Tag Archives: android smartphone

Kyocera Digno Rafre Is a Washable Smartphone for Germophobes

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Kyocera Digno Rafre Washable Smartphone

Seeing as how most of the time we tend to handle our smartphones without caring whether our hands are clean or not, it’s no surprise that these devices are often likened to keyboards and compared to toilet seats in terms of the germs they carry. Digno Rafre was built with this exact problem in mind.

Kyocera collaborated with KDDI to make Digno Rafre, the world’s first soap-proof smartphone a reality. Just to put things into perspective, as to how dirty smartphones really are, researchers from consumer group Which? concluded back in 2013 that these mobile devices carry up to 20 times more germs than toilet seats. That’s a really disturbing thought, considering how often we keep them in our hands. Waterproof handsets are no longer a novelty in Japan, as Sony, one of the country’s biggest players in this industry, has been designing its flagships that way for a few years now. However, Kyocera thought it’s about time to step up the game and make one of its devices soap-proof.

So if a device is waterproof, what could stop people from soaping them up? It turns out that the waterproofing isn’t enough to withstand the scrubbing they’d have to go through in order to get rid of bacteria. Digno Rafre gets along well with soap, so provided that it gets washed in advance, it could be even be used in a kitchen, without having to worry about food ingredients getting infested with germs. More than that, the display is said to work even when wet, and while that might point out in the direction of a resistive panel, the manufacturer hasn’t confirmed that.

In terms of specs, Digno Rifre is an 10.1 mm thick device running Android 5.1 on a 5-inch HD display. It sports a 13 MP rear camera and a 3,000mAh battery, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage that can be furthermore expanded using a microSD card.

The following video puts an emphasis on the smartphone’s most important feature, that of surviving without any problems a soap wash.

Kyocera even made a video ad to exemplify a real-world scenario when a soap-proof smartphone could come in hand. It’s great to see that after the handset makes contact with the cake, the mother grabs it and gives it a good scrub with soap and water. However, more importantly than what happened to the phone after it landed on the cake is what happened to the cake itself. Real germophobes would get rid of it in its entirety, and not just of the part that got in contact with the phone.

https://www.youtube.com/v=Vc6eNqoLeQs

Digno Rafre, the world’s first washable smartphone, may get well with soap and water, but if you’re planning to get one, it’s probably better not to put it in the dishwasher, as I’m not sure it could survive that.

KDDI will start selling the device next Friday, and the JPY 57,420 ($465/€440) doesn’t make it an immediate choice, given that there’s no word on what type of chipset it uses.

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Pepsi Enters the Android Smartphone Business

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Pepsi P1

It’s not everyday that you hear about a soda company that wants to also become a smartphone manufacturer, but that’s exactly what PepsiCo intends to do in China.

The rumors about PepsiCo China making a smartphone started last week, when a page called ‘Pepsi phone,’ having the tags IT, Internet, Electronic Products and Mobile Phone Manufacturers, appeared on the Chinese social media website Weibo. In the meantime, the guys at MobiPicker stumbled upon a leaked image of the device that will allegedly be called Pepsi P1.

I suppose that all that the soda company wants to do with the Pepsi P1 Android smartphone is to add even more diversity to an industry that already is as heterogeneous as possible. Given the leaked specs of the device, it’s rather obvious that Pepsi won’t force names such as Samsung or Apple to shut their doors and go out of business.

According to the above leaked image, the device will run Android 5.1 Lollipop, while being powered by a 1.7Ghz CPU (which might be the MediaTek 6752, which lacks World Mode 4G, and hence doesn’t work on all LTE networks in the U.S.). In terms of memory, Pepsi P1 sports 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM. Given the other specs, I doubt that there will be multiple versions in terms of storage, but there might be a microSD slot for further expansion.

The P1 will have phablet dimensions, considering the 5.5-inch display. The screen has a 1080p resolution and a 401ppi pixel density, which is quite decent. Not at last, the device will feature a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP snapper in the front. There is no info regarding the sensors used for the cameras, so it’s impossible to tell right now whether the resolution is interpolated or not.

If the above image of the device is real, Pepsi P1 should have capacitative buttons in the front (which really is the norm for Android smartphones), and a fingerprint sensor on the back, between the main camera and the company’s logo.

