[Android General] KloNom:
The whole review you can read in a nicer format, full resolution pictures and newest updates on my blog ;):

http://klonom.com/inew-v3-plus-review/

The iNew V3 Plus is the improved version of the iNew V3. It has an octa core processor, 2 GB RAM and a 5″ HD Display. The mobile itself I kindly received from Antelife Shop. It can be bought for roughly 140€ plus sending from here.

Specifications:

-Android 4.4.2

-5″ HD IPS Display (1280×720, OGS)

-Second Generation Gorilla Glass (according to iNew)

–MTK6592M 1.4GHz Octa Core Processor

-2GB RAM / 16 GB ROM

-MicroSD Slot

-5 MP front camera, 16 MP back camera (according to iNew)

-USB OTG

-1.85 Ah (according label)

-GPS

-WiFi, Bluetooth

-Dual SIM

-Sensors: Light, Proximity, Acceleration, magnetic field

Items delivered:

The iNew V3 Plus is delivered in a slightly brown box. Beside the mobile phone itself, the following things are given beside: A flipcover with window, an additional pack of screen protector foils (one is already applied), a white headset, an USB wall plug (5.5V, 700mA), an USB charging/data cable and a user manual. The user manual is the first manual I have seen since a long time at smartphones, which actually live up to the expectations of an user manual. It has about 60 printed pages explaining the phone. Although probably it won’t be used too much by the most people, it is still a refreshing contrary to the usual 5 pages of “Quick Start Guide to Android”. What’s all in the box:

Unboxing Video:

[YOUTUBE]2CEtJvuekyM[/YOUTUBE]

First Impressions:

Since I never owned an “original” iNew V3, I can not really compare the newer version to the first one. Based on other experience reports it seems to be that the case of the new version is identical to the old one. The iNew V3 Plus has a very valuable looking outer appearence. The back is pleasently smooth, while the sides are a special highlight, since they have a metal bordering. It feels cool when touched and gives the phone a very high-quality character in my opinion. The power button is placed in the left upper third. It is round and also made out of metal. A Small engravings of the On/Off Symbol adds up to the valuable character of the phone.

On the opposide side, the volume rocker is placed. This is also from metal and is surrounded by small letterings.

Both controls have a nice pressure point. In the turned off state, the front does not have any visible control elements. The transition between display and frame is hardly noticeable. If the display is turned on and touch at the bottom, the Android controls light up (Menu, Home, Back, from left to right). Here I like very much that the Home button is not a standard home symbol, but a kind of light blue rhombus (can be seen in the review video).

The camera, the flash, a loudspeaker as well as a iNew lettering can be found on the backside. Also several small symbols are on the bottom part, like for example the CE-Symbol.

The phone uses two SIM-Cards (“normal” (mini) and micro size) and a MicroSD-card. The battery is supposed to have capacity of 1850 mAh.

On the bottom some kind of openings are placed, which resemble a bit to the loudspeaker of the iPhone. But I guess that these one are fake, since the actual sound is coming from the loudspeaker on the back.

Flipcover:

A bit unusual, but I thought I would lke to devote a small chapter just to the flipcover included :D . The flipcover has a relatively big transparent window. Additionally a magnet is placed in the cover, so the phone automatically turns on respectively turns off while opening or closing. The flipcover fits well and it does not let the iNew V3 Plus appear much bigger. However, the accessoire is not fully thought through. The flipcover on the picture has still the protection foil applied, is is not a screen graphic. Because one like that does not exist. The system is not modified for the smartcover (excepct the wake-up function). When the phone is woken up with closed cover by the power button, then the normal home screen is shown. Since this screen can be partly configured, this is not too bad. But calls are a bit annoying. If you get called, the normal calling screen (…which is not suited to the window place/size) appears on the screen, also when closed. So you can not really see through the closed cover who is calling you. Then already the next hurdle is appearing: The window is made out of relatively thick plastic, so the touch is not getting to the screen. So even if the UI would be modified, you would be still not able to pick up calls through the cover. You have to open the cover and answer like usual. Here one of the major keys of having a flipcover with window is lost in my opinion. Anyhow, since the flipcover is given with the phone for free it is still a nice gesture.

UI/Android:

The iNew V3 Plus is delivered with Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It uses a slightly modified launcher. The style resembles a bit to the newer versions of iOS with its flat icons. I personally like it, since it is not too colorfull. The browsing through the menu works without stuttering.

Performance:

I expected a kind of high performance from the iNew V3 Plus, since from just looking at its rough specification it looks like it should score high results in benchmarks. But here I was surprised by an Antutu 5 result of roughly 20000 points. This is obviously not a bad result and the device is fast enough for the majority of most available applications, but it seems to be that something went wrong in the finetuning of the system components. To compare, the ThL W200C which basically uses the same SoC (just not the “M” version), but only has 1 GB of RAM, scores 7000 points more. This is roughly 35% more. Anyhow, benchmarks are also just limited to a specific degree to determine the performance of a device. I did not notice any lags or similiar while using.

Memory:

According to the specification on the iNew website, the V3 Plus is supposed to have a memory of 16 GB. In the default state about 13.1 GB are available. Here I was surprised positively, since there is no division between internal and phone memory. There is only one partition which can be fully used also for apps. The memory can be extended with a microSD-card (according to specs up to 32 GB, just tried this size). It also supports USB OTG, which I tested successfully.

Camera:

...Check out my blog post for the camera pictures and rating ;)

http://klonom.com/inew-v3-plus-review/

Display:

As I already wrote, the iNew V3 Plus has a 5″ display with a resolution of 1280x720p with IPS-technology. As typically for IPS displays, the viewing angle is quite constant. The colors of the display are very strong and make a decent picture. When I took the phone the first time in my hand, I was actually impressed by the combination of the nice display and valuable-feeling outer.

Sensors:

The V3 Plus has four different sensors according to the specifications: Light, Proximity, Acceleration and magnetic field. Additionally to these, the app “Sensor Box” shows a gyroscope sensor. This one did not have really any output and I guess it is maximum an emulated gyroscope by the magnetic field sensor. I tested all “official” sensors successfully (not tried the automatic brightness yet). Strangely Google Maps does not connect to the magnetic field sensor, so there is not automatic orientation. I do not really have an idea what could be the cause of this.

GPS:

The first GPS fix was relatively fast with about 12s. In the next half minute the accurancy rised to 5m. Shortly after that, the connection was lost, but picked up again automatically after that. I just noticed this behaviour once, since that the navigation works for chinaphone-levels quite good. I did not notice any connection losses and just a very small drifting of the signal while fast stops. I used the GPS out-of-the-box, no GPS tweaks or similiar.

Reception:

The mobile reception as well as the WiFi reception works for me without problems. I did not notice any connection losses or similiar.

Misc:

The phone has a notification LED in the upper right corner in the colors red and green (you can see them in the review video). They work out of the box as a notification led for apps etc. I received my V3 Plus unrooted and with Google Apps preinstalled. The battery seems to be kind of small with 1850 mAh. In general, the battery is enough for one day usage in my case. Although, the battery shows a kind of unpredictable behaviour at less than 10%. Occasionally, the 10% were gone in less than 5 min. The iNew V3 Plus does not have NFC like the first V3, although this is not a problem for me, since I am not a fan of NFC :D .

Review Video:

[YOUTUBE]H7STQ8J3e5s[/YOUTUBE]

Conclusion:

In total I like the iNew V3 Plus for its kind of low price very much, since it make a very high-valuable impression and its display has intensive colors. Anyhow, I can not get rid of the feeling, that it is a kind of “show-off”-mobile, beginning with the nice but not really thought-through flipcover, the good sounding camera chip, which at the end makes nice, but not outstanding pictures, to the senseless “loudspeaker-openings” at the bottom. But all in all the iNew V3 Plus has still a good price/performance ratio, since the enumerated things a not really drawbacks.