Apple iPhone XR First impressions

Apple is making a habit of launching “one more” iPhone every year. It did that with the iPhone X in 2017 and this year it’s the iPhone XR which fell into that category. What’s remarkable is that it’s very rare when the cheapest iPhone of the year catches the maximum attention. But that’s exactly what the iPhone XR has managed to do at the 2018 iPhone launch event. Even in the demo area of the Steve Jobs theatre, it attracted the maximum curiosity. Why? Read our first impressions to know:


Design

The first thing you’ll notice about the iPhone XR are the plethora of colour options it comes in. Apple has taken a bold step of moving away from its usual palette of colours with the iPhone XR. This phone comes in funky colours like Coral, White, Yellow, Black, Blue and even the Product Red. The Blue and Coral ones certainly stands out the most.

The iPhone XR has an all-screen glass and aluminum design which gives it a sturdy look and feel. The 6.1-inch screen is bigger than the iPhone X. The smartphone is easy to hold and offers a firm grip as well. The iPhone XR is splash and water resistant and comes with a rating of IP67. It retains the design appeal of the iPhone X but gets a nice dash of colour. The last time Apple went bold with colours was with the iPhone 5C. However, this is a more elegant design and the iPhone XR is one good looking smartphone.

Display

The one major difference between the iPhone XS and iPhone XR lies in the display. While the former has an OLED display, Apple has opted for an LCD display for the latter. If you’re thinking that there is a remarkable difference between the two, then yes there is. At least on paper. In reality, the LCD display on iPhone XR is really good. The images look sharp and colour reproduction is top notch. Apple seems to have done a fine job with the LCD display.


Camera and processor

The other difference in the iPhone XR and XS is the camera set up. The iPhone XR comes with a single camera at the back which we couldn’t test in detail. However, the Portraid mode and bokeh effect can be found in the iPhone XR as well. The images clicked on the iPhone XR we saw looked remarkably sharp and clear. Even the depth effect – a strong suit of dual rear cameras – was quite good. The front camera is a 7MP module. You’ll have to wait for our full review to know how the camera of iPhone XR measures against the rest.

As far as the processor is concerned, the iPhone XR is powered by the same A12 Bionic chipset. We fully expect this phone to deliver solid performance on all counts.

What we think

This might just be the best-selling iPhone of the year. Not because of its price alone but because this has all the good parts – well almost all – that the iPhone XS series has. And it costs considerably less, when compared to the iPhone XS. With a price tag of Rs 76,900, this could be the most compelling iPhone buy of the year. The LCD display is nothing to scoff at as it’s really good and it has the same processor as the expensive iPhones. However, it’s early to give a verdict on it but our hunch is that Apple might just have a winner on its hands with the iPhone XR.

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Google follows Apple & Samsung in switching to water pistol for the gun emoji

With iOS 10 in 2016, Apple switched to a water pistol for its gun emoji. The new design was not widely adopted — if not critiqued — until this year where there’s been a rash of changes on other platforms. Google is now the latest to match Apple’s design direction on the gun emoji with the upcoming version of Android.

Nintendo Switch

According to Emojipedia, Google today updated its NotoColorEmoji library with a new emoji design. The current realistic revolver with a dark gray barrel and brown handle has been replaced with an equally realistic water pistol that is brightly colored in yellow and orange with hints of green and blue.

In line with Google’s other modern emoji, there is a fine attention to detail. Interestingly, the preceding version of the emoji was just revamped in 2017, with the prior version in use for three years. Before that Google used a musket, while in 2012 Google used the generic outline of a modern handgun.

As Emojipedia notes, Google — following Apple’s decision in 2016 — was cautious about changing, citing a desire to maintain “cross-platform communication.” However the landscape in 2018 has changed with Twitter and later Samsung on the Galaxy S9 switching to a water pistol.
Given the momentum, it makes sense Google to follow along to ensure that communication across platforms is consistent. The new design should be adopted system-wide with the launch of Android P later this fall.

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I’m not rushing back to the Pixel 2 XL after using the Galaxy S9+

It’s been a while since I wrapped up my testing of the S9+, and now that my review has been up, technically I don’t really need to be actively using this device anymore. With most devices I review, I’ll end up switching back to my Pixel within a week after finishing, but with the Galaxy S9+ I’m not feeling that urge, and there are a few reasons why…

The Galaxy S9 is an incredible piece of hardware

When Samsung launched the Galaxy S6 a few years ago, it was clear the company had a vision in mind for its future hardware, and it was a good one. Over time, that design evolved and, especially thanks to the S8 family, delivered what we ended up seeing in the S9 family.

