Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are smartphones of the people.

Their feature sets don’t necessarily speak to a grandiose vision from Samsung regarding the company’s future. They don’t offer solutions to problems users weren’t aware they had. They don’t shed grams and millimeters in exchange for compromised battery life. In many ways, the S7 devices represent the anti-iPhones.

Samsung took almost all of the complaints that people had regarding the Galaxy S6 line and simply fixed them. Improved battery life. Waterproofing. Speedier fingerprint sensing. Expandable memory.

Battery lifeline

The S7 saw its battery capacity increase nearly 20% while the S7 edge (which is powering a much larger screen now) received a battery with 40% larger capacity.
I am perhaps more mindful with my battery saving techniques than most but I was very impressed by the improvements I saw in the S7 line in regards to battery life, both phones did stellar jobs of lasting me through the day in light of Screen-on Times floating around 6-7 hours.

Specs and Performance

• Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560×1440 Screens
• Quad-core 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz Processors
• 4GB RAM (LPDDR4)
• microSD Card Slots
• Always-on Displays
• IP68 Water and Dust Resistance
• Cameras: Rear: Dual Pixel 12MP / Front: 5MP
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow

In Geekbench tests of my devices, I found the S7 edge scored a 2279 in single-core performance besting the S6 edge by 52.4%. Improvements in multi-core were more minimal with the S7 edge’s score of 5460 besting its predecessor’s score of 5186 by just 5%. The S7 performed similarly to the S7 edge in my tests.

The Infinix Hot Note has created quite a buzz amongst the people looking for a low budget smartphone. The phone is currently available with Daraz.pk exclusively at a price of 13,000 rupees. On paper, the specs look outstanding for the price. You get 16GB internal storage, a 5.5” IPS display, a 4000 mAh battery with rapid charging and an octa-core processor rolled up into a single package.

Will the phone live up to the hype it has generated in the past few weeks or just prove to be yet another addition to the already saturated market of Chinese phones? Let’s find out.

At first glance, the phone felt and appeared like mid-tier phone, instead of a cheap, entry-level smartphone. It was easy to grab and had a nice feel to it, a feature rare in this price range. Inside the box, you will find a USB cable, wall charger, earphones and instruction manuals.

Key Specs

• 5.5” 720p IPS Display
• 16GB internal memory
• microSD slot
• 1GB RAM
• 1.4GHz Octa-Core Processor
• 4000 mAh Battery
• 8MP primary and 2MP front cameras
• 3G support
• 13,000 rupees price tag

Display

The 5.5 inch 720p screen gives a pixel density of ~267 ppi, which means you will experience visible pixelation if you have near perfect eyes. But it is good for people with big fingers and weaker eyes, as lower screen resolution provides bigger icons and generally good overall navigation experience. In outdoor conditions, the screen provides ample brightness which makes it very easy to read the texts even in the most brightest conditions.

Playing videos on YouTube at 720p resolution gave me mixed results. The colors were sharp and vibrant sometimes but other times the display felt a bit dull. If you are okay with the occasional drop in quality, you will find the display adequate for most applications. I did notice slight differences between running videos with and without ClearMotion – a feature present in the phone, which acts as a “video fluency enhancer”. However, the video quality remained acceptable at large.

Design and Build Quality

The phone is thick and bulky, as you would expect from any phone with a massive 5.5 inch display and 4000 mAh battery. The edges are curved and the phone feels heavy in hands.

On the design side, the phone has standard configuration. You have an earphone jack at the top, microUSB slot and microphone at the bottom, and the power button and volume rockers on the right side of the phone. The back of the phone is plastic and houses the camera at the top left with a single LED Flash below it. The bottom center of the phone has the speaker for calls, music, videos, etc. Of course, this goes without saying, but the phone doesn’t have Gorilla Glass display on it, so be careful when you put it in your bag or in the pockets with keys, lest you might scratch it badly. The body or frame of the phone is plastic too, much like its back.

Battery Time

Let’s get down to the real USP of this phone. The 4000 mAh battery is truly amazing. The phone manages to live up to the promise of being fully charged in 55 Minutes, and that full charge will easily last you a day and a half in usage. Even more so if you are careful with your usage of screen time, camera, data, etc.

