[Oukitel (All phone models)] Alberto96:
Review

Introduction

This is the OUKITEL C4

Hardware

This device is powered by a Mediatek MT6737 SOC clocked at 1.25GHz, with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of ROM. Being one of the first devices available to public with MT6737 SOC, it provides some nice improvements compared to the MT6735 such as VoLTE support. Everything is supported by a 8MP Rear Camera and 5MP Front Camera, both interpolated. A real successor to the previous, and well-made, OUKITEL C3.

Unboxing

Packaging comes with basic accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A USB Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Certificate and the Smartphone (of course). No TPU Cover or Screen Protector, but as always a screen protector is already applied.

The device has a Plastic Chassis, with a rare design that provides better grip. It feels solid enough, maybe feels just a bit cheap due to the Chassis Color (Opaque Golden), and the back cover is removable with a slide method.

It is 14.37x7.26x0.93cm, compact enough and pretty light too, just 165g.

On the front side there is the Standard Flat Glass, no 2.5D, with not-so-small bezels. The upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. Unfortunately there is no Notification LED, but this device is ultra-cheap for its specs so we can't have all.

On the lower front side there is only the Soft Keys area, with Menu, Home and Back touch buttons.

On the back side there is the plastic back cover, with a glass-like surface that isn't bad at all, but a bit scratchy. It can be replaced though, and it makes the whole device a bit more stylish.

The upper rear side of the device features the Camera Sensor supported by a Single Rounded Flash (Single-Tone) configuration. It is almost flat, without any risk of scratch.

The lower rear side of the device features the brand logo, and the Speaker Hole.

Device

Screen

The screen is bright enough, with a good white balance but there is a noticeable banding issue, easily fixable with a software update.

Light Sensor supports partial smooth light changes, sufficient for smooth fading in/out. This is its maximum brightness.

Viewing Angles do not suffer any issue at all, perfect in every condition, and here you will definitely the banding issue i said before.

Camera

Rear Camera provides sufficient photo quality, it is just a 5MP interpolated to 8MP so you can't expect something better, but it is enough for occasional photos.

The Single Flashlight works pretty well, maybe even better than some other more expensive device i have reviewed.

As regards Video Recording, well just like photos you can't expect super quality. It records 1080p Videos, just like any latest device, but its quality is just sufficient. Again, this isn't a device made for photos. The same applies for the Front Camera, no wide-angle is here.

Audio

Speaker is extremely loud, just like the previous OUKITEL C3, a bit distorted at maximum volume but its quality isn't bad at all. Low Frequancies are missing, but there are no issues as regards the clarity.

In-Call Quality is decent, and pretty loud too. Everyone was able to hear me perfectly. Microphone Quality seems to be good.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

Thanks to the 4G Band 20 support (some other Chinese Smartphones don’t have it), I’m almost always and everywhere connected to the 4G Network of my Mobile Network Provider (TIM Italy).

Also 3G Signal Reception is accurate, actually I never managed to get connected to the 2G Network of my Mobile Operator because there was always some 3G Signal available.

4G Network Speed is pretty good, it highly depends on your Mobile Operator and mine isn’t pretty good. While 3G Network Speed, is just fine as it should.

WiFi 2.4GHz speed is decent, I managed to get connected to my network connection at 65mbps, and Speed Tests reached more or less 35mbps.

Battery Life

I have measured the real battery capacity using my USB Tester, and as you can see it matches the declared value. (declared 2000mAh, real almost 2050mAh). The previous OUKITEL C3 has a 2300mAh battery, this is the only downgrade i notice.

As always, every device i review gets tested with the Geekbench Battery Test. A good result for such a small battery.

https://browser.primatelabs.com/battery3/386759

Charging Times are not extremely high, the 1A charger helps compared to 0.5A USB Charging, but still not fast as 2A or Quick Charging times.

Software

Following its nice way to develop the OS, OUKITEL choose to use an almost completely clean version of Android 6 Marshmallow, with usual Mediatek features and nothing else. Smooth and Lightweight.

Just like other last-gen Mediatek Devices, there are some typical features such as Gestures, Scheduled Power On/Off, etc…

The UI is almost always responsive, i have noticed some small lags and RAM issues under heavy usage because the OS is 64-bit based, not a nice choice for a 1GB device. Maybe they will release an update that will make it switch to 32-bit who knows. I hope so.

Benchmarks

I have used 3DMark, AndroBench, Antutu Benchmark, Epic Citadel, GeekBench 3, GFXBench, PCMark (Work & Storage) and Vellamo to stress the device to the limit. I won’t test Games or Video Playback because there are already some related tests included in these Benchmark suites.

3DMark – GPU Performance isn't superb, lower than MT6737, maybe the software isn't ready enough. I hope to see some improvements here.

AndroBench – eMMC Performance is sufficient for basic daily tasks, a software update might improve it.

Antutu Benchmark – I won’t say a lot about this benchmark, this isn’t as reliable as others. I’m providing this just for benchmarks lovers.

Epic Citadel – As you can see, 3D performance is medium. Not as good as MT6735, but sufficient.

GeekBench – CPU Performance is nearly as good as other CPUs with the same configuration (4x Cortex-A53), enough to handle almost every type of activity.

GFXBench – Due to RAM issues, almost every test crashed so...i will wait some updates to retry this test.

PCMark – As you can see, only the Writing score is a bit lower than others.

Work

Storage

Vellamo – Even if this is a RAM Hungry Benchmark, it still provides some good results.

It is clearly noticeable that this device needs some software improvements as regards performance, and considering the previous OUKITEL C3 updates, they won't abandon it.

Conclusions

OUKITEL choose to use an MT6737 SOC to provide a nice improvement over the MT6580 used with OUKITEL C3, there are no doubts that this is something that i appreciate, the device feels solid and is super-cheap considering its specs, but the software needs to be improved. Excluding this issue, i do not notice anything else negative or that might impact its daily usage.

So, do I recommend it? If you are searching for the cheapest MT6737 ever made, offering 4G, VoLTE and decent build-quality for such a low price, this is definitely for you.

Pros:

Bright Screen

Insanely Cheap

Solid Chassis

Good Battery Life

4G and VoLTE support

Cons:

Software needs huge improvements

Noticeable Screen Banding issue (probably related to the software)

No Notification LED

Smaller Battery than the OUKITEL C3

No TPU Cover included

Touchscreen Sensitivity isn't great

Rating: 7.8

Packaging and Accessories: 8

Design and Materials: 8

Performance and Heat Dissipation: 7

Screen: 7

Camera: 6

Sound: 7.5

Battery Life: 8.5

Software: 7

OEM Support: 9

Price: 10

You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/oKo2B

Official Website: http://www.oukitel.com/products/c/c4-53.html

You can buy it on many online shops. Official, and authorized, Retailers are listed in the OUKITEL website.​