Honor 8x launched - Everything you need to know !!

Honor 8x - Big and Beautiful !!

When Huawei first came to India, it did not quite left the mark in Indian market until Huawei launched its sub-brand in India namely Huawei Honor. And this was the time when Huawei started to bring value for money phones in India through its honor sub-brand. Since, then there was no looking back for Huawei. 

Coming back, huawei launched Honor 8x (2018) in India and will be available on sale exclusively via amazon from october 24 onwards. Now, let's discuss about the specifications and features of the phone -

Display and Design -

Honor 8x sports a 6.5 inch Full-HD+ ( 1080x2340 pixels ) display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and pixel density of 397 pixels per inch with screen to body ratio of 91% which seems quite impressive considering its a budget mid range phone. The device comes with a glass sandwich design meaning that it comes with the glass on both the sides of the phone, front and back as well. The rear of the phone is covered by premium glass finish with a double textured design and second generation anti-glare film. But the phone also comes with a notch at the top and a small chin at the bottom.

Camera and Software -

The phone comes with the Android oreo 8.1 on top of huawei's own EMUI 8.2.0. So, a whole of customization with an exception of stock android experience. In terms of Optics, the device comes with a pair of vertically stacked dual lens on the rear with a 20-megapixel primary camera with an aperture of f/1.8 and phase detection auto focus. On the front, it comes with a 2-megapixel secondary camera with an aperture of f/2.0 and fixed focus. It looks like huawei did a bit of cost cutting when it comes to secondary camera sensor because it is not going to make a huge difference in photography.  

Hardware and Features -

Now, the device is powered by huawei's own HiSilicon Kirin 710 octa core SoC which is a 12nm cortex A-73 processor paired with a Mali G51 graphic processor. So, expect smooth experience while performing heavy tasks like gaming and editing. Also, Huawei has put on some features like GPU turbo to increase efficiency of the gpu with FPS stability for gaming so, games should run in high frame rates. And also less power is consumed with the help of this feature. Also, huawei has focused a lot on artificial intelligence. Honor 8x comes with dual stereo speakers and also supports Dolby atmos. The device packs in a 3750 mAh battery with intelligent smart save system. But no, fast charging. It comes with all the connectivity features like GPS/ A-GPS, GLONASS, bluetooth v4.2 and comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Pricing and Variants -

The phone comes in three variants, 4GB RAM / 64GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 14,999/- 

6GB RAM / 64GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 16,999/- and 8GB RAM / 128GB storage variant is priced at Rs.18,999/- The base variant seems to provide bang for your buck. Also, this phone would have a stiff competition with Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. Do let me know your thoughts on this phone.  

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Razer Phone 2 - Work hard, Play hard !!

Razer Phone 2 launched - Everything you need to know !!

When Razer launched its first smart phone previous year, it was quite clear that company was aiming towards gamers and the phone was gaming eccentric. Frankly, Razer phone did not performed that well in the market as it was not made for everybody. Now, Razer launched the second version of their smartphone on 10th october, 2018 which is Razer Phone 2. And it is a pretty significant upgrade from the previous Razer Phone. Let's discuss about the phone itself.

Display and Camera - 

Razer Phone 2 bears a 5.7" quad hd display with 120Ghz refresh rate and that includes both touch sampling and display refresh rate so, that display must be silky smooth with no lag and the display is colour accurate and sharp with HDR support. Now coming to the camera, this phone has dual rear cameras at the back, primary camera is a 12-megapixel wide angle lens with an aperture of f/1.7 supporting optical image stabilization and secondary camera is a 12-megapixel telephotot lens with an aperture of f/2.6. But, it does not support 4k video recording. On the front, it has an 8-megapixel shooter with an aperture of f/2.0 which is decent enough but the good point is that it supports full hd video recording at 60 fps.

Design and Software -

Now talking about design, this phone still comes with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and it already looks dated by 2018 standards but it seems like Razer chose features over design because it comes with a whole lot of features and we will talk about that later Talking about software, Razer Phone 2 comes Pre-installed with Prime Nova Launcher on top of android Oreo 8.1. So, users should expect a whole lot of customization and features built in already on the launcher. But one special feature is Razer Chroma, which features an illuminated lighting at the back of the phone with razer logo. The phone also has chroma configuration app through which one can set presets and sync chroma lighting with notifications and supports upto 16.8 million colors. 