Out of the box, we used the phone with 98% battery, below are the results of running the phone on WiFi on and off, lots of photography and a mix of heavy and light gaming done on the phone (Mortal Kombat X, Asphalt 8: Airborne and Subway Surfers ). Plus, running the above benchmarks of Antutu, Geekbench, and Basemark variants on the phone. All of this done with the phone just out of the box.

As said before, it has some resemblance with the Infinix Hot X507, but it's Bigger, brighter and this Bigger size still didn't increase it's thickness, it maintains a slim size (8.9mm).
The New Infinix Hot Note set A Record as the Slimmest and Lightest device on the market. This record was made attainable by its clever Screen/frame Ratio.
- 8.9mm thick
- and 172g in weight - See more at: http://www.editweaks.com/2015/02/infinix-hot-note-review-of-upcoming.html#sthash.zH94wd10.dpuf

Key Specifications of the New INFINIX HOTNOTE

Key Specifications of the New INFINIX HOTNOTE

Key Specifications of the New INFINIX HOTNOTE

Key Specifications of the New INFINIX HOTNOTE

A NEW REVIEW FOR THE NEXUS 5X

        Key Features

• Android Marshmallow
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor
• 12.3-megapixels, f/2.0 rear camera
• 5.2-inch, 424ppi display
• Manufacturer: Google
• Review Price: £339.00.
  

  Nexus 5X long term review


  When I first reviewed the Nexus 5X it was one of the best mid-range phone’s available. For less than £400 you got a stellar handset that offer all the perks of Google’s then new Android Marshmallow operating system, without the bundled bloatware often found on third party skins.
  

However, having used it as my primary personal smartphone for over six months I encountered a number of significant issues. 

For starters, the performance has dramatically dropped. Like the OnePlus 2, the Nexus 5X performance has gradually gotten worse the more I’ve used it. After my first three months the device would on occasion inexplicably stutter. Another month on it began completely stalling about once a week.
  Four weeks later I found myself having to restart the phone every other day to get it to run smoothly.

The Nexus 5X’s battery life has also suffered. Smartphone’s battery lives always gradually deteriorate, but since an early software update at the end of 2015 the Nexus 5X’s has outright bombed.


  Overnight the phone went from lasting between one and a half to two days use off one charge to struggling to make it through the day. With heavy use I’ve also managed to wipe the battery within four hours. 

Intensive use entailed listening to music while browsing the web on a 30 minute train journey, periodically playing games, like Banner Saga, regularly checking my email, messages and social media feeds and watching a episode of Vikings on Amazon Instant Video.


  The issues are a shame, as outside of them, the Nexus 5X remains a great phone. The fingerprint scanner is one of the fastest and most accurate around and it’s display is still one of the best seen on a phone in its price point.

It remains one of the most future proof Android phones around when it comes to software. Nexus devices always get updates to future versions of Android as long as their hardware is technically able.
  

  

  As a result, the Nexus 5X is one of a select few handsets likely to get upgraded to the final version of Android N when it launches at an unspecified point later this year.
  
  

  

Nexus 5X – Long term verdict

  The Nexus 5X is a phone that hasn’t stood the test of time all too well. Deteriorating battery and performance are a noticeable and ongoing frustration at the moment Hopefully a future Android update will fix the issues, but for now you’d be better of paying a little more and getting the larger Nexus 6P if you want the best unskinned Android experience.

You can read my original Nexus 5X review below.
  

  What is the Nexus 5X?

  The Nexus 5X is the smaller and more affordable choice in Google’s current smartphone line-up. It sits behind the Huawei-made Nexus 6P, which carries a larger 6-inch screen, slightly faster hardware and a higher, £449 asking price.
  In contrast, the £339 Nexus 5X is significantly cheaper than the 6P and slightly more affordable than Apple's new iPhone SE. But, it is more expensive than some competing handsets, such as the £250 OnePlus 2, which on paper match many of its specs. It isn't quite the straightforward bargain the classic Nexus 5 was.
  But the 5X goes a long way to justify its increased price tag thanks to its completely unskinned, future-proof version of Google’s latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. In fact, the software makes the Nexus 5X one of the best smaller smartphones on the market.
  
  

REVIEW OF THE NEW PHONE XIAOMI MI4

Key Features

• Snapdragon 801, 2.5GHz  ; 5-inch 1080p screen ; Adreno 330 GPU  ; 3GB RAM
  ; 13MP, f1.8 camera
• Manufacturer: Xiaomi
• Review Price: £250.00

What is the Xiaomi Mi4?

