New Smartfren Andromax U2 - review

I'm back.. using blogger application for android. It's much more easier now to update my blog. Hoho.
I've just bought a new android phone for 24 hour now. It's called Smartfren andromax U2. It's a smartphone produced by the operator smartfren and an improvement from andromax U.

As a cheap smartphone made in china, this is really worth something. The touch screen is great, sensitive and satisfying. It's quite easy to type with it. Each letter is separated really well so touching wrong letter is minimized.

With 1Gb of ram and quad core processor, it performs well and isn't slow. The internal storage is 4gb, allows you to download several good apps like games or socmed. It uses Android 4.1.2, not the newest but good enough. Differences from its predecessor are the quality of speaker, which already dolby digital plus, and the size of screen that slightly bigger.

My problem with this phone is the camera. With 8Mb back camera and 2Mb front camera, there shouldn't be a problem. But there is. The camera take photo slowly. You have to hold about 1-2 seconds until the photo's taken. It's a problem for me because what if i wanna take a selfie or fast moving event? Hold it for second(s) obviously disturbing. Other problem is that you can't turn off the shutter sound. (But I've found the solution for this problem. I'll explain it later below.)

And another problem that I just found out is the battery quickly dropped . Is it usual for Android phone or just mine? i charged it last midnight and around noon i have to charge again. For its defense from morning until noon i was using it all the time, programming apps and others. Hope that's the reason.
(I've also found solution for this problem)
 

Anyway i'm still figuring this phone out and downloading cute apps. Hope my euphoria for this phone will last. Overall for the price of Rp 1.870.000 it's good enough for me. Here is photo of its box taken at night.

 

-Updated -

After having this smartphone for a while, I'm quite satisfied. 

The Apps

I've installed and uninstalled several free apps from Play Store. 

For games, I currently have Candy Crush Saga, Despicable Me (Minion Rush), Subway Surfer, Buttons and Scissors, Escape Action, Burgers, Teka-Teki Silang, and Line Pokopang. All games work perfectly without any problem or slowness. I've uninstalled Icon Pop Quiz and Logo Quiz because I've finished all the levels and it's become boring and harder.

For photo editing apps, I currently have Photo Studio, Picmix, PhotoGrid, InstaMag and Camera 360. A lot, huh? haha. I'm planning to uninstall one of these, maybe Picmix, since it's same with PhotoGrid.

For social media related apps, I currently have Path, Blogger, Instagram, Line and WeChat. I'm planning to uninstall WeChat since I'm not using it, It consumes a lot of battery life, and keep asking for updates. >.<

Other app that I have is Duolingo, it's an app to learn foreign language. I love it so far, because it teaches you about new language in way that's like a course. It includes vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

All apps that I've downloaded are free free free. So feel free to try to install them and then simply uninstall if you don't like it.

Solutions for the problems.

Apparently I can handle the battery problem with battery saver apps available at Play Store. Right now I'm using DU Battery Saver. It's nice because it has 'optimize' button that can kill unused apps and save battery life. It also shows battery life in number. I keep pressing optimize button after several hours to save longer battery life. 

Other way to save battery life is by not opening any app at all (of course,haha). 

But, the most effective way to save battery life is by turning on airplane mode. In airplane mode and without opening any app, battery won't reduce at all. Hah!

For shutter sound, simply use third party app like Camera360. It takes pictures without any sound and provide instant filters too. How useful! 

I've tried special app called SilentCamera, which is only takes pictures. But, I found out later that the picture's quality is lower, so I uninstalled it.