Category: Tech

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This just in: two tabs for children

Eddy launches two new tablets for kids; both the new infotainment based tabs include games based on Cartoon Network characters.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Eddy has recently launched two new tablets for kids. Metis Learning, the start-up behind Eddy, has collaborated with Cartoon Network to come up with Ben 10 and Creativity Tablets. Equipped with a 7-inch (1024 x 600) screens, the tablets are successors to Eddy’s first Learning tablet that was launched last year.

The Ben 10 tablet comes with a lot of games based on Cartoon Network characters and stories and it’s themed completely on Ben 10, the popular cartoon series. It comes loaded with 1,000 minutes of Ben 10 videos, books and interactive learning games.

CreativityThe Creativity Tablet comes loaded with various art and craft apps, role-playing games, Tabla app, and many more activity apps based on the show M.A.D.

Mr. Bharat Gulia, co-founder of Eddy said, “We build technology for young superstars. In every child there could be a reading superstar, a creativity superstar, a tech superstar, a math superstar or some other inherent talent. Our tablets provide excellent and fun content to bring out and nurture the superstar that lies in every child. Instead of spending thousands of rupees on toys, video games and other merchandise, parents can gift their kids one of these tablets that not only provide unlimited learning and entertainment, but are also much safer compared to any other tablet.”

Based on Android 4.2.2, the tablets come with Eddy’s proprietary Athena OS for better learning experience and parental controls, as per the company. Both these tablets are powered by Intel’s Z2520 Atom chip coupled with 1 GB of RAM. There’s 16 GB of on-board storage, which is expandable up to 32 GB. There’s a 2 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front-facing camera. The tablets come fitted inside removable drop-safe bumpers made of food grade silicone to prevent damage from falls. Equipped with 2,800 mAh battery, the tablets sport Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G via a supported dongle. While the Ben 10 tablet has been priced at Rs 9,999, the Creativity tablet comes for Rs 8,999, with offers from Amazon.

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Review: Lenovo A6000

Lenovo’s lowest-priced smartphone in India is a 4G device with, unfortunately, not much going for it in terms of performance.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Lenovo has been one of the players to bring price wars in the smartphone race. Its range of devices, along with Xiaomi and Motorola, gave us good phones at reasonable pricing without having to sacrifice on the performance. The A6000 is the lowest-priced 4G smartphone in India and has a lot going for it on the paper.

The looks. The A6000 (Kraft A6000) follows a similar rounded-edges and soft back design as quite a few other smartphones. On the front, above the 5-inch HD screen is the Lenovo logo, long ear speaker grill, sensors and the 2 MP front-facing camera. Below the screen we have the three touch buttons – Menu/Option, Home, and Back – these keys don’t light up, neither is there any LED notification on the phone.

The screen gets a lot of smudges and fingerprints and requires to be wipe cleaned quite often. On the top, you have the 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port in the middle. The volume rocker and Power button (in the centre) are placed on the right, leaving the left side panel plain and bottom with the primary mic. Coming to the back, the soft plastic rear cover extends to sides and gives the phone a good grip. The 8 MP camera (with a silver circular ring surrounding it), along with the LED flash and secondary mic, can be seen near the top-left corner. The loudspeaker with Dolby imprinted sits near the bottom and the familiar Lenovo logo in the middle. Removing the back cover gives you access to the battery unit, microSD card slot and two SIM card slots

Screen. The device sports a 5-inch (1280 x 720) screen. It has good resolution for a phone at this price. Videos look nice; images and text appear just fine. Colours, at times, look washed out and you may also notice a lack of sharpness when viewing high-quality images. Having said that, it is not a bad screen for watching 720p videos and handling games well, especially considering the price point.

Camera. On the back, the phone boasts an 8 MP (AF) camera. Here are a few sample images.

The camera takes good contrast images in day light. It is capable of taking detailed shots, but clearly struggles in low light, giving grainy shots. The camera app is same as earlier and has HDR, Panorama and Continuous Shot. It takes decent shots and not very good photos in conditions you don’t expect a budget phone to.

