Fitbit Versa
Price: From Rs 19,999
Rating: 8/10
Fitbit’s latest wearable device, the Versa, builds on the fundamentals of the Ionic, its flagship and more feature-rich sibling. It’s easier on the wallet than the Ionic and the Apple Watch as well, but it’s not without compromises.
Fitbit’s given the Versa a far more accessible design than the retro-tech Ionic. Its square face with rounded edges is likely to appeal to more folks (including women), even if it is a tad Apple Watch-esque. The lighter weight, courtesy its ultra-thin, anodised aluminum case, makes it great for wearing all day (and night) long, but if you’re looking for the heft normally associated with a premium watch, you’ll miss it in the Versa. Its vibrant colour display is easily visible in bright outdoors, and touch response is fluid. It’s a Fitbit through and through. So, you’re covered for all major workout types as well as swim tracking (which works swimmingly well, mind you!) via the watch and its best-of-breed app. My favourite — sleep tracking — automatically tracks as you drift off to sleep and gives you a summary of your sleep pattern once you wake up. Battery life is an acceptable four days. New watch faces and customisation options are a nice touch.
For its price, GPS is a major omission, especially when you look at the competition. Proprietary clip-in dock is one more accessory to carry when you’re travelling. Smartphone notifications are supported but apps are limited and basic in nature.
Amazon Echo Spot
Price: Rs 12,999
Rating: 8/10
A voice-assistant-based speaker with a screen? It may sound counterintuitive, but with the Echo Spot, Amazon has taken the core Alexa AI assistant features and added in a helpful visual element, which makes the interaction, particularly for smart speaker newbies, feel a lot more complete.
It’s quite unlike any of the other Alexa-powered speakers you may have seen — it’s got a round body with the display placed at an angle, meant to sit at your bedside or work table, ready to serve up glanceable bits of information alongside Alexa’s regular chatter. Set-up is directly via the device’s touchscreen, and you use the usual “Alexa” wake word to interact with the device. This is still a voice-first device, but there’s a visual element to everything on the Spot — when you’re shopping, it shows you what you can buy, when you’re asking it the news, it reads it out with the text on the screen, news briefings have video bulletins. If you’re even the least bit hesitant using a smart speaker, the screen gives you an alternate interaction mechanism via visual cues you’re familiar with on a daily basis. The camera enables video calls to other Spot users or Alexa users (via their phones).
The bottom firing speaker is loud but lacks definition and is just about okay for a bedside device. Given its mediocre audio quality, the price may put off some buyers, who may prefer the cheaper Echo. The far-field microphones on the Spot aren’t quite as good as the Echo’s, so you have to speak up to be heard, especially if loud music is playing.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Price: Rs 1.52 lakh
Rating: 9/10
There are few products that match the iconic status of the ThinkPad, and its flagship X1 Carbon variant is the best iteration of the laptop so far. You pay a pretty penny, but it rewards you with brilliant performance and just sheer ‘dependability’.
Lenovo’s applied the “if it ain’t broke” design principle to the sixth generation X1 Carbon — there’s still the ultra-durable magnesium carbon fibre body, the matte paint job, the iconic red ThinkPad pointer/nub — and it’s unmistakably still very much a ThinkPad if you see it from across the room. Besides packing in the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7 chips and the fastest SSDs in the market, the big upgrade in the sixth gen is the matte-finish 1,080p touchscreen display — it is bright and colour accurate, and the thinner bezels on the side enhance the viewing experience. Despite its thin and light frame, it packs in a day-long battery and a full complement of ports. The keyboard is classic ThinkPad, offering a luxurious 1.8mm of key travel. It’s the kind of keyboard that spoils you for other laptop keyboards. Comfortable trackpad too.
The storage is user serviceable, but the RAM is soldered on to the motherboard. Lacks an SD card slot. Like any productivity-focused thin and light laptop, it’s not meant for gaming, and audio quality is strictly average.
Nokia 7 Plus
Price: Rs 25,999
Rating: 9/10
The Nokia 7 Plus is the first Nokia branded phone to follow the tall 18:9 display trend, one that checks most boxes with a good balance of performance and durability. With the 7 Plus, HMD Global has delivered a solid no-nonsense device in the under-tapped Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 segment.
This is a nice-looking device and a distinctive one at that, with series 6000 aluminum, ceramic-coated rear and copper accents sprinkled all around. The internals — a Snapdragon 660 chip, 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage (expandable to 256 via the hybrid dual-SIM tray) — are respectable, and the choice of Google’s Android One program means snappy stock Android 8.1 and no unnecessary bloatware. Battery life (3,800mAh) is ace, giving me well over a day-and-half of use. Yet, it’s the cameras that show the most improvement — they’re quick to focus, spot on on exposure and capture bags of detail (with a lovely portrait mode and Bothie mode to boot).
Low-light photos are usable, but noise is evident. No major flaws, but nothing stellar about it either — just a rock-solid performer. Its biggest competition is last year’s premium phones at this year’s reduced prices at the one end, and the rather competent mid-rangers on the other.
Tushar Kanwar is a tech columnist and commentator. Follow him on Twitter @2shar.
Mail your tech queries to t2onsunday@abp.in
