Nokia Lumia 710 Review, Specs, Price & Features

The Nokia Lumia 710 is about to launch as we can see the Nokia Lumia 710s page on T-Mobiles site! For those of you who don’t know, the Nokia Lumia series is Nokia’s attempt to get big in the smartphone market and the Nokia Lumia 710, among the two they have launched is the budget phone which is expected to contribute to making the numbers big. Will great specs, good price and Nokia’s name add some extra value to the Windows Phone OS? Or are the smaller app market and the lack of deep levels of customizability spoiling the OS? Let’s find out!

Before we start the comparison, the Nokia Lumia 710 is a Windows Phone running device and Windows Phone is an operating system that competes with the likes of iOS and Android and they are sure as hell giving them some kind of competition. If not now, Windows Phone will make it big as future updates will make the phone more competitive and Microsoft is trying to perfect it by taking it one step at a time. The app market is however not as huge as iOS’ or Androids, but it sure is big enough to consider buying a phone with the OS.
Design & Screen:
The Nokia Lumia 710 may not be as premium looking as the elder Nokia Lumia 800, but it still is a gorgeous phone that is built well and comes with high grade quality materials. The Nokia Lumia comes in two colours – Black and white, but the cover at the back comes with various color choices like black, white, yellow, cyan and fuchsia. When you buy the phone, you get to choose two colours out of the lot! When you pair these colours with the Windows Phone OS, it looks pretty darn cool. Overall, this 3.7 inch phones does look pretty slick when compared to its competition and probably is the best looking out of the lot. Unlike most windows phones, the Lumia 710 come with actual physical buttons than the touch buttons and in a way, it is much better than the touch buttons practically.

Among the 3.7 inch screen under the Windows Phone category, the HTC Mozart (eliminating the Lumia 800 from this list) is topping its list and the Nokia Lumia probably climbed over the Mozart and claimed the title with its gorgeously LCD screen that features Nokia’s ClearBlack display technology that is somewhat like that of an AMOLED screen. The colours come out vibrant with the right amount of contrast and provide great readability under direct sunlight. The small screen does not however feel cramped thanks to the Windows Phone OS’ design!
Hardware Specs & Connectivity:
Most of its competitors feature only a 1 GHz or at max a 1.2 GHz single core processor, but the Nokia Lumia running on the Windows Phone 7.5 comes with a quick 1.4 GHz single core processor that is paired with a 512 MB RAM. Windows phone does not require a dual core processor to run quick as it does pretty darn well with a single core processor and the phone will continue to perform even updates that happen two years later. It is just the way Windows Phone was designed! Use the phone and experience quick, smooth and fluid navigation with a swipe and scroll technique. Instead of icons, the windows phone comes with hubs that are more informative and more fun to use than an Android or an iOS.
The Nokia Lumia 710 supports GSM networks like 2G and 3G. Wifi and Bluetooth are other connectivity features that come along with the phone. However you will not be able to transfer files from one phone to the other via Bluetooth sadly. But if it is a song or a picture, you can however send them with Whatsapp! In the US, T-Mobile is selling their phones with 4G connectivity and is the first Windows Phone to feature 4G! If you are not in the US, then 4G will not be a feature.

Camera & Storage:
We all know how great nokia is with their phone camera and they don’t disappoint with the Lumia 710. Although it comes with only a 5 megapixel camera when compared to the Lumia 800s 8 megapixel camera, the job done by the younger sibling is however pretty awesome. The colours are bright, the contrast is almost perfect and the focus is also impressive. The phone even captures high quality videos at 720p HD and captures at 30 frames per second. Pretty awesome for the price!
This is one area where the Nokia Lumia 710 disappoints – Storage. It comes with an 8 GB internal memory, but the sad part is that you will not be able to extend that memory with a microSD card. But another fact is that you are not permitted to do that with pretty much any other Windows Phone in the market.

Pricing & Performance:
The pricing of the Lumia 710 is pretty competitive at $370 for the unlocked version. You can however get the phone for $49.99 at any T-Mobile store! The sales haven’t started yet, but according to the website, it is to start soon in the first weeks of January! But that news is only for the people in the US as the Nokia Lumia 710 is launched at competitive prices in places like India, Russia, Hong Kong, etc. The pricing is pretty much impressive and we sure as hell can expect the device to boost the Nokia sales.
With a 1.4 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM, the Nokia Lumia does not fail to impress. You can find information stacked in places that Microsoft would like to call “hubs” and this information are storage in slides which is pretty fun to do and is visually impressive. During our entire time with the phone, we have not experienced signs of lag even after doing heavy multi-tasking. After using this phone, I found iOS and the Android pretty plastic! The interface is gorgeous and apps are flowing into the market!

