Design and Looks of InFocus Epic 1
With a 5.5-inch display, the InFocus Epic 1 has a screen on the front. The phone has Corning Gorilla Glass for display protection. This phone has a round earpiece which gives it a glimpse of the Nextbit Robin smartphone. Apart from this, the phone has all the standard sensors including a front camera. The smartphone uses on-screen navigation buttons which means that there is a lot of empty space below the display.
The phone has power and volume buttons on the right side while there is a hybrid SIM tray on the left side. The phone has a USB Type-C port at the bottom. There is a speaker grill next to it. The Epic 1 has an IR blaster at the top so that it can work as a remote. Apart from this, there is also a 3.5mm audio jack on the top.
The brushed metal rear of this smartphone gives the Epic 1 a premium look. And due to its curved shape, the grip of the handset is good. There is a round fingerprint sensor below the camera lens. There is an InFocus logo at the bottom. With a weight of 160 grams, the Epic 1 neither feels too light nor too heavy. It is convenient to use the phone even with one hand. With a thickness of 8.4 mm, the Epic 1 feels much thinner than other smartphones available in this price range.
Our review unit did not come in a retail box. But customers will get a user manual, earphones and a charger with USB Type-C cable in the box upon purchasing this phone. Overall, the design and look of the Epic 1 is much better than other smartphones offered by InFocus.
InFocus Epic 1 specifications and software
The dual SIM InFocus Epic 1 has a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 (MT6797M) processor. This phone has 3 GB of RAM. The inbuilt storage is 32 GB which can be expanded up to 128 GB via microSD card.
This phone has a 5.5 inch full HD (1080×1920 pixels) LTPS display which is equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass. This smartphone has a 16 megapixel camera with aperture f / 1.8, dual-tone LED flash, PDAF and auto image stabilization. While the front camera is an 8 megapixel camera with 82 degree wide angle lens and aperture f / 1.8.
This phone has a 3000 mAh non-removable battery and supports fast charging. Apart from 4G VoLTE, other connectivity features in Epic 1 include Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 AC and GPS / A-GPS.
The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company’s InLife UI skin on top. InFocus is claiming to be different from other Chinese smartphone brands but the unpolished interface makes sense. The Epic 1 lacks many of Marshmallow’s visual features, something we pointed out in our Bingo 50 review. The icons in particular look very dated.
InFocus has made some changes to its InLife UI. The app drawer has been removed which means all app icons are now visible on the homescreen. A new feature has been added which puts the most and recently used apps in the apps folder. This saves time spent searching for an app when you are using it. The quick settings panel also looks the same with the old animations but users can rearrange it by toggling here.
The smartphone comes with the default Launcher+ and EZ Launcher. We have seen these features in InFocus smartphones before. And it provides a simple interface for first time smartphone users.
InFocus Epic 1 performance
InFocus Epic 1 is one of the best performing devices in this price range. During our review, we did not notice any issues or issues with this phone. We noticed that even while using the phone, we had 1.2GB of free memory which makes the phone respond well overall.
The Epic 1 can easily play heavy games and multitasking is also done without any problem. 4G worked well and call quality was also good. Apart from this, the audio from the stereo speakers is also excellent. During our review, we did not see any overheating in the phone even while playing games and recording videos at 1080 pixels.
When it comes to benchmarks, the InFocus Epic 1 easily outperforms its rivals. We got great numbers from the phone in our benchmarking tests.
When it comes to the fingerprint sensor, the Epic 1 is a bit inferior to other smartphones in this price range. It takes at least two tries to recognise a fingerprint and it looks awkward at times.
The 16-megapixel rear camera on the Epic 1 works fast. The camera app also launches without any delay. The camera interface is easy to use and much cleaner than other smartphones in this price range. InFocus has implemented PIP mode in the Epic One, which allows shooting with the front and rear cameras simultaneously.
We liked the fact that the rear camera locks focus pretty quickly even when the frame is not steady. It doesn’t even require tapping the screen. However, we did sometimes encounter problems with the shutter while clicking pictures. Some pictures turn out ugly, but this doesn’t happen all the time.
We saw too many highlights in some of the photos taken with the camera, which is disappointing. This problem is not often seen in smartphones of this price. Landscape shots taken in daylight showed some noise in objects, although most of the colors were accurate. Photos taken in artificial or low light are also not very good. Most of these shots had a lot of noise. The phone’s front camera takes great selfies.
The 3000mAh non-removable battery lasted 10 hours and 40 minutes in our video loop test, which is not bad but phones in the same segment and battery capacity performed better in our review. With normal and heavy usage, the Epic 1 lasts for a day on a single full charge. The fast charging support is a good feature. The phone takes 30 minutes to charge from 0 to 50 percent and the phone is fully charged in just 2 hours.
Our verdict
The InFocus Epic 1 certainly impressed us with its performance. And all thanks to the deca-core Helio X20 processor. The smartphone can handle everyday tasks with ease and is more powerful than most smartphones available in the same price range. However, the Epic 1 is not an overall package due to average battery life and poor camera performance and interface.
If you are looking for a powerful smartphone, the InFocus Epic 1 is a good choice. Apart from this, you can also buy Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Review) and Moto G4 Plus (Review). These smartphones received excellent ratings in our recent review.
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