What is the CUBE Talk 5H?
The Talk 5H (A5300) is CUBE’s first smartphone product, which is made as a rival to the Xiaomi Hongmi phone and Lenovo A850. A phone tasked with getting CUBE into the smartphone industry, it features an array of competitive innards. It has a 5.5-inch IPS display at 1280*720 pixels, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU and an impressively large 2,500mAh battery. Priced at RMB999 ($164), it really gives the nobody-is-able-to-buy Xiaomi Hongmi phone a run for its money!
Video Review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHiI7qamN9Q
Pros
1. Vivid and rich colors from the 720p IPS display.
2. Good for multimedia
3. Eye-dazzling MIUI, thousands of themes to choose from
4. Smooth performance from the MT6589 quad-core processor
5. Strong loudspeaker with clean sound.
6. Great battery life.
Cons
1. The cheap feel from the plastic shell
2. Incapable cameras
3. Only 4GB of internal storage
4. 200g weight does feel a little heavy for a phone
Key Features:
5.5-inch IPS Capacitive Panel, 1280*720
MIUI V5 (Android 4.2.1)
MT6589 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor@1.2GHZ, 28nm process, SGX544 GPU
1GB RAM
4GB ROM
FM Radio
Bluetooth V4.0
GPS
Wi-Fi 802.11n/b/g
WCDMA: 2100MHZ / GSM: 900MHZ + 1800MHZ
Front-facing 1.3MP camera and rear-facing 8.0MP camera with auto-focus support
High quality stereo speaker
Vibration
Light Sensor, G-sensor, Proximity Sensor
Dual SIM
2500mAh Li-Po battery
Design and Build
Continuing the trend of ever-growing screen sizes, the CUBE Talk 5H pairs a 5.5-inch 720P IPS display with a dramatically reduced bezel. This combination maximizes the amount of on-screen real estate while keeping the phone’s overall footprint small. Above the display are a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calls and a proximity sensor along with the telephone receiver.
The CUBE logo can be found in the middle of the phone’s back, where there are also an 8MP rear-facing camera with LED flash. You will also find the stereo speaker in the lower left corner.
The 3.5mm headphone jack and the Micro USB port are the only connectors to be found along the edges of the Talk 5H, you could only get access to the SIM slots (One standard-sized, one micro) and Micro SD card slot when the battery cover is removed.
The placement of the physical keys (power/standby button & volume rocker) on a phone accommodating a large 5.5-inch screen is understandably a bit inconvenient. I had to shuffle the phone around in the palm to use them on many occasions, and a lot of the time I couldn't use my thumb to hit the whole of the screen without jiggling the phone up and down.
Like many of the cost-efficient smartphones, the CUBE Talk 5H is let down by a plastic body that feels flimsy in parts. The battery cover just never feels as solid as those installed on Samsung smartphones, I am almost having a heart attack each time I have to remove it. What’s more, the gloss finish on the plastic body is a magnet for fingerprints and grime, further causing the Talk 5H to look even cheaper.
At 9.5mm thick, the Talk 5H is far from the most svelte smartphone offering. It's a lot thicker than the Lenovo K900 (6.9mm), but it is on par with the 9.4mm thick Samsung Galaxy Note2 and 9.45mm thick Lenovo A850. And at 200g, the CUBE Talk 5H is also a little heavier than the Note2 (180g), A850 (184g) and K900 (165g). Despite this, the Talk 5H never feels bulky or uncomfortable in the hand, with a slight curvature to the phone’s rear giving it an ergonomic fit.
The thing that I love about the Talk 5H’s design is that it’s one of a kind, although you could find a bit of the OPPO Find5 and Sony phones in it, it is still a distinct design. I personally believe it is the best-looking smartphone under RMB1000 ($165).
Screen and Sound Quality
The 5.5-inch IPS display of the Talk 5H is bright and vibrant, offers very good viewing angles, and strong color saturation. Even when you put it next to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the Talk 5H is not blown out of the water. Actually, you would find sometimes the IPS panel works even better than the HD Super AMOLED screen. For instance, I would prefer to see the umbrella image on the Note2, but I love the sunflower image better on the 5H.
Unfortunately, the CUBE Talk 5H’s screen quality is not without the odd blemish. The display is a little on the reflective side, with outdoor conditions producing an unwanted amount of glare. But the price could easily help you forget about this slight issue.
