Since its launch in March 2015, a US-based manufacturer of smartphones InFocus has introduced a number of smartphones in a number of categories, and recently launched Bingo 50 simply adds to this long list. It packs some decent hardware specs for the price, and just looking at the technical description, we can say that this is quite a value for money offering in this segment. But after that
Build and Design: 5/10
On the front we have an glass screen that protects the 5-inch display below it. The smartphone features a clean look on the front face with just the earpiece, front-facing camera and proximity sensor at the top and the InFocus logo at the bottom.
On the back have the secondary mic and LED flash sitting close to the camera module with InFocus logo below it. At the bottom end we find 3 perforations for the speaker grille.
Coming to the sides, we have a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, and a microUSB port at the bottom with the primary mic biting into a miniscule bit of the display estate (shown below).
On the left we have the volume buttons and the right side sports the power/unlock button.
While, the Sandstone finish back (also available in leather) felt grippy, the curve of the back panel along with the rounded corners gave the smartphone an overall good feel.
Featuring an all plastic build, we did expect the parts to be a bit shabby. The phone made plenty of creaking sounds when pressing down on the back and even on the display screen. The cutouts on the removable back cover did not fit seamlessly either with the protruding camera module showing off a gap between the two (shown above). To make things worse, the battery actually rattles when you shake the smartphone!
Also there’s plenty of bezel everywhere. While we would not look at the thickness of the bezels to the left and right of the display (since it is not a mid-range or a flagship smartphone), its the thick top and bottom and bottom sections that seem to be a complete waste of space.
Features: 7/10
As mentioned earlier in this review. The specifications certainly look great on paper and in our features section, this helps the Bingo 50 rack up plenty of points. InFocus has literally packed in everything under the sun inside the Bingo 50. You get a 5-inch 720p on-cell display on the front with a tried and tested 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 chipset inside. There’s 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 64GB via a microSD card slot.
While Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the highlight of the smartphone (we had a few issues with that as well) the camera is another area that gets the Bingo 50 some credit. There is an 8MP AF camera with an LED flash on the back and similar 8MP f/2.2 unit up front as well.
In terms of connectivity we get 4G LTE bands with a dual SIM set up, Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi all of which is powered by a non-removable 2500mAh battery.
Display: 7/10
The display on the Bingo 50 is indeed a good one and clearly is the only hardware feature that we liked along with the battery. The display is an on-cell TFT LCD module with a 1280×720 pixel array.
In terms of viewing angles, the Bingo 50’s display did leave us quite satisfied and the screen above it also kept fingerprints at bay. Text and images looked sharp and while the colour reproduction was a bit too cold (blue) we could make a few adjustments thanks to the built-in Colour temperature software tweak. There is also a Screen Mode feature that will adjust the display according to the lighting scenario.
In terms of viewing angles, the Bingo 50’s display did leave us quite satisfied and the screen above it also kept fingerprints at bay.
The display fared well when it came to both indoor and outdoor lighting situations. Colours looked saturated and text and other details were clear and legible.
Software: 6/10
Here’s where things do get pretty interesting for this budget smartphone as there are some good points and some bad points to talk about. To begin with we have a budget smartphone priced at Rs 7,499 that boots to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
And with Android 6.0 Marshmallow come all of those interesting features as well, including a silky smooth OS with no hiccups whatsoever. This would be partially thanks to light skin that runs above the base Android 6.0 OS that adds some additional tweaks to the UI.
The Standard Launcher, EZ Launcher and Super Power Saver Mode launcher (L to R).
Those additional tweaks would include two separate launchers, both of which are customisable to quite an extent. A Turbo download mode that uses cellular data and Wi-Fi to speed up your downloads, a few motion settings like ‘flip to reject call’ and a handy apps cleaner that will help you free up some space.
About the themes selection, there were just three of them by default. The new ones can be downloaded from the online store (that takes you to Google Play) but the selection is barely limited to about 4-5 additional themes all of which make the phone look a bit too gaudy at best. The default theme that comes with icons that resemble scribbles, looked a bit too childlike and felt completely out of place.
