Micromax unite 2 impressions, tough Moto E competitor?

Micromax just launched their Unite 2 handset in India with a price tag of 7000 INR targeting directly at the Motorola's already successful Moto E with specs so shocking, you are going to ditch Moto E!



As far as the specifications are concerned, the Micromax Unite 2 comes with a 4.7-inch display WVGA display with 800×480 pixels resolution. Inside, it has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

The phone runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Moreover, just like Motorola, Micromax too is guaranteeing an upgrade to the software. In addition to that the phone will come pre-loaded with several apps including Micromax’s own apps like Mad which allows users to get paid for watching advertisements, M!Games, M!Live, and others like Hike and Opera Mini.

On the connectivity front, it comes with dual-SIM support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Other features in the phone include of support for 21 languages namely English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Nepali, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Sindhi. The phone is available in red, white, green and grey colors.


With this phone, Micromax is clearly targeting the Moto E smartphone, which sold out on Flipkart. The Moto E comes with a 4.3 inch qHD (960×540 pixels) display with a pixel density of 256ppi and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. It is powered by a Snapdragon 200 dual-core SoC clocked at 1.2GHz, while the Micromax’s phone boasts a quad-core chipset. Both the phones have 1GB of RAM and 4GB internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB using microSD card. Both the phones have 5-megapixel primary camera, however while the Moto E lacks a front-facing camera, Micromax offers a 2-megapixel camera on the Unite 2. Motorola’s Moto E is the first phone to offer Android 4.4.2 out of the box, guaranteeing further updates to the software at the earliest. 

What sets the Moto E apart is that the phone comes with a nano coating on the inside as well as the outside, which can protect is against the accidental splash of water, which is missing from the Micromax’s Unite 2 smartphone. As mentioned already, the Moto E is priced at Rs 6,999 and is available exclusively through Flipkart.


With a front facing camera and a Qual core processor, Micromax's Unite 2 is all set to rock the market and hopefully defeat the Moto E hands on.

Let's wait until it arrives in the market. I will be posting a review as soon as I get my hands on it.


Also Read: Moto E review!


ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR READING, IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE SUGGESTIONS OR QUESTIONS ON THIS ARTICLE , COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED OR YOU CONNECT ME ON TWITTER@phonesoldier or Facebook!
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Xolo Q1010i Review!

I was not really a fan of Indian mobile manufactures because of their lack of attention to the customers and reception problems! But as I see it, things are changing and these manufacturers are getting better especially Micromax and Xolo! For the past couple of months, they released too many smartphones but the one that caught my eye and is I think going to change the game is the Xolo Q1010i!

                                            

The specifications are good given the price that is 13k INR! Let's see how it stacks up in different aspects!


DESIGN AND BUILD.

The phone unlike the phones you find in this category feels really good surprisingly!

It consists of a matte finish back with feels smooth and is a real pleasure to hold! On the sides we have metal like looking plastic which is actually better than the ones we see on the Samsung phones! 
It is still made of plastic overall but doesn't feel like one!
It is really thin and light weight and has a nice and comfortable grip which lets you go on for a while!

The phone overall has a really great build and i don't think you will have any problem with it!
It is actually I think better looking than it's biggest competitor, Moto G!


DISPLAY.

The Q1010i rocks a 5 inches 720p IPS display with a pixel density of around 294ppi which is not that the best out there but it gets its job done! The glass is actually made up of the one glass solution which results in great touch sensitivity and you can also use it wearing gloves!

Colours look vibrant, viewing angles are great and more importantly outdoor visibility is great and you will have no trouble in reading texts in direct sunlight!

The display is overall decent, not great like the Moto G ( because of the smaller display)  but you can't really notice it unless you keep them side by side!


HARDWARE.

The phone consists of almost all the connectivity options including Bluetooth 4.0, USB OTG ( cable comes with the phone in the box ) but it lacks NFC which is not a big deal considering the price.

Internal storage is 8GB which can be expanded up to 32GB via a Micros-SD card.

It is a Dual SIM phone which is a always a welcome feature!

The phone comes with a 2250 mAh battery which can give you a full day on heavy usage!


SOFTWARE.

The phones comes with android 4.2 jellybean and on top of that we have the Xolo's near to stock android skin with some additional applications like Xolo secure and more!

But wait there is some good news here, This phone can be updated to android kitkat which is great and I think Xolo is the first Indian brand to bring it in their phones! This is I think one of the strong points of the phone!

                           

There is more, applications like dialer and camera can be opened without waking it up by just simple gestures!


PERFORMANCE.


Performance is always a concern when it comes to budget devices but this particular device can run anything you throw at it whether it is games or heavy multi-tasking!

Specs include a Mediatek MT6582 Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor assisted with 1GB RAM which is not the best in its class but can run anything as I said! You will absolutely no lags, just install all the apps on the SD card!

The phone was surprisingly able to run games like Modern Combat 4, GTA vice city and basically any game in the play store!


CAMERA.

At last we are here, Camera! I think this is the most important and the most exciting aspect of this phone!

              

It consists of a 8MP autofocus shooter with a single LED flash! The exciting part is actually in the sensor used that is the Sony Exmor R Sensor which is fantastic! 

The camera on this phone as expected takes great photos in daylight as well as low light, thanks to the sensor! Colours are accurate and perfect! 

There are a lot of extra features for you to play with like HDR, Vertical and Horizontal panorama and much more! But you forgot something, this phone can be updated to KitKat that will allow you to use the Google camera!

TO SUM UP..

Xolo Q1010i is a great phone which you can also get at 11.5k through a local retailer! The camera and all other features are great and I think you should go for it! Moto G is ahead in performance but not that much!

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The HTC desire 816 vs The Moto X!

So, finally the HTC desire 816 was launched yesterday in India at the price tag of 24k and obviously the most tough competitor of this particular device is not the Xperia T2 ultra or the lumia 1320, it is actually the Moto X with the awesome sales and performance! Both have the same price tag, so we are going to compare them head to head and see which one is the best for you!

Read also: Why you should buy the moto x at 24k!




DESIGN.

First off we are going to start with the design, both the phones consist of really different design, as the desire 816 is much larger and tilted little bit towards the phablet category but we are now actually getting used to with that big screen sizes!

The HTC desire 816 has a really solid unibody built with a plastic glossy back which is always finger print hungry and on the sides we have matte finish which gets dirty sometimes! 

The design is obviously not great as the HTC one M8 but no doubt it does feel premium and is a pleasure to use however it can be slippery sometimes so a scratch guard is a must to protect that big screen which we will get to in a second!

On the Moto X as i always said, we have plastic curved back which fits comfortably in the hands and looks as premium as a flagship! The dimple of the motorola logo also allows us to rest our index finger comfortably while 
using it!

In the design category, both phones are a absolute pleasure to use and both look really premium but i am going to give a slight edge to the Moto X with its much comfortable and less slippery built and design!

DISPLAY.

Display is always a concern when we talk about mid range phones unless it's a Chinese or Indian brand providing full HD displays at this price! But these companies are much more premium and never provide such display at this place and we are stuck with a low resolution display!

Display on the HTC desire 816 is the 5.5 inch LCD display coming in at 1280×720 resolution and even though this isn’t the highest  resolution or pixel dense display, it’s still a great looking display. Colours are vibrant and charming and also viewing angles are surprisingly great! Outdoor visibility is no problem too!
Display is little low res and because of the large display, it sometimes does look bad but overall it is a great display and you will have no problem in watching movies or reading!

On the other side, on the Moto X, we have 4.7 inch 720p AMOLED display which looks gorgeous as always! It looks great because of the smaller screen size! Colours are accurate and vibrant! Viewing angles and outdoor visibility are also perfect!

On the display side, Moto X wins again with its smaller size and the same resolution! While some people do like large displays, i wouldn't say no to the desire 816 as it almost as good as the Moto X!

HARDWARE.

Both the phones are blessed with all the connectivity options including NFC and bluetooth 4.0!
But the Desire 816 gets the edge here with the MicroSD card support and its memory can be increased upto 128 GB which always comes in handy while travelling, while on the Moto X you are stuck with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage!

The desire 816 gets another point here with its incredible font facing boomsound speakers which are always awesome to hear and extremely loud! Moto X's speakers are not bad but they don't come even near to the one found on the HTC!

The desire 816 comes with a non removable 2600 mAH battery life which is the same you get on the new HTC one M8! It is extremely good and can get you more than a day on heavy usage!

