Toshiba Excite 13: The Biggest Tablet in Review

It is a matter of discussion that how big or how small a tablet should be, in other words what exactly the right size for tablet is. All the way from 7 inches to 10.5 inches there are different sizes of tablets in the market. And now, the Japanese tech conglomerateToshiba has raided the market with a 13.3 inch monster named Toshiba Excite 13.

The users will eventually decide whether the idea of the bigger the better goes true in the case of Toshiba Excite 13 or not. The device is marketed as a $650 device that is, “ideally suited for the home use”.

Your first glimpse of the tablet might tell you that Toshiba has taken a cue from Samsung’s Galaxy Note and gone for the bigger size of the handset.

Tech specs of the Toshiba Excite 13

In spite of the mammoth size of the body the handset weighs just 2.2 pounds, though that weight is a little too much for long time usage. The 13.3 inch LED backlit display has a 1600x900 pixel resolution, which is a great thing for such a humongous screensize. Just above the screen a 2MP camera sits pretty and on the back side of the body a 5MP camera with LED flash adds glitter to glory.

The device comes with a 32 GB onboard memory. And for those who believe in mega storage options there is a microSD card slot as well to enhance the already huge storage capacity. In the processor segment the device has  Nvidia Tegra 3, which happens to be a quad core one the processor is well complimented by a 1GB RAM.

If we turn our heed towards the OS of the handset it has got the latest and the best Android till date – the IceCream Sandwich 4.0.

The Verdict

The high point of the device is, without doubt, its superfast quad core processor and the ICS OS. And the low point (somewhat low) is the mammoth size of the body, which at times will become too much to handle. But all in all it is a good device, no doubt. For me, Toshiba Excite 13 is a worthwhile thing. 

Google to Announce Nexus 7 Tablet & Jelly Bean, the Latest Android OS

With the beginning of Google’s I/O conference the rumors about the next version of ICS has started to get thicker by every passing minute. According to some concrete sources the name of the OS will be Jelly Bean and it will be announced towards the end of the conference. Though, it is not a proper surety that whether it will be an Android 4.1 or Android 5.0, but that is only playing with numbers.


Knowledgeable readers should know that the newer versions of the Android OS has always been named after edible delicacies, all the way from Angel Cake to Battenberg to Cupcake to Donut to Eclair to Froyo to Gingerbread to Honeycomb to IceCream Sandwich and now it is Jelly Bean, another sweet savory. 

At the present moment the features are not conspicuous enough but it is being conjectured that in order to pose some serious competition to Apple’s SIRI Google is expected to sport something akin to the said voice assistant. The voice recognition software project has officially been codenamed the Project Majel.

There are reports that the Jelly Bean will bring with it the final version of the Google Chrome for Android devices which has been in the beta state for quite some time now.

One more thing that is raising a number of eyebrows is Google’s plans to unveil a $199 tablet in association with Taiwanese tech giant ASUS (which itself has some reputation in the tablet world). The Tablet is expected to be called the Nexus 7.

The 7 inch tablet will sport a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad core processor, GeForce 12-core GPU and 1GB of RAM with two different storage variants: 8GB and 16GB. The Nexus 7 will also be sporting NFC and Android Beam.

There are some more things to be expected let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for things to happen. Adios.

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Xolo X900: Review

Spice Stellar Mi-425: Review, Tech Specs, and First Impression

       

Xolo X900: Review

Xolo X900, world’s first Android smartphone powered by Intel Atom processor is all about style and performance. Combining Intel’s cutting-edge technology, the phone has been designed to provide a responsive, immersive, and engaging experience to address the needs of a dynamic smartphone for brisk lifestyle. 

Design

Packed in an elegant unibody plastic chassis with rubberized back panel, Xolo X900 gives premium feel in hand and offers good grip in all weather. It has a toned flat body from all sides and this is why it is compared with iPhone.  It sports a 4.03 inch display with a bezel on sides. On the front, just above the display, there is a front camera and a silver colored speaker while below the display are four touch sensitive keys – Back, Option, Home, and Search. MicroHDMI finds its position on the left side of the body and right side homes volume control keys, micro SIM slot, and a camera shutter key. Audio jack and power key hold position on the top side. On the back of the phone, you will see an 8MP camera with LED flash on the top, Xolo in the middle, and ‘Inetl inside’ logo at the bottom. Definitely, Xolo X900 is a compulsive choice!

Features

Hardware

Homing Intel Atom 1.6 GHz single core processor, 400MHz PowerVR SGX540 GPU, and 1GB dual channel memory, Intel Atom Processor Z2460 provides an ideal platform for the device. 

Software

Android Gingerbread, v2.3 comes boarded on the device while it can be upgraded to Android v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). 

Performance

Xolo X900 offers quite an impressive performance. Its single core Intel Atom processor with Hyper-Threading promises a better speed than dual core processor in many smartphones currently available in market. The smooth responsiveness of OS in term of loading apps and multitasking is appreciable. Thanks to the background processor for no delay in performance and make the brand stand straight on promise “BLINK AND IT’S DONE”. However, when it comes to graphic performance, Xolo X900 is poor! As per afore mentioned spec sheet, the gaming performance of device is not fulfilling the expectation. Finally, Xolo X900 is NOT for gamers. 

Power package is not impressive! The phone heats up when stressing task is done such as playing game and browsing web. Along with the discomfort that the heating of the phone poses, annoyance gets doubled with the arising need of frequent charging.  Battery life is a huge disappointment. Literally, you cannot expect your phone to breathe the whole day with single charging. You have to carry the adapter wherever you go. Battery sucks! Xolo fails in power management. 

With 1024x600 pixels, the 4.03 inch screen gives crisper and clearer resolution. No complaint! However, a weak viewing angle is somewhat annoying. 

In term of UI, Xolo X900 is winner. Navigating the phone is quite simple. Xolo has wisely wrapped around Android and produced a user-friendly UI. 

On software side, Xolo X900 is unexpectedly disappointing. It boards Android Gingerbread OS and everybody out was waiting for ICS, the latest Android OS. However, with a promise to upgrade the device to Android ICS, Xolo X900 is trying its level best not to lose customers!

The 8MP camera should have been more brilliant. You won’t experience any oomph factor in the images captured from this so called 8MP camera. The camera is not for indoor photography.  However, images captured in good light have a decent amount of depth and considerable crispness. As expected, video quality is equally poor with lack of crispness. Also the video capturing speed is not acceptable. 

Final judgment

Bearing a price tag of Rs 25999 and retailing in India market at Rs. 23,000, Xolo X900 is not a bad phone at all, especially considering the performance of the Intel Atom processor. Unfortunately, the phone as a package is not compulsive, but if you are in the market for an Android smartphone in this price range, the Xolo X900 is one among the best options.

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Microsoft's Surface Tablet: Images and First Impression

The numero-uno tech conglomerate Microsoft took veils off two high quality tablets a few days ago. The tablets will appear on the retail shelves as Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows Pro. With the announcement of the surface series the market is brimming with the speculation that Microsoft has some concrete intentions of giving the tablet king Apple a fair run for the money. Let’s find out whether these tablets are really that good or it is all mere marketing hue and cry.

I want to clarify that the Surface for Windows RT is going to be the tab, which will function with Nvidia’s ARM devices inside and the other tab, the Surface for Windows Pro will do the same with Intel products.

Surface for Windows RT will be 9.3mm in thickness and will weigh around 676g whereas the other tab will be a little thicker and little heavier at 13.3mm and 903g. Both the tablets will be having a 10.6 inch screen, which will be Clear type HD display one.

The Surface RT will be hitting the market with two memory avatars: 32GB and 64 GB, whereas the Surface for Windows Pro will appear with 64GB and 128 GB versions. Surface RT will sport a USB 2.0 connectivity while the Pro will don USB 3.0.

