LAVA IRIS X5 REVIEW: REDMI 1S KILLER ?

In 2013, if you told someone that you could get high-end features from a smartphone in the sub 10k segment, they would probably call you crazy and hit you on your head with their Nokia.! But thats exactly what has happened in 2014. The Sub-10k Rupees segment has become All-Important. 


With phones like Moto E & later Redmi 1s, companies are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the budget Smartphone space.! This Cellular Warfare will get more intense with only one surefire winner in sight, the Consumer. The smartphone market has been dominated forever by foreign brands but we must not underestimate our Desi brands who are making a name for themselves around the world. See GSMarena for listings of indian brands. 

The Moto E was a Game-changer but Xiaomi Redmi 1s(priced at Rs 5999) was an an absolute explosion that blew up in the faces of other smartphone makers. No other brand can offer so much value at such a low price but one brave brand has certainly tried- Lava ! Can it take down the budget Monster Redmi 1s ? Find out below.

The Indian Brand has given us such "Firsts" as First Intel powered smartphone and several unique products powered by Nvidia Gpus. The Redmi 1s was made available in India in early September, around the same time, Lava launched the Lava Iris X5. Even When Moto E started tearing through the market, it was Lava that responded first with the IRIS X1.

The Lava Iris X5 is being marketed as a phone that is "Made For Selfies" owing to its 5 mp Front camera with Flash ! Other main Specs are as follows:

• 5.0 Inch HD IPS LCD screen 
• 1.2 Ghz Quadcore processor
• Broadcom Videocore IV GPU
• 8 mp rear camera & 5 mp front camera with flash
• 2100 Mah battery
• Android 4.4.2 Kitkat 
• 1 gb Ram & 4 gb Rom (around 2.49 gb available) 

Now I will examine these features in brief 

SCREEN: 

The device has a 5 inch IPS LCD OGS(One Glass Solution) display with 720x1280 pixel resolution. That is about 294 PPI density. Geek terms aside, the texts look sharp and colors look vivid. It is not a stunning display but it is more than enough for the average smartphone user. The viewing angles are Excellent and  the screen can be viewed from various angles without discoloration. It does not have Gorilla Glass protection but there are two screen protectors provided with the phone. Here is a screenshot of a video I played. 

PROCESSOR & GPU

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HOW TO PLAY GAME BOY ADVANCE GAMES ON YOUR SYMBIAN PHONE

Admit it, Symbian gaming sucks.! From Nokia 6600 to Nokia Pureview
808, gaming on Nokia phones has always been below par. Symbian barely
supports 2D games..!


But you dont HAVE to play those laggy miserable games. Symbian may be
the worst Smartphone OS but its a Smartphone OS none-the-less. Here is
some info on a 3rd party App that can somewhat feed that gaming fire
in you.


Game Boy Advance was a portable gaming console that was launched
Nintendo in 2001. Games for this console were launched up until 2008.
Right now there are over 2500 games available for GBA. The size of
These games range from 8 MB to 32 MB. Now I will provide you with an
easy step by step guide on how to play GBA games on your Symbian
phone.


STEP 1: First thing you need is QT. It is a cross platform software
and you can download it from here
http://downloads.fzdownloads.com/attachments/28/8/7/1288833318-Sam_new-qt_installer_zip.zip


STEP 2: Unzip it using Xplore. If you dont have Xplore download it
from here http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=xplore&page=download&platform=symbian&version=1_58



STEP 3: Install Qt and other components, this may take a few minutes
so be patient and let it install. Install only in phone memory.


STEP 4: Download GPSP 6.5 from here
http://downloads3.frendz4m.com/attachments/38/1/1/1308968140-Sam_new-GPSP_0_6_5.sis
and install it.


STEP 5: Now download the GBA bios from here
http://downloads.fzdownloads.com/attachments/28/5/9/1288250415-frendz4m.com-gba.bios.zip
and unzip it.


STEP 6: Start GPSP and load the BIOS i.e. Give the path of the "Bios.bin" file.



STEP 7: Now download this keyboard http://dc524.4shared.com/download/8_qwr4YV/VirtualKey_Animation.sis?tsid=20120713-063212-b7608cf3&dsid=2g634y.a5972fe890c915ca428c3682d9244996 Launch this keyboard called Animation. Now select Options-Send to background. Now Open gpsp, press camera button and select Run Key Config. Set keys as you like and load rom.



