Tech2 Touch

Category: Reviews

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

  • Coolpad Note 3 Pros and Cons Review

    Coolpad Note 3 is a new entrant into sub 10k smartphone segment in India. It has features which are available on high end smartphones such as fingerprint scanner, 3GB RAM etc. All these features are available for a price of Rs.8,999. Is this great value for money smartphone?. We will learn more on this in our Coolpad Note 3 Review.

    Coolpad Note 3 sports 5.5 inch IPS 720pHD display screen and 267 ppi pixel density.Display panel used in this smartphone is of very good quality. The white looks white and there is no yellowish or pinkish tint.Sunlight legibility  and Viewing angle are decent. However in extreme angles, colours slightly washes away. Overall considering the price, display is good.

    Coolpad Note 3 Dual sim with fingerprint

    Coolpad Note 3 has 13MP primary camera with LED flash. The primary camera takes good pictures in outdoor conditions. But in low light and artificial lighting conditions, there is a visible noise in the taken pictures. It also has 5MP front facing camera. The front facing camera too, in outdoor condition it takes good pictures.  Overall in camera segment, Coolpad Note 3 performance is average.

    Coolpad Note 3 is powered by 64 bit  1.3GHz Octa Core processor based on Mediatek MT6753 Soc with 3GB of RAM and Mali T720 GPU. It has 16GB of internal storage and microSD card support. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Cool UI. In regular usage, phone performs very well. Due to some bug in the UI, phone tends to freeze while performing certain tasks such as adding widget. The gaming performance is good. But on extended gaming, phone tends heat up. The temperature goes upto 48 degree while playing high end games for longer time. Coolpad Note 3 performance in general is good except heating issue and few UI bugs.

    Coolpad Note 3 another key feature is fingerprint scanner. Like Nexus 5X and Nexus 6p, it has fingerprint scanner just below the camera in the back. It is fast and works really well. Using this fingerprint scanner, you can unlock specific apps. Overall it works as desired.  Coolpad Note 3 houses 3000 mAh battery.

    Useful other post on Coolpad Note 3

    How to take screenshot on Coolpad Note 3

    Now let us summarize the Coolpad Note 3 review and split into merits and demerits of this smartphone.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Coolpad Note 3

    Pros of Coolpad Note 3

    • Fingerprint scanner: One of the key feature. It is quick and accurate.
    • Good Display Panel: The  quality of display panel used in the device is good.
    • Good performance: Overall performance on this device is good except few exceptions.
    • Lot of features in affordable price tag: Coolpad Note 3 interms of specifications, it offers a lot for the price.

    Cons of Coolpad Note 3

    • UI Bugs: Though it has very good hardware, the UI in this device has bugs. While using the device it freezes for few seconds at times. Also, LED notification does not work as expected all the time.
    •  Poor standby time: Though it has 3000 mAh battery, standby time on this device is really bad. Even if you don’t use the device, within 24 hours battery drains out.
    • Average low light camera performance: In artificial lighting conditions and low light conditions, camera quality is just average. The pictures taken comes with noise.
    • Heating issue: While playing highend games for longer duration, it gets heated up.
    • Limited  service centers and Android Updates.

    Coolpad Note 3 Specification

    • 5.5 inch IPS 720pHD display screen and 267 ppi pixel density.
    • 64 bit  1.3GHz Octa Core processor with 3GB RAM.
    • Fingerprint scanner.
    • 13MP primary camera with LED flash.
    • 5MP front facing camera.
    • 3000 mAh battery.
    • 16GB internal storage and support for microSD card.

     

     

  • Huawei Honor 7 Pros and Cons Review

    Huawei Honor 7 is a stylish feature rich Android smartphone with affordable price tag.  It has fingerprint scanner, 5.2 inch IPS full HD display, metal finish design, 20MP primary camera, 8MP primary camera and dedicated smartkey. Huawei Honor 7 price in India starts at Rs.22,999.

