Tech2 Touch

Author: Aniruddh

  • Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Pros and Cons

    Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is a selfie focused Android smartphone. It is current trend in smartphone to launch selfie focused smartphones. We have seen Sony Xperia C3, HTC Desire Eye, Lava Iris X5 etc which has good front facing camera. Let us a quick review on Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime to know where it stands in the crowd.

    Galaxy Grand Prime Dua slim
    Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime

    Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is dual sim and runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat. It is powered by 64 bit Quad core processor 1.2GHz  with Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset and Adreno 306 GPU. It has 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage in which 5GB is user available. Grand Prime also supports microSD card upto 64GB.

    Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime has 5 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with screen resolution of 540×960 pixels and 220 ppi pixel density.  Connectivity features of the device includes 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and WiFi. As a android feature, it does supports USB tethering and WiFi hotspot to use Galaxy Grand Prime as modem.

    Read:

    How to use Samsung Galaxy smartphones as Modem

    How to take screenshot on Samsung Galaxy Smartphone.

    How to download Samsung Kies PC Suite

    Biggest attraction of the device is its camera segment. It has 5MP wide angle front facing camera and 8MP primary camera. The camera is capable of recording 1080p videos at 30fps. Comparing to Galaxy Grand 2 and Galaxy Grand which has only 2MP front facing camera, it is welcome move. Galaxy Grand Prime houses Li-ion 2600 mAh battery which is rated provide upto 17 hours of talk time and 75 hours of music playback.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime

    Pros of Galaxy Grand Prime

    • Display screen: The display screen has good viewing angles and good colour reproduction.
    • Performance:  Galaxy Grand Prime does performs great on day to day usage. The games like Asphalt 8 plays without any much lag or frame drop. Graphic intensive games like modern combat does shows some frame drops
    • Price: Price of the Galaxy Grand Prime is competitive and good value for money.
    • Good Camera: The front facing as well as secondary camera does takes good photos and records quality videos.

    Cons of Galaxy Grand Prime

    • No 720p HD Screen resolution: 5 inch screen without even 720p resolution, is downside. Considering many budget smartphones features 720p screen which are priced very much lower than this.
    • No NFC and OTG support: It is not a deal breaker considering , it supports microSD card.
    • Average battery life: In normal usage, it lasts one day. However, on heavy usage, need to charge twice.

    Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Specification

    • Dual sim and runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat
    • 5 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with screen resolution of 540×960 pixels
    • 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage
    • Expandable storage support upto 64GB through microSD card.
    • 5MP wide angle front facing camera
    • 8MP primary camera with LED flash.
    • Li-ion 2600 mAh battery

  • Google HTC Nexus 9 Premium Tablet

    Last week we have seen two of big events with unveiling of great tablets and smartphones. There were lot of rumours and anticipation on launch of Nexus 6 smartphone, Nexus 9 tablet and Apple iPads. Both Google and Apple didn’t disappointed the gadget enthusiasts. Apple launched Apple iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, upgradation for iMac series and launch of iOS 8.1 with lot of new features and bug fixes. Similarly, just one day ago to apple event, Google unveiled Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 with latest Android OS 5.0 Lollipop.  According to Google Android 5.0 is one of the major update in the Android history. In post we will discuss the features of of newly launched Nexus 9 tablet.

    Google Nexus 9
    HTC Google Nexus 9

    Google Nexus 9 tablet is manufactured by HTC. It marks many new things. One of them is the 8.9 inch display screen Nexus Tablet.  The screen has 1536×2048 pixel resolution with 281 ppi pixel density. The display screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection which helps in reducing the scratches on the screen.

    HTC Nexus 9 is powered by Dual core 2.3GHz Denver CPU with Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset and Kepler DX1 GPU. The new tablet has 2GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Like previous Nexus devices, this too doesn’t comes with support for microSD card.

    Google Nexus 9 sports 8MP autofocus primary camera with LED flash. It record 1080p videos at 30fps. There is also a 1.6MP front facing camera which can record videos at 720p resolution. Connectivity features includes WiFi, Bluetooth, microUSB, NFC and GPS. Cellular connectivity is a optional.

    Google HTC Nexus 9 comes with Indigo Black, Lunar White and Sand Colours. It houses Li-po 6700 mAh battery which according to Google will last for 10 hours of video playing or surfing. New Nexus 9 runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box which is optimized or better battery utilization.

    Nexus 9 Tablet Price

    Just a day after global unveiling, Nexus 9 is listed in Google Play store India website.  The price of Nexus 9 is given below.

    • Nexus 9 16GB WiFi only variant Price: Rs.28,900.
    • Nexus 9 32GB WiFi  and Cellular variant Price: Rs. 44,900.

  • Apple iPad Air 2-Is It Worth to Upgrade

    Yesterday Apple has unveiled new iPad called iPad Air 2. As usual, newer model comes with new features. This leads to confusion on is it worth to upgrade to to newer model or continue with current iPad. In this post we will see the new features of iPad Air 2 comparing with older iPads.

    Apple iPad Air 2

    Design

    In terms design, Apple has done good work to make the new iPad Air 2 thinner.  Now it is just 6.1mm making it one of the thinnest tablet in the world. Newer colour option too added. Now Gold coloured iPad Air 2 available along with Silver and Space Gray.

    Display

    The size and resolution of the display remained same as earlier. It has 9.7 inch LED Backlite IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with screen resolution of 1536×2047 pixels and 264 ppi pixel density. But the difference is the new Anti reflective coating. This reduces reflections off the  screen  of new Apple iPad Air 2 by 56%. It is a good move as it is good for reading and watching movies.

