InFocus – Tech Raman

InFocus Vision 3 FAQ : Everything You need to know about the Budget Smartphone with Dual camera

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 19:29:07 +0000

Also watch: https://youtu.be/9WLzpe96gG0

Question: What are the different colors InFocus Vision 3 is available?

Answer: In India currently it is available in gold color and the black might come for sale later.

Question: What is the display size and resolution?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has a 5.7-inch On-cell display with a HD+ resolution of 1440×720 pixels.

Question: What display settings available?

Answer: The display setting has auto brightness, color temperature settings, theme, wallpaper, font size.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support double tap to wake?

Answer: No.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 has Blue light filter settings ?

Answer: No there is no blue light filter settings and you might need to download a third party app in case you need one.

Question: What is the price of InFocus Vision 3? Where can I buy?

Answer: Vision 3 is priced at Rs 6.999 in India and and is available on Amazon India website.

Question: What size SIM cards InFocus Vision 3 accepts? Can I add a microSD card?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has a hybrid dual SIM so you can have two SIMs or one SIM and another microSD card.

Question: Does it have Corning Gorilla Glass protection?

Answer: No it does not have a protective layer.

Question: What is the processor used in this smartphone?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT 6735 chipset clocked at 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage.

Question: What is the internal storage of InFocus Vision 3?

Answer: The Vision 3 comes with a 16GB internal storage with around 9GB user available. It has a dedicated memory card for storage expansion up to 128GB.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 has Gyroscope sensor?

Answer: Yes, it has Gyroscope sensor.

Question: Does it support VR?

Answer: No, InFocus Vision 3 does not support virtual reality (VR) apps.

Question: Is the buttons back lit?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has on-screen navigation buttons.

Question: What USB type does it use?

Answer: It uses microUSB port

Question: Does it have notification light?

Answer: Yes, InFocus Vision 3 has pulse notification light.

Question: What are the camera specifications of Vision 3 ?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has a 13-megapixel primary sensor and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor dual rear camera with a LED flash and a 8-megapixel front camera with LED flash for selfie.

Question: Does the camera has OIS?

Answer: No.

Question: Can we take 4K videos in InFocus Vision 3?

Answer: No.

Question: What are the connectivity options? Does it support VoLTE?

Answer: Yes, InFocus Vision 3 supports VoLTE. Other options include Bluetooth, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 has FM app?

Answer: Yes

Question: How to take screnshots in InFocus Vision 3?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has a tri finger screen shot feature apart from the basic power button and volume down together option.

Question: Can we take long screenshot in InFocus Vision 3?

Answer: Yes, we can take long screenshot.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support USB OTG?

Answer: Yes, it supports OTG and you can connect the USB drive to it.

Question: What is the battery capacity of InFocus Vision 3?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 has a 4000mAh battery

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support fast charging?

Answer: No, it does not support fast charging.

Question: Does it have power saver modes?

Answer: Yes it has a battery saver mode.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 have IR blaster?

Answer: No InFocus Vision 3 does not have a IR blaster.

Question: Is InFocus Vision 3 Waterproof?

Answer: No, InFocus Vision 3 is not waterproof.

Question: How is the call quality?

Answer: Call quality of InFocus Vision 3 is good.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support one hand UI?

Answer: No

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 has fingerprint scanner?

Answer: Yes, it does have a fingerprint sensor

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support App lock?

Answer: No, it does not.

Question: What OS does InFocus Vision 3 run?

Answer: InFocus Vision 3 runs on Android Nougat 7.1. with their custom Smile UI layered on top of it.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support two Whatsapp in the same phone?

Answer: Yes it has a dual apps feature that can duplicate any apps.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support call recording?

Answer: Yes, Vision 3 support call recording feature. Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 support NFC? Answer: No, NFC is not supported.

Question: Does InFocus Vision 3 has split screen feature?

Answer: Yes it supports multi windows.

Question: Does InFocus Vision have Dolby Atmos support?

