Which Chinese smartphone can take the best shots? A lot of you may have argued with each other about this. Today, I give you several sets of photos taken by four different Chinese cellphones that cost 2000 RMB (326.51 USD) to compare. They are the OnePlus One, Xiaomi Mi4, Huawei Honor 6, and the Meizu MX4. The latest software these phones had was from before November 10, 2014. You guys compare these photos and decide which smartphone has the best camera.
Scene 1
Order: DSLR camera, MX4, Honor 6, Mi4, OnePlus One
Close-up: 650D DSLR, MX4, Honor 6, Mi4, OnePlus One
We have seen a number of releases from Doogee lately. Most of its phones come loaded with good specifications and an affordable pricetag which has attracted a lot of local as well as international customers to its smartphones.
Today, we will be reviewing the Doogee DG850 Hitman model, which is actually a Xiaomi Mi4 clone at zeaplus for $99. This puts the device in the same category as the numerous Mi4 clones that have made it to the market recently, which have been capitalizing on the success of the Xiaomi’s flagship model.
So, without wasting any more time, lets take a look at what the Doogee DG850 offers to its buyers.
DESIGN
Like always, we start off with the design of the phone. Given that its a Mi4 clone, you don’t have to imagine what it will look like. The phone comes with almost the same dimensions as the Mi4 i.e. 139.3 x 68.5 x 8.8mm. You get a metal chassis on the device which makes it look premium and well built like the Xiaomi model. So, if you liked the Mi4, then you will definitely like the new Doogee 850.
On the front, you have the 720p display with the camera and the sensors on top. Below the display lies the three capacitive buttons. On the left side is your volume up and down buttons and the power button, while on the right lies the sim card tray. The back is pretty clean too, with just a camera, LED flash and the Doogee Logo placed at the bottom.
DISPLAY
On the front, you have a 5.0 inch IPS display panel with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. This is ofcourse much lower than the 1080p display found on the original Mi4, but we have seen that previous Doogee phones with 720p displays have been quite clear and bright, so we expect this too to be good enough for your daily use.
HARDWARE AND PERFORMANCE
Coming to the hardware, the phone sports the MT6582 Quad Core processor clocked at 1.3GHz. Doogee has always used Mediatek chipsets on their phones to keep its price down, hence its not surprising to see this chipset on the device. However, we would have loved a better processor, especially when a similar Mi4 clone like the Elephone P4000 comes with an Octa Core processor clocked at 1.7Ghz.
There’s 1GB RAM onboard, which should be enough for basic multitasking along with 16GB internal storage which can be expanded via a MicroSD card.
Given the Quad core processor and 1GB RAM, performance should be good. We don’t expect out of the ordinary results, but earlier Doogee models have performed quite satisfactorily, so we expect the same from Doogee DG850.
CAMERA
You don’t buy a Chinese phone like Doogee for its camera, but recently manufacturers have been paying some attention on the camera quality, which means you should be able to click decent pictures from its 8MP rear camera. On the front, you have a 2MP sensor, which should just be enough for regular video calls and selfies.
As mentioned above, the camera should be enough for your daily use, but don’t expect extra ordinary results from it. Like most other cameras out there, the performance outdoors in bright sunlight was pretty good. Pictures captured were clear and rich in colors and even if the sensor is just of 8MP, its enough for outdoor capture.
However, things are not that good when it comes to moving pictures and low light. The camera failed to focus on fast moving objects which resulted in blurry images and the night time pictures were unclear.
Still, Doogee DG850’s camera performs at par with other competitors in the market, so we are not complaining.
BATTERY
This is one area where we were disappointed with the new Doogee DG850. It comes with a 2,500 mAh battery which is actually small for a phone of this size. The 5 inch screen will squeeze a lot of charge from the battery quite fast, which means it may not even make it till the end of the day. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet tested the device for its battery, so we can’t confirm exactly how long will it last. But we will update more details pretty soon.
SOFTWARE
The device runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat, which has become the standard among all smartphones released these days.
Like all other Doogee models, the DG850 Hitman also comes with a range of gesture features to unlock and open up apps. For example, you can go to the music player just by drawing the letter ‘M’ on the screen when its off , drawing ‘O’ for calls and ‘E’ for the browser. You can even unlock the device when its display is turned off with just a slide up on the screen as shown above.
The UI looks responsive and intuitive, and for a Quad Core processor, it scored around 19,250 in the AnTuTu benchmark rating which makes its performance even better than Samsung’s Galaxy S3 flagship.
You also get a rear touch panel, which is once again common in recent Doogee phones along with an IR remote control.
VERDICT
The phone has all the features that you would like in a mid range smartphone. It comes with premium looks, a decent processor and camera along with some innovative software features. The only major flaw that we could find was its battery, but that’s actually a problem with most Android phones these days. So, better carry a charger with you all the time, or an external battery pack like Xiaomi’s 16000 mAh battery pack that we reviewed a few days earlier.
So, overall, we like the device. We like the smooth Mi4 like finish which makes the device look premium even though its cheap to buy. Other than its metal chassis, there’s nothing extraordinary about the phone but then, when you are paying less than $140 for a device, what more do you want.
Two days ago, DJI released a promotional video for the DJI Inspire 1 that implied that it was going to make its debut on the 12th. Now, it’s finally here. Unexpectedly, it has a white body and a 3-axis stabilized 4K camera. According to DJI, the Inspire 1 uses its newest Lightbridge technology, and can give users a real-time video feed (720p), and transmit within a 2km (about 1.25mile) distance. Of course, you need to use a supported secondary controller.
