Micromax A116 Canvas HD review

 

Micromax A116 Canvas HD is the successor to the company's popular budget phablet (large screen phones that are considered to be a phone-tablet hybrid), the A110 Canvas 2. The company has bestowed the phone with an HD screen, has put a quad-core chip, under the hood, and has doubled the on-board RAM. The phone was announced in January, but made its debut around 10 days back, generating a great response among new and potential customers, clocking in 9000 unit sales in a day, in addition to generating a lot of buzz in general. So does the Canvas HD live up to the hype? We try to find out.

Build/ Design
On first look, the Canvas HD looks more like an enlarged version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, unlike its predecessor, the Canvas 2, whose design resembled that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2/Galaxy SIII. However, despite sporting a 5-inch screen, the phone looks compact compared to the Canvas 2.

On closer inspection, you'll gather that the front of the phone is black in colour, while the back is white. Looking from the sides, it gives the impression that the phone bears both colours since the removable back cover doesn't just cover the back and extends to the sides. We didn't like the dual-colour design concept, but some might find it interesting.

The screen forms the largest part of the front and the bezel is, thankfully, much thinner than that of the Canvas 2. The three capacitive navigation buttons sit below the screen, while the earpiece (also black in colour), notification light, and the front facing camera, are located above the screen. To be honest, the front has a very plasticky feel to it, but then this phone costs Rs. 13,990, so you don't expect premium materials to be used. However, the screen gets smudged easily, even without our hands being sweaty.

The back of the phone, which features a removable back cover, has also been done in plastic, sports a glossy finish and is less prone to smudges. The 8-megapixel camera lens protrudes out a bit, similar to the HTC One X camera lens. The LED flash and a secondary microphone are located adjacent to the lens. There's Micromax branding and a speaker grill towards the bottom. The back cover hides the battery compartment, above which there are two SIM card slots and a slot for the microSD card.

At the right side, you can see a Power/screen lock key, which is also white in colour. This button is a little recessed and at times gets a bit hard to press. The volume rocker sits at the left side and is easy to press. At the top, you'll find the 3.5mm headset jack and a micro-USB port. There's just a microphone at the bottom edge.

Overall, we felt that Micromax could have used better quality materials but it would have to cut corners to reduce the price of the device, so it's understandable.

Display
The USP of the Canvas HD is indeed its HD screen. The phone's 5-inch HD IPS screen sports a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a colour depth of 16.7 million. Thanks to the higher resolution, text, icons and images look much sharper compared to the Canvas 2 and the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Grand. There was no pixelation. However, we felt that the screen contrast was a little haywire, resulting in images appearing to be washed out.

Under sun visibility was good though the screen is very reflective. Thanks to the IPS panel that facilitates wider viewing angles, we found that the viewing angles were indeed wide, which essentially means that more than one person can view content playing on the screen properly, even from different angles. We also found the touch response of the screen to be good.

Software/ Interface
The Micromax Canvas HD runs Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). Micromax has skinned some elements of the user interface, such as the app icons and the notification tray. The notification tray includes toggles for settings such as Wi-Fi, Brightness, Rotation, Bluetooth, GPS, Data, Screen timeouts and profiles (for alerts and other notifications). There's also a SIM selection toggle. Similar to most other Android devices, there are five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.

The notification tray also features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two finger pull gesture). Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also brings in Google Now, which needs to be initialised for the first time, before use.

For the uninitiated, Google Now is a voice based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behaviour, location, and even e-mail, to offer information automatically.

The three capacitive buttons, Home, Menu and Back help in navigating through the phone, with the Home button also doubling up as an app switcher on long press.

Micromax has also included some of its own apps including content stores, M! Store and M! Live, and services store, M! Zone, in addition to its messaging app, HookUp, and friends locator app, M! Buddy and a few 'try and buy' games (Fruit Devil, Cricket Fever). The handset also offers FM Radio and FM radio recording.

Micromax has also modified the Messages app, adding a Smileys input option next to the text entry prompt, and a button for attaching multimedia, contacts and audio clips, among others, with it. Micromax has also added a file manager app, a NoteBook app, a ToDo app, in addition to a universal search app, and a video player app. It has also replaced the stock camera app with a different one. The company has also included a Wireless Input Device app, letting users configure a Bluetooth-based input device with the phone.

