Intex yesterday showcased the prototype of its all new, yet-to-be-launched and named phablet, with its USP being the first smartphone to run on MediaTek’s true octa-core MT6592 chipset. Besides the processor, Intex has also assured to offer a lot more in this phablet. We got our hands on the prototype of the device yesterday. Read on for our first impressions.
Intex has temporarily named this phone as the Aqua i17 but it isn’t the final the name as the phone is expected to be launched only some time in January next year. The design and build of the phablet is expected to remain unchanged in the final version. Speaking about the design, the phablet is humongous with a 6-inch display, but is light weight and just 7mm thin.
It has a plastic frame defining its back and rims which looked decent but not sturdy. We were told that the final unit of the device will come with a removable battery, the back panel of the prototype given to us was not detachable.
The 6-inch HD (720p) IPS display of the device looked even bigger considering that it is surrounding with a thin 2.6mm bezel on the sides. The screen looked good with decent color reproduction but knowing that it was a prototype, we won’t be able to give a clear view on the unit till we get our hands on the final unit.
On the hardware front, it had a MT6592 processor with eight ARM Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.7GHz, Mali 450 quad-core GPU, coupled with 2GB of RAM. It is due to the processor that the phablet also comes along with 4K video playback support and can convert 24/30 fps video to 60fps. MediaTek is boasting about 60 percent higher battery backup than offered by offerings by some of its prominent competitors. Overall, the processor certainly adds a lot more value to the phablet, however we will only be able to comment on the performance bit after using the final version of the phablet.
Surprisingly, the phone lacked a microSD card slot, which means one will have to rely on the 16/32GB internal memory. On the camera front, the phone sported a 13-megapixel rear camera which was nothing worth boasting. The company says that it will be able to record and play full HD videos. A 5-megapixel camera adorns the front.
Software-wise the phablet ran on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which is the standard in this segment at the moment but might be dated by the time Intex launches the phablet. We did not find any additional features and tweaks on the software side which is good in its own ways.
Intex is planning to launch the phablet some time in January next year and will price it around Rs 20,000. However, we believe it won’t be the only smartphone vendor to offer a smartphone running on the MT6592 chipset by the time Intex launches it in India.
