TCL 560 smartphone: Good performance at decent price (Tech Review)

Another smartphone player knocks at the door. Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation has forayed into the Indian market with TCL 560 which is equipped with eye-biometric verification feature.

The Rs 7,999 affordable device takes Lenovo Vibe P1m, Coolpad Note 3 Lite and Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime head on.

The device comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display, quad-core processor, 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front camera with 84.4 degree wide viewing angle. The 4GLTE-enabled device packs 2500mAh battery.

It has 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a micro-SD card.

Here is what works for the device.

TCL 560 is the only smartphone in the current price range that comes with iris-based "EyeVerify" unlock feature and runs on Android Marshmallow operating system.

To use EyeVerify, go to Settings and under Lock screen tab, tap on the Screen Lock to create an Eyeprint. It takes almost a minute to capture your Eyeprint.

When you want to unlock the device, a small window appears on top of screen that verifies the captured Eyeprint and unlocks the smartphone in approximately three seconds.

TCL 560 sports a curved design with glossy metal finish on the back that looks elegant and is comfortable to use with one hand.

The In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology delivered good brightness and contrast levels and wide viewing angles. The 5.5-inch display provides plenty of real estate to watch movies, play games, etc.

The touch response is also good and the Android Marshmallow operating system felt smooth.

The quad-core processor coupled with 2GB RAM handled multitasking well and did not get heated up over extensive usage which is good as nowadays, almost all smartphones get heated when used with graphic intensive tasks or playing games.

Putting millions of books at your fingertips, TCL 560 offers an in-built Kindle app for book lovers.

The 8MP camera has good shutter speed and is also quick to focus. It is good for capturing photos in bright-light conditions and offers modes like HDR, face beauty and Panorama. The 5MP front camera with flash is good for selfie lovers.

The 84.4 degree wide angle does make a difference while clicking selfies, making images look more beautiful.

The in-built 'Xender File Transfer' app allows you to transfer files between cross platform devices without using internet and works faster than Bluetooth. The smartphone also offers 5GB of cloud storage with TCL cloud.

The 2500mAh battery easily lasted for a day under moderate usage.

What does not work?

The EyeVerify feature is good as nobody can unlock the device without your knowledge but since we regularly lock/unlock our smartphones, using the EyeVerify feature again and again is cumbersome.

The finger-print scanner, on the other hand, offers a more convenient way to unlock the device, especially in crowded places or during a meeting.

We noticed that the power and volume buttons are placed differently. Generally, the power button is placed below the volume button and users are used to that placement. In the TCL 560, it took time to adjust to the button placement as power button is placed above the volume rockers.

Conclusion: The TCL 560 smartphone offers a balanced configuration and decent performance and is a great value for money for affordable segment buyers.

(Anuj Sharma can be contacted at anuj.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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