Xolo Q1010i review

Xolo launched its newest smartphone dubbed Q1010i only a few days ago. The device was said to be designed to bring excellent camera experienced at an affordable price tag.

The Xolo Q1010i comes with a quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7 CPU along with Mali 400MP2 GPU on a MediaTek MT6582 chipset. The device also sports an 8 megapixel Sony Exmor R sensor with f/2.0 aperture, 1.4 micron pixel size and a 5-element lens. We’ll see how it performs as a camera smartphone and of course, as an everyday device.

Unboxing

The Xolo Q1010i comes in a standard retail box, where you can find the A/C adapter, USB cable, headset, USB host-cable, some paperwork, screen protector as well as the nice surprise that is the flip cover.

Design

Xolo has really stepped up its game and the overall design brings a lot of novelties. The Q1010i is built using high quality plastic with brushed metal frame running around the device, which gives a premium look to the smartphone – something rather hard to find at this price point. The device is a bit on the heavy side but that also contributes to the very solid in-hand feel it gives.

On the front we have the display along with the three capacitive touch buttons – home, back and menu. The virtual buttons are not placed on-screen and are found on the bezel, below the display. There is a secondary camera along with an array of sensors located on top.

The power button is on the right side of the smartphone, while the volume rocker is on the left. The 3.5mm audio jack is placed at the top and USB port is at the bottom.

The back of the smartphone is where we see the 8 megapixel camera lens, the LED flash and the microphone for noise cancellation. The speaker grille is also here, at the bottom right corner. Underneath the back panel lies the non-removable battery along with the three card slots – one for the microSD card and two for SIM cards.

Display

Xolo Q1010i sports a 5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The numbers add up to a 294 ppi pixel density, which is quite sharp by any standards and you will have a hard time telling individual pixels apart.

The screen offers great colors and the overall quality is quite good. The viewing angles are pretty wide and we did not observe contrast compression or color shift when viewing the display from various points.

User Interface

The Xolo Q1010i runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which is quite disappointing in the day when 4.4 KitKat is available. The overall looks of the UI is quite similar to stock Android, but the device does include a few software customizations from Xolo.

More often than not, the smartphones runs smoothly without any hiccups, thanks to its quad-core CPU and 1 GB of RAM. There is occasional lag, but we believe that’s largely due to some bugs the device comes with.

The first interesting bit of home-backed software that the Xolo Q1010i brings is the power management app that is dubbed Xolo Power. The specially designed app is aimed to enhance the overall performance of the device’s battery.

The interface of the Xolo Power is quite simple and user friendly. The app shows you the remaining battery level, temperature of the smartphone’s battery and estimated hours of usage.

The Xolo Secure is other interesting app from the company. The security app allows you to protect your smartphone in case it gets stolen or misplaced. With Xolo Secure, you can back up your personal data to the cloud and all you need to activate the app is to login with your Google account and provided all the necessary permissions.

Once that is done, you get to configure the Anti-Theft options, using which you can remotely track your smartphone, wipe all its data, secure lock or even secretly capture images from it.

Synthetic Benchmarks

We decided to take the Xolo Q1010i for a spin in an attempt to stack it up against some of its rivals. The Cortex A7 CPU is not exactly a king of benchmark scores, but has the company managed to get the most out of it? Well, let’s see.

First up was the single core performance test with the help of the Benchmark Pi app. It was really surprising to see the smartphone punch above its weight with a healthy score of 275.

Benchmark Pi

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• Xolo Q1010i
  275
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• HTC One mini
  293
• Karbonn Titanium X
  298
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  346
• Xolo Q900
  388
• Sony Xperia M
  400
• Lenovo P780
  407
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  409
• Sony Xperia L
  435
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  488
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  499
• Sony Xperia go
  543
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  554
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  578
• HTC Desire X
  639
• Sony Xperia E dual
  800
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  831

The second challenge was when we aimed to test the overall performance of the device with the AnTuTu benchmark. The result revealed that the device is fully capable of carrying the flagship tag as the performance of the smartphone matched some of the far pricier ones.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• HTC One
  22678
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Xolo Q1010i
  17000
• Karbonn Titanium X
  15397
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  14518
• Lenovo P780
  13611
• Xolo Q900
  13292
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  13216
• HTC Butterfly
  12631
• HTC One mini
  11434
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  11203
• Sony Xperia M
  9902
• Sony Xperia L
  9746
• Nokia Lumia 620
  9140
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  7408
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  6650

We then had the Mali 400M2 GPU sweating it out at the Epic Citadel test. The Xolo Q1010i managed to come up with a respectable score that is on par with the 2012 flagship smartphones.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  59.8
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  57.1
• HTC One
  56.4
• HTC One mini
  56
• Sony Xperia Z
  
  55.6
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  55.5
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  54.7
• Nexus 4
  
  53.9
• Asus Padfone 2
  
  53.4
• Sony Xperia M
  53.2
• LG Optimus G
  
  52.6
• Xolo Q1010i
  
  50.9
• Karbonn Titanium X
  
  46.2
• Lenovo P780
  
  44.1
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  
  41.3
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  34.0
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  24.9

Last up was the analysis of web browsing performance of the Xolo Q1010i. And, the smartphone again came up with impressive numbers that almost matched those of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia SP
  2497
• HTC One
  2382
• HTC One mini
  2252
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  2060
• Xolo Q1010i
  2025
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2019
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Sony Xperia M
  1800
• Sony Xperia L
  1640
• Karbonn Titanium X
  1614
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  1572
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• Xolo Q900
  1563
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  1471
• Lenovo P780
  1452
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1366
• Nexus 4
  1310
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
  1234
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  1072
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1065

Camera

The camera interface is largely similar to what we had seen on the Xolo smartphones in the past. The UI is quite simple and the settings menu is divided into three categories. The general tab is where we find settings like the exposure bias, color effect, scene mode and white balance. The specific still image settings and video capturing options are organized under the other two tabs.

Xolo gives you a range of different shooting modes such as HDR, Panorama, multi angle view image, macro and many other such options, which you could choose easily from the bar running on the left side of the camera interface.

We took a few samples from the 8 megapixel snapper on the Xolo Q1010i and we were pleased by the overall image quality. The color rendering is quite good and the resolved detail is decent. There is quite a lot of noise, but it’s still among the better shooters in this price range.

Conclusion

Xolo Q1010i is priced at $230 and is already available in the Indian market. The smartphone is an interesting offering especially considering its display and performance. The MediaTek chipset offers a solid smartphone experience, which is still rather rare in the lower mid-range.

The 8 megapixel rear camera is undoubtedly the standout feature of the device. The performance of the shooter can hardly be matched by any of its competitors that are currently in the market.

Unfortunately, while the hardware specifications are impressive for its price, the software running on the Q1010i comes with a fair share of bugs that often has a negative impact on the real-life performance of the device. As long as Xolo can correct that with timely patches and upgrades, the company might have a real winner on its hands.

Brand name aside, the smartphone can easily compete against the likes of Motorola Moto G, Sony Xperia C and Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo and a few other smartphones that are priced well above Q1010i.

All things considered, the Xolo Q1010i hardware does more than enough to justify the price tag it comes at. With a premium design, a good screen, quality camera, impressive performance and dual-SIM capabilities the device has got more character for a mid-ranger.

Pros

• Premium build
• Great display
• Decent camera
• microSD card slot

Cons

• Buggy software