The Internet is full of lies, even so, to believe when we get deceived by pretentious fanboys who don’t hesitate to confidently pull out some unbelievable facts or information for us to digest. If it wasn’t the official statement from the Turing Robotic Industries (TRI), we could never have believed that someone is actually working on the specifications this insane.
A couple of news websites shared the same bafflement when they heard that Turing is working on a new smartphone with specifications so unrealistic to believe. The TRI CEO & Chief Architect, Steve YL Chao, sent a newsletter email highlighting the ‘blueprint program’ for their next Turing phone “Cadenza” after finishing up the development and delivery of world’s first liquid metal mobile phone.
TRI is embarking on another challenge to build the unimaginable. – CEO
If the company actually succeed to pull this off, it will undoubtedly become the best smartphone in the world. Needless to say, it has the potential to disrupt the mobile industry. So, what is it that everyone lost their mind to? Well, it has to do something with their claim to carve unimaginable into reality; and in their own words, “bringing the Turing Phone Cadenza from the future to the present.”
For instance, how do 60MP camera and 2x256GB internal storage with 2x256GB microSD (Total 1TB Storage) slot sound to you? and, What about 12GB (2x6GB) LPDDR4 RAM? If that’s not all, the smartphone is promised to ship with two Snapdragon 830 that has 16 beautiful Kyro cores, which is not actually on the market yet.
If you are starting to ache from all these specs, then what’s next will push you towards borderline insanity. The camera setup comprises a total of 60 MP using a quad sensor array for the rear, and the front camera will have a dual 10MP sensor setup to deliver a 20 MP front camera experience.
The company wants to power this with a 2400 Graphene power cell battery mated with a 1600 mAh li-on battery and a Hydrogen Fuel Cell (umm … Yeah!). The battery setup will deliver a total of 100wh of juice. The phone will also offer a dual-dual SIM card slot setup, which means you can use four SIM cards at the same time. TRI has not confirmed that you can make four calls simultaneously, but you probably can.
It would be interesting to see how they manage to lower down the total weight of the actual final device with all these extra dual setup modules; I bet it’ll weigh more than 250g. The company is aiming to release this mind-boggling smartphone in 2017. So, we will find out pretty soon if it is actually possible to pull out something like this.
We’ll admit, it’s honestly like someone at TRI just put together a spreadsheet of buzz words and the Ridiculous collection of specs just to see what they can play with. If this was faked, then it was very well-executed.
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.
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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.
Huawei is not a name that requires an introduction anymore. It has established itself as a popular brand — thanks to their latest smartphones with outstanding features at affordable price. We had Huawei Honor 6 Plus as our primary smartphone, as we received 5 of them and here’s what we think.
The new smartphones launched by the company including Honor and Ascend series performed really well in the market. Now that company has a great consumer in India and most parts of Asia and Europe, it is thriving to deliver the best to its customers and Huawei Honor 6 Plus seems to be the right step in the direction.
So what makes this phone successor of it’s popular variant Huawei Honor 6? We spent 5 weeks with the device to find out where it stands in real world scenario.
Unboxing
Unboxing of Huawei Smartphone has become a little bitter in taste because every phone they ship usually have the same packing and in-box accessories. This is true for Huawei Honor 6 Plus as well. The phone comes with Huawei’s standard box, with same in-box accessories that were bundled with Huawei Honor 6.
The box contains Huawei Honor 6 Plus Smartphone, A Travel Adaptor, USB cable, Sim Card Tray ejector, Warranty Card, Quick User Guide and Two scratch guard films (One for display and other for the back). There is no earphone in the box, which is pretty standard for a Chinese phone, but at this price range it could be included in the package.
However, to make us happy Huawei did some creative stuff with the packaging. We found this smiling right back at us.
Build Quality
When we opened the box for the first time and held the phone, we observed a slim beauty (well not that slim, but it still felt better than most of the phones) that somehow felt really nice to hold. The look is very similar to its predecessor but, it felt premium and less plasticky. Our first impression was really good, and we felt this is the phone which can really bang on the edges.