Answer: No, InFocus Vision does not have Dolby Atmos but the audio quality is pretty good.

Question: Does InFocus vision 3 have heating issue?

Answer: Will test and update.]]>

Infocus Epic 1 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 00:03:55 +0000

InFocus, the Oregon headquartered company, is quiet focused at offering budget Android Smartphones in India for few years now, having entered the Indian market in 2015. It’s Epic 1 priced at Rs 12,999 is currently its most expensive phone and comes in a segment that is fiercely competitive but also where big volumes are. The company claims the Epic 1 to be the most affordable deca-core processor Smartphone.

Design & Display

Metal casing
8.4 mm thickness at the middle and 7.6mm at the sides.
160 grams
5.5 inch LTPS display
1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
Corning Gorilla glass

Clad in metal body, the Epic 1 sticks faithfully to the current trend. The back is curved tapering towards the edges, giving a good ergonomic feel while holding it. While it is good to hold, when placed on desk, I find the curved rear wobbling while using it flat on the surface. While the antenna cut out is absent, it is replaced by two plastic caps on top and bottom. The brushed metal finish at the read reminds of the Honor 5X and 5C devices. The body is slightly tall and the finger can hug around the rear easily without any discomfort in spit of it being a 5.5-inch phone. The build quality is good. The rear has the rear camera, microphone, dual LED flash, finger print sensor all placed in a symmetry one after another vertically. The Infocus branding too follows suit. The bottom has the USB-Type C port, speaker grille and a secondary microphone. The top has the audio jack and IR blaster. Yes, the Epic 1 can be your universal remote. The Epic 1 supports hybrid dual-SIM and so can accomodate a microSD card. The SIM tray is on the left side, with the power button and volume rocker occupies the right side. The front side has one refreshing design addition in the form of earpiece grille which is in a circular shape with perforations. The 5.5-inch displays is strengthened by Corning Gorilla glass, the black strip on the sides of the display try to mask the bezels and give a thin frame impression. Coming to the quality of the display, the colors are neutral. The display is fairly bright but does not pop out with life. The blacks are not very intense either. The screen is kind of glossy too, which is bit distracting on direct light. Overall, the display is acceptable but not super impressive. The bluefilter in the display settings lets you choose the level of bluefilter to be applied with 10%, 10%, 30%, 50% and 75% options. The bluefilter reduces the blue light emission on the screen, thus reducing the eye fatigue on prolonged reading or browsing. The color temperature option can be changed to Cool, Natural and Warm mode. The display has on-screen buttons.

Software and InLife UI

Android 6.0 Marshmallow
InLife UI 2.0

Every phone is differentiated by its UI, while the puritans might frown upon the layer of UI the companies add on the stock android, there is no denying the consumers might like certain ease of things these UI offers. InFocus call their UI, InLife and version 2.0 is in action here. The settings are color-coded and offers a single coloumn list mode with headers and a tab mode. The UI does not offer many extra features and customization. You can change the position of the menu and back buttons on the softkeys, there are few motion gesture options like draw certain gesture to open an app. Here are the list of important features Epic 1 offers. https://youtu.be/MDA_ysW9-BE

Hardware and Performance

MediaTel Helio X20
Deca-core processor
3GB RAM
32GB storage
microSD card that can be expanded up to 128GB

