You could describe Nokia’s new Lumia 920 in a lot of ways, but you’d never call it understated. Nothing about the phone — not the bold bright body colour options, not the size and the heft of the device, not even the fact that a lot of Nokia’s future depends on the success of this device and its Windows Phone 8 brethren — is even remotely in the same pin code as understated!

That’s not a bad thing, per se. Walk into a store and there’s little to tell a number of Android phones apart, more so with their excessive use of cheap plastic. With the 920, the Nokia design language and the polycarbonate unibody shell that started with the N9 continue to look appealing. Yet, there’s no getting away from the fact — this device is heavy, possibly one of the bulkiest flagships to hit the market in a long while. It’s not excessive, but it sure does carry some extra grams that the competition does not. Flip side? It feels

really sturdy!

Once you get used to the heft, there’s a lot to like. First stop — the gorgeous 4.5-in display, which Nokia terms a PureMotion HD+ with ClearBlack tech. Translated, it’s a crisp 768 x 1280 pixel display that really shows off the bright punchy colours of Windows Phone 8 experience. Speaking of which, Windows Phone 8 flies on the 920, and Nokia’s bundled some excellent exclusive apps by way of the Drive, Maps and Music apps, which make a compelling case for the 920 if you’ve decided to go the WP8 way. Plus you get NFC and wireless charging features, which

admittedly are high on novelty value but limited in daily use.

But it’s another badge that the phone wears that piqued my interest the most — PureView. Strangely enough, the 920 lacks the 41-megapixel sensor and the oversampling technology that gave the Nokia 808 its PureView moniker. What the 920 does deliver on is exceptional low-light images and optical image stabilisation, with the latter making a world of a difference to your photos and videos.

The 920 then is a worthy device to wear the WP8 flagship crown, but does that mean you should pick one up? WP8’s app situation is picking up, but the much-delayed 920 launch makes one wonder if more aggressive pricing would have positioned the 920 better against the far

superior hardware that the competition is rolling out at similar price levels.

lRating: 8/10

lPrice: Rs 38,199

lURL: http://bit.ly/14BCJXu

Killer moves

T

he Hitman series has always emphasised problem solving over brute force, and the latest instalment, Hitman: Absolution, builds on this premise. You play Agent 47, possibly the most stylishly dressed hit man in gaming, who starts the story being sent out to eliminate his former handler. This interesting plot set-up also serves as the game tutorial to familiarise you with the controls and capabilities of Agent 47. Pity that the plot degrades from there on into a rather silly storyline, the setup had so much promise…

Gameplay involves you moving from one assassination to another, which are laid out in the form of puzzles where you figure out the best way to eliminate the target. If things go wrong and you’re caught in the act, you’ll need to be stealthy and only take on as much as you can handle — unlike a number of other games, you’ll quickly die when you try to go up against more than two or three people at once. Any more, and you best bet is to run, and run fast! Boy, those moments get really tense! All in all, a worthwhile game to pick up, more so if you prefer finesse over force.

lRating: 7/10

lPrice: Rs 2,799

lURL: http://bit.ly/XbmYzd' http://bit.ly/XbmYzd

Note worthy

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ake the pleasure of writing in a Moleskine notebook, and add the smarts that come with the Evernote app. That’s the promise behind the Evernote Smart Notebook — the ability to transform and tag your handwritten pages into searchable Evernote notes. All you do is take a picture of the page with the Evernote iOS or Android app. Sure, you can already do this on any notebook, but these notebooks feature specially patterned lines and four sheets of stickers so Evernote can more easily recognise your writing and automatically tag yours pages.

lRating: 8/10

lPrice: HK$228 (delivery to India)

lURL: http://bit.ly/XWSBgB