InFocus Turbo 5,   packs in features, thoughtfully curated for the  desi user. But specification-wise, it is no slouch either
Bangalore, August 8 2017: In a mobile landscape dominated by China-based players, it is a refreshing change to handle a smart phone whose name indicates that its roots lie West -- in Oregon, USA.  InFocus  is reversing the trend and with its manufacturing tie-up with Foxconn,  is selling phones back to China  ( and India).  But in some ways its vision of what the Indian customer wants is  sharper than that of many indigenous or Chinese players.  For a start it has  decided to   build the recently launched  Turbo 5 handset in a   handy screen size -- 5.2 inch HD IPS -- while  including one of the biggest  batteries in the business --  5000 mAh  which should not require a recharge for at least 2 days of use -- double what most phones are able to promise. Yet, at 164 grams it felt very light in my hands.  

The phone comes in two versions  -- with  2GB RAM and 16 GB on board storage or with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage  -- both  expandable with a micro SD card  with another 32 GB.   You can either fit 2 SIMs one SIM and a microSD card.    Communication-wise this is the latest -- a 4G VoLTE  phone  which means you can straight away insert a Jio SIM and enjoy   a data-first service where the voice calls  ride on the data stream and are that much better quality.  Soon other operators will also offer VoLTE in India. And the OS too is the latest Android 7.0 Nougat.
The two cameras  are quite adequate -- a 13 MB autofocus with flash rear camera and a 5 MP wide aperture selfie camera.  The finger print  sensor also doubles as a switch  for the torch and the clicker for the camera... both evidence of thoughtful design ( how often I have groped in the dark trying to open the torch app, buried among so many others!)
I was impressed with the  screens -- un cluttered with  a decent number of icons -- not the overwhelming   look of a custom GUI, which tries to outdo Android.   The pre installed  apps for India are all useful -- MakeMyTrip, Amazon, Saavn music app, Daily hunt news app,  Google's Duo video  caller  and the XPloree special keyboard tool which allows you to  choose from a huge number of Indian languages or scripts including Konkani,  Kashmiri and Mythili.You can also install one of those hybrids -- Tenglish, Manglish, Idinglish, Marathinglish.. which those who don't know the script will find very useful.
At Rs 6999 and Rs 7999 for the two memory and storage  combos, this is great value -- at once handy, affordably and so truly Indian in   concept and feel!
Anand Parthasarathy