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

Introduction

This is the KENXINDA S9.

Hardware

Part of the low-cost battery phones, this Kenxinda S9 (or KXD, as the boot logo says) features a low-end Mediatek MT6737 chipset, still better than the crappy MT6580, together with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of Storage. Everything is powered by a big 5000mAh battery.

Unboxing

It comes in a classic package with a basic set of accessories: 1x Micro-USB Cable, 1x 5V/1.5A USB Charger, 1x 3.5mm In-Ear Earphones, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Warranty Card, 1x TPU Cover, and the Smartphone (of course). A screen protector is already applied, but i have removed mine (low-quality).

As regards the build quality, the device feels solid enough considering that it is 100% made of plastic, but the same can't be said for the sliding mechanism used to remove the removable back cover. One of the sides leaves a noticeable gap between the cover and the chassis, probably a minor manufacturing defect.

Please ignore the big scratch near the camera lenses, that's something i made while measuring it with the caliper (...dammit...).

This is the gap i was talking about.

Featuring a pretty classic design, with thick bezels and so on, this isn't a battery phone that can be considered compact (15.4x7.79x0.93cm), and, even if it is made of Plastic, it isn't light either: 201g. I am not sure whether this weight is caused by the metal back cover or by something else, but it feels a bit bulky.

On the front side there is a Classic Flat Glass (no 2.5D) with an HD IPS panel underneath, and the upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera, an Earpiece, and the Sensors hole that includes Light and Proximity. Thankfully, an RGB Notification LED is here.

Here you can see the LED in action. Pretty bright, only the blue color is, somehow, a bit dim.

The lower front side features two soft-touch keys (recents/back) with a physical home button in between that also works as a fingerprint reader. It is extremely soft to the touch, probably the best physical home button i have ever found on a smartphone.

On the back side there is removable metal (with a plastic part on the bottom) cover featuring the sliding mechanism i mentioned before. The brushed aluminum looks gorgeous in my opinion, and the metal also behaves as pseudo-heatsink.

The upper rear side of the device features the REAL Dual Camera Sensor supported by a Single-LED - Single-Tone Flashlight. I am happy to see a real dual camera sensor on a Chinese device.

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

Apparently, Kenxinda opted for an high-quality IPS panel even considering the price target. The screen looks quite decent, the low pixel density caused by the HD-only resolution doesn't seem to have impacted much the viewing experience, and there are no issues with color accuracy neither with the white balance.

The same can be said for the screen brightness. It is decently bright, enough for a mediocre outdoors visibility.

Nothing to complain about its viewing angles, they are as good as on most high-quality IPS panels. Still, it is possible to notice a minor banding issue on one of the angles.

Camera

Kenxinda did a great job with this device with the camera department. Unlike 99% of chinese devices, this one features a REAL dual-camera setup, even though the implementation isn't that helpful to be honest.

Do you want the proof? Here it is.

[YOUTUBE]qN9qz7HgCAQ[/YOUTUBE]

The main camera sensor is a GalaxyCore GC8024 (8MP, interpolated to 13MP), while the secondary camera sensor is only black and white (monochrome) and isn't a wide-angle variant. Sure, this isn't helpful at all to get the so-called BOKEH effect, neither it is useful to take B/W photos considering that filters are good enough to do it, but at least the second camera is not fake. Well Done Kenxinda!

Here you can see some samples, it isn't possible to expect anything better from a 8MP camera sensor.

Unfortunately the Single-LED flashlight appears to be a bit underpowered.

Videos are recorded at 720p25, the quality matches what you get with the photos, and the frame-rate suffers a bit. Definetely not a camera phone.

As regards the front-facing camera, it is as good as you would expect from a 5MP camera sensor (GalaxyCore GC5025), not super-detailed, but enough for some occasional video-chats or portraits/selfies.

Audio

Audio-wise, this device is a bit messy, since it features a decent speaker, loud enough, with the usual lack of low frequencies, but the earpiece is terrible. There is some sort of distortion even at low volume that doesn't allow to hear the other end properly. Quite disappoiting.

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

GPS

Nothing really positive can be said about the GPS either, since it doesn't support GLONASS and even with a decent amount of locked satellites, the accuracy is pretty low. Indoors it isn't able to lock satellites at all.

Indoors on the left, outdoors on the right.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

This is probably the Chinese device with the highest amount of supported 4G bands i have ever reviewed: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B17/B20. As usual i test run a speedtest in the same position i test other devices too, and even though the signal was quite high, i wasn't able to obtain any decent result. This is usually a software issue, may be improved with an OTA update.

Luckily, something rare with MT6737 devices, it supports WiFi 5.0Ghz networks, and the result was quite impressive for such a low-end chipset. An excellent WiFi antenna has been used.

Battery Life

Tested with my usual USB tester, the real battery capacity seems to match the declared value (real ~4950mAh, declared 5000mAh).

The PCMark Battery Test seems to confirm my battery test, providing a result of 12 hours and 10 minutes (WiFi on, Sync on, Min. Brightness). It is possible to squeeze even more battery life considering the low-power chipset so i expect it to improve in the future.

I am not sure why Chinese Companies keep providing slow chargers with devices with such big batteries inside. Kenxinda choose to include a 5V/1.5A charger but, based on my testing, the software has been capped to ~1.1A, and as a result of that, it takes more than 4 hours to fully charge!

If you are including a 1.5A charger, at least calibrate the software to use its full power. Unbeliavable.

Software

This is the first Kenxinda device i review and, apparently, the company seem to have an internal software department (no HCT or others). I am not sure whether this is something introduced with Nougat-based devices or not, but this S9 features their own Kenxinda OS, renamed by me iOSXinda OS, since they heavily customized it to look like an iPhone.

For an Android Enthusiast and Developer like me, the first impressions on the OS were, literally, disgusting (i hate iOS as most XDA users!), but at least, unlike no name iPhone Clones released in China, this OS has been properly polished. Really well-made, an impressive job has been done by the Kenxinda Software Department. This is the most optimized MT6737-based device i have ever tested.

Still, if Kenxinda provides an alternative ROM with the same level of optimization, but without this iOS-ish look, everyone would appreciate it.

Some iOS-ish screenshots... (prepare your stomach)

Some Mediatek Features have been removed, but the MiraVision menu is available.

Finally a low-end device featuring something so essential: a Magnetometer/Compass!

No malwares detected with the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware app running on latest definitions.

The Fingerprint Scanner is a bit slow just like on all MT6737-based devices, probably due to the low performance, but it is really accurate.

[YOUTUBE]ISI-NBxzUyw[/YOUTUBE]​