Highscreen Boost 2 smartphone review - how to forget about the outlet for a long time
At the beginning of last year, Highscreen Boost, which became the first “long-playing” smartphone in Russia, appeared on the market. The model turned out to be a hit one, survived even a speculative proposal (it was like that) and, eventually, motivated other brands to release models with capacious batteries. It is clear that the Highscreen device was doomed to the emergence of a successor - and such really appeared in the fall. In Highscreen Boost 2, it was possible to choose between installing a 3,000 mAh or 6,000 mAh battery, each battery has its own cover. Given that at the time of the release of the other "6k" smartphones were not on the horizon, the smartphone was even presented for entry into the Guinness Book of Records - guess what reason. In general, we are getting to know - Highscreen Boost 2. And I immediately inform you that the diagonal of the smartphone has grown from 4.3 to 5 inches. Trend sirs
It is worth believing that nothing will change this year, and Highscreen will continue to produce (with rare exceptions) all its smartphones in a recycled cardboard box. Plus, the karma for the environment, and the cost of packaging such a thing clearly minimizes. I am equally familiar with the message about gratuitous 20 GB in the 4Sync cloud.
')
The set in the box is more or less trivial - headset, microUSB cable, mains charger, warranty book and instruction. The variety brings the presence of two batteries of different capacity and, accordingly, a pair of covers.
There is something to rejoice, there are reasons for grief. For example, the first Highscreen Boost makes me feel like a charismatic mini-brick. Which, due to the peculiarities of the size and in the fist, can be clamped in order to increase the rigidity in contact with the skin of the hooligans. With Highscreen Boost 2 this is unlikely to succeed, except that people like Denis Tsyplenkov. The smartphone puts us in front of a difficult choice, since the “buns”, such as attractive looks and good ergonomics, go to the user only when choosing a 3,000 mAh battery. But with 6,000 mAh, all trade-offs outweigh the autonomy.
Now more about each option. With the "troika" we get 9.8 mm thickness and 151 grams of weight, which is not bad at all. And "live" looks even better. True, at first glance it becomes clear which model of a different manufacturer was inspired by the creators of Highscreen Boost 2. Nevertheless, the smartphone came out much more memorable than similar devices of the same diagonal and price range. The lack of rounding at the corners and between the sides does not affect the convenience, nothing bites into the palm.
With an increase in capacity to 6,000 mAh, the beauty of the exterior has to be sacrificed. In my opinion, just here the roundness of the lid would be in place, because the observed angular design looks like a weak “four”, and does not sit in the hand at all as “poured”.
The materials of the body are plastic and metal. In the latter case, we are talking about a metal frame under the glass, the main task is to impart rigidity to the apparatus, theoretically this increases the resistance to various destructive influences. Covers are made from the most ordinary plastic. This does not add a bonus to the device, but from the point of view of practicality, it was much easier for me to erase marks from the surface in one fell swoop than to wrestle with revealing deep black marks on the soft-touch coating of other smartphones. The middle was the build quality. If there are no complaints about the “thin” version, then the squeaks and the backlash are observed with a large lid. No, the lid does not strive to voice any touch or fly at all, but nevertheless - they saw the performance better. For example, in the same Highscreen Alpha R.
Go to the buttons-connectors. That the smartphone should be right above the screen, I think you know as well as I do, I only give a photo for this.
But below all more interesting. Number one is the plastic part that runs over the glass cover of the display. That is, I am accustomed to the fact that the same protection is usually put in the entire front side. In Highscreen Boost 2, "innovation" is rather cosmetic, although it reduces the area of the stained area under the display. Number two is keys. Which are not dull at all - house / squares / stripes. Two luminous points at the edges, a small circle in the center, such a non-template execution.
The volume and power keys are installed on the sides, which is good. And the fact that they play is already bad. In the center on the right is the key, which at first glance is responsible for photographing. A closer look at the settings reveals a point where the button options are selected — calling the front or rear camera, turning on the music player, or creating a screenshot. It was expected that the list would subsequently expand significantly, but so far it has not happened - after firmware 2.1 of October 28 of last year, no other updates are visible. Maybe some patch “on the topic” wanders among the masses, but I haven’t seen one.
