The Vivo V5Plus Limited Edition - Celebration of 10 glorious years of IPL in India

Cricket as a sport is dear to every Indian's heart and I am pretty sure that even though you may not be an avid follower of cricket, you have definitely watched at least one India-Pakistan match with enthusiasm. The world of cricket has seen great evolution, with the IPL being one of the unique concepts, especially for those who are mad about cricket. Time has flown and it has been 10 glorious years since the IPL began, and even now the excitement and eagerness for the next season is the same each year. To celebrate the 10th year of IPL, Vivo has launched the Vivo V5Plus in a limited edition, that has the VIVOIPL logo engraved on the back. A matte finish black Vivo V5Plus with the logo engraved in golden color looks extremely chic and classy.

My favourite moments from Valentine's Day!

Love is not about that one day in the year and one person only, it is about daily acts of caring, sharing and warmth with people that matter to you. Hence I do not believe in the commercial concept of Valentine’s Day, but the actual concept that it is the day of love. So while PS and I don't need that one day in a year to display our affection for each other for everyone to see, it is a day that we try to spend quality time together as a family and with people that we love. Aryaa has become a part of our lives for the last couple of years and in our own ways we are trying to get her to understand what love's all about!

Capturing the spirit of Republic Day!

I remember my school days when I would be part of the march past squad for Republic day and Independence day. On those two days, we would have the flag hoisting session, where we would wear the Indian flag instead of our badges and salute the flag by singing the national anthem. History books were always there to tell us about the freedom struggle that India as a nation faced to acquire the Independence from the British, and how Republic Day is a tribute to the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect as the governing document of India. It was always a proud moment to salute the Indian flag and be a part of the parade at school and those memories are priceless. The euphoria of these days seem to have reduced somehow and it is difficult to spot as many celebrations and similar enthusiasm as I used to see as a kid. One really has to look out for any parades or flag hoisting or even find stalls or sellers with flags and other trinkets. With Aryaa now growing up, I want to pass on the stories and learning to her, and I want to make sure that she does her bit for the nation even though it may be on a smaller scale. Now that she is communicating clearer and understanding most of the things we tell her, PS and I decided to step out on Republic Day and put in efforts to locate whatever that we could, so that she could start to experience the magic of what we did as kids.

Vivo V5 - Redefining the new selfie trend!

Change is the law of life and we have to keep adapting to change. When blogging went the professional route, I remember there used to be professional photographers at events who were specially appointed by the event organizers to make sure we got good pictures to post on our social platforms. With evolving times, a lot has changed in terms of technology as well as the trends. Now we are responsible for getting most of our pictures, so nearly everybody has an advanced phone with really good camera specifications, and with the new craze of selfies taking over, selfies have become mandatory. Since I attend a lot of events, sometimes the light setup at events is not phone camera friendly. At times, when we have to do live updates from the events it gets difficult to get a clear and well lit picture. But as I said earlier, change is constant and today where everyone is coming up with new solutions to make life more technologically advanced and easy, I realized that this problem of mine has already been solved. With every new phone launched in the market, the camera specifications are getting better and better to give us the professional picture look via the phone camera itself. To my rescue, came the Vivo V5 perfect selfie phone, which is the first ever phone to have a 20 Megapixel front camera with the Moonlight Feature. 

Twice Beautiful: Gorgeous Design and Stunning Images - The Asus Zenfone 3 - #Z3NCREDIBLEIndia

The need of good camera phones for fashion bloggers is a known phenomenon now! :) So every time a new phone is launched in the market that talks about great camera features, we have to check it out. Asus has got some really good phones with great features especially amazing camera features at affordable price points, and they keep launching new ones all the time. Recently I got to try out the new Asus Zenfone 3 and there are a lot of qualities that make it a great phone to use. The Zenfone 3 is available in 2 variants : 5.2 inch & 5.5 inch. I was sent the 5.2 inch variant. Read on to know more about the phone and what I loved about it.

OPPO F1s - The Real Selfie Expert!

I remember my first attempt at clicking a selfie with my digicam a few years ago and what an effort that used to be! At the end of it you would never even know if you would get what you wanted, it was always a process of trial and error. Fast forward to 2016 where 'Selfies' are the norm of the day and digicams are nowhere in the picture(I don't see them anywhere!), it is just the generation of the so called 'Selfie Phones'! OPPO who is focusing on creating its image as the 'Selfie Expert' brand, launched their new F1s Selfie Expert phone in Mumbai last week amongst much fanfare and I was one of the few lucky ones to get it before it hit the market. I have been testing it ever since and the device has taken me by complete surprise because while everyone makes tall claims, there are very few that actually 'Walk the Talk'! To make you guys see what I am talking about, I have compared the phone with the Samsung A7 and the iPhone 6 with respect to camera, so read on.

