We bring to your attention a review of the Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO. Let's take it in hand and take a closer look at it.
Opening the box, the first thing you will see is exactly what should be in it, the phone itself. In addition, the delivery set of the phone also includes a charger, a data cable for connecting to a charger and a computer, a wired headset for connecting to a 3.5 mm jack, and of course, documents for the phone and a user manual.
Assembly
The main material of the case is plastic, there are also metal inserts, edging and other design, which is quite consistent with the presented price range. At the junction between the matte and glossy parts along the entire perimeter of the case, you can see a shiny insert, which, naively, could be mistaken for metal, but in reality, upon closer examination, it turns out that this is also plastic.
This smartphone is assembled with high quality. The case of MultiPhone 4040 DUO is well made, you will not hear the slightest creak. Gripping it tightly in your hand, you will not feel any backlash from poor build quality. And for phones in this price range, build quality plays an important role.
In the hands of Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO it is comfortable, and this is the merit of exclusively soft touch plastic with a texture, from which the back panel of the device is made. Yes, the main part of the case is still glossy, but thanks to the texture of the back cover, the smartphone is comfortable to hold in the hand during prolonged use. Fingerprints can remain on the soft touch plastic, but their presence does not make the case slippery and the phone is confident in the hand.
There are no special complaints about the implementation of functional elements. But their location seemed not quite usual, so the user will have to get used to non-standard solutions. But more on that later.
The battery cover is easy to attach. And it can be removed just as easily. There were no backlashes between the lid and the body.
Design
The exterior of Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO is absolutely simple and unassuming. Matte and glossy parts of the case are made in dark, austere colors. The back panel has a texture. Good assembly of absolutely all elements and their competent layout on the device case. In my opinion, these are all the advantages of the device in question.
Considering this price category the device looks good enough.
Functional elements.
In terms of ergonomics, attention is drawn primarily to the location of the volume control button. The manufacturer decided to place it on the left side instead of the usual right side edge. Of course, you can adjust the sound volume with your index finger, you can get used to everything, but the button located on the right is much easier to control.
The microUSB connector on the right side panel is also not very convenient and will take some getting used to.
It is also possible that the manufacturer is experimenting with ergonomics, looking for new successful solutions, but for an inexpensive phone, it is best to give preference to classic solutions.
The device lock button (aka power on / off) is located on the top edge. Of course, you can reach it, but even when you are in a large hand, you will have to turn the tube a little. For large enough phones, like this one, you need to look for a more convenient placement, like the Fly IQ 441. It would be much more interesting to place the button on the side panel of the device. At the junction of the right side edge, as well as the bottom edge, the owner of the device will find a small groove designed to remove the back cover of the phone. As for the size of the cover itself, it covers the entire back of the smartphone.On the lid, the user will notice several holes for the outputs of all kinds of functional elements. This refers to the camera lens and its flash, the second microphone and the speakerphone.
It remains to look at the front panel. Naturally, there is a touch screen with a diagonal of 4 inches, above it is a speaker slot for communication, to the right of which there are two almost invisible sensors: orientation and illumination, as well as a front camera for video calls. And under the display are four touch buttons. I am sure that there is no need to further tell about the functional purposes of the listed elements.
Display
The display has a diagonal of 4 inches with a resolution of 800x480 pixels. This is enough for a smooth picture.
Multi-touch and automatic image rotation are supported. These functions work quite well.
Thanks to the light sensor, the brightness of the screen is automatically adjusted, if desired, the brightness can be set manually.
The rest of the display settings can be found in the menu images.
There were no problems with the sensitivity of the sensor - application icons and menu lists react quickly to touching them with a finger, without delay.
In the conditions of not harsh lighting, the screen behaves well, all information is clearly visible. But in strong light such as bright sun, the colors on the display will fade slightly, even when the brightness level is set to maximum. There is no need to look for places in the shade or, covering with your hand, to create a shadow on the display, but you should not watch your favorite films on a sunny day, sitting on a bench in the park.
Memory
The manufacturer claims 4 Gb of physical memory, but in fact, slightly less than 3 Gb will be available for use.
The phone's internal memory is distributed as follows: 785 Mb for software installation by the user and 2 Gb for storing multimedia and other information.
It is also possible to expand the memory capacity of the device using Micro SD cards, for example, by purchasing a memory card with a capacity of 32 Gb. The slot is located under a cover that covers the battery pack, but it is structurally implemented in such a way that if you can insert a storage card, it will be impossible to remove it back due to the characteristic location of the battery. Thus, hot swapping is not implemented in this smartphone.
