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

Introduction

This is the BLUBOO S8+.

Hardware

Some parts of the review have been taken from the S8 review where possible, since most parts of the device are just identical

Just like the little brother S8, this S8+ features almost the same hardware and follows the same design, basically an S8 on steroids, not improving much compared to the predecessor though.

This device comes with a Mediatek MT6750T (just like the S8), with 4GB of RAM instead of 3GB and 64GB of Storage instead of 32GB, everything packed with a 6 inches HD+ IPS screen (18:9). No changes have been made to the camera hardware, but the front camera sensor is now made by OmniVision instead of Sony.

Unboxing

I am not sure whether this is the standard packaging or not, but mine came with 2x the amount of accessories: 2x Type-C USB Cable, 1x 5V/2A USB Charger (no extra for it), 2x 3.5mm to Type-C Adapter, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector, 1x SIM Card Tray Eject Tool, 1x User Manual, 1x Warranty Card and the Smartphone (of course). There is no screen protector pre-applied.

There must be something wrong with the production line responsible for the black variant, the first review unit i got was not in the best conditions, and the second one...is more or less the same, as you can notice. The black paint is, somehow, weirdly applied and not uniform. It looks like the machine was running out of ink e.e

Other than that, there are no imperfection on the front and the back, the device feels solid enough thanks to the metal body, and thanks to the curved body it is really comfortable to handle. Still, it is sad to this decrease of build quality compared to the S8.

It is 15.8x7.41x0.92cm, bigger compared to the S8 (of course, bigger screen) but still small considering the screen size, and weights 202g.

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 support only two colors: Red, Green.

Here you can see 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 Plastic not-removable back panel with a really glossy surface, can't avoid fingerprints.

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

Still featuring an HD+ panel, this S8+ provides a better viewing experience thanks to the bigger screen and also a more reliable color accuracy, but due to the low pixel density there a noticeable lack of sharpness and it is also possible notice a sort-of smearing effect while scrolling into menus. I am not a display expert, but it should be caused by a too high pixel response time.

The light sensor is accurate supporting smooth light changes, and screen brightness is brighter compared to the S8.

Luckily the viewing angles issue i noticed on the S8 doesn't seem to be anymore here, there is not gap between the glass and the screen so it looks as good as a decent mid-range IPS panel.

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 made by OmniVision (OV5648), no big changes compared to the Sony IMX190 camera sensor found on the S8.

Audio (identical to the S8)

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

Unfortunately the GPS antenna seems to be worse compared to the one found on the S8, barely able to get a medium GPS signal outdoors and with no signal at all indoors. Weird.

Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.

Battery Life

Just like on the S8, also on this S8+ i faced serious issues in measuring the battery capacity. Do not consider this result as accurate because i had to keep the device turned on in order to get something "more reliable" otherwise it was constantly sucking power from the USB port while turned off. The result shows ~3595mAh of capacity that, apparently, matches the 3600mAh capacity declared but, again, can't be sure.

Something that might confirm the incorrect result is the PCMark Battery Test, reaching just some minutes extra compared to the S8 result (8h 18m vs 8h 2m). Test run at Minimum Brightness, WiFi on, Sync on. Later, i will remove the back cover and see if i manage to get the real battery capacity in any other more reliable way, the battery label might be helpful too.

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 (identical to the S8)

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.

[YOUTUBE]eD8QDcFjppI[/YOUTUBE]​