10.or G (Tenor G) review: Should Xiaomi take note?

10.or (pronounced as tenor) is a Chinese brand trying its luck in the budget smartphone segment. Its first handset 10.or E was priced at Rs 8,000. A notch above is the new 10.or G, which brings in more power and features for '13,000. To justify its price, it comes with a metal body with a good and sturdy build quality and a 2.5D curved glass offering a nice touch. G sports a 5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD panel, which is sharp and produces good colour reproduction.

Built on the Android 7.0 stock version, the home screen has a standard Nougat user interface. It does, however, come loaded with bloatware from Amazon. The G is powered by a Snapdragon 626 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The combination of Snapdragon 626 and stock Android works well — navigation is smooth and you won’t find any stutter or lag. The 4GB RAM ensures smooth operations even with multiple apps open in the background.

Casual gamers should be fine with the 10.or G’s performance. A dual-lens camera setup on the rear (13MP RGB sensor and a second depth sensing 13MP sensor) offers Phase Detection Autofocus and HDR, which does a great job. Shots present plenty of detail under good lighting conditions, but you will need steady hands for good results, as it lacks OIS. It can, however, create fancy bokeh effect thanks to its dual camera setup. Thanks to the selfie-rage, front-facing cameras are now more important than ever. The 10.or G offers a 16MP front-shooter with an LED flash to keep it a company.

The dual-speakers are quite loud. Not that they offer depth and quality sound, but if you wish to watch a YouTube video without plugging in your earphones, the phone has got you covered. The G packs in a 4,000mAh battery and combined with a power-efficient processor, the phone offers excellent battery life. On a single charge, the phone easily lasts for 30 hours. The 10.or G offers good build quality, great performance, and long battery life. Its camera and screen could have been better. So while overall it is a good phone, it is just not enough to take on the similarly priced handsets from Xiaomi. However, if you are looking for a ‘smart’ phone for a daily driver, on a budget, this won’t disappoint.