MyPhone Agua Infinity Review

The octa-core war on the local smartphone industry is on! When MediaTek unveiled its true octa-core processor late last year, it took the whole industry by storm. Not only that it is one of the first genuine octa-core processor ever made, but it was also destined to head to MediaTek’s avid client companies who offer devices at a very economical price.

Cherry Mobile, Starmobile, SKK Mobile, and as of writing, O+ USA have also had their own cards on the table for the eight-core smartphone race.

Now, we bring you MyPhone’s first octa-core offering, the MyPhone Agua Infinity.

The Agua Infinity offers a showy spec sheet. Let me tease you by saying that it has a 5” FHD display that is coated with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, an 8MP front-facing camera and a whooping 16MP rear camera, and of course, a 1.,7GHz octa-core processor along with 2GBs of RAM. Check out the complete specs list below.

But, are all these hype, when integrated together at a single device enough to really wow the market? Let’s all answer that on our full review.

MyPhone Infinity Specs

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
5-inch IPS LCD (1080×1920 Full HD), ~441ppi
1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor
Mali 450MP GPU
2GB RAM
16GB internal storage
No microSD support
16-megapixel main camera, with autofocus and LED flash
5-megapixel front camera
Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS
Profile thickness: 7.3mm
Battery: 2350mAh
Price: Php12,999

MyPhone Infinity Video Review

What’s in the Box?

A highly anticipated device like the MyPhone Agua Infinity requires an excellent packaging to support and compliment the device’s high value. MyPhone achieved this by wrapping the Agua Infinity and its accessories in a compact, elegant-looking box.

Before the actual packaging, the device’s box have been primarily wrapped in a soft plastic case as the included Smart Cover doesn’t fit on the the actual box, plus it also safeguards the device’s fragile crate.

Why did we say fragile? It’s because the device’s main packaging is covered glass-like hard plastic, which quite resembles the packaging that some other high-end devices have.

Opening the box you would initially discern the actual device itself, with the free case installed straightaway. The box’s divider is also made with the same quality as the front cover, which is worth noting as it gives us an extra feel that we’re really unboxing an high-end smartphone.

Digging in the box shall reveal the microUSB cable, wall adaptor, in-ear headphones w/ mic, optional ear tips, sim card tray ejector, quick-start guide and the warranty certificate. It’s also worth mentioning that both the headphones and the microUSB cables are made with tangle-free wires

Hardware and Design

The MyPhone Agua Infinity’s design can really be a looker for a locally-branded device. The device’s premium outer looks really compliments its internals. It’s been elegantly sandwiched with glass on its front and back and the sides are made with solid metal as well.

The front of the device looks incredibly alluring with its 5” Full HD IPS Corning Gorilla Glass 2 display. With the 8MP front-facing camera, proximity and ambient light sensors, LED notification indicator, and the capacitive buttons.

The sim card slot, lock/power button and the volume controls are sitting in the right side of the device, while the left side only contains the other sim card slot as this device supports dual-sim capability.

3.5mm headphone jack seats at the top and the microUSB port and the speakers are placed at the bottom.

The back really looks top-line with its enormous 16MP camera with LED flash. We can’t help but notice the screaming design touches that surrounds the camera and gives it an emphasis.

The whole back panel has this clever design aspect, it is dotted with this tiny diamond shapes that has a reflecting action when blasted with lights. The back literally looks like a shimmering diamond, which makes it perfect for ladies out there. As a guy, it’s quite okay for me.

The sides of the device also kinda resembles the design aspect that the iPhone 4S have. Remember those vertical lines that are all over the iPhone 4S?

Probably the only bummer on this device is that the 2350mAh battery is irreplaceable due to its unibody structure. Also, there’s no microSD card slot available so you’re stuck with its 16GB internal memory – which means that you should be conservative in installing too many apps and games because you will run out of storage rather quickly.

There is also an included case, which is made on more like a silicone plastic material. For a freebie case, you wouldn’t really expect full protection for your phone. It safeguards the Agua Infinity’s gorgeous rear surface, and its sides but, you’re still prone on scratching the upper and lower parts. However, one of the main points of getting a beautiful device like this is its design, so I don’t really like to use a case.

Display

The device is loaded with 5” Full HD IPS display with 1080×1920 resolution, and 480 ppi. All of these results to a very good display quality.

