SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 & S6 EDGE : REVIEW

SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 & S6 EDGE : REVIEW

             Samsung has been showcasing it's latest galaxy S series every year. Samsung Galaxy S6 is new entry in the S series. If Samsung had shown off with just a few hardware tweaks and the same plasticy design, it would have got a great big laugh . But let's see if Samsung Galaxy S6 , has really made an impact to the competitors ?. Samsung Galaxy S6 as well as the S6 Edge are both exactly same just with the extra edges which will be covered later.

HARDWARE :

             First , thing the S6 looks "dead gorgeous"  when you hold the latest Galaxy is that it does not feel like the previous galaxy. This time Samsung has really taken out more time in design to make a much better flagship.The Galaxy S6  has Gorilla Glass 4 at the front and the back of the smart phone.This time the new Galaxy S6 has metal on all of it's sides , which feels comfortable in the hand.This time the S6 has round edges which doesn't  make it sharper like the Note 4 , instead it  makes a good feeling in the hand.
However the front side of S6 feels the same , as the other Galaxies. The volume rocker and the power buttons feel tactical and responsive. But when looked at the bottom the S6 looks alike like the   iPhone 6. When you look  both at the same time , you can't really tell the difference.

               Your eyes will immediately get sucked into the 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, but a 5-megapixel selfie camera sits above it while the Home button lies below, flanked by discrete Back and Recent Apps keys. High on the S6's back is a squarish plateau that houses the 16-megapixel camera, and to the right lies a tiny black divot where the LED flash and heart rate sensor live. Samsung also dropped the removable battery, the microSD storage expansion, and even the waterproofing, all in the name of design.
          

                  The Samsung Galaxy S6 is 143.4 x 70.5mm  in dimension and has 6.8mm thin and roughly weighs around 138 grams.The Samsung Galaxy S6 is rocking a  Exynos 7420 chipset, which pairs a quartet of 2.1GHz processor cores with another quartet of 1.5GHz cores. Coupled with it is a 3GB RAM to run all the horses in it.

             The Samsung Galaxy S6 looks like the iPhone 6 when you see it at the first sight. The look like identical brothers in some way. Keeping that aside this is the best S6 till date. However all good things have some  bad, the S6 with it's design is the most slipperiest phone in the market. Also the back is a fingerprint attractor , whether you pick any color.

  DISPLAY :

            The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen , with a resolution of  2560 x 1440. The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a  pixel density of 577 ppi with a color depth of 16M.
Hands down , this is the best display in the market till date and it's "too damn good". The display is crisp and has a great color contrast.

            The viewing angles are just perfect and the  colors are vivid and saturated and quite impressive. The display is super bright and the sunlight readability is quite good. This is typically where Samsung comes best and really impresses with it's awesome display.It feels like paper at this high pixel density and creates the sharpest pixel on the display.

      
      So it looks pretty but , How do they sound? The S6 has the same single speaker nestled into the bottom-right corners of their frames, and it's dramatically louder than the  last year's Galaxy S5. There's no way it'll ever hold a candle to the One M9 and its pair of BoomSound speakers, but the S6 driver brings enough to the table that you can stick the phone into your car's cupholder, crank up the volume and still hear plenty over the din of the road.

 SOFTWARE :

          This was the important sector in which Samsung had to take efforts and improve the most.
The version of TouchWiz that ships on the S6 and the S6 Edge is about as restrained as I've seen on a Samsung phone yet. Turns out, chopping out extraneous menu options and visual cruft was high up on the company's list of priorities this year, and quite succeeded in it.

         Though it still remains quite the same with the TouchWiz skin , but the performance is boosted like a rocket. The new TouchWiz feels butter smooth at the fingers and is lightning fast. The Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with Android Lollipop 5.0.2 out of the box.All of Samsung's greatest hits are still here, and they're paired with a flatter, cleaner, Material Design-y look that jibes nicely with Android 5.0.2. Seriously, it's terribly refreshing if you're coming from a Galaxy S5.The Multitasking is like a charm , it's the fastest multitasking  , I have ever used in a smart-phone.

