Samsung launches Galaxy S7, S7 Edge in India

Samsung announced the launch of its next flagship smartphone, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, for the Indian market.
Priced at Rs 48,900 (Galaxy S7) and Rs 56,900 (Galaxy S7 Edge), the devices will go on sale from 17th of March. The company has also introduced a pre-booking offer, where people who pre-book the device between 8-16 March, will get a Gear VR worth Rs 8,200 free with the device.

Both the smartphones run on the Samsung's Exynos 8890 Octa processor and are paired with 4GB of RAM. They are equipped with the latest Android operating system, Marshmallow OS with TouchWiz UI and have 32GB internal storage with expandable memory support of up to 200GB. The devices are IP 68 certified, which makes them water and dust resistant.

They also have an 'Always On' display for accessing notifications and calendar updates from the lock screen itself.

The Galaxy S7 boasts a 5.1inch QHD Super AMOLED display, its thickness is 7.9mm and weighs 152 grams.

While the Galaxy S7 Edge features a 5.5inch QHD dual edge curved display and is 7.7mm thick and weighs 157 grams.

The smartphones have 12MP rear camera with f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash and 5MP front facing camera. They have an improved low light photography as well.

The phones are equipped with 3,000mAh and 3,600mAh batteries with Quick Charge 2.0 and Wireless Fast Charging feature. Connectivity includes dual SIM 4G LTE, NFC, WiFi and GPS.

Samsung has also come up with 'Samsung Concierge' service that gives user an option to direct chat with Samsung's help desk for pick and drop services and also a standby device if needed. 

Lenovo launches Vibe K5 plus for Rs 8,499 in India

After getting a good response at the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona last month, Chinese technology major Lenovo on Tuesday launched its mid-price range smartphone Vibe K5 Plus in India.

Priced at Rs.8,499, the smartphone will be available for purchase exclusively via Flipkart starting March 23.

Apart from a 12.7 cm full high definition display and stereo speakers encased in a metal body, the device offers a 2GB RAM and a Qualcomm 64-bit Snapdragon 616 Octacore chipset for seamless multimedia experience.

"With the K5 Plus, we want consumers to 'knock out' their existing smartphones and upgrade to a better performing phone," Sudhin Mathur, director-smartphones, Lenovo India, said in a statement.

The device comes with Dolby Atmos experience over headphones that go well with the TheatreMax technology for a complete cinematic experience on a smartphone.

Vibe K5 Plus's sensitive Gyro, when combined with the AntVR headset (sold separately), helps with real-time orientation when using the phone for Virtual Reality applications.

The smartphone is equipped with a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel front shooter. It comes with a 16GB onboard memory and is powered by a 2,750mAh battery.

The device is available in champagne gold, platinum silver and graphite grey.

Xiaomi's Redmi Note 3 launched at Rs 9,999

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has announced the launch of the Redmi Note 3 in India. Unveiled in November last year, the Redmi Note 3 launched in India will be the company's third device to be made in India and will run on Qualcomm 650 processor.

Aiming to disrupt the sub Rs 15,000 market, the Redmi Note 3 has got a full metal body with a non removable rear. It is 8.7 mm thin and weights 164 grams. The Remdi Note 3 boasts a 5.5inch full HD display with features such as sunlight display and reading mode. The one launched in India doesn't run on MediaTek chipset. Instead, it has got the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor with 16MP camera and dual SIM slot. One of the slots also bundles as the memory card slot for expandable memory.

Running on MIUI  7 based on Android Lollipop operating system, it has also got an IR blaster and a fingerprint sensor. On connectivity front, it supports 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It features a 16MP rear camera with auto focus and full HD video recording and a 5MP front facing camera.

Xiaomi has launched the Redmi Note 3 in two variants - 2GB RAM with 16GB onboard storage and 3GB RAM with 32GB storage.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is priced at Rs 9,999 for 16 GB variant  and will be Rs 11,999 for 32 GB variant. The Redmi Note 3 will go on sale starting March 9 exclusively on Amazon India and Mi.com

The Redmi Note 3 will give tough competition to the Moto G Turbo and LeEco 1s.

WhatsApp to withdraw support for BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone 7.1 OS

The popular messenger service WhatsApp will stop working on BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows devices sometime this year.

While celebrating its 7th anniversary, WhatsApp through a blog post announced that they will be withdrawing support for BlackBerry OS (including BB OS 10), Symbain 60, Symbian 40, Windows Phone 7.1 and devices running on Android 2.1 and 2.2 devices.

The post stated, "When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people's use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft - which account for 99.5 percent of sales today - were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time."

WhatsApp will withdraw the support for the above mentioned OS by the end of this year. The company believes that while these mobile devices have been an important part of the story, they don't offer the kind of capabilities WhatsApp need to expand app's features in the future.

Ringing Bells starts refunding money to customers

Noida-based Ringing Bells, which has promised to sell smartphones for Rs 251 apiece, has started refunding money to customers due to negative speculation around its claim.

"There was a lot of negativity around us so we have decided to take money from customers only after delivering phones to them. We are refunding money to those who have paid for booking the phones and giving them an option of cash on delivery," Ringing Bells Director Mohit Goel told PTI.

About 30,000 people paid for booking the phones and over 7 crore people registered for it. The payment was facilitated by CCAvenue and PayU Biz.