Microsoft Lumia 640 XL

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL

Key features

• 5.7 inch 720p HD IPS LCD screen.
• 13MP main camera.
• 5MP wideangle front facing camera.
• 1.2Ghx Snapdragon 400
• Large removable 3000 mAh battery 
• microSD memory expandableupto 128GB.
• Microsoft office pre installed.
• Upgradable to windows 10.

About Microsoft Lumia 640 XL

      It is a super sized version of Lumia 640. It has more bigger battery. It runs on 8.1 windows OS and comes with 4G. It comes with  large screen with cheap price. 

Design

      It is 9mm thick and stretching your thumb to slide the screen is impossible for average-sized hand. There are no annoying gaps in between the screen and trim to trap dust and pocket fluff. It has headphone jack on top of the phone and Micro USB charging port on bottom edge. It has Micro SIM card slot and a microSD slot. It has 8GB onboard storage.

Screen

      It has 720p HD resolution IPS LCD screen with Gorilla Glass 3 and adds a layer of durablity. It has a pixel density of about 259ppi with sharp, colours are accurate and nice place for browsing and watching video. It has a bright screen and viewing angles are strong. The biggest benefits are black levels and contrast ratio performance which associate with AMOLED screens. 

                                

Software

      It runs with windows 8.1 OS and upgradable to windows 10. There is the main tiled homescreen and an Android-styled dropdown notification bar where you can toggle on,off settings. If you swipe left side then you will get a list of apps and software organized into one long list. It has Glance screen and it basically displays the time along with notifications for email and texts when the screen is off and in a low power state. Voice recognition feels a little laboured and some times it is inaccurate. They are more preinstalled apps in Lumia 640 Xl. 

Performance

      It is an efficient perfomer which keeps Windows phone running smooth. It can get a little warm around the back but nothing like oveheating issues.

                                                           

                                                           

Camera

      It has 13MP rear camera with LED Flash and can click nice photos with it. It has 5MP front camera to take selfies with good quality. It still manages to take some decent low-light photos as well. Lumia Camera app is easy to use and had additional software like Lumia Refocus and Selfie apps to have little more fun with images. We can select manual settings in good way. Image quality in good outdoor light produce nicely detailed and sharp photos. For video, both front and back cameras are capable of Full HD 1080p video recording. The quality is perfectly fine for sharing. It's sharper on a phone screen than blown up onto a computer. The colours are accurate. 

Battery Life

      The capacity of battery is 3000mAh with lower screen resolution. It will comfortably get you a day's play and it could go for two days if you are not a power user. Leave it in standby mode and it reserves the power well. Watching an hour episode of Netflix show with battery at 100%, brightness at 50% and wifi turned on, the drop-off  is of about 10% and this also applicable in case of gaming. A 30 minute charge will get you around 10-15%.Call quality and speakers. The call quality is decent with no issues. The speaker is situated on the back next to camera sensor does a good job for music and movie playback as well as speakerphone calls. It is very loud . 

Verdict

      Lumia 640 XL is an affordable windows phone let down by the shortcomings of still evolving OS and just being too big use comfortably.

Pros

• Large display.
• It can zoom while capturing video.
• Both front and rear quality is nice.
• Supports 128GB of memory card.
• It has Corning gorilla glass 3 with NDR( Native Damage Resistance) for screen protection.
• We can install and move applicaton directly in SD card.
• Long battery backup.

Cons

• 720p display with 259ppi density is low for 5.7 inches screen.
• It may be bulkier for some user.
• 1.2 Ghz snapdragon seems older.
• It does not support OTG cable.
• Out of 8GB only 3GB is available for user but you can insert SD card upto 128GB.

USER RATING: 4.1/5

COST:Rs 13,998

Samsung galaxy On7

Samsung galaxy On7

Highlights

• 1.2GHz Quad Core Processor
• 1.5GB RAM with 8GB ROM
• 5.5 Inch TFT HD Display
• Dual Micro SIM
• 13MP camera  with LED Flash
• 5MP Front Camera
• 4G/WiFi/NFC
• Bluetooth 4.1
• 3000mAh Battery

Display and Design

      The size of the phone is 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with screen resolution of 720*1280 HD 

pixels having pixel density of 267ppi. The phone measures 8.2mm around waist and weighs 172 

grams. 

                                        

                                                   

Configuration and OS

      It has 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with MSM8916 chipset. It has 1.GB RAM. and runs with android 5.1

Camera and Storage

      It has rear camera of 13MP which helps to capture favourite moments. This camera has 

inbuilt features like face detection, Geo-tagging, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR) and Toch to Focus. For taking selfies and video calling it supports 5MP front camera. The samsung galaxy On7 has 8GB inbuit memory and it can be expandable upto 128GB via an external microSD card.

