Sharp Aquos Crystal Smart Phone Review

Sharp Aquos Crystal: The future of smartphones looks like this

"What smartphone is that?" is the reaction I've received over and over this past week.

The device I've been using all week isn't an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, that's for sure. It's the newly released Sharp Aquos Crystal. Never heard of it? You're not the only one.

The Aquos Crystal is Sharp's first Android-powered smartphone in the U.S. Not only is it refreshingly futuristic-looking, but it's also dirt-cheap for a no-contract smartphone.

Big screen without big dimensions:

A smartphone with a large screen usually means it has a big phone body. Over the years, phone makers have slimmed down the bezels surrounding the display, but none have come as close to achieving an edge-to-edge design as Sharp has with the Aquos Crystal none have come as close to achieving an edge-to-edge design as Sharp has with the Aquos Crystal.

When laid next to the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, you'd think the Aquos Crystal also has the same size screen. Nope! The Aquos Crystal has a 5-inch display with 1,280 x 720 resolution.

I thought the 5-inch LG G2 with its ultra-slim bezels was an impressive engineering feat last year, but the Aquos Crystal takes things to another level. Without any plastic surrounding the top and sides of the screen, the phone's dimensions are smaller than other smartphones with 5-inch displays. It's sleek in a way only Hollywood has portrayed bezel-less screens.

And because the phone has a smaller footprint, it's actually easier to hold with one hand. This is how you design a 5-inch smartphone for one-handed use. I had no trouble stretching my thumb from one lower corner to the opposing top corner. The Aquos Crystal's size also means it fits in my pants pockets without looking like I have a brick in there.

The screen isn't without weaknesses though. I question its durability since there aren't bezels to absorb shocks if it takes a drop to the ground. (I noticed that a small chip started to form at the top after a few days of pocketing it.) The screen also suffers from light leakage — the backlight starts bleeding into the screen, thus distracting from the content.

Midrange Power:

The Aquos Crystal's performance is good, but it's not blazing fast. Android 4.4.2 KitKat runs well enough with the 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor if all you're doing is browsing the web, checking email, sending messages and streaming HD YouTube videos. But its limitations start becoming apparent when you push it harder for things like mobile gaming.

Playing 3D graphic-intensive games like Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt Overdrive leaves much to be desired. They're playable, but when the zombie hordes start piling on and the car crashes get spectacular, the graphics stutter a bunch. Loading times are also not as speedy as higher-end smartphones.

Internal storage is limited to a paltry 8GB. And you really only get 3.87GB since the Android operating system and the preloaded carrier apps take up the other half. To my surprise, I was able to uninstall some (but not all) of the pre-installed apps. It's not all bad news; there's a microSD card slot hidden underneath the back cover which supports memory cards up to 128GB.

Read Also: Video Preview of HP's Smart Watch

The Aquos Crystal is equipped with a 2,040 milliamp-hour (mAh) non-removable battery, which Sharp says is good for up to 13 hours of talk time. In my week of testing, I got around 8-9 hours (brightness set to 50%) pushing the device hard with emails, web browsing, checking social networks and taking pictures. You can stretch that up to about 10 hours if you relax on certain activities and lower the brightness even more.

Harman Kardon-enhanced sound:

If you look carefully at the Aquos Crystal's front, you'll notice one thing is missing: there is no earpiece. So how, exactly, do you hear phone calls? The Aquos Crystal uses a technology called "Direct Wave Receiver" — the entire screen vibrates sound directly into your ear. Sharp says the feature makes conversations clearer, but I found the opposite to be true.

Calls sounded distorted and more tinny than on other budget Android smartphones Calls sounded distorted and more tinny than on other budget Android smartphones like the second-generation Moto G. The Direct Wave Receiver technology didn't improve call clarity when in louder environments, either. I actually found it harder to hear voices on the Aquos Crystal than on devices with an actual earpiece.

The Direct Wave Receiver isn't the only attempt at improving sound on the Aquos Crystal. Sharp also tossed in Harman Kardon LiveStage and Clari-Fi audio enhancements. LiveStage is supposed to make headphone listening feel like you're standing right in front of a stage with an artist performing, and Clari-Fi is supposed to restore compressed digital music to the way artists first recorded them in the studio.

