Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2016) First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2016) First Impressions

February 8, 2016 Richard Gomez 4

Samsung, at its Southwest Asia Forum 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, announced details of its new Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 2016 edition smartphones for the Indian market. The handsets were first unveiled last year in China, though the company had not disclosed anything about the availability of the two refreshed models outside China at that time.
The Galaxy A series was first launched in late 2014, and now the South Korean giant claims that it has contributed to increase in its worldwide 4G market share, along with the J-series. According to Samsung, its share in 4G devices increased from 25.9 percent in December 2014 to 60.6 percent in December 2015. The company however declined to share exact numbers.
We spent some time with both the new Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 2016 edition smartphones at the launch event and here are our first impressions.
At the press briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Samsung stressed that the new generation Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 are designed using glass and metal. This was evident..

HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM

HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM

February 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 5

Home | Mobiles | Mobiles News HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM Price Slashed in India by Gadgets 360 Staff , 9 February 2016 Following its launch of the HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM on Friday, HTC has dropped the price by Rs. 1,000 on Tuesday. The smartphone, which was launched Rs. 14,990, will now be available at Rs. 13,990.
As before, the HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM will be in Blue Lagoon and White Birch colour variants with major retailers in the coming weeks. The Taiwanese smartphone maker on Tuesday also dropped the price of the HTC Desire 728 Dual SIM in India, by the same amount – Rs. 1,000. Launched at Rs. 17,990 in January, the Desire 728 Dual SIM is now available at Rs. 16,990.
To recall, the dual-SIM (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM) supporting HTC Desire 626 comes with HTC Sense UI on top of Android. While the company has not detailed the Android version (or for that matter, the Sense UI version), we can expect the HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM to run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. It features a 5-inch (720×1280 ..

Wickedleak Wammy Titan 5 [year]

Wickedleak Wammy Titan 5 2025

December 25, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Wickedleak is an Indian smartphone company that we'd like to imagine was inspired by Julian Assange's popular whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Of course, the two have nothing to do with each other, but we still find the name amusing. Formed in 2009, the company has grown to becoming quite a talking point in the Indian smartphone arena.
The Wickedleak Wammy Titan 5 is our review product of the day. This behemoth of a smartphone is large, heavy and undeniably phablet-esque. Does it have what it takes to justify the Rs. 13,990 price tag? We find out in our review.
Look and feel
With its 5.5-inch screen, the Wammy Titan 5 can rightfully be classified as a phablet. It's also incredibly heavy and thick. Although the Wickedleak website specifies the thickness of the phone at 8mm, it feels thicker. The back has a removable textured plastic panel, while the frame and edges are metallic. After a closer look at the phone, we found the build quality and finishing a bit crude. From..

Yu Yutopia [year] Review

Yu Yutopia 2025 Review

March 5, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

The brand new Yu Yutopia is being touted as “the most powerful phone on the planet”, which is a bold claim from a company's debut entry into the big leagues. Yu Televentures CEO Rahul Sharma seems mighty confident though since the company's marketing department had no qualms about taking digs at Apple and Samsung in the teasers that led up to the phones' debut last week.
Pot-shots aside, it's clear that Yu is going after the Chinese manufacturers like OnePlus, Xiaomi, Gionee and Oppo who have long been offering “flagship killers” without having to empty your bank account. The aptly named Yutopia is an imagining of what a perfect smartphone should be like, while still being affordable to the masses.
Yu has certainly got the ingredients right but how it all comes together in the end, is what really matters. Is the Yutopia every bit as good as it looks on paper? Let's find out.
Look and feel
The aluminium and magnesium chassis is one of the highlights of the p..

Samsung Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 First Impressions

February 13, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Samsung on Tuesday unveiled its latest Galaxy On series smartphones, the Galaxy On5 and On7, in India. The company is pushing these new models as value for money devices, and is targeting young consumers. Priced aggressively, the new On-series smartphones pack features including Ultra Data Saving (UDS) and MixRadio as well as 4G LTE support.
The South Korean company has launched these budget Android handsets after spending the past few months pushing its high-end Galaxy lineup – the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5. Samsung also unveiled the Z3 in India last month, powered by Tizen OS.
We spent some time with the new Samsung Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 smartphones at the launch event and here are our first impressions.
When we first looked at the new Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 smartphones, the dated Galaxy design was evident. Both models have identical front and back panels. Apart from the screen size, there is no visible difference between the Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7. The bigg..

Acer Liquid Z630s [year]

Acer Liquid Z630s 2025

February 24, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

After a long hiatus, Acer is taking another shot at the Indian smartphone market with two new budget offerings. The Taiwanese company recently announced the Liquid Z530 and Liquid Z630s Android smartphones, which we first saw at IFA 2015. The new offerings will be sold exclusively through Flipkart and will also be manufactured in India, come December. Acer is testing the waters now and if things pick up, we can expect other models to follow suit.
Today, we'll be reviewing the Liquid Z630s, a lower-mid-range smartphone priced at Rs. 10,999. We've already taken a quick look at it and its smaller sibling in our unboxing video and it's now time to see how this phone stacks up against the competition. In this space, we have plenty of tried and tested options from the likes of Lenovo, Motorola and Asus so let's see if Acer's offering has that special sauce to help it stand out.
Look and feel
The Acer Liquid Z630s features a pebble-like design with rounded edges and ..

Homido Mini Is a Cheap VR Headset That's Even Simpler Than the Google Cardboard

Homido Mini Is a Cheap VR Headset That’s Even Simpler Than the Google Cardboard

February 11, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

The Homido Mini is a small, easy to use, and extremely portable virtual reality 'headset' for mobile devices that works with apps that support Google Cardboard. It's reasonably cheap, and you can use it to very easily showcase VR experiences without having to carry around a large boxy cardboard headset, which makes it a great buy if you're interested in virtual reality.
Getting into virtual reality has never been easier thanks to smartphone-powered VR headsets. Although a full-fledged VR setup is expensive – for example, the Oculus Rift will cost you $599 to pre-order (roughly Rs. 39,500) – mobile setups are significantly cheaper.
(Also see: Oculus Rift Preview: Bringing Reality to the Virtual World)
The Samsung Gear VR has launched at Rs. 8,200 in India and is available elsewhere at $99 (approximately Rs. 6,700). But aside from that, there are also a number of Google Cardboard headsets. You can get these online for prices ranging from roughly Rs. 200 for basic c..

Asus ZenFone Zoom [year] Review

Asus ZenFone Zoom 2025 Review

February 8, 2016 Richard Gomez 5

Innovation tends to reach a saturation point after a while, which bogs down pretty much ever facet of technology. What do you do when those eureka moments start drying up and you find yourself looking for something new to wow your audience with? Putting a fresh spin on old technology seems like one way to go about it. Smartphone cameras with optical zoom have been around ever since Nokia launched the N90, way back when. This didn't exactly catch on since no one likes carrying a bulky camera in their pockets, which is what these phones essentially were.
Samsung has toyed with this idea a bit, with its last attempt being the Galaxy K Zoom over two years ago. The 10X optical zoom was the highlight of this phone but it was still more of a digital camera than a smartphone.
Asus has never known to shy away from experimenting with hybrid devices and its latest incarnation is the ZenFone Zoom. This is its attempt at a smartphone with optical zoom and thankfully, it hasn't compromi..