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Often more than not, OEMs come up just a tad short on battery life. The occasional exception is made (such as Motorola’s MAXX devices, Samsung’s Note phones and LG’s flagship lineups), but we typically like to a see a well-rounded 3,000mAh or more fit inside.
That’s why we were a bit taken aback when we found out THL was able to fit a 5,000mAh pack inside their Android-based THL 5000. Fitting name, that. So the battery’s nice and big, but what about the rest of the specs? Here’s how the phone looks on paper:
- 5-inch 1920 x 1080 display
- 1.7GHz quad-core MediaTek processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 32GB of internal storage w/ microSD
- 13 megapixel Sony Exmor RS, 5 megapixel front camera
- Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC, HSDPA+ (no 4G LTE)
Not bad. We’re not particularly fond of MediaTek up against the likes of NVIDIA and Qualcomm, but the chipset is doable. The rest of the specs match up quite nicely with any other flagship you’d find today. And while the phone’s design looks like a reject out of the early DROID line-ups, it shouldn’t shame anyone to carry this thing in their pockets.
For what it’s worth, THL promises you can squeeze about 1,000 hours of standby time (about 41.5 days), 47 hours of talk time, 11 hours of video playback and web browsing, and 125 hours of music playback.
Those are pretty ridiculous numbers if true, so if you’ve been jonesing for a smartphone that can stand the test of time and don’t mind deviating from the comfort of the Samsungs and HTCs of the world (and you don’t mind having to import from Asia), this is your best bet. Head here to find out more.
[via PhoneArena]
I’d be concerned about the longevity of that battery, given the physical size and the rated power. Most people aren’t aware of the fact that roughly 60% of a battery’s real power is available to the device/user. Visual:
0% — 20% ——– 60% ——– 20%
The first and last 20% aren’t visible to the user or device. So when your battery is charged to 100%, you’re actually at 80%. When you’re down to 0%, you’re actually at 20%. This is why you can still repeatedly power on a device at 0% (and have it promptly shut down). By keeping the battery between these numbers, you reduce the damage done by over draining and over charging the battery. It extends the usable life of the battery. We see a more conservative version of this in automotive batteries.
The point of this is that cheaper batteries don’t mask it this conservatively. I’ve seen 1300mah batteries resold as 1800mah (or so). They initially hold a larger charge but degrade in a matter of months. So given the physical size of this 5k mAh battery, I’d be worried that they pulled this kind of shenanigan. As an example, if LG was being conservative (20/60/20) with their 3K mAh battery in the LG G3, then the theoretical max rating would be 5k mAh, so right in line with this device.
This would explain why the batteries I was buying for my GS2 were dying in like months. I went through 4 batteries. It was stated that they were Samsung batteries, but that could have just been a cheap battery covering. Bah!!
When in doubt, go with Anker. They are cheap and on par with OEM batteries.
Learn something new everyday.
Thanks, for explaining a lot and for using the word shenanigan.
And on the note of the MediaTek processors, they’re not as bad as most say. They’re basically a Snapdragon 400 (same CPU core) but with a PowerVR GPU instead of Adreno. They’ll handle most games and have zero issues with 1080p video playback. They won’t look pretty in benchmarks, though.
not to mention efficiency, it looks like the video playback on this thing is on par with the g2 with 2,000 less mah.
I think they’re over reporting the battery capabilities (see long-winded post below). Those numbers are impressive compared to most smart phones, but when you consider that it’s a 5″ 1080p display, you expect better at roughly 2x the normal smart phone battery.
I’m not surprised on standby time. The Cortex-A7 is very good at standby.
WTF!? 40 days of standby!? What are they considering standby? No data, just idle?
My Nexus 7 doesn’t even last that long on standby. =.=
Though that could just be me. I haven’t updated the Kernel and ROM in ages. LoL!!
all cellphone manufacturers exaggerate their standby by a multiple of about 5 anyways. since this has a massive battery… its even that much more obvious.
They consider having the phone turned off lol
Finally, somebody is thinking about the most important parts, instead of gimmicks!
Too bad it’ll never see an Android update…
MediaTek? Vomit.
No development support, no OEM support, no updates. No good.
This would be a great passive aggressive gift.
What would be the sentiment, “Here, I cared enough to buy you this worthless device”?
Passive aggressive behavior has no true logic. I’ve seen gift giving in this vein.
Zerolemon makes great extended batteries for several Android devices. Adds a bit of bulk but I love taking charging my s4 on Friday and going straight through the weekend without worrying that my phone’s gonna die.
Can’t say enough good things about Zero Lemon. The back is nice and protective, and 3 days between charging is just sexy. It adds a bit of bulk, but I figure I can now use my phone to bash a would be robber over the head, so it’s all good.
The new Huawei Ascend Mate2 gets 16+ hours of video and web browsing on a 3900mah battery. I consider that more impressive. MTK chips have never been frugal…
http://blog.gsmarena.com/huawei-ascend-mate2-4g-battery-test/
Is this a joke? you can do more, way more with a NOTE 3 or a G Flex in terms of calls standby time, web browsing and video playback and they don’t even have a 4000 mAh battery
So, let me get this straight…
Cheap processor, cheap battery (with apparently overrated capacity), no Google Play support, capacitive buttons, no LTE, and I get to import this from China?
Sounds like a winner to me…
/sarcasm
It looks like the only positives that this thing has going for it is the Sony camera and the 32 GB internal storage.
They won’t even let you see a price until you enter your information, so they can spam you with every offer under the sun. Not even interested.
cheap processor? you can play all modern games with this, also almost all Chinese phones especially THL support Google Play