Rivew Mate

Nokia Lumia 920's exciting features revealed

A few days before Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement, Nokia unveiled its new flagship device – the Lumia 920. Nokia is pinning its hopes on this to make a breakthrough in the smartphone race and with Windows Phone 8, PureView camera, new display under the hood, it may just have a fighting chance. Here’s a quick look at some of the highlights of the new Lumia 920, launching some time in October, along with Windows Phone 8.

Iconic design The Lumia 920 continues the successful design of the Lumia 800 and 900 with the iconic unibody polycarbonate shell. This time around, Nokia has gone with a glossy finish which also has a scratch resistant layer over it. The curved design of the chassis gives the Lumia 920 a very distinctive look and feel, unlike any other smartphone.

PureMotion HD+ display Nokia’s flagship features a new PureMotion HD+ display which in simple English translates to a 4.5-inch HD (1280 x 768) IPS display. Thanks to the high resolution, the display is of ‘Retina-grade’ with a 332ppi. This makes text incredibly sharp and crisp to read. Nokia has also baked technology from Synaptics into the display, which lets you operate the touchscreen while wearing gloves. The display has always been one of the strong points of the Lumia series and the 920 is no exception.

Wireless charging For the first time, wireless charging will be default in a smartphone. The technology is built into the body of the Lumia 920 and adheres to the Qi wireless charging standard, a consortium that includes companies like Belkin, HTC, Samsung, Panasonic and many more. This means you’ll be able to charge the 920 with any charger based on the Qi standard and we should expect the next wave of flagship devices to have this feature built in as well.

Brand new apps The Lumia 920 will feature a bunch of new apps like City Lens, augmented reality app that gives you real-time information about places around you as you view them through your camera. Third party vendors like Rovio, makers of Angry Bird, will launch their new app called Angry Birds Roost.

PureView camera One of the highlights of the 920 is the new PureView camera on board. However, unlike the PureView 808’s 41MP sensor, the Lumia 920 will have an 8.7MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and their proprietary optical image stabilisation technology which suspends the lens on springs in order to compensate for shakes and movement. The new sensor is optimised for low light photography and is said to be able to capture about five to ten times more light compared to other smartphone cameras, thanks to the floating lens.

Faster processingAll these features are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 SoC. This consists of the speedy 1.5GHZ dual-core CPU and faster Adreno 225 graphics chip. The phone also has a 1GB of RAM to ensure smooth operation of the UI and apps. Since the Lumia 920 doesn’t have expandable memory, you get a generous 32GB on board.

Nikon D7000 

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good: Excellent performance for its class; great viewfinder; control locations and operations streamlined over previous Nikon dSLRs; double SDXC-compatible card slots.

bad: No 1080/30p video.

bottom line: An excellent dSLR for experienced shooters or Nikon professionals looking for a relatively cheap option, the Nikon D7000 delivers on almost all counts, including the company's best shooting design to date.

price -  $899.95 to $1,096.95

Sensor (effective resolution)	16.2-megapixel CMOS
	23.6 x 15.6mm
Color depth	14 bit
Sensitivity range	ISO 100 - ISO 6,400/25,600 (expanded)
Focal-length multiplier	1.5x
Continuous shooting	6fps n/a raw/100 JPEG
Viewfinder magnification/effective magnification	100% coverage 0.94x/0.63x
Autofocus	39-pt AF 9 cross-type
Shutter speed	1/8,000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/250 sec x-sync
Shutter durability	150,000 cycles
Metering	2,016-pixel 3D Color Matrix Metering
Image stabilization	Optical
Video	1080/24p; 720/30p/24p/25p H.264 QuickTime MOV Monoaural
Rated estimated max HD video length	20 minutes
Manual aperture and shutter in video	Yes
Mic input	Yes
LCD size	3 inches fixed 921,000 dots
Wireless flash	Yes
Memory slots	2 x SDXC
Battery life (CIPA rating)	1,050 shots
Dimensions (inches, WHD)	5.2 x 4.2 x 3
Body operating weight (ounces)	27.3
Mfr. price	$1,199.95 (body only)
	$1,499.95 (with 18-105mm lens)

It's not a lightweight camera, but it feels very sturdy and well built, with a solid grip and enough heft to offset the weight of many heavy pro lenses. The viewfinder is lovely to use, especially compared with the dim, squinty ones found in the cheaper SLRs. It's relatively bright, with 100 percent scene coverage, an optional grid overlay, and large AF-area indicators. Rubber covers hide the connectors for composite and HDMI video, USB, and a mic and proprietary GPS connector.

 also ended up having to disable modeling flash; with a flash in the hotshoe, the flash compensation button triggers the modeling flash and I repeatedly blinded people and animals by accidentally pressing the button during normal camera handling.

