Hi-tech disappointments

The Galaxy Note 7 would have been right at the top of any best gadgets list if it hadn’t been for that one little fact: those messy explosions. Even now, any phone that explodes calls to mind the Note 7 fiasco. Only recently, a Virgin flight had to make an emergency landing because one silly person had named his Wi-Fi hotspot Note 7. If it hadn’t been for the problems that came up with this smartphone, it would have been far ahead of Apple’s iPhone 7 and would have helped Samsung to get back on track with its revenue and market share. Instead, it goes down in history for the wrong reasons. People are looking forward to the Samsung S8 and there are leaks and rumours about it on an everyday basis. Of course, many of the features that were present on the Note 7 are likely to make their way to the upcoming new flagship.

The other Korean electronics giant is both an innovative company and one that has shown, with Google, that it can make a high quality smartphone. Not to mention all the other consumer goods and televisions it comes up with. But the company’s flagship for 2016, the G5, which may have sounded like a fantastic idea when it was showcased at the Mobile World Congress at the beginning of the year, turned out to be rather uninteresting. Its basic uniqueness was that you could clamp on modules to add functionality to the phone, including a second battery. But first, the design of the device was dull and of inferior build, and then, the modules were not a convenient addition. And that, sadly, was the tale of an idea executed badly.

The Oculus Rift generated a lot of hype for the VR experience that it promised consumers, and the gadget was being talked about and awaited with bated breath. While the $599 (about ₹40,000) price tag did stun many, the problems for the gadget had just begun, with delivery dates being pushed back and production reportedly not quite meeting the demand. Add to this, the fact that the controllers to go with the headset were not available on time, and with the HTC Vive and Sony Playstation VR hitting the markets, Oculus had to play catch up. Apart from this, there were also murmurs of the title selections by Oculus not being as exciting as expected.

Google unveiled a bevy of products this year, and most of them hit the mark with their impressive hardware and software. But one gadget that failed to impress was the Chromecast 4K. The streaming device’s latest version failed to hit the target with reasons such as its price tag and its limited repertoire of titles (an initial 125) failing to enthral potential consumers. Also, the current easy availability of much cheaper streaming devices in the market that offer a lot more than the Chromecast does don’t really help its case.

A fully functional smartphone for ₹251? When the news first broke at the beginning of the year, many dismissed it as a hoax. It sounded too good to be true – 1GB RAM size, Android 5.1, 8GB of internal storage – all for less than a long taxi ride. However, Noida-based Ringing Bells did indeed claim that the phone was coming soon, and the company received lakhs of reported orders. However, with a string of legal issues and investigations surrounding this device, things didn’t pan out too well. The company claimed to have shipped some units in July, but this phone turned out to be a damp squib after all the noise and the hype surrounding it initially.

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