Xolo launched the Xolo B700 with a last month for Rs. 8,999. We brought you the Xolo B700 unboxing earlier this month, here we have the complete review of the device. It has a 4.3-inch (960 x 540 pixels) 16M color IPS display with 256 ppi pixel density, powered by a 1 GHz dual-core Mediatek MT6577 processor and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). It has a humongous 3450 mAh battery. Even the Salora PowerMaxx that was launched earlier this year had a 3200 mAh battery. Let’s get into the review.
Unboxing
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hrRP1LTqQI
Box Contents
The Box Contents include
- XOLO B700 handset
- 3450mAh battery
- 2-pin charger
- in-ear earphone
- USB cable
- User guide
- Warranty & safety guide
Video Review
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obeb0tMRPPs
Hardware
The phone has a 4.3-inch (960 x 540 pixels) 16M color capacitive touch screen IPS display with a pixel density of 256 ppi, better than the Xolo A700. The display is bright and has nice viewing angles. It supports multi-touch. The phone is quiet heavy at 160 grams, and is also thicker at 12.1 mm.
There is a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera on the top. There are proximity and ambient light sensors on the other side of the camera, next to the ear piece.
Below the display, there are capacitive touch buttons for home, menu, back and search.
There is nothing on the left side. The phone has shiny plastic rim running on the sides.
On the bottom there is a tiny microphone hole and a micro USB slot. There is a lanyard hole next to it.
On the top there is a power button and a 3.5mm audio jack.
On the back there is a 5-megapixel auto focus camera with LED Flash. There is a Xolo branding below the camera. The plastic back cover has nice patterns that offers a nice grip. The back cover on the Xolo A700 had a matte finish.
There is loud-speaker grill on the bottom. Audio from the loud-speaker was surprisingly good.
When you open the back cover, you see the large battery. The battery covers almost 80 percent of the phone’s back.
When you remove the battery, you can see the SIM card slots and the micro SD card slot. Since the slots are underneath the battery, you have to remove it every time if you need to insert a SIM card or memory card. 
There is a micro SD card on the top, below the camera that lets you expand the phone’s memory up to 32GB. The SIM 1 and SIM 2 slots are present below it.
Camera
The 5-megapixel auto focus camera takes decent shots. It also captures macro shots well. The user interface of the camera is stock. You can access previously shot images or videos on the right corner. There are different capture modes (Auto scene detect, Face beauty, Smile shot, Best shot and more) and color effects (Mono, Sepia, Negative, Aqua, Blackboard and Whiteboard). There are several camera options including option to change flash mode, adjust white balance, capture HDR images and panorama shots.
Here are some camera samples.
The phone can record 720p HD videos. It also has time lapse option that lets you record time lapse videos. Since the phone lacks a secondary microphone, the audio quality is not crisp.
Check out the 720p HD video sample.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cknfb40IPiE
Software
The Xolo B700 runs on Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
The phone UI is mostly stock. You can organize your apps with folders both in the home screen and the bottom bar in the home screen. There is a Google search bar on top. The drop-down notification shade has shortcuts to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Data connectivity and more. You can swipe to the left from the lock screen to launch the camera quickly. Wish it had Android 4.1 on board.
You get 2.05 GB of user memory and 473 MB of usable RAM.
Apps
The phones comes with quite a few pre-installed apps. Utility apps include, Calculator, Clock, File Manager, News & Weather, Sound Recorder, Task Manager and Torch. It also has an app that lets you connect a Wireless Input Device to the phone via Bluetooth. The Google apps include, Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk and YouTube.
Music Player and FM Radio
The Music Player is stock, which lets you play audio from different formats, including MP3, MIDI, WAV, 3GPP, AAC, AAC+ and WMA. You can enable equalizer from the settings. The Bass boost and 3D effect features enhanced the audio, when you are listening using headphones. The phone has FM Radio with auto tune and recording feature, but it lacks RDS. Audio from the loudspeaker is loud. It offers 720p HD video playback at 30 fps.
Calls and Messaging
All the calls went through fine without any dropped calls. Since this is a dual SIM phone, you get options to switch to either SIM cards. The keyboard is stock. You can always download other keyboards.
There is a SIM manager option in the settings, similar to other dual SIM Android smartphones in the market. You can set a default SIM for several operations including voice call, video call, Messaging and Data connection. You can also choose ‘Always ask’ option for voice calls and Messaging that gives you option to complete the operation after you choose either SIM cards.
Connectivity
The connectivity features include, 3G (HSDPA: 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA: 5.76Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v 2.1 with A2DP and GPS. You also GPRS transfer prefer mode that kicks data connection on the SIM 2, if you receive a call on SIM1. It has WiFi direct option that lets you share files quickly with other Wi-Fi direct-enabled devices.
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU that is commonly seen on most of the Xolo phones. Performance of the phone was decent. The UI was pretty fast and smooth, and it can handle games well.
Quadrant Benchmark
The Xolo B700 is behind all the other phones in the Quadrant Benchmark, even though it is powered by a similar dual-core MediaTek chip.
AnTuTu Benchmark v2.9
The B700 is right behind the Xolo A700 in the AnTuTu Benchmark 2.9 with 5537 points.
Vellamo 1.0
It managed to score just 1057 points in vellamo browser benchmark.
NenaMark 2
Since the phone has a qHD display, the PowerVR SGX 531 GPU manged to clock 23.7 fps in the NenaMark GPU benchmark. Check out the complete list of Xolo B700 Benchmarks here.
Battery
The main USP of the phone is the 3450 mAh Lithium Polymer battery. Xolo promises 363 hours of standby, 20 hours of talk time on 3G, up to 38 hours Music Playback via internal speakers and up to 86 hours via wired headset, 9 hours of video playback while using internal speakers and up to 10.5 hours while using a wired headset. We didn’t test the phone for continuous video playback or music playback, but the phone lasted more than 2 days with both the SIM cards on use. It takes about 4 and half hours to fully charge the phone, if the phone is completely drained out. Since the micro USB slot is well inside, most of the other USB chargers don’t fit in it, so if you lose this charger, you can’t use other spare chargers. Lithium Polymer battery is said to have decreased cycle count compared to lithium-ion.
Conclusion
Xolo B700 is the first phone from Xolo in the B Series that comes with a large capcity battery. Motorola Razr Maxx was the first Android phone with a huge 3300 mAh battery. Even the Salora PowerMaxx that was launched earlier this year hada 3200 mAh battery. Overall, the Xolo B700 excels in several segments including build quality and camera, apart from the battery life. Wish it had Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Salora released Android 4.1 update for their Power Maxx phone last month. Hope Xolo would release the update for the B700 soon. At a price tag of Rs. 8,999, if you are looking for an Android phone under Rs. 10,000 with good build and marathon battery life, this phone is definitely the one you need.
Pros
- Great battery life
- Competitive price tag
- Decent camera
- Good loudspeakers
Cons
- Bit heavy and bulky
- Runs on Android 4.0
- Micro USB slot is deep that makes other chargers incompatible