Cloudfone Thrill 430x Review

One of the biggest complaints of smartphone users is battery life. With mobile computing capacity increasing every quarter, smartphone juice hardly changes. Sure there are some breakers such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but do you really need a device that expensive just to experience a longer usage time on a device?

Introduced last year, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is the smartphone to beat in the battery department. It even has a reported mutiple-day life, outperforming even devices from major manufacturers.

So how did we find the device? Was it fast? Was it great? Did its “3X THE POWER” battery promise stand?  Read our Cloudfone Thrill 430x review and find out for yourself.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice when holding the Cloudfone Thrill 430x (rebranded Innos D9) is its gorgeous screen and thickness, not that I mind. The second thing would probably be its stealthy, black design. Both make for a great combination on an Android device.

The front of the device sports a 4.3-inch qHD IPS capacitive display, three soft-touch haptic buttons, a front VGA camera, a proximity sensor, and a aesthetically pleasing earpiece grill. Sadly the Cloudfone Thrill 430x doesn’t have any notification LED. It would’ve been more gorgeous if there was.

The rear shell of the smartphone—also aesthetically pleasing—bears a smooth scale-like pattern with the 8MP camera lined with a chrome coating. The dual-LED flash and the speaker grill sit right beside it. At the lower portion of the device is the Cloudfone logo.

At the top side of the device is where the 3.5mm audio jack is found. At the right side, the sleep/wake button and a dedicated camera button are located. The nondescript volume rocker is located at the top-left side of the Thrill 430x. And lastly, the USB/charger port is positioned at the bottom.

As mentioned above, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is a little hefty, but it won’t be significantly noticeable unless you’re really picky about smartphone thickness. Handling is great as well since you have a lot of area to grip onto.

Display

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x sports an HD IPS capacitive display at 960×540 resolution and is 5-point multitouch. It’s the first ever local qHD device, followed closely by the Cherry Mobile Flame.

Cloudfone Thrill 430x vs Cherry Mobile Flame

The screen of the device is fine, lively, and has great color saturation. But as with all hi-res displays the device’s homescreen and drawer UI bears excruciatingly small text. Fortunately you can adjust text size at the Settings menu.

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x operates on a stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich UI. It runs snappy from home to drawer, page after page.

The display on the Cloudfone Thrill 430x at sleep mode is clear black and could be mistaken for an OLED.

Performance

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon MSM8625 processor and 768MB of RAM (553MB usable). There sometimes are some minor lags from home to drawer transition, but that’s basically it. And without further ado, here are the benchmarks of the device.

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x manages to score a fantastic 2924 on the Quadrant Standard benchmark. It’s the highest local scorer on this specific benchmark as of this writing.

The more updated AnTuTu benchmarking app meanwhile gives it a 6258, exactly within the expected range of local dual-core devices.

Lastly, Qualcomm’s Vellamo tests give the Cloudfone Thrill 430x a 1256 and a 364 respectively, also within the expected range of such devices.

Crunching all these numbers up, the numbers say the Cloudfone Thrill 430x would perform as expected like other similar devices. But benchmark results aside, experience is subjective. From a personal point of view this device is more refined, from the display to the UI to the performance. There are no bugs that needs patching and everything works straight out of the box. The Cloudfone Thrill 430x spells quality.

The native browser of the device renders frames poorly. Google Chrome is recommended instead.

Audio and Video

The 540×960 qHD display of the Cloudfone Thrill 430x definitely brings an edge in the video department. Playing off HD videos with quick scene transitions bring barely noticeable pixelation. You really have to look carefully to notice it.

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x‘s sound department is also great. The sound via the loudspeaker is loud and audible you can actually play quality music through it (not that you can’t with other devices, but the quality is noticeable).

The stock headphones of the device is neat. Although not as great sounding as other more expensive pairs, it’s definitely acceptable. Just cover them with good earphone foam jackets and you’re good to go.

The earpiece of the 430x delivers properly audible sound. Calls come through decently.

Gaming

Playing casual games via the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is as smooth as silk; Temple Run, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, just pick your poison. These games, paired with the fantastic display, makes you feel like playing on  a high-end Android. Plus, being the 5-point multitouch it is, you’ll get to slice as many fruits as you can.

More graphics-intensive games such as Dead Trigger and Shadowgun: Deadzone are compatible with the device. No ghosting, no crashing, no freezing. You can play them at low or even medium graphics settings with moderate stuttering. Just don’t expect to survive a life or death situation. Chances are you’ll always be the one dying.

Camera

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x sports an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash. It has a dedicated camera shutter that will do an autofocus and a snap for you. Sample photos of the device below:

Photos taken lack warmth, color saturation, and overall liveliness. Nothing a few built-in and third party filters can’t fix. To its credit though, its flash is bright and has quick capture time.

