Media players for your phone
Streaming services have changed the way we consume media. Ser- vices like Spotify, Netflix and Apple Music have managed to offload all our music to an omnipresent library on the cloud. These services are extremely useful. But in Nepal many of them are unusable because of the problems with payment. Which is why we still carry around our music libraries as local files.These files need to be consolidated into a single library, with a good player to access them. While apps for some streaming services may have been developed to perfection, the same can- not be said about music players that come bundled with your smartphone. The iOS has a slightly better Music app compared to Android’s Google Play Music, which has clunky design and unfriendly UI. So what app should you use? Here we take a look at some great music players for your Android device that should improve the way you access access your music.
DoubleTwist
Price Free, $5.59 (Pro)
DoubleTwist is one of the older media players with a well-de- signed inter- face. From the time of its skeuomorphic design, DoubleTwist has grown a lot. Today, the media player sports a mod- ern card aesthetic with large grid-sized album art pages and automatically downloaded artist images for the corresponding page. The media player is also great at handling different and high-res audio codecs; everything from MP3 to FLAC files played wonderfully. There was a bit of a loading time for heavier files but apart from that, it worked perfectly. The player also comes with light and dark themes. While I love lighter themes, the dark theme is bound to shine on an AMOLED screen, while saving you some battery life to boot.
Stellio Player
Price Free, $2.99 (Pro)
Even though DoubleTwist looks mod- ern, its age has influenced its modernity. It lacks new design elements and technological advancements. Stellio, on the other hand, is ultra-modern. It masterfully displays a nice waveform of your audio file on the Now Playing screen and all the Songs, Albums, and Artists pages are wonderfully rendered in grid-form. The player automatically enables crossfading and gapless playback, both of which work perfectly. The app has also been written well, with zero to little load time and graceful animations that played out in buttery smoothness. I did face a problem with the app’s complex Artists page. It collects all album arts and renders them as an elongated rectangle, with all the album art inside. There is stuttering due to loading that doesn’t work well even on a Snapdragon 845 device.
Phonograph
Player Price Free
Phonograph is an open- source music player that usually comes bundled with some famous custom rooms. The media player can be easily downloaded to any smartphone. Its beauty is in its simplicity. This player has a minimalist design aesthetic there are no eye-candy UI elements, unlike the previous entry—and it comfortably flows Google’s Material Design standards. The app is also considerably smaller at 8MB and comes with support for most of the popular audio codecs. Phonograph, in its earlier development cycles, was free but currently, you can also find a Pro paid version. While I couldn’t find a price for the Pro version, you will instantly notice certain features blocked on the free version. While this annoyed me a bit, there is no denying that the Phonograph is probably one of the most stable, reliable and gorgeous media players on Android right now.
The best phones of 2018
The year 2018 has been a good one when it comes to advancements in consumer electronics. It has brought us bezel-less displays, in-screen fingerprint readers and AR emojis, concepts that would have felt farfetched just a few years ago. Today, the concepts grace many high-end and mid-ranged phones and should influence and inspire many more devices in 2019. Here are some phones that made 2018 just a little more magical.
Smasung Galaxy S9
Price Rs 87,900 (S9) & Rs 99,900 (S9+)
Smartphones in 2018 definitely took a turn for the ultra-expensive, with phones like the S9, Note 9 and iPhone X costing as much as a fully decked-out laptop. As much as the S9 costs, however, it is still the best phone to come out in 2018: powerful and making compromises in just the right places. While many other companies got side-tracked by bezel-less screen displays and compromised on notches to house front sensors, Samsung designed a phone with very thin front and bottom chins while still providing a great bezel-less experience.
In a year of compromises, the Samsung Galaxy S9 held its ground, even coming with a 3.5mm headphone jack that Apple had removed for ‘technological advancement’. But technological advancements should never come at the cost of usability and accessibility, and the Samsung Galaxy S9, with its clever aesthetics and technology that are still very relevant, clearly doesn’t. (Going the Apple route of forcing tech advancements down their user’s throats is never a good idea.) Advancements in technology need to be organic and subtle, which is why I think the Samsung Galaxy S9 is the best phone of 2018.
