SKK Mobile Titanium Review: Heavy Metal

 INTRODUCTION:

SKK Mobile Titanium is the first among their "METAL" series and also the first Phablet in their line-up. It has a huge 6-inch screen and runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 out of the box. It is already in the market for few months now, however the only available colors that time were Black and White. Recently they released a third color, Orange, to give those people who are quite bored with previous colors additional choice.

This gigantic smartphone is not SKK Mobile top of the line offerings, it is actually a mid-range device. Its innards are run by old generation MediaTek MT6577 chipset with dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX531 GPU coupled with 512MB of RAM. Though it has no cutting edge technology to to offer it still has its own tricks on its sleeve.

Key Specs:

• Dual SIM, Dual Standby
• 6" Capacitive IPS LCD with FWVGA resolution, 5 point multi-touch
• Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1
• 1GHz Cortex-A9 Dual-Core CPU, PowerVR SGX531 GPU MediaTek MT6577 chipset
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD
• 8MP auto focus main camera with LED flash, Simultaneous Video and Image capture
• VGA secondary camera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Stereo FM Radio
• 3.5mm Audio Jack
• Micro USB 2.0
• Bluetooth
• GPS with A-GPS
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity, Light and Sound
• Superb 2400mAh Li-Ion Battery
• Great retail package

Main Disadvantages:

• Tends to be reflective under direct sunlight
• Low-pixel count

UNBOXING:

SKK Mobile is known for being generous in their retail package, and like other units I have reviewed it always have freebies. The package includes the unit itself, battery, USB cable, charger, wired headset, manual and warranty card, the screen protector (installed) and flip case comes as freebies.

Retail Package

The Titanium has a solid build quality, it has a silver lining on all sides and a design which is similar to the SKK Silver.
 

Front

The front is mainly covered by the 6" IPS LCD, just above the display you will find an earpiece located at the center. On the left side of the earpiece you will find the VGA camera for video calling, self-portrait imaging and VGA video recording while the light and proximity sensors are located at the right side, there is no LED notification.

Front camera, earpiece, light and proximity sensor

The capacitive Menu, Home and Back keys are located at the bottom of the display. Holding the Home key will bring up the app history.

Menu, Home and Back Capacitive Keys

There is only the 3.5mm audio jack at the top of the device.

3.5mm audio jack at the top

At the bottom, we will find the micro USB port that doubles as charging port and the mouthpiece.

Micro USB port and mouthpiece at the bottom

On the right side we will find the volume rocker and the power button while the left side has nothing on it.

Volume rocket and power button at the right

The cover is a textured plastic, which feels nice to touch, not a fingerprint magnet and helps in a better grip on the device. The back houses the main 8MP camera which is accompanied by a Dual LED flash. The SKK Mobile  and loudspeaker grill are located at the bottom.

Back

Removing the back cover is easy, once removed, it reveals the battery rated at 2400mAh and the slots for the two SIM cards as well as the slot for the micro SD card for memory expansion.

2400mAh Battery, SIM slots and Micro SD slot

INTERFACE:

Upon turning on, the device will greet us with its 6-inch screen with FWVGA resolution. The lockscreen is the usual Jelly Bean stuff, dragging the lock icon on the right will unlock the device, dragging it left will launch the camera interface while dragging up will launch Google Now. The "lockscreen" will look the same even if you change your wallpaper, in order to change it you need to change your screen lock method.

Lockscreen

Once the device is unlocked, the Homescreen will be the next interface. Have you noticed something? Yes, that is correct, the icons looks similar with Samsung Touch Wiz UI. It has a five panes which you cannot delete nor add, the dots just above the icons will tell you which pane you are into. There are five default icons in the bottom, the four can be customize while the last one always opens the app drawer.

Homescreen

Clicking the app drawer will reveal the factory installed application and widgets.The Play Store shortcut is always present at the upper right hand corner. The Documents To Go, MoboPlayer and Temple Run can be uninstalled anytime you want without rooting.

