Initial impressions of Karbon Android One

The Karbonn Android One device is not something that it's exceptional in hardware. It is normal. The only thing that may stand out is that there are all the sensors that you would probably find in a mid range phones. What makes this phone different is not the hardware but the software.
 

Android One is directly supported on the software side by Google, and is expected to get all major software updates for about two years. This is the only thing that sets it apart from other offerings. Essentially you should be using this only if you have interest in keeping the system always up to date. If you are just looking for a phone, this is a good to own. But if you are purely looking in terms of hardware then you did be looking somewhere else. This is especially true in terms of display resolution of the current devices : at best they are poor, with very poor text clarity and sharpness. 

And then there is issue of bloatware. There was an impression that android one would be free of these. That however does not seem to be the case. The android one device that I have has a number of apps that I simply do not want,  but there is no way to remove them. About the only thing that you can do is to hide or disable them.
 

There are however good things. You get a very much stock android experience , one that you would typically get on q nexus device. This I includes the google now launcher , feature which are missing in devices like moto e. The camera and photo app is one of the better ones I have used and are really good and easy to use and take good snaps. And then there are a host of other google apps that we have taken for granted: Google maps and gmail being the ones that I use the most.
 

In the end when I compare it with say Firefox phone that launched recently in India, I find that if you are looking for a mobile computing device then it would be better to save up and buy one of the android one devices rather than go for the really cheap Firefox phone. If however you are buying a phone and occasionally would like to be connected then Firefox phone is a good option to have.