Tech2 Touch

Category: Reviews

Reviews on smartphones, gadgets and other useful applications. The reviews and summarised by splitting the features into pros and cons.

  • Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G Review – Stylish Phone in Budget

    Tecno has launched new smartphones under Pova series called Pova 5 Pro 5G. It comes with interesting design and new features in which some of them are first for a sub 15k price range. I have got opportunity to spend some time with the latest Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G and here is my review on the same.

    Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G Review

    Design

    Tecno Pova 5 Pro stand out of the crowd due to its unique design with Arc Interface with a 3D-textured design, supporting RGB light gamut at the back for notifications, calls and music. The device is available in two color variants. Dark Illusion and Silver Fantasy. The back has transparent glass like finish with RGB lights. When you get notifications, calls or playing games, these light will glow. It can be customisable as per your taste. It is a unique design which I haven’t seen on other smartphone till date.

    Display

    It sports 6.78 inch massive 120Hz full-HD+ LCD display with 240Hz Touch Sampling rate. It provides good colors and quite sharp. Brightness is good for indoor use. In outdoor conditions it is legible in most of the situation except under bright sunlight.

    Performance

    The new Pova 5 Pro is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 6080 6nm Processor with 8GB RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UMCP internal storage. There is a dedicated microSD card slot which you can use if you want more storage. In the Antutu benchmark scores, it returns around 390k. It handles most of the tasks effortlessly and gaming experience is just fine. As far as connectivity, it supports 10 bands of 5G. It runs on HiOS 13.1 based on Android 13. There are very few bloatwares in which some are uninstallable. Dual Stereo Speakers with DTS are welcome addition.

    Battery

    Under the hood, Pova 5 Pro has 5000 mAh battery which does provide good battery life. Best part is phone comes bundled with 68W fast charger. It is capable of charging 50% of its 5000 mAh the battery in just 15 minutes. In a era where, charging adapters becoming rare in the phone retail box, bundling fast charger is highly appreciable. This phone does support reverse charging.

    Bypass charging technology

    A notable feature considering the price point is by-pass charging technology. It ensures that power is efficiently directed straight to the mobile phone’s motherboard even while gaming during charging sessions. Not only does this accelerate the charging process, but it also prevents overheating, safeguarding the phone’s performance and longevity. 

    Camera

    Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G houses dual camera setup with 50MP primary sensor and a AI sensor. In well lit conditions it takes pretty good images and can record upto  2K 30fps and 1080p 60fps. The camera app has many modes such as Film, AI Cam, Beauty, Portrait and Super Night. There is also a 16MP AI camera with (F2.0 Aperture). Overall for the price segment, camera performance is satisfactory.

    The Arc Interface

    The main highlight of the Pova 5 Pro 5G is its LEDs located under back panel. It lights up while you are charging the phone, playing music from streaming apps, boot it up and receive notifications. They are clearly visible in indoor conditions. They can customised or set the time period to enable or disable it. Though it depends on personal preferences, I personally found helpful.

    Summary

    Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G is a good phone considering its price. The bundled 68W fast charger and Arc interface are distinguished features. If you have a budget of around Rs.15,000, then Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G is worth considering.

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  • Samsung Galaxy M34 Cons- Reasons not to buy

    Samsung Galaxy M34 is a sub 20k smartphone available in India. It has lot to impress its potential customers. Great sAMOLED display, long lasting battery, 50MP camera to name few. But before buying any smartphone we need to know the shortfalls of the phone. Whether it is a deal breaker for you or not is different thing. But you should know what you get and what you don’t get. So let’s explore some of the Samsung Galaxy M34 Cons.

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    Samsung Galaxy M34 5G Cons

    Samsung Galaxy M34 Cons

    No bundled charger

    Trend of not bundling the charger started with iPhone and then Samsung started with flagship smartphones. Slowly, it is adapted to all the price segment phones. Galaxy M34 is no exceptions. It does not comes with a charger.

    No HDR support and Video playback restricted to full HD

    When checked with Netflix playback specifications, this Samsung M34 does not support HDR. Also video playback is restricted to full HD even on youtube.

    Hybrid sim card slot

    Samsung M34 has a hybrid sim slot. This means you can insert either 2 nano sim cards or one nano sim card with microSD card. You can add upto 1TB microSD but you need to compromise on the second sim card.

    No Stereo Speaker

    It comes with mono speaker and does not has stereo speakers.

