Xolo X1000 review

The phone is powered by 2GHz Intel Atom Z2480 processor, prompting Intel to call it the 'fastest smartphone in the world' - probably based purely on the clock speed.

This is a single-SIM smartphone from the company. Priced at Rs. 19,999, it is also the most expensive smartphone that the company is offering currently. Here's our take on this smartphone.

Design/ Build
When Xolo had launched the Xolo A1000 (Review | Pictures), we had mentioned that the smartphone comes with stunning looks. With Xolo X1000, the company has raised the bar even higher.

Xolo X1000 sports a uni-body design and the black and steel combo gives the smartphone a premium look. It comes with 4.7-inch TFT LCD has a 2.5 D edge-to-edge curved glass panel. There is a front camera and speaker grill located on the top of the display in the middle. There are no physical buttons on the front of the smartphone.

It also has well-rounded corners with a rubbery finish at the back, which makes the smartphone easy to grip. The top panel houses the power/ standby button and the 3.5mm audio jack. On the bottom panel is the USB/charging slot. The left panel houses the volume rocker button, while the right panel has been left blank.

On the back, there is 8-megapixel camera and an aesthetically placed thin steel strip just below the camera. As it is a uni-body smartphone, the consumers cannot access the battery. However, there is a small button at back that be pushed to expose the SIM slot and the microSD card slot. However, consumers who do not have long fingers might find inserting SIM and microSD in the tiny slots an ordeal.

Another thing that adds to Xolo X1000's style quotient is that the device is just 9.1 mm thick. The device weighs 140 grams.

On the overall, we find that Xolo has worked quite hard on design element of this smartphone and tried to give it a premium look.

Display
Xolo X1000 comes with 4.7-inch screen with 720x1280 pixel '2.5 D' edge-to-edge curved glass display and a pixel density of 312 ppi. We found the screen to be quite bright and sporting good colour reproduction. The viewing angles on the Xolo X1000 are good and sunlight legibility is respectable. Reading eBooks, watching Youtube clips and browsing pictures on this smartphone is a pleasurable affair.

We found that the display of this smartphone to be better than that of similarly priced Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. As a matter of fact, the display Xolo X1000 had an edge over the recently launched Micromax Canvas HD too (which is priced at Rs. 14,499).

Xolo X1000 has a reflective screen. The touch response of this smartphone is good.

Camera
Xolo X1000 packs in an 8-megapixel rear camera with a 15fps burst mode. We experienced no lags while clicking pictures. The images taken through the rear camera under daylight are very sharp. Pictures clicked indoors are respectable as well.

This smartphone also comes with front-facing 1.3-megapxiel camera. Clicking pictures and making video calls through this camera is a standard affair.

The back camera is also capable of shooting full-HD video at 30 frames per second. The quality of videos captured through Xolo X1000 is good as well.

Software/ Interface
The biggest downside for Xolo X1000 is that it runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box. However, the company has indicated that they are working on providing update to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) really soon and one can expect the same to land on this smartphone by the beginning of next quarter. The company has also indicated that the upgrade with be pushed out over-the-air (OTA) just like the way it had done for its Xolo X900.

Xolo X1000 runs on the stock version of Android 4.0. The smartphone comes with five customisable home screens to fill with widgets and icons. Xolo X1000 also comes pre-loaded with apps such as Dropbox, FM Radio, Memo, Movie Studio, PIM backup, Play Music, News and weather, Wireless display, Xolo Care and Weather forecast. The smartphone also has Chrome and stock Android browser pre-installed.

With the help of FM Radio app, one can listen to their favourite radio stations on the go. The app also allows one to save six favourite FM radio stations for easy access.

PIM Backup app helps in backing up contacts and SMS. This app also helps users to restore contacts and SMS from any folder to their smartphone.

It is also worth pointing out that since this is an Intel-based smartphone, not all apps available in Google Play will work on the Xolo X1000.

Performance/ Battery
Before the launch of this smartphone, it was expected that Xolo will be packing in Intel Clover Trail+ chipset in this smartphone. However, Xolo has used Intel Atom Z2480 processor in this smartphone. The processor is augmented with Intel's "Hyper Threading technology and can clock speed of 2GHz. Xolo X1000 also comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The smartphone is very responsive and we did not face any lags of any sort while playing around with it.

Video playback of this smartphone is good. However, one cannot play any .avi files on this smartphone but that can be easily fixed by downloading an app from the Google Play Store. The audio playback on this smartphone through speakers as well as headphones is quite loud and clear.

Playing popular games such as Temple Run 2, Angry Birds and Subway Surfer is a breezy affair. However, not all high-end games are compatible with the phone due to its Intel chipset.

The browsing experience while using Chrome and Android browser is good. The smartphone is able to render webpages well. The Flash player plugin is also pre-installed in Xolo X1000.

Xolo X1000 comes with a 1900mAH battery, which as per company estimates should provide up to 9.5 hours of talk time on 3G/ 2G while the standby time is said to be 13-14 days. In our usage, we find that one can comfortably get a day's usage from this smartphone.

Unlike most smartphones being launched in the market, Xolo X1000 is a single SIM smartphone. The call quality of this smartphone is respectable.

Verdict
Looking for a beautiful smartphone that has a good display? Then Xolo X1000 may fit the bill for you. The smartphone is also quite zippy and can handle multitasking well. However, at the moment this smartphone is running on Android 4.0, rather than Android 4.1, this could be deal breaker for some consumers and they might want to check out Micromax Canvas HD (Reviews | Pictures) and Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos (Review | Pictures).

Xolo X1000: In pictures

Price: Rs.19,999