InFocus Epic1: New entrant in the budget segment

American electronics manufacturer InFocus, which made its foray in India in 2015, launched its Epic 1 smartphone last month. The phone finds itself in a highly proliferated segment — the sub-₹15,000 smartphone category and I got my hands on a unit to see if it matches up.

The metal and glass unibody that the Epic 1 sports give it a great look and feel. I especially liked the brushed metal finish on the back. The phone is slim, and with rounded edges, is easy to hold. The 5.5-inch screen takes up most of the front and given that the navigation buttons are onscreen, there really is no utility for the considerable space below the screen. The back houses a fingerprint sensor that can also be used to click selfies, along with the camera and the dual LED flash. The top of the phone has a 3.5mm jack and an Infrared transmitter and the bottom houses a USB Type C port and the loudspeaker. The sides sport the power and volume buttons and the hybrid SIM tray, capable of dual SIM functioning.

Probably the biggest talking point about the Epic 1 is the ten-core processor and the 3GB RAMK that powers the device. Given these specifications, the phone multitasked well and there was very little lag, apart from a few stutters during gaming. However, the phone does heat up on gaming and slightly prolonged camera use. It has 32GB inbuilt storage, expandable to 128GB. The 3,000mAh non-removable battery dished out an average performance, lasting about a day under normal use conditions. You get a fast charger in the box, so it doesn’t take long to juice it up. The phone also offers VoLTE support along with 4G connectivity.

The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and it is topped with the Inlife UI. I felt that the phone had a fair bit of bloatware and there is no app tray.

The Full HD display, topped with corning Gorilla Glass, is pleasing and easy on the eye. It also performed reasonably well under direct sunlight, although at high brightness, the colours tend to look a little faded.

The 16MP rear camera, equipped with auto image stabilisation, performed well in the day. The pictures were sharp and the colours well pronounced. However, at night and under low light, image quality is marred with noise and focus issues. The camera has a picture-in-picture mode that lets you use both the cameras at the same time. Videos have electronic image stabilisation and there are three video quality modes to choose from. The front camera at 8MP lets you click good quality selfies and is suitable for video calling.

The Epic 1 is a decent overall package, but faces stiff competition in its segment from the likes of the Moto G4 Plus and the Redmi Note 3. The 10-core processor and its great looks definitely work in its favour and are the biggest reasons favouring a buy.

Price: ₹12,999

Love: Looks, processor

Hate: Heats up, bloatware

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