Apple

Verdict

A brilliant new tablet... if you're ready to put up with a lot more heft.

PROS:

• Amazing screen
• Hugely powerful

CONS:

• Powerfully huge
• iOS 9 adds complexity

The iPad Pro is the device I thought we'd never see - it's Apple finally taking on the enterprise market, but like with its Macbook range, making normal non-business folk thinking about whether they'd fancy one too.
The reason is simple: this thing has got a massive screen with impressive resolution and a bunch of fancy new tricks that, combined with Apple's iOS abilities, offer a really compelling experience.
The main thing you'll notice about this thing is that it's, well, huge. Really big in the hand, to the point of feeling like you might be able to defend yourself from a particularly vicious knife attack if you're holding it in the right way.

Design

It's a little hefty at over 700g, but that doesn't tell the whole story - this is a tablet with a brilliant screen, powerful speakers and a great accessory ecosystem.

I can't help but feel that Steve Jobs would have had something to say about the Apple Pencil, the new stylus that allows you to annotate and sketch and do all manner of things, but if you saw Adobe laying out magazine pages on the stage with the little white pole you'd understand.
The design of the iPad Pro might sound like it's designed for the enterprise sector, but really it's just a really decent work tool that's fused with a top of the range tablet. Given there's no iPad Air 2 on offer this year, this is the top of the range tablet and as such has to be considered as much a consumer item as anything else.

It was clear that the split screen view in iOS 9 was conceived for the iPad Pro, as there's just so much that you can do with that screen real estate. I get infuriated with companies that show how powerful their tablet is by letting you shrink a movie down to the size of a postage stamp and allow you to do other tasks in the background, but again Apple's done it.
It does show how powerful the tablet is at multitasking, but this isn't a new trick - the Samsung Galaxy S3 could do the same thing in 2012.



The split screen view is good because,well, most of the time it's not proper split screen and that's the right thing to do. This is still a tablet, not a laptop replacement, and as such you don't need a million windows open at any one time. Being able to browse news and still do an Excel document (or something - why you'd need that combination isn't obvious) is good when it's just a column slid in from the right of the screen.

Pencil and Smart Keyboard

The upshot of the iPad Pro is that it's just a fantastically powerful tablet, one that can do pretty much anything offered by app developers at the moment. High resolution graphics, levels of pressure from the Apple pencil... it's all well within its capabilities.

The Apple Pencil is an odd thing to have added in. It's very good at sketching - one of the best I've tried when it comes to handwriting recognition and didn't get confused by my fist rubbing the screen at the same time - but for $99 (around £70) it's an expensive add on to an already expensive tablet.

But the ability to shade, annotate and more is really impressive, and the reaction from the iPad Pro perfect.

The Smart Keyboard is another device that we've been waiting to see from Apple for years now, and it's also a nifty addition. While it's expensive, the keys have a very accurate travel despite feeling rubber clad. You think you've not hit the space bar and a few letter and you check the screen again to see it's all been registered perfectly.

It's very similar to the new Macbook's keyboard, where the travel doesn't feel traditional but still works really well. The magnetic dock works very well as a cover for the massive tablet too, and the Smart Connector could open up some really good possibilities in the aftermarket, as it allows to send power and data magnetically to the device from the cover.

There's no USB-C connector on here, thankfully, with just the normal Lightning connector as expected - and apparently even with the insane amount of pixels in the 12.9-inch Retina display the battery is apparently iPad Air-a-like, which is an impressive feat.

Early verdict

The iPad Pro is a large beast, no doubt about it. But it takes the same stylings that endeared us to the iPad Air and used them to create something that's going to sit astride the two worlds of business and 'sitting on the sofa not watching the TV but dicking about on your tablet'.
Will it be the commercial success that other tablets have been? Microsoft's Surface 3 has been something of a revelation for that brand, and Apple will be hoping that a Macbook-esque tablet can do the same. A lot will obviously depend on cost, but given the clever software tweaks and accessories Apple has thrown out here, there's a lot to be intrigued by - whether that will convert to actual sales though remains to be seen.
It's almost a shame that this tablet probably won't get the sales of the iPhone, as it means developers might not rush to develop the software - while Tim Cook was quick to point out the alliance with IBM and Cisco when launching the new iPad Pro, it feels more like a consumer device.
I can see this being the perfect device to leaf through the newspaper or some comics with on a lazy Sunday afternoon, or a great replacement for those that spend hours in bed watching Netflix on a laptop. And it's not even that expensive... which feels like an odd thing to be saying about an Apple product (although you'll need to spend a little bit if you want the Pencil and Smart Keyboard too).

