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Category: Smartphones

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser Review- Pros and Cons
Asus Zenfone 3 series smartphone are aesthetically great looking smartphones. Zenfone 3 laser is no exception to it. Main USP of the device is its camera with laser autofocus mechanism which is claim to provide good image quality. Here is our Asus Zenfone 3 Laser Review based on Pros and Cons.

Recommended Reading

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser FAQ

How to take screenshot on Zenfone 3.

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser has good design and build quality. The all metal unibody design coupled with thin bezels gives a premium feel to the device. There is no textured or fancy design elements in the back. It gives it a clean look and feel. In the same time, it is little slippery as well. So it is better to use backcover with this device.

5.5 inch full HD display screen on Zenfone 3 laser is decent. It provides good viewing angle, contrast and colour saturation. The brightness is sufficient in most of the scenarios. In bright sunlight, as the screen is bit reflective, visibility is not great.

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser is powered by Snapdragon 430 SoC with 4GB of RAM and Adreno 505 GPU. Out of the box device runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and ZenUI 3.0 on top of it. In general usage as well as in gaming we have not faced any issues. It does provides option to remove some of the preinstalled apps.

Camera is one of the much talked feature of the device. It sports 13MP primary camera on the rear and 8MP front facing camera. The camera UI has many useful modes such as Auto, ZenFlash, Manual, HDR Pro, Beautification, Super Resolution, Children, Low Light, QR Codes, Close-up etc. There is manual mode as well. In our testing, camera performance was decent.

Zenfone 3 Laser houses 3000 mAh battery. In our usage, it lasted for full working day. The connectivity features of the device include 4G, VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth. The call quality and signal reception was excellent.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Asus Zenfone 3 Laser

Pros of Zenfone 3 Laser
- Good design and build quality.
- Decent camera performance.
- Highly customisable UI.
- Decent Display panel.
Cons of Zenfone 3 Laser
- Hybrid sim card slot.
- No USB-C port.
- Bit overpriced.
April 11, 2017
OnePlus 3T Pros- 5 Reasons to buy

OnePlus 3T is an improvised version of already popular OnePlus 3. It has slightly better processor, higher storage option and better front facing camera. In this post, let us have a quick look into some of the OnePlus 3T Pros.

OnePlus 3T Pros- 5 Reasons to buy

Dash Charger and Good battery life

Dash charger is a proprietary fast charging technology from OnePlus which charges the device very fast. With little over an hour, it was able to fully charge the device. Compared to OnePlus 3, it provides slightly better battery life as it has 3400 mAh battery compared to 3000 mAh battery.

Good Performance

OnePlus 3T is powered by Snapdragon 821 Soc with 6GB of RAM. Faster SoC, ample RAM coupled with new F2FS file system provides great performance in day to day activities and gaming. The multitasking is excellent.

Near Stock Android experience and Fast updates

OnePlus 3T has near stock Android UI with few useful customisation. It is also worth noting that, so far OnePlus team has done good job in providing faster system updates.

Decent Camera

OnePlus 3T comes with 16MP front and rear camera. Both camera performance is decent. 4K video recording capabilities and OIS are added advantage. Though, the camera performance is not matchable to other flagship smartphones such as Galaxy S7 or Huawei P9, it is not a bad camera at all.

Value for Money

Priced at 29,999 for the 64GB variant, OnePlus 3T offers great value for money. Performance, camera, battery life, design and build quality everything is good for the price.

These are some of the OnePlus 3T pros according to us. Though OnePlus 3T is a good phone, we feel it is not worth to upgrade if you are already have OnePlus 3 as upgrades are incremental. If you are planning to buy smartphone in the price range of Rs.30,000, then it is worth to have a look into this device.

April 1, 2017
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Cons- 5 Reasons not to buy

Xiaomi Redmi 4A is considered to be one of the best entry level Android smartphone. It offers many features which other smartphone don’t offer at this price. However, it has few drawbacks which can be ignored considering the price. But it is good to know. So here are some of the Xiaomi Redmi 4A Cons.

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Xiaomi Redmi 4A Pros- 6 Reasons to buy

Xiaomi Redmi 4A Cons- 5 Reasons not to buy

Low internal storage and no dedicated microSD card slot

Redmi 4A comes with hybrid sim card slot which means that, you can use 2 sim cards or 1 sim card with a microSD card. It has 16GB of internal storage of which around 8GB is user available. So if you are a dual sim user, then you will get very limited space to install apps and other media files.

