Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi 550 was a great attempt by Spice Mobiles to enter affordable android market in India, it has 5.5 inch 720×1280 display powered by 1.2GHz processor alongside 1GB RAM and 8-megapixel rear camera and promises to be an affordable Note 2 replacement. It also comes with a capacitive stylus which goes inside the device body, however its not that intelligent and feature rich as compared to the S-pen we have seen on Note 3. In this review we tell you whether its worth the money you might spend on this device.
Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi 550 Full In Depth Review + Unboxing [Video]
Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi 550 Quick Specs
- Display Size: 5.5 inch IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with 720 x 1080 HD resolution
- Processor: 1.2 GHz Quad Core MediaTek Mt6589
- RAM: 1 Gb
- Software Version: Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
- Camera: 8 MP AF camera.
- Secondary Camera: 2 MP front-facing camera FF [Fixed Focus]
- Internal Storage: 8 GB
- External Storage: Expandable up to 32GB
- Battery: 2500 mAh battery Lithium Ion
- Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, aGPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
- Others: OTG Support – Yes, Dual SIM – Yes, LED Indicator – Yes
- Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity
Box Contents
Handset, data cable, USB Power Adapter, earphone, battery, warranty card, flip cover and user manual and one thing to note, there is one additional screen guard included and one comes applied on the device out of the box.
Build Quality, Design and Form Factor
The build of the this device is plastic all around, but its good quality of the plastic which is used on this phone. The back cover of the device is slightly glossy in looks but has matte finish. In terms of design, it does not look very exceptional but chrome lining on the edges does give the device a premium look. One thing good about the design is that, it can take the capacitive stylus inside the phone body just like Note 2, that means you don’t have to carry it separately. The form factor of the device is quite different as, due to its big size display the device size and its dimensions 160 x 79 x 9.5 mm does make it slightly thicker but the weight is around 155 gram is pretty decent for a device of such big display device and form factor.
Camera Performance
It has 8MP rear camera with auto focus support and dual LED flash, it can also record HD videos at 1080p at 30 fps, the low light performance of the device is decent but daylight photos were really good. The front camera is 2MP and its good if not the best for self portrait shots, below are some camera samples taken from the rear camera.
Camera Samples
Display, Memory and Battery Backup
It has 5.5 inch IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with 720 x 1080 HD resolution, however the pixel density is not very high being a 5.5 inch display but we did not notice any pixilation on the screen for the rendered text. The viewing angles of the display are also quite wide angle, the brightness of the device is good if not the best but the color saturation is not that good, as colors some times looks faded and dull specially at low brightness levels. The in built memory of the device is 8 Gb out of which approx. 5.28 Gb is user available and you can also expand the storage with a microSD card and you also have the option to install apps on the SD card. The backup from the battery is nothing exceptional but it will give you around 1 full day of backup with moderate usage and low brightness levels on the display, if you use the phone a lot for multimedia like watching videos, movies and playing games for more than 1 hour each day then you will get little less than one day.
Software, Benchmarks and Gaming
The software UI is almost stock android in terms of look, there is little amount of customizations which can be seen in the form of icons. Gaming performance of the device is good if not the best as you can play casual games like Temple run oz, Subway Surfer etc smoothly, medium graphic intensive games like asphalt 7, Frontline commando d-day can be played as well but heavy games will run but some of these will show some frame drops during game playback. The benchmark figures are mentioned below.
Benchmark Scores
- Quadrant Standard Edition: 3932
- Antutu Benchmark: 13652
- Nenamark2: 46.1 fps
- Multi Touch: 5 point
Sound, Video and Navigation
The sound output from the loudspeaker the is not too loud buts its clear and the voice from ear piece was clear, but the loud speaker is placed at the back side of the device, so it will get blocked at times or at least will get muffled when you place the device flat on a table. It can play HD videos at 720p without any audio and video sync issues but some 1080p videos will not get played but you can play them with MXPlayer with hardware decoding on. It can also be used for GPS navigation with the help of assisted GPS and it does not have magnetic sensor for precise navigation. You will need internet connectivity to use navigation on the device as it requires some data download to lock the GPS.
Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi 550 Photo Gallery
What We Liked
- Build Quality
- Phablet factor
- Value for money
What We Did Not Liked
- Average Camera Performance
- Slightly Heavy
Conclusion and Price
Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi 550 is a decent device which comes at decent affordable price of Rs. 12,999 which makes it one of the most affordable phablet device with premium looks and nice build quality. However the 8MP camera on the rear of this device is could but could have been better. But overall hardware specs of this device makes it a pretty good value for money and you can also expect a slightly better after sales support with this phone compared to other affordable smartphone indian mobile phone brands.