 

Sony India on Wednesday, as expected, launched the Xperia Z5 Dual and Xperia Z5 Premium Dual in INdia. The Xperia Z5 Dual has been priced at Rs. 52,990, and will go on sale from Friday, while the Xperia Z5 Premium Dual has been priced at Rs. 62,990, and will go on sale from November 7.



The Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Sony Xperia Z5 Dual and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Dual have been bundled with Sony's UCH10 quick charger, which is meant to deliver 5.5 hours of battery life with just 10 minutes of charging.  Customers can also redeem a Smart Cover for their Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium worth Rs. 3,500 from Xperia Lounge for free.
(Also see: Sony Xperia Z5 vs. LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus)
Other offers include content (from Sony Liv, Sony Music, Amazon Kindle, and Hungama Play) worth Rs. 4,000 free with both the devices, and up to Rs. 5,000 cashback with HDFC bank cards.  Users can also available of EMI options from Bajaj Finance, with a downpayment of Rs. 2,999. Users who pre-book the Xperia Z5 Premium before November 4 will get the MDR-EX31BN noise-cancellation headphones worth Rs. 5,490 for free.

The Sony Xperia Z5 Dual will be available in Gold, Green, and Black colour variants. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Dual will be available in Gold and Chrome colour variants. In line with our IFA launch report, Sony has not brought the Xperia Z5 Compact to India, and will not be bringing it in the first phase of its flagship rollout.

The highlight of the new flagship smartphones from Sony is the improved camera. The Sony Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Premium feature a brand new 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS for mobile 23-megapixel sensor and F/2.0 G lens. Sony at the launch had claimed to have designed the camera inside its new flagship using the same technology that's seen in its Alpha range of interchangeable lens cameras.
Sony's Xperia Z5 Premium, on the other hand, is the 'world's first smartphone featuring a 4K display' as touted by the company. Its 5.5-inch comes with a resolution of 2160x3840 pixels and an impressive pixel density of 806ppi.
Apart from a smaller 5.2-inch display with a lower full-HD resolution, and a smaller battery, the Xperia Z5 is nearly identical to the Xperia Z5 Premium.
It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, coupled with 3GB of RAM. Apart from the 23-megapixel rear camera, it bears a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Both smartphones come with 16GB of built-in storage, with support for expandability via microSD card (up to 2TB).
While the Xperia Z5 bears a 2900mAh battery, the Xperia Z5 Premium bears a 3430mAh battery.

 

Micromax subsidiary Yu Televentures has once again teased its upcoming high-end smartphone, the Yutopia. This time the build profile of the device has been hinted.
The teaser image shows the metal frame of the smartphone, or possibly chamfered edges of the Yutopia's metal body. It states "R.I.P Plastic & Sandstone", probably disparaging Xiaomi and OnePlus about their choice of build materials. "True Power Lies In Metal," it adds. Nothing more has been revealed about the smartphone at the moment. Notably, this would be company's first smartphone made out of metal. Until now, the Yu Yureka, Yuphoria, Yureka Plus, and Yunique came with plastic body designs.
Company founder Rahul Sharma in a Twitter post earlier this month also introduced the Yu Yutopia as the "most powerful phone on the planet", proudly announcing it will be from India. With the metal build, a premium (for Micromax) price tag could also be expected.
Ahead of the Yu Yunique launch in September, a high-end smartphone from Micromax's subsidiary dubbed Yu550 was spotted in Geekbench listings as well as at an Indian import/ export manifest site. The Yu550 may be the high-end smartphone the company has been teasing.
To recall, the Yu550 smartphone spotted at Geekbench listing showed few specifications including a 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) processor coupled with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone was said to feature a 5.2-inch full-HD display and run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop-based build of Cyanogen OS. The Yu5050 scored 1353 in single-core test and 4622 in the multi-core test.
The Indian import/ export site, Zauba, on the other hand listed the Yu5050 featuring dual-SIM support; a 5.2-inch display, and microSD card support. The Micromax Yu5050 smartphones were shipped from China, and had a declared value of Rs. 20,295 to Rs. 20,752. To be noted is that import/ export website price listings are only declared values, and usually are not accurate reflections of actual market price.

