harman03
:)
We were awestruck by this feature-rich Android phone that sells for just Rs. 10,000
Responsive 3.2 inch Capacitive HVGA res display, good 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, Android 2.1, good connectivity (GPS/Wi-fi/3G), pricing
Average call clarity, low sunlight legibility, display prone to fingerprints, no backlight on the touch menu keys
Expert Rating :
Intro:
The HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy 3 have shown us that phones under Rs. 15,000 can have the features that were once boasted by Rs.30K smartphones. However, both had some corners being cut to keep the cost down. For instance, the Wildfire was plagued by a low resolution QVGA display on a relatively large 3.2 inch screen. While the Galaxy 3 came with a not-too-desirable 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera.
But Android has managed to break the Rs. 10,000 price barrier with a few models selling in the market as of today. The Samsung i5500 seemed decent of the lot due to its capacitive screen and Android 2.1 OS, along with full range of connectivity options (Wi-fi, 3G, GPS). But then there's this one model from Indian telecom operator Spice which, on paper at least, seems to blow everything in its range out of the universe!
We're talking of a 3.2 inch Capacitive HVGA (320 x 480 pixel) screen, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash, Android 2.1, W-fi, GPS, 3G. All this for 10 rupees under Rs. 10,000 (i.e. Rs. 9,990). Unbelievable, isn't it? We used the Spice Mi-300 intensively and will tell you if this impressive spec sheet reads the same when you really use the phone.
Design and Build:
At first sight the Spice Mi-300 seems like a run-of-the-mill touchscreen phone. Its not cute like the Corby, but rather looks like something a DIYer or a geek would carry. Black front and back panel made out of plastic, silver rim wrapping the sides. The phone looks cheapie but the sturdiness is decent. But the size and shape is fairly comfortable to fit in the pocket easy. Like many touchphones, the front face of this one too is susceptible to nasty fingerprints. What's worse is that the nature of the screen is such that it doesn't let go of the fingerprints even after wiping it. This not only makes the phone look worse, but affects readability in bright lighting.
The front face is covered by a 3.2-inch screen of capacitive nature. The response to the touchscreen is decent, as it accurately recognized most of our finger taps. The screen supports multi-touch input, but actions like pinch-zoom weren't entirely accurately interpreted. The resolution of this screen is HVGA (320 x 480 pixels). This is the default resolution that most of the initial Android phones used. It is much better than the lower QVGA or WQVGA resolutions on competitive phones like the Wildfire or Samsung Galaxy 3 or 5.
The higher number of pixels has many advantages - there are no blurry edges on the fonts, which improves readability. Overall, the display just looks crisper. The brightness is adequate indoors, there's an ambient light sensor to automatically tweak it according to the surroundings. But under bright sunlight the readability goes for a toss, as you can barely read what's on the screen. The two major flaws we spotted with the screen was a dead pixel, which we hope is an isolated issue. The second was that while scrolling through lists in a dark background (like the settings menu), the text would appear hazy while in motion. Both of them don't really raise any major flags though.
Below that are four touch-sensitive buttons like in most Androids today. The menu, home and back key work fine but there are two niggles that are hard to ignore. First, the Search button does not work. Yeah, it's funny but tapping it does not make the search box appear on the top. By keeping it pressed though, the browser opens up. Second and more importantly, there's no backlighting on either of these touch keys. Thus, in the dark, you obviously cannot see the area below the screen and have to keep trying till you're lucky enough to tap the right key.
Below that is a trackball, like the one on the Nexus One. You also get call accept/end keys, which aren't really necessary, but what the heck (maybe good for people used to pressing the red/green buttons). There's a microUSB port to the left protected by a cover. To the right we've got volume controls and a camera shutter button. The top has a tiny power button, which, at times, is hard to press, and next to it is a 3.5mm earphone jack. At the back you've got the camera sensor followed by a single LED flash bulb. The speaker grille is placed at the bottom.
The phone isn't a stunner, but like we said before, it's not for the looks that you would buy this phone.
User Interface:
The Spice Mi-300 ran Android 1.6 when it came to us. After contacting Spice about the availability of version 2.1, the company sent us a 2.1 update file immediately. He also said that Android 2.1 will be available to existing Mi-300 owners by the time this review gets published. The Android 1.6 had some interesting tweaks like a modified notification menu, which had an extra tab showing battery status, toggle GPS, Wi-fi, Internet status etc. However, that got wiped away with the 2.1 build, which is very much like the one we've seen on the Nexus One or the Acer Liquid (i.e. very little modifications to what Google has given).
