Xolo, the brand got some quick popularity by launching the first
Intel based smartphone a couple of years ago. This Indian company is
popular for making premium budget smartphones; the company does offer
some great value to money with its series of smartphones. Today we are
going to review the Xolo A500S IPS smartphone, it is the successor model
of the Xolo A500S launched last year. Both the devices fall in the same
budget category and have no major difference in terms of design and
hardware. The only thing that differentiates these 2 smartphones is the
display.
Xolo A500S IPS comes with IPS display which is better than the
regular display on the older A500S smartphone. It offers good viewing
angles and better brightness. Let take a peep into the device and see
how it works.
Design
The Xolo A500S IPS has the same design as the older A500S, the device
looks very beautiful and is very slim. The one thing that we appreciate
about this smartphone too much is that single hand operation is very
easy on this smartphone. These days’ people prefer bigger smartphones,
and we find quite a few compact and powerful smartphones in the market.
The Xolo A500S IPS is not a very powerful smartphone, but its certainly a
decent smartphone with compact size.
The physical layout of the phone is designed for comfort; the right
side of the panel hosts the power and lock key while the volume keys are
placed on the left hand side of the panel. The front side is dominated
by the 4-inch IPS display with three capacitive touch buttons at the
bottom. The back panel of the smartphone comes in multiple colors and
has a rubberized matt finish on it. There is a 5MP camera on the rear
side accompanied with an LED flash, there is also a front-facing VGA
resolution camera for video calling.
The Overall design of the phone is attractive and delivers very good
one hand navigation, one need not stretch out his fingers or wrist to
reach out to farther side of the display.
Software and User Interface
The Xolo A500S IPS smartphone comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Operating System, the user gets Google’s Play Store on board which has
millions of apps and games to download from. One can improve the
productivity and entertainment features of the phone by downloading
various applications. The Jelly Bean OS brings the latest Android
features on board along with security updates. The OS on this device is
not tweaked much and offer stock Android experience. The User Interface
is not changed and is standard when compared to other stock Android
phones.
Hardware
This smartphone has mid-range specs on board, it comes with a
Dual-Core MediaTek processor clocked at a speed of 1.3GHz per core, and
the device also hosts a Mali-400MP GPU for better graphics on board. The
device measures 125 x 63.2 x 8.98mm and is amazingly light, it has a
4-inch touch display and is equipped with Accelerometer, Ambient light
sensor and Proximity sensor. It uses a 1,400mAH battery as its power
source which lasts fairly for one full day. This smartphone has a 512MB
of RAM and 4GB ROM, there is also a micro SD slot on this phone to help
user expand memory up to 32GB.
Display
Display is the only component on this device that has got on upgrade,
the older device (Xolo A500S) did not have IPS display, and this one
has. The display on this device offer bright visuals and the color
reproduction is very natural. The display has wide viewing angles and
the touch response is excellent. The phone’s hardware allows playback of
1080p videos while it supports 720p recording on board. This is one of
the best smartphones in the budget category, for Rs 6,500 it a great
choice.
Camera & Performance
Like we said earlier it’s a mid-range smartphone, so don’t expect
higher resolution cameras on board. It comes with mid-range camera on
the both the sides of the phone. The rear side of the phone holds a 5MP
camera with LED flash and autofocus feature. The camera UI on the phone
is standard and the company has not gone crazy tweaking it too much. It
offers standard Android camera interface with the similar set of
features like touch focus, Geo-tagging and panorama.
The camera UI on the top holds the twitch camera button, there is
also the shutter button and the video recording toggle button. This
smartphone captures good day light images, the low light images on this
phone is poor. Considering a low budget offering one would not get
disappointed with poor low light images. The rear camera on this device
is also capable of shooting 720p videos while the front facing VGA
resolution camera helps in video calling.
The performance of the phone is average, in fact better than other
Android smartphones in the same price range. During our encounter with
this compact budget offering we did not see any lags or issues with the
phone. The Camera worked perfect, we were able to record HD videos and
there were no issues with the software too. Everything on this
smartphone is well optimized to offer good user experience.
