Arc Mobile Nitro 450QD Review: Cheapest Quad Core

INTRODUCTION:

The Arc Mobile came a little late in the Philippine mobile market, they just introduced their product line last May, 2013. Even though the competition is a bit tough it does not hold them back to compete.

Their strategy is to offer their handsets and tablets as cheap as possible without sacrificing the quality and performance. The Arc Mobile Nitro 450QD is exceptionally cheap at only PHP 5499, actually it is the cheapest quad core you will currently find in the local market.

The ARC Mobile is a dual SIM, dual standby phone, it is powered by a MediaTek MT6589 chipset with a 1.2GHz Quad-Core Cortex A7 CPU, PowerVR SGX544 and coupled with 512MB of RAM.

Key Specs:

• Dual SIM , Dual Standby (Mini and Micro)
• Tri-Band GSM/EDGE/GPRS (both SIMs) and  Dual Band HSPA+ (SIM 1 Only)
• 4.5" capacitive IPS qHD LCD (960x540), 5-point multi-touch
• Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1
• 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 Quad Core CPU, PowerVR SGX544MP GPU MediaTek MT6589 chipset
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB internal (2.82 GB available), expandable up to 32GB via microSD
• 5MP auto focus main camera with LED Flash, geo-tagging, HDR, Burst Shot, panorama, photo-sphere
• VGA secondary camera
• Video Recording up to 720p (Rear Camera), VGA for front camera
• GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct
• 3.5 Audio Jack
• Stereo FM Radio
• MP3/MP4 Player
• Micro USB 2.0
• Bluetooth
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Light, Proximity, Sound

Main Disadvantages:

• No dedicated shutter key
• No TV output nor any option for wireless mirroring
• Fingerprint and smudge magnet

UNBOXING:

The package does not include any extra or freebie (probably to cut down the cost) however it still covers the basic. It includes the unit, battery, USB cable/charger combo, manual and a wired headset.

Package

The front is mainly covered by the 4.5" capacitive IPS LCD, although the resolution is just qHD its still quite pleasant to look at.  Be reminded that the screen is not scratch resistant therefore a screen protector is highly recommended. The earpiece is located just above the display comfortably placed at the center, beside it is the VGA camera and the proximity sensor. The capacitive menu, home and back key can be found below the screen.

Front

The 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB can be found at the top of the device while the bottom does not houses anything.

3.5mm Audio Jack and Micro USB at the Top

On the left side we will find the power key which feels a bit awkward at first since most Android phone uses the left side for volume rocker.

Power Button on the Left

The volume rocker is located at the right side. Although there are ample spaces on both sides, there is no dedicated shutter key to be found.

Volume Rocker at the Right

The cover is completely plastic which is prone to smudges and  fingerprints. The back houses the main 5MP camera which is accompanied by an LED flash below it. The loudspeaker grill is located at the lower left while the first letter of the Arc Mobile logo is placed above it.

Back

Once the back cover is removed, the battery rated at 1800mAh will be revealed. Notice that the slots for the two SIM cards are quite different, it is because that slot 1 is for regular SIM while slot 2 is for micro SIM. Take note that only SIM 1 is capable of HSPA+, while SIM 2 is up to EDGE only. The slot for the micro SD card for memory expansion can be found here as well.

1800mAh Battery, SIM and Micro SD Slots

INTERFACE:

Like most of the local and rebranded Android phone, the Arc Mobile uses the stock Jelly Bean interface, which is a good thing for those people that hates proprietary one and for those who wants to experience "Google" edition phone. There was no major lag or hiccup encountered, the transitions are quite smooth as well thanks to the uncapped refresh rate.

The lockscreen is the usual Jelly Bean stuff, where in you can drag in any direction to unlock the screen. If you have a notification like a missed call it will appear somewhere above and you can drag it towards the lock icon so that you can easily view it without going to the homescreen.

During a lockscreen you can swipe the screen towards the right for the camera shortcut, swiping it left will reveal a vacant shortcut which you can customize with calendar, clock, Gmail and message.

Lockscreen

Passed the lockscreen you will be greeted by the homescreen which is consist of five panes. You cannot add any additional pane neither delete them. The picture below is the default homescreen, with five shortcut key below. The middle always opens the app drawer and the remaining 4 can be customized based on your needs. You can always add your favorite app or widget to the homescreen by tapping and holding it.

Default Homescreen

Once you click the  app drawer it will reveal the factory installed applications and widgets. One thing I love about it is that it does not include annoying bloatwares, in fact you can ever remove some more apps like Maps and others. . The Play store shortcut is always present at the upper right hand corner. The Pencil icon that acts as a shortcut for uninstalling the apps can be found just beside the Play store icon.