While it is mentioned in the leaked image that Pepsi P1 will come with a 3,000mAh battery, there is no word on whether the battery is removable or not. Other details spotted in the image include the launch date (October 20), and the price, which is the equivalent of $205. Needless to say, if the resellers will choose to pick up this phone, they will do so at a much higher price. On the other hand, the 2GB RAM/16GB version of Xiaomi Mi 4c has the same launch price in China, and sports much better specs.

That being said, I cannot help but wonder who represents Pepsi’s demographic for this device. Have we become so shallow that we need a soda company’s logo on our smartphones, too?

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via Mashable

OnePlus Two: 2014’s Best Flagship Killer Gets a Sequel

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OnePlus Two 01

When OnePlus launched the One in April 2014, it really took the whole world by surprise, as no one expected to see such great specs at such a low price. OnePlus Two means to take things further, but

OnePlus seems to have become overconfident after One’s incredible success, as it has already named Two the 2016 flagship killer. The technical specs of their new smartphone are not bad at all, but some of the yet-to-be-launched flagships it will have to compete against include iPhone 6S, Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and 5 Edge, and a bunch of Windows phones that Microsoft will undoubtedly launch to take advantage of the new Windows 10. Besides that, OnePlus lacks some major features that most people would have expected to see in a flagship killer.

OnePlus Two is based on Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 810 SoC, which in other phones has caused serious overheating problems. However, the manufacturer claims it’s a new version of 810, which doesn’t have such issues. Furthermore, the Two comes in two versions: one with 3GB of RAM, and one with 4GB, depending on how many apps you intend to run simultaneously. As for storage, the former sports 16GB of ROM, while the latter has 64GB. Neither of them has a microSD card slot, but considering the great number of cloud and streaming services, the lack of one is not such a great tragedy. Speaking of slots, OnePlus Two is a dual-SIM phone, meaning that you’ll be able to use the services of two operators.

A lot people were expecting to see a 2K display, but OnePlus settled (see what I did there?) for a 1080p with a 5.5″ diagonal and a 401ppi density. That’s compensated by a 13MP camera on the back that OnePlus takes pride in, as well as a 5MP snapper in the front. Below the display, there is a fingeprint scanner that’s faster than TouchID, yet less reliable.

Two other highlights are the USB Type-C port that will save a lot of people from going nuts when trying to plug the cable blindly, and a 3,300mAh battery. OnePlus Two should have sported Quick Charge, among many other things, if it really wanted to kill next year’s flagships.

Some Chinese resellers have already added OnePlus Two to their offer, with GearBest featuring a pre-sale until August 27. The pre-sale price of $397.89 for the 3GB RAM/16GB ROM version, respectively $477.89 for the 4GB RAM/64GB ROM version is higher than what OnePlus intends to sell it for. The 16GB version will be sold by the manufacturer for $329, while the 64GB one will cost $389. To this price you need to add the time you will have to spend trying to get an invitation (since that system is back in place for the new phone), as well as the shipping costs, which are zero when purchasing from such resellers.

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Mlais M7 Plus Seeks to Set Things Straight

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Mlais M7 Plus 02

The original M7 turned out to be a letdown due to some major issues that affected the device’s main functionality, so Mlais decided to right some wrongs by launching the M7 Plus.

To learn more about the drawbacks of the original model, please check out the Mlais M7 hands-on review I wrote last week. To jump right into it, there aren’t any noticeable changes in terms of design between the M7 and the M7 Plus, so most of the differences come from under the hood. First and foremost, the M7 Plus is based on a newer (yet inferior) chipset, the 64-bit MT6753. Even though this one operates at a lower frequency than the MT6752 (1.5Ghz, compared to 1.7Ghz), and has an inferior GPU (Mali T720, as opposed to MT6752’s T760), it is considered better by the manufacturer.

There is some truth behind that statement, as the CorePilot technology of the MT6753 offers better battery performance. Secondly, this SoC has support for an additional band, which means that it can be used in 4G networks in the US.

The second major change is the OneTouch fingerprint scanner, which unlike M7’s, is capable of waking up the phone. That’s definitely a neat feature, even though double tapping the screen to wake up the device wasn’t that difficult of a task.

