At first we would like to thank Efox-Shop for sending out a sample of the Kolina K100 + V6 smartphone for testing and reviewing. You can check it our right away on their web shop by clicking the following link or by clicking onto the top product photo.

 

 

About Efox-Shop:

 

“The company Aukey E-Business Co., Ltd.is a company based in Shenzhen, China, company, which operates in the international online trade, and most Chinese products sold. Shenzhen is located in Perfluß Delta, one of the most important industrial zones of China and in close proximity to Hong Kong.

 

In Germany, we have several business platforms. Next to it are Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Poland part of our market and we currently further expand our networks, to become active on the online markets in Russia and Brazil.

 

The company of Aukey was founded in 2003 in Hamburg and operates its headquarters in Shenzhen since 2007.

 

The work environment is modern and pleasant.”

 

Product Features:

 

Super grip- the perfect combination of thickness, width, curve hand and offers excellent grip.

 

5.5 inch 1080P Super Retina display, supports high-definition video content

 

Professional Dolby sound effect

 

Aluminum-magnesium alloy structure

 

Behind-touch function panel

 

SONY 13MP back camera

 

Less energy, more power – Octa-core processor, main frequency up to 2.0GHz

 

Multiple color choice

 

Long life battery 3200mAh polymer lithium-ion battery provides long service life

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

In this article we will take a close look at one of the most affordable Chinese smartphones, which have a lot to offer for the price; to be more exact, we are talking about the Kolina K100+, which exists in two different versions, 100C for the Chinese customers which works with the TD-SCDMA band and also one WCDMA 900/2100MHz Cw version for International, so pay attention at which model you are buying. The Kolina packaging is pretty sleek, so we are receiving the smartphone in a slim grey cardboard box, with the 100+ logo in the top left corner:

 

 

 

If we check the bottom side of the packaging, we will be able to find a large sticker, with the product technical specifications; there is a contradiction here regarding the display type: once it says IPS and in the lower table AMOLED; as far as we have learned during our experience with the Kolina terminal, we are dealing with an IPS Full-HD display:

 

 

 

After lifting the top cover of the box, we will be able to spot the main product sitting in the middle:

 

 

 

After removing the smartphone, we will find a small envelope:

 

 

 

This envelope contains the pin for removing the SIM tray but also some leaflets in Chinese, probably warranty-related:

 

 

 

 

As extra bundle, we will receive the USB data/charging cable, the power adapter and the Europe plug type:

 

 

 

The power adapter has an US-type plug and is rated out the output as 5V, 1000mA:

 

 

 

On the other end of the adapter we will find the USB port:

 

 

 

By flipping the adapter on the other side, we will see the custom 100+ logo:

 

 

 

While the 5.5 inch diagonal could be quite a lot for some people, this smartphone is surprisingly comfortable to wear thanks to the rounded design:

 

 

 

On the top side we have the central speaker, one frontal 5MP camera, but also the proximity and light sensors:

 

 

 

The bottom side of the screen houses the Menu, Home and Back buttons; during standby, these buttons are invisible but when pressed, these will light up thanks to the discrete LED lighting:

 

 

 

On the back side of the terminal we will be able to spot the plastic chassis which imitates brushed aluminum and looks and feels really premium; the middle area is touch-enabled for performing different extra tasks:

 

 

 

The camera lens is accompanied by a small rounded LED flash but also by a microphone port:

 

 

 

On the lower right side we have the loudspeaker grill:

 

 

 

If we check the bottom area, we get to see the secondary microphone port, but also the USB charging/data port:

 

 

 

On the right side there is one Volume rocker and near it we will get to see the Power/Sleep button:

 

 

 

The top area only has the 3.5mm audio jack:

 

 

 

The SIM tray is dual and can be easily removed thanks to the supplied pin:

 

 

 

The Kolina K100+ can be also accompanied by extra bundle, which we highly recommend since this way you can protect your investment for a longer time; we have received one PureColor Screen Protection Film (which, by the way, contains not one film, but two in case one of them gets damaged during the mounting procedure) but also two PureColor protective cases:

 

 

 

Since the two protective cases are identical, we have decided to open up the purple one in order to show it to you; the case has a pretty simple design, is made fully of hard plastic and offers full access to the interfaces of the smartphone; the installation can be done in a snap:

 

 

 

 

On the left side of the case, we do not have any openings (where the SIM tray resides), so in order to switch cards, we will need to remove the protective cover:

 

 

 

The cover lifts a bit over the screen surface, in order to prevent direct impacts:

 

 

 

With the case attached, we have full access to the bottom USB port:

 

 

 

We can say the same about the Power/Sleep button and also the Volume rocker:

 

 

 

Here is also a view at the 3.5mm headphone jack area:

 

 

 

On the back side of the Kolina K100+ smartphone, the case manufacturer has provided cuttings for the camera lens and flash, the middle capacitive area but also for the loud speaker:

 

 

 

Here are also some close shots with these interfaces:

 

 

 

 

 

While our test sample has arrived with an old Android 4.2.2 version dated in August, we have decided to install the latest release proposed by Kolina, which is the Baidu Cloud OS v6; this modified Android version contains lots of Chinese applications which can be removed after rooting the terminal and shares some of the features we have seen with the MIUI. The system welcomes us with a desktop which includes large icons, while the bottom central icon (drawer) is animated when we scroll from one page to another:

 

 

What you see right here are the applications we have decided to keep after an initial wipe with an application which required ROOT purposes; after installing Baidu Cloud OS v6 via either the Chinese utility or the more specialized SP Flash Tool, we can obtain root with the Kingo ROOT application. Before using this application, make sure to enable USB Debugging in order for the Kingo ROOT to be able to inject the necessary files. Also, we will need to flash a custom recovery and ultimately flash Gapps in order to have Play Store available, since Baidu Cloud OS proposes its own shop application solutions:

 

 

The Dialer application is linked with the Contacts and SMS application and has a similar look to what we have seen at MIUI:

 

 

The Camera application looks quite simple but is quite configurable once we click the small gear icon:

 

 

Next, we have the Gallery application which can organize our photos and videos in different ways and we also have a cloud component:

 

 

The Video application proposes a similar layout, with the ability to browse the local video files or go online:

 

 

We also have a stock Notepad application available:

 

 

In order to set up the Email application, we will have to enter up the proper credentials and if necessary, the email server settings too:

 

 

The Calendar application is pretty standard:

 

 

Next, we can remind the Clock application, which includes a World Clock feature along with Alarm settings or Stopwatch:

 

 

The Calculator application is nicely skinned:

 

 

For browsing the web, we can either use the proposed Baidu browser, or go for Chrome (which we would rather recommend):

 

 

The FM Radio application will not play unless we use the headset, which works as an antenna:

 

 

Recorder is another nicely skinned application:

 

 

There is also one stock File Manager included for browsing through the internal file structure:

 

 

The backup application allows executing tasks locally or directly in the cloud:

 

 

Baidu Cloud OS allows choosing one of the pre-installed themes, but we can always browse the online collection:

 

 

Next, we have the Torch application which is pretty easy to use:

 

 

Coming back to the dialer application, we have the More menu, which allows us to work with custom Call Settings, Contacts Settings or MMS Settings:

 

 

One important feature in Call Settings is the integrated recorder, which can come in handy at times:

 

 

The Settings section has an organization similar to what we have seen with MIUI: a simpler “Common” tab and the “All” area which includes the stock Android Settings menu:

 

 

Here are the menus we can expect from the “All” tab:

 

 

This smartphone sports the Dual-SIM functionality so we have a dedicated menu for that:

 

 

From the WLAN menu, we are able to connect to the nearby wireless networks, if we have the correct credentials:

 

 

Bluetooth menu will list the currently detected devices for easy pairing:

 

 

The Mobile Network Settings menu allows working with the Data services, Data roaming, can set custom APNs or select another Network operator:

 

 

The Wireless & Networks menu is pretty standard:

 

 

The Sound settings permits custom settings for each network but we can also set some custom options, unseen before in other releases like the ability to disable the Boot and Shutdown sounds:

 

 

The Display menu allows setting a custom wallpaper, the screen brightness and also has the ability to prevent accidental wakeups while inside the pocket; the battery icon can be also customized from here and we can also turn off the capacitive button backlight completely:

 

 

One unusual option we can see here is the Game Acceleration option, which increases the score in 3D-related benchmarks by a little bit:

 

 

The Storage menu is able to show the picture regarding the currently available space and here will appear currently connected storage devices too:

 

 

The Battery menu now houses two different tabs, one which shows the estimated time till the battery will run out (depending on the usage), here we can enable Ultra-long Standby function, Smart Power Saving Settings and can also see which applications have consumed battery power the most:

 

 

