5 ways the newly launched OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite differs from Nord CE 2 Lite

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has launched in India and it comes as a successor to the Nord CE 2 Lite. The newcomer carries over the same Snapdragon 695 chipset, a 5000mAh battery, and a 16MP front camera. Here are the differences between the two phones.

How OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite compare against Nord CE 2 Lite

1. OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has got a 6.72-inch FHD+ 120Hz IPS LCD. Nord CE 2 Lite has got a smaller 6.59-inch panel but with a better pixel-per-inch density.

2. Nord CE 3 Lite boots Android 13-based OxygenOS 13.1 out of the box while its predecessor ships with Android 12. Yes, you can update it to the Android 13 version but since it’s a year-old device, you will be getting a year less software update. 

3. You are getting a massive 108MP camera on the back of Nord CE 3 Lite while Nord CE 2 Lite has got a 64-megapixel shooter.

4. The charger you get with the Nord CE 3 Lite is a 67W brick whilst Nord CE 2 Lite bundles a 33W adapter only.

5. Nord CE 3 Lite shines in Green and Grey colours. The green one’s an attention grabber. You get to carry the fresh-looking handset. Meanwhile, Nord CE 2 Lite comes in Blue and Black hues.

Rest, both phones feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, a 5000mAh battery, a 16MP selfie snapper, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 5.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB-C port.

OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite starts at ₹18,999 for the 6+128GB model while the new Nord phone’s base variant begins at ₹19,999 (8+128GB). ICICI bank cardholders can grab it at another ₹1000 discount when the phone goes on sale on Amazon and the OnePlus website starting April 11.

Pastel Lime or Chromatic Gray?#OnePlusNordCE3Lite 5G

— OnePlus (@oneplus) April 4, 2023

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OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: A worthy upgrade for bass lovers

The OnePlus Nord Buds 2 makes meaningful upgrades to its predecessor and is well worth its ₹3K price tag. While the sound quality has pretty much stayed the same, OnePlus has added Active Noise Cancellation on a budget, improved the battery life, and reworked the design – all of which make these earphones better bang for your buck than the OG OnePlus Nord Buds. The HeyMelody app also provides users with the option to customise and tweak their earphones’ sound and touch controls, which is always a welcome addition. The sound quality will speak volumes to bass lovers – the punchy and impactful bass response will have bass enthusiasts head-banging to tunes, however, purists and audiophiles may need to look away.

It’s been less than a year since the launch of the OnePlus Nord Buds – the company’s very first venture at a budget TWS. The earphones fared decently in our review, but there was definite room for improvement. Now, I’ve got the next-generation product for review which may bring the improvement we were looking for. The OnePlus Nord Buds 2 brings a flurry of changes and new features including a design overhaul, Active Noise Cancellation up to 25 dB, improved battery life, and more. Priced at ₹2,999, we reckon that these earbuds will sell like hotcakes, but I’m here to tell you if you ought to take the plunge. Let’s find out!  

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: Build, Design, and Fit

The original OnePlus Nord Buds had a polarising design. The boxy charging box, the clunky earbuds – none of these screamed classy or minimalist and they were quite peculiar to look at. You either loved the design or hated it. With the OnePlus Nord Buds 2, the company seems to have toned down the idiosyncrasy of the design, replacing it with a more generally palatable look. 

The glossy plastic on the case has been replaced with a more premium matte texture that resists fingerprints and looks classy. The boxy shape is now replaced with a more rounded one, which feels better in the hand, and also, in my opinion, looks better. The bottom half of the case has a galaxy-inspired design. The ‘Thunder Grey’ unit – which I got for review – features white specks on the grey surface, attempting to emulate stars in the night sky. The effect doesn’t really work though, I thought the case had a bit of lint stuck on it when we first saw the design.

Nevertheless, the case still looks infinitely more premium than its predecessor’s. The earbuds, on the other hand, largely retain the design of their predecessor. You’ve got a boxy stem and a large circular disk in the middle which houses the sensor for touch controls. The design is clunky-looking but the earbuds are exceptionally lightweight. The stem also has galaxy-inspired white specks, but they’re not very noticeable.

Thanks to the low weight of the earphones, wearing these over extended periods comes with little to no discomfort or pain. The angled nozzles of the earphones also ensure that the fit is absolutely snug. There are three sizes of silicone tips provided, and the default Medium ear tips fit my ear tips very well. Overall, these are extremely comfortable earbuds to wear and due to the IP55 dust and water resistance, you can easily use the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 as your running or gym companion.

