When it comes to local brands, it's quite normal for Malaysians to shun away from them because of our belief that foreign products are better. While that's usually the case, like Marianne's boss said from Ola Bola, it's also a good thing to do something great for your country. In this case, that could well be Malaysian mobile phone company EXMobile.
In this review, we will be taking a look at the EXMobile VoLte 2 which is one of their latest flagships this year. It might look like a premium device at first glance, but believe it or not it currently costs RM549 which is really economical for a mid-range smartphone. So what did we think of the device? Read below to find out.
Design, Tech Specs and Features - Outstanding design, but the specifications are just ok
The front
First things first, the VoLte 2 design is beautiful! It's exquisite, delicate and so fine especially the back design and how it reflects the diamond-like pattern (it's quite hypnotizing lol). Anyone would be fooled to take it as a premium smartphone on first impression. The whole unibody is covered with a 2.5D curved glass nano coat cover, and this makes you want to gently put down the device on solid surface like table. You can get a casing for protection but it'd be a shame to cover up such a beautiful smartphone in front of your friends.
See? ISN'T THIS PRETTY?!
Speakers and charging port at the bottom
Headphone jack on top
Volume and power button on the left side
The dual SIM slots on the right side
The tech specs
- MediaTek MTK6735A + 64BiT Quad-Core 1.3Ghz MALi T720
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB internal storage (expandable memory up to 64GB)
- 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution
- 13MP rear camera + 5MP front camera
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
- 2200 mAh battery
Considering the price, this is actually an entry-level device with a few mid-range tech specs. The layout of the user interface is simple and familiar, so Android users will be able to adapt easily to the device instantly. Other than that, it's your typical Android smartphone.
But there are some features that seems useful, like the HotKnot. What the HotKnot does is acting as a file transfer feature between EXMobile smartphones, unfortunately not all EXMobile devices have it (example, the iCute Plus) and this is actually quite similar to LEAGOO's Xender feature that does the same thing. So I imagine the transfer should be quite smooth and fast since it doesn't require any Wifi nor Bluetooth to do so. There are some live moving wallpapers too, which makes the device even more appealing. But this drains the battery quickly.
The HotKnot feature
A blue arrow assistance in Panaroma vertical mode, this one is good!
Adding widgets
Performance - Pretty decent for a mid-range device
The VoLte 2 offers pretty decent performance. I tried playing Asphalt 8:Airborne on it and surprisingly it was quite smooth, but it gets heaty after awhile. On second thought, using the VoLte 2 actually reminds me of my Apple iPhone 5 in some ways because of how quickly the battery goes down, this only happens if you use it quite often on taking pictures or playing games in an hour.
Epic Citadel benchmark
Given with the tech specs earlier, I guess it's not a surprise that the smartphone turns out like that. Listening to songs on the other hand was alright too, they were also kind enough to include a pair of earphones (which looks exactly like the Apple Earphones lol) that gives below average sound quality, might as well use other earphones for good sounds.
AnTuTu benchmark
Asphalt 8 test drive
Minion Rush run test - Pass!
YouTube video viewing in 720p (there's no 1080p)
Battery usage after 1 hour of taking pictures and gaming (see the sharp drop on the right)
Camera quality is just a bit better than average, I'm quite satisfied with the close up and selfie shots; but for medium and wide shots, well there's one problem and that'll be the light is kind of overexposed on just auto. Even if it's indoors with some natural lighting from behind, the light still feels too strong (see cup picture below). Of course, there are plenty of standard filters, color effects, scene modes to play around with in the settings as well. All pictures taken below are not filtered.
Close up shot
Medium close up shot (notice how strong the natural lighting is from behind)
Normal shot
Selfie
Panorama shot (another overexposed picture)
Low light shot
Flash mode on
Conclusion - Great looking smartphone with decent specifications and value price
Overall, the EXMobile VoLte 2 is just an alright device that is affordably priced (RM549) as an entry-level phone. The selling point about it is the beautiful unibody and it works just fine for those who aren't looking for anything high-end in terms of specifications. The downside of having one is the device kind of eats the battery fuel moderately fast if you keep on pushing it too long, and also not to mention, the overexposure problem when taking pictures especially with natural lighting.
I think for a Malaysian brand, they're doing quite a good effort especially for the price, but as a mid-range smartphone it's probably not good enough to be in the same level like the honor 5x or ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser. Also, with the current economy, I think Malaysians can give EXMobile a shot though that could be challenging, given that Malaysians' mindset on favouring foreign brands to local ones, but if you're on a tight budget then you should put this on your consideration list.
So do you happen to know anyone who has one too? What do you think of it? Thanks for reading it, and stay tuned for more news and reviews in the future here at Technave!
Unboxing video
Hands-on video
*TechNave.com would like to thank EXMobile for providing us with the EXMobile VoLte 2 for this review. It allowed us to do a more in-depth review and highlight more features.
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