Month: November 2018

Le 1s and Le Max First Impressions

Le 1s and Le Max First Impressions

November 6, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

LeEco, the Chinese Internet conglomerate better known by its former name Letv, has finally launched its first products for the Indian market. The Le Max and Le 1s have been unveiled and will be available in India using the infamous flash sale model, in which interested buyers need to sign up in advance for a chance to buy one of a limited number of units that will be available.
The company recently garnered a lot of interest with its CES announcement of the Le Max Pro, first smartphone to sport the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Letv recently rebranded itself to LeEco (short for Le Ecosystem) ahead of the Indian launch, and offers live-streaming, e-commerce and cloud services and sells smartphones, TV set-top boxes and smart TVs, among many other things, in its home market China. At the launch event in New Delhi, LeEco had members of its SuperFans community in attendance. We have seen many other brands including Asus, Meizu, and Xiaomi following the same strategy at their respe..

Deadpool Is the Ultimate Date Movie for Your Bromance

Deadpool Is the Ultimate Date Movie for Your Bromance

November 10, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Of late, you'll find Deadpool just about everywhere, and he's become one of those characters that even non-comic book fans will recognise. Deadpool also has an excellent video game to his name that manages to mix together humour and mayhem with elan. As a movie character though, he's had a less successful past – we were first introduced to the character in the (honestly bad) X-Men Origins: Wolverine – where he was played by Ryan Reynolds, who did a fair turn as wisecracking Wade Wilson, and then the film stitches his mouth shut so he can't speak. It was a really bad decision that soured people on the character.
Yet here we are again, with Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool a second time, in an all-new origin story that actually works really well. This time around, Reynolds' Wilson gets to keep talking throughout the film, and it's a good idea because he carries the movie with his non-stop wisecracks. What's more, Deadpool is true to the comics, and fans ..

Nikon Coolpix AW120 [year] Review: Travelling Tough

Nikon Coolpix AW120 2024 Review: Travelling Tough

November 15, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

If recent industry reports are to be believed, the market for point-and-shoot digital cameras is dwindling year-on-year. This isn't surprising giving the increasing popularity of smartphones, especially ones with more-than-capable cameras. The need of the hour for digital camera manufacturers is to come up with products that can do things smartphones can't, in terms of both, features and image quality.
Some manufacturers have tried to stand apart with rugged or a waterproof cameras which cater to people who enjoy travelling or are into extreme sports. Nikon, an industry veteran, has the Coolpix AW series of point-and-shoot cameras servicing this demographic. Apart from being waterproof, these cameras are also shockproof and could very well be great travel companions.
Nikon unveiled 16 new cameras in its 2014 Spring Series, one of which was the Coolpix AW120 – an upgrade to the AW110. The new model is almost identical to its predecessor except for a slight increase in heft, hi..

iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 [year]

iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 2024

November 18, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

If I've seen you taking photos with a tablet computer, I've probably made fun of you (though maybe not to your face, depending on how big you are). I'm old school: I much prefer looking through the viewfinder of my full-bodied, single-lens reflex camera, even though it has a large LCD screen.
But as I tested out Apple's new iPad Air 2, I see why people like to shoot pictures with a tablet. Images look great on the large screen, and there's less guesswork about whether or not small details, such as lettering on a sign, will be in focus.
And what you see – and get – with the iPad Air 2 is a better camera. The rear one now matches the iPhone's 8 megapixels, up from 5 megapixels, and incorporates features such as slow-motion video. Packed with a faster processor, the 9.7-inch tablet is also 18 percent thinner and 7 percent lighter than the previous model, at about a quarter of an inch and just under a pound.
Apple is also updating its 7.9-inch iPad mini, thoug..

