Technoluverz

Review: Spice Stellar Virtuoso Mi-495

Pros:
Above average performance; Smooth UI; Decent screen.

Cons:
Mediocre camera; Average sound quality; Can't record HD videos; Occasional lag.

Spice Stellar Virtuoso Mi-495
MRP: Rs 12,500
Street Price: Rs 10,000

With the advent of Android platform, domestic manufacturers have brought smartphones within reach of the masses. Thanks to larger screens and a lot of bells and whistles, some of these handsets have managed to give top brands a good run for their money. The Spice Stellar Virtuoso Mi-495 is one such handset that promises a lot at an affordable price tag of Rs 10,000. Let's find out if it can walk the talk.

Design And Build Quality
The Mi-495 looks like a bigger, poorly-made iPhone 4. Just like Apple's handset, it comes with rounded corners, and in a combination of black and silver. That's where the similarity ends. The materials used to make it are no match. The overall build quality is pretty decent but the back panel feels very flimsy. All is not lost though, as the handset hardly creaks on being held firmly. Similar to the Nexus phones, the Mi-495 doesn't sport any physical button on front. The lock key is placed on handset's left, while the volume rocker sits on the right.

Like most quality budget phones, this handset's 4.5" screen has pixel dimensions of 540x960 pixels, but this one is not an IPS panel. The display is reasonably sharp and colour reproduction is also decent. The viewing angles could have been tad better though. More importantly though, it's not plagued by low-refresh issue as found in the Stellar Horizon Mi-500.

The phone is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core MT6577 chipset, and has 512 MB of RAM. The 8 megapixel camera has an LED flash. Other features include 2 GB of internal storage, 1.3 mp front-facing camera, microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, 3G, and 1700 mAh battery. Details specs are at the end of the review.

UI And Applications
The phone features Android 4.0 (ICS) with aesthetic modifications coming from the manufacturer. Apart from introducing a couple of widgets, Spice has also changed the default Android icons with its own. Everything from a menu key to a web browser looks completely different, which might offend the so-called Android "purist". Since the phone lacks front hardware keys, the navigation is taken care off by the onscreen buttons. There's a disadvantage to this though, as part of screen at the bottom is always occupied with these keys, even if you're inside an app.

Compared to the similarly priced handsets, the Mi-495 offers smooth interface. Its dual-core processor runs popular games such as Temple Run 2 and Angry Birds: Star Wars without any issue. What's more, it also does a decent job at handling complex 3D games such as Dead Trigger. After installing a dozen of apps though, the phone starts becoming sluggish. Although I couldn't find any solution for this, a quick reboot helps the phone return to normalcy. In the AnTuTu benchmark, the handset scored 6473, which puts it just behind the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. In comparison,Micromax's Canvas 2 A110 manages 6768.

Multimedia
The Mi-495 offers mediocre sound quality through bundled earphones. I did try it with aftermarket earphones as well, but the results weren't significantly better. The phone comes with plenty of equaliser settings and sound presets to play around with. Coming to the subject of video playback, the Mi-495 can play HD MP4 files without any problem. Additional codec support can be achieved using third-party apps such as MXPlayer.

The 8 megapixel auto-focus camera is accompanied by a single LED flash. The snapper allows you to adjust sharpness, saturation, hue, ISO, and brightness. Moreover, it offers various modes including Panorama, HDR, and Smile Shot. Unfortunately though, the image quality is disappointing. At best, it matches results of a 2 mp camera. Although the manufacturer claims that it supports HD video recording, the phone can only record 480p videos at 30 fps.

Telephony And Messaging
After using it for a week, I didn't face any issues with the phone's network reception. Being a dual-SIM dual-standby device, it offers the usual SIM settings. Thanks to a bigger screen, you're unlikely to punch in the wrong keys on its onscreen keyboard.

Battery, And Verdict
The smartphone's 1700 mAh battery lasts for around 7 hours under moderate to heavy use. In our video loop test, it managed to power the device for 3 hours. This is just about average for a sub-10k Android phone. It should get you through a working day on full charge but it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a charger handy.

Available for just under Rs 10,000, the Spice Mi-495 offers a relatively smooth UI and good screen. On the other hand, its camera and sound quality leave a lot to be desired. For the same price, it makes more sense to go for XOLO's A800 that comes with a better build, IPS screen and a much better camera. If you're willing to spend a couple of grand more, you can also consider some quad-core Android Jelly Bean handsets like Karbonn Titanium S5 or the XOLO Q800. Given the stiff competition in this price bracket, it wouldn't be a bad idea for Spice to relook at the MI-495's asking price.

Features: 3.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 3/5
Performance: 3/5
Value For Money: 3/5
Mojo: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Specifications: