Karbonn A18 Review and how it fights Micromax A100

Karbonn A18

Karbon A18 is the first device from Karbonn mobiles to come out with ICS and its quiet some phone.

Karbon A18 is priced at 9700 Rs. 

Specifications

• WVGA IPS display (480x800) 4.3 inch 
• 1 GHz processor
• 512Mb RAM
• GPS
• Dual Sim 
• 1500 mAh battery
• Wifi a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4
• Android 4.0 ICS (Ice cream sandwitch)
• 5 MP HD camera and 1.3MP front facing camera
• Sensor - G-sensor, proximity, light, magnetic sensor.
• Micro SD card slot

Design

The design is pretty straight forward and nice on the face. First thing that your eyes get attracted to is the border, a silver border more like the karbonn smart tab 1. The thickness is more than 12mm. There is a big 4.3 inch IPS LCD displayup front and 4 capacitive hardware button below the screen. On top there is a speaker grill with some sensors on the right and VGA camera on the left of it. The back is made of plastic with a 5MP HD camera on top center with a flash below it and on the bottom back is a big grill that spans from left to right of the device for the speaker, karbonn better have stereo speakers in there. There is power button on the right side and volume rocker on the left.

On the other hand design of A100 is monotonous black but with a good rubberized back.

Screen
A big selling point is the screen. Karbonn A18 has IPS LCD display witha  WVGA resolution (480x800). Being IPS it will have very good viewing angles. Size of the screen is 4.3IN and it has slim bezels on the left and right side. Another plus here is good daylight viewing. It is also more sharper then the AMOLED display. This display was present on LG Optimus 2X. It is manufactured by LG. Iphone 4 also uses IPS display, only difference being it is a bit higher in resolution. Micromax A100 on other hand has 854x400 LCD display with 16million colors. Though don't expect high contrast like super AMOLED, but considering the price this display is a real snack.

Processor
The processor on this device is 1GHz mediatek 6575 which is good, but not the best. It will handle the OS nicely and will give you a smooth performance. It is based on ARM Cortex A9 architecture. The processor is energy efficient and uses 40nm tech. It is a very successful processor as it increases the browsing performance by 35% and graphics performance by 20% compared to its competitors.
The processor on A100 is based on the highly successful S1 from qualcomm.

Camera
Karbonn A18 features a 5MP camera on the back and 1.3MP camera on the front side.
5MP camera
This camera is better than one on the A100. It had HD 720P recording capability while micromax A100 has 480P support. The camera is autofocus camera wish some goodies.
Face Detection is a nice feature that is a bonus for a device in this price range. This camera feature detects faces. Burst Mode is also present so that you just do not miss the moment. This is top of the line feature.
However, i does not record audio from both the mics i.e. not stereo and also the 720P video recording quality is alright.
1.3MP front facing camera
This is 1MP more than the one on A100. The quality will be more sharper and with more detail. Although there is no mention of video calling over carrier.

Battery, Storage
The battery is 1500 mAH. This is good enough for a day usage as you consider the phone's processor is power efficient. You may also get a longer standby time.
It  has 512 Mb of internal storage. I am not aware yet as to how much is the user available memory. This is average considering 1.32 GB available in Micromax A100. There is a microSD card slot present for upto 32 GB of expansion.

Connectivity
Karbonn A18 is a dual sim phone with one 3G sim and other 2G sim. 3G data is 7.2MBPS HSPA.and on 2G Edge is supported. It has WiFi a/b/g/n, GPS and bluetooth v4.0.
WiFi n  is good to have because it improves the WiFi connectivity. Bluetooth 4.0 is the latest version available and is a good addition to this device.
Sensors: This device has a g-sensor, proximity sensor, magnetic sensor and light sensor. It is all packed up nicely.

OS 
Karbonn A18 supports Android 4.0 ICS out of the box and micromax has not done more of customization to it. You can check full ICS review here.

Pre-installed apps
There are some nice pre-installed apps on Karbonn A18. There is a document viewer for quick document viewing purpose. Also there is a document editor which you can use to edit and create document. Is that not good. It also has an app called NextGTv which is live TV App.

You might want to check out the full in depth Micromax A100 Review
Pros

• IPS display
• PowerVR SXG531 graphics
• Android 4.0 ICS
• Capacitive buttons
• Camera with 720P recording 
• Price of Rs 9700/-
• Burst mode in camera

Cons

• Battery could have been bigger
• Not so good looking

If you have any feedback, let us know in the comments below.

