UnicoMarketing: Inspired by Xiaomi, the budget Himax Polymer is ready to shake up the market (REVIEW)

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Indonesia is a huge market for smartphones. According to the latest data from Gfk, the sales volume for smartphones in Indonesia during the first quarter of this year grew by 68 percent, the most among all Southeast Asian countries. Not only that, the archipelago itself accounts for two-fifths of the region’s smartphone sales.

Knowing this, it’s not difficult to see why a number of phone brands are keen to pursue Indonesian consumers, with Samsung, Lenovo, and Oppo all marketing aggressively in the country. China’s Xiaomi has also entered the nation selling its Redmi 1S to reach out to new Indonesian smartphone users who are starting to ditch their feature phones (and BlackBerrys).

A new Indonesian brand also wants a slice of the action. It’s called Himax. It’s trying to emulate Xiaomi by running limited online flash sales and making nicer than usual gadgets at affordable prices.

In this review we’ll take a look at one of the most popular Android-powered Himax phones on sale in Indonesia: the Himax Polymer. It’s probably the closest rival to Xiaomi’s Redmi Note, touting a big screen, octa-core processor, and a budget price tag.

The Himax Polymer comes with a 5-inch 1280x720p HD IPS display. It is equipped with dual-SIM support, a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek processor, 2GB RAM, MALI-450MP4 GPU, and a 2,500mAh battery. It boasts a 13MP back camera and 5MP front camera. The Polymer comes in at a modest IDR 2 million (US$165).

Hardware

If you have to sacrifice anything to make a smartphone affordable, it’s the hardware. The good news is, although the Himax Polymer is made almost entirely of plastic, its snap-on back cover feels metallic to the touch and allows for a removable battery. The rear camera has a metallic square bezel which gives the phone a more premium look and feel.

The Polymer is not the slimmest phone at 9.3mm thick and 151 grams in weight, but it feels quite nice when gripped in your hand. Unfortunately, I think the plastic cover on my phone doesn’t fit perfectly. Pressing against the left side of the phone causes the sound of rubbing plastic.

The phone comes with three Android soft buttons – the home button on the center, the back button on the right, and menu button on the left. Personally, I prefer the “task switcher” button as the third button found in stock Android phones like the Moto G and Nexus 6, which allows you to toggle and switch between apps. I rarely use the current menu button, and I need to hold the home button for a couple of beats to switch between apps.

Although not the best, the Polymer is quite a powerful phone when it comes to playing games. I tried playing Spider-Man Unlimited and Asphalt 8: Airborne to test out the phone’s power and they played well, but not perfectly. During the early runs on Spider-Man Unlimited, the game was smooth, but as you pick up your speed and encounter more blasts, the experience gets choppy. Playing Asphalt 8: Airborne on the Xiaomi Mi3, which has a more powerful GPU and a better brand processor, feels smoother. However, I’d still like to give props to Polymer because the phone still works better for gaming compared to the more expensive LG Nexus 4 (launched in late 2012) that I mainly use.

On the upside, the Polymer does come with an FM radio tuner built-in. This is a common feature in Indonesian phones but it’s more rare in international phones like the Nexus 4. For those who like the radio, though, being able to listen to it without using any data is a nice perk.

Screen and sound

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The Polymer has a 5-inch screen that’s 720p HD, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The display is easily viewable even under sunlight. You can see HD movies and most games without any issues.

The phone’s speakers are located at the bottom of its back cover. Although it’s normal to have speakers on the back of the phone, it doesn’t work well for the Polymer because its design doesn’t support the sound flowing through the back when the phone is lying flat on a table. When the phone is face up on a flat surface, the speakers don’t sound loud enough because the speakers are covered. After using it for a few weeks, I missed a few phone calls because I couldn’t hear the ringtone, even when I set it to maximum volume.

But when you hold the phone in your hand so that the speakers aren’t covered, the Polymer has the opposite problem. I found it to be too loud, even at the lowest volume setting, and preferred to mute the sound instead when playing games in a quiet environment.

If the speakers are exposed, the maximum volume is loud enough for you to hear music from the other room. And even at maximum volume, the sound is still clear without any significant background noise to disturb the experience. The phone also ships with a free earpiece that, even though it doesn’t look too exciting, generates good sound.

Software

Polymer comes with the standard Kit Kat Android 4.4.2 operating system. After using it for three weeks, the phone still feels fast and fluid thanks to its octa-core processor and solid GPU – so long as you avoid intense games.

Polymer’s Android skin is essentially the stock Android skin. Other than the pre-installed apps, the company hasn’t changed anything significant. It has extra toggles on the top bar, an audio enhancement feature, and some extra camera modes. But still, there’s not much difference to the stock Android OS found in other devices.

While it may not be a unique feature, I liked the notification bar’s data connection toggle. It allows you to turn your data connection on and off quickly. The Polymer also has a useful interface that collates all the app permissions and lets you allow or disallow specific functions on any app. It’s good for those who appreciate security and privacy; for example, you can easily block only the Facebook app from knowing your location.

You can uninstall nearly all of the pre-installed bloatware apps like Kaskus, Poker Texas Boyaa, and Baidu Browser. The only app you can’t uninstall is the Himax app, which is basically a Himax store. However, this app is buggy and you can’t browse or do much inside. Better to ignore it completely.

One thing that could ruin an otherwise perfect experience on the Polymer’s OS side is the lockscreen’s inconsistent sensitivity. I found I often needed to swipe harder than should be necessary to unlock the phone. Other times, I couldn’t swipe down the top notification bar from the lockscreen.