Imitation is touchy topic in tech circles, but few manufacturers are as slavish as Chinese company Xiaomi. Branded by many as "The Chinese Apple", Xiaomi has adopted many of its rival's tactics with great success.
The Xiaomi Mi4 is possibly the most unashamed copycat phone you'll ever lay eyes on. It looks almost exactly like an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S. But despite the flagrant plagiarism on show, the Mi4 is arguably one of the best Android devices of 2014. It manages to combine incredible power with impeccable build quality and excellent software, and all for around £250.

Xiaomi Mi4: Design

There really is no getting around it: the Mi4 looks like an iPhone. But if you're going to emulate another product, you might as well pick the one that looks best. The Mi4's metal chassis exudes a premium feel that is all-too-often missing from Android phones, and the entire device boasts the kind of build quality that most pre-Galaxy Alpha Samsung owners can only dream of.
The back of the phone is where Xiaomi has deviated slightly from the Apple template as it has a convex plastic panel and a centrally-aligned camera. The back of the handset can actually be removed — using a suction cup, we kid you not — and replaced with another to give your Mi4 a more unique feel.
Despite the 5-inch screen, the Mi4 feels thin and tall, just like the iPhone. This is largely thanks to the very narrow bezels either side of the display, which give an almost edge-to-edge screen, at least horizontally. At 8.9mm, the Mi4 is impressively svelte, but the aforementioned bulge on the rear panel makes it feel a little fatter than it actually is.
The sides of the phone showcase the Micro SIM slot, volume key and power button. Compared to most Android devices, the placement of these buttons is switched — the power key resides below the volume rocker. This takes some getting used to, and we found that we often hit the power button by accident when removing the handset from our pocket or when making a call. Along the top edge of the Mi4 is the 3.5mm headphone socket and the IR blaster, which can be used to control your television set, amongst other things.


The rear cover is plastic
The bottom edge has a grille for the single speaker and a MicroUSB slot for charging and data transfer. Strangely, Xiaomi has opted for the little-seen MicroUSB-A standard, which boasts a square-shaped connector. You can still use the more common MicroUSB-B lead, but because of the shape of the port there's the danger that you could insert the cable the wrong way around and damage the connection. Needless to say, caution should be taken when trying to top up your battery late at night when you've had one too many naughty beverages.
Below the screen you'll find three touch-sensitive buttons, but with a difference. Unlike most modern Android devices — which have Home, Back and Recent Apps commends — the Mi4 reverts back to the pre-Android 4.0 arrangement of Home, Back and Menu. That means to access the Recent Apps menu — which shows all of your active applications — you'll have to long-press the Home button. It's hardly an elegant solution, but one that you can easily become accustomed to.
The Mi4 comes in two storage flavours — 16GB and 64GB. We're reviewing the former, and when you take into account all of the software that comes pre-loaded which you can't uninstall, the end user has about 11GB to play with. Sadly, like its forerunner the Mi3, the Mi4 lacks a microSD card slot so you can't augment that total with cheap flash media. However, the Mi4 does go one better than the Mi3 by finally moving to the now-ubiquitous Micro SIM standard.

Xiaomi Mi4: Features

Xiaomi has taken the decision to launch the Mi4 in two basic configurations. The first — which is the one we're reviewing — only supports 3G. A revised model with support for 4G networks is expected any day now, but that hasn't stopped the 3G-only model selling like hot cakes in its native China.
A top of the line smartphone that lacks 4G is rather strange in 2014, and if you're thinking of ordering a Mi4 from abroad you'll almost certainly want to take this into account - especially if you're already signed up to an expensive 4G contract in the UK. For the record, the 3G model works flawlessly on UK networks - we didn't experience any issues with signal strength or reception quality.
Elsewhere the Mi4 has dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, an IR blaster, GPS and DLNA support, but it lacks an NFC chip — something which was present in the Mi3. According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, only one percent of existing Mi3 users actually make use of the contactless tech, and the feature was removed from the Mi4 to keep costs low.
While NFC is still clearly in its infancy, it could well take off in 2015 — especially now that Apple has put it into the iPhone 6. Not having NFC could be a real drawback for Mi4 owners moving forwards.