The D7000 looks like both a compelling cheap alternative to the D300s and a significant upgrade over the D90 for not a lot of money. For video shooters, the cheaper 60D still has a slight edge; though many indie videographers tend to prefer 24p, at the very least it's nice to have the 30p option, and 30fps with full-time autofocus is more attractive to the mainstream user. Plus lots of folks, including me, love the articulated LCDs. But it's hard to argue against the better coverage for the viewfinder, faster burst shooting with a deeper buffer and fast autofocus, and a more durable body construction.

The Nikon D7000 stands out as a great camera for experienced photographers and pros who don't have specific needs like full frame or fastest burst possible. It's expensive for a first dSLR, and there are plenty of sub-$1,000 models to fill that need. But if you're ready to replace your current dSLR with something a little more powerful, a look at the D7000 should top your to-do list.

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB-11

Ever since the launch of the iPad we have seen a slew of tablets that have tried to take on the big Apple and quite frankly, failed miserably at it. It was with the launch of Google’s Honeycomb OS that Android tablets showed some potential and with the launch of Android 4.0 ICS, Android tablets finally started to make sense.

We have also begun to see some budget tablets hit the streets that boat of decent hardware under the hood and an attractive price point of around Rs. 10,000.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is priced at the Rs. 20,000 mark which means that it offers features specifications and a build that goes beyond the budget devices and is aimed at the audience that doesn't want to drop a lot of cash on the iPad.

But does the device make a place for itself in the tablet market or are you better off aspiring for an iPad?

Design and Build

One look at the device and it has the build of a typical 7-inch tablet. It feels way better than any budget tablet that we have seen but doesn't have the classy feel of the iPad. The rear of the Galaxy Tab 2 has a grey plastic matte finish which is nice. It gives the device an elegant finish while making it a resistive to dust and fingerprints. The front of the device has the 7-inch display, which is glossy, and a fingerprint magnet.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is really slim measuring in at 10.5mm thin and is relatively light at 344 grams. It fells really sturdy in ones hands. Considering its size, the device fells very comfortable in both landscape as well as portrait mode.

The device comes in three variants of internal storage – 8GB / 16GB / 32GB. The review unit we received has 16GB of internal storage. The memory of the device is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. The microSD card slot rests to the left of the device along with a SIM card slot. Both the SIM card and the microSD card slots rests under a flap, which is easy to access and keeps the cards safe.

The right of the device has the volume rocker as well as the on/off/sleep/wake button. The bottom of the device has a proprietary dock connector, something that looks very reminiscent of the iPhone/iPad dock connector. The top of the device has the headphones jack. The rear houses the 3.15MP snapper without a flash and the front of the device ahs a VGA camera for video calling.

At the bottom of the tablet to the right and the left of the dock connector rest the two speakers.

The downside to the connectivity options is that Samsung has gone the Apple way with a proprietary dock connector. This isn’t a bad thing, but we have seen budget tablets from Zyncand iBerry that offer HDMI-out straight out of the box. 

Features and specifications

From the moment you switch on the device, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 runs on Google Android 4.0 ICS skinned with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. With TouchWiz, Samsung brings with it a bunch of preloaded apps such as PolarisOffice, Samsung Apps, eBuddy XMS, TuneIn Radio, Chat On and more. Samsung All share app comes preloaded on the device. The app enables uses to share multimedia content with the Galaxy Tab and a DLNA enabled TV.

At the bottom of the screen on the left, you have touch sensitive buttons representing back, home, task manager for easy killing of apps and freeing memory and a nifty button used to take screen shots.

Under the hood, the device is powered by a dual core 1GHz processor, has 1GB of RAM and comes with 3 variants of internal storage – 8GB/16GB/32GB. The review unit we received boasts of 16GB of internal storage. Other specifications include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer and digital compass. The screen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is 7-inches and has a resolution of 1024 x 600. This resolution seems a little disappointing as we have seen devices that boast of a resolution of 1280x 800.

Overall the device is quite well loaded with features. If you are used to the Android powered Samsung smartphones, you will fell tight at home here. If you are looking for a raw Android experience you will have to look elsewhere as every aspect of the interface than can be customized has been customized by Samsung with TouchWiz. If you want a raw Android experience, on a 7-inch device, you will have to take a look at the Google Nexus 7.