The whole review you can read in a nicer format, full resolution pictures and newest updates on my blog :
http://klonom.com/inew-v3-plus-review/
The iNew V3 Plus is the improved version of the iNew V3. It has an octa core processor, 2 GB RAM and a 5″ HD Display. The mobile itself I kindly received from Antelife Shop. It can be bought for roughly 140€ plus sending from here.
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Specifications:
-Android 4.4.2
-5″ HD IPS Display (1280×720, OGS)
-Second Generation Gorilla Glass (according to iNew)
–MTK6592M 1.4GHz Octa Core Processor
-2GB RAM / 16 GB ROM
-MicroSD Slot
-5 MP front camera, 16 MP back camera (according to iNew)
-USB OTG
-1.85 Ah (according label)
-GPS
-WiFi, Bluetooth
-Dual SIM
-Sensors: Light, Proximity, Acceleration, magnetic field
Items delivered:
The iNew V3 Plus is delivered in a slightly brown box. Beside the mobile phone itself, the following things are given beside: A flipcover with window, an additional pack of screen protector foils (one is already applied), a white headset, an USB wall plug (5.5V, 700mA), an USB charging/data cable and a user manual. The user manual is the first manual I have seen since a long time at smartphones, which actually live up to the expectations of an user manual. It has about 60 printed pages explaining the phone. Although probably it won’t be used too much by the most people, it is still a refreshing contrary to the usual 5 pages of “Quick Start Guide to Android”. What’s all in the box:
Unboxing Video:
First Impressions:
Since I never owned an “original” iNew V3, I can not really compare the newer version to the first one. Based on other experience reports it seems to be that the case of the new version is identical to the old one. The iNew V3 Plus has a very valuable looking outer appearence. The back is pleasently smooth, while the sides are a special highlight, since they have a metal bordering. It feels cool when touched and gives the phone a very high-quality character in my opinion. The power button is placed in the left upper third. It is round and also made out of metal. A Small engravings of the On/Off Symbol adds up to the valuable character of the phone.
On the opposide side, the volume rocker is placed. This is also from metal and is surrounded by small letterings.
Both controls have a nice pressure point. In the turned off state, the front does not have any visible control elements. The transition between display and frame is hardly noticeable. If the display is turned on and touch at the bottom, the Android controls light up (Menu, Home, Back, from left to right). Here I like very much that the Home button is not a standard home symbol, but a kind of light blue rhombus (can be seen in the review video).
The camera, the flash, a loudspeaker as well as a iNew lettering can be found on the backside. Also several small symbols are on the bottom part, like for example the CE-Symbol.
The phone uses two SIM-Cards (“normal” (mini) and micro size) and a MicroSD-card. The battery is supposed to have capacity of 1850 mAh.
On the bottom some kind of openings are placed, which resemble a bit to the loudspeaker of the iPhone. But I guess that these one are fake, since the actual sound is coming from the loudspeaker on the back.
Flipcover:
A bit unusual, but I thought I would lke to devote a small chapter just to the flipcover included . The flipcover has a relatively big transparent window. Additionally a magnet is placed in the cover, so the phone automatically turns on respectively turns off while opening or closing. The flipcover fits well and it does not let the iNew V3 Plus appear much bigger. However, the accessoire is not fully thought through. The flipcover on the picture has still the protection foil applied, is is not a screen graphic. Because one like that does not exist. The system is not modified for the smartcover (excepct the wake-up function). When the phone is woken up with closed cover by the power button, then the normal home screen is shown. Since this screen can be partly configured, this is not too bad. But calls are a bit annoying. If you get called, the normal calling screen (…which is not suited to the window place/size) appears on the screen, also when closed. So you can not really see through the closed cover who is calling you. Then already the next hurdle is appearing: The window is made out of relatively thick plastic, so the touch is not getting to the screen. So even if the UI would be modified, you would be still not able to pick up calls through the cover. You have to open the cover and answer like usual. Here one of the major keys of having a flipcover with window is lost in my opinion. Anyhow, since the flipcover is given with the phone for free it is still a nice gesture.
UI/Android:
The iNew V3 Plus is delivered with Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It uses a slightly modified launcher. The style resembles a bit to the newer versions of iOS with its flat icons. I personally like it, since it is not too colorfull. The browsing through the menu works without stuttering.
Performance:
I expected a kind of high performance from the iNew V3 Plus, since from just looking at its rough specification it looks like it should score high results in benchmarks. But here I was surprised by an Antutu 5 result of roughly 20000 points. This is obviously not a bad result and the device is fast enough for the majority of most available applications, but it seems to be that something went wrong in the finetuning of the system components. To compare, the ThL W200C which basically uses the same SoC (just not the “M” version), but only has 1 GB of RAM, scores 7000 points more. This is roughly 35% more. Anyhow, benchmarks are also just limited to a specific degree to determine the performance of a device. I did not notice any lags or similiar while using.
Memory:
According to the specification on the iNew website, the V3 Plus is supposed to have a memory of 16 GB. In the default state about 13.1 GB are available. Here I was surprised positively, since there is no division between internal and phone memory. There is only one partition which can be fully used also for apps. The memory can be extended with a microSD-card (according to specs up to 32 GB, just tried this size). It also supports USB OTG, which I tested successfully.
Camera:
...Check out my blog post for the camera pictures and rating
http://klonom.com/inew-v3-plus-review/
Display:
As I already wrote, the iNew V3 Plus has a 5″ display with a resolution of 1280x720p with IPS-technology. As typically for IPS displays, the viewing angle is quite constant. The colors of the display are very strong and make a decent picture. When I took the phone the first time in my hand, I was actually impressed by the combination of the nice display and valuable-feeling outer.
