The dual-SIM Mark 1 features a 5.5 inch quad HD display and runs the company’s own Fuel OS layer on top of Android 5.1.

CREO Mark 1 Specifications

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CREO Mark 1 Physical Overview

The CREO Mark 1 comes packed in a bulky shell with 5.5 inch display. The body looks quite similar to the glass metal phones we have seen these days. It has Corning Gorilla Glass on the front and the back, the 2.5D curve on the glass makes the corners smoother and it feels good to hold. It looks like a bigger OnePlus X, with more bulk added to it. Sides are made up of metal and hold the body very strongly. It looks premium but the glass back will surely catch a lot of fingerprints in daily use. One handed usage is never easy on a 5.5 inch display phone. If you take a look around the phone, you will find the speaker grill and the 8 MP camera above the display.

The touch capacitive navigation keys are at the bottom of the display, and sadly they are not backlit.

The only things you will find on the back are the 21 MP camera on the top left, dual-LED flash and the CREO logo. The back has 2.5D curve glass and it looks beautiful.

The sides of the CREO Mark 1 are curved, which allows the front and the back sides to blend perfectly. A metal frame surrounds the sides, which makes it sturdy and it also adds to the premium looks of the phone. The right side of the CREO Mark 1 has the very different looking metallic volume rocker and the power button. They give good amount of feedback.

The left side has 2 SIM card slots out of which, one is a hybrid SIM slot.

The top of the phone houses the headphone jack and the second ear piece for noise cancellation.

The bottom of the phone houses the USB Type C port and the loudspeakers.

User Interface

CREO Mark 1 comes with Fuel OS on top of Android Lollipop. The OS looked almost like stock Android in most of the parts, but it has some minor changes that gave it a different feel. It has revamped icons, a totally new camera app and also comes with few pre-installed apps like Flipkart, Gaana, inshorts, Cleartrip and more.

It comes with a Sense assistant that can be invoked by double-tapping the hardware home button to search for anything on the device, be it the apps or contacts to help using its software. Other than this, there are some more features like Echo and Retriever which we’ll be testing after once we have the CREO Mark 1 at our base.

Price & Availability

The Mark 1 is priced at INR 19,999 and will be exclusively available on the company’s own website and also via online marketplace Flipkart from the end of the week.

Comparison & Competition

The CREO Mark 1 comes with some high-end specs out there; it is powered by a 1.95GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 SoC, coupled with 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM. The Indian consumers love products that give more value to their cash and at INR 19,999, this phone is pretty impressive. With such hardware and price, the CREO Mark 1 will be competing with the likes of OnePlus 2, Moto X Style, Nexus 5X and some other phones in the same segment.

Conclusion

After the initial hands on experience with the phone, we are really happy to see some quality competition coming from an Indian company. At INR 19,999, this phone is reasonably priced and we will have to see if the company stands up to their promises. We will reserve our final verdict about till we test the smartphone thoroughly.