Masters from the Middle Kingdom are on the alert, and a clone of the popular Galaxy S8 has appeared on the domestic market for mobile gadgets. Moreover, the Chinese did not even bother to change the letters in the name of their device and left it as it is - the Homtom S8 smartphone.
The appearance of the device almost completely copies the aforementioned model from the Korean giant, which can not be said about the internal component. But first things first.
So, the hero of today's review - Homtom S8 - is a smartphone from a Chinese manufacturer. We will analyze the main characteristics of the gadget, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as the advisability of buying this device.
Equipment
The smartphone is packaged in a cute and completely unlike Samsung box in blue. On the front side you can see only the brand name, and behind the meager gadget specification, which indicates the most “delicious” characteristics of the Homtom S8. At the ends there are stickers, barcodes and other dealer surroundings.
Contents of delivery:
- the device itself;
- power adapter;
- OTG and USB cables
- clip for removing a SIM card;
- protective film;
- documentation;
- warranty obligations.
The package bundle is modest, but more than acceptable for a budget model - the OTG cable alone is worth it. Therefore, the case on the Homtom S8 and other accessories will have to be purchased separately.
Appearance
At network distribution points you can find four color options: black, gray, golden and blue. The latter gamut is especially attractive, as the beautiful half of humanity has repeatedly mentioned in its reviews on the Homtom S8.
In the black version, the smartphone is an almost identical copy of the Samsung. The rear panel was an exception here: either they regretted similar materials, or the designers wanted to shine, in general, both visually and tactilely - this is different.
Thanks to the universal and competently measured dimensions, the smartphone lies like a glove in the palm of your hand. In thin female handles, ergonomics are a bit limp, but not critical, so users do not note obvious minuses in terms of design in their reviews on the Homtom S8.
Design features
The front of the smartphone is tempered glass, which pleases. At the top of the screen are a peephole of the front camera, sensors and a speaker grille. In the black version, the colors are practically invisible, and in other versions they are clearly distinguishable.
The back cover received a finicky glossy finish, so that the phone collects scratches, fingerprints, dust and other dirt like a vacuum cleaner. Therefore, it will be superfluous to immediately take care of buying at least some kind of cover. Engineers of Homtom did not repeat the critical error of Samsung: the fingerprint sensor is located under the rear camera eye, and somehow harming it is now noticeably more difficult. There is also a flash, and below the noise reduction microphone.
I was pleased with the 8-millimeter frame of the device, made of metal. On it on the right side are the volume rocker and the device shutdown button. The left side is empty. The bottom end is reserved for plastic plugs for antennas and a hole for the main speaker. There are also a micro-USB connector and a main microphone. The upper end is occupied by a hybrid interface for nano- and micro-SIM cards, and similar plugs for antennas made of plastic. Judging by the reviews on the Homtom S8, users are quite happy with the location of the interfaces and they do not make any serious comments on this subject.
Screen
The device received a 5.7-inch screen running on an IPS-matrix. Resolution of 1440 by 720 pixels is enough for such a diagonal. Pixelization on the screen is invisible, even if you specifically examine it.
The output image is saturated and contrasting, but the angular view of the Homtom S8 leaves much to be desired: the colors begin to distort even with a slight tilt of the screen. But this is the trouble of all the budget segment gadgets. Therefore, this moment cannot be called critical.
Field tests of the Homtom S8 showed that on the street, on a sunny day, the information is more or less readable, that is, the brightness of the display is enough for comfortable work in the daytime, not to mention the rooms. There are no complaints about the sensitivity of the screen, as well as to the multitouch system (five touches).
Cameras
The main camera of the Homtom S8 received a 16 megapixel matrix. But this is by and large an interpolation from 13 megapixels. The manufacturer concealed this fact in the specification, but even the simplest bench tests revealed this fraud.
Daytime shooting does not cause serious complaints, except that when the picture is enlarged there is a clear “resharp” of clear objects, but otherwise it’s a solid middling. But on the night work of the camera, users often complain in their reviews on the Homtom S8. The quality of the noise is unlimited and it’s just not possible to make out something at night.
The front camera is equipped with a standard 5-megapixel module, it can only handle avatars and gives at least some kind of video communication on instant messengers.
Performance
The smartphone’s chipset set is mediocre: the Mediatek MT6750T series processor with eight cores and the Mali T860 accelerator. Especially users were pleased with the amount of RAM and internal memory - 4 GB and 64 GB, respectively.
The available features are enough for the perfect operation of the interface and the launch of any application. As for the "heavy" and modern toys, in this case the graphics settings will have to be reduced to the minimum value, provided that the application generally starts on this video accelerator.
If 64 GB of internal storage is not enough, then you can significantly increase the volume for storing user files using external SD-cards, up to 128 GB. To find fault with the performance of the gadget is quite difficult, because for the budget model the device received a very good set of chipsets, so here we have a significant plus.
Offline work
The smartphone received a very good 3400 mAh battery. If you consider that the "filling" of the gadget is not voracious, then the battery life can be called decent. If you use the device in combined mode (Internet, an hour of video, SMS, phone), then charging is quite enough for the whole day.
Full load, and this is serious games and video on Full HD, will put the battery in about five hours, which is a very good result compared to other “Android” brothers. In general, judging by the reviews, users are quite happy with the battery life of the device, especially since a good half of competing analogues are equipped with elements with a capacity of 2000 and even less mAh.
Summarizing
Yes, "Homtom S8" is plagiarism of the Samsung S8, and in the most arrogant form. But let Korean and Chinese lawyers deal with this. Domestic consumers are primarily interested in the price and return of a smartphone. And with this, our respondent is all right. The gadget fulfills its nine and a half thousand rubles in full.
Among other models from the Celestial Empire, copying the successful Samsung model, the Homtom turned out to be the most interesting and showed itself only from the best side. To all those who liked the original design of the S8 series from Samsung, but do not want to overpay for a serious device, we can safely recommend this gadget.
It is also worth warning those interested in Homtom S8 that the smartphone is rarely found in the usual distribution networks, and you can buy it at AliExpress sites and the like. Devices obtained in this way, in most cases, need to be flashed, so be prepared to spend more than one hour studying the methods and ways of adapting Chinese mobile equipment to Russian realities or to pay a certain amount from above to a specialized service. The latter option is the most painless for both the smartphone and the user himself, so it’s better not to risk it and give 600-800 rubles for a competent flashing of the gadget.
Advantages of the model:
- excellent design (almost an exact copy of the S8 from Samsung);
- good materials and build quality;
- good battery life;
- excellent communication quality and synergy with domestic networks;
- pretty nimble "stuffing".
Disadvantages:
- mediocre cameras;
- easily soiled body;
- small viewing angles.
Estimated cost of the gadget is from 9 to 10 thousand rubles (AliExpress site).