Got this octa core beast really looks like iPhone6-Cubot X9 - Android General

I got this amazing phone days ago from some Chinese seller. Not a famous one, called.Cubot X9 But it looks pretty like iPhone6. Ok, i will just show you the phone first. And the full sepcs are also listed below for your reference.
Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
WCDMA 3G 850/2100MHz
Sim Card Dual SIM Card Dual Standby(One Micro SIM Card)
Service Provide Unlocked
OS:Android 4.4 kitkat OS
CPU:MTK6592M Octa core processor, 1.4GHz Processor
ROM 16GB
RAM 2GB
Display Size 5.0 Inch
Type IPS ,HD Capacitive Touch Screen
Resolution 1280 x 720 pixels HD screen
Camera/Picture Resolution Back 13.0 MP, Back 8.0 MP Front 5.0 MP, Interpolated 8MP
2200Mah batter
It has a full metal body which looks pretty fancy and the ultra-thin design makes the phones is only 6.9mm. See? So much exquisite. I've chosen the gold version, thought it would be more classic and stylish.
Apart from the exterior, Cubot X9 also provides excellent specs.It has a 5.0inch HD screen and the touch panel works pretty well. Powered by octa core processor and 2GB RAM, the phone runs really fast as you can imagine. And the operating system-Android4.4 which has a simple UI looks pure and clean. The 2GB RAM really surprised me at the price.
The webstore said the cameras are 5.0MP front camera(interpolated 8.0MP)+8.0MP rear camera(interpolated 13.0MP). I'm not sure what it exactly means. But they basically satisfy my daily use. And the back camera did not leave a bump on the back. A little bit disappointed at the battery, 2200mAh. I thought i would ran out fast. But out of my suspect that the battery life is ok. I had it then at $150 and it's been some time.

How have you been finding it so far, now that you've had it for a month? Gearbest has it on for $130 with free shipping right now, and the only thing keeping me from getting it is that 2200 mAh battery.
(Edited to add: this is probably a shill post, now that I re-read it... But that's ok - anybody else have any experience with it?).

WearySky said:
How have you been finding it so far, now that you've had it for a month? Gearbest has it on for $130 with free shipping right now, and the only thing keeping me from getting it is that 2200 mAh battery.
(Edited to add: this is probably a shill post, now that I re-read it... But that's ok - anybody else have any experience with it?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WearySky said:
How have you been finding it so far, now that you've had it for a month? Gearbest has it on for $130 with free shipping right now, and the only thing keeping me from getting it is that 2200 mAh battery.
(Edited to add: this is probably a shill post, now that I re-read it... But that's ok - anybody else have any experience with it?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must agree with Mr. Wetty, i just bought one five days ago, and the phone is blazing fast with no lag what so ever. decent camera for this budget and i was extremely impressed with video recording. the sound is pretty much ok.
the only problem that i have is that battery is draining like i have never seen before, even in idile mode,
Last night around 11 P:M i went to sleep with 86% wirless off, location off, 3G off, to tell the truth i think i set all off, and woke up this morning with 17 %..
i will try to collect some screrenshots(stil,l dont know how to do them on cubot X9) and will try to post new thread. something is eating battery all the time at least the model that i got. except from that the thing is great. i tryed to surf web to see if anyone else had a same stuff and sadly i found only one hungary forum where some of the people reported a same issue ( thankfully the chrome translate do the job)
h**p://itcafe.hu/tema/cubot_x9_velemenyek/hsz_51-100.html

tindrli said:
I must agree with Mr. Wetty, i just bought one five days ago, and the phone is blazing fast with no lag what so ever. decent camera for this budget and i was extremely impressed with video recording. the sound is pretty much ok.
the only problem that i have is that battery is draining like i have never seen before, even in idile mode,
Last night around 11 P:M i went to sleep with 86% wirless off, location off, 3G off, to tell the truth i think i set all off, and woke up this morning with 17 %..
i will try to collect some screrenshots(stil,l dont know how to do them on cubot X9) and will try to post new thread. something is eating battery all the time at least the model that i got. except from that the thing is great. i tryed to surf web to see if anyone else had a same stuff and sadly i found only one hungary forum where some of the people reported a same issue ( thankfully the chrome translate do the job)
h**p://itcafe.hu/tema/cubot_x9_velemenyek/hsz_51-100.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't overly impressed with the camera at all, at least not in low light. Some of those battery saving apps (like Deep Sleep Battery Saver) seem to work well for preserving battery life, though.
Oh, and for screenshots... I believe three-finger-swipes work for screen captures.

WearySky said:
I wasn't overly impressed with the camera at all, at least not in low light. Some of those battery saving apps (like Deep Sleep Battery Saver) seem to work well for preserving battery life, though.
Oh, and for screenshots... I believe three-finger-swipes work for screen captures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will try. thanx for answer

I just got one too from http://smartchine.fr/smartphone-chinois-5-6-pouces/41-cubot-x9.html
I use the REDUC48H promo code for -5€, i'll use this some days to have an idea about performance and battery and I let you know
thank you for this post.

tindrli said:
will try. thanx for answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you concerning the camera, for me the pictures turn green except for 2 mp size and less but when i set the size to 3 mp and above the pictures turn green, or when i zoom in i get the same problem. the quality is not really good, the clors are very bad. currently I am using the app "a better camera" to raise the quality of the pictures to 8 mp the maximum.
in addition to three fingers yo can press the -volume botton and the power button simultaneously.
please help if there is any solution for the camera issue be it an app or whatever :good:

Related

Neken N6S - Review (MT6592, 2/16GB, 5.0" 1080p, 3000mAh)

