What Bezel? ; The Xiaomi Mi Mix.

What Bezel? ; The Xiaomi Mi Mix.

   21:38:00       Unknown

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Xiaomi just released a brand new phone, and by the looks of it , we may be seeing the future of smartphones right here.

If you remember the sharp aquos crystal from a couple of years ago then this design concept might not seem new to you, but the one major difference here is that Xiaomi actually managed to pull it off, while with the sharp aquos crystal, we were left with a huge bottom chin .

  
So the Mi Mix is basically the 2016 re-incarnation of that concept. Many people nowadays complain that smartphones have gotten boring and monotonous, and they're not wrong. Companies usually try not to take gambles by trying out a new feature on a smartphone only to have it fail , resulting in a huge loss for that company. Thus we pretty much see the same design language on every smartphone right now. The last breakthrough we had was when Samsung decided to give their smartphones an "edge" (Pun intended). However after Samsung we saw other companies coming up with phones with curved screened phones, thus only borrowing concepts from other manufacturers and not coming up with their own. 

Xiaomi, however, this time round decided to go all out and released a phone that could possible shape the future of the entire smartphone industry. The Mi Mix has 91.3% screen to body ratio, so there's almost no bezel on any of the three top sides. The huge 6.4 inch display flows right up to the edges of the phone so it just looks and feels as if you're holding just the display in your hands. Simply put, it looks like the future. I mentioned that the phone had a 6.4 inch display. This is an absolutely huge display but by no means is this a tablet sized phone. The small/no bezels allow the actual footprint of the phone to be just a little bit larger than phones that have a 5.5 inch display such as the Pixel Xl. 

 Now another thing that's different here from the aquos is that the corners are rounded. However this makes the phone even more beautiful than it actually is. The biggest difference however is the fact that xiaomi managed to fit every thing in a small chin, a much smaller chin than that of the crystal's. So all the display drivers , the hardware and the front camera fit into that small piece of bottom bezel. Whats even more surprising is that if you look in the picture directly above, you'll notice that even the Pixel XL has a larger chin than the Mi Mix, and the Pixel isn't even bezel-less. So kudos to Xiaomi for trying out something new and perfecting it at the same time. 

One of the biggest advantage of having a screen like this is that media consumption would look great. Having videos play back from edge to edge would be a really nice sight. Furthermore the camera viewfinder would also be pretty neat. Imagine the immersive experience one would have when the entire screen is the viewfinder with literally no bezels to block the image. 

However having a screen like this would also have one major disadvantage. Since the screen is edge to edge, it probably wouldn't survive even the smallest of falls as there is no protection on the sides. You could put a case on it but that would just detract from the phone's beauty. 

The phone will only be available in China when launched on November 4th but one can Hope that it comes to other countries as well. The pricing will be around $500,  so this is not a phone that will break the bank or anything. Xiaomi did a great job at bringing a concept to life and furthermore, perfecting it. More companies should be daring enough to try out new features and designs. I believe it is now time to move into the future, and that is just what Xiaomi is trying to do.

 

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How to get the Pixel Dailer on other devices.[Guide]

How to get the Pixel Dailer on other devices.[Guide]

   08:51:00       Unknown

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So as you all know Google recently released its new set of Pixel phones with the all new Android 7.1 Nougat on board. This currently is the only phone that runs this version of android and thus there are several things that are exclusive to the Pixel only. One such thing is the dailer app. 

However there is a way to get the app for yourself. If you want to get the new dailer app then follow this quick and easy guide. The new pixel dialer is just an update to the existing phone dialer on nexus phones. Therefore this will only work on phones which are running Android 6.0 and above. Ive seen google nexus phones and several Samsung flagships running this version of the dialer app but im pretty sure that other phones running android marshmallow will also be capable enough to run it. 

So first of all what you need to do is to go into settings > security and check unknown sources. This is so that you can sideload apps onto your phone. Then go to this link and download the apk file for the dialer. Now after you download the file, click on it. This will take you to the installation screen. If you already have a google dialer installed on your phone , and you most probably will if you have a nexus device, you will be prompted to update the existing app. However if you dont already have the Google phone app on your phone, you will just be prompted to install the app. Either way, tap on install/update to successfully install the app onto your phone.

