XOLO’s much hyped HIVE UI today made its debut on a single piece of hardware ie the XOLO 8X-1000. Reasons abound why XOLO as a company decided to invest both time and a fair bit of money on developing a completely customized ROM but truth be told, we’re not entirely convinced by the reasoning. We’ll talk about that and more as we explore the new XOLO 8X-1000.
Xolo 8X-1000 specifications
- 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display with ASAHI Dragontrail glass protection
- 1.4 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor with Mali 450-MP4 GPU
- Android 4.4 (KitKat) with HIVE UI
- Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
- 8MP rear camera with LED Flash, EXMOR R Sensor, f/2.0 aperture 1080p video recording
- 2MP front-facing camera
- 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
- 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
- 3G HSDA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 1920mAh battery
Let’s start off with the hardware itself. The XOLO 8X-1000 appears as yet another run of the mill device with nothing really that sets it apart. Sure, it brings with it the now standard octa core Mediatek processor and a large 720p screen but then competition is offering the same and perhaps more at a competitive price point. The front of the phone is dominated by its 5 inch screen. This is covered by Asahi Dragontrail glass for scratch protection.
Perhaps the only design flourish in the handset arises from the way the side of the phone folds over into the back. Giving the handset two extra edges, the design makes a very standard looking phone, standout. Over on the right side of the handset is the power key followed by the volume rocker. The phone has a decent heft to it, not heavy but just enough to make the device feel substantial.
The 3.5 mm audio jack as well as the micro USB port is located at the top of the phone while two speaker outlets can be seen at the bottom of the device. The rear of the phone is mostly clean with a XOLO logo in the center and an 8MP Exmor R camera above it.
Powering the phone is a 1.4Ghz octa core Mediatek chipset. This is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage which can be expanded via the microSD card slot. Of the 16GB storage, about 3.59 has been partitioned off for apps. It is possible to install apps to the SD card slot as well.
XOLO claims to have worked for an year on its HIVE UI and to an extent, this effort shows. There is an attention to detail all around that is usually missing on skins from indigenous smartphone brands. While the feature set is understandably limited at the moment, we saw a degree of polish that is fairly unusual.
Personalization is the key aspect here. With the Edge application, XOLO is banking on curated, professionally created themes which changes not just the iconography but also the entire color palette and even gives users a completely different style of lockscreen. Depending on the type of theme chosen, this could vary from drawing a character on the screen to rubbing a virtual monster’s stomach.
The ROM is based on Android KitKat and as such looks quite good. Our concern however is in the lack of a compelling feature set. Why should you bother with a custom ROM when a third party launcher can get you close to the same results? Add to that the fact that this will most certainly have an effect on the already glacial updates we see on Android devices.
It goes without saying that XOLO has put in a lot of efforts to create a software platform that on the face of it offers something new. While there is a hint of latency in the interface itself, the software for the most part has been mated well to the hardware. But one device does not make a platform and XOLO will definitely have to bring it to other devices in its portfolio if it wishes to gain any sort of adoption. XOLO on the other hand is targeting the platform at a relative niche. People who care about design and customization. Unfortunately, for those users XOLO is not the first brand that comes to mind. All of this leaves the effort in flux with a not very clear target market and no visibly marketable features either. The company really has its work cut out for it. The XOLO 8X-1000 is a decent product with an interesting software trick up its sleeve but the next Xiaomi Mi3 it is not.