Lenovo has not been quite active in the smartphone industry as it once was. The last handset that the company launched was the Lenovo Z6 Youth Edition and that was a watered-down version of the firm’s flagship device Z6 Pro. Now, the company is planning to launch another smartphone in the Z6-series named the Lenovo Z6. Although Lenovo hasn’t announced the exact launch date of the upcoming smartphone, it has confirmed some of the features that the device will get.
According to the handset maker, the Lenovo Z6 will be powered by the Snapdragon 730 SoC and it will house a 4,000mAh battery. The upcoming device will hold a 6.39-inch AMOLED display that will come with a notch on its top and have a screen-to-body ratio of 93.1%. Other than that, the display of Lenovo Z6 will support HDR10 and DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, and it come with a peak brightness of 600 nits. The company further mentioned that the Lenovo Z6’s display will have a sampling rate of 120Hz and will feature De-Mura screen colouring technology. In other words, the display of the Lenovo Z6 will be one of the major attractions and selling points of the upcoming smartphone.
The company also said that the Lenovo Z6 will feature a triple-rear camera setup, however, it did not specify the exact camera details. Lastly, the upcoming handset will have an in-display fingerprint scanner and it will be protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. However, it has not been revealed which version of Gorilla Glass will it use.
Looking at the specifications of the Lenovo Z6, it seems to fall in between the Lenovo Z6 Youth Edition and the flagship Z6 Pro. But the upcoming Lenovo Z6 is still a watered-down version of its Pro variant.
Lenovo Z6 Pro also sports a 6.39-inch AMOLED display with HDR10 support. It runs Android 9 Pie skinned with ZUI 11 and it packs a 4,000mAh battery. The device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 SoC paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage. On the camera department, the Lenovo Z6 Pro sports an AI-powered quad-camera setup that comprises of a 48MP main camera, a 16MP sensor, an 8MP sensor and a TOF+PDAF sensor as well. On the front, there is a 32MP selfie camera.
Lenovo Z6 Pro was launched after months of teasers circulating online. The handset was the successor to the Lenovo Z5 Pro that was launched last year in December 2018.
Smartphone screens get spoiled easily. Be it fingerprint smudges or makeup, our phones’ screens act as a magnet to all. However, in order to keep them clean, we often resort to all the wrong ways. Here, we have listed down nine ways in which you should never clean your smartphone. Take a look.
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Don’t use a window cleaner
Window cleaners do an amazing job on mirrors and window panes. However, that really does not mean you can use them for your smartphones too. There are devices that come with a protective coating which can wear out over a period of time. If you use a window cleaner on your smartphone, the coating can get stripped off and this will leave the device more vulnerable to getting scratches. It’s better to completely avoid it.
Avoid kitchen cleaners
While cleaning agents would not ground down the scratch resistant properties of a smartphone display, but it will still harm the protective coating of your device. Apple has always strongly suggested not to use household cleaning products to clean your iPhone. And the same applies to Android smartphones as well.
Say no to paper towels
Most of the people who use smartphones make this mistake. They think that paper towels are the obvious choice when it comes to using something to clean a smartphone. The paper may shred and this will make the debris on your smartphone a lot worse. It may also end up leaving scratches on your device.
Using alcohol to clean your smartphone
Some people may think that it is a brilliant idea to rub alcohol on your smartphone to clean it, we should tell you that it also destroys the protective coating on your handset. This will make your device more prone to scratches.
Using makeup remover on your smartphone
Ladies! This one is for you. If you ever get this idea, please ignore it. While makeup removers do a fabulous job on your skin, they can be extremely harsh on a display of a smartphone. A soft cloth with very little water is a much better cleaner to opt for when it comes to smartphones.
Relying on compressed air
If you blow an intense amount of air on your smartphone, you may cause severe damage to the mic of your device. A number of reputed technology companies have repeatedly warned not to use compressed air for cleaning your handset. So avoid this at all costs.
Resorting to the use of soap on your handset
Soaps are usually very gentle on the hands, however, the only way to use them is to combine them with water. However, water is a big no when it comes to smartphones. So instead of using this, just stick to a cloth that has a drop or two of water on it.
Say a big no to vinegar
Do anything but don’t do this. Vinegar will definitely strip the coating on your smartphone’s screen. What’s worse, it may just do it in one go. If you have an extremely diluted vinegar, you can probably use it on some parts of your handset. However, it is usually suggested that vinegar should be mixed with distilled water (50/50) for cleaning a smartphone.
Stay away from disinfectant wipes
Most disinfectant wipes come with a label for you to wash your hands after each use. So we don’t recommend you to use it for something that touches your face so often. Also, these wipes usually contain alcohol, so that’s another reason to avoid them.
The safest thing to use: Microfiber cloth
While till now we told you what not to do, now we will tell you what you can do to clean your smartphone. The safest way to go about it is to take a microfiber cloth and put a drop of water on it to clean your device. Just make sure it’s damp and not too wet.
The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer has just launched the new Asus Vivobook X512 in India. This is the 15-inch laptop that has been launched along with a 14-inch version, too. Looking at the last year’s launch of Vivobooks, most thought these new ones too will be on the higher side of things. But to our amazement, they got the price bracket bang on!
We took the latest Asus Vivobook X512F out for a spin. Well, we basically stress tested it to see if it at all curbs under pressure. Did it? Read the rest of our review of the Asus Vivobook X512F to find out that and more.
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Asus Vivobook 15 X512 Design and Display
Asus has done a mighty fine job in designing the Vivobook 2019. The designers should give themselves a pat on the back since they have managed to give futuristic design, smooth finish and thin bezels in a price segment, where you get shoddy plasticky machines from the likes of Dell, HP or Acer.
Let’s start with the top lid. There is nothing unusual about it, yet there nothing dull about it either. It looks sophisticated and nice. Available in an array of colours, we tested the grey version which like the rest of the pack has the chromed Asus logo right in the middle. Flip the lid open and there is where all the magic happens. You are immediately greeted by a 15.6-inch Nano edge display that has matt finish on it. So, no more reflections.The display screen on the Asus Vivobook X512F has the Vivo book logo under it and on top it has an HD camera coupled with a microphone. The bezels on the sides of the screen are very thin. The company has managed to keep a screen to body ratio of 88%. Which is way better than its competition and slimmer than Vivobooks of 2018. On the bottom part of the laptop, users get a nice full function keyboard with a Numpad.
And to top that off, the keyboard has three levels of backlighting. The function keys double up as the multimedia keys too, with the power button located on the top right of the keyboard. The keyboard is fairly ergonomic and good to work with since when you open the lid, the bottom part of the laptop lifts about 2 degrees. This is called the Ergolift, something they have taken from the Asus Zenbooks.
This is partnered with a large trackpad, that just about passes. It is certainly not the best we have seen from camp Asus. Twin stereo speakers are placed under the notebook that are powered by SonicMaster tech. On the right of the laptop, Asus has placed a USB 3.1, HDMI, Power, USB Type C, microSD and 3.5mm audio ports. On the left of the Asus Vivobook X512F, users get two USB ports along with LED indicators. So that sums up the design, let’s talk a bit more about the display.
The screen on the Asus Vivobook X512F is FHD (1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution). We played a lot of YouTube and full HD videos on it and what we got was flicker free cinematic experience. At full brightness, the laptop’s screen displayed good colours that somewhat looked natural. Also, since the screen supports full 178 degrees view, it was a pleasant experience when watching a Netflix show with one or two more people. The sound with the display is quite loud and we enjoyed every bit of it. At full volume too, the audio does not crack and the speakers deliver share-worthy good resonance.
When playing games, we felt the colours could have been slightly better. You might want to create a profile for gaming and increase the gamma a little to your liking. Since the default scheme makes everything feel a bit warm on screen.
Asus Vivobook 15 X512 Performance
Let’s get the technical specifications out of the way before we talk about anything else. Since we are testing the Asus Vivobook X512F, which is the high-end machine in the Vivobook 2019 series. It is has got Intel Core i7 8565 (8th Gen CPU) that has a base clock speed of 1.8GHz. This is partnered with 8GB RAM and Kingston 512GB PCIeNVME SSD. Windows 10 Home comes as native and the combo boots the machine in under 12 seconds. Compare that to a spindle drive, it is 8-12X faster.
This machine also fetches the NVIDIA Geforce MX250 discreet graphics card with Intel HD 620 onboard graphics. Asus Vivobook X512F can run games like PubG well at medium-high and Mortal Kombat 11 at low settings. At these settings, we got lag free performance and with some screen colour correction, we were impressed at what the machine gave us.
There is Bluetooth 4.2 also on the Asus Vivobook X512F that makes connecting BT mouse or keyboards a fairly easy task. WiFi could have been better since the latest is not put on this machine. But, most Indian routers that work at 2.4G will be able to connect with it without hiccups, just do not expect ultra-low latency.
When it comes to the operating system and its workings, users get Microsoft Windows 10 Home edition. There is absolutely no bloatware, except that pesky McAfee installation. However, that can be removed easily via the add/remove programs. The typing and work experience on the machine is good and if you want to do photo or light video editing, this machine will serve the purpose.
Asus has done some wonderful things under the hood too. Like for the first time in India, if you want to upgrade the RAM or Hard drive you can do so, without voiding the warranty. Which makes the deal even sweeter. Since Asus Vivobook X512F has an NVME SSD drive, the slot for the usual 2.5-inch hard drive is empty. You can pick up an additional drive, take the machine to the nearest Asus service centre and tell them to install. They will do it and your warranty will stay intact. Same can be done if you want to add additional RAM on to the notebook. Just do not do it yourself, otherwise it will annul the warranty.
When it comes to the heating issues, we hardly faced any. The copper heat sinks do their job well, even when playing a demanding game or rendering a video. Moving over to the battery life, we were able to squeeze just 4.5 hours of it under nominal use. When gaming or using demanding software, it goes down further. But thanks to its fast charging tech, the battery juices up to 60% in 49 minutes. So that is a saving grace.
Asus Vivobook 15 X512 Verdict
Overall, the Asus Vivobook X512F did deliver a very good experience and it is very portable at just 1.6Kg weight. Thanks to the powerful CPU and SSD combo most things load in a blink of an eye. Also, then there is the case of upgrading without voiding the warranty. The thin bezels and a fine display add to all the good things that Asus did with the Vivobook 2019.
The base version of the Vivobook 15 starts at Rs 34,990. That will get you 8GB RAM, Intel Core i3 (8th gen) CPU, 256GB of SSD and onboard Intel HD620 graphics with all the cool aesthetics. In that bracket, there is no machine which comes close to it.
The one we tested is the higher-end one that has a price tag of Rs 79,990, which we feel is a bit steep, even though it has a Core i7 CPU and a discrete graphics card. If you are one of those want bit more power than an i3, you can go for the Core i5 version of the Asus Vivobook 15 that sells for around Rs 50,000 and shall do you good.
Chinese smartphone brand Realme’s current flagship smartphone – Realme 3 Pro – has started receiving a new software update. The new update gets a number of features for the device along with June 2019 Android Security patch. But the most notable addition is the new 240fps slow motion video recording camera feature. Other than that, a new theme store has also been added to the device. When launched, Realme 3 Pro ran Android 9.0 Pie skinned with ColorOS 6 out-of-the-box.
The new software update for Realme 3 Pro holds the version number RMX1851EX_11_A.15 and it is 2.69GB in size. This is a big update for Realme 3 Pro and it is currently it is being rolled out for all the handsets over-the-air. All the users of the Realme 3 Pro smartphones should receive a notification about it soon. However, the users who don’t receive it can check for the update manually. For that, they can head to Settings and then to Software Updates. However, since the new update holds a large download file size, you are recommended to connect your smartphone to Wi-Fi connection before downloading it. Users can also download the new update by going on the support page of the company.
The changelog of the new update states that it brings the June Android 2019 Security patch along with a new swipe gestures from both sides in notification mode. There is also addition of a lock screen magazine function and a Realme account function in some regions. Other than that, there is also addition of App Market, Theme Store, and Game Center in some regions.
As mentioned above, the most notable change is the addition of 240fps slow motion camera feature. In an earlier update, the company had added the 960fps slow motion video recording as well. The new update also fixes a number of bugs from the previous update.
Realme 3 Pro was launched in India earlier this year and it is available in three variants. The 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant cost Rs 13,999 while the 6GB RAM/64GB storage holds a price tag of Rs 15,999. The top-end variant of the Realme 3 Pro with 6GB RAM/128GB of internal storage bears a price tag of Rs 16,999.
The specifications of the Realme 3 Pro include a 6.3-inch Full-HD+ display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection on top. It is powered by Snapdragon 710 SoC paired with Adreno 616 GPU. The device has up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. It can hold a microSD card of up to 256GB. The handset houses a 4,045mAh battery. On the camera front, the Realme 3 Pro features a dual-rear camera setup that comprises of a 16MP main camera paired with a 5MP secondary sensor. On the front, there is a 25MP selfie camera.
The wait is over. Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi is soon going to launch its Redmi 7A handset in India. The company had launched the smartphone in its home country last month. Xiaomi India’s CEO Manu Kumar Jain has taken to Twitter to announce about the launch of the device.
However, until now, he did not mention a particular date when the company will be unveiling the device. Jain also claimed that till April 2019, Xiaomi sold 23.6 million units of Redmi 4A, Redmi 5A, and Redmi 6A devices.
Coming to Redmi 7A, the smartphone comes without a notch or a punch-hole camera on its 5.45-inch display. It houses a 4,000mAh battery and comes with a 13MP rear camera. Here are more details about the specifications of the smartphone:
Xiaomi Redmi 7A price in India (expected)
Xiaomi Redmi 7A was launched in China last month. In its home market, the device has been priced CNY 549 (approximately Rs. 5,500) for its 2GB/16GB variant. On the other hand, the 2GB/32GB variant of the handset comes with a price tag of CNY 599 (approximately Rs. 6,000). Even in India, the pricing of the Redmi 7A smartphone is expected to be similar.
Xiaomi Redmi 7A specifications and features
Xiaomi Redmi 7A comes with a 5.45-inch HD (720 x 1440 pixels) resolution that has an aspect ratio of 18:9 display. The device has been powered by a 2.0GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC chipset and it comes with 2GB of RAM. The Redmi 7A runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with MIUI 10. It also comes with a P2i splash-resistant coating that makes it resistant against accidental splashes and rain damage. The handset houses a massive 4,000mAh battery with support for 10W fast charging. Apart from that, the smartphone comes with special modes for senior citizens and a Family Guardian Function. The device comes with 32GB of onboard storage that has a dedicated microSD card slot on the handset that has a capacity of up to 256GB.
