Spice has recently launched MI-509 for Rs 7,200. It has decent specification sheet that includes a 5 inch IPS display, a 1.3 GHz quad core processor, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system, and a 2000 mAh battery.
We used this smartphone for about three weeks and here is an in-depth analysis of its performance and features.
Design and Display
The Spice MI-509 comes in white colour only but due to its glossy finish, the phone does not look dull. The body, however, is not slippery as is the case with most glossy finished products. A metallic strip, which divides the front panel and the rear case, further accentuates its look. The Spice MI-509 has a full plastic body but it feels quite sturdy in hand. It is also quite thin (measuring just 9.5 mm) and lightweight (120 grams).
In the Spice MI-509, the power button and the volume rocker lies close to each other – but with enough space in between – on the right hand side. The 3.5 mm jack and the Micro USB ports are at the top. Towards the top of the back panel there is an 8 Megapixel unit and an LED flash while at the bottom lies a speaker grill. At the top of the front panel lies a speaker grill along with the front camera and couple of sensors. Below the display, lies three touch buttons – Setting, Home, Return.
The Spice MI-509 comes with a 5 inch display. Being an IPS display, you could watch content on the display from even acute angles. Touch response could have been a bit better but the display looks good despite having 854×480 pixels resolution.
Rating for design and display: 7/10
Camera
The Spice MI-509 has an 8 megapixel rear camera. There is an LED flash as well to help it capture pictures in low light. In the front, the MI-509 has a 2 megapixel camera. It has HDR, panorama, and smile shutter features as well.
It has the traditional camera application with capture buttons for video and images on the left hand side along with setting, flash and gallery shortcut. On the right hand side, options for HDR, Panorama, Smile Shutter etc are there.
The camera App is quite fast indeed and it manages to focus on objects pretty quickly. As far as quality is concerned, the MI-509 managed to reproduce colours quite nicely. It is especially good in well-lit areas. In low light, the phone also does a decent job. The front camera is good for both selfies and video calls.
Rating for camera: 7/10
Performance
The Spice MI-509 is armed with a 1.3 GHz quad core Processor and a healthy 1 GB RAM and the Mali 400 MP GPU. This combination runs the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system. Though I would have loved to see the latest Android KitKat version in this device but anyway the MI-509 managed to offer a fluid performance. Its Antutu benchmark score (17043) is a proof of the same.
The smartphone has 4 GB of internal storage of which 1.66 GB is available as internal storage while 0.92 GB is allocated as phone storage; the rest is being used by the operating system. There is an expandable storage slot as well that can accommodate a micro SD card of upto 32 GB.
One of the highlights of the Spice MI-509 is its battery back up. A 2000 mAh battery for a 5 inch smartphone with a non-HD display is always expected to offer good back up and the phone just did it. It comfortably offers back up for a day with medium usage.
The Spice MI-509 has two SIM slots, of which one allows 3G connectivity. It has WiFi as well for faster internet connection. Besides, the phone has Bluetooth as well as a micro USB port for file transfer like most other Android devices.
It comes with a lot of apps preloaded including WeChat, Whatsapp, Documents to Go, File Manager, Getit, Opera Mini, Hungama etc. It has FM radio as well.
Images by Sushil Kumar