THE DIGITECH

BEST ANDROID PHONES UNDER THE PRICE SEGMENT OF Rs 20,000

2020-05-15T22:33:00.000+05:30

Now, if we say that this the best time for the consumers to buy good phones in a budget without spending absurd amounts for the flagships, it seems to be very much true.

If you have a budget of around Rs. 20,000, then you can find a pretty diverse set of good smartphones on offer. Nowadays Phones under 20K compete with flagships in almost all the aspects and often are better in some aspects.
Here are my picks for the best phones you can get under the price segment of 20000.

1. Redmi Note 9 Pro Max-

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room. Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, the name is pretty big but does the phone justifies the ''Max'' hype created around it, let's check it out.
The Note 9 Pro Max offers a large 6.7-inch Full HD LCD display with a punch-hole camera. It's powered by the Snapdragon 720G along with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage in the entry variant under Rs 16,499. The phone also offers a 64MP quad-camera setup. There's also another 8MP ultrawide lens, a 5MP macro lens, and another 2MP depth sensor and is loaded with hell lot of features. On the front, you get a 32MP front camera. The phone also comes with a large 5020mAh battery with 33W fast charging. And there's Gorilla Glass 5 covering the front, back as well as the camera glass. For the price, it looks good but not a worthy upgrade to Note 8 pro.
# RATINGS- 8.5/10

2. Samsung Galaxy M31

The Samsung Galaxy M31 is for those looking for two-days of long battery life. With a 6,000mAh battery inside, and 15W Type - C charging. The Galaxy M31 offers the longest battery life in this segment. It's powered by an efficient Exynos 9611 SoC and has a bright and compact AMOLED display with a 32MP front camera drilled into the display. It's also the first M-series smartphone to come with a 64MP quad-camera setup with Samsung offering another 8MP ultrawide sensor, a 5MP macro sensor, and another 5MP depth sensor. The only drawback with the phone is its SOC ie. Exynos 9611 now please don't get me wrong it is a good chipset but not for hardcore gaming fans.
With the price of Rs15,999, It is indeed a good package.
# RATINGS - 8/10

3. Realme 6 Pro

Realme 6 Pro continues the legacy of the Realme pro series by introducing new features in a price segment that looks heavily packed with likes of Xiaomi, Poco, and Samsung. The Realme 6 Pro is a mid-range flagship featuring the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chipset and a quad rear camera setup(64MP + 8MP + 12MP + 2MP). It features a 6.6-inch LCD display, which produces good colours and brightness. There's no in-display fingerprint sensor so Realme has used a capacitive one in the power button. There's face unlock too, which works very well. The 4,300mAh battery easily lasts for a day and a half and there's 30W fast charging too. The price starts at Rs 17,999 for the 6GB+ 64 GB Option and goes up to Rs19,999 for the 8GB + 128GB option

# Ratings- 8.5/10

4. Poco X2
Everybody might be thinking where is poco in this list. So, here it is no wonder Poco is the most promising company with launching Poco F1 as its first phone in the market Poco just disrupted the market of mid-range smartphones. But wait Poco X2 is not what you think. It is not the real successor of Poco F1 but nevertheless out of features or competition. With a 6.67-inch screen, this is undoubtedly a large phone which packs a Full Hd display and has a killer feature to boast of a 120 Hz refresh rate, yes you heard it right 120Hz display in a mid-range smartphone. But, the display is IPS LCD, not Amoled. There is no in-display fingerprint scanner but the power button on the right doubles as a fingerprint sensor. X2 packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G, which is pretty much the next best thing. There's also a 4500 mAh battery with 27W of fast charging. The price of the phone comes at Rs 16,999 and goes up to 20,999 for the 256GB option.
# RATINGS- 9/10

5. Redmi Note 8 Pro

Seeing this name everybody might be thinking what is this phone doing in this list The Redmi Note 8 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Helio G90T which is a gaming processor and that processor itself needs no introduction with Antutu score being over 2,83,000.The Redmi Note 8 Pro packs in a 4,500mAh battery with an in box 18W charger that helps the device deliver good battery life. Redmi note 8 pro comes with a quad-camera setup 64MP being the primary sensor and has also got a macro camera that is surprisingly executed well. It has a big-display which measures 6.53-inches Full HD display and a water drop notch that houses the selfie camera. The display also has support for HDR. It has a glass back that is made out of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The Redmi Note 8 Pro also has an IR Blaster at the top which can be used to control other IR-based appliances. With a screen to body ratio of over 90%, the bezels on the top and bottom are really very thin. The phone is priced at Rs 15,999 for the 6GB+ 64GB variant and goes upto Rs 18,999 for the 8GB +128 GB variant and looks good value for money.
# RATINGS- 9/10

THE OLX SCAM!!! BE ALERT

2019-03-17T15:26:00.003+05:30

OLX is the fastest-growing 2nd hand selling and buying medium and is also good but some people use it for committing scams and frauds and is often seen nowadays.

Let's now see different scenarios in which these frauds take place-

Situation 1: ADVANCE PAYMENTS

Sellers ask buyers for advance payments for some processing fees or courier charges ( for eg. - processing fees or delivering charges 2000 or 1000 ) and it may result into fraud . So, if a seller asks you for some unavoidable charges then you may tell him to pay by himself or include in the selling price.

Situation 2: FAKE IDENTITY

Sellers sometimes show their fake identity being a military man or someone and commits fraud and show it to receive payment in advance .

Situation 3: FAKE BILLS

This is the most popular one, as the seller shows a fake shipping bill and pretends to send the product and asks for 20% or 30% of the payment of the product and rest after the delivery. This is where most of the people get caught in the fraud as the bills he shows are fraud and the buyer thinks that he has the product and makes some payment for the product and becomes the victim.

SOUNDBARS - ARE THEY BETTER THAN HOME THEATERS ??

2019-03-05T11:39:00.001+05:30

Soundbars, you have heard right? These are nothing but all for enhancing television audio. Earlier soundbars were not needed much because of the fact that earlier the televisions used to be very thick and they had got a big space for good speakers with immersive audio output. But the scenario is altogether different the technology has changed and the televisions have gone thick to thinner and has improved in everything except the audio quality . It doesn't mean that it is bad or unusable but it is not equivalent to the earlier televisions, because they lack dedicated extra space for big speakers.

Now lets talk about soundbars and one question that is the most common one that, are they better than home theaters? Frankly speaking these can't be used as perfect substitutes for each other . Home theaters excels when talking about the extra loudness and crazy bass . But what is good about soundbars is that they consume less space and are easy to setup as involve less connecting wires .

Lets look the features of some soundbars in brief

1. XIAOMI SOUNDBAR-

The Xiaomi Mi Soundbar comes in White color, is priced at Rs. 4999 and will be available from Mi.com and Mi home stores. It is priced aggressively and has Input power of 14W X 2 @1 kHz and sound experience looks to be very good looking at the price and the reputation of Xiaomi for providing good value for money. What looks interesting is the fact that it has got 8 sound drivers for good sound quality. Xiaomi also claims that it has got a good bass but lacks the dedicated sub woofer for extra bass. And it is adequate loud and will satisfy most of the consumers but those who want the crazy bass it is not the best for them .

2.Bose Sound Touch 300 Sound Bar (for high budget)

Sound clarity is the strongest feature of this Bose Sound Touch speaker system. Using your existing Wi-Fi system, you are able to play Internet radio and other channels wirelessly. Easy to set up , high quality speaker with latest features, Crisp sound quality. Its has an impressive output of 180W, and its price is also very astonishing as it is priced around Rs.59900/-.

3. F&D T180X

This soundbar is definitely one of the best if not the best which is super value for money and produces an impressive output of 40 W and I must say its price to performance ratio is great. F&D is known for their good sound quality and it is no exception to it. It gives a good surround sound and gives a cinematic feel which is not very common in its price range and the most important question "how's the bass" , bass is not crazy but it is adequate and will satisfy most of the users.
The loudness is good and even better than Mi Soundbar.

4. JBL PRO SOUNDBAR PSB- 1

JBL is a very popular company known for its great speakers and soundbars . JBL pro sounds crystal clear and with good bass and it has a output of 20W which quiet low seeing its price but it does not feel that it has only got 20W output as it is loud and has no separate sub woofer for enhancing its bass . The inputs can be via aux also . It gives a good feel of surround sound and immense clarity of vocals. JBL PRO is a new line up and can expect more good soundbars.

VERDICT- This would not be fair to say that soundbars are the perfect choice against Home Theaters but some soundbars are really good and are good value for money .

FOLDING SMARTPHONES: ARE THEY NEEDED??

2019-03-02T11:30:00.003+05:30

Folding smartphones were being speculated for a long time but those were just in the development stage and many of them are still are in that stage . Folding smartphones look very futuristic and modern but they are less practical to those available right now . It doesn't mean that they will be unsuccessful but cannot be compared to the current handsets.

HUWAEI MATE X

Some of the folding smartphones are:

1.SAMSUNG GALAXY FOLD- while it seems that all other folding smartphones are in development stage but galaxy fold is the most near to the reality and it offers great specifications too.

