Xolo Black First Impressions: The Xolo Black is not a phone that can be simply written off. That said, it is also not a phone that impresses outright.
And then there were three. Lava’s sub-brand Xolo has now launched its own sub-brand Xolo Black, and its first phone under this was launched today, at a competitive price point of Rs. 12,999. Now this tells you two things. First, that Xolo is not playing around, because this price point is arguably the toughest segment of the market right now. Second, the company is looking at creating a different brand image.
The Snapdragon 615 may not be the right chipset to go with, but it puts Xolo alongside manufacturers like Xiaomi, ZTE and others who have been making the news. Yes, the Snapdragon 615 has heating issues, and yes, it isn’t the performer that we usually expect from Qualcomm, but it still does the basic tasks. The use of this processor gave Xolo a chance to talk about things it has done to control the heating. There’s inexperience here though, you wouldn’t want to advertise that the processor can go up to 61 degrees celsius, even if your competitors (Xolo says it tested the Xiaomi Mi 4i) do go to 90 degrees, which they don’t by the way. For mobile SoCs, anything above 50 degrees is problematic, there are no two ways of looking at it.
Moving on, there’s a dual camera setup on the back and 13MP+2MP does sound mouth watering, but from what Xolo said, it seems the company has gone the HTC way rather than following in Huawei’s footsteps. The dual camera setup allows you to refocus images after you’ve clicked them, but doesn’t really add much to the quality. That said, the launch event offered possibly the worst conditions to really be sure about the quality, so I’m going to hold my judgement right now.
I think the part that really makes me unsure about the Xolo Black though is its build. Xolo says there is Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides along with extra oleophobic coating on the back. For some reason though, the company decided to demonstrate this by pouring drops of water onto the back. In addition, it still seems quite prone to fingerprint and slippery. While glass combined with a brushed metal like finish on the sides should ideally make for an attractive phone, the Xolo Black is not a looker and feels quite ‘cheap’. In fact, I like the Xiaomi Mi 4i’s polycarbonate build much better. The same can be said about the 5.5 inch FHD display. While the resolution is not the issue, even if I overlook the higher pixel density on the Mi 4i, it just simply feels much more premium and better.
I’ll tell you what I do like about the Xolo Black though. I like the statement it’s making for the near future. What Xolo is essentially saying is that it won’t give up, instead, like Micromax, it will take on ‘disruptive’ Chinese manufacturers head on. The statement isn’t as strong as the one Micromax made with Yu, but it’s a statement nevertheless. The Xolo Black has flaws, but if you look at the full package, it’s not a phone you can write off without actually testing it out. So, while I won’t say that this is a phone that disappointed me, I’m apprehensive.
Hive UI is very new and looks like stock Android when you first look at it, but Xolo has added features that make sense. There will be a learning curve, but hey, if the learning is worth it, then who cares right? The dual camera may not be like the Honor 6 Plus or ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini, but if it can touch the Xiaomi Mi 4i’s level then Xolo will have accomplished part of what it set out to do and established itself as a brand to watch out for.
Buy XOLO BLACK on Flipkart at Rs. 12,999
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Prasid Banerjee
Trying to explain technology to my parents. Failing miserably. View Full Profile
