Electronics Gadgets

  Highlights The OnePlus 5 barely got warm in the most demanding games It has some interesting additions such as Gaming Do Not Disturb Mode Despite no updates, GTA: San Andreas plays better than expected Aside from a OnePlus 5 release date, price, and of course our review, we decided to take the smartphone for a spin in terms of gaming performance. After all, it’s one of the first Snapdragon 835 SoC-powered devices to be made available in India, and the one with the most RAM at this point. One Plus 5 specifications include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core SoC clocking up to 2.45GHz, an Adreno 540 GPU, 6GB of RAM with 64GB storage (or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage), and a full-HD display (1920x1080 pixels). For the purpose of this piece, we checked out the 8GB RAM with 128GB storage version. OnePlus 5 gaming-specific features : While Samsung incorporated options to tweak with the Galaxy S8 and S8+ performance with a Game Mode, Game Launcher, a...

  Highlights MXGP3 is the official Motocross video game It's a motorcycle racing game with offroad racetracks The game has a steep learning curve There isn’t much of a Motocross following in India, but that didn’t stop us from trying MXGP3 — The Official Motocross Videogame. Motocross is essentially a bunch of bikes racing on closed, off-road tracks. The dirt tracks feature several hairpin bends and lots of small inclines and slopes. If you’re expecting high-speed motorcycle racing on flat tracks, you need to check out the MotoGP series of games instead. As much as we wanted to get into Motocross racing, MXGP3 did a very poor job of getting us interested in the sport. There is no tutorial level to help new players out, and no explanations to help you to get interested in it. There is only one screen full of screenshots and text explanations. This made learning harder than it should’ve been. A series of tutorial levels would’ve been really...

  Highlights Mask of Deception merges visual novel and strategy RPG elements The visual novel segments are solid However the lack of a proper tutorial hurts its strategy RPG sections Unpronounceable name aside, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is a visual novel akin to the likes of Steins;Gate and VA-11 HALL-A, with strategy role-playing game (SRPG) mechanics similar to Fire Emblem and Disgaea thrown in. Like most RPGs, Mask of Deception starts off with one of the most overused genre tropes - an amnesiac protagonist. The game is set in the world of Yamato, which is populated by half-human, half-animal hybrids. You take on the role of Haku, a full human, and over the course of your 30-hour journey you’ll uncover your past, learn about this mysterious new world, and indulge in more than a few sections of turn-based strategy. We say “few” because for the most part, Mask of Deception plays like a visual novel. You’ll interact with other charact...

  Highlights The Able 10 is a 10.1-inch Windows 10 tablet with a detachable keyboard The tablet supports a 3G SIM card, HDMI-out, and a full-sized USB 3.0 port The Able 10 is priced at Rs. 24,990 and is available only at Snapdeal Despite the continued decline of PC shipments the world over, the 2-in-1 segment is chugging along with steady growth, quarter after quarter. Devices in this segment come in all shapes and sizes so everyone can choose what works best for them.Today we have a brand new offering from the Indian startup Notion Ink, called the Able 10. This is the successor to the Cain (Review) tablet - or if you go by theology, which Notion Ink tends to reference in all its product names, this is Cain's younger brother. According to Notion Ink, the Able 10 is the result of a lot of user feedback that the company received from its previous tablet, and so the main focus with this one is a better keyboard and more local storage and RAM. Let's fin...

Highlights This is Amazon's cheapest ebook reader Amazon Kindle has a decent display The device lacks a front light Amazon's iron grip on the ebook reader market is not going to loosen anytime soon. Products such as the Kindle Oasis ensure that the company caters to the premium niche, while the Kindle Paperwhite serves most other customers just fine. Even then, few people can justify spending above Rs. 10,000 on an ebook reader. If you are one of them, you're probably looking at the Amazon Kindle.The base model in Amazon's ebook reader lineup is priced at Rs. 5,999, which is bound to appeal to many more people. To lower the price, there have to be some compromises. Has Amazon cut one corner too many or has it managed to strike a perfect balance between price and quality? We used the Amazon Kindle for a couple of weeks to find out. The Amazon Kindle is about the same size as the Paperwhite. It's no match for the light and small...

Highlights : The ZenBook Flip UX360CA is 13.9mm thin and weighs 1.3kg Performance is at par with similarly priced ultrabooks Laptop-style usage is more comfortable than tablet-style usage Asus has been pumping out new laptop models at a prolific pace, and is slowly but steadily climbing up into the top tier of manufacturers. It has one of the most diverse portfolios in India, ranging from budget-friendly basic models to super-slim ultrabooks and even massive gaming machines. The company’s Zen branding is reserved for its most stylish, sleek and powerful offerings.Last year, we took a look at the UX305, which was undoubtedly designed to take on the MacBook Air, and in our opinion, succeeded. Later, we evaluated the UX303, which was nearly the same but had a lot more power at the cost of a little extra body weight. Now, we have with us a third sibling, the ZenBook Flip UX360, which is quite different. As its name makes rather obvious, this is a 2-in-1 with a touc...

