commonman 228 Report post Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) Date of Purchase : 1 day before Diwali (Nov 2010) Place of Purchase : Spice Hotspot in local Mall Cost : Rs. 10,500 Free : a. Spice QT50 Dual GSM SIM QWERTY handset (MRP 2999) [special Diwali Offer] - This was taken by one of my colleague @ Rs.2000, so effective cost Rs. 8,500 b. Screenguard (Model specific screenguard not available, Samsung Monte guard fitted all right) In the Box: Handset, Battery, Charger (Main unit with USB slot), Data cable which also act as charging cable, handsfree, driver CD, user manual The phone came with Android 1.6. I upgraded to 2.1 after a week by downloading the updater tool from Spice official website. After updation, the processor got underclocked to 480 Mhz from 600 Mhz in earlier version. However, this seemed to increase the battery backup. Also, in 1.6 version, there was a separate JAVA running app which vanished after updation. During the next month, thanks to Google, I found that this handset has many clones around the world. It is supposed to be made by a Taiwan based Co. The following are some of the clones (there could be more), in different countries, 1.Apanda A60(China) http://www.apanda.com.cn/ 2.Foxconn 3.China Vision Excalibur 4.Cincinnati Bell Blaze f800 5.Commtiva Z71 (Taiwan) 6.Muchtel A1(Taiwan) http://www.muchtel.com/products/muchtel-a1.html 7.Nexian Journey A890(Indonesia) http://www.nexian.co.id/index.php/product.html 8.Orange Boston 9.ViboA688(Taiwan) http://www.vibo.com.tw/CWS/Consumer_Netcard,2c9681c62913f646012959ee62a500a0,,,.html#top 10.Wellcom A88(Thailand):http://www.wellcommobile.com/th/a88.html 11.Motorola Quench XT502 12.Spice Mi-300 http://www.spiceglobal.com/SpiceMobiles/Model.aspx?Id=167 13.Videocon V7500 (with modified body) There is a thriving blog on Orange Boston http://boston-mania.blogspot.com/ In that blog, the official Android 2.2 ROM for Foxconn and Apanda A60 are available and as per user comments, the same can be used with Spice Mi300 right out of the box. However, so far I have not taken the plunge. Looks & Form The looks are a little geeky and has a plastic feel to it. The size is a little big for the shirt pocket. Fits well in Pant/Coat pocket. Fits well in hand and fells light enough. Touchscreen & Display The touchscreen is very responsive and even the slightest touch is enough and it also has a trackball. It supports multitouch and pinch zoom. However, the 4 touch sensitive navigation buttons below the screen (Home, Return etc) are not backlit which initially made it really frustrating to use the phone in the dark, however, it got better with practice. The default QWERTY keypad is easy to use. It is 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen with 480x320 display and color output of 256K colors. There are 5 screens for creating shortcuts. Camera The Camera supposed to be a 5 MP one and has a LED flash. However, it failed to my expectation particularly in close-up. There are some major contrast issues. However, for distances over 6 feet, it works well. The video quality is good and better than most phones that I have seen. Call Clarity There seems some issues with the earpiece as the voice seem to break every once in a while. However, with handsfree (corded as well as bluetooth) this issue is resolved. Connectivity It has 3G (HSDPA), Wifi & Bluetooth. I have been using it with a MTNL 3G connection. Speed has been good. I use it daily for skype voice call without facing any call breaks. Also works well with my home Broadband on Wifi. Bluetooth file transfer and headset works well. Responsiveness The phone tend to become sluggish if too many apps are open. However, I normally use only music player, twitter, gmail, calender and browser and kill the other apps. With that, the response is good. MultiMedia & Browsing It does not have a FM radio, which is a little put off. It has a 3.5 mm jack. The display is good. MP3, MP4 and mpeg files play nicely. By default, videos play in landscape more. It is supposed to support 3gpp, 3gpp2, aac, amr-NB, amr-wb, imelody, mid, midi, mp3, mp4, mpeg3, mpeg, mpg, qcp, sp-midi, wav files. But have not so far tested the full array. It comes preloaded with Youtube app. It does not support flash. But that I understand is Android issue. It does not support DivX also. But installing Rockplayer solved that. The default browser is actually quite good. I also installed Dolphin & UCB browsers. The loading is fast. But that I suppose is thanks to 3G connection. Email I have been using the default Gmail option. Have not configured the Email app. It is supposed to support POP3 & IMAP mails. GPS & E-compass It has GPS including assisted GPS. I have not tried the assisted mode. But normal GPS locks in about a minute. It works well with the default Gmaps. The initial calibration of E-compass took about 4 to 5 minutes. Thereafter, it has been working fine. Memory Card It is supposed to support upto 32 GB Micro SD Card. I currently have a 8 GB card installed which works without any problem. Not tested with higher capacity. It supports installing apps from SD card and installing unsigned apps. Battery Backup This seems to be a problem area. The 1230 maH battery last only for a day with moderate use. I mostly use twitter, gmail, calender, aldiko (about 15-20 min), skype (voice call – 10 min) and music player (30-45 min) and keep wifi and GPS switched off. I charge in the morning, and by 10 at night, its around 35%. Final verdict Overall, at this price, its a good value for money. Edited February 2, 2011 by Honest 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashoksoft 83 Report post Posted January 30, 2011 Fair and clear review buddy !! Great job!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rajanmehta 4,056 Report post Posted January 30, 2011 What a lovely, comprehensive, packed with useful info REVIEW +1 commonman you keep on changing handsets of Indian Brands...Nice reviews are hard to come by for such phones for the Common Man Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Genius 817 Report post Posted January 30, 2011 Great review, u ain't common man Genius says so :-x Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted January 30, 2011 Great Review dear Common Man. +1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karthik R 246 Report post Posted January 31, 2011 Fair and comprehensive assessment of the phone Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rohan_4ever20 8 Report post Posted January 31, 2011 Great Job bros.....+1 for this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pulkit Gupta 47 Report post Posted January 31, 2011 Great review covered everything. +1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faizone 15 Report post Posted February 2, 2011 "Free : a. Samsung QT50 Dual GSM SIM QWERTY handset (MRP 2999)" Small correction.. QT50 is a Spice model my friend. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
commonman 228 Report post Posted February 2, 2011 ^^^ Agreed. Since I had disposed it off immediately, hence forgotten. Can not edit first post now. Mods pl. help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted February 2, 2011 ^^^ Its done dear Common Man. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ni0987 179 Report post Posted February 3, 2011 good review. I met person in Delhi Metro using this handset. It looked quite old (wear & tear) but the device was working well. And the best part, the owner was happy using this device. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
