10.or (pronounced at Tenor) is the new entrant in the Indian smartphone market and the device that it introduced first is the 10.or E. A little different with the nomenclature, right? Let’s take it ahead of what the device offers because not just this, the entire series of phones will follow the same way of naming, as the next device in the lineup is the 10.or G. Now, the 10.or E that we talk about here is a decent phone on the paper thanks to what it offers, and for that price tag.
But, we are here looking at another phone in the same price range, somewhere just below Rs. 10000, where some brands like Xiaomi, Micromax, and Swipe are doing quite well. The Tenor (10.or) E is exclusive to Amazon India, and while playing around with the device, we could see a little more than just the sale agreement between the two brands. The home screen had Amazon widgets, being connected to Wi-Fi gives timely Amazon India notifications, and there is a whole suite of Amazon apps pre-installed as well.
Is the 10.or E a good phone for the price? Not just that, does it have enough to fight with the bunch of devices in its price range, especially the Xiaomi Redmi 4? Let’s find out in the review.
Specifications of 10.or (Tenor) E
- Display – 5.5-inch full HD IPS 2.5D curved display
- Processor – Snapdragon 430 along with Adreno 505 GPU
- RAM & Storage – 2GB + 16GB and 3GB + 32GB variants
- Rear camera – 13MP f/2.0 with LED flashlight
- Front camera – 5MP f/2.0 with LED flashlight
- OS – Stock Android v7.1.2
- Battery – 4000 mAh
- Connectivity – 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v4.2
The unit we were provided with is the 3GB + 32GB variant. So, the performance might vary with the other variant of this phone. So, let’s jump right into the review.
Design
The build quality of the 10.or E pretty much looks like the Redmi Note 3 without any antenna bands and with the presence of unibody design. The polycarbonate back panel which is non-removable might explain the absence of the antenna bands. As it contains no metal, the phone did not require any antenna bands without having to give up on reception.
The phone when held, feels sturdy, bold, and comfortable, all thanks to the 2.5D curved display and curvy edges. When it comes to the front, oh my, the bezels look pretty awkward. Okay with the upper bezel, the bottom one is just too big that makes me wonder why they have put the fingerprint sensor on the back rather than on the front. And, there are no touch capacitive navigation buttons as well which means there are on-screen navigation buttons. Weighing just 150 gms, the design seems neat other than the awkward big bottom bezel without any operation. I mean, come on it’s 2017.
Coming down to the placement, on the front, we have earpiece along with the camera, LED flash on either side of it, and the proximity & ambient light sensors. On the bottom, uh oh, nothing on that big bezel.
On the right, we have the power button and below the power button are the volume rockers. The buttons feel tactile and give good feedback when pressed but not up to the mark. When I first held the device, I accidentally pressed the volume down instead of the power button, so this is one thing you have to get used to. Wait, I haven’t seen a phone with this kind of buttons placement in a while, did you!?
On the left, we have two trays, the first one for the dual Nano SIM slots and the second one for the MicroSD card. The top has a 3.5mm headphone jack and the bottom has the MicroUSB port at the center with speaker grill and a mic on either side of it.
On the back is the 13MP f/2.0 camera along with the LED flashlight beside it and secondary noise cancellation mic above it. Below the camera is the fingerprint sensor and to the bottom is the 10.or branding. Coming to the fingerprint sensor, it works quick enough to recognize, but the issue is with the interface which is making the display light up a little late. So, overall in terms of design, I’d give this phone an okay because of the big bezels and the awkward placement of buttons.
Display
The 10.or E sports a 5.5-inch full HD IPS 2.5D curved display along with Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the top. The brightness levels, color reproduction, and the viewing angles are pretty good and that’s all you can expect from a smartphone at this price range. The brightness levels, however, aren’t that good under direct sunlight but trust me, this is the best display that you can get at this price.
Software
The 10.or E runs on the latest Android Nougat 7.1.2 out of the box and the company also claims to be bringing down the Android Oreo update pretty much soon. The device runs on pure stock Android which is a bliss to experience and has minimal bloatware. The pre-installed apps include Amazon shopping, Prime Video, Amazon Kindle along with the Google’s apps package.