                                                                              

                                                             

Special features

      It has Samsung Milk app which has hundreds of radio stations of Europe and Asia and keeps updates of latest songs. It also supports Samsung Smart Manager which protects the device from harmful Virus, monitors traffic and detect status.

Battery and Connectivity

      It supports Dual SIM with battery capacity of about 3000 mAh and of battery type Li-ion. It gives plenty of power for regular multi tasking. It is 4G compatible with wide range of connectivity features including Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11, b/g/n, mobile hotspot, A-GPS and USB 

                                         

                                                   

Verdict

      It is smooth with metal-styled frame. The 13MP stunning camera makes snapping vivid photos delightful. Selfie lovers can rely on 5MP camera for posting perfect snaps on social websites. It has powerful.  battery that gives excellent running time.

Pros

• Good design and Large size HD display.
• Ultra data saving mode.
• Superb battery life.
• Stable performance.
• Memory expandable upto 128GB.
• 4G capablity in both SIM slots.

Cons

• Mediocre chip-set.
• Low internal storage space.
• Display could have been better.
• Average loudspeaker.
• lacks ambient sensor.
• Capacitive keys are not backlit.
• Mediocre speaker loudness.

COST:Rs 8,990

USER RATING: 4.1/5

Xiamo Redmi 3S Prime

Xiamo Redmi 3S  Prime

Design and Display

      It has a fully metallic unibody structure and offers premium look and feel. The size of display  is 5 inch and it is HD display with 294 ppi. The top of the phone has 3.5 mm headphone jack along with mic and IR blaster. It has Hybrid SIM  and the SIM card tray is placed on left side of the phone and 

volume rockers along with power button are placed on right side. The microUSB port is placed at the bottom.

                                     

                                                     

Camera

      It has 13-megapixel rear camera with 5 physical lens and f/2.0 aperture. It Has PDAF and HDR. 

The size of front camera is 5MP with /2.2 aperture with 36 smart beauty profiles. The rear side camera has LED flash . Fingerprint scanner is placed on the center where your index finger sits on it without making any efforts. A large speaker is given at the bottom of the phone. The colour reproduction is also good. The other modes are Panorama, Manual Mode, various Scenes and a total of 12 filters to play around with the images.

                                                        

Processor, RAM and storage

      The performance is more in Redmi 3S Prime. It has 1.4GHz 64 bit octa-core Snapdragon 430 processor which is paired with 3GB RAM and has 32GB onboard storage storage with microSD card support upto 128GB. The processor is coupled with an Adreno 505 GPU to take care of graphical intensive tasks.  The inbuilt storage can be expandable upto 128GB via a hybrid-microSD card slot. The front camera is capable of recording videos with 1080p quality. It supports 4GLTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, GPS/a-GPS and Micro-USB as connectivity options.

Software and add-ons

    It runs on android 6.0.1 marshmallow OS. This  device runs a custom MIUI 7 for better customized experience.

Battery

      The capacity of battery is 4100 mAh which takes about three hours to fully charge , and last one full day with extensive usage. The battery is non removable and can easily last for a  day. If you are an average user who use the smartphone for occasional gaming, music and do usual stuff like Whats App, Facebook then Redmi 3S Prime can easily last for more than a day on a single charge.

                                                                                                                                  


                                              
                                                  

Conclusion

      The overall performance is better along with better camera functioning. Power's strongest suits are the fast battery charging technology, water and dust resistant design and with latest software updates.

Verdict

      Redmi 3S Prime is very light on pocket and dosen't compromise on performance. The phone  looks premium and lasts longer than it rivals. It clicks decent images and sails through most of tasks without breaking a sweat.

Pros

• 5inch is a compact size.
• Full metal body design.
• Performs without glitches or heating.
• Decent snappers.
• Long battery life.
• Perfect fit for one hand usage.
• Crisp display.
• Premiuim build quality.

Cons

• Charging takes long time.
• Camera could have been better.

COST: Rs 8,999
USER RATING: 4.1/5

Moto X play

Moto X play

Highlights

• 1.7 Ghz Octa-Core Snapdragon 615 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 5.5 Inch Full HD display
• Nano SIM
• 21 MP Rear Camera with LED Flash
• 5MP Front Facing Camera
• 4G LTE
• NFC
• Bluetooth
• FM Radio
• 3630mAh Battery

About Moto X play

      Moto X play is the motorola's latest mid-range device offering more power and better display 

than the cheaper Moto-G . It continues Motorola stripped back approach to Android. It has huge battery which last two days. 

Design and Build

      The front is simple and clean as you can get a near edge-to edge with 5.5 inch display . It has front facing speaker on the bottom and a speakerphone on the top. It has a metal rim and multitude of leather and wood backs. Moto X play keeps things simple. It has volume rocker and sleep/wake button. It has standby button and headphone jack on top with sim tray and microSD slot next to it.              The back -panels are replaceable. The dimensions are 148*75*10.9mm. Motorola's effort also tips the scales at 6g lighter than chinese start ups effort . It is also a quite dense device and can easily play in one hand.

