Category: Reviews

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

Asus Zenfone Max Review – Pros and Cons
Asus Zenfone Max is a lower mid range dual sim Android smartphone. The key highlight of the device is its massive 5000 mAh battery. The device can be used as power bank for charging other smartphones. The price of Zenfone Max in India is Rs. 9,999. For this price, it is one of the best value for money smartphone if you are looking for a smartphone with good battery life. This Zenfone Max review is segregated by questions and answers. This includes features and specifications, advantages and disadvantages and few simple tips.

Asus Zenfone Max Review and FAQ

What are the box content of Asus Zenfone Max?

Box content of Zenfone Max includes Handset, user manual and warranty card, charger, USB to microUSB cable, USB OTG cable.

How is the design and build quality of Zenfone Max?

The device looks very similar to previous Zenfone 2 smartphones. The dimensions of the device are 77.5mm*156mm*10.55mm. The thickness at its thinnest edge is 5.2mm. This smartphone weighs 202 grams. Unlike Zenfone 2, the volume and power buttons are placed in the right side of the device. The device comes with surrounding metal like edge which gives style factor to Zenfone Max.

What are the different colour options available?

Zenfone Max is available in two colour variants. One is Pure White with an elegant eggshell texture and another one is Osmium Black with the look and feel of embossed leather.

What is display size and quality? Does it has any protecting glass cover?

Zenfone Max sports 5.5 inch HD (1280×720 pixels) IPS display screen. The viewing angles and colours reproduction are good. Even brightness of the device also decent but not great. If you are used to high ppi density display screens, you might observe bit of pixalation. As far as screen protection, it has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 with fingerprint and smudge-resistant oleophobic coating.

How is the performance? Does Zenfone Max has any heating issue?

Zenfone Max is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC with 2GB of RAM. The device has 16GB of internal storage in which 10GB is user available. It also supports microSD card. The internals are very similar to Zenfone Laser. In general usage, i have not faced any lag while switching between the apps or opening a app. The gaming performance too decent. In my usage, I have not faced any heating issue.

How is the camera performance?

Asus Zenfone Max houses 13 megapixel, f2.0 aperture rear camera with dual tone LED flash. There is also a laser auto focus for quick focus on the object. The performance of camera in outdoor condition is good. In indoor and low light performance with auto settings is average. However, if you play with manual settings, it takes decent images. The device also has 5MP, f/2.0-aperture camera with 85̊ wide-viewing angle. It does take decent images.

What is the battery capacity of Zenfone Max? Does it has fast charging?

Zenfone Max comes with huge 5000 mAh battery. There is no fast charger out of the box. The bundled charger takes around 5 hours to charge completely. The battery life on this device is excellent. With my regular usage, I got more than 2 days of battery life with 4G/3G enabled all the time. The standby time also excellent.

Can I use Zenfone Max as power bank?

Yes. You can use this device as power bank. Asus has bundled OTG cable along with the box.

What are the connectivity features of this dual sim Zenfone smartphone?

The connectivity features of the device includes 4G(on sim 1 only), 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB.

What are different sensors available in Zenfone Max?

Accelerator,E-Compass,Proximity sensor,Hall sensor,Ambient light sensor.

What are the pros and cons of Zenfone Max?

Pros:
- Excellent battery life.
- Decent performance and software.
- Decent build quality.
- Ability to use the device as power bank.
Cons:
- Bundled charger does not support fast charging.
- Display could have been better.
- Feels bit heavy in hand.
- No Android 6.0 out of the box.
How to download PC suite for Zenfone Max?

There are 2 ways through which you can install Asus PC suite for Zenfone Max. One through directly from your phone. That is connect your device to PC. New drives shows up. Click and install the PC suite. Another way through directly downloading from official support page. You can read more on this in my previous post how to download Asus Zenfone PC suite.

How to use Zenfone max as modem?

You can use Zenfone Max as modem through USB tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot and through Bluetooth tethering. I have detailed post on this with title How to use Zenfone as modem.

How to capture screenshot on Zenfone Max?

I already covered it in previous post. You can refer to it here.

When Zenfone Max will get Android 6.0 Marshmallow update?

As per the recent announcement from Asus, Android 6.0 update for Zenfone Max will start from March 2016. You can read more about this here.
February 21, 2016
LeEco Le 1s Review- great looking smartphone with average performance
LeEco Le 1s has good design and build quality coupled with feature studded spec sheet. The key attractions of the device are full metal unibody, octacore Soc with 3GB RAM, fingerprint scanner and thin bezel display. LeEco Le 1s price in India is Rs. 10,999.

Read:

LeEco Le 1s Top 5 Features

How to take screenshot on LeEco Le 1s

LeEco Le 1s or Letv Le 1s is powered by 64bit 2.2GHz MediaTek Helio X10 Soc with 3GB of RAM and PowerVR G6200 graphics. The device runs on dated Android 5.0.2 with LeEco’s heavy eUI skin. It has 32GB of internal storage and sadly there is no expandable storage option through microSD card. Though it has powerful Soc with 3GB of RAM, overall performance is let down by the unpolished eUI skin. Out of 3GB of RAM, 1.8GB of RAM is always used by the system.This means we have only 1.2GB of free RAM. There was a visible lag while switching between apps and has heating issue while playing high end games.