On the camera front, the rear camera of the Redmi 7A comes with a 13MP main sensor with PDAF. On the front, there is a 5MP selfie camera with AI Face Unlock Support.
For connectivity, there is 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, and a Micro-USB port in the Redmi 7A.
Apart from that, the company is also going to launch its K series of smartphones in the country soon.
Technology giant Google has rolled out a new feature in Google Maps that shows live traffic delays for public transits and also how crowded they will be. Google has made the announcement on its blog that the new feature will help its users to get information if a bus or a train will be delayed, and exactly how late it will be. Based on live traffic conditions, Google Maps will predict the accurate travel time on the route the user is taking. Both these features of Google Maps are expected to make the lives of users better.
As we all know, hundreds of millions of people in India prefer using public transit like buses and trains on a daily basis as they are more affordable than going by their own vehicle. So, this traffic prediction feature will be helpful for the people to get accurate information how long they would have to wait for the bus, train or metro at the stop, in case it will be late. Google has rolled out this new traffic forecasting feature in almost 200 cities all over the world. Apart from this, Google Map will also show how crowded the bus, metro or train is. This will help the user to take a prompt decision whether they should board the bus or train or metro or wait for the one that has vacant seats for comfortable traveling.
On the launch of the new feature, the company said,” Today, Google Maps introduced live traffic delays for buses, forecasting bus delays in hundreds of cities worldwide, ranging from Atlanta to Zagreb to Istanbul to Manila and more. This improves the accuracy of transit timing for over sixty million people. This system, first launched in India three weeks ago, is driven by a machine learning model that combines real-time car traffic forecasts with data on bus routes and stops to better predict how long a bus trip will take.”
With the number of commuters and traffic going up by the day, this new feature will prove to be helpful for millions of people who take bus, train or metros.
One thing Google Maps does not feature is bus schedule. On this Google stated, “So far, in experiments with official agency bus schedules, they haven’t improved our forecasts significantly. In some cities, severe traffic fluctuations might overwhelm attempts to plan a schedule. In others, the bus schedules might be precise, but perhaps because transit agencies carefully account for traffic patterns. And we infer those from the data.”
The US trade ban on Chinese smartphone brand Huawei has affected the company to a great extent. A number of technology companies based in the United States, including big giants like Google and Microsoft, have halted their business with the company. This has put the smartphone maker in a bad position as it would affect not only its current generation of new smartphones, but its older handsets too as they would not receive Android updates and security patches. At least that is what we thought till now. But now, the company has tweeted a list of devices that will receive the upcoming Android Q update.
We should mention that the company had already released a list of its smartphones that will be receiving the Android Q update, but that was before the US-trade ban took place. After it happened, there was no assurance if any smartphone from the company would be receiving the update. But later, the company added some handsets to the list and the company said that they will receive the upcoming Android Q update. Now, the Spanish division of Huawei has taken to \to announce some other devices from its Mate-series that will be receiving the new Android Q update.
It should be mentioned that the new Huawei devices that have been added to the list of smartphones to receive the Android Q update are include Huawei Mate 10, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei Mate 10 Porsche Design, Huawei Mate 20 lite, Huawei Mate 20 RS Porsche Design and the Huawei Mate 20 X. The users of these smartphones should be relieved that their devices will be getting the upcoming Android Q update. Huawei’s tweet also says, “Our commitment is with you, our users”.
Huawei’s claim is a bold but doubtful one right now because even though it has promised to provide the Android Q update to certain smartphones, currently it is not clear what will become of the US trade ban. Huawei is coming up with its own operating system that can be used in its devices and has even started testing it in China. But it is still not certain whether the new OS will be successful. Android has become a norm for the smartphone world and although iOS is also widely used but it too has Google apps and support in it. But Huawei’s operating system will not have any Google apps. So, the chances of it being successful seem slim as of now.
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is affected in the same way as its parent company since the US government levied a trade ban on the Chinese smartphone maker. With Honor 20-series being the first smartphone series from the company that has been released after the ban, it seemed like the devices will also be the first victim of the US trade ban on Huawei. However, according to the recent developments, the Honor 20 and the Honor 20 Pro have received the Google Play certification.
In other words, both these smartphones will now receive the Google Play support and will also receive the software updates on a regular basis. It should be noted that the Honor 20 had already gone through the process and reports suggest that it received the Google Play certification earlier on June 1. Now, the Honor 20 Pro has also received the Google Play certification. We should mention that receiving the certification of Google Play services basically means that the device can now be launched in the international markets as well. Since the Honor 20 had already received the certification, it is already being sold in the western markets.
Google’s database lists Honor 20 as Nova 5T and Honor 20 Pro as Nova 5T Po. This rebranding was not yet revealed by the company yet. So, there is a big possibility that the Honor 20-series might be launched as Nova 5T-series in some of the international markets.
The Honor 20-series of smartphones was announced right after the US trade ban on Huawei. If the current circumstances continue, then Honor devices wouldn’t be able to receive the future Android software updates. Yesterday, Honor India made an announcement on its official Twitter handle that stated that all the Honor smartphones and tablets would continue to receive the security patches and Android updates. This news comes as a surprise for the Honor device users and the smartphone market. The users of Huawei and Honor handsets will continue to receive the updates that will keep their devices from being redundant, and the smartphone market would not lose a phone maker.
The company also said that the Honor 20-smartphone series – Honor 20i, Honor 20 and the Honor 20 Pro will also be receiving the upcoming Android Q update. So now, the consumers who wanted to buy the newly launched Honor 20-series smartphones, but were hesitant because of the US trade ban, can go ahead and make the purchase.
Micro-blogging website Twitter has started rolling out a new notice today for the tweets that belong to public figures and breaks its community guidelines. With this, if any public figure – a Prime Minister or President or Actor – tweets something that breaks the guidelines set by Twitter, it would notify the users about the violation. In addition to this, the reach of the tweet will also be decreased. Although this change is not rolling out for the platform yet, but according to the company’s executives, it will be coming soon.
The notice released by Twitter is applicable for tweets from the accounts of the political figures, verified users and the accounts with more than 1,00,000 followers. If any tweet from these accounts gets flagged for violating the rules of Twitter, then a team of people from the company will decide whether it is a “matter of public interest” or not. If it is indeed in public interest, then a light grey box will appear before the tweet itself and will notify the users who see the post that it violates the rules of the company. However, the tweets will not be removed and they will remain on the platform. According to the micro-blogging platform, this new change will preserve the tweet as a part of the public record without allowing it to be promoted to new audiences.
If any tweet from a public figure found to be violating the rules receives this notice, then the platform will feature it less for the audience. The posts from that account will not appear in the Safe Search, the Top Tweets timeline, live events pages, recommended push notifications, the notifications tab, or the Explore page altogether. This new change is applicable on Twitter starting today.
According to Twitter’s safety team, ‘In the past, we’ve allowed certain Tweets that violated our rules to remain on Twitter because they were in the public’s interest, but it wasn’t clear when and how we made those determinations. Serving the public conversation includes providing the ability for anyone to talk about what matters to them; this can be especially important when engaging with government officials and political figures.”
We should mention that earlier, some of the public figures were found to be violating Twitter’s rules. According to Twitter, banning such people completely might keep the public from important and relevant information. Earlier in 2018, Twitter called out to Donald Trump for some of his tweets. In that regard, Twitter wrote in a blogpost, “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. By nature of their positions these leaders have outsized influence and sometimes say things that could be considered controversial or invite debate and discussion. A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable.”
