Just a few days have passed since the HTC One (M8) smartphone became available to people. The appearance of this model was eagerly awaited, as it was promised that it would be much better than previous models. The new smartphone should have a louder speaker, camera performance will be improved, and it will also be able to work much longer. More metal was used to create the HTC One (M8) than usual. Many expected this model, as it should be a smartphone with an unbreakable screen.
This copy turned out to be extremely attractive. Anodized aluminum makes up the bulk of the smartphone's body. HTC One (M8) has an unbreakable screen. It is equipped with tempered glass Gorilla Glass 3. It is more durable than sapphire glass. Gorilla Glass 3 passed the necessary tests to check the strength, and was able to withstand fairly large loads. The display is 5 inches. The speakers are located on the top and bottom. You can notice that the frame around the display is much smaller. Proximity and light sensors are visible on the right side of the speaker at the top. There is also a 5 megapixel camera. The company logo is located under the screen. You can now control your smartphone using virtual keys. You can easily find out about missed events using the indicator, which is located in the speaker grid area. In order to prevent the body from heating up, there is a special thin strip of plastic, which is located between the glass and metal.
This smartphone differs from the previous ones also in that its rear case is made of 90 percent metal. Previous models could not boast of such a quantity. There was only 70 percent metal. The smartphone fits comfortably in the hand due to the fact that the sides are rounded towards the back. On the sides are slots for a SIM card and a memory card. On the right side, you can find a metal key with which you can adjust the sound. And the on / off button is located on the top end. It is worth noting that this smartphone will require a Nano-SIM card. The case is of excellent build quality, no creaks are observed. This smartphone model is much more ergonomic than the previous one due to the fact that it has many innovations.
A 5-inch S LCD display will be available to the user. Its resolution is 1920x1080. Even in bright sunlight, you can easily see the information displayed on the display. You can also read without light. At the minimum level of illumination, the eyes should not get tired. The display has rich colors. In the previous model, the predominance of cold shades in the image was noticed. This is not observed here, and the white balance is close to a warm tone. The operation of the light sensor and automatic brightness will not fail. In the dark, the backlight, depending on the illumination, will adjust itself as needed.
In addition to the above, this smartphone has a lot of positive qualities. Among the innovations can be noted gesture control. HTC One (M8) instantly responds to them. In order for the smartphone to respond accurately, it is better to hold it in your hands at this time. To quickly get into the camera, the smartphone should be turned horizontally and press the volume control button. The smartphone is easy to unlock if you move up. After that, you can immediately get to the desktop. In this model, each swipe allows you to quickly move or perform the necessary action for the user. Also, if you bring the smartphone to your ear, the call will be automatically answered.
HTC One (M8) runs on the Android 4.4 KitKat platform, which has been updated with the proprietary HTC Sense 6.0 shell. When you start using this gadget, you can pay attention to the virtual touch keys, which are located below. The user has 6 desktop windows instead of 1. This smartphone model has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 hardware platform. It has 2 GB of RAM, as well as 16 or 32 GB of permanent memory. The user can also install a memory card up to 128 GB inclusive.
The speakers are quality. The volume is high, so even with a lot of noise, you can listen to music and watch videos. It will be difficult for other smartphones to compete with this model in this regard. The volume margin is large, so there can be no complaints about the sound here.
It should also be noted that the HTC One (M8) has three cameras at once. The front has 5 megapixels and a wide angle lens. In addition, recording of videos in Full HD is available. The main camera is equipped with two modules. Its features include the fact that during shooting, the camera focuses on all objects that are in the frame. The user can choose to edit the photo and, in UFocus mode, independently change the focus location. This function is used by the camera by default, so you do not have to set this mode every time. In addition, the camera also has a lot of other necessary functions.
So if a consumer is looking for a smartphone with an unbreakable screen, then he should pay attention to this particular model. Indeed, in addition to Gorilla Glass 3, there are still a lot of different advantages. The smartphone has increased performance, as well as many innovations. Gesture control and ergonomic design make it even easier and more accessible to operate. With a large number of advantages, it is even difficult to immediately identify small flaws.
Lenovo returns legendary Motorola smartphones to the Russian market
On February 11, 2016 the Lenovo company announced return of the legendary Motorola brand to Russia. The first devices presented on the Russian market will be Moto X (Play, Style, Force) and Moto G series smartphones. The Russian office of Lenovo says: “We know how popular Motorola smartphones are in Russia, and we are pleased to announce the return of the legend and present a new generation of devices under the Moto brand - smartphones with an attractive design, high autonomy and improved protection from external influences. Among the new products, everyone can find the most suitable option for him. The Moto X series is equipped with ultra-high-performance cameras that will appeal to creative minds, while the Moto X Style and Moto X Force models will allow their new owners to express their individuality with a variety of design options.”
