Back in May, we told you about Adcom launching six Android smartphones in the affordable segment. Adcom is an Indian manufacturer which is vying for its pie in the crowded yet fast-growing segment of mobile devices. Like all the other local manufacturers, Adcom’s devices are available at affordable price packing in good configuration. Company’s flagship device is Adcom Thunder A530 HD and we got a chance to put it through its paces. Let’s check out whether this device can stand out amongst not only global giants, but also relatively known home-grown companies like Micromax, Karbonn, etc.
Jump to- |
| Positioning |
| Inside the Box |
| Specifications- A Quick Glance |
| Design and Build Quality |
| Controls and Ports |
| Display |
| Hardware |
| Benchmarks |
| Software |
| Camera |
| Multimedia |
| Connectivity |
| Battery Life |
| Verdict |
Table of Contents
Positioning
The device is priced at an economical price of Rs. 8,999 and coupled with discounts and offers, one can easily get it at around Rs. 8,200. At this price-point and the specs, its competing against recently launched Micromax A92 Lite, Micromax A111 Canvas Doodle, Maxx AX8 Note II and the likes. But, none of them exactly matches the specification of the smartphone, which makes it pretty compelling choice.Inside the Box
Adcom Thunder A530 HD packs in a lot of stuff in a nice little box-- The smartphone
- MicroUSB cum Charging cable
- Travel Adapter
- In-ear earphones
- Two Batteries
- Flip Cover
- User Manual and Warranty Card
- Screen protector
Specifications- A Quick Glance
| Screen Size | 5.3 inches |
| Processor | 1.2 GHZ dual-core |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Internal Memory | 4 GB |
| External Memory | up to 32 GB via MicroSD card |
| Rear Camera | 8 MP |
| Front Camera | 2 MP |
| Operating System | Android 4.2.1 (JellyBean) |
| Network Support | Dual-SIM, 2G and 3G |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Hotspot, GPS with A-GPS |
| Sensors | Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer |
| Battery | Li-ion 2800 mAh |
Design and Build Quality
Our review unit was in white colour which gives the smartphone a really premium look. At the outset, one can easily mistake it as a Samsung smartphone from Galaxy range as it’s front resembles those devices very closely. Even the buttons at the bottom of the screen are exactly same with a physical Home button sandwiched between two capacitive buttons for Options and Back. However, at the closer look, one can see a shiny metallic rim running along the sides of the Adcom A530 HD giving it a nice appeal. The back of the smartphone is glossy so much so that its gathers one’s fingerprints very easily and becomes slippery if the hands are sweaty. At the top of the screen, there’s secondary camera, proximity sensor and Earpiece.
Talking about handling of the smartphone, it’s quite obvious that such a large screen device will have a considerable size and weight. The weight of the device is also much more than other devices and might take time for someone to get used to it. Even though I have comparatively big hands, I still had to resort to use both hands for performing any operation on the phablet. 
Controls and Ports
The power key is on the right side, and it’s a little bit lower so that one doesn’t face any difficulty by awaking the device from sleep/ powering on with one hand only. The left side houses the volume rocker.
The top of the smartphone finds place for a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, whereas the microUSB charging cum data transfer port is at the bottom of the device. 
It’s back has a primary camera with LED flash and speaker mesh at the bottom. The back cover is removable showing slots for microSD card and two SIM cards along with battery. 
Display
The device’s namesake comes from its massive 5.3 inches LCD screen which brings it in to the territory of phablets popularized by the Samsung Galaxy Note series. The device name also says HD, but we would like to clarify that the display actually bears a qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels, resulting in a decent pixel density of 208 ppi. The screen offers good contrast and offers enough brightness making it viewable under direct sunlight as well. However, many a times the colours seems to be a bit washed out.Hardware
Adcom Thunder A530 HD is powered by 1.2 GHz dual-core MediaTek 6577 processor based on ARM v7 core. The processor is being supported by a RAM of 512 MB. I must admit that I was a bit sceptical about the device performance as most of the recent smartphones are powered by a quad-core processor and even more RAM, but there was absolutely zero lag in performing about any tasks on the smartphone. Browsing through menus, reading documents, internet surfing, etc. was a very smooth experience. Multitasking also worked as expected and playing games like Subway Surfers and Angry Birds was relishing.
In memory department, the device comes with 4 GB of internal storage and almost half of it is reserved for OS and apps, thus user has access to approximately 1.97 GB storage for their data. But, for multimedia enthusiasts, the device offers option of external storage up to 32 GB via MicroSD card. 
Benchmarks
Since the device’s performance review is based upon my perception of the device, to gain a better idea of its hardware configuration and performance, let’s see how it stacks up against other smartphones-AnTuTu Benchmark
Epic Citadel
KFS Benchmark
Quadrant
Vellamo HTML5
Vellamo Metal
Software
The smartphone is loaded with Android 4.1.2 version of JellyBean, which is not the latest (4.2 has been out for a long time and 4.3 was recently released). Still, the OS offers most parts of the User Interface and offers smooth experience thanks to Project Butter. Adcom hasn’t modified the stock Android OS and thus the smartphone delivers a pure Google experience with default apps like dialler, messaging, calendar and more. Although, company has added lots of games and apps on it such as Angry Birds, Temple Run 2, Fruit Ninja, Dropbox, Google Drive, Documents to Go, etc. The good part is that unlike other manufacturers which install the apps in the root access, so that they can’t be uninstalled, however apps available on this smartphone can be easily uninstalled if they don’t suffice for one’s needs.
Camera
The device flaunts an 8 MP camera at back with autofocus and LED flash. It’s capable of shooting images at 3268 x 2448 pixels and videos at . The camera app is also the stock Android and offers easy to use interface for adjusting various settings like White Balance, Exposure, Sharpness, Hue, Saturation, ISO, etc. before shooting picture or video. The picture quality is pretty decent even in low lightning conditions largely due to its excellent flash. The videos are being recorded at 640 x 480 pixels @ 30 fps, however they are recorded in 3gp format which is fairly old. It also provides option for shooting 360° Panoramas, Self Times, Continuous Shots (either 40 or 99) and taking HDR (High Dynamic Range) images.
For video calling facility, the smartphone has a secondary camera of 2 MP which worked well during my use with Skype. It’s capable of capturing videos at 640 x 480 pixels @ 12 fps.