The Asus Zenfone 2 - Moving with the times!

I just got my hands on the Asus Zenfone 2! :) While there is still a lot to be explored after my post regarding the features that I had liked about it before I tried it out, this is what my verdict is of what I've discovered in the last 3 days with the phone in my hand. Asus has introduced the 1st phone in the world with a 4 GB RAM. Is this a phone with raw specifications or does it live up to the hype it has created is what this post is going to tell you :)

The Asus Zenfone 2 technically is a budget phone but by the looks of it, it doesn't behave, look or act like one. With the phone in my hand I noticed that it has a very common design that you will see in other android phones. The back of the phone is made of a special material giving me a good grip on the phone and finger print impressions don't stay. The corners are very well rounded off and the back tapers very nicely giving a very comfortable feeling in the hand. The back cover is removable giving you access to two sim card slots and a memory card slot, however the battery is not removable. The 1st thing that you'll notice when you start using the phone is that its sides are clean without any buttons. The power button is at the top of the phone which makes it difficult to reach sometimes but luckily Asus has introduced the double screen tap feature for the Zenfone 2 for it to be locked or unlocked so you don't have to reach for the power button every time. The volume button has been shifted to the back of the phone making it very easy to press and the texture of the button helps you find it easily. The same button can also be used to click selfies thus making it very convenient. The micro USB is located at its usual place at the bottom of the phone.

The phone has a 5.5 inch screen but the overall size of the phone is much bigger because of its thick lower and side bezels, even then I think this is a good looking smartphone. The IPS LCD screen does justice with 1920x1080 resolution and respectable PPI of 403, giving you everything that would be expected from a high end phone. The screen is sharp, vivid, bright, easy to see in broad day light from all viewing angles. The screen size is perfect for all your entertainment such as gaming, You Tubing, web surfing and the occasional movie watching. The good part is that you can change the color mode of the phone depending on your liking. Apart from the default setting you have the reading mode (easier on the eyes), Vivid mode (increases the saturation), and a custom mode depending on how you want your screen to look. 

The phone comes with a Intel 64 bit new generation atom processor but it depends on the version you get. The 2 GB version comes with a Intel 3560 1.8GHz processor and the whooping 4 GB RAM version comes with an Intel 3580 2.3 GHz processor, this has got a lot of attention I must say. Well what I've tried is the 4 GB version, and man this phone is fast. Its snappier than a lot of other high end phones, animations are smooth, app switching is swift and handles all high end games and apps pretty well. Just to test the phone I loaded a couple of big games and apps and switched back and forth between the apps and to my delight the phone still didn't show any lag or stutter or signs of slowing down. So if you're a user that needs to multi-task with big applications then this phone should live up to your expectations.

The camera at the back is a 13 MP with a dual tone LED flash and an aperture of 2.0. Also like the other zenfones the Zenfone 2 features Asus's pixel master technology, for better pictures in low light conditions. The camera software is fairly straight forward and easy to use with all the usual setting you would expect. The camera packs a long list of shooting modes giving you a variety of ways to take photos. What I really liked on this phone is the HDR mode as it added some extra saturation and I really don't mind that. At low lights the performance of the camera starts to detoriate but when you put on the night mode the phone's pixel master comes into play giving you some nice pictures. If you are into selfies then the front camera is a 5 MP camera with a wide angle lens and it does a pretty good job. There is also a selfie panaroma mode to fit everyone into the frame.

With the help of the phone's Zen motion software you can lock unlock the phone with a double tap on the screen and draw characters on the screen to open an application of your choice. There is also a mode called Snapview with the help of which you can switch between the work mode or personal mode and the good part is that both these modes are password protected so only you can view all your data in each mode.  

What I loved was the kids mode which will be really useful for me when Aryaa will be playing with the phone. With that you can manage apps and content which you feel is fine for your kids to see and eliminating worry about them having complete access to your phone. You can have the applications set only for them in this mode.

