The Fly brand expands its range of smartphones with increased battery capacity with another long-lived one - Fly EVO Energy 1 (IQ4515 Quad). The novelty has a productive 4-core
processor, large 5'' HD IPS display and 8 megapixel main camera. Fly EVO Energy 1 will go on sale at a reasonable price of 7,490 rubles.
- Inexhaustible energy
For the most active smartphone users and those who need to always stay in touch, Fly has released a smartphone with an increased battery capacity of 4000 mAh. In spite of
high performance and large capacitive display, Fly EVO Energy 1 can go a long time without recharging. X-life battery provides the gadget with up to 15 hours of continuous talk time, up to 8 hours of Internet browsing and up to 250 hours of standby time.
- Magic of colors
Fly EVO Energy 1 is equipped with a 5'' IPS display with HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The wide screen will be an excellent tool for both work and leisure. The applied technologies IPS and OGS (In-Plane Switching + One glass solution) allow you to appreciate the high level of color reproduction, detail and saturation of the image, wide viewing angles, as well as readability of the screen even in bright sunlight. Thanks to the sensitivity of the display, the smartphone instantly responds to the slightest touch, which makes the work even more comfortable.
- For big tasks
The novelty is running the popular OS Android KitKat 4.4. The optimal distribution of 1 GB of RAM allows you to stabilize your smartphone and achieve the greatest efficiency and performance. Fly EVO Energy 1 is equipped with a powerful 1.3 GHz quad-core processor that processes data instantly and ensures fast performance even when multitasking.
- Attractive design
The case of Fly EVO Energy 1, presented in a classic black color scheme, attracts attention with a laconic and strict design. The dimensions of the novelty are 143.5 x 72.5 x 10.4 mm. Thanks to the ergonomic shape, it fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and allows you to easily use it in one hand.
- Multimedia features
The high-quality 8 megapixel camera is equipped with autofocus, powerful flash and offers a wide range of shooting modes. Create, edit and share photos with your friends on social networks using the Wi-Fi module or high-speed 3G internet. Saving a large number of media files is easy with 8 GB of built-in memory. If necessary, the storage can be expanded up to 32 GB using microSDHC memory cards.
- Pleasant benefit
Support for all modern audio and video formats will not let you get bored and help you spend your free time usefully. And thanks to the wide selection of the Google Play catalog, you can always find useful apps, widgets and popular games. For greater convenience, the new product has already installed the popular mobile browser Opera, which, thanks to the data compression mode, allows you to increase the speed of the Internet and significantly reduce the cost of Internet traffic.
Movie fans will appreciate the application of the world's largest video service, MEGOGO, which is also included in the Fly EVO Energy 1 preinstallation package.
- Following the best traditions
The novelty supports 2 active SIM-cards. The model is covered by a 2 year manufacturer's warranty.
Fly Life Mega and similar budget devices are a separate niche in the modern market of mobile devices. Even when the market is filled with productive flagships, there is still a demand for such devices. And this is not surprising - budget gadgets are needed in order to ensure the use of all the basic functions of modern smartphones at a minimum cost.
So to speak, without much frills. And, to be honest, not everyone has enough money to use a brand new smartphone for tens of thousands of rubles. They only say that the crisis has already passed, but, in fact, its echo is still rolling through Russian cities and villages.
In this regard, the hero of our today's review is quite typical. But it also has some obvious advantages. We started our acquaintance with it from unpacking. And at this stage, he surprised with his asceticism. The manufacturer, assembling the complete set, was precisely guided by the motto “Nothing more!”
In a box made of the most ordinary cardboard, I saw only the smartphone itself, a charging cable with a microUSB connector, a power supply, and a few inexpressive pieces of paper. There are no films, penny silicone cases and even a headset for it! Of course, you can live without all this, but it would be nice to feel a kind gesture from the manufacturer, because, no matter how, when buying a smartphone of a certain brand, we also make a kind gesture ... On the other hand, it’s a sin to be offended - the device is budget.
Holding it in your hands, it should be noted that he sits like a "poured". This is achieved by the fact that the back cover has a relief surface and does not slip at all. Tactile sensations are pleasant, although the materials (plastic), you can immediately see, are inexpensive. There are no sharp corners, which is a plus for me personally. The case does not stand out in thickness - carrying it in a trouser pocket will not be a problem. By weight, the device is quite light and does not pull the hand at all. So, purely outwardly, the impression is positive, but let's see how our test subject will show further.
