Unboxing
The T11 comes in a sturdy cardboard box. Included with it are
First impressions
The first thing I noticed on picking up the T11 is how light it is compared to my Motorola RAZR I. After removing the film from the screen you're greeted with a glossy black front. The front camera is visible to the left of the top bezel with a slot for the speaker centred in the top bezel. The screen itself takes up most of the front of the phone, the top and bottom bezels being about 1 and 1.5 centimetres deep, left and right bezels are just a few millimetres wide.
On the right edge is the power button and a rocker button on the left. These are textured and give a good response. Somehow, not certain why, they do feel a little cheap.
On the bottom of the phone is a small hole, presumably a microphone and a narrow slot to facilitate removal of the back cover.
The back cover is a dark charcoal grey textured plastic. This is both attractive and provides good grip. Rear camera and flash are to the top left, and some slots near the lower left for speaker. All the phones branding, thl logo and slogan 'Technology . Happy . Life', is on the back cover. This is subdued and does not detract from the phone.
So far so good I like what I have seen.
Setting up
The rear cover is easily removed starting from the slot on the bottom edge and working carefully around from this. Visible on the inside of the back cover are two pairs of contacts and a couple of what appear to be areas of black tape, these are presumably the aerials. The battery takes up just over half the space. After removing the battery SIMs and micro SD card can be inserted. From left to right are a full size SIM slot, micro SD and micro sim slot, I loaded up all of these.
The battery has some film across the contacts that needs removing. Not as obvious is the film over the rear camera. I found it after my first disappointing picture.
Replacing the rear cover is easy, just gently work around the edge doing up the clips.
Pressing the power button for a few seconds soon had the THL logo displaying followed by the boot animation and sound and shortly after android 4.2.2. First impressions of the screen during set-up are very positive.
Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of set-up of android. At the top of settings is a SIM management option allowing easy control as to which SIM to use for voice, video, messaging and data. All very familiar and easy to access and configure. Again the screen continues to impress.
On the lower bezel are three capacitative buttons, these light up when any of them are pressed. Their icons/functions are menu, home and back. A long press of home brings up the standard android task switcher. These buttons are either lit or totally invisible so their functions needs to be remembered. Swapping between devices does cause a little confusion.
Headline features
I was attracted to this phone due to the processor, memory, screen and price.
The processor is a MediaTek MT6592 octa core processor running at 1.7 GHz and combining a Mali 450 MP4 GPU running at 700MHz. If your apps are compiled to take advantage of all the cores (chrome and antutu being two exceptions) you should see excellent performance. The Mali 450 is a reasonable GPU.
The T11 has 2GB DDR and 16 GB ROM further expandable by supporting SD cards up to 32 GB. This should meet all my needs. The 16 GB is split 6GB for for apps with the remainder for pictures downloads etc. This seems a good balance to me. it's also easy to choose the default storage location from system, storage.
The screen is 1280 x 720 5 inch IPS display. It's bright sharp, viewable from wide angle and a very impressive piece of kit.
Price, retail is about $230 with shipping, you can pay more for faster shipping. I brought mine from 1949deal.com and am happy with the experience. Order was placed 29 April, including paying for three day DHL shipping, just before a public holiday in China. I received the T11 on 12 May.
Specifications
Screen
To me the five inch 1280 by 720 pixel multi touch IPS screen is the single most impressive thing about this phone.
Prior to the T11 I've used android phones when I am out and about but always reached for either my laptop or a tablet when I'm at home. Now I tend to just use the T11 unless I really need a keyboard, windows or Linux. Since the T11 was delivered I've only used my Nexus 7 2013 while I've had the T11 connected to the laptop (rooting, backup,flashing cwm etc). This is largely as I find the screen so easy on the eye. If I'm not careful I catch my self activating the T11 so I can gaze at the unlock screen.
Sound
The two speakers produce plenty of volume. There's no need to have the volume on full. Playing music or watching films on Netflix can show some distortion of sound if the volume is too high. I've also tested the included inner ear headphones both for listing to radio through the FM tuner and music via play music. Overall I'm pleased with the capabilities.
Cameras
The T11 has a 5 mega pixel front facing camera and an 8 mega pixel rear facing camera. I'm no photographer but am happy enough with the quality of the images taken.
GPS
Reading around about THL and MediaTek phones I was expecting the GPS to be poor. Having tried it a few times it's as good as any other phone I've used. I'm quite happy to use google navigate for directions while driving.
Compass
The compass I'm not to certain of, I'll try going through the calibration process on super compass and report back.
Battery
The battery is labled 2750 mAh, the THL is getting at least as much usage as my previous phones and has better battery life.
Firmware
My phone came with Android 4.2.2 few dated 26 mar 14. Other than Chinese keyboard the firmware seems to be pretty much pure android which I view as a good thing. In use Facebook gives regular FCs, I've also had a couple of other lock ups. I see on needrom.com that there was another Firmware from 1 April, I'll be flashing this and see if it improves things at all.
The t11 supports unlock by gestures, swipe up, shake, or double tap to unlock. Swipe down to unlock to camera.
Issues
I've already mentioned that Facebook force closes, though the experience of using Facebook through chrome is good, and a few lock ups. Also in the minus column if the fact that there are no LED notifications, apparently using lite flow will give some notification via LED.
Conclusion
The T11 has been a delight to own and use for the past week, it's pretty much my go to device easily replacing my Motorola RAZR I and demoting my Nexus 7 2013 to second device. The T11 is certainly not perfect but it does feel like a nice piece of kit. Other the minor issues already mentioned my only concerns are lack of manufacturer support, I'd at least expect to be able to find a website for THL with downloadable firmware.
If the hardware holds up for a year or more I'd say this phone is a great buy.
As mentioned above I ordered from http://1949deal.com, I'd like to thank them for allowing me to use some images from their site.
Any questions ask away and I'll see what I can do.
Brian
Just noticed today (26 jun 14) that Facebook no longer force closes, I presume an update to Facebook has resolved the issue.
The T11 comes in a sturdy cardboard box. Included with it are
- Euro power supply
- USB cable
- Headphones
- Screen protector
- A 'sleeve' that covers the rear and sides
- Some NFC labels
- Colour getting started booklet in english
- Also included are a UK adapter for the charger, and a cheap plastic wrap around case. Surprisingly I expect these to be really useful to me.
First impressions
The first thing I noticed on picking up the T11 is how light it is compared to my Motorola RAZR I. After removing the film from the screen you're greeted with a glossy black front. The front camera is visible to the left of the top bezel with a slot for the speaker centred in the top bezel. The screen itself takes up most of the front of the phone, the top and bottom bezels being about 1 and 1.5 centimetres deep, left and right bezels are just a few millimetres wide.
On the right edge is the power button and a rocker button on the left. These are textured and give a good response. Somehow, not certain why, they do feel a little cheap.
On the bottom of the phone is a small hole, presumably a microphone and a narrow slot to facilitate removal of the back cover.
The back cover is a dark charcoal grey textured plastic. This is both attractive and provides good grip. Rear camera and flash are to the top left, and some slots near the lower left for speaker. All the phones branding, thl logo and slogan 'Technology . Happy . Life', is on the back cover. This is subdued and does not detract from the phone.
So far so good I like what I have seen.
Setting up
The rear cover is easily removed starting from the slot on the bottom edge and working carefully around from this. Visible on the inside of the back cover are two pairs of contacts and a couple of what appear to be areas of black tape, these are presumably the aerials. The battery takes up just over half the space. After removing the battery SIMs and micro SD card can be inserted. From left to right are a full size SIM slot, micro SD and micro sim slot, I loaded up all of these.
The battery has some film across the contacts that needs removing. Not as obvious is the film over the rear camera. I found it after my first disappointing picture.
Replacing the rear cover is easy, just gently work around the edge doing up the clips.
Pressing the power button for a few seconds soon had the THL logo displaying followed by the boot animation and sound and shortly after android 4.2.2. First impressions of the screen during set-up are very positive.
Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of set-up of android. At the top of settings is a SIM management option allowing easy control as to which SIM to use for voice, video, messaging and data. All very familiar and easy to access and configure. Again the screen continues to impress.
On the lower bezel are three capacitative buttons, these light up when any of them are pressed. Their icons/functions are menu, home and back. A long press of home brings up the standard android task switcher. These buttons are either lit or totally invisible so their functions needs to be remembered. Swapping between devices does cause a little confusion.
Headline features
I was attracted to this phone due to the processor, memory, screen and price.
The processor is a MediaTek MT6592 octa core processor running at 1.7 GHz and combining a Mali 450 MP4 GPU running at 700MHz. If your apps are compiled to take advantage of all the cores (chrome and antutu being two exceptions) you should see excellent performance. The Mali 450 is a reasonable GPU.
The T11 has 2GB DDR and 16 GB ROM further expandable by supporting SD cards up to 32 GB. This should meet all my needs. The 16 GB is split 6GB for for apps with the remainder for pictures downloads etc. This seems a good balance to me. it's also easy to choose the default storage location from system, storage.
The screen is 1280 x 720 5 inch IPS display. It's bright sharp, viewable from wide angle and a very impressive piece of kit.
Price, retail is about $230 with shipping, you can pay more for faster shipping. I brought mine from 1949deal.com and am happy with the experience. Order was placed 29 April, including paying for three day DHL shipping, just before a public holiday in China. I received the T11 on 12 May.
