OnePlus 5T with 6-inch 18:9 display, bezel-less design officially launched starting at Rs. 32,999

OnePlus launched the OnePlus 5 earlier this year in June with a design similar to the iPhone 7 Plus and flagship like specifications. The OnePlus 5 is an awesome smartphone and is indeed the best Android smartphone anyone can buy today under Rs. 40,000. But, the area where OnePlus lost its points this year was in the design and the display.

2017 had brought a whole to a new experience on smartphones with the introduction of 18:9 display providing bezel-less look the device. We now have an 18:9 display ratio smartphone from many vendors already like LG, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei and more.

OnePlus launched OnePlus 3T last year with minor spec update. Following the legacy, OnePlus today has officially announced the OnePlus 5T smartphone, which follows the recent trend of 18:9 display, providing a whole new front design compared to its predecessor. Other than the display, design, and secondary rear camera, rest everything inside the OnePlus 5T remains similar to the original 5.

According to OnePlus, the OnePlus 5T will be available in midnight black color variant initially. Like the OnePlus 5, the 5T will also come in two variants, one with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage and the other with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The prior has been priced at the US $499 / Rs. 32,999 in India and the latter will cost US $559 / Rs. 37,999. The Indian pricing is exactly similar to the Indian launch price of the OnePlus 5. Poor OnePlus 5 owners :(

OnePlus has also revealed that there will be a flash sale of OnePlus 5T on Amazon India on November 21st with official sales starting November 28th.

Razer Phone officially launched with 120Hz display, 8GB RAM; priced at $699

In the past 5 years, smartphones have gained a lot of recognition, especially among camera vendors, telecom operators, and laptop manufacturers. RED has already confirmed its entry into the smartphone market and today Razer, widely known for making beast gaming computer hardware has officially entered the smartphone market with the launch of its first Android smartphone called just the Razer Phone.

This comes months after Razer acquired smartphone start-up NextBit back in January. The Razer Phone highly resembles the NextBit Robin in terms of design. It will be available in two editions, the standard edition will have a chrome Razer logo on the back and the special edition will house a neon-green traditional Razer logo.

Talking about the pricing and availability, Razer has priced the Razer Phone at US$699, which is approx Rs. 45,075 INR, far less than the recent flagships from various manufacturers. The Razer Phone will go on sale in North America and Europe starting November 17th. Pre-orders are already live. The special edition Razer Phone, mentioned above, will be limited to 1337 units.

Save More with Flipkart's Big Billion Day Sale

The festive season in India is one of the busiest months of a year and with just a few days away from Dussehra, people are looking for places where they can clothe, gifts, puja essentials, home décor products and more. Buying all these can be an expensive affair and hence we suggest, you turn to Flipkart.

Flipkart has initiated its Big Billion Day Sale that is going to officially begin on September the 20th and conclude on September the 24th. With its tagline of ‘Ab Mehengai Giregi’, this sale focuses on making products affordable for all.

The offers and discounts provided by Flipkart in this year’s sale will be applicable on major categories. While Fashion, TV & Appliances, Home & Furniture will see a drop in the price from 20th September to 24th September, Mobile, Electronics & Accessories, will become a part of this sale from 21st September until the very last day of the Big Billion Day Sale i.e, 24th September.

How to Watch Videos Offline on Android Devices

Nowadays many people prefer watching videos online. It's much more convenient from many points of views. First of all, you don’t need to keep huge files reducing your hard drive space. Secondly, you can start watching a movie on your TV and then switch to smartphone or tablet. Thirdly, many movies are available online only, and it's pretty difficult to save them on PC.

These are three main pluses of online video streaming. However, there is always a fly in the ointment. When you are on vacations, using mobile Internet may cost you a great sum. In case you need to fly for many hours, there is also no chance to stream a movie. Another trouble is that your favorite YouTube video might be deleted by its owner. And finally, a slow Internet connection can be one more reason to save videos for offline viewing.

That’s where you need to know a good way to save online videos and watch them without connecting your device to the Internet. Here are several options to choose from.

Freemake Video Downloader

Freemake Video Downloader is a simple yet powerful tool to save YouTube content: single videos, playlists, and channels. The software operates on Windows based PCs and laptops.

To download videos for offline viewing, you should:

• Download Freemake Video Downloader from the official website;
• Install the tool on your PC. Please note that the software supports Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and Win 10;
• Go to YouTube or any other supported website and choose a video you want to save. Keep in mind that the program, doesn’t save paid YouTube videos;
• Copy YouTube video URL and paste it in Freemake Video Downloader;
• In a new window, select the necessary video quality;
• Then choose “Convert to” and select “Android” in the drop-down menu
• Wait a bit till the video appears in a specified folder.

