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When the first Swift was launched back in 2005 it quickly rose to fame as one of the best hatchbacks in the coun­try. Thanks to its masculine and ral­ly-ready styling, it created a strong fan following and sold like hot cakes. The second generation was received with a bit less enthusiasm but it pulled its weight just fine. Fast for­ward to 2018 and we have the third generation of the Swift, with sleeker looks and modern interior and bet­ter safety features. How does it fare? Read on to find out.

Exterior

The front of the 2018 Maruti Suzuki Swift looks a lot like the Dzire, albeit this one’s sportier. The all-black grille adds to the sportiness of the vehicle, which is different from the chrome-heavy one on the Dzire. On the side you see the floating roof that adds to the car’s sporty look.

The rear door handle has been moved up in the C-pillar and receives a black treatment that masks the handle and it will take some getting used to. While the Dzire is sleek, the Swift has chunkier bodywork at the back to make the car look nice and wide. As far as dimension goes, the new 2018 Swift is 40 mm wide, has a 20 mm longer wheelbase and is 10 mm shorter than the older version.

Interior

The changes in dimension are evident on the inside: there’s bet­ter headroom, knee room and leg­room compared to the previous Swift. Disappointingly though, Suzuki has skipped on the rear AC; but to compensate, that little push of the wheelbase is easily felt at the rear cabin. You do not feel cramped anymore. Apart from this, you get 58 liters more cargo space in the boot.

There is a sense of space that you get from the design of the dash. The instrument cluster is properly fin­ished and the dials have a red tint, which looks nice. The touchscreen in the central console is the same unit we have seen on Maruti Suzuki’s S-Cross, Ignis and the Baleno so it is smart, functional and gives you Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. On the down side, the touchscreen is only available on the ZXi+ vari­ant (which is not yet available in the Nepali market). The flat-bottom steering wheel is great; it fits into the hands and again adds to the vehi­cle’s sportiness. The overall quality and the layout of the interior give the car a modern touch.

Safety

On the safety front, dual airbags, ABS with EBD and Brake Assist, and Isofix child seat with restraints on the rear bench come as standard across all variants. Apart from this you get a security alarm system, pinch guard power window for the driver, seat belts with pre-tensioners and force limiters and pedestrian protection compliance, and many more features. Additional sense of safety is provided by the new Heartec platform this car is based on; the rigid body stays flat through the corners with minimal bodyroll, which adds confidence on every turn or even straight road.

Performance

Under the hood, the Swift car­ries over its tried-and-tested 1.2-liter petrol. This is the same engine used on the previous-generation Swifts. There’s no difference in power out­put either—the petrol makes 84 BHp and 114Nm. The engine is now qui­eter and retains the same fun to drive tag, and feels well-tuned and refined on the road. The power is enough to tackle the city roads with quick power surges within the first three gears; overtaking thus comes quick and naturally. It’s nice and responsive with the manual gear­box, which improves the perfor­mance. The new Heartect platform is the main focus here though. This platform has given the new Swift a superior ride as well as better han­dling and balance.

Verdict

The third generation Suzuki Swift is everything you would ever want from a family hatchback: it looks good, feels comfortable and is more fun to drive than it has ever been. The interior is plush and well-equipped, and there is a host of standard safety features across all variants, which, like we said, adds to your confidence while on the road. And given the lucrative pricing from CG, the new Swift is definitely a steal.

The smartphones have turned into an extension of our arms; we can’t even dream of leaving our homes without our handy little devices any­more. And to meet the growing consumer demand, there has been a constant surge in the number of smartphones available in the market. Today, a good smartphone can be found at all prices ranges, and 2018 has been a great year for good smartphones. If you’re in the market for one, here are some devices at different prices ranges you should consider.

One Plus 6

Price

Rs 71,000

The One Plus 6 is the Chinese company’s flagship for 2018 and while the price is a bit steep compared to earlier One Plus prices, it’s still understandable considering how prices of flagships tend to go only up. To justify the price, One Plus has done a great job of designing a phone that rivals other competent competitors. The One Plus 6 is completely redesigned and is now almost totally made of glass, with some metal strips to support the frame. It’s a beautiful design to behold too.

The screen behind the front panel is gorgeous, with a bezel-less 6.28-inch screen running at a native resolution of 1080 x 2280 resolution. The panel itself has sharp colors, wide viewing angles and natural brightness. The internals on the device aren’t any­thing to scoff at either, as the device is powered by the Snapdragon 845 processor, supported by 6 GB of RAM and a 3,300 mAh battery. The device is a beast when it comes to a smartphone at this price range.

Xiaomi Mi 6

Price

Rs 39,999

The Mi 6 is Xiaomi’s flagship available for a frac­tion of the cost of the One Plus 6. While the phone is cheaper, it’s also not as innovative as the one from One Plus. Xiaomi has, with the Mi Mix con­cept phone, shown us that it capable of making the bezel-less design work, but it hasn’t yet brought it to its flagship devices. The phone has the same bland design as pervious Mi phones and in an age of bezel-less screens, it still has distinct physical keys. Regard­less, it is still good if you don’t mind a phone with a bezel (well, at this price range, you don’t really have a choice). The Mi 6 has stellar hardware for a phone at this price range. It comes with a Snapdragon 835 processor, 6 GB of RAM, and a 3,350 mAh battery. This phone deserves a recommendation just based on its specifications.

Nokia 6 2018

Price

Rs 29,399

Finnish smartphone company Nokia doesn’t need an introduction but it has also seen its share of ups and downs. Depending solely on Microsoft’s Win­dows OS, the company failed in the market because of a failed OS. While their phones were good, few people wanted to jump aboard an OS that still lacked major community support. Recently, however, the company has made a comeback and the Nokia 6 is just the smartphone that highlights Nokia’s come­back. At a budget price range, the device comes with some serious hardware: a Snapdragon 630 processor, 3/4 GB of RAM and a 3000 mAh fast charge battery. For the price, the Nokia 6 2018 is a powerful device to invest in.