After successfully installing the app you want to set it as the default app to make and receive phonecalls. If Google phone was already your default dialer, you can skip this part but if not then follow along. Head to the apps settings and tap the little gear icon in the top right corner. From here, select "phone app" and select the app that you just installed. If you have multiple phone apps then just select the app with the blue material designed phone icon.

Once set up, You are good to go. The main Interface is pretty much the same and is very identical to the previous version of the Google phone app however things differ in the actual call UI. When you are in the call UI , you will see your main desktop wallpaper as a background image as opposed to a generic blue background from before. Now, The contact photo is how you would answer or reject calls and if you notice the whole things is very similar to Google's duo video calling app. After you pick up, the In Call UI gives you the same background as before and provides you with all the functions that you also previously had on older versions of the app such as the mute, dialpad,speaker, add call and hold button as you can see in the picture above. The overall design is pretty polished and well thought out. 

Do try out the app yourself if your phone supports it and let me know down in the comments section your thoughts on the new dialer app. 

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Why Snapchat Sucks on Android.

Why Snapchat Sucks on Android.

   09:23:00       Unknown

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A lot of Android users have been complaining about the performance of Snapchat and how pictures taken from the app don't exactly match up with the camera capabilities of the phone.

iPhone users on the other hand are happier than android users due to the fact that their pictures turn out to be better than the ones taken on android devices. However note that i used "Happier" and not "Happy" as iPhone users also have this issue of pictures not turning out to be exactly the way they expected. Now i can assure you that your phone isn't to blame here and there is nothing wrong with your device. The real problem lies in the app itself. You see when you open your camera app and take a photo from there, the picture is actually the same resolution as your camera, say 12MP or 16MP. 

However if you open up the Snapchat app and take a photo from inside the app, you will notice that the photo isn't as detailed and well balanced. This is because in android, Snapchat uses a live video feed to capture images. Its not actually using the camera sensor to its full potential. So try and follow me here. When you take a picture from the camera app you are using the actual sensor and the image that is captured turns out to be the resolution of sensor, whatever it may be. However in Snapchat things work differently. The pictures you take from snapchat uses the size of not the sensor but actually the size of the viewfinder and in this case the viewfinder is our phone's  screen. By following this principle, whatever resolution your screen may be, the picture adopts that resolution. So say you have a 1080p screen. That roughly makes 2.1MP. And say you have a 1440p screen, then you will roughly get a picture of resolution 3.3MP.

So in actuality, the picture quality isn't limited to the size of the camera sensor but the actual resolution of your screen. This may be hard to get a grip on but this is in fact true. The developers of Snapchat did this because they wanted to make a streamlined app that was the same for all android phones and it was fair for pretty much every android device out there. What i mean by this is that they developed the app for a standard API which would essentially work on all android phones , relatively smoothly. Since there are a lot of android devices out there and they cant possibly optimize the app for each and every device they resorted to this.

It doesn't exactly work like this in the iPhone but i'm pretty sure that the pictures don't turn out as well as they are supposed to. However the reason why pictures taken on the Snapchat app from the iPhone look better than those taken from an android device ,even if the android device has a 1440p screen , is that the camera hardware is pretty limited in iPhones and the developers back at Snapchat only have to optimize the app for that one particular piece of hardware and not a plethora of devices like in android.Thus , the Snapchat app on the iPhone is much more refined and polished, as most apps are.   

So there you have it. The reason why your photos suck on Snapchat. This probably can be fixed with an update to the app, given that the devs at Snapchat redo the whole API. However with whatever little knowledge i have of API's i can safely say that this isn't going to be happening any time soon, so you're pretty much stuck with the current version of Snapchat as it is.

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Is the Google Pixel Worth It?

Is the Google Pixel Worth It?

   02:53:00       Unknown

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So the Google pixel was recently released and many android enthusiasts are wondering if the new Pixel is actually worth it. Well to answer that question we have to look into several factors which make or break most phones. In addition to these factors we will also look at the Pixel's competitors , which affects a consumer's thinking process before getting a new phone as they look into every option there is before spending their money on a very essential piece of technology.

The Google Pixel comes in 3 colors. Really blue, Quite Black and Very Silver. The naming scheme is a bit awkward but we can all see what Google was trying to do here. Aside from the colors, the actual hardware feels really solid and well built. It has a metal uni body design and at the back , the upper half is actually covered with glass which gives it a unique look. The fingerprint sensor is also housed on the back in the upper half. Perhaps the most noticeable feature that i haven't mentioned is the fact that there is no camera bump this time round. Yes that's right folks! Google and HTC actually managed to pull it off. Even the iPhone 7 has this ugly bump so Google really impressed a lot of people there. 