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Micromax Ninja 3 is now available for purchase on ncarry for Rs4999

Micromax Ninja 3 is now available from ncarry for Rs 4999. The price of Rs 4999 is good when you consider it also has GPS inbuilt.

Specifications

• HVGA display (480x320) 3.5 inch
• 1 GHz processor
• GPS
• Dual Sim
• 1400 mAh battery
• Wifi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Android 2.3 gingerbread
• 3 MP camera
• Micro SD card slot

Buy it from ncarry for rs 4999

Micromax ninja 3 review. A dual sim phone with android goodness.

Micromax Ninja 3

Micromax has launched Ninja 3, a budget friendly device with features more than the price.

Specifications

• HVGA display (480x320) 3.5 inch
• 1 GHz processor
• 512Mb RAM
• GPS
• Dual Sim
• 1400 mAh battery
• Wifi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Android 2.3 gingerbread
• 3 MP camera
• Micro SD card slot

Design

This phone is just 11.5 mm thin and has a nice curved back. The design is simple and constructive. There back is tapering towards the corners that makes the phone comfortable to grip in hand. There is a power key on the right side of the phone and volume key on the right hand side. It has no camera key. There is a 3.5MM audio jack present on top and micro usb port on bottom. 3 capacitive buttons are present below the screen. The phone is not too loud on the front or on the back. There is a speaker grill on the top and some sensors beside it. The camera is slightly elevated on the back it gives the feeling of HTC aesthetics.

The speaker is present below the micromax logo on the back. It is available in 2 colors midnight black and yellow.

Screen

The screen is 3.5 inch with 2.2k colors. This phone is also known as A57. Considering the price this is a good display. The resolution is 320x480 which is really good and better than galaxy pocket. It is the same resolution found in ace duos and htc desire c. It is a multitouch capacitive screen.

Processor

It has 1GHz processor. Comparing it to micromax A45 punk which has 650 MHz processor and is priced at 5499 Rs, this is better when fared with it. It will power the phone nicely. The experience on this phone will be smooth. It is the best what you can get in this price. Even Htc Desire C has a 600 Mhz processor.

Camera

It has 3MP CMOS censor. Micromax A45 has a 2MP camera which is again not good comparing to this. It is an average camera, but it is good for the market which this phone is targeted to. It will have 4x digital zoom and also night mode for better night capturing. However this does not have flash.
MultiShot mode is the highlight here as it will let you multiple images in one click, more like the galaxy s3 burst shot mode.

GPS
A good highlight of this phone is GPS. The Ninja 3 has GPS which you can use for navigation and location purposes. This feature is a plus when you see Rs 4999 price. If you are looking for a low end phone with GPS, this is the phone to go with.

Battery
Micromax ninja 3 has 1400 mAH battery. The battery is good and will drive you through the day of average usage, but do not expect a full 2 or 3 day usage

WiFi
Micromax ninja 3 is loaded with B/G/N wifi radios. The surprise here is it has N radio which will improve the wifi signal on your phone and support more high speed wifi networks upto 150 Mbps. The catch here is that it also improves the signal in low signal areas.

Storage
It has 512Mb internal storage with a microSD card slot with 32GB support. It is less compared to galaxy pocket which has 3GB internal memory but it is fare compared to galaxy Y duos which has 160 MB user available internal memory.

OS
This phone has android 2.3.5 Gingerbread loaded with custom skin by micromax. Android 2.3 is more than 2 years old now and still phones loaded with it are coming out, there is a good reason for this. Android 2.3 is a complete OS with good app and game support. It runs smoothly on 1Ghz processor and also has functionality such as WiFi Hostspot. It won't run out of mobile space until next 3-4 years. A bundle of Mi apps are pre-installed. It also has the HookUp app for texting and sharing.
Gingerbread still has major portion of market share in android. Considering the price of Ninja 3, this is a good OS.

Dual SIM Quality
This phone has one 3G sim slot and other 2G. You can use it for 3G data connectivity. WCDMA 2100 band is supported for 3G and GSM 900/1800 are supported for 2G gprs functionality.
This is a Dual standby phone, what that means is when you are on call on one sim other sim will show not reachable rather than just giving you a waiting call. This is not dual active but when see other specs, this can be compromised on.

Final Verdict

Display: 6/10
Performance: 6/10
Reception: 6/10
Camera: 5/10
Design: 7/10
Battery: 6/10
Software: 7/10

 It is a budget and pocket friendly mobile phone which you will enjoy.

