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Acube Talk 7X (Quad Core) Hands-on - A Nice Voice-calling Tablet

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In spite of all the scorn poured out on tablets with voice-calling support, they are the rage in China, with all tablet manufacturers trying to grab a slice of the market. The domestic voice-calling tablet segment is growing with a number of launches from both Chinese and international manufacturers such as Samsung, Lenovo, ASUS.
On the lower end of this market segment, one of the latest voice-calling tablets is the Acube Talk 7X (Quad Core). The Talk 7X (Quad Core) is the refreshed version of the original Talk 7 and Talk 7X, which were respectively released in October and December, 2013. Much like the original Fonepad, the new Talk 7X (Quad Core) comes with a MediaTek processor, supports voice-calling and in addition, it comes with upgraded specifications. But, can it do enough to unseat some very high profile competition? We take a look.
Key Features:
◇7 inch PLS display at WSVGA resolution (1024X600 pixels)
◇Weighs 320g, 191.2*106.5*9.9mm in size.
◇MediaTek MT8382 SoC., 1.2GHZ Qual-core Cortex-A7 processor, Mali-400MP2 GPU, 1GB RAM
◇Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
◇8GB of built-in-storage, expandable by TF card
◇VGA front-facing camera; 2.0MP rear-facing camera
◇Stereo speaker
◇GPS
◇Bluetooth V4.0
◇GSM/WCDMA, full phone functionalities.
◇FM Radio
◇USB on the go
◇MicroSD card slot
◇Standard 3.5mm audio jack
◇1080p video playback
◇3000mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery, 5-6 hours battery life
Design and Build​
The Talk 7X’s front houses a 7-inch display surrounded by a black bezel. The front panel does not include any branding, which I would consider a good tradition by the Chinese maker. Thanks to the Jelly Bean's onscreen navigation keys, which mean the front of the device is devoid of physical buttons, leaving simply the black bezel with an earpiece, a VGA camera, a light sensor and a proximity sensor.
On the right side of the device are the rather excellent buttons, with the one piece volume rocker sited just below the power button. They have a very responsive feel and are easy to find with your fingertips. The buttons are colored white to match the finish of the rear side, blending in nicely.
Unusually, the Talk 7X has its micro-USB port located on the top of the device next to the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. While it's uncommon to find the USB port on the top of a tablet of this size, it is ergonomically sound as the Talk 7X is simple to use while charging.
The positioning of this port also helps reduce the costs of manufacturing the tablet, as the circuit board has the connection for the port at the top. Acube has avoided running a cable to the bottom of the tablet as it had to on the original Talk 7.
The 2MP rear camera is housed in the upper left corner of the white glossy plastic back, which gives the tablet a somewhat cheap feeling.
Actually, this upper part of the back is removable, underneath are the dual SIM slot and Micro SD card slot.
You could also find an aperture in the lower middle, along with some of the information Acube wants you to see.
Measuring at 191.2*106.5*9.9mm, it is smaller than most of the 7-inch voice calling tablet. The only smaller 7-incher with phone functionalities I can think of is the Huawei MediaPad X1, which, of course, is many times more expensive than the 7X.
Holding the Talk 7X with one hand between thumb and forefingers is a comfortable grip that can be maintained for some time, no doubt due to its relative lightness and weight balance.
Display and Sound
Unlike many other budget tablets, The Talk 7X hasn't skimped on the screen. It has the same PLS display used on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, comfortably beating the TN displays featured by the Lenovo A1000 and Ainol AX2, which it is in direct competition against.
The 7-inch PLS display the Acube Talk 7X (Quad Core) sports has a resolution of 1024*600 (PPI=169), obviously not quite as good as the best in the business, but it's a step up on the previous Talk 7, which only has a TN display.
Being a PLS LCD screen, it has fantastic viewing angles, even better than most of the IPS panels widely used on Chinese tablets. It does suffer from a little more glare than I would like and the color balance seems a little favored towards a yellowish tint, but these are minor complaints.
Some users will probably find it uncomfortable to be able to discern individual pixels on the display at a typical viewing distance, as most of smartphone displays we look at every day have already gone beyond the so-called retina standard. However, this 7-inch screen still has a much higher pixel density than most of the laptops and PC monitors, thus it should not be much of a problem for tight-budgeted users.
Interface and Software
The Talk 7X runs the Android 4.2.2 OS, along with a healthy amount of customizations on top of it, but nothing to break the head-to-toe Android feel.
The Google Play store works brilliantly on the Talk 7X, with easy access to all the popular apps and games you could want. However there remains a dearth of tablet apps, a space where Google has struggled to engage developers, especially when you compare it to the wealth of high-quality apps made for the iPad.
Seven-inch tablets suffer much less though, as many phone apps still work brilliantly at this smaller tablet screen size.
Benchmarks​
The Talk 7X is powered by a quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 processor (Quad-core cortex-A7, Mali-400MP2) with 1GB RAM, which is a huge leap forward compared to its dual core predecessors.
General system performance is reliable and relatively speedy, the Antutu Benchmark test returned a decent 16010, matching the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and besting the ASUS Transformer Prime.
The 5636 Quadrant test result was also surprisingly solid.
The notching in Geekbench2 test was sound, but not very promising.
In the more graphic-focused Nenamark2 and 3D Mark tests, the 7X also did very well.
The browser performance was also proven to be super-solid, the Vellamo test returned an astonishing 1903, putting this $80 device in the same league as the mighty Galaxy S4. And this promise is further proven by the notch in the CF-bench test.
Performance
The way the Acube Talk 7X performs in real world also transcends its budget offering and low price. It's obviously nowhere near the top of the league and sometimes does feel like a machine from the past, but it handily beats many of the pricier cellular tablets such as the Lenovo A3000 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. The 1.3GHz quad-core processor churns through tasks at a fair pace and it's certainly not unpleasant to use.
The animations when swiping between home screens and loading apps show some jitter at times, but there are no real delays. Apps load fast enough, but the difference in performance between the Talk 7X and my LG Optimus G Pro (Snapdragon 600) is noticeable.
Most games play well once loaded as the graphics processing capability of the 7X is actually very good, and with the screen resolution a notch down from that full 1080P, there are no issues.
Playing 1080P videos on the desktop YouTube page is smooth, and the touchscreen remained responsive to any sort of operations.
Multi-tasking works as well as you would expect given the 1GB of RAM on board. Switching apps is fast and painless, but there is a low limit on the number of big apps that can remain in memory. This isn't a reason to run a task killer, since Android manages its memory very efficiently.
The only time this lack of RAM can be an issue is if you have many tabs open in a web browser. Switching to a browser tab that's not in memory will cause the page to reload. Ultimately though, the memory is sufficient for pleasant enough operation.
Connectivity​
The Chinese manufacturer has been promoting the Talk 7X tablet as a complete device, which has both phone and tablet qualities. Thankfully, the voice-calling feature on the 7X lives up to the expectation. The call quality on the 7X was impressive and the tablet was able to latch on to cellular networks even in weak signal areas which came in handy at times. There's also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, FM Radio and GPS on board. The Talk 7X comes in a single 8GB model, but the storage is expandable with Micro SD card of up to 32GB.
Camera
I am not a big fan of the idea of taking pictures with a tablet, to put it mildly, but if a manufacturer is going to include a camera it had better be decent. The Acube Talk 7X’s camera…. is not.
What we're talking about here is a 2MP camera with no flash assistance. Don't even think about grabbing those Instagram-friendly macro shots here. You'll be sorely disappointed, as the backgrounds tend to come out clear leaving the foreground a blurry mess.
That extends to general shots. Images end up washed out, noisy and lacking in vibrancy and color accuracy.
The front-facing camera can get the online video chatting done, but you would never use it for selfie.
Battery​
Despite having a fairly small 3000mAh battery capacity, Acube has managed to endow the Talk 7X with decent endurance by using a fairly efficient chipset. In constant use, the tablet is easily capable of 5-6 hours' screen time, which is considered pretty good at the budget end of the market.
The system did very well in standby, idle drain is negligible even with wireless connected.
Thanks to its standard micro USB port, charging the tablet is easy: it accepts any standard cable and is fast to charge for a tablet (With its standard 5V-2A plug it only took about 2 hours to finish a full charge).
Verdict
There's obviously nothing outstandingly good about the Talk 7X, but neither is there anything outstandingly bad. This is a budget tablet that actually exceeds my expectations in many ways. It's keenly priced and very capable.
The good:
For a device in this market segment, the Talk 7X has a PLS LCD screen, with nice color saturation, contrast, brightness and viewing angle, although the 1024 x 600 resolution seems like it's from a bygone era before 720p became the entry-level resolution for phones.
Audio through the built-in speakers is loud and reasonably clear, making this a great tablet for watching videos and listening to music.
Dual-SIM support is pretty useful for people who need two different mobile phone numbers.
At RMB499 ($80), it is affordable both as a phone and a tablet, and its performance is much better than the price would suggest.
The bad:
The rear-facing camera is a pretty poor effort from Acube and there's no real value in including it at this price at all.
The glossy plastic shell gives the tablet a cheap kind of feel, and has low resistance to scratches.
A 7-inch budget tablet that also wants to be a phone sounds like a silly idea. But the Acube Talk 7X is, in use, entirely sensible. It is stonkingly good value if a low-cost portable tablet is what you’re after.

