MyPhone A919i Duo Review! The Return of a King!

MyPhone A919i Duo Review!

The Return of a King!

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FULL REVIEW:

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            I have been absent for a long time on reviewing rebranded phones, as I was still waiting for a worthy purchase, surprisingly, A919i came and its spec sheet was undeniably very impressive, with my trust on MyPhone at an all-time high, its time I came back to give you guys a Norman’s Random blend Review for A919i Duo. The new wave of next gen quad-cores is up and rebranded companies are picking up last year’s tech to wage war locally. MyPhone A919i Duo is one of the first Rebranded Quad-Core of today. Building its success over its Dual Core predecessor, A919i has come a long way for more or less only six months.

A few reviews ago, MyPhone A919 Duo may have well been the best Dual-Core rebranded phone out due to its amazing and impressive performance in most people’s daily activities. Now, MyPhone may have launched a Quad-Core later than other brands but it has been the best so far. If I was to compare local brands to international brands, I would say Cherry is Sony and MyPhone is Samsung. Cherry’s Flame 2.0 was not as amazing as I expected based on reviews so I did not get it. MyPhone A919i, on the other hand, packs quite a powerful punch so it is one of those devices that I wanted to have. With the One-Day sale, A919i Duo at P7990 is a definitive steal. Even at regular price I would say it’s still pretty much a bang for the buck. Why? Read on and find out.

1. THE PACKAGE (7.2 out of 10)

1.1 The BOX and Contents

The contents are basically the same with its predecessor with the absence of a CD. The headset is quite good.

2. PHONE SUPERFICIALITY (9.1 out of 10)

MyPhone A919i Duo does not have anything special in its superficial department but it’s no slouch. The front houses the 2MP Camera, the back is covered with an anti-fingerprint cover with a smooth feel and it also has the 8MP Camera which is protruded like its predecessor. The sides and top has the volume rocker and power button and USB port and 3.5mm jack respectively.

Overall, it’s nothing special but it does have a certain tingle and feel of a branded phone.

3. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

3.1 Display (9.4 out of 10)

            MyPhone A919i Duo sports a 720x1280 screen. And its display is sharp, crisp, bright and vibrant. I was amazed at this phone’s display; the 720p HD display really makes your screen alive. It has relatively good viewing angles and the texts below the icons look very sharp. It’s definitely no Note 2 (720x1280), but you will definitely appreciate the giant steps A919i made over its predecessors in terms of display.

3.2 Multimedia (9.6 out of 10)

MyPhone is definitely the superior brand in terms of Multimedia Playback, A919, A888, A848i have had the great, if not the best, audio quality. Its loudspeaker has a right maximum volume with good audio quality earphones attached. Its stock headset is a good one too. I have tested it using my Griffin Bolts Headset (My Staple for Review), and its sounds nice.

As for Video Playback, for the first time on all the rebranded phones I have used, I REPEAT, REBRANDED PHONES THAT I HAVE USED, MyPhone A919i has been the only one to play 720p videos smoothly. No lags or delays or whatsoever, I haven’t tested 1080p though but 720p videos up to 300MB has play fine thus far. Having said that, anything under 720p videos plays fine. You have to note that its stock video player is as unreliable as any stock player out there, except for Note 2’s stock, MX Player is your solution for video playback needs.

Browsing on a phone is also a great experience, Android has come a long way to deliver smooth browsing experience on a phone. Streaming, like YouTube, is no slouch either as it is as smooth and as beautiful as playing with standard videos.

3.3 Camera (9.2 out of 10)

The Camera offers an 8MP camera with options like 1MP. 1.3MP, 2Mp, 3MP and 5MP. The images are as expected, one of the best today for a rebranded phone. They come out nice and amazing and it has better image stabilization than A919 duo. It also has an HDR mode.

The Front-Facing camera shoots at 2MP resolution but it’s not as impressive. Still, it’s good enough for Skype and Jejemon self-shots. Haha

3.4 Gaming (8.9 out of 10)

Carrying a Mediatek MT6589 Processor, you can be sure A919i Duo is built to handle games. Mainstream games such as Temple Run 2, Pou, Candy Crush Saga, Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, 2Fuse played smoothly. As for HD Games, I had a problem running NBA 2k13 but I did run the worst Gameloft Game to date, Iron Man 3, and to no surprise, it played smoothly, though loading times tend to be a bit longer than higher-end phones. Iron Man 3 played as well as I expected so other HD Games will probably run quite well. Though I have to note that with an a abysmal 1.77GB Internal Storage, you will need to purchase an External SD Card to play the likes of Spiderman, NOVA3 , Batman, etc.

