A solid quad-core phone that deserves nothing but praise. JiaYu G3C - Technical specifications Which functions do not use at all?

Equipment:

Phone types:

To be honest, the poisonous-acid green case caused a slight shock. I ordered a black phone. It went without saying that the cover should be black. But that's what I thought. Phone manufacturers, it turns out, do not take into account wishes and put cases in boxes on a random basis. It's good that they didn't put pink. I expressed my “feel” to the seller, but by that time the green-black color combination had already become familiar and even familiar. I'm not offended by the seller for the cover. By the way, a case for this phone is not a luxury, but a necessity. According to reviews, the black paint on the sides of the phone next to the screen begins to peel off over time, and the case protects against this. And, of course, some kind of protection in case of a fall. Another plus of the case is that the phone holds in your hands like a glove and does not try to slip out.

Frame

Heavy, metal. Of course, it is not all metal. I don't mean the screen - it's supposed to be glass. But the back cover of the battery compartment looks a bit flimsy. This feeling appears when you take it off, it is thin, the latches come off with a crunch, causing concern for their integrity. But when assembled, the phone feels like a monolithic (and it doesn’t creak or play) black block, pleasant to the touch. The surfaces are smooth, but it does not slip out of your hands. It gets dirty on your fingers quickly and wipes off just as quickly. The screen does not have an oleophobic coating, so your fingers remain. I pasted a film on the screen. I didn’t stick my own one on - I went to the service center, paid for their matte film, and they stuck it on me. It will last for a while; with a matte film, fingerprints on the screen are less noticeable.

The silicone case fits the body perfectly. It became much more comfortable to hold. A kind of replacement for softtouch. I can say one more thing about the case. It has a rough surface and gets dirty quickly in the field. And since the surface is not smooth, it takes effort to clean.

Screen

The screen size is just right for one-handed operations. In most cases, a second hand is not needed. Well, unless you press the screen lock button, it’s not very conveniently located at the top. But unlocking also works from the volume control keys. The Volume Down key can be used as a shutter button in the Camera app. I haven’t figured out how autofocus works yet.

More about the screen. The viewing angles are excellent, in my opinion. I specially took pictures from different angles. No comments.

Cameras

Main phone camera. It is eight megapixel. In order to photograph the bus schedule on occasion, a beautiful view, a child who doesn’t mind posing - all this is possible in good lighting. There is autofocus, and it even gets the job done. But it’s not fast; in low light conditions, even at home it slows down. However, an ordinary phone camera, not Karl Zeis of course.

Below are sample photos.

Herringbone, 8 MP:

Herringbone, 6 MP:

Night Ekibastuz:

Son at the computer, 6 MP:

Toy, 6 MP:

Text, 8 MP:

Toy, 8 MP:

Our village:

Industrial landscape:

At work:

In the camera settings you can set it to "full screen". With this function, the phone takes pictures with an aspect ratio of 16:10 (maybe 16:9, I didn’t have time to check). But at the same time, the maximum resolution is reduced to 6 megapixels. That is, in essence, 2 extra stripes at the top and bottom of the photo are cut off. I don’t presume to judge, but this decision seemed strange to me. The functions include panoramic shooting (it’s okay, the quality is disgusting, they did it for show), shooting 3D images (this is when you shoot an object from different sides and you can also view it, but only on your phone), quality settings, etc. I didn’t understand or test them all.

Although the front camera is stated to be 2 megapixels, I’m somehow not sure about this. It's very poor quality. In order to capture a self-portrait for an avatar on a forum or in a Google account, this will do.

Video shooting. Both cameras support HD shooting. Frontal supports in quotes.

See examples below.

Video taken with front camera:

Video from the main camera:

I hope you're not offended that I didn't make a longer video? In my opinion, everything is clear. For some reason I hoped for the best. Maybe with good lighting everything will be different?

Performance

Well, I came to the place where this phone is on a horse.

The MTK6589T processor with 4 cores at 1.5 GHz, paired with 1 GB RAM, provides sufficient performance for almost all tasks that may arise. Recently, people complained about the brakes even in the Android interface. Now the time has finally come when you can forget about it. I had no reason to complain.

Below are screenshots of benchmarks.

Quadrant:

NenaMark:

AnTuTu 3DRating:

operating system

The Android 4.2.1 operating system is installed, not bare. A number of applications that are unnecessary for non-Chinese users are preinstalled.

Your own launcher. It takes some getting used to. But after a couple of days the desire to install, for example, Apex, disappeared.

Ruth was out of the box. Therefore, there was no need to look for ways to root. Using Titanium, I restored everything from another Android device, removed the Chinese one, and that’s it, the settings are gone.