Audio. The loudspeakers on the back of the device are loud and clear for videos and games. They are Dolby Digital- certified and are among the best in this price range for sure. It would have been even better had Lenovo placed it somewhere else as sound gets muffled when the phone is placed on a flat surface. In-ear quality, though, isn’t great. Not only are the bundled earphones uncomfortable to wear, they also sound below average, so you’d better buy a decent headset yourself. There’s no complaint about the phone’s call quality. Also, it handles network reception and Wi-Fi without hiccups. For those interested, the phone supports 4G FDD and TDD, but I couldn’t check it as there’s no 4G LTE service in Delhi so far.

Battery. Talking about its battery life, the phone lasted me a full day with moderate usage more often than not. With Email, Twitter and a few cams, its 2,300 mAh battery seemed to do fine, but struggled once I started watching videos and playing games on the phone; so you have to give it a charge in about 16 hours. I used the phone with one SIM card (requires micro SIM cards).

Software and performance. The device is equipped with the Snapdragon 410 SoC (1.2 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 306 GPU) and 1 GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.4.4 with Lenovo’s Vibe UI on top. The overall performance and handling of tasks on the phone is a bit disappointing. Scrolling and swiping though Home screens is smooth at first, but once you start using a few apps and switch between them, the phone struggles to keep up. On long-pressing the Menu key, which gives you the list of recent apps, you can notice the phone cannot switch between apps quickly and even loads up the whole launcher (taking good two-three seconds) when going back Home. The overall look and feel of the OS is exactly what we saw on the Vibe X2, with the only noticeable changes being done in the swipe-down notification shade and toggle buttons where more toggle buttons and Settings can be accessed.

Lenovo continues to load its phones with a separate anti-virus and clean-up utility apps, though we are sure neither of them help to boost its performance. All your apps and Settings are on the Home screens and Widgets can also be added there. Looks of folder, icons and dock at the bottom have not been changed either. The Lock screen is simple, where you have to swipe up unlock (or enter the required pin/pattern if you have enabled that option). Not much has changed in the Settings pattern, Email app and volume settings. You get about 4.6 GB of internal storage space, which can be expanded using a microSD card.

All in all, the Lenovo A6000 is not as good as it previously seemed to be when announced back at CES this year. While it has a few good things going for it like the decent camera, loudspeaker and screen, its performance clearly lets it down and this could mean struggling to compete with other new devices in this price segment. At Rs 6,999, it might not be best in performance, but is still the only 4G device for a few who care right now.

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Review: Karbonn MachOne

Karbonn’s new under-8k price range phone is a satisfactory device but needs a few corrections in its battery and camera performance.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Karbonn has been one of the Indian players to capture a considerable amount of phone sale share and keep its brand value intact over the last couple of years. One of the things working in its favour has been low-end smartphones. The MachOne Titanium is another such device from the company that caters to sub-8k price segment without having to sacrifice on the performance side, as per Karbonn. So is it worth spending Rs. 6,990 on this phone?

The looks. Karbonn’s MachOne Titanium (S310) follows a typical form factor that you expect to see from an Indian manufacturer. With its silver curved sides, thin plastic sheet used for rear and a front design that isn’t very unique, the design is just okay and not something that would wow you on the first look. You might even say they could have done better by not trying to imitate the iPhone 6 (check those speaker grills at the bottom), and I won’t disagree.

The front sports the 4.7-inch HD screen along with the 5 MP front-facing camera with the LED notification light tucked in, ear speaker grill, and sensors as well LED flash for the front camera. The screen is prone to smudges and dust, so do wipe it clear often. At the bottom of the screen are three touch buttons – Multi-app view, Home and Back – which lit up dully. The top houses the microUSB port as well as the 3.5mm headset jack; while the plasticy hard volume rocker and Power/Lock key (nearer the middle) are placed on the right side panel, leaving the left side panel plain.

The camera is on the top-left corner next to the LED flash, with the Karbonn logo, and a secluded secondary mic. You can open the rear cover using your finger nail through the slight opening on the left side, revealing the battery unit, two SIM slots and microSD card slot.

Display. The phone’s 4.7-inch (1280 x 720) display is the best thing about the device. It is not a bad screen at this price. You can watch HD videos, view images and read webpages well. There isn’t a wow factor to its colour production and sharpness, but there’s not much of a downside considering other panels in this price range.

Camera. The MachOne boasts an 8 MP (AF) camera. Here are a few sample images.

The camera takes decent photos in daylight but struggles in any mode that doesn’t have good light. Images usually look grainy and only once in a while did a photo appeared detailed and quite sharp. You might want to try the HDR mode more often. The app seems similar to the Google Camera app, but the camera is definitely not worth much more than shooting outside for casual shots.

Audio. The device has a decent in-ear output using the bundled headset, and the loudspeakers, though distorted at the maximum volume, is loud and usually clear for games and videos. Call quality is fine and network reception as well as WiFi network connections didn’t give any trouble.

Battery. Battery life of the phone (using one SIM card) was inconsistent. At times, with moderate usage, its 1,800 mAh battery unit lasted nearly a day, but at other times, with similar usage, it struggled to give over 18 hours. There were three minor firmware updates within a week I started using the phone and were aimed at better battery (besides a few other things), so Karbonn may well be aware of it. There’s a built-in Stamina mode, which you can select to switch on at 20% battery level to get a bit more phone uptime.

Software and performance. The device runs on Android 4.4.2 with very little added or changed from stock Android look and feel. Under the hood, there is a MediaTek 6582 SoC (1.3 GHz quad-core processor, Mali-400 GPU) coupled with 1 GB of RAM. The user gets about 5.5 GB of available storage space, which can be expanded. The general performance of the phone seemed satisfactory. Apps opened without any hiccups, scrolling through Settings, swiping though Home screen and going back and forth between apps was easy.

With a few days of usage, I wouldn’t call it to be a very snappy smartphone, but it did handle most tasks pretty well. You shouldn’t have much of a problem in playing HD videos or viewing and swiping through images. As for additions done by Karbonn, the screen supports double-tap to wake as well as double-tap on a Home screen to lock it, and this handy feature works well. Karbonn has also added a few gesture modes, by which you can unlock the screen by writing a letter in the screen to land straight into the app pre-set for that letter.

Lock screen has also been revamped a bit. Apart from the usual camera and battery setting shortcuts, it shows you notifications on it – missed call, SMS, and if you swipe left on a notification icon, it gives you the option to call the contact directly. There are two themes available under Settings – Dark (default) and White. There are few more colour options available for Home screen options, but that option only gives you coloured icon backgrounds, which look quite ugly, so you wouldn’t want to change the default transparent style. Other than that, the overall look, customization options and features are a standard set associated with a low-end Android phone.

Notification centre and toggle buttons appear in one screen and you have to swipe left to access more toggle buttons from the swipe-down center. Dual SIM handling and data connectivity option are handy and most users shouldn’t find it difficult to switch between them. While it does have satisfactory performance for a budget device, it would be great if Karbonn could give the Android 5.0 update soon. Not only will it give it an edge among many other smartphones available out there, but also give a better impression that the company is actually serious about software upgrades.

To sum up, the Karbonn MachOne Titanium seems like a phone that does most things quite well – satisfactory performance, useful screen gestures, good screen, but lacks a bit on the camera and battery parts even at this range. All in all, the device seems like a worthy option in a segment that’s getting a lot of attention these days.

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Review: Xiaomi Mi4

What’s new and improved in the Mi4 model that the Mi3 didn’t have? We do a check to find out.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

What comes to your mind when you hear the name Xiaomi? Good hardware specifications, reasonable pricing, and flash sale, right? And now, Xiaomi seems to be building further on those thoughts. With the Mi 3 making its India debut, the company made quite a few ripples in the online retail space – flash sale for a mid-range device that has hardware specifications you would associate with higher-end models. Does the Mi 4, with its revamped UI, upgraded camera, new design have what it takes to ship Xiaomi’s ship further in the Indian market? Let’s try and find out.

