Realme 3 will unveil on March 4 at an event in New Delhi
Realme is finally launching its next flagship, the Realme 3 in India. The company will be hosting an event on March 4 at 12:30 PM to unveil the new smartphone. In order to generate the hype, the company has started to tease the smartphone via its social media handles. According to the teasers, the Realme 3 will come with a dual-camera setup at the back.
Realme has also rolled out the media invites for the event and it is taking place in New Delhi. The company has also announced the launch date via its official Twitter handle. As of now, the company has not yet revealed a lot about the phone except that the phone will come with a dual-camera setup at the back. However, we have heard enough about the device via leaks and rumours.
According to the leaks and rumours, the Realme 3 will come in two variants for the different type of markets. The Indian variant will get the Mediatek Helio P70 processor, while the other markets will have to settle for the Helio P60. The smartphone will be a successor to the Realme 2 and it is expected to be priced at around Rs. 12,000.
Realme CEO Madhav Sheth recently reported that the company is also working on a smartphone with a 48-megapixel camera. However, it is yet not confirmed whether that is Realme 3 or any other smartphone.
Samsung Unpacked 2019 unveiled a ton of new devices
Samsung recently hosted one of its biggest event of the year, Samsung Unpacked 2019 at San Francisco. The company launched a wide range of products at the event for different types of consumers. From Samsung Galaxy Fold to Galaxy Buds, here's everything that the South Korean giant launched on today.
Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+
Samsung Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10e are a new range of flagship devices by the company. While the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ are true flagship devices, with Galaxy S10e, the company has cut a few corners. All of the smartphones are powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. The base variant of the Galaxy S10e offers 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage whereas the Galaxy S10+ also comes in an 8GB RAM + 1TB storage variant. All these phones accept microSD card for further expansion.
Samsung Galaxy S10 5G will only be available in select markets
As for the optics, the Galaxy S10 and S10+ sport a triple camera set up at the back whereas the galaxy S10e settles for a dual-camera setup. Up front, the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e feature a 10-megapixel selfie shooter and the Galaxy S10+ gets a dual-camera setup.
Samsung Galaxy S10e will be available at a starting price of USD 749 (roughly Rs. 53,000). The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ come with starting price tags of USD 899 (roughly Rs. 64,000) and USD 999 (roughly Rs. 71,000) respectively.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
As soon as the company kicked off the event, they unveiled the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone. The new foldable flagship smartphone comes with a 4.6-inch display on the outside and a 7.3-inch display on the inside. It runs on Android 9 Pie based OneUI and sports a total of six cameras.
Samsung Galaxy fit is the successor to the Gear Fit 2. Priced at USD 99 (roughly Rs. 7,000), the new fitness tracker brings a 0.95-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 120mAh battery, Samsung’s new RealtimeOS, NFC, 5ATM water resistance, a heart rate monitor and much more.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active
The Galaxy Watch Active is a lighter version of the Galaxy Watch. It does skip on to a few features and it aims at runners and fitness geeks. The watch has a smaller 1.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 360x360. One of the biggest trade-offs here is the missing ring that is loved by Samsung Galaxy Watch users. On the upside, it now has IP68 waterproofing with up to 50 metres.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is a more affordable version of Galaxy Watch
The Galaxy Watch Active is powered by the Exynos 9110 chipset. It comes with 768MB of RAM paired with 4GB of onboard storage. The watch runs on Samsung's own TizenOS. It will be available starting March 8 at a price of USD 199.99 (roughly Rs. 15,000). It will come in four colours, including Silver, Black, Rose Gold and Sea Green.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds are the successors to the Gear Icon X. The new truly wireless earphones are even lighter and provide a better battery backup. The audio is powered by AKG and they also support Bixby and Bluetooth 5.0. One of the biggest improvements over the Gear Icon X is the added Qi Wireless charging support for the case. The new Buds will be available in Black or White colour variants at a price of USD 129 (roughly Rs. 9,200).
iRobot Roomba i7 will be available in India starting today
iRobot Corp. has launched two new smart vacuum cleaners in India. The Roomba i7 and i7+ are robot vacuum cleaners and come with something called Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal. The Roomba i7+ is the more expensive one and brings in a ton of features. It brings artificial intelligence and automation to robotic vacuum cleaners and allows them to learn and adapt to a home’s floor plan.
