A new smartphone every month sounds great, but do you really want that? Rather, the more pertinent question will be, can Creo really deliver that? The company claims it will. The Creo Mark 1 will apparently have new updates every month, based on feedbacks from the community. Wait, but what will they do till they actually have a community to seek feedback from?
Moving on, there are a few very fundamental problems with such an initiative. Companies like Cyanogen and Xiaomi have been running regular UI updates for years now and the one thing they suffer from are bugs. One only needs to look as far as phones like the Yu Yutopia, Xiaomi Mi 5 or even the OnePlus 2 for that matter. In fact, one of my biggest issues with Oxygen OS on the OnePlus 2 was the fact that it was incredibly buggy. But Creo seems to be unfazed by this possibility, and it is theoretically possible to deliver new UI updates every month, while also keeping the UI stable.
That said, from what I saw of Creo’s Fuel OS, I’m not really convinced. The company touted its Sense feature, which is basically a take on Apple’s Spotlight. Instead of only swiping down, you can also tap twice on the home button and get to Sense. Here you can search for contacts, apps and so on. Sense will even deliver contextual search, based on apps on your phone. How is this any different from what Vivo did in its FunTouch OS? And why do I need this when I already have Google Now?
Echo and Retriever are useful on paper, but do I really need them? Echo is an inbuilt answering machine that’ll work irrespective of what carrier your phone is on. Retriever on the other hand, allows you to find your phone even when it has been flashed. Well, that does make sense, but it means Creo will be storing some of your personal information on the device. Do I want that? How will I ever rid myself of that information? There would also be information on Creo's servers that I may not want to share. Android really isn't as secure as iOS, so such a feature isn't meant for it.
For a company that touts its software prowess, the Creo Mark 1 really doesn’t have any meaningful additions to the UI. It’s a really stock-like interface, which many would like, but will it remain the same over time? Won’t a ‘new UI’ add a learning curve to the phone every month? Do we really want that? In fact, do we really want a new UI on our phone every month?
Given the fact that I see no meaningful addition, buying a Creo Mark 1 right now means I’m dependent on future additions made to it. So, if I buy this phone, I’ll need you to buy it too. And that’s where another problem arises.
The Indian market is conscious of the specs of the phones it spends on. The Creo Mark 1 costs Rs. 19,999 and has the same specifications as that of a LeEco Le 1s (priced at Rs. 10,999). In fact, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is much faster and has a much better UI, with a reasonably fast update schedule. Keep in mind that we haven’t even considered the OS updates yet. A Helio X10 processor with a 5.2 inch QHD display didn’t do well for the HTC One M9 Plus, but Creo is betting that it can do better with a 5.5 inch QHD display. The phone has a 3,100 mAh battery, compared to the 2840 mAh on the M9 Plus. Again, doesn’t really inspire confidence. It has 3GB of RAM, which may turn out to be too little for a UI that can get heavier as you go.
Swiping around the phone at the launch, I could see a discernible lag when you open the camera. Once you’ve clicked a photo with the 21MP camera, it takes a second to open the photos app as well. Lastly, the camera is nothing compared to 21MP sensors that we’ve seen on the Moto X Play and Yu Yutopia. Both those devices have the same Sony IMX230 sensor and have done much better. Of course, I haven’t tested the camera yet, but even the few shots I took at launch make it quite apparent that Creo’s camera algorithm is far from the best. Another loophole in a software focused company.
So, to sum up, it seems Creo’s entire focus is on changing the UI every month. Would you really buy an overpriced smartphone just for a new Contacts app every month? I certainly wouldn’t, and in my capacity as a reviewer, I can’t, in good conscience recommend this phone to anyone. Creo may be a software focused company, but its focus is on the wrong elements of software. As someone asked during our Facebook Live session, what exactly does this phone bring to the table?
Sure, the metal and glass combo looks good, but it’s just another metal and glass phone that isn’t as ergonomic as the Xiaomi Mi 5, OnePlus X or Samsung’s Galaxy S flagships. Suffice to say that there’s absolutely nothing about the Creo Mark 1 that instills confidence in the company’s ability to live up to its tall claims. Creo is basically hoping that people would pay for regular updates, and not OS updates at that.