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: Features 

The OnePlus Nord Buds 2 pack an array of features – some punching above their price range. These earphones also add Active Noise Cancellation to the mix, a feature that was missing on the OG OnePlus Nord Buds and one that has become extremely popular with the masses. The earbuds come with a couple of OnePlus-only features such as Dolby Atmos (for selected OnePlus phone models), Dirac Audio Tuner (with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite), and Fast Pairing through Oxygen OS. 

However, the majority of the OnePlus Nord Buds 2’s features can be made use of by everyone, as long as they have the HeyMelody app downloaded. OnePlus users can access the features provided by this app directly in their Settings menu without the need for an app. Let’s talk about the app’s features. There are standard ones such as battery prompts and firmware updates.

And then, there are some extra features including Noise Cancellation toggles (Active Noise Cancellation, Off, and Transparency), Sound Master EQ with four EQ presets and a 6-band customisable EQ. There’s also a BassWave slider that controls the intensity of the BassWave algorithm. It dynamically boosts bass in your songs while attempting to maintain clarity. 

We love that OnePlus has included a customisable EQ since it allows users to tweak the sound signature according to their preference. The BassWave slider, on the other hand, is something I didn’t get many benefits from – the sound signature largely stayed the same despite moving around the slider. 

The app also comes with a Game Mode toggle that drops the latency down to 94 ms when turned on. There is a subtle difference in audio/video delay when this mode is turned on, for the better. The app also comes with the option to customise touch controls, sadly there are no volume controls though, which is very disappointing. Overall though, the app provides users with a fair number of nifty features.

The app aside, the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 comes with features such as IP55 dust and water resistance, Device Shifting (switching between two paired devices with a press of a button), Bluetooth version 5.3, and fast charging. It lacks wireless charging, multipoint connection, and on-ear detection. While the first two are excusable, on-ear detection (auto pause and play) is usually found in earphones at this price point, so it’s upsetting to see OnePlus give this nifty feature the skip.

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: Performance

The OnePlus Nord Buds 2 feature 12.4 mm titanium drivers – like their predecessors – but the company says they’ve added an additional layer of titanium in the diaphragm that improves audio quality. The earbuds support SBC and AAC audio codecs, and the lack of high-quality audio codecs such as aptX or LDAC is disappointing, but we’ve come to expect that at this price point. 

While OnePlus claims they've improved the sound quality, the sound signature of both the OG OnePlus Nord Buds and the Nord Buds 2 in our frequency testing graphs are almost indistinguishable. There are some minute variations but that much could be chalked up to the error margin. You’ve got a generic U-shaped sound signature which emphasises the bass response the most. 

In tracks such as Space Ghost Coast to Coast by Glass Animals, the bass thump is extremely strong, it does sound a bit boomy at times which can be unpleasant. However, for a lot of bass lovers, this sound signature works quite well. The strong bass line sounds good when listening to genres such as pop, EDM, rap, and Bollywood. 

The mid-range is pretty well-produced, there’s a spike in the 1 kHz to 2 kHz mark which continues on to the highs. This helps in a way since the boomy bass does tend to overlap with the mids but the spike in the high mids ensures that vocals aren’t suppressed to a great degree. The highs are sparkly and decently produced, however, they can sound a bit underwhelming at times due to auditory masking from the bloated bass response and the emphasised mids. In tracks such as Hotel California by The Eagles, the cymbals and hi-hats are a bit subdued in the mix. So, while these aren’t the best earphones for purists and audiophiles, they appease the audience they’re catering to – bass lovers. When compared with competitors such as the Realme Buds Air 3 and Blaupunkt Moksha, the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 are definitely more bass-biased and not as balanced sounding.

We also compared the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 with the OnePlus Nord Buds, Realme Buds Air 3, and the Blaupunkt Moksha. Here's how they fared:

[Click on the pair you want to see the comparison graph of]

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 vs OnePlus Nord Buds OnePlus Nord Buds 2 vs Realme Buds Air 3 OnePlus Nord Buds 2 vs Blaunpunkt Moksha

Moving on to ANC, OnePlus promises up to 25 dB of Active Noise Cancellation. The ANC is decent for the price point. It manages to subdue the constant drone of an air conditioner with ease but finds it difficult to silence sounds such as people talking and typing on a mechanical keyboard. The Transparency Mode is decent as well, but nothing to write home about.