Apple iPhone XSand XS Max
Price Rs 1,62,000 (XS 64 GB) & 1,72,000 (XS Max 64GB)
If you thought the Samsung was expensive, the iPhones this year step up their price game by leagues. Costing as much as a MacBook, these iPhones are difficult to recommend because of their price alone. But regardless of what Apple does with their iPhone line, Apple’s technological advancements ripple across the smartphone market. Apple deemed the 3.5mm headphone jack arcane for their sleek new iPhones and poof, they’re gone from many devices from Google, Huawei and OnePlus. If only companies mimicked Apple’s software optimization, battery life or even their camera! Regardless, the iPhone X is an instrumental device considering just how mainstream it helped certain concepts become in 2018.
Samsung Galaxy A9
Price Rs 54,999 (6/128GB)
The Samsung Galaxy sits comfortably between a flagship and a mid-ranged device. While more flagship phones from Samsung cost close to a lakh, the A9 is a brilliant phone to keep the company’s hold on the higher mid-ranged market. The A9 is not all talk though and enters the fray with an overkill of four rear cameras while bringing some decent specifications to the table: a a 6.3 inch screen, 3800mAh battery and 6GB of RAM. With such phenomenal specifications, Samsung has finally made a device that can go head-to-head with OnePlus and Huawei’s Honor lines.
Xiaomi Pocophone F1
Price Rs 36,999
The Xiaomi Pocophone is a reflection of the mid-ranged market back in the days when Xiaomi was going head-to-head with OnePlus on price-to-performance ratio. Both wanted to provide the best specifications for a price point, lower than half of the then flagships. While both companies have moved on from this tactic, the Pocophone reinvents that philosophy and brings flagship specifications at a very decent mid-ranged price point. Much like the Xiaomi and OnePlus of old, the Pocophone is here to disrupt the market, and to some extent, it has already done so in Nepal. But with consumer-focused smartphones like the Pocophone, affordability and accessibility come hand-in-hand. I think the Pocophone F1 is a monumental device of 2018 and I hope to see more phones like it in 2019.
Nokia 6.1
Price Rs 27,499 (3/32GB)
When we go a little lower on the price scale, we find the Nokia 6.1 brilliantly riding the budget market after a difficult comeback. Nokia has been releasing some interesting phones these days and rather then focus their efforts on flagships alone, the Finnish company finds success in diversity. Nokia has released some competitive budget phones in the mid-ranged market—and the Nokia 6.1 just happens to be the second wave of the company’s smartphones.
While its predecessor was as impressive as the 2018 reiteration, the 6.1 version just brings more to the table while improving on previous flaws. At the budget end, the Nokia 6.1 is a unibody aluminum phone with some great hardware: a Snapdragon 630 processor with 3GB of RAM. The older Snapdragon 630 might stand out because of its age but it’ll perform heaps better than some recent lower end 400 series processors. For the price, the Nokia packs quite a good punch.
Cards behind the pixels
If you’re into PC gaming, equipping your rig with an external graphics card is vital for good gaming performance. Integrated graphics cards from CPU companies like Intel might be good enough to run some light games, but when it comes to the latest triple-A games, they can’t hold a candle to even the cheapest offerings from Nvidia and AMD. Graphics cards, however, have been known to be expensive and the recent discovery of the CUDA cores of graphics cards as efficient BitCoin mining hardware only added to the demand, making them pricier. Graphics cards have become considerably cheaper now. High-end gaming cards still cost you an arm and a leg but there are some pretty good budget ones that’ll satiate your gaming needs.
AMD Radeon RX 560
Price Rs 23, 125
Built with AMD’s new Polaris architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 560 is the company’s attempt to find a market in the entry-level gaming segment. The RX 560 comes really close to the performance of the GTX 1050 and although the 1050 performs marginally better than the RX 560, it also costs Rs 10,000+ more. Considering the price to performance ratio, the RX 560 definitely comes out on top. It is a recent card, so comes with an ample 4 GB of VRAM, which means you will be able to load high-resolution textures directly onto the card and performance-intensive games like The Witcher 3, GTA V and the new Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey work well on the card. This card might not be able to give you 4k output at Ultra settings on these games but will go up to 1080p gaming.
MSI GeForce GTX 1060
Price Rs 53,800 (6GB + dual fan version)
When it comes to graphics cards, Nvidia has always been on the top of their game. The GTX 1060 is a very capable card and while it does cost quite a bit more, you’ll be compromising little when it comes to performance. A full-sized card, the 1060 comes with 3x Display, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI ports, giving you the ability to hook up multiple monitors to it at once. It is also SLI capable so if you have another Nvidia card, you can pair them for enhanced performance. The 6GB VRAM and the 1280 CUDA cores also provides silky smooth performance for almost all recent triple-A titles at a reasonable 1080p resolution. The card is also capable of gaming at 4k but settings do need to come down to medium or high at this resolution.
