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Alcatel New Phone Launched In India
Alcatel has not considered India as a primary market, the reason why I’m making this comment because their previous product launches in India was not that much impressive and the products like Alcatel OT 4005D and 4010E were not enough to steal the show. But notebook formula can change anytime and that happened. The Renaissance started with their new Smartphone launch and they are coming up with two brand new Smartphones in India. Alcatel One Touch Idol and One Touch Idol Ultra are the aforementioned latest Alcatel phones launched in India and it comes into their Android Smartphone department . Both these Smartphones were announced earlier this year.
One Touch Idol has a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display and the One Touch Idol Ultra boasts a 4.7-inch HD AMOLED display with Corning gorilla glass protection. Both latest Alcatel phones are running on Android 4.1. Rear shooters are having 8MP Sensors with LED Flash and 720p HD video recording.
The next thing which separates the ultra and normal version is the processor and RAM. Ultra is featuring 1.2 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM whereas the latter comes with a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. These changes reflect the price tag as well. Alcatel One Touch Idol price in India is Rs. 15,800 and is available in Silver, Slate, Cranberry Pink and Red colours. One Touch Ultra comes in Black and Red colors. It is priced at Rs. 21,000. See the specification of these latest Alcatel phones for detailed analysis.
Alcatel One Touch Idol specifications
- 4.5-inch qHD IPS Dislpay
- 540 x 960 Pixels Resolution
- 1 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor with 512 MB RAM
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 720p HD video recording
- 2MP HD 720p front-facing camera
- 7.9 mm thick
- 4 GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32 GB with micro SD
- 3G , Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 1800 mAh battery
Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra specifications
- 4.7-inch HD AMOLED display
- 720 x 1280 pixels Resolution
- 1.2 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor with 1 GB RAM
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 720p HD video recording
- 1.3MP HD 720p front-facing camera
- 6.45 mm thick
- 16 GB internal memory
- 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 1800 mAh battery
Nokia Lumia 720 goes on sale in India at a price of Rs. 18999
Nokia Lumia 720 finally goes on sale in India from the official Nokia India Online Shop. It was unveiled at the MWC 2013 back in February. Nokia launched the Lumia 720 in India last month along with the Lumia 520. It went on pre-order online from Flipkart couple of days back. It has a 4.3-inch (800 x 480 pixels) ClearBlack display, powered by a 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8227 processor and runs on the latest Windows Phone 8 OS. It has a 6.7-megapixel auto focus camera at the back with LED Flash, Carl Zeiss optics and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
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Nokia Lumia 520 Review
For users looking at smartphones in the budget segment, clunky and underpowered Android phones have been the only option till now. Sure, Nokia had a few Windows Phone 7 devices too but the OS was half baked and it was pretty hard to recommend them to users.
While Nokia has primarily pushed its Asha range or the older Lumia 510 in the budget segment, the launch of the Lumia 520 at Mobile World Congress means that they now have a solid smartphone contender in the category. Great hardware and an OS that is finally worthy of being called a smartphone OS means that the Nokia Lumia 520 is a solid contender in the budget segment. Does it stand a chance against the barrage of cheap Chinese rebranded smartphones ? Read on to find out.
Unboxing
We’ve previously unboxed the Lumia 520 and you can check out the original post here. We’ve embedded the video below for your perusal.
The contents of the package include the following :
- Nokia Lumia 520
- Earphones
- microUSB cable
- microUSB charger
- Documentation
Design
It would be safe to call the design of the Lumia 520 conservative. It doesn’t stray much from the formula that Nokia has adopted for its Lumia range of devices. Smooth curves and high quality materials greet you when you first hold the device. The dimensions of the Lumia 720 are 119.9 x 64 x 9.9 mm and it weighs a meagre 124 grams.
The front of the phone has a 4inch WVGA screen with the standard Windows Phone buttons located at the bottom of the device. The buttons do not light up which we’re guessing is a part of Nokia’s cost cutting measures on the device.
The right side of the handset sports the volume rocker, power key and the camera button. Tactile feedback from the buttons is excellent with an audible click on pressing them. The two stage camera key in particular is a joy to use. The top of the phone has a 3.5mm audio jack while the micro USB port can be seen at the bottom of the device. The back is where things get a bit interesting. The smooth, soft matte finish material used feels great in the hand. A 5MP camera can be seen towards the top. There’s no provision for an LED flash which will be a disappointment to those who’d like their phone to double as a flashlight.
Overall while the handset won’t be winning any design awards, it make for a solid handset which fits really well in the hand. We particularly loved the material used at the back of the phone. We were a bit disappointed to see that Nokia hadn’t used its nifty dualshot system here as seen first on the Lumia 620. That said, its possible to exchange the back cover to give your device a new color and look.
Display
The screen on the Lumia 720 is a 4″ WVGA IPS panel with a pixel density of 233 ppi. While the colors are pretty vibrant, black levels aren’t very satisfactory especially compared to the Lumia 620 which has a ClearBlack panel.
Viewing angles aren’t the widest and sunlight visibility leaves a lot to be desired. You’ll want to be extra careful with the handset as it does not have a Gorilla Glass equipped screen which means that it is just that much more prone to scratches. We were surprised to find out that the Lumia 520 has the Super Sensitive Touch technology that Nokia pioneered on its Lumia 920 and 820 handsets. What this entails is that you can use the handset even while wearing gloves. Might not mean much in a country like India but is extremely useful for anyone living in colder climates.
Camera
A 5MP camera unit has been placed at the back of the Lumia 520 and is capable of capturing video in up to 720p. The lens is not of the Carl Zeiss variety as seen on higher end Lumia devices.
Daylight performance is acceptable with just a hint of noise visible in dark areas. The limited dynamic range is obvious as you can see how the foreground tends to be a bit too dark. Windows Phone 8 will be well served by an HDR mode in the default camera app and we sure do hope that Microsoft is listening.
Macro performance too is commendable though a bit of a hit or miss. You might have to struggle to get a focus lock at times but results tend to be good.
Indoor shots are where noise levels become particularly visible. The lack of a flash means that it is impossible to take a shot in extremely low light and the camera has major issues with getting a focus lock.
The camera on the Lumia 520 is surprisingly good for a device in its category. No, it won’t blow you away but it’ll get the job done as long as the lighting is decent.
Software
We had done an in depth Windows Phone 8 review at launch and we’ll refer you to the same article if that is what you are looking for. The Windows Phone 8 interface as you probably know is in the form of tiles which can now be arranged in three different sizes ie small, medium and large.
These dynamic live tiles dominate what can be termed as the ‘homescreen’ of the phone while a simple swipe from the right brings forth the applications menu. Performance is blistering fast with nary a lag in the interface. Seriously, there is absolutely no competition with entry-mid range Android device in terms of day to day performance of the device with Windows Phone 8 being one of the slickest operating systems out there. Over and above the standard Microsoft app package, you get Nokia’s offerings like HERE Maps, HERE Drive, HERE city lens, Nokia Music, Nokia MixRadio , Cinemagraph, Smartshoot, and also a BigFlix application with three months of free service. With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft made great strides to bridge the gap with the competition and has added several widely requested features though the implementation is often lacking. What is still the Achilles’ heel of the operating system is its app catalog or lack thereof. The omission of Google apps and support in addition to being late to the party with most apps makes it a dark horse in the eyes of the discerning app junkie. Do check out the entire Windows Phone 8 review for a better look at the operating system.
Performance
The lack of standard benchmarking tools for Windows Phone 8 means that our review of the phone’s performance is more on the basis of feel and our real life usage instead of cold numbers that might not be indicative of actual performance. Windows Phone 8 is one of the lightest and most well optimized mobile operating systems out there capable of delivering excellent performance on even fairly low end hardware. The problem lies in the relatively low amount of RAM included in the phone. The 512MB of RAM is enough for day to day usage but proves to be a limiting factor in providing 100% app compatibility. Games in particular suffer due to their high RAM usage and so a small number of games might not be available to users of the Lumia 520. Temple Run is unfortunately one of the more popular games that suffers because of this.
Battery Life
The 1430 mAh battery pack on the Lumia 520 is rated for 9.6 hours of usage on 3G and this figure tends to be fairly accurate according to our testing. Average usage should result in about a day of battery life though you’ll definitely have to charge it over night.
Heavy users will have to be careful but do have the option to swap out the battery in case it gets depleted during the day.
Connectivity & Call Quality
Being a Nokia phone, the Lumia 520 never faces signal strength issues and has remarkably good voice quality. However it does not feature the dual microphone noise cancellation seen on the Lumia 620. Connectivity options include the standard WiFi and Bluetooth. Windows Phone 8 added support for Bluetooth file transfers so you’ll be able to share image, audio files and more via bluetooth.
Conclusion
The Lumia 520 is the best phone that you can buy at the Rs. 10,000 price point. No, it does not have every app under the sun but the essentials are covered and it provides a quick, stress free smartphone experience with no hint of a lag. You also get Nokia’s legendary build quality and a wide of range of exclusive apps. If you still want to take a look at the competition you can check out the Xperia E that we recently reviewed or the Micromax Canvas 2. The Lumia 520 however gets our vote for best budget smartphone.