Something that did impress us tremendously is the wireless connectivity. Not only do the earphones connect to paired devices almost instantaneously when the case is opened but they also have excellent wireless range. The buds managed to stay connected to the source device (Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra) even with 2-3 walls between them and a whole floor of a building vertically, which is seriously impressive. The microphone quality is also pretty decent – my voice on a call sounded pristine and clear, but the person on the other end of the call could hear most of the background noise.

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: Battery life

OnePlus devices are generally known for good battery life and speedy fast charging – the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 is no different. On a single charge, the earphones are rated to provide 5 hours of playtime with ANC turned on and a total of 27 hours with the charging case. The numbers rise considerably with ANC turned off. You get 7 hours of playback on a single charge and up to a whopping 36 hours including the charging case.

In our tests, the earphones lasted 4 hours and 32 minutes with ANC turned on, at about 50 per cent volume. With the case, you get another 4 charges with some juice left to spare. These numbers are quite impressive in this price range. Additionally, the earbuds also come with fast charge support where a quick 10-minute charge gets you 5 hours of playback time (earbuds + charging case). There’s no wireless charging though.

OnePlus Nord Buds 2 Review: Verdict

The OnePlus Nord Buds 2 makes meaningful upgrades to its predecessor and is well worth its ₹3K price tag. While the sound quality has pretty much stayed the same, OnePlus has added Active Noise Cancellation on a budget, improved the battery life, and reworked the design – all of which make these earphones better bang for your buck than the OG OnePlus Nord Buds. The HeyMelody app also provides users with the option to customise and tweak their earphones’ sound and touch controls, which is always a welcome addition. The sound quality will speak volumes to bass lovers – the punchy and impactful bass response will have bass enthusiasts head-banging to tunes, however, purists and audiophiles may need to look away. If you’re looking for a slightly more balanced sound at around the same price, the Blaupunkt Moksha BTW07 is a slightly better option to consider. For everything else, the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 wins at providing a well-rounded and fun experience!

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Ark 2 Delayed to Late 2024, but a Next-Gen Version of Ark: Survival Evolved Is Coming in August

Ark 2 has been delayed until the end of 2024, Studio Wildcard confirmed in a roadmap. The usage of Unreal Engine 5 has caused the team to adjust their workflows and pipelines, demanding more development time. The studio also announced a remaster of the original Ark: Survival Evolved, which will be available as a separate purchase in August. Dubbed Ark: Survival Ascend...

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HP Pavilion Aero 13 Review: An almost perfect blend of portability and performance

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is a light and compact laptop that offers excellent performance and decent build quality. The laptop weighs just 990g, making it one of the lightest laptops in the world. The chassis is made from Magnesium Alloy, and the laptop has a brushed aluminium finish. The laptop's 16:10 FHD+ display is excellent and offers more screen real estate than a conventional 16:9 panel. The keyboard is a 60% keyboard, and the trackpad is relatively small, but the keys have a 1.5mm travel and are relatively silent. The laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7735U CPU featuring 8-Cores, 16-Threads with 4.7GHz Max Boost Clock and 28W TDP, with 16GB LPDDR5 RAM running at 6400MHz, and a 1TB NCME PCIe Gen 4 SSD. The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is an excellent option for those who need a powerful, lightweight laptop that can handle most productivity tasks with ease.

Laptop processors are beginning to get really good. Even in an affordable laptop that costs between Rs 55,000 to 65,000, you get a decently rich performance package. Using this you can do almost all your productivity and work-related tasks very easily. You can also do some light gaming on these processors because a lot of them now come with decently capable integrated graphics. But when you begin to ask for this performance in a portable form factor, the price tag begins to go up. 

To pack power and maintain a small size as well, OEMs have to pull a lot of tricks ranging from artificially limiting a processor’s performance, to using a high-end heat sink to soldering the RAM and thus making it non-upgradable and some other shenanigans as well. Therefore, keep the above context in mind because today I am going to talk about the HP Pavilion Aero 13, which is India’s (and probably the world’s) lightest laptop. 

Together, you and I are going on a journey to discover how such a thin and light device can exist and perform in the same league as a relatively big laptop. Remember that the real beauty is on the inside so we’re going to take a look at this laptop’s internals and see how well/poorly it performs in real life. And after all, is said and done, we will see, together, who is this machine for and whether it is worth a buy or not. 

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Specifications

Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 7735U CPU featuring 8-Cores, 16-Threads with 4.7GHz Max Boost Clock and 28W TDP

Graphics - AMD Radeon 680M 12-core GPU running at 2200MHz frequency

Memory - 16GB LPDDR5 RAM running at 6400MHz

Storage - 1TB NCME PCIe Gen 4 SSD

Display - 13.3-inch WUXGA IPS LCD display

Battery - 43Wh

Weight - 990g

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Design And Build Quality

Clever engineering is an important pre-requisite if you want to make (arguably) the world’s lightest laptop. Moreover, HP isn’t the first company that has tried to build a featherweight laptop. The 12-inch Apple MacBook was close to 920g. The Acer Swift 7 is another ultra-lightweight laptop that you can buy in India and it weighs just 889g. However, it is quite old at this point and uses an 8th gen Intel processor. FUJITSU also makes some really good and lightweight machines. And most of its laptops feature a rock-solid chassis that screams Japanese engineering. It’d be safe to assume FUJITSU is the Toyota of the Windows laptop world. 

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 also manages to stand on its own in presence of these giants. The laptop’s chassis is made from Magnesium Alloy. I received the Aero’s Rose Gold variant and the laptop has a  brushed aluminum finish all over it. The laptop’s panels are decently tough. But you will find some flex in the area adjacent to the keyboard deck, and you’ll notice some flex above the function keys if you try and press really hard. However, the rest of the laptop feels pretty rock solid.

On top of the lid, you’ll see the new revised HP logo and it looks more minimalistic than the previous generation. I can’t say that it looks either good or bad but I much rather prefer the old design. Near the deck area you’ll see a Bang & Olufsen branding and adjacent to it is the fingerprint sensor. I think that on a 13.3-inch thin and light laptop saving as much real estate as possible should be OEM’s priority. So considering that they should integrate the fingerprint and the power button together. Moreover, now I also have to first press the power button and then press the fingerprint sensor which is placed away from the keyboard entirely. 

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Keyboard And Trackpad

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 comes with a 60% keyboard. However, its right side is occupied by the home, pg up, pg dn, end keys, and the right navigation key as well. I personally don’t mind if the keyboard is a full size or a 60% one but you will require some getting used to if you were using the former one, probably due to the laptop’s small size and the keyboard’s layout. 

HP has merged the Function keys with the dedicated feature buttons for volume, brightness, etc. But by default, the dedicated keys work when your press these buttons. The keys themselves have a 1.5mm travel to them so they’re very ‘clicky.’ But despite that, they are relatively silent. And thanks to the 60% keyboard layout your palm stays clear of the touchpad. 

Speaking of the touchpad, it is quite small. It has no dedicated left or right button, instead, it is one single unit. I like that the trackpad is placed a bit away from the laptop’s lower edge. This helps a lot in preventing any accidental touches on it especially when you’re typing while sitting in a chair or lying on your bed. Another good thing about the keyboard is that the ctrl and alt keys on the left side are relatively bigger. 

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Screen And Speakers

The 16:10 FHD+ display gives you more screen real estate compared to a conventional 16:9 panel. It is not as good as a 3:2 display in terms of productivity but it is a good compromise between the two. As you can still watch normal cinematic content, which is usually shot at 16:9, and have just enough screen height to be a tad more productive. 

HP has once again chosen a 60Hz panel and not a high-refresh-rate one. I understand that this decision comes with the objective of making the HP Aero 13’s relatively small 43Wh battery last as long as possible. And with everything this laptop is designed to do, a high refresh rate display won’t add much to the device’s overall capability. 

In terms of display and colour quality, I ran the display through our usual suite of tests and found some interesting results. Firstly, the peak luminance of the display is pretty high at 440nits. To put it in perspective, I recently tested the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 which has an AMOLED display and it had a peak brightness of 415nits. Moreover, the HP Pavilion Aero 13’s display has a matte finish to it compared to the glossy one you’d find on Samsung’s laptop. 

