Spice Smart Flo Mettle 5X Mi 504 is a budget Android smartphone from Spice Mobility targeted at entry level smartphone users. Entry level smartphone market in India has grown into a highly competitive market with manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Spice and many more fighting it out by bring more and more budget models. Spice Smart Flo Mettle 5X Mi 504 is one of the contenders in this segment. We review this device with almost two weeks of normal use.
Hardware and build
Being a budget device, you shouldn’t expect high end hardware. The device is powered by Dual core 1.3 GHz processor even though the make was unspecified, running CPU-Z does tell us that its a Mediatech MT6572 processor. The device comes with just 512 MB RAM just like low end devices like the popular Lumia 520. The small amount of RAM obviously will not let play heavy games on the device or even heavy apps.
In terms of build quality, even though the device body is of plastic, the build was sturdy enough. The back cover was pretty good with almost half of the portion with fine finish letting you hold the device better. It doesn’t look like a budget smartphone.
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Display
It sports a 5 Inch TFT display with a resolution of 480×854 px and with a pixel density of 233 ppi which looks good enough if you consider the price point. While we used the device, the main problem with the display was that unless you are using it with a good viewing angle, the display will look dim. Yet, a display of 5 inch at this price point is a good deal.
The touch response of the device was good enough and we never faced any problem, but yes it’s not as smooth as you get in high end devices with obviously higher price range.
Camera
It comes with both Primary and Secondary camera with 8 MP one being the main rear camera while the front one being the 1.3 MP. The primary 8 MP camera comes with LED flash and auto-focus. Even though the quality of the main camera is good enough to take pictures for sharing them on with friends on web or social network like facebook or twitter, it doesn’t perform well in low lights.
But if you want to use front 1.3 MP camera, the quality is not good enough to use for video calling or Skype or Hangouts unless you have enough day light around you. It is too bad even if you use it at home in night with full tubelight or bulb around.
Storage
The device comes with mere 4 GB of internal storage out of which only ~2GB of space being available to end user. But considering the fact that it supports expandable memory upto 32 GB using MicroSD cards, the end user can easily manage this without worrying much about the space.
Connectivity
The device comes with dual SIM support (2G+2G – Normal SIM). You read that right. The device doesn’t come with support for any 3G network and hence if you plan to use this device on a 3G network now or in future, then this isn’t for you. Apart from that, it comes with support for WiFi, Bluetooth etc.
Battery Life
The device is powered by 1800 mAh, Li-Ion battery. In our use, the device lasted well above one day with normal usage of the smartphone with moderate use.
Software
The device is powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with some custom UI from Spice. To be honest, the UI was too confusing for me which can be attributed to the fact that I love the stock UI much more than anything else. I installed a launcher app to fully use the device. It may not be the case with everyone else though.
The UI of its default music player app looks very similar to the iPhone UI. I am not sure if everyone likes it or not, but it would have been better if they have let the default android UI for the app.
Hands-on and Review Video
Spice Smart Flo Mettle 5X Mi 504 Specs:
- Android v4.2 (Jelly Bean)
- 5 Inch, 480×854 px display, TFT
- Dual core 1.3 GHz processor
- 8 MP Primary Camera, 1.3 MP Secondary
- Dual SIM, WiFi
- 4 GB Internal Memory, Expandable up to 32 GB
- 512 MB RAM
- 1800 mAh, Li-Ion battery
- 2G Only
Conclusion
The device is a budget smartphone and is available on online portals for a price of Rs. 6,000+. Considering everything above, still this device looks good as a entry level budget smartphone. If you are on a low budget, not worried about the viewing angle display issue mentioned above in this post and are happy being a 2G user then you can grab this device for sure.