Asus ROG GTX 750TI
Price Rs 17,500 (2 GB)
Typically, I would not recommend a graphics card so old in architecture but considering the price of this thing, it’s almost impossible not to. First, however, keep your hopes low. The GTX 750 is a very old card and it’s not going to be nearly as effective as any of the other cards mentioned here. But if you just want a card able to run games at the bare minimum cost, the GTX 750 TI holds up quite well, even in 2018. The minimum 2GB of VRAM will be a problem but it will still run new games like GTA V and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey at 1080p medium.
Who needs mirrors ?
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e have always associated high quality photography with expensive, bulky and unwieldy Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. No matter how convenient point-and-shoot cameras maybe or how handy and ubiquitous smartphone cameras have become, nothing could beat DSLR photos. With the coming of new mirrorless cameras, however, this no longer holds true. Mirrorless cameras work with the same system as DSLR but by removing the shutter and the viewfinder mirrors, camera companies have managed to produce devices that are small, portable and yet give DSLR-level pictures. Here we look at some cameras that have forgone the use of mirrors and yet provide a quality unmatched by traditional DLSR cameras.
Samsung NX3000
Price Rs 46,920 (body with 16-50 mm lens)
Aesthetically, the Samsung NX3000 looks like a camera from the past. The entire body is covered with plastic resembling polished silver steel, and leather covering like Leica and Kodak cameras of the past. But technologically, there is nothing retro about the device. The camera supports microSD cards and even comes with a modern micro USB charging port. Modern technology like Wi-Fi and NFC make it easier for you to connect it to your smartphone and control the camera remotely. Internally, the camera is equipped with a 20.3 MP APS-C sensor. The camera does suffer during low light, however, and the in-built noise reduction mechanism can further complicate issues. Overall, the NX3000 is a good deal for the price. Night-time shooting is always a hit-or-miss, even with DSLR cameras.
Sony Alpha A6000
Price Rs 67,010 (body with 16-50 mm lens)
Performance-wise, Sony is much better than Samsung. For the extra cash, the A6000 delivers good image quality, build and specifications. The camera is equipped with a higher 24.3 MP sensor that performs well under low-light conditions as well and focus on this device is fast and accurate, with various forms of modern focus like zebra and area focusing. The camera is also great at shooting video and will appeal to filmmakers and videographers alike. The device is well-built and although the long and thick lens adds to the bulk, the features that they offer outweigh the added heft. For the price, the Sony Alpha A6000 is a really good camera.
Sony Alpha A9
Price Rs 490,000 (body only)
If you want the best of the best, look no further than the Sony Alpha A9. At such a price point, the Alpha A9 is not only the best it beats full-fledged DSLR cameras from brands like Canon and Nikon. This camera is equipped with a full-frame 24.2 sensor, which is supported by a BIONZ X image sensor, and the images that this configuration produces is simply awe-inspiring. It comes with all the bells and whistles of a traditional DSLR and surpasses their image quality with a fast auto-focus speed and image stabilization that will ensure that you get the perfect shot in any situation. Further, the camera is great for film and video as well with a blistering 693 auto focus points all across the digital frame and incredibly precise focus tracking. Sony is not playing around with the A9; it’s everything a mirrorless camera can be and more and for such a ridiculous price-point, it better be. It does not disappoint however and it’s one of the best mirrorless cameras you can get.
Into the unknown world of dark web
Data from ‘xhamster,’ a popular pornographic site, shows an increase in traffic to the site from Nepal starting from the last week of September, when the porn ban started to come into effect. Owing to the countless Virtual Private Network (VPN) services available today, accessing pornographic content is no less difficult than it was before the ban. VPN services completely mask users identities on the internet, making it impossible to track or restrict internet access. Moreover, these services are secure, reliable and easy to use.
With access to sophisticated forms of VPN like the Tor Network comes admission to the dark web. The dark web is a section of the internet that is not indexed by any search engines but can be accessed only within Tor Networks. These dark websites are impossible to track and play host to nefarious activities like child pornography, illegal drug markets and red rooms that live broadcast torture and murder.
