Indian smartphone vendor Xolo has launched the Xolo Black smartphone in the country. The device has been priced at Rs. 12,999 ($205) and will be sold exclusively via online retailer Flipkart. The new ‘Black’ brand is said to the company’s online-only sub-brand, along the lines of Micromax’s YU. Xolo has tied up with Vodafone to give buyers unlimited Vodafone Music and 1 GB of free data per month for 2 months. Sales will commence on July 13th, but current Xolo customers will be able to lay their hands on the gadget on Sunday, July 12th, but will have to pre-register for the sale. Registrations will open at four in the afternoon on July 10th and close at eight in the evening on the following day.
The one interesting feature on the smartphone which Xolo hopes will differentiate its device from the rest, is a dual camera set-up on the rear. While the Xolo Black comes with a 13 megapixel primary camera, it also features a 2 megapixel additional camera on the back of the device for enhanced depth perception. The setup will allow the user to make use of the so-called ‘UbiFocus’, which is Xolo-speak for re-adjusting the focus after the image has already been taken. The company also claims the ‘ChromeFlash’ will help retain the original color and skin tone of subjects in images irrespective of lighting conditions. The standard secondary camera on the front of the smartphone meanwhile, will come with a 5 megapixel sensor.
As for the rest of the hardware specifications, the Xolo Black will feature a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p display with oleophobic coating and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The device will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 SoC, which comes with an integrated octa-core CPU and an Adreno 405 GPU. The device will also come with 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 16 GB internal storage which can be extended by up to 32 GB with a microSD card. The smartphone will come with both FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE support along with HSPA+ connectivity. There will also be support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The phone will also carry a 3,200 mAh battery and come with Android 5.0 Lollipop out the box with Xolo’s proprietary HIVE UI on top.
