DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending

Anjie lou delos Reyes
12
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending

INTRODUCTION:

DTC Mobile has been very conservative about their phone offerings, they have fewer devices when compared to other local brands, this is because they design and manufacture their own products.

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
CPU Z

The last time they announced a new wave of products was way back May of 2014 and the Jupiter Plus is part of that group. It sports a 4.7-inch touchscreen display powered by a 1.3GHz quad core MediaTek processor coupled with 8GB of ROM and 1GB of RAM.


UNBOXING and HANDS-ON:

Video Unboxing and Hands-on

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Retail Package

The retail package consists of the unit, battery, warranty card, user manual, charger, USB cable, headset, FREE screen protector and FREE phone case. In terms of the physical aspects, it has the same design with the original DTC Jupiter, in fact they have the same footprint, you can check it here. Display wise, the only difference is their resolution, the Plus has HD screen.


SENSORS:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Sensors

Like its predecessor, it has an accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensors, all of which are functioning properly.


BENCHMARKS:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Antutu, Quadrant, Vellamo
NenaMark2

The benchmark results are typical for an Android device with MT6582 chipset. When you compare the scores of the Jupiter and the Jupiter Plus, the latter has higher numbers even though it has a higher pixel count. It is supposed to have lower scores due to the 720p display, but it did not, the reason behind is that the benchmark apps algorithms are different from 10 months ago.


INTERFACE:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
About Phone and OTA
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Interface

It runs on slightly outdated Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and when I checked the DTC OTA app, it still says that the system is currently up to date. The interface is almost stock with Fancy Widgets on top, this is also the identical to the older Jupiter.


BASIC FUNCTIONS:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Basic Functions

All the basic functions are working fine, no issue or problem encountered during the review period.


MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Gallery

The gallery holds all the photos and videos stored on your device and can be filtered by albums, locations or times and it has a built-in photo editor app. What is missing is the video trimming app, good thing is that there is Movie Studio app to take its part.

Video Player, Music Player and FM Radio:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Video Player, Music Player and FM Radio

The video player can handle different file types up to 1080p resolution, watching movies are pleasurable because of its high definition IPS display, although under bright light it tends to be reflective. Meanwhile, the music player displays album art together with other audio information while the song is playing. Lastly, the FM radio requires a connected headset to work.

Camera and Video:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Camera and Video

The camera and video use the stock Android camera interface wherein their shutter buttons are placed side by side at the lower part of the UI. The shooting modes include normal, beauty shot, HDR and panorama.

Sample Photos:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Day
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
100% Crop
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Day_1

The main camera can take photos of up to 13MP resolutions while the front one has a 3.2MP sensor, pretty much the same with the older Jupiter. Honestly, I believed that the rear shooter has the same module since the image qualities are almost identical. Overall, the output is good with realistic colors, especially when there is an ample source of lighting.

However, the amount of resolved details are only comparable to those 8MP camera only. If you take a look on the word "EXIT" it is readable, but not as clear compared to other phones that we reviewed that has the same camera resolution.

Browser:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Browser

The browser supports multiple tabs and incognito mode, you can also bookmark web pages and even save them for offline reading. In terms of browsing speed, it is fast and loads sites quickly, even those with lots of images.

Gaming:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Despicable Me
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Asphalt 7
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Heroes of Order & Chaos
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Dungeon Hunter 4
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Storage and Install Location

The casual games or those that do not require intensive graphics are handled by the phone at ease. Meanwhile, Despicable Me and HD games are also playable, however, the frame rates are noticeably lower not to mention that the loading times are longer. It terms of storage, it has a unified 6.22GB of space, but if you need more, just insert an SD card and it will be the default storage and install location.


CONNECTIVITY:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Connectivity

The connectivity features include dual SIM capability with dual 3G, which you can share through tethering and hotspot, WiFi, wireless display, Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack and a micro USB port that lacks OTG support. All of them are working properly without any known issues during the test period.


PRODUCTIVITY:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Productivity

The productivity tools include a calculator, calendar, clock, file manager, sound recorder and to do. There is no document editor/viewer, but you can always download one for free in the Play Store.


GPS:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
GPS

The phone has built-in GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance, with data pre-loaded, it was able to get a satellite lock in about 3 seconds with an accuracy of 10 feet.


BATTERY STATS:

DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus Unboxing and Review: Jupiter Ascending
Battery Stats

I used it as my back-up phone with two SIM cards inserted, its main function is a tool to communicate with my family, mostly through text and call. In this kind of usage, which I considered as very light, it managed to last for more than two days. Meanwhile, the phone lasted for more than 6 hours during our video-loop test while more than 3 hours on our game-loop test.


CONCLUSION:

The DTC Mobile Jupiter Plus is generally an incremental follow-up of its predecessor, wherein the "+" translates to a higher screen resolution and twice the internal storage. It offers a seamless interface, can play HD videos, good camera and above average battery performance. However, it runs on slightly older version of Android, which is 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

PROS:

4.7-inch HD IPS display
Quad core processor
1GB of RAM
8GB of ROM
Good battery life

CONS:

Runs on older Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

Specifications:

  • Quad band 2G, dual band 3G
  • Dual SIM (regular+micro) dual standby
  • 4.7-inch IPS HD (1280x720) capacitive touchscreen display, 5-point touch
  • Weight: 150 grams
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • 1.3GHz Quad Core Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali-400MP2 GPU, MediaTek MT6582 chipset
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD
  • 13MP auto focus main camera with LED flash
  • 3.2MP secondary camera
  • Multimedia player
  • FM Radio
  • 3.5mm audio jack
  • GPS with A-GPS
  • WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
  • Micro USB 2.0
  • Bluetooth
  • Sensor: accelerometer, light, proximity
  • 2200mAh Li-Po battery
  • Price: Php6,990
  • Freebies: Phone case and screen protector

Post a Comment

12Comments

  1. Ankleface WroughtlandmireMarch 21, 2015 at 1:53 AM

    Hi there, does the new GT17A Jupiter Plus have a working backlight on the home, menu, and back keys? The previous GT17 version did not.

    Does DTC ever release OTA updates for their devices, or is it pretty much pushed out to the market and then forgotten? I'd really like to see KitKat on this device.

    Thanks very much for the review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for reading my review. As far as I can recall, capacitive keys have back lights. For the OTA updates, based on my experience, they did twice

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ankleface WroughtlandmireMarch 22, 2015 at 12:57 PM

    Thanks very much Anjie for the reply!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is there anyone out there who has the rom for GT17A Jupiter plus? I need flash it and it is not available in anywhere... Maybe somebody could provide a rom dump? Please contact me riiapikk@yandex.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Parang may hawig ung graphics neto sa myphone pero pnkgsto ko about this is its camera :))

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jennifer Aseoche Duran-TimonelJuly 14, 2015 at 9:48 AM

    I love the camera.💟😀👍

    ReplyDelete
  7. nice, love he camera resolution!

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh my why the main cam is 13mp which is good but the secondary cam which is 3.2mp is not...

    ReplyDelete
  9. nice camera ah !!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Much I Want !!!

    ReplyDelete
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