BQ S60 Review: A decent performing smartphone under 20K

BQ mobiles are one of leading manufacturer of mobile phone products and offers quality smartphones to the consumers at affordable prices. They been operating in the India market since 2011 and finally the product is now available in Nepal too. BQ S60 is their flagship model and caught our eye at ICT Electronics and Branding expo 2014. So, let’s check on our review if this device is worthy of rivaling other mid end smartphones like Colors HD, Micromax Canvas Beat and Karbonn titanium S5 plus.

Pros:

1. Very good IPS Screen 2. Quad-core processor at low price

Cons:

1. Average Camera performance 2. Ugly looking User Interface

AT A GLANCE-BQ S60

• Released date:  May, 2013
• SIM:  Dual (mini SIM); 3G enabled
• DISPLAY: 5’’IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen; 540 x 960 pixel ;220 ppi
• MEMORY:4 GB internal memory;  micro SD up to 32 GB
• RAM: 1 GB RAM
• PROCESSOR : Quad-core 1.2 GHz
• Camera: Primary:8 MP autofocus camera, single LED flashlight; Secondary: 2 MP
• OS: Android OS v4.2 Jelly Bean
• Connectivity:  Wi-Fi a/b/g/n;Wi-Fi hotspot ; GPS; Bluetooth
• Battery: Li-Ion 2200 mAh battery(user replaceable)
• Price: 17000/-

IN THE BOX

• Handset×1, Battery×1, Charger×1, Headset×1, User Manual×1, Data Cable×1, Warranty Card×1

A brief look of the handling of device is shown in the video below:

 

Design & Build

The design is not so prodigious. It’s a bit bulky but with respect to time, you will adopt with the overall dimension of this device. This device is made from plastic like other 20K smartphones, however there is a chrome finish with metallic bezels at side. The volume and power buttons are feeble and feels very cheap.

Display

BQ S60 sports a 5 inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 960 *540 with a pixel density of 220ppi. Though the display is qHD resolution, not HD, but the screen is sharp enough and it looks beautiful. The color reproduction from the LCD panel is fairly good and you won’t notice any pixilation while browsing internet or reading e-books.

User Interface

It runs on Android Jellybean 4.2.2 and the interface is highly customized. BQ runs their own UI named as WE which I personally didn't like. So, I installed a third party launcher (ADW launcher) and the interface is snappy and fast. The OS is handled pretty well by the handset and we didn’t notice any lags in the overall performance even when we run about 5-7 apps at the same time. Moreover,the overall user experience didn’t alter even I installed over 50 apps, which is good to see on a mid-range smartphone.

Hardware

The Titanium S5 Plus has a MediaTek MT6589 quad core processor ticking at 1.2 GHz and a 1 GB RAM to aid multitasking. It has a POWER VR SGX 544 GPU for graphics. It has an internal storage capacity of 4 GB which can be expanded via a microSD card by 32 GB.You can move apps to external MicroSD card so you won’t go low on memory. Overall, for a price of Rs.18000, the hardware specs that you get are decent. The MediaTek Quad core processor will work well for day to day use and while playing mid end games like Temple run 2.However, you will get problems while playing high end games like MC4, NFS, etc. I personally faced  dropped frame rates and overheating issues after playing it for a lengthy period of time, which is however standard on almost all  budget Android smartphones.

Benchmark Scores

For a smartphone Under Rs.20000, It notches fair good scores. With a tally of around 14000 in Antutu, above 4000 in Quadrant and a 54.1 FPS in Nenomark2, the device is top-notch considering its price tag.

Battery

The most highlight of BQ S60 is its battery life. This device is equipped with 2200 mAh battery and the battery life is great! It will work for more than a day if you are a moderate user.

Camera

BQ S60 could have been a stellar If the camera was great! But ironically it isn’t! The flaw of this device lies on the camera, which on paper says it’s a 8MP shooter but in reality it performs like a 5MP. However, I compared the camera performance with its rivals like Karbonn titanium S5 plus, Colors HD, Canvas 2 plus and all of them were on the same level.

Wrap up

Personally, I would buy this smartphone if I was looking for a good battery life, big 5 inch screen with decent pixels and an above average processing speed. However, if I was more in to photography, BQ S60 is simply not my cup of tea.