Panasonic Eluga U

Panasonic on Wednesday launched its flagship Eluga U smartphone for the Indian market, priced at Rs. 18,990. It will be available for purchase in the first week of August. The Eluga name is inherited from a series of smartphones introduced by the company in 2012. At that time, Panasonic had launched the Eluga DL1 and the Eluga Power for European markets.

Panasonic has high hopes for the revived Eluga brand. "Eluga is a perfect mix of sophisticated Japanese technology and Indian ruggedness. This latest product from our stable will provide consumers with elegant and sleek design, perfect and smart user interface, and efficient gateway for network services," said Mr. Toru Hasegawa, Divisional Managing Director, System Solutions Division, Panasonic India at the launch event in New Delhi.

The Panasonic Eluga U feels a bit like the Google Nexus 4 in terms of materials and proportions. However, it is larger, slimmer and less curvy. It also has three capacitive touch buttons rather than the on-screen buttons used by the Nexus and is less curved. As you too can see from the image above, the Eluga U has a bigger 5-inch (720x1280-pixel) IPS OGS display. Pansonic has used Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the front of the device, while the back sports what the company describes as "anti-shatter crystal glass", though it appeared more like plastic to us. The build quality of the unibody Eluga U appeared to be decent for the price.

The Eluga U smartphone runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box with company's Fit Home UI on top. Users can switch to the stock KitKat launcher from the phone Settings if they wish to. The Eluga U smartphone packs a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. Considering the combination, we were not expecting it to perform exceptionally well and it was on par with our expectations. The Eluga U comes with 16GB of inbuilt storage space, which can be expanded by up to 32GB using a microSD card.

SPECIFICATIONS 

 .

The Eluga U smartphone feels too underpowered to be a flagship device.Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS/A-GPS. The Eluga U sports a 13-megapixel autofocus primary camera along with an LED flash, and a 2-megapixel secondary front-facing camera. We took few images outdoors using the rear camera, and they looked good enough on the device's HD IPS screen. The detailing was fine, but colours appeared oversaturated. Overall, our first impressions of the camera are that it is quite average.

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

Spice Stellar Glide Review

spice stellar Mi-438

DESIGN And FEATURES 

The Spice Stellar Glide is available only in silver or gold. In case of gold colour the golden rear has a brushed metal finish but the material used is plastic. The build quality of the phone is fairly decent and I don't have any complaints here.

The phone has thick bezels around the screen, which actually makes the 4-inch screen look smaller than it is. The Stellar Glide is compact by today's standards, and my thumb could easily reach all corners of the screen. The 3.50mm audio jack and the Micro-USB port are on the top of the phone. Spice has decided to place the power button right above the volume rocker on the right edge, which makes it inconvenient to use. I invariably hit the power button instead of the volume up button, which was very annoying. The three capacitive navigation buttons sit below the screen, and the front-facing camera and earpiece are above it. The speaker grill is on the rear, along with the primary camera and flash.

SPECIFICATION

The 4-inch screen has a resolution of 480x800 and its quality is really bad. Viewing angles are so bad that unless we looked at the screen dead on, it was washed out completely. Moreover, individual pixels are easy to spot and text is rendered poorly.

Under the hood is a dual-core Mediatek MT6572 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and supporting it is 1GB of RAM. It has 4GB of internal storage of which only a paltry 1.1GB is available for users. Thankfully, there is a provision for adding up to 32GB of additional storage using microSD memory cards. The phone has a 2-megapixel rear camera with flash and a 1.3-megapixel front camera.

On the connectivity front, the Stellar Glide can connect to two cellular networks and accepts regular-sized SIM cards. Both cards can connect to 3G networks. It also has Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 onboard.

SOFTWARE

The Spice Stellar Glide runs Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean), and the UI is tweaked slightly with colourful icons. Users accustomed to Jellybean will actually feel at home with the UI. Also, Spice has added a lot of third-party apps.

CAMERA

The phone has a 2-megapixel rear camera which is fairly ordinary for phones in this price range. 

 As I suspected, the captured pictures are of really low quality. There is no autofocus and I would be surprised if anyone could manage to capture pictures with a decent amount of detail using this camera. There isn't much more to say - you shouldn't really expect a competent camera at this price.

