Sony Xperia M REview

 Key Features 

• One-touch Functions with NFC
• Battery STAMINA Mode for Outstanding Battery Life
• 4-inch Hi-quality Display for Immersive Entertainment
• Expandable Storage Capacity of 32 GB
• Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
• Wi-Fi Enabled
• Great Entertainment Contents Offering through Sony Unique Application
• 5 MP Primary Camera
• 0.3 MP Secondary Camera
• 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Dual Core Processor

 

 

Reviews

Sony has always been the confluence point of striking beauty and great technology and the Xperia M is no less in either department.
 
Clicking Life
With a 5 MP primary camera that employs the same technology as Sony’s world-class cameras do and a secondary camera for support, the Sony Xperia M captures the best moments of your life is crisp clear quality. The phone is capable of recording videos in HD and comes with Auto Focus to help with taking better pictures with lesser effort. The HDR feature on the phone captures three photos together and merges exposure to give you one awesomely clear picture as well.

 
The Sony Xperia M comes armed with HD voice capabilities as well - according to your operator’s capacity, the phone cuts out noise in the background to increase the clarity of your calls.

Taking The Viewing Experience to The Next Level
This Xperia comes with a 4 inch display that brings to life your favorite music video or even just your favorite wallpaper. Providing the most immersive experience possible, the bright high-quality display ensures that you see everything better.

Design
The Xperia Z combines all the trademark Sony elements of beautiful design to present a chic phone that is beautiful to look at. The aluminium power button is icing on the cake of the glass screen which is sturdy, the Sony OmniBalance design works its charm yet again with the phone being perfectly symmetrical.

Illuminated Alerts
The phone comes with illuminated alerts to call your attention to any notifications you might have, adding yet another dimension to the look of the phone. What’s more, you can even set customized illuminations for users or apps.

Processing At Lightning Levels
The Xperia M comes with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Dual Core processor that is supported by 1 GB of RAM which ensures that your application speeds are off the charts without any lag of any kind. Moreover, the battery is well-managed because the phone intelligently uses the cores according to the need of the function you are performing.
With an Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system that blends simplicity with great usability, this Sony smartphone ensures that nifty tasks like bundled notifications, a fluid interface and such make everyday usage and living that much simpler. The phone also comes with an expandable capacity of 32 GB ensuring that you never run out of space or experience lag just because you carry your favorite band’s entire discography. 

Single Touch Convenience
With Near Field Communication support, the phone makes all functions as simple as touching once to get things done - mirror the phone screen on your large HD TV, share media, back the contents up, listen to your favorite tunes - all with a single touch and no wires and cables to hassle you. .

Save That Battery
The phone comes with the STAMINA mode for the battery that kills everything unnecessary that runs in the background - like turning off display when not in use, disabling Wi-Fi and data traffic and enabling selective push notifications - effectively arresting battery drain.

 Now Its Your Choice, What To Choose!!!

Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 A240 Review

Summary

The overall build of the Canvas Doodle 2 is good and I am impressed with the aluminum back. In its performance however the device falls short. You will lose the stylus, as there is no way to keep it with the phone. There aren't any apps out there that exploit it as we have seen on the Galaxy Note series of devices from Samsung. If you want a large screen device for browsing the web, playing games and reading, you can consider this device. If pure performance is what you are looking for, then there are other devices out there for you to consider. 

Review

Micromax has made quite a name for itself with the launch of smartphones in a variety of price ranges. The budget smartphone maker has launched a series of successful devices such as the Canvas 2 A110, Canvas HD, and the recently launched Canvas 4. Now Micromax looks to take on the mid range large-screened smartphone market with the launch of the Canvas Doodle 2. The device has a large 5.7-inch display and shows off an impressive build. Is it worth the price of admission?

At a glance
The Canvas Doodle 2 has an aluminum build and you don’t have access to the battery or expandable storage. The display of the phablet is large at 5.7-inches and has a 1280x720 pixel resolution. It has 16GB built-in storage of which 13GB is available to the user. The rear of the phablet has a 12MP camera and the front has a 5MP shooter for video calling. The Doodle 2 has the MediaTek MT6589 chipset with the CPU clocked at 1.2GHz. You have Android 4.2 Jelly Bean straight out of the box.

Design
You can be forgiven for thinking that this is a premium device thanks to the build the Canvas Doodle 2 has. The front is the same as any other Micromax smartphone with the standard three capacitive buttons housed below the display. The rear of the smartphone is a different story. Essentially, it’s divided into three parts - the top which houses the 12MP camera, the bottom which can be removed to access the SIM card slots and the middle which has an aluminum finish to it making it look really sturdy. You don’t have access to the battery of the phablet.