Today we already have the opportunity to examine in detail the top and, accordingly, the most expensive model from the entire new family, which is soon preparing to enter the shelves of Russian stores. This flagship is currently Motorola X Force, although this model is already familiar to our regular readers under a different name. The same model, offered overseas by the American operator Verizon, appears there under the name Droid Turbo 2, and rumors about it have spread much earlier. The thing is that this smartphone, which is just preparing to enter our market, has been on sale in the very homeland of the Motorola brand in the USA since the end of last year, and we know a lot about it. In particular, it is known that the screen of this model is positioned as "unbreakable", and that in the States themselves, the manufacturer even gives a four-year warranty on it. But neither such a guarantee, nor the MotoMaker branded service in our market, apparently, Lenovo will not provide. In all other respects, the model officially supplied to us is no worse than the American one, it's time to consider it in all its details. Let's start traditionally with the specifications.
Key Features of Moto X Force (Model XT1580)
- SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 8 cores: 4×2.0 GHz (ARM Cortex-A57) + 4×1.5 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53)
- GPU Adreno 430 @600 MHz
- Operating system Android 5.1
- Touchscreen AMOLED 5.4″, 2560 × 1440, 540 ppi
- Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB, internal memory 32 GB
- SIM cards: Nano-SIM (1 pc.)
- Support for microSD memory cards up to 2 TB
- GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- WCDMA networks 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
- Networks LTE Cat.6 FDD Band 1-5/7/8/12/17/20/25/28; TDD 40
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2 bands) MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct
- Bluetooth 4.1LE, NFC
- USB 2.0, OTG
- GPS/A-GPS, Glonass
- Direction, proximity, lighting sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetic compass
- Camera 21 MP, autofocus, f/2.0, LED flash
- Camera 5 MP, front, f/2.0, LED flash
- Battery 3760 mAh
- Qi wireless charging support
- Dimensions 150×78×9.2 mm
- Weight 170 g
Equipment
The packaging of the Moto X Force is a very large tall square box, which contains almost nothing, except for the smartphone itself and the charger for it.
The charger here is not quite ordinary: it does not have the usual USB output, the cable to the block is soldered tightly. The smartphone supports TurboPower accelerated charging, so the maximum output current of the bundled charger is 12 V 2.15 A. The bundled charger is quite massive, you can’t call it compact, but you will have to carry it with you if you want to use the fast charging function.
Appearance and usability
It's nice that the design of Motorola smartphones, though not much, but constantly changes, does not stagnate in one place, like the same Sony Xperia Z, for example. Moto models cannot be found identical in appearance, but they are all invisibly linked by a single design style, in each of them, even without looking at the logo, you can always unmistakably recognize the brand.
What is even more pleasant, Motorola smartphones are completely different from the Apple iPhone or anyone else, but they do not try to emphasize their otherness. They are just by themselves, and that is why they are, perhaps, so distinctive and recognizable. Moto smartphones are very beautiful in appearance, and I really hope that even under the heel of Lenovo they will remain the same in the future. Indeed, Lenovo itself, admittedly, has not developed any permanent design of its own over the years of work on the market, all its smartphones are of various colors, and only very few of them are beautiful.
Moto X Force looks even more interesting than Moto X, Nexus 6 and all other predecessors that came out of the pen of American designers. The smartphone has a very unusual massive metal frame of complex shape, which gives the body ergonomics and design - completeness. The body of the Moto X Force is by no means thin, but at the same time it is so streamlined that there is absolutely no feeling of excess thickness here. And yet, it’s a pity that the developers followed the fashion and made all their new products “shovel-shaped”: if the smartphone were smaller in size, it would fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, but this, unfortunately, cannot be said about a device with a screen size of five and a half inches and weighing more than 170 grams.
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The device really turned out to be large and massive, but there is a category of users who have closed their eyes to all this for a long time, if only the screen diagonal was larger. If you approach the Moto X Force from this point of view, then it is simply perfect. And the screen, by the way, here is even more unusual than one might expect.
The Motorola X Force, known in America as the Droid Turbo 2, is claimed by its creators to be "the world's first smartphone with a shatterproof display." To protect the display from damage, Motorola used a technology called Moto ShatterShield. According to the creators, a smartphone with such a screen can easily survive the fall, after which most other smartphones will fail. The company's specialists have been working on the creation of the corresponding technology for more than three years. For increased durability, the display elements - a flexible AMOLED panel with a double touch layer and two protective glasses - are mounted on a plate-shaped aluminum chassis. Motorola claims that it will be almost impossible to break such a screen.
The back cover is no less unusual than the front panel. This material, which is used to decorate the back of the Moto X Force case, is described in less detail in press releases, but the creators themselves call it “ballistic nylon”. To the touch it is really something textile, through a magnifying glass you can even see some small woven fiber. That is, it is certainly not just textured plastic, as happens when they try to imitate carbon fiber (the so-called "carbon").
Be that as it may, this material seems to be practical. At the very least, it certainly does not leave any fingerprints, and how durable it is, time will tell. But at the same time, it is impossible to characterize such a coating as non-slip. It is very slippery, but the side frame, which is held in the hand much more securely, saves the smartphone from slipping out of the hands.
The Moto X Force doesn't have an infrared transmitter to emulate remote controls, no heart rate sensors or anything like that. Of the "flagship excesses" in the device, there is not even a fingerprint scanner, although this is already becoming a familiar attribute of any modern top-end smartphone, and not just a flagship. That is why it was even more surprising to find the complete absence of such elements in such a highly positioned device offered by the manufacturer at a price of 50 thousand rubles.
There are no touch buttons on the front panel. In the lower part, two symmetrical elongated holes are cut right in the protective glass, which are a couple of centimeters apart from each other. Why two holes were cut out here, and not one, remains a mystery. Obviously, they were going to imitate the presence of stereo speakers in this way, but their presence is easy to refute by covering the holes with your finger in turn: the sound comes out of only one hole. In any case, these two “holes” in the front look rather ridiculous - it would be better if the designers, as before, made a metal insert at the bottom, symmetrical to the top, it would look more organic. For microphones, there are their own small round holes located on the back of the case. By the way, there are as many as five microphones in the device, additional microphones are used for active noise cancellation.
In the upper part above the screen, in addition to the sensors and the front camera, there is also its own LED flash, which is quite rare in smartphones. The LED event indicator is also located here. The Motorola smartphone, as before, has an additional processor for contextual computing that works with sensors and a camera and replaces the main processor in idle mode. One has only to bring a hand to the “sleeping” Motorola X Force, as notifications about the current time and missed events appear on the screen in monochrome mode.
The block of mechanical control keys is not implemented in the best way. The buttons themselves are small, thin, practically do not protrude beyond the body, so it is difficult to find them blindly. In addition, the keys also have an excessively tight and short travel, you need to get used to them. The lock button here unexpectedly moved to the top of the side face, although the most common option now is when the volume control unit is located above, and the power key is already closer to the middle of the face. Here, these buttons are mixed up, you will have to change your habits.
Interface connectors are located on both ends of the case. On the top there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a Micro-USB connector is embedded in the bottom end, which supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode.
At the top end, in addition to the headphone output, there is a slot for installing cards. The trays on the sliding metal sled are arranged one after the other, they can accommodate one Nano-SIM card and one microSD memory card. You cannot install a second SIM card in place of the memory card. Hot swap supported.
The last element that completes the “tour” of the outer shell of the review hero is an oblong matte metal plate that combines the rear camera, flash and Moto logo in a single unit. This is perhaps one of the most striking design elements, coupled with an unusual back wall coating, it gives the case a special appeal. All together it really looks incredibly stylish and expensive.
But there is also a “fly in the ointment” here: the protective glass of the camera turned out to be deeply recessed inside a sort of metal shaft with absolutely straight walls. Accordingly, dust will definitely accumulate there, and it will be possible to remove it from this hole only with the use of a cotton swab. The scale of the "tragedy" can be clearly estimated from this photo.
As for the colors of the case, there is still some uncertainty in this matter, since, apparently, there will be no other colors other than black on sale on the Russian market. We also do not support the Moto Maker service, which would allow you to independently choose the color and material of the back panel for yourself.
Well, let's note the last detail: according to the representatives of the company, the body of the novelty is provided with some kind of water-repellent coating. Literally, it sounds like this: “The advanced nano-coating creates a water-repellent barrier, protecting the device from the ingress of small amounts of moisture, such as accidental liquid spills, splashes and light rain. Not rated for total immersion in water or exposure to pressurized water or other liquid. Not waterproof."
Screen
The Moto X Force smartphone is equipped with an AMOLED touch screen, made using a special technology called ShatterShield. The physical dimensions of the display are 68 × 121 mm, the diagonal is 5.4 inches. The screen resolution is 2560×1440, the dot density is 540 ppi. The frame on the sides of the screen is very wide (at least 5 mm), it looks unusual for a modern flagship and the device certainly does not paint.
The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on a light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to handle 10 simultaneous touches. There are no options for activating the screen by double tapping on the glass or another gesture, but there is a function for automatically activating and displaying information on missed events and the current time in monochrome.
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A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.
The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (just Nexus 7 below). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Moto X Force, then they can be distinguished by size):
The screen of the Moto X Force is still lighter (the brightness in the photographs is 121 versus 106 for the Nexus 7 - apparently, retribution for ShatterShield), and the reflection of the white surface in it has a pronounced brownish tint. Note that reflections from bright objects on the screen of the Moto X Force have a pale blue-greenish halo that is slightly more pronounced laterally. The doubling of reflected objects in the Moto X Force screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the screen layers (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen (very effective, slightly better than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.
With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was approximately 320 cd / m², the minimum was 5.4 cd / m². The maximum brightness is not very high, but you need to take into account the good anti-glare properties of the screen and the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. For example, when outputting white on half of the screen (and black on the other half), the maximum brightness with manual adjustment rises to 350 cd/m². As a result, readability during the day in the sun is at a fairly good level. The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device without any problems even in complete darkness. There is an automatic brightness control according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the cutout of the upper front speaker). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. This function depends on the position of the brightness slider. If it is at 100%, then in complete darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 110 cd / m² (too light), in an office lit by artificial light (about 400 lux) it sets to 220 cd / m² (will do), in a very bright environment (corresponding to a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 465 cd/m² (which is significantly higher than with manual adjustment). Brightness slider at 50% - the values are as follows: 9, 100 and 465 cd / m² (from our point of view, acceptable values), at 0% - 1.2, 16 and 465 cd / m² (the logic can be traced). In general, the automatic brightness adjustment function works adequately and allows the user to somewhat customize their work to individual requirements.
