Elephone M2

Elephone M2 is the latest flagship phone from the lesser known Chinese brand, which is expected to retail in India very soon for approx 15,000 INR. The handsets is quite promising on paper and wears a full metal jacket, which makes it feel sturdy and premium. You can also spot two symmetrical black strips running edge to edge on the rear side (reminiscent of Nexus 6P sans the bulge), which break the monotony rather charmingly.

Talking about design. Speaker grills are present at the bottom (Audio from speakers is quite loud as well), and the physical home-button underlining the display integrates a fingerprint sensor. The chamfered aluminum frame running along edges houses all other buttons, slots, both microphones, antennas and ports.

The volume rocker and power button placement feels odd, and the former might just be out of reach in portrait mode, if you have small hands. The fingerprint sensor isn't a 360 degree one or very accurate one either. It accepts 5 fingerprints so you can scan your frequently used fingers in all possible manners at the time of setup to yield best results.

MT6753 octa core chip humming inside is assisted by ample 3GB RAM, and has proved capable enough for day to day usage so far. However, Gaming is where it falters. High end gaming experience isn't very smooth and sensors also didn't seem to respond fast enough. So for every one who isn't an avid gamer, performance will not be an issue.

The camera hardware is par for the course. Camera performance is also among the better ones we get to see in this price range. Software is a letdown too, It is almost as if Elephone hasn't scaled preloaded apps for the full HD display. We had to resort to a third party launcher to fix this, which considerably enhanced our attachment for M2, but we were still bothered by a few bugs. Software needs work.

Overall Elephone M2 is good option for its price, but has several shortcomings. The lowest price of Elephone M2 in India is not yet known, but you will soon be able to buy Elephone M2 in India from the official India website.

Elephone M2 Questions and Answers:

Question – How is the display on Elephone M2?

Answer: Elephone M2 has a decent Full HD display with accurate color reproduction. The blacks and contrast ratio are also nicely balanced. The viewing angles on the phone are great. Even when viewing from extreme angles text appears crisp and is quite easily readable. Overall, we are well satisfied with the Elephone M2 display.

Question – How is the outdoor visibility?

Answer: Outdoor visibility of Elephone didn’t raised any alarm to us. Under the direct sunlight with 60 percent brightness level text was easily legible.

Question – Does the display support gorilla glass protection?

Answer: Yes, the company has placed a layer of Gorilla Glass 3 coating to protect from unwanted scratches. Our unit came with a prefixed scratch guard along with two spare ones for timely replacement.

Question – How is the design and build?

Answer: Elephone passes with distinction on our design and build quality scale (compared to others in this price). The M2 flaunts a metal frame which ensures its looks and feels premium. The unibody design with 2.5D curved glass at the edges adds the charm to the phone. Ergonomically design of the phone ensures users get a firm grip.

Question – Are the capacitive keys backlit?

Answer: No, capacitive keys do not offer backlight option. Also, there is no option to customize them according to personal preference.

Question – What kind of SIM card does it accept? How is the quality of SIM Card tray in M2?

Answer: Elephone has nicely placed a hybrid SIM slot where you can place either two MicroSIM cards or one microSIM and one micro SD card. The SIM card tray itself is made from the same metal alloy which is used in the casing of the phone.

Question – How much internal storage space is free? Can Apps be moved to SD card on M2?

Answers: Out of 32GB of internal storage, 25.42GB storage space is on offer at the user end. No, unfortunately apps cannot be moved to the SD card.

Question – Is USB OTG supported?

Answer: No, the device manufacturer has given a miss to OTG support.

Question – How is the Elephone M2 performance?

Answer: For an average user, performance will be satisfying. However, the MediaTek MT6753 which gets assistance from Mali-720 and 3GB RAM doesn’t live up to the mark when it comes to gaming. While playing games like Need For Speed and Asphalt8 we faced difficulty in maneuvering our car. It seems like the gyroscope sensor is not performing well.

Question – Does Elephone M2 have heating issues?

Answer: Since past three days, we are rigorously using this phone and didn’t notice any alarming signs of heating. In this period, we tested every aspect of the phone but it hardly showed us signs of warming up beyond acceptable limits. When we played back to back games and after that performed a benchmark test phone did get a little warm around the corners but nothing alarming in that.

Elephone M2 Benchmark Score:

Antutu 33096

Vellamo Metal, Browser 1099, 2753

Quadrant 20922

Nenamark 2.0 57.5 FPS

Question – How much RAM is free on first boot?

Answer: Out of 3GB, around 2GB RAM is free on first boot. We didn’t find any issue with RAM management.

Question- How is the Elephone M2 camera?

Answer: We explored Elephone M2 both front and back cameras in various lighting conditions. The default camera app snaps 13MP images and stores them in universally accepted JPEG format. Overall quality of images captured by the phone isn't particularly impressive, but lives up to its price tag.

Question – How is the call quality?

Answer: Call quality is very good in our area.

Question – How is the Battery backup on Elephone M2?

Answer: Battery performance is average. Didn’t fell short of our expectation from this 2600mAh battery. In our moderate to extensive usage it lasted almost a day.

Question – Is the battery removable on M2?

Answer: No, battery is not removable and user replaceable.

Question – How is the software?

Answer: Elephone ships with customized Android V.5.1 Lollipop which has lots of unfixed bugs. The user interface was a bit of a turn off for us and we quickly moved to third party launcher before getting a feel of the phone. It would have been better if the manufacturer could have shipped its device with stock Android instead.

Question – How loud is the loudspeaker on Elephone M2?

Answer: The loudspeaker present in the phone is pretty loud but overall sound quality is nothing to write home about.

Question – What comes inside the box of Elephone M2?

Answer: Inside the box, Power Charger, USB Cable, User manual and 2 Screen protectors.

Conclusion:

The Elephone M2 is a good option with 3GB RAM and fingerprint sensor at $199 USD (approx. 13000 INR). Barring few software glitches and gaming issues phone does a decent job in handling day to day workload.