SKK Mobile V2 Review: Very Versatile

SKK Mobile V2 Review: Very Versatile

INTRODUCTION:

The SKK Mobile V2 was released last year and yet, it still of the most popular smartphones from them to date. This may not be a surprise though, since it is their most innovative device so far.

It sports a 5-inch IPS qHD display powered by a 1.3GHz quad core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of ROM. This may not look like a powerhouse, but it has tons of cool features that can hardly be found among its competitor such as the heart rate sensor, eye gesture and guest mode to name a few.

CPU Z

Its original retail price tag was 4,999 pesos, but just last month, they slashed Php1,000 off on its SRP, making it more affordable, thus more attractive to consumers.


UNBOXING:

Unboxing Video

Retail Package

The retail package consists of the unit, battery, charger, USB cable, headset, warranty card and manual.


HARDWARE:

Front

The front is mainly occupied by the display, all the bezels are put into good use, especially the left and right, which are quite thin. Above the screen you have earpiece grill, sensors, notification light and secondary camera. Meanwhile, below the display are the usual menu, home and back capacitive keys.

Back

The back is where you can find the main features of the phone, the rear hardware keys and the heart rate sensors, they are positioned just below and to the right of the main camera respectively. These two innovations came from two different international brands, namely LG and Samsung, but still SKK Mobile managed to combine them in just one device.

Back without cover

The back cover is removable and it is very easy to do so, just start from the slit on the lower edge. Once removed, you will find the regular SIM, micro SIM and micro SD slots together with the generous 2,500mAh battery.

Top

Bottom

Left

Right

The top holds the 3.5mm audio jack while the bottom has the micro USB port, microphone pinhole and loudspeaker grill. Meanwhile, both the sides are kept bare.

The SKK Mobile V2 may be a copycat, but the implementation of the design is quite clean and it really looks nice. To be honest, this is one of the best, if not the best looking SKK Mobile phone. In addition, the placement of the hardware keys at the back plus the silver lining on all sides gives you the impression that it has a unibody.

It is also one of the most compact 5-inch smartphones locally, which makes handling it a lot easier, plus most functions can be done with just using only one hand. In terms of build quality, the cover snaps perfectly and there is no annoying sound when using it.


DISPLAY:

5--point touch

The screen size measures 5 inches diagonally and it has a qHD resolution or 960x540 pixels, which translates to 220 PPI. It may not have an HD screen, but still the display looks pretty sharp and the viewing angles are great too.


SENSORS:

Sensors

On top of the usual accelerometer, proximity and light sensors, it also has an orientation and magnetometer sensors. All of them are working properly and no issue encountered during the test period.


BENCHMARKS:

Antutu

Quadrant

Vellamo

NenaMark2

The benchmark scores are typical for MT6582-powered device with slightly better Antutu result due to lower screen resolution.


INTERFACE:

Start-up

About Phone

Upon first boot or every time you will do a factory reset, it will guide you to series of start-up like setting up the language, time, etc. It runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, but there is a slight glitch on the about phone where it says 4.4.4.

Interface

Much like its outside appearance, the interface is also pretty much the same from that of an LG device. Some examples are; the notification area and quick settings are combined in one place, the apps and widgets are still both located in the app drawer and you can wake the phone by just tapping the screen.


 BASIC FUNCTIONS:

Basic Functions

The basic phone functions such as telephony, call logs and messaging to name a few are all working as they should, no issue or problem encountered during the test period.


MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

Gallery

The gallery housed all the photos and videos on your device in one place, it has built-in photo editor and video trimming apps.

Video Player, Music Player and FM Radio:

Video Player, Music Player and FM Radio

There are two video players installed, both have pretty simple interface and have similar functions, the difference between the stock Android app is that the default player has a floating window feature. By the way, both of them can play different kinds of video container such as .avi, .flv, .mkv, .3g and .mp4. Meanwhile, the music player has the same old UI while the FM radio has some analog tuner genre.

Camera and Video:

Camera and Video

The camera and video share the same interface, their shutter buttons are placed side by side at the lower part of the UI. In addition, you can use the lower volume key to take photos. The shooting mode includes normal, HDR, panorama and face beauty.

Sample Photos:

Day Shot

Day Shot1

Day Shot2

Day Shot3

100%  Crop

Night without flash

Night with flash

Night with HDR

The camera can shoot photos of up to 8MP resolution, the images produced can be regarded as normal. The resolved details can be rated as slightly below average, if you take a look at the cropped sample, the writings on the billboard are not that clear. In addition, the images are slightly under exposed and the colors are a bit washed out. Meanwhile, using HDR improves the overall output quality.

