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Review: Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe

Not much has changed from the Zenfone’s last outing. It has an improved design at the back, but little else.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We reviewed the ASUS Zenfone 2 a few weeks back, and came away quite impressed with what the company offered under Rs 25,000. Now, there’s a slightly newer version of the device’s high-end model – the Zenfone 2 Deluxe. Let me put it this way, the only change here is its rear cover and storage options.

If you glanced at the Zenfone 2 Deluxe, you couldn’t tell it apart from the original Zenfone 2. With its blockish build and physical buttons, Power/Lock key at the top, brushed aluminium chin, rear-facing volume keys, there really isn’t much changed here. What is definitely different is the multi-face prism-like rear cover (see image below). The back feels really nice and is the standout feature in the phone.

Prism like back elevation on the phone

In fact, this multi-reflecting (Blue and Green) White back was the only thing people asked me about when I was using the device. The Zenfone 2 Deluxe weighs about 170 grams, but isn’t slippery, though certainly not a compact phone.

Let me tell what’s better in the Zenfone 2 Deluxe over the Zenfone 2, as there isn’t much changed here, and if you want complete lowdown in the device, you should check our full Zenfione 2 review.

Screen. The screen is the same 5.5-inch full HD panel, but this one seems a little brighter with same colour sharpness and accuracy. It’s good and works well for images and videos. For the loudspeaker on the back, it still has the same average output that does an okay job for videos and games.

Features. Basic features on this dual SIM (4G/ 3G + 2G and dual active) device like call quality network reception, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB OTG worked fine.

Camera. The camera performance, too, is a lot like the Zenfone 2 Deluxe – detailed, colours are quite sharp, but lags behind in low-light and macro shots. Though I did find the camera app to be a little quicker to take a shot in case of the Zenfone 2, the difference isn’t much. The device has a 13 MP rear camera, and here are a few sample images.

Battery. The battery performance was slightly short of the Zenfone 2 with the average being 14 to 15 hours. There’s a 2A charger bundled with the phone that charges it up in a little under two hours (0-50% in about 40 minutes).

Software and performance. There’s an Intel Z3580 chispet in place(2.3 GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR G6430 GPU) coupled with 4 GB of RAM. It runs on Android 5.0 with ZenUI on top. The overall performance on the phone is satisfactory. It handled games like FF Legacy and Real Racing 3 quite well, as there weren’t any frame drops or stuttering during playing. The phone does warm up a little near the dual tone flash, but not to an alarming extent.

Extensive customization options – icons packs, themes, icon text colour, double tap to wake and lock – are present here. Plus, four dozen ASUS apps are also present, something that really needs to be cleaned up ASAP. The only place it seemed to struggle a little was the recent apps list where scrolling isn’t as smooth and sometimes the selected app would take a while to load up, a known Android Lollipop issue.

All in all, it can perform most tasks well and hardly lagged during my usage. I used the 64 GB model that had about 54 GB of available space, which you can further expand using a microSD card. There’s also a 128 GB model priced a bit higher (and 256 GB in select markets).

It’s clear that ASUS really had one thing in mind for the Zenfone 2 Deluxe – the same content, but new packaging. It would be fair to say ASUS has done well with it. If you want a phone with a rear that is rather not boring, you should consider this phone that has a similar performance and experience as the original Zenfone 2.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

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Review: Vivo X5Pro

We take a look at Vivo’s new smartphone and realise that the phone does not match up to its price tag.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Vivo came into the Indian smartphone market late last year. The company launched as many as five phones including the then world’s slimmest smartphone, the X5Max. The X5Pro, on paper, seems to have a lot to change that. But is it worth your Rs 27,000?

The looks. The Vivo X5Pro is among the slimmest phones out there. At just 6.4mm thickness, the phone feels elegant yet comfortable to hold. Plus, with 2.5D Gorilla glass on both sides, the device isn’t slippery. The 5.2-inch Super AMOLED on the front has 8 MP front-facing camera, speaker grille, sensors and notification LED on top, and three capacitive touch at the bottom.

