First and foremost I have absolutely no idea how to review an earphone,
but this one just deserves some recognition. If you have been a constant
follower or reader of my blog, you would have noticed that most of my reviews
on the audio department is made with respect to using the Griffin Bolts Caps.
This is to give you generalization on how good a phone sounds. Over the last 6
months I have constantly used these Caps and it has given me a solid audio
quality. I may not be an audio geek but I sure can notice a boost on the bass. It
has outclassed every stock headset on rebranded phones and has fared comparably
well against A4Tech Secure Fit MK650B and Sennheiser MX470, the latter being a
bit better that Bolts cap. Though I have to admit, those Philip buds around
P400 above still sounds better. Also, during those six months, since I don’t
expect this one to last for about three months, I treat it like shit, pulling
it out of the bag without care, wearing it while I sleep, getting tangled and
such and to my surprise its still here with me, hence the good and sturdy
build. The three included caps are of different size and one of it it will
surely fit. Lastly, this one is priced at a measly P150 only, it may very well
be one of the best on its price range. Well, the only one close to that range
you can buy, as far as I know, are CDR-King Brand which I know many will agree
that their product’s quality is questionable. Tired of spending Hundreds for an
earphone? Want to spend your cash elsewhere? Why not try a Griffin Bolts Cap!
Sa murang halaga, naka Bolts ka na! =))))
P.S. As mentioned earlier, I have absolutely no
experience in reviewing an Earphone/Earbud/Headset, these are based on personal
experience with Bolts after 6 months
Looking about 10 years back, that was the time I had my first Sony
Console, the PlayStation One. One of the best things on owning one was the
unparalleled thrill of playing games with your neighbours. Amongst our favourite
games were Tekken, Dragonball GT, Crash Team Racing, and Marvel VS Capcom. Presently,
my neighbours have outgrown gaming but not me, I recently owned a Playstation 3
and my Highschool and College friends keep me company when playing. Over the
last ten years, the thrill of playing with friends just seems to always be
exciting and fun.
For MOST console owners, a staple for multiplayer would have to be the
immortal Tekken. Personally, I think it is the best fighting game due to its
very easy control and random button mashing will definitely grab you a win or
two. To widen my selection when I have friends over, I have recently purchased
a Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. A game which brings a new approach
to the fighting game genre. Now, feeling nostalgic, I purchased a Dragon Ball
Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi to bring back Dragon Ball GT’s days of charge-super
moves. After playing the game, I decide to make this review to guide potential
buyers about the game. What do I think? Read on and find out!
First and foremost, this review is based on personal opinion and will be
compared with respect to the last DBZ game I played Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
Tenkaichi 3 on the Playstation 2 and Dragon Ball Z: Another Road on the PSP. Second,
I did not like this game as much as I thought so prepare to see a lot of hate.
Why I decided to compare, well its pretty much to give you and idea on how the
game has worsened/improved, don’t like it? Close the Tab J
LET THE HATE BEGIN
Dragon Ball Z games tend to follow a pattern in terms of Gameplay.
Thump-Thump Kamehameha or WOAAAARGHHH Kamehameha! Let me explain, the former is
that most games start of either by a player gaining the upper hand in melee
combat and then he attacks you with a super. The latter is when you get away as
far from your opponent and then charge and then attack him with a super. This has
been the usual formula and it has pretty much done a decent job to provide some
multiplayer fun. For Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, this approached is
somehow scratched and it is replaced with a new Gameplay Style.
Starting the Game, it is somehow amazing to hear the Dragonball Opening
again after so long and the clips are really worth the minutes. After the
opening movie, you find yourself in the options. For those planning to buy
this, I want you to heed this Warning: Prepare to Explain the gameplay to your
friends. I highly doubt MOST who will buy this game can play this off the bat,
you should really check out the Tutorials before playing as the controls are
far from what you may have been accustomed to. This is when you will decide if
this game will be worth the play or will it be a waste of money. The tutorials
show you the basics, obviously. There are two ways a battle can take place,
either in MELEE RANGE or BLAST RANGE. On Melee range, you and your opponent
square of with punches and melee stuff, NO BLASTS HERE, the square is used for
punching and triangle is used for the powerful melee attack which will send
your opponent flying. When three squares are successively hit there will be a
short QTE. You and your opponent press either triangle or square. If it does
not match, you knock your opponent and barrage him with combo. If it match, the
opponent performs a counter attack. If you do hit you can continue the combo by
pressing square and the L stick, during this time your opponent can perform a
button mashing to counter. It sounds exciting but it is only for the first few
times, the animations are just too repetitive as fuck. The controls is the same
for MELEE and BLAST range. To compensate for that boring part of the match
maybe the Supering (The Act of using your supers), but this may also be one of
the most frustrating parts, when you execute a super, 100% of the time your
opponent can either Guard, Dodge, or intercept it. This is just a major ball
buster as it is frustrating to charge and super and then your opponent will
just mother father press the guard button. GRRRRR! At least let my opponent
evade the super on thier own! The thrill of catching your opponent by surprise
is just not there anymore. How often have I mocked my friend when I’m losing
and I execute a surprise Ultimate Attack on him, the thrill of those moments
are gone.
Unlocking Dilemma
So if that did not convince you to stay away, maybe this will. Unlike in
Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on the PS2 where you have tons of pre-unlocked characters
to choose from. Ultimate Tenkaichi spits on you by giving you crappy characters
at first. Personally, I bought the game to play with friends, I have tons of
other games which are better to play than this. The pre-unlocked characters are
shit. Goku only has the Super Saiyan 1 unlocked! I wanted to use the SSJ 3
ASAP! Grrrr! Some of the supers are not even available for some of the
characters. You also have to unlock them. This game forces you to play the Gahd
Dhamn adventure mode which I have probably seen about OVER 9000 times thanks to
GMA 7!
So you ask, then just play the adventure mode retard! Well I would have
played the adventure mode, but aside from the crappy gameplay this game has,
the Adventure Mode is very slow paced. You can’t use supers! That’s right, at
least for the first part, YOU CAN’T USE SUPERS! This forces you to damage
opponents slower as you are stuck with melee shit combat which will more likely
drain whatever the thrill this game has left out of you. Adventure Mode combat
is very repetitive, it’s annoying. I guarantee you by the time you finish the
Adventure mode, you will stay away from this game and playing with your friends
will not be fun anymore. Absolutely disappointing.
1.Graphics (3.9/5)
The
Graphics are alright but I find it darker than Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Its just
not as vibrant as BT3. The Character Select Screen is also uninspired.
2.Gameplay (1.5/5)
The controls and gameplay is this
game’s Achilles’ Heel. Being a fighting game and a Dragon Ball Z game, you will
more likely expect a fast paced button mashing. Sadly, Ultimate Tenkaichi has a
pretty straight forward button scheme. The animations may look fast but it’s
usually done by a press of a button. It is also very repetitive like this
statement and you can pretty much counter all attacks thrown at you.
3.Sound (3/5)
The sound is ok but nothing you haven’t
heard over the numerous times GMA played this Anime.
4.Replayability (3/5)
There are tons to unlock! Being a
multiplayer fighting game this may bring you a few minutes to play with
friends. If you are dedicated to the Game, Online mode may suit your needs if
your friends do not want to play with you.
CONCLUSION (2.85/5)
Are you familiar with Dragonball GT Final Bout on
the PS One? Remember how bad its reception is? As bad as it may seem at least
there is some thrill in playing it especially the button mashing when supers
clash. This Game is just sad. The Graphics and sound maybe a big leap from
Budokai Tenkaichi 3 but it took away what made BT3 good. For a multiplayer
fighting game, gameplay and control is undoubtedly the most important part. What
made other fighting games stand out is the diverse controls and difference
between characters. Just look at Tekken, each characters have their own moveset
and each has a large set of one. It is also easy to pick-up and learn. Look at
Marvel VS Capcom series, the characters also have different movesets and the
game puts the icing with the little touch of those flashy amazing colourful supers.
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi just does not have much to offer especially
for those just looking for a new fighting game. In terms of enjoyment, Tekken 3
will give you better gaming despite being almost 15 years old. The unamazing
controls, the repetitive gameplay and the uninspiring pre-unlocked characters
drains out whatever improvements it made in terms of Graphics and sound. If I will
be asked if this is a recommended fighting game, as much as I am a Dragon Ball
Z fan, I have to say no and look for a fighter elsewhere.
After
a relatively long while after the A919i, barring the Omega HD 2.0, which was
secretly released, I was looking for another phone to review. As I was browsing
for a phone on sulit.com, I came upon a relatively popular phone at a very
cheap price. An Apple iPhone 5, as I clicked the ad it was stated that it was a
clone, rather than buying a clone from an untrusted seller, I searched for a
Fake iPhone 5 for a trusted Seller. To my great surprise, the brand-new cost as
much as the first I saw. Damn scumbags. So it was then I decided to purchase a
Php7, 000 32GB iPhone 5 ANDROID CLONES, more famously known as the GooPhone i5.
There are about dozens of different specifications for an i5 but what I picked
was the MT6577 1GB Ram model, with that Processor and GPU of PowerVR, I was
expecting performance comparable to Cherry Mobile Titan or MyPhone A919 Duo.
What I observed from the purchase? Read on and find out!
NOTE: This review
is for those curious about GooPhone i5. I’m sharing information based on my
Personal Experience WITH RESPECT TO AN ACTUAL IPHONE 5. I knew beforehand that
this is in no way comparable to an actual iPhone 5, don’t be a smartass and
tell me ‘OF COURSE ITS NOT THE SAME SHIT’.
1. THE PACKAGE (6.5 out of 10)
1.1 The BOX and Contents
The box, from far away, looks similar
to an iPhone5 box, on a closer look, the front looks significantly like an
Original but the back part gives it away. It might even give you a laugh or two
when you see how poorly the text is slapped on the back partnered with a crazy
stupid font.
The package contains your standard
iPhone5 accessories, but all of them have bad quality. The headset is very bad
and it should feel bad, the Charger is a giveaway Class A type, the sim ejector
is included and there are your staple manuals.
2. PHONE SUPERFICIALITY (10 out of
10)
GooPhone i5 nails everything with
respect to an original iPhone5 in terms of physical appearance. At first sight I
was blown away with its painstaking similarity with the Original, the weight,
dimension, the button placement, the texts and logo, and the holes are spot-on.
Even the build feels similar. One maybe easily fooled by this phone. BEWARE OF
IPHONE 5 SELLERS out there, they maybe selling you FAKE. Just never buy from
those sellers/ possible thieves especially those on SM North Edsa footbridge.
Overall, it’s amazing how much effort
GooPhone put into manufacturing an accurate looking iPhone 5.
3. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
3.1 Display (8.4 out of 10)
Same
as the actual iPhone 5, GooPhone i5 sports a 4 Inch 640x1136 display. Unfortunately,
Apple Fan boys will surely identify that the screen is much duller on GooPhone.
It’s not bad, but it’s no way near the same as an actual iPhone 5. Barring
comparison to an actual iPhone5, the display is quite respectable, it’s colourful
and lively, and it can give the aforementioned A919 Duo a run for its money.
Compared to other Rebranded/Fake phones on the 7k category, this is one of the
best I’ve seen.
3.2 Multimedia (8.7 out of 10)
Any
smartphone today should have this capability, multimedia playback. For the
GooPhone i5, it has a respectable loudspeaker and an above average audio
quality headsets attached (I have used my Staple Griffin Bolts Headset for
testing). The stock is unreliable and I suggest buying a new set if you plan to
use it for music playback often.
As for
Video Playback, everything under 480p played fine. 700MB AVI files showed no
problems. 720p suffers lags and the lag maybe tolerable to some but GooPhone i5
is just not for 720p or above playback. The Stock Player is, again, very unreliable,
MX Player Pro is the way to go!
The Apple
iOS arguably brings you the best mobile browsing experience, Android is lagging
behind but it has slowly but surely improving at a steady pace, GooPhone i5 is
a respectable browser, but there are some phones better suited for the job. Basically,
GooPhone brings a good browser for short browsing and streaming every now and
then.
