Short review of the Lenovo Smart clock

Introduction

I was not looking what I was doing and plugged in my Alexa power supply into my wooden LED digital clock that I purchased from Singapore for above 50 SGD and the next thing I know is the clock was beeping with screwed up display.

I knew that was the end of it. So there began my search to replace that clock. I checked out many websites in India and came across that the same LED clock including shipping would cost me much more than 50SGD. It was not worth it and I was wondering what to do when I came across the Croma web site which was selling the Lenovo Smart clock at a deep discount of 3999/- down sharply from the MRP of 9999/-

At the time it was launched the thought of someone having to pay 10k for that clock astounded me. So I did not for it at that time. However at 3999/- it was a compelling buy.

Unboxing

I made a short video on unboxing this clock. It was a fairly simple unboxing and took very minimal time and less fussy as well. Take a look for yourself.

Salient points about the gadget

The following are worth mentioning about the gadget

Quite some decent amounts of clock faces
pretty amazing brightness levels almost doubling up the clock as a night lamp for your room
Good readable main clock face font
Amazing loudness of volume for announcements and google replies

Main controls such as brightness, volume etc are neatly placed on the slide up menu on the clock
Other widgets such as alarms, weather etc are accessible by swiping left or right
Textured cloth finish with volume buttons on top of the clock
Triangular shape makes it sit on the desk without an issue

Other buttons such as mute, power cable input etc are neatly placed at the rear and are accessible without even seeing them, mute button being a slider is easy to operate
Hardware seems rock solid in the hand as well as throughout the operation

Since it connects to WiFi, even after a power cycle, it picks up the current time from the network without a fuss unlike other digital LED clocks
Integration with devices to cast to, is commendable
USB connectivity at the rear

CONS: There are really no points I can take to nitpick on this product. I really do not have much to say on the negatives of the product. In fact in my opinion there are really no negatives. Had it been sold for the original price of 10000 it would have been a huge negative, but that is also not the case now.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Smart Clock is a great buy at 3999/-, the hardware is slick and fuss free, the display is amazing and so is the sound. It does sound a bit tinny since it is not a bass machine like say the HomePod and rightly so. This is not a device built for music but still gives you listening pleasure if you wish to play music.

For what it has to offer, it is pretty accurate and integrates google tech very well inside what is a right dimension of hardware. The Lenovo Clock is a hardware that would get you to actually use it more than say a Google Home Device. Its understanding of Indian English accent is commendable as well considering how far Google has come with this.

So what are you waiting for, let me know in the comments below if you liked the review and if you are going to get yourself one of these.

Until my next post, Stay safe!

WAHL wired hair clipper – is it a good buy?

So finally I did it. The opportunity came across. COVID. I could not and did not want to go for a haircut to a salon outside due the risks. The only other option was me to have a haircut at home itself. And for my kids as well.

I had a Philips beard trimmer which was unsuitable to cut hair on the head. In fact it is even a wrong tool to use to do that. I had seen a lot of these hair trimmers in the salons that I was interested to see what they were using. And then it came through. I made an Amazon purchase for the WAHL corded clipper.

So was it a good purchase? Read on to find out as I will share interesting snippets about this product.

Features of the product

In short its a corded hair clipper. Period. But with a difference.

Very powerful and consistent motor
Adjustable blade with a mechanical handle
Chrome plated rust proof blades
Comes with four attachments for different hair lengths

Talking points

The clipper is heavy. If you do not hold it properly it can give you wrist pain. It is seriously heavy in a good way. It feels solid in the hand. The motor is powerful. Really powerful. You can feel it when you switch it on. Perfect build for the price.

The hair lengths attachments help you adjust how much of hair length you want to clip. It take a bit of getting used to.

Here is a video review of the product unboxing

Utilitarian aspect

This is the real thing about this product. Can you actually use it at home. I used it at home and this is what I found out, read on.

You need the person to sit on a bar stool preferably for you to stand upright while trimming hair. If you are bending forward and downward to where the subject is, its not a great position
There are tactical ways of running the trimmer on the hair, if you don’t keep the angle right, you are going to snip right upto the scalp. It takes a lot of getting used to get this right
You take the longest measurable attachment, move from bottom to top, then the next one move from bottom upto 3/4th of the top, then the next one from bottom upto 1/2 the top and the last one bottom upto 1/4 the top. This is the pattern to leave longer hair at top while having the shortest hair at bottom
For the top of the head its best to use comb, your hand and scissors. Weave your hand along the top hair, raise it up and snip a quantum that pops way out of your fingers, keep repeating this until there is no more hair that pops up beyond your hand depth when placed on the top of the head. This is by far the easiest thing to do as its a natural step
For all the attachments provided you still need the comb and scissors method too, and its not totally avoidable.
There is no magic formula to use this machine. Everything comes by experience. We need to use different mechanisms to get the haircut done.
There are other aspects such as lots of hair sticking onto body or falling on the floor at home which needs to be taken care of. We need a good apron preferably satin onto which hair does not stick. Again experience plays the part to find out what suits best
For the hair that needs to be completely removed such as edges, we can use beard trimmer without any attachments, but carefully
If you are using any of this on children, utmost care is to be taken to accommodate the fact children however old they are will move their head beyond a point as they begin to get frustrated. For an inexperienced user who gives the haircut this process can go on until 45 minutes to an hour and still result in imperfection.
There is no way to learn this without humans as that method is expensive requires dealing with wigs to practice, etc

Conclusion

The product is solid for its price. It has none of the efficiency issues that we may have with cordless trimmers. It’s a simple product with not much tech complications, but still can get difficult to use as the process is more about skill than anything about the product usage itself.

The other things it will teach you are patience, care, being slow, and getting to know how difficult a barber’s job really is. This is why everyone cannot be a barber. This is not a lawnmower job, it is a hair trimming job. And if the end result is a disaster you not only lose that customer, you will lose other customers also by word of mouth.

With every lost customer, the skill is hard to master. If you liked this review, leave me your comments below!

WWDC – Improvements to OS releases – part 3, Mac OS Big Sur & ARM

In the second of this three part series, I outlined the improvements to WatchOS, Privacy, Smart Home, and Apple TV coming up in iOS14. To conclude in this article we discuss the big daddy of all OSes, Mac OS.