About the built-in memory: part of the 4 GB is occupied by the system. The remaining 2.8 GB is allocated for installing applications. There is absolutely no space left for the built-in flash card. Therefore, without an additional flash card it is impossible to even take a photo. Some may find the decision controversial. For such people, there are always programs for repartitioning the phone’s memory or simply downloading another firmware. Fortunately, there are a lot of them on 4pda and china-iphone. For example, the same LewaOS. I didn’t install it only because the phone was not intended for me personally. And the advantages of the fact that all available built-in memory is allocated for applications are obvious. No need to rack your brains about where to look for the downloaded file, which sdcard, external or internal, for example. Well, of course, everyone has their own preferences. And buying memory cards is not a problem now.

Another plus that I almost forgot about is status LED. When charging, lights up red until 90% charged. Then green, which can be confusing (the charge has not yet completed). When discharged to 15%, it also signals in red that you need to find an outlet. In fact, you don’t need to worry too much, the charge will last for a couple of hours or even more (if you don’t continue to play or download anything big). It also signals green about missed calls, SMS and other messages. Comfortable.

About battery capacity I can say a little - the Antutu tester scored a little over 600 points. These are parrots. During use (several days) I charged it every other day. It was enough for two days of not very active use.

Battery consumption screens:

Charger Photos:

I did not use my original charger. I have several of them from other phones. The original cord is a bit short, so I use the charger that has a longer one. I have not tested charging speed. It charges overnight and is fine.

Multi-touch

I’m describing this simply because I encountered a 7-touch multi-touch for the first time. As they say, “neither two nor one and a half.” 5 touches, it seems to me, would be enough. When I tested it, I could hardly fit these same 7 fingers on the seemingly rather large screen.

Multi-touch test:

Navigation

Yes, I tested it. Yes, I got the result. Cold start in 111 seconds on a windowsill in an apartment (3rd floor, facing southwest into the courtyard of the same 6-story buildings). I first set it up using the header from the forum on china-iphone. I did this test for the sake of testing. You need navigation like a mare needs a fifth leg.

By the way, there are a lot of reviews about the incorrect operation of the GPS in this phone, about the fact that sometimes it is necessary to solder something there. This may be true, but I missed it.

Behavior in the sun

Here are some photos of the phone in the sun. The photographs, I’ll tell you right away, were taken at home, for the only reason: the frost hit - 20 degrees, and I didn’t feel like going outside with a phone and a camera in my hands. The photographs give a general idea of ​​the screen's brightness reserve. You can see (what can you see, see) and read the message written on the screen even in bright light, well, you may have to cover a little of the glare with your hand. By the way, I haven’t tested the automatic brightness adjustment, and I can’t say how it behaves.

Photos of the phone screen in the sun at maximum brightness, at medium and at minimum:

Telephone component

He calls, gets through, you can hear the interlocutor, you can hear me. Everything is standard. When installing a new SIM card, it asks which one to use for voice calls, which one for video calls (and for 3G, respectively). You can configure it to always ask which SIM card to call from and which message to send. In the phone book you can link a number to a SIM card. I have only seen something different with LewaOS. There, the dialer interface allows you to select a SIM card for calls by moving the slider under the dialer.

About communication standards

Both SIM cards support 3G standard WCDMA2100 and no other. That is, if your favorite provider works in a different standard, then you will not see 3G like your ears. I encountered this, “grieved” and put the unsupported SIM card on the shelf for the time that I had the phone. With two other providers that are in our area, the phone works without any problems. I had to enter the connection parameters manually, I couldn’t figure it out myself. And the speed was 64 kbit per second. After 2 days of trying to understand what I was doing wrong, I called support - they rebooted something there, I turned the phone off and on, and oops - the reception speed increased to 7 Mbit. But I sinned against my body.

HD video playback

Especially for such cases, I have 2 test videos on a flash drive in FullHD quality (trailers of some films). The stock player played both of them, but one of them had no sound. The reason is that you need to disable hardware decoding, but it doesn’t have this in the settings. I used the standard MX player for such cases. Both are played, and with sound. It is very controversial whether such a video should be played on a small screen. Films like this never weigh much. There are also 7 GB and more. Maybe it's better to use TV? Or a computer with a good screen?

Games

For the test I installed Real Racing 3. My son played it. What can we say? The brakes appear, but only with a large number of cars. There is an image in the rearview mirrors. My son did not experience any discomfort while playing. He will pass the session, get the phone back (if he passes well) and test it some more.

What's not to like? Weaknesses, shortcomings.

Its front camera is weak.

What do you miss about it?

WCDMA900 for tele2.

What features do you use often?

Skype. Viber installed. Reader. Internet. Gmail. Camera.

What features do you use occasionally?

Mail.ru agent.

What functions do you not use at all?

I didn't even check Bluetooth. I don’t have a headset now (I gave it away as unnecessary to good hands before I died of old age), and I’m too lazy to connect to phones.

Did the device have to be repaired?

No, and I hope you don't have to.

What troubles happened with the device? What glitches were noticed?

There are no such.

Try to compare this device with other models you have used.