By bringing the MediaTek Helio X20 chipset, Infocus brings a degree of respect to the Epic 1. The deca-core processor are arranged in a tri-cluster formation. Of the 10 cores, you have two high performance Cortex A72 cores running at 2.1GHz, one cluster of quad-core Cortex A53 running at 1.85GHz for medium loads and another quad-core Cortex A53 cluster running at 1.4GHz for low power tasks. This allows for better allocation of the resources for various tasks. How does it translate into real world usage? Equipped with a very capable hardware setup in this segment, the Epic 1 proves to be an able performer. It handles gaming smoothly with good graphics. It plays Asphalt 8: Extreme without any noticeable hiccups. It handles multi-tasking really well and 4G VoLTE works neat. The Epic 1 has hybrid Dual-SIMs, both the SIMs support 4G, but you can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time, while the other goes to 3G. In my period of usage, it never hanged once. Call quality is decent, but could have been better. The loud speaker is just passable. The default keyboard Xploree that comes with yahoo search and some auto suggestions is quiet annoying and I have to immediately change to Google indic keyboard. The phone has its own music player complete with equalizer. There are also features like shake to next song, desk lyrics and sleep mode. The FM Radio app lets you to add over 12 radio stations. The phone also comes with a IR blaster so the Epic 1 can be used as an universal remote to control your home appliances like TV, set-top boxes and air conditioners. The phone comes with a KooKong remote app and it recognized my TV and setup boxes quickly. The fingerprint sensor is a bit of disappointment. It’s not accurate and failed many a times and is a bit slow too. Plus, though the fingerprint management talks about app lock, I could not see the settings anywhere except for securing with PIN or password. The fingerprint sensor can be used to take pictures. The Epic 1 comes with a 3000mAh battery, a 30 minute charge took the reading from 0% to 40% and it took close to 2 hours for full charge. The battery life is decent, I was able to sail through a day with two SIM and WiFi constantly on.

Camera

16MP rear camera
dual-LED flash
F/1.8 aperture
PDAF
8MP front camera

We don’t see many phones that too in mid-segment featuring a F/1.8 aperture, which theoretically should give a good low-light pictures. The camera setup of Epic 1 promises to be great but let’s see if it really is. Like most phones in this range, under good natural light, the pictures are good. The colors are natural but images are not very sharp. The focus is good and latches on to the subject at ease. The low light images could not escape noise and is not very exceptional inspite of the f/1.8 aperture. In spite of the noise, it does manage to retain the mood of the low lights. In short, the camera is good considering the segment it is in but not the best in the league. The camera app is outdated and does not belong to the Marshmallow world. [gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="11922,11923,11924,11925,11926"]

Verdict

Pros

Good performance, especially gaming.
Decent battery life.
Above average camera

Cons

Fingerprint sensor is not very accurate
UI needs an overhaul

The InFocus Epic 1 undoubtedly is a good phone offering a decent mix of everything a consumer would expect a phone in this category to do. ]]>

InFocus Bingo 10 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 21:49:19 +0000

Notwithstanding the cut-throat competition from the Chinese OEMs, InFocus is consistently launching new devices in the Indian market. Along the way, they are also steadily increasing their footprints in the offline market and considerable retail presence. The Bingo lineup from InFocus is an affordable series of Android Smartphones and the most affordable of the product lineup is the Bingo 10, which we got here. Priced at Rs 4,200, roughly around US $ 65, it is aimed at the mass segment and it’s 4.5-inch compact body is for those who feel the popular 5 and above display size too big to fit into their palms and pocket. Affordable yes, but how does it perform? I uncover it all in this review. There are two things interesting compact phone with compact pricing. One, it features a LED flash at the front, so you hope to get a better selfies in not-so-good lighting. Two, it runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. InFocus claims it is the most affordable device with the M. Now the design part. The casing is poly-carbonate. The rear houses a 5MP camera, LED flash, InFocus branding in the middle and a speaker grille at the bottom. The sides gets an interesting visual treatment. The phone is dual-color, with a green color band running the sides of the white device. There is also a black variant with a blue border. The green on white looks cool, a bit youth-centric. The banding is not smooth but has diagonal cuts all through enhancing the look. The right side has the power button on top with the volume rocker a little below it. The 3.5mm audio jack and the microUSB port is placed on the top. A single microphone is at the middle of the bottom side. The back panel is removable and it houses a 2000mAh battery and dual-SIM slots. It also has an option for microSD card slot to accommodate up to 64GB.