In short, it’s incredibly nice hardware that’s refined to the point of near perfection. The metal and glass design is beautiful to look at and some of the colors are frankly just amazing. Further, the metal frame itself is more grippy, fixing one of my biggest issues with the S8, and also improves things like the fingerprint sensor placement and the curvature of the glass as well. It may not be particularly new, but the S9’s hardware is nothing short of fantastic.

Features like Intelligent Scan are becoming invaluable to me

But it’s not just the build of the phone that makes me want to use it so much. Samsung is well-known for including everything and the kitchen sink in terms of features, but sometimes that’s not all that bad. With the S9 you get a solid fingerprint sensor, but on top of that you also get Intelligent Scan.

In my review of the S9+ I said this feature wasn’t as good as Apple’s Face ID, but it’s still pretty darn good. Samsung has refined this tech significantly since the S8, and it works really well in day-to-day use. I’d still say I use the fingerprint sensor more, but using facial recognition is becoming more and more valuable.

What’s best about this setup, though, is having both on the same phone. Facial recognition isn’t always a possibility, and the fingerprint sensor isn’t always the most convenient option either. With the S9, you get the best of both worlds.

It’s really nice having a headphone jack again…

And then there’s an obvious one, having a headphone jack. Samsung is very much sticking to its guns on keeping the headphone jack around, and that’s fantastic. Wired audio is absolutely on its way out, but millions use it daily. For now, that alone makes the S9+ the choice for a flagship in 2018.

I love this phone, even though I dislike the software

Samsung is nearing perfection with the Galaxy S9, and that’s why it’s still in my pocket. Using hardware this refined reminds me how long Google has to go before it catches up.

However, the reason I’ll go back to the Pixel (eventually) is because of the software. Samsung has made great strides in improving things over the years, but “Samsung Experience 9.0” is still full of changes, issues, and frankly annoying omissions. For example, long-pressing the home button for Google Assistant often just doesn’t work for me, and I’ve noticed a bit of trouble with touch rejection on the bezels since wrapping up the review. None of these are deal breakers by any means, but they’re just a sample of the little things that can take down what is otherwise a solid experience.

I think Andrew from Android Central expressed this best in a recent piece, saying that he loves the S9 despite the software, and that really is a problem for Samsung. The software on the S9 might allow anyone to customize it exactly how they need it, but they shouldn’t have to do that. On the Pixel, I don’t have to change a single setting, because everything works brilliantly out of the box. Then there’s the issue of updates, which, yeah… let’s not talk about that.

Is the S9+ truly a better phone?

At the end of the day, though, the real question is whether or not the Galaxy S9+ really is a better phone overall. Honestly, for the average consumer, it probably is. Samsung has crafted an experience that feels complete and caters to everyone. Google is working its way there, and for me and I’m sure many others, it’s a better option, but the Galaxy S9 is proof that Samsung has all the best cards in this game…

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Google working on its own blockchain technology

Google is working on blockchain-related technology to support its cloud business and head off competition from emerging startups that use the heavily-hyped technology to operate online in new ways, according to people familiar with the situation.

Companies use blockchain and other so-called digital ledgers to securely record transactions and process other data over the internet — a service Google could use, for example, to reassure customers that their information is protected when stored on the giant network of computer servers that power its cloud services.

The Alphabet Inc unit is developing its own distributed digital ledger that third parties can use to post and verify transactions, one of the people said. Although the timing of any product release is unclear, the company plans to offer this to differentiate its cloud service from rivals.

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Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus debut in China; boast of Snapdragon 821 and dual-camera setup

After months of rumours and speculation, Xiaomi has, at long last, unveiled the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus smartphones.

Both phones are powered by a Snapdragon 821 SoC and Adreno 530 GPU. The phones run MIUI, which is built on Android 6.0 and feature a brand new, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The connector is of the USB Type-C variety.


Interestingly, the fingerprint sensor is buried under the front glass so the upper surface is seamless.
Both phones boast of support for 4G+ 3x CA (which can give transfer speeds in excess of 300Mbps on supported networks), NFC and UFS 2.0 storage.