This rectangular piece had a distinguished look. Despite the fact that it feels very similar to the iPhone 4 and Xperia Z3, it feels sturdy in hands and comfortable to hold (thanks to the slightly curved edges).
The side panel is metal alloy unlike its predecessor, which gives it a premium feel. Huawei claims that this phone has super strength and is solid. So solid, in fact, the Huawei states that the glass back of the phone is “bulletproof” – we will strongly suggest not to try it yourself. No, we didn’t try it as well, fortunately we don’t have a gun at the office but, I did drop this phone couple times during the testing period and, unfortunately, it got a crack at the top side of the screen. Not so strong after all?
Measuring 150.5 x 75.7 x 7.5 mm and weighing 164 grams, it is stocky but still oddly comfortable to hold and use. This is mostly due to the rounded edges at the bottom, which do not dig into your palms like most angular phones do.There’s a 5.5 inch 1080 x 1920 pixels IPS LCD display, which equals a pixel density of about 401 ppi.
There is quite a bit of bezel all around (2.36mm slim on the sides), so it doesn’t look as slick as it could have, but Huawei still managed a somewhat decent 73.2 percent (approximately) screen-to-body ratio.
The 5.5-inch Display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and back has multi-layered transparent panel with a beautiful text beneath it. It sure is a unique touch, and that beautiful text with blue-ish tint looks really great which attracts attention. The phone has 8MP dual rear camera, which according to Huawei has been placed linearly to each other for better depth perspective.
We tested the phone for almost 2 months and it turned out the rear camera setup is more of a gimmick than a feature. We will talk more about it in the camera section.
Moving on, the phone has 3.5mm Audio Jack at the top and an IR blaster at the center (which is used for remote control), there is also a noise cancelation mic right beside it.
There is nothing on the left side, where as a power button and volume rocker on the right side. The buttons are really good and responsive, it also has a smooth texture which feels good while using them.
The bottom has a USB port, which can be used to charge the phone or to transfer data. OTG is supported by this phone, and you can easily use your pen drive as an external storage on this phone.
This device is little on the heavier side, and it still struggles to bring the premium touch that you can have with high-end devices. The Sim card slot didn’t accommodate the Sim card tray properly, you would feel that something is not right when you place the tray into the slot. It might be only with my review unit, but again we have 5 of them. Precision and finishing touch is missing on the phone, it seems like Huawei did make these in a hurry.
Don’t get it wrong, the phone works perfectly and delivers what it claims (with minor issues, which can be easily fixed). Lack of craftsmanship and precision makes us little sad, for a flagship device they could deliver much better.
Display
Huawei Honor 6 Plus has 5.5-inch (13.97cm) 1080p in-cell TFT display that produces 16.7M colors, and is bright and crystal clear. There is nothing wrong at this segment. It produces really sharp and clear images on the screen, which has really great viewing angle. Surprisingly, if we could see everything on the screen clearly when we stepped into the direct sunlight.
The auto brightness mode is a little buggy, it gets too dark or too bright in non-favorable conditions. While indoor, the phone’s display can get too dim, that you have to strain your eyes to read the text properly. And sometimes it just doesn’t lit up the screen bright enough in direct sunlight. It is sure a software bug, and will be addressed on the next update.
When you turn off the Auto brightness mode, Man! this phone can go really bright. If you monitor closely, the display has hexagonal like structure, which comprises of neighbor pixels and makes it even cooler. I don’t know what to call it, you have to see it yourself.
It might not be as bright as Samsung’s patented Super AMOLED Technology (which is something I really like), but it won’t feel anything less than any other device available in the market right now. We really liked the display of this device and you can go ahead and buy it if you are looking for something you can read online content or e-books.
Camera
One of the key selling points of the Honor 6 Plus is the unique 888 camera setup with two rear 8MP combining to offer some interesting defocus effects. The two rear cameras allow you to place the handset on a steady surface, capture an entire scene and then change the focal point of the image in post-processing.