The Apps menu allows managing the currently installed applications, running processes and we can also work with the startup application permissions:

 

 

The Location Services menu is standard to all Android releases:

 

 

Next, we have the Security menu from where we can set the Screen lock procedure, disable the Status bar, set up SIM lock and more:

 

 

The Language & Input menu allows setting the system language or select different other installable keyboards; initially, the Baidu Cloud OS comes with a Chinese keyboard version, but we can easily remove it via ROOT and install the Google Keyboard:

 

 

The back track pad can be customized from the next menu:

 

 

Date & Time menu is pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

The Schedule Power On & Off menu can be found in each MTK-based ROM:

 

 

The Accessibility menu is next:

 

 

We can also enable Developer Options, usually for enabling USB Debugging before performing the ROOT application:

 

 

Factory Data reset can be easily done from the next menu; the actual erase will be done via the stock recovery:

 

 

The About menu will show the current Baidu Cloud OS version and here we can also search for updates:

 

 

The Kolina K100 + V6 smartphone is equipped with the  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 installed sensors:

 

 

To test out the performances of the Kolina K100 + V6 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.

 

AnTuTu

 

 

Basemark GUI

 

 

Passmark PerformanceTest

 

 

GFXBench

 

 

Quadrant

 

 

Vellamo

 

 

3DMark

 

 

Real Pi

 

 

The Kolina K100+ V6 has been picked up by many enthusiasts on the Chinese forums, so we have a lot of custom ROMs already available for it like MIUI, ColorOS, Touch Os, DUI Os and so on; we have flashed the best performing MIUI release so far and also ColorOS in order to compare with the Baidu Cloud OS performances. Please keep in mind that all these custom ROMs are still based on Android 4.2.2 and not a single one is built on 4.4.2:

 

3DMark

 

Antutu

 

BaseMark GUI

 

BaseMark X

 

GFXBench

 

PCMark

 

Passmark PerformanceTest

 

Quadrant

 

RealPI

 

Vellamo

 

Of course, you can always check out the full-resolution, unaltered versions at this LINK.

The 5.5 inch, 1920x1080 resolution IPS screen is of good quality and the screen can be viewed without issues from an angle.

 

The Kolina K100 + V6 smartphone we have reviewed in this article shares the same SoC with the ThL 5000 and is a slightly overclocked version of the MTK6592, with the letter T at the end for Turbo. This SoC seems to provide decent performances for a mainstream product and is able to run most of the games available on Play Store. This specific terminal is quite an enthusiast dream because it has been picked by many ROM makers so we have widely known versions available for it like MIUI, ColorOS and so on. The Kolina official forum in Chinese is full of them and we also have available a TWRP version in Chinese and a more recent version of CWM in English language.The K100 + V6 SoC is also paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory but does not feature a microSDHC card slot for expanding the storage even further.

 

The Baidu Cloud OS is a nice proposal by Kolina but we would prefer having a lighter version installed with less Chinese-only applications and pre-loaded with Play Store from the factory; if you have already have gotten your phone, you can follow our small guide at the beginning of the presentation in order to set things up.

 

Considering that we are dealing with the MTK6592 generation, we have the same GPS precision as with the MTK6582 SoCs, which is not stellar, and cannot be compared to what we have seen with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 which was present within the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G. A lot of review websites are showing you guys that the lock-on time is relatively small, but this not always traduce in good GPS precision, so be aware!

 

The 13MP camera sensor is able to produce good quality photos in decent light conditions, but with low light we have experienced quite a bit of blur and video shooting is not great since the camera seems to de-focus quite a bit.

 

Even if the case of the Kolina K100 + V6 is made of plastic, it is of good quality and can imitate brushed aluminum quite easily; the touch pad on the back of the smartphone is an interesting addition but we do not think that people will use it that much. Instead of relying on that touch pad, we would have liked to have a small modification inside the kernel so the tap-to-wake action on the screen would be possible.

 

If you want to protect your investment even further, we would suggest the rest of the accessories like protective screen covers and protective cases, which come in different shapes and colors to fit your style.

 

The battery life of the Kolina K100+ V6 is quite good, as we have seen by using the smartphone in regular conditions but also by benchmarking with AnTuTu:

 

 

 

The Kolina K100+ V6 smartphone is available from Efox-Shop.com for about 135 Euros, which is a real steal for what we have offered.

 

Kolina K100+ V6 Smartphone is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Efox-Shop for making this review possible!