The Spice Smart Flo Poise was launched in India a couple of months ago and is budget smartphone aimed at the customer who targets affordability in a smartphone. We got the Smart Flo Poise for review and have some interesting insights on it.
Spice Smart Flo Poise Mi 451 Specs
- 4.5-inch IPS display
- 1.3GHz dual-core processor
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB internal storage
- microSD expansion upto 32GB
- 3.2MP primary camera with flash
- 1.3MP front facing camera
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- 1450 mAh battery
- dual-SIM (2G+2G)
- WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS/GMS
Spice, despite being the second largest domestic brand, always sticks to its guns when it comes to launching budget handsets in the market. The company, besides launching the mid-range Pinnacle series still banks on budget handsets as its main strength in an increasingly competitive market.
At Rs. 5,499 (MRP), this is quite an affordable smartphone. Spice deserves the credit for making a cheap bargain seem not so cheap – the moment you take the first look at this handset, you will find its looking better you thought it would.
But, does the Spice Smart Flo Poise stand out in every other domain? Let’s find out.
Hardware
The hardware quality of a handset is proportional to its price, right? Nope. I have reviewed other handsets from the Spice Smart Flo series in the past, and I have to say that this one is a major revamp.
Spice has gone above and beyond its usual self while designing this handset – the contours are well defined, the back and front design are pretty charming and the chrome around the edges, is well, a beauty. Just this chrome itself gives the handset a suave feel. Its a well-polished handset. The handset is sleek, smooth and a pleasure to hold.
The Spice Smart Flo Poise is curved at the edges. This makes it easy to use.
The front of the handset is rectangular in design.
The bezels on this phone are neither too thick, nor too thin.
The capacitive touch buttons are located on the bottom bezel while the top is populated by a front cam, speaker and LED notification light.
The physical buttons on the Spice Smart Flo Poise are amazingly sleek. Both the power button and the volume rocker are located on the right side of the handset, while the left side is completely plain. This did not affect the functioning – in fact both buttons were easy to operate. It also helps that they were sleek, slim, metallic and extremely sensitive.
The top of the handset houses both the MicroUSB Slot and the 3.5mm audio jack while the bottom has been left clean, except for a microphone.
The back of the handset houses a 3.2-megapixel camera, accompanied by LED flash and dual speakers. The spice logo towards the bottom doesn’t look too conspicuous.
When you open up the back, the craftiness of the handset is still reflected. Inside rests a SIM slot, a MicroSIM slot and a MicroSD card slot laid out in a single line, which looks pretty cool and makes the handset easy to use. Neither the back nor the front of the handset are too smudgy, which is pretty cool.
Spice has displayed an obsession with white with the Smart Flo series. The Spice Smart Flo Poise is a continuance of this tradition.The handset is pretty light and slim adding to its usability.
Spice, thankfully hasn’t followed the ‘cheapen up’ philosophy and the handset is designed keeping in mind that the Indian consumer wants both style and affordability.
Display
Spice has put in a standard 480p display in the Smart Flo Poise handset. The display works well and the viewing angles are good. Sunlight visibility isn’t a problem. The display more or less justifies the price. Screen sensitivity, though could be better. While the general functionality is pretty cool, I found the display lacking somehow when it came to the sensitivity, this is something both hardware and software bound. Basically, sometimes and not all the time, it took a while to open the lock screen, that is a little qualm I do have, otherwise, it works well.
As far as the display is concerned, when you look at it all you should compare it to, is similarly priced handset, you definitely won’t get a full HD slugger for this price tag, but the display is cool according to me. A little caution though: It gets dirty too soon.
The display is bright and colorful enough for my taste.
Software
As far as the software part is concerned, the Spice Smart Flo does good by offering Android 4.2.2 at this price tag. Definitely that kind of attention to detail is what you might look at in any handset, no matter what be the price.
Spice has pre-loaded the Smart Flo Poise with many apps such as Quickr, Documents to Go and OLX, besides the official Spice Cloud and Spice Gang. There is a lot of apps here, but I am not sure that you would use them on daily basis.
Besides these, Google apps such as Gmail and Google Maps are also there. I just think that the handset could have been a little less clogged with apps, otherwise I am generally cool with the software, although little crevasses did show up when I tried to play high-intensity games, but you know what, just look at the price tag and you will forget about complaining.
Camera
The Spice Smart Flo Poise is blessed with a 3.2-megapixel camera. It doesn’t look like Spice put some special effort into it and in fact, it is pretty much the same one as the other handsets in this series.
The camera is a mixed bag of goodies. The general camera options are there.
But, you have to focus really hard to actually get a good shot. I did not experience an out-of-the-world performance on the camera front, yet I will blurt it out – you are NOT buying this phone for its camera. The LED Flash has improved though and creates better focus conditions.
I would rate the camera as okay enough, since you do get some good shots after focusing for a while.
Performance and Battery Life
The battery, like the rest of the handset is a pleasant surprise. It takes a while to charge the 1450 mAh slugger, but once you are done, you will be happy. For me, battery trumps everything for a phone price in this range and thankfully, Spice has delivered this time. How they have done it, only they know, but I am more than happy with the battery life.
As far as the performance is concerned, the handset generally fared pretty well and you can conduct your everyday tasks with ease. The 1.3-GHz processor along with 512 MB RAM are cool, but the thing is many mainstream apps (e.g. Subway Surfers) require 1 GB RAM or more to function properly.
I would find it unjustified if I put too much load on this smartphone and then, complain about its functioning.
Verdict
To be frank, my belief in budget smartphones had series taken a beating in the past owing to some bad experiences. I found the makers resting a bit too much in the luxury of the price tag and not working well with what they were give. The Spice Smart Flo Poise has entered on the scene and changed that perception. It does give you a bang for your buck and at the end of the day, you will be satisfied with what it offers.
This is definitely a value for money handset.
