New Rainbow 2: Cheap, Dual Camera, Android 7
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5 different colors available
Specs:
5" HD
MT6580 1.3Ghz
Android 7
1Gb Ram + 16Gb Storage
2 Sim (micro) + 1 MicroSD slot up to 128Gb (separated)
Dual Back Camera 13+2Mp
Front camera 5Mp with Fill In Flash Led
2350mAH Integrated Battery
Notification Led , OTG.
Sensors: light, proximity, accelerometer
Transparent TPU cover included in Bundle
Price: From 70$ to 85$
Link: CUBOT Rainbow 2 - Take fun of shooting pictures
The device looks solid and well finished, the metal side frame is well matched with the smooth lines of the front glass 2.5D and back cover in painted plastic ..
The screen is really a good IPS HD resolution, very high brightness and good color management and white balance
We find the Android 7.0 update at the end of February 2017 with February Security patch.
really good 10 points Touch , beautiful design that does not reveal the cheap character that the price might suggest.
We start from the hardware, 32Bit MT6580 Quad Core 1.3Ghz with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, are able to make good enough user experience ..
Ram free is approximately 40% of its capacity (400Mb free ram) and internal rom with the free part of over 11.5Gb of 16 (bearing in mind that the rest is not utlizzabile space for the data given that there is a system with appurtenances).
Screen with treatment it 2,5D on the edges, and plastic film supplied already applied, power supply 5V 1A, Micro-USB cable and quick manuals.
Led Notification on the top right, just near the front flash LED, the LED also works being charged, it's just Blue, is not button and can not be managed in the settings (it's just disabled).
Cameras:
13mp Rear f / 2.4 and 2Mpixel flanked by a single LED 1A
The quality of photos and videos is decent, a good sharpness. The use of dual camera mode shutter, tends to create, as seen in other Chinese smartphone, a "blur" / "bokeh" effect very little effective and natural, creating a sort of radial blur, independent of the sense of depth of field dual camera should bring. In the video field, registration is up to max 1080P at 3p fps
Frontal 5Mp f / 2.8 lens with LED flash with excellent brightness
The quality of the selfie is appropriate to the class of the device, sufficient sharpness and front fill flash that behaves well.
Gestures screen off and sensory gesture to better manage the use without hands or with accelerometer sensor. Double Tap for comfortable and functional awakening.
Keys not backlit screen outside, power button and volume to the right and slots for two sim (micro) and Micro Sd positioned under the removable back cover.
Audio discreetly call earbud, quite mediocre speaker, which is giving a disturbed and metallic effect.
good reception, bands for the main sim all necessary for 3G, including 3G 900Mhz .. REMEMBER that the phone is 3G only.
GPS that does a quick fix with about 8 hooked satellites and precision of 4/6 meters; Exceptional signal strength and even Indoor gets along really well !.
Battery that with a 2350mAh rating allows plus 4 hours of heated screen and can be recharged with its 1A power supply in about 2 h and 40 minutes.
Present Sensors: Proximity, Accelerometer, Brightness .. . absent compass and gyroscope.
▲▲PROS ▲▲
- really low price
- construction with aluminum frame, especially the attention to detail and flawless assembly.
- Cpu 4 Core MT6580 up to 1.3GHz which while not excelling, behaves in a dignified manner.
- Good screen colors 5 "HD, Miravision for calibration, good touch to 10 points and 2.5D glass.
- Two SIM (Micro) for full 3G compatibility (3G 900MHz band present).
- MicroSD Slot separate tested with capacities up to 128GB.
- Led for notification and gestures to screen off-functioning and well implemented.
- Dual Camera + 13 2Mp that as an idea is good, but the software implementation creates an unnatural effect.
- Led Flash on the Front; With microUSB OTG compatibility.
- GPS is accurate and with very high reception strength.
- Integrated battery 2350mAh showing a good autonomy.
- Android 7 Nougat with updated patch in February, no malware installed in stagefright vulnerability.
- Presence of transparent silicone cover in the sales package.
- CE, RoHS, REACH and SAR Cubot downloaded from the site.
▼▼CONS ▼▼
- Lack of 4G.
- 1 GB of RAM is limiting in the case of using the Multitasking or social apps in quantity.
- soft function buttons not backlighted.
- Some force closing message app (parallel space) after long standby (software problem probably due to the new Android 7)
- Battery cover and screen protection film attracts fingerprints massively.
- Cover really hard to remove, tenacious joints and each opening shakes for possible rupture of the plastic clips (not occurred after several removals to be honest).
Introduction
This is the CUBOT Rainbow 2.
Hardware
Similar to the previous Rainbow (1) from CUBOT (that i had to refuse due to customs issues, dammit), this one features the same CPU and RAM, but with more ROM and a better overall Camera Hardware. It is powered by a Mediatek MT6580 SOC clocked at 1.30GHz, a bit outdated and slower compared to the MT6737 used in almost all low-end devices nowadays, together with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM. Also, there are two rear-cameras, used to handle the Blur effect. (even though i'm not sure about its real utility)
Unboxing
Packaging comes with some accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A USB Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Compliance Regulation Booklet, 1x Anti-Shock TPU Cover and the Smartphone (of course). A plastic screen protector is pre-applied.
Talking about the dimensions, the device is pretty compact is comfortable to handle. It is 14.4x8.84x0.88cm, with medium bezels, and weights 157g, maybe a bit heavy for a plastic 5 inches device.
The device looks stylish, with a matte back cover that, ignoring the fact that is a fingerprint magnet, it looks really nice, similar to the old Galaxy S1 from Samsung. There are no Metal Parts, everything is made of plastic.
On the front side there is the usual 2.5D Curved Display and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera with a Big Flashlight, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. A Notification LED is here, supporting only one color: Blue.
Here you can see the LED in action.
On the lower front side there is the classic soft-keys zone, with Recents, Home and Back button. Not backlit. You can notice the hidden microphone somewhere between the home and back buttons.
On the back side there is the removable back cover, but the battery isn't removable. The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Single-LED Flashlight.
On the lower rear side there is only the Model Name with some Certification Logos. The speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.
Device
Screen
Unlike some other 5 inches devices i have reviewed, this one features an interesting screen with accurate color reproduction, nice viewing angles and no strange banding issues.
The Light Sensor supports smooth light changes, with a proper auto-brightness management. This is its maximum brightness. Excellent Brightness.
Viewing Angles matches IPS screen capabilities.
Camera
This device features a GalaxyCore 8MP Rear Camera together with a GalaxyCore 0.3MP Secondary Rear Camera, offering some nice shots, but do not expect to see something outstanding. This is still a budget device, don't forget it.
A nice amount of details is here, low-light shots are decent and the level of noise isn't really high.
"HDR off" on the left and "HDR on" on the right. Some improvements are noticeable.
Macros are not great at all, unlike Wide photos. Auto-Focus management needs to be improved.
The Single-LED Flashlight doesn't seem to be powerful for dark shots, but it is acceptable.
SLR/Blur Photos seem OK, i'm not an expert with this kind of photos so i don't know if this is a good result or not.
As regards Video Recording, 1080p videos are surprisingly great, much better than most budget devices i have reviewed. Smooth and with an high level of details.
Front Camera records sufficient photos for video-chat and occasional shots. Also, it seems to be a Wide-Angle variant, and the extra flashlight seem to help a bit. On the right you can see the same photo taken using the front flashlight.
Audio
Speaker's Quality is decent, a low amount of low-frequencies is here and the volume is decent. I don't understand why the second speaker grill hasn't been used at all, considering that the microphone is on the front side.
As regards the Microphone, it works decently well in any case (in-call, VOIP, etc...), and the earpiece is loud enough to be used in any condition.
