Make in India: Lenovo and Motorola to start local manufacturing of smartphones in India
Lenovo and Motorola have just announced that they will start the local manufacturing of smartphones in Sriperambudur, Chennai. Both, Lenovo and Motorola will generate a capacity of 6 million units.
Chen Xudong, President MBG Group, Lenovo and Chairman Motorola Mobility Operating Board, said “Lenovo is not new to manufacturing in India. We recognized the potential of India and we invested in PC manufacturing several years ago. Lenovo’s investment in the new manufacturing plant represents the potential we see in the Indian market and our long term commitment to our customers. In the past ten years, our brand has grown manifold in India. We are excited to expand our presence and tap into India’s competent talent pool that will enable us to develop cutting-edge products for our customers across the world.”
The campus will house 1,500 workers for manufacturing lines, quality assurance, product testing, etc. Both the companies will have separate manufacturing lines at the same facility. The Lenovo and Motorola brands have returned to manufacture in India to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Both the companies have started integrating the manufacturing and supply chain operations.
Let’s see, how well this will work for both of them in the near future. Hopefully the prices of the smartphones will come down further after this move.
Micromax Canvas Tab P690 Review: A good looking tablet at Rs 8,999
Micromax, the smartphone and tablet manufacturer has got yet another tablet in the Indian market that is in the budget segment. Called the Micromax Canvas Tab P690, we got to review it recently and this is what we could make of it.
Design
The Micromax Canvas Tab P690 is available in metallic grey colour. The tablets grey metal back panel is grippy and one can hold the tablet nicely. This back grey metal is extended to the side panel that gives this tablet the edge over others. There is also a white Micromax logo on the back, adding to the whole show. Overall, the design is pretty competitive and gives this one an expensive look.
The Micromax Canvas Tab P690 features an 8-inch LCD IPS display. This LCD IPS display is ideal for reading e-books and one can even watch movies on it as the colours look real on the screen. The tablet is not that heavy, it has only 318g weight and it is 7.8mm thick.
The power button is located on the right side of the tablet along with the volume key. The SIM and microSD slots are placed a little away on the same side. Both, the USB port and a 3.5mm headset jack are located at the top of the tablet. The primary camera is on the top left (rear) of the tablet. A neat pair of headphones also come in the box that take care of the users resonance needs.
Performance
At this level performance does matter. The Micromax Canvas Tab P690 has an Intel Atom 1.83GHz Quad-Core 64-bit processor that comes with 1GB of RAM. Together they try to make the applications and services run as smoothly as possible. This tablet has 8GB of internal memory of which only 3.81GB is free for users to store files as the rest is taken by the operating system and default apps. However, there is the option to add up to 32GB microSD card to store additional files.
The Micromax Canvas Tab P690 sensors list includes accelerometer sensor, proximity sensor, gravity sensor and ambient light sensor. The primary camera of the tablet can capture 5-megapixel still images. For selfies, there is a 2-megapixel secondary camera. The picture quality was not up to the mark but the Macro shots were quite good.
We were able to play most apps and mid-end games on the tablet without any hassles. But, the tablet hangs a lot while playing high-end games and one can’t enjoy the game at this level. We faced no problems when it came to audio and call quality on the Micromax Canvas Tab P690. The supplied headphones are really nice. Screen, image and video quality is also above average and we quite liked what we saw.
Moving on to its battery life, the Micromax Canvas Tab P690 has 4,000 mAh non-removable battery inside it. But, it can barely stay awake for a full day. We tested the tablet with Quadrant and it managed to score 12,976 points, we were expecting a bit more.
Verdict
The Micromax Canvas Tab P690 looks good and it is built for the youngsters. It has the Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS, which can get upgraded to Lollipop OS. It comes with a lot of preloaded apps. The experience was quite smooth throughout. One can get the Micromax Canvas Tab P690 for Rs 8,999.
Pros
- Quite affordable
- Stylish compact design
- Decent performance
- Average battery life
- Camera without flash
- Comes with Android KitKat OS
- Network supported: 2G and 3G
- Display size: LCD IPS 8-inch display
- Operating system: Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS
- CPU: Intel Atom 83GHz Quad-Core processor
- RAM: 1GB
- Memory: 8GB (memory can be expanded up to 32GB via micro SD card)
- Camera: Rear camera 5MP and 2MP secondary camera
- Dimensions:8 x 120.5 x 7.8mm
- Weight: 318g
- Battery: 4,000 mAh (non-removable)
YU Yureka Plus Review: A stunning smartphone at an affordable price
Yureka brand by the Indian handset maker Micromax was written off by many at the start. However, the handset maker is doing decently well and the market is slowly waking up to them. The latest smartphone from their house is the Yu Yureka Plus. Want to know about it a little more? Read on.