                                                                                      

                                             

                                                       

                                                              

                              

                                                            

Display

      It has quad-HD panels with copious amounts of pixels. The display is 1080p LCD with 403ppi. The display is sharp and gets super bright when you need it too and nice and dark when you don't. It uses AMOLED panels and renders colours much more accurately .It has two screen modes, you can pick between 'Normal' which displays realistic colours and 'Vibrant which enhances vibrancy and colour saturation. It doesn't completely change the experience and struck with 'Normal mode. It has Gorilla Glass 3 again adding to the durable nature of the device. It is scratch resistant and helps when you accidentally put the phone in same pocket as your keys.

Battery life and performance

      The capacity of battery is 3630 mAh and non removable battery. The battery is bigger when compared to Galaxy Edge+, Note5, iphone6 plus and One plus2. we can manage the battery for a day . It lasts for 13 hours playing a looped 720p video at 75% brightness. It outperforms the OnePlus2 which we found lasted for just over a day . The standby time is good. Leaving the phone unplugged overnight would only result in a 57% loss. It is the first phone to come with new Turbo Power feature that motorola claims will juice up the device faster . With Turbocharging enabled it jumped from 0% to 50% in just over 30 minutes. It charges fully in just 60 minutes. The battery is impressive.

Performance

      It has Qualcomm snapdragon 615 processor paired with 2GB RAm and an Adreno 405 GPU. 

It is a 64 bit octa-core chipset comprised of dual quad-core Cortex A53 processors . 

Camera

      It has 21-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 apperture and captures low light pictures. The camera is very fast and can quickly jump straight into shooting mode by shaking phone and focussing was accurate. It has a HDR mode which intelligently switches mode depending upon your surroundings. Pictures are absolutely packed full of detail and you can zoom right in without running into any sort of distribution. The lack of OIS could be one of the problems as it seems slow shutter speed.  Another let down is camera pp itself which actually tries to be even more simple than google's stock option. We can alter the size of image either 21MP at 4:3 or 16-mp at 16:9. 

Software

      It has 5.1 OS .It looks and works much better than iOS. It has updates lock screen that lights up with incoming messages and quickly scans multiple notifications without unlocking the device. It has AMOLED panel. 

Quality and speaker performance

      It has dual front facing stereo speakers. It's front facing sound is directed straight to you and dosen't gets blocked by stray hands when you are watching a movie or youtube video. Even though it has a single speaker it has a plenty of oomph and gets quite loud .call quality is excellent with plenty of volume and voices were easily heard.

Customization

      You can customize the phone's design via Moto Maker website where you can choose from 14 colour backs and seven accent colours along with the camera module section on back and speaker grills on the front. There is a good variety of colour choices .

Storage and connectivity

      It has 16GB storage and only 11GB is available or use. It has nicroSD slot and it is expandable 

upto 128GB card. Even playing games from the card does not cause any slow down and deteriorate performance. We can move apps to the card easily and can automatically save all your media to it and use it as your main point of storage . It has LTE/4G support for speedy data connections. It has NFC .

Verdict

      With fantastic display, detailed camera and a battery that can last all day, Moto X play continues motorola's impressive run of smartphones.

Pros

• Good battery life
• Near stock android
• Improved camera
• Decent price

Cons

• Low light camera performance could be better
• No water resistance
• No wireless charging
• Limited customization

COST 32GB : Rs 11,999

COST 16GB: Rs 11,000

USER RATING: 4.1/5

Lenovo Vibe X3

Lenovo Vibe X3 

Display and Design

         Vibe X3 has a 5.5- inch display with resolution  of 1920 by 1080 pixels and have a pixel density of about 400 PPI which is similar to k4 note but the display quality screen is better when compared to K4 note. It is bright in display with 1500:1 contrast ratio and offers vibrant color output. It has 100% color gamut reproduction with 178-degree wide viewing angle. The sunlight legiblity is good and it dosen't attract fingerprints easily. It has Corning Glass 3 protection to prevent from scratches. It has screen-to-body ratio of 70.8% which is almost similar to K4 note.It has 8MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture, which is very good for taking selfies and video chats . Colors are vibrant and images are very sharp .

      It has a earpiece which is present under the speaker grill. Set of proximity and ambient light sensors are present above the display. It also has a tiny notification LED on right corner of the phone and it glows only in white color . The phone has a gyroscope and magnetometer.The capacitive touch buttons are present below the display which are not backlit but they offer haptic feedback when they are pressed. The second speaker is present below the touch buttons. It has stereo speakers, DAC chip, amplifier and Dolby Atmos. Audio quality is very brilliant. 