Both the audio output and the microUSB connector were installed at the top. I will voice my usual claim - because of the wire sticking out from above during charging, it can be inconvenient to have a conversation on a smartphone. Well at least that the power button is not set.
Remove the cover, remove the battery and study the insides. All slots are visually signed, although I am tormented by vague doubts that not all citizens associate WCDMA with “three ge”. The format of SIM-cards is microSIM. I can not call it an objective claim, but I do not quite understand the occasional dvuhsimochniki with slots in different formats within the same apparatus.
As I said, the display size has increased to 5 inches. I admit, I am not a fan of such a diagonal and I prefer 4.5-inch models. However, the trend of the industry is not dependent on my specific opinion, and sales of the Samsung Galaxy S IV once again pushes manufacturers to release shovels. Although on the other hand, I note that the same 5-inch models do not make me feel overly cumbersome. The screen resolution of Highscreen Boost 2 is 1280 x 720 pixels - expectedly considering the price, qHD would not look very appropriate here. Accordingly, the picture clarity is good.
The IPS-matrix is not bad, I did not notice any special color distortion. Viewing angles are average - if you look diagonally to the left and right, you can see blue and orange shades, respectively. It is clear that this is a predictable moment of the matrix, but in other IPS-smartphones this did not strike me as obvious. The glass coating of the screen is not “branded”, because no one gives guarantees of durability. Let me just say that for about two months of using without a cover, no marks on the display of my copy appeared. By the way, the screen is made using OGS technology, which is only good for the perception of the picture. The “solar” qualities of the matrix are moderate, although I did not set the brightness over 50-70% for dialing or reading SMS on the street.
The front 2 megapixel module was not surprised, but it didn’t upset me - it’s going to be a video chat, moreover I’ll take a picture of my Skype avatar The main 8 megapixel camera left a double impression. In principle, my main complaint is periodic problems with exposure. This is especially noticeable either in frames with a predominance of shadows, or in complex scenes with different lighting. The problem is solved in two or three frames, and the most successful one is chosen.
On the whole, Highscreen Boost 2 seemed to me in terms of shooting with a strong middle class player and certainly a better photographer in comparison with the first Highscreen Boost. No, the predecessor also shot himself quite well, but the wildest throws to extremes with exposure were too annoying - and, judging by the reviews, not only me. Highscreen Boost 2 does not make frankly "soap" photos regardless of the distance, which I can only welcome. There is even a clear macro, only sometimes you have to suffer with the focus (I don’t say anything about “auto”).
The shooting application is left unchanged in Android 4.1. This is not very good, because I was always annoyed by the unreasonable abbreviations of the names of the items, and in general I consider the camera interface unsuccessful. The design of the camera program in smartphones with MediaTek MT6589 is somehow closer to me, at least there is no need to spend time on switching between photo / video modes.
"Heart" Highscreen Boost 2 - 4-core Qualcomm 8225Q processor. He has not met once or twice in Highscreen models this year, and has been seen on other brands more than once. For example, the December novelty of Philips with the same processor is on the test right now. The average consumer needs to know that there are 4 cores, and this is “cool”. However, more advanced comrades know that this is the Cortex-A5, the 45 nm process technology and the Play line. And the graphics chip Adreno 203 to boot. No questions only on the amount of RAM - 1 GB. ROM - 4 GB, of which is available in the amount of about 2.7 GB.
Benchmarks do not try to hide that the filling of Highscreen Boost 2 has a budget status, nothing can be done about it.
As usual, everything is relative. In the system menu, web surfing and other tasks, the smartphone slows down extremely rarely, in this regard, the model is a head taller than the first “boost”, which could at any moment even in the simplest application start producing a slideshow (at least for me) . And if the predecessor (in my case) even refused to start the camera a couple of times, then with Highscreen Boost 2 this did not happen.
With video, the situation is predictable and has been mentioned more than once in reviews of smartphones with the Qualcomm 8225Q. In a good way, the limit of possibilities here rests on HD, under certain circumstances (say, a low bitrate) - in Full HD. If you are going on a long journey and download Highscreen Boost 2 movies in memory, I would strongly recommend running each file first to avoid disappointment. I myself used to be limited on mobile devices to all kinds of DVDrip, out of the six proposed films, everything was played normally.
