Nokia has been adding a lot of new mid-range smartphones to its arsenal these days. The Nokia 3.1 Plus is one of them, and this device has just entered the Nepali market.
Nokia 3.1 Plus Overview:
The Nokia 3.1 Plus is a tall device sporting a 6-inch screen that has a 77.5% screen-to-body ratio. This display is an IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels and 18:9 aspect ratio.
The Nokia 3.1 Plus is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 processor that is coupled with 3 GB and PowerVR GR8320 GPU. The CPU has a clock speed of 2.0 GHz.
On the software side, the 3.1 Plus runs on Android v8.1 Oreo. It comes under Google’s Android One project like every Nokia smartphone. So, you can definitely expect it to receive the Android v9.0 Pie update sometime in the near future.
The Nokia 3.1 Plus features dual camera setup on the back equipping two 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras with the secondary lens acting as a depth sensor. Likewise, there is an 8-megapixel selfie shooter on the device.
There is a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner on the smartphone. The Nokia 3.1 Plus comes with a 3,500 mAh Li-Ion battery.
Latest Price: Rs. 23,999 [Last Updated on December 6, 2018]
The Nokia 3.1 Plus is already available in Nepal. It has been priced at Rs. 23,999. For that price, it will go head-to-head against smartphones such as the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite and the Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo among others.
The Vivo V11 or the V11i, whatever you call it, is Vivo’s new not-so-new smartphone of the V-series. The device has gathered a lot of attention right now, and I feel like it’s the right time to do its full review, after all, I have used it for 3 months already. I kind of like the device for its price, but there are a few shortcomings. So, let’s get started.
Vivo V11 Specifications:
Display: 6.3 inches, IPS LCD
Resolution: 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio (400 PPI density)
Dimensions: 155.9 x 75.6 x 8.1 mm (6.14 x 2.98 x 0.32 in)
Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3400 mAh battery, Fast Charging
Available Colors: Starry Night, Dazzling Gold, Nebula
Price: Rs 39,990
Design
2018 has been the year of glass back phones. Even the mid-range devices are providing glass back smartphones. And the ones that have stuck with metal, come with quite a premium feel to it. However, the Vivo V11 has taken a different route here. It features a glass-like plastic back. And this is where I have an issue. The back is cheap and over time it has developed a lot of scratches. Yes, plastic backs are more secure than glass, but I think a phone like the V11 should have at least a metallic back. This back is probably the reason why it is light, and I kind of don’t like that. But this is totally my personal preference. The same goes with the buttons that are all on the right side. They feel cheap, and I just don’t like the feel of it.
Another thing that I don’t like here is the lack of LED notification light. Yeah-yeah, I get that there’s little space up front for the LED light, and there is the wakeup screen remainder feature, but I don’t like to see my phone wake up every time I get a notification. You do get to see the notification by waving your hand above the sensors, but this is an IPS panel here, and I don’t like to lose battery life for even the slightest bit.
Even though the build quality of this device is not that good, I have liked its design and the thinness, and there might be someone who might even like its lightweight. Also, the Vivo V11 comes in a variety of unique colors, but I have liked this Nebula color variant which is featuring in a lot of Chinese smartphones these now. And despite the thinness, there is still the beloved headphone jack on the bottom here.
Display
The Vivo V11 features the Halo Full View display up front and it is everything you can ask for. This 6.3-inch IPS panel is vibrant, it is colorful, it is bright, it does justice while watching videos, and it has ample sharpness as well. The bezels are quite minimalistic and even the notch has shrunk down to give users more screen space. I have to give the Essential phone credits for doing this before anyone else. This notch here doesn’t come in between the user experience.
Vivo has added an option to let the users themselves decide on whether they want their content to fill up the whole display or not according to individual applications, which is cool!
Performance
On to the performance side, the MediaTek Helio P60 processor along with 4 GB of RAM is a good combination for the price on the Vivo V11. It has been able to do everything I have wanted it to do without any issue whatsoever like multitasking, apps opening time, and using heavy apps – all run flawlessly.