Battery Life

The biggest feature of the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is its battery. With 4160mAh under its hood, this device probably has the world title for the biggest juice capacity ever. That’s half the reason why it’s that bulky.

 

Well, did its “3X THE POWER” guarantee stand as promised? Let’s just say by utilizing the device’s power-saving features to the fullest, you can get by 50 hours easy. But as for regular usage (i.e. WiFi/3G, max brightness, SMS, voice calls, casual gaming), the device last 25-plus hours clean. That’s really something, considering the majority of local Android devices nowadays require powerbanks or extra batteries for continuous usage.

No charger issues were observed while charging. Apparently older chargers were the ones with “exploding” issues. New batches are good and doesn’t have this problem.

Other Features

3G – Behaves as expected. No problems observed here. SIM1 only;

Dual-SIM dual standby – An initial prompt will come up when sending a message to a number. After that initial prompt, the device will make that SIM the default SIM for that specific number. I personally prefer being prompted at every message sent because its ideal for situations that may arise e.g. I ran out of prepaid credits on SIM1. I’ll be instantly able to use SIM2 instead because of the SIM prompt without going to Settings and changing my SIM preferences.

Verdict

The Cloudfone Thrill 430x brings to us what the majority of current local Android devices can’t afford: a stellar battery life and an awesome qHD display. But those come with a price: it’s thick and bulky. It’s definitely designed with endurance in mind, and probably isn’t for your casual smartphone user.

If you don’t mind a piece of brick in your jeans pockets and if you’re tired of charging your Android every 6 hours, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is for you. You can say it’s a great device with a great price.

Cloudfone Thrill 430x Specifications

OS: Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwiich
Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8625 Snapdragon S4 processor
Memory: 768MB of RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD expandable up to 32GB
Display: 4.3-inch qHD Sharp ASV capacitive display, 960 x 540 resolution, ~256ppi, 5-point multi-touch feature, AGC Sodaline Screen Protection
Camera: 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, 0.3-megapixel VGA front camera, 720p HD video recording
Battery: 4160mAh Li-ion battery
Dimensions: 124.4 x 65.4 x 14.2mm, 180 g
Color: Black, White (New)
Features: Dual-SIM dual standby, quad-band
Price: P7,777

Cloudfone Thrill 430x Review

Torchlight II Official Launch Trailer Video, Release Date Announced

If you’re a fan of Diablo and Diablo-esque games, there’s good news for you: Torchlight II is going to be released this coming September 20 as a digital download.

What’s Torchlight II you ask? Let’s just say people are expecting it to be a better Diablo III, without the RMAH and all. And by the way, the first Torchlight won both GDCA 2010 Best Debut Game and GameIndustry.com RPG Game of the Year 2009 awards. So imagine what this iteration would be.

Torchlight II Official Launch Trailer

(Related: How to enable Diablo III god mode)

As mentioned above, Torchlight II would be available as a digital download starting September 20, 2012 from Steam, Runic Games, Perfect World, GamersGate, GameFly, and GameStop.

‘Till my next installment.

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Torchlight II Official Launch Trailer Video, Release Date Announced

Cherry Mobile Teases Another Quad-Core, Boasts Quad-Core For All

The country’s biggest mobile brand, Cherry Mobile, has teased of yet another upcoming quad-core smartphone. And this time, it could be greater than the Cherry Mobile Flame 2.0.

Posted four hours ago at Cherry Mobile’s Facebook page at the time of this writing, the company’s artwork highlights three devices, all of which, again, has quad-core: The Fusion Bolt, the Flame 2.0, and the Fusion Fire. The last device—which seems taller and wider than the Flame 2.0—goes off with the caption “Flying once again. Soon.” That very line leads me to the conclusion that Cherry Mobile’s next device could be named SkyFire 2.0. It sounds cheesy and all, but who knows? It’s highly probably, especially because the blurred text suggests so.

Stay tuned as developments about Cherry Mobile’s next quad-core smartphone come our way.

Cherry Mobile Teases Another Quad-Core, Boasts Quad-Core For All

PLDT SME Nation launches 18 cloud-based applications for SMEs

PLDT SME Nation recently launched their wide range of cloud-based applications to support business operations of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). The grand launch, held at the Solaire Resort and Casino last May 23, 2013, featured a total of 18 cloud-based applications to help local enterprises enhance business efficiency.

