Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

ASUS Fonepad updated with better specs – Intel Z2460 and 32 GB internal storage

Fonepad9

The ASUS Fonepad has been in our labs for quite some time, and in our review, you might have noticed that we were disappointed with the Fonepad’s performance. It even suffered in our gaming performance tests. But if you are still waiting on buying one, then good news awaits you. ASUS has just announced and launched a new Fonepad with better specs. The “Lexington” Intel Z2420 chipset has been swapped with the better performing Intel Z2460, and the 16GB internal storage, which gave us only 11GB of usable memory has been doubled to 32GB. All the other specs remain intact though, with the display still highly reflective, we guess. But still, a good thing that ASUS heard customer feedback and swiftly fixed it. However, there is a price to pay for the new version of Fonepad. It will be 60$ higher than before, a good 3,300 INR higher in our case.

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Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro with a quad core processor now available for a price of Rs. 16,900

galaxy-grand-quattro-1

Having launched the Galaxy Win elsewhere, Samsung, in its own tradition, has renamed the same device to Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro for the Indian market and is now available from the Samsung India eStore for Rs. 16,900/-. Sporting a 4.7 inch display with WVGA resolution and sporting near-similar specs to the Grand Duos, this dual SIM Android 4.1 Jellybean phone is squarely aimed at competing with the various budget Android manufacturers in India who offer bigger screens for cheaper prices. Currently retailing at Rs. 16,900/- this phone will be available in two colours, black mist and frost white.

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Next version of Android to be Bluetooth Smart ready

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We just heard some rumours about the next version of Android, which indicate a June 10th launch date, but the Bluetooth Special Interest group is already excited about it. The main reason why they are excited is that Google has announced at their I/O developers conference that the next version of Android will be Bluetooth Smart ready, for devices with a dual mode Bluetooth chip. Bluetooth smart was a name given to the latest features of Bluetooth 4.0 which includes drastically reduced power consumption using a low pulsing method instead of a continuous stream. This enables a lot of useful sensory applications like heart rate monitors and various accessories that can connect with your phone and not have a major effect on the battery.

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Nokia Lumia 925 vs HTC One Quick Comparison

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The Nokia Lumia 925 launched the day before yesterday, invoking various reactions from the internet, including ours, which is detailed in the hands on post here. This new Lumia device with a metal frame loses a lot of weight and has slimmed down, mainly for people who were holding out on the 920 because of its bulkiness. We had explained the differences between it and the 920 here, which would make sense of this device’s release. At the event, once we were done with the Lumia 925 photo gallery, we were looking to compare it with various flagship devices. We initially compared with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and now we are comparing it with the very beautifully designed HTC One. Here is a quick video of the same –

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Android at 75% marketshare, Windows Phone finally ahead of BlackBerry – IDC

IDC-1q-2013-android-windows-phone

Previously, a month ago, IDC released statistics for the whole mobile phone market, which highlighted the smartphones overtaking feature phones for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2013. Now, they have revealed the marketshare of smarphone platforms, which makes for a very interesting analysis altogether. Android has kept on soaring with a 79.5% change YoY, and a massive 75% marketshare, a number even the yesteryear Symbian failed to achieve with its massive presence. The total shipments of 162.1 million devices is in line with what Google announced last night, of the 900 million activations till date.

Apple, while at a distant second place with just 17.3% marketshare rules the smartphone market together with Android, taking over 92.3% of the whole smartphone market. The surprising addition and change here is from Windows Phone, which has finally leapfrogged BlackBerry with a measly 3.2% marketshare and a whopping 133.3% growth change YoY.

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Oppo Find 5 gets a firmware update with a lot of bug fixes

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Oppo Find 5, an impressively built 5 inch 1080p Android Smartphone has received a new firmware update based on user feedback and complaints. The firmware codenamed X909EN_13_130514 is bringing a lot of bug fixes previously stated by Oppo Find 5 users. If you had noticed, we had recently unboxed the Oppo Find 5, and found it quite impressive. Now that a new firmware is here, we will be reviewing the phone real soon. The firmware is available for download over the air as well as using various methods, as mentioned in the official Oppo Find 5 forums. We received it over the air for our review unit, and you can find more information past the break.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android and Nexus-like updates gets official, priced at 649$

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In a surprising move, Google has announced a Pure Google Android version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, available unlocked, with Nexus-like updates for 649$ in the United states. This comes as a surprise because this is not a completely new nexus device, like the rumoured Motorola X Phone, but just another Samsung Galaxy S4, with pure Google at heart. Unlocked from carriers and sporting an unlocked bootloader, this device would be the device to get if you are not willing to agree to Touchwiz or all of its features.

