We go hands-on with CloudFone’s unreleased Thrill Access

CloudFone impressed us with their new batch of smartphones revealed earlier this year, which is coincidentally when the company got new direction courtesy of new executives. Their Excite Prime is still selling like hotcakes in their stores, and the local company is looking to build on that momentum with a new batch of devices set to be released in Q2. One of those devices is the CloudFone Thrill Access, a budget handset that has a fingerprint scanner, 5-inch display and a metal body and more importantly, a fingerprint scanner.

CloudFone Thrill Access specs

• 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6735 quad-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 16GB of expandable storage
• 8-megapixel rear camera with AF and LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera with LED flash
• Dual SIM
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint scanner
• 2500mAh battery
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Initial impressions: a new twist on the fingerprint scanner

Just like their first wave of smartphones this year, CloudFone’s Thrill Access sports a metal exterior. It looks impressive, feels premium to the hands even though the phone isn’t completely made out of metal. Only the outer shell of the Thrill Access is made out of metal, which covers the plastic and glass innards of the phone from the elements.

On the front of the phone sits the 5-inch HD IPS display, as well as the fingerprint scanner that’s positioned right below. The phone uses on-screen Android navigation keys so there’s nothing on either side of the fingerprint scanner. Going through the rest of the buttons, you’ll see the power and volume rocker on the right, while the 3.5mm jack and USB port are on the top and bottom, respectively. The phone has an 8-megapixel rear camera with AF and LED flash. Surprisingly enough, the front facing 5-megapixel selfie camera has a flash attached to it.

Like we said earlier, the phone uses a removable metal shell that reveals the plastic frame of the device.

Interestingly, the fingerprint scanner on the front of the Thrill Access not only unlocks the phone (CloudFone says it has a fast half a second unlock time) but opens up specific apps depending on the finger you use to unlock it with. You can program your right thumb, for example, to open Spotify while your right thumb can launch the camera app right away. You can also lock specific apps with your fingerprint so no one except you can open them, which adds an extra layer of privacy to your device.

The Thrill Access is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor, paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. Android Marshmallow is present right out of the box, though the Thrill Access apparently does away with the app drawer. This isn’t a one-off thing – all of CloudFone’s newer devices will have this setup moving forward, which kind of bums us out as we’re really not a fan of this setup.

CloudFone has not given us specifics on the SRP of this device, but from what we can see it’s destined to become a part of their budget lineup. If the company manages to put 5K – 6K price tag on this particular device, it has the potential to become another sleeper hit just like their Excite Prime. One can only hope.