3.5 Speed/User Friendliness/OS (8.5 out of 10)

MyPhone A919i runs Jellybean 4.1.2 out of the box, it’s very user-friendly and you can familiarize yourself in an hour or two. It is powered with the aforementioned Quad-Core Mediatek MT6589 Processor clocked at 1.2GHz which maybe the best for rebranded phones, a few months back it was MT6577 which was the superior one, browsing between screens is smooth. The 1GB Ram is something all of us wanted and MyPhone A919i gives us what we craved. Though I have to point out, it only has a 1.77GB Internal Storage which is barely useable especially for HD Gaming.

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 features the recent Android Keyboard which have the capability to learn how you text giving it a much more extensive predictive input via learning from texts, tweets, emails, and Facebook chats. The stock messaging keyboard also offers swiping gesture and an offline voice recognition, sadly, it does not have Filipino word recognition so you have to stick with English words. If you do not like the stock messaging app or the keyboard, again, the Playstore is your friend. Calling is also a delight as it is very simple to use and the speaker and mic are loud and clear.

Looking at Antutu A919i gave relatively high results. Quite amazing for a rebranded phone.

3.6 Battery (8.3out of 10)

            The battery of is good, as it definitely will last you a day. It has amazing idle battery drain value about 1% every 3 hours. Playing Games or multimedia playback may drain its battery but its powerful enough to hold for about a day. 4 Hours Video and 1 Hour Gaming takes approximately 50%. That is actually quite nice. Still, overnight Charging is a must.

3.6 Miscellaneous

            Aside from being one of the first ‘no talkshit quadcore’ (A quad-core that actually delivers, this isn’t a quadcore that is a quadcore for the sake of quadcore [Hindi ito Quad-Core na masabi lang na Quad Core, ang ganda ng performance nya]), MyPhone A919i Duo offers the same staple on MyPhone phones which add to the flavour. It has a MyPinoy App which has prayers and trivias and lots of Patriotic stuff, sadly, most of the files are missing. It also has a pre-installed MMDA app, which maybe useful every blue moon.

 CONCLUSION

QUAD-CORE NG PINAS! (8.73 Out of 10) 

            MyPhone A919i may not have been the first rebranded Quad-core but it is definitely the one that has the right tweaks and power punch that will make your jaw drop. Great display, capable multimedia playback, respectable camera, above average battery life and the oomph of a Quad-Core touch that you will not be ashamed to show in public makes this phone a definitive bang-for-the-buck. At P7990, this phone is a steal, even at about P10k it’s still a nice phone for the price.

            MyPhone may not have as much airtime or hype or promos the same as with Cherry but they have continuously showed improvements that is actually significant and enjoyable. MyPhone takes time with their products and give consumers what they want. I’m just stating a fact, just look at Lemon Units that were rushed to customers by other companies only to be given a defective unit and a lame after sales service support.

            Putting that aside, MyPhone A919i Duo is a Norman’s Randoms approved and recommended Phone!

. Stay tuned for more!

MYPHONE A919! MY PRECIOUS!

MYPHONE A919! MY PRECIOUS!

UNBOXING MUNA

THE FULL REVIEW:

VISIT MY FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

*****CHERRY MOBILE TITAN VS MYPHONE A919 HERE

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               After the bombardment of highly affordable and functional phones by Cherry, other rebranders seemed to have lost the battle at the eyes of most consumers. Since time immemorial, Cherry, MyPhone and Torque were dubbed as ‘Filipino’ Brand phones and have been continuously duking it out, today, Starmobile and Cloudfone joined the ‘Filipino’ Brand cellphone war. There are also brands such as Firefly but I am yet to see a blockbuster phone from them and other Rebranders. Today, the Affordable War on Android phones with superb functionality wages on, with Cherry presumably winning due to its Monopolic Cherry Mobile Flare and its giant budget friendly brother Cherry Mobile Titan. After having reviewed and tested both the units, I decided to give another brand a try, I am heavily eyeing the Cloudfone Thrill 430x since I am having a hard time looking for one, my attention is temporarily shifted to the current monster release of MyPhone A919. Paired with a relatively higher tag price of P8000 (approximately $187), P1500 more than the Titan, you get an 8Mp Camera, Same Processor, 854x480 IPS Display. So for the extra P1500, do you get your money’s worth? Read on and find out!

