SmartbuyWednesday, April 20, 2011

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Faster, lighter, sexierThe smartphone quartetPage 3

2 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

Team SmartbuyEditorial

Anushya Mamtoraanushya@thehindu.co.in

Ketaki Bhojnagarwalaketaki@thehindu.co.in

Mahananda Bohidarmahananda@thehindu.co.in

S. Muralidharmuraliswami@thehindu.co.in

Design

Bryan Gaughanaqua@thehindu.co.in

Balakrishnandesignkbala@thehindu.co.in

Advertising Contact

R. Diwakarramdiwakar@thehindu.co.in

Web Advertising Contact

N. Amarnathamarnath@thehindu.co.in

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The new 5.1 sound system from Logitech gives you 75 watts (RMS) of surround sound. Thepowerful subwoofer will bring your music, movies, and games to life. You can also connectyour PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, iPod, DVD player, and more to the Z506. Rs 7,145

You’re surrounded! Logitech Z506

This limited editionMERIDIIST handsetfeatures carbon fibre onthe battery cover as wellas the top and bottombars that flank thesapphire crystal screen. Italso sports an engravedsteel seal at the base ofthe battery cover, a sidemotif, and integratedGMT software thatallows seamless travelbetween time zones.Sporty yet subtle, thecarbon fibre is coupledwith stainless steel with asmoky grey alligator base.Rs 4.16 lakh

Tougher thanthe restTAG HeuerMeridiist Carbon

The multimedia player delivers incredible sound effect in DTS/Dolby format and stunning 1080p high definition videos.Amkette’s Flash TV HD can play back all popular audio, videoand image formats. It also upscales non-HD content for highdefinition viewing. You can create playlists and resume featurefor power cuts on the media player which comes with a one-yearwarranty.Rs 3,995

Playback time Amkette Flash TV HD

Cover photo: S.S. Kumar

Whether ourcollective Mensascores reflect our

supposed evolutioninto smarter beingsor not, the current

bevy ofsmartphones do.And with at leasttwo of ‘em hittingthe markets every

week or so,choosing the right

one can be as trickya task as picking aMiss World (we’retalking beauty and

brains). We pickfour of the most

currentsmartphones for a

long-termcomparison. Here

are the new boys inblack and white.

this weekWHAT’S HOT

3 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

SMARTPHONE reviews

Mahananda Bohidar

Remember the time when the Nokia 9000 Com-municator would stand out in the crowd as thehefty titan of the mobile handset world...whenthe rest of ‘em were riding the miniaturisation

wave? That was in the late nineties and if you wanted to show

that you’d arrived as a business magnate, you just had toflash the ‘brick-sized’ communicator and punch out amessage on its massive keypad, as greedy eyes gawked atyour every move. It is another matter that a shouldermassage would have been needed by the end of day!

A decade and a half later, the Finnish manufacturer hasrevamped the business smartphone and unveiled a new-age avatar that carries traces of its lineage and at the sametime promises to deliver the goods to the modern-dayexecutive.

Continuing the traditionThe second handset to feature Symbian̂3 OS, the Nokia E7has quite a few similarities with Nokia’s previous flagshipdevice, the N8. You can be sure heads will turn when youpull out the rather hefty-looking E7 from your pocket .Nokia, which went the anodised aluminium way with theN8, continues the trend with the E7. The handset managesto impress you with its solid, chunky feel that at the sametime appears well-designed and classy.

Finger friendly?Keeping the tradition of the Communicators alive, the E7has a physical QWERTY keyboard that is revealed whenyou slide the screen out. In case you want to dash off aquick message just pop the screen up and type out an SMS .When in the landscape mode with the keyboard out, thescreen lies tilted at an angle convenient enough to keep iton a desk and continue typing . The keyboard looks well-contoured within the space where the display slides backto nestle in. The hinge was a tad bit too stiff for our liking

but we guess it contributes to the sturdiness in the longrun. Nokia has tried to keep it neat and minimal with aone-button Menu access which lies in the fascia and has abuilt-in LED indicator. The volume rocker button is in-terestingly a slider and Camera, Power and Lock remainthe only other subtle, physical buttons on the bezel.

User interfaceOn the Symbian̂3, you get three homescreens to organiseyour stuff . You could have your email client, calendar anda translation app ready on one for that business meetingwith your Korean clients and a homescreen with theCommunities (integrated-SNS app), Paramount Picturesand Hangman for times when your boss isn’t watching.

The Nokia E7 also happened to be the only one with anAMOLED display on our smartphone comparison testbench. It was also the biggest with a 4-inch capacitivetouchscreen that supports multi-touch gestures. Thismakes the Web experience quite pleasant, however, thepinch-to-zoom options on this handset aren’t as smooth asit was in the other handsets we tried out. Websites loadedpretty quickly with the 4-inch screen reproducing graphi-cs and media with great clarity. Probably owing to theClearBlack display that has been integrated in the E7, wecould read SMSes and access menu options under brightsunlight without having to squint too hard.

Mapping and snapping!‘Maps’ on the E7 include a couple of interesting apps apartfrom OVI maps. You can access the Lonely Planet andTripAdvisor apps within the same menu which can bequite handy if you are looking for a place to shop at, grab abite or shake a leg at the nearest pub while you aretravelling.

