Elephone continue to launch phone after phone, but at this moment in time the Elephone P8000 is the top of the ELE fleet. So is it any good? How does it perform? Find out in our full Elephone P8000 review.
The Elephone P8000 was announced shortly (some say too soon) after the final release of their much-anticipated Elephone P7000. I’m not sure we will ever know why Elephone decided to launch such similar phones so close to each other, but could it be that issues with the P7000 forced their hand? If so does the P8000 correct what the P7000 got wrong?
Elephone P8000 Review – Design
There are aspects of the Elephone P8000 design I like and their are aspects I really dislike. Taking the phone in the hand you can immediately feel that the P8000 is more substantial and better made than the P7000, and (at least from the front and sides) it is more attractive too.
A more substantial build was necessary on the P8000, after the #bendgate issues of the P7000, Elephone needed to prove they can make a better quality phone. The P8000 has a impressive CNC machined metal chassis on to which all the components are built on to. Opening up the backside of the phone reveals more metal too.
If we head back around to the front of the phone we find a 5.5-inch FHD display, and the first design issue that many people pick up on. Like the P7000 (and many other phones of the year) the P8000 has very thick black borders around the display. The reason is to make the physical bezels looks smaller when the display is off, but turned on you have a few mm either side and around 4mm at the top and bottom of useless space. Some commentors are dead against this train of design, but in all honesty I hard even noticed while actually using the phone. Sure they aren’t pretty, but they don’t really detract from real world usage (at least not for me).
Below the display are a set of capacitive buttons. The center is a ring which lights up when pressed, while the left and right have simple ‘dot’ icons with no rear lighting.
Above the screen is the front facing 5 mega-pixel camera, which sounds impressive but actually performs an average selfie service.
Sticking with the top of the phone the metal chassis has a 3.5mm headphone jack. The entire left side is blank. A standard micro USB in the base, and the right side of the P8000 has a power button and volume rocker.
Flip the phone over to take a look at the rear, and the design takes a step for the worse. While the front and sides of the Elephone P8000 look quite good, the back is awkward looking and out of proportion.
The main 13 mega-pixel Samsung sensor and LED flash are located as close to the top of the phone as physically possible, and an inch below that is the smallest fingerprint scanner I have seen on any phone. With such a big bulky phone the camera and fingerprint scanner are both tiny in comparison and look a little odd.
Further down the rear of the faux carbon rear panel is an Elephone logo and speaker grill. For those of you paying attention you will have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the location of the SIM and SD trays, that’s because they are located under the removable rear panel.
No special tools are required to take the rear off, just jab your thumbnail in the edge and yank it off. Under the cover you will find dual micro SIM card slots and a Micro SD card tray for up to 128GB SD cards.
You will also see that there is a large non-removable metal panel covering the battery of the phone. The Elephone P8000 has a monster 4165mAh battery.
Finally there is a single, small speaker, and I noticed an ‘ELE’ warranty sticker on the bottom right corner screw head. I’m not sure if this is something new or not.
Elephone P8000 Review – Display
The display on the Elephone is a 5.5-inch FHD 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD panel, which results in a pixel density of 401ppi. The quality of the display is great, colours are bright, viewing angles are good, and there is enough brightness to view the panel outside.
Fortunately for me I have no dead pixels and I’ve not noticed any bright spots, but these are issues other P8000 owners have mentioned. One issue I did have was a screen flicker which only happens with WIFI and data turned on. Searching the forums it seems other owners have had the problem and that switching to a different launcher solves it.
That large 5.5-inch display has a huge glass panel over it, but what is worrying is that it does not have Gorilla Glass protection. A tempered glass screen protector would be advisable.
Elephone P8000 Review – Performance
While the Elephone P7000 had a powerful Mediatek MT6752 chipset and 3GB RAM, the Elephone P8000 has a lower spec MT6753 octacore chipset. The MT6753 is still a 64bit chip with native LTE, but it runs at just 1.3Ghz and has a Mali-T720 GPU. Generally we see this chipset used as a cost cutting measure as it still ticks the boxes on paper (octacore, 64bit, etc) but with lower performance and cheaper price.
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The lower performance means that you shouldnt buy this phone thinking its going to be able to handle really hard-core games because it won’t. For a casual gamer the performance is fine, and for everyday usage (social media, content consumption, camera, email, browsing the web) the performance is more than adequate.
I can also report I didn’t have any heating issues on the phone either. Where as the latest Xiaomi’s and the OP2 can get very hot at times, the Elephone P8000 keeps its head and runs cool.
Elephone P8000 Review – Hardware
I’ve already mentioned some screen issues above, so I’ll move on to other parts of the phone.
With a large battery and low power processor you might be thinking that battery life would be exceptional, but I found it to be about average. Screen on time is around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but I had no issues going from morning to following morning on a single charge. I do expect that the battery life can be extended, and I am awaiting OTA updates to see if this is the case or not.
The Elpehone P8000 supports FDD-LTE:band 3/7/20 (800/1800/2600, but another version of the phone is also mentioned on the Elephone product page with FDD-LTE support for 2/4/7/17(700/1700/1900/2600). I don’t know if this will be another phone, or if an update will unlock those bands on the current hardware.
Call reception was fine throughout my test, although the speaker quality isn’t the greatest. And browsing the web over WIFI or LTE was pleasingly fast.
For added security the Elephone P8000 has a fingerprint scanner on the rear, and as I have already mentioned, it is quite a small scanner. A small fingerprint scanner means a lower resolution, and lower resolution means lower accuracy. Even with 360 degree fingerprint recognition, the accuracy and unlock rate is poor compared to other phones.
Elephone P8000 Review – Camera
On paper the rear 13 mega-pixel Samsung 3L2 camera sounds great. In use the camera is fast to capture and save, but focus is slow. Maybe I have just become accustom to laser AF and PDAF phones, but for me the focus was on the slow side.
The actual photos the Elephone P8000 takes are average on the whole, not really living up to what the specifications suggest. If you do take your time to set up the shot and play around with the settings you can squeeze a little better performance out of it, but compared to the Elephone P7000, photo quality is down.
Elephone P8000 Review – Software
The Elephone P8000 ships with Android 5.1, but it’s not a stock build. Elephone have tweaked the ROM with their own Elephone UI.
The one difference in the Elephone ROM over stock is the lack of an app draw. Instead all applications are placed into folders, and once a folder is opened you can easily swipe from one folder to the next. It’s a nice feature that we haven’t seen in a ROM before.
One issue I had with the ROM was with the camera application. After taking a few photos with the stock camera the app would develop an odd bug that forces the gallery to open when you tap to focus. Going in to the app manager, closing the camera and going back in to it solves the issue temporarily, but it eventually comes back.
So far I haven’t had an update for the system, and can only hope that future OTA’s will bring a fix and also improve the battery life.
Elephone P8000 Review – Gallery
Elephone P8000 Review – Specifications
| Model: | Elephone P8000 |
| Sim Card: |
|
| Color: | Gold, Grey White |
| Memory | RAM: 3GB RAM
ROM: 16GB ROM |
| Chipset | CPU: MediaTek MTK6753 1.3GHz A53 64-bit Octa core GPU: ARM Mali-T720 |
| System | Android 5.1 ElE UI |
| Screen | Display Size: 5.5 Inch
Type: IPS LCD, capacitive touch screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
|
| Camera | Rear Camera: 13 MP Samsung 3L2 autofocus, LED flash
Front Camera: 5MP
|
| Network and Wireless Connectivity | Wifi frequency:802.11b/g/n Networks A: FDD-LTE:band 3/7/20 (800/1800/2600) WCDMA:band 1/8(900/2100) GSM:band 3/5/8 (850/900/1800) Networks B: TDD-LTE:band 41 (2500) Coming soon FDD-LTE:band 2/4/7/17(700/1700/1900/2600) Coming soon WCDMA:band 2/4/5(850/1700/1900) Coming soon GSM:band 2/5/8(850/900/1900) Coming soon |
| Battery capacity |
4165mAh (non-removable battery) |
Elephone P8000 Review – Conclusion
The Elephone P8000 costs $209.99, and as usual Elephone have the specs right so that they look stunning on paper. There is an octacore 64bit processor, 3GB RAM, 4165mAh battery, 13 mega-pixel Samsung camera, and rear fingerprint scanner.
This time around Elephone have done a great job of improving the build quality and overall feel of the phone, but there are still some issues that need ironing out.