The device has one of its own diagnosis app named 10.or Care pre-installed, which helps you test every component of the phone such as W-Fi, Bluetooth, sensors and more. The app also includes a special feature with which you can book a spot for your device at the service center, get the estimated prices and also contact customer care.
The storage on this device, in the 3GB + 32GB variant, you get around 23GB of usable space out of 32GB and 1.5GB of free memory. You can also expand the storage if it isn’t enough for you, with the MicroSD card up to 128GB, thanks to the dedicated slot!
Performance
The 10.or E is powered by the Snapdragon 430 chipset bundled with Adreno 505 GPU. The chipset, which is quite older might depress you with the performance. Out of the heavy games that we played, the graphics felt a bit unnatural and a few frame drops were experienced at times. Other than, the phone performs pretty well for day to day usage with usual browsing, music, and videos, it works perfectly fine.
When it comes to multi-tasking, it’s smooth up to a particular number of apps opened but going further, it lags. If you ask about any heating issues, the device does heat up when gaming heavily but doesn’t cross those minimal levels of heating as any other phone, so, it’s fine.
Cameras
The 10.or E is equipped with a 13MP f/2.0 sensor with LED Flash on the rear and 5MP f/2.0 sensor with LED flash on the front as well. The rear camera performed well with well-set colors and sharpness of the image in well-lit conditions. This is something incredible from a smartphone in this price segment to do. On the upper hand, even the selfie camera does perform pretty well in broad day-light conditions.
When in low-light conditions, the rear camera sees a downside by producing noise and grains in the image. When teamed up with the LED flash, the photos turn out to be a bit better because of the flash providing enough amount of light and not overdoing the brightness levels.
Same is the story with the front camera. When the flash is used in low-light conditions, the selfies turn out to be pretty well with the balanced amount of exposure and brightness, all thanks to the LED flash throwing minimum amount of light. Below are some of the camera samples for you to check out.
[Camera samples to be added soon]Battery
The 10.or E has a 4000 mAh non-removable battery. With that large battery, you ought to have a fast charging support which this phone lacks. So, it takes over two and a half hours to fully charge the phone. You’ll get a runtime of about one and a half day if you are a moderate user and not two days as claimed by the company.
In the general terms, you’d get a screen-on-time of around 4 hr 30 min or so on moderate usages like browsing, music, social media, and little gaming, which will get you throughout the day.
Connectivity & Multimedia
The 10.or E has support for 4G and VoLTE along with all the other common connectivity options like Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth v4.2. The call quality and the Wi-Fi connectivity is pretty good and doesn’t disappoint.
Coming onto the SIM card trays, there are two trays in this device, yes, you read it right, “two”. The first one takes in two Nano SIM cards and the second one is exclusively for the MicroSD card.
The speaker on the bottom grill is well, loud enough to shake up a medium size room. Although not the loudest one I’ve heard, the audio is clear even on maximum output. It’s a good move by most of the brands adopting the bottom placement of the speaker. The mic, on the other side, does a good performance in calls and audio recording, thanks to the secondary noise cancellation mic.
Final Verdict
So, the 10.or E did surprise me with its abilities, which is very good to see from an emerging new brand. One doesn’t have to be surprised by a phone from a new smartphone brand but have to be surprised if the phone really turns out good. One such phone is the 10.or E and the only thing you might be worried about buying this phone is the after-sales service, for which the company has almost one service in every major city in India.
If you are looking for a solid build quality along with decent camera quality and performance, you might consider buying this phone. And no, you don’t have to be worried about the service center. The other competitors you might consider buying in this price range are Xiaomi Redmi 4, Moto E4, InFocus Turbo 5, and others. So, unless you are pretty sure that you are bothered buying a smartphone from a new brand, this phone won’t disappoint you at all.
The 10.or E starts from a price of Rs. 7999 for 2GB + 16GB variant and Rs. 8999 for 3GB + 32GB variant. The phone will be sold exclusively via Amazon India.
Nice review, overall a good read! ✌️