The Karbonn A12 Star is the cheapest 3G, Dual-SIM smartphone running Android 4.4 KitKat at present. It comes with a dual-core processor, 4-inch WVGA IPS display with a 5 MP primary camera all for Rs. 4099. At this price this seems to be an excellent device on paper but lets see how the A12 Star actually performs in our benchmarks.
Benchmark Review
Karbonn A12 Star Key Specs
- Display: 4-inch WVGA IPS, 800 x 480 pixels
- Processor: 1.2 GHz Dual-core, MediaTek MT6572
- OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
- Primary Camera: 5 MP Rear, Fixed-focus, LED Flash
- Secondary Camera: 2 MP Front-facing
- Memory: 512 MB RAM, 4 GB internal storage expandable upto 32 GB
- Connectivity: 3G, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM Radio, Dual-SIM
- Battery: 1400 mAh
The Competition
1. Karbonn A12+
2. Moto E
Motorola Moto E Specs and Photos
3. XOLO A500s
AnTuTu Benchmark Comparison
The Karbonn A12 Star scored 11862 on AnTuTu which is a good score for the MT6572 chipset even though its clocked lower at 1.2 GHz rather than 1.3 GHz.
NenaMark 2 Benchmark Comparison
On NenaMark the A12 Star got a score of 46.8 FPS which too makes us believe that gaming would be a possibility on the device even though it comes with just 512 MB RAM.
Quadrant Benchmark Comparison
The A12 Star gave us a score of 5300 on Quadrant which is very close to the score of the Moto E, which costs way more.
Vellamo HTML5 Benchmark Comparison
On HTML5 chapter of Vellamo we scored 1025 which is a very unsatisfactory score but the web-engine in KitKat is still being optimized it seems.
Vellamo Metal Benchmark Comparison
On Metal the Karbonn A12 Star scored 589 which is the highest as you can see in the comparison above as well.
Linpack Single-thread Benchmark Comparison
Single-thread Linpack benchmark gave a score of 84.68 which too is the highest in the bunch, something we didn't expect.
Linpack Multi-thread Benchmark Comparison
On Multi-thread test as well the A12 Star came second with a score of 92.42 trailing behind just the Moto E which scored 142.81.
Multi-touch Test
The Karbonn A12 Star's 4-inch display supports 2-points of touch, therefore it is a 2-point multi-touch display.
Conclusion
The Karbonn A12 Star performed brilliantly in our benchmarks, proving again that Karbonn definitely knows something about optimizing its ROM's. We saw that with the Karbonn A12+ and now the A12 Star. There is a slight hint of lag in the interface but that's more due to the launcher than the actual performance of the device. We will try gaming next on the A12 Star and see how it performs. Given the price of just Rs. 4099 the A12 Star definitely performs much better than expected.
