LG Gx with 5.5 inch Full HD display announced

Life’s really good for LG as it has become a popular smartphone brand in the market and is giving tough competition to Samsung and HTC with its series of smartphones. When LG launched the G2 in the market it became an instant hit with the kind of display output it offered. The display of the LG G2 became its USP; it has so much potential to catch every eyeball that rolls over it. Moreover the company brought out new design concept and implemented the rear placement of the physical buttons which makes single hand navigation easy.



After the success of G2, the company brought out the G2 mini for those customers who want a compact yet powerful device with best display quality. LG also launched LG G pro lite and G pro lite dual for budget conscious customers. There were also multiple releases in the VU series, although the VU series is not very much popular but the company has brought the 4:3 ratio of display size back in the market with these devices. One of the most popular devices from LG is the G Flex, it comes with a curved display and minor flexibility with it.



Now the company has officially unveiled the LG Gx in Korea, this device has hardware similar to the G Pro and comes with Android Jelly Bean Operating System on board. The device has a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 1920x1080 pixel resolution. It comes with a Quad-Core snapdragon processor on board and is powered by a 3,140mAH battery. The device has a 13MP rear camera along with a 2.1MP front-facing camera for photography and video calling respectively. This device comes with 32GB of onboard storage coupled with 2GB of RAM and has 4G LTE along with NFC feature on board.


LG has officially not commented on the price and availability of the device in other markets but we can expect a global roll out in the coming months. Since there is no official statement all we can do for now is wait for the announcement and see if this product reaches Indian market.
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Moto G is up for sale online even before its official launch in India

Motorola recently announced the Moto G, a cheaper variant to the Moto X. The device comes with great hardware and software features at a reasonable price. The device is currently selling successfully in the US and UK. Moto G became popular with its budget price tag and mid-high range sepcs.

Motorola is officially expected to launch the device in January in India but today we have spotted the device on an online store shopyourworld.com, the website has already started selling the device even before its official launch in the country. The 8GB version of the device comes for Rs 15,137 while the 16GB is priced at Rs 17,089.


The Motorola Moto G comes with a 4.5-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. It is powered by a Quad-Core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at a speed of 1.5GHz per core. Moto G comes in two storage variants, 8GB and 16GB, with 1GB RAM on board. The camera department of the phone boasts a 5MP rear snapper with LED flash and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calling. The cameras on this device are capable of shooting HD videos and have supported features like Geo-tagging, touch focus, stereo sound and HDR. The device is very compact and offers mid-to-high range specs at a competitive price.
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Sony Xperia Z1 full review

Sony Xperia Z1 is the latest flagship model from Sony. This device is the successor model of the Xperia Z and comes with some advancement over hardware and design. With this smartphone Sony is offering some top of the shelf features in a beautiful and sleek design. We headed to a Sony Store to know if this smartphone can really deliver what it promises to. And here is the in depth review of the masterpiece from Sony.

Design



Sony has made this smartphone based on their Omnibalance design philosophy, which is focused on creating stability and regularity in all the directions. This design concept from Sony makes this device look like a small glass slab, and is indeed pretty attractive. This smartphone from Sony is water and dust resistance, the internal of the device is coated with fiber glass flaps, protecting the device from water damage.



The Xperia Z1 has a metal chassis which is sandwiched between 2 glasses. The front side of the phone is dominated by its 5-inch FHD display and is covered with shatterproof film coating to make the device dust resistant. The rear panel of the device is made up of glass and has shatterproof coating too. Sony’s Omnibalance design idea has made this device very thin and light weight, making it easier to hold with one hand. Even though there is no customization for improved single hand use the design concept of the phone brings in single hand usability with it.



This smartphone has a perfectly balanced distribution of the physical buttons. The right side of the phone holds the power button which is made of Aluminum and is placed in the right position for easier access. The user gets full control of the phone with just one hand unlike other manufacturers who put the power button on top of the device making it difficult to reach out at it with one hand. The bottom right of the device holds the shutter button to capture images and the volume keys are placed on the left side of the phone. There are also 3 touch sensitive keys on the device which are placed at the bottom of the display.

In our encounter with the device the operations on the phone were smooth and very rapid. The design of the phone along with combination of proper layout of buttons makes this device a perfect choice over its competitors.

Operating System and User Interface



The Sony Xperia Z1 comes with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Operating System, it is not the latest version of the OS but Sony has recently announced that it will roll out Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update to some of its devices which include Xperia Z1 too. This smartphone from Sony is heavily customized with Xperia UI and that the user can experience the same while using the phone. The User Interface of the phone is very fast and responsive. We did not experience any lag or flaws while using the phone.

The User Interface of the phone looks pleasing to the eyes and goes well with the design of the phone. Apart from Xperia UI Sony has also added a slide out menu which appears when sliding on the right in the first menu screen in the App drawer. This slide out menu comes with some handy function like Search, Uninstall Apps, Arrange Apps and access Google Play Store.

Sony has brought out features like Screen Mirroring and Support for Dual Shock 3 wireless gaming controller. With Screen Mirroring the user can share the device’s display with a WiFi enabled TV without using any cables.

Hardware



The Sony Xperia Z1 comes with top quality hardware on board. Before we tell you what the hardware specs are let us take through the performance of the device. We had a long affair with the review unit given to us, we played games, watched FHD movies, played music, clicked pictures and surfed internet on this massive smartphone. The performance of the device is actually very impressive and it does not disappoint at all. It offers what it promises to. There were no frame drops or lag while playing FHD movies and High Definition games. We played Asphalt on this smartphone and it ran very nicely, the Adreno 330 GPU does well at rendering HD graphics. The device comes with a 3,000mAH battery and offers Stamina Mode and Low battery mode to enhance the battery life on the device. Sony claims that the battery gives a talk time up to 13 hours on this device; we did not run any battery test. We had the device for good amount of time where we managed to run so many tests and the battery percentage dropped by mere 40%. With this we assume the user with average usage is expected to get the talk time promised by Sony.

This smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 800 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. With specs this high you would expect the device to deliver such high performance and this smartphone actually offers the performance mentioned above.



The display of the device is full HD with resolution of 1920x1080 pixels giving a pixel density of 441PPI. The display offers good output; the text appears clear and crisp while the color reproduction was natural. What disappointed us were its viewing angles, the device does not offer wide viewing angles. The visuals do not appear good when viewing from sides. Further the outdoor visibility of the screen was average; if you spend Rs 43,000 and buy a device like this you would surely look forward to have better visibility of the content outdoors too. Apart from these two flaws there is nothing much to complain about.

Camera and Memory


This is one area which in our opinion no one would complain about with regards to Sony Xperia Z1. The device comes with a 20.7 MegaPixel camera on board, the device has a camera sensor of 1/2.3” and comes with LED flash. It is accompanied with features like Geo-tagging, touch focus, HDR, Panorama and 1080p video recording. The phone shoots 1080p videos at 30 frames per second, the videos taken on this phone are very clear and life like.

This smartphone takes marvelous pictures at day light, images taken at night also came out good but had little noise in them. However the image quality of Xperia Z1 in both day and night conditions came out better than its competitors. The auto-mode in the phone’s camera sometimes had difficulty autofocussing, we are not sure if it was a fault with the review unit we got or was it a software bug that was causing this problem.

The Xperia Z1 comes with 16GB of ROM, out of which 11.97GB is user available memory, and is coupled with 2GB of RAM. The combination of memory with such huge RAM makes this device one of the fastest in the market. Further this smartphone allows memory expansion by up to 64GB via Micro SD cards. Multi-tasking was at its great with Xperia Z1, launching and closing apps was as fast as light. So overall we are extremely impressed with the performance of this smartphone from Sony.

Media



This smartphone is great when it comes with playing media on it. We played 1080p Videos and it worked perfectly without any lag or frame drops. Seeking between time was smoother and supported instant playback. The Xperia Z1 has speakers in the bottom, which is very good for smartphones as phones with speakers in the rear side usually reduce the sound output when placed on flat surfaces. The sound quality on the loud speaker was average and comes with preloaded sound settings to offer clearer and better sound without distortion. As mentioned earlier the phone has no issues playing Full HD games and Videos.

Extras



Sony makes some of the coolest gadgets in the market, and this smartphone is compatible with all of the accessories that Sony makes. One may want to try out the Sony Smartwatch with this one; there is also an add-on lens available for this device which enhances the camera experience of this smartphone. More-over Sony is giving away Free Premium Flip Case worth Rs 2,990 and a portable Power Bank (5,000mAH) worth Rs 2,790 along with Free Accidental Damage for 6-months. The device is priced at Rs 42,990 in the Sony Store.

Benchmark tests

We ran some benchmark tests on this smartphone and the results are below.
The device scored 33814 in the AnTuTu benchamark and stood below Galaxy Note 3



It scored 10350 in the Quadrant Standard benchmark and was on the top in the list



Xperia Z1 got a 1185 in the Vellamo benchmark



Xperia Z1 ranked No. 1 with 2924 score in the HTM5 followed by Xperia Z Ultra and Galaxy Note 3



With these test it makes it clear that this smartphone certainly packs in a lot of power than its competitors.

Verdict




Given the long list of smartphones in the market people tend to confuse which smartphone to buy, given the price category of Rs 40,000 buyers are certainly going to fall in a dilemma as to which is best for them. This smartphone is certainly impressive with the speed and performance it offers. If you can compromise a little with the viewing angles of the display then it is the best choice for you. This device is a straight rival to Samsung’s Popular Galaxy Note 3, iPhone 5c and HTC One Max, do consider these devices too while making a purchase decision.

Pen Drives for Smartphones and Tablets now available in market

We all have used USB On-The-Go cables to add some extra memory to devices or to play music and movies and also transfer data from USB mass storage devices. Well all that playing around with the OTG cables is not needed anymore. Sony has launched the first ever smartphones and tablets pen-drive in the market. With mass storage for smartphones and tablet it is clear that the era of smartphones has begun and that people will rely less on computers and laptops.

These pen-drives come with full sized USB and micro USB connectors and support devices running Android Operating System. It is compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and above version and works well on computers with Windows and Mac OS.
These pen drives come in 3 colors, Black, White and Blue and comes in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB variants. The prices of these pen drives are as follows


8GB- Rs 1,230 ($19.99)
16GB- Rs 1,864($29.99)
32GB- Rs 3,877($62.99)


Sony has come up with multiple accessories for smartphones which include Smartwatch, add-on camera lens, Power bank chargers and now with Pen drives for smartphones Sony is certainly eyeing at boosting accessories sales in the market.


Also check out the Specs of Xperia Z1 and Z Ultra

Nokia makes some good sales before Micrsoft acquistion

After the inception of Android Nokia lost its ranking in sales of mobile phones and came down drastically. Android OS was ported on a lot of smartphones from a lot of manufacturers; it gave customers a wide variety of smartphones to choose from. Nokia’s MeeGo and Symbian started to disappoint users worldwide; Nokia took a quick decision to opt for a new mobile phone operating system. It is when Nokia brought the Windows Phone OS with its Lumia series of phones.

In October 2011 Nokia launched its first Windows Phone in coordination with Microsoft. The company launched 2 Windows Phones namely Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. After the success of Lumia phones Nokia never turned back and it kept on launching phones in the Lumia series. Today we have 17 smartphones in the Lumia family. As the company grew or we rather say bounced back with Lumia Phones, it started promoting the same design element with its Asha series of phones and got some good sales.

Nokia’s Lumia phones are very popular among users worldwide; Nokia Lumia 520 is one fine example for that. This device from Nokia acquires 25% of the world’s total number of Windows smartphone share. This device is the world’s best selling smartphone; it comes with a budget price tag and offer great features.

Some of the popular Lumia smartphones are the Award winning Lumia 925, Lumia 920, Lumia 520, Lumia 525 and Lumia 1020- the best camera phone in the world.

With these Lumia Phones Nokia was actually able to push the sales number in the third quarter by 19% globally; the company has sold 36 million units of phones between Q4 2011 and October 2013. While the shipment of Lumia phones stood at 9.5 million in the third quarter 2013 which accounted for 93.2% of overall windows phone. Nokia never ignores the scope for growth in India, it recently brought out updates in the Asha series to offer social networking along with Whatsapp messenger. The Asha series of phones offer good features and durability in the budget price category.


Now that Nokia is going to be acquired by Microsoft, we are surely going to miss that Nokia brand name. Although the engineering methods and product quality may not differ much but that brand name certainly matters to the large number of fan following.

Nokia Normandy with Android OS to be launched early next year

Yesterday we reported about Nokia’s Normandy, a low end Android Smartphone from the Company. Today rumors surface about the same suggesting that it will get an early 2014 release. It is a very odd decision from Nokia as the company’s smartphone business will be fully taken over by Microsoft which makes it highly possible that Microsoft will kill this project soon after Nokia acquisition.

Nokia Normandy is making big headlines over the internet for being the only Nokia Android device, this certainly is going to make Nokia fans very happy. But the happiness won’t last long if the project is really killed by Microsoft. Nokia lovers have long been waiting for the company to come up with their flagship Android phone, with Normandy the company is trying to fulfill the fans’ wish for a Nokia Android device, may be as a Good Bye sign to the smartphone business.

This image is only for representational purpose: it is not the final version from Nokia

The Nokia Normandy looks very similar to Lumia series of phones and does not feature the capacitive buttons at the bottom. It will come with the same polycarbonate unibody found on the Lumia phones while running unknown version of the Android Operating System.


Nokia’s already has some popular and successful device like the Lumia 520- which accounts for 25% of all the windows phones, Lumia 1020- with 41MP camera sensor and other devices in the Lumia family. The company has grown remarkably with Lumia and Asha series of phones but with Normandy the company does not look for growth instead it’s a GOOD BYE signal to the smartphone business.

Are you a budget conscious buyer and looking for some discounts? Here are some attractive offers for you

Want to buy a smartphone but are too conscious about budget? Don’t worry; as Google’s Great Online Shopping Fest has just begun in India, this shopping festival brings some of the coolest online deals on gadgets. Just sit back and log on to GOSF.in and you get an ocean of dealers who offer you discounts on smartphones, music players, tablets and their accessories.



With GOSF Google brings major e-retailers on one single platform to offer buyers discounts varying from 10% to 60% on some products. Snapdeal in association with GOSF is offering minimum Rs 500 and up to 40% off on selected mobile phones. While Tradus is giving buyers extra 10% discount on selected mobiles above their existing offers (if any). There are hundreds of retailers lined up to offer discounts at various rates. eBay leads the race in discounts and offers the buyers 40% discount and has a wide range of smartphones listed under the offer. 

What comes as a surprise is the exchange offer from Flipkart.com, the site is giving up to Rs 8000 on exchanging an old smartphone for a new one under GOSF online shopping festival.
Here is the list of some retailers with their discount ratio on smartphones and tablets along with few other products. For complete list of retailers and their offers visit bazar.sulekha.com