Karbonn K1212 - Indulge in Java-based social networking platforms

The Karbonn K1212 is a dual-SIM, touch-screen smartphone targeted on the social networking segment. It has a sleek and stylish design with a glossy finish on the LCD screen and contours of the front panel. The contours of the front panel built with plastic is coated with metallic black, giving it a shiny look. The back-panel constitutes a metallic battery cover, with volume control buttons out-dented on the left side and the camera button on the bottom right side of the back-panel. The select button is sandwiched between the two call function buttons which are located just below the LCD screen. The select and call function buttons decorate the front panel with a metallic steel brushed finish.

There is a 3 Mega-pixel camera located towards the top of the back-panel and a 3.5mm audio jack just above it. Removing the battery cover reveals two GSM SIM card slots and one microSD slot. However, it is not possible to access these slots without removing the battery. Hence, the memory card is not hot swappable. The Karbonn K1212 ships with a sleek and trendy stylus, which comes in handy while navigating the tiny touch-screen icons. However, the lack of hardware keypad is very much annoying while typing lengthy messages, as the touch-screen interface is quite sluggish and inaccurate. In spite of using the stylus, it often failed to register the input, which required us to enter the input multiple times to register successfully.    

The touch-screen menu interface is neat and well-organised. The home screen or the desktop consists of shortcut icons for quick access to the commonly used applications like audio player, Bluetooth, FM Radio, key-lock function and Java applications. The home screen wallpaper can be changed by dragging the page horizontally from left to right or right to left. In addition, the user has the privilege to add different display transition effects called “magic screen effect” like shrink, scroll, turn, wave and swirl. Also, the Java-based application interface provides access to various social networking platforms like Facebook mobile, Twim (twitter mobile client), eBuddy, Opera Mini browser and MSN messenger.

Performance:
We observed considerable drop in voice clarity and audibility, when we moved from zone one to zone two and from zone two to zone three, in the signal reception and voice clarity test. In both zone two and zone three, we exposed the cellphone to environmental background noise and the shortcomings of noise isolation technology was very much evident. Although, the hands-free headset delivered a slightly better voice clarity, than the loudspeaker and device ear piece in the affected zones, the sound output was very feeble at times making it tough to understand the conversation on either sides.

The loudspeaker yielded a mediocre performance with choppy and wavering voice clarity across both the zones - two and three. It had an ordinary outing in the Bluetooth test, with a speed of 466Kbps for a 5MB file transfer. The Karbonn K1212 delivered mediocre performance in both the video capture and loudspeaker audio quality test. We found evidence of grainy particles particularly with darker colours like Red and Black during the video playback test. At the same time, we observed pixelated artefacts and image distortion in the captured video quality test. Overall, the scores looked ordinary in both captured photo quality and display test.

Conclusion:
Although, the Karbonn K1212 promises to be a feature-rich social networking smartphone, it fails to justify a price tag of Rs. 6,990. The lack of a hardware keypad compounds its woes as a sluggish touch-screen phone, which has been a norm across most touch-screen phones we have seen so far. Also, the mediocre loudspeaker audio and camera performance adds to the list of shortcomings. We were absolutely disappointed with the overall performance of the cellphone. Hence, we would not recommend it either for best buy or budget category. You might want to check out the review on better performers the Fly MC 170 and the Micromax QUBE in this price category.

Specifications:

Dual-SIM (GSM+GSM); Display: 3.2-inches; Colours: 262K; Screen resolution: 400 x 240; Memory: microSD expandable up to 8GB; Battery: 1000mAh; Talk-time: 6 hrs; Standby time:260 hrs;

Pros:
Ships with a 2GB memory card and stylus.
Bundles with Java-based social networking applications

Cons:
Lacks a hardware keypad
Dual-SIM GSM cards do not support simultaneous activation and usage
Sluggish and inaccurate touch-screen interface

Karbonn K1212 - Indulge in Java-based social networking platforms

The Karbonn K1212 is a dual-SIM, touch-screen smartphone targeted on the...