This is why most of us wanted to test this device on the first hand. The so-called “First in the world” Technology — dual linear camera. It is really something so special that can make this device stand out? We used the camera over a long extensive period and our impression wasn’t what we can call something “astonishing,” or “marvelous.”
But Huawei boasts so much about it! So where it really went wrong? Why?
We have few reasons, first 8MP rear camera doesn’t deliver some out of the world aspect of the photograph. Everything that Huawei claims it does, is mostly controlled by the software. Wide Aperture mode is another feature which doesn’t quiet cut it. The photos taken are always hit and miss and doesn’t always end up same as what you see in the preview after taking the shot.
That being said, the pictures are clear and this phone can take a DSLR-like images. It is powerful and can take some shots, where other cameras would simply back away.
The dual camera setup has one huge benefit, it allows double the light to enter into the lens than other camera phones out there — which in turn deliver way better images in low light scenarios.
Just like the M8, the dual rear cameras record depth information in a scene, allowing the ability to set a focal point after you’ve taken a picture. Unlike the M8, both the rear cameras on the Honor 6 Plus are 8-megapixel shooters.
The main one is an auto-focus camera with f/2.0 aperture while the secondary one comes with a f/2.4 lens and is fixed focus. I couldn’t find solid specs about this anywhere, but apparently the maximum aperture of the rear camera is f/0.95.
These work together to capture that depth information, and can also capture different exposures for a single scene, allowing the Honor 6 Plus to be very quick at taking HDR images. To achieve this all, Huawei uses a powerful ISP with a ‘triple IE’ (3IE) graphics engine that the company says it has been working on for some two years. It is also worth mentioning that the sensor is the newest Sony BSI IMX214 sensor, just like the one in the OnePlus One or Oppo Find 7.
Huawei’s camera UI is similar to other camera apps, with most of the screen acting as a viewfinder. Swiping on the right side of the viewfinder allows you to go between photo, video or ‘wide aperture’ mode.
Whereas on the left side, you’ll find a toggle for the flash and front-facing camera, as well as a button on the side that gives you access to more scene modes, including a Beauty mode, ‘Audio Note’ mode, ‘Best Photo’ mode, watermark mode, HDR, Panorama, and even a ‘Super Night’ mode that really seems to work for dark shots.
Rear Camera Samples:
Rear camera sample (wide Aperture mode):
Front Camera Sample
Hardware
This phone is definitely a beast when it comes to the hardware features it has to offer. It beats many high-end smartphones, which are priced fairly high. It is bang for the buck if you are looking for a device that can deliver performance with stable battery backup.
Just like Samsung, Huawei also constructs their own processors and chips, which most recently were used in their flagship smartphone, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7.
Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 925 powers the Honor 6 Plus, and it offers pretty high-end performance, resulting in the UI being very smooth and quick overall, with very rare instances of lag.
It’s hard to explain the performance quality of Huawei’s architecture in comparison to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors or MediaTek processors, but the Octa-Core processor (combination of 1.8GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 & 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7) is supposed to be on equal footing with the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 processor, which we saw on the Moto Turbo.
Which is why it is no surprise that there are no hiccups or stutters at any point on the Honor 6 Plus. Even the most intensive 3D game played just fine, with no frame drops (except in extremely dramatic, taxing moments). Here’s a couple benchmarks to give you a better idea of how capable that processor is:
There’s 32GB of internal memory, out of which around 25GB is available to actually use. There’s even the aforementioned microSD card slot available as well, which you can sacrifice to use as a nano-SIM card slot for dual-SIM functionality (but unfortunately, not in the version sold in India).
Software
The Honor 6 Plus is running Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI, but it’s possible that a Lollipop update will arrive in the future. There aren’t any particularly outstanding software features, but it’s not completely Vanilla. There’s no app drawer, for example, so you’ll have to rely on folders like you do in iOS which will appeal to some but not everyone.
The Emotion UI’s graphic design also divides opinion and is sometimes described as childish, but we enjoyed the ability to change the theme of the design, and there are many additional free themes to choose from.
In a nice extra touch, the image sees on the lock screen will change every time you wake it from sleep, which we found we really enjoyed.
