MyPhone A818 Duo

I haven't written much about gadgets for awhile, and I've been toying within the Android-sphere lately. I have my Dell Streak and Kindle Fire to thank for that. I've fooled with rooting, installing custom roms and what-not to tweak and customize my gadgets even more, mainly because I want to maximize what I paid for these gadgets, e.g. getting bang for your buck. But what if, you are running on a very limited budget but want in on the Android experience? First thing that came to my mind was the Samsung Galaxy Y, but I'm not into shelling out cash for a gadget just for testing purposes. Alas, I no longer have an agent who has one that I can play with.

I took notice of this offer from myPhone, but as I earlier said, I wasn't going to shell out for something I would not use for the long term. It just so happened that one of my agents managed to purchase this during its introduction period, when it was priced at P3,999 [SRP is at 5,499]. So I borrowed it and played with it a bit.

Hardware

This is an entry level phone, if you haven't noticed. No, this would not rival your Galaxy S3, or your HTC One X, and its not meant for that. It does not hold any pretenses that it's meant to compete in that market unlike other local phones that claim to do the same.

Processor:  650Mhz single core
Memory: 256 MB
Screen: 3.5 inch Capacity screen [2 point touch] [320x480 screen resolution]
OS: Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread
Wireless: Wireless B/G
Bluetooth: yes
3G Option: none
Storage: MicroSD [expandable to 16GB]
Camera: VGA [front facing], 3.2MP [rear facing/no flash]


It is a serviceable phone, comparable to the aforementioned Galaxy Y [albeit a bit slower in terms of processing speed]. The external is made of plastic, no gorilla glass here, of course. and you get the complimentary map of the Philippines at the back which is the trademark of every myPhone device.

The screen feels responsive to my touch, and has very little lag, at least from my experience. Considering that the phone is unmodified/unrooted, this is a pleasant surprise.

The camera on the otherhand disappoints. It has no flash, and has no autofocus. This has been the downside of entry level phones, and this continues the trend. Colors from the pictures taken lack sharpness, and does not capture a lot of details on a picture. That's with fair light. Outdoors, this worked okay, since good ambient light aids in covering the camera's shortcomings. Don't dare take photos on low-light though. I feel that this is where myPhone needs to improve on, considering that I've also used another myPhone before.

The speakers are pretty loud, but tend to garble a bit when the volume is maximized. The speakers are located at the back of the unit [see picture above], so the sound tends to get muted if you lay it on the table. 

Battery life is farely decent for this phone. It comes with a 1300mAH battery that according to my agent lasts around 2 days on light to moderate use.


Software

It has mostly stock applications, but has the typical MyPhone Pinoy apps and prayers stored in it. I installed some games to test it out. Angry Birds was smooth, as is Fruit Ninja. What surprised me the most was when I installed Cogs, a fairly intensive 3D game, that ran smoothly on this phone. I feel that this is mostly helped by the choice of Gingerbread OS on this phone, compared to others using Eclair or Froyo.

But can it run Temple Run? Alas, it does not show when I search it in the Market. Trying to install it via APK did not work either. I was not able to make a video at this time of the games being played real time, but I'll work on that and update this post.

Another strange observation is that this phone does not have Google Play. It has the original Android Market but it does not automatically update itself to Google Play. I read in a forum that Google Play does not support some devices and this might be included in that list.

Verdict

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that this phone more than held up. It has drawbacks, but then again, you have to consider it's price point and it mostly delivers in that regard.