The aluminium alloy frame sports slim volume keys and Power/Lock key, followed by dual SIM tray – micro SIM card + either nano SIM card or microSD card near the bottom on the right side; and the left side has been left plain. The top gets the 3.5mm headset jack near towards the left. The company says the phone has been constructed using aircraft wing-quality materials for less damage.

Screen. There’s a 5.2-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) Super AMOLED covered under Corning Gorilla Glass. There is also a crystal coating on top of the screen, which you can notice only near the edges, but doesn’t sacrifice on the screen quality. The company has done a good job with the display. Colours look bright and sharp, and darker black levels that you associate with an AMOLED panel are in place, too. It is usable under sunlight and does justice full HD videos, not compromising on viewing angles.

Vivo X5 ProCamera. The X5Pro boasts a 13 MP (f/2.0) camera on the back. Here are a few sample images.

The camera is okay for most images. It takes detailed shots and close ups, but lacks in colour contrast and overall sharpness. The camera app has quite few modes including an after effect for bokeh (defocus background) effect.

Audio.The X5Pro features a dedicated Cirrus Logic DAC AK4375 audio chip. The loudspeaker output from the bottom speakers is not bad at all. The output is loud for video or playing a game. In the box, you get a pair of white earphones, and the pair is among the best, in my opinion, you get bundled with a phone today. The audio quality is clear, handles bass and treble quite well. You won’t be disappointed with them if you’re used to default bundled headsets, and they are also comfortable to wear.

Network. The phone handles WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G, and GPS connectivity well. Voice quality is really good, while network reception wasn’t a problem either. What didn’t really work as it should is its accelerometer. Quite a few times when the phone is tilted back to portrait mode (from landscape), it just wouldn’t switch.

Battery. The phone carries a 2.450 mAh non-accessible battery unit. Battery life is a bit of a hit and miss. During first few days, it didn’t last me anywhere close to 22 hours, but upon further use and charge, I was able to get almost a day from it. The 2A bundled charger charges the device from 0 to full in almost two hours. The super saver battery feature, which allows using only phone, clock, and messaging functions, lasts a full day with about 10% on standby.

Software and performance. The phone is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 SoC (1.5 GHz quad core + 1 GHz quad core processor, Adreno 405 GPU), along with 2 GB of RAM. It runs on FunTouch OS 2.1, which is based on Android 5.0.2.

The phone lags quite a bit and doesn’t really do justice to its price tag. Scrolling and swiping between apps and Settings isn’t smooth. Just a bit of gaming and playing full HD videos and the phone’s back and even volume buttons heat up, at times so much that you may not feel comfortable holding the device for long. The issue also came up after an OTA firmware update.

One major bug I found was you use Documents to attach a file inside the Gmail app, the file doesn’t get attached and the Email gets sent without one, so you would have to use a file manager (other than the pre-loaded one) to do so. The OS is a little different from what we are used to seeing from new handset manufacturers today. But that doesn’t really result into a cohesive overall look and feel. There is no separate app launcher and widgets and app icons are placed on Home screens.

Super Screenshot is one of the novelties that allows you to take a screenshot longer than a single page to stitch into a single image. The user gets about 7 GB of storage space, which you can expand using a microSD card.

Overall, the X5Pro promises a lot and delivers little. It looks good aesthetically, has a great AMOLED panel, but misses out with its heating and performance issues and average battery life and camera. At around Rs. 27,000, this phone will fight a hard battle against the likes of the G3, S5, and others, and probably not survive it.

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Review: LG G4

We check out LG’s newest smartphone and find that the Rs 45,000 phone has great hardware but its software needs improvement.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

For the last two-three years, LG has been one of those Android players that are slowly but steadily climbing the market ladder thanks to their improved offering. It started with the Optimus G, then came along the G2 and G3, has now culminated with the G4.