Introduction:
Hi,
been looking around for a while but not much attention seems to be given to Mediatek phones here on XDA.
I got one anyway since the performance seems to be rather good and compared to some brands that are well established in the 1st and 2nd world the Mediatek phones are sometimes even better. (Sorry Sony! But your TN displays are horrid.)
Picked Neken N6S from other available competitors in the price range of $200 - $250 shipped to Europe.
More about competitors and different options later.
Specifications:
Neken N6S
2GB DDR2 RAM
16GB ROM = 2GB app space, 12GB user space, ...
MT6592
3000mAh (optional), 2000mAh (default)
Notification LED: Yes
OS.: Android 4.2.2
Dual Sim (2 full sized SIMs, no micro or nano crap)
Display: IPS, 5.0", 1920x1080
Multitouch: 5 point
OGS: Yes
OTG: Yes
Dimensions: 141.7x70.5x10.9mm (2000mAh, presented)
Dimensions: 142x71x11.9mm (3000mAh, real measured, larger battery adds 1mm of thickness, rest is as precise as I can get but it's quite close to presented dimensions)
Weight: 165g (presented)
F. cam: 8.0 Mpx
R. cam: 13.0 Mpx
CPU: 8x1.66 Ghz
GPU: Mali-450 MP4 (MP4 = 4 cores, basically 4 Mali-400 cores)
GPS, A-GPS (no Glonass on Mediatek)
SD card size: supposedly up to 64 GB
Gravity sensor: Yes
Proximity sensor: Yes
Light sensor: Yes
Compass: Yes
WiFi: b/g/n (yes N as well)
Bluetooth: Yes (4.0, but dunno how to verify)
2G: 850/900/1800/1900
3G: 2100 (been to a screen that shows the bands, but don't know how to get there again, if it was some app or settings menu option, there were some other 3G bands but I can't test them, it all works on 2100 MHz here.)
Package:
Bought from Neken on aliexpress/alibaba. (Yes, from Neken directly it seems, hence the option to get the larger battery without buying the standard one as well and lower price due to avoiding resellers aka websites that resell phones)
Price: $238.4 including DHL (3 days shipping, arrived in 2.5 days once DHL had it in hands), excluding tax.
Total price: cheaper than Motorola Moto G 16GB single SIM, cheaper than Sony Xperia SP, cheaper than Samsung Galaxy S3, ... I say it's a steal if it will work at least for a couple years :good:
Contents:
Neken N6S, extended battery back cover, 3000mAh battery, screen protector installed, 2 spare screen protectors, clear hard case (fits only standard battery, not the extended 3000mAh), 1.0A charger (got US plug, probably only US plug available, should work with an adapter in EU too, don't have adapter yet), headphones (better than the ones I have from Nokia), USB cable for charging and connecting to PC, manual (Chinese and English if I remember correctly), ...
Bought separately:
Clear TPU case for Neken N6. Yes everything from N6 fits N6S, more importantly the TPU case can also be used with the extended 3000mAh battery
They will tell you it can't be, it was designed for the standard 2000mAh battery, but I risked it and got it anyway.
The case fits, to my surprise the backside and whole case is not thin, it could be 2mm thick so it does not really stretch but it fits anyway, it's snug but it locks on all 4 corners no problem and all the edges lock as well.
Pictures:
Unprocessed pictures.
New, with dust under the screen protector, fixed it later.
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My camera lying with it's lens on the screen and focused to 0.
Pictures with the clear TPU case, IPS viewing angles:
Yes the buttons are separate, not on screen
And unobtrusively illuminated when touched. They are touch buttons below the screen. That means you get true 1920x1080px of screen estate to use. Darn it, forgot to zoom the wallpaper.
The back.
Almost default home screen.
Tests:
Real tests, done by me. Want some other? Let me know.
Click the picture to view full size, kept them original at 1920x1080px PNG.
Some are done without limited CPU some maybe with, I limit the CPU by default to save battery.
All done at 1920x1080px (unless benchmark forced it otherwise), 1080p is really taxing for mobile GPUs.
Nenamark v2.4:
FPS: 55 - 57fps
Antutu v4:
unlimited CPU: 25 - 26k
limited CPU: 24 - 25k
Antutu device info:
Antutu 3D Rating v4.00:
2494
Epic Citadel:
HQ: 37.0 fps
HP: 39.8 fps
3D Mark 1.2:
Ice storm unlimited: 6947
Ice storm extreme: 3754
Ice storm: 5313
GFXBench:
T-Rex: 8.7 fps
Quadrant:
Score: 12858
CPU: 53202
RAM: 4015
I/O: 4548
2D: 224
3D: 2301
LCD Tester 3.8.3:
Refresh rate: 57Hz
Yellow can be a little to the green side on lowest brightness.
Blacks are enhanced, it seems to hit the limit at 10 or 11 which looks black.
White seems to be alright, goes all the way and only 255 looks like pure white, 254 can be distiguished.
Gamma looks like 1.4, but it doesn't seem off to me. Yes the blacks can be seen sometimes as dark but that's about it.
GPS Test:
No signal inside a concrete building.
All tests outside walking on a road, field, forest.
Strength usually around 30. Probably doesn't go over 40. Is it good or bad?
Lock time after a fresh start usually 20 - 70s. If it had GPS lock before, then it locks instantly.
Some apps are better than other when it comes to getting a location.
Speedtest:
WiFi connected to an old router with WiFi N, 65 Mbps.
30/30 Mbps network connection.
The phone maxes it no problem to 30/30 Mbps.
Pros & cons:
Decent screen, maximum size of 5.0" that I found still pocketable and usable one handed although two hands are more comfy.
1080p can be a bit hard on the GPU when gaming but even Real Racing 3 runs fine on the default high setting. I turned it down all the way to low but it wasn't a slideshow on the default high setting either. Other games ok as well graphic performance wise, but most are boring.
It is truly a shame game developers forget to give users the basic graphic configuration settings so one could easily in-game change to lower resolution, some offer lower graphic details.
Device did not come rooted.
With 3000mAh battery it can play 4.5h of 1080p 8bit video/movies using MX Player HW+ video decoding and software audio decoding, movies are standard PC quality, around 3-4GB each, no low bitrate things but just small enough to fit on FAT32. This is played at FULL brightness, with headphones, cellphone ON (3G), WiFi OFF, BT OFF, location OFF, Clear Motion ON, CPU saving ON. Does not get hot with HW decoding.
Can also play 20 Mbps 1080p 8bit videos using HW decoding. And movies encoded in 1080p 10bit via software decoding but it is using the CPU quite a bit, it has the power to decode it smoothly though.
It is 4h of playback to hit 15% warning and then another nearly 30min to hit 4% warning.
Playing a lower complexity video at minimum brightness it would last "forever" (that's what GSM arena uses for their crappy testing, SD video and airplane mode, etc.).
The OS seems to have a few enhancements, Clear Motion that makes playing video smoother, I don't know how, but it could be interpolating frames to get higher framerate. It really works and a low fps footage from a camera plays more smoothly with it.
I use it.
Next are two audio enhancements, first works IMHO as a equalizer when headphones are plugged in and enhances middle frequencies.
The speaker booster seems as a normalization and makes quiet things more loud which can be useful for movies and playing them without a boost in the video player. But this works everywhere, even for playing songs where it is noticeable too I think.
I don't use the earphone enhancer but I do use the speaker booster since the speaker is not extremely loud.
Headphones are a bit the opposite, I basically use minimum volumes with the two headphones I have.
Device info:
Front camera is not very good, I would not say it has 8Mpx but maybe 5Mpx but still nothing spectacular in terms of noise.
Rear camera is ok, 13Mpx seems real, since the lens is tiny and all that jazz of phone camera is there and it will never measure up to a decent compact camera. Think what you want but iPhone's camera sucks too. Don't expect wonders. Camera operation seems as fluid as I've experienced on Samsung Galaxy S4. The burst shooting mode is fast, I mean it really is fast and much faster than my older compact camera. Focusing is alright, nothing bad. It can track objects too if you like that. Panorama, HDR and so on. Flash is fine, can't compare to other phones.
Rear camera is protected if you use the extended back cover with larger battery, the lens is not sticking out anymore. With the TPU case on the lens is sunk inside.
Touchscreen is ok but rarely some applications seem to have an issue. Real Racing 3 likes to lose touch for gas pedal when holding it down for minutes during some races, RR3 also rarely loses orientation which means no steering or no steering to one side. ON/OFF of RR3 fixes it. LCD Tester today acted up in one of it's tests by moving to the next like if I touch it. Strange because there were no ghost? touches anywhere else at the moment when I moved around but only in that test. So go figure I think the touchscreen is alright, just some applications are not very good at handling the controls.
Screen looks nice, not over saturated, yay! The blacks are a little enhanced though. Whites are fine.
Screen is usable whole, no software buttons. At 1920x1080px (440 PPI) it is impossible to see the individual pixels as close as I can focus. Nice to read text like ebooks and websites. Brightness is alright during the day, outside, I would prefer lower minimum though but doubt any phone goes that low by default.
SD card works, use my older 8GB card, lost some screenshots and such since it crashed but after reformatting it in the phone itself it works alright so far. Will replace it with a bigger and newer one, it did act up in my older phone too.
App space is 2GB and I did not manage to fill it yet and I did install lots of things to try them out.
2GB RAM seems alright, probably even 1.5GB RAM would be ok, but 1GB for Android seems a little bit small if one uses the smartphone a lot, like gaming especially or web browsing.
16GB ROM has nearly 12GB user usable and it is enough space for me especially since I can add as much as I like via an SD card.
Buttons work alright, they do have a tactile feedback, for me it could be stronger but that's me used to robust buttons
Proximity sensor only recognizes near and far, works fine to turn off the screen when calling.
Light sensor works fine but seems to have only about 8 levels approximately/guessing, at least that's what apps show.
Compass works, which is something not all Mediatek phones have.
All the other sensor goodies are there, see Antutu device info.
Phone charges alright via USB from PC, can be turned into charge only and charges best when not being drained at the same time, so of course it charges fastest when it's off, or screen is off, WiFi off, etc.