Letv Le 1s sports 5.5 inch full HD IPS screen. The colours look sharp and viewing angles are acceptable. The brightness of the screen is good enough for indoors but difficult to use under direct sunlight. The device has fingerprint scanner and it works as expected. Letv Le 1s houses non removable 3000 mAh battery. The battery performance is just average. It is enough for a regular day’s usage with casual usage.

Letv Le 1s has 13MP primary rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera. Like many other budget android smartphone, this too takes decent images in outdoor conditions. The low light performance is weak. Video quality is adequate for the budget this smartphone is priced.

Let us summarise Letv Le 1s review by merits and demerits of the device.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Letv Le 1s

Pros of Letv Le 1s
- Premium looking metal unibody design.
- Decent display screen.
- Good speaker output and call quality.
- Good features like IR blaster, fingerprint scanner, USB-C type fasting in a budget smartphone.
Cons of Letv Le 1s
- Unpolished heavy eUI skin and dated Android 5.0.2.
- Average battery life.
- Average camera performance.
- Heating issue while playing the highend games.
- No expandable storage through microSD card.
LeEco Le 1S Tips and Tricks and FAQ

What type of sim cards LeEco Le 1S supports? What is the size of sim card?

LeEco Le 1s supports dual sim. Both sim cards are 4G LTE enabled. 1st SIM is micro SIM and the second one is nano sim.

How to use LeEco Le 1S as modem?

LeEco Le 1s supports Wi-Fi hotspot, USB tethering and Bluetooth tethering. Using this, you can share mobile data to other devices. You will be able to find this options in “Settings”-> “Personal Hotspot”.
February 16, 2016
Lenovo Vibe X3 Review- Pros and Cons
Lenovo Vibe X3 price in India is Rs.19,999. For the price, device offers great display screen, excellant audio quality and good performance. Let us have quick look into the specification and features of the device and then move on to Lenovo Vibe X3 review which is catagorised into pros and cons.

Lenovo Vibe X3 is powered by 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with Adreno 418 graphics and 3GB of RAM. It has 32GB of internal storage. You can use microSD card upto 128GB if you are not using 2nd sim. It accepts nano sim cards. The available internal storage for the user is around 24GB. Vibe X3 runs on Android 5.1.1 with Vibe UI.

The performance of the device was excellant. In my usage of the device, I never encoutered any shuttering and lagging issues. Also, there was not much heating issue while playing high end games. The device comes with Dual front speakers with Dolby Atoms. Audio output through the internal speaker and through the audio jack was excellant.

Lenovo Vibe X3 has 21 MP rear camera with phase-detection autofocus and an aperture of f2.0. The camera is capable of recording 4K videos but it not enabled by default. There is also a 8MP front facing camera. The camera performance on outdoor condition was excellant. The images taken were having good details and colours. However, indoor and low light camera performance is just average. Lack of optical image stabilisation is one of the drawback of the camera.

Lenovo Vibe X3 houses 5.5 inch full HD IPS display screen with Corning Gorilla glass protection. The company claims that, display has 100% NTSC colors Optimization and 1500:1 contrast ratio. The viewing angles, colour saturation and sun light legibility are good. The device has fingerprint scanner and IR blaster. Unfortunately, the fingerprint scanner on the device can store only 2 profiles.

Lenovo Vibe X3 has non user replaceable 3500 mAh battery. The battery life was good and I was able to get aroung 5 hours of screen on time. There is no official fast charging supported for the device. The box content has normal 2A charger.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Lenovo Vibe X3

Pros of Lenovo Vibe X3
- Good display screen.
- Excellant sound output.
- Decent build quality.
- Good battery life.
- Good performance.
Cons of Lenovo Vibe X3
- No Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
- Hybrid SIM slot: You cannot use dual sim and microSD card simultaneosly.
- Mediocre camera performance.
- No optical image stabilisation.
- Fingerprint scanner can save only 2 profiles and it is not 100% accurate.
- No fast charging option.
February 10, 2016
Asus Zenfone Zoom Review- Pros and Cons
Asus is known for innovative products. It never shy away from experimenting with hybrid devices. The latest addition is Zenfone Zoom. The main USP of the device is its innovative 3x optiocal zoom camera.

We have seen smartphones like Galaxy K Zoom which offered 10x optical zoom. But that is more of a camera rather than a smartphone. Zenfone Zoom is an attempt to provide good camera without compromising on the comfort of smartphone.

Zenfone Zoom sports premium uniobody aluminium frame. The volume and power buttons are placed in the right side of the device. There is also a dedicated camera shutter button and a instant video recording buttons. The back cover is actually made up of plastic but with leather finish. This gives a good grip and it is comfortable to hold. In summary the design and build quality is satisfactory.

Zenfone Zoom houses 13MP rear camera and 5MP front facing camera with Pixel master 2.0. The primary camera has 10 element HOYA lens with 4 stop OIS. Unlike other optical zoom devices, there is no protruding lenses in the device. Asus has arranges 10 element lenses in such a manner that they function to arrange the maximum light. The camera also assisted by Laser auto focus and Dual tone LED flash.