Micromax has also modified the Phone Dialler app giving the option of calling from any one of the SIMs. The dialler resembles the iOS dialler in terms of the colour scheme.

Camera
The phone features an 8-megapixel autofocus shooter that takes decent images in daylight. However, we found the photos taken through the phone a bit overexposed, and the white-balance in the automatic mode was not optimal. This results in images appearing to be a bit whiter, and colours looking a little dull.  Indoor shots were above average. We also found that the camera took some time to focus. The camera takes good quality videos depending on the ambient light. However, it saves video clips in .3GP file format, which is an older file format.

As we mentioned before, Micromax has put its own camera app. The app leaves out the Panorama mode, but offers a burst mode, letting users click up to 99 shots at once. We also noticed that there is minor gap between two consecutive camera shots in the continuous shot mode. The phone offers three basic modes - Face Beauty, HDR and Photo. The photo mode allows users to modify settings like Exposure, colour effect, ISO and white balance, among others. There's a self timer of up to 10 seconds as well.

The phone also features a VGA front camera, which takes average pictures, and can be used for video conferencing. We wish the phone had a dedicated camera button to help click a quick picture.

Performance
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is powered by a 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM onboard, and PowerVR SGX544MP chip for processing graphics. There is 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the overall experience of navigation through the interface was impressive, thanks to Project Butter and the phone's quad-core processor. We did not experience any lag while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps. It is safe to say that performance wise, the Canvas HD trumps other phones in this price range. Even the more expensive Galaxy Grand loses out to the Canvas HD in terms of benchmarks, but end users are unlikely to note significant performance difference between the two, unless they are playing CPU-hungry games (Hint: The Canvas HD performs better).

We were able to play full-HD clips, with the phone supporting formats like .AVI, natively. The speaker on the phone delivers average quality sound at high volume levels, but there's some muffle when the phone lies on its back, as the speaker grill is located on the back. The headphones that come with the phone offer average quality sound output. Call quality was good, during our testing process.

The phone comes with a 2,000mAh battery, and based on our experience, it will just about last you a full day. We charged the phone in the afternoon (at around 2pm), and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two e-mail accounts with push notifications, screen at maximum brightness, playing some music and video clips, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted 8-9 hours. It's also worth pointing out that we had turned off Wi-Fi and auto-brightness, and the phone was hooked to a 3G network. Altering these settings might help in running the phone for a longer duration, depending on your usage pattern.

Verdict
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is a worthy upgrade to the A110. A 5-inch screen phone, with a quad-core processor, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, at a price point of Rs 13,990 is indeed a value for money proposition.

Other phones in the same range include the Karbonn S1 Titanium, which also has a quad-core processor, and sports a 4.5-inch qHD (960x540) multi-touch capacitive touch display and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone's been priced at Rs 10,990 and pre-bookings  have already started. The XOLO A1000 is another phone to look out. But we'd wait until we've had a chance to run these phones through our tests before recommending.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand is another budget phablet, if you don't mind spending Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 extra for a phone which has an inferior screen and battery life compared to the Canvas HD, but a better camera and bears the Samsung brand name.

Overall, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD seems to the best Android budget phablet we've come across so far, and we have no qualms in recommending it.

Price: Rs. 13,990

Pros

• Good screen
• Decent performance
• Excellent value for money

Cons

• Plasticky feel
• Power button is recessed
• Sub-par camera

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Design: 3
• Display: 4
• Performance: 4
• Software: 3.5
• Battery Life: 3.5
• Value for Money: 4.5
• Camera: 3
• Overall: 3.5

Is Google betting big on gaming?

 

