Videocon A30 Mobile Review

Videcon A30 hasDual SIM, Android 4.0 based A30 is currently the flagship phone of Videocon. It comes with 4 inch screen with WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution and a 1 GHz dual core Qualcomm Scorpion processor.It also has a 5 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a front facing VGA camera. A 1500 mAH battery powers the phone which is priced at Rs 7,700.



Design

Videocon A30 has nothing special in terms of design. It has an all black front and a white coloured back panel which is shiny and can get slippery. The camera sits in the top middle portion flanked by an LED flash. The Videocon logo is at the bottom, slightly above the speaker grill.
The power button is situated on the top towards the left side instead of the usual right hand top side. Since the phone is small in size, the placement is not an issue, but the 3.5 mm jack is placed on the right of the power/lock button, which makes it a bit awkward to unlock the phone while using the headphone. However it is not a deal breaker anyways.
The volume rocker is on the top left side while the USB slot is on the lower side of it. Inside the back panel, the Videocon A30 houses two SIM slots alongside the micro SD card slot. Thankfully, one need not to remove the battery to access these but a hot swappable memory slot (which does not require the phone to be shut down while inserting or removing the SD card) would have been better.
The four capacitive touch buttons below the screen are all back lit. Having four buttons point to the fact that phone was designed for Android 2.3 but Android 4.0 was ported to it. This though is no drawback as it allows all the functions Android 4.0 except for that fact that you will have to long press the home button to see all the running apps which in case of three button design is a one touch affair.

Videocon A20 Mobile Review

Videocon A20 is a dual SIM entry level Android phone. Priced at Rs 5,200, this handset comes with a 1 GHz processor based on a Qualcomm chipset, a 3.5 inch display, 3G, WiFi, GPS and a front camera for video chatting. Given these specifications, it looks like a good handset for the price, but being good on paper and being good in use are two different things. Here is how it performs in the real world.

Design - 

This shiny little piece of hardware is not revolutionary in terms of design, but it certainly looks good with a little chrome thrown in everywhere, including around the screen and the camera at the back. The two SIM cards and the lone micro SD card slots are accessible by removing the battery only.

The phone is small but still feels slightly bulky as it is 12.8 mm thick and is also slippery, yet it is not a big issue.

The Videocon A20 has four capacitive touch buttons in the front, a power/lock button on top and a volume rocker on the left-all regular placement and there is nothing much to talk about here. The build quality of the phone is good.

Display - 

Videocon A20 has a 3.5 inch display with 320 x 480 pixel resolution, which is not much. However, being a relatively smaller screen, the resolution seems to be just enough to give a nice feel to images.Pixelation is visible without doubt, but for a budget phone, display is bright and renders colours satisfactorily. The display's response to touch is good and there are no issues with that.

Performance

The Qualcomm Scorpion processor, clocked at 1 GHz, was at first sight expected to give good performance. However, there is only a 256 MB RAM, which actually stifles performance. So while games like Temple Run play on the phone just fine, the phone hangs when you switch between applications, and it slows down even while performing simple tasks like making calls.If you manage the memory well, you can get pretty decent performance from the phone. Make sure you clear the cache and close down apps with the help of an Android booster or similar app.

Camera -

Videocon A20 has a 3 megapixel rear camera, which is a fixed focus unit and given its low resolution, nothing much was expected either. You can click fine images with it in bright conditions, but in low light the camera is clearly below par.There is a front camera, though, and it is great since it allows video chat, which is commendable in a phone in this price bracket. However, its VGA front camera is very acceptable for video chat.

Battery -

The 1350 mAh battery is not much, but the phone has a small display so this battery manages to support the phone for almost one and half days, which is good for a smartphone.But then again it does manage your battery properly, for example keeping the 3G, WiFi and GPS off when not in use.

OverAll -

Videocon A20 is based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is an old version. However, as a matter of fact, there is no phone below Rs 7,000 with a higher version of Android. The phone gets full marks for connectivity as it has 3G, Bluetooth, GPS (there is no LTE in India anyway,) and even FM radio.At Rs 5,200, Videocon A20's performance and build quality are very good. It has all the requisite features, though some features like the rear camera are of not much use.