Xbox One: Entertainment Hub First, Gaming Console Second -- But Could It Disrupt TV?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Xbox One: Entertainment Hub First, Gaming Console Second -- But Could It Disrupt TV?" height="316" src="http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/674/images/xbox-one.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Microsoft may have been the last of the major console makers to announce their next generation system but they certainly didn’t disappoint - that is, depending on whom you ask. Leading up to the reveal, many believed Microsoft would position the next generation system as a device designed to be as much of an entertainment hub as a gaming system.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">After watching the <a href="http://www.techspot.com/news/52654-microsoft-officially-announces-xbox-one-heres-what-we-know-so-far.html" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Xbox One unveiling</a>, however, I’m inclined to believe that most got it wrong. Given the One’s heavy focus on live television, it’s easy to envision how Microsoft may have figured out a way to transform the Xbox from a gaming console that also handles media into a home entertainment hub that just happens to play video games.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The Xbox One is now poised to become a huge mainstream success if Microsoft plays their cards right and even more so if they can get broadcast executives on board with their vision. There’s still a lot of unknowns, but let’s take a closer look at the facts thus far.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The Xbox One includes HDMI in and out which will be used as a passthrough for your cable or satellite set-top box. That’s huge in and of itself because it means Xbox One users can circumvent the dismal programming guides found on traditional set-top boxes from the likes of Comcast, DirecTV and others. Instead, users will have access to OneGuide.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><img src="http://www.techspot.com/fileshost/newspics3/2013/guide.jpg" style="max-width: 98%; outline: none;" /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">With OneGuide, users can navigate through programming using voice and gesture commands via Kinect 2.0 which will come standard with every Xbox One. These new input methods are designed to do away with traditional remote controls. What’s more, OneGuide contains fresh features that let users see what’s trending and tune in immediately or even track fantasy sports stats while watching live television as part of an exclusive deal with the NFL.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">It wasn’t until 30 minutes into the hour long event that Microsoft finally got around to discuss games – something that’s extremely telling in. It’s understandable, however, as Microsoft needed to save some content to show off at E3 next month, but I digress.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">One of the bigger questions in the overall picture has to do with how devices like the Xbox One will affect the way television programming is broadcast over the long haul. Tech companies have been trying for years to get broadcast behemoths to change their ways and there’s been a good bit of progress. We’re now able to stream pre-recorded movies and television shows from the likes of Amazon, Hulu and Netflix, purchase similar content from iTunes and even stream select channels live to mobile devices.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">But it’s not enough. Technology is simply outpacing the traditional broadcast model. Something’s gotta give. Could the Xbox One be the catalyst for change that we’ve all been hoping for?</div><div class="video-container" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 402.1875px; position: relative;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TP_E6Bn6fWM?rel=0" style="height: 394.140625px; left: 0px; outline: none; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 700.6875px;" type="text/html" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">People want to be able to watch content when they want, where they want from any device they want. I’m talking live content here, like sports and the latest episode of your favorite sitcom - not some television show that aired more than a week ago. Many consumers wouldn’t have a problem paying for the convenience. I happen to be one of them.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Other tech giants are well aware of this trend, and one in particular, Apple has been long rumored to be taking on television. Reports of Apple courting broadcast executives are well-documented and it’s no secret that Apple would love to reinvent the broadcast industry much the same way they did with music and mobile phones. True enough, a television set that could perform such tasks was something Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said he had finally cracked just before his death.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">And yet it's mid-2013 and we're still seemingly no closer to the fabled iTV than we were a year ago. As I was watching the One reveal, I couldn’t help but think that Microsoft beat Apple to the punch with regards to television integration. For the sake of this discussion, however, it’s irrelevant who’s first to market, who wins or who loses. It’s all progress in my opinion and that’s what counts the most.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">That said, let's be clear about one thing: the Xbox One doesn't stream live television either. It's simply used as a replacement interface for the dated software on your existing set-top box. But it's certainly a step in the right direction.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The Xbox 360 wasn’t designed to be a media powerhouse but it managed to perform those tasks exceedingly well late in its life. Just over a year ago it was noted that the console was used more for watching TV shows, movies and listening to music than playing video games online. With those kind of usage statistics it’s no surprise that Microsoft would build the One from the ground-up to be a media device first. Just imagine what the One and the PlayStation 4 could really do with live streaming television.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">There’s little doubt that the Xbox One will be a commercial success just like the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox before it. The media-minded system will appeal to people that aren’t necessarily diehard console gamers – a category of consumer that is much more lucrative than the limited scope of hardcore gamers. I, for one, simply hope that Microsoft's new media device and others like it can bring about more rapid change with regards to the television industry.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.techspot.com/article/674-xbox-one-disrupt-tv/" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div></div>

Xbox One: Entertainment Hub First, Gaming Console Second -- But Could It Disrupt TV?

