SMARTPHONE SPECIAL..... Selfie-Centric Budget Offering XOLO ERA 3X

Selfie-Centric Budget Offering XOLO ERA 3X

Xolo is the latest brand to turn their attention towards the selfie craze. Their new range of smartphones includes 3 phones for budget conscious selfie lovers — the Era 3X sits at the top of this new bunch.

Since they want people to take selfies with it, the 3X has a 13MP front camera and LED flash. In our usage, we noticed that the front camera is a capable shooter which delivers excellent selfies in daylight as well as indoor with good lighting. Images have sharp detail and natural colour. It starts tripping up in low light though. Results are below average with visible noise and lack of detail.

Build quality of the Era 3x is sturdy and even though it has a plastic body, it appears much more premium thanks to an overall metallic finish. On the front is a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which we found to be adequately bright with good viewing angles.

Rear camera is not par for the course. We saw significant shutter lag plus image quality is not up to the mark — mainly with the amount of detail it can capture. Video recording quality is also average. The camera interface is basic: there’s nothing besides beauty, panorama and auto mode. Specifications and performance are good enough for the price segment. You get a quad core processor with 3GB RAM which gives good day-to-day performance for most common uses. You can run multiple apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and music player plus basic games like Candy Crush and Traffic Rider without any issue. The 16GB internal storage feels less because you can get phones with 32GB in this price range. Battery life from the 3,000mAh battery is as expected — a full day (9 am to 6pm) without any issue.

Overall, the Xolo Era 3x delivers a good selfie experience and adequate performance in this budget. It faces stiff competition from selfie focused phones such as the Kult Gladiator (₹6,999) and Intex Elyt Dual. You can also consider the Redmi 5A that offers 3GB RAM, 32GB storage for ₹6,999. And if you can stretch your budget a bit, consider the Redmi Y1 for ₹8,999 — it has a larger 5.5-inch screen, better camera performance and 32GB storage.

Xolo Era 3X

PRICE ₹7,499

SPECIFICATIONS

5-inch IPS (1280 x 720 pixels), 1.25Ghz quad core MT6737, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot, dual SIM slot, 13MP rear camera, 13MP front camera with flash, rear fingerprint scanner, 4G, VoLTE, 3,000mAh, Android 7.0, 170g

Good selfie Average rear camera, smooth camera, bulky day to day operation, design, plastic body, loud audio output, only 16GB internal bright display storage

Hitesh.Bhagat@timesgroup.com

ET 8DEC17