Gamescom 2014 Hands On: Batman: Arkham Knight

After taking extra time to work on the latest installment, Arkham Knight, the studio has brought the title to Gamescom 2014, showing off a fresh section of the open world action adventure game, shining a spotlight on the Batmobile, which makes its fully playable debut in the series, and the actual Arkham Knight, a mysterious villain that wants to go head to head with Batman in the game.

The actual demo mission saw the Caped Crusader burst into the ACE Chemicals plant, first using his own grapple gun and, after a few intense encounters, with the Batmobile. In terms of regular gameplay, the combat has been drastically improved with plenty of fresh mechanics. 

First up, there are the fear takedowns. These can happen in certain spots and see Batman quickly take out groups of foes in blazing fast succession. There are also environmental takedowns, as if enemies are in a certain zone Batman can use items from the environment, like chandeliers, to easily take them out.

The level design has also been improved in some areas, as the famous ground grates are now connected to some of the ventilation shafts, allowing Batman to seamlessly transition from one to the other. Glass windows are also breakable and the hero can burst through them to easily eliminate at least one foe.

The Dark Knight's arsenal of gadgets has also been expanded, like with a Batarang scanner, which can fly around a building, like the ACE one, and allows players to scan certain areas of interest.

Of course, the biggest “gadget” in Arkham Knight is the Batmobile. The special vehicle allows the hero to easily go around Gotham City and to take part in brand new gameplay mechanics. It features two different modes – Pursuit and Battle.

Pursuit mode allows for high speeds, which can be augmented using the afterburner, perfect for making sweet jumps off of ramps. Battle mode, however, is more about precision and, of course, combat. The vehicle deploys a machine gun and a canon that fire live rounds against other vehicles or buildings, and switch to rubber bullets when going up against human enemies.

Besides the new aforementioned takedowns, Batman can also perform an uppercut to send enemies in the air and, if the Batmobile is in the zone, it can shoot one round and immediately take out that foe.

Overall, Batman: Arkham Knight seems like a great evolution of the franchise's recipe, with quite a lot of small improvements ensuring that it has plenty of innovation.

Xolo announces Q510s, a 4-inch budget quad-core smartphone with 1GB RAM

Xolo has introduced a new Android smartphone called the Q510s. Priced at Rs. 6,499, the Xolo Q510 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The smartphone has been spotted on the company's official website.

The Xolo Q510 is a dual-SIM smartphone featuring a 4-inch display with 480x800 pixels WVGA IPS display. It sports a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and 0.3MP front-facing camera. Camera features include Scene detection & tuning, Face Recognition, Panorama, Geo tagging, Best shot, Smile shot, HDR. The smartphone comes with 8GB of built-in storage, supports expandable storage up to 32GB via microSD.

In terms of connectivity, the Xolo Q510 supports dual-SIM, 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and microUSB. It is powered by a 1500 mAh battery. 

While the Q510 is targeted at the entry-level segment, Xolo's recently launched the Play 8X-1200 smartphone aimed at the gaming enthusiasts. Called the Xolo Play 8X-1200, the smartphone runs Android 4.4 KitKat OS is powered by a 2.0GHz true octa-core processor along with Mali 450 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The smartphone is available for Rs. 19,999.

Lumia 730 selfie coming soon

According to GSM Arena, the Lumia 830 will feature a massive 20MP PureView rear camera, similar to the one we had seen on the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930. This is a big jump from the 8MP camera we had seen on the Lumia 820. Other features include a 4.5-inch 720p display, a Snapdragon chipset with LTE support and16GB of internal storage. The phone is expected to run on Windows Phone 8.1 and will come with a micr0SD card slot.

The bright-coloured ad also hints at the launch of the Lumia 730, which sported a similar hue in some of its photos. According to leaked specifications, the Lumia 730 is expected to sport a bright uni-body polycarbonate design, 4.7 inch 720p screen, dual-SIM capability, 6.7MP rear and a 5MP front camera, Snapdragon 400 processor and Adreno 305 graphics, with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The invite, which says “Join us for More Face Time” also backs up the rumour that the Lumia 730 might actually sport a 5MP selfie camera.

 Both phones are expected to run the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. The latest OS comes with interesting new features such as the Siri-inspired voice-assistant Cortana, one-swipe notification from Action Center, and the fast Word Flow keyboard.

