Samsung Replenish coming to Boost Mobile on Jan 16 for $99.99

The Samsung Replenish has already been available on Sprint for the past 8 months, but if you’re looking for a good “no contract” option, you will be happy to know it will make its debut on January 16 on Boost Mobile for $99.99. To refresh your memory, this is an eco-friendly phone which is partially made of recycled plastics. The Replenish is eligible for Boost Mobile’s buyback program (trade in your used phone) and the $55.00 Android Monthly Unlimted plan with Shrinkage (see press release below)
Specs include:

• Android 2.3 with access to Android Market™
• 2.8-inch touchscreen and QWERTY keypad
• 2MP camera with video
• GPS-enabled
• Stereo Bluetooth^® technology
• Easy Access to Gmail™ and Google Talk™
• Wireless Web Enabled

Motorola MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI coming to Greater China, Europe and Latin America this spring

Motorola just announced what they are calling “Two stylish smartphones that break boundaries, but won’t break the bank.” The MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI will debut in Greater China, Europe and Latin America starting in February. The MOTOLUXE is actually already available in China as the XT615 for RMB 2,999 (US$470 or 355 EUR) and the DEFYMINI will be debut in China as the XT320.
MOTOLUXE (pictured above) features a 4-inch edge-to-edge touchscreen display, an 8MP rear camera with autofocus and flash, front facing VGA camera, 1400mAh battery, and Android 2.3. It will be available in licorice or white, and it also features a lanyard slot that has a lighting effect to let you know when you’ve missed a call, received a text or have an email waiting for you.
The DEFY MINI (pictured below) is water-resistant, dust-proof, and has scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Class for the display. It features a 3.2-inch display, 3MP rear camera with flash, front facing VGA camera, 1650mAh battery, and Android 2.3.

Full press release:

Motorola Mobility Introduces Two Stylish Smartphones That Break Boundaries, but Won’t Break the Bank

Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile review

It's not the Nokia / Microsoft lovechild we've all been patiently awaiting here in the states. No, it's the other Lumia -- the low-end one. And it's headed for a berth on T-Mobile's airwaves next week, on January 11th. Rather than go big (or go home), Espoo's chosen to wade gently into the shallow waters of the US smartphone market, loading this budget Mango device with respectable mid-range specs and an irresistible price. The Lumia 710 is a $50 on contract proposition geared towards easing folks inept at the smarter aspects of wireless gadgetry into the 21st century. With a 3.7-inch ClearBlack LCD display, a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor aided by 512MB of RAM, a decent 5 megapixel rear shoot capable of 720p video capture and, of course, Windows Phone 7.5, it may do just that. The obvious hurdle keeping this able phone from flying off the shelves has little to do with performance and everything to do with Nokia's stateside brand recognition. So, join us after the break as we put this unassuming handset through its paces and determine whether or not the 710's training wheels are worth a Grant.

Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile

Hardware

When Nokia trotted out the Lumia 800 a few short months ago, it shone brightly amidst the clutter of high-end, samey handsets and hinted at an exciting future of mobile design. True, that phone's casing is simply a rehashing of the D.O.A. though much loved N9, but a similar recycling would've been much welcomed here. Instead, the 710 is, at best, inoffensive and a copycat of the Nokia 603; it disappears into the hand and garners no affection for its oddly-tapered rectangular shape. Weighing in at 4.6 ounces (129 grams) and measuring 4.7 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches (119 x 62.4 x 12.5mm), it's considerably lighter than its carrier rival, HTC's Radar 4G, although both go nearly toe to toe in dimensions. The 710 may simply appear to be the thicker of the two, owing to its smoothly curved back.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Hybrid official: instant-on OS based on Android doubles battery life, arrives in Q2 for $1,599

Well, look at what we have here. Though it didn't arrive as early as rumored, the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid running Android is, in fact, a real, whirring product. Lenovo just unveiled the laptop, which has a fanless "Instant Media Mode" promising to double the original X1's (rather skimpy) battery life to as much as ten hours. And while we've seen notebooks with instant-on operating systems, Lenovo's done something unique by installing a dual-core Qualcomm CPU on the motherboard and building a custom OS based on the Android kernel. In fact, that launcher you see up there should look awfully familiar to the customization we've seen on the IdeaPad K1 and other Lenovo tablets. Here, too, you can check email, surf the web, organize photos, listen to music, play videos, change the wallpaper and add widgets to the three home screens, though access to Android Market is a no-go.

