NO.1 S7 -Review
The NO.1 S7 is one of the many Chinese Samsung Galaxy S5 clones that have hit the market.It has several different versions, all of which are a fraction of the cost of the original. The key thing to keep in mind with this review is that the NO.1 S7 isn’t trying to compete with the S5 in regards to specs and performance. What it is trying to do is give the overall visuals at a fraction of the cost, and it does this by using much lower spec’d hardware. The versions available are:
- a MT6582 quad core version with 1GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and a 960 x 540 display resolution.
- a MT6582 quad core version with 1GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and a 1280 x 720 resolution.
- a MT6592 octa core version.
I will be reviewing option 2.
I don’t own a Samsung Galaxy S5 so I’m not going to pretend I do and give a side by side comparison, or pit them against each other. What I do have is a general understanding of the original devices appearance and looks, which is ultimately what NO.1 are trying to reproduce.
Unboxing
I bought the phone from 1949deal , shipped by EMS. It took a few days for processing and then about a week and a half before the parcel arrived at my door. Like the other items I ordered from them the NO.1 S7 was VERY well packaged.
The phone arrived in a white box with the NO.1 logo on the front along with some colourful graphics. Inside was the phone itself with a screen protector installed, an extra screen protector, instruction manual, micro usb cable and wall adapter.
Check out the full Unboxing video here.
Specs
- 5.1″ IPS 280 x 720 display
- Mediatek MT6582 1.3 Ghz Quad Core
- 1GB of RAM
- 16GB of storage
- expansion slot
- 5 mega pixel front and 13 mega pixel rear cameras
- 2800 mAh battery
Physical Features
The NO.1 S7 measures 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm and weights 145 grams, pretty much spot on with the original. The overall feel and build of the S7 is good. Everything looks the part including the textured back of the device, although the actual S5 has that faux leather feel while the NO.1 S7 has more of foam/rubber feel. The phone’s logo is also NO.1 not Samsung.
As you look at the device the front camera is to the top right. The home button is present just like the S5′s but the S7 does not have a fingerprint scanner.
The rear camera is top center just like the Samsung S5.
When you take the back plate off even the inside of the device is the same in layout, except the S7 doesn’t have the same seals in place to have the IP67 certification for dust and water.
All in all, it really does a good job looking like a Samsung S5.
Display
The Samsung S5 has a 1080p display that obviously outclasses the one in the S7. That being said, the 720p screen in the NO.1 S7 is quite good, providing descent angles and colours. The S7 is all about compromises in order to get that super low cost, but the screen is more than acceptable.
Software
NO.1 did a fantastic job giving the general feel of Samsung’s famous Touchwiz. The preloaded widgets look the part as does the pull down menu and settings screens. There is always a tab available on the left that can be pulled open to reveal some of your preferred apps which is very handy as well. Even the way the S5 takes screen shots with the power and home buttons being used together has been replicated. Obviously it doesn’t have everything the Samsung does but it really gives you that Touchwiz feel.
The ROM is based on Android 4.2.2 and performed well. The stock launcher was smooth so I never felt a need to replace it.The only big issue I ran across was the battery would seem like it was draining at a very slow rate, then once it hit around the 33% mark it would warn you of low battery and then turn off within seconds. The battery was simply being gauged wrong and I’m sure it is something that can be fixed with an update.
Wi-Fi
I tested the 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi by doing a test right by the router, doing one on my upstairs level, and one in the basement.
Router= 33.02 mbps
Upstairs= 12.44 mbps
Basement= 2.33 mbps
These results are ok, but far from what I consider strong Wi-Fi. For the most part the Wi-Fi worked without issue, except for in the basement. The device really struggled there and the results for streaming music or video were mixed at best. If you spend most of your time within 40 feet of the router on the same level, you should be fine.
Speakers
The sound quality on the NO.1 S7 was average. The phone was tested using a variety of different types of music and sounded fairly thin, probably due to lack of bass. It could have been a touch louder in my opinion as well. As long as you aren’t overly critical with your audio expectations and are just looking for general use, the sound performance should be alright for you.
Video Playback
I tested the NO.1 S7 with a variety of video ranging from HD movies to online video clips.Where a player was required, I opted to use VLC. The MT6582 quad core with Mali 400 GPU handled it all with no problems. Along with 720p display the experience was good for mobile viewing usage.
Web Browsing
I used Maxthon browser for the web test and tried a variety of sites. Everything loaded in a timely manner and maneuvering within the sites was fairly smooth. Although the experience was good, I could feel and see a difference between the MT6582 with Mali 400 that the S7 uses and the MT6592 octa core with Mali 450 I’ve reviewed in previous devices. The MT6592 powered devices loaded pages slightly faster, and movement within sites was smoother especially those that were image heavy.
For a budget phone it’s performance was good.
Cameras
Samsung phones are well known for there great cameras so showing side by side comparisons really doesn’t prove anything against a budget device.
The 5MP front camera does an ok job for selfies and the like. The 13MP rear camera did better than I thought it would. It was far from amazing but produced crisp vibrant pictures specifically outdoors. The flash was a touch under powered for very dark settings resulting an hard to see images.
Have a look.
GPS
The GPS on the NO.1 S7 was the biggest disappointment and problem with the S7. In airplane mode it took well over 8 minutes to get a cold lock. Everytime a cold lock was required after that, even with the data enabled to assist, it still took over 2 minutes to obtain a lock.
Test apps aside, I took the phone on a small road trip to see how it would work in the real world. I tried the S7 with the data off with Navfree and with data enabled with Waze and Google Maps, all options produced very poor results. If you rely on your phone to for accurate GPS this could be a major problem for you.
Benchmarks
Antutu
16,501
Nenamark 2
54.6 fps
CPU Prime
2861
Vellamo
HTML5
1908
488
Battery
The battery was tricky to judge at first due to the battery glitch, but I eventually got a feel for it. It is listed as a 2800 mAh battery and due to the lower 720p resolution and smaller 5.1″ screen the battery managed just over 5 hours and 45 minutes of straight video playback with the screen set to auto brightness. With light to moderate use it made it through an entire day without needing a top up charge.
The actual Samsung S5 can manage better battery results with a far more powerful processor, much more demanding 1080p display and same size battery, which makes me question if the S7′s battery is really 2800 mAh’s.
Gaming
I tested the NO.1 S7 with a variety of games. Simpler games like Go Go Ghost and Into the dead were handled with ease and produced nice gameplay. Games like Dead Trigger 2, Asphalt 8, and Front Line Commando 2, played fine but with lowered graphics settings. Considering the price of the phone I couldn’t find fault with how it handled itself. Obviously jumping to a Snapdragon 800/801 with an Adreno 330 GPU will produce much smoother gameplay and more detailed visuals but that will cost you much more than what we are talking about here with the NO.1 S7.
Final Thoughts
Pro’s
- Price: the device is very affordable
- looks: if you are looking for something that is designed like a Samsung S5, this is it
- expansion slot for those that need the extra storage
- the rear camera was much better than I thought it would be, actually producing very descent outdoor shots
- the battery glitch makes it difficult to know how much time you really have left with your device
- GPS performance was quite bad
- Wi-Fi range wasn’t the best
Matched directly against the Samsung Galaxy S5 the NO.1 S7 obviously doesn’t do so well and like I mentioned earlier that’s not what this review is about because it’s less than a quarter of the price. If you were to put the S7 against other phones in it’s price range you’d have a different story.
The bottom line is, as long as you don’t need GPS the S7 offers good performance, expandable storage, the visage of a Samsung product and a price that’s hard to beat.
