Xolo launched the Q600, the company’s latest Android smartphone in the QCORE series last month at a price tag of Rs. 8,999. We brought you the unboxing and the benchmarks of the device last week. Here we have the complete review of the device. The Xolo Q800 was the first quad-core smartphone from Xolo that was launched earlier this year and we reviewed the Q1000, the company’s latest flagship with 5-inch HD display recently. The Q600 is the cheapest device in the Q Series. Is this smartphone worth the price? Let’s dive into the review to find out.
Unboxing
Box Contents
The box contents include
- Xolo Q600 smartphones
- 2000 mAh battery
- 2-pin charger
- micro USB cable
- in-ear headset
- Screen guard
- Quick start guide
- Safety, Warranty and Legal guide
Video Review
Hardware
The phone has a 4.5-inch display at a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels at 217 ppi. This one is a standard TFT display display and is not based on one-glass solution (OGS) technology like the Q1000 and the Q700, so the colors are not as vibrant as those devices, but the display is bright and the viewing angles are decent. The display is not too glossy like the Q700.You also get a screen guard in the box which you can use to avoid smudges on the screen.
There is an ear piece on top along with a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) font-facing camera. There are the usual Proximity and Ambient light sensors next to the camera. It doesn’t have a LED notification light like the Q700.
Below the display the capacitive touch buttons for Menu, Home and Back are present. These offers haptic feedback when pressed. These keys are also backlit, but it is hardly visible. There is a tiny microphone below that, on the chrome rim.
The phone has curved corners. On the right side there is a power button.
On the left side there is a volume rocker. A silver colored rim runs on the sides of the device. The phone is 11.9 mm thick.
The micro USB slot and the 3.5mm audio jack are on the top. There is nothing on the bottom.
The back has shiny plastic cover and it is a bit curved.
On the back there is a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. This lacks a BSI sensor and a secondary microphone that were present on the Q700. There is a Xolo branding below the camera.
There is a loudspeaker grill on the bottom.
When you open the back cover, you can see the 2000 mAh Lithium-Polymer battery, SIM and SD card slots.
The SIM card arrangement is quite different in this device. The SIM cards slots are arranged one over the other. The first SIM card slot is present in the bottom, while the SIM 2 slot is on the top. You have to view the indicative diagram next to it and insert the SIM card in a proper way. It uses a normal SIM card similar to other Xolo Q series smartphones. You need to push the SIM cards from the other side to eject it. Due to the unique SIM card arrangement, it is a bit hard to remove the cards quickly. There is a microSD card slot next to it lets you expand the memory up to 32GB.
Camera
The 5-megapixel auto focus camera takes decent shots. Daylight images and macro shots were good, but not impressive. Since this is runs on Android 4.2, it support lockscreen widgets that lets you launch the camera directly from the lockscreen. The camera has a navigation bar on the left pane that lets you change the different camera modes including HDR, Panorama, Smile shutter and more. There is a Flash toggle and option to switch between either cameras on the top. You can just swipe to the left to view previously shot images or videos. The settings menu lets you enable GPS location, adjust exposure, white balance, add color effects, change the scene mode and adjust anti-flicker mode. The Face Detection option spots the face inside the frame clearly. You can also enable burst shot mode from the settings that takes 40 or 99 burst shots at a time when you hold the on-screen camera button.
Here are some photo samples.
It can record videos at 720p HD resolution which is limited by the processor. The video lacks details even at 720p HD resolution. Since the phone doesn’t have a secondary microphone the audio is a bit grainy. It has Electronic image stabilization (EIS) that uses software enhancements to minimize blurring and device shake.
Here is the 720p HD video sample
Software
The phone runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean that brings lockscreen widgets, Day dream, Quick Settings, Photo filters in the gallery and lots more new features that are not available in the Android 4.1. There are 5 homescreen, you can’t add or remove the number of homescreen. You can organize the app in folder in the home screen and in the bottom tray.
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You get the notification screen when you swipe from the top with a single finger. This offers rich notifications that lets you perform several actions directly from the notification bar. You get the Quick Settings when you pull down from the top using 2 finders. This lets you control Brightness, WiFi, Airplane mode and Bluetooth. In addition there shortcuts for Data Connection, Data usage, Audio Profiles, Timeout and Auto rotation that are not available in stock android. You can hold some of these quick toggle buttons to get to the advanced settings.
The lock screen lets you add widgets. You can swipe from the right to launch the camera directly from the lockscreen and swipe from the left to add widgets, or access the widgets you have already added.