The looks. We go the Korean LG G4 (F500L) unit for review, which is different from the Indian SIM unit one. The phone follows a similar design language as the G3. With the volume rocker and Power/Lock key placed at the back, the phone carries no keys or slots on sides. It comes in plastic and leather options. The back has a nice vertical double lined stitching across the body center, which seems quite unique for a smartphone today.

The keys are more tactile and require a little getting used to. You can remove the rear cover to access the SIM slot, microSD card slot and 3,000 mAh battery unit. On the front, the phone has slightly different, less shiny chin with the LG logo. Just above the screen is the LED notification, sensors and 8 MP front-facing camera. The top has the secondary mic and small infrared port; while the bottom houses the 3.5mm headset jack and primary mic.

Apart from the curved top and bottom curvature, the phone is noticeably curved, that and less pointy edges make the G4 more comfortable to carry around. While the 5.5-inch (quad HD screen) still makes it a big phone, thinner bezels and less slippery plastic ensure it grips well.

Screen. The device sports a 5.5-inch (2560 x 1440) LCD with something called quantum dot technology. The screen is covered with Gorilla Glass on top and is quite prone to smudges and fingerprints. The screen has much better colour reproduction, brighter and just generally nicer to look at than the G3. It is also more usable under direct sunlight.

Camera. LG has been quite vocal about the G4’s 16 MP (f/1.8) camera with enhanced OIS. Here are a few sample images.

You can quickly launch the camera by double-tapping the volume down button. The camera is fast to focus. The camera app itself is okay. As for camera performance, the G4 generally performs really well. Photos are detailed, have a lot of saturated colours, and even in low-light, the camera’s wide aperture sensor doesn’t disappoint.

Battery. Coming to the battery life, the G4 carries a 3,000 mAh battery unit. I hardly got a day’s usage from the device. With brightness level set at 30%, two Email Accounts in sync, a bit of HD videos on YouTube, a lot of Web browsing and Twitter, the phone couldn’t last 24 hours on a single full charge. It supports QuickCharge 2.0 and takes around two hours to charge from zero to full.

Network reception. Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi, NFC, 3G and USB OTG didn’t cause a problem, and while Delhi has just got its first 4G LTE service (Airtel), I am yet to get my hands on a 4G SIM card here, so I couldn’t really test the phone’s 4G capability. In-ear call quality and mic perform like a flagship device should and so did overall network reception, which didn’t require any troubleshooting.

Software and performance. The device is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset (hexa-core processor – 1.8 GHz dual core + 1.4 GHz quad-core, Adreno 418 GPU) along with 3 GB of RAM. The phone runs on Android 5.1 with LG’s new UX 4.0 on top. The G3 had its share of problems when it came to performance and software design.

Does the G4 do any better on those points? Yes and no. While the device’s general performance seems much better, the software look and design have a lot to improve on. Scrolling Settings, navigating the OS work well, but there’s still occasional stutter a few times in a day. LG’s icon, general UX design has still require a lot of work. The whole design is inconsistent just doesn’t feel like something from a company in smartphone business for this long.

While LG says a lot has been done to refine their skin, it doesn’t seem so on the ground. Home screens now have Smart Bulletin on the left-most screen that provide one-stop center for your fitness, calendar schedule, and something called Smart Settings. Through Smart Settings, you can configure your phone to open certain apps or perform tasks based on your location. For example, programme it to switch on WiFi when you are at home, or open an app when you plug in your earphones. The user gets about 22 GB of storage space, which is of course expandable up to 2 TB using a microSD card.

The G4 is one of the best smartphones out there for when it comes to hardware — fantastic camera, great screen, unique design. While the software leaves a lot to be desired, it’s not that big an issue for some considering the phone holds quite well in general day-to-day usage.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

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Review: Teewe 2

We test the recently released and improved streaming dongle Teewe 2 and come away pleased with its performance and features.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

More and more people these days want their TV to be a bit more than just an idiot box. We have had smart TVs in the market for a couple of years now, but haven’t seen anything that provides any extra utility. This is where the likes of Teewe and Chromecast come in. Teewe, an Indian startup (MangoMan), came out with its first streaming stick last year; got good reviews, and is now out with the new Teewe 2, apparently better since they have listened to a lot of customer feedback.

What is it? Teewe 2 is a streaming dongle. It allows you to mirror or throw something that you’re watching on your phone or PC or have it stored right on your TV’s bigger screen. In the box, you get an HDMI cable, a relatively longer USB cable, power adapter, the stick itself and a setup manual. The stick is a little bigger in size than a usual thumb drive, but a bit smaller than the original Teewe.

The looks. It is all-black, made out of plastic, with the HDMI port right at the top and microUSB port on one side. Its internal hardware comprises a 1.6 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A9 based processor, quad-core GPU, 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of storage space (not accessible). It is essentially based on Android 4.2’s development tree and the company provides firmware updates in the background.

Teewe_2Setting up the device. It supports Windows (requires Java installed), Mac OS X, Linux (JVM), iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and even has a plugin Chrome along with a Web app. Insert it in your TV’s HDMI port, put the smaller microUSB side into the Teewe 2 dongle and its charging USB side either into a power socket (through the power adapter) or your TV’s USB port.

While most TVs will provide for power through a USB port, if yours doesn’t, you would have to make use of the long microUSB cable extending it to power socket. As soon as you switch your TV’s HDMI mode and fire up the app on your device, the dongle will search for the device while connecting to a WiFi network. Keep in mind, both your device and dongle need to be on the same network.

What’s good. I tried the device on Chrome and an Android smartphone, and found the app to be pretty decent. The Android app shows you content from YouTube (you can search further), local content on your phone like images, videos, and audio files. Using the Chrome plugin, you can either play some video or audio content from a Webpage or mirror a tab, so whatever is playing on that tab exactly mirrors on your TV. For movies stored on your PC, you can even have subtitles streamed and synced with any movie playing on your TV, but this feature is only available on Windows for now.

Performance. The stick streamed up to 720p at 60FPS for me. The Android app allows you to select from HD or SD, though you cannot do it while playing a video and have to select it from the app’s main page once. Streaming worked smoothly and I rarely found a stutter. If you’re streaming from, say, YouTube, its loading and playing time obviously depends on your Internet connection. If you’re playing local files, the dongle uses FTP, and it worked well for me, whether high quality images, audio files or a video. I couldn’t get the Teewe 2 stick to do full HD 1080p, though. For now, it doesn’t mirror your entire phone or PC, but the company is working on it. Buyers also get 60 GB of additional broadband data if they’re using an Airtel connection, and two months of free EROS service via the Teewe 2 apps.

The verdict. All in all, I think the Tewee 2 does its job really well. It is mainly for streaming content from the Web or local and has no fancy, useless features that would make it perform poorly. My only concern is with the ChromeCast 2 launching quite soon, but if you aren’t bothered to wait, and are looking for a good option to make a better use of your HD TV, the Teewe 2 could well be a good buy for you under Rs 2,400.

Would you try this device? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Review: ASUS ZenFone 2

Priced at Rs 24,000, the phone has some great features and some minor quibbles, but is a good device overall.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

ASUS has been slowly and steadily climbing up the smartphone ladder in the Indian market. The tech company got rave reviews with the original ZenFone. Continuing the trend after the ZenFone 5 and 6 is now the ZenFone 2 that has a lot of things going for it – 4 GB RAM, 5.5-inch full HD screen, 3,000 mAh battery, among others. Let’s find out if this Intel-powered device can hold its own in its price segment.

The looks. The ASUS ZenFone 2’s (ZE551ML) unique design is not massively different from the Zenfone, but is sufficiently different. The phone has volume rockers (similar to those on LG G3 and now the G4) on the back right next to the camera sensor and dual tone LED flash; other than the loudspeaker and ASUS, Intel and ZenFone logo complete the rear. The back has a nice brushed (almost faux aluminum) plastic material.

The phone’s back has a noticeable curve and with the smooth dual shade plastic sides and curved edges, it is comfortable to hold and carry. Having said that, its sheer size, bezel and weight (about 170 grams) will be a bit too much for some. On the front, the phone has a nice brushed aluminium chin just below the three capacitive touch keys — Back, Home and recent Apps key.

