tech2touch

Author: Aniruddh

Asus ZenFone Max M1 Review-Pros and Cons
Asus has recently launched two budget Android smartphones in India-ZenFone Max M1 and Zenfone Lite L1. These smartphones are directly competing with the likes of Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A. Currently, ZenFone Max M1 is available at special price of Rs.7,499. For this price is it a good value for money smartphone? Let us explore in our Asus Zenfone Max M1 review.

Recommended Reading:

ZenFone Lite L1 FAQ

Asus ZenFone Max M1 Review-Pros and Cons

Specifications of Asus ZenFone Max M1
- Octa Core Snapdragon 430 SoC.
- 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage.
- 5.45-inch HD+ Display screen with 18:9 aspect ratio.
- Dual nano sim card slot+dedicated microSD card slot.
- 13MP primary camera with a f/2.0 aperture and PDAF.
- 8MP front facing camera with a f/2.2 aperture.
- 4000 mAh battery.
- Fingerprint scanner.
- Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, and GLONASS.
Asus Zenfone Max M1 Pros

Let us start some of the things which we liked in this device.

Compact form factor

This device has a 5.45-inch display screen with 18:9 aspect ratio and thin bezels. Hence, this is very compact in hand and easy to use in one hand.

Decent Display Panel

The 5.45-inch HD+ display panel on Zenfone Max M1 is good. It does provides good viewing angles and has enough brightness to be legible in outdoors.

Battery Life

4000 mAh battery is one of the key merits of this device. In our usage, it easily lasted more than 1 and half days. This included a lot of video streaming, playing some games and some calls. 4G is enabled all the time.

Asus Zenfone Max M1 Cons

Outdated SoC

Asus Zenfone Max M1 performance is decent for the price range. However, Snapdragon 430 is little older chipset compared to Mediatek Helio A22 which is used on Redmi 6A or Redmi 6.

Average camera performance

In good daylight conditions, Zenfone Max M1 takes good photos. However, in low light condition, it struggles.

Slow Android security update

At the time of writing this, the device still runs on July security patch update.
October 31, 2018
Honor 8X Review-Pros And Cons
Honor 8X is a premium looking mid-range smartphone with impressive hardware. AI-powered dual camera setup, 6.5inch full HD+ display with the screen to body ratio of 91%, Huawei’s latest HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC are the main USP of this device. With all these great features, is it a great midrange smartphone? Here is our Honor 8X review based on our experience with the device.

Honor 8X Review-Pros And Cons

Specification
- 6.5inch full HD+ display with notch.
- EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
- HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC with Mali-G51 MP4 GPU.
- 4GB/6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB internal storage.
- 20MP primary camera with 2MP depth sensor.
- 16MP front facing camea.
- 3750 mAh battery.
Honor 8X Pros

First, let us start with the features which are good.

Design

Honor 8X sports dual tone gradient aurora glass in the back which provides a stylish look to this device. Design wise it is one of the best-looking smartphone in the mid-range smartphones we have seen.

Display

6.5-inch full HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 19:5:9 on Honor 8X impressive. It has a small notch and thin chin at the bottom. There is an option to hide the notch and change the color temperature. Overall the display provides good viewing angle and color saturation.

Performance

Honor 8X comes with HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC with 4GB/6GB RAM variant. We have tested the 4GB variant. We didn’t face any lag or shuttering while multitasking or running regular apps like Instagram, WhatsApp or playing videos. The graphic demanding games like Asphalt 9 ran smoothly without any frame drop.

Camera

Dual camera setup which consists of a 20MP primary sensor with f/1.8 and a 2 MP secondary sensor with AI support takes good photos in well-lit conditions. Photos had plenty of details and colors are vibrant. The AI support can recognize more than 500 different scenario and around 22 categories. Front facing camera performance in well-lit condition is good.

Battery

Real life battery performance of Honor 8X is incredible for the price and features this phone has. In spite of using 4G LTE all the time with a lot of youtube video streaming and few games phone easily lasted more than a day.

Honor 8X Cons

Here are the few demerits of Honor 8X.

Average camera performance in low light

The camera struggles in low light situations. The taken photographs lack details. AI is also not helpful. It just oversaturated bright colors.

Slow charging

The bundled charger takes more than 2 hours to fully charge from zero. It would have been great if this had a fast charging capability.

A bit bulky for small hands

Though having a large screen phone has a lot of advantages, it also difficult to handle in one hand especially if you have small hands. It feels bulky and difficult to handle.

Outdated micro USB port

It would have nice if this device had a new generation USB-C port.
October 28, 2018
Motorola One Power Review-Pros and Cons
Motorola phones were famous for providing great user experience, timely Android updates, and overall great value for the money. However, in the last couple of years, Motorola phones were not that impressive in terms of value for money or in proving timely software updates. With the launch of Motorola One Power, the company is trying to regain customer confidence. Here is our Motorola One Power Review based on pros and cons.

Motorola One Power is part of Android One program. This promises timely software updates. This smartphone will compete with likes of Mi A2, Zenfone Max Pro M1, Nokia 6.1 Plus etc. Let’s start our Motorola One Power Review with specification list and the pros and cons.

