InFocus has been rolling out their devices in the Indian mobile market for quite some time now. The InFocus Bingo series contributed to the budget-friendly category, their M series came up to cater to the audience which wanted more from this cost-effective segment. Hence, with an aim to expand its presence in one of the most competitive mid-range segment, InFocus introduced their EPIC 1 smartphone in the market a couple of months ago. This phone is exclusively available through Amazon India at a price of INR 12,999 that roughly translates to USD 190. We have been using the EPIC 1 for quite some time now and here is what we think about it.
InFocus EPIC 1 Design and Build
The InFocus EPIC 1 can be had in only Gold colour. It is a smart looking device with the neat version of the common industrial design adopted by a lot of phone makers lately. So we have a metal unibody construction with a brushed finish back panel. The phone feels nice in the hand.The company has tried to give it an ergonomic touch by crafting the metal casing with a curved back design.
The phone has a slim profile and it measures 153mm in length, is 76mm wide, and 8.4mm thick. The construction is solid but the surface isn’t scratch resistant so to keep the phone shiny new a cover is a must.
InFocus has fitted the EPIC 1 with a 5.5inch LTPS Full HD Display. The resolution is 1920 x 1080 and the pixel density stands at 403ppi. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and is equipped with content upscaling algorithm. This new tech is claimed to impart an enhanced visual experience. The display is pretty much standard and does its job very well. It is bright and vivid without the colours being over-saturated.
On top of the screen is the 8MP camera, earpiece, LED notification light and the proximity sensor. No touch capacitive buttons here though, users have to sacrifice a little bit of screen space for onboard keys. On the right-hand side of the frame are the volume keys and the power button.
The Hybrid dual SIM tray has been placed on the left. At the back, we have a 16MP camera, secondary microphone, dual LED flash and the fingerprint sensor.
This fingerprint sensor provides 360-degree recognition and we had no problems with it whatsoever, though it still isn’t as fast as the top dogs in the more expensive, premium segment. On top is the 3.5mm audio jack and the IR Blaster whereas at the bottom is the microphone, speaker grill, and a USB Type-C port with a screw on each side.
InFocus EPIC 1 Specs and Performance
This midrange phone comes with an impressive spec sheet. Performing duties under its hood is a combination of a MediaTek Helio X20 MT6797M Deca-core processor and a Mali T720 MP2 GPU. The SoC is the first ever 10-core processor with Tri-Cluster Architecture that is tuned to provide an efficient usage of power. Well, the bundled 3000 mAh battery pack wasn’t much of a star but it lasted long for a day’s moderate usage. The fast charging support is a boon. For usage, there is 3GB RAM and 32 GB of onboard memory that can be expanded up to 128GB.
We put the InFocus through a few games and the experience has been surprisingly good. Smaller games like Subway Surfers and Candy Crush are handled like a pro. The EPIC 1 also did a good job while taking on the high end graphic rich games. We did experience a frame loss while playing Asphalt 8, although its was a blink and you miss it kind of an experience. Also, we didn’t experience such instance later. Looking at it from a holistic perspective, the gaming experience might not delight a pro gamer, best but for casual gamers, this one would be more than sufficient. Multi-tasking is no issue for the EPIC 1 and it handles almost everything that’s thrown at it without stuttering or losing breath.
Long usage, gaming and tasks warm up the phone though it never becomes bothersome to sound an alarm. One interesting bit, the speaker unit of the EPIC 1 has been an entertainer. It is a high output unit and manages to maintain the quality of the track playing even at the peak volume without any jarring distortions. Another feature we would like to point out is the Turbo Download mode embedded in the UI that allows you to use both Wifi as well as you cellular data connection to download a file (over 20 MB) at a faster speed.
InFocus EPIC 1 OS and UI
The InFocus EPIC 1 comes with Android v6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with the company’s own InLife UI 2.0 laid on top. The UI is not bloated with any extra apps and apart from the missing App drawer; the whole android experience is no different.
Infocus Epic 1 Camera
The Infocus Epic 1 gets an 8MP camera up front with f/1.8 Aperture and at the rear is a 16MP unit that uses Phase Detection AutoFocus and a Dual Tone Natural Flash. At first, we weren’t expecting much from this department but when we used the camera the results made us change our minds. The performance isn’t the best of its segment but is enough for you to consider this phone.
Sample 1
Both the cameras give standard options to play with and no easter eggs here. In bright environments, the photos come out really good. Nightlife wouldn’t be best recorded with this camera but for the few occasions you should, the flash will come handy. The details are captured pretty well and the colour reproduction is close to natural. No oversaturation or brightness in standard operations but the HDR mode doesn’t play well with the exposure and photos generally come out flat and overexposed.
Sample 2
Sample 3
More samples in the gallery!
The selfie camera is a capable shooter and manages to produce decent results even in low light conditions. The overall setup could have been better as a few others of its segment and below provide tad better results.
Infocus Epic 1 Battery
The InFocus EPIC 1 comes with a USB Type-C port and supports fast charging. The battery fitted is of 3,000 mAh capacity and as mentioned earlier it can only help you sail through the day on moderate use. Gamers need to buy a power bank or find shelter near a plug point.
Verdict
The InFocus EPIC 1 rolls out with great hardware specs and good software. This combination imparts the phone with an impressive spec sheet and EPIC 1 tries its best to translate the numbers into real-time performance. This segment, however is extremely cluttered with offering from a whole bunch of smartphone manufacturers. The Epic 1 Holds its own for the segment in terms of its finish, size, build quality and specs. It might not lead the segment in terms of what it offers but its a loaded piece of hardware nonetheless. The design and construction gets a thumbs up and there there’s nothing to complain about in the performance department either. The cameras on both sides could probably have been better and so could have been the battery life too. At INR 12,999 (approx USD 190), the Infocus Epic scores very highly in terms of the hardware it packs, however, those specs somehow don’t translate into matching performance. The Infocus Epic 1, then, is an American phone which takes on the Chinese crop with reassurance, and manages to surprise them on several counts.
Here are the key specifications of the InFocus EPIC 1 followed by a gallery.
| OS | Android 6.0 |
| CPU | MT6797M Deca-core
(Dual A72 2.1GHz + Quad A53 1.9GHz + Quad A53 1.4GHz) |
| Network | GSM: 850/900/1800 MHz
WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz FDD LTE: 1800(B3)/850(B5) MHz TDD LTE: 2300(B40) MHz LTE Cat6 |
| Display | 5.5” Full HD 1080p LTPS Display
CORNING® GORILLA® GLASS |
| Memory | ROM: 32GB, RAM: 3GB
Support up to 128GB Micro SD Memory Card |
| Camera | 16MP F2.0 Hybrid PDAF Main Camera, dual-color LED flash
8MP F1.8 82 Degrees Wide View Angle Front Camera |
| Wireless | Bluetooth 4.1，802.11 a b/g/n/ac(2.4/5GHz)，GPS/AGPS＋GLONASS |
| Battery | 3,000mAh |
| Sensor | Ambient light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, E-compass, Gyroscope, magnetic sensor |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Nano) |
| Others | Finger print sensor, Smart Amplifier, IR remote control, USB 2.0 type C for Quick Charge |
| Dimensions | 153mm x 76mm x 8.4mm |
| Weight | ~160g |
