Huawei P30 sports a triple camera setup at the back
Huawei has recently launched the Huawei P30 series at an event in Paris. While the P30 Pro gets the top of the line features, the P30 eliminates some of those to get to a more affordable price tag. Here are some of the alternatives you can consider until the smartphone arrives in India.
Samsung Galaxy S10e
Unlike its elder brothers, the Samsung Galaxy S10e comes with a dual-camera setup at the back
With the Huawei P30 series, the company directly aims to compete against the new Samsung Galaxy S10-lineup. For the Huawei P30, the Galaxy S10e makes a good alternative. It brings tons of features like a punch hole camera design, reverse wireless charging, flagship grade specifications and much more. The Samsung Galaxy S10e is available at a starting price of Rs. 55,900.
OnePlus 6T
OnePlus 6T is one of the most powerful smartphones in the segment
OnePlus 6T is one of the best smartphones at the price range. It sports a water drop style notch and comes with flagship grade hardware including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. The dual-SIM handset comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. OnePlus 6T is currently available at a starting price of Rs. 37,999.
The glass back is reflective and a fingerprint magnet
If you just cannot wait for the Huawei P30 series to arrive in India, you should consider the last year's Huawei P20 Pro smartphone. It comes with a triple camera setup at the back powered by Leica. The handset sports a 6.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x2240 pixels. It is powered by the Kirin 970 chipset and packs in 6GB of RAM. The phone is currently available for a price of Rs. 49,999.
Honor View 20
Honor View 20 is one of the first phones to sport a hole punch design
Honor has recently launched the Honor View 20 and it is one of the first smartphones to come with a hole punch display. The new smartphone from Honor also brings their new flagship Kirin 980 chipset, which is based on a 7nm process. It also comes with a 48-megapixel camera at the back. The smartphone is launching in India next week and it is expected to be priced under Rs. 40,000.
While the Galaxy Note 9 does not feature a triple camera setup, it is one of the best flagships of 2018. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is powered by the Exynos 9810 octa-core processor. The device packs in 6GB or 8GB of RAM coupled with 256GB or 512GB of onboard storage. It is currently available in India at a starting price of Rs. 67,900.
Night Mode is one of the most requested features in any application right now. Facebook Messenger recently got dark mode and even popular cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp is working on something similar. Even though Twitter had it for a couple of years now, it was not black, which meant no advantage for OLED panels.
Now, finally, the company is rolling out a true dark mode for its iOS application. The new dark mode will switch the user interface (UI) elements to pitch black. This will relatively improve battery life on smartphones with OLED panels. The company made the announcement via its official Twitter handle. They also attached a GIF showing how to setup the new dark mode.
It was dark. You asked for darker! Swipe right to check out our new dark mode. Rolling out today. pic.twitter.com/6MEACKRK9K
Once you have done the setup from the app settings, you can toggle the dark mode by tapping on your profile picture and hitting the bulb icon on the bottom left corner.
Detel, a new age brand, has recently launched a new Bluetooth speaker in India called Detel Posh. The speaker comes in with an attractive price tag of Rs. 1,999 has a lot on offer. Interested buyers can head over to Detel's website or e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon to buy the new speaker starting today.
The company proudly states that the product is Made in India and it is designed for music enthusiasts. It comes equipped with DC5V 2A Power Speaker and uses Bluetooth version 4.2 for connectivity. Under the hood, the speaker even carries a 3.7v-2000mAh lithium battery for which the company claims a playback time of around five hours on medium sound. Apart from Bluetooth, the Detel Posh also gets a USB port, Micro SD Card slot and AUX as connectivity options.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Yogesh Bhatia, MD, Detel, says,” Our speakers have always reflected the unique style of our listeners. Its fine design, great audio quality, powerful battery and a host of other features make Posh a must have. After receiving an overwhelming response for the previous range from our customers, we are all geared up to sway the market with the new speaker.”
The Bluetooth speaker also comes with FM Tuner and an in-built microphone, which can be used to answer calls over Bluetooth. Further, the company claims a charge time of 3-4 hours, which might not be as impressive but considering the price, it is pretty good. It also houses a distortion of 0.5% (AT1.0khz 2w).