seems no one else has anything to share about this model.
Sent from my LG-F240L using xda app-developers app

jupiter2012 said:
seems no one else has anything to share about this model.
Sent from my LG-F240L using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good news for some is that this model is now RMB399, which is around $65, quite a bargain.

where is it available for that price $65.00

Nice review- thank you!
who i the best tablet brand in china?(4 quaity).

Wow!!
Inviato dal mio GT-I9505 utilizzando Tapatalk

Xperia-Ray said:
Nice review- thank you!
who i the best tablet brand in china?(4 quaity).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks and to answer the question, Acube and Ainol probably have the best quality.
Sent from my LG-F240L using XDA Free mobile app

I got in touch with Cube's support staff and they told me that their factory are testing Android 4.4.2 and that it should be released in a couple of days.
I've ordered this tablet, for slightly less than $110 it seems like great value for money. Hopefully I won't be disappointed once I receive it.
I do think Cube could have skipped the rear camera and increased the battery capacity a little instead. (Though I suppose it makes sense to have a rear camera if you use it as your main phone/tablet/phablet, I will mostly use the tablet for movies and games)

acube
very nice review .
i also have this tablet for like a week now and i am very surprised to see that it manages almost every task with such ease.
the only thing in don't like about this tablet is the display unfortunately, ythe colors are not saturated, ther red is quite pinkish blue and green don't have too much power.
i am thinking of calibrating the colors but i don't seem to find an app to do this.
what do you guys think i should do?
thanks in advance
best regards,

gbb14 said:
very nice review .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're used to the very oversaturated samsung colours.
I bought this thing 3 weeks ago as an experiment to get my family onto skype.
Conclusion:
This is a supercheap-supertablet,
I compared it next to an Ipad-air(with a comic), and the colours almost match 100% (in my eyes)
viewing angles are excellent, and performance also (compared to price)
We also have a Galaxy Tab2 7", and this little cheap thing (that even can make calls!) outperforms it roughly.
Wow, after 4 years of membership.....finaly, my first post!

boerke said:
I think you're used to the very oversaturated samsung colours.
I bought this thing 3 weeks ago as an experiment to get my family onto skype.
Conclusion:
This is a supercheap-supertablet,
I compared it next to an Ipad-air(with a comic), and the colours almost match 100% (in my eyes)
viewing angles are excellent, and performance also (compared to price)
We also have a Galaxy Tab2 7", and this little cheap thing (that even can make calls!) outperforms it roughly.
Wow, after 4 years of membership.....finaly, my first post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad u like it as much as i did.
来自我的 LG-F240L 上的 Tapatalk

Help me
Hello, please help. I have a problem with the tablet, the firmware damage and no place I managed to find one that works. Please help me by putting on a rom or something so you can use it, please it would really appreciate it.:crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying:

Babydan said:
Hello, please help. I have a problem with the tablet, the firmware damage and no place I managed to find one that works. Please help me by putting on a rom or something so you can use it, please it would really appreciate it.:crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had Same problem go to needrom.com down load ROM and brusch tools easy instructions
Will solve your problems.
Rick

Its a nice
I need as much info as possible. Iḿ running stock 4.4.2 and the model number is U51GT-C4BD and I really really would want to get it rooted. None of the common methods i tried work. I am a beginner to supesuser with ubuntu + cli. Could i possibly find a su binary and drop it under system? Also, the main reason is to remove bloath and some tweaking.... By the way its a great tablet for such a low price...

No reset button
jupiter2012 said:
seems no one else has anything to share about this model.
Sent from my LG-F240L using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Acube x7 is a great device but unfortunately when it jamms or bricks one can't reset device ,No reset button:crying:

gdcolin said:
Acube x7 is a great device but unfortunately when it jamms or bricks one can't reset device ,No reset button:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
press nd hold the power button for more than 8 seconds.
来自我的 HTC D820t 上的 Tapatalk

jupiter2012 said:
press nd hold the power button for more than 8 seconds.
来自我的 HTC D820t 上的 Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Useless, i have two of those devices i tried to hold the power button for more than 8 seconds but nothing happened no power on
Not even when you put on charge! Dead devices

Ever saw two models of Cube Talk 7X U51GT W and Cube Talk 7X U51GT-C4 on cube-tablet.com, which model does the above you mentioned belong to? Any differences between these two models? I'm interested to buy Cube Talk 7X online, but before that i need to make a confirmation.

The home and return bar do not work in upright mode they work fine side ways and upside down
---------- Post added at 12:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:32 PM ----------
the return and home buttons are only blocked in upright position with the loadspeker at the top

The only good way for this problem seems be to flash with a convenable rom...

[Solved] Please help me choose between: G3/Z2/S5/M8 to replace S4.

