It is the age of gadgets, and one thing’s for sure – with the ultimate power of the internet to accompany them, we’ve never been more plugged in than we’re today. To stay connected, one need power, and in order to store power in those traditional rechargeable batteries, you’d have to experience an inconsistency in your work, especially, when you are traveling. So, what is the solution? A portable consistent power source, which can be easily carried around and has enough juice to recharge the gadget at least twice. This is where a power bank comes to the rescue!
Well, there is a huge list of companies that sell power banks, each varying just a little on specifications. In this case, it is really difficult to figure out which one can be a right investment. Fortunately, we were able to add one more power bank to our list of reviewed item. Tech Armor may be a stranger to most of you, especially if you’re at the European or Asian Continents, and you’d be right about that. It is actually a company that sells the mobile protective case, power banks and other mobile accessories.
Unboxing
Inside the box, you’ll find a 12,000 mAh Power Bank, a white USB cable, some manual and user guide. Nothing fancy, just usual stuff here. The packaging was alright. Guys at Tech Armor were kind enough to send me extra lightning cable along with the power bank in case I had an iPhone instead of a device with the microUSB port. I am pretty sure you’ll have to buy the lightning port separately if you do not have one. The box only ships with microUSB port.
Build Quality & Design
The best thing about Tech Armor PowerBank is its Build Quality and design. The velvety finish on top, good quality plastic case and rounded body look and feel really good in person. It is actually smaller in size than it appear in the picture, which is another advantage over other PowerBanks.
There are two USB ports, ideally, one is for Smartphones and another is to charge gadgets with higher capacity batteries such as Tablets. My Samsung Galaxy S6 didn’t appear to charge as quickly as it would with bundled charger. I ended up using Tablet port on the power bank for a faster charge, only to find out that it didn’t dramatically speed up charging process. It clearly indicates that these two ports have a different power supply, but no fast charge capabilities. This is where things started to move downwards.
There is a power button on the side, which is the only physical button you’ll find on the device. Holding the button for few seconds will trigger the ‘torch’ located at the top of the microUSB port. The power indicator on top has 4 LED lights, indicating the percentage of juice left on the PowerBank.
Performance & Ease of use
The TechArmor PowerBank doesn’t appear to deliver the backup it promises. The 12,000 mAh capacity should be able to charge my Huawei Honor 6 Plus at least 2.5 times. However, during my test, I found that it would hardly go up to 1.8 times, which mean, the PowerBank itself would require me to charge before filling up my phones battery twice. It is a serious red flag right there.
Additionally, the PowerBank takes too long to recharge itself. It took 5-6 hours to charge up to 100%. Frequent travellers would really want to stay away from this as it is highly unreliable.
What do we think?
Tech Armor ActivePower 12000mAh External Battery Portable Dual USB Power Bank has great build quality and design. The small case is easier to hold in hands and carry around. However, the device has many drawbacks, given it is not cheap. The few minor bugs would’ve been acceptable if the device was made available at lower price. The Tech Armor PowerBank targets mid-market segment as it is available at $49.99 on their Official Website. When recognized players such as Huawei (AP007 Review), Xiaomi, Lenovo, and OnePlus has already settled with PowerBanks Prices around $20, I don’t see a point going for this overpriced device.
If your priority is design, look and feel over the performance and reliability, you’re in good hands. However, we would strongly suggest you look elsewhere.
We had a tremendous response on our previous giveaway, following the success a new US based company sent us a very compact gadget to expose it to our readers. It is our pleasure to provide a platform to host these giveaways for DigitFreak readers.
The 1byOne Ultra-Compact Tri-Folding Wireless Keyboard is an ultra slim portable gadget, precisely built to accompany you when you are away from the luxury of a standard keyboard. You can simply type long documents and respond to tedious emails on the go with this super compact keyboard on your smartphone/Tablets. Heck, it even works on smart TV or any other gadget that supports Bluetooth connectivity. Yet, we couldn’t recommend it as a viable option to our readers. Find out why on our full review.
This international giveaway is powered by DigitFreak, co-sponsored by our gadget partner 1byOne US.
Want to win the 1byOne Wireless Keyboard? Jump to the widget at the end of the post to participate in the giveaway. Normal contest rules apply here. One entry per method per person. This one’s open to all folks everywhere such contests are legal, but we can’t guarantee the phone/gadget will work on your network/country. (You know how these things go). We’ll announce the winner here on DigitFreak, once they send us their Image with the gadget upon receiving it.
The giveaway is an international giveaway (Except when we can not ship to your Country.)
If we can not ship to your country, you will be compensated with an online gift card of equal MSRP value to the prize.
We are not responsible for lost shipments.
You must be the age of majority in your Country of residence.
We are not responsible for any duties, import taxes that you may incur.
Only 1 entry per person. Do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
This giveaway is operated by DigitFreak.
The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.
Technology has made this world a better place certainly by making our life effortless every day. As in particular, the invention of smartphones, IOS & Android & Windows system tablets have undoubtedly fluid the communication system. Moreover, voice calls, tweeting or texting is much viral among the people nowadays.
on the other hand, writing documents, notes and typing long email messages in the smartphones were not possible until the innovation of Bluetooth keyboards. Besides that to make our work more convenient the 1byone company has launched a tri-folding wireless Bluetooth keyboard which can be easily carried anywhere and also can be fitted into your pocket. Owing to the reason we can obviously state that pocket-sized folding keyboard is much handier than a physical keyboard or other big sized Bluetooth keyboards.
Box Accessories
The packing includes a Bluetooth, user manual and a USB charging cable.
Build Quality & Design
The portable ultra-slim Bluetooth keyboard is well made by plastic on the front side and aluminium alloy on the backboard. The rubberized feet on the bottom works as a stand to the keyboard which also do not let the aluminium back get scratched somehow. The metal hinge allows the keys in the folds to retain the standard keyboard’s layout brilliantly. The design of the keyboard is impressive but not unique as the same style can be spotted with different brand logo. I think there is a bigger anonymous manufacturer who provides the device to multiple resellers.
There is a visible protruding segment present in the middle column on keyboard’s back, which is highly noticeable when it is closed, supposedly housing the main circuit board and battery. Also, there is 1byone logo, manufacturer information and additional standard symbols located at the bottom of the middle column. The charging port is located at the top edge of the same extended segment.
There is no dedicated power button on the keyboard to turn it on or off, the another welcome feature as you don’t have to keep reminding yourself to turn it off. Additionally, there is an automated power off feature, which is a little inconvenient. I will talk about it later.
Features and Flaws
The keyboard pretty much has the standard layout, other than the number keys are shifted to one whole row or column? and the num pad is missing.
For this review, I tested the keyboard by using it to type emails and long documents on my Laptop as well as smartphone and iPad. During my testing period, I didn’t notice any typing lag. Except one time when it was bit slower to register my input when my old Android phone was experiencing the lag system wide.
To connect the keyboard with the Bluetooth enabled device, you simply have to unfold it and press Fn+c. It will trigger the blue LED on top on the keyboard panel, indicating that the keyboard is ready for pairing with the device. Once paired, the LED will stop blinking and your keyboard is ready to use. The amazing part is that once paired with the device, you can simply unfold/fold the keyboard to connect or disconnect it with the paired device. There are additional function keys such as volume rocker and media controller, which can be activated by using ‘Fn’ key.
Sometimes if you press Ctrl+A the keyboard lifts up on that side, making it a little unstable at times.
Also, It might be a problem for those who has a habit of using right shift button as it has been shrunk a tad bit to fit it right on top of ‘right arrow’ button. While typing documents and performing certain tasks which involved the ‘Shift’ key, resulted in accidental pressing ‘Up arrow’ button. The Up & Down arrow buttons could inherit the ‘Split’ key design from that we see on Apple Laptops, which would have allowed the standard ‘Shift’ button. Pretty much like this one:
Some keys especially which lie on the line of the folding area doesn’t work properly as I had to press it multiple times to make it register my input.
In spite of drawbacks, the keyboard can be contributing for touch-typist and beat the burden out of swiping or thumbing. The keyboard doesn’t remain flat on the table or desk while working due to the metal hinges but it doesn’t pose much trouble to the user. Built-in 210mAh lithium battery, works for up to 114 days in standby mode without charging, with 64 hours continuous use. In addition, the sleep mode of the keyboard is automatically enabled to save power if the keyboard is unattended for 15 minutes. The keyboard can be brought back from sleep by simply pressing any key, but unfortunately, it takes a little while to function normally. It is a nice feature, but it may be a bit hassle for some users as most people lack patience because we expect the keyboard to be always ready for our input.
What do we think?
1byone could be a great travel companion, letting you work away from your desktop as it allows you to work wirelessly on the wide range of Bluetooth devices. The 1byOne Trifolding Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard is Available on Amazon India at ?5,278 (and $35.99 in the US), which put it right on top of the medium segment. As mentioned earlier, while researching for this article, I found that various companies are selling the same keyboard but with different branding (logo) and even cheap price. It is highly likely that they are all importing this gadget from China or another country for rebranding with the personalized company logo. (Example 1) (Example 2)
When gimmicks and flaws are combined with the high price range, it is difficult to recommend this gadget to our readers.
Have you ever heard of ‘time capsules’? Well, it just got a serious upgrade!
Researchers at Southampton University in the UK developed a tiny glass disc that can store data up to 360TB (that’s 368,640 GB of data) which can be preserved for 14 Billion years. Yes, you heard it right!
The technique uses femtosecond laser pulses to write data in the 3D structure of quartz at the nanoscale. These pulses can write data in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by 5 micrometres (that’s 0.005 mm).
The team behind the new 5D discs says these discs could be most useful for institutions who deal with large archives: libraries, museums, and anywhere else extensive records are kept (like a Facebook data centre).
So where do the five dimensions come from? First there’s the three-dimensional position of each dot within the layers, and then the extra dimensions are the size and orientation of the dot. The nanostructures created by the technology can be read using an optical microscope in tandem with a polariser (a filter designed to block specific polarisations of light).
The team has now written a series of major works to small glass discs— including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton’s Opticks, the Magna Carta and the Kings James Bible. They also point out that the data is extremely stable: It could endure for as long as 13.8 billion years at temperatures up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already a month into 2016, but sure enough, here we are in February! We hope you’re all having a fantastic year so far, but we thought maybe we could make it a little better for one of you. So, we’re giving away CoolPad Note 3 to a lucky DigitFreak reader! There are several ways for you to enter to win this phone, so keep reading for all the details.
We’re still awaiting more information from the winner (The Prize has yet to reach the winner. Images are unavailable atm).
Update: We just received this image from the winner of Asus Zenfone 2 Laser Giveaway (16th Feb 2016).
CoolPad Note 3 Giveaway
This international giveaway is powered by DigitFreak, co-sponsored by our media partner JoyCreak.
Want to win the CoolPad Note 3? Jump to the widget at the end of the post to participate in the giveaway.Normal contest rules apply here. One entry per method per person. This one’s open to all folks everywhere such contests are legal, but we can’t guarantee the phone will work on your network. (You know how these things go.) The contest ends on March 12th. We’ll announce the winner here on DigitFreak once they send us their Image with the smartphone upon receiving.
The giveaway is an international giveaway (Except when we can not ship to your Country.)
If we can not ship to your country, you will be compensated with an online gift card of equal MSRP value to the prize.
We are not responsible for lost shipments.
You must be the age of majority in your Country of residence.
We are not responsible for any duties, import taxes that you may incur.
Only 1 entry per person. Do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
This giveaway is operated by DigitFreak.
The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.
The smartphone market has been flooded with new mobile phone companies, many of which we don’t even recognize. Unless we are specifically being told about their reputed history in the Chinese market, chances are we would end up categorizing them as a new start-up company. Honestly, when Amazon started promoting CoolPad Note 3 on their homepage, I was baffled to witness their greedy strategy to promote the unrecognized brand at a wide platform, exclusively! After a simple google search of ‘CoolPad,’ everything started to make sense, which eventually explained the motive behind Amazon’s decision to support this brand.
Actually, CoolPad isn’t a new company. It is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, which is like any other popular brands, is one of the largest manufacturers of the smartphone. It is no different than widely accepted other popular brands, such as OnePlus, Huawei, Xiaomi etc. It started expanding itself to other parts of the world of distinction.
Unboxing
Before opening the box, we noticed a white block with “CoolPad Note 3” at the center and *4G* written at the bottom right corner of the front face. There were no description or specification texts to be found anywhere on the box. Anyways, we moved on, still being little confused about this.
Inside the box, we found a brand new smartphone, an earphone, travel adapter (5V, 2A), a data cable, a quick start guide and a warranty card.
Build Quality
The CoolPad Note 3 is 5.5-inch (720p) smartphone with seemingly decent specifications at an astonishingly low price. The body is made up of plastic, which is expected at this price range, and should be easily accepted given you’re investing very little compared to the other smartphones that come at a hefty price for a full metal body. According to the company, the smartphone’s frame is made up of Aluminum-alloy, so you shouldn’t be much worried about the quality of the inside, which is what matters the most.
The smartphone has curvy back, which felt amazing while operating the phone. It sits ergonomically in the hands while typing as well.
There is a rear camera with led flash, secondary microphone, a fingerprint sensor at the top, and a speaker vent along with the Coolpad logo at the bottom of the back side. The power button is on the right side, volume rocker on the left side, 3.5mm audio jack at the top and a micro USB port along with a microphone at the bottom.
This dual sim smartphone supports dual standby 4G sim cards. There is a 3000 mAh battery, and capability to expand the storage up to 64GB.