Oppo launched its Oppo A1 smartphone sometime last year. It was a budget smartphone offering from the company and did not have much on offer. Now the company is coming up with a toned down version of the device in order to bring the price significantly down. Here's everything we know so far about the upcoming Oppo A1K smartphone.
As far as the specifications are concerned, the Oppo A1K is expected to be powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 processor coupled with just 2GB of RAM. The device will feature a 6-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720x1440 pixels and a waterdrop style notch. It will come with 32GB of onboard storage, which will be further expandable using a microSD card. Oppo A1K will run on Google's Android 9 Pie operating system with ColorOS 6 skin layered on top of it. All of this will be backed by a 4,000mAh battery.
On the optics front, the smartphone is expected to come with a single 13-megapixel camera at the back and a 5-megapixel selfie camera up front.
In addition to the Oppo A1K, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is also planning to launch the Oppo A5s, which will be a mid-range device. The device is expected to sport a larger 6.2-inch display with a waterdrop style notch. It will be powered by the MediaTek Helio P35 processor and come with a 4,230mAh battery.
Huawei P30 Pro comes in an attractive set of colour variants
Huawei has just unveiled its all-new Huawei P30 Pro smartphone. The device takes a lot of the features from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and makes them even better. The highlights of the phone include a periscope camera, which can take shots with up to 50x zoom. Until the phone makes its way to India, here are the alternatives you can consider.
Samsung Galaxy S10
Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus come with hole punch design
With the Huawei P30 Pro, the company is looking forward to competing directly against the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S-lineup. This makes the Galaxy S10 a perfect alternative to the P30 Pro. It brings tons of features like a punch hole camera design, reverse wireless charging, flagship grade specifications and much more. The Samsung Galaxy S10 is available at a starting price of Rs. 66,900.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a gradient design at the back
While the Huawei P30 Pro is a successor to the P20 Pro, a lot of its features are based on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. So, if you cannot wait for the device to arrive in India, you can even go ahead with the Mate 20 Pro. The Mate 20 Pro comes with the same Kirin 980 processor and has a higher resolution display. It is currently available with a price tag of Rs. 64,990.
OnePlus 6T sports a waterdrop style notch up front
While the Huawei P30 Pro is a premium smartphone, the OnePlus 6T brings a lot of power for nearly half the price. It even has a water drop style notch and comes with flagship grade hardware including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. It packs in up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. OnePlus 6T is available for a starting price of Rs. 37,999.
Honor has recently launched the Honor View 20 and it is one of the first smartphones to come with a hole punch display. The new smartphone from Honor also brings their new flagship Kirin 980 chipset, which is based on a 7nm process. It also comes with a 48-megapixel camera at the back. The smartphone is launching in India next week and it is expected to be priced under Rs. 40,000.
Apple iPhone XR is available in a variety of colour options
At a starting price of Rs. 67,999, the Apple iPhone XR brings a ton of premium features. The smartphone comes with the Apple A12 Bionic chipset, which is currently the fastest mobile processor. It even has features like Face ID and multiple colour options.
Samsung Galaxy A70 sports a Super AMOLED display with an in-display fingerprint scannerSamsung has just announced a new A-series smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy A70. The new mid-range smartphone from Samsung brings in a waterdrop style notch, a 32-megapixel selfie camera and a Super AMOLED display along with an in-display fingerprint scanner. Until the phone arrives in India, these are the alternatives you can consider.
Samsung Galaxy A50
Samsung Galaxy A50 comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner
Samsung Galaxy A50 has a lot to offer for a starting price of Rs. 19,999. The smartphone comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and a Super AMOLED display. It is powered by the Exynos 9610 processor coupled with up to 6GB of RAM. The smartphone comes with a triple camera setup at the back and a waterdrop style notch up front.
Poco F1
Poco F1 offers one of the best camera setups under Rs. 25,000
While the Poco F1 is not the fanciest looking smartphone, it is the most functional one. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with Adreno 630 GPU. It packs in up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Xiaomi Poco F1 is currently available at a starting price of Rs. 19,990.
Vivo V15 Pro
Vivo V15 Pro looks attractive in the dual-tone colour finish.
Vivo recently launched the Vivo V15 Pro in India. The device comes in with tons of exciting features such as the 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera and the 5th generation in-display fingerprint scanner. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 coupled with 6GB of RAM. All of this comes in at a price of Rs. 28,999.