Google is not really associated with nurturing gaming ambitions of any kind but that may be about to change.TechCrunch is reporting that the company has hired gaming veteran Noah Falstein as the Chief Game Designer. The website is reporting Falstein has updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate his new designation as "Chief Game Designer" at Google and has also mentioned that he joined the company in April 2013. Furthermore, in an earlier cached version of his profile his position was listed as "Chief Game Designer at Android Play Studio."
For those who are unaware about Falstein's breath of work, he has been associated with the gaming industry since 1980. He was initially working with LucasArts Entertainment and during the course of his career has worked on gaming titles such as Sinistar, Battlehawks 1942, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, and Hungry Red Planet.
Falstein entry in Google's corridors is a clear indication that search engine giant is cooking something big on the gaming front. Though it is a bit premature to guess what Google has up its sleeves but one cannot rule out the possibility of augmented-reality game in conjunction with Google Glass.
The search engine giant has recently issue schedule for its forthcoming Google I/O conference, to be held later this month. From this schedule to it appears that this year Google will be focusing heavily on 'gaming on Android'. So we might see some pieces of the puzzles being revealed at the conference.
Earlier, there had been news reports about Google working on its own socially driven multiplayer gaming network. Android Police in its teardown of My Glass, had discovered an alleged feature list related to a service that could become Google's answer to Apple's Game Centre.
So far the details regarding this forthcoming gaming portal for Android seem to be sketchy but it does help cement the fact Google is ready to take a big plunge into the gaming world.

HTC One Review: A One of a Kind Android Phone

 

Walk into a Best Buy or any mobile phone store, such as Verizon or AT&T, and try to tell the difference between the seemingly interminable Android phones. Telling apart the rectangle slabs requires some real talent and time, even for those of us whose job it is to know the differences between theses Google-powered phones. But HTC is hoping that all those other choices blur into the background, and that its new phone will be the only one that matters.

The HTC One, which costs $199 with a two-year contract, is one premium Android phone, with top of the line hardware specifications, an all-aluminum design and some unique software features. But is that enough to make it the only Android phone to focus on, especially with Samsung's Galaxy S4 on the way?

One of a Kind Hardware
I don't like plastic phones. I especially don't like plastic phones that feel flimsy, like they won't last the length of the two-year contract. The HTC One is not one of those phones. The all-aluminum device has a beautiful design and feels incredibly well-made. In fact, this is one of the only phones on the market that can rival the iPhone 5's sleek and head-turning design. But unlike the iPhone 5's squared edges, the One has a curved back, making it thicker at the center. Still, the 9.3mm-thick handset is very thin and comfortable to hold, despite its big-screen stature.

Now, of course, many will ask if this is a nicer feeling or looking phone than the Samsung Galaxy S4. I haven't reviewed Samsung's device yet, but from what I've gleaned from my short time with the phone, the One's metal build feels far superior to Samsung's overwhelmingly plastic device. I do have one main complaint about the hardware design: the power button, which sits on the top edge, should be easier to press, and I'd prefer it be on the right side, not the left.

Even if you end up hiding that beautiful silver hardware in a case, one of the most stunning parts of the phone will still be visible. The 4.7-inch, 1080p edge-to-edge glass screen is one of the sharpest and clearest displays on any phone to date. Colors don't only pop and look true to life, but HD videos and text just look sharper than they do on other phones I've tested, including the Nexus 4 and the iPhone 5.

Software with a Unique Look
The software that pops up on that display is unique too. The One runs one of latest versions of Android 4.1.2 or Jelly Bean, but HTC has created its own software, called Sense 5.0, that runs on top of Android.




Last year HTC moved away from messing too much with Android, but this year it's gone back on that. The new software includes a number of new features, the main one being a new type of home screen called Blinkfeed. Blinkfeed focuses on the content and not the apps. You can log in to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and select news sources. All that content will then appear in a vertical magazine style layout. Reminiscent of Windows 8 or Windows Phone, square- and rectangular-shaped photos with headlines or updates appear, and you can scroll through and then tap to select the ones you are interested in.
It's a nicely designed interface, though the content is limited right now. I preferred to revert the home screen back to the regular Android home screen. (You can set Blinkfeed to be the home screen to the left; you can't disable it fully.) There are other small additions too: Select the weather icon above the Blinkfeed interface and you get a nicely designed and animated weather app. There's one change, however, that I don't appreciate. HTC placed the Home button on the bottom right of the phone and removed the open apps button, straying from the typical Android design. I have been using the phone for a week, and I still haven't gotten used to the placement.
A quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and the 2GB of RAM in the phone make that software extremely snappy and responsive. I mean really snappy apps respond nearly instantaneously ,and so do webpages, thanks to AT&T's LTE network. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile will carry LTE versions of the One.
However, while it is fast, that horsepower takes a toll on battery life. The One lasted about a full day of moderate use. Unlike with the iPhone, I worried about using the phone heavily at times, despite following my own battery-saving tips. And unlike with the Galaxy S4, the battery isn't removable either.

