Mobile World Congress or MWC 2019 is just around the corner. It is the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry and smartphone companies come there to show off their latest technologies. It takes place in Barcelona, Spain. This year the show will kick off on February 25 and will go on until February 28.
Huawei P30 and P30 Pro
Huawei P30 Pro will have a total of 4 camera sensors at the back (Image: SlashLeaks)
Huawei P30 series will be a successor to the last year's P20 series. The flagship Huawei P30 Pro was one of the best camera smartphones of 2018. Now this year, the company is planning to go with a triple camera setup and a TOF 3D camera. The smartphone is expected to sport a 6.1-inch OLED display with minimal bezels. It will be powered by Huawei's latest Kirin 980 chipset.
LG G8 ThinQ
LG G8 looks quite similar to its predecessor
LG G8 ThinQ is going to be the South Korean giant's first flagship smartphone of 2019. The smartphone will feature a 6.1-inch IPS LCD display. It will be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor coupled with Adreno 640 GPU. It is said to come with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage.
Moto Razr is an iconic name in the mobile industry
There are reports surfing around the internet that Motorola is planning to bring back the iconic Moto Razr mobile phone. However, this time it will be a smartphone powered by Android. It is said to have a foldable display and it will also feature an OLED display on the outside to show time and notifications. Even if the company does not launch that at the MWC 2019, they will surely unveil the Moto G7 series.
Sony also takes advantage of the MWC in order to showcase its latest flagship smartphone offering. This year, the company is gearing up to unveil their latest Sony Xperia XZ4 smartphone. It will come with flagship specifications like a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB of RAM and more.
Oppo 10X camera phone
Oppo has unveiled a camera sensor with 10x zoom capabilities
Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Oppo, might as well unveil a new smartphone at the MWC 2019. The company recently showcased how they can fit in a 10X camera sensor on a smartphone without needing something big to stick out of the phone. Oppo might include that sensor in a smartphone and showcase it at the MWC 2019.
Metro Exodus is one of the more popular games launching this month
Console and PC gaming has become so popular that we are seeing new launches every now and then. From FPS games to strategy games, the competition in the market is getting tougher as the players lean on to the newly arrived ones. Here are the top 5 games launching in the month of February 2019.
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. It will be available on Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4 starting February 15, 2019. The game is already available for pre-orders via Amazon for USD 59.99. For PC gamers, the game is not very high demanding, which means you will be able to play the game on medium to high settings on decent hardware.
Crackdown 3
Crackdown 3 is an action-adventure game, which is being developed by British developer Sumo Digital and will be published by Microsoft Studios. The game will be exclusively available for Microsoft platforms, Windows and Xbox. Just like Metro Exodus, this one will also be available to play starting February 15 and interested people can pre-order the game via Amazon for USD 59.99.
Far Cry series is quite popular and now the company is introducing a successor to last year's Far Cry 5. The new Far Cry: New Dawn is a first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is releasing on February 15 and it will be available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms.
Jump Force
Jump Force is a fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It features characters from various manga series featured in the Weekly Shonen Jump anthology in celebration of the magazine's 50th anniversary. The game will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC starting February 12. It is currently available for pre-orders for USD 59.99.
Anno 1800 is a city building game with a real-time strategy. It is developed by Blue Byte and will be published by Ubisoft. The game is said to be available on February 26. On contradictory, a few reports suggest that the release might be pushed to April 2019. It will be available only on the PC.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is a smart band with a lot of features. Is it worth the asking price? Find out in our review.
Xiaomi, a few months ago, launched the Mi Band 3 in India, which is one of the most affordable fitness trackers currently available in the country. It offers a ton of features for the price. Let's check out if the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is worth it, in our review:
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Review: Specifications
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 sports a 0.78-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 128x80 pixels and a pixel density of 193ppi. It comes with a tri-axial sensor and a PPG heart-rate sensor. The device is water resistant up to 50 meters and weighs approximately 20 grams. All of this is backed by a 110mAh battery.
Price: Rs. 1,999
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Review: Design & Display
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 features a curved 0.78-inch OLED touch screen display. Compared to its predecessor, Mi Band 3 looks much better. The larger display accommodates touchscreen, which was largely something missing in Mi Band 2. The touchscreen makes it much easier to navigate the UI and operate the smart band.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 comes with a couple of watch faces, which help change things a bit from time to time.
