Top Reviews this week: Google Nexus 5, LG G Pro Lite, Acer Chromebook and more!

This week we got a mixed bag of reviews from the tech2 Labs. From the highly anticipated Nexus 5 to GeForce GTX 780Ti GPU, check out our top reviews of the week: 

Google Nexus 5 (9/10)
The Google Nexus 5 is available on the Play Store at Rs 28,990 for the 16GB model and Rs 32,990 for the 32GB model. At these prices, it’s hands-down the best value-for-money, flagship droid you’ll ever find and even more so if you can source one from the US. But this doesn’t mean it’s the best Android device ever. The Sony Xperia Z1, LG G2 and even the Samsung Galaxy S4 are much better Android smartphones as they offer more features and better performance right out the box. If you’re only looking for the best Android experience and timely updates are of utmost importance to you, then look no further than the Nexus 5.

Now available on the Google Play Store

LG G Pro Lite (5/10)
The LG G Pro Lite is priced at Rs 22,990, however you can find it online for under Rs 20,000. At this price, the Sony Xperia C or even the Samsung Galaxy Grand make a much better buy than the G Pro Lite. The reason for this is that LG went overboard with the reductions, leaving us with a very underpowered and dated handset. The phone only scores well in terms of battery life and decent camera performance but falls flat in practically every other department.

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Acer Chromebook C720 (6.5/10)
The Acer Chromebook C720 is priced at Rs 22,999. Chromebooks are still a new idea, so it helps a great deal that the C720 has such great pricing. If you are heavily into gaming or need to run specific software for your work, then you can forget about this machine. The only complaints we have are the display and the keyboard; the former needs to be replaced and recalibrated, while the keyboard is in need for some serious tactile and build improvement. Aside from these issues, it’s fast, portable, lets you edit documents, plays a wide variety of music and video formats and the loud speaker is certainly better than some of the low-end Windows competition. Yes, the lack of full-blown apps for all purposes does take some sheen out of it and the Chromebook loses points for the same. However, for the price the build quality is not half bad, and more importantly, the battery life is stellar.

Has a stellar battery life

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (8.5/10)
The price point of the 780Ti at Rs 59,000 is on the higher side, but it is clearly meant for niche gamers. In terms of performance as you may have noticed from the charts - it aces all the benchmarks. It is around 7 to 8 per cent faster than the GTX Titan and around Rs 10,000 cheaper. Unfortunately NVIDIA didn’t have a GTX 780 at the time of reviewing the 780Ti, so we cannot give the performance improvement in terms of percentage. The GTX 780 still sells around Rs 49,000. Considering NVIDIA has announced price drops for GTX 780 globally - although the Indian market is yet to see it in action - it would have been interesting to note how much of value addition that would be.

ZOTAC ZBOX nano AQ01 Plus (5.5/10)
The ZOTAC ZBOX nano AQ01 Plus is priced at Rs 26,500 and again it faces the same dilemma as we had seen with the ID65 Plus. You cannot expect to win buyers with that price, especially when you are not offering an OS and a keyboard or mouse in the package. The A4-5000 is not the fastest processor either. The graphics are marginally better than the Intel HD 4000 in the gaming benchmarks, but you are surely not going to play games on the AQ01. Go for this only if you are looking to buy an HTPC and a small form factor machine for performing basic tasks such as working with office suite, surfing the web and watching movies. But we would recommend it only if the pricing drops closer to Rs 20,000, considering you will have to pay extra for the OS and keyboard-mouse combination.