Default Apps

Default Widgets

The notification panel can be accessed by swiping from the top of the screen going down. The notification panel includes several shortcuts such as Wi-Fi, BT, GPS, Data Connection & Airplane mode. Swiping it left will show brightness, timeout and auto rotation. While swiping it right will bring audio profile shortcut (General, Silent, Meeting & Outdoor). It also includes the shortcut for the system setting (just beside the date).

Notification Panel

If you have any notification you can directly access it on a 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 your default SIM.


BENCHMARKS:

The SKK Mobile Titanium relies its power from a 1GHZ dual core MediaTek MT6577 chipset with PowerVR SGX531 GPU and 512MB RAM.

Antutu, 6445

The Antutu score is typical for the MT6577 chipset, the score of 6445 is almost the same with the SKK Radiance.

Quadrant, 2863

The quadrant score of 2863 is on the same level with similar devices having the same chipset.

NenaMark2 23 fps

The Nenamark2 benchmark results max out at 23 fps.

Vellamo, HTML 1300 & Metal 364

The Vellamo test results are nothing special either, like the other benchmarks, the scores are of the same level with other devices.

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. Video Call - you can choose SIM1 or SIM 2
3. Messaging - you can choose SIM 1, SIM 2 or Always ask
4. Data Connection - you can choose SIM 1, SIM 2 or off

SIM Management

TELEPHONY:

Selecting the Phone icon on the homescreen will bring the dial pad which has smart dialing that searches both names and numbers. Under this tab you can also add speed dialing up to eight contacts. The second tab will list your call history which you can filter for missed, incoming and outgoing calls. You can also narrow it down by selecting which resources to show (SIM 1, SIM2 or both). The third tab will list your frequently contacted persons.

Telephony

The call reception is quite good, the sound at the earpiece is clear and loud. It is also equipped with a secondary microphone that makes the crystal call clarity possible.  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.

 
PHONEBOOK:

The Contact icon corresponds to the 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 left. 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 NOT color coded, your message goes on the right side while the recipient message on the left side. Under messaging app, SIM toggle is available at the notification panel so you can choose which SIM card to use.

When you create a new message, the recipient or "To" space accepts name or number and you can also add multiple recipients. Under a certain conversation, you can find two shortcuts at the upper right hand. The first option will call the said contact while the second option will bring up the attachment options. Once you have attached anything on a message it will automatically converts 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. Due to the screen size, it is much more comfortable to type using both your hands. If you are using online messaging applications like Skype, Viber and WeChat it also works without problem.


EMAIL:

For the email department, it consists of the stock email app as well as gmail app. 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

The Gmail can automatically sync the Google account you use during Play Store set-up. The Gmail app is basically the same as the email app, however it limits your attachment to only picture or video. The workaround you can do is to go to the file you want to attach, press and hold that file and you will have the option to share it on Gmail. You can swipe a message left or right in order to navigate between them.

Gmail

Both email apps can handle multiple email accounts.


MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

The SKK Mobile Titanium uses the stock Android gallery, it houses both pictures and videos, you can arrange it based on Albums, Locations, Times, People and Tags. The camera shortcut is always present at the upper right hand.

Gallery

You can group a set of pictures or videos and you can also share them via email, Bluetooth or social media.

The Photo editor comes as a bundle with Android Jelly Bean, and the Titanium has it.

Photo Editor

Video Player:

The stock Android video player is hidden, you can only access it when you select a certain video to play. It can play up to 720p videos of almost any container - .avi, .3gp, .mp4, .mkv and .flv works fine. It has no subtitle support so I suggest you use the Mobo player that comes pre-installed in the unit which has richer settings and options.

Watching a video on its 6" screen is a pleasure and very comfortable, though it tends to be reflective under direct sunlight.


Music Player:

The music player has a tab interface, it will list the music based on four (4) categories namely Artist, Albums, Songs & Playlist. It has the option to search, party shuffle, shuffle all or sound effects. Selecting sound effects will bring you to the equalizer settings. The equalizer has several presets like Normal, Classic, Flat, Rock etc, you can also turn it off if you prefer.

