Swipe Konnect 5.0 Android Smartphone

Swipe Konnect 5.0 is the slimmest and most light-weight smartphone. It offers a pack of good design and high end hardware config. Slim design makes it very attractive in look. It falls in the affordable phablet range. The cost lies around Rs.10,500 officially marked on the box. It can be lower in local market. A few glimpse of Swipe Konnect 5.0 is that it comes with a 5inch IPS display, a quad-core processor, 1GB ram, 8GB storage and dual sim support. It has dual camera with 8MP on the back supported by flash and 3.2MP on the front side. From features point of view it is a value for money product. But after testing it for a while there are some things that this device falls back. The biggest drawback is loudspeaker. Not so impressive nor much loud but others things are fine. Like the combination of quad-core processor and 1GB of ram makes it a powerful device to run various games and applications. Swipe Konnect 5.0 is a good device but can be a bit costly for those who are looking for more affordable range. The price range of 10K brings more competition. Like we have some ample of great devices if we push the budget to Rs.15,000. Konnect 5.0 runs on Jellybean. There is no detail about Kitkat update on the same. The device is slim and light. Without battery it weighs around 135gram only. 5inch IPS display is good enough to watch your favorite videos and images. Overall hardware is quite nice. We will checkout the device in more detail.

Specification:

• Android Version: Jellybean 4.2.2
• Screen Size: 5 inch QHD IPS Display.
• Resolution: 960x540 @ 240dpi.
• CPU: 1.3Ghz ARMv 7 Quad Core processor
• RAM: 1GB DDR3
• Storage: 8GB
• Gpu: Mali 400
• Camera: 8MP Rear with flash and 3.1MP Front.
• Sim: Dual
• Battery: 1950mAh

Package Content:

Design:

Swipe Konnect 5.0 has a sleek design. Thin and light weight are the two primary factors. Most of the body is covered with plastic material that does not looks high quality. The phone does not has a very catchy look unless you use a book cover on the same. It comes free in the package.

Front:

The screen covers most of the part on the front side with three capacitive buttons at the bottom. 3.1MP camera and sensors are placed on the top side. Adding a screen guard will be better to protect the screen from damage.

Left/Right Side:

You can check out the thickness of the same from sides. The device is slim and can fit well in your pocket and hand. The edges are curved. The volume rocker is placed at the left side while the power button is placed separately at the right side. The button is bit rough and placed above the body.

Backside:

8MP camera is placed on the backside with LED flash. The speaker lies at the bottom. The camera does not come with any special features. It relies on the stock Jellybean Camera apps that brings default features. To get more from the camera you can use Camera360 kind of apps. This one brings out amazing filters and camera effects.

Back cover:

Swipe Konnect 5.0 comes with a very weak back cover. It is essential that you must pull it with care or it can get damaged easily. At the backside lies a 1950 mAh battery and other slots. The sim and sd card slots are integrated. Dual sim slots brings a full size and micro sim together. SD lies separate over full size sim slot. The design of Swipe Konnect 5.0 gets impressive due to very thin design. Even after adding the battery the weight remains minimal. The devices comes in two colors. Black and White. Compared to Black, White is more attractive. But the print quality on it is not so impressive. Main aspect of design carries a sleek design, extremely lightweight body enclosure and easy to use features. Being a 5inch phablet it can satisfy your entry level needs. It is not fair to expect much from the design. The build material is average.

UI & Features:

Swipe Konnect 5.0 comes with Jellybean 4.2.2 OS. Kitkat upgrade is still suspense. The OS is not optimized. Things are based on default UI. There are ample of pre-installed apps which can save your download time. You can tweak the UI by adding up a different launcher. I was not really happy using the stock UI. It was a bit boring. The device has 1Gb Ram. You can spice up the phone UI by putting a launcher or some simple one. It will be great if we can have Kitkat update on Konnect 5. Quad core and 1Gb ram can offer you optimum output. You can add and use multiple apps at the same time. The phone does not hangs. But it works slow if you install too many apps and games. I had tested Nexus launcher that slowed down other apps output.

Multimedia and Gaming:

Konnect 5.0 offers you a qHD IPS display. The resolution is fine to watch videos and play games on the same. It offers you a max resolution of 960x540 pixels @ 240dpi. The image clarity is good if you are having too many hd images and videos. Quad-Core processor & 1GB ram offer good output when you are skipping a hd video. It does not lag or freeze. You can also stream videos through shared file using ES File Explorer. Swipe Konnect 5.0 is good for multimedia. It comes with 8GB internal storage where you can add upto different audio and video files. If that is not enough you can extend the same by adding a MicroSD card. So overall Konnect 5.0 is quite useful phone when it comes to multimedia. The thing that really made me unhappy is very low speaker quality. I had tested a few phone recently and compared to them Konnect 5.0 is having a poor loudspeaker. Sometime you can't even listen to the ringtone if you are in a crowded place.

Camera:

Swipe Konnect 5.0 has a dual camera support. It has a 8MP camera that works well if you have ample of lights in the room. On low light the flash does not help much. Existing camera app is based on stock rom that does not brings out much benefits. But you can get more from Camera360. Front 3.1MP camera brings more quality to video chatting. Again you have to sit a bit more in light to get clear quality. You can take some great photos through the back camera. Few sample photos are below.

Performance:

Above you can see the Antutu Benchmark Report. In the phablet product line series Konnect 5.0 can't compete with other models. Even after having a Quad Core processor and 1GB RAM, the device remains a bit slow when you overload things on the same. That can be due to a non optimized android operating system. I had seen too many services running in the backside and after adding a launcher the ram usage is hiked to 800MB. and if you go ahead with playing games and running different media files, the phone will surely be slow. Here you can try doing a bit of optimization to get maximum output from Konnect 5.0. Like using a very light weight launcher. There are ample of them on Google Play. Add few games and multimedia apps. And add a task killer application. That will also free up some ram instantly. Performance wise Konnect 5.0 falls in the mid level. Apps works well if they are limited.

Battery:

Swipe Connect 5.0 runs on a 1950 mAh battery. It charges fast and gives you an entire day battery if you avoid too much videos and games on it. Big 5inch screen is amazing for internet surfing and chatting. You have enough space to type. While if you go with max usage then do not expect much than 4 to 5 hrs. In my case I keep the wifi and mobile data on all the time, and play a few videos when I am free. I can check my facebook status in very 15/20 minutes and sometime in the evening go with bit of gaming while travelling. This overall usage offers me a battery life of minimum 7hrs. If I skip the game and multimedia part then it can be atleast 8 hours till you get a popup of low battery. Remember that the battery output depends on your usage. If here too many services in the background are running then the battery can drain out fast. Like updates, downloads, etc.

Conclusion:
Swipe Konnect 5.0 is a mid range tablet. The good part of this phone is its design, but on the same hand the build material is not so satisfying. If Swipe has used a bit better plastic element with glossy finish then it will be more attractive for the buyers. Overall the device looks nice for those who are looking for a budget phablet. I am quite sure after release the price can be pushed below Rs.8000 which can make this phone a worth device to go for. The hardware handles all app usage and gives you a smooth output. But on the same hand if you flood it with too many apps then it can be tough for you to use.

Pros

• Affordable Phablet
• Good Screen quality

Cons

• Average Build Material
• Poor Loud Speaker