Sony's concept EV

At CEC 2020 in Las Vegas, Sony unveiling it's vision-s concept electric vehicle is the biggest bummer (at least for me). Tesla/ Rivian fan boys don't you guys worry yet, Sony is far from stepping into auto industry but this feet is to draw attention or make a statement that they are heavily investing to make a break-through in automotive sensors. After knowing this, it's no surprise that they have deployed 33 of these sensors in their concept car with glittery ultra-wide-screen. Yeah I really mean it, it pans from east to west of the car occupying the entire stretch of the dashboard. Sony made clear about their ambitious plans of developing electric cars in all three three sizes i.e. Sedan, SUV and Coupe. At CES unveiling Sony revealed that the car is equipped with dual motor system weighing at 5180 pounds and it (Sony) claims that it's electric vehicle reaches 0 to 60 miles in 4.8 seconds and reaches top speeds up to 149-150 mph. But there are no details on battery capacity and range of the vehicle.

Sony's CEO Yoshida Kenichiro admits that they are open to inputs from other companies like Blackberry and Magna in designing the vehicle. It comes as no surprise from audio pioneer to showcase how they have implemented immersive 360 degree audio technology with each seat in the car equipped with a separate speaker. Similar to Tesla, Sony also made it clear that their EV is capable with over the air updates. To be honest, Sony has drawn so many eyes with this unexpected announcement but it is truly far from any other EV manufacturer in the space. Not to downplay Sony in this segment of the business, but it will be a long wait to see how fast they can catchup rest of the bunch.

Laptops under $1000

When picking up a new laptop it is not uncommon to be overwhelmed with almost endless number of options to choose from. The actual problem is not with so many options but rather with little to no clarity on what we exactly need. Still confused? Let me explain. A college going student doesn't need a fancy Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti GPU and Intel's octa-core processor with hyper-threading just to browse internet, complete assignments and stream Netflix occasionally. On the flip side of coin, a content creator/ professional gamer/ architect who would be doing CPU intensive jobs can take full advantage of latest quad core/ Octa core processors and high spec GPU if need be, for those spending that amount of money on a rig is not a waste because they do it for living. Don't worry when you come across fancy processor names and not-so meaningful CPU clock rates, I have been there and gone through it. I will keep this post as simple as possible to help you pick your new laptop. It makes much more sense to pay for what you intend to use rather than pay for something which you never use.

Asus Zenbook 13 UX333FA:

Price: Starting at $849

Pros:   Best overall laptop with amazing battery life, features microSD slot
Cons:  Cheap build quality, Dim screen, Keyboard with narrow travel distance (subjective)

Starting at $850, Zenbook 13 UX 333 features Intel i-5 8265U processor similar to Dell XPS 13. You get 1080p non-touch-display, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD, Intel UHD 650 GPU. Don't expect the build quality to be premium, its not too cheap and its not top notch either. Zenbook 13 weighs little heavier than its closest competitors in the category at 2.7 pounds. The bulkier chassis accommodates USB 3.1 port, USB type-A and type-C, along side HDMI 1.4 port. It also features microSD card slot along with headphone jack. Coming to the screen brightness at 225 nits, it's fair to say that Zenbook has disappointed with the other laptops in this category averaging the screen brightness at 321 nits. Talking about keyboard, the travel distance between keys are pretty narrow and the typing experience is not that great. One thing that blows Zenbook its competitors out of the water is its astounding battery life, from reliable sources we heard that laptop can stay alive for whopping ~13 hours, while the category averaging at ~8 hours. That's 10/10 for battery.



Photo source: asus.com


Dell G3 15:

Price: Ranging from $799 - $900

Pros: Best for gamers, flexibility in terms of CPU, GPU  and storage upgrades
Cons: Not for daily usage, not easily portable.

Now this is for gamers. Starting at $850 Dell G3 15 has a lot to offer in terms of GPU to satisfy gaming needs. It's not definitely for professional/ e-gamers but Dell G 3 15 coming with intel i5-9300H and Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650, 4GBDDR5  is much more than a daily laptop. I mean if 3-5 years back If I told that we'd be seeing a gaming laptop with this kind of specs at $850 price point you'd laugh your socks off. But here it is. I have to give this to Dell for nailing the look that straight up target Gamer audience. It's simple, bold and yet stylish. Looking at the brightness, its not brightest of the laptops in this price point, but to keep up with the combination of i5-9300 and GTX 1650 and have a decent battery performance that's the tradeoff i think most gamers are ok with. This bad boy comes at 15.6 inch FHD display with medium sized bezels. Weighing at 5.4 pounds (Yeah! it's heavy) Dell D 3 15 is still the second lightest in its category, Lenovo Legion Y545 occupying the first spot at 5.3 pounds. Left side of Dell G 3 15 houses USB 3.1 Type-A, USB Type-C, Ethernet, HDMI port and headphone jack. For $850 you will get 15.6 FHD display at 1920 X 1080 resolution, 128 GB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD, 1 TB 5400 rpm HDD, Bluetooth 4.1.





Photo source: dell.com


Acer Nitro 5:

Price: Staring from $750

Pros: Best for gamers, huge range of port selection, best thermal throttling performance
Cons: Not for daily usage, not easily portable.

Another entry level gaming laptop in this lineup is Nitro 5 from Acer. Acer Nitro 5 is equipped with 9th generation i5 processor and decent enough Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB PCIe, 128 GB SSD all starting from $750. This laptop features 15.6 inch display at 1920 X 1080 resolution weighing at 5.7 pounds. Acer Nitro 5 houses plenty of ports on either side of the laptop. Lets see what ports does this laptop has to offer, a Kensington lock, RJ45 Ethernet port, 2 USB Type-A ports, 1 USB Type-C port, USB 2.0 port and an audio jack. Wheww that's a lot! Acer claims that their laptop can survive 7 straight hours at a stretch. That's not bad for a laptop with i5-9550H processor along side GTX 1650. It's worth talking about thermal performance on this laptop. Acer did a pretty good job with deploying Nitro Sense fan cool app and dual fan ventilation cooling system which allows you to adjust the fan speed of your CPU and GPU as per the usage.


Photo source: acer.com


Asus Chromebook Flip 436:

Price: $799 and $999 (two variants)

Pros: Sleek design, Premium build quality, 1920 X 1080 resolution FHD display
Cons: Nothing, as the laptop has not flooded the market yet !

Asus unveiled new Chromebook Flip 436 in CES 2020 as the next version of Asus Chromebook Flip 434. But Flip 436 is not in the market yet, don't worry Asus announced that the Chromebook 436 is available for pre-orders on Amazon. Asus is releasing two variants of this Chromebook, the entry level starts at $799 and if you want to lay your hands on next variant keep $999 aside from your paycheck (exclusive of taxes). Let's dive little deep to see what specs this Chromebook from Asus has to offer and judge if it's bang for the buck. Not to disappoint you, but Asus has only outlined the specs for expensive version of laptop, which come with 14-inch full HD 1920 X 1080 display with Nano-Edge display frame and it's integrated with intel UHD graphic card. Talking about network connectivity the Chromebook comes with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0. Gotta tell you that's impressive from connectivity side of things. As Chromebook is not meant for gaming don't expect more than an integrated intel GPU. Asus has absolutely nailed the design with magnesium alloy chassis which gives premium look and feel to the laptop. It comes with full-size backlit keyboard weighing at around 2.5 lbs. The cheaper variant comes with 10th gen i-7-10510U processor while the expensive version comes with i-5-10210U processor along with 16GB DDR3 RAM topping up with 512 GB NVME storage.




Photo source: cnet.com

What you need to know about Samsung's 2020 line up

Samsung came out all guns blazing with high end specs at Samsung Unpacked event 2020 in San Francisco with announcements of S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra.

Samsung S20:

As everyone expected Samsung has deployed Qualcomm's latest SD 865 across all of their flagship phones i.e. S 20, S 20+, S 20 Ultra (but not in Zflip, lets get into that detail later). Also let me mention the fact that depending on the region where you are purchasing these latest Samsung Phones you might as well get Samsung's very own Exynos instead of SD 865. Getting that fact out of the way, lets' see what S 20 has to offer for a $1000 price tag. Samsung S 20 supports 5G in one frequency band i.e. sub 6Hz. The phone comes with default 128 GB storage but expandable up to 1 TB. S 20 offers 6.2 inch display with Gorilla glass 6 featuring 120 Hz refresh rate that's a level up compared to 2019 Samsung's line up. Also Gorilla glass 6 is step up in terms of scratch, dust and impact resistance compared to its predecessors. But the screen resolution on S 20 is limited to 1080p, not to worry too much about as Samsung had bumped the touch response rate from 120 Hz to 240 Hz which means the screen's response time is twice as fast compared to 2019 Samsung phones. None of Samsung's 2020 flagship devices offer any headset jack, let that sink and expect this change going more mainstream across all the manufacturers. It comes with 4000 mAh battery with fast charging and wireless powershare.

Let's see the what hefty camera module is up to on this phone. S 20 boasts 12 MP ultra wide and wide angle camera lenses and telephoto camera offers up to 64 MP images. Space zoom on S 20 provides 3X hybrid optic zoom and 30X super resolution zoom. You can grab one in these colors Cosmic Gray, Cloud Pink and Cold Blue if you are ok shelling out 1000 bucks out of your pocket.

Samsung S 20+:

S 20 features 6.7 inch AMOLED display with super fast 120 Hz refresh rate. Also it's not different that S 20+ will come with SD 865/ Exynos 990 with 12 GB RAM. Unlike S 20 you get choose three different storage options with S 20+ between 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB and it comes with 4500 mAh battery. Huge bumpy camera module on the rear will provide 64 MP high resolution camera, 3X hybrid optic zoom and 30X super resolution zoom which is same as its sister S 20. You can get all these for $1200.

Samsung S 20 Ultra:

S 20 Ultra comes with all bells and whistles that i'm sure most of them will have hard time to digest and get used to. Now if we look at the numbers, this bad boy comes with quad camera module with 108 MP wide angle lens, 12 MP ultra wide angle lens, 48 MP telephoto lens with depth vision module. Front facing selfie lens offers more than enough 40 MP images which puts to shame few big names in the industry. Even the screen size is a big step up compared to S 20 and S 20+ with huge 6.9 inch along side supporting 45W fast charging. S 20 Ultra also supports mmWave along side sub 6Hz spectrum, meaning this bad boy is capable of supporting what 5G has to offer in two different frequency bands. What's the price you ask? Its $1399 for 128 GB, if you want to go for 512 GB be ready to put $1599 aside from your paycheck.

With these numbers in reality now Samsung is truly pushing it's competitors to GO BIG OR GO HOME. But what does these fancy numbers mean to a normal Joe? Should he care about this and put all his savings towards a mobile phone? Hell No. In my opinion S 20 is still best for most of us looking at specs it offers for $1000 price tag.

Let us know what you think? Which phone would you buy and why?

Tesla's Robotaxi

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk stated in company's Autonomy day that it expects to launch Robotaxi network as early as in 2020. Potentially this allows Tesla owners to add their properly equipped Tesla vehicles to ride-sharing app which allows users to make money whenever they don't need the car. But Tesla said it would take 20-30% cut of the owner's earnings (customers that make money through Tesla's ride sharing app). Still how cool is that to make money off of your car when you are relaxing/ at work/ sleeping. This makes a car no longer a depreciable asset but one can view as an investment (provided these claims go through as per the plan).

Musk estimated that owners can make as much as $3000 in gross profit every year by taking advantage of Tesla's ride sharing feature. He (Musk) also went on to say that there could be price hike on Tesla vehicle and suggested customers to grab the opportunity of buying right now before the price shoots up. As every time, Elon Musk promised that he'd expect to see 1 million Robotaxis to hit the road in 2020. Do you think Tesla can pull this off in 2020? Let us know what you think?

Most anticipated phones of 2020

Hows 2020 treating y'all folks? Let's see specs, release date and rumors ;-) of some of the most anticipated smartphones about to hit the market in 2020.

First up we have Apple iPhone SE2 and iPhone 12:

Take this news with a pinch of salt. There has been flood of rumors starting from the name, hardware specs and how many models Apple is planning to release. At least from few reliable sources it's understood that Apple is going to come up with two versions i.e. SE2 and iPhone 12 planning to release SE2 in early 2020 and iPhone 12 in September 2020. Apple is known for its premium products and it's loyal fan base are ok shelling out huge sums of money to get their hands on Apple's products every year. But from last one to two years Apple realized huge potential in mid-range/ affordable smart phone market and to an extent they are very successful in cashing that, the result of which we saw iPhone XR. Apple this year is going to target same set of audience with iPhone SE2 while iPhone 12 will be coming with bells and whistles at higher price point. Strategically this makes more sense to me, because it's been only three months that iPhone 11, pro and max are released so having premium product like iPhone 12 releasing again in September 2020 will allow some time for consumers to make a shift. Though iPhone SE2 could be cheaper version it's heard that SE2 is powered up with decent enough specs along with their top of the line A13 bionic chip. However, we will have to wait for official confirmation from Apple.

Samsung Galaxy S20:

It's understood that Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra will be unveiled on February 11 at it's next unpacked event which is four days from now. Though it's not official from Samsung yet, reports suggest that S20 is coming with its bezels trimmed down and with smaller punch hole in the display  increasing its screen to body ratio. It's also rumored that Samsung is working on delivering 108 MP camera.

One Plus 8, 8 Pro and One Plus 8 Lite:

One Plus is known to release it's phones every 3 to 4 months. And One Plus 8 design has already been leaked. To no ones surprise there is not much change going on with new One Plus 8. It looks more like Samsung Galaxy S 10 but with a curved display, we are waiting to see how the camera pops-up this year (pun intended). It's understood that One Plus phone features Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 and is expected to release in Fall 2020. One impressive upgrade from One Plus predecessor is moving to 120 HZ refresh rates from already fluid 90 HZ screens. We are also hearing that One Plus is incorporating wireless charging, which is a feature that company is shying away from long time. One Plus 8 Lite is targeted to attract mid-range market. Lets see how well these new models are received by the consumers.

Motorola Razr:

Motorola is aiming to revive its signature classic razr model with new feel and style to it. It's fair to say that people who experienced the phone in-person in hands-on event had a smile on their faces though few reviewers had a negative feedback on hinge mechanism. Going forward I'd expect Motorola to address these issues. Please try not to compare this phone with Huawei Mate X or Samsung Galaxy Fold which unfolds the phone into something like a tablet unlike new Razr. If you are the person who used or had experience with classic Razr you will definitely like this idea of Motorola trying to bring back good old memories. That being said this bad boy costs you $1500. That hefty price doesn't go well with it's modest specs of 1080p screen resolution, Snapdragon 710, 2150 mAh battery and also it does not come with wireless charging. 

Google Pixel 4A:

Looking at Google Pixel 3A from last year, I have to say that Google did an excellent job in delivery top-notch smartphone camera along side decent specs within reasonable price. Google might be well on it's way following the same trend this year presenting Pixel 4A with 3.5 mm headset jack, punch hole front camera and a single rear camera. This might appeal to audience with tighter budget. It's expected that Google might release Pixel 4A along the same time they did for 3A i.e. in Summer 2020.

Nokia 9.2 Pureview:

How many of you know that Nokia initially had plans of delivering Nokia 9.1 but it was a huge let down on many fronts which rumored to have featured Snapdragon 855. Now Nokia is trying to come back strong with Nokia 9.2 Pureview and the plan is to include Snapdragon 865 chipset which support 5G. Nokia is planning to unveil it's 9.2 Pureview somewhere in late 2020. We will update as we hear more on this, please be sure check back.

WHAT IS 5G AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU ?

5G is fifth generation wireless technology for those of you who don't know what it is. But i'm sure (almost) everyone is aware that 5G is capable of improving the network connectivity dramatically. You ask how? 5G can deliver some insane download speeds with significantly reduced network latency compared to its predecessor 4G, yes its a game changer! Well, we've got various flavors of 5G and we'll see what works for the most, hang tight folks !

BUT...Are we there yet ?

Not really. When you skim through internet to find out real speeds or watch a video of 5G rollouts from different wireless carriers demonstrating new 5G, you will be jaw dropped to see speeds hitting anywhere from 950 Mbps to 1 Gbps. YES, you read it right. Thats ~800% to ~900% boost in performance compared to LTE. Let's get little technically to find what's actually happening at the core of 5G tech to deliver these kinds of speeds. Big players like ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint all use one of these three frequency bands to deliver 5G services to their customers i.e. mmWave (High Band), Sub-6 GHz or Low Band spectrum.

Strategy:

ATT:

ATT is using both low band and high band spectrum to deliver 5G and 5G+ services respectively.

5G (Low band and broader coverage): ATT's 5G service in rolled out to 10 new cities i.e. Las Vegas, Detroit, Louisville, Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Bridgeport, Buffalo, Birmingham and Washington D.C adding to already existing 19 cities.

5G+ (High band and low coverage): ATT 5G+ offers great speeds but with very limited coverage area. ATT has targeted parts of 35 cities like Detroit, Menlo Park (CA), Baltimore, Cleveland, Ocean City (MD), Oakland, Redwood city, San Bruno (CA), Philadelphia, Pheonix to offer this service. ATT has surpassed its initial goal of 29 cities.

T-Mobile:

Low band; Broader Coverage: T-Mobile with it's low band spectrum is targeting more than 200 million users nationwide to provide 5G to its consumers. With T-Mobile and Sprint merger its heard that T-mobile sprint carrier will cover 97% of US of which 85% covering rural areas with low band 5G service within three years of merger. Now it's just a waiting game to see if the merger helps them to climb up the ladder ahead of Verizon and ATT in terms of delivering reliable signal with broader coverage area.