Default Apps

Default Widgets

The notification panel can be accessed by swiping from the top of the screen going down. The usual shortcuts are hidden and can be accessed after clicking an icon at the upper rightmost corner or you can also access the shortcut by using TWO fingers when swiping from top to bottom. The available shortcuts are Owner, Airplane mode, Battery, Wi-Fi, BT, GPS, Data Connection, Data Usage, Audio Profile, Brightness, Timeout and Auto Rotation.

Notification Panel

If you have any notification you can directly access it on the notification panel which gives you several options to choose from. For example, a missed call will provide you the option to call back or to send a message. If you are in an application which involves the use of the SIM card (e.g. Telephony, Messaging) there will be an additional option in the notification panel wherein you can opt to choose the SIM you are going to use.


BENCHMARKS:

The Arc Mobile draws its power on a 1.2GHZ quad core MediaTek MT6589 processor, PowerVR SGX544MP GPU and 512B RAM. This is basically the same configuration like the Cherry Mobile Thunder 2.0. Even though the RAM is just 512MB, the Antutu score is about 14K which is pretty impressive.

Antutu, 13859

The quadrant score of 4157 is higher than the MyPhone A919i and SKK Silver with scores 3570 and 4032 respectively.

Quadrant, 4157

The Nenamark2 benchmark result of 53.8 fps is pretty good.

NenaMark2, 53.8 fps

The Vellamo test results are great, it almost catches up with the Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Vellamo, HTML 1475 & Metal 505

Overall, it has surpassed my expectation in terms of benchmarks, its scores are even higher than the previous phone I handled with the same CPU.

DUAL SIM FUNCTIONALITY:

Under settings-wireless & networks you will find the SIM management. You can switch each SIM on or off to help you save battery (especially if you are only using one SIM). Other SIM management settings are as follows:

1. Voice Call - you can choose SIM 1, SIM 2 or Always ask
2. Messaging - you can choose SIM 1, SIM 2 or Always ask
3. Data Connection - you can choose SIM 1, SIM 2 or off

SIM Management

Only SIM 1 is HSPA+ capable while SIM 2 is up to EDGE only (there is no option to switch the HSPA+ connection between the two SIM cards). Every time you change your SIM card  it saves your preference and naming scheme.


TELEPHONY:

Selecting the telephony icon on the homescreen will bring the dial pad. Smart dialing is present which searches both names and numbers. The second tab will list your call history while the third tab will list your frequently contacted persons. The option during a call are loud speaker, mute, hold, add a person on the current call and record the call. The proximity sensor turns off the screen automatically during a call which prevents any accidental touch on the screen. The secondary microphone helps in making a good audio quality during a call.

Telephony

 
 PHONEBOOK:

It uses a tab interface for groups, contacts and frequently contacted. If you are having trouble finding your contacts you can always utilize the search button at the bottom. Under frequently contacted tab, any contact you "starred" will appear at the top.

Phonebook

It has virtually unlimited capacity with all the functionality you need. You can opt to choose which address book you want to display - SIM card, Phone or Online addresses. Adding a new contact or new group will prompt you to which account you want it to be saved. You can also import or export contacts. Each contact can contain multiple information such as emails, numbers, address etc. You can also join contacts from multiple accounts.

MESSAGING:

The messaging application is quite simple, the new button is found at the bottom left while the search button is at the bottom right. The threads are listed based on the latest message created/received. The message thread is color coded, the background of your message is blue while on The recipient is gray. Your message goes on the right side while the recipient message on the left side. Under messaging app, SIM toggle is also available similar to the telephony.

Under a certain conversation, you can find two shortcuts at the upper right hand. The first option will prompt you to save a number if it is not in your contact list. If the person is already on your phone book, it pop-up the said contact. The second option (handset symbol) will prompt you to call the said person/number on that message.

MMS share the same editor as the SMS, under new message clicking the green + symbol will give you the option to add almost anything, once added to a message it automatically converts it to MMS.

Messaging

The default keyboard is only the QWERTY type, you cannot change it to phone pad or other method. It supports auto-capitalization, haptic feedback (vibration on key press) and sound on key press. It also offers an auto correction. Arc Mobile 450QD also works without any issue with popular online messaging applications like Skype, Viber and We Chat.


EMAIL:

The stock email app handles virtually every internet email. Adding an email account is quite easy, you just need your email address and password then hit next and it will automatically look for the correct email settings. You can attach any file you want and can include CC/BCC. You can also change the frequency of sync, include signature, always BCC yourself and change the notification sound. Vibration for incoming email can also be set.

Email

There is no Gmail pre-installed but you can easily download it on the Play Store.


MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

The Nitro 450QD uses the stock Android gallery, you can arrange it based on Albums, Locations, or Times. The camera shortcut is always present at the upper right hand. The gallery also houses both pictures and videos.When you selected a certain video you can check its details, trim it or even delete it while selecting pictures will give you several options like slideshow, edit, crop, rotate and some more.

