Xiaomi has been known to introduce disruptive products offering an unmatched cost to quality. Taking the journey forward from the cellphones, they have made a range of products right from power banks to wrist band to earphones to even air purifier.
When they introduced the first version of Piston earphones, it was an instant hit. Mass oriented sound signature with plenty of bass, excellent finish and durability most importantly it was priced much below it's class. It was sold like a hot cake. In the Piston 2, they revised the sound signature to have a more controlled bass(better quality than quantity) with added benefit of a spacious sound stage. This became the new budget favourite at Head-fi. Post this there was another leap forward with introduction of the hybrid model which was the cheapest hybrid earphone ever made. Sadly it was not a perfect implementation of twin drivers and was not liked that much. Piston 3 changed that with significant shift towards a flat sound signature(no bass bloat), using a single high quality dynamic driver. This review is about the latest edition of MI IEM which was labelled simply as "MI in ear". Only buy from official website at from Mi India. There is usually no discount on this site for these earphones and buying from any other source may be risky as there are counterfeits of Xiaomi everywhere.
The design
This IEM is a design marvel. Getting a prize from Red Dot for it's remarkable design later last year, this earphone is one of the best engineering earphones we have seen lately. It comes in a beautiful white package that opens easily once you remove the transparent round stickers holding it together. Inside that you will find a plastic case, which is another highlight of the design. You will find the earphone wrapped in a silicone organizer which sits over the array of 3 sized eartips. These tips are beside the pair of M sized ones already mounted on earphones.
The instructions to recoil the earphone on the silicone organizer is shown in inner side of the white package.
The earphone cable is made of kevlar up to the split, where there is soft silicone coated bi wiring. The right earphone cable has the microphone which is discussed in microphone section below. It is made of brushed aluminum and quality is remarkable at any price point.
The eartips are angled which are done to improve the sound staging, making the earphones sound more 'spacious'.
The diaphragm is made from a sandwich of metal(probably Beryllium) and two layers of PET. This is done to get a good response both in lower frequencies as well as higher frequencies(at least in theory). For those who think this "aerospace grade" metal as claimed by Xiaomi is out of sci-fi fantasy, it is not. However other companies such as Sony and Vsonic have been using exotic materials for making earphone diaphragms such as Bio-cellulose.
The sound
This in ear has a very flat sound. Which means that the bass, vocals and treble are all well balanced out without emphasis on one single section. Initially out of the box they sound a bit boring with touch of bass boost but using them(search for earphone burn-in) for about 30-50 hours will make them sound natural. Right now it sounds quite balanced after the initial burnin is over. The strong point of sound is that nothing is bad in this earphone signature. Treble does not hurt with sibilance, bass is not bloaty, mids are not subdued. However the minus point is that there is no particular area where this earphone shines. It may sound boring to those coming from bass heavy Piston 2 or even other earphones. There is dearth of detail in the higher frequencies which sound a bit dull. This would not be problem if you are upgrading from any bundled earphones or cheaper ones but prominent if coming from more premium earphones/headphones. Overall it gives a pleasant presentation and at this price it is as good sound as it can get. Definitely better than all mass produced earphones at this or lower price.
The microphone unit
Besides a good sound quality, this is another selling point for this earphone. In fact some testers specifically liked this because it's controls in the mic unit make it a complete android headset.
There are three unlabelled buttons which can be used for both calling as well as for controlling music player. It is extremely convenient to switch back and forth tracks(double/triple click on middle button), pause and resume(single Middle button click) and increase or decrease volume (the outer two buttons). These controls come handy while commuting.
Please note that some feature like volume control will not work in iPhone. Some android phones too are not fully compliant to volume control. This works perfectly on all Xiaomi phones.
Apart from music controls, it also controls the calls. As seen in the above image, you can recieve, reject calls, put on hold and mute microphone.
Final verdict
Xiaomi in ears are perfect companion to your phone and shall work flawlessly for a long time, given the build quality. Sound is good but beaten by audiophile grade earphones like Dunu Titan, Soundmagic E50, E80, Vsonic GR series, etc. However these are not headset with controls and cost three to eight times the price of Xiaomi.
| VFM |
4.5 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Build quality |
5 |
| Design |
5 |
| Overall |
4.6 |
In a country like India, it takes hardly a few pages of ad and some free reviews on half baked websites to create a buzz, commotion. In just 2 days, Freedom 251 phone has caused a huge upheavel in the entire country.
