Acer Iconia A1-713 [year]

Acer Iconia A1-713 2024

September 7, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Acer's Iconia series of tablets has been in the market for some time and the Taiwanese manufacturer is not a stranger to this space. The latest to hit the retail shelves is the Iconia A1-713. The tablet costs around Rs. 13,000 and has a mediocre specifications list. However, its USP is its support for 3G data and voice calling. We try to find out if it is worthy as a tablet that can also make calls.
Look and feel
The Acer Iconia A1-713 looks like any other 7-inch Android tablet in the market today. The uninspired design doesn't attract too much attention.
The front is dominated by the 7-inch screen with thick borders on all sides. While the tablet is mostly made of plastic, Acer proudly advertises the metallic finish on the rear. It looks premium but the finish actually makes the rear slimy and we had to be extra careful not to drop the device. The Iconia A1-713 has dimensions of 193x116x8.95mm and weighs 305g.
Above the display are the front-facing camera, earpiece, a few ..

Lava Etab Xtron+ review [year]

Lava Etab Xtron+ review 2024

June 11, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Lava launched its first Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-powered tablet, the Etab Xtron, earlier this year. The company has now added a rear camera, an HDMI port and updated the OS to Android 4.2, and launched the Etab Xtron+, the successor to the first Etab Xtron tablet. We try to find out if the budget tablet delivers value for your hard earned money.
Build
The Lava Etab Xtron+ comes with the same design and build as that of the Etab Xtron, exuding a feeling of durability. The 7-inch tablet looks compact, yet sturdy. The front of the tablet features a 7-inch screen, which is surrounded by a large bezel. You'll also spot a VGA resolution front-shooter right in the middle.
The back of the tablet is made of polycarbonate but has been given a brushed aluminium finish. The frame extends to the front, and adds to the design of the tablet. A microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top edge at the right side while the speaker grill is located towards the left. There are no ports ..

Review: Beetel Magiq [year]

Review: Beetel Magiq 2024

June 21, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

With the pricey iPad still at top spot, tablets have yet to acquire the kind of mass market appeal that the mobile phone does in India. This seems to be possible only if companies manage to break the Rs. 10000 price barrier. After Reliance broke ground with a Rs 13,000 tablet, Beetel has boldly gone where no tablet-maker has been before with a tablet that costs Rs. 9999. But is it worth buying or are you better off saving up for the iPad?
Packaging and content:
The packaging of the device reminded us of our first Beetel landline phone – a slightly jazzed up yet simple box. The box houses the tablet along with the battery, one USB data cable, charger and user manual.
Hardware and styling:
For a 7-inch tablet that costs Rs. 9999, expectations aren't very high. At the very least, we'd like a responsive, averagely built but well performing Android device, like the Reliance tab.
The device is really heavy and the build quality feels good. The trade-off is its weight and the width..

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

February 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 7

Don't let looks deceive you.
The new iPhones look the same as last year's models on the outside. But changes on the inside matter, from camera improvements to new sensors that enable quicker access to tasks.
I had only about 90 minutes to try out the new Apple products unveiled Wednesday – not enough time, given that Apple Inc. has a larger iPad, a new Apple TV device and new software for the Apple Watch, alongside the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. I wasn't able to test the new iPhone cameras in natural settings, for instance, to say whether pictures are really better with 12 megapixels, instead of 8 megapixels in the previous iPhones.
(Also see: iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus With 3D Touch Display Launched)
But I was able to try 3D Touch, a new way to interact with the iPhone. You save a few taps by pressing and holding on an app icon to go directly to a particular function. Microsoft's Windows phones let you create shortcuts as home screen icons, but few people ..

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro [year] review

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 2024 review

November 25, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Is 12 inches too big for a tablet screen? We're about to find out. Samsung has decided that the world needs bigger tablets, and so we have not one but two 12.2-inch models from the Korean giant. As if their lineup wasn't expansive enough, these new models are the largest of a range of new Android tablets.
Samsung's lineup of tablets now extends from 7 inches to 12.2 inches. Factoring in the Galaxy Mega and Galaxy Note phones which have screens of up to 6.3 inches, Samsung really does seem to be trying every possible size.
The two biggest models, the Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro, look identical and have nearly identical features, so it's easy to mix them up. The chief difference is the S-Pen, which has led to this confusing naming scheme. The S-Pen has been reserved for the Galaxy Note series of smartphones, so it probably seemed appropriate to name this tablet Note Pro.
Look and feel
There's no doubt about it; this thing is huge! It's also rather he..

Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010) [year]

Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010) 2024

February 23, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Although Spice had launched its first tablet, the MiTab as early as September 2011, it wasn't really able to get a foothold in the highly crowded Android tablets market, dominated by players like Micromax, Zync and Karbonn, amongst others. The company's sort of made a comeback with a new 10-inch tablet, which it calls, the Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010). The tablet with impressive specs has been priced well at Rs. 12,999 and runs Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of Android. We've been playing with the device and here's our take on the mid-economy tablet.

Hardware/ Build & design
The tablet feels solid although it's a bit on the heavier side but the weight has been distributed well. The tablet has a 10-inch screen surrounded by a black bezel on the front, and a silver back, which is made of plastic, with a matte finish. The back also sports the Spice logo, placed right at the middle, two speaker grills and the camera lens at the top. There's some branding at ..

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet [year]

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet 2024

March 28, 2019 Richard Gomez 0

Reports of Sony's impending exit from the smartphone business have been doing the rounds in the recent past, but that hasn't stopped the Japanese tech giant from announcing a successor to the its Xperia Z2 Tablet – the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet. Once again Sony is targeting the entertainment junkies with its new tablet.
In typical Sony fashion, the Xperia Z4 Tablet is slimmer, weighs next to nothing, and is waterproof. With the Z4 Tablet, Sony leverages its tried and tested OmniBalance design aesthetics from its Xperia Z range of smartphones for the Xperia Z4 Tablet. We think this design approach works in the favour of the Z4 Tablet but it doesn't look too different from the previous generation tablet from Sony.
A soft stainless steel trim runs along the edges. Additionally, Sony uses a material called mineral glass on the rear; it has a textured pattern and feels a lot like soft plastic to touch. In fact, our very first takeaway after spending time with the tablet was that ..

Kobo Arc [year] review

Kobo Arc 2024 review

June 30, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Canadian e-reader maker, Kobo, recently launched three of its e-readers (it calls them eReaders), and a 7-inch Android tablet, in the Indian market.
Tablets made by e-book reader companies are essentially multimedia capable devices made to please users who're looking to invest in e-books but don't want an e-ink display and want their device to do much more.
Kobo's Android tablet is called the Kobo Arc and competes with the likes of the Kindle Fire HD. As with the Kindle Fire tablet, Kobo's Arc tablet is deeply integrated with Kobo's 'eBooks'
ecosystem, which is also one of the USPs of the tablets. However, it also features the Google Play Store and Google's natives app, that are missing from Amazon's Kindle offering.
So, in a way it also competes with other 7-inch Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Tab 3. We try to find out if Kobo's been able to strike a balance between an e-reading device and a full-featured Android tablet,..