Commencal really brought things to life with the dynamic color range of their products. There was this unmistakable vivacity to their lineup. And that was true not only of their recent lineup. Commencal’s story started in 2000: a new cen­tury had brought with it new aspirations and new technolo­gies. It was this liveliness that built the brand’s momentum. The META series came into being in 2005; a decade later, it was hailed as among the decade’s top 10 bikes by in the British Press. Commencal has since put life into the mountain bik­ing scene. In Nepal too, Epic Mountain Bikes shouldered the responsibility of distrib­uting Commencal mountain bikes in the country, and they did a pretty good job. Luckily, this was happening while the mountain biking craze was taking over the coun­try. Pedal power garnered a massive appeal and mountain bikes began selling like hot cakes. A new culture began to spawn and did very well for over a decade.

Then, all of a sudden, the market dipped. The initial craze began to die. Air pol­lution levels skyrocketed. People who had taken up cycling to be healthy had to stop for the sake of their own health. Things looked bleak, and the industry suffered.

However, this is when the essence of mountain biking rises above and prevails. While the health benefits of cycling may have been a key reason for many commuters to get into cycling, there is a greater draw that spurs mountain bik­ers throughout the world, that of freedom. Whether you’re shredding single tracks, ram­bling down hills, or just explor­ing the landscape, few other activities give you the same sense of freedom.

We think, with the Meta AM New Zealand Series, Commencal hark back to these very basics: enjoying the joys of cycling, injecting life into the mundane.

Styling

Although Commencal have opted out of using their vibrant color lineup, there is as much life in the styl­ing as ever. The silver paint scheme gets a Maori tribal prints, which brings a certain class and charisma to the Meta V4.2.

It must be said though, this particular bike that we had been decked out. The DVO Diamond front suspensions provide 160mm of travel and a wicked style element. Rockshox Super Deluxe takes care of the rear sus­pension duties. Instead of a carbon frame, the Meta AM has a gorgeous brushed-alumi­num one and a 12-speed SRAM Eagle drivetrain.

Performance

As we said, Commencal have put a lot into the META v4.2. This is not one of those all-mountain bikes that will happily do double-duty as a trail bike. It demands speed, and then some more speed, and then some things to smash through with all that speed. Its head angle is perched at an aggressive 65.5 degrees, and its wheelbase stretches to 1,205 millimeters for an incredibly stable wingspan. This makes the ride closer to downhill than trail.

Verdict

The new Meta AM v4.2 breathes new life into moun­tain biking. While commuting duties are properly fulfilled, it also eggs you onto more adren­aline pumping trails. It gives you the courage and enthusi­asm to give that daunting steep drop, which you might have been ignoring till now, another look. And when you finally gather up enough nerve to take it on, the Meta AM V4.2 will take up the challenge and leave you unscathed (unless you do something stupid). Then you’ll want to do it again.

You’re always pushed to take on harder and more difficult things with the Meta AM, because it’s always ready and willing to take anything on. There’s nothing that will hold you, or it, back. Now right there is the true expression of freedom.

The advance of gaming technology demands much from the hardware side of comput­ing. Complex polygons, shaders and textures are the architects of a good game these days and to support this what is needed is RAW comput­ing power. Graphics card manufactures have also splurged on research and development, producing complex and powerful products in the process. While these cards are still used predominately in gaming, they are also essential for creative content producers and creative professionals. Software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, AutoCAD and Maya work better when paired with a decent graphics card. A newfound use of the card was in BitCoin mining, which led to a surge in its demand, greatly inflating graphic card prices the world over. The graphics cards aren’t as useful in BitCoin mining these days, but they are still essential if you want to build a decent personal computer for creative use as well as for gaming.

Companies like Nvidia and AMD are locked in a heated graphics card war, with promising devices from each side; consumers only need to analyze and decide if they want to go green or red. Here we look at two of the best graphics cards that cater to two different tasks, as well as their prices.

Asus ROG Strix GTX 1070 TiAMD

Price
Rs 106,250

If you want the best of the best, look no further than the Asus ROG GTX 1070 TI. True, the 1070 TI is not the best card from Nvidia’s 10 series graphics card line, yet it is a great performer for the price. It has a massive 8GB of video memory, with 2434 CUDA Core, which come very close to the 2560 core count of the GTX 1080. A better performer than the base 1070 card from Nvidia, the card is also cheaper.

The card is cooled well with a three-fan cooling system but, at 180 Watts, is power hungry. Backing up these hardware specifications, the card also performs extremely well with games, averaging about 100 fps on games like Metro Redux, Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider on 1080p.

It comes with an RGB lighting system to go with its performance in games. The RGB lighting can be tweaked from inside Asus’s Aura control panel and the customization can be moved further with edits to the core-clock speed. Overclocking this card is also very simple with an easy-to-use Asus GPU Tweak II software. Overall, if you’re looking for an expensive high-end card at a decent price, I’d recommend this one.

TiAMD Radeon RX 470

Price
Rs 41,250Asus

If instead what you are looking for is something cheap that will also fulfill your gaming desires, then the AMD Radeon RX 470 is good enough. While early in the launch cycle the RX 470 had glaring power drain problems, AMD has managed to fix this and now the card draws a decent 120 watts from the power supply. It comes with 4GB of video memory and 2048 stream processor, a significant downgrade from the GTX 1070, but for the price the card per­forms wonders with games on 1080p. It pushes a respectable average of 60 fps on games like Hitman, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Assassin’s Creed Syn­dicate. For the price, the RX 470 is a great card for gaming and mining too.