Pros
- Decent camera
- Quick performance
- Great hardware quality
Cons
- No front camera
- No LED flash
- 512MB RAM
Samsung Galaxy S4 likely to launch in India on April 27th at around Rs.40000
The Samsung Galaxy S4 might be coming to India as soon as April 27th. The Korean smartphone giant is gearing up to launch the Galaxy S4 in several countries across the world on April 26-27th. Samsung launched the much anticipated successor to the Galaxy S3 at a launch event in New York City last month . India is a key market for Samsung and would be getting the flagship Android device pretty soon. The S4 features a 5 inch display , quad-core or octa-core processor (depending on the market), Android 4.2.2 , 13 Megapixel camera, 2600 mAh battery and many other interesting features.
Regarding the pricing , Samsung is expected to price the S4 in the Rs.40000 price band in India. It will be available in two colors – Black Mist and White Frost. Multiple sources we spoke to have confirmed the launch plans although there is no official confirmation from Samsung yet.
Interestingly the HTC One is also hitting India later this month for Rs.42900.
You can check out our hands-on video the S4
If you wish to know the differences between the S3 and S4 head here to our comparison.
Are you looking forward to buying the Galaxy S4 ?
Groupon app for iPhone launched in India
Groupon India has launched the Groupon app for iPhone in India. Crazeal.com’s Indian arm was rebranded as Groupon India last year. The latest update for the Groupon for iPhone brings the option to buy Groupons in India. The Groupon app offers several deals around you, and is already available in 48 countries. It lets you buy, redeem and organize your purchases effectively. It automatically shows the best deals in your city based on your GPS location, and also has option to view deals in other cities.
Features of Groupon for iPhone
- Buy and redeem deals directly from your iPhone
- Keep track of all your purchased Groupons by location and expiration date
- Choose Groupon from Featured, Travel and Shopping
- Automatically detects your city using GPS, also select the city manually
- Save ink, and avoid paper cuts by never printing another Groupon
Download the Groupon app for iPhone from the Apple iTunes Store for free.
Alcatel One Touch Idol and One Touch Idol Ultra Android smartphones launched in India for Rs. 15800 and Rs. 21000
Alcatel One Touch has launched the One Touch Idol and One Touch Idol Ultra, new Android smartphones in India. Both these smartphones were announced earlier this year. The One Touch Idol has a 4.5-inch (540 x 960 Pixels) qHD IPS display and the One Touch Idol Ultra comes with a 4.7-inch (720 x 1280 pixels) HD AMOLED display with Corning gorilla glass protection. These phones run on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and has a 8MP rear camera with LED Flash and 720p HD video recording. The One Touch Idol Ultra would be featured in the Iron Man 3 movie that is releasing later this month.
Alcatel One Touch Idol specifications
- 4.5-inch (540 x 960 Pixels) qHD IPS
- 1 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor
- Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
- 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 720p HD video recording
- 2MP HD 720p front-facing camera
- 7.9 mm thick
- 3.5mm audio jack, Micro SIM
- 512MB RAM, 4 GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32 GB with micro SD
- 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 1800 mAh battery
Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra specifications
- 4.7-inch (720 x 1280 pixels) HD AMOLED display
- 1.2 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor
- Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
- 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 720p HD video recording
- 1.3MP HD 720p front-facing camera
- 6.45 mm thick
- 3.5mm audio jack
- 1GB RAM, 16 GB internal memory
- 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 1800 mAh battery
The Alcatel One Touch Idol comes in Silver, Slate, Cranberry Pink and Red and is priced at Rs. 15,800. The Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra comes in Black and Red colors and is priced at Rs. 21,000. Both these phones would come with 1GB of 3G data and 3 months of Idea TV with recharge of Rs. 261 on prepaid, and Rs. 259 on postpaid for Idea customers.
Panasonic introduces Windows 8, Android based Toughpad tablets in India
Panasonic today launched two new tablets amidst a range of products as part of their Toughpad range. The Windows 8 and Android running tablets have been built according to the MIL-STD-810G specification. The rugged shock proof, water proof and dust proof tablets are aimed at use in industries with harsh working environments and can survive falls from up to 4 feet.
The Windows 8 running Toughpad FZ-G1 tablet has a 10.1 Full HD display with an active digitizer. It is powered by a 3rd Generation Core i5 processor clocked at 1.9 Ghz. The tablet can be configured with between 128 and 256GB of SSD storage and with 4-8GB of RAM. The Windows 8 running tablet is priced at Rs. 1,79,000 and is targeted at enterprise customers.
The 7″ Toughpad JT B1 Android tablet on the other hand has a 4 point multi touch display. The screen resolution is 1024 x600. Connectivity options include GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G capabilities. The tablet comes with a stylus for data entry and signature capturing. The rear of the tablet has a 13 megapixel auto focus camera with an LED flash. The 5,720 mAh user replaceable battery is rated for 8 hours of battery life. The Android tablet is priced at Rs. 69,000. Like the Windows tablet, the Android tablet too is aimed at enterprise customers.