Sensors:
The V3 Plus has four different sensors according to the specifications: Light, Proximity, Acceleration and magnetic field. Additionally to these, the app “Sensor Box” shows a gyroscope sensor. This one did not have really any output and I guess it is maximum an emulated gyroscope by the magnetic field sensor. I tested all “official” sensors successfully (not tried the automatic brightness yet). Strangely Google Maps does not connect to the magnetic field sensor, so there is not automatic orientation. I do not really have an idea what could be the cause of this.
GPS:
The first GPS fix was relatively fast with about 12s. In the next half minute the accurancy rised to 5m. Shortly after that, the connection was lost, but picked up again automatically after that. I just noticed this behaviour once, since that the navigation works for chinaphone-levels quite good. I did not notice any connection losses and just a very small drifting of the signal while fast stops. I used the GPS out-of-the-box, no GPS tweaks or similiar.
Reception:
The mobile reception as well as the WiFi reception works for me without problems. I did not notice any connection losses or similiar.
Misc:
The phone has a notification LED in the upper right corner in the colors red and green (you can see them in the review video). They work out of the box as a notification led for apps etc. I received my V3 Plus unrooted and with Google Apps preinstalled. The battery seems to be kind of small with 1850 mAh. In general, the battery is enough for one day usage in my case. Although, the battery shows a kind of unpredictable behaviour at less than 10%. Occasionally, the 10% were gone in less than 5 min. The iNew V3 Plus does not have NFC like the first V3, although this is not a problem for me, since I am not a fan of NFC .
Review Video:
Conclusion:
In total I like the iNew V3 Plus for its kind of low price very much, since it make a very high-valuable impression and its display has intensive colors. Anyhow, I can not get rid of the feeling, that it is a kind of “show-off”-mobile, beginning with the nice but not really thought-through flipcover, the good sounding camera chip, which at the end makes nice, but not outstanding pictures, to the senseless “loudspeaker-openings” at the bottom. But all in all the iNew V3 Plus has still a good price/performance ratio, since the enumerated things a not really drawbacks.
...Added the Unboxing Video .
Thanks for the review. This was really helpful!
Thanks for the feedback !
Inew V3 Plus support NFC?
Krystyna said:
Inew V3 Plus support NFC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, unlike the previous version, the iNew V3 Plus does not support NFC.
Related
Read the whole review in a nicer formatting and with newest updates on my new blog :
http://klonom.com/thl-w200c-review/
Here goes my review about the ThL W200C, a smatphone with 5″ HD display, octacore processor and 1 GB of RAM. It is the third generation of the ThL W200. The phone was kindly supplied from Antelife shop. You can get it with delivery from Germany, duty-free , two years warranty and delivery within 24-48 hours from here.
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First, let's get to the details of the device.
Specifications:
-Android 4.4.2
-5″ HD IPS Display (1280×720)
-Gorilla Glass (according ThL)
-MTK6592 Octa Core processor
-1 GB RAM
-8 GB ROM
-MicroSD-Card slot
-8 MP back camera, 5 MP front camera (both according Thl)
-USB OTG
-2000 mAh battery (according label)
-GPS
-Wifi, Bluetooth
-Dual SIM
-Sensors: Acceleration, Proximity und Light Sensor
About the device:
Already before I actually hold the W200C in my hands, I had quite high expectations, since I used the model of the first generation (the W200) for a longer time as a daily mobile and I was fully happy with it.. untill one fatal day where I placed a crate of beer on my pocket where the W200 was inside and the display cracked. That’s why it died and I was very much interested in the follow ups. According to the specifications, the ThL W200C is a W200S with reduced memory as far as I see.
Unboxing:
First Impressions:
The ThL W200C is delivered in a ThL typical white carton box with silver text. Beside the mobile which is placed in an opaque plastic bag, the following components are also in the box: A halftransparent plastic back case, a USB wall plug (5V, 1A), a USB data/charging cable, a Headset (interesting looks, ribbon cable), an additional pack of screen protectors, a flip cover as well as a quick start guide. A screen protector was already applied bubble-free.
I was surprised and at the same time very interested in the flip cover: I used to have a flip cover for my old W200 (originally from ThL), but never used it, because it stank too much extremely like plastic (no exaggeration here, I had NEVER smelled something that stinks that pungent like plastic). To give a little shortcut here: It stinks remarkably less than my old one, but still strong enough that I do not want to use it at daily base. That is really a shame, since it looks quite nice.
The W200C outer appearance is 1:1 like the original W200. It seems, that the same cases have been used here. The design of the ThL W200C is nothing extra special, it has a black case with a silver stripe on the sides that gives the impression of brushed metal, in which the volume and the power button are embedded. The phone has a nice size in my opinion, that’s why I already got the W200 in the first place.
On the left side the W200, in the right the W200C. The Volume rocker is placed on the top left side, the power button on the top right side. Both have a chrome look. On the back side the camera is in the upper middle, while the speaker sits on the bottom.
The USB port is placed like the headphone jack on the top. Unfortunately ThL did not change this, since it is sometimes unhandy to use the phone while charging.
The W200C uses two normal sized SIM card (mini) and a MicroSD card with up to 32 GB capacity (tried with 32 GB, maybe larger ones also work). To change the microSD card, you do not need to take out the battery.
UI/Android:
The W200C comes, despite the information of many shops, with Android 4.4.2 KitKat, not with the old Jelly Bean. It uses the normal KitKat stock launcher without any special themes or similiar, so pretty vanilla. #Like.
Performance:
Since the stock launcher is used, the menu obviously runs smooth and without any stutters. I did not play especially much with the W200C yet, just the PSX emulator FPSE and a 3D racing game to try out (both can be seen in the review video). Both worked flawlessly and completely smooth. Just the racing game stuttered at the beginning for a few seconds, but then not anymore. To determine the performance a bit more in an objective way, I ran the Antutu 5 benchmark. The result were roughly 27000 points, not bad for a device under 120€.