Even the benchmark scores show how close the Snapdragon 660 and the MediaTek P60 is as you can see them for yourself.
However, when you game on the V11, it falls just a tad bit behind the competition like the Xiaomi Mi A2. I did play a lot of games on this phone, and you get a few stutters around 4-5 times on, say, 20 minutes of game time. I felt this mostly while playing PUBG on medium settings.
Now you have to note that this issue will be faced by someone who plays a lot of high-end games on their mobile phone, but if you are someone who does a light gaming at the end of the day, you might not be bothered with this issue.
Software
Now I don’t think you can review a Vivo phone without talking about the software. I have to give credit to Vivo for providing me with software updates as in my 3 months of use I have already received 2 updates.
But that doesn’t cover how much I dislike iOS running on top of Android. Oh, did I say iOS? Well, I am not wrong then, see it for yourself. Funtouch OS is a blatant copy of iOS. It also has a ton of bloatware that you cannot delete. It’s about time, Vivo, it’s about time you change the User Interface on your devices.
Now I criticized the software, but there are some features that I have liked. You get gesture control and other gesture shortcuts that have made the user experience easier. The three-finger swipe for capturing screenshots has been useful for me as well.
Security
Like almost all smartphones of the present time, the Vivo V11 offers two major security options for the users. Now the bigger brother of this phone, the V11 Pro, features an in-display fingerprint scanner, but I still fill that the technology has a long way to go, and I am happy that Vivo has included the traditional fingerprint scanner here.
It is fast, blazing fast, and it gets it right all the time. The front camera seconds as the face unlock option which, like the fingerprint sensor, works 100% of the time and fast. It also works during night time, so I definitely give full marks to Vivo here.
Camera
The overall camera performance of the Vivo V11 is good as it is one of the best camera smartphones of the mid-range price segment as of now.
The pictures from the device have a slight pinkish tint to it, but the saturation and details are top-notch. It has a good dynamic range as it preserves the highlight details and shadow details of the images quite nicely. However, the V11 doesn’t do that well if the contrast and exposure are concerned.
Portrait images are good as well. But, even with the secondary camera featuring a higher megapixel count of 5MP, the Oppo F9 with its 2MP depth sensor does a better job than the V11 here. However, the Vivo V11 portrait shots are not that bad either.
During night time, the images from the V11 come out slightly warmer to my taste. However, on the details and saturation front, it did better than the Nova 3i. The Oppo F9 outperformed the V11 in this aspect though.
Talking about the videos, well, this is a mid-range smartphone and for what its worth, it did an “okay” job. With the lack of stabilization, the videos come out a little shaky although it does a respectable job in terms of the color reproduction.
Now, Vivo has been boasting about its selfie standards on almost every phone they launch. And they have been great. There have been times where even the front-facing camera has done a better job than the rear one. And this time with the V11, Vivo has a lot to offer with the 25-megapixel selfie shooter.
The camera smoothens the face even without the beauty mode enabled, but overall, I really like how bright and colorful the selfies have come out. Just look at these selfies. If you really want to beautify your face, Vivo has even included AI-enabled beauty mode than applies the necessary setting according to your skin.
Also, Check out this comparison shot between the V11 and the other two phones I talked about before. Now I will let you, the viewers are the judge of the selfies, but I think the Oppo and Huawei phones capture in more details than the V11.
During night time, the selfies are great too, and that’s definitely good to see. The V11 has ample lighting and details even on the pictures from night time. The 3i isn’t that good, and even the F9 falls behind in this aspect.
For more high-resolution image samples from the Vivo V11, click here.
Call Quality, Speaker, and Storage
In terms of call quality, well I have had no issues with this device. Yes, the call volume could have been slightly better, but you have nothing to worry about.
Now, this might sound as nitpicking as even the flagship phones aren’t dealing well with this issue, but the speakers on this phone is a little low for my taste. I know I can’t expect much for this price, but I think Vivo could have made the speakers a little louder as, at times, this device could even fill up a room.
