Gone are the days when people with a deep love for gadgets and quality smartphones would have to sell a piece of their souls for a device due to their costly prices. Phone companies have had sleepless nights in creating devices with the most essential smartphone features and so far this has been good news to those on tight budgets.
The Fero Royale X1 for example, is an ideal budget smartphone which was launched a few weeks ago by Midcom. The Royale X1 is but one of the new range of impressive devices; both entry level feature phones and premium smartphones which have been designed to meet the needs of the Kenyan consumers; meeting them at the point of their most basic smartphone needs.
After the pre-launch, I got myself the Fero mobile’s flagship device, the Royale X1 and here’s my experience and review of the device so far:
Design
First impressions count wherever you go, so when you whip out a phone that doesn’t carry your personality, you turn heads. The same happens when you take out a gorgeous device – it commands respect
The 5 inch HD Display device comes in a remarkably premium metallic design, which is both strong and stylish. It is also light and smooth to the touch; something I consider an important deal. Why? Because your phone says a lot about you and the X1 made a lasting impression everywhere I went.
The device is simply gorgeous and it’s also really light despite the substantially big battery, which also has an added advantage considering its back panel is made with titanium.
Being classy with this phone isn’t a choice, it’s a lifestyle guarantee.
4G enabled
During the launch, Midcom Managing director said that the Fero Devices have been crafted in a way that caters to the African population – and fast internet speeds are a key factor in today’s fast digital world. Getting an affordable smartphone that is 4G enabled is hard, but the Royale X1 beats the odds by giving us that advantage.
Coupled with its quad-core processor, I was able to enjoy rapid speeds of online activity and content consumption. So wherever I was in the city, fast speeds were always guaranteed with the X1.
Camera
Pictures aren’t just pictures, they’re moments; moments that we want to live forever and with my life revolving around events, a quality camera is very essential to my régime.
The phone comes with a 13MP Auto Focus rear camera, with LED flash and 5 MP front camera with face beauty mode for those who don’t want their perfect selfies ruined by unwanted blemishes. It also has a night shoot mode feature allowing one to take pictures even in low-light conditions.
For a company that just released their first line of premium smartphones, their cameras do not disappoint. They take clear, sharp and crisp images though there is definitely room for more to be done especially since many smartphones are upping their game in this department.
The camera also has a zoom effect that lets you zoom into a photo to almost four times, making it easier to capture photos that are far away which is awesome for bloggers like me who need to sometimes take pictures from far at entertainment events. The pictures taken at the 4.0x effect aren’t as clear as the normal ones which is a side effect of the zooming but they aren’t blurry so it’s still a win-win situation.
Battery life
With all the amazing specs in the device, battery life was a major question I had when it came to the phone. With its impressive 4000 mAh battery, it makes the low battery option almost impossible for this device.
The battery also lasts for quite a while, almost going more than a day without charging and for someone like me who is always on the go and always on my phone, the only downside however was the fast-charging capability. The battery drain capacity is on the low, it does however take quite a bit of time to reach full battery capability so patience is key
I once had a crazy day where I forgot my power bank at home and I hadn’t carried my plug-in charger, so obviously I tried being cautious with how I used my phone that day. By the time I was getting home I’d noticed that I had used less than quarter of the battery and by the evening of the next day, the battery still had a lot of juice: a respectable 60%. This is a really good win for the X1.
The X1 is also the perfect travel buddy. It serves as the perfect company for long drives so you can play games watch movies and listen to long hours of music on the move
Storage
The device has an internal memory of 16 GB and a 3GB RAM which is a really sweet deal especially if you count the 128 GB of expendable storage. This amount of storage also boosts the overall performance of the device thus even in the many photos and videos I juggle in my day-to-day life, the device doesn’t lag behind – which is a definite plus for me.
Music
The earphone’s quality was up to standard. The sound from the back speaker however wasn’t as up-to-par as I thought. They do however offer the best when it comes to listening to quality music and unlike other earphones that might be irritating to wear for a long time, the X1 earbuds allowed me to listen to considerably loud music without irritating my ears.
Issues of concern
The battery takes quite a long time to fully juice up. It is definitely worth it in the end, but patience needs to be practiced when charging.
However, for a first generation device, the Fero Royale X1 is a remarkable phone. For the features offered with this device at a retail price of only Kshs 13,999; it definitely is a phone worth your money.