GPS
Unfortunately the GPS isn't the best part of this device, the signal isn't really high and indoors it costantly loses the signal. For a plastic device, running on a stable MT6580 chipset, this is a bit disappointing.
Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi
This device doesn't support 4G networks, so you have to use your old 3G HSPA+ (42MBps max) connection to use your Mobile Data plan.
Signal Reception is accurate, but 3G coverage is just perfect here where i live so that's something i would have expected. Just like what happens with other devices, 3G Network Speed is low, thanks to my crappy Mobile Network that has lower than average 3G performance.
WiFi 5GHz isn't supported here. With my 2.4GHz network, i was able to reach almost 23mbps, connected at 65mbps, this seems to be the slowest WiFi performance i have ever seen. CUBOT, please take a look at this issue.
Battery Life
As always, i have measured the real battery capacity using my USB Tester, and it seems that the real battery capacity is slightly higher compared to the declared value (declared 2350mAh, real ~2440mAh).
This is the PCMark Work 2.0 Battery Benchmark, the battery runtime is great considering the battery capacity.
As regards battery charging times, the 5V/1A charger doesn't allow any super fast charging, but in just a bit more of 2 hours it gets charged completely.
Software
Following all previous CUBOT devices, also this one comes with a completely clean Android OS, and most important, based on Nougat 7.0. Something rare to find with MT6580 devices, such an old chipset with such a new Android Version, something that i would have never expected from Mediatek. There are some apps that i might recommend you to disable (screenshot attached), in order to get the best performance.
All Mediatek features are still there such as Gestures, Scheduled Power On/Off, etc…
No Malwares Detected using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.
Even though the device isn't so powerful, it is still able to handle basic tasks, but do not expect to run multiple apps in the same time, some micro-lags are here with some latency issues.
Benchmarks
I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, PCMark (Work 2.0, Computer Vision, Storage & Work 1.0) and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.
3DMark – GPU Performance is decent, this is a low-end device with an old Mali-400 GPU so we can't expect something better.
AndroBench – eMMC Performance isn't the best i have ever seen.
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
Epic Citadel – Based on this result, OpenGL 2.0 Games should run pretty smooth here.
GeekBench – CPU Performance is a bit low, there are 4x Cortex-A7 CPUs here that can't provide much computational performance. Sufficient for basic daily tasks.
CPU
Compute
GFXBench – Not the best GPU performance here, but i might have expected something even worse.
PCMark – Well, it isn't possible to get better performance on this MT6580 SOC, low-end performance is confirmed.
Work 2.0
Computer Vision
Storage
Work 1.0
Vellamo – Browsers Performance seems to be decent, nothing to complain about it.
Conclusions
Being a Dual Camera device at a low price it is expected to find something not 100% perfect. This is a good budget device, with the best camera quality for this price range, but probably lower than average performance. Build Quality is acceptable and the availability of 16GB of ROM instead of the usual 8GB is something pretty appreciated.
So, do i recommend this device? Well, if you are looking a budget device that is able to shot some acceptable photos and great videos, yes, otherwise you may take a look at more powerful alternatives available for the same price.
Pros:
Impressive Battery Life
4-points Touch Screen
High Screen Brightness
Great Video Quality
Nice Dual Camera Configuration
Notification LED
Cons:
No Magnetometer/Gyroscope
Still using the old MT6580 chipset
WiFi Performance needs to be improved
Low GPS Performance and Reliability
A bit heavy considering the size
Rating: 8.6
Packaging and Accessories: 8.5
Design and Materials: 7.5
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 7
Screen: 9
Camera: 9
Sound: 8
Battery Life: 9
Software: 10
OEM Support: 9
Price: 9.5
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/EDiml
Official Website: http://www.cubot.net/smartphones/rainbow2/spec.html
You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the CUBOT website.
Related
LEAGOO ALFA 2 MTK6580A
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Highlights:
- 5.0-inch screen 2.5D, 1280 * 720 pixels
- MTK6580A 1.3GHz Quad Core
- 1 GB RAM + 16 GB ROM
- Supports fingerprint sensor on the back
- 13MP main camera + 5MP front camera
-Android 5.1 system
-Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA 900 / 2100 MHz, supports 2 G & 3 G network
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Other Images:
Specifications:
Review:
Sorry guys, my written review is in italian language. I don't post it here ...
While the video review is Italian SUB ENG. Hope you appreciate it...
Mod edit by @Darth : Link to video containing selling site links removed. No more like this please.
Review from me too
Hey everyone,
I bought my own Leagoo Alfa 2 too, in golden color. A few things and thoughts which you should know before buying:
Pro
- backplate Ion Touch Technology: you can turn it off at all, if it disturbs you, but its worth using it to shoot photos (selfies mainly). However, when using the phone for general stuff, it can be quite disturbing. Waking with double tap on it work crappy, it doesnt recognize double tap many times. I like the function however.
- front side LED flash: its not very strong, but it certainly helps a lot when you have low lights around.
- Leagoo Xender app: you can connect the phone with a PC, Mac, or WP in less than a minute. I dont even understand, why this app is not part of the marketing, it's one of the best apps, I've ever senn. You get a complete file manager through your browser on PC. I dont use cables since I found this app.
- Leagoo OS 1.1: based on Android 5.1 its quite fast until you download all your favourite apps, and pack a lot of things on the phone. Then it can start thinking quite a lot at more hardware demanding operations. For example, when you have more apps running in the background, and you press home button, first you see no app icons, then it starts loading them on the screen one by one. This takes about 2 seconds at most, but still. Otherwise the OS is quite nice, I like it.
- Nice screen, sensitivity and colors.
- No SIM-plate, so you can use 2 microSIM cards and a microSD card at the same time.
- 16GB ROM.
- its cheap
Contra:
- weak battery: screen on time is only a few hours at most.
- very bad camera quality on both sides. However there is a flash on the front side to make selfies, the cameras shoot quite low quality photos.
- Weak hardware, high consumption compared to this.
- Backplate feels crappy and weak.
Conclusion: I'd still recommend the phone, if you need a front side flash, or dont want to buy a more expensive one, or if you like new things like Ion Touch Technology, and the Xender app. Some photos of my stuff:
You can reach the whole album here. And a few previews here:
Good job man
Inviato dal mio Nexus 5 utilizzando Tapatalk
Review
Introduction
Low-End smartphones are nowadays common in the Chinese market, but LEAGOO with the Alfa 2 managed to create a nice compromise by adding some features that almost all other low-end smartphones are missing.
This is the LEAGOO Alfa 2.
Hardware
The device features a low-end SOC, MT6580, that is just enough for basic tasks and for ultra-light gaming. Also the RAM isn’t high, just 1 GB, reducing multitasking efficiency. But, there is also something that can’t be considered as low-end. Rear Camera is a Sony IMX219 (13mpx), Soft-Touch keys are retroilluminated and there is a nice TouchPad on the back. Maybe we shouldn’t consider it a real low-end device, should we? Follow my next paragraphs to know more.
Unboxing
Packaging comes with some accessories: 1x Screen Protector (Plastic) with Wipes, 1x SIM/MicroSD tray Eject Tool, 1x Headset (not in-ear, but still better than nothing), 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1.5A USB Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Certificate and the Smartphone (of course).
LEAGOO choose to give to the device a nice and clean design, similar to devices with Metal chassis, but this is made of Plastic. It feels pretty solid though, even better than my Galaxy S4.
The Alfa 2 is 14.4x7.3x0.7cm and weights 149 g. A compact device that can be handled easily in your hands.
On the front side there is the 2.5D Curved Display. On 5 inches smartphones this feature is now becoming pretty common. The glass is enclosed in a Plastic Frame, while on the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera supported by a Flashlight, an Earpiece and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors.
The lower front side of the device there are the Soft-Keys Navigation Buttons (retroilluminated), and the Home Button (circle key) works as a Notification LED. Sincerely i love this feature, I hope that also other smartphones from LEAGOO will have it.