 

Last week, a friend of mine ordered me a dal chawal dinner from Mast Kalandar, a Bengaluru-based food tech startup that prepares and delivers "home cooked" meals. Unlike most restaurants which serve food in plastic bags or boxes, this one came in a plastic tray with a plastic lid glued on top. The packaging felt like it was made by a UX torturer from hell - it took both my hands and good measure of finesse, patience, and resolve, to pull the plastic off the tray without spilling the contents that were filled to the edges of the tray. While the contents were appetising, the packaging filled me with the resolve to look at other food delivery options henceforth. That single meal of mine had enough plastic in it to choke a cow.
Plastic packaging is ubiquitous in the doorstep food delivery sector, across all the price points, from budget to gourmet food. None of the restaurants I've come across see any value in being environmentally and socially responsible for the plastic and packaging they bring into the household with every delivery.
Food tech startups are only further aggravating this problem, because thanks to the promise of "healthy home food", not to mention deals, they're driving an ever growing number of deliveries. And each delivery comes with its layers and layers of plastic, that far outstrips anything restaurants do.
These startups don't have to use disposable containers - all it takes is a cheap, low tech solution like a lunch box or a bento box, which can be washed and recycled for years. It needs to be a default option considering the scale and seriousness of the problem. Some tiffin delivery services pack food in disposable polythene bags, with scant regard for consumer safety or preferences. I'm sure they can budget it in, or make consumers pay a deposit for it, but as of now, nobody seems to be even thinking about this problem.
Outsourcing our food needs to a third-party has some obvious consequences at the end of the product lifecycle. At a morning ride down the low-income neighbourhoods in Ejipura, in Bengaluru, you will see the infernal hellscape that is the end result of thousands of working class people who didn't have the time to cook for themselves. Huge piles of polythene plastic lay around, burning slowly, diffusing dioxins into the air. These plastic bags also choke gutters during rains and cause flooding. It's a social problem most of our Indian readers have come across, and I for one can't wait for our ban-happy overlords to do something about it.
I now have a small collection of poly bags and cardboard boxes heaped in a corner of my kitchen thanks largely to Grofers, the hyperlocal delivery startup I have trusted to do my food shopping on a number of occasions over the last month. Dropkaffe, the Bengaluru-based online coffee and snacks on-demand service, delivers its sandwiches in cardboard boxes, which seem wholly unnecessary, since their sandwiches are already packed in saran wrap. I do give them credit for bringing my filter coffee in a flask, and pouring it straight into my mug.
Most startups are modeled around habit formation, consumer convenience and delight - but when it comes to food, I'm not sure if outsourcing this part of my life on a full-time basis is a good idea. In this RSA talk, Michael Pollan, author of the Omnivore's Dilemma talks about how cooking food at home has more health benefits, and shares sordid details on the fast food supply chain. You can see this talk below:
It will certainly make you want to take home cooking lessons, ask more questions about where your produce came from, or hire your own personal chef, instead of using one more app to place an order for a kilo of plastic, with some vegetables (cooked or otherwise) thrown in.

 

