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Honor 7 Review: The Metallic Powerhouse

February 23, 2016 PTdrivers 0

Although Honor is a Huawei-owned brand, its devices usually lack any mention of this, instead pitching the smartphones independently. The Honor brand allows the company to compete in the crowded budget market, and offer high-quality, well-specified devices at affordable prices without affecting the 'premium' brand image that Huawei has built for itself in China and the world over.
That is exactly what the new Honor 7 brings to the table. It's packed to the brim with features, and has top-spec hardware. With a specifications sheet that could put most flagship devices to shame, the Honor 7 hopes to win over a lot of high-value buyers with its Rs. 22,999 price tag. We go into the details in our review.
Look and feel
With a 5.2-inch full-HD IPS-LCD screen, the Honor 7 sits in the flagship smartphone sweet spot for displays. It's bright, detailed and suitably large, without breaching the 5.5-inch mark that is arguably considered to be the point where a phone becomes a ph..

Lenovo Phab Plus Review

February 8, 2016 PTdrivers 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..

Micromax Canvas Tab P690 Review: Only for Entertainment

February 9, 2016 PTdrivers 7

Low-cost Android tablets are fairly common, but with 5-inch and 5.5-inch smartphones becoming increasingly common, the case for having yet another device in your life has become somewhat less clear. Devices like this are great for reading and browsing the Web on if you have one lying around, but chances are if you have a smartphone, tablet and laptop, the tablet is the most likely to be left behind.
Micromax has a new offering, the Canvas Tab P690, which is trying to find a space in users' lives. It has an 8-inch screen and offers cellular voice calling for those who might use such a feature. The cost is low enough to be tempting, and the company advertises loads of freebies in the form of physical accessories as well as software. Let's see what you might have to gain by owning one of these.
Look and feel
The Canvas Tab P690 looks rather nice at first glance. It isn't all that slim but it does have bold, distinctive lines including chiselled edges around the rear. The fr..

InFocus M680 Review

January 6, 2018 PTdrivers 0

InFocus has been a player in India for less than a year now, but it has been releasing a steady stream of new models, most of which we have received well. The US-based company, which specialises in projectors and office communication equipment, is working with Chinese electronics giant Foxconn to put its name on a line of smartphones aimed at emerging markets. Through this relationship, InFocus is trying to carve out a space for itself, and it seems as though the periodic flash sales it holds are receiving quite a lot of attention.
It can't be easy to compete in the Indian smartphone market, where a disruptive new device comes along nearly every other week. Still, InFocus appears to be gunning for the budget segment with a combination of low prices and premium features. Let's see if the new M680 can take on existing low-cost champions and leave a good impression.
Look and feel
We liked looking at the InFocus M680 from pretty much every angle except head-on. The front face is ..

Lenovo Vibe S1 Review

January 8, 2018 PTdrivers 0

Lenovo is the leading manufacturer of personal computers in the world, and since entering the smartphone market in 2012, has quickly become one of the top five smartphone vendors as well. Part of this success can be attributed to the Vibe range of smartphones, and today we're reviewing the new Lenovo Vibe S1.
At Rs. 15,999, the Vibe S1 is the company's latest entry in the ultra-competitive mid-range. It's got everything that a good mid-range smartphone needs, from a good specification sheet to the signature dual-camera setup in the front. We go into the finer details of the Lenovo Vibe S1 in our review.
Look and feel
While many phones in the sub-Rs. 20,000 segment lack any real aesthetic appeal, the Vibe S1 really stands out. The frame is metal, with a dull matte finish all around. The phone is available in two colour options, blue and white. Our review sample was blue, and we loved the look of the device.
Although the Vibe S1 is 7.8mm at its thickest point, it has a cu..

Oppo R7 Lite Review

February 17, 2016 PTdrivers 0

It's been a couple of years since Oppo entered the Indian market and since then, the company has managed to capture the attention of buyers with unique smartphones, right from the swivelling camera on the Oppo N1 to India's first Quad-HD display on the Oppo Find 7. Its most recent launch is the brand new Oppo R7 Lite, a mid-range offering priced at Rs.18,000.

This is a tough segment to compete in, as we have the recently launched OnePlus X, the Gionee Elife S7 (Review | Pictures) from earlier in the year, and the crowd favourite Motorola Moto X Play (Review) – all hovering around the same price point. The R7 Lite is the smaller sibling of the Oppo R7 Plus and our initial impressions of both the phones were on the positive side. Let's find out if our initial thoughts hold true once we've put it through the grind.
Look and feel
The build and finish of the R7 Lite is quite impressive thanks to quality materials used in the construction. The body is made up of a sin..

Sony Xperia Z5 Dual Review

February 13, 2016 PTdrivers 0

Sony's mobile division has been in a rut for a while. If IDC's latest report is anything to go by, dominance by the likes of Huawei and Lenovo is only adding to the company's woes. Rather than sticking with the standard formula of yearly refreshes, Sony decided a few years ago to try bi-annual refreshes in order to keep things exciting and hopefully drive up sales.

Our last outing with Sony's flagship smartphone was the Xperia Z3+ (Review | Pictures) , which didn't exactly blow our socks off. This was just three months ago, and today, we already have its successor in the form of the Xperia Z5 Dual. Our first encounter with the phone was at IFA 2015 where the company announced it along with its two siblings – the Xperia Z5 Premium and Xperia Z5 Compact.
(Also read: Sony Xperia Z5, Xperia Z5 Compact, Xperia Z5 Premium First Impressions)
The Xperia Z5 Dual is on sale right now at Rs. 52,990 and will compete with flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Sam..

Lenovo Launches Global Wireless Roaming Service

February 22, 2016 PTdrivers 0

China's Lenovo Group Ltd will launch a global wireless service for its mobile devices to cut roaming costs for its users, it said on Sunday.
The service, called Lenovo Connect, allows users to travel to 50 countries and use their devices at local prices on mobile Internet, without installing new SIM cards, Lenovo said in a statement on Sunday.
For years, roaming or extra charges for the use of telecoms services outside a person's home country have been a source of consumers' ire as many were confronted with high phone bills after returning from holiday.
The European Union has agreed to abolish mobile roaming charges across the 28-country bloc by June 2017, requiring telecom operators to treat all Internet traffic equally.
Lenovo said it could offer the service through its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) activities, which currently has 11 million users globally.
MVNOs are operators who rent access on bigger rivals' networks and tend to sell cheaper mobile plan..