Battery
The rechargeable battery with a capacity of 1500 mAh is enough for a full day of work under moderate loads: reading, talking, Internet, listening to music, watching a couple of clips, a little games.
Loudspeakers
The manufacturer announced the presence of stereo speakers of 1 Watt. As a result, the speaker is loud, but the stereo sound is not very noticeable. There are slight distortions in the sound, but if you are not a great music lover, then these distortions may not even be noticed.
The earpiece speaker is no different from those that are installed in other phones, it is the most common internal speaker. To hear the caller on the other end normally, you will have to increase the volume level to the maximum level.
Interface and software filling
The smartphone runs on Android 4.0.4 operating system. So, the operating system is modern, and will allow using the latest developments from Android.
Inside the MultiPhone 4040 DUO is the MTK6575 Cortex A-9 processor, clocked at 1 GHz, the same processor used in the Lenovo IdeaTab A2107 tablets. The graphics in the device are controlled by PowerVR SGX Series 5. The smartphone is equipped with 512 Mb of RAM.
As a shell, the manufacturer uses Native Android 4.0 in this phone with a proprietary set of software from the manufacturer, as well as some MTK 6575 services.
In the standard shell, only three desktops are used, which are flipped with a finger to the right and left. To remove a widget or shortcut from the desktop, just hold your finger for a few seconds on the item to be deleted and move it to the appeared deletion area.Shortcuts can be added from the main menu. Hold your finger on the program or widget of interest, the desktop will appear, the user remains, without lifting his finger, to place the element in the desired place on the screen.
The context menu button is used to navigate to items such as "Applications", "Settings", as well as manage the wallpaper.
The standard Android toolbar contains icons for controlling wireless modules and some display and sound settings. This solution is not unique only for this manufacturer, but everything was done competently and improves management.
Performance tests
The performance of the system was checked by several benchmarks. You can see the test results in the illustrations.
Communications
The most up-to-date communication option is support for two SIM cards.
By inserting cards into slots, the user will note that the manufacturer indicated which slot for which cards is intended - 3G and 2G.
After the cards have been inserted and the power is turned on, a notification will appear on the screen of the Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO that the phone has detected new SIM cards, or did not find one of them if only one card is inserted. If the cards have not been inserted into the phone before, the "settings" window will open, in which you can assign default settings for the cards.
These settings can be changed later in the settings menu, submenu "SIM-cards management".
If you do not assign the functions of calls, video calls, data transfer, sending SMS and MMS messages to a specific SIM card, then each time you use this function the phone will ask which card to use.
Traditionally, for the Android operating systems, the email clients Email and Gmail, as well as Google+, are installed. There is also a Google Talk app. In a standard Internet browser, there are two keys. One of the buttons is located opposite the address bar (aka the search bar), and the other is a contextual button. By clicking on the first one, you will open the editing tabs, as well as the submenu "Saved Pages", "Bookmarks", "History".
When you use the second button, a context menu opens, which will allow you to save the current page, find the desired text on the page, add it to bookmarks and other standard functions. For detailed settings, see the illustrations.
This device also has a voice control application and Chat +.
Opening the "Settings" application, the user will be able to manage the settings of the wireless modules Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the settings of SIM-cards, VPN networks.
It should be noted that the Bluetooth module is implemented in the fourth version, and Wi-Fi also works according to the N standard. Actually, all the interest in them lies in these nuances.
Camera and multimedia
The Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO has a built-in FM radio receiver. Therefore, one of the pre-installed applications is FM radio. A feature of this application is the ability to record and save radio broadcasts to the phone's memory. All other settings and capabilities are standard and familiar for applications of this type.
To listen to music in digital formats MP3, MP4, AMR, AAC, WAV, MIDI, MMF, the "Music" application is installed. This application also did not differ much from many others. You can view the appearance of the application in the illustrations.
For viewing multimedia video clips, the Play Movies application is present. It will allow you to both view clips stored in the smartphone's memory and download, if the Internet is available, the necessary content from the Google Play store. The player's codec supports the following formats - 3GP, AVI, WMA.
Prestigio MultiPhone 4040 DUO received two cameras. For shooting photos and videos, a 5 megapixel camera, as well as for video calls, a front-facing VGA camera.
Test photo:
