Tech2 Touch

Author: Aniruddh

  • Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 Review

    With Micromax Canvas A250, Micromax has joined the league of full HD sporting smartphones. The device is powered by quad core processor and 2GB of RAM. The Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 price in India is Rs.19,299. The question raises is, is it worth of pay around 20k for this smartphone? Does it justifies its price with features.
    Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 sports 5 inch full HD CGS(Continuous Grain Silicon) IPS display with 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution and 440 ppi pixel density. The highlight of the Canvas Turbo is its Full HD screen. The text and image looks very crisp and clear. However, the color reproduction is average especially how it displays blacks. The viewing angles and sunlight legibility of Micromax Canvas Turbo display is decent.
    Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 is powered by 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T quad core processor with 2GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX544MP GPU. The internal storage of the device is 16GB, in that 13.4GB is user available. The Micromax flagship phone runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly bean with little bit of customisation. The Canvas Turbo does not show any lag while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps. Overall performance is good. Playing games such as Jetpack Joyride, Subway Surfers etc provides good experience. Having said that, graphic intensive games such as Asphalt 7 did show little bit of lag. The default media player plays AVI format decently but MKV format faces some kind of issues. However, installing third party applications.

    Micromax Canvas Turbo
    Micromax Canvas Turbo houses 13MP primary rear camera and 5MP front facing camera. The device comes with customized camera app which offers features like Normal, HDR, Smile detection, Panorama and Scene detection shot modes. This Micromax Android phone also offers a burst mode, letting users click up to 99 shots at once, in addition to GIF Animation, 3D Panorama and Remove Object modes. The images and videos captured in day light looks good. But the low light camera performance is average.
    The Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 has 2000 mAh battery which lasts for a day with medium to heavy usage. The connectivity features of the device are 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB. The standard features of Android like USB tethering and WiFI hotspots also works fine with the device. Free Download of PC suite for Micromax Canvas Turbo is not available. However, Micromax does provides driver for Canvas Turbo. It is required to use Micromax Canvas Turbo as modem to connect to internet from PC using the USB cable. You can read more details on this in my previous post.

    Disadvantages of Micromax Canvas Turbo

    Before purchasing any smartphones, it is good to know the demerits of the device. Because some of the shortfalls of the device might be a deal breaker for you. So here is the quick list of cons or demerits of Micromax Canvas Turbo which we came across.

    • Color reproduction of the display screen is just average
    • Camera performance is mediocre. The low light performance is below average. If you are looking for a decent camera phone, then Nokia Lumia 720 is a better option. In terms of camera performance, Micromax Canvas Turbo will disappoint you.
    • Playing high graphic intensive games shows bit of lag.
    • There is no expandable storage option.  Storage is limited or stick to the internal storage capacity of 13.4 GB user available storage.
    • Not much established service centers. Buying a high end phone, one will expect to get the quality service. Unfortunately, Micromax has very limited service centers and the quality of the service center too not so impressive. Feature bug fix updates and firmware upgrade also not guaranteed.

    Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 Specification summary

    • 1.5 GHz MediaTek MT 6589T Quad Core Processor with 2GB RAM and PowerVR SGX544MP GPU
    • 13 MP Primary Camera and 5 MP Secondary Camera.
    • 5-inch Capacitive Touchscreen with Full HD 1080X1920 resolution and 440 ppi pixel density.
    • 2G, 3G, WiFi, USB and Bluetooth.
    • Dual SIM (GSM + GSM).
    • FM Radio with Recording.
    • Android v4.2.1 (Jelly Bean) OS.
    • Li-2000 mAh battery with talk time upto 7 hours and 105 hours of standby time.
    • 16GB internal storage. 13.4GB user available

    Verdict: So what is the conclusion of Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 Review?  Micromax Canvas Turbo is undoubtedly has many features. But at the current price point, we feel it is little over priced. If you are planning to buy a smartphone with an intention to use it for longer time, this is not the right phone. You can go to HTC Desire 500 or Sony Xperia C which provides the bug fix updates and you will get a decent service center support. Even we feel that  Micromax Canvas HD is a better buy than this. What your thoughts? Share it in the comment section below.

  • Maximum and Minimum Worksheet Functions in Excel

    There are many situation where we need to find the maximum and minimum in a range. Like many other worksheet functions, finding the maximum and minimum also there is a direct functions available. Let us have a quick look into the maximum and minimum excel worksheet functions.
    Finding Maximum in a range using the Excel worksheet function:
    As said earlier, we need to use max function to get the maximum in a range.
    The syntax of max worksheet function is
    =max(number1, number 2, number 3…….Number n)
    where number1, number 2, number 3…….Number in which we need to find the maximum value.
    Examples on MAX excel function:
    =max(23,18, 51, 49)  this will return 51
    =max(A1:A4)
    Finding Minimum in a range using the Excel worksheet function:
    The syntax of MIN function in excel is
    =min(number1, number 2, number 3…….Number n)
    Where number1, number 2, number 3…….Number n Number in which we need to find the maximum value.
    Examples on Excel MIN function:
    =min(23,18, 51, 49)  this will return 18.
    =min(A1:A4)
    We have seen how to find the simple minimum and maximum using the excel functions. But at times we need to find max in a range with a criteria. There is a conditional max function available.
    For finding the conditional max in range we need to use DMAX function.
    The syntax for DMAX is
    DMAX( database, field, criteria )
    Where
    database is the range of cells that you want to apply the criteria against.
    field is the column to find the largest number in. You can either specify the numerical position of the column in the list or the column label in double quotation marks.
    criteria is the range of cells that contains your criteria.