Not sure it supports fast charging, don't have a fast charger or know how it may detect fast charging on the charger. Had it plugged to a 30A USB port but it has data lines disconnected, no fast charging happened.
Calls are definitely better than my old phone, not very loud which is a shame but the audio is clear and has a decent quality compared to older phones.
Calls and playing music seems alright and does not drain much.
Screen and CPU/GPU hungry applications are the main cause of battery drain then having unnecessary connections enabled, like WiFi, BT, GPS.
TPU case fits both standard and extended battery variant. You just have to find a seller of the color option you like.
So far, 3 weeks later, I am satisfied and find no bugs in the phone.
Build quality is good as I have nothing to complain about. Compared to other phones, I've seen/had similar quality from Nokia.
Bezels are small, spaces between parts are minimal and only sometimes the plastic bulges a tiny tiny bit around the middle close to the buttons on the side. But this took me some time to find out by gliding my fingers around the phone. Had similar thing on a Nokia phone, that's just how plastic works. Back cover snaps well and holds. Phone seems to be all around plastic except the front where the screen is and I guess the black around the display is some metal. Paint seem good. The white back is painted as well and looks a little pearl like if you know what I mean. So it is not just pure white "ugly" plastic.
Installed screen protector was probably put by the seller and it had 3 dust particles under it. Cleaned it up later in my very dusty place, no idea how am I going to ever install a screen protector here, this certainly ain't dust free place
The protector is matte but I got used to it. The screen is glossy though.
No idea if any of the 3 spare screen protectors I have are glossy. But they are two different types/styles/source than the one that is on the phone. Got 2 with the package as gift and another one surprisingly with the TPU case.
GUI has app drawer and holding the home button brings the fake process manager I guess it's called nearly useless app manager that allows you to switch between apps but will not fully/truly close or kill apps if you remove them from there.
Other options:
Jiayu G4S MT6592, 2/16GB, 3Ah - not available at the time, didn't want to wait for it even though I knew it's gonna come out in April with G5S, seeing how overpriced and out of stock Jiayu phones can be I gave it a pass and the price may jump up after the initial sale of the first batch.
iOcean X7S MT6592, 2/16GB, 3Ah - more expensive, weird option for 3000mAh battery resulting in a possible Frankenstein.
Motorola Moto G - difficult to buy in Europe, only single SIM, no SD card, only 1GB RAM, ... seems like unfair comparison with MT6592 phones but Moto G costs more than them.
Sony Xperia SP - the display on most Sony phones is an old and outdated TN panel with poor viewing angles, had it in my hands and it felt like the same poor display I had on my Nokia E51, even more expensive than Moto G, $300 or so.
Jiayu G4 MT6589T, 2/32GB - was a tempting option at the time, for $226 but a wait for G4S would be wiser.
...
Picked it because it has MT6592 with 2GB RAM and a big 3000mAh battery.
The only other option was iOcean X7S which this told to be a clone of or some such, anyway, iOcean is more expensive and the 3000mAh option is Frankensteined on it I think.
Jiayu makes the only other 3000mAh phones but G4S got released only yesterday and I did not feel like waiting another month, waited long enough already. G4 platform is a nice phone but seeing how long it takes Jiayu to adopt new technologies and how out of stock and overpriced it can be I gave it a pass and did not wait for G4S. It is definitely more boxy like an iPhone is. With smaller screen it is easier to carry around but also harder to work on since the screen is smaller and yes it is noticeable, plus it may not be as good for reading due to lower PPI, still decent though. I would see G4S as a main competitor unless it's price goes up too much after the initial sold out.
G5S is probably fine too but one pays considerably more for the metal body.
At 5.0" or with 1080p, this is IMHO the only option right now when it comes to bigger battery. Unless of course you like the bigger battery option and higher price of iOcean X7S.
Update: Similar package of Jiayu G4S costs around $232 + shipping + tax.
From my POV, it's either G4S or N6S depending on how big a screen you want and if you want 720p or 1080p.
Would not opt out of a decent battery if you use the phone frequently. The cell standby and screen eat power plus does anything that uses the CPU/GPU a lot (games).
Clarifications:
Goal:
sub $300 total price
bigger than 2200mAh battery
decent CPU&GPU
minimal dimensions height and width wise
unlimited thickness since I do not care about thinness war and will rather have a device that runs for several days than a paper thin phone that lasts me a couple hours
no bigger than 5.0" = still pocketable and usable by one hand only
working GPS
decent build quality
English as second language, feel free to point out errors. Surprised?
Vellamo:
HTML 5: 1971
Metal: 622
Sample photos, rear camera:
Panorama:
HDR:
If there is light and the object is still the ISO is low and noise is down, but if the ISO goes up then as always with any mobile camera the noise gets in there. Not something that can't be removed in post processing though. As said before, no phone will match a compact camera, physically impossible. And even most/all compact cameras suffer from noise at higher ISO.
---
Reserved for updates and rooting.
gps
As far as Europe is concerned you have to apply a gps fix
in order to let your gps work correctly.
I followed some instructions on youtube and the result is very good.
Type "android gps fix" on youtube...
root to 4.4.2
hello i want to ask if i can update form 4.2.2 to 4.4.2 android .
Have you found any method to root the phone? I bought one as well, and I need to root it, but haven't found any method to do that so far.
koniaris1980 said:
As far as Europe is concerned you have to apply a gps fix
in order to let your gps work correctly.
I followed some instructions on youtube and the result is very good.
Type "android gps fix" on youtube...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I might try it as the initial lock does take some time that I think shouldn't be necessary.
makrotrela said:
hello i want to ask if i can update form 4.2.2 to 4.4.2 android .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dunno, I have not had the need to mess with the phone on lower than application level yet.
What would the advantage of having 4.4 kitkat be?
4.2.2 is the most common, all apps work.
I don't think there are any Chinese Kitkat phones, or only a couple of questionable source/quality.
Legdotus said:
Have you found any method to root the phone? I bought one as well, and I need to root it, but haven't found any method to do that so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me check, I have not rooted it since I found I don't need root really, maybe when I do more with the phone from a programming POV.
Any tool used for MTK6592 should do the trick to root it.
Often they are chinese tools, I downloaded some for sure.
There is a thread about Jiake X3S, I think there is info about rooting MTK6592.
I have VRoot here from several sources and also MTK Droid tools. Probably the most reliable for MTK phones. Also framaroot but don't know about it. Search and you will find, it should be the same for all MTK6592 phones to get root. Shops often sell phones rooted or with optional root.
---
Phone works fine so far. Real racing still is not as great to control on occasions, no idea if it's a game issue or the controls freezer sometimes as I may lose steering or holding the gas down turns off. But the screen works fine anywhere else.
Most draining is when one fiddles with the phone, not even as much playing a video with HW acceleration, but moving screens and starting, opening, closing, browsing. Apart from heavy 3D gaming of course, that's the biggest battery eater.
Oh BTW, the charger works fine, got a socket adapter from US to EU and works really well, better than USB charging from a computer I think. There must be some trick to allow fast charging over 500mA. Probably the data wires shorted but haven't tried that with my home made USB power supply.
Engineering mode, type: *#*#3646633#*#*
Finally got there again, works for MTK phones.
Trying to update the files manually. Like this.
► How to fix / repair GPS on Chinese smartphones - MTK6592 6589 GPS FIX - S4 jiayu G4 Umi X2 [HD]
Doesn't seem to do anything. Had to create the data folder and I doubt it check the data folder for EPO updates.
The MTKGPS app needs root.
The only thing I find dissatisfactory is the initial fix delay. But I bet it's present on any other phone in this area. Still get an alright signal of 25-35 in GPS test and in debug it does list around 9 satellites.
Legdotus said:
Have you found any method to root the phone? I bought one as well, and I need to root it, but haven't found any method to do that so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have rooted in two seconds using
Framaroot-1.0.9.apk
Guyz .....
i have Neken N6 and i really love this device, but accidentally broke the screen glass and the top left corner ,, everything is extremely working but im not liking to use the device with this small scratch on it , i looked around to but screen assembly but i didn't found, does anybody know where can i get the screen replacement ?...
Thank you
Yung-M said:
Guyz .....
i have Neken N6 and i really love this device, but accidentally broke the screen glass and the top left corner ,, everything is extremely working but im not liking to use the device with this small scratch on it , i looked around to but screen assembly but i didn't found, does anybody know where can i get the screen replacement ?...
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it from Neken via Alibaba/Aliexpress so if anyone is going to have replacement parts it's going to be them since they make and sell the phones.
If I were you I would look there and their homepage to find their contacts and talk to the people, they will not have it listed for sell in the shops probably but could offer it to you if you ask.
I got that way the bigger battery and cover instead of the stock one when ordering my phone, you just have to ask.
Anyone saw an Android update to higher version? Probably not but doesn't hurt to check.

