The new Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie smartphone embraces dual camera lens up front with LED flash support and comes with a metal body design
Mobiistar, a Vietnamese smartphone brand, has entered the Indian smartphone market introducing its selfie-centric smartphone, the Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie. Available exclusively on Flipkart, the smartphone is priced at Rs 7999. The smartphone is available only in 3GB RAM/ 32GB onboard storage version.
When it comes to selfie-centric smartphones, Oppo and Vivo have been offering devices with big camera lenses along with AI Beautification technology. Mobiistar’s USP will be the dual selfie camera wit LED flash support in the budget segment. The XQ Dual Selfie has a metal body design with the top and bottom made out of plastic to offer better connectivity. We used the smartphone for a week and here is our review.
Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie Specifications: 5.5-inch FHD (1920 x 1280 pixel resolution) IPS display | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor | 3GB RAM | 32GB storage (microSD support up to 128GB) | 13MP rear camera | 13 MP + 8MP dual front cameras | StarOS based Android 7.1.2 Nougat | 3000mAh battery
Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie: What’s good?
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie has a dual front-facing cameras that packs a 13MP primary lens and an 8MP wide angle lens. The front cameras accurately lock focus on the subject and the wide-angle lens manages to fit in your friends (while taking groupies) in the entire frame. The cameras further accommodate selfie LED light that comes in handy in low light situation.
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie features a 13MP primary lens and an 8MP wide-angle lens with LED flash support
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie was able to deliver decent selfies in well-lit condition retaining colour accuracy and detail. The stock camera app on the phone offers a few real-time filters and FaceBeauty mode that allows you to add skin tone to the image. We would recommend keeping the scale between 1 to 4 to avoid selfies from getting overexposed. Coming to the primary camera sensor, the XQ Dual Selfie features a 13MP lens and comes with HDR mode, Night mode and Pro mode that allows you to tweak a few settings like ISO, aperture, white balance and exposure value. In our camera test, we found the XQ Dual Selfie a decent performer in daylight with decent details and colour reproduction. The camera could lock focus while tapping on the subject on the screen and managed to track it even when we moved the camera away.
The Mobiistar XQ Dual has a metal body with the top and bottom made out plastic. From the rear side, the phone looks similar to the Nubia Z11 with gold accents on the antenna bands, the slightly protruded camera ring and the fingerprint sensor as well. However, it doesn’t have a golden aluminium frame like the Nubia smartphone. The XQ Dual Selfie has good build quality and although the phone is a bit broad for small hands it is very ergonomic in terms of button placement. The index finger comfortably reaches the volume keys on the left side. The power button and SIM tray sit on the right side. At the base, you have mono speaker grills and micro USB port while at the top there is the primary microphone and 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie offers Pro mode that allow you to tweak few camera settings including ISO, aperture and exposure value
Another good thing about the XQ Dual Selfie is that it doesn’t come with much bloatware and the few apps pre-loaded on the phone can be easily uninstalled. The smartphone has built-in themes and offers a few wallpapers which you can customise and add tiles effect. Talking about the benchmark performance, the XQ Dual Selfie managed to score 57353 points on AnTuTu benchmark, meanwhile, on Geekbench 4, the phone was able to score 659 on single-core test and 2520 in multi-core test. This makes it a mid-range phone in terms of performance these days.
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie managed to score decent points on benchmark tests
Underneath the metal body sits Qualcomm’s mid-tier Snapdragon 430 processor. In real-world usage, the smartphone managed to deliver smooth performance with day-to-day activities like browsing the Internet, streaming videos, sending texts on WhatsApp etc. In our gaming test, the phone was able to run casual games for about 20 minutes without any stutter. However, the phone showed frame drops while trying to run graphics intensive games.
The XQ Dual Selfie features a 5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD display with a pixel resolution of 1920×1080 on the front panel. The display quality is decent and surprisingly the reflectance on the screen is low which makes it easy to read content on the display under harsh sunlight. A trade-off, however, is the colours on the display that appear a bit dull.
The camera app on the smartphone offers a FaceBeauty mode to add skin tone to the images
The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie manages to retain detail and decent colour reproduction in good light situation
The rear camera on the smartphone struggles to retain sharpness in low-light condition
Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie: What’s not good?
Although the Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie is primarily designed for selfie-centric users, the low-light performance is still average. The cameras struggle to retain sharpness and even though the front LED flash manages to brighten the image, the result appears a bit artificial. The primary camera on the smartphone had similar issues as the front cameras while taking photos in poorly-lit situation. The XQ Dual Selfie although manage to lock focus on to a subject it struggles to retain details. The images appear smudgy and the shadows show a fair bit of chroma noise.
Further, the graphic rendition on the phone is not that good and the colours seem a bit washed off. Even though the phone manages to handle everyday tasks with decent speed, the heavy apps take more time than usual to load.
Another disappointment that we had with the phone is the lack of Portrait mode which is a common aspect found in almost every smartphone these days. The dual front-cameras on the phone doesn’t give you the benefit to add bokeh effect to the selfies.
Although the Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie is primarily designed for selfie-centric users, the low light performance is still average
The capacitive buttons on the phone are not backlit and are placed slightly lower than the usual position which makes it difficult to access it in a dark room.
Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie: Verdict
When it comes to selfie-centric smartphones in the budget segment, there are only a handful of options available in the market. Although some smartphones claim to offer good selfies, very few come with front LED flash support in the affordable price range. The Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie manages to fill those few missing elements and provide a decent package for a price of Rs 7999. The smartphone carries decent dual front-facing cameras, simple user-interface with just a few bloatware, and good build quality. The XQ Dual Selfie packs an industry standard 3000mAh battery that provides over a day of usage.
The new Mobiistar smartphone is a decent performer but it is not meant for heavy-duty tasks. In case you are looking for a smartphone that is sufficient to do multitasking and can spend a few extra rupees, you can opt for the Redmi Note 5 that pegs 14nm octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor from Qualcomm which is capable enough to handle a few heavy apps. But for those who prefer a smartphone that offers good build quality, decent display and front-facing camera, good battery backup at an affordable cost, the Mobiistar XQ Dual Selfie won’t disappoint you.