The much-rumored MyPhone Infinity took its sweet time coming here. A couple of local brands have already debuted their octa-core offerings, so the Infinity is a little late to the party. Still, there’s such a thing as being fashionably late, assuming of course that the MyPhone Infinity is worth the wait. But is it?
Thankfully, I was able to get some hands on time with the octa-core superphone at the SMX Convention Center. And not just any ordinary MyPhone Infinity, but the personal unit of Mr. Jaime Alcantara, the President of MyPhone himself! Anyway, here’s my full hands on review of MyPhone’s latest smartphone offering.
Build Quality and Design
The MyPhone Infinity is one of those phones that will have you doing a double-take. Why? Because it’s just so gorgeous! The Infinity features a glass finish similar to the crystalline pattern of the Optimus G and the Nexus 4 and it has a vaguely iPhone-esque shape to it.
Above the screen, you’ll find the earpiece, front camera and light/proximity sensors, while below it are the 3 capacitive navigation buttons: menu, home and back.
On the left, is a lone pop-out micro SIM tray.
On the right is another micro SIM tray, since this is a dual SIM phone. There’s also the power/lock button and volume rocker.
On top, there’s the 3.5mm headset jack.
At the bottom is a microphone pinhole, micro USB port, and loudspeaker grill.
At the back is the 16mp camera, flash, MyPhone branding toward the middle, and Infinity branding toward the bottom.
The crystalline pattern of the glass absolutely screams premium, but it’s very prone to smudging from fingerprints and the like. Also, the camera module is quite large and as a result, it actually protrudes quite a distance from the back of the phone. You’ll definitely want to protect the Infinity with a case, if only to keep from scratching the camera.
The Screen
The MyPhone Infinity features a 5 inch Full HD IPS display protected by Gorilla Glass 2. The folks from MyPhone were quite secretive about the specs despite making it available for me to play around with it, so I can’t say for sure if the display is an OGS screen (one glass solution). However, the distance between the actual display panel and the surface of the glass was very minimal.
Image quality was impressive. The clarity resulting from the 441ppi and awesome color reproduction that IPS panels are known for really shone through. Viewing angles were also very nice, with hardly any whitewashing except at the most extreme angles.
Software and UI
According to the folks from MyPhone, the unit I was reviewing was running test software. Still, it was close enough to the final release software and featured much of what we can expect to see on the actual MyPhone Infinity once it starts rolling out in stores.
The Infinity runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box. It’s not too heavily customized, although it uses the same Start Lockscreen (formerly called Active Lockscreen) that’s been used on the Iceberg and Iceberg Mini. As of writing, there’s no word when it will upgraded to KitKat, but MyPhone is in talks with MediaTek so they can hopefully get that taken care of.
The functionality outside of Active Lockscreen is pretty much close to vanilla Android, although there’s a ton of partner apps like Line, Pouch, and TARA. The TARA anti-theft app is probably my favorite since it acts as a kill switch that you can call in and disable the phone in case it gets lost or stolen, rendering it useless. Pouch is a very interesting rewards program that’s partnered with 45 different establishments ranging from health/beauty to restaurants. Hopefully, they can be uninstalled though since not everyone will use them.
Camera
What I’ve noticed from many local brands is that the camera app remains largely untouched, so what we tend to get is the stock Android camera experience. MyPhone offers something different though. In addition to the basic options you get from the stock app, there are also cool features like Cinemagraph, 360 Panorama, and Object Eraser.
Also, Mr. Alcantara told me that they tweaked the actual shutter speed of the MyPhone Infinity. It’s much faster than you would typically expect, making it great for action shots. However, that also means it won’t be as good in low light since the shutter isn’t open long enough to capture what limited light is available in those kinds of shots.
Performance
The MyPhone Infinity is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor coupled with a Mali 450 GPU. That’s the most powerful SoC currently available with any local brand and provides close to the same performance of many of last year’s flagship phones. Don’t believe me? Here’s the benchmarks to prove it.
The MyPhone Infinity scored a whopping 26,825 in Antutu while it scored an impressive 57.1fps in Nenamark 2. To put things in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One score somewhere in that area while the highest that any mainstream phone has scored in Antutu is the newly announced Samsung Galaxy S5, which scored 34,696 in an early test.
First Impressions
Before anything else, keep in mind that the unit I reviewed at the event was running prototype software that might get tweaked here and there before the MyPhone Infinity is officially released to the public. With that little disclaimer out of the way, the underlying crystalline pattern of the glass is something I never expected to see on a local phone. Yes, it’s a total smudge magnet, but LG was very proud of the similar finish that they achieved with the Optimus G and Nexus 4. The MyPhone Infinity is a little different, but the effect is pretty much the same.
There are a couple of design flaws that I did observe though. Because the power/lock button and volume rocker are positioned on the same side of the phone, performing a screenshot is several times more cumbersome than the typical layout where these two buttons are on either side of the phone. Also, the camera sticks out like way too much to use it without a case. It’s a genuine 16mp shooter after all, so the camera module is quite large. Thankfully, MyPhone will bundle a free flip cover, as well as a snap-on back cover to help protect the phone and camera.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about this phone. The premium Nexus 4-like pattern of the glass coupled with the powerhouse octa-core chipset gives you a phone that can actually duke it out with phones from global brands in terms of looks and performance. Heck, in many cases, it will even win! No pricing has been announced yet, so we’ll just have to wait until late March or early April to find out what the SRP is. Still, if they manage to bring it within the range of previously released octa-core phones from other brands, the MyPhone Infinity should be a great deal 🙂
MyPhone Infinity Specs
- 5″ Full HD IPS display (1080 x 1920 resolution, 441ppi)
- 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor
- Mali 450 GPU
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB internal storage
- 16mp rear-facing autofocus camera with LED flash
- Front camera (resolution to be confirmed)
- 3.75G/HSPA+
- WiFi b/g/n
- Bluetooth 4.0
- GPS with A-GPS
- Price: TBA
- Release: Late March – Early April
