Pricing on China smart phones are dropping fast, but we are also seeing incredible performance gains and quality for these prices. Ecoo is a relatively new player in the China phone game, having been producing phones since MT6592, but are giving us a very powerful mobile at a great price point.
Category: Featured
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3GB 1080P Ulefone Be Touch 3 preview
Ulefone has been around for awhile, but didn’t come to prominence until their release of the very popular Ulefone Be 1. Within a few weeks of its release, the Ulefone Be 1 became very difficult to get and the Ulefone Be Touch 2 was announced. (more…)
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3GB MT6795 flagship LeTV 1S preview
LeTV is one of the more interesting recent players to enter the smartphone market. Unlike many recent companies who seemingly sprang from nowhere, LeTV has been around since 2004. (more…)
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Bluboo Xfire preview 64-bit ultra-budget mobile
Bluboo has come out of the woodwork to make several new releases. The quite good Bluboo X550 caught a lot of attention, and rightly so as it was one of the first mobiles to spearhead the recent mega-battery trend. (more…)
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Ultra-budget Leagoo Alfa 5 preview
Leagoo is a fairly new brand, born in April 2014, but the team behind Leagoo, OTEDA Group Holding Limited, began and have been involved with technology and mobile communications since 2003. (more…)
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Snapdragon 801 OnePlus X preview
OnePlus jumped on the scene about a year back with their premium specced OnePlus One. This mobile shook things up a bit with their marketing approach; by selling the phone through invite codes only, they generated huge buzz around phone. Enough buzz in fact that many common consumers, who knew nothing of China phones, ended up knowing the brand name.
Up for preview today is the OnePlus X.
OnePlus X review specs specifications
- SoC: Snapdragon 801
- CPU: 4-core Krait [email protected]
- GPU: Adreno 330
- RAM: 2GB or 3GB (two different versions)
- ROM storage: 16GB
- Display: 2.5D Gorilla Glass protected IPS OGS 5.0″@1080P
- Front camera: 13MP
- Rear camera: 8MP
- TF SD expandable: Yes
- Dual-SIM: Yes
- OS: Oxygen over Android 5.1.1
- 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
- 4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz
- Battery: 2450mAh built-in
This is an awesome time to be into China phones. A couple of months back, it seemed there was no end to the 5.5″ models, but recently we’ve seen a big surge towards 5.0″. As 4.7″/5.0″ is my preferred size, it’s great to see OnePlus releasing a more compact mobile.
Interestingly, they’ve gone with a design that allows for TF SD expansion up to 128GB. The two different versions are 2GB and 3GB, but beyond this are the exact same phone. The price difference between the two is only $10, so obviously we’re going to jump up to the 3GB version when purchasing. That being said, there’s little to no discernible difference between 2GB and 3GB to the average user, so if the gap gets wider than $15, I’d stick with the 2GB version.The Snapdragon 801 is one of Qualcomm’s flagship SoC and has enough bandwidth to easily push 1080P; we should see a very smooth Android experience with the OnePlus X. We also see the OnePlus X supports worldwide 3G, which is good news for N/C/S Americans.
OnePlus [email protected] Stylewise the OnePlus X is nice and square and carries the slightly edge-curved 2.5D Gorilla Glass.
If you’re looking for a compact mobile built by a strong up and comer known for creating very solid mobiles, consider the OnePlus X.
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MTK6795 Meizu Metal preview 2GB/32GB
When speaking of China brand mobiles, there’s no leaving out Meizu; they’ve been around since the beginning and their name is synonymous with quality to those who know the market. They have offices in Hong Kong, China, and even in Russia. Annually Meizu sells about 18 million handsets.
Meizu [email protected]
Meizu was founded in 2003 by Jack Wong and got their start with MP3/MP4 players. Their first Android mobile, the Meizu M9, was released in 2011. One year after this, began Meizu’s journey with their flagship line– Meizu MX.
Up for preview is the Meizu Metal. I’m digging the name, let’s see if it’s got the specs to match.
