Reviews

03.03.2018 3:43

Cubot X18 Plus Review & Unboxing: Budget 18:9 Phone with Android 8.0 Oreo

Today we have review of new smartphone called Cubot X18 Plus. What do you know about this device? I am not sure if you are familiar with Cubot brand, because it doesn’t really make many high-end phones. Most of their phones are mid-range and low-end, but its advantage is that from Cubot phones you can expect a certain level of quality. For example, you can expect good software. It is going to be free from bugs. Also, there’s going to be good hardware as well. Therefore, Cubot is a very conscientious Chinese company.

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Cubot X18 Plus is a mid-range phone with MTK6750T processor. It has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, as well as 20-megapixel camera and 4000mAh battery. So all those combined make this a fairly decent mid-range phone. I rather wish it had Helio P23 processor, but we have only MTK6750T.

So, let’s go through this phone and see how good it is. First, let’s talk about build quality.

Design

Cubot X18 Plus is made of plastic, so it does not feel too great. It is also glossy plastic on the back, which means it attracts fingerprints very easily. It gets a little grimy, especially when you are using it after eating like KFC. The back is going to feel really grimy, and it’s not going to feel very good. So, I’m not big fan of this sort of glossy plastic, I’m more the matte plastic life. That is what I like matte rubbery plastic, especially on OnePlus One. That was my favorite design and I hope more companies use that instead of glossy plastic.

The rest of Cubot X18 Plus phone pretty standard. You have dual cameras up to fingerprint sensor. You have two buttons on the side, and headphone jack at the bottom. You also have MicroUSB (not USB Type-C).

Cubot X18 Plus review smartphone: curved display and Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box

Now let’s talk about the best feature of this phone – bezels. Let me open Play Store, so you can see it easier. If you look at phone right, then you can see that the bezels are pretty small, especially for a budget phone. The top and bottom bezels are actually not too big. I cannot say that they are very small, but the sides are really tiny. They make Cubot X18 Plus look very good, especially if you’re looking for a cheap bezels device. So, I really like the design Cubot X18 Plus, and Cubot did a great job making this phone look so great.

Display

Let’s talk a little bit about the display. Cubot X18 Plus has 18:9 aspect ratio, and 2160×1080 resolution, which is actually pretty good. The display here is LCD, and it’s not bad, but it’s not the best, like more expensive phones, such as Elephone U Pro with AMOLED, or Smartisan Nut Pro 2 with amazing LCD display.

On the other hand, Cubot X18 Plus 18 has decent screen, but it’s not amazing. So, you get good color saturation and color reproduction. You also get some pretty good contrast, so I don’t think anyone is gonna have a problem with this display, unless you’re one of those crazy people who needs the best display in the world. It will satisfy pretty much 99.9% people out there who are looking for a decent display.

Sound

Let’s talk about the audio on Cubot X18 Plus. The audio here is OK. You get some pretty good volume, which is nice. You also get a little bit of bass, which is actually somewhat surprising. You get some mids and highs. So, I really would say that this display here is definitely good enough for most people. I should say that it’s not the best speaker, I’ve ever heard, but it is good enough, if you’re watching a TV show, movie or YouTube videos. You don’t really have any complaints with this speaker. The listening to music is also pretty good.

Cubot X18 Plus: Battery

The battery life is not bad. You get 6 hours of screen on time, which is actually pretty good, considering its MTK6750 processor and 4000mAh battery. The SOC is not known for being very efficient, so I have to say Cubot did a good job with battery optimization on Cubot X18 Plus. Otherwise, there was no way they could get 6 hours of screen on time. I do know that this is actually fairly heavy use. It was YouTube, taking photos, and a little bit of browsing as well. I didn’t play any games in that 6 hour. For playing games, I think you could get like 3-4 hours of gameplay before this phone completely dies. It is actually pretty good for a phone like this. The other area where Cubot did a good job is battery optimization. In standby, you get 1% of battery drop for every 2 to 3 hours. It is very impressive!

