Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 6 (2018) launched: Things to know

HMD Global, the Finnish company behind the Nokia-branded phones, has launched the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 6 (2018) in India. The smartphones were first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, along with Android Oreo Go edition-based Nokia 1 and 4G VoLTE-enabled Nokia 8110 feature phone.

Nokia 8 Sirocco

The Nokia 8 Sirocco edition is made of stainless steel frame, which is 2.5 times stronger than 6,000-series aluminium. The front is covered with a 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Underneath, there is a 5.5-inch curved edge-to-edge pOLED 2K display with smaller bezels and moulded body curves.
Nokia 8 SiroccoNokia 8 Sirocco Photo: Rahul Saha The phone sports dual rear cameras with ZEISS optics. The dual-camera set-up in the Nokia 8 Sirocco boasts a 12-megapixel wide-angle primary lens, coupled with a 13MP telephoto sensor for enhanced portrait shots and 2x optical zoom capabilities. Imaging is assisted by Nokia’s spatial audio microphones, which record high-resolution audio in surround sound.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Note 5 Pro sale begins today on Flipkart, Mi Store

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi seems in no mood to slow down. Its latest phones, the Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro, seem similar on the first look but are very different devices. While the Note 5 adds ultra-wide screen along with enhanced camera on the back when compared with the Note 4, the Note 5 Pro is a new package with substantial upgrades.

The Note 5 and Note 5 Pro, launched on February 14, would go on sale today, exclusively on home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart and Xiaomi’s Mi Store. As for the price and variants, the Redmi Note 5 comes in two storage and RAM combinations – 32GB/3GB and 64GB/4GB – priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 11,999, respectively. The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with 64GB internal storage but in two RAM variants – 4GB and 6GB – priced at Rs 13,999 and Rs 16,999, respectively.

Here is a quick comparison review of Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro:
On the front, the Note 5 and the Pro look similar: Both feature 18:9 screens. On the back, the Note 5 looks similar to the Note 4, but better. The Pro, on the other hand, looks like an iPhone X clone, without the all-glass build. But the vertical dual-camera set-up is a dead ringer.

Xiaomi Redmi Y1: Budget selfie-centric phone with satisfactory performance

In its first shot at the selfie-centric smartphone segment, Chinese smatphone manufacturer Xiaomi has come up with not one but two budget devices -- the Redmi Y1 and Redmi Y1 Lite. While the Lite variant costs Rs 6,999, the Redmi Y1 is priced at Rs 8,999 for the base model (32GB storage and 3GB RAM) and Rs 10,999 for the premium variant with 64GB storage and 4 GB RAM.

Business Standard reviewed the Redmi Y1 to test its selfie camera capabilities, besides the overall smartphone performance. Here are our observations:

Camera
The Redmi Y1 sports a 16-megapixel front camera, coupled with an LED flash. The images captured using the selfie shooter come out clean, but show heavy post-processing. The soft flashlight assists in taking low-light shots but limits the use only to selfies. The overall picture quality is nothing exceptionally good but praiseworthy for its price segment.

The 13MP rear camera takes better photographs than the higher resolution front-facing selfie camera. It performs well in bright lighting but shakes in low-light conditions.

Performance
This selfie-centric smartphone is no powerhouse. Running on Qualcomm’s entry-level Snapdragon 435 SoC, it does well in daily tasks like checking emails, browsing the web, calling and messaging, with no signs of a lag. The performance takes a toll, however, during processor-intensive tasks like broadcasting live video on social media channels for extended hours, or playing games while keeping screen recorder active in the background.

The dual-SIM smartphone offers VoLTE capabilities on both SIMs, with good network reception and a satisfactory call quality. Also, there is a dedicated memory card slot that comes in handy for additional storage.

The smartphone runs Android Nougat 7.1.1 out of the box, covered under MIUI 8.5. The recently announced MIUI 9 Global ROM is scheduled to come sometime this month.

Infocus Snap 4 smartphone up for grabs at Rs 9,999 on Amazon

Infocus, an American technology company, on November 7 announced a discount of Rs 2,000 on its quad-camera clad Snap 4 smartphone. The smartphone, which was launched in September at a price tag of Rs 11,999, is now available for Rs 9,999 on Amazon India. The discount on smartphone is valid till November 17.

