Realme X2 Pro: When the battery leads the charge When was the last time that the first thing you noticed about a flagship phone was how fast its battery charged? Well, perhaps in the early days of OnePlus and its much talked about Dash Charge. But even then, there was a lot to talk about and the battery was just one of the topics that caught one’s attention. Well, that’s not quite the case with the Realme X2 Pro....

We reckon the Nexus 5X would understand the sentiment that underlies those famous lines from Rudyard Kipling. Seldom has opinion about a phone swung so radically in a matter of weeks. Launched as the spiritual successor of the very successful Nexus 5, it was greeted at its launch with shock and disbelief at its price – Rs 31,900 – which many (us included, check our first impressions) considered a tad on the high side for a device that was not exactly a spec barnstormer....

Blame it on too much of poetry when I was in school, but the release of the Moto G (3rd generation) reminded me so much of Lord Tennyson’s poem about the legendary Light Brigade that rode into the valley to confront Russian guns at the battle of Balaclava in 1854. No, this is not a flight of poetic fancy. The similarities between the two situations are striking. Just as in 1854, this represents the attempt by a traditional great power (Motorola) to put an emerging power (new ‘budget smartphone’ players like Xiaomi, Asus, Lenovo, Meizu, et al) in its place, and doing so on the back of sheer reputation and experience rather than hardware (remember, the Russians had the cannon at Balaclava – the Light Brigade attacked them with lances and swords!...

Standard Chromebook specs…and with a handle too! That might well be the case, for in terms of other specs, the Nexian Air ticks all the boxes. Like most Chromebooks, it comes with a 11.6 inch 720p HD TFT display (no, it is not a touchscreen), 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 1.0-megapixel camera for video calls, a couple of USB ports, an HDMI port, a memory card slot (with support of up to 64 GB) – all of which runs off a 1....

Display and Design In terms of design, both the Galaxy A51 and A71, feature a sleek body with a glossy finish on the back that offers different shades of pastel colors. The A71 offers three colorways, namely — Prism Cube Black, Prism Cube Sliver, and Prism Cube Blue, and similarly, the A51 also comes in three color options to choose from — Prism Cube Black, Prism Cube White, and Prism Cube Pink....

As part of its introductory offer, Vodafone is offering up to 2GB of data per month for subscribers who are not active on data packs. Subscribers with active data packs will get up to 1GB per month for two months. The new Galaxy Note 4 comes with a stunning 5.7-inch QHD (2K) Super AMOLED display with 2560×1440 pixels resolution, and has a sleek metallic frames on the sides which gives a much premium look and feel to what is otherwise a typical Galaxy Note device....

To start off, the Galaxy Note7 features a 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED panel up front and inherits design cues from the Edge series flaunting curved aesthetics on both sides of the display. It is powered by the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor (Exynos 8890 in some countries), 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage which is expandable via a MicroSD card up to 256GB and a 3500 mAh non-removable battery underneath with quick charging and wireless charging capabilities....

That apart the latest leak seems to inadvertently point at the possibility that Samsung Galaxy S7 might be waterproof just like it was the case with Galaxy S5. The unlisted Indonesian commercial called “Get ready for the #TheNextGalaxy” shows off the device being used by an athlete and the video starts getting interesting when it shows off the Indonesian archer Dellie Threesyadinda training in the rain. In the due course of the video there has been no mention of the phones model which in all likelihood points at the upcoming Galaxy S7....

The Exynos 2100 is based on a 5nm extreme ultra-violet (EUV) process node. It is the company’s first flagship 5G-integrated processor promising to deliver a maximum downlink speed of up to 5.1Gbps in sub-6GHz and 7.35Gbps in mmWave. Talking about the computation and graphics processing capabilities, Samsung claims to have improved and refined the performance in both categories on its newest chipset. And, the company suggests that having fabricated the SoC on a 5nm EUV node makes it 20% less power-hungry and 10% more powerful in terms of performance when compared to its 7nm predecessor....

And interestingly, the main reasons for their success have nothing to do with experience, spec sheets or apps, the three perceived pillars of success in the mobile computing space. There is nothing exceptional about the Chromebook experience – it is exactly like using a Chrome browser. You open sites and services on different tabs and browse away. And the hardware that delivers this experience is not much to write home about....

The primary reason for those big-ticket sales during Singles Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is the deep discounting which happens across categories in these two countries – China and the US respectively. It’s a massive opportunity for people to get the products they have been eyeing for at dirt cheap prices during these sales. While a lot of global brands are making their way to the Indian market, the quality and pricing along with the sheer scale are unmatched when you purchase in those countries....

One of the most critical alterations Sony has made with these new phones is that a 14nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor has replaced their predecessor’s 16nm MediaTek chipset. The design has been tweaked ever so slightly, although the presence of huge bezels and the absence of an 18:9 aspect ratio will certainly haunt these devices’ success in 2018. The fingerprint sensor has been repositioned to the rear from the power button....

Sony Xperia 5 Design The Xperia 5 features a sleek-and-compact body design that comes in at 68mm wide, and a variety of color options: Blue, Red, Black, and Grey. It has a Gorilla Glass 6 protection on the front and the back and a metal frame around the body to offer protection against drops and scratches. The company says that despite offering a 21:9 CinemaWide display a lot of features from the Xperia 1, the phone still manages to be 14 grams lighter than Xperia 1, making it pocket-friendly....

The Xperia XZs is fitted with a 5.2-inch FHD Triluminious Display along with Dynamic Contrast Enhancer. Powering the device is the Snapdragon 820 coupled with a 4GB RAM. On the storage front, the Xperia XZs offers 64GB of Internal memory along with a microSD card support up to 256GB. The USP of this device has been its imaging capabilities that are almost at par with the more expensive Xperia XZ Premium....

Spice Android One Dream UNO Mi-498 as it’s called carries some ordinary hardware specifications, but comes with Google’s backing including the latest stock Android software with automatic updates and Google Play auto-installs. The Spice Android One Dream UNO comes with a 4.5-inches FWVGA (854 x 480 Pixels) IPS LCD display, and is powered by 1.3 GHz Quad Core Processor from Mediatek along with Mali-400 MP GPU and 1GB of RAM....

The Elite Note comes equipped with a 5.5-inch HD display and is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz and mated to a 3GB RAM. The display is protected by a DragonTrail protection layer and comes with a technology that offers better brightness. On the memory front the Elite Note offers 16GB of Internal memory and an expandable memory card slot that can accommodate up to 32GB. Camera shapes up in the form of a 13-Megapixel primary unit with f1/3....

Described as a ‘handy and lightweight utility,’ Swivel allows users to easily set any app’s orientation. So, if you too are annoyed with how some apps handle orientation control, forcing you to toggle the rotation lock in the settings panel, then you could be interested in this app. After installing it, you just need to scroll through your list of apps, then set the screen orientation you prefer for that app, and press Start to enable accessibility access for Swivel....

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) November 16, 2016 As of now, the Google Earth VR is free and if you own a compatible HTC Vive headset you can explore the entire planet within the comfort of your home. With the Google DayDream in the making, it is safe to expect the Google Earth VR on various platforms in the next year. The virtual traveling may prove to be an addictive thing like the Netflix Binge and this will create a novel avenue of entertainment and experience....

Smart Home – Integrating Technology in Our Daily Lives When I search on the web to see the latest developments in technology and the path that it takes, I see not buttons or switches, but clean, wireless panels, with touchscreens or holograms. It seems that glass is the material of the future and the keyword for the future is “smart”. We have started to hear these words already, and in the future, we will hear them more and more: smartphone is a very good example of a smart technology that has been implemented so far....

And then in 2014, along came the Moto G, followed by the Chinese. Things would never be the same again for not just the Indian brands, but almost all brands in the market as consumers tasted high-end specs at surprisingly low prices. The days since have seen a number of Indian brands hold their own against the “invaders” (so to speak), but a number have faded away too. And as their own traditional “low price, good specs” market has been under attack, recent days have also seen Indian brands try to move up the value ladder, trying to mix it with the best at higher price points, trying to offer their own innovations in software and UI and trying to match the hardware muscle of their better-known counterparts....