Explay HD has a large 5 inch display with IPS matrix and a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The pixel density of the screen is 294 dpi. 2x nuclear processor performance is high, and 1 GB of RAM provides high speed downloading content and web pages, stable work multitasking and graphics. The Explay HD smartphone is equipped with iGO primo navigation with maps developed by Nokia - a complete map of the whole of Russia with up-to-date data. Explay HD has an 8-megapixel autofocus camera. There is a panoramic shooting function, as well as a Smile shot function - a photo of only smiling people.
According to ZOOM.Cnews readers
Express HD :
Lightweight, beautiful, ergonomic, functional, affordable, has a good camera, can be a replacement for the player, can act as a GPS receiver, has a weak battery.
CHARACTERISTICS
lightBeautiful
Ergonomic
Functional
Affordable
Has a good camera
Can be a replacement for the player
Can act as a GPS receiver
Has a powerful battery
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MAIN SPECIFICATIONS
Food
Battery capacity: 2100 mAh Battery type: Li polymer battery: Detachable Talk time: 4h Standby time: 220hGeneral characteristics
Type: smartphone Weight: 181 g Control: touch buttons Operating system: Android 4.1 Case type: classic Number of SIM cards: 2 Dimensions (WxHxD): 78x143x8.9 mmScreen
Screen type: color IPS, touch Diagonal: 5 inch. Image size: 1280x720 Pixels per inch (PPI): 294Multimedia features
Camera: 8 million pixels, built-in flash Camera functions: autofocus Video recording: yes Front camera: yes, 1.2 million pixels. Audio: MP3, FM radioConnection
Interfaces: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB Standard: GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G Satellite navigation: GPSMemory and processor
Processor: MediaTek MT6577, 1000 MHz Number of processor cores: 2 Built-in memory: 4 GB RAM: 1 GB Memory card support: microSD (TransFlash), up to 64 GB Video processor: PowerVR SGX531 Memory card slot: yes, up to 64 GBOther features
Control: voice dialing, voice control Flight mode: yes| Peculiarities | |
|---|---|
| Type of | smartphone |
| Operating system | Android |
| Version | 4.1 |
| Frequency | 1000 MHz |
| RAM | 1024 MB |
| Flash memory | 4096 MB |
| Screen | |
| Diagonal | 5 " |
| Permission | 1280 x 720 |
| Color rendering | 16 million colors |
| Digital camera | |
| Camera | 8 million pixels |
| Food | |
| Working time | 4 h |
| Standby time | 220 h |
| Dimensions and weight | |
| Width | 78 mm |
| Height | 143 mm |
| Depth | 8.9 mm |
| The weight | 181 gr. |
Why new smartphone company Explay received such a concise and short name - HD - it's easy to guess. We are much more interested in the question why a five-inch smartphone with a screen high resolution offered for so little money. There is clearly something to be saved here. But on what - we will find out in this review.
⇡ Equipment
Explay HD - factory box
The novelty comes in a small white cardboard box. On its front side there is a photograph of the device, on the back - a table with technical specifications. The configuration of the smartphone is typical for the Explay gadget. Inside the box are:
- Charger with USB output;
- Transfer cable USB data↔ microUSB;
- in-ear headphones;
- User manual, warranty card and documentation for iGo cards.
Explay HD - equipment
⇡ Appearance and ergonomics
A gadget with a five-inch display cannot be small a priori. Yes, the company Explay in the face of the HD model introduced to the market another "shovel-shaped", as it is now fashionable to say, smartphone. In fact, the device is not as big and scary as it could be. The frame around the screen is very narrow - less than two millimeters, and the thickness is small - does not even reach a centimeter. In general, Explay HD lies without problems in men's hands, but for women, the novelty, of course, is too big. The device creates a feeling of "pleasant heaviness" - it weighs as much as 180 grams. But for five-inch and larger gadgets, this is a kind of norm.
Explay HD - front panel
Three classic "android" navigation keys for Explay HD hardware. They are located at the bottom of the front panel, under the screen. Buttons are not duplicated on the display, and therefore there is more “useful” space on the screen. When pressed, the keys are highlighted. At the top of the panel is speaker covered with a metal mesh. To the left of it is the “peephole” of the front camera, to the right is the light sensor.
He's not that big, is he?
