Redmi X - Competition to the RealMe X

Redmi X is not the name of Redmi Flagship, confirms General Manager Lu Weibing 

Redmi X

When Xiaomi initially launched Redmi series smartphones in the Indian market, it created a furor in the Indian market providing crazy value for money smartphones at that time in the market. But as time passed on, Chinese rivals like Oppo and Honor also launched their sub-brands like RealMe and Huawei providing premium mid-range and low budget phones at a great value. All this led to stiff competition between these companies for budget smartphones.

Redmi phone with Snapdragon 855 known as 'Redmi flagship' has been rumored for quite a while in the market to take on its Chinese counterpart RealMe X by Oppo which is also a flagship phone in RealMe smartphone series.

Redmi Flagship phone is yet to launch but many leaks and renders have been showing up on the internet from few weeks and are expected to launch on May 14. Although the company hasn't made any official confirmation on the launch date of the phone. But if the phone does launch on May 14, it will collide with the launch of OnePlus 7 series smartphones.

Also, GM Lu Weibing wrote (translated), "Not called Redmi X, there will be a better name. Good night."

Redmi X may have another name with something better fitting. And the company recently teased the Redmi Flagship phone. Also, Redmi X or Redmi Flagship phone is rumored to know as Redmi K20 Pro. And there is a probability Redmi X could be a completely different device with different specifications.

Although rumored Redmi Flagship phone is tipped to have punch hole display and a triple rear camera set up at the back. Specifications are tipped to include Snapdragon 855 processor along with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on board. The triple rear camera set up on the back comes with a 48-megapixel primary sensor, 8-megapixel secondary sensor and a 13-megapixel sensor. And the recent leaks suggest that the phone will sport a 32-megapixel front shooter for selfies. The phone will likely run on MIUI 10 on top of Android Pie. One last thing to note is that the launch of Redmi flagship will be followed by the launch of Realme X.

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OnePlus 7 Pro - True Flagship by OnePlus

OnePlus 7 Pro receives A+ rating by Display Mate, says the company

 Ever since OnePlus launched their first smartphone in the market OnePlus One named as 'Flagship Killer' it was one of the best value for money phones in the market at that time. But OnePlus One was not a True flagship and was lagging in some areas or the other. Since then, there have not been any major changes to their smartphones because it could never compete against any of the flagships against its main rivals like Samsung and Apple and it seems like OnePlus is going to change that with their OnePlus 7 series smartphones.

OnePlus 7 Pro display and camera  - 

Credit - Nuevo Tech

OnePlus 7 Pro has earned an A+ rating from display benchmark firm, Display Mate, the Chinese company announced on Monday. The display panel of the One Plus 7 Pro is also claimed to have received the 'Safety for Eyes' certification from VDE Testing and certification institute. A rumor earlier this month mentioned that the OnePlus 7 Pro would sport a 90hz QHD+ display. Although OnePlus has, so far, brought flagships with Full-HD displays. So, this would be the first time, the company would be using Quad HD display in their smartphone.

According to the company, OnePlus 7 Pro, would be a flagship in its true form. Through a press note on Monday, OnePlus announced that the OnePlus 7 Pro has received an A+ display rating from display benchmark firm Display Mate. Also, One Plus 7 Pro will come with upgraded eye protection.

Last week, OnePlus teased the triple rear camera setup of the OnePlus 7 Pro. The camera is tipped to include a 48-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.6 lens, the Second lens is an 8-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens, likely to come with 3x optical zoom. And the last sensor is a 16-megapixel wide angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 117 degree-field of view.

Alongside the OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus is launching the OnePlus 7 and is speculated to come with the dual rear camera setup.

Pricing -

Expected pricing of the OnePlus 7 series in the Indian market are -

One Plus 7 starts at 39,999 INR for 6GB RAM. And OnePlus 7 Pro 6GB RAM is priced at 44,999 INR and 8GB RAM variant is priced at 49,999 INR. And if the prices of OnePlus 7 series is anywhere close to the expected pricing than OnePlus certainly has lost the tag of 'Flagship Killer'

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Samsung Galaxy A80 Launched

Samsung launched 'A' series flagship - Galaxy A80 with rotating camera

Samsung supressed by the chinese tech giants dominating in India because of the value for money phones and steep competition amongst them. Also recently Dj Koh, global president of IT and mobile communications division of the company said in a statement "If we take a nap, we will die. I don't want to die," with a smile on his face.