If you have any feedback, let us know in the comments below.

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Android 4.0 ICS full review

 Android 4.0 is the next iteration to andorid gingerbread 2.3 for phones. It is a major update.
Video Review


Full review coming up this weekend.

Samsung announces Jelly bean update for Samsung galaxy S3

Samsung just announced that Galaxy S3 and Galaxy note 10.1 will be receiving the Jelly bean android 4.1 update pretty soon. What they did not mention was the original Galaxy Note. Galaxy note will infact get the jelly bean update Only future will tell if galaxy note gets the jelly bean update or not. 

Samsung Galaxy Note II launched at samsung mobile unpacked

Galaxy note II

Samsung just officially announced galaxy note successor, the Galaxy Note 2.
I features a beautiful 5.5in HD Super Amoled screen with a quad core processor beneath.
Specifications:

• 5.5 in HD Super Amoled Screen
• Android 4.1 jelly bean
• 1.6 GHz qaad core processor
• 16,32 or 64 GB storage options
• White or blue color
• 8MP back and 1.9MP front facing camera
• 3100 mAh battery
• 9mm

It features 1024 pressure sensitive points to accurately get the Spen contact with the screen.
It features a series of S Pen applications that let you leverage the
Photo Note.
Galaxy Note 2 bring photo note. In this you can flip the photo and it will produce an image that looks like the back of image and then you can write on it.

Idea visualizer

Write a word in the box and it will automatically suggest a picture. This is awesome feature. You can also add pictures to library. Will be interesting to use it.

When you remove the Spen a small Magic wand Menu appears which lets you know what all magic you can do with S Pen

The new S Pen has new tech. When you hover it over the screen you can see the preview. This can be done over an email, calender event, photo or a message.

Quick Command
Just hold the Spen and swipe it up where a command window appears . When you write a name and it recognizes you command and  and takes you to the contact. More commands available.

S Pen SDK 2.0 available.

Sketchbook takes advantage of the S Pen and let the artists elevate even further.it is available preloaded with the galaxy note 2.

The design is very close to galaxy s3 and now samsung has start to take the look away from apple. The software is improved. 

Samsung galaxy note II press shots leak

The new galaxy note is about to be launched in sometime and we already have a press shot leak.
This looks pretty genuine.

Specifications :

• 1.4 ghz qual core processor
• 2GB ram
• 8MP back and 1.9 MP front camera

The UI looks like touchwiz and there are also new features of improved S Pen. The Galaxy note II looks like a bigger Galaxy S3. It will also be available in white and blue.

Source : PocketNow via AndroidPolice

Samsung Galaxy player 5.8 launched, bring 2500 mAH battery

Samsung galaxy player 5.8

Samsung launches new device to it Galaxy player lineup. This device will have a screen size of 5.8' and will have qHD resolution 960x540. There will be TouchWiz interface over Android 4.0 OS. From the looks it seems it will have a set of stereo speakers one on top and the other on bottom. It will come in 16 or 32GB storage. It will also have a MicroSD slow for storage expansion. Other details are sparse for now, but we will keep you updated.

via androidpolice.com

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Micromax A100 vs Xperia Neo v Camera samples comparision.

I am doing some comparison below of two 5Mp cameras, one from Micromax A100 and other from xperia neo v.

The shots of the cat are from micromax and the flower are from neo v. The reason am comparing photos captured from these two devices is that they are quiet similar on specs, 1GHZ processor, almost 512 MB ram, android 4.0 and a 5MP camera. I think Sony is a really good camera maker but at least we can see how much micromax fares in front of that. 

A100 cat photo

Xperia neo v photo sample

Micromax A100 macro shot

Xperia neo v macro shot

Also significant is the amount of detail these two images store. A 5Mp shot from micromax is 1.01 mb while a 5Mp shot form xperia neo v is 1.46 mb. It store more detail and captures more light. Micromax however is not bad as you can see from the first shot it is good enough.

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Photo gallery of micromax A100 Superphone Canvas. The common man's smartphone.

This page will only have pics of this phone. Just thought i should bring you some phone luxury. Enjoy the next big thing.

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Xperia play vs Micromax A100 superphone canvas

The screen on both these displays are 16m colors so i thought it would be fare comparing it so i will be uploading some pics of both the displays. Both have 1ghz processors. Xperia play has 4in screen and micromax 100 superphone canvas has 4.95in screen.