I've had my SGS4 for over a year now.. and lets just say.. I'm not satisfied with it. I never really have been. I've supported Samsung from having the Galaxy S+ right now up to the S4. Samsung almost lost my support after the design and performance of the terrible S3, however after seeing and hearing of the improvements of the S4 I decided to give them one last chance. Lets just say that they blew that chance and now I want another phone.
In my country of Finland only these top phones are currently available (listed in absolutely no order of preference):
Sony Xperia Z2
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Pros:
Large Battery
3GB RAM
MicroSD
20.7MP Camera
Cons:
Non-removable battery
Slightly slower clocked Krait 400 CPU (2.3Ghz)
Camera quality lacks definitive sharpening (everything looks like paper)
GUI looks terrible
No MicroUSB 3.0
No Infra-red port
Samsung Galaxy S5
Pros:
Best quality camera and video by far, best sharpness and detail but is there an issue with some colours? (shown here)
MicroUSB 3.0
Dust & Water Resistant
2.5 GHz Krait 400
Undoubtedly the best contrast/quality screen in a smartphone
Large removable battery and supposedly good battery life
Infra-red port
Cons:
It's a Samsung phone... and I'm not keen on supporting them again after all the issues I've had with the S3 and S4
Plastic design again, and even uglier backplate this time
2GB RAM vs. 3GB RAM on the Sony Z2 and LG G3
Galaxy S5 Prime / Galaxy F around the corner?
TouchWiz sucks elephant pole
LG G3
Pros:
QHD 1440 x 2560 Display
Good visual look
3GB RAM with the 32GB version
GUI Looks pretty nice
2.5 GHz Krait 400
Large removable battery
Infra-red port
Cons:
Overkill with the Display size? Heat / Lag issues? / Battery life? / Not 'that' stunning?
It's still plastic even if it doesn't look like it
Camera and video quality isn't that amazing and tends to sport a lot of those typical 'squarey' textures in photos
It's reportedly bigger, borderline 'phablet' (tbh I think my Galaxy S4 is large enough)
LG's first attempt at trying to compete with the big boys... ergo. lack of experience in the field?
No MicroUSB 3.0
HTC One M8
Pros:
That awesome design look, by far the most appealing/premium feel
Stereo Speakers that are apparently good
Front facing 5MP camera over all the other's 2/2.1MP
Infra-red port
Cons:
Abysmal camera that is overexposed and etc in regular light, depth stuff doesn't make up for the lack of Megapixels even if low light shots are good. Also the video isn't remotely as good as the other phones
Slightly slower clocked Krait 400 CPU (2.3Ghz)
Smaller non-removable battery
No MicroUSB 3.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of them in Finland are priced around the same amount. €640 - €660. I have to get the phone on a plan and these are the only 4 that I am really considering. I am not interested in Apple phones at all. Terrible iOS, 8MP cameras and smaller non-full HD screens do not remotely interest me. Especially for the premium price tag and ease of smashing them if they drop. But lets not get started on that. In addition I am not interested with Lumia phones at all.
What I use my phone for mostly (in this oder):
Taking many pictures and videos and using the front camera for video & skype
Whatsapp and Viber
Music music and more music
Some small gaming
Maps and GPS use
Email and Web browsing
Youtube and other video stuff
Modding, and stuff I am not supposed to do. dSploit and etc.
My most important things (all of these are top-priority):
I have no interest on getting a proper DSLR/Point-and-shoot camera so I want my phone to have a good camera.
It needs to be lag free, I am paying a premium price
I want the colours and pictures to just jump out at me like WOW
I don't want the company/brand I buy it from trying to make things like modding/xposed/rooting etc. progressively harder for me
Connectivity. Good signal strength, no lags on 3G or 4G
That if it falls, it will not just smash/screen crack on the first mistake
What is not so important:
Battery life, unless it's got a non-removable battery (which I usually auto-hate) because I will just buy another spare battery (if I can)
Warranty options and Customer support (only in the sense of warranty and troubleshooting)
Stuff like fingerprint scanners and heartrate monitors, barometers etc. I don't really care about
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So guys any suggestions? It would help if you do own/have owned the phones I am talking about. I can only get these phones that I have listed so I am not interested in any others. Do you think there is a phone there that would fit the things that I am looking for? Or do you think that I should seriously wait for the Galaxy S 5 Prime / Galaxy F (or whatever it will be called) and then see what differences to the build design/material and hardware there are and make my decision then? Do you think the release will be close by, or are we looking at something like late September (maybe too far away for me).
Sorry for a long thread and hopefully this can help more than one person !
P.S. I've read many reviews and watched many videos on all of the phones listed but they do not constitute really in my opinion 'real world use' that is what I seem to get from XDA forum members. In that we all share the same experiences and problems which is why I am asking here.
Thanks again!
P.S. If a mod thinks that this is in the wrong section or that it should be merged with a larger thread then feel free to do so. I couldn't find really anything using the search option

For me, the short answer is that Sony Z2 is the overall best device (feature wise) of 4 of them.
Based on the facts and your needs:
- You should not choose G3 because it has a QHD display that you will not need. And believe it the screen brightness and quality doesnt look as good as S5 from user reviews.
- You should not choose S5 because its not that pretty and overrated
- You should not choose M8 because simply the only thing is better from other 3 is the astonish aluminium design
On the other hand i will agree on the cons of Sony Z2 you mention but i believe there are minor based on the other 3 devices and your needs. I also dont like the huge bezels in Z2 but this is something i can leave with it. Note that you will hold on your hand a device that is as huge as Lg G3 but is 5.2 inches instead of 5.5
Final words, there is no such a thing as best device. But based on what you wrote Z2 is the overall best for you since it has the greatest camera, very good design, performance and of course dont forget that is waterproof and dustproof device.

lakiscy said:
For me, the short answer is that Sony Z2 is the overall best device (feature wise) of 4 of them.
Based on the facts and your needs:
- You should not choose G3 because it has a QHD display that you will not need. And believe it the screen brightness and quality doesnt look as good as S5 from user reviews.
- You should not choose S5 because its not that pretty and overrated
- You should not choose M8 because simply the only thing is better from other 3 is the astonish aluminium design
On the other hand i will agree on the cons of Sony Z2 you mention but i believe there are minor based on the other 3 devices and your needs. I also dont like the huge bezels in Z2 but this is something i can leave with it. Note that you will hold on your hand a device that is as huge as Lg G3 but is 5.2 inches instead of 5.5
Final words, there is no such a thing as best device. But based on what you wrote Z2 is the overall best for you since it has the greatest camera, very good design, performance and of course dont forget that is waterproof and dustproof device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for such a detailed reply. The Z2 camera doesn't look as good as the S5, and I think that Sony has definitely just tried to push the Megapixel limits without really giving much thought to anything else. The ISO seems to be so much lower in all of the pictures, and all of the colours are very washed out. I could use software on the computer to add more colour to the pictures, but that's kind of time consuming and annoying. In addition to this a lot of people have said that the triluminous display is very flawed in that it glares so heavily in the light and that the screen is riddled with dead pixels and has inherent flaws that cause the screen to deteriorate after even a short time. The lack of removable battery is a let down too and the GUI is terrible and it definitely doesn't feel very comfortable in my hand, though it doesn't feel big either. These are the main reasons why I wasn't really considering it at all. And also why I think I have narrowed it down to just the S5 or the M8.
S5 for the best possible camera for pictures and videos.
I can still get a metal case to hide its ugliness.
Good battery life and power saving modes.
It does the best for what it is, camera is very refined, shooting modes are great and it's blisteringly fast if you get rid of TouchWiz.
It has by far the best screen of any smartphone.
MicroUSB 3.0
Removable battery
M8 for the fact that it looks and feels like a million dollars
It's not a Samdung phone
The Ultrapixel camera would come in handy for certain types of shots and indoor/low light pictures
Lack of removable battery means less messing around with external batteries (still I would prefer removable)
It's lightning fast, charges quickly and the UI looks amazing (but I'd probably still use Themer)
Could be nice to just finally change brands after the long haul of Samsung phones
This is why I lean more to the S5 even though I am really, really put off by Samsung these days.
Otherwise I really, seriously appreciate you taking the time to suggest the Z2. Especially as your first post on the forums.
Thanks so much

leijonasisu said:
Thanks for such a detailed reply. The Z2 camera doesn't look as good as the S5, and I think that Sony has definitely just tried to push the Megapixel limits without really giving much thought to anything else. The ISO seems to be so much lower in all of the pictures, and all of the colours are very washed out. I could use software on the computer to add more colour to the pictures, but that's kind of time consuming and annoying. In addition to this a lot of people have said that the triluminous display is very flawed in that it glares so heavily in the light and that the screen is riddled with dead pixels and has inherent flaws that cause the screen to deteriorate after even a short time. The lack of removable battery is a let down too and the GUI is terrible and it definitely doesn't feel very comfortable in my hand, though it doesn't feel big either. These are the main reasons why I wasn't really considering it at all. And also why I think I have narrowed it down to just the S5 or the M8.
S5 for the best possible camera for pictures and videos.
I can still get a metal case to hide its ugliness.
Good battery life and power saving modes.
It does the best for what it is, camera is very refined, shooting modes are great and it's blisteringly fast if you get rid of TouchWiz.
It has by far the best screen of any smartphone.
MicroUSB 3.0
Removable battery
M8 for the fact that it looks and feels like a million dollars
It's not a Samdung phone
The Ultrapixel camera would come in handy for certain types of shots and indoor/low light pictures
Lack of removable battery means less messing around with external batteries (still I would prefer removable)
It's lightning fast, charges quickly and the UI looks amazing (but I'd probably still use Themer)
Could be nice to just finally change brands after the long haul of Samsung phones
This is why I lean more to the S5 even though I am really, really put off by Samsung these days.
Otherwise I really, seriously appreciate you taking the time to suggest the Z2. Especially as your first post on the forums.
Thanks so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, It is my first post because i was searching the same thing on the web and came to your post lol.
It seems that you have already make up your decision and you just need confirmation for it
I dont want to debate on Z2 but most of your points might be special cases but mainly they are all wrong.
While you have narrow your results to S5 and M8 i would just say if you are going to use a case on your phone then just get the S5

[Solved]
I don't think the issues with the Z2 are special cases. Yeah it might have 3GB of RAM. But it also has no Infra-red device. Read the XDA forums, a lot of people have returned 3 devices in a row for dead pixels and other screen issues. Triluminos doesn't hold a candle to AMOLED anyway. The camera really isn't all that special at all. It might take the biggest pictures, that look really nice zoomed out but the colours are so, so so washed out compared to other phones. It's a fact. Also it feels uncomfortable in my hands, I can't remove the battery. The GUI really actually IS BAD.
In terms of the camera quality. Check this page:
http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=1&idPhone1=6144&idPhone2=6033&idPhone3=6294
Then move to the 'colour poster' and look at the difference. The camera has such a low level of sharpness and finite detail to things like hairs and leaves. Namely edges really don't show up at all, it makes the whole picture look like there's absolutely 0 depth what so ever. It looks like a paper print out. That isn't to say that it is a bad camera. It's just not as good as the S5. Images on the Z2 might look a lot more smooth but they are also a lot more washed out in terms of colour.
I really don't like the idea of the S5 at all and I don't want to really support Samsung but I am not paying a premium for a phone that I feel doesn't match the money that I am spending on it, just because I have personal issues with the brand, I'm just speaking on facts in this case. :/
Thanks though, I really appreciate it and I am happy that you seem to have found what phone you want.
EDIT: I got the S5 and I have never been happier, it's improved on every aspect of the S4 that I hated. Just wish it had more RAM.

Dude hi im really happy for you getting the S5. I also decided not to buy Z2 and got G2 because i couldnt resist on the low price of it (270 EUR).
Wish you the best

leijonasisu said:
I don't think the issues with the Z2 are special cases. Yeah it might have 3GB of RAM. But it also has no Infra-red device. Read the XDA forums, a lot of people have returned 3 devices in a row for dead pixels and other screen issues. Triluminos doesn't hold a candle to AMOLED anyway. The camera really isn't all that special at all. It might take the biggest pictures, that look really nice zoomed out but the colours are so, so so washed out compared to other phones. It's a fact. Also it feels uncomfortable in my hands, I can't remove the battery. The GUI really actually IS BAD.
In terms of the camera quality. Check this page:
http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=1&idPhone1=6144&idPhone2=6033&idPhone3=6294
Then move to the 'colour poster' and look at the difference. The camera has such a low level of sharpness and finite detail to things like hairs and leaves. Namely edges really don't show up at all, it makes the whole picture look like there's absolutely 0 depth what so ever. It looks like a paper print out. That isn't to say that it is a bad camera. It's just not as good as the S5. Images on the Z2 might look a lot more smooth but they are also a lot more washed out in terms of colour.
I really don't like the idea of the S5 at all and I don't want to really support Samsung but I am not paying a premium for a phone that I feel doesn't match the money that I am spending on it, just because I have personal issues with the brand, I'm just speaking on facts in this case. :/
Thanks though, I really appreciate it and I am happy that you seem to have found what phone you want.
EDIT: I got the S5 and I have never been happier, it's improved on every aspect of the S4 that I hated. Just wish it had more RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know every time I see someone bashing the z2's camera it always turns out that they get their info from gsmarena. No wonder you've always gone with Samsung. They're notorious Sammy promoters. There are a lot of other techblogs, pocketnow, CNET, android authority, the verge, etc that all preferred the z2's camera.
For as long as you keep relying on gsmarena, you'll always stick to Samsung
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app

Hehehe you're hacker
You should go for HTC M8 !
2,3 Ghz is enough for a CPU
Sent from my beastly SM-T320

