Xolo launched the Omega 5.0, company’s latest budget smartphone with HIVE UI earlier this month at Rs. 8,999. It is also one of the few budget smartphones in the price range to be powered by an Octa-Core processor. Is this one of the best budget smartphones in the price range? Let us find out in the complete review.
Unboxing
We unboxed the Omega 5.0 recently, check out the unboxing video below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZE9hB-sgNk
Box Contents
- Xolo Omega 5.0 smartphone in Black
- In-ear headset
- 2-pin Charger
- User manual
- Clear protective case
Video Review
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2fMOV7D9s
Display, Hardware and Design
The 5-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 294 ppi is bright, offers vibrant color output and decent viewing angles. The sunlight legibility is good, but it is glossy and is prone to fingerprints and attracts dust easily. You can also use the bundled protection cover to protect the screen from fingerprints and scratches. Overall the display is good for the price.
The Omega 5.0 has curved design. It has huge bezels on the sides, above and below the display, so the width of the smartphone is 72mm and the height is 144mm, making it slightly wider and taller than some budget smartphones, including the 2nd gen Moto G and the Huawei Honor Holly that we reviewed recently. This doesn’t matter since the difference is just minor, and the smartphone fits in your pocket easily.
There is a 2-megapixel fixed-focus front-facing camera that can record videos at 480p VGA resolution, earpiece and the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors above the display. This doesn’t have a LED notification light present in most budget smartphones.
It has capacitive touch buttons below the display that offer haptic feedback when pressed, but these are not backlit.
It has metal rim running on the sides. The power/lock button is present on the right side under the metal rim.
The volume rockers are present on the left side. There is a micro USB slot and a 3.5mm audio jack on the top. There is nothing on the bottom. The smartphone is 10.5mm thick.
There is a 8-megapixel auto focus camera on the back with Sony Exmor R sensor and a single LED flash below it. The plastic back cover has glossy finish that attracts fingerprints easily. You can use the bundled cover to prevent smudges.
Once you open the back cover, you can see two micro SIM slots and a microSD card slot. It has a 2100mAh built-in battery. Overall the build quality is just average.
Camera
The 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, Sony Exmor R sensor and f/2.0 aperture is good. Since the smartphone runs on HIVE UI, the camera has a new UI with easy toggles. It has High Dynamic Range (HDR), Low Light enhancement Object tracking, Live filters and more. The front camera has Face recognition, Panorama, Face beautification, Smile detection,Gesture detection, Voice Capture and ‘V’ capture . Daylight shots are good and the macro shots are brilliant. Since it has object tracking, it can focus on an object easily. HDR shots are good too. It recently got an update that improves the low-light capabilities. Flash mode offers an ample amount of light so it’s not overpowering.
Check out some camera samples below (click the image to view the full resolution sample).
Check out the complete set of Xolo Omega 5.0 samples here. It can record videos at 1080p resolution at 30fps. Video is good too. Check out the full HD sample below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qhYxanTeNE
Software
The Xolo 8X-1000 was the first smartphone with HIVE UI that is developed by Xolo’s own design team in Bangalore. Xolo has now brought the same UI to budget Omega series. It is based on Android 4.4.2. Xolo has promised to upgrade all its smartphones running HIVE UI to Android 5.0 (Lollipop) in future. The HIVE UI has a unique user interface that gives importance to easy access and notifications right from the lock screen. You can launch the camera, messages or dialer right from the lock screen. It also shows separate notifications in the lock screen.
Messages, missed calls and calendar notifications are available in the home screen too. Quick settings has unique circular adjustments for brightness and screen timeout. Xolo divides main apps in HIVE UI into four – Edge, Secure, Power and Connect. The Edge app offers curated, professionally created themes, ringtones and wallpapers. The Secure app offers anti-theft features that we had seen in the form of Xolo Secure in some Xolo smartphones. The Power app is the power management app and the Connect app lets you connect with HIVE development team, collaborate with other HIVE users and co-create new ideas.
Out of 1GB of RAM, you get 952MB of usable RAM, out of which about 488MB of RAM is free when some apps are running in the background. Out of 8GB of internal storage you get about 5.74GB of user storage.
You can also set the default write disk and move compatible apps to the SD card.
Apps
Coming to apps, the Omega 5.0 comes pre-loaded with several set of apps. Apart from the usual set of utility apps and Google apps, it comes with Dropbox, Facebook, Google Keep and Vodafone Music.
Music Player and FM Radio
The Music Player and FM Radio have new interface since this has HIVE UI. The default FusionX music player has support for different skins. It has Yamaha Stereo power amplifier, but the loudspeaker output is just average, and audio through the bundled earphones or other third-party earphones are not loud even when the volume is full and audio enhancer is enabled. The FM Radio has auto search and audio recording. It can play 1080p full HD videos smoothly.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
Both the SIM cards support 3G, but you can enable 3G on only one SIM, while the other is on 2G. The connectivity features include, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and GPS. It doesn’t have USB on-the-go (OTG) support.
Performance and Benchmarks
It is powered by a Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592M processor with 8 ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs clocked at 1.36 GHz per core. The performance is smooth without any lags. Thanks to 1GB RAM the multitasking was smooth, but the HIVE UI occupies more RAM at times. Check out synthetic benchmark scores below.
Quadrant Benchmark
It scored 11710 points in the Quadrant benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark 4
In the AnTuTu benchmark 4, the Xolo Omega 5.0 scored 20895 points.
AnTuTu Benchmark 5
It scored 27093 points in AnTuTu Benchmark 5.
Vellamo 2.0 HTML5
It topped the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark by clocking 2341 points. Check out the complete set of Xolo Omega 5.0 benchmarks here.
It has a Mali 450-MP4 GPU. We tried several games. It doesn’t support USB or PS3 controllers. Performance and graphics were average. Overall it scored 3.5/5 stars in our gaming review.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PERUAKDsKQg
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the 2100 battery is just average. It lasts for less than a day with mixed use, including 3G usage, video playback, few hours of music, few calls and some gaming with both the SIM cards enabled. If you are a heavy user, you can use the CPU power saving mode and enable Xolo Power to extend the battery life.
In our battery test, the Omega 5.0 achieved One Charge rating of 11 hours and 21 minutes, mainly due to its talk time, otherwise the battery life is not impressive considering Xolo’s recent Q2100 smartphone with a 2800mAh battery that offered brilliant battery life. You can check out the complete Xolo Omega 5.0 battery test results here.
Conclusion
At a price tag of Rs. 8,999, the Xolo Omega 5.0 is a decent budget smartphone. Even though it is priced slightly on the higher side compared to its competitors, the octa-core processor offers better performance than its competitors that justifies the price tag. The design and the build quality could have been better and the audio quality could be improved, otherwise this is definitely a good contender in the price range. Xolo also has the Omega 5.5 smartphone with better specifications that includes a 13MP rear camera and 2600mAh battery. You can check that out too if you are looking for a large-screen budget smartphone under Rs. 10,000.
Pros
- Good performance
- Good Camera
- Competitive price tag
Cons
- Low Earphone and Loudspeaker output
- Average build quality
- Average battery life