Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G vs InFocus M370

You'd happily buy the InFocus, even if it was Rs 500 more. Luckily, it is Rs 1,000 less.

Micromax launched the Canvas Blaze 4G earlier this week at Rs 6,999 which we have compared with the InFocus M370. Incidentally, we had reviewed the InFocus smartphone just a few days ago which you can read here. The M370 is available for Rs 5,999.

Design

We haven't seen the Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G physically so much of our thoughts on its design are derived from its pictures posted on Micromax's website. As you can also see in the pictures, it has a simple design with plain back panel where in lies a circular camera module below which lies the Micromax logo.

The InFocus M370 though impress us a lot with its design. The entire phone has a black and white contrasting theme all across, and it weighs just 125 grams

The InFocus M370 is definitely the better looking phone. We do not know how it compares with the Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G in terms of size and weight, simply because we don't know the details of the Micromax. The InFocus M370 measures 143 x 71.5 x 8.1 mm and tips the scales at 125 grams.

Display

The InFocus M370 has a 5 inch HD IPS display while the Micromax Canvas Blaze 4Gis armed with a 4.5 inch IPS display with 480 x 854 pixels resolution.

The InFocus M370 not only has a bigger display, it has higher resolution also. However, regardless of which phone you pick, you must invest Rs 200 or so in a tempered glass screen guard.

Processor & Memory

Both the phones have the 1.1 GHz Snapdragon 210 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage as well as 32 GB of expandable storage.

Software

Both these phones run on Android Lollipop 5.1 operating system with mild customisations on top — thus in this section it is a draw as well.

Battery

The InFocus M370 has a 2230 mAh battery, while the Micromax has a 2000 mAh battery which claims to offer up to 6 hours of talk time and 220 hours of standby. InFocus hasn't revealed how long the battery lasts, but in similar conditions, it will be at least as much, if not slightly more thanks to the similar OS and larger battery.

Camera

The Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G has a 5 megapixel primary autofocus camera that comes along with a flash light and for selfies, it offers a 2 megapixel fixed focus shooter.

The InFocus M370 is equipped with an 8 megapixel primary autofocus camera and it has a 2 megapixel selfie shooter.

Spec for spec, the InFocus M370 is the winner of this round. Thankfully, the InFocus M370s camera has been tested and can capture good quality pictures befitting an 8 megapixel unit. So, unless the Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G has extraordinary image processing, there is no way it can come out ahead of this round.

Connectivity

The InFocus M370 has two SIM slots, 4G, GPS (A-GPS), Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi as connectivity features. However, the second SIM card slot doubles as a memory card slot too. So you can only have expandable storage, or two SIM cards, not both. TheMicromax Canvas Blaze 4G on the hand has two dedicated SIM card slots along with the micro SD card slot. It also offers 4G, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi.

The Micromax Canvas Blaze 4G wins this round as it can be used as a dual-SIM phone with expandable storage at the same time.

Conclusion

What would you say if someone was giving you the better specs for Rs 1,000 less? Would you think twice? Here, with the InFocus M370, you get better looks, same processor, more (expandable) storage (in single SIM mode), a larger and clearer display, bigger battery, and a better camera. So do yourself a favour and wait for the InFocus M370 to be launched in the first week of October.

Apple iPhone 6s, 6s Plus in Rose Gold prove popular; record sales expected!

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus hit stores around the world on Friday, kicking off what is expected to be a record weekend of sales as customers scrambled to buy Apple Inc’s marquee product in pink for the first time.

Eager buyers – joined by at least one robot – flocked to Apple stores from Sydney to New York and San Francisco, itching to get their hands on new models boasting an improved camera and a screen feature Apple calls ‘3D Touch’, which performs different functions depending on how hard a user presses.

“It’s very intuitive. I’m really excited to see what developers do with it,” Leah Bentley, a 22-year-old software developer from Emeryville, California, said inside Apple’s San Francisco store after purchasing her phone.

For all the sophisticated technology packed into the new iPhones, customers interviewed by Reuters were most excited by a more low-tech feature: the ‘rose gold’ finish, a new shade that Apple introduced with the current phone.

The novel hue – essentially sparkling pink – accounted for more than a third of early in-store sales, according to FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives, citing conversations with buyers.

Another of the hundreds gathered outside the store in downtown San Francisco was pink-haired software developer Jo Engo, 37, who has lobbied Apple leaders past and present for a phone in his favourite colour.

“I have emailed not only Steve Jobs but Tim Cook,” Engo said outside the store, sporting an Apple Watch with a pink band and an iPhone 6 in a pink case. “I’m so excited they’re finally doing it.”

Despite the crowds, the scene was less frenetic than usual at the San Francisco store, perhaps because more people now order phones online, and the release of a new device has become routine.

One store at least was buzzing, as Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook made a surprise visit to company’s store in Georgetown, Washington, to raucous cheers from employees and shoppers.

High hopes on street

Analysts expect 12 million to 13 million phones to fly off the shelves in the first weekend, up from more than 10 million last year when the launch of the hugely successful iPhone 6 was delayed in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market.

