LG G Pro Lite

LG seems to be targeting the price-conscious Indian market with a vengeance. The South Korean handset maker has been aggressive lately in terms of releasing smartphones across various price segments, something Samsung has been doing for years.
Hot on the heels of the power-packed LG G2 comes the relatively low-powered, but also more pocket-friendly, LG G Pro Lite. The 5.5-inch phablet is a variant of the Optimus G Pro launched earlier this year.
The G Pro Lite is an affordable Android device when compared to a flagship, targeted at those who want to experience the best in terms of design, software and hardware without spending a bomb. Will G Pro Lite be able to revive the mid-range segment which is already losing steam? That still remains to be seen.
Design/ Build
When a phone is released in the market and tagged as being the sequel/ successor or a variant of an earlier device, it is fair chance that it will bear more than just a passing resemblance to its predecessor. This is the case with the new LG G Pro Lite which is a spitting image of its predecessor the Optimus G Pro, except that the former does not come with a physical button on the front panel. The G Pro Lite phablet has a lot of design similarities with its predecessor. The G Pro Lite is made of plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap and actually feels really well built.
The LG Optimus G Pro features a physical button for home on the front panel accompanied by back and menu buttons, while the G Pro Lite comes with four touch keys for back, home, settings and a dedicated hot key for SIM switch. The front of the LG G Pro Lite, made of glass, is mainly dominated by its 5.5-inch qHD display. The bezel on the sides of the screen is narrow, though when noticed closely is surrounded by a small black border.The 1.3-megapixel front facing camera and the sensor array sit above the display along with an earpiece grill. There is also LG branding on the front panel, between the display and earpiece grill.
The power button on the G Pro Lite is located on the right panel of the phone, while a customisable 'QuickButton' and the volume control buttons are placed on the left panel.
We were disappointed to see the power button of the LG G Pro Lite placed a bit upwards on the right panel, we wish it could have been placed a little lower as that would make hitting it a bit easier. Next we ended up pressing the QuickButton shortcut instead of the volume rocker buttons often, again because of awkward placement of the buttons. For a smartphone this big, we hope that the volume rocker button could have been placed a little higher.
The 3.5mm audio jack, Infrared Blaster and an additional microphone sits at the top panel of the G Pro Lite and there is a stylus port at the top right corner of the phablet.
The Micro-USB port and the microphone are located at the bottom accompanied by dual speakers; something that we could say is an addition to the G Pro Lite, when compared to its predecessor.
An aluminium frame runs through the phone separating the back and front panels and we must confess that it does give the G Pro Lite a premium look. The frame is visible as a thin line at the left and right sides, but widens at the top and bottom.
Much like the Optimus G Pro, the LG G Pro Lite comes with removable back panel. The rear panel is made of plastic and can be removed through a small gap at the right side of the phablet. The back has a glossy finish and is prone to smudges. Being a plastic back, the phone does seem slippery when used for long durations and also doesn't provide a good grip.There is an 8-megapixel camera accompanied by an LED flash at the back. Notably, the camera lens is surrounded by a raised, circular in shape enclosure which is very much visible. LG branding is also present at the back of the G Pro Lite, in the middle.
The LG G Pro Lite as anyone would expect is not very easy to use with one hand, unless you have big palms. However, we would say it's not impossible to hold G Pro Lite one-handed, but stretching the thumb all the way across the display feels uneasy at best, and for many users - it could even a deal breaker. Also due to the sheer size the LG G Pro Lite barely fits into pockets and usually was visible out of our pocket.
Display
The LG G Pro Lite comes with a 5.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels and the pixel density stands at mediocre 200ppi. LG has given a miss to Corning's Gorilla Glass 2 that resists scratches, which is expected since it's a mid-range phone. The company has thankfully not compromised on the display size but has dropped the resolution of the G Pro Lite considerably, when compared to the Optimus G Pro which features a full-HD (1080x1920) display.
In terms of performance, the G Pro Lite's 5.5-inch display is a bit mixed bag - on one hand, it has vibrant colours and respectable contrast. On the other hand, it has pretty low-resolution 540x960 pixels, which is evident when watching a video or even browsing through images on the Web.
The resolution and pixel density of the LG G Pro Lite is far lower than some of its competitors in the price segment like the Micromax Canvas Turbo which boasts a full-HD display and Karbonn's Titanium X again with full-HD display.
The display produced bright whites and vibrant colours; however the G Pro Lite's IPS display does not produce deep blacks, when compared to an AMOLED display.
While the LG G Pro Lite renders images and text sharply, we observed that it appears to be slightly washed out due to the low resolution of the screen. The viewing angles on the smartphone are not that great and when you tilt the G Pro Lite, one can notice colours losing their saturation.
The touch sensitivity of the LG G Pro Lite is impressive and we did not encounter any issues while using the phablet. Sunlight legibility on the LG G Pro Lite was good when we used the phone with brightness set to the highest level, though the screen is reflective to some extent.
Camera
The LG G Pro Lite sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with BSI (back-side illuminated) sensor and also houses a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
The G Pro Lite's camera app borrows a lot of features from its elder sibling, the Optimus G Pro. The camera app on the phablet includes a customisable quick menu on one of the sides, which includes controls for switching between the front and rear cameras, turning on the Intelligent Auto (flash) mode, switching between normal, panorama, continuous shot, beauty shot, sports and night modes and for accessing the camera settings.
Notably, the LG G Pro Lite offers the same settings for voice-activated shutter which is found on the Optimus G Pro, which pictures with voice commands like 'cheese', 'kimchi', 'LG', 'Smile' and 'Whisky'. The camera app on G Pro Lite also offers options like focus, zoom, brightness, image size, scene modes, ISO, white balance, colour effects, timer, geo-tagging, shutter sound and image storage.