The Vivo V11 has also set a standard even for the flagship phones, and that’s in the storage front. This mid-range device is available in 128 GB variant for its mid-range price, and that’s just great considering how its competitors 64 GB variant are being sold for a similar price tag.
Now the storage chip may not be as fast as the ones on the flagship phones, but it’s good to see mid-range smartphones offer higher storage variants for the user to use. There is also a support for expandable storage, so you can forget about running out of memory with the V11.
Battery
On the battery front, with the 3,400 mAh capacity on the V11, you get around 4hrs 30min to 5 hours of screen on time which normally translates to me charging the phone before the day ends. But what I like about it is the fast charging technology that’s here.
It’s not as fast as the Oppo F9’s VOOC charge or even the V11 Pro’s Dual Engine technology for that matter, but this battery charges up in around 1 hour and 50 minutes, that’s considering how the speed decreases after 80% of charge. It’s definitely good to see OEMs include quick charge on their mid-range phones this year.
CONCLUSION
So, in the end, what do I make of the Vivo V11? Well, there are the issues I have with this device which I discussed earlier. It has that software, obviously, the poor build quality, and the only average Gaming performance.
But if you take a good look at all the negatives I have pointed out, except for the build, you can overlook the issues this phone has. I mean it has a good camera, a good display, a well-performing CPU, one of the fast fingerprint scanner, and fast charge technology. During my time with the phone, I have thoroughly enjoyed using it. So, if you are out in the market for a mid-range smartphone, I think you should take a look at the Vivo V11 too.
With two Lenovo phones launched very recently, the Lenovo S5 and the Lenovo K5 Play, another Lenovo phone is coming to Nepal. The newcomer is the Lenovo K9, another budget phone that might cost very well under Rs.20000. Now, I know that Lenovo brand is not as popular as it was. But under new management, Lenovo phones might be able to get back to where it was before.
Lenovo K9 Specifications:
Design: Glowing glass-like plastic construction
Display: 5.7″ IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution (720 x 1440)
Rear Camera: Dual camera setup, 13 MP primary lens with f/2.2 aperture & PDAF + 5 MP depth sensor
Front Camera: Dual camera setup, 13 MP primary lens with f/2.2 aperture & PDAF + 5 MP depth sensor
CPU: 12 nm octa-core MediaTek Helio P22
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
RAM: 3 GB
Battery: 3000 mAh
Internal storage: 32 GB
Price in Nepal: Under Rs.20000 (expected)
Lenovo K9 Overview
The Lenovo K9 comes in a glossy looking plastic construction, similar to the K5 Play. With that type of body, you can expect a shiny premium look, but the phone should be kinda light. You get a fingerprint sensor at the back, a dual-SIM slot, one of which, is a hybrid SIM slot. The headphone jack is still there, and one of the best features is that it has a USB-C port. That’s something new on a budget smartphone.
The display is a 5.7″ IPS LCD with HD+ resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. Even for a recent launch, it still doesn’t have a notch, but bezels at the top and bottom. For those who don’t like bezels, but want a newer phone, then, this could be an option.
Also, for a phone that comes under Rs. 20000, you get four cameras – two on the front, and two at the back. I won’t expect the camera quality to be outstanding for a phone at this price, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe this phone will surprise us. The rear dual camera setup is a combination of a 13 MP primary lens with f/2.2 aperture and a 5 MP depth sensor. The dual camera setup at the front is also of the same configuration and both sides are capable of capturing 1080p videos @60 fps.
Inside, a 12 nm octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 powers the phone. It is supported by a 3 GB RAM, which is of a similar specs to the Xiaomi Redmi 6. Lenovo phones feature a close to stock Android experience, but there’s still something about them that makes them appear little less like stock Android. Other than that, you get a 3000 mAh battery, which, for a budget phone is good enough.
So, that’s the Lenovo K9. To me, it appears a good competitor with the budget phones in the Nepali market. How it will fare, we will know when it lands here soon. It is very similar to the Redmi 6 – the major difference being USB-C and quad cameras. So, the price is also likely to be a slightly higher than the Redmi 6.
