[Elephone P8000] Perseus:
My Impressions on the ELE P8000.

I am considering using this device for development only and not Daily use. That could change though. I am still trying to decide. I know kernel source has been released. But the first step is having a custom recovery and that I expect, would take some work. But given the strides made for the predecessor, I do not doubt that future is bright for this line.

UPDATE- I AM AFRAID THIS DEVICE DOES NOT SUPPORT VOICE CALL FREQUENCIES ON T-MOBILE. MY UNIT WON'T GET SERVICE/BARS. PERIOD. (NOTE NOT TALKING ABOUT 2G/3G/4G/H+)

Packaging -

Received mine on July 24th. It came via DHL. Inside the envelop, was another cardboard box that carried the actual package in bubble wrap. Looks like a nice touch with nicer looks about the box. The box contained, the phone, Manual and Charger. The Manual is in English but is more like Dummy's Guide to Android Smartphone. It didn't tell me how to open the back panel to put in my SIM Card. I was kind of hoping for some sort of MHL Cable or HDMI Cable. Oh well. But hey, I had 2 Screen protectors inside the box. I don't know if that's the case for everyone or just me.

First Impressions -

I have the gold colored unit. I The phone came with Asian Plug and no US converter. That was a bummer. The battery also came more than half way drained when I started. When I connected to internet, I was immediately prompted that an update was waiting. That was LP 5.1. Post update the phone booted just fine after expected Dalvik/Art Rebuild. Once done, the experience was pretty pleasant.

Technical Specs -

Apart from what OP has mentioned, there are some additional aspects, that need to be mentioned. This device is capable of supporting

2G GSM - 850/900/1800 MHz

3G WCDMA - 900/2100 MHz

H+ and 4G LTE - 800/1800/2600 MHz

You might want to check with your Carrier as to what frequencies they use for these bands.

Also the Phone supports Dual Sim in addition to Miicro SD Card.

NO NFC! Please See my comments Further Bellow.

Impressions -

I have to admit, for a S6 Lookalike, the build quality looks impressive. All edges are seamlessly smooth and having metal finish. At least the phone is visually appealing. The finish and etched design on the back is definitely eye catcher. The whole units feels and seems like unibody. That's a definite plus in my mind.

I can post pictures of the phone as well, but OP has done an excellent job of posting some good pictures of the device. So I am not for the fear of duplication. I can and will post screenshots as needed. On the same note, I am also comparing the device to my Daily Driver Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Version). For those who are interested, here's my slideshow.

Fingerprint Scanner is flaky at least for me. It took me more than 4 attempts to fully register one finger. The process is not intuitive and the paper guide is insufficient. Basically you need to keep on turning your finger from left to right so that the scanner gets more ridges as we go. There's a Green line at the bottom that lights up as we keep providing more contact.

Unlocking the screen with fingerprint is also less intuitive. It makes you think you have to slide finger from bottom to top on the scanner. Well that doesn't work. You just need to do the same thing as when registering the finger. It took me 3 to 4 attempts to unlock the screen each time. Also if your finger is wet or damp, you will want to completely dry it. So after exercise, sweaty fingers are no good.

There is a proximity sensor located between the earphone and front camera. There is no separate notification/battery led. The home button is actually a tiny circle that doubles as notification led. It does not change color to tell you battery state.

Speaking of battery, battery life seems to be on par with the 4150 MAH rating. It lasted me 3 & 1/2 days with bit judicious use.

I waited too long and at 6 % Battery phone died. Here's what I had at 14 %

As you can see, my SOT hasn't been that high. That's probably because I don't have a Sim card in there. I did browse on it and listened to music and audio books, Gps and so on.

DISPLAY -

Display is indeed full HD with near true to life representation of colors as I see it. Then again I am not a connoisseur. Whether I am looking at it outdoor or indoor, I was able to read things just fine. There is a setting under display for Miravision, You can either use preset profiles or create your own customization. This is Mediatek's implementation of Picture rendering technology similar to other OEMs.

SOUND -

Tested with both headphones as well as the speaker. In case of headphones, the volume was bit weak in my opinion despite me increasing to a high value. In case of the speaker, I didn't like the sound quality. Perhaps I was comparing to the S3, which carries an astoundingly good speaker. The speaker on P8000 seemed like bit low quality when playing Mozart's 5th Symphony. With drums in NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye, experience was more subdued.

CONNECTIVITY -

Since I am using the phone so far without a Sim, I chose to use over Wireless only. Alas, first thing I noticed is that there is no support for 5.0 GHZ N Band Wireless. That's a bit of issue for some.

Also, There is NO NFC Connectivity. At least none that I can find. Can't seem to enable or disable. That is a hugh letdown. Now I don't know if the hardware supports but the customized LP 5.1 version does not enable the controls. But I'd doubt that to be the case. Why would they cripple OS, if the hardware supported it ?

As to Bluetooth, it does what you expect. The connectivity is standard and it paired pretty immediately with my vehicle as well as my laptop.

Camera -

The Camera is from Samsung and it shows. I tested fairly exclusively without flash, both indoors as well as outdoors. Also tried to look for Collage of colors. Although I am not a expert photographer, I look at Cell phone cameras as spur of moment photo capture. I have a Nikon for heavy duty stuff. Also note, I am looking at this after the 8 Megapixel Camera on the D2LTE. So your mileage may vary. Couple of Sample pictures are bellow. More are included in my slideshow (linked above).

Performance -

I got both AnTuTu Benchmark as well as Speedtest.net's application for Network as well as overall performance.

That's a good sign. It does mean Elephone or Mediatek have not done anything to beat Benchmarking. Also good sign that AnTuTu recognized the SoC as a 64bit CPU. In 32 bit mode, I got better performance but also the UnVerified Tag.

As to the Wireless performance, I don't like the fact that 5.0 GHz Frequency Band is not supported. Speed indicated,

Which is about right for my ISP.

Rooting -

I dropped the ball and forgot to check if the phone came pre rooted. It most probably is but I am not sure. :o I grabbed Towel root, from I'm throwing a party and you should come While that was in progress, I got Root Checker. and [STABLE][2015.02.13] SuperSU v2.46.

SuperSU complained that the binary is older and needs updating. That done, I was rooted. Towel Root definitely works. Especially with the most recent LP 5.1 update for the phone. I see that there's a very good thread about Rooting on Elephone's own Forums. However, it recommends Towel Root anyway.

Development -

Kernel Source has been released. Being Mediatek chipset, most of the roms are fairly easy to port. However, the key thing is that, we need to have a working custom recovery as the first and foremost step. This should be possible but requires a dump of partition table.

Questions and Answers -

I will be happy to answer any questions that I can.

1. Speaker Location and Mono/Stereo ?

I believe that the there is a single Speakers in the back bellow the battery. There's a series of dotted mesh along the bottom for the speaker.

2. What Frequency Bands are Supported ?

Do understand that the radio on any smartphone has different frequency bands depending on which kind of connection you have. So what is supported for 2G may or may not be supported on 4G and vice versa. If you haven't seen already, please see the frequencies as listed above.

3. What the colour of the notification light ? (Is it a single colour or multi colour & configurable ?). Same question for the menu/back button lights.

Bright Blue as far as I can tell. There's no way to configure that I can see. The buttons are just backlight. No configuration that I see.

4. Does this phone work on xxx Carrier in YYY Country ?

Please verify on http://www.willmyphonework.net/