LG G Flex

LG finally introduced its first curved display smartphone in India, the G Flex, at an event in New Delhi. Indian consumers will have to wait till next year to get their hands on the device, as the G Flex will be available in India only in February 2014.
We got a chance to play with the LG G Flex at the event however, and sum up our first impressions below.
When we first held the G Flex in our hands, we were definitely a bit taken aback by its ergonomic curved design, which definitely is the device's USP. The G Flex is curved on its horizontal axis which gives the device's top and bottom edges a curl shape.
The biggest perceived advantage of the G Flex's curve in our limited period usage, is while talking on the device - the design definitely better hugs your face, much like an old landline phone. In terms of gripping, the curve also helps to comfortably hold the device, but the rear is made of plastic, so it can also slip out during long usage.
When compared to some of its close competitors like HTC One Max and the Galaxy Mega 6.3, the G Flex (160.5x81.6x8.7mm) is better to hold and move around thanks to the curve design.
Next big thing which is very much noticeable in the G Flex is its size, the 6-inch display does puts it in the phablet category and does looks like a large device in hands. Notably, we were unable to easily use the G Flex with one hand, as we found it difficult to stretch our thumb across the device. When talking about phablets, we still believe that Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 (151.2x79.2x8.3mm) and Sony's Xperia Z Ultra (179.4x92.2x6.5mm) were better in terms of daily usage because of a more lightweight and sleeker profile.
At the event, we were told that the G Flex can actually 'flex' until it's totally flat, and one of the company representatives even claimed that the South Korean manufacturer has tested the flexibility of the G Flex up to 100 times with about 40 kilograms of weight putting on the device without damaging the G Flex's screen. Let's say in the case, when accidentally sitting on the G Flex.
While we couldn't test it with 40 kilograms of weight, we did press the curve of the G Flex, and it did stretch to be flat. While the display didn't crack, it's not really advisable to do this on a daily basis.
Following closely on the lines of LG's current flagship smartphone, the LG G2, G Flex also features rear physical keys for power and volume controls. LG has equipped the LED light on the rear power key which comes handy for notifications and while taking a selfie. The keys are metallic and offer good tactile feedback, very much like the LG G2. The volume-up button also doubles up as a shortcut key to launch the Quickmemo app on long press and the volume-down button acts as a camera shortcut key on long press when the phone is locked.
The G Flex also includes a number of ports around the edges including the 3.5mm audio jack and the charging port that sits at the bottom panel, while the micro-SIM card slot sits at the left panel of the G Flex. The rear panel includes the primary 13-megapixel camera with an LED flash, which is accompanied by an IR Blaster.
It would be unfair to end the design part without talking about G Flex's self-healing back that has been creating a buzz worldwide. When we wanted to test the self-healing capability of the G Flex, we were sure we needed a scratchy material; unfortunately we didn't carry a knife so we tried our key chain to rub the rear panel and gave it a surface level scratch which was very much visible initially. After some time, we noticed that the scratches were reduced but not completely eliminated. While looking the G Flex from a certain angle, it looked that the scratches were gone, although it was pretty much noticeable. However, we must confess we were impressed and believe that the G Flex can easily handle day-to-day bruises.
Coming to the hardware of the G Flex, it is powered by a quad-core 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974) processor with an Adreno 330 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. The G Flex easily handled multitasking with ease, and the apps opened and closed instantaneously. Performance wise, the G Flex fared well in our limited testing.
The G Flex sports a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. During our usage, the camera app opened instantly and did click at good speed without any shutter lag. The G Flex is powered by a 3,500mAh battery and weighs 177 grams. The LG G Flex comes with 32GB inbuilt storage, which is non-expandable.
The LG G Flex runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is a disappointment as we expected LG to ship Android 4.3, the most recent iteration of the OS with the phone. However, with LG finally revealing plans for rolling out the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the flagship smartphone, the G2, we expect that the G Flex will also get the KitKat treatment soon.
On the software department, the G Flex borrows many things from the G2. The company has added the same LG G2 UI layer on top of the G Flex, majorly changing the look and feel of the interface and enabling users to customise the phone according to their liking.
The LG G Flex also features the KnockON, which is LG's version of double tap to unlock and even lock the smartphone. In our limited testing, we found that at times while trying to unlock the phone it didn't register our taps. In fact, it was annoying at times.
Other features on the G Flex include Slide Aside which is a way to multitask by moving between three apps at once via a three-finger swipe gesture; Guest mode, which allows you to create a guest mode with pre-selected apps for times when your friends or family want to use your phone; Dual Window, which divides the screen into two panels for multitasking and QuickTheatre that gives direct access to gallery, videos and YouTube icons.
You can expect more detailed observations and testing when we review the LG G Flex.

