At first we would like to thank Chinavasion for offering us a sample of the SISWOO C50 Longbow Smartphone for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Chinavasion:

 

“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.”

 

Product Features:

 

5 Inch 1280x720 screen

4G FDD-LTE + Dual SIM

MT6735 64 BIT Quad-core 1.3GHz CPU

Android 5.0 OS

5 Megapixel Front-Facing Camera + 8 Megapixel Rear Camera

 

Product Specifications:

 

In this article we will take a look at the C50 Longbow smartphone from a fairly new company named SISWOO; the enclosure this product comes in has a pretty simple but professional box art, which displays the full name of the product on top and also mentions that 4G-LTE frequencies are supported:

 

 

 

On one of the sides, we will get to see the product chosen color along with the list of IMEIs:

 

 

 

A full list of product specifications can be checked out on the bottom of the cardboard box; here we will also get to see the box contents via pictograms:

 

 

 

After removing the top cover, we will be able to see the C50 Longbow, wrapped in a semi-transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

The rest of the bundle can be checked out on the bottom layer:

 

 

 

Speaking of the accessories, we will get one power adapter, the USB cable, one spare screen protector but also one instruction leaflet:

 

 

 

A closer look at the USB cable connectors reveals a slightly rounded design:

 

 

 

The power adapter has a compact design and on its top we will get to see the USB charging port:

 

 

 

 

On its side the manufacturer has printed the power rating and we will find on the output 5V at 1A:

 

 

 

The small leaflet SISWOO is providing informs us of the main product interfaces, but also on how to perform updates and so on:

 

 

 

SISWOO was nice and pre-mounted one screen protector onto the smartphone so we would only have to remove the top layer and start using the product:

 

 

 

C50 Longbow presents itself with a 5.0’’ 1280x720 resolution screen which sports OGS technology, which also means that it is quite slim and enables high transmittance:

 

 

 

The top area comes with the 5MP selfie camera, the speaker, proximity sensor, but also a flash LED, something we haven’t seen at other previously tested products:

 

 

 

On the bottom screen area, we have the Menu, Home and Back capacitive buttons present:

 

 

 

If we look on the side of the device, we will be able to spot the volume rocker and the brushed chromed plastic frame:

 

 

 

 

On the bottom we have the USB Data/Charging port along with the microphone port:

 

 

 

 

The right side of the terminal only has the Power button present:

 

 

 

 

On the top area of the frame we have the headphone jack, along with the IR blaster:

 

 

 

The back side of the smartphone is fully made of plastic but maintains a decent, professional look:

 

 

 

On the top area we’ve got the 8MP camera lens along with the flash LED:

 

 

 

In the middle we will get to see the manufacturer logo:

 

 

 

Further down we’ve got the 4G-LTE inscription along with the loudspeaker grill:

 

 

 

The back cover can be easily removed in order to expose the internals:

 

 

 

The battery comes with inscriptions regarding the model code name, nominal voltage, charging voltage limit, rated capacity (3000mAh), rated power but also production date and S/N:

 

 

 

On the top area of the smartphone we will be able to spot the SIM card slots, but also one TF-Card slot in the middle for storage capacity expansion:

 

 

 

Further down we can check the IMEIs of the device on the printed sticker:

 

 

 

Finally, we will be able to spot the orifices of the included loudspeaker:

 

 

 

SISWOO is proposing a stock Android Lollipop experience with their C50 Longbow model; we have a custom wallpaper set, but let’s go further into the drawer to see what we have available there:

 

 

The supplied ROM comes with plenty of pre-installed applications, considerable more than the other terminals we have tested in the past:

 

 

The Backup and Restore application will help us with backup operations regarding personal data and applications; this is a stock app for MTK-based ROMs:

 

 

Next, we could remind of the BLE Manager which takes care of the Low Energy devices:

 

 

With the default browser we can look upon our favorite web pages:

 

 

The Calculator application has the stock skin for Lollipop:

 

 

We can say the same thing about Calendar application:

 

 

The Camera application allows us to work with different settings depending on the current scene:

 

 

For the back shooter we have a maximum selectable resolution of 8MP:

 

 

