i-phone to Mi-Phone - The transformation & Mi3 Review

I am a big fan of Steve Jobs as the man is smart. He is a genius who made every one crave for APPLE products. Truly it is the revolutionary apple after Adam's and Newton's apples but the price of I - phone is exorbitant. Not all can afford it. It has many limitations too and it is hectic to always listen to the phone. The phone rarely listens to you. No good usage of bluetooth-files can't b transferred , no customized ring tones, bad photography, no radio  and the complicated i-Tunes usage, iOS upgrades are not that user friendly and so on so forth. There are so many shortcomings in this revolutionary invention that it made me unhappy many times. If your I - phone has a damage, to get it repaired , Steve Jobs' soul should come back to earth. That has been my experience with i-store folks from the past few months.  The voice quality is bad in my I-phone and i-Store guys did not give any easy solution to this and when my husband's i-phone's battery was damaged as the phone fell in a bucket of water, he was given an option to pay half the amount and get a new phone. My dislike towards apple increased that day. After all when you spend almost a month's salary or some times more than it you deserve to sulk when the solutions don't seem satisfactory. When I got I phone 4s, it was around 38k and the customer service was poor as the phone was bought in Kuwait. I phone 5 which I thankfully won in a contest was 51k. Anyway this is not a review of I phone. It is just to say that I am unhappy due to increasing problems of my I phone with each passing day. Then came the surprise. On July 22nd my husband gifted me Xiaomi Mi3. He prebooked it on flipkart . He is as smart as the Mi3 coz the phone was out of stock, the same day it got delivered :) As soon as it fell in my hands I felt powerful and happy as I can get rid of my I-phone with out much ado.

Mi3 phone is for the creative bunch. It felt magical when I first held the phone and browsed through themes. Themes are unique , funny and creative. Three cheers and a round of applause to those who created it. Battery is the best part of the phone. There is no need to constantly plug it . Battery stays alive for 3-4 days . Touch is so smooth and phone is so sleek and light in weight. 13 mega pixel camera is amazing. All in all it is the best deal at just 14k INR when compared to all other smart phones. This is a super smart step by Xiaomi folks who cleverly launched it at an affordable price,  made us all damn happy and gave a tight competition to Google nexus, moto g which also use android OS by performing better .

Pluses of the Mi3 phone launched in India

1.) Simplicity of the launch. There was no ruckus during the launch. Steps taken for promoting the product were simple, like a news shared on web or in a TV channel and the announcement of sale on flipkart. The promotional activity saved lot of money, yet proved to be beneficial

2.) The affordable price of 14k . Now almost all who dream of having a smart phone with all the features they ever wished for, can buy this one

3.) The way the product is packed is also simple. It comes in Muji-esque cardboard box just with a charger and USB cord

My Mi3

4.)  Light in weight. Material quality is on par when compared to other phones which are priced high.Front face is protected by reinforced Corning Gorilla Glass 3

5.) The phone is shiny and gorgeous with volume and power buttons to its right side. Unlocking can be done by swiping the button down like in the screen below which is different from other smart phones.

To unlock it you must swipe the blue button down.

6.) Clearing the RAM memory/ Cache is very easy. This can be done by long pressing the button to the left of the home screen. It takes you to custom app switcher which shows you the RAM usage. You can close all apps by tapping it once or close any app which you no longer use by swiping it to top.

7.)Software :  Mi 3 runs on Android 4.4.2 but Xiaomi's custom MIUI skin proves to be more efficient and creative.

8.) You can place custom icons on your home screen but it will make it pretty cluttered. 

9.) There is lot of control over the phone. There are many settings on how you want the phone to look. Fonts, themes, LED behaviour, capacitive button functions, even the behaviour of buttons on a headset and many other phone functions can be controlled. Security of the phone is intact. You can use a password or draw a pattern to lock/ unlock the phone

10.) Themes : Themes need a special mention. There are innumerable themes which will make the creative person inside you extremely glad. There is a cute  'India' theme too. Guest mode of the phone helps you to protect sensitive information from other users.

11.) Camera: 13 mega pixel camera gives you pictures of great quality and you can control many settings. Advanced mode increases the number of controls. You can go through the site- http://www.miui.com/  to know more. Videos are pretty clear too. Shared below are the pics I clicked with my phone. I watched even a movie on it while traveling :)

Modified using the advanced options of the camera

12.) Xiaomi Mi3's performance is high. It uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 8274AB  2.3GHz processor due to which browsing and gaming are extremely easy and  fast. Expectations were met and it for sure got proved just in a 2 weeks time that it is a powerful device. Mi3 has cleared all the exhaustive QC- tests and it is the phone which every one is wishing to have as of now :-)

13.) Unlike an I phone you can customize ringtones, copy songs directly from the laptop and also sync data from other phones easily. 

 14.) There are interesting contests going on on http://en.miui.com/ . Do check out to win the accessories and other goodies.

Few minuses

From my 2 week usage and from what I read I realized there are few minuses too in the phone.

1.) The notifications toggle is not great. You get the sound of notification but it is not visible. It is hard to search the hidden notification on the 5 inch screen which other wise is velvety smooth and crystal clear.

2.) There are complaints of phone getting heated up if you play games for more than an hour, but as I don't play for an hour continuously any day, I did not face the problem.

3.) 2G and 3G functionality are not that great on the phone. With Wy fi the phone is easy to use though.

4.) It gets tough due to the Chinese language sometimes. Few users complained about the difficulty faced  during translating it to English. I didn't face any such problem so far. Few themes are totally in Chinese.

5.) Out of the 16GB memory you can use only 13 GB. There are no mi3 phones with more memory as of now. There is no provision to have a separate memory card in the phone. This is a minus for people who wish to store too much stuff in the phone.

6.) The only dissatisfaction I felt is about the accessories. They are not yet launched properly in India. I wish good screen-guards and covers will be released soon. Earphones are not provided with the phone and we need to purchase the ear phones separately which also disappointed me a bit.

I can ignore the minuses as I got the phone for less than 15k. The launch is triumphant in India. I am satisfied by the phone and super glad to be one of the first buyers . Getting promoted from i phone to MiPhone is one of the best things which happened to me in the recent past.  Thanks to my hubby who gifted this magical phone to me. With easy browsing and creativity oozing from every corner of the phone, I can't help falling in love with it again and again. I am a creative person and I respect the efforts of Xiaomi folks.

It is love at first sight with my Mi 3 and I hope not to break up with it - *TOUCHWOOD* . 

"I phone to MiPhone transformation eased my life.
Finally ended the difficulties and the strife.
I am in love with the sleek, chiseled body and the smooth velvety skin.
When I take the phone out and flaunt I can see every one getting jealous be it a pal or a kin!

I absolutely adore my Xiaomi Mi3.
I feel like dancing in joy. I feel so free!"

Shared below is the pic of one of my most favorite themes -pooh 10000 years ago. You can unlock the phone by pulling the leaf down.

One of the many creative themes. Pooh 10000years ago :)

zài jiàn (See you again) people. If you are planning to buy a phone, think wise and save your money by buying a Mi3 :)

Century Ply - "Sab Sahe Mast rahe" - Review

Century Ply is the largest seller of multi-use plywood and decorative veneers  in India. Recently after 4 years it has come up with its angry Gorilla TVC which was released on aug 28^th which happens to be world anger day where you can let out all your anger and feel relaxed. The idea of releasing the ad on that day is interesting as the concept is apt for the day! It even fits the tag line “Sab Sahe Mast rahe” which indicates the strength and durability irrespective of the load / out burst on  it . The ad was designed by Bates group of Kolkata.

The ad opens with a huge gorilla which pounces on him after scaring the kid eating chips. The gorilla throws the car in rage then tries breaking the front wooden door but fails. It finally enters the house via roof and scares a middle aged man (35-40)who is seated on table. The table remains intact while many other surrounding things are smashed and destroyed. The man runs and hides in a cupboard. The gorilla chases him and tries to break the cupboard which again doesn't flinch. In a mirror reflection they show the man’s wife who is extremely angry at him as he forgot their wedding anniversary. She gives a warning “better not to forget next time.”

Again in the end they are seated at the dining table where the man asks “So how many years has it been” and wife turns to an angry king Kong again which by the  end bangs the table with its fist where century ply cards are displayed finally revealing what it all meant. Read below for a detailed insight in to all the elements of the ad.

 Humor and striking the emotional cord  : The  ad is undoubtedly humorous which makes the customers wait curiously so that they can see what is it all about ? They will feel delighted to see in the end that its century ply so the doors and table were all intact. It even strikes the emotional cord as the ad shows the anger emotion of the wife who doesn't spare a husband who forgets their anniversary. It is 100% humorous and interestingly executed which makes audiences smile throughout as they keep guessing and finally crack the puzzle of what it is about. In a way it connects the customers who would love watching the ad.

Displaying the strength and durability : The campaign succeeds in displaying the core functions and benefits  of century ply – Strength and durability . The wife aka angry gorilla cannot enter in to the house using front door in spite of all the strength she uses to break down and so has to take an alternate route. Similarly even if all other things are getting damaged the wooden table, doors remain firm so it successfully shows that the century ply products are strong. However durability could have been shown little more creatively, like the ad could have ended like this.

Husband and wife seated on dining table after 10 years with some grey hair on their heads and husband hesitates and then asks “So how many years has it been” turning the wife again to a gorilla who bangs the table but table shows the same strength it showed 10 years back. In this way humor quotient would also have increased and we can say that century ply products are durable for ages.

Few  missed initiatives : Century ply claims that their products  are 100 per cent borer and termite-proof.  The focus should also have been on value-addition  and product innovation along with main features, such as veneers, laminates and also Eco-friendly and non-carcinogenic products. Century ply could have stand apart and gained more brownies than green ply or age old kit ply by implementing the anti termite feature in the ad keeping the humor intact. This actually is told in voice over but gets unnoticed due to the growling gorilla. Also Century ply claims their decorative veneers are boiling water resistant hence even this element could have been show cased where the wife throws boiling water but the product stays put!

The content and the intent of the ad is great but the above implementation would have added icing on cake and made it an aspirational product!

It is Century Ply’s 26^th year and all their products have satisfied customers so far. Their ads and initiatives along with their association with some meaningful cinema like Aarakshan and also My name is khan where  Rizwan Khan’s spirit resembles Century ply and propagating noble causes like right to education they clearly showed they are different and creative and their contemporary life  style statements connect to modern living.    

Also they have connected with their users / fans  via facebook with an interesting contest where you can win an Iphone 5 by sharing the anger at "Share the Anger contest". 

I shared my anger so when will you let go yours;-) ? My tag line to win a cool I phone 5 - SAB SAHO SHARE KARO MAST RAHO!

Credits:

Client: Centuryply

Creative agency: Bates Kolkata

Executive creative director: Arjun Mukherjee, Souvik Misra

Group business director: Soumya Chowdhury

Group brand manager: Sreeparna Gupta

Creative team: Arjun Mukherjee, Diptanshu Roy, Anurag Acharya, Kamalika Baral

Production house: Lemon Yellow Sun Films

Director: Vinod P Vijay

Animation: No Label, Poland

Media agency: Mindshare