Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has launched its Desire 12 and Desire 12 Plus smartphones in India. With the newly launched mobile phones, the company has expanded its line of budget mobiles here. Both the smartphones were unveiled globally in March this year and their highlights include displays with 18:9 aspect ratios and a back panel made of acrylic glass.Price and availabilityWhile HTC Desire 12 bears a price tag of Rs 15,800, HTC Desire 12 Plus costs Rs 19,790. Both the smartphones will be available on HTC India E-Store and they can also be picked up from offline retail stores as well. While they will go on sale online starting June 7, they will be available on retail stores June 11 onwards.SpecificationsSpeaking about the specifications of HTC Desire 12, the smartphone features a 5.5-inch HD+ IPS display and has an aspect ratio of 18:9. Powered by quad-core MediaTek MT6739 SoC clubbed with 3GB RAM, the smartphone comes with 32GB of internal storage and can hold microSD cards of up to 2TB. The smartphone runs Android Oreo-based HTC Sense and sports a 13MP rear camera with an LED flash along with a 5MP selfie camera. HTC Desire 12 houses a 2,730mAh battery and has 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB, and a 3.5mm headphone jack as connectivity options.Coming to HTC Desire 12+, the smartphone has a 6-inch HD+ IPS display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. HTC Desire 12+ runs Android 8.0 Oreo based HTC Sense and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor clubbed with 3GB RAM. It has the same internal storage and microSD card capacity as HTC Desire 12 and houses a 2965mAh battery. The smartphone has a dual rear camera setup with 13MP and 2MP sensors and a front facing camera with 8MP sensor. For connectivity, it offers 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
American chipmaker Qualcomm has announced a new processor that it has especially made for Windows 10 Always Connected PCs. In December 2017, Always Connected PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor were showcased at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii.To recall, at Qualcomm’s annual conference last year, devices from Asus, HP and Lenovo running on Snapdragon 835 were unveiled after the company reiterated its partnership with technology giant Microsoft. With the collaboration, Microsoft and Qualcomm also promised better security and enhanced performance for the devices.And now, Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon 850 to succeed its previous processor that powered the Always Connected PCs. With Snapdragon 850, Qualcomm promises improved performance, connectivity, and battery life of these PCs.The Always Connected PCs platform comes with ARM processors, a lasting battery life, an instant-on resume without hibernation and integrated LTE. It is no secret that Always Connected PCs are Microsoft and Qualcomm’s attempt to create a competitor to Apple’s iPad Pro.Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 is basically a customised version of Snapdragon 845 that was unveiled late last year and exclusively meant for PCs. Much like Snapdragon 845, it is also made of second-generation 10nm process and is clubbed with X20 modem.According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon 850 comes with tweaks in both hardware and software and promises to enhance the performance of the PCs by 30% as compared to the ones running on Snapdragon 835. It also claims to make the devices’ battery last for multiple days by increasing it by 20%. Furthermore, devices powered by Snapdragon 850 will come with a 20% rise in the peak gigabit data speeds.Devices with Snapdragon 835 were showcased last year but went on sale this year. But even then, devices with Snapdragon 850 processor are also scheduled to go on sale this year. Furthermore, the Snapdragon 850 platform will be seen on a device from Samsung among other laptops and 2-in-1s.
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Asus, which has been popular for its ROG (Republic Of Gamers) laptops, has showcased its ROG Phone at an event in Taiwan. The ROG gaming smartphone from ASUS is said to be the first smartphone in the world to come with a 3D vapour-chamber cooling system.
But that’s not all. Asus ROG Phone sports a gamer-centric design and has ports mounted on the sides that are optimised for landscape-mode. It also features ultrasonic AirTrigger touch sensors and comes with 90Hz refresh rate and a response time of 1ms.
The key highlight of the smartphone is its Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor clubbed with Qualcomm Adreno 630 GPU – which further optimizes it for gaming. Asus ROG Phone will compete directly with the Razer Phone, which is also known for gaming. However, before we draw any more comparisons between the two, we will have to wait for the price and availability details of the smartphone.
