Pliris Mobile, a Nigerian company has gone into the production of smartphones that runs on Google’s Android. The phone has been in the market for a few months now, but it is being made available from their office in Abuja.
I had the privilege of testing a unit out.
First Impression
The Pliris Blaze+ is spotting a large screen at 4.3 inch high resolution touch screen, 560 X 940 pixels.
It makes reading on the phone a comfort. It plays high definition video at 720p. My only challenge is that the phone looks bulky. There’s an excuse for the bulky nature by the way. The phone is sporting a battery that is 2000mAh. That’s a lot of juice for your smartphone. The battery can last up to 10 hours plus. The design of the phone has to be so such that it can sustain a full day of use without you running out of power.
I can testify that putting the phone through rigorous use did not run the battery out at the end of the day. I still had some juice left at the end of the day. I did email, phone calls, text messages, read my favourite blogs and a few social media.
The charging port is standard USB charging. The Camera is 8 MP with flash.
With bigger speakers at the bag for sound output. It runs on IceCream Sandwich, 4.0.4 with Adobe Flash support. It has three buttons at the front bottom, but on the body and not within the display.
Camera and Photos
The Camera is a 8 Mega Pixel cam. It may not be the best out there, but it won’t be found wanting. If you are like me, who likes to shoot photo of my gadgets and landscapes (outdoors), you’ll be fine. There’s a flash in there, but the best phone camera will work well when they are assisted with natural light.
You can see sample of the photos I shot there.
Music Playback and Playing of Videos
Android allows users to install variety of third party music players. If the Google Player that came pre-installed with the Pliris Blaze + happen not to be sufficient for you, you can go ahead and get a third party player from the Google Play Store.
Application compatibility and downloading of apps
The phone was preloaded with some apps by Pliris Mobile, apps like Whatsapp, Pliris Texty( their locally developed Free SMS app), Documents To Go and a host of others. I noticed that Google Chrome browser for mobile wasn’t compatible with the device as well as the updated version of Whatsapp. I had to look for the APK of the apps and then install them manually. They started to work as I installed them. It’s something that Pliris Mobile is working on and improving.
The Good thing is that they guys Pliris Mobile, makers of Pliris Blaze +, are nice fellows and they are always ready to come to your aid as they are making the phone better.
Battery life and accessories
The battery life was stellar when I first got it. A few weeks after I’ve had it, I noticed that the battery started to get hot and dies faster than how it was when I first started using it. [Confirm The report that there’s two battery bundled along with the phone and then take my time to examine the whole package and list then one after the order.
In the pack there’s a battery, charger and earphone and the manual. If you’re are the type that do not like to nurse your phone, by carrying charger around, since Android phones are known to consume power. You’ll get a decent power out of the Pliris Blaze +.
Browser and surfing the web
Browsing the web on the 4.3 inch high resolution touch screen, 560 X 940 pixels, is a cool experience. The display will delight you and the legibility is another thing to delight yourself with. What thrills me more is that I can port the experience I have using Safari browser to the phone by using Firefox Mobile browser version 16 that you can get from the store. On my iPhone it is a feature I enjoy using with the Safari browser preinstalled.
Dual SIM ability
I know a couple of folks have asked me in the past that they will like to use a dual SIM phone. The idea of carrying multiple phones about has started to repulse some people. There are the options you get from Samsung, but Pliris Blaze+ has thrown in a lot into the box here and the offer of the dual SIM is so juicy that I think you’ll want to bite it.
How much does the Pliris Blaze+ cost and where can you get it?
The current price of the Pliris Blaze+ is N50,000. You can get it directly from their Abuja office, the Nations capital for now. They now have an arrangement with EMS Speedpost to deliver devices Nationwide. They also plan to flesh out the Office Structure a bit and replicate their shop and support center from Abuja to the southwest.
Android has grown as one OS that is so strong that Apple couldn’t ignore its growth, but went on to slam a suit against Samsung, the largest manufacturer of Apple device.
We can see device makers like the Xiami makers in China who have leveraged on Android to create a monster brand with a huge following. Will Pliris Mobile become the Xiaomi of Nigeria?
