#driveanxf - I did

Jaguar and Land Rover Middle East have always captivated my attention with their awesome cars. These are machines that I have always dreamed of driving.

In November last year, I participated in a competition with the hashtag #driveanxf, which essentially put me in to the draw for a chance to drive a Jaguar XF for a weekend. I won and subsequently, I was handed the keys to the Jaguar XF for the weekend of 14th November to 17th November. Stop whinging - here in Dubai our weekend is Friday and Saturday, and it was an extended weekend with Thursday thrown into the fray that week.

I built myself up to the day. Watched videos like this one here:

and this one here:

It really was something to see the videos and I was really thrilled, because I believed that I would experience the thrill they talk about in those videos. I know - there was no commentary in the first one - but there was a voice in my head! :P

Come the day I had to get the car, and they had me signing my soul off to take it for the weekend. I did so with a smile on my face:

Once the mandatory paper work was completed, they took me outside and had me sit in the car, while I was briefed on what came with the car and all the little bits and tricks associated with the car.

There was a lot and boy, OH BOY, was I thrilled to experience it. Look at me, still smiling like an idiot :P

Every bit of talk through introduced me to the technology that made me want the car more and more. My favorite bit? This:

I know that is a lot - but it really is my favorite bit about the car, aside from driving it. But I will get to that in a bit :P

Once I got the car, we went for a spin in the night; my wife, son and I. Tried out all the delights of night driving and enjoyed Dubai by night. This car was such a joy to ave in the city with its 3.0L engine. No stress, no hassles, just pure cruising. If needed, I could just floor the pedal to let the "Cat out of the bag" but that was not needed as it was a slow night and we were all smiling.

The car handled so well - a big change from my Renault Logan (you think), but it made me want to hold on to the car for as long as I could. The steering so responsive, so light, so welcoming despite the growling jaguar staring at me from the wheel. I rarely had to move my hands from the comfort of the steering, since almost all the controls were on there for me to use.

The following day, we got ready to go around UAE as I wanted to experience the car in as many elements as I could - cruising on the highway, climbing up hills, and city driving.

We installed my son's car seat in the back, and put the baby-on-board sign on in the rear windshield and we were ready to go but not before my wife got these photos:

We took off to Ras Al Khaimah via Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm Al Quwain, making sure we covered as much ground as we could. In the Jaguar XF, it was hardly noticeable the way we were covering ground. It was effortless and when we DID reach RAK, I was pleasantly surprised to find we had done so in perfectly planned fashion. In time for lunch! :P

Once lunch was taken care off, we headed to Fujairah. This leg of the journey had us in the city for some time, in the hills for a lot and in stop and go traffic when we had to cross into Fujairah for dinner. So far the drive was so effortless, I could have taken off to Abu Dhabi and not felt a thing. Cruise Control, light steering, mapping systems, great fuel efficiency, large tank, comfortable driving position, enough driving assists to make driving safer - all these contribute to this feeling!

But we had had enough for the day. This is when the adventure actually started. On the new Fujairah highway, there are no fuel pumps and this, coupled with the increasing confidence I had on the Jaguar XF led us to be nearly stranded on the new highway, where we literally drove till the last liter was nearly over and we could get some fuel. Thank God for small mercies, there was a small fuel pump down the road and we managed to get enough fuel to get back into the city. Once we got the fuel, my wife wanted to fly some more, so I opened up the Sun Roof and allowed her to do so. while we were parked, that is.

Once we got back home, we returned to a peaceful night of sleep, and the next day, we took the extended family out for a spin and a day of relaxation. We never did get to going to Abu Dhai or Al Ain but 6 Emirates out of 7 is not a bad achievement in a single day. So I was happy with the days events.

The car outlived my expectation and has changed my desire to own American Muscle (sorry Dodge / Chevy) to now aiming to own European class - especially the Jaguar XF.

Thanks to Al Tayer motors and their agency for making this a reality for me. I will be back as a potential customer some day.

OH and in case you were wondering, you can read up on the specifications and more information about the car on this link: www.jaguar.com/me/en/xf/models_features/models/premium_luxury ; I had the 3.0L Silver version of this particular model.

One last thing: Please go and like the Jaguar facebook if you want a chance to #driveanxf like I did. The link: https://www.facebook.com/JaguarMENA

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In a Galaxy not so long ago...

Even with a name like Galaxy, Samsung builds phones that are nothing alien to a tech lover. I was first introduced to the Galaxy range of Smart-phones a little over 3 years ago. I used them then, and liked them a lot. This was in India. Now I am in Dubai, and Samsung refuse to shy away from the Galaxy name chain. Why change a winning formula. 

