MyPhone A848 Duo Quick Review

I was able to spend some time with the cheapest MyPhone android phone that’s running on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and I must say that I’m very impressed. The build is solid and is really more than what I have expected from a budget offering. Check out our thoughts about this device after the jump.

During the holiday season last year, I always see people/customers on MyPhone kiosks looking at the same phone – the MyPhone A848 Duo. I got really interested so we tried it and luckily, I managed to acquire one of the last two units that they have. I eventually liked it and I decided to give it as a gift and of course, to fully test this affordable smartphone’s capabilities. So if you’re planning in getting this one, you might want to check our quick review of the MyPhone A848 Duo.

Design

The design of the MyPhone A848 Duo is simple yet classy. It has some nice curves and the cheap that was used to cover the body is not the usual cheap stuff found on other phones. It’s glossy but this still nabs the premium feel that you’d want for a smartphone.

There are three capacitive buttons that are present in the front face of the device and they are; the menu, home, and back buttons – the usual combination of an ICS android phone. At the top of the screen is the speaker grills while the topmost part contains the microUSB/charger port and 3.5mm earphones port. Looking at the left side, we can find the volume rocker. The right part is empty.

As usual, the back cover features the 5-megapixel camera with flash and right below it is the MyPhone logo as well as the Philippine flag printed all over it. The back case is also plastic and as you can see we got the white one over here.

The overall look of the MyPhone A848 doesn’t really represent its price tag since it appears to be more solid than other smartphones within its level. In fact, its weight, though not that heavy, adds up to that better feel and assures an easy grip even to people who are not used in holding smartphones with a display of beyond 3.5-inches.

Display

The MyPhone A848 Duo has a 4-inch IPS Display with 480×800 pixel resolution. The display is very crisp and the colors are very accurate and lively. When compared to the Cherry Mobile Titan which has the same WVGA resolution, the latter looks pale and mediocre simply because the A848 has a smaller screen. Since it’s just 4-inches, this makes it better rather than the Titan’s 5-inches, which stretches out the pixels considerably while the A848 Duo’s is more compact. Thus, it looks sharper.

Although the display is of high quality, there’s a small caveat on its UI. There’s a slight and almost unnoticeable lag when swiping through pages in the app drawer. We initially thought that it has the same problem like on the MyPhone A919 Duo that users have reported. As it turns out, it actually is. The frame rate is capped to 30-40fps that’s why it has some troubles in rendering. We don’t really mind it though, as it is almost not visible. Moreover, this is not a problem on playing games and other stuff (games run fine too) as it is only present in the app drawer – at least on our case.

The IPS display is just a beauty to look at and considering this is just a budget android phone, that makes it even more special. It has wide viewing angles and legibility under direct sunlight is really nice. Other phones which don’t have IPS are struggling when placed under direct sunlight but MyPhone A848 Duo handles it with ease. The screen brightness, when set to full, is also noticeably brighter and colors look more vibrant than the usual display.

Performance

The MyPhone A848 Duo has a 1GHz MTK6575 single core processor and 512MB RAM – a combination that stood the test of time. This recipe has been around the market for around 2 years now and since its arrival, it still managed to get away with decent performance until this day. But that is based on the type of processor used, too. Fortunately, the Mediatek 6575 has proven itself to be a viable processor already so expect this phone to have a sweet punch.

The UI is smooth and swiping through pages of a breeze. There are times that you would notice a little stutter when navigating but that’s not too often. Apps and games load almost instantly and the occasional 2-3 second wait is almost a no show. Of course, that depends on where your app is located because apps on internal memory loads faster than those in the microSD card if ever you’re using Link2SD or you swapped it (in case you don’t have a high class SD card).

This phone runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and we’re overwhelmed on how well this handset performed. Basic operations were fast, and even a flood of numerous notifications didn’t give significant bumps.