It has Google Now, but you can’t access it from the lock screen by swiping up or by holding the home button. You have to go to search app if you want to access it. If you have configured it, you get notifications which takes you to the app. You can also add the Google Now Widget in the lock screen. In addition to the Slide, Face Unlock, Pattern, PIN and Password this one has Voice Unlock that lets you record a command and say it to unlock the device.
The Scene mode in the settings offers Work theme apart from the default theme. This changes the icons and style. The DayDream feature in this device is called Screen Candy. This acts as a screensaver when the phone is charging or docked.
Out of 4GB of internal storage you get 1.79 GB of user storage. Out of 512MB of RAM, you get 468MB of usable RAM, out of which 112 MB of RAM is free when the phone is idle.
You can set if default write disk to SD Card if you have inserted one. You can also move the apps to the SD card.
Apps
The phone comes with lot of pre-installed apps. The Menu doesn’t have tabbed interface like the Q700. The Utility apps include, Calculator, Clock, File Manager, Note Book Sound Recorder. It also has Google apps. You can also download more apps from the Play Store.
In addition to these apps Xolo offers their own apps, Xolo Power and Xolo Secure. The Xolo Secure app keeps the phone protected by locking and also lets you track it remotely. You can send commands from these numbers to wipe the data remotely, sound a Siren, Lock the phone and track it. It also backs up call-history and messages to the registered Gmail account.
The Xolo Power optimizes battery usage. This lets you set data sync frequency, night mode and low battery mode to conserve battery life.It also offers warnings if an app consumes more CPU so that you can kill them immediately. Both these apps are available for select Xolo devices from the Play Store for free.
Music Player and FM Radio
The Music Player is simple and play different formats, including MP3, MIDI, WAV, 3GPP,AAC,AAC+, AMR-NB. You can enable equalizer from the settings and use Bass boost and 3D effect features when you are listening using earphones. The phone has FM Radio with auto tune and recording, but lacks RDS feature. Audio from the loudspeaker is loud, but the audio gets a bit suppressed when you place it in a flat surface since the video is on the back. The in-ear earphones are good. Wish Xolo offered different set of ear buds to suit different ears. The stock player supports 720p HD video playback, but you can download external players to play 1080p videos.
Calls and Messaging
All the calls went through fine without any dropped calls. Since this is a dual SIM phone, you get options to switch to either SIM cards from the notification bar. The phone comes pre-installed with Swype keyboard, which is the default keyboard. You can switch to stock keyboard from the settings.
Dual SIM
The Dual SIM manager is similar to other dual SIM Android smartphones in the market. You can set a default SIM for several operations including voice call, video call, Messaging and Data connection. You can also choose ‘Always ask’ option for voice calls and Messaging that gives you option to complete the operation after you choose either SIM cards.
Connectivity
The connectivity features include, 3G (HSDPA: 21 Mbps, HSUPA: 11.5Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0 with A2DP and GPS. It has support for wireless display. You can share content from the phone to a HDTV by connecting a wireless display adapter to a HDMI-enabled TV. This option comes as default in the Android 4.2.
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek 6589M processor with PowerVR SGX544 GPU which is clocked at 238 MHz. The performance is decent. We tested some games on the device, which worked fine, but there were occasional lags in some games. This might be due to the 512MB of RAM.
Xolo Q600 Ashpalt 7 Gameplay
Xolo Q600 Shadow Gun Gameplay
Gaming performance review
Here are some benchmarks of the device
Quadrant Benchmark
The Q600 scores over 4000 points in the Quadrant benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark 3.3
The Q600 scores 13685 points and tops the AnTuTu Benchmark 3.3.
Vellamo 2 (HTML5)
It scores less than 1400 points in the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark, better than the Q700.
Vellamo 2.0 (Metal)
It scores 455 points in the Vellamo 2 Metal CPU subsystem performance test.
You can check out the complete set of Xolo Q600 benchmarks here.
Battery
The 2000 mAh Lithium-Ion battery lasts for a day with average use that include, few calls, SMS, music and video play back. You can use the bundled Xolo Power app that improves the battery life to make it last more than a day.
Conclusion
Overall, the Xolo Q600 is a decent smartphone. It has good build, powered by a quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS. The 4.5-inch display at FWVGA resolution is average and the 5MP camera is decent. 512MB RAM for a quad-core smartphone is a bit disappointing. At a price tag of Rs. 8,999, if you are looking for a smartphone with the latest Android OS and a quad-core processor, but can compromise on RAM and Camera, go for it. If you can spend more, there are other quad-core smartphones from Xolo including the Q700 and Q1000 that comes with better display and 1GB of RAM.
Pros
- Good build
- Good performance
- Runs on Android 4.2 out of the box
Cons
- Average display
- Average camera
- 512MB RAM