An extremely good Chinese smartphone. Maybe, because of savings, I had to deal with devices that required some additional steps for setting up, finishing, reflashing, etc. But this device does not need this. All operations to customize the smartphone took 2-3 hours, including restoring applications from backup and photographing the process of unpacking and turning it on for the first time.

What else can you say?

This is a work phone. Not for entertainment, show-off, toys. Although it is also suitable for all these purposes, the processor and memory allow you to do almost everything on it. But again, this is a solid phone for work. I lost interest in it a little when I realized that there was no need to configure or tinker with it. The quality of Chinese smart phones (and not only smart phones) is growing and is very noticeable. Let's wait for the opportunity to test something 8-core.

9 out of 10. Subtracted one point for the lack of WCDMA900. I recommend it to everyone to buy.

A budget communicator from the Middle Kingdom that could be a hit

The current hero of the review has long attracted the attention of the public with its characteristics and price. It became one of the first, if not the first, communicators that made it possible to fulfill the dream of many buyers: to purchase a smartphone with a dual-core processor, a large display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels and support for two SIM cards - for symbolic money for a device with such characteristics.

There was a “squiggle” in the chain of events, and Jiayu G3, namely the one in question, ended up in the editorial office after his somewhat alter ego - iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X, a communicator of a domestic company, but with a distinct Chinese ancestry, having a twin brother in the form of UMI X1. But it’s okay: it will be all the more interesting to compare both devices, because the price tag on them differs almost twice.

Before we begin to describe our impressions of the new product, we need to make a reservation that the Jiayu G3 can currently only be purchased in China; it is not officially supplied to Russia.

Scope of delivery and characteristics

The Jiayu G3 has perhaps one of the most unusual packaging, at least among those that we have encountered: a thin white cardboard cover is placed on a transparent plastic box, most reminiscent of a food container, which, in turn, contains a smartphone and accessories. It is impossible not to note the strength of this design, which is undoubtedly important when sending a purchase by mail. At the same time, in order to open this plastic “ark”, you need to work hard and suffer a little, especially if you do it for the first time.

There is no particularly useful information on the packaging of the communicator; for a compatriot, only the name of the device, the name of the manufacturing company and the address of its website will be clear. The remaining limited information is presented exclusively in hieroglyphs.

The set of Jiayu G3 accessories is standard: battery, charger, Micro-USB cable, wired stereo headset and documentation. As a nice bonus, there is a protective film for the communicator screen. All available accompanying documentation contains text exclusively in Chinese.

The characteristics of the Jiayu G3 communicator are as follows:

• MediaTek MTK6577 processor (two ARM Cortex-A9 cores, 1 GHz) with PowerVR SGX 531 video core;
• Operating system Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich);
• IPS display, 4.5″ diagonal, 720×1280 pixels, capacitive, multitouch;
• RAM 1 GB, main flash memory 4 GB (2.5 GB available);
• Supports microSDHC memory cards with a capacity of up to 64 GB;
• Dual SIM support;
• GSM EDGE/GPRS connection (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) for both SIM cards;
• 3G HSPA communication (2100 MHz) for one SIM card;
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR;
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g;
• FM radio;
• GPS + A-GPS;
• Position sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer;
• Camera with CMOS sensor with a resolution of 8 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash, an additional camera with a resolution of 2 megapixels;
• Lithium-ion battery, capacity 2750 mAh;
• Dimensions 135x65x10.8 mm;
• Weight 131 g.

The characteristics of Jiayu G3 and iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X coincide on almost all points. Of course, the two communicators differ in size and weight, but this is largely due to the difference in size and battery capacity of the two devices. In general, the hardware parameters of the Jiayu G3 seem very tempting, considering the price of the communicator. The main positive point is the capacious battery, the negative and mysterious one is the somewhat outdated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules.

We must immediately make a reservation that the described capabilities of the Jiayu G3 are typical for the firmware with which the device went on sale, and the screenshots were taken with it. It is, in particular, based on Android version 4.0.4. Meanwhile, at the time of the announcement of the article, a new firmware based on Android 4.1.2 was already available, and in one point, which we will discuss later, the functionality of the device may change noticeably compared to the “out of the box” option.

Design and appearance

In the era of the struggle for the title of “the thinnest smartphone”, the Jiayu G3 looks very extraordinary - a kind of weighty and thick black plastic “brick”. Inadvertently, you get the feeling that it can be used not only for its intended purpose, but also, for example, for hammering nails or as a self-defense weapon.

Despite the classic body shape and light weight for its size, the Jiayu G3 is definitely a masculine smartphone. It is in a man’s hand that this “block” looks most organic and impressive. It is difficult to imagine that the hero of the review will be of interest to the fair sex and, moreover, will fit in a woman’s hand.

