Carbon’s latest product is Titanium Mach Five (Titanium Mach Five). The specifications of this budget smartphone available for Rs 5,999 are very attractive. Apart from a 5 megapixel front camera with flash, the device also has an IR blaster and a 5 inch HD screen. Will these features help Mach Five to create a distinct identity in the budget segment? We will try to find out in this review of the handset.
Look and design
Despite being in the entry-level price segment, Karbonn Titanium Mach Five looks interesting. Its design is unique enough to make it look fresh. The phone is available in champagne, silver and blue-white colors. There is a thick black strip around the screen. Three soft keys are located at the bottom of the screen. These are backlit but look effective only in the dark.
The rear panel of the device is detachable. The power and volume keys are built on the detachable panel. The 3.5mm audio port and IR blaster are built on the top of the device, while the micro-USB port is at the bottom of the device. With a thickness of 7.3mm, this device is neither too thick nor too slim. Considering the price, we have no complaints with the look and design of this phone.
Specifications and software
Karbonn Titanium Mach Five It has a 5-inch (720×1280-pixel) screen, 16GB of inbuilt storage (up to 32GB microSD card support) and 2GB of RAM. The device runs on a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor, which is a popular SoC in budget devices. The phone packs a 2,200mAh battery and runs Android 5.0 operating system.
The biggest rival of the Mach Five is the Motorola Moto E (Gen 2) (Review). The Mach Five beats the Moto E in terms of RAM, inbuilt storage, display size and resolution. On paper, the Mach Five appeals more in this price range than the Moto E (Gen 2). However, you can’t judge a phone based on its specifications alone.
The user interface is very light and very similar to the stock version of Android Lollipop. There are a number of games and apps pre-installed on the device which can be removed. The Titanium Mach Five also comes with SwiftKey keyboard. There is also a Peel Smart Remote app to take advantage of the IR blaster. After some initial issues, we were able to use the remote app and the iBlaster with the LG and Videocon TVs in our office. It worked well. Very much like a regular remote.
Despite being very close to stock Android, the Karbonn Titanium Mach Five does not offer much control and customization options for the user. The biggest drawback is that there is no option to display the battery percentage on the status bar (this is possible through a third-party app). The interface works well but you cannot fully customize your phone according to your needs through it. This was very disappointing.
Camera
Karbonn Titanium Mach Five has an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Both the cameras come with a flash. However, the flash of the front camera lets in less light than the rear one. The front camera works well to a large extent. It takes decent pictures even in low light along with good selfies. The camera software also worked well on most occasions. And it also has some useful features. Shooting modes, filters, flash and camera switcher can be accessed easily. The sensor focuses fast.
Every time we opened the camera app, we were faced with a tutorial screen. Tapping the back button closes the tutorial page and lets you go to the page you want, but it was annoying as it prevents you from clicking pictures quickly. However, we later found out that it gets disabled once you’ve completed the tutorial, which takes about 30 seconds.
Despite being a budget device, its camera performance pleasantly surprised. The 8-megapixel sensor took sharp and detailed pictures in regular light. Sharpness and color loss were noticed in low light. Despite being a device worth Rs 6,000, the performance of Karbonn Titanium Mach Five is good in the camera department.
Performance
In daily use, the performance of Karbonn Titanium Mach Five was average. The interface and apps ran smoothly. The Mach Five scored 20,084 and 9,380 points in AnTuTu and Quadrant benchmark tests respectively. The scores in GFXBench and 3DMark tests were 6.9fps and 2867 respectively, which is a bit low.
Playing our test video Karbonn Titanium Mach Five There was a problem. The phone played light videos smoothly. Even though the Mach Five has a 720p screen, its GPU is not suitable for tasks requiring high graphics.
Talking about speaker volume, call quality, reception and Wi-Fi strength, the performance in this department is similar to any other budget smartphone. We have a complaint about the sensitivity of the phone’s touch screen which sometimes read swipes as touch. The soft keys sometimes did not register taps properly, due to which we were not able to handle the phone comfortably. In terms of battery life, this device is weak. The battery of Karbonn Titanium Mach Five lasted for 7 hours 36 minutes in the video loop test.
Our verdict
Despite the low price, the Karbonn Titanium Mach Five has an impressive list of specifications. For just Rs 6,000, there are very few devices available in the market that offer 2GB RAM, stock Android experience, and a decent camera. Apart from this, the Titanium Mach Five also has a front flash and an IR blaster, along with surprising looks and an HD screen.
Performance and software issues are the main reasons why the phone is weak. There aren’t many customization options and many of the finer details that Android users have grown accustomed to are missing. Software-related issues can be fixed via firmware updates, but there’s no word on when these will arrive.
This is a phone that is good in some aspects and bad in others. However, at Rs 5,999, the Mach Five will definitely appeal to budget users who are looking for a good camera and a beautiful display. If you are planning to buy a budget device then you can consider this smartphone.