1 TB Xbox One with New Controller Will Be Available Soon

June 8, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

I was minding my own business this morning, just surfing on Amazon, searching for God knows what, when all of a sudden, I found this placeholder page for a 1 TB Xbox One bundle!

The Xbox One bundle consists of Microsoft’s newly designed fabulous controller, 1 TB of storage space, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection – all for $400!

Wowser!

400 bucks for those goodies? Sign me up, dear Amazon!

There’s no additional info on the page, not even a photo. What we do know is that the Xbox One bundle will launch on the 15th of June. A date that coincides with Microsoft’s E3 conference – maybe we’ll see the big M release additional information about their Xbox One bundle then. At the moment, a spokeperson for Microsoft has only this to say – ” We’re gearing up for an exciting E3 where we’ll showcase more games and experiences. We have nothing further to share at this time.”

Hmm, okay, we’ll roll with it I guess. It’s not a long wait until the 15th, so be patient young grasshopper!

Last year, Microsoft launched an Xbox One Bundle that included 1 TB of storage space, and it was a branded Call of Duty console. It didn’t include a Kinect, and it was sold at $500. This new listing also doesn’t include a Kinect, but it’s $100 cheaper, and it features their newly designed controller – which includes a built-in 3.5mm headset port. It’s a highly anticipated addition.

Now, if you already bought an Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter, this new controller will only anger you that Microsoft didn’t add the port in the first place – the adapter costs about $25. I know, it’s not much, but why throw away money?

You can read more about Microsoft’s newly designed Xbox One controller on their official support page.

Be warned, that the new controller will only support 3.5mm audio devices – the majority of headphones use 3.5mm, but there are some that choose a different path. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. Manufacturers seem to build them differently just because they feel like it. Xbox One isn’t the only one to suffer from this plague, and PlayStation 4 gamers also have to endure this issue – just you know, before you sharpen your pitchfork, and light up your torch, Microsoft can’t control this.

As a comparison, a 500 GB Xbox One with Kinect normally sells for $500, and without it for $400. I highly recommend this bundle, and I think It’s a must-buy for those who have put off buying a next gen console until now.

What are your thoughts on the new Xbox One controller? Is it worth buying? Or you’ll stick to the adapter? Tell us in the comments section below!

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Windows 10 Got a Release Date!

June 2, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

July the 29th is the date that Windows 10 will start to roll out!

Some of you may have noticed a notification in the Notification Area – it’s in your Taskbar, you can’t miss it!

If you don’t see the Windows 10 free upgrade in your Taskbar, don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you won’t get the new sweet FREE OS from Microsoft. It just means that they haven’t managed to send the memo to your PC – notifications seem to roll out totally random.

The really great thing with Windows 10 is that we don’t have to wait in line to buy the product, it comes digitally, and if you choose to install the free OS in the first year of its release, it will offer free security upgrades for the entirety of its life.

Pretty cool to be honest. Here are some feature highlights.

Microsoft store is going to be a huge thing in the future – or at least, that’s what the big M wishes. In all fairness, having a in-built store in Windows 10 doesn’t seem that bad, and I fully applaud the idea – giving your credit card, and personal info to various websites on the internet doesn’t bode well with me; having one store from where I can shop securely puts my mind at peace.

Is Windows 10 any different from Windows 8?

When Windows 8 was released, Microsoft was drunk on Windows 7 glory, and thought they could get away with everything – like changing the UI layout. God, I absolutely hated Windows 8 when I first started using it. Everything seemed to be made with tablets in mind.

If you’ve missed out on 8, and will be jumping to Windows 10 from 7 you won’t have to go through the first week of How do I even shutdown my computer? horror.

If you got all lovey dovey with Windows 8, I got some bad news for you – you’ll need to get accustomed to the UI layout again.

Besides changing Control Panel to App Settings – which I don’t really think is that of a good idea – Windows 10 will feature Windows Edge. It was known as Project Spartan until Microsoft’s 2015 Build Event, and it’s basically Internet Explorer remodelled – deeply, to the core remodelled.

We were presented a browser that was still in its alpha stage, and we really didn’t see much of it in action, but here’s hoping that Edge will have all of it’s chromosomes – not unlike hi’s older, uhm, more special sibling Internet Explorer.

Anyone can upgrade to Windows 10 for FREE – including those who have pirated copies – but if you’re planning on giving your device a new face-lift, you kinda need to take a look at Windows 10’s system requirements.

1 GHz or faster
1 GB of RAM for the 32-bit version
2 GB of RAM for the 64-bit version
16 GB of free storage space
Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
Microsoft Account
Internet Access

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

The Top Tablets That You Can Buy Right Now!

May 21, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago we wrote a quick list of affordable laptops that you can buy in 2015, and I think this is the perfect time for a round-up for the top tablets that are available right now!

Whether you’re on a budget, or you want to throw money at retailers, you’ve come to the right place.

In an era where everyone has to get their information as soon as, possible people tend to buy a device that won’t suit their needs. You don’t just go out and buy a tablet, or a smartphone, you do some research before, read a couple of reviews, and settle on one that you think it’s best for you – don’t impulse-buy devices just because you love how they are designed; sure, it does matter, but in the long run, you want a tablet that won’t need to be recharged 2 times a day.

The Top Tablets #1 Microsoft Surface 3

Is Microsoft’s third iteration of its Surface line good? Well this reviewer thinks so. It seems like Microsoft has learned from past mistakes, and it’s starting to listen more and more to consumers. It’s a hybrid actually, but the team behind the Surface 3 has developed it with tablet specifications in mind – but this doesn’t mean that it won’t work pretty great as a low-end laptop.

The display is its strong point – a beautiful bright, and crisp glossy IPS display will have no problems on a sunny day, and it makes surfing the web outside a pleasure. The Windows tablet is 10.8-inches in size, and at 1920 x 1200 pixel-resolution it allows the user to enjoy movie marathons without a problem – there is no issue with viewing angles, so you don’t need to worry sitting in bed all day and binge watching Netflix series.

The display is incredibly responsive, and offering a full 10-point multi-touch you can rest assured that it’s going to be as easy as pie surfing the web, and playing video-games.

If you’re an avid traveller – whether it is business related, or pleasure, you definitely need a variety of ports. The Surface 3 sports a MiniDisplay port, a micro SD card reader, headset jack, a cover port, and a micro-USB charging port. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a USB Type-C port, and Microsoft has decided to go with a USB 3.0, but maybe they’ll jump on the band wagon with their next installment.

If you’re tired of looking at the small screen, you can also connect your device to a big HD TV using its HDMI port.

The detachable-keyboard is kinda sluggish, and I have had some problems with it, but nothing serious. Although, if you’re not used to typing, you’ll find it a little bit frustrating. The keys are narrowed, and this makes them feel more cramped, but at least the trackpad is decent.

The Microsoft tablet, pardon me, hybrid, will come with a built-in Windows 8.1, go figure, and you’ll have the possibility of upgrading your OS to Windows 10 for free when the time comes.

