Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual review: The Ultra

Phablets, which tried to bridge the gap between a smartphone and tablet, were as expensive as flagship devices once upon a time. Slowly and steadily, at least in India, phablets piqued the interest of buyers and created inroads into the market. This rise prompted manufacturers to shed some features and make their products more budget friendly. Many companies latched on to this opportunity early on, but Sony has joined this bandwagon only recently.

Sony's top-end phablet, the Xperia Z Ultra, now has a cheaper alternative in the form of the Xperia T2 Ultra. It is smaller, sleeker, accepts two SIMs, and has stripped down features. More importantly, this six-inch budget phablet faces the mammoth task of proving itself against the competition in a fairly crowded price band. Our review will help us find out if it manages that feat.

Look and Feel
Sony's design philosophy for smartphones underwent a change when the company parted ways with Ericsson. The primary reference for this is last year's flagship, the Xperia Z. A lot of critics praised the design and Sony seems to be going with the 'why fix something if it isn't broken' strategy. This unassuming black slab with clean lines is now typical of the style adopted for all recent smartphone and tablet releases.

The T2 Ultra Dual is available in three colours: black, white and purple. We reviewed the black one. All the colour options look quite classy and the choice will boil down to personal preference. The top and bottom edges of the device are bare. The right edge is crowded with buttons for power, volume and camera (kudos to Sony for including that). The placement of these buttons at the lower half of the right edge takes some getting used to, but the ease of use is unparalleled. The 3.5mm jack and two SIM slots can be found at the top of the right edge. The left edge has the microSD card slot and Micro-USB port for charging and data transfer. Right above the screen is the 1.1-megapixel front-facing camera, and below it is the microphone. The back has the really long speaker grille, rear camera and flash.

The entire device is glossy and attracts fingerprints very easily. The back, made of plastic, picked up quite a few scratches during our review so we'd suggest using a cover. The device feels sturdy despite being being fairly slim at 7.7mm, and thanks to the rubberised edges, the grip feels solid. Still, those with dainty hands will find the T2 Ultra Dual unwieldy due to its sheer size.

Features and Specifications
The Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual has decidedly mid-range specifications. Under the hood is a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core SoC clocked at 1.4Ghz, with Adreno 305 graphics. Out of the 8GB of internal storage, only 4.68GB is available to users. Thankfully, you can increase the storage of the device up to 32GB using a microSD card. Sony also bundles 50GB of free Box storage for life, provided users register by 31 December 2014, though surprisingly, the Box app isn't preloaded. The 13-megapixel rear camera can shoot videos at 1080p resolution. Users who love to use the front camera to capture selfies might be disappointed with the 1.1-megapixel resolution.

The dual-SIM variant of the T2 Ultra accepts two Micro-SIM cards and works in dual standby mode. Both SIMs can connect to the 850/900/1800/1900/2100MHz GSM bands. The phone also has Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP support along with a range of different sensors including an accelerometer, gyro and proximity sensor.

The 6-inch screen has a resolution of 1280x720. The screen springs to life with Sony's proprietary Triluminous display technology. Colour reproduction is fantastic and the contrast is great too. There is a catch, however - the legibility of the screen takes a hit when viewed under bright sunlight.

Software
The T2 Ultra runs a skinned version of Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) with an update to Kitkat promised by Sony in the near future. Sony's skin keeps Android largely untouched, which is great for users who appreciate a vanilla Android experience. The lock screen features a unique swipe animation that replicates a window blind.

The T2 Ultra gives users six home screens to customise. A very interesting addition, which helps with single-handed operation of the large phablet, is that when users double-tap the Home button, the notification slider drops down with all the shortcuts moved to the bottom. Ingenious, we say! Additionally, the app drawer features a sliding panel which pops up when users swipe in from the left of the first screen. This panel has a direct access to the Play Store and Sony Select apart from a few options to rearrange app icons. 

Hitting the Recents key brings up (apart from apps that are open) a 'favourites bar' which lets you add what Sony calls 'small apps' which can be used as movable widgets to make use of the screen space. Along with the regular set of apps, you'll find McAfee Security, Garmin Navigation (trial edition), Neo reader, OfficeSuite, Pixlr Express, Reader by Sony, Playstation Mobile, Sketch, Smart Connect, Socialife News, Sony Select, Support and TrackID. TrackID is similar to Shazam and Soundhound, and works reasonably well. One thing that irked us beyond measure was the sensitivity of the haptic vibration feedback, so much so that we had to switch it off very shortly after we started using the device.

Camera
The camera software is fairly limited, with respect to options, when compared to Samsung's and LG's. There are some really pointless modes such as AR Effect, which is extremely silly, with animations that remind us of Chota Bheem's artwork. The Picture Effects mode has some really garish effects. The background defocus mode, when it works, takes two pictures - one of the background and the other of the foreground - and looks great, provided users have the patience. Panorama stitching is flawless and the effect works really well.

As far as cameras on smartphones go, the T2 Ultra is a great example of why megapixels do not matter. The 13-megapixel shooter on this phablet has problems focusing subjects and captures images which are filled with noise. This is not to say the camera is completely bad. There are a few redeeming aspects, but this is not what we expected from Sony, which is famous for making great sensors.

Details were muted even in daylight shots, but the natural colours are a plus. The white balance in some pictures was not right. The T2 Ultra takes some good macros, though. The camera tested our patience when shooting in low light, and we found the resulting photographs to not be worth the time taken. The less we talk about the 1.1-megapixel front-facing camera, the better. Those who love taking selfies would be well advised to look elsewhere.

(Click to see full size)

Video performance was equally underwhelming, with very little detail captured. Fortunately, there is no skipping of frames.

Overall, the camera is an underperformer.

Performance
Before we get to the benchmark scores, our experience of using the device in day-to-day situations was filled with niggling issues. Using the default Chrome browser caused the screen to flicker intermittently. The app drawer would freeze from time to time. When it worked well, the T2 Ultra was an adequately fast performer, which is reflected in the scores.

AnTuTu and Quadrant returned scores of 19,358 and 9,138, respectively. In the graphics department, the Adreno 305 lags behind with GFXbench peaking at 10.9 fps. The less intensive 3DMark Ice Storm returned a moderate score of 5,632 points.

Another surprise was the fact that the T2 Ultra had low sound output levels even when tested with reference earphones. We were disappointed by the terrible audio quality of the bundled earphones - Sony seems to have cut corners in another area that is usually considered its strong suit. 

The T2 Ultra's default video player didn't play 1080p videos, but got through the rest of our sample clips without any hiccups. In our looping video battery test, it managed to last for 8 hours, 22 minutes. This should translate to a real-life performance of one day. Voice quality during calls suffered slightly in low network areas, and there was a unique crackling sound at the receiver's end, though this could have been an issue with the service provider.

Verdict
With Sony faltering in areas that are generally considered its strong suit - camera and sound - the Xperia T2 Ultra Dual, priced at Rs. 24,990, is a difficult device to recommend. There is strong competition in this segment from the feature-rich Moto X and the Gionee Elife E7, with its great camera. But if the requirement is a 6-inch screen and nothing less, the T2 Ultra is the best bet at the moment. In short, Sony gets one thing absolutely right - the price.

Micromax Canvas Knight: Benchmarks and performance comparison

We carry out some synthetic benchmark tests on Micromax’s most powerful smartphone that runs on a true octa-core MediaTek processor.

Micromax announced the Canvas Knight just a few days back and as we know the smartphone runs on a MediaTek Tru Octa-Core MT6592T processor clocked at 2GHz and comes with ARM Mali450 GPU. It has 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch FHD IPS display, a 16MP rear camera, an 8MP front camera, 32GB of internal storage and a 2350mAh battery. The Canvas Knight runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.

  

  

  

The new Canvas Knight looks quite tall as compared to the Nexus 5

We got our hands on the device and thought of running some benchmark tests to see how the smartphone performs in terms of raw hardware performance.

For testing we used Antutu, Smartbench 2012, 3DMark and Quadrant and compared it with some other smartphones in the same price segment.

The preliminary benchmark tests do indicate that the Canvas Knight can perform the simpler day to day tasks quite well. But when it comes to productivity and gaming, the Knight does seem to lag behind phones like Moto G and even the Nexus 4 which was announced more than a year ago.

Check out the specs comparison of the Micromax Canvas Knight over here. Stay tuned for a full-on review of the Micromax Canvas Knight.

Micromax Canvas Knight: Build and design overview

The Canvas Knight is the most premium smartphone from Micromax till date.

Micromax has been threatening this for a while now, and in a good way. Each new phone felt better than the previous one as the build quality kept on getting better. But with the Micromax Canvas Knight, it would be safe to say that the new phone from Micromax comes with a build quality of international standards.

Right from the packaging of the phone, you can clearly make out that Micromax has spent a lot of time in designing the smartphone. The tinted black cover sits on top of a matte base, which safely holds the phone, the charger and the headset. The phone itself sits on a transparent plastic cradle, reminding us of the recent unboxing of the Apple iPhone 5c and the Apple iPhone 5s! Minimalistic, yet very classy boxes and packaging everything tightly is one way to save on package costs. This time, Micromax has nailed it in terms of packaging.

 

Take the phone out of the box, and you can see various design influences. The unibody design feels top notch with the graphite frame. There is absolutely no 'plasticky' feel, and the materials used in the phone have a premium feel. If no one tells you this is a Micromax phone (or you don’t notice the logo on the back for some reason!), you probably wouldn’t know.

Now for the specific design influences, apart from the iPhone influenced packaging. The right and left side spines are pretty much like the iPhone 5S. The way you access the SIM trays requires a pin, just like on the iPhone. Flip over the phone, and there is a distinct influence of the Sony Xperia Z and the Sony Xperia Z1. The glass at the back is a visual delight, but you will have to be careful with how you use it. Any rough handling, and the chances are that this glass will get scratched quite easily; something we had pointed out about the aforementioned Xperia phones as well.

 

 

The 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top, while the micro USB charging port is on the bottom spine, along with a well chiseled out speaker grille. This looks a lot like the grille design on the HTC One, and even coming close to that effort is indicative of Micromax’s hard work on designing the Canvas Knight.

Design influences aside, it is clear that the focus has been on making the Canvas Knight feel like a top-of-the-line Android smartphone. The glass above the IPS display has reflective tendencies, but blends well with the rest of the design. The three touch sensitive keys below the screen respond quite well. This is a dual SIM phone, and the SIM slots are placed on the left and the right sides towards the top. There is no space expandable memory card slot though. The volume rocker and the power keys are on the right side spine, and towards the middle to make them easily accessible. While the power key position takes some getting used to (ideal being the placement on the top), the volume keys are well within the reach of fingers.

  

The 16MP camera on the back gets a slightly raised housing, possibly because of sensor size demands. When you place the phone on a table or a flat surface, the top of the phone will rest on this bulge. Just be careful so as not to damage the lens by placing the phone on an uneven surface.

Despite the large 5-inch screen, the Canvas Knight is fairly comfortable to hold. For someone with long fingers, the single hand operation is not entirely out of the question. The image above on the right, shows you how the Micromax Canvas Knight compares to the Nexus 5, in terms of the form factor.

All in all, the Micromax Canvas Knight is a phone that excels in terms of the materials that have been used and the way the phone is put together. Clearly, Canvas Knight is the most premium Micromax phone till date, and this could be a benchmark that the company has set for itself. If that is the case, the future is very bright indeed!