Storage and Hardware -

On the hardware side, Razer Phone 2 features a flagship grade Snapdragon 845 clocked at 2.8Ghz paired with 8GB of RAM. And comes with adreno 630 graphic processing unit which absolutely delivers immense experiences and can easily handle games like PUBG and Fortnite. Also, Razer Phone 2 supports vapor chamber cooling system that allows heat to spread throughout entire phone surface and helps dissipate the heat.

This device packs in a massive 4000 mAh lithium-ion battery with support of qualcomm quick charge 4.0+ and even supports wireless charging. The device comes with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage and supports microSD expansion upto 1 TB. 

Other Features and Pricing -

The phone is priced at 799$ for 64GB storage / 8GB RAM variant and the 128GB storage variant will be available later. 

• IP67 water resistance upto 1 meter
• Dual front facing speakers with 24-BIT DAC and dolby atmos support
• Wireless Charging
• Razor Cortex app for gaming customization and optimization.
• Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0

Well, this was all you need to know about Razer Phone 2 and it is clear that company has tried hard to make this phone a daily driver for many smartphone users. But still it somewhere lacks and design was a big steal as well. Overall, it is a good phone for heavy gamers but still not a complete package for those who want to use this phone as a daily driver.

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Samsung Galaxy A9 launched - Camera Madness !!

Samsung galaxy A9 with quad camera setup launched !!

When apple launched iPhone 7 plus back in 2016, at that time of the year iPhone 7 plus was the only smartphone to have dual camera lens and it was one of the best camera smartphones of the year. Then, other smartphone manufacturers followed apple and launched their smartphones with dual camera lens sooner than later, because they realized camera was soon to become the hot piping feature in smartphones and well today, every smartphone manufacturer launch their smartphones with multiple camera setups and Samsung launched their smartphone - Samsung galaxy A9 with quad camera setup at the rear. After the launch of Samsung galaxy A7 [2018] with triple camera setup at the rear. Read here - Samsung Galaxy A7 [2018] with triple camera setup !!

Now, let's discuss about the specifications and features of the phone  -

Camera and design - 

First, let's talk about the main feature of this phone which is camera, so it sports a quad rear camera setup at the rear with a 24-megapixel main camera with an aperture of f/1.7, a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with an aperture of f/2.4 with support of 2x optical zoom, an ultra wide 8-megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.4 and comes with a wide 120 degree field of view. And at last, fourth camera is a depth sensing 5-megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and comes with live focus. Talking about the front, it comes with a 24-megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.0 and also supports features like face unlock. The special feature is that main camera uses pixel bining to combine four pixels into one which is very helpful in low light conditions and results in clear and brighter pictures. Talking about design, it is decent enough and the glass back at rear with curve at its edges looks premium and is comfortable to hold. The phone comes with three colour options which are Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue and Bubblegum Pink.

Display and Software - 

The device comes with a 6.3 inch full-HD+ [ 1080x2220 pixels ] super amoled infinity display with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 so, expect great colour reproduction and kinky blacks. Coming to the software, the device runs on top of android oreo 8.0 with samsung's own experience user interface.

Hardware, Storage and battery - 

The device is powered by Snapdragon 660 octa core processor with four cores clocked at 2.2Ghz and the other four clocked at 1.8Ghz. and comes with Adreno 512 Gpu. The device is coupled with either 6GB / 8GB of RAM. Also, the device comes with 128GB of internal storage and is expandable via microSD upto 512GB. Connectivity options include 4G VoLte, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, usb type-c, NFC and comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack with all the sensors on board. It packs in a 3,800 mAh battery with fast charging.  

Pricing - 

Well, pricing is the only wrong thing about this device and Samsung just made this device too expensive with prices starting from Rs.51,300/- or almost 700$. And this is the primary reason that Samsung does not seem to have any plans to launch this phone in India because at this price point, one can get galaxy S9 in India and a flagship offering is much better than a phone with quad camera setup. Do let us know your opinions on this phone.

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