Chinese phone maker Elephone has officially launched the Elephone U3H smartphone on AliExpress. The U3H is a mid-range model and is available in three memory variants. The pricing starts at $169.99 for the base variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.  The Elephone U3H sports a 6.53-inch LCD display with an FHD+ resolution of 1080×2340 pixels. The display features a hole-punch at the top left corner and it houses a 24MP Sony IMX576 sensor for selfies camera. The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P70 SoC backed by 6GB/8GB of RAM. There is also the option of 128GB on both versions but the 8GB RAM model offers a 256GB storage version.

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At the rear, the Elephone U3H packs a dual-camera setup consisting of a 48MP Sony IMX 586 main sensor teaming up with a 5MP depth sensor for bokeh. The rear camera is arranged vertically at the top left corner with the LED flash in between the two sensors.  The rear panel also houses a fingerprint sensor located at the middle. You also get NFC and Wireless Charging support but the wireless charging support is only available on the 256GB version.

As for the prices, the Elephone U3H 8GB+256GB version is on offer for $209.99 while the 8GB+128GB version is priced at $214.99. Elephone will be offering all buyers a $10 coupon which means you can buy the product at a lower price presently. You may want to check out the AliExpress product page right away.

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This is the Umidigi Z2  – a phone with the large notch display, nice design and great specs for the price. As always, stay tuned to the full Umidigi Z2 review to learn all the pros and cons of this device.

VIDEO

UNBOXING

The phone ships with a charger, USB cable, SIM ejector pin, a headset jack adapter and a pretty standard soft TPU case.

DESIGN

Design-wise, the Umidigi Z2 packs all the trends of 2018 in one package. You get a display with the notch that I found to be pretty nice and sharp, glass backplate that makes the phone a bit slippery, a metal trim and a dual camera system.

The phone is well-made and I found it to be really comfortable to hold in the hand due to rounded edges on the back. However, I found that the buttons rattle a little bit.

Other key features include a dual-camera system on the front and a hybrid dual-SIM card tray. Face unlock feature works surprisingly well, much better than on most of the budget phones.  The fingerprint scanner works fine but there is a significant delay between unlocking and the time the display lights up.

It’s disappointing that the phone has neither LED notification light nor headset jack. On the other hand, sound quality using the supplied adapter is decent.

The loudspeaker sound quality is not the best but it’s quite good. Here is an audio sample.

HARDWARE

In terms of hardware, the Umidigi Z2 ships with the spec sheet we’ve already seen on other budget phones and it looks quite good.

In reality, gaming performance is mediocre. You can play most of the 3D games on reduced graphics but you should still expect to see some lag and stutter. For example, there is quite a bit of lag while playing Pubg even on low graphics. Finally, the phone gets hot quite quickly.

USER INTERFACE

If you’ve seen other Umidigi phone reviews I’ve made before, you know that I praise their phones for using stock Android user interface. Obviously, there are a few neat extra features but in general, you get a nice and clean-looking UI that makes the phone run fast.

The phone does not lag or stutter and it just feels fast all the time. I’m quite impressed with the performance of this budget phone.

IMAGE QUALITY

The overall image quality is okay and you may be able to take pretty good pictures considering the price of the phone.

Low-light camera performance may not be the best but it’s okay for a budget phone. 

Portrait picture quality is kind of average but better than quite a few other budget phones.

Selfies look okay but not really impressive. There is also a portrait mode but I can’t recommend using it since the pictures are way overexposed.

1080p video shot using the main camera is kind of average and selfie video quality is quite good. Here is a short sample.

If you want to see more camera samples or full resolution video tests, check out all the links in the video description.

CONNECTIVITY

In terms of connectivity, the phone supports global LTE bands and I found the call quality and signal reception to be pretty good.  Finally, GPS is accurate and it gets the position fast. In terms of sensors, there are quite a few of them including a gyroscope so you are all set if you want to use the phone with 360 content.

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life on this phone is quite good but I expected better results considering a huge capacity power bank. On average, you should expect to get up to 7 hours of screen-on time.

In terms of charging, it takes under 2 hours to fully charge the phone with the supplied power brick.

