Sony Xperia E1 Dual review: Consider if music is priority, and not the camera

Consider if music is priority, and not the camera !!!
Name: Sony Xperia E1 Dual
Price: Rs 8,210
Rating: 4/5
Specs: 4-inch display, Android Jelly Bean, 3MP camera, 1.2GHz dual core processor, 512 MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, micro SD card slot, Bluetooth, 3G, WiFi, 1700 mAh battery, 120 g

Sony's Walkman series of phones has been popular, and now the company is back with a dedicated Walkman key on its new affordable smartphone, the Xperia E1. Packing in a four-inch display, the WVGA resolution (800 x480 pixels) is somewhat lacking in brightness and colour. The power key and volume controls are on the right edge, and the Walkman key and the 3.5-mm jack are at the top. The charging port is on the left panel. The E1 feels bulky, with its 12mm thickness, and has a slightly rough finish at the back.

Sony is pitching it as a value-for-money smartphone, and has added features to live up to its promise. To start with, it's a dual SIM phone. It runs Android Jelly Bean, and is powered by 1.2GHz dual core processor from Qualcomm. The 512 MB of RAM is on the lower side, but it manages to launch all the apps without crashing. It can handle basic gaming, but don't expect it to handle heavy games. Browsing on Google Chrome was smooth.

The biggest highlight of the Xperia E1 is the Walkman app. If you use a good pair of headphones, the sound output is impressive. The Walkman app launches a feature-rich music player. For example, the ClearAudio+ mode produces a more refined and clear sound, while the xLoud feature raises the volume. The phone also packs a 3MP camera, which is somewhat underwhelming, as images have a lot of noise. The Xperia E1 comes with 4GB internal storage, of which only 2GB is user accessible. However, it can be expanded by using the micro SD card slot. When fully charged, the battery was good enough for a day, and ran low by the end of the day.

'Canvas Doodle 3' for Rs 8,500

Home-grown handset maker Micromax on Tuesday launched its new six-inch phablet 'Canvas Doodle 3' for Rs 8,500.

The Android Jellybean operating system based-device is powered by a 1.3 GHz dual core processor, 4GB ROM and 512 MB RAM (expandable memory up to 32 GB), Micromax said in a statement.

The smartphone features a 5 MP AF rear camera, 0.3 MP front camera, 2500 mAh battery and comes preloaded with M! Doodle, Bigflix, M!live, Getit, Kingsoft Office and Opera apps.

Using the M!Doodle application, users can doodle chats, animate, scribble smileys and write text over clicked pictures.

"At Micromax, we have always aimed to offer something new and different with every product launch with affordable innovation being our core DNA," Micromax CMO Shubhodip Pal said.

The Canvas Doodle 3 further reinforces Micromax's commitment to empower consumers with larger screen to help them express their imagination in a more creative way like never before, he added.

"With our foray in Russia and SAARC countries, we have charted a successful journey to become the 1st Indian hardware brand to go global. Our intentions are clearly to take Micromax to key international markets and further pursue our innovation story," he said.

HTC launches its cheapest smartphone Desire 210 at Rs 8,700

Screen size- 4 inches

Android's Jelly Bean platform

Dual GSM SIM

5 megapixel main camera and a VGA camera on the front.

                                      With an aim to more than double its market share in two years in India, smartphone maker HTC on Monday announced global launch of its lowest priced smartphone Desire 210 for Rs 8,700 in New Delhi.

"In the last 12 months or so we have been thinking about to come up with sub-Rs 10,000 product for Indian market ...if we are able to be succesful on that front it could be taken outside as well, in not just emerging market but sometime industrial economies as well," HTC President for Global sales and CFO Chialin Chang said.

He said that current market share of HTC is estimated to be around 6-7 per cent.

At Rs 8,700 price point, the 4-inch HTC Desire 210 will see competition from mobile phones like Nokia Lumia 520, Nokia X, Samsung Galaxy S Duos.

Built on Android's Jelly Bean platform, the dual GSM SIM smartphone Desire 210 has 5 megapixel main camera and a VGA camera on the front.