Microsoft may have been the last of the major console makers to announce their next generation system but they certainly didn’t disappoint -...

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IBerry Auxus CoreX4 3G Review

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Review</span></u></h2><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">In 2013, we have seen quite a few budget tablets that have impressed us on many levels. Sure, they may still be rough around the edges and compromise on some features to maintain the price point, but tablets priced around the Rs. 15,000 mark have started becoming good prospects as your first budget tablet.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Most of these tablets come in either the 7-inch or the 10-inch form factor and boast of specifications that include a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a decent display with a respectable resolution touch response.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Today, we have with us the <a href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/Tablets/iBerry-launches-Auxus-CoreX2-3G-with-Jelly_12864.html" style="color: #0072c2; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" target="_blank">iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G</a> tablet. It is a 9.7-inch tablet and it boasts of Samsung’s Exynos 4412 ARM quad-core 1.6GHz processor under the hood and is priced at Rs. 15,990. Do we finally have a 10-inch tablet with solid performance and 3G at that price point? We find out.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Design and Build</b><br />The build of the CoreX4 3G tablet is what we have come to expect from budget devices. It has a plastic body and the rear has a black matte finish, which is nice. The top and bottom of the rear panel of the tablet (when held in landscape mode) has a textured finish. This may add to the grip for some in portrait mode but is more of an aesthetic design feature and has really little utility.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%201.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%201.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%207.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%207.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">The front of the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G has a simple black border surrounding the display. There are no physical buttons on the face of the device and the front houses the front facing camera along with an LED indicator that shows that the device is charging when plugged in. The left of the tablet houses the power button along with the volume rocker. The rear of the tablet hoses a camera without a flash.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">All the connectivity options of the Auxus CoreX4 3G are neatly laid out on once side of the smartphone – HDMI, microUSB, DC in and headphones jack. The SIM card slot along with the microSD card slot rests under a flap between the microUSB port and the DC in. It is very easy to lose this flap, as it isn’t hinged with the tablet – it comes off completely.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%203.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%203.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%204.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%204.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">The CoreX4 3G tablet weighs 610 grams and is quite comfortable to hold. Its overall design and build is your tried-and-tested run-of-the-mill 10-incher. A textured back may have added to the grip but we are just nitpicking here. Its design and build is at par with the Spice Stellar Pad and the Videocon VT10 tablet.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Features and Specifications</b><br />The iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G has a 9.7-inch IPS display with a 1024x768 pixel resolution. Under the hood, the tablet has a Samsung Exynos 4412 quad-core 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and the Mali 400MP GPU. This device supports a 3G SIM card as well.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%202.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%202.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%205.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%205.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">The rear of the Auxus CoreX4 3G houses a 2MP camera and the front has a 0.3MP camera for video calls. The device runs on Android 4.0 ICS out of the box, which is a bummer, but it does have 16GB built in storage expandable up to 64GB via a MicroSD card. It also supports Bluetooth v4.0. The Auxus CoreX4 3G has a 7,200mAh battery.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">The Android experience on the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G is fairly vanilla and it doesn’t come with any noteworthy preloaded apps. Users do have access to the Google Play store to satisfy their app needs. Users also get an iberry support app which takes users to the iberry support webpage giving them access to the toll free number, e-mail support and warranty process.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Running Android 4.0.4 ICS, from the lock screen users have access either to unlock the device or to access the camera. It feels so 2012 that we wish the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G ran on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Overall the features of the tablet are relatively standard. It’s the hardware under the hood that has caught our eye and we take a closer look at that in the performance section.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%206.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%206.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%208.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="186" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry%20auxus%20corex4%203g%20-%208.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="330" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Performance</b><br />The touchscreen response of the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G tablet is quite good although at the Rs. 15k price point we have the Samsung Galaxy Tab P311 that is a bit better. It is a lot more responsive than the EAFT Destiny tablet. Navigating and typing on the tablet felt quite smooth. The 9.7-inch display has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels, which gets the job done, and we do wish the resolution were bumped up to 1280x800 pixels. Reading text, browsing the Internet, playing games, all looked good on the display. The viewing angles of the screen to are nice. Playing games and running apps on it felt nice and the display was quite crisp.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Videos on the other hand are a different story on the Auxus CoreX4 3G. Considering the power under the hood, we tried to play an .MKV 720p rip and the playback lagged and stuttered. The frame rate dropped and the experience wasn’t the best. HD MP4 and SD AVI videos however ran very smoothly on the tablet.