[Mlais M7] Review Mlais M7 MT6752 3GB/16GB 5.5"

[GizBeat]

Mlais is a well loved brand in China who just recently started marketing towards Westerners. They make solid budget phones. I've recently reviewed the Mlais M9, Mlais M52 and Mlais M4. All three of these phones are phones I can recommend. One good thing about Mlais is there are accessories available specifically for their phones. That is standard plastic screen protectors and high-end glass screen protectors. as well as cases which have the back piece that snaps on as opposed to just sticking onto the back. Up now is the Mlais M7. Looks wise it's poised to compete directly with the recently released, but generally poorly received, Elephone P7000. Mlais M7 review SoC / RAM / ROM The Mlais M7 is an MT6752 SoC mobile with 3GB RAM and 16GB ROM storage. Specs wise this makes it a very powerful phone, scoring in the 44k ballpark on Antutu with an outstanding 12k result on 3D, partially due to it's 720P (as opposed to 1080p) display. Mlais M7 review display As with the M4, the M7 has a very good display, showing strong, pure whites and good color. Extreme diagonal viewing angles do cause some color and contrast change, but remain 100% viewable. Viewing from normal angles produces no difference in color or contrast. There is zero light bleed in the corners and no light bleed from where the display meets the sides. The screen is uniformly lit and there's no immediate evidence of where the LEDs are situated. The display is easily bright enough to be seen in sunlight and text is crisp. Mlais M7 review OS As far as I know, the more popular China brands known for quality, such as THL and Jiayu have not moved up into Lollipop. This might give us a clue that MTK Android 5 isn't quite ready for prime time. It may be just a case of no new models coming from these brands recently, but several minor bugs are cropping up here and there for early adopters. One is the SIM icon color can't be changed, though the option is available in settings. Lollipop on the Mlais M7 is otherwise fine, though when slow scrolling, as with the M4, the display seems to move things at 2 pixels at a time. This is generally not a big deal, and all scrolling other than the slowest is smooth. It's also something that can easily be fixed via OTA update if Mlais chooses to do so. Storage is set to 5GB for internal and 7GB for phone. 5GB is easily enough to install hundreds of apps and should satisfy most users. If not enough, most apps nowadays can be moved over to SD. In terms of speed, the OS is great. Everything happens quickly and apps are staying in memory long after they've been opened. There are no force closes from any apps during my testing. Apps downloaded, installed and updated without issue. Google Services updated fine. The OS is correctly handling readings from the light sensor and adjusting display brightness accordingly. Touch sensitivity is great. There's no ghost touches or double taps required. Rapid typing goes off no problem. Mlais M7 review WiFi The WiFi on the M7 can be rated as mediocre, staying solid and fast at 100ft / 30m on a standard $20 router with a cinder block wall between the router and the phone. This is about 60% as far as the excellent WiFi in the THL 4000 and iNew V8, but is about par for the course and should be easily enough for most home and business situations. Mlais M7 review build and style As mentioned in the opening, this phone looks very much like the Elephone P7000 and I like the styling. The sides color wise appear as white gold and show some nice edges. According to Mlais and to my eyes, the sides appear to be CNC-machined metal. If not, the designers did an excellent job emulating it. Overall it's slightly slimmer and shorter than the Elephone P7000. Like the P7000, the back button and menu button are normally invisible, but unlike the P7000, they light up when pressed. I like how the M7 feels in the hand. It's got a square look with rounded corners and the sides add solid class with their two-toned CNC style. The buttons give a tactile click when pressed. The back piece snaps on tight and overall the phone feels very solid with no creaks or loose spots. Thank you Mlais for not putting a physical push button for the home button. Mlais M7 review camera The camera on the M7 is quite good. According to Mlais, it's the Sony IMX135, which is the same camera used on the $350 Samsung A5. This is a 1/3.06" back illuminated type sensor with a diagnal of 5.867mm. Compared to the IMX214, the IMX135 is nearly identical except for lacking the ability to shoot HDR video at full (13mp) or 4K. According to Sony, the IMX135 has the capability to shoot HDR 1080p@30fps. The minor difference of lacking full/4k HDR video shooting is barely worth mentioning except to illustrate that the IMX135 varies little from the IMX214. Item IMX135 IMX214 Image size Diagonal 5.87 mm ← Total number of pixels 4224 (H) × 3176 (V) Approx. 13.42M pixels 4224 (H) × 3200 (V) Approx. 13.51M pixels Number of active pixels 4208 (H) × 3120 (V) Approx. 13.13M pixels ← Fabrication process Back-illuminated process Back-illuminated process + reduced height structure Unit cell size 1.12 µm (H) × 1.12 µm (V) ← Output format MIPI 4, 2 Lane ← Control communication interface I2C ← Power supply specifications Analog 2.7 +0.2/-0.1 V ← Digital 1.05 ± 0.1 V 1.0 +0.15/-0.1 V I/O 1.8 ± 0.1 V ← Input clock frequency 6 to 27 MHz ← Signal processing function within sensors Spot pixel compensation ✔ ← Noise reduction ✔ ← HDR ✔ ← HDR video specification Full Not supported 30 frame/s 4K Not supported 30 frame/s 1080p 30 frame/s 60 frame/s The pictures from the Mlais M7 came out good, with decent dynamic range and good color. The shots were taken with Google Camera app and there is have been no adjustments other than resizing and cropping. You can see the Mlais M7 camera photo gallery with 100% crops here Mlais M7 review battery It's a shame Mlais didn't fit a larger battery in this phone, as Elephone P7000 shows there's certainly room for a 3000mAh+ battery, but 2600mAh is bigger than what was in nearly all 5.5" phones just 6 months ago, so there's not a lot of room to complain. It also keeps the M7 slimmer and shorter than the Elephone P7000 and you can tell the difference when holding them. Streaming 720P through WiFi on YouTube at low-brightness lasted 5 hours before the battery gave up the ghost. The battery in the Mlais M7 charged up to 90% in about 2 hours and then from 90%-100% in an additional half hour. Mlais M7 review frequency support Excellent to see that many of the new phone releases have worldwide 3G support and the Mlais M7 is no different with 850/900/1900/2100. Also included is standard worldwide 2G support and LTE 4G 1/3/7/20. As always, check your carrier's frequency prior to purchasing any mobile phone. Mlais M7 review components GPS caught a cold lock indoors within 10 seconds. Outdoors it kept a 30+ SNR on several satellites at once. The compass on the Mlais M7 worked fine after figure 8, spin, roll, flip calibration. OTG on the M7 works great. I tested it with a gamepad, keyboard, mouse and SD thumb drive and all worked flawlessly without any fiddling. The earpiece and mic both are both beyond adequate. I could be heard and hear the other party next to a busy highway without issue. The external speaker on the M7 is good as well. I test this by situating my head next to a fan and watching a video movie via YouTube. If I can hear clearly, as I do with the M7, it passes the test. The finger scanner on the Mlais M7 is very good and I'm definately preferring the scanner on the back as it is with the Mlais M7 here. It's just more natural and easier to lay your finger there as opposed to on the front. The scanner is of the lay/push (as opposed to slide) type and works great, normally requiring only one attempt to unlock. Conclusion Summary M7@Official Mlais Phones to consider 1GB Mlais M9 2GB Mlais M52 3GB Mlais M4 Mlais Official Facebook Minor OS bugs Mediocre WiFi (100ft / 30m is enough for most situations and is fairly standard reach) Mediocre battery life (5hrs onscreen streaming video is fairly standard and should be enough for most users) OTG, compass, GPS, Bluetooth all working well Good Sony IMX135 camera Dual-SIM + SD expansion support 3GB RAM+MT6752 make the phone very powerful and great for multitasking and gaming Cool design with CNC machined sides of Good display (strong whites and deep color) No silly slogan on the back Accessories such as cases and screen protectors available specifically for Mlais phone models Worldwide 3G 850/900/1900/2100 Rating Mlais M7 review closing I really like the Mlais M7. Aside from mediocre WiFi strength (which still should be enough for most home and business situations), the phone is otherwise a great buy. Now we're seeing the Mlais M7 priced at $160, which I think is about right considering the current market. A good price, worldwide 3G, a very good camera, solid components, slick looks and solid build make the Mlais M7 a phone I can easily recommend to a close friend or family member.

