Intex Cloud S9 Review – A decent VoLTE enabled, well-built phone in a budget

Intex has been working to bring out some decent smartphone options for the consumers having a budget of under Rs. 10000 and looking for a decent purchase that does not come with any big compromises. One of the latest phones from the company is the Intex Cloud S9, which is priced at around Rs. 6499.

This is a Dual SIM handset that comes with the support for Voice-over-LTE and it is backed with a 3650 mAh battery along with a quad-core processor. Opening the box, you’d find the handset along with the battery, earphones, charger, and a screenguard along with a plastic phone case.

Before we begin, let’s talk about the specifications of the device.

• 5.5-inch 720p display (1280 x 720 pixels), HD IPS display
• 2.5D curved arc glass
• 64-bit quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor
• 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, MicroSD card slot
• 8MP rear camera, 5MP front-facing camera
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS
• 4G LTE with VoLTE

The Cloud S9 from Intex is a sturdy phone and it feels good in the hand, thanks to the weight, along with the front 2.5D curve for the glass, which adds to the good look of the device. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it is the stock UI with no big changes done by the company, except for an addition of a few bloatware apps, which can be easily removed if you wish to do so.

For a new smartphone user, you are getting about 10GB of internal space free to use, out of the 16GB ROM. And out of the 2GB RAM that is given in the phone, a fresh reboot will give you about 1GB of free RAM, which is good enough to multitask with a few apps.

The interface based on Marshmallow OS version has a few custom settings like the gesture controls and app settings, which are exclusive to this device, and they include Gesture motion, Smart motion and smart wake. Under the app settings, you get to hide and show apps, which would make the app icons disappear from the actual list and show it only when you prompt it to do so.

On the sides, the Intex Cloud S9 has the volume and power button on the right frame, the speaker grills in the bottom and the top has a 3.5mm headset jack and the MicroUSB port as well stays on the top, which is an unusual position but we’ve seen such compromises with the design in the budget range devices in the past as well.

What’s good about the Intex Cloud S9

• The Intex Cloud S9 although as a pretty standard design and a polycarbonate back, the textured back plate both, looks and feels quite good. It is the cross striations that don’t compromise with the looks much, and the phone seems sturdy enough, with a shiny frame on the side.
• Not many smartphones in this price range have a fingerprint sensor, but the Intex Cloud S9 has one, which even though isn’t that quick in recognising and unlocking the phone, it is still good enough as an option for those who want an additional easy security option.

• Turbo Download – This feature is something that helps the user fasten the downloads by using both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connectivity. This is a very advantageous feature for those who rely on their smartphone for downloading large files.
• 4G VoLTE support – This single reason could be enough for many to consider this phone, since the latest network provider in India, Reliance Jio is a VOLTE network that needs support in the phone to make calls over the LTE Connectivity.
• Decent battery life – The powerful battery with a 3650 mAh capacity is capable enough to giving a day’s usage with ease. You can have the screen active for over four hours before seeing the battery go down to zero from a full charge. Even on 4G connectivity, the drain is not as fast and the phone holds it up well for regular users.

What’s bad about the Intex Cloud S9

• Gaming performance – The phone fails to catch up with the graphics given by the high-end games. Games like Asphalt 8, Modern Combat 8 struggled to play well and there were noticeable lags even on the medium graphic quality. Don’t expect it to do any good with the graphic-heavy games.
• The display isn’t appreciable in quality as the brightness levels are not good enough to offer readability in conditions under sunlight. Also, the viewing angles are not good and the only good thing about the display is its 720p resolution, which even though isn’t sharp, it doesn’t pixelate.
• The camera quality is average. Even if the color reproduction is good enough, the rear camera cannot capture good quality pictures in low light conditions. The Cloud S9 can record 720p videos at max, and it comes out shaky even on minimum shaking of the hand while recording a video. The front-facing camera takes photos that are not full of details and are a bit noisy.

4G LTE performance – Since the 4G connectivity is one of the prime reasons why one would be looking to buy this phone, we gave the phone a proper 4G test with the VoLTE test as well with the Reliance Jio SIM, and even though the connectivity had no problems, the phone did struggle to offer a good network reception.

The signal reception was a little poor, and as you might be able to notice in the picture below, it was almost a dead one. But at the same place, the OnePlus 3 and Swipe Elite Max had almost full reception, and the network speeds too did vary. We could call it an issue with this particular unit but that was something one cannot ignore.

Final Verdict – Is it a good buy?

There are several phones in this price range, from brands like Swipe, Xiaomi, and others, that gave a good competition against this one from Intex. The Swipe Elite 2 Plus, Xiaomi Redmi 3s are two good options, and both are quite strong, better with the processors and they have a good rated battery.

But on the other side, some might trust the brand value and service offered by Intex over the others, and even the design of this phone holds an upper edge by its looks, even though the Redmi 3s from Xiaomi has a metal build on its back. It is a matter of choices, but you get to choose based on what you require from a smartphone in that price range.