Oh yeah, Cherry Mobile SkyFire review is out :)

1. THE PACKAGE (8.3 out of 10)

1.1 The BOX

                Fourth time, the box and its package plays an important selling point on any product. For the box itself, I am very much displeased too see a box with hardly much effort put into it. In my opinion, I think the box could have been much better, I am not being biased here but Cherry’s box looked exceptional after seeing the box of the A919, instead of being excited I thought to myself, “Yuck, it looks cheap”. The box is black and green with stickers not properly attached, another minus one. The box is really disappointing. On the side of the box here is what is written:

A919 Duo

Dual SIM Touch Android Phone

1GHz Dual-Core Processor

5” 854x480 pixels IPS FWVGA

Android 4.0.4

8Mp Autofocus Rear camera

VGA Camera

Dual LED Flash

Expandable Up to 32 GB

5Mp Rear, VGA Cam

POWERED BY MEDIATEK

*Mediatek is a semiconductor company from Taiwan who actually provide good chips

1.2 What’s in the Box?

                Unboxing time! This is when the fun starts to pick up; MyPhone A919 comes with a Charger, USB Cable, Headset, Manuals, Quick Start Guide Leaflet, Pinoy Guide leaflet and a CD. The USB Cable feels rugged unlike the Titan’s and the stock charger actually has a MyPhone brand imprinted, I don’t know why but that deserved a plus one as other brands did not put as much effort as this on their package. Another plus factor for the package is the headset, I have tried it on the phone itself and the Titan, I was impressed, unfortunately it was unable to work on my Samsung S2. The package is another plus to the saying don’t judge a book by its cover.

AMAZING FACTS: Using MyPhone A919 Headset on the Titan, for some reason, delivers very loud and amazing sounds; try it out for yourself :))

2. PHONE SUPERFICIALITY (7.9 out of 10)

                I was able to buy a White unit so it is a definite plus one! As with the Titan and Flare the phone looks and feels executive. The top part with the front camera vaguely resembles that of a Samsung Galaxy S3, the sides contain the volume rocker and the power button, the top part houses the USB Port and the 3.5mm jack. The back cover looks amazing, maybe because of the Philippine Icon and its protruded 8Mp Camera with Dual Led Flash. Had it not been for its Fingerprint magnet back and partnered with the unattractive capacitive buttons (yes I found the capacitive buttons unattractive), I would have given this phone a 9.3.

3. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

3.1 Speakers (7.7 out of 10)

                Time and time again I have repeatedly stressed out that the loudspeaker is probably any rebranding companies, strong point. As for the MyPhone A919, it has met my expectation but it had not impressed me that well. When earplugs are inserted, different units, different quality, don’t give me the crap of duh, obviously different unit different quality, have you ever tried listening to the sounds of Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3? For the MyPhone A919 earphones attached, I can say it’s not bad but not good enough, subpar, still below the Titan but definitely miles away from the Flare. The reason I had funds for this phone is because I was so disappointed with the Flare’s earplug audio quality I had to sell it, I can safely say that this phone is a big jump compared to Flare. If you are to compare this to mighty Flagships such as S2, S3, Arc S, or Note, then you will be verily disappointed. If you want a better sound quality, just get better earplugs. Let me bash the Flare one more time, I have used different earplugs, I was still disappointed. I don’t hate the Flare; I just really really hated its earplug output.

3.2 Display / Video Playback (9.4 out of 10)

Acong Talonga

Acong Talonga

                Yup a solid 9.4 mark. Both A919 and Titan offers 5 Inch screen but the A919 wins the competition with its IPS* 854x480 Screen. The colours are much more vibrant, crisp and deeper than that of the Titan. I compared the screen of both phones, the A919 made Titan anaemic by comparison. Plus one to the display is the multi-touch. Yep, you are not restricted to just two fingers. Check the video for the mutli touch prowess of the A919. Playing Videos is a delight because of its 5 inch screen and colours. In addition to its display, the screen also has a notification LED, take that Cherry.

3.3 Gaming (9.5 out of 10)

                Gaming, one of the most important aspects of gaming, having tried a bunch of Android phones, perfection was achieved with my Motorola Photon 4G, to date, I am still looking for its equal at a cheaper price. For the A919, playing Casual Mainstream games is a delight, games played smoothly as with the Titan, but of course, it display skyrockets the A919 beyond the Titan. As for playing HD Games,  if you had been a follower for a time,  you would know I don’t hardly play any HD games on my phone, but for the sake of testing, I tried NBA 2k13. I am proud to say that this, by far, has been the smoothest NBA 2k13 I have played. The Flare’s two point touch is annoying at sometimes, I have a hard time playing with it on my Titan, and my S2, though plays smoothly, has problems with the graphics. A definite clincher to a 9.5. See the video for Gaming.

