HighScreen Cosmo Review: Template Break

I remember the first Android smartphone that appeared in Russia - HighScreen PP5420. I was then followed by nightmares for half a year, from which I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night - he was so ugly, this HighScreen. The following vehicles with this nameplate on board also did not inspire, to put it mildly, scaring off buyers with an abominable assembly, lousy materials and an unknown name. But the other day a new model, Cosmo, got into the hands, and it became clear that the monster could one day become a beauty.

Design

If the HighScreen had not been written on the back cover of this smart, I would have thought that someone from the "higher league" had a hand in it. The terrible poor-quality plastic and poor assembly are a thing of the past, and in my hands I turned out to be at least a budget, but a good machine at first sight. I tried to squeeze it in one way or another - it keeps - it doesn't even creak at all. This, apparently, a "side effect" of the assembly at the plant Compal Electronics. At the same time, curiously, the price remained at the highscreen level.
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Recently, “shovels” of the Desire HD type have become popular among the people, and after them Cosmo, despite the fact that it fits perfectly in the hand, seems a little toy.

Display

The screen, of course, no longer affects the quality of the picture and the diagonal - a 3.2-inch display based on the TFT-matrix with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels - this is now common. Not very high viewing angles of about 140 degrees in both planes. Brightness and contrast in order, but again, nothing outstanding ...

But on the other hand, someone finally thought that putting the display into the thickness of the body was not just a moveton, but a crime. Hallelujah! Dust and pocket hairs will no longer accumulate in the corners! And even the capacitive sensor added. He, of course, could be much more responsive, but definitely better than the outdated resistive, which was used in all previous models.

Iron

Hardware stuffing, like everything else in Cosmo, is not something outstanding. The Qualcomm MSM7227 processor running at 600 MHz, combined with 256 MB of RAM, is not able to make the bare Android interface work smoothly. However, I did not notice any frank brakes - all the necessary applications worked, albeit with some thoughtfulness, but stably. For fans of numbers - please, the results of the Quadrant Standart benchmark: 499 points.

But there is something in Cosmo that justifies the name and even distinguishes this tube from a number of others. At the bottom of the gadget is a strip of diodes that can glow with almost all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink (instead of blue) and purple. And they shine not just like that, but depending on what is happening with the phone. Missed and incoming calls, mail, SMS, twitter, alarm clock, music, charging, discharging ... and so on - this information is informed by the owner about everything. Naturally, everything is configured as your heart desires.

Connection

A set of wireless interfaces, in contrast to everything else, in this model is quite adult: there is support for 3G, Wi-Fi b / g (I would like, of course, n, but what’s not - not that!) And GPS. But do not think that Wi-Fi on a powerful communicator and a mediocre smart is one and the same. All is downloaded quickly, but the sites in the browser, for example, turn slowly.

Soft

However, the fact that the manufacturer has learned to build a high-quality case from pleasant-looking components and equipped the device with modules working in third-generation networks, unfortunately, does not mean that he has learned how to make software. I mean that for any beautiful, and most importantly, comfortable shells, Android is not hidden. But at least thanks for the fact that Cosmo 2.2 is installed on Cosmo - in my opinion, it is already more or less usable even in its pure form.

The only thing that the hand of programmers touched was the settings menu, where the item for customizing light alerts was added. Five so-called patterns (flicker types) are available, which, in combination with seven colors, give 35 variations. In my opinion, more than enough - I would not even remember so much.


Shooting a video review of Cosmo is pretty pointless, but it’s extremely difficult to show the work of the LEDs in the photo :) So nevertheless, this is a micro roller.

Working hours

But I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life. Due to the fact that the hardware has moderate appetites, away from the outlet, the gadget can hold out for just over a day in a very dense mode of operation with a bunch of applications using the background update feature. 1500 mAh plus mediocre iron - this is the recipe for long battery life.

Competitors

For the same money, you can now find last year's android phones of famous brands with approximately the same characteristics: for example, HTC Wildfire or SE Xperia X10 mini (and mini pro, in principle, there too). And at the end of 2010, LG released Optimus One.



The advantage of the first two - in its own graphical interfaces that adorn Android. But both have less resolution, and the second one also has a physical display size of only 2.5 ". But the LG Optimus One is a dangerous competitor with the same parameters, and even with a proprietary software shell and a big name. However, business is not limited to these three models! Shadowdancerrr here, for example, found that among the budget devices on Android there is plenty to choose from.

Summary

HighScreen really surprised me! If they once again rolled out the craft level PP5420 or Zeus, I would have been disappointed in the company's products, probably, finally. But with the help of Cosmo they managed to break this vicious circle, and at the same time my template. Let the gadget and does not claim to some high rank, but now it is - one of the best budget smartphones on Android. However, even despite the recommended price of 7990 rubles, I think he will have to, oh, not just because of the bad glory that his predecessors have earned.

TTX

OS: Google Android 2.2
Screen: TFT, 3.2 ", capacitive, 320x480
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7227-1, 600 MHz
RAM: 256 MB
Main memory: 512 MB + microSD card slot up to 32 GB
Communications: 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g, Bluetooth 2.1, USB
Connectors: micro USB, 3.5mm
Camera: 3 megapixels.
Battery: 1500 mAh (~ 26 hours in active use mode)
Dimensions: 110 x 58.3 x 13.2 mm
Weight: 140 g
Optional: light indication of events
Price: 7990 rub.