Attempting to use a memory card with a prepared universal cache for a dozen games turned out to be not entirely successful, for the most half of the titles it was necessary to download the content manually. The possibilities of Qualcomm 8225Q in the game question are well known to me, the only fear was the load due to HD resolution. Fortunately, it did - Adreno 203 habitually simplified graphics everywhere and painlessly allowed to spend time with Modern combat 4: Zero Hour and his ilk. Of course, the smoothness of the gameplay is not perfect, but the frequency has never fallen below 20 FPS for a long time. Plus, due to the resolution, the picture seemed to me much more beautiful in comparison with the similar configuration of “iron” with qHD.
Android 4.1.2 in Highscreen Boost is devoid of special adornments, there is almost no additional software - it is understandable given the memory deficit. There is a Hangouts, 4Sync client (remember about “freebies”), a very convenient file manager, as well as the firmware update utility “over the air”. There are a couple of labels like equalizer and wifi hotspot activation. The settings of the SIM-cards, the program of calls and SMS, etc. are not modernized in any way - I think you have already seen enough of these menus over the past year.
The most interesting point of the review. So, here are the results for a 6,000 mAh battery.
“Think for yourself, decide for yourself,” as sung in a well-known song. Also I will give the results of the test site x-drivers.ru. Their methodology is described here and allows you to approximately simulate the one-day more or less active use of the smartphone. After testing the guys smartphone showed 90% of the remaining charge . For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S IV in a similar test remained 62%.
Highscreen Boost 2 is a purely evolutionary product. The battery has become larger, the camera is better, there are not many software “ills” of the predecessor. Plus "chip" with replaceable batteries of different capacities looks like an interesting solution. The model seemed to me the same "hard worker" as the first Highscreen Boost. That is, the device cannot even be attributed to top-end smartphones (if you don’t touch on autonomy), but the model doesn’t look like an unnecessarily low-end solution either. Probably, I would recommend Highscreen Boost 2 to people who occasionally have to stay without a power outlet for a long time - for lovers of camping trips, comrades with regular business trips, etc. The model is sold for 10,990 rubles (~ $ 340). Just in case - after the release of Highscreen Boost 2, the price of its “progenitor” dropped to 6,990 rubles (~ $ 220).
Equipment
It is worth believing that nothing will change this year, and Highscreen will continue to produce (with rare exceptions) all its smartphones in a recycled cardboard box. Plus, the karma for the environment, and the cost of packaging such a thing clearly minimizes. I am equally familiar with the message about gratuitous 20 GB in the 4Sync cloud.
')
The set in the box is more or less trivial - headset, microUSB cable, mains charger, warranty book and instruction. The variety brings the presence of two batteries of different capacity and, accordingly, a pair of covers.
Appearance and controls
There is something to rejoice, there are reasons for grief. For example, the first Highscreen Boost makes me feel like a charismatic mini-brick. Which, due to the peculiarities of the size and in the fist, can be clamped in order to increase the rigidity in contact with the skin of the hooligans. With Highscreen Boost 2 this is unlikely to succeed, except that people like Denis Tsyplenkov. The smartphone puts us in front of a difficult choice, since the “buns”, such as attractive looks and good ergonomics, go to the user only when choosing a 3,000 mAh battery. But with 6,000 mAh, all trade-offs outweigh the autonomy.
Now more about each option. With the "troika" we get 9.8 mm thickness and 151 grams of weight, which is not bad at all. And "live" looks even better. True, at first glance it becomes clear which model of a different manufacturer was inspired by the creators of Highscreen Boost 2. Nevertheless, the smartphone came out much more memorable than similar devices of the same diagonal and price range. The lack of rounding at the corners and between the sides does not affect the convenience, nothing bites into the palm.
With an increase in capacity to 6,000 mAh, the beauty of the exterior has to be sacrificed. In my opinion, just here the roundness of the lid would be in place, because the observed angular design looks like a weak “four”, and does not sit in the hand at all as “poured”.
The materials of the body are plastic and metal. In the latter case, we are talking about a metal frame under the glass, the main task is to impart rigidity to the apparatus, theoretically this increases the resistance to various destructive influences. Covers are made from the most ordinary plastic. This does not add a bonus to the device, but from the point of view of practicality, it was much easier for me to erase marks from the surface in one fell swoop than to wrestle with revealing deep black marks on the soft-touch coating of other smartphones. The middle was the build quality. If there are no complaints about the “thin” version, then the squeaks and the backlash are observed with a large lid. No, the lid does not strive to voice any touch or fly at all, but nevertheless - they saw the performance better. For example, in the same Highscreen Alpha R.
