Best laptops in India for July 2018

The top laptops under Rs. 40000 now often features a dedicated graphics card for gaming on a budget. Laptops have become powerful enough in this range if you are looking for something that can let you game at moderate settings, you need not worry much. Some of the previous generation laptops may also be better than newer ones when you consider the specs-to-price ratio. 

• HP 15-BE015TU

The HP 15-BE015TU features a 15.6-inch HD backlit LED display, along with the full set of connectivity options. Dual speakers, DTS audio sound and HP’s Truevision HD webcam round up the specs of the laptop.

CPU          : Intel Core i3  

Graphics  : Intel HD Graphics 520 

RAM         : 8GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

• Acer Aspire E5-575G

Compared to the E5-575, it is slightly more expensive but having a dedicated graphics card could be worth it if your main goal is to game comfortably.

CPU          : Intel Core i3 

Graphics  : Nvidia GeForce 940MX 

RAM         : 4GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

• Dell Inspiron 3567

The Inspiron 3567 also features a similar 15.6-inch HD display, but comes with half the RAM compared to its competitors at this price. Inspiron 3567 comes with the latest generation of Intel’s Core i5 processor with integrated Intel HD graphics. It looks minimalist and comes with six hours of battery life

CPU          : Intel Core i5 

Graphics  : Intel HD Graphics

RAM         : 4GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

• Asus X541UA-XO561T

Asus X541UA-XO561T features a 15.6-inch HD display, this device from Asus also lacks dedicated graphics and is equipped with Intel HD graphics.

CPU          : Intel Core i3 

Graphics  : Intel Integrated HD 520 

RAM         : 4GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

• Lenovo Ideapad 310

A full set of ports for connectivity and a decent design makes the Ideapad 310 another worthy contender in this segment.

CPU          : Intel Core i5 

Graphics  : Nvidia GeForce N16V-GMR1 

RAM         : 8GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

• Acer E5-575 Core i5

Full set of connectivity options. Considering its current price, the E5-575 Core i5 is a good machine to consider, compared to the Dell Inspiron 3567.

CPU          : Intel Core i5 

Graphics  : Nvidia GeForce 940MX 

RAM         : 8GB DDR4 

Screen      : 15.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) 

Storage    : 1TB HDD

The best options available can be a little challenging. There are many configurations available, some with newer processors and some with older ones. Some of the previous generation laptops may also be better than newer ones when you consider the specs-to-price ratio. we’ve tried to make the job of selecting the best laptop under Rs 40,000 easier for you.

 

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus full Specification, Price and Features.

Galaxy S9 and S9+ don’t represent a sea change. Rather, they’re an affirmation of success. Everything that made the Galaxy S8 and S8+ great phones is still to be found here. Wireless charging, Samsung Pay, headphone jacks, brilliant displays, extremely refined industrial design, and IP68 waterproofing make these phones extremely feature-rich.

Samsung impressed the world by putting variable aperture on a phone. However, it also has the first mover's disadvantage here. It seems to me that the company's algorithms aren't perfectly tuned to changing aperture yet, causing the washed out images.

At least let us remap the Bixby key, Samsung. Also die, Bixby, die. the S9+, the second camera module plays a role here, too, but even the smaller S9 is half a millimeter thicker and 8 grams heavier than the Galaxy S8.

• Display :-

Galaxy S9 Plus 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display that impresses no matter what you use it for. It feels premium, colours pop and refresh rate is high. There's really nothing to complain about. It can take on any of the top-end flagships today, and barring the iPhone X, there's nothing out there that could compete against the S9 Plus.

Samsung used Gorilla Glass 5 for the body this time and the S9 Plus is heavier than both the S8 Plus and Note 8. The extra weight is possibly a result of a heavier aluminium chassis on this device. It's just enough to be reassuring, but not enough for the phone to feel unwieldy. Samsung is following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy here, and it's hard to argue against.

Exynos chipsets is essentially the same as that between Qualcomm's offerings during this time. The Exynos 9810 that runs on the Galaxy S9 Plus is as capable as any flagship-class chipset should be. Galaxy S9 Plus is smooth and lag-free. It is sure to slow down over time, just like any Android phone will, including the Pixel 2 XL.

• Camera :-

The Galaxy S9 Plus can shoot 960fps slow motion video.I almost never used. In fact, the only reason I even tried it because I had to write this review. That said, super slow motion video might find use in certain niche use-cases. What you must know is that the Galaxy S9 Plus has to be quite stable for this to work, so a tripod is recommended. A moving car, low light, while walking etc. are not the perfect situations for shooting super slow motion videos.

S9 camera F/1.5 is the widest aperture we've seen on a smartphone yet. The Galaxy S9 compliments that by allowing a toggle for smaller F/2.4 aperture. On the auto mode, the camera will switch between 1.5 and 2.4 on its own volition. If you want to actually see the aperture change, you can switch to the Pro mode and hit the aperture toggle. You will see the blades close in on the primary lens when shifting to the narrower aperture. What the Galaxy S9 Plus can't do is manage transitions across these apertures. You either have f/1.5 or f/2.4, which theoretically speaking, is still a big deal.

