As we were just writing in one of our previous reviews, the companies both around the world and China take a lot of inspiration from the Cupertino, California based company. Some of them take that just an inspiration and “borrow” this and that, but other companies, however, think that copying the whole thing is a way to go for their business strategy. We are talking about one of the iPhone 6 clones here – Dakele 3 (or Big Cola 3). We’ve heard that it is quite good, but is it true? Is another clone from the far east worth your attention? Let’s find out in our review of the Dakele 3.
Specs
| Display | 5″ Full HD (441ppi), covered by a layer of sapphire glass |
| Processor | Octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor, 1.7 GHz (64-bit) |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Camera | 8MP Front/13MP Back |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, |
| Battery | 2.500 mAh |
| Dimensions | 7.25mm thickness |
| OS | Android 4.4 |
| Storage | 16GB (can be expanded up to 128GB via Micro SD) |
As we can see from the specs sheet, the device is really hi-end offering. The powerful chip, 3 GB of Ram, a powerful combination of cameras, sapphire screen layer and full aluminium/titanium casing makes it really interesting device, which is definitely worth the attention.
Unboxing
The box is pretty simple, yet elegant.
The package contents include the phone itself, SIM removal tool, charger with the Micro USB cable and some instruction manuals. Headphones, however, are not included. Well, we are not too sad about it since usually the stock headphones included in the box do not have the best sound quality anyway.
The charger does not seem like the copy of Apple’s charger. For us, it reminds a bit more of the HTC charger design. Anyway, who cares about charger’s design.
100-240V power adapter supports a wide voltage and has an output of 5V1.5A, which is a bit lower at the nowadays standard of 5V 2A, but still faster than the iPhone 6’s 5V 1A charging speed.
Here is the device itself. Does it look familiar?
Since the Dakele Big Cola 3 has a bigger screen of 5 inch, it makes the device bigger than the iPhone 6.
The device (bottom device) spots the same home button design. However, it only takes you home as there is no fingerprint scanner inside.
What is more, there are two more capacitive buttons next to the home button. They light up as soon as you use them.
After flipping the device upside down we can see the difference in colours. The Dakele 3 spots a bit darker colour design. It may have something to do with a different shell technology. The iPhone uses aluminium alloy whereas the Dakele 3 uses aluminium/magnesium alloy.
The camera along with the LED flash light seems to be placed at the same spot. Also, there is a Dakele logo on the back. What is more, there are two stripes at the top and bottom, which should help receiving a signal. They are thinner than the ones on the iPhone 6 and look better in our opinion. Moreover, the Dakele spots a back speaker in contrary to the iPhone, which has its speaker setup on the bottom of the device.
Since the Dakele 3 is a bit thicker, it does not have a protruding camera.
Here we can see two slots for either dual SIM or SIM/Micro SD (up to 128 GB) combo.
On another side of the device we can see a very similar placement of volume rockers. They have a good tactile response, but in general a bit of the lower quality than the iPhone. What is more, the Dakele 3 lacks volume with button as the iPhone has. Anyway, we do not really see the point of having it as we consider it being a heritage button of Apple devices.
On the bottom you can see a Micro USB charging port, mic and 3.5 mm headphone jack. The difference with the iPhone seems obvious when it comes to a speaker as the iPhone has it on the bottom of the device and Dakele 3 has it on the back.
There is nothing on the top side of each of the devices.
Overall, the device is really very similar to the iPhone 6 with a few minor differences.
User Interface
The Dakele 3 comes with a Coke Kele UI 15.01, which is still in beta stage, but it is functioning without issues.
The UI looks to be a bit of a mashup of the iOS and the MIUI as the icons and the whole design language has a lot of inspiration from later user interfaces.
Once we said that the UI is still in Beta, you can see that some of apps look very basic. Indeed, they are subject to upgrades in the future.
You can check the rest of the UI pictures in the gallery below.
Overall, the UI is pretty good looking and very smooth. We did not see any hiccups or lags doing daily tasks, which we really liked.
Performance
The Dakele 3 spots a Octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor, which is clocked at 1.7 GHz (64-bit) along with the 3 GB of Ram. Also, the Mali-T760 GPU helps handling the graphics.
Here is the full list of specs of the Dakele 3.
We ran through some benchmarking tests to see how it performs. We can see that the device performs quite good and it is on par with the last year’s flagships. Considering the low price tag, it is a good achievement.
Besides benchmarks, we did not have any issues with the daily use, which included scrolling through menu, playing games, surfing the web, watching videos and youtube and taking pictures or recording videos.
Camera
Dakele 3 uses 13mp Sony IMX214 camera sensor with a F / 2.0 aperture, 1.4um single pixel. Also, it supports 60FPS 1080P video recording. Let’s take a look at he camera UI first.
As you can see, the camera UI is pretty basic and similar to the one found on the iPhone 6. There are camera / video recording buttons, picture preview, camera switch, flash on/off, camera filters and some other basic functionality.
Actually, we are more interested in the image quality. How do you think it performed? Let’s see in the pictures below.
The daylight shots turned out to be pretty good. The 13 mp shooter provides plenty of detail, the colour reproduction is natural. Also, the sharpness and the white balance levels are very decent.
The night shots are also pretty good. They may not be as good as the iPhone 6, but still amazing for the 1499 Yuan spruce tag. The pictures have much more noise in comparison to the daylight shots, but we have seen much worse performance even from some flagship devices.
Overall, the camera on the Dakele 3 seems to be a great all-around performer. With the future software updates we can expect to have one of the better shooters around since the IMX214 and f / 2.0 aperture looks like flagship camera specs on paper.
Battery Life
The device has a 2500mAh battery inside. It is not really juicy according to today’s standards, but we should say that it performed really well. Thus, we could easily each the end of the day without the need to look for a electricity socket or power bank. Our test included some surfing the web, gaming, taking quite a lot of pictures, texting and calling.
Final Words
Well, you may think that the Dakele 3 is just another Chinese clone of the iPhone 6. Well, you may be right in some certain aspects. First, it was design to depict the beloved shape, look and feel of the Apple’s flagship. Second, it really looks and feels very similar, if not the same with the iPhone 6. On the other hand, there are some differences, which we really enjoyed. It begins with the a bigger 5 inch screen, which is covered by the sapphire glass. Honestly, we did not try to scratch it with knives or keys on purpose, but we didn’t save the device either. The screen is still not scratched and we can assure you that you would not need to bother about any crappy screen protectors, which usually distort the view of the screen or make it reflective. What is more, we loved the metal built of the Dakele 3. Also, the stripes on the back are much narrow than the iPhone 6, which makes it look elegant and sleek. Moreover, the dual SIM or SIM/Micro SD card combo is definitely an advantage of this device. Also, we loved the battery and the performance of the 13mp camera. Finally, the price tag is probably what attracts us most. With the cost of just 1499 Yuan in China, the Dakele 3 smartphone may be even better choice than the iPhone 6.
So there you have it, two similar, yet different devices. One is priced very high, another much lower. What would you choose? Let us know in the social poll or the comment section below.
