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Hands on with Sony’s Android 4.4 UI on a Xperia Z2 – Double Tap to Wake, Gestures and more

Sony launched the Xperia Z2 at the Mobile World Congress event here in Barcelona, Spain. The Z2 is an evolutionary upgrade over the Z1 and fixes every complaint people had with the Z1, like it has a better display, a way better build with a stunningly thin and premium design and overall a better package for a flagship. This also includes the new software work that Sony has done, because the Z2 is the first Android 4.4 device from the company and it brings a lot of new improvements to the looks as well as features that previously didn’t exist. While there are a lot of under the hood improvements, we took a look at some of the user facing features of the new skin on the Xperia Z2 –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-v7CoZoYa8

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Lenovo S850 Hands On, Photo Gallery

Lenovo introduced a range of products here at the Mobile World Congress. Some interesting, some decidedly less so. The Lenovo S850 falls in the first category because of its interesting mix of hardware design and generally decent performance. We spent some time with the handset and here’s what we thought about it. Continue reading “Lenovo S850 Hands On, Photo Gallery”

HTC Desire 610 Hands-On

HTC Desire 610-8

Amongst the two device that HTC announced today, the 816 clearly stole the show. However, the 610 is no slouch either. The HTC Desire 610 is the lower end of the two devices announced and is aimed at the volume segment. Here’s our hands on report with the 610, let us know what you think about it in the comments section. Continue reading “HTC Desire 610 Hands-On”

HTC Desire 816 Hands On

HTC’s announcements at the Mobile World Congress revolved around their Desire series of handsets. The two devices announced ie the Desire 816 and 610 vary wildly in their target audience but do emphasize the focus on quality that HTC has maintained despite aiming to reach ever lower price points. The upper end device of the two ie the Desire 816 is the most powerful phone in the Desire series of phones and opts for a design that closely mimics the flagship ie the HTC One. Continue reading “HTC Desire 816 Hands On”

Hands on with the Nokia X+: 10 EUR brings extra RAM and storage

Nokia’s Android phones are here and they are real. They launched three new Android devices and a Asha and a Nokia feature phone each, with the Android phones being the obvious highlight. A few years ago, one would never have imagined Nokia going down this after, especially after February 11 happened, but here we are, going hands on with Nokia’s own Android devices. Sort of a dream come true for many, we scrambled to try and get some decent time with all the devices and so here are our thoughts about the newly launched Nokia X+. For starters, here is a video of the Nokia X+

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dNZGmuXA9c

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HP Slate 6 VoiceTab Hands On

As global PC shipments drop, HP is making a push to re-enter the highly lucrative smartphone market. With the launch of the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab and the Slate 7 VoiceTab, the company have their sights set on the midrange phablets which is a segment that is currently dominated by local upstarts. Competition from global brands is heating up in the midrange 6inch phablet segment as Nokia too introduced its Lumia 1320 recently. We got to spend some time with HP’s new Slate 6 VoiceTab and here are our impressions.

We are live from MWC 2014 at Barcelona where we have HP showcasing the tablet. We made a quick hands on video which you can check out right below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJfiBuAutFg

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Lava Iris Pro 30 Hands On Impressions

Lava today introduced its brand new phone part of the Iris series of devices. Called the Iris Pro 30, the emphasis here is on design. The handset is made of magnesium alloy and is also one of the lightest phones in its category weighing a mere 114 grams. Follow through for our hands on impressions. Continue reading “Lava Iris Pro 30 Hands On Impressions”

HTC One Gold Edition Hands on

HTC One Gold

Among the many useful and buyable gadgets at the CES 2014, we came across the HTC One Gold Edition. Sometime during 2013, HTC announced a Gold Edition. Unlike the gold color variants from other manufactures, the HTC One Gold Edition is made out of pure gold and it went on sale for 2,750GBP(approx Rs. 2,80,000). We go hands on with this gold clad device and you can check out the video right below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C3TdWTbNvs Continue reading “HTC One Gold Edition Hands on”