 See what i mean?

The Pixel definitely passes with flying colors in the hardware department. However many phones can be had now with practically the same feel as the Pixel but for a lot less. The Pixel phone starts at plus $600. However where the pixel does outshine those cheaper phones is in the actual performance department. The pixel is packing a lot of heat.It houses a Snapdragon 821 processor with 4gigs of RAM and the latest and greatest Android 7.1 which absolutely blazes through everything. 

 Many cheaper android phones do have more than decent specs but don't live up to their hype and will slow down eventually as you have to understand that in order to keep the price so low, they make some sacrifices which are not noticeable on first glance by the consumers. The Google Pixel does no such thing and therefore, if you are willing to buy this phone , you will be getting an absolute beast of a phone. 

Speaking of performance, Pure Android 7.1 Nougat really outperforms any other skinned version of android as these normally bog down android's true potential. Take the Samsung S7 edge for example. Although the phone has great specs and looks great on paper, real life performance may differ as Samsung's own custom ui may sometimes lag and drop a few frames here and there. Google has really done an impressive job at optimizing the newest version of android for their Pixel phones, quite like what Apple does with their iPhones. Thus the Google Pixel is a great performer and you will not have any complaints in that department.

Now onto the screens, The Google Pixel comes with a 5 inch 1080p one whereas the larger Pixel XL bumps it up to 5.5 inches and has a resolution of 1440p. They're both great displays but the biggest difference is only the fact that in this day and age, vr is becoming increasingly popular and if you are into that sort of thing , then the normal Google Pixel isn't for you. 

Although the Google Pixel has great hardware as mentioned above, it is lacking water proofing, which surprisingly even Apple didn't forget in their iPhones this year. Many android phones have this feature and one of the most prominent ones is the Galaxy s7 and the s7 edge. At this price point , one would expect Google to throw in a feature like an ip rating but Google in fact failed to deliver in that aspect. 

And lastly the camera. There isn't much to say in the camera department as it performs as one would expect a phone at this price point to, maybe even better. The camera app is clean and fast and the camera itself takes great pictures and can be describes as one of the best cameras right up there with the Galaxy s7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. 

So in the end, My verdict is that Google Pixel is definitely worth it. So what if you're not getting waterproofing, at least you have a headphone jack right! However if you're not completely satisfied with what the Google Pixel has to offer, you may like the iPhone 7 better. It has some things to offer that the Google Pixel does not. To read more about the iPhone 7 click here. 

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Android To iOS: Does the iPhone 7 / iPhone 7 Plus Have Something to Offer?

Android To iOS: Does the iPhone 7 / iPhone 7 Plus Have Something to Offer?

   07:55:00       Unknown

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With the release of the iPhone 7 and iOS 10, Apple has made it pretty compelling for users on other operating systems to switch over to iOS. However, this begs the question, Is the iPhone really worth it and will it have all the necessary upgrades that can satisfy you? Lets find out.

Although android users almost every time prefer practicality over design , some users heavily consider the design before purchasing their device. Now some can argue that over the years android devices have become very polished and chic but in my opinion what Apple has done with it's iPhone, No other manufacturer can with their respective flagships. And this is coming from a long time android user (almost 8 years now). The latest iteration of the iPhone now offers you features like dual cameras, stereo speakers and an ip67 rating. Although many android devices already have these features , the latest phone made by google, The Pixel, does not. Therefore many , who were looking to buy a premium phone but just weren't impressed by what Google had done with the Pixel , may want to give the iPhone 7 or the 7 Plus a shot.

However most android users are hesitant to use the iPhone not because of its hardware but its software. iOS has been notorious for its lack of customization abilities. However some may argue that this keeps the ui clean, and to those i say, can you close all apps once? can you set default applications for specific tasks? can you use third party text apps other than iMessage? Can you quickly toggle location settings? No, right? So what i mean by this is that android is a much more versatile operating system that allows you to truly make the device your "own". 