We got to spend a few minutes with the X1 Hybrid a few weeks ago, and if first impressions are to be believed, the battery-saving prowess works as advertised: immediately after switching modes, the estimated remaining runtime jumped from an hour and 16 minutes to four hours and 19 minutes. The OS also booted in about two seconds, as Lenovo says it should. We were also relieved to learn that there's no back-door way of accessing the OS: if the laptop goes to sleep while you're in Instant Media Mode, you'll have to return to Windows to log in again.

In every other respect, this is the X1 we reviewed last spring: it has a durable, 3.7-pound chassis, integrated Intel graphics and a glossy, 13-inch (1366 x 768) Gorilla Glass display with brightness rated at 350 nits. It'll be offered with Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, a 3G radio and a slice battery that adds up to five more hours of juice. It'll be available sometime in the second quarter for $1,599 and up -- about a $300 premium over the original. And no, current X1 owners can't download Instant Media Mode as an update -- as you'd imagine, the whole "SoC on a motherboard" requirement makes that impossible. Hey, no one ever said being an early adopter was easy.

Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook targets the business set with discrete graphics and 1TB in storage, arrives in Q3 for $849

While plenty of companies will spend CES showing off their first Ultrabooks, Lenovo is already going back for seconds. The outfit just announced the ThinkPad T430u, a more business-focused follow-up to the IdeaPad U300s we reviewed back in November. More than anything, though, what has us intrigued is that it packs optional NVIDIA graphics, making this the first so-called Ultrabook we've seen with a dedicated GPU. Add in a 14-inch (1366 x 768) display, up to 1TB of hard drive storage and a modest six hours of rated battery life, and it sounds more like a full-fledged laptop than an Ultrabook. Semantics aside, with a starting price of $849 this could be a tempting deal for businesses looking to outfit their employees with something portable, well-performing and inexpensive. Not to mention, it might just be a worthy competitor to the HP Folio, our favorite business-centric Ultrabook at the moment. Just make sure IT can wait patiently -- the T430u isn't slated to go on sale until Q3 of this year.

Lenovo ThinkPad T430u

Lenovo announces seven laptops for small businesses

In addition to rolling out a ThinkPad X1 running Android and a buttoned-up Ultrabook, Lenovo announced a handful of mainstream laptops aimed at the small business set. Starting at the high end, the 14-inch Edge S430 (pictured) looks the part of a traditional ThinkPad (nay, IBM box), though Lenovo's sprinkled in metal accents and whittled the chassis to a reasonably narrow .8 inches (20.3mm). As the cream of this crop, it packs Thunderbolt technology, Dolby Home Theatre sound, optional NVIDIA Optimus graphics and up to 1TB in storage.

Moving on down the line, the 14-inch Edge E430 and 15-inch E530 give you a choice of Intel Core processors and AMD Fusion APUs. These, too, can be configured with discrete graphics and 1TB hard drives, though being the less-premium systems they are, you can get them in more playful colors like red and cobalt blue. If you crave a little more portability, Lenovo's also offering smaller versions, the 11-inch E130 and the 13-inch E330. Only have $400 to spend? The budget B480 and B580 bring Fusion and Core CPUs, USB 3.0 and 1TB hard drives, at the high end. The S430 will start at $749 when it hits select markets in June, but the rest will arrive in April, with the ThinkPad Edge models going for $549-plus and the B-series laptops fetching $399 and up. Though the 11- and 13-inch Edge laptops and the B-series notebooks will only be offered in certain markets the 14-inch E430 and 15-inch E530 are slated to ship worldwide. More info in the press release, just past the break.

