n a rather significant move, WeChat has now added a feature to call mobile phones and landlines within the app, just like how one could do on Skype. The service is being branded as WeChat Out and the feature has already been rolled out in US, Hong Kong and India. The company behind WeChat, Tencent says that it will soon rollout the feature to other countries as well.
WeChat pitches the service as “super-low calling rates” and “excellent call quality”, and as rightly pointed out by VentureBeat it will help the company to link customers’ credit cards to their WeChat accounts.
So the feature can be accessed by tapping on the ‘+’ symbol at the top right and selecting WeChat out. The service will take some time to import your phonebook post which you can dial the number directly. The company says that it would be giving away 100 minutes of free calls (worth $0.99) to most of the users, but when I tried (from India), my account balance was nil and had to top-up to use the service. It would have been nicer if WeChat had included a free minute to sample the services before actually buying the talktime.
WeChat has been trying to match pace with Skype as it had earlier rolled out video chatting services for a group of up to nine people, but now it seems that Tencent is more keen on including the new features as it plans to scale up globally.
The mobile payment system has been opened to the non-Chinese users for the first time which means that users outside China would now be able to buy stuff on WeChat by directly using their credit cards.
While I was already rejoicing that I could finally call mobiles and landlines in India from the app it stuck to me that Ringo had tried doing so and was promptly blocked out by the Telecom operators citing regulations. I tried calling a local Indian number from the WeChat app and was instantly greeted with the message “Call restricted to India due to local regulations”. Thus we could only place calls outside India, nevertheless the calling rates to US and many other countries are highly affordable. WeChat has one of the largest growing user database which had peaked at 650-Million last November. It has been the most widely used IM app in China and is now gaining foothold globally. The WeChat Out feature will act as a bargaining chip for Tencent to acquire new customers.
On its own, Chrome is a pretty fantastic browser, but extensions increase its potential exponentially.
So, what are extensions, exactly? Essentially, they're small programs that add extra functionality to your web browser. For Chrome, there are thousands of available extensions which perform a huge variety of functions — everything from extensions that automatically find shopping coupons, to extensions that make your computer run faster. A visit to the Chrome Web Store Extensions page can be overwhelming, so we're going to simplify things for you.
SEE ALSO: 8 climate change apps every tech-savvy advocate needs to download
For Chrome newbies, consider this your extensions starter pack. If you're a Chrome power user, you'll no doubt be familiar with some of these, but you might learn about some you've never heard of before. Once you try any one of these extensions, you won't know how you lived without them.
1. The Great Suspender
If you install but one extension on this list, make it The Great Suspender. As great as Chrome is, it's a bit of a memory hog, which contributes to slower performance and poor battery life for laptop users. This magical extension pauses unused tabs after a user-specified amount of time, saving precious RAM.
If you have a computer with, say, 4GB of RAM or less, this extension will change — and by "change" we mean "speed up" — your life.
2. LastPass
The problem with passwords is that you have too many of them. For that reason, you probably make them all the same or similar, which is easier to remember, but less secure. LastPasssolves both of these problems. It generates and remembers nearly impossible-to-crack passwords for each site that requires a login, all managed through one master password you choose.
LastPass had a security vulnerability earlier this summer (user passwords are encrypted, though, so those were safe), but until a truly more secure method of authentication is determined (think biometrics), it's still the best solution.
3. Giphy
Like emoji, GIFs have become an essential part of the Internet zeitgeist, but it can be a pain to find the exact one to impress all your friends with your vast internet skills. Giphy makes that a lot simpler by integrating a simple Gif search tool right in your browser.
4. Feedly
With the death of Google Reader in 2013, Feedly quickly rose to take up Reader's mantle. For news junkies and those who need to keep up with a particular subject area, Feedly is essential. It compiles all your favorite sources into categorized feeds and a small icon at the bottom right of each page lets you add a feed to Feedly. It's RSS, but better.
5. Grammarly
Grammarly is spell check, but better. It offers contextual spell check and grammar advice, so if you're the sort to get your "its" and "it's" mixed up (definitely not this reporter nope no way), this extension will save you scores of embarrassment. If you're willing to shell out for a premium Grammarly membership, the extension will even suggest better vocab and check for plagiarism.