Specifications
Asus ROG Phone features a 6-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display and is said to have 90Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. The smartphone is also touted to have 108.6% DCI-P3 colour gamut and 10,000:1 contrast ratio. As we mentioned earlier, it is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and is equipped with Adreno 630 GPU.
The smartphone has 8GB of RAM and sports 12MP+8MP dual rear cameras and an 8MP front facing camera for selfies and video calls. It runs ROG gaming UI and offers 512GB of internal storage. Over that, this smartphone houses a 4000mAh battery and has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, AGPS, USB Type-C port, NFC, and 3.5mm jack as connectivity options.
Besides this, the smartphone comes with GameCool vapour-chamber cooling system and detachable AeroActive Cooler for extra cooling. The mobile from Asus also has an optional TwinView Dock, which enables dual-screen handheld mode. A Mobile Desktop Dock and a Gamevice controller with WiGig Dock using 60GHz Wi-Fi has also been thrown in the mix. While the former can be used for desktop-style gaming, the other enables big-screen gaming.
Other features like Asus Aura RGB lighting, Aura Sync support and ASUS HyperCharge direct-charge technology are also available in this newly launched smartphone. That was an exhaustive list, hopefully this smartphone will make its way to India soon.
Apple WWDC 2018 just got over and we have seen some mixed reactions from the crowd. While some cannot wait to get their hands on the new iOS 12, some are saying most of the new features are better or already there in other operating systems. Whatever the case maybe, no one can ignore the biggest tech conference held each year. Here are the top 7 things that make up for the new software upgrade you will soon see on your iPhones and iPads:
Apple News: Though not a very big upgrade, but these minor changes like new browse tab will surely make the user experience better.
iBooks to become Apple Books: This is not ust a rebranding exercise, with the name change the app will also get a much needed facelift which will focus more on discoverability. New Book Store tab will make it easy for people to browse through the collection.
It’s all about performance baby: Well after the battery fiasco, Apple had to save face, didn’t they? They seem to be committed to make the new iOS 12 faster than before, even for older devices. Apple said with the new update, apps launch 40% faster, system keyboard comes up 50% quicker and the camera app pops up 70% faster on an iPhone 6 smartphone. If all that is true, many Indian will take a sigh of relief, as their dying iPhone might last for another year.
Grouped Notification: Well about time, Apple has finally brought group notification and dismissal system to the iOS 12. Users will be able to manage or strike out multiple notification from the same app at one go. These will come in a stack format and you can decide which ones to see. In case you put some of them in the quite mode, then they will not turn up on your screen or make the phone vibrate, instead they will be tucked nicely in the notification centre.
Memoji: Now what the heck is that, why does Apple keeps creating new words you are asking? Sometimes companies do that to make a new feature a little catchy, well this one is okay-ish, maybe it grows on us in some time. Alright, so the Memoji feature has been added to iOS 12 where users can create personalised character of themselves on the Apple iPhone X. Fun feature, but how much will one use it?
Group Facetime: As soon as this feature was announced Indian tech media went crazy putting tweets involving our favourite TV news anchor. So what does this feature do? In iOS 12 you can video chat with up to 32 people at once. Now that is awesome! It will definitely give Skype and Google Hangouts some sleepless nights.
Photos app gets better: In iOS 12 the Apple Photos app will bring new features such as ‘For You’ tab, which will show effects that users might want to add to their clicked images. Photos will also ask friends and family to share images with the person who has shared images with them, from the same event. In a way, Photos has become smarter and will assist you like an assistant we know is fabulous, but is not associated with Apple, wink wink.
There are not a lot of gaming machines out there in the portable segment that can do what the Acer Nitro 5 Spin can — deliver extreme performance and at the same time swivel 360 degrees. Yes, this machine can do that and much more. We got our hands on this sweet rig to find out what the hoo-ha is all about. This is our review of the Acer Nitro 5 Spin.
Design and Blueprint
As soon as you open the plane black packaging of the Acer Nitro 5 Spin and remove the covers, the gaming notebook screams for attention. It demands you to fall in love with it and to do that it is ready to woo you at every stage. We for one, took it slow, but to tell you the truth it did grow on us quite quickly.
Acer Nitro 5 Spin is not like the usual gaming laptops you get in the Indian market, instead it is much lighter than other machines of the same configuration. More on that a few paras down. From factor is where this portable gaming rig gets full marks. Acer has designed it perfectly in most aspects. The touch screen is placed well in between a black bezel, the keyboard is large and is backlit, the sides have maroon lining which can also be seen on the hinges and around the keyboard. Then there is a nicely placed keypad and to top it off a 360 degree rotating touch display.
Well, those things do get us racing, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The sides also sport couple of USB 3.0 ports, a mini USB type C port, an HDMI jack, card reader and a 3.5mm audio port. In case you want to use it like a large tablet acer has provided a nice power button with volume rocker keys on the right side, these can be accessed easily. All this in under 2.2 Kg.Performance
Let’s start with the configuration. The Acer Nitro 5 Spin comes in a few specs starting with Intel Core i5 8th gen, however the one we are reviewing is the top of the line with Intel Core i7 8th gen CPU with clock speed of 1.8 GHz and turbo boost. It has 8 GB of RAM and comes with dual storage drives. One SSD with 256 GB capacity (primary boot drive) and a secondary 1 TB 2.5 HDD, so together they make sure you get best performance and have lot of space at the same time.
The IPS display is 15.6-inches wide and supports full HD 1080p graphics. Talking about which, the graphics are powered by a NVIDA Geforce 1050 GTX graphic card that kicks in beautifully and makes sure all the latest games run at high, if not ultra-high settings. To test the performance further we ran PC Mark 8 home test on it and it scored a nice 3,627 points. On 3D Mark Sky Diver test it scored 6,286 points. Both, put the Acer Nitro 5 Spin in the higher order of gaming laptops in India.
The battery life is exquisite and we were able to extract 6 hours of it with mixed usage of watching movies, playing a game or two and listening to music. This machine amazed us at many steps, till we saw the smudges on the top side of the panel and the screen. It is a touch screen device so these are meant to be there, but they do really show when the lights are dim and are distracting. Our suggestion is to keep a cleaning cloth handy in the carry case of backpack.
Also, while playing games on it for long we found that the right side of the keyboard did get a little hot and the fan gets really loud. Oh yes, loudness reminds us that the twin speaker system is quite loud too, this time in a good way. For movie and casual gaming, it is really good, however when playing games like Counter Strike we trusted our good old headphones.Verdict and Final Thoughts
The backlit keyboard is a blessing when you are gaming at night. The full length keyboard is also great for strategy games where you need to use more keys. Combine this with a great pair of headphones and a gaming mouse, you have a winning combination at LAN events or game nights with friends. At a price of Rs 91,989 the Acer Nitro 5 Spin might be out of reach of many. But, if you can afford it, we give it a thumbs up.
Motorola has been a brand that has seen its ups and downs. Right now it is at a stage where it has again emerged as somewhat of a force to reckon with. It has got some decent set of smartphones under its belt and with launch of G6 and G6 Play today in India it has become even stronger.
The smartphones were first showcased in Brazil in April, with a third variant called Moto G6 Plus. However, the company has gone ahead brought just the G6 and G6 Play version to India. The Plus variant will come in few weeks’ time. Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play lie in the budget segment and have decent specifications. So what are they?
Moto G6 Specifications, price, offers and availability
Let’s start with the Moto G6 first, as this is the more powerful of the two and is aimed at audiences who can spend a little more to get that extra power in their device. Priced at Rs 13,999 for the 3 GB RAM/32GB memory version and Rs 15,999 for the 4GB RAM/64 GB memory variant, the Moto G6 sports a 5.7-inch FHD+ IPS touch screen. It is powered by the Octacore Qualcomm snapdragon 450 CPU with a clock speed of 1.8 GHz. This is fastened with Adreno 506 GPU.
