Returnofthe PHABLET
Ihad sleepless nights pondering the matter and my friends’ conflicting views confused me further. Was there no answer in sight? I was hopelessly perplexed. My tale began with this basic premise: if you’re looking for a phone in the Indian market, there are two options. One, buy a flagship product from storied brands; and two, pick the device that could blow the socks off a flagship, from one of the newer companies (and it helped that the challenger’s phone would cost a lot lesser than the flagship).
But what was I to make of the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro (~38,900)? At first glance, it seemed like a sleeker successor to Samsung’s Mega phablet range. Yet, it was packed with 6GB of RAM, six-inch screen and 16-megapixel (MP) front and back cameras — features we’ve come to expect from the upstarts in the mobile market. Yet, the C9 Pro most certainly isn’t an inexpensive phone.
The matte black review unit looked sleek and I daresay like phones from a certain Taiwanese manufacturer. Gone were Samsung’s signature shiny metal highlights. Sadly, the phone runs Android Marshmallow out of the box; Samsung’s familiar TouchWiz UI is surprisingly fast (like I found on the Galaxy S7 edge), though it still has bloatware. A secure folder lets one not only keep private stuff private, but also a separate WhatsApp account. But with a Snapdragon 653 octa-core processor, I had to game. Asphalt: Airborne 8, Riptide GP Renegade and Pokémon Go were my allies as I achieved glory virtually everywhere. The brilliant Super Amoled screen (with the “always on” function carried over from the S7) was a pleasure to use, even under direct sunlight. The phone did heat up a bit, especially when I multitasked. But there were no lags and the touch experience was top-class.
A walk in the neighbourhood park in daylight yielded some fabulous pictures. The front camera was good at capturing groups and could be activated by voice. In a dark room, I focused a light on an object and clicked a picture; the results were encouraging. But I was disappointed with pictures clicked in low light; there was just too much noise. Also, the phone doesn’t shoot 4K videos.
Then I got my answer. The Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is a curious mix of features and price and could well herald the return of Samsung in the phablet segment it pioneered in India. And since it’s a phablet, the C9 Pro does very well for consuming media and playing games, besides being a capable phone. But if you want a fabulous camera, pay a few thousands extra and get the Galaxy S7 instead.
Selfies won’t be going out of fashion anytime soon. And smartphone makers are cashing in. Oppo's newest instalment — the F3 Plus — further glorifies the selfie tradition.
The phone has a 6-inch display with 1920x1080 resolution. Yes, the colours are sharp and vivid, and watching videos is a delight. But that's not the first thing that struck me. The F3 Plus looks eerily similar to an iPhone 6s Plus; similar unibody design, an OS that can easily be mistaken for the iOS. The difference is that it has more of a rounded-rectangular home button than a circular one like that of the iPhone. But I have been told that most Oppo phones resemble an iPhone, so I stopped worrying about the design and decided to see what the phone has in store.
It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor with 4GB RAM. The performance is not extraordinary, but it works without any hiccups. The phone is easily able to handle RAM-heavy apps and games, but I did notice it heating up a bit. It comes with a 4,000 mAh battery, which lasts for almost an entire day.
It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Oppo's Color OS on top. The OS looks exactly like the iOS with some minor tweaks here and there.
The phone has a dual secondary camera — 16 megapixel (MP) and 8MP — and a 16 MP primary one. The primary camera clicks average pictures and I noticed noise even in good lighting. Low-light photography was expectedly disappointing. Now, the “selfie expert” secondary camera is able to capture good pictures. Because of the dual camera, clicking groupfies is also easier, especially since one of the lenses is a 120-degree, wide-angle one.
Priced at ~30,990, the F3 Plus offers you nothing special except the dual front camera. This phone will attract only the serial selfie takers. If you’re looking for an all-rounder, OnePlus 3T is a much better choice.