[GizBeat]

This is just a preliminary text review. It will be prettied up and images added within the next couple days.

I'm putting this up now in case anyone has been considering the phone. I've found the Mlais M7 to be very good, so anyone who's waiting to jump on M7, based on my experience with the phone so far, it's well worth it.

[WuddaWaste]

Mlais is doing a LOT of things right. It's good to see this phone lives up to the hype.

Hey Giz, does Guest Mode work on that phone?

[GizBeat]

Yes. If it had a bigger battery and stronger WiFi it would be perfect. Still, WiFi is mediocre, not bad. 100ft should be enough for most situations.

I've complete the battery test and it plays 720p over WiFi at low brightness for 5 hours before giving up the ghost... Again, should be enough to get most users through the day.

I will check regarding guest mode. This is a Lollipop feature and should be there, but seems MTK Lollipop is missing a few things here and there.

[GizBeat]

As far as I've tested, multiple users and guest mode not working. This is not limited to Mlais M7. With Mlais M7, Mlais M4, Elephone P7000 and Ulefone Be Touch the feature doesn't appear to be available.

This also isn't limited to MTK devices. According to this undated post, it's not (or wasn't) available for Samsung S4 and S5 Lollipop 5.0 builds either.

[T.J]

This is just a preliminary text review. It will be prettied up and images added within the next couple days.

I'm putting this up now in case anyone has been considering the phone. I've found the Mlais M7 to be very good, so anyone who's waiting to jump on M7, based on my experience with the phone so far, it's well worth it.

Damian, does this phone have LED notification?
Thanks

[GizBeat]

Hello @TJ , no it doesn't appear to have LED notification.

[McrRed]

Yes. If it had a bigger battery and stronger WiFi it would be perfect. Still, WiFi is mediocre, not bad. 100ft should be enough for most situations.

I've complete the battery test and it plays 720p over WiFi at low brightness for 5 hours before giving up the ghost... Again, should be enough to get most users through the day.

I will check regarding guest mode. This is a Lollipop feature and should be there, but seems MTK Lollipop is missing a few things here and there.

Hiya.
I've got the phone and I really like it but the wifi on mine is really weak. Nowhere near 100 feet (and I guess sadly not 5 hours worth of time playing over wifi).
Mine's a bit of a dud? Or what version software are you using?

I noticed that some of the hidden choices in Settings (advanced wifi) kept wifi always on to report to google etc which strongly affected battery life...

[NexusTrix]

Yes. If it had a bigger battery and stronger WiFi it would be perfect. Still, WiFi is mediocre, not bad. 100ft should be enough for most situations.

I've complete the battery test and it plays 720p over WiFi at low brightness for 5 hours before giving up the ghost... Again, should be enough to get most users through the day.

I will check regarding guest mode. This is a Lollipop feature and should be there, but seems MTK Lollipop is missing a few things here and there.

Hiya.
I've got the phone and I really like it but the wifi on mine is really weak. Nowhere near 100 feet (and I guess sadly not 5 hours worth of time playing over wifi).
Mine's a bit of a dud? Or what version software are you using?

I noticed that some of the hidden choices in Settings (advanced wifi) kept wifi always on to report to google etc which strongly affected battery life...

That's 5 hours straight video. If you're surfing the web over a day, for example, you might get more like 4 hours screen on time, because rendering web pages can take more juice than playing video, and times when screm is off will slowly drain battery too. Also it will depend on brightness.

[McrRed]

Having had the phone a week now I have to say the battery is getting better so maybe it needed a period of bedding in? I didn't think modern batteries needed to do this but, whatever, it's a lot better than at first.