Compared to previous Elephone devices the P8000 is another step in the right direction, but for the same money you could buy a Xiaomi or Meizu and have a better experience.
Two thing concern me about this phone
1. Gaming performance will be horrible(6753 is not meant for FHD gaming, any more intensive 3D game will lag like hell)
2. Battery lies(almost sure battery is actually around the 3000Mah mark)
MT6753 is a pass at that price point, don`t care how much RAM or FHD screen or fingerprint sensor. Better get the Siswoo 6753 with 720p and 2 GB of RAM for just 129,99$.
Actually the battery is alot closer to 4000mah. Battery life is better than any 3100mah phone I’ve used.
I am getting a lot better battery life with my MX5 with 3150 than Andi is describing (and others on other sites) with this phone.
Did u read right? He said it’s impossible to get BELOW 6 hours on that phone. What more is to be expected from it?
Did you read right??
“With a large battery and low power processor you might be thinking that battery life would be exceptional, but I found it to be about average. Screen on time is around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but I had no issues going from morning to following morning on a single charge.”
That is what Andi said in the article about the battery life. The 6 hours was a comment above and so far he is one of the few to say that. And you certainly can get 6 hours of 3G with the MX5, Phone Arena got 5 hours 33 minutes in its test, that was with an older build of Flyme. With the newest one I can get closer to 7 hours.
Wasn’t referring to Andi’s post. Referring to ParisTech. I’ve used the P8000 and battery life is quite good. 5 to 6 hours is standard. My current phone (k3 note) manages 3 to 4.5 hours max on constant 3g browsing. Needless to say I’m not impressed. Waiting to see how long the Zuk Z1 can last.
5 to 6 hours for a 6753 and 4165mAh battery is horrible. You should easily be getting double that. Sounds like there is some optimization issues with Elephones ROM or Elephone is lying about the size of the battery (wouldn’t be the first time).
I’ve hardly seen better, Zte grand s2 3100mah, neo noo3 3100mah, Nubia z7 max 3100mah, k3 note 2900mah none has ever gone above 6 hours onscreen time with 3g browsing. I guess that’s why am happy with it’s performance. Have u used any of these?
Comparing any of those phones to this one is like comparing the MPG’s of a truck to a hybrid. Not only do those phones you listed all have much smaller batteries but they also have processors designed for performance not for efficiency.
The MT6753 used in the P8000 is a processor that is not only clocked lower than all of those listed but was deigned to maximize battery life. With a huge battery like a 4165mAh found in the P8000 it should easily get 8-10 hours without issue. I have used a few phones with a 6753 and all of them had epic battery life.
My Bros 3000mah Letv x600 never gets up to 6 hours with 3g. His Tecno mt6592 with 3300mah manages 5 to 6 hours on 3g. Geekbench doesn’t tell the real story.
Again your comparing phones with different processors. Do you know the difference between an MT6795 and a MT6753? It seems you are incredibly confused by the different SoC’s. Let me give you a quick breakdown of the SoC’s Mediatek has:
MT6797 (Helios X20) – Flagship SoC designed for performance.
MT6795 (Helios X10) – high end SoC designed for performance
MT6752 – Midrange SoC designed for a good mix of performance and efficiency.
MT6753 – Low end SoC designed for effieicency.
MT6592 – last gen SoC designed for performance.
The LeTV has a 6795, it is very good on battery life but it uses a lot more power than a 6753 does.
No, you don’t need to break anything down. If you know me here as much as I know u, u should know that I know all there is to about SOCs. I mentioned the Letv cause u said u can easily, easily get 6 hours out of a 3150mah helio x10 phone.
I can get 6 hours out of a 3150 Meizu MX5. The LeTV is a completely different phone that uses different components/software. The only thing they have in common is the SoC.
My bros Letv outlasts my k50 note. Despite the SOC difference in SOC class. Get my point mate, I really haven’t used any phone on 3g up to 6hours straight. I mean continuous net surfing on 3g. Wasn’t comparing. Was just stating.
You can’t get 6 hours continuous onscreen time with 3g on. So if the p8000 can manage 6 hours to 8 hours, that’s a big win.
That’s good to know.
Guys I don’t know about you but for me it almost impossible to get the phone to drop below 6 hours of screen on time. I have never gotten below 5.30 even with gaming, data, and GPS in a day. In days where I use mostly Wi-Fi I have some times gotten 8 hours sot.
Except from that I have the same experience with Andi
P.s. The launcher has been changed in a recent update and it resembles stock now
Good to know, I will update and hopefully get better battery life.
I’d suggest you flash the update manually, the OTA soft-bricked many users devices (mine as well)
That’s what you should get with that battery/processor, actually with a 6753 you should be able to get closer to 10 with that big of a battery. But so far you are one of the few I have seen that has been getting anything above 4.
10 is hyperbole, I don’t think that would be possible.
As for the battery, today was a data heavy day for me as I was outside, and after 14 hours of usage I am now at 4h30m SOT and I have 26% battery left, and I also listened music for about 1h30m through headphones (so closed screen)
Battery time itself is hyperbole as every person has different usage and everyone uses different brightness settings, has different signal strengths based on where they are located and uses different apps. But with a very low power SoC and a big battery you should easily get 8 regardless of usage.
Yeah I agree with you on that. The meizu m2 note for example can most of the times get 7 hours SoT with a smaller battery and the same CPU. I think in the case of the P8000 the software is the problem. It’s just not optimized. Unlike the m2 note where Meizu produces their own software and work on it accordingly
I agree with you completely its all in the software, if they can optimize it, the battery life should be epic on this phone. But Elephone does’t have the best track record with phone support.
Exactly what I was trying to say all the while.
I should buy an Innos D6000.
In closing:
Same old Elephone. Looks great on paper, full of promises but in real life it fails to live up the hype. Not a horrible phone but nothing really sets is apart either. There are better options out there.
Actually the released sources and the 8 hours screen on time (I’m not sure why Andy got 4) is what sets it apart. By far one of the fastest Chinese phones in everyday usage despite the low SoC simply because it runs stock (install the official Rom in Elephone forums, never install OTA they contain malware) and it has 3Gigs of Ram.
Yeah, the camera is bad but I honestly can think of not one budget phone that is better at this time.
A budget phone with a better camera? Remdi 2.
Yeah I’ve used Remdi 2, it’s quite slower as it has to redraw a lot of things.
If you’re not gaming MT6753 is adequate, but what makes it especially fast is the 3GB of RAM. Do you know of any other budget phone running stock and have 3GB of RAM?
The trick to measure speed is not measuring load times, but total times. In the course of the day my Elephone running practically completely Stock (the one from Elephone’s forums not the OTA which -as you said- is modified) is quite faster than anything Xiaomi (even Mi4) merely because it rarely redraws anyting at all. It keeps everything cached.
Of course if you game, you’re right, MT6573 is a terrible SoC…
I have never said it was a terrible SoC, it’s a very good budget SoC but it is no where close to being the fastest. And you will notice it in more than just gaming. You can find good cameras on a whole host of phones under $300.
Exactly my point. It’s not that Elephone P8000’s sensor is bad, it’s the optics’ quality as well as the software that deals with the image. While Elephone P8000 has bad optics and bad image optimization, I find this to be the deal with almost all budget phones and many $300+ phones too. Actually phones with *great* photo clarity are all super expensive (I think LG G4 is the only one with high end photography that is not super expensive).
In buying a phone with the name Elephone or even (cheap) XiaoMi in front, you don’t expect good photography.
As for performance. Like I wrote in my other post(s) a SoC is secondary in importance. It’s only first in importance while gaming, in everything else the amount of Ram and its bandwidth is more important.
A 6753 phone with 3GB of Ram running stock android is faster (everytime) than a Helio X10 phone with 2GB phone running stock, or even faster than a Helio X10 + 3GB phone running a heavy non stock Rom. That’s my experience time and again, that’s why Elephone P8000 (running non OTA phone) is the fastest phone I used in 2015.
A similar example is last year’s One Plus One running a very slim Rom (cyanogenOS) with its users raving about its performance and actually feeling faster than powerhouses like Galaxy Note 4, despite the much better SoC of Note 4 (Exynos Octa); all because of the (vastly) more free Ram allowed from CyanogenOS… Of course in Gaming Note 4 was faster.
