QMobile’s been making a lot of noise lately with some excellent releases in all sorts of price brackets. From its well-known M6 to the lesser known smartphones such as the Noir X33, the company’s indeed aspiring to reach the top in our local market. The X33 is our center of attention for now and you’d be pleased to hear that the smartphone costs just around 5400 rupees.

Improvised build quality

The smartphone’s exterior comprises entirely out of plastic but what we’re happy about is the fact that QMobile has improvised the way this plastic looks. Much like in Huawei’s Y5 II, the plastic is finely polished while dimensions wise we can’t complain much as entry-level smartphones don’t really like spending much time in the gym.

A disappointing display

All the good work of the previous category has slightly taken a bump as the Noir X33 features a rather underwhelming 4.0 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 200ppi pixel density. Equating to a 480p resolution, you’d likely see the deficiencies of this display once you use it regularly. However, we would like to reiterate that entry-level smartphones tend to bank on such displays so there really isn’t much surprise about the smartphone featuring such a low-key display.

One and a half cameras

The reason we called them this is that the primary camera features a 2 megapixel sensor with an LED flash while the selfie sensor packs what QMobile calls as the “smart camera”. That’s a fancy word for VGA cameras but for the price you’re paying for the Noir X33, you should be happy that you’re getting one and a half cameras.

Toned-down hardware 

The Noir X33’s powerhouse contains a quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. Entry-level smartphones are never meant to provide the best user experience but instead, their moto is more about providing you with your basic smartphone needs. That equates to the built-in Android Marshmallow experiencing frequent lag atop the device while its internal storage banks at 8 gigs of which around 5GB is available to the user for their everyday requirements.

The facility of an external card slot up-to 32 gigs is also present but we’d advise you not to plug-in a large memory card as it’ll further clog the smartphone’s already bleak power resources. Dual-SIM is a welcome feature while its line of disappointing features continues with no fingerprint scanner in sight and a very underpowered 1400 mAh battery.

QMobile Noir X33 pros:

• Acceptable build quality
• At 5400 rupees, its low price-tag will surely catch the attention of many people but would they like to buy one is a different question altogether
• A pair of cameras though both of them are highly underpowered
• External memory card slot up to 32 gigs
• Optional Dual-SIM capability is a bonus for multi network users

QMobile Noir X33 cons:

• Not enough power underneath its hood
• Expect frequent lag atop the built-in Android Marshmallow
• A 1400 mAh battery is vastly underpowered battery
• The display size at 4.0 inches is smaller than what most people would’ve liked
• Only 5GB internal storage available for apps