Display and features
I turn on my Fly Life Mega. The manufacturer's logo appears on the display, and, then, the desktop. The screen is quite large - 5.7 inches. After using this smartphone for a while, I formed my opinion about its display.
Taking into account the class of the device, it is not bad at all - the resolution is 1440x720 pixels, the proportions of the sides are comfortable - 18:9, and, surprisingly, the IPS matrix is the basis. In different lighting conditions, the display behaves as expected. There is enough reserve of brightness and contrast, quite tolerable viewing angles, but the color reproduction is far from desirable. The situation can be somewhat corrected by adjusting the screen parameters, but most likely it will not be completely solved. After playing around with the settings, I was able to achieve a more or less acceptable display of colors.
Do you know what else "struck my eyes" looking at the display? The desktop is literally crammed with applications. And I don't really need most of them. Probably, the memory of the smartphone (a rather modest 8 GB storage, part of which is already occupied by the operating system files) is packed to capacity! But it didn't turn out as bad as I thought.
When I click on one or another shortcut, the phone takes me to the application store, and does not launch the programs themselves. Thus, the manufacturer acted very wisely (respect!), which actually provided links for downloading software, which, in his opinion, could be useful, but did not clutter up the free space with unnecessary software.
Well, now I want to talk about what interests literally everyone - about performance. In this device, two friends are responsible for it:
- Processor MediaTek MT6737H
- Video chip Mali-T720 MP2
The bundle is not the best, I’ll say right away, but just right for such a device. The situation is worsened by the fact that there is only 1 GB of RAM, which, frankly, will not be enough in today's times.
I'm starting to use my phone. I open several applications at once. I'm still opening. When there are “too many” such programs open, this begins to affect performance - there is a delay when switching between desktops, and the interface may work jerkily.
If you are a game lover, then this phone is not for you. "Wrap" a tidy sum and look for something that will be more acceptable, since today's market offers the widest range of devices with different performance. Only the simplest toys will go to Fly Life Mega, but there is not much joy from them, unfortunately. Although, who cares!
Pros and cons of Fly Life Mega
But let's not just talk about the bad, there are certain pluses here. So, this budget handset supports 4G networks, which makes it possible to surf comfortably and quickly download downloaded files. In addition, there are also interfaces that are needed every day, such as Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, and GPS. It is not superfluous to have a built-in radio receiver, which works pretty well in the city.
The sound quality on this phone is average. It is relatively loud - a call or SMS will definitely not go unnoticed. If you start playing media files, then the impression is somewhat different. He lacks low frequencies, and there are too many high and medium ones. However, you can listen to the same radio as you can listen to music from the phone's memory, or the Web.
No less interesting, what kind of cameras are in this state employee? The main module is 8 megapixels, and the front camera has a resolution of only 2 megapixels. It is worth noting the presence of a flash and an auto focus function. Autofocus does not always work correctly - sometimes operator assistance is required. You can also record videos - the device provides quality corresponding to HD at 30 frames per second.
I rate the quality of the photos as satisfactory. The pictures are not outstanding quality, but in good light they look pretty good. When the lighting deteriorates, the quality of the photos also changes. If we talk about the front camera, then it can be called "nominal".
Battery. An important element of every mobile device. This smartphone is equipped with a 2800 mAh battery. Not so much, probably. But here it is worth considering that its consumption is not as large as that of smartphones with more “cool” stuffing. For example, in my mixed mode (calls, some music, some surfing, a couple of videos from the Web) load, the phone confidently survived until late in the evening. I think this is a pretty decent result against the background of gadgets that report the need for charging already at lunchtime.
Mobile phone manufacturer Fly decided to tease its main competitor, Philips, by playing on its field. In contrast to the well-known Xenium series of long-lasting phones on the market, Philips Fly has launched its line of long-lasting XLife phones as well. But if Xenium devices are already firmly established in the market, and many people know about their advantages in the form of long battery life, then Fly with the XLife line will have to win the favor of users, proving in practice that their phones are also capable of working for a very long time. The first sign of the XLife line was the DS150 model, an affordable two-SIM device, which will be discussed in this review.
Design, dimensions, controls
The phone is made in a monoblock form factor and has small dimensions (103x45x15 mm, weight less than 100 grams), so it fits easily not only in a trouser pocket, but also in a shirt pocket, without burdening the owner. Externally, the device looks quite attractive, such a simple and concise design. The phone lies well in the hand, without causing any discomfort from the first minutes of communication with the device. There is only one color scheme for the model, it is a combination of black (front panel) and dark gray (rear panel). The case coating is smooth, but not at all easily soiled, so the device always looks neat.