Thick side edges allow you to confidently hold the device with one hand, despite the generally slippery plastic of the case. But, unfortunately, the dimensions of the smartphone also limit the possibilities of placing it in various pockets. A comfortable grip, in addition, does not mean that it is convenient to control the communicator with the fingers of one hand: in order to reach all corners of the elongated display, the smartphone body must be intercepted in the middle, sacrificing grip reliability.

Outwardly, the hero of the review resembles several families of devices at once: there is something in it from Sony smartphones, which have a dedicated lower part of the body, there is something elusive from the iPhone 4 (probably the design of the upper part of the front panel and the cutout for the telephone speaker), but Most of all, it resembles the appearance of the good old communicators with the now defunct Windows Mobile - for example, the E-ten models, which differed most of all in the thickness of the body, Chinese plastic and, in general, “uncomplicated” design. The main impression from the design of the communicator is that this is exactly what a smartphone with Windows Mobile would have looked like in 2006, if someone in the Middle Kingdom at that time had decided to release a communicator without hardware keys, with only a touchscreen display on the front panel.

The body material of the Jiayu G3 was plastic and metal, the first of two types: matte black for most of the body, glossy black for the front panel and ends. The metal is presented exclusively in the form of two inserts on both sides of the protective glass of the display. They don't look very organic; one gets the impression that the developers tried to use them to make the communicator more “presentable”, but achieved only the opposite effect. All panels - both plastic and metal - are excellent at collecting fingerprints.

In general, the build quality and design of the communicator are not satisfactory. There are no creaks or gaps between parts, nothing rings or hangs loose. The battery compartment cover is held in place by several latches and comes off with some effort and diligence. A few keys have a relief shape and a distinct stroke.

On the front panel of the Jiayu G3, in addition to the display, there are three touch keys (all backlit), a telephone speaker, an additional camera lens, two sensors and an LED indicator for the status of the communicator. The smartphone developers deserve special praise for the presence of the latter. The entire front panel, with the exception of metal inserts, is covered with protective glass, with properties similar to the famous Gorilla Glass.

The name of the manufacturer and its logo are printed only on the battery compartment cover, which is the back panel of the smartphone. It has holes for the main speaker, camera lens and LED flash. After detaching the cover, a view of the huge battery, connectors for SIM cards and memory cards opens up (they cannot be replaced without removing the battery).

You can remove the rear plastic panel only by picking it up with your fingernail in the lower right corner of the communicator's body - that's where a special recess is located. On the right side of the smartphone there is a double key for controlling the volume of the device’s sound system. The left side of the Jiayu G3 is empty.

At the bottom of the review hero there is a microphone and a Micro-USB-compatible connector. At the top there is a power control key and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The location of all controls on the Jiayu G3 is standard, but, however, there are several questions about the layout and design of the communicator. Firstly, the large amount of free space on the front panel, which is not occupied by anything, is surprising - the smartphone could simply be made smaller. Secondly, the lower part of the bezel seems completely unnecessary, as does the plastic rim around the display. Thirdly, instead of touch keys, mechanical ones would have been painlessly placed, but the developers followed fashion. Of course, all this can be considered nitpicking; the communicator turned out to be what it is. Moreover, the dimensions of the case may have been dictated by the size of the large battery that needed to fit inside. In the end, the answer to the question of whether you like the device is different for everyone, but for me personally it is negative - I really want to quickly hide the Jiayu G3 in some kind of case. It remains only to note that there are also gray and silver versions of the smartphone on sale.

Software

The communicator runs the Android 4.0.4 operating system (firmware version 4.1.2 has recently appeared). The system is presented almost in its original form, there are no additional shells. Initially, the system is set to Chinese as the main language, so to switch the interface to Russian you will have to work a little and get lost in the settings menu.

From the system lock screen, you can access the camera control program or the main screen. There are no non-standard icons or widgets on its five tabs.

However, there are several additional applications in the Jiayu G3 firmware. They can be divided into two categories: useful programs and not very useful ones - at least for Russian-speaking users. The first group includes Flashlight, File Manager and Running Application Manager - all of them do not need any special introduction or explanation of their operation.

The principle of operation of the program for managing two cellular communication channels is the same for all communicators based on the MediaTek platform that were tested. The smartphone owner has the opportunity to choose which of the two GSM channels will be used in various situations: when making calls, sending SMS and MMS messages, for data transfer. One of the two SIM cards can be designated as preferred, and it will be used to perform the mentioned operations. Or you can opt out of this setting and make the choice each time the need arises.

Display and sound

Like the pair iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X/UIM X1, the hero of the review attracts the attention of the public with its display: for a budget smartphone its characteristics cannot be called anything other than remarkable. The diagonal of the IPS matrix is ​​4.5″, the resolution is 720×1280 pixels, and as a result, the dots per inch density (one of the most popular parameters recently for comparing smartphones) is 326 ppi. It would not be superfluous to point out again that the pixel density of such a display is greater than that of the Samsung Galaxy S 3 screen, less than that of the iPhone 4 display, and exactly the same as the pixel density of the Retina matrix in the iPhone 5.

The screen is covered with protective glass, up to 7 simultaneous touches are recognized, viewing angles are very comfortable, the backlight brightness is adjusted automatically, but in bright sunlight the picture on the display becomes difficult to see.

Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, will tell you more about the Jiayu G3 screen.

The front surface of the screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of bright light sources, there is a very effective anti-glare filter that reduces the brightness of reflected objects. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen, so fingerprints do not appear as quickly as with regular glass, but are removed more easily. Note that the effectiveness of the oleophobic coating on this screen is quite high.

When manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was 350 cd/m², and the minimum was 22 cd/m². The maximum value is not outstanding, but in principle it is sufficient - even in bright daylight you can see something on the screen. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. There is an automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor, which in complete darkness and in an office illuminated by artificial light reduces the brightness to approximately 50 cd/m² (acceptable), and in a very bright environment the brightness increases to maximum. At lower brightness, there is no backlight modulation at all, so there is no backlight flickering.

The Jiayu G3 uses an IPS matrix, so the screen has very good viewing angles without inverting shades and without significant color shifts, even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen. True, the black field, when deviated diagonally, becomes lighter and, depending on the direction of the deviation, acquires a red-violet or greenish-gray tint. However, in this smartphone this increase in the brightness of the black field is very weakly expressed. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of black and white fields is good. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 23 ms (11 ms on + 12 ms off), the transition between halftones 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 27 ms. There is some brightness correction depending on the overall lightness of the image (the brightness decreases for light images and increases for dark ones), but it only works when outputting halftone images, and when outputting a black or white field (or primary colors) in full screen there is no adjustment. Why such a function is needed remains a mystery, but in the end, the gamma curve constructed using 32 points, although it did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, however, had a very strange shape, not at all reminiscent of the standard power function with an exponent of 2.2:

The contrast is high - 960:1. The color gamut is very close to sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components with each other:

The color temperature is slightly higher than the standard 6500 K, and the ΔE indicator is quite high, about 12. However, both parameters change little over the entire significant part of the gray scale, so from a subjective point of view there are no special complaints about color rendition. (Dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

As a result, based on the totality of its characteristics, the screen of this smartphone justifiably deserves a high rating.

Both speakers of the Jiayu G3 are, frankly, unimportant. First of all, this relates to sound quality: if the telephone speaker adds a “cold effect” to the voices of all interlocutors (during a conversation, they feel like they have a stuffy nose), then the main speaker simply begins to grind and creak along with low frequencies at full power . Speaking of sound power, both speakers are average. Interlocutors also complained about the poor quality of voice transmission from the built-in microphone. Thus, the conclusion is the following: the quality of the sound subsystem significantly spoils the impression of the hero of the review.

The sound quality of the included stereo headset, on the contrary, turned out to be at a good level, and its white color and comfortable ear pads evoked only positive emotions. However, in any barrel of honey there is also a significant fly in the ointment, in this case it turned out to be the high resistance of the headset speakers. As a result, even at maximum power, the sound from them is not as loud as we would like - for most cases it is sufficient, but those who like to listen to music in transport will have to buy other headphones.

The headset control unit with microphone and call answer key is not detachable; a clip is provided for attaching it to clothing.

The communicator is equipped with an FM radio receiver, which only works when headphones are connected. The signal reception quality is average; the control program has functions for automatically searching for stations, compiling a channel list, recording audio and recognizing RDS signals.

Wireless Interfaces and Communications

Jiayu G3 is equipped with all the wireless communication modules necessary for modern life. It can be immediately noted that there were no serious problems with their operation during testing of the communicator.

The characteristics of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules look somewhat strange for a 2012 smartphone on the MediaTek platform: for example, only the outdated version of the Bluetooth 2.0 stack is supported, and the Wi-Fi module, judging by its description, is not capable of working in 802.11n networks - only in "slow" 802.11b/g networks. Most likely, this is a limitation of the firmware of this particular smartphone model, since the same iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X, built on an absolutely identical platform, has both Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.

Since the hero of the review has only one communication module, it is impossible to simultaneously make calls or transmit data over two networks (or over one, but in dual-channel mode), despite the fact that there are two slots for SIM cards.

Unfortunately, nothing positive can be said about the operation of the GPS receiver in the Jiayu G3 - it was simply not possible to use it properly. For almost 10 minutes, the satellite navigation receiver was unable to pick up a single signal from the satellites! And this is with A-GPS and EPO turned on - technologies that can significantly speed up the process of determining coordinates. As a result, the communicator was only able to approximately determine its location based on data from cellular network base stations and Wi-Fi access points. The problematic GPS receiver significantly tarnished the reputation of the Jiayu G3. It is possible to restore its functionality, at least on the Internet there is a description of the necessary actions, but this requires root access and a certain level of skill from the owner of the smartphone. Fortunately, there is information that on the new official firmware, which we did not have time to check, the problem with GPS operation has already been fixed - well, or has become less pronounced.

Cameras

The cameras in Jiayu G3 and iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X are exactly the same. The matrix of the main one has a resolution of 8 megapixels, it is complemented by an autofocus system and an LED flash. The additional camera on the front side of the smartphone has a light-sensitive matrix with a resolution of 2 megapixels.

The shooting control program is built into the operating system, so we are already very familiar with its interface. In general, it is convenient, but in order to get to the desired setting, you often have to aim at small icons and wade through long menus.

The camera has a great variety of settings; there is no point in describing them all here. It is worth mentioning, however, that the list of camera operating modes contains 4 items: photography, video shooting, panoramic shooting and panoramic macro photography.

The speed of the camera and the launch of the application itself is high, but the principle of operation of the autofocus system in the hero of the review, as well as in the iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X, requires getting used to and does not seem very convenient. Instead of setting focus every time you shoot, the system continuously calculates it, constantly focusing on one or another object in the frame. And in the end, the picture may not turn out the way it was intended: either the system will focus in the wrong place, or the communicator itself will move, and the settings will “shift.” Of course, the focus area can be specified manually by simply touching the screen in the desired place, but, firstly, this is not always convenient, especially when shooting with one hand, and secondly, this operation eliminates all the advantages in shooting speed, for which, judging by Apparently, the developers of the program and autofocus system installed such a strange algorithm for their operation.

Be that as it may, the Jiayu G3 can photograph the surrounding reality, and does it quite well for such an inexpensive communicator (although by and large the quality of the images, of course, does not stand up to criticism). The resolution of the images can reach 3264×2448 pixels. Video recording is carried out with a resolution of 720p and a frequency of 30 frames per second, the recording format is MPEG-4, H.263/AAC-LC. Only the amount of free memory on the card limits the maximum length of videos.

Autonomous operation

The standard battery capacity of Jiayu G3 is an impressive 2750 mAh. Frankly speaking, few smartphones on the market can boast such a “thrifty” battery.

The presence of a capacious battery coupled with a very economical platform should, in theory, ensure a very long battery life for a Chinese smartphone. Only a large and bright display can spoil the statistics here, but only tests will show whether this is so.

So, in e-book reading mode with automatic backlight brightness adjustment, the communicator worked for 17 hours. Listening to music with the screen turned off drained the battery by 20% in 15 hours: unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time for a longer test, but even by this indicator we can judge that in this mode the smartphone can work for several days. The last test is playing 1080p video, its result is 4.5 hours of continuous operation of the Jiayu G3.

The conclusions are clear: a capacious battery and the MediaTek platform allowed the Jiayu G3 to become one of the most “long-lived” devices of this class on the market. It was only slightly inferior to the record holder - the Philips Xenium W732 communicator.

Performance and responsiveness

The capabilities of the MediaTek MTK6577 processor are already well known to us; together with their younger “brother” - MTK6575 - they have firmly established themselves in the SoC segment for budget smartphones, which began to appear on the market in large quantities, and some of them managed to visit our editorial office. We examined the combination of the MTK6577 chip, 1 GB of RAM and a display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels in terms of performance in the iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X review, so we can’t expect any revelations in this regard from the Jiayu G3, and its capabilities are easy to predict . However, you can and should test your smartphone in performance tests from our traditional set in order to verify the forecasts.

Softweg Benchmark 1.03:

Quadrant Standard:

The assumptions turned out to be correct, the results of the iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X and Jiayu G3 tests were at the same level. Both communicators demonstrated good performance for budget devices, at the level of top-end smartphones from two years ago. Of course, they cannot compete with the flagships of the past, 2012, but, given the HD display resolution, we can only be glad that inexpensive communicators are able to satisfy the needs of most users in most tasks. The sluggishness of the operating system interface is still encountered here and there, but in general there are no annoying moments, and the rare “brakes” are easily explained by the peculiarities of the Android OS itself.

It remains to look at the results of two more performance tests and check the HD video playback capabilities.

Playing video:

There is no support for hardware HD video playback, as such, in the Jiayu G3, as well as in the iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X. The capabilities of one processor are not enough for trouble-free playback of “massive” videos.

Along with updating the operating system to Android 4.1, iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X now supports hardware video decoding in H.264 format. With a high degree of probability, this happened in the new Jiayu G3 firmware. You can now see how smooth and high-quality playback hardware decoding can provide if you follow the links in the table presented earlier. All videos were opened with the standard player.

conclusions

With regret, I have to admit: the Jiayu G3 was a disappointment. Initial positive impressions gradually gave way to negative ones. The desire that once arose to purchase a communicator with similar characteristics finally disappeared after a problem with the GPS receiver was discovered. But even before that, the opinion about the communicator was spoiled by the average quality speakers and microphone, as well as the clumsy design.

