Smart Phones by stefan @ 2014-11-12
If you are on the market for a high-performance octa-core MTK model, which is packed with a good Sony camera sensor, 16GB of internal memory, 2GB of RAM and a very consistent 5000mAh battery, then look no further since the ThL has all these and is bundled with plenty of other accessories thanks to Chinavasion.
At first we would like to thank Chinavasion for offering us a sample of the ThL 5000 smartphone for testing and reviewing.
“Ever since 2005, Chinavasion has been serving wholesale and dropship customers worldwide. Chinavasion is headquartered in Hong Kong with its warehouse and logistics in the center of the world's electronics manufacturing hub: Shenzhen.
Our mission is to be the leading online partner of high quality electronics & gadgets from China by offering competitive prices and exceptional service.
We aren't the type of company that will offer you whatever we find in China in our online electronics store. Instead, our products are carefully curated by our experienced sourcing and quality control team. Moreover, all products you find online are in-stock, shipped out within 1 working day, and come with a 12-month quality guarantee.”
THL 5000 - 5000mAh Battery
THL have released this fantastic smartphone that leaves the competition in the pit-stop as it takes pole position. The name is THL 5000, and the 5000 is not just a number for a fancy name, it actually represents the mega 5000mAh battery. With this type of capacity you will have a longer time to play games, watch videos, listen to music and get busy with your downloaded applications. THL claims that this phone has up to 1000 hours of standby time, which if you a mathematician will know it is an extremely long time. Let THL make battery life the least of your worries.
Kit Kat with Power!
With a MTK6592T octa core processor, the THL 5000 has plenty of power as it can reach speeds up to 2.0GHz, making it one of the fastest around. This maybe the most powerful smartphone available especially when you consider that a 2GB RAM is housed inside. The reason for all this power is that this octa core phone comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system. Android 4.4 is one of the most modern and diverse software available as it comes with so many features you will be entertained and kept busy with this great customizing system.
Thump Your Chest with Gorilla Glass
Featuring a 5 inch display, the THL 5000 is ideal to hold and sensible to carry as well as being practical choice to watch videos. The screen is a solid Corning Gorilla Glass, which has been engineered to combine thinness, lightness, and damage-resistance. Besides Gorilla Glass, this phone also implements IPS technology for a clearer view from whichever angle you decide to look at the display, the screen is also OGS meaning that it uses fewer layers but is still tough, this helps the THL 5000 achieve a super slim 8.9mm body.
Two Cameras + Coming with a Micro SD Card
Arriving with a built-in 5 megapixel front-facing camera and a 13 megapixel rear camera, this phone is ideal for taking photos and videos. You can save the photos and videos as well as other data to the 16GB of internal memory. Plus as a treat this THL 5000 comes with a 16GB micro SD card that with the 16GB ROM increases the total storage space to 32GB, however the micro SD card slot supports cards of up to 32GB.
Please join us on our adventure while we will check out one of the most interesting current terminals from ThL, the 5000 thanks to Chinavasion which was nice and offered us a review sample. The product has arrived in a plain white cardboard box, which sports the manufacturer logo on the top cover:
We can always check out the back side of the box, where ThL has placed the product specifications along with the product logo:
The box is filled with a lot of accessories, considerably more than what we have seen from the previous models; after removing the top cover we will be able to see the bonus screen guard but let's dig in deeper to see what Chinavasion has bundled for us:
We will also get one free 16GB microSDHC in order to expand the storage of our smartphone, the Quick Start Guide, a set of Wisdom 360 Android Smart Keys, one headset, the USB cable, one power adapter but also an USB converter:
The SanDisk microSDHC card is fully sealed inside its original packaging and was not pre-installed to our sample:
The OTG adapter resembles a small blue Android doll, which permits connecting any USB Flash Drive to the ThL 5000 for expanding storage or backup purposes:
The original ThL Screen Guard is offered as a backup if the original one gets damaged after some time; bundle like the squeegee or the soft cloth which is need to wipe the screen before applying are not included:
The power adapter has an all-white design:
On the side we will be able to locate the USB port:
On its back we will get to see a small sticker which reveals the manufacturer (Aquil Star Precision) and the rating which is 5V at 1500mA:
The USB cable is quite regular but the connectors are a little bit customized:
ThL also bundles the smartphone with a headset which feature an in-line remote with non-tangle cables, which is a nice touch!
