tech2touch

Author: Aniruddh

  • Top 5 Reasons to Buy Asus Zenfone 2

    Asus Zenfone 2 is yet to launch in India. However, I got an opportunity to attend Asus Pre-Launch Showcase  event in Bangalore. It is not a complete review. This is based on the short period of time I spent on Zenfone 2 in the event. You can read more about the specification in the Asus Zenfone 2 official page.

    Top 5 Reasons to Buy Asus Zenfone 2

    Asus Zenfone 2 with 4GB RAM

     

    Image courtesy: Asus India.

    Read: Different variants of Asus Zenfone 2

    1. 64-bit Dual-Channel 4GB RAM: Asus claims that, Zenfone 2 is the first smartphone in India to feature 4GB of RAM. The device is powered by 64-bit Intel Atom 2.3G CPU with 6430 PowerVR 533MHz GPU. In my experience in the event, device worked without any lag even while playing a high end racing game.
    2. 5MP selfie camera with Panorama shots: Zenfone 2 comes with 13MP primary camera with Toshiba sensor and Dual LED realtone Flash. The 5MP front facing camera has F/2.0 apertures  and wide angle lens. You can also take panorama images using the front facing primary camera. There is also a night mode which is quit useful. Overall camera section is one of the segment truly competes with rest in this price segment.
    3. ZenUI and Android 5.0 Lollipop:  We have already seen the ZenUI with last years Zenfone. However, with Android Lollipop, Zenfone 2 comes with much more refined and user friendly ZenUI. The ZenMotion is also works without any issue. Switching users based on the lock screen swipe lock is really innovative.
    4. Asus BoostMaster:  Asus is incorporating the fast charging features with Zenfone 2.  Company claims that, you can charge 60% of your battery in just 39 minutes. According to this 10 mins of fast charging will provide 4 hours of 2G talk time and 2.7hours of 3G talk time. This feature is available only for the 4GB ram model. I will do a detailed review on this once I get the review unit.
    5. Display screen: Zenfone 5 comes with 5.5 inch full HD display screen. Asus has reduced the bezel width compared to previous years Zenfone. Now Zenfone 2 screen-to-body ratio is 72% which is a welcome upgrade. In my short time with Zenfone 2, I felt the quality of the display is good. The viewing angles are good and colors look vivid.

    As I mentioned earlier, this is not the complete review. I will be doing a detailed pros and cons review on Zenfone 2 once I get the review unit. The initial impressions on Asus Zenfone 2 looks very impressive. Though there is no information on the price, we can expect it to be very competitive.   The refreshed design and build quality coupled with powerful CPU and 4GB RAM, 13MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera are very good as per the spec sheet. However, for real time performance, we need to wait for some more time.

  • Samsung Galaxy E5 Cons and Pros Review

    Samsung Galaxy E5 is a mid range Android smartphone. It is dual sim with Dual standby feature. It runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat along with Touchwiz UI. The Galaxy E5 price in India is Rs.15,340.

    Samsung Galaxy E5 is powered by 1.2GHz Quad core snapdragon 410 chipset with Adreno 306 GPU with 1.5GB of RAM. The internal storage of the device is 16GB and supports microSD card upto 64GB. Do note that, you can use either 2nd sim or the microSD card. You cannot use both of them simultaneously.

    Samsung Galaxy E5 sports 5 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with screen resolution of 720×1280 pixels and 294 ppi pixel density. The display screen is vibrant and has very good viewing angles and good sunlight legibility. The device has Accelerometer, proximity sensors. It is sad to see a mid range smartphone which lack Light sensor and a compass.

    Samsung Galaxy E5 Review

    Samsung Galaxy E5 houses 8MP autofocus primary camera with LED flash. There is also a 5MP front facing camera. Outdoor performance of the 8MP primary camera is decent. However, indoor conditions and low light performance is just average. The facing camera performance is good. It is one of the best in this price segment.

    Samsung Galaxy E5 packs 2400 mAh battery. It is highly efficient smartphone with very good battery life. On average user battery lasts for more than 1 and half day. If you are a casual user, then it lasts more than 2 days. For the connectivity, device has 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB tethering and WiFi Hotspot.