  • How to boot to Desktop mode in Windows 8.1 when signing in

    When Microsoft launched Windows 8, it was major change in the Windows operating system. It is optimised for touch screen. The new metro style menu are not feels good on non touch screen device. There was no way to booting to desktop without any third party application.

    The new Windows 8.1 update brings in this feature. This features enables to directly boot to Desktop mode.  Apart from this there are many other bug fixes and feature enhancement also part of this update. This post, we will learn how to directly boot into desktop mode when signing in.

    Steps to Boot to Desktop Mode in Windows 8.1 Pro

    boot to desktop mode

    • First start the windows. Once the system boots, click on Desktop tile or hit Windows Key+D shortcut key
    • Right click on any open area in taskbar, then click on properties.
    • In the newly opened dialog box, Click Navigation tab.
    •  Now check mark the option “When i Sign in or Close all applications on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start”
    • Click on the apply and then Ok. Reboot the system. You will booting into the desktop mode.
    • If you want to go back to start-screen booting, then repeat the same procedure and uncheck the option in the 4th step of above.

    Thats it. Now you are no longer see the start-screen when you  switch on your PC. If you want load start-screen, then hit start button in the left bottom corner or Windows shortcut key. If you have any problem following this do leave a comment.

  • Samsung Galaxy S4 Tips And Tricks

    Samsung Galaxy S4 is the flagship smartphone with powerful processor and beautiful design. Once you have such a powerful smartphone, you are eager to know what you can do with that and how to do it. So in this post, I will show you some of the Samsung Galaxy S4 tips and tricks.

    Samsung Galaxy S4 Tips and Tricks

    1. Swiping down with two fingers to get the access to Quick Setting Panel: To use this feature, just swipe down from the status bar with two fingers. Then touch and hold to access settings. You can rearrange icons by long tapping and icon and drag it to required place.
    2. Adding TV Remote control to notification panel for quick access:  Go to Application screen and then Watch On and then Settings.
    3. Setting WiFi Timer: Using this feature, you can save cellular data, as the phone will try to connect to available Wi-Fi networks for a specific period of time.  You can enable this by Setting->Connection->WiFi->Advanced->Wi-Fi Timer.

    Samsung Galaxy S4 Tips And Tricks

    4. Taking screen Shot or Print screen on Samsung Galaxy S4: You can take screen shot or print screen on Galaxy S4 by two ways. One is default android way and another is new hand swipe feature.
    To take screenshot on normal way, just press Volume down+Menu key at time. The screen shot will get saved in the gallary. Another way is by Hand swipe.  To take screen shot by hand swipe, just go to Settings->Motion. Scroll down and find Hand Motion. Then Palm Swipe to Capture. Enable that by ticking the check box. Now close the menu and shape your hand like you are “Chopping” the screen. Set your hand on either side of the screen. Then horizontally swipe across it. You can move it either way. There is no restriction on it. If you have done it correctly, then you will hear camera shutter and recieve a notification that a picture has been saved to the gallery.
    5. Samsung Galaxy S4 Tethering: Tethering of Samsung Galaxy S4 is very easy. You can easily use Galaxy S4 as modem to connect to internet from PC using USB tethering or through WiFi Hotspot. I have written detailed post on this in Tethering of Samsung Galaxy phones.
    6. Downloading mobile PC suite for Samsung Galaxy S4: Like any other Galaxy devices, Samsung Galaxy S4 too supports PC suite Samsung Kies desktop application and Kies Air mobile app. You can refer my on earlier How to download free Mobile PC suite for Samsung Mobiles for download instruction.

    Hope these Samsung Galaxy S4 tips and tricks helps. Share your feedback in the comment section below.

  • Update Sony Xperia Z Ultra to Latest Firmware

    As we all know, Sony has starting seeding firmware updates to its Xperia Ultra smartphones which brings new features such as Mobile X-reality engine, and few improvements to enhance the user experience. Sony Xperia Z Ultra has 6.4 inch Full HD display screen and powered by 2.2GHz Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM. The internal storage of the device is 16GB and it supports microSD card upto 64GB.

    Update Sony Xperia Z Ultra Tips and Tricks
    Sony Xperia Z Ultra

    Coming back to the firmware update Sony Xperia Z Ultra,  the last update which was named as 14.1.B.510. It is one of the major update from the Sony. The new Xperia Ultra Update brings support for Sony’s mobile X-Reality engine which promises to increase the overall playback quality of locally stored media files such as photos, movies by adjusting the sharpness, saturation, contrast, noise reduction and even reproduction of lacking pixels. There many more new features and improvements also comes along with the update. Below are the few of them. The total size of this major update is 770MB.

    • Overall performance increase and improvements in battery life.
    • New stock widgets – Clock, Alarm Clock and Calculator among others.
    • Multiple small apps can now be opened at once.
    • Refreshed design as far as the messenger and e-mail apps are concerned.
    • Superior Auto mode added to the camera appearance.
    • One-handed text input now possible.
    • Background UI has gone white-grey.

    How to Update Sony Xperia Z Ultra Smartphone to Latest Firmware

    1. You need to download and install the Sony Xperia PC Companion PC suite.
    2. Connect yout device to PC using the USB cable. Ensure that your phone is charged at least 75%.
    3. If there is update you will get a notification. Click on that. Continue to follow the on screen instructions to complete download and installation.
    Note: If update is smalll in size, you can update your Sony Xperia smartphone through Over The Air(OTA) feature too.