Review: Smartron t.Phone Promises to Be Future-Ready, but Is It?

Smartron t.phone is pegged as a feature-rich, future-ready smartphone. Does it tick all the right boxes? Read here.

Smartron t.phone is an Indian company’s step towards building an Internet-of-Things universe. (Photo: The Quint)

In a crowded smartphone market, especially with new China-based makers joining by the dozen, how do you catch the imagination of the next generation of buyers? Smartron, an Indian company is trying exactly that. Smartron t.phone is the brand’s first smartphone, ‘designed and developed in India, assembled in China’.

The smartphone is built as a facilitator to Smartron’s plan for a network of internet connected devices. So how’s this fresher doing, and are there any lessons to be learnt? Let’s start.

Pros:

• Lightweight construction
• Fast performance
• Virtually unlimited storage

Cons:

• Lacks a fingerprint scanner
• Disappointing camera
• Battery performance is patchy

What’s Good?

Smarton t.phone carries a bold design with a vibrantly colorful, dual-tone exterior. The display is quite crisp and colours pop out of the 5.5-inch 1920x1080 Super AMOLED display. Watching videos was a pleasant experience.The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and is quite legible even in sunny outdoors.

Smartron t.phone has a vibrant, dual-tone exterior. (Photo: The Quint)

The phone also surprised us with its lightweight construction. It feels good in the hands and has a thin design, which is easy to grip. Smartron t.phone comes with 64 GB of storage space on-board and a free cloud storage account for its users.

Smartron t.phone is very lightweight and quite thin for the segment it competes in. (Photo: The Quint)

The smartphone supports Quick Charge 2.0 and gets almost 50 percent charge in 30-40 minutes. It comes with 4GB RAM and the previous generation of 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor. In practical terms, the phone allows swift multi-tasking and easy gaming with zero lags apparent. The phone has a nice loud-speaker which gets your music right with DTS support.

The t.phone runs on Android 6.0.1 and maintains a pure Android interface.

Samtron t.phone comes with a USB Type-C port. (Photo: The Quint)

What’s bad?

The t.phone managed to excite us quite a lot with everything it managed, apart from one of the really crucial requirements – its camera. The 13 megapixel rear-camera lacks details in its images, and colours appear a bit washed off. The focusing also took some time to lock the subject. The 4 megapixel front camera manages to perform better, but only just.

Rear camera sample: Colours look washed-off and appear darker. (Photo: The Quint)

Rear camera sample: Focusing of the phone was also not upto the mark, and quite slow. (Photo: The Quint)

The smartphone has a 3,000 mAh battery, which ideally should last you through a day of light to moderate usage. But, if you push up the usage, to do all what this phone is supposed to do and be a multimedia powerhouse, it may well disappoint. The battery goes rapidly, especially when using the camera.

The phone also misses out on a crucial feature which has become a norm nowadays – a fingerprint scanner. How can this be ignored? Thumbs down.

Amid all features and ‘future-readiness’, the smartphone lacks a fingerprint scanner. (Photo: The Quint)

Why buy it?

With a price tag of Rs. 22,999, the smartphone definitely commands a premium and asks you to overlook a lot of other flagships. LeEco Le Max 2 with a 5.7-inch quad-HD display retails at the same price and Xiaomi’s Mi5 has an almost similar price. The two Chinese brands pack in similar specifications with a better camera, construction and yes, a fingerprint scanner.

Smartron t.phone is competing with feature-loaded Chinese brands. (Photo: The Quint)

If you’re setting up internet connected devices in your house right now, this Smartron device may make sense. Otherwise, we have already listed the options above.