Sunday, June 30, 2013
Karbonn titanium Follow up review..
Its been 6 weeks since i bought the phone and as promised i
am now resetting my experience on the phone based on the same template
published last time < using GSMArena mobile template>
In this period i was not only in india but also travelled for
2 weeks to australia < a geo where the GSM / 3G bands are pretty much the
same> and i was pleasantly surprised by the utility of this phone, during
that visit, thanks also to the Optus yes 2$ a day prepaid plan with unlimited
data voice and SMS, it truly became a digital assistant i used it for
everything from
- camera,
- maps and guide,
- tripadvisor guide for what to do in the weekends , find restaurants, and
- log and maintain all the records .. in notes like evernote, keep, freenote
- it was also a good financial calculator for currency/ Forex, keeping track of stocks,
- using Skype/Vonage to make international call,
- logging routes on mytracks and
- low light shooting in jenolan caves and other tourist locations
wishing you a great experience buying and using one of these india branded smart phones.. i would suggest the Karbonn Titanium S5 for boththe first time buyer and the evolved android user..
Edits to the full review
Reviewing the battery over the last 6 weeks
So... let me start with the battery review, initially over
the first weekend my impression was that the battery drains too fast especially
on calls and after a lot of screen usage for browsing videos etc..
Then i had given it a 1 Star (*) rating, but my experience
over the last 6 weeks was totally different, the Battery life is actually
decent to last a day with medium to heavy usage.. it has on average < based
on 7 recordings > provided ~ 20 hours estimated life.. below is the
table for perusal..
|
App/Service
|
Avg.
Hrs Life
|
.Count
|
|
Voice Calls
|
8.97
|
6
|
|
Overall
|
19.81
|
7
|
|
Messaging-CPU
|
27.80
|
1
|
|
Android-OS-CPU
|
30.97
|
3
|
|
Camera
|
34.40
|
1
|
|
Android System
|
40.06
|
7
|
|
Vonage
|
46.15
|
2
|
|
Screen
|
76.57
|
7
|
|
CellStand-By
|
81.04
|
7
|
|
Phone Idle
|
86.77
|
7
|
|
Wifi
|
90.70
|
5
|
|
IPPPlay-data
|
136.70
|
1
|
|
goog-Svcs-CPU
|
148.70
|
2
|
|
Maps
|
192.02
|
6
|
Overall the phone
provided 20 Hours of average life including circumstances, where I used the
phone heavily for specific activites like camera, phone, vonage etc..
I would not rate the battery 2 Stars based on a near 1 full
day life that the phone provides. The assessment is that the battery could have
been larger like a 2400 MAH battery would have been helpful
Edits to the full review
Below is the edits to the full review. Based on the below I would
recommend the phone to any person wanting to buy a smartphone at a price around ~11000 this is a great phones
and changes my preference from big brands like Samsung HTC Motorola to India
based brands like Karbonn, Micromax..
|
Specs-GSMArena
|
Feature
|
GSMArena-Description
|
1st impression
|
Stars
|
6 W Later
|
|
Network
|
2G Network
|
GSM : 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
|
The phone comes with a quad band network, this means, as a world traveler, I can use this phone
for travels abroad in countries like
US .. Catching signal is decent, as
one of the reviewers rightly points out having dual-sim and dual network
means one of the networks is sure to fire.. unfortunately in my case both are
airtel.
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
3G Network
|
HSDPA : 900/2100 MHz
|
like most people complain, this phone comes with 3G only on 1
card.. Have not yet tried out 3G speeds, quality and battery drain
Data is not quad-band, which means that in travels to the US, 3g on the phone would not work.. This could have been a killer feature! to showcase a great indian phone to the world. |
**
|
***
|
|
SIM
|
Dual SIM (Mini-SIM)
|
having gotten my 1st dual sim phone find it a new and
interesting experience. On the 1st
weekend impression the signal strength is decent, though I found that 1 card
had less signal than the other, both being on airtel! is this something that
airtel is doing? because one ia s personal pre-paid connection while the
other is a corporate post paid connection
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
BODY
|
Dimensions
|
143.4x72.4x8.95 mm
|
it is large. Like a phablet, bult reasonably slim, the camera
juts out at the back… the phone is of plastic-ky build. But is not an issue
personally.. The phone is light but the size does make it slightly difficult
to operate with 1 hand.
|
****
|
****
|
|
Weight
|
~125 g
|
very light and slim phone.. The blue color gives is a fresh
feel, having owned 11 black and metal android phones!!