    No IP Rating

    I have not able to get the IP rating for dust and water resistance. So be careful while you use this phone during raining as water splash may damage the phone.

    Average Low light camera performance and poor macro camera

    The low light photography on this Galaxy phone is average. Though it has 50 MP primary camera with OIS, outcomes is not satisfactory in low light conditions.

    Outdated front design

    The “U” notch for front camera and thicker bezels considering current trends, Galaxy M34 sports same design language of yesteryears.

    These are some of the cons of Samsung Galaxy M34 5G as per my observations. What do you think on this? Is these demerits deal breaker for you?

  • Airtel Platinum Postpaid Review- Is it really worth?

    There is a huge hype on the Airtel Platinum Postpaid plans. It is expected to provide Priority 4G network and faster data speeds along with other set of features. I have been using the Airtel postpaid SIM for more than 5 years now. My plan was 399 per month. So upgrade to 499 plan to experience the benefits of Airtel Platinum priority 4G services. Here is my Airtel Platinum postpaid plan review based on my experience.

    My expectations from the Airtel Platinum postpaid plan was better data speeds. In my location, the signal strength is average. With my postpaid sim and prepaid sim was giving an download speed of 3 mbps and upload speed to 700kbps. Called the customer care center and asked about whether it improve the performance. Post confirmation, I have opted for the 499 Airtel platinum postpaid plan.

    Airtel Platinum Postpaid Review

    Claim 1: Free Doorstep delivery of SIM card

    I am using the eSIM. So called the customer care number and requested for the new physical sim card. The answer I got is I have to visit the Airtel store to get the sim card and it is charged Rs.25. When asked about free sim card and doorstep delivery, they replied that, it is applicable only for those who migrate from prepaid and not applicable to existing postpaid customer. I stay near a taluk center called Sullia. The centers which provides physical sim card near me are Mangalore, Mysore or Bangalore. That is around 100KM from my place. The sim card for my postpaid connection is not even available in Madikeri which is the district center of Kodagu. To get a replacement sim card being a Airtel platinum postpaid user, I need to travel at least 200 km(Considering the both side travel).

    The airtel prepaid sim card replacement is available in Sullia which is a taluku center. So a prepaid customer has better service compared to Platinum postpaid user.

    Claim 2: Priority 4G network

    This is the main reason I have opted for the 499 plan. I have placed my prepaid and postpaid sim cards of Airtel in Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra as well as on iPhone 11. Then ran a speed test. The results are as follows.

    As you can infer from the speed test results, there is no advantage of having a platinum postpaid plan over a prepaid plan.

    Claim 3: Priority customer support

    I have raised a complaint regarding the issue of data connectivity on September 9th 2020 through Airtel thanks app. The resolution date provided was 16th September. I repeatedly did a follow up. The answer I am getting is our network engineers are working it to resolve the issue. You will notified on the status. Even today, issue is not resolved.

    Claim 4: Other benefits like free data rollover Amazon prime membership

    I had this benefits on my 399 plan as well. Also as data speed are not reliable watching a live tv is not a good experience. Only the advantage I got is the free Amazon prime membership.

    Airtel Platinum Postpaid Plan review verdict

    The base plan to get Airtel platinum postpaid is Rs.499 plus GST. For that you 75GB of data per month and free incoming and outgoing calls. However, prepaid 599 plan gives you 56 days of validity and 2GB of data per day along with free incoming and outgoing calls. As there is no advantage of platinum plan or postpaid connection, prepaid connection is better value for money.

  • Epson EcoTank M1120 Review

    Conventional Inkjet printers are economical. However, printing costs are high. Laser printers average cost per print is less but the initial cost is high. Also, the cartridges are costly. If you own a small/medium office or working from home and need to take an average of 10 to 50-page print out per day, then Inkjet printer, as well as laser printers, are not ideal. So which printer is ideal in these scenarios where long time running cost is less and the initial price is not too high? Epson EcoTank printers are one of the options. In this post, we are covering Epson EcoTank M1120 Review which is a basic monochrome printer with WiFi connectivity.

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    Advantages of Epson EcoTank M1120 over laser printers

    It is always tempting to buy the cheapest printer available in the market. However, you need to consider the ‘total cost of ownership’. The total cost of ownership includes ink cartridge cost for a period of several years. A conventional Inkjet printer is cheaper but replacement cartridges are costly. This is the area Epson EcoTank M1120 printer has the advantage.