Fujifilm brings DSLR-like X-S1 camera to the US for $799

Look familiar? That's Fujifilm's latest X-series camera, the X-S1, which launched as the XS-1 in the UK for £699 ($1090) in November. Now the company has moved the dash one character to the left and priced the DSLR-like superzoom at $799.95, with a late-January ship date. We were expecting something slightly different after images of a rumored X cam appeared earlier this week, but this is all we're getting at the high-end -- for now, at least. The X-S1 includes a fixed 26x manual zoom lens with a range of 24-624mm and a variable maximum aperture of f/2.8-5.6, with a 2/3-inch 12 megapixel EXR CMOS sensor behind -- the same size found on the rangefinder-like X10. The lens is quite versatile, allowing you to capture subjects both far away and incredibly close -- it can focus on objects as near as 1 centimeter from the lens in Super Macro Mode. On the rear, you'll find both a 1.4-million-dot, 0.47-inch EVF and a 3-inch 460k-dot tilting LCD -- a heads-up sensor automatically switches to the EVF as you get near.

Sports shooters will appreciate the seven-frames-per-second high-speed mode at full resolution, or 10 fps at six megapixels. And as you'll expect with any high-end cam, there's 1080/30p video capture on board with stereo sound and H.264 encoding, along with RAW stills and full manual control, with a dedicated mode dial up top. Unfortunately, due to the camera's smaller image sensor, ISO sensitivity isn't on-par with larger DSLRs -- the native range extends from ISO 100 to 3,200, though you can jump up to ISO 12,800 when shooting "small" resolution JPEGs (which you aren't likely to do). We're holding out hope that Fuji's rumored cam will make a surprise appearance at the company's CES press conference, but for now, this will have to do. Full details are in the PR just past the break.

Fujifilm updates F, S and HS lines of superzoom cameras ahead of CES bonanza

We hope you like cameras, cause Fujifilm has more digital shooters than you can possibly keep track of. We'll have to wait to get our hands on the company's latest until next week, but it was kind enough to send over some PR ahead of time. On the superzoom front we're looking at the FinePix HS30EXR and HS25EXR, a pair of 16-megapixel cams with half-inch CMOS sensors and 30x (24mm-720mm) optical zoom lenses. Both also sport three-inch tilting LCDs and can capture full 1080p video at 30 frames a second. If resolution can take a backseat to speed, then you're free to shoot clips at 320fps. Both will be landing in March for $500 (HS30) and $400 (HS25). But we're not done yet -- a sextuplet of other magnification focused devices await after the break.

Fujifilm CES 2012 superzoom cameras: HS30EXR, HS25EXR, F770EXR, F750EXR, F660EXR, SL300, S4200, S4500

Taking a small step down in the feature department are the FinePix F770EXR, F750EXR and F660EXR. These three shooters trade in some advanced photo processing, but the F770EXR does add a GPS module for attaching location to your snapshots and retains the ability to shoot in RAW (which the 750 and 660 lack). The two 700 models drop the zoom levels down to a more modest 20x (25-500mm), though, they offer a slightly wider angle image at the bottom end. The 660 on the other hand settles for a 15x optical zoom lens (24-360mm). All three will also be landing in March, starting at $280 for the F660EXR, $350 for the F750 and $380 for the F770.

Rounding out the newest zoom-happy offerings from Fujifilm are the S4200, S4500 and SL300, which ditch the sensor found on the other models for a 14-megapixel CCD. The S4200 starts things out with a 24x (24-576mm) lens, while the S4500 and SL300 both get more spy-friendly 30x (24-720mm) optics. All three have to settle for 720p video, but they do all allow you to add tags for Facebook and YouTube right from the camera -- which should prove popular with the social networking addict in your clique. The S4200 and S4500, which ship in February for $230 and $260 respectively, also skip out on the rechargeable cells in favor of AAs, while the SL300 lands in March for $300 with a lithium-ion pack included. Check out the pile of PR below for more details.