Mac OS Improvements

This time the new operating system is going to be called Big Sur. The focus is on design and power of the OS. Some of the important introductions are as below

User Experience (UX)

There is a complete redesign of the user interface and experience meant for rich look and feel, maintaining simplicity and ensuring easy usage and great UX
Sidebars and Toolbars are added for most apps
Transparent Menu bar which merges with background
Soft sliders for controls like volume
Control center is now integrated into Big Sur, just like iPhone and its customisable to what you wish to have

Widgets, Messages, Maps & Catalyst

Widgets are now available to Big Sur
Messages on mac now carries over iPad based updates to memojis and powerful integrations of things like photos, icons, etc directly into messages.
MacOS supports all map features discussed previously for iOS 14. On the move though these may not be so useful but just before you leave you can setup a lot of data on your desk and it will all hopefully be there on your phone as well
Street level views and look around, points of interest, important locations known to you can now be pinned
Catalyst app now available and will support adapting iPhone apps to mac with enabling all the good features of Mac OS with respect to screen size, and lots of other things

Safari browser speed improvements

Big Sur claims that the Safari browser is now 50% faster than Chrome. And we all know that Chrome is going down the drain with its memory hogging functionality. This comes at a time when Microsoft Edge is blazing fast on all platforms. The real competition is now really between Safari and Edge rather than Safari and Chrome

Safari also has improvements to privacy and now will allow users to see how websites are tracking them, using privacy report button. Website passwords have stronger level of encryption within Safari in case of a data breach and Safari is now also allowing developers to port extensions to Safari easily.

The Mac app store will also feature a list of these extensions to find them easily. Being able to give extensions permissions just by the hour or day and giving them specific permissions for specific websites makes Safari very powerful. Safari also has a new look with custom backgrounds, and specific themes.

One of the issues we people have always had is to have multiple tabs open to the point that each tab shows only the icon. It would by then become hard to read and we would not understand which page is on which tab. For this the new browser comes with page preview just by pointing the button at that tab which in my opinion is a great move.

Another feature introduced by Safari also includes the fact that we can now close only tabs to the right or only taps to the left. Safari also comes now with built-in translation where we can translate an entire webpage in real-time contextually while being on the same page. This is especially great if you want to read content written in other languages, but shown in let’s say English.

Move to ARM

Perhaps the biggest update in WWDC but still nothing visual is the decision from Apple to move from Intel to ARM. This is by far the most important decision that will let Apple bring about newer tech in near future of at least five years. Every new hardware released hereon will be having ARM chips and it is an exciting time for both Apple and ARM knowing the sophistication of ARMs IPs in terms of performance and the likes.

Some of the key points about the hardware evolution are as below

100x improvement in CPU performance
Larger GPU and wider memory subsystem for much better graphics performance over the years
1000x faster performance in graphics in ten years
2 billion devices shipped since ten years is a whopping achievement
Focus on devices giving highest performance with lowest power consumption
Big Sur is be default having native apps built for the new silicon
Universal 2 for converting apps to support native silicon or Intel
The real deal would be when users use complex apps like photoshop, final cut pro which would seamlessly provide performance most likely at less power consumption, like for example applying filters on 4k preview videos while editing on a project.
Rosetta 2 would help in automatically help translate intel based apps to work on new silicon even though the app is not completely refined
Gaming is expected to be super smooth for rendering frames
Support for virtualisation and support for iPhone and iPad apps to run seamlessly on Mac’s new chips
The SoC kit is available as a mac mini for using Big Sur and Xcode so developers can work with to perfect their apps

Conclusion

The developer betas are already available and the iOS 14 release would be officially available by Fall time (September in India). These OS updates are substantial in their own right and have finally caught up with what Android was offering all the while. But in a more sure footed manner.

It is an exciting time for buying Apple products especially with the very performant and less power hungry ARM cores and it is only anyones imagination how many avenues this will open for Apple in future. The only thing left to do is to wait to savour the new iOS14 for now and some great ARM based hardware in the years to come!

WWDC – Improvements to the iOS 14 release – part 2

In my last post we discussed the impact of the new features being launched as part of iOS 14 release which is upcoming. Simultaneous improvements to WatchOS, iPAD OS, MacOS, and TVOS also mean all things get incrementally better than before.

In this second post, let us discuss the remaining things that made up the WWDC announcements.

Watch OS 7

So the Watch Os is undergoing some transformation as well. The things they have introduced are

additional complications that developers can provide in their apps
Much more detailed level of customisations to watch faces to include specific information
Sharing of watch faces – now you can simply share your watch face or add a watch face you see on the net, or even share on social media
The map enhancements are now added to watch OS, specifically focussing on cyclists.
The watch OS also adds an app called Fitness which now has recording of dance moves very accurately for different variety of dances, which measures accurate calorie burn rate
Watch OS also now focusses on tracking sleep better and more importantly preparing for you to go to sleep by dimming screens, showing relevant messages, playing calm music, etc. It also measure sleep activity to monitor what is happening when you sleep.

Note: For India however the cycling data on watch is not going to be so very useful yet. The sleep monitoring assumes you have the watch on, and the phone near you which we Indians are not accustomed to.

Special feature – helping you with your hand washing during COVID times. Apple thought they could use their existing sensors to include this feature where the watch knows the time when you are washing your hand apparently and runs a 20 second timer to ensure you wash enough. During pandemic times such small but important features add to customer delight if not anything else. Again for India, one cannot be really sure how many of us will even be using these watches or wearing them all the time.

Privacy

Apple is making many improvements to privacy of customer data. Customers can now choose what kind of data they want to send back to the servers. Some of the salient points on privacy are as below

Most of the data is processed in the phone, with minimal queries to servers, or storage on servers
Customer get to decide what data to share with Apple
Signing in with Apple Pay is going to get wider reach and going to be provided to older operating system users as an upgrade
Location sharing can now be approximate
Users will need to give permission to apps when they use mic or camera
Safari will now show you what data is being tracked by websites
Users will be able to see the information the App will track before they download that app

For us Indians, this is a welcome move to protect privacy of phone users.

Smart Home

The home app is now going to have a uniform standard of being able to identify appliances within home since Apple is now collaborating with many companies to integrate their products into the OS.

Smart notifications like the one that comes up when AirPods are nearby and ready to pair for example will now be shown on iPhone with automatic intelligent automations being suggested by the phone for each device.

Special focus is on some things like

lighting systems – adaptive lighting to adjust colour temperature throughout the day
Cameras – will now integrate with Apple TV, and users would be able to decide and designate the exact area they want to monitor for movements with ability to use Siri to help you show cameras that you want to see right on your TV

Apple TV

Apple TV gets slightly better with PIP support for handling workout activities while watching your favourite shows, multi user profiles with pausing games where the user left off the previous times, etc.

Apple TV+ also includes Foundation, a visualisation of Issac Asimov’s novels.

In the last part of this article series, let us see what is coming up as part of Mac OS Big Sur.

Apple WWDC 2020 – understanding the upcoming improvements to the latest OS – Part 1

Introduction

At the WWDC Apple launched many improvements to many of their operating system versions and many new features as well which makes Apples operating system exciting to use. This article aims to dig deeper into how these features translate into productivity or usefulness for the Indians at large.

We will understand how these features are going to be to use in daily life for many people in the Indian subcontinent. So what are we waiting for? let’s just dig right in.

iOS 14 updates

App Library

The app library is a welcome addition to what we already thought as a cumbersome operation of having to arrange apps the way we want. However I have a grouse about this, there are automatically arranged categories and sometimes that may not be what the user really expects.