    Camera

    The new iPad Air 2 comes with 8MP F/2.4 camera and supports 1080p HD video recording. The camera is equipped to take time-lapse videos, 120fps slow-mo videos and burst mode. Another addition is the stereo audio recording with secondary mic. There is a improvement on front camera as well. Now it has a new sensor, improved face detection and HDR videos.

    Connectivity

    iPad Air 2 comes with faster WiFi.  It supports 802.11ac, MIMO antennas, rated at upto 866Mbps connection rate.

    Performance and Battery Life

    The new Apple iPad Air 2 is powered by custom Apple A8X chipset with second generation 64 bit architecture which is made exclusive to iPad family. According to Apple, new CPU is 40% faster and GPU is 2.5x faster than on the A7. There is no word on the RAM size. It also comes with TouchID fingerprint sensor which found on iPhones. Battery life is kept same at 10 hours life previous iPad Air. Internal storage capacity options are 16GB and 64GB.

    Price of Apple iPad Air 2

    The price of iPad Air 2 starts from $499 for 16GB variant. 64GB version costs $599 and LTE version costs $730. Prices of iPad Air 2 price in India are as follows.

    • 16GB  WiFi Only iPad Air 2:  Rs.35,900
    • 64GB WiFi Only iPad Air 2: Rs.42,900
    • 128GB WiFi Only iPad Air 2: Rs.49,900
    • iPad Air 2 WiFi + Cellular: Rs.38,900 for 16GB variant, Rs.45,900 for 64GB variant and Rs.52,900 for the 128GB model.

    Verdict: It is not a complete iPad Air 2 review. We will be doing in depth review in the coming days. However, by the impressions, it looks like, if you have iPad Air first generation, it is not worth to upgrade. Considering price cut, iPad Air is much more attractive. If you want to be having latest gadget, then it is worth upgrade. In our in depth review, we will write detailed pros and cons of Apple iPad Air 2.

  • Xiaomi Redme 1S Software Update for Heating Issue

    Xiaomi started rolling out software update starting Monday through OTA for Redme 1S users in India. This latest firmware update brings MIUI 5 version 4.5. This according to company will fix major bugs mainly heating issues and RAM utilization. Read: Pros and Cons of Xiaomi Redme 1s.

    The reviews on Xiaomi Redme 1S reported the occasional heating issue. The company took this feedback and worked on it resolve this. This firmware is part of this initiative.  Hugo Barra vice president of Xiaomi Global mentioned in facebook page that, “Today we are released an over the air system update(V45) for the Redme 1S. This release incorporates feedback received from a large number of users and addresses a few important issues.

    Xiaomi Redme 1S firmware update also aimed at improved memory(RAM) utilization in MIUI. It also addresses performance issues such as frame rate drops and UI lag prevalent during computationally intensive task like gaming.

    The latest firmware update for Redme 1S weighs 514.4MB. As size of the update is big, it i recommended to update through WiFi network.

    How to update Xiaomi Redme 1S to latest Firmware

    The updation might be available from notification area. If it is not available, then follow the step mentioned below.

    • Connect your Redme 1S to fast internet.
    • Go to tools and click on Updater App.
    • Select the update and tap on to Update.
    • Device restart once download is complete.
    • Your device will on latest Firmware.

  • Pros and Cons of HTC One E8 Dual sim Review

    The HTC One E8 in simple words, Dual sim variant of HTC One M8. The internal hardware remains most part same. But there are few changes in the area of Build and Camera sections. The price also reduced to make more affordable. HTC One E8 price in India is 34,060. Recently Lenovo launched Dual sim smartphone Vibe Z2 Pro which will compete with this smartphone. Read Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro Review.

    HTC One E8 Dual sim is powered by 2.5GHz Krait 400 CPU with Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 chipset and 2GB of RAM.  When it comes benchmarking scores, HTC One E8 scores are 37,321 in Antutu and 23,513 Quadrant.  Internal storage capacitiy of the device is 16GB and supports microSD card upto 128GB.

    Dual sim HTC One E8

    HTC One E8 comes with 5inch Super LCD 3 capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and 441 ppi pixel density. The Android Dual sim smartphone has 13MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera. HTC One E8 has Li-po 2600 mAh battery which is rated to provide upto 26 hours of talk time and 504 hours of standby time.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of HTC One E8 Dual sim Android

    Pros of HTC One E8

    • Great Performance: The One E8 performs really well without any lag.
    • Good Build quality and Design: Though metal goodness of One M8 is taken away on this phone, still the phone looks beautiful and feels good on hand.
    • Good Display: The viewing angles, sunlight legibility, colour reproduction and saturation level are excellant. The display is one of the best in the segment.
    • Good sound Output: Boom sound speakers in HTC One E8 offers good audio output.

    Cons of HTC One E8

    • Average Camera performance: The primary camera does not records 4K videos and also there is no OIS.
    • Non user replaceable battery: HTC One E8 comes with non user replaceable battery.
    • Heats up slightly: Though this is not rare in smartphones, but HTC One E8 is not an exception for heating while playing high end games.

    HTC One E8 Tips and Tricks

    HTC One E8 as Modem: To use HTC One E8 dual sim as modem, you can use USB tethering features. If you have WiFi enabled devices, then you can enable WiFi Hotspot to share the data between HTC One E8 and the WiFi enabled devices.

    Take screenshot: To take screenshot on HTC One E8, press and hold the Volume down key and Power button. The screenshot will be saved in Gallery.

    HTC One E8 Specifications

    • 2.5GHz Krait 400 CPU with Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 chipset and 2GB of RAM
    • 16GB internal storage and supports microSD card upto 128GB
    • 5inch Super LCD 3 capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels
    • 13MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera
    • Li-po 2600 mAh battery
    • 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB Connectivity
    • Dual sim(GSM+GSM) Nano sim support
    • Android 4.4.2 Kitkat with HTC Sense UI