Text and pictures © 2017-2024 Guillaume Dargaud
Last updated on 2021/11/05
"If I got arrested and had one phone call, I'd call the police station with a bomb scare."
Large bright screen with decent resolution, but it's a bit too bright for use in darkness. Also the bevel is actually quite large.
Very difficult to open to put your SIM and SD card: you have to pry it open with 2 blades at the same time, and damaging the opening is unavoidable (I tried).
The battery is not removable. Bummer. But it lasts a very long time (2 days easily with several hours of use (hours music and surfing + 2 full movies). And the recharge is very fast, about an hour for a full charge.
There's a real FM radio aboard, but the channels change randomly every few seconds or minutes. Couldn't figure this one out and it's very annoying making it almost unusable.
MicroSDXC card tested up to 128Gb
Not water / dust resistant
The GPS in the 1st model I bought was mostly broken, giving a lot of delayed or plain wrong positions, but after exchange it worked fine.
The sound is good but too loud when on the lowest setting. Forget about watching a movie in bed without headphones.
One of the surprising thing about this phone is the coating of the screen which is extremely slippery. It makes it quite enjoyable to use... but dangerous to grab or carry. I dropped it several times when it simply slipped out of my hand. Even putting the phone screen down on my wallet will slide slowly and fall after a while, right when you are not looking anymore. After a few months this resulted in a broken screen...
OK, I'll say it quickly: this phone gets almost everything right: it's smaller in width, height and thickness than the UPulse, but the screen is actually bigger as the bevel is very thin on all sides. And not as slippery, so it's a bit safer. The screen has a 2:1 ratio, good for watching movies, and it also facilitates one-handed use (still requires big hands though).
The back is easy to open without tools and without damaging the cover. The battery is removable, although I haven't ordered an extra one yet. It doesn't last as long as the UPulse, and also it doesn't seem to fast charge, which is the only drawback of this phone.
The OS is 7.1 and is mostly clean. It operates fast. It also takes a 128Gb card, no problem.
Minimum sound level is correct and more discreet than the UPule. The FM radio works. As does the GPS.
Some secret codes I found (there are probably many more):
