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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 7 (2013) Live Chat and Discussion

askFA Google-Nexus 7 2013 Live Chat

Thanks for the awesome response for our first askFA live chat the Google Nexus 5 last week, hope we were able clear your doubts about the smartphone. The Nexus 7 (2013) went on sale earlier this week along with the Nexus 5. The tablet has been priced at Rs. 20,999 for the 16GB WiFi version and the 32GB WiFi version costs Rs. 23,999. The 32GB variant with WiFi + Mobile data costs Rs. 27,999. We reviewed the WiFi version of the tablet back in August. Since the tablet has been launched in India recently, our readers might be interested to know more about the tablet before buying it. Now you can join the FoneArena team for a live chat and discussion about the Nexus 7 (2013). Continue reading “Google Nexus 7 (2013) Live Chat and Discussion”

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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Google Nexus 5 now available for purchase on Play Store in India

google-nexus5-india-playstore

Google has finally started selling the all new Nexus 5 on the Play Store in India after being listed as coming soon after the global announcement. The 16GB version is listed at Rs.28999 as hinted before and the 32GB version is listed at Rs.32999. Both the 16GB and 32GB models in both black and white colours are available for purchase. The Nexus 5 is already on sale at LG dealerships at select cities in India at a slightly higher price of Rs.29999 for the 16GB model and Rs.33999 for the 32GB model. Great to see LG and Google bringing a device to the Indian market within days or weeks of the US launch with some reasonable pricing too!

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Demystifying the Google Nexus 5’s HDR+ mode, what does it actually do?

Demystifying the Google Nexus 5’s HDR+ mode, what does it actually do?

The Google Nexus 5‘s 8 megapixel camera has been a hot topic of discussion ever since it made its way into the market. With people getting their hands on it the day after it released, various reports came in. Some said the camera was average, some said the camera was great, and some said one must always use the in-built HDR mode for the best pictures. It definitely got us intrigued, especially with Google promoting the HDR+ mode one its Nexus 5 product page as “With HDR+, create vivid photos by day and sharper photos by night.” Technically, HDR directly means “Higher dynamic range” which will fuse multiple exposures and output a single photo that is equally exposed, but that doesn’t seem right in line with Google’s description, does it? Well, we set to find out exactly what it does, and the results are quite interesting, to say the least.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2eFmSOvecY

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Sony Xperia Z1 Giveaway Winner Announcement

We started the Asphalt 8: Airborne contest, in association with Gameloft, a fortnight back, and as promised, today we reveal the lucky winner of the Sony Xperia Z1 and more. Before that, we’d like to thank all the participants who took their time to participate in this contest, the response has been nothing short of amazing. A lot of you answered the moderately tough questions, making the contest really competitive, and kudos to that! Out of the many entries, we have selected a number of winners, with one winning the grand prize – Sony Xperia Z1! Are you the lucky one? Find out below.

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How to setup an ad-hoc WiFi network on your laptop for any Android phone without root

Google-LG-Nexus-5-14

After some digging and going though a lot of paid apps to share WIFI hotspot, I have stumbled upon a very simple way to share your Laptop WIFI as ad hoc (Infrastructure mode) and use it on any Android phone without having to root and install a custom ROM that supports ad hoc like CyanogenMOD.

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Google Nexus 5 Live Chat and Discussion

Google Nexus 5 Live Chat

Google Nexus 5 manufactured by LG is already out in several countries through the Play Store and several carries. We already know that the Nexus 5 is priced at Rs. 28,999 for the 16GB version and Rs. 32,999 for the 32GB version through the Play Store listing. The phone is expected to launch in India later this month. We got hold of the 16 GB variant of the Nexus 5 from the UK and unboxed it last week. We also brought you the benchmarks and the camera samples of the device. Now you can join the FoneArena team for a live chat and discussion about the Nexus 5 below . Continue reading “Google Nexus 5 Live Chat and Discussion”

Motorola Moto G Hands On

Hands on with the Motorola Moto G

If you’re looking for a cheap Android smartphone, you’ll probably be looking at Samsung and Sony or a cheaper player like Micromax and Huawei. The only problem is – cheap Android phones are usually low spec and definitely not fast. Until now.

Google-owned Motorola introduced the Moto G, a budget Android smartphone with a BIG difference – it has a low cost price tag with excellent specs that definitely beat the best available from other manufacturers.