We won’t waste words on the design. The images below will be far more expressive than we are.
Here are the detailed specs of the phones:

Xiaomi Mi 5s


This is the smaller of the two phones launched. It features a 5.15-inch display with a Full HD resolution. Xiaomi says that brightness is an eye-watering 600 nits, thanks to 16 special LEDs that provide enhanced backlight.



The phone itself is powered by a Snapdragon 821 SoC with an Adreno 530 GPU. Two variants of the device will be available, one with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage and one with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.

A shot from the Xiaomi Mi 5s’ new 13MP rear camera

The rear camera unit is a 13MP f/2.0 unit with a Sony IMX 378 sensor. The pixel size is 1.55 µm. The camera is capable of recording video at 4K 30fps and 1080p 120fps. The front camera is a 4MP, f/2.0 unit with 2 µm pixels. It can record at 1080p.



Xiaomi waxed lyrical on the camera performance of both phones. When compared to the iPhone 6s Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, 55 percent of those polled preferred the images from the Mi 5s and 49 percent of professionals preferred the images from the Mi 5s. In blind tests of course.

The Mi 5s will be available in 4 colours.

The variants are priced at 1999 CNY (around Rs 20,000) for the 3GB RAM + 64GB storage option and 2299 CNY (around Rs 23,000) for the 4GB RAM + 128GB storage option.
Both options offer a 3,200mAh battery.

Thankfully, the phone has a 3.5mm jack.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus



The Mi 5s Plus boasts of a 5.7-inch display, 0.2mm larger the iPhone 6s Plus’ display, but it’s claimed to be 3.6mm less wide than the iPhone. It’s also claimed to be 20g lighter than the iPhone 7 Plus.



The rest of the specs remain the same as on the smaller 5s, but you get a 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option now.



The camera sensors are the real stars of the show. Yes, you read that right, sensors. The rear of the device features a dual-camera system with two 13MP Sony IMX 378 sensors with the same aperture and speed rating as the camera on the Mi 5s.

The camera sensors on the Mi 5s Plus

Of the two cameras, one captures a colour image and the other captures black and white data, which is more sensitive to light. The phone then combines the data from the two sensors to create a sharper, brighter image.



The best part about the design of the new camera system is that it sits flush with the body of the phone. No more ugly protrusions to worry about.

Some monochrome shots from Xiaomi’s new camera unit

Oh, and benchmark figures? Xiaomi claims 164119 in AnTuTu.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus AnTuTu score

The Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus will be available in the same four colours as the Mi 5s. It will retail for 2299 CNY (around Rs 23,000) for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage option and 2599 CNY (around Rs 26,000) for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus price

Both phones will go on sale for on 29 September in China. At this moment, India launch date and prices are unknown at this time.

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What is Google’s Andromeda project and why should we care?

Rumours are surfacing regarding an upcoming Google OS called Andromeda. These same rumours suggest that the OS will reside alongside ChromeOS and Android and that it will be designed for laptop-like devices.

What we really want to know is why this OS even exists.

First, let’s get the facts out of the way
Android Police claims that their sources have confirmed the existence of the OS as well as work on a device that it’s expected to debut on. The device has been dubbed the Pixel 3 laptop and the project is code-named Bison.

In terms of specs, the device is expected to sport an Intel m5 or i5 CPU, 8GB or 16 GB RAM and offer 32GB or 128 GB storage. The screen will be about 12.3-inches and you’ll get USB-C, a fingerprint reader, touchpad with haptic feedback and more. Of course, all of these specifications are subject to change.

Sources have apparently told Android Police that the project is an attempt to build an OS that melds ChromeOS features into Android. Andromeda and the Pixel 3 are expected to debut in Q3 2017.

But what does this mean?
Android started out as an OS for touch-screen mobile phones, later evolving to include tablets when the need arose. Originally, the OS was all about apps, but later, the focus shifted to the browser and now, it’s at messaging and AI.


Android was never a good fit for true computing. A laptop was still needed for real work (not just emails) and thus, ChromeOS was born. It came at a time when desktop apps were shifting to the cloud, when collaboration was the name of the game (This was in 2011, Apple. Take note.)
ChromeOS worked because it brought with it cheap devices that gave you access to the full desktop web and associated web apps. It was like a stand-alone Chrome browser. Devices were hassle-free to maintain and run and since everything was stored in the cloud, you never lost any data.



Of course, you needed an active internet connection to make full use of it.

As time passed and ChromeOS started getting more popular, the lack of apps started to really hurt. Doing things on the web is great, but offline is sometimes better.