Laced with lavishing features like 4" screen, 1.3Ghz processor, 1Gb ram, etc, it is definitely something that everyone would be ready to have as a second phone apparently even if priced at Rs1000, it would still be a steal. Let's do some reality check.
Reality check number 1 : Domain name
Freedom251.com which is shown as the official website of the company selling this phone is as fishy as the phone. Let's not talk about the unstable and crashing website with a non functional payment gateway. Lets simply look under the skin on the domain registration details on who.is which shows the following info.
You can see very clearly that website was registered on February 10th 2016. Any professional company that registers a week before the launch of the phone rings a BIG RED signal in anyone's mind.
Reality check number 2 : Ministry of Corporate Affairs
On the official MCA website, we can see that company is barely 5 months old. 2 of the directors are registered on Nov 2. The company shows a fake address here which is different from Noida address shown in the newspaper ad and the website details on who.is
Reality check number 3 : iPhone copy or Adcom ?
Mismatch between the design shown in the ad and one on the website and samples sent to media houses. The samples sent were simply phones by in importer of Chinese phones called Adcom, with whitener added on logo. Yes you read it right. Those shown in the website and ad are also either this or alternatively an image of iPhone!!!
Reality check number 4 : Defence minister to launch a phone???
Joke of the year! What more to say about this photoshopped picture. There were headlines roping in central ministers as well as state ministers into launching this freedom for all phone at Rs 251. Someone is learning photoshop!
Reality check number 5 : the existence of logic and maths
Thankfully we still live in a world without freedom where things are governed by maths and logic. Even the IPS display of 4 inches would not come for Rs250. All of this together must retail at around Rs3000 minimum.
I think you must have got the hindsight that this is too good to be true, if not then please dont miss the chance to buy it in the next flash sale at (mind you) 6am tomorrow to avoid rush hour crashes!!!
Read about what features are claimed by this company here : http://www.techrasta.com/2016/02/so-called-features-of-freedom-251-magic.html
Motorola has ressurected itself with the launch of the Moto G mobile phone in the year 2013 as the best Motorola mobile in India at that time. Now we all moved on and newer models have come in the market and the company has picked up where it lost.
Here we bring you the top contenders from the world of Motorola in this article. For your convenience, we have listed all the phones here in ranking order of the top phones:
Moto G 2nd Gen ( popularly known as G2)
This phone is still the best selling phone from the illustrious Motorola company. You can check out the best prices and offers on FLIPKART by link below to see what's the best offer on these.
Prime features:
1. 8MP rear, 2MP front
2. 2GB RAM
3. 1.2 Ghz quad core
Moto E 2nd generation ( popularly known as Moto E2)
Moto E 2nd gen is the budget range of Motorola and brings quality on budget. New Moto e 2nd gen is almost as good as Moto G 1st gen. It is available in 4 combination of Black & White color and 4G & 3G options.
Basic Rear camera (5MP) + front camera (0.3MP)
Moto E 1st generation ( Moto E )
These are bare basic Andriod phones without front camera. Good for basic users who don't need front camera and want just basic specs.
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Ambrane Power bank 10400mAH is a budget priced high capacity power bank. Here we have tested it for the reliability and performance.
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| Ambrane P-1000 10400 mAh power bank |
Overall Rating : ★★★★ 4
Reviewed By: Arindra Mishra
The overall performance of the power bank is measured on these features:
- Power capacity
- Charging time
- Durability and design
Power capacity
This Ambrane power bank comes in 10400 mAh capacity which is plentiful for most of the users, even power users. They have provided a high capacity in this power bank to cater to the smartphone users who travel a lot or don't have time to charge their phones every time.
I know people who will just charge their power bank once then use this to charge their phone for a week!
| Official | Discharge test | Phone - recharge cycle |
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| Capacity | 10400 mAh | 8500 mAh | ~8000 mAh |
|---|
The actual number of charges that you can do for your phone can be calculated as follows.
Use our TechRasta formula :
n= ((Power bank capacity) x 0.6 ) / (phone's battery capacity
Charging time
We charged the power bank at testing using standard high speed charger of 2A. This result provided us with a charge time of 8 hours.
