Richard Gomez | Page 19 of 57

Gionee Marathon M5 Plus 2025

January 4, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

No matter how big the battery on any smartphone, it degrades over time. If your smartphone lasts a whole day on a single charge when it's fresh out of its box, then one year later its battery life will be significantly less. The Gionee Marathon M5 Plus, which the company unveiled at a special event in Dongguan, China this week, tries to solve this problem. Gionee claims that the smartphone's battery will retain 90 percent of its capacity after 600 charging cycles, which translates to roughly two years of use.
This explains why the Gionee Marathon M5 Plus has a slightly lower capacity 5020mAh battery, when compared to the 6020mAh battery if the Gionee Marathon M5 (Review | Pictures). The “Plus” moniker has more to do with its larger screen and longer-lasting battery, according to Gionee. In a world where an Android smartphone with a humongous 10000mAh battery isn't impossible, the Marathon series' battery capacity doesn't seem excessive.
The biggest challenge fo..

Intex Cloud Flash 2025 Review

January 3, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

The Cloud Flash is Intex's most recent entry in its 'Cloud' series of smartphones and it's just in time for the holiday rush. This Rs.10,000 smartphone boasts off having a protective glass back and of course 4G connectivity. However, the Intex has its work cut out for it as the Lenovo K3 Note (Review | Pictures) happens to reside in this segment too. The latter is one of our favourite phones of 2015 and was one of the most popular handsets on Flipkart this year. Let's see if the Cloud Flash has what it takes to pose as a better alternative.
Look and feel
Intex has certainly stepped up its game in the build and finish department. With smooth, rounded edges and Gorilla Glass for the front and back, the Cloud Flash doesn't feel cheap. The glass back does make the phone very slippery though and can easily slip through your fingers or slide of an uneven surface.
Dominating the front is a 5-inch HD AMOLED display, which produces saturated colours along with good..

Moto G Turbo Edition 2025 Review

January 2, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

When the newly resurgent Motorola made its mark in India early last year with the first-generation Moto G, it quickly became the go-to value option. Three generations later, and the situation isn't as clear. There are more options than ever thanks to the entry of a number of Chinese companies in quick succession. The Moto G has lost its spot as the sub-Rs. 15,000 top dog in terms of raw specifications, but its brand value makes buyers keep coming back.
In an effort to at least try to remain competitive, Motorola is now offering the Moto G Turbo Edition, a mid-cycle upgrade of the Moto G (Gen 3) (Review). Nearly everything is the same, except for the bumped up processor, RAM, and storage, plus the incorporation of Motorola's TurboPower feature as a result of the fast charging capabilities of the new Qualcomm SoC.
Not to be confused with the Moto Turbo (Review | Pictures), the new Moto G Turbo Edition slots in alongside the Moto G (Gen 3) at a higher price. We're curious t..

Yu Yutopia 2025

January 1, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

The Yu Yutopia, Yu's ticket to enter the high-spec smartphone category, has been teased for months. Now officially announced, the device is up for pre-order via Amazon, priced at Rs. 24,999 and will start shipping on December 25. Yu Televentures CEO Rahul Sharma unveiled the smartphone at a press event and also announced a new service dubbed Around Yu, which aims to reduce the time taken to download apps for different services such as shopping, booking hotels, flights, taxis, and more. Touted as the 'world's most powerful' smartphone, the Yutopia aims to take on OnePlus 2 and others that fall in the same price segment. The smartphone comes with top-of-the-line specifications but does it only look good on paper or does it really perform as promised? We got our hands on a sample device, and here are our first impressions.
The design of the Yutopia takes clues from other Yu siblings. It sports a metal unibody with antennas running around all four corners on the rear p..

Gravity Rush Remastered 2025 Review

December 31, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

If it weren't for the word “remastered” in its name, you wouldn't think that Gravity Rush Remastered is an updated, high definition version of the 2012 open-world PS Vita action-adventure game as the two games look worlds apart. The original release of on Sony's second handheld was beautiful in its own right, limited by the platform's limitations. On the PlayStation 4 however, it looks good enough to be mistaken for a game natively developed for it.
Gravity Rush has you in the role of Kat, who is a “gravity shifter”. As the name implies, Kat specialises in turning Newtonian laws upside down. It's an intriguing concept, so we were a little disappointed that the game used the well worn amnesiac hero trope; Kat has lost her memory, and doesn't know how she ended up in the floating city of Heskeville.
(Also see: The Best PlayStation Vita Games March 2015)
Over the course of the game, you will re-discover who you are, while slaying monsters and foiling a gra..

Batman: Arkham Knight Season of Infamy DLC Review

December 30, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Batman: Arkham Knight has been one of the most controversial games this year. Although the game itself was well received, it wasn't without its flaws, and we aren't even talking about the highly lacklustre PC port, which even after multiple updates isn't really worth paying for. This aside, another thing the game has drawn flak for is the vast amount of downloadable content (DLC) that publisher Warner Bros. announced prior to launch.
The season pass for the game costs a whopping Rs. 3,330 for six months of DLC on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One; that's almost the price of a new game. And very little of this content was really worth the extra money either. Most of it consisted of character skins, challenge maps, and story missions involving protagonists such as Batgirl and Catwoman. That last part is the only true value being added, but these missions were short adventures, clocking in at around 20 to 30 minutes at best.
(Also see:Batman: Arkham Knight Review – Dark Knigh..

