MyPhone My36 Review! The Local Flagship Phone To Get For 2015?
After several months of silence MyPhone has finally released what they've been cooking up for the past couple of months. In fact the whole line has been mind blowing. Including the recently reviewed My35. Here's our MyPhone My36 review!
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Bearing the Philippine Flag in Faux Leather!
The Faux leather gives it a premium look and gives the phone a better grip
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MyPhone My36 Specs
Display: 5.2 Inch FHD IPS 1920 x 1080 resolution w/ Gorilla Glass 3 protection at 424 ppi
CPU: 1.3 GHz 64 Bit MT6753 octa core processor
GPU: Mali T720
RAM: 3 GB
ROM: 16 GB expandable via micro SD card slot up to 64 GB
Back Camera: 13 MP Samsung S5K3M2 sensor w/ PDAF and LED flash
Selfie Camera: 5 MP w/ Flash
Battery: 2,900 mAh Li Pol
OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G, LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, dual SIM (micro)
Price: 6,999 Pesos
Build Quality
Boxed in white the My36 comes with USB charging cable, Power plug, documentation and stock ear phones. All items follow the textured plastic aesthetic. It all feels premium and a step above the competition in this price range.
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| The 3.5 mm headphone jack |
The most noticeable difference between this and the My35 is that the My36 is longer and the back cover is faux leather plastic instead of plastic glass. Equipped with a curved glass at front on a textured metal frame skeleton covered with faux leather plastic. It feels wonderful in the hand. It felt like I was holding a much more premium phone at a fraction of the price. Some people like the faux leather, I on the other hand didn't at first, but it grew on me and it no longer bothers me.
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| Standard button placement on the right side |
Button placement is focused on the right side where the volume rocker and power button are placed. It may take some time to get used to but it will grow on you. For the home, recent apps and back buttons, Myphone decided with On-screen keys which could be good or bad depending on your preferences.
Build Comparison with My35 and iPhone 6s in photos
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| My35 is noticably thicker than My36 |
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| Aluminum frame looks comparable with the iPhone 6s |
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| Can match the iPhone 6s design-wise Both packs the slick looking 2.5D curved glass panel |
Display Quality
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| The screen is bright with sharp images while the blacks are deep! |
The display is bright and crisp at full HD 1080p with 423 ppi where images pop and colors shine. The only draw back I saw is that the screen only supports 5 point multi-touch which could be a disappointment for games and for people who want to maximize the resolution.
Audio Quality
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| The speaker volume could get better |
Audio Quality is a mixed bag. Sound reproduction is wonderful with clear and distinct tones. Even at max volume there is no distortion. The only gripe we had was how low the maximum volume is. In fact, because the speaker placement is at the back, the speakers is almost unusable when laid on its back. The nib at the back that serves to distance the back cover from any surface wasn't able to help much in this regard.
The stock headphones is louder than most of the competition with clear tunes and is CTIA ready. In general, it's okay.
Battery
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| Packed with a 2900 mAh sealed battery! |
Packed with a sealed 2,900 mAh Li Po battery with full HD display, the My36 is expected to yield decent battery life and with my time with it, the phone was a juggernaut on standby. I left the phone at 53% one night and when I woke up the battery was at 46%.
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| Not a bad score from Geekbench! |
When under heavy use where I use the phone as my daily driver for calling, texting, using social media, watching youtube videos, browsing the Internet and playing games, the phone is able to last nearly four hours screen on time.
The only problem I had was the charging time. On average, it took us at least three hours to fill the battery to 100% from 10 to 15%. This can be a problem depending on your lifestyle.
Camera
When using the stock camera app, pictures came out decent. Color reproduction and exposure levels are good. The camera skews to the warmer tones which could be good depending on the situation while the built-in flash is more on the yellow tone which comes out varied. Some images benefited from the yellow tone while others didn't.
The hardware doesn't work well with third-party camera apps like 'Camu' where pictures come out grainy even when on live-view. We hope future firmware updates remedies this.
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| It has a limited Professional Mode! |
Most of the images we took with the main camera came out decent. Bright lighting conditions gave good pictures with little noticeable grain and aberrations. In low-light however gave us some loss of detail but with little noticeable noise in dark areas. Not on a top notch level, but better than My35 and most in the price range.
The secondary camera however is good for the usual selfies in most lighting conditions. The flash is also able to help as it isn't as intense which results in almost natural results. The samples are below for your viewing pleasure.
Camera Samples
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| When in ideal lighting conditions, the camera is passable but with noticeable grain at background |
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| Low light performance is not so good. |
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| The yellowish flash gave the scene a warmer tone |
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| Secondary Camera Samples: Bright Lighting Conditions, Low Light Condition with Flash and Low Light Condition |
Performance
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| It can handle Dead Trigger 2 Pretty well (1:1 Crop) |
Rocking an 64 Bit MT6753 octa core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz with 3 RAM, the My36 is no slouch even though it's pushing an FHD display. I've had barely any form of stutter or frame rate drops in my use. Most of the non-graphic intensive apps have worked as they should with out any hitch. I've only experienced problems in performance when playing graphic intensive apps for extended periods.
Software - MyPhone made a wonderful choice by going for near stock while adding some software features like gestures and the ability to customize the on screen button placement.
One of the gestures is double tap to wake and lock your phone wherein you double tap the home button to lock or wake your phone.
The only gripe I had with the software is the icon design choices as they feel out of place with the Material design theme of Android Lollipop, and the home brewed apps for connecting with people that I tried using but forgot about because nobody I knew were using them.
Benchmarks
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| Antutu score and multi touch test |
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| Geekbench and quadrant scores |
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| GPU bench results |
Pro's - Screen is very good, 3 GB is smooth, battery Life is decent even when compared to my35, near stock experience, performance is decent
Con's - The icons needs Material Design updates, sound volume should get better, camera hardware is not always fully compatible with third party camera apps, double tap to wake and double tap to lock only works when double tapping the home button, lock screen wallpaper couldn't be replaced, non removable battery
Verdict
If you are shopping for that phone to give yourself this holiday 2015 with a budget of Php 7,000, then the MyPhone My36 should be seriously considered. From the outside, the screen is brilliant while the metal frame and faux leather exude premium from all sides. This coupled with the brilliant spec sheet would be a good way to spend your hard earned money!
GIZ Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
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