Technology has never been as disposable as it is right now. When your laptop is old, you throw it away and buy a new one. When a new version of the iPad (or your preferred brand of tablet) is released, you stop using the old one even if there's nothing mechanically wrong with it. Above and beyond all of this, you probably replace your mobile phone every one to two years as your existing contract comes to an end. You copy all the data, photographs, and apps across from your old phone to your new one, and then your old phone goes in a drawer, never to be used again. 

Whenever you go through the upgrade process, you'll find that your network tries to push one of the latest high-functioning brand-new handsets on you. Even if they weren't doing that, you'd probably be drawn to those phones anyway. Because new phones are released every year, you're left with the impression that the technology that's inside them improves every year, too, and that your best option is to get a newer phone in order to stay ahead of the curve. Is that always the case, though? It's the most expensive choice to make, but is it the right one? Could you save money by getting an older refurbished phone and never notice the difference? 

There are a few things to consider if you're looking at replacing your current phone with a refurbished model, and they boil down to what we call ‘phone essentials.' We'll tackle them one at a time. 

How Good Is The Phone's Camera? 

Despite what everyone believes, the processors inside mobile phones don't usually get better with every passing year. The Snapdragon processor inside the best phones right now is the same as the Snapdragon processor that was inside last year's phones. The cameras, however, do get better. Very few people have digital cameras anymore, and so we rely on our phones as a replacement for them. Right now, the Pixel 4 and the iPhone 11 Pro are thought to have the best phone cameras on the market, but the latest Huawei isn't far behind them. If you can get a refurbished or second-hand model of any of those phones, you'll likely have nothing to worry about in terms of picture quality for the next two years. Your quality guide for this is the megapixel count. If photos are vitally important to you, you might prefer to get a newer phone.

How Good Is It At Playing Games? 

This all comes back to what we said earlier about processors. The games that phones are required to play now are very different from the games that phones played twenty years ago when 'Snake' was popular. Nowadays, people expect their handsets to cope with the latest mobile version of 'Fornite.' There's good news here, though. The first thing to remember is that recently, video games have been taking cues from online slots websites. You don't need to own a casino to play an online slots UK, and you no longer need to own a console to play a video game. Services like Google Stadia mean that games can be played via streaming from servers elsewhere - the exact same way that online slots websites serve their customers - and so there's no strain on your hardware. The second thing to remember is that processors don't improve all that much from year to year. So long as your refurbished phone is well-maintained, there's no reason that a two-year-old phone can't run games just as well as a brand new one can. 

What's The Battery Life Like? 

This is the real killer when it comes to picking up a second-hand or refurbished model. Even with the best will in the world and a very careful owner, the life cycle of a phone's battery will depreciate over time. Apple has even cited this as the reason they deliberately slow their older phone models down over time. There's nothing that can be done to avoid this - it's a process of simple wear and tear that will happen to every phone. It's possible in some cases to acquire a new or refurbished battery at the same time you acquire your refurbished phone, but from a practical point of view, this often pushes the cost up so high that you might as well just bite the bullet and get a new phone. It's not all bad news, though. The competitiveness of your second-hand phone's battery life will depend on how good the phone was when it was brand new. A two-year-old 'flagship' phone from a major provider like Samsung might have a better battery life than a brand new budget phone from a lesser-known provider because it uses superior parts. 

How Much Storage Does It Come With? 

Here's another factor that can kill the effectiveness of older phones. While the size of the average mobile phone isn't getting all that much bigger (unless you choose to buy a phone with an enormous screen), the amount of storage inside them is. Thirty-two gigabytes used to be considered a massive amount of space. Now it's considered insufficient, and 128GB is about the industry average. That will probably double a year from now, and double again the year after. Modern apps take up so much space that you can find yourself running short surprisingly quickly, and if you allow apps like WhatsApp to store all picture and video content directly to your phone, you'll find the space disappearing even faster. This doesn't have to be a barrier to buying an older phone if you apply a little creative thinking to the problem, though. We live in the age of cloud storage. So long as you're comfortable with the idea of your phone constantly backing everything up to the cloud (use a solid password, and you should be fine), there's no reason to store anything on your phone at all. An uncluttered old phone will run faster than a cluttered new one, and you'll get much more life out of it. 

If budget is no issue, then it's better to buy a new phone than an old one in almost all cases. If you're inclined to save a little cash, though, and you don't mind sacrificing a little space or speed, last year's flagship phones are still capable of delivering high performance. Don't feel trapped by a sneaky salesperson - consider all of your options carefully before making a decision.

 

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? 

 

Apple is looking on buying a new Maps service, Nokia is looking on selling its entrie "Here" mapping business. According to a report in Bloomberg, Apple is among the potential buyers for Nokia's HERE mapping business.

 

Other potential buyers of HERE include Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, Baidu, and a group of German carmakers among others. A number of private equity firms are also said to be interested.

 

Nokia has been working with a financial advisor on the sale of its mapping unit. The Finnish company is seeking more than €3 billion (about $3.2 billion), with the first bids due to arrive at the end of next week. Nokia has been busy making headlines lately. The company acquired Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion. It is also rumored to return to making phones next year.

