First Impression : Spice Fire One

Ditch the feature phone and switch to Spice

Taking cue from Intex, Spice has launched its first Firefox operating system (OS)-powered budget smartphone, the Spice Fire One Mi-FX priced at Rs 2,299, aiming to cut Android’s monopoly in budget smartphones and encourage users to switch from feature phones to smartphones.

The phone takes two SIMs and does not support 3G internet. It has a 3.5-inch touchscreen designed on the model of the Videocon A3, another budget phone. It runs on a 1GHz processor and comes with an HVGA (320x480 pixels) display backed by a 1,400mAh battery. The phone will be available in three colours - orange, white and black.

Spice has attempted to incorporate all basic features of a smartphone like the front 0.3MP camera along with the 1.3MP rear camera. Basic applications like Facebook and Connect A2 (for operating Whatsapp) come installed. It supports Wi-Fi, FM radio and Bluetooth functions. Like the Play Store, Firefox-enabled phones have a marketplace as an app store.

Although it is a good attempt on the OS but keeping in mind the price tag the company should have gone for a qwerty option as the touchscreen is slow. The speed is decent for a 128MB RAM and the new OS is simple and easy to understand. The phone is sure to lure those feature-phone owners looking to switch to a smartphone on a tight budget.

The Spice Fire One will be available only on Snapdeal.com for now but will soon be available at major retail stores.
 

TECH SPECS 

Price: Rs 2,299 /-
Screen:  3.5 inches with a resolution of 320x480 pixels
Weight: 110 g
RAM: 128MB
Memory: 512MB (internal); 4GB (expandable)
Camera: 1.3MP rear with flash,  0.3MP front
OS: Firefox OS
Battery:  1,400mAh battery