Navigating along with OVI Maps itself is quite a pleas-ant experience on the Nokia E7. The app comes with voiceguidance and has a couple of ‘Views’ options including a‘3D’ one. You can also ‘Check In’ at a posh restaurant or a

shopping mall via OVI Maps with a long press on the mapthat pops up the aforementioned option along with dis-playing how far you are from the nearest popular land-marks.

You also have a voice recognition software Vlingo thatyou can use to Google SMS or call your contacts and evenupdate your Facebook status with voice commands. Withthe Mobile Office app you have a cluster of productivityapps – Quickoffice, Adobe PDF and F-Secure.

The 8-meg camera that the E7 is endowed with gave usinteresting results. Indoor shots came out sharp and thecolours were close to original. High-definition video-re-cording too was quite impressive.

The handset has a non-user-replaceable battery whichdoes away with the necessity of an accessible back panel-...may be irksome for some users. The SIM card slot is asmall hide-away tray located on the side panel. You alsodon’t have the option of expanding storage memory. Allyou get is the 16GB in-built memory on the handset tostore all your data.

And again, like with the N8, you have a OTG (On TheGo) USB cable that you can use to access or stream mediadirectly on the E7 while it’s connected to a storage device.Nokia also includes an HDMI cable in the box so you canhook it up to stream your hi-def videos directly to the HDtelly in your living room.

Our verdictThe E7 definitely has the design and the hardware tobecome a worthy modern-day avatar of the Communi-cator, a business-optimised handset that anyone wouldlove pulling out and showing off.

However, it feels like a case of good hardware ham-strung by the inadequacies of the embedded software, onethat doesn’t live up to the hassle-free, peppy and intuitiveinterfaces created by Android or iOS.

Rs 29,999

Photo: S.S. Kumar

The sassy newsecretary?Nokia E7

mahananda@thehindu.co.in

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala

For a company that’s mostly knownfor its quality budget laptops, Acermade quite an impression when itannounced the Acer Liquid Ferra-

ri some time ago. The latest in the Liquidseries is the Acer Liquid Metal. In classicAcer style, the smartphone is bursting withfeatures, but is pinned with an affordableprice tag. Is this good enough to threatenthe titans of the smartphone industry?

First ImpressionsAs the name seems to suggest, the AcerLiquid Metal feels hefty to hold, but bal-ances it out with curves in all the rightplaces and clean lines that give it a sense ofsymmetry. The shiny black bezel encases a3.6-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen,with four touch sensitive buttons at thebottom. Although this is a Android phone,which runs Froyo (version 2.2), Acer hasdone quite a bit when it comes to custom-isation. Although the buttons carry thesame functions, they are depicted by Acer’sown symbols. So you have Home, Search,Back and Menu, in that order.

The edges of the phone are chrome plat-ed, with the bottom sporting the Mini USBport (for transfers as well as charging), andthe right side equipped with a toggleswitch and dedicated camera button. Thetop has the standard power button and 3.5mm headphone jack. The top panel alsohas LED indicators, for charging, missedcall and message. The dark brown, etchedsteel back panel is smooth to touch, andhouses the 5-megger camera with flash,and a speaker at the bottom.

User InterfaceUnless you go to your settings and manual-ly change them, you’ll be greeted with theAcer Breeze interface when you turn onthe Acer Liquid Metal. Chances are you’lllove or hate it. The Breeze interface workson two layers. When you first unlock thephone by pressing the power button,you’re greeted with the first layer – whichconsists of five home screens, which youcan customise with widgets of your choice.We found it a bit cumbersome to use de-spite the options offered. The bottom leftof the first layer has a fold, which you turnover like a page.

This opens up the second layer of theinterface. Swiping to the right reveals a‘media’ home screen, which providesshortcuts to your photos, music and videos.Swiping to the left brings up a history ofrecently used apps, for quick one touchaccess. There is a shortcut bar at the bot-tom of the home screen. The top is a noti-fication panel that Android users will befamiliar with. There’s also a double row ofcustomisable shortcuts. Swiping this bar tothe top reveals the entire menu screen, andyou can browse your apps by swiping to the

left. Despite having a capacitive touch

screen, the phone wasn’t always respon-sive – especially when it came to the key-board. The phone has a standard Androidkeyboard, with a provision for the T9 dic-tionary. There’s also a handwriting inputmethod, which didn’t recognise mostwords we traced out. Although the key-

board wasn’t really cramped, in portraitmode, a lot of typing errors kept recurring– with the only saving grace being the T9dictionary which substituted the rightword most of the time.

MediaWith regard to social networking, thephone was pretty standard. We set up our

Gmail easily and got push notifications forany new email. The phone comes pre-load-ed with Acer Social Jogger – an app thatintegrates your Facebook and Twitter ac-counts with the phone.

For your media files, there are the directAndroid apps for Music and Gallery. Al-ternatively, you can use the Nemo Playerthat puts all your media together in oneplace.