            The  home button now hosts a fingerprint scanner , so you don't have to swipe from the previous Galaxy S5. This time the fingerprint scanner is quite good, and it just opens up when you touch the home button. However when you press the home button twice , it opens up the camera , for all the quick photos.

               The TouchWiz still has some issues , with software not surprised it's TouchWiz after all. Still you get some and loose some ,however leaving all that behind ,the quickness of the software is just will keep you wanting it.

CAMERA :

               The Samsung Galaxy S6 sports a CMOS 16 MP camera at the back  with f /1.9 aperture.  The main camera supports video recording of up to UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 30fps . The front camera or the selfie camera is a CMOS 5MP one. The main camera comprises of Auto-focus  as well as flash.The main camera also has OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) for all the steady shots.


                The camera is pretty fast and loads up in less than a second.So for all the moment you want to capture it will not let it pass by. The paper specs of the product looks quite impressive , but what happens in the real world ? In Android smartphones , Samsung has always been a superior in this department. The S6 just keeps on the improving the scale, this is the best camera available in the Android segment. However , when compared to iPhone 6 , the S6 this time is a good competitor.
It also has an edge over the iPhone as it supports 4K stabilized video recording.


              As far as the end user is considered , who just want to point and shoot , the S6 is just perfect. The Samsung Galaxy S6 camera has 2 modes : one the auto mode and the other pro mode. The auto mode is great when you want to just take a pic and walk away. The S6 shoots a  great resolution of images and the images are "crisp like a wafer" . The Pro mode is for all the camera enthusiast and the professional who love to toggle the controls. However , in the pro mode you don't have an option to change the shutter speed. The dynamic range is good and the images have good color depth also.

               The S6 does disappoint us when the  light gets low,and you have more darker spots. The low light images look like unnatural with the extra brightness imbedded in it. This the only reason where it kind of puts it back , but overall the the camera at all events performs at it's best.Finally, for the user, who just want to point and shoot the image the camera just works perfect.

BATTERY LIFE :

                           Those power-hungry apps also took a toll on battery life. The S6 has a 2,550 mAh battery. The Samsung S6 battery has a more range of life , that is it came up too early while the other day it went more than the estimation. The S6 doesn't impress at all with this low battery life , we expected to have a bigger battery as it is after all a flagship. The S6 does subside it over the fast charging technology as well as universal wireless charging also.When we stand in comparison with the latest HTC One M9 the  M9 just wins over the Samsung in the battery.

 SO WHATS IN THE EDGE ?

         After experimenting the edge in the consumer point of view and all the glitches that users had reported in design or the software, Samsung used it all up and presented brand new 2 edges in the latest S6.So What these new edges do ?

               Swiping in from the upper left or right part of the screen (you'll indicate during setup if you're a righty or lefty) causes an array of colored bubbles to drift into view. That's People Edge. You can assign up to five people their own specific color, so that when they contact you, the edge of the phone will spring to life with their assigned hue. It's a neat trick, for sure, but its value is limited. To start, why the limit on five people and colors? And if the edge that lights up happens to be pointing away from you, you might as well just flip the phone over and see who it is instead of turning it around to see what color is throbbing.  

                Meanwhile, rubbing the edge of the screen while it's off causes Samsung's so-called Information Stream to pop up, giving you access to the time, notifications and news updates without lighting up the whole panel. Truly, it's so much more convenient to tap the Home button to see all that than to stroke the edge of a screen.

CONCLUSION :

                 The Samsung Galaxy S6 as well as the S6 Edge both are one of the top flagships available.The both phones are well built off the desk and are mainstream products.The S6 and the S6 Edge literary does not feel a Samsung product the moment you hold it . Samsung this time has really remastered it's design principles as well as the software TouchWiz skin. With the new design and the better TouchWiz Samsung has really nailed this time and is gearing to comeback with all it's efforts.
Overall , the S6 and the S6 Edge both are great flagships and I would any-day except for some glitches move on to it from either  older Android or iOS.               

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SONY XPERIA Z4

Sony Xperia Z4

          

                                      

              Sony today quietly announced it's latest flagship in it's hometown, Japan. The Sony Xperia Z4 , is same like it's predecessor the Z3, with just some changes and a bump up in the hardware section. Sony has kept the Omni-design principle in the Z4, like all it's previous high-end Z series.

