Hello,
I'm considering the Elephone G5 for my wife. Has anyone had the pleasure of using this phone already?
Is it really true that the headset port is 2,5mm as outlined on
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Primary reason for choosing this phone are the following requirements:
- 1280x720 resolution
- Gorilla glass
- 13 MP camera
- Relatively high capacity battery (3020 mAh)
- Android 4.4 based
Any thoughts for other phones (in the same price range) is much appreciated...
Thanks
I have no experience with Elephone other than wanting one for a very long time because of their cool logo. I wish I had more insight to offer.
It costs a bit more, but I'd recommend also checking out the Doogee DG550. It has similar specs, but I've seen some outstanding support from Doogee lately. This phone has been reviewed favorably by many. I bought one for my dad, and he seems pretty thrilled with it. The biggest thing the extra dough buys you is customer support, a better processor, and an extra 8GB of on-board storage (which is a pretty awesome thing to have with KitKat). Your biggest tradeoff is a smaller battery. If it were me, that's the direction I'd go.
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That said, I'd love to hear your review on a G5 if you got one. Spec-wise it seems like a solid phone for the money.
(2014-10-21, 02:17)WuddaWaste Wrote: [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]
That said, I'd love to hear your review on a G5 if you got one. Spec-wise it seems like a solid phone for the money.
I don't read the DG550 to have 4.4 (KitKat) from stock. Is it available as an update? Other than that, I agree to you that it looks like a very valid alternative considering the faster CPU and storage.
Thanks - will definitely post a decent review given that I end up with the Elephone G5.
Yes sir. Doogee has released KitKat for the DG550 and has been pretty awesome about keeping everyone in the loop about their latest software.
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Have you ever flashed a ROM yourself?
(2014-10-22, 00:21)WuddaWaste Wrote: [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]
Have you ever flashed a ROM yourself?
Okay, great. Will look at it again and evaluate. Yep, have flashed several ROMs before.
I guess back in the budget range (and a more fair comparison), there's also the Doogee DG580.
Coupon code dealy in this link:
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Link to phone in this link:
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Very, very similar feature set to what you'd described already in the Elephone G5. Smaller battery, but better support and lower cost.
Hope that helps to muddy up the decision further. (sorry)
Received the Elephone G5 yesterday. Quick review follows....
All in all: works just fine. It is indeed a big phone and with the 5,5" screen I don't regret that it's 1280x720 resolution; a lower resolution would have looked strange.
The phone comes with glass-shield attached already and there was an extra in the box as well. Very beautifull attached I must say, I usually end up with small air bulbs, but this was perfectly installed. It's gorilla glass and the sensitive is as good as expected.
It's quadcore and very fast. The stock ROM (4.4.2) is AOSP-based as far as I can conclude and available as download on elephone.hk (
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It's rooted and Super SU is pre-installed.
The headset jack is 3,5" -
NOT 2,5" as it says on many specs. I've seen around.
Cons:
Battery-life is not outstanding. It's only 2550 mAh and with everyday use there's only juice for around one day. I've found 3200 mAh batteries around the net and will try to order one of these to beef it up a little.
Google Play Store was installed and worked out of the box. I do, though, have a few apps that I cannot install due to missing compatibility according to Play Store. I assume this will be resolved over time, but I couldn't even cheat by using Market Helper or install the APK files manually, I can only conclude that there must really be something special in the CPU / driver pack on this phone. An example of an app with compatibility issues are the Google + app and a bunch of danish locale apps.
There's a
really annoying loud startup sound in the stock ROM. Since the phone is rooted it's a 2 second operation to remove it via the "Silent boot"-app, but it's beyond me why Elephone added this....
Bought it from Gearbest, but available in many shops around the net...
Can I recommend it? Yes, absolutely. It's a very decent alternative to the One Phone Plus and certaintly the established brands. And for ~$125 this is a really impressive phone!
Feel free to pose any questions, I'll try to answer as good as possible.
Hi magicx, I have a G5 too, and I agree with your overall impression, about battery life I get a full day with more than 3 hours of screen use, 2 sim cards in use and wifi always on, so enough for me.
The charging time is long, so I let the phone charging by night and when I wake up it has just finished, so no special overcharging happens.
The worst thing to me is the incompatibility problem with some apps, as you state, but I have managed to solve it quite easy, I made a cwm recovery with mtkdroidtools and installed it. Then through this recovery I installed a 4..4.2 version of gapps, not the nexus stock, as this turns your camera useless, but the full one, and now all the apps that did not install work perfect now, and they are avalaible at the play store also. The gapps included with the rom only include play store, so this shortage of google libraries make some software not running. As I have told, installing a bigger set of gapps solves the problem.
The only problem I actually have is with titanium backup not working, I cannot restore my backups, but there must be some trick to solve it, because I have managed in my tests to make it work. Somehow though I reverted the situation and I cannot use it now. I have to figure out what the answer is to this.
So now I have already got rid of my thl w200s, and I am quite happy with this G5, the screen size is definetely a must, the slimness of the phone, and good behaviour of battery are reasons for the change.
Although the camera is not as good as thl w200s, it is good enough for most of my use, although I still have to find the best settings .
This phone does not have compass, it is a problem for me, but w200s compass worked quite badly, so at least, now I know I have no compass, and don't get misled with the bad readings w200s did.
Of course I don't miss the 4 extra cores of w200s, the phone is fast enough, and I have a better autonomy now and my battery does not die in 4 months as happens with every w200s because of bad design and overcharging.
I also changed EBR to increase apps intalling space to 3 gB through flashtools using the rom backup I previously made.
So I recommend this phone after my one week everyday use experience.
The screen is gorgeous, although a little less brighter than thl.
(2014-11-26, 01:46)elsita Wrote: [ -> ]The worst thing to me is the incompatibility problem with some apps, as you state, but I have managed to solve it quite easy, I made a cwm recovery with mtkdroidtools and installed it. Then through this recovery I installed a 4..4.2 version of gapps, not the nexus stock, as this turns your camera useless, but the full one, and now all the apps that did not install work perfect now, and they are avalaible at the play store also. The gapps included with the rom only include play store, so this shortage of google libraries make some software not running. As I have told, installing a bigger set of gapps solves the problem.
Are you saying that CWM recovery and a new gapps ruined your camera or? I'm not sure I follow...
Thanks
Cwm recovery is harmless, I tried to install a full set of gapps to solve the google plus and other apps problem, but the full stock set from nexus phones replaces the camera libraries and also the keyboard and eliminates the stock browser, so the camera does not work anymore.
I solved this flashing system with spflashtools from the backup I have previously made with mtkdroidtools.
After this failure I installed through cwm the full pack, this pack does not change camera, browser neither keyboard. And this time everything worked fine, camera, google plus and any other app I tried that did not work before.
I would link the pack I used but I cannot find it from my pc, but surely it won't be difficult to find, only remember you must look the pack for 4.4.2.
As for the recovery I made with mtkdroidtools, it displays upside down, so you must turn your phone and use the buttons carefully as they work in the opposite direction, and ok button is on the opposite side of the phone, but you get used to it.
The other possibility is to install the stock rom with full gapps that you can find in needrom, you use spft to do this, I have not tried it but I think it should work the same.