Chinese smartphone maker Realme has today announced its special edition Realme X Spider-Man handset in its home country. The company has collaborated with Sony Pictures to launch the Realme X Spider-Man: Far from Home special edition in China. The new handset is all set to go on sale on July 9. As of now, there is no word on where else this edition of Realme will be launched.
Realme India CEO Madhav Seth confirmed the news about the launch of the special edition device on his official Twitter handle. We should also mention that soon; Marvel Studios is going to release the Spider-Man: Far from Home movie across the globe.
The Realme X Spider-Man: Far from Home smartphone will be available for purchase in a custom gift box. The exclusive edition will be available in a single 8GB RAM/128GB storage variant that will cost CNY 1,799 (approximately Rs 18,100).
The Chinese smartphone maker launched the Realme X handset in its home-country last month. Now, the company will be launching this new smartphone in India on July 17.
Realme India’s CEO Madhav Sheth confirmed that the device will be released in India and will come with a different set of specifications and features than the model that was unveiled in China. The flagship smartphone will be launched in India with onion and garlic finish too. The company’s CEO also confirmed that there will be a special edition of the Realme X that will also be launched in the country. So, we can keep our fingers crossed and hope to see the Realme X Spider-Man: Far from Home edition.
Realme X Price
To recall, the regular variant of Realme X smartphone is available in three storage models. The 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant costs CNY 1,499 (approximately Rs 15,100), and the 6GB RAM/ 64GB storage option has been priced at CNY 1,599 (approximately Rs 16,100). The 8GB RAM/128GB storage version of the device bears a price tag of CNY 1,799 (approximately Rs 18,100).
Realme X specifications
Realme X features 6.53-inch Full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 710 SoC that comes with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. The device runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with ColorOS 6. Realme X houses a 3,765mAh battery that has support for VOOC 3.0 fast charging.
On the imaging front, the device sports a dual-rear camera setup that comprises of a 48MP main sensor and a 5MP secondary sensor. There is also a 16MP pop-up selfie camera on the front. For connectivity, the device comes with 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS, USB Type-C port, and Dolby Atmos audio.
HP has today launched its OMEN X 2S in India, that is the world’s first dual-screen gaming laptop. HP OMEN X 2S laptop has a standard display along with a secondary screen that is touted to enhance the gaming experience of the device. Other than that, the company has also launched its OMEN 15 and Pavilion 15 laptops in the country. Here’s a look at the price details and the specifications of the newly launched laptops in India. Take a look:
In This Article
HP OMEN X 2S, OMEN 15 and Pavilion 15 laptops price and availability
The starting price of HP OMEN X 2S in India is Rs 2,09,990. On the other hand, HP OMEN 15 can be bought at a starting price of Rs 124,990 and the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 can be picked up at Rs 70,990. While the former will be available starting July 1 on HP.com, the other two can be bought already
HP OMEN X 2S, OMEN 15 and Pavilion 15 laptops specifications
As we mentioned earlier, the laptop comes with a standard display as well as a secondary screen. While its standard screen is 15-inches in size, the secondary one is a 6-inch touchscreen display that has a 1080p resolution. It lies right above the keyboard and provides an improved gaming experience. It is also the first 15-inch diagonal gaming laptop in the world to come with an applied liquid metal compound to the thermal system by way of Thermal Grizzly Condactonaut.
The secondary display of the laptop can be used for a number of functions including streaming videos, playing music, monitoring system performance or even act as a zoom-in tool for games that need the player to be precise and accurate.
HP Omen X 2S is the company’s flagship device and it comes packs some very powerful specifications. The laptop is powered by a ninth Gen Intel Core i9 CP and comes with up to 16GB of RAM. It has an SSD storage of up to 1TB and is equipped with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics with 8GB of VRAM. In other words, the laptop will be able to deliver heavy amounts of gameplay even at high framerates.
HP has also added a new keyboard that comes with upgraded sound hardware that packs dual custom-tuned stereo speakers from Bang & Olufsen. It also comes with a number of ports and a new system for streaming between PCs and TVs. The laptop runs Windows 10 operating system.
HP OMEN 15 is also powered by an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 that features a Max-Q7 design and is powered by the 9th Gen Intel Core i9 processor. Much like HP OMEN X 2S, it has eight cores and 16 threads and houses up to 16GB of RAM.
Coming to HP Pavilion Gaming 15 laptop, it comes with a thinner frame than its predecessor. The laptop will be powered by the latest 9th Gen Intel Core i5/i7 high-performance mobile CPUs and also has the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti paired with Max-Q design.
Apple has recently started putting AMOLED display panels on its iPhones to make them more premium than devices that come with LCD screens. Till now, Apple has depended on Samsung for providing it with the AMOLED displays for iPhones. But it seems like things are set to change. A recent report suggests that Apple is planning to make a deal with Japan Display worth $100 million (approximately Rs 6,89,85,00,000) for using its LCD display panels on its iPhones.
The news comes from a Japanese publication named Asahi. According to the report, Japan Display is currently going through restructuring and Apple’s $100 million deal will be a huge benefit for the company. However, it should be noted that this is not the first time that Apple is conducting business with Japan Display. The Cupertino-based technology giant has been doing business with the display maker for quite some time now. Apple is one of the major buyers of Japan Display and is also responsible for around 60% of Japan Display’s business. The abovementioned business deal will turn a new page for both the companies.
The new business deal between Apple and Japan Display will help the American technology giant to move the bulk of its LCD display orders from China to Japan. According to 9to5Mac, earlier in 2015, Apple had funded most of the $1.5 billion LCD screen-making factory for Japan Display. Apple also asked for assurance from the display maker that the company will pay back the received funding by giving a percentage of sales from each display to it. Although it’s been few years since then, but Japan Display still has to pay a good amount of the funding that it received.
However, Japan Display has not been making enough profit in the past few years and is running on losses since Apple funded the billion-dollar factory. Japan Display’s new factory is reportedly running on half its capacity as smartphone makers have switched to using OLED display panels instead of the LCD ones. But even so, Japan Display is still one of the most important suppliers of Apple as the company makes OLED display panels for the Apple Watch along with LCD displays for the current iPhone XR. Earlier reports suggested that Apple will bring three new iPhones this year and among them, the affordable variant will sport an LCD panel instead of an AMOLED one. So, other than the iPhone XR and the older smartphone models, maybe one of the upcoming handsets from Apple will pack an LCD panel.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has started testing a new feature that permits its users to share their WhatsApp status with the other apps. The new feature has been rolled out for all the users of WhatsApp beta programme.
WhatsApp users will soon notice a new sharing option under their status, that will allow them to post and share it on their Facebook account and on some other apps too. WhatsApp status is a feature that allows the user to share their pictures and videos on their profile that disappear after 24 hours. It is a lot like Instagram Stories.
The new feature permits users to share their status directly on their Facebook Story. They will also be able to share it via Instagram Stories, Gmail and Google Photos.
According to a report by The Verge, Facebook will ensure the privacy of the user by not directly linking their two profiles. The company has assured that if the user shares their WhatsApp Status on other company-owned services like Instagram or Facebook’s app, both the posts will be categorised as separate and will not be linked.
The report says, “To be clear, WhatsApp’s new status sharing feature doesn’t do any of the data sharing that’s gotten Facebook into trouble in the past. But as Facebook moves toward allowing users from all three of its major services to message each other across a single technical backend, even seemingly innocuous features like this can risk intense scrutiny.”