Both of them will be able to stand on their own with the help of the kickstand that the makers have given them. At the present moment there is no info available about the processor specifications of either of the tablets. The fact about the tabs being able to run the full desktop version of the Windows 8 OS is still in ambiguity.

Though the full spec sheet is not in the day light but what appears from the first few glances, it seems to be a liable case for a global market super hit. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for the fall to come.  

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Spice Mi-425 vs Karbonn A9 : A comparison

The whole world knows that the India is a booming market for smartphones with its huge populace and the purchasing power of the middle class. But there is a section in the society which can’t afford the 40k handset. And for those, the companies like Spice, Karbon, Micromax, Lava, and other such makers make middle range smartphones, which function like high end gadgets and costs in four digits. Today I am going to paint a comparison between two such handsets, both are highly efficient and both cost you four digit sums: Spice Mi-425 and Karbonn A9.

Like the custom that we maintain, I would talk the price first; the Spice Mi-425 will cost you INR 9999 and for the A9 from Karbonn you will have to pay around INR 9100. Now that we are familiar with the price of both the handsets, without further ado we should divulge into a head to head comparison.

Display

In the display segment the Spice Mi-425 has a 4 inch TFT LCD display, which has a good pixel resolution of 800x480p. And the handset supports more than 262K colors. The other handset in comparison has a 3.8 inch screen with the same pixel resolution. With similar features and bigger size this round belongs to the Spice Mi-425.

CPU and RAM

There is nothing much to differentiate the two devices in this segment. Both Spice Mi-425 and Karbonn A9 have a 1GHz processor and a 512 MB RAM. Both devices are quick and this round is a draw.

Storage Capacity

Both the handsets have the same memory expansion capacity of 32GB. And as far as the inbuilt storage capacity is concerned the Spice Mi-425 has a140 MB storage and the Karbonn A9 sports a 512 MB. Without doubt the Karbonn handset emerges victor in this duel.

Camera

Like the previous segment, here too the handsets are more similar than different. Both the handsets have a 5MP camera with auto focus on the rear side of the body and both of them sport a front camera for video chat and self portrait. Spice Mi-425 and Karbonn A9 are head to head in the camera section.

Battery

All the readers know how essential is the battery spec in performance of a smartphone . And in this vital section of the comparison, the Mi-425 has a Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery on offer whereas the A9 has a Li-Ion 1600 mAh battery. No need to say that the Mi-425 has a obvious advantage over the A9 here.

Connectivity  

In the connectivity area the Spice handset has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, 3G connectivity, A9 also sports the similar features in this genera. I would once again call it a tie.

Software

Both the handsets are Android driven devices, both of them run Gingerbread at the present moment. The Mi-425 will, in the coming time get a ICS upgrade and will become slightly more irresistible than the A9, hence the Mi-425 wins by a slight margin.

Features

Both the handsets offer a lot of features like sensors, Multitouch, Dual-SIM, FM radio, and many more. Users taste will give the decision in this column of the comparison.

The Verdict

We have seen that how very similar these two handsets are in almost all the segments. But if I have to choose a handset between either of them I would, because of the bigger battery and screen size, go for the Spice Mi-425. Readers have to keep one thing firmly in their minds that the A9 is not a bad handset, Mi-425 is better.    
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Five Reasons to Go For the All New Spice Mi-425

The response to my last post on the Spice Mi-425 was humongous, people seem to be pretty curious about the handset, but there are people who are skeptical too. There are more than few people who asked me the same question – why should we go for the said handset when we can buy a Samsung or a Nokia handset with couple of thousand bucks more? And they are real queries, you are paying your hard earned money for the handset, you got to be sure enough. This article will give you five reasons to go for the Spice Mi-425.

