Gadgets

oneplus-nord-buds-4-pro-review

Thu Mar 26 15:42:11 IST 2026

OnePlus Nord series of budget audio devices has given us some of the most popular TWS headphones today. While the number of TWS from the company can be a bit confusing to go through at times (OnePlus' own Buds, Buds Pro, then Nord Buds, Nord r series, Nord Buds Pro), there are offerings at various price segments. The new Nord Buds 4 Pro are currently priced at ₹3,799 with some added features. Let's try them out to see how these really perform:

The first thing out of that familiar square packaging Nord box is the matte finish case that feels nice in the hand and is just about compact enough to be carried in your pocket. The Buds 4 Pro are stem cell design buds with magnetic pins near the bottom to stick inside the case. The case has the OnePlus branding and a small LED on the front, a USB Type-C port, and a physical pairing button at the bottom. The buds themselves are IP55 dust and water-resistant, but the case isn't. I found the buds quite comfortable to wear, but I wouldn't say they are the most comfortable OnePlus buds to wear for well over an hour. These buds weigh around 4.5 grams each, and the whole case is about 35 grams.

The Nord Buds 4 Pro support Bluetooth 6.0 and come with SBC, AAC, and higher-end LHDC 5.0. audio codecs. The audio quality on the buds, to say it briefly, is bass-y and clear. The bass on these buds is plenty, with good clarity and generally no sacrifice to vocals. While treble could have been tuned a little better, you might be better off trying your own EQ using the HeyMelody app when used with non-OnePlus smartphones. Active noise cancellation is decent for low to medium pitch noises, but not too much of a difference from the competition, such as Realme and vivo, at this price range.

The buds have six mics in total, and I found the call quality to be good, but didn't feel any difference in terms of noise cancellation with the touted "AI noise cancellation" for calling. You can use these to quickly get on a work call, as these support Swift Pair for Windows and Fast Pair for Android, plus there's dual device connectivity, too.

The buds are equipped with a 62 mAh battery, with the case having its own 530 mAh battery. You can expect over 10 hours of usage from the buds themselves and around a week with the case—using for about 5-6 hours each day, so battery life is definitely a plus point here.

In brief, the Nord Buds 4 Pro tick most boxes and offer a satisfactory experience. They sound generally good and have plenty of bass for listeners. There's okay call quality and also great battery life, but ANC is okay and not so great here.

xiaomi-pad-8-review-sturdy-well-optimised-tablet

Thu Mar 19 14:51:23 IST 2026

The tablet makers have been telling us that it's the next iteration of personal computing for years now, and while many do use a tablet for working and entertainment on the go, it hasn't exactly replaced laptops by any means. The new Xiaomi Pad 8, which starts at ₹33,999, is also looking to cater to a similar audience. Let's try to understand what it really does or struggles with:

The Pad 8 is a slim tablet with relatively not-so-broad bezels around the display. The sides and the back are aluminium, while the 11.2-inch display (3:2 aspect ratio) on the front has glass all over it. Weighing 485 grams, the tablet has rounded corners and seems comfortable enough to hold for hours with both hands while watching something. It isn't slippery and never once felt cheap in any way. The protruding camera and LED setup in a square in contrasting colours also adds a bit of personality to the tablet. There are pogo pins on the top and back of the tablet to attach the smart pen and keyboard.

Coming to the 11.2-inch 3.2K (3200x2136) LCD (IPS) display, this is a plenty bright and sharp display that doesn't sacrifice picture details. Though I would have liked to try the higher-end nano texture display (starts at ₹38,999), this is itself a pretty good quality display—you get good viewing angles, high contrast-y photos. It also handled Dolby Vision videos surprisingly well, something a lot of tablets can struggle with in terms of low-light scenes and shadows.

Speaking about the OS, this is running on Android 16-based HyperOS 3 with the October security patch in place. It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset (up to 3.21GHz octa-core processor, Adreno 825 GPU) alongside 12GB LPDDR5T RAM (or 8GB LPDDR5X) and 256GB UFS4.1 (or 128GB UFS3.1) internal storage.

This is a well-optimised tablet with some useful features needed in a tablet, such as floating app windows and the ability to drag content from one app window to another. There's also a workstation mode where you get a bar of apps at the bottom, and all apps that you click on open separately, all shown at the same time. Works well for as many as three apps at once, provided you need to check in all three continuously. The OS is smooth, handles daily tasks smoothly and doesn't skip a beat when switching between apps. It handled games like Call of Duty or Monument Valley without any troubles and didn't show any heating issues, either.

Add the Pro Keyboard (priced at ₹8,999) and Pen (₹5,999), and you can begin to take down notes, type long emails, or write your documents or typing for your work—the keyboard is sturdy and spacious to type on. Of course, there's an added cost, but there's certainly some convenience offered if your use cases fit.

The four speakers on the device are sufficiently loud and generally clear to be used for your personal multimedia and gaming playback indoors. WiFi performance on this thing is top-notch. The USB-C port is a USB 3.2 Gen 1, so it does faster data transfers for both read and write—handy for heavy video files.

The battery on the Pad 8 is reliable, with the 9,200mAh battery unit lasting over a day. It can be charged at 45W using the bundled 67W charger, taking a little under 1.5 hours to charge fully.

I think there's a good case to be made that the Xiaomi Pad 8 is perhaps the best tablet today for around ₹35,000. I would have liked the nano-texture version to be closer to this price tag and maybe price the keyboard a little lower, but then that's a bit of nitpicking. There are a lot of things going in favour of the Pad 8, be it for some work on the go or for long entertainment hours spent indoors.

asus-zenbook-14-um3406ga-review

Mon Mar 16 14:09:47 IST 2026

The Zenbook has been among the most well-known mainstream laptops from the house of Asus for years now. The new ZenBook 14 (UM3406GA), priced at ₹1,12,990, aims to cater to both productivity and entertainment needs. Let’s try and see if it’s worth that:

The Zenbook 14 comes with a familiar design with an aluminium chassis and an anodised lid that has lines all over it and subtle ASUS Zenbook branding near the bottom.

It does catch on to smudges and fingerprints rather quickly, and you would need to wipe it clean quite frequently if not sitting still with it at a place. The bezels around the 14-inch touch display are not too broad, while the front camera and its physical shutter sit subtly at the top. The backlit keyboard has decent travel and a comfortable but quicker keystroke than you might expect.

It’s comfortable and well spaced out, though, to work on the go. The trackpad is large and generally responsive with standard Windows gestures. The left side houses the HDMI 2.1 port, 3.5mm audio jack, 2 USB Type-C ports, of which one is USB 4.0 Gen 3, and the other is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. The other side has one USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A port. It would have been nice to have one USB Type-C port on each side rather than on the same side. The hinge of the laptop seems sturdy and has never once shown any creaks or anything worth noticing.

The 14-inch full HD+ (1920x1200) OLED display with support for 60Hz refresh rates is quite bright and has decent viewing angles—it handles HDR playback okay, but nothing too great. The details on videos and images are retained with good colour reproduction.

The device runs on Windows 11 Home 25H2 version and is equipped with AMD Ryzen AI 5 chip (2GHz quad core processor), along with integrated AMD Radeon 840M graphics chip, 16GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB m.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. Day-to-day performance of the laptop is reliable with Office apps, Web browsers, playback of full HD videos, as well as running a game like Call of Duty at low settings, but don’t expect much more than that in terms of gameplay. The touch display is reasonably responsive, though I didn’t really find any standout compelling reason to use it—this is all with the default balanced mode. I didn’t see the Zenbook 14 show any heating issues or fans going berserk. Running a local AI LLM model over LM Studio worked okay, so one could do some less intensive work, such as getting work tips, basic research on some general topics, and so on.

The 75Wh battery lasted me a little over one working day most of the time with moderate to heavy use, and the laptop rarely showed any battery drainage issues on standby, though with some of the recent Windows updates, they seemed to be roughed out. The bundled 65-watt charger can charge it in around 1.5 hours when the laptop is open. The speakers on this thing are loud, but not the best in terms of depth for watching movies and TV series, but okay for music tracks.

The new Zenbook 14 comes across as a safe incremental upgrade over the predecessor, with not too much of a jump in any specific areas but reliable performance in most departments. While RAM and storage prices aren’t going down any time soon, value may not be the right word here, but for what it brings, the device doesn’t necessarily let you down for a work and entertainment laptop.

vivo-v70-series-gadget-smartphone-review

Mon Mar 09 16:42:46 IST 2026

The new Vivo V70 series looks to continue Vivo's offerings for camera and design-centric smartphones at mid to high range budgets, though that has clearly gone up due to the rising memory chip costs globally. Priced at ₹51,999 for the base model and ₹61,999 for the highest model, let’s try and see what it really offers and if it’s worth the price tag:

The phone looks quite a bit different from recent Vivo V series devices and looks closer to the Oppo Find series, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but just something that’s noticeable at first glance.

You get rounded corners, a protruding camera setup that’s on a similar curved rectangle on the left top corner of the glass back. There are narrow bezels and an in-screen fingerprint scanner that’s been put up at a slightly higher height than usual, but still very much usable.

The right side carries the volume buttons and power/lock key; the top has the infrared port, secondary mic and one outlet for loudspeakers; while at the bottom you have the dual SIM card tray slot, USB type C port, primary mic and the other outlet for loudspeakers.

Colour options include Passion Red, Sand Beige (which I used) and Authentic Black. It’s an IP68 and 69 dust and water-resistant device weighing 194 grams, quite comfortable to grip and carry around if you’re used to today’s average smartphone size.

Featuring a 6.59-inch (2750x1260) AMOLED display supporting up to 120Hz refresh rates. This is a bright display with good viewing angles that can output details for high-resolution videos and images. It would have been nice to have an LTPO display for lower to highest refresh rates, but otherwise, this is a really nice display.

Coming to the camera performance, the rear features a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera, a 50MP (f/2.65) telephoto camera (both with OIS), and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. I really liked the tuning of this camera in terms of consistent performance in daylight and often low-light conditions.

You get sharp shots, and even the portrait shots are done well in terms of details and colours. Till 3x zoom, you get well-stitched shots that don’t lose out on details much. The 50MP (f/2.0) front-facing camera takes reliable selfies and doesn’t struggle with most conditions. There’s a bit of skin smoothening in most modes, though.

Equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset (up to 3Ghz octa core processor and Adreno 735 GPU), 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.1 internal storage (also comes in 8GB and 256GB GB and 12GB with 512GB configurations). It’s running on OriginOS 6 based on Android 16 with the January security patch. The phone’s day-to-day performance is nothing to worry about; it really handles tasks well and doesn’t show any lag while switching between apps or scrolling inside social media apps, or using the split window feature for multiple apps.

When it comes to gaming, you can expect to play games like Call of Duty (medium to highest settings) and Monument Valley smoothly, but it can’t quite do the graphics-intensive games at their highest settings as well. Software-wise, Vivo has put up a good, feature-rich interface that gives you customisation options. What’s not so great is ads on the lockscreen despite not enabling the app that’s supposed to deliver those. It shows up when you swipe left instead of unlocking the display or checking a notification. Bloatware isn’t too big a problem, but the curved corners of the phone meant some cutting out of the content, such as the video player or notifications, which Vivo could address in the next update. Otherwise, this is a fine OS in place now on the Android side.

Powered by a 6,500 mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me a day quite often and didn’t have any battery drainage issues throughout my usage. You can charge it using the bundled 90-watt FlashCharge charger in a little over an hour without any heating issues to be reported.

The phone’s loudspeakers are quite loud and have decent depth to them, though they can be a little less clear at the highest volumes. The WiFi and GPS performance of the phone is top-notch, while 5G network reception didn’t disappoint for working on the go. The only time the phone did show a bit of heating was while using it for hours on the go as a 5G hotspot outdoors. Call quality is also pretty good, with clear in-ear sound most of the time.

All in all, the V70 Elite comes across as a pretty well-balanced option for those who prioritise camera performance while keeping battery use in check. While the performance isn’t the best across the board, it doesn’t disappoint at all in general. Hopefully, the company keeps working on OriginOS, which it clearly has been doing recently.

sony-inzone-h9-ii-review-is-this-all-rounder-pro-gaming-headset-worth-the-hype

Wed Feb 25 17:04:18 IST 2026

What makes a good gaming headset? Is it the quality of sound? Is it how snug and comfortable it feels? Or is it how low latency it can be? If you are a gamer like me, you know that we need all of these features coming together, and more!

For the past two weeks, I have been using Sony’s latest offering in the gaming headset space, the INZONE H9 II. The INZONE brand has a strong base of fans. But is it worth the hype? Let’s see how it performed in an array of punishment I put it through over the course of a fortnight.

The INZONE H9 II, or WH-G910N for Sony puritans, is a multi-platform noise-cancelling professional gaming headset with 2.4Ghz wireless connectivity for low latency gaming, Bluetooth 5.3 supporting A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP, TMAP, CSIP, MCP, VCP, CCP profiles along with SBC, AAC, and LC3 codecs. It comes in black and white, and I tested the white one, priced at ₹34,990 but finally out at ₹28,990, which paired well with my silver laptops and my white PlayStation 5.

The headset is light, just 260g without the microphone attachment, and the slider-lock mechanism on a rather comfortable headband makes for a comfortable fit.

But the true winners are the absolutely delightful ear cushions that comfortably cut out almost every speck of sound with the Noise Cancellation mode ON. Good news for spectacle wearers, the cushions do not force the earstems press painfully into your skull—something even other Sony headsets haven’t accounted for.

The INZONE H9 II swiftly replaced my Marshall Major IV as the primary music listening gadget for the past ten days. Here is where Sony’s proprietary driver unit burned bright! Yes, the INZONE H9 II has the same 30mm driver unit as the famed WH-1000XM6!

The mids and the bass were amazing, even on the default setting. However, trebles were not as impressive as I would have liked them. They needed a bit of tweaking of the equaliser to get close to how I wanted them. The process, however, was easy—using the Sony Sound Connect App on the phone or the INZONE Hub on Windows. Both apps are intuitive and easy to figure out.

However, the absence of a native MacOS app and a Linux app bugged me, given that even Steam has moved away from a Windows-only dependency when it comes to gaming. Plus, it sounds like an odd choice given that INZONE H9 II is not compatible with the Xbox.

Work and play settings

The INZONE H9 II worked great during my flow state writing marathons and work. I even attended a few Zoom and MS Teams meetings last week, and the microphone, which came as a handy attachment to the left of the headset, showed its potential.

Colleagues on Zoom noted much clearer volume when I used the mic attachment when connected via the wireless 2.4Ghz dongle. The attachment itself is a nimble USB-C black dongle, with a toggle for “PC” and “Others”. The latter came into play when I powered up my PlayStation 5.

Here is where it hit it out of the park. Blockbusters like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Witcher III, and The Last of Us Part 2, which also have some of the best SFX and soundtracks, became part of my test bench. I also threw in some FC25, Fortnite, and eFootball for some co-op goodness, and the surprise entry GoW Sons of Sparta (Review Coming Soon!) to check how retro sounds were captured.

But we had to properly test the ANC. One chaotic news day in the newsroom was enough to see the noise cancellation in action. Then, we headed to a crowded gaming cafe to check if that would hinder our gaming experience—I ended up playing the first hour of Black Myth: Wukong without ever knowing that a ‘FIFA’ challenge was happening beside me.

After playing these on the PS5 after Steam, it felt that Sony-to-Sony integration was a bit better. Mind you, the PC games ran beautifully with almost zilch latency issues on the INZONE H9 II. I liked it, but once you switched on the 360-degree surround, it became another beast!

Most of my gaming was on the PS5, so I kept the headphones on for longer hours. Sony promises 30-hour battery life at one full charge with noise cancellation. And a quick 5-min charge will give juice to last for an hour. So, it wasn’t really much of a hassle.

Now, let’s talk build. The left cup features a handy Volume Control roller, a noise cancellation toggle button, a USB-C charging port, a charging indicator LED, a 3.5mm jack, and the microphone input jack. The right cup has the power button snuggled into a dip (kudos to accessibility there!), a Bluetooth button, LEDs for Bluetooth and power, and a Game/Chat button.

The Game/Chat button was a handy feature—it lowered the chat volume and lifted the game volume with a click, and vice versa. However, using it in high-stakes co-op moments was a task. I wish it were a single toggle switch instead.

Overall, the build quality and features were good. The unboxing experience was something I loved. The box contained a headphone cable, a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging, a USB-C 2.4 Ghz transceiver, and a very useful pouch.

The LE Audio I tested on an Android also delivered some more punch. And the 3.5mm connectivity was so good with the gold-plated four-pole mini plug, it streamed most of my lossless audio on my laptop for a straight week (look, guys, no need to charge!). I enjoyed this experience.

However, the elephant in the room was the high price tag. But, at ₹28,990, Sony could have made a sturdier gadget. This, and the treble performance, were my only issues with the H9 II. In fact, if this were a tad less expensive, these issues could be written off, for every other spec and feature is top-notch for gaming.

With the INZONE brand, Sony is attempting to bridge the gap between high-performance music headsets and professional gaming headsets. And it almost works, except I found searching for my in-ear headphones to switch to whenever calls came, because the mic was not always connected to the INZONE while chilling on the phone. It is not really a negative—in fact, the positives of a separate high-performance unidirectional microphone outweigh that of an internal mic, and I am all for it!

So, what is my verdict? The Sony INZONE H9 II is a great headset for gaming professionals and enthusiasts alike. The Sony driver delivers the punch. It is intuitive and works well with gaming laptops and PlayStation, and the fit is light and super comfortable after long gaming sessions. Sony’s decision to include FNATIC while conceptualising this device shows, and I’m all for it. But this godly performer all comes at a price tag that suddenly takes a Leviathan Axe to its overall value for money.

If you ever spot a discount, the Sony INZONE H9 II is a great buy for your gaming journey. I know I will. The features and the seamless connectivity outweigh the hiccups. After all, what makes a good gaming headset? You shouldn’t even realise you are wearing it—this one delivers, and how!

realme-buds-clip-review-the-best-open-ear-earbuds-for-you

Fri Feb 20 13:06:41 IST 2026

For the past two years or so, we have seen open-ear designs for earbuds trying to take a front-row seat, with multiple brands launching their open-wear wireless earbuds – from Bose and Nothing to now Realme with its Buds Clip. The new Buds Clip come at a price point of Rs 5,599 and aim to offer this relatively less mainstream design.

The pair is designed like a curved barbell that is placed in a standing position in the charging case. I like how smoothly you can pull them out from the case by holding the middle of the barbell curve, and these go straight into the ears on the same sides – the longer, broader side on the outside of your ear and the smaller bud side on the auricle of your ear. The buds are IP55 dust and water-resistant, and while the case is all matte textured, the buds are glossier in finish. The case has the Realme branding and a relatively big LED indicator at the top, while its USB Type-C port sits at the bottom next to the physical pairing button. The buds weigh 5.3g each and are really comfortable to wear. You have to just try and adjust them the first time, maybe, but it didn’t take too long to figure out the ideal position for them for your ear. The buds don't go inside the in-ear canal; instead, they stay on the auricle surface, so your ears are never closed – the open design's feature. These come in Titanium Gold and Titanium Black (the one I tried) colour options.

The Buds Clip are powered by dual 11mm drivers and support Bluetooth 5.4 with AAC and SBC audio codec support, but no LDAC. There's dual-device pairing support, and I find them to connect reliably and quickly with devices – whether Android or Windows. The buds are quite ample in the bass and do a decent job of handling treble with vocals on most occasions. There's no active noise cancellation, of course, but these do a pretty good job of keeping details intact and not losing out on background instruments for tracks in movies and shows, as well as in genres like Rock, Metal, Punjabi, and Bollywood. I also liked how consistently it handled dialogue delivery for streaming purposes, something wireless buds can struggle with at times. You can use the Realme Link app to change EQ settings, modes, and check for firmware updates.

Each earbud has a 45mAh battery, and with the 530mAh of the charging case, they are meant to last over 40 hours in total. The buds didn’t show any unusual battery drainage, regardless of the listening mode in place. Mic quality seemed okay and nothing too remarkable for outdoor usage.

