Note: This is a delayed review. My computer hard-disk crashed big time and I lost all the photos and screenshots that was taken with this phone. Luckily I have some photos of the review unit taken with my camera for this post.
People are not really looking at a dual-core phones nowadays (except me, maybe). Consumers are now mostly looking at a quad-core mobile smartphone for their “basic” need on any Android phones. Why? Because they tend to go for the most optimum specification and future proofing themselves. That is about to change.
Many thanks to GWorld Asia who recently had a soft launch of their first, or Malaysia’s first Mediatek powered True Octa-core Android phone called the Gphone EVO. I called this a multimedia powerhouse…for reasons that I will explain later. For all I know when I first held the review unit in my hand, it feels really solid without any creaking plastic sound around the edges. Why I bring up this subject? Because most of the low or mid priced smartphones tends to have that slight creaking sound on the edges when you hold on to it too tight. This one feels good and solid. That’s the first plus point.
Let’s view the specifications:
- 5-inch HD 1280×720 IPS OGS Display
- 1.7Ghz Octa Core (MTK6592)
- 13MP AF (Rear), 5MP (Front) Camera
- 1GB RAM / 16GB ROM
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- Dual SIM & support microSD up to 32GB
- 3G/HPA WCDMA 2100Mhz, GSM 900/1800Mhz
- GPS / A-GPS / WiFi/ Bluetooth
- Removable 2000mAh Li-Po battery
This phone has some good specifications but lacking in some areas:
- No LTE. (Coming soon in next octa-core upgrade)
- Octa-core but only 1GB of RAM. Like driving a Ferrari that has a fuel tank capacity of only 10 litres.
- No Kitkat out-of-the-box yet.
The lacks are just minor stuffs. But this phone still packs some strong punch…especially on the multimedia side. Earlier on I mentioned about this phone being a multimedia powerhouse. Here’s why. The EVO is optimized with a ClearMotion video enhancer while playing any video files, pushing the 25 or 30 FPS video up to 60 frames per second. And with ClearMotion, there is almost no motion blur while viewing a HD movie on this phone. I tried watching 300 in full HD on this phone and I was not disappointed. The clarity and level of details from the video playback is beyond awesome. It’s like watching a blu-ray movie on an ultra HD TV. Super clear. Really.
As for gaming, same can be said about this phone. Running a game on this phone is flawless. I did try playing Modern Combat 4 on the review unit and there was no lag at all. Graphics are great and everything is clear. Of course its good. Because Mediatek is collaborating with Gameloft to show the full potential of this octa-core beast. The phone will be bundled with the new Modern Combat 5 game for free when you purchased it from the store.
If you love taking photos, you won’t be disappointed with the camera on this phone. 13-megapixel on the main rear camera and 5-megapixel on the front camera works really well. The main 13MP camera shoots clearly with its fast auto-focus and images produced by the camera is good. From a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of photo quality, I would give about 8. Clarity is good, colour is good, low noise and best of all, selfie photo enhancement. Vain people would love this function. Lol!
Conclusion
Surprisingly this phone performs above par. The back cover is made of glossy plastic so it is a finger-print magnet. The 5-inch display feels really good for one handed operation except for those with small hand. The device also comes with a premium looking cover, this one I like.
If you love gaming and watching videos, this is the phone for you. Also good if you love taking pictures and selfies. But the only qualm that I have with this phone is the 1GB of RAM. Can do way better if it comes with 2GB of RAM. Hopefully their next upgrade will come with 2GB and more internal space. LTE version is coming soon so I’m waiting for that now.
Those who wish to purchase this phone, you can buy this true octa-core multimedia powerhouse for only RM899 from the authorised dealers. Yes…VERY cheap for a true octa-core smartphone. And you won’t be disappointed.
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