The phone supports the Xvid video for-mat, and we were able to try out variousshort videos and our test media standardFrost/Nixon. The phone scores on sharp-ness and clarity, however there was a bit ofstagger when we hit the play button afterpausing the movie. Although the phone hasDolby Mobile integration, sound levels we-ren’t outstanding, so we’d advise usingheadphones if you plan to listen to music orwatch a movie. That said, there are a bunchof music and video equaliser presets tochoose from – and that really improves thesound quality.

The camera is a 5-megapixel unit withan integrated flash, and is capable of 720pHD video recording. The camera producesgood results in daylight conditions, but de-spite an overly powerful flash, it producesreally bad results in low lighting. We al-most ended up blinding people with theflash, and the resultant over-exposuremade faces look white-washed. You canadjust sharpness and saturation, and tweakthe white balance and ISO, but there aren’tany scene modes to choose from.

PerformanceThe phone runs a 800 Mhz processor, asmall step down from the Acer Stream’s1Ghz processor. The phone frequentlyfroze when we were running a heavy app,such as the camera and barcode scanner,but at other times worked perfectly. It’s abit of a hit and miss, and we think thephone could use a firmware update.

What we did have major problems withwas the proximity sensor – even thoughthe screen is supposed to switch off whenyou’re on a call, it frequently turned on andput the person on hold, activated the loud-speaker, and on a few occasions evendialled another number!

Battery life was good – you get about aday’s worth of juice with a couple of hoursof cumulative talktime and SNS also beingenabled. Adding Bluetooth and Wi-Fimight drain the charge a little more.

Our VerdictThe Acer Liquid Metal has a lot to offer, nodoubt, and for its price it’s quite a gooddeal. However there are some softwareissues that have been compromised on.Once Acer evens out the chinks, it could bea serious contender in the high-end smart-phone segment.Rs 20,500

Acer Liquid Metal:Chinks in the

armour

4 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

Photo: S.S. Kumar

ketaki@thehindu.co.in

5 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

Mahananda Bohidar

Snazzy and super-fast – two qualities you’d expectmost smartphones to be endowed with. What ifyou expect a little bit of strength and durabilitytoo? This is what Motorola Inc. claims to offer

with the Motorola DEFY, its new Android-based smart-phone.

With an unusual international launch late last year - atthe 25th season premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Showwhere each of the wildly cheering and air-thumping audi-ence got to carry a handset back home – the Motorola Defyhas only recently hit town. Whether it’s reason enough foryou to rejoice as well, we find out here.

Checking out the handset for the first time, you realiseMotorola is serious about having built the Defy to with-stand some rugged use with its air-tight compartmentsthat house the 3.5mm jack and mini-USB connector on thehandset.

The back panel is a soft rubberised one providing asturdy grip along with a small latch that you tug on torelease the back panel and access the SIM card slot and thebattery. Tiny screws along the periphery of the bezel holdthe unit in place.

Despite having been designed for some tough use, thehandset is surprisingly light, even when compared to some‘regular’ ones in the market.

Most part of the fascia on the Motorola Defy is the3.8-inch touchscreen display which, again, is one of thevery few ones in the market that stay as true as is possiblefor a smartphone, to the smudge-free tag (due credit to

Corning Gorilla Glass) .The seven homescreens can be adorned with a couple of

interesting Motorola or Android widgets. The smartphonehas almost no physical buttons except the Volume Rockeron the left. To navigate around the handset, you have fourtouch buttons at the bottom of the screen. On any of thehomescreens you have the ‘Dialler’ and ‘Contact’ optionsat the bottom between which you have the icon to pop upthe main menu.

We used the default browser to surf the internet andmost pages that we opened – Facebook, The Guardian –loaded up quickly (Much quicker than most smartphoneswe have used). The display was easy to zoom in to with justa pinch. Pictures, even slideshows, barely took any time toload up on the handset.

Another thumbs up to the Defy for sound quality itoffers. Motorola has built in two microphones that filterout background noise and amplify your voice so you don’thave to shout over the traffic or the TV at home and thetechnology works well. Also, at places where a couple ofbudget phones couldn’t detect network signals, Defy roseto the occasion.

With the GPRS on and with intermittent GPS activity(Google Maps), the battery drains rapidly. But with adecent number of voice calls and the occasional Gmail orGoogle Talk log-ins, the Motorola Defy just about lasted us24 hours.

The 5-megger on the Motorola Defy did not live up tothe standard that some of its competitors have established.The quality of pictures wasn’t grainy but we had problems

with the flash being too bright or the photograph being outof focus in more than a couple of cases. We tried out theCamcorder too when we were luckily at the mountainsand it started raining. The result was a pretty averagefootage with bits and parts of the video being slightlyunderexposed.

You also have the DLNA app (Digital Living NetworkAlliance) on the handset. This means you can stream, storeand share whatever content you have on the handset withother compatible devices such as HDTVs, game consolesand PCs through the Defy.

Transferring media on to the device requires an in-ternet connection on the PC or the laptop that you hook itup with. The syncing is done on a Motorola Mobile webportal where you can drag and drop media from yourcomputer on to the phone’s external storage.