6. UBlock Origin
Sometimes you just need to turn down the noise. UBlock Origin isn't the most popular ad blocking extension, but it doesn't require much memory to run and lets users specify which sites they want ads blocked on and which they don't. The big power button icon you see when you click on the extension stops ad blocking on the site you're viewing, but automatically turns it back on when you go to a different site.
7. HTTPS Everywhere
For those who value security — and if you don't, you should — HTTPS Everywhere is a must-install. This Extension, created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, switches every HTTP website to load over a more secure HTTPS connection.
8. Honey
Do you ever get the sinking suspicion you're not getting the best deals shopping online?Honey fixes that. When you go to check out at an online shop, it automatically searches for coupon codes and applies them, saving you precious cash.
9. Save to Pocket
This is one of many "save for later" services, but Pocket is one of the most popular and highly recommended of them all. If you see a great article you won't have time to read when you find it, a click on the Pocket icon saves it for later. It's cross-platform, and you can even tag things you save, which is excellent for the hyper-organized.
10. Milennials to Snake People
Because it's not all about "productivity" — aren't you tired of the seemingly endless stream of baseless hot takes about millennials? Millenials to Snake People is the extension you need and deserve. As the title suggests, this extension changes any usage of "millennials" into "snake people." But wait! There's more: it also changes "millennial generation" to "snake person generation," "Generation Y" to "Serpent Society" and "digital natives" into "Parseltounges."
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
After unveiling the premium mid-range smartphone, the HTC One A9, the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer has announced yet another smartphone. The HTC One X9, which was unveiled in China yesterday, comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, an octa-core processor with MediaTek, a 13-megapixel primary camera with OIS, and a 3,000 mAh battery.
13-megapixel primary camera (BSI sensor), dual-tone LED Flash, OIS, 4K video recording
4-megapixel UltraPixel front-facing camera, ƒ/2.0 aperture, 24.7 mm wide-angle lens, and 1080p video recording
MediaTek Helio X10 (MT6795T) with 2.2GHz octa-core 64-bit CPU and PowerVR G6200 GPU
3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and microSD card slot (2TB)
Dual BoomSound speakers with Dolby audio
Dual-SIM, 4G LTE/3G HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS (with A-GPS and GLONASS), microUSB v2.0 port
3,000 mAh battery; 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.99 mm; 173 grams
The HTC One X9 is a metal-clad smartphone, just like other high-end smartphones from the company, and utilises a design that we saw in the One A9. However, you can also notice design cues from the HTC Desire series of smartphones with 2013 and 2014. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display and front-facing dual stereo loudspeakers with HTC BoomSound and Dolby Audio.
There’s 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot that can intake cards of upto 2TB. For imaging, there’s a 13-megapixel camera with OIS, dual-tone LED flash, and an ability to record 4K videos. There’s a 4-megapixel UltraPixel wide-angle camera with ƒ/2.0 aperture and 1080p video recording.
In terms of processing hardware, the One X9 is equipped with a MediaTek MT6795T processor with 64-bit octa-core CPU and PowerVR G6200 GPU. The One X9 comes with a dual-SIM card slot and can connect to 4G and 3G networks. Other connectivity features include dual-band gigabit Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, and microUSB v2.0 port.
It isn’t clear whether it is running Android 5.1 Lollipop or Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The HTC One X9 will be available in two colours; Gunmetal Grey and Silver. It will be available in China soon with a price tag of CNY 2,399 (~ Rs. 24,477). The company hasn’t announced its plan to launch the HTC One X9 in other markets around the world, but it is expected that it could reach India in Q3, 2016.
Microsoft has a new app out called ‘Microsoft Apps‘ on Android that contains a list of its Android apps that you can download on the Android app store.
There are two parts to this development. The first is that Microsoft’s cross-platform work continues, and that the company has yet to let up an inch on its work to bring its software and services to users on every rival operating system. And, the second point is that Microsoft has created an effective Android app store — catalog? — inside of the actual Android app store.
An early comment noted that fact. From the app’s page on Google Play:
That comment is almost correct. At the same time, it can be difficult to sort through tens, and hundreds of thousands of apps to find the precise one that you are perhaps looking for. Microsoft wants to make sure that if you want to use its stack on Android, you can do so without unnecessary sleuthing.
