smartphones

Honor 5X [year] Review

Honor 5X 2023 Review

February 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 8

Huawei's online-only Honor range of smartphones has been developed and positioned as complementary to the parent company's more premium products. Naturally, it's targeted at developing markets such as India, and the phones have managed to generate enough buzz and attention to make Honor a significant player in the budget and mid-range smartphone segments in India.
The newest product from the Honor stable is the Honor 5X. This mid-range smartphone has a little bit of everything that you might be looking for in a smartphone. With a fingerprint sensor, 4G dual-SIM connectivity and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC, the Honor 5X has a lot to offer for Rs. 12,999. There's also Huawei's reputation, which got a significant boost after the Chinese company was chosen to manufacture the Google Nexus 6P (Review | Pictures). Does the Honor 5X live up to or even exceed typical mid-range expectations? We find out in our review.
Look and feel
One of the Honor 5X's key ..

Intex Cloud Flash [year] Review

Intex Cloud Flash 2023 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..

Gionee S6 Review [year]

Gionee S6 Review 2023

February 21, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Gionee has been rapidly expanding its 'Elife S' series off late. It launched the Gionee S Plus in November and has now launched its fourth offering, the Gionee S6. While the two smartphones come with almost identical specifications, the S6 emphasises on a more premium build, as well as support for VoLTE.
The phone is priced at Rs. 19,999 and in terms of product positioning, the Gionee S6 will go up against the Oppo R7 Lite (Review). Let's see how the S6 fares against the competition.
Look and feel
The Gionee S6 doesn't exactly have an identity it can call its own. Unlike a current-gen Motorola phone – which is instantly recognisable due to its iconic design – one could easily mistake the S6 for a smartphone by Huawei or LeEco. To be fair, this is probably true of most offerings launched by Chinese companies these days. Having said that, Gionee has done a good job with the unibody aluminium build and the phone looks pretty good in rose gold. It's comfortable ..

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) [year] Review

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) 2023 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..

Yu Yutopia [year]

Yu Yutopia 2023

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..

Nokia CEO Says 'Not in a Hurry' to Get Back Into Smartphone Business

Nokia CEO Says ‘Not in a Hurry’ to Get Back Into Smartphone Business

March 18, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Nokia, which sold its mobile and devices divisions to Microsoft in 2014, has on several occasions confirmed it intends to get back into the smartphone business. Now, the company says it will not be hasty with its re-entry. Finland's biggest company on the sidelines of its talk about the adoption of 5G network ahead of Mobile World Congress also addressed its intentions of getting back into selling smartphones.
Nokia cannot create smartphones products until the fourth quarter to 2016, as part of the buyout agreement with Microsoft. But for its comeback, the company doesn't want to rebuild its vast manufacturing and selling infrastructure. Instead, it is seeking out a partner that could handle those aspects.
But it's not that easy, and Nokia doesn't want to settle for less. CEO Rajeev Suri told Re/Code in an interview that his company “doesn't want to just put logos on somebody's devices.” The smartphone, Suri says, “needs to feel like [a] Nokia, what Noki..

Nokia N1 : Back With a Bang [year]

Nokia N1 : Back With a Bang 2023

March 10, 2019 Richard Gomez 0

We were afraid that Nokia's glory days were well and truly over, when it announced the sale of its entire handset business to Microsoft. The Finnish giant defined generations of mobile devices, especially in India. As we moved from basic bricks that made only voice calls to smartphones with cameras and Internet connections, chances are we all owned a number of Nokias along the way.
As it turns out, we might not have to wait much longer to own a Nokia product again. Even though it struggled for years and then made a string of poor decisions leading to the sellout to Microsoft, Nokia has now demonstrated that it has no intention of getting out of the consumer product space and letting its brand die. Licensing terms might not allow it to sell smartphones for some time, and so we have the remarkable new N1 tablet leading the charge.
Nokia is showing off the N1 at its booth at the Mobile World Congress, currently under way in Barcelona. The N1 is already shipping in China, but Nokia wo..

Wickedleak Wammy Titan 5 [year]

Wickedleak Wammy Titan 5 2023

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..

Review: ViewPad 10 features Windows and Android

Review: ViewPad 10 features Windows and Android

March 18, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Viewsonic's new tablet has a unique solution for consumers who are still clinging to Microsoft's Windows, even as Google's Android operating system gains traction: It offers both.
The ViewPad 10 is a dual-boot unit. It can launch either Windows 7 or Android as you start the computer.
Out of the box, the specs are impressive. The ViewPad has a 10.1-inch display, which is larger than the iPad's 9.7 inches. It weighs less than two pounds, has built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and is stuffed with a relatively fast Intel 1.66 GHz processor. It costs $599 for the 16-gigabyte version, and $679 for double the memory.
The ViewPad has a built-in camera. The resolution is just 1.3 megapixels, well short of what the iPhone and other smartphones offer. So, don't expect great images.
The device also features a mini VGA port, a standard audio jack, two USB ports and a MicroSD card slot. It's pretty full-featured for a tablet.
The computer comes with Windows 7 Home Premium ins..