SKK Mobile Centaur Unboxing, Preview And Initial Impression

SKK Mobile Centaur Unboxing, Preview And Initial Impression

INTRODUCTION:

SKK Mobile recently released a 5-inch Android smartphone named Centaur, it is powered by a dual core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. This phablet has dual SIM dual standby capability and supports 3G for faster internet connection.

CPU-Z Info

Not all people love big phone, but we cannot deny the fact that more and more consumers appreciate devices with huge screens. The SKK Mobile Centaur wants to capitalize on that idea plus it also have an Analog TV tuner for a reasonable price of Php3,399.


UNBOXING:

Unboxing Video

Retail Package

The box remains similar to the other SKK Mobile devices that we had before, a two-piece cardboard, one that serves as the cover and one that holds the things inside. To open it, just lift the front carton (the one with a picture of the device) and you can now see the unit followed by the battery and other accessories and paper documents.


HARDWARE:

Front

The majority of the front is occupied by the display, below it are the usual capacitive keys while above the screen you can see the earpiece grill and the secondary camera.

Back

The back is covered by a plastic film protecting it from scratches, even the lens of the main camera has it as well.  The Centaur logo is located below the LED flash while the SKK Mobile logo is positioned above the loud speaker grill.

Removable back cover

Removing the back cover will reveal the battery compartment, the regular SIM slot, the micro SIM slot and the micro SD card slot. By the way, the battery has 1800mAh capacity.

Top

Bottom

At the top you can find the 3.5mm audio jack and the Analog TV antenna while the micro USB port and microphone pinhole are located at the bottom.

Left

Right

The left side holds the volume control while the right side has the power/lock key. I do not need to elaborate the design further, most of us know that its look is borrowed from Samsung phones. In terms of build quality, it feels solid, the back cover fits tightly and the controls are tactile. Handling wise, it comfortably sits in my palm and I can use just one hand in most operations like texting.


DISPLAY:

5-point touch

The 5-inch display has FWVGA (854x480) resolution, even though it is made from an ordinary panel it still looks sharp, but with limited viewing angles. It sports 5-point touch which ensures that there will be no touch problem/issue with apps or in playing games.


SENSORS:

Sensors

Both the CPU-Z and Android Sensor Box detect accelerometer, proximity and light sensors. However, when I test them only the first two works. Also, the proximity sensor is in the screen which activate when at least one centimeter is covered (top portion).


BENCHMARKS:

Antutu - 11429

Quadrant - 3518

NenaMark2 - 39.8 fps

Vellamo - 1728 & Metal - 516

The benchmark scores are pretty much the same with the SKK Mobile Mirage S1 mainly because they have almost exact specifications.


INITIAL VERDICT:

The SKK Mobile Centaur is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest 5-inch dual core Android smartphone with 3G capability in the local market with a price tag of Php3,399. The phablet also has an Analog TV tuner which is an added bonus, especially for people who wants to watch their favorite shows on the go.

Specifications:

• Dual SIM Dual Standby, Supports 3G
• 5-inch capacitive FWVGA (854x480) touchscreen display
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 1.3GHz Dual Core Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali-400 GPU, MediaTek MT6572 chipset
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB internal, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD
• 5MP main camera with LED Flash,
• VGA secondary camera
• Multimedia Player
• 3.5 Audio Jack
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Micro USB 2.0
• Bluetooth
• GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance
• 1800mAh Li-Ion battery
• Php3,399