    Read:

    How to take screenshot on Samsung Galaxy Smartphones

    How to use Samsung Galaxy smartphones as modem

    How to download PC suite for Samsung Galaxy Smartphones.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Samsung Galaxy E5

    Pros of Galaxy E5

    • Excellent Battery life: The battery life of this smartphone is one of the best in the price segment, The standby time is also very good.
    • Good Super AMOLED screen: The 720p Super AMOLED display screen is very good. The touch response is very good and it support 10 multi touch points.
    • Good cellular call quality: The cellular call quality in Galaxy E5 is excellent.
    • Decent Performance: With trimmed down Touchwiz and 1.5GB of RAM offers good performance. The gaming experience in this device also good. Even games like Asphalt 8, modern combat plays without any issues. The doesnot get heated up while playing these games.
    • Impressive Front facing camera:  Though, primary camera disappoints, front facing camera is very impressive in this price segment. Quality of the selfies and videos looks good.
    • Theme Support: Galaxy E5 comes with support for themes. Though it is in starting stages, it is a welcome move.

    Cons of Galaxy E5

    • Non removable battery
    • No LED notification light
    • No Auto brightness sensor and compass sensor: Though it does not have the compass sensor, the GPS works well.
    • No Android Lollipop Out of the box.
    • Average primary camera: The indoor and low light performance of 8MP primary camera is not impressive.
    • No USB OTG support

    Verdict: If you are looking for a mid range Samsung Galaxy smartphone, then  Galaxy E5 is a worthy contender. It provides excellent battery life, good display screen and good selfie camera. It is also worth noting the availability of the service across the country. It does has cons which mentioned above.

    Samsung Galaxy E5 Specification

    • 1.2GHz Quad core snapdragon 410 chipset with Adreno 306 GPU with 1.5GB of RAM
    • 16GB internal storage and supports microSD card upto 64GB
    •  5 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with 720p resolution
    • 8MP autofocus primary camera with LED flash
    • 5MP front facing camera
    •  2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB tethering and WiFi Hotspot
    •  2400 mAh battery.

  • Sony Xperia E4 Dual Cons and Pros Review

    Sony Xperia E4 Dual is sub 15k Android Dual sim smartphone. It is meant to compete with the likes of Moto G 2nd gen, Yu Yureka, Lenovo A7000, Redme smartphones etc. How well the smartphone fares when compared with the competitors?  We see the pros and cons of Sony Xperia E4 in this review.

    Sony Xperia E4 Dual is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6582 SoC with Mali-400MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The internal storage capacity of the device is 8GB and supports microSD card upto 32GB.  It runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat along with Sony’s skin.  Though the skin is not heavy, devices comes loaded with many bloatwares.

    Sony Xperia E4

    Sony Xperia E4 sports 5 inch IPS LCD screen with a screen resolution of 540×960(qHD) which translates to approximately 220 ppi pixel density. The screen looks dull even with full brightness. The viewing angles and bright legibility are also not satisfactory. Though there is no mention of what kind of glass is used, the screen is scratch resistant as per the company.

    Sony Xperia E4 houses 5 MP primary camera which can record 1080p videos and 2MP front facing camera. There is nothing much to right about primary camera as its performance is below average. The front camera does the decent job. The connectivity features of the device includes 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB. One of the highlight of Xperia E4 is its battery. It comes with 2300 mAh battery. In a video loop test, phone ran for more than 9 hours.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Sony Xperia E4

    Pros of Xperia E4

    • Good Battery life. The performance of the battery is excellent in this price segment.
    • Decent front facing camera.
    • Decent cellular call quality.

    Cons of Xperia E4

    • Average performance: The Xperia E4 performance on day to day usage is mediocre. It lags and shutters. Even swipes registered as taps and opened apps instead of scrolling between home screens.
    •  Average Camera performance: The primary camera performance is below average when compared with the competition.
    •  Average Display: It has  low resolution screen coupled with low brightness and angles view angles.
    • No Android Lollipop Out of the box.
    • Expensive

    Verdict: Sony Xperia E4 is not recommended at this price. However, you can go for it if and only if you are hard core Sony Smartphone fan. Otherwise you can look for  Motorola Moto G(2nd gen), Yu Yureka or Lenovo A6000 .

    Sony Xperia E4 Specification

    • 1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6582 SoC with Mali-400MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM
    • Android 4.4.4 Kitkat
    • Dual sim with Dual standby.
    • 8GB internal storage and supports microSD card upto 32GB.
    • 5MP primary camera and 2MP front facing camera.
    • 2300 mAh battery.

  • Xiaomi Redme 2A Budget 4G Smartphone Unveiled

    On the occasion of its 5th Anniversary, Xiaomi has unveiled a new budget 4G Android smartphone called Xiaomi Redme 2A. In simple terms, it is the cheaper variant of Redme 2 smartphone. Along with this device, Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun, also unveiled Mi Note(Pink Edition).

    The new Xiaomi Redme 2A has many things identical to Redme 2 in terms of cosmetics. The only difference is the CPU. Redme 2A is powered by 1.4GHz quad-core Leadcore (L1860C) Cortex-A7 processor with 1GB of RAM.  Whereas  Xiaomi Redme 2 is powered by 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Cortex-A53 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM.