The looks. Xiaomi’s Mi 4 (MI 4W) follows a different design language than the Mi 3. Having stainless steel frame around with chamfered edges, hard back with no curves and two vertical cuts on the top and bottom, the phone does have some heft to it and feels sturdy to hold. There are no creeks or random loose give to it. Besides the 5-inch full HD panel on the front, you see the silver Mi logo, sensors, ear speaker grill and front-facing camera while below the screen are the three touch keys – Menu/ Options key, Home and Back key, plus the oval-shaped LED notification light. These buttons and light lit up just about the right amount – not dull or too bright. On the left side panel, there’s the micro SIM card slot, while the right side panel houses the volume rockers and Power Lock key, both are made out of metal, requiring you to press a bit firmly.

On the hard white rear, you’ll see the 13 MP camera near the top-middle, surrounded by the LED flash and secondary mic, and the Mi logo towards the bottom. On the top, the infrared port and 3.5mm headset jack are placed; and the bottom sports the microUSB part and loudspeaker. The Mi 4 seems like having better design and feel than its predecessor, and it’s good that Xiaomi didn’t just follow its previous design pattern.

Screen. The device boasts a 5-inch (1920 x 1080) screen that’s manufactured by JDI, which it claims provides a better solution than Gorilla Glass. The display produces good colours, is usable under direct sunlight and seems to have good viewing angles. Watching full HD videos and images, the screen won’t disappoint, provided you haven’t been using a high-end phone panel as the Mi 4 doesn’t quite seem as sharp and vibrant as the most high-end phones, but it does the job pretty well.

Camera. Talking about the 13 MP (f/1.8) camera, the company claims it has been upgraded and vastly improved. Here are a few sample images.

The phone takes detailed, bright images when used under daylight conditions. Its shortcomings come to the fore when taking close-up shots and using it in low-light conditions. I liked the app, which has a lot of options and modes like Refocus, Burst, HDR, Panorama and also the manual mode, and yet the camera app is smooth and simple to operate. The front-facing 8 MP camera is more than capable in handling selfies and making video calls. Thanks to its wide-angle sensor, you can cover more area for group shots.

Network and call quality. The phone handles basics like network reception, call quality and network switches without any trouble. I didn’t notice any network issues or call drops and WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth worked fine. Infrared connectivity, on the other hand, was a bit glitchy as it took me a while to sync and control a Samsung LED TV. On the audio side, the loudspeaker is loud and clear and not bad for games and videos, but it could have been placed ideally at a better place. You don’t get any bundled headsets, but using a basic pair of earphones, the phone delivers above average in-ear output.

Battery. I found the 3,000 mAh battery unit a downside. The phone hardly ever lasted me a full day as it needed to be plugged in within 24 hours of a full charge. At about 30 per cent brightness, using Email, Twitter, Reddit and a bit of music and calls, you may end up with more juice when switching to the power-saving mode.

Software and performance. The Mi 4 runs on Android 4.4.4 with the new MiUI 6.3.9 in place. Under the hood, there is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 80 SoC (2.5 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 330 GPU) coupled with 3 GB of RAM. Scrolling, swiping and opening of apps is fairly smooth. One thing worth mentioning is that the launcher often redraws, re-launches and you would have to wait a second or two to tap somewhere on your Home screen after exiting an app. This wasn’t the case with the Mi 3 running MiUi 5, so hopefully there’s a quick fix for this issue. With the 16 GB model, you get about 2.4 GB of storage space, so you might want to spend a bit more to get a 64 GB variant.

The new MiUI 6 seems like a more colourful, refreshing and minimal skin than earlier. With having all your app shortcuts and widgets on the Home screens and no separate app launcher, the setup isn’t very different. What’s different is the icons and widgets, which have been given a cleaner look.