The app has racked up four review so far, giving it an average score of 4 stars.
The new app might not make sense until you realize just how many apps Microsoft has on Android — you can take a spin through the full list here. It’s extensive. It’s almost odd to recall how big a splash bringing Office to Android and iOS once was.
Microsoft fans have a new toy, and the company has a potential conduit for its apps on the Android platform. Not too bad a turn of events for the Redmond-based software company.
BSNL has announced a special promotional offer where it is providing a discount of 10 percent on broadband speed restoration add-on plans as a part of Christmas, New Year and Republic day. This offer will be effective from 25-12-2015 to 31-01-2016 in all the circles on a promotional basis.
BSNL’s speed restoration add-on plans for broadband subscribers offer restoration of unlimited broadband plan speed even after crossing the FUP limit. Subscribers can choose from Rs. 100 for 2GB, Rs. 200 for 5GB, Rs. 300 for 10GB, and Rs. 500 for 20GB high-speed data quota for the rest of the billing cycle. Subscriber will then receive to a pop-up message when the data quota gets exhausted. Subscribers can then choose add-on plan of choice and the charges will be included in the next billing cycle.
Christmas and New Year holiday are the times when a lot of data is used by customers. Hitting FUP limit and using slow Internet speed for the rest of the month is something that everyone hates. This is a welcome move from BSNL to offer discount on its add-on plans broadband plans.
Home-bred handset maker Intex Technologies tied up with Truecaller to replace the native phone dialer with the Truecaller dialer application. Under the tie-up, the new Intex Aqua Young devices will incorporate the Truecaller and Truedialer applications. The sub-Rs 6,000 handsets are already available across the country.
“With this association, we are confident of further strengthening our focus of providing a differentiated experience to our consumers and help them experience smart ways of connecting and identifying contacts,” Nitin Goel, General Manager, VAS & Experience, Intex Technologies, said in a joint statement.
With this integration users will have access to a smarter communications experience where they will be able to identify more than 2 billion numbers on incoming and outgoing calls. Further, users will be able to block unwanted calls or hidden numbers.
“This partnership demonstrates how innovative products and solutions can change the face of an industry, and we’re excited work together to bring this product to the market,” said Nami Zarringhalam, co-founder and Chief Strategic Officer, Truecaller.
Truecaller has experienced tremendous growth, doubling their community of users in less than 10 months by providing revolutionary products that solve a global problem. Truecaller was launched in 2009 and has managed to reach a user base of 100 million in India in a short span of time.
In the past, Truecaller formed some strategic partnerships to increase touch points with consumers, including Microsoft, Tata DoCoMo and Twitter, to name a few. It plans to continue to develop these partnerships and interact within the ecosystem, and looks forward to future announcements bringing the Truecaller family of applications to users’ phones.
In a rather unprecedented move, Apple has (unofficially) slashed the prices for the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus by 16% since its launch in October. This move seems to be propelled by the fact that the iPhone 6s sales had plunged into a valley right after the festive season of Diwali.
The iPhone 6s 16GB now costs Rs 52,000- Rs 55,000 as opposed to the launch price of Rs 62,000 (Rs 49799 on Amazon at the time of writing). According to ET sources, the price cut seems to have been carried out across all the variants. The latest bout of price cut literally brings the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus prices down by 16%. Apple had also slashed the price of its iPhone 5s recently bringing it to an all-time low of Rs 20,990 for the 16GB variant.
The iPhone 6s 64GB and iPhone 6s Plus 16GB will cost as less as Rs 61,000 (Rs 60k on Amazon), while the 64GB version of iPhone 6s Plus will start from Rs 69,000. Last month, there were reports of Apple offering discounts via buyback offers, again something which never happened with newly released iPhones.
Another reason for the price cut seems to be the large gulf of price gap between the iPhone 6 and the 6s, thus making the upgrades less attractive. This also seems to be the first time iPhone price has been slashed in the first two months of launch, something that inadvertently points at the initial pricing. Another report points out that Apple had initially imported 320,000 units of the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus but the deficient demand seems to have hit the same and now the imports have slung to a lower 120,000 in November.