On the back side, there is the Plastic back cover. The upper rear side of the device features a slightly protunding Camera supported by a dual-tone flashlight, and a particular TouchPad used to interact with the UI.
The lower rear side of the device features a noticeable Brand Logo and a large Speaker hole.
Chassis is Slim and well-built with all keys on the right side. There is no key rattling here.
Device
Screen
The device has an IPS Screen made by Himax, and it seems to be pretty good. Screen Brightness is decent, good enough to be used under direct sunlight.
I have used my Galaxy S4 Light Sensor to measure its maximum brightness. I don’t have a professional Lumen Meter, so this (Lux) is the only value that I can provide you.
About Viewing Angles the screen behaves pretty well, one of the best screen I have ever tested as regards this area.
Image Contrast and Saturation are accurate, you can use the MiraVision menu to customize this values.
Camera
Back Camera (Sony IMX219) seems to work pretty good, but, just like almost all Chinese Smartphones, the noise level is a bit high. As I always say, if a company works a bit on the Camera Software this issue can be easily fixed.
With (left) & Without HDR (right), photos under direct sunlight aren’t pretty bad.
Flashlight works pretty well on both sides. Yes, this device has also a front flashlight.
Back Camera
Front Camera
About Videos, there is no Optical Stabilization here. Maximum Supported Resolution is 1080p (named as Video Quality – Fine). Even if it reaches 1080p, quality isn’t good, the software needs to be optimized a lot.
Audio
Speaker isn’t extremely loud, lacks low-frequencies but there are no issues with Sound Clarity.
Unfortunately, it is positioned on the back, and, as I have already said for many other devices, if you place the device on a table you could experience volume issues, but this doesn’t mean that it is a bad thing. As always, what matters here is the quality.
Nothing negative to say about the in-call/telephony quality.
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi
Being a low-end device, there is no 4G support. 3G Signal Reception is accurate though, with no issues at all with Mobile Data speed or Signal Stability.
Built-in Wi-Fi supports 2.4GHz networks, and using my Home internet connection I managed to get decent speed. (I have a 100/20 VDSL connection, WiFi gets connected to 135mbps – probably not real -)
Battery Life
Battery seems to be enough to get at least one day of medium-usage, unfortunately PCMark crashes after a long while (probably due to low RAM).
This is the GeekBench Battery Benchmark result: https://browser.primatelabs.com/battery3/298994
Anyway, built-in Battery Real Capacity seems to be a bit lower than declared value (2600mAh vs 2313mAh).
Software
Almost everything has been customized. LEAGOO OS, based on Android 5.1, seems to have some nice features that help users to enjoy Android even better. (just like Xiaomi does with its MIUI ROM). I’ll show you some customized parts of the system with some screenshots.
Just like other last-gen Mediatek Devices, there are some typical features such as Gestures, Scheduled Power On/Off, etc…
The UI is always responsive, but there is a serious software issue. Screen Refresh rate has been set to 43hz, so the device doesn’t fell smooth at all. I have already asked LEAGOO to fix this bug, because using the device with this Refresh Rate causes headaches. It is like slow motion.
As regards the Rear TouchPad management (called Ion Smart Touch), it can be configured via the Settings apps and its configuration is extremely user-friendly.
Even LED Notification Light can be configured easily. You can even disable the Hall Sensor if you are using a Flip Cover.
Benchmarks
I have used 3DMark, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 3, GFXBench, AndroBench and PCMark (Work) to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites. I won’t be able to show you Vellamo benchmarks because this device isn’t able to handle it. (low RAM issues, it keeps crashing after some minutes)
3DMark – GPU Performance isn’t too bad, but you have to consider that there is no OpenGL 3.0 support here so only OpenGL 2.0 tests can be executed.
AndroBench – eMMC Performance is much better that expected, pretty good considering the low-end SOC.
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmarks, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
Epic Citadel – As you can see, Gaming performance isn’t extremely low, there is enough power to handle games without major issues, you just won’t get ultra-high framerates. Consider also that there is the screen refresh rate bug that limits FPSs to 43 maximum.
GeekBench – CPU Performance is as good as other CPUs with the same configuration (4x Cortex-A7).
GFXBench – GFXBench result is….ultra-low. You have to forget heavy games on this device.
PCMark – Except for Video Playback Score, it isn’t pretty bad.
Summaring all results, I would have expected lower performance but I was wrong. Device’s performance is good enough for basic tasks, and it can be used also for some light gaming without having to deal with major issues.
Conclusions
This is my first time that I have to express an opinion about a low-end device. LEAGOO managed to add some mid-range features on a cheap device, something pretty rare to find nowadays.
I can recommend it if you want a cheap, but complete, device for basic usage.
Pros:
Sharp and Bright screen
Thin bezels
Decent Sound Quality
Lightweight
Cheap
Cons:
Declared battery capacity doesn't match real capacity
Serious Software bug regarding Screen Refresh Rate
It doesn’t come with Android 6.0
Camera Software needs huge improvements
Rating: 8.2
Packaging and Accessories: 8.5
Design and Materials: 7.5
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 6.5
Screen: 8
Camera: 8
Sound: 8.5
Battery Life: 8.5
Software: 8.5
OEM Support: 8
Price: 9.5
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here:
http://imgur.com/a/Q8n7P
Official Website
http://www.leagoo.com/mobile/Alfa_Series/Alfa_2.html
The device is now on sale on many e-shops.
Very informative review Alberto96. Have you had a chance to hear if Leagoo fixed the screen refresh rate? Latest firmware is from July 15 but as usual there's no information on what has been fixed. Would also like to hear how you experienced the RAM issues, say if all a user will do is take photos, calls, text and really not much else the RAM will be fine? Thanks for feedback.
tangoviking said:
Very informative review Alberto96. Have you had a chance to hear if Leagoo fixed the screen refresh rate? Latest firmware is from July 15 but as usual there's no information on what has been fixed. Would also like to hear how you experienced the RAM issues, say if all a user will do is take photos, calls, text and really not much else the RAM will be fine? Thanks for feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no, it seems that it has been abandoned leaving more space to new devices such as the T1.
RAM Issues are here while running benchmarks or using heavy websites with Chrome. Normal usage doesn't seem to be affected too much.
Alberto96 said:
Unfortunately no, it seems that it has been abandoned leaving more space to new devices such as the T1.
RAM Issues are here while running benchmarks or using heavy websites with Chrome. Normal usage doesn't seem to be affected too much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, yes I've been wondering why it never seemed to really get off the ground. Thanks.
GRETEL GT6000 - Information & Reviews - 5.5" HD | MT6737 | 2GB | 16GB | Dual Camera
GRETEL GT6000
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Specs:
Dimensions: 154.6 x 77.3 x 10.6 mm
Weight:
Chassis: Metal
SoC: MediaTek MT6737
CPU: ARM Cortex-A53, 4 x 1300 MHz, Cores: 4
GPU: ARM Mali-T720 MP2 520MHz, Cores: 2
Network: 4G Cat.4 (150MBps) with VoLTE Support
RAM: 2 GB
Storage: 16 GB
Memory cards: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC
Display: 5.5 in, IPS, 720 x 1280 pixels, 24 bit
Protection: Asahi Glass Screen
Battery: 6000 mAh, Li-Polymer
OS: Android 7.0 Nougat
Back Camera: 4160 x 3120 pixels (13MP), 1080p30, Panasonic MN34172 sensor, with Secondary 1.3MP Camera.
Front Camera: 2560 x 1960 pixels (5MP) with Flashlight
SIM card: Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
Wi-Fi: b, g, n 2.4GHz, single-band, Wi-Fi Hotspot
USB: 2.0, Micro-USB
Bluetooth: 4.0
Positioning: GPS, A-GPS
Other Features: Fingerprint Scanner, Mediatek Pump Express
Colors: Blue and Black
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Development & Support:
Coming Soon
Click to expand...