Moto G6 comes with a dual camera rear setup with 12MP + 5MP sensors with f/1.8 aperture. We did test out some of the camera modes on the smartphone and quite liked the one where you can choose a colour on screen and everything else besides that particular shade turns black and white. The form factor of this phone is quite nice and is light to hold as it has just a 3,000 mAh battery inside. Which the company claims will last for a full day. Yes, it has a dual sim tray which is slightly curved, placed at the top of the smartphone.
At the moment the Moto G6 is available in only the blue shade, which when kept under a direct light source reflects an ‘S’ pattern, something seen on the OnePlus 6. Moto G6 runs Android 8.0.0 out of the box and not 8.1, which came across as strange to us as they are Google’s premium partner. This smartphone will go on sale on Monday midnight and is an Amazon Exclusive. If you have an HDFC credit card then you can get a flat discount of Rs 1,250 and up to Rs 1,000 extra on exchange of your last smartphone. Airtel prepaid users can also avail a cashback of Rs 2,000.
Moto G6 Play specifications, price and availability
Next in line is the Moto G6 Play that is priced at Rs 11,999 and is available with just one RAM memory combo (3GB RAM/ 32GB memory). It too has a dual SIM tray on it which can accommodate two Nano SIM. Screen-wise this smartphone has the same size display of 5.7-inches, however the resolution is HD+ and not FHD+ like the one found on Moto G6. This one is powered by the lesser powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC with clock speed of 1.4 GHz.
Graphics are powered by the 505 Adreno GPU, but the battery on this one gets a boost. It can stay on for longer as it has much bigger 4,000 mAh battery that can be turbo charged. The rear of the Moto G6 Play has just one camera with a 13 MP lens, with the front one powered by an 8 MP sensor. Moto G6 Play will be available in gold and indigo colour variations and can be picked up from Flipkart exclusively (online) and offline from the Moto hub stores. There is no-cost EMI service available on this smartphone by Bajaj and there is also an assured buy back offer running of Rs 5,100 when you buy this smartphone. Moto G6 Play also runs Android 8.0 out of the box and not 8.1
We did get to hear that the next Apple iPhone models will sport a large screen. Now, OnLeaks has pushed out new renders of the Apple iPhone, which could be the upcoming model. This one seems to have a 6.5-inch touch display. By the looks of it, this model design is very similar to the iPhone X, perhaps it is an upgrade to the last model that company has been talking about, since they will stop the production of the iPhone X this year.
Other details known to us that are still running in the rumour mill are that the new Apple iPhone top-end model will have a new chipset by Apple, which might be 15-30% faster than the previous gen. It will also have 4 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. A twin camera setup is going to be there and it can be seen in the latest leaks as well. Over that, the front array will again have dual cameras, but the notch might by slightly smaller.
Speaker, MIC and charging ports will be at the bottom while the volume keys will be placed on the left with the power button and SIM tray on the right. Like the last one, there is no 3.5 MM jack on this device, too. The reports also suggest that the display on this Apple iPhone model will be OLED and might support 4K graphics.
Apple’s Bezel-less body is still the best and no manufacturer has come close to designing it like Apple does, yes the notch on some of the phones like the OnePlus 6 is better, but the form factor of the Apple iPhone X and this one seems to be much better. If this is the real deal, we cannot wait to get our hands on the new device, which will be out this September.
