Swipe is an indian device maker who has been striving hard to be a brand of the masses and have been constantly iterating with every device that they make to move into a place of strength in the handset scene that is already a crowded niche. We have been following Swipe for a while and with the Elite Note, they have moved into a notch where they are competing with the likes of the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus and the Coolpad Note3 lite. Let us look at this device in detail today.
The phone comes with a 5.5-inch display and Swipe have boldly made it 8.4mm thick and the device weighs 194 grams which a tad bit above average for a device in this category. The back panel has a sandstone finish and due to that the phone feels comfortable to hold and gives perfect grip. All through the time I used it, it never once slipped out of my hand. The chassis has a golden finish rim made from magnesium alloy which gives it the metallic look. Overall when you hold it in your hand, feels premium. This is a very welcome change as it very clearly indicative of Swipe getting into a superior design bracket and sticking to it. They haven’t gone with any compulsions on confirming to anything. They have been carefully listening to feedback and it shows!
The top has a 3.5mm headset jack, an IR blaster and a micro-USB socket. The bottom has just the microphone and there are no other connection points there. The sandstone back cover is removable and has slots for two micro SIM and a separate microSD slot that supports upto 32GB expansion. The RAM is 3 GB and internal storage is 16GB. The good thing is that the memory expansion slot is separate and does not involve sacrificing a SIM slot. That’s something most people want in their phones.
The 5.5-inch 720p HD IPS Dragontrail glass display is equipped with a 2.5D touch screen just like we have seen in many recent devices. It comes with Vi-Di technology that gives a superior visual experience in comparison to the earlier Swipe devices. The sunlight and indoor visibility are good. The screen is a tad bit sensitive to smudges, but hey, given the price and the specs, I am not complaining at all. In fact, I am very impressed with the screen.
The Elite Note is powered by MediaTek quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, coupled with 3GB RAM and Mali-T720 GPU. Hardware combination is good enough to handle everything you throw at it. The gaming experience was good and no major frame drop or lag was observed while testing. Videos played well and there wasn’t any noticeable stutter. Some heavy games were tried and again no issues there. Above average usage with a power user also gave smooth performance. We can safely say that this is the best Swipe Phone in terms of performance.
Freedom OS supports gesture mode where you can draw specific letters to open a specific app. Swiping either from bottom left or bottom right pops up the option for Toolbox, where you can adjust brightness, control volume and can access your favorite and recent apps.
The 13 MP rear and 5 MP front camera churn out decent pictures in full light and outdoor conditions. The beautification mode of the front snapper is very good. Low light pictures can be better. Overall, given the segment and the price, I would say that the camera and pictures do not disappoint.
In terms of connectivity, the Elite Note has Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, 4G LTE connectivity and WiFi Hotspot. Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, G-Sensor are there and work fine. The Swipe EliteNote is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that has OTG support too
Is it all good? Well , nothing is perfect, Freedom OS has to get lighter and easier for the new user. There is a bit of a heating issue that happens once in a while. But no serious downsides there.
The Elite Note is run by a 3000mAh battery which goes up to 14 hours on above average usage including browsing, making calls and checking emails. Around 30 minutes of gaming took out 10% of the battery which is not bad at all.
Verdict
The Elite Note is a clear step up by Swipe and We are impressed with the progression. This one performs well and looks good. Given that the price is 7999/- it is a fair deal. If you are looking for a VFM device under 8-9k, this one is a serious contender and is by far the best Swipe Elite we have seen!