               

3.4 Camera (7 out of 10)

Macro Shot

Macro Shot

Macro Shot

HDR OFF

HDR ON

WITH FLASH

HDR ON

NO Flash

Ate Seller

These Images are from A919.

Coming from a huge shock over the quality of the image of the Flare, I had new hopes for the cameras of rebranded phones. From the images captured, I am yet to make final judgements as all of them are shot at night. I believe that full potential of the camera will be stressed tomorrow! Did I mention its camera has HDR Mode*? First impressions are good so let me give it a flat 7. Stay tuned

* High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or HDR) is a set of methods used in imaging and photography to allow a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging methods or photographic methods.

** HDR CAN ALSO BE FOUND ON IPHONE 4S

^^^UPDATE: Not as impressed as with the Flare's quality but gets the job done. the camera offers solid continous autofocus, shift the camera, it automatically autofocuses. Rating Stays at 7

3.5 Need for Speed (8.9 out of 10)

RAM and Clockspeed Review

                Many of you might wonder, what are RAM and the Clockspeed for? Should I go for higher RAM, fewer clocks or vice versa? The answer depends on how you use the phone. Random Access Memory (RAM) is used to determine how many apps your unit can run simultaneously. So bigger RAM means you can multi-task much more applications without worrying about lagging on the system.

                Clockspeed is used to determine how fast your system will run a certain application. Simply put, higher Clockspeed means faster phone. THIS IS THE GENERAL IDEA ON RAM AND CLOCKSPEED. Factors on speed are also determined by the chipset architecture, GPU, etc.

                The MyPhone A919 is pretty snappy, even with tons of apps installed I was able to navigate the phone smoothly. It’s basically the same with the Titan mainly due to its same Processor. The 512Mb RAM is out-dated but it still does its job well. I was able to simultaneously switch between playing, texting and playing music smoothly. The 4 GB Internal is spacious enough for initial installation of games and apps.

3.6 User-Friendliness (10 out of 10)

                Sporting and Android system with ICS out of the box, much can already be done with this phone, with the high number of applications out there, you will never run out of options. Android OS is known for its customization prowess so if you are indeed a phone geek your phone will definitely be one of a kind. Coming from a different OS say from Symbian, changes will definitely puzzle you but you can get the hang of it on about an hour or less, its actually fun to explore the phone especially for first time Android users. Importing stuffs from your old phones is possible with third party apps. A definite clincher to a 10/10 is THIS PHONE HAS CUSTOM ROMS. A big hooray for Rooters and Flashers like me!

3.7 Battery (6 out of 10)

                This is Android and any rebranded phones weakness. The Cherry Mobile Titan and Flare succumb to the daily overnight charge routine for Android phones. I am yet to stress test the battery of the A919 as I have just bought it. Let us look in theory instead; The Titan and A919 Both carry a 5 Inch display, the former having a 2350maH Lithium Ion while the later sports a 2000maH Lithium Polymer battery. Lithium Ion has much better battery density and is much cheaper to manufacture. Lithium polymer on the other hand are much safer and lighter but cost more to manufacture and it has worse battery density than the Lithium Ion. In addition, MOST branded Flagships carry Lithium Ion. So, in theory, judging by the subpar performance of the Titan’s battery, let us expect the worst for the A919’s battery but let’s hope for the best.

Lithium Ion VS Polymer HERE

^^^UPDATE: Battery heats up quickly when playing games especially on loudspeaker.

CONCLUSION

MY PRECIOUS (8.185 out of 10) 

* Performance is 70%, Package and Looks are both 15% for the total of 100% YEHEY I KNOW MATH :))

                After a short while with the A919 I can say I’m greatly impressed, this is basically an amalgamation of the Titan and the Flare. The rich colours, the initially impressive camera, the big screen, smooth gaming, it’s a top notch for its price. Sulit siya. You get your money’s worth. If it was me, what would I rather have, as of now, I would still prefer the Titan only because it is cheaper. Should Myphone’s Camera actually be as good as Flare or even better I would pick Myphone anyday. If I were to be asked, was the additional P1500 worth it? I would say yes, the display is much better, the IPS display gives you much better viewing angles and snappier response,  the 5 point multi touch is simply much better than 2-point touch and the 8Mp Camera is well worth the money. Still to each is his own. Thanks for reading my blog guys, I wouldn’t have reached 7.5k views without you. Next Up, Cloudfone 430x.

ACCENTED UNBOXING SOON HAHA