Music Interface

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.

FM Radio:

Basically you need a headset for the FM to work. It has RDS settings and you can search all the available channels (or you can add them manually), record your favorite music and even play it on loud speaker.

Stereo FM with RDS

Camera/Video:

The camera and video share the same interface and you can easily distinguish one another since the shutter icon is color coded, blue for picture, red for video and green for panorama. The main camera can shoot up to 8MP still and up to 720p video and it is accompanied by Dual LED flash. The front camera only shoots VGA for both pictures and videos.

Camera Interface

There are plenty of options and tweaks for camera such as Geo-tagging, Continuous shot, Scene mode, Color effect to name a few. For video, the maximum length of recording is up to 1 hour only, like the camera it also offers variety of settings like Focus mode, Time lapse etc. The BEST part is, it can capture still images while recording video. When shooting a video, a secondary shutter icon (blue) will appear so that you can capture any image you want while recording.

Simultaneous still and video capture

Sample Shots

Macro

Day

Zoom In

Night

Panorama

Note that the pictures and videos above were shot from the 4th floor except for Macro. The picture quality is great especially in broad daylight, even zoom in shots are very clear. Macro shots are quite good too, it can focus properly even at a very close range.

Browsing:

The browser is quite fast, it loads the web pages even those with many images pretty quickly. It supports up to sixteen (16) tabs. You can save a web page for offline reading or even share it to someone, Incognito mode is also present. Due to low screen resolution, you need to zoom in those pages with little text in order to read it without stressing your eye.

Browser

Gaming:

Titanium can handle games like 4 Pics 1 Word, Candy Crush, Temple Run1 and Temple Run 2 without sweating, NBA Jam and Dead Trigger are working as well. Asphalt 7 is also playable, however it is NOT as smooth when I played it with a quad core device.

4 Pics 1 Word

Candy Crush

Temple Run 1

Temple Run 2

The on-board storage of 4GB may not be enough but you can easily purchase a 32GB micro SD card for expansion and you can easily transfer all your games into it without even the need for root access.

CONNECTIVITY:

It supports Triple Band GSM/EDGE/GPRS and dual band HSPA+ (SIM 1 only). It can perform both USB and Bluetooth tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot. Wi-Fi Connection is good, it can get a good signal even my neighbor hotspot and also supports Wi-Fi direct.

In addition it also has Bluetooth, Micro USB 2.0 and the 3.5mm audio jack completes the list.


SENSORS:

The SKK Mobile Titanium has basic sensors such as Accelerometer, Light, Proximity and Sound.

Sensor Box

PRODUCTIVITY:

One main purpose of a phablet is to make your work on the go a lot easier and SKK knows this by providing pre-installed applications for a job to be accomplished.

Calendar

The calendar borrows its looks with Samsung planner, you can choose which views you like - year, month, week, day, agenda and mission. You can add an event or task and easily sync it with your PC.

Clock

The clock's only function is for alarm.

Calculator

The calculator is pretty basic.

Sound Recorder

Sound recorder is also present, you can change the recording and voice quality.

Documents To Go

Documents to go pre-installed, you can edit and view Word, Excel etc.

File Manager

File Manager is present for organizing your files. If the above productivity apps are not your type you can easily download apps of your own preference in Play Store.

GPS

SKK Titanium has GPS with A-GPS support and GPS EPO assistance. Using the inbuilt Google Map, I manage to get a satellite lock at around 1 minute, which is quite good (A-GPS and GPS EPO are on). The satellite tracking is also pretty accurate.

GPS Settings

BATTERY:

It is equipped with 2400mAh battery, and I am very satisfied with its performance. It managed to last for more than one day with WiFi connection almost on, normal call and text, few games played and auto sync in the background for my emails and social accounts.

Battery

CONCLUSION: HEAVY METAL

The SKK Mobile Titanium, is not just huge for its size but also heavy for its capabilities. It has a great optic which is comparable to a point and shoot camera, a massive battery that can last for more than a day. It is also capable to simultaneously capture still images and video which is quite rare.

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