Tuesday, 5 November 2013

ZTE Blade G2

ZTE Blade G2
ZTE Blade G2

Chinese handset giant ZTE has been on an aggressive path to establish its brand in India. The leading original equipment manufacturer had launched a couple of devices in July this year including this Blade G2 Android smartphone.It is to be noted that ZTE sells its smartphones to a lot of handset manufacturers who in turn sell them under their own brand. ZTE is one of the leading handset sellers in Western countries too. Thus, we had high hopes from ZTE smartphones, including from Blade G2. But ZTE Blade G2 is currently available for Rs 9,999-a price point at which it faces several threats from both Indian and MNC players, including devices with 1 GB RAM and huge 8 megapixel cameras. ZTE Blade G2 comes with a 4.5 inch display with a curved back panel that has the bulk of its mass in the middle, which makes it very easy to handle and carry around. The back panel has a rubberized finish that gives it a good grip.

 The rear camera panel and LED flash are artistically fitted in the rear panel, which further boosts it look. With 9.9 mm thickness and 145 grams of weight the ZTE Blade G2 is also one of the lightest and thinnest smartphones in the sub-Rs 10,000 price bracket.As mentioned earlier, the ZTE Blade G2 has a 4.5 inch touchscreen. It is an IPS LCD unit and gives very good viewing angles, which is essential while playing running and racing games. The touch response is equally good. It has FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixel,) which is on the lower side considering the fact that most of its competitors come with qHD resolution.The ZTE Blade G2 has a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front camera. In the sub Rs 10,000 segment camera quality is a big problem despite the fact that many devices in this bracket come with an 8 megapixel camera.So rather than talking about the technical aspects of the camera, we have clicked a few pictures (posted below) in different lighting, which should give you a decent idea. You can also use the front camera to click self-portraits and even videos, but you seriously should not try to use the 0.3 megapixel camera if it is not essential.

There is a 2000 mAh battery in the Blade G2, which claims to provide 15 hours of 2G talktime and 12 hours of 3G talktime, which is almost double of what most of its competitors offer. Also, ZTE claims 300 hours of 2G standby.As far as experience goes, the ZTE Blade G2 gives very good battery backup. Just charge it fully and forget it for 24 hours if you use the phone for about half an hour of gaming, and as much time for browsing the web and for making voice calls. In another instance, we played games on the Blade G2 for half an hour, with maximum brightness and medium volume, during which it consumed only 10 per cent charge. Also, once we watched YouTube videos over WiFi, using aBluetooth headset, and it consumed only 10 per cent in half an hour.Like most of its competitors, the ZTE Blade G2 also has 4 GB of internal memory of which 2.5 GB is available for users. There is an expandable slot where you can use up to a 32 GB micro SD card.This smartphone comes with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. It has a quad core Mediatek (MT6589) processor but is under clocked to 1 GHz, which is why it gives stable performance. To support the processor there is a 512 MB RAM and PowerVR SGX 544MP graphics processing unit.

Google Nexus 5

Google Nexus 5 (16GB) available online 
Google Nexus5

While the Nexus 5 smartphone is still listed as "Coming soon" on the Google India Play Store, the phone (16GB) is available online on an e-commerce site at an inflated price. The online store is selling the 16 GB Nexus 5 at Rs 31,807, while it is officially priced at Rs 28,999. Units are claimed to be imported from the USA, where the phone is already available. The website says the phone will be delivered in 25-30 days, which means if you place an order today, you are likely to receive it by the end of this month or early next month.
While Google has revealed the price tags of the Nexus 5 for the Indian market, it has not yet made it clear as to when the device will be available in India. Speculations are rife that the Google Nexus 5 will be available sometime in December.

The Google-LG Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, nicknamed after the KitKat candy bar. The Nexus 5, which will come in two colours - black and white - has a 5-inch full HD display and an 8 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation. The new lens on the Nexus 5 is touted to capture more light for brighter night and sharper action shots.

LG-Google Nexus 5's technical specifications 

4.95-inch 1920x1080 display (445 PPI) , Corning Gorilla Glass 3 - Android 4.4 KitKat , Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2.3GHz quad-core processor - Adreno 330, 450MHz GPU , 8 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation , 1.3 megapixel front camera , 16GB or 32GB internal storage (actual formatted capacity will be less) , 2GB RAM , 130 grams weight , 69.17x137.84x8.59 mm , Dual-band WiFi (24G/5G), 3G/4G LTE , NFC (Android Beam) , Wireless charging , 2300 mAh battery , Standby time up to 300 hours , 16GB for Rs 28,999, 32GB for Rs 32,999