iNew V8 review first thoughts
Inside the iNew V8 box is a standard array of accessories including headphones, power adapter, quick start guide, USB cable and a screen guard. The iNew V8 already has a screen protector on it, so this makes the one in the box an extra. Nice of them to include it, as screen guards tend to get mucked up over the period of a couple months.
According to the sticker on the phone, the iNew V8 is one of the new breed of phones to support 850/1900/2100MHz 3G which is excellent news for Americans as both T-Mobile and AT&T and their MVNOs are re-farming their 3G to 1900. Depending on your area, AT&T will be either 850 or 1900 WCDMA and much of T-Mobile has already been re-farmed.
The phone itself has some nice heft to it. Not feeling light and cheap. That is not to say that light phones are bad, but the heft does give a reassuring feel of quality.
The back snaps on nice and firm. There are no creaks or loose spots. This is important, as the phone has both NFC and a touchpad back. The back requires a firm enough fit that the contacts connect to maintain functionality of NFC and the touchpad.
The camera swivels nicely. While time may tell another tale, the play out of the box is just about right. It swivels easily enough, but not so loose that it will turn without a bit of pressure.
iNew V8 review KitKat
On the box we see that KitKat 4.4.2 is touted for the V8. Indeed, while I was initially skeptical about the V8 shipping with KitKat, the ‘About Phone’ shows the phone as having 4.4.2. This is not the end-all-be-all though, as it is not difficult to fake KitKat in build.prop. I took it a step further and tested it by downloading Google’s new Google Camera which is for KitKat devices only.
You can check out the results of Google’s new camera app on the iNew V8.
I do not make them fool enough to blatantly fuddle fake KitKat
iNew has made some blunders in the past, but I do not make them fool enough to blatantly fuddle fake KitKat, and it is good to see them take this big step forward with the iNew V8.
The battery shows 2400mA and as the iNew V3 was plagued with battery issues, one of the first things I will do is test the charging arc to find if the curve is smooth and true, without any jumps to 100%.
The back is unique and cool looking with convex sides that taper down to rounded by mid-phone. There is also a textured top which while does not add any extra grip, does add some character and an interesting feel. All in all a very classy looking phone without any sort of cheap shine to it.
I booted up the phone and my initial feeling is that the OS is solid, but I will be putting it through the paces the next few days to see if this proves true. Play Store is present and the only ‘junk’ on the phone is an Android app store called ‘My Store’ and ‘Sammy Dress’ which is a shop for females to buy dresses, handbags, earrings etc…
The back touchpad offers several options, including on/off, double tap to open app/dialer, slide up/down and left/right to scroll the screen and what may be a very handy feature — tap and hold, then release to take a photo. This gives you a nice fat target to press when taking a shot, as opposed to having to tap the small area on the screen which sometimes inadvertently causes refocusing instead of snapping the picture.
The LCD is bright with medium brightness giving it enough oomph to be pleasant indoors. There is some contrast change from extreme angles, most notably when viewing it angled from the corner, but the display is truly IPS and does not wash out as TN panel would. Overall I would call the display very good.
I will have the iNew V8 root method, as well as iNew V8 CWM coming up in the forum within the next couple days.
As well, over the next few days I will be putting it through the Gizbeat standard tests and making written reviews at this link. I am very interested to see how the MT6591 holds up against MT6592 in the GPU department and I will compare the scores from a similarly specced phone, the 720p, 1GB RAM Doogee DG550.
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