At any brightness level there is a significant modulation with a frequency of approximately 239.6 Hz. The figure below shows the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time (horizontal axis) for several brightness values:
As a result, at low brightness (when the duty cycle increases), the presence of modulation can already be seen in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, such flickering can cause increased fatigue.
This screen uses an AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphoto:
For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.
On the fragment above, you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), while repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without gaps and overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer considers the screen resolution based on green subpixels, on the other two it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the sub-pixels in this variant is similar to the variant in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and some other newer Samsung devices (and not only) with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some uneven contrasting borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the very high resolution, they have minimal effect on image quality.
The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, and at some angles it turns a little pink (although this effect is much less pronounced than it usually happens with AMOLED), but the black color remains just black at any angles . It is so black that the contrast parameter is simply not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Moto X Force and the second comparison participant, while the brightness of the screens is initially set to about 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K. A white field is perpendicular to the screens:
Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And a test picture:
The color balance of the screens is slightly different, and the colors of the Moto X Force are oversaturated and unnatural (for example, tomatoes are poisonous red, and the face has a carrot tint). However, we recall that this is how the camera registers, it is better to look at the details of color reproduction in the results of hardware tests. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen.
It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Moto X Force at an angle is noticeably higher. And the white box:
The brightness at an angle on both screens has noticeably decreased (in order to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed is increased compared to the previous two photos), but in the case of the Moto X Force, the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the Moto X Force screen visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since the screen of a mobile device often has to be viewed at least from a slight angle.
Switching the state of the elements of the matrix is \u200b\u200bperformed almost instantly, but at the on (and less often - off) front there may be a step about 17 ms wide (which corresponds to the screen refresh rate). For example, this is how the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back when the field is displayed in full screen:
In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects, but in normal use it is difficult to see these artifacts. On the contrary, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “twitchy” movements.
The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with an equal interval according to the numerical value of the shade of gray did not reveal a blockage either in the shadows or in the highlights. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.28, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power dependence:
Recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for light images in general and increases for dark ones. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential grayscale output almost on the entire screen. In the case of this screen, there is no option to select a profile with hardware color gamut reduction, as a result, the color gamut of the Moto X Force is very wide:
The spectra of the components (that is, the spectra of pure red, green, and blue colors) are well separated:
Note that on screens with a wide color gamut without proper color correction, normal images optimized for sRGB devices look unnaturally saturated. The balance of shades on the gray scale is good. The color temperature is close to the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) over the entire significant part of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature and ΔE change little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance:
(The darkest areas of the gray scale in most cases can be ignored, since there the color balance does not matter much, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)
Let's summarize. The screen has a not very high maximum brightness, but it has good anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable (and highly recommended in very bright light) to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating and a good color balance. At the same time, let's recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected on the screen), good white field uniformity, noticeably smaller than that of LCDs, a drop in image brightness when viewed from an angle. The disadvantages include flickering of the screen, especially manifested at low brightness. Users who are particularly sensitive to flicker may experience fatigue as a result. The negative properties include an excessively wide color gamut, which makes ordinary images look unnatural. However, overall the screen quality is high.
Sound
The smartphone sounds impressive: the device is equipped with only one main speaker, it cannot create a stereo panorama, but the smartphone emits a very loud and at the same time clear sound at the maximum level, with a noticeable presence of low frequencies. In headphones, the situation is no worse: the sound is clear, bright and thick, the frequency spectrum is wide. Both in the headphones and in the external speaker, the maximum volume level is sufficient, but not excessive. The sound is very pleasant to hear. All settings are combined with the proprietary Google Play Music player in the form of an equalizer and additional preset values.
In conversational dynamics, the timbre and intonation of a familiar voice remain recognizable, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks absolutely adequately. The vibrating alert is not very powerful here. FM-radio in the smartphone is not provided, as well as recording telephone conversations with the line by regular means.
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Camera
Moto X Force is equipped with two modules of digital cameras with a resolution of 21 and 5 megapixels. The front camera is equipped with a 5-megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 aperture lens without autofocus, but with its own flash. The camera unexpectedly turned out to be of a modest level, for a flagship to see selfies of this quality is somewhat surprising.
The main camera is equipped with a Sony IMX230 sensor with a resolution of 21 MP and an f / 2.0 lens with autofocus and dual multi-color flash. Autofocus isn't too fast, but shooting with zero shutter lag is very fast.
Another thing is that the camera control here is perhaps the most inconvenient of all possible. It is really uncomfortable to use, you have to get used to it. Initially, there is no virtual button for shooting at all, it simply does not exist, so you automatically press the central key, which is responsible for exiting the application. It turns out that shooting can be done by touching the screen or pressing the side volume key. Again, instinctively, out of habit, fingers touch the screen for manual focus (because autofocus often fails), but the picture is taken immediately. To display the ability to control focus and exposure on the screen, you need to perform additional actions each time, causing a circular menu with a side swipe, which is far from always pulled out the first time. There are only icons in this menu, so until you click, you won’t know what is hidden behind them. All this is very annoying, and there is no possibility of transferring camera control to third-party applications via the Camera2 API, and it is also impossible to save pictures in RAW.