The reason price cuts come out as surprising is the way Apple usually manages its pricing strategy, they are among the few in the smartphone industry who stick by their initial prices. The series of price cuts across most of the iPhone models is a tell-tale sign that Apple wants to spike up the sales number even if it means a direct slash in the iPhone prices, this however will add up as a bonus for folks looking out to buy the iPhones this holiday season.
Pinterest has a new way to entice users to come back and buy things: keeping tabs on the price.
That comes in the form today of a new tool that helps Pinterest users monitor price drops on products they’ve pinned. When users save pins, they’ll get a heads up when a price drops in the form of an in-app notification and an email. They can then jump straight to that pin and make the purchase.
The tool was driven by some user behavior the company expected to see in the shopping experience, Pinterest product marketing manager Sarah Shere said. Often when users are shopping, they are also waiting for the price to drop to the right point before finally making a purchase — which is something the company wanted to ensure it could enable as part of its shopping experience.
“I don’t think it’s a unique psychology to Pinterest, but we tried to build a shopping experience that worked for that customer experience — discovering a product, waiting for the right moment, and then completing the purchase in a seamless way,” said Shere. “In this case one of those right moments is waiting for the price to drop.”
Pinterest launched buyable pins earlier this year, which lets retailers add a “buy” button to pins and enables users to buy those products straight through Pinterest. After putting in a credit card and an address, a user can purchase products that have that buy button on them. Users can make purchases from anywhere on the app, like boards and through search.
In the end, this is likely about getting Pinterest users to come back and buy products on Pinterest. Though the company might not treat commerce as a strong monetization channel just yet alongside its advertising business, it helps get users to come back to Pinterest over and over again. That, in general makes the service more sticky — giving it an opportunity to better monetize its user base.
Still, commerce is becoming increasingly important to Pinterest, which is still rolling out new products that could one day drive additional revenue for Pinterest. According to an earlier report, Pinterest is forecast to make around $169 million in revenue this year.
As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Kerala recorded the maximum revenue growth of 14 percent in the period between April and June of 2014 and AMJ 2015. The revenue of the state increased from Rs 1878.44 crore in the AMJ quarter of 2014 to 2135.4 crore in AMJ 2015.
Idea seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this growth in the Kerala circle with the company recording maximum growth of 20.6 percent. The company’s revenue increased from Rs 704.93 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 887.87 crore in AMJ 2015. Vodafone is at second spot in the circle with the company’s revenue increasing from Rs 450.77 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 513.14 crore in AMJ 2015. Kerala is a category `B’ circle and has a tele-density of around 95%.
Overall, the telcos recorded an increase of 6 percent with revenue increasing from Rs 44736.06 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 47627.39 crore in AMJ 2015. Significantly, the top three telcos outgrew the market during this time frame. While both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India recorded an increase of 7%, Idea Cellular recorded an increase of 17% in its revenue during this time period.
As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Kerala recorded the maximum revenue growth of 14 percent in the period between April and June of 2014 and AMJ 2015. The revenue of the state increased from Rs 1878.44 crore in the AMJ quarter of 2014 to 2135.4 crore in AMJ 2015.
Idea seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this growth in the Kerala circle with the company recording maximum growth of 20.6 percent. The company’s revenue increased from Rs 704.93 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 887.87 crore in AMJ 2015. Vodafone is at second spot in the circle with the company’s revenue increasing from Rs 450.77 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 513.14 crore in AMJ 2015. Kerala is a category `B’ circle and has a tele-density of around 95%.
Overall, the telcos recorded an increase of 6 percent with revenue increasing from Rs 44736.06 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 47627.39 crore in AMJ 2015. Significantly, the top three telcos outgrew the market during this time frame. While both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India recorded an increase of 7%, Idea Cellular recorded an increase of 17% in its revenue during this time period.
Apple is reported to be working on its own display technology in a move that could lessen its dependence on third-party suppliers like Samsung and Sharp, and boost the battery life of its products.
Bloomberg reports that the U.S. company, which is unique for designing its own chipsfor its smartphones, is said to have opened its own secretive facility in Taiwan where it is working on screens for iPhones, iPads and other devices. (The company is advertisingfor positions at the plant.)