Currently, this new feature has been rolled out for WhatsApp beta version 2.19.151 for Android. It is expected to come soon to iOS too.
Recently, WhatsApp also released another update for its beta version on Android. The new feature being called as Hide Muted status update. As the name suggests, it enables the users to hide all the status updates that have already been muted in the user’s contacts. With this new feature, the user can erase all the muted status updates from the Status section. The feature was spotted in WhatsApp’s latest beta version 2.19.183. For using it, one needs to be a part of the Google Play’s Beta Programme for WhatsApp and should have installed the latest version 2.19.183 update on their Android device.
If you are not a part of WhatsApp’s beta programme, then you can follow our step-by-step guide to become one. However, we should mention that while beta updates get you new features before anyone else, they also sometimes get bugs. To become a part of the programme only if you are ready for that.
Chinese technology company Xiaomi has geared up to bring its upcoming Redmi K20-series smartphone in India. The smartphone was unveiled in China last month in May and the device’s India launch was confirmed by the company earlier this month. Now, Redmi K20’s processor’s performance has been teased by the company’s official Twitter handle. The tweet by Redmi India shows the comparison between the CPUs of its previous smartphones and the upcoming Redmi K20. The teased smartphone will be a mid-range device with features like a full-AMOLED display and a triple rear camera setup that has a 48MP Sony primary sensor.
Redmi India tweeted about the CPU that powers the Redmi K20 – the Snapdragon 730 SoC. The teaser displayed the official AnTuTu benchmark performance of the octa-core Snapdragon 730 SoC. According to the company, Redmi K20’s CPU is 40% faster than the Snapdragon 710 SoC that is housed in the Realme 3 Pro and the Nokia 8.1. The image shows that while Snapdragon 730 SoC scored 2,18,625 on the AnTuTu benchmarking test, Snapdragon 675 SoC scored a total of 1,80,808. Lastly, the Snapdragon 710 SoC scored a total of 1,55,215 in the test.
The full tweet of Redmi India read, “Mi fans, you will soon see a device with @Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, one of the first in India. It’s >40% faster than SD 710 which is an year old. Yes, you read that right! Can you guess the name of the phone coming with 730?” Although the teaser revealed the performance of the CPU, it didn’t mention the exact date of the launch of the Redmi K20.
Prior to this, Xiaomi India’s Managing Director, Manu Kumar Jain had confirmed that the Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20 Pro will be launched in India in “six weeks”, and this timeline ends in mid-July. So, there is a possibility that the company might launch both the device around July 15. Some industry insiders told us that Xiaomi will be launching the smartphone on July 18.
Redmi K20 price in India (expected) and specifications
Although the Redmi K20 hasn’t been launched in India, it will most likely be a mid-range smartphone. In China, the Redmi K20 with 6GB RAM/64GB storage sells for CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs 20,200) while the 6GB RAM/128GB storage is priced at CNY 2,099 (approximately Rs 21,200). The top end variant of the smartphone with 8GB RAM/256GB storage bears a price tag of CNY 2,599 (approximately Rs 26,200).
Speaking about the specifications of the Redmi K20, it sports a 6.39-inch Full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) AMOLED display. The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 730 SoC paired with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. The handset packs a 4,000mAh battery that has support for fast charging. It runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with MIUI and has an in-display fingerprint scanner.
Mi fans, you will soon see a device with @Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, one of the first in India. It's >40% faster than SD 710 which is an year old. Yes, you read that right!
— Redmi India – #Redmi9 is here! (@RedmiIndia) June 27, 2019
On the imaging front, the Redmi K20 features a triple-rear camera that comprises of a 48MP Sony IMX582 primary sensor paired with a 13MP wide-angle lens along with an 8MP camera. On the front, there is a 20MP selfie camera.
For connectivity, Redmi K20 comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS, and USB Type-C port.
Cupertino-based technology giant Apple has today announced that its Apple Music service has surpassed 60 million subscribers. In an interview with French media website Numerama, the company’s vice president Eddy Cue revealed the latest numbers. We should mention that this 10 million more than the last known figure, as the company had announced that Apple Music had 50 million subscribers in April 2019.
Back then, it was also reported that Apple Music had more listeners than Spotify in the United States. But then, we should also point out that Spotify today has 100 million subscribers worldwide.
Speaking to the publication, Cue said, “In the Apple ecosystem, Apple Music is the number one streaming service.” With the announcement of the latest number, it is extremely evident how rapidly has grown its subscriber base in the past few months. Since the beginning of the year, Apple has slashed its prices in India and started offering free music streaming with American Airlines.
The company has also offered free Apple Music trials to Shazam users after the Grammy Awards. On the other hand, Spotify has partnered with a number of companies to increase the number of services that it offers. The New York Time, Hulu, Samsung and Starbucks are among the companies that the music streaming service has joined hands with.
We should mention that Apple Music is also expected to replace iTunes on the desktop once macOS Catalina gets launched in fall this year. However, we should mention that it will only replace the music portion of iTunes and other services by Apple will be replacing other functions.
In an unrelated piece of news, it was recently reported that Spotify has been testing a new feature called ‘Social Listening’. With this upcoming feature, multiple users will be able to add songs and make playlists in real time so that they can listen to it with each other.
But then, the feature is currently only being tested by a few employees of the company. Spotify has till now not broken its silence on when it will roll out the feature to its 100 million global users.
The feature was first found by renowned reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong who tweeted saying, “Spotify is working on ‘Social Listening’, letting friends to control music together with their own devices. Scan Spotify Code or open link for it to begin. For example, I’m listening Spotify right now. Feel free to introduce me new music.” She further shared a link with her tweet that led to a social session.
Cupertino-based technology giant Apple has announced that its chief design officer, Jony Ive, is leaving the company. Post the announcement, the company’s stock dropped by 1%.
It is worth mentioning that Ive is considered to be one among the most important people at Apple and he was responsible for the look and feel as well as the industrial design of all major products by the company. He even looks after the design of the iPhone and Mac. Ive has been working at Apple for more than 20 years.
We should add that Ive will be starting his own design business called LoveFrom. According to a report in Financial Times, he will be accompanied in this venture by his friend and designer Marc Newson. Apple has confirmed that the company will be a client of Ive’s business.
Speaking to Financial Times, Ive said, “While I will not be an employee, I will still be very involved — I hope for many, many years to come. This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook also spoke about Ive leaving the company. In a statement, he said, “Jony is a singular figure in the design world and his role in Apple’s revival cannot be overstated, from 1998′s groundbreaking iMac to the iPhone and the unprecedented ambition of Apple Park, where recently he has been putting so much of his energy and care.”
Nobody would be succeeding Ive immediately at Apple. The company has confirmed that Evans Hanky, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design, would be assuming the additional design responsibilities.
Apple has also said that both the designers would now report to Jeff Williams, the company’s chief operating officer. On the other hand, Ive reported directly to CEO Tim Cook.
Apple Park, the company’s $5 billion campus in Cupertino, California was one among the things Ive primarily focussed on during the last few years. Apple officially opened its new headquarters last month, for which, it also hosted a concert on the campus.
Speaking further to Financial Times, Ive said, “There were some significant projects that I feel like I’ve completed. For example, Apple Park — this was a project that started in 2004 . . . A couple of weeks ago we had our official opening of the Park. That was a really significant project, that was unlike many of our others because it was for us.”