            The Sony Xperia Z4 has a a thickness of 6.9mm and weight of 144g , which is much thinner and lighter than the Z3.The Z4 has a metal and glass body , like any other Z flagship, but the most noticeable change is the exposed micro-USB charging port. Xperia Z4 will be available in White, Black, Copper and Aqua Green color variants, and is certified IP6X for dust and IPX5/IPX8 for water, allowing it to be submerged in up to 4.92 feet of water for over 30 minutes.


          Z4 has a 5.2-inch 1080p LCD screen, a 2GHz 8-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor, and 3GB of RAM. Z4 comprises of a 20.7MP camera at the back with a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor and BIONZ image processor along with a 5.1MP front shooter. Z4 gets all the juice from a 2,930mAh battery .The Z4 comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.
 


          As yet there's no word on a release in other regions, initially Z4 will be out in Japan this Summer.And no news of the "compact"version is not yet confirmed. Saying all this , Sony's mobile section  is descending day by day, after the official statement that Sony would just focus on the PlayStation  business for the timing.

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JIBO : A Family Robot

JIBO : A Family Robot

           For many families, their is no commonly shared device. While companies are focusing on more and more personal devices , the common device factor is getting eradicated.While families have tablets or a all in one as a shared device , but what if it was more interactive ? What if it woke up when you came home, recognized your face, and suggested a couple of things you might want for dinner? What if, when asked a question, it could tailor its answer directly to you, instead of offering a blanket response?

         A device called Jibo can do all these things for you. Jibo is not just any device , it is a robot.While this unique start up , is marketing it as the  "world's first family robot".  Specifically, Jibo is a social robot. You talk to it, ask it questions, make requests. It talks back, provides answers, and takes care of grunt work like setting reminders or scouring the web.It is  more like a helper or calling it as a assistant  , much like a physical version of Google Now or Siri or even as Windows Cortana and all the array of digital assistant available on the smartphones and tablets.

How It Works

                One of Jibo’s key features is human and facial recognition. Using a stereo camera system, it can distinguish people from their background surroundings so it knows when there’s a person in the room. In particular, it can recognize faces, so it knows which person it’s talking to. When it is completely ready , it will also be able to recognize facial expressions so it can guess your mood and cater its interactions.
           JIbo includes a 360 degree mic array so the robot can perform sound isolation, identifying when it’s being spoken to even if the person talking is not right next to it. Dual speakers supply its voice and other audio. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios keep it connected. A quad-core ARM processor act as the brains. On its face is a circular LCD touchscreen, for all the interactions. A 3-axis motor system allows the top section to spin all the way around on the base.

Interface & Design

Though Jibo is still in the prototype versions, it's far closer to the actual product. The body is shiny, circular and white. The head is spherical, though a chunk is cleanly sliced out of it so a flat LCD display can act as its face.

              The head and body can both rotate 360 degrees, so the robot can rotate to look at whoever is speaking to it, or just swivel and twist animatedly as it responds and interacts .As for the onscreen user interface, Jibo has character animations. Instead of some sort of app or list menu as an interface, or a human-like face, Jibo’s screen displays a simple, white sphere. This ball can morph into other graphical elements: a clock, an illustration of the weather, a heart, a smile. It’s designed to be dynamic and easy to read from across the room.
 

     While the prototype is rough around the edges—the LCD is of low-res, and the robot’s movements are sometimes abrupt .

  What it can do

        Jibo  on your command can take photos as well as videos. It can pull up information from the web or an app, it can act as a teleconferencing device, and it can be used to queue up books or videos. Jibo uses a mixture of facial and voice recognition (as well as an iOS and Android app), it personalizes these experiences for you. You can ask Jibo to order your favorite take-out meal after arriving home from work. Or tell it to display an e-book on its face-screen, turning a storybook into an interactive, theatrical experience for you and your child. It can recognize and greet you when you get home, or remind you to make an important phone call in between the day’s errands.Jibo video calling experience, is far greater , as you can tap on the face to have a focused conversation with that person.

