THL W3 - Catch up with and overtake brands!


    This Tuesday we have on our table a top-end phone from the Chinese company THL, which in terms of performance can compete with much more expensive branded phones. In the review - pictures, tests, and of course an autopsy.
    • Processor MT6575 , clocked at 1GHz
    • 1GB of RAM, and 2GB + 800MB of user memory
    • 2 active SIM cards, one of which can work in 3G networks.
    • IPS screen 4.5 ", with capacitive sensor and a resolution of 1280x720 .
    • Gyroscope, proximity sensor, light sensor
    • Communications: GPS, Wi-Fi (n), BT
    • 2 cameras: rear 8MP , auto focus, LED backlight and front 2MP
    • Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3
    • 2000mAh battery



    About THL W3 + - Big Brother

    After I bought this phone, another phone began to appear on the virtual shelves (it is called differently, W3 +, W3s, W3 Dual) - all the same, but with the only difference - it is built on the 6577 processor, instead of the one used in this one phone chip 6575. The screen, memory, housing and equipment are identical, firmware, however, do not fit.
    Due to the fact that the new processor is compatible in contacts (well, practically, a minimum alteration of the board is still needed), Chinese developers can take the old board, fix a couple of tracks on it, install a new processor and rebuild the android, in fact get a new phone.
    Just as Haipai’s I9220 after a while had an “older brother” - X710D, so in THL W3 they added a new processor, having received a new phone. True, it costs another $ 20-30 more (which is the obvious markup of the stores "for top quality" - the processor costs not much more than 6575).

    All of the following in the review also applies to the new version, with the exception of the item “specifications” regarding processor tests. There for the version with 6577 there is a separate screenshot.



    Packaging and equipment

    The phone is delivered here in such a colorful box: With the characteristics on the back: And with insets on the sides: The box opens in the iphone-style, the upper part is removed completely. Kit (another battery, one, but I forgot to remove it from the phone): Manual, warranty, headphones, wire, charging with an adapter, battery and phone. No covers and pouches. Let's take a closer look: A regular USB-MicroUSB cable, white, not very thick. With company logo. Headphones: Finally sane headphones! Not only are they metal (!), The case of the plug and the headphones themselves are aluminum. So they also sound good. Not HiFi of course, but at a sufficient level to listen to music. By the way, there is still a microphone and a call reception button.














    They also have a logo on them: Warranty (by the way, a copy of the guarantee from ZOPO. It seems I know who is copying from whom): A 500mA power supply unit And a 2000mah battery, quite thick, so the capacity is beyond doubt: Also, they put me for free plastic bumper: Packaging and equipment for: 7 points out of 10 The equipment is not bad, all components are branded and of high quality - only for headphones you can put a bold plus. It is a pity that there is only one battery.














    Build Quality and Appearance

    The phone looks like this: Impressions? A heavy, smooth brick with curved edges. It is comfortable enough in the hand, does not slip out. It feels nice in the hand, perhaps, from the latest Chinese phones - this one is the most pleasant (: The back cover is made of smooth plastic: The classic mechanism moves down. After zp100 I became a fan of the “rubber” back covers. Compared to the usual ones, there’s absolutely no backlash and there are no gaps. There is no play, but a slight creaking when pressing in the center of the lid is observed. The advantage of the "classic" is the higher reliability of the lid with constant opening and closing.






    Sidewalls, as well as the upper and lower parts are soft touch. Honestly, I don’t really like sprayed coatings, because after a year and a half they start to wear off. But it looks good, and it's nice to hold in your hand.
    On the upper edge, everything is standard - an audio connector and a power button. They are located on the contrary, when compared with the Zp100: Due to the desire of designers to make all corners sleek, the audio jack does not seem to be fully inserted when viewed from the back: This does not affect functionality. On the right is a single sound adjustment button. She has a very soft and short stroke, and there is no tactile response when pressed. When wearing a bumper, it is very inconvenient to use.






    In general, I would like such a volume button, if it was ONLY a volume button - it wouldn’t press accidentally in my pocket or when taking the phone out of its case. But, given that these are the only buttons on the case, I am forced to use them as leaflets of pages. But this is really inconvenient to do in the bumper.
    On the bottom there is only a microphone hole: On the left, there is a MicroUSB connector: On the bottom there is a decoding of the company name: And above, there is a camera window and speaker, as well as backlight LEDs: There are 4 classic buttons on the front panel, with the same layout as in ... well you understand. Above the screen there is a camera window, a logo, a speaker grid, and two sensor windows:











