LG G Watch Now In Stock on Google Play Store, Will ship by July 8th

Google announced Android Wear SDK a couple of months before the Google IO and at that time, they also announced that Google Android Wear will be making its debut on LG G Watch. At the Google IO which was held during June last week, Google announced that LG G Watch will be available for consumers to buy directly from Play Store. Until today, the Google Play Store showed that the LG G Watch was available for pre-order and now, you can buy the watch as it is available for Adding to your cart.

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Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT 712 Unboxing

Flipkart was rumored to be launching a smartphone, but they dropped that plan and now, have launched a tablet under Rs. 10,000. The Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT 712 comes with a MediaTek SoC and 7inch HD display along with voice calling. Flipkart has decided to do what other manufacturers have been doing for a while – get a product from China, rebrand it and sell it in India. Flipkart has a lot of reach and it hopes to sell its tablet because of its big customer network.

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Alleged Nokia Lumia 830 Images leaked online

Nokia is reportedly working on three Windows Phone 8.1 phones that are due for launch later this year. The three devices are – a high end device with 3D sensors – codename McLaren, mid-range 4.7inch display laden device – codename Superman and a low end device with codename Rock. If rumors from China are to be believed, Nokia is also prepping a successor to the long forgotten Lumia 820 in the form of Lumia 830.

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Best smartphone under Rs. 10000 – Motorola Moto E vs Micromax Unite 2 vs Xolo Q600s vs Lava Iris X1

Motorola Moto E, Micromax Unite 2, Xolo Q600s and Lava Iris X1 are part of the affordable value for money series of smartphones under the Rs.8,000 price tag and today, we put all of them against each other to help you make a better choice when you are about to purchase a budget smartphone. In this small comparison, we consider the display, performance, the camera, gaming and battery life of the smartphones to help you get a better perspective about these smartphones.

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All these smartphones have dual-SIM capability and come with Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.

Display

The specification of the displays is as follows –

Motorola Moto E – 4.3inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display 256ppi
Micromax Unite 2 – 4.7inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) display 199ppi
Lava Iris X1 – 4.5inch FWVGA (480×854 pixels) display 218ppi
Xolo Q600s – 4.5inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display 245ppi

Moto E is the sharpest display in terms of pixel density, but it is also the smallest and is the only in the lot to have on-screen buttons. So it has a comparatively very small display. Unite 2 has the biggest display amongst the lot, but also has the least dense display with just a WVGA display and a pixel density less than 200ppi. Lava Iris X1 has a reasonable 218ppi 4.5inch display while the Xolo Q600s has the second sharpest display.

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In terms of brightness, the Xolo Q600s is the brightest with the Unite 2 coming in second, followed by Iris X1 and Moto E is the least bright. Xolo Q600s emerges as the strongest in terms of viewing angles with the Unite 2 again coming in second. The Moto E ’s display does better in terms of viewing angles than the one on the Lava Iris X1. Color accuracy is maintained well in the Xolo Q600s and to some extent in the Unite 2. The displays of Moto E and Iris X1 appear relatively cooler than usual.

Overall, in terms of display quality, the Xolo Q600s is the clear winner and Unite 2 comes in next. The displays of Moto E and Iris X1 come in next. If you are a fan of bigger displays, then you would be picking the X1 over Moto E as Moto E’s screen estate is shrunk down by on screen buttons.

Performance

In terms of general performance, the Snapdragon powered Moto E is better than the other three. The Unite 2 comes in next thanks to its quad-core MediaTek chip and the Broadcom quad-core chip powered X1 and Q600s take the last place. Both these phones are laggy and that shows in their general user interface. Opening the apps is much quicker on Moto E and Unite 2, while the Broadcom powered X1 and Q600s severely fall behind in this aspect. Web browsing on Chrome is pretty much the same on all these phones with pinch to zoom taking a few seconds to load and that is expected in a budget offering.

Camera

Coming to the camera, here is a quick look at the specifications of the various camera units.

Moto E – 5MP fixed focus – NO LED Flash – No front camera – 854x480pixels video
Unite 2 – 5MP Auto focus – LED Flash – 2MP front camera – 720p video
Q600s – 5MP Auto focus – LED Flash – VGA front camera – 720p video
Iris X1 – 8MP Auto focus – LED Flash – 2MP front camera – 1080p video

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In terms of quality, the 8MP Iris X1 does very well while the Unite 2 and Q600s come in next with good details and colors. The fixed focus 5MP unit on Moto E is probably the worst performer in this range and if camera on a phone is very important to you, then you should reconsider Moto E. You can check out the samples of the four phones right below.

Motorola Moto E

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Micromax Unite 2

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Xolo Q600s

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Lava Iris X1

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Gaming

Among the four phones, Moto E takes the crown mainly because of its Adreno GPU while the others are stuck with VideoCore GPU or Mali GPU which aren’t quite capable. Most of the games we tried included – Subway Surfer, Riptide GP2, Temple Run 2, Dead Trigger 2 and Shadow gun. Moto E was able to run the casual games well, but just started lagging on the big ones like Shadow gun. The next best is the Unite 2 and that is because of the Mali400 GPU. The VideoCore GPU powered Iris X1 and Q600s performed less than the Moto E and Unite 2. Both these phones could run the game, but that isn’t their strongest suit.

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Battery Life

Moto E is the winner here again. Moto E has striped down specifications of the Moto G, but Motorola have kept almost all of its battery juice intact. Moto G had a great battery life and the Moto E does even better. The other phones aren’t that good when compared to the Moto E, but all the three will last at least one day of normal usage. Moto E will definitely last a day and half of normal usage.

