The CUBOT H1 Smartphone Test: A Month with 3-4 Days of Battery per Charge
by Ian Cutress on December 23, 2015 9:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Battery
- CUBOT
Benchmarks
It seems somewhat silly to run performance benchmarks when most media outlets talk about high performance smartphones most of the time, but my point to consider is my old phone, and whether moving from quad core Krait 300 at 1.7GHz to a MediaTek quad core A53 chipset at 1.0 GHz but running a newer Android is better or worse. For some of the regular smartphone tests I don’t actually own the prerequisite hardware of our smartphone team, but here are some tests I was able to run, and the devices I had to hand at the time:
| Devices on Hand for Testing | |
| Cubot H1 | MediaTek 6735P |
| HTC Desire 610 | Snapdragon 400 |
| HTC One Max | Snapdragon 600 |
| Huawei Mate S | Kirin 935 |
| Huawei Nexus 6P | Snapdragon 810 |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | Snapdragon S4Pro |
| Amazon Fire HD 6 (Limited) | MediaTek MT8135 |
| OnePlus X | Snapdragon 801 |
When we talk about Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 family or Intel's partnership with Rockchip partnership for Sofia and Atom, it makes me somewhat sad we don't have many new data points to compare to the MediaTek MT6735P inside the Cubot H1. However the one benchmark were all interested in is the battery life:
So let's put it this way - the H1 on a full charge breaks the Geekbench3 test to the point that it thinks you are cheating. Oops.
With the PCMark test it gets over 15hrs compared to the 6hrs of the Galaxy S6. When you have a large battery and not many pixels to push, with the right efficiency the device will last a night out with only 25% left in the tank in the way that high end smartphones do not. Anecdotally, as I'm writing this, I just spent a few hours in meetings across the other side of London - I spent 30 minutes each way on the tube with Evernote open and being used (albeit with no wireless or updates), and the battery went down from 38% to 33%. That's an hour of solid writing with black text on white for at most 5% of battery.
Initial use, first battery run down and more aggressive use
When I first started using the H1, the graph on the left was my battery usage estimation. Saying ‘approximiately 4 days left’ is almost unheard of, but with a regular 10% screen on time, the result was the graph in the middle, successfully predicting four days of battery. On the right is another example of my use, although a little bit more aggressive with some charging. Yes, I can confirm that there seems to be something wrong with those percentage calculations. But a quick charge in airplane mode for a few minutes gives a few percentage points of battery – while a lot of smartphones offer quick charging for the capacity to fill quickly, it still depends on the capacity drain of the SoC. It helps to have the best of both worlds. Of course, the downside of this is that it can take 3hrs and up to fully charge the H1. The H1 does come with a cable so you can charge other devices though, as 5200 mAh matches some battery packs.
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phoenix_rizzen - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
Whoops, seems I misread that. There are Cubot phones with 10,000 mAh batteries, just not this specific model.f0d - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
thats awesome, 10000mah batterys should be the norm :)do you have a link to a cubot phone with one? my googlefu is failing me and i cant find one anywhere
Notmyusualid - Sunday, December 27, 2015 - link
And no 'Edit' function, right?Lord knows why Anandtech will not switch to Disquss.
beggerking@yahoo.com - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
those are non-removable.the one in review has removable battery >>>>> non - removables.
f0d - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
yes trueBUT 10000mah.!!!
these devices are cheap enough that if the battery does die you can just buy another phone
removable batteries "should" be on the more expensive phones like iphones and galaxy but its the complete opposite and the more expensive phones are non removable
i do prefer removable batteries but if it was a choice between 5500mah removable or 10000mah non removable on a super cheap phone then the 10000mah one wins in my eyes
Notmyusualid - Sunday, December 27, 2015 - link
Cool devices - thanks!alexdi - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
I'll never understand the drive to cheap out on a device that's practically tethered to you and is, here, a primary work device. Take the phone away from anyone under 30 and you'll see something approximating heroin withdrawal. But hey, megabucks for a few extra frames in a device you use for play in evenings? Sure, why not.Ian Cutress - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
I would argue and say my PC is my primary work device. Having a smartphone I can type on (without worrying about about the battery) is secondary, and that allows me to fill in potential wasted down time.And yes, there are people who won't spend $400-800 on a device, even if you can justify the cost to yourself. You have to convince others against some argument of increased productively. Because ultimately if you are campaigning on the business route, it's primarily about the productivity (then arguably security, product deal or image).
LukaP - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
One doesnt have to convince anyone about ones choice of spending money. I for one completly agree with Ian's priorities. My computer is my primary device, meaning i will invest in it, even if it seems silly to others. On the other hand my phone is merely used for contacting people and occasionally taking notes. That means i dont need the latest and greatest Snapdragon 820 with 8GB of ram, all rendering 4K for the curved screen. I need a good looking screen, 720p so all the stuff can be displayed on it, and a capable enough SOC so that it doesnt bog down when im listening to music while typing on the go, and someone calls me. Im not going to be spending more than about 100-150€ on a device that to me, doesnt deserve such an investment. But its perfectly understandable that some people desire/need more, and will also invest more there :)ssj4Gogeta - Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - link
Though mention a couple of times that you were using black text on white. But that shouldn't matter for LCDs. Or are you referring to content-adaptive backlight saving you battery when using white on black?