Specs

– Quad Core Intel Atom x7-78700 processor with 2MB Cache, 1.6GHz turbo boost to 2.4GHz

– Integrated Intel HD Graphics

– 4 GB of RAM

– 128 GB of flash memory

Pretty great considering it’s about $500. You’ll definitely not use it to play GTA V, or the just released Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but you don’t buy a hybrid for gaming, you buy it because it’s super portable, and because the battery will last you long enough to fulfil your day to day tasks.

This isn’t to say that you can’t play out-dated video-games. I installed Team Fortress 2 to see if I can make it work, and what do you know? It played smooth at 30 fps with all the graphics settings set on low. Sure, it looks kinda ugly, but yet again, you don’t buy a hybrid for gaming – at least, not yet.

Talking about battery life, I managed to squeeze almost 10 hours out of it, meaning that if you use it all day, you will have to recharge it before you go to sleep.

I’m all for super-thin devices, but what about some love for battery longevity?

Anyway, the Surface 3 has two cameras. The rear facing 8-megapixel camera has autofocus, and its quality output is more than enough for Facebook shares. Its front facing camera is set at 3.5-megapixels. It’s okay’ish for Skype and such, but I wouldn’t praise it being the best camera on the market.

The tablet computer has built-in speakers that are loud enough if you plan on watching movies without using headphones.

I’ve seen it in stores for the low price of $500.

Pros

– Top-notch display

– Quality build

– Super-portable

Cons

– Uncomfortable keyboard

– Low storage space

– Mediocre front-facing camera

The Top Tablets #2 Dell Venue 8 700

If you’re looking for cheap tablets, then you should consider looking into the Dell Venue 8 700. It’s $400, and guess what? It’s the titled holder for the World’s Thinnest Tablet, but there is more to it than just its title – beautiful design, and great performance output from a device so cheap.

Even though it’s considered the world’s thinnest tablet you should know that its challenger, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, is marginally thicker.

Design-wise Dell deserves some applause – I don’t really know why I love it so much, but something speaks to me when I’m looking at it, or holding it.

The Dell tablet sports a 8.4-inch OLED display that can output a 2560 x 1600 resolution at 361 ppi – seriously not bad, and it overpasses the previous discussed Surface 3 hybrid.

Dell’s edge-to-edge display is quite a marvel on their part, and I seriously can’t understand why the tablet is priced at just $400. There must be something wrong with it. What’s the catch? Fortunately there isn’t really one. Although it sports a 361 ppi, when you try to use it during a sunny day you’ll have some issues with it, but readability is still over the average rankings.

It features Intel’s Sensing Assist, but you may want to turn it off because it can suck your battery dry – Sensing Assist wakes the device from its dormant state when it senses motion, but it isn’t that great. Let’s say you want to move the tablet from point A in your bedroom to point B in the kitchen for whatever reason. You don’t want it to turn on just because you change its place in the house.

It runs a stable version of Android 4.4 KitKat, and you can upgrade its software to 5.0 Lollipop. It will still run smoothly – no problems in this department.

Although the majority of tablets on the market have moved to Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, Dell still uses Intel as its primary chip-maker.

Specs

– Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core 2.3 GHz 64-bit processor

– Imagination PowerVR G6430 graphics chip

– 2 GB of RAM

– 16 GB of storage space

Don’t leave just yet! Yeah, it had 16 GB of storage, and the tablet’s user will most likely have 10 GB available, but you can add up to 512 GB of extra storage through its micro SD slot.

It’s not the best tablet on the market if you take performance into consideration, but for $400 the quad-core 2.3 GHz processor paired with that GPU, and 2 GB of RAM is more than decent. I can give you this, 2 GB of RAM is fairly low considering that the majority of tablets sport 3 GB or more, but it does its job well, and you won’t see any performance issues like lag, or sluggish surfing.

Now its battery life falls a little bit short, and it can only last up to 9 hours, but that’s because Dell sacrifices a couple of things in order to make it super-portable and super-thin.

I have said this countless times over to my friends – stop using your tablet to take pictures, it just looks ridiculous. More so, if you plan on going to a concert, for the love of whatever you think is holy don’t be that guy who takes pictures using his tablet – last time I went to an event, someone from the crowd threw a beer at the doofus with the tablet. He deserved it!

Now, you got 4 cameras, and they take advantage of Intel’s new RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera technology. The rear facing camera stands at 8-megapixels, but it’s surrounded by two other 720p shooters. The front facing camera sports a 2-megapixel output, and I don’t really recomend it for Skyping.

I found myself obstructing the cameras with my big hands, so be warned. If you have clumsy big sausages for fingers like me, you’ll have some issues taking that perfect photo.

I’ve seen it in stores for the low price of $400.

Pros

– Beautiful display, and its ppi is just astounding

– Pretty great camera

– Super-thin

Cons

– A little bit slower than other tablets on the market

– Really low storage space

The Top Tablets #3 Sony Xperia Z3

At first touch the Sony Xperia Z3 looks, and feels like a 2013 device, but that’s just because Sony thinks it should push down our throat their somewhat out-dated design. It costs about $600, and for this price you may be swoon by a certain Samsung Galaxy tablet – the 8.4 S model. But before you make your final decision, you should know that the Xperia Z3 has some aces in its sleeve.

One of the device’s selling points is that you can hold it easily in one hand – it makes the perfect tablet for kids too. Secondly, it’s waterproof, so no need to worry about taking your tablet with you to the local pool, and coming back home heartbroken – it uses rubber seals on all of its ports, except for its headphone jack, which is already specially treated.

I just love how it looks, and because it’s so thin and small – not the smallest though; it can fit easily in your backpack, or purse.

To me, its design inspires high-tech, more than the covered in aluminium iPad Mini 3. Even though it’s entirely made out of plastic it’s the good kind, not the cheap and tacky one. It also feels good to the touch – better than the Nexus 9 if you want a comparison.

There are some little bits of metal here and there, especially on its corners – probably to save it from utter destruction if mister clumsy hands over here drops it. I haven’t performed this test, so please don’t throw your tablet at the wall.

The 8-inch LCD screen stands at 1920 x 1200 resolution, but it’s really not that crisp, and clear like others at the same price range. It suffers from poor viewing angles, and I don’t recommend you using it on a sunny day in the park – readability is really low, and you’ll just annoy the living hell out of yourself trying to find that perfect place with shade.

The Android tablet comes with a built-in 4.4 KitKat, but you can easily upgrade it to 5.0 Lollipop.

Specs

– Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 Quad-core processor 2.5 GHz Krait 400

– Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 graphic chipset

– 3 GB of RAM

– 16 GB of storage space

You can add more storage space by adding a micro SD card up to 128 GB.

More RAM, and a better processor than the previously discussed Dell Venue 8 700 doesn’t make it the best tablet, but you surely won’t experience lag, or any performance issues.

The top-shelf processor, paired a quad-core graphic chipset, and 3 GB of RAM makes it a beast when it comes to gaming, and the 1080p screen is stands tall, even though is not the best one.