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">The audio output however isn’t the best. It is extremely soft for multimedia and has an acceptable level when it comes to apps. The iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G also boasts of the ability to make calls and access data via a 3G SIM card. The calling feature from the tablet feels like a gimmick. There is no earpiece on the tablet and the voice coming from the loudspeaker is really soft. We used it in a closed room where the ambient noise was in our control and we still had difficulty listening to the voice. The mic too is quite weak at picking up our voice. We had to either talk really loudly or keep the tablet really close to our mouth. We recommend using a headset if you plan to use the tablet to make calls.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">We played a lot of Angry Birds Star Wars, Temple Run 2 and Dead Trigger on the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G. With the power under the hood we thought the games would run extremely smoothly and our expectations were matched with Temple Run and Angry Birds. But despite the quad-core processor, Dead Trigger lagged when the action got quite intense onscreen. We have seen tablets like the Videocon VT10 that ran Dead Trigger a lot more smoothly. Transferring files from your Mac or PC to the tablet is as simple as plug, copy and paste.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Apart from testing games and playback capabilities of the CoreX4 3G tablet, we also ran benchmarks. The processor in the tablet is the same that is powering the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the Galaxy Note II.<br />To start with, let us see how the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G compares to other budget tablets including the Videocon VT10, Spice Stellar Pad, Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite, EAFT Destiny D90T and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-antutu.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-antutu.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-glbenchmark.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-glbenchmark.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-nenamark.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-nenamark.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-quadrant.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-quadrant.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-smartbench.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-smartbench.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">From the above benchmarks it is clear that the Auxus CoreX4 3G scores the highest in most cases. In NenaMark2, its frame rate is lower than some cheaper competing tablets. In GLBenchmark as well, the onscreen score is lower than some of the competing tablet.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Since the same processor powers the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Note II, here a look at the benchmark scores between the two Samsung devices and the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G tablet.</div><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; width: 668px;"><tbody><tr><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-antutu-samsung.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-antutu-samsung.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-glbenchmark-samsung.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-glbenchmark-samsung.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-nenamark-samsung.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-nenamark-samsung.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-quadrant-samsung.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-quadrant-samsung.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td><td><a class="highslide" href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-smartbench-samsung.jpg" style="color: #303030; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="87" src="http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/file/iberry-auxus-corex4-3g-smartbench-samsung.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); cursor: url(http://www.thinkdigit.com/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer !important;" width="128" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">Even though the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G tablet has the same processor as the Samsung devices, we really weren’t expected groundbreaking scores and we weren’t disappointed here. In the AnTuTu benchmark it scores better than the Galaxy S III and the Note II, but in the other benchmark scores, the Samsung devices have a clear lead.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;">A whopping 7200mAh battery powers the iberry Auxus Core4X 3G tablet and this is where the tablet is a performer. In the continuous video playback test, it lasted for a little over 6.5 hours and that is impressive. The location services were on, brightness was on full and so was the volume.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Bottom Line</b><br />Despite the impressive hardware under the hood the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G tablet does have its shortcomings. If you want a decent performing tablet, you can take a look at the Spice Stellar Pad and the Videocon VT10, which are priced cheaper. For Rs. 15,000 you have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which offers you better calling capabilities than the CoreX4 3G. In the 7-inch segment, you can take a look at the iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G as well. We also have the Nexus 7 officially available in India around the 15k price point. All the above-mentioned recommendations run on Jelly Bean giving them the OS advantage as well. Despite having some powerful hardware under the hood, the CoreX4 3G fails to deliver the overall punch. The touch response and the display are good for consuming multimedia content and the device has some impressive multitasking capabilities.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Specifications and Perfomance</b></div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: start;"><li>9.7-inch IPS display with 1024x768 pixel resolution</li><li>1.6Ghz quad-core processor</li><li>2GB RAM</li><li>Wi-Fi</li><li>2MP rear camera & 0.3MP video call camera</li><li>16GB storage expandable up to 64GB via a micro SD card</li><li>Bluetooth 4.0</li><li>Android 4.0.4</li><li>7200mAh battery</li></ul><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Summary</b></span></span><br /><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">Despite the impressive hardware under the hood, the iberry Auxus CoreX4 3G tablet does have its shortcomings. If you want a decent performing tablet, you can take a look at the Spice Stellar Pad and the Videocon VT10, both of which are cheaper.</span></div></div></div>

IBerry Auxus CoreX4 3G Review

Review In 2013, we have seen quite a few budget tablets that have impressed us on many levels. Sure, they may still be rough around the edge...

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Nokia Lumia 720 Review

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Review :</span></u><br /><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></u><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b class="dropc" style="float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 58px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 51px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 2px 0px;">W</b>e’ve already <a href="http://tech2.in.com/features/smartphones/first-impressions-nokia-lumia-720/871160" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">established </strong></a>that the Lumia 720 is Nokia’s best effort as far as Windows Phone 8 handsets go. This could soon change once the Lumia 925 hits markets, but as it stands now, the Lumia 720 offers the best blend of features and performance, wrapped in a beautiful package that’s quite affordable. The only limiting factor we saw during our brief stint with the phone was the limiting 512MB RAM. But how much of a deal breaker is it? Let’s find out. <br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Design and build </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Lumia 720 features a polycarbonate unibody design, just like the <a href="http://tech2.in.com/reviews/smartphones/nokia-lumia-920-review/701702" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lumia 920</strong></a> – only this time it’s slimmer, lighter and much better to hold. The 4.3-inch display has a much slimmer bezel as well as width, making it one of the slimmest Lumia’s at just 9 mm and super light at 128 g. The ClearBlack display blends seamlessly with the rest of the chassis, giving it a very elegant look.</div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_1_211240011245.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_1_211240011245_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">Beautiful design</div><div class="CL" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The button placement is very similar to the other Lumia’s; we have the volume rocker, power/sleep and the camera shutter all lined up along on one side. The button size and tactile feel is very good and it’s easy to figure out which one is which by just a simple touch. There’s a microUSB port at the bottom, microSD card slot on the side followed by the microSIM slot and headphone jack on the top. Around the back, we have a 6.7MP camera sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and an LED flash. The speaker grille is at the bottom and is fairly loud for alerts.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Lumia 720 scores full marks for aesthetics and ergonomics in our books. The handset is very well put together – even better than the more expensive Lumia 820.</div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_3_211240025518.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_3_211240025518_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">The 6.7MP Carl Zeiss camera</div><div class="CL" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Features </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Nokia hasn’t held back when it comes to the display. The Lumia 720 features a fairly dense 4.3-inch IPS display with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution. The ClearBlack technology certainly helps when it comes to viewing the screen under direct sunlight. The IPS panel produces bright and vivid colours with very good viewing angles.</div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_interface_211240015745.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_interface_211240015745_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">A familiar interface</div><div class="CL" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Lumia 720 runs Windows Phone 8 (WP8) OS and is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon chipset from Qualcomm. This is the same MSM7227 SoC used in the Lumia 620 and the Lumia 520. The RAM configuration also remains the same, which is 512MB. The reduction in RAM is not much of a problem for the OS functioning, but it is a problem when it comes to using apps. Most of the good games for Windows Phone 8 require 1GB of RAM, so you’re straight away limited, which is a shame since there are just a handful of good games to begin with. Luckily, all popular apps make do just fine with 512MB of RAM and work well. </div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_6_211240046937.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_6_211240046937_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">Good placement of buttons</div><div class="CL" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The OS itself offers the same typical user experience as you’d find in the higher-end models, and it does so quite well for most part. The WP8 UI with its Live Tiles and social network integrated phone book worked seamlessly and was as smooth as they come. </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Media </strong><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Lumia 720 is a well-equipped media device. Thanks to Dolby’s Headphone Sound Enhancement technology, the handset provided well-balanced tones with a resounding bass line and slightly sharp but well-managed higher tones. There are equaliser presets in the main settings menu and you can also toggle the Dolby enhancement mode and Audio levelling. The enhancements work on a system-wide scale and not just for the music player.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_media_211240023439.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_media_211240023439_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">1080p files play with ease</div><div class="CL" style="clear: both; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The video player is capable of reading a few DivX and XviD coded files as well as MP4 – even those in full HD. HD files didn’t seem to have any issue during playback. What’s missing is an FM radio, so you’ll have to suffice with third party apps for online services, if that’s your thing. <br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Connectivity </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Nokia has included most connectivity options we’d expect from any standard mobile handset these days, minus a couple of features. The Lumia 720 features quad-band 3G capabilities, Wi-Fi (dual band), EDGE and GPS with GLONASS for Nokia Drive, Maps and apps like Nokia City Lens, all of which work well. NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and, of course, USB 2.0 for PC interfacing and charging is also present. What the handset lacks is Wi-Fi Direct and AV out (MHL). Wireless charging is available as an option through a charging jacket. Since the body is non-removable, there are contact points on the back for the charging jacket. You’ll also be happy to know that the memory expansion slot supports cards up to 64GB.</div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_internet_211240028132.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/nokia_lumia_720_internet_211240028132_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">Bundled productivity apps</div><div class="CL" style="clear: both; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Camera </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The primary camera is a 6.7MP  with wide-angle lens and Carl Zeiss optics. While the resolution has been dropped a little as compared to the <a href="http://tech2.in.com/reviews/smartphones/nokia-lumia-820-review/779802" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lumia 820</strong></a>, the 720 does one better by offering a much larger aperture of f/1.9, which is quite a rarity in smartphones. This allows much more light in as well as gives us very good depth of field, which is evident from the image below. Other features remain pretty much standard, such as scene modes, manual and auto white balance options, ISO settings and Nokia’s array of lenses – Cinemagraph, Panorama, Smart Shoot and Bing Vision. Having a dedicated camera button also lets you start the camera without having to unlock your phone.  </div><div class="MT10 brd_b CTR" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/wp_20130422_006_211240269145.jpg" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Nokia Lumia 720" src="http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2013/may/wp_20130422_006_211240269145_640x360.