Tech Weekly #1 – Samsung S8 in India, LG G6 pricing, Swipe Elite Star, Amazon Fire TV Stick and more!
Samsung S8 has been launched in India. LG G6 has revealed the pricing and availability for India. Swipe launches an affordable 4G VoLTE handset with support for Indian regional languages. Creative announced designer bluetooth speaker, Creative Nuno. Xiaomi launched MI6 in China and these are the news that kept us busy this week. Let us have a look at them briefly in our Tech weekly news series.
Samsung S8 and S8+ launched in India
Samsung’s 2017 flagship device, S8 and S8+ has been launched in India. The S8 is priced at Rs 57900 and the S8+ would be priced at Rs 64900. Samsung S8 and S8+ will be available across all channels from May 5th in India. The key highlight of the S8 is its display. The edge to edge curved display with its rich QHD super AMOLED display is something the industry has not seen so far. On the S8, the display is 5.8 inch diagonally and the S8+ has a 6.2 inch screen. Both the mobiles have 64 GB storage and 4 GB RAM. It is powered by Octa-Core Exynos 8895 processor in the Indian variants. The mobile is IP68 water and dust resistant. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the back, but additionally the mobile has iris and facial recognition for device security. Samsung has gotten rid of the home button and now the S8 and S8+ have on-screen home button with tactile touch feedback. It has the same 12 MP camera as the S7/S7 edge. The front camera is also the same 8 MP sensor, but Samsung promises an improvement on the software processing of images. Though the S8 and S8+ are the top of the line mobiles with state of the art technology, the pricing is a bit higher in India. Both Galaxy S8 and S8+ are now part of our ‘Smartphone Recommendation List‘, a list of best smartphones that one can buy and we expect these two phones to stay on the list for months.
You can read about our thoughts on the S8/S8+ here.
Pre-order from Amazon
LG G6 to be available in India from April 24
LG G6 will go on sale in India from April 29th. The will be priced at Rs 51990 and there are a bunch of offers for people who pre-book. LG is giving a LG Tone active+ Bluetooth Headset worth Rs 9990 for Rs 5000 an pre-booking offer. Also some retailers have announced cashback of upto Rs 7000. The LG’s flagship of this year is priced much lower than the Samsung S8. But it must also be noted that the LG G6 is powered by Snapdragon 821, while the Exynos 8895 on the S8 is equivalent to Snapdragon 835. LG did experiment with modular design with the LG G5 and now on the G6, we see that they have ditched modularity. Instead the LG G6 concentrates on the screen. It has a 5.7 inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio. The mobile has 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. It has 3300 mah Battery and supports quick charge 2.0. The G6 is priced competitively for sure. LG G6 is now part of our ‘Smartphone Recommendation List‘, a list of best smartphones that one can buy and we expect these two phones to stay on the list for months.
Xiaomi MI6 announced in China
It raining flagship device and Xiaomi does not want to be left behind. In a lavish event in China, Xiaomi announced the Mi6. We are not sure if the MI6 will be available in India and the pricing is also unknown. Mi6 is a 5.15 inch mobile with HD display and 3D curved corners on all sides. The display is just a full HD display with 2.5D curved glass. But the mobile is powered by Snapdragon 835 processor with 6 GB of RAM and 64/128 GB storage options. It does not have an expandable slot, but the SIM tray is sealed to protect against water splashes like the rest of the mobile. The highlight of the mobile is its dual 12 MP camera at the back which fits in flush with the back. Strangely Xiaomi has decided to the remove the 3.5 mm audio jack. The mobile is made of glass and the rims are made of stainless steel. It will also be available in a ceramic body edition with 18k gold plated rims for the camera. Pricing and availability in India is yet to be disclosed by Xiaomi.
Creative Nuno Bluetooth speakers launched
Creative Technology has announced a series of designer Bluetooth speakers called Creative Nuno series. It is wrapped with woven fabric just to enhance the aesthetics. It can also be used to answer telephonic calls. The Creative Nuno weighs 390 grams with x full range speaker drivers. It can last for 6 hours of play. The Nuno micro weighs 180 grams with 1 full range drive and its battery can last for 4 hours. The Creative Nuno is priced at Rs 4999 while the Nuno Micro is priced at Rs 2999.
iBall launches 4G VoLTE enabled Tablet
If you still find Tablets useful, iBall has launched a 4G Volte supported Tabled called the iBall Slide Wings 4GP. The 8 inch tablet supports HD voice call, video call and 4G data usage. It has a quad core processor with 2 GB of RAm and 4300 mAh battery. At the rear the Slide Wings tablet has a 5 MP camera with LED flash and a 2 MP front camera for video calls. It runs on Android 6.0 and has 16 GB of internal memory which can be expanded by upto 32 GB with microSD card. It comes with office apps preloaded and it supports 9 Indian regional languages on the system level. This 4G VoLTE enabled tablet is priced at Rs 8999.
Available on Amazon
Amazon Fire TV Stick priced at Rs 3999
Amazon has launched a media device in India, the Fire TV Stick. The Fire TV Stick can make your TV a smart TV, if not already one. It is priced at Rs 3999. It is an android based device running on MediaTek processor with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. The device supports Dolby Audio 5.1 channel surround sound, 2 channel stereo and even 7.1 channel when connected on HDMI audio pass. It can give video output at 1080p @60 fps. The device supports all the usual media streaming apps like Youtube, Netflix, Eros Now, Gaana, Hotstar and also Amazon Prime. It can be controlled with a physical remote, which can also do a search based on voice recognition.
Available on Amazon
Swipe Eite Star with 4G VoLTE support
When data has become affordable, mobile must also be affordable. Here is a low cost mobile from Swipe that supports VoLTE for your Jio network. The new Swipe Elite Star is priced at Rs 3999 and it comes with very basic specifications to meet the basic needs of a first time digital media consumer. The mobile is powered by a 1.5 Ghz quadcore processor with 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. It has 5 MP primary camera and 1.3 MP selfie camera. It is powered by a 2000 mAh battery and has a 4 inch display. The mobile runs on Android 6.0 with Indus OS on top with 16 regional languages support on the system level.
Available on Flipkart