Kathmandu These days budget-oriented phones have all seen sizable improvements on hardware specs, but the design and built quality are all the same. However, it’s all about to change now with the introduction of Obi Worldphone SJ1.5. Priced at Rs 14,799, the SJ1.5 is a handsome lad with ample of character, but what about other aspects of the phone? Let’s find out. Design The SJ1.5 is unmistakably one of the appealing budget phones I’ve held in my hand. The seamless dark colour back gives it a perfect stealth look and the red coloured bar on the top carries a premium aura which other phones simply do not possess. Not just the looks but the built of the phone is also excellent. Although made out of plastic, it feels really good and sturdy in the hand. Display The SJ1.5 comes with a 5-inch 720p IPS display with gorilla glass 3 protection. It also comes equipped with an oleophobic coating which will prevent fingerprints smudges. The display gets bright enough and is easily visible outdoors and under direct sunlight. The contrast ratio and viewing angles are also stellar for the price tag. Performance Powering the SJ1.5 is a Quad Core Processor clocked at 1.3 GHz. For day to day usage, the device is pretty much smooth; you can run your basic apps without any issues and the app opens pretty quick as well. The multitasking is mediocre as it features only 1GB RAM. It could be a deal breaker for some users as there are plenty of devices equipped with 2GB RAM in sub 15K price range. Talking about the gaming performance, I had no issue while playing basic games; all of them ran pretty well with zero lag. Like any other budget phone at this price range, it handles high-end games in low to medium settings and will result in some frame drops and heating of the device as you continue to play for a longer period. Software The SJ1.5 runs on Android Lollipop 5.1 with no sign of upgrade to Marshmallow 6.0. The device runs on its custom launcher known as the lightning UI which is minimal and optimised. Camera The SJ1.5 sports an 8MP rear camera with LED flash. During daylight, the pictures come out fine but lack plenty of details and sharpness as you zoom in. On the low light, it’s even worse with lots of noise and grains all over the image. The video quality is also average as you get grainy and washed out videos. The 5MP front camera, however, is pretty good and will let you take selfies and group pictures that are favourable for social media usage. Connectivity Connectivity wise, the phone comes with dual SIM card slot. You also get a dedicated micro SD card slot in case you run out of 16GB internal storage. You also have usual connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. Battery The phone sports a 3,000mAh non-removable battery and is its biggest asset. The battery backup is superb on this device with around five hours of screen time. For average users, the battery will easily last two days. Charging the device, however, takes more than two hours with the stock charger. Conclusion For a phone that costs little under 15k, it has an exceptional built quality and design. The display is a quality unit, performance is satisfactory, and the battery life is magnificent. The drawbacks of this phone are its mediocre rear camera and 1GB RAM. Apart from that, this is the best-looking phone you can get for the price.

• Design: 5/5
• Display: 4.5/5
• Performance: 3.5/5
• Software: 4/5
• Camera: 3/5
• Connectivity: 4/5
• Battery: 5/5
• Overall Score: 4.2