Apple, whose shares were largely unchanged on Friday, has said pre-orders suggested sales were on pace to beat last year’s first-weekend performance. It usually announces first weekend sales on the following Monday.

Among the first to pick up the new iPhone 6s in a cold, rainy Sydney was a robot named Lucy, operated remotely by marketing executive Lucy Kelly.

“I obviously have my work and other things to attend to and can’t spend two days lining up so my boss at work suggested I take one of the robots down and use it to stand in my place,” she said, via an iPad mounted on top of the wheeled robot.

After a dramatic redesign last year, which included an enlarged screen and the addition of mobile payments, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus – which were first unveiled by Apple two weeks ago – boast more modest improvements.

Several reviewers have said that might not be compelling enough to persuade iPhone 6 users to upgrade.

Apple has said just a fraction of its customers have upgraded to the iPhone 6 – analysts estimate less than 30 percent – suggesting there is room to grow.

Apple has sold more than 700 million iPhones since the first model of the device upended the smartphone market in 2007. Still, Apple has only about 16 percent of the global smartphone market compared to 81 percent for devices running Google Inc’s Android system, according to tech research firm IDC’s projections for this year.

More important than customer appetite for upgrades is sales outside the United States, particularly in China, said Aaron Rakers, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

The breakdown

Repair firm iFixit, which opened up an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus on Friday, said battery capacity was down “a bit”, probably to accommodate new features. Apple has said battery life is unchanged in the new phones.

The new iPhones use chips made by, among others, Qualcomm Inc, Avago Technologies Ltd, Qorvo Inc’s TriQuint Semiconductor and RF Micro Devices, Texas Instruments Inc and Skyworks Solutions Inc.

Shares of audio chipmaker Cirrus Logic Inc jumped 15 percent after iFixit’s tear-down revealed that Apple had used its chips, as it did in previous iPhones.

Lacklustre offerings this year from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will help Apple stand out in the marketplace, said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. He said he expected the 6s to eclipse the 6 “over the long haul.”

The 6s and 6s Plus start at $199 and $299 respectively with a two-year service-provider contract.

Samsung Aggressively Testing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC

Samsung, which is currently under the spotlight for a possible design flaw in the Galaxy Note 5, is reportedly testing the unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset 'aggressively'. The test results are said to determine if the chipset would feature in next year's flagship models or not.

According to Korean news website Dreamx, Samsung is running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 through rigorous tests to see if it can implement the SoC in next year's Samsung Galaxy S7 or not. For now, the chipsets is said to be performing well in the tests.

If the Snapdragon 820 passes all the tests by Samsung, we might once again see different regions receiving different versions of Galaxy smartphones based on Exynos and Snapdragon processors. It is worth mentioning that this was the case until this year, when Samsung decided to completely forego Qualcomm mobile processors and instead use its own 14nm process chipsets for the flagship models - Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+. All these smartphone use company's own Exynos 7420 SoC.

The reason Samsung used its own SoC over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 is thought to be because of an overheating issue, which has since been much publicised. LG earlier this year confirmed the overheating problem with the chipset but later said it managed to tweak it to avoid the problem. OnePlus too ditched the original SoC and instead used the reworked Snapdragon 810 v2.1 for its OnePlus 2 smartphone, just like Xiaomi claims for the Mi Note Pro. HTC too last month said it is shipping the One M9 smartphone with Snapdragon 810 v2.1 SoC.

Qualcomm earlier this month unveiled its new Adreno 530 GPU and Spectra ISP for the Snapdragon 820 SoC, and announced the first devices with the chipset will be launched in H1 2016. The new GPU promises speed and efficiency improvements, while the new ISP is said to offer improved picture quality, colour accuracy, and support for computer vision.

           

             

             

                 Here's the list of what's new in MIUI 7:

Highlights

New - Added four new system UIs (08-14, for India only)

New - XXL text (08-14)

New - Showtime: Set profile picture/video to show in your contacts' device when you call them (08-14, for India only)

New - Baby album: Group all baby images in one place, supports sending all images as a package and set the album as daily lock screen. (08-14, For India only)

Optimisation - System response speed increased by 30%, battery life improved by 10%. New - Quick OTP(For India only)

New - Smart SMS Filter (For India only)

System

Optimisation - System response speed increased by 30%, battery life improved by 10%.

Contacts

New - Contact cards: Exchange contact cards with your friend to view his/her profile picture and detailed information (08-14)

New - Showtime: Set profile video to show in your contact's device when you call them (You need to exchange contact cards with the contact first) (08-14, For India only)

Messaging

New - Added XXL text for the app (08-14)

Optimisation - Searching results display the newer messages on top (08-17)

Lock screen, Status Bar, Notification Bar

New - Added notification page fold/unfold animated effects (08-07)

New - Block notifications in notification shade by one press (08-18)

Optimisation - Optimised Notification shade brightness bar interactive style (08-07)

Optimisation - Optimised battery icon on status bar (08-07)

Optimisation - Optimised status bar display effects when using large font (08-10)

Optimisation - Optimised notifications' height when using large font (08-10)

Optimisation - Optimised 'Manage notifications' page display effect when using large font (08-10)