Meizu Metal review specs specifications
- SoC: MT6795 Helio X10
- CPU: 64bit 8-core [email protected]
- GPU: PowerVR G6200
- RAM: 2GB
- ROM storage: 32GB
- OS: Flyme 5 over Android 5.1
- Display: 2.5D glass 5.5″@1080P
- Dual-SIM: Yes (dual-SIM OR single-SIM/TF SD)
- TF SD expandable: Yes (dual-SIM OR single-SIM/TF SD)
- Battery: 3140mAh built-in
- Rear camera: 13MP
- Front camera: 5MP
- Gyroscope: Yes
- OTG: Yes
- Compass: Yes
- Touch ID: Yes
- 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
- 4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz
Carrying MTK’s flagship SoC– Helio X10, right off the bat we see Meizu Metal isn’t messing around. This is MediaTek’s latest release with only a handful of mobiles currently wielding the beast.
RAM is a big 2GB; beyond what’s required to run Android smoothly and storage is a large 32GB. Refreshing to see Meizu step up the game with storage, as many mobiles in this price range only coming 16GB. Combined with TF SD expansion, this gives us a huge amount of possible storage.
Rounding it off, the battery is a respectable 3140mAh and the Meizu Metal also has worldwide 3G/H/H+ support and 4G support for many parts of the world.
Meizu [email protected]
If you’re looking for a mobile a step above the recent budget offerings, from a well respected player, consider the Meizu Metal. -
2GB budget Ulefone Be Pro preview
Ulefone has been around long enough now to be considered one of the veteran China brands. They broke ground with the OnePlus One look alike– Ulefone Be Pro, and the iPhone 6 lookalike– Ulefone Be Touch. I liked both of these phones, and at the time they were a good buy.
Deciding to reboot the Ulefone Be Pro, we now have the Ulefone Be Pro 2.
Be Pro [email protected]
Ulefone Be Pro 2 specs specifications- SoC: MT6735
- CPU: 64-bit 4-core [email protected]
- GPU: Mali-T720
- RAM: 2GB
- ROM storage: 16GB
- Display: IPS 5.5″@720P
- OS: Android 5.1
- Rear camera: 8MP
- Front camera: 5.0MP
- Compass: Yes
- Dual-SIM: Yes
- TD SD expandable: Yes
- 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
- 4G：FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
- Battery: 2600mAh
For a good portion of time, quite a few models were including 850/900/1900/2100 WCDMA. Over the last couple of months though, they have dropped off in favor of mostly 900/1900 from Doogee, Elephone and Oukitel.
This is sad to see, but brands such as Xiaomi, Innos, Mlais, Lenovo and Ulefone are still carrying the torch releasing budget priced phones with N/C/S American WCDMA frequencies.
The SoC on the Ulefone Be Pro 2 is MT6735, which I’ve found to be very capable. It actually carries the same core type, Cortex-A53, as the super-powered Helio X10, albeit at a lower clock speed.Great also to see a compass included. This should be a default sensor for any phone in the $125+ range, but seems to be missing from some phones costing even far more. While I rarely to never have a use for compasses, they can come in handy when walking in unfamiliar cities.
Be Pro [email protected]
If you’re looking for a budget mobile and have a carrier that supports the above mentioned frequencies, consider the Ulefone Be Pro 2. -
4GB/32GB/2K display Elephone Vowney preview
Not content to sit on the sidelines, Elephone continues to put out innovative mobiles. With the solid P8000 I’m hoping a corner has been turned and that the P8000 wasn’t just an anomaly; their upcoming Vowney, Vowney light and M2 may go some way towards telling the tale. (more…)
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3GB/32GB Bluboo Xtouch review specifications
Bluboo is a brand who had been around for quite awhile, then disappeared off the map for about half a year. They came back with one of the first mega-battery mobiles, the Bluboo X550. This model was generally well received, providing great battery life and minimal reported issues. (more…)
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Oukitel K6000 review specifications 6000mAh 2GB budget mobile
Oukitel just keeps churning them out. At simply amazing rate, surging well ahead of the rest of the pack in terms of new releases. (more…)
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Oukitel U7 pro review specifications super budget mobile
Oukitel, the brand that blasted onto the scene just a scant couple of months ago, isn’t sitting around on their heels. They’ve taken the recently released Oukitel U7, refreshed it and dubbed it the Oukitel U7 pro. (more…)
