Mobiistar XQ Dual and CQ First Impressions: Tough competition ahead

Mobiistar XQ Dual and CQ First Impressions

Mobiistar, the Vietnamese smartphone brand has forayed into the competitive Indian smartphone market with the launch of company's Selfie series smartphones - Mobiistar XQ Dual and CQ. Priced at Rs 7,999 and Rs. 4,999 respectively, the new budget smartphones will be available on Flipkart starting from May 30, 2018.

The company has also partnered up with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio under which users will get Rs. 2,200 instant cashback on select plans. The Mobiistar selfie smartphone series come with a Complete Mobile Protection plan which will offer warranty in cases of hardware -software issues, broken screen, liquid damage, repair & replacement and even doorstep pickup and drop. This will come at a very special price of Rs. 99.

We were present at the Mobiistar launch event and tested these handsets for a brief period of time to find out what Mobiistar has to offer to Indian consumers. Here's what we think of the new devices from Mobiistar.

Design and Display

Mobiistar XQ Dual

Mobiistar XQ Dual is very comfortable to hold, thanks to its rounded corners and compact form-factor. The new smartphone comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD display that has a screen resolution of 1920X1080 pixels. Sadly, the screen aspect ratio is still 16:9, which can be a deal-breaker for some users, who can easily opt for a handset with the current market standards, i.e. 18:9 aspect ratio.

At the right side of the smartphone, you will find the power button and SIM card slot while the volume rocker is placed on the left side of the smartphone. The headphone jack is placed at the top while micro USB port is at the bottom with the speaker grills.

Overall the smartphone looks quite good and feels comfortable to hold; however, this design still feels outdated in the year 2018. The display seemed quite responsive, decent and viewing angles were also good. However, we will evaluate the screen's outdoor performance while reviewing the handset in the coming week.

Mobiistar CQ

Mobiistar CQ is the second offering from the company which comes with 5-inch HD display along with the 2.75D curved glass. Similar to XQ Dual, the display of Mobiistar CQ is pretty responsive and vibrant, but once again, the screen aspect ratio is 16:9 And unlike XQ Dual, the volume rockers and power button are placed at the right of the smartphone and the SIM card tray is placed at the left. Mobiistar CQ comes equipped with a non-hybrid SIM card slot and a dedicated slot for micro-SD card. This will allow users to run both SIM cards and microSD card simultaneously, which is definitely a plus point here.

Hardware and Software

Mobiistar XQ Dual

The XQ Dual features Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 Octa-Core that is coupled along with 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM, which is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card.

On the software front, the device runs on dated Android 7.1.2 Nougat. Mobiistar will face tough competition from brands like Tecno, Infinix, etc. who are offering Android 8.0 in their smartphones at the same price range.

During my short span with the smartphone, I did not face any delay while opening applications and navigating through the user interface, however, we will give our final verdict after reviewing the handset.

Mobiistar CQ

The CQ smartphone comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM. Now, this can be a deal-breaker as competitors such as Xiaomi's Redmi 5 A offers 2GB RAM + 16GB storage and a Snapdragon CPU at the same price.

Camera:

Mobiistar XQ Dual

The new smartphone features dual-camera setup of 13-megapixel + 8-megapixel with a f/2.2 aperture for selfies. The XQ dual has a 120-degree wide-angle camera. There's a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture.

Mobiistar says that the XQ Dual also equipped with the starlight feature which will give users the option to click bright selfies in low light.

Mobiistar CQ

The CQ smartphone on the other hand sports 13-megapixel selfie camera fine and 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and LED flash. It is equipped with a large f/2.0 aperture, which increases the amount of light entering the camera.

We tested both the cameras for a brief period and found that the shots showed decent detailing and vibrant colors in daylight, but we will evaluate this handset's imaging abilities in the coming week during our detailed camera review of the smartphones on GIZBOT.

Connectivity and battery:

Mobiistar XQ Dual is backed by a 3,000mAh battery whereas the Mobiistar CQ is powered by a 3,020mAh battery with smart power saving feature. Seeing the overall specifications of the devices, we can expect a day's backup from these smartphones.

Both the XQ Dual and CQ are compatible with VoLTE and the latest ViLTE feature which is a video call service based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core network.

Verdict

Both XQ Dual and CQ budget smartphones seem like decent budget smartphones but the market offers well-established handsets from popular brands like Xiaomi, Honor and some other brands.

We didn't face any major issue with the smartphones in our brief usage. However, the smartphones will face tough competition from other handsets in the similar price segment such as Xiaomi Redmi 5A, Redmi 5, and Honor 7.

Stay tuned for our comprehensive review of Mobiistar smartphones.