The Inspire 1 can record 1080p videos at 24 to 60fps or 4K Ultra HD videos at 24 to 30fps. It has a 12mp CMOS sensor, a 94 degree field of view, and a 360 degree unobstructed aerial movement.
The DJI Inspire 1 flying camera is now on sale. You can order it with dual-remote for 3399 USD (it looks like there is a 150 USD discount), and with single-remote for 2899 USD. Shipping starts on December 1.
Last year OPPO surprised us with its release of the OPPO N1 which had a rotating camera. This year, on October 29, OPPO once again tried to surprise us with its newest phone, the OPPO N3, and it looks like they just did. Here, we will do a full review of OPPO’s latest release.
The OPPO N3’s design is actually quite similar to the OPPO N1’s. Both have the classic black-on-white design. Among the new additions to the OPPO N3’s design though is the fingerprint sensor and the use of a chassis made of 7075 aluminium alloy, which are outstanding.
Another difference in the design is the screen size. While the OPPO N1 sports a 5.9-inch display screen, the OPPO N3 sports a 5.5-inch display screen and has a very narrow frame. As a result, this phone is smaller than its predecessor, but is also easier to carry.
The most appealing thing about the OPPO N3 is its camera. Like the N1, the N3 sports a rotating camera, but this time it comes with a motor, the first cellphone in the industry to do so. On top of it are also the receiver and a sensor. If you want to take a selfie, just turn the camera towards you with the motor.
The microphone and a speaker are also located at the hollow underside of the phone.
On the left side are the lock button and Micro SIM slot. There is also a nano SIM/memory card slot (up to 128GB) there. On the right side are the volume switch and a 3.5 earphone jack.
The phone’s charging port is also at the bottom. This phone has support for VOOC charging technology. The package also comes with a VOOC mini charger. This charger has received well-deserved praise and it was a good idea for OPPO to use it.
As for the camera, the OPPO N3 sports a 16mp motorized rotating camera with a 1/2.3-inch sensor. It also has an f2.2 aperture and dual-LED sensor. It can rotate 206 degrees which many users should be happy about.
Furthermore, the OPPO N1’s touch area was replaced with a fingerprint sensor which can be used to unlock the cellphone, encrypt files, etc. It can also be used to rotate the camera.
Display screen
Although the OPPO N3 has a smaller display screen (5.5 inches) than the N1 (5.9 inches), it is still common among many phones and makes it easier to hold the phone. I would say it was a wise and reasonable decision for OPPO to do this. The N3 uses an LTPS display screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. It has a pixel density of 403ppi and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. You can see the quality of the screen in the shots below:
These images show how great the OPPO N3’s screen is. The colors and the pixelation are great. Users should not have any problem with it.
Tear-down
Motorized rotating camera
Even though the camera has a motor, you can also rotate it with your hand.
If you want to use the camera, the first step is to turn it on. If you had the OPPO N1, just take out the camera with your hand like in the N1, and the camera interface will appear. When you exit the camera interface, the camera will automatically close.
Next just move your finger on the screen to adjust the angle.
Pure Image Processor 2.0
One thing that helps the OPPO N3’s camera is OPPO’s in-house image processor, the “Pure Image 2.0” which can adjust the lighting and coloring in every environment so that the camera can take the best pictures.
You can install different kinds of camera features
When you swipe your finger upwards in the camera screen, you can see all types of camera modes that you can download and use.
Panorama shots
You can take shots in panorama mode by having the camera in a fixed position. That way, you can take panorama shots without your hand shaking.
For the best panorama shots, you can even put the camera on a tripod. Here are shots taken using the OPPO N3’s camera:
Color OS 2.0.1
OPPO has done some upgrades for its new in-house operating system, the Color OS 2.0.1. This is based on the Android 4.4.4. Its tabs, interface, etc. have all been redesigned to look better than before.
At the launch, it was pointed out that you can use the O-Click accessory to take photos with the OPPO N3. The phone’s OS lets you synchronize it with the phone.
The OPPO N3 comes with a fingerprint sensor which is located at on the upper part of the phone’s back. It can be used to unlock the phone or encrypt files. It is also very simple to put your fingerprints into the phone. Just press your finger on the sensor and it will record your fingerprints.
Snapdragon 800
At the launch, OPPO did not mention a lot of things about the OPPO N3’s hardware. After all, its biggest feature is its camera. Nevertheless, the OPPO N3 has the kind of hardware that you would expect from a flagship phone. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974AA, 2.3GHz) quad-core processor. It also has the 450MHz Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB RAM, and 32GB ROM (which can be expanded to 128GB with a micro SD card). Here are the benchmark scores:
Dalushi: 43611
AnTuTu 5.1.5: 38355
3D Mark: 15723
Vellamo: HTML5 (1972), Metal (1190)
Conclusion
The OPPO N3, with its creatively designed motorized rotating camera and excellent appearance, has shown the best the cellphones today have to offer. It’s also one of the most expensive Chinese cellphones around. Still, considering its powerful specs, it should not be surprising that it is so expensive. Overall, it is an excellent phone that is worth considering.
As the launch date (November 19) of Meizu’s newest phone, the Meizu MX4 Pro, approaches, more news about this phone have been coming out. Recently, a Weibo user, @魅友社, has posted several photos of the Meizu MX4 Pro online. Because the MX4 Pro has a fingerprint sensor, Meizu decided to abandon its old classic small white circular Home capacitive button, replacing it with a physical button.
The front still has a very thin frame. There is a rounded rectangular physical button below the screen.
The rear-facing camera comes with dual-LED flash.
The MX4 Pro and MX4’s rear covers. As you can see, the MX4 Pro’s rear cover is longer.
