Published on 12:00 AM, January 16, 2017

Hands-on Review

Walton Primo X4

When it comes to smartphones on a budget, Walton's Primo lineup is definitely a force to reckon with in Bangladesh. Designed to compete in the upper midrange segment, Walton recently brought out X4- a metallic beauty with a superb set of hardware under the hood.  Let's take a good look what this phone has to offer:

Design

Design wise the phone draws inspiration from another popular midranger- Xiaomi Note 4. The curved back provides a smooth and sturdy grip despite the phone being a bit heavy. Our review unit came in a Champaign gold coloured front and back which we did like. Right below the back camera you can see an encircled groove with the Walton logo in it. At first look it might appear as a fingerprint scanner but looks can be deceiving, at least in this case. The phone does have a fingerprint scanner but it's in the front on the home button. I guess Walton wanted to add a ring to its logo.

Display

 The phone comes with a 5.5 inch Full HD screen. It's well illuminated at 60% brightness and works fine under direct sunlight. The colour rendition seemed accurate and the touch screen worked as it's supposed – smoothly without lagging a bit. It can also with stand minor abuse, thanks to its 4th gen corning glass protection.

Performance

The performance is the part where Walton Primo X4 outruns the competition. Coupled with a 64-bit 1.8 GHz Octa-Core Processor and a whooping 4GB RAM, X4 can process most of the task flawlessly. Be it the latest graphics intensive game or a RAM hogging app- X4 can chew and spit them out in moments. Despite having a run of the mill GPU, we didn't see the phone slowing down for a bit. Certainly a good job by Walton!

Camera

Sticking out in the back is the 16MP BSI sensored primary camera of the phone. We have been told the back camera comes with sapphire crystal which iPhone uses on their latest generation devices to make the back camera glass scratch resistant. We have been also informed that the back camera has 6 layers densely packed lenses to cancel out noise as much as possible. The snaps that we took make it clearly evident that the primary camera is indeed much better than what we generally see in other devices of this segment. The phone also comes with some processing tweaks i.e. pro mode, time-lapse, slo-mo, HDR and even Macro mode. Check BYTES online for some of the sample snaps.

The selfie cam of the phone I am afraid didn't wow us the way the back camera did despite having a 13 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture. The images that we took tended to look a bit oversatured; something we don't expect from a camera with these specs.

Battery

To withstand your daily dose of usage, the phone comes equipped with a 3130 mAh battery. I used the phone several weeks and found I needed to charge the phone again at the evening for bit to run the entire day. But that's me, a heavy user who pushes the phone to limits on a daily basis. For any regular user we think the battery should be fine.

Features

The phone comes with loaded with features. Let me highlight a key few. We loved the finger print scanner which takes around 0.2 seconds to unlock the phone. The customisable android menu buttons in the phone is a good touch too. The custom ROM is something we have been seeing for ages in Walton, so nothing new there.

VERDICT

The Walton Primo X4 is a great smartphone for the price. It is more than a capable of catching snazzy moments, thanks to its outstanding rear camera. The front camera could use some upgrade though. If you are looking for an exceptional phone that you want as your driver then this is definitely worth considering. 

SPECS

Display: 5.5 inches, Full HD 1920 x 1080

CPU: Octa-core, 1.8 GHz

GPU: Mali-T860

OS: Android Marshmallow v6.0

ROM: 32 GB

RAM: 4 GB

Camera: Front:     16 Megapixel + Rear: 13 Megapixel

Battery: 3130 mAh

Sensors: Accelerometer (3D), Proximity, Light, Orientation etc.

Price: Tk. 22,990/-

Review: Shahriar Rahman

Photos: Rahin Sadman