Tag Archives: 64-bit Smartphone

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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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.

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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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DOOGEE Valencia 2 Y100 Pro Astonishes with Its Metal Body

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Below a certain price point, smartphones with a metal frame are a rarity, and phones with a seamless metal body even more so. DOOGEE Y100 Pro defies reality, as it comes with a metal body and has a price tag that would make other 64-bit smartphones green with envy.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer DOOGEE has made a name (and quite a strange one) for itself by creating very affordable devices, and the Y100 Pro, aka Valencia 2, is no exception. Built around a 64-bit chipset and running a 64-bit version of Android (5.1 Lollipop, to be more precise), the Y100 Pro will be tough to beat, especially considering its build quality.

The smartphone is powered by Mediatek’s MT6735 chipset, which gained popularity for being the first 64-bit SoC with 4G World Mode launched by this chip maker. Included in that chipset are a quad-core CPU running at 1.3Ghz and a PowerVR G6200 GPU. For memory, the Y100 Pro has 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM, which are furthermore expendable by up to 128GB.

Valencia 2 should prove to be a pocket-friendly device, and I’m not saying that only because it is affordable. Its HD display measures only 5-inch in diagonal, so it’s small enough not to be uncomfortable, but also large enough for games, movies, and Web browsing. The 2.5D glass that covers the touchscreen, coupled with the metal body, makes the smartphone look very classy.

For the snappers, DOOGEE used a 13MP Sony sensor on the back and an 8MP camera in the front, but I’m a bit skeptical about these specs, and wouldn’t be surprised if they turned out to be interpolated.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the Y100 Pro features 4G LTE in the 800/1800/2100/2600MHz bands, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and GPS. Cheap smartphones based on older Mediatek chipsets also feature Hot Knot (this chip maker’s own version of NFC), but either this one does not have it, or the manufacturer has decided not to promote it.

The 2200mAh battery might not sound like much, but assuming that the software is optimized and the battery is properly calibrated, that should be enough for up to two days of casual use.

GearBest is currently taking pre-orders for both the black and the silver versions of DOOGEE Valencia 2 Y100 Pro. The pre-sale will end on July 2, and orders will be shipped soon after that.

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Mlais M52 Red Note Makes Performance Affordable

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Mlais M52 Android Lollipop

Many Android smartphone manufacturers claim to have created Xiaomi Redmi Note killers, but Mlais’ M52 Red Note really has the specs to prove it.

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. Image Quality
7.3. Battery Life
8. Price and Availability
9. Conclusions

Contents of the Box

The M52 comes in a very compact turquoise cardboard box that protects the phone and the included accessories from any damage that might occur during transportation. The pastel color of the box makes it difficult for the camera to focus, and this also seems to be the case with some of the back covers.

One can only appreciate the simplicity of this box, with only the name and the logo of the company in the front, and the specs of the smartphone on the back. Take note (this seems to have also become Mlais’ slogan) that in some of the pictures the blur is caused by the depth of field, as they were taken in macro mode.

Click to view slideshow.

Besides the phone itself, there’s not much else in the box. Mlais provides a manual that is entirely in English (sign that the device is meant for the international market, and not just for China), an EU charger rated at 5V and 1000 mA, and a USB to microUSB cable that can be used both for charging the phone and for transferring data from or to a computer.

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Accessories

Even though there are four back covers available for the M52 Red Note (black, white, baby blue and peach red), buyers can only choose one when purchasing the device, and the M52 will come equipped with it. The others will be sold separately.

Depicted below is the flip cover case (actually called a Fashion Cover by the manufacturer), which is available separately for $4.42.

This particular flip case has S-Cover functionality, meaning that it can display either a digital or analog clock, depending on what you choose. The setup is found under Settings > Display > S-Cover Settings. In addition, swiping from right to left when the flip is on unveils a simplistic interface for the default media player. If you decide to use another player, such as PowerAmp (my personal favorite) or PlayerPro Music Player, the playback controls will stop the music in the app, and the default player will be launched instead. The entire process is seamless, but I wish it was possible to select the player we wish to control in Window mode, as there may be differences in sound determined by different EQ settings.

Tempered glass screen protectors for Mlais M52 can be purchased for $4.02, while replacement batteries cost $4.42. As if there weren’t plenty of accessories already, PU leather flip cases were also made, in various shapes and colors.

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Design and Build Quality

Overall, the M52 Red Note follows the general design of Android smartphones, with the volume rocker to the left of the screen, the power button on the right, a 3.5mm port for headphones at the top and a microphone on the bottom. The only exception from the rule seems to be the microUSB port that’s located at the top, instead of the bottom.

There’s no metal chassis, but the plastic chosen by Mlais for the M52 is of high quality, and the phablet feels very sturdy in hand. Even the shiny back cover looks very durable, and I’m pretty sure that users won’t fear breaking it while taking it off.