Yesterday, OnePlus released its first Android 5.0 firmware in its official forums. The uploader pointed out that because this is the first version of the Android L, there are still a few bugs to fix. For example, Bluetooth cannot be used.
This October, OPPO launched the latest member of its N flagship smartphone series—the OPPO N3. OPPO has made a lot of improvements on this device by adding features such as a motorized rotating camera, the new VOOC charger, a fingerprint sensor, etc. These features make OPPO a force to be reckoned with, and also show that the company is trying to branch out overseas. Here’s the writer’s review of the OPPO N3. First, let’s discuss its specifications.
In the front, the OPPO N3 sports a 5.5-inch 1080p HD touchscreen. It has a 16mp motorized rotating camera, a quad-core Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM, and 32GB ROM. Its operating system is the Color OS 2.0.1.
Appearance and Display Screen
Front
The OPPO N3’s body is made of aerospace aluminum. It sports a 5.5-inch LTPS touchscreen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Its pixel density is about 403ppi. The quality is very clear and sharp.
Right side
Left side
SIM slots
Because the OPPO N3 has a rotating camera, the earphone jack and volume switch are placed on the right side, while the open switch and SIM slots are on the left side. As you can see from the photos, there are two SIM slots. One SIM slot is for 4G Micro SIM cards, while the other is for Nano SIM or TF cards.
Motorized rotating camera
The motorized rotating camera is a 16mp camera with dual-flash. It is also integrated with the speaker and sensor.
OPPO N3’s back
Furthermore, the OPPO N3’s back has a built-in fingerprint sensor. Just press it like a button to unlock your phone. It is very easy and convenient to use. It is also important to point out that it uses the VOOC rapid charger. It can be charged up to 75% in just 30 minutes.
Motorized rotating camera
At the launch, people were mostly concerned about the OPPO N3’s motorized rotating camera. How does it work? How long can it be used? How does it help the user? Here, the writer will answer these questions as well as others.
Rotating the camera is quite easy. Just lightly swipe your finger on the screen and the camera will automatically rotate. Furthermore, users can set the camera in different angles using the fingerprint scanner on the back, O-Click, etc.
As for how long the camera can be used, OPPO’s product manager has said that it can be rotated 250,000 times.
Of course, the good thing about a motorized rotating camera is that it has changed the way scenery photos are taken. Now, you can just hold the phone steady and let it take care of the rest. You can now take very good scenic shots with this type of camera.
Camera interface
Now, that we have talked about the OPPO N3’s new feature, let us talk about its camera interface.
At first, the OPPO N3’s camera interface looks pretty simple. The top left button allows the user to make the camera look forward or backward. The next button turns on the flash. The last one opens the settings menu. The top right button opens the photo album. Below it is the “Shoot” button. Lastly, there is the video camera button.
When you lightly press the “+” button, you can see more camera modes. Just click and install them.
Sample shots
Here are some photos taken using the OPPO N3’s camera.
The quality of the outdoor shots is pretty good.
The pixelation is great for photos taken a taken at a long distance. They are not as clear but they are still pretty good. You can still see the outline of the objects clearly.
The camera’s special features
Here are some pictures taken with the OPPO N3’s camera using its special features.
These shots were taken using “Automatic Panorama” mode, which is one of the OPPO N3’s biggest camera features, because of its use of the motorized rotating camera. When you want to take a photo of the entire scenery, just hold the phone in a fixed position and leave the rest to the phone.
You can also take 6524 x 4893 photos like the photo above.
This photo was taken using follow focus where you take the shot first and then focus.
Conclusion:
Now that I have introduced the OPPO N3, everyone should already have a basic understanding of this phone, as well as its very useful and fun rotating camera. The resolution and pixilation are great. It is one device that is worth considering.
As the launch date of the Meizu MX4 Pro approaches, more details are coming out regarding Meizu’s latest release. Recently, photos of what appear to be the MX4 Pro’s chassis were leaked on the internet. From these pictures, it seems that the MX4 Pro is bigger than the Xiaomi Mi4 and that Meizu has done away with its classic small round Home button, replacing it with a Home button similar to Samsung’s smartphones. This confirms rumors that they changed the Home button because of the MX4 Pro’s use of a fingerprint sensor.
Regarding the MX4 Pro’s other specifications, it will sport a 5.4-inch 2K display screen and use the Samsung Exynos 5 octa-core chip and Mali-T628MP6 GPU. It will also have a 20.7mp Sony rear-facing camera, 5mp front-facing camera, and 3GB RAM. It is rumored that three versions will be released: a 32GB version, 64GB version, and 128GB version.
In the Smartphone era, consumers’ concerns are not only limited to the processor, memory, resolution and other configurations, but rather mostly care about the thickness of the phone body. The reason is that, with the development of the technology, the appearance of Smartphones almost have identical straight shape. Different brands can barely be distinguished from each other through the phone appearance. Hence the mobile phone manufacturers work hard on the body thickness. After all, becoming the world’s N°1 Slimmest mobile phone carries out a win-win solution that not only draws consumers’ attention to remember their own brand, but also increased the distinction level.
At the end of October 2014, OPPO released 2 models of supper Smartphone N3 and R5, which OPPO R5’s 4.85 mm ultra slim body broke the continuous record of Gionee ELIFE Series as the World’s thinnest Smartphone. Therefore, OPPO R5 officially leads Smartphone entering into 4mm era. Consequently this has triggered the discussion around the topic of phone thickness. Some people think the thinner phone is easier to carry while others worry that the slimness makes the phone more fragile. So being “ultra-slim” becomes a hot topic again in the mobile forums.
In fact, being ultra slim as a trend of Smartphone drives technology development and users’ needs take a big part of it. Without consumers support, manufacturers would not take the phone thickness as a vital factor in the market competition. In today’s mobile phone industry, most of the consumers still value more on the thickness, so the manufacturers are highly motivated in trying hard to become the “World N°1 Slimmest” Smartphone. However, at the time of R5 bringing us into the 4mm era, many people wonder if Smartphone will continue to slim down?
Last month at the OPPO new product launch, he has recalled the evolution history about ultra-slim mobile. At the earlier time in China when the mobile phone started to be introduced into the market, “Brick Phone” was the mobile communication terminal; its bulky body was impressive and inconvenient to carry with. So slimming down the thickness became an inevitable mission and development focus for the manufacturers back then. Certainly there are many ways to make phones smaller, besides slimming down the thickness; we can make the phone shorter, narrower etc.
Nevertheless, in the Smartphone era, making the phone shorter or narrower is difficult to achieve since the big touch screen mobile is the trend setting design in the consumer market. Being “slim” is the only way out that makes the big-screen phones easy to be carried with. This development direction is also for other electronic products such as notebook, iPad, monitors etc.
The common point for the Non-Smartphone and Smartphone periods is that manufacturers have been always endeavored to minimize the thickness to improve the portability and make it a true mobile communication terminal. Speaking of which, you might be interested to have an overview about the latest classic ultra-slim phone products in Chinese domestic market.
Firstly, at the time when mobile phone was seen as a luxury product, Ericsson launched T28SC with a thickness of 15.9mm, which is thinner than the antenna. It quickly became a must-to-have model for most of the mobile lovers. Later on, manufacturers turned the focus onto the built-in antenna technology development.
Secondly, Motorola V3 presumably was the most well-known ultra-slim model. The birth of V3 was the beginning of the mobile phone industrial design peak. Its 13.9mm thickness and the stylish flip appearance were still fresh in consumers’ memory. Nowadays, as long as people talk about the ultra-thin mobile phone from that time, Motorola V3 is always one of the sounding iconic roles
Few years after Motorola V3, other international brands have also released their ultra-thin mobile products, such as NECN900, Samsun X828, Toshiba TG01 etc, these models limited their thickness no more than 10mm that had unexpected repercussion national wide. With the continuous improvement of the intelligence system and straight touch screen, the thickness of ultra-slim mobile decreased from initial dozen mm to 4.85mm today. This achievement doesn’t come from finger flip, but rather based on over a decade development.
Finally, people may ask why the manufacturers work so hard to make the phone thinner and what the motive is. What the advantages are. Eventually the motive is to meet consumers’ need on the light weight and convenient portability. So a stylish light weighted ultra-thin Smart phone with a smooth hand touch feeling attracts a lot of consumers’ attention, meanwhile, it strengthens the brand awareness and becomes more competitive in the market.
As we all know that nothing is perfect. While the phone gets thinner, more problems come out; especially before the battery and screen changing their flexibility. So over slimming down the phone body will possibly impact on the hand feeling and quality. Apple has been doing great in this aspect by adjusting the thickness every two years. Even though it is not the thinnest, it feels good in hand. On the other hand, the phone will risk the issues like being broken, being bent and having short battery life if it is too thin.
But for those manufacturers who pursue the perfection will definitely continue to develop much thinner Smartphone. Recently a new model namely Vivo X5 Max L has been granted the MIIT network license. According to the data shown on the websites, this phone body is only 4.75mm, which is the World’s thinnest phone so far. It is still unknown about the official launch date, but the thickness of this model has broken the current phone thickness records and is likely to refresh the limit constantly.
At this point, we presume that the thickness of 4mm is not the end of ultra-thin mobile phone. When the phone battery and screen can be bent like paper, Smartphone thickness will be even much thinner. By then, mobile phone might be like shown in the science fiction movies that you can wear on the wrist or put in the wallet like a business card. Regardless the phone should be much thinner or not, manufacturers should not ignore the users’ need as well as the technology development because these two factors are complementary to each other.
Very soon ZOPO will again try to expand to the smartphone indursty witth the ZP999 Lion Heart. The show-off product of this series will be the ZP999 Lion Heart, which is very well equipped and makes itself to be a high-end device by the chinese producer. Since the Xiaomi Mi4, the Oneplus One and the Meizu MX4 were already presented on the market as chinese flagships, we can definitly say that the ZOPO ZP999 Lion Heart exceeded all expectations. By the end of 2014 we are positively surprised by such a Lion Heart!
We recieved the ZOPO ZP999 Pro directly from ZOPO this morning, so we instantly do a review for you.
Technical Equipment
First some word about the specifications. The data sheet looks very persuasive. A 1080p-FHD-Display, 3 GB RAM and an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6595m processor. Also the great battery with 2.700 mAh and the camery make us hope for a very good performance. The processor by MediaTek is called MTK MT6595m and is the best SoC they have to offer.
Display
5,5” IPS-LCD, 1080p- 1080 * 1920 resolution (480 ppi )
Processor
MediaTek MT 6595m Octa-Core, PowerVR Rogue Han GPU with OpenGL ES 3.0
Just after the first sight one thought cought me: The ZOPO ZP999 Lion Heart looks like a mix between the Samsung Galaxy S4, the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The front consists completely of glass and looks like a big iPhone 4 without Home-Button, the recess fits the ZOPO-owned style with a ZOPO logo and 4g LTE, the design on the left and right hand side strongly reminds me of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and I personally have to think of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 when holding it in my hand as a general feeling.
