Xage M486 Giant Review

One of the only phones with a 4 inch screen, Xage wanted its new phone to be very much like the Android smartphones. Well, they did manage to pretty much nail it in the hardware part, but was forgetting about the software part a smart idea? In an age where ‘smartphones’ are reigning, can this JAVA phone still hold fort? This and more is pondered upon, in our Xage M486 Giant review. Read on. 

From all sides..

Design and Build Quality

The M486 looks like a carbon copy of the HTC line up of smartphones. It's got a front speaker grill, the same curvy edges and metal finish that we've seen on the Sensation series. Aside from the similar looks, if you'll look at the device on its own, you'll be impressed at how wonderful they have managed to make an 8K phone look. It's sturdy, sleek and though a little on the heavier side, has a good grip on the hand.  

No 3.5mm headphone jack

Let's have a quick tour of this Giant. Towards the front, there is a massive 4-inch touch screen with four touch buttons on the bottom and a 1.3 megapixel front camera on the top. Here's the deal though, the touch screen is a resistive one and not a capacitive  one, and that includes the buttons as well - the first of our problems with this phone. Towards the back, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera with an LED flash and another speaker grill. On the top, there is a power button, whereas the volume rocker is located towards the left. The dual SIMs as well as the microSD card slot are located underneath the battery, so hot swappability is not present. Also, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack slot!

In terms of build, the outer shell of the device looks sturdy and well inforced. This one doesn't look like those cheap local phones that we have so often seen in the local market. The screen, however, doesn't look any thing close to the quality of the materials used on the rest of the phone. It looks pretty cheap, flimsy, and a slight press starts creating dents, which gives you an idea of what they have compromised on.

In terms of overall looks, the phone will look pretty awesome when you show it off to a friend, but only you actually know about its frailties, because you've seen it enough to know where the trade offs have been made.

Features and Performance

Interface

The most important part of the phone is obviously the interface. Who would like a phone with a hit screen, or something that doesn't register your touches well, or is super slow at doing even basic functions. Now, we'll remind you that this is a JAVA phone, and hence we are going to have a big difference in our overall user interface when we compare it to other smartphones.

The interface.. no it's not Android

The Xage M486 is a slow phone, the touch screen is erratic and the interface is down right unusable. They have modified the interface to look similar to what HTC offers on the software side. There are multiple home screens - which are extremely difficult to maneuver through. If you do manage to get through to the menu, you'll be greeted with another difficult to maneuver screen. By now, you're definitely getting the drift that the interface operates in slow motion, provided it receives your touch properly. A hit screen, as we would like to call this one, is definitely not what we would want on a phone worth Rs. 8,000.

What are the buttons for?

Now, to the other interesting bit. The four touch buttons representing home, menu, back and search are pretty much pointless considering you have dedicated icons on the screen as well. They have tried to keep the look and feel of this phone extremely close to what an Android phone would look like, but have failed miserably.