Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

HTC Butterfly vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2

The HTC Butterfly is one of the recent 1080p devices that have gone and touched the 5 inch form factor in size, and hence it raises a new question. Is it too big for a smartphone? or is it too small for a tablet? I can already sense a lot of gasps after that question, but truth be told, that category has been invented by none other than Samsung, with its original Galaxy Note, with a 5.3 inch screen. Samsung upped its “phablet” game with the Galaxy Note 2, with the 5.5 inch screen, making it the only device that kinda bridges the gap between a phone and a tablet. Some manufacturers have followed suit, like Huawei, with its Ascend Mate, but with HTC releasing the Butterfly with a 5 inch screen, does it enter the phablet game? And what other differences arise between the Galaxy Note 2 and the Butterfly considering that they are the two of the three costliest devices in the market? Watch our in-depth video comparison to find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K79nxTuiZvo

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Behind the HTC One’s UltraPixel camera

“The era of the megapixel is over.” These are the word HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou uttered at the HTC One launch event. With a thumping statement, HTC has announced itself a new player in the Smartphone camera race having developed its own custom camera technology called “Ultrapixel.” Like any other, we are also completely intrigued by the new camera technology, but what does it mean? What’s new? We are going to try to answer the questions in the simplest way possible.

P.S The HTC One Photo Gallery and our Hands on impressions.

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Making a case for a better PureView experience on Windows Phone

The Nokia 808 PureView, a cameraphone with a 41 Megapixel sensor, was a major disruption in the field of Smartphone cameras. It is a well known fact that smartphones are rapidly replacing the mainstream and traditional “point and shoot” cameras. With the 808 PureView, Nokia set a high benchmark for imaging quality for a smartphone. However, it had shortcomings in software. Running on Symbian, it was not much loved by the time it released. While it had its own advantages, it was still not able to cater to current needs, leading to one of the main reasons why Nokia switched to Windows Phone. However, it is not unnatural to feel that the technology is bound to end up in other Nokia camera phones, recently fortified with the rumoured and upcoming Nokia EOS PureView, purportedly running on Windows Phone 8.

It’s been a long time coming, and it’s a given that Nokia’s sprucing up its efforts in the camera department again, after a controversial, but successful launch of the Nokia Lumia 920, a different PureView device. But is it also a given that the new Nokia PureView will be as good as the old one? Currently, we would say no, unless drastic changes happen. What drastic changes are we talking about? Read on past the break to find out.

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HTC Butterfly vs One X

The HTC butterfly, as we know and love, is one of the first globally launched phones with a 1080p display. If you had read our Butterfly review, you would know how awesome the 1080p display on it is. But when the HTC One X released last year at the Mobile World Congress, it was one of the first devices to sport a 720p display. And right now, we are going to see if the display upgrade is worth it, and how far HTC has come with the Butterfly. Have they ironed out the kinks that were associated with the One series? We explain you, in a in-depth video comparison, watch and read past the break to get to know more.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW12NFm78xI

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HTC Butterfly vs Samsung Galaxy S3

The HTC Butterfly is one of the first phones to sport a 1080p screen that is already available in the global market. It launched as the HTC Butterfly J in Japan, Droid DNA with Verizon in the US, but it’s essentially the same with minor differences, with one advantage of the global version being the inclusion of the micro SD expansion slot. So, we have been comparing the HTC Butterfly to other flagship devices like the Nokia Lumia 920, and it’s the turn of the Samsung flagship to be compared now, the Samsung Galaxy S3. The Galaxy S3 has been the long standing flagship of Samsung since it was introduced at an event in May 2012. The next iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S is set to be unveiled soon, which might make things more interesting between HTC and Samsung but as of now, we have one flagship to compare it to, and that is the Samsung Galaxy S3. In case you can’t wait, here is a in-depth video comparison between the two –

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

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Apple iPad mini vs Google Nexus 7

When the Apple iPad mini was launched on October 23rd, 2012, there was a specific comparison made by none other than Apple themselves, and that too, directly in their slides. The competitor in question was the Google Nexus 7. The Google Nexus 7 was the direct answer to the threat that was the Amazon Kindle Fire, which created a new wave of 7inch tablets, but it was time for Apple to react and hence came the iPad mini, and then the comparisons. These two devices go head on in every market in the world, and for the benefit of the masses, we have done a in-depth video comparison of the two, give it a watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGCf0-VIIlw

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GSMA unveils the Mobile World Centre in Barcelona

GSMA awarded the prestigious “Mobile World Capital” title to the city of Barcelona in July 2011 and then started the idea of a Mobile World Centre which, according to the GSMA “offers a year-round, state-of-the-art exhibition showroom where citizens can learn about and experience first-hand how mobile is enhancing people’s lives.” Barcelona being the city that hosts the Mobile World Congress with much fanfare, kind of deserves the Mobile World Centre too, making the go to place for the Mobile World Centre.

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Samsung REX 80 hands on

Samsung, in an effort to revamp its featurephone strategy, launched its new range of smart feature phones recently at a press conference in New Delhi. They are called the REX series of devices and four devices have been launched namely REX 60, REX 70, REX 80 and REX 90. We’ve been taking a look at these phones recently with the photo gallery of the Samsung REX 80, one of the two devices in this range with WiFi in built, along with EDGE. Take a look at the REX 80 hands on below

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRNds_i1bqI

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Samsung REX 70 hands on

The newly launched Samsung REX series of smart feature phones are Samsung’s new entries to the entry level smartphone market. With players like Micromax and Karbonn encroaching the feature phone territory with Android based models, the market is quite wide open. Nokia initially responded with their Asha series of device, and now it’s Samsung’s turn, with their REX 60, 70, 80 and 90. The REX 70 is a 3 inch device with smart Dual SIM functionality, and after we took a photo gallery, here is a hands on video of the Samsung REX 70

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8penXfidAc

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Samsung REX 60 hands on

Samsung had launched their new REX series of smart feature phones recently at a press conference in New Delhi here, in India. This is a global launch and the REX series of devices have been designed at the Samsung R&D center in Delhi. Four devices were launched today, as a part of the new REX series, and they are the REX 60, REX 70, REX 80 and the REX 90. We had posted a photo gallery of the REX 60 a while ago, and here is the hands on of the same, with a short video below –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2S6oD5W5J4

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Apple iPad 4 or iPad mini?

The Apple iPad mini was released on October 23rd ,2012 which is roughly 2 and a half years and three generations after the original Apple iPad that was announced on January 27, 2010. What’s special with the iPad mini is that Apple were vehemently denying the need for a smaller iPad, but as they always do, they caved in and then came the iPad mini. But there is always this confusion and a identity crisis associated with a new product, the iPad had it, and naturally, the iPad mini too. Indirectly acknowledging the fact that there is a market for smaller and cheaper iPads, Apple took a risk of cannibalising their own products which include the iPod touch and the original iPad, or did they? With that said, here starts the confusion of which iPad to get and why. We are here to help with that, and answer lies in the video embedded below and the text past the break.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXH_HfyN5fs

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Nokia Lumia 920 vs LG Optimus G

The Nokia Lumia 920 had its fair share of comparisons made when it won our Battle of the Flagships 2012 but it wasn’t fair to leave it just at that, and hence we are doing the Lumia 920 vs the flagships series. We are looking at the Nokia Lumia 920 vs the LG Optimus G today. The LG Optimus G was one of the first devices to have been manufactured in collaboration with LG’s own companies like LG Innotek, LG Display and LG Chem and it is certainly one of LG’s best Android flagships till date. The Nokia Lumia 920 is Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone device and is probably the best Windows Phone on the market right now. So, how do they compare? Check out the in depth video comparison below and read past the break to know more.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wymaum2vYU

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Sony Xperia Z and ZL coming soon to India

The Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL were introduced at the Consumer electronics show 2013 at Las Vegas recently. With both of them sporting a 5 inch 1080p screen and a powerful Qualcomm APQ8064 processor, they generated quite a lot of buzz at the trade show. It was announced that the global roll out will be started soon, and the above image is the first clue that both the Xperia Z and ZL are landing in the Indian markets soon. As you can see above, straight from the horse’s mouth, the Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL are supposedly “coming soon” to India.

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Ubuntu Smartphone Devices to Ship Starting October 2013

The Ubuntu operating system for Smartphones was recently unveiled with its radical UI and user experience getting much praise and accolade from the tech press. We took a hands on look at the Ubuntu OS running on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, at the International CES 2013 and we were quite impressed with it. Canonical inc., the minds behind the OS promised to bring a very similar experience from the desktop Ubuntu OS that is widely installed by various classes of consumers, to the smartphone experience. And they have just done that, with the Ubuntu for Smartphones. While we got to know about the software, the hardware was literally non existent at the OS launch, but that might be fixed real soon with Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth promising devices as early as October 2013.

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HTC Butterfly vs Nokia Lumia 920

The HTC Butterfly launched very recently in India for a price of Rs.45,990, making it one of the costliest phones to buy here. You might have read our review of the HTC Butterfly, with a large emphasis on it being the first smartphone to sport a 1920×1080 screen in India. The device is a monster by every sense and we sought out to compare it with other smartphones in our labs. First up, we have the newly launched Nokia Lumia 920 for comparison. Here’s a in-depth video comparison of both these devices, read past the break to get to know more about these two devices in comparison.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glmX4NWmBdY

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