My Verdict: Deal or No deal?
A lot of people get confused between Xolo A500S and Xolo A500S IPS as
to which is better? And when people ask which is better, they mean
which one performs better. Both the phones have same performance, there
is not going to be any difference at all. Both these smartphones have
same hardware, so if you are in a myth that the Latest A500S IPS is
better and faster than the Xolo A500S, then please come out of it.
Latest does not always mean faster than older, in this case the A500S
IPS comes with a better display.So it’s a great deal to buy either Xolo
A500S or A500S IPS, I would recommend my readers to go for Xolo A500S
IPS because for a few extra bucks you get a real good display. For six
thousand and odd rupees this is the best you can get in the market. Go
for it.
Micromax officially launched the Canvas Turbo
in October last year. This smartphone has some great features and is
the first full HD smartphone from the company. The Canvas Turbo has a
5-inch display based on Continuous Grain Silicon technology, we got the
device from Micromax and here is the full review of this Indian
smartphone.
Design
This is one of the best smartphones in the market and is the best
smartphone by any Indian company. The Canvas Turbo is a very slim
device, it has an aluminum body with matt finish on the rear side. The
power/lock key is placed on the right hand side along volume keys, the
placement of buttons on the sides make easy navigation. The left hand
side of the phone holds 2 micro SIM slots, the phone’s back panel is
non-removable and is made of aluminum.
The front of the phone is dominated by the 5-inch display and has a
5MP camera on top of it along with three touch sensitive buttons in the
bottom for Home, Menu and Back navigation. The rear of the phone is
divided into 3 parts, the central part is the back door which is made of
aluminum.
The upper and lower parts are made of plastic, a normal user may not
differentiate between the central aluminum and the plastics on top and
bottom. Overall the design of the phone is very attractive and is easy
to hold in one hand. With matt finish on the rear the phone is little
slippery.
Software
The Canvas Turbo comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Operating System
with a little modification in the UI. Micromax has not used the stock
launcher and changed it with some other launcher, rest of the phone’s
interface gives the stock Android feel, it comes with the same
notification bar and settings menu. Micromax has included some ringtones
and wallpapers to match with the profile of the company.
Additionally this Indian manufacturer has included the iFloat
application. A lot of people compare it with Samsung’s multi window
feature but we wont do that. This is totally a different thing
altogether. The iFloat app in Canvas Turbo allows user to add multiple
windows on one screen, the UI of iFloat is very simple and user
friendly. One can add multiple windows on the display for better
multi-tasking, there is also option to decrease and increase size of the
windows present on the screen.
Another good thing about the Canvas Turbo is its Camera, the Canvas
Turbo just like Canvas 4 comes with Sony camera and offers some of the
best shots in the low lighting conditions. Micromax offers a different
UI in the camera application. Micromax calls its camera the Camerazzi
and offers some good features like GIF animation, 3D panorama, Burst
mode, Object Removal among others. The camera on this device is capable
of shooting full HD videos and comes with HDR mode.
Hardware
Micromax has really used some tough materials on the phone, it does
not feel cheap or look cheap. The phone is premium in looks and feel,
the build quality is amazing and feels tough. This is the first Indian
smartphone that surprised us with the performance, features and build
quality. On the hardware front the Canvas Turbo has a 5-inch multi touch
display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with 440PPI density. It
comes powered by a 1.5GHz Quad-Core MediaTek processor coupled with
PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 2GB RAM.
There are Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Ambient light
sensors on board along with 16GB of internal storage capacity. The
device has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing camera for video
calling purpose. And all of these use a 2,000mAH battery to function
effortlessly on this device.
We generally don’t get quality earphones with smartphones made in
India. The Canvas Turbo is bundled with a nice quality earphone with
mic, it features a soft rubberized wire and call answer button on it.
The sound quality of the earphone is great with good bass effects.
