INFOTECHNO

The year 2014 has come up with an array of smartphones in wide segment ranging from entry, mid to high end flagship models as per the needs and requirements of the consumers.  We cherrypick the top devices with impressive spec sheet that prove worthy of your money. 

Moto G

Earlier this month, the highly anticipated Moto G finally hit the Indian market exclusively via Flipkart. The smartphone comes with a 4.5-inch TFT LCD panel, which may be seem a bit small for the phablet crazy among us, but makes up for it with 720p resolution. It runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but the company has already started rolling out 4.4 KitKat.4

The Moto G retails at Rs 12,499 for the 8GB and Rs 13,999 for the 16GB. This makes it the best, value-for-money offering under Rs 15,000 and quite possibly under Rs 20,000 as well. The Moto G does many things right but it’s not without its shortcomings. Expandable memory and 1GB of RAM are possibly the only major drawbacks of this phone. Read our complete Moto G review to know more.

Samsung Galaxy S5

After a string of leaks and rumours, Samsung unveiled its latest flagship, the Galaxy S5, at its Unpacked 5 event during the MWC 2014. Retaining most of the rumoured features, the Galaxy S5 comes with a fingerprint scanner and dust- and water-proof capabilities. The S5 is a 5.1-inch upgrade to the year older Galaxy S4 and sports a full HD screen with the same Super AMOLED panel, and not a 2k display as was hotly rumoured. The plastic-built Galaxy S5 also adds a heart-rate monitor just below the camera module. The smartphone comes with a 16MP camera with improved menu and user interface. It also gets a 2.1MP front-facing camera. Check out all the specs of the Galaxy S5.

Samsung Note 3 Neo

At its Forum 2014 in Bali, Samsung launched the Note 3 Neo for the Indian market at a price of Rs 40,900. It’s a lite version of the more premium Note 3. As an introductory offer, first 1,000 customers to pre-book the Note 3 Neo can take it home for Rs 38,990. The Neo has a striking resemblance with the Note 3, except for the difference in length and width. It sports a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with 720p resolution, compared to the 5.7-inch1080p screen fitted on the Note 3. It is powered by a hexa-core chipset with two 1.7GHz Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3GHz Cortex A7 cores. Samsung packs in 16GB onboard storage and a microSD card slot. Samsung has given the premium 13MP camera and 4k recording a miss, as the Neo gets an 8MP camera and maximum 1080p video recording. Take a look at our quick hands on with the Note 3 Neo.

Samsung Grand Neo

At the Samsung Forum 2014, the company has also launched the mid-range Galaxy Grand Neo for Rs 18,450. The Neo comes fitted with a 5-inch TFT display, and a disappointing 480 x 800 pixels of resolution. Under the hood, the device will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core A7 processor with 1GB of RAM, similar to the one found in the Grand 2. The device gets a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It has 8GB of internal memory, which is further expandable via a microSD card slot. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and not KitKat. The connectivity options include HSPA+ (21Mbps down, 5.76Mbps up), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct,  Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB, GPS and GLONASS. Check out our hands-on with the Grand Neo right here.

Nokia X, X+ and XL

This month, we finally saw Nokia pull the wraps off its first ever Android-based phones at the MWC in Barcelona. Nokia has launched the X, X+ and XL smartphones which will run a forked version of Android. The smartphone won’t have access to the official Google Play Store, but it will be able to run most Android apps that are already available. The Nokia XL is said to be the flagship device coming next month. The budget Nokia X and X+ feature a 4-inch display with a 800×480 pixel resolution. Nokia did not announce the chipsets on stage, but the phones have a Snapdragon S4 SoC. The dual-core processor is clocked at 1GHz. There’s 512MB of RAM on the Nokia X, while the X+ gets 768MB of RAM. Both have 4GB internal storage and the ability to take in micro SD cards up to 32GB in capacity. Check out the Nokia X, x+ and XL in photos.

Sony Xperia Z2

This month, we also saw the all-new Sony flagship dubbed Z2. The smartphone runs on Google’s latest Android 4.4 KitKat and is the first Xperia device to be able to shoot 4K video. The Z2 has borrowed waterproof and rugged capabilities from its predecessor, and sports a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD IPS display with a wide colour palette and Triluminos tech. It comes powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 and Adreno 330 GPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM.  Sony has also added digital noise-cancelling capabilities and a massive 20.7-megapixel camera.

Blackphone

At MWC 2014, Silent Circle and Geeksphone launched their anti-NSA smartphone – Blackphone. The smartphone bundles a two-year subscription to the Silent Circle suite of apps and promises encrypted phone calls and e-mail for the user and up to three friends, irrespective of the handset owned. It also includes two years of Disconnect anonymous Wi-Fi and two years of SpiderOak anonymous cloud storage. After the two year subscription period, users can continue to use the services from Silent Circle apps by paying $10 per month. The privacy-focused device is now available for pre-order at $629.