         The smartphone has a brushed metal finish on the sides and is 9.3mm thick. The volume and power buttons are present on right side of the phone which also have a metal finish. It has a hybrid slot which is present on left side and 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top of the phone. It has a infrared sensor for remote feature and micro USB slot which is located at the bottom .

            We have to bundle SIM ejector tool for removing the SIM tray. This hybrid SIM slot helps us to use two nani SIM cards or a nano SIM and a micro SD card. It also has tiny secondary microphone and fingerprint sensor is present below the camera. Phone is 154mm tall and 76.5 mm wide. It is comfortable to hold, but it is not comfortable for one handed usage.

             The weight of the phone is 173grams and it is  slightly heavier than K4 note mainly due to metal body. The metal back attracts dust easily and it dosen't attracts fingerprints. The phone is  slippery to hold because back is very smooth. the quality of the back cover is better than the one that comes with k4 note.

Camera

It has 21-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 apperture , dual-tone LED flash, PDAF, Sony IMX230 sensor and 4K ideo recording and it lacks OIS. The camera user interface is simple and has toggles for flash. It dosen't have HDR option, instead it automatically detects image capturing conditions and set mode accordingly. It has menu options to select several options such as Promode. The shutter speed is 1/3200 to 2/3. It has focus and white balance. Other options are Panorama, Art Nightscape, Artistic HDR, Blur background, Panorama selfie, Slow-motion and Fat-motion video capture.

                                                                   

Camera quality

       The daylight shots are decent but some images seem dull if the condition is not bright and colours are not vibrant . Macro shots are good and focus is quick . Low-light shots have noise but images are not too bad. Enabling Smart mode offers ultra-low light mode during low conditions by tweaking ISO and exposure time to offer brighter images. Overall the phone has good camera but it could have been better for a phone with 21MP camera sensor.Video is pretty good with lot of details. Audio is crisp since it has secondary microphone. It has slow motion recording at 720 HD resolution.

Software

       It runs on Android 5.1 lollipop with its own lenovo Vibe UI . It has Secure Zone, Flashlight, Cast Screen, Wide touch, super power, Dolby and turbo Hi-Fi. It includes a brightness adjustment slider. we can edit notification bar icons. we can launch dialer or camera directly from lockscreen. It has wide touch option which allows to create floating bar for accessing utility apps like camera, music, calculator and more. It has a smart scene which create scenes for different time period or places. It contains NFC feature so that we can use NFC tags to activate a screen. We can enable 'knock to light' option from settings to enable double tap to wake the screen up when it is locked. It has built-in-split screen mode which lets us to view the whole UI using VR glasses. After enabling this option from the Feature you can press and hold power button to turn on this mode.

                                  

                       

                                          

Storage

      Out of 3GB RAM, 2.84 GB of RAM is usable , out of which 1.9GB of RAM is free when phone is idle with just system apps running in the background. Out of 32gb internal storage we can get 23GB of usable storage.

Fingerprint Sensor

      It contains fingerprint sensor on backside of the phone and below the camera and it is perfect where your index fingers rests when you hold the phone. It is quick to unlock the phone  when you place your finger on the sensor immediately. When it dosen't recognize your finger it gives only haptic feedback and lets you to quickly unlock the scree. It dosen't recognize the finger if the finger is in wet condition. You can only add 2 fingerprints. 

Apps

      It has a pre installed apps including games. Facebook, Gamestore, Guvera music, MCAfee Security, peel smart remote for tv controlling, Skype, Step counter, Truecaller, Twitter, Wechat, UC browser, WPS office and Frog HD game are apps provided defaultly. 

Music player

     It have no seperate music play so we have to use google play Music. It can play range of audii formats. It have no FM radio. The audio experience is brilliant . Loudspeaker output is clear even in full volume and audio output through headphone is brilliant as well. It has custom equalizer as new option along with Turbo Hi-Fi option which offers enhanced audio experience through headset.

Dual SIM connectivity

      It supports 4G with 4G LTE bands. Both SIM's support 4G and we can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time. you can set default SIM for voice call, messaging or data connection. It has Inter SIM call forwarding option and forwards incoming calls automatically from one SIM to another SIM when it is busy on other call. It has dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and bluetooth 4.0 with GPS and NFC. It has USB OTG support .

Hardware and performance

      It has Hexa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8o8 (MSM8992)  64 bit processor. It contains two bigger ARM Cortex A57 ores clocked at 1.88 GHz per core and four smaller ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.44 GHz per core. It has a smooth performance without any lags and no heating issues. It gets a bit warm when we use 4G in hot outdoor conditions.  

Battery life

      The capacity of the battery is 3500mAh which is built in and it is impressive battery life. On full charge it lasts for whole day even on heavy usage with 4G enabled . It has power saver mode which reduces the power consumption and also has ultimate power saver mode that enables only calling and messaging for several days of standby. It supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for quick phone charging. It achieved One charge rating of 10 hours and 43 minutes which is better than k4 rating of 9 

hours and 1 minute.

