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Porsche has unveiled a more affordable, rear-wheel drive variant of it&rsquo;s Taycan electric car, that&rsquo;s currently only available to customers in China. The car gets a 402HP and a 469HP option, with the new rear-wheel drive system reportedly helping with the vehicle&rsquo;s range. While Porsche hasn&rsquo;t stated why this model is limited to China, the firm&rsquo;s research chief had previously said the rear-wheel drive model would be offered in regions where all-wheel drive was not necessitated by local weather.

Airplane manufacturer Boeing will reportedly be ending the production of its iconic 747-8 jumbo jet in the next two years. Bloomberg has reported that there have been signs of a firm stop from financial statements. The 747-8 has been in service for over 50 years, taking its first flight in 1970 with PanAm. The double-decker aircraft has reportedly been a financial liability for the company, with the last passenger order for the airplane coming in the form of Air Force One, back in 2017.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant is all praise for JioMeet, the new video conferencing app launched by Reliance Industries. Kant tweeted about JioMeet on Saturday and called it &ldquo;better than Zoom&rdquo;. He also called the new app a &ldquo;major technological disruptor&rdquo; adding that this app will go places in these challenging times. Announced earlier this year, JioMeet was rolled out to all users on Monday. This new video conferencing app comes with unlimited free calling and allows 100 users on a video call at a time and a host of other features like Zoom. JioMeet&rsquo;s launch has been well timed after India banned 59 Chinese apps recently.

The recently launched 32-inch OnePlus TV Y Series has gone on sale via Amazon India. The affordable television gets a thin frame, slim bezels, and the company's Gamma engine for a more colour accurate display. The HD+ display panel features a 93% DCI-P3 colour gamut, and the TV gets 2 10W speakers along with Android TV 9.0. The 32Y1 TV has a built-in Chromecast and Google Assistant as well, and costs ₹12,999. It's worth noting that Amazon India is currently offering the Echo Dot smart speaker at a discounted price of ₹1,999 to users buying the television. While the OnePlus TV 55U1 and the larger 43Y1 were set to go on sale as well, there's no word yet on when buyers will be able to purchase them.

OnePlus has released a teaser for its highly anticipated upcoming Nord smartphone. The first glimpse at the device reveals a triple rear camera setup and a dual selfie camera on the front. Unlike the centre-aligned camera array on the current OnePlus 8 series, the Nord seems to get a vertical stack on the left side of the phone. OnePlus is marketing the Nord as a budget device, which in recent times has moved to the pricier segment with their flagship smartphones. It's going to feature a 765G SoC with 5G support, and will be priced under $500.

The Spectacles 2 and Spectacles 3 camera glasses from Snapchat-owned Snap have gone on sale in India via Flipkart for ₹14,999 and ₹29,999 respectively. The Spectacles come with built-in camera lenses on each side of the frame, which allow users to capture photos or videos and upload them directly to their Snapchat account using a connected smartphone. The Spectacles 2 features a water-resistant body, 4GB of internal storage, dual microphone array and can capture up to 70 videos on a single charge. The Spectacles 3 comes with a new minimalistic frame, can even capture 3D photos and videos at 60fps, and has four built-in microphones for better audio quality. Both the Spectacles feature Bluetooth, WiFi and record videos in a circular format.

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo launched the Reno 4 series smartphones in China last month with Snapdragon 765G chipset and 5G support. The Reno 4 Pro has a 6.5-inch curved display with 90Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+. But the Indian variant of the smartphones are tipped to feature a smaller screen and a higher 120Hz refresh rate. Other specifications of the India-bound Oppo Reno 4 Pro are unknown at the moment but is expected to have the same 48MP triple rear camera with OIS and 5x hybrid zoom support. The phone packs a 4,000 mAh battery with 65W Super Flash Charge fast charging. The Oppo Reno 4 Pro starts &yen;3,799 (~₹40,500) for the 8GB+128GB model, but the Indian pricing hasn&rsquo;t been confirmed yet.

TikTok has sought to distance itself from China after India banned it and 58 other Chinese apps for allegedly endangering the &lsquo;sovereignty&rsquo; and &lsquo;security&rsquo; of the country. According to Reuters, the popular short-video app wrote a letter to the government on June 28th, saying the Chinese government has never requested user data, nor would the company turn it over if asked. Meanwhile, all the banned apps have been removed from the Google and Apple app store.

Microsoft is rumoured to unveil its second cheaper next-gen Xbox in August after a leaked document hinted at its arrival under the codename &lsquo;Lockhart&rsquo;. According to reports, the new console will be named the Xbox Series S on account of its supposedly lesser performance than the flagship Series X. Technology publication The Verge reported that it will actually have the same CPU speed as the Xbox Series X, and will come with 7.5GB of usable RAM, and around 4 teraflops of GPU performance. The Series S is designed as a more affordable option, with 1080p and 1440p monitors in mind.

The next-gen Dell XPS laptops will be launching in India on July 8th for which the company has started sending out invites for an online-only event. The 2020 refreshed Dell XPS laptops are expected to arrive in India in two sizes: 13-inch and 15-inch. Both devices feature a new design, get 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processors and up-firing speakers, and promise to deliver up to 25 hours of battery life on a single charge. The XPS 15 will come with 4K touch screen display, Dolby Vision, HDR panel and up to 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD options. The XPS 13, on the other hand, features a Full HD touch screen and the same infinity-edge bezel-less design, up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. The Dell XPS 13 (2020) starts at $999 (~₹74,600) while the XPS 15 (2020) at $1,299 (~₹97,000) in the US. Indian prices haven&rsquo;t been revealed yet.

Google has confirmed that it is rolling out its AI-based noise cancellation feature for the Meet video conferencing app in India. The feature, which was launched in early June, helps cut the background noise automatically that may be heard while a user is speaking. The news was revealed in a Google support page that said that the new feature will be coming to &ldquo;Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, and New Zealand in the coming weeks." The noise cancelling feature will be enabled by default but can be turned off by going over to the Audio menu on Settings. Google has rolled out a number of new updates to the platform since April, ever since popularity was boosted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Playstation 4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn is finally coming to PC on August 7. In a striking new trailer, developer Guerilla Games announced several new features and improvements for the complete edition of the third-person action role playing game. These include ultrawide display support, an unlocked framerate, dynamic foliage, deep graphics customisation settings, improved reflections. Alongside the graphic upgrades, the PC version of the critically acclaimed game also gets an extensive controller mapping to configure the game as players like it as well as a benchmarking tool that gives easy insight into the game&rsquo;s performance. It&rsquo;ll be sold through both Steam and the Epic Games Store for $49.99.

According to Sensor Tower data, the popular battle royale title, PUBG Mobile, has earned over $3 billion in lifetime revenue. Both PUBG Mobile and its modified Chinese version--Game For Peace--brought in $1.3 billion revenue in 2020 alone, peaking at a monthly revenue of $270 million in March amid Covid-19 lockdowns. This is nearly four times than that of its rival, Garena Free Fire. PUBG Mobile has seen 734 million downloads worldwide, one-fourth of which has been in India.

Amazon has finally launched its Prime Video app for Windows 10, and it's live on the Microsoft Store. The dedicated app will let users stream movies and tv shows and even download them for offline viewing. While streaming content from Amazon Prime Video has always been possible via a web browser, downloading content offline was not a possibility. While Amazon has said content can be streamed in the best possible resolution available, reports say the quality was limited to 720p via the Windows 10 app.&nbsp;

Reliance Jio has officially launched its JioMeet video conferencing service in a bid to take on the likes of Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. The HD conferencing app has been available for beta users for over a month now and has finally been rolled out on Google Play Store and App Store as well as for desktop users. JioMeet offers unlimited number of free calls to users that can last up to 24 hours and supports as many as 100 participants at once. The app interface has a striking resemblance to Zoom and offers similar features, including the ability for users to join a meeting without having to sign in. Users can simply use a &lsquo;Meeting ID&rsquo; or a &lsquo;Personal link name&rsquo; to join a meeting. The &lsquo;enterprise grade host controls&rsquo; feature password protection for meetings, screen-share option, a waiting room and support for multi-device login among others.

Scientists from&nbsp;UCLA have designed a high-tech glove,&nbsp; capable of converting sign language into speech in real-time. The wearable device eradicates the need for a translator, helping users to communicate with ease. Based on the American Sign Language, the sensors attached on the fingers and thumb of the glove help make sense of each word, phrase or letter with accuracy. To test the device, they attached adhesive sensors on faces of volunteers to capture facial expressions that are a part of ASL. These signals are then sent to a smartphone that translates them into spoken words. Scientists hope that the innovation will help people learn sign language.&nbsp;

The UK law enforcement have arrested hundreds of &ldquo;iconic&rdquo; criminals in their "biggest ever" operation&nbsp; after infiltrating an encrypted communications service used to discuss illegal operations. UK&rsquo;s National Crime Agency (NCA) said that the criminals used a secure mobile phone instant messaging service, called EncroChat, to coordinate their activities. The service offered customised Android handsets with GPS, camera, and microphone removed and had a self destruct feature that wiped the device if you entered a PIN. EncroChat has 60,000 users in 140 countries, but it's servers have now been shut down. Meanwhile, the UK police have made 746 arrests, claimed &pound;54 million in criminal cash, seized 77 firearms and more than two tonnes of drugs.

Sony's PlayStation division is the latest to join the growing&nbsp;list of companies that have stopped running advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, to protest the firm's handling of hate speech and other hateful content. Playstation officially announced its support for the #StopHateForProfit campaign, which entails suspending it's global advertising activity and non-paid content on the platforms until the end of July. While Facebook has officially maintained that it does not make policy changes due to revenue pressure, reports say even over 300 brands joining in on the campaign won't make much of a dent to the firm's bottom line.

Realme announced that it has sold 25,000 units of its latest truly wireless earbuds, the realme Buds Q, on its first flash sale in India. The ₹1,999 earbuds come in a pebble-like design and feature a large 10mm bass driver for an enhanced sound experience. They support Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, are IPX4 rated for sweat and water resistance and have a dedicated gaming mode that is said to offer 119ms low latency. The Buds Q feature touch controls for call control, track change and Google Assistant and support the standard SBC as well as the higher AAC codec. Realme claims up to 4.5 hours of standalone playback with 40 mAh battery and 20 hours of battery life with the charging case that supports 30W fast charging.

The European Commission has adopted new guidelines under which Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media will, for the first time, be subject to EU broadcasting rules on hate speech and harmful content. The amendments to the 2018 code of conduct direct online platforms to take action &ldquo;against flagged content, which incites violence, hatred and terrorism, and ensure appropriate advertising and product placement in children's programmes&rdquo;. Separately, the EU also wants social media platforms to submit monthly reports on how they're handling misinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic. The code of conduct and monthly reports are due to be incorporated into a broader set of binding regulations before the end of 2020.

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Motorola has of late seemed laser-focused on improving photography with their devices at various price points, and this new Moto One Fusion+ is proof of just that.
The first thing you'll be greeted by with the Fusion+ is a large 6.5-inch FHD+ display that sports a 1080x2340 resolution. You'll notice there's no notch--that's because this phone has a pop- up selfie camera. It's a good way to save on-screen space, and there's virtually no competitor at this price point that's offering a notch-free display. Colours are a bit flat when the screen mode is set to natural, but you can always boost them by changing the mode in settings. Once you do that, the display experience is fairly good for an IPS LCD panel.
Motorola's main focus when it comes to the One Fusion+ is the quad-camera system on the back of the phone, with the 8MP ultra-wide sensor in a separate hole at the top. Below that is the main 64MP sensor, a 5MP macro vision camera and a 2MP depth sensor. It's quite a bulky system, so if you set the phone down on the table, it does tend to rock a bit, but only when pressing down on the lower right half of the phone. Pictures with the main sensor are quite good, with crisp colours and a whole lot of detail. Some competitors have a tendency to boost saturation, but the Fusion+ keeps them quite natural. On the whole though, pictures from the main camera are adequately sharp and accurate. The ultra-wide lens produces some nice shots as well, but edges do get quite distorted when dealing with structures. However, image processing is surprisingly good, and pictures taken with this sensor don't look a whole lot different as compared to the main one. The Macro sensor didn't always deliver--focusing wasn't entirely consistent, and colours seem a bit washed out. It did get it right at times though, and took a few nice shots. The depth sensor is really good, with strong edge detection. It even manages to crop out the edges of just random daily objects quite well.
 Low light picture quality is slightly hit and miss with this phone. Even with the Night Vision technology Motorola has packed in, there's a fair bit of grain in some pictures, and in a few, you can notice colour bleeding towards the darker areas. However, at times there's no trouble at all, and the phone takes really nice dramatic shots even in near-pitch darkness.
The 16MP front selfie camera is in a pop-up mechanism, and it seems as sturdy as the rest of the phone, despite the entire unit being made of plastic. Pictures taken with the selfie camera are sharp, and produce good results even in lower lighting situations. Portrait selfies with the front camera are nice too, with good edge detection.
A good thing about the Fusion+ is the plethora of camera modes packed in. There's everything from Spot Color, to Cinemagraph and Live filter, and there's some extra stuff for video too, like a macro mode. There's also the option to shoot pictures in Manual Mode, which unlocks a hidden feature--RAW image capture. On a mid-range device that costs this much, that's quite good, and it means you can take even more advantage of the high-res 64MP sensor in case you don't like the image processing Motorola's used. There's also Google Lens integration at hand, so it's certainly a very feature rich camera app.
Another strong aspect of the Fusion+ is the chipset. Motorola have bundled in the Snapdragon 730G processor, which coupled with the Adreno 618 GPU and 6GB of RAM gives very respectable results whether it's while gaming on graphic intensive titles, or just everyday multitasking. There's no lag when just scrolling around or even gaming, and the dedicated Gametime mode helps block incoming notifications.
The operating system on the Moto One Fusion+ is completely no-nonsense. It's the classic near-stock Android that we've come to expect from Motorola devices, and the experience is further enhanced by the presence of Android 10. It brings features like a Dark Mode and navigational gestures, which are snappy with the hardware provided on this device. There's also Moto Gestures, like a three-finger swipe up for screenshots, a quick shake for the flashlight and a flick of the wrist to launch the camera.
On the utility front, Motorola has offered a single speaker setup, USB Type-C charging, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's a dedicated Google Assistant key as well, which isn't a feature that's common at all, whether at this price point or even higher.
Meanwhile, on the backside, you'll find a fingerprint scanner with the Motorola logo embedded into it. Unfortunately, it's not the most accurate reader, and tends to give a few incorrect readings from time to time. Luckily, the 5,000 mAh battery more than makes up for it and should last you more than a day even with heavy usage, and two days if you're frugal. There's support for 18W Turbo Power charging which isn't the quickest when it comes to fast charging speeds, but it's not a deal-breaker considering the price and the huge battery. Motorola also includes a plastic case in the box that's quite necessary considering the plastic build quality, that's susceptible to scratches.
Lastly, let's talk about the design. We received the Twilight Blue colour, that's got a nice gradient on the back. It's simple enough, but if you're one for something flashy, there's a Moonlight White colour option too. The phone is quite bulky, which is probably due to the pop-up camera system, but it does have a nice weight to it, which lends a slightly premium feel to the device.
So who is this phone for? Well, if you're a bit of a camera buff on a budget, and you like a lot of punch in your performance, the Moto One Fusion+ won't disappoint. Its 64MP quad camera takes good pictures in most lighting scenarios, and the Snapdragon 730G will handle anything you throw at it. Add to that a near-stock Android experience without any bloatware, and you've got yourself a solid daily driver.

Motorola has of late seemed laser-focused on improving photography with their devices at various price points, and this new Moto One Fusion+ is proof of just that. The first thing you'll be greeted by with the Fusion+ is a large 6.5-inch FHD+ display that sports a 1080x2340 resolution. You'll notice there's no notch--that's because this phone has a pop- up selfie camera. It's a good way to save on-screen space, and there's virtually no competitor at this price point that's offering a notch-free display. Colours are a bit flat when the screen mode is set to natural, but you can always boost them by changing the mode in settings. Once you do that, the display experience is fairly good for an IPS LCD panel. Motorola's main focus when it comes to the One Fusion+ is the quad-camera system on the back of the phone, with the 8MP ultra-wide sensor in a separate hole at the top. Below that is the main 64MP sensor, a 5MP macro vision camera and a 2MP depth sensor. It's quite a bulky system, so if you set the phone down on the table, it does tend to rock a bit, but only when pressing down on the lower right half of the phone. Pictures with the main sensor are quite good, with crisp colours and a whole lot of detail. Some competitors have a tendency to boost saturation, but the Fusion+ keeps them quite natural. On the whole though, pictures from the main camera are adequately sharp and accurate. The ultra-wide lens produces some nice shots as well, but edges do get quite distorted when dealing with structures. However, image processing is surprisingly good, and pictures taken with this sensor don't look a whole lot different as compared to the main one. The Macro sensor didn't always deliver--focusing wasn't entirely consistent, and colours seem a bit washed out. It did get it right at times though, and took a few nice shots. The depth sensor is really good, with strong edge detection. It even manages to crop out the edges of just random daily objects quite well. Low light picture quality is slightly hit and miss with this phone. Even with the Night Vision technology Motorola has packed in, there's a fair bit of grain in some pictures, and in a few, you can notice colour bleeding towards the darker areas. However, at times there's no trouble at all, and the phone takes really nice dramatic shots even in near-pitch darkness. The 16MP front selfie camera is in a pop-up mechanism, and it seems as sturdy as the rest of the phone, despite the entire unit being made of plastic. Pictures taken with the selfie camera are sharp, and produce good results even in lower lighting situations. Portrait selfies with the front camera are nice too, with good edge detection. A good thing about the Fusion+ is the plethora of camera modes packed in. There's everything from Spot Color, to Cinemagraph and Live filter, and there's some extra stuff for video too, like a macro mode. There's also the option to shoot pictures in Manual Mode, which unlocks a hidden feature--RAW image capture. On a mid-range device that costs this much, that's quite good, and it means you can take even more advantage of the high-res 64MP sensor in case you don't like the image processing Motorola's used. There's also Google Lens integration at hand, so it's certainly a very feature rich camera app. Another strong aspect of the Fusion+ is the chipset. Motorola have bundled in the Snapdragon 730G processor, which coupled with the Adreno 618 GPU and 6GB of RAM gives very respectable results whether it's while gaming on graphic intensive titles, or just everyday multitasking. There's no lag when just scrolling around or even gaming, and the dedicated Gametime mode helps block incoming notifications. The operating system on the Moto One Fusion+ is completely no-nonsense. It's the classic near-stock Android that we've come to expect from Motorola devices, and the experience is further enhanced by the presence of Android 10. It brings features like a Dark Mode and navigational gestures, which are snappy with the hardware provided on this device. There's also Moto Gestures, like a three-finger swipe up for screenshots, a quick shake for the flashlight and a flick of the wrist to launch the camera. On the utility front, Motorola has offered a single speaker setup, USB Type-C charging, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's a dedicated Google Assistant key as well, which isn't a feature that's common at all, whether at this price point or even higher. Meanwhile, on the backside, you'll find a fingerprint scanner with the Motorola logo embedded into it. Unfortunately, it's not the most accurate reader, and tends to give a few incorrect readings from time to time. Luckily, the 5,000 mAh battery more than makes up for it and should last you more than a day even with heavy usage, and two days if you're frugal. There's support for 18W Turbo Power charging which isn't the quickest when it comes to fast charging speeds, but it's not a deal-breaker considering the price and the huge battery. Motorola also includes a plastic case in the box that's quite necessary considering the plastic build quality, that's susceptible to scratches. Lastly, let's talk about the design. We received the Twilight Blue colour, that's got a nice gradient on the back. It's simple enough, but if you're one for something flashy, there's a Moonlight White colour option too. The phone is quite bulky, which is probably due to the pop-up camera system, but it does have a nice weight to it, which lends a slightly premium feel to the device. So who is this phone for? Well, if you're a bit of a camera buff on a budget, and you like a lot of punch in your performance, the Moto One Fusion+ won't disappoint. Its 64MP quad camera takes good pictures in most lighting scenarios, and the Snapdragon 730G will handle anything you throw at it. Add to that a near-stock Android experience without any bloatware, and you've got yourself a solid daily driver.