I don't consider myself an expert audiophile, but I enjoyed having Clari-Fi switched on — vocals sounded richer to my ears. I didn't care much for the LiveStage setting. That said, I asked a six people — three friends and three family members aged 13-37 — to take a listen with both settings turned on and off, and five out of six of them said they didn't notice a difference.

Crappy cameras:

Pro photographer Chase Jarvis popularized the saying, "The best camera is the one you have with you." These days, that camera is our smartphone. Android smartphones are notorious for skimping on the camera and the Aquos Crystal is no exception.

The 8-megapixel rear camera produces some of the grainiest photos I've seen on a smartphone. Regardless of lighting, the camera's imaging chops disappoint. Pictures have so much image noise that they're not worth looking at on a computer screen.

Read Also: Top 5 Features coming with Android 5.0 (lollipop)

The 1.2MP front-facing camera isn't great, either. Not only do selfies look gross (skins tones have all sorts of pixelation), they're tougher to take than on regular smartphone because the camera itself is located on the bottom chin. It's recommended that you flip the phone upside down in order to do so. How annoying.

There are 15 shooting modes in total, from the expected "Auto," "Night Scenery," and "Monochrome" modes to unnecessary "Food" and "Bleach Bypass" modes. One of the shootings modes called "Mirror" is even more baffling — it's supposed to "switch cameras from front to back," but it only ever showed the front camera, and tapping it only froze things.

Decent for $150

The Aquos Crystal is a stylish Android smartphone that definitely gets heads to turn in public. Its lack of bezels around three sides of the display is a big plus for one-handed usage, the Harman Kardon-enhanced sound is a nice touch (if you can hear the difference) and its specs are sufficient for general mobile computing (as long as it isn't 3D gaming). The only real disappointments are the horrible cameras and the tinny-sounding Direct Wave Receiver technology. Really, they're just — yuck.

Sharp's decision to partner with Sprint, the lagging fourth-place U.S. carrier with the least wired 4G LTE coverage, and its prepaid partners, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, also limit the Aquos Crystal's potential.

Read Also: Samsung's Fastest Charging Device: Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Regardless, for $149.99 and no contract on Boost Mobile (Sprint and Virgin Mobile will get it later), the Aquos Crystal is a good deal, as long as you don't care about taking pretty pictures. If you do care about prettier pictures, it may be worth looking into the $179.99 second-gen Moto G. They're more or less in the same performance range.

Sharp Aquos Crystal ($149.99)

The Good

Bezel-less display on three sides • Harman Kardon Clari-Fi audio boost is nice • Good battery life

The Bad

Display edges have almost no protection • Mediocre front and rear cameras • Direct Wave Receiver sound isn't very clear

The Bottom Line

The Sharp Aquos Crystal is a sleek smartphone with a display that looks like it came straight out of Star Wars, however, its display durability is questionable and the cameras on the front and back are just awful.

Mobile, Smart Phone, Gadgets, Sharp Aquos Crystal, Sharp, Aquos, Crystal, Sharp Aquos Crystal Smart Phone review.

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HP Video preview of Smartwatch

HP offers video preview of smartwatch with Facebook and MLB:

When Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the Gilt Groupe unveiled their MB Chronowing smartwatch last week, all we had to gauge the functionality of the device were photos. Now the companies have offered a video that shows the device in action.

Posted to Gilt's Vimeo account on Monday, the video (see below) is hosted by fashion designer Michael Bastian, who worked with HP to create what the group considers a more fashion-friendly device than rival smartwatch offerings.

MB Chronowing Smartwatch from Gilt.com on Vimeo.

Despite the fact that the device doesn't have a touchscreen like the Apple Watch, or a color screen like the Moto 360, the video nevertheless makes the MB Chronowing look pretty attractive as a digital assistant.

For the first time, this gives us a close up look at what the device's screen looks like when it receives Facebook notifications, sports scores, weather alerts and email messages.

Though the display is merely monochrome LCD, the aesthetics are attractive enough to make it a viable option — especially compared to the Pebble smartwatch.

Read Also: Download Gmail 5.0 for Android with Updated Features

Of course, the real test will be when users get their hands on this $350 device and put it through its paces. But even without telling us how robust the MB Chronowing's software is, the video is a compelling peek at what might be a new player in the increasingly competitive smartwatch market.