    Huawei Honor 7 sports 5.2 inch full-HD IPS-LCD screen with 424 ppi pixel density. The display panel used in this device of good quality. It is bright and offers great viewing angles and good colour reproduction. The screen to body ratio is 72.4% and has on-screen soft keys and  narrow borders. Overall, it feels good to hold it in hand. Unlike a big 5.5 inch phablets, this feels more convenient for me.

    Honor 7 Review

    Honor 7 is powered by octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 935 SoC(four cores operating at 2.2GHz and the secondary four cores at 1.5GHz) with 3GB of RAM and ARM Mali-T624. The device runs on Android 5.0.2 with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.1 on top. The UI offers lot of customisation  for practically every function including the navigation bar, smart key, motion control, and one-handed operation. The day to day performance is excellant. Even gaming performance is good. However, highend graphic intensive games at times shown bit of lag. Overall performancewise, it is good.

    Honor 7 sports 20-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone flash and an 8-megapixel front camera with single-tone flash. Both camera supports full HD video recording. It takes excellant outdoor images. The indoor performance also decent. But as it doesnot have optical image stabilisation, when taking images in low light hand should be steady. Otherwise images tends to washed out.

    Huawei Honor 7 available in India is single sim variant. The connectivity features of the device includes 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, IR blaster, WiFi, WiFi tethering, USB tethering and USB OTG. The internal storage capacity of the device is 16GB and supports microSD card upto 128GB. Honor 7 houses 3100 mAh battery which with heavy usage lasted for a complete day in my testing.

    So lets summarize the Huawei Honor 7 review with its merits and demerits.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Huawei Honor 7

    Pros of Honor 7

    • Responsive and fast Fingerprint scanner: Huawei also provides gesture customisation for fingerprint scanner such as accessing notifications, multitask page etc by swiping.
    • Good cellular call quality and network reception: The call quality is loud and clear.
    • Very good design and Build quality: The metal finish design gives premium feel to the device.
    •  Good camera performance: Both primary and secondary camera performance were satisfactory.
    • Good Display: 1080p 5.2 inch display is  good.
    • Good overall performance: Overall the device performance is very good.

    Cons of Honor 7

    • No Dual sim variant in India: Honor 7 which is available in India supports only single sim(nano sim).
    • No optical image stabilisation.
    • Outdated Android version: The device runs on Android 5.0.2. That is 2 generation old version.
    • No 4K video recording capability.
    • Non user replaceable battery.

    Honor 7 Tips and Tricks

    Download PC Suite for Honor 7

    For downloading the official PC suite for Honor 7, you can read my detailed instruction post How to download Huawei PC suite.

    How to take screenshot on Honor 7

    For taking screenshot on Honor 7, you can press and hold volume down key and power button simultaneosly. Another method using the dedicated smartkey.

    Huawei Honor 7 Specification

    •  Octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 935 SoC with 3GB RAM and ARM Mali-T624.
    • Android 5.0.2 with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.1
    • 5.2 inch 1080p IPS display.
    • 20-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone flash and an 8-megapixel front camera with single-tone flash
    • IR blaster and Fingerprint scanner.
    • 3100 mAh battery
    • 16GB internal storage and support for microSD card upto 128GB.

  • Samsung Galaxy J7 Cons and Pros Review

    Samsung Galaxuy J7 is a midrange smartphone which is launched along with Galaxy J5. The key features of this smartphone are AMOLED display screen, battery life, decent performance, good camera and attractive price tag.  Samsung Galaxy J7 price in India is Rs.14,999.

    Galaxuy J7 comes with 5.5 inch Super AMOLED display screen with resolution of 1280 x 720 Pixels and has decent  pixel density of 267 ppi. As it has Super AMOLED screen, the colour reproduction and  viewing angle are good. One demerit interms of display is, it doesnot have any screen protection such as Corning Gorilla Glass. So it is good have screen gaurd.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 Dual sim
    Samsung Galaxy J7

    Samsung Galaxuy J7 which is available in India is powered by 1.5GHz Exynos 7580 64 Bit Cortex A53 octa core processor coupled with 1.5GB of RAM and Mali T-720 GPU. On day to day usage, we have not faced any laginess. Even we are impressed with the gaming experience. Though there were delay in opening a high end game, once loaded, it handled the games without any issues. The smartphone comes with 16GB of internal storage and has support for microSD card.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 houses 13MP rear primary camera with LED flash and 5MP front facing camera. Both camera performance in outdoor conditions are good. However low light and artificial light condition, camera performance is just average.  Galaxy J7 is a dual sim smartphone and runs on Android 5.1 along with new touchwiz UI.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 has 3000 mAh battery. It provides incredible standby time. For a normal user, this phone will easily last for more than 1 day. The connectivity features of this device includes 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE. Galaxy J7 supports USB OTG as well.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Samsung Galaxy J7

    To summarize the Samsung Galaxy J7 review, we have listed few of the merits and demerits of the device.

    Pros of Galaxy J7

    • Decent performance: The device performance interms of day to day usage, gaming performance is good. The cellular call quality also good. Phone does not get heats up much while playing the games.
    • Good Display: The  display screen on this is good. It offer good viewing angles and colour reproduction.
    • Excellant Battery life:The battery life it provides interms of standby time and screen on time is excellant.
    • Decent Camera: Both front and rear camera does take good quality photos and video in outdoor conditions.

    Cons of Galaxy J7

    • Lacks basic sensors like compass, light sensor etc.
    • No LED Notification and navigation key are not backlite.
    • Low loud speaker output.
    • No noice cancellation mic.
    • No Corning Gorilla Glass screen protection.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 Tips and Tricks

    Taking screenshot on Galaxy J7: For performing print screen on Galaxy J7, press and hold home and power button simultaneously. The screenshot will be taken. The taken screenshot on Galaxy J7 is saved in Gallery->Screenshot folder. You can read more on this here.

    Using Galaxy J7 as modem: You can use Galaxy J7 as modem through USB tethering and WiFi hotspot features. You can access this from Settings->Connections-> Tethering and Mobile hotspot. If you want to learn more on how to access net from PC using Galaxy J7 as modem, then read here.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 PC suite: Samsung Kies 3.0 is the latest PC suite available for Galaxy J7. You can download and install latest Samsung PC suite from the official support page from Samsung Galaxy J7 PC suite.

    Samsung Galaxy J7 Specifications

    • 5.5 inch Super AMOLED 720p HD display.
    • 1.5GHz Exynos 7580 64 Bit Cortex A53 octa core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, Mali T-720 GPU.
    • 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE.
    • 3000 mAh battery.
    • Dual sim with Dual Standby.
    • Android 5.1 Lollipop with Touchwiz UI.
    • 13MP rear primary camera with LED flash.
    • 5MP front facing camera.
    • Size: 78.6×152.4×7.5 mm and weight: 171 g.
    • Sensors: Accelerometer, Hall Sensor, Proximity Sensor.

  • Motorola Moto X Play Cons and Pros Review

    Motorola Moto X Play is a mid range dual sim Android smartphone. It has many of the features of previous generation Moto X smartphones. It is no more a flagship variant. The flagship variant is Moto X Style. This Moto X Play will be learn more on the pros and cons of the device and features of this midrange Android smartphone.

    Moto X Play is powered by 1.7 GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 615 Soc with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU. The device runs on stock Android 5.1 out of the box along with few useful Motorola Apps. Though it has only 2GB of RAM, there was no lag and shutter observed on day to day performance. The casual games were played without any issues. However, the high end games such as Nova 3, showed laginess. There are two variants of Moto X Play. One 16GB variant and another one is 32GB variant.

    Moto X Play Dual

    Motorola Moto X Play sports 5.5 inch ful HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The screen is bright and hence there is no issue with the sunlight legibility. The viewing angles and colors reproduction are also good. Moto X Play has thin bezels. Hence, though it has 5.5 inch screen, it doesnot feel big in hand. Also the curved back with textured panel, gives good grip to hold the phonw.

    Moto X Play key highlights are camera and battery life. It sports 21MP rear camera with Dual LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera. Comparing with previous gen Moto X, there is a improvement. The outdoor camera shots came well. But low light performance is also decent.But it does not feature OIS. Hence you should be extremely carefull while taking the low light shots. The front facing camera performance is just average.

    Motorola Moto X Play comes with 3630 mAh battery with fast charging feature. The battery life on this device is impressive. With casual usage, it lasts upto 2 days. But with heavy usage, our test unit lasted for a complete day. The connectivity features of the device includes 4G, 3G, WiFi, NFC and Bluetooth. It also supports USB OTG. The call quality on this device is good. But in poor network connectivity areas, call quality is just average. We expected a better performance here.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Motorola Moto X Play

    Pros of Moto X Play

    • Decent build quality and in hand experience.
    • Full day battery life.
    • Good camera performance.
    •  Stock Android experience.

    Cons of Moto X Play

    • No wireless charging.
    • No bundled Turbo charger.
    • Average front facing camera.
    • No Gyroscope sensor.

    Motorola Moto X Play specification

    • Android 5.1 Lollipop Out of the box.
    • Dual sim.
    • 1.7 GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 615 Soc with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU
    • 21MP primary camera with dual LED flash.
    • 5MP front facing camera.
    • 3630 mAh battery with fast charging feature.

  • OnePlus 2 Cons and Pros Review

    OnePlus 2 is a dual sim Android smartphone. It runs on Oxygen OS which is based on Android Lollipop.  It accepts 2 Nano sim cards. OnePlus 2 price in India starts at Rs.24,999 and for purchasing the device you need to have invites.

    OnePlus 2 is powered by 1.8GHz Octacore 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with 4GB of RAM and Adreno 430 GPU.   The smartphone handles all everyday tasks without any issue. Multitasking, switching between apps or games we have not faced any lag. However, when we played games like Asphalt 8 for 20 minutes, phone became considerably hot. However, phone has few issues which are majorly because of the software glitches. These can be fixed with software update.  Some of the issues we faced with this device includes some apps  just won’t run and others would always crash at the same point, unable to receive calls when phone is locked( We actually unlock the phone and then need to tap on to ‘back to call’ option to answer the call), issues of  accelerometer-related problems etc.

    OnePluis Two

    OnePlus 2 sports 5.5-inch full-HD display that offers good viewing angles and has good brightness. Colors look natural. The sunlight legibility is good. The call quality on OnePlus two is good when there is a good network strenght. However, in areas with weak connectivity call quality is just average.

    OnePlus two houses a 13 megapixel rear camera with Laser focus and LED flash. There is also a 5MP front facing camera. The rear camera take excellant still images both in well-lit  conditions as well as low light condition. However, it struggles to focus while recording 4K videos. The major disadvantage of OnePlus 2 is its front facing camera video recording capability. It can record only upto 720p. Also, phone gets heated up while recording 1080p video for decent lenght of  time.  The camera section now where comparable to the 2015 flagship smartphones.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of OnePlus 2

    Pros of OnePlus Two

    • Good battery life: The battery life comparing with other flagship, is good.
    • Decent Camera: Comparing with OnePlus One, there is improvement in the camera segment.
    • Alert slider and Fingerprint scanner.
    • Less Heating Issues.
    • Decent performance.

    Cons of OnePlus Two

    • OnePlus Two feels bit bulky. The weight distribution is not good.
    • Front facing camera is restricted to 720p video recording.
    • Buggy Oxygen OS.
    • No NFC and fast charging features. Charging takes long time.
    • Availability: Device available only through invite system.

    OnePlus Two Specification

    • 1.8GHz Octacore 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with 4GB of RAM and Adreno 430 GPU.
    • 5.5-inch full-HD display.
    • 13 megapixel rear camera with Laser focus and LED flash.
    • 5MP front facing camera.
    • 3300 mAh battery.