CONCLUSIONS

The Umidigi Z2 is a phone that looks nice, it has a sharp display and the device is fast on the daily basis thanks to the stock Android user interface. In addition, the phone supports global LTE bands and finally, cameras can take pretty decent shots in daylight. 

However, there are quite a few cons to consider. The phone does not have LED notification light, there is no headset jack, and gaming performance is mediocre

Hope you guys found this review useful and please consider all the pros and cons of this device before making the purchase.

The post Umidigi Z2 Review – A Beautiful Budget Phone with the Notch! appeared first on Gizmochina.

We live in the day and age of full-screen smartphones and I like this trend as phones look beautiful and they can be more compact despite a larger display. The Bluboo S8 Plus as a bigger brother of the regular S8 that I reviewed quite some time ago. It offers great design inspired by the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and decent specs for less than $150. Learn more in the full Bluboo S8 Plus review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a soft TPU case, a screen protector, and a 3.5mm headset jack adapter.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

It is obvious that the design is the key selling point due to the 6” HD+ resolution display that has 18:9 aspect ratio, just like the Galaxy S8+. The screen is really sharp and bright, a great panel for a budget phone.

In terms of the build, we have a quality metal frame, the buttons are nice but I think that the backplate is made of plastic, not glass. There is a dual-camera setup imitation, meaning that there is only one 16MP sensor as you can take pictures with a bokeh effect even when a secondary sensor is covered. There is a 5MP selfie shooter on the front.

A few features in a nutshell: a fingerprint scanner is pretty fast and accurate and the notification LED light is quite bright.

However, there is no 3.5mm headset jack, so you would need to use the supplied adapter. The loudspeaker quality is quite bad.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Bluboo S8+ is definitely not the most powerful phone out there but it still has decent specs for the price. The phone ships with an octa-core MTK6750T chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.

The gaming performance is surprisingly good. I was able to play games like Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics without any stutter or lag. Obviously, this is an older 3D game but I’m impressed with the optimization of this MediaTek chipset. Also, other games like Shadow Fight 3 work just fine. The phone gets warm quickly but it does not overheat.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

As far as user interface, you will love it or hate since it is a heavily customized skin that is built on top of Android 7.0. There is no app tray and there are quite a few pre-installed bloatware apps and even some ads, which may be annoying. There are also quite a few customization options and tweaks that allow you to change the look and feel of the phone. I can’t say this is the fastest budget phone out there as you may see a bit of stutter here and there but I still think that this phone is pretty responsive on the daily basis.

CAMERAS

The phone can take decent pictures in good lighting conditions but obviously, some of the images could look sharper. As usual, the image quality decreases quite a bit in low light.

Pictures taken using bokeh mode look unnatural and I’m not really impressed with the results. In other words, that blurred background effect is made using software, not hardware.

Selfie image quality is not the best but it’s usable for social media. Selfie videos are recorded only in 480p and the quality does not really impress. 1080p video looks kind of mediocre.

CONNECTIVITY

The call quality is above average I would say. Other connectivity options, including Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS, work fine.

Keep in mind that the phone does not have a gyroscope sensor, meaning that it is not compatible with VR headsets. Finally, there is no USB OTG support.

BATTERY LIFE

The phone ships with a 3600mAh battery that performs pretty well only if you use the phone for the basic stuff like web browsing. I was able to get over 5 hours of screen on time. However, battery drains faster than usual in standby mode but keep in mind that I have a lot of apps running in the background. Finally, it takes about 3 h and 25 mins to fully charge the phone, which is a very long time.

CONCLUSIONS

The Bluboo S8 Plus is a great looking and well-built phone for the price. That full-screen display design is definitely the key selling point. Also, the phone is quite fast and it can handle some of the 3D games but there is some bloatware in the user interface.

However, you have to keep in mind that low-light image quality does not impress, the phone is not compatible with VR headsets, there is no headset jack, no USB OTG support, selfie camera shoots videos only in 480p and it takes a lot of time to fully charge the phone. If you can live with these shortcomings, the Bluboo S8  Plus is a very nice-looking phone for the price that has quite a few features.

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