Our verdict“DEFY is designed to handle everything that life throwsyour way,” is what Motorola claims of this smartphone.Well, break-ups and soddy B-grade movies might be obvi-ous exceptions but Defy does seem capable of handling allthat a smartphone is capable of quite well. It gives you adecent screen, a great user interface, tough yet not-too-ugly design, great clarity and a fast browser. An averagecamera and an older version of the Android do not seem tobe reasons enough for those of you looking for a sturdysmartphone that performs and doesn’t come with a ‘sell-a-kidney’ price tag.Rs 21,990

Photo: S.S. Kumar

Re‘DEFY’ning smartness: Motorola Defy

Ticks all ‘Z’ boxes

HTC Desire Z

6 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala

The HTC Desire set a benchmark after the Taiwa-nese manufacturer’s entry into the heavy-dutysmartphone arena. One year later, HTC haslaunched a vamped-up version of the original

with the new Desire Z. Could this be one of the biggerAndroid contenders in the market?

First impressionsThe addition of a pull-out QWERTY keypad does makethis phone heavier than its predecessor, but it feels com-fortingly solid to hold, with clean lines, a brushed alumini-um bezel and pop-open battery cover. The 3.7-inchcapacitive SLCD touch screen is a notch below AMOLED,but it’s still vibrant enough, with a 480x800 resolution.Along the bottom are the four standard Android buttons,but these are touch sensitive, unlike the physical ones onthe Desire. A welcome addition is the optical trackpadcentred along the bottom of the fascia, which lets younavigate between home-screens, the call log, menu, etc.It’s not as big as the one on most BlackBerry handsets, butit’s convenient because you avoid the usual clumsinessthat is a part of the experience while scrolling on touchscreens.

A power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, volume rockerand camera control are the physical buttons which aredispersed over the edges of the phone. The back panelholds a 5-meg camera with LED flash.

The insideThe phone runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo), though personallywe would have preferred Honeycomb to better the userexperience. But what helps is the HTC Sense UI, whichthrows in features like flip to silence, map with compassand drive previews. You can also download widgets, wall-papers, scenes and ringtones from the HTC Hub, whichdoes a good job of giving your phone’s Android interface a

nice makeover. The capacitive, multi-gesture touchscreen was smooth, but we had some problems with thetouch buttons at the bottom being at times unresponsive.

The seven home screens are customisable, and pinchingthe screen shows up thumbnail views of all seven, whichyou can drag to rearrange. The bottom of the screen has acustomised concave HTC panel with three buttons, forMenu, Phone and Personalise. The phone button bringsup the call log as well as the list of all your contacts in onehandy pane, along with an alphanumeric keypad forpunching in a number or quick searching for a contact.The personalise button is a convenient way to choose askin, wallpaper, ringtone and add items to the homescreen.

The notification bar on the top also shows you a list ofrecently used apps, along with alerts. There’s a notifica-tion light on top of the screen which notifies you of anymissed calls or new messages.

The main feature that differentiates the Desire Z fromthe Desire is the pull-out QWERTY keypad with a ‘z-hinge’. It flips out easily to reveal a neatly spaced outkeyboard with a dedicated Tab and Menu key, and doubleFunction and Caps keys, which make it easy for both therighties and lefties to type.

MediaThe phone supports 3gp, mp4 and wmv video playback.We played some videos and were impressed with the goodcolour reproduction and smooth playback. You can alsodouble tap to zoom in to the video. The music playerdisplayed album art, and you can swipe between albums,or organise by artist or song. Sound quality on the speakerwasn’t that great, so we’d advise using headphones. Thephone does support Adobe Flash, and we had no problemloading websites with a lot of flash content like Cartier’s orstreaming YouTube vids.

Apart from your usual Android Facebook and Twitter

apps, there are also HTC apps for Facebook, and Peep tolog in to Twitter. Friend Stream by HTC shows all yourSNS in one place, and you can browse through statusupdates, check notifications and look through friend lists.Push email allows you to configure any email account andreceive instant notifications.

The 5-megger camera was exceptional as far as mobilephone cameras go. It provides a variety of effects likeVignette, Depth of Field and distortion, and you can adjustWhite Balance, Colour Saturation and Exposure. Therearen’t any scene modes, which we didn’t really miss, but abig downside was the lack of a front facing camera forvideo chats. The camera can, however, record HD videoup to 720p.

PerformanceAn 800 MHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qual-comm MSM 7230 chipset make this smartie pretty nimble,and although some would argue that it’s a downgrade fromthe 1 GHz processor of the Desire, we didn’t notice anydifference in performance. Connectivity options includeHSDPA up to 14.4 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and hotspot,Bluetooth 2.1, DLNA and micro USB 2.0 (for charging anddata transfer) - which are pretty much all you need in asmartphone today.

The phone gives you about a day of juice on a full charge,with the usual browsing, media usage, SNS and a couple ofhours of calls. We had some problems with in-call volume,and even when it was set on maximum we had to press thehandset to our ear to hear clearly.

Our VerdictThough it is lacking a few features, the Desire Z makes anifty smartphone package. Unlike other manufacturers,HTC has priced the phone just right, which we think willhelp it remain a cut above the competition.Rs 25,590

Photo: S.S Kumar

7 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

The Final Face-Off

8 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

AUTO focus

Jason H. Harper

Ferrari keeps its secrets better than a Cold War spyagency. No one saw the radically-shaped, two-door, four-seat Ferrari Four coming.

