Android Phone Now On Narendra Modi’s Name, Here’s More

So if you thought Narendra Modi’s fan are restricted to only buying his memorabilia in Gujarat, you were wrong. A set of android phone manufacturers in China are bringing out a phone in his name, and the gadget as far as specs looks comparable and compatible with the best.

If you thought the list of phones coming your way is getting lesser think again. This election season politicians will also bombard you with gadgets in their name. Who takes the headstart, our digital and gadget-guru, the man with the most twitter and other social media followers, Narendra Modi, popularly known by his followers as NaMo.

If this website and the founders of this company are to be believed the gadget with seriously ultra-specs (only available on high-end phones) will be out around the end of August. The phone rightly named Smart NaMo has been given the name because “Namo stands for Narendra Modi and Next Generation Android Mobile Odyssey” according to the website.

According to the brief product specs available on the website, the 5-inch smartphone will be powered by a MediaTek MT6589 SoC that includes a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and include Gorilla Glass 2 protection and a 13 megapixel camera.

The phone, according to the website, will be available in four variants with 1GB or 2GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB of internal memory. The company is also planning to launch the phone with a Narendra Modi ‘signature edition’.

The idea, according to one of the founders, Ammeet Desai (in an interview to Wall Street Journal), a Gujarati businessman who has a mobile business in China, came from China where several products like MP3 players and smartphones are sold with branding of the leaders.

A Wall Street Journal report claims that Smart NaMo phone will cost Rs 16,000 at launch and have videos as well as apps related to Modi.

Related articles

• Now, get ready for Narendra Modi smartphones! (mobigyaan.com)

Canvas 4 Review: Super Phone For A Super Price

Micromax today has 18% market share (IDC) in the Indian phone market, only second after Samsung. One of the primary reasons of it scaling fast has been its Canvas series of smart phones. The gadget has everything that best smartphones have in the country, good hardware, great screen size and resolution and the pricing is just suitable to a country like India.

Now they have brought another one out from their cupboard as an extension of the series. Canvas 4 aka A210 looks a superphone at first glance. Let’s look at some of its primary features and gauge the capability better.

Screen: The use of Gorilla glass puts the phone a notch above others in the mainstream. Despite its large 5-inch screen, the phone settles smoothly in your hands and gives an uber cool feel. For an 18k phone, the screen is awesome. The resolution could had been improved (still 1280*720) but the quality of picture is better. The phone’s ability to show saturated colors is better than Canvas HD. Good resolution means better clarity in text. Touch is also better and phone’s refresh rate is refreshing for the user.

Built: A notch above Canvas 4, the glossy plastic with a bit of Aluminium is definitely adding to the look value of the phone. The back cover which is removable looks good too and overall the phone looks premium and polished which was needed as this is the highest priced phone from Micromax till date. The aluminium strip adds to the sturdiness of the phone. The power button is also done with aluminium which is a good change from most of the other phones, even expensive ones.

To sum up the built and looks, at the price tag of 18k no mainstream phone has better stuff than this one. No doubt there is scope for improvement but as mentioned this is the best at the point of entry i.e. the price.

Camera: 13MP camera in an 18k phone? Yeah you heard it right. Before you get excited hear this though. The quality of pixels ain’t great so although the news of 13MP makes good hearing, the feature ain’t upto the mark by the standards. The pictures captured lack depth and detail. Bad light is further bad news and close-ups are not good either. There are focus issues too especially during close-ups. Videos are marginally better although recording in MP4 format would had been better than the 3GP it uses.

Android 4.2.1 or Jelly Bean: Smooth functioning like all Canvas series phones highlight the Android in this one. The default user interface works well as compared to customized interfaces that other makers have put on their devices. The phone’s speed is good too and while switching between tasks also the lag is not much. Games perform well and browsing is smooth.

The speaker is good and sound is good as well. Voice quality is good and signal strength at first usage also looked decent.

Differentiation Indexes: To differentiate and to showcase innovation the phone makers have come out with a few features like blow to unlock and video pause. The features are not very user-friendly though and it would had been better had testing would had been good before throwing these into the open. Thankfully the makers have given ways to turn off these features.

Battery life of the phone is decent. With 3G, the battery lasts around 12 hours.

Verdict: A good phone overall sans the camera features. Good speed, brilliant screen and fantastic performance make it a good buy at 18k. If you are looking for a great smartphone sans brand image of big phone makers like Samsung and Apple, this is the phone to go for. 

Related articles

• Why I’ll not buy Micromax Canvas 4? (tabletphonex.com)
• Micromax Canvas 4 revealed [Exclusive] (androidos.in)
• Micromax Canvas 4 loses the specs battle to iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 (ibnlive.in.com)

Galaxy Star Review: A Phone Worth Its Price

Considering the price point this could be a game-changer phone in the Indian smartphone segment. An MRP of Rs. 5000 makes this phone the cheapest Android phone from Samsung and unlike others, which run older versions of the OS, this one, runs the latest Jelly Bean Android 4.1. 

Looks like an option doesn’t it? Lets look deep and figure out pros and cons although frankly after taking time out with it we feel that at this price point this is the best you can get.

The Pros: 

Looks: Not bad for the price although nothing extraordinary considering these are the times of big screens. The cute small size though will suit a few who have been complaining of a lack of smartphone, which is small and does not look a giant. Compare it with other local brands and the finish is first class. Samsung has done a good job for the price.

Apps: Android Jelly Bean means good apps and also good games. This is where the phone steals the show. The phone gives decent experience to a user with popular services like Gmail, Google Talk, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. All this at 5k, wow.

Screen And Colors: Its OK. Again at a price point that the phone is positioned at, little can be complained about. It has good touch interface and shows bright colors but the process is fine.

Battery and others: So the battery is decent, around 14 hours on 2g connection. The camera is 2 megapixel and pictures taken are good to be uploaded on your social presence. Bad light images though is not that great and video shoot also could have been better.

The Cons:

No 3g: What? Yes, there is no option for 3g. The phone only operates on 2g and WiFi. This is certainly a let down in this quick communication world where almost everyone is moving from 2g to 3g.

A tad slow: The phone works well for search, Facebook etc. but the moment you demand a little more, the price point and the cheapness there shows up. The phone turns slow and older apps are also flushed out of memory.

Verdict: Good phone on the price point. If you are looking for an affordable android phone with basic usage like mail and social media and have a budget around 5k, this is the device. A little more though from the wallet could get you better phones.

Related articles

• Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition review (video) (androidauthority.com)
• Galaxy S4 vs. iPhone 5 and iOS 7 Beta 3 vs. Android 4.3 (product-reviews.net)
• The Nexus 4, Moto X and how Google is changing Android perception from “high spec” to “high experience” (cellularchief.wordpress.com)

4 Reasons Why Blackberry Beats iPhone Hands Down

 

Now before you bring out the knives to kill me, at least listen to my reasons for beating down your iPhone. If the two C’s Convenience and Comfort were all that you needed from a smart phone, don’t even look beyond the Blackberry

All of my friends want me to buy an iPhone. They think it will change my life. Really, a phone can change your life? I thought the only game changers were what you successfully do in office at home. Anyways, that is the last thing this topic demands so let’s get back to it. Not only friends, even people I meet for like 3 minutes, tell why should I change my Blackberry to Steve Job’s latest gadget and then I get a good dosage on latest additions to the gadget.

But I have always had my reasons for not changing my blackberry for any other smartphone. Here are four of them.

1. A real keyboard: Even Eric Schmidt uses a Blackberry for this. Yeah, you heard it right. Eric Schmidt does not use an Android smartphone, even though he sits on the board for Android. And if you still don’t believe the efficiency of this, try getting in a race with me over typing with your iPhone. I bet that not only I will be twice as quicker but also twice as correct (because of the gibberish you will end up writing on that phone of yours).
2. BBM: This was one of the reasons I picked this phone. I was always attracted by this feature since I first saw a Blackberry. It is this app which tells me when my messages are delivered and then read and is also free regardless of how much I send. Yes, I know you would debate of the watsapp available on the iPhone but the last I heard was that it was going to become a paid app soon.
3. The Indicator Light: So you want to tell me that I take a phone which does not show me if I have an unread message. Not I then, find another customer. I am someone who does not keep peeping inside my phone every 5 minutes so unless an indicator shows me I have unread messages I will preferably not touch my phone for a while. My Blackberry has a red light which keeps blinking till I actually end up reading the message or the mail. For example I leave my phone for a while, my red light will then tell whether there’s something new without having to look for myself.
4. Lack of Bluetooth: No really, I want a Bluetooth to share music, videos and a lot of other things with friends who have any other phone. Now who has it, my Blackberry does, where as an iPhone does not. Why, they think it will increase piracy of iTunes, nonsense; there are enough download sites available for free in the market, to just go and download.

The reasons above might sound simple yet make a phone efficient enough for me to hold on to it, at least till Research In Motion is still in existence (a friend recently predicted it’s end soon). 

Related articles

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• BlackBerry’s time may be ripe in iPhone battle – Boston Herald (bostonherald.com)
• Try Out BlackBerry 10 On Your iPhone (macgasm.net)
• Blackberry’s CEO Says the iPhone Is Outdated (gizmodo.com)