Cloud FX is Intex’s first phone run to run on the highly awaited Firefox OS. Just like the masses, we too were very excited about the new Firefox OS. So, to satiate our curiosity and help you make an informed buying decision we bought the phone from Snapdeal, used for a few days, and are now publishing the results of our findings.
Straight out of the box, we were quite excited to see what this cheapest smartphone in India could do. Initial few swypes at the phone and we got a good impression. However, when we used for couple of days, the Intex Cloud FX was not anything that we are expecting it to be. So hold tight and read till the end.
Contents
Design
It is made out of plastic and has a meshed pattern on the back panel. This pattern differentiates it from the rest of the crowd. The Intex logo is placed at the centre and the Firefox branding logo is present at the bottom just above the loudspeaker grille.
The micro USB port and volume rocker keys are present on the left side of the phone whereas the 3.5 mm audio jack, and power button are flanked by the top side of the phone.
Capacitive home/multi-tasking non back-lit key is located just below the screen and is represented by a white circular symbol.
Being a small phone having a 3.5 inch LCD display it feels pretty sturdy, and I’m sure that it will survive a lot of drops. Normal users shouldn’t have any complaint about the placement of the buttons as every button is accessible with a single hand.
Screenshots can be taken by simultaneously pressing home key and power button which makes it impossible to take with a single hand.
But then again, first time smartphone users, won’t be very much interested in taking screenshots. Hence it wouldn’t be much of an issue.
The User Interface
The Firefox OS UI is very much similar to the iOS. There are no back buttons and you have to rely on in-app back buttons for going to the previous menu/page.
The best part about the Firefox is that it allows the user a tight control over it. You can select if the file manager can access files on the memory card and also control permissions granted to various apps.
The home button doubles up as a multi-tasking button. Long press it to see the list of currently open processes. Drag any currently running app towards the top to terminate it.
The lock screen can be configured to be unlocked using a swipe gesture similar to iOS. You can either swipe it towards camera icon, or the unlock icon to do the corresponding operations.
The home screen has the system search bar and also has different folder for games, social, showbiz, and multimedia.
These folders contain shortcuts to many useful websites like IMDB, Spotify, YouTube, gaana.com, etc. The game folders will show up icons for various internet based games.
Swiping the home screen towards the left will bring up the menu showing installed apps and settings, just like the iOS.
It doesn’t support WhatsApp at the moment, but you can use send messages via WhatsApp server through a pre-installed app called ConnectA2.
Display
The Intex Cloud FX packs a 3.5 inch capacitive LCD HVGA display bearing a resolution of 320×480 pixels. This makes the pixel density stand at 165 ppi which is not bad for a phone at this price tag.
The default app icons will give the feeling that the display produces good colors but you will soon realize that it doesn’t have an acceptable color reproduction when you watch a video or two. Expecting a sub Rs. 2k phone to have a sharp display is foolish but we just can’t use a phone producing dull images.
Typing
The phone has a very basic keyboard so don’t get your hopes too high in this department. It would be sin to expect the support for gesture typing too. In fact, it also doesn’t have any auto-correction and prediction of any kind. No, we are not joking. Even a basic feature phone has these features.
Browsing
Despite being based on Firefox OS, an OS created by one of the biggest internet browser company, the browsing performance is not up to the mark. It takes a hell lot of time to open web page even a on high-speed Wi-Fi connection. Forget about using it for browsing media heavy websites on a 2G data connection.
Firefox! You need to work on this.
Multimedia
The stock music player supports only mp3 audio files. The video player can play mp4 videos up to a resolution of 480p. 360p mp4 files play just fine but the 480p versions takes some time for starting the playback, and also while seeking to a particular time frame.
The audio quality is just okay and the music player has a very basic interface showing the only 3 buttons for controlling the playback- play/pause, previous, and next.
Camera
The 1600×1200 px photos shot from its 2MP camera look like if they were shot from a phone with a VGA (0.3 MP) camera. They are useless and so is the video (352×288 px @12fps) shot by it.
Here are some images that we clicked with the phone [Very disappointing]
The camera obviously doesn’t offer auto-focus but allows taking screenshots while recording a video.
Performance
Intex Cloud Fx besides having a 1 GHz Spreadtrum processor feeding pixels to a lowly HVGA display doesn’t feel silky smooth. May be it’s due to lack of RAM (128 MB).
You will notice the delays pretty much everywhere in the UI. You’ll observe it when you the slide down the notifications drawer, access the file manager, open camera app, take screenshots etc. It doesn’t hang but the delays are not a good sign too.
Our retail unit also shut down many times on its own and then wouldn’t turn ON without removing and installing the battery again.
Battery
The Intex Cloud FX packs a 1250 mAh Li-ion battery. Keeping the hardware of the phone in mind, we expected it to have a decent battery backup. But, it disappointed us again!
The battery drains very quickly while browsing and using apps. It compelled us into believing that the OS needs a few optimizations for improving the battery life.
It supports microUSB port for charging so you can use any charger at your home with it. Intex rates its talktime and standby time to be 4h and 200h respectively.
Final Verdict
Firefox should work on improving the performance of the phones running its Firefox OS very seriously. It should also optimize the energy efficiency of the OS. Battery backup is one of the main deciding factors that the users have in mind while selecting a smartphone.
There are a few good points about the Firefox OS too. We liked how Firefox has given the app permissions control in the hands of the user, and also liked its simplicity and ease of use. But, we don’t think that you should get yourself an Intex Cloud FX phone. It is slow and also won’t even last a day on full charge even if you don’t play too much games on it.
So, better wait for the next Firefox OS phone. Period.
| PROS | CONS |
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Specifications
| Hardware | Intex Cloud FX |
| Chipset | Unknown |
| Processor (CPU) | 1 GHz Single-core |
| RAM | 128 MB |
| Display Type | LCD |
| Size & Resolution | 3.5 inch, 320x480px, 164.83 ppi |
| Primary Camera | 2 MP |
| Secondary Camera | NA |
| OS | Firefox OS |
| Battery | Li-ion 1250 mAh |
| Memory | Internal- 256MB, User Memory- 45 MB, Supports microSD cards |
| USB | Micro USB |
| EDGE | Yes |
| HSPA+ | No |
| WLAN | Yes |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| GPS | No |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| Dimensions | 115.9 x 62 x 11.8 mm |
| Weight | 104 g |
| Sensors | Orientation |
| Dual SIM | Yes (GSM + GSM) |
| Colors | Black, White |
| Online Price | Rs. 1,999 |
You can buy Intex Cloud FX phone from Snapdeal