iOcean G7 review

*Moved from different thread - this suits better*
Hello everyone,
just made this review about the iOcean G7 a while ago. I cannot post any links or videos yet so I made a small site, for the single purpose it looks a bit better and I can post the photo's and video I made. chinahardware.info/?page_id=9
I left out all the Antutu benchmark stuff, there is already plenty of that to be found. I hope someone finds it informative
Contents
Intro & Specifications.
Screen/Display.
Camera.
Sound.
Overall use & Connectivity.
Conclusion.
Intro & Specifications
Welcome to this iOcean G7 review
The G7 is not the first phone of the Chinese iOcean company but definitely one with a new design. If you are not familiar with the iOcean company you can look up their website iocean.cc or go to their Facebook page. The phone that had put iOcean in the spotlights was the X7 Youth. It has (still) good specifications with a surprisingly low price, making it a very tempting choice. After the X7 Youth there were more ‘adult’ versions as the Turbo, Plus and Elite, all with different sets of specifications and prices. One thing remained: the design. All the X7 models are the same except for their internal hardware components. With the G7 the designers at iOcean made daring step. They slightly changed the design but more obvious: they changed the size of the phone. Where all X7 versions were enjoying a neat 5 inch FULL-HD display, the G7 has a gigantic screen size of 6.44 inch, technically making it a phablet (phone/tablet).
This devices comes with the latest of the MediaTek processors: the MT6592, an octacore processor with the Mali 450 GPU to support it with graphical applications.
My personal questions were if I would be enjoying carrying this colossal phone around and if the GPS-problems with the MediaTek MT6592 would finally come to an end.
Specifications:
General
OS Android 4.2.2
Chipset Octacore Mediatek
CPU 1.7Ghz MT6592
GPU Mali-450 700Mhz
RAM 2GB
Battery 3500mAh
Two Camera’s:
Rear camera 13 mega-pixel
Features F2.0 aperture
LED flash Yes
Video [email protected]
Front camera 5-mega-pixel
Memory
Internal 16GB
SD card Yes: support up to 32GB
Network support
Dual-sim Yes
WCDMA 2100MHz/900MHz
GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
Body
Dimensions (mm) 175 x 90.5 x 8.9mm
Weight (g) 205 grams
Colors Black and White (and perhaps a red one?)
Screen/Display
Let’s start with what is most obvious about the device when you see it: the enormous display. With a 6.44 inch display the G7 is one of the biggest devices I ever worked with. It is quite a bit bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
For the technicians amongst you: the devices comes with a Retina LTPS display and is an OGS, which stands for One Glass Solution. So the screen will be thin with good viewing angles. Since a large amount of the surface of the phone is consisting out of glass, I am glad they processed the screen with laminated glass, meaning it consists of two or more layers of glass and bonding interlayers before fused together though autoclave or chemically.
The above shows us that the display is big, thin, highly scratch-resistant and with the Retina LTPS it also means the display is bright and vivid. When the screen is on full brightness it is very useable in light areas and outside. I used it for a couple of days now and even on these sunny days I could easily read the screen.
This is supported with a stunning 1920×1080 resolution, granting the screen 342 pixels-per-inch. I used the iOcean X7 with 440 pixels-per-inch and I could see some difference but you would have to look closely and search for it. 342 PPI is still very impressive for a screen size this big and reading text is a real charm on this device. Giving the device a higher resolution screen would not benefit the price and the performance of the G7 and I personally think this was the right decision.
In the box I also found a screen protector which I applied directly but since the layered protection of the screen itself I think this is a personal choice.
Another bonus is the fact that you can operate the device wearing gloves or with wet hands. I found out these few days that the display is highly sensitive and I do no longer need my touch screen gloves in the winter which is a real big plus.
Camera
The camera of the G7 is even being used by iOcean to take photos of the new X8 model, which is coming up halfway in April, for their Facebook page. If the company itself is confident enough about the quality is has to say something, right? The G7 enjoys a 13 mega-pixel rear camera which out-of-the-box shoots at 9.5 mega-pixel. This is probably done to save memory and to quicken up the burst-shoot function. At 9.5 MP all photos will be more than sufficient for most uses: Facebook, Twitter, emailing them to friends/family, etc. Switching to 13 MP decreases the field of view as well a bit of speed in burst-mode but it is still very fast and it is barely noticeable. The front camera is 5 mega-pixel and can be used for conference and video calling or to make the much loved selfie. A trend is to not only increase the mega-pixels of the phone but also the aperture of the lens, meaning more light can travel inside which tends to produce better pictures.
I shot some pictures with the G7 myself and I can tell you they are of very good quality. I used different kind of settings; all photos taken inside were under medium-light conditions and outside it is clearly a sunny day. (They are shown on the website.)
One of the things I like to do with my phone is to watch videos on YouTube, mostly with other people. The low quality of the sound and especially the low maximum volume most of the other Chinese phone suffer from sometimes takes the fun away in doing that but with the G7 that will not be the case. The sound can be set to a very loud level while maintaining good quality with no distortion.
Now, something pleasant happened when I laid the phone on its back while playing music: sound actually got better! Thanks to a very smart design feature the G7 device does not fully touch the surface and thereby covering up the speaker grill. A small tab, looking a bit like a stub of the speaker grill, is attached so room is left between the surface and the device hence the sound waves can move freely. It gives a powerful and full sound which I have not heard with many devices. One small point could be that it makes the phone wiggle a bit when lain down but I highly doubt that would bother anyone.
Overall use & Connectivity
The biggest question for me was whether the G7 would fit in my pocket but even with the flip case it fits. Though it is completely understandable when someone would go for the somewhat smaller X7 or better the X8 in April. This is definitely not a one-handed device and both hands are needed to type. It is very useable for watch movies, series, YouTube and the like as reading and typing text. I am a forced user of the public transport every day and I use that time to read rapports for work, etc. Still not as comfortable as a good physical keyboard, on the 6.44 inch screen it is now also workable to edit and type text.
The overall build quality is very good with no plastic-squeaks, a strongly fit back cover and pretty narrow bezels. The only real point of criticism is that the three android control buttons on the chin of the phone do not lit up so in the dark. This may provide an issue when not completely familiar with the device.
The device supports all normal connectivity frequencies used in the West: for Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n for both 2.4G and 5G. For mobile internet: HSPA+ 900Mhz/2100Mhz WCDMA.
GPS
The GPS has been a problem with MediaTek devices since a long time and let me happily start by saying that the iOcean G7 gave me a GPS fix in 3 minutes. This was indoors without any connectivity and updated satellite positions. Outside the same set-up gave me a fix in about 40 seconds. Compared to more expensive and well-known mobile phones MediaTek will always lose the battle but for the average Chinese branded mobile phone user this will be a pretty welcome result.
Conclusion
The iOcean G7 is one of the biggest Chinese phones I have ever handled but also one of the better built and designed. The overall quality of the phone is very good, the camera shoots very worthy photos, the sound capabilities are amazing, playing most games is absolutely fun (no stuttering), display quality is very good at least to say, making the G7 a very enjoyable device for everyday use. Considering all this, the price is very reasonable. If you are looking for an affordable mobile phone with a big display, this is probably the one.
A good functioning GPS and a size that still fits my pocket: my questions are answered, how about yours? Please feel free to post comments or send me a message if you have any more questions.
You can also send me an e-mail: [email protected]
Or look up more information on the official iOcean Facebookpage! Please give them some support and click the ‘like’ button.
chinahardware.info/?page_id=9 for the photo's
I am enjoying the use of the iocean G7. It maybe gigantic but it is not heavy.
Battery life is really good. For light use, you can get up to 4 days. For heavy use, you can get at least 2 days.
Does iocean use a "skinned" version of Android like sense or miui?
sent from Carina Nebula with my Nexus 5 inter dimensional cruiser...
Ltdrev said:
Does iocean use a "skinned" version of Android like sense or miui?
sent from Carina Nebula with my Nexus 5 inter dimensional cruiser...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its Android 4.2.2, I have not played with HTC or Miui but it feel like the standard Android. It came with Google Play Store and all the other apps. Don't think I see any Chinese apps.
It actually came rooted as well.
Ysabelkid said:
I am enjoying the use of the iocean G7. It maybe gigantic but it is not heavy.
Battery life is really good. For light use, you can get up to 4 days. For heavy use, you can get at least 2 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
My Iocean G7 battery lasts about 1 day (wifi and bluetooth always on).
I didn't find how to install CWM on it so I could do a wipe batterie's data.
Does someone has a CWM for Iocean G7 ?
Thanks
Yes a bit
Ltdrev said:
Does iocean use a "skinned" version of Android like sense or miui?
sent from Carina Nebula with my Nexus 5 inter dimensional cruiser...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea but I did a comparison for you. iOcean did use some sort of theme (not a entire skin) for their Android version but you can switch back to the standard Android look with 2 clicks (icon called Theme) does that.
I am using Themer now but in the video review on my website (chinahardware.info) you can still see the iOcean theme.
Does that answer your question?
Ysabelkid said:
Its Android 4.2.2, I have not played with HTC or Miui but it feel like the standard Android. It came with Google Play Store and all the other apps. Don't think I see any Chinese apps.
It actually came rooted as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine came with a small theme (mostly the icons were different) but I could switch back any moment.
Yours came rooted? Where did you buy your iOcean G7?
Danacy said:
Mine came with a small theme (mostly the icons were different) but I could switch back any moment.
Yours came rooted? Where did you buy your iOcean G7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Settings, under Device Administration, I got Superuser which I turn it on.
I bought my G7 from 1949deal - first time buying from them. Order on Thursday and shipped by DHL and arrived on Monday. I bought the brown case which I think is useless. Cannot find the slip-in case on your video.
I don't use Facebook/bluetooth and have turn off the gesture - thats why I think the battery life last so long.
22
Ysabelkid said:
In Settings, under Device Administration, I got Superuser which I turn it on.
I bought my G7 from 1949deal - first time buying from them. Order on Thursday and shipped by DHL and arrived on Monday. I bought the brown case which I think is useless. Cannot find the slip-in case on your video.
I don't use Facebook/bluetooth and have turn off the gesture - thats why I think the battery life last so long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean the orange case? Try Aliexpress.com It's a sideways flip-cover (bad quality btw).
Cannot find the Superuser setting you mentioned but I thought that will only appear when you root te phone, right?
How is the battery life on the phone? Better than other Android phones or just pretty similar?
Danacy said:
You mean the orange case? Try Aliexpress.com It's a sideways flip-cover (bad quality btw).
Cannot find the Superuser setting you mentioned but I thought that will only appear when you root te phone, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the orange case - its rubbish.
This guy has a slip case - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXMGeWo0W8Q which is like one of those for spectacles.
Not sure if it is 1949deal that rooted the phone before sending out. I learnt of it from the guy in the above video which is why I bought from the same seller as he did. He mentioned about it here - http://mtkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=559&p=1929
---------- Post added at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 PM ----------
nismofan25 said:
How is the battery life on the phone? Better than other Android phones or just pretty similar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life depends on how you use it. It has a 3500 mAh battery - huge.
I don't use Facebook or bluetooth or push notification for my GMail. I use Whatsapp, Line, SMS and calls and some surfing.
For light use, I can get more than 3 day. For heavy use, I can get at least 2 days.
I already enjoying the use of the iocean G7. I think its gigantic its not heavy . Battery life is so good. For light use, you can get up to 4 days. For heavy use, you can get at least 2 days. you also use it enjoy it .........................................
Michael Hill said:
I already enjoying the use of the iocean G7. I think its gigantic its not heavy . Battery life is so good. For light use, you can get up to 4 days. For heavy use, you can get at least 2 days. you also use it enjoy it .........................................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell me if the led flash is powerful like Samsung ones I had a few chinese phones but the flash led is weak.
Thanks
cyberbit said:
Can you tell me if the led flash is powerful like Samsung ones I had a few chinese phones but the flash led is weak.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The led flash is strong - red light for Whatsapp and green for Line.
Camera is great - people were impress with it when I took photos in a recent vacation.
good day how to root iocean g7 please help.
Bluetooth
The bluetooth is horrible.
There is lag with the headphone bluetooth, sometimes does not pair with bluetooth on the car.
In others features this phone is really good.
I hope that in the next firmware the iocean improve the bluetooth.
G7 flash and recovery
Hey guys,
I am also a proud owner of my G7... I certainly do love it, at the moment I think I have to flash it to a more recent rom since it came with a 4.2.2.
I want to flash to latest but I dont have a custom recovery installed. Will the inbuilt recovery be fine enough?
I am guessing you guys have an idea of what the way to get a recovery and flash it actually... and I use linux with adb and fastboot installed and it can see my device too although I could get a windows computer is necessary.
Thanks
Recovery
xdadeem said:
Hey guys,
I am also a proud owner of my G7... I certainly do love it, at the moment I think I have to flash it to a more recent rom since it came with a 4.2.2.
I want to flash to latest but I dont have a custom recovery installed. Will the inbuilt recovery be fine enough?
I am guessing you guys have an idea of what the way to get a recovery and flash it actually... and I use linux with adb and fastboot installed and it can see my device too although I could get a windows computer is necessary.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MIUI is always a good choice
http://www.needrom.com/download/miui-by-miuipro-ru-9/
FunTouch OS was also very good
http://www.needrom.com/download/g7-funtouch-os/
To install:
Step 1: From the links above: download the ROM you want and put it on a SD-card. Not in a folder but in the root of the SD-card. Put SD-card in phone
Step 2: Shut down your G7. Not restart but really shut down. Then:
– Power button + volume button up, to enter the recovery mode. (First hold volume up and then press power button and keep volume button pressed until you see the recovery menu)
– Wipe Data / Factory Reset -> delete all user data (use volume buttons to select)
– Wipe Cache Partition -> Wipe cache
Step 3: Return to recovery main interface Install zip from sdcard -> choose zip from sdcard -> Select your ROM
Step 4: Brush complete, restart the phone Patience required – first boot takes a while

[Review] iOcean X9, 5.0 inch FHD, 64-Bit MT6752 Octa Core 1.7 GHz, 4G LTE, 3GB/16GB

EDIT September 17 2015: ATTENTION!
Don't buy this phone unless you get it almost for free.
My initial review of the X9, which is no longer valid, comes first in the text below.
See the edits at the end for details.
___________________________________________________________________________
iocean X9
This review is based on my experience with one of the first regular production samples of the iOcean X9. It is not supposed to be a pre-production sample, but in some ways it behaves like that. The Android 4.4.4 it came with isn’t ready developed for the hardware and it probably never will be. I guess that the company is concentrating on developing the Lollipop rom for it instead. I suspect that iOcean were in a hurry to get this phone on the market and pushed it out too early on an unfinished Kitkat, instead of waiting for a well working Lollipop. It’s a pity because this phone has a lot of potential and deserves a better rom!
Firmware version: X9_20150608-192523
Despite the buggy Kitkat rom I have done many tests and made many observations in the phone. I could rewrite my notes to a regular short review in a wordier format, but in order to be able to come back here and add more information later on, I keep the text in a notelike form. Refer to the edits at the end of this post for updates. I attach some screen dumps of some of the tests I have done. More screen dumps and links to camera test photos etc. will probably come in a later edit.
NOTE:
There will be a part 2 of this review as soon as I have a final release LP rom in the phone. It’s not really fair to review it entirely on a buggy KK or LP Beta.
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Specs:
5.0” LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels FHD screen
CPU: MTK6752 Octa Core, 1.7GHz; GPU: Mali-T760
Android 4.4.4 OS (will get Android 5.x soon)
3GB RAM + 16GB ROM
Dual SIM card, dual standby, micro SIM slot + nano SIM slot
Front camera 5 MP, back camera 13 MP with flashlight and auto focus
Support FDD+TDD LTE/4G/3G/GPS/Wifi/Bluetooth/Miracast/OTG
Networking:
​2G: GSM BAND 850/900/1800/1900
​3G: TD-SCDMA BAND 1900/2100, WCDMA BAND 900/1900/2100
​4G: FDD-LTE BAND 800/1800/2600, TDD-LTE BAND 1800/2300/2600
Design
This phone is thin. Very thin! 6.6 mm in my measurement (specs say 6.5 mm). It also feels very solid and a bit heavy despite the thinness (or maybe due to?). The weight is 145 g (specs say 140 g) but I think it feels heavier, in a good way. The design is very nice. It looks like a tall and very slim iPhone 4. The build quality and the quality feel is very high for the price, but a little bit lower then in a Huawei P8 for example. The texture of the metal frame and the opening for the speaker on the backside don’t give that premium feeling you could wish for. Also the buttons feels a little bit below premium. But for the price the quality feel is really excellent. The power button is in the middle on the right side, below the volume rocker. I don’t like this position as it’s too easy to accidentally switch on or off the phone just by holding it, but it seems standard in many new phones now.
Screen
The screen is excellent. It’s rather bright and vivid and it has good viewing angles. Generally I think that FHD is a bit overkill on a 5” screen. 1280 x 720 pixels is enough “retina” on a 5” screen and a good HD screen is better than a not so good FHD screen, but this is a really good FHD screen. I honestly didn’t expect that for the price.
Cameras
The main camera has a 13 MP Sony Exmor RS IMX214 sensor, which is a well-known and acclaimed sensor that is used in for example Xiaomi Mi4, OnePlus One and Vivo XShot. The camera is excellent and works very well even in low-light. It starts fast, focuses fast, has high sensitivity, little colour crosstalk and most of all the HDR function is really fast (important if you can’t hold the camera really still, or for moving objects). That’s all very rare in Chinese phones no matter what price range they are in. In fact this is the best camera I have ever seen in any Chinese phone (I haven't tried the ones in OnePlus One and Vivo XShot myself). The only little problem I had with the camera is to lock the focus on a certain object in the view by tapping on the screen and get the focus to stay there until I have time to make the shot. Probably that is software related.
The front camera is a Chinese 5 MP OmniVision OV5648. It’s also quite good and it’s even capable of capturing 720p HD video at 60 fps and 1080p HD video at 30 fps.
Performance
The phone is fast, but not as fast as I thought it would be, maybe due to the buggy rom. I get a score of ~37000 in AnTuTu 5.7.1. In Geekbench 3 I get ~4000 in multi-core score, which is almost twice as much as in the MT6732 devices. But as they say in the AnTuTu test, ”many apps only can use one core”, and the single-core score is 810, which is only ~10% better than in a MT6732. In Basemark OS II I get an overall score of 854, which is ~+50% faster than a FHD MT6592 device on Kitkat. In the graphics benchmark in Epic Citadel I get ~40 fps in average in Ultra High Quality mode.
However, the phone is running a buggy 32-bit Kitkat on a 64-bit SoC and I expect the performance to go up a bit once iOcean has put out a final release Lollipop upgrade for it.
Web browsing is fast and the Sunspider 1.0.2 test finishes in ~910 ms in Chrome and ~780 ms in the stock browser (yes the old stock browser is faster than Chrome). The MT6752 seems to be only ~10-15% faster in the Sunspider test than a MT6732, which corresponds to the +10% better single-core score in Geekbench 3. As a reference, my reference phone, an iPhone 6, only need ~330 ms to finish the sunspider test.
Network
4G LTE is really very fast in this phone and I didn’t know how fast download speeds my 4G network was capable of until I got this phone. The phone must have high sensitivity and a really fast 4G modem. Probably it’s true as they say in the specs that it can handle download speeds up to 150 Mb/s. I get over 100 Mb/s down and 27 Mb/s up. In comparison the up speed is a bit low, but that's probably limited by the network, since I only get a few percent higher up speed in my reference phone (and a lot lower down speed at the same time).
WiFi
The wifi has good sensitivity and it measures almost the same signal level in average in WiFi Analyzer as my reference in that, an 8” Xiaomi MiPad (tabs can have much larger antennas). Even on a very remote wifi the X9 and the tab measures the same signal level.
GPS
The GPS is also excellent. It locks in fast and I have never seen so many satellites in view and in use in GPS Test before. In my tests outside my house it sees 21 satellites and use 20, with a 3D fix accuracy of 1 m.
Battery
The battery run time is actually quite good, despite the relatively low capacity battery (2050 mAh), FHD screen and 8-core CPU. It manages to stand the Geekbench 3 battery test for 5 h and 10 min, with a battery score of 3100. The run time and score will definitely increase after a few charges, but already the runtime and score is ~50% better than an iPhone 6 (sorry for the iPhone references but it makes sense I think).
Sound
The sound quality in phone calls is really good and the volume is more than enough. The built in speaker on the backside is useless for music (as usual in phones), but good for phone calls. Also here the maximum volume is more then enough in an office environment. The sound quality in high quality earphones is very high, provided that you switch off the BesSurround function which is on by default. The sound volume is more than enough in good earphones (high sensitivity).
Root
The phone comes unrooted, but it becomes rooted with just a switch in Settings -> Security -> Superuser. In the Superuser setting you can control which apps you have given superuser privileges to. Basically it works in much the same way as SuperSU. Brilliant! Reason enough to buy the phone just for that as soon as it comes with a LP rom. Also there is no bloatware at all installed.
Launcher
The launcher is the CyanogenMod Trebuchet. I’m not sure how and why it ended up in this phone because the phone is not on CM and unlike in CM the launcher can’t be configured in any way in this phone, except the scroll effect between desktop screens, but not between drawer screens. The launcher works well but it’s a waste of a nice FHD screen to only have 5 rows and 4 columns of icons on the desktop and in the drawer and not be able to change that. Hopefully there will be a better launcher in the Lollipop rom.
Dual SIM?
The phone is a dual SIM and dual standby phone, but that's only partly true since one sim slot is a combined SIM/SD slot. Users have to choose between dual SIM standby or single SIM and extended memory, and with only 16 GB storage I would classify this phone as single SIM.
To be continued…
__________EDIT_1___________
I have received an email from an iocean representatve saying:
This problems should be related to the ROM. We have a new ROM update (for 4.4 software) that should be able to solve the problems of your iocean X9. We have already released the iocean X9 Beta version of android 5.1, and we should have a new update for it soon.
Please find below the iocean X9 update link. You can download it and upgrade the ROM, this needs to be done through PC.
https://mega.co.nz/#!fp9HwKDA!T2mqzWsAOaNSWGLomRqMEmNXnE_zuTY9tSweTZRsdSA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have flashed the rom in the link above and it brought the firmware in my phone from version X9_20150608-192523 to X9_20150624-143035.
However, it didn't change things much. This rom feels a little bit more stable, but the phone is still not stable. Often when I stress it with something CPU or GPU intense, the phone reboots. In the previous rom I had to force reboot it by holding the on button pressed for 10 seconds in the same situation, which might be an improvement, I'm not sure.
__________EDIT_2___________
I tried the Lollipop beta 20150618 with no better result than with the two previous KK roms and I start to believe that the phone has some hardware issue. I used the EngineerMode to switch on the MTKLogger and then stressed the phone to freeze two times. Then I tried to analyze the log files and figure out what's causing the stability problems. However, I'm no expert and can't really figure out what's causing the crash. The engineers at iOcean asked for the log files and they have them now. I'm currently waiting for their result.
__________EDIT_3___________
Yesterday, September 16, 4 months after I purchased this phone I got it back from "repair" from the dealer. It took 2 weeks for it to reach the dealer, and then they held it for a while before they sent it "to the factory", whatever that means. Small brands like iOcean have no factories by themselves, it's just a brand name and an office with a few employees. After the so called repair at the so called factory, the dealer got the phone back and according to themselves, their QC people took care of it and tested it before they sent it to me. All together it took 2 months for this warranty service.
However, the phone is exactly as faulty as when I sent it back for repair. It froze completely at first AnTuTu test and had to be force restarted by pressing powerbutton for 10s. The phone has an obvious hardware error but they didn't open the phone to change any components. All they did was to flash a fresh firmware to it and change the CPU governor and I/O handler. Probably in some belief that it would cool down the phone a bit and get rid of some of the overheating problems, as if that would help much when the max clock freq. still is 1.69 GHz. Changing governor, thermal policy and max clock freq. could have saved this phone from breaking when it was new maybe, but now it obviously have some hardware problem and the dealer did nothing about that when they had it.