Conclusion

      Overall the phone is good  with brilliant audio experience and performance . It has solid build quality and good battery life. 

Pros

• Good display
• Good performance
• 4K video recording
• Solid build quality
• Brilliant audio output
• Good battery life

Cons

• Hybrid dual SIM might not be useful for everyone
• Slippery back
• slightly heavy

COST:Rs 19,999

USER RATING: 8/10

Coolpad Mega 2.5D genuine review

Highlights:

• 8MP primary camera with auto focus and 8MP front facing camera
• 13.97 centimeters (5.5-inch) IPS capacitive touchscreen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and 267 ppi pixel density
• Android v6.0 Marshmallow operating system with 1GHz MT6735P quad core processor, 3GB RAM, 16GB internal memory expandable up to 32GB and dual SIM (nano+nano (hybrid)) dual-standby (4G+4G)
• 2500mAH lithium-ion battery providing talk-time of 8 hours and standby time of 150 hours
• 1 year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including batteries from the date of purchase.

About Coolpad

Coolpad born in 2003 and the Yulong Coolpad (parent company) was established in 1993 in Shenzhen and now Coolpad is the largest smartphone company in China and largest Chinese domestic brand by sales outside of China.

Coolpad in India

Coolpad is doing great in India, the company continue introducing the new product one by one and the best thing about them is each of them comes with an excellent price tag without compromising the product quality. The only negative part of it is they use MediaTek chips instead of Qualcomm to reduce the cost of the product.

Now the question arises what is bad in MediaTek? The answer is simple overall performance.
MediaTek is a Taiwanese company. It uses more cores in its processors. MediaTek chipsets are known to be more power draining and result in less battery life, they are very good at multi-tasking because of more cores but again more cores demand more RAM to give the best performance, More performance=more cores=more heat=battery drain.

Cooldpad Mega 2.5D has Mediatek MT6735P quad-core processor coupled with a 3GB RAM to make to most of it.

Let's come to some good and bad things about Coolpad Mega 2.5D

pros:

+ Made in India (Manufactured by Videocon Industries Ltd)
+ Price!! yes, it is the cheapest phone on the market with these specs.
+ Looks premium, Very slim, simple and sleek arc design along with 2.5D screen.
+ Fast 3GB RAM with r/w speed of ~3000MB/s (around 2GB usable) + 16GB inbuilt Flash memory(~10GB usable).
+ Dual sim(both 4G).
+ MicroSD support upto 32GB.
+ 5.5 inch HD IPS Display (Bigger the display more the productivity).
+ Good 8MP front and 8MP rare camera for the price tag.
+ Ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow
+ UI is really user-friendly, with gestures control like double tap to wake, slide up to unlock etc.
+ Bundled with good quality charger, micro USB cable, screen protector and earphones. (Added picture)
+ Stock earphones output and the output from 3.5mm jack is really good, you can get best of it if you tune your equalizer.
+ No heating problem.
+ A shiny power button as seen on Sony Xperia phones.

cons:

- Non-Removable Battery and does not come with 2amp charger.
- Get dirty easily when you hold it with wet hands.
- The camera is popping up from the back side, only using a back cover can save it from getting scratched.
- You get only onscreen keys, this time, no Menu, Home and Back keys.
- Speakers on the back side of the phone and very bad output from the speakers, you won't even hear it if the phone is in another room.
- This time, there is no dedicated Micro SD card slot, you can use only one sim if you want to use your micro sd card.
- Size, poor screen to body ratio. The phone is big, bigger than other 5.5-inch screen phones. For better understanding, I have clicked a photo with OnePlus 2 and Redmi Note 3 both devices have 5.5-inch screens along with Menu, Home and Back keys you can see how big Coolpad Mega 2.5D is.
- No fingerprint sensor this time.
- In some cases, UI can be laggy but it may be fixed in future updates.
- I don't like the read-write speed of the Internal memory, Coolpad Note has better internal memory chips. ~60MB/s right speed and ~20MB/s write speed.

Other Words:

1. There is new OTA update available ~23MB, it takes almost 15 minutes to update the device.
2. It has 2.5D screen so you won't get full covered tempered glass for it. Most of the tempered will the small in size same as the stock screen protector that comes with the device.
3. UI is not bloated but still it has some pre-installed apps which can't be removed like Amazon, 2-3 Keyboards.

