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A smartphone spun off the leader of the pack, and a Full HD TV with a built-in DTH connection
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How can a company improve a product that is already excellent? Should they go back to the drawing board and come up with something completely new, or tweak the existing product? HTC has opted for the second option with its new phone.
On their part, Samsung and Airtel have joined hands to launch a television with an integrated direct-to-home (DTH) set-top box (STB).
HTC One M8 Eye
₹ 38,990
In the One M8, HTC has one of the year’s best Android smartphones. The company already has the One E8 variant in the Indian market; now, the M8 Eye joins the party.
The hardware differences first: The M8 had a 4-megapixel camera (known as the UltraPixel). The M8 Eye reverts to a 13 MP primary camera, and boosts the 5 MP front camera to capture 2,592x1,944- pixel images. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core series of processors remain unchanged, but the M8 Eye’s chip clocks at 2.3 GHz, compared to the M8’s and E8’s 2.5 GHz. The M8 Eye doesn’t have the near-field communication option or the ability to connect to a television via cable.
In performance, though, the three phones are not too different. The apps open smoothly, Sense UI (user interface) scrolling is smooth, and gaming performance is on a par.
The M8 Eye’s 2,600 mAh battery offers impressive backup time. Fully charged at 8am, the Eye still had 35-40% of the charge at 7pm.
The camera is the big change. Its app interface remains the same as in the other two. The differences lie underneath, with new camera modes—Split Capture, Crop-Me-In, Photo Booth and Pan 360. In the Split Capture mode, the front and rear camera click shots simultaneously and join them side by side in the final photograph. Crop-Me-In also utilizes both cameras simultaneously, and the image from the front camera can be pasted on top of the image taken by the rear camera—perhaps a more efficient way to take a selfie. Incidentally, all these features are a part of the “Eye" software package, which will also be rolled out for the One M8 and One M7. And that is exactly why One Eye’s hardware change is confusing.
HTC had been touting the image quality and low-light performance benefits of UltraPixel with the previous two flagship generations (M7 and M8). Clearly, it wasn’t as good as they expected it to be. In reality, this 13 MP camera isn’t very different from the UltraPixel as far as the detailing captured goes. But the M8 Eye captures more natural colours and also takes comparatively better low-light photos.
The One M8 Eye has evolved from the One M8, but isn’t really a better phone. The camera is a notch above the UltraPixel in certain conditions, but that is hardly an upgrade.
We would definitely recommend the HTC One E8 (around ₹ 31,000) over the M8 Eye, because it also costs less.
Samsung SmartDirect IDTV H5570
32 inches, 44,900; 40 inches, ₹ 66,900; 48 inches, ₹ 91,500
The problem with using a DTH connection (and now even cable connection, thanks to the digitization overdrive) is that there is an STB between the TV and you—another remote to handle, another piece of hardware cluttering up your space, and generally more confusion. Samsung’s latest smart TV integrates the functionality of a separate high-definition (HD) STB within the TV itself, for the airtel Digital TV DTH service.
How does this work? The implementation is pretty simple. A Common Interface slot is built into the TV. If you decide to use airtel’s DTH, the company will provide you with a Conditional Access Module to enable services. The wire from the dish antenna (installed outdoors) is connected directly to the TV. The TV software already has the coordinates for the satellite transponders, and scans for channels and saves them.
The Settings menu is tweaked to include a separate airtel Digital TV control panel, although you will never have to manually make any configuration changes. It is undoubtedly a reminder of simpler times; people can use just the TV remote to change channels, rather than juggling TV and STB remotes. A sidebar pops up on screen and shows the names of the next couple of channels as well as the current programme being broadcast on each. The Return key didn’t allow a switch to the previously viewed channel.
If you don’t want to use the airtel Digital TV DTH service, this works as a conventional TV too. There are three HDMI inputs to connect other sources—a DVD or Blu-Ray player, media player or gaming console. The two USB ports allow direct media playback off an external drive.
There are a whole bunch of “smart" options, including a quad-core processor to drive the apps, screen-mirroring with smartphones, and the Smart View feature to stream Live TV to your smartphone.
The 40-inch H5570 looks classy; the bezel around the screen is thin, in tune with the designs of newer TVs. Placed side by side with a Sony Bravia 40-inch LED TV from a couple of years back, the H5570 is more compact. The square tabletop stand doesn’t let you swivel the screen towards the sides, although the upright positioning of the panel feels more secure.
Switch on this Samsung television, and the one-time set-up process is the same as Samsung’s entire Smart TV range. This Full HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) panel is crisp, and that immediately makes the otherwise poor-quality standard-definition content look good. Not many televisions can manage this. The colours are vibrant at 55% setting, and none stand out unnaturally. The black hues are deep, and the noise-reduction feature removes the disturbances visible in broadcast content.
This partnership seems to have built a rather solid foundation. The H5570’s picture quality is on a par with the best, across all screen sizes. airtel, on its part, is making it easier for people to subscribe to its DTH service. Its bouquet of channels is impressive, with almost every popular SD and HD channel on board. If only they could do something about that rather big and shabby on-screen logo on all the channels.
Hopefully, there will soon be a TV variant that replicates the functionality of a digital video recorder STB—the ability to pause, rewind and record Live TV.
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