The rear has a matte finish to it and I really liked it. The rest of the port and button placement is fairly standard – power button on the right, volume rocker on the left, microUSB port at the bottom and the headphones jack up top.
The Doodle 2 also comes with a stylus but you won’t be using that for very long as there is no place on the phablet to house it.
Overall, Micromax has given the Canvas Doodle 2 A240 an impressive build quality. The device isn’t light at 220 grams nor is it the slimmest at 8.9mm in thickness but the package on offer is very attractive.


UI and preloaded apps
The Canvas Doodle 2 runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. The interface is stock Android for the most part with a few Micromax specific UI elements and apps thrown into the mix.
The Canvas Doodle 2’s Micromax specific preloaded apps includes Games Hub, M!Doodle, M!Live, M!Unlock, M!Secure and Mi!Zone.
M!Secure helps you backup your contacts, scans your phone for viruses and gives you warnings every time  you download an app.

As the name suggests, the Game Hub gives you access to games such as Barfi, Bubble shooter, Catch a Mouse and more.
M!Live gives you access to local Indian content such as ringtones, wallpapers and more. The M!Unlock app gives access to the blow or shake to unlock feature, one that was introduced with the Canvas 4.

Overall, the UI is stock Android, which I liked, and the preloaded apps add local content to the smartphone, something Micromax has introduced on all its Android smartphones. There is no bloatware on the phone and that is a good thing.
Performance
Coming to the performance of the Canvas Doodle 2, here is a quick look to see how it performs when compared to other smartphones in its price range.
  

From the above benchmarks it is clear that the Canvas Doodle 2 is an average performer. It hasn’t scored the best but it isn’t the worst either. We have seen devices such as the Lemon A4 that runs on the old MT6589 chipset and has a 1080p 5-inch display along with 1GB of RAM. With its hardware, the Lemon required more power to render on a Full HD display, hence the lower scores. On the other hand we have the Canvas 4 with a 5-inch 720p display with the MT6589 chipset. It scores almost at par with the Canvas Doodle 2. The Xolo Q1000S on the other hand has a 5-inch 720p display and is powered by the MT6589T chipset. It has more power under the hood and hence the best benchmark scores of the list.
Moving on, the display of the Canvas Doodle 2, at full brightness is quite vibrant. The 5.7-inch display has a pixel density of 258ppi, which isn’t great, but it isn’t bad by any standards. We saw the standard array of videos on the device ranging from MKV to MP4 and AVI. The videos were plagued with the same problem that we have with the MediaTek chipset. You have the MKV files where only the video runs and the audio isn’t recognized. Surprisingly, the native video player crashed when we ran AVI files on it and that’s a bummer.

The native video player is the same that we have seen on the Canvas 4. You can swipe up and down on the left to control the brightness and do the same on the right for the volume. You can also watch the videos in a small window on the display letting you use other apps while watching the video. Just like the Canvas 4, the canvas Doodle also boasts of the “Smart Pause” feature, which is that the video playing will pause once you look away. On the Canvas 4 this worked very well for me during the testing process. On the Doodle 2 however, it seems buggy. There were times when watching a video, it paused randomly. There were also times when I looked away and it took a second too long to pause making the feature feel rather gimmicky.
Sticking with the display, watching videos on it wasn’t as great a treat as I it was on other devices such as the Lemon A4, WickedLeak Wammy Passion Z Plus and the Canvas 4. The size of the display is good but the videos look a bit washed out.

Another problem I faced with the performance was that if I had too many apps running in the background, some of them heavy games, the device would crash randomly and wouldn’t perform well until I rebooted it. For the most part however, there was no lag when navigating the device.
The experience of interacting with the display feels good. The keyboard is stock Android and there is enough display real estate for you to have a comfortable typing experience.

Games such as Angry Birds, Temple Run 2 and more ran quite well with heavy games such as Dead trigger stuttering at times. Real Racing 3, as always, refused to run.
The camera on the rear of the Canvas Doodle 2 is 13MP and its performance can be described as average at best. In well-lit conditions, especially outdoors, the camera performed well. In low-lit situations, there was a lot of noise and loss of detail.

In terms of its battery life, the Canvas Doodle 2 is average. In our continuous video playback test, the device lasted for five hours. With average use you will be able to get through one day of use.  


Bottom Line
The overall build of the Canvas Doodle 2 is good and I am impressed with the aluminum back. In its performance however the device falls short. You will lose the stylus, as there is no way to keep it with the phone. There aren’t any apps out there that exploit it as we have seen on the Galaxy Note series of devices from Samsung. If you want a large screen device for browsing the web, playing games and reading, you can consider this device. If pure performance is what you are looking for, then there are other devices out there for you to consider.

