SKK Mobile Extreme Review: Severely Radical

SKK Mobile Extreme

 INTRODUCTION:

Android tablets come in many sizes, those from the local brands are mostly 7-inch or 8-inch, we seldom see devices go beyond those sizes. The reasons for this could vary from company to company, but, SKK Mobile believes that there are still people out there who wanted a bigger tablet.

With high credence, they test the market by releasing the SKK Mobile Extreme, a 10-inch tablet powered by a 1.3GHz dual core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. There is also a 4GB of internal storage which can be increased by stuffing your device with a micro SD card of up to 32GB.

It also supports dual SIM dual standby with full phone functionality and high speed mobile internet connectivity via 3G. To make their offering more attractive, they also equipped it with an 8MP main shooter on the back, a VGA camera in front plus an Analog TV tuner and a 6000mAh Li-Po battery. To make the deal sweeter, they also include a free screen protector and an OTG cable in the retail package.

CPU-Z Info

>>SKK Mobile Extreme Unboxing, 10-inch 3G Tablet With Phone Functionality


HARDWARE:

Front

The front is mainly occupied with the gargantuan screen, the bezels around it are almost of the same size. The capacitive or hardware keys are no where to be found in the front frame, all you can see there is the secondary camera (located where my index finger is).

Back

The back is made of glossy plastic which is a dirt and fingerprint magnet. On the upper left corner you will find the 8MP main camera accompanied by an LED flash, to its left is the only removable part of the tablet which serves as the cover for the micro SD and SIM slots.

The model logo is located in the middle while the company logo is placed just above the NTC markings near the bottom. By the way, the back has a plastic film installed, which protects your device from unwanted scratches.

Left

Right

All the hardware controls (power key and volume rocker) are located on the right, there is nothing on the left side.

Top

Bottom

The top houses the wired connectivity which includes the 3.5mm audio jack and the micro USB port. The Analog TV antenna can also be found at the top on the right corner. The bottom is where you can find the loudspeaker grill.

This tablet is really big, however, its rectangular shape made it possible to grasp it with just one hand. I do not know exactly its weight, but for sure you need both of your hands most of the time operating it.


DISPLAY:

5-point touch

The capacitive screen supports 5-point touch and has a WSVGA (1024 by 600) resolution, which is the same with its smaller sibling SKK Mobile Cyclops 2. The display has a screen protector installed, which is really nice to have because the screen has no protective glass and  buying a separate plastic film would cost you about 200 pesos or more.


SENSOR:

Sensor

The only sensor inside the Extreme is the accelerometer, it works just fine and the device is responsive enough when shifting from landscape to portray mode. There is no light sensor which means that you need to adjust the screen brightness manually.


BENCHMARKS:

Antutu - 12579

Quadrant - 4129

NenaMark2 - 57.3 fps

Vellamo HTML - 1863 & Metal - 491

The tablet has 512MB of RAM and draws its power from MediaTek MT6582 which has a dual core Cortex-A7 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz each and Mali-400 GPU. The scores you see above are similar to the Cyclops 2 since they have almost the same specification.

 

 

When compared to other dual core devices that we reviewed, it swept all the competitions on all categories. This is quite impressive, especially that it has a bigger screen with higher resolution than the devices listed above.


INTERFACE:

Lockscreen

The lockscreen is the typical Jelly Bean style wherein there is a padlock icon inside a circle and you can drag it anywhere to unlock the device.

Homescreen

The homescreen follows the orientation of your tablet, there are five favorite shortcuts at the bottom of the screen just above the on-screen keys. The middle always opens the app drawer while the two icons on each side can be allocated to apps you usually use.

Default Apps

Default Widgets

There are 34 apps installed by default, none of them can be removed without the root access, they are arranged in 5 rows by 6 columns. The default widgets on the other hand, consist of five pages with up to six widgets per page.

Notification Area and Quick Toggle Settings

The notification area can be accessed by swiping the left-upper part of the screen while the quick toggle settings can be found by dragging your finger on the right-upper portion. The former holds all types of notifications and the options you can do with it, example, a screenshot can be shared in an instant without going to gallery. The latter gives you the ease of turning on/off common settings without the hassle of going to the system settings.


PERFORMANCE:

Note: The Extreme is basically a larger version of the SKK Mobile Cyclops II, to avoid being redundant in some parts of my review those portions with similarity with its smaller sibling are not included here. However, rest assured that all those parts have been thoroughly checked and found no issue at all, everything works as they should be.

If you need to read the basics like Dual SIM Functionality, Telephony, Phonebook, Messaging, Email, etc., please kindly visit the link below:

>>SKK Mobile Cyclops II Review: All The Basics

Video Playback:

Video Playback Samples

The table uses stock video player, it can play different types of videos (.avi, .mp4, .3gp, .mov, .mp4, .flv and .mkv) however, those with AC3 audio will be played without any sound.

Camera:

Sample Shots - Day

Sample Shots - Day_1

The main camera can shoot up to 8MP still and 1080p videos at 30fps. There is no auto focus function, actually you can touch the screen to focus, but when you do, nothing happens. The pictures produced by the camera are below average for an 8MP sensor, some details are not captured properly and the colors are a bit washed out.

Gaming:

Asphalt 7

Modern Combat 4

I installed Asphalt 7 and Modern Combat 4, both of them are highly playable, smooth and no issue. When you insert an SD card in your device, it will become your default storage, which means you can install games and application with larger files.

Connectivity:

WiFi

The SKK Extreme, supports dual SIM dual standby and dual 3G, this means that you can assign which SIM card will have the ability to have high speed mobile internet connectivity. The WiFi 802.11 b/g/n is also on board, signal reception is good, almost no drop signal even if you are in a closed room.

It also has USB On-the-go function and you will be glad because there is a free OTG cable in the retail package, wireless mouse and flash drive were both detected and worked fine. It can also charge other devices such as mobile phones. Other connectivity includes 3.5mm audio jack and Bluetooth.

GPS:

GPS

The tablet has GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance, I was able to get instant satellite lock when I used GPS Test.

Battery:

Battery Stats

The SKK Mobile Extreme is equipped with 6000mAh battery, and during the battery test, it give us a very impressive results - more than 11 hours of full HD video playback and more than 7 hours of HD gaming.

Charging Time

Having a huge battery capacity means long charging time, based on my test (I used the charger in the package with 2000mAh rated output) it took 6 hours and 45 minutes to fully charge from 15%. I repeat the test when it is fully discharged and it took 8 hours and 10 minutes (picture above) to complete the charging period.


CONCLUSION:

If you are looking for a 10-inch tablet with all around functionality, SKK Mobile Extreme is definitely an option to look at. It supports dual SIM dual standby with full phone functionality plus 3G capability, it can play 1080p video, it can play HD games, has an Analog TV tuner and the battery is the best among the devices I have reviewed in the past.

PROS:

Rich retail package
Can play HD videos and games
Can charge other devices
Impressive battery life

CONS:

Below average camera performance
Poor sunlight legibility


Specifications:

• Dual SIM , Dual Standby
• 10" capacitive TFT WSVGA (1024x600) touchscreen display, 5-point multi-touch
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 1.3GHz Dual Core Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali-400 GPU MediaTek MT6582 chipset
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB internal, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
• 8MP main camera with LED flash
• VGA (2MP in Antutu) secondary camera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance
• 3.5 Audio Jack
• Stereo FM Radio
• Analog TV
• MP3/MP4 Player
• Micro USB 2.0 with OTG Support
• Bluetooth
• Sensors: Accelerometer
• Battery: 6000mAh Li-Po
• Price: Php6,999