Affordable Technology

GADGETS GIZMOS GEEKS – By Manil S Dodani

GAME CHANGERS

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure”

SMARTPHONES
Asus Zenfone 2 :
Rs 18,990 approx
The Asus Zenfone 2 is packed with power features that make it come out on top in the budget smartphone rat race. A 5.5 inch screen, 4GB of ram, 13 MP rear camera and the most important – Asus Boostmaster. This nifty technology gives you 4 hours of talk time on a 10 minute charge, or rather 60% of battery capacity on a 39 minute charge. Thank you battery gods, you saved us a lot of juice.

Lava Xolo Black :
Rs 12,990 approx
Available exclusively online, the Lava Xolo is the humblest of the lot but that doesn’t keep it from being the small businessman’s go to smartphone. 2 GB of ram, 5.5 inch full HD screen and a nasty 3200 mAh battery pushes it to the third spot in our race. The Lava build quality is something to look out for before sliding this one in your pocket.

Xiaomi Mi4 :
Rs 14,990 approx
All the way from China, the infamous Xiaomi range of phones strives to deliver budget performance. A 5 inch screen, 3GB of ram, 13 MP rear camera make this an arch nemesis to the Asus Zenfone. Also sporting a (I don’t know how useful) infrared emitter that touts itself to be compatible with over 2000 devices, allows you to use the Mi4 asa remote control. Chinese packaging, Indian pricing – we like.

LAPTOPS

Dell Vostro 14 V3446: Rs 44,990 approx
Manufacturer’s description: Drive productivity in modern, professional style with a feature-rich laptop that delivers a robust and reliable performance.
Some serious competition to the Z510, the Dell Vostro 14 has a league of its own. Dell, known for its superior components quality across the globe, brings to the market yet another flagship. The Vostro is exactly like a great book: hard to put down once you pick it up. It sports an i5 processor with Turbo Boost technology that gives you that little extra kick of speed during intense usage. Superior build quality and the scratch resistant body can resist quite a few low altitude drops, a life-saving feature for those butter fingered techies. I personally vouch for the “robust and reliable performance”. Note: This monstrous piece of tech ships with Ubuntu out of the box, and requires a legit manual installation of Windows 7 or other compatible versions of Windows. The official Dell website features all the drivers you’d need to get this baby revving.

ASUS X550LD: Rs 48,000 approx
Manufacturer’s description: “Designed for everyday multitasking and entertainment for smart and practical users, the ASUS X Series notebooks redefine your expectations of all-rounder notebook.” This laptop makes quite an unforgettable entry. Asus’ Golden Finger Team makes sure that your palms are at rest while you type away on the glossy plastic keys that provide quite some travel when pressed, thanks to the textured plastic palm rests on both sides of the trackpad. The integrated HD Camera makes it ideal for some Skype calls with friends and family. The NVIDIA 2GB DDR 3 graphic card delivers what it promises, a stunning visual display and crisp graphics. The HD screen displays sharp colors with 1080p videos. The price seems a little too steep for a 15.6 inch laptop, with no touch screen features. Not to be picky but the screen isn’t too impressive and is a standard 1366×768 glare panel. The colors aren’t too bright and working with excessive light falling on the screen can get cumbersome. What I love about the Asus is the connectivity it carries onboard, sporting the new gen HDMI port and an old school VGA port, gives it some serious boosts on our rating scales. Nonetheless a must buy for any home user owing to its sharp performance and high quality multitasking experience.

Lenovo Ideapad Z510: Rs 45,000 approx
Manufacturer’s description: The Lenovo Z510 laptop is a genuine mobile entertainment hub powered by the 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processor. I personally call this one Michelle Rodriguez (a la Fast and Furious). Why? It is the perfect combination of beauty and brawn. Armed with the 4th generation Intel i5 processor and an NVIDIA GV2 graphic card, the Ideapad can fend off any tasks that are thrown at it with ease. Gaming on this one has been relatively lag free, also sports an industry standard 1 TB of storage space. Listening to music on full blast volume was also a pleasure, thanks to its speakers, designed by JBL. Told you, Michelle Rodriguez.

APPS of the MONTH

TOP 5 APPS FOR ULTIMATE CONNECTIVITY
Get these cool new apps that channelise the inner geek in you and take your reality to a whole new level

DJ STUDIO MIXER 5
Platforms : Android
Eight free sound effects, a classy interface with two decks and a microphone feature to record external music, this app seems perfect for adding a few dialogues to your track, or just for some clean professional mixing.

WAVEPAD
Platforms : iOS
If free things could only be so good. Wavepad allows you to edit, mix and play with your track until the time you feel you’ve hit acoustic gold. With options for sampling rates and saving formats, Wavepad is a must have for both amateur and professional music creators.

CROSS DJ FREE
Platforms : Android
The simplest mixing app out there with a minimalistic interface allowing you to pitch, fade and add
effects to your tracks. Load your favorite song to the deck and you are good to go. The paid version unlocks more sound effects, but if you need to do a basic mix, download and start spinning.

MIXPAD
Platforms : Android
On the go editing and mixing; for professionals only. Don’t be startled by its tech-y looking interface. It’s the best you can get, with loads of sound effects at your disposal.

HOKUSAI AUDIO EDITOR
Platforms: iOS
Easy is the most apt description for this app. Audio editing is a breeze with the handy and powerful features present in the free version itself! User friendly and intuitive, you’re not gonna be able to take your ears off this one.

Volume 5 Issue 3

Manil S Dodani