Gallery

The photo editor comes pre-installed which is pretty standard for Android 4.2 version. It offers wide variety of options such as adding effects or frames. You can also crop or rotate the pictures or even adjust saturation or exposure.

Photo Editor

Video Player:

The stock Android video player will scan all supported files on your phone and will list it accordingly. However please take note that supported files does not mean it can play it, if you are unable to see an icon before the title that gives you a hint that it may not able to play it.

Video Player

The stock player was able to play almost all types of video files throw I at it, however playing 1080p is a no go you need a third party app for that, the same goes when you want to watch with subtitle. Although the screen is just 4.5 inches it's still a pleasure to watch with it.

Videos with different container

Music Player:

The music player will list all the music files on your phone and you can view it either by Artist, Albums, Songs or Playlist. It has several options such as search, party shuffle, shuffle all or sound effects. Selecting sound effects will bring you to the equalizer settings wherein you can select several presets like Normal, Classic, Flat, Rock etc, you can also turn it off if you prefer.

Music Player

The music interface is quite simple, it provides the option to shuffle, repeat current song, repeat all songs and even use it as a ringtone. It also displays album art if available in your files. Once the music player is running, you can easily access it through the notification panel.

Music Interface

FM Radio:

Basically you need a headset for the FM to work, the radio interface is pretty neat and straightforward. It can search all the available channel (or you can add them manually), you can also record your favorite music and play it on speaker.

FM

Camera/Video:

The camera and video share the same interface. The main camera can shoot up to 5MP still and up 720p for video while the front camera can shoot up to VGA both for still and video. Note that in order to get the 5MP setting you need to choose the preview size to standard. There is no dedicated hardware shutter key and you cannot even you the volume key to take a shot or zoom on your subject. Zooming is done by pinching out the screen.

The shooting mode can be normal, HDR, Panorama, Photo-Sphere etc. The camera options give you a lot of things to adjust namely Exposure, White Balance, Color Effect, Scene Mode & others which you can tweak manually. It can also store your GPS location. Self timer is also available and ISO can be adjusted manually. There is a continuous shot option which is pretty usable and can be either 40 or 99 shots (or you can use less just by releasing the shutter key)

Camera Interface

Camera Options

Sample Shots

The image and video quality are quite good for a 5MP shooter, it is capable of capturing realistic colors of the subject.

Browsing:

The browser is quite fast, it loads the web pages even those with many images pretty quickly. It has an incognito mode and can support up to sixteen (16) tabs and you can save a web page for offline reading or even share it to someone.

Browser

Gaming:

It can handle most of the popular games in the Play Store like Candy Crush, Minion Rush and 4 Pics1 Word. The Dead Trigger works pretty smooth without any noticeable lag. Loading time is also fast, the one thing I was a bit disappointed is that it does not have the ability to move apps to your external SD.

Minion Rush

Candy Crush

4 Pics 1 Word

Dead Trigger

CONNECTIVITY:

The Nitro 450QD supports Triple Band GSM/EDGE/GPRS which can be use for roaming. It also supports dual band HSPA+ up to 21MBps on SIM 1 ONLY, the data connection on SIM 2 (micro SIM) is up to EDGE only. You can also share your data plan via USB tethering and Wi-Fi  hotspot.

In addition it also has Bluetooth  and Micro USB 2.0. Under Settings/Storage it shows an option for external USB and I am excited to try it, however it does not work when I tried it.

The 3.5mm audio jack completes the list, when I used the supplied headset the output was not loud enough but when I tried others it works fine.

SENSORS:

The 450QD is equipped with basic of sensors which you can verify if working by downloading Android Sensor Box or CPZU-Z via Play Store.

Sensors

PRODUCTIVITY:

The Arc Mobile Nitro 450QD does not include much of productivity tool but you can easily download anything useful in the Play Store. Below are some that come pre-installed which are actually default apps in stock Android Jelly Bean.

Calendar

Clock

Calculator

NoteBook

Sound Recorder

ToDo

GPS

The GPS is a standard one, it can be accessed only after you enable "Access to my location". It has A-GPS and EPO assistance, getting a satellite lock is quite fast when these options are on.

GPS

BATTERY:

The Nitro 450QD is equipped with 1800mAh battery, it managed to last for more than 15 hours before it reaches 13% critical level, usage pattern is normal call and text, few games played and auto sync in the background for my emails and social accounts using unlimited data connection.

Battery Stats

CONCLUSION: CHEAPEST QUAD CORE

The Arc Mobile Nitro 450QD is no doubt the cheapest quad-core device currently release in the Philippine market. At first I doubt the 512MB RAM but when I use the phone for about a week I am quite satisfied with it, though it is cheap it will not compromise you.

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