Spice Dream UNO Mi-498 review – the android one smartphone

Google made the Android One official in India and 3 companies rolled out their android one smartphones. Spice launched the Dream UNO also called the Spice Mi-498. The key highlight about the Android One smartphone is that Google will provide regular updates for up to 2 years.

Inside the Box
Spice Dream UNO Android One handset, data cable, battery of 1700 mAh capacity, travel charger, screen guard, warranty card, service centre list, user manual and decent earphone. SAR Value : 0.641 W/Kg.

Design and Display
The Dream UNO has got curvy design, looks beautiful (premium look). The rear is with matte finish and soft to touch. Build quality is good and so is the finishing. Weight with battery is 139 grams and dimensions are 67.74 x 133.86 x 9.12 (mm).

Volume rockers and power button are on the right side. 3.5mm audio jack is on the top and micro USB port at the bottom. There is a single mic next to the USB port. There are no dedicated navigation buttons. It is a dual SIM (Micro SIM’s) handset and both the SIM slots support 3G.

The LCD IPS touch screen is 4.5 inches supporting 854 x 480 pixels resolution. Touch is smooth and responsive. Viewing angles are okay. There is LED notification and good number of sensors – Accelerometer, Light, Proximity, Gyro and Magnetic.

Operating System
All Android One handsets are backed by Google and as of now running Android 4.4.4. They will continue getting software updates for 2 years and will be the first to get the latest Android L.

Memory and Storage
There is 1 GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. Of the 1GB RAM about 645MB is available and of the 4GB internal storage (ROM); 2GB is available for apps on the first boot. Micro SD card of up to 32GB is supported. And you can install apps on external storage (most of the apps).

I installed the Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 and the huge data files got installed on the external storage. I tried connecting OTG pendrive – however that was not supported. OTG is not supported.

Performance
All these Android One handset including the Spice Dream UNO MI-498 are using the MediaTek MT6582 1.3GHz cortex A7 quad core processor coupled with Mali 400 MP GPU. Performance is lag free and smooth. Hardware is capable of playing high end games.

Benchmark scores

Camera and Entertainment
There is a 5MP auto focus camera on the rear that can shoot 1080p videos at 30fps and a 2.4MP front camera that can shoot 720p videos. Still image and video quality is good enough for this price tag. Check the sample images and videos.

The handset can play FHD videos.

Gaming
You can install high end games and the big data files will be installed on the external storage. I installed Angry Birds, Asphalt 8 and the latest Modern Combat 5. The Angry birds got installed on internal but was able to move a small portion on the external card using move to SD option.

MC5 and Asphalt got installed on external storage. Asphalt 8 was playable in high visual quality mode and MC5 also did very well. The graphics on Modern Combat 5 was not that sharp because of low resolution but the game is very smooth and playable.

Others
No issues with sound, it loud and clear, even the in-call speaker sound well. 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth worked well. I got the first GPS lock almost instant.

Battery
There is 1700 mAh battery that does a very good job.

You can expect battery backup of 3 to 5 hours with moderate to high continuous usage. The handset doesn’t heat up much.

Verdict
It is a well known hardware, good performance, lag free and best of all backed by Google for frequent software updates. It will get android updates (including the latest Android L) for 2 years. This makes it a very good buy for the price of under Rs. 6,500.

There are 3 companies offering the Android One handset – Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V and Spice Dream UNO. All are using the same hardware, just go for the brand you trust considering the after sales if required. But in general this Android One and the others are worth the price.

Check out the latest price for all of the Android One handsets.

Spice Dream UNO Image Gallery

Sample Images front camera