Furthermore, the M7 Plus packs a 13MP Sony IMX214 sensor, which is capable to record videos at 4K, among other things. Hopefully, Mlais will take advantage of that feature.

The battery was one of the most disappointing aspects of the M7, so it’s great to see that Mlais will equip the M7 Plus with a 2800mAh battery. Combined with the HD screen and the power-efficient MT6753, the increase in battery life should be noticeable.

In terms of software, the M7 Plus will run Android 5.1 Lollipop. It surely seems easier to launch a new phone that sports an up-to-date OS than updating older device. Some users are doubting that Mlais is ever going to update the M52 or the M7 to Android 5.1.

Not at last, the M7 Plus will feature a notification LED, something that was particularly useful in the M52. All of these functional features will come at a price that has yet to be announced. One thing is certain, though: Mlais M7 Plus will cost less than $189.99, which was the previous model’s MSRP.

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Oukitel U10 Brings Metal Body, 3GB RAM to the Table

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Oukitel U10 00

Two sought-after aspects in today’s smartphones and phablets are durability and the ability to run as many resource hungry apps simultaneously as possible. With a metal body and 3GB of RAM, Oukitel U10 handles both of these parts gracefully.

As of late, a lot of Chinese smartphones are equipped with 3GB of RAM, so this will soon become the standard. To stay competitive, Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese phone makers will have to adopt this trend in most of their phones, too. But in a sea of options, can a smartphone manufacturer still prove its uniqueness? The trick is to know what customers want and to provide great value for money. Oukitel seems to have managed that with its U10 smartphone, which doesn’t only come with 3GB of RAM, but also with a sturdy metal body, among other things.

The design is obviously one of the biggest selling points of this phablet, but that’s not all. Oukitel U10 is based on MediaTek’s MT6753 SoC (I will never understand the numbering scheme of this chip maker), which includes an octa-core CPU running at 1.3Ghz, as well as the ever so popular Mali T760 MP2 GPU. For storage, the manufacturer provides 16GB of ROM, but you can expect the operating system (Android 5.1) to take about 40% of that.

At 7.9mm, I wouldn’t call the U10 super thin, considering that there are much thinner smartphones out there. However, it still is pretty sleek, and the fact that the body is made from a metal alloy makes it even more elegant.

One of the best things about Oukitel U10 is that you can swap the second SIM card (assuming that you only need one) for a microSD card, in order to expand the storage. By doing so, you can get up to 32GB of additional storage for music, movies and games.

It’s pretty impressive that you can get the Oukitel U10 for only $159.99 at GearBest, especially since the device even sports a FullHD display. The manufacturer takes pride in the JDI-made 5.5″ multi-touch display that the U10 is equipped with. Assuming that the camera resolutions are not interpolated and that the 2850mAh battery is real, this might as well be one of the best Android phablets this year in terms of value for money.

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Mlais M7 Smartphone Wraps Lollipop in a Compact Body

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Mlais M7

The M7 is the most feature-rich phablet coming from Mlais, and could have been an extraordinary phone, if it weren’t for certain issues.

1. Contents of the Box
2. Accessories
3. Design and Build Quality
4. Technical Specs
5. Connectivity
6. Software
7. Performance Assessment
7.1. Benchmarks
7.2. Sound Quality and Reception
7.3. Image Quality
7.4. Battery Life
8. Price and Availability
9. Conclusions

Back in April, when I first wrote about the M7, it surely seemed like Mlais was on a winning streak with its affordable, yet fine performing products. Using it for a bit over 3 weeks revealed that this smartphone has several issues that could turn consumers away from it.

Contents of the Box

Mlais M7 comes in the same turquoise box as the M52 and the M4. Since this is the most feature rich smartphone made by this company, I definitely would have wished to see some more special packaging. Differentiating the products is essential in any business, and using the same packaging for all the line can lead to confusions.

Furthermore, the contents of the box are the same as in the case of the other two smartphones. Besides the device itself, there’s also a USB to microUSB cable, a 5V/1A charger, and a user’s guide.

These are the standard contents for all Mlais smartphones, so a bit of differentiation wouldn’t have hurt here, either. The phone maker could partner up with an earphone manufacturer in order to provide a decent solution for listening to music. That would be fit of the flagship the M7 wants to be.

Accessories

When it comes to the number of accessories, the manufacturer only supplies two: a flip cover similar to the one for the M52, and tempered glass to better protect the display.

Click to view slideshow.

As seen above, you can buy flip covers (which is purchased separately) that match the phone in terms of color (just in case you don’t want your phone to look like a harlequin).

Click to view slideshow.

The functionality of the flip cover has been preserved from the previous phones, which means that the small window can be used for displaying the clock (either in digital or analog formats), or for music playback.

The plastic case the tempered glass comes in also includes dry, as well as wet wipes for cleaning the display prior to applying the glass. Bear in mind that the phone comes with a screen protector pre-applied, so you will have to remove that one before installing the tempered glass.

Design and Build Quality

The M4 already had a metal frame, but the M7 took things even further. The entire phone feels solid, and the buttons are no longer flimsy, as they were in the case of Mlais’ previous phablet. The front features all the usual suspects: the display has at the bottom the three capacitive buttons you’ve come to expect in an Android smartphone, but only Home is contoured. The other two become visible when touched, due to the white backlight.

There are no buttons on the right side of the phone, which can only mean one thing.

Both the volume rocker and the Power button are placed on the left side of the phone, which is a bit weird. The manufacturer explained that Lenovo and Huawei also did this, so Mlais is not the first one to move them all to one side. However, I found this to be very uncomfortable, especially when taking screenshots.

At the bottom you can only see the microphone.

The microUSB port that’s used for charging and data transfers can be found at the top, along with the 3.5mm audio jack.

The back side of the phone sports the main camera, a single LED flash, and the fingerprint scanner, which is something I’m not a huge fan of, even though I cannot deny its usefulness. Under the hood you can also see the 2600mAh battery.

Here’s a closer look to the aforementioned details, along with the two SIM card slots and the microSD slot.

Below you can see the external speaker, along with the LTE antenna.

Overall, I’d say that the M7 is very well built, not to mention that at 149.5*76.8*8.6mm it is more compact than most of its competitors. That’s right, Elephone P7000, I’m looking at you! On top of that, Mlais’ latest phablet does not bend like the P7000 does.

Technical Specs

Mlais has decided to use the same Mediatek chipset that powers the M52, namely the 64-bit MT6752, which includes an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.7Ghz and a Mali T760 M2 GPU running at 600Mhz. Even though the M7 has 3GB of RAM (which is 1GB more than the M52), there are not that many situations when this much RAM comes in handy. The more memory there is, the more apps you can run at the same time, but it wouldn’t hurt to also take battery consumption into consideration. As for storage, the M7 is equipped with 16GB of ROM that can be expanded by up to 64GB using a microSD card.

The sensors Mlais used for the cameras are a 13MP Sony IMX135 on the back and an OmniVision 5648 in the front. In other words, the quality of the pictures taken with the main camera will be superior to M52 and M4’s main camera, while selfies won’t differ at all, since it’s the same sensor at play there.

Connectivity

Apart from NFC (or HotKnot) and Wi-Fi ac, the M7 has everything you could need in terms of connectivity: 4G LTE in the B1/3/7/20 (800/1800/2100/2600) bands, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS and A-GPS. I found most of them to work satisfactory, apart from the Bluetooth and the Wi-Fi, which either took a long time to connect, or dropped the connection every so often.

GPS accuracy could have been better, as 4 meters (12 feet) can make the difference between driving on the road and jumping into a lake. Still, I supposed that drivers are able to correlate their visual input with what they’re getting from the navigation software.

Software

Mlais M7 is running a vanilla version of Android 5.0 Lollipop with just a couple of differences that pertain to some specific characteristics. Below you can see the home screen and the app drawer as they looked like after the first boot.

The first difference is represented by off-screen gestures, whose settings look as below. Besides the predefined gestures, users can also customize their own, so that drawing a certain letter launches a certain app.

The second difference is represented by the fingerprint scanner settings. Users can save up to 5 different fingerprints, and even though the set up takes a while, I am extremely impressed with how fast and how accurate the press touch ID scanner is. Mlais really did a great job in this department, and I hope they won’t make any changes in their future smartphones.

Assuming that your skin has no problems and that you want your phone to be secure, using a fingerprint for the lock screen is as good as it gets.