    Sensors under glass, which is why it was required to make “windows” for them in the coating. This phone more thoroughly approached the issue than the i9220, and the sensors can be seen only in bright light, and they do not look alien. The side volume buttons are on the back cover, the power button on the case itself. The camera window is also located on the back cover. On the one hand, with such a solution it is easier to stain the glass or lens, but on the other hand, in case of contamination, wiping will not be difficult. The connector frame is wide enough: Because of what is included in the kit cable with a slightly elongated plug (white):









    Ordinary wires are also suitable, but hold tight due to their length. It is problematic to actively use the phone not with the native wire - it drops out. With the white wire from the kit, everything is fine.
    The battery is inserted "upside down" relative to the normal position of the phone: A SIM card and a memory card are at the bottom of the phone, not at the top. This is caused by the placement of the system board at the bottom (we will see this later). The bumper disappointed me. In terms of protecting the phone from scratches, it does of course, well. But due to the fact that he is all in a small hole - you will have to forget about protection from dust or water. In addition, he sticks out too much over the volume buttons, and prevents them from being pressed. Another problem (not a problem, of course, just offends my sense of beauty):








    The dimensions are not too precise, as a result of which, in the upper part, it protrudes slightly.
    Appearance on: 7 points out of 10
    It’s nice to hold the phone in your hand, despite the plastic cover. It looks quite stylish and beautiful, it is also built well - the company in the top model simply cannot afford to leave a backlash or some kind of imperfections.



    Screen

    Ohhhh! No not like this. OOOOO! As I once admired the screen in the zp100, so now I am happy about this screen. Again a significant step forward, although it would seem, for the Chinese, the past screen was a good achievement. The screen size is 4.5 inches and the resolution is 1280x720. The PPI of the screen is 326, which nevertheless allows us to call it a Retina display (329). For comparison, the zp100 PPI is 256, and the I9220 has 182.
    View full screen screenshot

    He also did not fit in your screen?

    Under direct sunlight, the screen remains readable. Of the shortcomings, it should be noted a small range of brightness adjustment, I would like a little less brightness for the dark and a little higher for sunny days. On the other hand, auto brightness works fine, it always correctly determines the level and does not switch brightness levels noticeably for the eye. Moreover, it works over the entire range - at the end, the backlight level is maximum, and at night it is minimal.
    The screen can be seen satisfactorily in the sun: With very bright sun at a certain angle, it is possible to see the points that make up the multitouch sensor and the conductors between them. The display is not affected.



    Speaking of the touchpad. The first impression is "somehow it is too sensory." Compared to the Zp100, it is much more responsive, I had to get used to it. I don’t know if such an effect arises due to a changed design or due to system settings, but it definitely is. Pros - the accuracy of “tapa” has increased (in chrome, I began to more accurately follow links).
    When comparing the screen with other phones, there is some “yellowness” - the white color is not bluish-white, but I am with a clear shade of yellowish. At first I solved this problem Screen Adjuster, added +3 to the blue channel. At the first reboot, this setting flew away, but I was sure of the “normality” of the image, and the yellowness stopped worrying me. When viewing photos, the difference is especially felt - the photos look much more rich and vibrant.


    Screen on: 8 points out of 10
    A very good screen, one of the few screens of this resolution and quality available in the Chinese market.



    Inside, fashion and maintainability

    So, the most interesting. An autopsy showed that the patient died as a result of an autopsy .
    On one of the bolts a sticker with the company logo: Is this such a protection against tampering? it can be poked with a needle, and then returned to the same place. We unscrew the 4 screws: After which, we snap off the plastic fasteners with the pick, and begin to lift the panel from the back, moving it down (relative to the phone, i.e. to the buttons (as it is difficult to describe in words)): We see a board: And back: We should also mention the interesting design of the card reader (by the way, there is a “bios” battery next to it), and the white blotch is a wet sensor: And a SIM card connector : Camera and flash:
















    At the top are WiFi and GPS antennas, at the bottom are GSM / 3G antennas (they are signed on the board): MT6620, which includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and FM radio. The board is mounted on two screws: And 4 latches. Which we will not open and unscrew - as it all very firmly stands, and was afraid to damage something. Insides: 5 points out of 10 Made with high quality, but disassembly is difficult. It is very easy to break something without experience.











    Characteristics, speed

    The whole platform is MT6575, so you should not expect any special changes. However, if you take the version with 5677 ...
    AnTuTu and Quadrant By the way, what AnTuTu shows when running on W3 +: Agree, a pretty nice performance boost. Of course, my next device will be at 6577. Let's get back to our W3 rams . Linpack: Sensors and multi-touch: Accelerometer, light and proximity. Gyroscope and magnetic sensor or not, or they are not involved in the current firmware. GPS: Well, that's what, huh? Really it was impossible to put the cheapest ceramics? Again foil antenna. It works, but do not expect miracles. Vellamo:



















    The low result is due to the fact that two tests from the set refused to run at this screen resolution. Despite this, the speed of browsers is acceptable.

    A gigabyte of memory is great. Finally, chrome stopped closing “extra” tabs, and programs started loading faster if they were already running. The weight of the phone with the battery is 155g: Which is a bit heavier than the zp100 (137g) and I9220 (130). Specifications: 6 points out of 10. For me, the disappointment is not very good GPS - I can not find a phone that has all the advantages. It was a pleasant surprise that the system as a whole is faster, despite the high resolution. The processor is the same, the graphics are the same. I don’t understand, but what’s faster is a fact.










    Photo and video

    The camera is good. And the resolution of the sensor is higher, and the backlight is bright, and in poor lighting, pictures are obtained ... well, at least they are. One problem - in the afternoon, with a complex frame with alternating shadows - sometimes makes a mistake with the white balance: Macro shoots normally: Including at dusk: The photosensitivity of the matrix is ​​good, in poor lighting conditions you should not wait for quality, but the pictures are obtained: And even not bad ( for the phone): The test passes with a sheet of text, the camera passes (shot with a flash, the quality will be slightly better in sunlight): Photos and video at: 8 points out of 10














    Very nice camera. Honestly, I was expecting the worst. A good flash and photo sensor allow shooting even in poor lighting conditions. I think that it’s not necessary to talk about the fact that both cameras work on Skype, any problems with this have remained in the past together with 6573.



    Operating system firmware

    How to flash:
    1) Download the toolkit. Driver , and firmware program
    2) Download firmware. Here is the official + recovery (you can not install it if you are not going to use it) , and here separately the recovery . And here is the latest firmware 0.4 , and update 0.5 .
    3) Run the program (Flash_tool.exe) on behalf of the administrator, click the Scatter-loading button, select the txt file in the folder with the unpacked firmware (or just recover), which stores information about the addresses where the firmware should be downloaded. Click Download. The phone is not connected!

    2) Turn off the phone, remove, insert the battery, hold down the Volume- button, insert the cable. The system swears at the new device, palm off (if necessary - forcibly) the driver from the first paragraph. As soon as the driver is installed, the program will find the phone, fill it with the preloader (via com port emulation, slowly the red bar), and then launch it. Having started, the bootloader will get used to the phone, raise a full-fledged high-speed USB interface, to which the system, as always, will ask for a driver. Perhaps they will put them automatically, then skip the next paragraph.
    2.1) If the counter in the program counted, but did not find a new interface. We go to the device manager, see an unidentified device, install the same driver from the first item for it. After that, repeat point 2.
    3) If everything went well, the program will find the USB interface, after which it will download the flasher (lilac strip), which will already receive the firmware and shove it in the phone’s memory (yellow bar). After which, a window with a green circle pops up - done. We distort the battery, press the power button.
    If you were flashing an official, this can be done. But I don’t see the point in this, at first it’s worth upgrading only the recovery, and then installing the firmware 0.4.
    4) Copy the archives from point 1 (ThL.W3.120714.6575.ICS.COM.RUS_v0.4.zip, ThL.W3.120714.6575.ICS.COM.RUS_v0.5.zip) to the memory card, go Settings - About phone - Reboot Recorery Just in case, we make Wipe All, then Install zip from SD card, and first select 0.4, and then 0.5. The first download is long. Ruth inside.

    A little upset that in the "Developer Parameters" there is nothing but three points, I constantly turned off the animation.
    You can’t edit standard profiles in sound profiles, just create your own: Software for: 6 points out of 10 ICS, works without glitches. It is worth making a discount on the fact that the phone is relatively new, and heaps of firmware have not yet appeared.






    Working hours:

    A large battery significantly increased the operating time, which now without problems allows you to not charge the phone in the middle of the day. Given the lid, which is not in danger of breakage, I would buy another battery, but with one all is more than good: Two battery tests: Operating time at: 9 points out of 10 There is some progress, the devices have already begun to live out until the evening. Why can't you make the battery bigger? i9220 did, why only in one phone? Well, at least someone realized that an hour and a half is too little.









    Summary:

    An interesting and controversial device. I rather liked it, and I replaced the zp100 with it - I could not resist the screen and camera.
    Of course, any technique is imperfect, but it is still very interesting to monitor the progress of Chinese industry. What awaits us in a year, I can’t even imagine.

    Related links:
    Topic on w3bsit3-dns.com
    Forum section on china-iphone.ru

    You can see all the photos from the review (and many not included) in the original resolution in the Picasa album . There you can ask a question or leave a comment.

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