Unlike the Mi Band 2, the third generation does not have a metal touch sensitive button at the bottom of the display. The new style button on the Mi Band 3 looks much better and blends in perfectly with the design. However, the whole glossy finish of the tracker invites a lot of fingerprints and is also quite prone to scratches.
Flipping the device reveals its heart rate sensor, which is the same one we saw on the Mi Band 2. Below the heart rate sensor, there is the company's branding and rest of the device looks pretty clean. The band is made out of rubber and is quite comfortable to wear in most conditions.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Review: Features
Xiaomi's new Mi Band 3 is packed with dozens of features. It comes with all the basics that we got to see on the Mi Band 2 including the notifications, step count, sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, alarms, timer and much more. The new smart band even gets specific modes for exercises and treadmill.
One feature which I absolutely adore about the tracker is its long-lasting battery life. In my review period, I went for a two, one-week trips to New Delhi and UAE, in which I decided not to carry the Mi Band's charger. I almost had around 70 percent battery at the start of my trip and when I came back home after a week, I still had more than 30 percent juice left.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3's heart rate sensor is useful for people wanting to take care of their health.
Even with notifications showering all day long, the Mi Band manages to pull off at least 2.5 weeks of usage before it needs to be charged. Also, if you turn off a few features, you can expect to get around 30 days of battery life.
Another thing, which I liked a lot was its alarm feature. The Mi Band 3 vibrates in order to wake you up, and the vibrations are quite hard, which help in waking up faster. With this I wouldn't stay in bed for long.
As for step counting and other fitness features are concerned, the Mi Band 3 isn't as accurate as other smart bands like Fitbit Charge 2 and Honor Band 4.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Review: Verdict
Battery life is one of the strongest points of the Mi Band 3.
Xiaomi Mi Band 3 looks quite good and has a lot of good features. However, the relatively inaccurate fitness data tracking leaves a bit of room for us to complaint.
The inaccurate fitness data tracking can be forgiven as the data does not have a lot of variances and the price of the band is much lower than most other smart bands.
Airtel, TataSky, Videocon and other DTH operators have online portals to select channels
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced a new framework for DTH cable televisions in the country. DTH users are now allowed to choose whatever channels they want. This means that if you want only Sony channels, you need to pay only accordingly and do not have to buy custom packs set up by different operators.
How to choose the channels?
Go to your DTH operators official website
The website will show off the TRAI's new rules or it will give a pop-up. Click on that to proceed further.
Log-in using your credentials or your registered mobile number
Once you are logged, select the channels you want to watch and make the payment
It sounds quite interesting when you think that you need to pay only Rs. 30 if you want to watch only Sony channels. However, there is a catch. The user needs to select at least 100 Standard Definition (SD) channels or 50 High Definition (HD) channels. This might help reducing or instead increase your monthly rental depending on what type of plan you go for.
DTH users had a deadline for February 1 to select their beloved set of channels, which has now already crossed. So, if you have not done it yet and you are not able to watch anything on your TV, get the new pack as soon as possible.
Asus has started rolling out the beta version of Android 9 Pie
Asus has finally announced the Android 9 Pie update under a new open beta program for the ever so popular ZenFone Max Pro M2. The mid-range smartphone owners can simply head over to the beta testing page and sign up for it in order to try and test the latest version of Android right away.
Go through the instructions, check the box next to agree and tap on Enroll.
Again read the next set of instructions carefully and tap on proceed
Now fill in the form with all the details like your personal details and your phone's serial number.
Once you have submitted the form, you will receive an email from Asus. The mail will carry beta firmware link and an SOP document, which Asus recommends you to read carefully.
We highly recommend not installing the software on your primary device as it is currently in a beta stage, which means there might be a lot of bugs and issues. However, if you are testing out the software and do run into any bugs, you can always report them to Asus and they will be solved in future updates.
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 features 6.26-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080x2280 pixels. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC coupled with the Adreno 512 GPU. It comes with up to 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, which is further expandable using a microSD card. All of this is backed by a 5,000mAh battery.
PUBG or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is constantly offering something new in order to keep the hype alive. Tencent Games, who is looking after the Mobile version of the game, recently announced the availability of the Cricket Jersey. It provides with a fresh look and gives players more customisation options.
In order to get the jersey, you need to head over to the Events box that sits at the bottom right corner of the PUBG Mobile home screen. There will be a new option, which will bring the Cricket Jersey along with the helmet. It is currently available with a price tag of Rs. 400, which comes after a discount of 66 percent. However, the purchase is available for a limited time so you should head over the game right away if you are really interested.