To download a channel or a playlist, follow the same guide. Just remember that a supported playlist has the playlist word in the URL. The software doesn’t download sets of related videos.

You may set Freemake to always download videos in the same quality, format and to the same destination folder. To do it, enable “One-click download mode” in the top right corner of the software and select the necessary settings.

When you are done with all the videos, transfer them onto your Android portable device.

You may use a default Android video player or download VLC, a free multimedia player available for all operating systems. It accepts a great number of video formats and codecs that may not be supported by a default app.

Dropbox

For those who don’t want to bother with cables for transferring videos from PC to a phone or tablet, there is one more option to go for, a cloud service. You may choose Dropbox or any other you like. The advantage of this option is that the majority of cloud services can be used on any platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Let’s take Dropbox as an example. 

The procedure is quite simple:

• Go to Dropbox official site and create a free account (if you don’t have any);
• Download and install a desktop app;
• Go to Google Play and search for the Dropbox app;
• Install in on your Android phone or tablet;
• Sign in to your account from both desktop and mobile apps;
• Add the video files to a desktop Dropbox folder. Please note that a free account space is limited to 5 GB. If necessary, you can acquire more space;
• Now run the mobile Dropbox app;
• Find and open your movie in the app;
• Choose the “Make it available offline” option.

The movie will be saved for offline viewing with the app. When you want to watch it, simply run the app and choose the video from offline files. Having fulfilled all the steps above only one time, next time you’ll need simply add the movie into a desktop folder and then save it in the app. 

YouTube App

YouTube has recently released an official Android app with an option to download videos. The download button is available right under the video. 

To get the movie on your Android, you should:

• Go to the Google Play and find a YouTube app;
• Install the app on a smartphone or tablet;
• Search for a video that you’d like to save;
• Open the video and tap on the gray circle with a white arrow; 
• Choose a video quality;
• Wait until the downloading process is completed.

To watch the video, tap the Library tab in the app. Unfortunately, not all the videos are available for downloading. So if you find such a movie, you’ll have to save it with Freemake or an alternative software. One more drawback of the YouTube app is that it doesn’t download playlists or channels. Besides, the downloaded videos will be available inside the YouTube app for 48 hours. Then it will be automatically deleted. 

Here were three simple ways to get the videos for offline watching. It's difficult to say which one is the best since everything depends on your scope. If you want to save a video from YouTube to keep it forever, then you should choose Freemake Video Downloader. For already downloaded videos, ripped DVDs and Blu-rays, you will be OK with a Dropbox option. If you simply want to watch a couple of movies during your flight, install the YouTube app. 

Infinix Note 4 Detailed Review - New Smartphone Brand Worth Considering

India is a big market for every smartphone manufacturer, be it the domestic vendors or the international players. A lot of Chinese smartphone vendors have already made its way in India and recently a new Hong-Kong based smartphone manufacturer called Infinix has stepped in the Indian market.

Infinix was founded in 2012 and is owned by Transsion Holdings. Infinix has begun its journey in India by introducing two global range of smartphones – Infinix Note 4 and Infinix Hot 4 Pro. Both the Note and Hot series are marketed as under budget-segment devices.

Infinix has priced the Note 4 at Rs. 8,999 and the same comes with mid-range specifications, giving tough competition to many other smartphones within the same price bracket.

So, is Infinix Note 4 worth investing in and does it stand-up well against the likes of the Xiaomi devices? Let’s find out in this detailed review.

Infinix Note 4 Specifications

• 5.7-inch Full HD IPS LCD display
• 1.3GHz 64-bit Octa-Core MediaTek MT6753 processor
• Mali-T720 GPU | 3GB RAM
• Android 7.0 Nougat
• 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash
• 8MP front facing camera with LED flash
• 32GB internal storage with microSD card support
• 4300mAh with fast charging
• 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
• Dual-SIM, 3.5mm Audio Jack, Fingerprint Scanner
• Dimensions: 159×78.8×8.4mm | Weight: 198g

Box Contents

The box packaging of the Infinix Note 4 is simple with the brand and device name on the front and casual device details on the back. Infinix is shipping the Note 4 with following contents – Note 4 itself, a USB cable, a travel adapter, user manuals, a TPU plastic case and a screen protector. (Buyers get the Blue box and following contents)

Design & Build Quality

There’s nothing great in terms of the design uniqueness of the Infinix Note 4. It’s like every other smartphone you see in the market. Though, Infinix has spent some time in making the Note 4 design a differentiating factor by using a metal paint on the rear of the smartphone.