Currently, the Nepali dark web community is relatively small. But as more and more people access pornography through such channels—as suggested by a spike in the number of Tor visits from Nepal following the porn ban—at least some of them may want to explore what else is there on the dark web besides porn. In time, such increased activities on dark web could lead to creation of local online drug markets, prostitution rings, or worse.
“I’ve visited the dark web a few times,” says Manish, a young white hat hacker—someone who hacks into systems to expose their security flaws—working out of Kathmandu. “I do it out of curiosity. I’m not looking for anything specific. Accessing a space of the internet unknown to normal internet users provides a thrill.”
Into the dengerous world of dark web
They say the internet has always been free. We’re free to look for any information on the internet, be it good or bad. We are just as free to fill it with cat memes, reaction videos and troll comments. Anyone can find just about anything on the platform, including pornographic content.
More and more people are visiting pornographic sites online. Some governments, including our own, find this problematic, as they argue it leads to a host of crimes, including crimes against women like rape and sexual harassment.
It was in 2010 that Nepal first tried to control the viewership of pornographic content online. Blaming the mushrooming cyber cafes of promoting pornography, the government made it mandatory for all such cafes to register with the District Administration Office. Not just that. They also had to provide data on all user logins and logouts. But lax implementation sank the initiative.
Come 2018, following widespread protests against the rape-and-murder of the 13-year-old Nirmala Pant of Kanchanpur district, the government decided that easy availability of pornographic material was one reason for growing incidents of violence against women. It directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block all porn sites. Today, all pornographic content is banned in Nepal. Should you try to log into one of the porn sites, you a “Sorry the content you’re looking for has been blocked as per the directions of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology” message.
“We have already blocked over 25,000 porn sites with the help of Internet Service Providers,” says Ram Chandra Dhakal, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Communication.
The reaction to porn ban has been mixed. While some traditionalists have welcomed it, others reckon it is a futile quest to deflect blame following the government’s failure to maintain law and order. Whatever the case, with the exponential growth in privacy technology, does a censorship on pornographic content matter?
Data from xhamster (see graph 1), a popular pornographic site, shows an increase in traffic to the site from Nepal starting with the last week of September, when the porn ban started to come into effect. Owing to the countless Virtual Private Network (VPN) services available today, accessing pornographic content is no less difficult than it was before the ban. VPN services completely masks users identities on the internet, making it impossible to track or restrict internet access. Moreover, these services are secure, reliable and easy to use.
There are web browser extensions that provide free VPN services once downloaded, while others, like Opera, come with free VPN services built-in. A few years ago, these services were clunky, hard to use and reduced your internet speed considerably, but with availability of high-speed nodes and technological advances, VPNs can be used with minimal bandwidth loss these days.
Already there are questions popping up on famous forums like Quora and Reddit about bypassing the censorship in Nepal and almost all posts have pointed users to VPN services. It looks like the ban isn’t helping restrict access to pornographic content, which betrays lack of understanding of the internet.
“It doesn’t matter if the government wants to censor information,” says Ashish*, a 26-year-old entrepreneur in Kathmandu. “No matter what techniques they use to block sites, people will always find alternative ways to access content online. The internet is resilient like that.”
This kind of resilience is seen in the long lives of controversial internet sites like The Pirate Bay and Mega. Both sites were ‘taken down’ at various times for their contribution to internet piracy, but both have somehow stayed up, defying censorship.
Attempts at censoring the internet haven’t worked in the past, and with services like VPN, policing the internet has become even more difficult. Also, far from doing good, pornographic censorship might lead to something more sinister. For with access to sophisticated forms of VPN like the Tor Network comes admission to the dark web.
The dark web is a section of the internet that is not indexed by any search engines but can be accessed only within Tor Networks. These dark websites are impossible to track and play host to nefarious activities like child pornography, illegal drug markets and red rooms that live broadcast torture and murder. Currently, the Nepali dark web community is relatively small. But as more and more people access pornography through such channels—as suggested by a spike in the number of Tor visits from Nepal (see graph 2) following the porn ban—at least some of them may want to explore what else is there on the dark web besides porn. In time, such increased activities on dark web could lead to creation of local online drug markets, prostitution rings, or worse.
“I’ve visited the dark web a few times,” says Manish*, a young white hat hacker—someone who hack into systems to expose their security flaws—working out of Kathmandu. “I do it out of curiosity. I’m not looking for anything specific. Accessing a space of the internet unknown to normal internet users provides a thrill.”