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

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Exclusive: Gameloft GT Racing 2 to go live tomorrow, get early access on your iOS device!

Gameloft’s GT Racing sequel has been a long time coming. The franchise, starting with the GT Racing: Motor Academy, opened with impressive graphics and over 45 million downloads for its time, but looks like it’s finally time to step up the ante. The sequel features better graphics and even more cars with official licenses. The game has been undergoing some intense beta testing in a couple of markets and a lot of changes have been made to accommodate fixes and even enhancements to the game. GT Racing 2 is all set to go live on the App Store and Google Play sometime around tomorrow noon, but what if you wanted early access to the game? What if you want to show off to your friends that you were one of the world’s first to get your hands on this game? Well, we have just the right answer for you.

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Motorola Moto G India Launch in early Jan 2014

moto-g-india

Motorola just officially announced the Moto G at an event in Sao Paulo in Brazil and also holding a satellite event in London where we should be getting our hands on the Moto G shortly. The company has also confirmed that the Moto G is indeed coming to India as soon as January 2014. The device is priced at an aggressive $179 price for a 8GB unlocked version in the US without any contract of any sort. The 16GB version costs just $20 more at $199. The India pricing is not yet available but we expect it to be announced closer to launch and hopefully under Rs.12500 which is probably one of the cheapest Android phones from an international handset maker.

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Android 4.4 KitKat In-depth Walkthrough

Google announced the Nexus 5 a while back, and with it came the latest iteration of Android – 4.4 KitKat. Within a day, Nexus 5 made its way into the hands of talented developers and Google too helped along, with the AOSP builds instantly going live. We then rapidly saw ports and AOSP builds popping up, with one for the Nexus 4 claiming to be a direct port of the Nexus 5 ROM. That was intriguing enough for a flashing opportunity, and so we jumped on it, right away. It turned out to be exactly that, with the complete feature set, rather than the lacking AOSP builds. We used it long enough to discover and use all the user-facing features of Android 4.4 KitKat and hence, presenting you an in-depth overview of the same in a 26-minute video –

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

Read past the break for a walkthrough in text and photos.

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What’s new in Android 4.4 KitKat

Google and LG have just unleashed a wave of announcements at us, and one of them is hardware – the Google Nexus 5. If you are curious about the other one, it’s none other than the software – Android 4.4 KitKat that comes preinstalled on the Nexus 5. The premier Android experience has received an update and will eventually roll out to Nexus 4 and other Google Play devices first, with OEM devices taking their own sweet time to implement them, as expected. Unlike Android 4.3, we have a lot of new features, user facing ones as well as under the hood features that will matter to you, a lot. Since there are too many to wrap your head, we shall be doing the service of compiling the most useful and obvious changes in Android 4.4 for you. So, what’s new in Android 4.4 KitKat?

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Google Nexus 5 coming soon to India, Play Store prices 16 GB version for Rs. 28,999

The just announced Google Nexus 5 has been spotted on the Indian Play Store, with it listed as “coming soon” to India along with the price tags of Rs. 28,999 for the 16GB version and Rs. 32,999 for the 32 GB version. The Nexus 5 was just announced by LG and Google, but had leaked like a broken cauldron over the internet for the past few weeks and even months. The phone has a 5 inch full HD IPS screen with LG’s own in-cell touch technology and is powered by the blazing fast Snapdragon 800 processor, among many other hardware features. It also runs on the latest version of Android – 4.4 KitKat which has been spruced up with new user interface changes, a changed dialer, and a lot more under the hood for developers to take advantage of. Now that the phone has been announced, we think it might not take long to arrive in India as the listing has already shown up on the Indian Play Store.

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Google Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 announced

The long rumored Google Nexus 5 is finally official and it brings with a brand new version of Android as well. Google has opted for top of the line specifications for the handset and we get to see a blazing fast 2.3Ghz quad core Snapdragon 800 processor onboard. There’s also 2GB of RAM. All that power will be pushing pixels to the edge to edge 4.95 inch 1080p display. The battery on the phone is a bit disappointing at 2,300 mAh however you’ll still be able to keep it juiced up wirelessly thanks to Qi support. Connectivity options include LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11ac as well as NFC. Continue reading “Google Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 announced”