The Realme Buds Clip are a pretty good first take from the company at open-ear wireless stereo buds that are comfortable to wear and would be liked by many who don’t like the clogged-ear feeling from wearing audio gear for hours, whether for work or entertainment purposes.

hyperx-cloud-jet-wireless-review-good-entry-level-gaming-headset

Tue Feb 24 14:47:03 IST 2026

There’s a niche segment in the audio space that is for gaming headsets, and there aren’t too many established names in the space. HyperX is certainly one of the few that have stuck around in the segment that has been around for quite a while. The HyperX Cloud Jet Wireless is priced at Rs 4,300 and aims to offer “gaming style” audio playback for your gameplay and music needs. Let’s try this out and see how well it does:

The headset is made entirely out of plastic, but it doesn’t feel tacky or cheap for its price tag. The earcups have sufficient cushioning, and the band at the top has an extra layer of soft cloth headband hanging down for a better fit.

The left side is quite crowded with the swivelling mic at the outside, while the circumference carries the power button, USB type C port, volume wheel and Bluetooth & 2.4Ghz switch. Both earcups have the HyperX branding and are slightly tilted downwards. These are quite comfortable to wear and do a good job staying in place when you might be walking around or moving a bit while making calls or something. Oh, and these don’t nearly weigh enough to be called heavy by any means. Other than the USB A 2.4Ghz dongle and a USB A to C charging cable, you also get a carry pouch in the box for the headphones. You can swivel the mix vertically upwards to mute it, a nifty little feature.

The HyperX Cloud Jet Wireless supports connectivity over 2.4Ghz wireless and Bluetooth 5.3. The former is preferred for gaming if you want nearly no lag or audio sync issues. It supports AAC and SBC audio codecs, but no higher-end Bluetooth codecs. The audio quality on the headphones is, to put it briefly, satisfactory for most use cases. There’s decent but not very high bass, but the mids and treble could have been a little better. You can say vocals are generally handled well with games and background tracks, or for genres like Bollywood and Punjabi tracks or even Rock. Mic quality, though, is strictly okay for things like Discord calls and regular phone calls.

For its battery life, you can expect 20-22 hours of usage with both low-latency and some regular Bluetooth use every now and then, which is not far from what the company mentions, too.

All in all, the HyperX Cloud Jet Wireless performs well on most counts – while it doesn’t particularly blow you off with its audio quality, you can say it performs well for most gameplays and music genres, given the price tag, while also keeping things comfortable.

dell-pro-14-premium-review-laptop

Thu Feb 12 15:43:03 IST 2026

Dell's rebranding of its lineup of laptops has been somewhat confusing at first, considering how well-known the Latitude, XPS and Inspiron brands were. The Pro Premium lineup is supposed to be the new Latitude, and it has some offerings from Dell. I have been using a Dell Pro 14 Premium, which is priced at Rs 1,76,248, for a few weeks now and here's how my experience has been with it:

The Dell Pro 14 Premium comes in a magnesium chassis and weighs about 1.15kg, with not the thinnest but still a thin profile that makes it comfortable to carry around for work.

On the left side, you have a USB 3.1 Type-C port, along with HDMI 2.1 and the 3.5mm audio ports beside a little LED, while the right side carries another HDMI 2.1 port and a USB 3.2 Type-A port plus a Kensington lock. The Dell branding at the front is very familiar, and so is the vent plus rubber feet setup at the bottom that feels very much like a Latitude notebook.

Oh, and the physical shutter for the webcam is placed at the top railing of the lid and not at the front of the lid next to the webcam itself, as is often the case.

The 14.1-inch quad HD+ (1800x2880) 60Hz touchscreen display has good viewing angles with decent brightness. The display is good for watching content with its 16:10 aspect ratio, but it's not the crispest display around for the price tag—it still gives sufficient details. It produces slightly more vivid colours than I remember on the previous model, to some people's preference. HDR playback seemed okay at best, and nothing special in terms of details and contrast.

The backlit keyboard is well spaced out and is quite comfortable to type on for long documents, while having some nice feedback. The touchpad is spacious enough and is in a conventional buttonless form. The power button that is in line with the function keys also carries a fingerprint scanner for unlocking, and it works fine with Windows Hello.

Fitted with Intel's Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 evo Edition (up to 2.2 GHz octa-core processor), Intel Arc integrated GPU, along with 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB Samsung TLC SSD, it's running on Windows 11 Pro 24H2 version. The laptop handled document editing, Excel work, multiple Web browsers and YouTube viewing without struggling. You can jump between apps and continue editing your documents or spreadsheets without any hiccups. Having said that, this isn't a machine meant for video editing or any kind of rendering, as it struggles with even a two-hour-long or 7-8 GB-sized video files. Other than that, for your work purposes, the machine doesn't disappoint.

Powered by a 60Wh battery, the laptop lasted me 2 days of usage on a single full charge quite frequently. Using a standard 65-watt charger, the laptop charged fully in close to 1.5 hours. WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity on the device is solid and didn't cause any trouble during my usage.

All in all, the Dell Pro 14 Premium is a nice, well-built portable work laptop that performs well for work tasks and keeps up with its reliable battery life. It isn't meant for video work for sure, but otherwise this laptop is worth a check if you or your team are on the lookout for a laptop for work, including spreadsheets, research and decks.

realme-p4-power-review-insane-battery-life-but-whats-the-catch

Wed Feb 04 14:46:14 IST 2026

Till just a few years back, getting a full day's battery backup from your smartphone was considered satisfactory. Then, it became a little over a day thanks to bigger battery sizes. Now, we have something bigger: a 10,001mAh battery unit on a smartphone that can go for two days and can also double up as a power bank for your other devices. This is where the new Realme P4 Power comes in. Priced at Rs 25,999 for the base model, let's try and see how long this thing goes and what else it has to offer.

The device weighs about 219g and measures almost 9.1mm in thickness, so it's not the most sleek or lightweight phone. But considering the battery size, you have to say Realme has done a pretty good job of not making the phone too bulky. The 6.8-inch curved display (2.19:1 aspect ratio) has Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on top for added protection. With a plastic frame and a curved back that doesn't catch smudges and fingerprints quickly, you have the protruding camera setup that's like a small island of its own, built over a small partition of the back with some dots, textures, and bolts. On the right side, you have the volume buttons and power/lock key, and the left is all plain. The bottom carries the dual SIM card trays, primary mic, USB Type-C port, and loudspeakers; on the top, you have the secondary mic.

The 6.8-inch full HD+ (1280x2800) AMOLED display supports up to 144Hz refresh rates. It's a bright display that doesn't struggle much under sunlight. You can watch high-resolution videos and images on it, and it does a pretty good job of retaining details with colors a bit on the punchier side. The curved sides are a bit reflective, though, and it's noticeable under different situations, such as typing something in an app with a white background or watching videos at times. It comes in TransOrange (which I used), TransSilver, and TransBlue colour options.

Talking about its triple camera setup – a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a third 2MP camera – the camera performance is decent to good most of the time, but I wouldn't say it's the phone's strength. You can take photos with decent depth and colour accuracy, and Realme's AI chop does come in handy at times in terms of the overall feel of the shot, but it struggles in low-light shots and can deliver disappointing shots for far-away subjects in terms of zoom capabilities. The front-facing 16MP (f/2.4) camera is quite good in terms of details and sharpness for selfies and is good enough for video calls.

Equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultra chipset (up to 2.6GHz octa-core processor and Mali G615 GPU) with 8GB or 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB or 256GB UFS3.1 internal storage. It's running on Realme UI 7.0 based on Android 16 with the December security patch. The phone handles daily tasks absolutely fine and doesn't miss a beat when it comes to switching between apps, scrolling inside social media apps, or watching videos in streaming apps. There are some third-party apps pre-installed, but you can uninstall those and disable any unnecessary notifications from things like App Market if you want. In terms of gaming, you can play BGMI at a high frame rate, but it feels best at 90 FPS, which the phone can handle well. Other games such as CoD or Wuthering Waves, though, it can struggle at highest settings. The overall look and feel of the OS is a lot more transparent and glass-esque now. There are AI features for editing photos that work well for removing objects.

Coming to the phone's USP, it's powered by a 10,001mAh Li-po battery unit that can be charged at 45 watts using the bundled 80W UltraDart charger. The phone lasted me two days comfortably on a single full charge. Very rarely did it go below 40 per cent on the first day if it was a heavy usage day. It charges from 1 per cent to full in about 2 hours. What's more, it can charge your other devices, yup, just like a power bank at 27 watts, which is plenty fast considering you're doing this from a smartphone. I didn't see the phone heat up during charging times. There's also bypass charging so you can skip charging the battery and have the charging power the device itself, say, while gaming or something, but of course, wired up.

Call quality on the phone is top-notch with reliable performance outdoors. Wi-Fi and GPS also work reliably, while 5G network reception is decent for working on the go. I did see the phone heat up a bit while using 5G for a few hours with display brightness at 90 per cent or so outdoors.

It's quite clear that Realme is really trying to offer a multiple-day battery life with this device with decent but not the best-in-segment camera performance or performance in general. It does this in a relatively not-so-bulky design for those who care more about their smartphone lasting longer than anything else, even on busy days.

cmf-headphone-pro-review-unique-looks-meet-reliable-performance

Tue Jan 27 16:49:16 IST 2026

‘Nothing’ and its sub-brand CMF often feature a distinctive design whenever they release a new gadget, and the CMF Headphone Pro is no exception. Priced at Rs 6,999 for the launch offer and Rs 7,999 otherwise, the headphones come in distinct colours with changeable cushions that require no tools. Let’s try and see how well they perform and fit.

The headphones are made of mostly plastic with a metallic band running in the middle. These are quite a bit heavier than the usual pair in this price range, at a little over 280g. I found these comfortable to wear and had no issues with their fit while moving around. CMF opted for physical buttons and dials instead of touch buttons or gestures – the left earcup carries the 3.5mm audio jack, Power and Bluetooth button, and Energy Slider for bass or treble, while the right one has the volume slider, Smart Assistant button, and USB Type-C port. It comes in Light Green, Light Grey, and Dark Grey colour options, and you can mix and match with an extra pair of cushions that you have to buy separately. Other than the 3.5mm aux cable, you get a carrying pouch but no charging cable in the box.

You can use the Nothing X app on your smartphone to adjust settings, change EQ, or adjust ANC. These support Bluetooth 5.4 (with dual connections) along with SBC, AAC, and LDAC audio codecs. In terms of audio quality, the CMF Headphone Pro doesn’t disappoint – the vocals are quite clear with little to no sacrifice of background instrumentation for genres like Bollywood and Punjabi tracks. Bass is decent, but I am not sure increasing it from the Energy Slider really makes a huge difference. Treble is handled well in genres like Rock, Metal, some Hip-hop, and so on; on most occasions, it doesn’t go awry whether you change the bass or not. The pair has hybrid ANC, and it works reasonably well for most noise, say, while commuting, or some chatter indoors while you’re working. If you have used noise-cancelling headphones from Sony, you might not be impressed with their noise cancellation, but otherwise, the noise cancellation here is decent enough in most situations for the price tag.

Call quality on the Headphone Pro is quite good for indoor use but strictly okay when using it outdoors, especially under windy conditions. Though CMF says there are five microphones in total with three of them for calls, call quality is strictly okay under tricky conditions such as wind, but otherwise it’s generally good. There’s Google Fast Pair for Android, and Swift Pair for Windows, too. I didn’t have any trouble with connectivity; its connection is certainly reliable even for two devices – whether with an Android device, an iOS device, or a Windows machine.

Powered by a 720mAh battery, battery life on these headphones is solid. With noise cancellation switched off, these lasted for 5-6 days without needing to be charged. You can charge it from 1 per cent to full in around 2 hours, and, of course, you can also use these wired, though you would need a USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter to use them with most smartphones these days.

Wrapping it up, the CMF Headphone Pro is a unique-looking pair of headphones that is comfortable to wear and offers great battery life. There’s good audio quality for the most part, with adequate performance for calls. Coupled with CMF’s interchangeable ear cushions, these aren’t hard to recommend for those that prioritise comfort and aesthetics alongside battery life for their audio headsets.

redmi-note-15-review-has-xiaomi-finally-found-its-mojo-back

Fri Jan 23 18:33:15 IST 2026

Xiaomi recently unveiled its new Redmi Note 15 5G in the Indian market, priced at Rs 22,999 for the base model. For the past two years or so, the Redmi Note series, once the company’s darling product, hasn’t been getting as much love from consumers as it might have expected. Does the Redmi Note 15 help the series find its mojo back? Let’s try and check.

The Redmi Note 15 comes in a sleek package with rounded corners, measuring 7.4mm in thickness and weighing under 180g. It feels nice in the hand with that carbonated back. The back features the squircle camera setup near the top and the Redmi branding near the bottom. The right side houses the volume buttons as well as the power/lock key, both of which are quite narrow but do a good job in terms of pressure needed to register a tap. The top carries the infrared port and one outlet for loudspeakers, while at the bottom you have the other outlet for stereo speakers, a USB Type-C port, as well as the dual SIM card plus microSD hybrid card slot tray.

The 6.77-inch full HD+ (1080x2392) AMOLED display supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate. I had to crank up the brightness pretty high to read the text under direct sunlight, but when done, it’s comfortably usable. The display handles higher resolution videos and images fairly well, such that you wouldn’t be missing out on details, with good punch in colours and contrast.

Equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.4 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 710 GPU) along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and either 128GB or 256GB UFS2.2 internal storage that’s expandable up to 1TB using a microSD card, the phone is running on Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0. The phone handles day-to-day tasks – calling, messaging, scrolling inside social media apps – fine, though every now and then, there’s a bit of a hiccup that did become less frequent after the last software update. It’s not a gaming device for sure, beyond playing CoD at medium settings. I didn’t see the phone get too warm under any conditions, which was nice to see. I did see a lot of pre-loaded apps, which can be uninstalled, but then there are also ads thrown inside Xiaomi’s apps like File Manager when you open it. While the chipset itself is a good upgrade from the Redmi Note 14's, it would have been nice for Xiaomi to lower down on push notifications and ads out of the box for its Redmi Note to come out better in terms of user experience.

Coming to the camera performance, there's a 108MP (f/1.7) main camera (with OIS) and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. I found the cameras to be quite good for taking portrait shots and doing a decent job of capturing colours and details in scenes with good to medium light. There are now 4K video recording capabilities with OIS. You can take well-lit shots in daylight with sufficient dynamic range but at times, they are too noisy in low light. The front-facing 8MP (f/2.2) camera is good enough for video calls and selfies shows in medium to well-lit scenes with very little shutter lag. The camera app is quite smooth and feature-rich and isn’t too complicated to use.

Powered by a 5,520mAh silicon carbon battery (not very common at this price range), the phone lasted me a day on heavy to moderate usage 9/10 times and didn’t show any unusual battery drains during my usage. The bundled 45W fast charger can charge it from 1 per cent to full in a little over an hour.

Call quality on the Redmi Note 15 is top-notch, though WiFi and GPS performance felt a little glitchy at times initially, the last update seems to have made it trouble-free.

In a nutshell, the Redmi Note 15 is a good new device from Xiaomi to get the Redmi Note series back on track. Could they have done a bit more? Sure, especially on the software side, starting with a more Android 16 out of the box, but on the other hand, a better chipset and good battery life seem to set them on the right path.

redmi-pad-2-pro-2026-review

Mon Jan 12 14:53:13 IST 2026

The new Redmi Pad 2 Pro comes at an interesting time when the Android tablet space has been doing okay for a bit. The shortage of memory is also playing a big role in the smartphone and tablet industry. Priced at Rs 24,999 for the WiFi-only base model and Rs 27,999 for the WiFi + 5G base model, the Pad 2 Pro comes out as a well-rounded tablet for your multimedia and Web browsing needs:

Clad in a metal unibody in either Graphite Grey or Quick Silver colour options, the tablet feels pretty decent in the hand without too many smudges and fingerprints getting all over the back, though it can be a different picture at the front. The power/lock key is on one corner next to the volume buttons—the buttons are tactile with sufficient pressure required to be pressed for no accidental presses. Weighing around 610 grams and measuring 7.5mm in thickness, it isn’t very lightweight, but it’s still decent considering the tablet’s 12.09-inch (16:10 aspect ratio) and that 12,000mAh battery unit.

The back has a pattern on about 1/4th of the total surface that also houses that protruding camera setup—the patterned back looks nice and more like what we are used to seeing on a smartphone.

The 12.09-inch (2560x1600) LCD display supporting up to 120Hz refresh rates is sufficiently bright and can handle high-resolution videos and images pretty well. The display can often make or break a tablet, and the Redmi Pad 2 Pro, for its price tag, comes out performing well on the front. It has good viewing angles and doesn’t suffer from bleeding light or such issues that sometimes tablets show while cutting corners, though it's a bit reflective.

The rear sports an 8MP (f/2.0) camera that is decent enough for odd photo-taking, but it still looks a bit ridiculous taking a photo using a big tablet if you have another camera at your side. It can do an okay job for taking shots outdoors or at decently lit scenes, and document scanning, while the front-facing 8MP (f/2.28) camera is good enough for video calls and occasional selfies.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset (up to 2.7 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 810 GPU) along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and either 128GB or 256GB UFS2.2 internal storage that you can expand to as high as 2TB via a microSD card.

It’s running on Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0 with the November security patch in place. The device is snappy and generally responsive when navigating between streaming apps, social media scrolling and viewing images on it. You can see some stuttering in animations every now and then, but it’s not too frequent and doesn’t show up when watching videos up to 4k resolution in apps like YouTube (no HDR in the app, though).

For gaming, it isn’t exactly ideal, as expected, but you can play something like Genshin Impact at medium settings relatively okay. What I didn’t really like was getting ads blasted when opening apps like Xiaomi’s File Manager, or getting Indus Appstore notifications despite not opting for the app store during the setup—all this just doesn’t bode well for the user experience.

Xiaomi promises 5 Android upgrades and 7 years of security updates. What I do like is how well split screen works for multiple apps and how you can adjust app window size as per your requirements.

The 12,000mAh battery lasted about 16-17 hours of usage, mainly watching videos, scrolling through webpages, and an odd call over Zoom. You can charge it using the bundled 33-watt fast charger in nearly 3 hours, which isn’t super fast, but that’s kind of expected, too. I didn’t see the tablet showing any heating issues throughout my usage. You can get the keyboard (Rs 3,999) that's the same as the first gen, as well as the smart pen (Rs 3,999), which works together over Bluetooth. The tablet’s quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support are loud and clear, provided you don’t switch to 300 per cent extra loudness—more than good enough for movies and gaming playback indoors. If you opt for the 5G model, you can make and receive regular calls or over apps like WhatsApp while on the move.

All in all, the Redmi Pad 2 Pro 5G is a good option for watching TV shows, movies, odd gaming on the go without having to worry about the battery life regularly. Software experience alongside is decent, but not the best, though it doesn’t necessarily get in the way of binge-watching your favourite series.

redmi-15c-5g-price-specs-featuresbudget-5g-phone-redmi-15c-review

Mon Jan 05 14:15:45 IST 2026

A lot of people on the low-end budget side of things have been upgrading or looking to upgrade to a 5G device. We have a few offerings under Rs 15,000, with the Redmi 15C 5G being the latest of them.

The device starts at Rs 12,499 for the 4GB RAM base model, but you should go for at least the 6GB RAM model, the one I tried, which is priced at Rs 13,999, while there's also the 8GB variant at Rs 15,499.

The Redmi 15C has a large 6.9-inch HD+ (1600x720) LCD IPS display with up to 120Hz refresh rates. You can watch YouTube videos at the highest 1440p quality, and it looks decent in terms of colours and sharpness. The display is fairly bright for outdoor usage under sunlight, too.

It's an IP64 dust- and water-resistant device with a plastic body, so some splashes of water and dust shouldn't really be a major problem here for you to worry about. Having rounded corners, a slightly curved back and a weight of 211 grams for its display and battery size, the phone isn't too heavy, though it is heavier on the top half than the bottom.

The bezels around the display are not too thick or symmetrical, with the chin bezel standing out.

