GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL Karbonn Sparkle V Hands On: A Pretty Good Start

When Google had announced the details about the Android One Program, honestly, we were a bit surprised to find Karbonn and Spice also mentioned in the list. Karbonn has been in the Indian smartphone market for quite some time now. During the initial days, banking on sports and cricket, the company had got a good headway in the Indian market, but as more handset brands came along, Karbonn found it hard to maintain its ground.

However, Karbonn has a very strong distribution network and now, as one of the first partner for the Andorid One Device, there is a lot riding on Karbonn Sparkle V (the V here is Roman number five).
Design
Karbonn Sparkle V is a budget offering but the same is not reflected in the design of the smartphone. It has a nice build quality and rubberised back finish. On the back panel you can see the Karbonn logo in the middle and the Android One logo at the bottom.

The power and the volume rocker button are placed on the right panel. Apart from that, there are no physical buttons on the front.

On the downside, Karbonn Sparkle V does seem to have broad bezels, which most smartphones have done away with.

It has 4.5 inches IPS LCD display with a resolution of 854 X 480 Pixels. Overall, the screen display looks nice with decent viewing angles. The one thing that is missing in terms of the display is the Gorilla Glass Protection that the Moto E offers but the new Android one devices don't.
Software/ Interface
Frankly, we have so far spent only been with this newbie from Karbonn for half an hour but the interface looks really smooth. It looks like Google has spent quite a lot of time fine tuning its operating system to make sure that things can be as pleasant as it can get for a stock Android device.

Apps such as moneycontrol, Keep, Olx, Saavn and Snapdeal come pre-loaded on the Karbonn Sparkle V.
Processor and RAM
Karbonn Sparkle V comes with a 1.3 GHz MediaTek along with 1 GB of RAM and Mali 400 GPU. There is also 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable by up to 32GB via microSD card.
Price: Rs 6,399. Also snapdeal is currently offering an 8 GB memory card free with this phone. Also the online retailer is giving Snapdeal coupons worth Rs 2,000 (which are valid up to two months). Along with this the buyers also get Free Recharge coupons Worth Rs 200 from FreeCharge (two codes worth Rs 100 each).

There is also an Airtel data bundle offer through which user of all Android one devices including Karbonn Sparkle V will get free software upgrades and app downloads per month up to six months. Under this scheme, there is a fair usage cap of 200 MB.

Camera
All the devices in the Android One series come with a 2MP front camera and 5MP rear camera. Though we could not take the device out to do some serious photography but from the looks of it the rear camera can click some decent shots under good lightening conditions.
However, to click any pictures, you first need to add a microSD card, which we think is a little absurd. The camera should be in a position to save shots on internal storage as well or at least ask the user for his/her preference in regards to storing pictures.

So far, we are mighty impressed for what this Karbonn smartphone under the Android One umbrella has to offer but we do have our reservations about the battery life. For that and more, don't forget to come and read our review that we will posting shortly.

Surbhi Chawla ET140915