These skins and clothing options do come at a premium but allow players to show off. It also helps the company to generate some revenue, since the game itself is free to play on the platform. Last year, the company showed off a special Kurta Pyjama clothing setup to celebrate the popular Indian festival, Diwali.
Meanwhile, the company has just announced that its PUBG Mobile India Series tournament has received well over 5,75,000 registrations. The company feels its an overwhelming response by the player as it is their first mobile Esports tournament in India. Interested players can still register at the PUBG Mobile India Series 2019 registration page.
OnePlus 6T is the most underrated gaming smartphone.
Gaming is one of the most influential communities in the computer market. With the growth of smartphone technology, whether you like it or not, the new breed of gaming smartphones has arrived. Following that games like PUBG MOBILE, Fornite, Asphalt 9: Legend and F1 Mobile Racing a breed of mobile gamers have arrived. The people looking to buy gaming smartphones not only look for better processors, but they also care about things like liquid cooling which normal users don't care.
Xiaomi and Honor popularised this segment by launching the Poco F1 and Honor Play under Rs 20,000. Brands like Republic of Gamers (ROG), Samsung and Nubia have also jumped on the train launching more expensive gaming smartphones with unique features for the gaming community.
The Poco F1 is one of the cheapest flagships in the market right now.
From the house of Xiaomi, the Poco F1 has been our choice for gaming, specially considering its aggressive pricing. Starting at Rs 19,999, you get a Snapdragon 845-powered smartphone with 6GB RAM, 64GB storage and liquid cooling. This coupled with a massive 4000mAh battery and fast charging makes it a great package for gaming. The MIUI 10 is not the best optimized for gaming, but Poco has made quite a few changes under the hood to boost that. If you don't like the plastic back, then the armoured edition with kevlar back comes in starting at Rs 23,999.
The Nubia Red magic comes with an RGB led strip at the back
RGB is one of the most trending things you will find on gaming pc/laptop. Nubia has brought that to their gaming smartphone. The company has made sure, that their Red Magic grabs attention with a big LED strip and red air vents on the metal body. Sadly, it runs an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. It also runs on stock Android and the processor is overclocked, making it one of the more powerful gaming smartphones in the market right now.
OnePlus 6T features a glass sandwich design, which gives it a premium look and feel
The OnePlus 6T is not at all designed as a gaming smartphone in mind. However, considering that the device runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with the efficient Oxygen OS makes for a very smooth gameplay experience it offers quite good gaming performance. The 8GB RAM variants along with Oxygen OS improvements and their game mode, it is the most underrated gaming smartphone out there.
Republic of Gamers, launched their first ever smartphone, the ROG Phone a while back. The ROG is Asus's gaming hardware department. The ROG phone sports an overclocked Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor along with liquid as well as Air cooling. There are three USB Type C ports. One on the bottom for charging. Two on the side for a selection of external accessories along with an external cooler. To top it all off, the smartphone sports a 90Hz display for a smooth gaming experience.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 sports a dual-camera setup at the back with variable aperture
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is not a gaming smartphone, but the sheer performance of Note 9 makes it capable to do anything. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and a liquid cooled internals, the smartphone is ready for gaming. The Exynos 9810 chipset is also plenty powerful and the 4000mAh battery is massive for long gaming sessions. Also, the 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with its crazy contrasts is one of the best displays for gaming.
The Honor View 20 was available on online stores only.
Honor India unveiled their latest flagship, the Honor View 20 in India. The smartphone was available on Amazon India and Honor's own website as for today. The company now has announced an exclusive partnership with Reliance to bring the smartphone to offline markets.
The company announced that they will be entering an exclusive partnership with Reliance. This will enable users to purchase the View 20 in the Reliance and Jio stores offline all over the country starting February 6th. The biggest benefit is that the users who doubt the online websites can go to their local Reliance or Jio store and grab the View 20 for the same price as the online stores. To recap, the Honor View 20 will be available at Rs 37,999 for the base model and Rs 45,999 for the top-end variant.
"At Honor, we are committed to delivering the best of technologies to our customers at affordable price points. In line with our commitment, the partnership with Reliance enables us to reach a larger audience. Further, this partnership allows the end-customer to experience firsthand the Honor View 20 smartphone at Reliance Digital and My Jio stores across India and enables them to make an informed choice. We are confident that the end-customer will benefit from this tie-up," -Suhail Tariq, CMO - Huawei Consumer Business Group.
