This is one of the big reviews I decided to go for, Another phone, since the Ulefone Paris is having a fair whack of problems from poor battery life to low loght in photos even with the flash on unless the exposure is sorted which is a big of a major dam nightmare. Also the Vidonn X6 has broken (actually the 4th one which is still lasting on the strap which is due to the staples and tape i've placed there. Now this video is delayed sadly due to setting it up was more painful (i'll explain later) but this phone has alot of Potential from the small parts i've explored on it.
With the £115.07 to Pay for the phone from Banggood and it took 9 days to arrive with NO CUSTOMS, i think it was a good deal once I had it the way I wanted it to be. The video is below:
The Packaging.
This has a Apple feel to them, even though Xiaomi are nicknamed the Apple of Chinese Tech so this doesn't surprise me with their package design , the minimalist white just suits itself as proper classy and that sophistication other big brands are now starting to follow suit. The labelling is in Chinese but this phone doesn't have a global edition yet. The imei and S/N are looked at in the back small print which makes it easier if you need to report the phone lost if you do keep boxes at home. The engraving of the Mi and the 4 is a nice touch too.
The front of the box
both sides of the box feature this (Redmi 4)
The famous Mi logo
The back of the box with the details
Then we come to the inside, With a lovely layout that really shows off how they can neatly package what you need in the box and make it so you can put it back yourself as well. The phone is the first thing you see and the tab underneath is actually the manual and the Sim pull is, which is well, simple. The manuals only a double sided card as well as a service noticed and warranty card. Which underneath that is the place the the Micro USB Cable and charger.
The phone and the tab outside of the
The warranty card
The sim Pin and the Manual
A look at the service card
Another shot of the inside of the box.
The Setting up.
Well fitting the simcard in, thats not too bad, the pin helps push the tray out but that last little bit of getting it out, well the pin can help but I actually bit my teeth onto it and it works, making sure its in there, luckily you can fit them with the sim's chip facing the same as the rear camera.
Fitting the Sim in
Then the MIUI 8 welcome screen is lovely and there is an English option which is nice. Now in the video I found out there was NO UK or US LOCALE which actually made me realise that this was actually a VENDOR ROM which banggood flashed before sending which is a bit of a knock down for the more advanced person, aka this means no actual updates to the phone should work. But then it was setup and I was ready to explore the MIUI world. With the iphone-eqsue icons, the Cloud hinting, the lovely sharp fonts, contrasting colours and even more, I got to know the menus in a small way, it will take time like anything if I can then get it going.
The Main home screen
This is the VoIP system Xiaomi have implemented
The weather is accurate
Mi Cloud, who loves it apparently many do
The themes Xiaomi provide with MIUI.
The settings is pretty clear yet very complex, There is a search box which makes it handy to find what you want if you need too, the contrast of colour is very iOS like too but then again this is the APPLE of CHINA this company is Nicknamed.
The top of the settings menu
This phone has dual band wifi
More items
The sound menu
The access to the Account settings
Can't beat a mi account
This screen to tell if you have legit or fake in the ROM, well thats what about me's are useful for.
The Rooting,
Eventually, I had permission to get it unlocked in the bootloader.. Which when i was playing KH HD DDD and grinding Sora's level, It then got me the chance to unlock the bootloader and get TWRP on there, the Fastboot has a russian soviet feel to it but it then the maybe dark twist we don't know about the staff at Xiaomi or its just cute nothingness. But then it was done and I could now Root it and maybe Xpose it for useful apps. Remember ALL THREE BUTTONS MUST BE HELD IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE QUALCOMM COMX port show up in MiFlash, this was slightly mentioned on the MIUI forum.
The cutest soviet bunny i've ever seen
TWRP is on there
Getting SuperSU installed,
The loading after the zips.
The Testing.
Now the phone setup and eventually everything I wanted to on it, I got to work with the tests. We test the following.
Network - 4G/3G and Wifi
Camera
General use
Speakers
The Cameras:
Now this was interesting since I was worried it would be the same quality as the Paris, I was wrong in respects The POV of the cameras looked very uncrystal clear but when the photo was taken, it was nice and sharp. The Paris did have a good camera before ulefone messed the updates up and made the exposure dire in the Marshmallow update. But light like the sun and lights can make it really yellowy in the picture, maybe its just me.
How it looks indoors with light, like look at his nightmare sleeping
how it looks when dogwalking.
A ham wagonwheel sandwich to be shown in the dark room to show off how the light can definately show the yellow in the picture.
Now the front camera, thats where the best part of this phone (in my opinion) comes in, with the clear picture and also the 1080p resolution which thats rare, even with me thinking that 720p was going to happen, and it ACTUALLY RECORDS in 1080p 30fps. Now 60fps does not work even when selected so don't be fooled by opencamera.
The options for video on the front camera
The outdoor selfie when #dogwalkingwithomracer
The indoor selfie
Installing Apps:
This was just like any other way of installing apps, except the problem of storage, yes storage, which installing snapchat didn't work even after doing different cleanup methods, one of them which eventually worked was reflashing (some Chinese members call it brushing) of the ROM and installing snapchat first, which worked. But it got the phone being really smooth, greenify was up and running and it was not that laggy after it turns on (reboot or Power on etc). Play store did have some lag issues with not downloading apps but a force close fixed that. But the Storage is the man issue if you DON'T use a SD card, i think its secretly partitioned but not told about that much.
The storage issue
The Network Tests:
Bascially due to Tavi using VoLTE which FreedomPop struggles with, it means 4G doesn't work unless your on three (no MVNO), which mean that i think the test you see is actually a 3G test. But actually this is still a common test to see if the phone can handle it. The video contains this test.
The wifi one however is a difference, in the video the test is weaker but in another test, it was actually much faster but that was with a wall between the phone and Router.
The speedtest for wifi
Speakers.
Now then, you've seen the sounds these things do so i'm definitely not going to miss a phone call from that, not too tinny either. Theres loads of options for earphones as well which is a nice handy feature.
The nice selection of ringtones available to you and add your music with the Plus
Dogwalking and the GPS.
This was ideal, accurate, fast and with the Mi Fit app, working nicely together to see how i feel when doing somthing simple like walking the dog. Which that had little battery drain as well. Like 10% in a hour after walking Rosie. Better battery stats is useful really. But the MIUI has a nice power checker as well with a deal from Cheetah Monkey. (CM cloud owners).
Conclusion.
The Phone is pretty good, the suprises are nice with the fingerprint and the MIUI acting nicely with many features you want in a phone, the system looks different and the phone design matches them, the battery is amazing and even as i type, no battery life is being used at all. The camera isn't perfect but this isn't a massive cost phone. With all this in mind
omracer's Rating: 8/10
The Good Points:
A huge battery
Metallic,
Simple to run
Fluent and fast
Amazing front camera
MIUI is lovely to look at
The Bad Points:
Google Play in't installed at default if you buy a legit original Redmi 4
The storage for apps can be better
The rear camera has a bit too yellow tint to it
Locked Bootloader
The choice between 2 numbers or extra storage
Well now the main equipment for my half marathon is set and more reviews coming soon.
Well this review is the 1st review of the year since its actually a crucial one for me, well since a new phone is always important and since i'm hoping i can end up using it for vlogs as well. But our story begins on this phone when exploring for months and then Banggood has a Flash sale on it. So on December 27th 2015 I ordered it, the Tracking was Set on 4th January 2016 and then it was 2 weeks of life to deal with, phone lines to nag big TT corporations to fix. a new SIM Card to order (i'll explain soon) and well on the 21st, it Arrived via Royal Mail. Since I Couldn't purchase fast DHL delivery for this which is a shitter but tracking is still good. But i got the phone and some extras which was:
The Paris itself
A flip case for the Paris
A screen Protector for it
This totals me to £95.99 which is actually pretty good value. But the video is below:
A Pop of freedom for the phone
Now before I get into depth with the phone, I mentioned I ordered a SIM card for it, well since its micro SIM anyway. After a offer i found through facebook called FreedomPOP. Now at first this looked like a con, nothing decent like minutes, mbs or data is given for free. Well apparently this company do, so I signed up a week before it arrived, since well, its easier to test it then.
Insert pic here
So I got the sim within 3 days, it cost me £6.99 including £5 to activate me and £1.99 for Royal Mail 1st Class. Which is good and its quite a simple concept, the phone calls are done via the data via the sim and then its x amount per month every month for £0.00 or more of x for However much you like.
The Plans you can get
Now there is one Catch. You DON'T GET VOICEMAIL and you CAN'T TEXT OR CALL without DATA. So this might make things tricky, but some of the plans below can fix that for a price.
The extras you can buy
But now the phone is here, i can test this also for myself, but thanks to dual sim, i can keep my number and also use this one :). I have ordered a Sim from EE which that means my old number will be back with me in a few days after this. But if the premium voice did text as well then i would probably get it but i might get it anyway since £2 is ideal. Sadly It doesn't do text NOR does it let you CALL WITHOUT DATA. Apparently its a feature where you have to have shit.poor internet then it lets you use it. Unlike giffgaff that just piggyback of 02 like a normal network.
The Packaging:
After getting it from Royal Mail, it was nicely and tightly packed and there were 3 things inside. Which to be honest was what it should of been. The Case, The phone and also the Glass Screen Protector. But the paris box was big enough to fit the others side by side.
It was sealed in this Case
All 3 items
A stock code sticker
The bottom of the box
The front of the box
The glass proctector screen was a hard one to get out but it contiained a kit and the actual thing itself was a tinted blue plastic. which was quite solid. But getting it on the phone, well that was a journey in itself or maybe i'm really crap with air bubbles appearing.
The front of the Case for the screen protector
The back of the
The case was a simple concept, a bit rougher texture than the ipad magnetic cases on the front end, the other end was a snap into place way and wasn't a back replacement, it could be one but maybe too risky, but this was actually going to be handy as well.
The case inside its wrap
The back of the case and the Ulefone Logo
A Clear look at the case
Now the phone in its charcoal style box which was very plain except for 2 sticksers on the sides and the words Paris on the front of the box, thats about it. Inside the phone was clear in its mini bag to be used, with the accessories underneath, well a nice pair of earphones might not be a problem and a usb cable similar to the flat one Google used for Glass. Then ANOTHER screen protector but this one was a nightmare since it was shaped opposite to the front of the phone itself .
Inside the box
The reverse of the ac/dc adapter aka the usb charger
The front of it
The side where the usb goes in
The earphones
The flat usb cable
Then you have the manual, which acutually apart from a few poor wordings, this was a useful bit of text for a manual, with the features like camera, phone, messages and internet. Along with small print and other language translations.
Fitting the Sim and a bit of testing
Well fitting the sim and opening the case up was pretty much a No go with my short fingernails, lucky the card the freedompop sim came in was ok enough to get it out, so the battery was sealed to stop it from working, thats a nice good way as well. But stupid me for making the sim actually be the nano one and fitting it in but then realising it wasn't working so it got into the micro adapter and worked fine.
The phone itself
The back of the phone
The top of the phone where the usb and headhone jack goes in
Inside the back cover where i stupidly put a nano sim in a micro slot
The glass cover in the phone box that doesn't actually fit
Now the interface was standard stock android with some okish launcher, it does look attractive but i'm still a Holo Launcher guy. But it was smooth, easier to get the switches up and very fast in its menus. Also the camera had some new effects which looked quite cool as well as quite 3G internet speed, This is a 4G SIM in a 4G phone but Tavi doesn't have 4G from 3/Three so it will only use 3G, which is fast enough for me anyway.
The homescreen as you first turn it on
There is a font manager
The notification pull down/
Now it was odd that Google maps wasn't working in the video, but thats now been fixed due to updates and transferring stuff from the old ZP810 . But the speed of that GPS was holy nuts and i'm impressed, since that could make me 5 minutes earlier to places which was used to wait for a GPS TTS fix.
The GPS working almost instantly
Now there was the Camera, which actually is the same look as the old phone but more features and better resolutions (13.something Megapixel in a 16:9 ratio) and that 16:9 can apply for both cameras but for Pictures only. But this was before i found out about OpenCamera which let me record on the front camera in 720p, 30fps (there is 60 fps but not tested) and 5mbps, which is ideal for vlogs now.
But the picture quality is nice but in all honesty the colour vibrancy is not there compared to the old phone which has 8 MP (6 MP due to the 16:9 resolution). But the pics below are from the Stock camera,
A picture of Rosie sleeping when i was filming this, which actually made life easier
The first selfie from it
Swiping inwards from the left can bring these effects up on the stock camera app.
The Battery life
Well this was a bit late but important, since well a phone needs to last quite a while, but this one doesn't even last 24 hours with wifi on and off for certain times, also since freedompop use 3 which DON'T support 2G there is a lost of battery wasted. Ok during this first full day with it, i had to reboot twice to get Xposed and Snapprefs working otherwise snapchat is not even worth using and i'll just rage and regret at it, which that did taken up 9% for one of the reboots, Hopefully it can improve but then again i've been used to having 14 hours straight on the phone with data on but worst case i can buy another batter for the paris.
A graph of the battery life after a first day at work with it
A better steeper graph of it
This does give a problem, but these days power banks fix problems like this and although my 10000mah solar band back panel has busted, it might be good enough with a case to glue on and fix or just order another battery, except power banks are now banned by international air mail which is a pain.
Rooting and tweaking.
One good thing is that this phone has been very popular, so much so that XDA had a thread on it and referenced how to install a custom recovery,. Which that worked and then rooted, the drivers are easy to find but majorly annoying to install without driver signature enforcement, but then it was Xposed which was a nightmare when it was too low a battery to carry on after flashing it. But then it was Snapprefs what made me panic a bit, but now thats fix by a downgrade . But it was nice to actually have fastish performance on the lowest frequency on ondemand :).
The supported frequencies on the chip
The governers that are supported
Gravitybox for LP works nicely as well, just to get what i want quicker like YGPS and a tap to turn data on and off. But that is an essential piece of xposed app you need for any MediaTek phone, since source code is a bugger with the big MT corporation.
The starting conclusion:
So this is most of the phone tested, ok maybe no phone calls and I didn't show off the freedompop app much but it does have a vanilla android feel to it so its not hard to use. But with everything in the video and here:
omracer's Rating: 8/10
The Good:
Lovely White Design
8 Cores
Very smooth, even at a low CPU Frequency
4G
16GB of storage
A decent FRONT and BACK Camera (aka i can now vlog with this and editing is quicker)
Android higher than 4.3 so i can use the Vidonn smartband with it.
IMPRESSIVE GPS
The Bad:
The screen protector built in isn't the right shape
64bit can cause problems with Xposed (ignore this if you don't use it or never want to root)
No native 720p recording using the stock camera app (fixed using open camera)
Short Battery Life
Now with this done, I can record better reviews in some way and also there will be some, maybe more food reviews i'm Planning soon. for next time
