iVoomi Me 1 Plus Review – A basic mobile for basic needs
You may not have heard about iVoomi before, but this is a company that has been operational in India since March 2017. iVoomi has about 3 mobile models in India and we have the Me 1 plus with us for review. iVoomi mobiles are available on Shopclues and I will leave a link at the end of the review.
Key Specifications of iVoomi Me1+
- 5 Inch 720p resolution
- SpreadTrum SC9830 1.2 GHz Quad core processor
- 2 GB RAM
- 16 GB Storage, expandable
- 8 MP rear and 5 MP front camera
- 3000 mAh battery (Removable)
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Removable battery | Slow UI |
| Dedicated SD card slot and dual SIM card slots | Limited internal memory |
| Good camera performance | Average display quality |
| Sensible pricing | Less known brand name |
| Ease of availability |
Design
Before we start analyzing the mobile, the Me 1+ is a very basic, entry level smartphone, priced at Rs 4999. With that in mind, the design looks good. The mobile is made of plastic and it looks like metal. The back is removable. Under the case, you can slide in 2 SIM cards and a dedicated SD card slot. The 8 MP camera with single LED flash is on the back along with speaker grills. The mic is at the bottom and the micro USB slot and 3.5 mm jack are at the top. The navigation keys are not back-lit. It does not have any fingerprint sensor. The mobile feels good to hold in the hand. It’s curved back and 2.5D curved display glass, gives it a pleasing look. Comparing to the design of Redmi 4A, in this price range, the Me 1+ has a few advantages. The back is removable to replace the battery and it has dedicated SD card slot.
Display
The mobile has a 5 inch LCD panel with 720p resolution support. The display quality is average as expected out of an entry level mobile. The colors are washed out. The bezels are thick and the frame has a depth to it. When using, the display feels that it is a few mm below the glass. But it has good brightness levels both indoors and outdoors. Contrast is average and the viewing angles are good. The display is basic but it does the job assigned to it.
Performance
The mobile is running on a SpreadTrum SC9830 1.2 GHz Quad core processor with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. It has Mali 400MP for GPU. It has only accelerometer and proximity sensors. It does not support VR and it does not have magnetormeter and compass for your maps. As mentioned again, this is a very basic mobile, but it has very less sensors compared to the Redmi 4A.
The speakers are loud and the call quality is clean. It has FM Radio and torch light. It is not built for graphically intense game playing. It is built for average day to day tasks and it does that perfectly. The UI is a bit slow to respond and the screen lags and a bit late to respond at times. But if you use the mobile like a basic mobile, without loading too many apps, it can be a good work horse. Though the mobile was slow, none of the 20 app I loaded crashed. I used Facebook, FB messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, PayTM and a few other apps that everyone would install. I had no trouble running them on this mobile.
Camera
The mobile has 8 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera. The camera UI is very basic. It lags like many other native apps on this mobile. Focusing is slow and time between two shots are long. HDR processing takes a bit longer, but the end result is good, if you have a steady hand.
The images from the primary camera has good quality. Surprisingly the colors are vivid and the saturation levels are perfect. The images are sharp under ample light conditions. It has decent amount of details and depth of focus. But under low light, the camera failed to click any decent pictures. The flash performs good, but has a short range.
Front camera did not impress me. The images have too much noise and the edges were blurred. But overall, this Rs 5k mobile has a good camera comparable to Redmi 4A. The UI is not as good as Redmi 4A, but you can install some 3rd party camera apps to get a better experience.
Check out the camera samples below
Software
Me 1+ runs on Android 6.0 with no skin. It has stock Android version, which is a boon in this price range. It has no bloatware which means that you get plain Android experience. The last security patch was updated on April 5th 2017. It has a few UI features like the QuickTouch for easy access of menus. call record and sound record. Otherwise it has all the native apps mildly customized. The UI is a bit slow to respond and it lags at times. But the apps never crashed. Considering that it is a basic mobile, the iVoomi Me 1+ will satisfy the target customer.
Battery
The mobile runs on 3000 mAh battery. The battery is user removable and replaceable. It lasts for a day of normal usage. The mobile and the display is not resource intensive and owing to that advantage, the battery life on this mobile must have been more than day. But it lasts for a day of normal usage. It gets charged in 2 hours from 20 to 100% and on intensive usage, I get a screen on time of about 3 hours. Overall, the battery performance on this mobile is satisfying.
Verdict
The iVoomi Me 1+ is a basic mobile and it performs like one. It is priced at Rs 4999 and I must say that it is a good value for money. If you spend Rs 5999, you can get the Redmi 4A, which is marginally better than the Me 1+. The brand name is less known and service availability in many cities could be a point of worry. It is a young brand and I hope they scale up in the near future. It competes with Xolo Era 4G, Micromax Canvas Spark 3, Samsung Z2 and Gionee P5 Mini. Compared to all these mobile, I would prefer the Me 1+ due to its sensible design, good camera performace and stock android experience.