HMD Global has today finally taken the raps of its much talked about smartphones – Nokia 5.1, Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 2.1. The smartphones are successors of last year’s Nokia 5, Nokia 3 and Nokia 2 smartphones and refresh HMD Global’s budget line-up for the year. Much like other Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 6 2018, all three smartphones fall under Google’s Android One program.Nokia 5.1HMD Global’s Nokia 5.1 features a 6000 series aluminium unibody design and runs Android 8.0 Oreo. The device will get an upgrade to Android P and is powered by 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P18 processor. Nokia 5.1 comes with a 5.5-inch full-HD+ IPS LCD display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. It is available in two storage variants –2GB RAM/16GB onboard storage and 3GB RAM/32GB of inbuilt storage. For more storage, users can install a microSD card. For imaging duties, Nokia 5.1 sports a 16MP primary camera with LED flash and an 8MP selfie camera. The device houses a 3200mAh battery and offers 3G, 4G VoLTE, Wi-FI, Bluetooth and GPS for connectivity. Nokia 5.1 bears a starting price tag of 189 Euros and its global roll out will begin in July 2018.Nokia 3.1Nokia 3.1 comes with a 5.2-inch HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. It runs the Android 8.0 Oreo and much like Nokia 5.1, it too is upgradable to Android P. Powered by an octa-core MediaTek processor, the smartphone comes in two storage variants – 2GB RAM/16GB storage and 3GB RAM/32GB onboard storage. For imaging duties, it sports a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front facing snapper for selfies and video calls. The smartphone houses a 2900mAh battery and offers 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Micro-USB port for connectivity. Nokia 3.1’s starting price is 139 Euros and it will be rolled out globally in June 2018.Nokia 2.1Powered by 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, Nokia 2.1 runs Android 8.0 Oreo and will be getting an upgrade to Android P. The smartphone sports a 5.5-inch HD display that comes with an anti-fingerprint coating. Nokia 2.1 offers 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage and can hold microSD cards of up to 32GB. While it does not have as much storage as other two devices, it beats them both with its 4100mAh battery. Nokia 2.1 is priced at $115 and will be made available in July this year.
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference 2018 is set to begin on June 4. Needless to say, there are a number of rumours on the internet about what the Cupertino based technology giant has up its sleeve for the event. In addition to software announcements that Apple does every year at WWDC, the technology giant is also expected to make some announcements on hardware. Declarations on Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are also likely. While we would have to wait to see what Apple has planned for this year’s WWDC, here we bring to you everything that is projected to happen:
New iPad Pro: It is fully possible that Apple will be unveiling the next generation iPads on WWDC 2018. Considering that the last update to iPad Pro came in June 2017, it is a possibility that definitely cannot be ruled out. According to various reports, the new iPad Pro will be available in two variants – 12.9-inch and 10.5-inch. Much like the iPhone X, the new iPad Pro will come with a bezel-less design, Face ID and a TrueDepth camera. There has also been some speculation about Apple planning to separately launch the next generation iPad Pro. However, we’ll have to wait till WWDC 2018 to see how true that is.
Apple iPhone SE 2: The biggest and the best attraction at this years’ WWDC will be the iPhone SE 2. The first iPhone SE was launched in 2016 and fans have been expecting a new version for a long time. Ahead of WWDC 2018, a number of leaks have given away some specifications of the upcoming iPhone SE 2. To begin with, the new iPhone SE will sport an iPhone X like edge-to-edge display. Maybe Apple plans to do this in order to offer more screen space without altering the dimensions too much. The iPhone SE 2 is also expected to come with a glass design like the iPhone X and will be powered by the A11 Bionic processor. It will house a 1,750mAh battery and come in two storage variants – one with 32GB and the other with 128GB onboard storage.
Apple AirPower: Were you completely fascinated by Apple’s wireless charging mat when it launched the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X in 2017? Well, the wait for it might be over as the Cupertino based technology giant may launch it in WWDC 2018. Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, had said during the September 2017 launch that the AirPower will be launched ‘next year.’ If Apple wants the multi-charging pad to go on sale before it launches its next iPhones, the best opportunity to launch it will be WWDC 2018.
Apple iOS 12: Apple has traditionally used its developer conference to showcase the latest version of its mobile operating system. And this year should be no exception as Apple is expected to unveil iOS 12. iOS 12 is expected to come with deeper integration with Augmented Reality, added security features, and tweaks in user interface. Apple may also add a feature which will enable users to control their smartphone addiction. If you suddenly recall the newly launched feature in Android P, we don’t blame you as it is meant for precisely the same function.