The back-panel design of the Note 4 is quite impressive at a first glance as it seems to be made of glass. It is curved from both sides and also has slimmer tapered edges. The chassis is made of sturdy metal and rest everything is plastic.

Infinix has covered the back panel of the Note 4 with some protective film, which the company claim is added to heal minor scratches. I’m not sure about the real-life functionality of that film, but it’s good to have that film as it provides grip and alters fingerprints.

On the front of the Note 4, you get a huge 5.7-inch display with a sensor, LED flash, earpiece and a front facing camera above it and a fingerprint scanner embedded inside the home button below. It’s a physical home button and needs a press to unlock the device when the screen is off. When the device is active, the fingerprint scanner acts on a single touch. The fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate.

The recent apps menu and the back button are placed on the either side of the button. The bezels on the front are big. Volume rockers and power/lock button are both placed on the right side of the Note 4. The buttons are very soft and easily clickable, because of which the device at times automatically triggers “Emergency Number”. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable this feature.

There’s nothing on the left side of the Note 4. Speaker grills are at the bottom accompanied by a microUSB port and a primary microphone. The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on top. Talking of the back, it’s removable and houses a camera module on top center with dual-LED flash just below it. The Infinix branding is in the middle followed by the Note branding.

Underneath the back cover, the first thing you will notice is the 4300mAh battery sealed tightly with dual-SIM slots (nano-type) and a dedicated microSD card slot.

Overall the build quality of the Infinix Note 4 is quite premium. The Note 4 is 8.4mm thick, the reason being the battery size and weights 198 grams, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of the device. I personally like the build quality of the Infinix Note 4.

Pros	Cons
Premium Build	Heavy

Display

The Infinix Note 4 comes with a 5.7-inch Full HD display with a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080p. The display is of IPS LCD type and is the best I have ever seen on a budget smartphone. According to Infinix, the display included inside the Note 4 is from SHARP and has 85% NTSC Color Gamut.

Talking of the display performance, the color reproduction is very good producing natural and vibrant colors. Viewing angles are good with a very minimal color shift from a certain angle. Also, the brightness level of the Note 4’s display is very nice with text viewable under direct sunlight.

On top of the display is a 2.5D curved glass of unknown manufacturer, which attracts fingerprints. The display might be prone to scratches, so Infinix is shipping the device with a screen protector, which works out well, though it’s better to invest in a tempered glass.

Watching videos is good as text and images appear sharp. The darks are produced well too. The display is reflective at times but manageable.

Pros	Cons
Full HD Resolution	-
Color Reproduction

Software

One of the biggest drawback when it comes to budget smartphones is the Android version it is running on. Surprisingly, Infinix has stepped up the game by launching the Note 4 with Android 7.0 Nougat onboard.

Though Android 7.1.1 is the latest version of Android, it’s still good to see Nougat running on the Note 4. Like every other Chinese vendor, Infinix also has its own customized skin on top of Android, which it calls the XOS.

The Infinix Note 4 runs on Chameleon 2.3 version of the XOS which brings a lot of features. Infinix has tried to keep the interface of the XOS as simple as possible. Unlike other manufacturers, the XOS comes with an app drawer, which can be accessed easily by swiping up from the homescreen.

      

      

Besides having an app drawer, all the apps are placed on the homescreen like iOS and there’s no way to remove those shortcuts from there. It would have been great if Infinix added the functionality to remove apps shortcuts from the homescreen.

Moving ahead, the XOS comes with a theme engine which allows users to customize the overall look and feel of the UI. There are a couple of XOS dedicated apps like XAccount, XCloud, XClub, XHide, XManager, XSecurity, XShare, and XTheme, all of which can’t be uninstalled but can be disabled.

Other proprietary apps which can’t be uninstalled include MagicMovie, Notes, Power, User Guide, and Weather. The Infinix Note 4 is no exception, as it also comes with dozens of bloatware apps, but with the facility of uninstalling them. One app which irritated me the most was TouchPal 2017 keyboard. I will recommend uninstalling that app first when you get the device.

Swiping down from the top brings notification panel with quick settings, which is customizable. Settings are similar to stock with no extra added functionality other than Gesture & Smart Motion which brings Tap to Wake, Quick Start, One-hand mode, 3-finger screenshot and wake to unlock features. Multi-window is also present.