What do you guys think of this phone? Can it be compared to the Xiaomi Redmi 6? And can it be a good product? Do let us know.
Oppo A7 was first launched in Nepal towards the end of 2018. The device came with a decent design and battery performance and was primarily targetted at the South Asian users. The device now is experiencing some massive price drops. But does the price drop compensate for the old age of Oppo A7 in the competitive mid-range segment of Nepal? Let’s learn more about it.
Oppo A7 Overview
The Oppo A7 is an attractive looking smartphone with a waterdrop notch. This makes the A7 look similar to the Oppo F9 on the front side, with an almost similar 6.2-inch display with minimalistic bezels all around. What’s different here is the resolution of this display as the new device comes only with an HD+ configuration which is quite a disappointment if you consider its price tag.
Another area where the Oppo A7 isn’t attractive is underneath the hood, at it is powered by the Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450. This CPU is coupled with 4 GB of RAM, Adreno 506 GPU along with 64 GB of internal memory. The onboard storage is expandable up to 256 GB via a microSD card.
Talking about the camera setup, there are dual 13- and 2-megapixel cameras on the back with f/2.2 and f/2.4 aperture respectively. On the front lies a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. There is a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner on the device, and it will probably be equipped with the face unlock feature.
The battery is the major talking point of the Oppo A7. It houses a large 4,230 mAh battery that should last for a longer time period with the HD+ display. However, the Oppo A7 lacks fast charging technology which will most probably be a hassle to all users.
Oppo A7 Specifications
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+
CPU: Octa-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 14nm
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
GPU: Adreno 506
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with ColorOS 5.2
As of now, the price of Oppo A7 in Nepal is Rs. 24,490 for its 4/16GB variant. However, being nearly two years old now, the stocks are pretty limited.
Model Name
Old Price
New Price in Nepal
Oppo A7 (4/64GB)
Rs. 35,790
Rs. 24,490
Even the price drop doesn’t compensate for its old age. We can’t really recommend you Oppo A7 powered by Snapdragon 450 when we can get Redmi Note 8 with Snapdragon 665 at an even cheaper price.
Samsung just announced the new Exynos 9820 SoC, the direct successor to their current flagship Exynos 9810. Samsung says the processor will hit mass production by the end of this year, meaning it should make it’s way to the new Galaxy S10. The new Tri-Group CPU has a 2+2+4 setup and a new Mali G76MP12 GPU. The 9820 is based on the new 8nm LPP (Low Power Plus) FinFET process and comes with a new modem capable of 2Gbps download and 316Mbps upload speeds.
Putting numbers to context, the new SoC will offer:
20% boost in single core performance
15% boost in multi-core performance
50% enhancement in power efficiency
40% better graphical improvement
35% better power efficiency in graphical processing
7x faster in AI related tasks
The camera capabilities have also been improved, with the new processor capable of 8k@30fps video recordings. The processor is also capable of 4k@150fps, a few huge numbers straight from Samsung. The new CPU now supports up to a 22MP sensor at the front and the rear. If you want dual sensors, it can do two 16MP camera setups. All this capable of HDR recording at 10bit color with encoding and decoding support of 8k@30fps or 4k@150fps.
The new Tri-Cluster CPU setup includes two 4th gen Custom CPUs for highest levels of performance. The next two cores include Cortex A75s for performance and four Cortex A55s for maximum efficiency. No frequency numbers advertised in the launch today. There is, however, a new GPU, the Mali G76MP12 which should match its performance with the likes of Qualcomm and Apple’s GPUs at their best.
There is also a new dedicated NPU, similar to Huawei and Apple’s neural engines implementations. Then there is the new modem that can do speeds of up to 2Gbps (LTE-A Cat.20 8CA) downloads and 316Mbps (Cat.20 3CA) uploads. Finally, there is a security chip that stores and manages personal and biometric data such as face recognition and fingerprints in isolation.