The Galaxy A31 is the new cadet in Samsung's ever-growing army of A-series smartphones. It also happens to be a massive&nbsp;upgrade&nbsp;over the A30s that was launched in India last year.&nbsp; Now, the phone gets a bigger battery, a better display and more cameras. But is all of that enough to justify its&nbsp;21,999 Rupees price tag? Let's find out!
Much like its other A series brethren, the Samsung Galaxy A31 sports a beautiful AMOLED screen.&nbsp; It's 6.4 inches across, gets a 1080&times;2400 resolution&nbsp;and delivers terrific brightness levels. Moreover,&nbsp;video streaming platforms can play content at glorious Full HD resolution because the phone supports&nbsp;Google's Widevine L1 certification.&nbsp;
A 6.4-&nbsp;inch display also means that the A31 is a big phone, but the weight is well distributed and Samsung has even managed to find space for a headphone jack here. Additionally, the in-display fingerprint sensor is very reliable&nbsp;when it comes to unlocking the device. I didn't even&nbsp;once experience a false reading while using it.&nbsp;
The top part of the display features a U-shaped notch that houses the front camera, and while you do get used to it being there, I feel a punch-hole design would have helped in lending more screen real estate.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, the polycarbonate backside picks up the same prism-cut design&nbsp;that we've seen on the Galaxy A30s and the more recent Galaxy A51. As a result, the phone&nbsp;gets a stylish rainbow-like sheen&nbsp;when light reflects off it at different angles. Be warned though, the rear is very glossy and attracts a lot of fingerprint smudges, so you might want to consider using this handset with the provided TPU cover. &nbsp; On the back, you'll also find no less than four cameras.&nbsp;The main camera is a 48MP one, and it's joined by an 8MP ultra-wide snapper,&nbsp; a 5MP macro sensor and a 5MP depth sensor.&nbsp; This is a big step up from the triple rear camera setup offered on the A30s and overall delivers greater flexibility when it comes to photography.&nbsp;&nbsp;The macro lens is a nice addition and clicked&nbsp;some really good close-up shots. Low light photography, on the other hand, left a lot be desired as photos lacked detail with a considerable amount of noise creeping in. A dedicated night mode is also missing from the package and in the year 2020, this should have been an obvious inclusion.&nbsp;On the plus side, the 20MP front shooter captured lively portraits that are very much Instagram friendly.&nbsp;
Powering the Galaxy A31s, for some strange reason is the MediaTek Helio P65 chip, instead of Samsung's homegrown Exynos Soc. I say strange because pretty much every Galaxy A series or even M series phone that I've reviewed came equipped with an Exynos CPU. So. I'm not sure why the company has decided to opt for a Mediatek one on the A31. But despite that, the phone is more than capable of carrying day to day out tasks without breaking a sweat.&nbsp;
It isn&rsquo;t quite as zippy as other mid-range offerings that the competition has to offer, but the 6GB of RAM offers good multitasking and packs enough grunt for gaming, as long as you don't push the game to its highest graphic setting. The single speaker also enhances gameplay and gets fairly loud when it needs to. The 128 GB of onboard storage should be plenty for most people, but this is expandable to up to 512GB if more space is required.&nbsp;
Ticking things along is the brilliant 5,000 battery that on an average lasted me around one and a half days with heavy usage. However,&nbsp;the 15W&nbsp;fast charging isn&rsquo;t really fast and takes roughly 2 hours to top up the phone from dead via the USB C port. Although this really isn't an issue because you won't need to charge this mammoth battery too often.&nbsp;
&nbsp;In terms of software, the Galaxy A31 runs on&nbsp; Android 10 along with Samsung's One UI V2.1, which helps in lending the phone a clean look while operating.&nbsp;On top of this,&nbsp;there's also support for&nbsp;Samsung Pay, which is basically the equivalent of carrying around a debit or credit card. More importantly, though,&nbsp; unlike Xiaomi and Realme phones, there's not&nbsp;a whole lot of bloatware available here.&nbsp;
So to round up, the Galaxy A31 seems to offer all the things that matter to a budget-conscious buyer- a great display, fantastic battery life and versatile camera setup. At the same time, this phone also faces&nbsp;some heavy competition in this segment, especially from the likes of Xiaomi and Realme. But the A31 has a couple of advantages over those brands- Firstly you get the Samsung name and reputation. Secondly, you get a more balanced performance across the spectrum with this phone, and lastly, the software experience is way smoother over here. So keeping all of that in mind, the Samsung Galaxy A31 doesn't seem like a bad deal at all.&nbsp;
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The Galaxy A31 is the new cadet in Samsung's ever-growing army of A-series smartphones. It also happens to be a massive upgrade over the A30s that was launched in India last year. Now, the phone gets a bigger battery, a better display and more cameras. But is all of that enough to justify its 21,999 Rupees price tag? Let's find out! Much like its other A series brethren, the Samsung Galaxy A31 sports a beautiful AMOLED screen. It's 6.4 inches across, gets a 1080×2400 resolution and delivers terrific brightness levels. Moreover, video streaming platforms can play content at glorious Full HD resolution because the phone supports Google's Widevine L1 certification. A 6.4- inch display also means that the A31 is a big phone, but the weight is well distributed and Samsung has even managed to find space for a headphone jack here. Additionally, the in-display fingerprint sensor is very reliable when it comes to unlocking the device. I didn't even once experience a false reading while using it. The top part of the display features a U-shaped notch that houses the front camera, and while you do get used to it being there, I feel a punch-hole design would have helped in lending more screen real estate. Meanwhile, the polycarbonate backside picks up the same prism-cut design that we've seen on the Galaxy A30s and the more recent Galaxy A51. As a result, the phone gets a stylish rainbow-like sheen when light reflects off it at different angles. Be warned though, the rear is very glossy and attracts a lot of fingerprint smudges, so you might want to consider using this handset with the provided TPU cover. On the back, you'll also find no less than four cameras. The main camera is a 48MP one, and it's joined by an 8MP ultra-wide snapper, a 5MP macro sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. This is a big step up from the triple rear camera setup offered on the A30s and overall delivers greater flexibility when it comes to photography. The macro lens is a nice addition and clicked some really good close-up shots. Low light photography, on the other hand, left a lot be desired as photos lacked detail with a considerable amount of noise creeping in. A dedicated night mode is also missing from the package and in the year 2020, this should have been an obvious inclusion. On the plus side, the 20MP front shooter captured lively portraits that are very much Instagram friendly. Powering the Galaxy A31s, for some strange reason is the MediaTek Helio P65 chip, instead of Samsung's homegrown Exynos Soc. I say strange because pretty much every Galaxy A series or even M series phone that I've reviewed came equipped with an Exynos CPU. So. I'm not sure why the company has decided to opt for a Mediatek one on the A31. But despite that, the phone is more than capable of carrying day to day out tasks without breaking a sweat. It isn’t quite as zippy as other mid-range offerings that the competition has to offer, but the 6GB of RAM offers good multitasking and packs enough grunt for gaming, as long as you don't push the game to its highest graphic setting. The single speaker also enhances gameplay and gets fairly loud when it needs to. The 128 GB of onboard storage should be plenty for most people, but this is expandable to up to 512GB if more space is required. Ticking things along is the brilliant 5,000 battery that on an average lasted me around one and a half days with heavy usage. However, the 15W fast charging isn’t really fast and takes roughly 2 hours to top up the phone from dead via the USB C port. Although this really isn't an issue because you won't need to charge this mammoth battery too often. In terms of software, the Galaxy A31 runs on Android 10 along with Samsung's One UI V2.1, which helps in lending the phone a clean look while operating. On top of this, there's also support for Samsung Pay, which is basically the equivalent of carrying around a debit or credit card. More importantly, though, unlike Xiaomi and Realme phones, there's not a whole lot of bloatware available here. So to round up, the Galaxy A31 seems to offer all the things that matter to a budget-conscious buyer- a great display, fantastic battery life and versatile camera setup. At the same time, this phone also faces some heavy competition in this segment, especially from the likes of Xiaomi and Realme. But the A31 has a couple of advantages over those brands- Firstly you get the Samsung name and reputation. Secondly, you get a more balanced performance across the spectrum with this phone, and lastly, the software experience is way smoother over here. So keeping all of that in mind, the Samsung Galaxy A31 doesn't seem like a bad deal at all.

Flagship smartphones in 2020 are a dime a dozen, but there's very few that set the bar a notch higher. One of those is this, the Oppo Find X2 Pro. It has one of the most exhaustive lists of specifications I've ever seen, with performance to match, and in this video, I'm going to tell you why it's one of my favourite flagships of 2020.
But first, let's quickly unbox the device and see everything it packs in.
In this large reviewer's box that I've been sent, there's first a greeting, which when lifted reveals the retail box underneath.
Next to it is this carbon-fiber phone case, along with a reviewer's guide.
Let's set that aside and get to the meat of it.
The retail box has a really nice reflective pattern on it, and if you look carefully, this is the black ceramic model with 12GB RAM and 512GB of storage.
Open up the lid, and you'll be greeted with a smaller box for the TPU case, manuals and SIM ejector tool.
Underneath that, there's the phone itself in all its shiny glory.
Lift the paper tray below that and you'll see the charging brick and a container for the earphones.
The charging adapter is a massive 65W unit, and I'll talk more about the phone's insane charging speeds later in the video.
In the container for the earphones, there's the USB Type-C earphones themselves, a USB Type-C charging cable, and a few extra eartips.
Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's get into the review.
The first thing you&rsquo;ll notice about the Find X2 Pro&mdash;its gorgeous 6.7-inch display. Now high refresh rates and quad HD resolutions are the order of the day, but most flagship&rsquo;s either have one or the other, and the ones that have both, aren&rsquo;t able to gel them together. Here's looking at you Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra!
The Find X2 Pro makes no such compromises in that department. It&rsquo;s a 120Hz refresh rate QHD+ AMOLED screen, with a 1440x3168 resolution, and yes, you can have both those things running at the same time. The HDR10+ certified display also sports 10-bit colour, that&rsquo;s 64 times more than what conventional 8-bit screens offer, so content on this display looks stunning. There&rsquo;s also the O1 Ultra Vision Engine which offers video enhancements like being able to provide a wider colour gamut to non-HDR content. It can also boost videos up to a smooth 60fps or even 120fps. Now while this system doesn't work on all video content, it is supported by apps like YouTube, Tencent Sports, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and a few others.&nbsp;&nbsp;I&rsquo;ll be honest though, I didn&rsquo;t notice a whole lot of difference with the system turned on while watching content on Netflix, but it's still good to have a system that can boost video quality should the need arise. The Find X2 Pro also gets a 240Hz touch sampling rate, so not only will this screen give you the maximum frames when playing games, but also the quickest responses and reaction times. Take all of this into account, and it&rsquo;s not hard to believe that DisplayMate rated this screen an A+, it&rsquo;s highest grade. There's also a Natural Tone mode, that uses sensors to determine the ambient light temperature, and changes the colour of the screen accordingly. A common criticism of the Find X2 Pro's screen are the curved edges, but honestly, they're not all that bad. I used the phone with a cover pretty much the entire time, and with that setup, I had virtually no accidental touches. Bezels are quite slim, and along with the selfie camera in a hole punch, it gives the phone a lot of screen real estate.
Now let&rsquo;s move on to the camera system used by the Find X2 Pro. In this vertical slit on the back, you&rsquo;ll notice two circular lenses, and one that&rsquo;s rectangular. This is the phone&rsquo;s Ultra Vision Camera system, that incorporates a 48MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide camera, and a 13MP telephoto camera. These three put together offer a lot of versatility, and with such powerful hardware, Oppo has done away with the need to include dedicated Macro and Depth sensors. Just get really close to a subject, and the camera app automatically engages an Ultra Macro Mode. There&rsquo;s a dedicated Night Mode, and Portrait Mode, and Google Lens as well. The 13MP periscope system offers up to 10x Hybrid Zoom, and can go as high as 60x, although pictures at that range aren't great. I found that pictures taken with both 5x and 10x zoom were very sharp with crisp details, and could easily pass off as primary sensor images from a mid-range smartphone. The 48MP main sensor produces natural colours, without over-saturating the image, and there's great depth of field even without the portrait mode. However, if you'd like punchier colours, you can turn on the AI Dazzle mode, which will essentially boost saturation. I quite like the idea of a 48MP ultrawide camera--it means you'll get a unique field of view, without losing a whole bunch of detail. The ultrawide images with the Find X2 Pro are proof of that, although there is a fair bit of distortion towards the corners of the frame. If you thought the lack of a dedicated macro sensor was going to be a problem--you're wrong. The Ultra Macro Mode captures great detail, while preserving accurate colours. Along with this, there's an Ultra Night Mode, and to be honest, there's a significant difference between shots taken with it and without it. What I mean is, if you're trying to get a more dramatic image, with pronounced shadows, you should keep the Night Mode off. However, if you're trying to light up dark areas in an image, the dedicated mode gets the job done. Either way, the Find X2 Pro's camera performs well in low-light conditions. In addition to photography, this phone is quite capable when it comes to video too. You can shoot footage at up to 4K 60fps, and Oppo has offered an Ultra Steady Mode for stabilisation, which does smooth out the bumps very well, while still being able to record at 1080p. There's an extra pro mode for stabilisation that smoothes things up even more, and a Live HDR setting for high contrast situations, although when I used it, colour temperature kept changing constantly, so hopefully that's something that gets better with a future update.
The selfie camera on this phone is a 32MP sensor, and with the brand's history of focusing on pictures from the front lens, it's pretty decent. I'll be honest, I've never been a big fan of beauty-enhancing modes and face slimmers, things that Oppo offers in large amounts. However, if you don't like the way these modes make you look, you can always disable them easily enough. In good lighting, the selfies are sharp, with natural colours, but in low light conditions, the image tends to be a bit soft. Edge detection with the portrait mode tends to be a bit iffy as well, but since this is a single sensor system, AI is doing most of the work, so it's understandable.
In the performance department, the Find X2 Pro is an absolute beast of a machine. At the top of its spec sheet sits the latest and greatest Snapdragon 865 5G chipset, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage. Gaming performance on this phone is as smooth as it gets, with the highest frame rates possible thanks to that 120Hz refresh rate I spoke of before, and the accompanying 240Hz touch sampling rate that makes for lighting fast touch response.&nbsp; This hardware is amplified by the Game Space app that lets you block incoming notifications, and directs all of the phone's horsepower to just the gameplay if you so wish. These are things usually seen on gaming smartphones, and it's great to see Oppo raise the bar for flagships in general.
I should point out, however, that not all games are able to use that high refresh rate. If you&rsquo;re playing COD Mobile, you&rsquo;ll notice a very slight difference over a standard 60Hz screen, but if you&rsquo;re playing games like Injustice 2, the phone will make full use of all that 120Hz goodness.
The 12GB RAM plays a big role in multitasking, with apps running in the background rarely booting up from scratch when you access them even after a while. The 512GB storage is not expandable, but in my opinion, it's more than enough for a reasonable amount of usage.
Now when it comes to battery life, the 120Hz refresh rate and QHD+ resolution really eat into it, and if you're like me and tend to keep your screen brightness cranked up for most of the day, this battery isn't going to give you much more than a day's usage. The good news here, however, is ultra-fast charging speeds, probably the fastest available anywhere right now. With its 4,260 mAh of cumulative battery split into two separate cells for faster concurrent Super VOOC 2.0 charging, the Find X2 Pro goes from 0 to full in under 40 minutes on an average, significantly faster than any competitor. Unfortunately, there's no wireless charging, which I think is a bit of a letdown considering the price and flagship status of the phone. It's worth noting though, that if you want to control the battery life better, you can set the screen refresh rate and resolution to Auto Select, so the phone will offer the best mix of the two depending on whether you're watching content, browsing an article, or playing games.
An important part of any smartphone is its operating system, and with ColorOS 7.1, Oppo has shown that they've come quite far from what they previously offered. The interface has been cleaned up quite a lot, extra features have been significantly improved, and no longer does this look like an iOS clone. There's a really nice Dark Mode that applies itself to almost all of the default apps and looks great on this OLED panel, along with Edge Lighting effects for incoming calls and notifications. More control over the interface has been offered with this version of ColorOS, including features like a multi-user mode, a quick-gesture for split-screen mode, and another gesture for screenshots. On the edge of the screen, you'll find the Smart Sidebar that holds a few nifty features like screen recording and floating chat-heads for supported apps. Oppo has thoughtfully included an app to wind down--the Oppo Relax app offers guided breathing exercises, ambient sounds, and calming music, all supported by Dolby Atmos. The phone runs Android 10, and while Oppo doesn't have a great track record when it comes to timely software updates for its mid-range phones, one can only hope they make an exception for their flagship device.
Last but definitely not the least, let's talk about the Oppo Find X2 Pro's design. It's offered in two options--this ceramic black one, and an orange vegan leather finish. While the orange model looks much flashier, I like the muted look the ceramic model sports. There are these slight ridges on the back that add a little bit of grip and create rather pretty patterns under the right lighting. If you're worried about dents and scratches, you can slap on the included transparent TPU case, or if you want something nicer, Oppo sells this carbon fiber case that goes well with the all-black look. Every corner of the phone looks polished, and there's some nice attention to detail, like the green accent on the power button. The earpiece grill on top sits almost flush with the bezel, and it plays a role in the phone's stereo speaker setup along with the speaker on the bottom. It's an IP68 rated device, so it's as well protected as possible to survive in even the clumsiest of hands. There's a fingerprint scanner underneath the display too, that's really fast and didn't give me a single false reading the entire time I used it.
So, to sum up, the Oppo Find X2 Pro is a genuine spec monster. The list of all the hardware it packs is long enough to frighten any competition, and with software that finally backs up the performance, Oppo has shown real growth. At this price point, there's many contenders to choose from, including the likes of Samsung and OnePlus, but for me, the Find X2 Pro is still my favourite. Why? Well 'cause simply put, it does everything, and then some.