The speaker of the Talk 5H is also very nice, producing high-volume sound for gaming and videos, my only issue is that even when you turn the volume all the way down to the lowest possible, the sound can still be a little loud for certain occasions.
Software
The CUBE Talk 5H is an Android phone with a custom-made MIUI interface on top. Building on Google’s Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean OS, the MIUI interface has all the features and functions you would want and expect from a high quality smartphone. It is not as overloaded as the Samsung's Touchwiz interface, but is more exciting with thousands of elegant and colorful themes.
Besides the elegance, the MIUI also makes the Android easier to use. Lots of the customized Xiaomi apps and widgets handily enhance the overall experience, and the rearrangement of the pull-down status bar and Android setting makes everybody aware of what needs to be done.
The wonderful Micloud service can be used for backing up all the important data of the phone.
Another advantage of the MIUI is its incomparable smoothness. Browsing through the homescreens happens incredibly fast, uninstalling an application only takes less than a second, sometimes it makes you feel as if you are on iOS instead of Android.
Performance
The MTK MT6589 quad-core chipset is probably the most popular choice for entry-level smartphones now. But the performance of the Talk 5H is by no means entry-level. Above are the benchmark scores of the device and the comparison with the notches of some other quad-core smartphones.
In its real world performance, the 1.2GHZ quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and the PowerVR SGX544 GPU easily generate enough power to run everything smoothly on the Talk 5H, including some of the most graphic-intense games such as the “Need for Speed: the Most Wanted” and “Virtua Tennis”.
Video content also benefits from the large screen and graphics partnership, with motion blur and image lag now a thing of the past. The only issue I have with the Talk 5H is its pitifully small built-in storage, I only have 1.6GB storage usable after the system files and ROM taking up most of the 4GB flash disk. Thankfully there is a Micro SD card slot on board, and everyone using this phone will have to need it!
Even loading those most image-heavy websites, hiccups and lags were rare.
Call Quality and Connectivity
The Talk 5H features 2G and 3G connectivity and performs admirably across both network types. Connections proved strong during call and online use, and I suffered no unexpected signal loss or dropped calls during my time with the phone. Call quality was sharp and clear and volume was easily managed using the volume rocker on the left edge.
Cameras
The cameras on the Talk 5H don’t live up to today’s smartphone standards. Although the MIUI does give the Talk 5H a lot of shooting options.
Normal shootings
Panorama Mode
The 8MP F/2.8 rear-facing camera is probably one of the worst 8MP cellphone cameras I have ever seen. Sharp and clear photos can only happen while the ambient light is just right, but the colors of those snaps are still far less good-looking than those from the market-leading flagship phones. The LED flash does help with shooting in low light, but you should not put your expectations too high, either.
The front-facing camera is not even nice for video calls, and I would not recommend you to use it for selfies.
Battery Life
The Talk 5H packs a 2,500mAh Li-Po battery. Judged by smartphone standards, the Talk 5H delivers decent battery endurance. Two days of regular, 3G-powered use are a perfectly reasonable expectation from this device. After 3 hours of nonstop heavy use — involving some benchmarks, web browsing, several phone calls, and online video playback — I was left with 64 percent of battery power remaining.
In our standard TR battery tests, the 5H gives an 8 hours, 12 minutes run time in 720P video playback, it also streamed an online TV show for 7 hours and 49 minutes.
If you are willing to sacrifice some performance for longer use, you can turn on the “CPU Power Saving Mode” in the settings.
Even better, the phone’s power supply is removable, meaning a spare battery can be carried for emergencies or heavy business use.
The Verge
With the help from MTK, lots of the entry-level smartphones are now equipped with quad-core processors, and have relatively strong performance. I can easily list a dozen of those phones under the price of RMB1000 ($165) without even thinking.
The CUBE Talk 5H is a brilliant device. Unlike most of the entry-level smartphones which have the MTK quad-core SoC., but the stock or poorly customized interface, the CUBE Talk 5H runs the MIUI, which I personally consider to be the best customized Android OS. This greatly enhances the users’ experiences of this phone. There are some setbacks, as you can imagine from such a low-priced device, including poor cameras, but none of them denies how wonderful the 5H actually is.
I bought the Talk 5H as a birthday gift for my dad, but now feel reluctant to give it to him. The MIUI, the big HD screen, and the compact design are all too nice to give away, and I bet anyone ever uses this phone should feel the same way, too. At RMB999, it is arguably the best choice for smartphones below the price point of RMB1000.
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