Samsung Galaxy A80 

Now talking about the smartphone, Samsung Galaxy A80 was launched on Wednesday at an event in Thailand. Galaxy A80 is currently the flagship phone amongst Galaxy A series.

Specifications -

Design and Display - 

Samsung Galaxy A80 features a 6.7-inch FullHD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Super AMOLED infinity display with an aspect ratio of 20:9 and no notch. The phone has a glass sandwich design with aluminum on the sides of the phones.

Camera and Hardware - 

The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 730G octa-core processor with (Kyro 470 cores) two cores clocked at 2.2Ghz and six cores clocked at 1.7Ghz And paired with 8GB of RAM. For graphics-intensive duties, it comes with Adreno 618 GPU.

Now, the main highlight of this phone is the camera and this smartphone features a triple rotating camera setup on the top and hence no notch. The phone comes with a primary 48-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture. The secondary camera is an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens with a field of view of 123 degrees and f/2.2 aperture. The third camera is a 3d depth-sensing camera. For selfies, all three cameras on the phone automatically pop-up and rotate to the front. Since the camera is rotating, it makes the rear camera rotatable for selfies with high-resolution rear camera usable for selfies. And the rotating camera also enables the phone to have a notchless display.

Software, battery, and features - 

On the software side, the phone comes with Android 9 pie out of the box on top of Samsung experience 10.0 user interface. The phones come with an inbuilt 128GB of onboard storage which isn't expandable via microSD. The smartphone comes with a 3,700 mAh battery and supports 25w fast charging. And comes with all the basic connectivity options.

It comes with features like Dolby Atmos for improved sound output with headphones or Bluetooth speakers. It also comes with super steady video mode and an intelligent performance enhancer that uses AI for performance optimizations. 

That's all for Galaxy A80 and it has been priced at 649 EUR ( Roughly 730 USD )

 Considering the price at which it has been launched this phone seems no value for money but Samsung always prices its phone better for Asian markets like India. But those rotating cameras do not seem to be as reliable as on a normal smartphone and not even as much durable when compared to normal smartphone cameras.

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Periscope camera lens - Probably the next big trend in smartphones

Periscope zoom camera lens in smartphones

are the next big thing 

Back in mobile world congress 2019, when Oppo showcased the prototype of the periscope camera lens in their smartphone that can go up to 10× lossless zoom. And it was one of the most innovative technologies in mobile world congress, that a periscope camera lens has been used in a smartphone to provide features like digital cameras in a smartphone.

Periscope camera lens - How it works? 

Credit - Webinnate

 Now talking about the method of the technique used in there for a periscope camera lens in a smartphone is almost as similar to a normal periscope where mirrors are fitted into each end of the tube at the angle of exactly 45 degrees. light is reflected from the top mirror to bottom mirror at an angle of 45 degrees because the light is always reflected by a mirror at the same angle that it hits the mirror.

 Now in smartphones, the same thing happens where external lens captures an image and reflects it inside on a mirror, and another lens transmits the image to the camera's sensor. So, a periscope lens would enable camera in the smartphone to create a sophisticated optical zoom system.

Is it really 10x optical zoom? No!

The Oppo phone showcased at the Mobile World Congress supported up to 10x lossless zoom but technically, what company did was that they placed the main sensor as a 'more' ultra wide lens and the focal length of the camera used in the prototype phone was 16mm instead of a regular lens used on the smartphone so that phone can go from 16-160mm. But when Oppo showcased its 5x optical zoom prototype in Mobile World Congress 2017 it used the regular lens on their smartphone at that time. So, Oppo played it smart. Now, the phone showcased by Oppo at Mobile World Congress 2019 is technically still the 5x optical zoom.

Now talking about the periscope lens used in smartphone cameras, it is definitely the future of smartphone cameras and the upcoming smartphones with periscope lens would be much more sophisticated and powerful. We can assume smartphone cameras to be as much feature packed as digital cameras if not replacing them.

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Xiaomi Mi 9, Mi 9 Transparent Edition, Mi 9 SE launched

Xiaomi Mi 9 launched in three variants with the triple camera setup

Xiaomi has launched 9th generation of its flagship Mi series smartphone, Xiaomi Mi 9 today at an event in Beijing, China. Xiaomi Mi 9 comes in three variants Mi 9, Mi 9 Transparent Edition, Mi 9 SE. Xiaomi Mi 9 comes as the successor to the last year's Xiaomi's Mi 8.

Xiaomi Mi 9 specifications 

Mi 9/SE

Design and Display -

Xiaomi Mi 9 sports a 6.39-inch Full-HD+ Samsung AMOLED display with an aspect ratio of 19:9 and along with the protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 6 with 600 nits of maximum brightness. And it comes with a glass sandwich design along with dew drop style notch. With all this, the phone has a screen to body ratio of 90.7 percent.

Hardware and Camera -

The phone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC with Kryo 485 CPU clocked at 2.84GHz. For graphics-intensive duties, it comes with Adreno 640 GPU coupled with 4GB/6GB RAM options. On the imaging front, Xiaomi Mi 9 comes with a triple rear camera set up at the back. It comes with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 primary sensor with f/2.2 aperture and also supports four in one pixel [12-megapixel effectively]. The secondary sensor is Sony IMX481 which is a combination of macro lens and ultra wide angle lens with Field of view (FoV) of 117 degrees and comes with f/2.2 aperture. And the third sensor is a telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.2. For selfies, there is a 20-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

Software and Battery -

Xiaomi Mi 9 runs on Android 9.0 Pie with MIUI 10 on top. Besides, the Mi 9 packs a 3300 mAh battery that supports 27W Quick Charge 4+ and coming on to features, Mi 9 comes with a host of features such as the reading mode 2.0, high brightness mode and has a Moon mode which comes with optimized experience for TikTok users. Mi 9 is quite an upgrade over the Mi 8, as Xiaomi has used new NFC chip, which is 30 percent faster and a fifth-generation in-display fingerprint sensor which is 25 percent faster than its predecessor.

 

MI 9 Transparent edition and MI 9 SE - 

Along with Mi 9, Xiaomi also launched Mi 9 transparent edition, which comes with full transparent back and a spec bump over the Mi 9. Mi 9 transparent edition comes with 12GB of RAM and a seven-piece lens with an aperture of f/1.47.

Mi 9 SE features a 5.97-inch Samsung AMOLED display and is powered by a Snapdragon 712 SoC, paired with Adreno 616 GPU and 6GB of RAM. Mi 9 SE has a similar form factor as the Mi 9.

Pricing and Storage variants -

Xiaomi Mi 9 has been priced at Rs.31,800 in China for the 6GB/128GB storage variant and Rs.42,300 for the 8GB/128GB storage variant. Mi 9 transparent edition has been priced at Rs.42,300 for the 12GB/128GB storage variant. Mi 9 SE has been priced at Rs.21,200. Xiaomi has priced the Mi 9 series aggressively and would give strong competition to its main rivals like One Plus and Huawei. 

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Things you probably shouldn't do on your Whatsapp !!

WhatsApp account ban - Things you must know!!

India is the country with the biggest user base for WhatsApp and there over 200 million WhatsApp users in India and the number is growing. But as more people join the social platform, people misusing the app are also growing. Especially, when it comes to fake rumors and news including Mob Lynchings.

WhatsApp has banned more than 2 million accounts every month, over the last three months and will ban yours if you do any of these things and recently, WhatsApp banned TDP Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh's account. WhatsApp in an eleven-page document explains the reason behind it and states that it bans account at three stages.

Blocking at registration - 

In the very first stage, WhatsApp blocks users account during the registration process when WhatsApp sends One Time Password via SMS or Phone call to confirm you have control over the phone number and SIM card. But WhatsApp will ban your account if your phone number has been recently abused or if the network connection used for registration has been linked with any suspicious behavior.

Blocking at messaging -

If any spammer or hacker surpasses the registration process, then messaging is the second stage where WhatsApp can ban your account. And there are four conditions you need to comply with to use WhatsApp safely -

• WhatsApp will ban your account if you send suspicious links to others
• WhatsApp can detect a suspicious account by taping the intensity of user activity.
• WhatsApp will block your account if you send 100 messages under 15 seconds within five minutes of registration
• WhatsApp will block your account if you create dozens of groups or add thousands of members in an existing group under five minutes of registration.