Battery
This phone packs 3600 mAh battery under the hood, which is more than sufficient to carry out your daily work. If you consume a great deal of multimedia content and play games on your smartphone, this phone won’t disappoint on the battery side. It packs enough juice to give you an extra boost on the backup, so you can add more hours of work on the phone.
On our daily use, we found that device offered pretty stable battery backup — with around 18-26 hours of battery backup with moderate usage, that includes email, browsing, listening to music – WhatsApp – facebook – twitter (while on public transit), voice call, occasional video calls, games and text messages (rare).
The phone never failed to give us good batter backup, we just had to charge it once before going to bed and it would stay alive for rest of the day very easily.
Few thing you have to checkout to get best battery backup, mark all the applications in your app “Unprotected” in Huawei System so it doesn’t wake up phone frequently when it is in deep sleep mode, when screen is turned off. You can also restrict applications from using your mobile internet or WiFi.
What do we think?
Huawei Honor 6 Plus is definitely not just another Cheap Chinese rip-off of some other popular brand, it sure does look like one (or different brands fused into one), but when we look under the hood, it has so much to offer at very affordable price. You can always clear your path straight to a popular brand and pay a little high for some features that you probably won’t use in your daily life.
During our test session, we never felt that we are using some non-high-end phone, which isn’t from some established and popular brand. It had some heating issues at the beginning, which was quickly sorted out by following few 100%-0%-100% battery cycle.
The camera is somewhat hit and miss sometimes, but it certainly does very well in low light scenarios. We felt like it did outperform most of the smartphones in it’s range and some offended some of the really high-end smartphones. The hardware is superb and software (EMUI 3.0 on top of KitKat) doesn’t disappoint much. Huawei does try to copy the behavior of Apple devices, but at the end the smartphone is unique and gives refreshing experience.
The battery didn’t disappoint us during one month of usage, and we easily carried out our daily work with a relief that we don’t have to carry a charger to our office. At the beginning (our first week with the phone), we were curious and did managed to exhaust all the juice within 5-6 hours with continuous usage and running some tests, but it is pretty safe to say that average users will get 1.5 days or more with the juice that it packs inside the hood.
That being said, we can up vote this phone as one of the best phones in its segment that you probably never heard of before.
GENERAL FEATURES
Brand
Honor
Business Features
Pushmail (Exchange)
Handset Color
Black
Form
Bar
SIM Size
Micro SIM
Call Features
Loudspeaker
Model Name
6 Plus
Touch Screen
Yes
SIM Type
Single Sim, LTE
Model ID
PE-TL10
In the Box
Handset, Quick Start Guide, Eject Tool, TP Cover, Charger, USB Cable, Battery Cover Protective Film
MULTIMEDIA
Sound Enhancement
DTS Sound
Video Player
Yes, Supports RV7-10, XviD, VP8, H.264, RM, MP4, H.263, 3GP, WMV 9, WMV, ASF, MPEG4, RMVB, Full HD
Auto Focus, Flash Support, Shooting Function (Wide Aperture, Panorama, Best Photo, Beauty, Watermark, Audio Control, Touch to Capture, Capture Smiles, Burst Shoot, Ultra Snapshot)
HD Recording
HD, Full HD
Rear Camera
Yes, 8 MP + 8 MP (Dual Rear Camera)
Front Facing Camera
Yes, 8 MP
INTERNET & CONNECTIVITY
Audio Jack
3.5 mm
Preinstalled Browser
Android, Chrome
Bluetooth
Yes, v4, Supported Profiles (LE, EDR)
4G
Yes
Navigation Technology
A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, with Google Maps
NFC
Yes
Wifi
Yes, 802.11 a/b/g/n
Internet Features
Email
EDGE
Yes, Class 12
GPRS
Yes
Tethering
USB, Wi-fi Hotspot
USB Connectivity
Yes, micro USB, v2, OTG Compatible
3G
Yes, 42 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
OTHER FEATURES
