American smartphone maker InFocus’s M812 smartphone, which is priced at Rs.19,999, will be going up against the Motorola Moto X Play (32 GB) and the OnePlus One (64 GB), which have exactly the same price tag. Which one would you pick?
Good-looking but not handy
The M812’s good looks seem inspired by the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, quite apparent around the frame and the dual colour strips on the back panel. At 7.3mm, it’s sleeker than One Plus One (8.9mm) and Moto X (10.4mm) but feels more durable because of the full-metal exterior. However, it wasn’t very easy to handle—the curves around the edges are too smooth and that makes the phone a tad bit slippery. At 186g, it weighs more than the OnePlus One (162g) and Moto X Play (169g). While the M812 looks good, the OnePlus One with its sandstone finish and the Moto X Play’s curved back feel much better to hold.
Display is sharp and vivid
The M812’s key highlight is its display. It is big (5.5-inch) and sharp (1920x1080 resolution). These specs, and the way it reproduces colour is more than enough for watching movies, reading e-books and playing games. Colours look natural and more realistic than the Moto X Play whose display is slightly on the warmer side. However, the auto brightness feature in the M812 is not up to the mark—it keeps the display a tad too dark at most times—we think that is a way of saving battery life. But, we preferred manually adjusting the brightness levels. This is one of the few Android phones with the Bluelight Filter feature—Bluelight is considered bad for the retina in the eyes, and switching the filter on subdues the white colours as well as some other colours to reduce eye strain.
Unique Android but more work needed
The smartphone runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with a modified custom user interface over it. It has two modes—one where all icons are spread on the various home screens, and the second which is more traditional Android with a separate app drawer. It is not in the same league as the more colourful MiUi which Xiaomi uses in its smartphones or as feature-rich as the Zen UI, which Asus uses in its phones. But, it is a pleasant surprise that the UI on M812 runs without any lag or stutters, and seems better optimized than most phones out there.
When compared with the OnePlus One and the Motorola X Play, both those phones also run Android Lollipop but with the more minimalistic material design interfaces that most users will feel more comfortable with.
Smooth and consistent performance
This phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor and 3GB RAM, which is the same as theOnePlus One (the Moto X Play uses a slightly less powerful Snapdragon 615 chip). The performance of the M812 was by and large smooth. We didn’t notice any lag or heating up on the back panel during games or while using the camera. It supports expandable storage and 4G mobile networks. While InFocus only has this phone in the 16GB version, both the Moto X Play (32 GB) and OnePlus One (64 GB) offer more.
The 2,900 mAh battery gets though a day quite easily, which is on a par with the rivals. The Moto X Play just goes on for half a day more, which gives it a significant advantage in terms of battery life.
Good daylight camera
The M812 comes with a 13-megapixel camera with dual tone flash. Though the picture quality is quite good, we noticed that it is a bit slow when it comes to locking in the focus. It handles detail and colour very well, especially in daytime shots. Low-light results look acceptable but the moment you zoom in, you will notice some distortion and blurring.
The Moto X Play has a 21-megapixel camera, which is a bit inconsistent in terms of focus but can take some rather rich photos. While it captures detail better, it is not always good. The One Plus One’s 13-megapixel camera is also a good daytime snapper, but can struggle a bit in low light.
The front camera on the M812 is of 8-megapixels. It is wide and sharp enough for group selfies.
Verdict
The highlights of the InFocus M812 are the good looks, the rather sharp display and smooth performance. However, it really doesn’t have the sort of wow factor that the One Plus One and Moto X Play offer. Pick the Moto X Play for the good battery life, while the OnePlus One is an all-rounder that looks well dressed in the sandstone finish.