The difference between these budget phones in photography department is almost nonexistent. Redmi Note 2 which has a good sensor, but pictures produced are nothing worth mentioning, battery life so far has been very poor. The P8000 is a nice effort by Elephone, its got it’s pros and cons Loke every other budget phone out there. Putting all in consideration, I can comfortably say its not a bad buy at less than $200.
Well I’m not a photography expert I can’t agree or disagree on the photo front.
But in the front of battery is probably one of the few best and in the front of performance is very close to being the best budget phone simply because it runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this).
So yeah as for every day performance and autonomy goes this is probably the phone to buy. I don’t know where the bad mouthing comes, this is by far the best Elephone, despite it’s obvious downsides (bezels, need of screen protector, probably photography, great screen but some people seeing white spots)
“and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this)” A 5 minutes search turned up the following phones for under $200 that all offer 3GB of RAM:
1. Umi Iron
2. ECOO E04
3. Zopo Speed 7
4. Blackview Omega
5. Mlais M7
I never wrote (or believed) what you quoted.
Here’s my real quote .
“runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) and has 3GB of ram”
Does any of those of your list run stock Google and/or have released sources?
Except you did but nice try. The Elephone doesn’t run stock Google either, it’s not terribly modified but it is modified.
No I did not. If I say “if A and B happens then it means C” , it’s not at all the same as “when B happens it means C”. It’s basic boolean algebra. 1+0=10, but 0!=10
You half quoted me so you changed the meaning of what I wrote.You did it again. I wrote “the official Elephone Rom as provided in Ele forums” (the non OTA variant) which *is* stock. You talk about the OTA Rom which most definitely isn’t stock and has serious battery leaking. So again you make basic mistakes as far as reading comprehension goes.
Once again you fail to read what you actually write. Just like you claim you never wrote “”and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this)” when it is clearly written in your comment. This convo has run its course, to you the P8000 is the greatest phone ever made, hope it stays that way for you given Elephone history of issues.
OK, I’m convinced that you’re trolling now, but I’ll make one last attempt to help you with the obvious reading comprehension.
I didn’t wrote what you’re quoting. There are obviously dozens of phones with 3gb of Ram, I bought one for a friend back in June (Elife E7), but guess what. It didn’t run stock so it was slower than expected (Bad ram management?). So since then I’m looking for a phone running stock *and* Has 3GB of Ram and the only I found is the much beleagered P8000.
When you called it a bad phone (one that I’ve searched for months simply on account of its rarity, remember?) I kindly asked to prove it so. At least Andi ran the OTA rom and proved how the battery life that P8000 has when running OTA is less than ideal.
But when I ask from you to show me a phone running stock *and* has 3 gigs, you completely ignored the question and found a bunch of phones with mediocre ram management (due to them nor running stock).
This convo will make its circle if you stick by your guns and prove your beliefs, as long as you keep changing the subject the convo only makes circles and/or remains unresolved… I’m *dying* to find a budget phone with 3 Gigs of Ram and better ram management (stock Google) merely on account of recommending it to a friend, but you fail to deliver sadly.
Lol you deny writing something that is in black and white for all to see, your right you are trolling now. Goodluck with your phone.
I will tell you why you’re trolling. Surely you understand that
” because it runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) *and* has 3GB of ram”
is not the same as “because it has 3GB of ram”.
Since it’s not the same I never really wrote that it is the best budget phone “because it has 3GB of ram”. Your partial quote -therefore- is not at all what I wrote or meant.
Since that’s understandable even by someone with poor command of the language as well as your liberal use of ad-hominems lead me to believe that by the time you lost the argument you retracted into a trolling stance.
I don’t know why you feel the need to troll, I’m merely explaining to you why you’re trolling.
And yet you continue to troll even posting a long winded story about trolling.
I explain my position, you don’t. That’s another reason why you’re trolling, you make statements and accusations, not expositions…
And your still trolling about trolling. It never ends with you. It’s actually hilarious now.
But you honestly have no position. You create strawmen out of what another said, then proceed to attack it and eventually you start ad hominem attacks based on his defence to the strawman attacks.
What part of that behavior is not trolling?
Looks like im living rent free inside someones head!
Well you started with the insults (Elephone fan), so I had to defend myself, wouldn’t you?
You are an Elephone phone….
Just because a crap brand like Elephone has bad cameras doesn’t mean it is industry wide. There are phones from Lenovo, TCL, Xiaomi, Meizu, iOcean and a host of other companies that cost less than $300 and have very good cameras.
You have very very little clue what you are talking about when it comes to SoC’s, it’s not even worth arguing with you. The OnePlus One used a SD801, the Note 4 used either the SD805 or the Exnyos 7, depending on which region you bought it in. All 3 of those were flagship SoC’s designed for performance. The difference in the speed of those was very minor, and the biggest difference between the speed of the One and the Note 4 was the software it ran. CM (One) is a lot faster UI than Touchwhiz (Note 4). If you have the same software on both most would never notice a difference in performance.
…but I explain(ed) my points and you have yet to explain them away. Unlike you I’m not a phone enthusiast , I’m using Linux machines for some decades now.
Let me reiterate the SoC does not matter as much as the Ram amount . Especially if one’s topping the ram amount of a Linux machine. That’s central for android people to understand. They keep recommending low Ram phones as “performant” and then its users (following the “experts” recommendation) get cr*p performance after a year or two, especially after a of couple OS updates. This madness should stop and phone people better start reading more about how the Linux kernel actually works (not at all like Windows kernel, even though lately the Windows guys get closer)
In fact the example you’re referring to is one of the best around. The Snapdragon SoCs used are similar but Note 4’s Octa has 20-50% difference in raw performance. Those two phones even have the same around of Ram, the biggest difference is how Ram-Minded the two Roms are, that was *exactly* my point. If you put stock Google on both, Note wins comfortably, but if you use a Rom with bad ram management (probably incessant leaks , aggressive OOM values, ram heavy system processes) you get a slower experience, *despite the better SoC*.
So yeah, at the end of the day this phone is faster than any 2GB Phone despite the low SoC, *as long as* the 2GB quota is filled (as often is the case when browsing photo/video heavy apps/pages like facebook), simply because it does not have to restore apps into Ram every now and then (since about 1GB is used for System processes and OOM purposes, it is literally twice the user activity that can be stored in Ram -with this device- than with any 2GB device, that’s significant)
As for photography, well I’m not an expert in that regard and I can take your word for it. However looking at the photos of any budget phone I can’t say I was impressed (LG G4 IMO is miles ahead than each of them). It would be useful if you were to post examples of photos taken by a budget phone that are significantly better than this Elephone’s
Again you have little clue what your talking about when it is coming to SoC’s in phones, no matter how much Linux experience you have.
The LG G4 is the best camera phone you can buy today, but that doesn’t mean every other camera is crap compared to it. You are head over heels in love with Elephone its not worth the time to post examples, you can do your own research if you really care enough. Theres plenty of info out there.
@balcobomber25:disqus you might want to stop arguing with this dear Stef. he’s so convinced that the p8000 is “the best budget phone of this or even next year”, that it’s nearly impossible to make a normal discussion happen. i tried. and now that this review didn’t prove his opinion, he’s trying to argue his beloved p8000 to the top with thousands of things that don’t really matter to a normal user. to be fair, the built and battery seem to be quite good. 🙂
We talked? I don’t remember that. Anyway let him win my arguments, not change my opinion, that’s more important anyway. And -no- I do not have a love affair with that company, I would be the first to admit bad camera, the white patches on screen, even the lack of removable battery and the big bezels.
But you (or @balcobomber25) *have to* admit that’s 3GB + stock + released sources, simply doesn’t exist anywhere else in budget phones.
Obviously different things are important for different people, but what I’m used to tell (regarding Elephone P8000) is that it does things right in the way that nobody else does or did and sometimes it’s a bit infuriating that those (IMO important) things get side-stepped as if they’re business as usual (and they’re not!)
First is the immense battery life (really, I know few other budget phones have that), the released sources (is there any other budget phones with github tree?) and (finally) how (truly) fast it is (all people do is measure benchmarks, all the while benchmarks measure burst performance instead of performance over the long run which is much more relevant).
Ok, I’m ready to settle this with you. You want to express it is a decent if not good budget phone not just to you but generally speaking. That’s OK for me. But it definitely is NOT the best budget device of this or next year. Period.
I don’t remember talking about next year, but about this year sure.
Maybe I’m a bit more biased than a lot of you people because I like to merge google’s patches on my phones , thus always keeping them current, and since only P8000 let’s me do that in this price I can’t see any competitor.
But even if you were to grant that released sources is not at all important in every day user you can’t deny the better build quality than most budget phones, big battery and Ram. Really just open a site like device specifications and tell if there’s any phone having all three below the $200.
Like I said -sure- other people care for other stuff too. For example the camera is bad and if you care much about it (I rarely use it) it may tip the scales. Same with GG … In fact now that I remember I never said that is is the best phone, I said “if you disregard the camera and use the Elephone forum Roms, I.e. not the OTA release like Andi did” (or sth to that effect) and may I add “if you use a screen protector”, is the best budget phone. Those are a lot of ifs from the get go, so I never really said it is the best budget phone.
I merely said it’s the best budget phone for those not caring about the above (mobile photography, GG, OTA)… Is that not fair?
you said the following about 17 days ago under a p9000 post:
“Elephone p8000 is one of the best budget phones of 2015, if not *the* best. Best build quality, best battery, best software”
so, i admit, you didn’t say of this and next year, i’m sorry. but i don’t want to blame you for anything cause i don’t want to start a flamewar again. 🙂
let’s just have each others favourites. 😀 mine will be the XTouch if it ever gets released. E8hffff’s will be the Vowney. yours is the p8000. it’s all good.
Well it’s not a flame war, we just use arguments back and forth , I didn’t call you names , nor did you (apart from Elephone lover, which is actually a funny name to bear :p). So it’s all good really…
Having said that XTouch indeed seems better, but I think it’s not released yet, and what it would mostly makes it a no-no to me is the lack of sources. Even the best hardware gets old when the software is not updated. On other hand my ‘ol i9000 (400 mb ram and single core processor!) runs cm11 quite well , 5 years after I bought it and it is still dependable for many things! That’s the power of sources (that’s why I said “best software” for p8000)
It’s absolutely hilarious to read some of his comments.
I don’t even like Elephone, I merely say that Elephone P8000 is the first mid-end phone of a company with a long history of creating budget phones (of dubious designs). That’s all I have to say about this company.
But what I have to say about RAM management in Linux you’d do well to listen. Not because I tell it, because it’s simply how it is. As an example:
Note 4 with Exynos Octa, is as faster in multicore from Snapdragon 805, as (is) the MT6795m (A53 @ 2Ghz) is from MT6753 (A53 @ 1.3Ghz), plus Samsung is using the fastest flash memory in the industy, yet see what happens when compared to Nexus 6 (SD805) with much better Ram Management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV2X51kAVfc
At first it loses badly, then people like most reviewers would say “the Note 4 is so much faster !1!”, see what happen in the second round!. Nexus 6 not only covers the distance, but gets in front. And real life does not only have a second round, but also a third , a forth (continuous usage over the course of months without reboots as is often the case).
Do you still disbelieve the fact that Elephone that runs stock google (As Nexus 6 does) *and* has 1GB more free Ram will *undboutely make it faster than Any Helio X10 phone with less Ram, or less Ram management?
I can run tests (similar to the above) if you will. Don’t believe in Benchmarks, benchmarks mostly matter for gaming, in everything else, Ram and Ram management is the king.
It’s veeeery sad that most reviewers simply disregard this fact and give you a very skewed image of the performance of a phone. Back in late 00s I would believe them and buy dog-slow hardware just because it “benchmarked well”. These days I don’t look at benchmarks. I look at two things, RAM amount and OS. If those two are in order then everything else is welcome, but those two *have to* be in order, they’re the basis of any machine.
BTW
Why do you think that iPhones are kings of performance if you take in account how low ram they have. IT’s mostly because iOS was built from ground up with Ram management in mind. Disregard the B$ that Apple says about optimized hardware/software. It’s the OS, and it would run well even without optimized hardware, just not as well…
I know plenty about Linux, you know very little about phone SoC’s.
You keep saying that, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
You have yet to establish how much you know about Linux (if you did, you’d know how central RAM is for continuous “light” tasks) and how “non-knowledgeable” I supposedly am about SoCs.
Hell, I even posted a video proving you wrong (a faster SoC does not make a faster phone without a proper RAM management, or indeed less Ram), but you seem immune to evidence. That’s troubling as (in that way) you put yourself outside any conversation.
The Remdi 2 is a really nice phone, but the P8000 does have it’s merits. It’s got a massive battery, surprisingly fantastic build quality, and the kernel sources for have been released so there’s a higher chance for it to get some customs ROM action.
It is great on paper but it’s also an Elephone, a brand which has been horrible when it comes to supporting devices. The massive battery it has apparently is being held back by poor software judging by the numbers everyone here is quoting. Kernel sources are good if the dev community actually buys this phone, without that they are useless. I wasn’t saying the Redmi 2 was better or worse just pointing out it is a sub $150 phone with a good camera.
BTW (just one more -little- thing to add). Released sources does not -merely- mean that the community will build great roms for it (they have already started: http://forum.xda-developers.com/elephone-p8000/development ), it also means that *you* can build an AOSP or CM rom simply by following few steps.
So you can merge patches long after the company has stopped supporting this phone (or indeed any phone). That way you (or the community) may squash any rom bug and make use of the immense 4000 MaH battery (BTW merely by using Greenify on less important apps/processes I average 8 hours; right now I’m at 6 hours and 10 minutes w 3G and wifi constantly ON with 32% left, I can send a screenshot if you wish)
If you have the knowledge to build your own ROM, more power to you. But most consumers don’t.
Absolutely, and there is the rub. Phones are appliances. You should not need to be technical to use or maintain them. Phones should just work. And that is why Elephone gets crap reviews – too many problems.
Exactly the vast majority of people have no clue what a ROM is let alone how to compile one. Phones should be as easy as possible to use and update themselves with little interaction from the end user (other than pressing restart). This is where companies like Xiaomi excel.
I wouldn’t say that cam is bad. Sincerely, there is hardly much difference between day shots on this phone and on the k3 note. Camera starts failing in low lights. Yet again its got a big battery, incredibly solid, lovely display (though not a top notch one as white patches are already appearing) and 3gb of ram.
Two thing concern me about this phone
1. Gaming performance will be horrible(6753 is not meant for FHD gaming, any more intensive 3D game will lag like hell)
2. Battery lies(almost sure battery is actually around the 3000Mah mark)
MT6753 is a pass at that price point, don`t care how much RAM or FHD screen or fingerprint sensor. Better get the Siswoo 6753 with 720p and 2 GB of RAM for just 129,99$.
Actually the battery is alot closer to 4000mah. Battery life is better than any 3100mah phone I’ve used.
I am getting a lot better battery life with my MX5 with 3150 than Andi is describing (and others on other sites) with this phone.
Did u read right? He said it’s impossible to get BELOW 6 hours on that phone. What more is to be expected from it?
You can’t get 6 hours continuous onscreen time with 3g on. So if the p8000 can manage 6 hours to 8 hours, that’s a big win.
Did you read right??
“With a large battery and low power processor you might be thinking that battery life would be exceptional, but I found it to be about average. Screen on time is around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but I had no issues going from morning to following morning on a single charge.”
That is what Andi said in the article about the battery life. The 6 hours was a comment above and so far he is one of the few to say that. And you certainly can get 6 hours of 3G with the MX5, Phone Arena got 5 hours 33 minutes in its test, that was with an older build of Flyme. With the newest one I can get closer to 7 hours. Flyme is very good at resource management, I am guessing a lot better than Elephone UI.
http://www.fonearena.com/blog/152688/meizu-mx5-battery-life-test.html
Wasn’t referring to Andi’s post. Referring to ParisTech. I’ve used the P8000 and battery life is quite good. 5 to 6 hours is standard. My current phone (k3 note) manages 3 to 4.5 hours max on constant 3g browsing. Needless to say I’m not impressed. Waiting to see how long the Zuk Z1 can last.
5 to 6 hours for a 6753 and 4165mAh battery is horrible. You should easily be getting double that. Sounds like there is some optimization issues with Elephones ROM or Elephone is lying about the size of the battery (wouldn’t be the first time).
I’ve hardly seen better, Zte grand s2 3100mah, neo noo3 3100mah, Nubia z7 max 3100mah, k3 note 2900mah none has ever gone above 6 hours onscreen time with 3g browsing. I guess that’s why am happy with it’s performance. Have u used any of these?
Comparing any of those phones to this one is like comparing the MPG’s of a truck to a hybrid. Not only do those phones you listed all have much smaller batteries but they also have processors designed for performance not for efficiency.
The MT6753 used in the P8000 is a processor that is not only clocked lower than all of those listed but was deigned to maximize battery life. With a huge battery like a 4165mAh found in the P8000 it should easily get 8-10 hours without issue. I have used a few phones with a 6753 and all of them had epic battery life. If Elephone can optimize it’s software to work with the 6753 you should almost see double your battery time on 3G. I can easily get 6 hours on phone with a 6795 and 3150mAh.
My Bros 3000mah Letv x600 never gets up to 6 hours with 3g. His Tecno mt6592 with 3300mah manages 5 to 6 hours on 3g. Geekbench doesn’t tell the real story.
Again your comparing phones with different processors. Do you know the difference between an MT6795 and a MT6753? It seems you are incredibly confused by the different SoC’s. Let me give you a quick breakdown of the SoC’s Mediatek has:
MT6797 (Helios X20) – Flagship SoC designed for performance.
MT6795 (Helios X10) – high end SoC designed for performance
MT6752 – Midrange SoC designed for a good mix of performance and efficiency.
MT6753 – Low end SoC designed for effieicency.
MT6592 – last gen SoC designed for performance.
The LeTV has a 6795, it is very good on battery life but it uses a lot more power than a 6753 does.
No, you don’t need to break anything down. If you know me here as much as I know u, u should know that I know all there is to about SOCs. I mentioned the Letv cause u said u can easily, easily get 6 hours out of a 3150mah helio x10 phone.
My bros Letv outlasts my k50 note. Despite the SOC difference in SOC class. Get my point mate, I really haven’t used any phone on 3g up to 6hours straight. I mean continuous net surfing on 3g. Wasn’t comparing. Was just stating.
I can get 6 hours out of a 3150 Meizu MX5. The LeTV is a completely different phone that uses different components/software. The only thing they have in common is the SoC. Just like the LeTV is different thand the K50. They all run different software, they all have different displays and your usage and your brothers usage could be completely different.
That’s good to know.
Guys I don’t know about you but for me it almost impossible to get the phone to drop below 6 hours of screen on time. I have never gotten below 5.30 even with gaming, data, and GPS in a day. In days where I use mostly Wi-Fi I have some times gotten 8 hours sot.
Except from that I have the same experience with Andi
P.s. The launcher has been changed in a recent update and it resembles stock now
Good to know, I will update and hopefully get better battery life.
I had the same battery even before the update. Our usage habits are different for sure but such a difference doesn’t seem right
I’d suggest you flash the update manually, the OTA soft-bricked many users devices (mine as well)
That’s what you should get with that battery/processor, actually with a 6753 you should be able to get closer to 10 with that big of a battery. But so far you are one of the few I have seen that has been getting anything above 4.
10 is hyperbole, I don’t think that would be possible.
As for the battery, today was a data heavy day for me as I was outside, and after 14 hours of usage I am now at 4h30m SOT and I have 26% battery left, and I also listened music for about 1h30m through headphones (so closed screen)
Battery time itself is hyperbole as every person has different usage and everyone uses different brightness settings, has different signal strengths based on where they are located and uses different apps. But with a very low power SoC and a big battery you should easily get 8 regardless of usage.
Yeah I agree with you on that. The meizu m2 note for example can get 6 hours SoT with a smaller battery and the same CPU. I think in the case of the P8000 the software is the problem. It’s just not optimized. Unlike the m2 note where Meizu produces their own software and work on it accordingly
I agree with you completely its all in the software, if they can optimize it, the battery life should be epic on this phone. But Elephone does’t have the best track record with phone support.
Exactly what I was trying to say all the while.
I should buy an Innos D6000.
Metal body + Black frame around screen = fail
MT6753 for a late 2015 phone = fail
Elephone UI = fail
If they strive towards mediocrity, Elephone will soon follow iOcean.
i do see your point @alexi@Alexis T:disqus , i backed out of my order of the P7000 months ago for several reasons. i do hope as Andi remarks that they are trying to get to a better direction, as after the P8000 was released Elephone as usual has released several others as the TRUNK that Andi or someone from this site said was a really nice try from Elephone the now have the M1 the M2 out there somewhere and they are teasing with the VOWNEY. As many sites have said even here if that vowney is AS GOOD AS the Trunk I think IMHO that we are in for a great CHINESE price figth and some companies migth go out of bussiness.!!!! but i will not get carried away as is it is not even in the market… yet 🙁 coments???
In closing:
Same old Elephone. Looks great on paper, full of promises but in real life it fails to live up the hype. Not a horrible phone but nothing really sets is apart either. There are better options out there.
Actually the released sources and the 8 hours screen on time (I’m not sure why Andy got 4) is what sets it apart. By far one of the fastest Chinese phones in everyday usage despite the low SoC simply because it runs stock (install the official Rom in Elephone forums, never install OTA they contain malware) and it has 3Gigs of Ram.
Yeah, the camera is bad but I honestly can think of not one budget phone that is better at this feature.
A budget phone with a better camera? Remdi 2. And if you think is one of the fastest Chinese phones you need to use some more Chinese phones. I have used Mt6753 running fully stock Android, this is not full stock Elephone have tweaked it a bit, and they were quick but no where close to the fastest.
Yeah I’ve used Remdi 2, it’s quite slower as it has to redraw a lot of things.
If you’re not gaming MT6753 is adequate, but what makes it especially fast is the 3GB of RAM. Do you know of any other budget phone running stock and have 3GB of RAM?
The trick to measure speed is not measuring load times, but total times. In the course of the day my Elephone running practically completely Stock (the one from Elephone’s forums not the OTA which -as you said- is modified) is quite faster than anything Xiaomi (even Mi4) merely because it rarely redraws anyting at all. It keeps everything cached.
Of course if you game, you’re right, MT6573 is a terrible SoC…
As for the camera, I think Jiayu S3’s is also decent, but yeah none of those are impressive cameras or anything. Unfortunately a good camera is the costlier component on a phone and only high end phones (more that $300) you can find have a really good one…
I have never said it was a terrible SoC, it’s a very good budget SoC but it is no where close to being the fastest. And you will notice it in more than just gaming.
You can find good cameras on a whole host of phones under $300. Most budget phones these days are using the Sony IMX 214, which was last years flagship sensor. The difference between many of the $300+ phones and the $150 phones is optimization and optics. A good sensor means nothing if it’s not optimized to work with your software and it uses a crap lens. But there are some great cameras on phones under $300 and there are some bad cameras on phones over $300.
Exactly my point. It’s not that Elephone P8000’s sensor is bad, it’s the optics’ quality as well as the software that deals with the image. While Elephone P8000 has bad optics and bad image optimization, I find this to be the deal with almost all budget phones and many $300+ phones too. Actually phones with *great* photo clarity are all super expensive (I think LG G4 is the only one with high end photography that is not super expensive).
In buying a phone with the name Elephone or even (cheap) XiaoMi in front, you don’t expect good photography.
As for performance. Like I wrote in my other post(s) a SoC is secondary in importance. It’s only first in importance while gaming, in everything else the amount of Ram and its bandwidth is more important.
A 6753 phone with 3GB of Ram running stock android is faster (everytime) than a Helio X10 phone with 2GB phone running stock, or even faster than a Helio X10 + 3GB phone running a heavy non stock Rom. That’s my experience time and again, that’s why Elephone P8000 (running non OTA phone) is the fastest phone I used in 2015.
A similar example is last year’s One Plus One running a very slim Rom (cyanogenOS) with its users raving about its performance and actually feeling faster than powerhouses like Galaxy Note 4, despite the much better SoC of Note 4 (Exynos Octa); all because of the (vastly) more free Ram allowed from CyanogenOS… Of course in Gaming Note 4 was faster.
I wouldn’t say that cam is bad. Sincerely, there is hardly much difference between day shots on this phone and on the k3 note. Camera starts failing in low lights. Yet again its got a big battery, incredibly solid, lovely display (though not a top notch one as white patches are already appearing) and 3gb of ram.
The difference between these budget phones in photography department is almost nonexistent. Redmi Note 2 which has a good sensor, but pictures produced are nothing worth mentioning, battery life so far has been very poor. The P8000 is a nice effort by Elephone, its got it’s pros and cons Loke every other budget phone out there. Putting all in consideration, I can comfortably say its not a bad buy at less than $200.
