We would like to thank to VKWorld for offering us a sample of their latest VK2015 smartphone for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About VKWorld:

 

“The company was established in 2009 and is dedicated to research and manufacturing of smartphones. It has already 6 years of experience and in China it has achieved the certificate of "best quality provider". Currently has 21 to 30 technicians and 15 to 20 vendor employees depending on season. By summing up all, it has more than 200 employees worldwide.”

 

Product Features:

 

2300mAh lithium ion battery

Ultra-thin Android PAD (Android 5.0 OS)

MTK6582-1.3G MHz Quad-core high-speed processing platform

4.5" QHD IPS 960*540

8MP AF +5MP front camera, flash light

3G (WCDMA/GSM)

7.6mm thin body acme

GPS+AGPS global positioning navigation system

3G,WIFI 802.11b/g support, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA

Gravity Sensor, Proximity sensor

Support for multiple languages

Mobile AP

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

 

In this article we will take a look at another mainstream smartphone, but this time manufactured by VKWorld and with the VK2015 code name. The product is shipped inside a pretty plain cardboard box of small dimensions, with the manufacturer logo on top:

 

 

 

The internal packaging layer is red, which provides us with a nice red lining while the box is closed:

 

 

 

On the top layer we will find the main product, wrapped in a semi-transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

Some of the instructions are written right on the packaging:

 

 

 

 

The VK2015 bundle is located on the bottom area:

 

 

 

To be more exact, we are getting the smartphone battery, a set of earphones, the USB cable, the power adapter but also a spare screen protector:

 

 

 

The power adapter has its USB port in the back and is rated 5V at 1A:

 

 

 

 

 

Here we can also take a look at the custom-shaped USB connectors of the supplied data/charge cable:

 

 

 

The supplied earphones are quite regular, with pre-installed rubber tips:

 

 

 

 

On the remote we have a chromed frontal button, while on its back we will get to see the microphone port:

 

 

 

 

The battery is covered by a blue sticker while the company logo along with the website address are available in white:

 

 

 

On its other side we will learn about the battery total capacity (2300mAh), nominal voltage (3.7V) but also the charging voltage limit (4.2V):

 

 

 

Since the VK2015 only packs a 4.5’’ display, it is quite easy to hold and to insert inside our pocket; the resolution of the IPS multi-touch capacitive screen is 960x540 and the smartphone weights about 116g with the battery installed:

 

 

 

On the top area of the smartphone we will get to see the frontal camera lens along with the proximity sensor and the speaker grill:

 

 

 

On the lower screen area, we will get to see the pictograms of the Menu, Home and Back capacitive buttons:

 

 

 

The left side of the VK2015 does not contain any interfaces:

 

 

 

On the bottom we will be able to locate the microphone port:

 

 

 

The right side comes with both Power/Sleep button but also with the Volume rocker:

 

 

 

 

On the top we have the USB port but also the headphone/microphone combo port:

 

 

 

The plastic back cover is treated with a rubberized compound which makes the product very pleasant to the touch and helps with the grip; in the middle we have a small sticker applied which explains the installation procedure:

 

 

 

On the top we have the flash LED along with the 8MP camera lens:

 

 

 

The bottom area comes with the loudspeaker grill:

 

 

 

After the removal of the bottom plastic cover, we can check out the internals:

 

 

 

On the upper area we have the camera again, the LED flash, but also some small pictograms representing the location of various interfaces:

 

 

 

The right side area comes with the TF Card reader, one microSIM card slot but also one miniSIM slot:

 

 

 

The correct placement is also represented by some small icons nearby:

 

 

 

In the bottom left corner we have the loudspeaker area:

 

 

 

VKWorld is proposing with the VK2015 a stock Android 5.0 experience with a default wallpaper set on the launcher and non-modified icons:

 

 

Let’s take a look at the available drawer applications:

 

 

First we will take a look at the default Android browser, which loads the pages with optimal speed considering the SoC we are dealing with:

 

 

The Calculator application looks a bit different than 4.4.2 version but retains the same functionality:

 

 

We can say the same things about the Calendar application:

 

 

The camera application retains the stock MTK appearance as we have seen on the older MTK revision:

 

 

We can access the menu options by pressing the “gear” icon:

 

 

The maximum resolution selectable inside the menu is 8M pixels:

 

 

Next, we would like to remind of the Clock application, which has the same functionality as on 4.4.2, but with a different skin:

 

 

The Lollipop contacts application looks a little more appealing:

 

 

Moving forward, we could remind of the Downloads folder shortcut:

 

 

The Email application allows us to connect to different addresses; if you are using Gmail, we would recommend the standalone Gmail application:

 

 

Facebook is one of the most used social applications and VKWorld saw fit to include it with the VK2015 ROM:

 

 

Next we could remind of the File Manager application, which allows us to browse and perform different commands on the internal and external storage:

 

 

The FM Radio application will only work properly if we plug in our earphones since their wiring will act as an antenna:

 

 

Next we could remind of the Gallery application, which will index and display our photos:

 

 

The Gmail application is very handy:

 

 

Google+ application was also included into the mix:

 

 

The Messaging application allows us to send SMS messages with ease:

 

 

The Music app indexes suitable content and displays it in different categories for immediate playback:

