So even though there are multiple versions of this phone, and it's been out for a while, I haven't been able to find a single review anywhere. Search any other phone on Youtube, and you will usually find dozens of unboxing and review videos, both official and homemade. The only vids I can find about this phone are the same old ones from the phone convention, and the ones already on this forum. I did find an unboxing/quick review of the Spice mi410. It's about 8 minutes long and probably the best one I've seen. Interesting thing is that version doesn't look to be vanilla Android. Check it out. Just research Spice 410 on Youtube.
So, back on topic. Since I can't find any reviews, I'm asking you guys for your thoughts. Are you happy with yours? What are the pros and cons? Anything I should look out for or be concerned about? What about battery life? Please feel free to be as detailed or as general as you feel comfortable with. If you know of any professional (or even amateur) reviews that I've missed, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance for any responses guys.
Physically the phone feels solid, but the battery cover is pain in the butt to get it open, and its not solid when closed, sounds hollow when knocking on it and it could flex a bit when pressed. Worst part is the camera, bulging out from the back just means one thing, camera lens scratched very easily. Mine is getting worse every day. I have yet to found a pouch that could fit this phone, some say HTC Desire HD, gonna try it soon
Camera quality is so-so, picture usually comes out underexposed or overexposed if I enable LED sometime and blurry. Front camera is not better but worst, but that's to be expected. Sadly video quality also exhibit the same problem. Sound is muffled even in close distance to the subject, but at least video framerate is OK. L.E.D light were welcomed addition, good to take macro screenshot or use as torchlight at night, but not really usable for long distance photography in darkness.
Onboard speaker sound quality is quite good, its loud enough to be heard in noisy environment. There's a hint of bass too, which is nice for movies and music. Only thing not good is its placement, putting it in landscape means one of its loudspeaker is covered when you put it down. Headphone out jack quality wasn't so bad, so does the bundled earpiece. Good for listening to music on the move, and can get quite loud which means good for some people who like loud volume. Plentiful bass without sacrificing mids and treble.
Screen is huge, the color reproduction is quite good and natural but it isn't so good using under direct sunlight, but you still can see it if you set to full brightness. Viewing angle is excellent, not much brightness or color changes at extreme angle, both horizontal or vertical. Because I use the bundled matte screen protactor I can't comment on it much, because it muted its color, and at extreme angle it makes the picture and text blurry. Screen sensitivity is an issue, sometime it moves/clicks randomly by itself if I put my hand in some position, most notably when I put my hand like the hand grip of death in iPhone. In cold weather its OK, but when the phone gets warm and my finger gets sweaty, its a nightmare to navigate the phone. I conclude the touch sensitivity is jittery, playing games on it is just terrible and anger inducing even worse when it get hot which brings to the next topic.
Back of the phone can get quite warm, too warm for my liking. The hotspot is just a bit underneath the battery (slightly south of it, not under the battery) and above the port near bottom of the phone. I believe this is the CPU is located. When playing games this is the place that gets warm. And when it gets too warm, it could either:
1) Crash, usually when playing games but rarely
2) Screen sensitivity gets haywire, sometime it register a click when I don't, and random screen movement like I'm sliding over the screen which is annoying
This is something to be wary of, I don't know if the screen protractor is the cause or specific to my phone but I don't think so. People say its not true multitouch, but that don't bother me. It have two point touch but on some programs unable to rotate, fine by me. But the only thing is its sensitivity I mentioned. Typing on this phone is frustrating when its warm.
Memory and storage is bucketloads, I never experience and low memory or any program that won't install because out of storage. This is the big advantages of this phone.
The stock phone with stock CSL Mi410 2.2.1 Froyo is terrible, the battery life can't even reach one day of light usage. 2.2.2 ROM from Cherry Mobile and WellCom sort of fix the problem, but after been using it for a while I found out sometime it won't go to sleep mode, thus eating power in the background. Gingerbread 2.3.4 fixed this problem, battery life extended to 2, or if you lucky 3 days. From all the ROM I have tried, CSL is the most bloated, with its Blueberry messenger, S-Uno wand other stuff I don't remember. CSL Gingerbread have less than 200MB of free memory after I kill some stuff up till 5 important programs right after bootup. Compared to WellCom and Cherry Mobile with 230+MB of free memory in same situation. Cherry Mobile gets my pick because of its Gingerbread keypad, which is IMO nicer to type despite smaller keys
Battery life, this is the hot debate in Android community. I already mentioned above but I'm going into detail on this. You could use it up to one whole day if you constantly use WiFi and/or 3G network constantly. The longest record I did is nearly 4 days on this phone, using WellCom 2.2.2 Froyo, rooted and using setCPU to limit it to 384MHz CPU frequency, which is best compromise for UI smoothness and power draw, any lower it would struggle. At this frequency light games works good enough, like Angry Bird, movies were also smooth encoded at phone native resolution. On day its on 2G network with about 15-30 minutes of WiFi and 20-30 minutes of movie/video watching, some games as well, roughly the same time as WiFi time. At night it gets better, aircraft mode all the time and forced 122MHz CPU frequency to minimize power draw. This is the extreme measure I did on this phone to see how long its battery life.
Usability | ||
| Display Resolution | 480x800px | |
| Display Color | 16M | |
| Display Technology | TFT | |
| Input / Navigation | Touch Screen Display | |
| Vibration | Available | |
| Ringtones | MP3 Surround Sound Polyphonic | |
Connectivity | ||
| Compatible Networks | HSDPA 2100 (3.5G) HSDPA 1900 (3.5G) HSDPA 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900 GSM 850 GSM 900 | |
| Positioning System | Integrated GPS | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) | |
| USB | v2.0 | |
| Bluetooth | v2.0 | |
| Audio Output | 3.5mm Audio Connector | |
| TV Out | HDMI (TV Out) | |
| EDGE | Class 32 * | |
| Radio | FM RDS | |
| GPRS | Class 32 * | |
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