These applications include the following:

• HR/Payroll – allows businesses to effectively manage employee information, monitor timekeeping and process employees’ payroll


• Accounting – allows a company to monitor financial data, generate sales and banking reports, and making


• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – allows businesses to efficiently keep track of the company’s campaigns, leads, opportunities and accounts


• Supply Chain Management (SCM) – allows businesses to manage their supply chain from its raw materials in the warehouse to the purchase of the actual products from the stores


• Franchise Management – allows business owners to efficiently manage franchise applications for faster franchise acquisition as well as monitor sales of current franchises


• Bus eReservation – offers online reservation and ticketing service system to manage trips, with a portal for passengers that allows them to get trip information


• Electronic Medical Records – allows real-time updates of patient profiles for easier access of information


• Google Apps for Business – offers secure and reliable means for chat, email and file sharing and allows users to download applications from the Google Apps Marketplace

PLDT FVP and SME Nation Head Kat Luna-Abelarde, PLDT EVP and Head of Enterprise and Carrier Business Eric Alberto, PLDT Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno, ePLDT Group Chief Operating Officer Nerissa Ramos.

PLDT Chairman Manual V. Pangilinan said that these cloud-based solutions represent PLDT’s commitment to supporting the growth of local businesses as they thrive to be ahead in their chosen industry. Currently, SMEs make up the biggest business segment in the country’s economy today. With the help of technological developments in cloud computing, these applications may offer higher efficiency at lower costs.

All of these applications will enable businesses to consolidate information from a single branch up to 500 branches nationwide. These cloud services allow SMEs to bypass investing on hardware, software and manpower. Since PLDT SME Nation will handle the back-end, customization, and training, SMEs can focus on their core specialty rather than thinking about their own IT infrastructure.

For more information about PLDT SME Nation and their cloud offerings, visit: http://www.pldtsme-nation.com.ph/

PLDT SME Nation launches 18 cloud-based applications for SMEs

Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W Review

Sharp is the latest Japanese electronics company to break into the smartphone business. Known for making fantastic displays for TVs and mobile devices (and home appliances as some would argue), they’re exploring unknown territory by manufacturing whole handsets. Would their flagship Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W prove a success and win the hearts of consumers?

Launched late last year, the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W is among the world’s first 5-inch Full HD device. At 1080p it displays vibrant and vivid images that will make you ask why are these displays making it into the market just now. If you’re interested in gorgeous screens — and I know lots of you are — read our Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W review. You might be impressed as much as we were.

Design

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W at first sight screams a truly unique design. You won’t mistake it for any other smartphone. In fact, you won’t even think that it’s a 5-incher. A great feat of engineering.

The face sports a 5-inch display, a unique earpiece, a front-facing 2-megapixel camera, and a notification LED. There are no soft touch buttons as it is already integrated in the screen, albeit with a different button arrangement than that of a normal Android. There’s also this Aquos Phone logo emblazoned at the lower portion of the face (in other countries this is replaced simply with “Sharp”, which is more likeable in my personal opinion). It would’ve been better if it was totally clean, then again the logo doesn’t bother me much at all.

The rear sports an 8-megapixel camera lined with a chrome ring, a LED flash directly below it, a pinhole streak for the speaker, and a raised Sharp logo. Other than that, the back is totally clean. The rear shell is removed by applying mild pressure then sliding it up.

The device’s sleep/wake button and 3.5mm audio jack are located at the top side od the device. The volume rocker is positioned at the left side, while the charger/USB port is found at the bottom.

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W is very nice to hold, and has a great size-weight-comfortability ratio. Overall all design aspects give this device a premium look.

Display

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W sports a 5-inch Full HD Sharp IGZO capacitive display (as opposed to the HTC J Butterfly’s Super LCD 3) at a 1920×1080 resolution and with ~443 ppi.

This device definitely has one of the most fantastic screens I’ve ever seen. The combination of contrast, brightness, and saturation are highly commendable. Then again, one of Sharp’s strong points are displays, so there’s no wonder about that. Plus, we’re talking about FHD resolution here. Even my Samsung Galaxy Note II’s display folds away in shame.

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W runs an almost vanilla Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (with some minor additions). There’s also this custom UI called Feel UX present on other lower Sharp models that’s supposed to available on this phone. Would’ve been better if two UIs were built-in, but sticking with stock Android is good.

Sharp’s IGZO display reportedly offers improved image quality over regular LCDs. It’s also more power efficient, making your usage last longer (more on this below).

The Aquos Phone offers the TouchPal keyboard system out of the box.

Performance

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W is an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean device that’s powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor, an Adreno 225 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. Would this chipset prove an effective combination against other current devices and in its own usage?

The aging Quadrant Standard benchmark has the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W at 5766, making it nest on top of the HTC One X. The device’s CPU and memory are the primary contributors for such a huge lead.

The AnTuTu benchmark ranks the Aquos Phone at 10281, right around the same score as the original Galaxy Note, plus and minus a few variables. Ages of configurations show, and if this chart is to be believed Sharp’s flagship is using one from 2 years ago. In Sharp’s defense, they designed the SH930W with budget consumers in mind, plus the fact that devices at that time weren’t rocking FHD.

Qualcomm’s own Vellamo benchmark ranks the device at 1562 and 577 at the HTML5 and Metal tests respectively. It’s up there together with the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the HTC One X. The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W would probably be a few notches down if the Galaxy Note 2 and the One X+ have been present in the chart.