And youre done, now download ROMS from www.coolrom.com/roms/gba/ and enjoy..!
These games dont have high quality graphics but they do have great
Gameplay and Story. Plus, they are a lot better than symbian games. I recommend
the Pokemon games because they will keep you engrossed for months. Go
Ahead, Catch Them All..!

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GOOGLE ANNOUNCES THE $199 NEXUS 7 TABLET

Just when you thought Everyone forgot about Android due to the slew of
Windows 8 tablets launched at Computex 2012, Google has launched its
much anticipated Nexus Tablet with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.


The tablet is manufactured by Asus who has been a major innovator in
the tablet industry has a lot of hype, lets see what it delivers
Specs-wise


PROCESSOR: A quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor clocked at 1.3 Ghz
with a ULP GEFORCE (12 core) GPU.


OPERATING SYSTEM: ANDROID 4.1 Jelly Bean.


CAMERA: A 1.3 mp front camera. No camera on the back. 720p video recording.


CONNECTIVITY: Wifi, Bluetooth, NFC, USB 2.0


SCREEN: A 7 inch LED backlit IPS capacitive screen with 1280x800
pixels resolution. It can display 16 million colours and is protected
by Corning Gorilla Glass.


MEMORY: 1 GB RAM with 8 Gb and 16 Gb storage.


BATTERY: A 4325 MAH Battery which with last for about 8 hours.


With Specs like that who needs a laptop ? A quad-core seems a bit
excessive and only 8 GB storage without a MicroSD card slot is
underwhelming. The 8 gb version will cost you $199(Rs 10,000) and the
16 gb version costs $249(Rs. 15,000). To say the price is Impressive
would be the Understatement of the year.


This Ultra-Affordable, Power-Packed slate is sure to Blow the
competition out of the water. To keep the price down, Google has
excluded a MicroSD card slot and a Sim card slot. At this price point
The absence of these two slots will barely affect the sales of this
Game-Changing Tablet.


The tablet will be available in mid-July. Are you going to buy one ? Let me know in the comments below.

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HOW TO HACK YOUR PHONE EASILY AND SAFELY TO SOLVE CERTIFICATE ERROR

Nokia may have abandoned its Super Slow Symbian Operating System but
there are still a lot of people stuck with the obsolete OS. Nokia
still sells a slew of Symbian phones including its flagship phone, the
Nokia Pureview 808.


Among the long list of problems that Symbian has the biggest one is
the Dreaded "Certificate Error". If you have a Symbian phone you may
have encountered tons of errors such as "Certificate Error", "Unable
to install, constrained by certificate", "Update Error" and so on. I
think its safe to say that Nokia makes more errors than it makes
phones.!


In my blog http://thegadgetbox.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-solve-certificate-error-in-nokia.html
I described how to create your own certificate but now Nokia has
disallowed those sites from making certificates. It is evident that
Nokia does not want its consumers to use their phones to their maximum
capacity.


Now Symbian users have no option left but to hack their phone. Here is
a quick step by step tutorial to hack your phone. Dont worry hacking
has NO disadvantages and it does not damage your phone.


STEP 1: Download this file
http://wapgalaxy.net/DOWNLOADS/SOFTWARES/Tools/Norton_AV_Symbian_Hack.zip
. It is a zip file so use Xplore to unzip it.


STEP 2: After unzipping you will find two files, install the Norton Antivirus.


STEP 3: Open Norton Antivirus, goto to Options-Antivirus-Quarantine
List-Restore all.


STEP 4: After the files are restored, unistall the Norton Antivirus
(Symantec Symbian Hack).


STEP 5: Install Rompatcher from the zip file in your phone memory (C)
. Open Rompatcher, You will see two patches Install Server and
Open4all. Goto Options-Apply all. Then add to auto.


And thats it, your phone is now hacked..! Now you can install any
application without worrying about certificate errors. This hacking
method works with S60v5, S3, Anna and Belle.

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OPERA MINI 7 FOR FEATURE PHONES AND SYMBIAN NOW AVAILABLE

"Opera Mini 7 for feature phones Launched" this is a direct quote from
Opera and other tech sites. But the latest version of the budget
browser was also launched for Nokia's Symbian OS and the Blackberry OS. I
guess no one considers Symbian a Smartphone OS anymore.


Coming to the browser, Opera has introduced several new features in
the latest version. The most conspicuous of those is the inclusion of
Opera's Smart-Page. The Smart-page brings Social updates on your Opera
homepage itself. All you have to do is login to Facebook and Twitter
and you get all your social updates.