Besides this, HTC announced launch of its latest premium smartphone HTC One M8 for Rs 49,900 which has gesture base control on which it has high hopes globally for increasing market share. The global market share of HTC is estimated to be around 2 per cent.

"Desire 210 shipment will start from May 2 while M8 will be available across stores in India from May 7," Chang said.

HTC One M8 has 5-inch full high definition display and supports up to 209 GB of storage.

HTC unveiled its third smartphone with 5.5 inch screen size Desire 816 which supports GSM, CDMA and 3G network for Rs 23,990. This phone has 13 MP main camera and 5 MP front camera.

"HTC 816 will be shipped to India in May," HTC's Senior Director for Asia Product Marketing Darren Sng said.

Early this month, HTC unveiled Desire 310 for 11,700 which was its lowest priced phone before Desire 210.

Android has secret camera features, but Google won't let you use them yet !!!

                                Buried deep inside Google's mobile operating are hidden two features that would make for a far more refined Android photography experience. Raw image support and burst-mode were spotted a while ago in Android source code, but have now been confirmed by Google itself.

                                         "Android's latest camera HAL (hardware abstraction layer) and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography," Google spokesperson Gina Scigliano told CNET. "We will expose a developer API (application programming interface) in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality."

              No doubt that means it will be a while before the new modes will actually be available on Android phones despite the code already existing, as Google will likely give developers and programmers a chance to tinker with it first. It would do well not to take too much time over it, however. The camera on theNexus 5, Google's latest flagship phone, was widely criticised in reviews and for once Android has been pipped to the post by a less popular operating system.

                                      Google is not the first company to bake raw image support into its software -- that was Nokia's bright idea and has beenincluded for the first time in the Nokia Lumia 1520, which has just gone on sale in the UK. The feature will also be added retrospectively to the Lumia 1020 in a software update that will be pushed out in the new year.

                          Raw image support won't mean much to most, but Nokia claims that it was a much-requested feature in feedback it received from more serious photographers after releasing its super-skilled 42-megapixel Lumia 1020. It allows for access to the unprocessed image-sensor data files, which aren't as easy to handle as JPEGs, but are more suitable for advanced editing.

                                                                        Its inclusion in mobile software signifies a move towards camera phones being purely the reserve the hobbyists and casual users -- they are finally packing the kind of tech that can mean they can outbid a standard compact cameras and be used as backup snappers by pro photographers. Photography is consistently listed as one of the most important functions of smartphones by users, and with Nokia proving its cameras can compete with and even beat the best of them, it would be a bad time for Android to start lagging behind.

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Sony Xperia M2 with Android v4.3 Jelly Bean

Expected Price: Rs. 20,000

Hardware and SpecificationsThe Sony Xperia M2, a mid-range Android smartphone from Sony is a device very similar to the existing Sony Xperia C in terms of hardware specifications, other than screen and exclusion of dual SIM card slots. It comes with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor which is a combination of 4 ARM Cortex A7 CPU cores and Adreno 305 GPU. For efficient multi-tasking, the Xperia M2 comes with 1GB of RAM while there is 8GB of internal storage space for installing applications and games as well as to store multimedia and personal data. There is also a microSD card slot which can be used to expand the storage by an additional 32GB. There are some necessary sensors in this smartphones like gyroscope, light sensor, proximity sensor and accelerometer.

Screen and DesignThe Sony Xperia M2 has a 4.8 inch TFT LCD screen with 5-point capacitive multitouch. A resolution of 540 x 960 pixels giving the screen on the device about 229 PPI pixel density. Considering the screen specifications, it will perform similar to the screen used in the Xperia C which had below par viewing angles. The design and external appearance is on the lines similar to the Xperia Z1 due to the use of glass front and back. Sony's signature power button, camera shutter button and volume rockers are on the right hand side of the device while the microUSB port is on the right hand side. The headphone jack is on the top while the camera, LED flash and secondary microphone are on the back of the device. This device lacks a removable back cover. The Xperia M2 is available in black, white and purple colours.