1.     The most conspicuous and paramount reason is the bright and color rich 4 inch screen of the handset, which happens to be a TFT LCD one with a resolution of 800x480p. The screen supports more than 262k colors. When I first held the handset in my hand I was enchanted for a moment or two.

2.    The second thing that goes in the favor of the Spice Mi-425 is the 1GHz processor, which is not just 1GHz for the name’s sake it functions like one. Fast.

3.    Third thing is the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, which in itself  is a very good operating system and the added advantage is the proposed ICS upgrade. No need to mention that the ICS is the latest and the best Android OS till date.

4.     The fourth thing that makes the Mi-425 special is the marathon 2000 mAh battery. The battery in the handset is better than the Nokia Lumia series and many of the Galaxy series handset as well.

5.     The 5MP rear camera is a boon for the image lover. In the last post, I did give a little bit of demonstration of the camera proficiencies of the handset; no need to say that were above the expectation level, you can see that yourself.

Hey folks,  are you guys in agreement with me or not let me know through your comments.

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Spice Stellar Mi-425: Review, Tech Specs, and First Impression

As the dust starts to settle after all the hullabaloo created by the Xperia series, HTC One series, the Lumias and the other big names of the world, a handset stealthily entered the Indian market, which is not just cheap but has all the features that that a gadget lover wants in his machine.  The name, dear readers, is Spice Stellar Mi-425.

But before we divulge into a review, I must tell you that in this article I am not going to try to compare Mi-425 with any of the above mentioned names. The reason is simple- they are four to five times costlier than this phone. But I would not hesitate in stating that this handset has almost all the features that aforementioned handsets possess. Let’s find out how much veracity my statement has.

The Pros

First let’s have a look at the specs: the Spice Mi-425 has a 4.0 inch screen with a resolution of 800x480, which, by any standard, is a good screen quality. This mobile phone has a 1GHz processor, which is as good as you want. This handset has two cameras: a 5 MP one on the rear side of the body and a VGA one on the front side. In the battery segment the Spice Mi-425 has a Li-Ion 2000 mAhbattery. This handset saves unlimited phone book entries and has a memory expansion capacity of 32 GB.

Turning our attention towards the software segment of the phone, it has Android Gingerbread OS on board and has the potential to get upgraded to the latest ICS 4.0 OS. For the users, it offers full version of the Google Play so that they are able to download their favorite apps and games. It comes pre-loaded with many Google apps including YouTube, Gtalk, and Gmail and social networking clients including Facebook. It has an Android browser to better the user’s net surfing experiencing. You can also download VoIP clients to have cheap Internet calls.

Spice Mi-425 is a 3G enabled handset, which has a Dual band 2G connectivity. The phone is a dual-SIM handset that gives the users additional liberty to keep two numbers with them. Mi-425 has Bluetooth v2.1 then it has a Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n  and can perform as Wi-Fi hotspot,as well. There is USB connectivity to transfer files.
Below are some of the specimen of the 5 MP camera that this handset has:

The Cons

Though the appearance of the phone is quite pleasing to the eyes, you may feel slightly disappointed with its weight .

The inbuilt memory is so trifling that the phone asks you to insert a microSD card as soon as you try to take your first pic. Spice should have included a microSD card within the box.

 When you zoom the camera the pixels start to crack, which is again a concern for camera lovers.

The Pricing

The price for this feature-rich phone is just 9999 INR, yes that is true, it is not in the five digits. If you compare this phone with phones like Lumia 800, which does not have a front camera, the conspicuous advantage comes to strike you. Even in the battery segment the Mi-425 scores some valuable points. The size of the handset is also bigger than the said mobile. Plus it costs you three times less than the Lumia 800.

The Verdict

All the above mentioned cons get trivialized once the price tag comes to the fore. With this phone you pay a medium sum of money and get features of a real high end smartphone, what else one can ask for. The verdict is all in the GREEN.   
To let you know about the video recording capabilities of the handset, here is an  example - 

Hey folks you comments are most welcome. 

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