My opinion is that the app library may probably have few useful blocks, but there could also be blocks that are not exactly those choices the user wanted.

In India we have different ways of organising apps. While some people have too many apps, and they have so many categories which themselves go into pages and pages, others just have hundreds of apps lying on different screens. All said and done no one goes beyond page 1 of the screens.

Widgets

This was never properly implemented in iOS since a long time due to which Apple may have lost business by users on Android buying many phones which offered these since a long time. However that is about to change now with apple offering widgets on the latest iOS. These widgets are beautiful and knowing apple they come in different shapes and sizes with different amounts of info with the unique feature that upon moving the widgets around app icons, the icons arrange themselves without asking you to show how the widget fits on the screen. This is a welcome move and now iPhone users will finally feel on par and in some cases even better than android users.

Smart widget stacks automatically move depending on time of the day to show you what you want and you can see all different types of the same widgets even before placing them on the screen. This clearly shows that Apple has understood the pain points about these widgets on Android before launching them here and has fixed all those potential problems.

Picture in Picture

The picture in picture is another Android feature that was available on Samsung and other phones since a long while. So its the same thing here the only quirk being that if you minimize the video, audio still keeps playing. Other than that its pretty much normal fare and is coming to iPhone a few years late.

Siri

Siri has been redesigned in iOS 14 to be more smarter and answer more complex questions. Other than that the results of questions you pose Siri are shown as notifications overlaid on the current app you are using if the information suits such a panel (like for eg., weather) which means you are less likely to be visually disturbed.

Other than that Siri button is now much more minimal and shows up in a really small area of the screen unlike the wavy UI we have known Siri for.

Audio messages and dictation are more integrated with Siri now. Nothing that was not there before, but hopefully more accurate.

Translate app

Siri would have been able to translate few sentences here and there anyways in due course, but what fun is it to just use it for that. What we would like to have is two panes with one showing the language I know, and the other showing the language I want to know, and both using audio inputs to help translate from one language to another side by side. So this is a good move to make it a separate app called Translate which would be very useful in due course.

Just that be aware for Indian languages the updates may take a year or year and half to be rolled out with mostly basic support for Hindi, and a few other languages. This is not easy so that is how it is going to be. There will be delays in rolling this out fully in all countries. With India the challenge is 26+ different languages and hence its also an opportunity for people to contribute to this app if need be. The specifics are yet to be rolled out in due course.

Only 11 languages are now supported and more are yet to come. This app works completely offline as well and securely so that your data is with you.

Landscape conversation mode is wow as usual !

Messages

In short, conversations are going to be supported now under messages. Also many more memojis as this seems to be gaining popularity. In line replies to messages were much needed and going by the demo it seems well implemented. The only thing you could do earlier was to show icons, but now real actual messages can be collapsed and expanded as replies to a message in the conversation.

Pinning conversations above, messages showing up on avatars and @ addressing someone so that you can subscribe to only those messages sent to you as notifications are some improvements to this feature. However this is where I have the biggest grouse with Apple yet in 2020. In India we know that 7/10 messages we get are spam. Mobile numbers are sold and within no time of acquiring a number you are beginning to get spammed already.

The junk section of the SMS messages was not implemented properly and it remains so in iOS 14. This is a big disappointment. With apps like true caller or advanced algorithmsappstools that could have helped to kill these promo messages by filtering has been given a miss (whether or not it is country specific). This could have been difficult to implement or too country specific – not sure – but its a disappointing miss nonetheless.

So dear fellow Indians, let us continue to not use SMS app on iOS. Bad. Or you can still look at that important salary credit information along with that SMS which provides you confidential massage or friendship services in utmost fairness in an area nearby where you live.

Apple maps

Every WWDC there will always be a talk about maps being redesigned ground up. I am not sure why maps has to be redesigned ground up. For me ground up means throwing out the old code and restarting from scratch, so unless you are doing that Apple I think usage of word ground up is not so correct in my opinion.

That said, Google maps now shows you which lane you are on when you are going by a flyover, whether under or over it. A guy from fast company shares an opinion that apple maps is way better than rival google. Well please come to India and start using Apple maps and I will bet you that if you do not ditch apple maps in half an hour, I will be surprised.

Let me be a blunt here, finding great places is not what we do on everyday basis with maps. We use maps to get from point A to point B in India, in the least amount of time. All we want to know in Bangalore is whether we will spend 3 days at silk board, or 1 week before we get a move on. Having said this, all we wish to know is how long it will take to get from A to B. 70% of Indians dont use maps or have smartphones. 90% of the remaining 30% use maps for the reasons I stated and the remaining 10% of the 30% maybe using it to find “great places” using guides.

Now coming to some good things about maps, there are cycling routes introduced. But in India you cycle over the same flyover someone drives through. So big deal again! For us we have only one set of clogged roads whether you are on cycle or bus, or auto, or car, or a bullock cart. And for us if a cycle can go somewhere so can an auto or a two wheeler, we will somehow squeeze through. And we only lift our cycles while crossing the road or giving it to service.

As for EV routing, hopefully we would need that feature in 2030. As for notifying which areas are congestion zones don’t bother. Just show a huge big circle around Bangalore. That is all. The whole city is a congestion zone for us anyways.

Car Play

Ok so you have great improvements on Car Play which includes – wait a minute – new wallpaper options? Really? Wow!

And you want to digitally open the car. That is great. So how do I use it? Wait what? I need to purchase the next year’s BMW for that feature? Hmmm …..

When launching features like this how about using SMS, bluetooth and some existing tech to make every car digitally lockable and unlockable? That would have been real innovation. Well I am hoping some accessory guy will come up with that shortly.

And sure yes you are making this tech available with iPhones and new cars only, but why not old cars? With a mod maybe?

App Store

App clips are small part of apps, and launches to just let you pay or do some important things only instead of needing full apps. That now is a good move apple.

iPAD OS

So basically Apple have launched something called sidebar which in effect is windows explorer’s clone on ipad. Calls on iPAD now have compact notifications instead of full screen one, again something Android has finished eating for breakfast lunch and dinner long long back. What took you so long? And on top of that you say customers will love it? No doubt, they were already getting frustrated and were about to switch to Android for something as basic as this. Good for you, you held them back.

The universal search is a good addition and was always there on other devices such as TV from sometime. I am not sure such a thing is there for Android yet and so deeply integrated, so correct me if I am wrong there. Good for Apple with this feature.

Apple Pencil

Here is where Apple has innovated this year and it shows. Using Scribble feature you can directly enter a URL into a browser address bar for example. But for longer URLs that is going to be a pain. I do not see many people using pencil to do that. However it is about continuity where a person doing free form writing actually also can input text without putting the pencil down.

It is the intent Apple had that has to be lauded. Of course a larger scale reading written text and able to paste that as analysed text into some other context is where Apple seems to have beaten Samsung at least with this release of the operating system.

