10.or (Tenor) is a new smartphone brand in the Indian market with just one motto- offer top-end hardware at affordable price point. This business model sounds a lot familiar to that of Xiaomi. No brand has achieved such heights in a quick time like Xiaomi does, and in fact, no brand has come close to Xiaomi's pricing strategy in the last three years.
However, it looks like Xiaomi has got a real competitor in the form of Tenor. So far, Tenor has launched two smartphones in the Indian market- 10.or E and 10.or G. The former is aimed at Xiaomi Redmi 4, whereas the latter goes against India's best-selling smartphone, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
Priced at Rs. 10,999, the Tenor G offers similar specifications, if not better specifications than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 on paper. But before we put the Tenor G against Redmi Note 4, here are our initial impressions about the smartphone.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi37P7fSC-E&w=854&h=480]
Design and Display
The Tenor G looks like any other budget smartphone. With a metallic chassis and rounded corners, the device looks a lot like the Honor 6X and Lenovo K8 Note. Nevertheless, this has been the case with several budget smartphones releasing these days. None of the brands is bothered to refresh the design language of its budget smartphones, which is a sad state.
But going with industrial design language is not at all a bad move from Tenor. The Tenor G feels good in hands, thanks to the massive battery inside. The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right top, whereas the SIM card is present at the left.
The Tenor G comes with dual speakers- a bottom firing speaker, and the earpiece also acts as a speaker, which is decent considering the price point.
Coming to the display, it has a 5.5-inch Full HD display, which doesn't get as bright as other budget smartphones in the similar price range.
Hardware and Software
The Tenor G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 SoC, which is a 10% powerful version of the Snapdragon 625. Mated to the chipset is 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of internal storage.
The 3GB/32GB variant is priced at Rs. 10,999, while the 4GB/64GB variant goes all the way up to Rs. 12,999. As you can see, Tenor has included a slightly better processor on its smartphone as the Redmi Note 4 comes with Snapdragon 625 SoC.
The software side of things, the Tenor G runs clean stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat, which is the primary highlight of the device. Tenor has also promised Android Oreo update by the end of 2017. Performance wise, the Tenor G exhibited some lags while using the multi-window mode, but it worked fine after a reboot. The device is currently running on Android 7.1.2 Nougat with August 2017 security patch installed.
Camera
The Tenor G comes with Dual camera setup of two 13MP sensors at the back. A dual-tone LED is also present at the back. The primary 13MP sensor captures coloured shots, whereas the secondary 13MP sensor adds depth to the images.
My initial impressions are that the cameras are mediocre and the depth mode didn't impress me. However, I tested the camera during night times. We will be bringing the complete camera performance in our full review of the Tenor G.
Up front, Tenor has added a 16MP front-facing camera, which might offer better selfies than other budget devices.
Connectivity and Battery
The Tenor G has all the basic connectivity options such as 4G LTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS. The phone has a micro USB port at the bottom. Tenor has added a fingerprint scanner at the rear side of the phone, which is quick in unlocking the device.
Lastly, the Tenor G has a 4000mAh battery, which may offer two days of battery life with mediocre usage. The power-efficient Snapdragon 626 SoC comes into play here. Also, the phone doesn't support fast charging.
Conclusion
Winding off the things, the Tenor G offers insane specs at just Rs. 10,999. However, the real-life performance is what it matters for the device to succeed in the Indian market. Addition of stock Android, massive battery, and powerful chipset makes the device stand out. We will be bringing out the complete review of the Tenor G in a week or so. Till then, comment down your questions about the smartphone, if any.