Display

The 4.5-inch display is on a warmer side. It has a 480 x 854 pixels resolution with a 217 pixels per inch. The compact display makes the low resolution decent to live with. On the display settings, there is a bluefilter toggle and a color temperature presets, though natural and warm had smallest difference between them. The display comes pre-laid with a screen guard. The display suffers from poor contrast ration and so when you play games like Dead Trigger 2 which has lots low light or watch movies with low light effects, the dynamic range suffers resulting in poorer viewing experience.Viewing angles are not great either.

Software

While even bigger brands struggle to ship some of the better devices with Android Marshmallow version, it is good to have a entry-level affordable device like Bingo 10 running on it. While InFocus dials M for Bingo 10, it is not the stock Android experience but they have added their own layer on top of it. Long pressing the home screen takes you to the screen where you can access widgets, apps, wallpapers, preferences and task manager. There is also a theme section with couple of themes and a download icon at the theme store takes you to a theme section in Play store. Long pressing the home button pulls the Google Now and is contextual based now because of the Android M, so it reads the keywords of the screen you are and gives relevant suggestions. There are few motion features thrown in like turn over the device to reject call or shake for next song and you also get other features like App permissions etc. There are couple of pre-installed apps for memory management. I have done a separate video on the features list of the InFocus Bingo 10, you can take a look at it for more. https://youtu.be/uoWDRRQddgs

Hardware and Performance

The Bingo 10 makes use of MediaTek chipset MT6580M, a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz and paired with a 1GB of RAM and Andreno 400M GPU. It has a 8GB of internal storage but barely 2.7GB is user available. So an microSD card is a must if you intend to have some apps, music and movies in your device. So how does the device perform? The gaming was better than my expectations. Of course the modest specs might struggle with the high-end graphics games like Asphalt 8 but it did cope up well with games like Dead Trigger 2 and casual games like Subway surfers and Hill Climb Racing are very playable. The low dynamic range of the screen though comes as a bummer. It handled decently well the regular tasks like browsing, YouTube playback etc, though a bit of lag can be felt here but nothing to complaint about considering the entry-level nature of the device. It handles well the calls and the audio quality is good. The loud speaker is decent to live with at this price.

Camera

For the starters, the InFocus Bingo 10 comes with a 5MP camera at the rear and front and also a LED flash on both the sides. How does the camera deliver? The rear camera comes with fixed focus, so you can’t lock the focus on a particular object. Up close pictures suffers from lack of focus. The camera app is fundamental with face beauty and panorama mode along with HDR mode to play with. The features list on the camera app include face detection, gesture shot, burst shots up to 40 images, smile shot and timer. It can take videos on 720p. Being an entry level budget Smartphone, the camera is pretty basic. The pictures are passable and you need to pick and choose the good ones. Now the LED on the front. Does it help? A bit yes, if you want to throw some light on a poorly-lit conditions but the light is not very effective though but does throw a big of white on your face. You can check the sample below. The left picture is without the flash at a poorly lit condition and the right with the flash turned on.

My Verdict

The Bingo 10 has its flaws but one has to be realistic here, its a budget Smartphone that costs only Rs 4,299 (US $ 65), so obviously comes with few limitations. While it is good to see InFocus shipping the device with the Android Marshmallow and also experimenting with a LED flash in the front, the phone by itself is just about decent. For those who are looking at upgrading to Android from a feature phone or those on a tight budget, the Bingo 10 is a decent bet offering a good build quality, decent looks and delivers a reasonably for what you spend.]]>

Lenovo K4 Note vs Infocus M680 – A comparison

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 18:28:08 +0000

reviewed the InFocus M680 and was impressed by the design and build quality, it offered a full-metal body and the golden metallic color was a sweetener for its Rs 10,999 (they are also throwing in a selfie stick for free at that price!). Last week, we also saw Lenovo unleashing its next #KillerNote, the K4 Note. a followup to its last year blockbuster, K3 Note and is priced at Rs 11,999. How does both the device stack up against each other? Both the device features a 5.5-inch display, share the same internals with MediaTek MT6753 SoC, Octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz but there are minor differences though.