A matte display prevents unnecessary on-screen reflections when working in a brightly lit environment. The display is also really great at showing accurate colours in the sRGB colour spectrum thanks to 99.2% coverage. So if you’re developing any piece of graphic or content to be viewed on Chrome or any other web browser, this laptop will show you accurate colours as these platforms showcase colours that majorly lie in the sRGB colour spectrum. 

In terms of colour accuracy, the Average Delta E during the Calman ColorChecker analysis came out to be 2.1 with a black luminance of 0.262. 

However, the laptop has 76.5% DCI-P3 coverage, which is pretty average. So unless you’re not developing content to be viewed specifically on displays with high DCI-P3 colour space or if you’re fine with not experiencing the wide gamut of colours in HDR on your display then this number is fine.

Another thing about the display is that the gamma tracking is a bit off. In the charts, it is clear that the display messes up regions with high brightness and shadows (darkness). So if you’re watching any piece of content with these features, this screen would not feel as much suitable.

The speakers on the other hand are pretty loud. They’re downwards facing as the keyboard runs from one end to the next horizontally thus leaving no room for the speaker grille. They have good mids, and decent treble but very poor base and you can’t even expect a machine this small to have a good base either, so it’s not a surprise. 

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Performance And Battery Life

AMD’s latest Ryzen 7 7735U uses TSMC’s 6nm process nodes. It features 8-high performance cores and 16 threads with a base clock speed of 2.7GHz and a boost clock speed of up to 4.75GHz. The processor also has a boost clock speed of 4.75GHz but the laptop manages to reach around 3.7 to 3.5GHz. The laptop heavily limits the CPU's average core temperature to 70 degrees Celsius. It does so by throttling the core clock and the CPU package power as well when under extreme load.

And managing that load is this processor's forte as it can easily provide a backup of 5.5 to 6.5 hours, depending upon usage. I used the laptop in balanced mode at 70% screen brightness, and it lasted close to seven hours. Considering that it has a small 43Wh battery and powers an ultra-bright 440-nit display, I'd say it's a win.

I tried playing Doom Eternal on the laptop and while the initial gameplay was pretty smooth, the laptop started to heat up after a quick session. Following that the performance dipped a bit. But I was playing the game at 1200p with high graphics preset, so lowering that can improve thermal performance. 

However, this was one extreme example. For instance, you can play a less demanding title or even a newer game in a less demanding setting, and everything will be fine. Similarly, everything else apart from hardcore gaming that you can manage to throw at this laptop can manage pretty well.

The benchmarks I ran also confirm this trend. During a single run of the Cinebench R23 test, the laptop scored 10116 in the multicore test. However, during a sustained run, the multicore performance decreased, resulting in a score of 8956. The single-core performance remained virtually unchanged in both cases. 

The AMD Radeon 680M integrated GPU is also pretty good as it scored 2065 and 4917 in 3D Mark’s TimeSpy and FireStrike, respectively. As a reference point, the TimeSpy score for the AMD Radeon Graphics is typically 1000 to 1500 points lower than that of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 laptop GPU. This suggests that the AMD Radeon Graphics offer impressive performance per watt.

Meanwhile, the 1TB NVMe SSD powering the HP Pavilion Aero 13 is also decently fast. In the Crystal Disk Mark speed test, the sequential read and write speeds of the SSD came out to be 3373.35MB/s and 2806.52MB/s, respectively. To get a complete picture of the laptop's performance, I also ran it through the PCMark 10 extended benchmark, which gave me a score of 5800. For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 and the Dell XPS 13 9300 scored 5403 and 5627, respectively.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 - Verdict

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is a lightweight laptop with a magnesium alloy chassis and a brushed aluminum finish, making it an ideal travel companion. Although it is one of the world's lightest laptops, it offers decent performance with its AMD Ryzen 7 7735U CPU and Radeon 680M 12-core GPU. The 13.3-inch WUXGA IPS LCD display provides more screen real estate, and the 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB NVME PCIe Gen 4 SSD make it a productivity and workhorse.  

The keyboard is a 60% keyboard with a 1.5mm travel, and the touchpad is small but placed a bit away from the laptop's lower edge to prevent accidental touches. The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is for anyone looking for a lightweight laptop that provides decent performance and is easy to carry. 

In terms of performance, the laptop can handle most productivity and work-related tasks with ease, and can even do some light gaming. However, due to the laptop's small form factor, it has a difficult time delivering peak performance under extreme sustained load. 

If you’re looking for more options in the 13-inch laptop category then you can also go for the Dell Inspiron 13 5310 and the FUJITSU UH-X 2-in-1 as well. 

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus renders have leaked: Here are the 5 expected features

Samsung’s flagship tablet family may soon get its successor by the name of the Tab S9 series. Today, we have the purported renders of the Tab S9 Plus, courtesy of OnLeaks (via Wolfoftablets). Let’s first see what the high-end tab from Samsung looks like, followed by a quick look at the rumoured specs of the device.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus design as per the leaked renders

The obvious difference that your eyes may pick as soon as you see the Tab S9 Plus render is the Galaxy S23-like camera rings on its back. The rear cameras are no longer on an island. Rather, they sit close but separately. 

Rest, it is very much akin to the Tab S8 series’ design.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ specs (Expected)

The Samsung Galaxy tablet could ship with a 12.4-inch expanse on the front. There are prominent bezels on all sides. On one of the longer sides lies a selfie snapper. 

The back, as already mentioned, has 2 cameras. Beneath them, there is a long valley to wherein the S-Pen would magnetically attach to.

The tablet is said to be 285.4 x 185.4 x 5.64mm in dimensions. In this footprint, Samsung could give you a USB-C port, and a quad-speaker grille, but no headphone jack.

As for the rest of the device, Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus is expected to be a minor incremental upgrade. We should have more details about what those upgrades are soon.

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3 Google Search features to find hotels, book flights, and travel better

Google has announced a bunch of new Search features that are aimed at helping its users travel better. This includes new tools to get the best hotel and flight deals, as well as discover things to do on the trip. 

1. Price guarantee on booking a flight from Google Search

First of all, this is currently available in the US only. That is you need to have a US billing address as well as that the deal is applicable on flights booked from a US airport. But, when it does make its way to other markets like India, here’s what to expect: 

When you browse flights on Google Flights, alongside some flight entries, you’ll see a shield icon with a dollar sign. Google assures to pay you money if the price of these flights goes down. As soon as you book any of these flights, the web giant tracks the price of that flight every day until departure. And if the price drops in this duration, it will pay you the difference. 

2. Swipe through hotels 

Booking the flight is only one part of the tour plan. You need to book hotels and to make the process simpler, Google has rehauled the interface like Stories, a familiar UI for most social media users these days.

Through simple swipes and taps, you can browse hotels, read in detail about them or grab a summary, and save the hotel you like. 

3. Book tour guides

Now when you look for a place of attraction or search about your travel destination in general, Google Search will bring up the local guides with their plans and pricing. 

All of these new Google Search features should help you better plan and have a comfortable travel experience.

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Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Samsung DNA makes for a great mid-ranger

There’s no denying the finesse of the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G – it does a couple of things well, and it generally does it better than most at this price. The key highlights of the Samsung Galaxy A34 are its gorgeous, premium design and its bright Super AMOLED display. The design is, simply put, classy. It exudes a premium air, that very few do at this price. The display, on the other hand, is simply the brightest we’ve ever tested at this price with solid viewing angles and good colour. However, there are some misses as well, where its competition takes the lead.

The Samsung Galaxy A mid-range series has undergone its yearly refresh and the company launched two compelling options this year – Galaxy A34 5G and Galaxy A54 5G. Both come with their own set of upgrades over their predecessors. The Galaxy A34 – which I reviewed – looks like an excellent bang for the buck offer with upgrades such as a new design language, faster refresh rate, a newer processor, and upgraded RAM. The mid-range segment is quite saturated in India, given the sheer number of launches happening. Does it manage to make a splash in this segment when compared to popular devices such as iQOO Neo 7 (review), POCO X5 Pro (review), Google Pixel 6a (review), Nothing Phone (1) (review), and Redmi Note 12 Pro+? Let’s find out.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Build and design

There’s a certain amount of care and attention to detail that’s gone into making the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G that’s rare to find in mid-range phones, save for perhaps, the Nothing Phone (1). While the Nothing Phone (1) focuses more on sporting a unique look, the Samsung Galaxy A34 attempts to ape the design language of the company’s flagship S23 series lineup. And, it is successful to quite an extent.

The phone’s back panel is classy, understated, and almost identical to that of the Samsung Galaxy S23 (review) and S23+. The camera island is gone and the three rear cameras feature silver metallic rings outlining them, which makes the design of the Galaxy A34 much more elevated. The back is made of plastic and it resists fingerprints with ease, however, the rear panel does get smudged with oily hands. The sides have a metallic sheen to them but they are also made out of plastic. Despite the plastic construction, at no point does the Galaxy A34 feel cheap – in fact, the in-hand feel is quite the opposite of cheap.

The Galaxy A34 weighs 199 g and is 8.2 mm thick, so it is definitely not the leanest smartphone at this price – but the weight of the phone is well-balanced throughout its body and it is quite comfortable to hold. The right side features the power and volume buttons – these are quite tactile and well-built. The top features the SIM tray while the bottom houses the USB C charging port and a speaker. The phone is also IP67 rated, meaning it is protected from elements such as dust and water (1 m deep water for up to 30 minutes).

The front of the phone, however, breaks the illusion of an uber premium phone due to two primary reasons – the dated U-shaped notch and the relatively thick chin bezel. Nevertheless, these are compromises that aren’t too hard to overlook for the overall premium looks. What we couldn’t though is the slow Optical In-Display Fingerprint sensor. While accurate, the fingerprint sensor does take its sweet time to unlock the device. 

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Display

While the display of the Samsung Galaxy A34 is housed in a slightly unflattering manner – due to the U-shaped notch and the thick chin bezel, the quality is top-notch. You get a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED Full HD+ display with 120 Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. However, there’s no HDR support on the display, which is disappointing since the Nothing Phone (1), Pixel 6a, iQOO Neo 7, POCO X5 Pro, and the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ come with HDR support.

The display is an absolute stunner with vibrant, punchy colours and deep blacks – in typical Samsung fashion. The display has good clarity and viewing angles as well. However, the U-shaped notch does impact overall immersion. That aside, the Samsung Galaxy A34’s panel is extremely bright – the brightest we’ve tested in the mid-range segment. The brightness is simply unmatched at this price.

With Adaptive Brightness turned on, we recorded a whopping 1120 nits of peak brightness under sunlight. So, along with the device being bright enough for all normal situations, there will also be no legibility issues in harsh sunlight. The display supports 120 Hz refresh rate, as mentioned above, but this is not adaptive, so it is fixed to either 60 Hz or 120 Hz according to the setting applied. Overall, while the display features are light on some fronts, the crisp visuals, good viewing angles, and high brightness are enough for us to recommend this to users who consume a lot of content on their smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Performance

Equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 6 nm SoC, the Galaxy A34 5G is definitely not packing the most powerful hardware at this price point. We’ve got phones featuring the Snapdragon 778G, and the Dimensity 8200 SoCs at a similar price. So, in general benchmarks, you can see the performance disparity. As for memory, the phone comes with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage along with expandable memory via microSD card.

We pit the Samsung Galaxy A34 against the Nothing Phone (1), iQOO Neo 7, Pixel 6a, POCO X5 Pro, and the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ in our benchmarking tests as they’re all priced about the same, except for the POCO X5 Pro that is ₹5,000 cheaper. In AnTuTu, the Galaxy A34 only managed to beat out the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ which comes with the exact same processor, while all the other phones outshone the A34’s score. In Geek Bench 6 Single Core, while the Galaxy A34 had the best score, it lagged behind every score in the Multi Core test except the Redmi Note 12 Pro+.

We also ran PCMark Work – which simulates real-world workflow on a smartphone – and the Galaxy A34 coughed up pretty impressive numbers here. However, in GPU benchmarks, the phone lags behind considerably in both 3D Mark Wild Life and all three tests we ran in GFXBench. The Galaxy A34’s GPU scores were the lowest among all the phones we compared it against. 

In real-world gaming though, you can play Call of Duty: Mobile at 60 fps without too many frame drops with ease, however, be sure to play such demanding games on Low or Medium graphics. If you try High or Extreme graphics, you will find that the phone will drop frames and stutter throughout your playthrough. So, in our opinion, this phone is not for avid and hardcore gamers – that honour is reserved for the iQOO Neo 7 and POCO X5 Pro – but it is reliable enough to run these games at stable frame rates if the graphics are set to a reasonable level. 

However, for day-to-day usage, the phone is reliable enough. There are minimal hiccups when running basic apps and multitasking is a breeze with 8 GB of RAM. We also ran the CPU Throttling Test to discern the phone’s sustained performance through intensive workloads and it only throttled to 92 per cent of its peak performance. Overall, the phone provides dependable performance but is in no way a top performer at this price point. 