Apps, Watch, Software, Design, Smart watch, Fashion, Gadgets, Gilt, Gilt Group, Hewlett-Packard, HP's Smart watch, Gilt smart Watch, Tech, Wearable, HP & Gilt Smart Watch Video Preview.

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HP Announces Smart Watch

HP and Gilt Group unveil fashion-focused smart watch:

First teased back in August, Hewlett-Packard's new smartwatch was finally unveiled on Friday, and it looks pretty good.

Crafted through a partnership between HP and fashion designer Michael Bastian, the MB Chronowing looks exactly like a traditional watch, but also delivers email, stock market updates, calendar information, sports updates and text notifications.

The water-resistant device is available with three interchangeable straps (leather, rubber and nylon), has a battery life of up to seven days and is controlled via an app that is accessed through iOS or Android devices.

"As a men's designer, I'm very interested in all of the recent developments in the 'tech wearables' category — particularly smartwatches," said Bastian, in a statement on Gilt's website. "With the early devices I've seen, the design and feel of the watch takes a backseat to the technology… I really felt there was a need for a device that looked and felt like a stylish watch first."

There's no touchscreen (it has a monochrome LCD display) and the device won't track your heart rate, so the minimalist MB Chronowing is likely to appeal more to fans of devices like the Pebble, but are looking for something a little more fashion-friendly. 

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the MB Chronowing will be offered for $349 and $649 (limited edition with sapphire-glass crystal and an alligator strap).

Only 300 MB Chronowing's will be made available, sold exclusively on Gilt Groupe's flash sales site Gilt.com, starting on Nov. 7.

Read Also: New Bike having Wheels made of ICE

The unveiling of HP's smartwatch comes just days after Microsoft took the wraps off its own new wearable, the Microsoft Band, further crowding the field of smart watches in the months leading up to the highly anticipated launch of the Apple Watch in early 2015.

Apps, Software, Design, WTF, Fashion, Gadgets, Gilt, Gilt Group, HP, Hewlett-Packard, Mobile, smart Watch, wearable, HP's Smart watch.

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Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Review

The new Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablet is the very definition of an update: It's the exact same design, size and weight as the last product, with almost all the changes found under the hood, and especially, in the software.

This isn’t a bad thing. By dint of an increasingly robust ecosystem, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is an excellent, more affordable alternative to Apple’s top-of-the-line iPad Air 2.

Light and thin:

At 13.2 ounces, the magnesium-alloy-bodied Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is noticeably lighter than the aluminum iPad Air 2, which weighs in at just under a pound. The Kindle Fire HDX is actually a smaller tablet than the Air 2, which isn't too surprising given the iPad's larger screen. It’s 9.1 x 6.2 inches, while the Air is 9.4 x 6.6 inches. Apple’s iPad Air 2, however, holds the thinness crown. It’s 0.24 in thick, while the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is 0.3 in.

On a practical level, the weight and thickness differences don’t add up to much. Both devices are light and attractive, though I still prefer Apple’s cool aluminum body and cleaner lines to the Kindle Fire’s slightly geometrically shaped back.

If you’ve never seen or held a Kindle Fire HDX (7 or 8.9 inches), you are in for a treat. It feels good and smooth and has just two buttons: Power/Sleep and a volume rocker. They’re both on the back, one on the left edge and one on the right. Kindle’s home “button” is software-based and you can access it at any time by sweeping your finger from just outside the right edge of the screen. Personally, I prefer the iPad Air 2’s physical home/touch ID button, which sits on the face of that device.

Amazon put the stereo speakers on the back of the device, but since the back is not flat, even placing the device on a table doesn’t block them. Backed by Dolby Atmos technology, these speakers offer somewhat more oomph than those on the iPad Air 2, which you can still easily block when holding that tablet in your hands.

Like the Air, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 has two cameras, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 720p selfie/Skype camera on the front. The rear camera is a clear improvement over the last Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. Images are sharper and more color-correct, though I did detect a bit more grain than I'd like. The iPad Air 2’s 8MP iSight camera still outdoes it, though, on clarity and color.


