Today, CREO launched its first phone CREO mark 1 in the Indian market. This phone runs on in-house developed Fuel OS based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The company already promised to offer regular software updates and make your new phone every month. At the launch of the phone, the company also revealed various interesting software features. Not just software, the hardware is also good. This phone is priced at Rs. 19999 and will be available from Flipkart and CREO’s website.CREO launched its first phone CREO mark 1 in the Indian market. This phone runs on in-house developed Fuel OS based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The company already promised to offer regular software updates and make your new phone every month. At the launch of the phone, the company also revealed various interesting software features. Not just software, the hardware is also good. This phone is priced at Rs. 19999 and will be available from Flipkart and CREO’s website.
Not just software, the hardware is also good. This phone is priced at Rs. 19999 and will be available from Flipkart and CREO’s website. For this price, this phone seems to be bit costly. We already have similar kind of phones for the lower price. But this phone is packed with unique software features.
Also see: Creo Mark 1 Vs. Xiaomi Redmi note 3 (3GB) – Comparison
CREO will also provide a unique “Make your Mark” service to users. In this, people can get their phone engraved with a message of up to 40 characters. But, this option will be available to users who will order from CREO’s website.
I spent few hours with the phone to see how it performs, looks and what kind of features it offers. So, let me begin with its initial impressions.
CREO Mark 1 First Impressions
Design
At first look, this phone looks attractive but when you take this in hand, you feel that the phone is heavy. It has the glass back protected with Gorilla Glass 3. Display of this phone is also protected by Gorilla Glass 3. Dimensions of the phone measure 155.4 x 76.1 x 8.7mm.
At right edge, it features volume buttons and a power button. It left edge, it has dual SIM slots. The second slot can hold micro-SIM slot and a nano SIM. It supports storage expansion up to 128 GB. At upper edge, it has audio jack while lower edge contains a speaker and microUSB port.
In terms of design, this phone is attractive but it is heavy. People who do not like large phones, they have another reason for not to preferring it.
Display
CREO Mark features a 5.5 inch Quad HD display with 2560 x 1440 pixels of resolution. In the limited time I spent with this phone, I found this display good with wide viewing angles. I tried watching few high-resolution videos and found it to be good. I didn’t check if display works well under sunlight. But in side room, it was good.
Software
The software is the main thing which makes this phone different than other smartphones. It runs on Fuel OS based on Android 5.1.1. But this Fuel OS is not just customization but adds lot more features. It has many features to talk about. Message inbox is smarter to group your messages. It is similar to priority inbox of Gmail. Launcher is similar to what we get in stock Android.
There are few other features like Sense, Retriever, and Echo.
a) Sense
Sense is the search feature similar to Spotlight search in iOS. This feature aims to cut down the time of switching app or searching something. You just need to double tap on home button from anywhere or from any app, it will open the Sense page. Type keyword and it will show matched content. It searches in apps, messages, emails, contacts, events, and settings options.
b) Retriever
Retriever is the security feature you will surely appreciate. It aims to track stolen smartphone. In case you lost your phone and someone inserts new sim, you will receive alerts via email about the time, location and phone number inserted in your phone. It can track your phone even after factory reset.
c) Echo
Echo is the answering machine of CREO Mark 1. It will receive calls on behalf of you and take a message. For this, you will only have to swipe up. In next update scheduled on May 13, it will bring personalised Echo options for different contacts.
There is an app called Refule which is the hub for all software updates. Here, you can check all the new software and their uses.
Overall the UI appeared slick, smooth and fast. In Initial impressions, it is impressive.
Processor, RAM, and Storage
CREO mark 1 is powered by a 1.9 GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 processor with 3GB RAM. This is the same configuration we saw in Le 1s priced at Rs. 10998. I didn’t face any lag on the phone while using this device. It is also packed with PowerVR G6200 GPU for handling graphics. I couldn’t play heavy games but low-end games were fine on this phone.
Camera
It features a 21-megapixels rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Phase Detection Auto Focus, Sony IMX230 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 4K video recording and 120fps slow motion at 1080p. At front, it has 8-megapixels front camera with 86-degree wide-angle lens, f/2.0 aperture and1080p video recording.
The camera app is good and responsive. The swiping top will change the camera effects. At below side, you will see a slider to change the camera mode. There few camera modes to use. Company talks too much about camera of the phone. We also took few shots there and found camera to be good, but I am not expecting good performance in low-light.
Camera can record 4K videos. Another good feature in camera is its 3D selfie feature. It can capture 3D selfie which you can export as video or GIF.
Connectivity and battery
Connectivity features of this phone are 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11ac (Dual Band), Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It has the micro-USB port for data syncing and charging.
It is packed with 3100mAh battery with fast charging support. I am not sure how much time it takes in charging and how battery performs. The company claims that this phone can be charged to offer 2 hours talk time in 10 mins charging.
Final words
CREO Mark 1 is a good phone in terms of hardware and software. But this price of this phone is more than expectation. The main attraction of this phone is its software features and regular update promise with new exciting feature. But it will be interesting to see if we are ready to pay high price for software features.
We already have similar kind of hardware specs at lower price, but company is betting on software. This is the first phone of the company and I wonder if customer in India takes interest in this phone.
