Google Android One (my/phone uno) review and specs

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I was very excited when I first heard that android one is going to hit the Philippine shore, as an android fanboy that news is nothing but a breath of fresh air, imagine a google phone made affordable to the masses and since it's a certified google phone you'll be privileged enough to always get the latest android OS coupled with a very capable hardware and most importantly, the stock android experience, but is the android one worth the hype? let's find out.

I chose the my/phone uno which by the way, is a Micromax phone, Cherry mobile also offers an android one device but in my opinion the my/phone uno looks a lot more premium than its cherry mobile counterpart and it's a lot thinner too.

The front is plain black with only the rounded earpiece at the top, reminiscent of the nexus 5, the power button and the volume rocker is located at the right side of the phone, easily accessible with your thumb, just slightly raised to give you a tactile feedback but not too much to prevent accidental presses, around the back is the android one logo and the very soothing rubberized texture for enhanced grip.

Google has laid out a spec sheet for the android one, a very capable hardware for just the right price, powered by a quad-core processor and 1 gig of RAM the my/phone uno is a beast it handles multi-tasking well without serious notable lags. I did a lot of stress test with the my/phone uno and one by one it passed the test with flying colors: heavy gaming, web browsing with multiple windows, multi-tasking, HD movies, just about anything I could throw at it the my/phone uno just can't stop to amaze me, yes there will be slight lags but one that's hardly visible you won't even bother giving it a second look.

Web browsing seem to be the stellar feature of the my/phone uno, I spent many hours browsing the web with this phone and believe me it is seriously fast in rendering web pages regardless of the size, flash support is great too, you can basically watch all the flash content present on each web page just like a PC, since I got this phone I barely touched my tablet.

The 4.5 inch IPS screen is probably a feature you'd enjoy most, it's sharp and has excellent viewing angles, the my/phone uno's screen serves as a testament that at 3,999 pesos we shouldn't be getting a lower quality screen than the one we get from android one devices. I was blown away with its almost 0 touch delay, it's fast and very responsive once you tap an app icon it opens up immediately, closing it is almost just as fast too. Google didn't give a clear description about the android one's touch panel, was it Dragon trail or was it Gorilla glass? we really don't have the slightest idea yet, but one thing's for sure it's tough and it's definitely scratch resistant as well. Google has made a statement that a smartphone's screen should be, tough, sharp, has excellent viewing angles and very responsive, all for a price that's within arm's reach.

The my/phone uno comes with android 5.1 lollipop, future android updates are still up for grabs.

Google camera works well with the my/phone uno the 5MP rear camera with flash works fine too, however, I did noticed that the LED flash is sometimes inconsistent, I got subject that got too much light which appeared washed out and over exposed, I just hope that future update will fix this problem. On the other side of the phone we got our 2MP front camera in which without a doubt is a major upgrade from the VGA camera we used to get from phones with the same price, but don't get too excited because you got to hold the phone very still in order to get good results, it's not much of a problem but it's something that's worth noting. All in all the android one's camera works surprisingly well, considering it's 3,999 peso price tag.

(Sample photos android one's 5MP rear camera)


The 1700mah battery may not seem too much, however the ARM v7 architecture is known for its power saving feature, with moderate use it could easily pass the 2 day mark, with heavy usage which includes internet and gaming it could last you a day, in my case I charge my android one every other day.

PROS: very affordable, fast and reliable, always the latest android OS.

CONS: camera is sometimes inconsistent, only 4GB of internal memory.


ANDROID ONE SPECIFICATIONS

MyPhone Uno


3G/GSM

4.5” FWVGA display 480 x 854 pixels (218ppi)

MEDIATEK MT6582 Cortex A7 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor

GPU Mali 400MP2

1GB RAM

4GB (expandable up to 32GB)

2x micro SIM

Front and rear facing cameras (2MP and 5MP) With LED flash

Video 720p

Rechargeable lithium-ion, 1700mAh

Android™ Lollipop (and gets the new version soon after it’s released)

Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio

Posted in: Cellphone Review