The device controls are scattered on the side faces of the gadget. The power button and lock the device is on the right side, and the volume rocker and camera button are on the left. microUSB interface used to connect to PC and charger, as well as a 3.5 mm combo audio jack are placed on the top edge. The bottom end of the device is empty. On all side faces of Explay HD there is a plastic edging stylized as metal - now a common solution. Thanks to him, the gadget looks more elegant, hiding part of its thickness. The corners of the device are very rounded, so that the smartphone does not dig into the palm.
Explay HD - Sides and Back
The body of the device is completely made of plastic, and the back cover is no exception. The “back” of the gadget is glossy, due to which the device can slip in the hands. The white version of Explay HD came to us for testing, and fingerprints are almost invisible on it. However, if you look closely, you can see that the back panel of the smartphone collects them very willingly. At the top of the panel is a couple of millimeters protruding lens of the main, eight-megapixel camera. To the right of it is an LED flash. At the bottom of the “back” there is the manufacturer's logo and a slot for an external speaker.
Explay HD with back cover removed
The "back" of the device is removable. The largest area under it is occupied by a 2100 mAh battery (7.77 W*h, 3.7 V). There are also slots for two SIM-cards and a slot for installing microSD. The smartphone is assembled extremely reliably - there is no need to complain about backlash. With physical impact on the case, the matrix behaves very well - color streaks do not creep out onto the screen. Is that the creaking of plastic is barely audible, but that's why it's plastic. Nothing else can be expected from him.
⇡ Specifications
| Express HD | |
|---|---|
| CPU | MediaTek MT6577, 2x1 GHz (Dual Core Cortex-A9) |
| Graphics controller | PowerVR SGX 531 |
| Screen | 5.0" 1280x720 Capacitive, IPS technology |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Built-in drive | 4 GB |
| Flash card slot | MicroSD (up to 32 GB) |
| Ports | 1 x USB 1 x 3.5 mm mini-jack audio output |
| mobile connection | 2G/3G; two SIM cards GSM: 900/1800 MHz; UMTS: 900/2100 MHz |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 |
| WiFi | IEEE 802.11b/g/n |
| NFC | Missing |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS |
| Sensors | Illumination, proximity, gyroscope, compass |
| Camera | Primary: 8 MP; autofocus; LED flash; Front: 1.9 MP; without autofocus |
| Food | Lithium polymer battery: 7.77 Wh (2100 mAh, 3.7 V) |
| The size | 143x78x8.9 mm |
| Weight | 180 g |
| Operating system | Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean |
| Manufacturer's official warranty | 12 months |
| Average retail price | |
- Smartphone
- Battery
- Instruction
- stereo headset
- microUSB cable
- USB adapter for 220V network
Introduction
Explay has started selling its flagship device with the uncomplicated name HD. The "name" of the device was chosen, apparently, because of the screen resolution of 720x1280, i.e. the same abbreviation HD. The matrix of this device is made according to IPS technology, the screen frames are only 2 millimeters, and there is practically no air gap between the glass and the matrix! HD can also boast of recording video at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and a new version operating system Google Android 4.1. The rest of the smartphone, in terms of "hardware" characteristics, is relatively ordinary: MediaTek MT6577 chipset, 1 GB of RAM and 8 MP camera.
Explay HD cost per this moment leaves from 10,000 rubles.
Design, dimensions, controls
Unfortunately, almost all smartphones from “our” manufacturers look just awful, while real Chinese fakes at least try to look like well-known smartphones, and sometimes look even more interesting than flagship devices. However, the Explay HD is an exception, or so it seems to me.
Appearance HD resembles a hybrid of the Galaxy S IV and Galaxy Premier, only without the mechanical button. In the video review, I already said that if Explay had the logo of Samsung, LG or Huawei, I would completely believe it, since the device is made very high quality and looks stylish and expensive live: holding Explay HD in your hand, you don’t feel “Chinese” from the product , and this is good.
What else I want to note is the dimensions - 143x70x8.9 mm (width and height are the same as those of HTC Butterfly) - 0.2 mm thinner than "Butterfly"! True, with the weight of the HD they overdid it a little - 181 grams. In any case, it feels good in the hand thanks to the rounded corners and ergonomic design.
The manufacturer’s website has photos of a black smartphone, however, only white is on sale (and I also have it). Frankly, no matter how black, for my taste, the light Explay looks more elegant.
The device is made of plastic: a thin edging is chrome-plated, a frame around the perimeter is gray matte, the back cover is glossy. The screen matrix is protected by durable glass (most likely not Gorilla Glass), so it will not be easy to scratch it. For example, I tried to scratch the surface with scissors - nothing terrible happened. By the way, despite the fact that the display is without an oleophobic coating, fingerprints are practically invisible, and they are invisible on the lid, since it is white.
There are absolutely no complaints about the assembly either - it is assembled perfectly: no creaking, no backlash, the lid is not pressed through to the battery, it does not crunch when pressed hard.
Light and proximity sensors are located on the top of the front panel. The first reacts relatively quickly, automatically and smoothly adjusting the brightness of the screen glow to the ambient light. The second works instantly if you bring the phone to your ear during a call. There were no false positives during testing. Next to the sensors are the front camera and earpiece. It has an average volume, mainly high and medium frequencies are heard, a little more bass is clearly missing. However, intelligibility is quite good, you can hear clearly and without extraneous sounds. There are no wheezing or overloads.
Under the screen - touch buttons "Search", "Back", "Home" and call context menu. They are applied with white translucent paint and have a fairly bright backlight. The microphone is under the "Menu".
On the left side there is a volume rocker. It is small, rather thin and almost recessed into the case. Pressing is soft, and the stroke is minimal. Feels easy. A little lower is the activation of the camera. On the right is the on / off button of the device, it also acts as a screen lock and activation of the display backlight.
On top are microUSB without a plug and a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.
A huge camera eye, sticking out above the body as much as 2.5 mm, flash and speaker are located on the back of the case.
To open the lid, you need to pry it from the recess on the lower left end. Top left - slot for a memory card ("hot" replacement is not supported), on the right - SIM1 (2G) and SIM2 (2G/3G).
Display
Main feature this smartphone- of course, the screen. It has a diagonal of 5 inches and HD resolution - 720x1280 pixels. The physical size of the matrix is 62x111 mm, PPI is 293 pixels per inch. The matrix is made using IPS technology, its quality is one of the best on the market. Due to the use of a mirror substrate and the virtual absence of an air gap between the glass and the matrix, the image looks great: high brightness, rich colors, maximum viewing angles, good contrast.
Below I give photos of the screens of HTC Butterfly (left), Explay HD, Highscreen Explosion, LG Optimus G and ZTE Grand Era (right):
You may notice that at right angles, the Explay HD display glows brighter than the rest, white color looks more natural. However, if the screen is slightly tilted, the brightness will decrease dramatically.
In the bright sun, the picture fades a little and the brightness drops a little, however, the information is read very well!
The sensor is capacitive and supports up to 5 simultaneous touches.
The most unexpected "feature" was that the sensitivity of the touch layer is so high that you can control the device even with gloves (I tried cloth and leather ones). Of course, doing this is not as comfortable as on Nokia Lumia 920 and samsung galaxy S IV, but still pretty cool!
Battery
A removable lithium-polymer (Li-Pol) battery with a capacity of 2100 mAh, 3.7V, 7.77 Wh is installed. The manufacturer claims that the phone should work up to 220 hours in standby mode, and up to 4 hours in talk mode.
With a load of 20-30 minutes of calls per day, about 2 hours of listening to music, 3-4 hours of 3G Internet, the battery was discharged in 8-9 hours. Only when playing music, the battery lasts a little less than 25 hours, only when watching a video (maximum brightness, maximum volume in headphones, HD resolution) - about 3 hours, games - no more than 2 hours (tested on Dead Trigger) .
For full charge battery from the mains or USB will take about 4 hours.
Communication options
The phone works in cellular networks 2G (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and 3G (900/2100 MHz). In this case, one "sim card" functions only in 2G, the other - 2G or 3G. The sensitivity of the receiver is not bad, stably shows 3-4 divisions (out of 4), in the worst case - 1-2.
In stock Bluetooth version 4.0 (EDR/A2DP) for file and voice transfer. There were no problems with connecting headsets: it connects quickly, and speech is transmitted relatively cleanly. Present wireless connection Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. The device, of course, can be used as an access point (Wi-Fi Hotspot) or modem. In the settings, this item is listed as "Modem Mode".
