Under the hood, the Qiku Q Terra is powered by a snapdragon 808 chipset, 16GB built-in storage expandable via a microSD card and dual-rear cameras. It is a smartphone that checks all the right boxes. Too good to be true? Let's take a closer look the smartphone from Qiku!
The number of smartphone available today in India is plentiful. There is something for everyone in almost every price segment. There are so many products from so many brands that there are days when I get confused as to which product can I recommend to the readers. Today we have seen the launch of one more brand in India, with what the company claims is a spectacular value for money device. This company is called Qiku. The easiest way to pronounce the name is think of the fruit chikoo. That’s how you pronounce the name of the company that has launched a smartphone called the Q Terra. Not the easiest name to remember and not the catchiest one either, but does it have what it takes to grab your attention?
Kicking things off, here is a look at the specifications of the smartphone. The Qiku, Q Terra has a 6-inch IPS display with a 1920 x 1080p full HD resolution, thus achieving 386ppi. The screen to body ratio of the display is 83% and the bezels are just 1.4mm thin. The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC coupled with 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 16GB of on-board storage expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card. The rear of the smartphone houses two cameras with a 13MP sensor from Sony. At the rear we also have the fingerprint sensor which the company claims can unlock the smartphone in 0.5 seconds. The front has an 8MP camera. The phone supports dual-SIM and the entire package is powered by a 3700mAh battery. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop skinned with the companies Qihoo 360 OS.
On paper the smartphone looks pretty impressive but before we get into our impressions, here is one hiccup that will affect those of you that will want to pick up the device – the price. Not the price of the smartphone itself but the way in which the company has decided to distinguish the 2 different price points for the same device – no difference in specifications. Qiku has decided to sell the Q Terra in two ways – with and without an invite. If you are one of the fortunate few with an invite, then the smartphone will cost you Rs. 19,999 which is great. But if you are one that doesn't have an invite, then the smartphone will cost you Rs. 21,999 and that's a bummer. Sure, some will argue that a difference of 2k is fine for those willing to spend and I'm OK with that. But I personally, think you can do a lot with the 2k – a screen protector, a case, a movie, dinner for two, so on and so forth.
Coming to the device itself, it has a unibody metal design and for its price is an extremely well built smartphone. The Q Terra weighs a mere 185 grams but doesn’t feel so. It feels heavier and that isn’t a bad thing. The placement of the controls is standard with three capacitive buttons below the display. The right houses the power button and the volume rocker and the bottom has the microUSB port. The top has the headphones jack.
Spending some time with the device and typing a text on it, it is as big as the Nexus 6 that I am currently using and felt about the same.
The Qihoo 360 UI that’s overlaying the Android 5.1 OS brings with it a number of features that are there on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. One example of this is the dose mode where in your smartphone consumes less battery when the device is idle. The same feature is implemented in the 360 UI. The Qiku Q Terra smartphone will receive the Marshmallow soon, but no date was announced at the event.
Sticking with the Q Terra UI, it doesn’t have an app drawer like we have seen on stock Android. The apps are all listed on the home screen like we have seen on so many other smartphones in India.
Coming to the unique feature of the Q Terra – the dual rear camera. The Sony IMX278 sensor, which captures the normal image, powers one camera and the other one is a Sony IMX214 sensor, which captures the same image in black and white. The image signal processor of the Q Terra then processes the two into one, giving photographs more depth, contrast and accuracy of colours. We spent some time with the Q Terra and compared the camera to the Xperia Z5 Premium. Here is an in-depth look at the comparison.
Overall, in our first impressions we think Qiku has thrown everything its got into the Q Terra except the ability to make cold coffee and wash my dishes and that too for a price of sub 20K. Can this smartphone redefine what we can expect from smartphones under 20K? Well you will have to wait for our full review to find out. Untill then, here is a look at our top 10 smartphones under 20K that you can pick up today.
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Sameer Mitha
Sameer Mitha lives for gaming and technology is his muse. When he isn’t busy playing with gadgets or video games he delves into the world of fantasy novels. View Full Profile