Average camera performance in artificial light and low light

Xiaomi Redmi 4A sports 13MP primary camera with a 5-element lens and f/2.2 aperture. The camera is assisted by LED flash and software features such as low-light enhancement, HDR, panorama, burst mode, and face recognition etc. It also has 5MP front facing camera with an f/2.2.

The camera performance in good lighting condition is satisfactory. However, in low light and artificial lighting conditions, it struggles. The pictures came out quite grainy.

No backlit capacitive navigation keys

The capacitive keys are not backlit. It takes bit of time to get used to it. It would have been better if it had backlit capacitive keys which will be useful in night.

No Fingerprint scanner and NFC

Considering price, lack of fingerprint scanner and NFC can be ignored. But if you are looking for a smartphone with fingerprint scanner, then it is not for you.

No earphones in the retail box

You have to buy a earphone separately if you want to use earphones with this device.

These are some of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Cons according to us. Let us know your thoughts on this in the comment section below.

March 30, 2017
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Pros- 6 Reasons to buy

Xiaomi Redmi series smartphones are among top selling smartphones in the sub 10k price segment in India. They offered great value for money. Redmi 4A is the latest entrant to this segment and currently it is the most affordable smartphone from Redmi series. In this post lets have quick look into Xiaomi Redmi 4A Pros which are key reasons to buy this smartphone.

Xiaomi Redmi 4A Pros- 6 Reasons to buy

VoLTE support

One of the key USP of Redmi 4A is it supports VoLTE(Voice over LTE). There are very few smartphones which supports VoLTE in this price segment. As it supports VoLTE, you can use Reliance Jio sim in this smartphone.

Packs all the basic sensors

Though Redmi 4A is a budget Android smartphone, Xiaomi has added most of the sensors. It has gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor. It also has IR blaster which is useful for using your device as universal remote.

Dual app Function

Xiaomi Redmi 4A has dual app function which helps you to sign in to two separate instances of app such as Whatsapp, facebook etc on the same device.

Small and Light

In the launch event, Xiaomi claimed that, it is the lightest Redmi ever. It weighs roughly 132 grams. It measures 139.9 x 70.4 x 8.5 mm. Overall the compact size makes it easy for one hand operation.

Decent Performance

Redmi 4A is powered by Quad Core Snapdragon 425 Chipset with Adreno 308 GPU and 2GB of RAM. There was no lag observed in day to day activities. It manages to play most of the popular games. Games like Asphalt 8 can be played without any issue in medium setting. However, as it has only 2GB of RAM, if you open high end games while running multiple other apps, games crashes.

Great value for money

Priced at Rs.5,999, Redmi 4A offers great value for money. For the price, it offers a lot which makes it one of the best option for those who want to buy their first smartphone.

These are some of the Xiaomi Redmi 4A Pros according to us. There are few cons of Redmi 4A which I will be writing in my next post. Please share your thoughts on Redmi 4A in the comment section below.

March 29, 2017
Gionee A1 Selfie Centric Smartphone Unveiled in India

Gionee has announced the launch of its first flagship smartphone of the year A1 in India. Though pricing details and exact availability date is not disclosed, it revealed that the smartphone will become available for pre-booking from 31st March via offline retailers.

Gionee is offering pre-booking customers 2 year warranty and the choice of pair of JBL headphones or a Swiss Military Bluetooth speaker.

The key USP of Gionee A1 are big battery and a superior selfie camera. It will be available in Black, Gold and Grey color variants. Gionee A1 comes with 16MP front facing fixed focus camera with an f/2.0 aperture, 1/3.06 inch sensor, 5P lens. It also has selfie flash that company says it has customized to “spread light onto faces more evenly and softly.” It adds that the “soft lighting effect is able to enhance facial complexions, giving users a natural glow and rosiness.” In the rear there is a 13MP camera with f2.0 and Sony IMX258 sensor.

Gionee A1 is powered by 2GHz Octacore MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755) SoC with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It houses 4010 mAh battery. There is a new 18W ultrafast charging which is claim to fully charge the device in 2 hours. Gionee A1 sports 5.5 inch full HD display screen. It runs on Amigo 4.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat. Connectivity features of the device includes 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11/ a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, and Micro-USB.

Gionee A1 FAQ

Does it has dedicated microSD card?

The device comes with hybrid sim card slot. Hence there is no dedicated microSD card slot.

Is Gionee A1 supports USB OTG? Can it be used as power bank?

Yes. It supports USB OTG and can be used as power bank.

Does it has fast charger?

Yes. As per company statement, it comes with proprietary fast charger.

March 21, 2017