While the Moto X comes with a non removable 2200 mAH battery which almost as good as the desire 816 but you can get only a day on heavy usage on the Moto X which is great too given the size!

So on the hardware category, the desire 816 is no doubt a clear winner with better battery life, better speaker and micro SD card support!

SOFTWARE.

Software side, both the phones run the latest version of android that is kitkat but when we talk about the skins, the case is quite different!

DESIRE 816 SOFTWARE INFO

The desire 816 comes with the Sense 5.5 which was little disappointing given the launch of sense 6 but not to worry because this phone will be updated to sense 6 very soon and you may also get the sense 6 preloaded if you wait for a while!

While the Moto X runs on the near stock android with the exception of moto assist and some other add ons like the touchless controls and active display which are always welcomed!


The winner is actually up to you, if you like the touchless controls and stock android, go with Moto X else the desire 816! I should tell you that you can anytime use the stock android experience on any phone running android kitkat with the google now launcher!

PERFORMANCE.

When it comes to performance, both the phones have not the best specs but they are great performers whether it is multitasking or playing heavy games!

Specs wise the Desire 816 is rocking a Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.6Ghz backed by 1.5GB of RAM, an Adreno 305 GPU and 8GB of internal storage. They are not the latest or the greatest specs but this phone can run anything you throw at it, thanks to the android kitkat which is optimized for lower specs!

While on the Moto X, we have the the Moto X8 with 8 cores with the main processor as the 1.7 ghz dual core processor with the additional processors for language and voice detection! It has a little more RAM that is 2GB and the adreno 320 which is better than the one found on the desire 816! But on the storage side, as i said it is limited to either 16 or 32 GB which is always a bummer!

Both the phones can handle daily tasks and games smoothly and i found basically no difference in performance whatsoever! 


CAMERA.

Camera is always a drawback in mid budget devices, let's see how these two stack up on that!

The camera on the Desire 816 is also nothing to be overlooked coming in at 13 megapixels with auto focus and a single LED flash. Besides the BoomSound speakers, the camera is probably one of the best parts about this phone.

The shutter speed isn’t instant but it’s still fast enough to fire off some quick shots in any given situation and there’s a lot of shooting modes and options to help you get that perfect shot. The photos come out looking very sharp and at 13 megapixels worth of resolution you’re going to be able to zoom and crop without losing much detail which is an important aspect to a lot of people.

Colours are vibrant and the photos that come out are perfectly accurate! Even in low light conditions, it is a great shooter! Overall the performance of the camera is much better than you would expect from a mid ranger!

The camera on the Moto X is 10MP autofocus shooter with a single LED! 
Photos as I always told are not as great as you would expect from a 10MP shooter and turn out to be soft at certain times! In low light condition, drop your hopes immediately, if you are camera lover, you may want to look at a different phone!

On the Camera categroy, the desire 816 is perfectly a clear winner with its much more accurate and perfect photos! However the camera on the Moto X is a little bit faster when you compare them side by side!

TO SUM UP..

Both the phones are the best mid range phones you can get right now and they are great in their own strong areas!
I would personally prefer the desire 816 with its better camera, hardware and software! 
Performance and display is almost similar on both the devices!


Thank you for reading but if you wanna keep reading my new articles, I have a new address now that is phonesoldier.com! Meet you there. :)

ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR READING, IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE SUGGESTIONS ON THESE PHONES , COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED OR YOU CONNECT ME ON TWITTER@phonesoldier or Facebook!
 DO MAKE SURE TO HIT THAT SHARE BUTTON IF YOU LIKED READING IT! 

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Things to look out for before buying a new phone!

Smartphone sales are increasing at a tremendous rate this days and a lot of people are tricked by smartphone companies by false advertising and useless features! Some claim to have top notch specs but in reality when you use them, you face lags and you get disappointed by your phone! So how should you buy a smartphone and what things you should keep in mind before doing so? I am here to guide you through that so you get a better idea on how should you buy a new smartphone by pointing the most important things to look out for before buying a new phone!




IS YOUR PHONE FUTURE PROOF?