Fortnite, the popular battle royale game from Epic Games has rolled out a new content update for it. The new update brings a number of changes, fresh features, new equipment, gameplay improvements for the Battle Royale and the Save the World game modes of Fortnite. The new content update for the game is a part of the earlier Fortnite v9.30 update that was released on Tuesday this week. The apprise is named Fortnite content update #1 for patch v9.30 and it adds a number of features to the game along with a new weapon as well.
This update of Fortnite is currently out for PC, Xbox One as well as PlayStation 4. The new weapon which comes along looks like a Revolver along with several others from the Vault. These includes Pump Shotgun in the Battle Royale game mode. The official patch notes from Fortnite reads that the newest weapon Revolver fires medium ammo and it can hold six rounds of bullets. The Revolver inflicts 63/66 damage every shot and can be found in the floor loot as well as chests, vending machines, supply drops and loot carriers.
Now, talking about the weapons from the Vault, we see the Pump Shotgun that was one of the most popular guns of the players of the game. The gun was removed at the start of Season 9 of Fortnite, but now it has been added back to the game. The Pump Shotgun can be found in floor loot as well as in the vending machines. Although the company hasn’t mentioned about why it had removed the Pump Shotgun from Fortnite, it explained why Epic has brought the weapon back into the game. Epic said, “There’s been a lot of feedback around the Tactical Shotgun and Combat Shotgun effectiveness, and so we’re experimenting with a world where the Pump Shotgun joins the current shotgun lineup”.
Other than the Pump Shotgun, Shockwave Grenade as well as Supressed SMG has also been unvaulted in the latest content update of Fortnite. However, in this update Fortnite has vaulted several other weapons from the previous slot. The vaulted weapons include – Tactical Assault Rifle, Impulse Grenades, Rift-To-Go, and Pirate Cannon.
Moreover, the Tactical Shotgun, Burst SMG, Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle, and FlintKnock Pistol have their availability adjusted and the Minigun and Heavy Assault Rifle’s player damage has also been changed. The clip size of Infantry Rifle and DrumGun has also been changed. Lastly, the 14 Days of Summer game event has also been added to Battle Royale and Save The World modes of Fortnite.
Google has rolled another new update for its Google Map App. The new feature launched by Google deletes the location history on the Google Map. The company has been pressurised by many users on social media platforms to improve its data collection policies and privacy. The tech giant has been criticised for holding on to user’s geolocation information in its server for an unspecified amount of time.
Google has announced in an official blog post that says, “Whether you’re looking for the latest news or the quickest driving route, we aim to make our products helpful for everyone. And when you turn on settings like Location History or Web & App Activity, the data can make Google products more useful for you—like recommending a restaurant that you might enjoy, or helping you pick up where you left off on a previous search. We work to keep your data private and secure, and we’ve heard your feedback that we need to provide simpler ways for you to manage or delete it.”
Last month the Tech Giant announced that soon it will be launching the auto delete tool for its app aimed at privacy purposes. The auto-delete feature in the Google map lets you set a time limit after which the app will automatically delete the location history and web history on your device. The new feature allows you to choose a time limit between 3 to 18 months. After you set the time limit Google will automatically delete the location history, web history and app activity.
To activate auto-delete feature all you have to do is head to your Google Account. Now go to My Activity section. Next tap on the new feature chooses to delete automatically option, select the time limit of your choice between 3 months or 18 months. Now the app will automatically delete all the location history that you searched older than the definite time period.
You should be careful about the settings that are not set by default. This will let Google collect and control all the data that has been saved on your phone. As we mentioned earlier the company announced the new rollout in may so currently the new rollout will take time to reach all the devices.
While announcing the new feature the company in its blog post also said, “You should always be able to manage your data in a way that works best for you–and we’re committed to giving you the best controls to make that happen.”
Trump government’s trade ban on Huawei has put the Chinese smartphone maker in a very delicate situation. Due to the trade ban, most of the US based tech companies – Google, Microsoft, Intel, microSD Association etc have stopped their business with them. And due to this, Huawei smartphones will not receive the upcoming Android updates or Google services on their smartphones.
Honor is a sub-brand of the Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei is in the same soup. Similar to Huawei smartphones, the Honor devices too are powered by the same chipset and features mostly the same specifications, as Huawei is the parent company of Honor. And with the trade ban, Honor smartphones too were on line to not receive the Android updates and Google app support, which had put the company in a very tight situation. But today, Honor India has announced that all the Honor smartphones and tablets will continue to receive security patches as well as Android updates.
Huawei ‘s sub-brand Honor took to Twitter to make this announcement, which comes as a surprise nonetheless. The new announcement by Honor India is a bold one because the trade ban was to effect Honor as well as Huawei. Honor India’s full post reads, “At HONOR, we always put our consumers first, regardless of the challenges we face. All HONOR smartphones and tablets will continue to receive security patches and Android updates. Anyone who has already bought, or is about to buy an HONOR smartphone can continue to access the world of apps as they have always done. All devices continue to be covered by our manufacturer’s warranty and will receive full service support accordingly. Our most popular devices, including HONOR 20 Series (HONOR 20i, HONOR 20, HONOR 20 Pro) will be able to access Android Q. We fully appreciate that you may have additional questions. We will get back to you with additional information soon.”
This news should be a pleasant surprise for everyone who was planning to buy the newly launched HONOR 20 smartphone series. And with the company’s announcement, it has been made clear that the new Honor devices will continue to receive the new Android software updates along with the Google software patches. It has also been made clear that all the existing devices of Honor will also continue to receive the new Android updates and security patches as well. But it remains to be seen if Honor 20-series smartphones are the ones to receive the new Android Q updates or the previously launched smartphones too will receive the Android Q update like the ‘View’ series etc.
With this announcement, Honor has put itself back to the smartphone market, but people will still see it with some doubt until the Huawei’s trade ban is cleared out. And it also remains to be seen whether Huawei smartphone will receive the new Android Q update or not?
Fitbit has partnered with Cardiogram to bring a number of Cardiogram’s suite of health monitoring features to Fitbit users globally. The partnership is made with the goal of improving the care management, empower and save lives of the users, as the Fitbit fitness bands comes with heart rate monitors (HRM).Cardiogram, on the other hand, detects health problems of the users using the HRM’s data.
Fitbit is one of the well-known smart fitness bands and activity trackers out there in the market today with more than 27 million active users. And Cardiogram is like a digital health and fitness diary. It uses the heart rate and sleep data from the wearable devices and then displays it on the user’s smartphone. Cardiogram also provides the users with insights and tracking as well. And currently, there are more than a million users who use Cardiogram to track how their heart rate is affected by anything i.e. stress, workouts, sleep, or an episode of Game of Thrones.
Brandon Ballinger, co-founder and CEO of Cardiogram said, “A brand synonymous with health and fitness, compatibility with Fitbit has been one of our top user requests, and we’re very excited to launch this partnership. Fitbit wearables have remarkably consistent heart rate accuracy, enhanced sleep tracking, and extended battery life, all of which improve a user’s experience with Cardiogram as well.”
With the partnership between Fitbit and Cardiogram, the users can access Cardiogram’s health screening tools to their advantage. Cardiogram’s health screening tools have clinically been validated to detect signs of conditions like diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, and atrial fibrillation using the heart rate data from the connected Fitbit devices. If the user is flagged at risk for the health condition then they are provided convenient confirmatory diagnostic testing. However, the newly-diagnosed users are guided to condition management programs.