Specifications
| Model | THL T11 |
| Band | 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G: WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz |
| Sim Card | Dual SIM Card Dual Standby |
| Service Provide | Unlocked |
| Style | Bar |
| Color | Black |
| Shell Material | Plastic |
| System | |
| OS | Android 4.2 |
| nt-size: small;">CPU | MTK6592, Cortex A7 octa core, 1.7GHz; GPU: Mali-450 MP4 |
| ROM | 16GB |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Screen | |
| Display Size | 5.0 Inch |
| Type | HD IPS Capacitive Multi-touch Screen, Corning Gorilla Glass, OGS |
| Resolution | 1280 x 720 pixels |
| Support Format | |
| Ringtones Type | Polyphonic/MP3 |
| Audio File Format | MP3/WAV/AMR/AWB |
| Video File Format | 3GP/MPEG4 |
| Image File Format | JPEG/BMP/GIF/PNG/GIF |
| E-book Format | TXT/CHM/DOC/HTML |
| FM Radio | Yes, earphone needed |
| EarphonePort | 3.5mm |
| Card Extend | Support 32G tf card extend |
| Data Transfer & Connectivity | |
| Data transfer | USB/Bluetooth |
| Mobile internet | WAP/WIFI |
| General | |
| Camera/Picture Resolution | Dual Cameras, 5.0MP front camera; 8.0MP back camera with flashlight and auto focus |
| Language | English, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Deutsch, Espanol, French， Italiano, Nederlands, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Thai, Simplified/Traditional Chinese |
| Phonebook | 500 |
| Message | SMS/MMS |
| Input | Handwrite/Keypad |
| TV | No |
| GPS | Yes, built in, also support A-GPS With EPO assistance to speed up postioning |
| JAVA | No |
| WIFI | Yes, 802.11 b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Gravity Sensor | Yes |
| Multi-Touch | Yes |
| Dimensions | 144.3 x 70.4 x 8.4mm |
| Net Weight(Including battery) | 145g |
| Standby Time | About 2~3 days |
| Other Feature | 3G, MP3,MP4,calculator,ES file management, stopwatch,calender,alarm clock, Google play,E-mail, G-mail, OTG, NFC,etc. |
| Package | |
| Size | 158 x 85 x 77mm |
| Weight | about 400g |
| Accessories | 1 x 2750mAh Battery |
| 1 x User Manual | |
| 1 x USB Cable | |
| 1 x Charger | |
| 1 x 3.5mm Earphone 1 x Screen Protector 1 x Back Case Cover |
|
To me the five inch 1280 by 720 pixel multi touch IPS screen is the single most impressive thing about this phone.
Prior to the T11 I've used android phones when I am out and about but always reached for either my laptop or a tablet when I'm at home. Now I tend to just use the T11 unless I really need a keyboard, windows or Linux. Since the T11 was delivered I've only used my Nexus 7 2013 while I've had the T11 connected to the laptop (rooting, backup,flashing cwm etc). This is largely as I find the screen so easy on the eye. If I'm not careful I catch my self activating the T11 so I can gaze at the unlock screen.
Sound
The two speakers produce plenty of volume. There's no need to have the volume on full. Playing music or watching films on Netflix can show some distortion of sound if the volume is too high. I've also tested the included inner ear headphones both for listing to radio through the FM tuner and music via play music. Overall I'm pleased with the capabilities.
Cameras
The T11 has a 5 mega pixel front facing camera and an 8 mega pixel rear facing camera. I'm no photographer but am happy enough with the quality of the images taken.
GPS
Reading around about THL and MediaTek phones I was expecting the GPS to be poor. Having tried it a few times it's as good as any other phone I've used. I'm quite happy to use google navigate for directions while driving.
Compass
The compass I'm not to certain of, I'll try going through the calibration process on super compass and report back.
Battery
The battery is labled 2750 mAh, the THL is getting at least as much usage as my previous phones and has better battery life.
Firmware
My phone came with Android 4.2.2 few dated 26 mar 14. Other than Chinese keyboard the firmware seems to be pretty much pure android which I view as a good thing. In use Facebook gives regular FCs, I've also had a couple of other lock ups. I see on needrom.com that there was another Firmware from 1 April, I'll be flashing this and see if it improves things at all.
The t11 supports unlock by gestures, swipe up, shake, or double tap to unlock. Swipe down to unlock to camera.
Issues
I've already mentioned that Facebook force closes, though the experience of using Facebook through chrome is good, and a few lock ups. Also in the minus column if the fact that there are no LED notifications, apparently using lite flow will give some notification via LED.
Conclusion
The T11 has been a delight to own and use for the past week, it's pretty much my go to device easily replacing my Motorola RAZR I and demoting my Nexus 7 2013 to second device. The T11 is certainly not perfect but it does feel like a nice piece of kit. Other the minor issues already mentioned my only concerns are lack of manufacturer support, I'd at least expect to be able to find a website for THL with downloadable firmware.
If the hardware holds up for a year or more I'd say this phone is a great buy.
As mentioned above I ordered from http://1949deal.com, I'd like to thank them for allowing me to use some images from their site.
Any questions ask away and I'll see what I can do.
Brian
Just noticed today (26 jun 14) that Facebook no longer force closes, I presume an update to Facebook has resolved the issue.
.
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