Ultrapixel: Ultra Better?
The last piece of the One puzzle is the camera. HTC says the megapixel war is over and has instead come up with an "ultrapixel" camera. The term is really just marketing jargon, but HTC promises that the camera has larger pixels that can let in more light.
That part holds true. The phone takes good low-light shots even without a Flash, but the other parts of the camera's performance left more to be desired. Shots I took on Auto mode were at times unbalanced and seemed to be very saturated. I was able to take some good shots, but other times it just seemed like the camera couldn't figure out how to automatically adjust the settings. (HTC says it could be a result of the pre-production software on my phone.) My iPhone 5 ended up being the more reliable camera when I wanted to grab a shot of this interesting tree.

 

But HTC attempts to make up for that shaky performance with some very interesting camera software features. One called Zoe takes a second of video before and after you press the shutter button. It shoots video and stills so you can then grab the best photo. It really helped when I tried to get a still shot of this very active puppy. There is also a highlights reel feature, which creates an instant slideshow or movie of your photos set to music. And thanks to the two front-facing speakers and Beats Audio software on the phone, that music sounds better than any other music I've heard come out of a phone or tablet.

Bottom Line
Two. That will likely be the number of Android phones you should look at when you walk into a Best Buy or other mobile phone store this spring or summer.

The One is a beautiful phone with a well-made case, stunning screen and unique software. Yes, its camera and battery performance hold it back from being the perfect smartphone, but those other attributes set a new bar in the Android phone market. But there's no ignoring that Samsung's Galaxy S4 will be coming out soon and promises a host of new features and an impressive 13-megapixel camera. That's why I say there will be two phones to pay attention to. Those looking to buy a new top of the line Android smartphone should certainly wait until the S4 hits later this spring to make a decision, but for now, the One is the one to buy.

Samsung to release high-end tablet 'Roma' to rival Google Nexus 10: Report

 

Samsung is said to working on a new 10-inch tablet. This high-end tablet has apparently been code-named 'Roma'.SamMobiles via TechBlog.gr reports that the new tablet will resemble Google Nexus 10. It is expected to come with a 10.1-inch display with resolution of 2560X1600 pixels and a pixel density of 299ppi. The Roma tablet will allegedly be powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Exynos 5 processor along with 2 GB of RAM. It will come with 16GB of in-built storage, which can be expanded by up to 128GB via a microSD card.
For camera, there is a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel one on the front. The tablet is likely to measure 257X177.7X 8.4mm and will support 4G LTE as connectivity option. Other connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0 and Micro-USB. It will come with a 9,000mAh battery and will weigh about 583 grams. Samsung Roma tablet is expected to run on the Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system.
As of now there is no word on when this device will see the light of the day or what will it cost.
Samsung is also rumoured to be working on Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 3 8.0. As per earlier news reports, Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 will come in two variants. SM-T3100 is allegedly the 3G version of the 16GB Galaxy Tab 3, while the SM-T3110 will be the Wi-Fi version. Both these tablets will reportedly come in White colour.
Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 will come with a 8-inch display with a resolution of 1280X800 pixels. It will be only 6.95mm thick and weigh 330 grams. The tablet is expected to run Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) out of the box.
The tablet will allegedly come with a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera. It is expected to have a 4,500 mAh battery.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 on the other hand will sport a 10.1-inch display. The recent rumours suggest that the display resolution of Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 will be 1280X800 pixels while the earlier reports suggested 2560X1600 pixel display. Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is likely to come with a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and 2GB of RAM. It will have 16GB of internal storage, which will be expandable through a microSD card.

Facebook Home now available in India

New Delhi: Facebook Home, announced earlier this month, is now available on the Google Play store in India - but for select users. Facebook Home currently works on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Home will also work on the forthcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. The app will be available for more Android devices in the coming months.
The company had earlier announced that Facebook Home would be available as a free download from the Google Play Store starting April 12, but the app has been released today for users in India. We tried to download the app a few days back but a message cropped up saying, "the item is not available in your country". But starting today, select users (mentioned above) can download the Facebook Home app from the Google Play store.
If you still have questions about Facebook Home, then here is a sum-up for you. Facebook Home is a new app for Android. It is a new way to turn your Android phone into a social phone.

