smartphones

Honor Holly 2 Plus [year]

Honor Holly 2 Plus 2026

February 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 6

Huawei, one of the top-ranked Chinese tech companies, expanded its Honor smartphone portfolio in India on Thursday by unveiling two new models – the Honor 5X and the Honor Holly 2 Plus. Both budget offerings will be available only through Flipkart and Amazon. The Honor 5X is already up for pre-order, with sales set to begin on February 1. It costs Rs. 12,999. The Honor Holly 2 Plus on the other hand will go on sale from February 15 priced at Rs. 8,499. Here are our initial impressions of the the more budget-minded smartphone of the two – the Holly 2 Plus.
(Also see: Honor Holly 2 Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy On5 vs. Lenovo Vibe P1m vs. Lenovo K3 Note)

With the Honor Holly 2 Plus, the company aims to go head-to-head with smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy On5, Lenovo Vibe P1m and even the Lenovo K3 Note. While the majority of its features have been borrowed from the Honor 5X, the company has made cuts in several areas of the handset in order to reach the Rs. 8,499 price point. The Hono..

Obi Worldphone SF1 - [year] Review

Obi Worldphone SF1 – 2026 Review

January 5, 2018 Richard Gomez 0

Obi Mobiles made its debut in India last year as a provider of low-cost Android smartphones. What made this company different from numerous others newcomers is that it had a strong backer; ex-Apple CEO John Sculley to be precise. However, Obi Mobiles seemed like every other company, picking an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) from China to design and manufacture phones to sell under its own name. The company's debut offering, the Obi Octopus S520 (Review | Pictures) only focused on specifications but failed to address other key areas like aesthetics and user experience.
Cut to 2015 and Obi Mobiles has reemerged as Obi Worldphone. The focus of the company continues to be budget smartphones for emerging markets, but it's now putting the user experience and aesthetics first. The phones and their UI are now designed by a Californian design studio called Ammunition, founded by Robert Brunner, who was the Director of Industrial Design at Apple in the past.
Today, we'll be..

Honor 5X [year] Review

Honor 5X 2026 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 ..

Gionee Marathon M5 [year] first impressions

Gionee Marathon M5 2026 first impressions

December 28, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Coming from a brand that's famous for super slim phones such as the Elife S7, the Gionee Marathon M5 might be the thickest phone the company has ever made. It's aimed at solving a major pain point for most smartphone users – battery life.
The phablet-sized Gionee Marathon M5 is fitted with a 6020mAh battery as well as plenty of other features meant to extend its life. Considering that there are power banks with smaller capacities than what you get with this phone, battery life promises to be off the charts – it can run without for two days between charges for heavy users, and four days for moderate/light users, according to a company spokesperson.
Announced in June 2015, the phone has finally made its way to India as a Flipkart exclusive, and is priced at Rs. 17,999. The Indian version has improved internal specs – it's fitted with 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. The starring feature of course is the battery, which is actually two cells of 3010 mAh, each with its own c..

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) [year] Review

Asus Fonepad 7 (FE171CG) 2026 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..

HTC One E9s Dual SIM Review

HTC One E9s Dual SIM Review

November 18, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

HTC was a major player in the Android smartphone market not too long ago, but has been on a steady decline. It's evident when you see that HTC's share in the India smartphone market is just 1.4 percent, down from 10 percent in Q3 2011. Last year's HTC One (M8) (Review | Pictures) got some praise from us, but this year's flagship HTC One M9+ (Review) left us wanting more. HTC hasn't produced a clear winner in a very long time.

The Taiwanese manufacturer hasn't quite given up just yet, and one of its latest launches in India is the HTC One E9s Dual SIM. The device is a part of the top-end One range of products, but is more affordable than its flagship namesakes. With its plastic body and typically mid-range spec-sheet, the One E9s Dual SIM, on paper, seems like an overpriced mid-range smartphone. We find out if there's more to it in our review.
Look and feel
Although the One E9s Dual SIM is to be considered among the top tier of HTC smartphones, its pl..

Nubia Z9 Mini [year]

Nubia Z9 Mini 2026

June 22, 2015 Richard Gomez 4

ZTE is among the many highest 5 smartphone makers in China. the company entered Asian nation final 12 months with highly effective gadgets priced sharply […]

Nokia N1 : Back With a Bang [year]

Nokia N1 : Back With a Bang 2026

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..

Oppo R7 Lite Review [year]

Oppo R7 Lite Review 2026

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 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..

Lumia 1020 ([year])

Lumia 1020 (2026)

October 5, 2015 Richard Gomez 6

For your entire new Lumia telephones now we have now noticeable this 12 months, one handset that is been left and never utilizing a successor […]