More power:
Amazon packed more power into its fourth-generation Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. It now boasts a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon CPU; the last generation Snapdragon ran at around 2.2GHz. This sounds impressive, especially since, based on my Geekbench 3 tests, the iPad Air 2’s A8X chip only runs at 1.5GHz and has just three cores. Oh, but those numbers can be deceiving.

When I ran the same Geekbench test on the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, I found that the iPad Air 2’s multicore scores were significantly higher than those of the Fire HDX. This is one of the reasons Apple rarely publishes its exact component specs: they're too misleading.

The reality is that performance with both tablets across a wide variety of tasks, including watching movies, console-level and casual gaming, and photo editing was great. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 did not miss a beat.

Screen time:

Like Apple, Amazon spent some time enhancing its screen. The Kindle Fire HDX screen now boasts 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, or 339 pixels per inch (ppi). The iPad Air 2 is 264ppi. Amazon also claims full sRGB color accuracy. Looking at both Apple’s Retina display and the Amazon’s screen, it’s hard to see the difference. What I did notice, though, is that the iPad Air 2’s fully laminated screen has a bit more contrast and, in some cases (in comic books, for example), is actually slightly shaper than the Kindle. The iPad Air 2’s screen is also less reflective.

None of this is to say the HDX 8.9 screen didn't look good. It does. I enjoyed watching movies, playing games and reading books, magazines and comics on it.

It's all about the ecosystem

One of the great benefits of owning an Amazon Fire Phone, Fire TV, upcoming Fire TV Stick, e-reader or Kindle Fire tablet is that they are all part of an ever-widening ecosystem.

Books, movies, music and apps you buy are available on all other supported platforms, and soon with your whole family when Amazon launches “Family Library” later this year. Photos taken with any of the devices can end up in Amazon's cloud; you can put as many of them up there as you want, provided they were taken with one of Amazon’s devices.

The interface, now Fire OS 4 (built on top of Android 4.4 "KitKat"), is largely consistent across devices. Amazon pushes Android pretty far down in favor of a smartly designed, carousel-style home screen.

Read Also: Huawei Honor 4X Smart Phone Complete Specs

Up top are large icons representing recently accessed items. If you just used the Camera, it will sit beside Mail, and Angry Birds: Star Wars II, a copy of the New Yorker, various books you're reading and whatever else you've recently accessed. Below that is a more or less disorganized grid of everything you have installed on the tablet. You can hold down and drag and drop to organize the icons as you see fit.

Above the carousel is Amazon’s view of the world, also known as its main menu: Shop, Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos, Newsstand, Audiobooks, Web (the proprietary Silk browser, which caches web pages to make them load faster), Photos and Docs (for documents you can store in the cloud or side-load onto the tablet).

A swipe down from just above the top of the screen reveals another, smaller menu, with access to rotation control, brightness, wireless, settings (in which the OS starts to look more like Android), May Day 24/7 video support and, now, Firefly

That’s right, Firefly is now part of the Kindle Fire HDX tablet and works almost exactly as it does on the Fire Phone. Find a product, point your tablet’s camera at it, tap the Firefly icon (there is no dedicated hardware button) and then watch as virtual fireflies swarm the product to identify it and then deliver an approximate price and where I can buy more of the product. There are at least 100,000 supported products, so it’s no surprise that when I used Firefly on a box of Crayola Crayons, it worked perfectly. It could not, however, identify a bottle of Poland Spring water.

Content companion:

Much of Amazon’s world revolves around content you can buy from them. One of my favorite things about Kindle Devices is how easy it is to see all the content (books, magazines, music, movies) I own in the cloud (where I have unlimited space for them) and what I have local. Downloading to the Kindle HDX 8.9 takes just a tap. The Wi-Fi-only device I tested supports 802.11ac and MIMO (mulitple-input, multiple-output) technology to speed uploads and downloads — just like the iPad Air.

Even though Apple offers much of this same content through iTunes, iBooks and movie downloads and rentals, it doesn’t seem to know as much about the content as Amazon. Amazon’s X-Ray technology takes you inside movies. It uses the IMDb database (which Amazon owns) to tell you, in real time, about every actor on screen (in movies that support it).

Similarly, in books, you can find out who every character is and how often and where they appear in book. Plus, now you can read Notable Clips to help you quickly get up to speed on a tome that you put down for a while or have to read fast. Of course, the results are a bit mixed. First of all, not every book supports it — and in some cases, the results are not particularly illuminating.

For example, it plucked out this gem from Dan Brown’s Inferno:

Her eyes, though a gentle brown, seemed unusually penetrating, as if they had witnessed a profundity of experience rarely encountered by a person her age.

As with all Amazon products, you get more not only by being a member of Amazon, but buy ponying up $99 a year to become an Amazon Prime Member. This gives you access to all of Amazon Prime Instant videos and growing slate of original content, the streaming music library, a half million books in the lending library, 2-day shipping and special deals. It’s well worth it.

Read Also: Oppo N3 Smart Phone Complete Specs

In general, the new Fire OS 4.0 smooths out the rough edges of OS 3, although not every change is welcome. I noticed, for example, that all slides (volume, brightness control, etc.), are now orange bars on top of bars instead of the smaller orange dot. The result is, I have trouble telling at a glance what level any of these things are set at. Amazon also added a lock PIN feature, which is useful for protecting your Kindle from prying eyes and children. However, if you want to turn it off, you have to disable all the child accounts you created.

There were also more than a few system hiccups like slow screen rotation and outright crashes including one while I was using the camera that took me all the way back to the boot screen.

Get it done:

The halcyon days of the tablet market explosion may be over. Apple reported falling tablet sales over the last two quarters and Amazon has ceded much of its Android lead to Samsung. To fill in the gap, many tablet manufacturers are targeting business.

In addition to some very sexy slim tablets, Samsung has been hawking 12-inch office-friendly models. Apple presses the productivity angle more consistently than ever.

Amazon’s solution is to offer a new Bluetooth keyboard. For $59.99, you can turn the tablet into a mini laptop (more or less notebook sized). The keyboard is very thin and even includes a small trackpad. It's magnetized so it can stick to the back of the new Origami cover, also sold separately.

The leather version, which I tested, is $69.99. It also has extra space to accommodate the keyboard when the cover is folded closed on top of the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. Of course, when you’re using it, you can have they keyboard a distance away from the tablet. I thought the keyboard was fine, but the keys did feel kind of cheap and the typing action felt less than solid. I prefer Microsoft’s sturdier, but quite light Universal Mobile Keyboard, even though it does not include a trackpad.

Read Aslo: Apple Retina 5K iMac review

Amazon doesn't have all of Microsoft Office (Microsoft Note is in the curated Amazon App Store), like the iPad does, but it does have the very effective Office Suite Pro. The keyboard and Origami case make the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 a somewhat more attractive productivity device, but it pales in comparison to, for example, Microsoft’s considerably more expensive Surface Pro 3, which offers a larger and better keyboard, bigger screen and a fully adjustable kickstand that makes it useable on the desk and on your lap.

A great deal:

At $379 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only model, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 costs $120 less than a comparably equipped iPad Air 2. There are caveats, like the fact that the iPad Air 2 includes biometric finger-print reading technology, but most people won’t miss the convenience of unlocking their tablet with a touch.

For those looking for a more budget-friendly device that doesn’t skimp on quality, features and performance, and one that offers better parental controls (actual accounts!) than the iPad, Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a clear winner.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9:

The Good:

Attractive, light, yet sturdy design • Smart, easy-to-use interface • All the apps you need • Great price • Access to tons of awesome content.

The Bad:

Specs don’t add up to industry-leading performance • Software has some bugs • Optional keyboard feels cheap.

The Bottom Line:

The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a great tablet at an even greater price. It’s the clear choice for those turned off by Apple’s premium price points.

Amazon, Gadgets, Kindle, Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, Product Reviews, Tablets, Reviews.

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Huawei Honor 4X Complete Specs

Huawei Announces Honor 4X, a 64-bit Mid-Range Smartphone

Huawei joins the slowly-increasing number of smartphone-makers to announce its first 64-bit smartphone, the Honor 4X. The phone lies in the mid-range tier, though, with Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 onboard.

The display at the front of Huawei Honor 4X measures 5.5? in size and boasts 720p HD resolution, which should be just fine. Huawei Honor 4X is also dual-SIM capable.