The smart vacuum cleaners allow users to customise cleaning jobs and direct the robot to clean specific rooms. Users can communicate with the device either using the iRobot HOME App or by voice with the help of Google Home or Alexa integration. The robot is eligible to learn up to 10 different floor plans.
Interestingly enough, the Roomba i7+ empties its own dust bin into the Clean Base which iRobot after successfully cleaning the designated area. The company claims that the Clean Base can hold up to 30 bins of dirt. The vacuum cleaner also comes with features like iAdapt 3.0 Navigation and vSLAM technology, which allow the robot to remember the areas that it has already cleaned and the area it has to clean right after.
Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot said, “With the ability to learn, adapt to and remember a home’s floor plan, and the introduction of automatic dirt disposal, the iRobot Roomba i7+ represents the most advanced robotic vacuum ever built. This robot delivers on the original vision we had when we embarked on the journey to build a vacuuming robot almost 20 years ago.”
Price and Availability
As far as the pricing is concerned, the iRobot Roomba i7 and i7+ are priced at Rs. 69,900 and Rs. 89,900 respectively. Both the smart devices will be available in India starting February 21. The customers who opt-in for the Roomba i7 will have to purchase the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal separately for a retail price of Rs. 37,900. Additional dirt disposal bags will be available at Rs. 1,690 for a pack of three bags. The products will be available via Amazon and Croma stores across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Vivo V15 Pro features a dual-tone colour at the back
Vivo just launched its new mid-range smartphone, Vivo V15 Pro in India, priced at Rs. 28,990. It is one of the cheapest devices you can get with a truly bezel-less display and a pop-up camera. Some other key features include a 48-megapixel rear camera, an in-display fingerprint scanner and a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
We were able to spend some time with the device ahead of the launch and here's how it performed during our initial few moments with it.
Vivo V15 Pro: Specifications
Vivo V15 Pro features a 6.39-inch full HD+ Super AMOLED display. It is powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor coupled with an Adreno 612 GPU. The dual-SIM handset packs 6GB of RAM along with 128GB of internal storage. It runs on FunTouch OS 9 based on Android 9.0 Pie operating system. All of this is backed by a 3,700mAh non-removable battery with the company's own Dual Engine fast charging technology.
On the optics front, the Vivo V15 Pro sports a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel secondary sensor and a 5-megapixel sensor. On the front, it features a 32-megapixel pop-up camera sensor.
Vivo V15 Pro: First Impressions
Vivo launched their first smartphone with a pop-up camera almost two years ago and since then, they have improved on it and managed to bring the tech to a more affordable price point.
As soon as I held the Vivo V15 Pro, I knew that I was looking at some of the great smartphone innovations bundled onto one phone. It comes with an Ultra Full View display, which means this display has no bezels or notches of any sorts, which is great since the notch train seems to be leaving the station. Under that display resides the company's latest in-display fingerprint scanner, which is now much faster and more accurate when compared to its predecessor the Vivo V11 Pro.
The pop-up selfie camera can also be used for Face Unlock
The display itself is a 6.39-inch Super AMOLED panel, which delivers punchier colours and deeper blacks making it amazing for media consumption. Vivo has also included a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device, which means you can watch your favourite movie on the beautiful full-screen display with your favourite pair of headphones. Even when you are not wearing them, the speakers are good enough to keep you occupied.
