XOLO Play 6X-1000 review – it’s a Hexa core running KitKat

The Play 6x-1000 houses the MediaTek Hexa Core processor (6 cores) running KitKat with 2GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. The XOLO Play 6X-1000 is priced at approx Rs. 12,999. Is it a good buy? Read the review to find out.

The 6X-1000 is using the hexa core chipset. The hardware performance will fall between quad core and the octa core.

Inside the box – The Play 6X-1000 handset, screen guard, a good quality – unique looking flip cover (it is ordinary flip cover), OTG cable, data cable, travel charger, warranty / user guide and earphone with earphone plug caps.

Design, Display and OS
The XOLO Play 6X-1000 has got a common look as seen on many other handsets. The build quality however is very good. The rear is with matte finish and the sides are greyish black metallic colour giving a premium look to the handset. Weight is 140 grams with battery and dimensions are 70.67 x 140.02 x 8.65mm.

The micro USB port and 3.5mm audio jack are placed on the top. The power button is on the right and volume rockers on the left. The flip cover fits perfectly well – it comes with its own back panel. The flip cover has got a nice texture (cloth like) that gives a unique look to the handset. It is a non-magnetic flip cover i.e. the screen will not switch on / off when you open / close the flip.

The IPS touch screen is 5 inches supporting 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. Colour reproduction is good and touch is smooth / responsive. Viewing angles are good. The handset runs KitKat Android 4.4.2 out of the box.

There is LED notification and you can also set the colours – just 2 colours red and green. There is accelerometer, light, Gyro, proximity and magnetic sensors.

Memory and Storage
There is 8GB internal storage and 2GB of RAM. Of the 2GB RAM about 0.92GB is available on the first boot. The free space for apps is 1.7GB and there is phone storage of 4.17GB of which 2.25GB is available. The handset does come with MC4 preinstalled and the data files I guess are on the internal storage. You can install apps on external storage – set the the preferred install location to external storage. OTG is also supported.

Performance and Benchmark
It is using the Hexa core processor (1.5GHz Cortex A7 MT6591 with Mali 450 MP GPU clocked at 600MHz – the performance is pretty smooth. For the review I switched off power management but it is highly recommended you keep it switched on. I did not encounter any lags, however when playing 1080p video in a loop the handset got a little heated up and in general when using heavy apps the handset also got heated up quickly.

Benchmark scores

App Result
Quadrant 10310
Antutu 22679
Vellamo Metal (801), Multi core (1308) and Browser (2143)
Nenamark 2 60.3fps
Multi Touch 5 point

Entertainment and Gaming
The hardware is quite powerful, it can play FHD videos with ease. Strangely when playing FHD videos the handset was heating up.

I tried MC4 (came pre-installed), Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3. All of these games worked pretty well, very smooth and playable. (Check the video review).

Camera
There is 8MP rear auto focus camera with LED flash and 2MP front camera. The camera interface is a little different. The still photo and video quality are very good. You can shoot videos in 1080p @ 30fps. Do check the sample images and videos at the end of the XOLO Play 6X-1000 review.

Others
The sound is good, loud and clear. When you press the volume button (+/-) you will hear the notification sound it is low but in general the sound is as loud as experienced on most handsets. 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth worked well. The handset does get heated up quickly, it would be better to use the power management option for optimal performance and battery backup. It is a dual SIM handset and you need 2 micro SIM’s. SIM 1 supports 3G and SIM 2 supports 2G.

Battery
This handset comes with a 2100 mAh removable battery.

Task Time Battery drop (%) (max temp)
Running Benchmark apps 22 minutes 10% (39)
1080p video with Wi-Fi on + full brightness 19 minutes 11% (46)
Asphalt 8 + MC4 11 minutes 7% (43)
Real Racing 3 11 minutes 7% (38)

Do note that Wi-Fi was on and Brightness was set to maximum. Based on these settings the battery backup doesn’t look that good. If you switch to auto brightness or minimal brightness and switch off Wi-Fi you can expect an average battery backup of3 to 4 hours. With Wi-Fi and 100% brightness the battery usage will be 2.5 to 3.5 hours.

Verdict
The handset is good (but not the best because of heating issues), comes loaded with good hardware and decent RAM/internal storage. It does get heated up when playing video using MX player probably the OS needs some tweaking. Battery backup also seems low to average. Apart from that the sound is loud and clear. The camera quality is very good.

It is not a bad choice, however there are better options available in the market. If XOLO can manage to pass on the latest Hive OS on to the 6X-1000 and/or reduce the price a little bit and manages to fix the heat-up issue / improve the battery backup, it could turn out to be a game changer.

XOLO Play 6X-1000 is available for approx Rs. 12,999.

[Rating – 3.5/5] – note the rating box below does not allow decimals.

6X-1000 image gallery

Sample images shot using this handset

Front camera sample

XOLO Play 6X-1000 full review

1080p video shot using this Play handset