Right above the screen, other than the ASUS logo (second one) you have LED notification light, ear-speaker and 5 MP front-facing camera. The microUSB port and primary mic are placed right at the bottom. Plus, those slim volume keys are not the most tactile ones, but you will get used to them. The Power/Lock key is at the top along with the 3.5mm headset jack and secondary mic. The Power button placed, at the top right, located in the middle, is also hard to press.

Asus ZenFone 2Display. The phone features a 5.5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD. On paper, it is on par with most other smartphones in this price category today. The screen looks sharp and, while it is not the most pixel-dense display, does a good job for most tasks. I thought the phone performed well with videos and images. You can change the screen’s colour calibration using the inbuilt colour temperature app.

Battery. The phone has a 3,000 mAh battery unit. On most occasions it lasted me over 20 hours on a single charge (with a little over three hours of screen on-time). The usage included one SIM card inserted, two Email Accounts on sync, about half an hour or HD YouTube videos and music playback each. The phone takes a little under two hours to get fully charged from zero using the bundled charger. The battery is a solid point for the ZenFone 2; it hardly drained more than usual.

Audio. The loudspeaker on the back (designed to look longer than the speaker actually) isn’t very punchy for videos and games output and you would often have to use your hand to cup the speaker and get better sound. I didn’t any bundled headsets, so I can’t about in-ear sound. Call quality and in-ear sound were on par, and there were no problems with voice or sound during calls. One SIM card slot has 3G and 4G LTE supports, while the other has just 2G. Basics like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and network data didn’t require any troubleshooting.

Camera. The ZenFone 2 boasts a 13 MP rear camera with dual tone LED flash. Here are a few sample images.

The camera can take detailed, sharp photos, especially in broad daylight. The camera app has loads of options, in particular HDR and Depth mode work well and can be pretty useful at times. In low-light, the camera gives noisy photos and you may want to opt for low resolution photos. Having said that, it usually gave bright coloured shots better than most smartphones in this price range. There’s also a software feature called Super Resolution that lets you take 50 MP photos – by combining four shots and stitching them together.

Software and performance. The ZenFone 2 comes with an Intel Z3580 chipset (2.3 GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR G6430 GPU) and whopping 4 GB of RAM, which is surely one of the USPs of the phone. It runs on Android 5.0 with ASUS’s own ZenUI on top. The phone feels a lot smoother and snappier to work on than its predecessor. There are not too many Intel-powered Android phones, but this one certainly does its job without lagging.

ASUS has loaded plenty of options in every nook and corner of the OS. With a dedicated themes center, you can now choose the overall look of the phone – from wallpaper, lock screen, scrolling effect, option to change how your Menu launcher shows app icons or arranges them, to even changing icons from one of the icon packs from the Play Store, yep. Contacts app allows you to select certain contacts under the tab VIP, for whom you may contact frequently or just want to view separate from the rest. There are dozens of ASUS apps pre-loaded as well as annoying third-party apps, which you can uninstall. There is a dedicated ASUS support app you can use to chat and get help from the company’s customer support, so that you don’t have to wait holding calls.

ASUS has done a really good job with the ZenFone 2. With a good camera and screen, feature-heavy and relatively smooth OS, decent battery life and innovative design, the phone seems to be up there with other heavyweights when it comes to phones under Rs 24,000.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

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Review: Coolpad’s Dazen X7

The new Chinese smartphone is a good buy at its price, but needs to sort out a few software niggles.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We recently reviewed the Coolpad Dazen 1, which is the company’s sub Rs 7k smartphone, just a few days back and now we take a look at Coolpad’s flagship device, the Dazen X7. The Dazen X7, priced a little under Rs 18,000, comes as a direct competitor to the popular Xiaomi Mi4 and Lenovo Vibe X2. This price segment is already full of a lot of good options, so how good is the Dazen X7?

The looks. The Dazen X7 has a glass back and front and metallic sides. The front has a noticeable metal-clad earspeaker grille above the 5.2-inch AMOLED, sensors and an 8 Mp front-facing camera. At the bottom, you have the microUSB port with loudspeaker on the one side and primary mic on the other. The top houses the 3.5mm headset jack and secondary mic. The right side consists of two SIM card slots (nano or microSD card and micro SIM card slot as well the Power/Lock key towards the top; while the left side has the volume rockers, both keys are just a little sharp for my liking, but have decent tactile feedback.

The back has a 13 MP camera with a protruding broad metal cover that might get a bit scratched a bit with usage; then there’s the Coolpad logo near the bottom. The phone is light to hold but it is a bit slippery and sides and glass back mean it may not be very comfortable to hold.

Display. The Coolpad Dazen X7 features a 5.2-inch full HD (1920 x 1200) AMOLED. There are not many companies who use AMOLED and especially not at this price range. The display is pretty nice, actually. While it doesn’t have vibrant colours like a high-end Samsung device would, colours are still quite sharp and bright. It is noticeably less mellow than an LCD, has good viewing angles, full HD videos appear well on it and it does a decent job under sunlight.

Camera. The company has been quite vocal about the camera experience and how well they have tweaked its software for better shots. Here are a few sample images.

As you can see, the phone can take pretty detailed photos. While I wasn’t too impressed with how laggy the camera app can be at times, it does have a lot of options including a Pro mode, which gives you options to choose from various ISO, exposure settings to select from. In daylight, the app performed okay, but when shooting in low-light, it really struggled to keep up. It may struggle with exposure and take a really long time capture shots. To say the camera is among the best would be wrong, but it isn’t bad; it just needs some software tweaking to make it fly in low-light conditions.

Dazen X7Sound. Audio quality fared well. The bottom-facing speaker does a decent job for videos and games, but thanks to its placement, you may shut them with your hand while holding the phone in landscape. You don’t get earphones bundled with the phone.

Battery. Powered by a non-removable 2,700 mAh battery unit, the phone’s battery life seemed just on par with most phones. The company claims they have done some hardware-software optimisation to give 33 per cent extra juice from the phone. It lasted me around 18 hours when used moderately, but went below 14 hours when used heavily. Putting a high-quality all black wallpaper helps a bit considering this is an AMOLED.

Software and performance. The device runs on Android 4.4.2 with CoolUI 6 on top. It’s equipped with a MediaTek 6595 SoC (1.7 GHz octa-core processor, PowerVR Series6 GPU) as well as 2 GB of RAM.

The phone handles most tasks quite well. Going in and out of apps doesn’t lag, videos play without stuttering and scrolling is good. Having said that, at times Settings and the pre-loaded Cool Store (still don’t know why have they bundled it) struggle to provide smooth performance, but it is not so frequent. The phone does heat considerable once you play games for about 20 minutes, or simply put it on charge and the phone’s back heats up in matter of few minutes.

The whole OS is pretty much identical to what we have on the Dazen 1, except for the multi-window feature. If enabled, you get a small arrow on your Homescreen. In pressing, it gives you a list of apps that you can open – two at times – and you can edit this list. I found every app I installed could be put into multi-window. It can be a handy feature for some for sure, but I didn’t find much utility for it. Having said that, it does work fairly well and there wasn’t any performance issues with multi-window switched on under Settings.

You get about 10 GB of available storage space. There are four onscreen keys – Back, Home, Recent apps key, and one key to make the navigation bar disappear. In order to make the navigation bar reappear, you have to swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The phone still runs on dated Android KitKat and the company has said its Lollipop upgrade should be out soon. This is one obvious shortcoming of the phone as of now, had it been updated to Android 5.1 (or even 5.0), it would have given this newcomer a significant lead over quite a few players.

All in all, the Dazen X7 seems like a capable smartphone. It has a great screen, average battery life, good camera and fine design. While the software side could certainly be improved, the hardware department if the phone is decent enough at about Rs 18,000.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

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