Siri: Google’s Assistant recently got six new voices including John Legend’s. So how can Apple lag behind? According to rumours, Siri will be getting new voices too. And Siri will also soon power a new home speaker and open a number of third party applications. Apple is also expected to get new machine learning features to Siri.
WatchOS 5: Not much is known about the WatchOS yet, but what do know is that it is set to make the Apple Watch 3 even more wellness-focussed. With WatchOS 5, Apple’s smartwatch is set to get a sleep tracking feature. There is also a possibility of more watch face customizations.
New Macbooks and iMacs: Last year on WWDC, Apple refreshed its entire line-up of laptops and desktops. And it is fully expected to do the same on WWDC 2018 with new MacBooks and iMacs. Its new line-up of laptops and desktops will be powered by latest 8th generation Intel processors. How much the hardware will change is something we’ll have to wait to see. There are also rumours about Apple planning to unveil a comeback model of MacBook Air.
Kingston and HyperX are some of the well-trusted brands in India, when it comes to PC accessories and components. We had a chance to interact with Mr Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology India to understand how the company was doing here. We got some great insights on how the firm is faring and its roadmap, products to come and a special note on the Indian gaming industry. Here is what our conversation was all about.
How is Kingston and HyperX business doing in India? Any numbers you want to share?
India is a key Asian market for both, Kingston and HyperX, in terms of sales, channel partners and community engagements. The market size itself creates immense opportunities for us to showcase products and solutions that help strengthen business operations and productivity. We have focused our energies to strengthen our communication with our stakeholders and to strategically ensure that our value propositions reach the right audience. More essentially from business perspective, we offer the best-in-class after sales service support and with certain internal improvements, we have been able to increase our National TAT (Turn Around Time) for Service to 80% from 60% last year.
From what we see, HyperX has an interesting segment to cater to, which is gaming. There’re growing business opportunities in this segment as the demand for our products has been ever growing. We work with our channel and ecosystem partners to cater to our customers better.
What can we expect from the brand Kingston/HyperX in 2018 in terms of products and devices?
2018 seems to be ‘The Year of Many Firsts’ for us in terms of products. From the HyperX stable, we launched the HyperX Cloud Alpha, the World’s First Gaming headset with Dual Chamber technology and HyperX Stinger Core, our first headset especially for PlayStation 4. From Kingston’s value proposition, we recently launched our Kingston UV500 family of SSDs, our first storage offering with 3D NAND and Hardware Encryption, and the Kingston A1000 SSD, which is our first entry-level NVMe PCIe SSD with 3D NAND.
The list doesn’t end there as there are quite a few exciting products that the Indian market has its eyes glued to. Very soon, your readers will see and probably experience our first HyperX RGB products in India. Not just that, you can expect more revisions and upgrades to our existing portfolio of products and solutions.
A gadget you wished Kingston or HyperX had designed?
This is an interesting question. The speed at which we are adding successful product lines, I wouldn’t be surprised if the product I mention gets added to our portfolio. But, from my opinion and quality that HyperX promises, I would have been excited if we had designed the Tesla X car.
Besides the usual memory and audio products, is Kingston planning to foray into any other gadget segment, maybe a smartphone?
I had a feeling that there would be a similar question. There are no plans at this point to foray into smartphones. However, the answer to the question is still Yes. There are gadget segments that Kingston is adding like the upcoming Nucleum, which sports 7 high quality ports from one USB-C connection or the DataTraveler Bolt Duo, a Dual USB drive for iPhone or iPad.
Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology India
What is your take of the Indian gaming scenario? There was a lull period, but it’s gradually picking up, will it finally explode and reach new heights?