Before they launched it, Sony was praising themselves that the Xperia Z3 will last about 15 hours. I almost immediately started to ridicule them and send them letters with only Liar, Liar pants on fire written in the body. Gee, can you imagine how humiliated I was after I tested it, and figured that it can last more than what they’ve stated? Almost 16 hours of battery-life time make it one hell of a behemoth.

Its 8-megapixel rear facing camera matches the quality its challengers can output, and it actually shoots pretty great photos come to think of it. I wouldn’t frame any of them, and nor would I go out of my way to show them to my friends, but for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is more than enough.

The secondary camera is a measly 2.2-megapixel unit – as I said before, don’t expect high quality Skype video calls.

The actual selling point for this device is the fact that it supports PS4 remote play. A very limited number of Android devices support PS4 Share Play, thus making it one hell of a device for gamers if you have a PS4. You can easily connect a DualShock 4 controller to the tablet, and just stay in bed all day long playing Call of Duty, and telling your enemies, or team-mates about how many sexual relations you’ve had with their mothers.

I’ve seen it in stores for the low price of $600.

Pros

– Superb battery life

– PS4 Share Play

– Super-thin and super-portable

Cons

– Its screen is not that great

– Somewhat out-dated design

– Horrible secondary camera

The Top Tablets #4 Acer Iconia W4

One of the cheapest tablets for sale – and I think I’ve even found it in the Walmart tablets section; the Acer Iconia W4 is set at an astonishing low price of $350!

Sure, there are different models that offer more storage space, but the entry level one is a must-buy.

Last year’s W3 was the first 8-inch device to feature Windows 8.1, but it it didn’t do it good – actually it was kinda’ horrible if you think about it. Grainy low quality display, and a low performance processor managed to offer a poor experience.

The Iconia W4 has polished all of its older brother’s failures, and it made major improvements in key areas where W3 fell short.

Some think of it as highly evolved, but I really don’t applaud it that much. Sure, it learned from past mistakes, but has it seriously improved that much in order to fight in the tablet pits? I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty great, and at $350 if you have never experience a high-end tablet before, you should definitely buy it. More so, you should definitely buy it if you’re looking for budget tablets.

The Ace Iconia W4 received mixed to positive tablet reviews mostly because it was launched at the right time, at the right price. It features a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution on the 8-inch device – it didn’t receive the award for best tablet of 2014 that’s for certain. It’s a tried and test resolution that seems to work for Acer. I, for one, don’t really like it that much – maybe because I’m accustomed to high-end devices.

At 186 ppi it falls behind the average tablet, and the display just doesn’t cut it – don’t plan on using your device outside. Readability is inexistent.

Specs

– Intel Atom Z3740 Quad-core processor 1.33 GHz

– Intel HD Graphics

– 2 GB of RAM

– Standard Edition comes with 32 GB of storage

You can’t add any more storage space, but the built-in storage is actually a SSD, and it works pretty fast.

You definitely won’t be using it for HD gaming, but it can run almost anything on the store. You’re going to have some minor performance issues because it only features 2 GB of RAM, and the processor even though it works on 4 cores it doesn’t make up for its speed – 1.33 GHz is really low.

I’ve experienced lag after opening up more than 4 apps – it eventually lead the tablet to freeze, and I had to restart it. Didn’t liked it one bit.

I tried to install a couple of games on it, to see if the device can at least start them. Skyrim was my first choice – I know, I was reaching for the sky, but guess what? At the lowest settings, and resolution it run at 15 fps. It’s unplayable I know, but it surprised me. Afterwards I decided to have a little bit more confidence in the little Iconia so I installed Left4Dead. Pleasantly surprised that it reached a peak of 20 fps, but when multiple zombies flooded the screen it went down to 10. It was an enjoyable experience until the undead horde attacked.

The last one that I tried out was Valve’s Counter-Strike: Source – 20-25 fps on average, but if a flash-bang, or a grenade goes off near you, you’re dead – not from the damage, but from the screen freezing instantly. You could try to play with bots, but no on-line play, unless you want your team to constantly yell at you.

Acer said that the W4 will last up to 10 hours of usage – I proved them wrong. It completely died after almost 8 hours and 30 minutes. Not much, and it ranks on the same level with other average tablets.

Iconia W4’s rear primary camera is actually great – even if it stands at 5-megapixel. It may be sub-par to what you’re used to, but don’t let the low number unit fool you. In the right settings it takes some awesome photos – crisp, and well-saturated images. It does have its issues in low light conditions.

It can also take video footage at 1080p at 30 fps – not bad young one.

The secondary front-facing camera is another story though. Lowering the number to two, the small camera unit can only be used for Skype video calls, and even then it will output low quality.

Why am I even recommending or adding it to our list? Fair and simple. It’s the best entry-level tablet, and at $350 it’s one of the cheapest devices.

I’ve seen it in stores for the low price of $350.

Pros

– Low price

– Windows 8 tablet

Cons

– Performance issues

– Low resolution

– Horrible secondary camera

The Top Tablets #5 Asus Memo Pad HD 7

This Asus tablet has a MSRP of $120, and by partnering with Google, Asus went from unreliable tablet manufacturer to the de-facto leader in the small tablets market. Low price, awesome capabilities, and world-wide availability made the Memo Pad HD 7 one of the best 2014 tablets.

You may think of me as an insane man, but I really do love this so-called Google tablet. What’s to hate?

It weighs just about 302 grams, and the 7-inch IPS LCD screen outputs a 1280 x 800 resolution at 216 ppi – more than the Acer Iconia W4 which is almost three time its price.

The tablet is made out of slippery plastic – it was constantly dropping out of my hand in the first day, or so; luckily I’m quite a bright man, and figured the issues as soon as I put my hands on it. Slippery plastic means cheap plastic, which eventually leads to a horrible slimy feeling. In order to not utterly destroy your device, I highly recommend you grip the tablet with both of your hands.

Moving on to the 7-inch IPS LCD screen – it’s crisp, and sharp, and you can try to use it on a sunny day. Since it has 216 ppi you’ll be able to read off of your device, but at the same time, you’ll be struggling with it. Find a shade covered bench, and you’ll have no problems. The colours seem to favour a yellow-ish tint, but there are no major complaints that I know of.

It has Android 4.2 Jelly Bean built-in, and you can upgrade it to 4.2.2 – don’t expect KitKat or Lollipop because it ain’t gonna happen.

You won’t be able to play the latest things available on the store. Hell, you won’t be able to play the majority of cool things, but there are still plenty of old games and apps for you to enjoy. Facebook will work super slow; Messenger, and WhatsApp will annoy you each time you try to text someone.

Specs

– Mediatek MT8125 Quad-core processor 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7

– PowerVR SGX544 graphics

– 1 GB of RAM

– 16 GB of storage space

You can add more storage space by adding a micro SD card up to 32 GB.

The 1.2 GHz quad-core Mediatek processor is uhm, not that good. Even though Mediatek is known for their ways of revolutionizing the industry, they also build low-end procs. Pair it with only 1 GB of RAM and you’ve signed your own death-wish. Lag will be present all the time, so be patient young grasshopper, because good things may come to those who wait.

Use the Memo Pad with care – not only it can slip out of your hands, but it takes a little while to start apps, games, and surf the web.