Sensors
Proximity Sensor, Hall Sensor, Compass, Digital Compass, G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer
Phone Book Memory
Yes
SMS Memory
Yes
Call Memory
Yes
Important Apps
POP3, IMAP4, HOTA, Gmail, Google+, Google Play Music, Google Play Books, Google Play Games, Google Play Movies and TV, Drive, Google Settings, Hangouts, Photos, Play Store, Play Newsstand, Voice Search, YouTube
Additional Features
4G LTE: Standby Time – 563 hrs, Talktime – 23 hrs, Certification: BQB, Wi-Fi, RoHS, REACH, Status Indicator, MMS Enabled, USB Mass Storage, USB Charging, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi WPS
WARRANTY
Warranty Summary
15 months manufacturer warranty for phone and 6 months for Battery and 3 months for Data cable/Charger
DIMENSIONS
Weight
165 g
Size
75.68×150.46×7.5 mm
DISPLAY
Resolution
Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels
Other Display Features
Multi-touch, In-cell Display, Sensitive Screen
Type
TFT
Color
16.7 M
Size
13.97 cm
BATTERY
Talk Time
30 hrs (2G), 23 hrs (3G)
Standby Time
636 hrs (2G), 690 hrs (3G)
Type
3600 mAh
MEMORY AND STORAGE
Expandable Memory
microSD, upto 128 GB
Memory
3 GB RAM, 32 ROM
Internal
32 GB
User Memory
25 GB
PLATFORM
Operating Freq
GSM – 850, 900, 1800, 1900; WCDMA – 2100; 4G: LTE (FDD) – Band 1, Band 3, Band 7, LTE (TD) – Band 38, Band 39, Band 40, Band 41
While this smartphone might look like a good deal, but the new images leaked on the internet suggests that the company might have better variants up their sleeves.
Images posted by Mobile Dad website, which leaked the images and the specifications of the Lenovo A7600-M (where M suggests that it might be region specific). The A7600-M seems to be a better variant of upcoming smartphone A7000 with better rear camera sensor and battery life.
The as-yet-unannounced Lenovo A7600-M is said to feature a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) resolution display and be powered by a MediaTek MT6752 octa-core chipset coupled with 2GB of RAM. The handset is claimed to feature 8GB of inbuilt storage that can be expanded via microSD card (unspecified storage limit).
As for the camera and battery, the Lenovo A7600-M reportedly features a 13-megapixel rear camera as compared to A7000’s 8-megapixel camera, the same 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a larger 3000mAh battery as compared to A7000’s 2900mAh offering. The smartphone is said to run Android 5.0 Lollipop with the company’s own Vibe UI 2.5 slapped on top.
Smartphones are a fantastic piece of technology sitting in our pockets. They have managed to take everything that we could possibly require in our day to day adventures, and make this device hold all the power. Whether it is there to tell the time, shed light in dark situations (both literally or in the Google search for knowledge sense), become our calculator or even a dictionary, to name a few, these smartphones can do it all. Thanks to the large number of fantastic gadgets and accessories, these devices can be loved by all, no matter their age or gender. Here are five of the best gadgets that’ll keep you entertained for hours on end.
Parrot Mini Drone and Jumping Sumo From the geniuses that brought us the brilliant Parrot Drone, comes two smaller, but equally fun, little gadgets for the whole family. What is brilliant about the Parrot range is that they haven’t forgotten the endless fascination people have with remote controlled vehicles. What’s not to love? The Mini Drone is exactly what it says in the name, a smaller, lighter and cheaper drone that can be controlled via your iOS or Android mobile device. The Jumping Sumo gadget can only be described as something out of a Power Rangers episode. With two giant wheels on either side of its body, this monster may not be able to fly, but it can do one better. With the power to jump from counter to counter, there’s literally an endless possibility of fun waiting to be had. Both these gadgets come standard with a front-facing camera, so there is no need for you to follow them around like some silent stalker.