See: 15 new Asian smartphone makers hoping to crush Samsung and Apple

Camera

This camera is another plus point for the Himax Polymer. With its 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, you can shoot some beautiful outdoor pictures. I can’t say the same for indoor pictures, though. You can see some sample shots below:

The Polymer’s camera app offers numerous photo modes in addition to standard shooting, including:

Live Photo – for making videos with a special effect that resemble a photo being (see the sample below)

Motion Track – an animated GIF tracking the movement of an object

Multi Angle View – a mode that allows you to take pictures of an object, as its name suggests, from many angles

You can also set the camera to automatically snap a photo when it detects the subject making the ‘V’ sign!

Himax Polymer review

Bugs and service centers

I found two problems on my Himax Polymer: the FM tuner and wifi connection. The FM tuner’s volume jumps up and down while listening to the radio. The wifi connection issue occurred more recently. Although the phone is connected to wifi, the internet keeps disconnecting after a period of time. I need to repeatedly turn the wifi receiver off and on to get the internet connection back on.

I haven’t gone to the service center in Jakarta yet, but a customer service representative told me I can get the phone fixed on the same day, depending on the severity of the problem. Himax only has one main service center in Jakarta to fix hardware problems, so people who live outside the city need to drop their phones off at a certain shop, from which the phone will get shipped to Jakarta for repair. This entire process could take up to a full month.

Annoyingly, the webpage listing all the service centers is broken. The site’s live chat feature isn’t working either. So if you do have a problem, you need to phone the call center to find out where you can drop off your phone for repair.

Performance and battery life

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I regularly connect the phone to wifi all day long, and use it indoors for chatting and casual gaming. For me, the 2500mAh battery was powerful enough to last over a day. I wasn’t worried about constantly needing to charge the phone to full for a day of use, which was nice.

Even when using the 3G connection, the phone could still last all day. But if you intensively use it for chatting and gaming, the battery will die in less than six hours.

According to the AnTuTu Benchmark, the Himax Polymer surprisingly surpasses the Redmi Note in terms of performance.

Alternatives

In the same budget price range, the Polymer’s competitors include the Evercoss Elevate Y2, Mito Fantasy U A60, and Xiaomi Redmi Note. Against all those rivals, Polymer can still stand tall. Here’s a chart:

	Himax Polymer	Xiaomi Redmi Note (2013)	Evercoss A80A Elevate Y2	Mito Fantasy U A60
Screen size	5 inch	5.5 inch	5 inch	5 inch
Screen resolution	1280 x 720	1280 x 720	1280 x 720	1280 x 720
Rear camera	13MP	13MP	13MP	13MP
Front camera	5MP	5MP	5MP	5MP
Processor	1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 (octa-core)	1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 (octa-core)	1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 (octa-core)	1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 (quad-core)
RAM	2GB	2GB	1GB	1GB
GPU	Mali-450	Mali-450	Mali-400	Adreno 305
Battery	2500mAh	3100mAh	2000mAh	2000mAh
Android version	Android 4.4	Android 4.2	Android 4.2	Android 4.4
Price in Indonesia	IDR 2,000,000	IDR 2,250,000 (unofficial)	IDR 2,300,000	IDR 1,600,000

Polymer’s closest competition is the 5.5-inch Redmi Note, which hasn’t yet launched in Indonesia. An unofficial seller on Tokopedia sells the Redmi Note at IDR 2,250,000 (US$186), but it’ll likely be cheaper once Xiaomi starts official sales of it in Indonesia.

Looking purely at the specs, gadget lovers might be divided on whether they should buy the homegrown phone over the Chinese brand. As the AnTuTu Benchmark suggests, the Polymer may have better performance, but the Redmi Note has a larger screen and bigger battery capacity.

Emulating Xiaomi?

There are three ways in which we think Xiaomi has inspired Himax’s marketing strategy. First, just like Xiaomi, Himax sells its phone in batches online. Users need to sign up and grab limited “H-codes,” which are required if you want to buy a Himax phone online. It’s like a reservation system. These codes often run out in a matter of hours. Himax dished out 10,000 H-Codes for the Polymer in 3 hours and 10 minutes. A representative claims that eventually all the H-Codes were used up to buy 10,000 Polymer phones in the course of three days.

Secondly, Himax’s phone boxes look just like Xiaomi’s (pictured below). The third way is the funniest one: if you go to Xiaomi.co.id, you’ll be redirected to Himax.co.id instead. Not subtle.

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Conclusion

Himax has been a breath of fresh air amongst the fierce local smartphone competition in Indonesia. The company brings in high-powered phones and sells them at very competitive prices. Just as Xiaomi disrupted the status quo in China, Himax is doing the same in its native Indonesia. Specification-wise, it stands taller than other local products. And when it comes to battling against the more seasoned Xiaomi, Himax isn’t doing all that badly.

Thankfully, Himax is not following bad old habits seen by many local manufacturers. If you uninstall all the Polymer’s bloatware apps, the Polymer has even fewer stock apps than the native Android OS found on Nexus devices.

But one huge issue that Himax needs to address is its service centers – well, its single, solitary hardware service center. As I found in this test, there are some customers who will need repairs, and the repair process isn’t convenient unless you happen to live near the Jakarta service center.

Still, the Polymer is excellent value. As long as everything functions properly, you’ll happily use it all day long. Arguably, it is one of the best bang-for-your-buck devices available under US$200.