VERDICT:

If you are looking for a premium looking slim phone at the budget price tag that this one this the best device you can buy. The phone looks really classy but little big in size. The only thing that can disappoint you in this phone is no fingerprint sensor and dedicated Micro SD slot otherwise this phone is the best buy device at this price tag.

over all review rating:3.8/5

OS	Android
RAM	3 GB
Item Weight	141 g
Product Dimensions	15.3 x 0.8 x 7.7 cm
Item model number	Mega 2.5D
Wireless communication technologies	Bluetooth
Connectivity technologies	GSM, (B2/B3/B8), WCDMA, 3G, (B1/B8), 4G LTE, FDD, (B3/B5), TD, (B40), WiFi
Special features	Dual SIM, GPS, Music Player, Video Player, FM Radio, Gravity sensor, Distance sensor, Luminance sensor, E-mail
Other camera features	8MP
Form factor	Touchscreen Phone
Weight	140 Grams
Colour	Royal Gold
Battery Power Rating	2500
Phone Talk Time	8 Hours
Phone Standby Time (with data)	150 Hours
Whats in the box	Handset, Travel Charger, USB Cable, Battery (Built-in), Earphones, Protective Film, Quick Start Guide, Warranty Card and Ejection Pin

OnePlus X (Limited Edition Ceramic) genuine over all review

Highlights:

• Best-in class camera sensors (13MP primary rear camera with f/2.2 Aperture and Phase Detection AF (ISOCELL technology) along with 8MP front facing camera with f/2.4 Aperture)
• Crafted to perfection with premium stainless steel frame and a super-vibrant AMOLED 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) Gorilla Glass Display Screen (Full HD @ 441 PPI)
• OxygenOS based on Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (2.3 GHz Quad-core SoC) featuring 4G LTE, 3GB LPDDR3 RAM; 16GB eMMC v5.0 storage (expandable storage up to 128GB)
• Long lasting 2,525 mAh LiPo battery; Ports (2 slots - fits either 2 Nano SIM cards(4G+4G) (DSDS) or 1 Nano SIM and 1 microSD card) and a 3-way Notification Alert Slider
• 1 year manufacturer warranty for device and battery, 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including charger from the date of purchase.

INTRODUCTION

One Plus, a Chinese smart phone start up, made waves last year, when they launched the much lauded One Plus One. Packed with flagship level internals, and an unbelievable price tag, One Plus One soon became the heartthrob of the smart phone market. Earlier this year, One Plus announced its successor, the One Plus Two. However, the phone could not live up to the hype generated by its predecessor, and the continuance of the invite-only system made prospective buyers look elsewhere. And now, One Plus has launched their first mid-range smart phone, in an attempt to reclaim its lost glory. Will it?

UNBOXING

Unboxing the One Plus X, I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of the packaging and their attention to detail. You get a charger, a high quality flat-wired micro-USB cable along with the usual literature, and of course the One Plus X itself. One Plus has also included a translucent back cover, but some part of it seemed to stick to the phone and it looked ugly. I am unsure whether this happened with others. Anyways, One Plus has also included a factory-fitted clear- screen guard. But, be careful while peeling off the protective film, as you may remove the screen guard along with it.

DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY

On paper, one plus seems to be a rejigged One Plus One, with the same internals and price bracket. But one look at the phone and you will know the difference. With glass to the front and back and metal to the sides, this phone looks and feels gorgeous. The device sports a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covered 5” AMOLED display, flanked by the earpiece sensors, 8 MP front camera and a notification LED at the top and the reversible capacitive keys at the bottom. The back has a shiny, glossy, inky-black scratch resistant glass with the One Plus logo and a 13MP camera and LED flash, flush to the back. The edges are metal clad, with 17 high precision microcuts, which gives the phone a good grip. The sim tray (housing a hybrid dual SIM/ microSD card slot), volume rockers and the power button are to the right, while we see the alert slider from the One Plus Two on the left. The top has a 3.5 mm audio jack and the secondary noise cancellation microphone, while the single firing speaker, the micro USB port (not USB type-c) and the primary microphone are at the bottom. The dual speaker grille, out of which only one fires, gives the phone a beautiful symmetry and shows the attention to detail. The front and back panel has 2.5D curved glass that hides the bezels and gives the phone a premium, elegant look. At about 6.9 mm thick and under 140g, the phone is extremely compact and single handed usage is a breeze.
Yes, the glass is a finger print magnet and is slippery, but that is to be expected. These minor gripes aside, the One Plus X is the best looking phone I have ever seen. It has its inspirations, but it still manages to stand out on its own.

DISPLAY

As mentioned above, One Plus has gone with an AMOLED panel in the One Plus X, and hence it has punchier colours, deep blacks and excellent viewing angles. The screen has a resolution of 1980x1080 with a pixel density of 441ppi. The display is bright and sharp with no pixilation. An AMOLED display also means One Plus X can make use of features like ambient display (screen lights up when you get a notification) and proximity wake (waving your hand over the sensors will bring up the time and notifications) without eating up the battery life, since only individual pixels needs to turned on, unlike an LCD display. One Plus also has a dark mode enabled by default, which further helps in the battery longevity, while differentiating the phone from other vanilla android counterparts.
However the auto brightness was a bit too unreliable and I had to turn it off. I hope a software patch will fix this. And I hope one plus implement a colour calibration option, so that people wanting accurate colour temperatures can tone down the saturation. Also, the whites have a slight bluish tint at certain angles. It is invisible if you won’t look for it, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

PERFORMANCE

The phone, though a mid-ranger, does not come with mid-range internals. Instead of going for a Snapdragon 615 or a 617, One Plus has packed this phone with last year’s Snapdragon 801 chipset. This means, the phone has four Krait 400 cores, clocked at 2.3 GHz each, and an Adreno 330 GPU (clocked at 578 MHz). It has 3 GB of RAM an 16 GB of onboard storage, out of which about 11 GB is free on the first boot (the storage is expandable). Note that, contrary to reports, this is not the Snapdragon 801 used in the One Plus One. That was an overclocked CPU, namely, the MSM8974AC. The one used in the One Plus X is the MSM8974AB. This doesn’t mean much to the normal user, for whom, the performance will be a breeze. Apps open quickly, there is minimal lag and the huge RAM means multitasking is never a problem. Even gaming was a pleasant experience, with even high-end games like Modern Combat 5 played fine. Only Asphalt 8 displayed slight choppiness, but that may be a software issue due to lack of optimisation, which will, most likely, be fixed. In fact only if you compare it with the current gen flagships, would you notice any difference, which is excellent for a mid-ranger. There s slight heating in the back panel, when the device is put to intensive usage, but it does not get over the 45 Celsius mark Many would lament the absence of a 64 bit processing unit, but honestly, for that technology to become the norm, it would take at least a few more years, and until then it is just a spec to gloat about.

HARDWARE

The One Plus X continues the dual sim functionality introduced in the one plus 2, but this time, it is a hybrid slot! Yes, one plus finally has a device which supports microSD upto 128 GB, that is, if you omit the dual sim functionality. There are two nano sim slots, with the second one doubling up as a microSD card slot. Both sim slots support 4G LTE, but only one can be activated at a time, while the other will run on 2G. The alert slider is also a useful feature, and has been revamped for a more pronounced texture and better feedback. There are three options; slide from the bottom, once for priority notifications and twice for no notification while the option at the bottom enables all notifications. The volume output from the bottom-firing speaker is pretty loud and clear, though a wee bit tinny. An inbuilt equalizer could solve the problem by bumping up the bass. However the volume output from the headphone jack was excellent. I tested it with the Xiaomi Pistion 3 and the Audio Technica ATH M20-x and I was impressed. The vocals are great, there is no breaking and the bass is adequate. The call quality via the microphone and the signal reception too were excellent, though I must say I had a couple of call drops. This might be a carrier issue, but I am not sure.
A lot of hardware features present in the One Plus One and one plus two have been omitted. There is no NFC, so Android Pay is off. The fingerprint scanner is also omitted, probably to cut costs. Along with these, there are also some unnecessary omissions which One Plus seems to have made. For one, the capacitive keys aren’t backlit. And more importantly, the more powerful 5 GHz WiFi band is missing. For US buyers, a major issue might be the lack of LTE, with bands 12 and 17 not supported. This means both T Mobile and AT&T customers will be stuck on the HSPA networks (3G). However, most international customers have no such issues and in India, Airtel’s 1800MHz and 2300MHz bands are fully supported. There is also no wireless charging or quick charging, and the USB-C type found in the One Plus Two has been replaced by the older micro USB port.

BATTERY

The One Plus X packs in 2525 mAh battery, and the battery life is above average. On a moderate day of usage, you will be able to last a full day with about 3.5-4 hours of screen-on-time. However, with a day of heavy usage, you might last only about 9 hours with 5 hours screen-on-time. On a looping video playback test in half brightness and full volume (in MX Player), the phone drained from 100% to 0% in about 8 hours. Though wireless charging and fast charging aren’t supported, it doesn’t make a huge difference, as the small 2525 mAh battery charges up reasonably fast with the included accessories