When queried on such downsides of porn ban, Dhakal, the information ministry spokesperson, says “With new technologies, new systems and new infrastructures, we are working on making Nepali cyber space more and more secure. But in the larger scheme of things, accessing illegal content on digital space is illegal. In due course we will bring policies to prosecute individuals accessing illegal content, for instance, through VPNs.”
But that could be hard, if not impossible. Even the governments of the countries with developed IT surveillance mechanisms are struggling to police the internet. If anything, by pushing people into the darkest reaches of the web, the government seems to be inviting all kinds of unwanted troubles.
* Names have been changed to protect the identities of individuals quoted.
The sound you love
Sound in today’s digital world is a multi-dimensional entity. Yes, your music needs to be good, but that is not where the role of the sound stops. Sounds are also very important in providing audio cues and adding to the sensory experience of games and movies. Which is why we put emphasis on the quality of our audio devices, and spend money on speakers and headphones that replicate the audio signatures we love. Here we discuss some audio devices that are cheap yet offer great audio experiences in different situations.
Creative T3150 Wireless
Price Rs 7,450
Creative is not new to the audio game; they have been producing some quality audio equipment starting from the early days of computing. Known for their SoundBlaster cards in the past, even today, they produce some really good audio equipment. The Creative T3150 is one such equipment, a 2.1 desktop speaker with a sub-woofer, it sounds great with thumping bass and clear highs and mids. These speakers might not appeal to bass-heads because there is a definite emphasis on audio clarity rather than bass. Regardless, hip-hop and R&B music are represented with a good sustained bass and music, with an emphasis on highs, so that rock and folk don’t get drowned in emphasized lows. The speaker also comes with Bluetooth functionalities built-in, making it easier to connect your portable device with the speaker even when it’s connected to your desktop. These speakers are cheap and sound great, but suffer from one of the lowest maximum volumes I’ve seen in desktop speakers. They’re excellent if the low volume doesn’t bother you, and cheap too.
JBL Clip 2
Price Rs 7,000
One of the cheaper JBL Bluetooth speakers, the JBL Clip 2 does not perform as well as its more expensive counterparts. The Clip 2 is nonetheless one of the most portable speakers and sounds great as well. This speaker offers a clear sound signature with a define emphasis on highs and mids. It can’t move as much sound waves as bigger speakers, which severely hampers the lows, but overall, if you want a speaker with an emphasis on vocals, the Clip 2 is a great option. It’s also a JBL speaker, which means it’s waterproof and robust, making it great to take out with you on your outdoor adventures without having to worry about it too much.
Xiaomi Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD
Price Rs 3,500
Xiaomi is by no means a veteran in the audio industry. They have been known to make affordable smartphones but when the Chinese company started making earphones, they did it with such fervor that today the Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD perform better than some earphones from veteran companies like JBL, Skullcandy and Sony. These headphones come with dual speakers inside each bud, one for bass and the other for the high. This configuration gives them a sound signature that’s crisp and clear with added thump for the bass. In single speaker earphones, bass-heavy earphones overpower the highs giving them a very one sided sound, but with the configuration of the Mi headphones, this problem has been mitigated. These headphones are some of the best available in the market right now and for the price, they’re a steal.
By: Prajesh SJB Rana
Light and thin
When we talk about ultrabooks, the first device we think about is the MacBook Air. With a thin and light chassis, the MacBook Air is powerful and portable at the same time. The Air is a brilliant computer but the heavy Rs 200,000+price tag might be a little bit too steep for many. There are Windows alternatives by other companies that, although not cheap, provide a value for money. Here we take a look at some of these devices that offer some interesting hardware inside some truly thin and light design.
Asus Zenbook UX430
Price: Rs 140,000
Staying true to the Ultrabook name, the Asus Zenbook UX430 weighs only 2.78 grams and is 0.6 inches thick. Despite being so thin, the laptop is sturdy thanks to its aluminum chassis, and has a professional look to it. Even within such a thin frame, Asus has managed to cram some interesting specifications: the device comes with an 8th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. The company even managed to make space for a Nvidia NX150, which might not be as powerful as Nivida’s GTX line of GPUs but still performs much better than stock options from Intel.
