14 DAY TRIAL // Swipe Telecom has just revealed its latest product for the Indian market, the Halo Fone. Although the Halo series is all about tablets, the Halo Fone is neither tablet nor smartphone.
The best word that could describe the monster is “phablet,” though most phablets don’t pack screens larger than 6-inch. Well, the Halo Fone boasts a huge 6.5-inch display that should make it one of the biggest in the smartphone market.
However, the screen’s resolution is disappointing, to say the least. As AndroidOS points out, Halo Fone sports a 6.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) resolution.
We can’t see the point of including such a large display, moreover of supporting such low resolution. Perhaps cost was the only reason for which Swipe Telecom decided for such a low-quality screen.
Still, it’s quite intriguing that the Indian company would downgrade the only selling point of the Halo Fone by including a low-quality display.
Anyway, those who can’t afford a more expensive tablet or phablet can give Halo Fone a try. The device is now available for purchase via Flipkart for only Rs 6,999 ($115 / €85), which quite low for what Halo Fone has to offer.
Swipe Telecom has confirmed that its Halo Fone will be exclusively available for purchase in India via Flipkart, although just for a limited time. The phablet will probably go on sale on Swipe’s online store as well, but only after the exclusivity period ends.
Aside from the huge display, Swipe’s Halo Fone comes with a subpar 2-megapxiel rear-facing camera, along with a secondary VGA camera for video calls.
Speaking of which, the phablet supports 3G, but also offers other connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and microUSB.
On the inside, Halo Fone is decent enough for a budget-friendly smartphone. The handset is powered by a dual-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, which is complemented by 512MB of RAM. It also packs 4GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 32GB.
More importantly, the Halo Fone offers dual-SIM capability with dual standby support. Software-wise, the phablet will ship with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box.
Such a large device should be packed with a suitable battery, but Halo Fone comes packed with a 2800 mAh battery that might not be enough. Anyway, according to Swipe, it should provide up to 6 hours of talk time, up to 15 hours of standby time or up to 4 hours of Internet browsing.