As the Spice Popkorn M9000 lay on our desks, the though of swiftly changing mobile world crossed our minds. Though mobile devices are the epitome of the idea ‘carrying your world in a pocket’, sharing it with each and every acquaintance may not be a doable thing. For one, when you upload a video to YouTube and text your friends to watch it, they may not really have a phone or tablet or netbook on them to access it. If they do have one, Wi-Fi or 3G may be out of reach. There’s also the possibility that they don’t care about those photos or videos you’ve uploaded to some site or the other because they don’t really like you. Enter the Spice Popkorn M9000 projector phone which has you covered in case of at least one of these scenarios and that’s the main reason we’ve been waiting to review it.
Playing its part affably, the Spice Popkorn M9000 phone arrives in a yellow and white striped box shaped like the sort of container you get popcorn in. The contents tumbling out of it look like they could be part of a DIY kit. The Popkorn is accompanied by a tripod, external speaker, earphones, charger, 1,200mAh battery, laser pointer and a whole lot of cables. If the user manual somehow manages to escape the packaging, you can always download one from the company’s website instead of losing a few nights’ sleep on how to access the projector function. Starting with what meets the eye first, the build dutifully reminds us that there are alternate views on aesthetics besides our own. The dimensions measure 119mm x 50.3mm x 17.3mm and the weight reads at 123g, the last being partially attributable to the in-built projector.
The keypad and area around the screen as well as the lower back panel is a shade of black. The front face of the Spice Projector phone is bordered by a gunmetal silver frame, which is precisely the same material used for the battery compartment on the back. The last mentioned also accommodates two SIM cards and a microSD card. Its keypad is of the standard type with only horizontal grooves marking out the text input keys. The main navigation key is diamond-shaped, with a rhinestone stud in the center just so you don’t miss the hint. A microUSB port is positioned at the base and projector lens peeks out of the top edge. Hunt for the antenna invoking mobile TV and FM at the base. A projector key clings to the right side of the chassis, while dedicated volume rockers sit along the left.
We’re obviously planning to kick off with the projector function right away. And you should be warned in advance – don’t expect Spice to hold your hand while you work at setting up the apparatus. Figuring out where exactly each cable is supposed to be fitted in is an exercise in patience and resourcefulness. Everyone deserves a pat on the back for solving the puzzle even if they do take eons doing it and so we eventually reward ourselves one. To use the projector and have anything to project, the 87MB of onboard memory is not going to be enough. You can insert a memory card of up to 16GB into the microSD slot and compatible video formats encompass .3gp, .avi, .flv, .rmvb, .rm, .mp4 or H.264.
Here’s the part where we subtly force the unwilling to watch videos of us falling off swings, swallowing swords, walking on coals or doing any similar upload-worthy thing. For we’ve yet to bump into anyone without the least bit of interest in a handset equipped with a projector. The picture quality is not all that bad on a white screen, though the color appears a bit washed out and adjusting the focus control below the lens barely makes a visible difference in the visuals. The canary yellow portable speakers bundled with the other accessories renders clearer albeit not louder, audio. To our pleasant surprise, the projector does not cause the body to heat up quickly and the rear starts feeling warm only after over half an hour.
Mind you, the projector is a gobbler on the battery life front. After half an hour of beaming videos onto the ceiling area above our office cubicle, the phone was showing an almost 25% reduction in battery juice. We’re seeing the ideas of a mini projector in your pocket and portability fighting a gory battle here. The bottom line is that showing off the projector while camped far away from wall outlets is not a smart thing to do. Mobile TV would be a fun alternative if any of the free channels caught by the really long antenna stowed away in the base were worth any entertainment value. Fall back on the ever reliant FM radio for this purpose. For some inexplicable reason, we could only hear FM radio recordings through the loud speakers and not the earphones.
The rest of the applications and functions stick faithfully to what any feature phone would render. And again, the UI adopts the same taste in design as the exterior. It would have come off as much less of an eyesore if all the colors known to humanity hadn’t been spilled onto the interface. The call clarity is extremely satisfactory and listening to music on it is not an unwelcome distraction except for the ever so minor tinny vibe in the background. A Fun Spice icon hides widgets for Facebook, Snaptu, Opera mini, Ibibo, mobile tracker and more. The 3.2MP camera on the back is just so-so and sharing options include MMS, Bluetooth and uploads to the web. Admittedly, hitting out messages on the somewhat obdurate keys does get tiring on the fingers after a long stretch. But all in all, the Spice Popkorn M9000 makes for a good feature phone with an interesting highlight.
A price tag of Rs. 6,699 wraps itself around the Spice Popkorn M9000. Its selling point is obviously the projector and this is more of a novelty than a handy utility. As for the other functions, it’s a regular feature phone showing off a UI with questionable taste in terms of design. If it weren’t for the unsightly rhinestone on the central navigation button, the appearance would have been reasonably respectable. We’re chalking up a 7 out of 10 rating for the handset.
