The Karbonn Sparkle V runs on pure Android, but is it worth the $200 price-tag? It’s one budget smartphone that doesn’t try to resemble any flagship device that is well established on the market, and neither does it try to say it’s the best one. The Karbonn Sparkle V doesn’t excel in any way, but this doesn’t mean it won’t satisfy your web surfing needs. Just don’t use it as your main tool of taking photos, because it seriously shouldn’t be considered capable of taking pictures.
Karbonn Sparkle V Review
What is the Karbonn Sparkle V? What are the Karbonn Sparkle V specs?
The Karbonn Sparkle V, which immediately makes me think of Power Puff Girls, is Google’s accomplice in bringing pure Android to the masses. It has been launched under Google’s Android One program.
It’s not that slim for a 4.5-inch device. For comparison, Apple’s flag-ship smartphone iPhone 6 is way smaller. This isn’t to say that the Karbonn Sparkle V is humongous. It’s just kinda too big for a 4.5-inch device.
The Sparkle’s key features, and specs:
- Dual-Sim Card support
- Android 4.4 Kitkat
- 5 megapixel main camera
There isn’t much to go about, key features wise, because it lacks them completely. It’s equipped with borderline mediocre components, but somehow, it’s more than acceptable.
Karbonn Sparkle V Price: $200
Karbonn Sparkle V
Design Talk
Firstly I just want to put it out there that I don’t think that the Karbonn Sparkle V deserves the pure Android status. I’m no elitist, and I do realize that Google’s OS is designed for emerging markets, but it seriously doesn’t stand a chance in this dog eat dog smartphone world.
And with that out of my system, we can carry out.
The Sparkle V doesn’t visually stun you, and it just loses itself swimming in the vast ocean of budget-smartphones. It looks exactly like any other cheap smartphone, so if you’re going for the wow factor, for the let-me-shock-you with how beautiful my device is, you’re out of luck.
It’s built entirely out of plastic, and the back black matte, the dark blue plate, is a grease magnet. If you’re like me, and sweat a lot during the Summer – and not limited to it – then your phone will be home to your fingerprints, and dirt. Dirt? From where? I don’t exactly know. You see, I tested the Karbonn Sparkle V for a month – that’s how I usually run all of my tests – and at the end of the trial period, the back and the smartphones screen screamed Wash Me.
Or better yet, throw me away, and get a new one. I keed, I keed.
The plate on the back of the device is removable, and so it’s the smartphone’s battery. It’s equipped with a microSD card slot, and a Dual-Sim slot. I’m quite loving these options for Dual-Sim. Unfortunately for us, big telecom jerks tend to tax us when we get out of the state, or simply out of the country.
Also, I use a cheap unlimited data plan sim for my internet cravings – no minutes, no messages, zero, zip, zilch, nada! And another one for talking, and texting. It’s way cheaper this way, believe-you me!
Regulars travelers might be starting to like the Karbonn Sparkle V.
The microSD card’s appearance is a rarity on cheap, budget phones, so having it comes like a divine gift. Actually, the Sparkle V has to have a microSD card slot, or people would not buy it. The smartphone has only 4GB of storage space, and only about 2 of them are usable. That’s super sucky, and you don’t have any room for storing photos, music, or even games.
A 32 gig microSD card usually costs $25 to $35 bucks, and I highly recommend you invest in one. Even though, your photos won’t be showing-off worthy.
One thing that I found pretty great with Sparkle over here is the fact that I didn’t even feel it in my pocket. I said before that it isn’t as slim as a 4.5-inch device should be, but it still does, shockingly, well in this department. It weighs just about 107g, and measuring 9.2mm thickness, you’ll be afraid of loosing it in your pants.
The volume rocker, and the standby button sit nicely together on the right edge, the micro USB charging port is in its usually found place, that is at the bottom, and the 3.5 mm head phone jack resides close to it.
Overall, the build-quality, although not exceptional, is pretty great. Even though it’s a grease, and fingerprint magnet, it feels comfortable in your hand. Out of pure clumsiness, I dropped the Karbonn Sparkle V, and to my surprise, it didn’t chip.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Screen Talk
As we already know, the Karbonn has a 4.5-inch IPS LCD screen. It outputs a 480 x 854 resolution with 218ppi pixel density. Not much for $200, considering that you have to buy a microSD card, it racks up to $250 or so. For this kind of money, you could be looking at the Kazam Tornado 455L, which has a bigger screen, and a better resolution.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s actually pretty decent if you plan on using it to surf the web, watch YouTube clips, or play a game from time to time, but I would buy something else if I were you.
Videos have quite a punch, and colors seem full of life, vivid, and refreshing. There are some fuzzy corners if you pay close attention to app icons, and such, but nothing too noticeable – unless you go looking for issues.
Brightness is decent, but you won’t want to crank the knob to the max, because battery life will suffer, greatly. More on that later on.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Software Talk
It’s a pure Android smartphone, meaning that it doesn’t come with any bloatware apps – something I despise immensely. I just hate that Samsung, and Sony push so many crapware into their systems, and I have to cleanse it. I get annoyed even more when I find out that I can’t delete some of the apps they pre-installed, just because the phone manufacturer has some sort of partnership with the app-maker.
The Karbonn Sparkle V runs Android 4.4 Kitkat, and it limits itself to just that. Although, the phone-maker has promised that their device will be able to run Android 5.0 Lollipop, there’s no news of it seeing the light of day. It has a release date of at some point in the future. Yay!