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Reviews:
My own review: Post #6 & #7
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DISCLAIMER (spammers, be aware): all spam (e.g. adverts, news and similar) posts that might be published here will be immediately reported and removed.
princekhan007 said:
Price and which online shop is safe ?
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This is not an advertisement place. Google can help you.
Does it have a notification led in front ?
or is there an app to make the front camera flash operate like a notification led ?
forrest_gump_ said:
Does it have a notification led in front ?
or is there an app to make the front camera flash operate like a notification led ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For both questions, the answer is no unfortunately.
Introduction
This is the GRETEL GT6000.
Hardware
Joining the battery-phone area, this GT6000 from GRETEL isn't easy to notice between all the others already available, mostly because there isn't any specific feature that makes it different from others. It is powered by a Mediatek MT6737 (unfortunately not the T variant), with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, and a 5.5" HD screen produced by SHARP. Of course, as the name suggests, it is powered by a 6000mAh battery.
Unboxing
Packaging comes with some accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5/7/9/12V USB Pump Express Charger, 1x User Guide, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector, and the Smartphone (of course). A screen protector is already applied, and, unfortunately, it doesn't include an OTG Cable (for power-sharing).
The chassis feels really solid, much better than the GRETEL A9 tested before, with a decent design (not unique, but neither annoying) and an overall clean look.
It is 15.45x7.70x1.12cm, a pretty standard size for a 5.5" inches battery phone, with a weight of 235g, not so light, joining the bulky but long lasting battery phones family.
On the front side there is the standard (well nowadays almost all devices have it) 2.5D Curved Display and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera supported by a Single-LED Flashlight, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. No Notification LED is here.
As regards the lower front side, there is the fingerprint scanner (that can't be pressed, works as a soft-touch button) with the menu and back buttons on its sides.
On the back side there is the unibody metal chassis with the usual plastic bands on the top and the button.
The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Dual-LED - Single-Tone Flashlight, with an unknown black thing on the left side of the camera. (Laser Autofocus?)
On the lower rear side, excluding the usual GRETEL logo with other certifications, there isn't anything at all because the Speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.
Device
Screen
As regards the screen quality, it is as good as all SHARP IPS panels. Pretty warm colors, accurate color reproduction, and overall good sharpness. It is still HD-only, and with its size of 5.5 inches the pixel density isn't superb.
Its light sensor supports smooth light changes with a maximum brightness of ~400lux. Probably the brightest SHARP panel i have ever seen.
Viewing Angles are as good as you would expect from a good IPS screen.
Camera
GRETEL choose to include a Panasonic MN34152 for the back camera, together with an unknown secondary camera sensor used for the Bokeh effect. The camera is really good actually, i have been always impressed by the performance of this camera sensor, and also on this device, it does not disappoint.
The software seems to increase the noise reduction a bit too much even in bright conditions, but i think this can be easily improved with an OTA Update.
HDR seems to work great, probably better than most devices with the same camera sensor. Photos taken without HDR do not look that bad either.
The flashlight is really powerful as expected from a Dual-LED config., probably also too much as you can notice.
When it comes to the Dual Camera usage...well...i am not an photographer or any expert in this area. Here you can see some shots using the BOKEH option. It seems like a software effect to be honest.
As regards Video Recording, the camera shots videos at 720p30 with a pretty stable frame-rate. This is the maximum supported by the MT6737 SOC.
Unlike some devices, this device features a really powerful flashlight for the front camera too. It makes the difference when it comes to low-light shots, or selfies. It is still a 5MP GalaxyCore Camera Sensor though, so do not expect superb quality.
Audio
The Speaker Quality is good, still with a lack of low-frequencies, but the overall balance between volume and clarity is sufficient. Not the best, neither the worst.
As regards the Microphone, it works decently well in any case (in-call, VOIP, etc...), and the earpiece is loud enough (not too much though) to be used in any condition.
GPS
GPS Quality is decent, able to lock satellites even indoors even if the number of locked satellites isn't really high.
Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi
Providing full european bands support (with 4G Band 20), the device was able to keep a stable connection to my 4G Network, with decent speeds (considering other devices tested in the same place) and mid-high signal.
WiFi 5GHz is supported (rare on MT6737). Connected at 81Mbps, i was able to reach almost ~45Mbps. I guess this is the maximum for the poor built-in SOC, it is still better than using a 2.4GHz network.
Battery Life
Luckily, PCMark run just fine also on this device even though it is running Android Nougat. Other Mediatek Devices with older releases of Nougat (and also some with Marshmallow) caused the Benchmark to stop by itself after some hours. The result is decent, 16 hours, 100% to 20%, it definitely lasts a lot even on high-usage.
As regards battery charging times, the device comes with a Mediatek Pump Express Charger that goes up to 12V (but only 9V is used, SOC limit). The result is an ultra-fast charging process, but even without it, using a 5V/2.4A charger, it isn't too slow to charge.
Software
Thankfully GRETEL doesn't include any Custom OS on any device, and this one runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with almost-up-to-date (April 2017) security patches. There isn't any bloatware preinstalled, and the device feels pretty smooth while running basic tasks.
Even though most Mediatek Features are there (such as Gestures), MiraVision is missing. Considering the pretty warm color temperature of the screen panel, i guess this is something GRETEL should enable with the next OTA Update.
Unfortunately there is no Gyroscope or Magnetometer/Compass, but it was expected considering the price target of this device.
No malwares detected with Malware-Bytes Anti-Malware using latest definitions.
As regards the Fingerprint Scanner management, it works pretty well with fast unlock times and no accuracy issues.
Benchmarks
I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, PCMark (Work 2.0, Computer Vision, Storage & Work 1.0) and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.
3DMark – GPU Performance is as low as all other MT6737 devices.
AndroBench – eMMC Performance is decent, write speed lower than read speed. (as expected)
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
Epic Citadel – As you can see, 3D performance is barely sufficient for smooth gaming.
GeekBench – CPU Performance is nearly as good as other CPUs with the same configuration (4x Cortex-A53), enough to handle almost every type of activity.
CPU
Compute
GFXBench – As already said, GPU performance is low, and somehow lower than MT6735. (just like all MT6737 devices)
PCMark – Good Overall performance, the maximum obtainable from this SOC.
Work 2.0
Computer Vision
Storage
Work 1.0
Vellamo – Being an super-heavy benchmark, you can clearly see why this device needs to be considered as low-end.
Conclusions
Well, this is the second GRETEL device i manage to test, and i must admit that compared to the first device release by the company (GRETEL A9), i can notice an huge amount of improvements, especially regarding build quality. Of course this was expected, the first device released by a company, most of the times, isn't perfect.
With its decent camera sensor and massive battery life, i can consider this device as one of the most well-made battery phones for the price target. Something that i do not like though, is the lack of a Notification LED.
So...do i recommend it? It depends on your requirements. If you are looking for a cheap battery-phone with no interest to performance, then yes.
Pros:
Interesting Design (but not unique)
Dual Camera with a good main camera sensor
Really powerful flashlight (front & back)
Excellent Build Quality
Solid Battery Life
Cons:
No Notification LED
No Gyroscope & Magnetometer/Compass
Low Pixel Density (HD-only for 5.5 inches)
Pretty Heavy
Rating: 8.3
Packaging and Accessories: 8.5
Design and Materials: 9.5
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 7
Screen: 8.5
Camera: 8
Sound: 7
Battery Life: 10
Software: 8
OEM Support: 8
Price: 9
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/2Pm5P
Official Website: http://www.gretel.cc/en/product/GT6000
You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the GRETEL website.