To put it bluntly, Indian gaming was more than fragmented till late 2015. This was the time when brands, with interests like ours, worked together to identify and consolidate the gaming communities and help them grow. We worked and invested in creating a steady infrastructure for gamers to participate and improve their skillset. HyperX followed a 3-Tier approach where we
Empower gamers with quality, durable products
Help cafés get better at servicing gamers
Build national professional platforms for gamers to aim for
The gaming industry here is growing at a healthy pace due to the rise in its acceptance from families. What we also see is the increasing drive from gamers to improve their talent with better hardware and better competition. For youngsters, gaming has now become a major source of entertainment due to which there has been a rise in the popularity of the PC gaming, Console gaming and online gaming. It is expected that in coming years, India will emerge as one of the top gaming nations. With our engagements, we aim to develop the casual gamers to professional gaming
Performance
Let’s start with the configuration. The Acer Nitro 5 Spin comes in a few specs starting with Intel Core i5 8th gen, however the one we are reviewing is the top of the line with Intel Core i7 8th gen CPU with clock speed of 1.8 GHz and turbo boost. It has 8 GB of RAM and comes with dual storage drives. One SSD with 256 GB capacity (primary boot drive) and a secondary 1 TB 2.5 HDD, so together they make sure you get best performance and have lot of space at the same time.
The IPS display is 15.6-inches wide and supports full HD 1080p graphics. Talking about which, the graphics are powered by a NVIDA Geforce 1050 GTX graphic card that kicks in beautifully and makes sure all the latest games run at high, if not ultra-high settings. To test the performance further we ran PC Mark 8 home test on it and it scored a nice 3,627 points. On 3D Mark Sky Diver test it scored 6,286 points. Both, put the Acer Nitro 5 Spin in the higher order of gaming laptops in India.
The battery life is exquisite and we were able to extract 6 hours of it with mixed usage of watching movies, playing a game or two and listening to music. This machine amazed us at many steps, till we saw the smudges on the top side of the panel and the screen. It is a touch screen device so these are meant to be there, but they do really show when the lights are dim and are distracting. Our suggestion is to keep a cleaning cloth handy in the carry case of backpack.
Also, while playing games on it for long we found that the right side of the keyboard did get a little hot and the fan gets really loud. Oh yes, loudness reminds us that the twin speaker system is quite loud too, this time in a good way. For movie and casual gaming, it is really good, however when playing games like Counter Strike we trusted our good old headphones.
Performance
Let’s start with the configuration. The Acer Nitro 5 Spin comes in a few specs starting with Intel Core i5 8th gen, however the one we are reviewing is the top of the line with Intel Core i7 8th gen CPU with clock speed of 1.8 GHz and turbo boost. It has 8 GB of RAM and comes with dual storage drives. One SSD with 256 GB capacity (primary boot drive) and a secondary 1 TB 2.5 HDD, so together they make sure you get best performance and have lot of space at the same time.
The IPS display is 15.6-inches wide and supports full HD 1080p graphics. Talking about which, the graphics are powered by a NVIDA Geforce 1050 GTX graphic card that kicks in beautifully and makes sure all the latest games run at high, if not ultra-high settings. To test the performance further we ran PC Mark 8 home test on it and it scored a nice 3,627 points. On 3D Mark Sky Diver test it scored 6,286 points. Both, put the Acer Nitro 5 Spin in the higher order of gaming laptops in India.
The battery life is exquisite and we were able to extract 6 hours of it with mixed usage of watching movies, playing a game or two and listening to music. This machine amazed us at many steps, till we saw the smudges on the top side of the panel and the screen. It is a touch screen device so these are meant to be there, but they do really show when the lights are dim and are distracting. Our suggestion is to keep a cleaning cloth handy in the carry case of backpack.
Also, while playing games on it for long we found that the right side of the keyboard did get a little hot and the fan gets really loud. Oh yes, loudness reminds us that the twin speaker system is quite loud too, this time in a good way. For movie and casual gaming, it is really good, however when playing games like Counter Strike we trusted our good old headphones.
Verdict and Final Thoughts
The backlit keyboard is a blessing when you are gaming at night. The full length keyboard is also great for strategy games where you need to use more keys. Combine this with a great pair of headphones and a gaming mouse, you have a winning combination at LAN events or game nights with friends. At a price of Rs 91,989 the Acer Nitro 5 Spin might be out of reach of many. But, if you can afford it, we give it a thumbs up.
