The iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 sails on Android 4.2 OS with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. The key feature is the 1.5GHz MediaTek quad core Turbo processor (MT6589T). This handset was initially (when announced) priced at Rs. 15,999 and now it could be priced anywhere between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 18,000.
Nuclea N1 box pack
The box looks small but comes with a lot of stuffs. To start with there is the Auxus Nuclea N1 handset, battery of 2800 mAh capacity, nice earphone, data cable, travel charger, user manual and 3 extra glossy (Red, Black and Pink) back cover. There is another white colored back cover already attached to the handset.
Design
The handset has got a very premium look. The weight mentioned on the box of 120 grams is not correct. The iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 weight is 169 grams with battery and without battery it is 134 grams. The thickness is 10.19mm and 11.82mm with the camera lens included (the camera lens is bulging out a bit).
The build quality is very good. The volume rockers are placed on the left, power button on the right and 3.5mm audio jack plus the micro USB port on the top. The handset that I got for the review had some minor finishing issues, the glass is a little out (gaps) on the left side as compared to the right – Check the video review. The imperfection is hardly noticeable, unless you look closely. I am not sure if this is the case with all the handsets or just the one that I got.
Display
The 5 inch screen with Active Matrix Display and OGS technology supports 1920×1080 pixels. The touch is smooth and responsive. On the iBerry website they have mentioned that the screen is with corning gorilla glass 3 protection, though the same is not mentioned on the box pack. However the screen does appear strong. Viewing angle and color reproduction is very good. There is accelerometer, light, proximity and magnetic sensors.
Memory, Storage and OS
The iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 runs on Android 4.2.1 with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. Micro SD card of up to 64GB is supported. Of the 1GB RAM 397MB is available and of the 4GB, 1GB is allocated for apps and 1.62GB as internal phone storage. You can install and / or move apps on external storage.
iBerry has customized the Android OS, the interface is a little different. There is a new launcher app that does look good but does have an impact on the overall performance. When you browse though the menus you can see the fading effect.
Performance
This dual SIM (with dual Standby) handset is with MT6589T chipset with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU. The hardware is powerful enough but it seems the customized launcher plus some effects have had a toll on the performance. iBerry will soon roll out updates to fix the issue. Users are advised to install RAM optimized of RAM extender to fix this performance issue that is noticeable when playing certain games.
Benchmark scores
- Quadrant Benchmark : 4801.
- Antutu Benchmark : 1st time 10228, 2nd time 10759. The score is too low. I tried using RAM optimizer and tried running Antutu for couple of times, once I did get a score of around 14,000 but most of the time it never went over 11,000.
- Vellamo Benchmark : HTML5 – 1547, Metal – 515.
- Nenamark2 : 34.3fps.
- Multi Touch : 5 point.
The benchmark scores look good except for the Antutu scores that was surprisingly too low. I think OS optimization is required which will improve the overall performance.
Camera and Entertainment
There is 13MP camera on the rear with LED flash. The camera settings however shows 12MP max resolution option. The camera quality is good and so is the video. You can record and play full HD videos. The sound is loud and clear and even better when using earphone. Check the sample images and videos at the end of this article.
There is a lookaway player that is pre-installed. It is similar to the look away pause feature as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S4 handset. When you are watching a view and you look away from the screen the video will pause and will resume when you look at it again. I tried this player it worked well, you need good light (room light) for this feature to work.
Gaming
As usual I tried the Nova 3 that did not work well. The game play was slow, really slow and you could feel it. I then stopped the launcher from apps and to some extent the game play improved. It is MT6589T chipset and the game should work without doubt. I checked up with iBerry and they asked me to install the RAM extender app.
After installing it the hardware came back to life. You can check the gaming video to see how the Angry birds, Nova 3 and the Modern Combat 4 games played.
Others
The 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked well. The GPS also did well, I got a lock within 9 seconds. I did not find any other issues with the phone. Yes the phone does get heated up when playing games or using heavy application but temperature was less than 40 degrees (continuously used for less than 30 minutes). The handset comes pre-rooted. OTG is not supported.
Battery
The 2800 mAh battery should easily give a usage time of over 24 hours.
Conclusion
Powerful handset with a 5 inch FHD screen. There are some minor issues with the OS that can be fixed and probably iBerry will come up with some updates. Game play is quite smooth once the issue has been rectified. The handset is priced at Rs. 18,000 on the iBerry website but currently out of stock. A price tag between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 16,500 would have made it more lucrative.
Nuclea N1 Image Gallery
Sample images shot using Auxus Nuclea N1 handset
iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 unboxing and video review
Full HD video sample recorded using Nuclea N1 handset
Angry Birds, Nova 3 and MC4 (Modern Combat 4) on iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1
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