Memory:
The memory has a capacity of 8 GB according to the specifications. Actually usable is around 6 GB in the receiving state. The division between internal memory and phone storage is about 2 GB to 4.3 GB. By default, roughly 1.76 GB can be used for apps. Comparably just few unnecessary bloatware is preinstalled, no China apps at all. The memory can be extended with either a microSD card (32 GB using myself), or with an external USB memory. I tried the USB OTG and it is working.
Camera:
...check my blog post for the pictures
Display:
The ThL W200C has a 5″ IPS display with a resolution of 1280×720. From the look I would say that it is an OGS. In contrast to the W200, the transition between the border and the display can hardly be seen while turned off display at the W200C. Typically for IPS displays, the viewing angles are stable from nearly all sides (you can see that at the end of the review video). In my personal opinion an HD resolution for a 5″ screen is totally enough, I can not see any pixels. But everyone has different taste .
Sensors:
The ThL W200C has the “typical” sensor equipment of an upper budget smartphones: Light-, proximity-, acceleration- and magnet sensor. Let’s start with my experiences of the light sensor: The same old problem as with my old W200 or the T6S, the sensor itself works without problems, but the function “Automatic Brightness” is not usable. It seems like averaging is made over a too small time base, the brightness changes from bright to dark several times in a few seconds while dusky light. So not really usable. The proximity sensor works without problems, the display turns off reliably while calls. The magnetic sensor has downsides again. Also after initializing it is not really usable. While using navigation apps, the orientation jumps wildly-although driving steadily in one direction. It seems like there is a quite big noise on the signal.
GPS:
Let’s come from the magnetic sensor towards the GPS. This works like I was used from the W200 well, even directly out of the box. The first fix came after less than 5s and the accuracy went down to 3m in the next 15s. I was surprised in a positive about the speed of reactions. While driving with the car, I hardly noticed any drifting while stopping. Except of the compass function, the ThL W200C can be nicely used as a navigation system.
Reception:
I did not notice any special things on the receiption. I do not have less receiption anywhere than I am used to. Also internet via HSDPA works nicely. WiFi and bluetooth receiption also work without downsides yet.
Misc:
The ThL W200C has a red notification LED at the top right (you can see it in the review video), which can be used as a notification for apps out of the box. The mobile was delivered unrooted. I did not try to root it yet. Google Apps are preinstalled. The phone has HW Android buttons, which light up in light blue if touched. The battery has 2Ah according to the label and is enough for me to use a full day while mobile internet, bluetooth and WLAN usage. Often I have more than 50% at the end of the day.
Review Video:
Conclusion:
The ThL W200C is a worthy grandchild of the W200 in my opinion. The phone seems mature and I did not notice any blooper or similiar while using. The octacore in combination with the 5″ HD display suits the W200C well as an everyday phone. Small downsides like the magnetic sensor are due to the small price I guess. All in all it is a well-made budget phone in my opinion.
Added the Review video .
Added a picture taken with the front camera.
You can read the full review with all pictures in high quality and the camera pictures on my blog :
http://klonom.com/no-1-mi4-review/
Like the name already implies, the NO.1 Mi4 is a clone of the popular Xiaomi Mi4, but it costs less than the half of the original price. It has an MTK 6582 SoC, 5″ HD display, 1 GB ROM and 16 GB ROM. The NO.1 Mi4 is available for around 115€ plus tax and sending costs here at the eFox shop. At the end of the post you can find like usual the video review.
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Like usual, lets start with the specifications of the device.
Specifications:
-MTK 6582 SoC with quadcore processor (each up to 1.3 GHz)
-Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean (KitKat is fake!)
-1 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM
-8 MP back camera (13 MP interpolated, camera chip OV8225), F/2.4
-5 MP front camera, F/2.4
-5" HD Display (1280x720)
-GPS
-Sensors: Light, Proximity, Acceleration, Magnetic Field
-1800 mAh battery (measured)
-WiFi, Bluetooth
-2G & 3G WCDMA (for the bands look at section "Reception"
-USB OTG
-IR-Blaster
-Single SIM (micro SIM)
Items delivered:
The NO.1 Mi4 comes with two boxes: One white glossy and one matt brown. The content of the white box is a collection of several accessoires: A tempered glass foil, a normal screen protection foil, a flip cover (to be sticked on the back) and a flexible, half transparent silicon case. Here an overview:
The phone is in the second box, together with a printed manual (on English), a USB wall plug (5.3V, 1A) and a tool for opening the SIM tray. Here's also a small overview from this box:
Unboxing Video:
First impressions:
One thing I noticed immediately while unpacking the phone: This thing was damn cold ! The combination of metal frame and cold delivery truck cooled down the temperature of the fingers in the first moments. After giving it some time to warm up, just the metal frame feels pleasently cool when touched. In general the NO.1 Mi4 gives a very valuable impression for its price: The one piece metal frame is processed smooth and very nicely, also the side buttons are made from metal. The capacitve menu buttons Menu, Home and Back (all lighted) are placed on the bottom of the front side. On the top of the fron side the light and proximity sensor are placed. Below the Home button a notification LED is placed, which is not noticable when not lighted.
The volume rocker and the power button is placed on the right side. Both are made out of metal and have a nice pressure point.
The SIM tray is placed on the left side which can be opened with the delivered SIM-tool. At first I had some troubles inserting the SIM card into the phone, since the tray sticked out probably a half millimeter after I placed the SIM card in. After some careful grinding of the back from the SIM-card and slightly pushing the tray towards the back of the phone while inserting, the tray finally was flush to the device.