Interms of camera performance, It produces good output in the outdoor conditions. The images taken has good details and colour. In indoor and low light conditions, performance is just average in auto mode. Thanks to manual mode. If your play with manual mode with ISO, shutter speed settings, you can take impressive images with good details even in low light. It provide ISO setting upto 3200 and shutter speed of 32s. With manual settings, I felt it really takes good images for a smartphone standards.

Zenfone Zoom Camera Sample

Asus Zenfone Zoom is powered by 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 processor with 4GB of RAM and PowerVR G6430 GPU. It has 128GB of internal storage and support for microSD card upto 128GB. The device runs on Android 5.0 with ZenUI. Asus Zenfone Zoom has 3000 mAh battery. In my couple of days with Zenfone Zoom as primary phone, i have never faced any lagging issue. Multi tasking was smooth and not faced any heating issues even when playing high end games. Battery performance is decent. It lasted for a complete day. The call quality was good and signal reception also excellant.

Asus Zenfone Zoom sports 5.5 inch IPS full HD display with resolution of 1080×1920 pixels. The screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The viewing angles, brightness and color saturations are good. But screen is reflective. Hence outdoor legibility gets a bit hit. Overall display quality is good.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Zenfone Zoom

Pros of Zenfone Zoom
- Quality camera with 3X optical zoom and manual setting option.
- Sturdy build and good design.
- Good display screen.
- Excellant performance.
- User friendly UI.
- Fast charging and plenty of storage option(128GB internal storage and support for microSD card upto 128GB).
Cons of Zenfone Zoom
- There is no Dual sim variant.
- Camera lacks 4K video recording.
- The display screeen is bit reflective.
- No Android 6.0 out of the box.
Asus Zenfone Zoom Review summary: It provides a quality camera with excellant day to day performance. Though the price looks bit on higher side, the innovative camera technology is impressive. The good build quality, decent display screen, good gaming performance without heating issue, makes this phone to consider if your budget is aroung 37k.
February 8, 2016
Honor 5X Review- Pros and Cons
Huawei’s sub brand Honor range of smartphones are developed and positioned to compete in the budget and midrange smartphone segment. It was intended to target developing markets like India. Huawei Honor range with value for money smartphones, made significant impact in the budget and midrange smartphone segment of China, India and across Europe. For the price of Rs.12,999 in India, it offers lot of features such as metal body, good screen, decent camera and finger print scanner.

Huawei Honor 5X is powered by 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU. The device runs on Android 5.1.1 with EMUI 3.1 on top. It has 16GB of internal storage in which around 9.8GB is user available. There is also provision to add microSD card upto 128GB. The performance on the device is decent and has minimal heating issues.

Fingerprint scanner on the Honor 5X is remarkably accurate. With the fingerprint scanner, you can, not only unlock your phone, you can set different apps to open with different fingerprint. It is dual sim smartphone which accepts one nano SIM card and one microSIM card. Both sim slots are 4G enabled. Honor 5X is backed by 3000 mAh battery . The battery with normal performance mode turned on, easily lasted for more than a day.

Honor 5X sports 5.5 inch IPS LCD screen with resolution of 1920×1080 and 401 ppi pixel density. The screen to body ratio is 72.2 percent. The display screen offers wide viewing angles and good colors (plus a color temperature adjustment option in the settings). One demerits about the display is it does not have oleophobic coating, hence it attracts smudges from even casual use.

Honor 5X houses 13 MP primary camera with single-tone LED flash and variable focus, and a 5-megapixel front camera with fixed focus. The primary camera can record 1080p videos and secondary camera is capable of recording 720p. There are plenty of video modes and options available for both the camera such as panorama, all-focus, HDR, slow motion video, watermark, audio note ,beauty, food, time-laps and bunch of manual controls, filters and settings. The primary camera captures photos with excellent colour and detail in good light. Low light shots, colour and details bit off. Overall camera performance is decent. The front facing camera performance too good, considering the price. It also takes relatively sharp shots from the 5MP sensor even in indoor lighting.

Lets us summarize Honor 5X review by segregating the features into merits and demerits. The device will compete with the likes of Letv Le 1S, Lenovo K4 Note, Moto G Turbo etc.

Recommended Reading:

How to download PC suite for Honor 5X

Advantages and Disadvantages of Honor 5X

Pros of Honor 5X
- Good quality display screen.
- Decent design and build quality.
- Accurate fingerprint scanner.
- Decent camera performance.
- Overall good value for money performance.
Cons of Honor 5X
- No Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
- UI needs more refining.
- Display is catches smudges easily.
- Larger than usual bezels around the screen.
Honor 5X Specification
- 5.5-inch 1920×1080 IPS LCD screen.
- 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor with 2GB of RAM.
- Dual sim(nano sim+microSIM) with 4G LTE.
- Android 5.1.1 with EMUI 3.1.
- 16GB of internal storage and support for microSD card upto 128GB.
- Fingerprint scanner.
- Non removable 3000 mAh battery.
- 13MP primary camera and 5MP front facing camera.
February 3, 2016