 

Source

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It was just recently that Samsung decided to sell its entire printing business to HP over a $1 billion+ deal and now it might be looking to do the same with its PC business. If the reports are true, then the most likely buyer would be Lenovo, which has the biggest PC business in the entire world. Although it is still unclear as to how much the deal will cost Lenovo, the estimate is around $850 million, provided that it does go through.

As per the aforementioned report, the Asian giants are having some issues in meeting terms while their respective law firms are engaged in negotiating the deal. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is representing Lenovo, while Paul Hastings is doing the same for Samsung. Although Samsung has not confirmed this news yet, we are guessing that this could be another one of the company's moves to slim down its business to concentrate where the money is, rather than losing money over ventures that just did not work for them.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? apple thinking buying nokia here maps lenovo could buying out samsung’s business 

The Coral Blue was an instant hit with the Galaxy Note 7 last year until things went haywire for Samsung and the beloved but feared handset globally. Nevertheless, Samsung re-introduced the same color option with the S7 and S7 Edge later on and just as expected, people loved it in the US especially. Taking a cue from the color's success, it looks like Samsung is all set to introduce it again to the US with the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

Check out the leaked render above to get a taste of what to expect. No information regarding which carriers will be getting the Coral Blue variant was available unfortunately. If it turns out to be true, then the Coral Blue will be joining Arctic Silver, Orchid Gray and the Midnight Black color options in the US, expanding the total number of available colors to four. Samsung has not yet made any comments on the availability of such a device though, but then again, when do they ever! Seeing the S8/S8+ in Coral Blue doesn't seem to be a far farfetched rumor at all; instead it is most likely a logical and predictable step by the Korean OEM.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? apple thinking buying nokia here maps lenovo could buying out samsung’s business buying galaxy s8+ coral blue? 

 

Samsung has just launched its 2019 range of 8K QLED TVs in India and Twinkle Khanna was also there during the presentation for some unknown reason. Now the question is, should you shell out around 60 lakh rupees (roughly USD 86,500) for the 98-inch model? Well, if you are considering it, you might as well go ahead because that is not a sum which probably matters to you anyway!

If you find it to be too pricey though, don't worry, because Samsung has you covered with the more affordable 82-inch model for just INR 17 lakhs (roughly USD 24,500) and the borderline cheap 75-inch 8K QLED TV for only INR 11 lakhs (USD 16,000 roughly). If you did not get the sarcasm yet, you are way too rich or serious for reading this article I am afraid!

If the price on the 8K TV sets made you feel poor, don't worry about it, they are not meant for you or me. Even to those that can afford it though, I would personally recommend staying away from 8K right now and going with the Q90 65-inch (INR 4 lakhs/USD 5,770). Although you will be paying roughly twice the price which customers in the US have to, your expense will be well worth it (kind of and not really)!

Saikat Kar

 

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? apple thinking buying nokia here maps lenovo could buying out samsung’s business buying galaxy s8+ coral blue? buying samsung’s latest flagship qled sets: burn hole your soul itself! 

The Galaxy Fold is all set to be released soon in Korea (September 6) and if leakster @evleaks has it right, then the Fold will be released in US on September 27. The question is, will you be looking forward to owning the foldable wonder?

For the uninitiated, the Galaxy Fold will cost a whopping $2000 or above, depending on which variant you decide to get. Also, T-Mobile has backed out from selling the Galaxy Fold with a contract on its networks, which means that AT&T is your only hope of getting one from a carrier in the United States.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung has managed to iron out the various issues which had made the initial unveiling, quite a disappointment for a lot of fans who had been waiting for the first foldable smartphone from Samsung for years. Some of the observed problems with the prototype were as follows.

Bulky, hefty design

The huge fold gap

The high price which asks the question, why shouldn't you buy a phone and a tablet instead?

Those that will buy the phone will most likely be the ones looking to enjoy the novelty factor, because if what we saw back in February is any indication of what's to come this month, the Galaxy Fold is still not a practical device and will need a few iterations, before the issues can be ironed out.

Saikat

 

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? apple thinking buying nokia here maps lenovo could buying out samsung’s business buying galaxy s8+ coral blue? buying samsung’s latest flagship qled sets: burn hole your soul itself! buying galaxy fold this month? 

The Sony Xperia Z has been confirmed for the US market but unfortunately, it won't sport the fingerprint scanner on the side like its international counterpart. We are not exactly sure why Sony decided to leave out the fingerprint scanner for the US version, but we are guessing it must be a patent issue. Whatever the reason may be, it is kind of hard to recommend a flagship smartphone with a premium price tag that doesn't even sport a feature which has become so rudimentary now that even $100 phones sport them.

The Xperia XZ will hit the US on October 2, with a 700 dollar (USD 699.99) price tag. The handset will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor, 3GB of RAM, IP68 certified water and dust resistance, a 2,900mAh battery and an attractive design which will come in Mineral Black, Forest Blue, Deep Pink and Platinum color options. There's also a whopping 23-megapixel rear mounted snapper, a 13-megapixel selfie cam and a 1080p 5.2-inch IPS LCD display. Considering that there are cheaper and may be even better options out there, will the Sony brand name be enough to lure you away from them?

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Tags: ever worth buying old phone? apple thinking buying nokia here maps lenovo could buying out samsung’s business buying galaxy s8+ coral blue? buying samsung’s latest flagship qled sets: burn hole your soul itself! buying galaxy fold this month? buying sony xperia without fingerprint scanner $699?