Flagship smartphones in 2020 are a dime a dozen, but there's very few that set the bar a notch higher. One of those is this, the Oppo Find X2 Pro. It has one of the most exhaustive lists of specifications I've ever seen, with performance to match, and in this video, I'm going to tell you why it's one of my favourite flagships of 2020. But first, let's quickly unbox the device and see everything it packs in. In this large reviewer's box that I've been sent, there's first a greeting, which when lifted reveals the retail box underneath. Next to it is this carbon-fiber phone case, along with a reviewer's guide. Let's set that aside and get to the meat of it. The retail box has a really nice reflective pattern on it, and if you look carefully, this is the black ceramic model with 12GB RAM and 512GB of storage. Open up the lid, and you'll be greeted with a smaller box for the TPU case, manuals and SIM ejector tool. Underneath that, there's the phone itself in all its shiny glory. Lift the paper tray below that and you'll see the charging brick and a container for the earphones. The charging adapter is a massive 65W unit, and I'll talk more about the phone's insane charging speeds later in the video. In the container for the earphones, there's the USB Type-C earphones themselves, a USB Type-C charging cable, and a few extra eartips. Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's get into the review. The first thing you’ll notice about the Find X2 Pro—its gorgeous 6.7-inch display. Now high refresh rates and quad HD resolutions are the order of the day, but most flagship’s either have one or the other, and the ones that have both, aren’t able to gel them together. Here's looking at you Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra! The Find X2 Pro makes no such compromises in that department. It’s a 120Hz refresh rate QHD+ AMOLED screen, with a 1440x3168 resolution, and yes, you can have both those things running at the same time. The HDR10+ certified display also sports 10-bit colour, that’s 64 times more than what conventional 8-bit screens offer, so content on this display looks stunning. There’s also the O1 Ultra Vision Engine which offers video enhancements like being able to provide a wider colour gamut to non-HDR content. It can also boost videos up to a smooth 60fps or even 120fps. Now while this system doesn't work on all video content, it is supported by apps like YouTube, Tencent Sports, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and a few others. I’ll be honest though, I didn’t notice a whole lot of difference with the system turned on while watching content on Netflix, but it's still good to have a system that can boost video quality should the need arise. The Find X2 Pro also gets a 240Hz touch sampling rate, so not only will this screen give you the maximum frames when playing games, but also the quickest responses and reaction times. Take all of this into account, and it’s not hard to believe that DisplayMate rated this screen an A+, it’s highest grade. There's also a Natural Tone mode, that uses sensors to determine the ambient light temperature, and changes the colour of the screen accordingly. A common criticism of the Find X2 Pro's screen are the curved edges, but honestly, they're not all that bad. I used the phone with a cover pretty much the entire time, and with that setup, I had virtually no accidental touches. Bezels are quite slim, and along with the selfie camera in a hole punch, it gives the phone a lot of screen real estate. Now let’s move on to the camera system used by the Find X2 Pro. In this vertical slit on the back, you’ll notice two circular lenses, and one that’s rectangular. This is the phone’s Ultra Vision Camera system, that incorporates a 48MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide camera, and a 13MP telephoto camera. These three put together offer a lot of versatility, and with such powerful hardware, Oppo has done away with the need to include dedicated Macro and Depth sensors. Just get really close to a subject, and the camera app automatically engages an Ultra Macro Mode. There’s a dedicated Night Mode, and Portrait Mode, and Google Lens as well. The 13MP periscope system offers up to 10x Hybrid Zoom, and can go as high as 60x, although pictures at that range aren't great. I found that pictures taken with both 5x and 10x zoom were very sharp with crisp details, and could easily pass off as primary sensor images from a mid-range smartphone. The 48MP main sensor produces natural colours, without over-saturating the image, and there's great depth of field even without the portrait mode. However, if you'd like punchier colours, you can turn on the AI Dazzle mode, which will essentially boost saturation. I quite like the idea of a 48MP ultrawide camera--it means you'll get a unique field of view, without losing a whole bunch of detail. The ultrawide images with the Find X2 Pro are proof of that, although there is a fair bit of distortion towards the corners of the frame. If you thought the lack of a dedicated macro sensor was going to be a problem--you're wrong. The Ultra Macro Mode captures great detail, while preserving accurate colours. Along with this, there's an Ultra Night Mode, and to be honest, there's a significant difference between shots taken with it and without it. What I mean is, if you're trying to get a more dramatic image, with pronounced shadows, you should keep the Night Mode off. However, if you're trying to light up dark areas in an image, the dedicated mode gets the job done. Either way, the Find X2 Pro's camera performs well in low-light conditions. In addition to photography, this phone is quite capable when it comes to video too. You can shoot footage at up to 4K 60fps, and Oppo has offered an Ultra Steady Mode for stabilisation, which does smooth out the bumps very well, while still being able to record at 1080p. There's an extra pro mode for stabilisation that smoothes things up even more, and a Live HDR setting for high contrast situations, although when I used it, colour temperature kept changing constantly, so hopefully that's something that gets better with a future update. The selfie camera on this phone is a 32MP sensor, and with the brand's history of focusing on pictures from the front lens, it's pretty decent. I'll be honest, I've never been a big fan of beauty-enhancing modes and face slimmers, things that Oppo offers in large amounts. However, if you don't like the way these modes make you look, you can always disable them easily enough. In good lighting, the selfies are sharp, with natural colours, but in low light conditions, the image tends to be a bit soft. Edge detection with the portrait mode tends to be a bit iffy as well, but since this is a single sensor system, AI is doing most of the work, so it's understandable. In the performance department, the Find X2 Pro is an absolute beast of a machine. At the top of its spec sheet sits the latest and greatest Snapdragon 865 5G chipset, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage. Gaming performance on this phone is as smooth as it gets, with the highest frame rates possible thanks to that 120Hz refresh rate I spoke of before, and the accompanying 240Hz touch sampling rate that makes for lighting fast touch response. This hardware is amplified by the Game Space app that lets you block incoming notifications, and directs all of the phone's horsepower to just the gameplay if you so wish. These are things usually seen on gaming smartphones, and it's great to see Oppo raise the bar for flagships in general. I should point out, however, that not all games are able to use that high refresh rate. If you’re playing COD Mobile, you’ll notice a very slight difference over a standard 60Hz screen, but if you’re playing games like Injustice 2, the phone will make full use of all that 120Hz goodness. The 12GB RAM plays a big role in multitasking, with apps running in the background rarely booting up from scratch when you access them even after a while. The 512GB storage is not expandable, but in my opinion, it's more than enough for a reasonable amount of usage. Now when it comes to battery life, the 120Hz refresh rate and QHD+ resolution really eat into it, and if you're like me and tend to keep your screen brightness cranked up for most of the day, this battery isn't going to give you much more than a day's usage. The good news here, however, is ultra-fast charging speeds, probably the fastest available anywhere right now. With its 4,260 mAh of cumulative battery split into two separate cells for faster concurrent Super VOOC 2.0 charging, the Find X2 Pro goes from 0 to full in under 40 minutes on an average, significantly faster than any competitor. Unfortunately, there's no wireless charging, which I think is a bit of a letdown considering the price and flagship status of the phone. It's worth noting though, that if you want to control the battery life better, you can set the screen refresh rate and resolution to Auto Select, so the phone will offer the best mix of the two depending on whether you're watching content, browsing an article, or playing games. An important part of any smartphone is its operating system, and with ColorOS 7.1, Oppo has shown that they've come quite far from what they previously offered. The interface has been cleaned up quite a lot, extra features have been significantly improved, and no longer does this look like an iOS clone. There's a really nice Dark Mode that applies itself to almost all of the default apps and looks great on this OLED panel, along with Edge Lighting effects for incoming calls and notifications. More control over the interface has been offered with this version of ColorOS, including features like a multi-user mode, a quick-gesture for split-screen mode, and another gesture for screenshots. On the edge of the screen, you'll find the Smart Sidebar that holds a few nifty features like screen recording and floating chat-heads for supported apps. Oppo has thoughtfully included an app to wind down--the Oppo Relax app offers guided breathing exercises, ambient sounds, and calming music, all supported by Dolby Atmos. The phone runs Android 10, and while Oppo doesn't have a great track record when it comes to timely software updates for its mid-range phones, one can only hope they make an exception for their flagship device. Last but definitely not the least, let's talk about the Oppo Find X2 Pro's design. It's offered in two options--this ceramic black one, and an orange vegan leather finish. While the orange model looks much flashier, I like the muted look the ceramic model sports. There are these slight ridges on the back that add a little bit of grip and create rather pretty patterns under the right lighting. If you're worried about dents and scratches, you can slap on the included transparent TPU case, or if you want something nicer, Oppo sells this carbon fiber case that goes well with the all-black look. Every corner of the phone looks polished, and there's some nice attention to detail, like the green accent on the power button. The earpiece grill on top sits almost flush with the bezel, and it plays a role in the phone's stereo speaker setup along with the speaker on the bottom. It's an IP68 rated device, so it's as well protected as possible to survive in even the clumsiest of hands. There's a fingerprint scanner underneath the display too, that's really fast and didn't give me a single false reading the entire time I used it. So, to sum up, the Oppo Find X2 Pro is a genuine spec monster. The list of all the hardware it packs is long enough to frighten any competition, and with software that finally backs up the performance, Oppo has shown real growth. At this price point, there's many contenders to choose from, including the likes of Samsung and OnePlus, but for me, the Find X2 Pro is still my favourite. Why? Well 'cause simply put, it does everything, and then some.