2.HUWAEI MATE X- Though its still in the development stage but Huwaei revealed it in the MWC 2019 in February and in honest words it looks great and packs a powerful punch, competing directly with the Galaxy Fold.

3.OPPO FOLDABLE PHONE- Oppo officially doesn't have their foldable phone but it has prototype that we caught a glimpse at MWC.

SAMSUNG GALAXY FOLD

➤CONCLUSION- If we see, folding smartphones are futuristic and the pricing for the same is very premium and are not necessarily needed for the time being and we will definitely see these sets capturing the market and are THE FUTURE.

SAMSUNG S10 series launched : S10+

2019-03-01T16:03:00.002+05:30

S10+ :SPECS, PRICE....

SPECIFICATIONS-

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus mobile features a 6.4" (16.26 cm) display with a screen resolution of 1440 x 3040 pixels and runs on Android v9.0 (Pie) operating system. The device is powered by EXYNOS 9820 paired with 8 GB of RAM. As far as the battery is concerned it has 4100 mAh. Over that, as far as the rear camera is concerned this mobile has a 12MP + 12MP + 16MP camera . Other sensors include Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope. For graphical performance that can make games run smoothly, this phone has got a Mali-G76 MP12 GPU. On board storage is at 128 GB with the option to expand the memory by Yes Up to 512 GB. Design is one of the most important factors when it comes to mobiles. This phone is 7.8 mm slim and weighs 175 grams.

PRICE- Its price starts from Rs. 73900 and goes to Rs. 117900

BUY NOW-https://www.samsung.com/in/smartphones/galaxy-s10/buy/?

SAMSUNG S10 series launched : S10

2019-03-01T15:38:00.001+05:30

S10: SPECS , PRICE.....

SAMSUNG S10 the phone which was one of the most awaited phone of this year and Samsung launched it in MWC on 20th feb.2019 including other two ( S10e and S10+). Let's quickly look at its specs : The phone comes with a 6.10-inch touchscreen display and an aspect ratio of 19:9.

Samsung Galaxy S10 is powered by a 1.9GHz octa-core Samsung Exynos 9820 SoC processor. It comes with 8GB of RAM.The Samsung Galaxy S10 runs Android 9.0 and is powered by a 3,400mAh non-removable battery. The Samsung Galaxy S10 supports wireless charging, as well as proprietary fast charging.

As far as the cameras are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy S10 on the rear packs a 12-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.5 aperture; a second 12-megapixel camera with an f/2.4 aperture and a third 16-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The rear camera setup has phase detection autofocus. It sports a 10-megapixel camera on the front for selfies, with an f/1.9 aperture. The front camera also features autofocus.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 runs One UI based on Android 9.0 and packs 128GB of inbuilt storage (up to 512GB). The Samsung Galaxy S10 is a dual-SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM cards.

Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy S10 include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, GPS, Bluetooth v5.00, NFC, USB Type-C, 3G, and 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India) with active 4G on both SIM cards. Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, compass/ magnetometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, and fingerprint sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S10 supports face unlock.

It was launched in Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism Green, and Prism White colours. It features an IP68 rating for dust and water protection(which has been the legacy of S series). As far as price is concerned it is priced at a whopping Rs. 66900 and looks be a great value for money.

BUY NOW:https://www.samsung.com/in/smartphones/galaxy-s10/buy/?

SAMSUNG S10 series launched : S10e

2019-03-01T15:01:00.003+05:30

S10E: SPECS , PRICE .....

The phone comes with a 5.80-inch touchscreen display at a pixel density of 522 pixels per inch (ppi) and an aspect ratio of 19:9.Samsung Galaxy S10e is powered by a 1.9GHz octa-core Samsung Exynos 9820 processor. It comes with 6GB of RAM.The Samsung Galaxy S10e runs Android 9.0 and is powered by a 3,100mAh non-removable battery. The Samsung Galaxy S10e supports wireless charging, as well as proprietary fast charging.
As far as the cameras are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy S10e on the rear packs a 12-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.5 aperture and a second 16-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The rear camera setup has phase detection autofocus. It sports a 10-megapixel camera on the front for selfies, with an f/1.9 aperture. The front camera also features autofocus.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e runs One UI based on Android 9.0 and packs 128GB of inbuilt storage (up to 512GB). The Samsung Galaxy S10e is a dual-SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM cards.
Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy S10e include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, GPS, Bluetooth v5.00, NFC, USB Type-C, 3G, and 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India) with active 4G on both SIM cards. Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, compass/ magnetometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, and fingerprint sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S10e supports face unlock.
The Samsung Galaxy S10e measures 142.20 x 69.90 x 7.90mm (height x width x thickness) and weighs 150.00 grams. It was launched in Canary Yellow, Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism Green, and Prism White colours. It features an IP68 rating for dust and water protection.PRICING IN INDIA IS : Rs. 55900 which is fair enough considering Samsung's brand image and its killer specs. It is looking to be the APPLE IPHONE XR killer.
BUY NOW:https://www.samsung.com/in/smartphones/galaxy-s10/buy/?

SNAPDRAGRON 675 - THE GAME CHANGER

2019-03-01T12:24:00.003+05:30

Qualcomm introduced their new chip snapdragon 675 in October 2018 , but it started coming in mobiles only last month with the first on being Vivo V15 PRO and the second on being Redmi Note 7 pro which launched just yesterday with a great price tag.The Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 Mobile Platform comes loaded with outstanding gaming capabilities, stellar camera features, AI smarts and powerful performance. The new Qualcomm Kryo 460 CPU supports and excels in an outstanding range of on-device activities, with enhanced efficiency and speed. Breathe life into every on-screen moment with the Qualcomm Adreno 612 GPU, made hyper-efficient by heterogenous computing. Capture memorable moments in dazzling detail with the Qualcomm Spectra 250L ISP and slow it down with limitless 480 fps HD slo-mo recording. The multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine drives on-device interactions to the next level, with 50% faster performance than the previous generation.

Specifications

Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine

CPU: Qualcomm Kryo 460 CPU

GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 612 GPU

DSP: Qualcomm Hexagon685 DSP

CPU

CPU Clock Speed: Up to 2.0 GHz

CPU Cores: QualcommKryo 460 CPU, Octa-core CPU

CPU Architecture: 64-bit

Process

Process Technology: 11 nm

DSP

DSP Technology: Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP, Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Processor, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology

Cellular Modem

Modem Name: Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 LTE modem

Multi SIM: Dual SIM Dual VoLTE (DSDV)

Next-generation Calling Services: VoLTE with SRVCC to 3G and 2G, Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) with LTE call continuity, HD and Ultra HD Voice (EVS)

LTE Category

Downlink LTE Category: LTE Category 12 (downlink)

Uplink LTE Category: LTE Category 13 (uplink)

LTE Downlink Features

Downlink Carrier Aggregation: 3x20 MHz carrier aggregation

Downlink QAM: Up to 256-QAM

LTE Uplink Features

Uplink Technology: Qualcomm Snapdragon Upload+

Uplink Carrier Aggregation: 2x20 MHz carrier aggregation

Uplink QAM: Up to 64-QAM

LTE Speed

LTE Peak Download Speed: 600 Mbps

LTE Peak Upload Speed: 150 Mbps

Cellular Technology

Cellular Technology: WCDMA (DB-DC-HSDPA, DC-HSUPA), TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE

LTE Technology: Qualcomm Snapdragon All Mode, LTE FDD, LTE TDD, LTE Broadcast

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n

Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz

Peak speed: 867 Mbps

Channel Utilization: 20/40/80/160 MHz

MIMO Configuration: 2x2 (2-stream)

Peak QAM: 256 QAM

Wi-Fi Features: MU-MIMO, Dual-band simultaneous (DBS), LTE/Wi-Fi antenna sharing, Integrated baseband

Bluetooth

Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 5.0

Bluetooth Speed: 2 Mbps

Location

Satellite Systems Support: GPS, QZSS, GLONASS, SBAS, Beidou, Galileo

NFC

Near Field Communications: Supported

RFFE: Qualcomm Adaptive Antenna Tuning, High-power transmit (HPUE)

USB

USB Version: USB 3.1, USB-C

Camera

Image Signal Processor: Qualcomm Spectra 250L image signal processor, 2x Image Signal Processor (ISP), 14-bit

Dual Camera, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps: Up to 16 MP

Single Camera, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps: Up to 25 MP

Single Camera, MFNR: Up to 48 MP

Single Camera: Up to 192 MP

Video Capture: Slow motion video capture up to 720p at 240fps, HEVC Video Capture

Camera Features: High quality video capture with Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering, Accelerated Electronic Image Stabilization

Video

Video Capture: Up to 4K video capture @ 30 FPS, Up to 1080p video capture @120 FPS

Video Playback: Up to 4K video playback

Codec Support: H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP8, VP9

Display

Maximum On-Device Display Support: Up to 10 bit, FHD+, 2520x1080

Maximum External Display Support: Up to 4K

General Audio

Audio Technology: Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus technology, Qualcomm Aqstic audio technology, Qualcomm aptX audio technology

Qualcomm Aqstic technology: Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, Qualcomm Aqstic speaker amplifier with Speaker Protection

Qualcomm aptX playback support: aptX Classic, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive

Audio Playback

Playback Dynamic Range: 130dB

Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N), Playback: -109dB

Dual Oscillator Support, Playback: 44.1kHz

PCM, Playback: Up to 192kHz/24bit

Amplifier output power: Up to 4W

Speaker protection: Speaker protection

Audio Recording

Recording Dynamic range: 109dB

Sampling, Record: Up to 192kHz/24bit

Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N), Record: -103dB

GPU

GPU Name: Qualcomm Adreno 612 GPU

Power Consumption

Audio playback: 26mW for high performance mode

Low power voice activation: 0.65mA

Charging

Qualcomm Quick Charge Support: Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology

Security Support

Security Features: Qualcomm Mobile Security, Qualcomm Processor Security, Qualcomm CONTENT protection.

WHEN COMPARED WITH SNAPDRAGON 670:

WHY PUBG IS SO POPULAR ??

2019-02-28T20:11:00.002+05:30

PUBG Mobile has more than 200 Million users in total and 30 Million active users. PUBG Mobile also became the best game of the year on Google Play Store. It is a battle royal game which is developed by Tencent games.

1. Unique Concept

PUBG and PUBG Mobile both released with a new concept called battle royal. According to Battle Royal 100 players can play against each other at a time in a single match and the one who survives till position No.1 will hold the title of “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”. Players can choose between solo, duo and squad and can also create their own room.

2. Available for Free

PUBG is paid on PC, Xbox and PlayStation 4 but it is free on Android and IOS, that’s why the game became so popular on PlayStore as well as on Apple App Store. PUBG Mobile holds the No.1 grossing game title since the day it was released on Play Store.

3. Play with Friends

Well this is one of the most important factor in any online multiplayer game. Player can cooperate with their friends which turns the gameplay into whole another level. Here the best thing is, player can also talk with each other for better coordination.

4. Requirements are Low

If you compare the requirements of PUBG Mobile with PUBG PC, then you will realize that PUBG PC requires proper gaming PC which includes a lot of investment whereas, PUBG Mobile can run on almost any Phone smoothly.

5. Graphics are impressive

In terms of graphics PUBG Mobile unlocks the new level of gaming on mobile platform, hats off to the developers for doing such a fantastic job. There are lots of tournaments of PUBG Mobile all over the world and with this, gamers are getting good opportunity to create their career in gaming.

6.Near zero wait time.

One huge difference from games like say Overwatch, I haven’t experienced much wait time. It could be that they haven’t fully implemented match-making yet, but at the same time, there are only a handful of game modes, and often up to a million players playing concurrently.

Redmi Note 7 Pro : is it worth the hype ???

2019-02-28T18:22:00.001+05:30

Redmi Note 7 Pro the phone we all were waiting for has been launched today and these days have been very busy in the context of launches . Redmi note 7 pro looks in direct competition with Samsung's M30(which was supposed to be the redmi note 7 killer) but is itself killed with the type of specs Note 7 Pro offers and Samsung M30 stands nowhere close to it .Lets look at Redmi Note 7 Pro specs:

Redmi Note 7 Pro packs a dual camera setup on the back that includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.79 lens and a 5-megapixel secondary depth sensor. The company has also added a number of artificial intelligence (AI) powered features in the camera app of the phone, including AI scene detection, AI Portrait 2.0, and Night mode. Additionally, there is a 13-megapixel front shooter on the phone as well as support for 4K video recording on the rear camera. The phone runs on Android Pie-based MIUI 10 and the company says that it has added enhanced system optimisations in the Redmi Note 7 Pro, which, Xiaomi claims, provide 10 percent faster system responsiveness. It has also included a 4,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 4.0 support in the phone.Further, you will get a rear fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, and dual-SIM support (hybrid). In terms of the connectivity capabilities, the Redmi Note 7 Pro gets 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and Infrared.The smartphone is powered by 11nm manufacturing processor-based octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC, coupled with 4GB/ 6GB of RAM, and 64GB/ 128GB of inbuilt storage with a microSD card slot (up to 256GB). All comes down to price and the price is set aggressively to Rs.13999/- (4GB + 64GB) variant and Rs. 16999/- for (6GB + 128 GB) storage variant.

AND NOW I CAN SAY THAT IT IS WORTH THE HYPE.........