The phone comes with all usual features such as WIFI, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, etc. It has storage options of 16/32/64 GB and get be extended to another 64 GB by using the MICRO SD slot. On the back of the phone you can see that it has a big speaker but it's not as loud as expected. To power the Zenfone 2, Asus has used a whooping 3000 mAH battery but I could still only make it through a day with 4 hrs of screen on time. I'm sure Asus will address this and will come out with a software update. However, the good part is that the phone supports faster charging technology which means that you charge upto 60% in just 40 minutes! If the battery life issue is solved then this phone will be a beast of a smart phone to contend with. 

The phone ships with Lollipop 5.0 on top of which you have Asus's Zen UI which has taken the material design aspects of Lollipop. The phone has a host of features such as a single hand mode which reduces your screen size so that the phone can be handled with one hand and an easy mode with which the phone changes to a simple interface. There are lot of customization options that the Zenfone 2 offers in which you can really make your phone look good. There is a something called a beam engine with the help of which you can change the look and feel of the entire phone with different fonts, icons and changes in the lock screen and notification tab. You have a lot of options to modify your stock launcher, by changing the complete home screen experience by downloading Icon packs for your phone and installing it directly on to your phone which can be done on other handsets only if you have a 3rd party launcher. It's available with a number of different back panels shades that also come in different textures.

So with a friendly design, powerful specs and a overall solid user experience, the Asus Zenfone 2 is definitely a steal at the price its being offered which is INR 14,999 (Z3560 1.8GHz/16GB/2GB), INR 18,999 (Z3560 1.8GHz/32GB/4GB), INR 19,999 (Z3580 2.3GHz/32GB/4GB) and INR 22,999 (Z3580 2.3GHz/64GB/4GB). This is definitely going to set new standard for the smartphone market and here's what the current infographics by Asus says.

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Life with the Phicomm Passion 660

With the amount of work blogging entails, one phone is just not enough to manage everything. While my current one is more than a year old, I'm currently looking at having another one which will be purely a work phone. Testing phones to see which one best fits that bill is what I am upto these days and the latest one that I have laid my hands on is Phicomm's Passion 660 which has made quiet a mark on me I must say. With so many Chinese phone makers in the market, Phicomm - another Chinese company makes a bold move to start selling its phone in India. Priced at INR 10,999, the P660 comes packed with a 2GB RAM, a full HD display and a processor which can take care of all my multi-tasking needs.

Since I am already using a pure android phone, I was amazed when I got the P660 in my hands. It's a phone which is at one third the price of my current phone but most of the features either match up or are much better. As a premium phone user, my notions regarding Chinese handsets stand changed with the P660.

The phone’s design is like any other rectangular shaped phones, but the moment I took the phone in my hands, it felt so light! Can you believe that it weighs only 110 grams?! The phone is really slim and compact too. The sides have a very neat alloy finish (giving it a premium feel) with the power button having a metallic bronze touch to it and the volume buttons on the other side are also metallic. The back is pretty neat with a black matte finish which according to the company is scratch resistant and to my liking does not bear any finger prints after being used. The camera and flash also have a chrome finish to it. Over all I feel the built quality is really good for a phone in this price range.

The P660 has a 5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) IPS display with good brightness and colors at decent viewing angles. Over time as I used more of this phone, I realized the screen was much better than the supposedly more premium phones in the market.

The camera is one of the most important features for me and that makes or breaks my decision. The phone comes packed with a 13 megapixel rear camera, a 5 megapixel front camera(selfies come out fabulous), and with a camera app of its own. Check out the awesome pictures taken with the Passion 660 on the right in the collages below.

The options for zero shutter mode and burst mode makes the camera app comparable to a high end phone. The burst mode took upto 15 shots without any lag and I must tell you it was impressive. It has a sunset mode which is actually the HDR mode. The front camera works very well with the burst mode and this feature is not available in most high end phones. You can also pre-choose the color mode before you take a shot.

The user interface makes handling the P660 a breeze. It comes packed with the Kitkat 4.4 with its own set of customization. The dropdown menu has simple and useful shortcuts which make using the phone very easy. Apart from the usual google apps the phone comes with its own apps for music, calculator, messaging, file explorer, data transfer over wifi and many more. What really caught my eye was the gesture control option. With the help of the front camera the phone detects hand movements and I think it was pretty accurate. The hand gestures can be used to pull down the notification tray and browse through the screens from left to the right at the flick of a hand.