Asus FonePad coming soon to India
Asus India is gearing up to launch the Intel powered FonePad tablet in India . This 7 inch tablet was announced at MWC back in February and is coming to India very soon. Asus India has been teasing “a new family member” on its Facebook and Twitter pages with the image below and it clearly looks like the Fonepad from the back.
The tablet actually packs phone functionality in Asia and is powered by the new Intel Atom Z2420 CPU running at 1.2 GHz. The company might launch launch the WiFi only version initially followed by the 3G version. The Nexus 7 finally went on sale this month.
Could the PadFone be a worthy competitor to the phablets in India if priced right ? The fonepad should be priced under Rs.20000 and ideally around Rs.15000 going by the international pricing revealed so far.
Check out the hands on video below of the FonePad !
Celkon A119 Signature HD Benchmarks
Celkon launched the A119 Signature HD last month for Rs. 13,499. We brought you unboxing of the Celkon A119 earlier this week, here we have the benchmarks of the device. The Celkon A119 packs a 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display at 295 PPI, powered by a dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor clocked at 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). We reviewed the Xolo A1000 recently which has a similar processor and a HD display. Let’s see how the device performs in the benchmark tests.
Quadrant Benchmark
Quadrant Benchmark
The Celkon A119 is right behind the Spice Mi-530 in the Quadrant Benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark v2.9
The phone stands ahead of the Galaxy Grand Duos, but it couldn’t beat the Spice Mi-530 even in this benchmark test.
AnTuTu Benchmark v3.2.2
In the AnTuTu Benchmark version 3.2.2, the Signature HD scores 5796 points. The A116 powered by a quad-core MediaTek chip scored 12281 points, which is two times than this.
Vellamo 1.0
The Jelly Bean-powered Celkon A119 stands right behind the Galaxy Grand Duos in the Vellamo 1.0 browser benchmark.
Vellamo 2.0 HTML5 and Metal
It scores 1136 points in the HTML5 web browser test and 379 points in the metal CPU subsystem performance. The Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos scored 1589 points in the Vellamo 2.0 HTML test.
Linpack Single Thread
Linpack Multi-Thread
Even though the performance of the phone is good in the Linpack’s single thread CPU score, the Micromax A116 scores tops the Linpack multi-thread CPU benchmark scores, pushing the A119 to the 4th place.
NenaMark 2
Since the phone has a HD display, the PowerVR SGX 531 GPU couldn’t push it more than 18fps in the NenaMark GPU benchmark.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD (1080p) (On screen)
It managed to clock 3.3 fps in the GLBenchmark Egypt similar to the other dual-core MediaTek-powered devices.
We will bring you the complete review soon.
Xolo B700 Unboxing
Xolo launched the Xolo B700 with a last month for Rs. 8,999. Here we have the unboxing video of the device. The Xolo B700 features 4.3-inch (960 x 540 pixels) 16M color IPS display with 256 ppi pixel density, powered by a 1 GHz dual-core Mediatek MT6577 processor and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
Xolo’s big battery phone the B700 comes in a typical white xolo box.
The box contents include, XOLO B700 handset, 2-pin charger, 3450mAh battery, in-ear earphone, USB cable, user guide and a warranty & safety guide. We have a black handset here. The accessories however are white in color. The B700 is fueled by a 3450mAh Polymer Battery that can give upto 23 hours of calling over a 2G network. The massive battery is the USP of Xolo B700.
The IPS screen measures 4.3 inch diagonally. It has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels pixels with 256 ppi pixel density.
The handset feels plasticky. It is also light weight at 160 gms.
There are capacitive touch buttons for Home, Menu, Back and Search below the display.
The phone has 0.3MP VGA front-facing camera.
On the right side there is a volume rocker.
On the top there is a power button and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
There is a micro USB slot on the bottom.
The phone is not quite slim. Perhaps because it needs to house the massive battery. The dimensions are 130.5x 66.5x 12.1mm. There is nothing on the left side.
It runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.
On the back there is a 5 MP camera with a single LED flash. It is capable of recrording 720 HD videos.
The massive battery fills nearly 90% of the back side. And charging it can take up to 4.5 hrs!
Xolo B700 is dual SIM phone. It supports one 3G and one 2G SIM.
It has 512MB RAM. The internal memory is 4GB, expandable to 32 GB. The memory slot is placed behind cover with the two SIM slots. The connectivity features include, 3G (HSDPA: 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA: 5.7 Mbps), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.
We will bring you a complete review of the device soon, till then check out more images from the Xolo B700 unboxing below.
