Mobile Fun

Micromax X600 - Now make better use of gravity [Review]

Most dual SIM, mobile phones come with the same boring procedure of swapping SIM cards using just software. The X600 does something radically differently - this function now has a hardware trigger using a built in motion sensor and dual microphones and speakerphones; one each on each end of the phone. All one needs to do is flip the phone upside down and it automatically swaps to the other SIM card installed. The motion sensor is gravity enabled, giving the phone its name. Fit and feel wise, the phone seems to be quite well built. The whole body is made of plastic with a brushed feel to the surface and a brushed aluminium bezel around the 3.2 inch touch-screen display.

The call receive and end buttons are placed on the top and the bottom which make it very easy to use the gravity sensor enable SIM swapping. It comes with no other buttons for key lock, or volume increase or decrease. Even the power on/off function is carried on by the call end button. So it can be a bit frustrating to change the volume while taking a call or listening to music as you will have to depend on the touch-screen always. It does come with a stylus, but if one loses that, he will have a hard time changing the volume as the touch screen is resistive hence it requires a bit of pressure as well as accuracy. If only they had improved the usability of the resistive touch display it would be a reasonable package, its biggest drawback is the quirky interface.

Performance

Besides that, call quality is fairly satisfactory, in zone one it was clear and static free, but when we entered zone 2, the sound got distorted and sounded metallic and choppy. The voice clarity on the loudspeaker was also pretty clear although when playing music on high volumes it again got distorted with bass heavy songs. The volume was pretty high and it was easy to have a conversation even in a slightly noisy area.

The bundled earphones were a surprise. Micromax has provided noise isolating earphones which is a rarity among mobile phones in this price range. The sound quality was good, although they are a bit boomy – bassheads will like this. The X600 has a basic 2 megapixel camera. The interface is pretty informative giving information like picture quality, timer options, white balance settings, but one cannot switch to video directly from that interface, one needs to go back and select the video recorder separately – an ergonomic blunder. The quality of the recorded video is also not all that good, and its pixelated and there is a lot of judder. Overall image quality from the still camera is again satisfactory at best.

The data transfer speeds to the device we very good, it took about 25 seconds to transfer a 100 MB file via USB which comes to about 4 megabytes per second and about 45 seconds to transfer a

5 MB file via Bluetooth, that translates to a speed of about 111 kilobytes per second which is
mediocre. Also when connected via USB, this phone can be used as a webcam – a neat plus.

Overall this phone rates as a pretty good multimedia device with good quality earphones and a nifty way of switching phones with the option of expanding its memory using a microSD card. What micromax could have improved in this phone is the usability of the resistive touch display, but besides that for a price of about Rs. 6,000 its a good touch-only phone to consider.


Specifications: Display: 3.2-inches, 240 x 320 pixels, resistive touchscreen, 262K colours; Memory: 70 MB inbuilt, microSD expandable, dual SIM, 110 grams

Rating:
Features: 7
Performance: 6.5
Build: 7.5
Value: 8
Overall: 7.5

This post was written by: Franklin Manuel

Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter