This time in our weekly roundup of major announcements and launches, we have three devices from South Korean major LG, a convertible tablet-cum-laptop device and a smartphone from Micromax, cheapest Lumia smartphone till date from Microsoft, another addition in Lenovo’s popular ‘A’ series and more here.
Starting with this week’s star manufacturer LG, the company launched its two smartphones in India and unveiled the 2015 flagship LG G4 internationally.
The two LG devices that went on sale in India this week are the LG G Flex2 and the LG Magna.
The successor to LG G Flex called the LG G Flex2 was first unveiled at Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015) press conference in Las Vegas in January. On Friday, the company started selling it in India for Rs. 54,990. We went hands-on with the G Flex 2 at CES, checkout the video below and full specifications here.
httpv://youtu.be/rvXi9dOqYiA
Coming to the mid-range LG Magna, it is officially priced at Rs. 16,500 (MRP) on LG India website, but the smartphone is available at a lesser price via third-party online retailers in India. LG Magna was first announced back in February ahead of MWC 2015. The Indian variant of LG Magna (LG-H502F)smartphone features a 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) display; a 1.3GHz quad-core processor; 1GB of RAM; an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; a 5-megapixel front-facing camera; 2540mAh removable battery, and Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Micromax launched two devices in India this week, Micromax Canvas Play Q355 smartphone at Rs. Rs. 7,490 and the Micromax Canvas Laptab (convertible tablet-cum-laptop) at Rs. 14,999.
Micromax Canvas Play Q355 has a 5.5-inch FWVGA (480×854 pixels) display, is powered by a 1.3GHz quad core MediaTek processor and runs on Android 5.0 (Lollipop). It has a 5-megapixel fixed focus rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. Checkout the full specifications here.
The Micromax Canvas Laptab is a two-in-one tablet that with a detachable keyboard can double up as a functional laptop device. The company introduced a dual-boot tab last year at the CES, which did not launch.
This has a similar design, but it runs only on Windows 8.1 and has better specifications. It features a 10.1-inch (1280×800 pixels) IPS screen; a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor; a 2-megapixel rear camera and front facing camera, and 7700mAh battery. Checkout our hands-on with the Micromax Canvas Laptab here.
On Thursday, Microsoft brought its cheapest Lumia smartphone – Lumia 430 Dual SIM – to India at Rs. 5,299. It has a 4-inch WVGA display, is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 SoC, runs on Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim update, packs a 2-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera without flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It will also get the Windows 10 mobile OS update in future. Read our hands-on with the device here and checkout the quick video below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqPQqZPiRwI
Continuing with its popular A series of smartphones, Lenovo silently launched the A5000 in India through its official Lenovo Store at Rs. 9,999. It has a 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display, is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor and runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with Vibe UI skin on top. It packs 4000mAh battery that promises up to 35 hours talk time and up to 33.5 days standby. It features an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Lastly the three smartphones from Indian manufacturers launched under Rs. 10,000 are the Celkon Campus A518 (Rs. 4,400), iBall Cobalt Oomph 4.7D (Rs. 7,999), and the Intex Aqua Power+ (Rs. 8,999).
Weekly Announcements
First up is the fourth iteration of LG’s G smartphone, the flagship LG G4.
The smartphone comes in Metallic Gray, Ceramic White, Shiny Gold paint job with Ceramic back, Black, Brown, Red, Sky Blue, Beige or Yellow genuine leather options. It has already gone on sale goes on sale in Korea starting Friday, at KRW 825,000 (approximately Rs. 48,880 or $775). The device will soon come to other regions as well.
The design has of the LG G4 is little different from its predecessor LG G3. The smartphone is very slightly curved and this tweak in the design is said to improve the handling and rigidity by 20 percent.
If you were expecting the LG G4 to feature a metal body then it’s not the case, LG has gone ahead with polycarbonate shell. The device has a textured back panel and according to the company, it is scratch resistant. Do note that it’s not self-healing as the one on the G Flex and it’s just that you cannot the scratch the surface easily. There’s also some stylish genuine leather back panel options available. Checkout our full coverage here.
Coming to the Asus Zenfone 2, we have already covered the device here. The Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) was launched in India earlier this month at Rs. 19,999 for the 32GB and the 64GB variant was launched at Rs. 22,999. During the launch, Asus did not mention about the 128GB variant, but company has silently listed it on Flipkart at a price tag of Rs. 29,999.
Apart from the internal storage, all the variants of Zenfone 2 ZE551ML share similar specifications that includes, 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) display with Corning gorilla glass 3 protection, 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, 4GB RAM, microSD expansion slot, 13-megapixel rear PixelMaster camera with Real Tone flash, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, Android 5.0 (Lollipop), Dual SIM support, 4G LTE connectivity and a 3000mAh battery.
Lastly, the two new devices from Huawei unveiled this week are – the Huawei Honor 4C and the Huawei P8lite.
The Huawei Honor 4C comes in Black, White, Gold, Blue and Pink colors and is priced at CNY 799 ($129 / Rs. 8130 approx.). The Huawei P8lite comes in Black, White and Gold colors and is priced at EUR 249 ($276 / Rs. 17,540 approx.).
Huawei Honor 4C features a 5-inch HD display; Huawei’s own Kirin 620 chipset 64-bit A53 Octa-core processor; 2GB of RAM; a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; a 5-megapixel front-facing camera; 8GB internal memory with microSD card expansion slot, and Android 4.4 Kitkat with Emotion UI 3.0 skin on top. The smartphone is expected to launch in India next week on Thursday.
The Huawei P8lite is the budget variant of its flagship P8 smartphone. It has a 5-inch HD display, is powered by an Huawei’s octa-core Kirin 620 64-bit processor coupled with 2Gb of RAM; packs a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The smartphone runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with Emotion UI 3.1 skin on top. The phone has a unibody design similar to the Huawei P8.