The Honor View 20 sports a crazy looking rear panel.
The Honor View 20 is the company's first smartphone to come with a hole-punch display and the first smartphone to be globally available with that technology. The display has a cutout in the form of a circle instead of a notch to house the 25-megapixel front-facing camera offering more screen to body ration than the notch. The View 20 sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ (2310x1080) display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by an octa-core Kirin 980 chipset and GPU Turbo 2.0 for optimized gaming performance.
The View 20 houses a massive 4,000mAh battery with support for 40W Huawei Super Charge technology. The flagship ships with Android 9.0 Pie with Honor's Magic UI 2.0 skin on the top. Jio is also offering up to Rs 2200 cashback and.upto 2.2TB data on purchase of a View 20;
The Galaxy A9 sports a quad camera set up while the 6T only sports dual rear camera.
Samsung is best known for introducing the new features to their smartphones well before anyone. The recently launched Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy A9 (2018) brings quadruple rear camera set up at the back. On the other end, OnePlus is known to bring out flagship devices with mid-range prices that make it one of the best selling smartphones in the market. The latest by OnePlus, the 6T and the Galaxy A9 (2019) cost Rs 37,999 and Rs 33,990 respectively. So it would be confusing which one to buy. Here is an in-depth comparison for you to make the right decision.
Design
The exclusion of the Notch on the Galaxy A9 gives it an edge
The Samsung Galaxy A9 sports a 6.3-inch 18.5:9 aspect ratio display while the OnePlus 6T sports a 6.41-inch 19.5:9 aspect ratio display with a Notch. Both the devices sport a Super AMOLED Panel. The similarities in the design end there. The OnePlus 6T sports a raindrop notched display and a thin chin, while the A9 takes a more traditional approach with the no notch and quite a hefty chin at the bottom. The rear is made out of the glass with A9 sporting a fingerprint sensor a the back along with the quad camera setup. The 6T has an in-display fingerprint sensor and only a dual camera set up at the back.
The Galaxy A9 is the better looking of the pair.
Overall, design-wise both the smartphones are completely different. While the OnePlus went for a more modern design with Raindrop notch and a minimalist look, Samsung went for more of a traditional look along with a fancy paint job on the back if you want that. One thing to mention with the displays is that the panel on the 6T is inherently less bright than the panel on the A9. Also, the A9 sports a 3.5mm headphone jack which the 6T misses out on.
The Samsung Galaxy A9 runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0 skin on the top with Android Pie arriving somewhere in the second quarter of 2019 while the OnePlus 6T runs on Android 9.0 Pie with Oxygen OS 9.0.11 on the top.
Samsung Experience UI 9.0
OxygenOS is quite close to stock Android
OnePlus offers a cleaner and optimized version of Android with some minute modifications that add great value to the user while the Samsung goes for a complete custom experience with completely changed UI. Which software is better is completely a personal preference, but due to fewer customizations to Android and background services in the Oxygen OS will make it a better OS when it comes to performance while the Samsung Experience offers features that make life much easier. I personally would prefer the Oxygen OS but your mileage may vary.
Performance is the major concern for any smartphone. The Galaxy A9 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor coupled with an Adreno 512 and 6/8GB of RAM. Our unit comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The OnePlus 6T is powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor coupled with an Adreno 630 and 6/8GB of RAM. Our unit comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. As the processor on the OnePlus 6T is far better than the A9, we know who will take the lead here. Also, the difference in the RAM will affect the scores but not that much.
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We ran out usual AnTuTu 7 benchmark and GeekBench 4 benchmarks to test out the performance.
Galaxy A9 (2018)
OnePlus 6T
The results show us that the OnePlus 6T pulls ahead absolutely destroys the Galaxy A9. This is due to the A9 sporting a mid-range processor while the 6T sporting a flagship processor.
Camera
The camera is something people care about these days. Samsung was clearly aiming at making great camera phone with these by including a quad rear setup. The Galaxy A9 sports a 24-megapixel, f/1.7 aperture main sensor with PDAF, 8-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture depth sensor along with a 10-megapixel 2x Zoom sensor. For selfies, it packs a 24-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. The OnePlus 6T features a 16-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and a 20-megapixel 2x Zoom sensor with an f/1.7 aperture. On the front, there is a 16-megapixel selfie shooter.
