Elephone P8000 Review: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Elephone P8000 Review: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

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We Review the Elephone P8000!

Though it has been making rounds internationally since last year, it was only a week ago that Chinese brand, Elephone, released the rather flashy P8000 via their exclusive partner, Lazada. With some time under our belt as our daily driver, we’re ready to share our thoughts on this striking smartphone and help you decide whether or not to drop your precious dimes on the P8000.

Elephone P8000 specs

  • 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 5.5-inch full HD display, 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 128GB
  • 13-megapixel camera with Samsung sensor, LED flash
  • 5-megapixel front camera
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint scanner
  • Android 5.1 Lollipop
  • 4165mAh battery

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Baby Got Back

Let’s start with the elephant in the room for the Elephone P8000 – the bold pattern on the back. While this may not be for everyone, especially in the Gold variant, it does bring a certain something to the phone that really sets it apart and catches the eye, especially when the rest of the phone’s design language is pretty standard. Not into it? Thankfully, Lazada offers the more subdued Gray variant for something more low key.

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Other than its back cover, one thing you’ll notice on the Elephone P8000 is its considerable heft. Weighing in at 205 grams, you can certainly feel the difference when you first hold the phone in your hand. This, along with the metal frame that runs along its side, gives you the confidence that the device’s build quality surpasses its price point.

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On the front of the phone is, of course, the 5.5-inch IPS LCD Display with the navigation keys located on the bottom of the P8000’s body with the home button illuminated by a blue LED that doubles as a notification light. It is flanked by two dots that serve as its menu and back key. On top are its speaker grills and 5MP Front Camera.

The volume rocker and power key are on the right of the phone, the 3.5mm jack on the top, and the USB port on the bottom.

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Moving along to its back and you have its 13MP Rear Camera and a Fingerprint Scanner that is much smaller than we’re used to seeing. In the tech world, smaller usually means better. However, the fingerprint scanner isn’t as accurate and only unlocks the phone on the first try about half of the time. You can enroll your fingerprint more than once to offset the inaccuracy. Removing the back cover also gives you access to the SIM and Micro SD slots.

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Going back to the 5.5-Inch IPS LCD Display, it has generous viewing angles with enough brightness for use in sunlight and good color reproduction. With Full HD resolution and a pixel density of 401 ppi, it’s definitely not bad for day-to-day use or consuming a ton of videos on your phone. Note that there’s a black border around screen to make the bezels on the side a little thinner.

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A Familiar Processing Package

The P8000 runs on a 1.3 GHZ MediaTek MT6753 Processor, 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 128 GB via Micro SD Card. These specs are definitely something we are all too familiar with, as this is usually the configuration we’ve been seeing on most offerings from local brands, like the Cherry Mobile Flare S4 Plus or the MyPhone My36. Needless to say, it has proven to be a reliable combination. It runs the P8000 smoothly and without any noticeable performance issues, but you may get a few hiccups here and there when running more graphic intensive games.

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Call quality and connectivity were good with no dropped calls. We had a bit of trouble with its GPS and WiFi Connectivity, which had trouble locking on to our location and took ages to connect to the router at HQ. These are things that can be attributed to the modem that’s attached to the MT6753 SoC. The speakers are also a little lacking and are easily drowned out, which may make consuming media or taking calls on speakerphone a bit inconvenient.

Decent Camera with Focus Issues

The Elephone P8000 has a 13MP rear shooter with a Samsung Sensor and LED Flash. It produced good-looking photos, but we did run into problems with its autofocus. It often found the background more interesting than our chosen subject. The 5MP front camera produced good snaps, but it did make us look like fools trying to engage the timer by throwing up peace signs only to manually hit the shutter button in the end.

The camera software itself has pretty standard fanfare but includes a novelty multi-angle option as well.

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Great Battery Life

All that extra heft we talked about earlier is mostly due to the P8000’s 4165 mAH non-removable battery, which gave us all the juice we needed to run errands around Manila without having to hug a wall or pray to the gods that the extra bit was enough to at least make it to the car for a top up. We understand that battery consumption can be very subjective, but we found ourselves – with mobile data on for the greater part of the day using Waze, social media apps, and the occasional YouTube video – at about the 20% mark after 12 hours.

Not too shabby at all.

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The Verdict

The P8000 looks good – though its flashier exterior may not be for everyone, it has a tried and tested processing package and adequate battery life to get you through the day. It gets a lot of things right, but it does have its flaws. The question is: Would you be willing to look past them? We recommend the P8000 for people who are always out in the field, have to make long commutes to and from the office, or simply do not want to be wall huggers. The Elephone P8000 is exclusively available via Lazada and is priced at P7,799.

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