It broke cover in late January, along with thenews that it would be the company’s first-ever all-wheel-drive.

Two months later, I’m tucked behind the wheel of the$300,000 FF, testing its V-12-powered moves deep in theDolomite mountains of northern Italy. Talk about a happyturn of events.

Painted a luminous blue, my Ferrari is tackling a seriesof thickly stacked switchbacks, white snow spilling ontothe asphalt on both sides.

A skier on a slope alongside the road fixates on the carand wipes out.

I know how he feels, breathing shallowly as I steeraround an uphill hairpin and hammer the gas, engagingthe AWD. A risky move in an expensive car that isn’t yours.There’s only a slight chirp of tyres as I drift around thewickedly sharp turn.

Then I’m through and tearing up the hill at 60. The FF isdeceptively civil - except for the banshee howl of thefront- mounted 651-horsepower motor that could causeavalanches.

South Tyrol’s vast landscape offers snow-covered cragsand DayGlo-green valley grasses. Dry and wet, cold and

sunny - ideal for testing an AWD system. While Lamborghini uses AWD on all its cars, Ferrari

has always maintained that rear-wheel-drive is perform-ance king.

Perhaps that’s why it insists this system is meant onlyfor inclement weather, as if the FF were a snow plow withespecially nice leather bucket seats.

‘That’s a Ferrari?’Either way, in addition to the denizens of Aspen and St.Moritz, it will also appeal in emerging markets like China,Russia and India, since it accommodates four adults and isrobust enough to handle all types of roads.

The funky shape is what insiders call a “shooting brake,”essentially a long nose mated to a two-door cockpit andhatchback. Some say it’s a far cry from what a Ferrarishould be, but I like the design gumption.

It’s officially the replacement for the less-than-adoredfour-seat 612 Scaglietti, but over pre-dinner drinks, Ferra-ri chairman Luca di Montezemolo told me: “It’s revolu-tion, not evolution. We started with a blank sheet of paper.To me it’s an emotional car.”

The FF looks oversize in photos, but the shotgun wed-ding of four seats and aggressive sports styling is moreorganic in real life. The gaping black front grill is asfearsome as the mouth of a Great White. It seems ready tosnack on lesser vehicles unfortunate enough to be caught

in the asphalt current.

Optional DVDThough the word “practical” is surely Ferrari anathema,the rear hatch has a big opening and the back seats alsofold down. Turns out you can take it with you after all.

The word “Ferrari” is embossed front and centre on thedashboard - as if you might forget - in addition to an “FF”logo and the prancing horse emblem on the wheel.

Big windows let in lots of light and you can generally seewell, even from the back seats, which are set slightlyhigher than those in front. The front seats are deep, idealfor capturing your frame as G forces pound you into theleather.

As for actually sitting in back: Though I had to slouch,my head didn’t touch the headliner.

About those two optional DVD flatscreens in the seat-backs: Sorry, but if a $300,000 sports car can’t keep youamused, you’ve been either overindulged or overstimulat-ed.

Practicality aside, it’s still a Ferrari. The FF hits 62 mphin 3.7 seconds with a top speed of more than 200. In asingle hard blast down a curving section of the Autostrada,my guts turned to jelly. It’s fast.

Uphill, Downhill RacerThere are no obvious drawbacks to the AWD. Goose the

Photos: Bloomberg

Ferrari bursts out of the blue with the fantastic Four

9 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

gas on tight curves and some torque will transfer to thefront wheels. But it always maintains a significant rear-wheel bias. There’s little to no understeer.

Suspension is firm, but I can’t think of another car thatfeels so supremely confident on all four wheels, and of itsrightful place on the road. The same 7-speed, double-clutch, automated transmission found in the 458 Italia ishere, too. Technical brilliance.

The steering wheel is a bit too light and the kineticinformation transmitted about road conditions is scant. Ifyou ignore the shift paddles and leave it in automatic(slacker!), downshifts come on lazily even when youstomp on the gas to make a sudden pass.

But, you know, geez. A Ferrari and the Italian Alps. Icircle to the top of a snow-slicked plateau and briefly get aglimpse of the horizon - icy escarpments sparking in thelate winter sun - before dropping down the other side andattacking the winding road.

A short time ago I didn’t even know this car existed.Now it’s all I can think about.

(The author writes about autos for Muse, the arts and leisuresection of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

The 2012 Ferrari FF At a GlanceEngine: 6.3-liter V-12 with 651 horsepower and 504 pound- feet of torqueTransmission: 7-speed dual-clutchautomated.Speed: 0 to 62 mph in 3.7 secondsGas mileage per gallon: 12 city; 18 highway(estimated)Price as tested: $335,000 (estimated)Best feature: Ferrari performance meets hatchback practicalityWorst feature: Having to listen to colleagues pontificate about whether it looks like a “real”FerrariTarget buyer: The Ferrari lover with friends

10 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

AUTO news

After winning hearts on the roads and on screen in 41countries worldwide the iconic British luxury sports

car brand Aston Martin finally makes it to Indian roadstoo.

Aston Martin marks its foray into India with a newdedicated facility in Mumbai in partnership with Perform-ance Cars (a division of Infinity Cars Pvt. Ltd.). The latterhas enjoyed a strong reputation in the Indian luxury carmarket for several years and has been associated withbrands BMW and Princess Yachts.

