Ankur Gupta Online

I had been contemplating writing in this topic for quite some time now,so finally having found time and some facts I’m equipped to comment on it.

iPhone was launched in US on 29th June with much fanfare and hype with fans queing up outside Apple Stores to get their hands on first pieces of this “dream gadget”.But was it really a dream gadget for them?Well probably yes as they didn’t care about the price nor the features that it sported.They only cared about the Multi-touch and the first ever Apple Phone.

Now coming onto the topic..I personally think that iPhone didnot live up to its hype completely.Soon after launch people realized the restrictions that had been put in the firmware.This restrictions ranged from firmware issues to hardware issues including no removable battery/memory,no 3rd Party Application support and so on.These issues along with the steep price led to the hype dying down quickly but still iPhone was a hot selling phone.

Locking of the iPhone with a single carrier contributed a major role in the hype dying down quickly.iPhone within days of its launch had been hacked and many restrictions started disappearing in the air quickly.Recently a free iPhone unlocker has been released on the web making it usable with any carrier around the world.

Reports on the net about hidden features and much better hardware than previously thought also surfaced.According to reports iPhone can manage Flash, Java and MMS. Even more interesting, the platform also has the GPS, FM tuner and 3G capabilities already built-in. But what is the good news here? All those features can be activated by a simple firmware update! If this is really true then I think that iPhone is worth it.

With Apple slashing the prices by 200$ it does seem a lot more attractive but then you wont get the warranty here in India.It has been speculated than iPhone will be launched in India within a fortnight but it seems to good to be true as it wont be easy for Apple to sign an exclusive deal for it with the Indian carriers within such a short span of time.

So is it worth a buy? According to me I would wait till the next firmware update to see what Apple has in store and also the pricing that Apple choses for India which will certainly be higher than the US. If launched at a price of below Rs. 20,000 then it does make a good buy else Nokia N95 is still the king which is certainly much better on features than iPhone.

Your bouquets and  brickbats are all welcome

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Yes I have been busy for the last week deciding on which lappy to buy…Finally I zeroed down on HP dv6516TX as this laptop is best value for the money for the configuration it has…The configuration in brief is as follows:

• Intel® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo processor T5250
  1.50 GHz , Level 2 cache 2 MB, 667 MHz Bus speed
• 2048 MB DDR2 RAM
• 160 GB SATA HDD
• Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
• 15.4” WXGA High Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280×800)
• NVIDIA® GeForceâ„¢ 8400M GS

Rest everything is pretty standard for a laptop but this one does have a HDMI port and a fingerprint reader…

Here is a short review of the HP dv6516TX laptop…

Its been a week since I have been using this and to say the least I am totally satisfied with it..It comes preloaded with Vista Home Premium which works like a charm and boots up in 50 seconds flat.I downloaded the latest drivers from the HP drivers site and my windows experience index shot up from 3.1 to 3.4 which is the lowest subscore for the graphics card.

Though its the lowest Core 2 Duo processor on the laptop but it performs pretty well and handles most of the CPU intensive tasks smoothly.The RAM is enough to run any application available today. I tried a few games like Cell Factor Revolution and other which are graphics intensive and I was able to run them smoothly at decent settings though not at top notch settings which says a lot about the graphics card.The graphics card is DX10 compatible so it makes it future proof for the next couple of years atleast.

The clarity of the speakers is awesome thanks to Altec Lansing but the volume isn’t very high,its medium,so dont even think of relying on them to disturb your neighbors when they are fast asleep!! The integrated webcam that has been provided is VGA which is its drawback but it more than compensates for it by giving very good picture quality which is pretty much comparable to 1.3MP ones…

The fingerprint reader is what I like the most as it takes away the hassle to remember passwords for various sites that you logon and instead makes your finger the most important tool while you are on the net.The touchpad is decent thought not a replacement for a mouse.It has scroll feature and many others features which can be customized through the software but still I will need to buy a mouse.The quickplay buttons are touch buttons which handle your multimedia operations.The remote control is pretty handy while watching movies,giving presentations and even for simple tasks such as turning off the laptop.

Now one of the most important criterions for selecting a laptop is its battery backup.This one manages 3 hours on normal usage and around 2.5 hours on internet usage which will further reduce when gaming.This one is not for those who need to stay long hours away from the AC mains but then they can buy the HP 12 cell battery which I am sure will give a battery backup of 5-6 hours atleast..

I haven’t burnt a CD/DVD yet in the drive but the read speeds are very good and I am sure write speed will also be fast.Seems like this short review of mine has turned into a lengthy one but I think I have covered all aspects of this laptop.

It cost me 55,400 rupees to be exact and if you are on a same budget then look no further and grab this one as I certainly recommend it to everyone looking to buy a laptop.The icing on the cake being the free iPod,notebook skin and free 1 year insurance that makes it unbeatable at this price.The only area is loses out on is its lower processor and the 6 cell battery which gives only 3 hours as maximum backup time.

I would rate it 8/10.

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