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The video camera can shoot at resolutions up to 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD), it is possible to record slo-mo in 720p resolution, but all at the same speed of 30 frames per second. Nothing is said about electronic stabilization, but shooting on the go is very smooth. The camera copes well with shooting video, there are no complaints about the image quality. The image is smooth, with good sharpness, light and detailed. At the same time, the sound is recorded with high quality, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks adequately.
- Clip #1 (123 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
- Clip #2 (23 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps)
- Movie #3 (27 MB, 1280×720 @30 fps, slo-mo)
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The camera does a very good job with macro photography. |
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Good sharpness across the field and according to the plans, although it drops a little towards the edges of the frame. |
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Numbers of not the closest cars are distinguishable. |
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The camera copes well with shooting various text. |
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The camera handles small details well. |
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Sometimes with the removal of the plan, the sharpness drops a little. |
We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench according to our methodology.
It is difficult to call a flagship camera - in a smartphone for such a price, I would like to see a better solution. Nevertheless, it is clear that the manufacturer tried both when choosing a module and when writing the firmware. However, periodic dips in the background and blurring at the edges of the frame speak of the “dampness” of the program. However, in the "native" Sony smartphones, this module works in much the same way, so perhaps it remains to be cunning by reducing the resolution. And yet, the detail of the camera is good: even small details in the background are often distinguishable. Thus, the camera will cope with documentary shooting perfectly, and, most likely, with artistic shooting too - especially if you close your eyes to the blur at the edges of the frame and in some places “stuck together” branches in the background.
Telephone part and communications
The smartphone can operate in most bands of 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation LTE Cat6 FDD and TDD networks, that is, this device has the ability to provide a theoretical speed of up to 300 Mbps per download. At the same time, the smartphone supports all three of the most common LTE FDD bands among domestic operators (B3, B7 and B20). In practice, with the SIM card of the MTS operator in the Moscow region, the smartphone was confidently registered and worked in 4G networks. The quality of signal reception does not cause any complaints, the device confidently maintains communication indoors and does not lose the signal in areas of poor reception. The full list of supported frequency bands is as follows:
- LTE FDD: Band 1-5/7/8/12/17/20/25/28; TDD Band 40
- WCDMA: 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz
- GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
The device also has support for Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, dual Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) 2 × 2 MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The Micro-USB connector supports the USB 2.0 specification and the connection of external devices in USB OTG mode.
The navigation module works with GPS (A-GPS) and Glonass. There are no complaints about the speed of the navigation module, the first satellites are detected during a cold start within the first tens of seconds. The smartphone is equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the compass of navigation programs functions.
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The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is also carried out immediately by the first letters in contacts. The regular virtual keyboard supports the method of continuous input with a stroke from letter to letter (Swype). There are no options for reducing the size of virtual keyboards or the entire working space of the screen in the standard interface.
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OS and software
The Moto X Force we tested runs on version 5 of Google's OS, but company officials say production models will go on sale with version 6 of Android Marshmallow. The most curious thing is that, unlike Lenovo's own smartphones, which have one of the most heavily modified Vibe UI shells, the same company supplies devices under the Moto brand with an absolutely clean Google Android interface. That is, in fact, we have in front of us almost the same “google phone” as the usual Nexus series smartphones.
There is nothing special to add here, the interface is well known and described in detail many times, everyone determines all the pros and cons of “naked” Android for himself. It's just worth considering that the original Google interface is so laconic that users will have to deal with such annoying little things as the inability to display the battery charge on the top panel, close all applications at the same time, or, for example, very inconvenient camera controls. There is not even such a simple function as rebooting the device: for some reason, in the proprietary Android interface, when you hold down the power key, a single “turn off” button appears, but there is no “restart” button. It is clear that you can restart by holding the key for a long time, but was it really difficult to draw one button? People who have not previously had experience with pure Android in the face of Nexus smartphones may be confused by such restrictions, since the interface of all other devices is almost always being finalized by the manufacturer.
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As for the features related to the hardware capabilities of Motorola smartphones, here, as before, the so-called "Motorola Mobile Computing System" is equipped. This system includes an additional processor for contextual computing (working with sensors and a camera) and a natural language processor for working with sound and, in particular, with voice control. Additional processors allow you to save energy by taking over the functions of controlling microphones, sensors and cameras while the smartphone is in sleep mode. Control is necessary for such functions as Active Display, as well as voice control, but, as before, after all the settings, it turns out that the Russian language is not supported by Motorola's proprietary voice control.
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Performance
The Moto X Force hardware platform is based on an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. This 64-bit SoC is made using a 20 nm process technology, it consists of four powerful 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 cores with a frequency of up to 2 GHz, which are complemented by four simpler 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5 GHz. The Adreno 430 video accelerator with an operating frequency of up to 600 MHz is responsible for processing graphics in the SoC. In addition, the Motorola Mobile Computing System includes the Natural Language Processor and the Contextual Computing Processor discussed above.
The amount of RAM (LPDDR4) of the smartphone is 3 GB. The amount of internal memory can be selected between 32 and 64 GB. In the case of the 32 GB version, the user is left with about 21.5 GB of free space. This volume can be increased with microSD cards, it is also possible to connect external flash drives to the USB port in OTG mode. MicroSD cards are supported up to 2TB, in practice our 128GB Transcend Premium microSDXC UHS-1 test card was recognized by the device with confidence.