Do you know the surprising thing? It didn’t freeze once. Yes, it lagged, and yes, I got really annoyed trying to use Facebook, Reddit, and other apps, but it didn’t once freeze. Sure, it closed the app because it wasn’t responding any more, but I didn’t even have the chance of realizing this, and the error was immediately prompted telling me to close the app.

I’m not saying this is an extraordinary thing, but it ain’t a bad thing either.

It has a small 15Wh capacity battery that will keep your device alive for about 10 hours. It seriously isn’t that bad considering it’s only $120. You can watch about 4 to 5 movies on a long flight, and because it has a standard micro USB port you can recharge it almost anywhere you please.

The Memo Pad’s primary camera is a 5-megapixel unit, but unfortunately it doesn’t take good photos, hell it doesn’t even take mediocre ones. It outputs low quality images, and don’t think for a second that the secondary camera is better. The 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera is a laughable unit – you can’t use it for anything, it’s just there for the sake of existing.

I’ve seen it in stores for the low price of $120.

Pros

– Super-low price

– Sharp screen

– All the things considering, it has a great battery-life

Cons

– Performance issues

– Horrible primary, and secondary camera

– Low storage space

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

Google has Started a Cloud War!

May 20, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

The cloud wars are real, and they are being fought on common ground – or at least, that’s what Google hopes!

Google has just cut down on prices for its Compute Engine by 30 percent, and has made Amazon, its primary challenger, re-consider their strategies.

The big G has also introduce a new a new Preemptible Virtual Machine – it’s able to deliver short-term computing capacity at a low, and fixed price. If Amazon doesn’t change its tactics immediately, they will most likely lose a ton of clients to Google.

The Google Cloud Platform Blog states that – ” Compared to other public cloud providers, Google Cloud Platform is now 40 percent less expensive for many workloads. Starting today, we are reducing prices of all Google Compute Engine Instance types as well as introducing a new class of preemptible virtual machines that deliver short-term capacity for a very low, fixed cost.”

This means that in the US a standard instance will be 20 percent cheaper, and a micro-instance will be 30 percent less. Europe, and Asia haven’t received the same treatment yet, and the price reduction will come in the near future, maybe even next month.

Google states that their clients have the upper-hand when it comes down to saving money – they will be paying 40 percent less than what other individuals are paying using a competitors services wink wink Amazon.

Microsoft, and Amazon are most likely to counter Google’s offer, so be patient and don’t move just yet from a service to another. Most analysts think that the services will get even more cheaper in the years to come, eventually leading to it being completely free.

Now, Google introduced their Preemptible Virtual Machines, that cost $0.015, and they are 70 percent cheaper than their non-preemptible siblings. But there is a catch to this. Google doesn’t guarantee that their VM’s will run continuously. This shouldn’t pose as a problem, because you use them only in a cluster, and if one drops, the cluster won’t suffer – also, you’ll receive a notification 30 seconds prior to it going offline.

Image Source: 1, 2

Microsoft Lumia 640 Review

March 9, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Microsoft really does a great job when it comes to building a budget smartphone. The company’s latest line of Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are very attractive and also have reasonably powerful specs, even though they’re relatively cheap.

The new Lumia smartphones from Microsoft are very similar in terms of design to the previous Nokia models. It’s true that neither of the two smartphones is to die for but they are pretty nice, not to mention that they’re both ready for the new Windows 10.

Here is our Microsoft Lumia 640 review.

Design

Microsoft tried to stay true to the styling of Nokia on every Lumia smartphone they released under its name and the Lumia 640 is definitely not an exception. The smartphone comes with a colorful case that can be removed and replaced with another from the line-up offered by Microsoft. It’s made of a very sturdy and nice plastic that doesn’t look like it’s going to break or flex when put under a small stress. This is good news, seeing how most mid-range devices suffer from this problem.

The Lumia 640 XL comes only in a matte finish, but there are plenty of colors to choose from, such as black, white, cyan, bright orange and neon green. The Lumia 640 comes in a two toned shiny plastic and is available in all of the colors listed above. The cyan back of the smaller Lumia 640 viewed in different lightings looks like it has different blue shades. The edges of the smaller smartphone also appear to be darker than its body.

However, the two-toned effect on the back of the Lumia 640 comes with a downside. The shiny look makes it a fingerprint magnet. If you’re easily upset by fingerprint smears and dust then you would be better off choosing the matte version. Other than this, the only major design distinction between the two smartphones is their size. The Lumia 640 XL comes with a 5.7 inch display, which makes the 5 inch Lumia 640 seem rather tiny by comparison. The Lumia 640 XL is the same height as Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus.

The two Lumias are relatively thin and light, mainly because of their plastic casings but they do feel a little chunkier when compared to other smartphones from Nokia. This time, however, it’s Microsoft’s name that is branded on the devices, not Nokia’s. The tech-giant put its name on the back of the Lumia 640s and on their front top.

Based on looks, the Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640 XL are right at home between the existing line-up. While the colors may not be for everyone, there is always the possibility to buy a simple black or white back. Also, the cyan back looks very nice on the smaller device.

Hardware

It’s true that the specs on these smartphones aren’t exactly top-notch, but they are mid-range, to say the least. Both phones are powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and come in two different options: 8GB of storage with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage with 2GB RAM. Both options offer a MicroSD card slot and you can expand the storage capacity by 128GB.

Both Lumias seemed responsive and fast when we tested them. Animations were really smooth, browsing was fast and everything seemed to work well. Both smartphones come with the full Office app installed and both offer OneDrive storage. On top of this, Microsoft is also offering 1TB OneDrive storage and a full year of Office 365 when buying either one of these two devices.

At this time, to have a powerful smartphone you don’t necessarily need the fastest processor on the market. This is why mid-range smartphones like these ones are very attractive. If you want a very reliable mid-range mobile phone and you don’t care if you have the best processor on the market, shiny features and a great screen resolution, the Lumia 640 may be the right choice for you.

Battery

We can’t really say if the battery will last as long as Microsoft claims it will but the batteries inside the two smartphones are quite big. The Lumia 640 XL comes with a 3,000 mAh battery and the smaller one comes with a 2,500 mAh one. Microsoft claims that the battery life on both Lumias will last for two days.

Camera

The Lumia line-up has always been great at taking shots. While the Lumia 640s don’t have incredible cameras, they both take pretty decent photos, mainly thanks to the camera software. You can adjust lighting, control exposure and have several effects at your disposal and you can also create living pictures that will show you the changes you’ve made to your image from start to finish in a format resembling GIF.

Lumia 640 shoots lesser quality photos, however. For some reason, the smaller Lumia comes with weaker cameras. It comes with an 8MP camera on the back and a 1MP camera on its front. Seeing how selfies are the new trend right now, we can’t understand why Microsoft chose to put such a small front-facing camera on its device.

The bigger Lumia 640 comes with far better cameras. It features a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP camera on its front. The Lumia 640 XL is very capable of taking sharp selfies with its front-facing camera and great pictures with its back camera.

Windows 10

Both devices are running Windows 8.1 as Windows 10 is not yet available for mobile phones. However, both the Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are ready for Windows 10. The update to Windows 10 will come to these two devices as soon as Microsoft launches its new OS. The two smartphones perform very smoothly in Windows 8.1 and the Lumia Denim update works really well.

Wrapping up

PROS

– Great quality of plastic

– Compatible with Windows 10

– Great specs

– Lumia 640 XL has great cameras

– Both smartphones are affordable

CONS

– The devices are still running on Windows 8.1

– Lumia 640 doesn’t have great cameras

Verdict

Even though the two new Lumias from Microsoft aren’t high-end they are definitely nice. For their low prices, Microsoft clearly made some good mid-range devices.

Images source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Windows 10 vs Windows 7

February 16, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Even in its early stages, we’ve come to the conclusion that Windows 10 is a far better deal for desktops than Windows 8. But how exactly does the new operating system stand against the very well-built Windows 7? Even though Microsoft is offering a free upgrade to the new OS if you are using Windows 7, should you take advantage of the deal and upgrade to it or not? In this guide we plan to show you who wins in the battle of Windows 10 vs Windows 7.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Performance

One of the least discussed improvements brought by Windows 8 (and Windows 10) is its upgrade in terms of performance. The boot time in Windows 8 is significantly quicker than that of Windows 7. However, there are numerous other improvements such as hardware acceleration and even navigation seems a little faster in it. The power management has also been improved in Windows 8 which means that you will get more battery life out of your laptop.

Gaming performance is more evenly matched in Windows 8 and with Windows 10 we will also get access to DirectX 12. The new DirectX promises to unlock even more performance from all existing hardware.

It may not seem like a big deal, but essentially, the main reason we upgrade our operating systems is because we want better performance out of our machines. So because Windows 10 offers improvements in that area along all its other numerous features is more reason to be excited about it.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Design

Windows 8’s design was quite a departure from what we were used to, with its bold colors and flat windows replacing the round-edged, transparent windows and 3D icons in the Windows 7. Windows 10 will continue to change the design of the operating system. The bold and flat style now takes over the icons on the desktop and other core features of the new OS. However, we’ve seen that some of the old design is still present in Windows 10, like the old icons in Control Panel.

We’re not really convinced whether the new design will be better or not but it’s definitely more “modern”. It seems that the new trend of design somehow revolves around flat objects. Apple is doing it and so are different websites. However, we’re not very sure whether or not this is in fact more pleasing in terms of aesthetics.

That being said, there are some benefits from using this kind of design. One of the main advantages is that windows take less space because they aren’t as rounded anymore and pretty much lack borders. They’re also more customizable and some aspects are a lot clearer because of the absence of transparent backgrounds.

Microsoft still has time to change its mind (for the better, we hope), however, as Windows 10 is still in the preview stage.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Search

Windows 7 has a relatively powerful search feature that will quickly give results regarding documents and programs you search for. However, Windows 10 improves on this feature by adding a search for the apps in Windows Store and the web and a much more organized and improved page of results.

When you click on the search box in Windows 10 you will also receive information about the latest news headlines, weather reports and updates from your preferred sports team.

In addition to this, the new search function will also make use of Cortana, which is Microsoft’s digital personal assistant. This will add two main features into play. The first thing is that Cortana will monitor your calendar and email to give out relevant results, like when you have to leave to make it to your next appointment.

The other thing is that if you have equipped your computer with a microphone you will be able to give Cortana commands via voice. The digital personal assistant really does a great job understanding what you say and gives you appropriate search results. However, Cortana doesn’t give you the answer right in the search box, but opens a browser window to do so. But it is still a pretty cool thing to search for stuff without having to use your hands to type in what you want.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – File management

While this may seem trivial at first, the fact is that the tools you use to find and manage the files in your computer are the most fundamental and often used in an operating system.

Windows 7 offered a generous selection of tools and we’ve come to be used to them by now. Still, it’s safe to say that they are not the most advanced ones and in a way or another are a slight step backwards from what we’ve seen in the past. A relevant example is the removal of the “Up” button in Windows Explorer.

This small feature pretty much sums up all what’s wrong with the file explorer in Windows 7. However, this isn’t the only problem that plagued the explorer. It was very badly designed, featuring a lot of wasted space not to mention that some of the main functions were hidden from the user’s view.

The “Up” button is back in Windows 10. And along with it, there are a series of other improvements in the file explorer. Some of them, however, already arrived in Windows 8, to be perfectly honest. The menu on top is now arranged in form of a ribbon, so the most used commands are within reach and, most important, very easy to find by novice users.

A new “Share” ribbon is now present which will let you move files between different applications such as Skype, Dropbox or Outlook with much ease. While the new file explorer is not perfect, it’s definitely a huge step in the right way.

Microsoft also improved the file copying interface along with these other improvements in the file explorer. Moving and copying tasks are now within a single window for better management. They also included a real time transfer speed monitor and you can also pause file operations, when until now you could only cancel them.

Another great addition is the Storage Spaces. This helps you group multiple hard drives to make a single logical drive. Even though this isn’t exactly revolutionary, the fact that it supports more levels of drive redundancy that will make sure all your data is backed up makes it particularly useful. This feature is entirely how swappable and supports drives in different sizes, unlike RAID systems.

All in all, Windows 10 adds a lot of nifty features in the file management section and takes very little away from it.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – DirectX 12 and gaming

We said earlier that the gaming in Windows 10 hasn’t changed all that much, but now we’ll elaborate a little on the matter.

As a matter of fact, Windows 10 seems to be a tad slower than Windows 7, by about 0.5 percent, especially in some of the older games. Crisis 3, for example seems to run a little slower in Windows 10, however, there are some cases in which the results are reversed. It’s true that 0.5 percent doesn’t mean all that much so it’s not a reason to worry about.

Windows 7 was a very reliable and robust platform for gaming, even though it didn’t have many innovative features. However, it’s still a very good base on which numerous gaming tools have been built.

On the other hand, Windows 10 does add a bunch of new features. However, most of the new features won’t interest PC gamers, such as the option to access your account on Xbox Live, stream games from the Xbox straight to the PC and have a bunch of games that work cross-platform on Xbox and PCs. However, that isn’t to say that they’re not a welcomed addition.

The coolest new feature is probably the game capture one. You can record your gaming sessions and grab a 30 seconds snap shot that you can share with your friends. While this is not new technology, having it built right into the OS is a useful thing. Microsoft also claims that the new feature will work with every game ever made, so this mean that if you want to capture video footage from Monkey Island you can do so.

Windows 10 will also have exclusive access to the new DirectX 12, which claims to unlock performance on all existing hardware by allowing developers to have better access to the hardware’s features. However, the performance boosts are very likely to be small and dependent on certain circumstances. Nevertheless, this will probably be enough to make Windows 10 the better performing system regarding video games.

DirectX 12 will most likely offer numerous other new features but as of now Microsoft hasn’t said anything about what those features will be.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – The Notifications

Windows always featured some sort of notification system in the form of the System Tray. In there you can find pop-up notifications from Dropbox, Spotify, Outlook and any other application that’s open in the background. However, there hasn’t been a proper place in which you could see all your notifications together along with their history.

