The budget smartphone market in India has a great potential, but new brands aren't often met with success. There are consumer favourites such as Xiaomi, Motorola, Nokia and others, but a new name Mobiistar has joined the race to prove its worth.
The Vietnamese smartphone brand since 2009, Mobiistar marked its debut in India on Wednesday with the launch of Mobiistar XQ Dual smartphone. The handset's price point and its features is a testament to how well Mobiistar understands the Indian smartphone market, especially the budget segment.
Mobiistar has partnered with Flipkart to exclusively sell the XQ Dual smartphone online. The handset will be available starting May 30, 12 pm onwards.
But the real question is should you buy Mobiistar XQ Dual?
There are many reasons to go for this new smartphone. First of all, it is priced at Rs 7,999, making itself available at an affordable price point to target the masses. Mobiistar XQ Dual smartphone is banking on the craze for selfies in the country and it offers dual selfie cameras with 13MP + 8MP sensors on the front.
The primary 13MP Samsung sensor has an aperture of f/2.0 – which allows more light even in low-light shots, and the secondary 8MP OmniVision sensor can cover 120-degree wide-angle to accommodate a larger frame.
Mobiistar boasts its "7 level beauty mode" can "brighten and soften the skin, enlarge eyes and enhance the v-line of the face" without making selfies look unnatural. On the rear, there's a 13MP single lens with f/2.0 aperture and dual LED flash. The camera looks convincing on paper, and we'll soon be sharing our review of the same.
Besides the camera, Mobiistar XQ Dual packs just about the right specs to justify the price. There's a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with a 2.5D curved glass on top, a full metal unibody, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 3GB RAM and 32GB storage.
Under the hood, the handset packs a 3,000mAh battery, dual SIM card slots, microSD card slot, 4G VoLTE support, and Android 7.1.2 Nougat.
Even if these features may sound impressive, it is going to be an uphill battle for Mobiistar to thrive in the Indian market. First of all, it's a brand no one has heard of until today, and there's going to be a fair amount of skepticism while buying it.
Then there are some strong opponents such as Xiaomi with lauded handsets like the Redmi 5 and others. But if your concern is about after sales service, Mobiistar claims to have 1,000 service outlets in place across India.
