iOcean G7 Review – Octacore Mediatek Phablet

iOcean go big with the iOcean G7 Phablet, but is bigger always better? Find out in our full iOcean G7 review!

iOcean made a huge leap with the launch if the iOcean G7. Not only is the G7 much bigger than their previous 5-inch flagship, but it also has a more powerful true octacore Mediatek MT6592 processor and larger 3500mAh battery. Everything is bigger on the iOcean G7, but does that equal a bigger and better overall device?

iOcean G7 Review – Specifications

Below are the full specifications of the iOcean G7 phablet.

[komper pid=165 compareform=no]

iOcean G7 Review – Unboxing and hands on

iOcean G7 Review – Design

When iOcean launched the iOcean X7 last year, they settled upon a design language and decided to keep hold of it for the G7 phablet. Anyone familiar with the iOcean G7 (or even the rebranded Wicked Leaks version) will recognise the dual edge design of the iOcean G7 right away.

iOcean haven’t just supersized the X7 though. The G7 feels every much it’s own device, designed around the needs of a big screen, phablet user.

The black model that we have on review is coated in a grippy rubberized finish. The texture gives additional grip, and security when using the 90.5mm wide phablet and also helps to portray a more upmarket and quality focussed design. We have seen on iOcean’s Facebook page that a ‘Rose Red’ version is also in the works should the black model not be to your taste.

Holding the iOcean G7 one-handed isn’t an issue. As the body is quite thin at only 8.9mm making and receiving calls, reading emails and watching video can all be handled with a single palm, but typing, photos etc are two-handed operations. iOcean have also managed to spread the weight (210g with battery) of the G7 well across the device making it even more comfortable to operate.

I like to hold my phones and phablets with the bottom corner of the device resting on the lower part of my palm. In this position the volume rocker and power button are well out of reach. For a 6.44-inch device it might have been better to have these physical controls located in the middle of the sides rather the top half.

With such a large display it would have also been possible to reduce the overall length of the phone (175mm) a little by having onscreen navigation control rather than traditional chin based controls, not that there is anything wrong with the design iOcean have gone for, it just could have been a little more compact.

Some nice touches on the design include a small plastic tab on the rear which prevents the G7 from resting on the rear speaker grill and spoiling sound quality flat on a table, and the extension of the rear shell around the camera lens to help keep it from being damaged.

The rear panel pulls of easily to reveal a large 3500mAh battery, a single external speaker providing 3D surround sound, dual SIM support (1 x micro SIM, 1x regular SIM) and room for a micro SD card should the internal 16GB of memory not be enough. There is no NFC on the G7, hardly a deal breaker as I have yet to use it on any of my phones.

Overall quality, choice of materials and design of the iOcean G7 is above average. I feel more confident that the G7 would survive a knock and tumble over the UMi Cross, and also feel the G7 is a more handsome device than many of it’s rivals.

iOcean G7 – Display

iOcean have gone for a monstrous 6.44-inch display on the iOcean G7 and wisely given it a fully laminated finish, but should you feel that is not enough there is also a complimentary screen protector included in the box.

Another wise decision is to give the G7 a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. At 6.44-inch a lesser resolution couldn’t be as sharp as a 1080p panel, on the other hand the 1080 display also helps keep costs more affordable than a higher resolution 2560 x 1440 QHD panel.

At 6.44-inch and with 1920 x 1080 we are seeing a pixel density of 443ppi. The panel is also an OGS (One Glass Solution) model. OGS allows for thinner panels (between the glass and the touch area), this can help create a thinner body, but more importantly helps to improve the user experience and viewing angles.

The display offers enough brightness control that I was able to easily view the screen even in direct sunlight while at the beach on nice clear days. If there is a complaint it would be the screen is more glossy that I would like, but it is easily remedied by applying the including screen film.

iOcean G7 Review – Performance

iOcean have opted for the ‘plugin and play’ model of hardware choice for the iOcean G7. Specifications of the phablet are practically the same as pretty much any octacore flagship smartphone from every Chinese Android manufacturer on the market today.

The processor is the 1.7Ghz version of the Mediatek MT6592, and RAM is set at 2GB. So it comes as no surprise that Antutu benchmarks of the iOcean G7 are the same as those on the THL T100s we reviewed at the start of the year.

Antutu X tells a more honest story though and we can see a score of just 22,224 with iOceans optimizations removed. Still a score of over 20,000 points is still respectable, and it is real life performance that matters not benchmark’s.

In real life the iOcean G7 performs just as we would expect. It handles gaming well, web browsing is fast and stable, video streams perfectly. Basically the G7 handles everything that we threw at it in it’s stride.

iOcean G7 Review – Benchmarks

• Antutu: 26,986
• Antutu X: 22,224
• Quadrant: 15,201
• Nenamark: 47.3fps

iOcean G7 – Antutu X

iOcean G7 Benchmarks

iOcean G7 Gaming

iOcean G7 Review – Camera

With a 13 mega-pixel rear camera and 5 mega-pixel front, the iOcean G7 figures the norm for a phone of this day and age. The rear camera also gets an apertures of 2.0 allowing more light to flow and improve overall performance. The camera performance is impressive and taking good quality usable photos is as simple as point > focus > shoot.

It’s also impressive that iOcean themselves stick by their claims and believe in the quality of the G7’s camera, as they themselves have been using the G7 to snap those leaked photos of the iOcean X8 we have been drooling over (the G7 and X7 have both been used actually).

• Download full size iOcean G7 photo samples.

iOcean G7 Review – Battery

There are phablets on the market with larger battery’s than the 3500mAh unit in the iOcean G7, but for our use we found this to be more than enough to get use well through a day of regular use i.e.

• WIFI and GPS on
• 3G on
• Screen on 3/4 brightness
• Lots of photos
• Email on push
• Heavy web browsing
• The odd game

Video and gaming obviously reduce the battery life, and with a screen so brilliant you are going to want to soak up a lot of TV and movies while traveling to and from work, or even on longer journeys, but you should still last the day and if not the battery is removable so it is a simple swap should you run out of juice.

iOcean G7 Review – Connectiviity

The days when a Chinese phone would have bugs in the WIFI, 3G and Bluetooth departments are well behind us and the iOcean G7 performed flawlessly. GPS is the big question, how does GPS work? How does it lock on and does it stay connected?

The answer is the GPS is better than previous Mediatek phones. The initial lock can take a few minutes, but once connected it stays locked on and accuracy is pretty good. We are not talking the same sort of performance and lock on speed of a Qualcomm phone, but compared to past Mediatek models the G7 is a vast improvement.

The only other questions which need to be addressed are will the iOcean G7 work in your country. Well I am in China using China Unicom 3G on 2100mhz and 3G was fine for me. According to the official English iOcean website the iOcean G7 support GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz and WCDMA 2100MHz/900MHz, so most of you in Europe and Asia are in luck!

iOcean G7 Review – Conclusion

Other than the fact I would like the volume rocker and power button to be located further down the sides of the phone, there is nothing I can think of I would change. The screen is beautiful, build quality is top-notch (I feel it is better than the iOcean X7), performance is as good as you could hope and the rear camera is surprisingly good.

I know that iOcean gained a lot of fans for the iOcean X7, but in my opinion the iOcean G7 is even better. Of all the 6.44-inch Mediatek phablets we have tested over the years the G7 is now firmly in the top spot and should really be on your short list for affordable octacore phablet.

If you liked what you see in the iOcean G7 but wish the phone was a touch smaller then keep your eye’s peeled for the iOcean X8 with similar hardware, but smaller 5.7-inch 1080 display and Gorilla Glass panels front and rear.

[ iOcean ]