The top-end platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 is quite capable of competing with modern alternative flagship solutions such as HiSilicon Kirin 935, MediaTek MT6795 and Exynos 7420 in terms of graphics, but in terms of overall CPU performance in complex tests, it is currently not in first place. In any case, the Moto X Force smartphone is at the flagship level in terms of performance, its hardware capabilities will be enough for several generations to perform any tasks, including demanding games, although devices with SoC Snapdragon 820 are already entering the arena, replacing the platform , on which the hero of the review works.
Testing in the latest versions of AnTuTu and GeekBench 3 comprehensive benchmarks:
For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from different segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.
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Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:
When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).
| Moto X Force (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810) |
LG Nexus 5X (Qualcomm Snapdragon 808) |
Meizu Pro 5 (Exynos 7420) |
Huawei Mate S (HiSilicon Kirin 935) |
Letv1s (Mediatek MT6795T) |
|
| 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme (more is better) |
Maxed out! | Maxed out! | Maxed out! | 6292 | 10162 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (more is better) |
23849 | 18840 | 25770 | 12553 | 16574 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot (more is better) |
1098 | 1149 | 1340 | — | 542 |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Onscreen) | 40 fps | — | 52 fps | 16 fps | 26 fps |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Offscreen) | 53 fps | — | 57 fps | 12 fps | 27 fps |
| Bonsai Benchmark | 3810 (54 fps) | 3950 (56 fps) | 4130 (59 fps) | 3396 (48 fps) | 3785 (54 fps) |
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Browser cross-platform tests:
As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.
thermal images
Below is a thermal image of the back surface (the lighter, the higher the temperature), obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:
It can be seen that the heating is strongly localized just above and to the left of the center of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 48 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), which is very strong heating for this test compared to other modern smartphones.
Video playback
To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.
According to the test results, the test subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed for the full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network. Moreover, the smartphone offers to play its own recordings from the camera using the “photo gallery” program. That is, in order to successfully play third-party video files recorded in the device’s memory, in most cases you will have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings in it and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 audio format.
| Format | container, video, sound | MX Video Player | Regular video player |
| DVDRip | AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
| Web-DL SD | AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
| Web-DL HD | MKV, H.264 1280x720 3000Kbps, AC3 | Video plays fine, no sound¹ | |
| BDRip 720p | MKV, H.264 1280x720 4000Kbps, AC3 | Video plays fine, no sound¹ | Video plays fine, no sound¹ |
| BDRip 1080p | MKV, H.264 1920x1080 8000Kbps, AC3 | Video plays fine, no sound¹ | Video plays fine, no sound¹ |
¹ Audio in MX Video Player only plays after installing an alternative custom audio codec
Video output features tested Alexey Kudryavtsev.
We did not find an MHL interface, as well as Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with different parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In tests, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The test results are summarized in the table:
Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.
According to the criteria for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. Note that due to the non-standard screen refresh rate (slightly less than 60 Hz), video files are played with a slowdown of about 0.17%. Subjectively, this is impossible to detect, but the question remains why it was impossible to make exactly 60 Hz. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly on the border of the screen. The clarity of the picture is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experiment, you can switch to the one-to-one mode by pixels, there will be no interpolation, but PenTile features will appear - the vertical world through the pixel will be in the grid, and the horizontal one will be a little greenish. This is true for test worlds, and the described artifacts are absent on real frames. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows, only a couple of shades of gray do not differ in brightness from black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed.
Battery Life
The capacity of the built-in battery installed in Moto X Force is more than 3760 mAh worthy for modern smartphones. In this case, neither the high-resolution screen nor the demanding hardware platform could noticeably affect the high level of autonomy of the review hero. It is really very high here in all standard use cases, above average for sure. There are no specific energy-saving modes in the smartphone other than the standard one from the Android OS.
| Battery capacity | Reading mode | Video mode | 3D game mode | |
| Moto X Force | 3760 mAh | 4:30 p.m. | 10:00 a.m. | 4h 40m |
| Huawei Nexus 6P | 3450 mAh | 15:00 | 8:30 a.m. | 4h 30m |
| LG Nexus 5X | 2700 mAh | 2:30 p.m. | 6 a.m. | 4 a.m. |
| LG G4 | 3000 mAh | 17:00 | 9 a.m. | 3 a.m. |
| One Plus 2 | 3300 mAh | 14:00 | 11:20 | 4h 30m |
| Huawei Mate S | 2700 mAh | 12:30 pm | 9 a.m. | 3h 20m |
| Samsung Note 5 | 3000 mAh | 17h 10m | 10:40 | 5 a.m. |
| Google Nexus 6 | 3220 mAh | 18:00 | 10:30 | 3h 40m |
| Meizu Pro 5 | 3050 mAh | 5:30 p.m. | 12:30 pm | 3h 15m |
Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) lasted more than 16.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged. Without the autoscroll function in the FBReader program, these figures will increase to 20 or even more hours. When continuously watching videos from Youtube in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device lasted at least 10 hours. In 3D gaming mode, he worked for more than 4.5 hours.
Moto X Force supports TurboPower fast charging. The smartphone is fully charged from the included charger in just 1.5 hours, while the back wall heats up noticeably. Using a third-party charger with an output current of 5 V 2 A, the battery will be charged much longer: in 1 hour, the smartphone was charged up to only 35% with a current of 5.15 V 1.2 A. Qi wireless charging is supported with a comparable charging time.
Outcome
As for the cost of new items: Moto smartphones will be available on the Russian market from March 2016. Lenovo promises that from March 1, sales will begin in Megafon, Euroset and Svyaznoy stores, and in mid-March in other retail chains.
- Moto G - at a price of 17 thousand rubles
- Moto X Play - at a price of 30 thousand rubles
- Moto X Style - at a price of 40 thousand rubles
- Moto X Force - at a price of 50 thousand rubles
The most expensive in the line, as expected, will be the Moto X Force model: Lenovo decided to ask for as much as 50 thousand rubles for it. Is it too much for such a model? The cost for the market is almost the maximum, if you do not take into account the very premium devices, but in general it makes sense. Before us is really a real flagship without any discounts, with a high-quality screen, sound, autonomy, hardware platform and, of course, a conspicuous body. As for the cameras, this issue has not yet been fully clarified - perhaps with the release of new firmware, the quality of their work will improve. But the lack of a fingerprint scanner in a top smartphone for 50 thousand is more difficult to explain. And yet, the main question is not this at all, but whether the Russian audience will accept the long-forgotten, but once beloved brand, and if so, in what capacity? It's no secret that Lenovo's own smartphones are perceived by users as solutions that are not at all as high-level as those of Samsung and Apple. But Motorola's new flagship will have to fight in their price category, that is, at the highest level. So with which of them will Russian users compare the products of the brand that has returned to our market? Everyone will decide this issue for himself, but it is already becoming obvious that the way to return the brand to Russia for Lenovo will not be easy at all. So far, we can state that the new Moto smartphones are exactly Motorola (remember the history of Thinkpad). But how will the brand develop further?
This phone came to me by accident, well, as if by chance, I bought it specially in one of the sales at a very good price, something about 5 thousand rubles. and planned to resell, having made some money. But when the phone finally reached me and I held it in my hands, I realized that this is my thing, I won’t give it to anyone. 
Almost a year has passed since then, and so I decided to write a review about it, or rather not a review, but the experience of normal operation by an elderly uncle, therefore, there will be a description of exclusively utilitarian consumer properties and no antutu and other trututu. I will give only technical data under the spoiler.
Additional Information
General
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Model: S750
Release year: 2013
Operating system: Android 4.2
Battery capacity (mAh): 2000
Dimensions
Dimensions (mm):
(W x H x D) 70.4 x 134.5 x 9.9
Weight (g): 157
CPU
Processor type: MediaTek MT6589
Clock frequency (MHz): 1200
Memory
RAM (MB): 1024
Built-in memory (GB): 4
Communications
Phone: GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GSM 900, UMTS 2100, UMTS 900
Bluetooth: 3.0
WiFi: 802.11b,g,n
Other: EDGE, GPRS, GPS, HSDPA, UMTS/WCDMA, Dual SIM support
Multimedia
Screen size: 4.5
Screen resolution (px): 540 x 960
Screen type: IPS
Video accelerator: PowerVR SGX544
Rear camera (MP): 8
Autofocus: yes
Photo flash: yes
Speaker: mono
Headphone output: 3.5
Other: FM Radio, G-Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass
Management and input
Touch screen: capacitive
Buttons: touch buttons
Extension
Memory cards: microSD, microSDHC
Connectors: USB host, microUSB
Additionally
Features: Ingress protection IP67
I won’t describe the box, packaging, charger cords, I’ve already seen all this a hundred times, I won’t add anything new, I can only say that the boxes for all Lenovo are what the doctor ordered for our native delivery service - very dense and hard, do not crucify and do not gnaw them to mailers, that's for sure.
Why did I like this particular phone? Well, firstly, I’m still a little cunning that it was bought exclusively for sale, because my first smartphone, and it was the Mitac Mio A502 communicator-navigator, died a long time after swimming quite a bit on fishing. I love and respect fishing, so I didn’t want to repeat such a story at all, and Lenovo S750 is declared as a waterproof phone and not just waterproof, but certified according to the IP67 standard. Secondly, he lay down in my hand just perfectly, such a heavy one, the lid is ribbed, tactilely pleasant, in general, mine and that's it. 
The phone is made very solidly and reliably, the plastic of the case is thick, durable, there are no backlashes and gaps (and where can they come from in IP67 protection). 
There are no openings in the case, except for the front and rear speakers, covered with a thin metal mesh, all communication connectors are located at the top and tightly closed with a powerful plug. 
The plug is attached to the body of the phone with a silicone cable, I always try to open it carefully, because many complain that this cable breaks over time. It would be nice to have wireless charging so as not to pull the plug back and forth, but alas. 
There is a sealing rubber along the perimeter of the inner groove, the screws securing the case are powerful enough, they look solid, the lid snaps tightly. 
Some kind of soft-touch film is glued on the back cover according to the size of the battery. 