These are the new Sony&nbsp;WH-CH710N wireless headphones and while they don't have the easiest&nbsp;name to remember, they are easy enough to recommend to anyone looking to buy an affordable alternative to&nbsp;Sony's flagship 1000XM3.&nbsp;Priced at Rs. 9,990,&nbsp;these are significantly less expensive and offer great features like noise cancellation and&nbsp;huge battery life.&nbsp;
First off, pairing the headphones to your smartphone is really easy. It works fine with both Bluetooth and NFC. More importantly though, and let's just get this&nbsp;right out of the way, the CH710N's aren&rsquo;t going to pack the same amount&nbsp;of high fidelity&nbsp;audio&nbsp;as the 1000XM3. But honestly, it's not a deal-breaker as these headphones hold their own when it comes to sound performance.&nbsp;
Outfitted with 30-mm drivers, they offer crisp and powerful audio for the most part - bass is punchy, treble is well controlled, and&nbsp;the mid-range&nbsp;is crystal clear,&nbsp;so vocals and lead instruments stand out. The main issue with&nbsp;their sound is&nbsp;that the headphones don't offer the most spacious soundstage, especially when&nbsp;noise cancelling is on.&nbsp;
Talking about noise cancelling, it's pretty good over here. Of course, these&nbsp;aren&rsquo;t as great at cancelling out sound as the Sony WH-1000XM3, but at this price point, they&nbsp;do a very decent job of removing a lot of&nbsp;ambient sound around you.&nbsp;Although,&nbsp; if you want to be&nbsp;aware of your surroundings, then all you need to do is press down on the&nbsp;Ambient&nbsp; Mode button and it will allow exterior sound in via the headphones.&nbsp;
Anyway moving on,&nbsp;lets quickly talk about design and comfort.&nbsp;The&nbsp;WH-CH710N's are fairly simple looking and made almost entirely out of plastic with a subtle matte finish. The plastic build&nbsp;implies that they are prone to scratches. In fact, the&nbsp;headphones&nbsp;come with a&nbsp;removable protective sticker to ensure they don't&nbsp;get damaged during shipping. Apart from that, the extendable headband gets&nbsp;leatherette cushioning and the large&nbsp;padding inside the ear cup feels super soft and squishy, making the headphones really comfy to wear even during prolonged listening.&nbsp;Tipping the scales at approximately 223g, the cans aren't too heavy, and the swivel design ensures&nbsp;you can transport them safely wherever you go.
All the essentials are elegantly divided between both ear cups.&nbsp;On the left can are the volume controls and between them is the multifunction button that&nbsp;will pause/play music, and summon your phone's assistant. There's also a button&nbsp;that lets you toggle between the&nbsp;noise-cancelling&nbsp;feature or the ambient mode.
The right ear cup gets a 3.5mm jack for plugging in the provided audio cable for listening in wired mode&nbsp;if that's&nbsp;what you prefer.&nbsp;Then there is a USB-C port for connecting the charger. Next to that is the power button&nbsp;that doubles up as a paring control a well.&nbsp;
Now, the last thing that deserves a big shout out is battery life, which happens to be a major highlight for these headphones: they will easily last you over 35 hours on a single charge, even with noise cancelling turned on. I mean that is just fantastic for a pair of headphones in this price segment, and while it does take almost 5 hours to charge them fully, just a 10-minute top-up will give you an hour worth of playtime.
So, overall I'm very impressed with the Sony WH-CH710N. They're definitely worth a purchase for folks who don&rsquo;t want to spend over 10,000 Rupees on a pair of headphones. Apart from the 'plasticky' build, there's not a whole lot to complain about here. Sound quality is good, battery life is terrific, noise cancellation works well and they're also very comfortable to wear.&nbsp;

These are the new Sony WH-CH710N wireless headphones and while they don't have the easiest name to remember, they are easy enough to recommend to anyone looking to buy an affordable alternative to Sony's flagship 1000XM3. Priced at Rs. 9,990, these are significantly less expensive and offer great features like noise cancellation and huge battery life. First off, pairing the headphones to your smartphone is really easy. It works fine with both Bluetooth and NFC. More importantly though, and let's just get this right out of the way, the CH710N's aren’t going to pack the same amount of high fidelity audio as the 1000XM3. But honestly, it's not a deal-breaker as these headphones hold their own when it comes to sound performance. Outfitted with 30-mm drivers, they offer crisp and powerful audio for the most part - bass is punchy, treble is well controlled, and the mid-range is crystal clear, so vocals and lead instruments stand out. The main issue with their sound is that the headphones don't offer the most spacious soundstage, especially when noise cancelling is on. Talking about noise cancelling, it's pretty good over here. Of course, these aren’t as great at cancelling out sound as the Sony WH-1000XM3, but at this price point, they do a very decent job of removing a lot of ambient sound around you. Although, if you want to be aware of your surroundings, then all you need to do is press down on the Ambient Mode button and it will allow exterior sound in via the headphones. Anyway moving on, lets quickly talk about design and comfort. The WH-CH710N's are fairly simple looking and made almost entirely out of plastic with a subtle matte finish. The plastic build implies that they are prone to scratches. In fact, the headphones come with a removable protective sticker to ensure they don't get damaged during shipping. Apart from that, the extendable headband gets leatherette cushioning and the large padding inside the ear cup feels super soft and squishy, making the headphones really comfy to wear even during prolonged listening. Tipping the scales at approximately 223g, the cans aren't too heavy, and the swivel design ensures you can transport them safely wherever you go. All the essentials are elegantly divided between both ear cups. On the left can are the volume controls and between them is the multifunction button that will pause/play music, and summon your phone's assistant. There's also a button that lets you toggle between the noise-cancelling feature or the ambient mode. The right ear cup gets a 3.5mm jack for plugging in the provided audio cable for listening in wired mode if that's what you prefer. Then there is a USB-C port for connecting the charger. Next to that is the power button that doubles up as a paring control a well. Now, the last thing that deserves a big shout out is battery life, which happens to be a major highlight for these headphones: they will easily last you over 35 hours on a single charge, even with noise cancelling turned on. I mean that is just fantastic for a pair of headphones in this price segment, and while it does take almost 5 hours to charge them fully, just a 10-minute top-up will give you an hour worth of playtime. So, overall I'm very impressed with the Sony WH-CH710N. They're definitely worth a purchase for folks who don’t want to spend over 10,000 Rupees on a pair of headphones. Apart from the 'plasticky' build, there's not a whole lot to complain about here. Sound quality is good, battery life is terrific, noise cancellation works well and they're also very comfortable to wear.

Samsung's first-generation Galaxy buds had three issues - subpar bass output, average battery life&nbsp;and less than impressive call performance. The new Galaxy Buds+, on the other hand, don't face any of those issues. In fact, they&nbsp;happen to be one of the best truly wireless earbuds available right now.&nbsp;
Let's start right off the bat with sound quality.&nbsp;The audio output on the Galaxy Buds+ is impressive, mostly thanks to the new 2-way dynamic speaker system. This means now there's both a tweeter and a woofer inside each earbud,&nbsp;ensuring that genres like Rap, Hip Hop and Metal offer booming bass, punchy&nbsp;lows and clear mids.&nbsp;You can also boost the bass and treble to your liking with the customisable equaliser in the&nbsp;Galaxy Wear app. There are six presets to choose from, but the standard profile is your best choice.&nbsp;
Sadly, the Galaxy Buds+ skip out on Active Noise Cancellation, a feature found on Apple's AirPods Pro. This feels like a missed opportunity,&nbsp;but&nbsp;it's not a deal-breaker as the&nbsp;earbuds&nbsp;are snug enough to&nbsp;passively block&nbsp;most of the outside world. However, if you want to be&nbsp;aware of your surroundings, which is always a good idea, then you can enable the&nbsp;Ambient Sound Mode&nbsp;to allow exterior sound in via the earbuds. It can even be programmed to&nbsp;the touch controls on each earbud.&nbsp;
Talking about touch controls, you can&nbsp;tap either bud to perform various tasks - single tap to play or pause a track, double-tap tp play the next track or answer a call, and triple tap to play&nbsp;the previous track.&nbsp;Meanwhile, long presses are customisable and can be used to control volume levels and&nbsp;summon&nbsp;your phone's voice assistant.&nbsp;
Another noteworthy feature is cross-platform&nbsp;pairing, which means the Galaxy Buds+&nbsp;are Apple friendly&nbsp;and work just fine with an iPhone.&nbsp;
The Galaxy Buds+ look identical to their predecessors, the Galaxy Buds. They share the same shape and look of the old ones, right down to the glossy touch-surface. It seems most of the design changes were made to the pill-shaped charging case, and even those are hardly noticeable. Basically, it looks glossier, and the&nbsp;L &amp; R indicators&nbsp;are now engraved, instead of being printed on the case.&nbsp;
With each earbud weighing just 6.3g,&nbsp;they're hardly a burden to wear, and the in-ear shape offers a secure fit, so you don't&nbsp;have to worry about them accidentally slipping out. Although it does&nbsp;takes a little bit of practice to insert the earbuds without activating the touch panel.&nbsp;
Beyond&nbsp;sound, comfort,&nbsp; and functionality, the most important feature when it comes to true wireless buds is battery life. The Galaxy Buds+ hold their own here with 11 hours from a single charge and a further 11 hours in the charging case &ndash; a total playtime of 22 hours. That's almost an entire day&nbsp;worth and also 5&nbsp; hours more than the 2019&nbsp; Buds model.
The case itself charges through USB C and delivered an hour worth of listening time with a three-minute top-up.&nbsp; Nice!&nbsp;Wireless charging is also available, and if you happen to own a Samsung Galaxy S10 or S20 smartphone, then the case can also be charged through&nbsp;Wireless PowerShare.&nbsp;Alternatively, the case is Qi-certified, so any Qi wireless charging device will do the job.&nbsp;
All in all, the&nbsp;Buds+&nbsp;are a perfect example of a company learning from its past mistakes.&nbsp; Samsung took some things that were a wee bit on the weak side with the original Galaxy buds and improved upon them massively. As a result, you are now being offered far better audio and call quality, and fantastic&nbsp;battery life.&nbsp;
That said, the Galaxy Buds+ aren't perfect, of course.&nbsp;They&nbsp;lack certain high-end audio codecs and don't have&nbsp;proper water-resistance, it's just IPX2.&nbsp;&nbsp;But most annoyingly though, the&nbsp;music doesn't pause when you take an earbud out.&nbsp;That's like a&nbsp; standard feature on most wireless earbuds at this price point.&nbsp;
&nbsp;Still, despite those few blemishes, the Samsung Galaxy&nbsp;Buds+&nbsp;are easy enough to recommend. They're a great option for both Android and iOS users. But just how Apple AirPods work best with an iPhone, the&nbsp;Galaxy&nbsp;Buds+&nbsp;are tailor-made for a Samsung phone.&nbsp;

