Hisense is a brand better known for its low-priced appliances and consumer electronics such as fridges and LCD TVs. More recently, though, the company has entered the crowded smartphone space.
At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Spain, Hisense took the wraps off its latest high-end device, the Infinity Maxe X1, a 6,8-inch “phablet” — a big smartphone or a small tablet, depending on how you look at it.
When unpacking the Infinity Maxe X1, you may be forgiven for thinking that someone is playing a practical joke on you. The device is awkwardly large, especially when comparing it to every other smartphone on the market today. It’s even big next to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3.
Its large screen size also means it cannot be used comfortably with one hand and there’s zero chance of it fitting in your pocket.
The design of the 9,2mm-thick Maxe X1 is not particularly groundbreaking, but this phablet looks good thanks to its clean lines and faux brushed metal finish.
There are two buttons on the right side of the unit, which allow you to power the device or lock the screen and control the volume. On the left are the micro Sim card slot and the SD card slot, which can accommodate cards up to 32GB.
The Maxe X1 offers decent hardware and feels reasonably snappy thanks to its midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 dual-core processor. It has 16GB of flash storage and 2GB of RAM, and supports 4G/LTE. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.
The unit comes bundled with most of the applications one needs to get started, including Kingsoft Office to open documents, Dolby to enhance audio performance and Firewall to keep snoops away.
The main rear camera has a 13-megapixel sensor. The photos it produces are reasonable, but not as sharp as on some rival devices. Colour saturation needs improvement, too.
The front-facing camera takes images at a generous five megapixels, perfect for high-quality Skype calls and “selfies”.
Also on the front of the X1 are two Dolby-certified stereo speakers, which deliver “virtual 5.1 surround audio”. The 3 900mAh battery is not removable, which is unfortunate given that giant screen drains it fairly quickly when it’s being used intensively.
The full-HD LCD screen is great. It’s vivid and sharp, and browsing websites is comfortable to the eye, even on sites that are not designed for phones.
Although the Infinity Maxe X1 is one of the largest smartphones on the market today, the device will find a niche with users who demand a lot of screen real estate, not just for phone calls, but also for browsing the Internet and watching videos.
It’s far from being the most exciting phablet on the market, but it offers solid performance with a good range of features.
Still, at the price — suggested retail is R4 999 — we’d advise shopping around. Sony’s somewhat dated but equivalently specced Xperia Z Ultra retails for just a few hundred rand more. Knowing Sony’s build quality, we’d be hard-pressed not to go with the Z Ultra instead. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