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Google Play Music access brings streaming, tailored radio and more to Android phones, tablets and web

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Google has finally made its rumoured new Music streaming official, and it has called it “Google Play Music all access”. The Spotify like streaming service also has few more tricks up its sleeve, with Pandora like tailored radio with curated content with respect to taste. With this service announcement, Google has seriously stepped up its game in the music services field. Priced at 9.99$ per month, this will be available first in the United States and eventually in other markets. India might get it very very late though, as Google Play Music itself is not available here.

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Google Play Game services go official for Android, iOS and web

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Google just announced the Play gaming services for Android, iOS and web, which is a cross platform gaming service for achievements and multiplayer, like, for example, Xbox live and the iOS game centre. This was rumoured quite a while ago, and this includes various features like cloud saves, Google plus integration for adding friends, leaderboards and achievements. The service is going to be made available for iOS and the web too, taking advantage of Google plus in all the platforms. While the demo on stage failed misreably, the concept of multi-player gaming between three tablets with match making over Google Plus circles is really cool.

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Google announces 900 million Android activations to date

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The Google I/O developer conference has just started and the company which has the most popular smartphone platform in the world has just announced that there have been 900 million Android activations till date. This is a huge number, and growth never seems to stop according to Google. Sundar Pichai, the man behind Android, Chrome and Apps at Google announced this number with a nice build up of Android’s history.

Showing a world map, Sundar stressed that there is still tremendous potential, and there is still room for more growth. Asia and African countries are reportedly still only at 10% on Android penetration and Sundar says they are working to bring these 4.5 billion people to the internet, using Android of course. Adding to this, Google also announced that 48 billion app installations have happened from the Google Play store.

You can watch the Google I/O live stream here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmPa_KxsAM

ASUS Fonepad gaming performance review

Asus Fonepad Benchmarks

The ASUS Fonepad, the first calling tablet with a Nexus 7-like design left quite an impression on us, and you would know if you had read our review. But a lot of people were asking us how the performance of the tablet was, in terms of gaming, because, it being powered by the Intel Z2420 chip, only has the PowerVR SGX540 GPU which is pretty ancient in current terms. So, here you go, a gaming performance review of the ASUS Fonepad in video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdaCFBkFl0

Read on for more information.

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Karbonn Titanium S5 unboxing

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The Karbonn Titanium S5 was launched a couple of months back as a slightly updated Titanium S1 with an improved battery and cameras. The Titanium S5 then went on a huge ad-spend to be well known as the sleek Karbonn phone that can be seen during IPL matches. We have it in our labs for testing finally, and thought it would be nice to show you the Karbonn Titanium S5 box and its contents. So, here you go, the Karbonn Titanium S5 unboxing video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJA-0hqeL5k

Note: Headphones are supposed to be present inside the box, ours must have been misplaced somewhere, sorry!

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Nokia Creative Studio gets a massive update for Lumia WP8 devices, we go hands on!

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Along with all the Lumia 925 stuff that happened yesterday, Nokia revealed some interesting software additions and updates in the announcement. While the highlight was on the Nokia Smart Camera lens, the picture editing app exclusive for Lumia devices, also called as the Nokia Creative Studio received a rather huge update yesterday. The new update comes with the version number 5.0.7.6, and is available for download here. The update is available for all Windows Phone 8 devices and introduces various new features. Naturally, we went hands on with it and found it to be quite nice actually, take a look –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvREUPbBz6M

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Nokia Lumia 925 vs Lumia 920, what has changed?

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We have been bringing you a lot of Nokia Lumia 925 coverage live from London, including a photo gallery, a Lumia 925 hands on and even a Samsung Galaxy S4 comparison video, so, following that tradition, here is our comparison of the Lumia 925 with its older brother, the Lumia 920. It is an interesting comparison because the Lumia 925 is a natural evolution of the Lumia 920, with it fixing many perceived flaws and shortcomings like thickness, weight and slightly mushy camera. Here is a quick comparison video to let you know some of the changes –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sAwEdWizOI

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