Underneath Honor 4X, you get the mid-range quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916 processor clocked at 1.4Ghz with 2 GB worth of RAM and 8 GB internal storage, which is also expandable via microSD.

At the back of Huawei Honor 4X lies a 13 megapixel Sony camera, with a 5 megapixel unit accompanying at the front. There’s also 3,000 mAh worth battery which can keep the phone running for up to 72 hours.

Expectedly, the OS running on Huawei Honor 4X is the latest and greatest Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is the first version in Android’s history to be 64-bit capable and will allow it to fully utilize the 64-bit chip. It is of course customized by Huawei.

Read Also: Huawei Ascend Y520 Price & Specs

The Honor 4X has support for 4G and comes with GPS. It’s priced competitively at around $210 and will hit the market in November.

Huawei Honor 4X Specs:

• Processor: Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 1.2Ghz 64bit

• GPU: Adreno 306 400Mhz

• Android version: 5.0 with Emotion UI version – 3.0

• Dimensions – 152.9mm x 77.2mm x 8.65mm

• Weight – 165g

• Display: 5.5inch 720P IPS LCD

• Memory:
• RAM: 2GB
• Internal Storage – 8GB
• Expandable through SD Card

• Connectivity: GSM,CDMA,3G,4G Cat 4

• Camera: 13MP f2.0 main / 5MP secondary wide angle

• Battery: 3000mAh

Huawei, Mobile, Smart Phone, Honor, 4X, Huawei Honor 4 X, Specs, Huawei Honor 4X Specifications.

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Huawei Ascend Y520 Price & Specs

Huawei to Launch Ascend Y520 in Pakistan for Rs. 11,000

Huawei has recently been flooding the market with a variety of handsets at every price point. It seems like that the introduction of 3G and 4G in Pakistan has made manufacturers like Huawei eager to lock down the newly adopting mobile phone users while still providing choice for the higher end customers.

The latest addition to the Huawei family is the Ascend Y520. A budget oriented device, the Y520 comes with a 4.5 inch LCD display with a resolution of 480×854 pixels. One thing that got our attention was the fact that the screen has 256k colors, rather than the 16M colors that has become norm. So you might want to test out the phone and see if the display is good enough before you commit to the purchase.

The Y520 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual core processor and is paired up with 512MB of RAM. At the back it has a 5MP camera and it comes with a microSD card and 4GB of internal memory. Everything is powered by a 1730mAh battery. The handset will run Android 4.4 KitKat but there is no word on whether an Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade will be offered.

Read Also: Huawei Honor 4 Play Complete Specs

The Huawei Y520 will go on sale starting on November 8 for roughly 11,000 PKR. At that price point, the offered specs are going to provide stiff competition to the likes of Qmobile,  who have established themselves in the lower and lower-middle end of the Android smartphone market.

The introduction of the budget oriented Y-series caps off Huawei’s serious push into the Pakistani market.

We previously covered how Huawei poached Humaima Malick from Samsung for their advertisement campaign and it seems like the TVC’s will start hitting the screen featuring the Y520 in the very near future.

Ascend Y520 Specifications:

• Display:
• 4.5 inch LCD
• FWVGA (854 x 480)
• 256k colors

•  CPU: MTK6572 Dual-core 1.3GHz

• Operation System: Android™ 4.4 with Emotions UI

• Memory :
• RAM : 512M
• ROM : 4GB
• MicroSD (up to 32GB)

• Network: 2G, 3G,

• Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth with EDR, MicroUSB,

• Sensors: G-sensor

• Camera
• Rear Camera: 5.0 Mega pixel FF

• Front: 0.3 Mega pixel

• Battery: 1730mAh

• Price in Pakistan: Rs. 11,000

Huawei, Mobile, Huawei Ascend Y520, Y520 Complete Specifications, Huawei Y520 Price in Pakistan, Huawei Smart Phones.

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Oppo N3 Complete Specs

Oppo Announces Oppo N3 With 16MP Motorized Camera.

In an event at the Iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Oppo announced the entry to its latest series of flagships, the Oppo N3.

Based on the spec sheet, the handset is an attractive proposition. The N3 comes with a 5.5 inch display with a fullHD (1920X1080) resolution. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 801 Quad Core processor which clocks in at 2.3GHz. It’s a Krait 400 chip though, which is rather outdated. The N3 comes with 32GB of inbuilt storage and 2GB of RAM, instead of 3GBs that we were earlier expecting.