Alberto96, your reviews are really great, I have just one comment. I am looking for device with good battery, so I watch PCMark results - but you didn't mention display settings. In another review I have seen that results with low brightness were more than twice longer. Are you using lowest brightness too?
lorderater said:
Alberto96, your reviews are really great, I have just one comment. I am looking for device with good battery, so I watch PCMark results - but you didn't mention display settings. In another review I have seen that results with low brightness were more than twice longer. Are you using lowest brightness too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lowest Brightness, WiFi on, Airplane Mode off, Location set to High Accuracy, Sync on.
Gesture Control:
Gesture Control:
Slide three fingers to get fast screenshot;
Long Press Return key to open the free mode screenshot;
Slide up three fingers to open the camera;
Slide up and down two fingers to adjust the volume;
Double click on the off-screen to unlock your phone;
Tap the power button twice to open camera without unlocking the screen.
Smart Wake Up:
Draw C to open Phone;
Draw E to open the Browser;
Draw V to open Music;
Draw M to control Music;
Move left to play Last Song;
Move right to play Next Song;
Draw O to call SOS or 911;
Draw W to open SMS;
Move up to unlock screen;
Move down to open Camera.
An OTA Update is available, dated 20170717. I guess the server was borked some weeks ago since it took a while to appear here.
Factory Reset recommended after the installation.
GRETEL GT6000 Infinite boot
Hi everyone,
I recently bought a GRETEL GT6000 for it's awesome battery,
sadely this phone is hard to root.
I try many & many solutions but no one root the phone and now my phone is in infinite boot with message "Orange state you're device has been unlocked and can't be trusted Your device will boot in 5 seconds"
I can't connect to adb or fastboot, I can't boot in recovery (volume up and power), in fact I can't do anything.
I try to pull of the battery but it didn't change nothing.
The last thing I was doing before this, is to flash a custom recovery.img (made with both official rom and a TWRP rom).
I'm hopeless & I'll be glad if somenone have an idea to share it here.
Ricardo
DOOGEE Shoot2 - Information & Reviews - 5.0" HD | MT6580A | 1/2GB | 8/16GB | Dual Cam
DOOGEE Shoot2
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Specs:
Dimensions: 142.6 * 72.6 * 9.5 mm
Weight: 174.0g
Chassis: Metal
SoC: MediaTek MT6580A
CPU: ARM Cortex-A7, 1300 MHz, Cores: 4
GPU: ARM Mali-400 MP1, Cores: 1
RAM: 1 GB/2 GB
Storage: 8 GB/16 GB
Memory cards: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC
Display: 5.0 in, IPS, 720 x 1280 pixels, 24 bit
Protection:
Battery: 3360mAh
OS: Android 7.0 Nougat
Back Camera: 2560 x 1960 pixels (5MP), Dual Camera (same resolution)
Front Camera: 2560 x 1960 pixels (5MP)
SIM card: Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz, Single-Band
USB: 2.0, Micro-USB
Bluetooth: 4.0
Positioning: GPS, A-GPS
Other Features: Front Fingerprint Sensor
Colors: Gold, Black, Grey
Click to expand...
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Development & Support:
Coming Soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reviews:
Coming Soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Review (part 1)
Introduction
This is the DOOGEE Shoot 2.
Hardware
Following the Shoot series, this newer model, Shoot 2, is the little young brother of the Shoot 1, with the same design for the front, still two back cameras, but much less powerful and much more affordable. Something important to mention is that there are two variants of this device, 1GB/8GB and 2GB/16GB. I'm testing the 2GB variant. I don't see the point of getting the 1GB variant nowadays.
The device is powered by a Mediatek MT6580 SOC clocked at 1.30GHz, a bit outdated and slower compared to the MT6737T, together with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, and a 5 inches HD screen.
Unboxing
Packaging comes with some accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A USB Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Card, 1x TPU Cover and the Smartphone (of course). A plastic screen protector is pre-applied.
Talking about the dimensions, the device is pretty compact even though it feels a bit thick due to the big internal battery. It is 14.68x7.32x0.97cm, with medium bezels, and weights 178g. This extra weight is caused by the metal back cover.
As regards the design, it isn't bad at all. I don't appreciate the noticeable plastic bands of the back cover, but everything else looks just fine and without any imperfection. Unfortunately my package was slightly damaged so you may notice a crack near the speaker grill. Luckily everything else was not damaged.
On the front side there is the usual 2.5D Curved Display and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. Unfortunately there is no Notification LED.
On the lower front side there is the classic soft-keys zone, with Recents and Back buttons on the side, and a Fingerprint Scanner in the middle that also works as an Home Button. You can notice the hidden microphone somewhere between the recents button and the fingerprint scanner.
On the back side there is the removable back cover, but the battery isn't removable. The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Single-LED Flashlight, bigger than usual.
On the lower rear side there is only the DOOGEE string with some Certification Logos. The speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.
Device
Screen
Just like the Shoot 1, also this one features a good screen, even better as regards brightness. Color Accuracy is good, the same for the White Balance. Considering the price target, this may be one of the best screens i have ever seen on a low-end device.
The Light Sensor supports partial light changes, with a sufficient auto-brightness management. This is its maximum brightness. Just Excellent.
Viewing Angles matches IPS screen capabilities, nothing to complain about.
Camera
Unfortunately, this is where the difference between the Shoot 2 and the Shoot 1 is noticeable. This device features a 5MP Rear Camera made by GalaxyCore, and quality, in my opinion, isn't superb for a camera-phone. I guess the software isn't 100% ready to handle this sensor, causing some image quality issues especially when it comes to low-light shots.
Photos taken outdoors do not look bad at all, and the 1.5x camera zoom seem to work decently well.
Just like most dual-camera devices i have reviewed, macros aren't the best. I guess this is a technical limit of the dual camera implementation.
The Single-LED Flashlight is barely sufficient to provide enough light, and as a result the camera wasn't able to focus at all.
As regards Video Recording, 1080p videos are recorded at 25fps, with a decent amount of details and no major stuttering.
Front Camera, somehow, manages to shot better photos in the same light conditions where the rear camera isn't able to get a photo as good as this one. Pretty interesting.
Audio
Speaker's Quality is decent, with the usual absence of low-frequencies and medium-high maximum volume with almost no distortion. I don't understand why the second speaker grill hasn't been used at all, considering that the microphone is on the front side.
As regards the Microphone, it seems to work pretty well, with an impressive clarity and balanced volume.
Something that requires to be fixed is the Earpiece. At least on my review unit, the volume is too low. I have to increase the volume to the maximum in order to hear the third-party. Luckily this can be easily fixed with an OTA Update.
GPS
The GPS is decent, with a sufficient amount of satellites outdoors, and the possibility to lock satellites even indoors.
Outdoors on the left, Indoors of the right.
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi
This device doesn't support 4G networks, so you have to use your old 3G HSPA+ (42MBps max) connection to use your Mobile Data plan.
Signal Reception is accurate, but 3G coverage is just perfect here where i live so that's something i would have expected. Just like what happens with other devices, 3G Network Speed is low, thanks to my crappy Mobile Network that has lower than average 3G performance.
WiFi 5GHz isn't supported here. With my 2.4GHz network, i was able to reach 38mbps, connected at 65mbps, one of the best results ever obtained on a low-end device.
Battery Life
As always, i measure the real battery capacity using my USB Tester, and it seems that the real battery capacity almost matches the declared value (declared 3360mAh, real ~3320mAh).
Unfortunately PCMark Battery Test crashes on this device, so i had to switch to Antutu Tester with its heavy battery benchmark. Maximum Brightness, everything enabled. Not too bad.
As regards battery charging times, the 5V/1A charger isn't the fastest when it comes to recharge a 3360mAh battery, but this is a software limit, so even if you use a better charger, it won't charge faster. More than 3 hours required to full charge.