Using scribble on any text field is a welcome move. Pretty cool ! Allowing me to draw figures and making them accurate, interpreting phone numbers and directions from what I write are just the most natural way of seamlessly adding richness to content. I hope you have patented that Apple!

Airpods

Airpods now switch to the nearest device you are using. Without asking you. That is pretty seamless and a much wanted feature. And this time around Apple has worked on the spatial audio algorithms to give you the best sound experience with Air Pods. Tracking your head as your head moves to alter the sound distribution is way too tech savvy for sure.

The only thing left for apple is to read your brain waves and interpret what you are thinking about that secret date you are planning for and sending reminders about it which others in your family can see 🙂

Read about the rest of the WWDC updates in the Part-2 of this article.

2020 – The shark joins the family

Introduction

I am not new to T-BHP, and have been here since about mid 2006. That is now 14th year with the site. That said, I have also had the good fortune to own many new and pre-owned cars (just due to my craze in cars). I started off with a Maruti 800 3rd hand car to learn driving in 2000, after which I moved on to Fiat Palio NV, a new Maruti 800 AC, the Swift VDI, Honda City pre-owned, the Ford Figo, Nissan Sunny, Honda Civic pre-owned, Maruti Ciaz, Honda BRV pre-owned, Tata Nano pre-owned, and Maruti Celerio. As you would see after the downfall or the news of FIAT not doing so well, I went with Honda or Maruti mostly with the exception of also having the FIAT MJD where possible.

You can read about some of my other cars here, here, and here

Few of these cars were petrol, and few diesel, but I have always been a diesel-head. I do not know what really made me change cars, but on a pure ROI basis, I would have spent as much as about 2-3 cars changing so many cars over this period. Of all these Maruti was no nonsense and I knew what to expect. Although they still were/are making tin cans with the probable exception of XL6. I was a 3 time Honda owner and have finally ditched Honda after a hattrick session of issues with these cars and my legs which I will detail a bit later.

Buying another car was just a routine affair for me after so many. But I was in a severe dilemma. After so many cars, I just wanted my legs to be at peace. Of all these the celerio and BRV were automatic petrols and the BRV was fantastic for ownership – it was such a fuss free car. But the issue of leg pains tormented me all over again. My thoughts that automatics will be better for legs were rubbish. The right leg was angled badly in automatic cars and this was hurting me. I had to go manual again. And diesel it had to be to leverage on the torque. Now the question was which one this time?

Criteria to own a car

I had to buy one more car. A car that would keep me happy for few more years without a change. I knew it had to be a diesel manual for sure as it put me at ease compared to the automatic as I had control over how to drive my car. It had to be value for money for the features given and it had to meet these criteria.

Leg space with far seat push back for driver seat
Ground clearance to avoid shitty potholes in Bangalore
Not too much body roll if possible
Tech gimmicks
Reasonably good mileage, torque and power
Complete VFM for the price paid
Good AC with inbuilt stereo supporting apple car play for my phone
I did not want to install any accessory this time extra barring a few I wanted everything in the car itself – fully loaded vehicle
Resale was a consideration but the lowest priority one

Too many choices in 2019

Given the great launches of 2019, I had the following options this time around without paying heed to any pricing bracket.

Nissan Kicks
Ford Ecosport
Tata Harrier
MG Hector
Kia Seltos
Renault Duster
Renault Captur
Jeep Compass
Tata Hexa
Nexon / WRV / Brezza / Ertiga
XL6, Ciaz 1.5D

I needed to be absolutely sure that any car I buy was VFM, and kept me cool during my 25km (total per day) commute up and down in Bangalore if you know what peak traffic looks like. So the ground rule was that any test drive had to be in similar conditions and if someone didn’t offer me that it was a no-no for me.

Now for elimination rounds. Ready?

Kicks

I took a test drive of kicks diesel and my opinion was that the pedals were a bit hard to press, but overall the engine was good, but the car was rather lacklustre even with its intelligence. The horrible part was the sub par below HD rear camera that put me off. Seating was for 5. Grey leather interiors were not so great. The music system was sub par. They were offering 0% interest scheme etc but the whole sales pitch was not really up to the mark. At about 17.4 lacs OTR Bangalore, this was not so much VFM. At 15 you could consider this. Moreover Kicks was fast approaching the likes of Duster, Captur, etc into oblivion in terms of dated designs. Kia almost smashed every other car out of the park with Seltos.

Duster and Captur

I had seen much of this already, and although these are the toughest cars money can buy honestly in that price range, the design was dead on arrival for me so I had to drop it. Even if I had bought these they would easily depreciate by 50% very very soon as I had enough experience with Ola cash my car, or Olx, or cars24, etc by now. So buying one of these means 5-7 lac of depreciation in 2-3y. Design and modernness and appeal was missing in 2019 to go forward. So no test drive taken.

Jeep Compass

Eliminated due to cheaper options with same engines available at lower price point such as hector, harrier. Also space was a concern.

Nexon, WRV, Brezza, Ertiga

All dropped because at about 10-12 lac-ish they either lacked features, or power, or space or something or the other. Only way to get more is to go to 15 lac + range. Initially I wanted to stop at 15 lacs, but later I made up my mind to go to 20 + or – 1 or 2 more lacs. As long as there was VFM. The VFM always ensured I listened to my mind than my heart.

XL6

New launch, only petrol, no diesel, so dropped although it was more appealing than Ertiga.

Ciaz 1.5D

Old hand, I already owned 1.3 ciaz, was very cool to drive. Took a test drive of 1.5D and was blown away by the drive. Absolutely scintillating engine and overall drive. Smooth like hell. But reserved judgement for a while more. I got this at 13.75 lacs. Which means it was tending to 15 already. Surely VFM with everything in place – leather seats, white led’s alloys, and what not. Strong contender for sure.

Tata Hexa

When the car was launched the Tata hexa was awesome. But once more new choices were available this car also seem to be getting obsolete with respect to design. It is not that it was an incapable car but the engine was a bit outdated and I was in two minds whether to go for it or not. I also perceive the car as heavy and was not so much to go towards the Tata brand. Their service network leaves a lot to be desired and after owning the Tata Nano I was not okay to go to Tata again with the exception being Harrier.

Ford Ecosport

The Ford EcoSport was an old horse again. It has sold very well since inception over multiple iterations. Even after so many years it was still not looking very outdated. My friend owned an eco-sport automatic and I have driven it multiple times. As long as you handle it with care it is a breeze to drive within city traffic. But the version I was considering was a diesel manual the same one the Figo came with. The dealer offered me a 12 km ride and the car performed extremely well. The engine was very potent and each and every functionality was well integrated within the car. I actually kind of like the sync system in the older car. The point is about finding what you want easily and Ford are masters at this. I did have some leg pain but that’s probably because I was driving the new Ford for the first time and it took some time getting adjusted to.

The Ford EcoSport was a strong contender in the buying game and at about 15 lakhs this was a very good machine to go for.

Tata Harrier

Even though I was concerned about the bulk of the car the Harrier was a worthy alternative at about 18.5 lakh. This was not the top end version. The dealer offered me a 12 km drive through peak traffic. I also took a shorter test drive around the office once more. The first thing you notice about the Harrier is its bulk. It is a real SUV but also one that blocks many parts of your vision with its thick pillars. When you’re standing next to vehicles in peak traffic, you don’t get a sense of safety and feel that you may probably hit the two wheelers standing next to you.

Gear shift and clutch seem a bit disconnected and although it easy to drive and powerful to the interiors lack finesse and Tata could have done better for a car this expensive. Of course there are eight speakers and the Harman stereo but I somehow felt the tech stuff could’ve been more cooler. It would not be wrong to say the hexa is actually better than the Harrier inside. Since the car seemed way too big for me and did not offer me VFM for the price I have to pay I decided to drop it.

Kia Seltos

This car has been grabbing headlines ever since its launch simply because it is a car with all the features anyone can ask for at this point in time. The point was not that the people did not have money but they wanted a vehicle which offered them more. In every possible way this car was good but I did have some things to pick on.

The doors wouldn’t open wide enough and the space in the middle row was just about okay if not great. This was a car where the clutch and gear shift were mated very well and it was a joy to use. The power is adequate for five people and the torque meant that you could putter around in city traffic easily. So this car was obviously in the list.

MG Hector

This car was the dark horse among all cars and irrespective of the negative publicity it manage to gather, as a car it offered much much more at a lower price point. This car was sitting right higher than Ford EcoSport and slightly lower than the Seltos top end HTX+ variants. Ride quality was very good and I had a 12 km test drive of this car as well. The power was very good and the way it was able to handle potholes on the road was awesome. It had huge amount of space both for the rear passengers as well as for luggage and this was a selling point for me.

I preferred to go for the top end variant but the problem was this was going about 20 lacks. The second gear had an issue in this car and was not properly tuned so I did have a few instances where the car stopped in second gear. The fiat MJD with 170 bhp of power was very evident with this car. This car made the Harrier look pale in comparison. This car also made it to my buy list.

Finalists

Kia Seltos, MG hector, Ecosport and Ciaz 1.5D.

For a long time, I really wanted the 1.5 Ciaz again, but the thought of owning another Maruti again kind of made me look elsewhere. The XUV and Scorpio were out since they were old, outdated and somewhat not in my taste. The Verna did not even figure here because I did not prefer a Hyundai. So also the Venue since it was utmost a small 5 seater raised to a good ground clearance. Somewhat felt it was overpriced.

I booked the hector, second variant manual diesel. White colour. Paid 50000 bucks. I told him take your own time to deliver upto 5 months. I wanted the delivery to be in 2020. During the time I waited, I could not still give up on the others so easily. After a lot of reading about BS4/6 confusions for diesel cars and the fact I already owned Ciaz with a heavy heart I decided to let the 1.5D go. After driving the Seltos I came to appreciate the features a lot and for 18.9 lacs I was getting leather ventilated seats, Bose speakers, purifier, sun roof and what not. So I decided to cancel the hector booking and book the Seltos instead. By now it was November of 2019 and when I went to book it, they jacked the prices to 19.5 and at this price the HTX+ made no sense for VFM – my original criteria. Without a bit of thinking I dropped the Seltos as well.

Wild card entry – Mahindra Marazzo

That left the Ford Ecosport only on the list. Very capable and right in all sense of the word. I had carefully kept off MUV cars in all this search but this is where I called Mahindra and asked them whether they would give me a test drive of the marazzo and I got my 12km test drive upto my home in peak traffic. I checked for parking at my home and it was a bit tight. But still managed to feel that parking was possible correctly.

The car itself was a 120bhp 1.5 Diesel from the Mahindra stable and the first thing you notice is its super silent engine/cabin. On the test drive, it was not the star performer, but ticked many of my boxes on the list. The price was 18.6 which is why I had dropped it last year before the BRV. But here it was again this time at a whole lot lesser – almost 10%+ down on original pricing OTR. This was the M8 fully loaded model and for the value it was offering midway between 16 & 17 lacs, it was astounding enough for me.

Bonus is it was a 7 seater / 8 seater config possible. I opted for the aquamarine green and specifically did not want to go for loan, somehow managed to scoop up the money and made a full downpayment for the aquamarine colour – mid December. However a couple of days after payment was made, he said the colour isn’t available and there was a glitch on the facts he stated that car was there. This was India Garage. They offered me a white instead and he confirmed it was under transit. I had to make a choice. I opted for the 7 seater (2+2+3) , pearl white M8 top end variant of the BS4 marazzo which was on an irresistible offer price in December. The risk was with BS6 fuel on BS4 car but heck even BS2 vehicles still ply and there is nothing wrong with them and I trust the industry to find a way out.

There was a death in the family around Christmas so had to wait until that cleared up, so moved by registration to 1st of Jan 2020. So 2019 model registered in 2020. And no aquamarine, but Pearl white.

PDI and delivery

I had made the full downpayment and told him to hold the car until Jan 1st. He got it to showroom on Dec 31st, so my new year eve was spent checking it out at the basement of the showroom. Was looking good and waiting for its driver – me!!

On Jan 1st, called my fil, wife and kids (mom wasn’t able to come due to medical complications) to the showroom by 4pm. Car was getting cleaned and ready. Finished paper work which was minimal – no loan, full DP and nothing much to fill. Everything was done. Someone suggested to verify against TBHP PDI so did that. Was all ok. They gave me a bouquet and some photographs later, it was mine.

The car was finally mine – the gentle shark Mahindra Marazzo! This is where the story begins. Due to extreme paucity of time, I will need to update this thread in different parts. Please bear with me. For now I will leave you with a couple of photos. Enjoy!

MG Hector – the big boss

Introduction

Along with the current reigning king the Kia Seltos, the MG Hector has also tried undyingly to make an impact in the SUV market. Considering the sales of KIA which was hovering above the 10000 mark month after month since launch, the Hector did not do so well but has gotten off to a steady start with over 3000 units every month.

So how is the Hector as a car, and is it worthwhile to buy one if one has the budget is the course of the further discussion in this post. I will also speak about the sales a bit as we go along to analyse the car, the manufacturer and other aspects.

MG Hector – the car

Much has been said about the car by now since its launch. The fact that it seems British but its not. The fact that it is in fact Chinese (SAIC) and there is really nothing British about it, etc. We have by now come across all these comments in social media and news that people have started to perceive the car already in different dimensions.

The car in itself is a piece of art which I have not seen in a long time since the solid builds of the European vehicles that India saw during early and mid 2000s. It is also massive (perhaps due to offering a 7 seater in the guise of a 5 seater). It is definitely a looker and even if a year elapses, it would still hold its stance on the road. It is bulky, burly and would surely make people give way when driven. The reason it tends to look this good is due to the narrow DRLs on a huge body putting it in the likes of the fortuner.