Running on Android 15-based HyperOS 2 with the November security patch, the phone is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset (up to 2.4GHz octa-core processor and Mali G57 MC2 GPU), along with 6GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 internal storage that's expandable up to 1TB using a microSD card.

I saw around 102GB of available storage out of the box. The phone can handle messaging, calling, high-resolution YouTube videos, as well as scrolling in social media apps, fine.

Once things have been set up, the phone is responsive and doesn't really struggle with any of those tasks on a day-to-day basis. Oh, and there's a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom so you can use your old earphones or plug the phone into a car's audio system over AUX without any dongles required.

There are quite a few third-party apps pre-installed on the phone, though you can uninstall most of them. There's also the Indus Appstore that cannot be uninstalled without going through the ADB route, which isn't suggested for most users.

For basic games, the phone is okay, but don't expect to get the best graphics performance you've ever seen, considering the price tag.

5G network reception on the device is importantly good, with the option to fall back on the second SIM card for data when making calls using the other SIM card.

Both SIM card slots support VoNR. I found 5G to be usable outdoors with a WiFi hotspot in use for data connectivity. I didn't see any major heating issues during my usage. WiFi performance is also decent. Call quality on the phone is really good, with a clear voice on both sides on most occasions.

The back features a dual camera system: a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera and an auxiliary camera. The main camera is okay for daylight shots and for scanning documents, but don't expect too many subject details and contrast here. The front-facing 8MP (f/2.0) camera is decent enough for some selfies in daylight and for video calls outdoors and indoors.

The 6,000mAh battery lasted a day after almost every full charge, with no weird battery drains seen.

You get a 33-watt charger in the box that can charge the device from 1 per cent to full in around 80–90 minutes. The fingerprint scanner on the power/lock key on the right side is reliable and quick for using it every single time conveniently.

All in all, the Redmi 15C comes across as something worth considering as a 5G device that isn't short on battery life or display size and does most of your daily tasks without major glitches.

philips-smart-air-purifier-ac4221-review

Fri Jan 02 14:38:57 IST 2026

Air purifiers are gradually becoming a norm in many parts of the country, especially Delhi-NCR, where AQI and PM2.5 counts are often seen hovering around and above 300 during the October-January period. Whether you own one or not, or are considering buying one for yourself, it would be safe to say you have checked out a Philips air purifier. I have been using the Philips AC4221 smart air purifier that comes at Rs 25,999, and here's how my experience been with it:

The AC4221 has a plastic cylindrical body in the middle with a metallic finish and vertical bars around it with four air vents camouflaged in them—the whole body weighing about 6.5kg. At the top, you have a light ring running the whole diameter, along with touch keys and a PM2.5 reader in the middle of it. The keys are responsive, and the indicator is clear enough to read from a few feet away, too. You get double carbon and two HEPA filters, and buying HEPA filters, which you would need to do every few months depending on your usage and AQI levels, would cost Rs 5,300.

The smart air purifier has three modes and an automatic mode. The turbo mode is a bit noisy, but most importantly, it made PM 2.5 go from 500 to under 100 in about an hour, and this was seen multiple times. The sleep mode, on the other hand, is really low on volume but, of course, low on air flow, too. It could reduce PM 2.5 from 250 to 100 in over an hour.

These two modes combined are the best part about this air purifier. Use the turbo mode when you're just starting it, and then switch to the sleep mode either when you're going to bed or to maintain PM 2.5 at decent levels. The auto mode, I found, was often at one end lower than you might do yourself, but it did ramp up to turbo mode when the reading went above 250. The air purifier is sufficient to be used in a closed 650-700 square meter area.

Philips has its Air+ app to go with this smart air purifier. You might ask what the app is useful for. Apart from checking AQI and PM2.5 levels, you can also see the conditions of your filters. There are other features, too, such as child lock and check for firmware updates, as well as set up voice assistants for Google Home and Alexa.

In conclusion, the Philips AC4221 is a good and efficient smart air purifier that does the job needed in terms of heavy lifting as well in terms of keeping things quiet when needed. It has an uncomplicated way to change filters, a smart app, as well as live AQI readings, making it a solid option at the price point.

lava-agni-4-review-a-powerful-mid-range-contender

Mon Dec 22 17:59:05 IST 2025

Lava's Agni series of smartphones has gradually made a decent name for itself in the mid-range smartphone market in India. The Lava Agni 4, priced at Rs 24,999, represents a price increase compared to the Agni 3, as seen with most smartphones these days. It aims to continue providing good value for money against competitors like the OnePlus Nord and Realme. So, let's try and check how well it performs.

Lava has eliminated the small second display at the back this time and has opted for a more conventional visor-type camera setup with the Agni branding on it, while the Lava logo sits near the bottom. This is a metal-frame phone with a glass back and a 6.67-inch display (2.2:1 aspect ratio) with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The right side features volume buttons, a power/lock key, and the Action key near the bottom. This key can be configured to open applications like the camera, switch to silent mode, take a screenshot, and so on – single tap, double tap, and a long tap – all customisable to determine its function. The top has one outlet for loudspeakers, a secondary mic, and an infrared port. The bottom houses the second outlet for loudspeakers, a USB Type-C port, a primary mic, and a dual SIM card tray. The phone weighs 208gm and is quite tall but manageable to carry around due to its curved corners and slightly curved edges. It comes in Phantom Black and Lunar Mist color options.

The 6.67-inch 1.5K (1220x2712) AMOLED display, with refresh rates of up to 120Hz, is bright and sharp for outdoor use under sunlight. It has decent viewing angles and handles high-resolution videos quite well in terms of colour reproduction and detail retention. The display has some tendency to throw glare, though, which isn't surprising at this price range. I preferred to use it in the normal mode rather than the default vivid mode, which seems to over-blow colours.

The device is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 8350 chipset (up to 3.35GHz octa-core processor, Mali G615 GPU), 8GB LPDDR5X RAM, and 8GB UFS 4.0 internal storage. It would have been nice to have 12GB of RAM to make it stand out in this price segment, but it's acceptable. The phone runs on Android 15 (with the November security patch) along with some Lava tweaks and iconography. Animations and the menu launcher now appear a little more refined compared to the previous version, and it integrates well when changing icons, themes, and wallpapers. However, the status bar icons look dated and definitely need a refresh for Android's Material You design. There's Vayu AI, an AI agent, that can take on different roles such as an English teacher, math tutor, and horoscope reader, among others. An animated dog widget is placed on the home screen by default where you can give voice commands or type what you want. It works decently for basic questions, but it doesn't have the capabilities to take on the agentic AI of the world today. Performance on the phone is really good – snappy app opening and video playback with very little stuttering experienced during my usage. For gaming, you can play a heavy game like Genshin Impact at 60FPS smoothly without any hitches throughout the gameplay, which is nice to see. Lava could also further improve RAM management, as it appears that apps close frequently if DuraSpeed under Settings isn't enabled for an app. Also, there's now an option to have the back button on the left side when using on-screen keys for navigation; the option was strangely missing earlier.

The Agni 4 comes with a 5,000mAh battery unit that lasted me nearly a day most of the time. It can be charged using the bundled 66-watt fast charger in about an hour. I didn't see any major heating issues, either.

Coming to the camera, you get a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera (with OIS) and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The camera performance here is decent for most people. It can take relatively vivid shots in daylight and tends to overexpose the subject at times. Details are often retained, but colours could have been better reproduced. The camera application is fluid to use and has quite a few options to choose from. The front-facing 50MP (f/2.5) camera also oversharpens skin in selfies at times, though this has improved with the recent update. You can shoot 4K videos at 60FPS from both the main rear camera and front camera, and the output is okay for playing on a tablet, but don't expect a great output for playing on a larger display.

Wi-Fi performance of the phone is trouble-free, while 5G network reception doesn't disappoint for working on the go. Call quality has also been satisfactory for outdoor and indoor usage with VoWi-Fi in use.

In conclusion, the Lava Agni 4 is a pretty good option for those who want a smooth and bloatware-free software experience (3 years of OS upgrades and 4 years of security updates) with decent battery life. However, for camera enthusiasts, it seems to lag behind the OnePlus Nord in this price range as of now.

vivo-x300-pro-review-a-superstar-in-the-camera-department

Fri Dec 12 10:28:13 IST 2025

It wouldn't be wrong these days to say that the camera is one of the main reasons behind a decision to choose a smartphone.

Vivo's X series has been among the top camera performers among smartphones for a while now, with the X300 Pro being the smartphone maker's latest offering. Priced at Rs 1,09,990, let us see if the camera is truly this phone's 'main course'.

First impressions

First things first, the X300 Pro is a heavy device at 226g due to its 6510mAh battery and camera setup. It is about 8mm thick, has flat metal sides, and a 6.78-inch (20:9 aspect ratio) display. It's an IP68 and 69 dust and water-resistant device that comes in Dune Gold (the one I used and prefer) and Elite Black colour options.

Camera

The triple camera system has a lot going for it—a 50MP (f/1.56) main camera (with OIS), a 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide camera, and a 200MP (f/2.67) telephoto camera (with OIS).

I was quite impressed with the camera's zoom capabilities till 3.5x (although it was pretty good at 10x too), not to mention its colour reproduction and detailed shots, which makes the X300 stand out, and, in my opinion, a great job by Vivo this time in the camera department—courtesy of the Zeiss partnership.

Whether taking zoomed-in shots in low light with standout lights, or while taking people as your subject indoors, the camera always suggests modes based on the scenario, and also does a decent job of correctly adjusting the contrast with each mode.

The camera app is also feature-rich, with a number of options available in one click, such as Live Photo, AI shot, Super Macro and Google Lens. You can shoot 4k videos at up to 120 FPS with Dolby Vision (and 10-bit log for enhanced editing capabilities), but also 8k video at 30FPS.

Video quality here is generally good in terms of tuning and colour accuracy. However, I was not a fan of how the AI couldn't be turned off with the default focal settings.

Processor

The phone is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset (up to 4.21 GHz octa-core processor and Mali G1 Ultra GPU) along with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS4.1 internal storage. It does video recording and media playback without any trouble. You can also play games such as 'Injustice 2' and 'BGMI' at the highest settings smoothly.

The X300 runs on the new OriginOS 6 (with the November security patch) that's nicer to look and use than FunTouch but that's a case for later. For now, it's safe to say Vivo is on the right path when it comes to improving their software.

Battery

The 6510mAh battery comfortably lasts for a day even with some video shooting done. You can charge it using the bundled 90W FlashCharge charger in just over an hour with no heating issues to be seen.

Verdict

All in all, the vivo X300 Pro is clearly meant for photography enthusiasts.

The camera doesn't always require manual tweaks and settings but it's more than up to it if you want to tinker around—making it one of the best camera performers, if not the best—in the Indian market today.

It's running on the new OriginOS 6 (with the November security patch) that's nicer to look and use than FunTouch but we will try to look at in depth some other time. For now, it's safe to say Vivo is on the right path when it comes to improving their software take.

oppo-find-x9-review-2025-gadgets

Wed Nov 26 12:26:06 IST 2025

Oppo's Find series is known for the company's flagship devices, taking the camera and performance up a few notches. The new Find X9, priced at Rs 74,999 for the base variant, is aimed at this flagship-like price range that offers many things close to the flagship while keeping the budget around Rs 75,000.

The Find X9 follows a tweaked design of the X8 and X6 to some extent. With a metal frame, curved edges, and flat sides and display, the phone is nearly 8mm in thickness and isn't too huge by today's smartphone standards.

The 6.59-inch display has slim symmetrical bezels around it with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on top and the front camera sitting at the top middle. The right side houses the volume buttons and power/lock key, and the left side carries the Snap key (more on that later).

The bottom carries the dual SIM card tray slot, USB Type-C port, primary mic, and one outlet for loudspeakers, and the top has the infrared port. This IP66, IP68, and IP69 dust-resistant and water-resistant phone weighs a little over 200 grams and comes in Titanium Grey (the one I tried) and Space Black colour options.

The back houses the triple camera setup on a protruding rectangular cutout on the top left corner with a subtle Hasselblad branding on the LED camera, while the Oppo logo sits near the bottom on the back. The X9 feels nice in the hand; while it is not the most grippy smartphone around, it certainly isn't too slippery either.

The phone's 6.59-inch Full HD+ (2750x1256) AMOLED is sufficiently bright and has excellent viewing angles for reading and viewing something on it. The flat panel has good colour reproduction, which I used in the Standard mode at the highest screen resolution. It's sharp and handles contrast-y HDR content well enough to be a viable option for watching HDR content on the go.

Coming to the camera, it's certainly one of the strengths of the device, as expected—a 50MP (f/1.6) main camera, a 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide camera, a 50MP (f/2.6) periscope camera, and a 2MP (f/2.4) monochrome camera. Partnering with Hasselblad for imaging processing, the phone does take well-stitched shots with good colour depth and details in general.

There's very little shutter lag, and the camera app is quite feature-rich and responsive. Motion Photo is now enhanced with a better ability to extract a photo from the moving photo when the Hi-Res mode is enabled. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.4) camera delivers clear shots most of the time, with some details lost in low-light indoors or when taking a photo while moving. You can shoot 4K videos at 60FPS with it, if needed, with the rear camera shooting at 4K 120FPS, which actually gives one of the better video outputs from an Android phone at this price point today.

The Find X9 is equipped with MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 chipset (up to 4.21 GHz octa-core processor, Mali-Drage MC12 GPU) along with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB (or 16GB and 256GB in the case of the base model) UFS 4.1 internal storage.

It's running on ColorOS 16 based on Android 16 with the November security patch in place. The OS is now a little translucent in look and has more theme options, including Flix themes that gel well with the overall OS. You can configure the Snap Key to be used for taking input from what's on your screen for AI, or as a mute switch, to take a screenshot, open the camera or voice recorder, and so on. AI features are gradually making inroads into Oppo's offering.

I like the image editing for removing unnecessary shadows the most, but there's a lot more to go in terms of idea generation by simply guiding it to what's on your screen. The OS is fluid and responsive, with some enhanced animations when switching between menus. There's now a full-screen always-on display, along with the ability to change the shape of an app or folder icon. There's a new feature called Motion Cues to help with motion sickness for those who are affected by it from using the phone in a moving vehicle—dots appear on the screen and move up and down in response to the vehicle's movement.

For gaming, you can expect to play something like Hitman Absolution at the highest settings smoothly at 60 frames per second and BGMI at a higher 120FPS, though it looks better in gameplay at 90FPS. The only time I saw some heating was when using 5G on the go with a Wi-Fi hotspot during the day. I wish Oppo had upgraded the USB Type-C port to 3.0 for this price segment; otherwise, performance here is top-notch.

Powered by a 7025 mAh silicon-carbide battery unit, the phone comfortably lasts a day and then some on almost every single full charge. The bundled 80-watt SuperVOOC charger can charge it in slightly over an hour without any major heating issues.

Stereo speakers in the phone are quite loud, clear, and good for indoor usage. 5G network reception is also decent for use on the go. Wi-Fi was a little patchy at first, but the last two updates have made it much more reliable with no issues seen now. Call quality is good on both sides, and so is the GPS on the device.

All in all, the Oppo Find X9 is a solid smartphone in pretty much every department as of now. Its camera is reliable in most scenes, its battery life is excellent, and the whole OS generally performs smoothly with less bloatware than before.

sandisk-creator-ssd-review-the-best-bet-for-creators-with-iphone-16-17-pro

Thu Nov 13 15:16:52 IST 2025

A lot of people these days make and share their experiences online—through photos and videos—on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Smartphones have long been one of the popular ways to make and share these, for which you need more and more storage and accessories. The SanDisk Creator SSD is one such storage disk that allows you to expand your storage and also back them up or transfer. Priced at Rs 10,999 for the 1TB model, let's see how it does in real usage:

The SSD measures about five credit cards put together in terms of size. You can latch it onto your iPhone thanks to the MagSafe compatibility. This also works for some recent Android phones. But if that's not what you have, SanDisk bundles a magnetic ring that sticks in the back of your phone, on which you can put the SSD. It has rubberised sides that make it grippy in the hand.

The magnetic strength of the SSD is good, such that you need not worry about it coming off the back of your device. The short USB Type-C to C cable seems like the right size for connecting the SSD and your device.

You can install the SanDisk app to manage the drive, though you can also work with the drive without using the app. Once you install it, the app does come up on its own every single time when you attach the SSD, which can be a little annoying.

During my usage, I found the drive to give write and read speeds of around 900MBps quite consistently without any frame dropping and video stuttering seen later in the recording. You can record ProRes 4k videos at 60FPS and 120FPS without having to worry about video choppiness. Only once, there was some drop in the video frame when at 120FPS with 10 minutes of video done, but absolutely none when done at more compatible H.264 and HEVC formats.

I didn't notice any power drawing or cut issues when connected to an iPhone 17 Pro or 16 Pro. If you want to connect an external mic with the SSD connected to your phone, you would have to get a USB Type-C splitter to use both at the same time while recording videos.

The SSD adds 1TB of storage and enables the ProRes video recording option. So, you add 1TB to your 128GB base variant without having to shell out as much as you would for a 1TB variant, while also getting that extra feature to edit your videos with extra details in the ProRes format.

In brief, if you are a content creator or somebody looking to add a physical storage and backup option for your devices, the SanDisk Creator SSD is a good choice as a compact SSD. It has fast read and write speeds, and it does the job with extra editing features effectively.

vivo-v60e-review-a-camera-first-mid-range-offering-with-dependable-battery-life

Tue Oct 28 16:25:18 IST 2025

Vivo has several lines of smartphones in its array, with the V series offering a camera-centric performance at a not-so-high price tag.

The new Vivo V60e comes at a price of Rs 29,999 for the base model and Rs 31,999 for the 256GB model. Let's see if it has enough to take on this competitive price segment:

First impressions

The V60e is a tall device with a quad-curved 6.77-inch display. The phone is made of plastic and has a slim profile measuring 7.5mm.

On the right side, you have the volume and power/lock buttons, while the left side is blank.

At the top is the infrared port and secondary mic, while at the bottom you have the dual SIM card slot, USB type-C port, a primary mic, and one outlet for loudspeakers.

The phone has curved corners, weighs 190g—not too heavy for its size—and is IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistant.

The V60e comes in two colour options: Elite Purple (the one I used) and Noble Gold.

Display

The 6.77-inch full HD+ (2392x1080) AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate gives the V60e good viewing angles and makes colours pop, which might be liked by some.

It isn't the brightest display, but it's certainly bright enough for outdoor usage. Watching high-resolution videos and viewing images is also a good experience with the V60e.

Camera

The device sports a dual camera system in the back—a 200MP (f/1.88) main camera with OIS, and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera—with an LED flash.

The camera app has plenty of modes and settings to choose from: something Vivo has been doing with the V series for a while.

The main camera takes detailed and well-produced shots, in terms of colours and depths. The default mode tends to overdo highlights at times, but that might be to the liking of some.

Processor

The phone is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 7360 Turbo chipset, comprising a 2.5Ghz octa-core processor, Mali-G615 MC2 GPU, 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB UFS2.2 internal storage—the higher variant comes with 12GB and 256GB.

The V60e runs on Android 15-based Funtouch OS 15 with the September security patch. The company has announced 5 years of security updates and 3 years of OS upgrades, with the OriginOS upgrade expected in a couple of months.

The phone can handle day-to-day tasks pretty well, and animations are generally fine, but it isn't the smoothest in this price tag. Also, the V60e isn't exactly for gaming, but can handle lighter titles well enough.

There are also a number of theme customisation options—from icons to the lock screen.

There are a few pre-loaded apps, but I was able to get rid of most of them in 5 minutes.

Battery

Powered by a 6,500 mAh battery unit, the phone typically lasted over a day. With heavy usage, it managed to last a day, while with moderate use, it went for 1.5 days comfortably. The bundled 90W flash charger charges it from 1 per cent to full in a bit over an hour, with no heating issues.

Wi-Fi and GPS work reliably, and 5G network reception is also solid for working on the go with a Wi-Fi hotspot in use, too. Call quality is also decent enough.