Google Chrome browser is also preinstalled with this ROM:

 

 

Clean Master is a utility which permits optimization of the current system:

 

 

The Clock application holds the stock Android skin:

 

 

Next we could remind of the Contacts application, which has a more lively design with the coming of MTK Lollipop release:

 

 

The Downloads section is just a shortcut to the “Downloads” folder:

 

 

Dr. Safety is another pre-installed utility which comes with this ROM, which provides features like scanning, device protection, call blocking and more:

 

 

The Email application supports multiple providers:

 

 

ES File Explorer is one of the best file managers in Play Store and SISWOO saw fit to include it inside the current ROM:

 

 

Facebook application needs no introduction:

 

 

Next we could remind of the stock MTK File Manager:

 

 

The Flashlight application will help us use the flash LED on the back of the device as a temporary flashlight:

 

 

FM Radio application is present with each MTK ROM and works well only when headphones are connected to the suitable jack:

 

 

The Gallery application will index and list all available image files:

 

 

Google+ is another social application included with the C50 Longbow ROM:

 

 

Maps is another widely-used application from Google:

 

 

From the Messages application, we are able to send SMS messages to specified contacts:

 

 

The music application will index suitable content on internal and external storage; afterwards it will be sorted and displayed in different categories:

 

 

As a replacement for the stock MTK Video application, SISWOO saw fit to include MX Player instead:

 

 

Surprisingly, we have also seen the third browser installed with this ROM, Opera Mini:

 

 

The Phone application will allow us to dial a custom number, see recent calls or browse through the registered contacts:

 

 

Photos is another Google service which is equipped with automatic backup feature to our Google account:

 

 

Next, we have Play Music, which is another well-known Google application:

 

 

Play Store section is also self-explanatory:

 

 

QuickOffice application allows us to work with all kinds of Office documents, including the ones saved in the cloud:

 

 

Skype is also widely used and pre-installed with the current ROM:

 

 

Sound Recorder will help us to record certain sounds; usually, this application is linked to the call recording capabilities of the ROM:

 

 

We haven’t hoped to see even the OOKLA SpeedTest application present onto the C50 Longbow:

 

 

Google Translate is also pre-installed onto the device:

 

 

We can say about the same thing regarding Twitter:

 

 

Yep, SISWOO does not miss WhatsApp either:

 

 

Wireless Update application is really handy when performing OTA updates:

 

 

YouTube application is pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

The IR blaster is complemented by its own application named ZaZaRemote, in order to be able to control different devices:

 

 

Finally, we will go to the Settings section, where we are able to perform various system-wide modifications:

 

 

From the Wi-Fi section, we will be able to connect to the nearby networks, given we have the necessary credentials:

 

 

Moving on, we will be able to find the Bluetooth menu, from where we will connect to nearby devices sporting the same technology:

 

 

HotKnot feature is also available with the C50 Longbow and data transfer feature will be available if the second terminal works on the same principle too:

 

 

The SIM Cards menu will allow us to work with related sub-sections like Cellular Data, Calls, SMS Messages:

 

 

From the Data Usage menu, we will be able to take a look at the total traffic on both mobile data connection and Wi-Fi:

 

 

The More menu comes with the Airplane mode switch, but here we will be also able to define the default SMS application, work with Tethering and Portable hotspot, define a VPN and so on:

 

 

Thanks to the new MTK SoC, we will be able to enjoy the MediaTek MiraVision™ technology for DTV-grade picture quality, but we will get also sub-sections inside the Display menu for adjusting the Wallpaper, Brightness level, Sleep mode, Daydream and more:

 

 

The Sound & notification menu shows the four pre-defined profiles, but we also have some sub-menus in order to work with Notifications, Interruptions or Sound enhancement filters:

 

 

From each profile menu we can define the Alarm and Ring tone volumes, set a new ringtone or notification sound, but also adjust additional features like vibration for incoming calls, Dial pad touch tones, Touch sounds and so on:

 

 

From the Storage section, we will find out that the manufacturer has defined a single partition for the C50 Longbow, which contains all available space; of course, we can insert a SD card for adding extra storage space:

 

 

