We have spent some time with this new product (know that Smartron is available at Gadgets 360 exclusively). And the good thing is that it is very different from the product being made by Indian companies for many years. Smartron is trying to do something new in the competition -filled Android smartphone market. Does this startup dare to confront big companies? Let’s know.
Look and design
Smartron t.phone It is slightly different in appearance. The rear panel of our review unit was of bright orange color. It is also available in pink, blue and neutral gray color. The top and lower parts of the handset are of unique metallic gray color. In terms of 5.5 inch screen, T.phone gives a feeling of being quite large and weighty. But it is one of the thinnest handsets available in the market. It is not as easy to use this phone with one hand.
You will see a very different looking camera in the top on the front panel. There are also earpieces and several sensors in this part. You will see a small dot on the left side. This is a several color notification LED. There is no fingerprint reader in it. According to Smartron, most companies are not able to fully implement the security criteria and the fingerprint sensor is of no use. T.phone gets a tough look due to a separate design pattern. This is completely different from the phone with a commonly found slicking glass and full-matel body.
You will see a dual-sim tray on the right side. This means that you have to choose one between the microSD card and the other SIM card. We found its edge slightly worn when the sim tray is taken out. Seeing this, we are not convinced about whether it will be able to stay for a long time. Power and volume buttons are on the right side. It is very easy to reach them. The standard 3.5mm audio jack is at the top. Type-C USB port at the bottom. T.phone comes with quick charger. Type-a to Type-C USB cable, headset and a SIM eject pin will also be available.
Specification and software
While companies are trying to woo more and more customers in a price range of Rs 10,000, Smartron is eyeing customers interested in a little expensive smartphone. Keeping the price in mind, the company has also given powerful features in this handset. T.phone has an Octa-core Snapdragon 810 chipset, which was Qualcomm’s most powerful processor till last year. This processor was criticized due to being hot in the early days. Smartron has reported that it has used the latest revision of this processor. You will get 4 GB RAM and 64 GB inbuilt storage. The screen is 5.5 inches with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels. Today, expensive smartphones are being given displays with even more resolution. In reality, it does not matter much. There is a protection of Gorilla Glass 3 on the display.
The rear camera has a 13 -megapixel sensor. It is accompanied by dual-LED flash and phase detection autofocus features. You will be able to record videos of 4K resolution from it. The 4 -megapixel sensor of the front camera has also claimed to have a great selfie in the dark. The contribution of inlarged pixels behind this is to a large extent it is like HTC’s ultraPixel camera. T.phone has four microphones about which the company says that with their help the voice resonates less and the background noys also decreases.
Smartron has a 3000 mAh battery. This phone supports Quick Charging 2.0. You will be able to use microSD cards up to 128 GB. Wi-Fi 802.11 AC, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and FM Radio are part of this handset. You will not get fingerprint reader, infrared or NFC.
T. Phone comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The good thing is that Smartron has already started talking about Android N update. In this handset, you will also get some small customization options.
You will get your TronX app of Smartron. We had a glimpse of this first in T.Buk. Here you will be able to buy smartron products and accessories.
Performance
As expected, we have no complaint with the general performance of this smartphone. The screen is fine, but the color should be more vibrant. The surprising thing is that the option of the Acharytive display is present in the Settings app and it is off in default mode. If it really improves the display and reduces battery consumption, it should have been turned on in the default. T. Phone has DTS premium sound innience. Its help brings a very clear sound, but it does not give a loud voice as expected. We are not satisfied with the quality of the headset given with it and we will not use it to listen to the song.
While recording the video, while using LTE data, we felt a slightly warmer camera lens on the rear part and the handset near the earpiece in the front. The phone remained cold during all the work. UI gives a lot of response.
The benchmark results point to good performance. Games with heavy graphics also run easily. In our video loop test, the phone battery lasted for 11 hours 10 minutes. After using 4G data for some time a day and playing the game, its battery lasted easily for a day.
When we turned on T. Phone for the first time and tried to setup, the camera app disappointed us the most. There was no mode in it and there is no creative tool. We also had to open the menu to switch between the front and the rear camera. We got three -page options for the option. Flash was found at the third level of the togle menu.
Many times the app took a few seconds to store the picture and due to this there was a slight delay in taking the next picture. In such a situation, it is not possible to take constant pictures. All these problems were overcome by using the second camera app, but autofocus continued to work strangely after that.
Talking to Smartron, we came to know that the update for this app has been released. But we found that it was not available on the phone’s firmware update tool or Google Play. We could get it through manual updates. The version of the new app is 2.1. The camera app has been completely replaced in this version.
While taking the photo, there was a problem of focus in the camera app several times, especially in low light. Usually, it took longer to lock the focus after tapping on the screen. But when we took the picture by giving time, she came well. The pictures were found to be seen in full size that there was a huge shortage of texture and details. There was more difficulty in autofocus at night. Photos taken from the front camera were disappointing.
Our decision
Smartron has stressed that T.phone has been made keeping India in mind. We also want the domestic company to earn a name in the international market. There are many things to be liked in T.phone. The best thing is that the company has tried to give something different by not being a part of the emergency of smartphone companies. The price is aggressive, especially if it looks at its specification and feature. However, many people are also satisfied with the capacity of cheap phones.
Battery life is the most important feature of T.phone. Had there been a facility to give convenience like fingerprint reader, it would have been better. We also have high expectations from the company’s TronX service. Smartron will have to work on improving the out of box experience for its customers. The new camera app has solved our problem, but what is the benefit of such updates when the user has to struggle a lot to get it. The Snapdragon 820 processor made with better finish is available in this price range equipped with 820 processor, but we hope that there is no shortage of T. Phone’s fans. This is a strong offer from a new ambitious company and we will definitely keep an eye on Smartron’s next step.