Comparison with Fly DS420:
The case is completely made of plastic of good quality, the assembly does not cause any complaints, all parts are fitted close to each other, nothing creaks or backlash.
On the upper end in the center there is a fairly bright flashlight, the on / off button of which is located on the left side surface. The key is medium in size, it is flush with the case, which allows you to avoid accidental activation. At the bottom end is a standard miniUSB-connector, which, among other things, is used to connect a wired headset to the phone.
On the rear panel in its upper part on a small elevation is the lens of the built-in CIF camera, and to the right of it there is a speaker hole for playing a call signal and other sounds. Most of the back wall is occupied by the battery cover, it is fastened quite securely, there is a backlash, but very small, so you don’t even pay attention to it.
Screen
The device has a small 1.77” (28x35 mm) display, unlike most low-end devices, it uses not a CSTN, but a TFT screen. The resolution of the display is quite standard for this class of devices and is 128x160 pixels, and the number of displayed colors is 65000. Up to 7 lines of text can be displayed on the screen at the same time, two more lines are allocated for service information. The screen quality is low, the picture looks average on it. The viewing angles of the display are a little disappointing, they are small both vertically and horizontally, a slight deviation of the device leads to image distortion, which is not very pleasant during operation. In the sun, the display behaves well, at least it does not go completely blind, the information on it remains quite readable.
Keyboard
The keypad is also made of plastic. The keys of the navigation block are medium in size and quite comfortable to use. The four-position navigation key with the “OK” button inscribed in it is small, but it is convenient to use, and there are no problems with it.
The numeric keys are arranged in terraces close to each other, they are also medium in size, but they are not very convenient in operation, erroneous presses often occur during quick typing. For people with large fingers, working with the DS150's number keys can be completely problematic.
The backlighting of the keyboard is white, it is unevenly distributed. The central column of keys is better highlighted, but the side columns are highlighted worse, so the characters printed on them are not always well readable.
Battery and XLife Series
The device has a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 1200 mAh. According to the manufacturer, with it the device is able to work up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 400 hours of standby time. As you can see, the manufacturer is already claiming battery life that is shorter than that of Philips' Xenium phones, with the latter averaging 8 hours of talk time and 1 month of standby time. In the networks of Moscow operators Fly DS150 worked an average of 5 days with 15-20 minutes of conversation per day and up to 30 minutes of using other functions. If you also use the phone as a player for 1-1.5 hours a day, then the battery life will be reduced to 3 days. As you can see, the results are not particularly impressive, for 5 days, or even more, most of the budget devices are able to work, and, moreover, with a greater load. Yes, of course, you can make allowances for the fact that the DS150 uses two SIM cards, but still its battery life is short, especially for a "long-playing" phone. The time for a full charge of the battery is about 2.5-3 hours, you can charge the device both from the mains and via USB when you connect the phone to a PC, but in the latter case, the charging time will increase.
Well, Fly's first attack on Philips failed, the new XLife line turned out to be not so interesting as its competitor Xenium. The company should have done more work on the first device of the XLife series, made it a candy to plug the Philips Xenium devices into the belt. But, unfortunately, Fly decided to go the other way, it seems that the company does not want to develop a line of long-playing phones, and the launch of the XLife series was needed only to harm the competitor.
Whether the company will further develop this series of phones is not clear at the moment, perhaps the manufacturer will abandon it, as was the case with some other lines of phones from Fly. If the manufacturer nevertheless decides to develop the series, then they will have to work very hard on the release of the second product, since the first phone of the line will greatly spoil the impression of the series as a whole.
Memory and PC connection
The device has only about 196 KB of internal memory, which, of course, is quite small, but the situation can be solved with the help of microSD memory cards, the slot for which is located under the phone's battery. According to the manufacturer, the device supports memory cards up to 2 GB, but during testing our device saw and worked without problems with a 4 GB card.
The phone cannot work in Mass Storage mode without installing additional drivers; when it is connected to a PC, only the battery is charged and that's it.
Work with two SIM-cards
The device does not use two radio modules, as, for example, in Fly DS400/420 and B700 phones, but only one, but thanks to the new chipset, two SIM cards can work simultaneously in it without switching between them. In standby mode, the DS150 has both SIM cards available, but as soon as you start working with one of them, for example, you made a voice call, the second one becomes unavailable. The solution with one radio module is budgetary and is suitable only for low-speaking subscribers who, in principle, do not care so much that sometimes one of their numbers will be unavailable. Users who purchase a dual SIM device so that both numbers are always available for communication will not work with devices like the DS150, they should turn their attention to more expensive solutions with two radio modules.
