Here is the full review of the Wammy Note that has been making waves for quite some time. The Note sports a 5 inch screen with 8MP camera running ICS all this for a price of under Rs. 11,500.
Box Pack
Big things comes in small packages. The box looks attractive and comes with the 5 inch Note, USB to micro USB cable, earphones of a decent quality, user manual (I forgot to show that in the video), USB charger, you also get two – 2500 mAh battery and an additional back protective cover.
Inside the hood
The 5 inch screen from the Micromax A100 (excluding the 16M colour) + the hardware from the Micromax A90 (excluding the AMOLED screen) = the Wammy Note. The note also houses the MT6575 (ARMv7) processor with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU, same as found on the MM A90.
The RAM of 512MB does a decent job. Of the 512MB RAM 471 is available and around 120MB is used (25%). This smartphone or Phablet comes with 4GB internal storage of which 502.96 is allocated for internal app storage and 2GB for internal SD card rest used by the ICS OS. You can also add up more space using the microSD card slot (up to 32GB).
This is a dual SIM phone with dual standby mode. There is the GSM + WCDMA SIM slot 1 and GSM SIM slot 2. For 3G you need to use the SIM slot 1 (WCDMA).
Design
It is slim however Micromax A90 is the slimmest. The front facing side is with the huge screen and 3 dedicated buttons (2 touch sensitive and 1 physical) (look wise similar to Samsung Note). There is the proximity and light sensor along with the front camera placed on the top left, just near the in call speaker.
A power/lock button on the top, left side there is the camera button, bottom you have the mic, 3.5mm jack and micro USB port and on the right side there are the volume rockers. On the rear side its textured matte finish for good grip.
The camera of 8MP with LED flash also placed on the rear. Plus the Wickedleak logo followed by the speaker out.
What may look like a stylus is actually a built in Antenna which is to be used with Live TV app. It would have been better if the same was replaced with a Stylus and the Live TV app removed.
Display screen
The screen is normal 5 inch with 800×480 pixels resolution with 260K colours. There is a screen guard that covers most of the screen execpt for the sensors, front camera, in call speaker and the physical button. You do get the full screen resolution because of dedicated buttons on the phone. The display quality is good and touch is quite responsive. This is with 5 point multi touch support as compared with 3 point on A90.
When compared with the Micromax A90, the A90 AMOLED screen definitely wins and is even smoother.
The OS
The android ICS (Android 4.0.4) works pretty well. The phone is smooth and you should be able to play many games without any issues.
Performance
The quadrant benchmark score was 2145 (avg score was around 2225). The AnTuTu score was 3537. Though the hardware is the same (compared with A90) this Wammy note comes with Android 4.0.4 whereas the A90 comes with Android 4.0.3 version. The benchmark score is just for the reference and it will change every time you run the test.
Overall the handset gave an impressive performance. The GPS did work with the Gmaps. At first I did get the message “not able to get the location” but after enabling the location sharing with Google services it got a fix in few seconds. FM radio works even without earphones.
Gaming
The experience should be as good as seen on the Micromax A90. I played some games and was happy with the performance. It is more enjoyable cause of a bigger screen.
Movies
720p movies played well, but you cannot play 1080p movies. AVI files works well. The sound quality is good.
Phone features
There is video call option, in fact a video call button on the phone dialler near to the normal call button. I could not check the video calling as I guess the other caller should also have the same not sure though. Moreover native video calls are usually not preferred and many avoid it because it’s cheaper to use Skype.
Others
The keyboard has some Chinese character. But not much of an issue as it can be removed easily. At the most on the Live TV you can get the DD channel, but it seems next to impossible to tune into it., possibly in cities it might work. Wi-Fi worked perfectly and this phone also supports USB / Bluetooth tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot and Wi-Fi direct.
The speaker output volume is quite loud, better than on A90.
Camera
The camera quality is a good as seen on the A90. The only issue I found is that in a dark room the output if ‘black’. Even if you tap the screen the camera is unable to focus. This actually works on the A90. But I guess it’s something to do with the OS, as both the handsets share the same hardware.
There is Bursts mode 4/8/16 shots, Smile and many other capture modes, in fact the same is also available on the A90 as well. You can record videos at 720p resolution @29 fps. Check out the sample video at the end of the article.
You can check out some sample images clicked using the Wammy Note at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogirana/sets/72157631417796792/
Battery
A 2500 mAh battery gives standby time of around 500 hours and talktime of up to 5 to 7 hours. Moreover you get 2 set of batteries which means double the backup. For moderate to heavy usage it should easily last for over a day.
You can check out the specifications here.
Picture Gallery
Wammy Note review and unboxing video
720p video recording using Wammy Note
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