A mixed bag

Chinese companies have flooded the Indian smartphone space. The Indian manufacturers, which were ruling the market, are also feeling the heat. In such times, Smartron, a Hyderabad-based company that claims to be an IoT player, after launching a hybrid, has come with its first smartphone, called t.phone. But does it have the power to stand against the well established names?

First thing first, what I really loved about Smartron devices is the packaging. It is neatly packed with all the components including charging cable packed in individual boxes. The company claims that while the device has been manufactured in China, everything including packaging has been designed in India. And honestly, the device does stand out in terms of looks in the sea of most of the metal-clad smartphones.

My review unit had a bright orange rear and sides that looked refreshing. There are grey bands running on the top, and the bottom of the rear complements the design. A SIM card tray is placed on the side panel and the rear is non removable. But it lacks a fingerprint scanner, which is becoming common in Rs 10,000 smartphones as well. At 6.98 mm, it feels thin and comfortable to grip. A big 5.5-inch touch display dominates the front with a home key at the bottom. The display is crisp and colours look lively on this device. Videos and images appeared rich on the t.phone's screen.

The Smartron t.phone belongs to the sub Rs 25,000 smartphones that are high on specifications. Even this one runs on Qualcomm 810 processor paired with 4 GB of RAM. The company has gone ahead with almost stock-like Android UI with a few tweaks that doesn't make it look much different. It has 64GB internal storage with support for expandable memory of up to 128 GB through the hybrid SIM slot.

The company claims to offer unlimited cloud storage. There is also a tstore - Smartron's online store for products and accessories.

Talking about real-life performance, the Smartron t.phone is a decent performer. Once set up, there wasn't any lag while browsing the web or downloading the apps. It also handled most of the apps and games with ease. But while playing heavy graphic games, the device started to heat up a little bit. The sound output over the speaker was just about average.

The 13-MP rear camera isn't the strongest point either as it took time to lock the focus. Images captured during bring daylight looked good on the phone's display but lacked sharpness when zoomed in. This can be easily fixed with the app software update. The phone also captures 4K videos.

Considering the tphone is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, a bigger battery is a must and Smartron has added a 3,000-mAh battery that struggled to last a day with heavy usage. Smartron has also added the USB Type C charger, in which case, you should carry the charger along - just in case the phone runs out of juice.

Smartron is betting big time on customer care service with its tcare app that connects directly to service.

Bag it or junk it: A good effort but needs some tweaking

Rating: 3.5/5
Price: Rs 22,999
Plus: Design, Performance
Minus: Camera