Optimisation - MiHome app icon does not show in lock screen in Parental controls mode (08-11)

Fix - Roaming icon did not disappear in some situations (08-10)

Fix - Block button in some featured themes overlapped with clock widget (08-12)

Fix - Notes widget display error when using large font (08-12)

Fix - Pressing on toggles did not fold notification shade in Performance mode (08-19)

Home screen

New - Child mode (08-14)

Optimisation - Optimised display effect of live blur (08-07)

Optimisation - Optimised built-in widgets display effect when using large font (08-10)

Optimisation - Optimised One-handed mode launching speed (08-10)

Optimisation - Removed Settings and Security from Parental controls - Accessible apps list (08-11)

Optimisation - Assistant and Google Now cannot be launched in Parental controls mode (08-11)

Optimisation - Optimised prompt text when setting wallpaper in home screen editing mode (08-12)

Fix - Home screen reloaded after deep cleaning (08-11)

Fix - A specific icon displayed repeatedly when using some themes (08-21)

Themes

New - Added four default themes (08-14)

Gallery

New - Baby album: Group all baby images in one place, supports sending all images as a package and set the album as daily lock screen. Optimisation - Optimised start page images grouping method (08-19)

Optimisation - Optimised baby albums' UI details (08-19)

Fix - 'No images or videos' icon showed for a moment when entering baby album (08-19)

Fix - The baby's age did not show under baby album cover when he/she is under 1 month old (08-19)

Fix - Sometimes, shared album creator's avatar did not show (08-19)

Music

Optimisation - Optimised playing status bar style in playing page (08-18)

Fix - Audio settings background display error in some devices (08-18)

Settings

Fix - Sound settings page texts were cut off when using XXL text (08-18)

Browser

Optimisation - Improved app cold start speed (08-14)

Optimisation - Background RAM usage decreased by 15% - 30% (08-14)

Notes

New - Added XXL text for apps (08-14)

Others

New - XXL text (08-14)

Clock / Calculator

New - When it's your birthday, the ringtone of morning alarm will change to "Happy Birthday "

Mi Credit

Optimisation - Updated Mi Credits centre home screen shortcut icon (08-20)

Optimisation - Optimised display effect when using XXL text (08-20)

As the name clearly suggests, the MIUI 7 ROM is still in beta, which means the performance is likely to be unstable and it can even lead to data loss. Now that you know the risks of installing beta software, but want to proceed anyways, we suggest you backup your Xiaomi smartphone before proceeding.

As of this moment, MIUI 7 is available for the following Xiaomi smartphones: Xiaomi Mi 4i, Xiaomi Mi 4,Xiaomi Mi 3, Xiaomi Redmi 1S, Xiaomi Redmi 2, Xiaomi Redmi Note, and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G.

Here's how to download and install MIUI 7 on your Xiaomi smartphone:

1) Identify your smartphone and download the MIUI 7 build corresponding to your smartphone.

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Mi 4i - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Mi 4 - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Mi 3 - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Redmi 1S - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Redmi 2 - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Redmi Note - Recovery ROM

MIUI 7 for Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G - Recovery ROM

Most users should download the Recovery ROM for their smartphone. Flashing Recovery ROM will not wipe your user data or the files in internal storage and it's simple to use, so unless you are planning to start afresh we suggest you follow this method.

2) Once you've downloaded the Recovery ROM corresponding to your device, rename the downloaded ROM file to update.zip on the computer.

3) Connect your Xiaomi smartphone to your laptop via a Micro-USB cable, and copy the ROM file downloaded into the root directory of the internal storage of your device (do not put it in any other folder).

4) Enter the Recovery mode of your device. There are 2 methods to do it as follows:

Method 1: Launch Updater app on your device, click the ... icon at the top-right corner, and selectReboot to Recovery mode to enter.

Huawei Honor 7i unveiled in China: 13MP flip-up camera and side fingerprint sensor

Huawei has launched its new smartphone dubbed Honor 7i at an event in China today. The device is now available for pre-order for a starting price tag of 1,599 Yuan (Rs 16,400) (China Mobile version). The China Telecom version is priced at 1,699 Yuan (Rs 17,500) while the China Unicom version is priced at 1,899 Yuan (Rs 19,500). It will be offered in Black, White and Gold color variants.

The most impressive feature of the smartphone, design wise, it its flip-up camera module which means that the rear camera unit itself will be the front facing camera too. This feature is partially similar to the camera seen on the Oppo N1, instead of the entire top portion of the phone rotating, in Huawei’s case only the camera module rotates. The rear camera can go up to 180 degrees to transform into a selfie snapper and can also adopt various other angles for creative shots.

In addition, the new smartphone also features a first of a kind finger print scanner which has been embedded on the side of the phone. This might be the first official smartphone to ever feature this function on the side instead on the home screen button as seen previously on the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S5 and others.

In terms of specifications, the new smartphone features a 5.2-inch FHD LCD display along with a screen to body ratio of 79.8 percent. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 616 64-bit octa-core processor, reportedly much stable and low power consuming than its previous generation, paired with 3GB RAM and includes an internal storage at 32GB