Software

Let’s talk about software of Cubot X18 Plus. The smartphone runs on Android 8.0 Oreo. This is actually very impressive again for a small Chinese manufacturer. Also new smartphone should receive Android updates in the future.

Cubot X18 Plus runs very smooth, especially considering it’s using an old MTK6750 processor. Again, the Cubot did a good job with software optimization. Everything works fast, for example, swiping on the screen, reading notifications, settings menu, and others.

If you are launching a lot of apps, you will see that there is a delay the first time you launch an app. For example, let’s say you’re going to to launch YouTube. After launching, don’t close it, because it was already loaded into the RAM, but if you did open it for the first time there would be a delay bigger than Snapdragon 625, Helio P20, P23, P25 phones and others. Bu it’s not a big deal. Once it’s loaded into RAM, it opens up instantly, so absolutely no problem there.

Multitasking is great! You have 4GB of RAM. You can play almost any Android games. I was able to play Asphalt Extreme, and it is pretty good on 1080p screen. There are not so much slowdowns, which is fairly impressive.

Fingerprint reader

The fingerprint reader on the back of Cubot X18 Plus is not too fast. I don’t think, it’s fast enough for me to use. I used to OnePlus 5, Xiaomi Mi Note 3, and other more expensive phones than Cubot X18 Plus. It is noticeable that Cubot phone has slower fingerprint sensor. It takes about 1 second to unlock the phone.

Connectivity

As for the network connectivity, unfortunately if you’re living in USA, this is not supported anywhere. Even if it is supported for just one band and LTE, and I really don’t recommend you get this, if you are in USA, just because you don’t get that band support that you will need to have it connected. I mean you’re not gonna get any 3G, but you might get 2G. However, this is not too useful, because this is enough only for phone calls and texts.

Of course, there is support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. All of these work very good.

Cubot X18 Plus: Camera

So, let’s talk the camera of Cubot X18 Plus. The smartphone comes with 20-megapixel main camera. I have to say that I’m fairly impressed with the photos from Cubot X18 Plus. I think the company spend some time on camera software, because the smartphone takes good images.

In good lighting conditions, the camera is very good. You get enough detail photos to post on Facebook or Instagram. But I’m really surprised by the color reproduction here. It is actually fairly good and really gives the photo a certain amount of life. Also, I am impressed by HDR mode. It does a decent job as well, especially if you’re in a situation, where dynamic ranges are pretty bad. For example, if you’re taking it directly at the sun. Those dark and bright spots make the pictures look a lot better.

Now let’s talk about the areas where this camera has trouble with. It’s hard to take photos of fast-moving things. You get very blur images. For example, I tried to take a photo of my dog in bokeh effect, and I was failed. By the way, the bokeh effect is fake here! You get a stupid circle with focus, and other things outside it are blurred.

The front-facing camera is average, and maybe even bad in certain situations. However, if you have optimal lighting conditions, then the front camera quality is average.

Cubot X18 Plus: Pros and cons

So, my thoughts about Cubot X18 Plus. I have to say that it is a very well rounded phone from Cubot. I didn’t have any errors or problems with software, unlike some other Chinese devices. The build quality is solid enough. I do not like the glossy finish, but that is a personal preference. The display is pretty good, no complaints there. The audio is also not bad. I think it will satisfy most people. The battery life is also not bad; you get about 6 hours of screen on time.

As for the software, you get Android 8.0 Oreo with updates support. In terms of multitasking and speeds, it is actually not bad. You can have some delays, when you are launching apps, but that has to be expected with outdated MTK processor.

The citizens of USA should not buy this phone, because it does not support local bands. If we are talking about the camera, its 20-megapixel sensor can take some decent photos.

So, can I recommend to buy Cubot X18 Plus? Hard to say. From one hand, it is good smartphone for its price category. However, if you compare Cubot X18 Plus with Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, then the second device will be better option. I propose to read my review of Redmi 5 Plus, and decide for yourself, which is better smartphone.