Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “A $50,000 Smartphone for $400?”.
Today, we’ve got something pretty special. You might have heard of a company called virtue who recently went out of business but initially gained popularity for their super luxury. Ultra high-end smartphones, going up to fifty thousand dollars and people were wondering when the first company would come out to manage to recreate that same design at a much more affordable price. Well right here we have just that, and the outer packaging is definitely a good start. It’S made almost entirely out of this four leather material.
It’S not real leather here, but inside the box you’ll see we actually do have some of that, but also you’ll notice, how much of a departure! This is from a standard, cardboard, smartphone box, and it’s a nice change. The box is very solid from the sides and has a plush cushion like feel to the top. So without any further ado, let’s get it open. So the first thing you’re gon na see is the device itself in a pretty unusual shade of brown.
This is a rare color and, in fact, a rare form factor for smart phones in 2018. Just because of how niche the appeal is, but I think it’s quite a refreshing change is a little tab on the side of the phone and to get out you just got ta give that a little pull and just taking this cushioning you’ll notice the way the Phone is presented is so atypical because of its fashion appeal. This is appealing to the kind of people who would buy expensive, watches or very expensive, cufflinks or ties. So that is how its presented as well as the Quick Start Guide.
We’Ve got a pretty standard. Looking 10 watt charger, there’s nothing at all fancy going on here. It’S just standard plastic construction and the same can be said for the cable.
But we do have a couple of extras here: we’ve got a pair of pretty premium, looking earphones, but unfortunately, when you get close up with them, you realize they’re made entirely out of plastic and that definitely somewhat takes away from the luxury appeal, but they do sound. A little bit better than they look moving on right in the bottom compartment of this box, there’s another curiously heavy little metal object and you unscrew the top, and you realize that is a screwdriver. Now, why exactly we’d need one of these? I guess we’ve got ta.
Wait and find out, but that is it for the contents of the box. So let’s get onto the phone all right the device in question and forgive me as I’m about to butcher the name is DK cos it s8 and it’s not a fake. This is a legitimate I’ll, be small smartphone company. That does make a variety of devices, but this one in particular the s8, is themed after a phone you may have seen before the virtue signature touch specifically the alligator brown version and the similarities here.
They actually stretch a little bit further than just the service level. Now, of course, a big part of what made the virtue smartphones so enticing, where the materials used and to fit advice into this kind of price bracket. Sacrifices have to be made so, for example, the original was made of Coca brown alligator skin polished, titanium and sapphire crystal for the display. So obviously we don’t have that, but what I do like about the caicos it fern over here is that the compromises are reasonable.
Instead of an alligator skin, we do actually have real leather covering the body, and this has been it shaped into an alligator style pattern, and even when you zoom right up to this, when you scrutinize it closely, the stitching is done. Remarkably, I couldn’t find a single flaw in it. So, yes, whilst $ 400, is a lot to pay for a phone compared to the original virtue devices. This looks like a steel in comparison in terms of the frame.
This isn’t a polished, titanium finish as we found in the original virtu, but it’s not that far off it’s a metal alloy consisting of aluminium and steel, and when you also factor in how much of that metal is on this phone, you realize it’s not a slim Or a light device by any means comparing it to any normal sized smartphones. You realize carrying this around in public you’re going to get looks, but it is nice to see. We’Ve got a headphone jack right in the center at the top of the phone and also a surprise feature ip67 water resistance. I know I’m pretty surprised too and while the phone doesn’t have sapphire crystal on the display, it’s got the next best thing: aka Gorilla Glass. Now you might be wondering what is this funny-looking module on the back of the phone, but at it’s very core is a fingerprint scanner and the way the module is shaped. Your finger naturally falls in place on the scanner – it’s quite cleverly designed, but it’s actually got a dual purpose, because when you use the enclosed screwdriver unscrew, it you’ve got a removable backplate, which then serves to insert your SIM cards or even a micro SD card.
Here the backplate implies that the company has made 818 thousand of these phones. At least I’d be surprised if there was even five when you start screwing the plate back in it dawns on you how much of an inefficiently design firm. This is.
This is such a fiddly process and really makes you wish they had some sort of instant button flip out mechanism, but that is exactly the appeal of the phone. This device has made many many sacrifices all for the sake of visual appeal, so the backplate is just another. One added to the list display wise. The s8 is rocking a pretty standard. Five inch 1080p LCD, but the thing which I’m more drawn to is the theme on the phone which has borrowed a lot of the matte black elements from the virtu phones and always pasted them onto this phone, but to its detriment.
The UI is a little bit too inconsistent here. We’Ve got a lot of really nicely themed, dark style icons, but then you click on them and their applications are stock, Google ones, but then, at the same time, some of these apps are built from the ground up. Just for this device – and they are themed – really well performance, wise, it’s not going to blow anyone away. It’S got four gigs of RAM, which is solid, but at the same time a pretty low-end mediatek processor.
So, whilst in terms of visual identity, the phone holds its own for $ 400 as soon as you turn that screen on and start exploring the software and what you can do with it, it pales in comparison to other similarly priced devices. It’S got a 13 megapixel camera, but this too feels like a very rushed effort. It feels like, in order to create this beautiful, seamless body of the phone. Everything else has been compromised, alright guys if you like slightly stranger phones like this, I do have a video out on the elephant you pro, which is actually quite good value for money, so check it out I’ll leave it as a card above and with that being Said my name is Erin, this is mystery. Is the boss and I’m signing out .