USB 2.0 (High-Speed) is used for file transfer and data synchronization. When you connect "Explay" to a PC, it is defined as a USB-Flash-device or USB-modem.
Memory and memory card
Random access memory in Explay HD - 1 GB, usually a little more than 500 MB is free. There is absolutely no shortage of memory in this device: all applications run smoothly, exit from them is carried out quickly, and indeed there are no brakes at all.
As usual, 4 GB of Flash memory is built into such devices, 1 GB is available to the user for installing applications and about 1.5 GB for data storage. In the menu, you can select the installation location: memory card or internal memory.
Camera
The Explay HD smartphone has an 8 MP main camera and a 2 MP front camera. There is a flash. The maximum resolution of photos is 3264x2448 pixels, the resolution of videos is 1920x1080 pixels at 15 frames per second, regardless of the lighting level. For smartphone in price category up to 12,000 rubles is not bad.
The photo quality is mediocre, but the device focuses quickly, and the white balance almost never “lies”. Macro and portrait photos come out best, as landscape photos are somewhat “soapy”, and the dynamic range is not the widest. Thanks to the fast lens (F / 2.2), in the dark or in low light, the frames are bright.
Explay managed to "squeeze" out of the MTK6577 FullHD video resolution. True, I had to make a sacrifice - cut the number of frames to 15. But the picture looks sharp, and the sound is recorded cleanly and without distortion.
The front camera has a resolution of 1200x1600 pixels. With Skype Smartphone Explay HD works fine.
There is a separate button to activate the camera. Alas, it only launches the camera if the screen is unlocked. The interface looks exactly the same as in the "naked" Android 4.x.
EXIF information from a photo file
Video file characteristic:
- Format: 3GP
- Video Codec: MPEG-4 Visual, 14,000 Kbps
- Resolution: 1920x1080, 15 fps
- Audio codec: AAC, 127 Kbps
- Channels: 1 channel, 16 kHz
Examples of photos on the main camera:
Sample photo on front camera :
Performance
Since we talked about the MediaTek MT6577 chipset in almost every review of such devices, I will limit myself to brief description and a couple of performance tests.
- Chipset: MediaTek MR6577
- Processor: ARM Cortex-A9 (ArmV7), two at 1 GHz
- Graphics: PowerVR SGX 531
Performance Tests:
Quadrant Standart
Navigation
Naturally, the device uses GPS-navigation. It works fine: on average, about 10 satellites hang “over your head”. Preinstalled special application iGO.
TFT (Thin Film Transistor) - Liquid crystal displays based on active matrix thin film transistors. For each pixel there are three transistors corresponding to three colors (RGB - red, green, blue). At the moment, these are the most common displays that have a number of advantages over other displays. They are characterized by a minimum response time and rapid development - ever-increasing resolution and number of colors. These displays are most common in mid-range phones and above. Working resolutions for them: 128x160, 132x176, 176x208, 176x220, 240x320 and others less common. Examples: Nokia N73 (240x320, 262k colors), Sony Ericsson K750i (176x220, 262k colors), Samsung D900 (240x320, 262k colors). TFTs are very rarely used as external clamshell displays.
CSTN (Color Super Twisted Nematic) - Color liquid crystal displays with a passive matrix. Each pixel of such a display consists of three combined pixels, which correspond to three colors (RGB). Some time ago, almost all phones with color displays were based on this type. And now the lot of such displays - budget models. The main disadvantage of such displays is their slowness. The undoubted advantage of such displays is their cost, which is much lower than TFT. Based on simple logic, we can assume that in the future TFT will displace this type of display from the mobile device market. The evolution of the color of such displays is quite extensive: from 16 to 65536 colors. Examples: Motorola V177 (128x160, 65k colors), Sony Ericsson J100i (96x64, 65k colors), Nokia 2310 (96x68, 65k colors).
UFB (Ultra Fine and Bright) - Liquid crystal displays with increased brightness and contrast on a passive matrix. We can say that this is an intermediate option between CSTN and TFT. This type of display boasts lower power consumption compared to TFT. For the most part, such displays were used by Samsung in mid-range phones. This type displays are not widely used. Examples: Samsung C100/110 (128x128, 65k colors).
TN is one type of TFT screen matrix. Roughly speaking, TN are the simplest and cheapest TFT matrices. The viewing angles are the narrowest.