With the smartphone market growing rapidly, smartphone manufacturers, especially the Indian vendors are competing hard by lowering their price point. But does that affect the quality of the smartphone experience? The Xolo Q1000 Opus, is one such example of the company’s sub-Rs. 10000 smartphone.
The Xolo Q1000 Opus, is part of the company’s popular Q-Core range which features smartphones with quad core processors. Not just that, the smartphone is the first Xolo device to use the Broadcom processor. To add to it, the device is priced at just Rs. 9999. Before we get down to the review let’s take a glance of the specs of the smartphone.
Specs of the XOLO Q1000 Opus:
- 5 inch display
- 854 x 480 pixels resolution
- 1.2 GHz quad core Broadcom BCM23550 processor
- 312 MHz VideoCore IV GPU
- 1 GB RAM
- 4 GB internal memory
- 5 MP primary camera
- 0.3 MP front facing camera
- Google Android v4.2 Jelly Bean
- 2000 mAh battery
Design:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus has a 5 inch display with slightly big bezels on the sides making it feel slightly bulky. Despite that, the placement of the power/standby button make it easy to use with one hand. The front of the smartphone is plain and smooth with no physical buttons. There is the earpiece, sensor and small camera on the top.
The back panel of the device is made out of shiny light plastic. There is cut-out for the rear camera and LED flash at the top and the speaker grills are situated at the bottom. The device has a metal finish on the side edges where the Power button and the Volume rocker are placed on the right and left edges respectively. Similarly, the 3.5 mm earphone jack is placed at the top while the micro USB slot is at the bottom along with a small hole for the microphone.
The device also comes with a free flip-cover which also doubles as a stand for the smartphone is landscape mode.
Hardware:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus is powered by the new 1.2 GHz quad core Broadcom BCM23550 processor along with 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage of which just 2.83 GB is available to the user. Most of the internal area is occupied by the huge battery. There are two SIM card slots around the camera. The SIM 1 supports both GSM/WCDMA SIM but the SIM 2 is limited to GSM only. There is also a microSD card slot just below the camera, which supports memory cards up to 32 GB.
User Interface:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus has a 5 inch IPS full touch display with resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. Though the display has just 196 ppi density, it is quite sharp and bright and is easily usable in bright sunny outdoor conditions. Like most of the devices, the screen is very glossy and attracts a lot of fingerprints.
The device, like most of Xolo smartphones, runs on near stock version of Android v4.2. However the OS is not very stable and causes many apps to crash while in process, this also includes core device apps like Gallery.
Camera:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus has a decent 5 MP rear facing camera and a front facing VGA camera. However due to the software bugs, the camera app, which interestingly is quite similar to the UI on Nexus devices with the options on the ring, keeps crashing repeatedly. In such cases, the phone requires a complete reboot to get the camera started again. Sometimes the camera just freezes after clicking the picture, at other times “Cannot connect to camera” is displayed.
Xolo released an update weighing 6.83 MB last week to rectify this mistake, however there is just a slight improvement as the camera still crashes, though less frequently now. The update also improves the auto focus capability of the camera. The Burst Mode option, though available, is not usable due to the crash.
The 5 MP camera performs well in outdoor conditions with bright and lively images. However the same is not seen in low-light conditions, with the images getting grainy and with considerable amount of noise visible. The LED flash doesn’t help improve the picture quality in low-light conditions. The rear camera can also be used to record videos at 720p resolution with decent audio quality.
The front facing VGA camera is decent for video calls and video chats however voice clarity is very poor and requires external support.
Performance:
The quad core Broadcom seems to be trying hard to match the expectations but falls short a bit. The device performs well at the benchmarks. It scored a decent 13382 on the AnTuTu Benchmarks. While the UI is quite smooth, as mentioned before many apps crashed frequently. Also it doesn’t seem to do well under stress, as the device comparatively slows down when using multiple apps simultaneously.
While the device has an inbuilt VideoCore IV GPU, it didn’t show the best performance for gaming. There were noticeable lags in high end games besides the longer loading time. Further prolonged gaming led to the device heating beyond acceptable limits. But the inbuilt accelerometer and other sensors are useful.
Battery:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus is equipped with a 2000 mAh battery, which though looks big, doesn’t last long enough. The battery lasts for around 6 hours on mixed usage, which also includes 3G usage, of which the last 10 percent survives the longest. The battery occasionally heats up. Overall, the battery can provide around 10 hours talk time and around 12 hours standby time on a single charge.
There is the proprietary Xolo Power app which helps control the battery usage. It also warns of apps which are draining the battery and also has a night mode. After crossing the set threshold, it automatically dims the display and disconnects Wi-Fi, 3G etc.
Connectivity:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus has dual SIM support with 3G connectivity. There is also Dual SIM Smart On option which enables you to answer calls from the other SIM when actively using one SIM. You can also assign default SIM for operations like voice call, video call, messaging and Data connection. Overall the voice clarity of the calls is good. There is also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS support. The GPS sensor is quite accurate and is useful in navigation.
Pros:
- Dual SIM smart on feature
- Build quality
- Price
Cons:
- Battery
- Low resolution
- Software bugs
Conclusion:
The Xolo Q1000 Opus is a decent smartphone in the sub Rs. 10000 range. The hardware and built quality do give the device an edge over the other smartphones in that price range. However the software bugs need to be quickly rectified for a better user experience.
