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

Introduction

This is the BLUBOO S8.

Hardware

Starting from the Xiaomi Mi Mix, with its innovative design that changed the whole smartphone industry, and proceeding with Galaxy S8's 18:9 aspect ratio, almost all companies started to work on devices purely based on both ideas, some of them cloning the device entirely, others just taking inspiration from the idea.

The BLUBOO S8, as the model name suggests, is meant to be a clone of the Galaxy S8, even though it is missing lots of features present on it, such as the headphone jack (yes....seriously), iris scanner and other minor things. Being powered by a Mediatek MT6750T, with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of Storage and a HD+ (1440x720) 5.7" inches, it might be defined as a Galaxy S8 Mini Value Edition.

Unboxing

With this device the amount of accessories is not too bad, pretty rich actually: 1x Type-C USB Cable, 1x 5V/2A USB Charger, 1x 3.5mm to Type-C Adapter, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector, 1x SIM Card Tray Eject Tool, 1x User Manual and the Smartphone (of course). There is no screen protector pre-applied.

Even though the device i got is an engineering sample, the quality is really high considering the price target. Its chassis is 100% made of aluminum and i haven't noticed any imperfection. The device feels solid, and provides enough grip since the corners are not completely curved.

It is 15.11x7.15x0.98cm, the most compact 5.7 inches device i have ever tried, but it weights 199g, a lot considering the size.

On the front side, underneath the 2.5D glass, there is the 18:9 IPS screen with pretty nice rounded corners 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. A notification LED is here, and seems to be RGB.

The Notification-LED in action.

On the lower front side there isn't anything at all, on-screen software keys are used.

On the back side there is the Glass (or Plastic? Considering the weight i guess glass) back panel with a nice texture underneath the glass.

The upper rear side of the device features the Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Dual-LED Flashlight (not Dual-Tone), with a rectangular fingerprint scanner just below, and not on the side luckily.

On the lower rear side there isn't anything at all because the speaker is located on the bottom.

Device

Screen

With its HD+ (1440x720) resolution, spread on a 5.7" surface, the screen might not result super-sharp, but in reality it looks sharper than what i would have expected, with a decent color reproduction. Of course being one of the first screen panels created for this usage, i think it is normal to not be perfect yet.

The light sensor is accurate supporting smooth light changes, and screen brightness is enough for an acceptable outdoor usage.

Even though this is an IPS panel, viewing angles seem to be somehow affected by the glass, that doesn't result to be 100% in touch with the display, causing also a weird effect on camera.

Camera

BLUBOO choose to use a mature camera sensor on this device, the good and old Sony IMX135 camera sensor, able to shoot decent photos in good light conditions. Of course it can't be compared with the Galaxy S8's camera sensor, this is just a low-mid range device.

Something that impressed me is the flashlight, probably one of the most powerful i have ever found, able to provide an huge amount of light to get almost perfect shots.

As regards Video Recording, 1080p videos are recorded at 30FPS with a pretty interesting stable 30fps frame rate, and the Front Camera is a Wide-Angle variant still made by Sony, but it is whole-new sensor that i never heard of: IMX190.

Audio

In the past, BLUBOO released a device with the best speaker i have ever found on a smartphone, the Maya Max, but in this case, unfortunately, the speaker is pretty bad. Low volume, missing low-frequencies and with a noticeable static noise.

As regards the Microphone, it is good, everyone was able to hear me properly in-call.

Similar speaker situation applies for the Earpiece too, where the audio has low volume and lack of low frequencies, but the sound is pretty clear with no noise.

GPS

With GLONASS support, the GPS seem to lock a plenty amount of satellites and the signal is stable, accuracy isn't the best though (~7m outdoors), might be improved with future OTA updates.

Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.

Battery Life

Measuring the battery capacity using my USB Tester, i have discovered something pretty confusing. BLUBOO declares 3450mAh of battery for this device, but, even after multiple charge/discharge cicles, its real capacity doesn't get any higher than ~3100mAh, and the result is clearly confirmed by the battery test with PCMark.

Reaching 8 hours of battery life based on the PCMark battery test, it is clear to say that this is a result for a 30xxmAh battery, and not 3450mAh. As always, the test has been run at lowest brightness, WiFi on, Sync on and no battery saving options enabled.

The included 5V/2A charger is fast enough to charge the battery in ~2 hours, it is limited by software so even a more powerful charger won't make it any faster.

Software

I am not 100% sure, but this is might the second device i review running on 360 OS, this time based on Android 7 Nougat though. The OS is clearly a chinese-only operating system, adapted to be used with Google Services, and this is noticeable by the missing Google Setup Wizard after a factory reset.

Anyway, the OS is pretty snappy, but full of bloatware. Some apps can be disabled, but others no. Hopefully Bluboo will at least reduce the amount of preinstalled apps because some of them must be avoided. (e.g. UC Browser, terrible!)

Except from Mediatek's MiraVision, there is no other feature such as gestures or double tap-to-wake available.

A Magnetometer/Compass is here, useful to improve on-foot navigation.

When lots of bloatware is preinstalled, it isn't a surprise to see that Malwares are detected.

The Fingerprint Scanner is decent, being rectangular it requires some practice before getting the finger recognized properly, but it is accurate and unlocks the device almost instantly.

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