InFocus M808 is a mix bag of good design, decent specs, average camera and battery life
By Mohd Ujaley
Encouraged by the steady acceptance of Chinese smartphones in India, the US-based InFocus which has primarily been known for its digital projectors, has recently launched a slew of devices—InFocus M370, M550-3D, M808, and M812 smartphones—between the price tag of Rs 5,999 to Rs 19,999 targeting at affordable and mid-range segments of the market. The Oregon headquartered company is known for DLP and LCD projectors, large-format touch displays, tablets and accessories. However, in 2013 it began offering budget smartphones in China, Taiwan, India and Cambodia. In India, company officials claim to have sold nearly 250,000 phones and by the end of this year it aims to sell around one million handsets. InFocus was kind enough to send us their M808 for the review. Priced at R12,999, the device is a mix bag of premium design, decent specs, average camera and battery life. Will M808 stand-out in the crowd with these specifications? Let us look into it.
Out of the box, the first thing that you notice about the device is its design, somewhat similar to Apple’s iPhone 6. The round edges, volume rocker and power key on the left edge, speaker grilles at the bottom edge, and dual SIM card slots on the right edge are some design elements that seems to have been inspired from iPhone 6. With aluminium unibody and curved edges the device looks sturdy and premium. The front is dominated by the 5.2-inch display with a 1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution and it is protected by Corning Glass 3.
In usage, the display quality of M808 is fairly satisfactory with sharp and crisp resolution. You can also read in direct sunlight without much difficulty. A 3.5 mm headset jack and the front camera are placed on the top, while there are three on-screen controls touch keys in the bottom. The undetachable rear panel is home to InFocus branding at the centre, along with rear camera and LED flash at the top right. Unlike other Android phones, all the buttons and keys are not customisable, so you cannot assign the task as per your convenience. With a thickness of 7.56 mm and weight of 156 gram, the device is neither too thick nor too heavy. It is comfortable to hold and operate. However, it is little slippery at the same time.
InFocus M808 runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and its entrails are powered by a 1.3 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT675 processor with the company’s customised layer running over it and 2 GB RAM. During the review period, the phone worked without any major hiccup but at times some of its apps crashed which hampered the overall experience. While doing multitasking or switching between the apps, there was no serious stutter or lag to write about except the issue of over-heat. The phone has 16 GB of internal memory for storage of which about 10 GB is available for use. The storage can be further expanded to 128 GB with the help of a microSD card.
On the camera front, InFocus M808 comes with a 13-megapixel auto focus, dual LED flash rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Both the cameras are decent and take pictures with good quality and fine details in regular light. However, the images were dull and less vibrant in low light conditions. Also, M808 does not have manual mode —a common feature in this price range. If you compare its nearest rivals such as Xiaomi Mi4i, Samsung Galaxy j5, and Panasonic Eluga Icon, they all have much more to offer in camera section.
InFocus M808 is packed with a non-replaceable 2450mAh battery. The overall performance of the battery has been at par with any other Android device in this range. It has decent standby time and can last between 5-7 hours with multitasking and continuous data usage. The device supports 4G, 3G, 2G, dual-SIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Overall, InFocus M808i is a decent smartphone with premium design, sharp display, average camera and battery life.
SPECIFICATIONS
* Display: 5.2 inch (1,920 x 1,080)
* Processor: 1.3 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT675
* Operating system: Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
* Memory & storage: 2 GB RAM + 16 GB internal storage
* Camera: 5 MP front; 13 MP rear
* SIM type: Dual SIM
* Battery: 2450mAh, replaceable
*Estimated street price: Rs 12,999