Lenovo Phab Plus [year] Review

Lenovo Phab Plus 2024 Review

February 8, 2016 Richard Gomez 7

Yes, the new Lenovo Phab Plus is enormous and unweildy. No, it's not worth buying if you do not explicitly want a huge phone – or a tablet that can also make voice calls. Now that that's out of the way, we can look at it for what it really is rather than dismissing it as ridiculous: a hybrid device designed for people who spend a lot more time playing games and watching videos than talking on the phone.
Lenovo stresses the screen and audio quality of the Phab Plus, which is a way of saying it's an entertainment-focused device. There really isn't anything else like it on the market. With a metal body and a price tag close to Rs. 20,000, Lenovo is trying to create a premium niche in the voice-calling tablet market. Let's see if the company has tapped a whole new product category, or whether the Phab Plus is just a novelty that will soon be forgotten.
Look and feel
The very first thing to deal with when it comes to this phone is its size. With a 6.8-inch screen an..

Intex Cloud Flash [year] Review

Intex Cloud Flash 2024 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..

Sony PlayStation TV [year]

Sony PlayStation TV 2024

February 14, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Microconsoles are an interesting lot. They aren't meant to replace your traditional, high-end consoles like the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One; they're designed more to give you a taste of big-screen gaming at a relatively low price.

While devices in this category have existed since 2009, what with the ill-fated 3G-enabled Zeebo, competition in the category only heated up in 2012. That's when the Ouya, a microconsole powered by Android, entered mainstream consciousness thanks to a surprisingly well-received Kickstarter campaign.
It's reached a point where Sony has decided to enter the fray with its PlayStation TV. Dubbed 'PlayStation Vita TV' in Japan and parts of Asia when it released in late 2013, the company felt it wise to rechristen it to PlayStation TV (PSTV) — wisely so, given that the Vita hasn't exactly been Sony's most popular console.
Fast forward to February 2015 and the firm has deemed it fit to release the PlayStation TV in I..

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) [year] Review

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) 2024 Review

December 5, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

We wouldn't be surprised to hear that people are beginning to lose count of how many Fonepad models Asus has released. This is a product line that Asus has been pushing for a while now, attempting to solidify its position in the voice-calling tablet market. Although a lot of people laugh at the idea of using a 7-inch tablet as their primary phone, Asus evidently has enough reason to believe that it's a product category worth investing in.
The new Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) offers improved specs and features over previous versions of the device, including a better camera and more storage. It sticks to the 7-inch display and Intel Atom SoC, and retains the typical Asus tablet look and feel. Performance is of course important, but we are also eager to see whether the Rs. 10,999 price tag is justified by the inclusion of a few new features and hardware upgrades.
Look and Feel
Ever since the success of the Asus Google Nexus 7, Asus has tried to stick to the same design formula as fa..

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,..

China's Huawei Backs Apple in Fight Over Encryption

China’s Huawei Backs Apple in Fight Over Encryption

February 22, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

China's Huawei said it backed Apple's chief executive Tim Cook in his stand-off with the United States government over breaking into an iPhone, but stopped short of saying explicitly it would adopt the same stance.
“It is very important, we agree with that,” Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei's consumer business group, told reporters in Barcelona gathered for the Mobile World Congress. “Privacy protection is very important for Huawei, we put a lot of investment into privacy, and security protection is key, it is very important for the consumer.
“Apple is resisting US government demands that it unlock an iPhone used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party in San Bernardino in December.
(Also see: Why Even the FBI Can't Hack the iPhone)
“Tim Cook spoke up for that (privacy) … for us it is really very important,” Yu said. “I think it's good letting the government understand ..

Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT 712 Review [year]

Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT 712 Review 2024

January 15, 2019 Richard Gomez 0

Flipkart has decided to throw its considerable brand power behind retail products. Much like other retailers have in the past, Flipkart will sell its own products alongside those of every other brand – with maybe just a bit more promotion.
The Digiflip Pro XT 712 is the first of a promised range of digital devices sourced and sold in India by Flipkart. It's aimed at value-conscious buyers who already have quite a few options to choose from.
For this to not backfire and hurt the company's image, the Digiflip Pro XT 712 should of course work well, feel sturdy, and be reliable. Flipkart has chosen to jump in to the low end of the tablet market, which also makes things interesting. Let's see whether the move has paid off.
Look and feel
The front face of the XT 712 is completely unremarkable. It's basically just a frame around a screen. The device uses on-screen buttons, there's nothing at all to see. The small speaker grille and front-facing camera are the only thi..

Zync Quad 9.7 [year]

Zync Quad 9.7 2024

July 10, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

While the market is flooded with 7-inch tablets, there's still some space for good quality 10-inchers. The Zync Quad 9.7 tablet promises to bring a high resolution 'Retina' display to the Android world at an unbelievable price. But does it deliver on performance and usability? We try to find out.
Design/ Build
From the front, the Zync Quad 9.7 looks roughly similar to the Apple iPad except that there's no hardware button. The front features a 9.7-inch screen surrounded by a black bezel. Interestingly, the iPad also features a 9.7-inch screen. The placement of the front facing camera is a little unconventional – it's located at the top right corner (looking at the tablet in landscape mode).
The tablet has rounded corners and there's a white plastic frame between the front and the back of the tablet. The back of the tablet has a brushed aluminium finish and while we're not sure of the material that it's made of, it does exude a feeling of durabilit..

Asus ZenPad 8.0 (Z380KL) Review: Flying the Android Tablet Flag

Asus ZenPad 8.0 (Z380KL) Review: Flying the Android Tablet Flag

February 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 9

Asus has been one of the earliest proponents of Android tablets, producing the excellent Transformer range as well as two generations of Nexus tablets. The company also tried its hand with the FonePad and MemoPad series, although some of these products such as the FonePad 7 (FE171CG) (Review | Pictures) didn't quite impress us.
That hasn't stopped Asus from persisting, and the Taiwanese company has now brought its 'Zen' branding to tablets. Hoping to replicate the success of the ZenFone range, the ZenPad tablets were launched earlier this month. Today, we have the ZenPad 8.0 for review, which is the top-end model. Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC, the ZenPad 8.0 aims to offer the ZenFone experience with a larger screen. We go into the details in our review.
Look and feel
Although the Asus ZenPad 8.0 goes by the Zen branding that Asus has been using for its smartphone lineup, the tablet itself bears no similarities to the smartphones. There are no off-screen ..

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

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..

Game of Thrones [year]

Game of Thrones 2024

February 13, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

The second episode of Telltale Games' Game of Thrones series has released on iOS and now Android. To download it, you'll need to buy the first episode, and then either unlock this episode as an in-app purchase, or buy a season pass that will unlock all the remaining five episodes for the price of four. Each episode costs Rs. 300 (Rs. 307 on Android) and it's also worth pointing out that there is often a long gap between each episode – the first part came out two months ago, for instance.
If you're a Game of Thrones fan, or just would like to experience some interactive fiction with a heavy dose of intrigue, betrayal and bloodshed, then you're going to enjoy this game.
(Also see: Game of Thrones Game Review: Welcome to Westeros)
Telltale Games is a developer that lives up to its name – its games are simple narrative driven experiences that have very little to do by way of actual gameplay. The central mechanic in these games is just to choose what to say next ..