Micromax Qube X550

Micromax is a new name in the Middle East mobile phone industry and the Qube X550 is the first smartphone we received from the company.

The X550 sports a somewhat ubiquitous though somewhat aged design in that its sleek lines and sturdy body - that feels like rubber - are reminiscent of previous generation HTC smartphones. The phone we tested had a black body and purple chrome lining and while fairly stylish, the rubberised feel gave the smartphone a tough, rugged feel that could simply just shrug off scratches and knocks.

The phone is fairly minimalistic in its design; the front of the X550 sports just the 3.2-inchTFT touchscreen display and a single home button below it. The right side has a volume rocker and a convenience key that is set to activate the camera by default. The phone is also equipped with a powerful speaker that produces loud and clear sound. On the bottom of the phone is a mini-USB port for charging and a 3.5mm audio jack to facilitate hands-free use or double as a headset for listening to music, the radio or videos - in stereo quality. There is also a stylus to easily navigate applications on the phone.

The Qube is a dual SIM phone and is active on both numbers simultaneously. Calls may be received on both SIM cards and the phone has the ability to put both SIMs in standby when not in use. To make a call you would first have to choose the number you would like to call out from and overall we found the process quite natural and easy to get accustomed to.

The X550 features a cube style interface that can be rotated via a finger swipe to reveal different applications. There is a small widget arc that allows for quick access to the most used applications or just handy apps that the user can customise. The phone comes preloaded with Opera for web browsing, as well as Facebook and Nimbuzz for social networking.
   
Overall we found the phone fairly easy to live with on a day-to-day basis, though the touchscreen can feel unresponsive when using your fingers compared to other touchscreen phones. Using the stylus helps but it makes the phone feel severely out of date. It's no match then for Google Android phones or Apple's iPhone but given its budget price we didn't expect it to go head-to-head with those far more expensive devices anyway.

One area where the X550 struggles is with image capture. Pictures taken with the built-in 2-megapixel camera are grainy and the camera suffers in low-light due to the lack of a flash. It also does not have any sort of image stabilisation which leads to blurry images, if clicked with an unsteady hand. We noticed a mixing of colours in the photographs we took and a pinkinsh-purple hue on the left part of the frame too.