The micro USB is placed on the bottom beside the loudspeaker. The openings for the speaker are nicely processed.
On the top side the 3.5 mm headphone port and the IR-Blaster are placed. The IR-Blaster is not a mock up, it is fully functioning (see the review video).
UI/Android:
The NO.1 Mi4 comes with a preinstalled MIUI launcher, although no real MIUI. I personally like the launcher, even if it is not a full MIUI, since it mostly includes all Android features. Also no lags or crashes were noticed.
The Android version is a bit surprising: According to the specifications it should have Android 4.4.2 KitKat, but clicking several times on the model name reveals another version: Android 4.4.2 Jelly Bean ! Well, that's a bit refreshing . So obviously it is a fake version. The supposedly Android 4.4.2 KitKat is an Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean in reality.
Performance:
To get a rough idea about the performance the Antutu benchmark version 5 was executed. The benchmark returned a score of roughly 19500 points. Obviously this score can not be compared with the original Mi4, but still a good score for the combination of MTK6582 and 1 GB RAM. The NO.1 Mi4 should be fast enough for the majority of apps.
Memory:
The NO.1 Mi4 has a 16 GB memory. This memory is divided into internal and phone memory. The internal memory has a size of 1.06 GB, while the internal memory is 13.6 GB big. The internal memory is chosen kind of small and will be filled up quickly with apps. Right now Link2SD is enough for me, otherwise the memory can be partitioned new.
The phone does not have a microSD card slot.
The NO.1 Mi4's memory can be extended using external memory since it supports USB OTG (tested with an pendrive).
Camera:
You can see the camera pictures on my blog :
http://klonom.com/no-1-mi4-review/
Display:
The NO.1 Mi4 has a 5" IPS HD display (1280x720 resolution) which is an OGS. The display has vivid colors and a good constant viewing angle (see video review below).
Reception:
The reception is good and does not show any extraordinary problems. It supports the following bands (SIM1 & SIM2):
Sensors:
The Mi4 clone has four sensors in total: Light, proximity, magnetic field and acceleration. All are working and tested fully functional. Especially the light sensor worked exceptionally fast, without noticeable lag. Also the proximity sensor works reliable, the screen always turned off while calling.
GPS:
The first GPS fix out of the box was done after about half minute. After another half minute the accuracy went up to about 5 m. While using it for navigation, the GPS connection was lost several times. I will try to improve the GPS with some tweaks like adjusting the EPO etc. and report if it improved and working for navigation.
Misc:
The NO.1 Mi4 has a notification LED which supports the colors red, cyan, green, yellow and white. It has Google Apps preinstalled. The preinstalled MIUI launcher has root-access by default. The build-in battery has a capacity of 1800 mAh (the capacity was measured). The NO.1 has a working IR-Blaster (see the review video), also the remote control app is in English. The silicon case has a dust stop for the headphone and microUSB port.
Review Video:
Conclusion:
I am very convinced by the NO.1 Mi4. Not really much by the performance: For this price you can easily get a phone with better hardware specifications. But the Mi4 clone offers a very high valuable outer appearance - the complete outer feels like a flagship. And in 99% of my everyday use I do not need an octa core with 2 GB RAM. Also it is delivered with a generous collection of accessoires. All in all I can definitely recommend the NO.1 Mi4 for people searching for a budget price phone, but with the appearance of a high price phone.
Great review, thanks a lot. I love the MIUI-Rom and will give this clone a try. Did you find other ROMs for the NO.1 MI4?
dzendeh said:
Great review, thanks a lot. I love the MIUI-Rom and will give this clone a try. Did you find other ROMs for the NO.1 MI4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks ! But no, I think there are no alternative ROMs yet for the NO.1 Mi4 ...
I have a Question
What type of sim card i need for this phone? i am a Straight Talk user
ChrisO23 said:
What type of sim card i need for this phone? i am a Straight Talk user
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It uses a micro SIM card.
Like usual, you can read the whole review in a nicer format with all pictures in high quality on my blog :
http://klonom.com/cubot-zorro-review/
The Cubot Zorro is a budget smartphone with the Snapdragon 410 SoC, 5″ HD screen, LTE (with all relevant bands for Europe), 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM. We kindly received the Cubot Zorro from the Comebuy Online Shop. You can get the Cubot Zorro 001 for roughly 122€ plus sending and tax here at Comebuy at the moment.
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Like usual, lets start with the specifications.
Specifications:
-Snapdragon 410 SoC (with quadcore processor, each up to 1.2 GHz)
-Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS
-1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM
-MicroSD Slot
-13 MP back camera, 5 MP front camera
-5″ HD screen (1280×720)
-GPS
-Sensors: Accellerometer, Light, Proximity, Magnetic Field
-2200 mAh battery (measured)
-WiFi, Bluetooth
-2G Bands: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz-3G Bands: WCDMA(UMTS) 900/2100 MHz
-4G Bands: LTE 800/900/1800/2600 MHz
-Dual SIM (both micro SIM, one slot 2G, one slot 4G)
Items delivered:
The Cubot Zorro 001 is delivered in a black box which gives a very high valuable impression. On the box there are several letterings like “Keep in touch” which are written with a black shiny paint, which can only be seen when in direct light reflexion. In the box the folllowing accessoires are given beside the actual device and battery: A screen protection foil, a half transparent pastic back-shell, a quick-start guide, a USB data-/charging cable and a USB wall plug (5V, 1A). A small overview you can see in the next picture.
Unboxing Video:
First Impressions:
You directly notice the clean and simple design of the Cubot Zorro 001 already while unpacking it: The mobile has clean straight edges which are just slightly radiused. Also the Zorro is kept in a plain black design overall (at least at my black version ). The phone leaves a serious impression – no optical gadgetry or radiusments. It feels comparably valuable – no slits are recognizable in the cover. On the bottom front side the three capacitive buttons Menu, Home and Back (from left to right) can be found. These buttons have a backlight – unfortunately a bit unsymmetric lighted at our model (this is the only found deficit in the outer appearance so far).