Sample Videos:

Sample Video - 1080p

The camera can record videos up to 1080p resolution, around 45 seconds of video consumes about 93MB of storage space. The quality is generally good with little to no stuttering.

Browsers:

Stock browser

Opera Mini

There are two browsers installed, the stock Android app and Opera Mini. Both loads almost everything fast and has distinct features of their own. If one of these is your preferred browser, then it is good for you, but if you need something else, you can simply get one from the Play Store.

Gaming:

Asphalt 7

Dungeon Hunter 4

Dead Trigger 2

Playing games are generally smooth, although I encountered some slow down on Dead Trigger 2 when the screen is populated by lots of zombies. Nonetheless, playing is still enjoyable.

Storage and Install Location

One let down though, is that the games and apps in general are not movable to SD card. This limits the number of games you can install since total available storage is only 6.08GB.


CONNECTIVITY:

Connectivity

The connectivity features include dual SIM dual standby with 3G capability, which can be shared via tethering or portable hotspot. Of course, WiFi is on board and it is stable and reliable. It also has wireless display, Bluetooth and the 3.5mm audio jack is CTIA compliant. What is missing though is the USB OTG function.


PRODUCTIVITY:

Productivity

The pre-installed productivity tools include calculator, calendar, clock, file manager, to do and sound recorder. There is no file viewer or editor, but you can simply download one from the Play Store.


GPS:

GPS

The phone also has GPS with A-GPS, based on our test it managed to get satellite lock in around 30 seconds with an accuracy of about 16 feet.


BATTERY STATS:

Battery Stats

I used it as my secondary phone and most of the time it is just on standby mode, very few texts and only a few minutes of calls per day. With this kind of usage, it lasted for more than five days. Meanwhile, during our video loop test, it managed to impress us with more than 6 hours and 40 minutes of continuous playback before the battery warning came out.


 OTHERS:
 

Heart Rate Sensor

As mentioned earlier, the SKK Mobile V2 has a heart rate sensor on its back. It is not as accurate when compared to a dedicated medical tool, but it is close enough to reality. In my case, it is supposed to be 80 beats per minute and the phone reads about 73-75BPM.

Guest Mode

The guest mode allows the user to have two independent interfaces. To start using it, you need to set the screen lock to pattern lock, wherein you need to encode two different patterns, one for each interface. Once activate, you will see a totally different interface than your regular/original UI, plus it hides sensitive information as well as downloaded apps.

Air Gesture

It also has several "air gesture" features, namely air browse, air call-accept, smart screen, palm motion and quick entry. The first two makes good use of your hand, wherein the phone responds or performs a command when you wave your hand on the screen. The third one bypass the orientation sensor, instead it aligns the screen based on your eyes. Meanwhile, the palm motion allows you to do a snapshot by swiping across the display using three fingers. Lastly, the quick entry gives you additional ways to interact with your phone when it is in sleep mode, such as double tap to wake or draw letters to activate apps.

SKK Mobile, Easy Shop and PlayApp

Compass, LED Indicator, Wireless Update

Facebook, Twitter and Viber

Google Apps

SIM Toolkit, Search and Downloads

Other applications installed are SKK Mobile hub, EasyShop, PlayApp, Compass, Facebook, Twitter, Viber, several Google apps, SIM Toolkit, Search and Downloads. You can also find under the system settings the option to turn on/off the LED notification light. Wireless update is also present and last month, a software update was received and successfully installed.


CONCLUSION:

The SKK Mobile V2 is one of the most innovative devices we have seen from the local brand. It is very versatile, fluid and has tons of useful features, not to mention good looking too.

PROS:

Quad core processor
1GB of RAM
Nice design
Premium build quality
Heart rate sensor
Above average battery life
Air gesture
Guest mode

CONS:

Still camera is less than stellar
No USB OTG
Apps cannot be moved to SD card

Specifications:

• Quad band 2G, dual band 3G
• Dual SIM (regular+micro), dual standby
• 5-inch IPS qHD (960x540) capacitive touchscreen display
• Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• 1.3GHz Quad Core Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali-400MP2 GPU, MediaTek MT6582 chipset
• 1GB of RAM
• 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 64GB via micro SD
• 8MP auto focus main camera with LED flash
• 5MP 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 v4.0
• Sensor: accelerometer, light, proximity, orientation, magnetometer
• 2500mAh battery
• Price: Php3,999