There's no real doubt that Indian smartphone brands are giving established international companies a run for their money, but the argument that they're only able to do so by selling cheap, poorly manufactured products might not be able to hold water for very much longer. Xolo is one of a small handful of companies that isn't in a race to the bottom, and its products of late have been quite respectable in terms of looks and build quality.
Xolo has made a number of intelligent choices with its latest model, the
Q1100. Its design, features and specifications are all understated and well thought out. There are no outrageous features, such as a full-HD screen or octa-core processor, which seem to be trendy things to boast about right now. Instead, there's a well-balanced set of specifications - the kind of thing buyers should really care about.
The Q1100 looks great, with a simple all-black body and unassuming profile. The plastic surrounding the front panel glass extends over the bottom edge like a curved lip, breaking up an otherwise ordinary rectangular shape.
The most interesting thing about the Q1100 is that it is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 system-on-a-chip (SoC), as opposed to the lower-performance chips from MediaTek and other smaller companies that are prevalent not only at this price point, but also at higher prices. Unfortunately, the perception that more cores are better has become quite firmly entrenched in the market, and so with quad-core processors becoming somewhat common, manufacturers are only too happy to produce octa-core models.
The processor is supported by 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, and a 2,000mAh lithium-ion battery. The screen resolution is 720x1280; not quite full-HD, but decent enough by most standards, especially for a budget phone. You also get AGPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.