Conclusion:
If you are in search of a good phone at a decent price, then this is it. If you are looking for a completely new perspective in a phone, then this is it. If you are looking for a phone to set you apart from the others, this is it. If you want a phone that gets things done fast and efficiently, then this is it. You have everything you need in the Nokia Lumia 710 and it is embedded in a gorgeous OS. Go for it I would say!

Source: http://www.techzek.com/nokia-lumia-710-review-specs-price-features/

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Ainol NOVO7 Paladin Tablet Review, Specs, Price & Features

Dubbed as the world’s very first Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, the Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin can give you a wide selection of features that you can truly enjoy. Its affordable price can definitely entice you but before you decide to put your cash on the barrelhead, you might as well read our Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin tablet review.
Specs wise, the NOVO 7 Paladin is a 7 inch tablet device. It can also take pride of its five point capacitive multi-touch display, 800 x 480 pixels of full screen resolution, up to 150 degrees of viewing angle, 512 MB of RAM, 8GB of Nand Flash Storage, up to 16GB of expandable storage via micro SD card, 1080p of HD quality videos, 3.5mm earphone interface, mini USB port, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G/WCDMA dongle support, built-in Email and Web Browser, Android Market, YouTube and Skype. The slate is equipped with a 1GHz of JZ4770 Ingenic XBurst MIPS-based Processor alongside with its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform.
APPEARANCE
As expected, the Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin’s shell is made of plastic. The overall look and feel of the slate seems to be decent but not as classy as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus. Well, you can’t really expect a sub-$100 tablet to sport a high-quality glossy form factor.

Like any other 7-inch slates, the NOVO 7 Paladin is pretty light and portable. It can easily be tucked inside your bag as long as you get its screen protected from scrapes, scratches and dusts. The tablet is no less than 12mm thick with an average weight of 360 grams.
STORAGE
Similar to the Amazon Kindle Fire, the NOVO 7 Paladin can store up to 8GB of files. Of course, expect that you’ll be getting less than the slate’s actual storage capacity because it has already been pre-loaded with a bunch of widgets and apps. If ever you feel the need to use a larger storage, you can always opt to save your files inside a micro SD card.

PERFORMANCE
As we have mentioned earlier, the Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin tablet runs on a 1GHz Ingenic XBurst MIPS-based JZ4770 SoC. The slate’s processor claims to consume less power than any other ARM-based processors. Furthermore, the tablet is quite responsive and it can smoothly load its apps. You can also depend on its Vivante GC860 GPU that has been clocked at 444MHz.

CAMERA
If you’re a photo buff, then you will most likely dislike the idea of not being able to take some snap shots. The camera-less NOVO 7 Paladin can’t offer you this kind of luxury and you might as well bring your digital camera if you want to take a bunch of quality photographs.
CONNECTIVITY
Thanks to its built Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support, the NOVO 7 Paladin tablet can easily connect to the internet. Of course, that applies in areas where you can easily get a stable Wi-Fi connection. For places without Wi-Fi, you have to bring your own 3G/WCDMA dongle. Moreover, the slate comes without Bluetooth support.

BATTERY
When it comes to battery life, Ainol claims that the tablet’s 4000 mAh battery can last for seven hours as long as you don’t do anything that can easily deplete the slate’s battery.
PRICE
The Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin is currently available in China for $99. There’s no doubt that the price can tempt a lot of tablet users especially those who are in a tight budget. Meanwhile, US customers can purchase the slate at selected online import sites for a retail price of $109.99.
CONCLUSION
Setting aside the tablet competition, it is just fair for Ainol to sell its slate for $99. Considering the fact that the NOVO 7 Paladin is being powered by Google’s latest Android 4.0 OS, the slate is a good buy for anyone who just wants to read their favorite eBooks or stream some videos on YouTube. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to pay some extra dime for a slate with front and rear cameras especially when you get to feel the need to capture some photos or videos.
Before buying a tablet, it is important that you assess the things that you want to do with your tablet. But if you really don’t have enough cash to get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus or an Amazon Kindle Fire, it would be best for you to get the Ainol NOVO 7 Paladin.

Source: http://www.techzek.com/ainol-novo7-paladin-tablet-review-specs-price-features/

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Active Review, Specs, Price & Features

Some people are just really careless with phones, they tend to scratch it, drop it, bang it, etc. (by mistake of course) and for people like those, a fancy smartphone that performs well and looks good don’t last very long with them. For people like these Motorola manufactured the Motorola Defy and Sony manufactured the Sony Xperia Active! Out of these two devices, the Sony Xperia Active is the latest one to be released and that is the one which we will be dedicating an entire post to!

Internal Hardware Specs:
You might think that the Sony Xperia Active was built keeping in mind only the design and the ruggedness of the device and here is where you would be wrong! With a 1 GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon processor paired along with a 512 MB RAM, you can expect pretty good performance with the device. You can connect your phone to the Internet either via 2G, 3G or WiFi and it also consist of GPS with A-GPS, wisepilot navigation.

You can compare it with the Motorola Defy Plus and the Xperia Active would not be a shadow, but in fact the Sony Xperia Active seemed like a better performer than the Defy plus! The responsiveness of the touch was great and so was the speed at which the apps loaded. The Sony Xperia Active provides you with a 1 GB of internal memory out of which, only (sadly) 320 MB is available to you! You can however extend that up to 32 GB with a microSD card and you will most probably be awarded with a free 2 GB card on purchase.
Camera:
The Sony Xperia Active features a pretty good 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. We all know that Sony cameras are pretty good and the Xperia Active does indeed live up to that expectations! The Active comes along with camera features like Geo-tagging, smile detector, touch focus, image stabilization and a variety of others that would help you improve your camera experience! The sad part about this story is the fact that the phone does not come with a front facing camera, considering its price!

With the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active you can capture 720p videos at 30 frames per second and even though the video quality is not the best we have seen as of now, we do think that it is pretty decent when you compare it with the Motorola Defy plus!
Design & its Features:
The first thing that you notice when you hold, nay, when you see the Sony Xperia Active is its extremely masculine and solid body that made it look like it could have survived the Pearl Harbour incident! This tiny 3 inch LCD screen is surrounded by a pretty neat design and is twice the thickness of the Samsung Galaxy S2. Fear not as the thickness does not seem to be bothering thanks to the small form factor of the phone.
Throw it, drop it, dip it in water, play with it. No matte what, the phone was designed to protect itself from water and dust and after witnessing various tests, i got to say that we were hell impressed! The rubbery finish of the phone provides with a good grip and the clean design might appeal to a lot of people. Overall, the design is pretty good and i would say much better than the Samsung Galaxy S5690 Xcover and comparable to the Motorola Defy.

Operating System & Performance:
The Sony Xperia Active comes packed with the Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread and the phone is obviously not speculated for the Ice Cream Sandwich as it does not have specs like what the Samsung Galaxy S2 features! First of all, let us not compare the Xperia Active with phones that feature larger screen and better hardware, but with similar phones like the Motorola Defy and the Samsung Galaxy S5690 Xcover.
Compared to the above mentioned phones, the Xperia Active does indeed perform good! Signs of lag were not that prominent as the ones we see in the Defy and comparatively the Xperia Active impresses with smooth navigation, fast app loading and can handle a pretty good amount of load considering the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor.

Battery:
This is one area where the Xperia Active lacks. The Sony Xperia Active comes with a 1200 mAh Li-ion battery while the Motorola Defy Plus comes with a 1700 mAh Li-ion battery! We doubt that the Sony Xperia Active will last a whole day after heavy usage, but it will last about a day if you use it wisely by turning off WiFi and location services when not needed and not letting unwanted apps run in the background. The battery life is average, but for a phone like this which would be a good phone to take trekking and adventures of the like, we would have expected a longer battery life.
Conclusion:
The Sony Ericcson Xperia Active is a pretty great addition to the rugged Android smartphone. It is an android smartphone that promises ruggedness, great performance, impressive features, good battery life, pretty great camera and other features! If you are a person who is prone to screwing your phone up, then look no further as you have found your match. If you are looking for a phone that acts as a good phone, a capable mp3 player and stands the test of nature, then the Sony Xperia Active would fit in well. Take this phone to your gym, while riding your bike, while juggling with your football or dribbling with your basketball! No matter what, the Xperia Active will remain safe in your pocket.

Source: http://www.techzek.com/sony-ericsson-xperia-active-review-specs-price-features/

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Amazon Kindle Fire Review, Specs, Price, Features

The Amazon Kindle Fire made its way through the Internet about 2-3 months ago and then, people didn’t know how to react to the news because Amazon is not exactly a company that manufactures tablets that could compete with the likes of the Apples and Samsung’s. But as news of specs, price and customized Android came out, people started getting excited and for many, the Amazon Kindle Fire was a mystery they wanted to unravel eagerly. Manufacturing a tablet that is low cost, performs well and is user friendly is kind of a really difficult task to accomplish, but somehow Amazon managed to find a common line between all of these features and produced one hell of a laptop at a very impressive price!

In our world, the Amazon Kindle Fire is that very tablet that could change the course of tablet PCs entirely! A game changer as you may call it. By selling a tablet that performs well, is equipped with competitive specs and does about everything you do in a tablet in an above average manner while at the same time costing half or even one fourth of the total cost of its competitors, the Amazon Kindle Fire will force future tablets to be priced and equipped well. With this, Amazon has a winner in its hands. Before we praise more of this tablet, continue reading and see why we praise this tablet so much!

Hardware Specs:
You might expect the specs of the Kindle Fire to be something less than what the Apple iPad offer and there you might be wrong. Because the Amazon Kindle Fire is equipped with a dual core 1GHz TI OMAP processor, which is the same processor that powers a lot of tablets including the Blackberry PlayBook and just like the iPad, it is paired with only a 512 MB RAM. The specs may not be so impressive with the NVIDIA 3 tegra chipset and quad core processors making its way to tablets, but what you get in the Kindle is still one of the best you get in the market.
You might find the 8GB of internal storage a very troublesome feature and it surely is! The worst part is that it doesn’t even come with a microSD slot to extend the memory. But on the bright side, all your apps that you bought will be safe and they let you stream all the multimedia files that you have. If you are the person who would like to dump your tab with everything that you have, then the Kindle would not be a very good choice for a tablet. We would have loved to see a 16GB and 32GB version of the kindle and i am pretty sure that people wouldn’t mind shedding that extra bit of cash for the higher storage tabs.

You should know that the Amazon Kindle is not a GSM device, hence you will not have access to the various GSM networks like 2G, 3G or 4G. So, you will have to rely connectivity solely on WiFi just like your laptop. But unlike your laptop, the Kindle doesn’t come with Bluetooth.
Screen, Camera & Design:
A good screen is something that every consumer would look into and we are thankful that Amazon did not forget that. The Amazon Kindle Fire is equipped with a 1024 x 600 IPS LCD panel and let me tell you that Amazon did not screw up their screen just to reduce cost. This 7 inch screen may not be as great as the iPad, but it ain’t far behind the Apple tablet. The brightness, colors and viewing angles are all good enough to make you say “this is pretty good for the price”!
Here is the surprise! The Amazon Kindle Fire does not come with a camera. That’s not the only feature that Amazon had stripped from the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire lacks GPS (which means there is no maps), no HDMI output, no calendar, GSM Network support, no microphone, no slot for microSD card and a few others that don’t matter much. Now you would wonder who in the world would buy the Amazon Kindle Fire? The real question would be, who wouldn’t? The Amazon Kindle Fire is not the #2 tablet for no reason!

The Amazon Kindle Fire surprisingly looks really good. It looks similar to the Blackberry Playbook, but not identical. It even comes with a really impressive box. The rear is just a simple dark grey slab where Kindle is subtly embedded into the design. There is not much to say about the design, so i will just leave it at that.

Battery Life & Software:
This 7 inch tablet does not compete with the Amazon predecessor redaders, but the Kindle has created a market of its own. The Fire managed to give about 7 hours of heavy usage, which is exactly what the company had told us. It surely is not as great as the iPad or is it as great as the Galaxy tabs, but it sure does beat the likes of the Playbook and the Acer Iconia Tab. Overall, the battery life is pretty decent for the price it sells.
Unlike the other Android tablets, that run on the Honeycomb OS, the Kindle runs on the 2.3 Gingerbread OS. But however, the Fire comes with Amazons own customized version of the Gingerbread. Navigation through the phone was somewhat similar to the iOS 5, but nonetheless very user friendly. Performance wasn’t bad at all and you can play games like Angry birds and Fruit Ninja without any lag or problems. Its only the high end games like Assassins Creed that can cause little lags here and there. The Fire however has no access to the Android Market and side-loading apps can be done, but some might cause the Kindle to crash. The Kindle does produce all the important and compatible apps at your demand.

Conclusion:
For the amazon services, you will have to buy the Kindle Fire as it does a really good job with it. So who would want to buy this tablet you might ask? This is for those people who wants a good enough tablet that does work like stream videos, music, surf the internet, buy videos, use amazon services, play basic games, create a shopping list, etc. This is a tablet for those people who would like to get daily things done without any fancies and that is what most of the consumers are looking for and at a price of $199, Amazon managed to grab that market who insisted on not buying tabs that costs more for doing basic needs that can be done on the phone or a computer. This is why i have been praising the Kindle Fire so much as it has all the necessities that a person would want.

Source: http://www.techzek.com/amazon-kindle-fire-review-specs-price-features/

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Fujitsu Stylistic Q552 Launched with Windows 7 Professional

Fujitsu’s Stylistic series of tablets have been in line for an upgrade for quite some time now and that is exactly what the Stylistic Q552 has done. It replaces the Q550 model that was launched last year, and features a number of hardware upgrades.

The processor on the Q552 is an Intel Atom N2600 1.6 GHz that is based on the Cedar Trail architecture and is definitely a step up from the 1.5 GHz Atom Oak Trail processor used by the Q550. Additionally, the new Q552 also has Intel GMA 3600 graphics that enables it to play HD videos as well as 2 GB of RAM.
It quite capably runs Windows 7 Professional, and may even get an upgrade to Windows 8 (though that is unconfirmed).
Display-wise, the Q522 features a 10 inch IPS display that has better viewing angles and a resolution of 1280 x 800. Although it sports a capacitive touchscreen, there is also a digitizer and digital pen that can be used for drawing or writing on the tablet.
On the storage front the Q552 will either have a 32 GB or 64 GB solid state drive. It will support Bluetooth and WiFi, and will have a USB 2.0 port as well as a HDMI port. The Q552 will also have a 3.0 Megapixel camera equipped with auto-focus at its rear, while the front will feature a regular VGA camera for video calls.
It seems as if Fujitsu is specifically targeting corporate customers with this tablet as there are a host of security features such as a fingerprint sensor and Smartcard reader.  There are also numerous accessories that are designed to link with the Stylistic Q522 and enhance its performance in various ways.
All in all, despite the fact that Windows tablets aren’t in the vogue the Stylistic Q552 is a solid device that definitely improves upon its Q550 predecessor.

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Samsung Galaxy Beam Available in India At Rs. 29,900

About 5 months after it was unveiled, the Samsung Galaxy Beam is now on sale at the Samsung India E-store at a price tag of Rs. 29,900. As was expected, the price is the same as the pre-order price that was quoted earlier in the month.

Despite not being that impressive in terms of specifications, the Galaxy Beam owes both its name and claim to fame to the one feature that sets it apart from other smartphones: The built-in DLP WVGA projector that is able to project images in HD to a size of up to 50 inches and with a brightness of 50 lumens.
Apart from the novelty of having an inbuilt projector, the Galaxy Beam will allow users to share content directly by projecting it onto any available surface. For business users it will mean that there is no need for a projector and presentations can be uploaded and projected directly from the smartphone.
Considering it is a fairly new device, it may come as a surprise that the Galaxy Beam runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, although it should be noted that an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is eventually planned. It has a 4 inch WVGA display, a 1 GHz dual core processor, 768 MB of RAM, and 8 GB of internal memory.
As far as cameras go, the Galaxy Beam sports a 5 Megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 Megapixel front camera.
In short, although the Galaxy Beam is a decent smartphone there should be no illusion that the Rs. 29,900 price tag is mainly due to the in-built projector and that is its main selling point. For now it is a one of a kind device that definitely has many practical applications for business users as well as regular consumers.
If the Galaxy Beam is successful, other smartphone manufacturers may even follow suit and include projectors in some of their models.

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Kyocera Hydro Waterproof Smartphone Debuts in America

At first glance at its specifications, the Kyocera Hydro may not look all that impressive. However it does have one very unique capability: It is water proof.

This smartphone is certified IPx5 and IPx7 which means that it can withstand water that is sprayed onto it (i.e. rain, or a normal pressure hose), and can also be submerged in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. In short, it won’t withstand a deep sea diving trip, but for most other situations it will effectively be impervious to damage from water.
According to the recent announcement, this device will start to be sold from Boost Mobile from August the 3rd.
Specifications
Despite not breaking any records in terms of specifications, the Kyocera Hydro is no slouch either. It features a 3.5 inch IPS touchscreen that has a 480×320 resolution and will run on Android Ice Cream Sandwich. With WiFi, GPS, and a 3.2 Megapixel camera that includes a flash, it can certainly stand on its own especially with the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor that it runs on.
One of the features that may appeal to users is the ‘Eco-mode’ that claims to be able to conserve battery power, though no further details are forthcoming about how it accomplishes this.
Considering how frequently water causes irreversible damage to smartphones and how much many spend to protect their smartphones with bulky water-proof casings, the Kyocera Hydro offers up a sleek and slim smartphone that you don’t need to worry about protecting from any water.
On August the 3rd it will be available online and in Boost Mobile stores for a price of $129.99 and is expected to then be distributed to other retailers later in the same month. It is certainly affordable, and in the long run it could save you even more money than that.

Source: http://www.techzek.com/kyocera-hydro-waterproof-smartphone-debuts-in-america/

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