Most of the time when we get a review unit of a phone it just includes the retail box for the device, rarely any extras or goodies worth mentioning. With Elephone’s latest flagship the P9000 they were nice enough to send a stack of official accessories for the phone, all of which are sold separately for the brand new device. In the box of goodies is a Qi wireless charger, fast wall charger, quick charge data cable, window case for the P9000 and a tempered glass screen protector for the phone. There’s almost always tons of accessories on the market for bigger name phones but not normally for the smaller guys, so it’s really nice to see Elephone providing such popular items for users to grab at their leisure.
Buy Elephone Online:http://www.elephone.hk/online.html
Chargers and Cables
Both the PE+ Quick Charger and Wireless Charger both retail for $14.99 (~€12) and are just the standalone chargers themselves. The Wireless Charger uses a standard microUSB cable and can accept up to 5v/2a, although it only doles out a 5v/1a wireless charge. No cable is included in the box unfortunately, so they’re counting on you already owning one. This is pretty silly of course since the P9000 comes with a USB Type-C cable and not a microUSB, meaning you can’t even use the one in the phone box for this, and while it’s highly likely that you’ve already got a bunch of microUSB cables lying around it doesn’t seem like a good idea to just sell the charging base without any way to actually plug it in.
The charger itself works admirably but doesn’t charge very fast at 5v/1a, although as a wireless charger is meant to be more of a trickle charge throughout the day rather than a quick charge plug-in solution. This is presumably why they didn’t include a wall outlet plug either as you can just plug it into any computer USB port and charge it that way. The clear plastic puck features an elegant design, although the design of the rubber part inside makes it look a tad bit on the cheap side. Having the rubber to support the charger is nice though, as it keeps it from sliding around, especially when the phone is placed on top. Placing a Qi-compatible wireless charging device such as the Elephone P9000 on top of the charger will light it up blue letting you know charging has started. The blue light thankfully turns off after just a few seconds, which is nice especially if you’re keeping this near your bed or somewhere similar at night.
Those looking for a quicker charge should be very happy with the PE+ Quick Charger, which features faster charging for the P9000 via MediaTek’s new Helio series of processors and a higher wattage output of 5v/2.5a. In my testing this charged the P9000 from 0-100% in just about an hour flat, which is more than double what it would take the above wireless charger to do. The USB Type-A port on it means you can plug any type of “regular” USB cable into it too, so if you’ve got a phone with a microUSB port that supports quick charging you can use this too.
Finally the official USB Type-C data cable for support of the 5v/2.5a fast charging standard, as well as proper wiring to support data transfer to a Type-A connection found on most full-sized USB devices. This one works as advertised for the P9000 and a host of other USB Type-C devices I have lying around, including the Nexus 6p. I also tested it in a number of other chargers of varying voltage outputs including 5v/2a and 5v/1a to ensure compatibility, all of which worked like a charm. This is especially good if you’ve already got car chargers and other power bricks to plug in but need extra cables to support that new USB Type-C connection on the Elephone P9000.
Smart Case
We’ve seen these window-type cases for a few years now, and every now and then an OEM will release a new style of one that has a different size or shape cutout on the front. The Smart Case is a flip-style case that features a pleather outside, micro fiber section for keeping the screen from getting scuffed, and a plastic sleeve inside for holding the phone snug in the case. This also acts as a dual-protection system, as the plastic helps absorb any additional shock from drops that the pleather outside of the case would not. The only real downside to this particular design is that the top and bottom are completely open, which keep the device open to scratches on those sides. On the bright side these openings keep the ports and speakers from being blocked in any way, and allow for any sized headphone jack sleeve to fit on the top, a problem many cases have when the 3.5mm sleeve is too big.
Features for the case on the P9000’s software are pretty minimal, but they are certainly handy for quickly checking the time and using the phone while the case is still closed. Pressing the power button while the case is still closed will only light up the portion of the screen where the tall rectangular cutout is, revealing a large analog clock with a digital time above and the date and day of the week below. Swiping down on the screen brings up music control, and very handy feature to have without having to open the case, and you can even answer phone calls via this small screen and talk thanks to the earpiece cutout at the top. Lastly you can select the background color for the screen between four different options: purple, blue, gold and green.
Some cases add considerable bulk, but thankfully this one does not. The phone is obviously going to be thicker thanks to the addition of not just a plastic case but also the folded pleather sleeve, but it doesn’t feel obnoxiously huge in any way. What’s really nice is what the case does to the fingerprint scanner on the back, which in general is too flat on the naked phone and difficult to find. With the case on a nice groove is created where your finger should go, and I found my finger drifting to this area completely naturally, unlike what it did when the phone had no case. The cutouts for the camera, dual-LED flash and laser auto-focus module are all there on the back too.
The volume rocker and power buttons on the right side are covered by the rubbery plastic case and help keep them from getting scuffed, all while preventing them from being difficult to press. The special button on the left side of the phone is completely covered by the pleather flap when the case is closed, but is revealed when the flap is opened and is protected in the same way the other buttons are. Since the special button can’t be used with the screen off anyway this really isn’t a big deal, but it’s worth mentioning. As is the case with any flip-style case you won’t be able to use the rear-facing camera when the flap is folded all the way back, a negative that might get extremely annoying depending on how you use the phone. The case is sold with the screen protector below for $14.99, making this easily the best deal in the official accessory package.
Tempered Glass Screen Protector
Tempered glass screen protectors have hit it big time in the last year or so, with many people opting for these solutions instead of the old sticker type solution. Tempered glass protectors are certainly as susceptible to drops as your phone’s screen is, but they’re designed to absorb the impact instead of your screen, almost always shattering or chipping themselves before the screen on your actual phone does. While this results in having to buy another tempered glass protector you’ll likely find that the overall look and feel of tempered glass protectors is far above the quality of sticker type ones. First off since it’s glass it feels exactly as the screen was intended, no vinyl-type material to make it feel different as traditional screen protectors do. Second since it’s a single piece of glass it likely will go on better and more evenly than some vinyl-type protectors can, and they’re very easy to install.
The package comes with the tempered glass protector, which features a single peel-off section to cover the adhesive. Also included in the box is an alcohol wipe for sanitizing and cleaning the screen, micro fiber cloth for wiping it off, as well as a “dust remover” (read: glorified sticker) for doing what it should. Used in this order the screen of your P9000 will get as clean as possible, allowing you to precision place the glass down where it needs to be without having to worry about dust specs getting in. Installation is as simple as sticking the glass on the body after removing that adhesive covering strip, followed by a few presses to set the adhesive. You’ll want to give this a few minutes to fully set on the phone before playing the next round of your favorite mobile game, and if there are any areas where bubbles have formed a simple push with your fingernail will remove them.
Once the protector has set you’ll immediately notice just how natural it looks. Unlike some protectors which don’t go all the way to the edge, this one is precision crafted to completely cover the face of the phone, leaving almost zero gap between the glass at the edges of the protector. To make it feel as natural a part of the glass as possible the edges are rounded, making it seamless to the finger when glazing over the edges of the glass. Touch responsiveness and visual quality are completely unaffected, and the only cutouts on the glass are for the front-facing camera and earpiece/sensor area at the top, again making it look like just a natural part of the glass rather than an ugly line at the top.
If you like what you see everything can be ordered a la carte, or if you’d rather have everything at a discount there’s a $29.99 bundle available from GearBest for pre-order. These ship out at the end of the month, so if you’re planning on getting the P9000 or already have it in hand make sure to grab a few of these to keep the phone in its best shape.
No comments:
Post a Comment