The pop-up selfie camera makes room for a notch less display
Soon after the launch of Vivo V15 Pro, Oppo brought the Oppo F11 Pro smartphone in India. The device comes with a pop-up selfie camera and a FullView display. It is powered by the MediaTek Helio P70 processor coupled with 6GB of RAM. The key feature of the phone is the 48-megapixel rear-facing camera. Oppo F11 Pro is available at a price of Rs. 24,990.
Asus is currently offering its flagship smartphone, ZenFone 5Z for a starting price of Rs. 24,999. It makes a great deal considering the phone comes with the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with up to 8GB of RAM. It also sports a glass sandwich design with a notched display up front.
Honor recently launched the Honor 10 Lite smartphone in India. The smartphone is here to compete against the likes of smartphones like - Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 and Realme 3. Honor 10 Lite looks more impressive than most of the smartphones in this price range. However, is the performance as impressive as its looks? Find out in our in-depth review of the smartphone below.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Specifications
Honor 10 Lite sports a 6.21-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 2340x1080 pixels. The device is powered by the Kirin 710 processor coupled with a Mali-G51 MP4 GPU. The dual-SIM handset comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, which is further expandable using a microSD card. All of this is backed by a 3,400mAh battery.
Price: Rs. 17,999
Honor 10 Lite Review: Design
The waterdrop style notch offers more screen real estate.
Honor 10 Lite comes with a gradient back design making it one of the better-looking smartphones in this price range. While the back looks like glass, it is actually plastic and extremely prone to scratches. Thankfully, Honor bundles a soft silicone case inside the box.
Honor 10 Lite sports a full HD+ display on the front with a waterdrop style notch, which houses the selfie camera. It also has a slim chin that consists of the notification LED. It is also worth noting that the phone is very light-weight.
The right side has the volume rockers and the power button, the left side is left clean. The bottom is congested with the micro-USB port, a speaker grille, microphone and a 3.5mm jack. Up top, there is a secondary noise-cancelling microphone alongside a hybrid SIM card tray, which accepts two nano-SIM cards or one SIM card and one microSD card.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Display
The display is quite good for media consumption.
Honor 10 Lite features a 6.21-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 2340x1080 pixels. There is a waterdrop style notch up top, which has become a trend even in budget smartphones. The display itself is bright enough for indoor use case scenarios. However, using the phone outdoors under direct sunlight even at full brightness might not give you the best results. Honor does give its users with a few extra settings for the display that can help them configure it to their liking.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Software & UI
It runs on EMUI, a skinned version of Android.
Honor 10 Lite runs EMUI 9.0.1 based on Google's Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The company's custom skin, EMUI, comes with great optimisations for battery. The UI now comes with an app drawer making it much easier to use. However, the heavy skin does result in minor lags and hiccups. Honor ships the device with some bloatware, which includes Netflix, Camera 360, Facebook and more.
Honor 10 Lite comes with the company's in-house Kirin 710 chipset, which is a significant upgrade over the Kirin 659 we saw on phones like Honor 9N and Honor 9 Lite. During the review period, we played games like Asphalt 9: Legends and PUBG Mobile, both of which ran without any problems. There was no lag but we did notice frame drops at high settings.
The device manages to score decently on multiple benchmarking platforms.
The device managed to get a respectable score of 124921 on AnTuTu. On GeekBench 4, the Honor 10 Lite secure 1516 on single-core and 5257 on multi-core benchmarks.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Camera
Honor 10 Lite comes with a dual-camera setup on the back consisting of a 13-megapixel primary and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Up front, there is a 24-megapixel selfie shooter that sits inside the waterdrop style notch. While the numbers are impressive on the sensor side, the image processing and software play a major role here.
The smartphone is able to quickly focus on objects as well as people. With the help of AI mode, the phone detects anything it is pointed at. However, with AI mode enabled, the images come out to be a bit more saturated than they are supposed to be. There is also a portrait mode and it works as you would expect from a budget smartphone.
1 of 9
Night Mode
Outdoor
Selfie
Selfie with Beautification mode
As for the selfies, the software comes with beauty mode enabled by default, which smoothens the skin tone. Turning the feature off brings out much better and sharper images.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Battery
The device manages to get through a full working day.
Although 3,400mAh seems quite less considering phones in a similar price segment come with 4,000 or even 5,000mAh batteries, it does perform decently. Honor 10 Lite runs on EMUI, which has some heavy optimisations for better battery performance.
During our testing, the Honor 10 Lite was easily able to last through a working day with heavy usage. However, due to such battery optimisations, you might miss out on some important notifications like I did.
Honor 10 Lite Review: Verdict
Honor 10 Lite is mostly about the looks and lightweight
Honor 10 Lite, at the time of launch, might have been a good option in the budget smartphone category. However, at the time of writing this review, there are much better smartphones available in the market like the Realme 3, Redmi Note 7 and the Redmi Note 7 Pro, which offer much better value on paper.
This does not mean that Honor 10 Lite is a bad phone at all. It does shine where it is meant to. The smartphone comes with a lightweight design making it a great option for those looking for a secondary device. The cameras are also quite good and even the performance is decent. If Honor would have polished the software a little bit and kept the pricing a little more aggressive, this would have been a more promising smartphone.
Samsung is best known for introducing new features to their smartphones before most other smartphone manufacturers. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) and the Galaxy A9 (2018) are known for their triple and quadruple camera setups on the back. However, are the camera sensors the only thing that differentiates them? Let's find out.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) vs Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018): Design
Both the samrtphones have a reflective back
Samsung Galaxy A7 sports a 6-inch display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, while the bigger Galaxy A9 sports a 6.3-inch, 18.5:9 aspect ratio display. Both the devices look quite similar from the front, while the rear of the smartphone is differentiated by the addition of an extra rear camera sensor along with the fingerprint sensor at the back of the Galaxy A9 and on the side on the Galaxy A7. The back of Galaxy A9 is made out of glass, instead, of polycarbonate like on the Galaxy A7. Also, Samsung's Galaxy A9 sports a dedicated Bixby button, which is not present on the Galaxy A7.
The Galaxy A9 sports an extra sensor at the back
Overall, design-wise both smartphones are almost similar. The major design differences are the position of the fingerprint sensor and the number of camera sensors. The Galaxy A9 feels a little heavy, but that's due to the bigger screen size and a glass back.
Both the Samsung Galaxy A9 and the Galaxy A7 run the same software. Android 8.0 Oreo with the company's Experience UI 9.0 skin on top. However, both the devices will be getting the One UI update in April, bringing in Android 9.0 Pie and Samsung's new design language.
Samsung Experience UI
Due to the smartphones sporting exactly the same software, there is nothing left to compare on this aspect. You can read more about the software in our reviews.
Samsung Galaxy A7 vs Samsung Galaxy A9: Performance
Performance is one of the major concerns for any smartphone. Samsung Galaxy A7 is powered by an Exynos 7885 processor coupled with a Mali G71 GPU and 4/6GB of RAM. Our unit came with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The Galaxy A9 is powered by a Snapdragon 660 coupled with an Adreno 512 and 6/8GB of RAM. Our unit came with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage.
While the Exynos processor is made by Samsung themselves, the Snapdragon processor on the Galaxy A9 is made by Qualcomm. We ran out usual AnTuTu 7 benchmark and GeekBench 4 and here are the results.
Galaxy A7 (2018)
Galaxy A9 (2018)
The results show us that the Galaxy A9 pulls ahead, but by just a small margin. That margin will not be easily noticeable in everyday usage. If raw performance is your only concern, the Galaxy A7 will do just fine.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) vs Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018): Camera
Camera performance is something that people care a lot about these days. Samsung was clearly aiming at making great camera phones with these by including the three and four rear sensors respectively.
The Galaxy A7 sports a 24-megapixel, f/1.7 aperture main sensor with PDAF along with an 8-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture depth sensor and a 5-megapixel third sensor. For selfies, it packs a 24-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. The Galaxy A9 packs the same sensors, with the inclusion of a 10-megapixel, 2x zoom lens at the rear.