Since it isn't too different from the Nexus One's Android 2.1 UI, you can read about it in detail here.
The Spice Mi-300 comes with a 5 megapixel camera, which by specification at least, sounds better than the paltry 2 megapixel shooter on the Samsung i5500. Now, the funny thing is that there is no auto focusing mentioned anywhere; not in the box, not on the site. But the shutter button acts as a two-stage one, bringing up those green square borders when you half press it. Visually, it makes no difference as the lens isn't moving a millimeter. That visual con-job apart, the camera actually takes good snaps. In adequate outdoor lighting, we saw some fairly clear output; take a look at the samples yourself. The color reproduction was quite natural. At night, that tiny LED flash came in handy, as it lit up objects close by fairly well.
The paired earbuds deliver acceptable audio quality. You'd want to upgrade it if you're planning to use this phone as an MP3 player for better audio quality. The GPS chip worked well and by the use of assistive technology in Google Maps, it was able to get a fix in a matter of seconds.
Battery life was above average. The 1230 mAh battery could make the phone last just about a day with moderate usage. Expect worse if you're going to use Wi-fi, GPS or video playback heavily.
Price and Verdict:
The Spice Mi-300 sells for an introductory price of Rs. 9,990. The pricing was something that completely took us aback, as this phone pretty much outdoes the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8, HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy 3 spec-to-spec, while costing a couple of thousands lesser. We're generally skeptical of such too good to be true phones, but the Mi-300 actually turns out to be a pretty good package for the price it is sold at. But where it fails is in the core function of any phone - call quality.
If you don't talk too much over the phone (or are willing to use a headset), then the Spice Mi-300 is possibly the most feature-rich Android handset you can buy for Rs. 10,000. Very few corners have been cut and this phone actually retains the features of a phone that could have been sold for at least Rs. 15,000. And we'd like to give Spice a pat on the back for that.
But if phone calls are a major part of your cellphone usage, then my bet would be to look somewhere else. You may expect your phone to do your laundry and clean the kitchen, but one thing a caller wouldn't want to do is repeat his/her statements again and again.
Responsive 3.2 inch Capacitive HVGA res display, good 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, Android 2.1, good connectivity (GPS/Wi-fi/3G), pricing
Average call clarity, low sunlight legibility, display prone to fingerprints, no backlight on the touch menu keys
Expert Rating :
Intro:
The HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy 3 have shown us that phones under Rs. 15,000 can have the features that were once boasted by Rs.30K smartphones. However, both had some corners being cut to keep the cost down. For instance, the Wildfire was plagued by a low resolution QVGA display on a relatively large 3.2 inch screen. While the Galaxy 3 came with a not-too-desirable 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera.
But Android has managed to break the Rs. 10,000 price barrier with a few models selling in the market as of today. The Samsung i5500 seemed decent of the lot due to its capacitive screen and Android 2.1 OS, along with full range of connectivity options (Wi-fi, 3G, GPS). But then there's this one model from Indian telecom operator Spice which, on paper at least, seems to blow everything in its range out of the universe!
We're talking of a 3.2 inch Capacitive HVGA (320 x 480 pixel) screen, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash, Android 2.1, W-fi, GPS, 3G. All this for 10 rupees under Rs. 10,000 (i.e. Rs. 9,990). Unbelievable, isn't it? We used the Spice Mi-300 intensively and will tell you if this impressive spec sheet reads the same when you really use the phone.
At first sight the Spice Mi-300 seems like a run-of-the-mill touchscreen phone. Its not cute like the Corby, but rather looks like something a DIYer or a geek would carry. Black front and back panel made out of plastic, silver rim wrapping the sides. The phone looks cheapie but the sturdiness is decent. But the size and shape is fairly comfortable to fit in the pocket easy. Like many touchphones, the front face of this one too is susceptible to nasty fingerprints. What's worse is that the nature of the screen is such that it doesn't let go of the fingerprints even after wiping it. This not only makes the phone look worse, but affects readability in bright lighting.
