MyPhone Rio Hands-on Review and Antutu Scores!

Yesterday, I had been invited to attend the grand opening of Allphones’ 50th store. While they typically have a lot of phones on display, I didn’t expect that they would have the MyPhone Rio so soon after its announcement. I managed to sneak in some hands on time with the MyPhone Rio despite the crowd so here are my impressions.

Build Quality and Design

The MyPhone Rio has an all-plastic body, save for the screen of course. The colorful interchangeable back covers wrap around the body, giving it an iPhone 5c-ish look. It’s very lightweight considering it has a 5 inch screen and the back is curved toward the edges for a more comfortable grip.

On the front of the device, you’ll find the screen with the earpiece and front camera on top and the 3 capacitive navigation buttons on the bottom: menu, home and back. An interesting design feature is that the large earpiece actually matches the color of the back cover.

On the left, there’s the long, slim volume rocker.

On the right is the power/lock button.

On top is the micro USB port and 3.5mm headset jack.

At the bottom is the barely perceptible microphone pinhole.

At the back is the 8mp camera with LED flash toward the top, MyPhone branding in the center, and Rio branding and loudspeaker toward the bottom.

The simplicity of the design is nothing to write home about, but the colorful back covers certainly add a bit of charm. I appreciate that the back cover is not that much of a fingerprint magnet, so you won’t have to wipe off the phone a lot.

The Screen

The MyPhone Rio features a 5 inch HD IPS display with a pixel density of 294ppi. The contrast is adequate but not very punchy, so it ends up looking a little washed out. Hey, at the Rio’s pricing, I’m certainly not complaining. It’s good enough to go up against other HD phones from local brands.

The Software

The Rio runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box. The UI has been barely touched so you’re getting a close to stock experience. I didn’t get a look at the lock screen in my rush because of the crowd, but as far as UI navigation goes, there aren’t any surprises.

SoC and Performance

The Rio is driven by a 1.3GHz quad core MediaTek MT6582 SoC, which is the same chip that powers the Kata i3. It’s coupled with a Mali 400 GPU and comes with 1GB RAM, which is good enough for smooth everyday operation. I managed to install Antutu on the device and managed to get a score of 16801, which is good enough to compare it to the Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of overall performance.

Impressions

Because of the crowd, I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would have liked, but I liked what I saw with my limited time with the MyPhone Rio. The bright colors of the back covers help add charm to an otherwise budget device, and you’re getting the kind of performance expected on phones that cost 3 times as much.

The MyPhone Rio goes for Php4,999, which is unheard of with the kind of specs you’re getting. This isn’t an introductory price either. That’s the actual SRP. You better hurry though if you want to get your hands on one because the MyPhone Rio is shaping up to be one of the hottest local phones of the year.

MyPhone Rio Specs

• 5″ HD IPS display (720 x 1280 resolution, 294ppi)
• 1.3GHz quad core MediaTek MT6582 SoC
• Mali 400 GPU
• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB internal storage
• 8mp autofocus camera with LED flash
• 2mp front camera
• 3.75G/HSPA+
• WiFi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.0
• GPS with A-GPS
• USB OTG support
• Dimensions: 146 x 74 x 9.3mm
• 2,000mAh battery
• Price: Php4,999