      

      

You can set the icon size on the homescreen along with desktop grid size by going to Menu settings after long-pressing any empty space on the homescreen. XOS also provides an auto-app arrangement and Smart Arrange setting.

Besides having so many features and functionalities, the Infinix Note 4 was running smoothly most of the time. RAM management is very nice as I was able to keep more than 9 apps running in the background without killing any activity. You might notice a slight delay while opening heavy apps, but it's ignorable.

Overall, I like the user interface of the XOS as its simple and not complex like what I see on other Chinese branded smartphones. One key feature of XOS is that it moves unused apps automatically into Freezer, which when used will never keep the app in memory until and unless you unfreeze it.

Pros	Cons
Simple and Smooth UI	Bloatware (which can be uninstalled)
Freezer feature
RAM Management

Camera

The Infinix Note 4 comes with a 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and PDAF. The front facing camera house an 8MP sensor with LED flash. Both the rear and the front cameras are capable of shooting videos in 1080p@30fps.

The rear camera is capable of producing very good images under natural lighting conditions. But at times whites are over exposed and so are the clouds. The HDR feature is available which brings sharp and clear images with clouds captured perfectly. HDR is not suitable in all conditions, as some images turn out good with HDR and some without it. You can check out the camera samples in below album.

      

      

The UI of the camera app is simple with the shutter button on the front. Swiping left brings camera quick settings like HDR, Guidelines, Level, Timer, Gesture Shot, Smile Shot and Touch Capture. Swiping right brings enhanced camera modes like Professional, Face Beauty, Night, Panorama, PIP, and WideSelfie.

Talking of selfie, the images are decent and not that great. Under good lighting conditions, the selfies turn out good with sharpness. Color reproduction in both front and rear cameras are not up to the mark, as the viewfinder shows accurate colors but after the image is processed the colors are a bit exposed, but it does not hamper the overall image.

If you are looking for low-light performance, then both the cameras perform well. The images clicked using the rear camera in low-light aren’t that sharp and contains noise but is better than its competitor smartphones. For selfies, the front camera performs similarly to the rear camera. The front LED flash does help in enhancing up the selfies.

Infinix Note 4 Review Camera Samples

Considering the price tag, overall the camera of the Infinix Note 4 is good.

Pros	Cons
Images under Natural light	Lowlight Videos
PIP and HDR mode

Performance

If you are expecting something great in gaming performance, then the Infinix Note 4 is not for you.

Infinix Note 4 house an octa-core 64-bit processor from MediaTek modeled MT6753 clocked at 1.3GHz. Paired with the processor is Mali-T720 GPU for all graphic activities. The Note 4 has 3GB of RAM and includes 32GB of internal storage with dedicated microSD card slot for expansion.

The performance of the Note 4 is quite good, but it lags when it comes to high-end apps especially gaming apps. Daily-driver apps are smooth with minimal delay in opening, but games like Asphalt 8 can’t be played in extreme high settings. Lowering the performance of the game to mid helped a bit.

Frame drops are noticeable. Mid-graphic games were running smoothly including Dead Trigger 2. Opening games need patience. Lag is not common and happens once a while, that too during heavy usage.

      

The Note 4 has an old school MediaTek MT6753 processor, but that does not hamper performance. RAM management as mentioned above is good with around 1GB RAM always available.

Pros	Cons
Smooth & lag-free day-to-day performance	Gaming

Battery

One of the best parts of the Infinix Note 4 is its battery. The battery of Note 4 is extraordinary. On paper, the Note 4 comes with a huge 4300mAh battery and it keeps the device running easily for two days on normal usage.

Even if you are a heavy user, the Infinix Note 4 will last for more than a day. With 4300mAh battery, charging is a big issue, but Infinix has included fast charging support inside the Note 4 and it is truly fast.

If you use the proprietary wall adapter and USB cable, the Infinix Note 4 will charge completely from 0 to 100% in around 2 hours, using third party charger will increase the time by 150%.

Pros	Cons
Battery Backup	-
Fast Charging

Verdict

Infinix is a new brand in India and with the Note 4 it does stand up head-to-head against the already established brands in the budget segment like Xiaomi and Motorola.

The Infinix Note 4 has many improvements over its competitors like huge Full HD display, amazing battery performance, build quality, software, and camera. Some areas where the device lacks a bit is the old school processor and gaming performance.

As an introductory offer, the company is providing one-time free screen replacement within the first 100 days of purchasing the Note 4 along with 84GB data with no daily limit for 84 days on IDEA network. Infinix already has over 850+ service touch points across the country.

