InFocus is a US-based company known for its LCD and DLP projectors. The company recently entered the smartphone market with the launch of its M2 and M330 Android smartphones in India. It has inked a tie-up with e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal to exclusively sell its smartphones.
Made by FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, the multinational electronics contract manufacturing company that even assembles Apple's iPhone, the M330 is a budget phone that sports decent hardware specifications and features rivaling some mid-range devices.
At a price of Rs 9,999, is the phone a good buy? We try to find out in our review.
Design
InFocus M330 is fairly good to look at and we found the build and design of the phone to be decent thanks to its metallic frame. At 5.5-inch, the smartphone's display looks huge but will be appreciated by people who like to use big smartphones.
But despite featuring a big screen, the M330 cannot be called chunky, and does manage to look pleasant. However, it is certainly heavy to hold.
The smartphone has relatively thin bezels. The power button is on the right edge whereas the volume rocker button is on the left edge. The 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top of the phone and the microUSB is at the bottom.
The removable back panel has a matte finish, with the camera protruding out towards the top, the InFocus branding right at the centre and the speaker outlet at the bottom towards the left.
On removing the back panel, you'll be able to see the stacked dual-sim card slot, the microSD card slot, and the removable battery of the phone.
The smartphone's front also has three capacitive touchscreen buttons that light up when the display is on.
Display
The InFocus M330 features a 5.5-inch HD IPS LCD (1280x720p) display which most users will find impressive.
The display was bright, and showed rich, vibrant colours. Also, we did not observe any pixilation and the display was less prone to smudging.
However, there was scope for improvement as far as the viewing angles of the phone are concerned.
Also, we observed that the phone was very hard to use outdoors or under direct sunlight because of the screen being very reflective.
Software
The smartphone comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat skinned with the company's own InLife UI. M330 has no app drawer, and all the app icons are displayed on the phone's homescreen. The phone comes preloaded with a number of third party apps including Dropbox, Facebook, MeituPic, among others.
Some of these preloaded apps are specifically for InFocus including WPS Office, Backup Tool, Weather information, App Traffic, Device finder, Safebox, among others.
The smartphone also has its own Camera app which will remind users of Android Lollipop's camera app.
A very interesting app the phone offers is App Traffic Control. Through the app, users can see a list of all the apps installed in their phone, and control if they want these to access the internet via mobile data or Wi-Fi or both.
The smartphone also offers NFC and HotKnot for file transfers.
Performance
With a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 CPU and 2GB RAM, M330 is a decent performer. The smartphone also has 16GB of internal storage and can hold microSD cards of up to 64GB.
The phone performs basic tasks very smoothly, the apps start quickly, and casual games like Temple Run can be played without any lag on the device. But heavier games do take longer to start though there was not much lag when we played Asphalt 8.
The phone also turned a little slow when many apps were opened together, and got a little warm every time we turned on Navigation for directions.
The default browser of M330 is Chrome, which ran perfectly, and we did not face any problem while switching between different tabs. The call quality offered by InFocus M330 was good, and calls didn't drop even in areas like basements and elevators. The battery backup offered by the phone is also very good. Even after using the phone all day, the battery didn't completely drain out.
In benchmark tests the M330 scored 32,277 in AnTuTu v5.7 and 14,120 in Quadrant. In some tests the phone performed better than the likes of the HTC Desire 820 and at par with the Micromax Canvas Selfie and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3G.
Camera
InFocus M330 sports a 13MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash along with an 8MP secondary camera. Both the cameras of the phone are decent for use in good lighting conditions.
Pictures taken outdoors, and the ones taken in bright light came out to be much better than the ones taken in dim light conditions.
Although the colours were not very accurate and seemed a little dull than what they actually were, the photos were clear and we didn't observe much pixilation even while zooming in but pictures came out a little blurred. Low light shots were also disappointing.
The camera also has various other features like Face Beauty Mode, Motion Track Mode for clicking pictures of things that are moving, Live Photo Mode for creating small video clips and gesture recognition.
All of these do what they promise apart from the Face Beauty Mode which makes no difference to the picture taken whatsoever.
The secondary camera of the phone takes good selfies. Our major gripe with the camera app is that it takes longer to start and focus.
Verdict
InFocus M330 is overall a good performer, and at Rs 9,999, can be considered a good buy if you're in the market for a budget smartphone. Buy it for the good display, battery and performance though the camera could have been better. Rivals of the phone can offer a much better camera experience.
However, phones like the YU Yureka and Lenovo A7000 offer a better features to price ratio and even support 4G connectivity under Rs 10,000. Keep in mind that you'll need to go through the hassle of taking part in a flash sale. Also, with InFocus being a relatively new brand in the smartphone segment, we're not sure about the post sales experience yet.