Verdict

All in all, the vivo V60e is a good option for those that prioritise camera as well as battery life in their phones. The device itself looks good but isn't meant for the best performance by any means.

apple-iphone-17-pro-review-flagship-i-os-device-back-in-aluminium

Tue Oct 14 16:36:28 IST 2025

Last week, we reviewed iPhone 17; this time, let's take a look at the iPhone 17 Pro. Priced at Rs 1,34,990 for the base 256GB variant, here's how my experience has been with the device...

Apple has gone back to aluminium for the Pro series, and the iPhone 17 Pro is heavier and slightly thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro.

It's safe to say the thermal management wasn't the best over the last two generations. Apple couldn't get that right with the material, so they have switched to aluminium again.

Experiencing the iPhone 17 Pro

The phone has rounded edges that feel more curved than before, while the back has Ceramic Shield plus glass coating cutout at the bottom for wireless induction charging, which kind of reminds me of that MagSafe wallet Apple had launched a while back.

The front has improved Ceramic Shield 2 on top. The right side houses the volume buttons and camera button near the middle; on the left side, you have the smaller power/lock key between the Action button and SIM card tray.

At the bottom, you have the primary mic, USB Type-C port and one outlet for loudspeakers. The phone isn't light or too heavy at 204grams, but it isn't compact by any means, and I don't think it's meant to be this time.

The back, other than that cutout, has the Apple logo, which is barely visible at some angles on the Silver colour I tried, but a little more prominent in the new Orange and Blue colours. There's the protruding triple camera system that seems to be the new signature look of the Pro models, and the LED flash and LiDAR scanner.

Coming to the 6.3-inch full HD+ (2622x1206) OLED display, it is not much different here from the earlier generation—it is sharp, has great colour reproduction and is usable outdoors without much trouble. You get 120Hz higher refresh rates, and it works well for scrolling and gaming requirements.

Pro's camera system

Talking about the triple camera system, you get a 48MP (f/1.78) main camera, a 48MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 48MP (f/2.8) telephoto camera on the back. The phone does really well stitched zoom shots till 4x and even 8x in suitable conditions here, but till 4x, it really shines.

The camera app allows you to shoot ProRes videos at 4K, but with an external storage disk connected. The 18MP (f/2.8) front camera is quick to take shots and does centre stage for taking group shots a little more accurately in terms of changing aspect ratio as compared to the standard iPhone 17. Video quality here is top-notch with good detailing and stabilisation when moving to shoot your videos, something Apple has excelled at for a while now.

Processing master

The phone is equipped with the new A19 Pro chipset (up to 4.26Ghz six-core CPU, six-core GPU) with 16-core neural engine and 12GB of RAM alongside 1TB internal storage (also comes in 256GB and 512GB). It's running iOS 26.0.1.

The recent update seems to have fixed some big issues, including the Spotlight Search bug that I had mentioned in the iPhone 17 review, which is nice to see.

The phone is really smooth and responsive in pretty much whatever is thrown at it. There's a vapour chamber cooling system inside, which we have seen Android OEMs do for years, and now Apple has embraced it. The thermal management this time is certainly better than the last 2 generations, when fast charging, gaming or continuously using a hotspot. It still gets warm, but nothing close to alarming any time.

For gaming, you can expect to play a game like Resident Evil 4 at 60FPS consistently and Fortnite at a higher 120FPS, though it can drop frames from that high count at times.

The device is powered by a 4,252mAh battery unit, and it can now be charged at 40 watts max. Using a compatible fast charger, it took close to 1.5 hours to charge it from 1 per cent to full. The phone lasted me a whole day and then some, even on moderate to heavy use days.

WiFi performance on the device was a little choppy to begin with, but the latest update seems to have fixed it. 5G network reception is good too, but I have got better network performance from Android flagships for working on the go. Loudspeakers in this phone are plenty loud with good depth for music playback and gaming indoors. Call quality was never a problem on either side with respect to the mic and audio in-ear.

In a nutshell, Apple's new iPhone 17 Pro is a beefier and chunkier Pro model that is meant to handle heavy use without showing any thermal issues and keeping battery life in check, too. It has a great camera setup, reliable performance and solid battery life to top out Apple's new design language.

dreame-f10-review-effective-robo-vacuum-cleaner-that-does-its-job

Mon Oct 13 12:54:32 IST 2025

With the festive season ringing bells, seasonal household cleaning efforts are going on for a lot of us. We have had robotic vacuum cleaners in the Indian market for a while now, with Dreame Technology having several options across different price ranges being one name.

The F10 is a more budget-centric option that does dry as well as mop cleaning. It is currently available on Amazon for Rs 16,999. I have been using one for a few weeks, and this is how the experience went:

The Dreame F10 has a typical robo vacuum cleaner look and feel with its circular shape, with sensors and two touch buttons for power and home on top. The bottom houses the floating brush, a 570ml trash can and a 235ml water tank. Powered by a 5,200mAh battery unit, the suction power of the F10 is 13000Pa, as per the company.

You’re required to use the Dreamehome app on your smartphone to set up WiFi on the cleaner. It took around half an hour to do the first mapping of the entire floor, and the map itself looked quite close to the realistic plan in terms of nooks and corners, as well as fixtures and furniture in place.

Mapping of the floor

You can make more maps and also assign specific zones within one to clean that separately later. There are three suction modes, including the most powerful mode for carpets. The most powerful mode is a bit noisy, but nothing too out of the ordinary. It weighs about 3.7kg on its own and comes in White (the one I tried) and Black colour options, including for the docking station.

In terms of regular cleaning of the floors, the F10 did an effective job of picking up dust, little particles and other things alongside. You can use the mopping feature using the water tank, where it would sprinkle a bit of water for a more satisfying cleaning of your floors. There’s not too much water wasted in the process, but I found some hair strands often getting stuck in the main roller brush in the process. It didn’t cause any issues in the dry cleaning process and the moving of the machinery, but it did occur regularly.

Cleaning of the floor itself is satisfactory, and rarely in a corner did I find something that should have been picked by the F10, but it didn’t. It ran smoothly across different types of floors and finishes, which was nice to see.

You can expect to run the vacuum cleaner for close to 4-5 hours on a single full charge with its 5,200mAh battery. Just pressing the home button takes it to the pre-assigned place to get charged with the docking station. There’s voice assistant support with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, and you can also set up routines for putting it to use during a specific time of the day.

It’s safe to say the Dreame F10 is quite an effective robo vacuum cleaner that does most of its job as needed. It isn’t perfect when it comes to wet cleaning, but it is certainly up to the task for picking dust, cleaning floors and being somewhat smart for covering your entire space.

sony-wh-1000xm6-wireless-headphones-india-review

Sat Oct 11 13:23:55 IST 2025

Sony’s WH-1000 series of wireless headphones is quite well known in the audio space. The company globally launched the WH-1000XM6 a few months back, with the Indian market getting its taste just last month. These are priced at Rs 39,990, aiming to cater for the higher-end headphones segment, so let’s try and check what they are about and how well they sound:

The first major change you notice is that Sony is going back to the folding hinge—this time with a stainless steel hinge in place. The folding takes place slightly differently than you might expect when putting them back in the case for the first time.

Speaking of the case, it comes with a colour-matching material: Material Blue (the one I tried), Platinum Silver, as well as Black colour options.

The fit on the 1000XM6 has a little bit of glamping force towards your ears at first, but you do get used to it with a bit more usage. It can be a little daunting at first, though. These weigh about 254grams and aren’t too heavy for their size and performance to begin with.

The pleather material feels decent on your ears. The right side has touch controls for volume and play/pause controls, and control buttons for power, 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port (for charging only), as well as ANC mode buttons.

The band at the top is wider this time, and Sony says you can now replace earcups yourself with very little effort required, as compared to the previous model.

The headphones are equipped with a QN3 processor with 30mm drivers and come with Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support and LC3, LDAC, AAC and SBC audio codecs (no aptX here). There’s Google Fast Pair for Android as well as Swift Pairing for Windows here.

Sound quality and EQ

The 1000XM6 sound really full and somewhat warm in my overall listening experience with these. They provide clear vocals and distinguished instruments without any distortion felt at just about any volume selected. I found. Their auto switch-off feature when removing the headphones and auto resume when putting them back on is reliable.

They aren’t too bass-y either. The default EQ setting needs a little bit of tweaking using the Sony Sound Connect app, which can give you a lot more bass, as per your liking. I also liked how the treble is handled in terms of balance, along with high-pitched vocals without overemphasis on either of them.

Active noise cancellation

The active noise cancellation performance on these headphones is solid. Even with ANC switched off and only passive noise cancellation, you can notice a considerable noise cut from the outside. The 1000XM6 does a fine job of cutting out regular commute noises during your music or podcast listening sessions.

I found the headphones to last well over a day of total usage (done in parts) with ANC switched off and around half a day more with it switched off. You can of course also use these wired using the 3.5mm audio jack in place.

There are half a dozen beamforming AI-enabled mics for noise cancellation and calls. I found the call quality to be decent for both indoors and outdoors. Sony says there’s some AI effect in use for cancelling out external noise, but I didn’t really see any huge difference when using these on the go.

In brief, the Sony WH-1000XM6 are a good, refined pair of headphones over the predecessors. These offer top-notch audio cancellation performance, a good, comfortable (though slightly too snuggly fit at first) fit and don’t disappoint in the battery department either. If you’re looking to splurge on an upgrade to your headphones and care for these things, the 1000XM6 can be on your consideration list for sure.

apple-iphone-17-review-big-upgrades-performance-at-the-same-base-price

Tue Oct 07 17:47:19 IST 2025

Apple’s recent launch saw as many as four new iPhone models with one of them being a brand new lineup - Air. While that may be the talk of the town, it is the regular iPhone 17 that seems to have got the biggest upgrade without change in the base price tag of Rs 82,990 and Rs 1,02,900 for the higher model, there are quite a few things to talk here. I have been using one for a few days now, and here’s how my experience been:

You may not notice any significant changes from the iPhone 16 to 17 at first glance - similar aluminium frame and glass combination - but on a closer look, there’s now a slightly taller 6.3-inch display and Apple has also upgraded to Ceramic Shield 2 on the front for added protection from day-to-day scratches. The phone has a matte finish back with the glossy Apple bang in the middle and a familiar pill-shaped dual camera setup near the left top corner. The left side houses the Action button and volume buttons on the top half and the SIM card tray slot at the bottom half; while on the right have the power/lock key near the middle and camera key near the bottom. The top just has cut-out line for network reception; and the bottom carries the second outlet for loudspeakers, USB type and primary mic. Weighing 177g, IP68 dust and water-resistant devices, I liked its Lavender and Sage colours and there’s also White, Black and Mist Blue options - arguably the best looking colour line-up among the new iPhones this time.

Coming to the 6.3-inch full HD+ (2622x1206) Super Retina XDR display - it is definitely the biggest upgrade of the phone over its predecessor. You now have a higher refresh rate 120Hz ProMotion display with always-on display support that only the Pro models had earlier. This is a brighter display with really good viewing angles, producing good colours for watching content or viewing high resolution images.

Talking about the camera performance, you get a 48MP (f/1.6) main camera and a 48MP (f2.2) ultra-wide camera. You can take. It takes sharp and detailed shots with good dynamic range to them. HDR shots seem to have improved a bit in terms of colour depth but portrait shots seem pretty much same. The front-facing 18MP (f/1.9) camera with a new feature called Centre Stage that automatically changes aspect ratios of your selfies as and when new face are detected. There are four aspect ratios supported so you don’t necessarily have to change to landscape mode to take a group selfie shot. The camera app is smooth to navigate through and has very little shutter lag most occasions. Another new feature is Dual Capture where you can shoot videos both from the rear and front cameras at the same time. It works well but it gives limited options to change settings while in this mode.

The device is equipped with the new A19 chipset (up to 4.26Ghz six-core CPU and 5-core GPU), 16-core Neural Engine coupled with 8GB and either 256GB UFS 3.1 storage or 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. It’s running in the new iOS 26.0 OS that brings a design refresh along with new features. Liquid Glass is what Apple calls this Shiney, translucent look with poppy animations and lighter tones and icons in place. Some people might prefer to tone down on transparency and increasing contrast from Accessibility settings. One feature I really like is you can now add and select custom ringtones just by adding it from the file manager and don’t have to rely on GarageBand and iTunes on your computer anymore. You can now also select a part of a message rather than the whole message by long-pressing it and tapping on select. Oh, and speaking of selecting context menu, it is now vertical in the OS rather than horizontal (but not inside apps). Being a new version, I did see a bug here and there, like the Spotlight Search feature seems broken - after searching and tapping on a result, it doesn’t go into that particular menu under Settings and rather only opens Settings so you have to search the same thing again. Performance-wise, I didn’t notice any issues.

Apps open and close quickly, switching green apps using gestures worked well and so did scrolling inside social media apps with smoother refresh rates than before, which Apple should have already done for the regular phone. For gaming, you can expect to play a game like BGMI and Wuthering Waves at 60FPS at highest settings for both and it might do higher frame rates once more games get updated for this new chipset.

Call quality in the device is top notch and so is its GPS lock-in. WiFi performance is also good and 5G network reception is also decent in line with the 16e with that C1 chip. Audio quality from the stereo speakers is loud and crisp for indoors use for gaming and music playback, noticed it has clearer dialogue delivery this than the last year’s regular 16 for watching shows and movies.

Powered by a 3,692 mAh battery unit, you can expect to last a day on low to moderate use and requiring another changer if any gaming, hotspot, and other heavy use cases involved for hours. You can charge it at 40watts now, taking around 1 hour to fully charge using a compatible fast charger with very little heating.

All in all, Apple has given a bunch of worthy and timely additions to the regular iPhone 17, some of which you can argue should have already been added by now. For the price tag, you get a quality high refresh rate display, a capable camera, decent battery life and reliable performance in place. OS is generally okay but should get it’s a few bugs here and there likely to be ironed out with a minor update next.

google-pixel-10-review-ai-feature-filled-powerhouse-smartphone

Mon Sep 29 15:17:47 IST 2025

Google's tenth generation of Pixel smartphones recently went on sale. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the look and feel of the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL haven't been changed from last year, with more refinements done underneath.

I have been using the base Pixel 10 model for a few days—priced at Rs 79,990, which also includes six months of Google One Premium plan and three months of YouTube Premium bundled. Let's see what it really offers for the price tag:

Featuring a 6.3-inch display, the phone isn't lightweight and feels a little heavier (204 grams) than you might think just as you're about to hold it for the first time. It has more weight towards the top half than the bottom half.

The phone is made of aluminium with a metal side railing and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on top for some added protection. It has curved edges and not very thick bezels, though they aren't among the thinnest; they are symmetrical.

The right side carries the power/lock button and the volume buttons near the middle; the top has the SIM card tray slot and secondary mic; and the bottom has one outlet for the loudspeakers, USB Type-C port and the primary mic.

The glossy back has that familiar big island at the top that houses the triple camera setup, and the Google logo bang in the middle. This IP78 dust and water-resistant phone, though a bit heavy, is generally comfortable to hold and carry around. It comes in Indigo (the one I tried), Frost, Obsidian, and Lemongrass colour options.

The phone's 6.3-inch Full HD+ (1080x2424) OLED Actua Display is a really nice and plenty bright display. It supports refresh rates from 60Hz to 120Hz, but not lower, which the Pro models have. You get vibrant and poppy colours, though I preferred to use it in the Natural mode for a little more accurate colour set.

The triple camera system on the back—a 48MP (f/1.7) main camera, a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 10.8MP (f/3.1) telephoto camera—remains one of the talking points about the Pixel.

There's a lot of AI stuff going on here under Magic Cue, which sits inside both Settings and the camera app. I found the camera performance to be generally really good with accurate skin tones and detailed shots with good contrasty images, as expected from a Pixel phone.

The front-facing 10.5MP (f/2.2) camera is also more than good enough for selfies in decent light, but it can have a bit of shutter lag even in medium lighting conditions indoors, though results came out satisfactory more often than not.

The bits and pieces under the camera app to toggle and the analysing screen pop-up when taking a shot—this is still very much a Pixel experience, and there's no denying the AI effect in post-processing here—some on device, some from the cloud.

Google has at last shifted its Tensor chipset to TSMC (away from Samsung), which you could argue should have been done by now. The new Tensor G5 chipset (up to 3.78GHz octa-core processor, PowerVR DXT 48 1536 GPU), 12GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 256GB UFS4.0 internal storage.

It comes with Android 16 out of the box, with what Google would like its own version of Android to look and feel like. There's a new Material Expressive 3 in place that feels more colourful and more customisable in terms of theming and iconography.

There are some odd bits, too, like the Google search widget at the bottom of your home screen, which cannot be moved to another position. When it comes to day-to-day performance, the Pixel 10 is smooth and stutter-free, as you'd like.

The new animations in some places work well, as does scrolling inside social media apps or when moving something from, say, YouTube to WhatsApp. Gaming, though, doesn't quite seem like its biggest strength. You can play a game like BGMI or CoD at medium settings with smooth playback, but not much more. It does heat up a little, but not enough to be a complaint point.

The phone supports a single SIM card, but you can add one more with eSIM. The dual stereo speakers on the device are quite loud and clear, with decent depth to them for watching videos or listening to music indoors.

Call quality, Wi-Fi, and GPS performance of the phone are top-notch, and 5G reception also seems improved over last year's phones for working on the go, though there's definitely some room for improvement in terms of consistently latching on to the 5G bands compared to Qualcomm and Apple here.

Powered by a 4,970mAh battery, battery life on the phone is decent at best. At times, with moderate use, it might last one whole day, but other times it would require another charge.

You can charge it using a fast charger at 30 watts max—taking a little under two hours to charge from 1 per cent to full.

Overall, the Pixel 10 brings a host of meaningful improvements to the Pixel line-up, but all may not be huge on the face of it. There's a much better chipset in place now, but it still has a long way to go in terms of gaming performance. On the other hand, general day-to-day performance, responsive software and seven years of OS and security updates make this a standout on the Android side. If you're looking for your first high-end Google smartphone without going up to the Pro budget, the Pixel 10 is worth your consideration.

oppo-f31-pro-plus-smartphone-review

Wed Sep 24 16:32:01 IST 2025

We use our phones pretty much every single day and carry them around wherever and whenever we go. The majority of people use a case and screen protector for extra protection, but for a while, brands have been trying to make their phones sturdier and less prone to physical damage. Oppo's new F31 Pro+ is one such smartphone.

Priced at Rs 32,999, the phone offers an Armour Body, multiple ingress protection ratings and Dragontrail glass on top. Let's check how it actually performs in real usage:

This is a tall phone by any measure, with its 6.8-inch display. The phone comes in Himalayan White, Festive Pink, and Gemstone Blue colour options that show changing colours depending on the angle at which the light hits it.

The Gemstone Blue version I tried weighs 195g, and the polycarbonate frame feels decent to hold. The back has the familiar wheel-like setup for the camera near the top and the Oppo logo near the bottom. It is an IP66/68/69 dust and water-resistant device and can withstand harsher conditions better than an average smartphone, according to the company.

The 6.8-inch full HD+ (2800x1280) AMOLED display is bright and usable outdoors, plus it's vivid in terms of colour reproduction, which we have come to expect from Oppo. It keeps details intact for high-resolution videos and images with good colour depth.

Coming to the performance, the phone is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.63GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 7 series GPU) along with 8GB (or 12GB) LPDDR4X RAM and either 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage. The phone runs on ColorOS 1.5 based on Android 15 with the September security patch in place. Day-to-day performance of the phone is pretty good; you wouldn't notice any stuttering or major lag when switching between apps, scrolling through social media apps or watching videos on YouTube.

What isn't good, though, is the number of pre-installed apps, of which there are quite a few and which send you push notifications if not disabled or uninstalled. It would take around 10 minutes to get rid of most of these, but it's not certain how many people would make the effort in the first place unless they are eventually bothered by it.

When it comes to gaming, you can expect to play CoD at medium settings, but at the highest settings for BGMI, the phone might get a bit warm. Oppo's ColorOS 15 has some nice AI features, such as AI eraser and Reflection Removal, which work well, but there isn't anything brand new under the AI umbrella here. The company promises two years of OS updates and three years of security patches.

Coming to the camera, you get a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera and a 2MP (f/2.4) monochrome camera. The overall camera quality is a bit hit-and-miss. At times, it would produce well-composed shots with good details and colours, but at other times, you would miss your subject's focus when moving a little. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.4) camera is capable of taking good selfies with decent sharpness and can hold its own in low light, too.

The device is powered by a 7,000mAh battery, which is certainly its USP. With dual SIM cards in place, it lasted over 1.5 days and at times two days with heavy to moderate use, which is very good. You can charge it using the bundled 80-watt Super charger from 1% to full in around an hour.

The phone's WiFi and GPS performance is satisfactory, while the 5G network reception is also quite good outdoors, with a hotspot in use for working on the go.

In brief, the Oppo F31 Pro+ does well with its tough build and looks, but while the chipset isn't the best for the price tag, it does offer a smooth day-to-day experience. Also, you get great battery life and display, but the bloatware out of the box is still a point to consider.

sony-ult-field-3-review-a-simple-offering-with-well-balanced-features-and-signature-sound

Mon Sep 22 17:56:34 IST 2025

Sony recently announced new speakers under its ULT FIELD series.

The new portable ULT FIELD 3, which is part of this series, aims to deliver a signature bass-y sound that the ULT series is made for.

At a current price tag of Rs 17,990, does the FIELD 3 really have enough up its sleeves? Let's try and check:

First impressions

The speaker is rectangular in shape and weighs around 1.2kg. It is also quite portable and can be carried around after attaching the strap included in the box to two points near the shoulder of the speaker.

On the top, you have physical control keys for power, Bluetooth (both have a small LED above them), skip, and volume, as well as the big ULT key.

On the front, there's also the Sony branding, while at the back—under a pull-out rubber flap—you have the USB type-C port and a battery care button that tells you the battery percentage left on a short press.

Made of durable plastic and mesh material on top, the speaker seems sturdy and feels nice in the hand to carry around. There are rubber feet at the bottom two ends.

The ULT FIELD 3 supports Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC and AAC audio codecs. You can even pair your smartphone with the speaker, making it double up as a virtual assistant like Google Assistant or Siri.

It is IP67 rated for dust and water resistance and comes in the Forest Grey (which I tried and prefer), Off White, and Black colour options. In fact, it is the only ULT FIELD speaker from the series (other than the FIELD 5) to come in this many colours.

Sound quality

You get one tweeter and one woofer combination here.

The ULT key at the top adds a bass boost for those who like that extra oomph: and it doesn't disappoint.

The speaker delivered clear background playback for low to medium high volume settings with fairly deep bass that a lot of people might like.

With the extra bass disabled, I found that the treble took a little more emphasis—sounding better than when the extra bass was enabled—for multiple instruments.

It's not the loudest Bluetooth speaker available at this price point today, but it is quite clear in terms of vocals, as well as lows. You can use Sony's Sound Connect app to adjust EQ presets (there are quite a few of those this time) or for switching the speaker to party mode or stamina mode.

Battery

You can expect somewhere around 18-20 hours of battery backup from the speaker when in medium to highest volume with the ULT key disabled, and a little lower, if enabled at all times.

Verdict

Summing it up, the new ULT FIELD 3 delivers quite well with its bass and clear sound while maintaining a neat design that works for outdoor usage.

oneplus-pad-3-review-a-well-rounded-performance-beast-with-a-few-display-camera-concerns

Mon Sep 15 16:11:29 IST 2025

There aren't many brands in the Android tablet space that have carved out a niche for offering reliable and consistent tablets that can take on the likes of the Apple iPads. OnePlus is certainly among them.

With the new OnePlus Pad 3—the company's biggest and costliest tablet so far—the aim is to offer an all-in-one tablet for your entertainment and work on the go.

Though announced a while back, its price in India was announced only a few days ago.

Does it do justice to its price tag of Rs 47,999 for the base model and Rs 52,999 for the higher model? Does it have enough to go against Apple and Samsung? Let's explore:

Display and first impressions

The OnePlus Pad 3 is a slim tablet measuring under 6mm in thickness and weighing 675g. Its 13.2-inch screen (3392x2400) LCD LTPS, at a 7:5 aspect ratio display, doesn't have the slimmest bezels, but are still slim enough.

Offering refresh rates up to 144Hz, this is a fairly bright display with good colour reproduction.

I found it more than good enough to play YouTube videos at their highest resolution, as well as local media content at full resolution with good contrast and details in place (though it seems there is no HDR support for Netflix).

While some might say an OLED screen is a big miss, the fact there's no anti-flicker display feature here (that some high-end OnePlus phones have) seems odd.

The aluminium unibody back has the OnePlus logo bang in the middle, with a tweaked-up pill-shaped camera in one corner and magnetic pogo pins near the bottom.

When in landscape mode, the top-left corner has the volume buttons and the secondary mic, placed next to the power/lock key on the adjoining corner. The right side houses the USB type-C port and the primary mic. Two outlets in each side make for the 8-speaker setup. The tablet comes in Storm Blue (which I tried) and Frosty Silver colour options.

Camera

The front-facing 8MP (f/2.0) camera is okay for video calls and occasionally taking selfies if you want to, but don't expect exceptional shots.

The rear-facing 13MP (f/2.2) camera is also okay for the occasional shot if you really want to hold such a big tablet to take a photo.

Hardware

The 4-tweeters plus 4-woofers setup for audio may not be the loudest you might have heard from a tablet, but it still packs in enough depth and details to be a viable option to use it indoors.

Equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (housing a 4.32Ghz octa-core processor and Adreno 830 GPU), the Pad 3 comes with 12GB LPDDR5x RAM and 256GB UFS4.0 internal storage.

Another variant of the Pad 3 offers 16GB LPDDR5T with 512GB UFS4.0 configuration).

The tablet is powered by a 12,140mAh battery unit that can be charged using the bundled 80W SuperVOOC charger: charging it from 1 per cent to full in under 2 hours, which isn't bad for a tablet. It lasted about 12 hours of usage on a single charge.

There's still no fingerprint reader, which I would have liked here, since this is the third generation of their Pad tablets. No microSD card slot may be a bigger miss for some other people.

Performance

Performance is definitely one of this tablet's strengths. It runs on OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15 with the August security patch in place. The device handles day to performance without any troubles.

The OS now has better multitasking capabilities with up to 3 apps opened side by side. You can have, say, Discord, YouTube, and Twitter all running and refreshing at once, and you wouldn't notice any stuttering. For watching high resolution videos, checking images, editing photos too, the Pad 3 doesn't disappoint.

WiFi 6, on the other hand, is very much present and worked flawlessly throughout my usage (WiFi 7 is also supported, but no use in India, as of now).

Folio Case support

The official Pad 3 keyboard and cover combo are also decent for the price tag. The Folio Case is priced at Rs 1,699 and does a good job of protecting the tablet from scratches. However, it isn't yet officially available.

There's another downside to the Folio Case: when attached to the tablet along with the keyboard, its stand isn't very stable, and the angle it's set at may not always work for typing. The keyboard, though, has large keys and a trackpad that are quite comfortable to type on.

Verdict

All in all, the OnePlus Pad 3 comes across as a well performing tablet that is not only good for multimedia consumption, but also for a bit of multitasking, some work, some play, and getting things done on the go.

television-review-thomson-mini-qd-les-masterclass-no-nonsense-tv-shows-promise-in-all-quarters

Tue Sep 09 14:36:17 IST 2025

Thomson has been one of the lesser-known but growing players in the Indian TV market for a while now.

With its own manufacturing and R&D in place, the company deals in a number of categories of TVs, including Mini QD LED TVs, which it also launched a couple of months back in 65 and 75-inch sizes.

I have been using the 65-inch model, which is priced at Rs 61,999, for a few weeks now.

The look and build of the TV are very familiar and nothing much we haven't seen before on a big TV.

The table-top stands near the two ends, while the indicator LED sits at the middle next to the bottom-facing physical button for power.

You get slim bezels and Thomson branding at the front. The plastic back houses the side-facing LAN port, 3 HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eARC), audio out, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port, optical in, and the other end has the power port.

Coming to the remote control, it's a long bar with app shortcut keys for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and so on. The remote control had to be at a similar height to the bottom of the TV when adjusting something, slightly lower in height, and it wouldn't catch the signal, which was annoying at times.

The 65-inch Ultra HD (3840x2160) display (16:9 aspect ratio) is sufficiently bright that you wouldn't miss out on many details when viewing HDR10 or even Dolby Vision content on it.

There's local dimming, but that may not always work well when viewing something with fast-moving objects; otherwise, the TV did well to handle the dimming part.

You get good viewing angles, so you don't miss out on contrast and colours from different angles, which is nice to see from a big budget TV, giving richer black points than a regular LED TV. It also handled live sports well with no jarring effects seen.

The TV is powered by 2GB RAM and a MediaTek chip with Mali G52 GPU that handles 120Hz refresh rates in compatible games quite well, though you might find it to handle games at their highest settings better at 90Hz, such that the game would have fewer drops in frame, as well as just be more enjoyable to play.

The built-in storage of 16GB had around 10GB available out of the box. The TV is smooth in navigating, changing apps or hopping between Chromecast and AirPlay.

I was able to play media from an external disk just fine, be it just about any audio and video codes except for DTS:X, which isn't supported here.

The TV has 6 speakers and 2 sub-woofers in trial, giving out about 108 Watts of total output and that resulted in pretty loud and deep sound from the TV that you could use for a 10x10 room for sports and music playback just fine.

While dialogue delivery isn't bad either, it is still not as clear and crisp as you might want to compare with using a set of speakers or a soundbar with it to see.

In my experience, the soundbar would just do a better job, but then you would also have to invest in one. The Dolby Atmos effect in movies and TV series is also not bad for the price tag here.

In conclusion, the Thomson Mini QD LES Masterclass is a really good performing smart TV that does justice to the price tag with its good video output and more than decent sound output that can be recommended if you're looking for a 65-inch TV under the 65k price tag.

lava-blaze-amoled-2-review-great-budget-5g-device-with-no-bloatware

Tue Sep 02 12:49:58 IST 2025

Lava has been among the top growing smartphone brands for the past two to three years, with its affordable, value-for-money offerings with good performance for the price tags.

The new Blaze AMOLED 2 aims to offer a slim 5G device at Rs 13,499. Does it have enough to be a consideration for you?

The first thing you might notice about the device is its slimness, measuring 7.55mm and that visor at the back that might remind you of the Google Pixel or the OnePlus Nord 4 a bit.

The phone has a plastic body through and through, with a shiny back in the Midnight Black model, and less on the Feather White model. With curved corners and around 174 grams in weight, this IP64 dust and water-resistant phone is comfortable to carry around.

The right side carries the volume buttons and power/lock key. The top houses one outlet for loudspeakers, an infrared port and a secondary mic; the bottom carries the dual SIM + microSD card hybrid tray slot, USB type C port and the second outlet for loudspeakers.

The 6.67-inch full HD+ (2400x1080) AMOLED supports up to 120Hz refresh rates. It's a fairly bright display with okay viewing angles that's usable outdoors under direct sunlight. You can play full HD videos on it and get good sharpness and colour combination for the price tag.

Powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 7060 chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa-core processor and BXM-8-256 GPU) with 6GB LPDDR5X RAM (higher variant comes with 8GB) and 128GB UFS3.1 internal storage. It's running on Android 15 with barely any third-party stuff pre-loaded.

The phone's day-to-day performance is more than good enough, and it shows very little lag when moving between social media apps, messaging apps and YouTube once in a while. Lava promises only one major OS upgrade and two years of security patches, but otherwise, this is a good performer, and internal hardware is in place for a sub-15k device.

The phone boasts a 50MP and 2MP camera combination. The main camera can take nice shots in medium to bright lighting settings. There is a little bit of shutter lag even in suitable conditions. In low light, it can struggle quite a bit and the same for the video. You can try to keep the phone steady, but there's often a lot of graininess. The front-facing 8MP camera does a good job of taking selfies, and for video calls, it's not a deal breaker.

The device is equipped with a 5,000mAh battery unit and comes with a 33-watt charger with a USB Type-C to Type-C cable (along with a protective case). You can expect to get a full day of use from the phone quite regularly without any major battery drainage issues. The bundled charger can charge it from 1 per cent to full in a little under 1.5 hours.

It has WiFi 5 only at most, but that's sufficient for many and works well, so does GPS and Bluetooth. 5G network reception is also not bad and can be used for working outdoors.

The Lava Blaze AMOLED 2 is a pretty good performer on most counts and does offer a lot of things for the price tag. So, for those who may be looking for a budget 5G device or a second phone without going above Rs 15,000 and no bloatware out of the box, the phone is definitely worth a look.

oneplus-nord-ce5-review-a-well-rounded-reliable-device-with-forgettable-camera-performance

Mon Aug 18 17:04:44 IST 2025

OnePlus recently launched its new Nord series phones—the Nord 5 and the Nord CE5 (which is the more affordable of the two devices).

The phones' prices range from ₹24,999 all the way to ₹26,999 for the higher-end model.

ALSO READ | OnePlus Nord 5 smartphone review: Great budget choice for high-end mobile gaming

I have been using one for a few days, and here's how my experience with it has been: let's see if it justifies the price tag:

First impressions

The first thing you might notice about the OnePlus Nord CE5 is its pill-shaped protruding dual camera setup at the back, with the OnePlus branding sitting in the middle.

The phone's front side has symmetric and thin bezels around the display that have an aspect ratio of 19.9:9. The volume buttons and power/lock key sit on the right side, leaving the other side plain.

ALSO READ | Realme 15 Pro review: A worthy performer in its price range

The secondary mic is at the top, while the bottom carries the dual SIM cards and microSD card tray slot, a USB Type-C port, primary mic, and the single loudspeaker.

You get rounded corners with sides that are around 8.2mm thick and weigh 200g, so the phone isn't too bulky to carry around. The plastic back feels okay to hold with no bending or creaking noises from the phone.

The phone comes in Nexus Blue (which is the one I tried), Marble Mist and Black Infinity colour options.

Display

The phone's 6.77-inch full HD+ (2392x1080) AMOLED—with support for up to a 120Hz refresh rate—is a bright display that is usable outside under direct sunlight.

You also get good viewing angles with great colour reproduction for the price as well as sharpness. HDR output isn't bad, with videos in HDR coming out fairly well-stitched when going from bright to darker scenes. OnePlus also offers a lifetime warranty on the display (after the infamous green line issue).

Camera

The phone features a dual camera setup at the back: a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS) and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera.

ALSO READ | Moto Edge 60 Fusion review: A clean OS experience, good design, and satisfactory battery life

The phone takes detailed shots in default mode and I prefer the high-resolution 50MP mode when there's decent lighting available. There's very little shutter lag here, which is nice to see, but it's safe to say the camera can struggle to keep up with the subject's details and colour in low-light shots.

The front-facing 16MP (f/2.4) camera does a good job of taking selfies in most situations with a bit of shutter lag. It is more than good enough to make video calls over apps like WhatsApp and you can add filter overlays while making a video call, too.

Processor

The device is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset (up to a 3.35Ghz octa core processor and G615 MC6 GPU) with 8GB (which I used) or 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB or 256GB UFS3.1 internal storage (expandable up to 1TB via a microSD card).

The phone runs on OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15 with the June security patch installed, and handles day-to-day tasks without major glitches.

The only place where I found animations dropping is OnePlus' Notes, which is otherwise a nice application.

Hardware

OnePlus promises 6 years of security updates and 4 years of OS updates for the OnePlus Nord CE5. You get OnePlus AI features that are present on the company's high-end devices. For gaming, you can expect to play heavy games like 'BGMI' and 'CoD: Mobile' at 90FPS. You can even set it to 120FPS (but that isn't ideal).

What's lacking in the gaming department is a set of stereo speakers, because with only a single bottom-placed speaker, multimedia experience does take a hit. Call quality, WiFi and GPS performance are really good, while 5G network reception on the go didn't disappoint.

Powered by a 7,100mAh battery unit, the phone earlier showed some battery drainage inconsistency, but with the last OxygenOS update, it has been much more reliable in terms of battery backup—often lasting over a day, even with an hour-and-a-half or so of gaming done.

It rarely heated up, too. The bundled 80W SuperVOOC charger can charge it from 1 per cent to 100 per cent in a just over an hour.

Verdict

In conclusion, the OnePlus Nord CE5 is a well-rounded device that caters to those looking for a long battery life, reliable performance and maybe some AI flavour.

While performance is good enough, too, the camera, on the other hand, can be a bit of a hit-or-miss.

sennheiser-accentum-open-tws-headphones-review-high-on-comfort-fit-and-battery-life

Wed Aug 13 16:32:39 IST 2025

Sennheiser is more well-known for its headphones than for its TWS models, and the company has been launching TWS models for a few years now, with the Accentum Open being the latest pair, currently priced at ₹9,999. These are open-stem, wireless earbuds that aim to offer lightweight buds for those seeking Bluetooth earbuds on the go.

Sennheiser Accentum Open features open-designed stem-styled wireless buds that are pretty lightweight. The outside of the stem features a touch panel that can be used to put the device in pairing mode, adjust the volume (long-tap the left bud to decrease and the right one to increase), and enable or disable Smart Pause.

The touch controls are pretty responsive, with the buds catching your touch more often than not after you’re used to the touch panel. The buds are IPX4 splash resistant so should be okay for gym use but certainly not made for any water-related activities.

The case is also lightweight and doesn’t catch fingerprints quickly, though you would still need to give it a wipe if you want to avoid any smudges. The bottom side of the case houses the LED indicator as well as the USB Type-C port. What I didn’t like about the case is that hinge—it tends to close too frequently on the slightest touch and doesn’t necessarily seem assuring when opening and closing intentionally.

I found these comfortable to wear, and the open design definitely plays a part. While there’s no active noise cancellation, many people would overlook this considering how well these fit and feel, even when worn for longer periods.

The buds have 11mm drivers and support Bluetooth 5.3 (with Bluetooth LE) along with SBC and AAC audio codecs, and not any other one. Regarding its audio quality, the Accentum Open generally produces a balanced output with decent bass for a pair of open TWS. The treble is handled well, resulting in an overall clear sound that allows background instruments to shine without compromising vocals. These can get loud without any distortion for several genres. Mic quality is decent, but not the best for TWS when making calls outdoors.

The buds pause when one is removed from the ear, and you can also use only one at a time if you want. You can also connect these two devices simultaneously for juggling between work and play.

The buds didn’t work with the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus app, but I didn’t feel as if I was missing out on anything due to that. Both buds feature a 36mAh battery, and the case boasts a 400mAh battery, offering 6.5 to 7 hours of playback with an additional 20 hours when the case is used. This is not bad for daily use, and the buds also support fast charging, offering approximately 1.5 hours of use with just 10 minutes of charging.

In summary, if you prefer comfort and balanced sound from your earphones, the Sennheiser Accentum Open are an option worth consideration at the current price point. Not many open-back TWSs are available, so that is your preference. These might just be your TWS to have, whether using with an Android smartphone, an iPhone or a Windows laptop.

smartphone-realme-15-pro-review-a-worthy-performer-in-its-price-range

Fri Aug 08 14:54:11 IST 2025

Realme's new 15 series was launched in India recently, with the 15 Pro priced at Rs. 31,999 for the base model. I have been using one for a couple of weeks, and here's how my experience has been:

The first thing you notice about the device is its familiar vegan leather-textured back and a curved display in the front. The phone comes in Velvet Green (the one I tried), Flowing Silver, and Silk Purple.

The right side carries the volume buttons and power/lock key, while the left side is all plain. The top carries secondary mics and an infrared port. The bottom houses the dual SIM card tray slot, USB Type-C port, one outlet for loudspeakers and the primary mic. The back is a little more interesting with the dual camera setup and a flicker sensor with an unnecessary cutout.

The circular light in the module of the ultra-wide camera that lights up in case of a notification (or you can choose to have it turned on at other times), very similar to what we used to see in Android phones many years back, but of course, those used to be on the front. This is an IP69 dust and water-resistant device that weighs just under 190grams with decent weight distribution.

The 6.8-inch 1.5K(2880x1280) AMOLED display supports up to 144Hz refresh rates and is quite bright, making it suitable for use outdoors in direct sunlight. The curve around the sides is not very heavy but is still a little reflective at certain angles.

The display handles high-resolution videos well, giving good details and popping colours in the default Vivid mode, though I prefer its Cinematic mode. It also handled HDR content quite well, with shadows and contrast looking good in darker scenes, too.

The dual camera setup—50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS) and a 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide camera—gives well-stitched and detailed shots with still subjects and decent to medium lighting conditions. OIS does seem to help in low-light shots, but you would get grainy photos in challenging lighting conditions indoors or outdoors. It can shoot 4K videos at 60FPS, which can provide good results outdoors with good lighting. The front-facing 50MP (f/2.4) camera is nice for selfie shots, including portrait shots, capturing good details and making out the subject and background.

The phone is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset (up to 2.8 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 772 GPU) with 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS3.1 internal storage. It's running on Android 15-based Realme UI 6.0. The day-to-day performance of the device is nothing to complain about. It can handle multiple social media apps, scrolling while listening to music in the background, and split-view for multiple apps well.

Animations are generally quite smooth, and you would rarely see any stuttering happening. Animations themselves could be a little better in terms of how they behave, go about when in action, such as a blurring effect or a swivel effect. For heavy gaming, you can expect to get 60 FPS gameplay at the highest settings, but you can see some rendering issues in heavy games like GTA San Andreas every now and then. There are some nice AI features to remove unnecessary objects from your photos or give instructions to add something. You can use AI Edit Genie to add some things, like another background or changing the scene in your image; it works well at times. There's also AI for writing and summarising notes.

Powered by a 7,000mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me a whole day comfortably, almost every single time. The bundled 80-watt charger can charge it from 1% to full in a little over an hour without any major heating issues.

Dual stereo speakers on the phone are loud but not the loudest or deepest we have seen from realme at this price range. WiFi and GPS performance are trouble-free, and 5G network reception was also quite reliable outdoors for working on the go.

All in all, the Realme 15 is a good performer, but not the best across various departments. It has a nice camera, but not the best in the segment, decent design and great battery life. Software performance isn't bad, but it's not the most gaming-friendly device in this price range.

sonos-arc-ultra-and-sub-4-review-a-home-entertainment-combo-that-doesn-t-disappoint

Mon Aug 04 16:50:53 IST 2025

A lot of people invest in a nice, large screen TV for entertainment at home —the largest screen in the house. But let's face it, many times, these TVs, especially the budget ones, fulfil the visual part but fall short on the audio. Sonos' Arc Ultra, along with the Sub 4, aims to take care of your home entertainment audio. Priced at Rs 99,990 and Rs 84,990, respectively, let's explore what these two can deliver together:

First, the Arc Ultra's design, this pill-shaped soundbar measures nearly 47 inches in breadth and weighs 5.9kg. It features a matte finish on most of the body with capacitive touch keys for playback controls and pairing at the top with the HDMI-in, LAN port, Bluetooth switch and power in located at the back.

The Sub 4, on the other hand, weighs under 12kg and is this big rectangular block with a woofer cavity in the middle. There's an LED at the front like the Arc Ultra, but also a pairing button, plus the LAN port and power in at the bottom. You can mount the Arc Ultra, but the wall mount has to be bought separately.

The TruePlay room setting detection lets the speaker scan the surroundings and room dimensions for what it considers better audio output according to the acoustics. You can use the system wirelessly over Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay or wired with an HDMI cable (bundled with the Arc Ultra). These support Bluetooth 5.3 with only AAC and SBC codec support.

Wired is where the combination truly shines and how it is mainly meant to be used. With the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 working together, you get really clear vocals on pretty much whatever is thrown at it—rock, metal, pop, hip hop. You can also enable Speech Enhancement from Settings for more emphasis on dialogue delivery when watching movies and TV shows. This in itself is one reason the Sonos combo can improve your TV experience considerably.

You get good treble as well as mids with the soundbar shining with a lot of depth and loudness without distortions at higher volume levels. It can fill a 15x15 room, provided you've placed both the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 well enough.

You can do an advanced calibration using the iOS app to try different positions. With added Dolby Atmos, you can expect to get a nice surround sound effect when watching something in Atmos.

The Arc Ultra is equipped with 14 drivers, including 2 upward firing ones—a 5.1.2 channel system. Adding the Sub 4 and an Era speaker, the entire set up transforms to a 9.1.4 channel system.

Oddly, there's no DTS:X present here, so some Blu-ray disc playback DTS would not be lossless. Having said that, the more I use these, the more I like how well they handle different genres or movies, series, TV content, and even live sports, while you're at it.

Both the soundbar and subwoofer can be paired together with the Sonos app or by the buttons. The app isn't too great to use and might be the loose end of the entire experience. The Sub 4 has dual woofers facing inward plus dual amplifiers.

While the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 together aren't budget purchases by any means, they do take your audio experience at home to a different level if you don't have anything set up with your TV for audio so far. You get really good and filling sound for various needs—music playback, movies, TV shows, live sports or just something mellow playing in the background. Safe to say, the combination of Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 for your home entertainment does not disappoint.

are-bo-at-nirvana-zenith-pro-and-ivy-pro-the-best-budget-tws-earbuds-an-honest-review

Mon Jul 28 12:32:12 IST 2025

To say boAt is one of the most popular homegrown brands in the past five years or so wouldn't be wrong. The personal wearables and audio-centred brand has recently come out with not one but two pairs of true wireless earbuds - Nirvana Zenith Pro at ₹2,999 and Nirvana Ivy Pro at ₹4,999. Let's try and explore if these have enough to take on the likes of OnePlus, Realme and Nothing:

The Nirvana Ivy Pro comes in a flat rectangular charging case with a matte finish top that carries the Nirvana by boAt branding. It's slightly oversized case but is still pocketable for daily use. The right side has the USB type-C port and the corner has holes for using a lanyard with it.

There's a small LED at the front and a physical pairing button resting inside the case. The Zenith Pro has a little more distinct look with a half-transparent plastic case that opens up to reveal the earbuds in a standing position. The lower side is where you see the physical pairing button as well as the USB type-C port. There's an LED inside the case to indicate power and pairing. All four buds have a small LED on their own as well. Both have the stem cell design with the Ivy Pro having slightly longer in-ear fit than the Zenith Pro.

The Zenith Pro (IPX4 water-resistant) comes in Velvet Grey, Platinum Gold and Crimson Red (the one I tried), while the Ivy Pro (IPX5 water-resistant) comes in Crystal Black, Purple Haze (the one I tried), Ivory Gold and Mist Blue colour options.

Coming to the audio quality, both pairs have LDAC along with AAC and SBC audio codecs support with Bluetooth 5.3 for the Ivy Pro (dual 11mm and 6mm drivers) and 5.4 for the Zenith Pro (12mm drivers). These support Dolby Atmos playback with head-tracking. I found both the buds to offer sufficiently rich bass and mids for most genres like hip hop, Bollywood, Punjabi, and so on. You can hear vocals clearly without missing the background details, though the one place where they can sometimes lack is background drums when playing something rock or metal with other instruments going on at the same time.

On the other hand, noise cancellation is surprisingly decent in both these devices as they cancelled out indoor and some outdoor mid-pitch noises quite consistently. While the Znoeth Pro has three mics each, the Ivory Pro has six mics and I found mic quality to be good in both, but a little better in the Ivy Pro when used outdoors. While playing something on the Ivy Pro, with LDAC enabled, I found it used the higher-end codec consistently across apps, while the same can't be said for the Zenith Pro, which would often downgrade to AAC during the playback. Head tracking is supported on third-party apps, including Apple Music, but I found it only occasionally working well to its affect, when turning your head with some music on, which isn't a deal breaker for the price tag.

Ivy Pro comes with 43mAh battery on each of the buds and 400mAh in the charging case, while the Zenith Pro gets bigger 60mAh battery on each of the buds and 600mAh in the battery case; you can expect to go for over a fortnight with three hours of usage each day without having to worry about charging again. Even longer in the case of the Zenith Pro. Both buds take around 1.5 hours to charge from near empty to full.

One thing I really didn't like about these is that you can't lower the volume of notifications from the buds themselves, such as the ambient mode or EQ mode announcement and the app, too, has no option to switch that off. It gets too loud and jarring at times.

You can use the boAt Hearables app to adjust the touch controls, update the firmware or also listen to JioSaavn and Kuku FM, though it's only a limited number of tracks.

All in all, they aren't the most comfortable TWS out there, but still comfortable enough and provide good audio quality and noise cancellation for the price tags. While the Zenith Pro is a nice new option for those looking for a slightly different-looking TWS and want long battery life, while the Ivy Pro is good enough itself with overall good audio quality and mic performance for music and work on the go at this price point.

sony-wf-c710n-earbuds-review-familiar-warmth-and-detailing-in-a-bulky-splash-resistant-upgrade

Mon Jul 21 12:47:49 IST 2025

Sony recently unveiled its new WF-C710N in the Indian market as a successor to the WF-C700N, which was introduced some time ago. Priced at ₹8,990 (currently available at ₹7,990), the wireless earbuds aim to offer good sound quality with active noise cancellation.

First things first, the Glass Blue colour option for the buds is by far the best of the lot, featuring a translucent blue plastic body that allows you to view some of the inner components of the buds (as well as the charging case).

The other colours include Pink, Black and White. The hybrid silicone buds are also similar but slightly lighter in colour. The buds feature Sony branding and microphones on the outside, while the inside contains left and right indicators, pogo pins for charging, and sensors.

The case isn’t IPX4 splash resistant like the buds are, but it has a nice heft to it. With a familiar oval, curved shape, the case is just about compact enough to be kept in the pocket. The back of the charging case houses the USB Type-C port as well as the physical button for pairing; the front has a single LED.

Although a little bulkier than its predecessor, I found the WF-C710N comfortable to wear and didn’t notice any discomfort after wearing it for an hour or so. Due to their splash-resistance and fit, these may be ideal for your workout needs, especially if you tend to sweat a lot.

The buds feature Bluetooth 5.3 with AAC and SBC audio codecs. It features Google Fast Pair and supports multi-device connection, allowing you to connect your phone and laptop to switch between play and work without needing an additional pair. You can use the Sony Connect app to update the buds’ firmware, adjust the EQ, and change ambient noise cancellation settings, among other features.

Coming to the audio quality, the WF-C710N generally offer a clear and somewhat detailed sound output that is quite good for the price tag. It isn’t the bass-heavy Sony TWS out there, but it gives clean and sufficiently deep bass. It handles most genres with some very Sony-like warmth and detailing.

When it comes to noise cancellation, the buds do a nice job of keeping low- to mid-frequency noises away with relative consistency. Fan, low wind, ACs, and so on are comfortably handled without much toll taken on the sound quality. It would have been nice to have Sony’s own LDAC codec or aptX support here, but it’s probably not a big deal breaker for many people at this price range.

For battery life, the WF-C710N can last over 10 days with daily sessions of around 2 to 2.5 hours for both music and calls. You can expect close to what Sony promises from the buds with the included charging case. Of course, the more ANC is in use, the shorter the battery life will be. Its microphone quality was okay, but nothing remarkable, making it suitable for indoor usage, although not as effective in outdoor, windy conditions.

All in all, Sony’s new WF-C710N offer a nice design with a comfortable fit alongside sufficient bass and detailing on the audio front. It comes across as a considerable option if that’s all you prioritise with a budget of around ₹8k these days.

oneplus-nord-5-smartphone-review-great-budget-choice-for-high-end-mobile-gaming

Mon Jul 14 15:42:36 IST 2025

The OnePlus Nord series has been among the top sought-after value offerings in the Indian smartphone market for the past several years. Slowly and steadily, it has been growing in sales figures while coming up with upgrades.

The new Nord 5 brings along some upgrades (and perhaps, some downgrades) from the well-liked Nord 4. For a base price of ₹31,999, ₹34,999 for the middle model, and ₹37,999 for the highest one, let us see if this is worth the price tag and your consideration:

The first thing you might notice on the Nord 5 is its marble and satin finish back. It isn’t a metal unibody this time, like the Nord 4, but a combination of plastic and glass—yet it did not feel inexpensive. You get rounded corners, thin bezels, and it might take you a bit to realise this is made of plastic with glass over it, especially in the back of the phone.

The camera bump, wrapped in an oval-shaped cutout, looks nice while the familiar OnePlus branding sits in the middle of the back. The front 6.83-inch display (19.8:9 aspect ratio) has Corning’s Gorilla Glass 7i for better protection.

The right side carries the volume buttons and a dedicated Plus key (more on that later), while the left side has the Alert button—it is not a slider. The bottom houses the dual SIM card tray slot, USB type C port, primary mic and one outlet of stereo speakers; the top has the other outlet for speakers, infrared port and the secondary mic.

The phone is IP65 dust and water-resistant and weighs 211grams, so it’s not very light, but its weight distribution is quite good.

Coming to the display, you get a 6.83-inch 1.5k (2800x1272) AMOLED with support for up to 144Hz refresh rates. This is a good quality panel that can also handle HDR content well without struggling with darker scenes. It has good viewing angles, colour reproduction and crisp text reading. I preferred to use it in the Natural mode, while some might prefer the default Vivid mode.

The phone sports a dual camera setup—a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The phone’s camera performance is consistent and good in terms of details from the main camera. It can handle its own in low-light, though there can be noise and colour degradation there depending on your subject, which isn’t surprising. You can shoot 4K videos at up to 60 frames per second.

The front-facing 50MP (f/2.0) camera (with autofocus) is perhaps the best OnePlus has got on a Nord device. Shots come out clear, detailed and have more than good enough dynamic range for your social media use. The camera app is generally responsive, and there wasn’t too much shutter lag either.

Equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset (up to 3GHz octa-core processor, Adreno 735 GPU) along with 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS3.1 internal storage (also comes in 8GB + 128GB and 12GB + 512GB configurations). It’s running on Android 15-based OxygenOS 15 with the June security patch installed.

The chipset here isn’t a huge upgrade from the Nord, while the internal storage has been a bit of a downgrade from the UFS 4.0 used earlier. I found its day-to-day performance to be up to the mark. No stuttering in social media apps, smooth app switching, as well as a typing experience.

Playing high-resolution videos or having music playback in the background while you scroll through some other app worked without any issues.

For gaming, you can expect to play BGMI at 90Hz and 144Hz with frame boosting, though I would prefer 90Hz since this is the game’s native playback and produces just nicer playback; You can also play a game like Genshin Impact at 60Hz.

OxygenOS has brought back OnePlus’ own dialer. Its feature-rich AI translation and summary option seems to be in a beta mode since it doesn’t perform so well so far, and other features like smart calling for dual SIM cards, and so on. The Plus key can be used to access Gemini or keep the current screen content in memory, which can be later used for some input for AI.

Powered by a 6,800mAh battery, the phone lasted a day, and then some, almost every single time I put it to full charge. Charging from 1 per cent to full can take, on average, 70-80 minutes, which is fine, but the issue I noticed was this can vary a lot—it can sometimes take an additional 20 minutes out of nowhere, without anything extra running. Otherwise, the battery experience was generally good, plus I didn’t see the phone heating up too much either.

The dual stereo speakers on the phone are loud, clear and good enough for your personal media and gaming needs indoors.

There’s no eSIM support, but there’s an ORoaming option that you can activate for international roaming on your device. WiFi and GPS performance are top notch, and 5G network reception on average was also quite good for working on the go with another device connected to it over its WiFi hotspot.

So, the thing is, the Nord 5 isn’t a huge upgrade over the Nord 4. The Nord 4 at its current price is still a good buy, while the Nord 5 is more suited for those who like a bit of higher-end gaming with good camera performance around the 32k mark.

sandisk-extreme-pro-portable-ssd-review-pricey-but-a-sturdy-buy-if-on-sale

Fri Jul 11 10:53:50 IST 2025

Sandisk has long been associated with storage peripherals, whether thumb drives, microSD cards, or SSDs. The Sandisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD is an external SSD for convenient data storage and transfers. Let’s try to check how well it performs for its current price tag of ₹13,999.

The external SSD is enclosed in a familiar aluminium chassis with a grippy and textured material that is comfortable for carrying around without worrying about slipping from your hand, or when lying down on a surface like a smartphone with glass around it might.

Weighing a little under 80grams, one corner at the top has a triangular cutout while the Sandisk branding sits bang in the middle, followed by the USB Type-C port facing the bottom.

You get a short USB Type-C to Type-C cable and another USB Type-C to A cable, so no proprietary ports or dongles to deal with here. Any storage disk is suggested to be kept away from water, but even if you get a small splash or dust on the disk, it should likely be okay since it is IP65 dust and water-resistant.

Available in 1TB (the one I used), 2TB and 4TB options, the Extreme Portable SSD is based on the WD Black 850XE and supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 over Thunderbolt. I got maximum read and write speeds of about 1,050mbps each when connected to a Windows laptop, very similar when connected to USB Type-C and Thunderbolt USB Type-C, too.

The disk never really became too warm when used for hours. You can use it across platforms and devices—Android, Windows, iOS, macOS, Android TV and so on—without having to worry about any compatibility issues.

There’s an Android app also available for data transfer, but I didn’t really see anything extra there compared to the inbuilt file manager for copying any small or large files to and from the smartphone.

While sharing large 4K video files, photos, backup files or PDFs, there weren’t any glitches when either transferring or opening these files on the other device right from the SSD without having to copy them to the internal disk first.

Coming with a 5-year warranty, the Sandisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD is a proper external disk more than good enough for your backup needs, data transfers or multimedia playback on smart TVs.

It’s not the lowest-priced external SSD in the market as of now, but it can justify the price tag for those looking for a reliable name, more so if you can find a decent deal with online deal carnivals like Amazon Prime Day coming up, with its performance and portability in place.

asus-tuf-f16-review-display-keys-and-performance-worthy-of-a-starter-gaming-laptop

Mon Jul 28 16:17:26 IST 2025

Like ASUS’s ROG series of laptops, the TUF series is also aimed at the gaming audience but with a slightly lower price tag. The refreshed TUF 16 (2025) starts at a base price of ₹1,24,990 for the 14th-gen Intel i5 model. The higher-end model comes with a 14th-gen i7, which I have been using for a couple of weeks now. Let’s see how well it does for your gaming and other needs:

The TUF F16 is, like most other gaming laptops you would have seen from ASUS, built like a tank in mind. The lid is made from aluminium, while the hinge, which rotates 180 degrees, appears sturdy and well-made, along with an extended back chin that also houses LEDs indicating battery, connectivity, and processing.

The right side features two USB 3.2 gen 2 type A ports; and the left side houses the slim jack rectangle power port, gigabit LAN port, one HDMI 2.1 port, one thunderbolt enabled type C port with DisplayPort 2.1 support alongside another USB type C port with DisplayPort 2.1 and power delivery support, another USB 3.2 port and the 3.5mm audio jack.

You get vents at the back and the extended rear chin for some extra airflow. This MIL-STD-810H-certified laptop meets almost all your connectivity needs, given its dimensions, which measure approximately 18mm at its thinnest point and weigh 2.2kg.

Featuring a 16-inch 2.5k (2560x1600) LCD (IPS) display at a 16:10 aspect ratio that supports up to 165Hz refresh rates. The display is quite bright and seems like one of the better parts about the laptop, which is nice to see for something meant for gaming. You also get a MUX switch for switching between the two GPUs as and when more bandwidth is needed or not. Details on the display come out well with decent colour reproduction to go with it (default mode).

The backlit keyboard features a number pad, highlighted W, A, S, and D keys for gaming, and all the keys are well-spaced with decent travel. The only issue—nothing major—I noticed was that the keyboard had a slightly hollow feel when used for typing quickly. Perhaps the inside of the body is supposed to be that way, but it just felt a little unusual. However, the keyboard itself is comfortable to type on. The extra spacious touchpad is also not bad; it is responsive to your taps and usual Windows gestures. The dual speakers are quite loud and have sufficient depth to play games and videos indoors on a laptop.