I will personally recommend the Infinix Note 4 if you are looking for a budget smartphone, with no main focus on gaming. Also, an old school processor can never decide the fate of a smartphone, as day-to-day and user-to-user performance varies.

You can buy the Infinix Note 4 exclusively from Flipkart in Milan Black, Champagne Gold and Ice Blue colors for Rs. 8,999.

Infinix Note 4 from Flipkart

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active leaked in hands-on video revealing key details including 4000mAh battery

Samsung announced the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ smartphones earlier this year in late-March. The Galaxy S8 series brought a whole new design language for the Samsung smartphones. In 2013, soon after the global rollout of the Galaxy S4 smartphone, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S4 Active with IP67 certification.

The series continued since then by the introduction of the Galaxy S5 Active, the Galaxy S6 Active and the Galaxy S7 Active, all with IP67 and IP68 certification respectively along with MIL-STD-810G certification which gives salt, dust, humidity, rain, vibration, solar radiation, transport and thermal shock resistance, which helps differentiating them with the originals.

OnePlus launches OnePlus 5 in India with dual-cameras, 6GB/8GB RAM starting at Rs. 32,999

OnePlus officially announced the OnePlus 5 globally on June 20th. As scheduled, OnePlus today has launched the OnePlus 5 in the Indian market at an event held in NSCI Dome, Mumbai. OnePlus has launched the OnePlus 5 in India in two different color options including Midnight Black and Slate Gray.

According to OnePlus, the Slate Gray option will be available only in 6GB + 64GB variant, whereas the Midnight Black option comes in 8GB + 128GB configuration. The 6GB RAM variant of the OnePlus 5 is priced at Rs. 32,999, whereas the 8GB RAM variant costs Rs. 37,999 in India.

Both the variants of the OnePlus 5 will be available in India for purchase starting June 27th via Amazon India. We will soon be posting our first impression of the OnePlus 5, so keep following us.

Click here to buy OnePlus 5 from Amazon

OnePlus 5 looks exactly like the Apple's iPhone 7 Plus, but with a headphone jack and oval fingerprint scanner on the front. The device has an Anodized Aluminum metal unibody design, which feels premium. Similar to the OnePlus 3 and 3T, the OnePlus 5 also comes with an alert slider on the left. The ceramic fingerprint scanner is now much faster and can unlock the device in mere 0.2 seconds. 

Talking of the software, OnePlus has included new features in OxygenOS like Reading Mode - which filters out blue light using gray-scale mapping with the help of ambient sensor to give e-reader like experience, App Priority - which opens your most used apps much faster than the other apps and Extended Screenshots.

OnePlus 5 also comes with latest UFS 2.1 Dual Lane storage, coupled with 2-lane ROM, which provides 50% faster bandwidth, and also doubles the reading and writing speed compared to the UFS 2.0.

When it comes to camera, the OnePlus 5 comes with dual cameras on the rear. The primary rear camera is a 16MP Sony sensor with f/1.7 aperture and wide-angle lens and the secondary rear camera has a 20MP Sony sensor with f/2.6 aperture and is a telephoto lens used for capturing images with high depth of field to produce bokeh effect.

Camera features include Portrait Mode, Pro mode, and up to 2x lossless zoom with 1.6x optical zoom and the remaining 0.4x is realized through SmartCapture multi frame technology. You can find the complete specification sheet of the OnePlus 5 below:

OnePlus 5 Specifications

• 5.5-inch Full HD Optic AMOLED display with DCI-P3 color coverage, 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
• 2.45GHz 10nm 64-bit Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
• Adreno 540 GPU | 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4X RA
• Android 7.1.1 Nougat with OxygenOS
• 16MP primary rear camera with dual-LED Flash, Sony IMX398 sensor, f/1.7 aperture, 1.12μm pixel size, EIS
• 20MP secondary rear camera with f/2.6 aperture, Sony IMX350 sensor, 1.0μm pixel size, 720p slow motion at 120fps, 4K video recording at 30fps
• 16MP front-facing camera with Sony IMX371 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 1.0μm pixel size
• 64GB / 128GB internal storage (UFS 2.1 Dual Lane)
• 3300mAh battery with Dash Charge (Wall Adapter - 5V 4A)
• 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD, GPS, GLONASS, USB Type-C, NFC, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3 noise cancellation microphones, Dirac HD Sound
• Fingerprint sensor | dual-SIM (nano + nano)
• Dimensions: 154.2 x 74.1 x 7.25mm | Weight: 153g

OnePlus 5 Slate Gray

OnePlus 5 Midnight Black