An elaborate hands-on review of the new 64-bit octa core android smartphone Helio S1.

Published on: September 23, 2015

There was a Cadbury Bournville ad that used to air a few years ago with the punchline, "You don't buy a bournville, you earn it". Breaking the rule of giving verdict at the very end, I must advice all of you who is eager to possess this beauty, "You don't buy a Helio S1, you earn it". Read on to find why we are so fascinated by the newly revealed smartphone from Helio.
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You might be wondering by now what is this so called beauty that I've never heard of before yet others are so amazed? Well, you might not know her, but you sure know her older ugly brother Symphony! Yes, Helio is the new line of product offered by the same parent company, Edison group that has over 52.6% share of smartphone mobile market in Bangladesh with Symphony Mobiles [1]. While the company and probably even the manufacturer are the same, the subtle contrast of the sophisticated Helio and the contemptible Symphony might make you gasp. With their new line of high end smart phones, Helio might be the next big thing in the smartphone industry of Bangladesh. With professionals favoring local brands over others, who knows how it may revolutionize the industry.


Let's first have a sneak peek before we dive into the details. The aesthetically pleasing beauty is priced at tk 17,990 and comes with a 64 bit 1.3 GHz true octa core Mediatek MTK6753 chip along with 2 GB of RAM to do your bidding flawlessly. The 5" HD AMOLED screen as well as the back is protected with Corning® Gorilla® Glass3. The metal bezel is the cherry on the top of fine finishing. At a decent 6.95 mm thickness, it ensures it doesn’t get bend while in your pocket. The wide angle 13 megapixel camera is a Sony sensor with a big aperture of 2.0 (but ofcourse that doesn’t mean anything). The 8 megapixel front camera also has a wide angle lens that comes in handy for group selfies. (But if you are one of those narcissists who likes to take 482671 selfies a day and post it to social media, I hope you experience this) .

The device comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop preinstalled, and with the OTA (over the air) support you can expect to get the Android M readily available on to your device upon release. Another feature that makes it future-proof is it's equipped with LTE or as you might know it, 4G. It also supports OTG (on the go) and also all the necessary sensors to make it as smart as you can think of. With 2400mAh non-removable battery, it falls short on expectation and might force you to carry around a power bank when you're on the go. The 16GB ROM (10.72gb user available) might not be ample for everyone and you might want a micro SD slot, which it offers as a hybrid slot. So bad luck if you need dual active sim AND an mmc which can be a huge turn-off for many. Let's move on to a more detailed review. Don’t faint upon seeing the manufacturer name on the screenshots below. I don’t know why it shows the screen to be 4.59” where it’s actually 5”. Also, the chip is found to be MT6753 in AnTuTu Benchmark just as advertised in Helio S1’s spec sheet though CPU-Z tells otherwise.



First impression

The device comes in a box that is complementary with the build quality of the device. Upon uncovering the silver box you'll discover the silver sleeping beauty lying. The device has a premium feeling with a metal bezel and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 on both sides, deviating from the plastic shell Symphony offers. It comes with a smart flip cover that is equally elegant and promises to catch eyes. This comes from experience although I'm not quite fond of the bluish color. The accessories included are a beautiful earphone with an abominable sound quality, an AC charger, an OTG cable, a user manual, warranty card and an ejection pin to remove SIM slot. The pin is so easy to lose, that I've already lost mine!

The first problem you'll encounter is the SIM slot itself. The device offers one hybrid nano Sim/mmc slot as Sim 1 and a micro Sim as Sim 2. Upon pushing with the pin it comes out easily but putting it back is quite a struggle and trying to remove the SIM can even turn into a nightmare. Maybe, your best course is to tread lightly (when removing the Sim slot).

The most disgusting things you can find in the device is the preinstalled Prothom-Alo, Ekhanei, AVG antivirus, Clean Master apps along with some other demo games. Additionally, some of them comes as system apps and cannot be uninstalled, you have to keep them disabled before you root it. Like seriously, Helio?