• Key Specs
• News

Display

6.00-inch

Processor

2.2GHz

Front Camera

2.1-megapixel

Resolution

720x1280 pixels

RAM

2GB

OS

Android 4.2

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery capacity

3500mAh

Samsung Smartphone GamePad controller

Samsung unveils Smartphone GamePad controller for Android 4.1 and above devices

After great success in the smartphone market, Samsung is now pushing forward to smartphone accessories, in this case, a peripheral. It has announced the 'Smartphone GamePad' wireless game controller for smartphones and tablets running Android 4.1, with Bluetooth connectivity.

The company says that the Smartphone GamePad has been optimized to work best with Samsung's own Galaxy lineup and can be best experienced with devices such as the Note 2, Note 3, Galaxy S III and the Galaxy S4.

Samsung's Smartphone GamePad will initially only be available in select European countries, but the company hasn't yet specified the regions or the pricing. The company does mention it will be rolling it out to other markets soon.

The GamePad is attachable to Android smartphones ranging from 4-inch to 6.3-inch. The Samsung Smartphone GamePad includes Bluetooth and NFC support for other smartphones and tablets as well, enabling easy device pairing. Users can also utilize an HDMI cable connection to mirror the display on larger screen TVs, or use the AllShare app support for wireless display mirroring, requiring Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and above.

The Smartphone GamePad has to be used in conjunction with the 'Mobile Console' app, which can be downloaded from the Samsung App store. Through the app, users can launch, browse and buy supported games. There are 35 compatible games available at launch, with more promised by the company in 2014. Games include EA's Need for Speed Most Wanted, Gameloft's Asphalt8: Airborne, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, and SEGA's Virtual Tennis Challenge.

At just 195 grams, the GamePad features an eight way D-pad, two analog sticks, four action buttons, two trigger buttons, a select button, a start button and a 'play' button. The last is a feature that is exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy family, at least those Galaxy smartphones with Android 4.3 and NFC compatibility. When pressed, the 'play' button will quickly pair with the Galaxy smartphone over an NFC tag, while opening the Mobile Console app.

Sony PlayStation 4 launched in India

Sony has launched its next-generation game console in India, the PlayStation 4, which it has priced at Rs. 39,990. The PS4 will be available on shelves in the country starting 6 January 2014.

Additional controller and the PlayStation Camera have been priced at an identical Rs 4,990. First-party gaming titles have been priced at Rs. 3,999 while third-party titles will range between Rs. 2,499 and Rs. 4,499.

Notably, the PlayStation 4 was launched in the US on November 15. Earlier this month, Sony revealed it had sold more than 2.1 million PlayStation 4 consoles after less than three weeks on the market. This follows Sony's statistic that it had sold 1 million consoles on launch day.

The latest PlayStation will be released in its home market Japan in February. Sony also announced that looking at the current PlayStation 4 sales figures, it was on track to hit its worldwide target of 5 million units by March 2014.

The Sony PS4 is powered by an integrated CPU-GPU design, featuring a 8-core low power x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" CPU, coupled with a 1.84 TFLOPS AMD Radeon GPU. It also features a secondary processor that does the network processing tasks in standby mode, in order to optimise power consumption.

