Oppo N1 announced, comes with a 5.9 inch full HD screen, 13 MP rotating swivel camera and rear touch panel

Oppo have finally revealed all the details of their latest camera centric flagship device – the Oppo N1. The N1 was announced at an event in Beijing amidst much expectations, as we had detailed ours a while back. It has a 5.9 inch full HD resolution IPS display, a O-Touch rear sensor for single handed touch interaction on the back and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad Core processor. At 5.9 inches, the device is huge and as a result, sports a massive 3610 mAH battery too. But the main USP is a 13 Megapixel Sony EXMOR RS Stacked CMOS Sensor camera, with a f2.0 aperture six element lens that sits on a rotating swivel and turns 206 degrees!

There is a boatload of new features Oppo has introduced, but lets go through the specifications first -

• 5.9 inch full HD 1920×1080 IPS LCD display
• Dimensions – 170.7 x 82.6 x 9 mm Weight – 213g
• 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 with Adreno 320
• 16/32 GB ROM, 2 GB RAM
• 13 Megapixel Stacked CMOS Sony sensor with dedicated ISP
• F2.0 Aperture, Dual LED flash and 1080p Video recording
• 3G, USB OTG, WiFi ac 5GHz, WiFi Direct, WiFi Display support
• 3610 mAH battery
• Android 4.2 – Color ROM pre-installed, unlocked bootloader

The price is set at 3,468 Yuan = 570 USD = 35,700 INR and is set for a December availability.

Now to expand on the highlights of the Oppo N1 -

13 Megapixel rotating swivel camera -

The camera on the Oppo N1 is a 13 Megapixel Sony EXMOR RS Stacked CMOS Sensor unit, the same as the Find 5, the Lenovo K900 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. It is a 1/3.06″ sensor that is complemented by a six element f2.0 aperture lens. The lens is coated with IR and Blue filters and Oppo boasts of reduced chromatic aberrations and purple fringing from the lens. The whole unit sits on a swivel-type arrangement that can rotate 206 degrees for using the same camera for front-facing as well as rear-facing shots.

The dual LED flash also works according to the orientations of the camera, with a powerful flash for the rear orientation and a diffused flash for the front orientation. Not only that the camera gets a dedicated ISP too, and Oppo says that it is custom made, tailored for the N1′s camera. it enabled a fast 0.6 second cold boot for the camera alone and even a 8 second long shutter speed for the camera. Oppo brands all these features under “Pure Image” or PI moniker.

O-Touch rear sensor

One of the prominent teaser campaigns before the launch of this device was the Rear touch functions of the N1, and it is called O-Touch now. Like we had seen earlier, you can either swipe left-right or top-bottom for all the common touch interactions, and configure a single long press action too, to open up a special app or a full screen widget. You can even snap a photo when using the camera, using the O-Touch area on the back. The surface area is 12cm^2 which is reasonably large for the back of a smartphone.

O-Click remote control

The O-Click remote control unit lets you remotely trigger the shutter of the N1′s camera. This is pretty useful for self-timer like shots of a group or any other usage one could think of. It’s really small and can go with a keychain. Not only that, you can also use it as a NFC remote to locate or track an object from the phone or vice versa, which works much like the rumoured Nokia Bluetooth Tag. The O-click comes bundled for free in the retail box. But there are also other accessories available for the N1, like a leather case, Bluetooth stereo speakers and, what look like, a battery pack.

These are the highlights of the Oppo N1. You might also want to know that the device has been extensively sampled and tested to make sure all the design elements work right, for example, they have made sure that the swivel unit lasts 100,000 rotations to finalize the appropriate design and even got more than a dozen suppliers in line for producing its aluminium frame over a period of 20 days. If the Find 5′s build quality is anything to go by, we expect the N1 to look and feel similar, but the only concern is our weight, but that makes for an entirely different post, we’ll hold on that.

Lastly, the Oppo N1 comes with the company’s own Color ROM pre-installed, which is a skinned version of Android 4.2. The International version will come with an unlocked bootloader and Oppo will provide options to load Cyanogen Mod through stock recovery options. But there is also a limited edition N1 that will come with Cyanogen Mod out of the box, making it the first ever hardware partner for the Cyanogen Mod Inc.