Today, most people you know are probably using a smartphone, and mobile wallets have also become quite widespread, even if most people use them for a very specific reason. For some, a mobile wallet is just a way to recharge their phone; for others, it's the app they use to refill the taxi money; and a few people have even started using these to buy a drink at Cafe Coffee Day.
There are dozens of branded wallet solutions on offer today, global and Indian, from tech companies, telecom players, and banks. With mobile Point of Sale service providers like Ezetap enabling mobile wallet payments, the usability of the wallet is no longer limited to sellers that have tied up with a particular wallet provider.
The era of cashless payments is upon us. Its WhatsApp moment in India is somewhat validated by the rise of Paytm, one of the largest funded players in this space, claimed a 100 million strong user base in August, from 12 million users in November 2014. The momentum in this sector can be underlined by the following stats from Tracxn, a market intelligence platform for private market investing: over 250 financial-tech startups were founded in 2013 and 2014, and the last 1.5 years have seen them raise $1.5 billion in funding.
On a global perspective, mobile wallets are enabling economies to transition to a cashless society. The major tech giants all have solutions of their own - there's Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung Pay, to name a few. Despite this, there's not much compatibility between the wallets - if you use Ola cabs, or Ola Store for your groceries, then you need to have an Ola Money wallet, and you can't top it up with your Paytm balance.
So, do you need to have all the different wallets installed on your phone, or can you manage with just a few of them? We took stock of the different options, and these were the ones that really caught our eye.
1) Paytm
Paytm started out with mobile recharges, DTH plans, and bill payments, and then launched an e-commerce marketplace in February 2014. Its wallet partners include Uber, Bookmyshow, and Makemytrip, along with others in categories such as shopping, travel, entertainment, and food.
Notably, Paytm is the only wallet that supports bookings on IRCTC, and has a license from RBI to set up a payments bank, enabling it to offer current and savings account deposits, issuing debit cards and offering Internet banking services.
Like most of the virtual wallets you can choose from, Paytm also lets you send money to anyone with a mobile phone number, and transfer money into any bank account. The wallet can be topped up using debit cards, credit cards, netbanking, and IMPS merchant payments.
Paytm is a good app to download thanks to its wide network of partners which makes it convenient whether you're taking a cab ride with Uber, or ordering a meal via Foodpanda. Right now, the company is also trying to acquire users by offering great deals on its e-commerce store - you can buy all sorts of electronics and get pretty big cashbacks into the Paytm wallet, and while that kind of incentive won't be around forever, it's a pretty big deal right now.
Download: Paytm for Android | Paytm for iOS | Paytm for Windows Phone | Paytm for Blackberry | Paytm for Ovi
2) FreeCharge
FreeCharge lets you recharge any prepaid mobile phone, postpaid mobile, electricity bill payments, DTH and data card in India. It recently added metro card recharging as a feature of its platform. The wallet can be topped up with debit cards, credit cards and net banking, and can be managed via an app or from the Web browser.
Acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015, FreeCharge launched its own digital wallet for making transaction across FreeCharge and Snapdeal platforms in September 2015, and at the time claimed a user base of 5 million wallet users in an emailed factsheet.
If you're regularly using Snapdeal - or one of its many new ventures, such as ShopO or FindMyStyle - then using FreeCharge makes sense. Otherwise, it's a quick and easy way to take care of recharges and bills.
Download: FreeCharge for Android | FreeCharge for iOS | FreeCharge for Windows Phone
3) MobiKwik
MobiKwik can also be used to recharge mobiles and pay bills, but it's also accepted across merchants such as BookMyShow, MakeMyTrip, Domino's Pizza, eBay, among others. It has a section with cash backs offers listed on its website with include both online and offline players. That last part is the key - MobiKwik has done a good job of building up offline partners such as Cafe Coffee Day already, and while you can't really ditch cash yet, it's a start. It's also tied up with Ezetap, whose new point of sale machines are like credit card machines that over 70,000 shops are already using, so you can pay with your MobiKwik wallet at any of these shops even if they haven't partnered up directly.
MobiKwik quoted a user base of 25 million last month on its website, and over 4,00,000 daily transactions. Top ups can be done using net banking, debit cards, and credit cards, the app can be used to send and request money between friends and family members as well, using a mobile number or email ID. There is no additional charge for such remittances.
Another reason to download this app is that MobiKwik offers a doorstep cash collection service, making it ideal for users who do not have access to a bank account or credit card. The cash collection is currently available in Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Jaipur only, and a maximum of Rs. 10,000 can be added to the wallet in a calendar month. If you're looking for a digital wallet with a strong offline presence then MobiKwik certainly seems to be a good option.

Download: MobiKwik for Android | MobiKwik for iOS | MobiKwik for Windows
4) Airtel Money
Airtel Money is a semi-closed wallet that doesn't permit cash withdrawal or redemption by the customer. It can be used to do recharges, make money transfers to contacts, shops and bank accounts, make bill payments and pay for online shopping. It can be used to book train tickets as well, but it isn't a seamless user experience.
The app lets you request money with NFC-based payments, and can be used to transact without loading money in the wallet first, using debit/ credit cards, or netbanking, for checkout. The app also lets you split bills and expenses with friends, by entering their phone numbers.
Cash can be loaded into the wallet from an Airtel money outlet or an Airtel relationship centre. The app is ideal for users who need to top up their Airtel prepaid SIMs on a regular basis, and today, it's getting tied up with other partners as well, including Uber. Airtel Money is also one of the few players that has been given a payments bank license from the RBI. This means that Airtel can offer interest, or its own debit card, amongst other possible features.
(Also see: What Are Payment Banks, What They Can and Cannot Do, and Who Will They Affect?)

Download: Airtel Money for iOS | Airtel Money for Android
5) Vodafone M-pesa
Vodafone M-pesa claims to be India's largest cash out network, with over 85,000 M-pesa agents spread across the country. The service lets you send money to anyone, to recharge prepaid numbers, DTH connections, postpaid Vodafone numbers, utility bills and online shopping. Money can be transferred to bank via its inbuilt IMPS service, or to a mobile number, but charges apply in slabs - for example, sending Rs. 2,000 to a bank account or an M-pesa account costs Rs. 38. DTH and prepaid recharges can be done through m-pesa for free.
The large number of business correspondents who can take M-pesa payments is a big draw, because it allows you to turn your virtual balance into cash without too much difficulty. Because of this, M-pesa is a useful choice in case you need to send remittances to someone who doesn't have a bank account.
Download: M-pesa for Android | M-pesa for iOS
6) Chillr
Chillr lets you send money in seconds to anyone in your phone book, without having to know their account number, IFSC code, or waiting for an OTP SMS. Only HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda customers can use the service to send money, while other bank customers can receive money using the app. The account needs to be enabled via net banking or mobile banking first, by making a request for an MMID, and a generating an MPIN.
If you're an HDFC or Bank of Baroda customer, the app is ideal for splitting bills with friends, and paying utilities like mobile, DTH and data card recharge, as it makes transactions directly from your bank account, without having to work with another third-party wallet. Chillr can also be used to pay or request money using a QR Code presented by the merchant or user. Upon scanning, an invoice is generated on your phone, which needs to be confirmed and authorised, using your mPIN.
(Also see: HDFC Bank Launches Chillr Money Transfer App for Android and iOS)
If you're already an HDFC customer, then signing up for Chillr makes a lot of sense, as you won't need to keep your money in multiple locations. For others, there's less reasons to download it for now.

Download: Chillr for Android | Chillr for iOS | Chillr for Windows
7) Oxigen Wallet
Oxigen Wallet allows users to top-up money and use it for mobile data recharge, DTH and data card recharge. Other features include making mobile payments for mobile, landline and electricity bills. Users can also send and receive money with another Oxigen wallet or directly to a bank account.
The app also allows users to earn reward points for using their services and enables them to shop at partner websites. Oxigen Wallet is approved by RBI, and claims to be India's first non-bank wallet to have tied up with NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) for instant money transfer. It's ideal use case is money transfers. According to the the company, the Oxigen wallet can have a maximum balance of Rs. 10,000, with a single money transfer of transaction of Rs. 5,000 a day, and Rs. 10,000 a month.

Download: Oxigen for Android | Oxigen for iOS | Oxigen for Windows Phone
Others
If you need a solution that can keep track of your payments, check out Mumbai-based wallet player Citrus Pay which brings intelligent user prediction into payments, and offers users a wallet that can sends custom reminders and notifications. Other notable players include Bengaluru-based Novopay, which is focused on India's semi-urban and rural market, and Momoe, which is focused for cashless payments in the city's retail outlets.
Operational in Bengaluru and Pune, Momoe can be handy in crowded places or while pub-hopping, instead of waiting for the bill. The app lists offers nearby deals and offers, and lets users split bills. Gurgaon-based PayuMoney offers a one percent discount on every purchase made using their wallet.

 