Design and build

The strength of M680 lies on its design and the choice of material used for its build quality. It’s full-metal body scores over K4 Note’s metal banding around the edges and poly-carbonate panels. While InFocus M680 measures 7.25mm in thickness, K4 Note has a curved rear, so it is 9.2mm at the thickest waistline but tapers towards the edges thus masking the thickness. Also both the devices has different design language with the M680 opting for a rectangular block design and the K4 Note is all about curves.

Color

The M680 is flamboyant here and you can choose between Metallic Gold and Metallic Silver whereas Lenovo has taken a safer route with a Tuxedo Black.

Camera

Both the Smartphones has a 13-megapixel rear camera but at the front it is a different story. InFocus M680 takes Selfie serious at least on the pixel count-wise with a 13MP again at the front. The Lenovo has opted for the now-standard 5MP front shooter. Though, let us also mention, a mere pixel-heaviness does not necessarily translate to a better imaging.

RAM

K4 Note takes the lead here with its 3GB of RAM over the M680’s 3GB RAM.

Battery

Ok! K4 Note is generous with a 3300mAh battery while the M680 packs just a 2600mAh pack. Where K4 Note scores over the M680 is the additional features like the Dolby Atmos and TheatreMax technology and InFocus wins over the #killerNote handsomely when it comes to the build quality. I am not recommending which phone is best for you, it is just how both the devices stands against each other and the specs need not always tell the full story of a Smartphone’s performance. ]]>

InFocus M680 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 15:50:26 +0000

InFocus is an American headquartered company that began their journey by making projectors and later ballooned its product line up to large format displays, televisions, tablets and smartphones. In 2013, they began selling Smartphones in China, Taiwan and far eastern markets and in 2015 they entered the Indian market. In no time, they launched an array of devices in India at many affordable price band and they are in focus (pun intended!) at the budget-conscious buyers offering a decent looking devices with good hardware specs. The InFocus M680 is one such device which is priced at Rs 10,999 and is available exclusively on Snapdeal. Clad in a full metal body, the M680 looks premium for the segment it comes out but will the good looks be enough to be a compelling reason to own this phone? I find out in this review.

Design and Build Quality

Full metal casing
Unibody
76.8mm x 156mm x 7.25mm
158 grams
Gold / White and Silver / White color options

I received the gold colored device (the color reproduces in the picture didn’t justify the actual color of the device) and when looked from rear, the M680 looks solidly, pleasant looking device. It has a matte metallic finish with a half-inch strip on the top and bottom, a shade darker than the rest of the rear. It also gives an impression that the rear panel is removable, but it is not. The back camera and the LED flash is aligned to the one corner and the InFocus branding at middle of the top half. Overall, the M680 is promising design-wise at the rear. The front face is all-familiar though, with a white frame around the display, the InFocus branding at the front could have been avoided though, it only clutters the front that also houses the front facing camera, ear-piece, notification light and host of sensors. There are three capacitive buttons and they are not backlit. The right side houses the power button and adjacent to it is the hybrid dual-SIM. The M680 can work on two nano-SIMs but the second SIM has to be sacrificed if you want to accommodate a microSD card for storage expansion. The volume buttons are placed on the left side and is positioned well for easy reach. An audio jack, microphone and a radio cutout features on the top While a five-dot speaker grille and a primary phone flanks the USB port in the middle of the bottom along with two more antenna cutouts. Overall, the M680 has a solid build quality, pleasant looks and the metal adds a premium dash to it. The 7.25mm gives it a slim profile, which is good to hold on. Anything smaller than this could get too slim to be discomfort for some people. It weighs 158 grams, with a metal body and a 5.5-inch display it doesn’t weighs down.

