Let’s face it – low-cost handset makers have almost become synonymous to the Indian market and there are a handful of them showing their love to this means of communication in a budget-friendly way. We’ve seen phones coming from these turfs, especially the dual-SIM ones succeeding at turning around more than a few heads and there’s definitely got to be some reason why. Spice’s M-67 3D that landed by our quarters over the weekend for a review kept us quite on our toes with the plethora of features it packed in. Well someone claiming to bring in glasses free 3D on a mobile device ought to have its share of limelight, doesn’t it?
In the box, came a charger, a pair of earphones, the User manual and an authorized service center booklet. By the looks of it, this Spice innovation had way too many colleagues go ‘Oh! Is it really 3D?’, ‘What! Glasses-free 3D on a phone?’ It was only after much cajoling that we had some of them read the contents of the box. Ok, the phone doesn’t impress at a first glance with its garish golden and black scheme of things, but that shouldn’t put you off believing it could indeed be 3D-enabled. With a rather flat figure, the buttons on the keypad are in line with the rest of the phone’s body that don’t quite leave a mark. The Spice M-67 3D has a rubberized matte texture on its front while the rest of it is a glassy black shade which is very reflecting.
The Spice M-67 3D is a dual SIM phone with the keys on its surface immediately below the 2.4†screen distributed accordingly. A circular raised button flashes itself in the central area for nodding in to an OK. Keys to the left and right are separated by a distinct semi-circular ring in gold. The phone follows a ‘Master’ and ‘Slave’ theme for the SIM cards with the respective keys implanted on this area. The left key has a shortcut to the slave SIM attributes while a key in the same place on the right has a shortcut to the Play mode. Running laterally are the Select/End, Master SIM and Call end buttons. The 2.5mm headphone port sits flush on the left rim of the phone while the USB port with a rubber cover is on the right. Turn the phone over for the camera lens, Spice logo and speaker grille.
As annoying as it can get trying to insert both SIM cards, particularly the ‘Slave’ one as Spice calls it is a Herculean task and needs more than plain pushing and shoving around. It’s the familiar Java-based interface that we’ve come to see on a plethora of low-value handsets stirred out by budding manufacturers playing up on this phone too. Once you enter the interface, you’re taken to a more simple and uncluttered way of going about things. In the Contacts, there’s a Batch Operations feature that seems to be a bit different way of handling group tasks like deleting, copying or moving contacts. When you’re typing messages, the alphabets run along in the bottom of the screen and the keyboard is just that midway between being really good and average. It’s comfortable only so long as you aren’t spending too much time with it.
There’s an interesting Text Format attribute in messages though that lets you ‘spice’ it up with Bold, Italic, Center Align and new paragraph align formatting for text messages. Ironically, there’s no option to see Sent items here. The call log is a neat division of missed, dialed, received and all calls tabs. All through the interface, when we hit the options button, we didn’t need to scroll through the entire list to reach a function. Just choosing the particular number on the keypad took us to the desired one. The handset comes with 500K of internal memory and the unit we received didn’t bundle in the memory card. The phone does however allow memory to be expanded up to 16GB via the microSD slot. With the slew of attributes it packed in, FunSpice appeared to be more like a collection of favorite Spice applications. The list here includes Spice Gang, Facebook, Wapedia, Vuclip, Nimbuzz, Reuters, Just Dial and Cricket Update.
The internet connectivity isn’t one of the best we can claim to have enjoyed on phones of this standard and the Spice M-67 3D doesn’t work at doing anything differently. It took us quite a bit to gain access to the browser and no Wi-Fi support only meant damaged data charges while we were at it. We had the phone plugged into our laptop via the Mass storage mode to transfer some audio and video content. There were two more options that popped up when we connected the phone through USB – COM port and webcam. The main feature that sets apart this phone from the crowd is its support for stereoscopic 3D. You can opt between 2D and 3D modes for both images and video. It isn’t a breeze to have a 3D video up and running on the phone and when it does eventually, you could be disappointed by the quality of the 3D content. Well, it shouldn’t really be surprising given the 240 x 320 resolution display. It’s just about mediocre and isn’t something you would be enthused about for too long. What’s more, the phone doesn’t identify data right out of the memory card like we’ve seen other phones do. The implanted 2MP camera too does nothing for even those odd snapping moments despite the extensive feature list it packs in. Both the quality of images and videos is just about passable.
The Spice M-67 3D does come with a full-fledged audio player nevertheless and once you’ve loaded up music, it’s a pleasing experience. Even at the highest volume, the sound doesn’t get too tinny. Audiophiles will also find solace in the sound recorder and FM radio options while you can also schedule an FM record to track your favorite radio programs. The phone further supports English and Hindi languages and besides the regular settings, we were quite taken aback to find a Remote Wipe settings that will be of much help should you misplace the phone. Magic Sushi and Puzzle are the two games that kept us occupied in leisure times. This Spice innovation took more than we’d anticipated to charge up but did however cough up enough juice to last us a little more than a day upon moderate usage.
As we wrap this review, our mind races back to the advertisement of the Spice phone we’d spotted on television. A child gleaming at the idea of pictures opening up in 3D from a book seemed quite inviting. Sadly the phone didn’t manage to invoke any such feelings in the time we spent with it. The Spice M-67 3D comes across as a basic multi-SIM handset spruced up by 3D support. The fact that it has to compete with the likes of LG’s recent showstopper at the MWC, the Optimus 3D smartphone doesn’t help either. But getting 3D to a diminutive display at the price that this phone does is no picnic either. Its affordable Rs. 4299 price tag convinces us enough to give it a 7 out 10 rating.