SOFTWARE

The One Plus X runs on Android 5.1.1, lollipop. However, after the bitter breakup with Cyanogen, One Plus X runs on its own custom android skin Oxygen OS 2.1.2. However, unlike other manufacturer overlays, one plus has a bloat free, almost vanilla interface with some nifty features added for customisation. First, there is the dark mode, which inverts the stock android look. There are features like App permissions (permissions manager on a per-app level), notifications manager (micro-manage app notifications) and quick settings management (choose which quick settings to be displayed in the notification toggle). The Shelf feature from the One Plus Two makes a return. Shelf is a feature which displays your widgets, recent apps and contacts in the leftmost home screen. It is harmless and useful at times, and at worst, it can be turned off. The gesture support from the previous one plus iterations, including double tap to wake, drawing an O or a V to open the camera and turn on the flash light from the lock screen respectively are also present and accounted for. Minor customisations like the ability to change the LED notification and the accent colour gives the user to make minor cosmetic yet unobtrusive changes to the UI. The ability to turn on screen navigation overlay and swap buttons are highly appreciated, especially since the capacitive buttons aren’t backlit. A huge bug in the UI is in the microSD detection. While the file manager shows the card, and you can use it for multimedia storage, it doesn’t show up in the storage options, thereby not allowing apps to be moved to the SD card. The good news is, One Plus is aware of the issue and an OTA update is promised.
All in all, Oxygen OS is a great Android UI, one of the few which gives valuable customisation options without tinkering with Google’s version of an Android experience. It is also quite stable with no app crashes or slow downs. At worst, the added features can be ignored and you can enjoy a stock android experience. Add to that, One Plus has an excellent software team working round the clock, solving bugs, making performance improvements and adding features. The Marshmallow update is also promised in the next year Q1, so software wise, you are covered.

CAMERA

The One Plus X comes packed with 13 MP (4:3 aspect ratio) rear camera with LED flash, while there is an 8MP fixed focus front facing camera for selfie lovers. The primary camera, contrary to reports is not the same one used in either of the two previous One Plus smart phones. One Plus, this time went with a Samsung ISOCELL sensor with an f2.2 aperture and phase detection autofocus. This is the same sensor used in the Samsung Galaxy S5, but the similarity ends there. The photos are average at best, with unreliable exposure compensation and colour accuracy. Sometimes, the photos come out pretty good, while other times, it’s pretty disappointing. However, there is minimal shutter lag, the dynamic range is good and the saturation levels give punchier photos. The detailing and sharpness are also pretty good, as long as you don’t zoom in. All this is however in outdoor shots, with high noise levels creeping in, in low light and artificial lighting conditions. Move in to video, and it gets terrible. The video maxes out at 1080p, and that too is very bad. It is shaky, loses focus quickly and has a lot of ghost effects. The front facing camera, on the other hand is excellent. With a wide angle lens and an f2.4 aperture, even artificial lighting produces great results. The beauty mode also helps without going overboard. The video quality of the front camera is also pretty good for Skype calls, and it also shoots at 1080p.
The camera app is bare bones, and offers basic features like a timer, panorama, slow motion and time lapse. Swipe up or down in the viewfinder for modes, and oddly, in the panorama mode, the orientation shifts to portrait mode, which is annoying. The photo mode also has clear image and HDR. While clear image is pretty good (it takes 10 shots of the same image to create the perfect shot, in theory), HDR just cranks up the exposure, without doing anything about the blown up highlights. And both take a couple seconds extra, though that is acceptable. The ring along with the focus tap, to adjust exposure is a welcome feature, though it is not as perfected as the one, say, in MIUI.
Overall, the camera is the phone’s weakest link, though it has to do more with software than hardware. I am sure, the camera interface and the quality will improve in coming times. And, don’t get me wrong, this camera is perfect for social media and instagramming, it’s just not for photography geeks.

Pros :

1) comes with default accessories like screen protector and back case.
2) Does not lag or hang(courtesy of 3 gb ram)
3) Great user interface and camera quality(panorama shots i took during my Himalayan treks where amazing).
4) Good design. Being someone who doesn't like phones that has less than 70% body to screen ratio, and with all the other phones coming with a black space between the screen and the phone body, this phone is a great option for people who gives importance to designs.
5) Has capacitive touch butttons which means you don't need soft keys(though it can be enabled) which means no space wasted in the screen.

Cons :

1) The fact its a hybrid sim slot is known. But from what i have observed is that if you always use sim 1 for calling and texting and never use sim 2, the phone eventually gets used to it. So when you actually want to use sim 2, it redirects it to sim 1 which is annoying a little bit.2) heats up while using wifi.3) The capacitive touch buttons does not light up, hence you cant see the buttons in dark.4) Battery life is average. But not a deal breaker.

over all review rating:3.5/5

OS	Android
RAM	3 GB
Item Weight	159 g
Product Dimensions	14 x 0.7 x 6.9 cm
Item model number	E1003
Wireless communication technologies	Bluetooth, WiFi Hotspot
Connectivity technologies	GSM, (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), 3G, WCDMA, 4G LTE, WiFi 2.4GHz b/g/n
Special features	Video Calls, Dual SIM, GPS, Music Player, Video Player, FM Radio, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, HALL sensor, E-mail
Other camera features	Best-in class camera sensors (13MP primary rear camera with f/2.2 Aperture and Phase Detection AF (ISOCELL technology) along with 8MP front facing camera with f/2.4 Aperture)
Form factor	Touchscreen Phone
Weight	160 Grams
Colour	Ceramic
Battery Power Rating	2525
Whats in the box	Handset, Charger, Micro-USB Cable, Protective Case, SIM Tray Ejector, Quick Start Guide and User Guide