At 9.3mm thick and 155g in weight, this is not an easy phone to handle. The tapered rear edges and matte finish do help somewhat, but you’ll wind up shuffling it up and down in your hand, and you’ll have to be careful of your grip at all times.
Camera
The smartphone comes bundled with 5MP front selfie camera and 13MP auto-focus rear camera with LED flash. It has f2.0 aperture with 5 element HD Lens, which will supposedly take better pictures in a low-light environment.
The 5MP front camera takes decent selfies, which looks good on a bigger screen such as desktop, laptops etc. The colors appear to be little washed off after being processed by the camera software. It is far away from the actual color which we see before taking the selfie. However, it is much better than any other smartphone’s camera I’ve tested so far in this price segment.
Click on image to see original
The rear camera is much better than the front camera module. It takes clear images in daylight, and virtuous images with proper lighting. The camera suffers a little in a darker environment, however, it can be mitigated by turning on the flash. There are noticeable grains spread all over the images, which can be annoying at times. The long shot suffered from blurry objects, unclear edges and grainy texture over the top.
On the bright side, the default camera app has some amazing tools/tweaks that will be praised by selfie lovers. The ability to slim-down the jaw-line in real time, Pro and beautification mode helps a lot to create a unique image.
Both front and the Back camera can capture Full HD High-resolution videos, but lacks Optical Image stabilization. You can’t expect these high-end features with the smartphone in this price segment.
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Click on image to see original
Hardware and Performance
CoolPad Note 3 is powered by 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 Octa-core SoC coupled with Mali-T720 MT2 GPU. Performance-wise it goes head-to-head with Samsung Galaxy J7, which is currently priced at Rs 14,999 ($252.99). The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 720×1280, for an effective density of 320ppi. LTE is supported on Band 40 on both Micro-SIMs. Wi-Fi, including 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM radio are standard.
Our Benchmark report reveals that the phone is a great performer in its price segment. Additionally, while playing games and performing hardware-intensive tasks, we noticed no lag whatsoever. The phone, however, did get little warmer around the fingerprint sensor, but it was barely noticeable.
The battery didn’t disappoint us either, which kept the device alive for the entire day of usage. For average users, the battery should last 20-24 hours without any problem. You’d probably end up charging your phone once at the night. However, if you’re an avid gamer, it will hardly last 6-7 hours with a single charge.
The display on the phone is a beauty. It is not the best display we have ever seen, and frankly, we won’t ever will in this price segment but, the IPS panel on this phone just works. The sunlight visibility is good, adaptive brightness works as it should, and viewing angles are decent. Overall this phone might just be your day-to-day companion for media consumption.
The Coolpad Note 3 comes with Android 5.1 and the company’s own Cool UI skin. We weren’t too impressed with the cosmetic changes Coolpad has made to stock Android – a lot of it felt unnecessary (though your mileage may vary), especially the customizations made to the Settings app, in which it isn’t possible to search for specific things. Needless to say, like any other Chinese smartphone, this phone lacks app drawer. If you really want to have stocked android feeling, you will have to download the third-party launcher. There are tweaks and UI enhancements by the company, which definitely allow this phone to stand out from the Smartphone crowd that flaunts the same stock user interface and features. Other than that, there isn’t much to point out.
What do we think?
CoolPad has bigger plans for the future, the company is set to establish a dedicated manufacturing hub in India under the “Make in India” initiative. If they choose to make their next smartphones in India, it will definitely allow them to cut the price of the smartphone even lower, or bring better hardware specifications at a reasonable price bracket. The company also mentioned earlier that they are taking the market very seriously, and they’re looking forward to having a refreshing smartphone line-up every few years to compete with others.
Initially, the phone was only available through flash Sale on Amazon. However, now that the company has shifted their sales under Open purchase, it is easy to recommend to others. There’s only one strong competitor that provides better specifications with the full-metal body, 1080p display and widely adapted Snapdragon chipset – Huawei Honor 5X, priced at Rs 12,999 ($199.99), which will be our first recommendation is you have a flexible budget.
What it boils down to is the fingerprint sensor. If this is the feature you really want at an affordable price, then this is the smartphone for you.
![CoolPad Note 3: A cool companion at an affordable price [Review]](https://digitfreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CoolPad-Note-3.jpg)
CoolPad has bigger plans for the future, the company is set to establish a dedicated manufacturing hub in India under the “Make in India” initiative. If they choose to make their next smartphones in India, it will definitely allow them to cut the price of the smartphone even lower, or bring better hardware specifications at a reasonable price bracket. The company also mentioned earlier that they are taking the market very seriously, and they’re looking forward to having a refreshing smartphone line-up every few years to compete with others.