Go to the buttons-connectors. That the smartphone should be right above the screen, I think you know as well as I do, I only give a photo for this.
But below all more interesting. Number one is the plastic part that runs over the glass cover of the display. That is, I am accustomed to the fact that the same protection is usually put in the entire front side. In Highscreen Boost 2, "innovation" is rather cosmetic, although it reduces the area of the stained area under the display. Number two is keys. Which are not dull at all - house / squares / stripes. Two luminous points at the edges, a small circle in the center, such a non-template execution.
The volume and power keys are installed on the sides, which is good. And the fact that they play is already bad. In the center on the right is the key, which at first glance is responsible for photographing. A closer look at the settings reveals a point where the button options are selected — calling the front or rear camera, turning on the music player, or creating a screenshot. It was expected that the list would subsequently expand significantly, but so far it has not happened - after firmware 2.1 of October 28 of last year, no other updates are visible. Maybe some patch “on the topic” wanders among the masses, but I haven’t seen one.
Both the audio output and the microUSB connector were installed at the top. I will voice my usual claim - because of the wire sticking out from above during charging, it can be inconvenient to have a conversation on a smartphone. Well at least that the power button is not set.
Remove the cover, remove the battery and study the insides. All slots are visually signed, although I am tormented by vague doubts that not all citizens associate WCDMA with “three ge”. The format of SIM-cards is microSIM. I can not call it an objective claim, but I do not quite understand the occasional dvuhsimochniki with slots in different formats within the same apparatus.
Screen
As I said, the display size has increased to 5 inches. I admit, I am not a fan of such a diagonal and I prefer 4.5-inch models. However, the trend of the industry is not dependent on my specific opinion, and sales of the Samsung Galaxy S IV once again pushes manufacturers to release shovels. Although on the other hand, I note that the same 5-inch models do not make me feel overly cumbersome. The screen resolution of Highscreen Boost 2 is 1280 x 720 pixels - expectedly considering the price, qHD would not look very appropriate here. Accordingly, the picture clarity is good.
The IPS-matrix is not bad, I did not notice any special color distortion. Viewing angles are average - if you look diagonally to the left and right, you can see blue and orange shades, respectively. It is clear that this is a predictable moment of the matrix, but in other IPS-smartphones this did not strike me as obvious. The glass coating of the screen is not “branded”, because no one gives guarantees of durability. Let me just say that for about two months of using without a cover, no marks on the display of my copy appeared. By the way, the screen is made using OGS technology, which is only good for the perception of the picture. The “solar” qualities of the matrix are moderate, although I did not set the brightness over 50-70% for dialing or reading SMS on the street.
Camera
The front 2 megapixel module was not surprised, but it didn’t upset me - it’s going to be a video chat, moreover I’ll take a picture of my Skype avatar The main 8 megapixel camera left a double impression. In principle, my main complaint is periodic problems with exposure. This is especially noticeable either in frames with a predominance of shadows, or in complex scenes with different lighting. The problem is solved in two or three frames, and the most successful one is chosen.
On the whole, Highscreen Boost 2 seemed to me in terms of shooting with a strong middle class player and certainly a better photographer in comparison with the first Highscreen Boost. No, the predecessor also shot himself quite well, but the wildest throws to extremes with exposure were too annoying - and, judging by the reviews, not only me. Highscreen Boost 2 does not make frankly "soap" photos regardless of the distance, which I can only welcome. There is even a clear macro, only sometimes you have to suffer with the focus (I don’t say anything about “auto”).
The shooting application is left unchanged in Android 4.1. This is not very good, because I was always annoyed by the unreasonable abbreviations of the names of the items, and in general I consider the camera interface unsuccessful. The design of the camera program in smartphones with MediaTek MT6589 is somehow closer to me, at least there is no need to spend time on switching between photo / video modes.
