In the myriad of phones that are presented every year it is hard to find one that stands out the crowd. Even some very expensive phones from big brands find it difficult to differentiate themselves. What many high-end smartphones fail to do, though,, this Elephone S3 achieves. With its unique design, good specs and affordable price this smartphone can be a very good companion for your next several years. But do these upsides make this phone good enough? Is it the right phone for you? Read my in-depth Elephone S3 review.
Looking at this phone reminds me of the high-end OnePlus 3. Considering the price I think this is a point in favour of this smartphone. Moreover its borders and back are entirely in aluminum. Besides these good features what really makes this phone stand out of the crowd is its practically borderless display. The front side has very thin side bezels and a 2.5D screen. What I don’t like though is that the screen curvature is too defined. In this aspect it could use a little refinement. This can happen in an upcoming smartphone though.
On the left side of the border you have the space to insert a micro-SIM or a memory card. On the right side there are the power and volume buttons. On the upper side there is the 3.5 mm headphone jack whereas on the opposite side there is the single speaker, microphone and the micro-USB port. On the back cover you will find the camera, the LED flash and a precise fingerprint scanner.
The phone is 8.3 mm thin and weighs 165 g which is a bit above average. It is hard to comprehend why it weighs 165 g considering the small battery it has.
Technical Specs
The phone has at its heart a MediaTek MTK6753 processor of 1.3GHz and eight cores. There are also 3GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory, which is a considerable quantity considering the price of this phone. The GPU is a Mali T720. The display is 5.2 inches with a Full HD definition and a pixel density of 424 ppi. The technology used is IPS which means very natural colours. This technology is used by many of this sector’s heavyweights such as Apple, LG, HTC, Sony etc. but not Samsung who prefers more saturated colours for its smartphone displays. The battery is of 2100mAh which is small for a phone with such specs.
Software And Performance
This phone comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Unlike many other Chinese phones the soware is well optimized therefore the phone shows a good performance even when put in a lot of stress like playing the latest games. It is advisable to change the launcher as with the default one lags can be noticed from time to time. The phone comes with software translated in many languages. There might be issues of incomplete translation for some languages though. This is a general problem of Chinese smartphones.
Display
The display is a 5.2 inch Full HD and it is one of the best features of this phone. The colours are rich and vivid and it looks good even from challenging viewing angles. Colours may look over-saturated to some people but it isn't a problem per se. It is more a matter of taste. After all, Samsung Galaxy S7 has a similar level of colour saturation and many people love that screen. The black is very natural and doesn’t tend towards grey as iin many other cheap smartphones. The downside is that the screen is a fingerprint magnet so you need to clean it from time to time. By means of a visual effect the side borders are hardly visible while you are using it. This adds credibility to the “borderless smartphone” gimmick.
Camera
Elephone S3 has two cameras. The back camera is a 13MP Sony MX 135 while the front camera is of 5 MP. This phone should not be bought for taking photos which are acceptable at best. The front camera can be said to perform better as selfies require less definition. The back camera can record videos of 1080p, which corresponds to Full HD. The camera software is the usual MediaTek app used by most Chinese phones. That means it won’t have an appreciated camera app.
Battery
As I have mentioned above the 2100mAH battery is simply inadequate for such a smartphone as it makes it hard to reach the evening even with a moderate use. If this smartphone is updated with Android 7.0 Nougat the situation will be improved significantly.
Conclusion
Being the first borderless smartphone is quite an achievement for this smartphone and a feature you can show your friends with pride. Besides that this phone is well designed and has a good display. But since the price is low you will have to compromise is you want to have it. The camera is just acceptable while the battery fails at its task, although this might change in the future. In my opinion it’s a nice phone and I would recommend it to everyone who wants a good looking and well-performing smartphone at a low price.
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