tech2touch

Author: Aniruddh

  • Thomson 40 inch 4K Smart TV at Rs.20,999 Launched in India

    Thomson, once a popular TV brand has launched its latest 40 inch 4K Smart TV in India. It is priced aggressively at Rs.20,999. The sale will commence from 16th March 2019 via flipkart.

    Thomson 40 inch 4K Smart TV

    The new Thomson UD9 series TV has 40 inch screen with 4K(3840×2160 pixels) resolution and 60Hz standard refresh rate. The screen has brightness of 550 nits and offers an active HDR10. The TV has 20W audio output. It has three HDMI ports and two USB ports. For connecting to internet, it has built in WiFi and Ethernet (RJ45) port.  

    This Smart TV comes preloaded with 6 apps which includes Youtube , Netflix and Amazon Prime. Thomson UD9 40 inch 4K TV runs on a custom version of Android 7.1. Videocasting can be done on this TV using the Miracast. It supports 18 plus languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and more, as per the company.

    Thomson branded TVs in India are manufactured by Noida-based Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd (SPPL). Company so far launched 3 smart TVs in India under the Thomson UD9 4K smart TV series which includes 43-inch, a 50-inch, a 55-inch. 40 inch is the latest addition. All the variants are available for purchase through Flipkart. The top variant of Thomson UD9 smart TV is priced at Rs.37,999.

  • Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Review-Pros and Cons

    There are very few good laptops in the budget of around 35k. Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) is aimed to fill that void. It has modern stylish design and good internals. The base variant is priced at Rs.30,999 and the top variant is priced at Rs.35,990. Here is our Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) review with pros and cons.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Review

    This review is based on the Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) variant which has following specification.

    • 15.6-inch FHD anti glare display screen.
    • AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx graphics.
    • 8GB RAM and 1TB of hard disc.
    • Windows 10.

    Design

    VivoBook 15(X505z) is smaller in size compared to most of the 15 inch laptops. It is relatively slim and lightweight. It has thickness of 18.9 mm and weighs around 1.6 Kg. This makes it easy to carry and never feels too bulky. Asus has not done any compromise on the ports. It has two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 (both Type-A), a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen1) port, HDMI, a headphone and microphone combo port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a full-sized SD card slot.

    Display

    The Asus VivoBook 15(X505z) sports 15.6 inch LED-back-lit FHD (1920 x 1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 45% NTSC. The viewing angles, Brightness are good considering the price. Overall with narrow bezel display provide good for watching movies and for gaming.

    Performance and Battery life

    VivoBook 15 comes in two variants. One comes with Ryzen 3  and the other one with Ryzen 5. There is difference in RAM and storage as well.

    My review unit is the top end variant which has Ryzen 5 2500U processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB storage. There is one free RAM slot available. User can upgrade the RAM upto 16GB.

    This laptop is powerful enough to do most of the regular work such as streaming videos from Youtube, Netflix, editing documents and playing light games. Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2×2 MIMO antennas is added advantage.

    The stereo speakers are decent. It is loud. But quality is not great. Coming to battery life, for my usage it lasted around 4 hours. There is fast charging option as well. As per the claims it charges the battery 60% in just 49 minutes. In my usage, I got very close result to this.

    Keyboard and Touchpad

    The keyboard on VivoBook 15(X505z ) is good. Keys are large and layout is decent. The keys has decent travel as well. Lack of LED indicator for Caps Lock is a drawback. Overall the keyboard provides good typing experience. The Touchpad is responsive and fairly accurate.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros and Cons

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros

    • Slim and Lightweight.
    • Decent display panel.
    • Good performance.
    • Pricing.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Cons

    • No backlite keyboard. No indicator for Caps Lock.
    • Audio output could have been better.

  • Asus ROG GX531 Hands on Review

    The new Zephyrus S GX 531 is the gaming laptop from Asus with latest hardware specifications. The top variant sports Core i7 processor, NVidia RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics and 1TB of SSD.

    ROG gx531

    Zephyrus GX 531 sports 15-inch full HD 144 Hz display panel. The thin bezels around the screen provides immersive viewing experience.  The short response time and high refresh rate makes it one of the best choice for gaming. The colour accuracy, contrast and peak are decent but not great.

    Asus ROG GX 531 powered by the six core Intel Coffee Lake-H Core i7-8750H CPU with Intel HD630+Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q 8GB graphics.  Internal storage, one opt upto NVMe 1TB of SSD disc.  The new RTX 2080 GPU enables photorealistic graphics with help of real-time ray tracing technology and AI-enhanced image processing. The GPU boosts upto 1330MHz at 90W, with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM clocked at 6151MHz. Both can be overclocked.

    The keyboard placement on this gaming laptop is little different. It is downshifted. Instead of being in the usual spot, it is downshifted. There is no palm rest area. Coming to Keyboard, it has standard layout with well-sized and spaced keys.  Virtual NumPad is available on touchpad. 

    Key Specifications

    • 15-inch full HD 144 Hz display with 3ms response time.
    • six core Intel Coffee Lake-H Core i7-8750H CPU with Intel HD630+Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q 8GB graphics.
    • Upto 1TB SSD storage.
    • Upto 24GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM.
    • Anti-Dust Self Cleaning Fans

  • Samsung Galaxy M20 Tips and Tricks

    Samsung Galaxy M20 has many built in useful features. Some of them are very useful on daily basis. Here is the list of simple, basic yet useful Samsung Galaxy M20 Tips and Tricks.

    While we have written this post, Galaxy M20 was running on Android 8.1. Recently it got Android 9.0 update. There may be few design changes to the steps given below.

    Samsung Galaxy M20 Tips and Tricks

    Time needed: 3 minutes

    Let us get started with Galaxy M20 Tips and Tricks

    1. Hide or Unhide Notch in Galaxy M20

      To hide notch in Galaxy M20, go to Settings->Display->Full screen apps. Then Enable Hide camera option by moving the slider to right. This will hide the notch by darkening the top of the screen and show all apps and content below the camera. Disabling the Hide Camera option will unhide the notch.

    2. Auto call recording

      If you want turn on auto call recording, go to call setting. You can go to call settings by opening the dialer and tap Options(three vertical dots in the top right corner). Now go to Settings. Slide down and find Record calls option. Enable Auto record calls.

    3. Identify spam and scam callers

      If you want to see the names and profile pictures of callers and message senders who aren’t in your contact, then this feature may help. This is done using pre installed Hiya app. To enable this feature, go to CALL SETTINGS->Caller ID and spam protection. Turn on the service. It will show the terms and conditions. If you agree with that, you can use the service.

    4. Enable or Disable VoLTE in 2nd SIM

      By default VoLTE is enabled for 2nd SIM. For some reason, if you want to disable VoLTE on 2nd SIM, go to Settings->Connections->Mobile networks. Now enable or disable VoLTE on 2nd SIM by tapping on VoLTE calls SIM 2.

    5. Type Indian Languages

      If you want to type in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Tamil etc, in message and whatsapp then follow the steps given below.
      1. Go to Settings->General management->Language and input.
      2. Tap on On-screen keyboard.
      3. Then go to Samsung Keyboard->Languages and types.
      4. Now tap on manage input languages.
      5. Enable the language which you want to use.
      6. Whenever you want to type, in the keyboard swipe left or right on space bar to navigate between the languages.

    In this post, we tried to cover the Samsung Galaxy M20 Tips and Tricks which can be done using the pre installed apps or inbuilt features. There are other ways to achieve the same thing by installing some third party apps.

    Also Read:

    How to take screenshot in Galaxy M20

  • Samsung Galaxy M20 Review- Pros and Cons

    Samsung Galaxy M20 is a mid range smartphone. Large 5000 mAh battery with fast charger, Full HD+ Infinity V display and dual camera setup are the key features of the device. In this Samsung Galaxy M20 review, we will discuss about the pros and cons.

    You can also read:

    Samsung Galaxy M20 Review- Pros and Cons

    Let us start the review with pros or the merits of Galaxy M20.

    Galaxy M20 Pros

    Good Display Panel

    One of the main attraction of this phone is 6.3-inch Full HD+ Infinity-V display. The screen has a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 409 ppi pixel density. The screen to body ratio is 84%.

    The viewing angles and color accuracy are good considering the price. There is no complaint in terms of sunlight legibility also. Overall the display panel on Galaxy M20 is impressive for the price.

    Battery life and Support for Fast Charge

    Samsung Galaxy M20 sports a massive 5000 mAh battery. This is a rear feature for a Samsung phone. The phone easily lasts more than 1 and half days.

    Fast charging support and USB-C port are the welcome addition. The bundled charger is a fast charger. According to our memory, this is the only phone which provides fast charger in box in the price range of 13k.

    Ultra Wide Angle Camera

    Dual camera setup is not a new feature in a budget Android smartphone. But having wide angle camera is special in this price segment. The Galaxy M20 comes with 5MP wide angle lense which offers 120-degree field of view.

    The 13MP primary camera with f/1.9 is decent. It does take good photos in well lit conditions. In indoors and low light, camera struggles a bit.

    Performance

    Samsung Galaxy M20 comes with newly introduced Exynos 7904 SoC. This SoC has two Cortex A73 cores clocked at 1.8GHz for performance-intensive tasks and six Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.6GHz for high-efficiency.

    The performance in general is good. Samsung claims it is optimised for PUBG game. We have played Asphalt 9 and PUBG games. It was playable. However, long times of playing PUBG gaming, Galaxy M20 heats up a bit. It touched upto 45 to 48 degree.

    Galaxy M20 Cons

    Here is the list of Galaxy M20 cons or demerits based on our past 1 week usage.

    No Android Pie and One UI out of the box

    Galaxy M20 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with Samsung experience version 9.5. The latest Galaxy A series phones comes with Android Pie with One UI.

    It is said to get Android Pie update around August month. At the time of writing this, device received March month security update.

    No EIS for Video

    Galaxy M20 does not comes with any of the stabilisation. There is no OIS or EIS. Having Electronic stabilisation will provide smoother video recording.

    Video recording restricted to full HD. No 4K recording.

    In Samsung Galaxy M20, videos can be recorded at full HD resolution. However, there is no option to record video at 4K.

    Samsung Galaxy M20 Review Summary

    Galaxy M20 is a good value for money in the midrange smartphone segment. It does most of the things right. But if you are heavy gamer, it is not advisable. For regular, it is a practical phone.