Sansui Horizon 2: One that easily fits your budget

Horizon 2 provides a decent amount of features that may not be the best but definitely functional

After the successful launch of Sansui Horizon 1 smartphones, the company introduced its second version, Sansui Horizon 2 in May this year. The Japanese company that is slowly and steadily making its place in the Indian smartphone market, comes up with a fully Made in India Horizon 2 model. Horizon 2 is only a bit costlier than its predecessor at Rs 5,299 and is available on Flipkart - a great value for its significantly beefed up specs.

Business Standard used the Sansui Horizon 2 device for a couple of days to see if the phone delivers what it promises at such an inexpensive price. With Miravision display and Infra Red blaster as its highlights, here are our observations on the device’s performance on key parameters:

1. Display and design:

One of the key highlights of the smartphone is the MiraVision display that offers a range of visual enhancements for images and videos, while preserving its battery. The colours on the screen are very sharp owing to its 720p IPS screen.

Available in two colours: Rose Gold and Silver Grey, the handset features a 5-inch screen with curved edges. Horizon 2 comes with a removable battery and USB charger. On hand, the phone seems very light compared to others in the market.

Coming to the phone’s design, Horizon 2 is very light with a plastic unibody. Although the handset’s colours are metallic and showcases a good outward look, the feel of the phone is a bit cheap, which gives away the whole design to some extent. But again, the price and the phone’s specifications cover up its flaws.

Horizon 2 exhibits a standard Android phone look with the power button and volume keys on the right side and the USB charger in the bottom left. The speakers are at back and the sound quality is quite mediocre. Owing to the position of the speakers, the sound tends to get muffled up when kept with screen facing up and thus, notifications and calls may go unattended.

2. Software:

Sansui Horizon 2

The dual-SIM Sansui Horizon 2 supports 4G VoLTE and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the box. Powered by a 1.25GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737V/W processor, the handset sports 16 GB of inbuilt storage with an option to expand up to 64 GB via microSD card.

Apart from MiraVision technology, another great feature is the phone’s Infra Red Blaster. The IR blaster allows you to use the phone as a remote to operate several appliances like TV etc. The phone also supports On The Go or OTG USB, which means the phone can act as either a USB device or a USB host. Thus, it can be connected to a PC for uploading pictures or act as a host controlling a memory stick.

3. Camera:

Sansui Horizon 2

Coming to the phone’s camera, the Sansui Horizon 2 offers an 8-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, fixed focus and Night Vision recording features. The quality of the photos significantly varies with the lighting. Outdoor still photos come out great with distinct colours, but when indoor, night lighting generates average colour reception.

The camera app comes with additional features like face detection (Number of Faces), HDR, panorama, continuous shots. On the front side, there is a 5-megapixel camera for taking selfies with Face Beauty feature.

4. Battery:

In the times where budget smartphones are providing with massive battery power to last longer, Horizon 2 has a drawback as it packs a mere 2450mAh battery. The battery tends to last a day or slightly less than a day of heavy usage and also heats up very fast. The phone does not come with any turbo charging and takes normally more than 2 hours to charge completely.

Using the phone continuously more than an hour or so often makes the phone sluggish and heats up the top part significantly.

5. Other features:

Keeping the mobile user's security in mind, Sansui Horizon 2 comes with panic button functionality, just like the Horizon 1. It also comes with one full version of a pre-embedded Gameloft game.

Moreover, there are a set of useful pre-installed apps such as UC Browser, Office suite and Peel—free smart TV remote app that turns your smartphone into a smart universal remote.

Standard features such as Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor onboard are also there.

6. Verdict:

Sansui Horizon 2 with Japanese technology is a budget phone that would fit into your lifestyle smoothly. Without shelling out a lot, Horizon 2 provides you with a decent amount of features that may not be the best in the market but surely desirable.

Apart from some shortcomings, especially in the sound department and its lack of smooth performance, Sansui Horizon 2 is a great buy if your budget is limited and you want the taste of everything latest in the world of smartphones.