Xiaomi Redmi 1S Review

Chinese Apple: Hard to Ignore

My Ratings: 4/5

Xioami fascinated me from the first day they launched their phones in India although I am not big fan of Chinese manufacturers. The fascination may be because of the value or the specifications they were delivering at such a reasonable price.  I tried purchasing Mi3 but could not get my hand over it so I tried my luck with Redmi 1S once it was launched.

Build and design

The phone looks like a mix of Lumia(back) and Xperia(front). The front panel features 4.7-inch IPS display and 1.6MP front-facing camera. It has a removable back cover with matte finish. Lucky that opening back cover is not as tricky as Lumia’s.  The phone features an 8MP camera with LED flash .

Nokia Lumia 625 Review

Overpriced Lumia

My ratings 2.5/5
 

This is my third review on a Lumia phone- after 800 and 520. The experience was worst in Lumia 800, best in Lumia 520 and just ok in Lumia 625. So let us talk about the Lumia 625.

The phone has typical Lumia design with smooth curves on the edges, Corning Gorilla Glass 2 screen and polycarbonate panel at the back. All the corners and edges are rounded off, and the shell is marginally convex, so it rests nicely in the palm.

All the physical keys- volume rocker, power button/lock key, and camera are on right side.  The buttons are in plastic and in the same color as that of the phone’s rear shell - unlike the black keys of Lumia 520 & 620. There are no keys or ports at the left side of the phone. The Micro-USB port and microphone are located at the bottom, while 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top of the phone.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 review

King of phones in sub-30k category

My ratings: 4/5

You may think that why I am reviewing a phone released more than a year back and also a successor has already been released in the form of Note 3. Believe me it is still the king in its segment.

Why Note 2?

I have purchased this mobile in October 2013, few days after the release of Note 3. I have my own set of requirements for this choice

1. It has quad core processor , good enough or my requirements. My motive is to get any information on my tips at quickest speed without any performance lags. Interestingly I never play games so very high speed processor doesn’t matter much.

Sony Xperia Sola Review

Simple & Smart

My Ratings: 3/5


I have used almost all the major brands of mobile phones except Sony. Finally I have got a chance to use it. I gifted Sony Xperia Sola to my brother and am using it vigorously to know the positives and negatives of this phone.

In the quest

I explored extensively for a right phone to gift it to my brother. There were few basic requirements before I started the search.
1. Android phone; the version was not of much concern.
2. Minimum 5MP camera (secondary camera was needed but not of primary concern).
3. Impressive screen resolution.
4. Preferably single-SIM support.
5. Amazing looks and design.
6. Minimum 3.5inch screen.
7. Pricing should be in in the range of 15-20k.

I was surprised to find out that there were not many mobiles matching these specifications . I choose Sony just because I want to try out something new and Sony is always a preferable brand for music playback.

Windows 8 Review

Window for a new experience

My ratings: 4/4


New gadgets, new releases, new technologies, new updates and upgrades attract me so I immediately installed Windows 8 Pro once it was launched. I didn’t wait for reviews or feedbacks because I want to remain updated anyhow. It’s more than a week I am using the latest version of Windows. I would share only key points that would help you decide that whether you need this upgrade or not and how to use it more effectively.

Brief description

The new windows has two versions of screens- one is the old ‘desktop screen’ and other is tiled ‘metro screen’ . There is a hidden shortcut bar (shortcut to search, share, start, devices and settings) on left edge (named as ‘ Charms Bar ’) that is visible when mouse is pointed on top right corner. The ‘ settings’ option in charm bar can be used to control Wi-Fi, Volume, Power on/off, brightness, notifications and online keyboard . You will also find ‘Change PC Settings’ at the bottom in settings pane to control general settings. When you press the Start shortcut on this bar, you will be transferred to a totally new screen having live tiles that can be scrolled from left to right.

Samsung Galaxy Chat Review

 Best Touch-n-Type ANDROID Phone

 My ratings: 3.5/5

Recently I have purchased Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos (GYPD) and the main reason for choosing that phone was its dual SIM feature. Samsung has launched a new mobile in place of that, with better features but single SIM. I got a chance to use newly launched Samsung Galaxy Chat for few days and I am sharing my experience here.

Samsung Galaxy Chat is unique mobile for its feature and price range. There is no Android ICS enabled mobile with touch and type feature at this price.

This phone has 3-inch display with a resolution of 240x320 pixels, and comes with a physical QWERTY keypad . It is equipped with Android ICS (4.0) that is upgradable to Jelly Bean (Android 4.1); 850 MHz processor with 512MB of RAM . It is powered with 1200mAh battery and available in black and white colours.

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos review

Basic ANDROID for basic users

(This review got First Prize of Rs.10,000 in 'Mouthshut.com Review contest'  Click here for details )

My ratings: 3/5

I am back with another review of a gadget I possessed recently.  Till now I have used Java, Symbian, iOS, BADA, Windows and thus I was eagerly waiting to acquire an Android phone. I want to solve many purposes with this phone, so I started my quest for a dual-SIM Android phone with QWERTY keypad . There were not many options in reputed brands so I finally zeroed upon Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos.

Basic Specifications

GPRS, Edge, GPS, 3G connectivity
Android 2.3 OS
800 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM; 150 MB internal memory
2.6-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen (320 x 240 pixels)
3.2MP rear camera, VGA front camera
Touch and type, Dual SIM functionality
1350 mAh battery

NOKIA N8 Review

THE BEST CAMERA PHONE

My Rating- 4/5

I have purchased Nokia N8 just after a week of its release (on 24th October). It is five months since I am using this mobile. I just want to share my views on it.

My Views
  
Hardware: It is no doubt the most ruggedly handsome devices of recent memory. The body is almost Aluminum construction and a typical mixture of curvy sides and sternly straight lines at the top and bottom.The biggest distinguishing feature is it’s protruding camera compartment on the back, which houses the world’s largest image sensor yet seen in a smartphone, a Carl Zeiss lens, a Xenon flash, and a loudspeaker.
The protruding compartment has drawback also. Since the phone spends most of its horizontal time resting on the camera section’s bottom edge, so over the long run that portion of the body will suffer plenty of wear and tear. So I regularly use a cover to protect that portion.
Screen-locking slider is made of plastic. Since it is most used button, it would be better if it was made as rest of the body. The Xenon flash of camera is heavy power drain. The battery is not user replaceable and that can be a cause of concern if we want to have an additional backup battery.