The PS4 features 8GB of GDDR5 RAM for memory, coupled with a 500GB hard disk drive. Also onboard is a Blu-ray disc and DVD drive. Connectivity options include 2 USB 3.0 ports, one AUX port, an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR), an HDMI out port, and an optical-out port.



Interestingly, both Microsoft and Sony have opted for an x86-based CPU-GPU SoC architecture for their consoles, powered by AMD. This also signals a convergence of game development and releases for the console and PC platforms, making it easier for developers to harness the potential of the hardware across platforms.

Microsoft's next-generation console, the Xbox One , is the only real competition for the Sony PS4, especially in India, where the Nintendo Wii U has yet to make an appearance. For now, Microsoft only gave a tentative launch date for the Xbox One in India during the E3 2013 event, saying it would arrive by late 2014. Since then of course, reports have indicated a slightly earlier launch, by mid-2014.

Xolo Q3000 phablet specification

Xolo Q3000 phablet with 5.7-inch display, Android 4.2 listed online

The Xolo Q3000 is a new, yet-to-be-officially-announced 5.7-inch phablet from the domestic manufacturer. It is listed on an online retailer, however, without a price.

The smartphone phablet is listed as coming soon by the online retailer, without availability information or price. The listing was first spotted by Fonearena.

According to the listing, the Xolo Q3000 is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) 3G device which will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It has a 5.7-inch (1080x1920 pixel) full-HD IPS display. The smartphone will be powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T processor, which is coupled with 2GB of RAM.

The Xolo Q3000 features 16GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD. The Xolo Q3000 smartphone sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with no details on the flash and the secondary 5-megapixel front-facing camera with BSI sensor.

On the connectivity front, the Xolo Q3000 will include 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, Micro-USB, USB OTG, MHL and Bluetooth 4.0. The smartphone will pack in a 4000mAh battery, which will give you 33 hours and 21 hours of talktime on 2G and 3G respectively.

The Xolo Q3000 measures 164.8x81.6x8.9 mm, which is roughly 1mm slimmer, but slightly bigger than the Q2000 at 156x77.8x9.8 mm, because of the big screen size.

Also according to the listing, the Xolo Q3000 will have a free flipcover and USB OTG cable in the box.

Earlier this month, Xolo had launched the Opus Q1000 at Rs. 9,999 for the Indian market, with a third week of December availability.

The Xolo Opus Q1000 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is a dual-SIM phablet with support for GSM+GSM. It features a 5-inch FWVGA IPS display with 480x854 pixels resolution. The Xolo Opus Q1000 continues the Q range tradition and equips a quad-core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM23550 processor with Videocore IV GPU and 1GB of RAM.

 

Key Specs 

Display

5.70-inch

Processor

1.5GHz

Front Camera

5-megapixel

Resolution

1080x1920 pixels

RAM

2GB

OS

Android 4.2

Storage

16GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery capacity

4000mAh

Xolo LT900 smartphone

Xolo LT900 smartphone with Android 4.2, LTE support listed online

Xolo has introduced the LT900, its first smartphone with 4G support in India, via an online retailer.
The Xolo LT900 has been listed at an e-commerce website with a 'coming soon' tag, with no details about the availability of the smartphone. The highlight of the Xolo LT900 is that it supports TDD LTE bands, and is the first smartphone in company's LT smartphone series.
The Xolo LT900 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box and supports single SIM (GSM) functionality. The Xolo LT900 is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor with Adreno 225 GPU (clocked at 384 MHz), which are coupled with 1GB of RAM. It features a 4.3-inch HD (720x1280) IPS display with One Glass Solution (OGS) and boasts of Corning Glass protection.
The smartphone sports an 8-megapixel rear autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and BSI sensor, while it also houses a 1-megapixel front-facing camera. The Xolo LT900 smartphone includes 8GB of inbuilt storage that is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. It packs an 1810mAh battery which the listing claims can deliver up to 15 hours of talktime and up to 362 hours of standby time on 2G networks.
Apart from 4G network support, connectivity options on the Xolo LT900 include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ AGPS and 3G. It comes with dimensions 128.7x66x9.8mm. The Xolo LT900 comes preloaded with Skype, BigFlix, Kepplr Cloud Space and Airtel Mobile TV apps. The Xolo LT900 has been listed at Flipkart.
Earlier on Friday, Xolo's latest phablet, the Q3000 was also listed at an online retailer. The Xolo Q3000 is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) 3G device which runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It has a 5.7-inch (1080x1920 pixels) full-HD IPS display. The smartphone is powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T processor, which is coupled with a 2GB of RAM.
The Xolo Q3000 features 16GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD. The Xolo Q3000 smartphone sports a 13-megapixel rear camera and also includes a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.