OnePlus One 64GB Sandstone Black Global version - Review

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OnePlus One – Review
The OnePlus One is without a doubt one of the most anticipated mobile devices of 2014, thanks in part to it’s awesome hype campaign. Despite over promising and under delivering in regards to availability the device is still very sought after. When you look at the fact that OnePlus are a startup company (yes, with some help from Oppo), it really is amazing the amount of attention they garnered.
So after much waiting I finally have a OnePlus One in my possession. Will it live up to it’s hype or fall flat on it’s face? Let’s have a look at the device and see what it can do.
Unboxing
I received my invite and was informed I had 24 hours to use it or it would be gone. Needless to say, I used it as soon as I got home. Ordering from the site was easy but to my dismay the only shipping option was DHL. Sure DHL are fast, but I always get rather large additional charges from them. With no other choice I put the order through knowing that it would arrive with money owing to the carrier.
Just as expected the device arrived within several days as it shipped out of California and arrived in Canada. Also as expected there was money owing. $61 to be exact. Keep in mind that this is on top of the almost $30 I paid for DHL shipping. So realistically my $349 flagship killer had jumped to almost $449. Still a good deal? Keep reading to find out.
The parcel was in a simple thin bubble wrap envelope. Luckily the actual box and packaging on OnePlus’ part is solid so the device arrived in mint condition. When I opened the box I noticed that they had not cheaped out on the appearance and the presentation gives you the feeling of a quality company and device. The wall charger came boxed separately to ensure you recieve the proper one for your region. In side was the device, a micro USB cable, instructions and a SIM tool. Also included was a wall charger but like I mention that had it’s own box.
So far so good.
You can check out the unboxing video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg9H5daxRpc
Specs
5.5″ 1920 x1080 display with 401 ppi and Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.5 Ghz
3GB of RAM
64GB storage
3100 mAh battery
5 MP front and 13 MP rear camera
LTE
Android 4.4.2 via Cyanogenmod 11S
Check out the full video review here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbExjYSpKIY
Physical features
The OnePlus One measures 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm and weights 162g. Despite the 8.9mm thickness the nice contour on the back of the device make it very comfortable and feel much thinner than it actually is. It’s also worth noting that the back is textured and gives it a nice slightly granular feel.
On the bottom of the phone is the micro USB port and speakers.
On the left is the volume rocker and SIM slot (It’s a micro SIM).
The right hand side has the power button.
The top has the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The front facing camera is on the top left of the device.
The rear camera and dual LED flash is located on the top center.
Impressed so far? I am, let’s turn it on.
Display
The OnePlus One carries the typical 2014 Chinese flagship display size of 5.5 inches. The display is 1080p with a 401 ppi and is very crisp. I can’t really complain about anything in regards to the screen. It’s bright, clear, crisp, responsive and solid. Many early customers were complaining about yellowing on the display, I can say my device did not have any of those issues. Either it was just a small number of devices or they fixed it. +1 for the One.
Software
The OnePlus One being sold outside of China is running Cyanogenmod 11s which is based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat and was designed specifically for the device. It retains enough of a stock feel that users won’t feel completely lost but does have customization available. Themes, font, icons etc are all interchangeable, some for free, some for a cost. Everything runs buttery smooth with no real lags, no freezing, and thus no need to change out the launcher unless you simply want to. All apps I tried were compatible and it is important to note that Google apps including the Play Store were already loaded on the phone.
The only thing I didn’t like was the base layout and method of customizing the pulldown menu for quick access to things like wi-fi, bluetooth,gps, etc. It didn’t have all the standard icons available and was overly complicated to adjust.
The boot time was an average 28 seconds.
Wi-Fi
I have recently moved so the layout of my testing grounds has also changed. Where I use to have a main floor, an upstairs, and a basement, I now have just a main floor and basement but they larger. I mention this just in case you are comparing these results to ones from my previous reviews as they will differ.
The OnePlus One has 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi so I tested both.
5 Ghz
Router (basement) = 82.61 mbps
Main floor =38.55 mbps (I got to the halfway point of this level and the signal went from around 40mbps to no signal within a couple of feet. This was at one level up and 24 feet from the router.
2.4 Ghz
Router = 47.84 mbps
Main floor = 16.31 mbps at the furthest point of this level, which is one level up and about 48 feet from the router.
Even at the furthest point of the house the OnePlus One had fast enough 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi for any streaming and or browsing I needed.
Good Wi-Fi results.
Call Quality
The OnePlus One did a very good job with the calls I made. Volume was good on both ends as was the clarity. If you are a talker, you shouldn’t have any issues with what the OnePlus One sounds like.
Speakers
The speakers are located on the bottom of the device as opposed to the back which many companies seem to favor. In general the bottom location is much better because the speaker doesn’t get muffled if you put the phone down on a surface. The only time it ends up being a hindrance is if you play a lot of video games. Then it can easily be muffled by your hand when holding the phone sideways. So it really does depend on how you use your phone.
Location aside, the sound that comes from the OnePlus One is very nice. It’s loud, and capable of impressive sounds in all scenario’s, whether it’s video games, hard rock, dance, dialogue in movies or special effects in movies, it sounds great. It was definitely more than what I was expecting.
Video Playback
I tested the phone using the stock video player as well as VLC. Video playback was fantastic regardless of format. In addition to the SD video’s, and online media, I tested it with some HD movies in various formats and all played equally well. If you like to watch media on your phone, the smooth playback, beautiful screen, and clear speaker quality will certainly impress.
Web Browsing
Stable ROM, 2.5 Ghz Snapdragon 801, and 3 GB of RAM… you can see were this is going. Web browsing, even with multiple windows open is a breeze for this handset. As would be expected, browsing is awesome on the phone. All actions respond quickly, pages load within a short period of time, and the overall feel is snappy.
Cameras
The OnePlus One has a 5MP front camera and a 13MP Sony IMX 214 that promises to give us some pretty good photography for a phone. The 6 lens optics and f/2.0 aperture make it a standout in todays market.
The front facing camera is crisp and perfect for video calls and those that love the selphie. The rear Sony camera doesn’t disappoint and delivers far above average shots. Regardless of environment the camera was consistent and delivered good pictures. The dual LED flash works well and buyers shouldn’t have any fear of low lighting situations. Are there phones that do photography better than the OnePlus One. Certainly. But the One can hold its own with the upper part of the market.
GPS
The GPS on the device is fantastic. The first lock was done outdoors in airplane mode and took less than 5 seconds. Locks after that where almost instant. I tested the handset with Navfree that doesn’t use data and with Google Maps and Waze that use data to assist. In both scenarios the GPS was flawless and quick to adapt. One of the better GPS’ I have used recently.
Benchmarks
With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and 3 GB of RAM I think it’s safe to say that most people would expect the phone to score well. The question is “How well?”
Let’s take a look at the results.
Antutu
38,823
That’s enough to take out the best of the best.
Nenamark 2
61.4 fps
CPU Prime
7259
Vellamo
Vellamo has changed recently, and have added a multicore test into the mix.
Metal
1719
Multicore
1864
Chrome Browser
2772
As you can see the OnePlus One holds it’s own and slightly edges out the best phones on the market in the overall picture.
Battery
The battery was my only area of real concern. I know that a 3100 mAh battery was included, but would it play nicely with the ROM and actually last. I put the OnePlus One on auto brightness and used VLC to test the phone on a video loop. The phone lasted a staggering 10.5 hours!
The lower end of the battery actually runs down very smoothly and slower than the top part. I was left with 3% on the phone and am certain it could have lasted another 15 minutes of playback.
Very nice results.
Gaming
I’ve used Qualcomm 800 processors in the past and know they do very well with gaming thanks to the Adreno 330 GPU. The Snapdragon 801 is no exception and the handset played everything very well. Crisp, smooth gameplay with max resolution settings. Add in the beautiful screen and great speakers and you have a winning combo. The only thing I want to mention is the location of the speakers. While great for music and media, having them located on the bottom of the device does make it much easier to muffle them with your hand while playing games that require the screen to be held sideways. Can you work around it? Sure. It’s just your hand location is the last thing on your mind while you are being horded by a half dozen zombies and you are fighting for your life….or something like that.
Final thoughts
Pro’s
Comfortable, stylish design
Nice screen
GPS works well
Cameras are very good
Cyanogenmod 11s is stable and customizable with Google Play Store already installed
Plays media and games with ease
Powerhouse device that doesn’t drain the battery
4G
Con’s
Hard to get an invite
Shipping is expensive due to additional fee’s
Non -removable battery
No expansion slot so make sure you get the model that truly has the storage you need
Wow….this device really delivers. Even with the extra shipping costs the phone is still almost half the price of it’s rivals. Considering this is the first phone from a startup company, I’m really interested in seeing what they release next. With all the hype I was waiting for the phone to fall flat on it’s face and really under perform. That did not happen at all.
Are there better devices on the market right now? I believe so, but they aren’t much better. You just need to decide if they are worth double to cost.

Cubot S308 review, a handy $150 Chinese smartphone.

Hello, everyone who is reading this review. I would like to let you know that this is my first big review. I would love to hear your feedback and your comments.
Pros
Cubot S308 is a nice, well performing smartphone that has a good camera. It looks outstanding for it's tiny price of $148.89.
Cons
While it has nice IPS, OGS 5" display, it has a resolution of only 720p (this is a minus because I feel that Cubot could give us at least 1080p), battery's capacity is only 2000 mA·h. Cubot has decided to not invest in their product's packaging and branding.
Design, display and specs.
At the first glance it is hard to differentiate this smartphone from any other phone on the market, but if you take a closer look you will be able to notice couple of slight differences in it’s outlook. My favorite part of this model’s design is it’s rear cover, which is made of plastic but appears as real leather.
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This part is truly unique about Cubot S308 and the brand. Unfortunately this model comes only in white or black colors. That would be great if Cubot could spoil us with couple unique rear covers as XIAOMI did with their flagman model MI4. If you consider Cubot S308’s price tag, that is not a big deal. Apple and Samsung fanboys are paying a lot more for the same design diversity, but their smartphones’ price tag is much higher. The rear cover is made of plastic, as whole smartphone is, but it looks like it is made of leather. Looking from distance of 30 cm (1 feet) not a single person in the world will be able to tell that it is not leather. Cover is mounted using small hooks on the edges, I have been opening the rear for more then 10 times and it hasn't’t broken, so I assume that it will have a long lifetime and has been made of good quality plastics.
Around the edge, you can see a glossy frame, not to confuse anyone - it is also made of plastic. On the top and bottom this edge has a slight matt to it and it reminds me of ASUS notebook surface. As the notebook mentioned above, this edge has been designed to look like metal (aluminium). As a part of design it fits really nice.
Cubot S308’s camera placement is quite classic - top in the middle. This will help your fingers to stay out of the lens, so they don’t get in the shot. Other then that, speaker is placed at the bottom of rear, so that while watching videos you won’t cover it. Maybe you have already got used to this order of things being placed on a smartphone but don’t forget that it is done for maximum comfort when using it. Loudspeaker can perform very loud without any distortion, however when you max valume sound becomes a bit distorted.
This phone will fit your hand like a glove, even if you don't have long fingers like I do. In any case, don’t worry, because buttons on the side of the phone are placed in a way that you don’t have to stretch your fingers every time when you want to unlock screen or change volume. When I first got to try it, my reaction was:”Wow, how light it is!”. For it’s size the phone is very light - only 154 grams. You will be pleasantly surprised by phone’s width, just 8.2 mm. I gave my new phone to two THL users to see their first impression. First person was surprised how thin it is, but second was fascinated by how lightweight it is and tiny the frame around the display.
Out of the box you will get a display that already has a protective sticker on it. In my case the sticker had no bubbles and was put on perfectly. The screen is sensitive and works great - without any glitches. Like any other display with 320 dpi (dots per inch) this can reproduce crystal clear imagery. IPS system works great on this phone and images will look outstanding from any viewing angle. Touch screen can sense 5 points of contact at the same time.
The automatic brightness sensor performs well indoors, while outdoors it proved itself to be useless. In bright sun it doesn't maximize screens brightness. On the other hand, if you use your phone mostly indoors it will work like magic for you and save some of your precious battery power. I have tested sensor outdoors, it does understand brightness variations from 200 lumix to 10k but is not reacting accordingly to max brightness (in direct sunlight).
Built quality
Some Chinese phones will come not that well built. I have read that some THL phones come squeaky and their parts don't really fit each other. This is not the case for Cubot S308. The phone come in sturdy and will not make a single sound if you press it around edge or in the middle of it. That being said, the phone is throughout made of plastic. Certainly you can feel that back cover is plastic, but in any case it fits your hand like a glove.
The specs themselves:
Screen: 5” IPS, OGS
Resolution: HD Ready - 1280x720 320 dpi
SoC: Mediatek 1.3 Ghz MT6582 quad core
GPU: Mali-400 MP
Dual SIM
RAM: 2 Gb
ROM: 16 Gb
Front camera: 8 Mp
Rear camera: 5 Mp
Battery: 2000 mA·h
OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
You may think that this processor is a bit outdated, but it performs well and prooves it’s performance. Newest games similar to Asphalt 8 are running smoothly and without any lag. All web-pages are loaded with no hustle at all - 2 Gb RAM is more then enough to smoothly browse the Web.
Performance
Using newest version of Antutu v5 benchmarking software Cubot S308 scored prestige 18919 points.
To see how the phone is performing, I have tested it to run a FullHD video (V: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920x1080 59.94fps 5843kbps A: AAC 48000Hz stereo 174kbps). The video (Uncharted 4: A Thief's End E3 2014 Trailer (1080p, 60fps)) was recorded on a regular MicroSD card that I got from some dodgy seller on AliExpress. Video was played using built-in video player and never stuttered a single frame, video ran smoothly.
As per games, I have tested Asphalt 8 on this phone, to see what kind of graphics it will be able to render. Unfortunately I am not able to compare graphics with any other phone, but I can tell for sure how it looked. The game is running without any problems and the "Loading" screen wasn't there for too long. The game didn't stutter at all but graphics themselves look a bit pixelated (maybe I am too skeptical).
Surfing the web or just the menu will be smooth and glitch-free. I am well impressed with it's performance. It feels like RAM is fast enough to keep phone operating quickly.
GPS
I am not a huge fan of using GPS anyway, usually I am certain of where I am going to and I know the shortcuts GPS is something that I am not impressed about in this phone. When you start GoogleMaps and tap on "Locate" it works perfect and can identify your location within seconds. I also tested it in Endomundo, just to see how well it will track me. The result:
My personal [B[verdict[/B[ on GPS - it works good for me, since I almost never use it, but it might be a problem for drivers that are using Waze. Most importantly, it finds your location on map within seconds.
Two Sim-cards, cellular antenna and frequencies.
Perhaps you’ve already had experience with phones that supports two sim-cards, but I have to go into detail about that. You can insert up to two sim-cards in this phone - one regular sim and one micro sim. Both cards can be on standby mode simultaneously. As there is only one antenna in the phone, you can make or receive call only on one at the same time. It is extremely easy to insert cards, since there is a straightforward instruction next to sim slots.
I’ve got about 5 phones in my “old gadgets drawer” but non of them was capable of having decent service signal in my flat and usually my friends had to call my landline, which is the only reason I got one in the beginning. You should see my face when I saw that Cubot S308 had ¾ of full service on my desk next to my laptop. Long story short - both sim-cards are easy to insert and smartphone gets decent signal when other phones have proven to fail.
Frequencies
This phone supports majority of European mobile operators (2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G: WCDMA 850/2100MHz). So for me, it works like magic with Three and GifGaf. Talking about mobile broadband speed. I can't tell you if I have to be super-exited about it or not, because there is not a lot I can compare it with except of my laptop. I am currently using BT Broadband which does have some decent speed and allows me to play online with no issues at all.
My laptop gives me these results when connected to Wi-Fi.
And when I connect my Cubot S308 to the same Wi-Fi I get these results using SpeedTest app:
I am using Three, British operator, that gives me good coverage in Belfast and this is what Cubot gives me using SpeedTest app.
Battery life
The battery that comes inside the box is only 2000 mA·h. First two days I had to charge my phone twice a day, since I was constantly surfing web, installing new apps from Android Market and so on.
At this point, where I am already settled with apps and don't feel the urge to check Facebook every 5 minutes I am charging it only during the night. Other Cubot S308 users have reported that battery is only 1800 mA·h but I can't tell the difference and it has totally met my expectations.
Packaging and what’s inside the box.
Nowadays companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC and others are investing a lot of manpower and funds towards the packaging itself. Buying electronics of popular brands you also pay for packaging. Since Chinese smartphone market is very tight and competitive, companies like Cubot can’t afford to raise prices of smartphones for $20-$30 just for packaging. This means that your phone will come in regular brown cardboard box that will have only a small company’s label on top of it. If you consider the price of Cubot S308 you should understand why you are not getting a glossy bright-colored box. I am more then comfortable to pay exclusively for the gadget itself rather then paying extra for 2 minutes unboxing experience. That being said, Cubot S308 comes in a sturdy box that will be able to protect it against negligence of postal services.
Inside the box you will find standard accessories pack - charger, USB cable and additional protective sticker for your screen. You will not find a headset within, but standard 3.5mm headphones jack will let you use your favorite headphones. I would like to mention, that charger and USB cable is pretty high quality. I usually pay a lot of attention to this kind of details and I was blown away by the feel of them. Some USB cables are flimsy or have some sort of cheap plastic feel to them, but not in this case. Their quality reminds me the cable and charger (1000 mA) that comes with any Apple gadget.
When buying this smarthopne with Pandawill, as a part of package you will get a free case, which you will not be impressed by. It is quite flimsy and can be mounted by gluing it to rear cover. I am not comfortable with gluing something on my new Cubot S308, so I passed on it.
The Camera
Rear camera has 8 Mpix and is capable of shooting good quality pictures. When I was testing it, I was pleased with the results and quite impressed with macro pictures it produced. As the saying says: “one picture paints a thousand words.”
Front camera has 5 Mpix and keeps up with it’s tasks. I tested it for a video call and it worked like charm. In any case, here is a test picture.
In a nutshell
Cubot S308 is able to offer you what you would expect from a $150.00 smartphone and will exceed your expectation - beautiful design, snappy performance and good quality camera at a pricetag that is so hard to resist.
Smartphone’s design is quite unique thanks to it’s rear cover and tiny frame around the display. You will be pleased how well it fits your hand.
This model is being sold only in one setting - 2 Gb RAM and 16 Gb ROM with an option to extend it with MicroSD card. This smartphone is not supporting 4G, but supports European 3G frequencies with an antenna that will able to find service in places where other phones fail.
I receommend this phone to anyone who is on tight budget, but is willing to get high performance, nice looking phone with a decent camera.