Usually after buying a new phone, you start asking companies for updates and some of them listen and some of them don't and you are stuck with the outdated operating system for approx two years! But there's a solution to this problem that is buying a phone that is future proof already and will receive updates no matter what! Some of the brands that provide updates on time are Motorola, google, nokia , htc,Sony, LG and Samsung! But there is another problem here, the low cost phones of lg or samsung do not receive updates on time almost never and when you look at low cost, you should probably opt for another company! Indian brands almost never provide on time updates and customers always complaint about this and you should that's why avoid these brands!

PHONE SHOULD HAVE THE VALUE FOR MONEY TAG!

Now what i mean by this is that phone should have the features that it deserves in that price range! Companies like LG,Samsung and even HTC usually fool you in low cost phones by giving non value specs and you should never buy these phones! Better opt for a Indian brand! I wrote an article a few weeks back pointing the best value for money phones in different range, you can check that out here!

HOW IS THE BATTERY?

Battery is one of the most important factor of a smartphone and that should be good no matter what! How are you going to call your phone a mobile if the battery is not good and you have to charge it every 8 hours! So, you should always look out for a good battery life in a smartphone! I will soon write an article about phones with the best battery life, so stay tuned for that! Battery is usually great in nokia phones,Motorola phones, Samsung batteries are nice too, LG is great and even the HTC! Indian brands and Sony  fall back here with not so much great battery life!

RECEPTION IS GOOD OR NOT?

Reception of a phone is always a cconcern and you usually know about it after buying a phone but you should next keep in mind to buy a phone with a good reception! Phones like Nokia and almost all provide great reception! Indian brands , exceptionally moto g's reception are not that great! It is ok but if you talk a lot, you might wanna take a look at a different phone!



OUTDOOR VISIBILITY!

If you remain outdoors a lot, you should probably remain active about this function and buy the phone with the best outdoor visibility! Flagships always have a great outdoor visibility but when it comes to low cost, phones with a good resolution has a great outdoor visibility! If you wanna know more about screens of smartphones, you should check this article i wrote from here!

THE MAIN BATTLE- PROCESSOR VS OPERATING SYSTEM!

This is the most concerning point that you should check or ask any tech expert before buying a new phone! This actually means that which the processor the phone runs on which operating system! The thing is different operating systems require different processors to run like the windows phone can or IOS can run on dual cores but the android operating system needs high processing system to run lag free! In Android, there are sub-points to look out for that is the skins that mobile manufactures put in!
Skins like touchwiz from sansung or the skin from lg require very high processing and will lag on low budget! 

SCREEN SIZE VS PIXELS!

It's not always that screen pixels should be higher for the screen to look good, Concept of this is that for screen sizes around 4 inch, if the puxels are low then, it is no problem but if the screen size is larger, pixels are noticable and should be hihger in order for the screen to look good! Example WVGA screens will look good on sizes around 4inch but if you extend to higher screen sizes, it is going to look awful! Like wise screen of moto g that is 720p looks gorgeous but it is not that great on the lumia 1320! Another example is lumia 620 and lumia 625 whose screens are similar but it looks good on the lumia 620 with 3.8 inches but looks bad on the lumia 625!


SO NEXT TIME WHEN YOU WANT TO BUY A NEW PHONE, KEEP THIS POINTS IN MIND AND BUY  THE BEST PHONE!

-SO I GUESS THAT'S IT FOR THIS TIME! HOPE YOU 

LIKED IT!

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Phonesoldier Talks: 2014,The Era of the price tag of 50k+!

As we are seeing, everyday almost a new smartphone is launching with different goals and different features but in this race, the one thing that gets squashed is the customer! With the increase in the competition of smartphones, manufactures are increasing the price at a freakishly high level that one can't even think of!
I am actually talking about the price tag of 50k+ of smartphones these days! Each and every flagship we see launching in 2014 whether it is HTC's m8 or samsung galaxy s5 and even the sony xperia z2 which will most probably launch with this price tag too! So what is the way to deal with this problem? Let us find out!

The price tag of 50k+ was first brought by apple's iphone whose 32gb or 64gb variant was priced heavily above 50k! This was followed by the, iphone 5, iphone 5c and latest obviously iphone 5s!

As you know in the smartphone world, nothing remains unique for a long time, so other comapnies started to do the same beginning with the samsung galaxy note 3, nokia lumia 1020( intial price tag was 50k) etc!

So, if you are not rich and still want to experience the latest technology, you don't have any choice except selling your bike! But there is another and much more simpler way that is live in the previous generation!

That;s right, smartphone prices always go down after the new flagship is launched like the samsung galaxy s4 which is now available at 29k or the nokia lumia 1020 which is available at 37k! This things always happen to the latest flagship which will eventually get somewhat old and then the prices will be dropped!
Like i am using the last year's htc one and i love it! The reasons i love it is that it is fast, design is nice(way better than latest flagships including samsung galaxy s5) and feels great! But some people just mistake it by outdated which it is not! It is running the latest android 4.4.2! 



Remember the old times when you used a phone for like 3-4 years and now after a year, you start disliking your phone and eventually buy a new phone! Instead you could buy a phone which is future proof like a google nexus which will not get outdated even after 2 years or a htc which works like a charm! If you are going to buy a samsung phone or a sony, you are going to face these problems which you should not! 

So to avoid the price tag of 50k, just buy the last generation which is future proof or wait for the latest flagship's rates to cool down! If you are going to buy the latest flagship at 50k, companies will feel that you are ok with this price and eventually increase it at some point which is just severe insanity! I can't even think about spending half a lac for a phone and you shouldn't too! So spread this article and create awareness in others too!

SO I GUESS THAT'S IT FOR THIS TIME! HOPE YOU LIKED IT!

DO SHARE YOUR VIEWS TOO ON THIS ARTICLE IN THE

COMMENTS SECTION OR CONNECT TO ME ON 

TWITTER @phonesoldier and facebook 

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Best windows phone apps for an Indian!

There are a lot of applications in the windows phone store now and some of these applications are just for india and are really useful in day to day life as i use these apps almost everyday! So let's find out which apps are these and what are their particular features that make them useful! Let's begin!


1.IRCTC

As we all know how much Indians travel through train and there wasn't any official irctc application on any mobile platform until windows surprises it's users by bringing a really use friendly and fast irctc app! Now when i say useful, i mean a lot useful! This app is way faster than the official site and much more user friendly!
This app consists functions like booking and cancelling tickets, checking pnr status, inserting passenger information so that you don't have to do it every time you book a ticket, this things can also synced with your windows 8 tablet or PC which is really handy and much more!
IRCTC  is available for windows phone 7 and 8 , windows 8 for free!
you can download the windows phone version here!

         


2.PAYTM

 Paytm is a recharging and bill paying app that features paying or recharging mobile bills, dth payment, data card payment, and even toll card payments!
The user interface is pretty nice and you also get points when you make a payment that you can use later for any different payment! Paytm also offers you coupons at a discounted rate which are really useful!
Paytm is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!


        



3.TRADUS

Tradus is an online shopping website that comes with a lot of offers on different products everyday and you can buy them at a very cheap rate from any other website! There are a lot of products for you to buy including electronics, kitchen utensils and more!
Tradus is a free app for windows phone 8 and you can download it from here!


           



   4.JUSTDIAL

Justdial is a online searching services for finding phone numbers of different places like restaurants, hospitals and more! This app really comes in handy when you want a number of the nearest place you want to go like a hotel and book a room!You can also add and read reviews to get a better idea!
Justdial is a free app and you can download it from here!


         




5.HUNGAMA

Hungama is a free online music service from which you can play (cannot download) latest Hindi or English songs totally free! you can add favorites too if you listen any song everyday and you can play songs according to your mood too like party, sad and many more!
Hungama is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!


          



6.NEWSHUNT

Newshunt is a widely popular newspaper reading app that provides you 85+ regional newspapers in 11 different languages including english, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi & Oriya! You also get live scores and horoscopes!
Newshunt is a free app for windows phone 8 and you can download it from here!






7.MPASSPORT SEVA

mPassport seva is a passport tracking app by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, that aims at providing all the Passport-related services to the Indian Citizens in a speedy, convenient and transparent manner.
This app features like Passport application status tracking, locating the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) and general information on various steps involved in obtaining a Passport! This app is really useful if your passport is pending and you want to keep track of its progress and even calculate the fees!
mPassport seva is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!







So those were my favorite and one of the best applications for indians on windows phone, do mention yours in the comments or connect to me on twitter @phonesoldier or you can like my page on facebook at www.facebook.com/phonesoldier!

Hope you liked it and thank you for reading! 

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