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
DISPLAY
|
Type
|
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
|
the touchscreen is very responsive. I put on a screen protector
and that reduced the quality on the touch.. Tried 2 tests on the touch
1. freenote, freehand, does not work smooth at all could be the screen protector, 2. using settings / app trying to brouwse through the apps is difficult as many a time, the swipe becomes a select.. ! would suggest other users that they first use the phone without a screen protector and then migrate to the protector only if necessary |
***
|
***
|
|
Size
|
540 x 960 pixels, 5.0 inches (~220 ppi pixel density)
|
the quality of the screen is very good, given the price of the
device, for a user of 10 android phones this screen is rght up there in terms
of quality.. Also have to state the screen impression reduces with the screen
protector, so for those who are hell bent on the screen protector, the pixel
density would matter very less, i have seen Galaxy S3 and other high end
phones with the protector on and they are not impressive.
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
|
Multitouch
|
Yes
|
multi-touch works well.. But screen protector impedes the
smoothness , so while using multi-touch on many applications, swipe gets
converted to a touch / select and this can be annoying. This issue is quite aggravated and
creates problems in apps like freenote
|
***
|
**
|
|
Media
|
Alert types
|
Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
|
The alerts are muted and low volume, vibration is good enough to
catch attention, though I should admit that I missed a couple of calls as the
phone did not alert good enough
|
**
|
**
|
|
Audio
|
mp3,WAV, WMV
|
claims to play all audio format,s will have to try this out.,
the sound quality of the sepakers and through the headset, nothing to boast
about
|
**
|
**
|
|
|
Loudspeaker
|
Yes
|
Sound quality of the phone is not great, both on speaker and
normal.. This culd have been better.
|
**
|
**
|
|
|
|
3.5mm jack
|
Yes
|
the audio jack is hard to plug in. the post is not standard <
very much like the moto-fire XT> other head sets do not work well.. , have
to use the head set given by Karbonn.. The Audio Jack is actually standard
and I stand corrected the headset was an issue with my samsung headsets which
are not standard!
|
*
|
***
|
|
Video
|
MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
|
video playback from youtube has been decent..
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
CAMERA
|
Primary
|
8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
|
very decent camera, captures well in light.. When light
conditions are low, the pictures are grainy. Also the Cmos sensor is not the
best quality on blowing up the pictures, one can clearly see the grains..
Also zoom is not provided in the default camera. tried my best to make zoom
work, did not.. face recognition and
features are all plan android..
|
***
|
***
|
|
Video
|
Geo-tagging
|
Quality of the video is very good, captured a few minutes , is
easy, no great battery drain.
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
Secondary
|
Yes, 2 MP
|
secondary camera is functional and worked fine for a vonage/
skype trial, nothing of the quality of the iphone
|
**
|
**
|
|
|
Software
|
OS
|
Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean)
|
this is the great part of the karbonn phone, being close the
native android, the phone does not come with too much customization or
bloat-ware..