Nokia Lumia 525 Hands On

Nokia announced the Lumia 525 sometime back last month and basically, it was a Lumia 520 with a very slightly different design and 1 GB of RAM. The Lumia 525 is primarily for addressing the low RAM issue on Windows Phones. Phones with 512 MB of RAM, like the Lumia 520, were not allowed to download some apps and games from the Windows Phone Store because of them demanding more resources. This was partly solved with more optimizations from the developers’ side, but we still see a lot of new apps and games releasing with the limitation, so Nokia simply went the other way and updated the 520 with 1 GB of RAM, and that’s exactly the reason why 525 exists. It was revealed at an event in Goa today that the Lumia 525 will be arriving to India during the first week of January 2014. The Lumia 520 is already the best selling Windows Phone in India and we hope the 525 directly replaces it. That said, we went hands on with the Lumia 525 at the Annual Strategy Sharing Summit in Goa, you can find our impressions below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-oY6Hp5Zs

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Oppo N1 Unboxing

The Oppo N1 has landed at the FoneArena office today! As expected, we bring you the first look at the device through the unboxing of the gorgeous flagship device from Oppo. The Chinese company had announced this camera-centric flagship device as a part of its N-series smartphones, aptly naming the first one, the N1. While the camera is the most important feature of this phone, there is also the innovative OTouch rear sensor for an experience that you cannot see on any other phone out there in the market. With a 5.9 inch screen, this is the first Oppo device that firmly cements itself in the phablet territory and is unquestionably huge to prove that fact. So, how does it actually look and feel? Here’s our unboxing video, featuring the device and the box contents, or rather the boxes’ contents. Watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4s8elQOdwQ

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Google Nexus 5 Unboxing

It’s been exactly 6 days since the Google Nexus 5 officially launched, but it had leaked out in full glory earlier, with complete details of specifications and even the information about its build quality. So, we surely knew what to expect when the Nexus 5 landed in our labs today. The latest “Pure Google” experience phone has launched with absolutely tons of retail stock this time, so acquiring it was certainly an easier job than it was with the Nexus 4 last year. Costing roughly around 29K for the 16 GB unit from the UK, the Nexus 5 is ready for the FoneArena treatment, so, lets start with the unboxing. We have shot a video of the retail package contents, a quick rundown of specifications and the hardware overview of the White Nexus 5, watch it below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMzyLzQmX0c

Did you check out our Google Nexus 5 Photo Gallery?

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Intex Aqua i7 Unboxing

The Intex Aqua i7 is here and we are unboxing it for you. Launched way back in September, with a price tag of Rs. 21,900, the phone has been prominently featured in a lot of advertisements. The device had not hit the retail market at that time but the company has finally caught up and released it, and yes, we have received our unit too. The unit sits inside quite a large retail box, which we were astonished to find it to be bigger than a standard smartphone retail box of even big phablet devices. How big? You’ll have to watch this unboxing video to find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmJUUpl5sLM

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Apple iPhone 5c Dock Unboxing

Every iPhone needs its own dock, that’s Apple’s mandate and the newly launched iPhone 5c is no exception. But there are a couple of reasons why there’s a new dock for the iPhone 5c, which is seemingly just a plastic shell with the same internals as the 5. Well, technically yes and I have answered the question right there. It’s a new plastic shell and with difference in build comes difference in thickness and weight. But the thickness is more of the concern here. While you might be able to use the iPhone 5’s dock for the 5S, it is impossible to do so for the 5c, and hence why we picked one up from Hong Kong for our blue iPhone 5c. Take a look at the unboxing and hands on video here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYFeNF2IcxY

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Panasonic P11 Unboxing

Panasonic might have announced its retirement from the consumer smartphone market worldwide, but weirdly enough, that has not stopped the company from launching devices in India. One of them is the Panasonic P11, which seems like a specced down version of the P51 that we reviewed earlier. The P11 has almost the same specifications as the P51, with a quad core 1.2 GHz processor, 4GB of internal storage, but running on the older Android 4.1 operating system. But what’s striking is the outer shell, in a radical fluorescent green colour. But not to worry, there are replaceable covers in the box, which we show you in the unboxing video here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlh2k911Qps

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Nokia Lumia 2520 Photo Gallery

Nokia’s device division might be acquired by Microsoft soon, but that hasn’t stopped the company from bringing back its mobility vision in computers back into its portfolio. We saw the yesteryear Booklet 3G, which was one of the very few notebooks that could use a SIM and now we see a similar vision in the LTE enabled Lumia 2520, one of the first tablets to launch without a WiFi-only variant. It’s a bold step by Nokia, wanting to fill the void created by WiFi only tablets that are seemingly used only at home. Launching it with a beautiful power keyboard as an accessory for some extra bucks, the tablet envisions portable productivity with standard Nokia influences in hardware showing off. We took the Lumia 2520 for a spin in front of our camera, so here is a photo gallery, for your viewing pleasure.

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