Unremarkable By Vinodh Kumar Markapuram on 04 May, 2016
I am disappointed with this phone.nnBut that is not how it all started. I was super excited and eager to get my hands on the phone. I watched all the Youtube video reviews, read-up everything online and even participated on the creosense.com forums w... ith my suggestions on future enhancements. But read on...nnTHE UNBOXINGnnI don't know where I read it, but there was some buzz online about the phone being "Made in India", and I got a rude shock when I found out that the phone was made in China. Maybe it was my mistake in understanding what was said or implied.nnSecond came the overall looks of the phone. Disappointing. It looks like a brick, weighs like a brick, and feels like a brick. I don't know why the online pictures look so sleek but the phone in hand looks underwhelming. And I don't know where all this "gun-metal black" is coming from, the phone I got had a silver bezel. Unless, silver is the new black. The truth of the matter is, the phone simply lacks design refinement, and it is an amateurish effort, looks-wise. It does not look ? 19,999/- worth (e.g., an equivalent Sony Xperia model).nnApparently, Creo is shipping out phone covers to all initial buyers. Way to make a big phone bigger (and uglier) still. nnTwo thumbs down.nnINITIAL IMPRESSIONS nnAfter installing the SIM, SD card and booting-up (with no problems), the near-stock Android was just that; ok, but nothing great. One pleasant surprise are the Creo apps, well made, with good GUI and (probably) working without any problems. Sense, Echo, Messaging, Retriever, all work well, no problems there. Creo has put some effort into it. But the Android customization itself is lacking any major changes and there are no attempts to smoothen the rough edges (of Android). nnSurprisingly (considering the complains over the creosense.com forums), I did not find any heating problems (during usage or charging). It does get warm, as could be expected, but nothing too bad. nnThe 21 megapixel camera (or the camera software) is a huge disappointment; the photos were patchy with no detail. Colour accuracy too is lacking. Photos look worse than those from my 5 MP camera on my Lumia. It looks like this could be fixed via some future software update. I didn't bother with the front facing camera. nnIn this particular case the 2.5D Gorilla Glass is a disadvantage twice over. It neither adds to the looks nor does it enhance the functionality. If one's fingers were to accidentally touch the edges while holding the phone, it mis-registers any screen touches. Like I said, "lack of design refinement." Also, the touch-screen sensitivity could do with some tweaking; many many times, I found touches mis-registering or not registering.n nWith a phone so big, one would expect the battery to last a whole working day, but I never got more than 7 hours (to 5-7% battery). This was with *no* extra apps installed. Maybe battery life would improve over time. nnTHE LAST STRAW nnThen came the screen flickering problem... it happened at random times, possibly with the adaptive brightness switched on and is very noticeable (and distracting) with screen brightness less than 30%. I'm sure this can be fixed with a software update, but my patience had run out. nnI requested a return, Flipkart accepted, and I don't have to look at this phone again. I expect more of my ? 19,999/- nnTHE BOTTOMLINE: The Creo Mark I is an unremarkable (even mediocre) phone with a great sales pitch.
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