Sprint:

Mid-Band: Sprint is tapping on majority of unused mid band spectrum in the US. They are using Massive MIMO and Beamforming to improve penetration, coverage area and have consistent signal. Massive MIMO is arranging group of antennas on a single cell tower to send multiple simultaneous beams to different users. Beamforming is sending single focused signal to every user in the cell to make sure each user has consistent signal.

Verizon:

High band; Low coverage: Similar to ATT 5G+ Verizon is making use of low band spectrum to offer 5G to its consumers.


Verdict:

5G as a tech is still in very early stage. Currently there are not many phones that can utilize all three frequency bands even if wireless providers were to offer services. So, I'd be more interested to see consumer spending patterns in electronics industry along side mobile processor developments from big guns like Qualcomm (Snapdragon 865) and Apple (A13 bionic chip) and how these chips are implemented in flag ship mobile devices for next 2-3 years. Also, at the moment I think it's premature to answer the million dollar question of who won the 5G race.

SNAPDRAGON 865 (5G) MOBILE PLATFORM

Most of you might have already know the fact that latest Snapdragon 865 chipset from Qualcomm is 5G capable. Almost all the major phone brands (no official list out yet) in the market are trying to deploy Snapdragon 865 chip in their flagship models expect Apple (of course they have A13 Bionic chip, that's different story on its own and we will save that for later) and Huawei.


Architectural change !!! Is it good or bad ?

Qualcomm decided with go with dedicated X55 modem for 5G connectivity unlike its predecessor SD 855 which came with onboard modem consolidated everything into one single chip. What does this architectural change mean? It could lead to faster battery drains no matter whether you are connected to 4G or 5G network. To counter this I'd expect phones having SD 865 coming with bigger batteries, bigger displays and of course at higher price points. Do you remember HTC releasing thunderbolt? Yeah it was similar approach where they went with separate modem for 4G needless to say that was a disaster. But it would be premature to comment on this at this time. Only time will tell whether this change will improve or degrade the performance based on how it is implemented.

Technical Specs:

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 is beefed up with improved Kryo 585 CPU, Adreno 650 GPU, Hexagon 698 DSP and Spectra 480 ISP. Qualcomm claimed that SD 865 supports all kinds of 5G network i.e mm wave, low-band and mid-band, updateable GPU drivers and 144 Hz (QHD)/ 90 Hz (4K) displays which delivers smooth gaming performance with pretty good frame refresh rates which for sure gamers will love. Qualcomm boasts that the CPU upgrade from Kryo 485 to Kryo 585 has shown a performance boost over 25% compared to SD 855. The quad core processor in SD 865 is equipped with latest Cortex A77 with prime core clocking at speeds of 2.84 GHz and other three cores with the speeds as high as 2.42 GHz. When you look at the CPU speeds these are no different from SD 855, but the catch is CPU cluster's L3 cache has been increased from 2 to 4 MB, also the GPU upgrade from Adreno 640 to 650 has shown significant 20% performance increase. Qualcomm told that this GPU and CPU are designed to deliver sustained performance without any throttling. With the combination of Kryo 585, Adreno 650, Hexagon 698, Qualcomm points out that AI computing performance is 2 times better i.e. 15 TOPS than AI performance in SD 855 which was delivering about 7 TOPS. On to the Image processor SD 865 comes with Spectra 480 which processes image at 2 Gigapixels per second, now those numbers in real world mean we are talking about capturing 4K 30fps video at 64 megapixel/ frame which also allows simultaneously clicking high quality images at 200 megapixels. New Spectra 480 is also capable of recording 8K videos at 33 megapixel/ frame, for some high refresh rate displays like 120 HZs, Sepctra 480 offers native 4K video recording at 120 fps which means buttery smooth videos. But we will have to wait and see how effectively does mobile manufacturing companies can make use of this high performance chipset to get the most out of it combating battery drain issues and keep the mobile devices as sleek as possible.


My take on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865:

To be honest, im quite impressed with the performance package that SD 865 has to offer. But at the moment one con overweighs all the pros for me i.e. having a separate X55 modem requires more power which gets me thinking about the battery. Not just that with 5G still in infancy, big names like ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are not there yet in terms of delivering REAL 5G speeds and they have a lot of ground to cover. And I see this is just as a start to the adapting of 5G technology and i expect to see lot of changes in terms of hardware all across the board in coming years. That's my two cents.