Samsung's first-generation Galaxy buds had three issues - subpar bass output, average battery life and less than impressive call performance. The new Galaxy Buds+, on the other hand, don't face any of those issues. In fact, they happen to be one of the best truly wireless earbuds available right now. Let's start right off the bat with sound quality. The audio output on the Galaxy Buds+ is impressive, mostly thanks to the new 2-way dynamic speaker system. This means now there's both a tweeter and a woofer inside each earbud, ensuring that genres like Rap, Hip Hop and Metal offer booming bass, punchy lows and clear mids. You can also boost the bass and treble to your liking with the customisable equaliser in the Galaxy Wear app. There are six presets to choose from, but the standard profile is your best choice. Sadly, the Galaxy Buds+ skip out on Active Noise Cancellation, a feature found on Apple's AirPods Pro. This feels like a missed opportunity, but it's not a deal-breaker as the earbuds are snug enough to passively block most of the outside world. However, if you want to be aware of your surroundings, which is always a good idea, then you can enable the Ambient Sound Mode to allow exterior sound in via the earbuds. It can even be programmed to the touch controls on each earbud. Talking about touch controls, you can tap either bud to perform various tasks - single tap to play or pause a track, double-tap tp play the next track or answer a call, and triple tap to play the previous track. Meanwhile, long presses are customisable and can be used to control volume levels and summon your phone's voice assistant. Another noteworthy feature is cross-platform pairing, which means the Galaxy Buds+ are Apple friendly and work just fine with an iPhone. The Galaxy Buds+ look identical to their predecessors, the Galaxy Buds. They share the same shape and look of the old ones, right down to the glossy touch-surface. It seems most of the design changes were made to the pill-shaped charging case, and even those are hardly noticeable. Basically, it looks glossier, and the L & R indicators are now engraved, instead of being printed on the case. With each earbud weighing just 6.3g, they're hardly a burden to wear, and the in-ear shape offers a secure fit, so you don't have to worry about them accidentally slipping out. Although it does takes a little bit of practice to insert the earbuds without activating the touch panel. Beyond sound, comfort, and functionality, the most important feature when it comes to true wireless buds is battery life. The Galaxy Buds+ hold their own here with 11 hours from a single charge and a further 11 hours in the charging case – a total playtime of 22 hours. That's almost an entire day worth and also 5 hours more than the 2019 Buds model. The case itself charges through USB C and delivered an hour worth of listening time with a three-minute top-up. Nice! Wireless charging is also available, and if you happen to own a Samsung Galaxy S10 or S20 smartphone, then the case can also be charged through Wireless PowerShare. Alternatively, the case is Qi-certified, so any Qi wireless charging device will do the job. All in all, the Buds+ are a perfect example of a company learning from its past mistakes. Samsung took some things that were a wee bit on the weak side with the original Galaxy buds and improved upon them massively. As a result, you are now being offered far better audio and call quality, and fantastic battery life. That said, the Galaxy Buds+ aren't perfect, of course. They lack certain high-end audio codecs and don't have proper water-resistance, it's just IPX2. But most annoyingly though, the music doesn't pause when you take an earbud out. That's like a standard feature on most wireless earbuds at this price point. Still, despite those few blemishes, the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ are easy enough to recommend. They're a great option for both Android and iOS users. But just how Apple AirPods work best with an iPhone, the Galaxy Buds+ are tailor-made for a Samsung phone.

A triple camera setup.
A 5,000 mAh battery.
A beautiful 6.5-inch display.
No, these specs aren&rsquo;t from a flagship smartphone. In fact, they don&rsquo;t even belong to a mid-range device. This, and more, is everything you get with the new Moto G8 Power Lite.
Motorola&rsquo;s G8 series is known for providing good value for money, and this new G8 Power Lite certainly abides by that philosophy. It gets a lot of things right, and beats out competition from the likes of the recently introduced Realme Narzo 10A. Right off the bat, compared to the Narzo, the G8 Power Lite has better cameras, more RAM and an OS experience that&rsquo;s near stock-Android without a single ad. All that makes it a foolproof choice already, but let&rsquo;s go through what the G8 Power Lite does offer, and how it performs.
At first glance, the G8 Power Lite looks quite modern, with the way its triple cameras at the back are positioned, with the main sensor set apart. It&rsquo;s a nice touch as compared to other phones in the market that have very similarly designed camera arrays. The phone is made of plastic, which isn&rsquo;t surprising at this price point. However, Motorola&rsquo;s done a good job with the gradient offered on this Royal Blue colour and how the phone feels in the hand&mdash;both of which give it the sense of being a more expensive device than it actually is. The phone also offers a water repellent design, which means it's protected against the odd splashes of rain and there&rsquo;s also a fingerprint scanner on the back with the Motorola logo, so no need to fiddle with pattern locks.&nbsp;&nbsp;You&rsquo;ll notice the speaker at the bottom of the back panel, slightly odd positioning. If you&rsquo;re worried it&rsquo;ll get blocked off when placed down, Motorola has thoughtfully included a small dimple in the middle that keeps it raised. Moreover, the company has of a w included a plastic case and a screen guard in the box itself!
On the front, you&rsquo;ll see the large 6.5-inch Max Vision HD+ 20:9 IPS LCD display that clocks in at 720 x 1600p resolution. There's also a U-shaped notch in the centre. For a phone that costs as little as this one does, the display is actually pretty great. Colours are vibrant enough, without being too punchy, and quite good for a non-OLED panel. You can&rsquo;t even notice the pixel resolution until you really zoom in, so for normal content watching purposes, it&rsquo;s absolutely fine. It gets fairly bright too, even when being viewed from the side, so that&rsquo;s a major plus.
The cameras on the back of the Moto G8 Power Lite are in a triple sensor array, with a 16MP primary sensor, 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor. That&rsquo;s better than most of its competition, and it&rsquo;s a respectably strong performer. In good lighting conditions, it takes sharp pictures with good colours that belie its price point. In lower lighting conditions, there&rsquo;s noticeable grain and a lack of sharpness. The macro sensor is alright too, and even though you can&rsquo;t get super close to subjects, the results are decent. However, it&rsquo;s evident that the main wide sensor is the star of the show.
The selfie camera is an 8MP sensor, which takes clear selfies, but struggles with edge detection for portrait shots. It&rsquo;s expected though, with this being a single sensor setup and AI doing most of the heavy lifting.
On the plus side, Motorola has done well to include all these modes in their budget offering, and it makes the phone a more well-rounded product. Plus, the 64GB of onboard storage means you can take a whole lot of pictures without having to worry about running out of space. However, if you feel the need for extra space, then the storage is expandable up to 256GB through microSD card.
Now that we&rsquo;ve covered the outside, let&rsquo;s get to the insides. The Moto G8 Power Lite runs on the MediaTek Helio P35 chipset, with 4GB of RAM. That may not sound like a total powerhouse, but it&rsquo;s worth mentioning that this setup actually provided very playable results on graphic intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile, without any major frame drops or lag. Is this an ideal setup for a budget gamer? No. But you can definitely get a more than usable gaming experience, at least good enough to blame your own skills at the game, if you do badly!
There&rsquo;s a large 5,000 mAh battery powering the Moto G8 Power Lite, which will easily get you through the day with very heavy usage, and even more, if you&rsquo;re frugal. It takes a while to top up - zero to full is going to take over 2 hours on an average with 10W charging speeds,&nbsp;&nbsp;but the huge battery means you won't need to charge it too often. Also, the phone charges via micro-USB, and Type-C would have been a great addition at this budget price point. Still, there&rsquo;s a headphone jack on the top, which is always welcome on smartphones in 2020.
Motorola has bundled the G8 Power Lite with Android 9, which doesn&rsquo;t sound great in 2020, but they have promised that the phone will receive the Android 10 update in the near future. The experience is near stock-Android, so that&rsquo;s always a bonus, and the phone breezes through everyday tasks and multitasking. A slight disappointment is the lack of navigational gestures and a proper dark mode, but those will likely be coming with that Android 10 update. Still, you can enable this somewhat dark theme from the settings menu.
Being a Motorola phone, there's plenty of Moto Actions Gestures to choose from as well. For example, shake the phone twice, and the flashlight turns on, a great little feature for when you&rsquo;re stuck in the dark. But all this aside, the Moto G8 Power Lite really does give you a bang for your buck. Camera performance is strong, daily tasks are easily executed, and when needed, there&rsquo;s enough grunt for a bit of gaming too. The display is very good for an LCD panel, and the design helps the whole package stand apart from the competition. So if you&rsquo;re looking for a smartphone that checks all these boxes at Rs. 8,999, look no further&mdash;the Moto G8 Power Lite is the one to beat.

A triple camera setup. A 5,000 mAh battery. A beautiful 6.5-inch display. No, these specs aren’t from a flagship smartphone. In fact, they don’t even belong to a mid-range device. This, and more, is everything you get with the new Moto G8 Power Lite. Motorola’s G8 series is known for providing good value for money, and this new G8 Power Lite certainly abides by that philosophy. It gets a lot of things right, and beats out competition from the likes of the recently introduced Realme Narzo 10A. Right off the bat, compared to the Narzo, the G8 Power Lite has better cameras, more RAM and an OS experience that’s near stock-Android without a single ad. All that makes it a foolproof choice already, but let’s go through what the G8 Power Lite does offer, and how it performs. At first glance, the G8 Power Lite looks quite modern, with the way its triple cameras at the back are positioned, with the main sensor set apart. It’s a nice touch as compared to other phones in the market that have very similarly designed camera arrays. The phone is made of plastic, which isn’t surprising at this price point. However, Motorola’s done a good job with the gradient offered on this Royal Blue colour and how the phone feels in the hand—both of which give it the sense of being a more expensive device than it actually is. The phone also offers a water repellent design, which means it's protected against the odd splashes of rain and there’s also a fingerprint scanner on the back with the Motorola logo, so no need to fiddle with pattern locks. You’ll notice the speaker at the bottom of the back panel, slightly odd positioning. If you’re worried it’ll get blocked off when placed down, Motorola has thoughtfully included a small dimple in the middle that keeps it raised. Moreover, the company has of a w included a plastic case and a screen guard in the box itself! On the front, you’ll see the large 6.5-inch Max Vision HD+ 20:9 IPS LCD display that clocks in at 720 x 1600p resolution. There's also a U-shaped notch in the centre. For a phone that costs as little as this one does, the display is actually pretty great. Colours are vibrant enough, without being too punchy, and quite good for a non-OLED panel. You can’t even notice the pixel resolution until you really zoom in, so for normal content watching purposes, it’s absolutely fine. It gets fairly bright too, even when being viewed from the side, so that’s a major plus. The cameras on the back of the Moto G8 Power Lite are in a triple sensor array, with a 16MP primary sensor, 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor. That’s better than most of its competition, and it’s a respectably strong performer. In good lighting conditions, it takes sharp pictures with good colours that belie its price point. In lower lighting conditions, there’s noticeable grain and a lack of sharpness. The macro sensor is alright too, and even though you can’t get super close to subjects, the results are decent. However, it’s evident that the main wide sensor is the star of the show. The selfie camera is an 8MP sensor, which takes clear selfies, but struggles with edge detection for portrait shots. It’s expected though, with this being a single sensor setup and AI doing most of the heavy lifting. On the plus side, Motorola has done well to include all these modes in their budget offering, and it makes the phone a more well-rounded product. Plus, the 64GB of onboard storage means you can take a whole lot of pictures without having to worry about running out of space. However, if you feel the need for extra space, then the storage is expandable up to 256GB through microSD card. Now that we’ve covered the outside, let’s get to the insides. The Moto G8 Power Lite runs on the MediaTek Helio P35 chipset, with 4GB of RAM. That may not sound like a total powerhouse, but it’s worth mentioning that this setup actually provided very playable results on graphic intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile, without any major frame drops or lag. Is this an ideal setup for a budget gamer? No. But you can definitely get a more than usable gaming experience, at least good enough to blame your own skills at the game, if you do badly! There’s a large 5,000 mAh battery powering the Moto G8 Power Lite, which will easily get you through the day with very heavy usage, and even more, if you’re frugal. It takes a while to top up - zero to full is going to take over 2 hours on an average with 10W charging speeds, but the huge battery means you won't need to charge it too often. Also, the phone charges via micro-USB, and Type-C would have been a great addition at this budget price point. Still, there’s a headphone jack on the top, which is always welcome on smartphones in 2020. Motorola has bundled the G8 Power Lite with Android 9, which doesn’t sound great in 2020, but they have promised that the phone will receive the Android 10 update in the near future. The experience is near stock-Android, so that’s always a bonus, and the phone breezes through everyday tasks and multitasking. A slight disappointment is the lack of navigational gestures and a proper dark mode, but those will likely be coming with that Android 10 update. Still, you can enable this somewhat dark theme from the settings menu. Being a Motorola phone, there's plenty of Moto Actions Gestures to choose from as well. For example, shake the phone twice, and the flashlight turns on, a great little feature for when you’re stuck in the dark. But all this aside, the Moto G8 Power Lite really does give you a bang for your buck. Camera performance is strong, daily tasks are easily executed, and when needed, there’s enough grunt for a bit of gaming too. The display is very good for an LCD panel, and the design helps the whole package stand apart from the competition. So if you’re looking for a smartphone that checks all these boxes at Rs. 8,999, look no further—the Moto G8 Power Lite is the one to beat.

It&rsquo;s been over 9 months since Samsung introduced the Galaxy M30s. With a 6,000 mAh battery, a Samsung OLED panel and a triple camera setup at around ₹15k, it was an instant hit. Now, it seems Samsung wants to recreate the same magic with the new Samsung Galaxy M21. In fact, there&rsquo;s quite a lot of similarities between the M30s and this new M21. I think the only thing I could tell that was different between the two is the front camera, colour options and Android 10 on the M21--that&rsquo;s about it. Everything else seems to be exactly the same.
Display?
Same 6.4&rdquo; super AMOLED&nbsp;FHD+ screen with Widevine L1 certification and beautiful colours, far better than what the competition has to offer at this price point.
Chipset?
Again, the same Exynos 9611 that&rsquo;s feeling a tad underpowered in 2020, but we&rsquo;ll get to that in a bit.
Rear cameras?
Exactly the same sensors and arrangement&mdash;48MP triple camera setup with a wide lens, ultra wide lens and depth sensor.
The batteries on both are also the same 6,000 mAh giants which are painfully slow to charge with the bundled 15W adapters, the weight is the same 188g and even the structure of the phones are identical, save for the far nicer colour option on the M30s.
All this begs the simple question&mdash;why?
Well, let&rsquo;s go through how my experience with the M21 was, and see if it helps get us to an answer.
The M21 is housed in a plastic body, and in this glossy black variant, it attracts a lot of scratches, so if you wanna take care of it, you&rsquo;d best buy a case for it. There&rsquo;s a physical fingerprint sensor on the back, which is just as quick as always, but with more smartphone makers opting for a side-mounted scanner, it would&rsquo;ve been nice to see one here too.
Like I said, the display is gorgeous, great colours and good resolution. It&rsquo;s perfect for binge-watching Netflix and let&rsquo;s be real&mdash;that&rsquo;s all anyone is doing these days with the lockdown.
On that depressing note, let&rsquo;s move on to the chipset&mdash;the Exynos 9611 wasn&rsquo;t smashing records in 2019, and it certainly isn&rsquo;t doing much better in 2020, but to be fair, it holds its own while gaming on even the 4GB RAM model as long as you don&rsquo;t play on high graphic settings. There&rsquo;s also Samsung&rsquo;s gaming mode which is awesome, it lets you block incoming notifications and calls, and even access a few functions like the dialer in a minimised screen, pretty nifty!
Speaking of nifty, the rear camera setup is a 48MP wide sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. I didn&rsquo;t hate pictures on the M30s, but Samsung&rsquo;s definitely done a much better job of image processing on the M21. I said the same about the M31&mdash;I feel like when it comes to budget phones, the M series is really pushing the envelope and delivering results I would expect from phones that cost more than twice as much as these.
If you&rsquo;re looking for detail, the 48MP photo mode has plenty. If you&rsquo;re looking for bokeh, the depth sensor&rsquo;s got you covered. And if you&rsquo;re looking for vast ultra-wide shots, that finally don&rsquo;t look like they&rsquo;ve been taken with a completely different phone, the M21 will deliver. Colours are great, details are rich and depth in close up shots is surprisingly good, without the need for a macro sensor. There&rsquo;s even a Super Steady Mode for videos that&rsquo;s great if you&rsquo;re an amateur filmmaker on a tight budget.
Low light photography is the one place this phone is lacking, despite the dedicated Night mode. Pictures in semi-darkness have quite a bit of grain, despite strong image processing. I know that doesn&rsquo;t sound great, but for me personally, that isn&rsquo;t a deal-breaker, especially when I consider the price and how infrequently I take shots in the dark. Still, it&rsquo;s always nice to have that ability in the arsenal, and that&rsquo;s the one spot on an otherwise polished product.
The front camera is a 20MP sensor, and it&rsquo;s portrait selfies are how you&rsquo;d expect them to be&mdash;well processed but a bit iffy on the edge detection, a perennial problem with single sensors on the front that some brands are now remedying with dual hole-punches.
Now before I forget, there&rsquo;s a USB Type-C port, a single bottom firing speaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack, so no surprises there.
The main upgrade however, over the M30s is with Android 10, and Samsung&rsquo;s One UI 2.0. It&rsquo;s easily one of my favourite skins out there, alongside Oxygen OS on the OnePlus series. It&rsquo;s got clean gesture navigation, an easily-accessible dark mode that looks great with the OLED screen, and the added promise that it&rsquo;ll last one year longer than the M30s when it comes to software updates. That 4GB RAM I mentioned keeps the experience surprisingly smooth, although you may get better results from the 6GB RAM model, including better multitasking and gaming.
So let&rsquo;s review&mdash;what&rsquo;s the point of the M21, when you consider the extremely similar M30s, and even the new M31, which is more or less the same as this phone, except for the camera hardware? I think it&rsquo;s just Samsung flexing&mdash;showing off how much more muscle they&rsquo;ve got in the market compared to their competition.
The Galaxy M21 carries on the legacy of the M series, with much better camera quality and Android 10 being brought to the table, at a starting price of ₹13,199. The 6GB RAM 128GB model will cost you a bit more at ₹15,499, but it&rsquo;s still a solid deal for a phone that offers a beautiful screen, a great big swinging battery life, and strong camera performance&mdash;the perfect recipe for a good daily driver.

