Elephone P8000 Quick Review

Elephone P8000 Quick Review

Brief:  An elephantine phone from Elephone.

Price:  US$188 or £135

Specifications:  Display: 5.5 inch IPS Screen, CPU: MTK6753 64bit Octa Core, 1.3GHz, System: Android 5.1, RAM + ROM: 3GB RAM + 16GB ROM, Camera: 5.0MP front camera + 13.0MP back Camera, Bluetooth: 4.0, GPS: GPS, A-GPS, Features: Fingerprint ID, Battery: 4165mAh (Typ.) 4000mAh Rated), SIM Card: Dual SIM dual standby, dual micro SIM, Network: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800MHz, 3G: WCDMA 900/2100MHz, 4G: LTE 800/1800/2600MHz

N.B. There is now also a US version that has US GSM bands

Build Quality:  Good.  It’s a bit of a big old beast yet still at times doesn’t feel as nice as some other devices however, there isn’t really anything wrong with it. 

Aesthetics:  It looks fine.  I can’t say there is anything wrong with it.  I dunno, the plastic back is okayish looking, maybe it’s that it’s got a plastic screen protector on it, that it came with on and that I can’t bring myself to remove.  It’s all fine but well you know.

As a Phone:  It all works, works well, holds a signal well, hold two sims even.  It got loads of ram so it always feels responsive in a way my Nexus 5 doesn’t always despite that its CPU is only clocked at 1.3 GHz.  That bashed it a little in benchmarks but in use its fine.  Actually on paper it’s all quite good though I note a lack of 5GHz Wi-Fi which irks me.  I am also not wild about there being no NFC and no Qi, which I know aren’t on every device but still I missed them.  What I did love however was the battery, which weirdly you can’t remove despite being able to see it.  Its comparatively big 4165mAh capacity was a joy to have.  Sure it makes the phone relatively heavy but big whoop, I’m not some delicate little princess that couldn’t possibly lift 20 grams.  So what it’s relatively heavy, it weighs less than carrying about spare battery packs to keep the thing charged and usable.  I could getaway charging it two or 3 times a week rather than a day like my Nexus 5.  Yey!!!

Sound:  A mixed bag.  Sometimes it would sound powerful and effortlessly so but only when the volume was cranked to near the max.  Then on things that require volume, I could max the volume and it still wasn’t hugely loud.  Yet I never found myself displeased with its audio quality.  It wasn’t anything remarkably special but it worked fine and with that battery it is a more practical use device than the much better sounding but little batteryed P8.  If you stick to things that doesn’t need lots of power or lots of volume thin you should be just fine.  A goodly smooth, bit creamy sound that pairs kindly with the sort of lower end earphones its likely to meet out in the wild.

Value:  Really good.  You get a lot, a lot of phone for your money.  It’s a big screen that is perfectly reasonable, 1080p so well detailed, it’s not the best screen ever but it’s perfectly usable.  That’s really the key aspect of the P8000, everything is perfectly adequate, everything is on the better side of usable but nothing is stand out super amazing.  It’s a highly competent all round package that does everything rather well.  There is no reason why you couldn’t use this phone in place of some £600 flagship device sufficiently so that I bought one with my own pennies.

Pro’s:  Awesomely good value.  Superb battery life. 

Con’s:  Lack of availability.  Big and heavy beside other devices.