But in reverse this does not mean, that design, value and such things are not good, because actually it is the opposite: The device feels very valuable and solid due to the anti-skidding back and also the covers that are made of plasic make a good impression. Even though in my opinion the silver grey aluminium frame fits best to the whole concept. Still the size is pretty compact for a device with a 5.5“-display and can be handled very comfortably.
The ZP999 Lion Heart is mainly based on the rounded edges. ZOPO completely concentrated on rounded elements in this series, which made the competitive models very handy. For me this is more than Nizza, because for many years I rather hold smartphones in my fingers instead of the whole hand. But many users like to cover the device with their whole hand and then you defititely notice the rounded and handy edges.
Sharp or made-to-last
Just like the shell the display is also surprisingly good. 1920 x 1080 pixels on a 5.5 inch display result in a very sharp and crystal clear font and thanks to ClearMotion it is also very bright, so it can be read in daylight. Its white is quite nice and the angle stability also does a good job.
I can only criticize the value of the black colour, since it is much better in the competitive models – you can especially see that in dark surroundings. After all you can configure the colour-temperature as you like in the system configurations MiraVision by MediaTek.
Practically you will notive the sharp texts and pictures during FHD-films and gaming. Yes, I am convinced that the display of the ZP999 Lion Heart is one of the best there is.
UI-Design by Flat Design
The ZOPO ZP999 comes with a pre-installed Android 4.4.2 and has been adjusted by ZOPO. The latter presents some functions, which indeed can by useful, but all this is put into a User Interface, which is designed by Flat Design. That definitly is a downside.
While Samsung, LG, HTC and so on constantly improve their own User Interface and modernize it optically, ZOPO did not do a good job on its ZP999. That is a pity, because it does look beautiful, but the interface is confusing and cluttered on some important parts. For example the notification bar. They almost did not change anything compared to the original Android OS 4.4.2.
As it is with many Andoid-adjustments in asia the Asian OS also comes without an App-Drawer. Luckily the function is still available on the ZP999 Lion Heart, you can use it without any problem on Google Now Launcher.
Android OS can be useful
Some functions are useful in other areas. The telephone manager comes with an authorization control, which can be used to authorize App-Permissions very detailed. Furthermore you can use a control which does the same with App-Notifications.
When the smartphone is being moved, sensores start different actions as part of movement control, which is very nice. For example calls can be taken by holding the phone close to your ear. Sounds are muted when the ZP999 Lion Heart is put on the desk with the front side down. If you can not touch the phone, you can select apps or widgets by moving your hand in front of the camera or you can move pictures in the galery, take pictures, add songs to a playlist, control the browser. All this functions work very well, but can also be deactivated individually.
I like to use the Smart Wake Function. With a double click on the turned off display I wake the ZP999 Lion Heart and write „C“ on the display to use the camera, with „W“ I can use the torch. You can define the applications manually.
Smoothness – that is the question
If you rely on the data sheet, you could think that the ZOPO ZP999 Lion Heart simply flies through the system. 3 GB RAM definitely are a huge number and also the MediaTek MT6595M Octa-Core 2.0 GHZ processor with top production is meant to have best values. I immediately startet a test on Antutu Benchmark v5.2.0 and the ZOPO Lion Heart gets unbelievable 46249 points (according to the last test it was reduced to 37416 points) and beats the HTC One M8T, Xiaomi Mi3 W, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Vivo Xplay 3S. The GPU of the device is by PowerVR Rogue Han and provides many points with the 3D-test, which earned 8214 points, then come the CPU Integer and Loat-Point with 4874 and 5195. Mulitasking is the highlight of the Lion Heart 6475 and the reason why it is a flagship.
So far so good, right?
Through most of the using-time the theory also meets the practical use. The device runs fine, but does not feel on top of the world. I really am no gamer, but just for interest I tried on the CPU how the processor works when gaming. I did not notice one single problem, Asphalt 8 is a lot of fun and runs very quickly.
Insofern also alles in Ordnung, oder?
Camera, Battery and Speakers
After only a few days I can not provide good information about the Battery. Also I only used the device in WLAN at home, so I can not rate the battery life in mobile data-connectivity. So I will not provide you with any results according to the battery, but I guess that in average you can use the smartphone one and a half days.
I am a little disappointed by the speakers. They sound very thin and since they are placed on the back, the sound goes into the wrong direction. When lying on the desk the sound also gets very damp. The sound of the Sony Xperia Z3 is way better.
NFC, HotKnot and Gaming performance
HotKnot works by the NFC chip on the back. With this function I share any website or app with my Sony Xperia Z3 with only one click. That is an interesting function, but I almost never use it to share files. I did not try to pay with my phone yet.
Result until now
After my first days with the ZOPO ZP999 Lion Heart I do like this device. The body is compact and nice, value and processing are just right, the battery seems to by fine, too. Furthermore the display has a good quality and the ZOPO-adjusted OS provides some interesting functions. The possibility of NFC, HotKnot and Mobil Paying did not appear to be available on any other chinese smartphone.
On the other hand the Android-adjustment is everything else but beautiful and the camera does not seem to be more than average. Videos can be captured in Full HD i.e. upto 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution at 60fps, since it comes with the MT6595M processor instead of the MT6595 processor which support 4K videos. The performance of the 3D-gaming and FHD-videos is perfect. Compared to the Meizu MX4 for 360 € and only 2GB RAM, the ZOPO ZP999 Lion Heart is available for about 300 € on China Online Shops – you have to recommend it with such a price. I do like the ZOPO ZP999, especially due to the quality case, which looks noble and well-done.
If I have more to say to the ZOPO ZP999 in the future or some aspects change (positively and negatively), I will present it in another report. You can leave questions and comments under this blog. I will try to answer them as good as I can.
We have seen a number of devices from both Elephone and Doogee in the past few months. However, Elephone’s G6 and the Doogee DG900 have been particularly popular among buyers. That’s why we decided to put the G6 against the Doogee Turbo2 DG900 to see which one comes out as the winner.
We will be comparing both the devices on a number of different aspects like design, battery life, display etc. So, without wasting any more time, lets take a look at the similarities and the differences between the two Chinese handsets.
DESIGN
The first thing you notice about a phone is its overall design and hence, it seems right to start with this category first.
Elephone G6 and Doogee DG900 have two different design profiles, which make them harder to compare. While the G6 features a traditional design, that we have seen in many recent smartphones i.e. a rectangular body with soft touch plastic (quite similar to the OnePlus One), the Doogee DG900 comes with curved sides on a rectangular body. There are some additional lines on the back alongside the camera which gives it a distinct look.
So, on the design front, we can’t really pick out a winner. Both the devices are well built and looks premium too, hence we guess its a tie.
If you loved the OnePlus One’s design, you’ll love the G6. But if you like a Lumia kind of design, then you will most likely prefer the DG900.
DISPLAY
Now, lets take a look at the second most prominent part of a phone i.e. its display.
Both the smartphones come with a 5.0 inch display, however the resolutions are significantly different. Doogee DG900 comes with a higher Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution while the Elephone G6 just features a HD 1280 x 720 pixel resolution screen. So, DG900 is much more sharper than G6. However, even with a higher resolution screen, the colors on the DG900 looks washed out. On the other hand, Elephone G6’s display is more natural looking and rich in colors.
So even though the DG900 comes with a better resolution, we personally like Elephone’s 720p display. Therefore, this category goes to the Elephone G6.
There’s another reason we picked the G6’s display over DG900 but we’ll reveal that in the next section i.e. hardware.
Meanwhile, take a look at displays on both the devices. The left one is the Doogee DG900 while on the right is the Elephone G6.
HARDWARE & PERFORMANCE
Both the DG900 and the Elephone G6 sport similar hardware, but there are some areas where the DG900 has an edge over the latter.
Both come with Mediatek MTK6592 Octa Core CPU with Cortex A7 Cores clocked at 1.7Ghz. The G6 comes with a slightly better GPU– Mali 450 as compared to the Mali 400 found on the Doogee model. However, the DG900 comes with a much larger RAM module, a 2GB one unlike the 1GB found on the G6.
As for storage, you get 16GB on DG900 and 8GB on G6. Both have external memory card slots which support cards up to 64GB in size.
While the hardware on the DG900 is much better than on the G6, especially due to its 2GB RAM, the MTK6592 chipset on the Doogee phone struggles to power the Full HD 1080p screen. As a result, even with the extra RAM, on personal experience, we have seen that the G6 is much more responsive than DG900. There’s only a slight difference between the performance of the two, but its noticeable.
Also, with the extra pixels that the Doogee model has to power, the device gets heated up too pretty easily.
On our initial Doogee DG900 review, the Doogee DG900 scored well over 30,000 as compared to Elephone G6’s score of 25,886. However,to our surprise after a few days of usage, when we tested the phone again, the DG900’s Benchmark score fell to 25,227. That’s around 5000 points lower than the initial figure which worried us. Also, the phone became slower with use. It may have been an issue with this specific model but still we were dissapointed.
As a result, even with the better 2GB RAM onboard, we prefer the Elephone G6 when it comes to hardware and performance.
CAMERA
Camera is yet another important aspect of a smartphone and in this category, Doogee DG900 is slightly better than the G6. This is due to the fact that, DG900 comes with a 13MP Sony IMX135 sensor as compared to the 13MP found on the G6. For the front camera too, the former comes with an 5MP shooter while the latter comes with just a 2MP sensor.
Images from the DG900 are much better and natural looking than the G6. The images captured on the Elephone model are quite darker than the Doogee phone, so low light pictures especially look better on the latter.
We have included a few sample pictures below for comparison.
DG900
G6
DG900
G6
DG900
G6
DG900
G6
As you can see, the pictures captured by the G6 are not that bad and quite comparable to Doogee DG900, but still the DG900 takes better pictures majority of the time and hence, this section goes to the DG900.
BATTERY
The DG900 comes with a larger 2500 mAh battery as compared to the 2250 mAh one found on the G6. But in real time usage, Elephone G6 managed to squeeze in much more than 7 hours that we got from the DG900.
However, the Doogee model does have a fast charge feature which enables it to charge fully within 2 hours.
It hard to pick a winner in this category especially because of DG900’s fast charge feature. So, we leave that for you to decide what you want, a slightly better battery or a faster charging option.
CONNECTIVITY, SOFTWARE & FEATURES
Both the phones feature standard connectivity features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, AGPS, Proximity, Gravity sensors, 3G, Dual Sim support etc.
As for the software, both run on Android 4.4 Kitkat version.
However, the Elephone G6 does have an added advantage. It comes with a finger print sensor which clearly gives it an edge over the Doogee Turbo2 DG900. In fact, this particular features makes it a much attractive option than many other costlier alternatives in the market.
However, instead of a finger print sensor, the DG900 has a rear touch panel which can be used to open up the camera and click pictures.
OUR VERDICT
Both the phones have similar specifications with the Doogee DG900 having better specs in some areas. However, when it comes to real life performance, the cheaper Elephone G6 manages to match DG900’s performance. In fact, it’s even better than the latter in some areas like display, performance and battery life. Elephone G6 is priced at $119, which is almost $100 cheaper than Doogee DG900, if you don’t want to spent more for the same specs on a phone for it’s design, then Elephone G6 must be a good choice.
The Koobee H1S is not exactly a new cellphone in the truest since. Actually, it is just an upgraded version of the Koobee Halo, but the upgrades are very obvious as you would see after trying it out.
The Koobee H1S sports a 5-inch 720P (1280 x 720) IPS display screen. This screen is also backed up by OGS technology. The resolution and clarity are much better here.
Its dimensions are 141.8 x 70.5 x 8.6mm.
To let users take high-quality selfie shots, Koobee not only included an 8mp front-facing camera, but also an LED light as well.
The Koobee H1S’ rear-facing camera is also 8mp. Below it are another LED flash and noise-cancelling microphone.
The Cube H1S is dual-Micro SIM supported. It also supports TD-LTE networks.
Today, Vivo has posted a promotional poster of its upcoming phone, the Vivo X5 Max. This phone had recently received its network license at the Ministry of Information and Industry Technology’s website and it might be the thinnest cellphone I have ever seen. According to its entry at the MIIT website, its dimensions are 153.9 x 78 x 4.75mm.With a thickness of 4.75mm, it is slimmer than the OPPO R5 which is 4.85mm thick.
As for its specifications, the Vivo X5 Max sports a 5-inch 1080p display screen and has a 1.7GHz octa-core processor (MT6752), 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, a 5mp front-facing camera, and 13mp rear-facing camera. It also runs the Android 4.4.4 operating system. No word on its battery as of now. Reportedly, it may be launched this December.
In this review, we take a look at ZTE’s latest release, the ZTE Red Bull V5 Max. Specifically, we take a look at how it fares when it comes to performance. First, let us take a look at its specifications.
The ZTE Red Bull V5 Max uses Qualcomm’s first 64-bit chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor (1.2Ghz). It also uses the Adreno 306 GPU and has 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, a 5.5-inch 1280 x 720 display screen, a 5mp front-facing camera, a 13mp rear-facing camera, and support for CDMA, SWCDMA, TD-SCDMA, and 4G networks. It also has support for dual-SIM card. It is powered by a detachable 3100mAh battery and runs the Nubia UI 2.5.
Regarding the display screen, the screen seems to work well with the processor without a lot of problems. The fluidity is really good.
Let’s now take a look at the benchmark scores. In the AnTuTu benchmark test, the ZTE Red Bull V5 Max received a benchmark score of 20772. In the Ludashi benchmark test, it got 24080. In the Nenamark test, it got 54.6fps. The Vellamo benchmark app is split into two chapters. The HTML5 chapter evaluates the device’s mobile web browser performance, while the Metal chapter evaluates the CPU performance. In the HTML5 test, it received a score of 1414, while in the Metal test, it got 650.
Now, how does it handle video games?
When playing “Need for Speed 17”, the reviewer thought the game worked well with the Red Bull V5 Max with its fluidity.
The ZTE was also able to run “King of Fighters ‘97” really well without any problems. Same goes with “Shadow Gun”.
Conclusion
The ZTE Red Bull V5 Max is a great smartphone when it comes to performance. Its benchmark scores may not be the best, but benchmark scores are only for reference. It works well with video games. I cannot say that it has disappointed me. In fact, it has exceeded my expectations.
The Nubia Z7 Max has been advertised as a cellphone that could “take pictures of the stars.” For its rear camera, it uses the 13mp Sony IMX214 CMOS with an f/2.0 aperture and the new NeoVision 4.0 camera software. It also supports dual 4G/3G networks. Now, you can get this phone in Amazon where the black and white editions are on sale for 1999 RMB and 2049 RMB, respectively.
The Nubia Z7 Max sports a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 SHARP display screen with a pixel density of 401ppi. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC) quad-core processor (2.5GHz). It also has 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM which can be increased to 64GB with a TF card. Besides its rear-facing camera, it also sports a 5mp front-facing camera. Its OS is the Nubia UI 2.5. It is also powered by a 3100mAh battery that cannot be removed.
This Sunday, Chinese tablet company, Teclast, will lower the price of its Teclast X80h tablet from 150 EUR to 118 EUR. This device is known for running the Windows 8.1 operating system and its already competitive price.
The Teclast X80h is known for its great hardware. It has a 7.9-inch 1280 x 800 display screen. It uses the quad-corr Intel Atom Z3735F processor (1.3GHz) and has 2GB RAM DDR3L and 32GB ROM which can be expanded with a micro SD card. It weighs 367 grams and has a thickness of 7.9mm. It also has two HDMI cameras. As we have said earlier, it runs the Windows 8.1 operating system.
More information on the Meizu MX4 Pro has been coming out. Yesterday, a photo was leaked showing one of the MX4 Pro’s prototypes with the fingerprint sensor on the back. Obviously they passed on this as we now know that the fingerprint sensor is on the front. Meizu’s Senior Manager, Zhang Heng, said that putting the fingerprint sensor on the back would ruin the phone’s look, so they decided to put it on the front. He also revealed another piece of important information. One month after the MX4 Pro is launched (November 19), everyone can finally get their hands on Meizu’s latest phone. Hopefully, it won’t be too expensive. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Meizu MX4 made public debut on 2nd of September, but unusually it didn’t show up as a gesture of flagship Smartphone. It is powered by MTK6595 Octa Core Chip, which is a high-end chipset under Taiwan MediaTek. However, comparing with those true high-end products from Qualcomm and other brands, MTK still needs to keep up with their pace. We have heard people saying that
MX4 Pro is truly MX4.