Powered by a 14th gen Intel i7 14650HX (up to 2.2 GHz 16 cores) chip with Intel UHD graphics and nVidia’s GeForce RTX 5070 GPU (with 8GB vGDDR7 RAM), along with 32GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB NVMe m.2 SSD, this machine runs on Windows 11 Home 22H2 version.

The laptop was really responsive and smooth in day-to-day tasks, opening quickly from standby to resume work, while running multiple Web browsers with several applications playing in the background and some Word documents open alongside. You can use Armoury Crate to customise keyboard input, OS themes, power modes, and more.

For gaming, you can expect to play a game like The Last of Us 2 at 65 frames per second and higher, with DLSS enabled, or GTA V at recommended settings, which shows around 100 frames per second. It can get a bit heated, which isn’t surprising. Despite plenty of airflow and vents, playing a heavy game like Valorant for over an hour will make the machine quite a bit heated up, but that comes with pretty much any gaming laptop.

With its 90Wh battery, I didn’t see it lasting over 3.5 hours, even on the default mode, and even less when used for high-end gaming. The bundled 280-Watt charger can charge it and is used for the extreme gaming mode, which cannot be achieved when using a USB Type-C port that charges at 65 Watts. It supports charging up to 100 Watts over USB Type-C.

In conclusion, the TUF F16 is a well-rounded gaming laptop that can also handle your video editing needs, 3D work, or regular day-to-day tasks. While it doesn’t shine in the battery department (expectedly so), it boasts a nice display and keyboard combination, along with a rugged build and optimised, smooth software performance.

alcatel-v3-ultra-french-brand-returns-to-indian-smartphone-market-but-misses-the-mark

Sat Jul 05 14:28:16 IST 2025

Alcatel recently re-entered the Indian smartphone market by entering into a licensee agreement with NxtCell, launching three new smartphones: Alcatel V3 Classic, V3 Pro, and V3 Ultra.

The latter, V3 Ultra, is the highest-priced option, coming in at ₹19,999. I have had this phone for a couple of weeks now, and here's my experience:

The most unique feature of the Alcatel V3 Ultra, which is particularly necessary in a competitive market with numerous established players, is a 6.8-inch Nxtpaper display that offers 4-in-1 modes for reading (more on this later).

In the box, you'll find the standard 33-Watt charger and a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, along with a stylus. You have to carry the stylus in the provided protective case, as the phone itself doesn't have a slot for it.

The right side of the phone is quite busy—volume buttons are followed by the power/lock key, which also houses the fingerprint scanner, and then there's another button used to switch display modes.

The bottom houses the 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port, one outlet for loudspeakers, and the primary microphone. The left side features only the dual SIM card and microSD card tray slots, and the top has the secondary microphone.

Made of plastic, the back is textured and houses the big camera setup and the Alcatel branding. The phone is IP54 dust- and water-resistant, weighing a little under 200 grams and feeling decent in the hand.

The 6.8-inch full HD+ (1080x2460) LCD (IPS) display supports 120Hz refresh rates. It has four modes—Regular, E-Ink for reading, Max for extended reading sessions, and Colour Paper for reduced glare.

The Max mode for reading provides a familiar feel similar to that of a tablet, making it ideal for reading. The display itself features a matte finish, which aids readability.

While brightness for reading and checking text messages is fine, in Regular mode, the display struggles a bit outdoors, and the colours can also seem off compared to a regular smartphone, even at this price point, with an LCD. In Max mode, you can use a limited number of apps, but in other apps, you can use them just like in Regular mode.

The phone is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 6300 chipset (up to 2.4GHz octa-core processor, Mali G57 MP2 GPU) alongside 6GB LPDDR4X (also comes in 8GB variant) RAM and 128GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 2TB via a microSD card. It's running on Android 14-based TCL UI 7, which comes with minimal bloatware out of the box. However, it's an outdated OS, and you would expect at least Android 15 by now.

Alcatel hasn't mentioned any OS and security patch updates so far. The OS is quite responsive and straightforward, and doesn't require much getting used to. You get an app drawer, homescreens (or can choose to have no app drawer, too) with the Google (news) Feed on the extreme left (can be switched off). Day-to-day tasks work fine, and you wouldn't notice any glitches when watching YouTube videos, using messaging apps, or playing music in the background. However, don't expect much else, including gaming or video editing on the go.

It also features a fingerprint scanner. There are apps like Sketchbook that you can use to draw using the stylus and Jnotes to write down notes.

The triple camera system on the back has an 108MP (f/1.75) primary camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. The phone can take decent shots with some good details, but it struggles with dynamic range and noise, even in medium lighting conditions. You often get oversaturated shots, trying to compensate for overall colour loss at times. The camera app doesn't lag significantly and is generally usable when switching between different modes. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.0) camera is just fine for outdoor selfies and making video calls.

Powered by a 5,100mAh battery unit, the phone lasted a whole day more often than not and of course, a bit more if the E-ink or Max mode were used more. It can be charged from 1% to full in around 1.5 hours using the bundled 33-watt charger. WiFi and GPS performance are good enough, while its 5G reception is okay but not good enough to be the best in the category.

All in all, the Alcatel v3 Ultra is an interesting new option in the market that tries to stand out with its Nxtpaper display technology and a bundled stylus under 20k. While it offers long battery life, it doesn't quite hit a home run when it comes to sheer performance and camera quality. It will be interesting to see if Alcatel is in the Indian market for the long run this time and how else they differentiate their products going forward.

sony-bravia-2-ii-tv-review-sturdy-stands-new-remote-shortcuts-and-better-hdr-improve-on-the-classic-predecessor

Thu Jul 03 15:21:18 IST 2025

Sony recently unveiled its new Bravia 2 II series in India as a successor to the Bravia 2 series, in 43, 50, 55, 65 and 75-inch sizes. The Ultra HD LED (S25M2) starts at ₹50,990. The 55-inch model, which I tried, had a ₹75,990 price tag.

Let us check how well the TV performs and where it lacks compared to the competition.

Among the first things you might notice about the TV, other than the thinner metal bezels around the display, are the new, flatter legs (stands). Not that the previous ones were bad, but these new ones feel a bit more assuring and sturdier to hold a big TV on the table.

The TV, plus the stands, weighs around 10kg in total. The back comprises a thick plastic board that mounts side-facing ports—for HDMI 2.1 ports (including one eARC), an ethernet port, digital audio out, 2 USB type A ports and an antenna; while the power cord attaches on the other half of the back.

There’s Sony branding near the bottom and a downward-facing LED to indicate power. The TV remote control has a textured plastic material that’s light and feels nice to use.

It has the usual shortcut keys for apps like Sony LIV and Netflix, but now there is a new dedicated key for Crunchyroll. The remote control is responsive, with the D-pad for navigating and for adjusting volume or opening apps.

The TV features a 54.6-inch 4k (3840x2160) LCD display that does 50Hz and 60Hz refresh rates at 8-bit colour depth.

I preferred to adjust display settings to my liking, as the default ones came with motion smoothness and noise cancellation settings enabled out of the box.

I found the display panel to be top-notch for the price tag. It has good colour depth for watching movies and TV shows, and handled high-bitrate 4K videos without any stuttering. For fast-moving subjects, too, the display didn’t disappoint and showed good details without sacrificing contrast.

HDR output is one place where the TV seems to have improved from last time, with better viewing angles and contrast for darker scenes, the detailing seems crisper and “livelier”, so to speak.

The Sony Bravia app, which streams at up to 80Mbps with movies in HDR with Dolby Atmos, showcased the best this TV had to offer. With IMAX titles, the app is certainly worth a look.

For audio, you get two 10-Watt speakers each, which can deliver decent output for watching live sports, but they struggle when it comes to dialogue delivery when watching TV shows and movies.

They are loud and clear otherwise, but I wouldn’t say they hit home for a TV this size. If your room is spacious enough, you’re definitely better off investing a bit into a set of speakers to go with this TV that has the visual part covered.

For performance, I found it to be satisfactory, running Google TV based on Android 12 OS with the March security patch installed. There are no major hiccups once you get into the TV, which takes about 25 seconds for a fresh reboot.

Apps ran fairly well during my usage, and I didn’t find any glitches. Earlier on, the TV would become randomly unresponsive if I switched to an app instantly after turning the TV on, but later, after an OS update, this issue seems to have been fixed.

All in all, the Sony Bravia 2 II seems to have more than enough up its sleeves to take on the competition, both established and new players. It has a quality panel in place with decent to good performance for both movie-watching, live sports and gaming. While audio isn’t quite the best, it’s okay for a not-so-huge room, for which you might as well consider a set of speakers or a soundbar to pair with it.

oneplus-bullets-wireless-z3-review-solid-battery-life-good-audio-quality-for-the-price-tag

Wed Jun 25 15:13:17 IST 2025

True wireless earbuds (TWS) have taken away the spotlight from Bluetooth neckbands over the past few years, with several companies launching TWSs across different budget segments. Having said that, every now and then, the likes of OnePlus and realme do give us a new pair of neckbands – there are still some people who prefer the neckbands over TWSs.

The new OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z3 is the latest neckband – priced at Rs 1,699 – and is aimed for both work and music. The look and feel of the Bullets Wireless Z3 are familiar if you have used a pair of neckbands before, especially from OnePlus. There’s a matte silicone finish on the neckbands with the control buttons on the left side – volume buttons in red, longer black multi-function key between the two, then a small LED indicator and USB type C port. The right side has the OnePlus branding.

The multi-function key can be pressed once to take a call, twice to change the track or reject a call, thrice to go back to the previous track, or long press it to bring up Gemini AI assistant. The buttons’ placement do require getting a bit used to if you have never used a pair of neckbands before, but otherwise, they are quite responsive and comfortable to reach with your fingers for calls.

Having used a pair from OnePlus years back, I expected the Z3 to be comfortable to wear and that is exactly the case here. Whether for long calls or for commute, you can expect these to not become overwhelming to wear along. The IP55 dust and water splash-resistant neckbands weigh 26gm and come in Mambo Midnight and Samba Sunset colour options.

Coming to the audio quality, the pair is powered by 1.2mm drivers with support for Bluetooth 5.4 and AAC as well as SBC audio codecs. You can put it in pairing mode by long-pressing the multi-function key, and to pair with an existing device, simply untag the two buds, which attach to each other’s back magnetically, and it’s done (attach them again to switch them off). There’s Google Fast Pair for Android but no Swift Pair for Windows, though I found it connects with a Windows device fairly quickly, too. The Z3 sounded clear and fuller than the previous buds to me. They have decent bass for bassheads and don’t necessarily struggle on treble either for most genres from electronic, Bollywood to some rock, though some background instruments can sound a little softer than some TWS at under ₹2,000. Using the HeyMelody app, or just Bluetooth Settings for OnePlus devices, you can adjust EQ if you want.

Mic quality for calls is good, too, with clear sound delivered even when used outdoors. OnePlus says there’s some AI-based noise cancellation for calls but can’t say I saw anything major here. You won’t mind using these for calls when connected to a Windows PC or an Android phone.

With a 220mAh unit, battery life is one of the better things about Z3. While OnePlus promises 36 hours of use in one full charge, I had to charge it only once when used for a week – for both calls as well as music so as to not hear the battery low indicator sound once – using for about 18 hours with 40 per cent left in the tank.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a pair of Bluetooth neckbands under ₹2,000, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z3 is certainly something to consider. Not only does it have a great battery life, but also has good audio output quality while being comfortable, too.

moto-razr-60-review-a-worthy-foldable-if-the-price-drops-motorola

Thu Jun 19 13:10:58 IST 2025

Motorola has been one of the early brands that made foldable smartphones mainstream. The Moto Razr 60 is the company's latest foldable offering that is priced at ₹49,999, targetting those who might be looking to spend a bit more but not a huge amount for their first foldable smartphone. Does it deliver?

Among the first things you might notice about the device, other than having a foldable display inwards, is the vegan leather-like grainy textured back (lower half) with the Moto and Razr brandings. This leather-like back is present in the PANTONE Spring Bud colour option; the other two colour options are PANTONE Gibraltar Sea and PANTONE Lightest Sky.

The external display, this time, is a bigger 3.6-inch display with a Gorilla Glass Victus on top for added protection with no diagonal lines on any of the four sides. The dual camera and LED flash sit on cut-outs over it.

The right side features the power/lock and volume buttons, while the left side houses the SIM card tray (only one physical SIM card can add more via eSIMs). The bottom carries one outlet for loudspeakers, a USB type C port and a primary mic, and the top has additional mics. The hinge is made of titanium and, as per Motorola, can handle half a million folds in total, which isn't too bad. The phone weighs under 190 grams and isn't too huge to handle, though it's a tall phone.

The 6.9-inch full HD+ (1080x2640) pOLED display with up to 165Hz refresh rates. It is a bright and vivid display that handles HDR content quite well, too. The sharpness isn't too bad either for watching movies and TV shows or viewing images on it. The external 3.6-inch (1056x1066) display with 90Hs refresh rates is also pretty decent for a secondary display to view images, check messages or quickly view selfies.

The dual camera setup—a 50MP (f/1.7) main camera and a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera can take nice still shots. It can, however, struggle quite a bit in terms of capturing colours and keeping noise in check. Also, the camera app can be a bit choppy even when taking shots in default settings. The 32MP (f/2.4) front camera can take detailed and well-stitched shots, but again, the camera app doesn't always work smoothly enough.

The device is powered by MediaTek's 7400X chipset (up to 2.6Ghz octa-core processor, Mali G-615 GPU) with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS2.2 internal storage. It's running on Hello UI based on Android 15 with the May security patch installed. The general performance of the Razr 60 did come across as short of the target for a phone price of about ₹50,000.

You can do your day-to-day tasks fairly smoothly, but, a lot like the camera app, apps can be a bit stuttery, gaming isn't what you would want, and every now and then, scrolling inside messaging apps can be unresponsive. Watching high-resolution videos on YouTube works fine, but scrolling inside Telegram or Instagram can be a bit sluggish every now and then.

The external display is quite handy and can be used to not only take selfies from the rear camera but also check notifications and view photos. You can add more supported apps to it from Settings.

Powered by a 4,500mAh battery unit, it lasted me a day around half the time and required a quick charge the other half. It can charge from 1 per cent to full in about 1.5 hours with the 30W charger.

The phone's 5G network reception is decent, but nothing great. I found it can latch on to stable connections outdoors wherever the network is available but at times would struggle with it and switch to 4G at the same spot. WiFi and GPS performance are trouble-free. The stereo speakers are quite loud and have okay depth to them for watching videos or playing games indoors.

All in all, the Moto Razr 60 is a nice-looking foldable display smartphone from Motorola. While it does have the looks, performance and camera quality, do let it down a bit considering the price tag. If there's a big price cut on it, and you want to get your hands on a foldable phone that doesn't have a finicky hinge, perhaps then you can consider the Razr 60.

nikon-z5-ii-review-a-really-capable-responsive-mirrorless-camera-that-can-capture-shots-with-plenty-of-details

Sun Jun 08 10:22:28 IST 2025

Nikon recently launched its mirrorless Z5 II camera in the Indian market. The camera is aimed as a big jump from the old Z5 for both outdoor and indoor photoshooting. It's priced at Rs 1,49,990 for the body, let's try and see what it can bring to the table.

The camera is based on a 24.5MP full-frame (BSI) CMOS sensor with dual UHS II card slots on the right side, and mic plus audio jacks on the left side, alongside mini-HDMI and USB type C 3.2 gen 1 ports. The camera weighs about 700grams and has a familiar and tested ergonomically body in place that doesn't feel daunting to use on the go. The control joystick and control buttons are accessible comfortably, while the 2280mAh 16Wh 15c battery is not too bad either.

The Z5 II has a bright and sharp TFT viewfinder for a camera to be used under direct sunlight without much trouble, which is nice to have. The monitor, too, can get quite bright after adjusting the settings.

The camera is equipped with the Expeed 7 processor and full-frame sensor size of 35.9mm x 23.9mm. Coming to the photos, the highest resolution supported is 6048x4032 (6k) with the video resolution reaching 4032x2268 at 30FPS with support for 12bit N-RAW and 10bit log format. The camera excels in the autofocus department - be it indoors or outdoors. It really did well in subject detection, people, animals, birds or vehicles. You can set different subject detection modes for different types of subjects.

You get familiar Nikon colour rendition, that those who have used Nikon cameras might well be aware of, and it's a good thing to have in terms of how well it captures a range of colours together in a single shot. I tried the camera without any tripod and took most shots in the default ISO 6400 setting. Shooting in low-light conditions, with -10EV focal locking, the camera is more than capable of producing great detailed shots with good dynamic range. For videos, I found it to handle still subjects or slow-moving shots quite well with sharpness and colour depth for 4k 60FPS or 30FPS but for fast-moving subjects, it can struggle in capturing.

The camera also does 1.5x crop when shooting in 4k 60FPS so that's something to be aware of while shooting. For continued high-speed shots, you can capture as many as 200 shots in under 30 seconds. Having two cards is a really handy feature for backup or for using one for storing RAW shots and the other for JPEG photos at the same time, though this can't be done for videos.

All in all, the Nikon Z5 II is a really capable and responsive mirrorless camera that can capture shots with plenty of details and colour depth paired with something like a 35mm f/1.4 lens for starters at a pretty decent price combination.

cmf-phone-2-pro-this-budget-smartphone-holds-its-ground-against-oppo-k13-one-plus-nord-ce4

Tue May 13 13:34:27 IST 2025

Nothing's sub-brand CMF recently launched its new Phone 2 Pro globally and in India, along with a bunch of TWSs. The new CMF Phone 2 Pro starts at a price point of Rs18,999 and goes upto Rs20,999 for the higher model. I have been using this hyped smartphone for a couple of weeks now, let's try and see if the hype and price are justified:

If you aren't really familiar with CMF, they are basically Nothing's more budget offering that tries to play with some bits of modularity provided with unique looks – that was their Phone 1. With the Phone 2 Pro (Nothing's weird naming scheme continues), the backplate can be removed with the visible screws at the back and you can buy and attach a separate back cover that can also mount lenses for enhanced camera performance. Not sure how many at this price point would be interested in that, but there's that. The protruding triple-camera system has a bit of an industrial look that goes well with the overall theme of the phone. The phone is made of all plastic and is IP54 dust and water-resistant.

The orange and white colours have two-tone backs, while the black and green (the one I am using) have the same tone throughout. The right side features the power/lock key as well as the essential key (more on it later). The left side carries the volume buttons. The bottom houses the dual hybrid SIM card and micro card slots, primary mic, USB type-C and the loudspeaker. The top only has the secondary mic. There are symmetrical bezels around the 6.7-inch (20.5:9 aspect ratio) display and this 185-gram phone isn't too bulky to carry around.

The 6.77-inch full HD+ (1080x2392) OLED display with upto 120Hz refresh rates. The display is right with good viewing angles for using outdoors. It can handle high-resolution videos quite well and isn't too bad for viewing HDR content, given the price tag.

The phone has a triple camera system, up from a single camera in the predecessor - a 50MP (f/1.88) main camera, a 50MP (f/1.85) telescope camera, and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. You can expect to take decent shots with some dynamic range in daylight without any moving subjects. There's not much detail and sharpness to be seen in low-light, and you also only have 4k video from the main camera. The camera app is a little laggy at times when switching between lenses, though it has gotten a little better with the last major update. Portrait shits are also okay at best with some edge detection working well for stills in good lighting conditions.

Equipped with MediaTek's 7300 chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa-core processor, Mali G615 MP2 GPU) with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS2.2 internal storage (base variant gets 128GB). It is running NothingOS 3.2 based on Android 15 with the April security patch installed currently. The phone has no third-party apps pre-installed out of the box, has a bit of a minimal-looking OS but that's customizable.

You can put controls from quick settings to your home screen as a widget, change icons in the default launcher and double tap to lock or wake the screen up. There's no sidebar for adding shortcuts and no way to keep apps in memory for longer, which many Android OEMs provide. It handled day-to-day tasks fine, but every now and then there's definitely some frame drops, such you would want to come back to the homescreen and exit the app opened at the time. It's still not exactly sluggish in general, but the jitteriness can be seen every now and then, including in an app like YouTube.

