XOLO's B700, budget smartphone for just Rs. 8,900!

Just after releasing X1000, XOLO is back again with B700, a smart budget smartphone for just Rs. 8,900. The XOLO B700 houses a 1GHz dual-core processor, with a PowerVR SGX531 GPU, the same GPU that powers the XOLO X1000 and Micromax A110. The B700 has 512MB of RAM and a massive battery power of 3450 mAh. The phone is claimed to provide 20 hours of continuous talk time on 3G 86 hours of continuous music playback. The phone has a 4.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 960x50 pixels and 256 ppi.

The B700 runs on Android 4.0.4 ICS and has 4GB of internal memory with microSD support up to 64GB. It also has features such as Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi and GPS. This is the first phone in B series launched by XOLO, where B stands for Big Battery.

The XOLO B700 is available to purchase online from sites like Flipkart and eBay.

Leaked Motorola X Phone!

The much awaited Motorola X Phone’s images has been leaked on web. It is said that the image was leaked to GSM Arena by an anonymous source who is said to be working in the team of X Phone. Some specs of the device was also revealed. The X Phone will have a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor, a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 1280x768 pixels, with Gorilla Glass 3 and a massive 4,000 mAh battery. The X Phone will have Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and will also be IP57 certified, like Xperia Z, thus making it dust and water resistant. The X Phone will also boost a large amount of internal storage, but with no support for microSD cards.

Thought there’s no official announcement about X Phone, but it is confirmed that Motorola is working on the device. In February, a job listing was posted by M

otorola for a senior executive to handle the X Phone development process was spotted. Apart from X Phone, Motorola is also said to be working on three other smartphones, the Ghost XT912A, the Sasquatch and Yeti.

Souce: GSM Arena

HTC inches closer to Samsung's heels using the Desire P and Q

It’s hardly been a month or so, and HTC is back again with two mid-range smartphones – the Desire P and the Desire Q. The phones images are released in the Taiwanese market and is expected to be launched in Taiwan before hitting the global market.

The Desire P has a 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 800x480 pixels and will boost a dual-core 1 GHz processor, 8 MP camera at the back with LED flash and microSD support for expandable storage. Since it’s an HTC phone, the Desire P features Beats Audio System. The Desire P is expected to be priced at $365 (approx. Rs. 19,900). If we a take closer look at the images, the Desire P bears close resemblance to Desire SV.

 

The Desire Q bears the same features as Desire P, but with a display of 4-inch and is expected to be priced at $235 (approx. Rs. 13,000). There’s no clue regarding which Android OS these phones will have, but it is expected to be Jelly Bean.

XOLO Fastest Smartphone Ever: X1000

Week back, XOLO announced its fastest smartphone till date, XOLO X1000. Let’s have a closer look at its specifications.

X1000 houses Intel Atom Z2480 chipset powered by a single-core Intel Atom processor clocked at 2GHz with Hyper Threading support and 1GB of RAM. Now coming to the GPU part, X1000 houses PowerVR SGX540 with a clock speed of 400 MHz. XOLO X1000 boosts a realistic 3D image reproduction that makes gameplay very good. The touch phone with single SIM support, runs on Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system (upgradable to Jelly Bean).

XOLO X1000 has a 4.7” SHARP^TM HD TFT LCD display with a resolution of 720x1280 and 312 ppi density. The 2.5D edge-to-edge curved glass adds to the visual clearity.

Adding to it, is the impressive 8 MP camera single LED flash with burst mode and 1080p HD video recording. Also, has BSI sensor to make sure that you get optimal quality photos even in bad lighting. It also has a 1.3 MP front camera for video chats.

XOLO X1000 has an inbuilt memory of 8 GB which is expandable up to 32 GB with micro SD support. The 1900 mAh battery that powers the phone lasts up to 13 days on 2G standby.

XOLO X1000 is available online on Flipkart for Rs. 19999/-

 Key Features:

·         2 GHz Intel Atom Processor with Hyper Threading Technology

·         Android v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS

·         Wi-Fi Enabled

·         8 MP Primary Camera

·         1.3 MP Secondary Camera

·         Expandable Storage Capacity of 32 GB

·         4.7-inch TFT LCD Capacitive Touchscreen

Samsung Galaxy S IV: First Look

Finally after much leaks and rumors  Samsung Galaxy S IV is here. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S IV at an event in New York. The smartphone boosts an eight-core 1.6 GHz processor, with 2GB RAM. The company says that the phone will be rolled out in 155 countries starting April 2013.