With the release of MX4, Chinese Smartphone has changed its competition direction. Since the supply chains are becoming more and more open, the manufacturers can afford to use the best chip and screen, but meanwhile, the product homogeneity is getting more serious too. MX4 found a new way, which is to reinforce the aspects that consumers can really see and feel. The approach of using a good enough processor, upgrading the body material & the camera, decreasing the cost and lowering the price has apparently made a successful outcome in the current sales volume in the domestic market.
As a true flagship product, MX4 Pro has received a lot of attention. Today Meizu invited media for the upcoming release of this product on the 19th of this month. The slogan has been changed from “Think High!” to “Think Higher!”. So let’s brainstorm about what else MX4 would upgrade besides those configurations already exposed.
High Quality Audio
A black vinyl record is the invitation that MX4 Pro gave to Media for the new release. Does this imply Meizu would go for the high quality audio like Vivo?
Meizu started with the media player; the founder, Mr. J. Wong, is a music lover. Before entering into mobile phone industry, Meizu MP3 has been highly appreciated by the consumers; the Meizu Fan Group (Mei You) also highly expects to have a top sound quality.
Meizu M6
After the switch to the mobile phone business, Meizu didn’t seem to well exert its past accumulated experience in audio technology. Although M9 was the earliest Android phone that supported Flac, APE lossless format and CUE splitter; however, in the era of MX, Meizu introduced a popular phone feature supporting coaxial audio output. Unfortunately Meizu sound quality was not satisfying until MX3 came into public sight. At the release of MX3, Mr. Yongxiang Bai finally shouted out loud the slogan of “return the sound quality”; that was the time Meizu mobile gradually went back to the right track of sound quality even though having some distance from Pro.
Meizu previous audio solution was relatively conservative, and not like Vivo adding desktop DAC to light and thin smart phones. The author believes that MX4 Pro will most probably make a change in this aspect.
Firstly, Meizu provides Flyme music service in collaboration with Domi Music. This got the music content done and enabled the play & downloads the lossless format music at any time you want. For such good quality music service, you need better hardware support
Meizu Flyme music player Home
Secondly, with the growing competition, Meizu not only needs to find out the differentiator among all the high-end products, but also requires keeping distance from MX4, except the already upgraded camera and processor. The audio is a good starting point, in which Meizu has previous rich experience in such technology with high appreciation, the success of making high-quality audio seem to fall into place.
Fingerprint? Payment?
Following the popularity in smart phone personalization and mobile payment, adding high security feature like Fingerprint Identification Verification Method into smartphone is also a general trend. The touch ID in iPhone 5S has already demonstrated the perfect presence of fingerprint recognition technology. ApplePay is gradually getting through various aspects of mobile payments so that you can have a fluent payment process experience.
Touch ID
Meizu adding fingerprint sensor into MX4 Pro is final, shown on the photo the Home button has been changed from a small circle to a mechanical-like key similar to Galaxy S2. The author is not worried about the ultimate effect of the usage, because it’s been proven by Huawei Mate7 and OPPO N3 that push fingerprint related technology is mature. The author cares more about how Meizu will use it.
Meizu doesn’t have the capability of moving the entire payment chain, but its strength is that Meizu recently announced its upcoming cooperation with Alibaba in payment related business.
Alibaba, China’s biggest Ecommerce platform, managing Chinese people used most payment software PayPal. Alibaba and Meizu co-launched the MX4 powered by YunOS system, its selling point is to provide your life with more safe, more direct and more convenient services. The author has mentioned in his previous review that YunOS version MX4 will seamlessly integrate all services into mobile. This will be a win-win solution in favor of Alibaba & Meizu as well as phone users.
Love the new Galaxy Note 4 but can’t afford it? Well, you have an alternative, thanks to a Chinese company called ZOOZ.
This Chinese mobile phone manufacturer has only a handful of smartphones up its sleeve and most of them are clones of famous models. For example, we recently covered the ZOOZS5.5, the Xiaomi Redmi Note clone which retailed for just $99.
Today, we have yet another clone, the ZOOZ N910F which looks a lot like the recently released Note 4. While, as you may have guessed, the specifications and features of the device are no way near the original Note 4, the ZOOZ N910F does take its design cues from the Samsung flagship. In fact, the dimensions of the phone are exactly the same as the Galaxy Note 4 i.e. 153.5mm x 78.6mm x 8.5mm. The manufacturer has even included a stylus with the device, unsurprisingly called the S Pen.
The phablet comes with a MTK6582 1.3Ghz Quad Core CPU with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 32GB via MicroSD card. On the front, there’s a 5.7 inch OGS 1280x 720 HD display along with a 5MP camera on top. On the back, the N910F has a 13MP sensor with LED flash.
The Note 4 clone comes with standard connectivity features like Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+EDR, USB 2.0, GPS/ AGPS and FM Radio. It runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat version.
Unfortunately, you only get a 2600 mAh battery on the device, which a big let down considering the size of the display. So, battery life would naturally be less than average.
However even with just average specifications, there are some features which make the device interesting. First of all, like we mentioned above, there’s the capacitive pressure sensitive stylus called the S Pen. Then, there’s infrared remote control function which lets you control gadgets at home like the air condition, television sets etc. You also have a heart rate monitor which records your heart rate and oxygen level in your blood along with a sports pedometer.
You can flip pages while reading an ebook with simple gestures on the N910F. Turning on the display too is quite easy as you just have to double tap on the screen.
Clearly, the ZOOZ N910F comes with plenty of features which are not usually found on phones in its class. The heart rate monitor along with the stylus especially are the two key selling points of the device.
Unfortunately, as of today, we don’t know the price or the availability of the device. But we will update more details in the coming few days.
So would you buy this Note 4 Clone if it sells for less than $140?
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