It’s been over 9 months since Samsung introduced the Galaxy M30s. With a 6,000 mAh battery, a Samsung OLED panel and a triple camera setup at around ₹15k, it was an instant hit. Now, it seems Samsung wants to recreate the same magic with the new Samsung Galaxy M21. In fact, there’s quite a lot of similarities between the M30s and this new M21. I think the only thing I could tell that was different between the two is the front camera, colour options and Android 10 on the M21--that’s about it. Everything else seems to be exactly the same. Display? Same 6.4” super AMOLED FHD+ screen with Widevine L1 certification and beautiful colours, far better than what the competition has to offer at this price point. Chipset? Again, the same Exynos 9611 that’s feeling a tad underpowered in 2020, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Rear cameras? Exactly the same sensors and arrangement—48MP triple camera setup with a wide lens, ultra wide lens and depth sensor. The batteries on both are also the same 6,000 mAh giants which are painfully slow to charge with the bundled 15W adapters, the weight is the same 188g and even the structure of the phones are identical, save for the far nicer colour option on the M30s. All this begs the simple question—why? Well, let’s go through how my experience with the M21 was, and see if it helps get us to an answer. The M21 is housed in a plastic body, and in this glossy black variant, it attracts a lot of scratches, so if you wanna take care of it, you’d best buy a case for it. There’s a physical fingerprint sensor on the back, which is just as quick as always, but with more smartphone makers opting for a side-mounted scanner, it would’ve been nice to see one here too. Like I said, the display is gorgeous, great colours and good resolution. It’s perfect for binge-watching Netflix and let’s be real—that’s all anyone is doing these days with the lockdown. On that depressing note, let’s move on to the chipset—the Exynos 9611 wasn’t smashing records in 2019, and it certainly isn’t doing much better in 2020, but to be fair, it holds its own while gaming on even the 4GB RAM model as long as you don’t play on high graphic settings. There’s also Samsung’s gaming mode which is awesome, it lets you block incoming notifications and calls, and even access a few functions like the dialer in a minimised screen, pretty nifty! Speaking of nifty, the rear camera setup is a 48MP wide sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. I didn’t hate pictures on the M30s, but Samsung’s definitely done a much better job of image processing on the M21. I said the same about the M31—I feel like when it comes to budget phones, the M series is really pushing the envelope and delivering results I would expect from phones that cost more than twice as much as these. If you’re looking for detail, the 48MP photo mode has plenty. If you’re looking for bokeh, the depth sensor’s got you covered. And if you’re looking for vast ultra-wide shots, that finally don’t look like they’ve been taken with a completely different phone, the M21 will deliver. Colours are great, details are rich and depth in close up shots is surprisingly good, without the need for a macro sensor. There’s even a Super Steady Mode for videos that’s great if you’re an amateur filmmaker on a tight budget. Low light photography is the one place this phone is lacking, despite the dedicated Night mode. Pictures in semi-darkness have quite a bit of grain, despite strong image processing. I know that doesn’t sound great, but for me personally, that isn’t a deal-breaker, especially when I consider the price and how infrequently I take shots in the dark. Still, it’s always nice to have that ability in the arsenal, and that’s the one spot on an otherwise polished product. The front camera is a 20MP sensor, and it’s portrait selfies are how you’d expect them to be—well processed but a bit iffy on the edge detection, a perennial problem with single sensors on the front that some brands are now remedying with dual hole-punches. Now before I forget, there’s a USB Type-C port, a single bottom firing speaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack, so no surprises there. The main upgrade however, over the M30s is with Android 10, and Samsung’s One UI 2.0. It’s easily one of my favourite skins out there, alongside Oxygen OS on the OnePlus series. It’s got clean gesture navigation, an easily-accessible dark mode that looks great with the OLED screen, and the added promise that it’ll last one year longer than the M30s when it comes to software updates. That 4GB RAM I mentioned keeps the experience surprisingly smooth, although you may get better results from the 6GB RAM model, including better multitasking and gaming. So let’s review—what’s the point of the M21, when you consider the extremely similar M30s, and even the new M31, which is more or less the same as this phone, except for the camera hardware? I think it’s just Samsung flexing—showing off how much more muscle they’ve got in the market compared to their competition. The Galaxy M21 carries on the legacy of the M series, with much better camera quality and Android 10 being brought to the table, at a starting price of ₹13,199. The 6GB RAM 128GB model will cost you a bit more at ₹15,499, but it’s still a solid deal for a phone that offers a beautiful screen, a great big swinging battery life, and strong camera performance—the perfect recipe for a good daily driver.

Vivo kicked off 2020 in India with the S1 Pro, a mid-ranger with strong camera performance, and a rather quirky design.&nbsp;
Now with their post-lockdown contender, the Vivo V19, there's a lot that's different, and there's some that remains the same.
The first thing you'll notice about the V19 is the display, and more specifically, the selfie cameras embedded in the display. Vivo has done away with the notch and opted for a pill-shaped hole punch, with an added extra sensor for better images from the front camera system. It's a vibrant super AMOLED display that gets fairly bright, and features a 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution. The 20:9 aspect ratio display provides a good amount of screen real estate, but it's worth noting that if you want apps like Netflix to display content in full screen, you'll have to change the default settings. Now there's no 90Hz or 120Hz high refresh rate here, it's just your standard 60Hz screen. The reason for that most likely, is that Vivo hasn't engineered this phone only towards gamers like they've done in the past, but to a different, more photo-savvy market.
 There's more proof of this when you take a look at the chipset--the Vivo V19 runs on the Snapdragon 712 with the Adreno 616 GPU, which is just about enough for a phone at this price point. That's not to say that this chipset isn't good for gamers--it was marketed as a mid-range gaming processor on phones like the Vivo Z1 Pro in 2019, but in 2020 it seems to be a bit under-powered compared to the likes of the Snapdragon 730. While it's definitely not breaking any benchmark records, it does get the job done. That means you can play PUBG Mobile with the settings turned to High graphics, but there are going to be noticeable frame drops every now and then. However, the 8GB RAM is ample enough to keep things running smoothly for the most part.
The consumer Vivo has aimed at with the V19 is the photography enthusiast, and on that front, there's quite a lot to like. The rear camera system gets a 48MP primary sensor, joined by an 8MP ultrawide lens and two sensors for macro and depth photography, both with 2MP sensors each. It seems to be the same system from the S1 Pro, but the V19 has the added ability of being able to shoot video in 4K at up to 60fps, albeit without optical image stabilisation, which would've been a nice bonus.
Pictures taken with the V19 are well processed for a Vivo phone, with good dynamic range and frames with both light and dark areas being managed quite well. The ultrawide sensor is a strong performer, with minimal distortion and unlike other smartphone makers, there's no aggressive vivid colour profile added to images. That means there's no stark difference between pictures taken with the regular wide sensor and the ultrawide one. The Super Macro mode is fairly decent and captures a good amount of detail, even if the colours are a bit lacking. The dedicated Night Mode works pretty well too, and boosts the sharpness and exposure in low light scenarios without adding a whole lot of grain. Overall, images taken with this device are consistently good, and the main sensor even manages to capture some decent depth when put together with the 2MP dedicated sensor.
Speaking of depth, the 32MP+8MP dual sensor setup on the front lets you take portrait selfies, and where most single sensor modules struggle with edge detection through AI, the V19 does a good job of detecting depth with the front facing cameras. A nifty feature of the front camera is the ultrawide selfie, which is useful if you're trying to capture more in your frame.
On the design front, the phone is simple enough, and doesn't come with any unique charm phones like the S1 Pro carry, which isn't to say it looks bad. We received the more muted Piano Black variant, but if you're looking for something a little flashy, Vivo offers a Mystic Silver variant, that throws up all kinds of pretty colours and reflections.
When it comes to utility, there's a headphone jack here, USB Type-C charging and a bottom-firing speaker. It's worth noting though, that it's not a dual stereo speaker setup, so if you're playing games, you may want to plug in a headset. There is a large 4,500 mAh battery however, with 33W fast charging, which gets from 0 to over 50% in around half an hour. An in-display fingerprint scanner has been made available which isn't as fast as the physical scanners Vivo has used previously, but it gets the job done.
The phone runs Android 10 with Vivo's Funtouch OS on top, which while not the best experience, is a definite improvement over past iterations of the skin. Features like Dark Mode are handy, as is the Ultra Game Mode, that can block notifications and free up RAM from background tasks to provide more punch to the gaming experience.
To sum up, the Vivo V19 looks like a bit of a mixed bag at ₹27,990 for its 128GB storage model, especially if you compare it with cheaper devices from Poco, Xiaomi and Realme that pack more specifications. Vivo, however, seems to placing its bets on the TikTok and Instagram generation that will most definitely appreciate the image quality from both the front and back cameras. While it may not have a top-tier chipset or insanely fast refresh rates, the phone is what Vivo makes best--a good all rounder, for a price that doesn't break the bank.

Vivo kicked off 2020 in India with the S1 Pro, a mid-ranger with strong camera performance, and a rather quirky design. Now with their post-lockdown contender, the Vivo V19, there's a lot that's different, and there's some that remains the same. The first thing you'll notice about the V19 is the display, and more specifically, the selfie cameras embedded in the display. Vivo has done away with the notch and opted for a pill-shaped hole punch, with an added extra sensor for better images from the front camera system. It's a vibrant super AMOLED display that gets fairly bright, and features a 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution. The 20:9 aspect ratio display provides a good amount of screen real estate, but it's worth noting that if you want apps like Netflix to display content in full screen, you'll have to change the default settings. Now there's no 90Hz or 120Hz high refresh rate here, it's just your standard 60Hz screen. The reason for that most likely, is that Vivo hasn't engineered this phone only towards gamers like they've done in the past, but to a different, more photo-savvy market. There's more proof of this when you take a look at the chipset--the Vivo V19 runs on the Snapdragon 712 with the Adreno 616 GPU, which is just about enough for a phone at this price point. That's not to say that this chipset isn't good for gamers--it was marketed as a mid-range gaming processor on phones like the Vivo Z1 Pro in 2019, but in 2020 it seems to be a bit under-powered compared to the likes of the Snapdragon 730. While it's definitely not breaking any benchmark records, it does get the job done. That means you can play PUBG Mobile with the settings turned to High graphics, but there are going to be noticeable frame drops every now and then. However, the 8GB RAM is ample enough to keep things running smoothly for the most part. The consumer Vivo has aimed at with the V19 is the photography enthusiast, and on that front, there's quite a lot to like. The rear camera system gets a 48MP primary sensor, joined by an 8MP ultrawide lens and two sensors for macro and depth photography, both with 2MP sensors each. It seems to be the same system from the S1 Pro, but the V19 has the added ability of being able to shoot video in 4K at up to 60fps, albeit without optical image stabilisation, which would've been a nice bonus. Pictures taken with the V19 are well processed for a Vivo phone, with good dynamic range and frames with both light and dark areas being managed quite well. The ultrawide sensor is a strong performer, with minimal distortion and unlike other smartphone makers, there's no aggressive vivid colour profile added to images. That means there's no stark difference between pictures taken with the regular wide sensor and the ultrawide one. The Super Macro mode is fairly decent and captures a good amount of detail, even if the colours are a bit lacking. The dedicated Night Mode works pretty well too, and boosts the sharpness and exposure in low light scenarios without adding a whole lot of grain. Overall, images taken with this device are consistently good, and the main sensor even manages to capture some decent depth when put together with the 2MP dedicated sensor. Speaking of depth, the 32MP+8MP dual sensor setup on the front lets you take portrait selfies, and where most single sensor modules struggle with edge detection through AI, the V19 does a good job of detecting depth with the front facing cameras. A nifty feature of the front camera is the ultrawide selfie, which is useful if you're trying to capture more in your frame. On the design front, the phone is simple enough, and doesn't come with any unique charm phones like the S1 Pro carry, which isn't to say it looks bad. We received the more muted Piano Black variant, but if you're looking for something a little flashy, Vivo offers a Mystic Silver variant, that throws up all kinds of pretty colours and reflections. When it comes to utility, there's a headphone jack here, USB Type-C charging and a bottom-firing speaker. It's worth noting though, that it's not a dual stereo speaker setup, so if you're playing games, you may want to plug in a headset. There is a large 4,500 mAh battery however, with 33W fast charging, which gets from 0 to over 50% in around half an hour. An in-display fingerprint scanner has been made available which isn't as fast as the physical scanners Vivo has used previously, but it gets the job done. The phone runs Android 10 with Vivo's Funtouch OS on top, which while not the best experience, is a definite improvement over past iterations of the skin. Features like Dark Mode are handy, as is the Ultra Game Mode, that can block notifications and free up RAM from background tasks to provide more punch to the gaming experience. To sum up, the Vivo V19 looks like a bit of a mixed bag at ₹27,990 for its 128GB storage model, especially if you compare it with cheaper devices from Poco, Xiaomi and Realme that pack more specifications. Vivo, however, seems to placing its bets on the TikTok and Instagram generation that will most definitely appreciate the image quality from both the front and back cameras. While it may not have a top-tier chipset or insanely fast refresh rates, the phone is what Vivo makes best--a good all rounder, for a price that doesn't break the bank.

On the very first episode of the EJ Tech Show, Sahil and Sohum check out the new OnePlus 8 Pro. With top of the line specifications, and a price tag to match, it looks more flagship than flagship killer! Is it the perfect OnePlus recipe we've all been waiting for? Along with that, the boys review the newly launched Sony WF-XB700 truly wireless earbuds. With an enticing price point and a heady rush of Extra Bass technology, they just might be the next best hands-free contenders.

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