Elephone recently launched a new range of models on the market. I got the C1 Max (Black) from Elephone for review. Unique selling point of the C1 Max has Dual Cam. Better Vision “is the fairly new” Dual Camera “system that some Chinese smartphone manufacturers to be implemented recently. Under the heading “camera” I will go a little further here. In addition, this phone has a perfect set of ‘other’ features and specifications including a 6″ display, fingerprint sensor and MTK6737 Quad Core processor.  In this review I’ll see if the dual-camera and the rest of the phone’s price tag of about $100 worth.

Unboxing

The C1 Max is in a simple “ELE” Elephone box like most of China phones nowadays. Under the unit is the standard accessories English manual and EU plug charger but also an additional silicone cover for the phone.

1x Elephone C1 Max
1x Manual (english)
1x Charger + Cable (1m)
1x SIM ejector
1x Silicone protective

Design and Build

In terms of design, the C1 Max Elephone a fairly simple and sleek appearance. The power button and volume rocker sits on the left, this is when you have difficult to reach smaller hands as the phone is quite large and the buttons still quite ‘high’ sit on the device. On the back you’ll find at the left top of the two lenses of the dual-camera, to the right is the single LED flash. The finger print scanner is above the center of the device and can be exchanged at first glance, with the camera. On the front is the big six-inch screen with three touch buttons below and at the top of the speaker, front facing camera.

In terms of button layout is Elephone went back with this unit to a traditional layout that you see come back to a lot of equipment. Right on / off button and volume rocker, and the front three (in this case capacitive) function buttons. The dots show the buttons are not very logical in what they do and how they look. But after a few times you use brand actually nothing more here and they look rather beautiful and stylisch out actually.

The included silicone cover not doing very well affect the appearance, already give this a little dots on the inside which surely an extra dimension to the case. It is a good case.

Display

The 6.0-inch, 1280 x 720 pixel IPS screen is large. Yes six inch continues despite the still-growing smartphone screens significant screen. This can be seen as positive and negative points, depending on personal preference. The trend of increasingly thinner bezels has not yet joined this Elephone so you can still see clearly the black borders at the screen.

The 720P resolution is used for the size of the screen is not really high. The colors are good about, though everything seems a little oversaturated. But let the colors be okay. In terms of brightness and contrast everything looks fine.

Hardware Performance

The MediaTek MTK6737 is a widely used quad-core processor, in this case combined with an ARM Mali T720MP. This results in a great bang-for-buck performance if you look at the fairly small price tag of $100
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The 2GB of RAM is in my opinion a bit on the meager side. You notice it in terms of performance not directly something, maybe an app takes just reopen some time and multi-task in split screen is not something I would recommend this phone.

Benchmarks

On the phone are turned some standard benchmarks to compare the performance phones with other phones. Price / performance this unit does not do anything bad, it owes the device include the relatively low resolution of 720P which ensures that the processor / GPU can run the game smoothly average.

• 3DMark: 123 (Slingshot ES3.1)
• Antutu: 32549
• Geekbench 4: 564 ( single-Core), 1544 (Multi-Core)

Camera

The distinguishing feature of the Elephone C1 Max has to be the dual-camera setup at the rear. It consists of a 13.0 MP color sensor combined with a 5.0 MP sensor mono. This should provide enhanced photo quality on the one hand and on the other for a number of additional photo effects can provide as the playing field. According Elephone different images from the two sensors are software processed into a picture. This would be an optimization to ensure that benefits of noise reduction, contrast in low light, color saturation and overall details.

The depth of focus photos are indeed really different / better than I do with other smartphones. Or dual camera is really so much better pictures if you look at noise reduction and low-light images that are very difficult to assess. It seems to do something for the quality, but it remains difficult to assess.

Additionally, there is obviously still a selfie camera, the 5.0 MP camera shoots reasonable pictures in good light. But if there is less light you still quickly increase the amount of noise and the quality goes down so heavily.

Overall, the dual-camera feature a nice extra that you seem to get better photos and can make nice dpeth-of-field images. Yet it has nowhere near the quality of your compact camera, or from the most high-end smartphone cameras on the market today. But for a $100 device is an interesting and functional camera feature.

Fingerprint reader

The do on the back of the device built-in fingerprint sensor what to do. In terms of reading is a reliable sensor. Although the sensor for daily use actually fine, the location is good and the few milliseconds you have to wait until turned on your home screen and unlocked are noticeable in practice little.

Speaker

In terms of audio performance is called the average speaker. At maximum volume distorts the sound to something you do not really want to listen. But you put the volume a little lower than is doing fine. When calls counterparty is understood well. Overall, the speakers are not something you should expect miracles, but they do what they should do.

Connectivity

As we Elephone Gwend have also created it for the world. So excellent 4G support in the EU, including in the Netherlands and Belgium. This is because these phones are actually made with a view to the west, and not / hardly get in China. But it’s beneficial for us here. With all Dutch providers have so fine 4G range. With a Vodafone sim card I have the connection speed and tested here and that is more than enough for everyday what juices / internet and watching videos on youtube.

Battery

With a 2800 mAh (Li-Pol) battery C1 Max has a fairly small battery on board. You actually need a large battery on a big screen. Here Elephone has left a screw, or simply cut to stay within budget.

Conclusion

The dual camera feature is one that is fun, and in terms of photo opportunities and quality really adds. But one that is not essential to use the phone. Elephone C1 MAX is also a fairly significant phone with its large screen and reasonable weight.  In terms of performance, the benchmark scores well, and expect looking at the budget you can actually not much more performance than Elephone now shipping. Yet I’d still prefer to see something more memory, although you can also fine with 2Gb of this phone, even the battery is on the small side. But overall this phone is still a reasonable blast with fun dual-camera and excellent features for only about $100.