QiKU is the latest Chinese smartphone to have entered the Indian market. QiKU is a joint venture between Coolpad and QiKU 360 – which is a software company known for its security software in China. The company launched the QiKU Q Terra smartphone at an even in New Delhi today. The phone has been launched at two price points – for those planning to buy it directly online, the phone will cost Rs 21,999; but those willing to buy via the Q-Invite system, will get a discount of Rs 2000 making its sales price Rs 19,999. The phone will be selling exclusively on Gadgets360. Post the launch, we had some hands on time with the phone and here are our first impressions.
Design and BuildThe QiKU Q Terra belongs to the phablet category, thanks to the 6 inch display. But due to a good body to screen ratio, it manages to keep the size of the phone under check. It comes with a unibody metal build which comprises an alloy of Magnesium and aluminium. It measures 3.6mm on its thinnest edge but due to the curved back design measures 8.6mm thick. It weighs around 186 grams and we liked the weight distribution of the phone.
On the left hand side of the phone you have the dual SIM card slot as well as the microSD card slot. On the right hand side you have the volume rocker and power/standby button. The 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top whereas the base had the microUSB port beside the speaker grill section.
On the rear side you have the dual 13MP cameras and just below them there is the finger print scanner. The QiKU branding is present at the base.
The QiKU Q Terra has an interesting design and the chrome finishes around the chamfered edges and the fingerprint scanner ads an elegant touch. The side bezels are just 1.4mm thin which is good from increasing the body to screen ratio perspective, but swiping the screen is tricky, if any part of your palm spills onto the edges. Build quality wise the phone is sturdy.
DisplayWe are seeing a lot of 2K display phones these days, but QiKU has decided to go with a 6-inch full HD IPS panel with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection atop it. While things looked sharp and colours appeared vibrant, we noticed that the glass has a propensity to collect smudges. We will have to check the displays legibility in sunlight to give a well rounded answer on its performance.
Chipset, RAM, Storage and ConnectivityThe Q Terra houses the hexa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset which has the Adreno 418 GPU. This is paired with 3GB of RAM and comes with 16GB storage. QiKU gives you the option to expand the storage to 128GB using the microSD card slot present on the left hand side. During our hands on time with the device we did not notice any slowdown. QiKU has employed cooling mechanisms within the body to dissipate heat away from the chipset faster. We will need to test the phone in real world conditions to see how it handles the heat.
The phone comes with a dual SIM (microSIM + nanoSIM) card slot and can take in a 4G LTE card. Apart from this you have WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with AGPS. It does not have FM radio which may be a bummer for some buyers.
OS and SoftwareThe QiKU Q Terra runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS but comes with the 360 OS interface. QiKU claims that it offers a lot of the features present on Android Marshmallow through its proprietary OS has alternatives for Doze mode (Standby+), App Standby (Freezer), App Permission (Authority Manager) and so on.
Apart from these features, the 360 OS also let's you uninstall all the preloaded apps barring messages and the dialer, which is a welcome change from being forced to only disable preloaded apps. QiKU claims that the phone will get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in March next year.
Another feature called 'Heat tracing' lets you determine which app is causing your phone to heat up, and you can then promptly kill it. This is another good inbuilt feature.
The fingerprint scanner on the rear side can also be programmed to function as a camera shutter button as well as to receive calls.
CameraOne of the most interesting features of the QiKU QTerra is the duoscopic camera. What it means is that the QTerra has dual 13MP rear cameras, one of which is the Sony IMX278 color sensor and the other is the Sony IMX214 mono sensor. Both the cameras are accompanied by a fast f/1.8 aperture. The Sony IMX214 captures only the contours and edges in the photograph you've shot and this data is then combined with the RGBW data obtained from the Sony IMX214. On the front you get an 8MP camera. The demo venue did not give us a chance to test out the camera, but we will be doing an in depth review of the camera of the Q Terra. There was no mention of image stabilization on the camera. It is capable of shooting 4K video.
BatteryThe QiKU Q Terra houses a 3700mAh T- shaped battery which is a significant capacity. QiKU claims that it can offer over a day's worth of usage but we will be able to confirm that only after real world testing. It also supports Fast Charging technology.
ConclusionQiKU Q Terra offers a good overall feature set and has smartly given consumers the option to purchase the phone either via a Q-Invite system or buy it directly at an extra Rs 2000 premium. The exact details of obtaining the Q-Invite will be revealed next week on Gadgets360 which is the exclusive sales partner.
The camera section is the most interesting feature that we found and we are waiting to test it out while reviewing the Q Terra. Also the fact that it offers you the option to uninstall unwanted preloaded apps will be welcome. It also claims to offer some Marshmallow features with the phone which we will need to test out.
At Rs 21,999 the Q Terra has a lot on offer. We will need to see how it all comes together and how the phone performs with everyday tasks. The 6-inch form factor may not be to everyone's liking and that may make it a non option for many buyers. But for those who don't mind a large display, we can only tell if this is an option worth considering after thoroughly testing the QiKU Q Terra.
Tags: Coolpad, Q-Invite, QiKU 360, QiKU Q Terra, qualcomm snapdragon 808
Source: QiKU Q Terra first impressions: Large screen phone with a unique camera feature
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