Mobiistar XQ Dual Review: New contender for Entry-level selfie phone

Mobiistar is the new Vietnamese brand that entered into Indian smartphone market by launching Mobiistar XQ Dual as their first device in the entry-level segment emphasising on the Selfie obsessed younger generation with dual front cameras. Mobiistar XQ Dual is priced at Rs. 7,999 and available exclusively on Flipkart. We have used this device for more than two weeks and this review is based on our experience with the device during that period. Let’s check out if it is worth the money and does it pose some competition to existing popular devices in India?

Mobiistar XQ Dual specifications

• 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) Asahi Dragontrail 2.5D Glass display
• Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 Mobile Platform with Adreno 505 GPU
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB with microSD
• Android 7.1.2 (Nougat)
• Hybrid Dual SIM, Fingerprint sensor, FM Radio
• 13MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, f/2.0 aperture
• 13 MP front-camera with f/2.0 aperture + secondary 8MP front camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens, f/2.2 aperture
• Dimensions: 154.3×76.6×7.9mm
• Weight: 160g
• 4G VoLTE, ViLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, USB OTG
• 3000mAh battery
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, E-compass, Gyroscope

Mobiistar XQ Dual Design and Build Quality

Mobiistar XQ Dual sports Full metal unibody design with 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) Asahi Dragontrail 2.5D Glass display with the conventional 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the growing trend of 18:9 display and hence the size of the device is almost same as that of an 18:9 6.0 inch display. Yet if you forget the 18:9 aspect, the full HD display is impressive and offers good colour reproduction, contrast and crisp display. Usually, you get only a 720p HD display in this price bracket. The viewing angles are good and even under direct sunlight, the legibility is good.

At the bottom of the display you have the physical navigation buttons while on the top, two front cameras with 13MP + 8MP sensors are placed. Speaker grill along with micro USB port is at the bottom while the 3.5mm audio jack is at the top. The Volume rocker buttons are on one side while the power button & SIM tray is on the other side. It comes with a Hybrid Sim slot and there is no dedicated MicroSD slot. On the rear you have the 13MP main rear camera with dual tone LED flash at the top left side while the fingerprint sensor is placed at the conventional place. It weighs 160 gram which is neither light nor heavy and you can comfortably use it with one hand.

Mobiistar XQ Dual Software

The phone runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) based operating system with a customUI which is very near to stock Android. Android 7.1 (Nougat) is not the latest version of Android and it would have been better if the device came with Android 8.0 (Oreo). In spite of that, the phone ran smoothly without any issues and we didn’t encounter any crashes or force closure of apps. The phone came with some additional apps such as Flipkart & SOS installed, but the bloatware is limited.

Mobiistar XQ Dual Performance, Battery life

Mobiistar XQ Dual is powered by the old Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. You can expand the storage with MicroSD card but then you have to avoid using the second sim as it doesn’t have a dedicated MicroSD card slot.  There were no performance issues with daily apps, though you feel a small amount of lag while opening apps. In terms of benchmark scores, the phone scores 57,000+ on Antutu which is on expected lines of entry-level devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. In terms of gaming performance, you can play the casual games flawlessly but with graphics intensive games such as Asphalt 8, there are random lags and frame drops. But you can use lowered graphics settings and the performance improves.

The phone is backed by a 3,000 mAh battery with offers good battery life and lasts for more than a day under average & moderate usage. Under heavy usage, it lasts for a day.

Mobiistar XQ Dual Camera

When it comes to camera performance, Mobiistar XQ Dual impresses a lot thanks to the dual front camera for selfies and the 13MP main rear camera with Samsung sensor. Keep in mind that we are judging camera performance in this price range only instead of comparing it with expensive smartphone cameras. The dual camera at the front along with LED flash produces good selfies under normal lighting conditions with colour reproduction, but not so good performance under low light conditions which is obvious. It also comes with features such as 120° super wide view angle degrees (8MP), 7 level Face Beauty, Camera Filter and HDR. The selfies taken with the phone is better than most smartphones in this price range that we have reviewed. The main rear camera also includes a professional mode and Phase detection autofocus. The main rear camera produces good enough images but often with noise.

Check out some of the camera samples that we took using the phone under different lighting conditions:

Conclusion

Mobiistar XQ Dual offers a great selfie camera (dual camera) and produces some good selfies with that under a budget price of Rs. 7,999. Apart from good selfie camera, it also offers decent hardware with Snapdragon 430, 3GB of RAM and decent battery life. If the phone came with an 18:9 Display, it would have been a better device.

Pros:

• Full HD Display
• Quick Fingerprint Sensor
• Dual Front Camera
• ViLTE

Cons:

• No 18:9 Display
• Old version of Android i.e. Android 7.1 Nougat

Disclaimer: We received a Review unit from Mobiistar for doing the review.