The front face is covered by a 3.2-inch screen of capacitive nature. The response to the touchscreen is decent, as it accurately recognized most of our finger taps. The screen supports multi-touch input, but actions like pinch-zoom weren't entirely accurately interpreted. The resolution of this screen is HVGA (320 x 480 pixels). This is the default resolution that most of the initial Android phones used. It is much better than the lower QVGA or WQVGA resolutions on competitive phones like the Wildfire or Samsung Galaxy 3 or 5.
The higher number of pixels has many advantages - there are no blurry edges on the fonts, which improves readability. Overall, the display just looks crisper. The brightness is adequate indoors, there's an ambient light sensor to automatically tweak it according to the surroundings. But under bright sunlight the readability goes for a toss, as you can barely read what's on the screen. The two major flaws we spotted with the screen was a dead pixel, which we hope is an isolated issue. The second was that while scrolling through lists in a dark background (like the settings menu), the text would appear hazy while in motion. Both of them don't really raise any major flags though.
Below that are four touch-sensitive buttons like in most Androids today. The menu, home and back key work fine but there are two niggles that are hard to ignore. First, the Search button does not work. Yeah, it's funny but tapping it does not make the search box appear on the top. By keeping it pressed though, the browser opens up. Second and more importantly, there's no backlighting on either of these touch keys. Thus, in the dark, you obviously cannot see the area below the screen and have to keep trying till you're lucky enough to tap the right key.
Below that is a trackball, like the one on the Nexus One. You also get call accept/end keys, which aren't really necessary, but what the heck (maybe good for people used to pressing the red/green buttons). There's a microUSB port to the left protected by a cover. To the right we've got volume controls and a camera shutter button. The top has a tiny power button, which, at times, is hard to press, and next to it is a 3.5mm earphone jack. At the back you've got the camera sensor followed by a single LED flash bulb. The speaker grille is placed at the bottom.
The phone isn't a stunner, but like we said before, it's not for the looks that you would buy this phone.
User Interface:
The Spice Mi-300 ran Android 1.6 when it came to us. After contacting Spice about the availability of version 2.1, the company sent us a 2.1 update file immediately. He also said that Android 2.1 will be available to existing Mi-300 owners by the time this review gets published. The Android 1.6 had some interesting tweaks like a modified notification menu, which had an extra tab showing battery status, toggle GPS, Wi-fi, Internet status etc. However, that got wiped away with the 2.1 build, which is very much like the one we've seen on the Nexus One or the Acer Liquid (i.e. very little modifications to what Google has given).
Since it isn't too different from the Nexus One's Android 2.1 UI, you can read about it in detail here.
The Spice Mi-300 comes with a 5 megapixel camera, which by specification at least, sounds better than the paltry 2 megapixel shooter on the Samsung i5500. Now, the funny thing is that there is no auto focusing mentioned anywhere; not in the box, not on the site. But the shutter button acts as a two-stage one, bringing up those green square borders when you half press it. Visually, it makes no difference as the lens isn't moving a millimeter. That visual con-job apart, the camera actually takes good snaps. In adequate outdoor lighting, we saw some fairly clear output; take a look at the samples yourself. The color reproduction was quite natural. At night, that tiny LED flash came in handy, as it lit up objects close by fairly well.
The paired earbuds deliver acceptable audio quality. You'd want to upgrade it if you're planning to use this phone as an MP3 player for better audio quality. The GPS chip worked well and by the use of assistive technology in Google Maps, it was able to get a fix in a matter of seconds.
Battery life was above average. The 1230 mAh battery could make the phone last just about a day with moderate usage. Expect worse if you're going to use Wi-fi, GPS or video playback heavily.
Price and Verdict:
The Spice Mi-300 sells for an introductory price of Rs. 9,990. The pricing was something that completely took us aback, as this phone pretty much outdoes the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8, HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy 3 spec-to-spec, while costing a couple of thousands lesser. We're generally skeptical of such too good to be true phones, but the Mi-300 actually turns out to be a pretty good package for the price it is sold at. But where it fails is in the core function of any phone - call quality.
If you don't talk too much over the phone (or are willing to use a headset), then the Spice Mi-300 is possibly the most feature-rich Android handset you can buy for Rs. 10,000. Very few corners have been cut and this phone actually retains the features of a phone that could have been sold for at least Rs. 15,000. And we'd like to give Spice a pat on the back for that.
But if phone calls are a major part of your cellphone usage, then my bet would be to look somewhere else. You may expect your phone to do your laundry and clean the kitchen, but one thing a caller wouldn't want to do is repeat his/her statements again and again.
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