Camera and MultimediaThere is an 8MP Exmor RS camera sensor with autofocus lens, LED flash and full HD 1080p video recording. There is a VGA front-facing camera which can be used for self-portraits and video calls over Internet. The primary camera has a lot of special shooting modes such as Sweep Panorama and HDR. It comes with Sony's famous WALKMAN music player which can play a lot of audio and video formats along with an ability to convert this device into a media server over DLNA standards. Sony Music audio streaming service is also bundled to let users listen to free music through Internet.

Software and FeaturesThe Sony Xperia M2 comes with Android v4.3 Jelly Bean along with Sony's custom designed attractive UI. There are some useful additional applications and services such as Play Memories, TrackID and WALKMAN in addition to regular Google services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Navigation, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, etc. It also comes with a lot of personalisation options such as Xperia Themes and lock screen widgets.

Connectivity and BatteryThe Sony Xperia M2 is almost fully loaded in terms of wired and wireless connectivity. It comes with 21Mbps 3G HSDPA, dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Wi-Fi Hotspot. There is GLONASS A-GPS for location and navigation needs. There is also a microUSB v2.0 port for data transfer through PC. There is a 2300 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery which can easily last over a day of normal usage after a full single charge. There is also Sony's famous Battery STAMINA mode which comes in handy to prolong the battery endurance of the device.- See more at: http://www.mysmartprice.com/mobile/sony-xperia-m2-msp3937#sthash.UzPsYiRG.dpu

Nokia X Android phones officially its something !!!!!!

                                                      It's in the process of being bought by Microsoft but that isn't stopping Nokia launching a line of Android-based smartphones.

Announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, the new family of products will be called Nokia X.

A mid-range device featuring a 4-inch screen atop a 1GHz dual-core CPU from Qualcomm, paired with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of on-board storage (expandable up to 32GB). There will also be an X+ device with additional storage and an XL device, which is physically larger.

However, this is not a standard Android phone. Unlike well-known products such as those from Sony, HTC and Samsung, this model uses the open-source Android code as its base, but not its front end. Like Amazon's Kindle Fire, this means the code underneath the user interface is Android but it does not resemble a typical Android phone. In fact, Nokia has styled it to look a lot like Windows Phone, in part to make "migration" from Nokia X to Lumia more welcoming down the line.

                                   As such there's no Google Play store. However, the "overwhelming majority of Android apps" will be supported via third party app stores, according to a Nokia spokesperson briefing Wired.co.uk, and "hundreds of thousands" will be available to download immediately. Nokia X devices will include Nokia's own app store that provides a curated storefront for Android software downloads, and others such as the popular Yandex app store can be installed. Microsoft apps including Outlook and Skype will also be installed by default, alongside Facebook, BBM, Opera web browser, Sim City and Vine.

                                   A reason given for such an atypical appearance choice for Android was for simplicity's sake, Nokia says. The company aims for its user interface, called Fast Lane, to make Android more user-friendly to those buying their first smartphone. So while price- and specifications-wise the first Nokia X device would sit alongside the likes of the Huawei Ascend Y300, it's not fair to see them as direct competitors given the Huawei's use of the full Android interface.

Nokia is aiming for this family of Android devices to help it connect "the next billion people to the cloud" in areas such as China, Russia, South America and other regions seeing a rising adoption of smartphones. As such, although a spokesperson confirmed Nokia plans to bring the X line to western Europe "eventually", it is not a goal for launch in March.

North America, Japan and Korea are also out of luck -- the Nokia X line will not launch in these areas at all.

Turn on hidden developer options in your Andoid and install third-party ROMs,kernals and customize Animation scales !!!

                                              Google has removed the developer options menu from settings since the Android 4.2 Jelly bean update.This was a welcome step,since it wasn't considered very useful for non developers earlier.If however ,if you plan to install a third-party custom ROM s and Kernels,or do anything that will require developer access and  USB debugging,and to turn on window Animation scales and much more !,to do this you may want to retrieve the setting.
            The option hasn't been removed completely,and it is present as a hidden element.In order to make it visible,do the following steps,

  1.Settings --> System --> About phone --> tap "build number" seven (7x) times.

                A pop up will appear saying that " You are now a developer !".Then go back to settings and you will see a developer options menu category under the system section.