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a></div><div class="FL imgtxt" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px;">Camera excels at macro shots</div><div class="CL" style="clear: both; font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Battery life </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The battery life is very good as compared to other Windows Phone 8 or even Android smartphones of similar shape and size. The 720 easily chugged along our complete battery suite which lasted 8 hours. This involved 2 hours of calls, 2 hours music, 2 hours video and 2 hours of YouTube streaming. All this time, the brightness was kept at "Medium" and Wi-Fi was on. We still had 27 percent battery remaining after the test. <br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Verdict and price in India </strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Nokia Lumia 720 is priced at roughly Rs 18,200 and will go head on with the Sony Xperia L and even the <a href="http://tech2.in.com/reviews/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-grand-duos-i9082-review/748582" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Samsung Galaxy Grand</strong></a>. We haven’t reviewed the<a href="http://tech2.in.com/features/smartphones/sony-xperia-l-a-specifications-review/872178" style="color: #0099cc; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Xperia L</strong></a> yet, but looking at the specifications, we can safely say that the Lumia 720 is slimmer and lighter, and will have a much better display and battery life. In that respect, the Lumia does make a better buy. The only thing holding us back is the 512MB of RAM, which will restrict you from installing many good apps that would typically need at least 1GB to run. If gaming is not a priority, then it’s still a very good option. For those who don’t mind a bulkier – but more powerful – handset, there’s always the Galaxy Grand for a grand more. </div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Specifications</u></span></div><div style="line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tbldndnsp" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 620px;"><tbody style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Display</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Form Factor</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Bar</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Screen Type</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">IPS LCD Capacitive Touchscreen</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Screen Size</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">4.3 inches</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Screen Resolution</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">480 x 800</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Number of Colours</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">16M</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Processor</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Processor</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Dual-core</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Speed</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">1 GHz</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Memory</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Internal Memory</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">8GB, 512MB RAM</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Extendable Memory</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">microSD, up to 64 GB</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Camera Features</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Sensor Resolution</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">6.7MP, 2848 x 2144 pixels</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Features</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Touch focus, Landscape Orientation, Still Image Editor, Full Screen Viewfinder, Geotagging</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Digital Zoom</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">4x</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Video resolution / frame rate</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">1280 x 720 / 30fps</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Video Recording</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Front facing camera</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">General Features</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">OS</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Microsoft Windows Phone 8</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">FM Radio</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Bluetooth Features</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes, v3.0 with A2DP</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Messaging</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">GPS</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes, with A-GPS support</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">USB Connector</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">NFC</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Available Colours</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">White, Red, Yellow, Cyan/Black</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Carrier Networks</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">2G</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">3G</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Data</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">GPRS</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">EGPRS or EDGE</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">EDGE</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">WiFi</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">802.11 a/b/g/n</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Body</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Dimensions</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">127.9 x 67.5 x 9 mm</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Weight(grams)</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">128</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Sound</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Media Player</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Music formats: MP3, WAV, eAAC+, WMA<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Video formats: MP4, H.264, H.263, WMV</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Alert Tone</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Vibration; MP3, WAV</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Speakerphone</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Yes</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Audio connector</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">3.5 mm</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Battery</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Type</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Li-Ion</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Capacity(mAh)</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">2000</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Talk Time with Standard Battery (Minutes)</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Up to 23 h 20 min (2G) / Up to 13 h 20 min (3G)</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Standby Time with Standard Battery (Hours)</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Up to 520 h (3G)</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Miscellaneous Features</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Built in Applications</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Hotmail<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Yahoo! Mail<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Outlook Mobile<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Gmail<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Office 365<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Nokia Mail<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Windows Live / Hotmail / Outlook.com<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- MS Exchange Active Sync<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Twitter<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Facebook chat<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- LinkedIn<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Windows Live Messenger<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />- Skype IM</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Other Features</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">Calculator, Clock, Calendar, Phonebook, Alarm clock, Social networks in Phonebook, OneNote, Wallet, Family Room, Kid's Corner</td></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><th colspan="2" style="background-image: url(http://tech2.in.com/images/spacbg.jpg); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;"><h2 class="specTitle" style="font-size: 12px; height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">After Sales Service</h2></th></tr><tr style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;" width="220">Warranty Period</td><td class="b" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 4px 6px 8px;">1 Year</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /></div>

