The CUBOT H1 Smartphone Test: A Month with 3-4 Days of Battery per Charge
by Ian Cutress on December 23, 2015 9:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Battery
- CUBOT
Final Words
I'll be brutally honest - while I keep a good tab on some elements of the smartphone market, more so on the business side, when it comes to deep dive analysis I leave it in the hands of Josh, Andrei and Brandon. That doesn't mean I don't need a device though, and despite their suggestions it seems I wanted a lot and wasn't prepared to spend the money. As a technical editor, my search for a smartphone caused a series of positive and negative feedback loops - some days I'd decide that DRAM was the most important, whereas others it would be the display resolution or the storage capacity. In the end it comes down to compromise and what is good and within range at the time I was looking. At one point I was adamant I wanted something more powerful than a Snapdragon 600 series, but I've ended up with a quad core MediaTek A53 device running at low frequency. There were some no-brainers – it had to be big enough and good enough to work on when I have short 20 minute public transport trips, and support dual SIM so I don’t have to keep losing my SIM card each time I travel.
The CUBOT H1 was the result of the search. It’s a smartphone that boasts 5200 mAh of battery, which is 3.4x the size of the battery in the iPhone 5c or 2x the battery in the Galaxy S6. When combined with the 1280x720 screen and the 1 GHz quad-core SoC, it gave 4 days of standard use battery which translated to 15 hours and 26 minutes on the PCMark battery test that runs from 100% to 20%, beating the Zenfone 2 by over nine hours. That is pretty much pre-2000 smartphone territory, more akin to what we used to have when playing games like Snake.
My smartphone use case has adapted over time – I want it to do work on. That means writing, switching between apps, being somewhat responsive, and always being available. The SoC means it doesn’t break any sort of record for performance, but ultimately so much of my use doesn’t require performance but rather latency in app switching and updates. Having enough memory to keep apps available means a lot, so moving up from 1GB to 2GB was a big enough change to notice, as well as the bump up to Android 5.1. The 16GB storage model is pretty basic, and the microSD compatibility is only at 32GB, rather than something bigger, and I know it will fill over time with the consistent photographing of my cats. But that is a risk that I’m going to have to take, or synchronize with Dropbox.
Without the silicone case that comes free with the phone, I will grant that despite the patterned edge, it does feel like the plastic the rear is made from, and arguably it slips out of the hand too easily. With the silicone case, it just feels like a smartphone with a case, which a lot of people use anyway. The raised power and volume buttons helps discern their location, and the fixed buttons is something I like to have on my device, even if it means giving up screen real estate.
It is clear that the cameras are not for taking glamour shots. But at a trade show, as long as you are in the front row, and have a second or two between shots, taking pictures of slides to work on later is good enough. To get a good shot taking advantage of the EIS though, you really need to use the burst mode which supports 40 shots at 13 MP each. The video is also an afterthought. That comes down to the price and what needs to be cut to meet that price. I purchased the device, brand new from Amazon, for £125 which translates to $160 pre-tax. Almost everyone I showed the phone to, probably due to the battery life argument, thought it was more expensive. The only people who guessed under (and only by $10) were a pair of senior ARM employees. But truth be told, I could buy four of these a year and it would still be cheaper than an S6. Of course, there are obvious caveats with that comparison.
I would say that this is going to be my phone for the next two years. But since I purchased it in October, two extra high end smartphones that others at AnandTech have tested have both landed on my desk for similar experiential testing. It almost seems sad to shelve the Cubot H1 immediately unless I adapt to carry two phones at once, with the H1 as that long-battery backup.
| CUBOT H1 | ||
| SoC | Mediatek MT6735P 4x ARM Cortex-A53 at 977 MHz ARM Mali-T720 MP2 at 400 MHz |
|
| RAM | 2GB LPDDR3 at 533 MHz | |
| Storage | 16GB NAND | |
| Display | 5.5” 720p IPS | |
| Modem | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE UE Category 4 DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev. A, EDGE |
|
| Networks |
TDD LTE | None |
| FDD LTE | B1 / B3 / B7 / B20 | |
| UMTS | 900 / 1900 / 2100 | |
| GSM | 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | |
| Dimensions | 154.5 (h) x 76.6 (w) x 9.2 (d) mm, 201 grams* Weight Measured by AnandTech, conflicting numbers online |
|
| Cameras | Rear | 12.8MP ( 4128 x 3096 ) |
| Front | 8MP ( 3264 x 2448 ) | |
| Battery | 5200 mAh (19.76 Whr) | |
| OS | Android 5.1 | |
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz BT 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, Micro-USB |
|
| SIM Size | Micro-SIM (FDD-LTE, WCDMA, GSM) Nano-SIM (GSM Only) Also Separate MicroSD slot, up to 32GB |
|
| MSRP (UK) | 16GB | $160
£125 as purchased |
So the final question becomes ‘how is it pronounced?’ Do we say cue-bot? Or perhaps cub-bot, or cue-bow? After writing this review, and looking at their online ‘CUBOT enterprise propaganda film’ on YouTube, it turns out to be coo-bot.