And that’s it folks. This is the Oppo N1.

Xolo Play T1000 review: Great device

Uniqueness is a rarity for most Indian handset manufacturers, except Xolo, which rocked the smartphone world with the first ever Intel operating system-based handset last year-the X900. It continued to offer good quality handsets at various price points. Adding another feather to its cap it recently launched the Xolo Play T1000, which happens to be the cheapest Tegra 3 processor based smartphone in India.

Keeping apart the tall claims and figures, we reviewed Xolo Play T1000 and here is an account of what we discovered.

Design and display

Since it is promoted as a gaming smartphone, the screen is expected to have good resolution. Play has a 4.7 inch IPS display with high definition resolution. Moreover, it has armed it with One Glass Solution that is said to have better resistance to scratches while offering better colour output than normal touchscreens.

The brightness of the screen is quite low though and that makes it very difficult to use in bright sunlight.

We did not find any loopholes in the screen but the volume rocker disappointed us a lot. In the unit we received, the volume rocker was not working properly; though we could increase the volume, we could not decrease it. This is perhaps due to a design flaw: in most smartphones the volume rocker is directly attached with the internals itself. However, in Xolo Play the volume rocker is part of the back panel, which means there remains a gap in the button and the internal port. You have to press it very hard to initiate an action and thus in the long run the rockers may not work properly.

However, the rubberized back panel, 10.4 mm thickness and 167 gram weight make the smartphone absolutely comfortable to hold and operate.

Processing power

As mentioned above the device comes with Nvidia Tegra 3, which is actually a quad core processor with 1.5 GHz clockspeed and has a fifth battery saving core. It is assisted by 1 GB RAM and a 12 core Nvidia GeForce graphics processing unit. The combination is awesome and thus its processing capability is unmatched by any phone under Rs 20,000. It easily runs games like The Conduit HD and Dead Trigger with full resolution and all special effects (ragdoll, shadows, water reflection etc).

Xolo Play comes with android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean operating system as well, which means that it would be compatible with most applications and games found on the Google Play Store.

Camera

Play T1000 has an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. The rear camera is able to capture full high definition resolution (1920 x 1080 pixel) videos.

The BSI sensor based camera is a touch focus unit and is able to capture the fine details. However, it does not have wide angle shooting capability and pictures come with 4:3 aspect ratio. The front camera is decent for both self-portraits as well as video calls.

Below are some images captured using the rear camera, which will give you a decent idea of its quality.

Memory

The Xolo Play has 4 GB internal memory and a 32 GB micro SD card slot. The combination is quite common but being a gaming device, a little more internal memory would have been better. However, considering its low price tag, one can't complain.

Battery

Despite having a battery saving core in its processor, the Xolo Play disappointed us with its battery life. Despite Xolo's claim of 227 hours, the phone hardly managed to stay for more than 24 hours.

In fact, the use of the camera starts depleting the phone's battery at a rapid rate. As far as WiFibrowsing is concerned, we used it to watch YouTube videos and in half an hour it consumed 20 per cent charge at maximum brightness. Likewise, it provides around an hour of gaming at maximum brightness.

Connectivity

Xolo Play is a dual SIM device and has a lot of features you would expect from a decent android smartphone: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, and WiFi (b/g/n) with WiFi hotspot capability. However, the placement of the front earpiece is quite faulty, and that makes it difficult to hear what the caller is saying.

Conclusion

The Xolo Play T1000 is highly recommended for gamers who do not want to spend on high-end devices. It has a good camera and multi-tasking. There are a few design flaws (perhaps unique to the review unit only,) and bugs.

The battery output is disappointing as well but for less than Rs 15,000, it is undoubtedly a good buy as a minor update would perhaps fix the bugs.

