Sunday, 24 May 2015
Clash of clans XMod
Sunday, 25 January 2015
YotaPhone 2 hands-on
YotaPhone 2 is among those smartphones you just can’t miss in the news. It is unique and innovative and we just had to take it for a spin. So, here is the unique YotaPhone 2 arriving at our office. And it has a premium retail box to match.
The YotaPhone 2 isn’t just a flagship with a 5″ 1080p AMOLED screen and running on a Snapdragon 800 chip. It is more than just a phone, thanks to its rear 4.7″ electronic paper display, which can be used as an e-book reader, as well as a primary display to operate the basic phone functions.
Both displays on the YotaPhone 2 are covered by sheets of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, while its frame is all about matte plastic. It somewhat reminds of an upgraded version of the LG-made Nexus 5 because of all the matte materials used on its body. It runs pure Android KitKat in charge of operations.
The rear display comes very handy, too. It can be used as a fashion accessory (you choose the wallpaper), since it is always on and doesn’t require battery power to display an image.
You can read e-books under bright sunlight hassle-free, of course. The e-paper games and widgets are also helpful and will extend the phone’s battery life when operated just through the rear screen.
Here comes our traditional hands-on treatment.
You bet we are working hard on our review already, and if this quick teaser has piqued your interest, you may want to keep an eye on our homepage early next week. Stay tuned!
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Windows 10 for phones: 10 things you need to know
Microsoft announced a bunch of things yesterday, one of which (HoloLens) looks like it came out from a science fiction movie. Along with these announcements, Microsoft also showcased the upcoming Windows 10 for phones.
This time around Microsoft has focused on better integration and is moving towards its predefined goal of unifying its operating system across all platforms. We narrow down 10 things you need to know about the latest update.
1. First of all, the interface of Windows 10 for phones still has the live tiles, but is now enhanced with translucent tiles on top of fullscreen backgrounds.
2. All notifications are now actionable and can be dealt with directly, right from from the notifications pop-up.
3. The new software keyboard in Windows 10 for phones has a joystick within which acts like the red pointing stick Lenovo uses on its ThinkPad laptops for precison. Microsoft has also added a microphone button to its keyboard so that you can dictate text instead of writing it.
4. Microsoft has integrated Skype chat into its stock messaging app, in Windows 10 for phones, something like what Google does with Hangouts.
5. With Microsoft pushing for seamless app integration across all platforms, Microsoft apps like Outlook, Maps, Skype, Photos and Messaging will get synced across all registered devices. The action centre now syncs to your PC so if you dismiss a notification on the phone, it will get dismissed from all other connected devices.
6. The new Outlook app comes with Word support built in which will let users change full text formatting and will even let you insert tables. The app will also support Gmail across all platforms via IMAP.
7. Cortana is better integrated into the whole ecosystem and will be able to understand you better. You can ask Cortana to repeat navigation instructions or just add a hashtag to a text and it will do it.
8. The new version of Office which brings better touch optimization has been included in the Windows 10 for phones.
9. With Windows 10, the all new Spartan browser makes its entry. It will replace Internet Explorer and will bring better functionality than IE10. It even has a save for offline, Pocket-like feature built-in.
10. According to Microsoft, all devices running Windows Phone 8.1 will be updated to Windows 10 for phones but there could be some devices that don't meet the minimum system requirements for the new OS, that don't make the cut.
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Xiaomi Mi Note gets benchmarked, overtakes the Mi 4
A few hours ago, Xiaomi took the wraps off its two new phablets - the Mi Note and the Mi Note Pro. While the latter comes with the best possible specs for this day and age, the "lower-end" Mi Note is probably worthy of flagship status too, despite not coming with the latest chipset or screen resolution.
It will be cheaper than the Pro model, though, which could mean it's going to be good enough for many people. And if you were wondering how it performs in benchmarks, we already have the answer for you.
Xiaomi Mi Note AnTuTu benchmark results
Someone was kind enough to put the Mi Note through the paces of the AnTuTu benchmark while playing with it at Xiaomi's launch event. The screenshots you can see above are proof about how well it managed to do.
The Xiaomi Mi Note scored a respectable 46,714 points overall, coming in below theMeizu MX4 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Those two use different chipsets, though, so perhaps the comparison to them doesn't make much sense.
The OnePlus One, on the other hand, features the exact same Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC as the Mi Note, and as you can see Xiaomi's phablet has scored slightly more than that handset. It's also outclassed the HTC One (M8), Huawei Ascend Mate 7, as well as Xiaomi's own Mi 4.
Clearly then, the Mi Note Pro should be in the running for top dog in benchmarks, but we haven't yet seen any proof about how it performs in such synthetic tests. Yet we assume that news will come soon.
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Huawei G628 surfaces in China with 64-bit MediaTek SoC
Huawei is working on a new midrange smartphone, which it will launch at least on the Chinese market. The G628 may make it to other countries as the Ascend G628, but nothing's certain just yet.
The phone comes with less than stellar specs, but it does stand out in one regard. This will be the first Huawei device to use a 64-bit chipset from MediaTek, namely the MT6752. Unfortunately though, it's set to run Android 4.4 KitKat, which simply can't take advantage of the 64-bit support - the first version to do that is 5.0 Lollipop. So unless Huawei will update the G628 to Lollipop at some point in the future (which seems unlikely), "64-bit" will be nothing but a meaningless buzzword in this case.
The G628 has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front snapper, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of integrated storage. The MT6752 SoC comes with a 1.5 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU.
Dual-SIM support is baked in, though the initially released model looks like it will be destined for China Mobile, since it supports TD-LTE and TD-SCDMA networks, which the aforementioned carrier operates.
Huawei's Emotion UI 2.3 which sits on top of Android 4.4 KitKat comes with some new features, such as a "child mode" as well as ultra power saving mode.
The G628 will be priced at around CNY 1,000, which means approximately $160 or €135.