The users of Fitbit fitness bands have the option to upgrade to Cardiogram Premium, it is a subscription service that enables sharing of live Cardiogram data, insights, and confirmatory test results with their friends or family. Moreover, the user can also easily export the data to share it with a physician.
Adam Pellegrini, general manager of Fitbit Health Solutions said about the partnership, “For the past decade, Fitbit has made simple and engaging health and wellness solutions accessible to millions of people, helping them make the behavior change that leads to better health outcomes. Building on our success in helping people reach their health goals, we continue to work to tackle some of the most common and costly conditions in healthcare. Partnering with Cardiogram to add a health condition screening tool further enhances our growing platform of technology-enabled solutions to help Fitbit users proactively manage their health.”
Cardiogram is compatible with any Fitbit devices with a heart rate sensor. It supports the Fitbit Charge family, Fitbit Versa family, Fitbit Inspire HR, Fitbit Ionic, and Fitbit Alta HR. The users of Fitbit can download the Cardiogram app for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Popular short video app LIKE has rebranded itself to Likee. The Singapore based company has not rebranded its name just for namesake. The company is going to transform its app by bringing more features and functions to its app Likee.
The BIGO Technology owned company Likee commented on the rebranding, “the motive for rebranding LIKE to Likee lies in the tagline of the app – More than like. With the objective of strengthening and enhancing its value for users and content creators, it has transformed its features and functions to bring diverse, valuable and entertaining content to the market. A globally popular short video creation platform with dynamic content, Likee, in the long-run, intends to become a platform can deliver valuable information while offering enjoyable content. Its goal is to provide tools for simple and unique short video creation for users as well as help users explore a valuable content bank by discovering people nearby. Hence, the added E – for Everyone to easily create amazing videos; Explore a wider world and record amazing moments; Encounter new and interesting video discoveries. “
As we mentioned earlier the company has included new features and functions to its transformed app Likee to cater more varied, treasured, and enjoyable content to its users.
Likee has launched by Talent Creators Union to encourage creators to showcase their talent and knowledge by producing more appreciated video content. Through which they can earn monetary rewards.
The video creation platform Likee had tied up with popular celebrities and media agencies to encourage and inspire more short video content. Media agencies like ANI, Dainik Jagran, etc., and celebrities like Shakti Mohan, Zakir Khan, RJ Naved, and others can now be followed on the Likee platform while they create and posts their videos on the popular app.
At the Moment Like is the most accessed video app in India. So, to inspire more creative content, the new avatar of the app has attracted celebrity and media agency tie-ups. They can now be accessed on the Likee platform via the videos they create and posts on the app. With its somewhat domination it has in the Indian market, Likee has become the app of choice for brands to create a connect with the Indian masses. Also, its closest competition here is TikTok, which is a similar app.
Will the name change extend their fortune or will it end in devastation? The key is held by content creators and viewers.
India’s leading telecommunication service provider Airtel has announced today its customer reward programme #AirtelThanks. As a part of the programme, Airtel customers will be getting benefits with its V-Fiber Home Broadband.
Airtel Thanks benefits for V-Fiber Home Broadband customers are as follows:
Airtel V-Fiber Plan Rs 1099
The plans of Rs 1099 and above will be benefited with 100 Mbps superfast data speeds, 300 GB/month with rollover 500 GB one-time bonus data and superior service. That includes three months subscription gift from Netflix, One-year Amazon Prime membership with full entertainment and online shopping benefits, access to premium content from ZEE5, Airtel TV and much more.
Airtel V-Fiber Plan Rs 1500
Airtel V-Fiber plan of Rs 1,500 and above will get 300 Mbps of data speed plus 600 GB/month with rollover and will also get 1,000 GB one-time bonus data. The customers will also get three months subscription for Netflix, one-year Amazon Prime, full access to ZEE5 and Airtel TV premium.
Airtel V-Fiber Plan Rs 1999
The Plan of Rs 1999 will get 100mbps data speed plus unlimited data benefit and will enjoy all the benefits like other plans are offering.
On the launch of #AirtelThanks rewards George Mathen, CEO – Broadband, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to bring some exciting #AirtelThanks benefits to our Homes customers and deliver a truly differentiated experience backed by quality service. Digital entertainment and online shopping are amongst the biggest use cases for Home Broadband and we are now bringing a bouquet of top content and e-commerce platforms to our customers as part of their plans. With this, we Airtel has set a new industry benchmark when it comes to value proposition for the customer.”
The Telecom company also stated that when the customers of airtel opt for the annual rental package they will get 15% additional discounts. Over that, the Airtel Customers opting for the six months rental package will get additional benefits up to 7.5%.
In August last year, the company has announced similar offers for its post-paid and broadband customers, too. The post-paid customers were benefited with free Netflix subscriptions. Although broadband users received offers like free Netflix subscription, bonus data, and Amazon Prime membership.
Canon India, the Camera and lens maker has launched a new RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens in the country. The new lens is aimed at professional photographers. It comes with the new RF mount technology and provides superior optical performance with its large aperture. The new Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens is a good choice for photographers who do wedding or people photography.
In This Article
Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens price and availability
The new Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens holds a price tag of Rs 2,19,995 and it will be available for purchase from this week onwards.
Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens specifications and features
The Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens is a portrait prime lens that makes it a perfect lens for wedding, portrait, people photography. The company launched the portrait prime lens seeing the growing trend of portrait photography in the country. And since the Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens being a prime lens with a fixed 85mm of focal length, the photographers can capture great shots. When combined with Canon’s EOS R system, the photographers can create good bokeh effects using the Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens.
This lens utilises the wide diameter and short back focus distance of the RF mount to give the 85mm lens bright aperture of f/1.2. Other than that, it is also capable of producing ultra-high resolution images and comes with an autofocus function.
Since the Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens has a large f/1.2 aperture, it allows more light to enter through the lens. This allows the photographers to control more light exposure during photography. The lens has 9-blade circular aperture that delivers a good soft bokeh. The Canon lens is also capable of capturing sharp and crisp images even in low lighting conditions using a higher shutter speed.
The Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens has a minimum focusing distance of 0.85m and a maximum magnification of 0.12x. This expands the shooting and capturing capabilities of the lens from close-ups to shooting small objects. Furthermore, the new prime lens from Canon also comes with the Canon’s Air Sphere Coating (ASC), it helps reduce the lens flare and ghosting caused by the reflections while improving the lighting clarity and contrast of the image when shooting into a backlight.
Moreover, the Canon RF85mm f/1.2L USM lens comes with a RF mount and a new control ring that is found in new its RF lens series. The photographers can use it to assign different settings including aperture value, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation. And lastly, the lens has a dust and drip resistance that ensures high durability even when shooting outdoors.
Realme has come up with a new sale called the Realme Leap Days sale and is being hosted on Amazon India, Flipkart as well as Realme.com. The Realme Leap Days sale will go on from June 27 till June 30, Sunday and in the sale Realme is offering various offers on the purchase of its smartphones. All three platforms will hold varying Realme devices, but the offers will be available on three podiums. If the user purchases the smartphones from Realme.com, they will get15% cashback from MobiKwik in the form of SuperCash. While Flipkart is offering no-cost EMI and Complete Mobile Protection for Rs 99.
