InFocus Turbo 5: Mighty battery power lets you do more with your smartphone

Battery and metal build the scoring points of this Rs 6,999 device; camera, software disappoint

American smartphone manufacturer InFocus recently came up with the InFocus Turbo 5, a good-looking affordable smartphone which, the company claims, has an amazing battery life of at least two days. With this Amazon-exclusive product, with a price tag starting Rs 6,999, InFocus is looking to take on Chinese rivals Vivo, Oppo and Xiami, which currently dominate the Indian budget smartphone market.

Does the InFocus Turbo 5 have what it takes to upset the apple cart for other more established players in India’s budget smartphone space? Business Standard used the smartphone for a couple of days. Here is what we observed:

1. Battery:

That is the major selling point of the InFocus Turbo 5. With a massive 5,000mAh battery, the phone’s battery life of two days seems to match the claims. On the standby mode, it goes on for nearly a month. The company also says that the battery supports almost 50 hours of continuous music playback, 23 hours of video calling and 15 hours of online gaming, but this remains to be tested by us. Another interesting feature of the smartphone is its reverse-charging feature – you can use the smartphone’s battery as a power bank to charge other devices.

2. Display and design:

InFocus Turbo 5. Photo: Aparna Banerjea

The InFocus Turbo 5, available in two shades of gold – Mocha Gold and Pure Gold – sports a 5.2-inch wide single screen with 1280 x 720 HD On-cell IPS 2.5D and curved edges. The display has decent brightness indoors and there is no trouble with readability outdoors, but the colours seem a bit muted do not pop much.

Despite the heavy battery, the phone is not bulky and comes in a sleek, curvaceous light-weight body. The unibody metal design feels smooth and the fingerprint scanner is placed at the back. The device feels sturdy and compact enough for comfortable single-hand use.

The 3D InFocus logo sits on the back of the model, while the power button and volume rockers are placed on the right, and the ejectable dual-SIM (Nano+Nano) tray on the left side of the phone. The top has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the bottom has a Micro-USB port.

3. Software:

InFocus Turbo 5. Photo: Aparna Banerjea

The Turbo 5 runs the latest Android Nougat v7.0 operating system that lets you use features like quick app switching, multi-window multitasking, and gives you the ability to reply from notifications right out of the box.

The app drawer seems quite ordinary, with no extra features to add to the look. The interface is easy and resembles any other stock Android phone of the genre. However, we found that the UI was a bit sluggish at times, with some delays when opening the app drawer. Apps opened fairly quickly, and switching among them was smooth.

There is little to write home about in terms of software, especially when compared with other more powerful phones already in the market.

The smartphone comes in two storage variants -- 2GB RAM with 16 GB internal storage, expandable to 32GB, and 3GB RAM with 32 GB internal storage. Again, that is nothing extraordinary, given that the market is inundated with options with greater storage in the price segment.

The Turbo 5 is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor, which is decent and runs smooth even while playing high-end games.

4. Camera:

The phone showcases an average 13MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front camera with beautify mode. The rear one captures a good amount of light but the colours are not as vibrant as other smartphones in the segment. The selfie-camera is not great, either – you are able to shoot good selfies in light but the photos are hazy in low-light conditions.

5. Verdict:

The Turbo 5 might give rivals like the Moto C and Redmi 4 a tough challenge, especially because of its powerful battery and attractive pricing. It is a good product if you are looking for an affordable smartphone that runs for long without asking for a battery refill.