XOLO just launched the X1000 in a luke-warm price segment that currently has the Sony Xperia P and the Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos as the only two worthy options. Hoping to capture some of the market share the company failed to do with the X900, the X1000 is an important launch for XOLO to make a serious impact in the mid to high-end smartphone segment. Let’s see if its latest offering has what it takes to compete with the Tier 1 brands.
XOLO X1000
During our brief rendezvous with the X1000, we found the build and construction to be pretty good. The phone feels good in your hands and packs in enough grunt to hold its own against devices way beyond its league. What we didn’t like is the fact that XOLO has chosen an Intel Medfield-based SoC yet again. The Intel Atom Z2480 is just a faster Z2460 that powered the X900 and runs at a fixed 2GHz. There’s no Turbo feature here, so the CPU doesn’t scale beyond its rated speed when needed.
Our major issue with the X900 was the heating and poor battery life and XOLO has just gone and put an even faster chip here, so we’re not sure what sort of battery life to expect.
Sony Xperia P
Though the Xperia P was too expensive at its launch, now it does seem like a viable option. It also just happens to be the lightest of the trio and comes with a decently dense screen. The handset has a compact form factor, which will certainly appeal to the fairer sex; you get a choice of different colours as well. The handset is also due for a Jelly Bean update in March.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos
The Grand Duos turned out to be runaway success for Samsung as it gave users the real estate of the Note but within a very tasty budget. The Grand is a dual-SIM phone and rocks a potent dual-core CPU, capable of playing and recording full HD video. It also manages very good battery life due to the low resolution screen.
Next, let’s compare the handsets and see which one offers the best value.
The bottom line
XOLO’s X1000 could be a big sell provided the heat and battery life issues have been sorted out. Else, it’ll be a tough sell when you have two very good options from Tier 1 brands in the same price segment. The Xperia P is a good option, but the lack of expandable storage may be a deterrent to some. On the other hand, it’s the only phone with NFC out of the three, so if that’s your priority, then it makes sense. Finally, we are left with the Galaxy Grand Duos, which offers very good all round performance, and if I had to pick one of the three, I’d put my money on that. I may never use the dual-SIM functionality, but the above average battery life and the rich feature set of TouchWiz is enough to have me sold.
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