Review smartphone Explay 4Game
Introduction
Russian OEM-supplier of digital devices company Explay introduced in our market its first smartphone that can work with LTE. In addition, the device is positioned as a game, because it is worth the chipset NVIDIA Tegra 4i.
Scope of delivery
- Smartphone
- Battery
- USB-cable
- Headphones
- Network adapter
- Instruction Manual
- Warranty Card
We must pay tribute to marketers. Title smartphone «4Game» can be interpreted as 4G – fourth generation or “Fogeym”, that is to “play.”
Original cost of the device was about 12 000. Now it is easy to find from 8500 rubles – this price looks the most realistic, since in addition to the original processor, the remaining specifications are fairly weak and do not represent anything interesting.
Let’s find out, it is good Explay 4Game, as his “painted”?
Design, size, controls
Most likely, all the efforts (ie, money) of Explay was spent on the implementation of the chipset from NVIDIA, so the appearance turned out much worse than the more affordable Explay Neo. The only thing that somehow decorated unit – chrome plastic insert under the screen.The rest, unfortunately, we have a typical “noneym” -smartfon.
The device has dimensions 140×67.5×8.8 mm (thickness of Neo) and weight of 119 grams. Hull form rectangular with slightly rounded corners, smooth side faces, the back surface is slightly sloping. Due to the fact that 4Game sufficiently compact, lightweight, and the edges are not sharp, it fits nicely in your hand, use comfortably.
Slender frame is made of glossy black plastic, the side faces – semi-gloss plastic dark gray, the back side (cover) is made entirely of plastic, covered with a “soft-tachem.”
The screen surface is protected by glass, oleophobic coating is, so he is not afraid of any scratches or fingerprints.
Assembly seemed to me not the best, though, maybe I got a bad sample: edge gadget in the place where the battery is so thin that when compressed in the hand, they crackle and creak. Rear socket bit is forced to the battery.
On top of the front side there are: voice speaker, front camera, light sensors and proximity indicator missed messages. Speaker volume is above average, the interlocutor can hear clearly and legibly, no echo, no other extraneous sounds.
Below the display – touch the “Back”, “Home” and “Menu”. They are engraved on the case, there is a light light blue, bright, day and night, but the buttons visible. Prolonged retention of the “Menu” launches a list of running applications.
At the bottom end – the main microphone on the top – 3.5 mm audio jack and a micro-USB connector. Left no elements, and on the right – the key-volume control (located on top). Power button – just below, inconvenient to use, because it is pressed together with the body.
On the back side of the device – the camera module, towering above the body a couple of millimeters, the second microphone for noise reduction, flash and speaker.
To open a socket, it is necessary to pry the recess on the left bottom. Right there is a socket for installation without microSIM “hot” replacement on the left – microSD slot without “hot” replacement.
Display
The smartphone Explay 4Game used screen diagonal is 4.7 inches. The physical size – 58h103 mm beyond the right and left – 5 mm, above – 16 mm, more bottom – about 20 mm. There is a slight anti-reflective coating.
Screen Resolution – 720h1280 points, density enough to not to look at the individual pixels on the screen – 312 PPI. Matrix is made by technology IPS (OGS), but the quality is very average: at certain angles violet or yellow. Average brightness of the sun screen completely fades.
But the number of simultaneous touches pleased me – “multitouch” work out to 10 fingers. The sensitivity of the capacitive layer is great.
Battery
This device is worth a removable lithium-ion battery capacity of 2000 mAh (7.4 Wh). Official data on the time there is no work.
I think that we should not talk about that for LTE, and even more gaming device, battery 2000 mAh is not enough even for half a day. For example, if you call a day for 20-30 minutes, a little sit on the network 4G, take pictures for about an hour, the battery sit for 5 – 6 hours. In the game for a long time to play does not work, expect 2 hours maximum. You can listen to music for 20 hours, video watch – less than 3 hours.
The battery is charging from the AC adapter 2 hours.
Communication features
The device operates in networks 2G (GSM / GPRS / EDGE, 850/900/1800 MHz), 3G (900/2100 MHz) and 4G LTE (works with megaphone, MTS and Beeline). Simkarty only one, unlike most of these devices in the price range up to 10 000 rubles.
| LTE | Cat 3 / Cat 4 + CA 100-150 MB / s DL (50 Mb / s UL) FDD and TD-LTE, TM 1-8 |
| HSPA + | Cat 24/6 42 Mc DL (5,7 Mb / s UL) Plus, cat 6, 8, 10, 14, 18 |
| TD-HSPA | Cat 24/6 4,2 MB / s DL (2,2 Mb / s UL) Including TD-SCDMA |
Available Bluetooth version 4.0 for file transfer and speech. There is a wireless Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b / g / n. The apparatus may naturally be employed as an access point (Wi-Fi Hotspot) or modem.
OTG mode running, it is possible to connect a Flash-Device.
There is a GPS. Its sensitivity is quite good: the “cold” mode for 20 seconds is up to 3 satellites indoors, near a window for 10 seconds – up to 5 satellites, an open space for the same time – up to 8.
Memory and memory card
As with most similar devices, 4Game equipped with 1 GB of RAM. On average, about 400 MB free, which is a bit annoying, considering that Explay positioned as a gaming gadget. Flash memory of 4 GB, but is available, as always, is much smaller.
Of course, you can put the memory card 32 GB internal memory, but initially there should be many, as modern games “weigh” to 2 – 3 GB.
Luggage
Again there are two camera modules. First for the main frame, he is 8 MP (F2.2) and auto-focus, the second for shooting himself in the resolution of 5 MP (f2.7) and no autofocus.
The quality of images is good, but nothing more. AF sometimes misses, white balance slightly lying, but beautifully blurred background, at night go quite decent shots.
Video apparatus writes in FullHD resolution at 30 frames per second regardless of the level of illumination. Automatic focus. The sound is clear, mono.
Feature video:
- File Format: 3GP
- Video Codec: MPEG-4, 17 Mbit / sec
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 30 f / s
- Audio Codec: AAC, 128 kbit / s
- Channels: 1 channel, 48 kHz
Performance and software platform
In principle, one could not tell nothing about the camera, nor about the memory, nor about the battery and screen, as all these things are familiar and commonplace. The most important thing in Explay 4Game – chipset. It uses NVIDIA Tegra 4i, formerly known as «Project Grey», it has at its disposal 60-GPU NVIDIA, quad-core CPU based on the super economic core ARM -R4 Cortex-A9, energy-saving fifth core and LTE modem NVIDIA i500.
| Specification NVIDIA i500 | |
| Baseband | |
| LTE | 3 Cat / Cat 4 100-150 Mbit / s DL (50 Mbit / s UL) FDD and TD-LTE, TM 1-8 |
| Aggregation of information channels | Two interfaces IceLink ™ to transmit information 10 MHz + 10 MHz |
| HSPA + | Cat 24/6 42 Mbit / s DL (5,7 Mbit / s UL) Plus, cat 6, 8, 10, 14, 18 |
| TD-HSPA | Cat 24/6 4,2 Mbit / s DL (2,2 Mbit / s UL) Including TD-SCDMA |
| 2G | GSM, GPRS, EDGE To class 12 |
| Voice over 2G / 3G | Reducing noise / automatic management of multiple microphones AMR-WB, AMR-NB, FR, EFR, HR |
| Voice over LTE network | CSFB and VoLTE (IMS) CSFB tunneling SI, VoLTE with SRVCC |
| Other Features | Attenuation IceClear ™ |
| Housing | 7mm x 7mm body |
| Process Technology | 28 nm |
| Radio frequency | |
| RF-range | The single-chip multi-band FDD and TDD LTE / HSPA + / EDGE and TD-SCDMA |
| PRM-diversity | Multiband Rx-diversity |
| FDD | Multiband functionality FDD HSPA and LTE: Lanes 1 – 14, 17 – 21, 24 – 26, 27, 29, 90 |
| TDD | Multiband functionality TDD LTE and TD-SCDMA: Stripes 33 – 41 |
| housing | Housing 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm |
| Process Technology | 65 nm TOUCH |
«NVIDIA Tegra 4i clearly superior to competing solutions with integrated LTE-modem, and also has the advantage of a software modem (soft-modem), which is simply reprogrammed to add new frequencies and radio interfaces – classic modem manufacturers can only dream” – said Stuart Robinson (Stuart Robinson), program director of technology development for phone components in the Strategy Analytics.
| Tegra 4i (mobile processor with integrated modem 4G LTE) | |
| Processor | |
| CPU core | 4 + 1 |
| CPU Architecture | ARM Cortex-A9 r4 |
| Maximum Clock Frequency | 2.3 GHz |
| GPU | |
| Stream GPU core | 60 |
| Computer architecture photos | + |
| Memory | |
| Memory Type | LPDDR3 |
| Memory Capacity | 2 GB |
| Display | |
| LCD | 1920 x 1200 |
| HDMI | 1080P |
| Modem | |
| Architecture | Integrated LTE modem i500 |
| Housing | |
| Case Size / Type | 12×12 POP 12×12 FCCSP |
| Process Technology | 28 nm |
With a capacity of Explay 4Game really all right: the interface quite slow, no mikrolagov, games start and go without glitches at maximum graphics (although, for example, in Real Racing 3 on the door mirrors do not have pictures). That is, from the perspective of the game “machine” the machine is fully justified.
Often, however, observed, “Departures” different applications, for example, Antutu Video Tester, GeekBench 3 is not the first time passed the test Antutu Benchmark, there were other “bugs.” In short, the strain is extremely unstable system.
The smartphone runs on Google Android operating system version 4.3. Currently, no other versions exist.
Multimedia
The device installed standard music and video player, radio.
The speaker volume is average, the quality is so-so: completely missing high frequencies, sometimes the speaker is making strange noises.When you close the holes Speaker volume is reduced to virtually zero.
The headphone volume is high, the distortion is not heard, it sounds good player. However, perhaps not enough deep bass and more expressive high.
The video player is able to “play” videos in any resolution. When testing program Antutu Video tester application hangs without displaying the result.
Conclusion
Do Explay and NVIDIA came highly controversial device. The only positive thing that stands out – it’s gaming performance: the machine “pulls” all the games with virtually no glitches. Everything else is either not anything interesting (average quality IPS-matrix, the amount of RAM and a built-in memory, conventional cameras), or disappoints: poor battery life, “dumb” assembly, simple and nondescript design.
I think it would be interesting to see a device with the following features: NVIDIA Tegra 4i, 5 – 5.5-inch FullHD, 2 GB of RAM, a battery of 3000 mAh. The price of not more than 12 000 rubles. That’s when things would be different in a good way.
I think we should do the work on the bugs and release another smartphone with the above parameters and price.
Total cost if Explay 4Game will be held at around 8 000, the enthusiast will be an interesting device.
PS Why do not you write about LTE: I think that it is now easier to buy a portable 4G Wi-router and give it to the internet with all your devices. So you save battery power the phone and become bother to search for a smartphone with support for 4G.