The Battery section will allow us to enable “Stand-by intelligent power saving feature”, but also show the battery usage along with processes which use most of its resources:

 

 

The Apps section will show the currently installed applications and how much storage space each takes; we can also use it as a task manager:

 

 

The Location menu allows us to enable hardware GPS and define the accuracy levels:

 

 

SISWOO was nice and has also included Smart Wake capabilities like the one we generally enjoy (Double click to wake screen):

 

 

The Security menu includes the general options which we have also seen with the 4.4.2 Android releases; the option we will generally use here is Unknown sources, which allows installation of miscellaneous applications:

 

 

From the Language & input menu, we will be able to set the system interface language, enable Spell checker, set the Current Keyboard, enable Voice input and more:

 

 

The Backup & reset option takes care of the backup options but here we can also factory reset the smartphone:

 

 

Date & time menu is pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

Schedule power on & off is a usual menu of all MTK devices:

 

 

Next we could remind of the default Accessibility menu:

 

 

Printing services can be enabled from the next menu:

 

 

Finally, we have the About phone menu, for checking out the Status, Model number, Android version, Baseband version and so on:

 

 

The Developer options menu can be enabled via the usual shortcut:

 

 

SISWOO C50 Longbow integrates one of the latest SoCs from Mediatek, the MT6735; this one is a 64-bit component and features a quad-core architecture; it also supports world-mode 4G LTE connectivity and at its base we will find ARM Cortex A53 cores. The video portion is taken care of the ARM Mali 720 which is made for the mainstream segment. Also, the SoC is able to provide CDMA2000 3G mode for global high-speed mobile network compatibility but also supports dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The SoC is paired in this case with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

 

 

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 SISWOO C50 Longbow 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

 

 

While we did not have a very good experience regarding the camera sensors of the previously tested mainstream models, in this case we are dealing with an OmniVision 8MP sensor for the back which seems to produce surprisingly good photos for the model price range, including optimal focusing of the whole scene and nice colors. We really hope that more and more vendors will adopt sensors from this company since the mainstream Sony ones did not seem to match its quality, even when discussing about the 13MP variants.

 

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

Besides good color reproduction, the OGS HD screen has very good viewing angles, without distortions and the image remains pretty sharp.

 

 

We really enjoyed looking upon one of the latest smartphones which feature the 64-bit CPUs from MTK, the SISWOO C50 Longbow, which is a 5’’ HD terminal, with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage capacity. Its memory can be always enhanced via a microSDHC card and for taking photos we have one frontal 5MP selfie camera, while in the back there is one 8MP OmniVision sensor which seems to take very nice quality shots. This is not all: SISWOO saw fit to equip this model with a 3000mAh battery so we would get more standby and screen times.

 

With the new 64-bit SoCs, we are getting more supported frequencies, including 4G FDD-LTE (B3/B7/B20). For the 3G, this model is supporting WCDMA 900/1900/2100MHz while on 2G we have GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz.

 

While the MT6735 SoC seems to perform really well at 1.3GHz with its ARM Cortex A53 cores, the 3D performance is a bit lower when comparing with the MT6592 octa-core 1.4GHz, which has at its base the Mali-450 MP4.

 

With the coming of the new SoCs we are also seeing improvements on the GPS part, the lock-on times are faster and the tracking accuracy is also dramatically enhanced (no more spikes on the map or false maximum speed reports).

 

 

 

Thanks to the 3000mAh battery capacitiy, we were able to obtain a record AnTuTu Battery Test score, literally the highest one we have seen compared to any terminal we have tested in the past:

 

 

 

SISWOO has decided not to lie in the specifications about the camera sensor and has printed on the box the real values; we are dealing with a surprisingly good shooter from OmniVision which can take good photos when having good lighting conditions available.

 

What we did not like is the fact that the C50 Longbow does not feature a notification LED, which is pretty handy nowadays; also, the T-Rex test from GFXBench did not run for an unknown reason, but this probably will be fixed in the future firmware revisions.

 

Time to wrap up and mention that the smartphone is available at ChinaVasion for about 117.8 Euros, in both black and white variants.

 

SISWOO C50 Longbow Smartphone is Recommended For:

 

 

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