Cubot has quite a few stylish yet affordable devices and S500 model is one of them. Learn more in a full review.

Cubot S500 Review: VIDEO

Cubot S500 Review: UNBOXING

Besides all the usual stuff you expect to come with any phone, Cubot S500 ships with some extras like a tempered glass screen protector and a nice plastic case.

Cubot S500 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

As soon as I picked the phone up, I really enjoyed the design and build quality of it. It uses a metal frame around the device and glass on the front and rear. Also, the phone sits very comfortably in the hand as the device sports a relatively small 5” display. 

Speaking of which, the panel only has 720p resolution but it still sharp enough, vibrant and bright.

Just above the display we have an 8MP selfie shooter and on the bottom there are 3 non-backlit capacitive buttons. Unfortunately, there is no notification LED found on the device. 

As for camera, we have a 13MP shooter with a single LED flash. Right below it there is fingerprint scanner. The setup of it was easy and while it is neither the fastest nor the most accurate scanner I’ve tested, it gets the job done. I would say it works 8/10 times. 

The buttons feel nice and they have a good tactile feedback. Right next to the power button we have a hybrid SIM card slot. You can either put two SIM cards in it or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card for storage expansion. 

Overall, the phone feels really nice in the hand and it is well built.

Cubot S500 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Cubot S500 has a quad-core MTK6735A chip clocked at 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. 

While the phone is definitely not a powerhouse in terms of sheer specs, it can handle 3D games really well. Asphalt 8 runs fine with just a few minor skipped frames on medium graphics settings.

Cubot S500 Review: BENCHMARKS

Cubot S500 Review: UI

The device ships with a near stock Android 5.1 build and the performance of it is buttery smooth. I didn’t have any stutter whatsoever and I can say that this phone is fast. 

We have some added features like gesture and motion controls. There are so many of them and I’m not sure if you are going to use them all. Anyway, they work great but some of them are useful only if the fingerprint security option is off.

Speaking of which, the fingerprint scanner can be used for other things too. For example, you can take pictures just by pressing a fingerprint reader and that’s pretty cool.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way the UI works. It is fast and fluid, and it preserves a stock Android look and feel. 

Cubot S500 Review: MULTIMEDIA

The loudspeaker quality is pretty good. Of course, it is not perfect as the sound is a bit tinny and lacks depth but this is what you get with the phone this cheap.

Cubot S500 Review: CAMERA

The camera can take some good looking daylight images with a reasonable amount of detail. Most of the shots look okay but some of the images came out slightly overexposed and have more noise than expected. 

The low-light camera performance is not that good. Some of the images tend to have a purple or red tint, quite a low amount of detail and more noise.

The video quality is not that bad. Sure, it could look sharper but the quality of footage is decent for the phone this cheap. See a video review for a video sample or download it here.

Cubot S500 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues. Call quality, Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS seem to be working fine. 

Cubot S500 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone has a 2700mAh battery, which performs well. I could constantly get around 4 hours of screen-on time with a mixed use of the device and auto-birghtness feature on. 

Cubot S500 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Cubot S500 is a really nice phone for the price of around $120. It is well crafted, compact and it uses some premium materials in the construction.

Also, the device has a nice looking display, very fast UI and you can even play some 3D games on it. If you add a good battery life and some extra features, it is a pretty good phone for the price.

However, you have to consider some shortcomings like a poor low-light camera performance, the lack of notification LED and the fact that the phone is a huge fingerprint magnet due to its glass back panel.

All in all, Cubot S500 is a good phone for the price despite a few shortcomings. 

The post Cubot S500 Review: Beautiful Yet Affordable appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Cubot is looking for someone who can design a mascot. In this regard, Cubot is asking its fans to submit a few entries to the company. So, if you are a bit creative with innovative ideas for a mascot, read on.

Cubot is offering a year of Cubot smartphones for free for the best mascot design. So, you could be the first to experience all Cubot smartphones and can be a tester for the company. You can even make suggestions for improvements or features in a product.

Apart from the best design award, there are 5 Good Design Awards, and if your design is selected for this award, you will win a Cubot S500 smartphone. Finally, 50 lucky winners who will like the Cubot Facebook page and the post will get the Cubot mascot.

To clarify, the company is in the lookout for a mascot and not a logo. So, it needs to some kind of an animal or anything that can represent the company in addition to its logo. Cubot has told us that the company prefers a horse as the mascot since it stands for independence, endurance, strength and positive attitude. However, the company is also open to other animals as the mascot. So, if you have some other animal in mind which can be a creative mascot, then that will do as well. But, it will have to be unique and innovative.

Whatever you submit, make sure that the design is cute, smart, professional and can somehow portray the company’s image positively.

Check out more details from the company’s official facebook page.

The post Cubot Is Looking For Someone To Design Its Mascot, Winner Gets Free Cubot Phones For A Year appeared first on Gizmochina.

At MWC 2016, Cubot announced its new CheetahPhone. Like the name suggests, the phone was released in partnership with Cheetah Mobile, the makers of popular utility apps like CM Security and Cleaner Master.

Now, the company has announced a lower mid-range device, called the Cubot S500. If you have been following the company, you would immediately realize that the naming is similar to the earlier released Cubot S550. But, there are a few differences between the two models.

The Cubot S500 is powered by the MT6735A quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM on board. As you can see, the CPU and RAM are similar to the S550. As for the storage, you get 16GB of expandable memory on board. Like most smartphones nowadays, the memory slot is hybrid. So, you can either use dual SIM cards or one SIM card with a MicroSD card slot.

Another major difference is that the new S500 model features a much smaller display. It sports a 5-inch IPS OGS panel with HD resolution. You also have 2.5D glass on both the sides. At the back, there’s a 13MP camera at the back, with f/2.0 aperture and 4P lens, while up front, there’s an 8MP selfie camera with intelligent beauty mode.

The phone is pretty slim as well, measuring just 7mm in thickness. In this body, you get a 2700mAh battery. It supports 4G LTE too. As for the software, the phone runs on Androi 5.1 Lollipop. There will be two colors available, namely black and white.

The Cubot S500 will go on sale sometime in March at an estimated price tag of $129.99. Noted sellers like Amazon, Ebay and other e-commerce sites will list the device for sale.  You can read more about the device from the official company website.

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