Design
The YU Yureka Plus is available in white and moon dust grey colours. We received a grey unit for review and quite liked it. The Yureka Plus’s body is supported by a rubberized plastic frame, which is curved all over and has rounded corners. The screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 over a 5.5-inch display and is very comfortable to use with just one hand. The phone is very light and easy to use.
At the back of the mobile phone, we have a removable plastic panel that fits well with the frame. Under this removable plastic panel, there is a removable battery, two Micro SIM card slots and a Micro SD card slot. At the back, you will also see the camera lens. The power button is located on the right side of the phone and the volume rocker key is located on the left side. The USB port is located at the bottom of the phone and the 3.5mm headset jack is located at the top of the mobile phone. A neat pair of headphones also come in the box.
Performance
The Yureka Plus has a 1.5GHz Octa-Core processor that comes along with 2GB of RAM for applications and services. The users also get 16GB of internal memory to store files. Over that, there is the option to add up to a 32GB via a microSD card. All this runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. For graphics an Adreno 405 is also on board. The smartphone features HTML5 for browsing. Other features include Gyroscope sensor, Accelerometer sensor, Qualcomm’s quick charge technology and Cyanogen 12.
The primary camera of Yureka Plus can capture 13-megapixel still images and 1080p videos. For selfies, there is a 5-megapixel front camera. The camera captures very decent pictures but in low light and dark areas, the picture quality was not desirable. The camera requires sufficient amount of light for a beautiful snap. A feature worth mentioning here is that the rear camera can autofocus and also comes with a LED flash.
Games, music apps and video galleries ran extremely well. But, the mobile phone heats up really fast. We faced no problems when it came to the audio and call quality on the Yu Yureka Plus. The supplied headphones get the job done and one can hear the beats clearly. Screen, image and video quality is above average.
Stepping towards its battery life, the YU Yureka Plus does not manage to stay awake for a long duration. With 2,500 mAh battery inside it, it worked for 18 hours after a full charge (under nominal use). We tested the phone with Quadrant and it managed to score 23,304 points that puts it right in the middle of the stack.
Verdict
The YU Yureka Plus has good voice quality and also has some great features in it. It has the latest Android Lollipop 5.0.2 with Cyanogen 12 and some excellent apps such as Audio FX and YUniverse browser. The skin enhances everything from the security to the UI design. The experience was pretty much smooth throughout. The company has priced the Yu Yureka Plus at Rs 10,999.
Pros
- Quite affordable
- Decent performance
- 2GB of RAM
- Neat Design
- Average camera performance
- Average battery life
- Phone heats up really fast
Creative launches its latest EP-600m high performance earphones in India
Creative is a leading worldwide manufacturer of digital entertainment products and they are trying to bring good products to the Indian market. They have just launched the Creative EP-600m. These high performance ear plugs feature noise-isolation, dynamic bass and clear audio playback.
The company says that the Creative EP-600m deliver amazing well-balanced audio playback powered by a pair of 10mm Neodymium drivers. This headset also comes with inline microphone, which supports voice pick-up for calls. So, one can easily switch between their calls and music playback. The Creative EP-600m not only ensures maximum sound isolation, but also provides comfort for hours of listening.
The company has priced the Creative EP-600m headset at Rs 799.
Micromax Canvas Selfie 2 and Canvas Selfie 3 smartphones make their debut in India
Micromax is trying to bring decent mobile phones at affordable price for youngsters in India. They are continuously bringing good Android mobiles one after the other. And now, they have just launched two new smartphones in the Canvas Selfie range, which are Canvas Selfie 2 and Canvas Selfie 3. Both the smartphones offer a perfect combination of innovation, style and performance with the premium front and rear cameras with various shooting modes.
Mr. Vineet Taneja, CEO, Micromax Informatics, said, “With over 93 million selfies being captured every day, people today take and retake pictures of themselves until it mirrors perfection and what they want the world to see them as. Keeping this in mind, we have created our Canvas Selfie range which has received tremendous response from our young consumers with Canvas Selfie. Taking the selfie craze to the next level, we are proud to announce the two new smartphones which are ideal for the users delivering fantastic images and equipping them with great beauty editing tools to look their best always.”
Micromax Canvas Selfie 2
The Micromax Canvas Selfie 2 flaunts a 5-inch FWVGA IPS display. The device runs an Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system. Powering the smartphone is a Quad-Core 1.3GHz processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The on-board storage of the smartphone accounts to 8GB that can be expanded further via a microSD card.
The new Canvas Selfie 2 sports a 5MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. The smartphone comes with the Face Beauty mode, which lets the users balance facial features, soften complexions and remove skin blemishes. The smartphone offers 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth as connectivity options and it packs a 2,000 mAh battery (non-removable) to keep it alive.
The company has priced the new Micromax Canvas Selfie 2 at Rs 5,999 and will be available for both online and offline consumers by August 22.
Micromax Canvas Selfie 3
The Micromax Canvas Selfie 3 comes equipped with a 4.8-inch HD Amoled display. Powering the smartphone is a Quad-Core 1.3GHz processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The on-board storage of the smartphone accounts to 8GB that can be expanded further via microSD card.
The Micromax Canvas Selfie 3 sports an 8MP front camera with Blue Glasses 5P Largan Lens and an 8MP rear camera. Both the cameras tag a LED flash (each) with them. The device also features beauty mode, gesture, panorama, night shot, one key shot and 78 degrees wide angle selfie. Micromax Canvas 3 also comes with a Bluetooth enabled Selfie stick.
The smartphone will be available in five funky back and front colours, which consist of Blue, Green, Purple, Sky Blue and Yellow. This smartphone offers 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth as connectivity options and houses a 2,300 mAh battery (non-removable).
The company has not yet revealed the price of Micromax Canvas Selfie 3, but it will be available for the Indian consumers by the last week of August.
Tech Specs of Micromax Canvas Selfie 2- Q340
The Micromax Canvas Selfie 3 comes equipped with a 4.8-inch HD Amoled display. Powering the smartphone is a Quad-Core 1.3GHz processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The on-board storage of the smartphone accounts to 8GB that can be expanded further via microSD card.
The Micromax Canvas Selfie 3 sports an 8MP front camera with Blue Glasses 5P Largan Lens and an 8MP rear camera. Both the cameras tag a LED flash (each) with them. The device also features beauty mode, gesture, panorama, night shot, one key shot and 78 degrees wide angle selfie. Micromax Canvas 3 also comes with a Bluetooth enabled Selfie stick.
The smartphone will be available in five funky back and front colours, which consist of Blue, Green, Purple, Sky Blue and Yellow. This smartphone offers 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth as connectivity options and houses a 2,300 mAh battery (non-removable).
The company has not yet revealed the price of Micromax Canvas Selfie 3, but it will be available for the Indian consumers by the last week of August.
Tech Specs of Micromax Canvas Selfie 2- Q340
- Android 5.0 Lollipop OS
- 5-inch FWVGA IPS Screen
- CPU: Quad-Core 1.3GHz processor
- RAM: 1GB
- ROM: 8GB (expandable via microSD card)
- 5MP Rear Camera with OV Sensor (OV5648) and 4P Lens
- 5MP Front Camera With OV sensor (OV5670) and 4P lens
- Camera with face detection, HDR mode and face beauty mode
- Battery: 2,000 mAh
- 8-inch HD AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla glass 3
- CPU: Quad-Core1.3GHz processor
- RAM: 1GB
- ROM: 8GB
- 8MP Rear Camera with Blue Glasses 5P Largan Lens
- 8MP front camera with Sony MX179 and LED flash
- Camera with Gesture, Face beauty, panorama, night shot and one key shot features
- Bluetooth enables selfie stick
- Battery: 2,300 mAh
Guessing game is over, the next gen of Google mobile OS is called Android Marshmallow
About time the search giant Google revealed the final consumer name for its next generation of mobile operating system. Google has finally given the name Marshmallow to its new operating system for smartphones. The company revealed the name on its developer’s blog along with the final SDK version of the operating system.
Jamal Eason, Product Manager, Android said “Today with the final Developer Preview update, we’re introducing the official Android 6.0 SDK and opening Google Play for publishing your apps that target the new API level 23 in Android Marshmallow,”
There will be some new features added to the operating system that will enable the smartphone makers to easily incorporate things such as fingerprint scanner or an upgraded doze power saving mode.
Jamal also added “Classes for detecting and parsing bar codes are available in the com.google.android.gms.vision.barcode namespace. The BarcodeDetector class is the main workhorse — processing Frame objects to return a SparseArray<Barcode> types.”
We for one are looking forward to the Marshmallow upgrade. Reports do suggest that the phones from Motorola’s camp and Nexus series will be the first to get the upgrade followed by the rest in the coming months.
Fitbit rolls out its universal app for Windows 10 platform
The manufacturer of wearable activity tracker Fitbit has introduced its universal app for the Windows 10 platform. The company stated that the app is compatible with PCs, laptops and tablets.
Speaking about the app, James Park, CEO and Chairman, Fitbit, said, “With the new Windows 10 app, we worked closely with Microsoft to give Windows users an even easier way to access, utilize and interact with the information that matters most to them, across all their Windows devices, to further support them in their fitness journey.”
The new Fitbit app for Windows 10 also offers support for Cortana’s voice commands and Continuum. The app is designed to allow the users to have a personalized interaction related to their health and fitness across various Windows 10 devices. The app also enables the users to track their steps, activity, exercise, sleep, weight and food.
