In today’s day and age, it’s very difficult to differentiate between smartphones. All of them look the same with a candybar design and the only difference being the construction material. The hardware specifications have also reached a certain level, wherein your daily tasks and gaming would be sufficed by most mobile devices. Cameras might be an area where there’s some scope, but if you are a casual shooter, then you would be happy with the results most phones are able to deliver. All this brings us to the question – if everything else is same, which phone would offer better user experience?
We think we got the answer to this question while reviewing the CREO Mark 1. That’s why instead of our usual review process, we will take you through what we think of the future of smartphones and how the Mark 1 fits into that puzzle.
Most of you wouldn’t even have heard of the brand, but believe us when we say that it might become the next big thing in the smartphone space. CREO is an Indian company, which is known for its Teewee dongles, which adds smarts to the TV. And, now the company is bringing similar thought process in its first smartphone, the Mark 1. At the price tag of Rs 19,999, the mobile has an impressive spec sheet that can stand out among the competition.
The CREO Mark 1 features a 5.5-inch display, which bears a rich resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. Inside ticks an octa-core processor tuned at 1.7GHz mated to 2GB of RAM. For storage, it offers 16GB of memory on-board. In the imaging department, it has a 21-meg shooter with dual-LED flash at the back and an 8MP selfie snapper. It’s juiced up by a 3,100mAh battery and all this is packed in a beautiful body crafted out of metal and glass.
In real life too, the Mark 1 scores on most aspects – beautiful display, decent performance, good shooters, and the battery life which is fine for most needs. We might have liked the glass at the back to be little less slippery or a fingerprint magnet.
However, the star of the show for the CREO Mark 1 isn’t what we have mentioned above, but it’s the software. The company has made full use of Android being completely customisable, by topping Android 5.1 Lollipop with a layer of Fuel OS. It’s among the very few custom skins that are developed in India, and we have to say that we are thoroughly impressed by the features. Some of the Fuel OS functionality which we absolutely love are mentioned below:
A universal search bar
The Fuel OS on the CREO Mark 1 comes with a feature dubbed Sense, which brings up a universal search bar irrespective of the screen you are on. All you have to do is to double tap the home button or swipe downwards. The search bar allows you to search for apps, contacts, messages and more. It also understands your context, which means that you can simply search for genre, and it’ll bring up the relevant apps.
‘Echo’ing your voice calls
There are times when we are busy in a meeting or driving, and thus miss an important call from our boss or loved ones. Wouldn’t it be cool if you can play a personalised voice message to them? Well, that’s what Echo allows you to do – set custom voice messages in up to six languages for your callers, if you don’t pick the call.
A smarter inbox
When our email inboxes are so smarter with respect to the type of emails we receive and also sending the spam mail to the junk folder, why our messaging apps lag so behind? Fuel OS offers a smart inbox that not only separates business texts from personal messages, but also offers a robust system to handle spams.
Never lose the sight of your phone
Phone theft is a common phenomenon, and while we can have things like Android Device Manager set up, at times, they fail to help us out if someone has done the factory reset. CREO Mark 1 comes with a Retriever feature, which ensures that your info doesn’t vanish even after factory reset, so that you get a prompt about your phone’s whereabouts, that too without requiring the internet.
A new phone every month
That’s a bold claim to make, but CREO has promised to keep it. Since the launch of the Mark 1, it has already introduced two major updates – one offered an in-built photo editor and the other offered immersive audio boost feature, among various bug fixes and performance improvements. This is really exciting for Mark 1 buyers as they have something to look forward to every month.
Find some Camera Samples Below
