[Device Reviews and Information] Alberto96:
Review (Part 1)

Introduction

This is the CUBOT Cheetah 2.

Hardware

Just like the previous model, Cheetah (not 2), this successor is powered by a Mediatek MT6753 SOC clocked at 1.3GHz, with the same Samsung 13MP Rear Camera and Sony 8MP Front Camera. Also the Storage Configuration hasn't been changed, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of RAM are still there. Maybe a SOC upgrade (MT6753 to MT6750) would have been appreciated.

Unboxing

Packaging comes with some accessories: 1x Type-C USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A USB Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Compliance Regulation booklet, 1x TPU Cover and the Smartphone (of course). A screen protector is already applied. Unlike previous CUBOT devices, this doesn't come with a Glass Screen Protector.

Based on the CUBOT website, this is the third MT6753 device launched by the company. Compared to the previous CheetahPhone, this one hasn't been made in collaboration with CheetahMobile (luckily), and doesn't use anymore an Unibody Metal Chassis (this is a downgrade). As you can see below, they kept the Metal Chassis though. It is solid, with Antenna Bands matching the device color.

It is 15.37x7.50x0.93cm, with thin bezels. It weights 194g, slightly heavy but not too much. It is still comfortable to use and the included TPU cover makes the weight even more uniform.

On the front side there is the common 2.5D Curved Display and the upper front side of the device features the standard set of things: an Huge Front-Facing Camera (Sony IMX219, consider that most low-end devices use this as a Rear Camera sensor, impressive), an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. The Notification LED is here, but supports only two colors. (Red and Green)

I won't talk about the Notification LED in the Software paragraph because it isn't customizable at all. Here you can see some real-life photos.

On the lower front side there is the Touch Keys area, with Menu, and Back touch buttons, together with the Fingerprint Sensor, positioned on the Home Physical Button. No Backlight is here.

On the back side there is the Removable Rear Cover, made of Plastic and similar to those used by Samsung on the Galaxy S3 & S4.

The upper rear side of the device features the Camera Sensor supported by a Dual-LED Flashlight (not Dual-Tone) and the CUBOT logo.

On the lower rear side there are some Logos and Words about the Device's Certifications, nothing else. The Speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.

Device

Screen

Something that deserves a medal for this device is the Screen. It is perfect, providing one the best Color Accuracy i have ever seen on a FHD IPS screen while keeping the Brightness super-high. Well Done CUBOT!

Light Sensor supports smooth light changes, this is its maximum brightness. This is the brightest 5.5" FHD IPS screen i have ever tested.

Viewing Angles are as good as you would expect from an IPS screen, even a bit better thanks to the high brightness.

Camera

Featuring a Samsung 3L8 13MP sensor, with PDAF, the Photos Quality is unfortunately average. The amount of noise is too high to get a sharp photo, but there is something positive though. Colors are not washed-out or inaccurate, they are Natural without any over-sharpening.

"HDR off" on the left and "HDR on" on the right. HDR photos seems to be a bit better, but the amount of noise is also higher.

Photos taken on medium light conditions are decent.

Macro Photos are not so great, it seems that there are some focus issues with near objects.

The Dual-LED Flashlight provides enough light to take some nice shots, bright and warm enough to not damage any color.

As regards Video Recording, 1080p videos are average, still noisy just like Photos. I hope to see some improvements with upcoming OTA updates.

Front Camera is a Wide-Angle Sony IMX219 (Native 8MP, interpolated to 13MP), something rare to find. Consider that this sensor is used by many devices as a Rear Camera sensor, so expect some high quality photos here. Maybe this is the cheapest Selfie-Camera Device? It might be.

Audio

Speaker's Quality could have been better, at maximum volume the sound gets distorced, maybe this is a bit too much high for the Speaker. No issues with the Earpiece though, perfect while in-call and to play Whatsapp Voice Messages.

As regards the Microphone, it is calibrated for any kind of usage, everyone was able to hear me correctly. There is no Secondary Microphone for Noise Suppression though.

GPS

The MT6753 SOC is pretty known to have good GPS reception, with no issues that are present on newer SOCs such as MT6750/MT6755, and this test confirms its glory. GPS Signal is high, with no accuracy issues. I won't test it indoors this time because it is pretty clear that the Antenna is great enough to get some GPS signal even in difficult conditions.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

CUBOT, like some other brands, provides full european bands support, with 4G Band 20 (some other Chinese Smartphones donâ€™t have it). 4G Signal Reception doesn't seem to have any issue, stable and with decent speed.

3G Signal Reception is excellent, actually I never managed to get connected to the 2G Network of my Mobile Operator because there was always some 3G Signal available. (luckily there are no coverage issues here)

As already said, 4G Network Speed is decent, even though it highly depends on your Mobile Operator and mine isnâ€™t pretty good, the result is equal with other properly working devices i have reviewed. 3G Network Speed is, as always, pretty low even on H+, not a Device Fault though.

WiFi 5GHz is supported here, working sufficiently well with my 802.11n Dual-Band Connection. It isn't able to get full speed (100/20), but it is still a bit higher than 2.4GHz speed. Connected to 150MBps, i might have expected some higher speeds.

Battery Life

I have measured the real battery capacity using my USB Tester, and it seems that the real battery capacity a bit lower than the declared one. (declared 3000mAh, real ~2850mAh).

This is the Geekbench Battery Test, the battery runtime is pretty negative for a 3000mAh battery, i hope to see some improvements here.

https://browser.primatelabs.com/battery3/391930

As regards battery charging times, the 5V/1A charger isn't a good choice to handle 3000mAh batteries so expect more than 2 hours of Charging Time. It took, more or less, 2 hours and 45 minutes here.

Software

Unlike the previous CheetahPhone that was full of, let's say, crap from CheetahMobile, this Cheetah 2 is completely clean. Running Android 6.0, with some usual Mediatek Additions, it runs smooth enough to handle basic tasks but due to its Full HD screen, some occasional lags are here. That's why an MT6753 isn't sufficient this time, Mediatek claims that only the MT6753T is made to be used with 1080p screens.

Something different from the other last-gen Mediatek Devices is the software, only the Scheduled Power On/Off feature is present here. Even though the Double-Tap to Wake would have been useful, this is a nice step forward to not use Mediatek Crap.

Almost all Sensors are present, Magnetometer/Compass and Gyroscope, with no Barometer. Well Done CUBOT!

As already said before, even though there is a Notification LED, it isn't customizable at all.

The Fingerprint Scanner is probably the best one i have ever tried, no accuracy issues found. I managed to unlock the screen everytime, perfect. As regards the unlock speed, it is almost instant, not lightning fast.

[YOUTUBE]ggSRJsE31k0[/YOUTUBE]​