Zopo Speed 8 First Impressions: A deca-core beast, priced higher than metal clad rivals!

In the smartphone world, the competition has grown multifold in last few years. The specs war has gone crazy, with smartphone makers packing in top of the line specs in their upper range smartphones to entice consumers.

Speaking of the specs war, while until now, octa-core led the pack of processors, it is time now that deca core CPU takes over. We now have smartphones that boast the power of deca-core chipset, however Chinese smartphone company Zopo is the first to bring a deca-core phone to India.

PROS

• deca core chipset
• 4GB RAM

CONS

• no display protection
• lacks water and dust resistance
• average design

Zopo on Wednesday took the wraps off its flagship smartphone, the Zopo Speed 8, at an event held in Delhi. The phone was first introduced earlier this year at MWC 2016, in Barcelona.

The key highlight of this smartphone is that it is the first device in the world (officially launched), to run on Mediatek's Helio X20 deca-core chipset. Along with the chipset, the phone also packs in specs that seem pretty impressive.

However, all this comes for a price tag of Rs 31,500 (MRP), which is on the higher side in comparison to the Xiaomi Mi5, LeEco Le Max2, OnePlus 3 and others.

We were there at the launch event of the Zopo Speed 8, and here are our first impressions of the phone:

Design: Lacks metal power

The Zopo Speed 3 smartphone dons a plastic body design that looks good but we have seen much better in this price range. It has a smooth finished rear panel with a thick chrome strip running over the sides. The rear panel has camera with flash light, and Zopo's branding.

The front has a glass panel running from top to bottom, however it is neither 2.5D curved glass, nor a screen protection glass. You get three soft keys placed on the screen itself. On the top of the screen you get a camera with flash, and a Zopo moniker placed below the screen.

The right side to the display adorn power key paired with volume rocker, whereas the left houses hybrid SIM trey. The bottom has connectivity port, and the top has a 3.5mm audio jack. The phone is comfortable to be used single handedly and is easy on hand, weighing in at 164g.

Overall, considering that its well popular competitors are all metal clad, specs heavy devices, Zopo Speed 8 might seem boring to you, in terms of design.

Crisp display, vulnerable to damages:

The Speed 8 features a 5.5-inch FHD display offering 1080p resolution. The display is good, reproduces colour well, offers sharp imaging, and gives good viewing angles. However, it lacks a display protection screen such as Corning Gorilla Glass, which safe guard the screen from getting scratches.

X factor is the Deca-core processor!

The biggest highlight of the phone is Helio X20 chipset that boasts deca-core, with 2 Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and 4 Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz.

The chipset promises PC level processing and console-level graphics, however we reserve our take on the performance part for our detailed review of the phone. To support the CPU, there is 4GB of RAM of 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded using a microSD cad.

21MP rear camera lacks OIS!

The smartphone also has a 21MP rear camera with Sony IMX230 sensor. It has dual tone LED flash, auto focus and f/2.0, but we are surprised that it lacks features like OIS and fast auto focus, which have become kind of must-haves for smartphones in this price range. As far as the camera quality is concerned, we did not find it impressive, but would like to have our final take on the camera performance after we review the phone.

As for front facing snapper, up front there is an 8MP selfie camera paired with flash light, which is a good point. We couldn't test the front-facing camera.

Others:

With all major OEMs using the USB Type C reversible connectivity port for faster charging and data syncing, it was but natural for Zopo to incorporate it on to its flagship phone, the Speed 8. Moreover, the phone also features a fingerprint scanner, which as well is in fashion amongst smartphone companies.

To take care of powering the phone, there is 3,600mAh non-removable battery that easily last you a full day, as per the company claims. We somewhat agree, considering the Helio X20 is more battery efficient, and secondly because the Full HD display consumes less power as compared to a Quad-HD display.

Overall:

Zopo Speed 8 does seem like a powerful competitior to its rivals, however we feel that it is priced on the higher side. Moreover, its metal clad competitors also have an edge in the design department. Nevertheless, it is the first deca-core smartphone, which might help the phone entice a fair set of consumers.