  Highlights The ZenFone 3 Ultra is priced at Rs. 49,999 The 6.8-inch Full-HD screen is sharp enough for movies and games Build quality is excellent and battery life is quite good What is the ideal size for a smartphone? The answer is of course subjective, but there has been an obvious trend towards going larger. Models with 5.5-inch screens have dominated the Android market for quite some time now. In fact, it’s pretty hard to find a mainstream Android model with a screen smaller than 5 inches, but there are quite a few larger models at various price levels. We recently reviewed the mid-range Lenovo Phab 2 Plus (Review) and Xiaomi Mi Max (Review), and today we have with us the gargantuan Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra.Blurring the lines between smartphones and tablets, Asus’ latest launch aspires to be a the only digital device you carry around with you. It could replace a lot of the other screens in your life, but is that really what buyers want? We aim to...

  Highlights The Lenovo Yoga Book with Windows 10 costs Rs. 49,990 The lower half is a stylus digitiser with a hidden keyboard and trackpad It weighs just 690g and can be carried around anywhere Ever since Intel kickstarted the 2-in-1 movement and Microsoft made touch support a core feature of Windows, Lenovo has been trying all sorts of designs and ideas for the next wave of PCs. In fact Lenovo is easily the most innovative, or at least adventurous, of today’s PC manufacturers. The company sells a range of flip-around 2-in-1s and tablets under the Yoga name, but also uses Yoga as a modifier for 2-in-1 models in its ThinkPad and IdeaPad lines.Now, there’s a new product, and it is simply called the Yoga Book that retails at Rs. 49,990. Lenovo has retained the flip-around design, but that’s about all this device has in common with today’s 2-in-1s. It’s unlike any other product that Lenovo sells – in fact, it’s unlike any other product, period. Wh...

  Highlights Last year's 9.7-inch iPad Pro had 2GB of RAM Both new iPad Pro models pack 4GB of RAM The 10.5-inch iPad Pro comes with four connecting cables to display Apple launched its new iPad Pro tablets with 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch display at WWDC 2017 last week. Now, it has been revealed that both new tablets from the company pack 4GB of RAM. Notably, both 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch variants of the new iPad Pro were spotted performing similarly in the benchmark tests as well. Geekbench listings of the Apple iPad Pro (10.5inch) and iPad Pro (12.9-inch) 2017 has revealed that both new tablets come with 4GB of RAM. While the 12.9-inch model of the original iPad Pro also featured 4GB of RAM, the smaller-sized 9.7-inch variant came with 2GB of RAM. Now, Apple seems to have introduced more memory to the smaller 10.5-inch iPad Pro model as well. In terms of benchmark scores, both new 12.9-inch and 10.5-inch models performed almost equally, with the ...

  Highlights Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 was globally unveiled at MWC 2017 It sports a 9.7-inch QXGA Super AMOLED display It was launched in Wi-Fi only and LTE variants Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 was launched in India on Tuesday at an event in Bengaluru. The productivity-focused tablet was first unveiled at MWC 2017 in Wi-Fi and LTE variants. It will be made available in India via offline retail stores and the Samsung India site from Tuesday itself. The highlight of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is the inclusion of the S Pen stylus (featuring a 0.7mm tip and 4,096 pressure levels), as well as an all-new glass design. The tablet also offers HDR video playback capabilities, and a quad-speaker system that has been tuned by AKG. Other Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 features being touted by the company include the Galaxy Game Launcher (with Power Saver, Mute Games, and Ongoing Calls modes). The tablet also supports a Keyboard Cover that's sold separately. Finally, the com...

Highlights Toshiba said it was open to talks with Western Digital in their dispute WD has sought a court injunction to stop Toshiba's chip unit sale Toshiba flagged a net loss of $9 billion for the year ended in March Toshiba said it was open to talks with Western Digital in their dispute over the sale of the Japanese conglomerate's prized chip unit - an apparent olive branch after it chose another suitor as preferred bidder.The two have been feuding bitterly and Western Digital, which jointly runs Toshiba's main semiconductor plant, has sought a US court injunction to prevent any deal that does not have its consent. The softer tone from Toshiba comes on a day of further indignities as the crisis-wracked conglomerate saw itself demoted to the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and estimated bigger losses for the past financial year.This week it chose a consortium of Bain Capital and Japanese government investors as preferred bi...