 

 

Facebook Home currently works on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Home isn't a phone or operating system, and it's also more than just an app, says Facebook. Home is a completely new experience that lets you see the world through people, not apps. Its new family of apps will let users display mobile versions of their newsfeed and messages prominently on the home screens of a wide range of devices based on Google's Android operating system, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters.
"Why do we need to go into those apps in the first place to see what's going on with those we care about?" Zuckerberg told the hundreds of reporters and industry executives gathered at Facebook's Menlo Park campus.
"We want to bring all this content to the front," he said. It is a move that may divert users from Google services and steal some of its rival's momentum in the fast-growing mobile arena.
Facebook Home is built around your friends and puts them at the centre of your phone.

Portronics Handmate Pen adds touchscreen experience to any Windows 8 machine

 

Portronics Handmate Windows 8 Pen is one of those nifty little devices that seem too good to be true when you first read about them. It promises to turn any Windows 8 laptop into a touchscreen device, letting you experience the joys of owning one of those 'hybrid' devices at fraction of the cost. But does it work? Let's find out.Setting up the Handmate Windows 8 Pen is simple - just connect it to any available USB port on your Windows 8 laptop and fix the receiving unit on one of the edges of the screen, about halfway from the top. Go to Control Panel to calibrate the screen (the device comes with instructions on where exactly to go) and a barely a minute later, you are good to go. We hooked up the device to a HP Windows 8 laptop, but any standard Windows 8 machine should do.
Put in the batteries into the pen-shaped stylus and start operating your Windows 8 device by touching your laptop screen - swipe around the Windows 8 home screen, touch to start applications, swipe from edge to bring up the system menu and more, just like your device always had touch. The device really comes into its own when playing games like Cut The Rope or when you want to put finishing touches to your masterpiece in Paint.
However, there's more to touch than just fun and games - combine the Handmate Windows 8 Pen with Microsoft Office's Inking capabilities (found under the Review tab) and you have perhaps the fastest way to give feedback on Office documents while on the move.
A word of caution though, if you're used to super sensitive touch experience of the iPad and the likes, the Handmate Windows 8 Pen will take some getting used to. The stylus requires slightly heavier pressing than you'd probably expect, but not the kind that'll wear you down. It's a small adjustment to make, and one you'll likely make swiftly.
The Handmate Windows 8 Pen comes bundled with spare stylus and batteries that power the stylus. Portronics claims 500 hours of battery life given working/ standby ratio of 1:9. The sensors on the Handmate Windows 8 Pen use a combination of infrared and ultrasound technologies and work on screens sized 16-inches and below, which means it is good to use with laptops and even desktop monitors of that size. A newer generation product that will work with screen sizes of up to 25-inches is expected soon.
All in all, Handmate Windows 8 Pen offers a decent option for those looking to add a dash of touch to their Windows 8 experience

At Rs. 4,999 it's a not-so-expensive option to see if touch fits in your workflow before you take the plunge and buy an expensive native touchscreen device.

Google Glass specs released: 5-megapixel camera, 720p video, 16GB storage, Bluetooth, one day battery life

Google has officially released specifications of its wearable technology innovation, Google Glass.

While Google didn't release the exact specifications of the display inside Glass, it said the resolution will be equivalent to that of a '25-inch high definition screen from eight feet away'. Google confirmed that Glass will feature a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p videos. It will also feature a Bone Conduction Transducer for audio.

Glass will be compatible with any Bluetooth-capable phone, however, for using GPS and SMS it requires the MyGlass companion app which is only available for phones running Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. As per Google, Glass will offer 16GB internal storage space out of which 12GB will be usable and will be synced with Google cloud storage.

The company doesn't specify the battery capacity but mentions that it will offer one full day of typical use, however, it also warns that some features, like Hangouts and video recording, are more battery intensive. Glass will include a Micro-USB cable and charger, and Google specifies that Glass is designed and tested with the included charger and advises users to stick to using the bundled charger.

Glass comes with adjustable nosepads and Google also offers extra nosepads in two sizes.

Prior to listing specifications, Google posted documentation for developers discussing software development for Glass. It also mentioned that the software would be called Glassware and that they'll need to use Google Mirror API 'a set of RESTful services that transmit information to and receive notifications from Glass devices'.

It also informed its developer members that it was seeing the first few devices come off the production line right now and that it wants to start delivering them, although only a portion of them were ready as of date. It mentioned that it will start shipping Glass in waves.