Smart Phones by stefan @ 2014-10-10
Elephone has recently launched the G3, a terminal aimed at older users at a surprisingly low sale price. What are we offered for just $50? A smartphone incorporating one 4.5’’ IPS screen and has at its core a dual-core MTK6572 SoC at 1GHz, while the video acceleration is managed by a Mali-400 MP1 at 500MHz. For added value we also get a screen protector and a transparent silicone case.
At first we would like to thank Elephone for offering a sample of their G3 smartphone for testing and reviewing.
“At the end of 2006, ELEPHONE was established in the Asian electronic metropolis-Shenzhen, China. In the starting period, Elephone placed great emphasis on the R&D and sales &service for mobile communication products. Elephone aims to let the people all over the world have the chances to use Chinese smartphones. It's been 8 years since the establishment, Elephone kept cultivating and absorbing talents. Now there are more than 1000 employees, among those there are hundreds of talents in R&D and engineering departments. At the present, there are 10 main lines with powerful capability in producing and researching, therefore, Elephone's good quality is the greatest strength. Since Elephone has been maintaining carefully and developing the production, the products have been sold well in the world and the annual sales volume is over 10,000,000 in Europe, North America, South American and Mid-east.
After years of researching and management, Elephone has accumulated rich experiences in the mobile device development, producing and marketing. Besides, Elephone built a systematic and scientific management, which has established a unique operating pattern. That allows Elephone provides customers with better sales, excellent services and more cooperation opportunities. Nowadays the company owns advanced laboratories with inspection equipment to improve the production quality and stability. Elephone welcomes your cooperation!”
Care for the elderly
Elephone G3, built in ELEUI & SimpleUI, it is specially designed for the elders, so they can enjoying the convenience and efficiency brought by the technology as well.
Android 4.4 (KitKat) - Smooth operation experience
Android 4.4 has be made optimizations for terminals with less RAM, it can run smoothly even in low memory device.
4.5 inches IPS screen - The better screen, the better vision
The unique way of thinking & design
All hardware buttons are designed on the back. It is very convenient to control the phone while you are holding it in one hand.
Different UI for your choice
ELEUI along with SimpleUI. ELEUI is more wonderful, SimpleUI is very easy to learn and handle, because we specially designed the Simple UI for the elders, which can make the elders to use the phone conveniently.
Easy to identify - large icons and font
4.5 inches display with large icons and font, even the elders who have presbyopia can read easily without magnifier or glasses.
Clear Communication
Built in clear speaker and microphone, no matter where you are, you can still hear it clearly.
Voice Assistant
Get into the voice assistant model, tell her what you want to do, then she can help you make perform that specific action.
Speed Dial
Set up to 6 favorite contacts on the homepage, you can call them anytime you like.
Fulfill your later life with love - get closer with your family and friends
Smartphones may be too complex for seniors to operate; Elephone developed an easy operating interface in order to allow elder parents use functional Android phones. We believe that can fulfill your later life with love!
CPU: MediaTek MT6572 1.2 GHz Dual-core processing platform
GPU: Mali-400MP
Wireless & Networks: Frequency Wi-Fi 802.11n wireless
WCDMA 2100/850 (HSDPA)
GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Storage
RAM = 512MB, Internal Storage = 4GB
Supports micro SD (T-Flash) up to 64G
Display
IPS, 4.5inch 854*480 pixels PPI:207
Camera
Rear:3.0MP Front:1.3MP
Battery
Standard battery content:1850mAh
Positioning
GPS A-GPS
Operating system
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat
USB
Micro USB 5pin interface
Sensor
Proximity sensor; Light sensor; Accelerometer sensor
Other Features
FM Radio Support
Bluetooth 2.0
Color:
White/Black
The Elephone G3 we are going to review here is placed at the lower-end of the pack, with a recommended price of just $50 so it is interesting to see what the manufacturer was able to include at this price point and discuss on the quality and performances of the terminal. The G3 is shipped inside a small black box with a red design line which travels on both sides:
On the bottom side we have Elephones’ saying: “Keep expecting and be surprised!”:
After removing the top cover, we will be able to see the main product, wrapped inside a semi-transparent plastic bag:
The bottom layer of the box is occupied with the accessories:
Each component is wrapped inside its own plastic bag:
The power adapter has a simple design and on its back we have the sticker with the specifications:
Speaking of the specifications, it is rated on the output as 5V at 1A:
On the side, we will get to see the USB connector:
The USB cable offered inside the box is quite regular and not the non-tangle version we have got with the UMI C1 or the DOOGEE DG550:
Surprisingly, Elephone did not forget to include the screen protector which is very handy if we plan to use the terminal for a longer time:
Another surprise is the silicone cover, which is offered despite the low sale price:
The G3 feels quite solid and includes an IPS 4.5’’ display with a resolution of 854x480 pixels:
On the top we have the proximity sensor, the light sensor but also the 1.3MP camera and the speaker port:
The lower part of the screen holds the capacitive buttons:
The back side includes a special texture which increases the grip, so the G3 won’t be accidentally dropped by older people:
On the lower area, under the Elephone logo we have the loudspeaker port:
Near the bottom USB port, we will be also able to spot the microphone port:
Moving on, we can see that Elephone has really enjoyed the LG G2/G3 design with the buttons for the volume rocker and On/Off button placed under the camera lens and these seem to work perfectly fine. Near the 3MP camera lens, we will be also able to spot the LED flash:
If we check the sides of the terminal more carefully, we will be able to spot the chromed frame:
On the top we also have one 3.5mm headphone jack port:
By carefully removing the bottom cover, we will be able to access the insides; Elephone has placed the battery inside the phone in order to save space inside the packaging:
The supplied battery has a 1850mAh capacity, enough considering that we are dealing with only a low-powered dual-core platform with 512MB of RAM:
Under the camera lens, we have the microSIM slot (SIM2), one miniSIM slot (SIM1), but also the microSDHC slot for expanding the memory:
The lower side reveals the loudspeaker port:
The rechargeable battery installation is pretty self-explanatory:
After installing the SIM cards, microSDHC (if necessary) and placing back the cover, we can always use the supplied silicone cover in order to protect our smartphone against accidental damages:
The cover is raised a bit over the screen so if the phone falls flat on the concrete, the glass should not break:
Thanks to the transparent design of the cover, we will be always able to see the nice phone design lines; one of the disadvantages of this type of cover is that dust will accumulate in time between cover and the phone chassis, so regular cleaning might be needed:
The cover provides orifices for the necessary interfaces:
After the initial boot, the G3 will welcome us with the ELE UI Launcher, which has custom icons and tries to imitate in some way the iOS desktop system; the first page has the clock widget pre-installed:
On the next page we will be able to see the rest of the pre-installed applications, including the Simple UI launcher and SuperSU root tool:
The camera includes the regular MTK GUI but do not expect wonders regarding quality since we are dealing with a 3MP camera without focus:
Next we have the Gallery stock application:
The Music application will index the audio files and show them for easy playback:
The Settings application is the most complex and it allows customizing the OS settings:
Here we have SIM management, for working with the Dual-SIM feature and setting different functions like Voice Call, Video Call, Messaging or Data Connection for each SIM; here we will be able to also modify the Roaming options:
The Wi-Fi settings menu allows us to connect to the preferred networks:
Data Usage details can be also checked from the next menu:
The Wireless & Networks menu allows enabling Airplane mode, setting the default SMS applications, working with hotspots and so on:
The Home menu switches between the currently available system launchers; as you can see, the phone comes preloaded with both ELE UI and Simple UI. Simple UI is the launcher meant for the elders, with large fonts, which we will cover in the end:
Next we have the Audio profiles, from where we can set the favorite ringtones and other miscellaneous options; sound enhancements are also available when plugging in earphones:
The regular Display options include setting various wallpapers, modifying the current theme, brightness settings and so on:
The Storage menu will show options to select the default write disk and remaining space details:
The Battery menu can enable showing “remaining percentage” and here we can always see which services consume the battery power most:
Apps section will show available applications and running processes:
The Location services will show the applications which use the GPS and localization services:
The Security menu has all the regular options:
Language & Input menu allows enabling the spell checker, default keyboard, text-to-speech and more:
Backup & Reset allows a partial system restore but also a factory data reset:
Date & Time menu is pretty self-explanatory:
The Schedule Power On & Off menu is available on every MTK ROM:
The Accessibility menu is untouched from the stock ROMs:
The installed printing services will show in the next menu:
The About menu shows us the phone model code name, installed Android version, baseband, kernel version, custom build version and more:
After enabling the Developer Options via the regular scheme, we can access it without any issues at all:
If we log in with our Google credentials, we will be able to check out Play Store:
The regular MTK File Manager will help us navigate through the files from internal and external storage devices:
Next we have the stock Calendar application:
The Videos app will index and playback our clips:
The Backup & Restore application is stock on any MTK ROM and works when a microSDHC card is installed into the slot:
Calculator application is also the stock version:
Next we have the Clock application which allows setting alarms, stopwatch and so on:
The Email application will allow us working with different service providers:
The FM Radio application will only work with the earphones connected, since their cable acts as an antenna:
We also get an application for editing small video projects:
The Sound Recorder is another Android stock application:
With SuperSU we will be able to grant or deny Superuser (root) access to running applications which request it:
We can also write our current reminders with the included ToDo application:
On the Bottom area of the screen we have the dialer, which is stock for Android 4.4.2 MTK release:
We can say the same thing for the Messaging and Browser applications:
Simple UI is a simplified launcher for elders, which allows accessing the main phone functions by using large icons with big inscriptions:
The History menu allows accessing a large Dialpad or the contact list:
We can also send SMS messages via the Messaging application:
For rapid access, we can add our favorite contacts on Speed Dial:
Some Settings-related options can be also accessed from here:
Menu elements can be removed at will:
The G3 smartphone from Elephone is equipped with a MediaTek MT6572 SOC, which incorporates two ARM Cortex-A7 cores at 1GHz and the GPU part is now a Mali-400 MP1 at 500MHz. The SoC is paired with only 512MB of RAM:
The System tab will supply us more information regarding the board type, Android version, kernel, resolution, free memory and so on:
The Battery tab will show the current status; on this model it seems that the temperature sensor is missing since it always shows 25 degrees Celsius:
The application also shows live data from the pre-installed sensors:
To test out the performances of the G3 smartphone, we have installed some freeware benchmark apps from the Google Play Store in the internal memory (did not transfer them to a 3rd party microSDHC card, in order not to influence the test results). Afterwards, the applications were ran one-by-one, and we recorded the final scores; the obtained results were also compared with the previously tested systems, in order to spot the performance differences.
Notice:With the G3, the T-Rex texts from GFXBench were unable to run; we can say the same thing with the Vellamo Browser (Chrome) test and 3DMark.
The 4.5 inch, FWVGA IPS screen is of good quality and comes with decent viewing angles.
Considering that we are dealing with only a 3MP sensor without autofocus, do not expect stellar quality photos. During our tests, there were not a lot of situations when we have got a nicely focused image; even if we have only shot photos outdoors, in some situations the resulted photo was not clear at all.
The Elephone G3 was built with older users in mind, while keeping the sale price to the lowest point possible; despite the low costs, the G3 comes with a solid chassis and a 4.5’’ 854x480 IPS screen and a dual-core MTK6572 SoC at 1GHz. The solution is quite snappy in simple applications but we could feel the limitations right away in other apps which require more than 512MB of RAM.
The smartphone runs the latest available Android version for MTK which is 4.4.2 Kit Kat and Elephone has preloaded not one but two launchers into it: ELE UI and Simple UI. While ELE UI has functionality which imitates iOS, the Simple UI was designed for elder people which have poor vision so all fonts and buttons are drawn bigger for ease of access.
Through the other interfaces we could enumerate Bluetooth which worked fine with our Pebble, GPS which offers average tracking capabilities and the 3MP camera with lower than average capabilities. When the camera is used by older people, we may expect extra hand movements during shots so a device with optical stabilization would have been the ideal choice but this could have raised the price of the terminal with a significant value.
Thanks to the low-powered MTK SoC solution, the 1850mAh battery is more than enough to drive the terminal for about three days of normal usage. We have also used the Antutu Tester application and got the highest score so far:
What we found interesting is that despite the low sale price of about $50, Elephone has included a screen protector and a very useful silicone protective case, which adds value to the product.
We would like to thank again to Elephone for making this review possible!