 "Top reviews this week: BlackBerry Q5, AMD A10-6800K APU, PhotoScape!")
We have had a busy week at the tech2 labs with a cool new phone, an APU as well as a photo-editing software coming our way. Here’s a roundup from this week:
BlackBerry Q5 (6/10)
BlackBerry’s latest “budget” BB10 device is not really that light on the wallet, coming to the market with a price tag of Rs 24,990. With a simple plastic chassis and a sealed back panel, one of the good things about the phone is that it is light. The Q5 comes with a 3.1-inch IPS panel as well as 2GB of RAM, which makes processing more or less smooth, though a slight lag was noted when switching between homescreens. Internally, the smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with two CPU cores running at 1.2GHz. Additionally, the smartphone comes with 8GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card slot. The Q5 provides the usual host of connectivity options including Wi-Fi ‘n’, GLONASS, Bluetooth, NFC and HDMI. Other features include a 5-megapixel shooter as well as a 2180 mAh battery. While the Q5 is substantially cheaper than the Q10, BlackBerry may need to revamp the Q5’s pricetag if it wants to get more users interested in its smartphone.
BlackBerry Q5 may be a tad bit overpriced…
AMD A10-6800K (Richland) (7/10)
AMD has always had a track record of delivering a good range of internals. The company’s lineup of desktop APUs have always been budget-friendly, primarily because the budget DIYer is assured of good multimedia performance without the need to invest in additional parts like a discrete GPU. With its newest flagship, the A10-6800K APU, it looks like AMD may be able to top the popularity that its earlier A10-5800K Trinity APU enjoyed. With the option of having either two or four ‘Piledriver’ CPU cores built on the 32nm fabrication process, varied TDPs ranging from 65W to 100W as well as a stock speed of 4.1GHz with the ability to Turbo up to 4.4GHz being just a few of the features, the APU is definitely impressive. The new APU is priced a little higher than its predecessor, at Rs 10,000, but the investment is worth it. The A10 is ideal for anyone looking for a one-stop-solution for a CPU and GPU.
AMD AMD A10-6800K (Richland) is defintely a good investment…
PhotoScape (8/10)
If you’re looking for a free photo editing software that is simple, fun to use and really flexible then you have come to the right place. While most other free photo-editing softwares aren’t that great, and the ones that are may be a tad complicated, PhotoScape delivers well on all fronts. Doing away with the need for layers, masking and advanced selection techniques, PhotoScape comes with a bucketful of features which are engineered to help give your photograph that extra punch that will make it stand out from the crowd. With thirteen functions arranged in a circular fashion as well as a host of tabs for easy access to important features, PhotoScape is definite a good deal. Overall, PhotoScape features, apart from the standard, cool tools like Color picker, Paper print, Screen capture and Combine, which serve as icing on the cake. The filters, frames and optimisations all combine to give great looking results. The sky is the limit in terms of creativity when using this software. If you are looking to make something very cool or bizarre, PhotoScape is a fun base to experiment on.
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