It was then that Google announced plans to merge Android apps into ChromeOS.

It’s a move that makes sense. Android is a mobile OS where apps and mobile browsing are king. ChromeOS is a “desktop” OS where the “desktop” web is king. Throw apps into the mix and ChromeOS suddenly becomes more flexible.

So what’s the catch?
The catch here is that ChromeOS is still only about the browser. Android apps do work, but they run just about as well as they would on a tablet. Think of them like UWP apps on the Windows Store. They’re not as great as true desktop apps, they’re a stop-gap.


Andromeda is supposed to change that. Rather than integrate Android into ChromeOS, Andromeda is apparently trying to integrate ChromeOS into Android. Andromeda might, in fact, be a portmanteau of Android and Chrome, but don’t take our word for it.

As far as facts are concerned that’s all we know.

So why does it exist?
Thinking about it, I think I understand why Google is working on Andromeda. We spend most of our time on our phone and in apps and it’s only when we need to “work” and our phone isn’t up to the task that we switch to a PC.

Say you’re browsing the web on a tablet, you’d rather just use it in tablet mode. But what if you want to work on a document? You can work on the docs app, but it’s also more convenient to work on Google Docs in a desktop web browser. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do that on the same device?
This, I believe, is the idea behind Andromeda.

I could be completely in the wrong of course.

The difference between ChromeOS running Android and Android running ChromeOS is subtle, but it’s significant.

Is this the future?

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Microsoft acquires LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, here are 10 things you can buy with Rs 1,758,542,690,000

Microsoft has announced that it is going to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. That is Rs. 1,758,542,690,000 going by the current exchange rate. So what can so much cash get you?



37,697,841 Bitcoin: Microsoft could have purchased all the bitcoin in the world with that kind of money. Theoretically, this would kill the bitcoin economy, and make the cryptocurrency worthless. However, that is not possible because there will only be 20,999,999 bitcoin ever mined. After buying all the bitcoin, there will be some loose change left over for healthy dogecoin and litecoin investments as well.



62,380 Chewbacca Mom Sponsorships: Chewbacca Mom’s impromptu Facebook Live gig made her an overnight celebrity, and earned her $420,000 worth of goodies, including a VIP pass to Dinsey World and college scholarships for her entire family.



1,871,428 “Rolls Royce of Smartphones”: Israeli Start-up Sirin is making an uncompromising Android device, dubbed the “Rolls Royce of Smartphones“. Solarin is a smartphone with military grade encryption, and each one costs $14,000 (over Rs 9 lakh).



840,000 Mobile Phone Towers: Mobile operators are all ready to invest Rs. 12,000 crore for 60,000 mobile towers. At that rate, telecom service providers will be able to install 840,000 cell phone towers with the cash that Microsoft has. Though that may not be something everybody wants considering the fears over cell phone tower radiation.

30 years of Coal Power sector losses: The coal power sector has allegedly faced losses of Rs. 28,000 crore over the last five months because of water scarcity across the country, according to Greenpeace. The Microsoft buyout can cover the losses of the coal power sector for 30 years at this rate, but it is highly unlikely that the rates will stay the same for so long.

354 Mangalyaan Missions: Ok India’s mission to Mars was much cheaper than say NASA’s Maven mission, because of the different accounting standards for measuring mission costs. But this is how we calculate, and by our calculations, India could have sent 354 missions to Mars for the same price that Microsoft is going to buy out LinkedIn.

18 Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Trains: The high speed rail project that just got rejected by the Maharashtra government because it would cause huge revenue losses. The project costs Rs. 9,800 crore, which means that 18 such high speed rail projects can be built in India, if Microsoft is interested in making a donation.

5 Large Hadron Colliders: at the time of construction, the Large Hadron Collider cost about $4.4 billion to build or Rs. 295,417,980,000. Microsoft can build five, almost six of these underground mega-structures for studying subatomic particles.

935 HAL Tejas Mark IAs: Hal Tejas cost us RS. 7000 crore to develop, with a per unit cost of Rs 190 crore for the HAL Tejas Mark IA and Rs 160 crore for the Hal Tejas Mark I. India will be able to buy 935 of these delta wing light fighters. Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri from Border would approve.

34,933,333 Apple iPhone 6S Plus 16 GB: Let’s be realistic though, who would spend so much on a 16GB version? There is a better option available for the same price though, wind turbines. Wind turbines that can power 34,933,333 houses for a lifetime. For just a little over Rs 50,000, Avant Garde Innovations is installing a permanent source of clean energy for individual households.

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WhatsApp for iOS, Android: How to add bold, italics and strikethrough formatting options

Soon after WhatsApp announced that it introduced text formatting tools for Android beta, the features are now available for users running version 2.12.17 on iOS and version 2.12.535 for Android.

A report by Telegraph explains that once WhatsApp is updated, you add asterisks to either side of your text, e.g. *hello* to format your text into bold. To italicise, add underscores either side, e.g. _hello_ and to strike through text, add tildes either side, e.g. ~tilde~. One can also combine the new formats, such as _*bolditalics*_. For now this is not a feature per se but more like a temporary workaround. Moreover, it works cross platform, only if your friend has the above mentioned versions of WhatsApp installed on their smartphones.

Recently, WhatsApp also released an update which would display a progress percentage whenever an automatic local backup is in motion. However, the pop-up still blocks everything but it at least displays the percentage, so that one has a fair idea of how much time one will have to wait before the app is usable again. Another small change is the the phone number no longer shows up front and centre in the new Settings screen. The new profile section will only show the photo, name, and status, but not the phone number.

Along with this change, some new improvements have been made to the WhatsApp document file sharing feature too. One can now share a document through Google Drive. A report by points out that users can select a PDF, Word file or PowerPoint presentation file from Google Drive. Although, all of the files will be automatically converted to PDF format before sending it to other users.

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Uber: Hack us and we’ll give you up to $10,000

Today, Uber — the site with a bit of an image problem when it comes to security — opened the doors on its bug bounty program and promised payouts of up to $10,000.

The program has very specific examples of what qualifies for a reward, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, server-side remote code execution (RCE) and others. You can find what it it is, and isn’t, looking for here. Or, you can peruse the company’s blog post for information about specific technologies in use across several Uber Web properties, including:

• https://*.uber.com/
• https://*.dev.uber.com/
• http://petition.uber.org
• http://ubermovement.com
• iPhone Rider Application
• iPhone Partner Application
• Android Rider Application
• Android Partner Application

If you find a bug, you'll be paid $3,000 to $10,000 for issues for one of the items on its hit list, or you'll get a nice firm pat on the back if you find an issue related to fraud, as Uber isn't currently rewarding those who find fraud issues.

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Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge first impressions: Has the makings of a winner

Samsung had launched its latest flagship phones – the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge at the Unpacked 2016 event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And now a few weeks later they have finally arrived in India.

Samsung’s pricing seems interesting keeping the competition in mind, does stand a chance at Rs 48,900 for the Galaxy S7 and Rs 56,900 for the Galaxy S7 edge. Oddly, both smartphones have been launched only in the 32GB variant, but this time around they do come with microSD card slots.

Post the event, we got a chance to try out both the Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphones. Here are our first impressions of the same. This first impressions was written after the Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge launch at MWC 2016. We have made the necessary changes with regards to the India launch in the article.



Build and Design
Samsung has not really done any major rework in terms of design philosophy on the Galaxy S7 smartphones and we quite like it that way. The new flagships come with IP68 certification, which lets you submerge both the smartphones for around 30 minutes under 1.5 mts of water. The other interesting design element that we noticed was that the camera module on the rear side is almost flush with the rear glass cover – which wasn’t the case with the Galaxy S6 series.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Both the phones feel good to hold in the hand, but their glass covers have the propensity to attract smudges, so much so that we had to constantly keep cleaning the glossy surfaces. The Galaxy S7 features a 5.1-inch display and measures around 7.9mm thick whereas the Galaxy S7 Edge with its 5.5-inch display is slimmer at 7.7mm thanks to the dual-edge curved display. The Galaxy S7 Edge weighs around 157 grams and the Galaxy S7 weighs around 152 grams.

On the left hand edge, you have the volume rocker buttons, the base has the 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB charging and data transfer port and the speaker grill section. On the right hand edge, you have the power standby button. whereas the top edge has the hybrid SIM card slot.

Samsung Galaxy S7

Display
The Samsung Galaxy S7 sports a 5.1-inch SuperAMOLED QuadHD display giving it a pixel density of 577ppi. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge on the other hand sports a 5.5-inch SuperAMOLED QuadHD display which gives it a pixel density of 534ppi and of course has the dual-edge curved display as well. The displays looked quite sharp with vivid colours. As we have seen with most Samsung SuperAMOLED displays, there was a slight colour tinge noticeable when viewed from the sides.