Rover 2.0 Spy Tank
Sit in one room and check out what’s going on elsewhere in the house with the Rover 2.0 Spy Tank. It links with your smartphone or tablet via Wi-Fi, working with a range of up to 100 feet through obstacles and 200 feet uninterrupted. You can see what’s happening with the adjustable camera and hear what’s being said with the built-in microphone, or transmit your own audio through its speaker — all in real-time. Its video feed or stills can be uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In case things get a little dark, just switch on the headlights, or better yet, the infrared-based night vision mode! Powered by 6 AA batteries, this is the ultimate toy for geeks.
Romo
How would you like to have your own R2-D2? Romo turns any iPod or iPhone into a cute robot with its own personality. Essentially, Romo is a wheelbase in which you dock your iPhone or iPod touch, and load up their proprietary app that provides Romo with a cartoony face (with a range of emotions) and gibberish speech, much like R2-D2. Romo works via facial recognition to become an e-pet, and also includes telepresence to let you control it with another iOS device or the Web. There may not be much reason to buy a new iPod touch, and this is a great way to repurpose an old one.
DoorBot wireless doorbell
Another great privilege that your smartphone offers is the ability to have a wireless doorbell which is perfect for when you’re away, working in the garden or when you simply don’t hear the regular doorbell.
This smart doorbell also has a camera that transmits live video and audio through an app so you’ll be able to see who’s at the door and to communicate with them. The DoorBot it’s actually very useful in many different cases. The interesting thing is that you’ll be able to that from anywhere in the world so you’ll know if anyone’s at your door even when you’re somewhere else.
Throwable panono ball camera captures 360 degree panoramas
Going beyond typical panoramic photography, berlin-based company panono has developed a throwable ball camera packed with 36, 2.0 megapixel lenses that shoot in the air simultaneously. launched on indiegogo, the interactive device captures 360 degree moments in high-resolution and can be viewed in its entirety using the panono app. users can move their tablet or smartphone up and down as if they were inside a full-spherical image.
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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.![[Review] We tested 5 Huawei Honor 6 Plus for a month, here’s what we think!](https://digitfreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Huawei_Honor_6_Plus_boxes.jpg)
The Honor 6 Plus is running Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI, but it’s possible that a Lollipop update will arrive in the future. There aren’t any particularly outstanding software features, but it’s not completely Vanilla. There’s no app drawer, for example, so you’ll have to rely on folders like you do in iOS which will appeal to some but not everyone.
From the geniuses that brought us the brilliant Parrot Drone, comes two smaller, but equally fun, little gadgets for the whole family. What is brilliant about the Parrot range is that they haven’t forgotten the endless fascination people have with remote controlled vehicles. What’s not to love?
Sit in one room and check out what’s going on elsewhere in the house with the Rover 2.0 Spy Tank. It links with your smartphone or tablet via Wi-Fi, working with a range of up to 100 feet through obstacles and 200 feet uninterrupted. You can see what’s happening with the adjustable camera and hear what’s being said with the built-in microphone, or transmit your own audio through its speaker — all in real-time. Its video feed or stills can be uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In case things get a little dark, just switch on the headlights, or better yet, the infrared-based night vision mode! Powered by 6 AA batteries, this is the ultimate toy for geeks.
How would you like to have your own R2-D2? Romo turns any iPod or iPhone into a cute robot with its own personality. Essentially, Romo is a wheelbase in which you dock your iPhone or iPod touch, and load up their proprietary app that provides Romo with a cartoony face (with a range of emotions) and gibberish speech, much like R2-D2. Romo works via facial recognition to become an e-pet, and also includes telepresence to let you control it with another iOS device or the Web. There may not be much reason to buy a new iPod touch, and this is a great way to repurpose an old one.
Another great privilege that your smartphone offers is the ability to have a wireless doorbell which is perfect for when you’re away, working in the garden or when you simply don’t hear the regular doorbell.
Going beyond typical panoramic photography, berlin-based company panono has developed a throwable ball camera packed with 36, 2.0 megapixel lenses that shoot in the air simultaneously. launched on indiegogo, the interactive device captures 360 degree moments in high-resolution and can be viewed in its entirety using the panono app. users can move their tablet or smartphone up and down as if they were inside a full-spherical image.