Performance Assessment

To see how the M7 performs, I ran a set of benchmarks, whose results you can see below. Besides that, I used the phone as my daily driver for more than 3 weeks, and reached to the conclusion that despite its better looks, it provides poorer performance than its brother, the M52.

Benchmarks

With an AnTuTu score of 47265, the M7 isn’t bad at all, but some users even got 49K with the M52, which makes you wonder if the extra GB of RAM matters at all. Had the resolution been higher, as in Meizu M1 Note’s case, for example, the AnTuTu score would’ve been much lower, so I can see why Mlais sticks with this resolution. On the downside, the resolution may be the exact reason some users pick a phablet over another one.

I ran the Epic Citadel benchmark on the M7 using all three settings: High Performance, High Quality, and Ultra High Quality, and you can see the results below.



Below are the results for the GFX OpenGL benchmark.

Mediatek chipsets are known to have GPUs that pale in comparison to the ones included in Qualcomm SoCs, yet 3DMark Ice Storm Ultimate still thinks that M7’s GPU is impressive.

NenaMark 2, on the other hand, is an outdated benchmark that shows very similar results for a bunch of smartphones, so I wouldn’t take it very seriously.

At first, I thought that the M7 gets overheated only when running GPU-intensive tasks, but I soon discovered that it also does that when playing videos, and even during 20-minute calls. That’s a major drawback, and the fact that the manufacturer was aware of it and still decided to launch the device will cause some people to raise an eye brow.

Sound Quality and Reception

The external speaker of the M7 is decent, even though I found it to lack bass and depth. The earpiece, on the other hand, is a completely different story. During phone calls at maximum volume, I could hear sound crackling coming out of it. Considering that taking and placing calls is one of the most basic things to do on a phone, be it a smartphone or a feature phone, facing such a problem could be a deal breaker. Other than that, it is loud enough to understand what the other person is saying.

Image Quality

The 13MP Sony IMX135 sensor that M7’s rear camera is based on represents a major step forward from the M52 and M4’s IMX219, especially since the resolution is no longer interpolated. That means that you get to shoot photos using the camera’s native resolution.

Click to view slideshow.

Battery Life

The first time I ran the GeekBench 3 battery test, I did it with no SIM card installed, and with all wireless connections turned off. Prior to that, I charged the M7 using a Xiaomi 16000mAh power bank, and I measured the capacity with one of these gadgets. The meter indicated a capacity of a bit above 2500mAh, with the mention that charging stopped at 95% and didn’t go up. The second time I did that, the battery charged up to 97%, again with the phone turned off. With the phone turned on, the battery usually charges fully, which makes me think that either there is a hardware problem that prevents the battery from charging to 100% when the phone is turned off, or the battery is poorly calibrated. Under the previous conditions, I obtained 4h55m of screen-on time in GeekBench 3. After installing a SIM card and several apps (which included Battery Doctor), I obtained 5h25m, which is slightly better, but still very disappointing.

Price and Availability

When it was first announced, Mlais M7 had a MSRP of $189.99, but over time, various resellers offered the phablet for $159.99 during flash sales and activities. Considering the specs, this is definitely a smartphone worth buying, but before placing an order, there are a few things you should consider.

Conclusions

Mlais M7 could have been a great Android smartphone, if it weren’t for the overheating, sound crackling, Wi-Fi instability and poor battery life. These are issues that affect even basic functionality, which means that the manufacturer should improve quality control, to make sure that devices such as the one that I reviewed don’t end up to the end consumers. Mlais has made good products that provided excellent value for money, and it’s disappointing to see that their most feature-rich smartphone ended up like this.

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VKWORLD VK6050 Astounds with Its 6050mAh Battery

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VKWORLD VK6050 01

While Samsung is developing technologies that could double the battery life of future smartphones, companies such as VKWORLD are taking the inexpensive route and cram batteries with thousands upon thousands of milliamp hours in their devices.

New technologies often come at a great price for the final consumers, so when Samsung’s revolutionary graphene-coated anode batteries will hit the market, they surely won’t be cheap. For the time being, it’s more cost-efficient to increase the capacity of regular Li-Ion batteries, to the detriment of design and portability.