Movies and videos looked extremely gorgeous on this one. It has a nice saturation, vibrancy and sharpness. Details are also well exhibited, even texts looked very crisp.

Viewing angles are also plain impressive. It gives you the ability to glance at the device at almost any angle, stress free. Though sunlight legibility is pretty much on the down side, the screen can’t deliver sufficient brightness to fight against the strong outdoor light even when maxed out.

Agua Infinity also has an admirable thin bezel, but we’ve seen something thinner like the O+ Imagine, which we have reviewed before. It’s very comparable though and it’s really nice to look at especially if you are one of the bezel nerds out there.

It’s also worth noting that the screen is coated with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, known for being extra tough and scratch resistant. It’s widely used by almost all of the high-end tech brands today which means you can count on it to deliver. We will still advice that you put a screen protector, though.

Performance

This is probably the centrepiece of this review. The Agua Infinity is the first MyPhone device that has an octa-core processor. The device runs MediaTek’s first true octa-core processor that’s clocked-in at 1.7GHz. This gigantic processor is supported by 2GB of RAM and a Mali-450 MP graphics card.

By looking at the enormous spec sheet, you could definitely say that this device can really deliver monstrous performance. The Agua Infinity garnered a whooping score of 27,082 at Antutu Benchmarks which is comparable to the Galaxy S4 and HTC One M7.

The MyPhone Agua Infinity took and handled well all the things we throw at it. From heavy multi-tasking up to playing high-end games like the Asphalt 8: Airborne, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Dead Trigger 2, all of this power-hungry games ran fluidly on the device, we’ve even maxed out the games’ graphics settings and it could still take it.

The only nuisance that we have encountered is that the device tends to heat up fast, probably due to the aluminium sides and glass exterior. This can be annoying at times but you can always let it cool down for a few minutes before playing again.

The real issue we have is on its internal storage. This beast sports an 8 core processor, 2GBs of RAM, and all – but it has a limited storage of only 16GB with no microSD card expansion. This can possibly make you enjoy the device less because you need to be cautious in installing apps and HD games given the relatively small amount of storage. For me, this is not really a frustrating issue because I rarely install too much games on my smartphones. But for all the geeks out there, this is undeniably bothersome.

Software

The MyPhone Agua Infinity runs Android 4.2.2 out of the box, which is something that come standard to local devices these days. But with its capable processor, we’re hopeful that the device shall be graced with a more latest Android software version. As of writing, O+ Air was already available in the market and it’s running Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. If you still remember, we previously reported that local brands will be giving an update on their devices. With that, we’re pretty sure that the Android 4.4 Kitkat update for the Infinity is not too far away as well ‘cause they carry the same octa-core chipset. Hopefully, we’ll get the update within the month as MyPhone already starting teasing it.

Agua Infinity also has a feature called Clever motion, which is a new feature on a MyPhone device. It intelligently utilizes the device’s proximity sensor, gyroscope and gravity sensor to take commands. But, we’ve seen it to be more like a novelty rather than a useful tool as waving your hands few centimetres away from the screen is kinda more tiring rather than actually swiping your fingers across it.

All in all, the device still runs full and native Android user interface. The lockscreen still look the same, the notification bar, the app drawer, everything. The only thing that MyPhone have probably touched on this one is the look of some of the buttons and the app icons.

Check out some of the device’s screenshots to see it yourself:

Battery

Every good device still has its own little weaknesses. And in the case of the MyPhone Agua Infinity, the battery performance is its Achilles heel.

Despite having an octa-core processor, which is really expected to be juice-hungry, the device only packs 2350mAh battery. Though we have seen worse in some octa-core device in the market, but we think the ideal battery capacity that an eight-core device should have is, at the very least, 2600mAh and up.

That said, the device lasted for almost one and a half day with light to moderate use and almost five hours with heavy use (solid hours of gaming and video playback). Of course, this boils down to the owner’s usage, so you can possibly have better battery life than me.

Camera

Probably one of the centerpiece that MyPhone planted to the Agua Infinity is its massive picture-taking capability. The device has been packed with a 16-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. That’s evidently a sizable number of megapixels if you ask us, as most of the high-end devices these days, still doesn’t fully embrace this type of camera module.

