Today, we will review the Life F1 smartphone. This smartphone has been launched with the intention of competing with Lenovo K5 Note and Moto G4 (Review). We liked this phone during the short time we spent with it at the launch event. Today, we will find out whether the phone is worth the price?
Lyf F1 design and build
The Life F1 is made of plastic and thus feels very light in the hand. Despite having a plastic body, the overall finish and fit of the phone is good. There is no flex or cracking when the body is pressed but the material could have been better. The look of the phone is simple and the texture on the rear makes it look a little beautiful. The Life F1 is a slim phone and its thickness is 7.9 mm.
This phone has a 5.5 inch full HD screen and brightness is good. Text also looks sharp. Color reproduction is also good and there is also Corning Gorilla Glass for protection. The phone has a power and volume button on the right side. The phone has two SIM card slots and a separate microSD card (up to 128 GB) slot. There is a headphone jack on the top and a micro-USB port on the bottom.
There is a camera module at the top on the rear and a speaker at the bottom. The lack of a fingerprint sensor on the phone is disappointing. In the box, you will get an in-ear headset, a power adapter, a long USB cable and a SIM ejector tool.
The design of Life F1 is decent and easy to use. The rear of the phone offers good grip. Due to its display, it is easy to use the phone with one hand. Apart from this, the camera is not raised on the rear.
Lyf F1 Specifications and Features
Life F1 has an octa-core Snapdragon processor. The phone has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. Apart from this, the phone has connectivity features like Wi-Fi B / G / N, Bluetooth 4.1, USB OTG, GPS, FM radio and 4G VoLTE. Apart from this, F1 also has some sensors like gyroscope.
The phone runs on stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and things look good. Reliance has provided Jio App Suite in this phone which includes Jio Money, Jio Play etc. To use these apps, you need an account or you can skip this process if you are using a Jio SIM. Life Care lets you find service centers near you, call a helpline and manage Jio services.
You can create shortcuts of up to 15 apps using the Smart Tray app and drag them from the bottom of the screen. An app called Smart Ring mutes the volume of incoming calls or sets it based on ambient sound. In our experience, its rating was hit-or-miss. You can play two videos simultaneously in the video player. But we feel that there was no need for such a feature.
Smart Play lets you pause videos when you’re not looking at the screen. For this, the app tracks your head more than your eyes, which means if you raise your head while watching a video, it will prompt you to pause the video. Apart from this, other preloaded apps like BeautyPlus Me, Yatra and Amazon are also available.
Lyf F1 supports RCS or Rich Communication Service on Jio network. This is an official GSM Association program that enhances messaging, voice and video call features and allows sharing of multimedia content, contacts, etc. during calls. Currently, Jio is the only network in India to offer this feature. But soon this feature can be offered by operators across the country.
Lyf F1 Performance
The overall performance of the phone is good and we did not face any major issues during our review. The core specifications of the phone and the Marshmallow UI ensure that performance and multitasking are good. Thankfully, the phone does not heat up excessively but it does get a little warm when you use the camera for long periods or play games. Games like Asphalt 8 run smoothly on the phone without any issues. The phone gave decent numbers in benchmarking tests.
The media playback experience in Life F1 is also good. Videos up to 1080 pixels can be played easily on the phone. The speaker is quite loud when kept on a level surface, but the sound seems weak if not kept on a level surface. The audio quality of the headset that comes with the phone is also decent.
Talking about the camera, F1 has a 16 megapixel rear camera with PDAF while the front camera is 8 megapixels which supports autofocus. In daylight, photos come with detailing and good color, although there is less detailing in the photos taken from a distance. Autofocus is fast. The front camera also takes decent selfies.
However, color noise can be seen in photos taken in low light, especially in dimly lit areas. The quality is not very good even with the flash. The front camera works better in such conditions. The focus speed slows down in low light, making it a bit difficult to take selfies.
The camera app is easy to use and we liked the interface. There is no professional mode in the camera app but you can adjust IS, exposure and white balance in the settings. The app also has some advanced shooting options like multiple shot, refocus, chroma flash, opti zoom and low light photo. Apart from chroma flash, it is difficult to differentiate between photos taken in different modes. When you take a picture with refocus mode, you get the option to choose different focus points but the reality remains the same.
The camera can record up to a maximum resolution of 1080p and the quality is quite good in daylight. The video stabilization feature helps a lot.
The 3200mAh battery lasted 10 hours and 57 minutes in our HD video loop test, which is good. With regular use, we were able to easily use the phone for more than a day. The battery charges quickly and the phone gets charged up to 45 percent in just an hour.
Our verdict
We think that the Life F1 is a great option at a price of Rs 13,999. This phone is available on Reliance Digital Store with some good offers and freebies. Apart from this, you can also get an additional one year warranty by signing up on the LifeCare app in the phone. According to us, its shortcomings are plastic body, average camera performance and lack of fingerprint sensor.
Apart from these shortcomings, the performance of Lyf F1 is good. It has a sharp display, good CPU power, long battery life, near-stock Android and Jio services are available for free till March 31.
If you are thinking of buying Jio or switching to this network and you do not have a 4G smartphone then Life F1 can be a good option.
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