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

Introduction

This is the UHANS Note 4.

Hardware

Advertised as a Xiaomi killer, this Note 4 is basically a low-end clone of the well known Redmi Note 4, with some differences, i guess, required to not get sued by the company. Of course it can't compete with it so easily. This "Note 4" is powered by a Mediatek MT6737, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM, with 4000mAh of battery.

Unboxing

Just like the A6, also this one comes with a black package and some accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector, and the Smartphone (of course). Say goodbye to the glass screen protector, no more included since the A6.

As you might expect, the chassis looks pretty similar to the one used by the Redmi Note 4, but it is less rounded on the corners, slightly thicker, but still solid and well-built. Something i need to report though is the plastic frame between the glass and the chassis, it doesn't look premium neither feels so.

It is 15.26x7.67x0.98cm and weights 191g, slightly larger and heavier than the Xiaomi, but similar to other chinese devices i have reviewed in the past with similar specs.

On the front side there is the usual 2.5D curved glass and 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. There is no Notification LED, but there is a Charging LED instead (indipendent, can't be used for notifications).

Here you can see the Charging LED in action, it supports only one color: Red.

As regards the lower front side there is the soft-keys touch area with Recents, Home and Back keys.

On the back side there is the Unibody Metal Chassis with Plastic bands on the upper/lower sides.

The upper rear side of the device features the Camera Sensor supported by a Single-LED - Single-Tone Flashlight, and the Fingerprint Scanner just below it.

On the lower rear side there isn't anything important at all because the Speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.

Device

Screen

Unlike the Redmi Note 4, this one features an HD-only 5.5 inches screen that, obviously, can't be used as comparision. The screen itself is decent, with an acceptable color accuracy and white balance. Some backlight bleeding is noticeable though on the corners.

Its light sensor supports smooth light changes with a maximum brightness of ~360lux, sufficient for outdoor usage.

Viewing Angles are as good as you would expect from a good IPS screen, nothing to complain about.

Camera

It's been a long while since i reviewed a device with a Sony IMX135 camera sensor, and the results are pretty good actually. For those who don't know, the Sony IMX135 sensor was one of the most used sensors in 2013, firstly used on the Galaxy S4. It was a great sensor years ago, and it is still able to maintain its quality nowadays.

Outdoor photos with medium-high level of light look sharp and with a decent amount of noise, BUT, there is something important to report. Under direct sunlight, there are issues with reflections probably due to the lens used for the camera.

The Flashlight is powerful enough, and synced with the shot.

Also Macro photos seem to be decent, no focus issues noticed.

As regards Video Recording, with the quality set on "Fine", videos are recorded at 720p30 but the frame-rate isn't stable, it is rare to get 30fps even with acceptable light conditions.

The front-facing camera is decent, it is just the usual GalaxyCore GC5024 5MP camera sensor that is enough to handle video-chats, just do not expect great selfies.

Audio

When it comes to audio quality, UHANS devices has some difficulties in the past, but on this device i can notice the difference. Speaker's Quality is good, with a medium maximum volume and a small amount of low-frequencies.

As regards the Microphone, it works decently well in any case (in-call, VOIP, etc...), nothing to complain about.

GPS

GPS Quality is interesting, with a sufficient amount of satellites outdoors and an outstanding amount of satellites indoors.

Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

Providing full european bands support (with 4G Band 20), the device was able to keep a stable connection to my 4G Network, with no issues at all as regards the connection speed.

The same can't be said for the WiFi, it doesn't support 5GHz Networks just like most MT6737 devices, but 2.4GHz networks are not handled 100% properly, and as a result the speed isn't as high as i would have expected. This can be improved with future OTA updates.

Battery Life

Battery Capacity seems to match the declared value, something i appreciate on all devices, since it isn't a good habit to declare something unreal. (declared 4000mAh, real ~4050mAh)

Just like what happened with another MT6737 device, the PCMark Battery Test provided a barely sufficient result, meaning that this MT6737 CPU is pretty power-hungry even if it doesn't have superb performance (Lowest brightness, WiFi on, Airplane Mode off, Sync on).

As regards battery charging times, due to limited 5V/1A charger, it takes a lot, and i am not kidding. Consider to charge the device during the night, or get a more powerful charger (uses up to 1.5A, luckily it has not been limited to 1A via software). Expect more than 3 hours of charging time.

Software

Following all previous UHANS devices, also this one comes with FreemeOS, but it isn't anymore customized with third-party apps or similar, so basically it is now pure Android, pixel-like experience. It is based on Android 7.0 Nougat, with July 2017 security patches, and in order to avoid the GPU bottleneck, they choose a 32-bit Android Variant. This is the only way to avoid all the known lags unfortunately caused by a poorly optimized Mediatek BSP for this CPU. Well Done UHANS!

Features like MiraVision, Gestures and so on are present.

As expected, there is no Magnetometer/Compass and Gyroscope.

No malwares detected with Malware-Bytes Anti-Malware using latest definitions.

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