Micromax Canvas Juice A177, 5-inch quad-core smartphone available online

The Micromax Canvas Juice A177 is a 5-inch smartphone featuring Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, quad-core processor and 5MP camera.

Micromax has quietly introduced yet another budget Android smartphone under its Canvas series. Called the Canvas Juice A177, the new smartphone is listed on Micromax website without pricing and release date information. However, the handset is available on other e-commerce site for about Rs. 8,999.

The Micromax Canvas Juice A177 has a 5-inch display with 480 x 854 resolution. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS and is powered by a MTK 6572 processor along with 1GB of RAM.

The Canvas Juice A177 has a 5MP rear camera and 0.3MP front camera. It features 4GB of ROM and supports additional space up to 32 GB via microSD. For connectivity, the smartphone supports BT 3.0, USB and Wi-Fi..

The Canvas Juice A177 comes preloaded with various apps - Spuul, Opera Mini, Hike, M!Live, Dancing Bubbles, Bubble X Slice, Kingsoft Office, GMS. Check out the official Canvas Juice A177 listing here.

Micromax Canvas Juice  A177

Guide to Nokia X: Installing Android apps, interface, rooting and more

So you just got yourself a new Nokia X but the new interface has left you confused? Don't fret. Read this guide to get you started with the latest Android device from Nokia.

Nokia launching an android device was the buzz word for a lot of days and people in the country were very much excited about the three mobile devices that were recently announced by the company. Here’s a list of things you should know if you’ve recently bought one:

The User Interface: 
The interface of Nokia X is divided into  two parts or the two screens: one has a list of all applications that are installed on the device and the other shows a “fast lane” view which is similar to Asha. It shows applications that you have launched recently. The application screen has a flexibility of arranging them in the form of folders which are nothing more than visually separated content. You can also alter the size of the tiles from a small sized tile to a medium one. That is all the flexibility which is provided with the tiles and if you’ve to hide a tile from the main screen you simply cannot do that. You’ve to uninstall an application to remove it from the screen.

  

Widgets:
If you long press any tile and then tap on the icon that presents itself towards the lower right, you get introduced to a screen which allows you to select widgets available as you would in a regular android device. The widgets are usually of larger tile size and are not so much interactive or live as one would see on a windows phone.

Unlock your device with a double tap: You can use the power button to unlock your device or you can double tap on the screen when the clock is displayed to activate the lock screen wallpaper and from there you can swipe to unlock the device.

Note: This feature wishes to work on its own will, sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. It is mostly the latter though.

Multitasking:Along with Google play services, which is the core of android, multitasking is also a miss in the version of android being provided by Nokia. No application keeps running in the background even though recently opened ones can be accessed in fast-lane which is discussed next. But the applications can request access to receive and send push notifications even in the background, which is not truly multitasking but just a touch of it just like the Asha devices.

Fast-lane:Fast-lane keeps a record of all the applications that you have launched recently. From texts to music to applications to downloads, it stores all the history in a time-line form. Also keeping more applications in the fast-lane slows down the phone’s processing which indicates that they are still in the RAM of the device in a somewhat suspended manner. So try and keep only the really handy ones in the fast-lane.

Taking ScreenshotsSome features of android have been retained in Nokia X without modifying them. Taking screenshots is one of those. You can simply press the power button and the volume down key simultaneously in order to take a screenshot of whatever is being displayed currently on the screen.

LaunchersThe default nokia launcher is laggy and something I didn’t like much, but the fact that you can use other launchers without any issues was a relief. I installed Nova launcher by downloading its .apk file from the website and it worked like a charm. After installing it, I felt at home and the device became much more usable and friendly.

Getting apps apart from the Nokia StoreAlthough the Nokia Store provides a good number of the basic applications necessary but the list of required applications is far from complete yet. The good news is that you can install .apk files from other sources just by allowing the installation from unknown sources in security settings. But finding .apk files can be a pain too. So you can use alternate markets such as 1mobile market or the amazon store which are good alternatives to Google's Play Store.

Note:

1. If you are thinking of installing Play Store using this method, it won’t work. It requires Google's Play Services.
2. Also applications dependent on Play services, which are applications which somehow require access to your Google account won't work either when downloaded from an alternate market.

Rooting your device: If you are among the experimental types, you might consider rooting your phone to get complete access! Many people have done so successfully to get full access to the device’s system and then do whatever they want to with it.

Security: Data is always a crucial aspect of the device; especially in times like these when the phones are becoming smarter every day. The Nokia X comes with 3 security methods

1. Screen security: The screen can be locked by two methods, password and PIN, the normal security techniques on almost every device these days.
2. Encryption: As in android, you can encrypt everything stored on the device’s memory so that only authorized people can access it.
   Note: As opposed to android, the data on Nokia X can only be decrypted after a factory reset.
3. SIM card lock: A common feature that has existed on Nokia phones for a long time now is also present in Nokia X. It prevents people from accessing contacts stored on SIM card once the feature is enabled.

Nokia X: Benchmarks and performance overview

The first Android based device from Nokia is finally here. Now, let's put its hardware under a stress test to see how well does it perform.

There was a huge buzz over Nokia's first Android smartphone in the past few months. Nokia had finally given in and announced a smartphone based on Android, well AOSP (Android Open Source Project) to be precise. Now that the device has been officially launched, we dug in deep to see if the latest offering from Nokia is worth your money.

Nokia X has the capability to sideload apps, and also supports third party app stores. So we loaded it with some benchmarks and performance apps to see how well it performs.

We then compared the results with some handsets falling in a similar price-range:

	Nokia X	Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus	Nokia Lumia 525	Xolo Q800S
Antutu	7007	16888	7523	13100
Quadrant	2962	5866	NA	7389

The results show that Nokia's benchmark scores are actually quite low, and to be honest Nokia’s UI is very sluggish and keeps lagging like crazy once you install a bunch of apps on the device. We also checked out a memory testing app which showed that out of 512MB only 381MB of RAM is user accessible. On regular usage, out of the 381MB of RAM, 71MB was available even though the smartphone did not have a lot of apps running in the background.

Nokia has very strategically placed the Nokia X between its Asha line of feature phones and the Lumia range of Windows Phone smartphones. It is clear that they don’t want to disrupt the sales of either of the ranges. That being said, the much hyped Nokia X is not for the hardcore Android enthusiast, rather it is more of a large Asha phone with support for Android apps.

The Octa-core competition

Karbonn launched the cheapest octa-core running smartphone at just Rs.14,490. Now, let's compare it with some other smartphones running on octa-core processors in the country to see if it really offers a bang for the buck.

The Karbonn Titanium Octane is the most affordable octa-core powered smartphone available in the country today. It also offers a nice range of specifications and an attractive looking design. But how does it match up to the already existing smartphones running on an octa-core chips which includes its elder sibling, the Titanium Octance Plus?

Well, we have compared all the smartphones in terms of features and specifications and to be honest, the Titanium Octane does give the other brands a run for their money.

	Karbonn Titanium Octane	Karbonn Titanium Octane Plus	Micromax Canvas Knight	iberry Auxus Nuclea N2	Intex Aqua Octa
Price	14,490	17,990	19,990	19,990	18,500
Display	5 inch, 1280x720 pixels	5 inch, 1920x1080 pixels	5 inch, 1920x1080 pixels	5.7 inch, 1920x1080 pixels	6 inch, 1280x720 pixels
Processor	1.7 GHz, Octa-Core Processor	1.7 GHz, Octa-Core Processor	2GHz, Octa-Core MT6592T Processor	1.7 GHz, Octa-Core Processor	1.7 GHz, Octa-Core Processor
Memory and RAM	16 GB inbuilt, 1 GB RAM	16 GB inbuilt, 2 GB RAM	32 GB inbuilt, 2 GB RAM	16 GB inbuilt, 2 GB RAM	16 GB inbuilt, 2 GB RAM
Card slot	Yes, upto 32 GB	Yes, upto 32 GB	No	Yes, upto 64 GB	Yes, upto 32 GB
Rear Camera	13MP with autofocus	16 MP with autofocus	16 MP with autofocus	13 MP with autofocus	13 MP with autofocus
Video recording	Yes, 1080p	Yes, 1080p	Yes, 1080p @ 30fps	Yes, 1080p @ 30fps	Yes, 1080p
Front camera	5 MP	8 MP	8 MP	8 MP	5 MP
Battery	2000mAh	2000mAh	2350mAh	3500mAh	2300mAh
OS	Android 4.4.2	Android 4.4.2	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2
Dual-SIM	Yes, GSM+GSM	Yes, GSM+GSM	Yes, GSM+GSM	Yes, GSM+GSM	Yes, GSM+GSM

The Titanium Octane falls short in terms of screen resolution and battery capacity, but at such a low price tag and featuring the latest Android 4.4.2 out of the box, the smartphone is well worth the money spent. You can checkout our first look at the Karbonn Titanium Octane over here.

First Look: Karbonn Titanium Octane, the Android Octa-core under 15Th

Apart from being the most affordable octa-core smartphone, Titanium Octane has a premium build quality and design as well... Almost as good as Nokia's Lumia series phones.

Yesterday, we saw Karbonn Mobiles announcing three new smartphones based on MediaTek SoCs. The most affordable out of the lot is the Karbonn Titanium Octane which runs on an octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor clocked at 1.7 GHz with a price tag of Rs.14,490; which makes it the most affordable smartphone in the country running on an octa-core processor.

The smartphone has a good design and doesn't look like a mid-budget smartphone. The display is sharp and offers decent contrast and viewing angles despite having a 720p resolution on a 5 inch dimension. The touch response is fluid and we didn't notice any lag while using it. The unit that we tried was running on Android 4.2.2 but Karbonn has assured that the retail units will have 4.4.2 KitKat.

The back has a nice soft plastic finish and the camera module brings a tiny hump to the handset. Overall Karbonn has improved a lot when it comes to designing the phones and the simple looking design approach makes the Titanium Octane look great.

Here are the full specs of the Karbonn Titanium Octane:

• Display: 5 inches IPS LCD panel with 1280x720 resolution (294ppi)
• Battery: 2000mAh
• Storage: 16GB, expandable to 32GB
• Camera: 13MP rear with LED flash, 5MP front
• SoC: Mediatek MT6592
• CPU: 1.7GHz Octa-core Cortex A7
• RAM: 1GB
• Operating system: Android 4.4.2
• Connectivity: 3G, W-Fi, Bluetooth, Dual-SIM

HTC Desire C now in India at Rs14990

HTC Desire C now in India @Rs14990

HTC Desire C

Review:
Phone is Looking Good Stylish.
And this Phone Get ICS taste on 512 RAM and 600 Mhz Single core Processor
which result in Poor Performance

Some Other major weak point

• NO Dedicated GPu
• No Secondary Camera for such price Range
• Poor Screen Resolution
• Poor Pixel Density
• Poor processor Only 600MHz 
• NO HD recording

Pros:

• 3.5" Display
• 512 MB RAM
• Android OS 4.0 ICS with HTC SENSE 4.0
• 7.2Mbps HSDPA 3G
• Bluetooth v4.0
• 4GB Internal + Expandable upto 32 GB
• 5MP Cam
• Wifi with Hotspot
• Beats Audio

price in India: Rs14990

Competitors:

• Sony Walkman Live
• Sony Xperia mini pro
• Samsung Ace +
• Motorola Defy XT
• Motorola Defy Plus

Njoy 


Source: ~•´¯`»★♒℃omputer_℉uns® ♒~~


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