Made by FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, the multinational electronics contract manufacturing company that even assembles Apple's iPhone, the M330 is a budget phone that sports decent hardware specifications and features rivaling some mid-range devices.
At a price of Rs 9,999, is the phone a good buy? We try to find out in our review.
Design
InFocus M330 is fairly good to look at and we found the build and design of the phone to be decent thanks to its metallic frame. At 5.5-inch, the smartphone's display looks huge but will be appreciated by people who like to use big smartphones.
But despite featuring a big screen, the M330 cannot be called chunky, and does manage to look pleasant. However, it is certainly heavy to hold.
The smartphone has relatively thin bezels. The power button is on the right edge whereas the volume rocker button is on the left edge. The 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top of the phone and the microUSB is at the bottom.
The removable back panel has a matte finish, with the camera protruding out towards the top, the InFocus branding right at the centre and the speaker outlet at the bottom towards the left.
On removing the back panel, you'll be able to see the stacked dual-sim card slot, the microSD card slot, and the removable battery of the phone.
The smartphone's front also has three capacitive touchscreen buttons that light up when the display is on.
Display
The InFocus M330 features a 5.5-inch HD IPS LCD (1280x720p) display which most users will find impressive.
The display was bright, and showed rich, vibrant colours. Also, we did not observe any pixilation and the display was less prone to smudging.
However, there was scope for improvement as far as the viewing angles of the phone are concerned.
Also, we observed that the phone was very hard to use outdoors or under direct sunlight because of the screen being very reflective.
Software
The smartphone comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat skinned with the company's own InLife UI. M330 has no app drawer, and all the app icons are displayed on the phone's homescreen. The phone comes preloaded with a number of third party apps including Dropbox, Facebook, MeituPic, among others.
Some of these preloaded apps are specifically for InFocus including WPS Office, Backup Tool, Weather information, App Traffic, Device finder, Safebox, among others.
The smartphone also has its own Camera app which will remind users of Android Lollipop's camera app.
A very interesting app the phone offers is App Traffic Control. Through the app, users can see a list of all the apps installed in their phone, and control if they want these to access the internet via mobile data or Wi-Fi or both.
The smartphone also offers NFC and HotKnot for file transfers.
Performance
With a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 CPU and 2GB RAM, M330 is a decent performer. The smartphone also has 16GB of internal storage and can hold microSD cards of up to 64GB.
The phone performs basic tasks very smoothly, the apps start quickly, and casual games like Temple Run can be played without any lag on the device. But heavier games do take longer to start though there was not much lag when we played Asphalt 8.
The phone also turned a little slow when many apps were opened together, and got a little warm every time we turned on Navigation for directions.
The default browser of M330 is Chrome, which ran perfectly, and we did not face any problem while switching between different tabs. The call quality offered by InFocus M330 was good, and calls didn't drop even in areas like basements and elevators. The battery backup offered by the phone is also very good. Even after using the phone all day, the battery didn't completely drain out.
In benchmark tests the M330 scored 32,277 in AnTuTu v5.7 and 14,120 in Quadrant. In some tests the phone performed better than the likes of the HTC Desire 820 and at par with the Micromax Canvas Selfie and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3G.
Camera
InFocus M330 sports a 13MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash along with an 8MP secondary camera. Both the cameras of the phone are decent for use in good lighting conditions.
Pictures taken outdoors, and the ones taken in bright light came out to be much better than the ones taken in dim light conditions.
Although the colours were not very accurate and seemed a little dull than what they actually were, the photos were clear and we didn't observe much pixilation even while zooming in but pictures came out a little blurred. Low light shots were also disappointing.
The camera also has various other features like Face Beauty Mode, Motion Track Mode for clicking pictures of things that are moving, Live Photo Mode for creating small video clips and gesture recognition.
All of these do what they promise apart from the Face Beauty Mode which makes no difference to the picture taken whatsoever.
The secondary camera of the phone takes good selfies. Our major gripe with the camera app is that it takes longer to start and focus.
Verdict
InFocus M330 is overall a good performer, and at Rs 9,999, can be considered a good buy if you're in the market for a budget smartphone. Buy it for the good display, battery and performance though the camera could have been better. Rivals of the phone can offer a much better camera experience.
However, phones like the YU Yureka and Lenovo A7000 offer a better features to price ratio and even support 4G connectivity under Rs 10,000. Keep in mind that you'll need to go through the hassle of taking part in a flash sale. Also, with InFocus being a relatively new brand in the smartphone segment, we're not sure about the post sales experience yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment