Friday, 20 February 2015

Microsoft Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 Now Available With Rs. 7,000 Cashback

Microsoft India has announced 'guaranteed cashback offers' on its high-end Lumia 930 and Lumia 830 smartphones. The offer introduced for the Holi festive season in India is valid starting Friday till stocks last, says the company.

The cashback on both the Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 smartphones can be availed by any consumer upfront via physical retail stores. Unfortunately, the company has not cleared whether the offer is only valid in official Microsoft stores across India or any physical retail store selling Microsoft's Lumia 830 and Lumia 930. We have contacted the company and will update the story once we receive a reply.

The Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 will be available at new prices of Rs. 21,800 and Rs. 31,600 respectively after the cashback offer.

To recall, Microsoft launched the Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 last year in India, priced at Rs. 28,799 and Rs. 38,649 respectively.

The Lumia 930 features an aluminium frame with metallic accents, and a curved polycarbonate back with Bright Orange, Bright Green, Black and White colours. It sports a 20-megapixel PureView camera, which has optical image stabilization (OIS) and Carl Zeiss optics, which can be considered as highlight of the device. A front-facing 1.2-megapixel wide-angle camera is on board as well.

Microsoft's Lumia 830, on the other hand, is billed as the company's "thinnest and lightest Lumia to date." It sports a 10-megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash, and also comes with what the company touts is the "thinnest" Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) setup seen on a Lumia smartphone. It also packs a 1-megapixel front-facing camera.

Earlier this year, Microsoft re-launched the Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 with 'anodised gold colour' aluminium frames at CES 2015.

Nokia Lumia 930

Rs. 37,490

Display

5.00-inch

Processor

2.2GHz

Front Camera

1.2-megapixel

Resolution

1080x1920 pixels

RAM

2GB

OS

Windows Phone 8.1

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

20-megapixel

Battery capacity

2420mAh

See full Nokia Lumia 930 specifications

BUY AT

WHITE

₹ 37,490

Nokia Lumia 830

Rs. 21,825

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery life
Camera
Value for money

Good
Stupendous camera performance
Sturdy build quality
Sunlight legibility is good

Bad
Subpar viewing angles
Not suitable for hardcore gaming

Read detailed Nokia Lumia 830 review

Five great camera phones under Rs. 15,000

One of the most sought after features in a smartphone - price-band notwithstanding - is a good camera. Increasingly, people are using it as a replacement for digital cameras. The onslaught of picture sharing apps like Instagram and social video sharing platforms like Vine are augmenting the need for smartphones with a decent shooter.

We sifted through a plethora of smartphones in the sub-Rs. 15,000 category and zeroed in on five phones that have a capable camera. Our selection process involved looking at sample photographs captured by the rear camera under daylight and checking if the captured images have accurate colour reproduction, low noise (loss of details), minimum chromatic aberration and good focusing speed.

A word of caution to all readers is not to expect the moon in this price range especially with respect to the performance of the camera under low-light. We added brownie points for camera modules which had a good camera app interface, decent front-facing camera and good video recording. As it should be, the megapixel count wasn't given too much importance provided the captured details were good.

(Also see:More than megapixels - what really counts in a smartphone camera)

Here are the phones in alphabetical order.

1. Lava Iris Pro 30
Lava's current tour de force - the Lava Iris Pro 30 (Review | Pictures) - features an 8-megapixel rear shooter. In our tests, we noticed that in regular daylight shots, the camera surprised us with the quality of images. Additionally, the captured video retained quite a bit of details and the front camera took great images provided the ambient lighting was adequate. Check the attached sample photograph below.

2. Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini
The 8-megapixel rear-camera (sample shot below) on the Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini (Review | Pictures) is a revelation. The pictures taken in daylight conditions are well detailed and the icing on the cake is that it performs decently in low-light conditions as well. Moreover, the front-facing camera captures images at a very high 5-megapixel resolution and takes some really good shots compared to phones priced much higher. There are a few nifty tricks available in the camera app which adds some flair to photographs provided users can get them to work.

3. Nokia Lumia 525
Nokia's Lumia series of phones have a reputation of delivering great results with the camera; even the low-end options. The level of detail captured by the camera of Nokia Lumia 525 (Review | Pictures) is amazing considering this phone's entry-level status. It is no wonder that the cheapest phone on this list received the highest rating (8/10) out of this lot for its camera performance.

4. Nokia Lumia 620
Another Lumia to be featured in this list - the Nokia Lumia 620 (Review | Pictures) - features a 5-megapixel camera just like the Lumia 525 and captures great photographs under daylight with all details almost intact. In our review we noted that the colour reproduction was natural and stayed true to real-life colours, which the sample photograph below reveals.

5. Xolo Q1010i
With an 8-megapixel Sony Exmor R sensor the camera on the Xolo Q1010i (Review |Pictures) is supposed to perform better in low light. In our daylight testing, the camera captured really good images with very low noise levels. The images we captured with this phone had slightly exaggerated colours. A lot of people will like this, but remember that the colours are not really natural. In low light, the camera manages to focus and capture decent images. The rear camera on the Xolo Q1010i is ahead of its competition, as the photo below shows.

Which one of these is the best camera phone for you? If you've used any of these, leave a comment to tell us about your experience with the phone's camera.

Micromax Bolt D321

Micromax Bolt D321 With 5-Inch Display Listed on Company Site

Micromax has introduced a new Bolt-series smartphone, the Bolt D321, which is now listed on the company's website. The domestic handset maker is yet to reveal availability and price details of the Micromax Bolt D321.

The dual-SIM-based Bolt D321 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box and features a 5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) display. The smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core MediaTek (MT6572) processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. It comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

The Micromax Bolt D321 sports a 5-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel front camera. On the connectivity front, the smartphone offers 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Micro-USB, and Bluetooth options.

It packs an 1800mAh battery, which according to the official listing is rated to deliver up to 7 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time. The Micromax Bolt D321 is listed in Black and White colour.

Some of the preloaded apps on the Micromax Bolt D321 include Ask Me, Clean Master, HelloTV, Hike, M!Games, M!Insurance, M!Live, M!Security, MAD, Opera Mini, Quikr, Saavn, Snapdeal, Start, SwiftKey, and Truecaller.

Micromax earlier this week launched the Canvas Pep, priced at Rs. 5,999. The dual-SIMMicromax Canvas Pep runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It comes with a 4.5-inch (480x854 pixels) FWVGA display, and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core (unspecified) processor coupled with 1GB of RAM.

The smartphone supports expandable storage via microSD card (up to 32GB). It sports a 5-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with LED flash, while there is a front-facing digital (1.3-megapixel) camera also on board.