And if you get the message from someone without indication of 'typing' then it is better to block that contact from WhatsApp as it could be any spammer or hacker and even WhatsApp mechanism will automatically detect it and ultimately ban that account.

Blocking on basis of negative feedback -

WhatsApp will block your account if someone reports your account due to negative feedback or your account has received a number of blocks.

Apart from these things, you must know basic things about using WhatsApp, you should not share inappropriate content like provocative, crime promotional, hatred against any religion or caste. Also,  you should not try to hack WhatsApp server. So, all these things are steps towards a better social environment on the platform.

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Motorola G7 series launched

Moto G7, Moto G7 Plus, Moto G7 Play, Moto G7 Power Unveiled 

Motorola on Thursday launched a new generation of G7-series of smartphones at an event in Brazil. The Moto G7 lineup includes Moto G7, Moto G7 Plus, Moto G7 Play, and Moto G7 Power smartphones. The G7-series smartphones come at an interesting time, as the consumers await Mobile World Congress 2019. Since the owner of Motorola, Lenovo is struggling to make a mark in the smartphone segment. Moving to the specifications of Motorola's new smartphones, 

Moto G7 specifications -

The Moto G7/G7 Plus features a 6.24-inch Full-HD+ [1080x2270 pixels] display with an aspect ratio of 19:9 and sports an upgraded, contoured Gorilla Glass design. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm  Snapdragon 632 SoC clocked at 1.8Ghz [Eight Kryo 250 cores clocked at 1.8Ghz]. The phone comes with 64GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot (up to 128GB) and is paired with 4GB of RAM. For the graphical performance, it comes with Adreno 506 GPU to run games smoothly. The phone comes with a dual rear camera setup at the back with 12-megapixel primary sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an aperture of f/2.2. On the front, it comes with an 8-megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/2.2. As far as the battery is concerned, it has 3000mAh. On the software side, the phone runs on Android 9 Pie.

Moto G7 Plus specifications - 

All the specifications of Moto G7 Plus are the same as Moto G7 except with a better camera. For camera enthusiasts, it comes with a dual rear camera setup at the back, which includes a 16-megapixel primary sensor with an aperture of f/1.7 and a secondary 5-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture.

On the front, it has a 12-megapixel primary shooter with an aperture of f/2.0. The smartphone also comes with Dolby Audio crystal clear speakers.

Moto G7 Power specifications -

Moto G7 Power packs in a little less than Moto G7 and it comes with a slightly smaller screen at 6.2inch HD+ [ 720x1520 pixels ] resolution with an aspect ratio of 19:9. Moto G7 Power comes with the same Snapdragon 632 Soc clocked at 1.8GHz and Adreno 506 GPU. Moto G7 Power comes with a 12-megapixel single rear camera at the back with f/2.0 lens. And on the front, 8-megapixel shooter with an f/2.2 lens. The smartphone comes in 3GB RAM / 32GB storage variant but the Moto G7 Power's major highlight is 5000 mAh battery on board.

Moto G7 Play specifications - 

Moto G7 Play is the cheapest variant amongst the Moto G7 series and sports a 5.7-inch HD+ (720x1512) resolution with an aspect ratio of 19:9. The phone is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor clocked at 1.8Ghz with Adreno 506 GPU. And it is paired with 2GB RAM / 32GB storage. Also, on the camera front, it has a single 13-megapixel rear camera at the back with an aperture of f/2.0 and an 8-megapixel shooter with an aperture of f/2.2. Also, Motorola claims that the smartphone is 60 percent faster than the previous generation.

Pricing and features -

All the four phones come with all the basic connectivity options like 4G LTE and include a rear fingerprint sensor and usual connectivity options. Other features include Auto smile capture, Smart composition and Super slow motion at 250fps. Talking about the pricing,

Moto G7 starts at 299$, Moto G7 Plus starts at 337$, Moto G7 Power starts at 249$, Moto G7 Play starts at 199$. Considering their price point, Motorola does not seem to comprise the pricing of their smartphone since competition has been striking at mid-budget smartphones where Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei provide better value for money phones at this price.

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