Xolo announced the addition of a new affordable smartphone to its Era series in September 2016.
Following this announcement, the Indian manufacturer launched its Xolo Era 1X towards the middle of the same month. Interestingly, the handset is available only through online sales at the moment and there is no clue when or if it will be available offline through retailers as well. Available in a combination of black and gunmetal or brown and gold, the Era 1X is capable of supporting two micro SIM cards at a time. It is also loaded with almost all the standard smartphone sensors like proximity sensor, accelerometer and ambient light sensor. If you are on a shoestring budget and looking for a device with decent specifications and feature, considering this gadget is definitely a good idea.
Dimensions, Weight, Body Materialand Design
The Xolo smartphone has a decent size and weight that makes it easy to hold or put in your pocket. Featuring a size of 145.5 x 72 x 8.6 mm, the handset is not very thick either. Also, the device is not very heavy to hold with its weight of 142g. What is immediately noticeable is that though the 1X houses a fully plastic body, it does not feature the usual cheap look and feel that a few other gadgets with plastic bodies present. The corners of the Xolo Era 1X are fairly sharp giving it an almost rectangular design. As usual, the power and volume control buttons are located on the right side of the smartphone.
Screen Size and Display, Pixel Resolution and Density
The Era 1X has a standard diagonal screen size of five inches. The IPS HD screen supports two-point multitouch functionality while rendering a color depth of 24 bits and an aspect ratio of 16:9. Pixel resolution and pixel density are also pretty good with their values of 720 x 1280 and 294ppi respectively. Displays portray justifiably good clarity and crispness for a handset of its price range. Assistant cast screen is a key highlight of the screen of the 1X. Because of the wide viewing angles, it becomes easier to catch up with your online activities and gaming.
Front and Rear Cameras
Xolo does not let you down in the optics department. Although the Xolo Era 1X does not sport cameras with very high pixel ratings, the integrated cameras undeniably offer satisfactory results. On the rear, the device incorporates an 8MP snapper with a CMOS sensor, a Largan 5-element lens and an LED flash. While still images or photos have a pixel resolution of 3264 x 2448, the videos bear a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080. The Era 1X makes use of a smart camera feature to capture up to 15 image frames in one shot. According to the manufacturer, some key highlights of this autofocus shooter are slow motion and time lapse videos, beauty mode, live photos and audio note. Selfies and video chats also yield positive results thanks to the 5MP shutter bug with dual LED flash on the front. This camera supports 2560 x 1920 image resolution and 1280 x 720 video resolution. Both primary and secondary cameras record videos at the same rate of 30 fps.
Under the Hood Configuration
As can be expected; the RAM, internal storage and operating system installed in the 1X are more or less at par with its counterpart smartphones that are similarly priced. When you get the Xolo handset, it offers you 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM as its internal storage. You can add on another 32GB to this internal storage with the help of an external memory card. The handset comes with an out of the box installation of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Surprisingly, Xolo has not relied on the standard MediaTek or Qualcomm Snapdragon for its central processor. Instead, the device utilizes a quad core Spreadtrum SC9832A central processor that clocks at 1.3GHz and a dual core ARM Mali-400 MP2 graphics processor.
Connectivity Options
The Xolo Era 1X has the ability to support almost all the typical connectivity options. These include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi (hotspot, direct, 802.11 b/g/n), 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB port and GPS. However, the inability to support NFC and infrared may turn out to be disappointing to some people.
Battery and Battery Life
Like almost always, the Era 1X uses a non-removable Li-polymer battery of 2,500 mAh capacity. This battery provides close to 22 hours talk time and 185 hours standby time on 2G networks. Its equivalent talk time value on a 3G network isapproximately 13 hours. Stand by time remains the same at 185 hours.