Amazon 10.or D review: A budget smartphone with long battery life

10.or D offers a well-balanced set of specifications for a budget smartphone. Read our review to find out more.

10.or D packs a 3,500mAh battery with two days of power (HT Photo)

Amazon last year launched a sub-brand 10.or (pronounced Tenor) for smartphones in India. Focused on the highly crowded budget category, Amazon has so far launched 10.or E and 10.or G. The latest offering from the e-commerce company is 10.or D, which is available at a starting price of ₹4,999.

Amazon claims its 10.or D is "created on the basis of hundreds of thousands of customer reviews" and that it has undergone "962 tests" before making it available to users. The highlight of the smartphone is the battery life which according to the company is one of the most important features for this price segment.

10.or D doesn't really go over the board with specifications, rather it tries to offer a balance of each specification to provide the complete package. As far as specifications are concerned, 10.or D offers pretty much most of the smartphone companies are offering at this price point. 10.or D features a 5.2-inch HD display, with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 425 quad-core processor running under its hood. 10.or D is fuelled by a 3,500mAh battery, while it runs on 'pure' Android 7.1.2 Nougat.

We have been using the smartphone for more than a week, and here's our review.

10.or D: Design

10.or D follows the same design philosophy of several other smartphones in the budget category. And that's not a negative for a smartphone at this price point. Though, the monotony in design does disappoint us a little bit. It has the same unibody look and feel, similar to what we have seen budget phones such as Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime.

10.or D sports a 13-megapixel rear camera (HT Photo)

10.or D sports a 13-megapixel rear camera (HT Photo)

We had the 'Aim Gold' colour variant with us. It is available in another colour option of 'Beyond Black'.

The smartphone has on-screen navigation buttons, which makes the bottom bezel completely bland. The power button along with the volume keys is located on the right edge. The SIM tray is placed on the left side of the smartphone. The USB port, and 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the bottom and top panels respectively. At the rear, you have the camera lens and flash with the fingerprint sensor sitting just below. There's a rear speaker grille as well.

With a 5.2-inch display, the smartphone feels compact enough. Personally, I prefer compact smartphones over large-screen phones. That said, the phone does feel little heavy and thick, but you get used to the form-factor in some days. All the necessary buttons are well within reach.

10.or D: Camera

The smartphone comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with additional features such as Beautify, and filters like 'Mono', 'Sepia', 'Aqua', and 'Sketch'. You can also change the image setting to Sports, Flowers, Backlight, Candlelight, and Sunset among others for different colour and vibrancy ratio.

The smartphone's rear camera takes decent photos in dark light conditions (HT Photo)

The smartphone's rear camera takes decent photos in dark light conditions (HT Photo)

For a smartphone under ₹7,000, 10.or D offers a decent camera performance, though it has its own highs and lows. The camera doesn't focus on the subjects as fast as you'd expect. Overall it does take decent photos in good lighting conditions. Surprisingly, it offers pretty good results in low and dark light conditions as well.

The 5-megapixel front camera does an okay job at taking selfies. The 'Beautify' mode, instead of making your photos look brighter, ends up making you look pale. You most probably want to use the selfie camera without the Beautify mode. If you like taking selfies or want a camera phone around this price bracket, you may consider Xiaomi Redmi Y1.

10.or D: Performance

10.or D is powered by the Snapdragon 425 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. It is worth noting that Xiaomi Redmi 5A, one of the value-for-money smartphones at the price point, also uses the same chipset.

In terms of sheer performance, 10.or D doesn't disappoint at all. Apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, and Chrome were used quite extensively throughout the day, without facing any lag or stutter at any point. Games such as Sniper 3D and Ludo King also ran without any lags.

Another understated highlight of the smartphone is Android Nougat OS which brings a variety of features including the popular 'split-screen' mode. This feature allows you to use two apps at the same in split screen mode. However, not all apps support split screen mode so this feature does have its limitations.

In terms of UI, 10.D has pure Android without any custom skin. Bearing from its tie-up with Amazon India, the smartphone comes pre-loaded with apps like Amazon Kindle, Shopping, Prime Video, and a custom widget. It also has Google Duo pre installed.

10.or D comes preloaded with Amazon apps (HT Photo)

10.or D comes preloaded with Amazon apps (HT Photo)

Unfortunately, one cannot uninstall preloaded Amazon applications on the phone.

Another major drawback which we faced with the device was the touch response. Without any screen guard or tampered glass used on the smartphone, the touch response was often slow. This occurred mostly during scrolling on apps like Facebook and Instagram.

The 3,500mAh battery on 10.or D does take a good amount of time to charge. The smartphone takes about two hours to charge up to 100% from as low as 10%. Although, 10.or D does not come with support for fast charging, the time taken is still quite long.

On the brighter side, the smartphone does last for a full day without charge. Even starting the day with 75% of charge and using the smartphone throughout, the battery drains to about 30%.

10.or D: Verdict

Overall, 10.or D seems like a good enough Android phone under ₹7,000, especially if you're looking for a phone that has a long battery life. But there are a few misses as well. If you're looking for a slightly better proposition, you may consider Xiaomi's Redmi 5A, which starts at ₹4,999.