In the phone menu, everything is done for convenient work with two SIM cards, there are no primary and secondary cards in the device, both of them are equivalent and are simply marked as SIM1 and SIM2, depending on the slot in which they are located. In standby mode on the main screen of the phone, you can see two reception bars in the upper left corner, which are numbered. The names of the operators are displayed in the center of the screen, the top ones are for the first card and the bottom ones, respectively, for the second one. Through the phone menu, you can disable one of the SIM cards or both. The device has only one call key, which does not make working with the device less convenient, but only adds one extra press.
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There are no problems when working with messages, contacts, call lists, in all the above items the information for SIM cards is separated, so it is simply impossible to get confused.
Menu
The phone's main menu has only one view, which is a standard 3x3 matrix. The menu icons are well drawn, the selected item is highlighted. Submenus are presented in the form of vertical lists. The device has a quick navigation using a number sequence. Also, to quickly launch applications, you can assign access to them to the navigation key, in addition, the device has a quick access menu, in which you can add up to 10 menu items.
The localization of the device is not the best, there is not quite correct translation, there is also a problem with Russian fonts in the device - the letters are thick, and besides, they “dance”, which is not very pleasant when reading information from the screen. The phone provides predictive text input eZi (analogue of T9) for Russian and English.
Phone book. Up to 300 contacts can be stored in the device's memory. For each contact, you can record a name (up to 30 characters), up to 4 phone numbers with a rigid binding to the type of number, a company name (up to 20 characters) and an e-mail address (up to 60 characters). You can also assign a picture and ringtone to a contact. In addition, a contact can be placed in one of five groups, for each of which it is possible to change the name, assign a picture, and also a ringtone.
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The contact list displays both contacts from the memory card and from the SIM card. The search is carried out in the phone book letter by letter or by name. In the contacts list, next to the name of the subscriber, only the mobile phone number is displayed, and to view the rest of the numbers, you must select a contact and press the confirmation key. Quick access to the contact list is carried out by pressing the right function key from the standby mode.
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A photo assigned to a subscriber cannot exceed 20 Kb in size, but there is no such restriction for videos. During an incoming call, the photo is not displayed in full screen.
Messages. Up to 200 messages can be stored in the machine's memory. The device does not support the EMS standard, only regular SMS. It is possible to work with glued messages, while working in the upper right corner, the number of remaining characters and the number of used messages are displayed. There are 10 templates in the phone, which can be changed at your discretion. Multidistribution of messages (up to 10 numbers) is provided, as well as sending a message to a group of subscribers (from the phone book).
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MMS editor is quite simple and easy to use. You can create message templates. The maximum size of an MMS message to be sent cannot exceed 100 KB.
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Challenges. Standard lists of incoming, dialed and missed calls, each of them can store up to 30 numbers. Identical numbers are combined, for each you can see detailed information, this is the date and time of the call, name (if the number is in the phone book), number and number of dials. In the call counter, you can see the time of the last call and, separately, the time of all outgoing and incoming calls. There is also a counter of data and SMS messages.
Settings. All phone settings are collected here. You can set the time and date, select the menu language, as well as the default input mode.
The device has 5 profiles, fully customizable by the user. Here you can select a ringtone for almost any action and both SIM cards, set its volume and set the ringer mode (single, repeating or increasing). Here you can also select the type of call signal, it can be: only a call; only vibration; vibration and call at the same time; vibration then.
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For the screen, you are prompted to select a wallpaper, it can be one of the preset images or any other graphic file. You can select a screen saver (same as for wallpaper) and set the time after which it will turn on. The default screensaver is a clock, which can be called up by pressing any key in idle mode when the phone keypad is locked.
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This section also contains call, network (you can manually select the range) and security settings. From the "Security" subsection, you can set the keyboard lock automatically after a while (from 5 seconds to 5 minutes).
In the same section, it is possible to set the phone to automatically turn on / off according to a schedule to save battery power.
My files. This menu item is nothing more than a file manager. When you enter it, you can choose which memory to view, built-in or external, the total amount and amount of free memory are displayed at the top. From the menu, you can open the desired memory or format it. In the file manager, you can set the sorting of files and folders by name, type, creation time or size. It is possible to create new folders, as well as rename existing ones. Files can be moved between folders, sent to other devices via MMS. For the selected file, information about its type is displayed in the upper part of the screen in the form of an icon, data about its size and creation date are also displayed here.