The Wisdom 360 Smart Keys are some small adapters which facilitate instant access to our desired applications, by only pressing the small button on the tip of the 3.5mm earphone jack plug; each key can be programmed to respond to a different launch command, by using the downloadable Play Store application:
The Quick Start Guide will introduce people to the basics of the Android menu systems:
The main product, ThL 5000 smartphone is also wrapped inside a semi-transparent plastic bag for additional protection:
What we have seen with the DOOGEE DG550 is available with this model too: the manufacturer has pre-installed the protective plastic screen onto the glass so the hassle with the initial mounting is now gone; the only thing we need to do is to remove the final layer which is represented with the number “2” on the small top left sticker:
ThL has went one step further and has pre-installed the bundled silicone case onto the smartphone so we will take a closer look on how this case protects our precious terminal; the edges of the case are a bit lifted over the Gorilla Glass III screen in order to avoid damages during an impact with the ground:
On the top we will get to see the proximity and light sensors, along with the 5MP frontal camera:
On the bottom we have a slightly angled frame design with the microphone port, along with the Home, Back and Menu buttons:
On the back side of the terminal, we can clearly see the ThL logo thanks to the semi-transparent silicone cover:
The camera lens along with the flash LED have a special cut-out:
Further down we have the speaker cut-out:
On the sides, we will be able to see the cut-outs for both the Volume rocker and the Power/Stand-by button:
The top side comes with the openings for the charging port and the 3.5mm audio jack port:
The opposite side does not have any interfaces:
We are always able to remove the bundled silicone case if not needed, in order to reveal the ThL 5000 in its entire splendor:
On the laterals we will be able to spot a chromed frame which gives the terminal a professional look:
On the back side of the ThL 5000 we have spotted a chromed manufacturer logo and the cover has a special texture which adds quite a bit of grip when holding the device:
The full name of the company can be also spotted here:
The back camera sports the Sony IMX 135 13MP sensor and boasts a F1.8 aperture for producing nice shots in good light conditions:
A specially designed area is available for removing the back cover:
While the back cover is removable, on this model the situation is quite unique, meaning that the large 5000mAh battery is not removable:
On the top we have not one but two mini-SIM card slots but also one microSDHC card slot; it is quite peculiar why ThL has chosen to go with the SIM cards slots of the same format instead of choosing a smaller micro-SIM standard for the SIM1 slot; people which have a smaller SIM card available will have to buy an adapter in order to fit the contacts properly. Also here we have the NFC antenna contacts:
One small red RESET button is available in case the phone freezes or we need to perform a firmware upgrade (since removing the battery is not an option with this model):
A closer look at the battery sticker reveals more specifications:
The whole NFC antenna is placed on the back cover:
As an extra accessory, we can purchase a book-type casing, which is provided with a small window in order to respond to phone calls and see the clock without the need of removing it; on both front and back we have a rough plastic texture:
On the inside, the cover has a soft material texture:
It will take a matter of seconds for installing the ThL 5000 inside this case:
The smartphone will correctly detect the cover and display an analog or digital watch:
A closer look at the interfaces reveals how the casing protects our product:
After powering up the ThL 5000 and pressing the capacitive buttons, they will be also highlighted for an easier access during poor lighted conditions:
After the ThL 5000 has finished booting up, we will be ready to see the default launcher, which has customized icons and some of the applications are brought to the home screen:
We will have to check out the drawer in order to check out the rest of the applications:
Next, we will take a look at some of the preinstalled applications for potential buyers to have more in-depth view of the software. The Android 4.4.2 dialer is available without extra graphical customizations:
The default Android browser is also here and we can use it if we won’t use a more advanced solution like Chrome or Firefox:
The camera application is stock, without a lot of effects, but the good news is that the Lenovo Super Camera works pretty well with this model, the APK version could be picked up at any time from XDA forums:
Next, we have the Flash LED application, which, to our surprise has advertisements; this is not a very nice touch, since we would have preferred to deal with a bloat-free application:
We can always check out the stock MTK File Manager in order to mess with the internal file structure:
One of the preinstalled applications is Baidu Browser, which can be uninstalled without any issues at all:
Same thing goes with the optimization application which comes with the ThL 5000:
A 3rd party application store is also available and can be removed without the need of rooting the terminal:
Next we can check out the latest version of Maps, which brings some enhancements to the end user:
We have found another application installer, which is also easy removable when not needed:
News & Weather application from Google can be found on most Android releases:
Play Store is pre-installed so after we login with our Google account we can start downloading the games and applications of our choice:
ThL has also installed Skype onto the terminal, but it is also easy to uninstall if not needed:
Same thing goes with the Twidroyd application:
YouTube application takes part of the Google applications and works directly with our Google account:
The Settings application allows us to perform system-wide modifications for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interfaces and so on:
The Wi-Fi menu will detect the currently available networks and connect to them if we have the correct credentials:
The Bluetooth devices can be detected from the next menu:
We can check the Data Usage on both Wi-Fi and cellular network from the next menu:
The Wireless and Networks menu allows working with the Airplane mode, set Default SMS application and more:
We can enable Wi-Fi, USB or Bluetooth Tethering from the next menu:
What we haven’t found at the previously tested smartphones is Float App, which enables a top layer (always on top), from where we can launch some applications):
The Audio Profiles permits editing the default presets, but also enabling some sound enhancement plugins:
The Display Menu allows us to work with the MTK6592 ClearMotion feature, choose the Lock Screen Style, change the wallpaper, adjust the screen brightness and more:
The Storage menu features an embedded APK Installer and from here we can choose which storage will be used as default (Phone Storage or SD Card):
The Battery menu allows enabling the CPU Power Saving Mode and we can also choose to show the battery percentage on the top bar, or see the processes which consume the most battery resources:
The Apps menu allows working with the currently installed applications and also perform uninstalls:
The Location mode enables the hardware GPS when needed and here we will be also able to see which applications are using this resource:
The Security menu is pretty standard:
Next, we have the Language & Input menu, where we can see that ThL has also pre-installed the Chinese Pinyin and Chinese Zhuyin keyboards:
The Backup & Restore application allows backing up data to Google servers or performing Factory Data Reset when needed:
Date & Time menu is pretty self-explanatory:
The Schedule Power On & Off menu is available on all MTK roms:
The Accessibility menu contains along the usual settings Smart Gesture but also some options like Pocket mode, which works to prevent the phone from unlocking:
Smart Gesture can be used for various activities like tap to wake, screen unlock via slide up, draw letter “C” on-screen for starting up camera and more:
The Printing menu is also available but no services are pre-installed:
We can check next the Developer Options menu:
The About Phone menu will show the Model Number, Android Version, CPU type and so on:
The ThL 5000 is equipped with the more recent MediaTek MT6592T SOC, which is true octa-core chip with eight ARM Cortex-A7 application processors but clocked higher at 2GHz and the Mali-450 MP4 GPU cores are clocked at 700 MHz. This smartphone also comes with 2GB of installed memory:
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; the battery sensor is operating properly, unlike some other terminals we have checked out previously:
The application also shows live data from the pre-installed sensors:
To test out the performances of the ThL 5000 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.
The 5 inch, 1920x1080 resolution IPS screen is of good quality and does not have any issues when viewed from an angle, as it can be seen from the following shots.
We are coming to an end with our article and we can say that ThL has done a good job with their 5000 model and the most important feature, the large battery allows having considerably better screen and idle times compared to many other competitors sporting the same MTK6592 processor on the market.
Speaking of the MTK6592 SoC, the ThL 5000 sports the slightly higher-specced model with 2GHz core clock instead of 1.7GHz which is paired with 2GB of RAM and the difference in performance can be spotted in the benchmarks we have performed inside the review.
The smartphone has 16GB of NAND and additionally Chinavasion has included for free a Sandisk 16GB microSDHC card which adds to the value of the product. Besides that, the bundle is pretty consistent with the inclusion of the 3.5mm adapter thingies, silicone protective case, pre-installed screen protector and the extra sealed screen protector, headset but also the power adapter along with the USB charge/data cable.
The Android 4.4.2 release ThL 5000 comes with has reached version 1.1.0 and the extra bundled applications are easy to remove without the need of using extra software. It does not come rooted and for that we will have to use iROOT which will use a Chinese version of Superuser application; the extra bloat iROOT uses to install is also easy to remove, so we could do this in about 30 seconds. We can replace the Superuser application iROOT uses by SuperSU and then delete the Chinese application from the System folder via Root Explorer or similar applications which can enable write permissions in special folders. TWRP is already available at NeedRom but it does not seem to flash via MobileUncle and we will have to choose the SPFlashTool route instead.
ThL 5000 uses the Sony IMX 135 13MP sensor on the back side of the device, which produces good quality photos in good light conditions with proper focus. If we attempt to take shots with low light, most of the time we will get photos with lots of noise. The Lenovo Camera application (modded on XDA) seems to be fully compatible with this smartphone so if we need more fine-tuning settings when compared to the stock MTK Camera application, we should go this route.
With the current software version, the GPS is not as accurate when tracking as we would have liked, but there is always room for improvement via software since the sensors seem to operate optimally and the satellites get locked in about 10-15 or 20 seconds depending on the situation.
The ThL 5000 with its entire bundle is available at Chinavasion for about 200 Euros and we thing that this is a good value for what it’s offered. We can purchase separately the book type protective cover for an extra 4.72 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Chinavasion for making this review possible!
