ET Review: Xolo Play T1000

Your first impression of the Xolo Play T1000 will be that it is bulky. However, the build quality is impressive — it has a smooth matte finish on the rear panel that provides a good grip — useful for gaming. The 4.7-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with good viewing angles. The Nvidia Tegra 3 processor that powers the phone boasts of a 12-core GPU — it offers slightly sharper graphics than competing smartphones. We played Dead Trigger and Shadowgun — both of them ran butter smooth.

According to our benchmarks, the Tegra 3 offers similar results to the Mediatek quad core being used in a number of smartphones today — impressive for an Nvidia chipset which is almost two years old. One big advantage of the Nvidia chipset is access to Nvidia's TegraZone that offers a collection of apps and games optimized for the Tegra processor. Other hardware includes 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage (expandable using micro SD).

The user interface is very similar to stock Android — there is no bloatware running in the background which improves multitasking and battery life. We got over 6.5 hours of battery life with HD video playback and a full day with normal usage.

The rear 8MP and front 2MP camera suffer from visible noise in the photographs. Audio output from the speakers is loud — great for gaming and videos. If you want to game in a budget, the T1000 is highly recommended. For the same price, Gionee's Elife E3 has a slimmer and nicer design with similar hardware specifications.