Xolo Q3000 Review ._._._.

Xolo Q3000 Review ._._._._.

Posted by : Rather Asif Wednesday, January 29, 2014

After introducing the Q1000, Q1000S and the Q2000 with 720p displays, Xolo finally launched the Q3000with a 5.7-inch full HD display. This is definitely a beast in terms of its size and also has a huge 4000 mAh battery, but is this better than other full HD smartphones in the similar range ? Let us find out in the complete review.

Unboxing

We unboxed the Xolo Q3000 earlier this month. Check out the unboxing below.

Box Contents

The box contents include:

Xolo Q3000 in black
Flip Cover (Unconventional)
Scratch guard
USB Travel Charger plug
micro USB cable
USB OTG cable
Xolo branded headset with mic (not in-ear)
Information booklet and warranty/safety guide

Hardware and Design

The 5.7-inch full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 386 ppi pixel density is sharp and offers vibrant colors. It also has a curved glass on the front, which enhanced the display and design of the smartphone. The blacks are great, viewing angles are good. Brightness could be better. Since the phone is not bright when in the auto brightness mode, it affects the sunlight legibility. The brightness seem low even when you set it to full, compared to the previous Xolo phones like the Q2000. Since the display is too glossy, it is prone to fingerprints and smudges. As usual you get a free scratch guard in the box, which helps to prevent the phone from smudges.

It has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with VGA video recording and the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors are at the top, similar to the Q1000s. It also has a magnetometer or magnetic sensor. This also has a LED notification light that glows in Red and Green.

It has the usual set of capacitive touch buttons below the display. These light up when pressed. The backlight for the touch buttons are apt.

The power button is present on the right side, which is a bit hard to press. Even though the phone is huge to hold, you can easily access the power button when holding the phone in a single hand.

On the left side you have the volume rocker. The phone is 8.9mm thick, bit thicker than the 6.98mm Q1000S. Removable battery could be one of the reasons for a thicker design.

The micro USB slot and the 3.5mm audio jack are at the top of the phone. You can see the curved back, which is curved at the top and the bottom.

There is just a tiny microphone hole on the bottom.

On the back, you have a 13-megapixel camera with BSI 2 sensor and LED flash. There is a large speaker grill and a secondary microphone on a shiny chrome strip.

Even though the phone has a plastic back cover, it has a smooth matte finish, which offers a nice feel and grip. The shiny plastic on the top spoils the design of the phone. Wish it had a single back cover, since this gets scratched easily when you place the phone on a hard surface. The phone feels huge to hold in your hand and place inside your pocket. The height and width of the smartphone are 164.8 mm x 81.6 mm. The width of the smartphone is fine, but the phone is taller than the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 that also has a 5.7-inch screen. It weighs around 200 grams, which is quite heavy compared to most of the smartphones in this range.

The back cover opens up easily, which house a huge battery, which occupies 70% of the back. You can also see the SIM card slots and the SD card slot.

The first SIM is a standard mini SIM card slot, while the second one is a micro SIM slot. It also has a micro SD card slot that accepts cards up to 32GB.
Xolo Q3000-12

The bundled flip cover just sticks to the back of the smartphone with the help of a small sticky strip. Even though it is sticky, it doesn’t leave any tracks of the sticky substance on the back of the smartphone. Once it is stuck, it doesn’t leave out of its place, until you pull it out. Hope it doesn’t lose out its stickiness on prolonged usage.

The flip cover offers nice feel and grip and has high quality finish with nice textures. You need to stick the cover properly, according to the holes for the camera lens, flash and speakers. Even though it covers most of the speakers, it doesn’t affect the output. The flip cover doesn’t have a hole for the secondary microphone, which might affect the audio, while recording videos.

Camera

The Q3000 has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a BSI 2 sensor. It has a similar 13.3MP sensor we had seen in the Q1000S that captures images at a resolution of 4864 x 2736 pixels. Images were good, but not great. We did not find any auto focus issues. Low light shots without flash had a lot of noise, but the camera is considerably better than the Q1000s. The camera UI and other features are exactly similar to the other MediaTek-powered Xolo phones running on Android 4.2. You have HDR, burst shots, Panorama and lots more features.