To make things extremely much more complicated the iOcean company went bankrupt in July. The rumour has it that they will restructure the company and make a come back, but I'm not so sure. And even if they will be back it's very uncertain if they will support previously relased models at all. The X9 never got the LP firmware it was supposed to have before the company went bankrupt. Not a working KK either.
As an edit on top of this long post I add a warning to buy this phone because: 1. The KK fw it comes with is a disaster. 2. The LP Beta is a disaster. 3. iOcean went bankrupt. 4. There will probably never be an official well working KK or LP fw for this phone. 5. Even with good fw it would overheat a lot unless the clock freq. is lowered a lot.
__________EDIT_4___________
I have now sent this phone back for good to where I got it from. If some other misfortunate X9 owner wants to take over this thread please PM me. Otherwise I will close this thread soon. I'm through with with this device.
iocean x9
thanks for review.
it answered to my question, i was thinking to buy this phone from a few weeks ago...
i wont buy it if iOcean wont release a good rom for this phone.
one question, at this moment: this phone have a notification led?
gigiunu said:
thanks for review.
it answered to my question, i was thinking to buy this phone from a few weeks ago...
i wont buy it if iOcean wont release a good rom for this phone.
one question, at this moment: this phone have a notification led?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it has a small notification led on the front. It's a beautiful phone with a lot of potential and I really hope they fix it soon, or there is something terribly wrong with just my device, but I don't think so. Let's wait and see how iOcean reacts to my complaints.
MacArthur67 said:
Yes it has a small notification led on the front. It's a beautiful phone with a lot of potential and I really hope they fix it soon, or there is something terribly wrong with just my device, but I don't think so. Let's wait and see how iOcean reacts to my complaints.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somebody posted your review on official page of iOcean, i hope they read it and solve the problems. Right now, i'm using as regular phone Jiayu G5s, it's very good phone, but without 4G function and bad GPS... this iOcean X9 looks same but is bigger and thinner and with a good specs...
Another question, 4G can be switched from sim1 to sim2 , or sim2 slot support only 2G?
gigiunu said:
Right now, i'm using as regular phone Jiayu G5s, it's very good phone, but without 4G function and bad GPS... this iOcean X9 looks same but is bigger and thinner and with a good specs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know the G5S, it's a nice iP5S design rip-off, especially with the silver and black backside, but I only have good experience with Jiayu devices. Bug free and stable but maybe a bit overpriced. I didn't know the G5S had GPS problems, but it's a 3G phone so I see why you're looking for a replacement.
Another question, 4G can be switched from sim1 to sim2 , or sim2 slot support only 2G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can switch the 3G/4G to any of the slots in the settings, so there's no need for physical swap. Only one can be 3G/4G at a time though.
iOcean X9
What a ugly launcher... it is the stock one?
Also, we're waiting your feedback about battery life, 2100mAh for an 5 inch fhd display seems to be not enough for a day, even in a normal use, with moderate talking and mobile data/wi-fi on all the time...
gigiunu said:
What a ugly launcher... it is the stock one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no. The phone has the Trebuchet launcher, which has a theme chooser. It comes with 6 stock themes and in the pic I posted I was on the ugly "Sky" theme. Next time I might be in the girly "Pink" theme!
Also, we're waiting your feedback about battery life, 2100mAh for an 5 inch fhd display seems to be not enough for a day, even in a normal use, with moderate talking and mobile data/wi-fi on all the time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added battery information in the original review above. Like the MT6732 SoC the MT6752 seems to be very energy efficient. In fact it seems to be even more energy efficient than the MT6732. I get 5 h and 10 m out of it in the Geekbench 3 battery test (screen on) and that value will increase for sure. In my MT6732 device with a 5" 1280x720 display and a claimed 2250 mAh battery (it's not) I get less than 4.5 h in the GB3 battery test and that phone easily lasts a day. But of course it depends on how you use your phone. Remember that an iPhone 6 only lasts ~3.5 h on a full charge in the GB3 battery test.
can you tell me where did you buy it and how much you paid for?
I was looking for it, but nowhere is in stock...
gigiunu said:
can you tell me where did you buy it and how much you paid for?
I was looking for it, but nowhere is in stock...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can buy here: http://www.pompmall.com/iocean-x9.html
gigiunu said:
can you tell me where did you buy it and how much you paid for?
I was looking for it, but nowhere is in stock...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to say how I got it at this stage, but it's an official production phone and not a pre-series phone. I know that Geekbuying had it for pre-orders before @ $249, but they seem to have pulled it off for orders now. Maybe it's not out for pre-orders any more because of the problems I'm also experiencing. I mean I'm not the only one who got one of the first regular production X9's.
At present I'm having a direct contact with iocean about the problems I'm experiencing with my phone. I'm thinking that if the problem is software related, it has something to do with the thermal management. It freezes and reboots when it gets stressed and consequently a bit hot. But of course that sounds more like a hardware problem.
It's up to you if you want to take the risk and buy it from some less known source, but make sure you get some warranty then. You have read my review so you know that it could be a fantastic phone without the freezes and reboots that I'm experiencing.
they released a BETA version of Android 5.1 for iocean X9, did you try it?
https://mega.co.nz/#!S5sTnC5B!s0v94zWHIkanhvR8ThEb59tfxO_tSngc-wh0tnBTMnU
gigiunu said:
they released a BETA version of Android 5.1 for iocean X9, did you try it?
https://mega.co.nz/#!S5sTnC5B!s0v94zWHIkanhvR8ThEb59tfxO_tSngc-wh0tnBTMnU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it but I didn't want to try it because the KK rom I have was supposed to be stable, and still it's far from stable in my phone. If I install a buggy beta I have no clue to what comes from software bugs and what comes from hardware malfunction. I might give it a spin later.
i supose it can't be worst then stock kk rom ...
Hi
Thank for the review. I've mine in hand since 2 days. I have the same rom (Firmware version: X9_20150608-192523)
--- :
Sometimes it's getting HOT, very HOT
It tried Google map and... i was able to see the battery lowering at sight. 1% every 20sec. Very funny or not
I don't think kitkat is good with octo core managing
+++ :
All running well and fast
thin, nice
No freeze, no shutdown, all good
Phone very hot but seems battery is ok for 1 day.
I think like you about a bad kitkat rom. Hope the 5.1 will be great. At the beginning the phone was a 5.1 phone but seems they run out of time and so we have kitkat. I didn't tried the 5.1 beta rom. I'm waiting the good one.
vodnok said:
Hi
Thank for the review. I've mine in hand since 2 days. I have the same rom (Firmware version: X9_20150608-192523)
--- :
Sometimes it's getting HOT, very HOT
It tried Google map and... i was able to see the battery lowering at sight. 1% every 20sec. Very funny or not.
I don't think kitkat is good with octo core managing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also noticed that it gets very hot during CPU/GPU intese processes. My initial thought about the freezes I have was that there was something wrong with the thermal management in the initial KK rom. However, it didn't seem to get much better in the updated KK so now I'm not so sure.
KK works very fine in "old" MT6592 octa core devices, so I don't think that the 8 cores in MT6752 is the main problem.
+++ :
All running well and fast
thin, nice
No freeze, no shutdown, all good
Phone very hot but seems battery is ok for 1 day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to hear that it runs smooth without app/system freezes. I suppose you flashed the updated KK in the link above then? If you did that, did you notice any difference in the heat problem? The battery is definitely good enough for a days use and more. Also, if I buy the thinnest 5" FHD phone on the market at present, I don't expect it to last much more than a day. I'm happy with the battery time.
I think like you about a bad kitkat rom. Hope the 5.1 will be great. At the beginning the phone was a 5.1 phone but seems they run out of time and so we have kitkat. I didn't tried the 5.1 beta rom. I'm waiting the good one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it was promoted as a LP phone when I decided to get an early one. Then they changed the specs to KK. I tried the LP Beta but it was no improvement and I don't have time to be an unpaid beta tester right now, so I went back to the 20150624 version again. Also I wanted to be on KK for the EngineerMode, MTKLogger and MTK Catcher to work like I'm used to.
Nice review
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
for owners of iOcean X9: can you make some speedtest of internet connection in HSDPA (H) and HSPA+ (H+)?
Thanks.
gigiunu said:
for owners of iOcean X9: can you make some speedtest of internet connection in HSDPA (H) and HSPA+ (H+)?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I already did that before but I'm not sure if it makes any sense because the phone easily reaches the max speed in my network. I get 8/3 Mb/s in HSPA and 27/7 Mb/s in HSPA+ (H+). I think the 3G H+ is DC-HSPA but I can't check that easily. I should be able to get up to 32 Mb/s with DC-HSDPA in my network with good signal.
thanks for reply...
i just replaced my Jiayu G5S with an Xiaomi MI 4i black and there's no differences between them, max speed on H+ is under 7 Mbps... If i put my sim in other regulary phone i can get easily ~27 Mbps.
So, i keep an eye to this iOCEAN x9 , i like it and probabily i'll buy it when it get a good firmware.
gigiunu said:
thanks for reply...
i just replaced my Jiayu G5S with an Xiaomi MI 4i black and there's no differences between them, max speed on H+ is under 7 Mbps... If i put my sim in other regulary phone i can get easily ~27 Mbps.
So, i keep an eye to this iOCEAN x9 , i like it and probabily i'll buy it when it get a good firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it will be long before the LP firmware will be out in official release form. A few weeks at the most. The bug-/to-do list isn't very long at the moment.
Off topic:
I had a Mi4i to test for a while and it had the WCDMA 850 and 2100 bands. The 850 band is only used in Asia as far as I know. In Europe it's 900/2100 everywhere I think. Can it be that your network has a higher speed on 900 MHz than on 2100 MHz? Then your Mi4i is partly incompatible with your network. There are probably different versions of the Mi4i for different markets. Mine was bought in Thailand and they have 850/2100. The JiaYu G5S don't have HSPA+.