Rainbow Six Siege 2025 Review

December 28, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

In a year dominated by twitchy first-person shooters that rely on reflexes and instinct such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Halo 5, Rainbow Six Siege is a breath of fresh air for fans of multiplayer shooters.
Based on the Tom Clancy series of the same name, it pits you against human opponents in a slew of match types. As you play, you'll gain access to a host of operators – soldiers with unique tech such as being able to track enemies' locations by their heartbeat or reviving team mates. There is a single-player mode, but it's nothing more than a short tutorial, which does little more than introduce you to the game mechanics, and prepare you for multiplayer which makes up the chunk of Rainbow Six Siege.
The first thing you'll notice about this game is the change in pace. It isn't as zippy as other shooters, yet despite how heavy the armour on your character appears to be, death comes quickly. Each match becomes a frantic scurry to get behind slowly disinteg..

MSI Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition Review [year]

MSI Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition Review 2025

December 27, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

There are some motherboards that will be installed inside desktop PCs and then pretty much never see the light of day again. These bare-basic boards will be touched only by factory workers and then sealed off inside their boxes; rarely seen even for cleaning. Then there's the enthusiast breed of motherboards, which are designed to be showed off at every opportunity. They have flashy lights, colourful accents, and of course elaborate heatsinks. They need to stand out in a very commoditised but intensely competitive market.
MSI has done all of that and developed a few new bells and whistles with its Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition model. This is the company's new statement piece, and it's very effective. It's also packed to the gills with high-end features in pretty much every subsystem: audio, memory, storage, expansion, and overclocking. Let's dive in.
Design, layout and features
The Xpower Z170A looks phenomenal. If you're building inside a high-end ..

Sky Sutra Is Part Shooter, Part Platformer, All Awesome – and Made in India

December 26, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

A corner table of a local bar is hardly where you would expect to check out a brand new, unreleased video game, but that's exactly what happened as we huddled around a laptop and played Sky Sutra. Created by Mumbai-based Yellow Monkey Studios, Sky Sutra has a heavy focus on couch co-op, and is coming to the PC and possibly, the PlayStation 4.
Yellow Monkey has already made a name for itself with high quality premium mobile games such as It's Just a Thought, Huebrix, and most recently, Socioball. Sky Sutra is meant for a new audience, but the developers have made a polished game that makes good use of the controller.
(Also see: Playing It Risky: Meet Socioball, a Premium Puzzle Game From India)
At first, we were skeptical, because Sky Sutra can easily be mistaken for many of the side-scrolling, endless runners we're subject to on Android and iOS. There's a cute looking art-style with colourful backdrops, two boxy characters, and a never-ending carpet suspended in..

Just Cause 2025

March 29, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

The exploding barrel is a well-worn video game trope. Ever since we first saw these in Doom, these have been a handy way to clear rooms full of enemies with a single shot, as the resulting detonation eliminates them en masse. But what happens when an entire game world is filled to the brim with exploding barrels? The game ends up being Just Cause 3.
Taking place in the fictional island country of Medici, Just Cause 3's irreverent tone, cheesy dialogue, and goofball plot are all reminiscent of older action games and movies. It's highly derivative but enjoyable all the same. In Just Cause 3, you set the world ablaze as former special agent Rico Rodriguez, hellbent on freeing Medici from the iron grip of dictator Sebastiano Di Ravello.
With this comes the opportunity to run amok. The exploding barrel trope takes the form of transformers, satellites, and obviously, fuel tanks – almost every thing in Just Cause 3 can be destroyed in a chaotic haze of fire and smoke.
(Also se..

The Crew 2025: Wild Run Review

December 6, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Last year, Ubisoft, the purveyor of fine historical murder simulators, quirky strategy games, and oft-delayed tactical shooters, also released The Crew. It's a racing game that promised you'll never drive alone what with a sprawling open-world, mammoth missions that had you playing with friends, and deep customisation options as well as role-playing game-like levelling systems.
On paper, it sounded like the dream racer. The reality was a damp squib. Being an always online game, connecting to its servers was a chore, most of the missions amounted to busywork, and the driving was anything but enjoyable.
(Also see: The Crew Review: Definitely Not In Top Gear)
However, none of this seems to have fazed developer Ivory Tower. Over the last 11 months it's been pushing updates to The Crew from tweaking its wonky net code to adding new missions. And now, it's released The Crew: Wild Run, an expansion pack to the game.
The first thing we noticed was how much better it loo..

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 2025

December 26, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Xiaomi last month caught some eyeballs when it launched its third-generation Redmi Note smartphone in China, its first device to feature a fingerprint sensor. The Redmi Note 3 is priced at CNY 899 (approximately Rs. 9,500) for 2GB of RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage, and CNY 1099 (approximately Rs. 11,500) for 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. We recently got our hands on a unit and these are our first impressions.
The metal-clad, dual-SIM Redmi Note 3 is Xiaomi's latest flagship model, and it certainly lives up to that standard in most areas. The smartphone has a sturdy build, offering just enough grip to prevent it from slipping from your hands. Measuring 150x76x8.65mm, the device has its power button placed in the middle of the right side, making it easy to reach. The volume buttons sit above the power button, while the SIM tray is on the upper left. Of the three colour variants, gold, silver and dark grey, we found the gold version the most eye-catching.
The Xiaomi Redm..