Notifications have been given a major overhaul. You now get a pop-up like notification shade (similar to iOS) on getting an Email, SMS, etc. and can tap to reply no matter what app you’re in. You can choose which app is allowed to show notifications in pop-up, preview its icon in the status bar and Lock screen. Status bar icons are redesigned also a bit more on the monochromatic side of looks. Clock has been shifted to the left side and Lock screen looks simpler now with the only shortcut being the camera app. App icons now show you if there’s any unread message (showing a number), which is handy. Swiping down gives you toggle buttons and swiping left lands you at the notification shade. All in all, the new MiUI seems like a good step towards cleaner and neater UI, while there’s surely shades of iOS at various places, there quite a few useful things and tricks to like in it.

Concluding our review, the Mi 4, which we would have appreciated if Xiaomi had launched sooner than six months of its initial launch, seems like a worth competitor in this mid-range. It has a good screen, average battery life, capable camera, it might not be as compelling as the Mi 3 for its price, but is a worthy competitor to the likes of the HTC Desire 820Q, OnePlus One, Lenovo Vibe X2, giving a bunch of good options to buyers to pick from.

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Review: HTC Desire Eye

Despite a good selfie camera and decent specs, this phone does not enter the winners’ league with its large design and low battery life.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We all use the cameras on our phones extensively. This is normally the feature we check out first on a new phone, and the feature we put to maximum use when taking selfies.

Companies, too, are cashing in on the selfie craze, coming out with better front-facing cameras and marketing their products with the selfie user in mind. HTC’s Desire Eye is one such device – it has a front-facing camera very similar to its rear one.

The looks. HTC’s Desire Eye is designed differently from your typical HTC device. Our review unit was dark blue on the back with light blue sides and white bars on the front. It isn’t made up of any metal, but its plastic material is far from being cheap and flimsy. On the front, above the 5.2-inch full HD LCD is the big 13 MP front-facing camera with the dual-tone flash and sensors on the left and speaker hole on the right. Below the screen, you see the familiar HTC logo set on a black bar (like the One M8), followed by the plain white bar.

You might miss noticing the front-facing BoomSound speakers, which are placed right at the bottom and above the display. On the right side panel are the Volume buttons and Power/Lock key; while the left side panel houses the nano SIM card slot and microSD card slot – both capped under flaps that you can open with your fingernail and don’t require any SIM ejector tools nor any separate trays. The back features the 13 MP camera with the dual-tone flash, HTC logo in the middle secondary mic. The bottom has the microUSB port and mic, and the 3.5mm headset jack is placed at the top. The phone is certainly big and has no curves, but its build and material make it decent to grip if you have large hands.

Screen. The Desire Eye’s 5.2-inch (1920 x 1080) screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top and follows most phones that have full HD screens. HTC has come up with really good screens in the last couple of years and the Desire Eye seems to be another one. It isn’t quite as good as the One (M8) for me, but it isn’t something to complain about. The screen is sharp, has good viewing angles for your photos, videos and to browse webpages.

Camera. Coming to the phone’s camera, it features a 13 MP rear (f2.0) camera coupled with a dual-tone flash. The front-facing camera is a 13 MP module (f/2.2) with the same dual-tone flash. Here are a few sample images (including from the front camera).

The phone can take really nice, detailed photos – be it from the rear of front camera. The rear camera can give really sharp images, but tends to overexpose and fade when used in low-light conditions. The front-facing camera is sufficient for your selfie needs. With HTC’s Eye Experience, you sure can edit, ‘beautify’ your photos and take photos with your friends using UTS wide-angle lens. The camera app is smooth, fast to focus and has a lot of options to choose from that most users will find useful.

Audio. The phone’s audio quality from its external speakers is top-notch. With its BoomSound speakers, you are sure to find the experience worthy when watching videos or playing your music or games. It is loud, clear and punchy enough for most tasks. Using a basic pair of earphones, you could tell audio isn’t something that a normal user won’t like.

