Smartron srt.phone launched in India, price starts at Rs 12,999

 

Smartron’s srt.phone is officially here, and as the name suggests, this one is linked to the company’s brand ambassador and investor Sachin Tendulkar. As a name, Sachin Tendulkar needs no introduction in India. Most of us, irrespective of our feelings towards cricket, have seen Sachin in action at some point and cheered for him when he played for India. So Smartron is hoping to capitalise on some of that Sachin love, and hopes the srt.phone will taste success in India.

Now, a little bit about Smartron. The company is India-based, but has global ambitions in the electronics, IoT segment, and not just smartphones. Previously Smartron has introduced the tbook, and the tphone in India, but they’ve not exactly set the sales record on fire.

The srt.phone is supposed to be their first big ‘commercial’ phone launch, if you go by the words of Amit Boni, who is their new Vice President for Marketing. The srt. phone will be a Flipkart exclusive, and is priced at Rs 12,999 for the 4GB RAM + 32GB storage variant and Rs 13,999 for 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant.
So how does the Sachin and Smartron srt.phone fare? And where does it stand against the competition in the market? Here’s our first impression of the device.

Design, Display: For an upcoming brand, design can make a difference when it comes to standing out against the crowd. Sadly, the srt.phone doesn’t really do that; my first look at the device and I’m reminded of a mix of Redmi and Micromax phones. The rectangular design, the slightly curved back, dual speakers at the bottom, and all glass on the front on the titanium grey version make for a rather boring device.

But then again, Smartron is not the only brand guilty of this. Most smartphones these days look like a clone of the other. Though srt.phone does give the option of some Sachin covers for those who want to personalise the phone.

There’s no microSD slot out here, though Smartron says you will get unlimited storage in the ‘tron Cloud’ as part of the phone.

Interestingly Smartron has not gone for a full metal unibody design for this phone. The plastic back cover is removable, and this one has a Type-C USB port at the bottom. The competition like Redmi Note 4 or Moto G5 Plus is not offering this yet.

Srt.phone also has the power button on top, while the volume rocker is on right side of the device. Frankly this power button placement is awkward. So far I keep touching the volume button, every time I want to turn on the device. It’s also got a fingerprint sensor at the back, but I’ve not had time to set it up.

On the display side, this one has a 5.5-inch full HD display, and so far I’d say this is bright and vivid. It should live up to expectations of most users.

Processor, Performance: Now I’ve not really had the time to put the device through its paces, but setting up, and a little bit of browsing has not given me any issues. Apps are loading quickly, the screen animations are fluid, and the phone is quick to respond to your touch.

It comes with 32GB and 64GB storage coupled with 4GB RAM and the Snapdragon 652 processor. This is an octa-core one clocked at 1.8Ghz (quad-core A72) and 1.4Ghz (quad-core A53). Smartron insists this processor is better than what the other players are offering in this range, but again we’ll have to extensively test the phone to see how it performs.

Camera, Battery: The rear camera on this is 13MP, while the front camera is 5MP. While the rear camera is fast, and responsive when it comes to taking pictures, the results have not proved to be exceptional. Again more on this, once we’ve throughly reviewed the smartphone.
The battery on this is 3000 mAh with Quick Charge 2.0. Smartron claims this phone won’t get hot too easily, and that’s something we’ll have to see.

UI: This is the bit where I feel Smartron is doing something really positive. As far as specifications go, pretty much most phones in this price range offer something similar. Extra RAM here, extra storage there. Most will also offer a user interface, which looks utterly terrible, is confusing, and cluttered. Indian smartphone vendors are usually the worst offenders in this list. Also the updates never come.

So it is surprising when Smartron, a new player, decides to run this phone with latest Android Nougat 7.1.1 built with a stock UI experience. It has added its “tron” suite of apps, but they are not the highlight of this phone.

The experience is stock Android with Smartron promising regular updates and security patches, all of which matter in a phone. Smartron also says they are giving users the maximum amount of storage on these phones with OS taking up very little space, which is good to hear.