Coolpad entered India less than six months ago with two models, the Coolpad Dazen 1 (Review) and the Coolpad Dazen X7 (Review | Pictures). Both grabbed quite a bit of attention for their low prices, especially the Dazen 1 which seemed like it would put a lot of pressure on Indian as well as fellow Chinese companies in the critical sub-Rs. 10,000 market. Following those two launches, however, the company went pretty silent.
Now, following a corporate restructuring, the company is leaving the Dazen name and identity behind. Here in India, Coolpad is making up for lost time with a dramatic new launch. Even though we should be used to companies throwing more and more features into low-priced phones, the Coolpad Note 3 really made us sit up and pay attention. For just a shade under Rs. 9,000, Coolpad is promising a huge screen, large battery, good looks, fast processor, 4G LTE, lots of memory - and as the icing on top, a high-quality fingerprint sensor. There's a lot of hype to live up to, so let's get started.
Look and feel
This is quite a large phone by any standards, though there's no denying the popularity of big screens. The 5.5-inch display takes up most of the front face, and Coolpad has done what it could to reduce size around it. The capacitive navigation buttons are placed on the narrow plastic chin, which makes them a bit hard to reach while maintaining a solid grip on the phone. On-screen buttons might have made more sense for this phone.
There's a metallic rim running around the front which has an unusual purplish tint, but this is only visible in bright light. While all plastic on the outside, Coolpad tells us that the Note 3 has an aluminium inner frame for stability, which is remarkable for a phone at this price level. The rear has a soft matte texture which is good for grip, but picks up scuffs and smudges way too easily.
The volume buttons are on the left while the power button is on the right. The 3.5mm audio socket on top and the Micro-USB port on the bottom are somewhat masked by the way the Note 3's edges taper. On the rear, you'll see slightly protruding camera right up top and in the centre, with its LED flash to one side and the phone's signature fingerprint reader right beneath it. There's a small Coolpad logo and a speaker grille towards the bottom.
The rear cover peels off with a little effort, but the battery beneath it is not removable. You only get access to the two Micro-SIM slots and the microSD card slot. Coolpad bundles only a charger, USB cable and headset in the box - no cover or adhesive screen protector like we've seen from some other companies.
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.
SpecificationsCoolpad has managed to cram some fairly impressive hardware into its low-cost offering. The Coolpad Note 3 is based on a MediaTek MT6753 SoC, which is a 64-bit, octa-core model running at 1.3GHz. 3GB of RAM is pretty pathbreaking at this price, though as we've seen before, that on its own doesn't mean much. There's also a healthy 16GB of built-in storage space as well as support for microSD cards of up to 64GB, and USB-OTG support.
The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 720x1280, 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. The battery has a pretty solid capacity rating of 3000mAh. There's a 13-megapixel camera with an LED flash on the rear, and a 5-megapixel one in front. Then of course there's the fingerprint sensor, which the company says will be able to correctly identify an enrolled user no matter the angle at which he or she touches it.
Software
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 customisations made to the Settings app, in which it isn't possible to search for specific things. You get a typical single-layer UI by default, with all app icons and widgets arranged haphazardly on the home screens, but there is a "traditional mode" option buried in the preferences dialog.
Our Coolpad Note 3 review unit had an enormous "Cool Store" widget on one home screen which showed a banner ad and a few examples of popular apps you can get from the company's own app store. Probably because of this, the installation of apps downloaded from third-party sources was not blocked by default, which is a potential security problem for users unfamiliar with Android. We would recommend removing this widget immediately to get rid of the ads and prevent background data usage.
The default keyboard is also replaced with something called Xploree, which uses some screen space to display prominent Yahoo search branding, and tracks everything you type in order to display targeted ads - which the company describes as "enabling search and discovery". We would have liked at least an opt-in prompt or a popup message on first use telling users what the keyboard does. We found this invasive and intrusive, and disabled it immediately - again, we recommend you do the same should you buy the Coolpad Note 3.
Pressing the power and volume down buttons simultaneously takes a screenshot as usual, but instead of just saving it in the background, it's shown full-screen. You have to manually dismiss it though you can scribble an annotation or share it to social media first. This could be useful in some cases but it usually just gets in the way. More interestingly, pressing the power and volume up buttons will start recording a video grab of whatever you do on screen.
There are also a few other apps: CoolShow offers a few themes, though several sections such as Lock Screen Style and Font style have only one option with no visible way of downloading more. Cool Service is probably meant to help users get to an authorised service location, but we couldn't find a single one in India - perhaps this information will get added at a later stage. WeChat, Whatsapp, Facebook, WPS Office, and Amazon are also preloaded. Not all are removable.
Fingerprint reader setup was quick and easy. An app called Fingerprint Management takes you through the setup process, where you can define up to five prints and assign shortcuts to them such as directly unlocking the phone and launching any app from sleep. You can also set one up as a photo trigger - you can launch the camera app and take a photo in just one motion even when the phone is asleep. A second app, FP Lock, lets you prevent unauthorised access to any apps on the device - but it works with all enrolled fingerprints, not a specific one of your choosing.
Performance
The Coolpad Note 3 was generally a pleasure to use, and we didn't see the slightest sign of any lags or stuttering in the UI. Apps opened quickly and multitasking was smooth. The rear of the device did get a little warm when stressed out, but no so much that it was uncomfortable to hold. We had a bit of trouble using the phone outdoors in bright sunshine, but faced no other issues with the display.
The fingerprint reader is of course what we were most intrigued with, and in our time with the phone, it worked just fine. True to the company's claims, fingerprints are recognised quickly and in any orientation. However, with the sensor on the back, it isn't useful when the phone is lying on a table and you just want to check something quickly. It also only really feels comfortable when used with index fingers, maybe because of the size of this particular phone. You can enrol more fingers and assign shortcuts to them, but it's too awkward to become a habit.
We got a score of 35,674 in AnTuTu while Quadrant delivered 19,549 points overall. Graphics scores were also good, with 19fps in GFXbench and 4,461 points in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme. Performance is a little lower than that of the Lenovo K3 Note (Review | Pictures) and roughly on par with that of the Yu Yureka Plus (Review), taking into account the fact that both alternatives have 1080p screens.
The phone stuttered a little when playing a heavily encoded 1080p video. Sound was surprisingly rich and clear, but the placement of the speaker on the rear means you can't leave the phone face up on a table when playing music or watching videos.
The camera app is well designed, and we liked the independent focus and exposure reticules. Pro mode copies the old Nokia concept of rings that act as sliders for different controls. You also get a few modes such as one for dim lighting and one for panoramas. Images looked really good on the phone itself, with impressive detailing in closeups and some nice depth of field effects as well.
They still looked great on a big screen, as long as we didn't zoom in to actual size. At that point, detail and textures clearly suffered. Compression was evident, though colours were still vibrant. Some of the shots we took in daylight were absolutely stunning for a phone in this price range. At night, things were heavily dependent on light sources. The camera did okay when there was at least some direct illumination.
(Click to see full size)
The battery ran for 11 hours, 26 minutes in our video loop test which is pretty great. You can expect to get a full day of active usage from each charge, including games and a lot of Web browsing. 4G worked well for us and we had no problem with voice call quality either.
Verdict
Coolpad has major plans for India, including local manufacturing. The company will be leveraging all its strengths to drive costs down, putting pressure on every other player in the market. It is also prepared to refresh its product lineup every three months in order to deal with any new competition that might arise. On the other hand, the insistence on using flash sales through a single online retail partner will severely limit Coolpad's reach.
It might be really hard to get your hands on a Coolpad Note 3 for some time, but it should be well worth it. The combination of features, performance and material quality that you get at this price is surprisingly strong. The Lenovo K3 Note (Review | Pictures) and Yu Yureka Plus (Review), priced at Rs. 9,999 and Rs. 8,999 respectively are the most obvious competitors and are both now available without flash sales. Both offer full-HD screens but no fingerprint sensor and less RAM.
What it boils down to is the fingerprint sensor. If this is the feature you really want - and it's understandable that it would be - then you should get in line to buy a Coolpad Note 3. If not, you could also consider trading a few specs and picking up either of these two strong competitors.