Cubot s308 inserting dual sims
Hi I'm new to both the Forum and Cubot phone. I got one recently and we all have tryed putting in a sim which worked with Tesco mobile sim which I think is a standard sim and it worked but the sim we realky want to work is the 3 network sim which was a micro sim and its not working says theres no network. They are not both together just one or the other and its v frustrating. Theres no step by step videos or pictures online to show how to do it. Looking at the pics in the phone are not helping. I know this must be easy or I'm sure I would have found an answer. Would appreciate some help with this as we need a Cubot for dummies book . Thanks in anticipation.

hello did you get your 3 sim to work in your cubot s 308 im asking because i ordered one myself and im on 3 network in belfast
---------- Post added at 12:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------
thank you for your review did you have any issues getting your 3 micro sim to work im asking because of the post after yours thanx, i to amm on 3 and i am waiting for my s308 to b delivered i had a note 2 got sds complete brick needs new emmc chip samsung wouldnt cover warranty because the screen was damaged gutted

[REVIEW] uleFone Be Touch: 5,5" IPS, 4G, 64bits octa-core CPU, 3GB RAM, fingerprint

[REVIEW] uleFone Be Touch: 5,5" IPS, 4G, 64bits octa-core CPU, 3GB RAM, fingerprint
uleFone is one of new Chinese brands making good things lately. And in the same way some players are doing, they also wanted to present something interesting before the summer period.
But they want to be like "the others", so they have come with an amazing smartphone which they have presented as their flagship device for the season: the uleFone Be Touch
Something very interesting, since this brand is very young. They’ve worked designing and making parts for other brands during years, but it wasn’t until 2014 they moved to manufacture their own smartphones.
When I opened the box my first though was about that size "It's huge!". But then, I started it and as Megan Trainor sings... "It's all about that bass"
Only that smartphone is not fat at all, it's very thin and light. It's even thinner than other thin devices like the Siswoo Cooper i7 I reviewed some weeks ago.
But let's go step by step.
Design and package
The box is quite standard, white, same shape that we can typically find for the iPhones or Samsung devices, for example. With a sticker showing some info and then most of the specifications on the bottom part.
Once opened, we can see the amazing Be Touch with its huge screen inside a soft bag and on the lower level, we have all the rest which is USB cable, charger (attention 1.5A! more than common units), headphones and quick start guide in English and other European languages... it's not something very necessary (we all know how to start the phone and take a picture) but it's really the first time I see it. And not one single item in Chinese. Sincerely that feels like more quality.
I live you that video with those impressions and something more:
Summarizing, on the front we have the 5,5" screen. On the top, frontal camera for selfies...with flash!!, light and proximity sensor. And on the bottom we have the navigation buttons: menu, back and home... which integrates a great surprise in form of fingerprint reader. Of all that I will talk more in detail.
On the left side we will find the lock/power and the volume buttons.
Going to the bottom side, just the micro and speaker (very iPhone-like). We have the holes for micro USB and jack exit on the top side, and nothing at all on the right side.
If we flip the phone, on the rear part we will see the main camera (using the Sony IMX214 4th gen sensor) with dual led flash and on the middle the uleFone logo.
All that within very tight dimensions of 158.1x77.4x8.6mm and another advantage is that it fits very well on the hand. It’s true that it’s big, but it doesn’t slip.
Hardware specifications
When you put the mark "flagship" over a product, you really want to mean that device is your top-range. Especially when you are a new player on the field and you want to set up what is your quality level and left aside your “Chinese stamp mark”. The Be Touch is much more than 64 bit octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM…So here it is what hides inside this thin beast.
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Model uleFone Be Touch
Color Metal Grey / Silk White
Dimensions 158.1 x 77.4 x 8.60
Weight 160g
Operating system Pre-install Android 5.0 Lollipop
Touch ID Front Fingerprint Scanner, Unlock in 0.1-0.5s
CPU 64Bit MTK MT6752 processor Octa core 1.7GHz CPU
GPU Mali T760 MP2/7000MHz GPU
RAM 3GB LPDDR3 RAM
ROM 16G
Battery 2550mAH
Charger Quick charger 1.5A ooutput
Display 5.5 inches, HD 1280*720pixels, IPS OGS (NEW 2.5D Arc screen) with Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
Cameras 13MP 4th generation camera Sony IMX214 (main) and 5.0MP (OV5648) for the Front camera
Video 1080P, 2K, 4K
Network GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (band5,band8,band3,band2) ; WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100 (band5,band8,band2,band1) ; FDD-LTE: 800/1800/2100/2600(band20,band3,band1,band7)
SIM Dual sim dual standby, Micro SIM and Standard SIM
WiFi WiFi802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Support dual-band Wi-Fi(2.4GHz/5GHz)
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0
Positioning GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Digital Compass
Hall Effect Sensor, Gravity Sensor,
Ambient Light Sensor,
Touch Sensor, Digital Compass
Regarding the connectivity, needless to say it fully covers all our needs. The WiFi connects and transfers very fast, probably the improvements from Lollipop help, because I haven’t had any troubles of losing signal (as it happened with other devices). I have tried the BT with headphones (Digicare DO) and also with a BT keyboard, working both very well, quick pairing.
The SIM (standard and micro sizes) are located just next to the microSD slot, so sincerely a little bit hard to introduce the card, but once done, the networks are fast detected and connected, so I could use 3G/4G and also make calls very successfully. The voice is very clear and with enough volume.
Display
This is one of the most attracting points of this device. Its 5,5” IPS OGS screen with Corning Gorilla Glass of 3rd generation offers a resolution of 1280x720ppp. I can say that up to the date it’s the best display I’ve seen on a not first brand phone. The quality of the colors and the bright is amazing.
It comes with the dynamic control (adaptive brightness), so it automatically adapts to the lighting conditions to increase or reduce the bright level, making perfectly viewable even under sunshine.
Following the last trends, it also have the “Off-Screen Gesture” function, each time more common and sincerely very useful, since we can program several applications or functions to start without having to unlock the phone: camera, radio, calendar,.. any of the installed apps can be started by drawing a pattern on the locked screen.
Camera
We arrive to one of the most critical points of each review, since normally the manufacturers include camera sensors with a high number of megapixels but not offering the expected quality. uleFone advised they wanted to make the difference and present a great device, so they equipped the Be Touch with a main camera of 13Mpx with a Sony IMX214 4th generation sensor. Apparently this should be a warranty, but we’ve seen many other phones with good lenses giving poor results.
Fortunately this is not (so much) the case with the Be Touch. Until now this is the best (Chinese) one on the quality of pictures and videos. There is still the point to improve when there are poor light conditions. But I repeat the quality even though is much better than with other smartphones.
Here below some examples:
Another surprise comes with the front camera, the chosen sensor is OV5648 from Omni Vision, a high-performance, low-cost 5-megapixel CameraChip sensor for smartphones and tablets, which uses the latest 1.4-µm OmniBSI+ pixel architecture. But what surprised me was to find a led flash next to this camera. No questions about the selfies fever we’re immersed on, so the flash is doubtless a way to increase the quality of our portraits.
Regarding the videos, you can see this FullHD sample recorded outdoors, and even using zoom the quality is really good.
Software
This model comes directly with Android 5.0 Lollipop, so very good news since we have the almost last version of Android since the beginning, with all the improvements already mentioned on different articles like the better battery consumption, more secure environment since first boot, RAM management, WiFi connectivity issues solved, OK Google,…
By the other hand, need to say, that no Chinese stuff (apps) were installed on the phone, very clear Android [Símbolo] Only an icon called “ulefone” which brings us to the manufacturer website.
Another of the key points on the Be Touch is the fingerprint scanner, integrated on the “Home” button. It works really fast (some people say it’s even faster than the TouchID on the iPhone 6), and the way it register new fingers is different from other sensors where we had to slide our fingers. On this case we just have to put the desired finger repeatedly on the sensor until we have the full print marked on red on the screen. Meaning it has been fully recorded.
My suggestion is to place the finger on different positions, so it catches it from different angles and completes the task faster. We can register up to 5 fingers, which is a significant improvement against other devices allowing only 3 prints.
Due to the size of its screen and its powerful hardware, the Be Touch is perfect for entertainment. I installed Kodi (formerly known as XBMC), so I can play FullHD movies and TV shows directly from my NAS over the LAN, without any lags, smoothly and with very high quality of image and sound.
Normally I just try some games like Asphalt or Fifa (no need to say they go like lightning), however, bearing in mind the fingerprint sensor I decided to install my company’s software and use it as mobile office.
Yes, the BYOD is a real trend all around us I installed MaaS360, and configured mail, agenda and other tools. Once again it’s not only the speed of everything I try, jumping quickly from one task to another, but also the size of the screen makes this device very comfortable to read emails, see (and edit) Office documents, use CRM tools… really comfortable, especially when I compared to y iPhone 5’s tiny screen.
Autonomy
As stated above on the specifications table, the Be Touch is equipped with a removable battery of 2.550mAh, more than enough for a full day with average use: calls, wifi browsing, emails, whatsapp, pictures, social networking, Office documents editing… and all that thinking that the use of corporate tools and apps consume more battery.
Conclusions
A couple of months ago I saw the announcement of the Xiaomi MiNote and I really liked it. I though it was a real alternative to first brands smartphones with quality enough and a restrained price. I sincerely didn’t know so much about uleFone yet, and others brand had showed important improvements but still not at a comparable level to first brands.
I’m not meaning that the Be Touch has the same quality of the last Samsung Galaxy S6, but honestly it’s getting close. uleFone should still improve the management of taking pictures with dark conditions and polish some other minor details.
When I opened the box, I presumed that phone was very powerful but maybe too big for a daily use and still had to test the camera results, I take pictures every day. After using it, I can say that it’s a very comfortable device, not heavy at all (just 160gr) and since it’s very thin, it fits very well on the pocket.
I completely recommend it if you are looking for a new smartphone with a lot of possibilities and for a moderated price, around 205€ with Etotalk.com
PS: If you like this post, I'll appreciate if you click on the "Thanks!" button