The Aston Martin dealership in Mumbai is located atKemp’s Corner at the junction of the ultra premium Ped-dar and Altamount Roads and will offer customers a pre-mium boutique environment wherein they can customspecify the cars to their exacting needs, an official state-ment said. The after-sales facility near Worli is a first of itskind dedicated, air conditioned workshop in the highluxury segment. The showroom and after-sales facilitieshave been specially designed to follow the internationaldesign elements that have timelessly identified the ele-gance of the Aston Martin brand worldwide.

While the British brand is willing to offer any car fromits stable including the very special One-77 at a startingprice of about Rs 20 crore, there will be models on offer topotential customers who want to get a taste of the Astonexperience starting all the way from a low Rs 1.35 crore.

Aston Martin customers and enthusiasts will be able toview and test-drive select models from the entire range ofV8 Vantage Coupe, V8 Vantage Roadster, V12 Vantage,DB9 Coupe, DB9 Volante, DBS Coupe, DBS Volante andthe four-door sports car; Rapide (Rs 2.15 crore). Thesemodels will also soon be joined by the recently launched

V8 Vantage S and the new Virage.The Aston Martin’s association with James Bond 007

adds to the aura surrounding the brand. But, with the rateat which the luxury car market is growing in India, onething is for sure…there wouldn’t have been the need forany undercover work to decipher the market here.

Bond withAston’s best

Force India Formula One Team has an-nounced the launch of its F1 Team A-

cademy, to identify and promote racingtalent in India. The academy will focus onnurturing talent, providing vocationaltraining for a career in motor sport orrelated industries and specialised academ-ic programmes related to the field of mo-torsports. In the first year, the Academy’spredominant focus will be on unearthingand discovering racing talent while theinitiatives in the other two focus areas willbe rolled out in a phased manner over thenext 12 months. The Academy will launchits first comprehensive initiative, ‘Hunt for1 from a Billion’ on April 25, which willinclude Regional Trials in seven cities anda National Final. The hunt is proposed tobe held every two years and the ten final-ists from the National Final will be part of aweek-long intensive stint at Silverstone,UK.

India getsits first F1academy

11 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

MELANGE luxury redefined

Adding to the cheery summer accessories, Lavie haslaunched its Summer Straws range of bags. Made oforganic fabrics, the bags come in beige and taupe huesand can be bought at its outlets in New Delhi, Mumbaiand Bengaluru.Rs 1,900 to Rs 2,500

Summery bags

Taking a break from aviators and cat-eye frames, DSquared2’s latest isits hexagon shaped eyewear collection. This one creates an unusualsilhouette and adds glamour with the tortoise and gold details. Availableat select lifestyle stores.Rs 23,000

An envious collectible, this Equestrian Decanter fromSteuben Glass is a crystal masterpiece inspired by SidneyWaugh’s 1937 Horse Head sculpture. Available at RightAddress Boutique, New Delhi.Price on request

Doing a wheelie, a stoppie and all the stunts you can possibly do with yourstrolley, eight of VIP’s new ranges will feature its ‘360 degree wheeling’ in-novation. Grab one and try the moves at its outlets across India.Rs 4,200 to Rs 6,000

On a spree!

Lites is the latest collection from Titan EyePlus with minimalistic designs, crafted in

titanium and thin stainless steel for the ‘light’experience. Head to its stores and choose

from a platter of 40 stylish frames.Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000

Simple framing

Sexy sixPrecious decanter

12 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

RESORT review

Rasheeda Bhagat

With a km-long private coastline and beachwith fine white sand and an incredible 65acres of elegantly landscaped lush greengardens to lose yourself in, Dubai’s ex-

tremely elegant, stylish and plush beach resort ‘Residence& Spa’, sets a new benchmark of luxury in the hospitalityindustry. It is one of the trio of properties that jointly formthe One&Only Royal Mirage.

Beauty and elegance, tranquillity and personalised ser-vice, great food and three swimming pools with controlledtemperatures to choose from… these are the essentialelements of this swish resort that pampers its guests to thehilt in true Arabian style extravagance and courtesy.

And then, along with the chirping of a host of birds,peacocks too are attracted to this serene, green haven. As Iphotograph one that is lounging on a reclining chair out-side a guest’s room, a couple of pea hens hanging around inattendance, a staff member says that these resplendentbirds are frequent visitors from the Royal Palace belongingto Sheik Mohammed, Dubai’s ruler.

Philippe Dupont, Manager of the Royal Mirage, who is amember of the association of The Leading Hotels of theWorld, confirms this. “Yes, the gentlemen and ladies arenot staying with us, but they visit us regularly from theSheikh’s palace, three km away,” says the Frenchman. Butthanks to their frequent visits the pea hens have quite alarge family to manage!