For gaming, expect a heavy game like 'Genshin Impact' at 30fps and same for 'Wuthering Waves' at medium settings, which isn't too bad, but it's not segment-leading either. Pressing the 'Essential key' starts essential space that captures what's on the screen at the time, and you can long press the button to record audio. The phone's AI can be used to transcribe and keep the screenshot saved, so you can check it later and get summaries, too.

Powered by a 5,000mAh battery, the phone also comes with a 33watts charger in the box (along with a transparent case) that can charge it from 1% to full in a little over 90 minutes. The phone generally lasted me a day, but with some gaming, it can go well under a day. It heated up at times when using a higher-watt quick charger to charge it, but nothing alarming.

The mono speaker at the bottom is, frankly, one of the worst I have experienced in a smartphone recently. It's not just about a single speaker, but the speaker itself barely has any depth or bass to it and does distort while playing music or videos above 60% volume most of the time. 5G reception, though, is quite stable and reliable with consistent performance for working on the go. GPS and WiFi performance are also generally trouble-free. Fingerprint scanner is okay, but we have had more reliable and quicker ones available at this price point by now.

I summary, the CMF Phone 2 Pro seems like a good enough option these days for a smartphone around 20k price range. While its camera and speaker are quite average, the display and software experience don't disappoint. It's not a home run by any means, and anybody using a CMF Phone 1 doesn't have any reason to upgrade already, but it can still hold its ground against the likes of the Oppo K13 and OnePlus Nord CE4.

redmi-watch-move-review-a-budget-smartwatch-that-isn-t-low-on-features-fitness-or-comfort

Mon May 05 12:45:00 IST 2025

The new Redmi Watch Move is the company's brand new offering in the entry-level smartwatch space with a price tag of ₹1,999. The watch promises to deliver quite a few features and the looks, but does it pack enough to justify those? Let's try and find out.

The watch is made of plastic and doesn't feel cheap or irritating to wear along for a day. I won't blame you for saying it resembles a lot like the Apple Watch's look – it is what it is. You get a 1.85-inch AMOLED display with not-so-thick bezels around it. The right side has the crown button and mic while the left side carries a speaker. The sides curve towards the back that house both the charging pins and ejection pins for both sides of the strap, which are conveniently replaceable like many other smartwatches. You get a TPU strap with Black Drift, Blue Blaze, Silver Sprint and Gold Rush colour options with the watch. It's an IP68 dust and water-resistant watch and weighs just under 40grams (including the strap).

You can use the crown button to navigate inside the UI or go back to the home screen, long press it to bring up the AI screen, or further press it longer to bring up system power options. The button feels nice and responsive similar to the rest of the body.

The 1.85-inch (390x450 resolution) curved AMOLED display is bright and responsive for outdoor usage and has decent viewing angles and sharpness for viewing notifications, doing quick replies once in a while or checking fitness scores.

You get SpO2, heart rate monitor as well as an accelerometer alongside blood oxygen meter. The watch counted steps quite accurately - giving close readings to a high-end smartwatch on a consistent enough basis. The heart rate is decent for a once in a while reading but I wouldn't say you can completely rely on it if that's something very critical for your use case. You can enable 'auto detect' that supports seven different activities so the watch can automatically detect when you are doing any of those activities. Overall, there's support for over 140 activities as per the company and includes pretty much all common outdoor workout types that you might be engaging in.

There's also 'Vitality score' that gives you a weekly progress report for the complete activities and workouts done by you and it's quite a nice thing - you can check it to keep a tab on your progress. Running on Xiaomi's HyperOS for smartwatches, the Watch Move is generally snappy and smooth in operation and rarely showed any stuttering when moving between notifications, playing music, or answering calls (the mic and speaker are decent enough for indoor use for calls). The rotating crown, if you prefer for navigating, is also generally responsive and doesn't feel like a bottleneck.

With always-on enabled, the Redmi Watch Move can last around four days and when disabled, it can go over 10 days comfortably, depending on how actively you use it for tracking stuff.

All in all, the Redmi Watch Move is a good contender for a budget smartwatch that isn't low on features, fitness or comfort. It also has great battery life with a responsive OS that offers great value for the price point, if you are okay with its looks since the material and finish are not bad at all.

gadget-asus-expert-book-p1-review-does-what-it-is-meant-to-do-and-does-it-well-laptop

Fri Apr 25 12:54:10 IST 2025

To say ASUS has been doing really well in the Indian consumer market for the past two years or so wouldn’t be wrong.

While offering enterprise products for years, new ASUS ExpertBook P1 (and P3) are now not limited to corporate bulk orders—they can now be purchased by customers online.

Starting at a base price of ₹39,990, I have been using the beefier ExpertBook that’s priced at ₹72,990 for a while, and here’s how the experience has been using it:

The laptop comes in a matte finish and doesn’t catch smudges or fingerprints often. The Misty Grey colour looks like a typical enterprise laptop that might remind you of Dell’s Latitude series of laptops... and that isn’t a bad thing at all.

The 14-inch LCD screen (16:9 aspect ratio) has not too thick (but certainly not thin) bezels around it with the ASUS ExpertBook branding at the bottom. The outside of the lid gets the branding, too, though it’s a little less subtle here.

The right side houses a USB 3.2 gen-1 type-A port, a gigabit LAN port; while the left side carries another USB 3.2 gen-1 type-A port, an HDMi 1.4 port surrounded by two USB 3.2 gen-2 type-C ports.

The laptop weighs a little over 1.6kg and is light enough to be carried around for work and its thickness isn’t too bad for work profile either. The bottom has elongated rubberised legs for little vents alongside. The hinge seems solid and smooth when the screen is opened to a 180-degree angle.

The backlit keyboard gets 1.35mm key travel and is really comfortable to type on. There’s enough space between the keys and the keys are just about soft enough to not be a deal breaker. The trackpad is large and also houses the physical fingerprint scanner, which is decent in terms of reliability and quickness but could have been a little better in both aspects.

The 720p webcam has a physical shutter for privacy and is decent enough for making video calls or an odd photo capture requirement but don’t expect too much from it.

The 14-inch full HD (1920x1080) LCD (IPS) display does a good job when reading text and editing documents but does seem to have slightly washed colours for watching high-resolution videos—but that’s not its main purpose. It is sufficiently bright to be used under sunlight when cranked to the highest brightness. There’s an anti-glare coating on it that does help in keeping the glare off it to some extent.

The laptop is powered by Intel’s 13th gen i7-13620H chip (2.4 GHz to 4.9 GHz 10-core processor) with 32GB DDR5 RAM (base model has 8GB can be expanded to 64GB) and 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. You wouldn’t find the laptop to show any troubles in handling document editing, working in spreadsheets, or having multiple web browsers opened with several tabs each while playing a music track in the background. It opens images quickly and doesn’t struggle to play high-resolution videos online or from the local disk.

Of course, it’s not meant for any serious gaming playback. Only occasionally did the fan produce a lot more sound than expected under both performance and standard modes. Otherwise, this machine does what it’s meant to do and does it well.

There's no WiFi 6E but WiFi 5 is reliable, and the gigabit LAN port can also complete the overall connectivity offering.

Equipped with a 50Wh battery cell, the laptop lasted 7-8 hours consistently on the default balance mode and took nearly two hours to charge using the bundled 65-watt charger. The speakers are okay and somewhat loud but nothing special that can be used for video calls but perhaps not much for consuming entertainment content.

All in all, the ExpertBook P1 is a nice and functional work machine that has a good build quality, decent display and good battery life to get your work done and maybe some music in the background without any performance issues alongside.

moto-edge-60-fusion-review-a-clean-os-experience-good-design-and-satisfactory-battery-life

Wed Apr 16 15:13:49 IST 2025

Motorola has been making not just foldable smartphones for the past two years or so but also mid-range devices that aim to offer somewhat flagship design and looks with its Fusion series. The new Moto Edge 60 Fusion is priced at a base price of ₹22,999 (256GB) for the base model and goes against the likes of the OnePlus Nord CE4 (128GB) and iQOO Z9s Pro (128GB), so let’s try and check what all it delivers in this competitive price range:

The device sports a silicon vegan leather back on the Pantone Zephyr (the one I tried), Pentone Amazonite colours and the Pentone Slipstream with Gorilla Glass 7i on the front over the 6.67-inch (20:9 aspect ratio) curved display. The phone has a full plastic frame with rounded corners.

The textured back features the dual camera system plus LED flash and 3-in-1 light sensor and the Moto logo bang in the middle. The right side houses the volume buttons and power/lock keys that have decent feedback; the left side is left all plain; the top has the secondary mic.

The bottom locates the dual hybrid SIM card and microSD card tray, primary mic, USB type-C port as well one outlet for loudspeakers. The other outlet for the loudspeaker and ear-speaker grille next to the front camera is camouflaged quite nicely so it doesn’t appear like a sore thumb.

The phone is IP69 dust and water-resistant and also comes with MIL-STD 810H certification for its build. It weighs 180 grams and is quite comfortable to carry around but is definitely not meant to be called a compact phone.

The 6.67-inch full HD+ (1220x2772) pOLED display is bright, and has punchy colours—though I prefer to use it in the natural mode under Settings and can handle HDR content for streaming just well enough. The curved display can catch some accidental touches every now and then when watching something in landscape mode though its reflection on edges isn’t too high compared to previous Moto models.

Coming to the camera department, the phone sports a dual camera system at the back—a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera (with OIS), a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera; and a new light sensor for ambient, flicker reduction and better colour detection. The phone can take detailed shots and handles exposure in outdoor conditions well. There’s a bit of an issue with focusing on the subject in medium to dark lighting conditions where it can jumble up some shadows and colours.

The camera app otherwise is smooth but can be a little sluggish when going through options and taking shots in low light. You can shoot and later in JPEG plus RAW formats from the camera. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.2) camera is quick to capture shots and has decent contrast as well as dynamic range to take good selfies. You can shoot 4k videos at 30 FPS from both front and back cameras.

Moto’s Edge 60 Fusion comes equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa-core processor, Arm Mali-G615 MC2 GPU) coupled with 12GB (or 8GB) LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS2.2 storage (can be further expanded to 1TB using a microSD card). It runs on Android 15 with the March security patch installed.

The phone doesn’t come with any unwanted bloatware apps out of the box but with the last update, it did ask if the user wants to install 3 new games and suggested them again. Even if installed, you could uninstall all three games.

Moto has added some AI-related features to the device, including Object Eraser through the Google Photos app, and the ability to summarize notifications, take notes and transcribing, or creating images with generative AI through its floating bubble or by double tapping the back (can be configured for something else, too)—these features require you to sign in with your Moto Account in the first place.

The phone handled day-to-day tasks well and didn’t show any sluggishness when scrolling inside social media apps or using messaging apps while playing music in the background. You can notice its limitations: WiFi cannot be used with WiFi hotspot enabled, and for gaming, only games like Genshin Impact at around 40FPS and Wuthering Waves at lower FPS can be played—anything else higher would struggle.

Moto promises 3 OS upgrades and 4 years of security updates for this device.

Powered by a 5,500mAh battery unit, the phone lasted a day quite frequently and charged from 1 per cent to full in a little over an hour using the bundled 68-watt fast charger. The dual stereo speakers are quite loud and have decent depth to them for gaming and video playback indoors. WiFi and GPS performance are also quite satisfactory while the 5G network reception didn’t disappoint. However, the phone can become a little warm with the WiFi hotspot enabled for an hour over a mix of 5G and 4G usage.

If you prioritize minimal bells and whistles over the base OS, want a good multimedia experience, and do use some AI-related features every once in a while, the Moto Edge 60 Fusion is a good option worth considering. However, if top-notch camera and performance are your only factors, you might be better off with something else.

asus-zenbook-a14-a-great-windows-11-ultrabook-for-work-and-entertainment-on-the-go

Wed Apr 09 12:06:16 IST 2025

The Zenbook series of laptops from ASUS have a broad range offering and now it also includes a lightweight and thin laptop named the A14. Starting at a price point of ₹99,990, this ultrabook has a lot of things hyped. Does it live up to that? Let’s try and find out:

First things first, this ASUS machine weighs under 1 kg (980 grams), which is the headline feature of it and definitely something you would notice about it first. It also measures 0.53 inches in thickness – both things make it a comfortable laptop to be carried around. Made of ceramic/aluminium hybrid material, the laptop feels smooth and nice – perhaps not the most premium we have ever seen from the company but still nice feeling and to be considered sturdy enough; it’s just that the lid itself feels so light that at times you might feel you have moved it a little too much with a pull or a push as compared to your existing laptop with the same pressure applied.

The keyboard has well mushed keys with decent travel and the trackpad size alongside is plenty big to not be a deal breaker. The 14-inch display has thin bezels around it and doesn’t catch too many smudges. On the left side, you get 2 USB 4.0 gen 3 type-C ports with power delivery and support for display out, one HDMI 2.1 port, the 3.5mm audio jack and LED indicator; the right side has one USB 3.2 gen 2 type A port. Would have been nice to have at least one of the USB type C ports on the right side, too. The laptop comes in Iceland Gray (the one I tried) and Zabriskie Beige colour options.

The 14-inch full HD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED display with 60Hz refresh rates is pretty good all things considered. It has good viewing angles, rich contrast and sufficiently bright for watching content or working outdoors. Some might say there could have been a higher refresh rate display here but this doesn’t seem like a laptop aimed at gaming at all. More on that later, but this is otherwise a really nice display from ASUS.

Coming to the performance department, the Zenbook A14 is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X1 chip (up to 2.97Ghz octa core processor, Adreno GPU and 45TOPS Hexagon NPU) along with 16GB (or 32GB) LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB (or 1TB) and runs on Windows 11 OS. The machine can handle multiple Web browser tabs, playing music, watching content and editing spreadsheets without too much trouble. It’s well optimised with the chip to last you a full working day more often than not with the 70Whr battery lasting somewhat over 12.5 hours quite frequently with the display brightness set at 40 per cent. The battery can be charged from 1 per cent to full in about 2 hours. This isn’t the best or most powerful chip at this price nor is it Qualcomm’s most capable chip for Windows so far. If you are into heaving video editing or gaming, this isn’t the ultrabook you would be comfortable with many times. A bit of light gaming and you can hear the fans go loud (can be reproduced with multiple Web browsers, too) even with standard mode enabled. For Web browsing, work calls on the go as well as AI search and CoPilot+ related interactions, the laptop doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the chip and battery combination.

In conclusion, the A14 seems to tick many boxes for working on the go – lightweight, thin and sturdy built and great battery life to top it. A really nice (but not the best on the segment) display for the price tag and some AI chops but it’s certainly not a gaming beast nor is it meant to be, it seems, for the Snapdragon X chip handles work, multimedia playback and heavy Web browsing with battery efficiency.

sony-link-buds-fit-review-premium-design-decent-battery-life-clear-vocals-bass-balance-comfortable-fit

Mon Apr 07 12:45:55 IST 2025

Sony’s LinkBuds have been some of the most well-designed and good-looking earbuds in the Indian market for a while now. The new Sony LinkBuds Fit try to take it further up a notch with its comfort level. Priced at ₹18,990, the LinkBuds Fit cater to the premium TWS segment, so let’s try and see how well they perform:

The LinkBuds Fit do look quite different from Sony’s previous TWS available in the market. These are fitted with rubberised supports so you can twist and snug them into your ear. Each bud weighs just under 5 grams and comfort is where these buds score high.

The inside half has mics as well as Left and Right marks. You get three extra ear tips in the box for different sizes, the default one that comes pre-fit worked fine for me. The charging case has a glossy finish on the top half that carries the Sony branding at the top and an LED indicator at the front; while the bottom half has a matte finish to it with the physical pairing button and USB type C port located at the back.

The charging case weighs a little over 40 grams, and while the buds themselves are IPX4 water-resistant, the case isn’t. The buds are available in Green (which looked the best to me), White and Black (the one I tried).

The buds support Bluetooth 5.3 (NFC connectivity) and are powered by 8.4mm drivers with audio codecs SBC, AAC, LDAC and LC3.

The sound quality on the LinkBuds Fit does not disappoint. You get clear vocals with decent oomph to them and good bass output that doesn’t sacrifice on other background instruments.

While it isn’t the most detailed pair of buds from Sony you might have used, it still does a good job of producing a punchy and nice sound.

Coming to active noise cancellation, the LinkBuds Fits performed quite well with noise cancellation enabled, with little to no noise for low-frequency noise when commuting or working indoors. The EQ presets on the Sony Connect app are worth checking to see what sound you prefer after playing it around a bit with the EQ.

You can use the app to also customize gestures. The buds recognise gestures near the ear and not just on it to enable or disable ambient sound mode, change tracks and so on.

When it comes to battery life, the LinkBuds Fit lasted about 16-17 hours on a full charge with the charging case. It can go down quite a bit with ANC always turned on.

In conclusion, the Sony LinkBuds Fit are a really comfortable and nice-looking pair of TWS that sound good, but while they may not have the best-in-class noise cancellation, it isn’t bad at it either. You get decent battery life and water resistance to go with it for your outdoor usage.

thomson-jio-tele-os-qled-43-inch-tv-jio-snappy-new-os-is-responsive-but-lacks-the-apps-you-love

Wed Mar 26 15:08:15 IST 2025

Thomson makes a lot of smart TVs that generally run on Google TV/Android TV OS or Fire OS. But, a while back, they debuted a new QLED TV powered by JioTele OS. This 43-inch TV is priced at ₹18,999, available on Flipkart.

I have been using one for a few weeks now and here’s how the experience has been:

The TV has a very familiar plastic build with a red LED indicator at the bottom, thin bezels around the display and two plastic stands for the tabletop. At the back, you get 2 USB 2.0 ports, 3 HDMI ports (including one with ARC) and optical out—all side-facing. There’s a bottom-facing ethernet LAN port, antenna and audio-video ports. The remote control is also made of plastic with rubber keys and feels decent in the hand, with responsive keys in place, including some shortcut jets for streaming services like Netflix.

The 43-inch 4K (3840x2160) QLED display (VA panel) offers decent value for the price tag. It has 450 peak brightness, good viewing angles, doesn’t cut down on details when watching something in 4K resolution, and handles colours well.

The display supports HDR, which isn’t exactly its strength as you can see it struggles to output contrast and shadows when playing HDR content, and that isn’t surprising for a TV at this price point.

However, for SDR content, there’s not much wrong when watching TV shows, movies, or live sports at 50FPS on it.

The 40-watt box speakers are quite loud and have sufficient depth for the size here that you can fill a 15x15 room with a couple of people watching it. Dialogue delivery is decent for sports commentary but not too great for watching movies or TV series, depending on the source.

It does struggle with distortion at higher volume levels, and I didn’t keep volumes above halfway during my usage. You also get Dolby Atmos support, which does help in some scenarios for music delivery and background tracks in movies—but it does not do much to lift the audio experience.

The TV runs on JioTele OS 2.0 with 8GB of internal storage (about 3.2GB available) and 2GB of RAM. The OS is generally snappy in terms of navigating through menus and app launcher, as well as switching from one app to another, which is nice to see. The default Homescreen has several tabs at the top—Home, Movies, Shows, Sports and TV Channels.

Now, the buyer gets JioHotstar for 3 months (full HD plan, not 4K), plus over 300 live TV channels, but these don’t really include the most popular entertainment channels you might want.

You can download more apps from the app store, though it is fairly limited in terms of the number of apps, and doesn’t have a huge catalogue such as Google TV, as expected. So, things like a third-party IPTV player or media player are missing at this point.

Switching between input sources is also smooth, and you can choose to automatically switch to the last selected input source after switching on the TV, if you want. Attaching an external hard disk, the TV was able to play full HD and 4K HDR10 videos, as well as view high-resolution photos without much trouble.

All in all, Thomson’s first attempt at a JioTele OS at a budget price point does deliver on most counts—with a nice display that can handle non-HDR content well, decent but not great speakers and a responsive OS for watching movies and TV shows with added subscription bundles, if you aren’t going to do much more with your smart TV, this seems like a solid option for a smart TV under 20k as of now.