Power

The car itself is mighty powerful as is evident due to the wonderfully crafted 2000 cc fiat engine. No doubt the engine gets gruff and noisy if revved hard and beyond 3500 rpm or so, but for normal cruises at high speeds, it is at best a purr and nothing more. The engine manages to lug along the heavyweight body without making any fuss.

Torque

The power and torque combination is at whopping 170bhp and 350Nm torque for the diesel manual version which is my only interest for this article. One expects that this would mean great low speed drivability but I soon found out this to be wrong. Unfortunately if I were to nitpick on something about this car, it would be the slightly hard clutch and improperly tuned second gear throw which makes it fussy in day to day stop and go traffic. No proper half clutch or smooth clutch and the need to constantly shift to first gear makes this car not a great one within the city. Again I am speaking about the diesel, but the petrol manual and petrol auto are better here.

Tech Gimmicks

Both Seltos and MG are selling crazy numbers because of the tech features they have on offer. People are always euphoric about something new that comes up in the market and this is most of the times the reason a person wants to go for a new car. MG Motors does not disappoint here.

The hector is an internet connected car which allows you to start a car or roll back the sun roof and set airconditioner temperatures, etc through the app on the phone. Maybe more things can be done as well – the manual will list all the features that can be controlled thus. Other than this the Hector lacks features like wireless charger, or air purifier that Seltos offers. But on the other hand it does come with many things you would expect in a car of that price (17-22 lacs on road Bangalore based on version).

Cruise control
Leatherette seats
Connected car features
Panoramic sunroof which is one of the best though it leads to heating of the interior during hot weather conditions outside

A huge entertainment system which through comes with resistive screen makes it a tad bit difficult to use, still has enough apps to keep you enthused
Powered driver and co passenger seats which in my opinion is a must in every car to allow to find a reasonable seating position

8 speaker infinity system which in my opinion again has a better sound signature than the Seltos’ Bose speakers – I felt the woofer in hector handled the bass very well and it did not sound so much disconnected from the rest of the sound elements like mid ranges, or treble notes. It definitely provides a closed theatre style setting which I liked a lot
Remote boot lid opener
Mood lighting
Electric foldable and heated OVRMs
LED DRLs, headlamps and fog lamps which are just wow in terms of lighting the road up during the night
17 inch alloys
Humongous boot – one can camp in there!

Drive

The Hector offers a pliant ride and the passengers are cocooned from all the road undulations which is mostly due to the 17 inch alloys and good suspension. While the power and torque allow you to unleash the beast on the highway, in city roads the car still does surprisingly well and is well composed at lower speeds too.

Surprisingly I did not find any body roll in the rear row at all and it was mostly muted to some degree thereby offering passengers comfort. Many reviews so far have pointed out that the rear seat thigh support isn’t as good as expected with hector but the massive leg space between rear seat and front more than makes up for it.

Cost & Warranty

The cost of the hector is between roughly 15-22 lacs on the road in Bangalore and for this price, it is definitely a good buy in that segment. There are really no major competitors to this car in that price range. And no, Seltos isn’t a competition since it cannot compete against a 2000cc 170bhp monster with its 1.5 115bhp engine. The only real comparison would be with Tata Harrier which by the way is also a great vehicle but the proportions of the Harrier are somehow too big as compared to the Hector.

Also Harrier misses out on well implemented tech stuff that must belong into 2020. The unnecessary bulk, and the body roll in Harrier does not give it an edge. I also felt that the interiors were a bit lacklustre .

So then the next question about warranty and peace of mind. Hector has it covered until 5 years unlimited kilometres for now. So any part malfunctioning will be replaced without breaking your bank hopefully. That said there are reports of MG dealers harassing customers that the part going bad was due to customer’s bad driving habits. In these cases, the truth is only half told and there is no good way to find out what was really the case. By and large I feel MG would be bound to adhere to warranty terms if they need their brand name to remain as a good perception among buyers.

Mileage concerns

There have been a lot of reports about mileage concerns with Hector. This is mostly true for the petrol manual and petrol automatic versions. But with the diesel manual the car returned a respectable 9kmpl in very peak traffic and so it may go to 14kmpl on highways. This is good for a 2000cc 170bhp vehicle. The petrol mileages have been to reported to be terrible.

Should you buy the Hector?

Short answer: If you have the money then yes for its brute power, great handling and very safe body. You should not buy this for mileage or for the fact it is a Chinese vehicle with an Italian heart. Hopefully the warranty cover will bring some peace of mind, but a lot remains to be proven with respect to the way they handle services of the vehicle. Nothing is known about average service costs and so on.

Did you buy the hector? Are you planning to buy one? Let me know in the comments below.

Logitech K480 keyboard review

Intro

I happened to get a good deal on the Logitech bluetooth keyboard K480 on Amazon. It was retailing about 35+ % lesser than MRP since it was existing since some time. At this price I felt it was a value for money possession.

The fact that I may need something to keep my iphone on and type made this more useful. In fact this post is typed using this keyboard with my iPhone on the dock and it is just so super useful as compared to the on screen virtual phone keypad.

Features offered

The keyboard offers functionality to connect to three devices which we can activate the keyboard for with a turn wheel. It supports iOS, Mac OS and Android/Windows and Chrome OS combinations.

There is a power switch to the bottom of the keyboard and once powered on, it will connect to the device to which the turn wheel is setup for use with. Since this is a keyboard that supports different types of OS, the buttons too reflect the same.

There are buttons for start menu, for command (Mac OS), Alt and Option keys. Other keys include function keys, media playback keys, volume keys.

Keys and how they feel

There is a good amount of tactile feedback from the keys on this keyboard though this is not a mac keyboard as such so just dont expect such levels of ease of use with this one. I could type fairly fast with this keyboard but I did encounter some key misses which is not the expectation.

The keyboard runs on a couple of AAA batteries and I have not done much research on how long it will last beyond standby times. Only time will tell.

Conclusion

If you are in need for a good bluetooth keyboard on the lower side of Rs.2000/- look no further than the Logitech K480. Though it is a tad bit heavy and bulky, it suits the purpose well, and the bonus is it comes with a phone or iPad dock as well.

Hit up the link to buy it from Amazon now.

Tata Nexon – the indica that shoud’ve been

It is inspiring to believe a company like Tata have undergone a thorough transformation whose outcome is visible in a product such as the Nexon

Introduction

I finally had a chance to test drive the Tata Nexon top end diesel AMT mini SUV. Yes, the same one that has been making waves before and after its launch. If you know me well, I am a guy who would base reviews on everyday usability of the products that I test, and here it is no exception.
It is really inspiring to see how far Tata Motors have come in terms of being able to design a radically different type of product in their portfolio. Ever since sometime now they have set sights on good designs all the way from the Tiago to the Tigor and to the Hexa. The Nexon is the cream on the cake if I were to genuinely say so. So you do want to hear about what the car has to offer and I am going to take you right into that part of the review.
There have been many reviews written on this car and even videographed for the viewers by now. Yet they all lack in some part of the articulation in its truest sense.