Software
Following the Shoot 1 also this one comes with a completely clean Android OS, and most important, based on Nougat 7.0. Something rare to find with MT6580 devices, such an old chipset with such a new Android Version, something that i would have never expected from Mediatek. There are some pre-installed apps that can't be disabled without any issue, so don't worry about bloatware.
All Mediatek features are still there such as Gestures, Scheduled Power On/Off, etc…
No Malwares Detected using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, unlike what happened with the Shoot 1.
Again, i'm using the 2GB variant, and after using it for a long while, i can say that it is smooth enough for daily tasks. I doubt that the 1GB variant will be as smooth as this one, due to RAM issues.
Benchmarks
I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, PCMark (Work 2.0, Computer Vision, Storage & Work 1.0) and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.
3DMark – GPU Performance is decent, this is a low-end device with an old Mali-400 GPU so we can't expect something better.
AndroBench – eMMC Performance isn't the best i have ever seen.
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
Epic Citadel – Based on this result, OpenGL 2.0 Games should run pretty smooth here.
GeekBench – CPU Performance is a bit low, there are 4x Cortex-A7 CPUs here that can't provide much computational performance. Sufficient for basic daily tasks.
CPU
Compute
GFXBench – Not the best GPU performance here, but i might have expected something even worse.
PCMark – Well, it isn't possible to get better performance on this MT6580 SOC, low-end performance is confirmed.
Work 2.0
Computer Vision
Storage
Work 1.0
Vellamo – Browsers Performance seems to be decent, nothing to complain about it.
Conclusions
I have to admit that writing some conclusions about this device isn't as easy as you would expect. This device is interesting but in the same time confusing. Being a "Shoot" series device, the camera software should be ready and optimized out of the box, but, unfortunately it isn't. Excluding the camera department, everything else is pretty good. Of course, being a low-end device with a cheap price, it is normal to not expect superb performance, or anything that could be found on more expensive devices.
With an OTA Update, that i hope to see in the near future to improve camera and earpiece volume, this device could become a best-buy for a camera-phone.
So, do i recommend this device? As mentioned before, currently, if you plan to use as a camera-phone, you need to consider all words i wrote in the Camera Paragraph, and if they are OK with you, then i can recommend it. This is a device with a great potential, it just needs to be unlocked
Pros:
Good Battery Life
Great Screen Brightness
Metal Back Cover
Dual Camera
Android 7.0 Nougat with latest security patches
Impressive WiFi Performance
Cons:
No Magnetometer/Gyroscope
Still using the old MT6580 chipset
Camera Quality not as good as expected
Earpiece Volume is too low
No Notification LED
Rating: 8.3
Packaging and Accessories: 8.5
Design and Materials: 8
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 7
Screen: 9
Camera: 6.5
Sound: 7.5
Battery Life: 9
Software: 10
OEM Support: 9
Price: 9
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/kO5Cs
Official Website: http://www.doogee.cc/detail/Shoot-series/105
You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the DOOGEE website.
Great review!
I need some method to rooting this device.
Can you help me?
Regards
BLUBOO S8+
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Specs:
Dimensions: 72 x 156 x 9 mm
Weight: 202 g
Chassis: Metal
SoC: MediaTek MT6750T
CPU: ARM Cortex-A53, 4 x 1500 MHz + 4 x 1000 MHz, Cores: 4 + 4
GPU: ARM Mali-T860 MP2 650MHz, Cores: 2
Network: 4G Cat.6 (300MBps) with VoLTE Support
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB
Memory cards: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC
Display: 6.0 in, IPS, 720 x 1440 pixels, 18:9 Aspect Ratio
Protection: Gorilla Glass
Battery: 3600 mAh, Li-Polymer
OS: 360 OS (Android 7.0 Nougat based)
Back Camera: 13MP (4160 x 3120), Sony IMX135
Front Camera: 5MP (2592 x 1944), OmniVision OV5648
SIM card: Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
Wi-Fi: b, g, n 2.4GHz/5.0GHz, dual-band, Wi-Fi Hotspot
USB: 2.0, Type-C
Bluetooth: 4.0
Positioning: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Other Features: Fingerprint Scanner
Colors: Blue, Black
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Official Website:
http://bluboohk.com/s8plus/
Development & Support:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/bluboo-s8-development-support-t3734065
Click to expand...
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Reviews:
My own review: Post #2 & #3
Click to expand...
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Review (part 1)
Introduction
This is the BLUBOO S8+.
Hardware
Some parts of the review have been taken from the S8 review where possible, since most parts of the device are just identical
Just like the little brother S8, this S8+ features almost the same hardware and follows the same design, basically an S8 on steroids, not improving much compared to the predecessor though.
This device comes with a Mediatek MT6750T (just like the S8), with 4GB of RAM instead of 3GB and 64GB of Storage instead of 32GB, everything packed with a 6 inches HD+ IPS screen (18:9). No changes have been made to the camera hardware, but the front camera sensor is now made by OmniVision instead of Sony.
Unboxing
I am not sure whether this is the standard packaging or not, but mine came with 2x the amount of accessories: 2x Type-C USB Cable, 1x 5V/2A USB Charger (no extra for it), 2x 3.5mm to Type-C Adapter, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector, 1x SIM Card Tray Eject Tool, 1x User Manual, 1x Warranty Card and the Smartphone (of course). There is no screen protector pre-applied.
There must be something wrong with the production line responsible for the black variant, the first review unit i got was not in the best conditions, and the second one...is more or less the same, as you can notice. The black paint is, somehow, weirdly applied and not uniform. It looks like the machine was running out of ink e.e
Other than that, there are no imperfection on the front and the back, the device feels solid enough thanks to the metal body, and thanks to the curved body it is really comfortable to handle. Still, it is sad to this decrease of build quality compared to the S8.
It is 15.8x7.41x0.92cm, bigger compared to the S8 (of course, bigger screen) but still small considering the screen size, and weights 202g.
On the front side, underneath the 2.5D glass, there is the 18:9 IPS screen with pretty nice rounded corners and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. A notification LED is here, and seems to support only two colors: Red, Green.
Here you can see the Notification-LED in action.
On the lower front side there isn't anything at all, on-screen software keys are used.
On the back side there is the Plastic not-removable back panel with a really glossy surface, can't avoid fingerprints.
The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Dual-LED Flashlight (not Dual-Tone), with a rectangular fingerprint scanner just below, and not on the side luckily.
On the lower rear side there isn't anything at all because the speaker is located on the bottom.
Device
Screen
Still featuring an HD+ panel, this S8+ provides a better viewing experience thanks to the bigger screen and also a more reliable color accuracy, but due to the low pixel density there a noticeable lack of sharpness and it is also possible notice a sort-of smearing effect while scrolling into menus. I am not a display expert, but it should be caused by a too high pixel response time.
The light sensor is accurate supporting smooth light changes, and screen brightness is brighter compared to the S8.
Luckily the viewing angles issue i noticed on the S8 doesn't seem to be anymore here, there is not gap between the glass and the screen so it looks as good as a decent mid-range IPS panel.
Camera
BLUBOO choose to use a mature camera sensor on this device, the good and old Sony IMX135 camera sensor, able to shoot decent photos in good light conditions. Of course it can't be compared with the Galaxy S8's camera sensor, this is just a low-mid range device.
Something that impressed me is the flashlight, probably one of the most powerful i have ever found, able to provide an huge amount of light to get almost perfect shots.
As regards Video Recording, 1080p videos are recorded at 30FPS with a pretty interesting stable 30fps frame rate, and the Front Camera is a Wide-Angle variant made by OmniVision (OV5648), no big changes compared to the Sony IMX190 camera sensor found on the S8.
