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

Introduction

This is the CUBOT Magic.

Hardware

Copying the name and design from the Honor Magic, this CUBOT Magic could be considered its cheap clone. Powered by a Mediatek MT6737 CPU with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, it is clear CUBOT only wanted to get the same design, and not the same performance.

Unboxing

Packaging is for the first time different than all previous CUBOT devices, and comes with some accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1A Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x TPU Cover (no more shock-proof unlike previous CUBOTs), and the Smartphone (of course). Somehow they are not including any screen protector in the box.

The chassis is amazing in my opinion, even though it isn't made of metal. They managed to make it as curved as a piece of soap, and i am not kidding. It literally slips if not used with the TPU cover. There is also something negative though, it is a fingerprint magnet. The oleophobic treatment is completely absent.

It is 14.64x7.09x1.00cm, pretty compact but a bit thick considering the battery size, and it weights 165g, i think it should have been slighly lighter for the same reason written before.

On the front side there is the super-curved screen (more than the usual 2.5D) and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera supported by a Single-LED Flashlight, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors. A Notification LED is here, but it only supports one color: Blue.

Here you can see the Notification LED in action.

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 removable back cover that hides the removable battery and all slots.

The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Dual-LED - Single-Tone Flashlight, and the CUBOT logo slightly below.

On the lower rear side, excluding the usual certifications and model name, there isn't anything at all because the Speaker is positioned on the lower side of the device.

Device

Screen

Another really positive thing about this device is the screen. It is bright, super-sharp and with an excellent color accuracy with no banding, probably one of the best 5 inches screen i have ever found on a smartphone.

Its light sensor supports smooth light changes with a maximum brightness of ~500lux.

Viewing Angles are as good as you would expect from a good IPS screen, but the more-than-usual curved screen reduces slighly the viewing angles on the sides.

Camera

Of course not everything can be excellent on a device, and this is where it lacks some points. First of all, it is important to say that, even though this device has an MT6737 (not T), the Dual Camera implementation is REAL. The device handles two cameras properly, and both back cameras are recognized.

The software though is still the same as on all dual camera mediatek devices, with the only difference that if you cover one of the back camera sensors, it automatically switches camera between the left or the right one.

Photos look detailed and with some noise pretty noticeable, i would say average quality for the price target.

The Flashlight is powerful, synced with the shot, but as you can notice macros are insufficient.

Here you can see some shots taken using the Bokeh mode that SHOULD be using both cameras in the same time.

As regards Video Recording, with the quality set on "Fine", videos are recorded at 720p30 with a pretty stable frame-rate.

The front-facing camera is decent, usable for video-calls or such, just do not expect super-detailed photos even though there is a Flashlight supporting the shot.

Audio

Just like on most CUBOT devices, the speaker is sufficient, with the usual lack of low-frequencies and average volume. The earpiece though is a completely different story, it is just perfect, with no lack of frequencies at all and a pretty high volume.

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

GPS

GPS Quality is average, as good/bad as most MT6737 devices, it might be improved with future OTA updates.

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, but the speed, somehow, seems to be capped. This is something that should be improved with an OTA Update as soon as possible.

Thankfully the WiFi hardware is noticeably better, even though only 2.4GHz networks are supported, i was able to reach almost ~46Mbps, a pretty rare result for MTK hardware. Impressive.

Battery Life

Battery Capacity seems to be slightly higher than declared, common on CUBOT devices (i will never forget the CUBOT Dinosaur, check my review if you want to see something unbelieable). Declared 2600mAh vs Real ~2850mAh.

The PCMark Battery Test provided a barely sufficient result for a battery with this capacity, i guess this can be improved with future OTA updates. (Lowest brightness, WiFi on, Airplane Mode off, Sync on)

As regards battery charging times, due to limited 5V/1A charger, it isn't possible to charge the device completely in less than 2 hours and 45 minutes more or less. It is limited by software so do not expect faster charging times with a more powerful charger.

Software

Running on Android 7.0 Nougat with latest July 2017 security patches, and most important, with no bloatware preinstalled, the device runs with no issues at all, even though the CPU isn't that powerful. But...the secret was easy to find. In order to avoid the well-known MT6737 performance limitations, they choose to compile the OS with no 64-bit support, meaning that there is less load on the CPU and less RAM usage. The result is just perfect.

All Mediatek Features such as MiraVision, Gestures (somehow in Spanish O_o), and other features 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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