Ergonomics
Before the g6 I was using a Samsung GS2 and before that a Blackberry Bold 9700. When I first received my phone, I liked how it felt in my hand. I was expecting it to be chunkier as it was 9.3mm thick but I guess it was proportionate to the overall size? All I can say is the build quality is GREAT and it feels good when I hold it. Not flimsy at all.
Proceeded to play around with the buttons on the phone. The volume rocker and lock/power button clicks felt great, although I would have preferred if they placed the lock/power button on the right side rather than the top. Capacitive buttons work fine. They vibrate a little and light up whenever you touch them and go dark again after awhile. I'm not sure if there's a way to force them to stay on with the screen but I'm happy with the way it works currently.
Screen
Next thing I noticed was the screen. It is listed as an IPS screen on the official website, not sure how true it is though. Everything seemed a little washed out at first? I think my eyes were used to the saturated colours of my GS2's Super AMOLED Plus screen. I'm glad to say my eyes acclimatized after a few day's usage and I actually prefer this screen now. Photos look more realistic and the whites are fantastic. The screen is very sharp, I can hardly see any pixels. This was why I decided to get a 720p phone rather than a 1080p one. In my opinion, 1080p on a 5inch screen is overkill and many of the hands on videos on YouTube show the MT6589 stuttering with 1080p displays. You probably want to wait for the turbo version of the processor if you want a 1080p screen.
Touch sensitivity is great too, very rarely do I find myself having to tap something twice. This phone is REALLY smooth BTW. Like what I would expect from a Nexus device even though I have never owned one haha. Wayyyy smoother than my GS2 on Resurrection Remix JB v3.1.3 rom which was one of the best ROMs available for it. Swiping across home screens and the app drawer never produces stuttering. Browsing on the default browser is insanely smooth as well. I admit I wasn't expecting this much from a 888RMB phone. Facebook however does stutter here and there when I scroll fast. I think it's the app though, I remember people complaining about how the android port of the Facebook app is the worst when compared to IOS and WP8.
Battery Life
Battery life is fantastic compared to my GS2. Easily lasts a full day. I don't really play games on my phone, but I do spend quite a bit of time messaging on WhatsApp and trawling Facebook whenever I have a few mins to spare. I also have GMail and Twitter(30 mins) set up to sync.
Video Playback
Video playback seems fine although I have yet to try 1080p videos. I have watched 720p movies with MX player. Lag free with both H/W and S/W decoders.
Connectivity
Reception and voice calling seem alright. I'm usually not very particular about this so all I noticed was it wasn't any worse than my GS2. In fact, it seems to drop reception less than my GS2(Not sure if it was a ROM problem. Had to restart my GS2 whenever it dropped). Applied this update:
http://chinaphonearena.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=811. Didn't notice any difference before and after haha! I've yet to test Bluetooth!
Gps works great. Followed this tutorial
http://chinaphonearena.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=657. First lock took about 5 minutes(I was in a moving car) and subsequent locks took about 10-15 seconds.
Have not tested WI-FI extensively, worked fine the one time I connected it to my router. Is there an app too test signal strength? I would gladly test it out if someone pointed me in the right direction.
Camera
Camera is fast, a lot faster than the GS2! I played around with the smile shot mode and it works really well. I would say it detects a smile 9/10 times. Have yet to try the other functions: EV bracket shot mode, Best shot mode, Auto scene detection mode, Multi angle view mode, Panorama mode, Face beauty mode, HDR mode.
Apps
App compatibility is great so far. Here are a list of apps I have installed either from the play store or restored using Titanium backup from my GS2 and are working 100%:
Apollo
CPU Spy Reborn
Dropbox
ES File Explorer
Facebook
Facebook Messenger
Falcon Widget
FasterGPS
Flashlight
Floating Stickes(resizing the note is slower than my GS2 for some reason)
GPS Test
Hangouts
Instagram
Kingsoft Office
Blackboard Learn
Google Maps
MIUI V5 theme for Nova Launcher
Nova Launcher
Play Store
PVSTAR+
QR Droid
Root Explorer
SetCPU
SuperSUj
The Verge
Titanium Backup Pro
WhatsApp
YouTube
Accessories
I got the official case from Xiaocai in black.
http://www.coko.com.cn/?product-87.html
The fit is spot on and it goes really well with the phone(My phone is black as well). It's REALLY thin and sleek. There's and adhesive on the case which attaches itself to the back cover of the phone. I'm not sure if you can reattach if you decide to remove the case. Probably not. Considering how well the case feels and there's no competition, I highly recommend getting this case if you're getting the G6. I ordered a set of screen protectors only to find my phone with one already applied out of the box.... lol... So don't order a screen protector! The phone also came with a USB cable which attaches into the charging unit to charge the phone.
My only gripe with this phone is the sound quality. When I listen to music through earphones(Astrotech AM-90), there's a skewed high pitched sound at the start/end of songs when it goes really quiet. Sound quality in general is also noticeably worse than my GS2. I am by no means an audiophile so I can't give you a breakdown of the sound. It's just worse. Songs sounds very airy in general. Time to revive my Sansa clip zip! The loud speaker is alright. Around the same if not louder than my GS2.
I hope my short review has helped you. If there are specific apps/things you would like me to test I'll try my best to get it done. All in all, I am definitely satisfied with my purchase. As this is my first and only Chinese phone, I am unable to compare it with the pletora of similarly specced phones in the market. However, I would be very surprised if the Price : Performance ratio of this phone can be beaten and so I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an affordable mid-end phone.
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[Review] Xiaocai G6 review