However the now that we've speculated the weaknesses of the iPhone from an android user's perspective, lets see what the iPhone has to offer that can make a long time android user switch. The latest iOS 10 gives you pretty nice improvements. Things like the ability to respond to messages straight from the notification , the new raise to wake feature, the ability to remove/hide stock applications that came pre-installed on the phone and you now have a full page of widget like cards that is pretty similar to Google Now.

If you are an android user , by now you're probably giggling as to how these are new features as android devices already have these features. However what the iPhone really has going or it is speed. If you are a power user or just bouncing in applications and multitasking , then the iPhone 7 is definitely the way to go. It has the new A10 fusion chip and 3 gigs of ram, to put it in simple words, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are blazing fast. The touch I.D still comes in the top 3 for most quick and responsive fingerprint sensors as of now. 

Battery life is another key area where people investigate before getting a new phone. The battery on both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus is very good and will last you a whole day with ease. This is because Apple has successfully optimized the software to efficiently utilize the hardware and with this combination, the battery life turns out to be awesome. 

The camera is also another major area for many people. Now the iPhone 7 has the regular 12MP shooter which is very reliable but the main attraction here is in the iPhone 7 Plus, with its dual camera setup. 

The camera interface is very simple and easy to use. The camera is also among the top two smartphone cameras out there. Although the camera on the Pixel is also looking to be a formidable one, the camera on the iPhone 7 Plus is still one of the best cameras out there. 

Now many of you may be wondering why i haven't mentioned the headphone jack. Talk about the elephant in the room right? Well Apple did justify itself by saying that it added more features like a better camera, a bigger battery and waterproofing the phone by sacrificing the headphone jack. So if we look at it this way , Apple is just trying to gradually move into the future. 

So in the end , we can all agree that the iPhone is much better optimized for pretty much everything as Apple only has to focus on their one flagship and not a plethora of devices like in android. This coupled with the simple, not intrusive interface, many people may want to make the switch as they might be looking for a cleaner and a  more organized feel. 

I'm not by any means trying to persuade anyone to get the iPhone 7 for themselves. iPhone may or may not work for you, you may like certain aspects of the phone but not some other features that are present on android devices. Get whatever is best for you, As this debate can never end and many people will get android over iOS and vice versa. However if you are an android user, i do recommend just trying out the iPhone 7 or the 7 Plus for some time, that is if you can afford and do this. This will make you appreciate the little things of the iPhone like Snapchat photos looking better , faster performance, no lag etc etc. 

That's it folk's! Hope you liked the article and found it helpful. Comment down below to let me know!

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Gaming Laptops:Are They Really Worth It?

Gaming Laptops:Are They Really Worth It?

   12:25:00       Unknown

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So is it really worth buying that expensive gaming laptop just for that little bit of extra portability? Lets find out.

In this article we'll be looking at a laptop from one of the best companies that produce gaming laptops, Alienware. But before we get into the crux of it, i just want to explain how games usually perform on high end gaming laptops these days. A high end gamin laptop usually has an Intel i5 or an i7 processor, mostly the latter, and most of the time it also has turbo support for that extra bit of horsepower. A good gaming laptop should have 16GB of RAM and an SDD (not a HDD) as these usually give the better performance in read and write speeds. However if you really want more storage then you can also get a mechanical hard drive but i would advise you to use that just for storage and data, and that you should store all your programs on the SDD.

Now what really makes a gaming laptop a "Gaming" laptop is the GPU it's using. Usually Gpu's from Nvidia offer the best performance but if you're on a budget, get an AMD Gpu. These are not as good as their Nvidia counterparts but can get the job done quite easily. Now onto the battery life. One of the reasons why someone would get a gaming laptop is that they can easily carry it around wherever they go and use the laptop on the go. However this experience can be hindered by the battery life of the laptop. being a high powered Laptop, one would expect the components of the device to use more power and thus meaning you get less battery life. However this is not usually the case with modern laptops. If you are doing everyday tasks on your gaming laptop like web browsing , editing documents, using Photoshop etc,then expect the battery life to be average. However when gaming and doing graphic intensive stuff like video editing, then expect the battery life to last you around an hour or an hour and a half. That's somewhere around 60-90 minutes. 