Micromax Power
Focussing on prolonged battery life at affordable prices, Micromax has launched a new sub-Rs 10,000 smartphone in its Canvas series dubbed Power A96 at Rs 9,990. The biggest USP of the all-new Canvas Power is its 4,000 mAh battery. The battery promises up to up to 5.5 hours of talktime and up to 450 hours of standby time and we reckon it will easily last through the day, especially considering the other specs, which include a 5-inch TFT display with lowly 480×854 pixels of resolution, 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor with 512MB of RAM,  dual-SIM capability, 4GB of onboard storage, microSD card and 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash.

Gionee M2
Following in the footsteps of Micromax, Gionee launched the M2 with massive 4,200mAh battery. The Gionee M2 is a dual-SIM smartphone and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with Gionee’s Amigo UI customisations. The M2 sports a 5-inch display with 480×854 pixels of resolution. It is powered by a quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The chipset maker has not been unspecified in the official press release. On the connectivity front, it won’t disappoint users with support for 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS/A-GPS. The 4GB onboard storage is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card slot.

You can also check out the new mid-range Sony Xperia M2, which was announced at MWC and the Micromax Elanza which went on sale earlier this month.

Google is undoubtedly the sire of the internet world. Its smartphone’s series called Nexus is too quite a popular and a hot property of the smart phone market.

Historically, the Google is supposed to launch only one Nexus smart phone every year that too at the end of the year. The last launched Nexus 5 was a successful phone which was like all the rendezvous of all the trending and current technology at affordable prices.

So, next in the series is Nexus 6 and many rumors are around the corner regarding the specs and features of this much awaited smartphone.

The most rumored thing about this phone is that it would be manufactured by Lenovo as Google recently sold the not so successful brand of its Motorola for 3 Billion US $ to it.

But, until or unless the phone is launched, we can’t say anything. Though, some rumors and expectations are here below based on the market sources.

Design and Display

As the curved and flexible displays are getting very much attention after the trend started by Samsung Galaxy Curve and LG G Flex, it will be interesting to see that how Google approaches this technology.

People are expecting more on this curved side with UHD display, but, with more ease to handle and keep the phone in the pocket.

The size of display is also a point of concern as 5 inch screen is common, so Google could go for a bigger screen like 5.5 inch with a screen resolution of nearly 2640*1280p for Nexus 6.

Processor and Android

If rumors are to be believed, then Nexus 6 will be powered by a high class octa-core 2.5 GHz processor with at least 4 GB of RAM (expected) as the Nexus 5 already touched the mark of 3 GB RAM.

The Google is also planning to use the latest version of android for this Nexus phone. Android 4.4 ‘Kitkat’ is what you’re thinking? No, I said the word latest! Android 4.5 ‘Lollypop’ is what’s on the cards for the Nexus 6.

Camera and Features

You remember the tagline of Nexus 5 camera ‘capture the moments that matter’. Well, the high quality camera of Nexus 5 has just burdened up the expectations for Nexus 6 as it is supposed to have a 12 MP camera according to the rumors and with the features like 360 degree view, burst shot and auto save on Goggle+.

The front camera is also expected to be at least 2+ MP with 1080p@30fps video recording capacity.

If we talk about more features that people would like to see as the giants like Samsung has shown immense improvement with fingerprints and other biometric technology than, Nexus 6 should get the above feature along with glitch free air gesture and better face detection for security purpose.

Memory and Battery

The Nexus 5 was available in 16 GB and 32 GB version of internal memory. Now, as the processor and RAM could get better in the next launch than previous ones, the rumors are that the Nexus 6 might get available in a 64 GB version too.

The more colors are also expected like other manufactures except the traditional black and white.

The battery backup issues are always having been a nightmare for the smartphone users. With the tons of apps and features, the battery should provide a decent backup.

Nexus 6 might have a 3100+ mAh battery, according to the market birds to resolve this issue as the last phone has many complaints for its backup.

Price and Release Date

The smartphone with features like air gesture and fingerprint scanner, high end processor and RAM with the latest android and 64 GB of internal memory will surely be an expensive thing to owe.

The expected price for the 64 GB model with all the above features, if they come will be around 500 US $ or more. But, it’s worth it, I guess! What’d you say?

Google launches its smart phone at the beginning of November or later, after mixing up all the current trends and technology in its phone I think!

But, this time it could be before that in order to get the triumph before others. May be in October or so.

Wrap Up

If we look at all the rumors and mix our expectations with them then, the Nexus 6 is going to prove a milestone for the smartphone era. This will satisfy all the needs of a smart phone lover and people would like to light up their pockets to owe a device like the Nexus 6.