Comio X1 review: It’s all about design and looks

 

Design: Compact and lightweight

The Comio X1 is compact and lightweight device weighing in at 127 grams. The smartphone has a unibody metal design with a matte-finish rear. The rear panel is dominated by a big circular camera enclosure as seen on the Motorola smartphones. There are gold accents around the camera ring that is visible from the sides. This enclosure houses a single camera sensor. Towards the right of the camera ring at top center, there is an LED flash unit. A rear-mounted fingerprint sensor is positioned underneath the camera module. And, there is a Comio branding as well.

Moving on to the front, there is a full-screen 18:9 display but the bezels at the sides and bottom are noticeable. The thick bezels are acceptable considering the pricing of the smartphone. At the top of the front panel, there is a selfie camera, earpiece and a dedicated LED flash unit.

At the bottom edge, this smartphone features a micro USB charging port and speaker grilles on either sides. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. The left edge has a triple card slot while the right edge has the power button and volume rocker. Notably, these keys are gold in color. Given that there is a dedicated microSD card slot, users can expand the default storage space without compromising the ability to use two SIM cards.

Display: Crisp and vibrant

Comio X1 flaunts a 5.5-inch FullView HD+ display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. The screen's aspect ratio contributes to the compactness of the device. The screen is bright enough even under direct sunlight and it can display vibrant colors. During my usage, I did not find any issues with the screen considering the price point of the smartphone.

Performance: Meant for basic use

On the hardware front, the smartphone has a mediocre hardware as it is a budget device. It employs a quad-core MediaTek MT6739 processor under its hood. It has been launched with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage space and there is a dedicated microSD card slot supporting up to 128GB of additional storage space.

It handles basic tasks such as playing games, which doesn't require much graphic power, like Temple Run and Candy Crush. When I attempted to play Clash Royale, the gameplay wasn't smooth as it requires internet connectivity and more memory. Besides gaming, this device struggles to perform smoothly when we have over 5 apps opened and running in the background.

On the battery front, there is a 3050mAh battery that renders a decent juice to the device. This is one of the aspects that I like about the Comio X1. Well, the battery lasts a day even with constant internet connectivity and moderate usage. Comio X1 running Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box gives a stock Android-like interface as it comes with just a few pre-loaded apps.

The smartphone comes with AI-based Face Unlock that works quickly in some cases and not so in some others. On using the device, I felt that the Face Unlock feature could have been improved. In many situations, it takes time to identify the registered face. However, in such situations, the fingerprint sensor takes charge as it is quick enough.

Camera: Much improvement needed

For imaging, this Comio smartphone comes with a single 13MP rear camera with LED flash and f/2.0 aperture. The selfie camera is an 8MP sensor and it comes with dedicated LED flash. The camera interface comes with different modes such as FaceCute, Beauty and Bokeh modes. There are gesture controls to click shots by waving your hand, time lapse and watermark as well. Interestingly, there is Beauty Video mode that lets you click videos with the beautification effect.

The camera does a good job in daylight but the low-light performance needs improvement. The device uses AI for face unlock and bokeh effect. The bokeh effect gives an unnatural result with improper edge detection and the Beauty mode gives a washed out look in many cases. The FaceCute mode is attractive as it adds filters to your photos.

Verdict

For its asking price of Rs. 7,499, this phone brings an attractive and stylish design for those who want to use a good-looking smartphone. But when it comes to performance, it loses out on competition as there are better options with higher storage and RAM and a larger battery in this price point. Moreover, we have the newly launched Realme 2 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 at a relatively higher cost and these device appear to have better specifications and features.