MediaPad X2 vs LeTV Max

Hello there!
I'm looking into buying a new phone and those 2 phones in the title called my attention. I'm coming from a Z Ultra so both of them look great to me.
The LeTV Max seems like the better alternative, but let's run down the specs of both of them (mediapad x2 on the left and letv max on the right)
CPU:
Kirin 930 (4x 2GHz and 4x 1.5GHz) x Snapdragon 810 (4x 2GHz and 4x 1.5GHz)
RAM:
3GB x 4GB
Screen size:
7" x 6,33"
Screen resolution:
1200x1920 x 1440x2560
Back Camera:
13MP x 21MP
Battery:
5000 mAh x 3400 mAh
As expected, the LeTV Max wins most of the categories but do they make that much of a difference? Would the +1GB of RAM be a good addition? The screen resolution bump is also pretty interesting, since the MediaPad x2 is going at a 323 ppi and the LeTV Max is at 464. The monster battery on the MediaPad x2 also gets me happy, and knowing that it's not pushing out as many pixels as the LeTV Max (despise the screen size difference) makes it look like it will last longer. Coming from a Z Ultra, the only thing that I really NEED on a camera is flash (the Z Ultra's camera is ok at best) but I don't really require that much quality since I rarely use it.
What do you guys think? For the people that already got a MediaPad x2, are you happy with it? Would you change to a LeTV Max if you had the chance?
Screen size is everything so I would go for the X2.
Plus you have support from XDA for the X2.
I am actually considering upgrading to an 8.0 inch MediaPad M2!
If you only look at the basic specs, the LeTV Max "looks" better. More memory, higher resolution screen, slightly faster CPU, faster GPU, compacter...
But there is also where it ends. The 810 is a know throttle monster that easily hits its thermal limits ( what most manufactures solve by limiting the SOC ). Its also not exactly friendly on the battery. My X2 even after hours of playing Fallout Shelter ( what is a know battery eater ), was just "warm". Not hot, just warm. I doubt that the same can be said about the 810 in the LeTV.
1440x2560? I do not care... On the X2 7" 1080p, you need to have 21/20 eyesight to see the pixels or have the phone right in front of your eyes. What people forget it, that the higher resolution = less space for light to pass = more / higher back light is needed = more power usage. And my eyesight is 20/20.
4GB Ram ... everybody love more ram. But lets be realistic... on my Sony ZU, i always had a health 500+ MB ( 0.5GB ) free in regards to ram ( comparing Android 5 on both systems ). And that was with a device that had two years worth of programs active. On my X2, i have between 1.7GB and 1.8GB free. So assuming the same program load like the ZU, there will be close to 1.5GB ( X2 had 1GB more ram then the ZU ) still free. That means on the LeTV, your looking at 2.5GB memory free with the same load. Nice ...
Camera ... If you come from a ZU, anything is a massive upgrade *lol*...
And now we come to the real reason to own the X2: 5000 mAh x 3400 mAh ...
Its not just 50% more battery power. The ZU also had a 3050mAh battery. Yet, my own battery results are more then impressive. So far the X2 is hitting 2 a 3 times the battery life consistently against then ( 2 year old ) ZU.
Technology has improved... While the X2 has a bigger screen, it seems to be more power efficient. The SOC is designed around those power efficient cores from bottom to top. Its a monster, not just pure on battery but in regards to battery life.
My best proof are some of the basic usage test i did before.
Screen on ( ZU: 45%, X2: 50% ( brighter then ZU to compensate the battery somewhat )), no activity.
ZU: Lost about 11% in 75 minutes.
X2: Lost about 4% in 75 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And i forgot that i still had the GPS on for the X2. *oeps*. And the GPS like most receivers/transmitters are more battery eaters.
Real life battery:
On 25/08 at 21.30 i charged up the battery to 100%.
We are 28/08 around 22.30 and my battery is ... 68%.
In that time i spend around 20 minutes calling ( 2 * 10 min ), checking wechat, some quick surfing on 4G, doing some basic battery testing ( one day with 4G+Wifi, one day with 2G+Wifi, one day with 2G. And Wifi on at night ) and a bunch of other thing. For this same amount of time, my ZU will hit 15% on the battery left, with only 4G on during the day and Wifi at night.
Its a battery life monster! And thanks to some testing, i found that the best combination is:
Set 2G when your at work and only need to check wechat or other chat messages. 4G drains twice as much. Enable 4G only when you need to surf. For basic text chatting 2G is the same effect as 4G, you do not notice the difference ...
Wifi/basic phone active drains about 3 a 4% in about 12 hours at night/morning.
2G/basic phone active / some times chatting during the day ( at work ), drains about 3 a 4% ( depends on the intensity that you chat/check/etc ) in +- 9 hours.
So with this combination, found that i can survive 24 hours, using maybe 6 a 8%, 10% in extreme for basic thing that i did before with my ZU, that took out maybe 30 a 40% ( yes, its not accurate because the ZU was using 4G all the time during the day ).
But to get back to the basic comparison:
The LeTV has a maybe more powerful CPU, GPU, more memory and higher resolution smaller screen combined with a smaller batter. Do the math? You know that your battery life at best will be "average". If you can live with that, then the LeTV is for you. But if you are like me, fed up with average battery life, then the X2 is way more up your alley.
Frankly, i do not know of any device that offers this size, battery life and still has phone capability... Beyond the X1 but that is running older A9 Cpu cores. The X2 beats the ZU with 25% in Antutu and frankly, i notice no slowdowns or other problems. And regarding faster GPU's. Sorry, but what do you care about the GPU? Those 3d games kill any device its battery, for what? If you want to really game, there are PC's, Console etc, where you can more enjoy the 3D experience. I found devices like this better with games that are more designed for the platform ( hard to explain ).
O and here is other a counter argument:
PRICE! X2 for 3GB/32GB = 399 Euro. The LeTV Max cheapest i found is 620 euro's... And i was lucky and was able to buy my X2 in a auction at 341 euro
I long time learned that specs alone do not make a good device, its the combination of those specs. I am frankly fed up with phone's that has a zillion "look how fast or how big resolution or " ... but they forget to mention that those things in general eat battery life and force people to spend every two or one! day recharging there phone. And the more you recharge, the more your battery capacity goes down. Fun these days with non-replaceable batteries.
Speaking of non-replaceable batteries. How is the LeTV its battery replacement? Also non-removable like most devices these days. I ask because the ZU its a disaster... you need to heatgun the glass to remove the glue, and then deal with a annoying flat cable. The X2 its just popping off some plastic, a few screws and you can simply unplug the power connector. The X2 battery replacement anybody can do.
Benjiro said:
Bunch of useful information!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what I had in mind. When I was buying the Z Ultra I was able to test and research it better since it was from a known brand. But for the X2 I'm having trouble coming across more specific informations. What you said is what I'm looking for.
The LeTV seems like a pain to repair and it's design looks boring. The specs were buying me but it's pretty much what you said, it's the combination of everything ( and the x2 looks pretty as hell). The only down side for me would be not having a water proof phone like the Ultra but it's something I can get over since it's not a priority for me.
I'll still wait for IFA to see if anything else comes up but the X2 is a strong participant in my choice ( and it's one of the few choices I can actually buy where I live). Thanks for the tips!
Flavio said:
Screen size is everything so I would go for the X2.
Plus you have support from XDA for the X2.
I am actually considering upgrading to an 8.0 inch MediaPad M2!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were going for that, I would just go with one of those cheap 6" phablets with 720p screens, haha. The M2 is pretty overkill for me ( really pretty but still). I can still fit my Ultra on my pockets nicely so the X2 should be good, as far as size goes.
Khiuli said:
That's exactly what I had in mind. When I was buying the Z Ultra I was able to test and research it better since it was from a known brand. But for the X2 I'm having trouble coming across more specific informations. What you said is what I'm looking for.
The LeTV seems like a pain to repair and it's design looks boring. The specs were buying me but it's pretty much what you said, it's the combination of everything ( and the x2 looks pretty as hell). The only down side for me would be not having a water proof phone like the Ultra but it's something I can get over since it's not a priority for me.
I'll still wait for IFA to see if anything else comes up but the X2 is a strong participant in my choice ( and it's one of the few choices I can actually buy where I live). Thanks for the tips!
If I were going for that, I would just go with one of those cheap 6" phablets with 720p screens, haha. The M2 is pretty overkill for me ( really pretty but still). I can still fit my Ultra on my pockets nicely so the X2 should be good, as far as size goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked at the LeTv when searching for large phablets. It's smaller screen size and puny battery turned me off. All these spec wars mean nothing. 1080p vs 2k in a small screen means nothing. 3gb vs 4gb in an Android phone mean nothing if I don't see a performance boost. The X2 is without a doubt the best all around large phone/tablet out there right now. Huawei is a more well known brand especially now that they are making the next Nexus phone.
ajsmsg78 said:
I looked at the LeTv when searching for large phablets. It's smaller screen size and puny battery turned me off. All these spec wars mean nothing. 1080p vs 2k in a small screen means nothing. 3gb vs 4gb in an Android phone mean nothing if I don't see a performance boost. The X2 is without a doubt the best all around large phone/tablet out there right now. Huawei is a more well known brand especially now that they are making the next Nexus phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, it's what I thought but when you get almost no reviews and comments about a phone, the specs are the only thing I can use for a guide on this. Huawei is a known brand, just not like Sony. The Z ultra had tons of reviews and feedback when it came out, but I could only find 1 review and many unboxings/ hands on. Thanks for the help!
Khiuli said:
That's exactly what I had in mind. When I was buying the Z Ultra I was able to test and research it better since it was from a known brand. But for the X2 I'm having trouble coming across more specific informations. What you said is what I'm looking for.
The LeTV seems like a pain to repair and it's design looks boring. The specs were buying me but it's pretty much what you said, it's the combination of everything ( and the x2 looks pretty as hell). The only down side for me would be not having a water proof phone like the Ultra but it's something I can get over since it's not a priority for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Water proof is one of those oversold features. Do you use your smartphone in the shower? Do you use your smartphone while swimming ( by the way, Sony does not advice trying out the water proof in anything but clean water because chloor or salt = bad )? Its more of a annoy always opening up that usb cover. In all my life i never lost a phone because of water damage. If it rains, you do not use the phone. Simple as that. Or you use it under a umbrella. A bit of rain on the screen of the X2 or any non-water proof phone, will not destroy it. Its all pressed together. I found the water proof more of a excuse so they do not need to install a removable battery. And having it replaced by the manufacture ... awwwwww... Same reason why i sold my ZU: It will cost more to replace the battery by Sony ( and you STILL lose your water proof protection because even Sony can not guarantee that when they re-glue it, it will be water proof! ).
The X2 feel nice in the hand. I was planning on buying a case but i like the heavy metal feel instead of that glass feel that ZU had. It feels more robust. You do not feel like it will break and you need a protector. Disadvantage is that the metal is also slippery. Frankly, i like to get some plastic protector for the back of the X2, that is "grippy". The funny part being is, the X2 feels more premium with the metal, then the ZU.
I now just use the default protection plastic that was on it ( put it back ) and it gives more grip. But its not clean ( full of explanation text *lol* )
For the rest ... if you come from the ZU, its a bit of adjustment. The X2 is only 1cm thicker on the side, but it gives a massive visual difference. The X2 looks BIG, compared to the ZU. Yet, its only 1 cm difference. Its that optical illusion effect from long & slender.
Worst part is probably the default launcher and DPI. Its set to 400 default and that is crazy. 280 is perfect for this device but it gives some problems with the default software from Huawei ( they still try to render some things in 400 dpi ). But nothing beats having Chrome in 280dpi, with tabs and full desktop rendering and still perfectly readable
O yea, and one thing i miss from my ZU, is that the X2 by default does not turn off its Wifi when you leave the house ( the ZU has a option for that ). You can do it ( there are 3th party programs ) that do it, but you need to root it ( takes a while to get the unlock code from Huawei ).
Khiuli said:
If I were going for that, I would just go with one of those cheap 6" phablets with 720p screens, haha. The M2 is pretty overkill for me ( really pretty but still). I can still fit my Ultra on my pockets nicely so the X2 should be good, as far as size goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The M2 is overkill. That is more a tablet. Smaller battery, bigger screen, bigger size, no phone capability. Price almost the same.
Khiuli said:
Yea, it's what I thought but when you get almost no reviews and comments about a phone, the specs are the only thing I can use for a guide on this. Huawei is a known brand, just not like Sony. The Z ultra had tons of reviews and feedback when it came out, but I could only find 1 review and many unboxings/ hands on. Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can simply look up the X1 for basic reviews. The X2 is just a upgraded X1 with a better SOC ( CPU/GPU/Memory/Flash ). The basic design & internally is almost identical. There are also a few Russian etc reviews ( google translate ) that go fairly in dept. The biggest complaint in every review ... size. Just like with the ZU. Its a "acquired" taste.
Anyway, its your money but the LE Max, i removed that from the list months ago, because of the almost identical battery size like the ZU. For phone's of this size, its not acceptable that they have batteries inside of only 3000/3400mAh.
Benjiro said:
Water proof is one of those oversold features. Do you use your smartphone in the shower? Do you use your smartphone while swimming ( by the way, Sony does not advice trying out the water proof in anything but clean water because chloor or salt = bad )? Its more of a annoy always opening up that usb cover. In all my life i never lost a phone because of water damage. If it rains, you do not use the phone. Simple as that. Or you use it under a umbrella. A bit of rain on the screen of the X2 or any non-water proof phone, will not destroy it. Its all pressed together. I found the water proof more of a excuse so they do not need to install a removable battery. And having it replaced by the manufacture ... awwwwww... Same reason why i sold my ZU: It will cost more to replace the battery by Sony ( and you STILL lose your water proof protection because even Sony can not guarantee that when they re-glue it, it will be water proof! ).
The X2 feel nice in the hand. I was planning on buying a case but i like the heavy metal feel instead of that glass feel that ZU had. It feels more robust. You do not feel like it will break and you need a protector. Disadvantage is that the metal is also slippery. Frankly, i like to get some plastic protector for the back of the X2, that is "grippy". The funny part being is, the X2 feels more premium with the metal, then the ZU.
I now just use the default protection plastic that was on it ( put it back ) and it gives more grip. But its not clean ( full of explanation text *lol* )
For the rest ... if you come from the ZU, its a bit of adjustment. The X2 is only 1cm thicker on the side, but it gives a massive visual difference. The X2 looks BIG, compared to the ZU. Yet, its only 1 cm difference. Its that optical illusion effect from long & slender.
The
Worst part is probably the default launcher and DPI. Its set to 400 default and that is crazy. 280 is perfect for this device but it gives some problems with the default software from Huawei ( they still try to render some things in 400 dpi ). But nothing beats having Chrome in 280dpi, with tabs and full desktop rendering and still perfectly readable
O yea, and one thing i miss from my ZU, is that the X2 by default does not turn off its Wifi when you leave the house ( the ZU has a option for that ). You can do it ( there are 3th party programs ) that do it, but you need to root it ( takes a while to get the unlock code from Huawei ).
The M2 is overkill. That is more a tablet. Smaller battery, bigger screen, bigger size, no phone capability. Price almost the same.
You can simply look up the X1 for basic reviews. The X2 is just a upgraded X1 with a better SOC ( CPU/GPU/Memory/Flash ). The basic design & internally is almost identical. There are also a few Russian etc reviews ( google translate ) that go fairly in dept. The biggest complaint in every review ... size. Just like with the ZU. Its a "acquired" taste.
Anyway, its your money but the LE Max, i removed that from the list months ago, because of the almost identical battery size like the ZU. For phone's of this size, its not acceptable that they have batteries inside of only 3000/3400mAh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The man is absolutely correct. It WAS cool to be able to answer my Z Ultra in the shower when someone called but opening up the rubber to charge it was a PITA. The Z Ultra was my least favorite phone I've ever owned. Nothing was good about it except for the screen size and waterproofing. (It was super thin but had a puny battery which negated the fact that it was so thin) I'm am so glad when it completely crapped out three weeks after I got it that I was able to return it to the seller for a refund and buy the X2.
Thanks for all the in-depth info, folks... I especially appreciated the information about how batteries are replaced. I have never bought a phone without a replaceable battery. I keep my phones for a long time (compared to as long as you probably do). I still have my Note 2 (in pristine condition - actually even with the first iSmooth screen protector I ever installed still in pristine condition). The only problem I ever had with my Note 2 is that just recently I had to buy a new battery because the old one had degraded to about 3/4 power... I have been researching both the X2 and the P8MAX and dying to buy either but, not being the pros that you are, I have been extremely hesitant to take the plunge because I was worried about repairs once the battery started degrading. So where would you bring the X2 for repairs here in the USA? Seriously, I don't have half the knowledge or experience that you have. I have been avidly reading every forum and website I can find regarding the X2 and the P8MAX to learn a little bit here and there. Thanks so much for your time to try to teach people like me!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Would you recommend this phone?