Enough with the boring stuff. How does a Gaming laptop actually perform? i ran some games on a the Alienware laptop running an i7 4720 HQ  2.6GHZ Cpu , 16 GB of ddr3 memory, 256 GB of SDD and a 1TB mechanical hard drive. The graphics chip in here is an Nvidia Gtx 970 and the built in screen measures at 15 inch 4k display. However even though the screen has a resolution of 4k, i would not recommend playing games on this laptop on 4k as this wouldn't give out the best results. Stick to 1080 for most 3d graphic intensive games for the best performance out of your gaming rig. 

Running Cs go on this laptop at 1080p was smooth and there were no hiccups anywhere. The games ran at an fps of about 200 or above in max settings. On battlefield 4 we get around 70 to 100 fps at max settings at 1080p. 

 Do keep in mind that this title is a pretty demanding one and requires a lot horsepower to run smoothly at 1080p ,which fortunately we have in most modern gaming laptops. If you can get a high end laptop then you can surely get a great gaming experience. 

Now that we've established that there are good gaming laptops out there that can give you awesome performance , do you actually need it or should you just get a gaming desktop instead and save the money? Well there's a few scenarios where a high powered gaming laptop would come in handy. If someone doesn't have enough space and still wants the best performance out of there rig then this is the best option for them. Furthermore, this is great for people who move around and travel a lot and need to do their work and game on the go. Another example for use of a gaming laptop is that you ca hook this to the big screen Tv in your living room , considering if you don't already have that in your bedroom already.

So there we go folks! it really boils down to your personal preference in the end though. Many of you may find the desktop route more easy or maybe some of you find that a gaming laptop suites you best. One thing is for sure though, Modern gaming laptops can perform just as well as their desktop counterparts so now, the argument that a gaming laptop doesn't perform quite as well as a high end desktop, is not valid.

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Galaxy S8 Rumors: "Full Screen" Display & No Physical Home Button?

Galaxy S8 Rumors: "Full Screen" Display & No Physical Home Button?

   13:11:00       Unknown

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We've all learned the hard way that when there's a leak about a device with an almost bezel less display, its mostly a hoax. However unlike most companies like Sharp for example, now Samsung is rumored to be testing this feature for their next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8.

If this is true then the Galaxy S8 will undergo a pretty major transformation. ETnews, a publication with good connections in the Korean Tech industry , reports that Samsung plans to ditch the physical home button and opt for a full screen display. This would mean that the Galaxy S8 would have an all glass screen on the front with virtually no top and bottom bezel. The phone will also reportedly be equipped with dual cameras and be powered by both Qualcolm and Samsung chips but built with a new 10 nanometer process. 

Now when we start to talk about leaks and rumors this early before a major flagship launch , most of the time over the past two years, these have been pretty accurate. However there have been cases such as in the case of the Galaxy S5, which was rumored to have an "edge to edge" display and several renders also came out suggesting this very notion. 

However when we actually got the S5 we saw that it was litearlly a band aid! The leaks and rumors about the edge to edge display weren't entirely false either as we saw an edge variant of the Galaxy S6 the year after.   

Therefore we must be careful as to what we actually hear about these supposed prototypes of major flagships this early before their release. Sources told ETnews that Samsung wanted to ditch the iconic Home Button. Now Samsung over the past two years have embedded the fingerprint reader in the home buttons of their devices. If they now remove the physical home button all together then they would have to find out some other way to to embed the reader. However , having a full screen display doesn't entirely mean that Samsung wont be able to put a fingerprint reader on the front as new technology now supports the fingerprint reader to be under a glass screen. Xiaomi for example, implemented this in their newly released mi5s.

  

Now when it comes to the top and bottom bezels , i feel like the tech industry is moving in the right direction and specifically Samsung is moving in the right direction with their design choices lately. However given the current state of this technology, i feel that this might not be perfect for the Galaxy S8 and should be implemented in future devices like the flagships of 2018. But given that some amount of this rumor is true, then Samsung does have their sights on a truly bezel less display.

The report also stated that Samsung has made up their mind that they will now also use a dual camera setup on the Galaxy S8. However the question here is whether Samsung will go with a two lens and one module design or a two lens two module design. Samsung could reportedly opt for a 16Mp and an 8Mp Setup. There should be no reason to doubt this as Samsung's competitors have already implemented this in their latest releases. 

So what are you hoping for in the Galaxy S8? what groundbreaking feature do you think Samsung will implement on their Galaxy S8 and will it be a success or just another fiasco like the Galaxy Note 7? Comment your thoughts down below!

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