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Organizer. The calendar can be viewed for a month and a week, in addition, you can see a list of all events. For the event, select its type (reminder, meeting, courses), set the date and time (start and end of the event), a small text note (up to 35 characters), sound notification with the ability to set a repeat: daily, weekly, monthly or on selected days of the week . It is also possible to add textual information in the "Location" field (up to 35 characters).
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Notes. Everything is similar to the calendar, except for the type of note (date, call, birthday), as well as the ability to select a priority (low, medium or high).
Alarm. The device has five independent alarm clocks, for each one the time is set, as well as repetitions: daily, weekly, monthly or on selected days of the week. You can also set your phone to turn on automatically when an alarm sounds.
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Applications. This section contains a calculator, unit converter and currency converter, as well as a stopwatch.
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Services. The device is equipped with a WAP browser version 2.0. This section also includes the SIM-menu (if available). From here you can also configure profiles for data transmission via GSM or GPRS.
Audio player. An MP3 player allows you to play songs with different bitrates, they can be located anywhere, both in the phone's memory (of course, it will be difficult to save many songs there) or on a memory card. There is one playlist, you can add any songs you want to it. You can also enable auto-create playlist, in which case it will include all the songs that are in the phone's memory or on the memory card. Random playback and repeat can only be activated through the player settings, it will not work quickly. Rewind within the composition is available.
The player can work in the background, just press the end call key, in which case the name of the song will be displayed under the operator's logo in square brackets. The long name is displayed incorrectly, although if you look through the player's menu information about the file (composition title, artist, album, genre, year), then it is displayed correctly.
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Musical capabilities of the device are not high, besides, a very poor stereo headset is supplied with the phone. However, it was not worth expecting any outstanding audio capabilities from a budget device.
FM radio. This function is only available when a headset is connected, as its wire is used as an antenna. The quality of radio reception is standard for most phones. The phone has a manual and automatic channel search, the selected radio stations can be added to the list (maximum 9 radio stations). Like the player, the radio can run in the background. In addition, it is possible to record the broadcast of radio stations. In the radio settings, you can select the recording quality (high or low), file format (wav, amr or awb), as well as the location where the recording will be saved (phone memory or memory card).
Camera. The device has a CIF-camera capable of taking pictures with a maximum resolution of 352x288. Due to the low resolution of the camera and its low quality, pictures taken with it are suitable only for use in the phone and forwarding to other mobile phones via MMS.
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Competitors
At the moment the Fly DS150 has only one competitor, and that is also a model from Fly, namely the DS100. The differences in the devices are minimal and consist only in a different design, the presence of a camera and a slightly more capacious battery in the older model, and the type of screens used (CSTN display is installed in the DS100). The difference in price between the devices is minimal and amounts to about 200 rubles.
Approximately only in October the DS100/150 will have a competitor from another manufacturer, which will be a new model from Philips. It will be the most affordable device from the Xenium line, which, like the DS100/150, will support two SIM-cards, and, like the devices from Fly, it will have only one radio module installed. The price for the budget Xenium will be approximately the same as for the Fly DS150.
Impressions
The communication quality of the device is no worse and no better than most modern GSM-phones. The volume of the speaker and the sensitivity of the microphone are enough for a conversation in almost any environment. I didn’t like the sound of the speaker a little, during a conversation the interlocutor’s voice is slightly distorted, metallic notes appear. The handset has 64-tones polyphony, the quality of preset melodies is not high, but the situation can be easily changed by setting any own MP3 composition as a ringtone. The ringer volume is quite high, it is difficult to miss a call, even if the phone is in a bag. But the vibrating alert is weak, you can not feel it, even if the device is in your pants pocket.
Well, if we forget about the fact that the device belongs to the line of long-playing phones, then we can safely say that the phone turned out to be quite interesting, especially for its price. At a price of just over 2000 rubles (to be precise, 2160 rubles, about 67 US dollars), the device offers a good set of features and, one might say, as a bonus, it also offers the ability to work with two SIM cards. But, of course, I note that when buying a DS150, you should remember that the device is equipped with only one radio module, and this, in turn, will go sideways if the phone is planned to be used for active communication. But for not very active users who for some reason use two numbers, the DS150 is quite suitable, such subscribers will not have any problems with it.
It is better not to remember that the device belongs to the XLife series of long-playing phones when buying a phone, otherwise you will be very disappointed later, especially if you have previously used Philips Xenium phones.