The Fitbit app also delivers notifications and the activity updates are highlighted on the Live Tile. The dashboard of the app gives detailed information related to users’ daily routines, and quick actions enabling activity tracking and logging. The users can also sync the Bluetooth across various Windows 10 devices.
BlackBerry launches P’9983 Porsche design luxury smartphone for Rs 99,990
BlackBerry has introduced a new Porsche Design luxury smartphone in India dubbed as ‘P’9983’. The smartphone was originally announced last year in September and comes with a price tag of Rs 99,990. The smartphone has various colour elements and a hand-wrapped leather back cover. The device also has an exclusive keypad crafted with glass like keys along with a graphite stainless steel colour frame.
Speaking about the new smartphone, Hitesh Shah, Director – Sales and Distribution, at BlackBerry India, said, “With the launch of the new P’9983 Graphite from BlackBerry, we bring a unique stylish smartphone combined with the superior productivity and ultimate security experience of BlackBerry 10 technology for our Indian consumers. This new smartphone is custom-built for power professionals aiming to make a style statement while not willing to compromise on effective communication and collaboration.”
On the specification front, the BlackBerry ‘P’9983’ features a 3.1-inch OLED display with 720×720 pixels resolution. The smartphone runs on BlackBerry 10 OS and has touchscreen navigation with full QWERTY physical keyboard. Powering the device is a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon (MSM8960) processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. The internal storage of the device accounts to 64GB which can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.
The smartphone flaunts an 8.0-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 2.0-megapixel front facing camera for clicking selfies. The connectivity options of the smartphone include 4G, LTE, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooht, NFC, Micro HDMI, GPS and packs in a 2,100 mAh battery.
YUFit Fitness band review: A cool rubberized fitness tracking wristband at an affordable price
The new generation of people are not getting enough time for fitness activities as their schedules are usually very busy. So, in order to stay fit and healthy, one can easily get a fitness wearable. These bands are getting very popular among the masses these days.
One such fitness tracker came to us in the form of YUFit Fitness band. This band acts as a personal trainer who will always be with you. We spent a good few days with it and this is what we found out.
Design
The YUFit Fitness band is only available in black colour option. To be frank this fitness band has a plain look. The YUFit fitness rubberized band comes with an adjustable strap that can fit on any wrist. This strap has an aluminium clip, which enables the users to adjust its size according to their wrist. Thanks to the rubber body one does not need to worry about sweat or water seeping into the tracker. The OLED display on the top of the tracker provides real-time notifications in a convenient and handy way. The display panel has a plastic covering on top of it, which ensures protection of the device from scratches. The YUFit band does not weigh much, which makes it comfortable to wear all the time.
Tap the device once and the YuFit band comes to life. The touch-sensitive smart key on the tracker helps users to navigate across few pre-set options such as steps taken, calories burnt and more. The activity tracker is right in the middle of the strap and can be easily removed for a quick charge. To charge the device, this activity tracker has two tiny pins under it. The device boots up very quickly and charges up fast too.
Performance
The YUFit Fitness band comes into action when the user downloads the YUFit app on their smart devices. One has to download another app called HealthifyMe for it to functiona fully. This app helps users keep an eye on the calories they are consuming with the help of its database that includes Indian snacks and food. The app is compatible with most Android smartphones and will show you things like calories burnt and distance travelled. The smart band also shows the time besides alerting users about incoming messages and calls.
The YUFit app uses Bluetooth to sync the info between the phone and the band. So one ends up using a wee-bit extra power of the smartphone as well. Users can set goals and work towards them. Battery of the device was good and we rarely had to charge it.
Verdict
Overall, the experience with the YUFit Fitness band was not that bad, and we quite liked it. Consumers can get the YUFit Fitness band at Rs 999, which is quite affordable. There are many other fitness tracking bands in the Indian market, but having an OLED display at this price along with good features makes this fitness piece worth buying.
Pros
- Quite affordable
- OLED display panel
- Real-time notification alerts
- Decent battery life
- Limited to Android
- Less accurate
- Low-range Bluetooth antenna
Google Drive enables users to launch files directly using web viewer
The search engine giant Google has now rolled out a feature which will enable the users to launch files directly from the Google Drives web viewer. As per a report by Engadget, the users who have a viewer on their browser can open a file by right clicking on the file in order to preview it. Along with this, the users can access the ‘Open with’ option from the drop down menu to see the apps they can use.
Prior to this, the users were only able to launch the files within the applications on the PCs or Mac from the Google Drive folder.
The users are required to have Google Drive installed on their computer in the latest version which is v. 1.23+. After this the users just need to sync their files, which will help them in accessing the contents of the Drive’s contents in a faster manner.