The distinctively simple design is also applied to the volume rocker as well as to power button. These two are placed on the right side.
The left side is completely without any connectors or buttons.
The 3.5 mm headphone jack is found on the top side.
The MicroUSB is placed on the bottom side. This is always a small plus point for me since a USB jack on the top side often makes the mobile phone hard to use while charging.
On the back side you can find the camera lens together with the flash, openings for the loudspeaker and the Cubot logo. The backside feels slighty smooth with a silky-like covering. Unfortunately this material seems to attract fat from fingerprints nearly “magically”.
Underneath the backcover you can find the battery (what a surprise ), as well as the both Micro-SIM-Slots and the MicroSD-Slot.
UI/Android:
The Cubot Zorro 001 is delivered with an Android 4.4.4 KitKat stock rom. I personally like phones which are delivered with a vanilla Android. From one side because own modifications are probably less stressfull (like e.g. Xposed), from the other side because modified launchers are often delivered unready.
Performance:
To roughly determine the performance of the Cubot Zorro 001 the Antutu Benchmark V5.5 was executed. The benchmark returned a score of roughly 20000 points. Therewith the Zorro joins the “typical” performance group of upper class budget phones. The 20K score is not a high-performance score, but according to own experiences should be way enough for the majority of daily used apps, also in (of course somewhere limited) parallel using).
Memory:
The Zorro has an 8 GB ROM. The division between internal and phone memory, as well as the percentage of actually usable memory looks like the following:
-Internal Memory: 1.94 GB (1.76 GB usable)
-Phone Memory: 4.20 GB (fully usable)
-Total: 6.14 GB (5.96 GB usable)
The phone does not support USB OTG. It has a microSD-Slot to extend its memory.
Camera:
To check camera sample pictures and an evaluation of them, please visit my blog post :
http://klonom.com/cubot-zorro-review/
Sensors:
The Cubot Zorro 001 has four sensors in total: Light, Accelleration, Proximity and Magnetic Field. All sensors have been tested and are functioning. The light sensor is remarkably fast and also the automatic brightness from Android works well – in contrast to many Mediatek SoCs based smartphones.
GPS:
The first GPS fix was done in about 20s out of the cold state, while the accuracy improved up to 3 m in the next minute. The GPS Test app showed a nice GPS receiption: From the 18 used satellites nearly all of them showed a good SNR ratio. The test navigation confirmed the first impressions: The Cubot Zorro can be used very well to navigate. The GPS locations nearly never drifted off the course and also the “after-drifting” is neglible small. All in all: Thumbs up!
Battery:
According to specifications the Zorro 001 has a battery with a capacity of 2200 mAh. This was confirmed with the help of an own measuring of the battery capacity, the Cubot Zorro really has a battery capacity of 2200 mAh. The battery life is over a day with “average” using.
WiFi Receiption:
No special attributes at the WiFi receiption could be noticed, neither positive or extraordinary positive ones. The WiFi receiption is stable and no connection losses were experienced. To compare the receiption with other phones, the signal strength was measured with two other devices (NO.1 Mi4 and eFox Value C6) at the same spot with the app WiFi Analyzer.
From left to right: Cubot Zorro 001, NO.1 Mi4, EFox Value C6
Misc:
The Cubot Zorro 001 has a notification LED which works out-of-the-box as a such. It supports the colors Green, Red and Orange/Yellow (Green and Red at the same time). Google Apps are preinstalled. The phone is delivered in a non-rooted state and until now (16. Jan ’15) there are none known possibilities to me to root it.
Review Video:
Conclusion:
All in all I am very convinced by the price to value ratio of the Cubot Zorro. It has a serious and not too playfull design and enough power to use it as an everyday phone. The phone has a nice build quality and seems valuable. The camera is average, although for the price passable. In total it is a recommandable LTE phone in the lower price class.
Nice review, I also got one and am very pleased with the phone so far. What you say, the quality is good for its price. If you didn't have enough from this review you can find my review at Chinese-smartphones.com
Nice review indeed. I have two questions
1. Do you have experienced pressure damage on the screen? I have 2 bright white spots on the screen mainly noticible on light backgrounds.
2. For some reason my sensors are not working anymore. Any sensor app won't find any sensors or indicates that sensors are not supported. Could this be a software issue (runnibg build 09/rooted) or could it be a hardware issue. Phone may have encountered a spill of water.
Besides that great phone with very good GPS (which is stil working).
Looking forward to your reply.
FJP84 said:
Nice review indeed. I have two questions
1. Do you have experienced pressure damage on the screen? I have 2 bright white spots on the screen mainly noticible on light backgrounds.
2. For some reason my sensors are not working anymore. Any sensor app won't find any sensors or indicates that sensors are not supported. Could this be a software issue (runnibg build 09/rooted) or could it be a hardware issue. Phone may have encountered a spill of water.
Besides that great phone with very good GPS (which is stil working).
Looking forward to your reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry first of all for the belated answer. To your questions:
1. No, I did not experience any pressure damage on the screen yet. When did they appear?
2. I also did not experience or hear about that yet. To be honest, I think it could be both reasons (HW or SW). To exclude SW errors, I would do a factory reset, or maybe even flash a factory ROM from Cubot on it again to be sure. If the sensors still don't work then it will be most likely an HW issue.
And yes, the Zorro 001 has indeed a very decent GPS .
Need help.. please
Hey! I may have bricked my Cubot Zorro just by updating the firmware.. (I'm noob to all the geeky stuff). Can you help me here? Another member from this forum said that I need a "system dump from a working phone" to fix mine. Do you think you can help me with that?
Familotel said:
Hey! I may have bricked my Cubot Zorro just by updating the firmware.. (I'm noob to all the geeky stuff). Can you help me here? Another member from this forum said that I need a "system dump from a working phone" to fix mine. Do you think you can help me with that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw in your thread, that you were able to solve your problem. How could you fix it? It could be helpful to other people perhaps as well .
I'm not sure if this is but I think just a restart. It happend again and I just took the battery out and it booted. I wasn't at home to see if the partitions were magled like before. The cubot zorro 009 firmware is kinda buggy (or maybe just mine) cuz it randomly reboots. Well not really random. When I install some apps (especially root required apps). Managed to root it with cwm btw.
---------- Post added at 05:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 AM ----------
I decided to try and make it .. "block" it again (cuz it wasn't rlly bricked). It's just like before with 12 partitons and all of that. To anyone who has this problem just take out the battery and reboot. Sometimes it reboots 2 or more times over and over but it boots eventually. ReLLaY BUGGY.(To me found out that it happens EVERY time I update apps on google play. Very annoying.)
The whole review can be read in a nicer format with all pictures in high quality on my blog :
http://klonom.com/no-1-n4-review/
The NO.1 N4 (also known as the NO.1 Note 4) is a clone of the popular Galaxy Note 4 with an MT6582 SoC, 5.7″ HD Display, 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM. We kindly received the N4 from the GearBest Online Shop. It is available for about 109€ from here with the voucher code NO1JY .
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Spezifications:
-MTK 6582 SoC with Quadcore Processor (each up to 1.3 GHz)
-Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean (KitKat is fake)
-1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM
-8 MP back camera (13 MP interpoliert), 5 MP front camera
-5.7″ HD Display (1280×720)
-GPS
-Sensors: Light, Proximity, Acceleration
-1200 mAh battery (measured, supposed 2800 mAh is fake)
-WiFi, Bluetooth
-2G & 3G (WCDMA)
-USB OTG
-IR-Blaster
-Heartbeat Sensor
-Integrated Stylus
-Single SIM (micro SIM)
Items Delivered:
The NO.1 N4 comes within a white box with a NO.1 logo on it. Beside the actual phablet the following accessoires are included: An additional screen protection foil (one is already applied, bubble free ), an USB charger (5.3V, 1A), an USB data/charging cable and an User Guide on English. You can see an overview in the next picture:
Unboxing Video:
First Impressions:
First of all we were surprised to see the actual phone wrapped in a seperate bubble wrap bag in the box. Thumbs up here for the safe transport ! The device feels very valuable with a neat quality of manufacturing. Just like the original it has a metal frame and metal buttons. At our white version the frame also has been covered with white polish. The metal frame has been manufactured well and is flush at the borders. In direct comparison with the original phone nearly no significant differences can be found, also the weight is similiar. Just the backcover has a bit more grip than the original, which is more smooth,
On the bottom of the frontside the physical Home button can be found. Left and right beside this button the softkeys Back and Menu are placed. The Home button has a nice pressure point and sits tight in the socket. The softkeys have a white back illumination. On the top part the front camera, the light sensor and the proximity sensor can be found.
Like at the original Note 4 the Power button is also made from metal and placed on the right side. Like the volume rocker it hast a slight space in the socket, but still feels valuable in our opinion. No reason to be afraid that it will become more loose or similiar .
On the top side of the N4 the 3.5mm headphone jack and the IR-blaster are placed. This is just as in the NO.1 Mi4 not a mockup, but an actual (quite well) working IR-blaster. More on that in the later parts.
The bottom side contains (also just like the original) the MicroUSB port and the “S-Pen”. More details on that S-Pen imitation later.
On the backside of the phone you can find the camera, the flash, the heartbeat sensor and the speaker. “Original-backcovers” are fitting.
Below the backcover you can find the detachable battery, the MicroSIM as well as the MicroSD slot. Also contacts for Smartcovers are available. If these have the same functionality as with the original phone have not been tested.
All in all the the manufacturing looks very nice, thumbs up!
UI/Android:
According to the specifications, the NO.1 N4 is delivered with Android 4.4.4 KitKat. Similiar to the NO.1 Mi4 this is not true: The actual OS is Android 4.2 JellyBean, the KitKat incl. animation is fake.
The clone has a TouchWiz-(Copy?)-Interface. In a direct comparison to the real Note 4 it looks surprisingly similiar. Also the launcher itself runs surprisingly smooth, at least unless not too many background applications are opened. Of course the real launcher on the Note 4 runs way smoother – the cheap MT6582 can not compete with it. Alternative launchers like for example the Nova Launcher run very smooth, no lagging or bad performance could be noticed. Here are some impressions.
Performance:
The Note 4 clone is delivered with the well-tried MT6582 SoC and 1 GB RAM. This is also reflected by the Antutu Benchmark result. In the Antutu v5.6 benchmark the N4 returns a score of roughly 20000 points. For its price this is a medium score. For users with high demanding applications this will probably be not enouh, but for “average” user this performance should be enough for everyday use.
Memory:
According to specifications in the shop the NO.1 N4 has an 8 GB memory. Again, NO.1 tried to artifcially improve this a bit if you look closely at the Storage info in the settings:
Wow, over 12 GB of storage ! But wait, something’s weird with the division. A bit more clear picture is shown through the App Storage Partitions:
The main partitions are /data and /storage/sdcard0. In total these are roughly the parts (system partitions not included):
-/data Partition: 2,018 GB (1,777 GB usable)
-/sdcard0 Partition: 4,493 GB (full usable)
-Total: 6,511 (6,27 GB usable)
So the specifications given in the shop are correct. The N4 also supports external storage extension via USB OTG. Beside it also has a MicroSD slot.
