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Off late, budget Android phones are being manufactured by the dozen by both local as well as International brands. And why not, they’re gaining a good momentum in the market, because of their pricing. Spice Mobiles recently launched the little brother to the Mi-350n that we reviewed earlier. A full 70 points down and sans the ‘n’ factor, the Mi-280 is currently selling for more than two grand less, than it’s elder ‘budget Android’. But does that mean it’s a worthy buy? Let’s find out. ![]() Plastic looks
Design and Build Quality The Mi-280 isn’t the best of lookers. It’s covered in silver and black, but there’s no wow factor out here. With cheap phones, certain tradeoffs are definitely going to exist, more particularly in this section. There are a lot of plastics involved in the build of this phone, but it’s extremely light weight at 96 grams (according to the Spice website).
The front consists of the 2.8-inch capacitive TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Underneath are four capacitive buttons - a dedicated call and end button and a directional keypad. Eleven buttons (five for the directional keypad, call, end and the four stock Android buttons) aren’t required to manoeuvre through a phone with touchscreen capabilities. Yes, the keypad is an absolute waste of space on the phone. ![]() Connectivity options
Moving to the sides, there’s no dedicated camera shutter button and the only button is the volume rocker one on the left. The top consists of the 3.5mm headphone slot and a microUSB connector, whilst the speaker and the camera are located at the back. The build quality isn’t exactly something to write home about, but we’ll have to give this one to Spice, as the phone doesn’t look as if it’s going to fall apart or something. The plastic and glossy finish might give it that ‘cheap’ look, but the build isn’t all that bad.
Features and Performance Interface The Mi 280 runs on a 650MHz processor with Android 2.3.4 onboard and 134 MB of internal memory. So, the only thing that actually differs from the Mi-350n is that you get 170 MB of internal memory. The 280 is surprisingly quick in navigation. There’s no noticeable lag, whilst moving in and out of menus or even multitasking. The phone might slow down when a lot of applications are open, and that’s when your task manager comes in handy. Social networking integration is done using default Facebook and Twitter applications. The custom ROM that we saw on the 350n is pre-loaded in this smartphone as well. The best part about it is that it’s got a nifty drop down notification menu with a lot of options to toggle connectivity, profiles and power options. ![]() The interface
The display might mar your Android experience on this phone. It’s extremely low resolution and 65k colours don’t really light up the screen, so that’s another trade off you’ll have to live with. Linpack gave the Mi 280 a single thread score of 8.377 and a multi thread score of 7.186 points. AnTuTu gave the phone a score of 1717, which means it’s in the same range as its elder brother, the Mi-50n. |
REVIEWS / SMARTPHONES / SPICE MOBILE
Spice Mi-280 Review
13 Feb, 2012, 5:11 pm IST | by
Karan Shah
|
Smartphones
PRICE IN INDIA
5,250
CONTACT
+91 22 6119 0509
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How We Test
The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.
Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.
Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.
Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.
Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category.
There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.
What do the ratings mean?
Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.
1 - 3
The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.
4 - 6
An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.
7 - 8
Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.
9 - 10
Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!
What is the Average User Rating?
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