Samsung declared that the international version of Galaxy S IV will be powered by Exynos 5 Octa chipset. This chipset has four Cortex-A15 cores clocking up to 1.6GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores clocking up to 1.2GHz. The graphics are handled by the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 chip. There will also be a second version that will only hit certain markets. This version will be powered by the newly launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with its quad-core Krait 300 chipset and the Adreno 320 graphics. Both versions will have 2GB of RAM, and will get the LTE feature in certain markets. It will also feature wireless charging in some markets.

The Galaxy S IV houses a 4.99” 1920x1080 pixel Super AMOLED display, with a pixel density of 441 ppi. Galaxy S IV will be available in three storage options – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Galaxy S IV also has an IR Blaster to control your entertainment devices at home using Samsung’s WatchON service. The Galaxy S IV, at 7.9mm thick, is actually thinner than Galaxy S III, despite a bigger display. The disappointment to some users is that the Galaxy S VI carries forward some plastic build.

Samsung confirmed that Galaxy S IV will be available in two versions – White Frost and Black Mist. More colours will be available soon. The S IV will have Android 4.2.2 and a spruced up Touchwiz UI. The rest of the specs include a 13MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, NFC, 4G in certain markets and a 2,600mAh battery.

Let’s take a look at which of the Galaxy S4’s features are promising, and which ones aren’t:

S Translator:

Ever since the concept of the Babel Fish was introduced by Douglas Adams, we’ve been waiting for such a tool that can translate everything on the fly. With the S Translator, Samsung may have actually achieved that. The S Translator offers speech-to-text and text-to-speech translations in 10 languages including French, English and Chinese and Samsung hopes to increase that number soon.

Smart Pause:

For the uninitiated, Smart Pause tracks your eyes using the front camera on the Galaxy S4 and pauses a running video when you look away from the screen.

S Voice Drive:

Samsung has extended the functionality of its S Voice tool on the Galaxy S4. With S Voice Drive, the icons and commands to be used within the GPS navigation app become simpler so that it’s safer to use while driving. Icons on the screen are larger and you can also use your voice to command the navigation app. We think it’s a good feature especially for people who rely a lot on GPS navigation in their vehicles.

S Health:

Samsung has tried to make mobile fitness apps redundant by packing in a hell of a lot of functionality into the S Health suite. With S Health, you can track things like distance walked/run, calorie intake and even sleeping patterns. We have a feeling that even the laziest among us may be tempted to try out some of these features on the Galaxy S4, just to see how well they work.

Eraser (Camera Feature):

A very useful feature that Samsung has added to the Galaxy S4 camera’s repertoire is the Eraser feature. This feature lets you analyse a photo you’ve taken and cleanly remove objects that you don’t want in the image. This means that you can cleanly erase unwanted objects, photo-bombers from your photos without much effort.

Air Gesture:

This is another feature that is getting a big marketing push from Samsung. We just don’t understand the use-case scenario for Air Gesture which lets you navigate the phone without touching the display. The only time when the feature could be useful is if your fingers are dirty and you still want to use the phone. However, like Smart Scroll, the feature is quite buggy and has inconsistent performance.

Dual Shot:

Dual Shot is one of the silliest features on offer from the Galaxy S4. It lets you take pictures with both the front and primary cameras on the phone at the same time. Samsung says this is good because it lets you add yourself to photos that you’re taking but the execution is awkward. First, you are added to the photo within a frame that makes it clear that you weren’t in the shot. Secondly, when was the last time you were conscious about what you looked like when you were taking a photo?

While the pricing is considered, pre-order prices for the Samsung Galaxy S4 have been leaked by a couple of European sites showing that the phone will cost around 650 Euros (Rs. 45,500 approx.). GSM Arena spotted the Galaxy S4 go live on an Italian retailer’s site for 699 Euros following which Amazon Germany also listed the phone for 650 Euros.

Full Specs Here: Samsung Galaxy S IV

Nokia Lumia 720: Hands On

Among the two Nokia phones that where shown off at a press event in Delhi, the new Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, we got a chance to get our hands on the Lumia 720.

Unlike the Nokia Lumia 820, it’s thinner and lighter, but with a heavy battery and a 4.3” WVGA display which is nicely curved. The 4.3” WVGA comes with Nokia’s Clear Back Technology and Gorilla Glass 2 protection. But, don’t forget, the display is TFT (not AMOLED) and it’s curved. WVGA resolution (480 x 800) breaks down to 217ppi, which doesn't sound particularly exciting, but it's hard to expect a lot better for the asking price.

Now, let’s go back and have a look at the 6.7 MP camera. The resolution may sound strange at first, but that’s how we get 16:9 mode from the usual 8 MP Nokia camera. It’s just that the 4:3 section of the sensor is missing in Lumia 720.

The Lumia 720 camera uses a Carl Zeiss lens and is the first to feature a fast F/1.9 aperture for better low-light performance. It's not optically stabilized as the 920 camera, but Nokia are promising good low-light shots thanks to some clever image processing.