3.3 Camera (4.2 out of 10)
Ahhh, the Camera, initially, I thought
it had a good Camera, how wrong was I when I used it. It may have the same
interface as an actual iPhone but it is light years away from an actual iPhone
5. YES I KNOW LIGHT YEARS IS A MEASURE OF DISTANCE I PLAYED POKEMON NUMEROUS
TIMES. HAHAHAHA. The camera is slow and laggy and the image quality is very
noisy and arguably the worst one out there. Just to give you a GIST on how
terrible the camera is, the image size at full 8Mp is 500kB! SCARY!
The Front Facing Camera is not
impressive either but it can be used for Skype. Unless you are very vain, I wouldn’t
even suggest the front Camera for Jejemon selfies.
3.4 Gaming (8.7 out of 10)
Carrying a proven effective Mediatek
MT6577 with a PowerVR GPU, gaming can be played smoothly though expect a slow start
up and loading Times. The games on the pictures run smoothly. HD Games are yet
to be tested but I believe it can play NBA 2k13.
3.5 Speed/User Friendliness/OS (8.0
out of 10)
GooPhone i5 runs Android Jellybean
4.1 out of the box but it tries its best to run like an iPhone 5. Its skin is
heavily lifted from an original iPhone but, in my opinion, it just fails
miserably. It is powered with an MT6577 dual-core processor partnered with 1GB
RAM. In terms of speed, GooPhone i5 is not a slouch as it pretty much performs
as fast as few months ago’s A919 duo and Cherry Mobile Titan. The 1GB RAM is
relatively generous but the iOS skin surely takes up a lot of RAM all the time
resulting in slowdowns and lags. I just don’t get why the hell sellers
exaggerate that this phones runs as fast as an actual iPhone 5. I REPEAT IT’S NOT SLOW, BUT IN NO WAY DOES
IT PERFORM EVEN HALF THE SPEED OF AN ACTUAL IPHONE 5. I know that the phone
is not as fast beforehand, my point is SELLERS EXAGERRATE TOO MUCH, and I could
have lived with the fact that this phone is significantly slower but they have
to fool people into thinking such tomfoolery. Staying in topic, I have
previously mentioned that i5 tries its best to copy the iPhone 5 but some
aspects just gives it away that it is just a sad clone. The Keyboard, Photos, and
AppStore (obviously), Notifications Pull-down button and contacts are just few
of those giveaways.
Of course one of the most important
parts of being a phone for the world’s texting capital is its telephony and
messaging. The messaging app looks familiar with an actual iPhone but pressing
the New Message button pops-up the Android Keyboard. It can be easily fixed by
downloading an iPhone 5 keyboard skin though. The dialer is the same with 4.1
androids out there and it’s relatively easy to use.
All in all, it is generally a useable
phone. Sporting an android means sporting a very user-friendly interface, you
can customize but it takes away the iPhone 5 theme which may generally be the
reason why you purchased this phone. I would also like to point out that using this
phone while it is not held poses problems when navigating.
3.6 Battery (8.7 out of 10)
The
battery will generally last you about two or more days on standby, but if it is
used extensively, expect the routine overnight charging.
3.6 Miscellaneous
Aside from looking like an iPhone 5. This phone offers
nothing much different from other Android Phones out there. If you want to
learn anything special about this phone kindly watch the video:
CONCLUSION
Rebranded>>Clones! (7.923 Out of
10)
GooPhone i5 is one of those clones that will make you impulse buy one. With
the lack of reviews out there one could surely buy one in an instant. As for
me, I bought one for knowledge and information sharing. With the experience I had,
barring comparison to an actual iPhone 5, this is a relatively good phone. It runs
a not-so-late MT6577 Processor with a beefy 1GB Ram, though, as mentioned
earlier, the iOS skin probably takes up much RAM. Respectable display, decent
multimedia playback and relatively good battery life makes this a good phone
for itself, I use this phone primarily as a backup phone for video playback on
the go. If you are looking for that executive touch on a phone, look no further
than for GooPhone i5.
Personally,
I would say I would go for rebranded phones rather than clones for the simple
reason of after sales support. If you plan to buy one, better weigh if the pros
outweigh the cons as this phone should NEVER be bought impulsively.