Nokia Lumia 720 Review

Review : W e’ve already  established  that the Lumia 720 is Nokia’s best effort as far as Windows Phone 8 handsets go. This could soon chang...

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Dell's thumb drive-sized computer will ship in July for $100

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img src="http://static.techspot.com/images2/news/bigimage/2013-05-19-image-1.jpg" style="max-width: 98%;" /><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Project Ophelia, Dell’s Android-based computer on a USB stick that was first showcased at CES early this year, is scheduled to begin <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2039030/dells-thumb-pc-project-ophelia-to-ship-in-july.html" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">shipping</a> in July for around $100. The device is designed to plug directly into the HDMI port of a monitor to turn any display into a PC, gaming machine or even a set-top box.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Jeff McNaught, executive director of cloud client computing at Dell said users will be able to download apps, movies and television shows from the Google Play store. The device can also run Android games and stream videos from Netflix and Hulu.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Dell believes the thumb PC will appeal to those that do most of their computing on the web. What’s more, it’s positioned price-wise for people looking for an inexpensive alternative to tablets and notebooks. True enough, the form factor will allow users to take their computer with them on the go but the lack of display means you’ll have to have a visual aid handy wherever you plan to use it.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The company is expected to demonstrate the system-on-a-stick at the Citrix Synergy Conference in Los Angeles this week. It will be shown using a 19-inch display as well as a 55-inch television, we’re told.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">As for shipping, the unit will first be available to Android app developers. Dell plans to make the mini systems available to telecom and cable providers in August for inclusion in cable or data plans before finally offering it up to the average Joe via their website.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.techspot.com/news/52631-dells-thumb-drive-sized-computer-will-ship-in-july-for-100.html" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div></div>

Dell's thumb drive-sized computer will ship in July for $100

Project Ophelia, Dell’s Android-based computer on a USB stick that was first showcased at CES early this year, is scheduled to begin  shippi...

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'Supercapacitor' could fully charge your phone in less than 30 seconds

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img src="http://static.techspot.com/images2/news/bigimage/2013-05-20-image-2.jpg" style="max-width: 98%;" /><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">An 18-year-old recently won $50,000 in scholarship funds for inventing a supercapacitor that could one day be used to fully charge a mobile device like a smartphone in just a few seconds. Eesha Khare and two other teens were among the top winners at the annual <a href="http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/competitions/international-science-and-engineering-fair/winners.html" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Intel International Science and Engineering Fair</a>.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Her design, a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, would allow them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds. The supercapacitor can last for up to 10,000 cycles which outpaces traditional batteries by a factor of 10. Intel said the invention also has potential applications for car batteries but it’s the mobile side that could have the most immediate potential.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">She is one of two recipients of the Intel Foundation Young Scientists Award this year. The other winner, Henry Lin, created a model that simulates thousands of galaxies. The Gordon E. Moore Award, which honors the best of the best, went to Ionut Budisteanu who created an AI model that could eventually lead to cheaper self-driving vehicles. The 19-year-old earned $75,000 in scholarship money for his efforts.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Khare’s invention has only been used to light up an LED thus far but it was reportedly able to do a great job at it. With any luck, Khare will continue to develop the technology and bring it up to scale where it could be used inside future portable devices. After all, battery life in portable electronics is still a pretty big problem for most people – especially heavy users.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.techspot.com/news/52638-supercapacitor-could-fully-charge-your-phone-in-less-than-30-seconds.html" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div></div>