That said, photos that we have took looked beautiful. It has an outstanding color reproduction, enough exposure and well saturated photos. Auto-focus also performs brilliantly on this one and it can impressively make any subject standout by really giving it an ultra-blurry background. The HDR mode works well too, making scenes with bad lighting look slightly better.

These beautiful photos also compliment the Agua Infinity’s beautiful Full HD display, which makes browsing the gallery enjoyable. The images are absolutely appealing and are perfect for social networking junkies.

Check out the sample shots that we have took:

Also, we shall not forget its enormous 8MP front-facing camera. Agua Infinity is probably one of the most capable selfie-snapper on the market today. It even can perform better than other devices’ main camera. It can produce well-detailed photos and selfies can really be extra bright. That said, you can worry-free take selfies even on a low-light place like on a party or just a midnight walk outside.

Here are some of the ‘selfie’s we have shamelessly took using this phone:

But, it’s not always the pros that we are talking here. We have seen a little hiccup on the camera’s capability in taking photos at low-light conditions. Though, the device can actually perform well on this type of scenario, but there were some occasion when the photos really looked unacceptably dull in not so properly lit areas. We’re experiencing this when we try to snap a photo indoors that has bad lighting.

Here’s what we are talking about:

Also, the camera app is little lackluster. It’s kinda frustrating not to be able to control the exposure value, white balance and even the focus mode. But that said, the device still offers a lot of nifty features like Cinemagraph, 360 Panorama, Object eraser, HDR, Face Beauty, Multi angle view, Smile shot, Best shot and EV Bracket shot. The camera app also takes full advantage of the device’s ultra-sensitive proximity sensors having a clever feature called Wave to Capture Image; thename itself is self-explanatory.

As a Phone

First, let’s talk about call quality. The earpiece have some decent quality, but not very good. It doesn’t have a good volume in it, making receiving calls in public a little bit rough. Well, to be fair, a lot of other phones are like this. The solution is to try to get a slightly less noisy environment. Also, it only has one built-in mic instead of two for background noise cancellation. But, people next on the line had no complaints in the call we’re making.

Creating text messages can be done fluently on this one. The letters on the keyboard are decently spaced and at the right size which can give better accuracy when typing. But due to the device’s slim form factor, users with big hands, like us, can experience a little struggle on typing as the device’s sleek design can make it easily slip through your hands and drop to the floor.

Media

The MyPhone Agua Infinity is probably a multimedia powerhouse. The gorgeous screen and ultra powerful processor joined forces to deliver great entertainment to the user.

Watching movies is pleasurable with its beautiful 5” Full HD screen and the loudspeaker. The only problem is, the loudspeaker is placed at the bottom part of the device, so holding it while watching in landscape mode can really block the sound coming from the loudspeaker. But despite this, the loudspeaker delivers above average sound quality. It delivers decent volume in either watching movies, playing games or just listening to music.

Mobile gaming enthusiasts would surely love this device with its powerful processing power, great graphics and awesome screen. We tried and played power-hungry games like the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt 8: Airborne. All of them ran impressively well, we’ve even maxed out the games’ graphics settings and it still ran like a boss.

Verdict

MyPhone Agua Infinity is a hybrid of being a beauty and a beast. A powerful octa-core monster trapped in an elegant, good-looking glass-on-glass body with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 and aluminium sides.

Though, things wouldn’t be easy for MyPhone as almost all of its competition started offering octa-core devices ahead of the Agua Infinity. Some of these competing devices actually offer better spec sheet on paper, but of course, at a higher asking price. It’s also worth noting that the Infinity has the best design among the bunch thanks to its Xperia-like look. That’s why you should ask yourself first before considering an octa-core device, is the extra novelties are worthy enough for the extra cost that they are asking? If your answer is no, then probably the MyPhone Agua Infinity is for you as it is probably the most beautiful and most competent octa-core device out there in its price range.

MyPhone really nailed it with the MyPhone Infinity. And with its Php12,999, it’s clearly a huge bang for the back.

Pros

The MyPhone Agua Infinity offers a solid build with elegant design, sharp and vivid display coated with Gorilla Glass 2, has one of the best 8MP selfie camera and of course, a powerful and snappy performance.

Cons

Camera app lacks options and controls, undersized battery capacity, lack of microSD support, and the display’s sunlight legibility could have been better.