US based, InFocus impressed us with its first product in India, the InFocus M2. It has recently launched another smartphone in India, the InFocus M330, which is retailing currently for Rs 9,999.
Specs
The InFocus M330 comes with a wall charger with cable and an earpiece apart from the handset itself. The phone comes in white and black variants and measures 153.4mm(H) x 78.1mm(W) x 9.3mm(T). This 5.5 inch display bearing smartphone weighs 170 grams with a 3100 mAh Li-Po battery. The display has HD resolution.
Besides, the M330 offers 1.7 GHz Mediatek octa core processor, dual SIM, 13 megapixel rear camera, 8 megapixel front camera, Android KitKat operating system, GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth. It has 16 GB of internal storage and 2 GB RAM and a micro SD card slot for up to a 64 GB card.
I used it for about a fortnight and here is what I have found about it.
Design
Like the M2, the M330 is quite sturdy and compact. There is a metal frame that surrounds its four sides. Since the volume button (left side) and power key (right) are part of the metal sides, these are very tough too and can last really long. Its back panel has matte finish and feels equally sturdy.
The speakers, one in the back and another at the top of the display, do manage to produce quite decent sound. The rectangular camera unit gives a good contrast to the back panel (it comes in white and black version). The micro USB port is at the bottom while a 3.5 mm jack is at the top.
Notably, the phone comes with two microphones – one just below the camera unit while another at the bottom panel. One of the mic is there for noise cancellation and it does the job quite well.
Overall, I like phone’s design. It looks and feels good and most importantly does not look cheap or flashy.
Display
The InFocus M330 has a 5.5 inch display. The display has the necessary high definition resolution. Some of its competitors do offer full HD resolution but the resolution looks sufficient. The IPS LCD has good touch response and good viewing angle as well.
One drawback is that the screen has no Gorilla Glass or any other protective covering and it does gets scratches but there are tempered glass and screen protectors available in the market for few bucks which are very cheap solution for this issue.
Camera
The InFocus M330, like most leading smartphones in this price range, offers a 13 meapixel rear auto focus camera and an 8 megapixel front camera. There is an LED flash in the back panel too.
As far as quality goes, the M330’s cameras are one of the best that you can afford for less than Rs 10,000. Not only its cameras are quite quick to focus on objects, they capture a lot of details and colours. Even in low light, the M330 does a wonderful job above our expectations from a phone at this price range.
Performance
The InFocus M330 is quite a potent smartphone with a 1.7 GHz MediaTek MT6592 octa core processor, Mali 450 graphics processor and 2 GB of DDR3 RAM. The smartphone has one of the heaviest interface I have seen in recent times – it is actually based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat version on top of which lies a customised UI called InLife UI and the EZ Launcher.
The launcher offers one layer mode where only the home page exists and the two layer mode like the one found in normal Android phones. There are several scrolling options/effects for the home page.
However, the heavy UI doesn’t pose a problem for the octa core processor and the 2 GB RAM combination. It manages to play high end games like Mortal Kombat X with ease. Even during multitasking I have never faced any sort of lag.
Storage
The phone also offers 16 GB of Internal Memory apart from a micro SD card slot that can handle a micro SD card of 64 GB – pretty sufficient to store many movies apart from pictures and songs. Besides, it also accepts external storage devices like pen drives via OTG cable.
Battery
But the best aspect of M330 is its battery back up. As claimed by the company, the phone comfortably offers 6-7 hours of video play back. Its huge 3100 mAh Li-Po battery is good enough for more than a day; even heavy users with round the clock data connectivity, dual SIM, occasional gaming urges would not need a charger before the day ends.
Connectivity and Other Features
The InFocus M330 has two SIM card slots and offers 3G connectivity. There is WiFi for internet connectivity as well. For file transfers, there is a micro USB port, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), and WiFi Direct.
I was using two SIMs with 3G via one and had extensively used WiFi but did not face any issue throughout the review period. However, the lack of 4G option may go against it.
Images by Sushil Kumar