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Technical Specs

At 78 x 152 x 8.2 mm and 158 grams, Mlais M52 is a sleek phablet. In the front, the smartphone has a 5.5-inch IPS display (that comes with a screen protector film pre-applied) that’s bright and sharp, yet somewhat inferior to IPS panels made by JDI, and to Samsung’s AMOLED screens. The 1280×720 resolution resulting in a 267ppi pixel density doesn’t as huge of an impact on the battery as a higher resolution would have had. Still, it’s nearly impossible to see individual pixels, so there’s no reason for complaints here.

Regarding the bits that make this device tick, the M52 is based on Mediatek’s MT6752 64-bit chipset that includes a Cortex-A53 octa-core CPU running at 1.7Ghz and a Mali T760 GPU. Multitasking capabilities are sustained by 2GB of RAM, while the internal storage is of 16GB. In case that’s not enough (we all know how large music libraries can get these days), you can expand that by using a microSD card of up to 64GB.

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Connectivity

Considering the price, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the M52 doesn’t feature NFC (or Mediatek’s similar, but less popular Hot Knot). Other than that, M52 excels in connectivity options that range from 4G LTE (in the 800/1800/2100/2600Mhz bands) and dual-band Wi-Fi ac to Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It should be noted that when one band is used in 4G, the other one works in 2G. Besides that, the SIMs are not active simultaneously, so you might want to use one exclusively for data and the other one for calls.

Mlais could’ve chosen a better GPS sensor, as this one has a 4 meters accuracy, at best. Other than that, the other connectivity options perform as advertised.

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Software

The phone was launched with a vanilla AOSP Android 4.4.4 KitKat, but the manufacturer promised that it would update it to Lollipop on April 10. On the day before the scheduled update, a video was uploaded to Mlais’ YouTube channel, showcasing the M52 running Android 5.0. On April 10, Mlais posted a picture on their Facebook page, saying that the update had been pushed back 5 days in order to perfect it. Some server issues led to further delays, but on April 17 Mlais released the first build based on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Since that first build had many bugs and lacked unified storage, the manufacturer asked users to provide feedback, and soon launched another build, which also had several problems. To prove their professionalism and just how much they strive to satisfy the customers, Mlais took all the bug reports into account and released a third Lollipop build that solved most app crashes and functionality issues. On top of that, the manufacturer enabled users to pick the size of the OS partition (2/4/5GB), depending on their needs.

Check the above images to see the KitKat home screen and the app drawer as they were at the moment of the first boot. For comparison, below are the Lollipop home screen and app drawer.

The only downside is that for the time being, the Lollipop update is not offered OTA, and users have to flash the newest build manually, after rooting KitKat. Fortunately, Kingo Root can take care of that problem in a few simple steps.

Mlais posted a video on their YouTube channel detailing the steps required for manually flashing the device.

One of the aspects that sets the M52 apart from some of its competitors is the presence of off-screen gestures. The following screenshots include the settings for such gestures, and it should be noted that they are the same for both Android 4.4 KitKat and 5.0 Lollipop.

There are a few predefined gestures, but users can also establish what actions should occur when a certain letter is drawn onto the display.

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Performance Assessment

Over the four weeks I used the M52 as my daily driver, I noticed that it is very responsive in menus, apps and games. In fact, the M52 seemed faster than more expensive devices based on the same chipset. The following benchmarks confirm that the phablet can offer performance without forcing users to spend insane amounts of money.

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Benchmarks

First, I ran Antutu Benchmark in KitKat, and the score of 44,610 points was already impressive, in comparison to Xiaomi Mi4, Samsung Galaxy S5, Huawei Mate 7 or HTC ONE X M8.

After updating to Android 5.0, the M52 really showed its muscles, obtaining 47,126 points in Antutu. Some users even reported getting scores as high as 49K, but even with my score, Mlais’ device outranks the OnePlus One.

I ran the other benchmarks under KitKat, but the results in Lollipop should be even better. In GeekBench 3, the chipset proved to have lower performance in single-core tests than its counterparts, whereas in the multi-core tests it ranked higher than all of them.

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Image Quality

The cameras seem to be one of the weakest points of the M52, as the phablet features an 8MP Sony IMX219 on the back and a 5MP OmniVision 5648 in the front. The manufacturer claimed that the resolutions are 13 and 8MP, respectively, but these were obtained by using interpolation.

In daylight, M52’s rear camera produces decent photos, even though some details look burnt and over-exposed if shot in strong sunlight. Sharpness could’ve been better, too. On the other hand. in poor light conditions, the amount of noise is very noticeable.

I have no complaints regarding how fast the rear camera focuses, but I truly hope that Mlais will use better sensors in their future devices.

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Battery Life

The GeekBench 3 battery test revealed that M52’s battery can provide 5h 57m of screen-on time, indicating that the capacity might actually be smaller than 3200mAh.

The fact that there are many unnecessary processes running in the background also has a major impact on the battery life, but this aspect can be changed by installing Battery Doctor or a similar app.

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Price and Availability

The MSRP of the Mlais M52 Red Note is $159.99, but during the pre-sale some resellers offered it for as low as $129 with coupons applied during checkout. Now, most China stores sell it for $149.99, and considering that the price also includes free worldwide shipping in most cases, this is quite a bargain.

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Conclusions

Touted as the world’s cheapest Android device running on Mediatek’s 64-bit MT6752 chipset, the M52 Red Note is quite possibly the best smartphone you could get for around $140. The build quality and the performance make this phablet a tough competitor. With some proper software, either in the form of a custom ROM or a very optimized vanilla Android, Mlais M52 could become a force to be reckoned with.

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LeTV X600 Juggernaut Marks the Debut of MediaTek helio X10

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LeTV One X660 01

Internet company turned phone maker Leshi is about to launch one of the first devices powered by Mediatek’s high-end 64-bit chipset.

About three weeks ago, LeTV started making some waves in China when it released pictures and some specs of its flagships (that’s right, plural), which are not only bezel-less, but also the first smartphones to sport a USB Type-C. Called by some China’s Netflix, about in the same way Xiaomi is (wrongfully, I might add) referred to as China’s Apple (whereas it’s more of China’s Amazon), LeTV is about to set the phone making industry on fire with its high-end, yet affordable LeTV One, One Pro, and LeTV Max. Whereas the last two are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810, the first one, which is also known as LeTV X600, is going to be the first smartphone to run on Mediatek’s helio X10, a SoC that’s supposed to blow the competition out of the water, besides offering support for 120Hz displays.

The X600 will come with a 5.5″ 1920×1080 IPS display with a pixel density of 403ppi, so there’s nothing otherworldly in that department. Things take a turn for the better when it comes to the included CPU, an octa-core beast running at 2.0Ghz, which is paired with a Imagination PowerVR G6200, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM. The latest aspect could’ve been better, especially since this phablet doesn’t come with a microSD slot. Two other versions with 32, respectively 64GB of on-board memory have been created, but those will surely cost more than the basic model.

If OnePlus One was yesteryear’s flagship killer, this year the title belongs to the X600, and deservedly so. To make sure that no performance is sacrificed because of incompatibilities, LeTV offers Android 5.0 on this phablet, and not as an OTA update, but straight out of the box.

As for the cameras, LeTV opted for a 13MP camera on the back with AF and dual-LED flash, while selfies will be the duty of the 5MP 90-degree wide-angle camera found in the front. Connectivity is yet another aspect that abounds in options, since the phablet has (almost) everything you could possibly need: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, an infrared emitter for remote control functionality, and LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz.

As mentioned before, this is the first smartphone to feature USB Type-C instead of the typical microUSB port. That means that not only will data transfers happen at much higher speeds, but also that that the X600 will charge much faster than its microUSB counterparts. The only thing that leaves a bit to be desired is the 3000mAh battery, but provided that the software is optimized, there shouldn’t be any problems in that department, either.

See below how the LeTV X600 compares in size to the iPhone.

Not at last, the AnTuTu Benchmark scores of LeTV X600 indicate that this phablet could go anyday of the week against its more expensive competitors.

GearBest has started today the pre-sale for LeTV X600, and has it at $364.39. However, this reseller is willing to offer it for about $45 less (or more precisely, for $319) if you apply the coupon code LETVX600 during the checkout procedure.

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Lenovo K3 Note Adds a Touch of Color to Android Lollipop

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One of the veterans of the Chinese phone making industry has recently launched a budget-friendly 64-bit phablet in youthful colors.

Black has always been an elegant color (or noncolor, if we are to believe the artists), but it’s also very sober, something that explains why it’s not a popular choice for gadgets among youngsters. Before sliding into your pocket a businessy black smartphone, maybe you should reconsider your color preferences and budget, and go for a more affordable device, in the form of the Lenovo K3 Note.

Lenovo didn’t include a fingerprint scanner in the K3 Note, and NFC isn’t present either. Some may argue that such features are a must, especially at this product’s price point, but that doesn’t mean that the K3 Note lacks appeal.

At first, this phablet might look a bit bulky, with corners that are just slightly rounded, but the design should go well with the younger crowd. Dominating the front is a 5.5″ Full HD IPS display with a 401ppi pixel density. The resolution and, consequently, the pixel density, are some of the aspects that set this phablet apart from most of the other 5.5-inch smartphones powered by the same chipset.

Under the hood, the K3 Note includes a 64-bit Mediatek MT6752 SoC with an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.7Ghz and a Mali T760 GPU, along with 2GB of RAM and 16 of ROM, for storing and running multiple apps.

The back of the device sports a 13MP dual LED flash camera, while the front has a 5MP one. Also in the back is the grill for the external speaker, which is placed in the oddest of places: towards the right side, opposite the camera. As far as the camera app is concerned, Lenovo is known to make one of the finest out there, and I’m sure the K3 Note will not disappoint from this point of view.

On the software side of things, the K3 Note features Android 5.0 Lollipop, with the company’s own UI on top, Lenovo Vibe 2.5.

Lenovo K3 Note is sold by GearBest for $165.98, provided that you apply the coupon code LK3NOTE at checkout. Both the yellow and the white versions are available, so you can get to match the phone with your personality.

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