1 of 4
Selfie Camera (Indoor)
Selfie Camera (Outdoor)
Rear camera
Ultra Wide Angle
Another highlighting feature of the Vivo V15 Pro is its 32-megapixel pop-up camera. The camera comes out of its shell whenever you try to unlock the phone using face unlock or hit the selfie option in the camera app. The whole process happens very quickly and seamlessly. Also, to be honest, in the time I spent with the device, I loved playing with the pop-up mechanism.
It sports a triple camera setup at the back that is vertically aligned
Flipping the phone around, the V15 Pro comes with a triple camera setup and a dual-tone gradient finish back panel. The primary 48-megapixel camera managed to impress me a lot during initial testing. However, we will need to spend some more time with the device to test out features like Night Mode, Ultra Wide mode and Portrait mode.
As for the performance, the device ran quite smoothly and had no issues in performing simple tasks like launching social apps, opening the camera app multiple times and more. We also played a few games including PUBG Mobile, all of which ran without any hiccup. But, before we give out a final word, we will first have to test out the performance of the device much more intensely, in our full review.
Disclaimer: The author is currently in New Delhi on behalf of Vivo India to attend the launch of the Vivo V15 Pro.
Vivo V15 Pro comes with Ultra Full View Super AMOLED display
Vivo has just launched its new mid-range smartphone, dubbed Vivo V15 Pro in India. It is the successor to the Vivo V11 Pro launched back in 2018. The device features a lot of impressive features that have been reserved for flagship devices until now.
Vivo V15 Pro features impressive hardware features like a 32-megapixel pop-up front camera, a 48-megapixel triple camera setup on the back and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Vivo V15 Pro: Price
Vivo V15 Pro is priced at Rs. 28,990 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant. It will be made available both in online and offline store with pre booking starting today and delivery commencing from 6th March.
Launch offers include one-time free screen replacement along with zero down payment when you opt for EMI using IDFC first bank cards. Also, there is 5% cash back using HDFC bank cards.
Vivo V15 Pro: Specifications
Vivo V15 Pro sports a 6.39-inch full HD+ Super AMOLED Ultra FullView display. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor paired with an Adreno 612 processor. It comes with 6GB of RAM along with 128GB of internal storage. The storage here is not expandable.
The device runs FunTouch OS 9 based on Google's Android 9.0 Pie operating system. All of this is backed by a 3,700mAh non-removable battery with the company's own Dual Engine fast charging technology.
In terms of cameras, the device features a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 48-megapixel primary sensor paired with an 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors. On the front, it features a 32-megapixel pop-up camera module, which is a first in the industry.
Disclaimer: The author is currently in New Delhi on behalf of Vivo India to attend the launch of the Vivo V15 Pro.
OnePlus 7 will be a successor to the famous OnePlus 6T.
Recently, we saw leaked images of the OnePlus 7 showing a notch-less display. This makes us wonder, What will happen to the camera on the OnePlus 7. With the leaked images, if that's true, OnePlus won't put a notch or a camera cutout on the OnePlus 7. That leaves us with three options. OnePlus might become the industry first and launch their latest flagship with the in-display camera or with might implement the dual display option, with a secondary display on the back and no front facing the camera or have a sliding mechanism.
Let's be reasonable, the chances of the in-display camera sensor option has extremely low probability. And the secondary display on the back could be an option, but so could be the pop-up mechanism for the camera. Oppo and Vivo, both of them owned by OnePlus's parent company have launched a pop-up mechanism camera so that seems a likely option. Furthermore the leaked image, it is true confirms this fact. It also confirms that the OnePlus 7 will have Oppo Find X style slider camera mechanism.
Leaked Image of OnePlus 7 (Credit: SlashLeaks)
If you observe the image of the OnePlus 7 along with the OnePlus 6T that was leaked a few days ago, you will see both the devices are in a cover to protect their design. With the OnePlus 6T, you can see there is a raindrop notch and above it, there is a small cutout with the grill. The size of the grill matches earpiece grill on the OnePlus 6T and the cutout matches the cutout on the cover that the OnePlus offers with their smartphone, confirming it to be the earpiece grill.
