American smartphone maker InFocus has been playing the volumes game in India, by flooding the market with multiple phones over the past few months. They have now added another phone to that line-up, the affordable M370 which is priced at Rs.5,999, and takes on the likes of the Motorola Moto E 4G (Rs.6,999) and Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime (Rs.6,999).
Funky but not solidly built
InFocus isn’t shy of experimenting with some unique design elements. With M370, they have used a unique grid-shaped texture that stands out in the white coloured back cover. It is certainly not as slippery as some of the rivals, which enhances usability. By using plastic throughout, the weight has been kept well in check, and tips the scales at 125g. It is 8.1mm thick, which is at par for a 5-inch screen size phone.
However, the design has its downsides, the biggest being that dust will accumulate in the grooved back panel. While the build quality is good, the back panel does flex a bit when pressure is applied to it and that can create colour ripples on the screen.
The Moto E, in comparison is 12.3mm thick and weighs 143g and the Redmi 2 Prime is 9mm thick but weighs 134g. Overall, the M370 scores in looks and comfort of use, but is not as solidly built as Redmi 2 Prime and Moto E 4G.
Sharp display but not rich
The M370 comes with a 5-inch display with screen resolution of 1280x720pixels. It is the biggest among the rivals—Moto E’s 4.5-inch (960x540p) display and Redmi 2 Prime’s 4.7-inch (1280x720p) display, and also has a resolution to match the latter. The bigger advantage of this screen is that it looks crisp and text is visible even from odd viewing angles, which is really useful in sunlight too because reflections are subdued. But it falters when it comes to colour rendering—colours looks a bit washed out.
Runs Android 5.1 out of the box
The device runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with a new custom user interface, compared to what we have seen in earlier InFocus Android devices. There are a couple of similarities to Google’s Material design such as the on-screen navigation keys and the multi-tasking slides. The apps have been placed under separate categories, which makes searching for them easier.
Though easy to use, this UI looks bland in comparison to the Xiaomi’s MIUI in the Redmi 2 Prime which feels very sophisticated but more complicated in comparison to the plain interface of the Moto E 4G.
Let down by its sluggishness
The M370 is powered by Qulacomm’s Snapdragon 210 quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You can add another 32GB via micro cards, though. In terms of day to day performance, the phone struggles while switching from one app to another when 5 to 6 apps open in the background, and also while playing games such as GT Racing 2. However, it handled basic e-book reading, internet browsing, social networking apps well. The phone supports 4G networks, which should come in handy as more networks get upgraded across India.
The Redmi 2 and Moto E 4G run on a more powerful Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor. While the Moto E was much smoother under the same app load, the Redmi 2 Prime was comparatively a bit sluggish because of all the animations and graphics that MIUI has. The M370’s 2320mAh battery is impressive and lasted a full day on single charge with ease.
An average snapper
The 8-megapixel camera does not impress at all. It can take acceptable pictures if the ambient light is really good, but struggles indoors and in low light. Also, you need really steady hands to get good results out of it, because of the lack of any image stabilization features.
While the Moto E4G’s 5-megapixel camera needs to be coaxed into taking acceptable photos, it still falls behind in terms of sharpness, but offers better colour. The Redmi 2 Prime’s 8-megapixel camera also suffers a bit in terms of sharpness, but reproduces excellent colours and detailing.
Verdict
The M370’s strong points include a cool design and a big screen. But, if the bigger screen isn’t a criteria for you, we would recommend theRedmi 2 Prime for its camera, display and cool interface and Moto E for its smooth performance and minimalistic interface.