Galaxy A7 (Left) vs Galaxy A9 (Right)
Galaxy A7 (Left) vs Galaxy A9 (Right)
Galaxy A7 (Left) vs Galaxy A9 (Right)
Galaxy A7 (Left) vs Galaxy A9 (Right)
While comparing the rear sensors, the Galaxy A9 has more detail, however, under low light conditions, the Galaxy A7 takes the lead. The 2x zoom of the Galaxy A9 is very good, while the wide-angle performs exactly the same in both the smartphones.
The front camera is exactly the same on both the devices and produces indistinguishable images.
The Galaxy A9 has the fingerprint sensor at the back
Overall, except for the inclusion of the 2x Zoom lens in the Galaxy A9, the camera on both the smartphones are almost identical in performance. This is due to them sporting the same sensors. The better detail of the Galaxy A9 is due to an extra sensor at work, however, it is not that easily noticeable. So considering only the camera perspective, if you don't really want the 2x Zoom lens, the Galaxy A7 will be a better option due to it having a much lower price.
Galaxy A7 vs Galaxy A9: Battery
Samsung Galaxy A7 sports a 3,300mAh battery while the Galaxy A9 sports a much bigger 3,800mAh battery. In our daily usage, the bigger battery of the A9 showed its effect and the inclusion of the USB-C port in the A9 along with Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charging was a cherry on the top. Charging speed of the A7 is way less than its bigger brother. That surely gives Galaxy A9 a big margin over Galaxy A7.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) vs Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018): Conclusion
The Galaxy A7 is a better value for money
Samsung Galaxy A7 starts at Rs 18,990 for the 4GB RAM variant while the Galaxy A9 starts at Rs 33,990 for the 6GB RAM variant. For the raw system performance and the camera performance of the smartphones, the Galaxy A9 doesn't deserve the Rs 15,000 price bump. Sure the 2x Zoom lens, USB-Type C, bigger battery with faster charging, NFC and glass back are great additions but I personally don't feel that all these things demand such a high price bump. So unless you have to have those additions, you should go for the Samsung Galaxy A7.
There is no more gameplay restriction in PUBG Mobile
A few PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battleground) Mobile players in India have been complaining about a time restriction on the game. It restricted users from playing the game for more than six hours and they used to get a Health Reminder at the end of the six-hour session. The restriction was speculated as a new feature but it comes out to be a bug that Tencent Games has finally found a fix for.
Last week, PUBG Mobile India accepted the issue and they even tweeted "We're aware of the Healthy Gaming System issue that many of you are currently facing and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to you! Our development team is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible."
With the latest update, the company has fixed the issue and they announced it with a new tweet on their official Twitter handle. Notably, the issue only affected users in India.
Dear Players
Basis feedback from the community, we have now changed the Birthday Crate. The Healthy Gameplay System error has also been fixed, and you should be able to play uninterrupted. Lastly, payment systems are back up and running.We deeply apologize for the inconvenience!
The Healthy Gameplay System even sends a notification to the user as to when to come back and play the game again. However, users have reported that although the time limit was six hours, they even used to get the reminder within 30 minutes into the game. This might mean that PUBG Mobile is working on such feature and the bug was a result of the testing phase. The company is expected to polish the feature and roll it out in select countries soon.
Realme is offering great discounts during Mobile Bonanza Sale
Realme India has announced yet another sale in the country offering great offers and discounts on their wide range of budget-oriented devices. The Realme Mobile Bonanza sale is set to kick off on March 25 and will go on until March 28. The sale will be live on the company's own e-store, Flipkart, Amazon and authorised retail stores.
Starting with the more recently launched Realme 3, the smartphone will be available at a flat Rs. 500 instant discount bringing the starting price of the phone down to Rs. 8,499. The discount will only be available to customers using an Axis Bank debit or credit card for the transaction. Notably, the company claims that they have sold nearly three lakh smartphones till date.
Realme 2 Pro and Realme U1 smartphones will be made available for purchase on all the four days and users will not need to wait for any flash sale. The company is offering a discount of Rs. 1,000 on the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of the Realme 2 Pro. The device is currently priced at Rs. 12,990 and during the sale, customers can get it for just Rs. 11,990.
Similarly, the Realme U1 will also get an instant discount of Rs. 1,000. The base variant of the smartphone is currently priced at Rs. 10,999 and the sale will bring it down to just Rs. 9,999. However, the discount will be made available only on Amazon for customers using a pre-paid method.