Just to complete the info from the review above, here some pictures putting the Be Touch (in black) together with an iPhone 6 (white)

Couple of questions.
1. How about the audio quality, through speaker, through headphone?
2. How much heat is generated by the phone when watching youtube or when playing games?
And Lastly, Can you upload some full size images? Thanks for a great review.:good:

Hi, answering your questions:
The sound is very good in both cases. For example, with the Elephone P3000S I clearly notice a lack of volume that I don't appreciate here, I mean watching movies, listening music,... more than enough. In addition the speaker is on the side, not in the bottom, so it always deliver at maximum
Regarding the temperature. After a couple of hours watching Gotham (I finished the 1st season recently hehe) chapters on the Be Touch, it was just a little hot, but for example the iPhone5 gets much much hotter when using 3G for long.
About the pictures... I have published the same review in here -> http://dabarsocialmarketing.blogspot.ie/2015/05/ulefone-be-touch-simply-amazing-with-64.html
I hope the pictures are bigger in size at least if you download them. I can tell you the quality is really good. Some friends viewed those pictures and asked me if they were the samples included on the phone or real pictures taken by me... that's why I take one of my dog (the same that appears on the video sample).
Until now it's from far, the best chinese phone I've used.
Cheers
PS: If you like this post, I'll appreciate if you click on the "Thanks!" button

mdabar said:
Hi, answering your questions:
The sound is very good in both cases. For example, with the Elephone P3000S I clearly notice a lack of volume that I don't appreciate here, I mean watching movies, listening music,... more than enough. In addition the speaker is on the side, not in the bottom, so it always deliver at maximum
Regarding the temperature. After a couple of hours watching Gotham (I finished the 1st season recently hehe) chapters on the Be Touch, it was just a little hot, but for example the iPhone5 gets much much hotter when using 3G for long.
About the pictures... I have published the same review in here -> http://dabarsocialmarketing.blogspot.ie/2015/05/ulefone-be-touch-simply-amazing-with-64.html
I hope the pictures are bigger in size at least if you download them. I can tell you the quality is really good. Some friends viewed those pictures and asked me if they were the samples included on the phone or real pictures taken by me... that's why I take one of my dog (the same that appears on the video sample).
Until now it's from far, the best chinese phone I've used.
Cheers
PS: If you like this post, I'll appreciate if you click on the "Thanks!" button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again. But I think those captured pictures are softer in the edges, sharper in the center. May be a software prob.

What is the data rate of video files? (In different resolutions)
My question is actually what kind of sd card to buy for that phone?
Doesn't it make sense to go for the expensive ones with higher speeds or 10mb/s is enough?

drkbg said:
What is the data rate of video files? (In different resolutions)
My question is actually what kind of sd card to buy for that phone?
Doesn't it make sense to go for the expensive ones with higher speeds or 10mb/s is enough?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, bearing in mind that it records video on FullHD, I wouldn't take a slow card. Personally I always take class 10 at least. If you can take a UHS class it will be better. Think that it's not only the video recording, at least I use to put a lot of stuff on the SD, so accessing apps, taking pictures, games, videos,... everything falls on the SD card, so the fastest the better.
For me, the class 10 is working well.
PS: If you like this post, I'll appreciate if you click on the "Thanks!" button

Has anyone tried 128GB sdcard?

drkbg said:
Has anyone tried 128GB sdcard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahahaha I'd really like, but they are soooo expensive
Tell us if you have the chance!
cheers

67EUR is not that much... ok compared to 23EUR for 64GB is a little bit more per GB but still this phone did cost me 180...

Hey dude. thanks for sharing that.

r_kalar_2 said:
Thanks again. But I think those captured pictures are softer in the edges, sharper in the center. May be a software prob.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've checked but don't have the impresion about soft edges... I have published on my spanish blog -> http://t.co/w9CK2Y2w6H
and there you can view full size
Think also that for example the flower picture was very focused very close, I wanted the rest appear unfocused (I don't know the correct term in english). Anyway I hope these full size pictures help I'll try to post some ones else
Cheers!

Will this phone work with USA 4G/LTE? Specifically AT&T? I've heard the wifi range on it is pretty poor, can you confirm that?

Does anyone knows how to root this device? I tried with iRoot but didn't work.

alresave said:
Does anyone knows how to root this device? I tried with iRoot but didn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kingroot?
let us know, which rooting method worked

Maor545 said:
kingroot?
let us know, which rooting method worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah please, I was also thinking, although I have not yet investigated. :good:

hello I bought the phone and I'm very happy, but I read in the specifications that the phone can 'do video in 2K or 4K, you did it ???
Sorry for may bad english

gagias said:
hello I bought the phone and I'm very happy, but I read in the specifications that the phone can 'do video in 2K or 4K, you did it ???
Sorry for may bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4k will be supported after an ota update as far as I know

scottharris4 said:
Will this phone work with USA 4G/LTE? Specifically AT&T? I've heard the wifi range on it is pretty poor, can you confirm that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes this phone works with AT&T but no LTE does not work. as far as the wireless connection, this is true, it's not as strong as a g3 or an S five or an iPhone 6 but it isn't horrible. the build quality is very nice. it's worth what they're asking for it.
---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
mdabar said:
Yeah please, I was also thinking, although I have not yet investigated. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried Kingroot , I root, and framaroot.
All were unsuccessful.

Also just read this phone will get 5.1 within the next 30 days.