'Supercapacitor' could fully charge your phone in less than 30 seconds

An 18-year-old recently won $50,000 in scholarship funds for inventing a supercapacitor that could one day be used to fully charge a mobile ...

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Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance" height="249" src="http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/667/images/thin-mini-itx5.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">While many of us are content with traditional desktop tower PCs, there are those who have been pushing for a more compact and quieter alternative.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">One of the pioneers of small computing, VIA Technologies, developed the Mini-ITX form factor over a decade ago in 2001. Although VIA’s solutions were too underpowered for daily usage, over the next few years motherboard manufacturers were able to adapt more powerful AMD and Intel platforms to use along the tiny 170 × 170 mm (6.7 × 6.7 in) Mini-ITX motherboards.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Subsequently case manufacturers provided support with a range of creative Mini-ITX solutions such as the Lian Li PC-Q25, which we reviewed and awarded a couple of years ago. Considerably smaller than traditional ATX and Micro ATX computer cases, the PC-Q25 not only supported the latest Intel Core i7 processors, but it also allowed for a PCI Express x16 dual-slot graphics card. An impressive feat no matter how you measure it.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"></div><center style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1658461837330835216" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/667/images/Image_30S.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 98%; outline: none;" /><b style="outline: none;">Canon EOS 550D size comparison</b></a></center><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">But what if you want to go even smaller? That's where <em style="outline: none;">Thin</em> Mini-ITX motherboards come in.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Thin Mini-ITX motherboards are similar to standard Mini-ITX as they still measure 170 × 170 mm, except they are not as tall. Whereas standard Mini-ITX boards measure 35mm tall and are designed to be used with standard coolers and memory modules which can take the total height to over 50mm, the Thin Mini-ITX format dictates that no board should be taller than 20mm (25mm with I/O shield).</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Yet the Thin Mini-ITX format is more than ultra-low-profile motherboards, it’s an entire ecosystem that requires new cases and memory, favoring laptop SO-DIMM modules over the standard desktop DIMMs.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"></div><center style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1658461837330835216" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/667/images/Image_32S.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 98%; outline: none;" /><b style="outline: none;">The Akasa Euler case alongside HIS' Radeon HD 7970. That won't fit, of course</b></a></center><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The idea behind the Thin Mini-ITX format, besides the obvious which is to create seriously compact computers, is also to allow for DIY all-in-ones (think of little PCs you can attach to the back of your monitor). Having that said, we don't fully intend to go the all-in-one route in this article, but are aiming to build a powerful Thin Mini-ITX system that can be used in the office or at home as a media PC.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">So, to recap, this is our goal: extremely compact, powerful, and near silent operation, as in no-moving-parts silent. For less than $700 including a <a href="http://www.techspot.com/review/566-crucial-v4-vs-ocz-agility-4-ssd/" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">256GB SSD</a>, we believe you'll love what the final product will look like.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.techspot.com/article/667-thin-mini-itx-fanless-pc-build/" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div></div>

Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance

While many of us are content with traditional desktop tower PCs, there are those who have been pushing for a more compact and quieter altern...

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Metro: Last Light Performance, Benchmarked