They launched the first of the "Galaxy S", the frontrunner of technology in it's age, in June 2010. In May 2011, the S2 really took the market by storm and introduced some technology that was by far the best in the time zone then. Even today, it is a strong contender for mid range phones. 

Let's circle back to recent history. The Galaxy S3 was launched in May 2012. The phone has created quite a buzz around it with TouchWiz and the large screen. A few other features unique to the handset were also the talk of the town, but, if we bring it down to the hard fact, it is a smart-phone. So how smart is it, really?

Form

while most things are micro, there is nothing micro about the phone

The phone is large. Considering I was instantly upgraded from a 3.7 inch screen to this 4.8 inch screen, yes it was larger than I was used to. This, in no way, is a downside to the phone. It does not make you wish you were Mr. Fantastic. Regular size hand and large phone - is not a problem. Your thumb will be able to access across 2/3rds of the screen so a two handed approach to using the phone becomes mandatory. This will upset the people who wish to text while driving, or are used to a single hand approach to texting on their smart-phone.

The phone is made with lightweight ABS which is a form of plastic. The build on this phone is rather cheap and you do feel plastic-y holding the phone. Slight taps reveal a slight hollowness and this makes it worse. The back comes off and the plastic-y nature of the material used is further revealed. 

That is where this feeling ends, because the technology used for the phone is top notch. The back comes off to reveal the big battery (2100mAH) and the slots for the Micro Sim and the Trans-Flash or Micro SD memory card. The memory in built is about 16 GB including the 2 GB sorted out for applications and processes. You can expand the memory up to an additional 64 GB.

The problem for me is that the phone is about the same size as the competition but it was not nearly as comfortable to hold as the other phone. Call me fussy, but that was a big downer. 

There is a micro USB adapter that doubles as a charging and connection spot.

Display

be prepared to shield your eyes in the dark

The S3 comes with a 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD display with a resolution of 720x1280 HD with a colour depth of 16 Million Colours. Pixel Density is 306 Pixels per Inch which is still quite high and gives you a much clearer picture in collaboration with the above specifications.

The display is quite vibrant and I did quite enjoy watching movies on the wide-screen format in Full HD. With no lag, the screen was quite sharp, and had the colour depth as expected from a hand held device. The use of the screen in the day time was hardly a problem. I am in Dubai, and the sun is out shining most of the time and boy it is bright. In that kind of brightness, using the S3 was hardly a problem. Enough detail and I never had to squint even once.

In the night, however, you would be well advised to use auto brightness, because the screen can blind you with its glare. I kid you not. That screen is bright and not even at full brightness. I normally keep my screen at 75% and I had to tune it down. Flashlight, anyone?

Camera
any more and the camera comes with a phone...

The camera is excellent. Great depth, good point focus, excellent modes. It is all fairly standard. Why does this get better than the others? The interface is probably one of the best I have seen. Combined with good hardware, this makes the entire process of using the camera quite nice.

Photography is intuitive for a regular user. Focus on faces, 1080p HD video with simultaneous photo capture, burst mode allows you to take 8 photographs within 3.3 seconds, best picture selection - all these are great because the interface is very precise and allows easy navigation through all the modes and is fun to use.

Interface

I have been harping about the interface in my previous section and therefore this section needs more elaboration. The TouchWiz interface is a step up from the previous versions and quite frankly is a breath of fresh air. That said, the mobile is slightly counter-intuitive. For my podgy fingers, the touch was all sorts of mishap prone. Touch one thing and something else would get activated.  

A couple of the features in the interface were really neat, my favourites included Raise to call from a message, swipe in the contact zone to either message or call, and Smart Stay.

Check out this video for more:

Sound

The speaker is small and rather discreetly positioned to look like a small metallic block placed near the camera. It does what it has been designed to do efficiently. It kept up with the bass on Metallica's King Nothing and the smooth sounds of the flute that my son likes every now and then! So, well done Samsung. My son keeps coming back for an Encore!

Performance

it is no slouch.. make no mistake..

It obediently opened all the apps I needed just so I could "try" to overload it. I could not - I tried and failed.. it multi-tasked with ease. Camera, Gallery, Music, Browser, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Path.. I thought this would kill it.., but no.. it just egged me on and I happily completed all the tasks I set out to do on all the apps.

There is enough juice in the battery for a Social user to last upwards of 20 hours and a heavy work user close to 12-15 hours. This is not scientific though, so don't hold me to it.

My Verdict

It is a good device. The competition does outweigh it in terms of design and certain function, but if you are used to the bloatware that Samsung stuff into their phones, then you will be a very happy camper with the S3.

With that said, have a look at this video where you will be introduced to a whole bunch of Samsung original accessories that make using the S3 so much more fun. This is where Samsung win.

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