The Display

The boot animation is obviously not the disgusting Symphony one and can be marginally accepted. Helio has chosen, like most other Chinese vendors, to use almost unaltered stock Lollipop. The display being AMOLED is a pleasing gift with vivid color. Though it seemed to me the display is a bit too saturated. The display is a moderate 720p HD with 294 ppi though most of the 5” displays nowadays come with 1080p screens not to mention the insane 577 ppi 1440p Galaxy S6 has to offer. The touch panel is super responsive which can be experienced while drawing. The device is nicely built, with a dimension of 141.5 X 70.3 X 6.95 mm. I must say I’m not a big fan of having all three buttons on the right side of the phone. Since the battery is non removable, the SIM and micro SD card slot are on the left side. The 3.5 mm headphone jack is found on the top whereas the bottom is reserved for the micro USB charging port and the speakers.


The Camera

The 13MP Sony IMX214 CMOS autofocus camera along with a wide angle lens can work as a makeshift camera for even a photographer. With the built-in night mode, it can take decent pictures even at low light. Although the camera is decent, anyone with the slightest knowledge in photography will understand why their advertised “2.0 Aperture” doesn’t mean a thing for such a small lens. Don’t expect it to get the job of a prime lens done. The following images are taken with the S1 and comes unaltered, click on to download the original image.


Battery backup and Sensors

The 2400mAh battery is often the standard for a 5”display phone. But with the power-hogging SoC, it merely lasts 7hours on internet usage even at the lowest brightness though with a 720p display, expected it to last quite longer. For instance, playing a 44 minute 720p HD video at full brightness showed a drop of 10%.  Surprisingly, leaving the phone overnight with a full charge saw it only a 2% drop although the lack of memory-hogging applications were to its favor.

We loved the vast lines of sensors it has. Gyroscope, Magnetic, Accelerometer, G-Sensor, Proximity, Light, you name it. Gyroscope sensor means you can take the full advantage of Google Cardboard or Google Camera which is ridiculously absent in almost all Symphony sets. These sensors ensure some gesture controls like blind shot and so on. Although the spec sheet doesn’t mention, the Hall sensor is found present in it which has a beautiful effect on the flip cover.


Benchmarking

We all know Symphony’s fascination towards MediaTek chips to keep the price at bay, so why wouldn’t Helio? The 64 bit Cortex ARMv8 based true octa core MTK6753 is no match for the Snapdragon 810 beast found on similar high end devices. Yet, the device is extremely fast and can handle QHD (1440p) videos and multitasking pretty good and only the video required all eight cores to run at full. The QHD video I tested with can be found here. Sadly, it was struggling to play this 4k video. But hey! You want to play insanely rare 4k videos on a 5” 720p screen? Pretty smart. The device showed no overheating whatsoever during the intense benchmarking period. I played around with a power hungry app that usually requires supercomputers to operate, namely Google Chrome. Surprisingly, it ran flawlessly. If this doesn’t impress you, then what will?

Now let’s look on to some geekscores. The following screenshots comes on a fresh Helio S1 with the bloatwares removed/disabled and with no memory hogging applications running on the backround. It stands with a 34638 benchmark score in AnTuTu Benchmarking which is slightly disappointing. The Nenamark 2.0 benchmark shows an impressive 59 fps frame rate thanks to the Mali T720 MP4 running at 700 MHz.


The Verdict

I was entranced the first time I hold Helio knowing that this comes from the same company as Symphony. I loved the premium quality and metal finishing. The included flip cover maybe a pro for many. Although not many apps require 64 bit architecture now, it’s the way to go for most power demanding apps and might soon be seen on almost all apps. The 4G is also good to have if you want to be ready to embrace the technology as soon as it comes in Bangladesh. If you are a gamer, this smartphone promises to give you the satisfaction you need with its powerful SoC and no overheating problem. For professionals, this is the premium quality device to have in your hand that will keep the productivity going even on the go. The notification light is a requirement that I often find absent in many devices, but the S1 didn’t disappoint me in this context.
But I’m disappointed at the small battery backup. The low disk space means you’ll probably need to extend it by sacrificing the dual SIM functionality. The awful lot of terrible built-in apps is disturbing to have in such a nice device. The horrible sound the provided earphone produces will make you want to listen to music never again. The lack of a bit higher resolution can be unappealing for many, but trust me, that’s not what you need most. 

Do you own a Helio S1? What do you think about it? Would you recommend buying it? Or do you plan to buy it after reading this review? What is missing from the review? Leave you thoughts below!