             Jibo is an interesting idea coming out of the increasingly technological advancements.Though it's not perfect , but a great start to a different league of device.We have seen digital assistants quite getting evolve , from the day they were introduced. But the main problem with voice assistants , is that every person has a unique voice tune , so if it does not correctly recognize you kind of struggle with it and get annoyed.Jibo is a far more personalized assistant , it does much of what the software on your devices can already do—learn your preferences, predict your needs and others as well.In all we need products like these, but far more advanced than it is right now.

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HTC ONE M9 : REVIEW

HTC ONE M9 : REVIEW

 
                                

 HTC  M9 First Impressions : M9


              While looking at the HTC One M9 , we feel a a kind of taken back in the last year, where the M8 was launched .The HTC One M8 was a great built phone with it's market breaking design and the smoothness of software , is what we appreciated the most.Though the M8 was a let down in the camera department.
             And the M9 is pretty much the same , literally the same with just a few little tiny changes.The feeling when M9 is hold is like a " Déjà vu "  , and cannot be great every time.So, let's look at what HTC has changed in the new M ?

 

DESIGN & HARDWARE :

        

                  It's impossible not to compare the M9 to the Ones that came before it, which leads to some simple shorthand for HTC's design work this year: Put simply, it's almost like the M8 had a baby.With the HTC's "Don't fix it , if not broken" , seems to be most of the case HTC has done with the M9.The M9 dimensions are 144.6 x 69.7 and has a thickness of 9.61 mm.The M9 is all looking the same like the M8 at the front as well as the back, with a all metal body. But not unified body anymore , but several metal joined together. The M9 has a rim on the sides, which can have different colors.The metal on the back is a brushed metal and has a glossy finish , making it a fingerprint attractor.  

                 The relocated power button is also much easier to use on the M9, but it’s too easily confused with the volume buttons just above it. A simple fix would be to put the volume buttons on the opposite side as the power button, but overall this is a pretty minor glitch.The M9 has a new two-tone color scheme: it’s silver on the front and back with gold on the sides. But you can get other color options (all gold, black, or even pink) as well.

 In the M9 , we're looking at one of Qualcomm's octa-core Snapdragon 810s (a bit of silicon that pairs a 2.0GHz quad-core processor with another 1.5GHz quad-core unit), 3GB of DDR4 RAM, 32GB of storage and support for super-fast LTE Cat 9 data speeds where they're available. All of that together is enough to make you give you a PC like power in  a mobile like experience.
                              

DISPLAY & SOUND :

HTC One M9 comes loaded with a 5-inch Super LCD 3 display running at 1080p, putting it well behind the competition when it comes to sheer pixel density.Though , although the M8 with it's  display was already an industry leading , and  there were really no complains about it. The color saturation as well as sharpness of the M9 is quite good. The screen is color accurate and bright enough for outdoor use. With the increase in pixel density, the display has great viewing angles.

     With the 5 inch display the two signature BoomSound speaker are better than ever. BoomSound is back for a third year running and the dual-speaker setup still mostly sets a high bar for the rest of the industry's high-end wares.The dual speakers provided a great sound for watching movies or even videos.Though , HTC has bumped  the BoomSound as well with Dolby Sound technology.  Dolby Audio running in the background to help give those speakers a "Booming " feel , which  gives a surround sound effect. 


 

SOFTWARE:

           HTC has all redesigned it's sense skin from scratch , coming up with the all new Sense 6. Though , we always like the stock android out of the box but this is the first skin which looks far better than others (mostly Touchwiz by Samsung). The Sense 6 is on top of Android Lollipop 5.0.2.It’s responsive and quick, and unlike other custom Android interfaces, doesn’t slow down the experience at all. It’s visually very similar to the software on the M8 and has most all of the same features. But there two new standout components: a new theming engine that lets you quickly customize the look and sound of the software, and a widget for the home screen that attempts to predict which apps you’ll need based on your location.The theming ability is cool and fun to play with. You can quickly change the wallpaper, app icons, fonts, sounds, and more on your M9 with a variety of downloadable theme packs.

             HTC has added a new widget which changes according to your location , so when you are at home it will give you all the saved  home apps and the same  goes with work.It's precise and gives you a more personalized feeling from your phone.

CAMERA :

             The one biggest flaw which was there in M8 , is sadly continued in the M9. The back so called "ultra pixel " camera was a disaster last year , getting all the feedback HTC has decided to remove it in the M9. HTC took a completely different approach this time , its main camera has a high-resolution, 20-megapixel sensor . But HTC has kept the UltraPixel and moved it to  the front camera sensor, where it actually works pretty well for low-light selfies and its lower pixel count isn’t as much of a problem.



 
                 With all the cons of previous camera removed and bumping the megapixel , the finall question comes that is it good ? . Well , HTC has again managed to disappoint us , with the 20 MP sensor.The pixels are sharper than before , you have more detail but the camera here proves that "more mega pixels , does not mean better pictures".   The normal day to day photography is just to say normal. Well speaking for the camera enthusiast and those who whish for more detailed photography , HTC 's not the one. The dynamic range is the main problem,you do not get the right exposure , it's either way high or way low exposure.

              Well for the videos, it's just does not fit well even there. The High-res Full HD video just feels like a 720p bumped up.The video does not impress at all.The camera basically "sucks" , even with the all new Toshiba sensor except for the standard Sony sensor.

BATTERY LIFE :

             You won't be left wanting for horsepower, but the 2,840mAh battery will make you kepping wanting more juice from it.  The M9 stuck around for eight hours and 19 minutes but far short of the 2 more hours we squeezed out of the M8. It regularly hungs around for 13 to 14 hours of continuous work use. Extreme Power Saving mode is quite a charm when the battery percent comes down to 6-7% , and quite get well to your charger. HTC claims to have a
Standby time: Up to 391 hours for 2G/ 402 hours for 3G & Talk time: Up to 25.4 hours for 2G/ 21.7 hours for 3G.
 

WRAP UP :

M9 is a beautifully designed smartphone, with a great screen, great sound, speedy performance, and all-day battery life. It’s just like last year’s phone in those respects. But on the ugly side, the M9’s camera is a huge disappointment, not only because it doesn’t improve upon last year’s M8, but because it simply doesn’t work as well as many of the other phones you can choose from.

    As phone camera's are become are primary camera , and we mostly take most of the pictures from it. Many people want , their phone to have a decent camera for all the sharing. For even professional phone camera photographers , the M9 does not offer anything . Instead there are many Android phones , Windows Phone and the iPhone which will give you the desired result.

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HTC VIVE

HTC & VALVE's  VIVE

           The HTC Vive is the new VR developed by collaboration of HTC and Valve.This is HTC's way of getting into the VR market place.VR or Virtual Reality is the new way the companies are heading.And HTC with it's Vive already has competition with the Facebook's Oculus as well as Samsung's Gear VR .Vive is powered by Valve’s SteamVR so plenty of games that take advantage of its capabilities will soon be available on the Steam service. So how is the first impression ?

       It feels same as the Oculus Rift or the Samsung Gear VR but instead of capturing by a camera, the Vive has base stations which can be put across the room and they essentially shine lasers across the room. So these lasers basically are picked by the sensors in front of the VR headset as well as controllers. These lasers can track more than one VR  headsets , so you can have more than one VR headset in the same room and have a combined experience.

 
       With the HTC Vive there are two controllers , which is designed by valve steam technology.
These controllers have track pads on each of them , and you can use it as an analog stick or a touching device.Both the VR headset as well as controllers look   "weird " , but as they are developer's edition there's nothing to complain about. Now the headset and the controllers have lot's of wires , but we hope HTC will go wireless or at the most a  single wire. Well , we have to wait for the final consumer product to se where it stands up against the others.


             The HTC Vive has a 1200 X 1080 pixel screen in front of each eye, with refresh rates of a 90 frames per second, displays imagery that fills your field of vision in all directions. For tracking the head movement , the Vive has a  gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor all combine to precisely track the rotation of your head . Coupling  the headset with a pair of Steam VR base stations you can  track your physical location.


          HTC Vive is collaborating with the top companies in entertainment as well as gaming companies,  to provide user's enhanced experiences.The HTC Vive looks interesting and is looking like a good competitor to the other VR manufactures.Though the actual headset is to be out at the end of year in 2015 , till that time we hope HTC to have an enhanced product.   

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