[Update] THL 4000 Review – MT6582M 4.7″ 540p Sub-$100 Phone Done Right

[Twotems]

Been using this phone as a daily driver for the past week out in the Philippines.

The battery is awesome. I can get through 2 days of moderate usage without a charge, which is a plus in areas where charging is not always accessible. The GPS is excellent in triangulating the location in a timely fashion. Although I do miss the e-compass feature commonly found on phones.

My biggest complain would still be.
1. Keyboard is not as easy to type on as my other phones. I am typing way slower than I should be. I've been trying Swiftkey as well as Swype, and AOSP. AOSP is the easiet so far, but I need to use multiple languages, so AOSP is no good for that.
2. The camera sucks. It's really slow even at moderate lighting condition. Most of the shots will come out blurry if the subject is moving. The preview on LCD is slow, taking shot is slow, shutter is slow. If I am going to a place where I need to take more photos to document a trip, the phone wouldn't replace my camera.

Decent phone, but will not see much usage with my OnePlus One present.

Why do you keep on nitpicking bro? It's only $90! ☺

[Joffa]

Unlike Damian I found the speaker to be weak but that was quickly solved by downloading Viper and now that little thing thumps with zero distortion.

What app is this? I looked in playstore and saw a number of apps called Viper but none that looked like sound utilities.

[Twotems]

Unlike Damian I found the speaker to be weak but that was quickly solved by downloading Viper and now that little thing thumps with zero distortion.

What app is this? I looked in playstore and saw a number of apps called Viper but none that looked like sound utilities.

Viper4Android

[equant]

I've had my THL 4000 for 2 weeks. I am a newcomer to owning a smartphone, so take my review with a grain of salt.

I popped my AT&T Go Phone sim card in the THL 4000 and everything worked like a charm. The battery life really is wonderful. I think the display looks great and the phone is very responsive. GPS lock is fast. No crashes. My only complaint is that there is no digital compass. I can't believe anyone would make a smartphone without one. It's really the only reason I'd try to find a different phone. Watching/reading reviews from online phone sellers you'd think that this phone's construction is "amazing"... I'd say that it's ok... Definitely does the job, and I like it, but you can tell that shortcuts were taken to hit its price-point. It doesn't feel cheap, but it doesn't feel expensive. The USB connector's edges were definitely not polished, but who cares... after a few days of plugging and unplugging it's polished itself. I haven't listened to much audio through the built-in speaker, but flac audio played through the headphone jack (to a stereo) sounds mint.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the phone. Glad I got it, but might be looking for a new phone soon that has a compass.

[cookiedough]

OTA update available. Anybody notice any differences? Auto-brightness still wonky.

[Twotems]

I've had my THL 4000 for 2 weeks. I am a newcomer to owning a smartphone, so take my review with a grain of salt.

I popped my AT&T Go Phone sim card in the THL 4000 and everything worked like a charm. The battery life really is wonderful. I think the display looks great and the phone is very responsive. GPS lock is fast. No crashes. My only complaint is that there is no digital compass. I can't believe anyone would make a smartphone without one. It's really the only reason I'd try to find a different phone. Watching/reading reviews from online phone sellers you'd think that this phone's construction is "amazing"... I'd say that it's ok... Definitely does the job, and I like it, but you can tell that shortcuts were taken to hit its price-point. It doesn't feel cheap, but it doesn't feel expensive. The USB connector's edges were definitely not polished, but who cares... after a few days of plugging and unplugging it's polished itself. I haven't listened to much audio through the built-in speaker, but flac audio played through the headphone jack (to a stereo) sounds mint.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the phone. Glad I got it, but might be looking for a new phone soon that has a compass.

I've never used the compass on any phone and I'm not sure what I would need it for. I boat frequently but there's enough equipment on board to cover navigation. Please enlighten me on this one.

[equant]

I've never used the compass on any phone and I'm not sure what I would need it for. I boat frequently but there's enough equipment on board to cover navigation. Please enlighten me on this one.

Obviously everyone's needs are different. Here are my main uses for a compass...

(1) Google Sky doesn't work well without a compass, so it's hard to use the phone as an astronomy aid.

(2) When using the phone to navigate by car, it seems that the phone knows which direction I am headed by using GPS and velocity vectors because I am travelling fast enough, but when travelling on foot, the phone is not good at knowing which way I am headed/pointed without the compass. I can't stand somewhere and have it show me which direction to start walking to get back to some logged way-point.

(3) This is a bit specialized, but I currently use a crappy old Samsung Prevail to take strike (compass) and dip (inclination) measurements of rock outcrops for my geology work. So I can't use it for that.

Because I'd read that the THL 4000 had a "bright screen", "long battery life" and "better than average GPS" I was drawn to it for my scientific field work. I never considered that it wouldn't have the compass (the most important feature for my field work). Lol... live and learn.

[Twotems]

Thanks. I understand now.

[Joffa]

OTA update available. Anybody notice any differences? Auto-brightness still wonky.

Yes I got that notice but was reluctant to do it considering the trouble i had getting it rooted.
I want to see a change log first to know if the update is worth the pain.

[Bacon_Puffs]

OTA update available. Anybody notice any differences? Auto-brightness still wonky.

Yes I got that notice but was reluctant to do it considering the trouble i had getting it rooted.
I want to see a change log first to know if the update is worth the pain.

Rooting NP, just flash this PhilZ touch recovery, then boot into recovery, tap advanced and tap the root button, then install SuperSU from Play.

Anyways, I noticed no real difference with the new ROM. Also, I couldn't update with the OTA. Even with the stock recovery. Kept getting "build.prop" error, so I flashed it using this Gizbeat method here: http://www.chinaphonearena.com/forum/Thr...data-cache and didn't lose anything. Then followed above procedure to get rooted again. Easy.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/jgnp9n...AM_ETC.rar

On a side note. If they came with THL 4000 with 2GB, MT6732 720P, I might spontaneously ...err... You get the idea. Not combust :|