Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ in India, buy on Flipkart now
New Delhi, April 19 (IANS): Set to give Apple iPhones a tough competition, Samsung on Wednesday ended the Indian consumers’ wait and brought its flagship devices Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ to the country. Packed with a voice assistant called Bixby, the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+ were listed on a Flipkart banner ad for pre-orders, starting from 3 p.m. on Wednesday to avail the special pre-book offer of a free convertible wireless charger. At Rs 57,900 and Rs 64,900, respectively, the S8 and S8+ devices will be available on Flipkart and Samsung’s online store from May 5. “With the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, Samsung is unboxing smartphones that transcend the boundaries of meaningful innovations. Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ extend our trust, our heritage of great innovation and stunning design and our ‘Make for India’ promise,” said H.C. Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia. Despite the significantly larger screens on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, the re-engineered design with rounded edges and symmetrical sides make them compact and comfortable for one-handed operation. The Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back provides durability and a high-quality finish.
The “Infinity Display” and bezel-less design gives a user 18 per cent more screen with no buttons. The physical home key on the front has given way to a more intuitive soft key with a pressure sensor that is embedded under the display.
The devices come with a defence-grade security platform Samsung Knox. For security, the company introduced an iris scanner, which is one of the most secure biometric identification systems on a phone. The devices also offer a choice of biometric technologies including a fingerprint scanner — moved to the back of the device — and facial recognition, in addition to the traditional options of pin and pattern to unlock the devices. “These devices will offer our consumers a gateway to a new mobile life where the power of innovation will carry them beyond barriers,” Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told reporters here. The devices have 12MP rear cameras with multi-frame processing and optical image stabilisation. They have 8MP auto-focus front shooters.
The devices are IP68 rated, meaning they are water and dust resistant. They run on Exynos Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.9 GHZ Quad) 10 nm processor and have 4GB RAM with 64GB onboard memory that can be expanded up to 256GB. They run on Android 7.0 Nougat. While S8 has a 3,000 mAh battery, S8+ boasts a 3,500 mAh battery.
Samsung also launched Gear VR controller and Gear 360 Camera at the event. The new Gear VR with Controller, powered by Oculus, allows a user to watch VR videos and play VR games with ease. Enabling one-handed control and navigation, the controller provides better motion interaction when accessing interactive VR content.
Amazon launches Fire TV stick with voice remote in India
New Delhi, April 19 (IANS): To push more consumers stream content using less bandwidth, Amazon on Wednesday launched Fire TV stick with voice remote in India. Priced at Rs 3,999 (including taxes), the media stick will be available on Amazon.in and select retail stores, including Reliance Digital and Croma across India. “Fire TV stick offers access to a vast selection of movies and TV shows, popular apps and features designed specifically for customers in India including voice search for Amazon video titles in Hindi and English,” Marc Whitten, Vice President, Amazon Fire TV, told reporters here. Powered by quad-core processor, the stick plugs into HDTV and lets consumers access thousands of movies, games and apps. As an introductory offer, customers who purchase a Fire TV stick by May 31 and subscribe to an annual Prime membership will receive Rs 499 credit back to their Amazon Pay balance. The stick offers support for High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), giving customers more 1080p streams from their existing Internet connection and also supports 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi. As a limited time offer, customers will receive upto 100GB of free data on Airtel broadband and 4G home Wi-Fi devices, valid for three months from the time of activation; up to 240GB of free data from YOU broadband; six months of unlimited ad-free music from Gaana; a three month free premium video membership from Eros Now; and one month of ad-free streaming from Voot and Voot kids. Amazon also announced the release of three new titles on Prime Video, exclusively for Prime members and available on Fire TV stick — “Baahubali : The Lost Legends,” Oscar winning “Suicide Squad” and a standup comedy special by Kenny Sebastian.
Garmin’s Fenix 5 series coming soon to India
New Delhi, April 19 (IANS): Garmin India will soon expand its high-end multisport GPS wearables Fenix 5 series with three versions — Fenix 5, Fenix 5S and Fenix 5X — for the consumers. The new Fenix 5 models come with Garmin’s ‘Elevate’ wrist-based heart rate technology, a host of multisport activity modes and new ‘Quick Fit’ bands that can be swapped tool free. “Millennials are constantly watching out for innovative products with no limitations. They want an entire package-flawless design, smart feature set, ease of use and a perfect fit. The Fenix 5 series from Garmin has all the elements,” Ali Rizvi, National Sales Manager Garmin India, said in a statement. The watches are Wi-Fi enabled and compatible with ‘Connect IQ’, which means users can customise watch with apps, widgets, data fields and watch faces. They are also compatible with the ‘Face It’ app so users can set their favourite photo as a watch face and when paired with a smartphone, it displays call, text and email notifications. In the US, Fenix 5 and Fenix 5S are priced at $599.99 and 5X at $699.99. The prices for the Indian market are yet to be announced.
Xiaomi launches flagship Mi 6 smartphone in China
Beijing, April 19 (IANS): Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi on Wednesday unveiled its new flagship smartphone Mi 6 which is powered by Qualcomms next-generation Snapdragon 835 platform with 6GB RAM and has up to 128GB storage. Mi 6 will be available starting April 28 across Mi.com, Mi Home stores and other partner sites. The 6GB+64GB version is priced at 2,499 Yuan, 6GB + 128GB version is priced at 2,899 Yuan and the ceramic edition is priced at 2,999 Yuan. “Mi 6 is the culmination of our seven years of research and development in the smartphone industry, and represents the pinnacle of our journey thus far,” said Lei Jun, Founder and CEO, Xiaomi. The 5.15-inch display device sports 12MP wide angle with 4-axis OIS stabilisation + 12MP telephoto dual camera setup and houses 3,350mAh battery. “The 2×2 802.11ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi greatly enhances Mi 6’s wireless performance, enabling better reception indoors, with fewer blind spots,” the company added.