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Metro: Last Light Performance, Benchmarked" height="249" src="http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/670/images/metro-last-light-benchmarks.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">When the <a href="http://www.techspot.com/products/pc-games/metro-2033.3058/" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Metro 2033</a> was released in 2010 it contributed to raise the PC graphics bar making good use of the latest DirectX 11 rendering technologies such as depth of field and tessellation along with high resolution textures.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Before that little was known about the developers of Metro. 4A Games was founded by Oles Shiskovtsov and Aleksandr Maksimchuk, former programmers at GSC Game World, who left about a year before the release of<a href="http://www.techspot.com/products/pc-games/stalker-shadow-of-chernobyl.87074/" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl</a>. It's no coincidence that Metro 2033's visuals bared resemblance to those of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, though we would argue that they were better. Both Shiskovtsov and Maksimchuk had worked on the development of the X-Ray engine that powers GSC's first person shooter.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1658461837330835216" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/670/images/1p.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 98%; outline: none;" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Metro: Last Light <a class="pf_widget_small " href="http://www.techspot.com/products/pc-games/metro-last-light.90503/" style="color: #05408f; display: inline-block; outline: none; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank" title="Metro: Last Light Reviews | Score: 82/100"><span class="pf_score pf_good" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px; background-color: #075bc0; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; outline: none; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039) 0px 1px 1px; zoom: 1;">82</span></a> follows its predecessor roots by using a heavily customized version of the 4A Engine. Three years of extra work put into the engine and you can take for granted that visual effects such as lighting, which was a huge focus for 4A Games in the original Metro have been vastly improved. There's also a lot more destruction and interactivity into the environments.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">According to 4A, the custom nature of the engine allowed them to focus on improving and creating new sections instead of trying to repurpose existing ones that were made by other developers for different mechanics.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Furthermore, the developer has continued to cater to loyal PC gamers who have considerably more power than console gamers at its disposal by including a richer gaming experience visually as well as a benchmark tool for measuring your system's performance.</div><div class="video-container" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 402.1875px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zZrgoPvBxjE" style="height: 394.140625px; left: 0px; outline: none; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 700.6875px;" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">As usual our focus on this article will be graphics card and CPU performance, but if you are wondering about gameplay, check out the <a href="http://www.techspot.com/review/669-metro-last-light/" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">full review of the game</a>. Here's a small excerpt to get you started:</div><blockquote style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; outline: none;"><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">The Metro series is set some years after nuclear war has ruined the surface of the Earth and put an end to civilization as we know it. In Russia, survivors have retreated to the Metro, re-forging a bleak semi-existence in the tunnels beneath the city. This is the sort of game that mentions, in its opening cinematic, the very real possibility that God is dead.</div></blockquote><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #05408f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 10px 0px;">Testing Methodology</h3><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Although we jumped to test Metro: Last Light at the first opportunity we got, we had to delay this performance review until both Nvidia and AMD cards were performing up to par. We tested almost 30 DirectX 11 graphics card configurations from AMD and Nvidia covering all price ranges. The latest drivers were used, and every card was paired with an Intel Core i7-3960X to remove CPU bottlenecks that could influence high-end GPU scores.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">Although we usually rely on Fraps to record up to 90 seconds of gameplay for our benchmark data, 4A has provided us with an easier method that is also more accurate. Last Light's rolling demo runs for almost 3 minutes and plays out a number of very detailed battle scenes. The benchmark tool allowed us to create our own graphics quality presets. In total we went with nine major tests covering three resolutions and three quality settings.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1658461837330835216" style="color: #05408f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/670/images/4p.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 98%; outline: none;" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none;">We tested Metro: Last Light at three common desktop display resolutions: 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 using DX11. We also tested using three visual quality presets: Very High, High and Medium and an additional test for SSAA.</div><table border="0" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: -15px -8px; outline: none; width: 100%px;"><tbody style="outline: none;"><tr style="outline: none;"><td style="color: #333333; font-size: 13px; outline: none;" valign="top" width="50%"><ul style="list-style-type: square; outline: none;"><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7970 GHz (3072MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7950 Boost (3072MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7790 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7790 (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 7770 (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 6870 (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 6850 (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">HIS Radeon HD 5870 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan (6144MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gainward GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti (2048MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1024MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 (1536MB)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 (1024MB)</li></ul></td><td style="outline: none;" valign="top" width="50%"><ul style="color: #333333; font-size: 13px; list-style-type: square; outline: none;"><li style="outline: none;">Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz)</li><li style="outline: none;">x4 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 (CAS 8-8-8-20)</li><li style="outline: none;">Gigabyte G1.Assassin2 (Intel X79)</li><li style="outline: none;">OCZ ZX Series 1250w</li><li style="outline: none;">Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s)</li><li style="outline: none;">Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit</li><li style="outline: none;">Nvidia Forceware 320.14</li><li style="outline: none;">AMD Catalyst 13.5 (Beta 2)</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.techspot.com/review/670-metro-last-light-performance/" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>

Metro: Last Light Performance, Benchmarked

When the  Metro 2033  was released in 2010 it contributed to raise the PC graphics bar making good use of the latest DirectX 11 rendering te...

Read more »