OnePlus 6T has a speaker grill on the top of the RainDrop Notch
Looking at OnePlus 7's leaked image with the same kind of cover. You will see there is quite the cover at the top of the phone which seems empty. And there are two cutouts in the cover, one on the left and one on the right. This means that those are the cutouts for a sliding mechanism for a camera and as one is on the left and one is on the right, it might have a wide popout. Implementing an Oppo Find X style slider will make sense. As Oppo and OnePlus are owned by the same company, it will be easier to with all the R&D already done by Oppo. Also, in the past, we have seen the Oppo and OnePlus phones share the design so the probability of OnePlus adopting the Oppo Find X's slider camera mechanism for the OnePlus 7 is really high. Also, it will offer a clean look that would look great.
Flipkart kicks off Mobile Bonanza sale with mouth-watering deals
The e-commerce giant Flipkart announces yet another sale called the Mobile Bonanza. As the name suggests, the sale is all about smartphones. The sale is set to kick off today and will go on until February 23. The website will offer great discounts and offers on smartphones like Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2, Samsung Galaxy S8 and more.
Flipkart has tied up with Axis Bank this time around to offer special deals on the bank's debit and credit cards. Currently, they are offering an instant discount of up to Rs. 1,500 per card per user.
As far as the smartphones are concerned, some of the best deals can be spotted on smartphones like RealMe 2 Pro, Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, Apple iPhone XR, Samsung Galaxy S8, Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2, ZenFone Lite L1, Honor 9N, Nokia 5.1 Plus and Nokia 6.1 Plus.
To begin with, the RealMe 2 Pro is now available at a starting price of Rs. 12,990, which is Rs. 2,000 lower from its MRP of Rs. 14,990. The popular mid-range smartphone, Redmi Note 6 Pro is now available for just Rs. 12,999 in oppose to its MRP of Rs. 15,999. Even the ZenFone Max Pro M2 is selling at an attractive price of Rs. 11,999.
Other budget options like Honor 9N and Nokia 5.1 Plus are available at Rs. 8,499 and Rs. 8,999 respectively. Nokia 6.1 Plus also gets an attractive price tag of Rs. 13,999.
As for the more expensive smartphones, the Galaxy S8 makes the most sense. The phone is currently available for just Rs. 30,990. It was launched at a price of Rs. 57,900. Though the phone has got pretty old, with the latest Android Pie based One UI update, it feels as good as some of the 2019 smartphones. Apple fans can go with the iPhone XR, which is now available for a starting price of Rs. 67,999.
The much-awaited PUBG Mobile 0.11.0 update is finally available
PUBG Mobile has finally received the much awaited 0.11.0 update, which brings in a ton of exciting features. With the new update, Tencent Games and PUBG Corporation have launched a new game mode called "Zombie: Survive till Dawn." The new game mode has been introduced in collaboration with the popular game Resident Evil 2. The collaboration was announced last year and the new mode is finally ready to play.
Unlike the regular matchmaking, the new Zombie: Survive till Dawn mode will feature only 60 players, where players will have to fight against each other in order to be the last one standing. However, for the twist, the players will encounter a few zombies from Resident Evil 2, which will include Police, Licker, G1 and many more. The game mode will feature a total of three days and two nights in one 30-minute round.
The mode starts from gameplay set during the daytime and it eventually turns into night time. Night time is when players will witness different types of zombies. These zombies will become aggressive which can be challenging down the road. Users can even spot zombies during day time and kill them from a long range. However, these zombies become more aggressive in the dusk. Additionally, the visibility also becomes low during the night time making it even more difficult for players to kill the zombies.
Apart from the zombie mode, the new PUBG Mobile 0.11.0 update also brings in moonlight weather to Vikendi map. Further, it adds Resident Evil 2 main menu theme and music, player Spaces and Arcade - Quick match for Sanhok map.
