American display major Infocus entered the Indian market in partnership with e-commerce player Snapdeal this year in March with two phones and has recently launched four phones. The M2 budget smartphone from the company's initial launch saw a lot of traction in the country. We got our hands on the M370 entry-level smartphone, one of the four latest launches. Here is an analysis of the phone priced at Rs.5,999:
What is good?
The phone is extremely light and easy to hold. It also has a very simple design. Working on Android Lollipop, the phone has a smooth user interface and seldom shows lags when it comes to general operations. The interface looks impressive.
The five-inch display is attractive as it supports HD. There are no problems in viewing angles. Unlike several budget options, the internal memory of the phone is 8GB, which is a plus. The phone has an expandable memory slot.
The rear auto-focus enabled eight-megapixel camera is probably one of the better ones seen till date. It is also complemented by an LED Flash. The front two-megapixel unit is decent.
The phone supports 4G LTE bands and has a removable battery of 2,230mAh which provides a good standby and backup time. It also supports Wi-Fi and has the latest Bluetooth 4.0 module. Location accuracy is also good as it comes with GPS-A and GLONASS.
The phone also has ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer and E-compass.
What doesn't work for the phone?
The build quality is not convincing as it is made of plastic mostly. Infocus has played it smart with the SD card cum SIM slot which might be a problem for a few users.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor with a 1 GB RAM unit is not good enough for most heavy usage purposes like gaming or multitasking between apps. The phone could do with an update on the processor as there are many other phones from rivals providing a better processor at the same or lesser price.
The front camera unit suffers quality in low-light conditions.
Verdict: The phone falls just short of being the best in the budget category but is definitely an improvement over its predecessor M2. In short, the phone is still worth a buy.
(Anirban can be contacted at anirban.g@ians.in)
