XOLO Q700S review – another 1.3GHz quad core with FHD video recording

The XOLO Q700S is another 1.3GHz quad core powered handset running Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. This handset can record full HD videos and competes with the Micromax Canvas A114. XOLO Q700S is a available for under Rs. 9,600.

Q700S Unboxing
Inside the box you will find the handset, a screen guard, travel charger, data cable, quick start guide, warranty info, earphone and 1800 mAh battery.

Design and Display
The XOLO Q700S is smart looking. It is in black and silver color combination, the screen and a part of the sides are black color and the rest is silver. The body is made of plastic but looks like metal because of the silver metallic finish. The build quality is very good however there is a small gap on the rear (check the video review). The gap is more visible because of the silver metallic finish.

The handset weight with battery is 137 grams and dimensions are 64.40 x 135.86 x 9.46mm. The 4.5 inch screen is IPS LCD with capacitive touch supporting 854 x 480 pixels resolution with 16M colors. The touch is good, however horizontal lines are easily visible when the brightness is set to the maximum. The handset already has a factory fitted screen guard in addition to the free screen guard included in the box.

It is a dual SIM slots (normal SIMs) with dual standby mode. There are 3 sensors – accelerometer, proximity and light. The Q700S belongs to the Q7xx family (Q700 and Q700i).

Memory, Storage and OS
This handset comes with 1GB RAM of which 809 MB is available on the first boot, that’s a lot of free RAM. And of the 4GB storage 1.75GB is allocated for internal storage and a 0.95GB is the space for apps. There is Micro SD card slot that can house another 32GB external card. You can install apps on external storage. Handset runs on Android 4.2.2 out of the box.

I am not sure about OTG, I forgot to check that. If anyone is using the XOLO Q700s please let us know. I will try checking that once when I get a hold of the Q700S, again.

Performance
It is using the MT6582 chipset – quad core clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with Mali 400 MP GPU. Performance is at par as seen on other 1.3GHz quad core powered handsets using the same chipset.

Benchmark scores

• Quadrant Standard – 6998.
• AnTuTu – 17114; 2^nd time – 17534.
• Vellamo – HTML5 1954, Metal 549.
• Nenamark 2 – 54.4 fps
• Multi touch : 5 points.

Entertainment and Gaming
The Q700S can play full HD videos – tested it used MX Player in H/W as well as S/W modes. I tried the Modern Combat 4 (MC4) – installed on the external storage. I skipped the Asphalt 8 cause there was some update and it forced me to download approx 1.5GB of data – did not have the time for that. The MC4 worked pretty well and am sure the Asphalt 8 would be smooth even in high visual mode. We have seen it in action on the Micromax A114 with the same hardware.

Camera
8MP rear camera quality is pretty impressive (considering the price) specially the close-ups and long shots. The low light photos with and without flash is not at all good. The night shot (street light) is hardly visible and in spite of having a dual LED flash the camera performance in a dark room is no good. Full HD videos are pretty good. Front camera output is below average.

Others
The speaker sound is a bit low. Sound clearly is good. 3G worked well, and did not face any issues with Bluetooth and WiFi. GPS is very fast – you will get a lock under 3 seconds.

1800 mAh battery performance
For the 4.5 inch screen with FWVGA resolution the battery seems more than enough. Official specifications state that the battery will give 9 hours of talk-time on 3G networks and 23 hours on 2G. I used the Q700S for 28 minutes running benchmark apps and playing MC4 for few minutes the battery dropped by 4% and the max temperature was 38 degrees.

A 4% drop in 28 minutes is pretty good an estimated over 6 hours of heavy usage on a full charge.

Verdict
The XOLO Q700S competes with Micromax A114.  Price wise there is not much of a difference. Specifications are a bit different the Q700S is with smaller screen and lower resolution and also comes with 1800 mAh battery. Q700S looks more premium. XOLO Q700S is again a very good option for the price.

Image Gallery

Sample Images

XOLO Q700S handset and Gaming review

Full HD 1080p video @ 30fps recorded using the Q700S handset