Battery life. Equipped with a 2,400 mAh battery unit, it isn’t too large relative to most other high-end smartphones these days. The phone’s battery life isn’t really on the plus side. Powering up all the camera and screen, you aren’t left with much and have to charge the phone well before the 24-hour mark. Having always-on sync, Twitter, Email, YouTube and a few cams in between, the phone clearly struggled to make it a day, though removing BlinkFeed from your Home Screen and switching the Power-Saver mode would help. We would have liked better battery life with maybe a larger battery unit on this phone.

Call quality. The phone handles basic call quality and network well. I didn’t face any network reception issues or have call drops in areas where another phone would.

Software and performance. The HTC Desire Eye boasts Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 chipset (2.3 GHz quad-core Krait 400 processor, Adreno 330 GPU) and 2 GB of RAM. Running Android 4.4.4 with Sense UI 6.0 on top, the phone feels and works similar to previous HTC devices that we have seen in the last year or so. The user gets about 11 GB of storage space, plus 100 GB of Google Drive storage for free. With two Home screens by default, HTC has continued with its BlinkFeed to give you news and social updates at a glance, though if you want, you can switch it off. The icons, gestures and UI components haven’t been changed. Regarding the phone’s performance, it is really smooth and handles pretty much every app and task you would require it to. I didn’t find it to stutter when watching videos, opening or closing apps or just flipping through Menu or Settings.

The phone also has double tap to wake the screen and lock it (only from the lockscreen) and it works quite well. From the s=lock screen, you can, as usual, access the camera, browser, messages and dialler directly. There’s also a DND mode where you can choose what tasks are allowed to notify you or not. HTC’s Sense continues to be among the best Android OEM skins with its cohesive arrangement, nice look and satisfactory performance. Having said that, it will be great if HTC could release the Desire Eye’s Android 5.0 update, but it’s quite obvious that will only be coming when its One line is completed, which doesn’t seem to be for another month.

Wrapping our review, the Desire Eye seems like a worthy contender around Rs 35,000. Go for its good camera experience, good screen, and audio quality, but only if you are okay with short battery life and don’t mind the size; otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere. But rest assured, it can take care of your selfie needs rather well.

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Review: Nokia Lumia 830

The last Windows phone with the Nokia branding, the Lumia 830 is a solid buy at a Rs 24,000 price.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

The Lumia series has been gradually establishing itself in the low and mid-range segments, maybe a bit too slowly, but it is getting there. With the Lumia 5, 6 and 7 series, Nokia provided decent handsets, and now it has upgraded its old Lumia 820 to take on the likes of the Nexus 5 in the Rs 30k price range. So, let’s see if the Lumia 830 lives up to its name or not.

The looks. Nokia’s Lumia 830 follows a slightly different fabula design with a solid feel. The first thing you’ll notice is its metal frame around the body. On the front, apart from the 5-inch HD screen with Gorilla Glass 3 on top, are the capacitive touch keys – Back, Windows (and the primary mic below it), and Search, which don’t glow on being used, front-facing camera, sensors and speaker grill.

The right side panel houses the Power/Lock key as well as volume rockers and dedicated camera key, all three of these physical keys are made out of aluminium but aren’t very dependable for tactile feedback, while the left side panel is plain without any buttons or port. The microUSB port and 3.5 mm headset jack are located at the top and the bottom is plain.

At the back is the familiar polycarbonate cover that has a fairly large 10 MP camera sensor (reminds you of the Lumia 1020), the Nokia logo imprinted in the middle, and the loudspeaker grill near the bottom. You can remove this rear cover from the bottom to reveal the nano SIM card slot, battery unit and microSD card slot. The design and look part of the device scores well for me. Despite having a metallic frame and angular four edges, I liked its grip and didn’t have problems carrying it around.

Screen. The Lumia 830 boasts a 5-inch (1280 x 720) LCD screen powered by Nokia’s popular ClearBlack technology. The screen, as you would expect, has good deep black levels and is not a pain to use under sunlight. It has vibrant colours and videos appear quite sharp on it. The screen isn’t full HD, but it does the job fairly well, especially for how the Windows Phone OS has been designed.

Camera. Nokia has touted the Lumia 830 as a flagship camera device that isn’t priced as a high-end one. The phone boasts a 10 MP PureView camera (Carl Zeiss optics) with an LED flash and also features OIS. Here are a few sample images.

The camera can take a lot of good photos. Most of the time, photos come out sharp and detailed. There are a plenty of options to choose from while taking a photo – ISO, exposure, shutter speed, etc. You could say the low-light performance isn’t the best, but overall this camera is a really good performer. Other than the default camera app, there are three camera apps. The default app seems much quicker to capture shots than what I saw on earlier Lumia devices. Other camera apps include Nokia Camera, Lumia Selife and Lumia Refocus, most of which are mainly useful for post-shot use.

Audio. The device has solid audio quality – whether it is in-ear or through loudspeaker. The loudspeaker, though could have been placed better, is more than capable to produce good audio when playing games or a track. In-ear sound is top-notch, plus, there’s nothing to complain about network reception throughout our usage. Call quality seemed fine with no unusual call drops.

Battery. Equipped with a 2,200 mAh battery unit, the phone gave about a day’s use on a single charge. Even when used with 3G and not much of WiFi (with low screen brightness) for Outlook, Twitter, music and general calls and messages, it lasted about 23 hours. You can switch on the in-built battery saver mode if you need some more juice out of the phone. It charges from zero to full in about two and a half hours. Being able to charge wirelessly with a compatible rear plate is also an option.

Software and performance. Under the hood, this Windows Phone OS 8.1 Update 1 (with Denim Update) has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 SoC (1l2 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 305 GPU) with 1 GB of RAM. There’s also SensorCore in place, but I had Motion Data off during my usage.

The Lumia 830 performs and feels as smooth and fluid that you generally associate with the WP OS. Glance Screen is something I really like. Many previous Symbian users might remember having time, call and message notifications show right on the screen even when it is off, giving you useful information without taking a toll on battery life. You can double-tap to wake the entire screen and it works well.

The phone handles games and regular OS tasks quite well. Having said that, when it comes to the OS experience, Windows phones still have a lot of work to do besides having a clean and neat look. Every now and then, you still get to see the loading or resuming screen on pressing the back button, or going from one app to another even though you aren’t doing very intensive work on the phone.

There are a few noticeable improvements done by Microsoft (and Nokia). Live Tiles on the main Start screen are actually live – giving you a bit of current information without having to open the relevant app and refresh it. You can now make folders on the Start screen, apply wallpapers that follow your screen and tile patterns and also have the option to have different volume levels selected for your media and calls. The pull-down notification bar also gives you toggle buttons for WiFi, Location, and more, but for some reason, there’s still no data toggle button, which means you have to go into Settings and switch it on or off from there. Apparently, it is coming in the next update.

When it comes to apps and services, Windows Phone isn’t a half-baked OS any more. Most of your popular apps and services run on the OS, while a few of them only have third-party options. With Nokia’s HERE Maps, Outlook, OneDrive, good Twitter and Reddit apps, I didn’t have too many problems in this regard, but there’s surely something missing if you’re dependant on Gmail. The user gets about 14 GB of internal storage space, which can be expanded using a microSD card apart from 15 GB of free storage he/she gets from Microsoft’s OneDrive service. In my opinion, the OS has still a lot to cover and add (including a couple of points mentioned above), but seems to be doing so, but probably at a rate that could hinder its position in the smartphone market.

Concluding our review, the last Windows Phone with the Nokia branding, the Lumia 830, seems like a solid device. It has a great camera, good battery life, decent screen, high quality audio and premium design for this price, and an improved OS. With a price tag of about Rs 24,000, if you’re looking to try your first Windows Phone device, the Lumia 830 feels like a really worthy option for now.

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