Simmtronics XPad Mini Review

Summary

For a tablet priced at Rs. 9,999 the Simmtronics Xpad Mini is quite decent. It is plagued with lag and getting the microSD card in its slot is a pain, but apart from that, the device performs well. It is a treat to play games, videos and the tablet is good for multimedia. If you are on a really tight budget, you can consider this tablet along with the Zync Quad 8. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review

It is said, to be the best, first copy the best. This has been the trend with quite a few budget tablets and has worked quite well in their favour. Today we have with us the Simmtronics Xpad Mini. The tablet has a 7.85-inch display and a form factor very reminiscent of the iPad mini and runs on the Android 4.2.2. For a street price of Rs. 9,999, is the tablet worth a glance?

 
At a glance
Starting with the specifications, the Xpad Mini has a 7.85-inch display with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels and is powered by a quad-core 1GHz CPU coupled with 1GB of RAM. The device has 8GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The rear of the tablet has a 5MP camera and the front has a 2MP camera for video chatting. A 4000mAh battery powers the entire package.

Here is a quick look to see where the Xpad Mini stands against the competition, which includes the Zync Quad 8, the Lenovo IdeaTab A1000, Nexus 7 first gen and the EAFT Destiny D90T, in terms of specifications.
For the price you pay the specifications of the tablet seem worthwhile, but as we all know, the specs only tell a small part of the story.

Design 

The first thing that you will notice when you see the Simmtronics Xpad Mini is that it looks a lot like the iPad mini. The tablet has a 7.85-inch display and the rear of the tablet has a gunmetal finish. The tablet supports HDMI out and the tablet is surprisingly comfortable to hold and use.

The right side of the Xpad has the power button and volume rocker while the camera (without a flash) and the speaker are set at the back. The microUSB port, HDMI out along with the headphones jack rest on the top.

 The overall build of the device is good and the finish doesn’t make it feel like a budget device. We have seen quite a few plasticky tablets in the market and it is nice to see a tablet with a good finish and sturdy build.  

UI and Interface
The Simmtronics Xpad Mini has a stock Android interface with a few UI changes thrown into the mix. You have all standard Jelly Bean features from lock screen apps to Project Butter, drop down notifications and controls and more. Along with the back, home and multitasking options, you also have the volume controls and a button to take screenshots of the display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tablet also comes with a 4K video player app. We have seen this app on other devices such as the Zync Quad 8. Unfortunately there isn’t enough 4K content available to test this feature of the tablet. The tablet doesn’t come preloaded with any bloatware and that is good. Overall, the UI is simple, just the way we like it.
Performance
Since the tablet is priced at Rs. 9,999, lets take a look and see how it compares to other devices in its price range.
  

From the above benchmarks it is clear that the first generation Nexus 7 is a great performer as far as the benchmarks are concerned. It is only in the 3DMark tests that the Simmtronics Xpad Mini and the Zync Quad 8 outperform the Nexus and that is a good thing. But do these benchmark scores translate into real world performance?

 

Starting with the response of the touchscreen, the Xpad Mini isn’t the best there is in the market. It feels rough and there is a distinct lag when navigating the device. If you are multitasking on the tablet, you can expect to see a lot of stutter, jitter and lag.

 Conversely, the tablet delivers when you want watch videos on it. The display is vibrant, has good viewing angles and the reproduction of colours is reasonably accurate too. Reading e-books, browsing the Web, etc. are without problems with the only hinderance being the lag that the tablet is plagued with. It was a task getting the microSD card into the tablet as well.

The keyboard on the Xpad Mini is stock Android and may feel cramped in the portrait mode. It feels OK to type on in landscape mode.
The 7.85-inch display has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels giving it 163ppi pixel density. The display has good viewing angles and as a stand alone device the display works but the difference in quality is evident when you place the tablet next to a 7-inch tablet with a 720p resolution.

 

 

Speaking of games, all of them worked on the tablet. Graphically heavy games were met with some lag but considering that this is a sub-Rs. 10,000 tablet and it managed to run Real Racing 3, well, now that’s impressive.
In terms of battery life, the Simmtronics Xpad Mini lasted for about 6 hours in our continuous video playback test. In the test, we ran a 720p MP4 movie on loop with the brightness and volume set at maximum. The Wi-Fi of the tablet was on as well. This means that under regular conditions, the tablet should last you a day on a single charge.

 

Bottom Line
For a tablet priced at Rs. 9,999 the Simmtronics Xpad Mini is quite decent. It is plagued with lag and getting the microSD card in its slot is a pain, but apart from that, the device performs well. It is a treat to play games, videos and the tablet is good for multimedia. If you are on a really tight budget, you can consider this tablet along with the Zync Quad 8.