In Windows 10 you can find a proper notification area. This is a very basic addition that brings app notifications and system messages together in one place, chronologically ordered. While it’s a very tiny addition, it’s extremely useful.

The area of notifications also has some system functions like a feature that lets you switch to the tablet mode or enter the screen settings.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Workspace

Keeping the workspace neat is very important to some users. While the users with laptops may be happy by making everything run full screen, if you use a desktop computer and have several monitors or just one very big one you will need good workspace management tools to make the best of the space you have.

Windows 7 features multi-monitor support but it’s rather limited in either allowing you to stretch the desktop across different screens or by offering a mirror mode. In Windows 7 you only had one task bar across multiple screens. It also featured a very primitive version of Snap. Snap is a feature that allows you to automatically resize windows when dragged to the sides of the screen. But that’s all that it offered.

In Windows 10, these features have been improved. You can have different backgrounds on different screens now and different slideshows. Pictures can also be set to go across all your screens. The taskbar can also be found on all the monitors you use or just on whichever monitor you’re active in. Snap now supports snapping to all four corners of the screen, instead of just the sides.

But the biggest feature is perhaps the support of a virtual desktop. Even though Windows 7 supported virtual desktops through third-party programs, Windows 10 has this feature built-in. While the implementation is rather clumsy at the moment, it’s still useful, especially for users that have laptops.

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – The price

Even though we don’t know the exact price of a retail copy of Windows 10 at the moment, the huge news is that it will be free for people who update from Windows 7 or Windows 8 in the first year from its release.

With this in mind, if you have a copy of Windows 7, it would a silly thing not to update. Especially since we don’t know exactly how the upgrade will work, if you’ll lose your license of Windows 7 or not. But the chances are that you will still be able to downgrade to your old Windows version if you find that the new OS just isn’t right for you.

The verdict

Windows 10 offers a lot of useful new functions as well as improvements to the old ones, when compared to the old Windows 7. Even though these functions when taken separately are not reasons enough to upgrade, as a package it’s safe to say that it will be worth it.

In Windows 10 you will get a better file management system, a better windows management system, a better search system, more advanced gaming tools and many more. The only thing we’re not really keen on is the design, but this is hardly a reason to pass up the upgrade.

With Windows 10 being free as an upgrade, it would actually be a stupid thing not to at least try the new operating system. While it probably won’t be perfect, it’s still an upgrade worth getting later this year.

Images source: trustedreviews.com

Windows 10 Details – A Breakdown of the Main Functions & Features

January 25, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Details about the new Windows 10 have been revealed by Microsoft in a recent event. Here are the most important things.

You may tell yourself “ok, but there is a 9 missing…” and Microsoft might have completely ignored Windows 9 but the replacement for Windows 8.1 is still a pretty exciting thing. The new operating system comes as a landmark for the company and is a new generation software which the company hopes to unify all the platforms it is available on – tablets, smartphones and PCs.

Terry Myerson from Microsoft told the media during the unveiling that the new Windows 10 will be their most thorough platform ever. He claims that Microsoft will offer a single store which means users will be able to update applications across all platforms using Windows 10.

Even though the company shared a lot of details about the new features in the operating system, a lot of elements still remain a mystery. Probably the biggest mystery about the new Windows 10 is its release date.

Windows 10 Release Date

Windows 10 was revealed by Microsoft on September 30 and the tech giant said that they will make available for laptops and desktops a Technical Preview of the OS as an element in the Windows Insider Program. Unfortunately, details regarding the release date are still very few. However, the consumer preview will be revealed on January 21 in an event named “The Next Chapter”.

Brandon LeBlanc from Microsoft wrote on the blog for Windows that the event will be held January 21 on Wednesday in the Microsoft Redmond campus where the company will reveal a lot more about the new OS.

The Microsoft Build 2015 conference is scheduled between April 29 and May 1. The conference is held in San Francisco at the Moscone Centre and it is Microsoft’s developer conference held each year. The conference is mostly about the upcoming software from the company and therefore, we expect to see a lot more regarding Windows 10.

The first edition of the Build conference took place back in 2011 in September and there was a lot of focus on the old Windows 8, which was also present in the 2012 edition. In 2013 there was much focus on Windows 8.1 and last year’s conference was mostly about how Cortana made her way onto the Windows Phone 8.1.

We expect that this year’s Build conference will be about Windows 10 and its release date in particular. Myerson confirmed that the software will see the light of day somewhere later in 2015. Analyzing previous release dates from the company it’s very difficult to know exactly what this means.

Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 all launched in October and Windows 7 arrived in 2009 in July. Based on this, a release date in October for Windows 10 is the most plausible, even though anytime from 2015 Q2 onwards is a possibility.

Windows 10 Features

Windows 10 is an important upgrade compared to other releases. Microsoft is looking to unify platforms with their newest release and this is not a very easy task. This also means that there will be a lot of new features, including universal applications, desktop-level Cortana personal assistant and the return of the Start menu in Windows (which we still have no idea why it was removed in the first place).

One of the more intriguing features is Microsoft’s new mysterious browser called “Spartan”. Reports claim that it’ll be stylus friendly and will feature a ‘dark’ theme across Windows.

Many have complained about Microsoft’s decision to abandon the very useful and well-known Start menu in Windows 8. This made the company add in Windows 8.1 a Start menu, but it still wasn’t the version we all loved and many people still wish for the full menu to return in the future.

Thankfully, Microsoft updated the Start menu, even though it’s in style with Windows 8. The Start menu is back on the bottom left side of the screen but features some Metro live tiles. The new menu is also a lot wider but thankfully the user can resize it. The company also focused more on the touch integration and it promised it will update the touch user interface, promising more features while keeping some of the old ones that worked well in the past.

Cortana

A lot of people were thrilled to find Cortana in the Technical Preview build of Windows 10. Cortana is an AI that is controlled with your voice and was initially built for Windows phones, but it looks like the personal assistant will also come to PCs.

The desktop version of Cortana was revealed this month in WinBeta. Videos from an unreleased build showed the personal assistant performing different tasks such as establishing alerts and using mapping features. Cortana is a serious competition for Google Now and Siri and is pretty good at tasks like searching the web, scheduling events and making small talk. However, fans of the popular “Her” movie will likely be disappointed of her limitations.

Other functions

Another new feature in Windows 10 is the Task View. This new function allows users to snap through various virtual desktops. Task View can be launched from the task bar and allows the user to rearrange launched apps. Touch users can also open Task View by swiping from the left side of the screen.

An important part of Task View is the function called Snap Assist. Snap Assist improves on the functionality in Windows 8 regarding side-snap. The new feature offers vertical snapping, cross-monitor snapping and 2 x 2 snapping. This is great for people that rely on multitasking.

The command prompt is also revamped with keyboard shortcuts. Users will no longer have to type very long command lines – the new command prompt will allow clipboard pasting.

