Spice Stellar Mi-497 Review

Spice has launched the Stellar Mi-497 in India at an initial price tag of Rs. 7,199. It comes with 4.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels and it is powered by 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon Qualcomm processor which is paired with 512MB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and has 4GB in-built memory which can be expanded further up to 32GB via microSD card. In this post I’m sharing detailed review of Spice Stellar Mi-497 with respect to design, build quality, display, performance, gaming, camera and battery. Read on further for complete review:

Design And Display

It is a Candybar device and looks decent at a first glance. It has dimensions 131.5 x 67.6 x 9.5 mm and weighs 123 grams.

On the front it has 4.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Although resolution is low but it has decent viewing angles. It is capable to display 16M colours at 218 ppi pixel density.

Above the screen it has speaker, front camera and sensor.

Below the screen it has capacitive buttons.

At the back of the screen, it has 3.2-megapixel rear-camera with LED flash, Spice branding and speaker. Although the back is made up of plastic but it has glossy finish.

On the right hand side, it has power key button.

On the left hand side, it has volume rocker button.

At the bottom it has microphone.

At the top it has 3.5mm audio jack and micro-USB slot.

It has a loudspeaker and it is used to amplify music playback and tones. It also supports Speakerphone while you call and has display orientation sensor which helps you to rotate screen view in any angle.

Software

It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat operating system. It has features like clean home screen, whole collection of Google apps and comes pre-loaded with apps like WhatsApp, OLX, Getit, Spice Cloud, Opera mini browser and many more plugged in for your convenience.

Performance

t is powered by 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon Qualcomm processor which is paired with 512MB of RAM and it has 4GB in-built memory which can be expanded further up to 32GB via microSD card. It runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat and it is a good performer. It is responsive with most regular tasks like email, browsing, calls, messaging, instant messages, social networks, photos, videos and office work all are handled pretty well.

It supports two SIM cards and there are dedicated options for managing the SIM cards. When it is used with 3G connection & Wi-Fi, I found the connection speed to be satisfactory.

Overall, it is a pretty good Android smartphone and will stand out against its competitors.

Camera

It features a 3.2MP rear-camera with LED flash and the photo output has resolution of 20148 x 1536 pixels. Photos clicked includes date tagging and GPS based Geo Tagging. In addition to this, camera has powerful Digital Zoom and it helps to focus objects very clear. I records video at 480 pixels at a rate of 30 fps. Video recorder, Video streaming, video player, auto-focus, camera effects, image viewer features also help to take more precious photos for daily use. It also has 1.3-megapixel front-camera for selfie & video recording and it takes high-quality photos as well. It has camera features like TV output helps to connect your device directly through LED. It has Sweep Panorama to take pictures around you.

Memory

It has 512MB RAM and 4GB in-built memory out of which only 2.53GB available to user. The in-built memory can be expanded further up to 32GB via microSD card. The in-built memory is the big issue as you can’t install more apps.

Media

It supports major auto formats WAV, AAC, AMR, MP3, MDI, AAC+, eAAC+ and video formats like 3G, MP4, AVI, H.263. It has Mini headphone jack and with in-built storage of 4GB it’s hard to store enough data of music and video files. It has support for stereo FM Radio along with FM Recording feature. It has power to playback music up to 16 hours through media player and able to play videos up to 4 hours.

Gaming

It is a decent performer and casual games work well but demanding game like Asphalt 8 at high graphics setting, not recommended.

Connectivity

It has usual connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and GPS. It is a dual-SIM smartphone and supports all GSM based network providers. Spice Stellar Mi-497 mobile device support 2G Band Frequency at GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 and High Speed 3G Network Band at HSDPA 2100. It comes with network handing support with Network Settings and wok offline with flight Mode.

It supports 2G transfer and 3G transfer data with GPRS & EDGE. Data connection also through Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. Wi-Fi supports dual-band Hostspot to share internet connection and support to browse web pages through Opera Mini which supports browser WAP, HTML web pages. Browser also supports Adobe flash. It also supports messaging features like SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM.

Battery life

It packs 1650mAh battery and it will give you almost a full day backup on normal usage. Normal usage includes regular phone calls, playing games, listening music, surfing web over Wi-Fi. The standby time is pretty amazing as well since the battery barely drops after hours of inactivity.

GadgetGuide4U Opinion

In the sub 6000 range it is a pretty good smartphone and when compared with other smartphone like Xiaomi Redmi 1S and Asus Zenfone 4, it doesn’t stand out. The Spice Stellar Mi-497 is good enough for an average user who just needs calling, texting, WhatsApp, browsing, email, some games, photos and light work.