Had it been a 5″ device, the VK6050 would have definitely been much thicker, but at 9.5mm, it proves to be quite pocket-friendly. The 5.5″ HD display won’t have that great of an impact on the battery, mostly because of the resolution. Also, the smaller then Full HD resolution will also help the device score higher in benchmarks, but the 1GB of RAM might actually counter-balance that. As for storage, the device comes with 16GB of ROM that can be expanded by up to 32GB with the help of a microSD card.

VKWORLD also opted for an energy efficient chipset, in the form of MediaTek’s MT6735i SoC. Included in this one are a quad core CPU clocked at 1.0Ghz and a Mali T720 GPU.

While flagships are rocking NFC, among many other connectivity options, cheaper Android smartphones, such as the Ulefone Be Pure and VK6050 sport MediaTek’s similar technology, Hot Knot. Sure, that won’t be implemented any time soon for mobile payments, but it still a great way of transferring files (think Vcards and photos, mainly) wirelessly, by bringing the displays of Hot Knot devices close to one another.

On top of that, VK6050 features off-screen gestures that provide quick access to various things by drawing letters or lines on the display, while it’s turned off.

VK6050’s 13 and 5MP cameras are promoted as having large apertures and wide-angles, but the expectations in this department should be realistic. VKWORLD packed this device with decent specs, and chose battery capacity as the main selling point, so smart dialing, smart answering and all these functions fall into a second place.

Currently the subject of a pre-sale on GearBest, the VKWORLD VK6050 can be ordered for $138.99 (or $127.98, if you use the coupon code RMNTGB at checkout). While some may complain about the phone having only 1GB of RAM, these people need to remember that not everybody is looking to but flagships, and to some, great battery life is more important than everything else.

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Mlais MX with IR, Massive Battery, Approaches Launch Date

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MX-1

To provide a certain degree of diversity, most smartphone makers also include devices with great battery life in their portfolios. In Mlais’ case, it’s the MX Base, an Android phone with a gigantic 4800mAh battery.

Mlais MX Base’s battery capacity is by no means record breaking, and neither is the performance of the chipset, but 4300mAh is far more than what most manufacturers are offering nowadays. Coupled with some decent specs, the MX is capable of ensuring an impressive battery life, without sacrificing performance too much. In fact, Mlais promises that the removable battery will keep the device running through 3 days of normal use or a week of stand-by. On top of that, the smartphone will also double as a power bank, enabling you to charge the iPhones of your wall-hugging friends.

Unlike many other smartphones powered by MediaTek’s 64-bit MT6735 chipset with World Mode 4G, the MX Base packs the p variant, which includes a CPU clocked at 1.3Ghz. It should be noted that the i version has the processor running at 1.0Ghz. Other than that, the smartphone features all the usual suspects: 2GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM (expandable with the help of a microSD card), a 5″ HD display, an 8MP snapper on the back and a 5MP one in the front. It should be noted that the MX Base comes with Android 5.1 out of the box, so you don’t have to worry about updating the phone or flashing the ROM manually.

The MX Base also features a built-in infrared emitter. In other words, the smartphone sports remote control functionality. With such a device at your side, you won’t have to worry about where the kids or your significant other placed the zapper.

Batteries with a capacity as large as MX Base’s tend to be very thick, so potential users might be worried about the smartphone’s design. However, at its thickest point, the Mlais MX measures 9.9mm. That’s 1mm thinner than the Asus Zenfone 2, but all other comparisons between the two phones end there.

The pre-sale of the Mlais MX Base will end on June 30, and the orders will be shipped by Mlais’ 11 partners soon after that. Available in black, white, or green, the MX Base is sold by GearBest for $139.99, or $128.79 with the coupon code RMNTGB.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more the first announcement of the Mlais MX Base, or the Mlais M7 Android flagship.

Mstar S700’s Good Specs Leaves Skeptics Pondering

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Mstar S700 01

Looking like a trimmed-down version of Mlais M7, Mstar S700 has some decent specifications, at least on paper, but are these enough to keep skeptics at bay?

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Mstar (not to be confused with the Taiwanese chipset maker Mstar Semiconductor, which was bought by MediaTek in June 2012) currently has three devices in its portfolio (M1, S100 and S700), and all three of them seem blatant copies of Mlais phones, but with some specifications altered slightly. More precisely, S100 looks a lot like the M52 Red Note, M1 resembles M4 Note, and saying that the S700 and M7 are just like two drops of water, at least in terms of design, would be a major understatement. While many of us would be quick to judge, the truth is that Mstar is Mlais’ OEM

All in all, the S700 packs some specs that I’ve seen in countless other Chinese smartphones: a 5.5″ HD display, MediaTek’s 64-bit MT6752 chipset that houses an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.7Ghz and a slightly underclocked Mali760 MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM, a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP selfie snapper in the front, everything put together in a metal-framed body. Even the fingerprint scanner isn’t that much of a novelty anymore, but it’s great to see that this security feature has been added. As I said, on paper, these specs may look great, but I’d suggest waiting for some hands-on reviews before taking the plunge.

Mstar must have thought that the best way of promoting S700’s fingerprint scanner is to paste some text over an image of Hardwell at Ultra Music Festival. The company even went as far as to give Press Touch ID (as all other manufacturers call this type of fingerprint scanner) another name, so what we’re dealing with here is known as an Mtouch fingerprint scanner.

What’s really disturbing is Mstar’s claim that the 13MP camera on the back of the device is as good as a DSLR. Even if it sported a Sony sensor, as Mlais M7 does, I wouldn’t even have dreamed of making such a comparison. Judging by the promotional pictures, the S700 features an OmniVision sensor, and I’d even suspect the cameras of having interpolated resolution, as even the Mlais’ first two devices did. Another aspect I’m not so sure about is the battery’s 3,000mAh capacity, which sounds a bit unrealistic, too. Call me a skeptic, but I think that Mstar and Mlais devices differ through much more than 1GB of RAM.

Mstar S700 is available in black or white, and GearBest currently sells it for $159.99, or $137, if you apply the coupon code S700 at checkout. If for some reason you want to stay up to date with what this company does, check out its Facebook page.

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Ulefone Be Pure: A Pocket-Friendly Mid-Ranger

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Ulefone Be Pure

Using an old generation chipset definitely seems like a step taken backwards, but Ulefone Be Pure has plenty of features that could lure you in.

1. Contents of the Box
2. Accessories
3. Accessories
4. Technical Specs
5. Connectivity
6. Software
7. Performance Assessment
7.1. Benchmarks
7.2. Image Quality
7.3. Battery Life
8. Price and Availability
9. Conclusions

Contents of the Box

The white box Ulefone Be Pure comes in couldn’t be described otherwise as basic. There’s not much on it, other than the manufacturer’s logo in the front and the specs of the device on the back.

Besides the phone itself, the box includes a user’s guide in English, a charger rated for 5V/1A, a USB to microUSB cable for charging and data transfers, and a 3.8V Li-Po battery rated with a capacity of 2,000mAh.

Accessories

Since this is a lower-end model, Ulefone did not create many accessories for it, and other OEMs did not show any interest, either. At the time of writing, the only available accessory was a windowed case made from PU leather that cost around $9.

Design and Build Quality

Design-wise, Be Pure doesn’t bring anything revolutionary to the table. It measures 144×71×8.89mm and weighs 130g, fact that makes it quite pleasant to hold in hand. The 5″ display also helps with the portability, not to mention that, considering the HD resolution, the 293ppi pixel density is quite OK.

Below the display there are the three capacitive buttons we came to expect in an Android smartphone. The white backlight of these buttons is quite pleasant, and doesn’t distract the users’ attention.

The smartphone’s perimeter is metallic, and all the buttons and connectors are located where you would expect them to be. At the top, Be Pure has a 3.5mm audio jack for earphones, shortcut keys (a la Pressy or Xiaomi Mi Key), or IR transmitters, along with a microUSB port for charging and data transfers.

At the bottom, there’s only a hole for the microphone. The volume buttons are found on the left side, while the power button is placed on the right side of the smartphone.

Under the back cover, you can notice the two SIM slots, a microSD slot and various antennas. Below the back camera there seems to be room for a dual LED flash, but in fact, only one LED is present.

Ulefone advertises the external speaker as having 3D Sound, and while the output doesn’t disappoint in clarity, you shouldn’t expect an authentic surround effect from such a small speaker.