**** Also the few apps that come default like popi, playtm, yahoo messenger which are badly done crass or useless, can be be disabled from setting/apps/all/ pick the app and disable.. initially while installing apps the launcher app crashed a couple of times and once made the phone reboot, this did not recur though, as i went and installed my top 30 odd apps.! |
****
|
****
|
|
Apps
|
SNS Integration
|
thanks to JB 4.1.2, integration to FB, Twitter, Linkedin and
Buffer are wonderful and simple
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
|
Apps
|
Critical Apps
|
1. the Phone app and Contacts are slow, to index and show
contacts.. This is very irritating.. ] 1* - replaced with exDialer
2. the phone service crashes and calls go blank !! 1* having replaced the phone and contacts, the phone works perfectly but I was not sure whether i could disable |
*
|
**
|
|
Apps
|
Dual SIM integrating
|
the dual SIM, configuration and customization is very well done
in phone and setting.. That’s wonderful to see.
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
Keyboard
|
Lang / Keyboard
|
the 4.1X jellybean, native keyboard is untouched and this
masterpiece from google is good enough for most users, it recognised contacts
most english words, names, also provides multiple language options, like it
was a delight typing in hindi! , would love to see kannada, tamizh also being
included.. the swype is smooth, like in the nexus 7 and this obviates the
need for an external keyboard like slide-it, touchpal or swiftkey
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
Hardware
|
CPU
|
Quad-core 1.2 GHz
|
the CPU is fast and good.. Mostly from mediatek.. Does not seem
to drain the battery.. Is this because of 4.1X? Also I am not a gamer and therefore do not
have high end CPU use.. , most apps response very fast,
|
****
|
****
|
|
MEMORY
|
microSD, up to 32 GB
|
the phone comes with a
expandable SD card slot, I plugged in a 16GB card for INR 650 and this is a
good feature,, I personally do not see the case for larger storage given that
I max use the phone for pics and audio rarely movie media!.. So should be
sufficient,
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
Storage
|
4GB ROM - storage
|
2GB gets exposed for apps, that’s the critical consideration and
is good enough for a general purpose use..
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
Storage
|
1GB RAM
|
very good at catching signal and less battery drain.
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
WLAN
|
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
|
very good at catching signal and less battery drain.
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
Bluetooth
|
Yes, with A2DP
|
have not tried ths out yet
|
|||
|
USB
|
Yes, microUSB v2.0
|
hard pin again, hardware features are a bit tacky, but that’s
what we should expect for this price?
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
Sensors
|
Movement
|
Accelerometer
|
works fine in games
|
|
***
|
|
|
Movement
|
proximity,
|
this is a very useful featur,e the screen shuts off while talking
based on proximity therefore avoiding unnecessary
|
|
****
|
|
|
Direction
|
compass
|
works fine as part of navigation
|
|
****
|
|
|
Radio
|
FM radio
|
works fine with the headset..
|
|
****
|
|
GPS
|
Yes, with A-GPS support
|
GPS connects real fast unlike other phone I have had in the
past..
|
****
|
****
|
|
|
BATTERY
|
Battery
|
Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery
|
this could have been 2500 mAh, the phone lasts about 12- 18
hours on decent use of phone, data and apps, have not tried heavy gaming,
which is not my purpose.. It provides 20H average life just
short of a day
|
*
|
**
|
|
|
Battery
|
Standby / Talktime~18 H
|
does not last beyond 1.5 H talk time, stand
corrected it provides 8H talk time
|
*
|
***
|
|
accessory
|
Charger
|
Pin and USB Cable
|
The charger and USB cable are tacky and hard to plug in..
|
*
|
*
|
|
|
Head Set
|
|
the pin is hard to push in, the plugs are hard on the ears, coud
have been designed well
|
***
|
**
|
|
Cover
|
There are no good accessories like flip cover or silicone
available easily
|
**
|
**
|
||
|
Back Cover
|
Opening
|
the back cover is a bit difficult to open, there are no clear
slots to pry open the cover, making it a tad bit difficult, but the slots of
Sdcard and the sim card are well designed
|
***
|
***
|
|
|
Price
|
Phone
|
Local Store
|
INR 11950, very good price for all the above features,, this if
marketed and positioned well should be a killer phone
|
*****
|
*****
|
|
SDCARD
|
16 GB
|
got a 16GB SD Card for INR 650 , bringing the total damage
|
****
|
****
|