Audio (identical to the S8)
In the past, BLUBOO released a device with the best speaker i have ever found on a smartphone, the Maya Max, but in this case, unfortunately, the speaker is pretty bad. Low volume, missing low-frequencies and with a noticeable static noise.
As regards the Microphone, it is good, everyone was able to hear me properly in-call.
Similar speaker situation applies for the Earpiece too, where the audio has low volume and lack of low frequencies, but the sound is pretty clear with no noise.
GPS
Unfortunately the GPS antenna seems to be worse compared to the one found on the S8, barely able to get a medium GPS signal outdoors and with no signal at all indoors. Weird.
Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.
Battery Life
Just like on the S8, also on this S8+ i faced serious issues in measuring the battery capacity. Do not consider this result as accurate because i had to keep the device turned on in order to get something "more reliable" otherwise it was constantly sucking power from the USB port while turned off. The result shows ~3595mAh of capacity that, apparently, matches the 3600mAh capacity declared but, again, can't be sure.
Something that might confirm the incorrect result is the PCMark Battery Test, reaching just some minutes extra compared to the S8 result (8h 18m vs 8h 2m). Test run at Minimum Brightness, WiFi on, Sync on. Later, i will remove the back cover and see if i manage to get the real battery capacity in any other more reliable way, the battery label might be helpful too.
The included 5V/2A charger is fast enough to charge the battery in ~2 hours, it is limited by software so even a more powerful charger won't make it any faster.
Software (identical to the S8)
I am not 100% sure, but this is might the second device i review running on 360 OS, this time based on Android 7 Nougat though. The OS is clearly a chinese-only operating system, adapted to be used with Google Services, and this is noticeable by the missing Google Setup Wizard after a factory reset.
Anyway, the OS is pretty snappy, but full of bloatware. Some apps can be disabled, but others no. Hopefully Bluboo will at least reduce the amount of preinstalled apps because some of them must be avoided. (e.g. UC Browser, terrible!)
Except from Mediatek's MiraVision, there is no other feature such as gestures or double tap-to-wake available.
A Magnetometer/Compass is here, useful to improve on-foot navigation.
When lots of bloatware is preinstalled, it isn't a surprise to see that Malwares are detected.
The Fingerprint Scanner is decent, being rectangular it requires some practice before getting the finger recognized properly, but it is accurate and unlocks the device almost instantly.
Review (part 2)
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi (identical to the S8)
The device has full support for European 4G Networks, and signal reception is good. Running a standard speedtest, the result is decent, just a bit lower than what i usually get in the same position. (technically it should be way higher but this is how 4G networks are in Italy...)
WiFi Performance is great considering the WiFi Chipset used on the MT6750T, connected at 135mbps to my 5GHz WiFi Connection, it almost gets the maximum reacheable with my VDSL internet connection.
Benchmarks (identical to the S8)
I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, PCMark (Work 2.0, Computer Vision, Storage & Work 1.0) and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.
3DMark – Pretty standard performance for this SOC, low-mid end GPU.
AndroBench – This result is a bit confusing, since read speed is outstanding for an eMMC, but write speed is pretty low.
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
Epic Citadel – Probably due to the HD+ resolution, this benchmark crashes everytime i try to open it.
GeekBench – CPU Performance could have been better for single-core performance, a bit lower than usual, but multi-core performance matches the maximum obtainable with this SOC (MT6750T: 8x Cortex-A53).
CPU
Compute
GFXBench – Thanks to the limited HD+ resolution, OpenGL benchmarks are not as bad as on devices with the same SOC but running on a higher res screen.
PCMark – Quite decent results, not the best, neither the worst.
Work 2.0
Computer Vision
Storage
Work 1.0
Vellamo – The same consideration said for the Geekbench benchmark is valid also here regarding CPU power.
Conclusions
Well...what to say about this S8+. It is not better compared to the S8, that's obvious considering that some there are some downgrades such as the lower build quality and worse GPS antenna. Still, it is not a bad device. If you exclude the painting issue that, hopefully, is limited to the black variant, it can be considered as a good Galaxy S8 clone.
As already said for the S8, it only lacks a better OS (Stock Android instead of 360 OS) with no bloatware or malwares. If BLUBOO doesn't fix this malwares issue, found also on the S8, i still can't recommend the device, unless you can, and want, to mod the device and remove them manually (or install a custom ROM).
So, if you agree with my words written above, then go for it, otherwise, it is better to look for something else.
Pros:
Decent Camera Sensors
Presence of a Magnetometer/Compass
Notification-LED
Compact considering the screen size
Lots of RAM and Storage
Cons:
Absence of a Gyroscope
Infected and Bloated 360 OS
Suspicious Real Battery Capacity
Missing Headphone Jack
GPS Antenna should have been better
Rating: 7.5
Packaging and Accessories: 9.5
Design and Materials: 7.5
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 8
Screen: 8
Camera: 7.5
Sound: 6
Battery Life: 7
Software: 4
OEM Support: 8
Price: 9
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: https://imgur.com/a/gl1Ry
Official Website: http://bluboohk.com/s8plus/
You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the BLUBOO website.
New OTA Update available. Screenshot attached.
Dev. & Support thread added to first post.
Alberto96 said:
Dev. & Support thread added to first post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sir that coolshow app is not malware, it's just a theming app present in all 360 os and other os which are based on it like Cool UI (Indian variant of 360 os by coolpad),umi os and the app is designed by Coolpad
KENXINDA S9 - Information & Reviews - 5.5" HD | MT6737 | 2GB | 16GB | 5000mAh
KENXINDA S9
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Specs:
Dimensions: 154 x 76 x 9.2 mm
Weight: 205g
Chassis: Plastic
SoC: MediaTek MT6737
CPU: ARM Cortex-A53, 4 x 1300 MHz, Cores: 4
GPU: ARM Mali-T720 MP2 520MHz, Cores: 2
Network: 4G Cat.4 (150MBps) with VoLTE Support
RAM: 2 GB
Storage: 16 GB
Memory cards: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC
Display: 5.5 in, IPS, 720 x 1280 pixels, 24 bit
Protection:
Battery: 5000 mAh, Li-Polymer
OS: Kenxinda OS (Android 7.0 Nougat based)
Back Camera: 4160 x 3120 pixels (13MP), GalaxyCore GC8024, with Secondary BW Camera.
Front Camera: 2560 x 1960 pixels (5MP), GalaxyCore GC5025
SIM card: Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
Wi-Fi: b, g, n 2.4GHz, dual-band, Wi-Fi Hotspot
USB: 2.0, Micro-USB
Bluetooth: 4.0
Positioning: GPS, A-GPS
Other Features: Fingerprint Scanner
Colors: Gold, Black, Red
Click to expand...
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Development & Support:
Coming Soon
Click to expand...
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Reviews:
My own review: Post #2 & #3
Click to expand...
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Review (part 1)
Introduction
This is the KENXINDA S9.
Hardware
Part of the low-cost battery phones, this Kenxinda S9 (or KXD, as the boot logo says) features a low-end Mediatek MT6737 chipset, still better than the crappy MT6580, together with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of Storage. Everything is powered by a big 5000mAh battery.
Unboxing
It comes in a classic package with a basic set of accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1.5A USB Charger, 1x 3.5mm In-Ear Earphones, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Card, 1x TPU Cover, and the Smartphone (of course). A screen protector is already applied, but i have removed mine (low-quality).
As regards the build quality, the device feels solid enough considering that it is 100% made of plastic, but the same can't be said for the sliding mechanism used to remove the removable back cover. One of the sides leaves a noticeable gap between the cover and the chassis, probably a minor manufacturing defect.
Please ignore the big scratch near the camera lenses, that's something i made while measuring it with the caliper (...dammit...).
This is the gap i was talking about.