 

 

The Dialer application has the skin adaptation for Lollipop, but the same functions remain:

 

 

Google Photos service was also preinstalled in this ROM version:

 

 

We could also remind of Google Play, from where we can download a very large number of applications:

 

 

Smart Wake functionality presents itself as a separate application, from where we can perform different actions in order to access smartphone functions:

 

 

Sound Recorder application is self-explanatory:

 

 

Twitter is another social application which is widely used nowadays, so WKWorld saw fit to include it:

 

 

We can say the same thing about WhatsApp:

 

 

Let’s go back to the Settings section, which allows us to change different options, with system-wide effects:

 

 

The Wi-Fi menu will detect nearby networks and permits connection if we have the necessary credentials:

 

 

Bluetooth menu lists the detected devices and allows immediate connection to them:

 

 

If we have a SIM card inserted, we will be able to configure various options from the respective menu:

 

 

Next we have the Data section, which shows the traffic consumption:

 

 

The More menu will allow us to enable Airplane mode, choose the default SMS application, enable Tethering, configure VPN or work with other various Cellular networks options:

 

 

The Display menu will allow us to customize the current Wallpaper options, the screen Brightness levels, Sleep timeout, Daydream mode, choose font size or work with rotation:

 

 

The Sound & notification menu presents us the default modes, but we also have some additional sub-menus present like Notification, Interruptions or Sound enhancement:

 

 

By accessing each profile, we can customize the volume levels, change the ringtones and many more:

 

 

While the first revision of the Android 5.0 ROM had only 1GB reserved for the first partition, the second one has now 2GB, in order to fix issues regarding lack of space; as you can see, after the updates have been done via Play Store and without installing anything extra, about 770MB will be available for installing other apps:

 

 

The second partition has about 4.17GB of total space:

 

 

From the Battery tab, we are able to see the consumption chart and a list of applications which take most resources; from here we will be also able to enable “standby intelligent power saving”:

 

 

The Apps area will show the currently installed applications in detail and this section can be also used as a task manager:

 

 

From the Location menu, we will be able to turn on the hardware GPS capabilities, but also work with the Google Location History and customize the operating mode:

 

 

The Security tab comes with the usual options:

 

 

From Language & input menu, we will be able to customize the system language, enable Spell checker, but also work with our favorite installed keyboard; here we also have Speech options or the ability to customize Pointer speed when a mouse is attached:

 

 

The Backup & reset function seems to work properly on Android 5.0 MTK release, being able to save to the cloud the previous settings and list of installed applications; here we will be also able to reset the smartphone to the default settings:

 

 

The Date & time menu is also pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

Schedule power on & off is another MTK-specific menu:

 

 

The Accesibility menu also comes with the Smart wake capabilities and if we scroll further down we will also find the Quick Boot option, which is enabled by defauly:

 

 

Printing services menu is also available:

 

 

From the About phone menu, we can perform OTA updates, but also check out the smartphone model number, Android release version, Baseband version, Kernel version and Build number:

 

 

If we perform the usual shortcut, we will enable the Developer options menu:

 

 

VK2015 from VKWorld is utilizing the low-cost MediaTek MT6582 SoC which incorporates four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz, while the Mali-400 MP2 @ 500Mhz takes care of the 3D rendering. This one is paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal 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 VK2015 smartphone in more detail, 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

 

 

 

GFXBench

 

 

Quadrant

 

 

Vellamo

 

 

3DMark

 

 

Real Pi

 

PCMark

 

 

The photos which we can take with the back VK2015 shooter have average quality and seem a little washed out, without an exact color reproduction. The camera seems to focus better in center, while leaving less details in the corners:

 

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

The IPS 960x540 LCD of the VK2015 model offers good viewing angles, which is great for such a low price point.

 

 

Based on the older MT6582 quad-core SoC from MediaTek, the VK2015 low-cost smartphone is snappy enough for being used with the latest social applications like Facebook, Skype but also for playing simple games as Angry Birds. The chassis has rounded edges and a rubberized plastic back cover, it is easy to hold and be used with a single hand because of the smaller footprint and does not creak when pressed in certain areas. Thanks to the dual-SIM feature, we are offered more flexibility if we use two different service providers.

 

Thanks to the 2300mAh battery and the IPS screen which comes with a lower resolution, VK2015 should last up to one day with moderate usage.

As before, we have performed the battery test thanks to the well-known AnTuTu utility:

 

 

 

The camera quality is pretty average, meaning that the photos appear to be quite washed out, with a less than ideal color reproduction and the focus seems to work better in the central area, while the corners have less details.

 

Speaking of the GPS accuracy, it is the same as we have seen with the other MT6582-based terminals, so not so great for tracking purposes; however, depending on the area we are in, it should be able to lock in about 10 to 15 seconds.

 

 

 

We have tested the VK2015 with both Android 4.4.2 release but also Lollipop; we have noticed certain performance improvements with Lollipop, but it seems that there is no solution yet to have root on this release, while 4.4.2 can be rooted quite easily via Chinese tools.

 

VK2015 from VKWorld is available online at etotalk.com for about 80.47 Euros.

 

VKWorld VK2015 Smartphone is Recommended For:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to VKWorld for making this review possible!