Nokia included their exclusive Lenses - Cinemagraph (it creates animated GIF), Smart Shoot (Scalado tech) and the brand new Glam Me for portrait shots with the 1.3MP front-facing camera.

The back of the 720 is nice to the touch, but that’s not where it stops - the back cover is exchangeable and there's a cover that enables wireless charging as well (that's where the three pogo pins on the back come into play). The shells are made of polycarbonate.

Let’s not forget, the Lumia 720 had 2,000 mAh battery – respectable for a 4.3” phone and is 350 mAh more compared to the thicker 820.

The Lumia 720, powered by Windows Phone 8, features Nokia’s exclusive stuffs like the HERE Maps and Nokia Mix Radio. The WP8 store is growing too, with currently 130k apps.

The Nokia Lumia 720 gets the power from a 1GHz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor, which is supported by 512MB of RAM. The Lumia 720 gets 8GB built-in storage, and a memory card slot for up to 64GB more. The free 7GB at SkyDrive deal is in place too.

The Nokia Lumia 720 is the first Windows Phone handset from Nokia to hit the 9mm thickness mark and at 128g it feels great in the hand.

Nokia has still not confirmed the pricing of the Lumia 720, but we expect this to be priced under Rs. 20,000.

Samsung reveals Galaxy S II Plus

Samsung has announced the Galaxy S II Plus. The smartphone runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean straight out of the box. The Galaxy S II plus will be available in two variants – one with NFC and one without. No details of the pricing or availability of the device are out yet.

In terms of specifications, the Galaxy S II Plus shows off a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus WVGA display with 800x400 pixel resolution. A 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM power the device. It boasts of 8GB built-in storage expandable up to 64GB via a microSD card. Under the hood, a 1,650mAh battery powers it. The rear of the camera houses an 8MP camera and the front has a 2MP camera for video chatting.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was one of the best smartphones available in 2011. It went up against HTC’s flagship smartphone of the time, the HTC Sensation and it won the competition hands down becoming the best Android phone money could buy that year.

Samsung has seen quite a bit of success with its Galaxy lineup of smartphones. We have recently seen the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the device is 2012’s best Android smartphone money can buy.

Samsung also conquered the hybrid market with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011. It has a 5.3-inch display, dual-core processor and a stylus with a difference – the S-Pen.

Samsung launched the Note II in 2012, which improved upon the specifications and the performance of the first generation Note. It sports a 5.5-inch display, quad-core processor, runs on Jelly Bean and improved upon the functionality of the S-Pen.

Lenovo K900: Intel Clover Trail+ smartphone

The Intel powered competition for the Samsung Galaxy Note II is on the way, with the Lenovo K900 leading the charge. Like last year when Lenovo announced the K800 smartphone series at CES, this time around, it is the K900 phablet.

The K900 boost the power of Intel Atom processor for smartphones, which Intel talked about recently and is codenamed “Clover Trail”. We don’t have the exact specs, but this is expected to be clocking at 2 Ghz and a whooping 2 GB RAM.

The K900 comes with a 5.5-inch IPS display with a 1080p resolution and Gorilla Glass 2, a 13MP camera and 16GB internal storage.

A lot of effort has been made for the build quality. The thickness of the K900 is 6.9mm and the chassis is a combination of stainless steel and polycarbonate, and will weigh 162 grams.

No pricing details yet, but India is in the list of the countries where the phone will be released. First up, the K900 will hit the Chinese market, with India, Russia, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia confirmed.

Dual Sim Phones: Lenovo on-a-high

While some manufactures saving their smartphones and mobile for MWC 2013 which will take place in 2013. Lenovo has already announced four dual-sim phones in CES 2013.

The new Lenovo lineup includes, firstly, Lenovo IdeaPhone S890. It boasts of a 5-inch qHD display with a 540x960 pixel resolution with a pixel density of 220ppi. The smartphone runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The S890 is relatively slim at 9.3mm and is relatively light at 176 grams and also packs in a generous 8MP camera.

Next up, we have the IdeaPhone S720. It has a smaller 4.5-inch IPS LCD qHD display with a 245ppi. It runs on the  Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It is powered by a dual-core MTK processor. It come with a 8 MP rear camera and 1 MP front camera for video calling. The S720 boasts of a 2000mAh battery.

At last, we have the two budget devices - the A800 and the A690. The Lenovo IdeaPhone A800 shows off a 4.5-inch FWVGA display with a 480x854 resolution giving it a 218ppi, with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a 2000mAh battery. It runs Android 4.0 ICS.