Xolo Play T1000 review-Great device but with flaws Specifications
Network
Operating System	Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean
Dimensions	10.4 mm thickness and 167 gram weight
Display	4.7 inch IPS display
Input Method	Touchscreen
Processor	Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor with 1.5 GHz clockspeed
Memory	1 GB RAM , 4 GB internal memory, 32 GB micro SD card slot and a 12 core Nvidia GeForce graphics processing
Connectivity	USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, and WiFi (b/g/n) with WiFi hotspot capability
Multimedia	Supports all major audio file types
Camera	8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera
GPS	Yes
Additional features
Battery
Warranty	1 year
Price

HiTech Amaze S200 - review

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Today there are dozens of Android smartphones below Rs 5,000 but most of them provide such a poor performance that people prefer feature phones over them. With such a thought I started reviewing the HiTech Amaze S200 - an Android smartphone which is available for just around Rs 2,900 making it perhaps the cheapest smartphone in the market now.

Here is what we have found after using it for some days.

Design and display:

The Amaze S200 looks lot better than many low cost handsets out there in the market. It has a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen below which there are three touch sensitive buttons - Menu, Home, Return. The touchscreen itself has very good touch response and we had no problem with the three touch buttons either. In the phone, the volume rocker is on the right hand side while the power key is at the top. The 3.5 mm jack is at the bottom alongside the micro USB port. The phone is very light weight and looks decent despite being the cheapest Android smartphone.

Features:

The Amaze S200 comes with the 1 GHz Spreadtrum SC6820 processor which is found in many low cost smartphones. Besides, the phone has Android ICS operating system, 256 MB RAM, 60 MB of internal space, 32 GB micro SD card slot, 2 megapixel rear camera, 0.3 megapixel front camera, and a 1400 mAh battery.

The handset has many preloaded applications like Whatsapp, Yahoo Messenger, One Browser, Google Maps, ES File Explorer, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, and YouTube. Anyway, it has access to Google Play Store from where you can download as many compatible apps as you like.

Also, despite being price so low and is a 2 G only phone, the Amaze S200 comes armed with WiFi(b/g/n) version with WiFi Hotspot capability. Besides, this dual SIM smartphone has Bluetooth too.

Performance:

To start with, the Amaze S200 has good touchscreen response but has a bit lower resolution which is endemic to all its competitors. Since it has only 256 MB RAM so one should not expect to play games like Temple Run let alone graphics heavy games, but you can play few games on it like Mountain Bike, Racing Moto, Hill Climb racing etc. In fact, I had even managed to play Temple Run on this but of course the game played with lot of hiccups.

Also, Hi Tech should be patted on the back for giving dual cameras with Amaze S200. The rear camera is decent for a 2 megapixel camera. Even the front VGA camera is very good for video chatting. You can even use the front camera for self-portraits.

As I said earlier, the Amaze S200 is a 2G handset but HiTech armed with its WiFi (b/g/n) which is the best WiFi version currently in the market. With this you can also enjoy high speed internet as well.

But the best function of the S200 is its battery life. As per HiTech, the S200 has standby of 240 hours or 10 days and talktime of five hours. As claimed, the phone managed to hold charge for over a week. It has also a very good speaker that provides very loud but decent quality sound.

Conclusion:

At Rs 2,900, the HiTech Amaze S200 provides more than one would ask for. It has dual SIM connectivity with Android ICS operating system, a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen, 32 GB micro SD card slot, dual camera, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Its screen resolution is appreciable considering that it is one of the cheapest Android smartphones I have come across. Specifically, its touchscreen response is great for a low cost device as few months back low cost smartphones were coming with resistive screens.

In short, I would undoubtedly recommend this phone for anyone who wants a second hand Android phone or who wants a decent low cost smartphone.

HiTech Amaze S200 - cheapest but decent Specifications
Network
Operating System	Android
Dimensions	11.8x561.5x13.3mm
Display	3.5 inch capacitive
Input Method
Processor	1 GHz Spreadtrum SC6820
Memory	256 MB, 60 MB internal, 32 GB expandable
Connectivity	WiFi, Bluetooth, micro USB
Multimedia
Camera	2 megapixel rear, 0.3 megapixel front
GPS	No
Additional features
Battery
Warranty	1 year
Price	Rs 2,900