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Conclusion

As you can see from the comparison above, no phone is perfect and at this price range, almost all of them are far from perfect. But the choice of the perfect phone for you rests with you. If you want an excellent display, but can do with average performance, then you can get the Xolo Q600s. If the phone needs to be fast, compact and have a long battery life, then the Motorola Moto E should be your choice. If you are a fan of big displays, the Micromax Unite 2 should be the one for you. If you want a premium looking device at a bargain price, then the Lava Iris X1 should be your choice with its iPhone like looks. All the phones have their pros and cons and we try to summarize it below.

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Motorola Moto E

Pros

  • Excellent Battery life
  • Very compact and feels solid
  • Cheapest among the four

Cons

  • Horrible camera
  • The screen is very small(comparatively) and you have to use only on-screen buttons
  • Feels heavy and bulky

Micromax Unite 2

Pros

  • Big display which is relatively better than others
  • Good battery life
  • Reasonable camera

Cons

  • Low resolution display (less than 200ppi)
  • Probably the least good looking device among the four
  • Feels big and bulky

Xolo Q600s

Pros

  • Excellent display(considering the four phones)
  • Good solid build quality

Cons

  • Performance is bad – UI is slow and sluggish
  • Camera isn’t great

Lava Iris X1

Pros

  • Premium looks and very good design(although seems copied from the iPhone)
  • Camera is better than the others

Cons

  • Poor performance
  • Battery life could have been better
  • Display performs poorly when compared to the others

Xolo Q600s Review

Introduction

The Xolo Q600s is among the entry range smartphones that try to offer as much as possible for the price. The Xolo Q600s falls well in the value for money category of smartphones and is alongside Motorola’s Moto E, Micromax Unite 2 and Lava Iris X1. The Xolo Q600s comes with a sturdy design, a qualified internal specification and runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box. For Rs. 7499, lets see how it delivers.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 vs Apple iPad Air Display Comparison

Samsung announced a pair of Super AMOLED display tablets on June 13th and among the two, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is the bigger one and is the one that competes with Apple’s iPad Air. The 10.5inch Super AMOLED display on the Tab S is absolutely gorgeous and we put it next to the iPad’s Retina display.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 vs Apple iPad Mini Display Comparison

Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 recently. One of the most important features of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is the high resolution 8.4inch Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 359ppi. The display is absolutely gorgeous and we are putting this SuperAMOLED display against the iPad Mini’s Retina display and lets check out how they compete against each other.

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Samsung SideSync 3.0 Demo

At the Samsung event during which Samsung unveiled its Super AMOLED tablets – Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Samsung also announced an updated version of its feature – SideSync 3.0.  A couple of weeks back, Apple announced a feature called Continuity at the WWDC 2014 that would allow you to seamlessly switch work between various iOS devices. Samsung’s SideSync isn’t exactly the same, but tries to achieve something similar between the Galaxy Tablets and Galaxy smartphones.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S Bluetooth Accessory Keyboard Hands On and Photo Gallery

At the Samsung event on June 13, alongside the announcement of its high resolution Super AMOLED display tablets, Samsung also announced that a Bluetooth Accessory keyboard that will be compatible with both the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and Tab S 10.5 tablets. The Bluetooth Keyboard acts as a dock as well and tries to transform the tablet to a laptop.

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Xolo rumored to be launching a very light smartphone at budget pricing

Indian manufacturers are known for creating value for money smartphones that offer most of what higher end smartphones offer, but all that in a much more affordable package. Xolo is one among them and it is the first company to produce an Intel chip powered smartphone. The company has fallen behind other Indian brands like Micromax and Karbonn, but is still producing budget Android smartphones.

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Open Web Apps now run as Native Apps on Android, courtesy Firefox of Android

Firefox OS was targeted at the lower end smartphone segment, but it hasn’t really made an impact yet as no phones running on Firefox OS has been launched in India. As Mozilla mentioned, the Firefox OS is based on Open Web Standards and any web app can be wrapped into a Firefox App with just a few lines of code.

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Panasonic P81 Camera Samples

Panasonic P81 is the company’s latest flagship and it comes equipped with modern day higher mid-range specifications. It comes with an octa-core processor from MediaTek, has a 5.5inch HD display and Panasonic is making a big buzz about its gesture support. On the back of the phone, we have a 13MP camera and today, we will be checking out the camera samples.

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LG G Pro 2 Camera Samples

LG G Pro 2 is the successor of the LG G Pro and is LG’s answer to Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The LG G Pro 2 is a worthy competitor to the Galaxy Note 3 and a healthy successor to the original G Pro, but retains too much of G Pro in it to be the device to beat this summer. The LG G Pro 2 comes with top of the shelf specifications including a Snapdragon 800 SoC, 3GB RAM and a 5.9inch Full HD True IPS LCD display.

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Lava Iris X1 Review

The battle for the entry range Android smartphone is well and truly on after Motorola started it by launching the Moto E for Rs. 6,999. It did not take long for the Indian manufacturers to “adapt” to the trend and soon we had a lot of value for money entry range smartphones and the Lava Iris X1 is one of them, probably the classiest looking of the lot. Lets check out what you get with the Lava Iris X1 for Rs. 7,999.

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Gionee Elife S5.5 Camera Samples

Gionee Elife S5.5 is currently the thinnest smartphone out there, but somehow Gionee managed to put a 13MP shooter on the back of the 5.5inch device although the 13MP module protrudes out considerably. The Gionee Eife S5.5 is powered by a MediaTek Octa-core processor and has a 5inch Super AMOLED display making it a higher mid range smartphone.

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