Performance and system
"Heart" Highscreen Boost 2 - 4-core Qualcomm 8225Q processor. He has not met once or twice in Highscreen models this year, and has been seen on other brands more than once. For example, the December novelty of Philips with the same processor is on the test right now. The average consumer needs to know that there are 4 cores, and this is “cool”. However, more advanced comrades know that this is the Cortex-A5, the 45 nm process technology and the Play line. And the graphics chip Adreno 203 to boot. No questions only on the amount of RAM - 1 GB. ROM - 4 GB, of which is available in the amount of about 2.7 GB.
Benchmarks do not try to hide that the filling of Highscreen Boost 2 has a budget status, nothing can be done about it.
As usual, everything is relative. In the system menu, web surfing and other tasks, the smartphone slows down extremely rarely, in this regard, the model is a head taller than the first “boost”, which could at any moment even in the simplest application start producing a slideshow (at least for me) . And if the predecessor (in my case) even refused to start the camera a couple of times, then with Highscreen Boost 2 this did not happen.
With video, the situation is predictable and has been mentioned more than once in reviews of smartphones with the Qualcomm 8225Q. In a good way, the limit of possibilities here rests on HD, under certain circumstances (say, a low bitrate) - in Full HD. If you are going on a long journey and download Highscreen Boost 2 movies in memory, I would strongly recommend running each file first to avoid disappointment. I myself used to be limited on mobile devices to all kinds of DVDrip, out of the six proposed films, everything was played normally.
Attempting to use a memory card with a prepared universal cache for a dozen games turned out to be not entirely successful, for the most half of the titles it was necessary to download the content manually. The possibilities of Qualcomm 8225Q in the game question are well known to me, the only fear was the load due to HD resolution. Fortunately, it did - Adreno 203 habitually simplified graphics everywhere and painlessly allowed to spend time with Modern combat 4: Zero Hour and his ilk. Of course, the smoothness of the gameplay is not perfect, but the frequency has never fallen below 20 FPS for a long time. Plus, due to the resolution, the picture seemed to me much more beautiful in comparison with the similar configuration of “iron” with qHD.
Android 4.1.2 in Highscreen Boost is devoid of special adornments, there is almost no additional software - it is understandable given the memory deficit. There is a Hangouts, 4Sync client (remember about “freebies”), a very convenient file manager, as well as the firmware update utility “over the air”. There are a couple of labels like equalizer and wifi hotspot activation. The settings of the SIM-cards, the program of calls and SMS, etc. are not modernized in any way - I think you have already seen enough of these menus over the past year.
Autonomy
The most interesting point of the review. So, here are the results for a 6,000 mAh battery.
- View HD-video - 13 hours 50 minutes. FPS - 23, bitrate 4,924 kbps, MKV. Screen brightness and sound - maximum;
- Epic Citadel 3D, cyclic "tour" - 8 hours 50 minutes. Screen brightness and sound - maximum;
- GPS and Yandex.Maps - 16 hours 10 minutes. Screen brightness - maximum;
- Telephone conversation - 50 hours. Maximum volume, screen off, 3G connection is active;
- Music - 50 hours. Maximum volume;
- Internet 3G - 7 hours and 20 minutes. A test on a 34 kb page with a full reload every three seconds;
- Internet Wi-Fi - 17 hours. The same conditions as in the 3G test.
“Think for yourself, decide for yourself,” as sung in a well-known song. Also I will give the results of the test site x-drivers.ru. Their methodology is described here and allows you to approximately simulate the one-day more or less active use of the smartphone. After testing the guys smartphone showed 90% of the remaining charge . For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S IV in a similar test remained 62%.
Conclusion
Highscreen Boost 2 is a purely evolutionary product. The battery has become larger, the camera is better, there are not many software “ills” of the predecessor. Plus "chip" with replaceable batteries of different capacities looks like an interesting solution. The model seemed to me the same "hard worker" as the first Highscreen Boost. That is, the device cannot even be attributed to top-end smartphones (if you don’t touch on autonomy), but the model doesn’t look like an unnecessarily low-end solution either. Probably, I would recommend Highscreen Boost 2 to people who occasionally have to stay without a power outlet for a long time - for lovers of camping trips, comrades with regular business trips, etc. The model is sold for 10,990 rubles (~ $ 340). Just in case - after the release of Highscreen Boost 2, the price of its “progenitor” dropped to 6,990 rubles (~ $ 220).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/210090/
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