Fujifilm opens the FinePix camera floodgates ahead of CES

Fujifilm knows that you're almost certainly going through gadget withdrawal in these days and hours leading up to CES, so it's unleashing not one, but ten FinePix cameras for your pointing-and-shooting pleasure. It's a long list, so get comfortable. Let's start with the JX580, which will offer up 16 megapixels, 5x optical zoom and a three-inch LCD for $119, when it drops in February. The JX500 will be hitting the same month for $99, bringing 14 megapixels, 5x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD. The AX550 brings 16 megapixels and 5x optical zoom. It'll be hitting in March for $89. All three slim cameras feature intelligent flash, tracking auto focus and scene recognition auto.

And what of the FinePix JZ250 and JZ100? We're glad you asked. The JZ250 brings a 16 megapixel sensor, 8x optical zoom and a newly brightened three-inch LCD to the table, while the JZ100 rocks 14 megapixels, 8x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD. Both can shoot movies in 720p and will hit retail in March for $149 and $129, respectively. The T400 and T350 both offer up Scene Recognition Auto, face detection and Motion Panorama Mode, as well as 10x optical zoom and three-inch LCDs. The T400 does 16 megapixels and the T350 tops out at 14. They'll run $179 and $159 when they're released in March.

The FinePix XP150 and XP100 do the rugged thing, shockproof, freezeproof, dustproof and waterproof to 33 feet. The XP50, meanwhile, is also durable -- albeit slightly less so. All three cameras shoot 1080p video and have dual image stabilization and tracking autofocus. The XP150 also brings GPS and geo-tagging to the table. The three cameras will hit in March for $279, $259 and $199. Full PR after the break.

Razer Electra Review

The gaming hardware market has expanded in India and the number of accessories that are available today seem nothing short of being impressive. The market is flooded with gaming mice, mousepads and headphones and all the big names have made their presence known. Razer has been among the first ones to have entered the market and there’s no shortage of new products being launched. The Electra is one of their more affordable gaming headsets being sold. 

Design and build quality
Razer’s profile is filled with somewhat unconventional themed devices. Their gaming mice all stand out from the rest and it’s no different with this new Razer Electra gaming headset. The shape and design is defined by sharper edges and little curves and colours. The headphone is mostly black in colour, which is only contrasted by the light fluorescent green band at the top. There is the usual Razer logo branding on either sides of the cans. While this should catch everyone’s eye, we’re not sure if it’s for the right reasons. Some people tend to like this colour scheme, some don’t. The cables too are coloured in the same green theme. They're strong, but at 1.3m, they're not really long; you can’t sit too far back from the PC. There are two cables, one with with a microphone element, one without. 

Green cloth lining the insides of the cans

The headband, which is made up of two thin closely placed panels and some cushioning added in between, makes wearing the Electra fairly comfortable. A synthetic cloth-like material is used in place of the plain plastic of false-leather fabrics used on most other headphones. There are no signs of wood and the entire headphone is made up of plastic. The earpads move a little bit, so wearing them for long hours is comfortable. The general build quality is good and it doesn’t look like there’s any chance of damage in the long run.

Features
The Electra is a pretty basic headset in terms of features. The detachable cables make it easy to carry around. We would’ve liked longer cables, but the current length is just about right and the quality of the cables is good. The headphones can also be folded, so carrying them in a small bag is easy. On the inside, the headphones use two 40mm neodymium drivers to generate sound. The mentioned frequency range of the product is 25 to 16,000 Hz, slightly less than what other brands and models are advertised as. The impedance on these cans is 32 Ohms, so driving them is easy - pretty much any sound solution from a PMP to a sound card can drive these headphones. 

Standard design for a headphone - nothing extraordinary here

The separate microphone unit has a frequency response range of 100Hz to 10kHz. When the microphone module is connected to the headphone, it places it roughly at the same level as your mouth. Unfortunately, you can only use this with audio devices that have a common jack for microphone input and audio output. This means, phones, PMPs and tablets should be able to use them just fine. You need a PC audio port that supports both microphone and audio output connects in a single jack, though.

Performance
The Electra is a bass heavy headphone and it doesn’t do too badly at music. There’s a fair amount of detail across instruments, but the bass is a little overpowering. If the bass were a little lower, it would’ve been a better detailed headphone. The bass is punchy and the upper range of the frequency spectrum is not very prominent. Even at lower volumes, bass is delivered and there’s a good bit of punch. We tried all kinds of genres of music on the headphones. .