Display

5.5-inch IPS display
1080×1920 resolution
401 ppi

A full HD is an expected addition these days on phones and the M680 also offers one in its 5.5-inch display. The display is a good with nice color reproduction and is decently bright too. The sunlight legibility is good and so is the viewing angles. The texts are crisp to read. And overall, the display has no complaints at this price level. The display settings include a bluelight filter, convenient for long hours of browsing where it reduces the blue light emissions and while many phone these days includes a bluelgiht filter, the M680 includes four level of intensity. There is also a color temperature setting to choose between cool, natural and warm. What is lacking on the display is the absence of any protective glass layer, so if you buy a device it is pertinent to secure it with a tempered glass or screen guard.

Software and Features

Android 5.1 Lollipop
InLife UI

Lollipop is still the standard Android flavour for the devices this year and we might have to wait for the second quarter of the coming year for Marshmallow to across the board. InFocus M680 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and InLife being their user interface to come on top of it. The UI is fairly clean, though the various app permissions and management features can be a bit confusing. There is an app drawer and in case you want to get rid of it and opt for a one layer with all apps sitting on the home screen, there is an option in the settings. The UI gives you a free hand to arrange the apps on user defined layout or opt for arranging it by frequency, alphabet or installed time. The UI treats a custom icon set. Swiping up the screen takes you to the desktop settings, and there are also some motion features like turn over to reject call, volume quiet on pickup, direct call and answer, shake to next song. The settings screen can be toggled into a list mode or tab mode. I have done a video to list all the software features, tips and tricks that you can do on this device and if you are interested take a look. https://youtu.be/DhxpgKRR5yM

Performance

MediaTek MT6753 SoC
Octa-core, 1.5GHz
2GB RAM
Mali-T720 GPU
2600mAh battery
Wi-Fi, 3G/4G/2G, GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB charging port, USB OTG

The M680 comes with all the hardware specs list one would expect these days in a Smartphone in the price bracket of Rs 10K. Powering the device is a MediaTek chipset MT6753 with eight cores clocked at 1.5GHz, combined with a 2GB of RAM, Mali-T720 GPU. There is a 16GB of internal storage with around 10GB which is user available, there is also a provision for a microSD card. While the specs could be good on paper, the performance does not necessarily be taken for guaranteed. It depends on various factors and how well it is optimized. The AnTuTu benchmark tests yields a score of 37,956. Scores apart, here is how the phone performs on practical terms. For general tasks, the InFocus is very responsive and largely lag free. The call quality was good and the speaker was loud. Though the loudness doesn’t translate into a good audio output experience when listening via the speaker. The small speaker is tinny but throw in a decent headset and you can be assured of a decent audio playback. Where the device disappointed me was at gaming. I was surprised it struggles to cope up with the graphics when playing Ashpalt 8, the frame rate stutters and it was a frustrating to drive around the track. I lowered the graphic setting to medium and it fared better. The 2600mAh battery is on a lower range and it manages an average battery life. There is a power saver feature but lacks the features we have seen in the power saver mode in some of the other phones.

Camera

13MP front and rear camera
f2.2 aperture
fullHD video recording

InFocus M680 does not discriminate between the front and rear cameras and is equipped with a 13-megapixel camera on both the sides. The camera app has its own flavour with modes like panorama, motion track, face beauty, multi angle view and live photo mode, most of the modes are gimmicky and you would be sticking with the normal mode. The camera is a decent performer. Quiet snappy with quick focus lock. The day light pictures come fairly good, though the dynamic range could have been a bit better. The low light pictures are decent too. Though there is a 13MP front camera, it does not necessarily deliver a much better selfies than what most rivals produce. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="10492,10494,10495,10496,10497,10493"]

Conclusion

What works for the M680 is its build quality in aluminum clothing for the price of Rs 10,999. The phone performs well at general tasks but where it lets down is on the gaming. If you are not into gaming, the M680 is a fair deal. It has a good display, packs a decent sets of camera and a good option to look at sub-12K segment, especially if looks matter.]]>