THL W3+ and MTK6577 review!

ThL W3+ Review

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Why
Because of the dual-core SOC. There is little information on it (in English) on the net so I was curious. Curiosity kills. And it makes me broke.

Specifications
CPU: MediaTek MTK6577 Dual-Core Cortex A9 at 1.0GHz
GPU: PowerVR SGX 531 Ultra
RAM: 1GB
OS: Android 4.0.3
Firmware: 06/08
Internal Memory: 1GB Apps, 2GB internal.
Screen Size: 4.5"
Screen Resolution: 1280x720.
Webcam: 8.0MP Rear and 2MP Front.
Battery: 2000mAH Li-Ion.

Packaging

Small and compact box. I like the packaging, everything was simple and non-excessive. 

There is a warranty card inside as well as a user manual in chinese. And of course, the phone. Looks like an iPhone at this angle.

The phone in terrible picture quality. Damn I need a proper camera.

Included were the USB cable, charger, in-ear headphones and 2 batteries. Thats two batteries! This was nowhere stated in Pandawill website so it was a pleasant surprise. Actually Pandawill also shipped one screen protector but I was so stupid that I ruined it with dusts hahaha.

Build Quality
The phone generally feels solid and does not in anyway feels cheap. However, I would have preferred a textured finish over the smooth surface but as it is, it is okay. I think I just need to adjust to the smooth feeling without feeling that it might fall off my hands anytime.

On the left side is the volume rocker. The buttons are responsive and there is enough feedback. No faults here.

On the top are the power button and the 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the right side is the Micro-USB port.

On the bottom is the microphone.

On the back are the two LED flash lights and the 8.0MP camera as well as the loudspeaker.

Screen

I wasn't aware of the type of the screen used in this phone so I was not really expecting anything great but boy oh boy, the screen is gorgeous. It is bright, vibrant and most importantly the viewing angle is fantastic. Considering all these quality, if one told me that this is an IPS screen I would have no trouble believing but without more information my guess is as good as yours. The important point to take away here is that the screen looks great. The high resolution (1280x720) definitely pays off.

Camera
Rear Camera

The camera autofocus function works well and it was quick (sub 2s). 

Indoor with some sunlight, the quality is acceptable but using the automatic setting there is a lot of noise whenever there is not enough light. Colour also suffer under lack of lighting.

This is in almost total darkness with flash turned on. The flash lights are bright enough to light up a medium sized room. See what I mean about the noise and colour? The colour and noises are improved when there is enough light.

Outdoors, the camera did quite well. The images are vibrant and there is less noise compared to indoor images. However, the images are still rather noisy but is not really visible unless you view it in its original resolution. I only edited the license plate so the picture is otherwise unedited.

Front Camera
The front camera is surprisingly a decent performer.

The colour is rather dull and details are mostly lost but enough to make out what things you are looking at. It performs better under limited lighting than the rear camera so Skyping using this should be a non-issue. 

Speakers and Headphone jack
The loudspeaker performs acceptably. It is as loud as most modern android smartphone. Nothing remarkable and it does not distort under full volume. There is no hints of bass and treble is bright bordering on being harsh but is no way fatiguing.

Using headphones to listen to musics, there is no audible static noise which is good. Musics played fine with plenty of volume and no obvious colouration. The dynamic range is good and to be honest one would be hard pressed to differentiate this to the integrated audio controllers used in most computers nowadays.

Battery Life
I have been using the phone for just a little bit more than a day so I will definitely need more time to test this section. So far the battery life looks promising. I used the phone with the wireless turned on, WhatsApp on the background with lots of texting and occasional browsing. It arrived with about 87% battery and after about 7 hours of heavy usage it still have about 37% left. This is a preliminary data as I will need to charge cycle the battery to know the definite performance so will update this after a day or two of proper usage.

Update:
After using this phone as my primary phone, I now have more data about the battery life. It generally lasts about 12hrs of browsing on wi-fi. If you do not use it that much and allow its screen to turn off periodically it can last about 15-16hrs.

As the charger is rated at 0.5A it is rather slow to fully charge the phone. Using this charger, it took me about 5hrs to completely charge the phone from 0%. On interesting thing I noted is that when the battery reached 15%, it will deplete faster than usual and reach 0% quicker than I expected. Also note that the provided charger's USB connector is longer than those of well known manufacturers. I tried to charge using a SIII charger only to find that its extremely loose although it does work if you let it stay stationary. Currently I used my N900 charger which is rated at 1.2A and it charges a little faster.

Wireless Performance
After being disappointed by the wireless performance of the Ramos W17Pro, it was refreshing to use the ThL W3+. It performs well under acceptable distance. My room is quite far from my main router so most phones cannot connect to it. Even some netbooks have trouble connecting but the ThL W3+ connects fine although it displays just one bar. The performance is at par with my Nokia N900 with much better battery life.

GPS
I do not really use this feature but using Google Maps, it accurately determined my location within 3s so I guess it works well as long as you have internet access. I have yet to use the GPS outdoors so cannot comment on that. In my opinion, the Google Location service is accurate enough that you only need internet connection anyway.

MTK6577
General Performance
Using the Android generally feels smooth with some stutters with there are lots of background apps. Browsing feels smooth and I cannot differentiate browsing using this or the Ramos speedwise. Of course, the experience is different (better) thanks to the higher resolution of the ThL. Embedded flash also works. The SOC plays all the different kinds of videos I have well. This is to be expected though as they have considerable experience in hardware accelerating the video decoding process.

Performance

Sunspider 0.9.1

Rightware Browsermark

GLBenchmark 2.1.4

Basemark Taiji

Linpack

Antutu

Comparison with other SOCs
-To be updated-


Call Quality
Although I have not used to phone to call anybody, the mic worked well during skype calls so I assumed that it will work just as well for normal phone calls.

The mic appears to be an omnidirectional mic hence picking up any nearby voice and noise in all direction. This is of course a matter of personal preference but I personally like it.

Issues
On the hardware side, the only issue is that it gets quite warm while using it for browsing. Otherwise, the hardware side is really good.

Now on the software side... The main issue is that when it arrived, the Play store did not work at all although it was preinstalled.. And to fix this I need to root the phone. And to root the phone I need the ADB drivers for the phone. Pandawill does not have information on this so I was really on my own. Thankfully, after some attempts I managed to root it and hence installed and fixed the Play store. There is also an updated firmware on the net (dated 06/08). If any of you need the instructions on how to do it, comment below and I will try to  write up the tutorial as soon as possible.

Conclusion
To be honest, I was not expecting much from this SOC as rightfully so it performs just as I expected. The processors are fine really and is competitive with the other dual-core SOCs out there. The main weakness of the  SOC and hence the phone is the GPU; it is too weak for the native resolution and is really weak for today's game. While most 3D games today perform fine (barely), I have no doubt it will nowhere be enough to support any new upcoming game.

As for the phone, I have to say that I am impressed. I guess it would be a much better performer if ThL would have used the TI OMAP 4430 but I guess that is asking too much considering the selling price. The features alone made it worth it. The issues can easily be fixed while the others are liveable. I have no trouble recommending this phone to anybody seeking for an entry level smartphone. Just don't have any high expectation on the performance as it really is just acceptable.

ThL W3+ Android Phone 3G WCDMA 4.5 Inch 720P IPS Screen MTK6577 1GHz Dual Core 1GB RAM 4G ROM Dual SIM Dual Camera 8MP White Original THL W3+ MTK6577 Phone Android 4.0 4.5 inch IPS Screen 1028x720 pixels 1GB RAM 4GB ROM Front 2MP/ Rear 8MP