Dramatic architectureThe first thing that strikes you about the Royal Mirage —The Palace, the Arabian Court and Residence & Spa — isthe dramatic architecture that evokes the spirit of Arabiawith traditional Islamic architecture blending in with

contemporary flourishes and touches. The arches, sur-prise curves and meandering, picturesque walkways,fountains and other water features, romantic lighting,trellis work and the lavish use of silk and other fabrics forthe furnishings, evoke the magic of an Arabian era that hadonce powered and dazzled the world

Together, the three hotels have around 450 rooms andsuites. The Palace, which was built first, is a huge facilitywith 197 rooms, 35 suites, including two royal suites, eachof which is a gigantic 3,500 sq ft. These have separateliving and dining rooms, linked to a large balcony over-looking the Arabian Gulf, which is barely 50 metres away,and a private kitchenette. The Arabian court has 162rooms and 10 suites, including two Prince Suites. Thehighlight of the Prince Suites is the outdoor terrace withMajlis-style seating complete with cushions and bolsters…and of course, fancy hookahs!

But it is the much smaller Residence & Spa with 47rooms and suites that is really recommended as a getawayfor a special, intimate occasion. Several facilities here,including its swimming pool, is exclusive for its guests andcan’t be used by those living in the other two resorts. Bothits interior and exterior areas have an old world charmthat blows you; overlooking manicured gardens and waterbodies and walkways, all the rooms are done stylishly withthe finest of detailing. Having sampled One&Only Le SaintGeran in Mauritius, the design and décor of my room,particularly the wash basin and wash room areas, gave mea feeling of déjà vu and comfort. Small wonder then thatthe letter welcoming guests always says: ‘Welcome back’.

An impressive 50 per cent of the guests here are onrepeat visits and this figure goes up to an unbelievable 70per cent for the peak season or New Year’s Eve. For thecoming New Year season, the resort is already fully book-

ed, and many of the guests reserved their room beforeleaving in the first week of January 2011. The average stayof the guests here range from seven to 10 days; the rates inthe low season or summer range between $600-1,000 pernight depending on the room, but the Garden Villa can setyou back by $4,000-5000 a night.

Uber luxuryIf you can afford it, check into the ultra luxurious GardenVilla, which is very close to the pristine beach, has aprivate driveway, two bedrooms separated by an elegantlounge, dining room and entertainment area. And theultimate in luxury, at least for me, is the shaded terraceopening out to a private temperature-controlled swim-ming pool! What more could one ask for?

Most of the guests are from Europe — UK, Germany,Switzerland, France and Italy – but the Indian market isopening up too; the Bollywood stars have been cominghere for some time as the resort offers luxurious pamper-ing with incredible service. Interestingly, the Indianguests are here not only for shopping and relaxing “butalso to discover some new culinary experiences. Theyknow that Dubai is a city of the future and only a few hoursaway from home,” says Dupont.

Apart from three swimming pools and a spa that housesthe Oriental Hammam where you can get an unbelievabletraditional Turkish or Moroccan hammam experience (inother words the good old royal scrubbing, but only embel-lished with special touches to enhance the pampering),the resort also indulges golf lovers. Just five minutes awayare located several world-class 18-hole golf courses. Themore adventurous can opt for horse riding, scuba diving,desert safaris and other sightseeing tour options that Du-bai has to offer.

An Arabian night’s tale

There is enough put on the table to pamper the palate;the best in Mediterranean and West Asian cuisine is avail-able at the many restaurants in the Royal Mirage. ThePalace has four speciality restaurants - Olives, servingdelectable Mediterranean food; Tagine, dishing out au-thentic Moroccan fare; Celebrities, which serves interna-tional cuisine; and The Beach Bar & Grill for mouthwatering seafood and grills. In contrast to these plushspecialty restaurants, the Dining Room at the Residence &Spa, that has several tables laid out under the cool shade ofthe innumerable palms, is a place where you can enjoy arelaxed, leisurely meal. An added bonus is that over 80 percent of the staff is Indian; most from Kerala but speakingimpeccable Hindi.

But the most romantic moment, and my favourite, isThe Jetty, the classy beach lounge where you can settledown for a couple of evening drinks as the dipping sungives a dramatic hue to Dubai’s impressive skyline. Thecool breeze blows from the Arabian Gulf, and the sound ofthe water weaves an Arabian magic around you.

Old world charmMy special takeaway from this resort is its old-worldcharm…the extremely high ceilings often panelled inwood creating a feeling of abundant space; the warm,earthy colours —beige and brown —in the entire décorbeginning with the furniture, the flooring, the furnishingthat exudes class; the colonial ambience in the Librarywhich houses the bar and where high tea is served eachevening. The large French windows, the classic chande-liers, the wooden arches and stairways, the trelliswork, allblend together beautifully to recreate the magical aura ofan ancient civilisation.

The various facilities are so charmingly and ingeniouslyarranged that you get the feeling of abundant space andprivacy. The resort, I was told, was full, and yet, I couldbarely see, or hear, the guests.

rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

Photo: Rasheeda Bhagat

14 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

TASTER’S choice

John Mariani

Iwon’t tell you to pour your five-year-old white

wines down the drain. But if you don’t drink themnow, that’s what you might end up doing.

The fact is 99.9 per cent of all white wines in theworld do not improve after a year or two of aging. They areat their best on release, which may be the spring followingthe autumn harvest.

This was brought into focus after tasting a bottle of 2008La Follette Manchester Ridge Chardonnay from Mendoci-no Ridge. At $48 it is among the pricier California Char-donnays - at 15 per cent alcohol it is also one of the mostpotent.