The camera usually takes pictures, nothing bad, as well as something outstanding, I can not note, except for the flash - it is clearly rather weak. The protective glass of the rear camera slightly sticks out in relation to the body and there are light scratches on it. The video shoots in HD of normal quality, but the sound is not so hot. 
Satellites through the windshield of the car are caught quickly, for navigation purposes the device is quite suitable. 
WiFi, Bluetooth work flawlessly, the device does not support LTE. I would like a bigger battery, but it is standard for such a diagonal - 2000 mAh, it lasts me an average of 2-3 days, in standby mode it will probably last more than a week.
The speaker is also of medium volume, on a noisy street in your pocket you can not hear a call, but at full volume it does not wheeze.
The screen has an IPS display, in principle, there is enough brightness, but in sunny weather it is not very visible. Viewing angles both vertically and horizontally are large. I don’t know what it is connected with, but the video doesn’t look very good, it seems that the color depth is truncated, you can see the gradations of color transitions, I changed the players - there’s no sense. 
The LED event indicator on the front panel, unfortunately, is white and single-color, for seven years of using smartphones I got used to a red-green eye, why Lenovo saved on such nonsense I don’t understand. 
I didn’t do water resistance tests (you can easily find them on YouTube), but in the water park I dragged it around all the rides, took pictures of my son - there were no problems. I often can’t go to the bathhouse, so I replace the park with a hot bath, take it with me to watch IPTV or YouTube, everything is fine too, the touch only dulls from wet hands. I also don’t stand on ceremony with him when fishing - he survives wet, dirty hands without problems, then washed them with some water from the pond and it’s fine.
As for the rest, I treat the phone quite carefully, although I just carry it in my pocket without a case and a protective film, this does not seem to have affected the appearance yet. 
The Lenovo S750 is not officially delivered to Russia, so there is no official Russian firmware for it, but the seller, knowing that buyers from the Russian Federation send phones with some modified firmware, in which the Russian language is available and, moreover, it can be distinguished from the official firmware only somewhere in the wilds - pre-installed melodies or contacts, hieroglyphs slip there, but this does not bother at all. 
Tenses another:
1. The absence of Russian characters on the dialer keyboard and in the address book. The problem is solved with crutches in the form of a third-party dialer and address book, I liked RocketDial + Rocket Contacts with HD photos of callers. Root is also present in this firmware.
It was 
became 
2. Lack of a calendar in android. Downloading from the play store does nothing - it does not work. I solved it by installing a third-party calendar Calendar +
3. Well, the most important cant is the breakdown of the drive into internal memory, and it is only 0.98 GB and the phone's memory is 1.64 GB. The first is reserved for system files and is instantly clogged when installing a dozen or one and a half third-party applications. As much as I didn’t want to do this, it seems like there’s no way to do without a flashing (the trouble with re-partitioning the memory seemed to me clearly more difficult).
Summing up, we can say that Lenovo S750 is an ordinary average among smartphones by the standards of a year ago, but its waterproof qualities put it in a separate cohort of smartphones, in which there are not so many participants. For lovers of fishing and water recreation, I can recommend adnaznachna!
Lenovo launches a smartphone from the "S" series. This is a shockproof waterproof smartphone, protected according to the IP67 standard and fully called Lenovo S750. It is in many ways superior to the popular A-series device of the same type introduced by the company almost a year ago.
Recall that the level of protection is an internationally recognized standard, compliance with which means complete dust tightness. In addition, a phone protected according to this standard is able to work after it “dives” to a depth of one meter and “holds its breath” for 30 minutes.
The novelty is equipped with a touch IPS display with a diagonal of 4.5 inches, which has additional protection against bumps and scratches in the form of glass Gorilla Glass 2. The resolution of the QHD screen is 960 x 540 pixels. According to some reports, it is equipped with two slots for SIM cards that can work in GSM and HSDPA communication standards (up to 7.2 Mbps, 3G).
Smartphone Lenovo S750 is based on a powerful 4-core processor MTK6589, clocked at 1.2 GHz. The RAM of the device is at the level of 1 GB, and the built-in memory is 4 GB. Memory expansion is carried out by purchasing a 32 GB microSD and using the corresponding slot in the monoblock.
The rugged smartphone is equipped with modules for wireless data transmission Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. Since it is assumed that it is intended not only for urban use, but also for rural areas, as well as for travel, it is present in it.
The device is equipped with two cameras - an economical 0.3 MP front camera for video communication (that's right, there is nothing to waste traffic and "strain" the processor with a battery in vain), as well as the main one, quite decent, with an 8 MP matrix, digital zoom and autofocus.
Managed by Lenovo S750 operating system Android 4.2. It has an MP3 player and FM radio. To provide energy, a 2000 mAh capacity is used. Not much, of course, but, on the other hand, the dimensions of the smartphone fit into the body of 134.5 x 70.4 x 9.9 mm with a weight of 157 grams.
Although according to other sources, the same dimensions are 134.4 × 70.3 × 10.55 mm, and the weight is 156 grams. Who will understand them, these Chinese. Body color can be ash gray or black. In the warehouses of online stores has not yet "lit up", but its official price is already known - 1599 forever Chinese yuan. Translated into Russian "mani" at the current rate, this is 8445 rubles, excluding postage and taxes.