The 14-inch screen is also an eye catcher thanks to its brilliant vibrance and saturation. The audio on the device, branded Harmon Kardon, also does not disappoint: it’s loud, clear and crisp. The keyboard however suffers from the trimmed down frame and feels stiff and difficult to use. And even though the laptop comes with a sizeable 512 GB SSD, it performs much slower than options from other venders. If you can look past these few flaws, the Asus Zenbook UX430 is an excellent device for the price.
Lenovo IP320
Price: Rs 71,000
With such an obvious price difference from the two above, the Lenovo is definitely not as thin and light as the options mentioned above. But it is thin enough and comes with some pretty interesting specifications on the inside. The laptop is powered by an 8th Generation Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB mechanical HHD. This device does, however, feature a dedicated GPU, the MX 150 from Nvidia. If you’re looking for some good performance in a relatively thin and light chassis, the Lenovo might be the device that weighs the lightest on your wallet.
Dell XPS 13
Price: Rs 110,000 (lowest-price model, higher options available)
I can recommend the Dell XPS with eyes closed. The device is one of the best laptops to come out in recent years and its famous InfinityEdge display only adds to the flair of the device. While there are various options available, the cheapest version featuring a seventh generation Core i5, 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD has decent specifications. Although the computer does not have a dedicated graphics card (more expensive versions do), the aesthetics and the overall build of the laptop is enough to hook you in.
The Infinity Display is a marvel to look at: sharp, color-accurate and bright. Working on the device for any creative endeavor is a pleasure thanks to the display’s color accuracy. But bezel-less screen designs on laptops come with their own problems, one of them being the irregular placement of the webcam, and the Dell has one of the worst webcam placements, providing a view from under your nose for any professional conference call you might want to make. But if you can overlook the odd camera placement, the device is a marvel to use.
Vying for the middle ground
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The mid-ranged market is bustling, and we have never seen this level of competition. Even high-end phone manufactures like Oppo, Huawei and Vivo have joined in on the fun with very competitive devices, even as industry veterans like Xiaomi and OnePlus have retained their control. The battle between companies completely focused on the mid-ranged market and those who’ve only just started competing has been to the consumer’s benefit. Here we look at some of these mid-range devices
Vivo Y81
price: Rs 24,190
2018 has been the year of bezel-less displays with high-end iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Huawei phones touting phones with minimal borders. Fortunately, because of the popularity of this feature, it has trickled down to the mid-ranged market too. Which is also why the bezel-less 6.22 inch screen on the device is its crowning glory. The tall 19:9 aspect ratio screen is bright, vibrant and sharp; the hardware supporting the device underneath doesn’t disappoint either. The device is powered by the mid-ranged processor the Helios P22 and comes with the latest Android Oreo, with Vivo’s own Funtouch OS skin on top. The processor is supported by 3GB of RAM and comes with a decent storage of 32 GB (with the added benefit of expansion). The 3260 mAh battery should be ample enough for daily use as well.
Huawei Y9
Price: Rs 34,900
The Huawei Y9 is an upgrade to the smartphone released just a few months ago. Touted the Huawei Y9 2019, it is evident that the company wants this smartphone to be relevant for the better part of next year. We don’t know about the future but right now, the Y9 is surely one of the hottest mid-ranged devices. While the Y9 also features a bezel-less front screen, the internals are what inspire the most. The phone has a good camera, and dual lenses 16MP lenses, with an additional augment in the form of an AI support. The screen on the device is a tall 6.5 inch display that outputs a full HD image of 1080 x 2340 px. The phone is powered by Huawei’s in house CPU, the HiSilicon Kirin 710, supported by 4 or 6 GB of RAM and 64 or 128 GB of storage which can be expanded externally. Powered by a high capacity 4000 mAh battery, the Huawei Y9 is an excellent device for the price.
Xiaomi Redmi 6
Price: Rs 18,490 (64 GB)
The Redmi line from Xiaomi has always offered great value for money. They’ve been called ‘the king of budget phone’ and the brand name alone is enough to spark interest among people looking for a decently priced smartphone. The Redmi 6 does not disappoint with a Helio P22 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32 or 64 GB of internal storage. While the device does not have the flair of a bezel-less display, the 5.45 inch panel is a good performer regardless. The device also comes with a dual lens 12 MP camera at the rear and is supported by a decent 3,000 mAh battery. This device offers great value for money and should definitely be considered if you’re looking for a low cost option.