You can also check out the table to find the theoretical charge times. Real charge times will be more than the ones presented and will increase depending on age of power bank.
Charging times(theoretical)
| Charger | Charging time |
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| 500 mA | 20 hours |
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| 1000 mA | 10 hours |
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| 2000 mA | 5 hours |
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| 3000 mA | 3 hours |
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Durability and design
The Ambrane power bank is bare basic power bank with plastic body that looks and feels Chinese. Though they are branded as Indian company the product is made by inferior suppliers from China. The port and button quality is low and durability of the battery is doubted.
We can also see that some models have LCD displays with percentage indicators that is missing from this model to cut cost.
Also read :
Huawei Honor Holly
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Xiaomi Redmi 2
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Reasons to buy
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Reasons to buy
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Excellent battery
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Build
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UI & design
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Light weight
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Internal Memeory
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inexpensive
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Scratchproof
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4G LTE
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Overall rating :
3.8/5
5
****
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Overall rating : 4.0/5 ****
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Rs 6999
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Rs 6999
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These both cellphones are examples of what good thing Chinese manufacturers can achieve. Packing such a hardware in a pocket price. While both these models have excellent performance:price but we can't say that they are perfect in all aspects. It's even more dificult to put a tag on which one is better than the other as they have very similar price, features and brand recognition.
Our test was based on the weighted mean formula that benchmarks the devices over not just the specs but real world usage based ratings. We finally chose Redmi 2 came as it has certain advantages like better user interface (MIUI) , community support & regular updates, Dragontrail glass screen that makes it scratchproof. Though we have Honor Holly as a runner but still it is a good buy due to the better performance, more internal memory 16GB,better battery backup and for better looks. Another factor to consider here is that Redmi 2 is not easy to get by given the LOTTERY type system of Flipkart; good luck with that.
What makes the Redmi 2 better
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feature
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advantage
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edge
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screen resolution
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312ppi Vs 294 ppi
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6% better clarity
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battery charger
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2A vs 1A
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100% faster
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Mobile connectivity
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4G vs 3G
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newer, faster tech
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Accessories
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more
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Variety to choose
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User Interface
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MIUI vs Honor
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Much better
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Glass screen
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Scratchproof vs Not
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Need of screen guard
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Redmi 2 :
When we talk of Redmi 2, we are talking of a second generation of super selling device. While just based on numbers of product sold, one should not jump to conclusion about it's supremacy but it accertains that the product has certain unbeatable qualities. Redmi 2 tries to take away all the shortcommings of Redmi 1 but still falls short on certain respects like RAM size and internal storage.
What's new in the new Redmi is the 4G connectivity, bettery battery management, Kitkat based MIUI 6 and better SOC. Most other things remain same. Putting it through a hands on test, it showed around 200-300MB ram free most of the time which is better than previous generation. Though not as good as the Moto G2 but it still delivers well, considering the MIUI and other apps that run over it.
What makes the Honor Holly better
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feature
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advantage
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edge
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processor speed
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1.3Ghz vs 1.2Ghz
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8% faster
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display
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5” vs 4.7”
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27% larger
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Internal memory
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16GB vs 8GB
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More space
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battery performance
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20H+ Vs 18H+
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Better performance
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Weaknesses of Honor Holly & Redmi 2
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feature
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weakness
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loss
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Rear camera
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8MP
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smaller image than 13MP
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Heating problem
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heavy use/ charging
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requires tweaking to fix
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Processor
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400 series
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Average performance
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Rear panel
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Cheap plastic
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Less Aesthetic appeal
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RAM
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1GB RAM
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lower performance
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Graphics
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400 series
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low end performance
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Network support
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2G SIM slot
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No dual 3G/4G support
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screen resolution
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720p
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No full HD 1080p
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PPI
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294/312 ppi
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Vs 550ppi
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Strengths of Honor Holly & Redmi 2
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feature
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strength
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gain
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Performance:Price ratio
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50% to 100% better
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Performance & quality of use
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Price
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Rs6999
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pocket friendly
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weight
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156g/133g
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Lighter than some
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Battery backup
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18-22Hrs+
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Good performance
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You can check out the individual strengths and take your final call on the phone to choose accordingly.
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