THL A1 - budget smartphone with IPS screen

Today in the new review from the company Box Overview we will get acquainted with the budget THL A1 smartphone with very good characteristics: 3.5 "IPS screen, 2 SIM cards, Android 4.0.4.

I think recently little attention has been paid to reviews of budget decisions. Everyone is writing about Hi-End, or something supernova. But in fact there are people who do not need half of the proposed functions. For them, a budget solution will be enough. But in order not to go with the Nokia 1100, but to look more modern, we will consider a budget Android-smartphone called THL A1.

Technical specifications

Chip: MTK6515
Screen: 3.5 ", IPS 320 x 480 pixels
RAM: 256 MB
ROM: 256 MB
MicroSD expansion card
OS: Android OS 4.0.4
SIM cards: 2
Network: 2G only: GSM 850M / 900M / 1800M / 1900MHZ (limited by MTK6515 chip)
Cameras: front 0.3MP, rear 3.2MP
GPS: no
WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, USB2.0, 3.5 mm headphone jack
Battery Capacity: 1100mAh
Size: 116.8 × 61.2 × 10.2mm

The processor with a frequency of 1 GHz, a good GPU, only 256 MB ROM / RAM - these are the characteristics offered by the manufacturer for this model.
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Complete set and appearance

Standard equipment includes: phone, charger, USB cable, headset, 2 batteries 1100mAh, protective film, various instructions in Chinese:


Charger 5V / 0.5A:


Charging indicator, proximity sensor, light sensor, speaker, front 0.3MP camera:


Light indication of missed calls / sms is missing.

Rear 3.2MP camera with flash:


Hands-free speaker:

Pretty loud, but when the volume is closer to 80-100% starts to wheeze.

In front there are 3 touch control buttons: “Menu”, “Home”, “Back”.
Buttons with white backlight.


Bottom microUSB input and microphone:


Volume rocker:


Power button and 3.5mm headphone jack on top:


The phone is very comfortable in the hand. There is no “spade” feeling that I experienced while holding Jiayu G3 (4.5 inches) and THL W6 (5.3 inches) smartphones. Sensations of convenience can be attributed closer to the category of "perfect." Although, for a more confident retention, it would be nice to buy a silicone bumper so that the phone does not accidentally slip out of hand.


Thickness is 10.2 mm:


With a weight of 112 grams (with battery) there is no discomfort that the phone is too heavy or unusually light. Everything seems very balanced.
The body is made of ABS plastic. Pleasant to the touch, but rather slippery. The back white cover is matte, prints are almost invisible.

Under the back cover are: 2 SIM slots (only 2G networks), which work in the “standby” mode, a slot for microSD memory cards, a battery with a capacity of 1100mAh.

Screen

The screen resolution is only 320x480 pixels. The situation is saved by the IPS matrix. The color rendition is hardly ideal, it is just good. Multi-touch for 3 simultaneous touches


In the upper right corner there is a small glare, which is visible only on a white background (most likely the screen corner is clamped).

Viewing angles:



In general, the screen can be characterized as good.

Sound quality

In this regard, A1 is very pleased. The interlocutor is perfectly audible, no extraneous noise. The microphone works fine too - no echo or other spurious noise is noted on that side.

Hardware

ThL A1 is built on the MT6515 chip, which is a stripped down version of the MT6575 chip. The differences are in the absence of GPS and 3G. The chip consists of a single-core Cortex-A9 processor with a frequency of up to 1 GHz and a GPU PowerVR SGX531.
The performance of the CPU + GPU combination is good, the only thing that spoils the whole picture is only 256MB of RAM. Too heavy programs / games can just unexpectedly be unloaded from memory.

Let's see what performance the smartphone will show in synthetic tests.
Antutu:


Quadrant:


The magnetic sensor, although present in the list, does not receive data from it.
Information about the chip is displayed from the “big brother” MT6575.

GPU PowerVR SGX531 shows good results in Nenamark 2:

Wifi, Bluetooth

With direct line of sight, the Wifi signal level is very good, the signal catches worse through several walls, but is still stable.

Software, games, web browsing

The smartphone is installed "bare" Android 4.0.4. Despite only 256MB of RAM, the interface works pretty fast. The Russian language was present in the firmware, but according to the old Russian tradition, the habit of updating the firmware to the most recent, it turned out that there is only English and Chinese. I had to recover from the dump of one of the users of the china-iphone forum.
You can also install Clockworkmod Recovery to simplify the backup and recovery process.





Options:


Enough memory to run light games like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja. If the amount of RAM was 512MB of RAM, then probably more powerful 3D games could be launched.
Browsing the Internet on the screen 3.5 "can be called a specific pleasure. But checking email / watching the weather is very much nothing.

Despite the fact that the virtual keyboard is small - I have never missed typing the text, the touch-screen accuracy is very good.

Short video (interface + game + viewing web-pages:

Cameras

The smartphone has 2 cameras: front with a resolution of 0.3MP and back with a resolution of 3.2MP.
Sample snapshot of the rear 3.2MP camera:

Working hours

The THL A1 uses a battery capacity of 1100mAh. With an average load (for half an hour of games, calls, surfing, running various tests), the phone can work on one charge for about 2 days. If you consider the presence of 2 batteries in the kit, then with moderate (minimum) use, you can go with the phone the whole working week.
With more active use of the battery will last no more than one day.
Antutu Tester:

Disassembly

The phone is disassembled by unscrewing 4 screws around the perimeter + 2 screws in the center.


Separate the back panel:


Detailed view:

I didn’t manage to remove the fee, because there is only a general plan. Build quality at a good level.

findings

pros

+ IPS screen
+2 sim cards
+ build quality (as for the budget model)
+ Android 4.0.4
+ price

Minuses

- only 256 MB RAM / ROM
- 1100mAh battery

Lack of GPS and 3G, I did not make a minus, since this restriction is imposed by the MT6515 chip.
As a result, we get a good budget smartphone with an IPS screen, which is perfect for a gift to an unbalanced teenager, or for a person to whom MHz GHz, MB and other details are not so important.
ThL A1 evokes those pleasant feelings when, without pinning more hopes on such a price, you get very pleasant impressions from using the device.

useful links

China-iphone forum discussion

Price

The price in China for this smartphone is ~ $ 90

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