The likelihood that the problems mentioned are features of a particular instance, of course, exists, but playing the lottery when ordering a smartphone from China seems unnecessary. Especially if you consider the presence on the Russian market of an almost complete clone of the hero of the review - iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X, if purchased, at least there is someone to make a claim and return the purchase.

By and large, the Jiayu G3 has only one advantage over the iconBIT NetTAB Mercury X and its Chinese twin UMI X1 - a 2750 mAh battery and, as a result, longer battery life.

The appearance of the communicator is a matter of taste, but the subjective combination of different body materials and the abundance of empty, unoccupied space do not suit the smartphone. A small plus is the presence of an LED indicator.

When asked what will outweigh: the shortcomings of a smartphone, albeit potential ones, or its attractive price, capabilities and abundance of various “bonuses” from Chinese sellers (a case, bumper and a second battery can be obtained for free) - everyone can answer on their own. In the end, you can order the same UMI X1 if you really want to save money.

Vasily B. a year ago

Yandex Market

It'll only work if you've never been caught with a normal phone, otherwise it sucks

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Advantages: Low price tag,

Disadvantages: Slow. Glitchy. GPS practically doesn't work. It heats up like a stove.

Dmitry K. 3 years ago

Yandex Market

I’ve been using it for almost 2.5 years, a very good phone model of its kind, the price fully corresponds to the quality, I used it carefully, dropped it to a minimum, even wet it a little with water, everything went through and works fine, it even retained its presentation.

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Advantages: Design - very nice design, affordable price, I bought it in 2014 for almost 5k rubles, despite the fact that analogues of this phone for the same price were many times inferior to this model, good camera, has autofocus, RAM.

Disadvantages: There are gaps (slots) where the screen is, dirt and dust gets clogged there, water can get in, glitches with GPS, although this can be solved somehow in software, through the firmware, small private memory, but in principle it’s difficult to attribute even this to the disadvantages, battery - I thought it would hold the charge longer with active use, if you actively use it, then it won’t last even for a day, if it’s rational, then you can extend it for three days

Maria Brezgina 3 years ago

Yandex Market

I spent my three years of very active and not very careful use at 5. It still works, but there are too many errors for one device

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Pros: I don’t play with toys, I needed the phone for work and it did the job perfectly. In the first 2 years of my life I was able to handle up to 5 applications pretty well. The camera is excellent in good light.

Disadvantages: with constant use, the battery barely lasts for 8 hours of operation, but it’s worth giving a discount for the fact that every other day I dropped it very much every other day, and every day. two years later, the flashlight, autofocus, and buttons stopped working, and a very funny bug appeared: in the middle of the day, the phone rewinds all actions until the alarm clock rings, and does it in a couple of minutes: remember your day in two minutes.

Andrey 4 years ago

Yandex Market

After 1.5 years, it began to freeze in sleep mode (with wi-fi turned on, it goes into sleep mode every time, and without it, 5.6 times a day), the service did not help, in the photo, after half a year, a purple darkening appeared in the center. This China for one year .And we bought a G5S for my wife and seven months later a spot appeared on the screen, but for now at least it works without glitches.

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Pros: Everything was fine.

Alexey R. 5 years ago

Yandex Market

Overall satisfied, but not completely satisfied, take better jiayu G3C Recommended price 5.5 k no more

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Advantages: 1) Battery. 2) Screen resolution. 3) Gorilla glass. 4) IPS mattress.

Disadvantages: 1) Little RAM (albeit 1gb). 2) The screen is not visible in the sun. 3) Raw axle. 4) Weight (for whom it depends).

Anthony B. 5 years ago

Yandex Market

This is overall good China. I wasn't lucky with WiFi, others didn't seem to have any problems. I bought it for $220 (6800 rubles) in China in 2012. It's still enough, I'm not going to change it. Work without brakes: Internet, Yandex applications, e-reader, WSP Office office documents, remote administration (RDP, TeamViewer), flash drive, USB modem mode simply saves if the landline Internet is interrupted when playing poker, photos for information, barcode recognition , Skype, ICQ, Navitel, 2gis, organizer, reminders, toys like Tower Defense, poker clients PS and 888. Well, for the latter, a tablet is better and more convenient.

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Pros: Screen (no dots visible, HD) Price! Battery Build quality The camera is quite suitable for a phone, but does not like room lighting. Support SD 2x SIM Sews well without any problems Glass - not a single scratch - no film or case (almost 3 years already) In general, the filling is very good for its price. In the mode of reading books and dialing - it lasts 6 days for me (without data transfer, WiFi and a navigator. We must make sure that the processor does not stick at maximum)

Disadvantages: The back cover does not like to be opened often - it breaks along the edge. GPS - we couldn’t fix it - it sticks for 5-15 minutes on any firmware without Internet and with any patches - it doesn’t pick up well in the car, you have to keep it outside the window until it picks up satellites. WiFi - on the stock one and its clones (4.0) I always broke 2-3 times a minute, on firmware based on 4.2 WiFi is stable, but there are other jambs - black screens after calls, freezing, rebooting during a call, mixing up the internal memory with the correct drive configuration (depending on the firmware). PS: I finally found a firmware that works fine - on 4pda from Xperia. There is only 1 noticeable minus - after charging the percentage sticks at 100%, it seems to be cured, but I just overload it and it goes away. I also added the microphone volume.