Camera

We didn’t had the chance to test this extensively but we will be updating this post with a couple of sample shots. During our short usage, it was great and is far from the quality that other local android phones provide. The photos are clear and crisp so we don’t have anything much to worry about in this department. It also has a panorama mode, in case you’re curious about it. The only thing that I missed here is the lack of autofocus and tap to focus feature which is really handy when you’re looking to shoot high quality photos. But still, even without that, the camera of MyPhone A848 is still one of the best under Php5k. It’s nowhere near the camera quality of MyPhone A919 Duo, MyPhone A898 Duo, and MyPhone A888 Duo, though.

Gaming

Most of the games I’ve tried worked well without glitches. Some of them are Subway Surfers, Temple Run 2, Cut the Rope, Where’s my water, and Falling Fred among others. As for HD games, the likes of NBA2k13 did work but there are times that lags were prominent but it doesn’t really ruin the whole gameplay. On the other side, MyPhone A848 Duo run casual games smoothly without hiccups.

Multimedia

As a multimedia device, My Phone A848 Duo is a decent player. It’s fairly large 4-inch display and decent WVGA resolution is already good enough in watching music videos, live performances, and even movies – that is if you don’t rely on subtitles too much. To further enjoy the experience, I would recommend using a pair of earphones rather than relying on the phone’s speakers. It’s not weak or anything, but it would be better especially if you’re on a well crowded area.

If you’re more on music and you’d mainly use MyPhone A848 Duo as an audio player, it’ll be a fine audio player as well. In our case, there’s no problem in any earphones that we tried unlike on other local android phones that seem to be picky about this stuff. And if you’re fond of fiddling with equalizer settings, there’s an option for that too. Actually, there’s a whole lot more of sound effects and the like in the Play store. You just need to find those awesome apps.

Internet Connectivity

To keep the cost down, MyPhone had to cut some corners. Unfortunately, the 3G connectivity was the one which was removed. For mobile data junkies, it’s quite a turn off but it will just be forgotten after a while. After all, most people use Wi-Fi to connect to the internet. But in case you don’t have a hotspot near you, you can just opt to buy portable Wi-Fi hotspot which you can bring with you anywhere and you just need to load up if there are no hotspots available.

Battery life

The battery life of MyPhone A848 Duo is slightly above average. Considering it’s not so heavy 1GHz processor and 4-inch screen, the 1600mAh lasted for about a day of moderate usage – and sometimes, there’s around 20-30% more to spare. Our usage include frequent texting, a couple of minutes of calls,  more than 2 hours usage of Wi-Fi with web browsing and social networking, approximately 10 minutes of video playback, and around an hour of gaming – we still got about 26 percent left. Nothing to impressive but that’s already a good rate for a phone of its caliber.

Conclusion

While there are other cheaper options out there, the MyPhone A848 Duo is still a great choice if you’re looking into switching to android. The specs aren’t mind blowing, but that’s what we could expect for its price. For only Php4,590, you’ll get a solid build, 4-inch IPS display, 1GHz processor, and 512M RAM – a competent set in today’s standards. Don’t jump into conclusions that it can’t take those HD games you’re itching to play because I can guarantee you that it can run most of them.

MyPhone A848 Duo Specs

• Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 4.0-inch WVGA IPS Display, 480×800 pixel resolution
• 1GHz single core MTK6575 processor
• PowerVR SGX531 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB internal memory (2.5GB usable), up to 32GB via microSD
• 5-megapixel camera with flash
• VGA front camera
• GPRS, EDGE
• Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot
• microUSB v2.0
• Bluetooth
• No GPS
• TV-out support
• Colors: Black, Black and White
• 1600mAh Li-Ion battery

We can safely say that this is a bang for buck deal for the price we’re getting it. I was very impressed by the build and it’s comparable to other big name brands’ quality. It doesn’t feel cheap, seriously. So if you’re tight on budget but you want a sweet android experience, what are you waiting for? MyPhone A848 Duo is still available for a low price of Php4,590 on MyPhone kiosks and retailers nationwide.