As for user experience, you’ve got One UI 5.1 with Android 13 on top. The experience is generally decent, there are quite a bit of tweaks and customisations for those who enjoy it, and the look of the UI is clean. However, there are a fair amount of third-party apps pre-installed, which can get annoying, but thankfully, most of these can be uninstalled. However, there’s a Samsung Glance feature (much like Realme’s Glance) that shows the latest news on your lock screen – which looks quite spammy. However, there’s no easy way to disable this feature. We tried for a good 5 minutes but were still unable to completely disable the “feature”.

Despite all of this, One UI is a decent software skin and generally less spammy than other ones on the market at this price. However, if you want a clean software experience, the Pixel 6a is still the very best option – there’s no competition. You do, however, get a whopping four years of OS updates and five years of guaranteed security updates with the A34, which is fantastic.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A34 5G features an almost identical camera setup as its predecessor, minus the 2 MP depth camera which had limited usability anyway. The phone houses a 48 MP main lens, an 8 MP ultrawide shooter, and a 5 MP macro camera. For selfies, you’ve got a 13 MP selfie shooter. The primary camera is capable of clicking detailed shots in daylight with good colour and dynamic range. There is oodles of detail in most shots you click and the primary camera is surprisingly proficient at clicking detailed shots even in tricky lighting. Here are some camera samples which have been compressed for the web:

The portrait images of this phone also look fantastic with saturated colours that may not be the most accurate but look social-media-ready. The edge detection is also great, but there are some instances where the phone may miss out on a stray hair. 

Ultrawide shots look good but they aren’t as detailed as the primary lens. The dynamic range is decent but the details in the shadows do get clipped. Low-light ultrawide shots have plenty of noise and grain. Macro shots from the 5 MP lens are surprisingly decent, however, you may need a couple of tries to get the best possible shot.

Low light images from the primary lens are a substantial improvement over the shots without Night Mode active. The shots are detailed enough, have palatable levels of noise, and the colours look good even in low lighting conditions. The picture below was clicked in absolute pitch black conditions.

Selfies from the 13 MP camera look good in most situations, but they do get noisy in low light. Portrait selfies have fine edge detection and the colours of human skin tones seem quite natural if you turn off Beauty Mode. Video is not great at this price point. You get only 1080 p at 30 fps whereas some competitors even offer 4K. The video footage is decent in daylight but without Ultra Steady mode, there’s quite a lot of jitter.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy A34 5G doesn’t improve much on battery life when compared to its predecessor. You get the same 5,000 mAh battery with the same 25 W wired charging, so it's not a huge jump in battery life. The Dimensity 1080 chipset is decently power efficient, so you can expect a day’s worth of battery life with ease if you’re a light to medium user.

However, if you play a lot of games or watch a lot of content, you may need to top up the battery by evening. We got 13 hours and 2 minutes of battery life in our 4K video loop test, however, some phones in this price range have thrown up better numbers. During a 15-minute Call of Duty: Mobile session, the phone’s battery percentage dropped by 6 per cent (from 92% to 86%) and half an hour of Netflix dropped the battery levels by 4 per cent (from 85% to 81%). So, while the battery life is not bad at all, it is not the best in the segment.

Charging speed is also dated for 2023. At around ₹30K, you are only getting 25 W wired fast charging which tops up the phone from zero to full in over 1 and a half hours – this is laboriously slow in 2023 when phones are coming out with 100 W, 150 W and even 240 W charging that tops phones up in mere minutes to full.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G Review: Verdict 

There’s no denying the finesse of the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G – it does a couple of things well, and it generally does it better than most at this price. The key highlights of the Samsung Galaxy A34 are its gorgeous, premium design and its bright Super AMOLED display. The design is, simply put, classy. It exudes a premium air, that very few do at this price. The display, on the other hand, is simply the brightest we’ve ever tested at this price with solid viewing angles and good colour. However, there are some misses as well, where its competition takes the lead. The lack of HDR support, slow 25 W charging, and a dated U-shaped notch are some of the things that may dissuade you from picking this device up. Additionally, it is not the most powerful at this price – however, what you get is dependable enough performance with enough panache to convince most users of its mettle, especially Samsung phone lovers. 

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