Microsoft also introduced Continuum. And even though it sounds like Apple’s Continuity, it is not the same thing. As a matter of fact, Continuum analyzes the way you use your device and then adapts to your style. If you plug in a mouse and keyboard into the Surface Pro 3 you will be offered a click friendly user interface. Unplugging those peripherals will switch back to the more touch friendly Metro user interface. This is a pretty nifty feature if you think about it.

There will also be universal apps available on Windows 10. Since basically the same Windows 10 will be on different Microsoft devices, the company opted to offer a single store across all platforms. This means that if you download Skype on the PC it should be the same for all other platforms, smartphone and mobiles alike.

Microsoft will also discuss gaming at the event scheduled for January 21st. Phil Spencer also said in a tweet that it is about time for the company to talk about gaming and that he will reveal details in January.

What this actually means, we’re not completely certain but what we know is that the most recent Windows 10 build has an Xbox app that opens up the Xbox environment on the PC. This app shows the friends list, the Xbox store, activity feeds, achievements and a whole lot more goodies.

Windows 10 Preview

On October 1st the Insider Program was officially launched. Developers and other tinkerers were given the chance to mess with Windows 10 before its official launch and Microsoft has released several other build since that date.

Microsoft made the preview build for developers available on October 7 for users of Windows 7. At this time there is no preview for consumers available but it is planned to be revealed in January.

Microsoft said on October 13 that nearly one million people used the Technical Preview for Windows 10. There were also 200,000 feedbacks and 68% of the people testing it were doing so with more than seven apps a day.

On April 15 Microsoft will shut down the Technical Preview and will not let anyone test the product again until it is going to be released. However, it’s not too late if you want to see what Windows 10 feels and looks like.

For the people who are anxious and can’t wait for the release, there are rumors that Microsoft will offer a Consumer Preview of the new OS in late January. It is claimed that the new preview will focus more on a side of Windows 10 intended for consumers.

Windows 10 Download

You can’t download the full operating system as of now and Microsoft only made a Technical Preview available to the public.

The Technical Preview, however, is not the final software and has frequent updates which add new features, respond to feedbacks and fix bugs.

Anyone can sign for the company’s Insider Program and download the Technical Preview but we recommend that only people who intend to give feedback to do so as it is not exactly intended for users who aren’t tech-savvy.

Windows 10 Price

Microsoft hasn’t revealed details about the price as of now and we aren’t sure how the company will approach it.

Some rumors claim that Microsoft will opt for a subscription-based kind of deal. There are also some rumors that say the company will offer the new OS for free. This isn’t entirely farfetched as the company’s main competition, Apple, have already started doing so since the OS X Mavericks release.

Windows 10 Details

Microsoft did confirm that users of the Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Phone operating systems will receive a free upgrade to the new OS. Microsoft said that in the first year of the release, anyone using Windows 7 will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 and also anyone who users Windows 8.1 Phone will get the same treatment. Now you can buy Microsoft smartphones without having to worry about it too much.

Cortana was also confirmed for the desktop version of Windows 10. The personal assistant offered by Microsoft is going to be a main feature across all platforms. This means that Cortana will also be available on the desktop version of the new operating system.

Microsoft showed its new universal applications with the new versions of PowerPoint, Excel and Word for tablets and smartphones. The company also confirmed that all tablets and smartphones will come with these apps installed on them. There will also be a new Outlook universal app that will run across all Microsoft devices.

Microsoft also showed a new web browser that is currently in development. The new “Spartan” web browser is a universal app that has a new rendering engine for speed improvement, a reading mode and supports annotations. You can also leave comments on the web and share them with people on OneDrive. It is now confirmed that the “Spartan” web browser will come with Windows 10.

The company talked about the new DirectX 12 which is supposed to increase performance by up to 50 percent on the same hardware because developers will have more control over the GPU and CPU. It’s trying to make PCs work a lot more like consoles. Microsoft also announced that Unity, the popular game engine is going to use DirectX 12.

Just like Sony did with its Remote Play function, Windows 10 will allow users to play Xbox One games remotely on their tablets or PCs. However, the feature will most likely be unavailable on mobile phones.

The enormous 84 inch 4K PC entitled Surface Hub will also use Windows 10. The PC is a giant Surface Pro and can be used as a big digital whiteboard .

A new function Microsoft focuses on is the redesigned and improved Action Centre that comes up when you swipe from the right part of tablet’s screen.

A very common complaint about Windows 8 was that the Settings and Control Panel were two different things. These two sections are merged into one in Windows 10 and there will only be a Settings menu available which is likely to make life a whole lot easier.

So there you have it. These were all the details we could find about the new Windows 10 operating system from Microsoft.

Images source: arstechnica.com

Windows 10 Mobile Thoughts

January 22, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Microsoft looks like it’s renovating many of its products with the new Windows 10 operating system. Even though the focus is on the version for desktops and notebooks there is also another edition of the newest operating system, the Windows 10 Mobile.

Windows 10 Mobile won’t impose much competition for Mac OS X from Apple or come installed on the next Surface Pro, however. It’s designed completely for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It’s a successor to Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT.

Windows 8 launched back in 2012, and while tablets had been already available on the market for quite some time, tablets released by Microsoft were mostly disappointing. Windows 7 on a tablet was truly a pain to use. Closing an application with a finger was simply horrifying and the whole interface, as a matter of fact, wasn’t finger friendly at all. Windows 8 fixed most of those problems and issues but Microsoft still made a vital error. It still kept the Desktop of its operating system so that certain devices could still use Microsoft Office. This mistake really stands out when looking at the approach towards tablets by Microsoft in the past.

Microsoft finally plans to make its Office suite more touch-friendly in a new version of the well-known productivity suite. The version is called Gemini and we most certainly will hear more about it during Microsoft’s Windows 10 Media Briefing. With a more finger friendly version of Microsoft Office, the company plans to remove the Desktop from Windows 10 devices regardless if they use an Intel processor or not.

If Microsoft is really going to do this, this means that users will be a lot less confused by Windows 10 when compared to the old Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 operating systems. Windows 10 Mobile is intended for tablets, which probably means that people won’t be able to install iTunes or other apps intended for Desktops on their tablets.

Even though there aren’t a lot of things known about the mobile version of Windows 10, we are aware of some things.

It’s claimed that Microsoft will release this February a preview of the Windows 10 Mobile operating system for smartphones. This means that all people who are in the Windows Phone Insider program will be able to download and test the new update on their smartphones. Microsoft did confirm last year that all smartphones running Windows 8.1 will receive an update to Windows 10 Mobile.

Other details are still unknown. It’s unclear whether people who use tablets with Intel processors will have to pay for the upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft hasn’t discussed anything about prices and we don’t expect them to do such a thing until closer to the date of release.

The Surface RT and Surface 2 are pretty unique devices. Initially, Microsoft decided to use ARM processors and they developed the Surface and Surface 2. In return to losing the compatibility with Desktop applications such as iTunes, the Surface RT and Surface 2 had longer battery lives and notifications were available when those devices went into sleep mode.

Windows 10 is predicted to replace the Windows RT operating system on ARM devices. Because of this, Surface 2 tablets could work a lot differently when using Windows 10 Mobile. It’s unclear whether the Surface RT will receive an upgrade or not.

It wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft cuts support for older devices altogether. Smartphones running Windows 7.5 did not receive an update to Windows 8.1, even though these phones were still being sold on two year contracts by partners of Microsoft. It would be odd of Microsoft not to discuss how the Surface RT and Surface 2 customers will upgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 10 should be Microsoft’s big hit. It’s the company’s chance to lure in customers away from rival companies such as Apple and others that use Android. Microsoft will probably emphasize on how using Windows across different platforms will affect users. (As they have done in the past…)

Windows 10 is believed to arrive this fall on new smartphones. Most probably it will coincide with the time when smartphone manufacturers will upgrade their Windows Phone 8.1 devices to the new Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile operating system. Windows 10 for notebooks and desktops will probably arrive at around the same time as the mobile version.

A unified Microsoft operating system across different platforms really sounds great, and is exactly what the company has to do in order of making its smartphones a success. However, they failed on numerous occasions to do exactly this. It’s not only that Microsoft continuously fails to do such a thing, but it keeps promising they will do it.

Every time Microsoft came out with a Desktop operating system they claimed that OS integrates great with Windows Phone or Windows Mobile devices. But this is never the case, it never was and it never works great. It’s enough to make you rethink how much of their promises are indeed true and doable.

Now, Microsoft claims they built its new operating system on a single “core”. It’s known as the “OneCore”. The company claims this allows Windows 10 to work across different platforms such as tablets, phones, large screen displays such as the Perceptive Pixel multi-touch screen devices, personal computers and, of course, Xbox One.

OneCore is a lot more than a common kernel, said Microsoft. Along the kernel, OneCore also has DLLs and other parts of the main operating system integrated. Windows 10 claims to be able to target the same environment across platforms, which means that apps will function on a variety of devices with different screen sizes. Apps will be in a single store, instead of separate stores for Xbox, Windows Phone and Windows for Desktops.

OneCore doesn’t mean, however, that there will only be a version of Windows 10 available. Even if the company refers to the upcoming OS as “Windows 10” regardless of what device they are talking about, the operating system will still come in different versions and it will be priced and optimized in accordance to the device type and its screen size.

Images source: pcmag.com

Microsoft Launched Two New Cheap Smartphones

January 17, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Just recently, Microsoft launched two new cheap smartphones. The two Lumia devices, the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 are very affordable and have pretty impressive specs for their price.

After the gold editions of their high end mobile phones, Lumia 930 and Lumia 830, Microsoft has announced two other Windows Phones which, the company wishes to target at a whole new branch in the market consisting of phones under $100.

Image source: msecnd.net

LUMIA 435

The Lumia 435 is the cheapest Lumia available so far with a retail price of just $81 before subsidies and taxes. The new device will be shipped out in February in India, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. However, a release date for the United States has not been set yet. The new smartphone looks just like the Nokia X and is Microsoft’s best effort so far to compete with the Android One program initiated by Google. The project was released last September with phone manufacturers in India such as Spice, Karbonn and Micromax which develop devices that use the Android One operating system that cost less than $100.

However, Microsoft did cut some corners in order of achieving this price. Even though the device features two cameras, the front camera can only be used for video and has a 0.3MP sensor for Skype calls and the back camera has a sensor of just 2MP. The Lumia 435 will use Windows Phone 8.1 along with the firmware Lumia Denim, which means that it will also include Cortana in available markets as well as Apps Corner and Live Folders. However, the device won’t feature the notification center by Microsoft called Action Centre. The device will also come with Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and OneNote preinstalled.

The smartphone has a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU and a 4 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 800 x 480 and a pixel density of 233ppi. It has 1GB memory and comes with 8GB of storage that can be expanded with a microSD of up to 128GB. The battery is replaceable and has a capacity of 1560 mAh which lasts for up to 11.7 hours talk time on 3G and 20.9 hours 2G.

While these features aren’t intended for consumers that are looking for a high end smartphone they certainly are an improvement over old low-end mobile phones launched by Microsoft. However, it’s uncertain if these improvements make the devices as good as the ones offered by Xiaomi and Motorola, which are also competitive with Google’s Android One and its partners.

The smartphone will be available in both single SIM and dual-SIM forms and will come in black, white, green and orange. Microsoft also unveiled the Lumia 532 which will come at a price of $94 before subsidies and taxes and is Lumia 435’s smaller brother.

Image source: cloudfront.net

LUMIA 532

Inside the very colorful shell of the Lumia 532 is a quad-core processor that will most likely surpass every other inexpensive Windows Phone launched by Microsoft in the past and 1GB RAM. The amount of memory will at least let users of the Lumia 532 play some of the more demanding games that made their way to Windows Phone in the last couple of years.

The Lumia 532 has 4 inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480 that isn’t high definition but looks quite good. The Lumia 532 will be available in February for about 79EUR or $94. This price doesn’t include any service agreements or discounts, however. As well as the 435, the Lumia 532 only has 8GB of internal storage but it can be expanded with a microSD memory card. Neither the 435 nor the 532 feature a flash on their cameras, which means that users won’t be able of shooting photos in low light environments.

Both smartphones will come with Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Denim. Windows Phone 8.1 is the latest version of Windows available on mobile phones. This version adds the Cortana personal assistant that is also coming to tablets, desktops and notebooks using Windows 10. This version of Windows also offers some options for personalization for the users. For instance, people can finally put a photo to be shown in the background of their phone. It also adds support for syncing browsing history, passwords and a lot more between several devices that us Windows 8.1.

Microsoft wishes to attract smartphone buyers away from Android One and iPhone with the help of its low prices for the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532. This kind of makes sense seeing how in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Windows Phones are a lot more popular. Microsoft hopes to attract buyers looking to purchase their first smartphone or that want to get rid of their older iPhones that don’t receive updates from Apple anymore.

Microsoft’s problem lies in the United States, however. It’s been a long, long time since the company released a competitor for the iPhone. This means that users are far less excited about Windows Phones in the United States. Apple produced new high-end versions of its popular iPhone and their decision to make the older versions cheaper seems to have worked in the U.S. In the meantime, it looks like Microsoft is basically ignoring the United States completely.

Both the Lumia 435 and the Lumia 532 will come in dual-SIM versions as well. This feature allows users to install two SIM cards in their smartphones and switch between carriers for the best available calling rates.

Is Windows 10 any different from Windows 8?

The Top Tablets #1 Microsoft Surface 3

The Top Tablets #2 Dell Venue 8 700

The Top Tablets #3 Sony Xperia Z3

The Top Tablets #4 Acer Iconia W4

The Top Tablets #5 Asus Memo Pad HD 7

Design

Hardware

Battery

Camera

Windows 10

Wrapping up

PROS

CONS

Verdict

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Performance

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Design

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Search

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – File management

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – DirectX 12 and gaming

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – The Notifications

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – Workspace

Windows 10 vs Windows 7 – The price

The verdict

Windows 10 Release Date

Windows 10 Features

Cortana

Other functions

Windows 10 Preview

Windows 10 Download

Windows 10 Price

Windows 10 Details

LUMIA 435

LUMIA 532

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