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Notmyusualid - Sunday, December 27, 2015 - link
Signal strength! Possibly the most important aspect!Despite living in Denmark for years, I have little Danish - everyone spoke English to me. But I understood a little. So jeg taler ikke Dansk, you see.
But nice to see my trusty S5 in 2nd place. I feel I've still no reason to change my phone, but seeing a battery like the one has on this phone, has me looking at reviews again.
If I use my S5 as a GPS, and connected to the cars hands-free, I can *burn* up my battery in hours. And I can't have an extended-back battery, because I have the Qi-wireless-s-view case on the back... so I've no option. I did however, buy one of those 2.4A car chargers, so it can be used, and charged in a timely manner...
Alexvrb - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
That's only really true if your wireless is the limiting factor. If you're in an area with good LTE signal quality and you're using VoLTE, yes there IS such as thing as better than tolerable voice quality. At that point you may very well find out you're being held back by the phone. Good speakers and mic(s) can make a difference. Especially when using it on speakerphone occasionally.buxe2quec - Thursday, December 24, 2015 - link
For example, mics can be really different. Mz iPhone 4S can tolerate up to (arbitrary scale) 101 dB before saturating, while my LG G2 only 81 dB. I measured with the two phones next to each other, even if the absolute values are off, the 20 dB difference stays.This can mean a lot in loud environments.
Robalov - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
That'll teach me I guess.But I would've thought call quality would deserve its own heading.
I still believe it won't have the longevity of your previous phone, however.
leexgx - Friday, December 25, 2015 - link
Ian Cutress (not sure if you would like a follow up on my useage as well)i cant use my HTC One M7 without a Mophie battery case and it turns the phone into a brick as only lasts short time without the morphi and has to be plugged in constantly when navigating (even when the HTC one M7 it was in good condition the battery it still lasted as long as i expected and that was 2-3 hours of constant use/SOT) 2400 is yes good for maybe the first 6 months to a year but due to battery not holding as much capacity after 1 year it ends up like a iphone (unless you can replace the battery)
well hopefully it's a good phone as i own it on 27th december (2015 assuming the shop is open so i can do my collect location) see how it goes,
i know it's slower then a HTC ONE M7 and no boomsound speakers, but slower CPU should mean less heat when navigating and same with screen, a slim phone with a 5200mAh battery, it be like using the Old Motorola RAZR Maxx again (just this time its a 5200mAh, quad core, 720p and 2GB of ram and 16GB + the 32GB SD card i got at the same time)
i only paid £110 so worth it to try any way (its from amazon so can send it back if its not fit for purpose, why i got it from amazon not ebay, as amazon is there to make customers happy and sellers unhappy, ebay not that far off really but amazon have better return policy and how they handle it as well),
HTC need to pull there finger out and start making phones that last more than half a day
3200-3500 battery size needs to be the minimum so to last more then 2-4 hours of SOT (not benchmark SOT time or phone with nothing installed) and the battery needs to be replaceable as my HTC ONE M7 is now turning off at 50%, if i could of changed the battery in the M9/M10 i might consider it (M10 hoping replaceable battery) we don't give a dam about Thin phones (as it turns into a iPlug device like where lots of iphone users are hunting for the nearest USB socket to get a small boost) going from 2400mha battery to 3400 might not sound like much but it has so much a dramatic effect on the day use of the phone, most phones nealy Suck More than 1A when phone is in use at times, phone makers need to add 1000mAh on top of there phones if its works fine on light loads (or what Stupid way they test there phones) so if think they can get away with a 2200 2400 2600 battery they should fit a 3200-3600 battery
Notmyusualid - Saturday, January 16, 2016 - link
The battery life (and the slow charging off too), of the M7 is the ONLY reason I changed it.I loved that handset too...
leexgx - Thursday, December 24, 2015 - link
you say knock off phone so not a real cubot H1 phonef0d - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
if you want to get crazy there is this 10000mah monster (its a bit ugly)http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_204428.html
or this more sane 6000mah (not so ugly)
http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_253010.html
im loving these phones that are coming out now with super batteries, battery life is much more important than speed or a lot of other things in a phone for me
SunLord - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
That's more of a battery with a phone built on it...phoenix_rizzen - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
The Cubot H1 has the same size battery (10,000 mAh) as the Oukitel. In fact, just about every spec is the same between the two phones. They're almost identical.