The main feature of the N3 is the motorized camera which has a swivel action and it will let you take selfies and videos at 16MP. The inbuilt motor allows it to function as both the rear and front camera as it can be rotated (upto 206 degrees) through various means including a sensor at the back and the camera software.

So if you are taking panoramas, selfies or shots that involve a moving object, the camera will rotate by itself. A fingerprint sensor at the back protects your images as soon as you take them.

Everything is powered by a 3000mAh battery which should be enough for a full day’s usage. Other features on the N3 include Oppo’s VOOC technology, which allows rapid charging. The inclusion means the N3 can charge to 75% in 30 minutes and allow for 2 hours of talk time with a 5 minute long charge

The phone measures 161.2 x 77 x 9.9mm and weighs 192 grams.

The exact release date for the Oppo N3 is not yet known but the pricing has been confirmed at $649 (roughly PKR 67,000). At this price range, Oppo is targeting the highest tier of smartphone users.

Success of OPPO N3 in Pakistan is going to be a big question mark since people tend to prefer the familiar over the new ones when parting with that much cash. Especially when you have Xperia Z2 — let alone the Z3 — at lower price with better specs minus the rotating camera of course.

Read Also: Sony Xperia Z3 Review

So we will have to see how this mechanized camera could help the Oppo N3 become a hit with photography (and selfie) junkies, but again for a selfie camera will you be spending 67K rupees? Do let us know in the comments!

Here is Dimension wise View of Oppo N3:

OPPO N3 Specifications:

• Color: White

• Dimensions: 161.2 × 77 × 8.7 mm

• Weight: 192 g

• Display:
• Size 5.5-inch

• Resolution: Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 403 PP

• Colors 16 million colors

• Touchscreen Multi-touch, Capacitive screen, Gorilla Glass 3

• Operating system: ColorOS 2.0, based on Android 4.4

• Processor: 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad-Core (MSM8974AA)

• GPU: Adreno 330

• Memory:
• RAM: 2 GB
• Storage 32 GB (expandable up to 128GB microSD card)

•  Sensors: Distance sensor, Light sensor, G-sensor, 4D Gyroscope, Touch access

• SIM Card: Micro SIM + Nano SIM

• Camera:
• 16-megapixel, Dual-mode LED Flash, Aperture f/2.2

• Scene modes: Normal, Ultra-HD, Colorful Night, Beautify, HDR, Panorama, Audio Photo, GIF mode, Double Exposure, Auto Panorama, Super Marco, After Focus, Raw

• Other Features: 4K video @ 30 fps, 1080p video @ 60 fps, 720p slow motion video @120 fps

• Connectivity: 2G, 3G, 4G, USB, WiFi, NFC

• Battery: 3000 mAh Li-Po battery with Rapid Charge

Oppo, Oppo Smart Phone, Oppo N3, Mobiles, Oppo N3 Specifications, Oppo Specs.

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Huawei Honor 4 Play, Price & Specs

Huawei introduces Honor 4 Play, An Ultra Affordable 4G Phone:

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Apple Retina 5K iMac Review

Apple Retina 5K iMac Has a Screen That Can Stop Traffic:

There is a lot to like about Apple's 27-inch iMac With Retina 5K Display. In addition to having the fastest processor that Apple's ever put in an iMac as well as a super-slim frame, the Retina 5K iMac is stunning with a 5,120 x 2,880 display that seems to defy reality with its clarity and picture depth.

Retina, Apple's branding term for HiDPI, or high dots per inch, is central to the new iMac. Retina devices first appeared in 2010 with the iPhone 4. In 2012, the iPad got its own crystal-clear, ultra-sharp screen, followed by the 15-inch and, later, 13-inch MacBook Pro notebooks.

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Nest's Smart Thermostat and Smoke Detector

Nest's Smart Thermostat and Smoke Detector Just Got Smarter

Smart Smoke Detector:

Nest Labs, which Google recently acquired for $3.2 billion, opened its smart Nest thermostat and smoke detector to developers in June to make more products work together in the home, from washing machines and garage doors to lights and cars.

