THL T100 Monkey King 2 by Novo 7 Tech review

I am happy that I got my first review of an octa-core Android smartphones, thanks to Novo 7 Tech as I will present my review of the THL T100 Monkey King 2, the first announced true octa-core phone in the country

If you’re not familiar in it’s physical appearance, you can check my unboxing at this blog

PHONE:

As you can check in the picture above (as well as the main page) that it has a stock Android feel. The clarity of calls is a-ok .

CAMERA:

With the smile and face detection, taking a picture or a selfie is a ease. A plus factor that both cameras are powered by Sony blue glass lens. The flash is very bright which is an advantage for those who will shoot in low light. Kindly check my photo samples for your own judgment. I used both the full 13 MP for both rear and front cameras. (Right click the picture then download to see the full version)

Pictures 1-5: 13 MP rear camera samples, Picture 6: 13 MP front camera sample

GAMING:

As my expectation for the Mediatek MT 6592 octa-core processor, it runs smoothly for my tested games at NBA 2K13 and Dead Trigger 2 so it’s a plus for Android gamers plus it has the Full HD IPS OGS display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

BENCHMARK:

For the Antutu X benchmark, I tried at 2 modes: the one with CPU power saving mode checked and unchecked as I got curious for that feature inside the smartphone. With CPU power saving on, it got a score of 26036 while the said feature was off, Antutu said it was at 26515. At Nenamark 2, it has 59.7 fps so playing Flappy Bird or high intensive games are not problem. For Quadrant, it measured at 15,569

MULTI-TOUCH AND SENSORS:

As another expectation, the T100 Monkey King 2 has a 5-point multi touch. No colliding problems. For it’s sensors, 6 out of 9 are there except for temperature, gyro sensor and pressure.

BATTERY:

For my battery, I played a 720p mp4 video in loop using MX Player with 1 SIM slot in, no Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G HSPA+ connection. Brightness is at 5 and volume is at 10 in earphones (my personal preference for this phone with CPU power saving mode on. From 100% to 1%, it endured at 9 hours, 34 minutes & 36 seconds which it is a-ok to me, thanks the 2750 maH battery. One minor issue that I encountered though is it quickly runs out of battery when you have 4% to 1% based on the unit that I used. For heavy 3G connection, it managed at around 8 hours. In my mix of activities (mobile connection, video and music playback, doing some nifty tasks on other apps), it can last up to 19 hours.

MUSIC AND VIDEO:

For this section, I used the stock music player and MX Player. Good news as the stock earphone inside the package is CTIA-compliant so you can push the pause/play button on the earphone to pause or play your fave tune or movie. The default volume of the phone with earphones is also nice. Using the speakers, the sound is loud and clear even if I set it up to the highest volume.

OTHERS:

If your battery is 14% and below, it will have a red LED notification near the front camera. Charging time for me using the stock 1A charger is at 2 hours 15 minutes in average. USB OTG support is enabled although I only tested it so far in a flash drive. In FM Radio, I only don’t like the feature that it will switch automatically to another FM station if I got a weak signal. The Google Now feature is ok. The WiFi and USB tethering is average. Good thing contrary to some who experienced weak WiFi signal with the build number 20140124, the unit that I used is good.

So far in terms of specs/price ratio among the other available octa-core Android powerhouses currently available in country, this device is no.1 for me so far. Based on overall performance in my real-life experience, I will give the THL T100 Monkey King 2 at 4.75 out of 5.

Author : ronnotthedj

May 4, 2014