But now the surprising thing is that Xolo is entering the budget segment by introducing Xolo Era 4K smartphone at a price of Rs 6,499. Due to the 4000 mAh battery, this smartphone promises good battery life and reliable performance. Know why to buy this budget phone in the review of Xolo Era 4K smartphone.
Look and design
When buying a smartphone in the budget segment, we cannot expect much from its build quality. Like most other budget smartphones, the body of Xolo Era 4K is made of plastic. The shape and size of the phone is convenient but due to its smooth texture and curves on the edges, we did not find it very comfortable to hold in the hand.
The look of the phone is simple. The Xolo Era 4K smartphone is available in white and blue colour variants. Although our white colour review unit looked decent, we feel that the blue variant will look better in terms of style and design. The edges of the phone are silver with a dull finish. The power and volume buttons are on the right side while the 3.5mm audio socket is on the top and the micro-USB port is on the bottom.
The front of the Era 4K smartphone is plain and it comes with a 67.1 screen-to-body ratio. There is a front camera, earpiece and proximity sensor on the top. The phone has a 5-inch HD IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The phone’s display is decent in terms of brightness, color and sharpness. Although it does not give you a very exciting experience, but the display can be called decent according to the price.
The rear panel of the phone is completely plain with the Xolo logo, speaker grill, rear camera and flash. By removing the plastic rear panel, the micro-SIM and microSD slots can be seen. The good thing is that the phone has three separate slots through which you can increase the phone’s expandable storage up to 32 GB. Both SIM slots support 4G connectivity but you can use 4G network on only one SIM at a time.
Specifications and software
The Xolo Era 4K smartphone runs on a MediaTek MT6735 processor with four CPU cores running at 1 GHz. This chipset can be seen in most budget devices and is known for good entry-level performance. The phone has 2 GB of RAM. Out of the 8 GB of internal storage, only 4 GB is useful for the user.
Running on Android 5.1 Lollipop, the smartphone comes with the standard Google Now launcher. This will definitely appeal to users as Google’s stock launcher offers a lot of ease of use. Although there are some minor changes in the settings and menus of the phone, it is similar to the stock version of Android Lollipop.
The settings menu is pretty standard. The phone has added a new tab called ‘Smart Features’ which lets you access features like Air Shuffle and Smart Wake. The rest of the interface is pretty standard as well. The phone has a lot of pre-installed apps like Amazon, Citrus Cube, Game Loft Game Hub, Clean Masters, Hike, Hotstar, Office Suite, OLX, Opera Mini, Paytm, etc.
The good thing is that all the apps can be uninstalled which will free up a lot of storage space. Wallpapers, widgets and launcher settings are easily accessible. The phone has a handy mode called ‘Super Power’ which can increase the battery capacity of the phone. Overall, the phone has been designed keeping in mind both first-time smartphone users and experienced smartphone users.
Camera
Xolo Era 4K has an 8 megapixel primary camera with LED flash and a 5 megapixel front camera. 720p video can be recorded from the rear camera while 480p video can be recorded from the front. The phone has modes like multi-angle view, live photo, motion track and panorama. The phone also has a QR scanner along with HDR mode.
The camera app looks a little complicated but is easy to use. Video recording is possible with a single touch with all functions. The manual controls in the settings menu allow access to the self-timer, resolution settings, and more. A unique feature is that the audio can be muted while recording a video by disabling the microphone. On the main screen, you can change the flash, camera switch, and mode. Considering the price, the phone’s camera has a lot of options to offer.
Talking about the camera quality, the pictures taken from the phone look bright and colorful but there is a lack of detailing in them. The daylight pictures taken in this budget phone are very good but the lack of detailing is clearly visible in the pictures when zoomed in. The front camera takes decent selfies but due to lack of detailed pictures, it is better not to take pictures in low light with the phone.
Performance
Equipped with MT6735P processor and 2GB RAM, Xolo Era 4K is designed for entry level performance. The phone’s software is fine and works well. Most games and apps work smoothly but opening the app takes some time. Apart from this, opening many apps simultaneously slows down the phone. If you use fewer features in the phone at the same time, the phone will give good performance.
While benchmarking the phone, we got similar results as Lava Pixel V2. Xolo Era 4K also achieved decent benchmark results.
The phone works well on 3G and 4G networks but we faced some problems with our device while connecting to Wi-Fi. The call quality of the phone is good although the speaker is a bit weak and soft but it is fine as per the price. The sound quality is also good from earphones. In our video loop test, the battery of the phone lasted for 12 hours and 55 minutes. Such good battery life has never been seen in a phone of this price before. On normal use, the phone lasts the whole day without needing to be charged. The 10 watt charger that comes with the phone charges the battery quickly.
Our verdict
The name of Xolo Era 4K is a bit surprising because its screen is not 4K. I don’t know why the company has added 4 or K with Xolo Era. But for customers buying a budget smartphone, Xolo Era 4K is a good option at a price of Rs 6,499. The phone has dual SIM support, 4G support, expandable storage and Android near-touch version. The performance is also good according to the price. And apart from all this, the best battery is available in a phone of this price.
The phone also has some shortcomings like camera quality, Wi-Fi stability and 8GB internal storage. But if you want a budget phone for general use then Xolo Era 4K is a user-friendly smartphone you can buy.
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