A video posted by Ritcha@RitchStyles (@ritcha) on Jul 5, 2015 at 1:22pm PDT

I extensively blog on the go as well as vlog on YouTube now, have a heavy usage of social media, photo editing softwares and messaging apps which slows down most phones. However the P660 worked without any lag while doing any of these or switching between apps. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa core chip with 1.5GHz processor, Adreno 405 graphics and 2GB DDR3 RAM does a pretty good job without any doubt.

As a fashion and lifestyle blogger, memory for me is really important as I create daily content of 200-500 MB. The phone comes with a 16GB internal storage which can be extended upto 64GB which I think is pretty decent for my kind of usage. As far as my battery need is concerned, any phone which can work atleast for 5-7 hours at a stretch without being put on charge works for me especially when I step out. The 2300 mAH battery does a decent job of being alive for 9-10 hours of normal usage and 4-5 hours of heavy usage.

Can you see how happy this phone makes me? Well that's all because the Phicomm Passion 660 has been a total surprise package - light weight, sleek design, great screen and my most favorite the camera, all at a price of INR 10,999 which is absolute value for money. If you are looking at anything in the same price range with the same features, don't look anywhere else because not even premium phones at double the price offer you some of these features. This phone definitely has made it to my top 3 choices and I can't wait to make the final decision soon :) Stay tuned!

Photos Courtesy: My adorable brother Rischav

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The Asus Zenfone2 on my Wishlist!

In a market in which a phone is launched every fortnight, how does a company make a difference with the right features and the right market price? Well Asus has recently launched the Zenfone 2 and it has definitely caught my eye with its quality offering at a price of INR 22999/-. As a fashion, beauty and lifestyle blogger I have my own reasons to shortlist the Asus Zenfone 2 for my next phone buy and believe a lot of you might have the same reasons. No kidding, this phone is actually an answer to my ideal smartphone need.

I love the design!

The latest offering from the stable of Asus definitely has an eye catching design which can give a lot of costlier phones a run for their money. What I found more exciting were the options for the back covers which weren’t only in different colors but also in different textures. I’m going to get all the back covers!!

Battery life is superb

Being a blogger, my phone is a vital part of my work since I do a lot especially related to social media through my phone. I use my phone for atleast 6 hours a day and so need one to last much longer. Asus offers a 3000 mAH battery which practically lasts for a day and a half of normal usage. The phone charges from 0 to 100 in almost 1.5 hours.

 Accessibility and usability is awesome!

This ZenUI comes preloaded with motion gestures. With the help of these you can start an app without unlocking the phone. To top that, the phone can be unlocked or locked by just tapping the phone screen. In the drop down menu some very useful shortcuts have been added to access some utility apps which won’t be seen on any pure android phone.

The display is fabulous!

My current phone has a 5 inch screen and I need something slightly bigger, brighter and crisper because my work involves a lot of photos and videos. Packed with a 5.5 inch 1920*1080 fHD display with a pixel density of 403, everything on this phone looks pretty.

It’s scratch resistant J

My daughter has a bad habit of throwing my phone. No matter how careful I am with my current phone, it has a fall regularly and gets scratched. Asus has made the screen of the Zenphone 2 with corning glass 3 which makes the screen super scratch resistant which is a huge boon.

It’s my perfect multi-tasking partner

Apps which are always on constant use on my phone include apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Emails, and loads of other video and photo editing softwares. My requirement is a phone that can handle all of this without even the minutest of lag. The Zenfone2 comes packed with the combination of a 64 bit Intel Atom Quadcore processor and 4 GB DDR3 Ram which makes it smooth as butter thus making it a top contender.

Super storage

In a day I generate atleast 200-500 MB of content for my blog while searching for pictures and videos and also editing them. This phone has an internal memory of 64 GB which will let me stay worry free atleast for 2 to 3 months without backup.

Such an amazing camera

There are a lot of phones that promise you a good camera but none that I know live upto what the Zenfone 2 offers. Like everyone else it comes with a 13 MP back and 5 MP front camera but what differentiates it is the pixel master for low light pictures. It increases the brightness of the pictures up to 400% and makes it simple to click even in the dark. You can adjust the shutter speed thus letting you take those creative pictures in the night. The autofocus mood while you’re recording a video gives you that high end feel of a DSLR.

I did a lot of research and after trying the a lot of the other biggies including phones that cost double, the ASUS ZENFONE2 in my opinion is definitely what I am going for!!!

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