Samsung admits that this new feature is all about having "fun" with the Galaxy S9 Plus. Switching to AR Emoji mode on the camera app allows you to take a selfie and convert it into a cartoon character. The character the phone creates will almost never look like you, which is where the fun element comes in. What AR Emoji seems to do is create a more exaggerated version of the expression on your face.

• Battery:-

The Galaxy S9+ offers the same 3500mAh of battery capacity as the outgoing S8+. While the new Snapdragon 845 chipset is supposed. S9 Plus without games or other heavy use cases, it lasts for 14-16 hours quite easily. However, with the screen turned to auto and heavy gaming during the day, the battery life fell to between 12-14 hours. That's up to flagship standards and makes the Galaxy S9 Plus dependable enough.

• Sensors :- 

Apple may be trying to kill fingerprint sensors, but Samsung's not buying it. The fingerprint placement here has changed too, thankfully. It's easier to get used to, though it's still tough to discern sometimes.

Samsung also improved the iris scanner this year, using both the IR sensors and an RGB photo of your face to unlock. The Iris scanner is more usable now, but it's far from being perfect. It still stutters in low light and is slow and unintuitive.

Nokia announced Mobile Launch Date in India at the MWC 2018

Global announced the launch of five new Nokia mobiles at Barcelona on Sunday - the Nokia 8 Sirocco, the Nokia 7 Plus, the Nokia 6 (2018), and Nokia 1 Android smartphones, as well as the Nokia 8110 4G. While international pricing for the phones has been announced, there has been no word on their India price as well as launch dates. Well, one of that has changed now.

Nokia Mobiles used to be one of the biggest brands in the mobile market (some say the Apple of the early 21st century), they’re yet to wow the world with their devices.  Nokia, though it sold 70 million phones last year, of which the majority were feature phones, needs to sell smartphones to survive.

launch in India will be the Nokia 1, which has an India release date of April. Next up, we will see the launch of one of the variants of the Nokia 6 (2018) - the 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage "most likely", according to Mehta - with the other variant launching around end-May/ June.

• Nokia 8110 4G

The only Nokia feature phone to be announced at the MWC 2018, the Nokia 8110 4G is priced at 79 Euros (approximately Rs. 6,285). Termed as “another icon is reborn” after the launch of the Nokia 3310 last year, this phone should be available starting in May.

• Nokia 1

Nokia 1 has been announced at $85 (approximately Rs.5500), which is expected to launch in April 2018. Nokia 1 doesn’t outperform Redmi 5A in any other way. The Xiaomi phone has a faster CPU, more RAM, as well as more storage capacity. It even supports better camera resolution and HD video recording.

• Nokia 6 (2018)

Nokia 6 (2018), thus far only available in China, was also announced at the MWC 2018. Priced at a global average of 279 Euros (Rs. 22,196), its launch is scheduled for April.Nokia 6 (2018) is an improvement over it’s predecessor with the Snapdragon 630 which is apparently 60 percent faster, but is that enough to for Nokia to make its mark in this price segment?

• Nokia 7 Plus

The Nokia 7 Plus was announced at 399 Euro (Rs.31,743) to be launched in April. Equipped with Snapdragon 660 SoC and 4GB RAM, one has to ask the question of whether it’s really going to be enough?The Nokia 7 Plus does have the advantage of sporting a bigger screen as well as expandable memory.

• Nokia 8 Sirocco

The Nokia 8 Sirocco is the flagship phone of the Nokia range at the MWC this year. Priced at 749 Euros (Rs.59,589), 95 percect of the phones surface is vacuum molded Gorilla Glass 5. At 7.5mm thin at the center to less than 2mm around the edges, the phone also supports wireless charging. 

Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus, and Nokia 8 Sirocco. The fourth, is an Android Oreo (Go edition), and Nokia was the first manufacturer to promise monthly security updates as well as to stay pure to Android. So far, so good.

Xiaomi Mi 7 to Sport Face Unlock Technology, Ditch Fingerprint Sensor

Mi 7, 2018 flagship Xiaomi smartphone, may become among the first Android handsets to ditch the fingerprint sensor entirely in favour of facial recognition. New reports say the fingerprint sensor in the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 7 will give way to face unlock technology, similar to Apple's phasing out of the Touch ID sensor to make way for its new Face ID authentication system on the iPhone X.

This new report contradicts earlier rumours about Xiaomi using an under-display fingerprint sensor to minimise the bezels on the device. The company was expected to use Synaptics' recently announced under-display fingerprint sensor.

Display fingerprint sensor were supported by renders published by GizChina. The renders revealed both the front and back of the device showing features like dual cameras and an 18:9 display with minimal bezels. The edge-to-edge bezel-less display makes the device look similar to the Mi Mix 2.

