Quick Review: Spice Mobile S-1200

Spice S-1200 wow’d us with its specs. It would be unfair to refer to this as nothing other than a digital camera with a mobile phone! Spice S1200 comes in to answer an age old question that I have been asking  – Are cellphones killing Digital camera? Well they are doing it much more convincingly now it seems. The Spice S1200 has a 12.2 MP camera with an Optical Zoom of 3x. This is the first cellphone with a optical zoom that atleast I have seen.

The handset isn’t very compact nor very large, fits the pocket but perhaps its the additional camera weight that takes the total weight to 130 gms.

Spice is one of the many Indian players in the mobile market today and they IMPRESS us with the build quality of this thing. Yes the Spice costs a healthy Rs 15000 (USD 300), but then its class apart from the Micromax, Maxx and other players whom I can at best categorize with local Chinese phones. The finish of the body, the feel of the plastic, buttons, battery, packing – everything about the Spice feels so better. As good as any other international brand we have handled.

The S1200 features a 2.4″ screen 262k colours, a mini USB port on the bottom, a microSD card slot on the left (along with the speaker) and the volume / zoom buttons with camera controls on the right. They numberpad is regular 12 buttons + the additional controls (5 key O and 6 buttons around it). You would certainly notice the plenty of camera options coming over the the keypad aswell. On the back of the device you have the big round casing around the camera lens that pops out in true digital camera fashion and the LED flash light.

The Camera:

The very first thing that we need to speak here is the camera. Its a feature rich camera with anti-shake, 3X optical Zoom, smile shutter, face detection etc. The 12.2 MP CCD was put to test against our Canon Sx100 (8 megapixels) and you can see the result below. The Spice S1200 camera doesn’t beat the SX100 in indoor shots, but the outdoor quality looks better. This certainly is the end of the road for many entry level digital cameras.

Sample pictures from camera (ignore the timestamp on them, click to enlarge):

Spice S-1200 Specs:

• GSM 900/1800/1900
• 3 x digital zoom, Auto Focus 12.2 MP Camera
• MP3, Video Player , Photo Editor
• FM Radio, with FM recording
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Memory expandable upto 32 GB
• GPRS/EDGE enabled

In the Box:

• Handset
• Battery
• Travel Charger
• USB Data Cable
• Stereo Headset
• AV Cable (TV out)
• Handset Manager CD
• User Manual and service center list

Final Word:

The S-1200 isn’t a smartphone but a good media phone. While Spice has got a few things right (along with a cool USP), we would have loved to see this with a 3.5mm audio jack & a WiFi. Not a dealbreaker, but then this leaves the S1200 as a niche media phone. With a little price cut this thing should be a much better deal!