Just because a crap brand like Elephone has bad cameras doesn’t mean it is industry wide. There are phones from Lenovo, TCL, Xiaomi, Meizu, iOcean and a host of other companies that cost less than $300 and have very good cameras.
You have very very little clue what you are talking about when it comes to SoC’s, it’s not even worth arguing with you. The OnePlus One used a SD801, the Note 4 used either the SD805 or the Exnyos 7, depending on which region you bought it in. All 3 of those were flagship SoC’s designed for performance. The difference in the speed of those was very minor, and the biggest difference between the speed of the One and the Note 4 was the software it ran. CM (One) is a lot faster UI than Touchwhiz (Note 4). If you have the same software on both most would never notice a difference in performance.
The Remdi 2 is a really nice phone, but the P8000 does have it’s merits. It’s got a massive battery, surprisingly fantastic build quality, and the kernel sources for have been released so there’s a higher chance for it to get some customs ROM action.
It is great on paper but it’s also an Elephone, a brand which has been horrible when it comes to supporting devices. The massive battery it has apparently is being held back by poor software judging by the numbers everyone here is quoting. Kernel sources are good if the dev community actually buys this phone, without that they are useless. I wasn’t saying the Redmi 2 was better or worse just pointing out it is a sub $150 phone with a good camera.
…but I explain(ed) my points and you have yet to explain them away. Unlike you I’m not a phone enthusiast , I’m using Linux machines for some decades now.
Let me reiterate the SoC does not matter as much as the Ram amount . Especially if one’s topping the ram amount of a Linux machine. That’s central for android people to understand. They keep recommending low Ram phones as “performant” and then its users (following the “experts” recommendation) get cr*p performance after a year or two, especially after a of couple OS updates. This madness should stop and phone people better start reading more about how the Linux kernel actually works (not at all like Windows kernel, even though lately the Windows guys get closer)
In fact the example you’re referring to is one of the best around. The Snapdragon SoCs used are similar but Note 4’s Octa has 20-50% difference in raw performance. Those two phones even have the same around of Ram, the biggest difference is how Ram-Minded the two Roms are, that was *exactly* my point. If you put stock Google on both, Note wins comfortably, but if you use a Rom with bad ram management (probably incessant leaks , aggressive OOM values, ram heavy system processes) you get a slower experience, *despite the better SoC*.
So yeah, at the end of the day this phone is faster than any 2GB Phone despite the low SoC, *as long as* the 2GB quota is filled (as often is the case when browsing photo/video heavy apps/pages like facebook), simply because it does not have to restore apps into Ram every now and then (since about 1GB is used for System processes and OOM purposes, it is literally twice the user activity that can be stored in Ram -with this device- than with any 2GB device, that’s significant)
As for photography, well I’m not an expert in that regard and I can take your word for it. However looking at the photos of any budget phone I can’t say I was impressed (LG G4 IMO is miles ahead than each of them). It would be useful if you were to post examples of photos taken by a budget phone that are significantly better than this Elephone’s
Well I’m not a photography expert I can’t agree or disagree on the photo front.
But in the front of battery is probably one of the few best and in the front of performance is very close to being the best budget phone simply because it runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this).
So yeah as for every day performance and autonomy goes this is probably the phone to buy. I don’t know where the bad mouthing comes, this is by far the best Elephone, despite it’s obvious downsides (bezels, need of screen protector, probably photography, great screen but some people seeing white spots)
BTW (just one more -little- thing to add). Released sources does not -merely- mean that the community will build great roms for it (they have already started: http://forum.xda-developers.com/elephone-p8000/development ), it also means that *you* can build an AOSP or CM rom simply by following few steps.
So you can merge patches long after the company has stopped supporting this phone (or indeed any phone). That way you (or the community) may squash any rom bug and make use of the immense 4000 MaH battery (BTW merely by using Greenify on less important apps/processes I average 8 hours; right now I’m at 6 hours and 10 minutes w 3G and wifi constantly ON with 32% left, I can send a screenshot if you wish)
If you have the knowledge to build your own ROM, more power to you. But most consumers don’t.
Again you have little clue what your talking about when it is coming to SoC’s in phones, no matter how much Linux experience you have.
The LG G4 is the best camera phone you can buy today, but that doesn’t mean every other camera is crap compared to it. You are head over heels in love with Elephone its not worth the time to post examples, you can do your own research if you really care enough. Theres plenty of info out there.
@balcobomber25:disqus you might want to stop arguing with this dear Stef. he’s so convinced that the p8000 is “the best budget phone of this or even next year”, that it’s nearly impossible to make a normal discussion happen. i tried. and now that this review didn’t prove his opinion, he’s trying to argue his beloved p8000 to the top with thousands of things that don’t really matter to a normal user. to be fair, the built and battery seem to be quite good. 🙂
I don’t even like Elephone, I merely say that Elephone P8000 is the first mid-end phone of a company with a long history of creating budget phones (of dubious designs). That’s all I have to say about this company.
But what I have to say about RAM management in Linux you’d do well to listen. Not because I tell it, because it’s simply how it is. As an example:
Note 4 with Exynos Octa, is as faster in multicore from Snapdragon 805, as (is) the MT6795m (A53 @ 2Ghz) is from MT6753 (A53 @ 1.3Ghz), plus Samsung is using the fastest flash memory in the industy, yet see what happens when compared to Nexus 6 (SD805) with much better Ram Management:
At first it loses badly, then people like most reviewers would say “the Note 4 is so much faster !1!”, see what happen in the second round!. Nexus 6 not only covers the distance, but gets in front. And real life does not only have a second round, but also a third , a forth (continuous usage over the course of months without reboots as is often the case).
Do you still disbelieve the fact that Elephone that runs stock google (As Nexus 6 does) *and* has 1GB more free Ram will *undboutely make it faster than Any Helio X10 phone with less Ram, or less Ram management?
I can run tests (similar to the above) if you will. Don’t believe in Benchmarks, benchmarks mostly matter for gaming, in everything else, Ram and Ram management is the king.
It’s veeeery sad that most reviewers simply disregard this fact and give you a very skewed image of the performance of a phone. Back in late 00s I would believe them and buy dog-slow hardware just because it “benchmarked well”. These days I don’t look at benchmarks. I look at two things, RAM amount and OS. If those two are in order then everything else is welcome, but those two *have to* be in order, they’re the basis of any machine.
BTW
Why do you think that iPhones are kings of performance if you take in account how low ram they have. IT’s mostly because iOS was built from ground up with Ram management in mind. Disregard the B$ that Apple says about optimized hardware/software. It’s the OS, and it would run well even without optimized hardware, just not as well…
We talked? I don’t remember that. Anyway let him win my arguments, not change my opinion, that’s more important anyway. And -no- I do not have a love affair with that company, I would be the first to admit bad camera, the white patches on screen, even the lack of removable battery and the big bezels.
But you (or @balcobomber25) *have to* admit that’s 3GB + stock + released sources, simply doesn’t exist anywhere else in budget phones.
Obviously different things are important for different people, but what I’m used to tell (regarding Elephone P8000) is that it does things right in the way that nobody else does or did and sometimes it’s a bit infuriating that those (IMO important) things get side-stepped as if they’re business as usual (and they’re not!)
First is the immense battery life (really, I know few other budget phones have that), the released sources (is there any other budget phones with github tree?) and (finally) how (truly) fast it is (all people do is measure benchmarks, all the while benchmarks measure burst performance instead of performance over the long run which is much more relevant).
Ok, I’m ready to settle this with you. You want to express it is a decent if not good budget phone not just to you but generally speaking. That’s OK for me. But it definitely is NOT the best budget device of this or next year. Period.
I don’t remember talking about next year, but about this year sure.
Maybe I’m a bit more biased than a lot of you people because I like to merge google’s patches on my phones , thus always keeping them current, and since only P8000 let’s me do that in this price I can’t see any competitor.
But even if you were to grant that released sources is not at all important in every day user you can’t deny the better build quality than most budget phones, big battery and Ram. Really just open a site like device specifications and tell if there’s any phone having all three below the $200.