That could mean good news for customers who worry about the battery life of their devices. Screens tend to use a significant amount of power, but sources from the new Apple facility reportedly told Bloomberg that Apple is working to make its screens “thinner, lighter, brighter and more energy-efficient” — that means less battery strain. Indeed, those sources suggested that Apple is looking to switch to organic LEDs, which could massively save on power consumption.
You may have to wait a while for the benefits to be seen in your daily life and devices, but it appears that things are moving in the right direction at a quicker pace.
Yesterday, the California DMV posted a draft of proposed regulations for self-driving vehicles. Obviously, Google was waiting to see what came down and now that they’ve had some time to look through it all, their head of the Self-Driving unit, Chris Urmson, has responded with a Medium post.
Since these regulations are in draft form, the long back and forth between companies and the DMV begins now. However, many were not impressed with what has been initially proposed. The key takeaway from these is that California would like a licensed driver behind the “wheel” at all times. Well, fully autonomous cars might not have wheels. Because people don’t want to drive.
California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement:
These latest draft regulations may prove too onerous, create road blocks to innovation, and may ultimately drive the development of this promising industry to other states.
Urmson’s tone similarly cuts to the chase:
In a perplexing move this week, however, California seemed to shrink back from its leadership: the CA DMV proposed a draft rule that would require a self-driving car to have a licensed driver at all times. This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive. While we’re disappointed by this, we will continue to work with the DMV as they seek feedback in the coming months, in the hope that we can recapture the original spirit of the bill.
Google has been pretty damn transparent when it comes to their self-driving project, even publishing monthly reports that talk about accidents that took place and learnings from the team.
Urmson’s closing is equally as strong, challenging California to be a leader in the US in this type of innovation.
California is a state with both world-class car culture and world-class innovation, and we can do better. Instead of putting a ceiling on the potential of self-driving cars, let’s have the courage to imagine what California would be like if we could live without the shackles of stressful commutes, wasted hours, and restricted mobility for those who want the independence that the automobile has always represented.
There’s no “winners” or “losers” here yet, but the conversation about self-driving cars isn’t starting off the way that Google and other companies have hoped. Consumers simply don’t know enough about the technology to weigh in yet, which is why Google is trying to, and overdoing it sometimes, explain the ins and outs the best they can. Its program in Austin is a shining example of that. They’re not simply testing the roads there, they’re testing the community. Talking to them about what they think.
If the people don’t want to drive their cars, then states are going to have to put in more work to understand why and how.
At the Google for India event in New Delhi on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked about the company's plans for supporting the Digital India initiative. Among the announcements, one of the highlights was the confirmation that Google will be working with Indian Railways to bring free Wi-Fi to 400 train stations. This had already been announced, but the specific deadlines had not been given. Today, Pichai said that 100 stations will get Wi-Fi by the end of 2016, which 10 million people will use every day. The project will first go live in Mumbai Central in January 2016, he added.
Google is tying up with PSU RailTel to implement the Wi-Fi facilities on stations, using RailTel's fibre optic network backbone that connects the stations themselves.
Aside from this, Pichai also announced that Google is exploring ways to bring Project Loon to India. The idea behind the program is to beam an Internet signal via hot air balloons. It's worth pointing out that the Telecom Minister raised concerns about the idea - in a written response to the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote, "The proposed frequency band to be used in the Loon Project of Google is being used for cellular operations in India and it will lead to interference with cellular transmissions."
The Google CEO also mentioned a partnership with the Tata Trust - the two are rolling out bicycles to 1,000 villages across three states, to teach women about the Internet. The bicycles will be equipped with Internet connected devices, and the people riding them will be trained by Google to educate women about how they can benefit from the Internet.
Pichai, who was born in India, has earlier blogged about how he believes the Internet can impact India, and says that despite the huge growth that has taken place in terms of the reach of the Internet, there are still a billion people who are completely offline, and this must be addressed. The railways Wi-Fi program will bring many of these people online, Pichai believes, and on the blog, he has also promised that the connections will be fast - "many times faster than what most people in India have access to today" - so it can be used for anything from downloading a book or a game for your journey, watching a video, or researching your destination.