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Sony Xperia Z3v Review

Sony Xperia Z3v: The Waterproof Smartphone:

Xperia Excellence
The Sony Xperia Z3v is a Verizon exclusive Android smartphone. While it's a variant of the Sony Xperia Z3 (international model), its design takes after the previous Xperia Z2.

Quick: When was the last time you saw a Sony-made Android smartphone stocked by U.S. carriers? Having trouble recalling it? You're not alone.

Sony’s Android smartphones are quite popular in Asia and Europe, but they’ve never received any real love in the U.S. Despite the Xperia Z series phones receiving high praise, most carriers didn’t sell them because Sony smartphones lacked cachet with the American public.

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Active Review

Samsung Galaxy S5 Active: A Flagship Phone With Klingon Aesthetics:

Armor worn and swords swung by actors in ancient and medieval movie adventures are often constructed of plastic, etched and painted to look like the heavy metal ware worn and wielded by the original warriors.

Samsung has pulled some similar materials tomfoolery with its Galaxy S5 Active. In photos, the Galaxy S5 Active looks as if it's encased in protective metal armor, complete with metal-like etching around its perimeter and stolid constructive bolts on the rear cover.

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11 BEST iPhone 6 Cases and Accessories

While you won't be able to pre-order the new Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus until Sept. 12, and they won't be released for sale until Sept. 19, you can still plan how to accessorize when the day arrives.

Companies are already selling and pre-selling battery cases, folio wallet cases, bike mounts and arm bands. Now all you need is to pick the right one for you.

Check out these 11 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus accessories to take your new device to the next level.

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Nokia Lumia 830 Specifications

Microsoft Devices today unveiled its latest Lumia 830 smartphone at IFA in Berlin, which, according to the company, is a flagship device with affordable price tag.

Lumia 830 carries forward the traditional Lumia design, packed with metal and polycarbonate to give the device a premium look.

Lumia 830 will be available in bright colors including orange, bright green, white and black.

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Nokia Lumia 730 Microsoft’s First Selfie Phone

It’s been quite some time since Microsoft has been testing a special phone with a selfie-camera at the front.
Why should Windows Phone fall behind the pack after all?

Well, it’s here and its called the Lumia 730, which comes with a dedicated 5 megapixel wide-angle 24mm lens at the front. In pure budget fashion, it will also come with dual-SIM connectivity standard, apart from an LTE version, the Lumia 735.

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Apple iPhone 6 and iWatch Rumor Review

Sometimes I think Apple rumors are one of the core pillars that keep the Internet running. Practically every day, there is a new rumor, a new alleged leaked photo and a new juicy detail about something deep within the labs at the world's biggest tech company.

With Apple's big Sept. 9 event just days away, the current rumor season will soon come to a close.

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Samsung Unveils Curved Speakers

Samsung has introduced a curved speaker to complement its 55- and 65-inch curved TVs.

The HW-H7500 Curved Soundbar lives up to its name by offering a unique, curved slab of audio that can be used as a standalone unit, or serve as a television stand for Samsung's curved TVs.

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Sony RX100 Mark III Review

I haven't owned a point-and-shoot camera in years. Since 2010, my point-and-shoot has been my iPhone. I suspect this is the case for a majority of the population. Flickr tends to agree; the top four most popular cameras are iPhones, and the fifth is a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR.

As I concluded in my Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 review, smartphone cameras are so good these days it's practically pointless to invest in a separate point-and-shoot camera. Plus, your smartphone is always on you; a point-and-shoot is an extra device to carry around.

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LG's First 4K OLED CURVED TV

SEOUL, South Korea — LG announced two new giant OLED TVs with ultra-high definition (a.k.a. 4K) screens Monday, sticking with its strategy of using the exceptionally expensive OLED display technology.

The South Korean company said it will ship 65-inch OLED TVs starting September in South Korea, Europe and North America. A 77-inch model will hit shelves later this year.

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Full Review of Chromebooks 2014

Welcome to the era of the browser. Nearly all desktop computing goes through Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Everything's on the web, and there's a website for everything. So your next laptop may very well be an inexpensive, lightweight Chromebook.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Google's Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system that disregards nearly everything Microsoft and Apple have spent years building into Windows and OS X, respectively, in favor of the almighty browser.

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