Elephone P6i review

Looking for smartphone up to $99, I came across Elephone P6i. It has quad core procesor MTK 6582, 1Gb RAM and Android 4.4.2.  Here is my review of this cheap smartphone.

Ordering

I bought Elephone P6i from Banggood for 99$ (with -10$ coupon which I can share in comments).

If someone told me that I could get phone with quad core processor and 1Gb of RAM for only $99 I wouldn’t believe that men. But it is true, Chinese phones are cheaper and cheaper and this one cost only 99$.

Specifications

Elephone contains well known quadcore MTK6582 processor at  1.3GHz, it has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage (1.3GB for apps). IPS screen has a resolution of 960×540 pix which is more than enough for normal surfing and playing games. Comes with a screen protector on the screen to prevent scratching. Looks like the Iphone but this phone runs the latest Android 4.4.2. It contains only one physical button that works in this way; one push is Back, two quick press -Home, press and hold open Options. Supports OTG (connect the device to the USB) and multiple languages. There is no LED notification. The outer edge is of the metal and comes in three colors.

Metal case

You can buy white with a silver frame, white with a gold frame and black with silver frame. Mine is black.
Phone weight is about 140 grams and thickness is about 8mm.

Opening from a box

Package includes

Elephone P6i came well protected in a letter and black box was undamaged. In the package there is a cell phone, battery, power adapter, USB cable, 2x screen protector and cheap case. The back fits well, nothing creaks and is relatively difficult to remove the cover. It is very easy to hold because of that light weight. The battery is a little harder to remove and it is necessary to have a nail that it is remove it. One, normal SIM card is inserted on side (supports 3G) and other is MicroSIM. Elephone runs on Android 4.4.2 with preinstalled apps like Google Play and Gmail.

Performance
Mobile phone has the latest generation of MTK quad processor MTK6582 (4×1.3ghz) and graphic chip is dual core Mali400MP2 Opening all apps is fast, you can run Real Racing 3, Asphalt 8, Despicable Me without any problems. Screen precisely accepts commands and the response is excellent, does not have to be hard-pressed, despite the foil and light touches is nicely recognized. Benchmark result is about 18 500 and phones which has that score costs like 250$ in local stores. Antutu score of 18000 is really impressive for $99 smartphone.

Camera

8Mpx camera interpolated 13mpx) is solid, pretty good comparing to phones in this price range. Photos do not lack color and detail, Unfortunately there is drawback that flash is pretty weak so your photos in the dark will not turn out so well. But those in the sun will be a pretty good quality. It also supports video recording in Full HD resolution. Front camera is 5mpx and will be sufficient for occasional Slefie or video chat. Unfortunately when I took pictures everything was cloudy but the pictures turned out well.

Video:

Battery, screen, case

Inserting SIM card

The battery of 2100mAh brings autonomy of 1-2 days in low usage or during intensive one day, in the evening it needs to be charged. IPS screen has a large number of colors, due to the resolution 960 x 540 you can read all news portals and text, and in the sun the screen is quite good visibility. However, bad side of screen is that it supports only 2 touches (I tested this with few apps). So if some games require three or more contacts, on Elephone p6i it will not work correctly. Also if you hold two fingers close phone will see just one touch in the middle of the two fingers. This is not big deal but it is a disadvantage.
Case is made of quality plastic and frame is made of metal.

The speaker is really good , the sound is clean . The range is large because the weakest sound is very quiet while the loudest loud is enough for us hear the ringtone at full bus.

Connecting, GPS, WI-FI, OTG

GPS doesn’t work

The device has Bluetooth that works normally, WIFI, whose signal is compared with other phones stronger for the dot, the reception is solid and GPRS/HSPA/EDGE works on all mobile network operators. Here we note that 3G only works in one of two SIM cards and the other is MicroSIM.

Here we come to biggest disadvantage of Elephone P6i and possible reason why some wouldn’t buy it. GPS DOESN’T WORK! Absolutely no fix will help you in this. For hours I tried to fix GPS but it’s seams that this just a “feature”. Like GPS antenna is not connected, otherwise I can not explain this. Perhaps adding aluminum foil would solved this or maybe it is caused by bad ROM. Phone can not even after half an hour connect to a single satellite. With the help of fixes I just came that P6i “sees” 13 satellites but it can’t connect any of them. Elephone Support is terrible, and have a ridiculous forum in which they are familiar with the problem, said they are working on a solution and later said that GPS works, and that we need to be outdoors. Support is terrible and for example, they released the update in which phone is rooted and not to solve any problem, but bringing it to a proximity sensor problem. This bug occurs when you call someone and when you move phone away from the body it will not unlock itself. Other manufacturers quickly resolve such serious flaws but Elephone is extremely slow and I do not see hope my GPS to work.

Conclusion

For $99 you will get good phone with great camera but with disadvantage that GPS doesn’t work. WE can only hope that Elephone company will bring some update. But if you look in global Elephone P6i might be worth it. But if you ask me, GPS is important for me and that’s why I wouldn’t buy it. I would rather buy Dooge Valencia DG800 for 105.99$ which costs almost the same and GPS works, it is lighter, has three physical buttons and it is nicer than this phone. If you have any questions and if you want -$10 coupon, feel free to leave a comment.