Design elements

More than speaking about the exact nature of the design elements of the car, what I would like to point out here is more that the entire design is a refreshing change in the history of Tata cars. Every element of the design is chosen to make the car look unique within the portfolio. To say more about this I have to start somewhere among all the great bits. What made me fall in love with the car is its day time running lamps. For a car worth a little over 10L price bracket, the DRLs were in the league of cars more than double that price. For me I do not appreciate DRLs by merely looking at them standing in front of the car. What would more matter to me is if the car announces its presence in the rear view mirror of the car I am driving. In that sense, the Nexon makes all the right visual cues in a bold and deterministic manner.

Exterior

The grille in the front is crafted very well and is very different from the typical tata cars we are used to. All the way from the front, this vehicle is SUV-ish be in looks or the way the pieces are put together. That said, the bumper, the bonnet, wheel arches – everything looks macho. Being in Bengaluru, one would know that for the rainy season where there is no differentiation between what is a road and what isn’t the need of the hour would be a vehicle with sufficient ground clearance to wade clear of that water and tyres to support that kind of driving.
The 16″ alloys make and imposing statement about the car and are available in two varieties the meek 195/60 and the more meatier 215/60 which blows competition out of the water. The tyres are safe and secure and would eat up anything thrown at it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But how do we know unless we put that to test, right ? So let us come back to more of those later. The sloping roofline to the back, the stright lines on the doors just make the car look gorgeous. The projector headlamps add to the glory during the night. The unladen ground clearance of 209mm is more than enough to not kiss every part of the road a sedan would otherwise. The laden clearance would obviously be lower, and the suspension should appropriately take care of that even if the car is laden with adults and luggages to the max capacity in real life.

The ground clearance clearly puts it into SUV category and makes the car look all the more imposing. The plastic handles blend well with the overall scheme and does not make the car look out of place. Single tone and dual tone colours add more options and the colour choices themselves are smashing to say the least. I test drove the etna orange, but personal favourites on the roads are generally the moroccan blue, vermont red and even calgary white. I have never seen a silver so far, but sure have seen the glasgow grey which is also a looker. The red is my favourite though.

Interior

Step into the car and you would expect typical tata fare of the same old boring dashboard with addition of clock and the some dials. But let me tell you again just in case you did not read earlier – Tata has paid a lot of attention and has completely revamped the interior to an extent that you would not believe what you are seeing. The three tone interiors are soothing and are not contrasty like the Kraz edition. The AC vents are normal ones you see on any other car, and there is a harman floating console in the middle. The steering has been carried over from Tiago and Tigor, but for those who only know the indica, this steering is miles apart from the old Indica’s and by a very large margin. I will talk about this more when we cover the drive.

The seats were not leather, but were cushy by tata standards, and I did feel that the thigh support could have been slightly better. It is not unmanageable but I do feel that over longer distances there can be some discomfort for those with legs longer than rest of their body – like me (the unfortunate bunch). There is a dial with different modes (eco, city and sport) which you can change on the fly and it mainly affects the gear change timings which are crucial for the experience of the said modes. Obviously the eco mode is tuned for mileage and the sport mode for driveability and power.
For safety you do get two airbags, ABS and EBD and a super rigid body structure. Just to drive home the point I have heard of Nexon’s having overturned on accidents on highways and everyone just walked out the door like nothing happened. You can be rest assured that Tata is among some of the companies whose main focus is on safety and reliability of the tensile structure of the body if not necessarily the parts.
The car has a generous amount of bottle and knickknack holders on doors and on the center of the front seats. I like the fact they have sliding doors to open up to the concealed storage areas. It is almost Civic-ish if I should point out. And that’s a good thing. It is like getting 20L premiumness in 10L. The central floating console is from Harman and there are 8 speakers, with Android auto and Apple car play – thereby finishing the exact need for an average user who wants music options. For more seasoned audiophiles an ICE would add more options to the experience.
Some nitty gritties – the door mats were looking a bit flimsy and I am a big fan of 3D or 4D door mats which keep all the dirt within and can be easily cleaned and disposed of. But maybe its just my nitpicking for some thing which is not such a big concern on the Nexon. I did find the rear view mirror a tad bit too small and the rear visibility is actually an issue considering the sloping roofline. It is slightly more claustrophobic at the back as well. The space in the front is good with height adjust and recline options for seats. The rear seat can fit 3 kids and one adult or 3 adults rather comfortably – and I mean realistically so. It is not an Innova, but it is not an Alto either.

The boot is large and very reasonable for any weekend drive or airport luggage even, and it should not present any problem as far as Nexon is concerned. It is surely not a Duster in terms of boot space, but its not bad either! There is also push button start which is a welcome move.

Engines

Enough about the interiors, can we move to the engine now? The car comes with turbo charged petrols and diesels, one with 1.2, 3 cyl, turbocharged petrol with 110 bhp power and 170Nm torque – and the other 1.5 4 cyl, turbocharged diesel with 110 bhp power and an insane 260Nm torque at 1500 rpm. What this means in simple english is brutal power, extreme driveability due to torque levels whether you are talking about petrol or diesel variants.

Gearbox

Since I took a drive of the AMT, there are a few things to talk about this version. I was particularly interested to understand how Tata has worked on the AMT gear box, the AMT gear lever and the likes of design elements. The gear level was small and looked awesome. It surely looks and feels like a 20L car here as well. The slotting is perfect and without a fuss.
If I had to nitpick about this a bit I was NOT a big fan of pushing up for manual gear up (in manual mode). I am so used to pulling it down for gear up in my celerio and this kind of feels counter intuitive for me and would also be similarly annoying for many other people. The thing is this for a pull down you activate only your hand, for push up you have to lift your arm from the arm rest. Again not a big grouse. Just a small one 🙂

Driving characterisitics

I would like to jot a disclaimer here that I did not try eco mode since I did not have the time or opportunity on the road to check it, but my guess is that since it is going to be tuned for mileage, the power will be reduced and upshifts would be common. Having put that out of the way let us focus on the remaining two modes, the City mode and Sport mode.
When you hear about these modes, the first thing that comes to you mind is that Sport would obviously be more zippy and more enthusiastic to use and the city mode would not be. Well that is the case almost but we need to consider a lot of other parameters such as the traffic on that road, the speed with which you are driving, the throttle inputs, how many potholes on the road, whether it is a linear road or not, and so on. Every person’s test drive experience will be different so I am trying to give you a fair picture of how the car behaves on a general test drive.

