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Smartphone market in India has still got lot of potential for growth and new OEMs/ companies are trying to bring new smartphones to cater to the growing Indian consumer base. Hyve is one such company which is basically an Indian startup and they have launched two mid range smartphones in India i.e. Buzz and Storm. In this post, we are reviewing the Hyve Storm smartphone which is priced at Rs. 8,499 in India and can be bought via online portals such as Amazon and Flipkart. This review is based on our experience of the Storm over a week of usage as our primary smartphone.
Hyve Storm specifications
- Display : 5 inch 720p HD IPS
- CPU : 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT6735 processor
- RAM : 2 GB
- Storage : 16 GB internal , expandable up to 64 GB with microSD card
- OS : Android 5.1 Lollipop, upgradable to Android 6.0 Marshmallow
- Misc: Dual SIM
- Camera : 13 MP rear, with LED Flash, Samsung ISOCELL Sensor, PDAF + 5 MP front-shooter
- Dimensions: 142.5 x 71.4 x 8.7 mm
- Connectivity : 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- Battery : 2000 mAh
Design and Build Quality
In terms of design and build quality, it feels sturdy and solid build. The display on the front is accompanied by physical navigation menu buttons which are not back-lit. There is an all around metal frame on the sides which hold the device together and gives it a study look. The Micro USB port with the microphone is at the bottom left side and the 3.5 mm audio jack at the top. The antenna lines are visible both at top and bottom.
The back cover sports a metallic finish and can be opened to get access to battery, SIM card slots & Micro SD slot. The speaker with Hyve Logo is placed at the bottom and Camera with LED flash at the top of back cover. The Power button and Volume rocker buttons are placed on different sides just like most of the smartphones.
Storm Smartphone Picture Gallery
Check out the shots of the device in picture gallery below to find out the design & build quality and how it looks from different angles (Click on images to enlarge).
Display, Performance and Benchmarks
Hyve Storm sports a 5 inch 720p HD IPS display with MediaTek MiraVision and powered by 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT6735 processor along with Mali T720 GPU and 2 GB of RAM. In terms of storage, it comes with 16 GB internal storage expandable up to 64 GB with micro-SD card. Out of the 16 GB internal storage, only 10.37 GB is available to the consumers as rest of space is used for operating system and pre-installed apps. It comes with support for external USB i.e. you can mount USB OTG (on the go) for additional storage when needed.
In terms of performance, we didn’t feel any issues with normal day-to-day usage. Thanks to stock android, it ran smoothly without any random bugs or stability issues. There were no lags or hang or random crashes during normal usage, but yes when we played some heavy graphics intensive games such as Asphalt 8 with many apps / games open we did encounter some random frame drops. Also the graphics and color reproduction in the games was decent. As the display is just a HD display, you should not expect a Full HD kind of performance.
During gaming for long time we did experience a temperature increase of ~10-12 degrees i.e. it rose to 45 degrees from initial 33 degrees in about 15-20 minutes of heavy game play at stretch. But it did get stable after that.
Hyve Storm managed to get an Antutu Benchmark score of ~33,000 which is a good score from smartphone priced below Rs. 10,000.
Camera
Hyve Storm sports a 13 MP remain rear camera with LED Flash which is a Samsung ISOCELL Sensor & comes with PDAF and a 5 MP front shooter for selfies. We tested the camera by taking shot under different lighting conditions including pure dark. During normal lighting conditions during day, it did produce some decent shots. The color reproduction was good and they didn’t wash out as it happens with some entry-level cameras. The phase detection auto focus did good job, but the shutter speed wasn’t that fast. But if you se the same camera in dark surroundings such as outdoors in Night, the images produced were bad. You can checkout those images that were shot in night at outdoors and you won’t be impressed as it is full of noise and you can’t visualise most of these shots clearly. It can shoot videos at 1080p i.e. Full HD resolution. The 5 MP front shooter produces some decent selfies for social sharing networks with good lighting around.
The camera app is bare minimum stock app but comes with modes such as Multi angle view mode, Panorma Mode, HDR mode, Face Beauty Mode and Motion Track Mode. It also comes with features such as Anti-Shake, Face Detection, Smile Shot, Auto Scene Detection and Self timer. Most of these features are disabled by default and you need to enable it in settings. It also comes with EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) feature that helps you shoot better images, but keep in mind that this is not OIS (Optical Image Stabilization).
Check out all the camera samples of Hyve Storm shot under different lighting conditions:
Camera Samples
Battery
Hyve Storm is backed by a 2000 mAh removable battery. In terms of battery life, Hyve Storm lasted for a full day on average usage, but with a moderate or heavy usage it needed to be charged again. The smartphone though does come with great battery life under idle or standby conditions with negligible battery drain if you are not using the smartphone for hours. But if you are using Dual SIMs with 4G data always on and using it for Gaming, Videos, social messaging, Facebook, twitter and email checking etc. simultaneously all day, then you need to be ready to charge it before the day ends.
Operating System and UI
We at Androidpure always prefer a stock Android operating system with no bloatware. This is where Hyve Storm matches our expectations as it runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop stock Android operating system and no additional apps are pre-installed except some of the Google Apps just as the case with Google Nexus smartphones. You can install additional apps such as File manager or anything else that you need, from Google Play store.
In terms of user interface, its same as stock Android and we feel most people do love that simplistic approach instead of forcing OEMs own UI on the smartphone and often resulting in buggy system.
Conclusion
Hyve Storm has managed to gain our attention in the entry-level smartphone range. It provides a stock Android experience without bloatware and comes with some decent camera & average battery life. The gaming experience too comes out to be good enough. It also offers 1 year manufacturer warranty + 1 year insurance which is good for consumers. But thanks to the intense competition at this price range, a new smartphone from a new startup needs to offer more than the popular smartphones in the same price segment to create a buzz or niche which appears to be missing.