Realme C2 which holds a price tag of Rs 6,993 will be available for Rs 5,999 on June 28 at 12pm (noon) on Flipkart and Realme.com. Flipkart is also offering exchange offers, no-cost EMIs along with 5% off if the purchase is made using Axis Bank Buzz credit cards. If purchased from Realme.com, the users will get the aforementioned MobiKwik offer.
Realme C1 on the other hand holds a price tag of Rs 7,590 is being offered at Rs 6,999 on Flipkart and Realme.com in the Realme Leap Days sale. While the Realme 2 with 3GB RAM/32GB storage is bring offered at Rs 8,999 instead of Rs 9,499. The new price is available only on Realme.com. It will also be getting the MobiKwik offer as well. The 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant of the device is selling for its original price of Rs 10,990.
The Realme 2 Pro with 4GB RAM/64GB storage is being offered at Rs 10,490 instead of Rs 11,990 on Flipkart. While the 6GB variant of the device now sells atfor Rs 12,490. That is also down from its original price of Rs 13,999.
The Realme 3 is now selling for a starting price of Rs 8,999 on Flipkart. Whereas the Realme 3 Pro is selling at a starting price of Rs 13,990 in the Realme Leap Days sale on Flipkart. Both these devices are getting the no-cost EMI option up to 6 months along with an exchange offer. There is also a 5% instant discount if the purchase was made using ICICI debit or credit card EMI transaction. The consumers will also get a 5% discount if the Axis Bank Buzz Credit cards are used for the purchase.
Coming to Amazon India, Realme is offering a discount of Rs 1,000 on the Realme U1. The starting price of the device in the Realme Leap Days sale is Rs 8,999 and it is also up for Exchange offer, no-cost EMI and 5% cashback on Citi Credit Card EMI.
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has made quite a name for itself in the Indian smartphone market with its mid-range and entry-level smartphones offering good performance. Honor, unlike Huawei offers the users with pocket friendly devices with the latest software and smartphone technology, Huawei on the other hand makes premium and top-end smartphones. Honor takes the technologies used by Huawei’s top-end smartphones and packs them in a mid-range devices offering respectable performance. Recently, the company launched its Honor 20i in the Indian market which is part of Honor 20-series of smartphones. We spent some time with it to find out how good it is, what it offers and where it lacks. Read our review to find out whether you should go for it or not:
In This Article
Design and Display
The Honor 20i has a build of a premium smartphone and it doesn’t look like a mid-range smartphone. The rear panel is made up of plastic-like material and yet it has a glossy finish that looks like glass. The smartphone is light in weight and it is encased in plastic frame. We held the Phantom Blue variant and it was no doubt stunning to look at. The sides had a metallic blue colour while the rear has a gradient finish with blue on top and purple at the bottom.
The top of the smartphones doesn’t have ports, but it holds a secondary microphone and has the hybrid-SIM slot. At the right, there are the volume rockers and power button placed and were easy to reach with one hand. The bottom of the device holds the speaker grille, a micro-USB charging port, the primary microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The back side of the Honor 20i is somewhat its main attraction, it holds a triple rear camera placed vertically on the top left side of the smartphone. Under the camera module is where the LED flash is placed. And at the top-centre is where the fingerprint scanner can be found. The camera does protrude slightly but it is negligible. The Honor logo sits at the bottom of the back panel. The Honor 20i has a dimension of 154.8 x 73.6 x 8mm and it weighs 164 gms.
Now, talking about the front, it holds a 6.21-inch Full-HD+ (2,340 x 1,080 pixels) IPS LED display with 415ppi pixel density but it doesn’t come with protection. So, there is a chance you might scratch it if you keep it with keys or coins. Although the display is bright, it is not bright enough. However it is enough to be visible under direct sunlight. There is a water-drop style notch placed on top of the display that holds the front camera of the device. Being an IPS display it does a fine job of displaying the right colours with accuracy, but it leans a little towards the warmer side.
Performance and Camera
Performance and camera are the departments where the Honor 20i shines. It is powered by an octa-core Kirin 710F SoC (4 x Cortex A73 clocked at 2.2GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 clocked at 1.7GHz) paired with Mali-G51 MP4 GPU. We had the 4GB RAM/128GB internal storage variant and needless to say that it did not disappoint in terms of performance. The device was able to handle most of the tasks thrown at it with ease, be it social media, browsing the internet or long gaming sessions, it handled all with ease. But it did get hot when gaming for longer duration.
We ran PUBG, Asphalt 8, Asphalt 9 on Honor 20i, it handled them well at medium settings. There wasn’t any lag if the games were played in the suggested settings, either. The Honor 20i also comes with GPU Turbo 2.0 feature that helped the gaming performance of the device.
Talking about the benchmark scores, the Honor 20i we held gave an AnTuTu score of 1,16,063 while on GeekBench 4 it scored 1,526 on single-core and 4,901 on multi cores. And it is fairly decent, it has a better score than some of the other smartphones available at the same price point.
The calling and connectivity of the Honor 20i was also fairly good, it was able to receive networks in most of the places and the earpiece volume was loud enough to be heard properly. Talking about the loudspeakers, although it has a single placed speaker at the bottom of the device, it is fairly loud. You won’t have any problems listening to loudspeaker calls or YouTube videos or even music with it. But it does loses some clarity when the speakers are put on full volume.
Now, talking about the cameras, this is the place where the Honor 20i gleams and outperforms most of its competitors. The Honor 20i features a triple rear camera setup, which comprises of a 24MP main camera with an f/1.8 aperture paired with an 8MP secondary camera with an f/2.4 aperture and a 2MP tertiary camera with an f/2.4 aperture. While on the front, there is a 32MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture and it is capable of clicking pictures at 6,528 x 4896 pixels resolution. The camera quality of the Honor 20i was impressive, it was able to click pictures with proper lighting pretty well. The triple-rear cameras of the Honor 20i also has the AI support. The AI adds proper dynamic range, boosts the colours and overall gives an impressive picture quality.
Although the selfie camera doesn’t come with the HDR mode, it produces impressive selfie shots nonetheless. The AI of the camera is able to distinguish between the places and is able to tell if you are taking the picture in a room, at a park or in sunlight and adjusts the white balance accordingly. The low light performance of the Honor 20i is also decent but it does lose some details and quality. But being a mid-ranger and for the price point it is being offered at, that can be overlooked.
The Honor 20i packs a 3,400mAh battery and it is capable of giving full day of battery life on light to moderate usage. On heavy usage, you can get a battery life of around 6 hours. But the only downside of the Honor 20i is that it doesn’t come with a fast charger and it takes around 2 hours to charge the device from 0% to 100%. Also, it comes with the old micro-USB charging port instead of offering a USB-Type C port, which most of its competitors are offering. The Honor 20i also runs Android 9 Pie skinned with EMUI 9 and it offers somewhat a clean Android experience. News is that the smartphone might get Android Q update too, but that is a story for sometime later.
Verdict
The Honor 20i is one impressive smartphone considering the price it sells for, the smartphone holds a price tag of Rs 14,999. And it is one of the best camera smartphones in the current mid-range market in India. Although there are some issues with the battery life, the UI and some other minor things, but it is still a decent device. So, if you are looking for a good camera phone with a good performance then you can go for the Honor 20i.
Although Honor had said that the Honor 20i will receive the Google Play Services and software updates globally but since the US hasn’t lifted its ban from Huawei nothing can be said. And in future, there will come a time when the device won’t be getting newer software updates and the newer Android versions Google will bring. So, if you are okay with it then you might want to go for the Honor 20i.
The display screen on the 