Like I said -sure- other people care for other stuff too. For example the camera is bad and if you care much about it (I rarely use it) it may tip the scales. Same with GG … In fact now that I remember I never said that is is the best phone, I said “if you disregard the camera and use the Elephone forum Roms, I.e. not the OTA release like Andi did” (or sth to that effect) and may I add “if you use a screen protector”, is the best budget phone. Those are a lot of ifs from the get go, so I never really said it is the best budget phone.
I merely said it’s the best budget phone for those not caring about the above (mobile photography, GG, OTA)… Is that not fair?
you said the following about 17 days ago under a p9000 post:
“Elephone p8000 is one of the best budget phones of 2015, if not *the* best. Best build quality, best battery, best software”
so, i admit, you didn’t say of this and next year, i’m sorry. but i don’t want to blame you for anything cause i don’t want to start a flamewar again. 🙂
let’s just have each others favourites. 😀 mine will be the XTouch if it ever gets released. E8hffff’s will be the Vowney. yours is the p8000. it’s all good.
Well it’s not a flame war, we just use arguments back and forth , I didn’t call you names , nor did you (apart from Elephone lover, which is actually a funny name to bear :p). So it’s all good really…
Having said that XTouch indeed seems better, but I think it’s not released yet, and what it would mostly makes it a no-no to me is the lack of sources. Even the best hardware gets old when the software is not updated. On other hand my ‘ol i9000 (400 mb ram and single core processor!) runs cm11 quite well , 5 years after I bought it and it is still dependable for many things! That’s the power of sources (that’s why I said “best software” for p8000)
I know plenty about Linux, you know very little about phone SoC’s.
It’s absolutely hilarious to read some of his comments.
You keep saying that, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
You have yet to establish how much you know about Linux (if you did, you’d know how central RAM is for continuous “light” tasks) and how “non-knowledgeable” I supposedly am about SoCs.
Hell, I even posted a video proving you wrong (a faster SoC does not make a faster phone without a proper RAM management, or indeed less Ram), but you seem immune to evidence. That’s troubling as (in that way) you put yourself outside any conversation.
“and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this)” A 5 minutes search turned up the following phones for under $200 that all offer 3GB of RAM:
1. Umi Iron
2. ECOO E04
3. Zopo Speed 7
4. Blackview Omega
5. Mlais M7
I never wrote (or believed) what you quoted.
Here’s my real quote .
“runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) and has 3GB of ram”
Does any of those of your list run stock Google and/or have released sources?
Except you did but nice try. The Elephone doesn’t run stock Google either, it’s not terribly modified but it is modified.
No I did not. If I say “if A and B happens then it means C” , it’s not at all the same as “when B happens it means C”. It’s basic boolean algebra. 1+0=10, but 0!=10
You half quoted me so you changed the meaning of what I wrote.You did it again. I wrote “the official Elephone Rom as provided in Ele forums” (the non OTA variant) which *is* stock. You talk about the OTA Rom which most definitely isn’t stock and has serious battery leaking. So again you make basic mistakes as far as reading comprehension goes.
Once again you fail to read what you actually write. Just like you claim you never wrote “”and has 3GB of ram (only much more expensive phones have this)” when it is clearly written in your comment. This convo has run its course, to you the P8000 is the greatest phone ever made, hope it stays that way for you given Elephone history of issues.
OK, I’m convinced that you’re trolling now, but I’ll make one last attempt to help you with the obvious reading comprehension.
I didn’t wrote what you’re quoting. There are obviously dozens of phones with 3gb of Ram, I bought one for a friend back in June (Elife E7), but guess what. It didn’t run stock so it was slower than expected (Bad ram management?). So since then I’m looking for a phone running stock *and* Has 3GB of Ram and the only I found is the much beleagered P8000.
When you called it a bad phone (one that I’ve searched for months simply on account of its rarity, remember?) I kindly asked to prove it so. At least Andi ran the OTA rom and proved how the battery life that P8000 has when running OTA is less than ideal.
But when I ask from you to show me a phone running stock *and* has 3 gigs, you completely ignored the question and found a bunch of phones with mediocre ram management (due to them nor running stock).
This convo will make its circle if you stick by your guns and prove your beliefs, as long as you keep changing the subject the convo only makes circles and/or remains unresolved… I’m *dying* to find a budget phone with 3 Gigs of Ram and better ram management (stock Google) merely on account of recommending it to a friend, but you fail to deliver sadly.
Lol you deny writing something that is in black and white for all to see, your right you are trolling now. Goodluck with your phone.
I will tell you why you’re trolling. Surely you understand that
” because it runs Stock android 5.1 (as provided in ELE forums) *and* has 3GB of ram”
is not the same as “because it has 3GB of ram”.
Since it’s not the same I never really wrote that it is the best budget phone “because it has 3GB of ram”. Your partial quote -therefore- is not at all what I wrote or meant.
Since that’s understandable even by someone with poor command of the language as well as your liberal use of ad-hominems lead me to believe that by the time you lost the argument you retracted into a trolling stance.
I don’t know why you feel the need to troll, I’m merely explaining to you why you’re trolling.
And yet you continue to troll even posting a long winded story about trolling.
I explain my position, you don’t. That’s another reason why you’re trolling, you make statements and accusations, not expositions…
And your still trolling about trolling. It never ends with you. It’s actually hilarious now.
But you honestly have no position. You create strawmen out of what another said, then proceed to attack it and eventually you start ad hominem attacks based on his defence to the strawman attacks.
What part of that behavior is not trolling?
Looks like im living rent free inside someones head!
Well you started with the insults (Elephone fan), so I had to defend myself, wouldn’t you?
You are an Elephone phone….
Absolutely, and there is the rub. Phones are appliances. You should not need to be technical to use or maintain them. Phones should just work. And that is why Elephone gets crap reviews – too many problems.
Exactly the vast majority of people have no clue what a ROM is let alone how to compile one. Phones should be as easy as possible to use and update themselves with little interaction from the end user (other than pressing restart). This is where companies like Xiaomi excel.
I am glad to see Elephone improving their stuff… Elephone will be like Xiaomi in the following 5 years or so.
We found an Elephone employee or a stand up comedian.
Elephone isn’t even on the same level as iOcean, iNew or THL nevermind Xiaomi.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
They’re actually expanding pretty quickly in Asia. And I mean alarmingly quick.
That may be true but they still have yet to produce an actual quality phone that has been problem free.
Balco where did you see Blackview? I recently just returned from 2 weeks in HK & Shanghai and was really disappointed in the lack of exposure and knowledge of any of the smaller brand phones that we read about here. I found it nigh on impossible to find a Vivo XShot as most of the phone shops hadn’t heard of the brand. I even had a local co-worker with me to get around the language barrier issue. No dice!
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam over the last few months I have seen Blackview demonstrations in malls and shopping centers.
Here in Malaysia, they’re a growing pretty fast, and they’re also in Singapore and the Philippines, though I’m not sure how popular they are there. Blackview’s here too, but they don’t really do much. Leagoo is doing fantastically well here, however.
I was in both KL and Penang last week and didn’t see a single thing Elephone related either in the electronic markets, malls or just people watching.
i don’t even want to reply to such an uneducated comment.
But yet you did reply….
You’re taking the piss right? Support is APPALLING.
Metal body + Black frame around screen = fail
MT6753 for a late 2015 phone = fail
Elephone UI = fail
If they strive towards mediocrity, Elephone will soon follow iOcean.
i do see your point @alexi@Alexis T:disqus , i backed out of my order of the P7000 months ago for several reasons. i do hope as Andi remarks that they are trying to get to a better direction, as after the P8000 was released Elephone as usual has released several others as the TRUNK that Andi or someone from this site said was a really nice try from Elephone the now have the M1 the M2 out there somewhere and they are teasing with the VOWNEY. As many sites have said even here if that vowney is AS GOOD AS the Trunk I think IMHO that we are in for a great CHINESE price figth and some companies migth go out of bussiness.!!!! but i will not get carried away as is it is not even in the market… yet 🙁 coments???
Such beautiful fone with low battery life….still waiting to see how the Trunk will perform when it is out though I have a special liking for the Oukitel U10
The battery life is not low. In my case the battery is very good. Not the best performance I’ve heard but I believe trying a different ROM can make a huge difference.
A lot of people are getting better battery life
This comment was deleted.
We found an Elephone employee or a stand up comedian.
Elephone isn’t even on the same level as iOcean, iNew or THL nevermind Xiaomi.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
They’re actually expanding pretty quickly in Asia. And I mean alarmingly quick.
