Spice Mi-500 Stellar Horizon

this is my initial review of Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500 nn*good 1ghz dual-core processorn*512ram cant ask more in 12.5k coz many 16-20k mobile gives 512 ramnnmost important benchmark scores are—nQuadrant Standard Edition -2633(mmx a100-2189 a90-2543)nnenamark2 test – 27.7fps (mmx a100-16.3 a90-24.3)nantutu benchmark tests – 5430(mmx a100-2845 a90-3887)nnso my verdict is Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500 will be the best mobile in its class

I bought Spice MI-500 three weeks back from Spice Hotspot store in Bangalore and this phone rocks for its price.nnThe hardware is decent for running most of the applications I have thrown at it. The phone has never frozen/hung till date amid heavy usage and the battery lasts the whole day. On couple of occasions it has gone without a charge for 2 days with light use. The dual core breezes past most of the demanding applications, games or playing movies. I have also installed a lot of applications from Google Play store and they all work well. I have installed an additional 8GB external micro SD card to store movies and music. nnHere is my reviews of this phone:nn1. Aesthetics, Handling and weight: This phone is presently available only in white color. Spice has also included a white flip cover for this phone which gives it an expensive look. However, the white flip cover attracts a lot of dirt and looks spotted with stains and dirt after only a couple of days usage. nnRemember, this is a large phone and if you have smaller hands, one hand operation will be very difficult. It also weighs 205 gms which is on the higher side. You will 'feel' the phone in your pocket. nThere are no curves on the phone, and this looks like a really big Iphone 4!nOverall a plain vanilla looking phone.nn2. Screen and Touch: The Screen is big and bright and watching movie is a real treat on this phone. 800x480 resolution delivers crisp icons and fonts. However, when outdoors the screen is difficult to read, this is one area where Spice can improve this phone. Screen has two point capacitive touch and the touch sensitivity is real smooth and responsive. The onscreen keyboard is easy to use even in the portrait mode. The stock keyboard lacks predictive typing. nn3. Camera: The main camera is 5MP, with Autofocus and LED flash. The camera takes decent photos outdoors, however lacks the clarity during low light shoot. The photos appears noisy in low light. The front 0.3MP camera does the job well. I have used video calling using Gtalk and Skype and video call quality is acceptable. nnThe camera can take macro (near objects) shots quite well and I was impressed by the quality of macro shots and the ability to clearly read the QR and bar codes quickly. The autofocus works really well, I was able to read large (more dense) QR codes with ease and accuracy. nnn4. Call Quality: I have installed two SIMS on this phone and the call quality is good on both the lines. I have not seen any dropped calls or network coverage issues till now. The call on speaker phone is also loud and clear. nn5. Data Connectivity: Wifi and 3G data connection works as intended and I do not see any issues in this area. nn6. Sensors: This phone has only two sensors - proximity and accelorometer. G-sensor and magnetic sensors are missing, so you cannot use digital compass applications and applications using motion based gestures. nn7. Battery: Large screen needs large battery. This phone boasts a humongous battery of 2400mAH which sails through heavy work day with ease, and takes just over an hour to fully charge. nn8. Headphones: This sucks! The bundled handsfree headphones are not upto the mark and are definitely not meant to listen to music. They look like Chinese made cheap headphones. They are just ok for calls.nnInterestingly, the audio hardware is good and I mean audiophile quality when listened to with a music quality headphones. The stock music player does the job ok with integrated graphic equalizer. However, the real punch comes by installing 'PowerAmp music player' from Google play store. This player is one of the highest rated in the market and delivers a very clean audio with superb bass and trebel. I have used Philips MP3 player headphones and I am in love with the quality of music. tn n9. FM Radio: The performance is ok and lacks options for equalizer. You can also record live radio. This features RDS also, though in India very few FM stations broadcast RDS. (RDS broadcasts text information) nnn10. GPS: GPS works as expected, takes about 30 secs to a minute to lock on to satellites (without using assist or AGPS). Preinstalled Google maps and Navigation works well and accurately, but needs data plan to download maps on the fly. I have also installed Sygic navigator which has downloadable maps of states and it works like a charm. Again, the screen is difficult to read in daylight or bright sunlight, But by enabling voice and turn by turn navigation you do not need to look at the screen while driving (and it is dangerous too to fiddle with your phone while driving!)nnBattery runs out very fast while using GPS and navigation, make sure nyour phone is connected to a charger while driving. You can buy a car charger separately. nn11. Benchmark: Antutu benchmark score of 5430 is very close to the Samsung S2. The overall benchmark rating is 3/5.nnnOverall a fun Phablet to have and experience the amazing world of Android without burning a hole in your pocket.