By Anirban Ghoshal
New Delhi, May 31 (IANS): InFocus, the Portland, US-based maker of projection and display technologies, has launched its first devices in India eyeing the smartphone growth in the country. While one of the devices is a budget one, the second smartphone is aimed at eating away the share of brands like Xiaomi. Here is a look at what these two have to offer:
InFocus M2: This nifty little device will surprise the user as soon as he or she opens it. A fresh looking UI, very different from the Chinese brands, will enthuse the user into delving more.
Available in white or black, the M2 is 11.1 mm thick (135mm x 64.5mm x 11.1mm) which may be a bit on the higher side and weighs around 145 grams. The phone has internal storage of 8GB (of which 5GB of space is available) and can be expanded to 64GB with the help of a microSD slot.
The M2 sports a screen size of 4.2 inches making it smaller than most options in its price range. The multi-touch screen has a wide extended graphics array (WXGA) resolution of 1280×768 and a pixel density of 355PPI which results in a brighter display.
It has a rear 8MP camera (3264 x 2448 pixels) with 4x digital zoom and a LED flash. The front shooter is also an 8MP with autofocus, 3x digital zoom and a diffused LED flash, so expect better selfies in low light conditions. The camera also features an auto selfie feature - when you smile, it clicks.
At its core, the M2 dons a MediaTek MT6582, Quad-core 1.3GHz CPU which is built for smooth multi-tasking. The phone lagged only under extreme heavy conditions. The M2 derives its graphics capabilities from the Mali-400 GPU which performs good for most games. But graphics heavy games slowed down a little due to the M2's 1GB RAM. The phone runs on Android KitKat 4.4.2 operating system and features an InLife UI along with the EZ launcher.
The M2 doesn't fare too well with its 2,010 mAh unremovable battery. A more powerful battery would have been better, especially for those into games. On the connectivity front, the phone supports 2G, 3G on a dual SIM, dual standby mode. It also supports Wi-Fi and ships with Bluetooth 4.0 along with a micro-B USB connector for data transfer and battery charging.
All this for a price of Rs 4,999 is a super deal.
M330: The elder brother
The M330 is in every way the M2's elder brother. Be it screen size, camera, battery or connectivity, it is superior in every way except for the UI and other in-built software features.
The mid-range device, which also has two colour options - black and white - is 9.3mm (53.4mm x 78.1mm x 9.3mm) thick and weighs around 170 grams. It ships with a 3,100 mAH battery and offers dual SIM, dual standby mode.
The device gathers its juice from a MediaTek MT6592, Octa-core 1.7GHz CPU which uses way less power and can be in some ways compared to the higher range of Qualcomm processors.
So, users can expect good performance results. The octa-core processor comes with a quad-core Mali-450 GPU which is good at supporting graphics for heavy games. More juice from 2GB RAM adds to a smoother experience.
In the display section, the M330 sports a 5.5 inches sized screen which supports an IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280×720 HD. The internal storage is 16GB which is better than having 8GB. The storage can be expanded to 64GB with the help of a microSD chip unit.
The camera unit is upgraded and the 330 ships with a 13MP (4208 x 3120 pixels) with autofocus, 4x digital zoom and a LED flash unit. The front camera remains 8MP with a higher resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels.
Unfortunately on the connectivity front, the M330 does not show any improvement. It does not support 4G bands and is not LTE enabled. But again, given all the features at a price proposition of Rs 9,999, the phone makes for at least a test drive.