Comparison with Moto G
The pros of having a Karbonn Sparkle V Android One smartphone is that your device will be amongst the first to receive new software – if, and when, it’s eligible for an update.
All of Google’s stock apps come pre-installed – including Google Chrome, and Google Keep. If you swipe left, you can launch Google Now, and prompting the notification panel is just a downward swipe away. It fits the norm.
There are a few apps that you’ll see available only for Sparkle like OLX, Snapdeal, and Saavn which is a music service.
One cool feature that Android One phones are equipped with is the ability to download YouTube clips for offline use, but unfortunately for the Sparkle, it isn’t present. It’s a little bit peculiar that it’s missing.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Performance Talk
Karbonn’s smartphone ain’t the best one performance wise, but it packs quite a punch. It’s equipped with a quad-core Mediatek MT6582 processor, at 1.3GHz, with an ARM Cortex-A7. The Mali 400MP2 GPU takes care of your gaming needs.
I’ve come to realize that going bonkers over the fact that it has four cores is just plain foolish. The way the dev implements those cores, and how they work with the whole system matters the most.
I’ve found the Sparkle to be as good as, if not better than, the Moto G, but not by much.
You won’t have any problems surfing the web for articles, reading Facebook, watching YouTube clips, and even gaming. But I’ve seen better at this price range. It puts in a good performance nevertheless.
You’ll notice some lag on occasion, but nothing a quick restart won’t fix.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Camera Talk
The camera unit is where cheap budget phones tend to make sacrifices, and go figure, the Karbonn doesn’t shy away. If you’re going to buy this smartphone, keep in mind that you’ll be acquiring a modest-setup – that’s an overstatement to be honest.
Yes, 5 measly megapixels aren’t enough for this day and age, more so considering the fact that it’s the primary camera. The LED flash, and autofocus don’t shine one bit, and they are the most disappointing out of the bunch.
Day time sample picture
The secondary 2 megapixel camera which can be used for taking selfies, and also 720p video is a nice addition, but keep in mind that it’s not that great.
Sure, it’s okay’ish for Facebook, and Instagram, but if you plan on using it for something else, then no way Jose.
But before you even think of taking photos, you need to buy a microSD card, and install it on your phone. Those 4 GB that the smartphone is equipped with, aren’t use for capturing images. Why? Because pictures must be saved on an external storage device – like a microSD card.
Day time sample picture
If you try to take a picture without a microSD card installed, a message will be prompted on the screen telling you to buy one.
That’s another deal-breaker.
Taking photos can be done from the pre-installed Google Photos app – which you can use to synch photos to the cloud. And in camera picture app you can choose modes, and if Flash is enabled, or not.
Google’s camera app features only the basic things, and it’s easy to use, and intuitive. Although, at first, it may seem a little bit hard to understand where you can select modes, and such. Just tap the small camera settings icon in the top corner.
Day time sample picture
Like I said before, don’t expect anything great to come out of it. Sure, it’s more than enough for Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram, but that’s about it. Why? Because pictures seem to be packed with a ton of noise, even in exceptional light conditions.
It has a slow shutter speed, which tells you that pictures will tend to look out of focus from time, to time. But that’s not the lackluster thing about it. Pictures look bland. That’s the best way I can put it. No colors that punch you in the face with their warm, or cold feeling. No sharp images that portray exactly that awesome architecture the building has.
Night time sample picture
You need to keep your Sparkle V steady at all times when taking a picture, because you won’t find that top-notch image stabilization you’re probably used to in more expensive smartphones. This tends to be a huge problem when taking photos during night time. Pictures can look overexposed, and grainy.
You can take 1080p vids with the rear-facing camera, and 720p with the front one. But, in my experience with the Karbonn Sparkle V, I wouldn’t recommend it. Clips are just a huge mess of pixels running on your screen. It’s not 1080, no matter how hard the company tries to say so.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Battery Life Talk
It has a 1700mAh battery, which is removable, and it lasts about 7, to 8 hours, depending how much you check Facebook. It’s not that much, and I’ve seen it go below the 7 hour mark.
Bottom line is, it won’t last you throughout the day if you’re checking Facebook, or surfing the web constantly. Carry a charger with you at all times.
The 720p video test which I ran, lasted just about 5 hours and 40’ish minutes.
Karbonn Sparkle V
Sound, Call Quality Talk
While I do not recommend listening to music out loud, and even watching YouTube clips without headphones – mainly because it’s a douchey thing to do – sound quality is really great. You can hear all the high sounds without adjust your phone, but it has some problems with the bass. It’s a forgivable issue. Not even high-end smartphones can output great bass quality through their speakers.
Call quality is also great. No interruptions, no losing signal, and no robot sounds talking in your place.
In this area, the Karbonn Sparkle V does its job tremendously well.
Karbonn Sparkle V Verdict
Karbonn Sparkle V – Verdict
Should I buy the Karbon Sparkle V?
If you don’t mind the horrible little camera, and the fact that you need to buy an additional microSD card, then yes. I think it’s one great budget smartphone in Google’s Android One program.
Of course, you can keep looking for other $200 smartphones that may fit your needs perfectly, but in my book, I choose you Pikachu. No, wait. I choose you Karbon Sparkle V.
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Roxanne Briean
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