Two cables, one with a microphone cable, one without

The bass is also relatively accurate and there’s no spillover in each beat. This should all help in the performance during gaming. Most gaming headphones tend to have a bass-heavy signature sound to them. It’s no is different in the case of the Razer Electra. The bass heavy end and somewhat recessed mids means vocals and guitars sound slightly duller. The microphone quality is average and the sound intensity is decent for gaming. 

Verdict

Gaudy colour - some like it, some don't

The Electra doesn’t cost as much as some of the high-end audiophile class headphones and it’s definitely not the most expensive gaming headphone offering. At Rs. 3,000, it’s fairly inexpensive . We wouldn’t recommend these to music enthusiasts, but gamers, on the other hand will find it handy. They're good for gaming, but not necessary usable on every single PC. We would’ve preferred a traditional microphone that’s bundled into the headphone as the additional microphone cable only adds to the confusion.

Dell XPS 14z Review

Dell’s new XPS ‘z’ series brings the mighty performance of the traditional XPS legacy, but does it with flair. This is for those who’ve eyed the new XPS series, but wanted something sleeker and portable without compromising on the build quality and aesthetics. We already saw the XPS 15z in action, last year and now it’s time to take a look at their newest offering, the XPS 14z.

Design and Build
The XPS 14z is a spitting image of its elder brother and other than some re-arranged ports, it borrows the same DNA; only this time, it looks more striking. The notebook is quite slim and compact for a 14-incher. Dell has fitted the XPS 14z with an edge-to-edge display, which means there’s barely any bezel. They’ve managed to fit all the components in roughly the same form factor as a 13-inch notebook. Made from anodised aluminium, the notebook is full of sweeping curves and chrome accents that give it a stunning look, no matter from which angle you look at it.

Brilliant compact design

The left side houses the microphone and headphone jacks and memory card reader, while on the right we have the slot-loading DVD drive and battery charge indicator. This is quite a handy feature, since the battery in not removable. The rest of the ports are placed at the back, which include the power port, DisplayPort, HDMI, two USB ports and a LAN jack. Sadly, there’s no USB 3.0, which is a downer. The bottom portion is not easily removable by the user, while he tries to swap out the RAM and hard drive.

Doesn't overheat

The power light blends into one of the ribs on the ribbed hinge, same as the XPS 15z. The backlit chiclet keyboard is comfortable to use, but we wished Dell would have thrown in an ambient light sensor to automatically activate the backlight, instead of you having to do it manually. The trackpad for a change works well and we didn't face any issues, whatsoever. Dell has once again succeeded with a solid design, good compact form factor and excellent build quality.

Features
The XPS 14z lives up to its heritage with powerful components that makes for a very productive notebook. Powering it is an Intel Core i7-2640M, a dual-core multi-threaded CPU running at 2.8GHZ and with Turbo up to 3.5GHz. Other components include 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 750GB hard drive and an Nvidia GT 520M with 1GB dedicated graphics. The 14-inch screen has a semi-gloss finish with a resolution of 1366 x 768, which is good enough for a 14-inch screen. The LED backlight ensures even lighting and the panel produces accurate colours with a decent viewing angle. Also, at 2kg, it’s not too heavy, so you can easily carry it around. 

Slender looking

My main gripe here is that Dell doesn’t give you the liberty to customize the notebook. You have just two pre-set configurations and at the most, you can customize the software package and accessories, but not the core components. You’ll notice you get lot more freedom with the regular XPS line-up and it’s a damned cheaper as well, so in essence, Dell is charging you a premium for the design.  

 Performance
Despite this being a dual-core CPU, single threaded apps really benefit from the high default clock speed. This is particularly evident from PCMark Vantage where the XPS 14z even managed to beat the Asus G74SX, which scored 8452 points. The graphics card is the only weak link here, as it just about manages to deliver playable framerates in games. The GT 520M is an entry-level GPU, so we weren’t expecting miracles, anyways. Perhaps, Dell could have thrown in a slightly beefier card to complement the CPU. In video encoding though, the quad-core offerings have a clear advantage over the Dell as they feature twice the number of cores and threads.