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OnePlus 6t(Left) vs Galaxy A9(Right)
OnePlus 6t(Left) vs Galaxy A9(Right)
OnePlus 6t(Left) vs Galaxy A9(Right)
The rear camera of the Galaxy A9 offers much more functionality like the wide angle lens which the 6T simply cannot due to lack of hardware. With the things both the smartphone can do, the bokeh mode of the 6T is more subtle than the A9 and the details on the Galaxy A9 are better than the 6T. Overall, the rear camera performance of the A9 is better than the 6T.
OnePlus 6t(Left) vs Galaxy A9(Right)
The story is a little different on the front. The front camera of the Galaxy A9 provides a more brightened image. The OnePlus 6T offers more of natural colors in its photos which is appreciated. Some people like the brightened image, so the front cameras are neck to neck.
Overall, the camera performance of the Galaxy A9 is better than the OnePlus 6T, with the features like the wide angle lens being specially usefull. The addition of a depth sensor also helps take more detailed photos. However, OnePlus 6T also is not that bad in comparision.
Battery
The battery aspect of both the smartphones is indistinguishable.
The Galaxy A9 sports a 3,800mAh battery while the OnePlus 6T sports an almost similar 3,700mAh battery. In our daily usage, the battery life of both the smartphone was almost equal. The Dash charging provided a quick juice to go, but also the A9 has Samsung's adaptive quick charge which provides good enough charging times too. In the battery department, both the phones are neck and neck.
Overall, the OnePlus 6T offers more performance for money.
The Samsung Galaxy A7 starts at Rs 33,990 while the OnePlus 6T starts at Rs 37,999. The Galaxy A9 sports a better camera set up along with a no notch on the display along with the retention of the headphone jack. However, with the performance improvement that the OnePlus 6T offers, it is really hard to recommend the Galaxy A9 unless you absolutely have to have the wide angle lens or a Samsung device.
The concentric circle pattern on the lid looks good
Asus recently launched their latest Zenbook laptops in India. The Zenbook UX333 series of laptops are designed for thin and light performance. The laptops are aimed at people looking for extreme portability with their laptops.
Asus Zenbook UX333 first impressions: Design
Asus Zenbook series has always focused on thin and light form factor with great performance aiming at portability than anything else. The new Zenbook series of laptops weigh in at 1.19kg for the base model which is lighter than even the new MacBook Air. The 13-inch variant is smaller than a piece of A4 paper which makes the laptop extremely portable. The company was able to achieve this by thinning the bezels as much as possible. This led them to achieve a 95-percent screen to body ratio along with such a small form factor.
Overall the design on the Zenbook UX333 looks good.
The laptop comes packaged in a metal body with concentric circles edged on the lid to give the laptop a unique look. The feel of the laptop is as good as it looks. The laptop also sports a hinge design that raises the body of the laptop by 3-degree when the lid is up. This makes long duration usage much comfortable in hand.
The trackpad can be used as a numpad also
The hinge lifts teh laptop upto 3degree when the lid is open
Overall, the thin and light build along a 95-percent screen to body ratio for the display makes the laptop a great deal. Also, the 13-inch variant is smaller than an A4 size sheet which makes the laptop very handy.
Asus Zenbook UX333 first impressions: Performance
The Asus Zenbook 13 and Znbook 14 (UX333) are available with 8th Generation Intel Core i5 or Core i7 depending on your variant. The laptops come with 8GB DDR4 RAM along with a 256GB PCIe SSD. The laptops can be specced with an Nvidia MX 150. The Zenbook 15 comes standard with the 8th Generation Intel Core i7 and comes with Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 MaxQ.
We didn’t get to test out the performance on this laptop, however, the 8th Generation Intel Core i5 is powerful enough to power through any daily workload you can have. If you are looking to play some casual games, the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 MaxQ of the Zenbook 15 would satisfy your needs.
Asus Zenbook UX333 first impressions: Conclusion
The price of the laptop could be a bit less.
Considering the price and specifications of the Zenbook UX333 laptops, the laptop is a bit expensive. Considering the weight of only 1.19kg and form factor smaller than the rest, I still think that the laptop is a bit expensive. However, the form factor of the laptop is unmatched in the market. This makes the Zenbook UX333 series a worthwhile choice for daily needs.