The phone can't play even 720p videos without skipping frames. In  battery test, the Spice Stellar Glide lasted us exactly five hours and one minute, which is average. The call quality was okay but suffered a bit because of low earpiece volume. Spice bundles the lowest quality in-ear headset we've ever tested. Even when using our reference headphones, sound quality was only slightly better. The built-in speaker is rather loud, though.

VERDICT

The Spice Stellar Glide is available for around Rs. 4,700 on e-commerce websites. If you are foraying into the world of Android for the first time, we would strongly recommend avoiding this phone, since it is bound to be disappointing. The Moto E and Micromax Unite 2 might cost a little more, but they offer far better value for money. 

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

AMAZON FIRE PHONE : REVIEW

Amazon set out to do something different with the unveiling of its first smartphone!!

The feature makes use of four infrared cameras pointed at your face that help judge whether you're looking at the screen straight-on, at an angle and how close you are to the screen. The phone can then adjust the image accordingly. That gives you the ability to see depth in images, to see around objects in the foreground, to zoom in for a better look, and to toggle through websites, books and menus and even to play games by tilting the phone back and forth and up and down while you look at it.

Another feature called "Firefly" brings what's known as augmented reality to life in a new way, by turning your phone into a powerful tool that recognizes book covers, CDs, DVDs, songs, movies, grocery items, phone numbers and websites and pulls them into the phone so you can take action.

The major benefit of this is that it takes price comparison shopping to a new level, because any item you see while walking down the aisle of a Wal-mart or Target can get an instant price check. Amazon says the phone can recognize more than a hundred million items. And if you link your credit card information to the service, you can make a purchase with a couple taps.

I was both impressed and saw some flaws.The 3-D effect is quite stunning. Just imagine looking down a long hallway and putting your ear against each wall one after the other. Your perspective changes and straight lines will seem to disappear to a different point. To demonstrate the effect on the phone, Amazon made available a bunch of lock-screen images, like the cartoon ruins of a pyramid, some hot-air balloons and a jungle setting. Swiveling the phone around makes it seem like the images had a depth of an inch or two, allowing you to look around and beyond objects in the foreground.

Games also made use of the tool. One game allowed you to control whether the figure flew up or down based on essentially nodding your head or making the phone lie flat or upright. Another game, called Tofu Fury, allows you to get a 3-D perspective on the game level. It still essentially plays like Angry Birds, but it did something I've never seen before in a game.

One other neat thing: it does all this in relation to your face. So you could do this lying in bed or hanging upside down. I tried it out, taking a deep bow. The aforementioned game flew just the same depending on where the phone was to my face.

This phone has other features, and basically it's very nicely built. It has a solid heft in the hand while not being heavy at all. The buttons, which can activate the camera or Firefly from a cold start, are minimalist and comfortable. The 4.7-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio is just right for holding and controlling with one hand. There are speakers on top and bottom for stereo sound when holding the phone sideways.

And it is packed with many of the features that Kindle Fire tablet users are familiar with, such as its Mayday live-help function.Yet it's the dynamic perspective feature  changes smartphones forever. 

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

XOLO Q12OO Review

Looks And Feel

The Xolo Q1200 is a fairly solid phone. It feels a bit heavy and chunky in the hand, unlike many of today's devices which aim only to be light and slim. It's well constructed, but doesn't quite hit all the right notes in terms of aesthetics.The rear is split into three panels  but the white plastic ends above and below the metallic silver middle section look a bit cheap. A shiny chrome ring around the edges just adds to the confusion.

The front face is pretty standard. The three Android navigation buttons below the screen aren't backlit, but at least they're visible. The phone is completely sealed, so you can't get at the battery. There's a neat tray on the right edge which holds both, the Micro-SIM card and microSD card, and sits perfectly flush with the side of the device.

