part of this story. It all started 10 years back, when automobile companies like Hyundai saw the proximity to a harbour huge enough to handle exports and set up bases here, quickly gaining this city the name “Detroit of India”.

In the same “Detroit of India” lies one of Nokia’s biggest production facilities. The opportunistic Nokia of the past saw the booming mobile market in India in the 2000s, and started setting up their assembling facility here, right in the heart of Sriperumbudur’s SEZ. The logistics for exports had already become robust, thanks to the omnipresent automobile industry in that area, so the opportunity was ripe.

On a surprisingly overcast day, I was on my second visit to Nokia’s Chennai facility with several other bloggers. Having already witnessed the marvel of a huge production facility the first time, I couldn’t wait to see what new tricks Nokia had up their sleeves. Spoiler: It’s the Nokia Asha 501.

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Call and SMS blocking now available on Nokia Lumia Windows Phones running Amber

nokia-sms-call-blocking-filtering-lumia-wp8-amber

Here’s a surprise. Nokia has added one of the most wanted features to Windows Phone through a simple Extras+info update on Lumia devices running on the Amber update. It was previously revealed that Microsoft had added hooks to its Windows Phone GDR2 release for developers to latch on, and those were of the call and SMS blocking features that didn’t exist before. While we were hoping for some third party developer to do it, Nokia itself has come to the fore and added these much requested features to Windows Phone, which is much welcome. Yet another indication that Nokia is doing the work for Microsoft when it should be the other way in an ideal world.

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Next-gen Amazon Kindle Fire HD rumored to run on MediaTek chipsets

Amazon is getting ready to launch its third iteration of the Kindle Fire series and last week, we brought you information that Amazon is planning to use Snapdragon 800 SoCs for its Kindle Fire series this year. In complete contrast to that rumors, we have new set of rumors that Amazon is working with MediaTek to bring its MT8135 Chipset instead.

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Bing apps for Finance, News, Sports and Weather now available on Windows Phone

bing-app-windows-phone-8

The Bing AppEx team had released its apps in preparation for the launch on Windows 8 last year, but they were nowhere to be seen on Windows Phone 8 which actually launched after Windows 8. It has been thus, a great example of how Microsoft, as a company, doesn’t work like a single entity. That has slightly changed now, with the team releasing their apps for Windows Phone 8. Following the latest update to the search app, the Bing apps, which were the only decently designed first party apps on Windows 8 like Bing News, Finance, Sports and Weather are now available on Windows Phone 8.

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IDC – Windows Phone posts the fastest growth in 2Q13, Android leads the market at 79.3%

idc-vendors-marketshare

Last quarter, we saw how Windows Phone marketshare finally leaped ahead of BlackBerry, and the trend seems to continue here. In the second quarter of 2013, Windows Phone has posted the fastest growth amongst the top 5 smartphone OSes with 8.7 million units shipped, according to IDC, which lines up with growth expectations from other analysts. While the growth percentage is less than what Windows Phone had last quarter(133% – Q1, 77.6% – Q2), it is certainly good news for Windows Phone’s uptake as an operating system. On the other hand, Android shows no signs of slowing down while it is the exact opposite for Apple which has its marketshare reduced from 16.6% to 13.2% while growing slower than the market at 20%.

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Nokia Lumia 820 3600 mAh Mugen Power Batteries extended battery review

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The Nokia Lumia 820 is at the fag end of its life cycle, waiting to be succeeded by a more capable Lumia 825 or something, but it is still present in the hands of lots of people, who unanimously face the single most annoying issue on the 820, the disappointing battery life. I know I face it, because I have been using one for the past 7 months and I can tell you outright that the in-built 1650 mAh battery is bad, period.

Seeking respite from the incessant battery drains, my eyes grew wide when the well known Android “extended battery” maker, Mugen Power Batteries, announced that huge extended batteries for the Lumia 820 are in the works. There were two variants announced, and one of them was the 3600 mAh one with a special battery door. Needless to say, I got the biggest one. What follows is my experience with the accessory over a comfortably long term of 2 months to see if it is really worth it or not.

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Apple loses marketshare as Android tablet sales surge – IDC

idc-tablet-marketshare

What started with Kindle Fire is now the leading form factor in the tablet space. Yes, thanks to the booming small tablet market, Android is surging ahead at no. 1 spot in the tablet space too, with Apple losing marketshare and not growing along with the market. IDC had released its Smartphone marketshare analysis recently, which saw Apple growing at a slower pace than the others and that seems to be the case in tablets too.

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