Nexus 7 [year] review

Nexus 7 2024 review

November 19, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

In the 1982 sci-fi movie “Blade Runner,” there are hints that the hero, played by Harrison Ford, is an artificial human – an “android” or “replicant.” His job is to go out and kill other, rogue androids.
If he's an android, he's of the latest model, Nexus 7. That's also the name Google Inc. has picked for the first tablet to bear the Google brand. Clearly, its mission is to go out and kill rogue tablets running Google's Android software.
Specifically, the Nexus 7 seems to have been designed to give anyone who bought a Kindle Fire from Amazon.com Inc. or a Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble Inc. a lethal case of buyer's remorse.
The Nexus 7 costs $199, the same that Amazon and Barnes & Noble charge for their tablets. But it's better than theirs in significant ways, as it became clear to me after a couple of days of use. Google announced the tablet last week and is taking pre-orders for delivery in mid-July.
Why is Google targeting the Kindle Fire and the Nook ..

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..

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 310 - [year] review

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 310 – 2024 review

November 25, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Samsung is probably trying to apply its smartphones strategy on tablets, as the company is launching Android tablets of varied specification in the Indian market. Starting from 7-inch, the Korean manufacture has a tablet for you in almost every possible size – 7.7-inch, 8.9-inch, and 10.1-inch.
The recently launched Galaxy Tab 2 310 is company's first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet to reach India and it is also a device that marks a big shift in company's target market. Instead of going after the iPad buyers, Samsung has realised that it is better to target buyers that don't have the budget to opt for iPad and can compromise a bit on features.
The Galaxy Tab 2 310 comes at almost half the price at which original Galaxy Tab was launched in India and has similar features, but has the reduction in price impacted the overall performance of the device? We find out in this review.
Hardware
Apart from the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab, all the Samsung tablets look identical, with just..

Penta T-Pad WS707C review [year]

Penta T-Pad WS707C review 2024

November 28, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

The Indian tablet market seems to be growing at a rapid pace. As per a recent report by Cyber Media Research, there were about 3.11 million tablets sold in India in the year 2012 and the research company is quite bullish about expectations for this year.
The category that is seeing the maximum number of launches in the recent past is the Android Jelly Bean tablets under Rs. 10,000. Pantel Technologies, which manufactures tablets under the Penta T-Pad branding, have also launched their T-Pad WS707C in the Indian market for Rs. 7,999. So will this tablet stand out from the clutter? We find out in this review.
Build and Design
The Penta T-Pad WS707C sports a 7-inch (1024×600 pixels) capacitive touch screen display. The screen with a broad black bezel takes up most of the front. There is only an earpiece on the right bezel (while holding the tablet in landscape mode), while the front camera is on the top left corner. On the top panel are the volume rocker keys and the power/ standby button..

Lenovo Tab A7-50 3G - [year] Review

Lenovo Tab A7-50 3G – 2024 Review

November 29, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

There definitely is a market for tablets which can be used as phones. They might not fit in a pocket or be comfortable to hold for very long, but you can browse the Web and enjoy movies on a large screen without having to carry multiple devices around. Lenovo's offering is budget-minded and competes with the likes of tablets from local as well as international brands. Its street price of Rs. 13,999 puts it roughly in the middle of the price range as far as this segment is concerned.
Lenovo's Tab A7 series is available in a variety of configurations. We have the A7-50 3G with us for review, which is also known as the A3500-HV. The HV suffix indicates that this model supports 3G data as well as voice calling – other variants listed online, which might or might not necessarily be available, do not support 3G voice. The front of the box only says Lenovo Tab A7, so make sure you check the labels on the back.
Look and feel
There isn't very much you can do to make a tablet stan..

Smartlink Digitab SS1078W - [year] Review

Smartlink Digitab SS1078W – 2024 Review

November 30, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Smartlink might not be a well-known brand in the tablet market, but the company has been around for quite a long time. Formerly the Indian avatar of D-Link, Smartlink became an independent company in 2008 and has since then dealt in products ranging from networking infrastructure to motherboards, with multiple brands including Digilink (now sold to Schneider Electric), Digisol, Digicare, and Digilite.
Now, it has also branched out into the consumer tablet market with a range called – what else – Digitab. Three products have been launched, with features and specifications tailored for the Indian market. Two of these are 7-inch tablets, while the most expensive one has a 10.1-inch screen.
We have the unintuitively named Digitab SS1078W, the largest of the three, in for review today. Let's see if Smartlink has what it takes to compete with existing local and international companies.
Look and feel
First impressions are important, and unfortunately the SS1078W did nothing to impress u..