The power and volume buttons are on the left, which takes a bit of getting used to. The power button is in fact beneath the volume rocker, so it's really easy to hit the wrong key by accident. The camera lens sticks out quite a bit from the rear, which is always annoying as it could lead to scratches. The only Xolo logo on the whole device is relatively unobtrusive and placed in the centre of the silver panel. Interestingly, there appear to be twin stereo speakers on the rear as well. These are oriented in landscape mode, so we look forward to testing the audio and video playback experiences on this phone.

Features, Specifications and Software

Xolo stays true to its budget roots with a MediaTek MT6582 processor with four cores running at 1.3GHz. There's 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space, which are both standard for this price range. The 5-inch screen has a comfortable resolution of 720x1280 pixels.

It's disappointing to see that the Q1200 is still stuck on Android 4.2.2. That, combined with an unusually ugly default UI skin, really detracts from the usage experience. Xolo has really overdone the customisation here - app shortcuts and widgets are mixed haphazardly across the home screens, and there's no dedicated app drawer. An analog clock widget takes up an entire home screen, for example. The default wallpaper and icon set are way too busy, and it's really hard to see what's going on sometimes.

Camera

Xolo's camera app is fairly good. There are shortcuts for the flash and voice command feature, plus a menu of options including HDR mode, panorama mode, "smile shot", and something called "professional mode". This opens up options related to the image size, white balance, scene mode, number of shots in burst mode, exposure compensation, self timer, ISO, hue, saturation, and auto exposure metering. 

In terms of image quality, the Xolo Q1200 is actually surprisingly good. We were very pleased with the level of detail and accuracy in captured images. The phone struggled a little with closeups, and also totally flattened longer-range landscape shots, leaving no trace of depth or distance. Everything was generally sharply in focus.The flash was a bit overpowering, and you'll have to judge the distance between your subjects and the camera order not to drown them out.

Performance

Although it feels smooth in operation, surprised to see that the Q1200 often stalled when we were exiting apps. There was an annoying delay and a 'Please wait' message on screen before the home screen popped up. Other than this, there wasn't anything wrong with the device.

The speakers on the rear are certainly loud, but the sound is really thin and shrill. Mids and lows are completely absent. They also can't handle any complex music - The Q1200 can play low-bitrate 1080p video files, but with occasional stutters.The battery lasted 5 hours and 51 minutes

Verdict

I like what Xolo has done with the Q1200 - especially its price. This is a great phone for just under Rs. 13,000 (street price), and unlike several others in its class, this one doesn't cut corners when it comes to screen resolution or storage space. The camera is also quite remarkable.

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

Android App Review

Addapt : Up to date contacts

Addappt app a app which developed by ADDAPT.INC.which enables user to easily update their contact details easily over multiple smartphones platforms.The review takes a look at the pros and cons of the same .

PROS

1. Simple way to keep your contacts updated.
2. Contact lists curated by friends.
3. Create friends groups.
4. Multiple photo  attachement .

CONS

NONE .

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

SONY XPERIA M2 DUAL REVIEW

A MID RANGE MOBILE PHONE WITH BIG ASPIRATION

              A SONY XPERIA M2 DUAL a phone which promises a good camera  with  long battery life .

LOOK AND FEEL

The Sony Xperia M2 Dual gets a bit lost in the crowd of Sony Xperia phones. Sony  at least have made a distinction between their own products in different price ranges.

Sony Xperia M2 Dual is a good-looking phone with glass on the front and back, and rubberised strips around the edges for better grip. It is not very slim, at 8.6mm, and also weighs 148g making it slightly heavy. Fortunately, it feels good in the hand, and the phone is quite sturdy too. The one thing that is missing here is the waterproofing found in Sony's flagship smartphones.

On the left edge of the phone is a microSD card slot protected by a flap, and Micro-USB port. Three physical buttons - power, volume up/down, and camera - are on the right edge along with another long flap covering the slots for two Micro-SIM cards. The top edge has only the 3.5mm jack and the bottom edge is dominated by a long speaker grille. 

The 4.8-inch LCD screen has a resolution of 540x960, which is very low compared to the HD screens on even a few lower-priced smartphones. While the resolution is low, it's good enough for most tasks. Sunlight legibility is passable but viewing angles suffer due to the highly reflective screen glass.