Hi, all, I am new to this section.
I am wondering if you would recommend this phone. I just shattered my S3 LTE today and am painfully suffering on an old iPhone 3GS until a replacement.
I am planning to switch to a budget phone, and I want to know your opinions on this model. I have heard good things about the Moto G line.
I would like to know a few things about this phone before I buy it. Because I am very nervous.
First of all, would you recommend this phone?
Battery life. I always had issues with battery life on my S3 even with an extended battery. I am a heavy user.
Performance. Looking at the specs, it seems that performance wise, it is better than my S3, but would it be good for what I do which is mostly 2D games and web browsing?
Speakers. They good? I know they have the dual speakers in the front, meaning no more hand-cupping and stereo sound, but what about volume/quality?
Any quirks I should know about? I seem to remember at least one of the models lacking a gyroscope.
From the looks of it, ROM development is very active, so that isn't an issue.
I don't really use the camera, but what is it like?
Is it worth it to get the 16GB? I have a good 64GB SD card.
For refs, here is the S3 specs:
4.8" AMOLED
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 - Dual-core 1.51GHz
1.5GB RAM (Seemed to barely squeak by on CM13)
16GB storage (I will be willing to give this up if I have to for price's sake).
400MHz Adreno 225 GPU
With an extended 4400mAh battery (might be worn out, though), I can sometimes run out halfway through the day. Depends on the screen brightness.
8MP Rear facing camera w/flash, 1.5MP front facing camera. I rarely used this.
Thanks for understanding. Because I really want to know what people think before I invest. I'm broke and I don't want to be stuck with something I won't like.
And this is opinion, I won't judge.
First of all I would not recommend at all, because at same budget you can get more featured phone like fingerprint scanner, full HD display with large screen with more battery and power full processor but this is IPS LCD with screen being little dull and old processor.
As for as battery, on stock rom you will get maximum of 4 hours 30 minutes screen on time with LTE active web browsing but in if you use custom rom like RR, CM or Turbo you will get 5.30 to 6 hrs sot.
For games I can't say anything about that.
Speakers are not good for listening music, I still don't know if it is having dual speakers or not ! Audio quality little bit low or maybe it depends on network problems.
Next about gyroscope yes it is not available for this model.
As for rom development it's one of the active device for rom and kernels tweaks.
Camera department is, 13 MP doesn't look like same as Samsung's 13 MP but it's ok and front camera is good for 5 MP it clicks quality images.
As for storage is concerned 16 GB is better because in 8 GB you will get only 3.8 GB space.
aadison said:
First of all I would not recommend at all, because at same budget you can get more featured phone like fingerprint scanner, full HD display with large screen with more battery and power full processor but this is IPS LCD with screen being little dull and old processor.
As for as battery, on stock rom you will get maximum of 4 hours 30 minutes screen on time with LTE active web browsing but in if you use custom rom like RR, CM or Turbo you will get 5.30 to 6 hrs sot.
For games I can't say anything about that.
Speakers are not good for listening music, I still don't know if it is having dual speakers or not ! Audio quality little bit low or maybe it depends on network problems.
Next about gyroscope yes it is not available for this model.
As for rom development it's one of the active device for rom and kernels tweaks.
Camera department is, 13 MP doesn't look like same as Samsung's 13 MP but it's ok and front camera is good for 5 MP it clicks quality images.
As for storage is concerned 16 GB is better because in 8 GB you will get only 3.8 GB space.
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Thank you for your help! While I don't need 1080p or a fingerprint scanner, the battery life kinda helped my decision.
battery is good, camera is ok, price is best, rooting is easy, roms are raining, thumb up
Thanks, @dangerhouse.
@aadison Looking things up, are you talking about the Moto G4+? I am not sure I want to get a G4 or a G4+ because trying to find a used one is improbable.
No, I'm talking about Redmi note 3 SD.
you are in Moto G 2015 Forum, same as Moto G 3
dangerhouse said:
you are in Moto G 2015 Forum, same as Moto G 3
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I know where I am, but thank you anyway.
Just because I mentioned another model doesn't necessarily mean that I am lost.

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