I travel across Asia for work, I have yet to see Elephone in a single country. The brand I have been seeing making a major push is Blackview.
Even if Elephone does expand across Asia that won’t make them Xiaomi for two reasons: product and support. Elephone has yet to make an incredible product that is free of problems and they drop support for phones a mere few months after release.
Balco where did you see Blackview? I recently just returned from 2 weeks in HK & Shanghai and was really disappointed in the lack of exposure and knowledge of any of the smaller brand phones that we read about here. I found it nigh on impossible to find a Vivo XShot as most of the phone shops hadn’t heard of the brand. I even had a local co-worker with me to get around the language barrier issue. No dice!
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam over the last few months I have seen Blackview demonstrations in malls and shopping centers.
Here in Malaysia, they’re a growing pretty fast, and they’re also in Singapore and the Philippines, though I’m not sure how popular they are there. Blackview’s here too, but they don’t really do much. Leagoo is doing fantastically well here, however.
I was in both KL and Penang last week and didn’t see a single thing Elephone related either in the electronic markets, malls or just people watching.
This comment was deleted.
But yet you did reply….
You’re taking the piss right? Support is APPALLING.
no gorilla glass is automatic no buy. every phone should be able to hammer nails these days. phones are too prone to drops and scratches. the technology exists, no excuse to not use it anymore
Gorilla glass doesn’t help your phone not to get thrashed when dropped, it only prevents scratching, but it comes with a built-in screen protector to compensate, 1month use still not a single scratch…
That isn’t true. While it is not impact proof, GG will still offer an extra layer of protection for a phone that is dropped over a phone without it. It really all depends on the drop itself though, how high it is, how the phone lands, what surface it lands on etc.
And so is a $10 tempered glass protector…
I think the great thing about gorilla glass is that it (kind of) protects your phone without altering image quality or impacting the thickness of the phone much. Most screen protectors do both , on the other hand they’re easily replaceable when/if they shatter.
The lack of gorilla glass in budget phones I think is mostly overblown as an issue. Yeah, it’s nice to have, but when you don’t just buy a good screen protector.
None of what you just types changes the fact that you are wrong about GG.
Well yeah I was wrong about GG helping a *bit*, I was not wrong in implying that GG doesn’t make a phone shatter proof. My experience is that a glass protector protects a phone better from drops than GG (takes all the hits and it is easy to get replaced), which is a big reason of why I thing the lack of GG is an overblown issue on budget phone (just buy a glass protector).
I would prefer GG to a glass protector. I don’t like anything extra on my phone, I don’t even use a case.
Andy I have to wonder how you got your 4 hour mark. The first thing that I was initially impressed about this phone is the battery life. Easily the best than in any phone that I have used. I average around 8 screen-on hours, I regularly complete a 2-day cycle of mid to heavy use.
Is it -maybe- the fact that you use the OTA Rom? (there are rumours that it has some kind of malware)
8 hours seems a lot more realistic for this setup.
I’m going to retest it with a new ROM, perhaps I can get more out of it.
Such beautiful fone with low battery life….still waiting to see how the Trunk will perform when it is out though I have a special liking for the Oukitel U10
The battery life is not low. In my case the battery is very good. Not the best performance I’ve heard but I believe trying a different ROM can make a huge difference.
A lot of people are getting better battery life
no gorilla glass is automatic no buy. every phone should be able to hammer nails these days. phones are too prone to drops and scratches. the technology exists, no excuse to not use it anymore
Gorilla glass doesn’t help your phone not to get thrashed when dropped, it only prevents scratching, but it comes with a built-in screen protector to compensate, 1month use still not a single scratch…
That isn’t true. While it is not impact proof, GG will still offer an extra layer of protection for a phone that is dropped over a phone without it. It really all depends on the drop itself though, how high it is, how the phone lands, what surface it lands on etc.
And so is a $10 tempered glass protector…
I think the great thing about gorilla glass is that it (kind of) protects your phone without altering image quality or impacting the thickness of the phone much. Most screen protectors do both , on the other hand they’re easily replaceable when/if they shatter.
The lack of gorilla glass in budget phones I think is mostly overblown as an issue. Yeah, it’s nice to have, but when you don’t just buy a good screen protector.
None of what you just types changes the fact that you are wrong about GG.
Well yeah I was wrong about GG helping a *bit*, I was not wrong in implying that GG doesn’t make a phone shatter proof. My experience is that a glass protector protects a phone better from drops than GG (takes all the hits and it is easy to get replaced), which is a big reason of why I thing the lack of GG is an overblown issue on budget phone (just buy a glass protector).
I would prefer GG to a glass protector. I don’t like anything extra on my phone, I don’t even use a case.
Andy I have to wonder how you got your 4 hour mark. The first thing that I was initially impressed about this phone is the battery life. Easily the best than in any phone that I have used. I average around 8 screen-on hours, I regularly complete a 2-day cycle of mid to heavy use.
Is it -maybe- the fact that you use the OTA Rom? (there are rumours that it has some kind of malware)
8 hours seems a lot more realistic for this setup.
I’m going to retest it with a new ROM, perhaps I can get more out of it.
It’s got an amazing price, far better point than Jiayu S3.
The S3 has a 6752 which is a better SoC and it comes from a much better company.
The S3 is the superior phone in all regards. Better updates, better camera, faster processor, lower price. The P8000 is really nicely built though, I’ll give them that.
My last phone was a S3 and I loved it, so I’m being fair in my comment. I gifted the phone to my sister and waiting for Vowney.
It’s got an amazing price, far better point than Jiayu S3.
The S3 has a 6752 which is a better SoC and it comes from a much better company.
The S3 is the superior phone in all regards. Better updates, better camera, faster processor, lower price. The P8000 is really nicely built though, I’ll give them that.
My last phone was a S3 and I loved it, so I’m being fair in my comment. I gifted the phone to my sister and waiting for Vowney.
Them sexy bezels thou. 😛
Them sexy bezels thou. 😛
Nice review, and as we can now see there are a lot of custom roms such as FlymeOS or VibeUI what runs really smooth on P8000 🙂
Nice review, and as we can now see there are a lot of custom roms such as FlymeOS or VibeUI what runs really smooth on P8000 🙂
Never again Elephone! Bought a new P8000, right out of the box didn’t recognize sim, after a simple OTA update it bricked, all by itself! I should have smashed it in UMI’s contest to win an Iron Pro instead of dealing with their non exhistant after sale service… Shame on them, wasted money!
Never again Elephone! Bought a new P8000, right out of the box didn’t recognize sim, after a simple OTA update it bricked, all by itself! I should have smashed it in UMI’s contest to win an Iron Pro instead of dealing with their non exhistant after sale service… Shame on them, wasted money!
Elephone would have to be the most difficult brand to show any loyalty to. OTA’s bugger the phone. REAL support does not exist. The online log site is full of BS from Elephone and users are left having to help each other with software bugs. Totally unacceptable. These phones should work well out of the box and OTA’s should be painless. Instead when finally cornered on issues Elephones weak response is that users must learn to reload or flash their phones. Really? This is 2015. This is the first and very last Elephone I will buy. Avoid at all costs.
Elephone would have to be the most difficult brand to show any loyalty to. OTA’s bugger the phone. REAL support does not exist. The online Elephone blog site is full of BS from Elephone and users are left having to help each other with software bugs. Totally unacceptable. These phones should work well out of the box and OTA’s should be painless. Instead when finally cornered on issues Elephones weak response is that users must learn to reload or flash their phones. Really? This is 2015. This is the first and very last Elephone I will buy. The hardware may be OK , but the software and extremely POOR support is not. Avoid at all costs.
Under no circumstances should you deal with Elephone. They will not return your money if you need to return the phone. They will also not tell paypal they received the item, so Paypal will not pay me.
Under no circumstances should you deal with Elephone. They will not return your money if you need to return the phone. They will also not tell paypal they received the item, so Paypal will not pay me.
Thanks for the review. I have tried this phone before. I love the tempering glass, 4165mAh large battery and flash charge function. It is one of the mid-range smartphone that I like. The other one is Oukitel k6000 pro, it cost only $143.99 at gearbest.
Thanks for the review. I have tried this phone before. I love the tempering glass, 4165mAh large battery and flash charge function. It is one of the mid-range smartphone that I like. The other one is Oukitel k6000 pro, it cost only $143.99 at gearbest.