Very good CPU performance however the GPU could do better

The XPS 14z is very comfortable to use on a daily basis. The keyboard is comfortable even for extended typing sessions and even though the intake vents are placed underneath, the notebook never overheated over the course of the review. The speakers feature Waves MaxxAudio preset, which helps boost the sound. The quality is pretty good and since the speakers are on the either sides of the keyboard are quite loud for watching a movie or listening to music.

Battery Life
The XPS 14z comes with an 8-cell battery, but since it’s internal, there’s no telling the watt hour, as Dell doesn’t mention those details on the site as well. In any case, Dell claim up to 6hrs of battery life, but we guess that’s for the lower-end configuration, since our top-end model managed just 1hr 30min in Battery Eater Pro, which roughly translates to about 3.5hrs of battery life and maybe a bit more with careful usage.

Verdict
At Rs.78,900, the Dell XPS 14z is quite an expensive 14-inch notebook, but then it does justify that price, to an extent. The price jump seems to be related to the 3-year warranty that comes as standard. Also, the notebook packs an impeccable build and finish and the attention to detail is pretty darn good. More importantly, it feels like a premium product and it also has the goods to back it up. If portability and style is your criteria, then the XPS 14z is a good buy. However, just keep in mind that you’ll have to compromise on the lack of USB 3.0, a non –removable battery and the fact that you’re pretty much stuck to the two configurations that Dell have whipped up.

Would sell well if Dell slashed the price and bundled a better GPU

If you can do with a little less flair and won’t be lugging around the notebook too often, then the standard XPS 15 gives you amazing value for money. We configured an XPS 15 for about Rs.73,000, which includes a Core i7 quad-core CPU, Full HD screen, 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, Blu-ray combo drive and an Nvidia GT 540M. If only Dell would give you an option to opt for the one-year warranty (which adds about Rs.12,000 to the price), bump up the graphics and drop the price, the XPS 14z would be an instant hit.

PlayStation Vita gets unofficial price cut in Japan

Sony’s successor to the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation Vita may have had a fairly decent start (in Japan) selling approximately 325,000 units in a week but sales have slowed down drastically since then. According to Softpedia, Sony is currently struggling to sell the Vita in Japan with just about 72,000 units being moved in the second week. This has prompted many retailers to slash the price of the product just so they can sell it off. While these aren’t official price cuts approved by Sony, many retailers across Japan are offering the 3G version of the Vita at a 20% discount incurring losses in the process.

What lies in store for the Vita?

Weak sales for the PlayStation Vita have led many analysts to believe that the era of the handheld console is over thanks to smartphones and tablets but if that was the case, why have sales for the 3DS suddenly picked up? Metro.co.uk has reported that Nintendo moved a staggering 482,200 units of the 3DS the same week the Vita sold a paltry 72,000. The only explanation I can think of now is that the Vita doesn’t have a strong launch line-up.

Either way it’s too early to deem the Vita a failure. Sony faced the same teething issues when the PlayStation 3 was launched but today, that very same console is doing rather well for itself. The PlayStation Vita is expected to launch in India this February.

The original Galaxy Tab gets a price cut, on sale for Rs.14K

Finally the Galaxy Tab gets a price cut! But wait, it’s the seven incher we’re talking about out here and not the 8.9 or the 10.1-inch one. As a limited period offer, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is selling for a price tag of Rs.13,999 on online site, Indiaplaza. 

Galaxy Tab..now selling at 14k

Forgotten about it already? It’s got a 1GHz Cortex A8 single core processor, 16 gigs of internal memory, a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, and Android 2.2. Also, it’s the P1010 version, so this model is a Wi-Fi only one, and you can even make calls. 

The initial pricing of Rs. 20,000 definitely made the Galaxy Tab an extremely expensive purchase, but does the more modest 14K price tag make the Tab a worthy buy, what do you think?