The Elephone S7 is a beautiful handset that will grab attention. It is available in exciting color options and price is $167 with 3GB RAM and the S7 with 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM is priced at $229.99 (approx Rs. 15,000).
Unboxing the S7 : Inside the box you will get the handset, screen guard, user manual, data cable, silicon case for protection and travel charger 5V/2A.
Design, Display and OS
As mentioned this handset looks awesome, weight is around 148 grams and thickness is 7.6mm. Elephone S7 is using a metal frame and the front / rear side is using curved glass. It has got a unique look and will turn heads. S7 is available in Black, Blue, Green and Gold color options. I guess each of these colors are unique in itself.
S7 is using single color combination, for this review I got the blue color version, everything is blue, the buttons, front, sides and even the back. The glass on the back looks awesome and shines from certain angles. This is a dual SIM handset you can use 2x nano SIM’s or a nano SIM + micro SD card.
There is LED notification (light is quite dim). S7 is loaded with accelerometer, light, proximity, gyro and magnetic sensors.
The screen is unique in the sense that it comes with edge to edge display. It is a bezel – less design using 3D curved glass, you can view the contents even on the curved edge on the screen. Screen is 5.5 inches protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, supporting 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. Color reproduction, touch and viewing angles are very good.
Elephone S7 sails on Android Marshmallow out of the box.
Memory and Storage
This handset comes with different RAM/ROM options and priced accordingly. You can get the S7 with 2GB/16GB or 3GB/32GB or 4GB/64GB combination. The one that I used for the review came with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM. On the first boot you will get around 50GB free space and 2.4GB free RAM. OTG is supported.
Performance
This S7 is powered by 64 bit MediaTek Helio X20 deca core MT6797 (10 core) processor coupled with Mali T880 GPU. CPU is clocked at 2.1GHz. Even though this handset is deca core powered the benchmark scores are not at all impressive, however the handset performance was smooth and lag free. Maximum battery temperature I encountered was 39 degrees. Deca Core (X20) cannot play 4K videos.
Benchmark
Quadrant : 38142
AnTuTu : 43082 / 6295 2nd time 55280 / 6304
Nenamark 2 : 54.2fps
Disk Speed : 157 MB/s read / 159 MB/s write
Multi Touch : 5 point
Gaming
When playing Modern Combat 5 game there was a mild lag and the Asphalt 8 game played well in high visual quality mode but it was not that smooth, I could feel it. I have done review of other deca core handsets and this one should easily play high end games, may be the OS needs a lot more optimization.
Camera
The S7 comes with 13MP AF (f/2.2) camera on the rear with flash support and 5MP (f/2.4) camera on the front. It can shoot FHD videos. Camera quality is average.
Elephone S7 Camera Rating 3 out of 5
Elephone S7 rear and front camera samples
Download Original Image files (right click and save) (do not use it for commercial purpose, without permission of gogi.in).
Others
Sound is very loud and clear, reliance Jio worked without any issues. There was issue when using Reliance and Airtel SIM’s together, Airtel was not reachable – not sure if it was issue with Airtel or something else, Elephone are giving frequent updates may be this issue might get fixed in future updates.
There is finger print sensor the front button doubles up as one. The same button can be used (press / tap) for navigation, you can move back, home etc. If need be you can also enable onscreen navigation buttons. Finger print detection is fast and accurate.
Battery
The built in 3000 mAh battery does a decent job. You can expect 3 to 5 hours of non-stop moderate to heavy usage on a single charge.
Elephone S7 Battery Performance (time / battery % drop / estimated battery temperature)
- Running Benchmark app – 12 minutes / 4% / 36 degrees
- Asphalt 8 + MC5 game play – 31 minutes / 14% / 38 degrees
- FHD video playback with full brightness (WiFi /4G on) – 23 minutes / 12% / 39 degrees.
It took me 1 hours 35 minutes to charge the handset from 0% to 100% using wall charger (fast charging supported).
Verdict
This is an affordable, beautiful and premium looking handset that houses a deca core processor. Overall the performance is smooth, you can use reliance Jio SIM with VoLTE support and battery is decent enough. The camera quality is average. Not a bad option for $229.99 (approx Rs. 15,000).
Rating 3.5 out of 5
You can buy this handset from Elephone website.
Do note this handset is not available in India, you will need to import this and custom duty + shipping charges will be applicable.