A new version of the Rio is out. Here’s how to see if you’re getting the new one

When we reviewed the MyPhone Rio almost a month ago, we declared it the new king of budget quad-core smartphones. It’s attractive price and solid specs merited such accolades, though it was far from perfect. Apparently MyPhone issued another version of the Rio which fixes many of the issues that we had with it, though since the device is nearly identical to the old version, people looking to buy the new version may have a bit of trouble distinguishing the two. Here’s a few things to look out for:

Box:

Both the old and new version of the MyPhone Rio has exactly the same packaging. The first clue that you’re getting a new device is if you check the bottom of the box near the IMEI information. There’s V1 right above the text that says Made by MyPhone.

Unit:

Much like the box, the new version of the MyPhone Rio looks almost exactly the same as the previous one, save for a simple addition on the case. On the upper right of the display (with the phone facing you) there’s a small indent on the plastic case that allows you to take it off easier, without chipping off the paint on the plastic shell.

 

UI:

MyPhone’s done a slight revamp of the UI in the Rio. Instead of their traditional wallpaper that has the MyPhone logo on it on a dark blue background, the new version of the Rio has a brown thatched background with a couple of widgets already installed.

The icons on the new version has been changed as well.

Software:

The most definitive way of checking whether the Rio that you’re holding is the second version is by checking the software information. To do this, you simply go to settings, then scroll down and select about phone. Two pieces of information should clue you in if you’re holding the newest version of the Rio: the Kernel Version (it should be H03 instead of H02) and the Custom Build Version (V1.06 instead of V1.11-pre OTA).

Like we said before, the new version of the MyPhone Rio fixes many of the issues that we had with the first batch of devices. Things like the laggy YouTube experience and laggy navigation has been fixed with the newest version. Of course, early adopters of the Rio aren’t left out – the company has also released an OTA for the first batches of the Rio, which fixed some of the software issues (but not all). Checking our new version, the company also seems to have sent a similar OTA update for it which also addresses the SD card installation problem.