How to install the update?
Head over to Google Play Store or App Store on your Android or iOS device
Search for PUBG Mobile
Hit the update option to download and install the 463MB update
Once the app is updated, open the app and install a small 12MB update
Oppo F9 Pro (Left) and OnePlus 6T (Right) are from the same house but are completely different.
OnePlus and Oppo are both owned by the same parent company, BBK Electronics. What's more interesting is, both the co-founders of OnePlus were part of Oppo's marketing team before founding OnePlus towards the end of December 2013. The result was the OnePlus One, which dominated the market by selling close to a million units. These sales numbers were unexpected, as the company set their target to only 50,000 units.
Furthermore, OnePlus solidified its position in the smartphone market with good smartphones being launched every year and has managed to become one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the market as of now. However, people always wonder how Oppo's marketing team members were able to create such a great smartphone company, while Oppo still lags behind. Here's a list of reasons we might think are the major causes.
OnePlus vs Oppo: Heavy Spending on Advertising
Oppo spends a lot of its budget on advertising and marketing, instead of research and development. This doesn't mean that they don't do any research and development, its just they put a much smaller chunk of their resources on it compared to advertising. Oppo smartphones are heavily advertised in print and media. This decreases their budget in smartphone research and development.
All of this further increases the prices of Oppo smartphones to cover up the money list in branding. While on the other hand, OnePlus spends very little on branding and advertisement, instead it invests the larger part of its money pie towards research and development.
This has made OnePlus phones perform much better compared to other smartphones at the same price.
OnePlus vs Oppo: Software
Oppo's smartphones work run on a heavily skinned version of Android. Their skin (Color OS) has a huge learning curve compared to stock Android. Also, Color OS has sluggish performance and a lot of bugs. Due to the poorly designed skin, RAM consumption is high, which takes a toll on the performance of the device.
The Heavily Modified Color OS whos away many people
OxygenOS is quite close to stock Android
Also, the software annoyances woo users away, who are not accostomed to heavily modified skins.
OnePlus vs Oppo: Community support
OnePlus has always prided themselves in listening to their community and making major smartphone decisions based on their community response.
This makes OnePlus smartphones much more desirable to their buyers. This also provides the company with great exposure, as happy customers recommend these devices to their friends and the cycle goes on, increasing sales and profits for the company.
OnePlus vs Oppo: Overall Design
The Sandstone back of the OnePlus 2 was truly amazing
While companies like Oppo have worked hard on providing their customers with an amazing camera experience, OnePlus has aimed on providing its users with a good overall experience.
The sandstone back of the OnePlus One and OnePlus Two gave the smartphones a unique look and feel in hand. The clean OxygenOS and Cyanogen in the OnePlus One made the device a lot familiar and tunable to users needs. Good camera and performance made OnePlus devices an overall great package to have compared to the competition, especially if you added price to the mix.
Apex Legends is soon getting a couple of exciting features
EA Games recently launched their new battle royale game Apex Legends and within no time it became one of the most popular battle royale games. As it has got immensely popular, there is now a whole community discussing what to expect more from the game. A recent report claims that Apex Legends will soon get new game modes, new characters and much more.
The report comes after a few data miners dug deep into the Apex Legends files and found clues of the upcoming updates. However, as the files are found within the game files, the new modes might just be scraped content and never make its way to the actual game.
A twitter handle called @RealApexLeaks recently tweeted about references to a new game mode. The game more is being referred to as the Survival mode in the game files. According to the report, the new game mode will also include spectators and commentators who can cheer the players and even perform emotes of their own.
Alongside the Survival mode, RealApexLeaks has also found references to something called replay system. It looks like the feature will allow the players to see a replay of how they were killed. The feature is used in games like Call of Duty and Titanfall.
Apart from this, the company has promised to include a duo and solo mode for matchmaking as the game currently only supports group of three players. Further, Apex Legends is also more likely to add a few new characters or legends soon.