Ya V. 5 years ago

Yandex Market

in 2014 I took it from China for 5500 rubles. I took it for myself and my brother. Battery lasts 2 days. The phone looks like a brick, it's just huge. Normal cheap phone, typical Chinese. With "Chinese" shortcomings. But I have never let you down yet. Definitely worth the money. It was cheap BEFORE the crisis =) now decide for yourself.

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Pros: Price Battery 2 SIM cards Camera is normal

Disadvantages: Glitchy - once a week it turns off by itself. In the cold the screen does not work - it starts to press itself in a random place. The back cover was covered with scratches within a month. The proximity sensor is buggy - half a minute passes before the screen lights up after a conversation. The front panel fell off - I put it on with glue for a moment.

absolem92 5 years ago

Yandex Market

5 months of use - the top metal insert fell off - glued it back. 8 months - the battery died, I ordered a new one. 14 months - two dead pixels appeared, the screen dies. The result is a lack of quality. Everything seems to be fine and functioning, but the quality... I bought my mother a simpler chewer, there is also light there + the machine is glitching. I will not use this company again.

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Pros: Good sound, characteristics/price were good when I bought it. Beautiful front panel. Good gps.

Disadvantages: The battery lasts a long time, but starting from 30% it melts in 2 minutes to 5%. I've had screen light from the very beginning. The touchscreen grid is visible. Terrible back panel. Dumb rubber covers.

Alex G. 5 years ago

Yandex Market

I bought it a little over a year ago. I bought it for the sporting interest of looking at Chinese equipment and playing around with it a little. Then the corporate tariff changed and I got as much as 10 GB of Internet, but on my old Samsung s3600 there was nothing to do on the Internet. And he began to use the Chinese. And I liked it. I didn't reflash anything, didn't change anything. I installed Russian, removed some of the icons with hieroglyphs and that’s it. I have a consumer attitude towards phones - there is no point in blowing specks of dust off them. The phone is for me, not me for the phone...I periodically drop it, fell on the asphalt a couple of times, fell on the concrete floor a couple of times. The socket flew off the speaker, I glued it on for a moment and continue to use it. I use Yandex traffic jams, look at email, take pictures and send them by mail, call, and very rarely write SMS. I’ve practically stopped using the tablet, which I previously used for the above purposes. Only I watch movies on the plane on the tablet. Everything else is on the smart phone. I immediately bought myself a charger and an extra battery. It’s convenient. When I bought the phone it cost just over 5,000 rubles. For that kind of money there are no drawbacks. The quiet ringing sound was cured by installing MP3 ringtones for a call and some kind of program with an amplifier... I didn’t paste the film, because it’s like “Gorilla Voice”, the cover is a regular one made of rubber on the body. The paint is slowly peeling off from the edges of the frame due to falls and indifferent attitude. In general, I’m happy with everything.

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Advantages: Good price before the pandemonium with exchange rates and the rapid fall of the ruble... Rich functionality. Tenacious. Possibility to replace the battery and charge it separately from the phone...

Disadvantages: Minor glitches and “unremovable Chinese”

Alexander L. 5 years ago

Yandex Market

If we are talking about the JIAYU JY-G3 MTK6589T, then I can’t say anything bad, I had it for half a year until it was stolen, the photos for 8 megapixels are not bad, but only in good weather, in bad weather the contrast increases and some details of the shooting are not at all read, go into the darkness. (see photo examples here: https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alexander-lazorenko/album/222437/) I installed a racing game, played until I got tired of it, didn’t notice any lags at all, by the way, it’s better to install another camera, for example: Camera FV-5, you get a lot of manual settings except of course the aperture, i.e. Adjusting the background sharpness is not real, there is no video there. It’s better to shoot a video using your native encoder (see an example video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-BDdPe0vk by the way, after uploading it to YouTube, it began to twitch for something, but on the computer it shows smoothly from the original) , I had problems with calls, for some reason the sound sometimes disappeared on calls, you increase it and they call, you can’t hear it at all. If you set it to vibrate, the sound worked fine. If you fly without vibration and don’t play around, the charge was enough for 8.5 days, to be honest, I was surprised myself. Wify works great, TV channels from Net Naur, I installed Skype, but for some reason it went into shutdown mode when the Internet was lost, and I constantly had to log in again with a password and login. Probably if Net is active all the time it should work, as seen from Skype so-so, but if you switch the external camera it becomes cleaner. Headphones via Bluetooth also work great, although the batteries in the headphones run out quickly.