The IdeaPhone A690 on the other hand has a 4-inch display with a 1GHz single core processor. But it’s a little disappointing that it runs an older version of Android 2.3 Ginger Bread. This makes it good for the consumers looking for entry-level devices.

Also checkout, the first Intel Clover Trail+ smartphone, the Lenovo K900.

Nvidia Tegra 4: Its fastest mobile processor

In a pre-CES announcement at Las Vegas, Nvidia’s CEO Jen Hsun Huang launched the successor to the Tegra 3 system-on-chip - the Tegra 4 last night. It will be the first commercial implementation of the ARM quad-core cortex A15 architecture and shall be seen in smartphones, tablets and notebooks.

The new SoC which was codenamed Wayne before launch, has 72 Nvidia GPU cores which is roughly six times the GPU horsepower seen on Tegra 3; along with a quad-core processor and a fifth low power core for minimising battery use in idle state (as was seen in Tegra 3). It also boasts of 4G LTE voice and data support through an additional Icera i500 chip (LTE is not onboard the Tegra 4 SoC). No details were out on the manufacturing process: whether it is 28nm or 40nm. The four cores are expected to run at a speeds up to 1.9GHz.

"Tegra 4 provides enormous processing power and efficiency to power smartphones and tablets, gaming devices, auto systems and PCs," said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of the Tegra business at Nvidia. "Its new capabilities, particularly in the area of computational photography, will help improve a whole range of existing products and lead to the creation of exciting new ones."

Comparing the new mobile processor with competing system-on-chips, Huang claimed that a new Tegra 4 based tablet could load 25 webpages in 27 seconds as compared to 50 seconds on the Google Nexus 10 tablet which uses a Samsung Exynos 5250 chip. Huang further stated that the new SoC is even faster than Apple’s A6X processor seen in the new iPad as far as loading websites go. The chip also support 4K ultra HD videos.

One of the main features of the Tegra 4 SoC is its support for HDR photography. The camera takes two photographs - one at a higher exposure and the other at a lower exposure and recombines them to form a single image with a higher dynamic range. According to Huang, Tegra 4 takes shots at the rate of 0.2 seconds per frame, which is around 10 times faster than the HDR photography on the iPhone 5 which takes 2 seconds for an HDR shot.

So technically, you can get an HDR shot in one-shot and you will hardly notice any lag as such while making an HDR image. HDR is also supported in the video and burst modes. Other applications include HDR Panorama, Strobe motion effects, 3D reconstruction and object tracking ensuring that it stays in focus even when in motion. 

As far as gaming goes, since it has six times the GPU power of Tegra 3, you can expect a smooth gaming performance. Nvidia has also announced Project Shield, a handheld gaming system with a 5-inch multi-touch display to be based on the Tegra 4 chipset.

Source: www.thinkdigit.com

Project Shield: Nvidia's handled gaming console

Nvidia has been sending some major shockwaves throughout the gaming community and CES hasn’t even started yet. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has been on stage pre-CES, making some major announcements like the introduction of a cloud based gaming system, a new optimization tool for the PC gamer and the clincher, a new handheld portable gaming system that can also be a proper console.

Nvidia has announced Project Shield, a prototype Android-based gaming system running on Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 chip. The handheld gaming console can also output full HD (or 4K) video to a screen without any lag (as seen in the image below). Ports included on Shield include an HDMI port, micro-USB, and a microSD port for storage expansion.

What’s also great about this little guy is that it comes with a 5-inch 720p HD screen which folds out to reveal the controller. The console is supposed to be able to play all Android games given it is Android based, but will also stream their PC games and Steam titles thanks to a built-in app that will give them remote access to their Nvidia Kepler-based machines, via 'GeForce Experience' software, over Wi-Fi.

Nvidia also rebranded GeForce Grid to Nvidia Grid, essentially a server rack packed with a multitude of GPUs that will be capable of pushing 3D and HD gaming content to the cloud. Nvidia Grid enables users to synch their games and devices with the cloud (like with Project Shield), so that any game that’s started on a tablet or a PC can be continued on the other device, which is great. Nvidia Grid is currently in testing phase and will be available to partners soon.

The last announcement by Nvidia is aimed at PC gamers, who might actually be pretty excited. Nvidia launched the Nvidia GeForce Experience (which we've briefly touched upon above), a nifty utility for auto-optimizing graphics settings. Based on the PC configuration and setup, Nvidia GeForce Experience tunes the game settings automatically, eliminating the need to tune them manually.

All in all, it’s been a pretty big day not just for Nvidia, but also for a lot of gamers and enterprises. Between the new handheld console and the cloud gaming, Nvidia is definitely starting to push boundaries. For more details about the Tegra 4 processor, check out our in-depth article.

Source: www.thinkdigit.com