The Snap 4 is India’s first smartphone to feature four cameras – dual camera setup on the back and front. The budget device sports 13-megapixel main shooter coupled with 8 MP lens, assisted with LED flash, on the back. On front, the handset sports two 8 MP camera lenses, which work in tandem to take selfies with enhanced bokeh effect.

The Snap 4 houses 5.2-inch HD screen covered with 2.5D curved glass. The device is powered by MediaTek MT6750N octacore processor, coupled with 4GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. There is a memory card slot to expand the storage by up to 128 GB using microSD card.

Here are the specifications and features of the smartphone:

Model	InFocus Snap 4
Processor	MediaTekMT6750N, ARM9, 1.5Ghz, 8x Cortex-A53
Operating System	Android 7.0
Memory	4GB DDR3
Storage	64GB, expandable up to 128GB
Display	5.2-inch 2.5D Curved Display, On-cell IPS Capacitive, Resolution 720 x 1280
Fingerprint Sensor	Multitasking Fingerprint Sensor
Camera	13MP (2.2 Aperture), Auto Focus & with 8MP (2.4 Aperture) rear facing camera with LED Flash Light, Digital Zoom, Dual 8MP Front facing camera (2.2Aperture)
Battery	3000mAh Li-Polymer, 5V 1.5A
Weight (g)	162 g

Samsung Galaxy Note 8, with dual camera, launched at Rs 67,900; know more

South Korean smartphone major Samsung on Tuesday launched the Galaxy Note 8 in India at Rs 67,900. The most awaited Note-series device has drawn a lot of interest from customers, and this was evident from the fact that as many as 250,000 people had pre-booked the device across the country even before its launch.

Historically, the Note-series device featured enhanced Galaxy S-series design, clubbed with Samsung’s proprietary S-Pen features. But the new flagship Galaxy Note 8 takes the smartphone game a step forward. Including a dual camera set-up, a first for Samsung smartphones, and S-Pen feature, has become much more useful than ever.

Based on the specifications, the Galaxy Note 8 might not be a major improvement over Galaxy S8+ but is ahead in the flagship race. The smartphone comes bundled with S-Pen specific productivity tools that any other flagship smartphone, including Samsung’s own, lacks.

The Note 8 features a 6.3-inch super AMOLED curved screen in the 18.5:9 aspect ratio. The device is a bit thicker than Galaxy S8+ that brings extra frame space between the curved screen and curved glass back, making it easier to hold and operate. The innards are almost the same with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC or Exynos 8895 SoC ticking under the hood.

Specifications of Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Honor 8 Pro with 6GB RAM, dual cameras launched in India at Rs 29,999

TECHNOLOGY NEWS - Honor, a China-based smartphone brand backed by electronics major Huawei, has just launched the Honor 8 Pro with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage for Rs 29,999 exclusively on Amazon India. 

P Sanjeev, vice-president (sales), Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, said, "Honor is committed to scale new heights of product innovation and customer centricity through its products. We are focused on embedding powerful features in our devices at an affordable price to accommodate consumers' lifestyle. With the Honor 8 Pro, we set out to push the boundaries on all fronts. The Honor 8 Pro offers market-leading specifications by pushing the boundary of smartphone design, providing 2K display, extra-long battery life, dual camera setup and delivering powerful performance to ensure best experiences across the scenarios that today’s smartphone users care most about. Honor can do this like no other due to its unique e-commerce business model and world-class R&D capabilities."

The successor of the Honor 8, the Honor 8 Pro features dual rear cameras of 12-megapixel each. The dual rear cameras utilise one colour sensor and one black and white sensor. The monochrome lens captures a black-and-white image with depth of detail and the RGB colour lens ensures vivid colour reproduction. Both the cameras work in tandem to capture clearer, brighter, and vivid photographs.

The device also supports 4K video recording without eating internal storage thanks to the efficient H.265 codec that reduces the video's size to a great extent. Huawei also offers dedicated features that are co-developed with Go Pro, which helps in organising photos by category and automatically generates video stories that are easily customisable.

In terms of design and specification, the Honor 8 Pro is on par with flagship smartphones. The device sports a metallic build, a 79 per cent screen-to-body ratio, and has a 6.97-mm slim profile. The smartphone sports a 5.7-inch 2K screen that offers a high contrast ratio of 1500:1. The Honor 8 Pro utilises Huawei’s Kirin 960 octa-core processor, which is manufactured on a 16nm processing unit. The smartphone features a microSD card slot that allows memory expansion up to 256 GB.