PC gamers are a dying breed, with more people opting for PUBG mobile rather than the real PUBG. What is even sadder is people playing mobile PUBG on their PCs. But there are still a lot of dedicated gamers out there who swear by the PC Master race or even console players for that matter. So, this list is for all the PC gamers, a guide to choosing the right gaming monitor for your setup.
It’s 2018 and we’ve got 8k monitors up for grabs. But not everyone can afford one nor are their GPUs capable of handling them. So, choose a monitor, or rather the resolution of the monitor according to your GPU. If you own a GPU that’s below a GTX1060, get a 1080p monitor. For 1070 and above, you can still opt for a 1080p display but try for a higher refresh rate.
As for 4k gaming, at least make sure it has a GTX1080Ti. If you bought the RTX series from Nvidia, then the RTX2070 performs more or less like the GTX1080. The RTX2080 is similar to the GTX 1080Ti, and finally, the RTX2080Ti is in a league of its own. All these comparisons only work if you do not factor in their real-time ray tracing features.
As for AMD users, the RX Vega 64 is the closest when it comes to performance with the 1080Ti. More so, it’s comparable to the GTX1080, if a bit slower. The RX Vega 56 is a close match to the GTX1070. The bottom of the line GTX1060 matches its performance with the RX 580/870, but all NVidia counterparts are just better in my opinion.
Once you decide on the resolution and the refresh rates, you can then go on to their color reproduction. Anything from 70% sRBG color coverage or above should do just fine. The more important number here is the response rate. If the monitor says gaming, it probably has a low latency, so anything below 10ms should be fine as well (lower the better).
Either way, the more you pay, the better you get any way you look at it. You can also look out for G-Sync (Nvidia users) or FreeSync (AMD), which will help a lot with tearing. If you have more money to spend, then start thinking about bigger panels, ultra wides or curved monitors. Here are a few Monitors I found on Daraz that should be worth a look:
Vivo has added a new mid-range smartphone to its arsenal with the launch of the Vivo Y95. This device is among the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 439 chipset inside.
Vivo Y95 Specifications
The Vivo Y95 is the latest device to feature the minimalistic notch which has gained a lot of attention for providing bigger screen real estate on the smartphones. This notch comes with a tall 6.2-inch IPS LCD display that has a 1520 x 720 pixels resolution. The display has a 19:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 270.
The Vivo Y95 runs on Android v8.1 Oreo with Vivo’s skin, Funtouch OS 4.5 on top. Under the hood lies an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439, like I mentioned before. This new low-end chipset has a 12nm architecture. The CPU of the Y95 is aided by 4 GB of RAM and Adreno 505 GPU. In terms of storage, the Vivo Y95 comes with 64 GB of memory that is coupled with an expandable memory.
Camera wise, the Vivo Y95 has a dual camera setup on the rear. It features a 13-megapixel primary camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor alongside it. Up front, the Y95 comes equipped with a 20-megapixel selfie shooter.
One of the major USPs of the phone is definitely its battery. This smartphone has a large 4,030 mAh battery inside that will pair well with the HD+ display it sports. The back of the Y95 houses a fingerprint scanner and the front-facing camera will also work for Face Unlock.
Vivo Y95 Specs Overview:
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+, 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439
GPU: Adreno 505
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with Funtouch OS 4.5
It’s been a few days that Huawei has added another one of its mid-range contenders, the Huawei Y9 2019. As the name sounds futuristic with 2019 in its name, I had to test it out whether it really does perform like a device from next year. So, here is the full review of the Y9 2019!
Huawei Y9 2019 Specifications:
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.2 on top
Display: 6.5-inches IPS LCD FHD+ screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio
So, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a successor to the Y9 2018 launched some 6 months ago and a lot has changed during this time. The display that was 5.9 inches has grown to 6.5 inches and you have the infamous notch upfront, which is a tad bit bigger than what we are used to like on OPPO F9 (Read Review) and Vivo V11 Pro (Read Review). What has also changed is the processor but let’s finish off with what’s on hands first.
So, coming back, the display here is an IPS LCD panel with FHD+ screen resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display is humongous and is a perfect fit for multimedia consumption. Watching videos on the vibrant large screen is a treat to the eyes. Also, the minimum bezels add more points to the good viewing experience. Only if the notch was a bit smaller, it would have been so much better.
The phone gives you good sunlight legibility, so no problems will be felt outdoors.
But sadly, the display lacks any sort of protection, which is a bummer. Well if you look at the trend, very few Huawei phones come with display protection. I think this is an issue Huawei seriously needs to address.
Design
Design wise, the Y9 2019 is an impressive lad. This one has a curvy body which is a fresher look than what we have been seeing on other Huawei phones. It is not very heavy but still has that heft to it that makes it feel pretty premium.
This one is a slippery phone but we case our phones anyways. Also, my careless usage routine has resulted in some scratches overtime but surprisingly they are not that noticeable at the back but up front, they are clearly visible.
And this is not a glass back for sure but it has not made me feel sad about the phone as the Y9 2019 looks and feels good on hands. Also, talking about the aesthetics, you get all the buttons on the right, the dedicated SIM and memory card slot on the left; the single speaker grill, micro USB port, noise cancellation mic and a headphone jack at the bottom, with only the primary noise cancellation mic at the top.
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At the back, there is a fingerprint scanner, the dual camera setup, an LED flash, and the Huawei branding. The notch houses dual selfie cameras. Also, the Y9 2019 very cleverly hides the speaker grill right above the notch and in the rightmost corner, there is also a LED notification light.
Now, this I think is really cool! I mean with all the notches taking over, I have missed the LED light, but, well I miss it no more. Overall, the minimalist design has fairly impressed me.
Alright, enough about the outsides, let’s get into what’s inside this one. Huawei’s latest addition of mid-range chipsets, the Kirin Hisilicon 710 is what powers the device. Needless to say, we have seen this processor on the Huawei Nova 3i, and as I said in the review, this 12 nm energy efficient chipset is a good performer. It can handle almost everything you throw at it.
And as PUBG has become one of the prominent standards for testing games, well I had some sessions of it and the phone experiences some jitters while playing at medium settings. Also, you will experience some frame drops now and then. Otherwise, the phone has taken on my everyday usage pretty well. Moving on, other games run quite well and multitasking, as well as app opening, is pretty fast too.
But something that has bugged me is the phone loses it while multitasking with messenger running in the background. But I really hope a later software update will fix this.
On the software side, the Y9 2019 features Android Oreo 8.1 coupled with EMUI version 8.2. Huawei is pretty good with updates these days, and as this phone is from the future, I have high hopes for software updates.
Huawei Y9 2019 software UI
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Anyways, as it is with all the Huawei phones, you do get some useless apps onboard and sad is the fact that not all of them can be deleted. Furthermore, it’s the same EMUI have we have been seeing on all the Huawei phones. There are tons of customizations you can do as per your liking, for instance, keeping or ditching the navigation buttons, changing your viewing preferences and so forth. You can customize the shortcuts on the taskbar as well. There is a simple mode too, that basically makes the app icons larger, which again may be useful for some people.
Battery:
The huge 6.5 inches display makes the Y9 2019 hungry for power which is well, provided very generously by the 4,000 mAh battery and I must say the battery life is very good indeed.
It gives you more than a day of backup, I mean on a single charge, you can last for one day and a half. Well, this is on normal usage, but even on intensive use, you can expect it to last for a good amount of time.
The phone will take you 2 hours and 30 minutes to give you a 100% juice. Well, with this its evident that there is no fast charging support here. But unlike some Samsung phones, it does not take ages to charge.
Here’s the most annoying part: This is the Huawei Y9 2019, a phone from the future, a phone from 2019 and it still has a micro USB. It’s true. Okay, the lack of Fast Charging is somewhat justifiable here but a micro USB port is a serious bummer here.
Anyways, to be fair the battery life is very enduring which may be an area to cover up for the absence of fast charging.
Camera:
Huawei’s usual quad camera setup makes its way here as well. The Y9 2019 has four cameras in total, two at the back and two at the front. If this sounds familiar, it is the same as that of the Nova 3i (Read review). But the setup comes with a slight difference between the two.
At the back, the Y9 2019 has a 16 MP f/2.0 primary camera with 2 MP sensing depth-sensing camera. The Nova 3i had a 16 MP f/2.2 camera. Likewise, the front of the Y9 houses a 13 MP f/1.8 aperture camera along with a 2 MP depth sensor. This is also slightly different than the Nova 3i having 13 MP f/2.2+ 2 MP cameras.
What this means is that the Y9 2019 captures more light than the Nova 3i due to its wide f/1.8 aperture and the pictures at low light conditions will also appear brighter than the Nova 3i.
Now talking about the quality of pictures, you can see they are sharp, no doubt on that. But the colors are a bit too punchy for my liking. This means the phone automatically over saturates the pictures. Other than that, pictures come out very colorful. However, the autofocus is a tad bit slower on this new Huawei device.
Huawei Y9 2019 Back camera samples
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There is a 2 MP depth sensor which means there is a portrait mode as well. And I must say that the bokeh images are great. I mean, have a look at these samples, even though the edge detection is not that proper, the images look good overall.
Huawei Y9 2019 Portrait
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The background blur can be adjusted to our liking and pictures seems pretty pleasing. But sometimes, the images tend to lose some details but most of the times, they seem very nice.
At low light conditions, the images are bright. But then again, the images are not free of noise and grains. Similarly, the autofocus becomes slower during this time.
Huawei Y9 2019 Low light images
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Now talking about the AI mode, well, it does a good job with the images containing skies in it. Also, other times it does not make a lot of unnecessary enhancements. But then again, the images are already saturated, so there is actually no need for an Ai mode. Here are few samples for you to judge by yourself.
AI vs non AI images
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Without AI
With AI
Without AI
With AI
Moving on to the selfies, the first thing I noticed is that there is no inbuilt beautification in the cameras, which is well a good thing. There is a beauty option though, but only in the portrait option, which is strange. Anyways the normal selfies are good enough, they do not look fake.
Huawei Y9 2019 selfie camera samples
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Similarly, Portrait selfies look good too. In very well lit conditions, sometimes the background seems exposed but other than that it fares well.
Huawei Y9 2019 portrait selfie samples
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In artificial lighting, there is a slight loss in details, but the pictures are well lit. Selfies in low light conditions appear a bit grainy.
Huawei Y9 2019 artificial lighting images
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Talking about the video quality, there isn’t any kind of stabilization here so you know what to expect. You can record videos in FHD at 60 fps but the quality is just average to my liking. Also, autofocus in videos is just subpar.
Talking about other features, the fingerprint sensor is pretty swift and so is the Facial recognition on this one.
Now, it’s the selfie camera recognizing your face, so you cannot expect it to be that secure. For me, the fingerprint sensor was my go-to unlock mechanism. Other than that, the speaker at the bottom gets distorted at high volumes and they are moderately loud.
Similarly, WiFi reception is pretty good too, and the good news is that there is dual-band WiFi ac, which was a feature lacking in the Nova 3i. Well, it seems some feedbacks are well taken by the Chinese company.
Likewise, call quality is good along with network reception. With these, I faced no problems what so ever. But something I would like to say is, the vibration of the phone is not that good. I have missed a few calls because of the reason!
Conclusion:
To conclude, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a very good upgrade from the Y9 2018. A larger display, better design, better performing cameras and Kirin 710 is pretty dope. Similarly, this device can be a perfect fit for multimedia consumers.
The phone is priced at Rs. 34,900 which is good enough for those specs but I think Huawei should have priced it a bit aggressively. Because the competition is getting really fierce if we take into account the pricing set by Xiaomi Nepal. There is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 (Read Review) for a similar price and even if you go 4 thousand less, there is the Mi A2 (Read Review) waiting.
So, with so many competitors against the device, the Huawei Y9 2019 seems like a hard bargain! But you also get an overall package of a good smartphone here, so you can make your pick.
A few months back, Samsung launched the Galaxy J2 Core smartphone with Android Go version of the OS on its system. It was the first Android-Go powered smartphone in Samsung’s lineup. And it was basically brought to lure people into cheaper smartphones instead of the feature phones. This time to offer more choices in the budget smartphones’ lineup, Samsung launched yet another Android-Go smartphone. The recently launched Android Go handset goes by the name Samsung Galaxy J4 Core. And it possesses somewhat richer specs when compared with the J2 Core.
Samsung Galaxy J4 Core Specs Overview
Budget handsets rarely come with a bigger display. But that’s not the case in the J4 Core. The smartphone comes with the tall 6.0-inch display. On the resolution front, the handset fancies HD+ resolution in an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. But IPS panel has been used on the display. So the users won’t be getting the deeper blacks and brighter whiter, which are usually found on most of the Samsung phones.
And a Quad-core CPU drives the processes inside the phone, which clocks at 1.4GHz. On the software front, J4 Core boasts the Android Oreo (Android Go Edition). And talking about the storage, there is 1GB RAM and 16GB of storage. Since the apps and processing are optimized in the Android Go version, even with the 1GB RAM, we can expect the phone to load and run light apps and games without any sort of issues.
On the optics front, the phone is equipped with an 8MP on the back and a 5MP shooter on the front. This is exactly the same setup seen on the J2 Core. But what has been the major upgrade from the J2 Core to the J4 Core is the battery. The newbie flaunts a humongous 3300mAh battery over the 2600mAh on the J2 Core.
The pricing of the smartphone is still under the veil and availability is still a secret. But since the smartphone is already on Samsung’s official website, it may not take long before we get more information regarding the smartphone.
We were already thrilled with the Huawei P20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy A7 2018, which had three cameras at the back. And adding a surplus camera at the already crowded back, Samsung had launched a smartphone recently in the international market. Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 is the phone, which rose in the smartphone market with four cameras at the back. It was the first smartphone to have quad camera setup at the back and it is still the sole smartphone to possess this quirky feature till date.
[Latest Price: Rs. 43,990] [Last updated on July 24, 2019]
Overview
The camera is the striking feature of the handset. And as mentioned earlier, the smartphone carries four cameras at its back. The primary rear camera on the A9 2018 embraces a 24MP sensor, which comes with an f/1.7 lens. There is also an 8MP camera module with an ultrawide angle lens, which increases the field of view. The additional 10MP camera module on the phone features a telephoto lens, which can be used to capture images with 2x lossless optical zooming. And lastly, there is a 5MP depth sensor, which comes into play while capturing the portrait images. Talking about the front camera, the phone boasts a 24MP sensor featured by an f/2.0 lens. Since Samsung has a good record of providing quality cameras on its phone, we can expect the cameras on the phone.
On the performance front, Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 comes with Snapdragon 660 chipset with 6GB of RAM alongside. In terms of memory, the A9 2018 flaunts 128GB of onboard storage, which can be substantial for most of the users. Additionally, there is a dedicated slot for a micro SD card to push the storage limit further.
Talking about the display, the phone comes with the tall 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display. The handset features Full-HD+ on the resolution front boasting a 392PPI of pixel density. So with this display setup on the phone, we can expect to view sharp, crisp and vibrant contents on the phone.
The phone also looks note-worthy in terms of horsepower. With 3800mAh battery, the battery backup looks dependable. There is also a fast-charging feature to squeeze power juice to the phone in a relatively shorter time. Talking about the colors, the phone comes in Caviar Black and Lemonade Blue options in Nepal.
Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 Price in Nepal
[Latest Price: Rs. 43,990] [Price Last Updated on: Rs. 43,990]
The Galaxy A9 2018 is Samsung’s first online smartphone in Nepal sold exclusively at daraz.com.np. The phone is priced aggressively at Rs. 54,999. The pricing is the cheapest we have seen as compared to other countries like India (INR 40,000 ~ Rs. 64,000) or Europe (€599 ~ Rs. 79,000).