    Xiaomi Redme 2A Dual sim

    Xiaomi Redme 2A sports 4.7 inch 720P HD IPS display screen with 312 ppi pixel density. This budget 4G Android smartphone comes with 8GB of internal storage and support for microSD upto 32GB.  Like Redme 2, this also features 8-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 lens, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 2200mAh battery.  The connectivity features includes TDD-LTE Bands 38, 39, 40, and 41, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Direct and wireless display functionality, alongside GPS/ A-GPS. The dimensions of Redme 2A is similar to Redme 2 which is 134.00×67.20×9.40mm. Xiaomi Redme 2A price is CNY 599(approximately Rs. 6,000).

    Mi Note Pink Edition according to the Xiaomi tailored Edition for modern ladies. Xiaomi Mi Note Pink edition is a dual sim with Dual sim standby  support Android smartphone which accepts Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM card.  Mi Note Pink edition comes with 5.7-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.  This phablet has metal frame.

    Xiaomi Mi Note

    Mi Note Pink Edition houses 13-megapixel rear camera and 4-megapixel front-camera also onboard with large 2-micron pixels. The device is powered by quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz alongside 3GB of RAM and Adreno 330 GPU. Connectivity features includes 4G LTE connectivity. It has 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0 technology. Mi Note Pink Edition price is CNY 2,499 (approximately Rs. 25,000). Xiaomi also offering a 5000mAh battery power bank along with the handset.

    Xiaomi Redme 2A Specification

    • 1.4GHz quad-core Leadcore (L1860C) Cortex-A7 processor with 1GB of RAM
    • 4.7 inch 720P HD IPS display screen with 312 ppi pixel density
    • 8GB of internal storage and support for microSD upto 32GB
    • TDD-LTE Bands 38, 39, 40, and 41, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Direct and wireless display functionality, alongside GPS/ A-GPS
    • 2200mAh battery
    • 8-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 lens, 2-megapixel front-facing camera

  • Mlais M52 Red Note Hands on Review

    Mlais M52 Red Note is one of the affordable yet decently powered phablet with 4G capability and dual sim functionality. There are many budget 4G enabled smartphones which are recently launched such as Lenovo A6000, Redme 2 etc. How well it performs against them is to be seen. Mlais M52 Red Note price is $149.99. You can use the PROMO code GBM52  to get the additional discount which is available to our readers. After the discount the price which you pay for  M52 Red Note is $136(save 40.67dollars) in Gearbest. 

     Mlais M52 Red Note is powered by 64 bit 1.7GHz Octa Core Mediatek MTK6752 CPU with ARM MALI-T760 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage of the device is 16GB and supports TF card up to 64GB.  The device runs on Android 4.4.4 without much customisation. The software provide also stock experience. The performance also felt good.

    Mlais M52 Red Note 4G

    Mlais M52 Red Note sports 5.5 inch HD IPS OGS screen with screen resolution of 1280 x 720 which results in 267 ppi pixel density. The viewing angles are decent and the sun light legibility also good for the price it is offered.  The connectivity features of the device are FDD LTE,4G,3G,GPS,Wi-Fi,Bluetooth.

    Mlais M52 Red Note houses 13MP primary rear camera with LED flash and autofocus. There is also a 8MP front facing camera with wide angle lens.  The new Mlais M52 Red Note has 3200 mAh battery.  The built sensors of the device includes Proximity Sensor, Gesture Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor. The other features are GPS, USB OTG and Gesture sensing.

    Considering the below $150 Dual sim Android smartphone,  Mlais M52 Red Note is has good specifications. The real time performance also good in the price segment. If you are looking for a budget phablet with good specifications, then it is worth considering this.

    Mlais M52 Red Note Specification

    • 5.5 inch HD IPS OGS capacitive screen with 720p resolution.
    • CPU: MTK6752 Octa Core, 64 Bit, 1.7GHz
    • GPU: ARM MALI-T760.
    • 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.
    • Android 4.4.4.
    • Dual SIM card dual standby, two micro SIM card.
    • Dual Cameras, 8.0MP 88 degrees wild-angle front camera, 13.0MP back camera, AF with True Flash LED.
    • Support FDD LTE/4G/3G/GPS/Wifi/Bluetooth.
    • Networking: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz, 4G: FDD LTE: 800/1800/2100/2600MHz.
    • 3200 mAh battery.
    • Dimensions: 15.20 x 7.80 x 0.82 cm / 5.97 x 3.07 x 0.32 inches.
    • Weight: 0.158 kg.