Technical Specs

Powering Ulefone Be Pure is Mediatek’s MTK6592M chipset that includes an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.4Ghz, along with a Mali450 GPU running at 600Mhz. These specs may have been great last year, but some of the recent apps and games will definitely unveil this 32-bit chipset’s limitations.

Running multiple apps at the same time is not recommended on this device, since it only has 1GB of RAM. The internal memory of just 8GB won’t allow you to install many games, anyway, and you also need to take into account that some of that storage is occupied by the operating system.

Connectivity

As expected from the MT6592M chipset, there’s no 4G connectivity in the Be Pure. Apart from that, the smartphone has Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and A-GPS, as well as Hot Knot, which is Mediatek’s own version of NFC.

From my experience, most connectivity options worked just fine, with the exception of GPS, which is known to have issues in devices based on Mediatek’s chipsets. However, there are fixes that could be used for improving GPS accuracy.

Software

The manufacturer is promoting a “pure Android experience” with this device, hence the Be Pure name. Below are screenshots of the home screen and app drawer taken shortly after the first boot, and these images attest the lack of bloatware.

The device is running Android 4.4.2, even though Ulefone showed Android 5.0 Lollipop in some of the promotional images. The fact there’s no OTA update to Lollipop is a disappointment, and while Mediatek is to blame for not sharing the source and the drivers, I also think Ulefone’s move is misleading, and could be interpreted as false advertising.

Rooting the Be Pure is quite easy, and can be done in just a few easy steps using the Kingo Root software for Windows.

Performance Assessment

While it’s real-life performance that matters, there are still plenty of people out there who rely on synthetic tests and benchmarks to pick one smartphone over another. Granted, the Be Pure isn’t as blazing fast as its 64-bit counterparts, but I did not experience any hiccups, either.

Benchmarks

Considering the outdated chipset, the benchmark scores shouldn’t surprise anyone. Be Pure gets a bit over 28,000 points in Antutu, where it ranks above HTC One, but below LG G3.

GeekBench 3 results show more of the same, with some mediocre single-core performance. Multi-core performance doesn’t impress, either.

Vellamo Mobile Benchmark emphasizes Be Pure’s low performance, even when compared to devices that were launched two or three years ago.

I consider Quadrant to be a very outdated benchmark, considering the devices it compares the Be Pure to, but in case you are interested, here are the results, along with 3D Mark score.

GPU performance doesn’t seem to be very bad, as the device scored an average of 53.6 frames per second in Epic Citadel.

The result seems to be even better in Nenamark 2, where Be Pure managed to get 54.3 fps.

And finally, here are Be Pure’s GFX OpenGL scores.

Image Quality

Some praised Ulefone Be Pure’s camera as being one of the best available on sub-$130 smartphones. To be frank, I wasn’t as impressed with it as others, and found photos taken with the 13MP back camera to lack sharpness. On top of that, there were plenty of blown-out highlights in most of the pictures taken.

Click to view slideshow.

The manufacturer even admitted on the product’s Web page that the resolutions are interpolated, and the cameras have in fact 8 and 2MP, respectively.

Battery Life

I tested the battery using the GeekBench 3 battery benchmark, and the result baffled me.

Be Pure is getting 8 hours straight of screen-on time, which is quite impressive for a 2000mAh battery. MTK6752, the Mediatek chipset that powers most of the current Chinese flagships, is said to be more power-efficient than the 32-bit SoCs, but this particular smartphone seems to prove otherwise.

In real-life scenarios, you can expect around two days of stand-by time with Wi-Fi turned on at all times, and a bit over 6 hours of screen-on time. Obviously, using GPS software or gaming will lower battery life considerably.

Price and Availability

Ulefone Be Pure is available in dark blue and white on GearBest for $129.99, or for $112.98, if you apply the coupon code BEPURE at checkout.

Conclusions

While this phone may have some redeeming aspects, such as the metal frame, the pixel density and the battery life, from the price perspective, it doesn’t stand a chance against 64-bit smartphones with metal body designs that cost less than this one. Not everyone is looking to own a flagship, and not everyone can afford one, but when it comes to buying a mid-ranger, it’s probably better to look at models that aren’t based on old chipsets.

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