Camera:
...check my Blog Post for sample pictures of the camera and a conclusion of them
http://klonom.com/no-1-n4-review/
Sensors:
In the App “Sensor Toolbox” the following sensors are shown: accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, sound and magnetic field. But the magnetic field sensor and the orientation sensor do not return any values, probably these ones are actually not existent sensors. All other sensors have been tested successfully.
GPS:
One of the two major drawbacks of the NO.1 N4 is the GPS. A fix was just successful after several tries and a long time – and then still everything beside stable and exact. At its best the GPS can only be used for a rough locationing, not for navigation.
Battery:
As just discussed the GPS, the battery is the second drawback of the N4. Officially it has a battery with a capacity of 2800 mAh, also the label on the battery states this. But already the relatively short battery runtime lets you have doubts about the correctness of this specification. Two times measuring reveals the actual battery capacity of roughly 1200 mAh. With this capacity the battery barely enough for a day with low usage. Who is ready to invest roughly 15€ more can try a Galaxy Alpha battery: This one has a battery of about 1800-2000 mAh and should be fitting after a small fixing.
Supported Bands:
The following frequency bands are supported by the NO.1 N4:
Other Features:
The number of implemented features actually surprised us. For example the “Air Gesture” which is supported in the home screen and menu works reliably well (see review video). Also “Smart Wakeup” is included: From a predefined list of patterns you can choose the linked app, which is started when you draw the pattern on the display when the phone is in standby.
Also the already mentioned IR-blaster convinced us with its strength. We could not make a difference between the N4 and the original remote control: from all angles and distances they worked the same well. Even the “Learning function” works. If you can not find your wanted device from the actually quite long list, the N4 can “learn” from the original remote. Therefor just point the original remote at the IR port of the N4 in the learning mode while pressing the button.
The NO.1 N4 also has a heartbeat sensor. At this point we are still not 100% sure how reliable the actual data from this sensor is. Anyhow, after several test measurings the sensor seems to return reasonable values (manually counted were similiar). Since this could still be the result of random occasion, we do not want to give a guarantuee here that the sensor has to be real, but at this point we take it as existent and working.
Beside that, the N4 also comes with an S-Pen Imitation. This can be used as a normal stylus, but it does not reach the sensibility and accuracy of the original one.
Misc:
The N4 has a notification LED with 3 colors (red, green and blue) at the top left which works out of the box as a such. Google Apps are preinstalled. The smartphone is delivered in a not rooted state, but can be easily rooted via Framaroot (Barahir method).
Review Video:
Conclusion:
If you are interested in a Note 4 clone, meaning you’re into the design and feeling of the original Note 4 but do not need the same performance (and are ok with a bad GPS and battery), then we can definitely recommend the NO.1 N4. It has its downsides at the GPS and battery, but offers great quality in manufacturing and haptic. Of course there are phones with a higher performance for the price of the N4, but for clone ratios the N4 has a decent quality.
Update: There is MIUI version for the NO.1 N4 which seems quite smooth and reliable after the first testing. I will upload impressions and informations on the battery life soonish.
I made a short video where you can see a rough overview of the MIUI ROM:
In general I like the MIUI ROM way more than the original TouchWiz clone one. It works pretty nice and (nearly) everything is implemented (except of the IR-Blaster), also the Home button.
Hi
You wrote try to use Galaxy Alpha battery? Why not use NOTE 4 original battery or Replacement battery for Note 4?
The 5 inch Blueboo Xtouch regroups features that are normally found only in the larger devices: Fingerprint sensor, Octa-core processor, Android 5.1, 3GB RAM, FHD display, ...
The 3 previous smartphones I reviewed were MTK6752-based, and while being good performers, only THL managed to produce a decent device around it. I don't known if Mediatek is to blame for not providing proper drivers or if Ulefone and Elephone just suck at implementing them correctly.
I also keep in mind that the two aforementioned brands shamelessly lied on the true specification of their "flagships".
I paid a particular attention to how Bluboo delivered the features advertised for their XTouch with the newer MTK6753.
Main Features of BLUBOO XTOUCH:
Display: 5.0 inch FHD Screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 5 points multi-touch.
CPU: MTK6753 64bit Octa Core 1.3GHz
GPU: Mali-T720
System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
RAM + ROM: 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM
Camera: Front 8.0MP (OmniVision) + Rear 13.0MP Sony IMX214
Sensor： Light sensor, G-sensor, P-sensor
Fingerprint Recognition
Bluetooth: BT4.0
GPS: GPS/A-GPS/Glonass
OTG: Support
SIM Card: Dual SIM dual standby, dual Micro SIM cards
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 850/900/2100MHz
4G: LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
Battery: 3050mAh
Note: There's no gyroscope although some shops are mistakenly advertising it.
First look:
The phone comes in a nice and tight packaging that gave me some troubles to open without destroying the box. With the phone comes a charger, a USB cable and a small first use guide.
The phone itself looks nice and feels sturdy. First good point: it's a 5 inch, not a huge phablet, and nevertheless it comes with strong specification.
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The design is sober and the only fantasy is the shiny pattern on the rear plastic cover. This soft cover is fixed and there's no access to the battery.
The Micro-SIM cards and MicroSD memory goes into a 3-in-1 drawer that opens with the pin provided, but a finger nail can do the job because the drawer sticks out a bit (flushing rigid piece of metal within a soft surface is obviously a design challenge).
Interface, connectivity and sensors
On the hardware side, the volume and power buttons are on the right side and the fingerprint scanner is also the central button separating the Menu (left side) and Back (right side) unlabelled but illuminated soft buttons. The micro-USB (not a USB-C) is located on the bottom edge.
On the software side, the AOSP ROM provides easy access to all the features of Android 5.1
The notification LED can be customized with different color based on the type of event.
No pairing issue with Bluetooth 4.0 and quick GPS positioning (I did a few trips with this phone using Google Maps).
Wi-Fi also turns out to work great with a slightly better range than my Xperia Z (also a 5 inch phone).
The phone is delivered with the firmware build:
C220 C83A BLBOO Xtouch 20151111_c220v53_hhwy
and comes with a real Android 5.1 (Build ID is LMY47D corresponds to android-5.1.0_r1)
A first OTA update was released in December:
C220 C83A BLBOO Xtouch 20151130_c220v53_hhwy
The may noticable difference was that Xender did not crash at launch anymore.
HotKnot: If you need NFC, buy a Snapdragon-based phone instead. Mediatek decided to push their own cheaper close-proximity transfer method, called HotKnot. However, it definitely does not come near NFC is terms of possible applications.
Off-Screen Gesture (Draw a symbol anywhere while screen is off to launch an app) and Gesture Sensing (wave over the proximity sensor to trigger simple actions like: take a picture, or slide to the next photo) are little extras that may please some users.
One-Touch Fingerprint Scanner: This is my only bad surprise for the moment.
This type of fingerprint scanner does not require any swap but just to leave the finger on the central button. One of the first phone to bring that was the Ulefone Be Touch where it worked like a charm, but the Xtouch gives very random results, with a high rate of failure. Unlike the Ulefone scanner which allowed to scan fingers in any position, this one requires to observe the same position as during the fingerprint registration process. However, even when observing that requirement, the success rate is way too low to allow a normal use.
I'm using the Face-Unlock (now called Trusted Faces in Lollipop's Smart Lock feature) which at least is surprisingly reliable (as long as I shave regularly...)
Memory and Storage:
beside the comfortable 3GB RAM capacity is a 32GB internal storage space. The actual formatted capacity is 26GB. There's no bloatware and the only extra to the bare AOSP Android is Xender, a cross-platform file sharing app.
Screen quality
The FHD display is superb with vibrant colors and sharp details. In my opinion, there's no need activate Mediatek' MiraVision enhancements here.
Camera:
The rear camera is based on a Sony IMX214, giving 13.0 MP f2.0. I don;t know why they need to provide an interpolated 16.0 MP resolution, but it's there. The powerful dual LED flash that does a great job from a distance.
I found the pictures generally good-looking and colorful. Zooming on the small details will reveal the obvious artefact from the attempt to over-sharpening. Purple fringing is expectedly present but not excessive.
The factory camera app must be limiting the potential of this sensor which is striking when comparing to an
The results are overall comparable to other IMX214 using the factory camera app I tested previously...good but not amazing. Major brands (Xperia ZL with"Superior Auto" mode and comparable IMX135) do much better with their dedicated app.
The front 8.0MP (OmniVision) is perfect for selfies and face unlock.
Be aware that MiraVision display enhancements may adversely affect how the camera pictures look on screen.
Sound quality:
The speaker output is located on the bottom right, between the USB port and the microphone.
The sound quality is good as long as you don't push the volume. Unlike many rivals, the Xtouch has no problem being loud, even without the help of BesLoudness feature, but the whole phone will resonate like a plastic shell.
Performance: I had low expectation from this phone, knowing that the MTK6753 (1.5Ghz) is in fact a cut down version of the MTK6752 (1.7Ghz), and not only for the clock frequency (see here for a comparison of chipsets )
As expected, Geekbench gives an modest score of 619/2661 compare to a MTK6752 (1.7Ghz, typical score: 800/4000). The Antutu score was 38144.
Not to say that the performance is not adequate: Demanding games like Need for Speed No Limits run perfectly fine with not lag. A bit of heat is generated on heavy use but nothing unusual.
Battery:
Many phone brands exaggerate their battery capacity and the 3050mAh announced for the XTouch caused some scepticism.
I must agree with other reviews reporting about 13 hours of battery life.
Maybe that's the price to pay for an FHD panel...
The quick charging feature is more than welcome in that case (about 1h to full charge, like the BeTouch2).
Accessories:
The phone is a fingerprint and dust magnet. Fortunately there are good dedicated accessories to reduce that problem:
The Cover Case (to be tested soon) is an absolute must to keep the soft back cover from scratches. Good point: It allows to take calls without lifting the flap cover.
Also, by experience, the Tempered Glass Protector is a better option to the pre-installed plastic filter (less finger traces, nicer touch feeling).
Conclusion:
Yessss! 5-inchers are back...at last!
It's nice to see a Mediatek phone done right for once. It might not be a performance beast in the benchmarks, but it did well with the heavy games I could throw at it and, so far, all the features advertised are present and working fine, with the exception of the unreliable fingerprint scanner.
The build quality is good, and Bluboo did not mess up the software, unlike other brands I've seen.
Is it "the best 5 inch smartphone so far" as the advertising says? Well, in that price range, and amongst the existing offer of 5-inchers it is probably true.
I would qualify the XTouch as an honest product, which it's rare enough nowadays, and can definitely recommend this very good and complete device.
Out of any promotion, the Xtouch is sold at Mod edit by @Darth : link to selling site removed.
I suggest to consider spending the extra 11€ for the cover case in your purchase.
Pros:
- Stable and clean firmware with all functionalities operational
- Nice looking device with dedicated accessories available
- Comfortable storage capacity
- Good Wifi reception range
- True Lollipop 5.1
Cons:
- Battery life correct but below expectations for a 3050mAh
- Good camera but not exceptional
- Unreliable Fingerprint scanner
[See my blog for the full review]
Xtouches shipping now seem to churn Antutu 45-48,000. Great price/performance/quality.