iBall’s new Andi 4.7G Cobalt comes with Android 4.2, 5MP front camera

iBall has added another smartphone to its Android portfolio. The Andi 4.7G Cobalt is a 4.7-inch phone that runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has some gimmicky features that iBall would want us to believe are new to the smartphone arena. With a price tag of Rs 19,995, iBall says the Andi 4.7G Cobalt is “undoubtedly the best smartphone below Rs 20,000”, but we’ve seen better. 

We’re not saying the Cobalt has poor specs, though. The phone runs on a quad-core Cortex A7 processor of unknown make clocked at 1.2GHz, and has 1GB of RAM. On the storage front, you get 16GB of internal memory, which you can expand to 32GB via the microSD card slot. 

The phone sure looks good

The 4.7-inch screen has an IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with a density of 312 ppi. iBall has chosen to endow the Cobalt’s front fascia with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, which is quite high resolution for something that will be used for self-shots and low-res video chats at best. There is also a 12 megapixel camera with dual LED flash at the rear.

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Two of the gimmicky features we mentioned earlier are Direct Call and Smart Answer. Just like on the Samsung Galaxy S3, Direct Call allows you to call a contact you’re viewing or messaging by simply lifting the phone to your ear. We have no idea what the Smart Answer feature does, but you can flip your phone face-down to silence incoming calls. 

Another feature that’s very creatively called “Pop-up play” lets you watch videos on your screen while doing something else. You can drag the media player’s window while playing a video to fill up half the screen and distract yourself from whatever else you’re doing.

iBall has endowed the Cobalt with the ability to receive updates over the air, so it is likely that Google’s next Android version may be rolled out for this phone. 

The Cobalt comes bundled with a USB On-the-Go cable to let you connect USB flash drives, keyboards and mice via the microUSB slot. 

For connectivity, you get Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth chips, along with the usual array of sensors and ports. The phone is powered by a 2200 mAh battery, which we think will enable the phone to last through the day. You also get a Power Saving mode, which you can configure to disable apps and sensors when needed.