Motorola One Power Review-Pros and Cons

Here is the quick Specification summary of Motorola One Power.
- Octa Core Snapdragon 636 Soc.
- 4GB RAM and 64GB Internal Storage.
- 6.2inch IPS LCD Full HD+Screen with Notch.
- Dual Nano Sim Card Slot.
- Dedicated slot for microSD card.
- Dual Rear camera setup-16MP(F/1.8) and 5MP(Depth).
- 12MP front facing camera.
- 5000 mAh battery.
Motorola One Power Pros

Great battery life

One of the best features of this smartphone is the massive battery. 5000 mAh battery with fast charging support is the great inclusion. In our my review period, the battery was easily lasting 2 days.

Good performance

Snapdragon 636 with 4GB of RAM and stock Android provides good performance. It may be a gaming or multitasking phone was able to run smoothly. However, the device got little hot while playing graphics intensive games such as PUBG for more than 45 minutes. Overall for the price segment, performance is satisfactory.

Decent Display

Motorola One Power sports 6.2 inch LTPS IPS display with full-HD+ resolution and a 19:9 aspect ratio. Viewing angles are good. Brightness is decent enough to legible even in outdoors. There is an option to tweak color temperature.

Software

As it is part of the Android One programme, it provides stock Android experience and no bloatware. The device is expected to get timely security updates for the next 3 years and Android updates for the next 2 years.

Motorola One Power Cons

No Dual 4G support

On this device, only one sim card works on 4G and the other one is restricted to 3G. So users cannot use 4G VOLTE calls on both the sim cards simultaneously.

Little Slow Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is slightly slow compared to some of the other similar priced phones.

No Stabilisation for Video recording

Motorola One Power has neither optical stabilization nor electronic stabilization. Hence Video output looks shaky.

Low light camera performance could have been better

Motorola One Power camera performance in well-lit conditions came out good. However, low light photography is not satisfactory.
October 20, 2018
ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1) FAQ Tips and Tricks Cons
Asus has launched a new budget smartphone called ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1) in India. The new budget smartphone comes with a 5.45 inch HD+ IPS display and 82 percent screen to body ratio. It has Snapdragon 430 Octa-core processor paired with 2GB RAM. Internal storage is 16GB and has a dedicated microSD card slot. ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1) price in India starts at Rs.5,999.

ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1) FAQ Tips and Tricks Cons

What are the different color options available for ZenFone Lite?

This budget smartphone will be available in two color variants- Black and Gold.

What are the specifications of ZenFone Lite (L1)

Specification summary
- 5.45-inch (720×1440 pixels) HD+ IPS display with 18:9 aspect ratio.
- Octa Core Snapdragon 430 SoC.
- 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
- 13MP rear camera and 5MP front facing camera.
- 3000 mAh battery.
- Android Oreo 8.0 with ZenUI 5.0.
Does this smartphone have a dedicated microSD card slot?

Yes. It supports upto 256GB.

What are the pros of ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1)?

This is not a detailed review. Based on the spec sheet, here is the quick pros.
- Metal build.
- Aggressive pricing.
- company claimed long battery life.
- Compact form factor.
What are the cons of ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1)?

Based on specification here is the demerits according to us.
- No Fingerprint scanner.
- Limited user available internal storage( Around 9 GB).
How to take screenshot on ASUS ZenFone Lite (L1)?

To take the screenshot on ZenFone Lite (L1), press and hold volume down and power button simultaneously for few seconds. It will take screenshot.

Priced at Rs.5,999, Zenfone Lite looks promising. Decent SoC, metal build, 3000 mAh battery and more importantly the compact form factor are the key attraction of this device. We will be doing the detailed review of this smartphone in the coming days. All the information mentioned here are based on purely specifications shared through the press release.
October 17, 2018
How to take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2
Xiaomi Mi A2 is one of the most popular smartphones from Xiaomi which is part of Android One programme. It runs on Pure Android with minor customization. Xiaomi’s own skin MIUI provides a single button screenshot option which is not available on this smartphone. So how to take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2? What are the different ways to capture screenshot on this device without installing any third party apps? Let us explore 2 different methods.

How to take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2

Like any Android smartphone which runs on the latest Android version, two default ways of taking the screenshot is available on Mi A2 as well.

Method 1: Take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2 using hardware keys

To take screenshot on Mi A2,
- Go to the screen on which you want to take screenshot.
- Press and hold Volume down and power button at a time for few seconds.
- Screen flickering and shutter sound will confirm screenshot is captured.
- User can access captured screenshots from Photos->Album->screenshot.
Method 2: Take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2 using Google Assistant

To carry out Xiaomi Mi A2 screenshot using this method,
- Navigate to the page where you want the screenshot.
- Start Google Assistant by saying “OK Google” or Long pressing home button.
- You can say or type “Take screenshot”.
- The screenshot on Mi A2 will be taken.
- Taken screenshot can be shared through messengers such as Whatsapp or directly upload into Photos.
This does not completely answer the question on how to take screenshot on Xiaomi Mi A2. But this is also the answer. Alternatively one can download apps from Playstore which will provide much more ways to take the screenshot.

Video Guide on How to take screenshot on Mi A2

Taking the screenshot on Mi A1 and Mi A2 are identical. Hence here is the video guide on how to take screenshot on Mi A1 which also works on Mi A2.

Video Guide on how to take screenshot in Mi A1 and Mi A2
October 15, 2018