MyPhone Agua Infinity Review: One of the Best Octa-Cores in the Market Today

MyPhone Agua Infinity Review: One of the Best Octa-Cores in the Market Today

Our full review of the MyPhone Agua Infinity!
Our full review of the MyPhone Agua Infinity!

MyPhone’s First Octa-core Offering Reviewed

MyPhone definitely took their sweet time in coming up with an octa-core powered smartphone. Other brands already had a product out a few months back. Their decision to wait though turned out to be a great decision since based on our testing this is arguably one of the best in the field to date.

Here are the specifications again for your reference.

MyPhone Infinity specs

  • 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor
  • Mali 450MP GPU
  • 2GB RAM
  • 5-inch IPS full HD display, Corning Gorilla Glass 2, 1080×1920 resolution
  • 16GB internal storage, non-expandable
  • 16-megapixel main camera, with autofocus and LED flash
  • 8-megapixel front camera
  • Dual SIM, dual standby
  • 3G, HSPA+
  • Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, USB OTG
  • 2350mAh battery
  • Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
  • SRP: Php12,999

>>> See Also: MyPhone Agua Infinity Unboxing and Initial Review

Priced at Php12,999, the MyPhone Agua Infinity is one of the more affordable octa-core devices out there. Granted there are more cheaper ones below Php10,000, they sport generic plastic shells and lower-end displays. The Infinity doesn’t make any compromises with the hardware and design.

The Illegitimate Kid of the iPhone and Sony Xperia?

Like what we mentioned in our initial hands-on post, the MyPhone Agua Infinity takes a lot of inspiration from the more popular iPhone from Apple and the Xperia Z by Sony. The most striking feature with the design and the hardware is the dual-glass panel set-up (similar to the Xperia Z).

Front and back covered by glass
Front and back covered by glass

While the glass set-up looks amazing, it does have some issues. For one there’s a tendency for dirt to get stuck in between the glass and the crevices of the sides of the phone. Next the panels are just crazy fingerprint smudge magnets. If you’re the OC type make sure you have a case for the back or always pack a cleaning cloth with you.

Along the sides of the device we found two micro-SIM card trays which can be opened via a pin key included in the box. There are also three black ceramic covered buttons for the power lock and volume controls. Micro-USB port and speaker grill were at the bottom while the headphone jack was at the usual spot on top.

The dreaded iPhone 4 antenna gate line
The dreaded iPhone 4 antenna gate line

The MyPhone Infinity also uses the same metallic band antenna set-up as the iPhone 4. While doing this lets the phone be very thin, compact, and portable, it also has an issue. If you cover the line on the upper left side you’ll actually lose signal. Fortunately this will only be a problem if you don’t use a case or if you have big hands that can cover the sides if you don’t. It’s not that much of a problem though like the iPhone 4 since the MyPhone Agua Infinity sports a bigger 5.0-inch display which puts the line out of the usual palm size. In short you’ll only experience the dead signal if you intentionally cover it.

Over-all when it comes to hardware and design, it boils down to personal preference. If you like aluminum clad devices then there are other octa-core phones out there for you. However if you’d like something incredibly slim with dual-glass layers, then the MyPhone Agua Infinity is definitely your top pick from the current crop of octa-core smartphones.

Octa-core Through and Through

MyPhone Infinity c

The MyPhone Infinity’s octa-core processor and 2GB RAM can power through pretty much everything you throw at it. We tried a variety of apps including the usual ones like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mail, Messaging, Calendar, Dropbox, and more. All of them worked without any issues. For the more hardcore apps like games, the MyPhone Infinity was also able to hold its own. We played a bunch of games from GameLoft (mostly characters from the Avengers) and the usual testing game titles like Dead Trigger 2, Wild Blood, and Bard’s Tale.

Gaming beast.
Gaming beast.
Don't forget to follow us @unboxph
Don’t forget to follow us @unboxph

The gorgeous full HD 5.0-inch display of the phone truly shines when you do movies, browsing, or gaming. However just like other octa-core powered smartphones with full HD displays, it still suffers from minor lags and delays. This is, in all honesty, crazy frustrating because you’d think that by having 8 cores already you could eliminate lag from full HD displays. Apparently that’s not the case yet and we’ll just have to wait for MediaTek to come up with a more powerful processor soon.

Camera: MyPhone Finally Nails It

We’ve always been very critical of the quality of the cameras used by MyPhone. We weren’t happy with the quality of the photo output with their earlier flagships like the Iceberg, Vortex, and even the Iceberg Mini. It looks like they finally nailed it though with the camera module in the Infinity!

Here are some sample shots for your reference. We took these in not-so-good lighting conditions and they still turned out pretty nice. Hopefully MyPhone uses the same (or even better) camera module with their succeeding smartphones.

Meet our ragdoll cat, Phoebe!
Meet our ragdoll cat, Phoebe!
Meet our persian cat, Tiffy!
Meet our persian cat, Tiffy!
War Machine die-cast 1/6th scale figure
War Machine die-cast 1/6th scale figure
FOODS!
FOODS!

Two thumbs up MyPhone!

All the Other Stuff

Here’s a quick rundown of the other observations we had about the phone. Note that we used this as one of our main smartphones in the last two weeks.

  • Battery life was average. We got around 8-9 hours with 3G/HSPA+ on. Much longer without it. Nothing really special.
  • External speakers were a bit weak.
  • Call quality was great. Other line was very clear almost all the time.
  • Lack of micro SD was a bummer but the USB OTG option was very helpful. Great when we wanted to watch movies from our hard drive.
  • The camera module protudes forward too much. Better to have a case for this. Fortunately you get two free ones (flip and back).

Verdict: A Very Strong Octa-core Contender

Ayus!
Ayus!

The MyPhone Infinity delivers everything you can get from an octa-core smartphone in an elegantly crafted body. It’s the type of phone that can turn heads and can have people scratching their heads when you tell them it’s a local brand. Even better is the fact that priced at Ph12,999 it’s very competitive against other octa-core smartphones.

Our only gripe with it is really something that MyPhone can’t fix yet. The MediaTek octa-core processor just can’t flawlessly and fully handle full HD displays. There’s no getting around the fact that we’ve tried and tested almost all the octa-core smartphones out there and that all of them with full HD displays suffer from the same problem.

So yes, MediaTek, we’re looking at you. Please come up with an even more powerful processor that can handle Full HD. If not then we would encourage local companies to start shopping around for alternatives for their next flagship.

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