It’s a big wine, well made in the bold California style, nottoo much oak. But I felt that, at less than two and a halfyears old, it was unlikely to get any better in the bottle.

There may have been some oxidation, or it may be goingthrough what is called in the trade a ‘dumb’ period, whensome wines hibernate and later flourish.

So while I enjoyed the wine with a grilled red snapper, Iwas glad I didn’t have a whole case of it in my cellar. Moreand more with white wines I’m drinking them as soon aspossible after I buy them.

If a wine store is selling - always at a discount - a whitewine more than three years old, you can bet it’s because itdoesn’t sell very well upon release

Aging whitesThe vast majority of winemakers around the world givelittle thought to aging their white wines for more than afew months or a year in the first place.

I have, of course, had impressive examples of Muscadet,

Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Rieslingseveral years old. The greatest of all, German Rieslingdessert wines are aged for many years and can be drunkwith delight even decades later.

One of the white wines I’ve always been amazed by isValentini’s Trebbiano d’abruzzo, a varietal made in hugebulk by other producers and disdained by many in Italy asnothing but a workhorse white. Somehow Valentini man-ages to make his Trebbiano long-lived, and I’ve had bottlesa decade old that are still brilliant.

So, too, connoisseurs and producers of white Burgun-dies insist that the very finest, like Puligny-Montrachet,Batard- Montrachet, and the rare Montrachet itself(which sells for about $2,000) need at least three andperhaps even ten years of aging to reach true maturity.

Onion skin tasteI’m sceptical and have no plans to wait that long, even if Icould afford such prices.

The Brits have long exhibited a preference for what theycall an ‘onion skin taste’ of old vintage Champagnes, whichcomes from a certain amount of oxidation, which doesnothing for my palate.

I have tasted some fine old vintage Champagnes andapplaud their longevity, but I much prefer younger, vi-brant examples precisely because they are so fresh andblooming with fruit and acid.

Most people don’t order expensive ancient white wines,especially in more casual restaurants, like New York’s newLyon bistro, where the best-selling wines are SauvignonBlanc and French Chardonnay. “I personally love oldChablis,” says owner Francois Latapie, “but I don’t have

the clientele for it here.” He continues, “They do like St. Veran, Macon, and

Alsatian Riesling, and the vintages I stock are the mostrecent, 2009 and soon 2010.”

Younger vintagesThere are, however, fine restaurants that proudly toe theline for older whites. “I look for wines that have phenom-enon mineral force, concentration of fruit and can benefitfrom aging,” says Ruben Sanz Ramiro, sommelier at NewYork’s Veritas restaurant, which stocks 3,200 labels and75,000 bottles, 25 per cent of them white. “They becomebetter integrated and complex aromatically.

“We have old white Burgundies and even CaliforniaChardonnay going back to the 1970s - Stony Hill, Chalone,Mount Eden,” he added. “They are absolutely sound, withextraordinary acidity that protects the wines over time. Inmost cases when I recommend them, our guests are reallypleased and surprised.”

You take a chance with every bottle of wine you open -some might be corked, others oxidised by accident - whichis why a good wine steward is crucial when orderingexpensive wines in a restaurant.

With whites, youth trumps age most of time. When awaiter at Napa & Co. in Stamford, CT, recently apologisedbecause the bottle of Spanish Albarino I ordered was ayounger vintage than the one on the list, I just smiled andsaid, “Even better! Let’s see how it tastes.”

(The author writes on wine for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Younger the better!

Photos: Bloomberg

15 April 20, 2011Smartbuy

EVENT meter

While Spring Summer collections areflying off the shelves, the fashion industryis busy setting the trend for the wintermonths to follow. The Wills LifestyleFashion Week Autumn Winter 2011showcased some of the best Indiandesigners’ winter wardrobe. The rampsaw fascinating silhouettes, structureddress, flowing drapes, traditional Indianprints and fabrics, chic evening wear,pastel hues and bright colour blocks. Theshow was kick-started by Neeru Kumar’sode to the Indian fabrics and continuedwith prominent designers like VarunBahl, Tarun Tahiliani, Ritu Kumar, RajeshPratap Singh, Shantanu & Nikhil, ManishMalhotra, Monapali, Anita Dongre andSabyasachi, among others. Apart from theramp walks, WLFW also had aninteresting World of Wearable Art(WOW) presentation, with an uniqueblend of creative art and fashion.

Unique children’s furniture to kids art or nursery décor, the newest destination to caterto the little one’s room interiors is American brand Sandcastle. With a recentlylaunched plush store in New Delhi, Sandcastle is a subsidiary of International Furni-ture Brands and offers a wide range of furniture for the 0 to 16 age group.

Premium home store for kiddos Have your feet ever been treated to some yummy blue berry cheesecake or perhaps adivine chocolate fondue? Well, it will soon be. Seven Seas Spas Group has launchedIndia’s first ‘fantasy’ spa, Seven Seas Evania in New Delhi. Apart from an interestingrange of exclusive therapies, the spa will also launch LaRic, a Pedicure and Manicureline.

A mouth-watering experience!

Fashion extravaganza

Neeru KumarAnupama Dayal