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Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to launch 4G services by the end of December in some select areas, including Mumbai, according to a note by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoFA-ML). The firm however added that a pan-India commercial start could be delayed till April-June 2016, which would be a relief to incumbent telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular.
“In a scenario Jio launches by December 28, we remain unsure 1) if it will be a commercial launch with the company disclosing price-points or 2) if it will be an extension of services which are currently being offered to employees to select user group/Jio partners,” the firm said in a note.
Reliance Jio is expected to position itself as an “aspirational brand” offering premium services (high-speed) and is unlikely to target average revenue per users (ARPUs) below Rs 300, the note said.
Jio’s Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls were working well in Mumbai, even while travelling and inside buildings, BoFA-ML said. Similar findings were revealed by brokerage firm Credit Suisse.
BoFA-ML said that data speeds ranged from 18-30 Mbps while travelling/inside buildings to as high as 60-70 Mbps when outside. “We believe this is largely due to an empty network while Jio currently has. We remain unsure if Jio network is offering similar speeds outside Mumbai particularly in circles where they only have 2300 MHz,” BoFA-ML said.
ASUS has launched a lot of entry-level Android-based tablets in India in the past couple of years, including the ZenPad 7.0 and the ZenPad 8.0 during the ZenFestival event. Now, the Taiwanese computer peripheral and smartphone brand has launched an affordable dual-SIM Android-based tablet in India. The ASUS ZenPad C 7.0, which has a price tag of Rs 7,999 and Rs 8,999 (depending on the variant), runs Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, and comes with dual-SIM 3G connectivity.
Two different variants of this tablet – Asus ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170CG) and Asus ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170MG) – are available on Flipkart and Snapdeal respectively. The variant that’s available on Flipkart (priced at Rs. 8,999) has an Intel Atom x3 processor, while the one that’s available through Snapdeal (priced at Rs. 7,999) has a MediaTek processor. The ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170CG) comes in Aurora Metallic, Glamour Red, and Obsidian Black colours, while the ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170MG) is available in Obsidian Black and Pearl White colours.
Asus ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170CG) specifications
Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with ASUS Zen UI
7-inch IPS LCD display, 1024×600 pixels, AGC DragonTrail Glass protection, and front-facing loudspeaker with DTS HD sound
5-megapixel primary camera and VGA secondary (front-facing) camera
Intel Atom x3-C3230 processor (1.2GHz quad-core 64-bit CPU and ARM Mali-450MP4 GPU)
1GB LP-DDR3 RAM, 8GB internal storage, and microSD card slot
Dual-SIM, 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS, microUSB v2.0 port, and 3.5mm headphone jack
3,450 mAh battery; 189 x 108 x 8.4 mm; 265g
This tablet features a 7.0-inch display with a resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, and is covered using DragonTrail protective glass. It features a front-facing loudspeaker with DTS HD sound profile. There’s a 5-megapixel camera on the rear and a VGA camera on the front of the device. There’s 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage space, a microSD card slot, and a 3,450 mAh battery. In terms of connectivity, it comes with a dual-SIM card slot, and can connect to 3G cellular networks. It would have been great if ASUS equipped this tablet with 4G LTE connectivity.
Asus ZenPad C 7.0 (Z170MG) specifications
Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with ASUS Zen UI
7-inch IPS LCD display, 1024×600 pixels, AGC DragonTrail Glass protection, and Front Speaker with DTS HD Sound
5-megapixel primary camera and VGA secondary (front-facing) camera
MediaTek MT8382 processor (1.3GHz quad-core CPU and ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU)
1GB LP-DDR3 RAM, 8GB internal storage, and microSD card slot
Dual-SIM, 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS, microUSB v2.0 port, and 3.5mm headphone jack
3,450 mAh battery; 189 x 108 x 8.4 mm; 265g
Going by the specifications, the variant of the ZenPad C 7.0, which comes with an Intel SoC, has a beefier ARM Mali-450MP4 GPU. Even though it is priced Rs 1,000 higher, I would advise people interested in this product to buy the variant that’s available through Flipkart as it will provide a better gaming experience due to its GPU. Since Xiaomi’s Mi Pad lacks any kind of cellular connectivity, consumers would be interested in this tablet’s dual-SIM connectivity. What do you think about this tablet?