Check out some camera samples below. You can check out more camera samples here.

: HDR ON

: HDR OFF

The phone can record videos at 1080p Full HD resolution. The video quality is good, but it had noise. Thanks to the secondary microphone, the audio is crisp.

Check out the 1080p video sample.

Software

Xolo Q3000 Quick Settings and Lockscreen Widgets

Coming to the software part, the phone runs on Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean), similar to most of the Xolo smartphones. You have all the Android 4.2 features such as Quick Settings, rich notifications, option to open the camera directly from the lock screen, lockscreen widgets, Daydream and more. As usual the UI is pretty much stock.

Xolo has added a feature called “one hand operation”, which could be enabled from the settings or by holding the back capacitive touch button. It brings up a tiny floating window which shows the phone’s screen in a small version. This could be moved either right or left depending on your needs. Using the phone’s UI in this tiny mode slows down the phone.

Out of 2GB of RAM, you get 1.96GB of usable RAM. About 1GB of RAM is free when the phone is idle.

Out of 16GB of internal storage you get 12.70 GB of user storage and 0.98GB for apps. You can also move the apps in the phone memory to the SD card.

Apps

It comes with quite a few pre-installed apps. It has the usual set of utility apps and Google Apps. You also have Xolo Secure and Xolo Power apps pre-installed. The Xolo Secure app keeps the phone protected by locking and also lets you track it remotely. The Xolo Power app that optimizes battery usage that lets you set data sync frequency, night mode and low battery mode to conserve battery life.

Music Player and FM Radio

The Music Player is stock, and can play several audio formats, including MP3, MIDI, WAV, AAC. You can enable equalizer from the settings and use Bass boost and 3D effect features when you are listening using earphones. The phone has FM Radio with auto search, recording and RDS support. Audio from the loudspeaker is decent, but it could be better. The standard set of ear-phones sound good.

The default video player can play videos in a range of formats in full HD 1080p resolution smoothly. Videos look great on the full HD screen with vibrant colors, again the brightness could be better in auto mode. Since the flip cover doubles up as a stand, it is great for watching videos.

Dual SIM and Connectivity

It has dual SIM support with a standard SIM and a micro SIM. Both the SIM cards support 3G, but you can enable 3G on only one SIM, while the other is on 2G. As usual, you can customize the SIM name, color etc. The connectivity features include, 3G (HSDPA: 42.2 Mbps, HSUPA: 11.5Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v 4.0 with A2DP and GPS. It supports USB on-the-go (OTG) support, which is obvious since it comes with a OTG cable in the box.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Q3000 is powered by a quad-core MediaTek 6589T processor clocked at 1.5 GHz with PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU. The phone doesn’t lag a bit, compared to other full HD phones from other OEMs using the same chip. Xolo has optimized the phone to a great extent and the 2GB RAM helps the phone from any lags during multitasking. Check out the synthetic benchmark charts below.

Quadrant Benchmark

The Q3000 tops the Quadrant benchmark by scoring 5549 points.

AnTuTu Benchmark 4

In the AnTuTu Benchmark 4.0, its scores 15561 points, and lies just behind the Q1000S.

Vellamo 2.0 HTML5

It managed to score 1535 points in the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark. Check out the complete set of Q3000 Benchmarks here.

We ran several games on the phone to test out the gaming performance. Graphics was good, but the gamplay performance was just average. It also supports the PlayStation 3 controller over USB OTG. Check out the N.O.V.A 3 gameplay below.

Check out the gaming review below to know more about the gaming performance of the phone in detail .

Battery Life

Xolo managed to pack a 4000 mAh battery in the phone, which is just great. It lasts for two days with both the SIM cards enabled. With minimal use it will last for 3 days.

You can also use the Xolo Power app to improve the battery life.

Conclusion

Overall, the Xolo Q3000 is one of the best large-screen phones with a full HD screen in the Indian market so far. It is great for watching videos, but lacks a bit in the gaming department. At a market price of around Rs. 20,000, if you need a large-screen phone under 20k, just go for it.

Pros