Samsung Galaxy S7

Samsung has bundled both the phones with an Always-on display which lets you see the date and time along with all your notifications without having to unlock your device for the same.



Chipset, RAM, Storage and Connectivity
Samsung was very quiet about what chipset it is using inside the Galaxy S7 series, and it only mentioned that the new SoC had a CPU which was 30% faster than the Galaxy S6 series and a GPU which was 64% faster. But the SoC housed inside is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset in international markets whereas the Indian versions will have Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 SoC with 4x Cortex A53 cores and 4x Exynos M1 cores.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

This is paired with 4GB of RAM and there is 32GB of storage space. During the brief hands on time, we did not face any issues with the phone in terms of responsiveness. Considering Samsung had gone ahead with its own Exynos processors with the S6 series, it is interesting to see the new phone with a Snapdragon flagship chipset. So the main thing to look out for would be how well the phone manages the heat.

Also with the S7 series, Samsung has also added in a hybrid SIM card slot, so you can either put in a microSIM and Nano SIM or a nano SIM and a microSD card. According to the Samsung slide, it can support up to 128GB of SDXC storage in addition to the 32GB storage.

On the connectivity front, you get dual SIM configuration, Wi-fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC and so on. It also houses the heart rate sensor on the rear side just beside the camera.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

OS and Software
Samsung Galaxy S7 series sports Android 6.0 Marshmallow along with the TouchWiz UI skin atop it. While the bloatware isn’t huge, you still find a lot of Samsung apps which you can do without. Samsung Pay has been pre-loaded as it is going to come to many new countries going forward. India did not get a mention as a partner country for the Samsung Pay rollout.

With the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, the Edge user interface now has two columns of apps which lets you quickly access more apps by just swiping from the side of the edges. We noticed that we had to swipe two or three times before the edge user interface reacted. Samsung has also let more developers use the edge user interface and we saw an example of Yahoo News app as part of the edge user interface feature.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

For gamers, Samsung had an interesting announcement in the form of support for Vulkan API support. This basically helps the multiple cores take better advantage during gaming. We will need to play some high end games to see how well it performs and at the same time, how well it manages the heat while at it.



Camera
On the camera front, both the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge come with a dual-pixel 12MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. Both the cameras sport a maximum aperture of f/1.7 which looks quite impressive on paper. Samsung has ensured that the rear camera is almost flush with the body. Samsung Galaxy S6 series cameras were the best we tested last year. With the dual-pixel AF technology and a 12MP sensor, will Samsung Galaxy S7 series cameras repeat the performance of its predecessors? We will have to wait till we can test the smartphone for ourselves.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Battery
Just like its predecessor flagships, the Samsung Galaxy S7 series does not come with a removable battery. The Galaxy S7 sports a 3000mAh battery whereas the Galaxy S7 Edge sports a 3600mAh battery. We will need to use the phone in the real world to see how long these phones are capable of lasting. Samsung also bundles in its power saving features within the TouchWiz UI and claims that its Always on display also bypasses the need to constantly wake up your device to check notifications. We will still wait a full verdict on that till we get the device to test out.

Conclusion

The flagship smartphones will be available for pre-order starting from 8 March till 17 March according to Samsung.

From our first impressions, at least on paper, Samsung looks like it is ready to do an encore of the Galaxy S6 series. It boasts of a better camera, better battery and a powerful chipset powering things under the hood. But as we had seen with a lot of flagship phones last year, the real life usage is a different beast altogether. Last year, Samsung got most things right and this year, it has added the IP68 certification to the Galaxy S7 series.

Samsung Galaxy S7

Going by past Samsung flagship launches, a price point closer to Rs 50,000 is not really that outlandish to believe. The phones sure have all the makings of a blockbuster, but real life usage is something that we can conclude upon only after a full review. Considering the Galaxy S6 series will most likely get a price drop, will the S6 series in a sense prove to be a competitor? Only time will tell.

Update: Now that the prices for the two phones are out, it is good to see Samsung pricing its S7 at Rs 48,900 and the S7 edge at Rs 56,900 when compared with the launch prices of the 32GB variants launch prices of the S6 and S6 edge (which did not come with dual SIM configuration or microSD card slots as well as water proofing chops) at Rs 49,900 and Rs 58,900 respectively. The only thing to see now would be how well the Samsung Exynos 8890 SoC holds up as it is an untested chipset.

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