In 2015, Obi Mobiles got a new avatar – Obi Worldphone. The company is still committed to offering budget phones in emerging markets, but this time there is more focus on user experience and aesthetics. Responsibility for designing the phone and creating its user interface was transferred to California-based design studio Ammunition.
today we Obi Worldphone SF1 We’ll take a look at it, the company’s new flagship phone. On paper, the phone lives up to expectations. This time, Obi has put so much work into the design that it can create its own identity among the crowd of Android smartphones.
Appearance and Design
Whether you like it or not, the SF1’s design means it’s sure to turn heads. The decisions made regarding style can be called interesting. At first glance, the smartphone appears to be a cross between an iPod Touch and a Microsoft Lumia device. This mixture is a little strange, but it seems to work. The display is slightly convex. This does not provide the user with any new functionality, but it manages to create their own identity. The display has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection.
The 5-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution is clear. Colors are vibrant and sunlight legibility is also decent. Above the screen is a 5-megapixel camera with fixed focus and LED flash.
The rest of the case is plastic, with a 3.5mm headset jack located on top. The hybrid SIM slot is on the right, while the volume and power buttons are on the right. The experience of using the buttons is not that great.
The speaker grille and micro-USB port are located at the bottom of the phone. The Lumia-style body has a matte finish, making it easy to hold in your hands. On the back, there is a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash. The 3000 mAh battery is completely sealed.
The SF1 comes with a charger and USB cable. You will not receive the headset in the box. OB Worldphone has done a good job on the design and aesthetics this time, especially compared to the first phone. The build and design of the SF1 is good and the size is comfortable for the hands.
Specifications and software
When it comes to performance, the SF1 made most of the right decisions. You get an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset and Adreno 405 for graphics. You can choose between 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage or 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. The device will also support a microSD card up to 64GB. However, thanks to the hybrid SIM slot, you will be able to use one SIM card with a microSD card. It comes with dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, dual LTE, USB OTG, FM radio and GPS connectivity features. The phone supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0.
The device will run Android Lollipop OS (5.0.2). It uses OB Lifespeed’s own skin. There is no particular difference between this skin and stock Android. Users were also given the option to switch to the stock Android launcher if needed. You can also set long-press or double-press actions for the Home button and physical buttons. Obi also provided some other features such as muting when turned over and the ability to automatically answer a call when the handset is held close to the ear.
Apart from Google apps, Obi has provided many other productivity apps for this device.
We like that SF1 doesn’t have any unwanted apps. This will give you more RAM to use with applications. Despite this, we noticed shortcomings when using the interface. Be it multitasking, opening any app or changing any UI, the phone would slow down for some reason. We were not able to completely get rid of this problem. When switching to the stock launcher, this problem decreased slightly, but did not completely disappear. We hope this is some kind of software glitch and it will go away with the upcoming update. Or the company could simply switch to Android Marshmallow.
performance
UI shortcomings aside, the app’s performance is quite good. The credit for this goes to the powerful hardware. Gaming performance is good, even intense games like Dead Trigger 2 run smoothly. In general, the phone did not get particularly hot, except during charging and long video recording.
Talking about charging, with the power adapter provided by the company, you can get 27 percent of your smartphone’s power in just 30 minutes of charging. The call quality is also satisfactory. The ambient light sensor sometimes takes longer than necessary to react.
Since this is a mid-range phone, the test results can be considered good.
The SF1’s performance in multimedia playback is commendable. Play high-definition files smoothly. Dolby Audio Enhancement can improve volume and sound quality.
The 13-megapixel camera takes good photos in daylight. Its focus grid is a bit large, making it difficult to lock focus on small objects in this application. Landscape photos in good lighting come out detailed. The colors are quite neutral. Photos taken in low light don’t turn out very well, there is a lot of noise and it becomes more difficult to get sharp photos.
The 5 megapixel front camera takes good pictures. The camera interface is very simple and easy to use. You can run the camera in automatic mode or there are many other modes available. OB has added several new features to the IQ Camera subsection. Refocusing allows you to reset the focus point on previously taken photos. This feature did not work properly for us.
You can also make changes to HDR, contrast, sharpness, white balance, ISO and burst mode as you wish. Even in panorama mode, you won’t be satisfied with the photos you take because the individual photos don’t seem to relate properly to each other. You can record videos at 1080 pixels, and the quality is also good. We needed the ability to control focus in shooting mode. Additionally, the video stabilization option is also not available.
The 3,000 mAh battery lasted 9 hours and 53 minutes in the video loop test. With normal use, the phone’s battery lasts for a day. We were able to use the phone the next day.
our decision
The OB Worldphone SF1 32GB variant is available for Rs 14,000. Considering the complete package, this is a great deal. With good build quality, excellent battery life and sound quality, it will grab your attention in any situation. The camera works well, especially in daylight. The good thing is that this mid-range phone also comes with fast charging feature. There are a few areas where SF1 needs to improve. Especially in a slow interface. In addition, camera performance deteriorates in low light. We hope OB Worldphone will release a software update for the SF1 soon so that users can enjoy the features of Android 5.1 Lollipop and above.
We would like to inform you that Gadgets 360 is the exclusive retail partner of the OB Worldphone SF1. OB Worldphone owner John Sculley’s Inflexion Point has invested in NDTV’s Gadgets 360.