    Epson EcoTank M1120

    Epson EcoTank M1120 uses large internal tank instead of expensive cartridges. These large internal tanks can be filled up with affordable bottles. Empty ink bottles can be easily recycled. Hence these are environment-friendly compared to cartridges. This will help businesses to get over the frequent changes of toners and consequently, help them reduce carbon footprint to a considerable amount.

    Epson EcoTank M1120 comes with an ink bottle which can take print up to 5000 pages. If you want to buy new ink bottle, it will cost around ₹500 in India. That printing cost per page is around 10 paisa excluding the paper cost. Also, it provides laser-quality text that is smudge-proof and water-resistant.

    According to Epson, the monochrome EcoTank printers have especially been designed by taking into account UN Sustainable development Goals (SDG). Epson M1120 offer 23 times lesser printing costs and over 17 times lesser power consumed translate into significant savings over the life of a printer.

    Epson EcoTank M1120 Feature and Price

    Epson EcoTank M1120 is a compact monochrome only printer with a resolution of 1440 x 720 dpi. It measures 375mm wide, 267mm deep and 161mm high. Because of a small footprint, it can be placed on a small desk or nearby shelf. The internal paper tray holds 150 A4 size papers.

    This budget-friendly Epson EcoTank printer has USB and Wi-Fi connectivity for your office or home network. Epson provides an app called iPrint. This works with Android and iOS. This will help to take a print out from Android phones or iPhones.

    Printing performance of EcoTank M1120 is good. It takes printouts around 15 pages per minute. The text looks finely detailed. The best part is ink is water resistant.

    Verdict:

    Epson EcoTank price in India is ₹12,999. It might look very pricey as an initial investment. However, bundled ink can take a print out of around 5000 pages and works out cheaper in the long run. Epson low-cost replacement ink provides low running cost. In summary, Epson EcoTank M1120 will save you money in the long run and is expected to slowly replace laser printers from our office spaces.

  • Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Review-Pros and Cons

    There are very few good laptops in the budget of around 35k. Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) is aimed to fill that void. It has modern stylish design and good internals. The base variant is priced at Rs.30,999 and the top variant is priced at Rs.35,990. Here is our Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) review with pros and cons.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Review

    This review is based on the Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) variant which has following specification.

    • 15.6-inch FHD anti glare display screen.
    • AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx graphics.
    • 8GB RAM and 1TB of hard disc.
    • Windows 10.

    Design

    VivoBook 15(X505z) is smaller in size compared to most of the 15 inch laptops. It is relatively slim and lightweight. It has thickness of 18.9 mm and weighs around 1.6 Kg. This makes it easy to carry and never feels too bulky. Asus has not done any compromise on the ports. It has two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 (both Type-A), a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen1) port, HDMI, a headphone and microphone combo port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a full-sized SD card slot.

    Display

    The Asus VivoBook 15(X505z) sports 15.6 inch LED-back-lit FHD (1920 x 1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 45% NTSC. The viewing angles, Brightness are good considering the price. Overall with narrow bezel display provide good for watching movies and for gaming.

    Performance and Battery life

    VivoBook 15 comes in two variants. One comes with Ryzen 3  and the other one with Ryzen 5. There is difference in RAM and storage as well.

    My review unit is the top end variant which has Ryzen 5 2500U processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB storage. There is one free RAM slot available. User can upgrade the RAM upto 16GB.

    This laptop is powerful enough to do most of the regular work such as streaming videos from Youtube, Netflix, editing documents and playing light games. Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2×2 MIMO antennas is added advantage.

    The stereo speakers are decent. It is loud. But quality is not great. Coming to battery life, for my usage it lasted around 4 hours. There is fast charging option as well. As per the claims it charges the battery 60% in just 49 minutes. In my usage, I got very close result to this.

    Keyboard and Touchpad

    The keyboard on VivoBook 15(X505z ) is good. Keys are large and layout is decent. The keys has decent travel as well. Lack of LED indicator for Caps Lock is a drawback. Overall the keyboard provides good typing experience. The Touchpad is responsive and fairly accurate.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros and Cons

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros

    • Slim and Lightweight.
    • Decent display panel.
    • Good performance.
    • Pricing.

    Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Cons

    • No backlite keyboard. No indicator for Caps Lock.
    • Audio output could have been better.