The Smart-Page also gives you updates from sites that you visit
regularly. Ready made links are also provided for Sports, Movies,
News, Music, Travel etc. So it is really "Smart".!


Other new additions include the ability to add a bookmark directly to
your Speed dial from your URL bar and the ability to add unlimited
entries to your Speed Dial which I find very useful.


If you dont like the Smart-Page, you can always turn it off under
Settings. Though these features are very useful, Opera Mini is far
from Perfect. Users have begged Opera for a proper Download Manager
which it still lacks. There were some features in the Opera Mini Next
Beta that I feel should have been included in the final version. The
Save tab feature in the Opera Mini Next was a Blessing and should have
been in the final version.


Head over to m.opera.com from your phone to download the new Opera
Mini 7 and m.opera.com/next to download Opera Mini Next.

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ALL ABOUT THE NOKIA 808 PUREVIEW WITH 41 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA

Yeah, you read that right. Nokia has really introduced a mobile phone(not a camera, mind you) with 41 freakin megapixels...!

The Nokia 808 Pureview was announced at the Mobile World Congress 2012. Nokia needed to do something extraordinary in order to stand out among the Monster Droids that were to be announced at the MWC and did they deliver.!

Here is what it offers specs wise-

SCREEN:- A 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen with nHD (360x640p) resolution. Its protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and can display 16 million colors.

CONNECTIVITY:- 3G, WIFI, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC.

MEMORY:- 16 gb internal memory which is upgradable to 32 gb via microsd. 512 mb RAM

OPERATING SYSTEM AND PROCESSOR:- Symbian Belle which runs on a 1.3 Ghz Arm 11 processor.

CAMERA:- A whopping 41 megapixel camera with autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon AND Led flash, 3x lossless zoom and face detection. It can also record videos in full HD at 1080p and 30 fps. The secondary video camera can record VGA videos at 30 fps.

Probably the only fault you can find with this phone is the Absolutely Obsolete Operating system. Why Symbian you ask ? It is because the Pureview project was started 5 years from now. A time when Nokia's current flagship OS Windows Phone Mango was not in existence.

But ofcourse there are rumors of a Pureview camera coming to a Lumia device too. The Nokia 808 won the MWC'S Best New Device Award but Nokia's shares fell 6% after the device's announcement. The camera samples from the device look promising but practically who needs a 41 mp camera ? The phone will be available 2 months from now and the pricing is unknown.

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SONY XPERIA SOLA WITH FLOATING TOUCH

After the suffering a Devastating Earthquake and a biting Divorce, Sony is now blasting on all Cylinders. Sony wants that that illusive throne of top Smartphone-maker.

An evidence of this determination is the new Xperia Sola. The device was previously known from its codename Pepper. Like other recent xperia phones it does not have the translucent strip near the bottom but the middle of the phone gives the impression that the upper part is floating. Very Unique and Innovative and we expect nothing less from Sony, do we ? Check some specs below:

SCREEN: The screen is a 3.7 inch capacitive unit with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine. Its Sony's Reality Diplay with a resolution of 480x854 pixels. It features 16 million colours.

CONNECTIVITY: It features 3G(HSDPA,HSUPA), Wifi, NFC, Bluetooth 2.1 and USB 2.0.

MEMORY: The phone comes with 8 gb internal memory, 5 gb of which is available for use. A Microsd slot is provided if you 5 gb not sufficient for you. It has 512 mb ram.

OPERATING SYSTEM AND PROCESSOR: The phone runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread(with an update to 4.0 ICS just around the corner) and a 1 Ghz Dual Core Novathor(coming soon to a cinema near you) Processor.

CAMERA: The camera is a 5 mp unit with autofocus and single LED flash. For video it can record 720p HD video at 30 fps.

FLOATING TOUCH: This is a Unique feature of this phone. For the first time a phone features Floating touch. Now you can use your phone even with gloves.! You can use it just like you do with open fingers. For example, in winters you had to take your gloves off to use your touchscreen phone but with floating touch you can use it without freezing your hand off. Another important feature of this type of touch is that now you can use some sites on your phone by just hovering your finger over the screen. This will depict a mouse on the screen. This is the first time a phone will feature this kind of technology and you can bet that other smartphone makers cough nokia cough will copy this feature ASAP.

PRICE: The pricing of this device is unknown at the moment. The estimated price is $250(15000 inr).

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