Cubot is one of the Chinese phone makers that usually produces phones that offer a lot of value for the price. Magic is their latest budget model that offers dual cameras and nice design for less than $100. Learn more in the full Cubot Magic review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a soft TPU case

DESIGN and DISPLAY

Let’s be clear, Cubot Magic imitates the design of the Honor Magic but it uses cheaper materials to reduce the cost of the device.

The phone is made entirely of plastic and it does lack premium materials but the build quality is good. The design highlight is that this phone is curved on each side, which really looks nice in practice.

We have a 5” 720p display, which may not be the sharpest out there but I think it is really good for a cheap phone. The capacitive buttons are not backlit but we have a pulsing notification light and LED flash for night selfies that can be taken with a 5MP front facing camera.

The backplate is a fingerprint magnet as it is made of glossy plastic. Another highlight of this cheap phone is a dual camera setup.

We have one 13MP shooter and another 2MP sensor.

The loudspeaker is not the best but it is okay for such a cheap phone.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, Cubot Magic is yet another budget phone with decent specs for the price. The phone ships with the MTK6737 chip, 16GB of expandable storage and 3GB  of RAM.

The gaming performance is okay but you should expect for some skipped frames even if you play games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics settings.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

I love when manufacturers keep stock Android UI on these cheap phones and the Cubot Magic is no exception as it runs on Android 7 out of the box. Some extra features include a few gesture controls that I didn’t really use because, for some weird reason, they are in Spanish. Anyway, the phone is fast and fluid on the daily basis and that is the most important thing to me when it comes to budget phones.

IMAGE QUALITY

As for image quality, that dual-camera setup can take some decent-looking photos with the shallow depth of field effect. Obviously, you can’t compare the quality with some more expensive handsets but I’m quite impressed with the results from the $90 phone.

As for regular photos, you can’t expect much from any super cheap phones but you can still take some pretty good-looking pictures that are usable for social media.

However, the quality decreases quite dramatically in lower-lit situations.

The selfie image quality is not so great and the front-firing flash does not really help in low-light.

The 1080p video quality does not impress like on most of the cheap phones. The 1080p selfie video does not look impressive either but it is usable for social media or video chats.

CONNECTIVITY

When it comes to connectivity, the phone does everything quite well. The GPS lock speeds are fast and it is surprisingly accurate when used for navigation. The phone has only a few sensors and there is no gyroscope.

On a positive note, I like the fact that you don’t need to remove the battery to access two SIM cards slots and the microSD card slot.

BATTERY LIFE

The 2600mAh battery performs quite well considering its size but you should not expect any stellar results. I was able to achieve just about 4.5h of screen-on time but your mileage may vary.

CONCLUSIONS

Cubot Magic is yet cheap another phone from China that offers quite a lot of value for the price. Its main selling point is design as the phone is curved on each side.

In general, it is a decent option for such a low amount of money but it would have been great if it had some premium materials used in the construction. Well, all of these budget phones have some tradeoffs and this is what you have to expect when you spend less than $100 for a phone.

The post Cubot Magic Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Blackview has made quite a few budget phones over the year and the A9 Pro is one of their latest models. It has decent specs for the price of just about $90. Is it any good? Learn more in the full Blackview A9 Pro review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

Blackview A9 Pro ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a screen protector, a pair of earphones and a soft TPU case.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, I love that the phone is compact since it has only 5” 720p display, which may not be the sharpest out there but it is not bad for a cheap phone.

We have a quality metal trim that goes all around the device, tactile metal buttons and in general, the phone is well-built.

We have a notification LED light, which sits next to the 2MP selfie shooter.

The fingerprint scanner may not be the fastest out there but it gets the job done and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode. Also, the sensor has a touch panel. If you tap it, it takes you back, if you tap and hold it, you will go home. You can also switch to traditional on-screen navigation keys.

One of the key selling points of this phone is the dual-camera setup that consists of one 8MP shooter and another 0.3MP sensor.

The loudspeaker quality does not really impress like on most of the budget phones.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The phone sports okay specs for the price. The device ships with a quad-core MTK6737 chip (1.3GHz), 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

The gaming performance is pretty good if you play the 3D games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics. Still, you may see a few skipped frames but nothing major. The phone gets warm pretty quickly but it does not overheat.

USER INTERFACE

The Blackview A9 Pro comes with the Android 7.0 out of the box with the proprietary skin on top of it. The skin removes the app tray and redesigns the icons whether you like it or not. The are quite a few gesture and motion controls that work quite well but some of them are quite slow to respond. You can also use a one-hand operation mode that works quite well, use a floating dock and so on.  Most importantly, the user interface performance has been smooth and fluid, no complaints here.

BENCHMARKS

IMAGE QUALITY

The Blackview A9 Pro can take decent daylight images considering this is a cheap phone. Sure, the level of detail could be higher, the dynamic range adjustment could be more accurate but in general, you can take some decent-looking daylight images.

The dual-camera setup allows you to take some good-looking pictures with bokeh effect. Sure, this is not the flagship-grade quality but the results are quite impressive for such a cheap device.

The low-light camera performance does not impress like on most of the cheap phones.

Selfie pictures will definitely do the trick for social media needs but there could slightly more detail.

The 1080p video quality is above average. Selfie video quality is again, kind of mediocre but it is possible to use the camera for video chats or other stuff.

Download full resolution camera samples

CONNECTIVITY

When it comes to connectivity, the call quality is above average, the Wifi works fine and GPS is usable for navigation although it is not the most accurate out there.

BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery performs quite well. I was able to get almost 5 hours of screen-on time, which is a good result considering the fact that I used the phone quite intensively.

CONCLUSIONS

The Blackview A9 Pro is yet another cheap phone from China that aims to deliver a lot of value for the price and it succeeds in quite a few ways.

The phone is plain-looking but it is well-built and it uses a quality metal frame, the display is great for everyday use, the user interface performance is decent and the battery life is good.

Obviously, you should consider some caveats like a poor low-light camera performance, mediocre loudspeaker and the MTK6737 chip is not designed for hardcore gamers.

At the end of the day, the Blackview A9 Pro is still a decent offering for the price but as always, make sure to consider a few shortcomings like on any other budget phone.

The post Blackview A9 Pro Review – A Decent $90 Dual-Camera Phone! appeared first on Gizmochina.