City mode

First off city mode – there is no lag on acceleration from first gear. The gear shifts after sufficient amount of acceleration happens about where you expect it. No much head nod for the passengers if you are reasonably gentle with the throttle. Breeze to drive it and wade through the traffic, no major issues and the car stays put exactly the way you expect it to. The light steering is a boon in city traffic and is easy to maneuver the vehicle. I did find one problem though – the steering is slightly tilted to one side at its normal position and it feels a bit odd. But that maybe just a one off case with this test drive vehicle and may not manifest on other cars. Time will tell.
The car does not downshift as well too soon and holds up being a diesel with enormous amount of torque (260Nm). This is sweet and even if it was a manual it would have felt very good needless to say. The 110bhp of power coupled with 260Nm of torque at as low as 1500 rpm has put the Nexon in a really sweet spot as far as driveability goes. Default rpm for idling is between 700-900 and just putting your foot on the pedal makes this figure jump to almost 1200 rpm which is just pretty shy of the 1500 rpm necessary for the torque to show.

Sport mode

As usual enthusiasts who want sport mode for the adrenalin rush would think this mode will really make you feel like god. On the contrary it isn’t so. All it does is hold a gear for as long as you really push it hard and the engine sometimes sounds harsh until it goes to the next gear. Since this is the first iteration of the Nexon, future tuning could make this mode more enjoyable in the longer run. That said, there is enough grunt in any gear for the car to sail through in sport mode. After using the sport mode and not finding an opportunity inside the crowded road to revv up substantially I had to switch back to city mode which left me at ease. City mode I would say is the default sport mode within the city. The sport mode thus may make sense on the highway to hold to fourth and fifth gears at low and high speeds completing the overall drivability quotient to a decent level.

Tyres

A word about the tyres. For me tyres make a huge difference in the way a car handles almost as much as the chassis/frame. As I said before, the Nexon top end has 215/60 tyres which are really enough to handle Bangalore’s potholed road surfaces with utmost ease. Rains, water, mud, potholes, bumps – you throw anything at these tyres and they eat it with aplomb. You are safe rest assured with this kind of tyre profile. The occupants had very less notion of how many potholes I was passing over on an internal locality road.

Suspension

Just like the chassis, and tyres one another important aspect about any car’s drivability is the suspension setup. For a car like Nexon I did expect something like duster’s suspension, but unfortunately its not the case. Do not get me wrong, it is not bad, but its not the best either. It sure is not mediocre and does well in isolating road undulations to a large level and like I said before the occupants barely will feel anything at all. It is only if you push the car too much on undulated surfaces some bounce is felt.
The suspension is not a hit or miss, but Tata can work on this to make it more sturdier nevertheless. As such the car handles well on broken roads which is the worst nightmare for any passenger.

Variants

Click the brochure to know more about the variants of nexon and what you will get or not get in each version.

Niggles

Every car has niggles and they just cannot get away with them due to persisting quality issues. The Nexon being the first of its kind is surely a batch meant for testing on guinea pigs and only future versions will bring about quality on the faulty parts.
A few things I noticed which fall into minor niggles category

Doors bit flimsy – European level thud not present
Rear visibility is poor but that is by design – there is nothing much that can be done about this
AMT could have had lever down for gear up – though counter intuitive for some people
Door mats could be of 3D or 4D variety

Conclusion

The pricing of the nexon in Bangalore is pretty competitive to say the Ford Ecosport or the Honda WRV. You can check the pricing of each version below

The Tata Nexon is a genuine attempt by Tata Motors to bring a car that looks very upmarket to its customers at a value for money price range with substantial exterior and interior design elements and surprisingly low amount of visible niggles. This would mean that the engineering and design of the vehicle was well thought over and brilliantly executed. Pitting it right where the Brezza, Ford and Honda WRV is the Nexon sure has the necessary character and demeanor to march past its rivals with a class leading engine, good ground clearance and visibility, excellent space and a punchy drive. If you are looking for genuine value for money – this is the car to go for while at the same time keeping in mind that there is not much parts reliability information available yet. The safety of this car is well designed and is surely going to keep occupants protected in all situations on the road.
Good luck Tata Motors to set sales charts on fire and the numbers cannot be wrong!

Written with StackEdit.

The Desert Safari desert camp experience (with videos)

In my last couple of posts I discussed the buggy rides and dune bashing experiences in Dubai. To conclude the journey in this post I will take you through the evening camp event.
After the sun down we settled into the evening camp for an evening filled with a short performance and dinner. The camp has a restroom area, and some stalls for food, henna, and hookah facilities for the visitor. As is the case all over Dubai, you are treated like a VIP if you have the money. The more the money you pay, the better the treatment. This is evident in everything – from the vehicles that get you to the camp, to the food offered, to the seating, to special photographs with eagles, etc. The food for VIPs is unlimited and is served at the place you are seated, and typically with a quanity much more than you need.

It is all about satisfying guests as per what they pay but I sincerely wish the people providing all these facilities do think of the needy as well. I am a strong believer that food must not be wasted and the situation at the desert camp is somewhat on the contrary.

Performances (fire and belly dance)

Coming to the performances, there were two performances one by a male and the other one by a female. The dance by the male was something involving colourful clothes and tricks with fire – the whole stage is lit up with the light and its a spectacle to watch and enjoy. There is a lot of spinning in the dance and also doing lots of tasks when that goes on which is in itself not so easy a task. You can take a look at the video below

The performance by the female is also one of the main reasons people sign up for the camp evening event – the famous belly dance. And for those of you who think it is very sexy and the likes – let me tell you one thing – it is simply not easy for a normal person to do this dance. Even for the talented in this field it is an enormous level of energy burn and the level of composure and fitness needed to finish off with this for a whole 15-20 minutes is nothing short of humongous. You can take a look at a part of the dance in the video below. One look at the hair spin the lady gives will give you a dizzy feeling.

Food options

As you would have guessed, the food options for vegetarians is pretty minimal. At best there is the sweet (like a jamun) dipped in date sauce. Add some salads made from veggies, and some really bad mixed rice (not the biryani types) and of course Pepsi/coke & some dessert in the desert that gets over even before it starts being served! You know what I’m talking about now.

Toilet facilities

In one word : SAD.
In many words the toilets aren’t maintained properly. There doesn’t seem to be proper drainage system making the whole place stink. It’s really bad and the management of the place can certainly look for better bio toilet options.

Other facilities

There are other things to do at the camp. Like a bit of camel ride, or smoking some hookah. Plenty of coke on the floor. If you are willing to pay more you get corn etc. There are obviously some mehndi stalls which help you to sport some good designs on your hands or feet. There are also photo opps with Arabic clothing which would cost you a bomb.

Conclusions

The entire desert safari experience is a one off experience that will let you enjoy the desert in its raw and full glory. It will give you a glimpse of some fantastic buggy riding, some scintillating dune bashing that’ll leave you mesmerised. Further the glorious sunsets and the evening performances will leave you dazzled at the end of the journey. Although you will be tired while returning home, rest assured these set of adventures will be etched in your memory forever.