Display
Micromax Canvas Turbo, the company says it can Juggle Many Lives,
well it truly can Juggle many lives. The phone’s USP is its 5-inch full
HD display, it is the first smartphone from Micromax to have a full HD
resolution. The display offers bright visuals, the text is very clear,
pictures and videos looks brilliant. There are no lags or frame drops
while playing HD games or FHD videos, Quad-Core processor supports the
display perfectly.
Camera
This smartphone has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash from Sony.
There is a 5MP front-facing camera for video calling. The rear camera on
this device is amazing and takes great pictures in day light. Color
reproduction is good and images look natural and real. Budget
smartphones comes with poor cameras, and make no mistake this is a high
end Indian smartphone offering best value for money. The Camera app
did sometime report issues and was closed automatically but that we
expect to get fixed with the kitkat update coming in a couple of
months.
Images taken in low light conditions came out to be brilliant,
although there is little noise and that is clearly visible when zooming
in the images but its good for a smartphone camera. The rear camera on
this smartphone is also capable of shooting full HD videos, the camer UI
on this smartphone comes with a lof features and funtions. Features
like Cinemagraph, 360 degree Panorama, Burst mode and Object eraser are
included in the camera UI of this phone. Here are some samples of the
images taken at night using the Canvas Turbo
Performance
We have reviewed quite a few phones in the past and this one turned
out to be the best of all. In our review session we bombarded the phone
with a lot of HD games and HD videos, we tried maximum to make this
device report error or force close applications but that dint happen.
Full HD games like Shadow Guns, Modern Combat 2, Air Attack HD and Nova 3
played perfectly on this device. We did not experience any issue while
playing any of these games on this smartphone. Some of other smartphones
we reviewed previously also came with FHD resolution but had problems
playing these games. Thanks to the Quad-Core processor and 2GB RAM on
board as it really helps the phone to perform better and faster than its
rivals, multi tasking is also amazing and works just the way it is
designed.
This smartphone comes with Dual SIM feature, it supports micro SIM on
both the slots. The phone is 3G enabled and thus we used 3G internet on
the phone to test the speed. Web pages loaded in average time and apps
downloaded faster, there were some issues on the WiFi and at times web
pages took little longer than normal load time to load the pages and
content on this smartphone. Calling experience is again average on this
phone while texting is really amazing. The keyboard is perfectly tweaked
to offer accurate touches while typing.
We did not run any benchmarking apps on this device because we
strongly did not wanted to compare this device with other devices in the
market. Another reason for not running benchmarks was that the phone
was extremely fast, there were no issues playing any games, running apps
and watching movies.
The 2,000mAH battery might look tiny on paper; we too felt that mere
2,000mAH battery will not do justice to the giant display and Quad-Core
processor. During our review session, which lasted for 1 full day, the
phone’s battery did not disappoint us. It gave us a backup for 13hours,
we used the phone mostly for playing HD games and watching movies. We
used 3G and WiFi at regular intervals for internet needs, we played
music on loudspeaker and attended about 15 calls with average texting.
Micromax has done something with the software to increase the battery
life of the device, otherwise a 2,000mAH battery cannot last that long.
My Verdict
This is by far the best smartphone we have reviewed in the past. Moreover with a price tag of Rs 18,000 it’s a great deal. Canvas Turbo
does not report any issues except the one software bug with the Camera
App. Also this device is likely to get a software update in the coming
months which will bring Android kitkat to this device.
The only drawback this smartphone has is the lack of external memory
storage. The device does not have a micro SD card slot, although this
smartphone supports USB O-T-G and one can connect pen drive or any mass
storage using OTG cable but a lot of people prefer micro SD cards for
secondary storage and not OTG. So if you don’t mind setting up OTG for
storage or if you are happy with the 16GB memory then you can go ahead
and buy this device. Also I recommend this smartphone to people who are
looking to buy a smartphone in the 20k to 25k budget category, this one
comes for just 18k but offers something more than what other 18k
smartphones can.