Mi 7 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. But not much is known about the device yet.upcoming in-display fingerprint sensor is indicative of Xiaomi ditching the technology completely. Vivo and Huawei are rumoured to use it in their upcoming products.

A few smartphones, including the OnePlus 5, OnePlus 5T, and Honor View 10 have already showed up with facial recognition, with a lot more expected to have the feature in 2018. Unlike Apple's iPhone X, all of these Android smartphones are expected to have both fingerprint sensors and 3D face sensors.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm and Vivo had demonstrated the in-display fingerprint sensor – even though the demonstration was on a prototype device, the technology seemed impressive, albeit a little slow. The slow response times could have pushed Xiaomi to change its plans and ditch the fingerprint sensor for its next flagship device, taking the iPhone X route.

Announce for MediaTek, Qualcomm Supported to Android Oreo (Go edition)

Google announcing the launch of Android Oreo (Go edition), two of the world's biggest mobile processor makers - MediaTek and Qualcomm - have announced support for the new operating system that was launched at an event in New Delhi on Tuesday.

MediaTek, in a statement on Thursday, said that it will be an SoC partner for bringing Android Oreo (Go edition) to smartphone makers and will offer support on Android devices with 512MB to 1GB of RAM. Go edition is based on Android 8.1 Oreo and this is one of the rare instances when support from SoC makers is available within a short span of the operating system's launch.
Google announced Android Oreo (Go edition) in India earlier this week. It is said to become available in the next few months with developers getting access in the latest Android 8.1 Oreo update. Google claims that devices running Android Oreo (Go edition) will have an average 15 percent faster app startup time and preloaded apps will take almost 50 percent less space on the internal storage drive.

Qualcomm, the other major mobile processor maker, also announced full support for bringing Android Oreo (Go edition) to low-RAM smartphones. The manufacturer states that it will be working closely with Google to offer an optimised experience on smartphones with a memory of 1GB or less. Qualcomm claims that this partnership will help leverage growth for both brands in emerging markets from South Asia and Africa.

Android Oreo (Go edition) is expected to be available running on devices based on Snapdragon mobile platforms in early 2018. Android Oreo (Go edition) smartphones powered by MediaTek will be available in the global market by Q1, 2018

Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) leak, Infinity Display, dual selfie cameras and slim bezels

Samsung will soon be updating its Galaxy A series smartphones. The lineup is expected to consist of the 2018 iteration of the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5, and Galaxy A7. Samsung is also rumored to launch the Galaxy A8 (2018), which would be the high-end model in the series. The smartphone’s alleged design has been leaked now which shows a Galaxy S8-like Infinity Display.

Galaxy A8 (2018) has been leaked in pictures which show off a thin-bezel display. This means, that the smartphone will most likely ship with a near edge-to-edge Infinity screen much like this year's flagship phones Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+, and also the Galaxy Note 8. 

This compared to the phone's successor is much improved and enhanced in terms of design. The Samsung touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels.

Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018), the smartphones are expected to feature a 5.5-inch and 6-inch full HD Infinity display, respectively. The smartphones could be powered by in-house Exynos 7885 SoC or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 paired with 4GB of RAM. 

The smartphone has very thin bezels on top and bottom and almost none on the sides. The display also appears to be curved like the Galaxy S8. What’s striking is the dual-camera setup located on the top chin of the smartphone. Samsung only recently introduced the dual-camera setup on the Galaxy Note 8, and a dual-selfie camera module seems very unlikely.

Connectivity, the smartphones are so far rumored to feature a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port. Going by Samsung’s schedule, the 2018 Galaxy A series should launch by December or the beginning of 2018.

Xiaomi Mi A1 Specifications, Features, Price and other detail

Xiaomi Mi A1, first Android One smartphone, was launched in India back in September. It was heavily marketed as the device "created by Xiaomi and powered by Google", while being made available in Black and Gold colour variants. The company is now introducing a brand new Rose Gold colour variant. 

India launch, Xiaomi had promised that the Rose Gold colour will be made available in the country at a later date. The all-new Rose Gold Mi A1 will be going on sale from Tuesday, November 21 at 12:01am IST and will be available via Mi.com and Flipkart. It will be also made available via Mi Home stores, Mi Preferred Partner stores, and retail partner stores. As before, the Xiaomi Mi A1 price in India is Rs. 14,999.

• Specification & Features:- 

Xiaomi Mi A1 is a dual-SIM smartphone that runs stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat with some company-specific enhancements. It features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display with Corning Gorilla Glass and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM.

Coming to the dual rear camera setup, the Xiaomi Mi A1 bears two 12-megapixel sensors, with one featuring a wide-angle lens with a 1.25-micron pixel sensor and f/2.2 aperture, and the other sporting a telephoto lens, an f/2.6 aperture, and capable of delivering 2x optical zoom. The smartphone bears a 5-megapixel front camera with a real-time beautification mode.

The smartphone bears 64GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). It offers 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack as connectivity options. The smartphone bears a 3080mAh battery, measures 155.4x75.8x7.3mm, and weighs 168 grams.