The first attempt to make such a phone was the release of the “Highscreen Boost 2” smartphone, which left mixed impressions among users. As if they supplied it with a powerful 6000 mAh battery, however, the Qualcomm 8225Q processor - in terms of power consumption - is far from the best. But the manufacturers worked hard on their own mistakes and issued the “Highscreen Boost 2 SE”, the case and batteries of which remained the same, but the filling was almost completely changed.
Main changes in the new gadget model
The most noticeable change is the installation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, the MSM8228 modification processor. Still, MediaTek is not quite what we need for our case. And given the 2 GB of RAM, it turns out quite a decent company. The previous model had only a GPS receiver, but now it has been replaced by a hybrid GPS / GLONASS, the 8 MP camera has been changed to 13 MP.
The amount of internal memory has doubled from 4 GB to 8 GB,the version of the operating system was installed Android 4.3, the matrix was changed to Sharp. If you look closely, it becomes noticeable that the “Highscreen Boost 2 SE is already quite an interesting device for attention. True, its cost has increased slightly.
Smartphone accessories
Those who have seen what kind of cardboard boxes the devices of this brand are sold in have always been surprised by this minimalism and appearance. Nothing has changed over time. But there is an opinion that eco-friendly cardboard is better than wrapping the packaging of most modern gadgets. The issue is debatable, we will not delve into it, especially since we do not buy packaging, but what is inside. By the way, along with the device, the buyer receives 64 GB in the “cloud” 4Sync. And it's free, but for 100 GB you already need to shell out a hundred US dollars.
What is inside the cardboard box? There are: instructions, warranty card, of course, a charging unit from the mains, a microUSB cable and a headset. If you read about the “Highscreen Boost 2 SE” reviews, you will understand that it is better to immediately replace the headphones with something more decent, unless you are not a fan of low frequencies. Since there are two batteries, there are also two covers. By the way, for both models of smartphones, both covers and batteries are completely interchangeable. There will be no problems.
Appearance of smartphone
As noted, the body of the phone remained the same. Just a couple of nuances were added - the panel under the display and on the lid became gray, an inscription appeared on the back, which indicatedinstalled processor. With such an insert, the device is noticeably more interesting than the completely black predecessor. Unless you need to handle the “Highscreen Boost 2 SE” carefully to reduce the erasure of edges. And the panel, by the way, is made of metal. The dimensions of the device have not changed at all and are: when installing a 3000 mAh battery - 151 grams of weight and 68. 8 mm, with a 6000 mAh battery - 203 grams and 68.6x140x14.8 mm. To be honest, the ergonomics of the model is quite normal and, most likely, you will like it.
Visually, when a smaller battery is connected, the Highscreen smartphone seems even thin, and it turns out to be of quite normal weight, not heavy. The body height is moderate, less than 15% remains inaccessible to the finger. Thanks to the rounded bottom and top, gray insert and the shape of the speech speaker, the appearance of the gadget turned out to be a little more interesting than similar second-tier smartphones. A year earlier, they all looked like terrifying “bricks”. After installing a 6000 mAh battery, the device becomes unsightly, backlashes and scripts appear in it.
Device controls
On the front side of the phone are proximity and light sensors, speech speaker and camera. There are no changes here, everything is standard. Under the screen is a touchpad, devoid, as before, of boring Android icons. Instead, there are luminous dots on the sides, and in the center there is a circle that replaces the standard event indicator quite well: it starts blinking when you receive a new letter or SMS. Besides,does it unobtrusively and does not annoy you, even if it lies on the table in front of your eyes. Nevertheless, it performs its function without distracting.
On the left side of the case, in the center, there is a multifunctional button that dilutes the set of power and volume keys. Where they are supposed to be, at the top, there is an audio output and a microUSB connector. Under the cover of the device there are two slots: the first for microSIM, the second for a microSD card. As you can see, the controls of the "Highscreen Boost 2 SE" are still quite convenient.
