A few months ago we gave you an early look at CloudFone’s budget, fingerprint and LTE packing Thrill Access, and we walked away impressed. Based on what we saw during our brief stint with the phone, it had the potential to become a fast seller provided CloudFone priced it correctly. Today we’ve finally gotten our hands on the final, retail device, and with a price tag of just Php 4,999, we have no doubt that the phone will fly off the shelves.

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

Packaging and contents:

Despite being marketed as a budget phone, the Thrill Access comes in a very unbudget-like black box that hides the phone and its other accessories within.

The inside of the box also masks the budget nature of the phone, being a tad nicer than the ones in similar budget devices.

Inside the box you’ll see the phone itself, along with a pair of Spotify-branded headphones, USB cable and a USB charger, as well as two freebies: a silicone case and a screen protector.

Second impressions: A beautiful phone with a very accurate fingerprint scanner

We’ve seen the Thrill Access before, but there’s no harm in going over it again. Let’s start with the body: the phone packs a very nice looking outer metal shell that’s a combination of both metal and plastic.

The outer shell isn’t completely metal as only the back is metal while the sides, top and bottom are plastic. Nevertheless, the phone looks more expensive than it truly is, rivaling the more expensive offerings of other local brands on looks alone.

Once you do take off that nice back though, you’ll see that the Thrill Access is pretty much like other budget phones in terms of its internal construction. You’ll also see the twin SIM slots, as well the as the microSD expansion slot, and the non-removable 2500mAh battery. You’ll also spot the circular, 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, along with the speaker grill.

Up front you’ll see the 5-inch HD IPS display, the 5-megapixel front camera and the physical home key that houses the fingerprint scanner. There’s no capacitive keys flanking the fingerprint scanner though – the phone uses on-screen Android keys for navigation.

The volume rocker and the power button is on the right, while the USB port and 3.5mm jack is on the bottom and top, respectively.

As far as the fingerprint scanner goes, it’s pretty accurate though unlocking the phone from sleep takes a bit longer than we’re used to. If we have to guess, you’re looking at an unlock speed of around half a second from the time you put your finger on the phone’s fingerprint sensor till the screen actually wakes up and the phone unlocks. You can also program different apps to open when you use certain digits. You can, for example, program the scanner to open Facebook with your left pinky finger and open the camera with your right pinky finger, and so on and so forth.

The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, though CloudFone has elected to use a UI that does not have an app drawer. The phone also comes with a few pre-installed apps, but nothing major, which means there’s quite a bit of the 16GB of storage space left for the user to fill up.

Inside the Thrill Access beats the heart of MediaTek’s quad-core MT6735 processor, paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. We already have a good read of the performance of the venerable MT6735 processor, so its AnTuTu scores did not come as a surprise. The processor is good enough to power the phone for daily use and some light to moderate gaming but expect things to get choppier in more graphically intense games.

That’s pretty much if for this unboxing, expect the review of the Thrill Access in the days to come.