Dell XCD35

64 Fair

Price: Rs 9,990

Summary

The Dell XCD35 is an Android 2.2 (Froyo) powered budget smartphone with a 3.5-in WVGA display.

Pros:

• Great High-Resolution Display
• Wi-Fi, 3G & GPS
• Solid Build

Cons:

• Sluggish Performance
• Touch Response is Lacking
• Average Multimedia Performance

Full Review

Although the Dell XCD35 is well-priced for its features, it represents the shortcomings of Android as an OS for budget phones. While the phone offers a good screen and the complete suite of connectivity options, it falls short in terms of usability thanks to its meager processor.

Features

The XCD35 is an Android 2.2 (Froyo) powered smartphone, the biggest benefit of which is the fact that you can now install apps on the SD card as well (technically, you can transfer apps installed in the phone memory to the SD card). It's powered by a 600MHz ARM 11 processor, which as I mentioned does not feel enough. It also has 256MB of RAM and offers 200MB of internal storage, expandable to 16GB using microSD cards.

The XCD35 has a single primary 3.15MP camera without a flash but with auto-focus. The best thing about the phone is its 3.5-in screen with 480x800 pixels resolution, something that overshadows the displays found on other budget phones.  

Being an Android phone means that the Dell can use all the useful mobile apps that Google has to offer. It also comes pre-installed with some other apps for social networking, viewing documents and syncing to a Microsoft Exchange server.

The XCD35 supports Wi-Fi and 3G (HSDPA 7.2Mbps) and also has a built in GPS chip. A major annoyance that I ran across while testing the phone was that it used to lose Wi-Fi connectivity within about 6-7 minutes of being idle. This meant that every time I picked up the phone, I would have to go to Wi-Fi settings and choose my preferred Wi-Fi network manually. It also meant that once the Wi-Fi connection was lost, the phone would revert to using mobile data to sync contacts or download e-mail even though I had already saved a Wi-Fi network.

Design & Usability

The Dell XCD35 is a very plain looking phone and also is only available in its black-grey avatar. However, I can't fault its build quality and in spite of predominantly relying on plastic, the XCD35 feels solid in the hand.

The 3.5-in display is the best thing about the phone. It's a large touchscreen and is great to see in a segment that often relies on touchscreens that only go up to 3.2-in. The screen is also high-resolution and has very good color reproduction and sharpness. It provides consistent performance outdoors too.

Unfortunately, the phone's processor does not seem able to provide the same consistency in performance. The phone is unusually sluggish and animations used by the stock Android UI are jerky. Touch response is also lacking and often the phone doesn't respond at first touch. The hardware buttons below the screen are a nice addition though.

The Dell has a 1250mAh battery that is just about sufficient for a day's usage. Calls sound clear except for some echoing that happened sometimes during the test duration. Also in about two weeks of testing, the phone hung once and had to be restarted.

Browsing & Multimedia

Although the default browser on the Dell XCD35 has a good feature-set, the sluggish nature of the phone means that the browsing experience is only average. Still, the browser manages to render pages well and offers multi-tab support.

Even though it offers auto-focus, the XCD35's 3.15MP camera is disappointing. There's no flash no low-light photography is predictably awful and photos shot in daylight have contrast issues and look hazy. The problem permeates into indoor photos too though the auto-focus means that you can shoot decent photos of objects in close-up. Videos recorded are also nothing special and look low-res.


Images shot with the Dell XCD35 .

Unlike other low-budget phones that keep an eye out for good audio performance, the Dell's audio playback disappoints mainly on account of low volume and EQ options. The bundled earphones are also poor while the external speaker is marginally better. The FM app has a neat interface but doesn't offer auto-tuning. It does allows you though to save stations it recognizes.

I was also disappointed by the Dell's video playing prowess. In spite of the great screen, the XCD35 doesn't make for the best phone to watch videos on as they tend to have noticeable frame-rate issues on playback.

Bottom Line

At first look the Dell XCD35 looks like a great buy on account of its price-tag and good looking screen.