Coolpad Note 3 in pictures

The "cloud-first" smartphone Nextbit Robin is now available for pre-order in many regions including India. The handset, which starts at $399 (roughly Rs. 26,000), will cost you another $70 (roughly Rs. 4,600) to get it shipped to India.
Nextbit, a startup that boasts of veterans from Apple, Google, and HTC on its team, has given the Robin top-of-the-line hardware specifications, and addresses the limited storage issue in smartphones with a cloud-based storage solution. It automatically backs up photos and other data that you haven't used recently to the cloud to free up space on your device.
The company had put the smartphone up on Kickstarter for financial support, where it received an overwhelming response. For the $500,000 (roughly Rs. 3.26 crores) goal the company had set, it received $1,362,344 (roughly Rs. 8.9 crores) in funding.
The Nexbit Robin comes with a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display which is embedded in a funky plastic body. It is powered by Qualcomm's hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of inbuilt storage that can't be expanded using a microSD card. The device also comes with a fingerprint sensor.
Other features of the Nextbit Robin include a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2680mAh battery, and a USB Type-C charging port. The single-SIM capable device supports LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi and other connectivity options. On the software side, the device will ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The company noted that the Robin is completely carrier unlocked. The bootloader of the device is unlocked too, which essentially means that one could flash their own favoured custom Android ROMs on the handset. The handset comes in two colour variants: Mint, and Midnight.

Nextbit Robin

• Key Specs

Display

5.20-inch

Processor

2GHz

Front Camera

 5-megapixel

Resolution

 1080x1920 pixels

RAM

 3GB

OS

 Android

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery capacity

2680mAh