Another very annoying problem with the software was that it simply refused to change the orientation of the display for all apps (except the camera) when viewed or held horizontally. While this made viewing images and videos a nightmare, games somehow switched orientation to landscape but then remained locked to one orientation only. Hopefully InFocus gets this issue rectified with a software update.
Performance: 6/10
Indeed the Bingo 50 was not meant to be a powerhouse built for gaming and demanding applications. But it certainly gets the job done when it comes to running both native and third-party apps fairly well. Animations and transitions glide around effortlessly and this led a to a pleasant user experience.
Call quality was good and loud enough for us to take it down a few notches. The speaker quality on the other hand was loud enough and when maxed out did sound tinny and empty. The audio quality while listening to music was also pretty good and delivered clear bass, but was nothing spectacular.
Coming to gaming and other demanding apps, the smartphone performed fairly alright when it came to benchmarks. Casual games like Mad Aces, Missiles, Subway Surfers and more ran without any stutter while graphically demanding games were playable but on lower settings. The 3GB of RAM certainly comes to the rescue and the phone did not get noticeably hot while gaming or streaming.
Camera: 4/10
The camera on the InFocus Bingo 50 possess a really odd processing algorithm. While 8MP, f/2.2 camera module did seem pretty capable, we are pretty sure there is something fishy going on with the software that results in horribly over-processed images.
The camera interface was simple and pretty straightforward.
This was a problem in both daylight and low-light scenarios. The images produced by both cameras simply lacked any details whatsoever. Textures were blurred out and there was barely any depth in any of the images that we shot. It was only when shooting situations allowed for the subject to be really far away from the background, like that of a tall tower with sky behind it did we managed to produce a level of depth in the photos.
Again, the highlights appeared to be completely blown off unless the HDR mode was turned on. Acquiring focus was another task and was not quick enough even in daylight or brightly lit situations. So we often ended up with blurry out of focus images. Our inability to view photos horizontally on the display made the camera experience even more annoying because we had to zoom into an image vertically to check if it was in focus.
Video recording was average at best and the playback on a desktop showed some choppy video quality. Panning the camera while shooting only made things worse.
Battery Life: 7/10
While the InFocus managed to stuff in a 2500mAh battery, it is the software that helps you get through an entire work day. This would include sending emails with two accounts on sync, WhatsApp, a bit of gaming, clicking a few photos and placing a few calls.
While we are pretty sure that the smartphone would not be able to get through an entire work day all by itself, InFocus has included an ‘Standby Intelligent power saving mode that basically sync data according to a schedule or only when the phone is switched on. This helps the smartphone make the most of out of its 2500mAh battery which makes better sense once you consider that 720p display (less pixels to push) even though it is a 5-inch unit.
Verdict and Price in India
All-in-all the InFocus Bingo 50 is a smartphone that is good with the basics like placing calls, display, battery and messes things up with its software (auto-rotation, themes) and camera even with Android 6.0 Marshmallow on board. While we liked the rounded design, we were not at all impressed with its build quality even at the Rs 7,499 asking price.
There are plenty of better alternatives in the market these days that not just offer more in terms of features, but deliver when it comes to the numbers on paper. Its closest competitor is the Huawei Honor Holly 2 Plus that again packs in an all-plastic design but with much better build quality and delivers on all fronts including battery life with its 4000mAh battery. The Coolpad Note 3 that is available for Rs 8,999 is again another competitor and it also packs in a fingerprint reader and all-round better performance. Priced a bit higher we have the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Moto G3 (8GB) that are both priced at Rs 9,999. While the Xiaomi offers class-leading performance, the Moto G makes for a great choice for those looking at well-known brand.
With so many smartphones that deliver better features it is really hard to recommend the InFocus Bingo 50. Currently the only thing going for it is the Android 6.0 Marshmallow tag (with some bugs), but the Moto G already seems to have got that. Add the messed up camera and it is hard recommend it at all.
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