Database Info

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

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

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

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

where is it available for that price $65.00

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

Wow!!
Inviato dal mio GT-I9505 utilizzando Tapatalk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
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.

Cubot S308 review, a handy $150 Chinese smartphone.

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

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

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

[REVIEW] Siswoo Cooper i7: octa-core, 64 bits, 4G, IPS HD 5", 2GB de RAM, 16GB ROM,

[REVIEW] Siswoo Cooper i7: octa-core, 64 bits, 4G, IPS HD 5", 2GB de RAM, 16GB ROM,
Recently the young Chinese company Siswoo announced their second Android model, taking advantage of the new 64 bits processors from MediaTek.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
As I have already told before, those Chinese manufacturers are each time copying (imitating less) and willing more to highlight something from their own. Today Siswoo is presenting the Cooper i7, and before going into the review, I cannot hide... it's a bullet!
Hardware
Those are the specifications of the last Siswoo smartphone:
And yes, you are right, 64 bits octa-core processor running at 1,7Ghz, GPU Mali T760, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage (of which 12,82GB available for the user) and up to 64GB expandable via microSD, 4G-LTE connectivity ... appetizing, isn't it? Let's go with the review.
Packaging, design and ergonomics
The package is really simple and quite square, the one used by Elephone for the P3000s attired my attention, but this one goes back to the “standards”. Small and with the table of content and smartphone specifications.
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/sF0Pcrfu1Fo
[/YOUTUBE]
Just taking it out of the box, two things surprised me: the design and the weight. It's really light, in a very first moment I even though it didn't have the battery, but yes, it was inside, and even so it stays on 130gr.
As we can see on the video, the device comes inside a small plastic bag and in the bottom inside the box, we will find the charger and earphones. It's very nice from Siswoo's side to include (already applied) the plastic cover for the screen.
Regarding the design, I must confess I didn't like it in a first sight, too simple and too... flat, with round edges.
BUT, once you use it, this feeling changes. And this design influences a lot. As said before, it's very light (although the different of size, exactly the same weight of iPhone 5) and with less than 9mm of thickness, you can carry it very comfortably on your pocket... and being a 5” device.
One remarkably thing on its design are the touch buttons. They are normally off, but when you use the phone or you have a notification, they light in an elegant and practical way. When not, the front part is completely black. On this front, we will also find the 5Mpx camera and the sensors for light and proximity.
Unlike other smartphones, all the physical buttons of the Cooper i7 are on the right side. In the beginning it might be confusing, since sometimes you want to press volume down and you lock the phone.
However, once you get used to that, it's very comfortable, specially because this terminal fits perfectly into one hand, and by having the buttons on the same side, you can manage it completely with just one hand.
The rest on the edges is free... except for the top part, where we find charger plug and jack 3.5 for the earphones.
Turn it. On the rear part, your eyes go directly to the 8Mpx camera with dual LED flash on the top, just below SISWOO logo and on the bottom the speaker and logo with “4G-LTE” like to remember us that we can connect to those networks.
Last on this part, I must say that the Cooper i7 does not slide at all. It's very agreable to touch and it fits perfectly on the hands, so VERY good ergonomics.
Screen
Cooper i7 mounts a HD IPS 5” screen, offering a resolution of 720x1280. It has very good quality, although I think they use dynamic contrast, because I don't feel as much range of tones as in other (first brand) phones. I mean, black is not as black.
The viewing angle is very good and I had no problems using it under bright sun, by having the brightness in automatic mode, it adjusts in seconds to any situation.
We will also find two interesting functions, "Gesture sensing" and "Smart Wake". The first one means that we will be able to navigate through pictures on the gallery and some other apps just by moving our hand over the phone (but without touching it). The second one, allows us to complete some actions by drawing pre-defined patterns on the screen when the phone is locked, like activate radio, camera, change song...
The gesture recognition is working but, at this point is not as perfectioned as in other models like new Samsung Galaxy, with the Cooper i7 you must pass your hand closer to the screen and slower.
The Smart Wake function is really interesting, I liked it a lot. I continually use it for many applications... and with just one movement!
Software, multimedia and games
This terminal comes with Android 4.4.4 Kitkat, although Siswoo has annouced we will receive the update to Lollipop during March.
They didn't apply any customization layer on top of Android (maybe it also influences the high speed this phone goes), in addition it is rooted by default and includes all the usual and popular applications out of the box (Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Skype, Adobe Reader, Documents to Go and the interesting WeCal) so we can start fully using it just after the first booting.
Browsing the web either with WiFi or with 3G/4G connection, it's very fast and fluid, no lags, specially the background applications (like social network notifications)
In the multimedia area is where I really enjoyed myself. Since there were not pre-installed game, I went direct to Fifa 15:UT and another action game called Contract Killer... ¡bingo!
The initial test became some weekend hours playing online tournaments (specially Fifa, I really love it). The fact of being so light and so comfortable on the hands, make this smartphone the perfect portable gaming console, and as I said before, being so fast makes the games start very quickly and loading times are very short. While playing there are no lags, nor freezes and being moving images, contrasts and colors are perceived perfectly.
I have the same feeling when playing videos, the powerful CPU and accompanied with one of latest presented GPUs make the work without any trouble. FullHD, subtitles... even working through the network I had no problem with any type. Regarding the volume, it's OK and the rear speaker has enough relief (inward) so that the sound is not muffled by supporting the phone on any surface.
Coming to the extras, GPS and compass worked very well and once again, without having to wait.
So, in general, the multimedia experience has been very satisfactory.
Camera
The Cooper i7 brings (as usual) two cameras, the front one with 5Mpx and the main one at the rear with 8Mpx, both with interesting characteristics like voice shooting control, the beauty effect (perfect for selfie lovers) or the noise reduction.
However it suffers from the great evil of Chinese phones: lots megapixel unable to perform well in low light conditions.
It was clear that the "buts" would arrive sooner or later.
I have tried the camera inside and outside. Taking pictures outside and with full sun light, the results are very satisfactory for pictures and also recording video.
But when the light is lower, other "first brand" phones like iPhone (who also mounts an 8Mpx main camera) are capable of great pictures...and with this one we will simply prefer not to zoom too much on the pictures.
I would even say that I even like more the results of the front camera (with its 5Mpx and without flash) rather than the main one, so selfie addicts...good for you! Both cameras work perfectly with Skype, just pay attention you don't cover the microphone when holding the phone.
Autonomy
As seen on the specifications, the (removable) battery has a capacity of 2100 mAh, something I found quite tight compared to the more than 3000 mAh we see often on new terminals... but very good compared for example with the 1440mAh on the iPhone 5... and more than enough for one day. I already said I spent several hours playing online.
It's equiped with fast charging technology, nevertheless I would preferred to see the latest ultra-fast charging technology (around 80% in 15min or so).
Conclusions
In the first lines of this review I already stated than although most of Chinese phones have some common points, it is each time more usual to see brands willing to highlight their "personal touch".
In my opinion, Siswoo has been able of achieving a very interesting result in which is only their second model on the market. Not only on the design but specially on the usability, the user experience is very agreable.
We cannot dismiss from our minds that it's not only the aforementioned excellent potential, the Cooper i7 also brings us dual SIM and 4G-LTE connectivity for around 180€ (as per its price on Etotalk including VIP shipping DHL only took 2 days to arrive to my house).

mdabar said:
Recently the young Chinese company Siswoo announced their second Android model, taking advantage of the new 64 bits processors from MediaTek.
As I have already told before, those Chinese manufacturers are each time copying (imitating less) and willing more to highlight something from their own. Today Siswoo is presenting the Cooper i7, and before going into the review, I cannot hide... it's a bullet!
Hardware
Those are the specifications of the last Siswoo smartphone:
[IMG="Specifications"]
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-omHjEmmzagg/VPGBRIFQFlI/AAAAAAAABuY/8la0GNjKY-I/s1600/SiswooCooperI7-specs.jpg[/IMG]
And yes, you are right, 64 bits octa-core processor running at 1,7Ghz, GPU Mali T760, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage (of which 12,82GB available for the user) and up to 64GB expandable via microSD, 4G-LTE connectivity ... appetizing, isn't it? Let's go with the review.
Packaging, design and ergonomics
The package is really simple and quite square, the one used by Elephone for the P3000s attired my attention, but this one goes back to the “standards”. Small and with the table of content and smartphone specifications.
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/sF0Pcrfu1Fo
[/YOUTUBE]
Just taking it out of the box, two things surprised me: the design and the weight. It's really light, in a very first moment I even though it didn't have the battery, but yes, it was inside, and even so it stays on 130gr.
As we can see on the video, the device comes inside a small plastic bag and in the bottom inside the box, we will find the charger and earphones. It's very nice from Siswoo's side to include (already applied) the plastic cover for the screen.
Regarding the design, I must confess I didn't like it in a first sight, too simple and too... flat, with round edges.
BUT, once you use it, this feeling changes. And this design influences a lot. As said before, it's very light (although the different of size, exactly the same weight of iPhone 5) and with less than 9mm of thickness, you can carry it very comfortably on your pocket... and being a 5” device.
One remarkably thing on its design are the touch buttons. They are normally off, but when you use the phone or you have a notification, they light in an elegant and practical way. When not, the front part is completely black. On this front, we will also find the 5Mpx camera and the sensors for light and proximity.
Unlike other smartphones, all the physical buttons of the Cooper i7 are on the right side. In the beginning it might be confusing, since sometimes you want to press volume down and you lock the phone.
However, once you get used to that, it's very comfortable, specially because this terminal fits perfectly into one hand, and by having the buttons on the same side, you can manage it completely with just one hand.
The rest on the edges is free... except for the top part, where we find charger plug and jack 3.5 for the earphones.
Turn it. On the rear part, your eyes go directly to the 8Mpx camera with dual LED flash on the top, just below SISWOO logo and on the bottom the speaker and logo with “4G-LTE” like to remember us that we can connect to those networks.
Last on this part, I must say that the Cooper i7 does not slide at all. It's very agreable to touch and it fits perfectly on the hands, so VERY good ergonomics.
Screen
Cooper i7 mounts a HD IPS 5” screen, offering a resolution of 720x1280. It has very good quality, although I think they use dynamic contrast, because I don't feel as much range of tones as in other (first brand) phones. I mean, black is not as black.
The viewing angle is very good and I had no problems using it under bright sun, by having the brightness in automatic mode, it adjusts in seconds to any situation.
We will also find two interesting functions, "Gesture sensing" and "Smart Wake". The first one means that we will be able to navigate through pictures on the gallery and some other apps just by moving our hand over the phone (but without touching it). The second one, allows us to complete some actions by drawing pre-defined patterns on the screen when the phone is locked, like activate radio, camera, change song...
The gesture recognition is working but, at this point is not as perfectioned as in other models like new Samsung Galaxy, with the Cooper i7 you must pass your hand closer to the screen and slower.
The Smart Wake function is really interesting, I liked it a lot. I continually use it for many applications... and with just one movement!
Software, multimedia and games
This terminal comes with Android 4.4.4 Kitkat, although Siswoo has annouced we will receive the update to Lollipop during March.
They didn't apply any customization layer on top of Android (maybe it also influences the high speed this phone goes), in addition it is rooted by default and includes all the usual and popular applications out of the box (Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Skype, Adobe Reader, Documents to Go and the interesting WeCal) so we can start fully using it just after the first booting.
Browsing the web either with WiFi or with 3G/4G connection, it's very fast and fluid, no lags, specially the background applications (like social network notifications)
In the multimedia area is where I really enjoyed myself. Since there were not pre-installed game, I went direct to Fifa 15:UT and another action game called Contract Killer... ¡bingo!
The initial test became some weekend hours playing online tournaments (specially Fifa, I really love it). The fact of being so light and so comfortable on the hands, make this smartphone the perfect portable gaming console, and as I said before, being so fast makes the games start very quickly and loading times are very short. While playing there are no lags, nor freezes and being moving images, contrasts and colors are perceived perfectly.
I have the same feeling when playing videos, the powerful CPU and accompanied with one of latest presented GPUs make the work without any trouble. FullHD, subtitles... even working through the network I had no problem with any type. Regarding the volume, it's OK and the rear speaker has enough relief (inward) so that the sound is not muffled by supporting the phone on any surface.
Coming to the extras, GPS and compass worked very well and once again, without having to wait.
So, in general, the multimedia experience has been very satisfactory.
Camera
The Cooper i7 brings (as usual) two cameras, the front one with 5Mpx and the main one at the rear with 8Mpx, both with interesting characteristics like voice shooting control, the beauty effect (perfect for selfie lovers) or the noise reduction.
However it suffers from the great evil of Chinese phones: lots megapixel unable to perform well in low light conditions.
It was clear that the "buts" would arrive sooner or later.
I have tried the camera inside and outside. Taking pictures outside and with full sun light, the results are very satisfactory for pictures and also recording video.
But when the light is lower, other "first brand" phones like iPhone (who also mounts an 8Mpx main camera) are capable of great pictures...and with this one we will simply prefer not to zoom too much on the pictures.
I would even say that I even like more the results of the front camera (with its 5Mpx and without flash) rather than the main one, so selfie addicts...good for you! Both cameras work perfectly with Skype, just pay attention you don't cover the microphone when holding the phone.
Autonomy
As seen on the specifications, the (removable) battery has a capacity of 2100 mAh, something I found quite tight compared to the more than 3000 mAh we see often on new terminals... but very good compared for example with the 1440mAh on the iPhone 5... and more than enough for one day. I already said I spent several hours playing online.
It's equiped with fast charging technology, nevertheless I would preferred to see the latest ultra-fast charging technology (around 80% in 15min or so).
Conclusions
In the first lines of this review I already stated than although most of Chinese phones have some common points, it is each time more usual to see brands willing to highlight their "personal touch".
In my opinion, Siswoo has been able of achieving a very interesting result in which is only their second model on the market. Not only on the design but specially on the usability, the user experience is very agreable.
We cannot dismiss from our minds that it's not only the aforementioned excellent potential, the Cooper i7 also brings us dual SIM and 4G-LTE connectivity for around 180€ (as per its price on Etotalk including VIP shipping DHL only took 2 days to arrive to my house).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good, very good to review, but I wonder what is the most interesting device, and what it may have longer duration in time ... this I 7, or R8 ...
now my thanks for the review ...

Hi bodyjoao, from my point of view they are very different devices.
Think that Siswoo is a really new (young) company and up to now they have just launched 2 smartphones, being the first one the R8 Monster. In my opinion they did like that to show everybody what they were able to do, so top of hardware specifications.
Then they presented the Cooper i7 to show that they want to do also more affordable products, but without going to low end range. My impressions have been very good testing the i7, I insist that the weak point for chinese phones is always the camera, but leaving that on a side... I'm really enhoying the i7, it's very very fast on everything... and delicious to play with very light and thin hehe
The R8 Monster costs around 100$ more and... still I'm not sure the camera will be much better.
We have very good news coming from other brands like Xiaomi, were people insist that their cameras are quite good, so I'm confident that chinese companies have already understand that people demand quality and they are giving it little by little... better finishing, better, screens, better storage... It's not always the amount that counts, but the quality

mdabar said:
Hi bodyjoao, from my point of view they are very different devices.
Think that Siswoo is a really new (young) company and up to now they have just launched 2 smartphones, being the first one the R8 Monster. In my opinion they did like that to show everybody what they were able to do, so top of hardware specifications.
Then they presented the Cooper i7 to show that they want to do also more affordable products, but without going to low end range. My impressions have been very good testing the i7, I insist that the weak point for chinese phones is always the camera, but leaving that on a side... I'm really enhoying the i7, it's very very fast on everything... and delicious to play with very light and thin hehe
The R8 Monster costs around 100$ more and... still I'm not sure the camera will be much better.
We have very good news coming from other brands like Xiaomi, were people insist that their cameras are quite good, so I'm confident that chinese companies have already understand that people demand quality and they are giving it little by little... better finishing, better, screens, better storage... It's not always the amount that counts, but the quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am under This phone or the jiayu s3 , But the site don't have now the jiayu s3 for now, and I like this look...I wait for one or tree days and then I decid....
Sent from my HUAWEI G750-T20 using XDA Free mobile app

bodyjoao said:
I am under This phone or the jiayu s3 , But the site don't have now the jiayu s3 for now, and I like this look...I wait for one or tree days and then I decid....
Sent from my HUAWEI G750-T20 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Jiayu is very good one too, I found available on the same store I took the Siswoo -> http://www.etotalk.com/jiayu-s3_p7545.html
And as usual customer they gave me these coupons... first in first served
5 USD Available 77571b3b8a 2015-04-02
5 USD Available 7ef04c0bff 2015-04-02
5 USD Available fc8cabfe8e 2015-04-02
5 USD Available 9c7b4d8e1d 2015-04-02
5 USD Available 857faaa218 2015-04-02
5 USD Available bf36c5bfe8 2015-04-02
I prefer them because of the DHL VIP shipping ... take a look and decide, you will tell later which one you take!

I've been using mine since a couple of weeks, but the home button backlight somehow stays on all the time. Any idea why? Cheers, great review!

yash3339 said:
I've been using mine since a couple of weeks, but the home button backlight somehow stays on all the time. Any idea why? Cheers, great review!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not had this issue... and since yesterday I'm thinking on it and surfing my Cooper i7 up and down to find anything :-/
The only I can think on is, go to Settings -> Display -> BreathLight and try to unable all of them, reboot the phone and then activate them again.
Normally it should light only to notify something.
Goos luck and tell us if it works!

cooper 17
hello
i also plan to buy it, but i fear about the small battery..
could you tell us more about that matter ?
thks

jdcesari said:
hello
i also plan to buy it, but i fear about the small battery..
could you tell us more about that matter ?
thks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More than 1 day with my normal use,... I mean a lot of wifi: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Opera, weather and Youtube for the baby
I've also been using radio and trying 2 different GPS applications (Navmii and Navigate 66) for which I have not only tried the apps but also downloaded the maps for a couple of countries (so more than 1GB downloaded over wifi for those apps)
And planning the trip I have moved cartoons for the baby from my NAS to the smartphone using the wifi, so another 1GB moved there and the battery resisted
It's true it went faster when playing Fifa, because it was online and playing, but with normal use it's much longer.
So it's true that the battery is not as long as for other devices, but you see that also on its thickness, it's really comfortable to bring it on the pocket.

5" HD 720p is poor
it's a great screen with 5" FHD
MTK6752 support screen solution 1080P

thks a lot
you are perfect

Hahaha thanks! but just trying to help and share my experience through reviews
If you liked it, I would appreciate you clic on the "Thanks!" button
Have a nice one!!

Weak wifi on Cooper i7?
Hello,
I just received my siswoo cooper i7 yesterday. I'm also lucky with until now except for one issue: the Wifi is very weak. It has an ok connection next to the router (54 Mbps), but if I move away 4-5 meters (staying in the same room even), it drops the connection or goes down to 12/ 5 / 2 Mbps. I also tried at my office, it wouldn't work if not directly at the router. All my other devices (Moto MB 526, XT320, iPad Air) have good connection even 2 rooms further away and work like a charm.
Anyone else having similar issues? Any good ideas to solve this?

IF SISWOO IS READING -> PLEASE DONT BLOCK ROOT !
ROOTED WITH iROOT SUCCESS
Back and other Button LED = (su) echo 255 > /sys/class/leds/button-backlight/brightness // 0 to turn off
Breathlight (HomeLED) = echo (CODE) > /sys/devices/virtual/breathlightdrv/breathlight/open // 0 to turn off
CODE -> defines blinking rate - havent figured out the system but any numbers between 12 to 20.
Will add if found out more...

What about the storage? Is it unified or partitioned?
I'm still worried about the battery. Otherwise it looks great.

chat1978 said:
What about the storage? Is it unified or partitioned?
I'm still worried about the battery. Otherwise it looks great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean with unified that all the available storage is on the same partition then it's a yes, available storage appears all together as internal SD Card and it all can be used to install apps.
The battery life depends on the usage. I consider it will last a full day with moderate usage (2 - 3 hours SOT, some gaming, some calling, some music listening), but no more that that.

alresave said:
If you mean with unified that all the available storage is on the same partition then it's a yes, available storage appears all together as internal SD Card and it all can be used to install apps.
The battery life depends on the usage. I consider it will last a full day with moderate usage (2 - 3 hours SOT, some gaming, some calling, some music listening), but no more that that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes about the storage. Thanks.
On my daily life, I don't have high expectations from the battery.
But last year, while on route to an island, I drained the battery of THL W200 within a couple of hours just by looking at the ship's location and doing some reading.
Very disappointing. I have a portable battery back but still, I would like something bigger for vacation time!

Full Review Video
Pictures from http://s7yler.blogspot.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLB3C60yvcc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYR-Y3umZaM

Doogee Turbo-mini F1 Review - Budget 4.5" LTE 64 Bit (MT6732)

As usual, you can find the full review in a nice format and all pictures in a higher quality here :
http://klonom.com/doogee-turbo-mini-f1-review/
The Doogee Turbo-mini F1 is a compact budget dual SIM LTE smartphone. It runs on an MT6732 64 bit quadcore SoC with 1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM, Android 4.4 KitKat and a 4.5″ display with qHD resolution. We kindly received the Turbo-mini F1 from the TinyDeal Online Shop. You can get it for around 125$ from →here.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Spezifikationen:
-MT6732 64 Bit Quadcore SoC (each up to 1.3 GHz)
-Android 4.4.4 KitKat
-1 GB RAM
-4.5″ qHD IPS Display (960×540, OGS)
-Dual SIM (4G/2G) (1xMicro, 1xMini (Normal))
-MicroSD Slot
-5 MP rear camera, 2 MP front camera (8 MP + 5 MP interpolated)
-1700 mAh battery (measured, officially 2000 mAh)
-Sensors: Acceleration, Light & Proximity
-USB OTG
-HotKnot
-WiFi, BT
Items delivered:
The Doogee Turbo-mini F1 is delivered in a valuable looking box, which is kept in a white and partly blue color. On the side you can find a genuine certificate, similiar like the ones you can find on Xiaomi products. Beside the smartphone itself the following accessoires are delivered with it: An USB-data/-charging cable, an USB charger, a white headset with control button, a quick start guide and a second screen protection foil (one is already applied). The first three enumerated items are placed very neatly in a foam-like material, which gives the whole box a kind of valuable impression: Thumbs up here! Attached you can see an overview of all items delivered.
Unboxing Video:
First Impressions:
What you will probably notice first when you take the Doogee Turbo-mini F1 in your hands, is that it weights way less than any smartphone you hold in a long time. At first sight (and also at second) this is a very nice combination with its quite compact size. Although its very little weight it still has a valuable feeling due to the metal edging.
Like usual, on the front bottom you can find the three capacitive Android buttons. These are printed in silver color and do not have a background light. At the top you can find the loudspeaker, the front camera and the light/proximity sensor. The transition between display and case can be seen slightly whilst turned off screen, but not very remarkable.
At both long sides metal bars are placed. They feel cool when being touched and give the smartphone a valuable appeal, way more as you would probably expect from a price around 125$. The volume rocker (also made out of metal) is placed on the left side. It is not perfectly enclosed, so it has a little free space to move. You can hear a very faint metal “clicking” when you move the phone as the volume rocker moves as well. The pressure point is, anyhow, very nice.
On the right side the power button is placed. Also this one is made out of metal and has a nice pressure point. As a kind of design elements, both metal stripes have visible screws at the ends.
MicroUSB and 3.5 mm headphone jack are placed on the top side of the Doogee. While I personally would prefer the MicroUSB on the bottom, this is not a very big drawback.
The bottom side of the F1 does not have any connectors. Top and bottom side does not have metal elements. Plastic elements in a chrome look were used here.
The backside of the Turbo-mini F1 is kept simple. On the lower part you can find the mono-loudspeaker, while the camera is placed on the top left. A little highlight is the metal bordering of the camera, which can be felt nicely.
The back cover is sitting pretty tight. Pretty damn tight . Beneath it you find the battery as well as the SIM slots (1xMicro, 1x Mini (“Normal”)) and the MicroSD slot. There is no dedicated 4G slot. Via the Android menu it can be chosen which card should be using LTE, the other one is running on 2G.
All in all the Turbo-mini F1 makes a good impression, nothing is creaking and has an overall serious look. Single downside is the volume rocker which is not perfectly enclosed.
UI/Android:
The F1 is delivered with Android 4.4.4. It comes preinstalled with a launcher from Doogee. Anyhow, the launcher is quite close to the stock laucher, only the icons are modified with a colorful background. The launcher is very snappy, the animations are fluent. The phone is delivered with the FW revision from 31.01.2015. The Turbo-mini F1 also supports “Wireless Update” (FOTA). Below some impressions of the launcher.
Performance:
Like already mentioned in the Android section the system runs very smooth – the strenghs of the MT6732 can be noticed easily. An update to Lollipop would be great since then the whole advantage of the 64 bit architecture SoC could be exploited. But already with the preinstalled KitKat the smartphone reaches above average benchmark results in this price section. The results of the Antutu v.5.6.1, Geekbench 3 and 3DMark (Icestorm Extreme) benchmark can be seen in the next pictures:
Only the small RAM of about 1 GB is limiting the performance of the F1 for using it with massive parallel programs. Personally I did not hit that border yet, while using several opened Chrome tabs (>7) and messenger apps in the background the system still ran smoothly.
Storage:
The budget 4G phone from Doogee comes with an officially 8 GB ROM. This is divided into internal and phone storage. The exact partition can be seen in the next screenshots:
-Internal Storage: 1.12 GB (0.95 GB available)
-Phone Storage: 4.59 GB (4.58 available)
-Total: 5.71 GB (5.53 GB available)
The internal storage (which can be used for apps) is unfortunately quite small with around 1 GB.
The memory can be extendend via MicroSD-slot and and external USB storage via USB OTG (tested).
Camera:
...check out here the camera sample pictures and more :
http://klonom.com/doogee-turbo-mini-f1-review/
Sensors:
According to shop information the Turbo-mini F1 comes with acceleration, proximity and light sensor. The app “Sensor Box” shows several more, but the shop remains correct: The “additional” sensors don’t return any values and are fake. In general the sensors work as expected. Similiar as in the DG280 the proximity sensor has a quite low resolution with just 2 values: Covered and not covered. Still totally enough turning off the screen while talking.
GPS:
The GPS in the mini-F1 is usable. The first fix out of the box was done after a few seconds outside, while the accuracy improved up to 3 m in the next few seconds. At the start of one from several test navigations the GPS showed a similiar behaviour as the camera did – the device could not get a fix (although it worked short before without any problems). Once cleaned the system quickly with Clean Master and the GPS works flawlessly again: GPS fix immediately. When the GPS is once locked the signal is stable – navigation worked without any problems. No “improvements” like updated EPO files or similiar were used. The Turbo-mini F1 uses GPS (no GLONASS or BeiDou). Below you can find a screenshot from GPS Test and the used satellites.
Battery:
Officially the phone comes with a 2000 mAh battery. The measurement of the battery revealed a real capacity of roughly 1700 mAh. The MT6732 is an energy efficient SoC and in combination with the small display the battery can live with average use (subjective!) about one day. In areas with often changing signal strengths (or types) you will notice the increased battery drain due to the constantly tried switch between 2G/3G/4G. In this situation the battery life is getting hardly over one day. This downside can be partly reduced by manually setting one network type while not using. Below you can see the charging history of the battery.
Battery charging history of the Turbo-mini F1
Supported Bands:
The Turbo-mini F1 is fully functional for LTE in Europe due to the coverage of all relevant european bands. An overview is given in the next screenshots. As already mentioned, the 4G service can be switched between the SIM cards.
WiFi Receiption:
The WiFi receiption is above average good. A direct comparision with the Doogee DG280 and Cubot Zorro 001 you can see in the next picture (all tested at the same location, 2 walls in direct sight line).
From left to right: WiFi receiption Turbo-mini F1, DG280 and Cubot Zorro
Display:
The display diagonal measures 4.5″, while the resolution is 960×540 (qHD). Officially it is an IPS display as one-glass-solution (OGS). Both specifications seems to be correct at near observation. In other ratings of the Doogee Turbo-mini F1 it can be read that the low resolution is a major drawback of the phone: The display is not HD and of course it can be seen. Anyhow, the qHD resolution is in my eyes (wordplay, hehe ) still suficient for the compact display and no pixels are jumping right into your eyes. Comparision: The Turbo-mini F1 has a pixel density of roughly 245 PPI, while a 5″ display with HD resolution has a pixel density of about 294 PPI. The difference is not that huge.
Virus-Scans:
The initial virus scan with G-Data shows an infected system:
The Anti-Virus app reports that the system is infected with the “SMSReg” malware. According to internet reports this program can cause (unasked) sending of messages to a chinise number and rise costs. This app can be removed with root (for example via “System App Remover”), the app to be removed is called “Device Management”. Afterwards the system is virus free (…except of the SuperUser App which is recognized as malware):
Speedtest:
…will be added soon .
More Infos:
-Weight: 114 g
-3 Point touchscreen
Misc:
The Turbo-mini F1 has no notification LED. The smart wake function (double tap to wake up, also gestures) is supported and works without problems. Google Apps are preinstalled. The F1 can be easily rooted via One-Click-Tools (iRoot successfully tried). It also supports the budget alternative to NFC called HotKnot (had two HotKnot devices at hands for the first time – it even works !).
Review Video:
Conclusion:
The Doogee Turbo-mini F1 makes a pretty good impression overall. The smartphones combines several decent functions at a low price and weight: Full european LTE coverage, good processor performance, good GPS and nice manufacturing quality. Of course the F1 also has some (mostly budget class typical) downsides like the camera or the storage division. A small FW update which corrects some small software issues wouldn’t hurt either. Anyhow, all in all it is a smartphone with a very nice price/performance ratio which we can especially recommend to friends of sub 5″ displays. (Since I am one myself I think this device will accompany me on ).

Nice review. My compliments. Quite insightful.
I was impressed with the F1 and positive specs for a phone of that price, so I took a risk and ordered 3. One for the missus, one for the mother and one for the brother. All three have been using them for a while now and are quite positive. The phone is fast, cheap and feels snappy
But, and that is where it becomes tricky, all three have issues. One phone doesn't seem to last very long with battery at all and also seems having trouble charging. The others have persistent problems with the camera, constantly having the 'can't connect to camera' bug. Nothing so far has helped solve that, no cache wipe, no other apps, but it usually starts working only after a few reboots. This behaviour disappears after a factory reset, but comes back again after a day or two of use.
Another issue is that after reboot, the shortcuts placed on the desktop are gone. Apps put from the app list into the main screen are gone after a reboot.
I've contacted Doogee about these, but the support is lackluster, as to expected for a china phone, but they did hint to a firmware update. Interestingly enough, they didn't allow my remarks to remain public.
I think the Doogee would benefit immensely from an update to Lollipop and I actually would prefer a full stock Android on the phone. All in all, it is a budget phone, and you could do much worse for a 100 euro's a piece.

Thanks for the positive feedback, always nice to hear . About the camera bug: I have the app Clean Master (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard ) installed and the problem disappears (even if it's just temporary) after I "cleaned" the RAM of the device. Does this help for you too?
But yes, all in all I also think it is a quite nice device for around 100€ (especially since most china devices under 5" have rather bad specs).
By the way, how do you mean that part with "didn't allow my remarks to remain public"? Did you post it on the Doogee site or how?

KloNom said:
Thanks for the positive feedback, always nice to hear . About the camera bug: I have the app Clean Master (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard ) installed and the problem disappears (even if it's just temporary) after I "cleaned" the RAM of the device. Does this help for you too?
But yes, all in all I also think it is a quite nice device for around 100€ (especially since most china devices under 5" have rather bad specs).
By the way, how do you mean that part with "didn't allow my remarks to remain public"? Did you post it on the Doogee site or how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will try that app. I'll let you know.
And yes, the Doogee site has a public feedback part, and although I did get an answer, it wasn't public anymore.

Just added a small Review Video .
@CrimsonRid: That's kind of bad public behaviour of Doogee. Although it already happened some weeks ago that Doogee tried to push a review author (for the same device) to remove his negative remarks from the review since it is not good for them. It's in german language, but the screenshots are in english:
http://www.gizchina.de/so-nicht-liebe-freunde-aus-dem-fernen-osten.html

Hi,
i am having some gps issues with this phone. The lock is very fast but it is unusable for navigation because the accuracy is very bad. I don't know if it is dropping the gps connection al the time! When i stop somewhere the gps position is jumping/turning around on the screen and sometimes even does not register that i stopped but keeps going forward. I am also experiencing the problem that it can't connect to the camera. Mostly it works again after a reboot.

beograd59 said:
Hi,
i am having some gps issues with this phone. The lock is very fast but it is unusable for navigation because the accuracy is very bad. I don't know if it is dropping the gps connection al the time! When i stop somewhere the gps position is jumping/turning around on the screen and sometimes even does not register that i stopped but keeps going forward. I am also experiencing the problem that it can't connect to the camera. Mostly it works again after a reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the GPS: That is bad to hear, there seems to be some variance in the GPS quality then in the devices. I could use mine for navigation without problems (tried some test navigations in the car).
To the camera: Did you try what I wrote in this post? I also experienced that problem, but then I did not need to reboot the phone at least again.

Thank you very much for the great review.

Krystyna said:
Thank you very much for the great review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the positive feedback .

Lollipop please
Storage full after only short time, is it a bug or do I need sdcard, cheers.
Would love root and custom rom.

jazz452 said:
Storage full after only short time, is it a bug or do I need sdcard, cheers.
Would love root and custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fear it's not a bug, but just because the internal storage is quite small. You can root the device via iRoot. Then you can try to use apps like App2SD and see, if you can free some space from the internal storage.

i have bought two doogee's f1, i quote your good review.
If someone wants to see , this is video of unboxing and comparison Blue - White:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frGQ0lDajlw
also with root access, moving apps from internal 1,2Gb rom and Sd is not possible

Unfortunetaly there is no way yet to repartition the memory in devices with the new 64 Bit Mediatek SoCs as far as I know . But hopefully this will change in the future.

bad day
first laptop mouse and keyboard died. Now f1 mini is dead , will not charge or turn on :crying:

jazz452 said:
first laptop mouse and keyboard died. Now f1 mini is dead , will not charge or turn on :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sucks . Did you try to charge for a longer time? Does it not even boot into recovery menu?

KloNom said:
That sucks . Did you try to charge for a longer time? Does it not even boot into recovery menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's dead as a dodo, ordered knew battery but I fear it's something more sinister. Went flat and then never charged again, left on charge for 12 hours. Bought from China so not going to bother sending it back, it's a poor quality phone that can't handle more than a few apps before storage full messages.
Would I buy another china phone? yep but not one from doogee.
Will update either way when new battery arrives. It's my sons phone so can't be sure of what happened
I got the oneplus one and it's an excellent phone.

jazz452 said:
It's dead as a dodo, ordered knew battery but I fear it's something more sinister. Went flat and then never charged again, left on charge for 12 hours. Bought from China so not going to bother sending it back, it's a poor quality phone that can't handle more than a few apps before storage full messages.
Would I buy another china phone? yep but not one from doogee.
Will update either way when new battery arrives. It's my sons phone so can't be sure of what happened
I got the oneplus one and it's an excellent phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try to get into the recovery mode? If you connect it via USB to your computer, does it recognize it? Also try without battery.

Not recognised with or without battery, just tried, thanks.
Sent from my A0001 using XDA Free mobile app

jazz452 said:
Not recognised with or without battery, just tried, thanks.
Sent from my A0001 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's bad . Does something happen if you keep holding VOL- and Power? This should bring up the (chinese) recovery menu... At least hopefully.

Nothing happens,think it's fried,still waiting on battery from China.
Sent from my A0001 using XDA Free mobile app