Do you guys want a full video comparison of these two devices? Let us know in comments.

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Micromax A100 superfone canvas review with video. Gives 9999 Rs a worth to spend.

I am doing a 3 part full review. Part 1 of which i have uploaded below. Part 2 and part 3 are also live now. Cheers.

Micromax A100 

Micromax A100 Superfone canvas- Budget smartphone rediscovered, other smartphones hammered.
As you can see from the line above, this phone is excellent for its price. I will get into more detail in the review below.

Design

Back Micromax A100 Superfone canvas

This phone is just 11.9 mm thin. It is not the slimmest thing out there, but it feels very light in hand.
The body is completely plastic with a matte finish back cover. It is bigger then average but is good to hold. Scratches stay away from the back. There are no buttons on the front of the screen that gets and the design looks somewhat like galaxy s3. There is 0.3 ml front facing camera on the top left and a speaker grill on the top and a big 4.95 inch screen, that is all for the front. On the left side is volume rocker and on the right power button which are a little raised but looks a part of the frame. On top lies 3.5 mm jack and on bottom lies micro usb port.

Screen

A100 screen

The best part of this phone is its screen, a 4.95 inch FWVGA (854*480) resolution screen. The resolution might not be greatest but colors on this display look stunning. Videos on this display look really good. I did not see any pixelation. The touch is very responsive on this screen, no lag whatsoever in clicking buttons.
Outdoor viewing on this is good. i tried with brightness kept full and it worked well. On minimum brightness you wont be able to see much. It is a very user focused review because i am using this as my primary phone and i am sharing all the good and bad. I will compare the screen with xperia play which has super AMOLED screen 16m color lcd screen and then you can judge for yourself.
http://androidintech.blogspot.com/2012/08/xperia-play-vs-micromax-a100-superphone.html
(Noe- this is only screen comparison)
OS
Using this phone gives you a feeling that you are holding a nexus device. Onscreen buttons, quality screen, nice build quality and above all Stock Android 4 ICS(Ice cream sandwich). The only thing that is customized is the notification panel and it is done for good to give you access to quick settings. All applications are stock. and it provides for a very rich experience.

Performance
The 1Ghz processor is snappy and moving through the UI is buttery smooth. the processor does not let down when doing processor intensive tasks. I only felt a lag when i was using any background process. for eg. when i was downloading applications or games, the phone slowed down a bit. This is temporary. Wifi is b/g/n and it performs slick. I never felt lag in watching videos. You would want to look on to this screen when you look it in person. There is pre installed file manager app for your convenience. Launching apps, multitasking, closing apps, unlocking phone, setting wallpaper, reading books etc are tasks which need quick processor response and this phone delivers that.

Game performance 

Game performance review

A100 did not come with any preloaded games. Games look really awesome on this display and perform the same. I played some games including Avatar HD which performed seamlessly. Multitouch on the screen does not dissapoint. Not only the game graphics looks exceptional the controls make you wana play more.
I did notice some game did not support this phone, but again majority of games will. It has an adreno 200 gpu. that also performs good for graphics intensive games.
HD games lag somewhat initially but that is not much. after some gameplay it is as smooth as any other phone.
I have also done Turbofly 3D and Ashphalt 6 game video. You can check it for yourself below.



Notifications

Quick settings 

Micromax made some changes to A100 notification panel to show quick settings. This is really convenient and you will not have to place separate widgets for simple things like adjusting brightness, wifi toggle and more.

Storage

Though the specs say it has 4 gb, 1.32 gb is shown as internal space on device and 1.41GB on internal SD. I don't know why is there a separation in internal space of 4GB but this is it. i have been using this device and i feel this is sufficient considering there is a microSD card slot to expand the storage and you can add 32 GB more.

Battery

2000 mAH battery is present on this device. Although A100 has a bigger screen the battery is good for more than a day of use when kept on medium brightness. I have not tested it for continuous video playback but it works good. One thing i would like to bring into notice is that the phone takes time to charge. You will have to keep the phone for around 2 hours to get it fully charged. I am using this phone as my primary device and i am not disappointed because the battery life is good. You will get anywhere between 4 -5 hours of continuous browsing, however when playing HD games the battery starts draining quickly.

Browsing

This is one thing that should be good and matters in selection of a phone and this phone is good in that area. 

Again it is stock ICS browser with smooth pinch to zoom good scrolling rate.
I also tried dolphin browser and it performed nicely.

I would like to mention one thing which might not matter for you. Google chrome on this phone performed very sluggish. It is very close to unusable. I don't know weather this is an issue or it is only with my device.

Flash support

Flash player is supported and videos can be played directly in browser. It gives a smooth experience.

Camera

Photo Samples

Closeup sample 1

Close up sample 2

landscape photo sample

lanscape photo sample 2

landscape photo sample 3

sky photo sample

This is stock ICS camera user interface. There is 5MP camera on the back and 0.3MP camera on the front for video calling. the camera on the back is capable of shooting 480P and also FWVGA. The quality of video is more than ok. It is good. it enables recording videos in H264, H263 and MPEG4 formats and audio in aac or AMRNB There are color options to choose filters for video. There is flash present but it is not as powerful. I will upload the video sample. Also there is zoom slider you can zoom while you are recording a video. Photo clicking is fun on this phone as it has quiet good functionality. There is Exposure mode selection of spot, center and frame. Focus mode CAF, macro, infinity, normal and auto. There is also a function of touch on screen to focus where you click an area and the camera focuses on that area but this feature does not work well. I tried focusing in macro mode but the camera did not focus. There are scene modes included  as a plus. Flash in picture mode has flash auto function and in video mode it only has on/off and no auto. You can zoom when capturing an image but it gets pixelated when zooming. You can capture in a lot of picture sizes.

Benchmarks 

Quadrant

 

Score : 2305

Antutu

Antutu benchmark : 2514

Browsermark

Browser mark : 63778

Nenamark

Score : 16.2 fps

Call Quality 

This is one thing that can't be compromised on. This phone delivers good call quality on both the sim cards.

The sound is clear and crisp. You will not have to compromise on it. This is for normal talking when you are holding your phone but when you put the headset on the volume on the bundled headphone is pretty low and you can not hear much. i tried putting on other headphone but it gane same output for voice though microphone worked nicely.

Speaker

The speaker is loud. Although there is only one speaker present it is loud. The quality is not excellent but is not bad even. UPDATE : I had noticed one thing earlier that when you keep the phone straight on any surface, the volumes reduces significantly as the speaker is on the back.

Reception

I like the reception on this phone. Its excellent and quick it catches network fast and stays on it. Both sim cards have good reception capabilities. It is easy to select network and set default sim card for data.

Video calling over skype

There is no native video calling over carrier available on this phone so i tested it on skype. The front camera is a VGA camera and is an average performer. It works and will not disappoint.

WiFi performance

I have tested couple of phone along with this for WiFi and this phone performs better. It has b/g/n radio and the reception in low signal  low signal is nice. - apologies for this. 

Keyboard

It is a plus and a plus. First the keyboard is stock ICS, second because the screen is big the keyboard is spacious. In landscape mode it is not possible to type nicely because the screen is too big and the keyboard spans completely on the display.

As we are looking at a lot of features here i would break down and give a score.

Display: 9/10
Performance: 8/10
Reception: 8/10
Camera: 6/10
Design: 9/10
Battery: 7/10
Software: 10/10

Its a common man's smartphone. 

Thank you for watching. I will upload a video sample today (both indoor and outdoor)

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Special only photos post of this phone:
http://androidintech.blogspot.com/2012/08/photo-gallery-of-micromax-a100.html

Note to visitors: If anyone can provide me with a phone for review purpose, i will put up a special thanks and also a link or may be your advertise. Contact me on jayeshahit@gmail.com

Bonus: I will be uploading close- up comparison photos of images clicked from this and a different phone with 5Mp camera that i took before the phone went for replacement, possibly today.
Time has come. Below post has camera comparison.
http://androidintech.blogspot.com/2012/08/micromax-a100-vs-xperia-neo-v-camera.html

I wont be able to upload video samples as there was a speaker problem in A100 and micromax service center will pack it and give back the phone. After that i will a replaced peice. Up until now they do not have the expertise to repair it here. Problem was a very simple, the speaker sounded very harsh.

Update: How Karbonn A18 dares in front of Micromax A100 

Update: Video sample now live.

Hello, jaani here. Do you feel this review is complete. Tell us your feedback and what you feel. I have a review in hindi coming up this week. If anyone has a feature they want to see you can tell me. Do you feel you need to see an in depth ICS Review? The reason being lot of phone that are coming in will be ICS loaded or further. Have a nice day. Cheers.