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

Introduction

This is the m-horse Power 2.

Hardware

As a successor to the low-cost m-net Power 1, the m-horse Power 2 (new company name, was m-net in the past) appanrently has been designed to provide some features or to cover more needs such as 4G support and a bigger screen. It is powered by a Mediatek MT6737 instead of MT6580, and with 2x RAM/ROM found on the Power 1, 2GB and 16GB respectively.

Unboxing

After lots of smartphone coming in the usual packaging, this one is different and interesting, with the standard kit of accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/2A Charger, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Card, 1x TPU Cover, and the Smartphone (of course). A screen protector is already applied.

Unfortunately, compared to the Power 1, i notice some degrade as regards the build quality, with a back cover (non-removable) made of a glossy and not 100% polished plastic (especially on the corners) and some minor imperfections here and there. Still, it feels solid enough.

NOTE: Even if it looks dirty (like opaque in some zones), it isn't. That's how the painting has been applied.

Being a device part of the "Power" series, it is clear that it is not meant to be compact, instead it is a classic battery phone: 15.5x7.67x1.07cm with a weight of 238g. Thanks to the rounded back cover, it doesn't feel as bulky as i would have expected.

On the front side there is the 2.5D Glass with an HD IPS panel underneath, 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. No Notification LED is here.

As regards the lower front side there is the soft-keys touch area with Recents and Back keys, together with a Fingerprint Scanner (can't be physically pressed) that also works as an Home Button.

On the back side there is plastic non-removable cover. Here you can notice how glossy that surface is.

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

Hold on! On the m-horse website the phone is shown with a Dual-LED - Dual-Tone (so two colors) Flashlight, as shown below. It isn't true though...

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

Device

Screen

I am not sure whether this is a software calibration fault or not, but the panel on my device looks extremely sharp, and with "sharp" (not the brand) i mean that everything looks marked like what you get by enabling the high contrast option in the Settings. This is confusing, since the panel itself offers some decent colors and a good white balance, so i doubt this is a low quality panel.

As regards its maximum brightness, it is sufficient, barely enough for outdoor visibility. (usually all panels made by SHARP provide this level of brightness)

Viewing Angles are OK, as good as you would expect from an IPS panel, but even here you can notice the over-sharpeness issue i mentioned before.

Camera

This is probably where most improvements are noticeable compared to the Power 1. With the Sony IMX219 8MP Camera Sensor, the device is able to capture some pretty detailed photos with excellent color reproduction and not really high amount of noise. As i am always specifying in all my latest reviews, the Dual-Camera setup won't be tested since, as we all know, on Mediatek devices the result isn't as good as it should be.

Here you can see some samples, not bad at all compared to other devices in the same price range.

Also the flashlight is OK, providing enough light (probably even a bit too much) to support the sensor in low-light shots.

Unfortunately all positive thoughts about the camera can't be said for video recording too, since videos are recorded at 720p25, but the frame-rate isn't really stable and sometimes it stutters a lot.

As regards the front-facing camera, it is as good as you would expect from a 5MP camera sensor, not super-detailed, but enough for some occasional video-chats or portraits/selfies. Its dedicated flashlight is not much useful since it isn't really powerful.

Audio

Audio-wise, this device provides a balanced experience, with the usual Speaker that lacks low-frequencies, but a pretty loud Earpiece, so loud that at maximum volume the audio gets distorted.

The microphone instead is just fine, no issues noticed in-call or during VOIP calls.

GPS

GPS Quality is...meh...not good at all to be honest. There is some lack of signal and precision outdoors (but it is stable), and indoors it isn't able to lock any satellite.

Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

Just like most chinese devices, also this one provides a full coverage of 4G bands for Europe (B20 included), and the signal reception is pretty good, but somehow the speed looks slightly capped (compared to other devices tested in the same location recently).

I am always happy to see low-end devices coming with 5.0GHz WiFi support, but it must also work properly imho. On my unit, even with maximum signal, the maximum obtainable speed looks, again, capped. This result, connected to a 5.0GHz network, isn't quite acceptable.

There must a software issue related to the network management so, as soon as an OTA update gets released, i will redo both tests and see if m-horse worked on it.

Battery Life

Tested with my usual USB tester, the real battery capacity seems to be lower than the declared value, reaching ~5520mAh instead of the declared 6000mAh.

Well...the PCMark Battery Test talks by itself...17 hours is a great result, wouldn't have expected something worse considering the battery capacity and low power consumption from the low-end Mediatek SOC.

This is where i think m-horse made a big mistake, for a device released with a such a big battery, a 5V/2A charger isn't that great, more than 3 hours are required to fully charge the device. m-horse, please choose to include a Mediatek Pump Express charger with the successor Power 3, if there will be any.

Software

Following the Power 1, also this one comes with an almost 100% clean release of Android 7.0 Nougat release (with MTK goodies), with a minimum amount of bloatware and stock-UI. Somehow, the Facebook app has been included in a way that can't be removed (even if uninstalled, it gets reinstalled after a reboot) so i hope to not see it again with a future OTA update (for those who hate that app, is annoying).

Not all Mediatek features have been included, Gestures are here, but MiraVision isn't.

No Magnetometer/Compass and Gyroscope sensors are there.

No malwares detected with Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus using latest definitions. I am testing this new software instead of MalwareBytes just to see which one is more accurate.

Unexpectedly, the fingerprint scanner is really good considering the device value, not blazing fast, but fast enough and also accurate. Well done m-horse.

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