First look: Byond B54

Byond Mobiles has been a late entrant in the Android smartphone domain, but it is fast making up for lost pace with the launch of several devices spread across different price categories. Today Android budget devices are in plenty and are seriously giving a tough time to feature phones as well.

Byond had announced the launch of the Byond B54 a couple of days back for the Indian market. Byond B54 is a budget Android smartphone that is priced at Rs 5,799, and can be expected at Rs 5,000 or even lower in the retail market. Well, we got a chance to go hands on with the B54, and here’s how the device is.

Firstly, in terms of look and feel the device comes in a glossy white color that looks classy and with the metallic trims the device gets some additional points in the looks department. In no way does the Byond B54 look cheap or show any evidence of cost cutting. The device has a sturdy build and the overall finish of the products is quite nice and appealing to the eye.

The device is small, hence fits snugly into the palm of your hand. The back panel of the Byond B54 features the same glossy white color finish, which is a smudge and fingerprint magnet, and is also prone to damage from scratches that might arise on keeping the device on the table.

The device gets a bigger 4 inch display that carries 480 x 800 pixel resolution. The display is bright, but looks a bit pale as its contrast levels are not really fine tuned. The B54 gets a two point capacitive touch input system, which means pinch to zoom and swipe functionality are available.

The device is a bit heavy after having a 1500 mAh battery pack that is enough to power this device for a day or two. The Byond B54 gets Android 2.3 Gingerbread as its operating system and combined with Samsung’s Touch Whiz look-alike user interface the device gives a nice user experience overall.

The device is powered by a faster 1 GHz application processor, which is by far the maximum that has been offered at this price point or range by manufacturers all around the country.

The device gets dual SIM GSM+GSM connectivity with support for 2G networks, although it would have been great to have 3G connectivity on the B54. The amount of RAM has been kept as 256 MB, which is decent considering the older Android Gingerbread operating system that powers the device. The internal memory has been kept at 4 GB, and it can be increased by 32 GB with the help of a micro SD memory card.

There have been no major deductions as far as the hardware goes except a smaller 3 megapixel main camera with a single LED flash, but to cover up for that the Byond B54 also has a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video calling.

The device looks great overall and as far as hardware and performance go this device is just the right mix of both.

Aptly targeted at the youth B54 is sure to offer a great bundle to its users, but still there is not much we can say about how this device performs until we do a comprehensive review of it, so stay tuned until then.