This week, popular Chinese company Xiaomi finally launched its Redmi Note 3 smartphone in India. The firm also announced its Mi Bluetooth speaker and the 20000mAh power bank. The Xiaomi Mi 5 will be launched next month.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 flaunts a metal body, hybrid dual SIM support with 4G on both, fingerprint sensor on the back. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, is powered by a hexa-core Snapdragon 650 (Snapdragon 618 previously) processor, runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop) with MIUI 7 top, a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash and phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF), resulting in a quick focus of just 0.1 second and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has a 4000mAh battery with fast charging support that company claims can charge 50% battery in just 1 hour.
We went hands-on with the smartphone at the MWC last week, check out the video below. Also check out the review of the smartphone.
httpv://youtu.be/InCV1yPiyL4
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes in Dark Grey, Silver and Champagne Gold colors and is priced at Rs. 9,999 for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version, while the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage variant costs Rs. 11,999. It will be available starting from March 9th at 2PM in the first flash sale on Mi.com and Amazon.in. Xiaomi said that the smartphone will soon be available through other online channels such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, and also through offline retail stores.
Xiaomi’s Mi Bluetooth speaker will be made available around 3rd week of March in India, but there is no exact date as of now. It comes in Gold, Blue and Pink colors and is priced at Rs. 1,999.
The Mi Bluetooth speaker was first introduced back in September last year in China. It has a full metal body and looks like a small pencil box. It weighs just 270 grams. It has a built-in microphone so that you can use it for calls when it is connected to your smartphone. The only difference in India will be that it doesn’t come with a microSD slot.
Samsung introduced T3, it’s latest palm-sized, external solid state drive (SSD) with USB 3.1 Type C support at the CES 2016 earlier this year and finally launched it in India this week.
The Samsung T3 is compatible with a range of USB supported devices, including the latest Android smartphones and tablets, and computers with Windows or Mac OS. It comes in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. It offers sequential read and write speeds of up to 450MB/s with a USB 3.1 interface and weighs just 51 grams. It is based on the same controllers and flash used in 2.5″ SATA SSDs, includes a Type C to Type A cable and has a metal casing.
The Samsung T3 Portable SSD 250GB is priced at Rs. 10,999, 500GB for Rs. 18,999, 1TB for Rs. 37,999, and 2TB for Rs. 74,999. It will be available across India starting from March 21st.
Asus launched its latest ZenBook UX305CA, UX303UB and UX305UA with Intel Core m3, 6th Gen Core i5 and Core i7 processors, respectively. All these have a 13.3-inch screen, come in Smoky Brown and Icicle Gold color with metal finish and the chassis measures just 0.7 inch thin.
The Asus ZenBook UX305CA-FC074T is priced at Rs. 55,490. The Asus ZenBook UX303UB is priced at Rs. 71,490. The Asus ZenBook UX305UA-FB011T is priced at Rs. 74,190. All these notebooks are available through Asus Exclusive Stories and online retailers.
Creative Technology launched a new Bluetooth headset with MP3 player dubbed Creative Outlier. It comes with changeable 6 pair of colourful acoustic rings. It weighs just 93 grams and will fit easily into just about any rucksack, tote bag or attache case, according to Creative. It also has such as the Pacer Mode to keep track of lap or workout timings and built-in microphone.
The Creative Outlier is available only in Black color in India, is priced at Rs. 6,499 and is available through Amazon.in.
Lava launched Iris Fuel F2, the company’s latest smartphone in the Fuel series with a 3000mAh battery. It has a 5-inch FWVGA IPS display, is powered by a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with single LED flash and VGA front-facing camera. It comes with dual-SIM support and has 3G connectivity.
The Lava Iris Fuel F2 comes in Black and White colors and is priced at Rs. 4,444. It is exclusively available from eBay.in.
Intex launched Cloud Breeze, it’s latest budget 3G smartphone with 1GB of RAM. It has a 5-inch FWVGA display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It has dual SIM support and packs a 2300mAh battery.
The Intex Cloud Breeze comes in Grey color and is priced at Rs. 3,999.
Micromax launched Canvas tab P702, the company’s latest tablet with 4G connectivity and voice calling capabilities. It has a 7-inch HD IPS display, is powered by a quad-core MediaTek processor, runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop), has a 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
The Micromax Canvas Tab P702 comes in Bold Black and Classy White colors and is priced at Rs. 7,999. It is exclusively available from Snapdeal.
Weekly Announcements
Vivo announced its latest flagship smartphone Xplay5 in two variants, one with 6GB of RAM and Snapdragon 820 SoC, while the other variant has 4GB of RAM and Octa-Core Snapdragon 652 SoC. Other specifications are similar, including a 5.43-inch dual curved edge Quad HD Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla glass protection, 16-megapixel rear camera with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) for focus speed of just 0.1 seconds and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
The vivo Xplay5 comes in Champagne Gold and Rose Gold colors. The vivo Xplay5 Ultimate Edition with 6GB RAM with Snapdragon 820 SoC is priced at 4288 Yuan (US$ 654 / Rs. 44,400 approx.), while the 4GB RAM with Snapdragon 652 variant is priced at 3698 Yuan (US$ 564 / Rs. 38,310 approx.) and will be available for order starting from March 8 and ships from March 16th.
Amazon this week introduced two speakers – Amazon Tap in the form of a portable speaker and Amazon Echo Dot, which is a tiny disk.
The Amazon Tap has dual stereo speakers with Dolby processing that promises crisp vocals, extended bass response, and 360° omni-directional audio. It also has a built-in battery that promises up to 9 hours of continuous playback.
The Amazon Echo Dot is a small built-in speaker that connects to home speakers with an audio cable or via Bluetooth, and add voice-control to your home stereo system. The Amazon Tap is priced at $129.99, now available for order and ships March 31st. The Amazon Echo Dot is priced at $89.99 and is available exclusively for Prime members through Alexa Voice Shopping (existing Echo and Fire TV customers).
DJI introduced a successor to the Phantom 3 drone, dubbed as Phantom 4 which comes equipped with bunch of high end features. Phantom 4 sports a ‘Obstacle Sensing System” that uses two front-facing sensors that detect anything that comes in the drone’s path.
The smart cameras on the drone use computer vision to dodge obstacles and even track subjects. The drone comes with a 4K camera and a 1/2.3-inch sensor and they can record 4K at 30fps and Full HD 1080p at 120fps for slow motion. Pre-orders for the Phantom 4 have already started for $1,399 and it is available for purchase on DJI’s website and on Apple.com. The Phantom 4 will be available in Apple retail locations and DJI’s flagship stores in Asia on March 15.
Raspberry introduced the successor of Raspberry Pi 2 – the Raspberry Pi 3 this week. The company became popular when it introduced the most affordable Raspberry Pi Zero in 2012. Even though the new Pi 3 is of the same size and same components on board as the Pi 2, it has a faster 64-bit quad-core Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, has built-in Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.1.
The Raspberry Pi 3 is priced at $35 (Rs. 2,400 approx.), same as the Pi 2 and is available from its partners element14 and RS Components. The company said that it will continue selling the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and is not planning to launch a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A, with the Model A+ form factor, during 2016. It will introduce a BCM2837-based Compute Module 3 in the next few months.