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATION

Sony Xperia M2 Dual has a Snapdragon 400 processor under its hood, clocked at 1.2GHz with an integrated Adreno 305 graphics processing unit. There is 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space, of which only around 5GB is available to the user. If that feels insufficient, it can be increased by 32GB using a microSD card.

The phone accepts two Micro-SIM cards, both of which can connect to 3G networks. They work in dual-standby mode. The front camera has a ridiculously low VGA resolution and can shoot videos only at 480p. The 8-megapixel rear camera, on the other hand, can capture videos at up to 1080p.

SOFTWARE

The phone runs on  4.3 jelly bean  and is expected to receive an update to Android KitKat soon.

CAMERA

  

The daylight shots had muted details and there was loads of chromatic aberration. Green leaves merged into each other despite specifically focusing on them.The camera struggled to focus on intended subjects very often. The camera couldn't do much in low light either, and images were often blurred. The less we say about the VGA front camera, the better. It is absolutely useless. 1080p videos taken with the rear camera weren't all that good either.

VERDICT

The screen is not that great, and its sluggish performance in daily usage is a downer. It has a retail price of Rs. 21,990 but can be found cheaper online.

The Sony Xperia M2 Dual doesn't feel like a good bargain.If you need a good-looking phone in this price range which will last up to two days on a single charge, then by all means consider the Xperia M2.

For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA

Gionee Elife S5.5 Smartphone Review

Gionee's Elife S5.5  is touted as the slimmest smartphone in the world. It features top-of-the-line specifications too.

I find out if it can stand strong against the big league of smartphones.


LOOK AND FEEL

 This phone is the slimmest( 5.6mm) one I have ever seen. On top of that, it is lightweight at 135g. Despite the anorexic physical attributes, the S5.5 is a sturdily built device and can handle a few falls thanks to the magnesium alloy material used for the construction. Exuding premium quality, this Gionee phone definitely beats the pants off much of the competition in its price range, and even looks better than a few flagships .On the right edge of the Elife S5.5 is the micro-SIM card tray, and on the left edge are the power button and volume rocker. The slightly raised physical buttons feel soft when pressed, which is good. The bottom edge has a 3.5mm audio jack while the top edge features a Micro-USB port for charging. Right above the screen is the front camera and an invisible array of sensors. The uni body design means that the phone has a non-removable battery. 

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

The Elife S5.5 is beautiful and powerful too,  Under the hood is a Mediatek MT6589 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz, with integrated  Mali 450MP4 graphics. There's 2GB of RAM supporting it. Only around 9GB of the 16GB of internal storage is available to users, which isn't much at all considering there is no support for memory cards.

There is a single slot for a micro-SIM card, which of course can connect to 3G networks. Unlike a lot of other phones with the same specifications in this price range, the Elife S5.5 has incorporated Bluetooth 4.0, which is good. The 13-megapixel rear camera can also shoot videos at a resolution of 1980x1080 the S5.5 also has a 5-megapixel front camera.

This is probably one of the very few smartphones with a full-HD resolution screen at this price level, and I think it looks fantastic.

SOFTWARE

Gionee's custom "Color OS" UI runs on top of the now-dated Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean).

The  Color OS needs more work for it to be user-friendly. Until then, we are heading to the Play Store to find a replacement launcher.

CAMERA

Picture clicked by  S5.5

In  daylight testing, photos looked a bit dim. This dullness led to certain details being hidden. In HDR mode, the camera goes a bit overboard in trying to enhance the dynamic range, and ends up producing overexposed shots. Colours are also slightly off the mark in captured photos. 

PERFORMANCE
 In daily use, I found that the Elife S5.5 stutters and lags a lot in spite of its powerful specifications. We attribute this disparity in scores and real-life performance to the clunky software.

Graphics performance is not that great, either. I played Shadowgun and noticed that it lagged in sections which were filled with hordes of villains.

VERDICT

 The two major reasons your should consider the( 1080p screen and phone's looks)  Gionee Elife S5.5 at its current price of Rs. 22,999. However, you also now know that the camera isn't all that great.








For the latest technology news and reviews, Follow  me on google plus .

best regards

RAHUL ARORA