Xiaomi Mi 4 review

The flagship Xiaomi Mi 4's design borrows liberally from Apple's iPhone, but it also possesses plenty of features that let it stand on its own, chief of which are its powerful hardware.

The Mi 4's is a steal no matter how you look at it. Its unlocked price in China is 1,999RMB (which converts to $320, £190, or AU$345) for the 16GB model, and 2,499RMB (which converts to $400, £235, or AU$430) for the 64GB.

The Mi 4 is limited to China right now, though we expect Xiaomi to soon sell the phone in other markets it currently serves, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Philippines. Other countries will have to rely on importers.

Also, while the phone will eventually come with 4G capability that works outside China, a revised 4G model isn't due until the end of the year. If you choose to import the phone before then, your Mi 4 will operate only on 3G networks.

Design, display and specs

At first glance, the Xiaomi Mi 4 bears a striking resemblance to the design of the iPhone -- especially the stainless steel banding around the sides. The company has obviously owes a good deal to Apple, and the white plastic inserts in the frame are definitely familiar.

If you look at the front speaker too, you can see another place where the Mi 4's designers got their visual cues. That said, there are distinctly different elements that make the Xiaomi Mi 4 design's unique.The rear is plastic, but you can remove it with a suction cup and swap in a different design. Xiaomi has covers ranging from wood to something that resembles marble.

I quite like the feel of the phone. It sits comfortably in my hand, though the edges of the steel frame can are a little sharp. Despite the glossy plastic backing, the handset has quite a premium feel to it thanks to this metal edging. The power and volume rockers are on the right, and are easy to reach without any strenuous finger stretching.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 processor, clocked at 2.5GHz. That's similar to what you'll find in other high-end flagships, so no surprises here. Other specs include 3GB RAM and either 16GB or 64GB of onboard storage, but there's no microSD for expandability. Knowing Xiaomi's usual modus operandi, it's likely that only the 16GB version will retail outside of China.

The phone comes with a 3,080mAh battery, but the bad news is that it's not removable even if you manage to get the back cover off.

The Mi 4 has a 5-inch display with a full HD resolution (1,920x1,080 pixels). According to Xiaomi, it has acolor gamut accuracy of 84 percent, 17 percent higher than the Iphone 5s. I'm no expert on judging color accuracy, but I can tell you its colors look vibrant and lively and the screen is bright enough to use outdoors in bright sunlight.

As a high-end device, the Mi 4 comes with all the usual connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. 4G is only available on the China Mobile network (TDD-LTE), which unfortunately does not work in most other countries that use the FDD-LTE standard. An FDD-LTE model is due at the end of the year, and possibly earlier.

Software features

The Mi 4 runs Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) but with the company's own MIUI skin. Xiaomi has made substantial tweaks to the Android operating system and MIUI has a whole suite of features you don't normally see on Android.

For one, instead of an app drawer, MIUI puts every app on the home screen just like iOS. While I would prefer my screens to be less cluttered with apps (especially if you have a lot), those switching over from Apple will find this a more simple transition.

One of the best things about MIUI is the ability to customize how it looks. You can easily load up the Themes app to switch things around. There are a whole bunch of free and paid themes you can download, and if you're feeling particularly fruit-flavoured, there's also the option to download an iOS 7skin that even has the background parallax effect.

Camera

One of the best things about the Mi 4 is its camera. The shutter is snappy and MIUI has built-in manual controls that let you adjust exposure and shutter speeds. If you don't need that, the default auto mode is good enough as well.

In my tests, the phone was capable of taking really good pictures even in low-light conditions. I'm really pretty impressed with it, especially when I used manual controls to shoot fireworks.

Performance

As you'd expect from a high-end device, the Mi 4 delivered slick performance comparable to other top-notch mobiles.

Interestingly, when I started the Quadrant benchmark, the phone asked if I wanted to use a high-performance mode or stick to the current balanced mode. It scored 24,055 in high-performance and 15,954 in balanced. On LinPack it obtained a blazing 901.961 MFLOPs over 0.19 seconds.

Call quality

Calls came through crisp and clear, and the person on the other end reported no issues either. The speaker volume feels just about right. While it isn't the loudest, you likely won't be missing any calls while the phone is in your pocket.

Battery life

In normal use, the 3,080mAh battery managed to last a day and a half, though I suspect with the LTE model, this should fall to a day. We're still testing the battery life with our CNET Labs Video app, so check back later for the official result.

Screen Shot of MI4

Pricing is currently unavailable.