The screen of our device
The main parameters of the predecessor have been retained: the resolution is 1280x720 with a five-inch screen, which means 294 PPI. Of course, it is far from Full HD screens, but there is no noticeable graininess, as with qHD. The so-called "golden mean" has turned out. For greater quality, you need to install more expensive displays, which, accordingly, will raise the price of the device. Therefore, the optimal option was chosen. Let's take the Highscreen Boost 2 SE as an example: its price has increased from 10,990 rubles to 12,490 rubles compared to the previous model.
But there's nothing to complain about either. The current screen manufactured by Sharp, which is equipped with fairly relevant Full Lamination and OGS technologies. Although the novelty in terms of maximum brightness loses to Highscreen Boost 2. But in terms of color accuracy and detail, it is far ahead. She has a black color - deeper, and with white there are problems in bothcases. One has an orange tint, the other has a blue tint. But the latest model, unlike its predecessor, has the ability to adjust the color rendering of the screen: for manual - four parameters and presets - “bright” and “standard”. Both models have approximately the same viewing angles.
Highscreen Boost 2 SE performance
In our smartphone, as already noted, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor is presented. At the time of its release, it was the only gadget with QS 400 MSM8228. It has four ARM Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.4GHz. Adreno 305 is a pretty good graphics chip that supports FlexRender, Renderscript Compute, OpenCL, DirectX and OpenGL ES 3.0. Completing the picture is a good RAM - 2GB. It turned out a device with good performance, ahead of competitors on MediaTek MT6589. In the AnTuTu Benchmark program, the phone scored about 2000 points, which is quite decent.
Graphic tests also stand up quite well. Video plays well, movies up to Full HD 60 fps were launched without any problems. It did not work to run 4k, but this is already too much. With resource-intensive games copes with conscience. Neither Real Racing 3 nor Iron Man 3 slowed down even at maximum settings. There are no micro-lags in those moments when the effects of dust, smoke, explosions, etc. are observed in the frame. The device immediately loads new scenario elements without falling into thought.
Camera
The front camera of the one we are consideringThe device, let's say, is so-so, two-megapixel, but it fulfills its main purpose - for video communication. The rear one is more impressive, 13 megapixels, which already allows you to take pictures with a good resolution of 4128 x 3096 pixels. Although, if you read user reviews about the Highscreen Boost 2 SE smartphone again, it becomes clear that again such figures, as often happens, are present only for beauty. The photo quality is at best consistent with 8 MP models.
The reason is corny cheap optics, although the result is still better than the previous version. But the camera does well with some types of shooting, such as macro, shooting insects and flowers well in an open field. Therefore, it cannot be said that this is a completely useless thing. Detailing at long and medium distances is not enough, saturation also has to be added manually, the speed of work is normal, no complaints.
Smartphone system
Having considered some characteristics of the device, let's briefly dwell on the operating system. In short - because the “Highscreen” phone did not receive any special add-ons. The Android version is 4.3, not the newest, but not bad, besides, at that time it had not yet been installed on devices with MediaTek processors. Compared to version 4.2, there are no significant advantages and innovations, only the information curtain has become a little more convenient. A few words about the multifunctional button.
Now she has become truly, as planned, versatile. Previously, with its help, only four tasks could be assigned. Now, you can select any of all installed programs in the system. But please note: to enable this functionality, the boxed version of the software needs to be updated.
Device autonomy
In conclusion, let's talk a little about such a characteristic of the device as operating time. Thanks to the 28nm process technology, our “Highscreen Boost 2 SE” phone has unleashed the full potential of the 6000 mAh battery. In CoolReader, for example, at full brightness, it runs for 20 hours, plays HD video at medium volume and maximum brightness for 9 hours 10 minutes, Epic Citadel for 6 hours 50 minutes.
In order to further save energy, there is Qualcomm BatteryGury - a pre-installed utility. It tracks your activity on its own for several days, and then automatically optimizes the charge / battery consumption mode. In general, we can conclude that last year our smartphone was one of the best new products in its class.
