Smart Phones by stefan @ 2015-03-10
Along with the Elephone G3, this is the second low-cost smartphone we are testing on MadShrimps.be and we can consider ourselves impressed that for only $99 we are receiving a product with an exterior design similar to one of the Xiaomi flagships, is equipped MTKs last year octa-core processor and is paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of ROM.
The enclosure of the T8 smartphone is nothing fancy, just a medium-sized cardboard box with the manufacturer logo on top:
The top cover can be lifted in a matter of seconds and if we look more carefully, KingSing has used the insides of the packaging for describing some hardware aspects of the smartphone; a User Manual is also available here:
The manual is fully written in English language and is quite detailed; this is usually useful for people which haven’t used an Android smartphone before:
The KingSing T8 can be spotted next, wrapped inside a semi-transparent plastic bag, but we will come to it later:
The additional packaging layers also contain additional hardware instructions regarding installation; on plastic screen protector is offered as a spare:
The two-box arrangement is something we have seen before:
First, we will receive the power adapter, which has a compact footprint, is branded with the company logo and covered with a protective transparent plastic layer:
On its back side we will learn that the product is rated as 5V, 1A:
The top area comes with the USB port:
Despite the low cost segment T8 is aimed for, the manufacturer has bundled a non-tangle USB cable, which is easy to use (UMI C1 was also bundled with one):
The connectors are flat and branded:
But let’s go back to the main product; the KingSing T8 smartphone is covered in front by a transparent protective layer, which holds the company motto “For Happy Life”:
By removing it we will get to see that a plastic screen protector is preinstalled, so KingSing saw fit to remove the hassle of installing it by ourselves, which is a good thing; the design resembles a bit the Xiaomi MI4 which we have last reviewed and comes with a 5’’ FWVGA-LCD display (854x480 resolution); the viewing angles of it get us near twisted nematic technology and not IPS and it also supports two-touch point for the capacitive screen:
On the top we have the speaker grill, 2MP selfie camera lens, the light sensor along with the proximity sensor:
On the lower area of the screen we have the Menu button, the central Home button but also the right Back button; these are capacitive but no backlight is available for them:
On the bottom area of the plastic chromed frame we have the microphone port hole:
The right side resembles the MI4, with the volume rocker along with the Power/Standby button:
If we check the top area of the frame, we will find the USB port along with the headphone jack:
The left side does not contain any interfaces (MI4 had here the SIM tray):
On the back side we will also find some similarities with the Xiaomi model:
The top area comes with the 5MP camera lens and also the LED flash:
Instead of having the loudspeaker on the bottom chromed frame, KingSing has placed this one on the back side, which is a simpler approach:
In order to remove the back cover, KingSing has made this process easier for us:
The internal battery is pre-installed but sealed in order to avoid accidental discharges:
A closer look at the top area includes the different modules, along with the SIM slots:
Speaking of the SIM slots, KingSing has adopted more modern, compact hardware which we have also seen with the UleFone Be One and this implies the installation of the microSIM along with the TF card on top, while having the miniSIM installed facing upwards on the bottom of the reader:
Further down, we will see a larger sticker with the supported frequencies on both 2G and 3G, along with the IMEI numbers:
Near the SIM card reader we will also locate the battery golden contacts:
On the bottom area we will find the speaker along with the GPS module antennas:
The included battery has a BT-T8 code name and is rated 2150mAh:
KingSing proposes a stock Android experience for the T8 model, so we can see a clean interface, with no customized icons or menus; the only element which we have seen modified is the drawer icon, which now has a KS logo:
Compared with other manufacturers, the T8 also comes with some extra installed applications, which you can check inside the drawer:
Let’s go ahead and begin with the Backup & Restore application, which works properly only when a SD Card is installed and is specific to MTK ROMs:
The default browser is quite snappy thanks to the octa-core MTK setup:
Next we have the usual Calculator application:
The stock Calculator application is also present in this stock ROM:
Camera application is similar to what we have seen in the past, is easy to use and also comes with a small gear pictogram for adjusting custom settings:
The alarm, current time, stopwatch and so on can be adjusted from the next application:
The Downloads section is practically a shortcut to the downloads folder:
Next, we could remind you guys about the stock Email application, which works with different providers:
Facebook comes preinstalled with this model so we only have to log in with our credentials:
The stock File Manager allows us to work with files on both internal and external storage, but we have much better options inside Play Store, which are free to use:
The FM Radio application works optimally when headphones/earphones are connected, so right after starting it up, we will receive a warning message:
The stock Gallery application will go through our photo and video collection and index them for creating thumbnails in order to browse them much easily:
Gmail is also an application we will see preinstalled from KingSing, which is not necessary a bad thing since it is widely used and any Play Store account goes hand-in-hand with a Google email address anyway:
The Maps application is also adopted by many manufacturers nowadays, since it offers plenty of information about local surroundings and can also help as a navigator without the need of installing extra applications:
The Messaging application allows us to send SMS messages with ease:
Next we have the Music application, which indexes our audio content and places it in different categories for easy searching:
After launching the News & Weather application, we were “welcomed” by this message:
The People application along with the Dialer all have a stock look; we appreciate the fact that in Advanced Settings we have the option to record conversations on-the-fly, without using 3rd party applications:
The Google Play Store is pretty self-explanatory:
Next we have Sound Recorder application, which is the stock version:
ToDo is another scheduler application which is available on all MTK ROMs:
Same thing we can say with the Torch app:
The Videos application will search for all available video files on both internal and external storage, generate thumbnails and then allow us to play back them directly:
Voice Search from Google is also preinstalled on this ROM:
WhatsApp is another application chosen by KingSing to include on the T8:
Coming back to the Settings app, we will see additional menus like SIM Management, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, but let’s get a little in more detail; the SIM Management menu is mainly used when the dual-SIM feature is in effect and it lets us delegate each provider with different functions like call, SMS, Data and so on:
From the Wi-Fi area, we will be able to connect to the preferred networks, if we have the necessary credentials:
The Bluetooth menu is pretty self-explanatory:
From the Data Usage menu, we’ll be able to see how much traffic has been consumed depending on the service:
From the Wireless & Networks section, we can enable Airplane Mode, select the default messaging application, work with the Tethering function and more:
The Audio profiles menu shows us the pre-defined profiles, along with the usual MTK Sound Enhancements (BesAudEnh and BesLoudness):
We can go further inside one of the profiles in order to adjust the vibration function, the volumes, ringtones for calls and notifications and some more:
From the Display menu, we can locate ClearMotion, which is specific for the MTK6592 SoCs, along with the defaults like Lock Screen Notifications, Wallpaper setting, screen Brightness, Sleep functionality, but also some calibration options:
From the Storage menu, we will be able to select the default path for installing applications and also the default write disk:
The Battery menu comes with the usual CPU Power Saving mode which is enabled by default and here we can also choose to display the battery percentage in the top bar, near the clock; applications which consume the most battery resources can be also spotted here:
From the Apps section, we can monitor what we have installed and how much space it takes on the drives, but this menu can also work as a task manager:
The Location menu will allow us to choose the GPS functionality modes and here we will also see the list of applications which require the GPS services:
Security menu is stock without any other extra functions added:
We can say the same thing about the Language & input section:
From the Backup & Reset menu we can easily reset the terminal to the default settings:
Direct menu is proprietary to KingSing and from there we can enable certain gestures:
The Date & Time menu allows us to perform modifications if the settings are wrong:
The Schedule Power On & Off menu is also a MTK-specific section:
From the Accessibility menu we will find another custom option, Smart wake, along with the usual TalkBack, Captions or the setting to end current call with the power button:
The Smart wake functionality permits plenty of other gestures to be executed:
From the Developer options we can always enable USB debugging in order to perform different operations like root via special utilities:
The About phone menu allows us to perform OTA updates (when available), see the current status of the terminal, check out the name, installed Android version, Baseband version, Build number and so on:
As the UleFone Be One smartphone before it, KingSing T8 is equipped with the MediaTek MT6592 SOC, which is true octa-core chip with eight ARM Cortex-A7 application processors but this time downclocked at 1.4GHz from the usual 1.7GHz and the Mali-450 MP4 GPU cores are clocked at 600MHz instead of the usual 700MHz. This smartphone also comes with 1GB 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 new Thermal tab will update us with the live temperatures in different areas:
The application also shows live data from the available sensors:
To test out the performances of the KingSing T8 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 photo which have been taken via the 5MP back camera sensor are decent, but they lack quite a bit of detail when compared to IMX sensors from Sony; considering the sale price of the terminal though, we cannot be too pretentious. Inside the menu we also have a 8MP option, but we have preferred taking shots with the native resolution of the camera sensor.
The 5-inch display of the KingSing T8 does not seem to have optimal viewing angles vertically, but does alright horizontally, which tells us that we are dealing with a TN-based screen.
Along with the Elephone G3, this is the second low-cost smartphone we are testing on MadShrimps.be and we can consider ourselves impressed that for only $99 we are receiving a product with an exterior design similar to one of the Xiaomi flagships, is equipped MTKs last year octa-core processor and is paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of ROM.
KingSing saw fit to include a stock Android experience with this one and have also preinstalled some extra social networking applications which are widely used all over the world. The storage can be expanded as needed with a microSDHC up to 64GB and the smartphone is dual-SIM for using two separate providers. Call recording functionality is available right from the advanced menus of the dialer and the sound quality of the conversation is pretty good. What we did really like is the fact that this model works with 900/2100 frequencies for 3G, which is great for European customers.
The GPS on this model offers a similar experience as the other terminals we have reviewed with the same SoC, which is moderate and quite poor for fitness tracking applications. The connection to the satellites though should be pretty quick:
The 2150mAh battery has an average capacity when placing it next to the MTK6592 SoC, but with regular usage patterns it should last us up to one day:
In order to keep the price low, each manufacturer must make some sacrifices like this time we are dealing with a 5’’ TN screen with a lower resolution (but helps regarding battery life), only two touch points instead of five and also the camera sensor is only 5MP when most Chinese smartphones now are equipped with 13MP shooters.
KingSing T8 does not come with a protective cover but it has one plastic screen protector pre-installed and an extra one is supplied by the factory for added value.
The T8 can be bought online from Aliexpress.com starting from $95.
We would like to thank again to KingSing for making this review possible!
