The large phablet market is slightly less crowded than other segments of said market, but it is competitive nonetheless. Elephone has a new budget entry into this market with its 6” Elephone C1 Max.
Let’s check out how well this phone fits in the scheme of things and if it’s worthy of your hard earned money.
Elephone C1 Max Review
The Elephone C1 Max tries to offer quite a few things. It is cheap, starting at $129 on presale while sporting a full metal body. Specswise, it is entry level, an MTK6737 processor and 2GB of RAM.
It also offers dual cameras, not in the style of the Huawei P9 or the UMi Z Pro, but rather the Redmi Pro with one 13MP rear camera and a second 5MP camera for Bokeh. However, this phone faces strong competition in the large phablet market if you do not mind forgoing the dual camera setup.
Quite possibly its strongest competitor is the Bluboo Maya Max which sports the faster MTK6750 processor and costs about $20 more. Let’s see if it’s worth it.
Phablet with dual cameras
Elephone C1 Max Specifications
| Processor | Mediatek MTK6737 Quad Core Processor |
| Display | 6.0″ 1280×720 px, LCD |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Storage | 32GB eMMC |
| Operating System | Android 7.0 |
| Cameras | 13MP + 5MP Rear, 2MP front (5MP interpolation) |
| Battery | 2800mAh |
| Physical Dimensions | 227g, 164 x 83 x 8.5mm |
Big thanks to Elephone for providing this review unit. You can purchase one here.
Elephone C1 Max Hardware
It’s quite a heavy phone as well at 227g so I know at least one GizChina reader who will never purchase this device.
So those of you who are looking for red devices are in luck, as the Elephone C1 Max comes in Red (dubbed wine red). The red body is quite eye catching and unique and I had one person asking whether this was the new red iPhone 7 Plus. It is deeper red than the new iPhone though.
On the front we find the capacitive buttons that do not light up below the screen and they are dot matrix style. The front of my phone is black, and I cannot tell if there is a black bar going around the screen, but regardless this is still not a bezelless device.
On the back we find the dual cameras as well as the fingerprint sensor. I found it slightly hard to reach because of my small hands, so again two hands are required this time.
I love red metal phones
Elephone C1 Max Display
The 6.0” screen has a resolution of 1280×720. That works out to 244PPI, and in comparison a 5” 720p screen has 293PPI and a 5” 960×540 screen has 220PPI. That gives you an idea of what to expect from such a low resolution.
There is a definite difference when I move from my Zuk Z2 which has almost double the PPI (440PPI) that this does. I suspect quite a few people will be turned off by this low resolution and I do not blame you. That being said, I quickly adjusted within ½ an hour of using this phone and stopped noticing the low resolution.
The screen itself is capable of producing some decent colours and contrast; no one will be blown away by what the screen is capable of showing but they won’t be disappointed by the colours and contrast either.
Elephone C1 Max Audio
There is a single speaker on the bottom of the device and it pumps out decently loud audio but it is outstripped by more expensive phones like my Zuk Z2 or the UMi Z/Z Pro.
Audio does start to distort slightly at loudest volume and there is a complete lack of bass as well when listening to audio.
Elephone C1 Max Battery
2800mAh is very small for such a large phone. I would think that Elephone could have fit a larger battery into such a large body, but that probably would have increased costs too much. I was not expecting great battery life out of this phone, and I didn’t get great battery life either.
The maximum screen on time I could achieve was 3.5 hours, which would barely be enough for light users, let alone medium users. During that 3.5 hours of SOT, I browsed the web, browsed Reddit, and engaged in texting and social media. Nothing backbreaking like photos or gaming, so expect even less if you use your phone for that.
Inadequate Battery
Elephone C1 Max Software
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Opening and closing apps also far exceeded my expectations. Light apps open instantly, medium apps hesitate for a microsecond before opening, and only the heaviest apps will cause the phone to pause for a significant amount of time before launching said app.
As a device reviewer, I’ve been spoilt with 4GB of Ram on my Zuk Z2, but multi-tasking on the 2GB C1 Max is quite fine. As long as you’re not constantly switching between 20 apps, the phone should more or less handle multi-tasking quite well. Because this is a 6” device and Android 7.0 comes with new multi-window features, I wanted to spend a bit of time talking about that. You are able to run two apps side by side and it works decently well the for most part. Not all apps are compatible with multi-window and you do see slight lag if you run two apps at the same time.
The fingerprint sensor on the back is decently fast, it unlocks the phone about as fast as the iPhone 6 which was no speed demon and is noticeably slower than other phones like the Redmi Note 4X. That being said, its speed is more than good enough for daily use. The sensor’s accuracy is pretty decent as well, it doesn’t reject my finger unless I have skin torn off or my fingers are wet.
To be honest, performance even for a heavy user like me is not bad, I could conceivably see myself using this phone if my Zuk Z2 suddenly dies. Lighter users won’t find an issue here.
Elephone C1 Max Connectivity
Double check the network bands on this phone before you buy to ensure it works with your carrier. I was only able to get LTE in Ontario as the network bands did not support 3G in Canada.
However, LTE performance is quite strong with me getting receptions in almost everywhere my dad’s iPhone gets LTE. Certain places like basements or large buildings saw that LTE drop though. WiFi, and Bluetooth are good, but GPS is definitely a little sluggish and sometimes likes to hop around, not enough to throw me off navigation though.
Elephone C1 Max Camera
Colours are adequate but not great, colours just are not very rich and saturated which is how many of us like to view pictures.
It adds Bokeh almost as naturally as the UMi Z Pro, and the Z Pro was not bad at adding Bokeh at all. However, the base picture captured on the C1 Max didn’t start out great, so you are adding Bokeh to a subpar photo.
The front facing camera is 2MP (5MP interpolation) and is horrible.
The video camera is capable of capturing up to 1080p and quality is not the best, video has sufficient detail but colours are washed out.
Elephone C1 Max Camera Gallery
Elephone C1 Max Verdict
To be honest, Elephone should have just used the 5MP camera as the front facing camera and ditched the dual camera concept altogether. But if they did, they would be losing out on the trend and the marketability of dual cameras, which is why I understand why they did it.
However, that does not mean that I agree with that decision. This phone has three points that you have to be aware of before buying, the display, the battery, and the camera. The display is only 720p, you get around 3.5 hours of SOT, and the camera is not great. But on the other side of the fence, the phone is relatively cheap, has a very nice metal body, and runs the latest Android 7.0.
As someone who refuses to move up to 5.5” devices, 6” is just too big for me and using a phablet is almost out of the question for me personally. But if you are looking for a big phablet, your choices are much more limited, and if you’re looking for a large phablet (bigger than 5.5”) with a dual camera, you are even more limited with the C1 Max being one of the options out there.