[Android General] MLse7en:
Hello, everyone who is reading this review. I would like to let you know that this is my first big review. I would love to hear your feedback and your comments.

Pros

Cubot S308 is a nice, well performing smartphone that has a good camera. It looks outstanding for it's tiny price of $148.89.

Cons

While it has nice IPS, OGS 5" display, it has a resolution of only 720p (this is a minus because I feel that Cubot could give us at least 1080p), battery's capacity is only 2000 mA·h. Cubot has decided to not invest in their product's packaging and branding.

Design, display and specs.

At the first glance it is hard to differentiate this smartphone from any other phone on the market, but if you take a closer look you will be able to notice couple of slight differences in it’s outlook. My favorite part of this model’s design is it’s rear cover, which is made of plastic but appears as real leather.

This part is truly unique about Cubot S308 and the brand. Unfortunately this model comes only in white or black colors. That would be great if Cubot could spoil us with couple unique rear covers as XIAOMI did with their flagman model MI4. If you consider Cubot S308’s price tag, that is not a big deal. Apple and Samsung fanboys are paying a lot more for the same design diversity, but their smartphones’ price tag is much higher. The rear cover is made of plastic, as whole smartphone is, but it looks like it is made of leather. Looking from distance of 30 cm (1 feet) not a single person in the world will be able to tell that it is not leather. Cover is mounted using small hooks on the edges, I have been opening the rear for more then 10 times and it hasn't’t broken, so I assume that it will have a long lifetime and has been made of good quality plastics.

Around the edge, you can see a glossy frame, not to confuse anyone - it is also made of plastic. On the top and bottom this edge has a slight matt to it and it reminds me of ASUS notebook surface. As the notebook mentioned above, this edge has been designed to look like metal (aluminium). As a part of design it fits really nice.

Cubot S308’s camera placement is quite classic - top in the middle. This will help your fingers to stay out of the lens, so they don’t get in the shot. Other then that, speaker is placed at the bottom of rear, so that while watching videos you won’t cover it. Maybe you have already got used to this order of things being placed on a smartphone but don’t forget that it is done for maximum comfort when using it. Loudspeaker can perform very loud without any distortion, however when you max valume sound becomes a bit distorted.

This phone will fit your hand like a glove, even if you don't have long fingers like I do. In any case, don’t worry, because buttons on the side of the phone are placed in a way that you don’t have to stretch your fingers every time when you want to unlock screen or change volume. When I first got to try it, my reaction was:”Wow, how light it is!”. For it’s size the phone is very light - only 154 grams. You will be pleasantly surprised by phone’s width, just 8.2 mm. I gave my new phone to two THL users to see their first impression. First person was surprised how thin it is, but second was fascinated by how lightweight it is and tiny the frame around the display.

Out of the box you will get a display that already has a protective sticker on it. In my case the sticker had no bubbles and was put on perfectly. The screen is sensitive and works great - without any glitches. Like any other display with 320 dpi (dots per inch) this can reproduce crystal clear imagery. IPS system works great on this phone and images will look outstanding from any viewing angle. Touch screen can sense 5 points of contact at the same time.

The automatic brightness sensor performs well indoors, while outdoors it proved itself to be useless. In bright sun it doesn't maximize screens brightness. On the other hand, if you use your phone mostly indoors it will work like magic for you and save some of your precious battery power. I have tested sensor outdoors, it does understand brightness variations from 200 lumix to 10k but is not reacting accordingly to max brightness (in direct sunlight).

Built quality

Some Chinese phones will come not that well built. I have read that some THL phones come squeaky and their parts don't really fit each other. This is not the case for Cubot S308. The phone come in sturdy and will not make a single sound if you press it around edge or in the middle of it. That being said, the phone is throughout made of plastic. Certainly you can feel that back cover is plastic, but in any case it fits your hand like a glove.

The specs themselves:

Screen: 5” IPS, OGS

Resolution: HD Ready - 1280x720 320 dpi

SoC: Mediatek 1.3 Ghz MT6582 quad core

GPU: Mali-400 MP

Dual SIM

RAM: 2 Gb

ROM: 16 Gb

Front camera: 8 Mp

Rear camera: 5 Mp

Battery: 2000 mA·h

OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

You may think that this processor is a bit outdated, but it performs well and prooves it’s performance. Newest games similar to Asphalt 8 are running smoothly and without any lag. All web-pages are loaded with no hustle at all - 2 Gb RAM is more then enough to smoothly browse the Web.

Performance

Using newest version of Antutu v5 benchmarking software Cubot S308 scored prestige 18919 points.

To see how the phone is performing, I have tested it to run a FullHD video (V: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920x1080 59.94fps 5843kbps A: AAC 48000Hz stereo 174kbps). The video (Uncharted 4: A Thief's End E3 2014 Trailer (1080p, 60fps)) was recorded on a regular MicroSD card that I got from some dodgy seller on AliExpress. Video was played using built-in video player and never stuttered a single frame, video ran smoothly.

[YOUTUBE]fTtM27nZww8[/YOUTUBE]

As per games, I have tested Asphalt 8 on this phone, to see what kind of graphics it will be able to render. Unfortunately I am not able to compare graphics with any other phone, but I can tell for sure how it looked. The game is running without any problems and the "Loading" screen wasn't there for too long. The game didn't stutter at all but graphics themselves look a bit pixelated (maybe I am too skeptical).

[YOUTUBE]qhRXdaf5Db8[/YOUTUBE]

Surfing the web or just the menu will be smooth and glitch-free. I am well impressed with it's performance. It feels like RAM is fast enough to keep phone operating quickly.

GPS

I am not a huge fan of using GPS anyway, usually I am certain of where I am going to and I know the shortcuts :) GPS is something that I am not impressed about in this phone. When you start GoogleMaps and tap on "Locate" it works perfect and can identify your location within seconds. I also tested it in Endomundo, just to see how well it will track me. The result:

My personal [B[verdict[/B[ on GPS - it works good for me, since I almost never use it, but it might be a problem for drivers that are using Waze. Most importantly, it finds your location on map within seconds.

Two Sim-cards, cellular antenna and frequencies.

Perhaps you’ve already had experience with phones that supports two sim-cards, but I have to go into detail about that. You can insert up to two sim-cards in this phone - one regular sim and one micro sim. Both cards can be on standby mode simultaneously. As there is only one antenna in the phone, you can make or receive call only on one at the same time. It is extremely easy to insert cards, since there is a straightforward instruction next to sim slots.

I’ve got about 5 phones in my “old gadgets drawer” but non of them was capable of having decent service signal in my flat and usually my friends had to call my landline, which is the only reason I got one in the beginning. You should see my face when I saw that Cubot S308 had ¾ of full service on my desk next to my laptop. Long story short - both sim-cards are easy to insert and smartphone gets decent signal when other phones have proven to fail.

Frequencies

This phone supports majority of European mobile operators (2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G: WCDMA 850/2100MHz). So for me, it works like magic with Three and GifGaf. Talking about mobile broadband speed. I can't tell you if I have to be super-exited about it or not, because there is not a lot I can compare it with except of my laptop. I am currently using BT Broadband which does have some decent speed and allows me to play online with no issues at all.

My laptop gives me these results when connected to Wi-Fi.

And when I connect my Cubot S308 to the same Wi-Fi I get these results using SpeedTest app:

I am using Three, British operator, that gives me good coverage in Belfast and this is what Cubot gives me using SpeedTest app.

Battery life

The battery that comes inside the box is only 2000 mA·h. First two days I had to charge my phone twice a day, since I was constantly surfing web, installing new apps from Android Market and so on.

At this point, where I am already settled with apps and don't feel the urge to check Facebook every 5 minutes I am charging it only during the night. Other Cubot S308 users have reported that battery is only 1800 mA·h but I can't tell the difference and it has totally met my expectations.

Packaging and what’s inside the box.

Nowadays companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC and others are investing a lot of manpower and funds towards the packaging itself. Buying electronics of popular brands you also pay for packaging. Since Chinese smartphone market is very tight and competitive, companies like Cubot can’t afford to raise prices of smartphones for $20-$30 just for packaging. This means that your phone will come in regular brown cardboard box that will have only a small company’s label on top of it. If you consider the price of Cubot S308 you should understand why you are not getting a glossy bright-colored box. I am more then comfortable to pay exclusively for the gadget itself rather then paying extra for 2 minutes unboxing experience. That being said, Cubot S308 comes in a sturdy box that will be able to protect it against negligence of postal services.

Inside the box you will find standard accessories pack - charger, USB cable and additional protective sticker for your screen. You will not find a headset within, but standard 3.5mm headphones jack will let you use your favorite headphones. I would like to mention, that charger and USB cable is pretty high quality. I usually pay a lot of attention to this kind of details and I was blown away by the feel of them. Some USB cables are flimsy or have some sort of cheap plastic feel to them, but not in this case. Their quality reminds me the cable and charger (1000 mA) that comes with any Apple gadget.

When buying this smarthopne with Pandawill, as a part of package you will get a free case, which you will not be impressed by. It is quite flimsy and can be mounted by gluing it to rear cover. I am not comfortable with gluing something on my new Cubot S308, so I passed on it.

The Camera

Rear camera has 8 Mpix and is capable of shooting good quality pictures. When I was testing it, I was pleased with the results and quite impressed with macro pictures it produced. As the saying says: “one picture paints a thousand words.”

Front camera has 5 Mpix and keeps up with it’s tasks. I tested it for a video call and it worked like charm. In any case, here is a test picture.

In a nutshell

Cubot S308 is able to offer you what you would expect from a $150.00 smartphone and will exceed your expectation - beautiful design, snappy performance and good quality camera at a pricetag that is so hard to resist.

Smartphone’s design is quite unique thanks to it’s rear cover and tiny frame around the display. You will be pleased how well it fits your hand.

This model is being sold only in one setting - 2 Gb RAM and 16 Gb ROM with an option to extend it with MicroSD card. This smartphone is not supporting 4G, but supports European 3G frequencies with an antenna that will able to find service in places where other phones fail.

I receommend this phone to anyone who is on tight budget, but is willing to get high performance, nice looking phone with a decent camera.