Lenovo RocStar A319 vs Huawei Y330: Will front camera make a difference?

By introducing the Android operating system (OS), Google changed the smartphone game for good. It does not take huge amounts in order to buy a smartphone anymore. This warrants that look at select budget smartphones competing in the Kenyan smartphone market to help customers make more informed choices. Therefore, in this review, we are comparing two budget smartphones Lenovo RocStar A319 and Huawei Y330 to see what they have to offer.

Design & Display 
We start with the design of the two smartphone models. While Huawei is available in black, white, red, blue and yellow colour, Lenovo’s RocStar comes in red, white and black variants. Furthermore, although the dimensions are quiet similar, Lenovo’s RocStar gives a slightly sleeker feel with 123.5x63.8x10.2mm dimensions. On the other hand, Huawei with 122.1x63.5x11.3 dimensions is relatively smaller and thicker. Both the devices have a comparable display screen size of 4 inch, resolution (800x480) WVGA, and a multi-touch LCD capacitive touch screen. 

OS & Processor 
Both the devices are powered by MediaTek MT6572 1.3 GHz dual core processor. However, RocStar’s OS Android 4.4 KitKat is an upgraded version over Huawei’s OS Android 4.2 Jellybean. Though Huawei has tweaked the OS and made their own skin Huawei Emotion UI 2.0 Lite which gives display a distinctive look but still it just can’t match up to the performance of an upgraded Android OS.

RAM & Storage 
Both Lenovo’s RocStar and Huawei’s Y330 has a 512 MB RAM. If one is looking forward to have many Apps, lesser RAM may be a limiting factor as it helps apps run smoother with reduced time lags. In addition, both the devices have internal storage space of 4GB that can be expanded up to 32GB using a MicroSD card.

Battery & Camera
Both the devices have same battery capacity. With 1500 mAh battery size both the devices give around 3 hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time. However, the major difference lies in the cameras. RocStar has a 5 megapixel rear (primary) camera with flash and a 2 megapixel front (secondary) camera with a fixed focus. Huawei, on the other hand, with a 3MP rear camera without flash and no front camera looses out to RocStar on the camera front.

Connectivity 
As far as connectivity is concerned both the devices have a Wi-Fi with 802.11 b/g/n standards supported, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5 mm audio jack and FM receiver.

Price in Kenya
Considering that most of the specifications are comparable, the price difference between the two devices is rather small. In Kenya, while Huawei Y330 is priced at around KSh 6500, Lenovo’s RocStar A319 is at around KSh 7500. Slightly higher price in case of RocStar seems justified on account of three major advantages over Huawei Y330, which include a more advanced version of OS, a superior front camera and a rear camera, which Huawei does not provide.

Concluding Remark 
The two models are pretty much comparable on most of the indicators. On the whole, Huawei Y330 offers relatively more colour options to choose from, whereas Lenovo’s RocStar A319 provides a definite camera advantage. Not having a front camera these days means loosing out on the all time selfie-advantage, which has become a necessity these days, particularly among the youth.