Design: well built and stylish
Display: Sharp and bright
The 5-inch IPS display has a screen resolution of 1920x1080p. The display looks a bit reflective but is bright enough to negate visibility issues common with phones with reflective screens when used under bright light. The best part is the colour reproduction. Despite the screen size, text looks crisp and enjoyable to read. It comes with Gorilla Glass 4 which is more rugged and scratch-resistant than the previous version. The only niggle is that the display smudges and attracts dust a lot. Moto G Turbo has a five-inch display too, but with lower screen resolution of 1280x720p. It doesn’t look as sharp as the Worldphone SF1, yet it doesn’t feel really inferior to it in terms of colours and brightness.
Software: Runs Android L and offers few customisation options
The Worldphone SF1 runs a slightly older 5.0 (Lollipop) version of Android with its own custom interface, called Lifespeed. While it looks better than plain Android and is equally easy to use, it feels sluggish at times, despite fairly powerful hardware. One reason is the older Android version doesn’t have all the optimizations that we have become used to with the newer Lollipop and Marshmallow versions. Also, the Lifespeed interface itself hasn’t been properly optimized, which leads to the occasional sluggishness. Though you can close all apps running in background through one swipe and arrange the order of what would show first in the settings page, there aren’t many customisation options one can play around with. The Moto G Turbo runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with the original stock version of Android, and will get the Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) update soon enough. It is easy to use, and the interface doesn’t pose any learning curve.
Performance: Stutters when stressed
The smartphone runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM. While this is a very powerful combo on paper, in actual use, the phone struggles beyond basic tasks, especially when we had more than 10 apps open and running in the background, something we have established with the interface’s struggles. It was also not very good with graphically demanding games such as FIFA 16. We also noticed a slight stutter with SmashIt as well.
The phone provides 32GB of internal storage and can handle micro SD cards of up to 64GB. The Moto G Turbo also runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM, but is a lot more smoother and doesn’t stutter when stressed or with any of these games.
Battery: Gives a day’s backup at most
The phone is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery which can muster a day’s backup at most on a single charge. The Moto G 3rd generation runs on a 2,470mAh battery but can last a whole day with relative ease.
Camera: Slow but brilliant in daylight
Verdict
The Worldphone SF1 impresses with its looks, display and camera, but fails to make the cut on account of the very apparent software-induced performance issues. The Moto G Turbo is a better option simply for the more consistent performance and slick design.
