A few weeks back, we reviewed CENTRiC A1 and I found that an interesting device for the price. Today, I will be talking about a budget device from the same brand. The device quickly grabs the attention with its attractive look. This is CENTRiC L3 and it comes for Rs. 6749. If you are looking to buy this phone, you should not miss our review of CENTRiC L3.
Also read: CENTRiC A1 Review
CENTRiC L3 Review
Design
Centric L3 comes with the plastic build but looks really attractive. It has a shiny back that feels very premium. Having this kind of glossy back also has a disadvantage as it attracts fingerprint a lot. The phone has smaller form factor with a 5-inch display.
Above the display, it has a LED notification, proximity sensor, and front camera.The phone has a physical home button equipped with a fingerprint sensor. It lacks capacitive keys and uses on-screen navigation. The right side got power button and volume rocker. Micro USB and 3.5mm audio port are at the top and speaker are on the base side. While it looks to have two speaker units, the speaker is only behind the left side vents.
Rear camera with LED flash is on the top left side of the back panel. The back panel is removable. After opening the back panel, you see space for 2 SIM cards and a microSD card. At the time, when most of the companies restrict you with hybrid slots, this phone brought you two dedicated SIM slots and a microSD card.
It looks premium in terms of looks.The phone is slippery, so CENTRiC has provided a silicon back cover within the box. As the phone just has a 5-inch display, it is easy to use with one-hand as well.
Display
The phone has a 5-inch HD IPS OnCell display. The display also has a scratch resistant 2.5D curved glass. The display is good and offers nice color reproduction. It works awesome in both indoor and outdoor conditions. The display also got good viewing angles. You also have options to tweak the display experience from the settings.
Software
The phone comes with Android 7.0 out of the box. The good thing is that you are getting stock Android on this phone with few bloatware. The CENTRiC care app gives you the access to support centers. There is also an app called “Top Doctors Online” that I didn’t try. You also get Word, PowerPoint and SwiftKey keyboard apps.
There is an option DuraSpeed that lets you boost the foreground app by restricting background apps. You also get several gestures. As you are getting stock experience, you wouldn’t face any lag due to the software.
Performance
The phone packs a 1.3GHz Quad Core 64Bit MediaTek 6737 processor with 2 GB RAM. As this is a budget phone and MediaTek 6737 is a mediocre chipset, you should not expect much in terms of performance. It can handle day to day tasks and apps, but heavy apps take time in loading. Switching from one app to other app is also slow. It also has Mali T720MP2 to handle graphics.
You can play lots of entry-level and mid-range games without any problem. You can also try heavy games, but you will not get smooth graphics experience. Still, several heavy games like Asphalt 8 are playable with fine experience. As this is a budget device, I was not expecting much but it offers more than I expected.
You get 16 GB of storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via microSD card. It also supports USB OTG.
It also has a fingerprint sensor below the display. It is slow and doesn’t work on just tapping. You need to put your finger on it.
Camera
CENTRiC L3 comes with 13 megapixels rear camera with LED flash and 5 megapixels front camera. The camera app offers features including HDR, Panorama, Face Beauty, Face Detection, Auto Scene Detection, Self Timer and volume button capture.
Rear camera captures good colors but photos lack details. Trying HDR also doesn’t help as it even washes colors. The performance in low light even further goes down and photos show considerable noise. The rear camera performance could be better. If the camera is your priority, this phone is not for you.
Front camera works better and captures good selfie shots in broad daylight. You also have beauty mode in case you want. I tried that as well and found good results.
Video recording quality is average but I was happy to see its focus speed. As this is an entry-level device, I was satisfied with its video recording capability.
Multimedia
Speaker on this phone is not very loud and it could be better. As it has a good display, video experience will be awesome, but low sound can ruin the experience.
You also get an earphone within the box. It was good for enjoying music and watching movies. It is an in-ear type and easily fits in ears, at least for me. I find this very good as you will not have to spend on earphones separately.
Connectivity and Battery
The phone comes with most of the connectivity options you can expect from a budget phone. It supports 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro USB, and GPS. I didn’t face any issue with all these. It works fine with Reliance Jio network.
It also features Accelerometer, Light and proximity sensors.
The phone packs 3050mAh Li-Polymer Battery that offers less than a day usage. I usually got around 14 hours of usage as a primary device. If you are a power user, you will have to charge it twice a day. It also takes around 3 hours in fully charging from 0 to 100%. So, the battery is also average performing.
Final Words
This is a budget device, so I was not expecting much from it. CENTRiC L3 only impressed with its design, display and front camera. The performance of this phone is fine. The camera and battery could be better.
The phone already got a tough competition from Xiaomi Redmi 5A and Infocus Vision 3. What do you think? If you have anything to ask, you can leave it in the comment.
