I purchased this phone from a Bombay branch of a large electronics chain. I was quite happy to pay such a low price for a phone with an octa-core CPU, the rest of the features being decent. However, the piece was faulty, as the camera, memory card slot and Wi-Fi did not work. Luckily, response from the Karbonn was prompt, and I managed to get a replacement piece within 24 hours.
Pros:-
1. The AnTutu benchmark score is 26594, almost equal to the Snapdragon version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, and outclassing many other popular phones from reputable international manufacturers, including the octa-core Exynos S4 ad HTC One. Only extremely high end devices like the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S5, Xiaomi Mi3 etc were ahead.
2. Graphics are smooth, thanks to the Mali GPU, and do not lag even under load. I played Asphalt with apps updating via the Play store in the background without any stutter. The screen is bright and colours are vibrant. Sunlight visibility suffered due to the quality of the screen guard provided in the box, but this should be a minor issue. Full HD videos played without any lag, and most formats I tried to play were handled. One strange issue was FLV files not being rendered with the Hardware decoder. Switching to the Software decoder solved this
3. Sound quality through the headphones is quite good through my high end Philips headset, and with the Bose and Sennheiser models in the store. The included earphones are of average quality, and are suitable only for phone calls. The speaker is quite loud, and can be easily heard even in noisy environments. The earpiece, while adequately loud, does not have as high a maximum volume as expected.
4. While being completely made of plastic, the phone does not feel cheap in any way. The back cover and battery are easily removable, and the MicroSD card is hot-swappable. The buttons are sturdy and easily usable, and the phone feels solid in the hand, without feeling bulky. The bezels are not thick, keeping the size of the phone manageable.
5. The camera is good, considering the price of the device. Shutter lag can be eliminated completely with an option in the camera app. Colours are reproduced well, and the photographs are crisp. Slight noise is visible in low light conditions, which is to be expected.
Cons:-
1. The RAM is only 1 GB. This seems quite low, especially considering the power of the CPU. It seems a waste to possibly cripple the phone. Providing 2 GB of RAM, even by raising the price by 1k or so would have still kept the device affordable, and made it even more powerful and desirable. Thankfully, this does not seem to be an issue, even with demanding tasks. It is, however, advisable to install a memory cleaner app.
2. Out of the 2 SIM slots, one only accepts a Micro-SIM card. This was not mentioned before, and I got somewhat of a shock when the salesperson took out the trimming tool.
3. Quality, as shown by the faults in the first piece i got, is questionable. From speaking to others at the Karbonn Care center, I noticed that the phones are either completely reliable or completely useless. Which one you get depends on your luck. However, this is true for all cheap Indian and Chinese manufactured phones.
4. I have NEVER see a phone with so much bloatware, even though everyone else in my family uses Samsung phones. It is just incredible to see the amount of rubbish apps that come with the phone. This includes no less than FOUR web browsers - the default Android one, Chrome, Opera and Maxathon. Also were included the apps of possibly every single Indian e-retail website. At the risk of voiding warranty, I strongly advise everyone to root the phone and uninstall these apps.
Conclusion - Despite a few flaws, I would strongly recommend this phone to anyone looking for a decent device at anything under 15,000 rupees.
- Mad Scientist6 Aug, 2014