In these three tests, the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W proves to be one powerful but affordable combatant capable of holding its own in the mid-range mobile battlefield. But how does it fare in actual usage?

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W, albeit the fantastic display and the awesome design, has some real issues to deal with. It suffered a number of system freezes in my hands (normal usage; camera, gallery, drawer, home, task manager), and I’m not even sure why it’s acting that way, seeing that its innards are very capable. We’re not talking about apps crashing and force closing, we’re talking about the phone’s system seizing on normal operation. It seems that it isn’t random, as I observed this issue involves more of the camera and the gallery areas of the device.

Then there’s the battery heating issue. The battery of the SH930W gets warm real fast (its hotness is more or less akin to a freshly ironed pair of jeans: tolerable to hold, still warm nonetheless) while browsing or gaming at max brightness. The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W is a well made device (I should know, I used it first-hand) — and we all know the Japanese are sticklers when it comes to quality — but here I am again unsure why the battery is acting that way. It may be that the display and the system has battery discharging issues. These said, it’s either I the unit I held was a lemon or a majority of the SH930W devices behave this way. Do consider though that user experience is subjective.

Audio and Video

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W, with its 5-inch FHD display, is guaranteed to deliver one of the best viewing experiences you can currently get, since FHD is just becoming a thing now. Do note that the video you’re playing must also have great quality (if not FHD quality) for everything to properly pop out.

The sound output of the Aquos Phone is wonderful. Videos and music played (of reasonable quality) on the device get out loud and whole. I’ve actually expected the device to give off such great sound, and it didn’t fail to deliver. Anything lower would strongly disappoint me. It’s just that majority of the products made in Japan spell quality.

The stock headphones included in the box is godsend. With all the “just okay” quality stock headphones I’ve been experiencing previously, something that can actually perform is so much welcome. I’d personally give the throw-in — if it was sold separately — a tag price of P1,299.00, just because it’s good.

The earpiece of the device functions as intended with just the right amount of everything, so expect your calls to be loud and clear, if not crystal clear. The only problem — annoying if anything — is the inability of the device to end calls immediately. When you’re talking to someone and you wish to end the conversation, you need to wait for the person you’re talking to to end the call on his device. Once you put the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W on your ear, the device’s display will fade to black (very normal, just as other devices would), but then other devices have physical/soft touch buttons that can wake and end a call at will, the Aquos Phone doesn’t. And no, pressing the sleep/wake button or the volume buttons while on call will not wake the device up

Gaming

Sporting an Adreno 225 GPU, the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W runs your everyday games with no problems. Almost. Not mentioned at the performance section because of its relation to gaming, some graphics-intensive games, such as Shadowgun: Deadzone, will run at lower resolution settings, but with some difficulty. It’s not so much that the device can’t handle it, it’s something more of a imbalanced combination between overall device power and the high display resolution.

Dead Trigger, Temple Run 2, and other games render in the Aquos Phone’s IGZO display wonderfully however.

At this department overall, a Mali 400 GPU could’ve done better. That is, if the processor also gets improved. These will drive the device’s price though.

Camera

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W sports a rear 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. It has some elements to it that might associate the snapper with cheaper devices. Sample photos below.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the images are flat: They lack liveliness, lack saturation, lack warmth, and has moderate loss of detail (zoom in on the raw images above), even at ideal lighting conditions. The camera doesn’t bring justice to the device at all. It’s less than I was expecting, but does have something to do with the unit being marketed as a budget phone. Fortunately photo filters exist.

Battery Life

Powered by a 2,100mAh battery, the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W will last you up to 10 hours (or more, depends on user power management) through regular usage. I personally wish it could last longer though.

Subjecting the device through internet gaming at maximum brightness would cut the device’s life down to more or less 6.5 hours (and also bring the battery heat up to noticeable levels. Read performance section above).

Verdict

Form factor, top-notch build quality, awesome display, and an aging but otherwise still great hardware: these are what define the Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W. Given its weaknesses (e.g. noticeable slowdown in some games) and apparent bugs, I’d still place this phone up above the mid-range crowd. No smartphone can simply give you the SH930W‘s display at half the price. That and its performance makes this smartphone a good buy.

The Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W retails at a suggested retail price of P19,990 and is available at selected resellers nationwide.

Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W Specifications

OS: Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean
Processor: 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor, Adreno 225 GPU
Memory: 2GB RAM, 32GB Internal Storage
Display: 5-inch IGZO FHD, 1920×1080 resolution, ~443 ppi
Camera: 8-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash (1080p FHD video), 2-megapixel front-facing camera
Connectivity: 3G, HSPA+, WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, FM Radio, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
Battery: 2,100mAh Li-ion battery

Sharp Aquos Phone SH930W Review