Featuring a pretty classic design, with thick bezels and so on, this isn't a battery phone that can be considered compact (15.4x7.79x0.93cm), and, even if it is made of Plastic, it isn't light either: 201g. I am not sure whether this weight is caused by the metal back cover or by something else, but it feels a bit bulky.
On the front side there is a Classic Flat Glass (no 2.5D) with an HD IPS panel underneath, and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light and Proximity. Thankfully, an RGB Notification LED is here.
Here you can see the LED in action. Pretty bright, only the blue color is, somehow, a bit dim.
The lower front side features two soft-touch keys (recents/back) with a physical home button in between that also works as a fingerprint reader. It is extremely soft to the touch, probably the best physical home button i have ever found on a smartphone.
On the back side there is removable metal (with a plastic part on the bottom) cover featuring the sliding mechanism i mentioned before. The brushed aluminum looks gorgeous in my opinion, and the metal also behaves as pseudo-heatsink.
The upper rear side of the device features the REAL Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Single-LED - Single-Tone Flashlight. I am happy to see a real dual camera sensor on a Chinese device.
On the lower rear side, excluding the usual certifications, there isn't anything at all because the Speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.
Device
Screen
Apparently, Kenxinda opted for an high-quality IPS panel even considering the price target. The screen looks quite decent, the low pixel density caused by the HD-only resolution doesn't seem to have impacted much the viewing experience, and there are no issues with color accuracy neither with the white balance.
The same can be said for the screen brightness. It is decently bright, enough for a mediocre outdoors visibility.
Nothing to complain about its viewing angles, they are as good as on most high-quality IPS panels. Still, it is possible to notice a minor banding issue on one of the angles.
Camera
Kenxinda did a great job with this device with the camera department. Unlike 99% of chinese devices, this one features a REAL dual-camera setup, even though the implementation isn't that helpful to be honest.
Do you want the proof? Here it is.
The main camera sensor is a GalaxyCore GC8024 (8MP, interpolated to 13MP), while the secondary camera sensor is only black and white (monochrome) and isn't a wide-angle variant. Sure, this isn't helpful at all to get the so-called BOKEH effect, neither it is useful to take B/W photos considering that filters are good enough to do it, but at least the second camera is not fake. Well Done Kenxinda!
Here you can see some samples, it isn't possible to expect anything better from a 8MP camera sensor.
Unfortunately the Single-LED flashlight appears to be a bit underpowered.
Videos are recorded at 720p25, the quality matches what you get with the photos, and the frame-rate suffers a bit. Definetely not a camera phone.
As regards the front-facing camera, it is as good as you would expect from a 5MP camera sensor (GalaxyCore GC5025), not super-detailed, but enough for some occasional video-chats or portraits/selfies.
Audio
Audio-wise, this device is a bit messy, since it features a decent speaker, loud enough, with the usual lack of low frequencies, but the earpiece is terrible. There is some sort of distortion even at low volume that doesn't allow to hear the other end properly. Quite disappoiting.
The microphone instead is just fine, no issues noticed in-call or during VOIP calls.
GPS
Nothing really positive can be said about the GPS either, since it doesn't support GLONASS and even with a decent amount of locked satellites, the accuracy is pretty low. Indoors it isn't able to lock satellites at all.
Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.
Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi
This is probably the Chinese device with the highest amount of supported 4G bands i have ever reviewed: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B17/B20. As usual i test run a speedtest in the same position i test other devices too, and even though the signal was quite high, i wasn't able to obtain any decent result. This is usually a software issue, may be improved with an OTA update.
Luckily, something rare with MT6737 devices, it supports WiFi 5.0Ghz networks, and the result was quite impressive for such a low-end chipset. An excellent WiFi antenna has been used.
Battery Life
Tested with my usual USB tester, the real battery capacity seems to match the declared value (real ~4950mAh, declared 5000mAh).
The PCMark Battery Test seems to confirm my battery test, providing a result of 12 hours and 10 minutes (WiFi on, Sync on, Min. Brightness). It is possible to squeeze even more battery life considering the low-power chipset so i expect it to improve in the future.
I am not sure why Chinese Companies keep providing slow chargers with devices with such big batteries inside. Kenxinda choose to include a 5V/1.5A charger but, based on my testing, the software has been capped to ~1.1A, and as a result of that, it takes more than 4 hours to fully charge!
If you are including a 1.5A charger, at least calibrate the software to use its full power. Unbeliavable.
Software
This is the first Kenxinda device i review and, apparently, the company seem to have an internal software department (no HCT or others). I am not sure whether this is something introduced with Nougat-based devices or not, but this S9 features their own Kenxinda OS, renamed by me iOSXinda OS, since they heavily customized it to look like an iPhone.
For an Android Enthusiast and Developer like me, the first impressions on the OS were, literally, disgusting (i hate iOS as most XDA users!), but at least, unlike no name iPhone Clones released in China, this OS has been properly polished. Really well-made, an impressive job has been done by the Kenxinda Software Department. This is the most optimized MT6737-based device i have ever tested.
Still, if Kenxinda provides an alternative ROM with the same level of optimization, but without this iOS-ish look, everyone would appreciate it.
Some iOS-ish screenshots... (prepare your stomach)
Some Mediatek Features have been removed, but the MiraVision menu is available.
Finally a low-end device featuring something so essential: a Magnetometer/Compass!
No malwares detected with the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware app running on latest definitions.
The Fingerprint Scanner is a bit slow just like on all MT6737-based devices, probably due to the low performance, but it is really accurate.
Review (part 2)
Benchmarks
I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, PCMark (Work 2.0, Computer Vision, Storage & Work 1.0), V1 GPU Benchmark and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.
3DMark – Expected low results for the poor Mali-T720 GPU, you can barely game with it.
AndroBench – The internal storage seem to be decently fast, with pretty decent read speeds and mediocre write speeds, the real bottleneck.
Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.
GeekBench – CPU Performance is just enough for some basic daily tasks and light apps.
CPU
Compute
GFXBench – Not so bad results considering the GPU.
PCMark – The storage bottleneck does have an impact on some results, but most of them are just fine for this chipset.
Work 2.0
Computer Vision
Storage
Work 1.0
V1 GPU Benchmark – Using the Snapdragon 410 preset, the benchmark barely reaches 30 fps in some scenes so do not expect a smooth experience with games.
Vellamo – Nothing to say about this benchmark, low-end SOC = low-end performance of course.
Conclusions
The Kenxinda S9, this is probably the device with the most mixed results i have ever reviewed. It is really good in some areas, but really bad in others. It gains some value thanks to the REAL dual camera setup, but in the same time, it loses some value due to the lack of voice calls quality and low 4G speeds.
Anyway, it is an overall decent package that doesn't lack any feature, both Notification LED and Compass are present, and the OS is also well-optimized even though it looks iOS-ish.
So, do i recommend it? Well, it is hard to say yes or no. This time it really depends on what your real requirements are, and if you accept what has been reported about the device. If you agree with what has been written above, then it can considered as a good choice, otherwise, it might be better to look for something else.
Pros:
REAL Dual Camera Setup
Decent Screen Quality
Notification LED
Magnetometer/Compass
WiFi 5GHz Support
Cons:
Slow 4G Speeds
iOS-ish UI (Kenxinda OS)
Terrible Earpiece Sound Quality
Slow Charging Speed
Rating: 7.7
Packaging and Accessories: 8.5
Design and Materials: 7.5
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 7
Screen: 7.5
Camera: 8
Sound: 6.5
Battery Life: 9
Software: 7
OEM Support: X (don't know yet)
Price: 8
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: https://imgur.com/a/CFbt1
Official Website: http://www.kenxinda.com/en/s9/id/8.html
You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the KENXINDA website.
Thank you for your work. Any way to root? Moreover, I would like to get rid of that KOS ui and get back original Nougat ui. Thanks a lot!