After a week of using the MyPhone Rio 2, we are finished testing the device and was able to gather all the data we needed. So as a continuation of the MyPhone Rio 2 experience. Here's our full review!
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| MyPhone Rio 2 Full Review! |
For the Unboxing, Build Quality and Initial Impressions article: Click Here!
Display Quality
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| Different viewing angles of the Rio 2 |
MyPhone Rio 2's display is one of the strongest point of this phone. It makes you feel like looking into a premium device. It's sharp, crisp, detailed has very good viewing angles, doesn't hurt my sensitive eyes and won't feel like a screen of a PHP 5.5K device. The brightness level of this phone is also very strong, probably better than every phone I've seen in this price range. (Personally, I prefer to use only 20 - 40% of the screen brightness) Compared to the SKK Lynx they have the same level of sharpness, however the Rio 2 is brighter and more vibrant looking. Against the old Rio, the display of the Rio 2 is simply better looking and a total upgrade.
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| Rio 2 and Lynx |
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| Unfiltered photo, Lynx and Rio 2 (max brightness and same wallpaper) |
I believe that the full lamination did the trick to the great display of the Rio 2. Speaking of the fully laminated screen, there has been a confusion with the type of display that the Rio 2 is using. Several popular websites stated that this handset uses a gorilla glass 3 for added screen protection, however I confirmed to a MyPhone official that this phone don't have that type of protection. The good thing is it uses full lamination tech which is still scratch resistant based on my research. Out of my curiosity, I tried to scratch it lightly using keys and coins and I'm not using a screen protector until now. Fortunately, the Rio 2 I have here still don't have scratches. However, anybody should still take care of their screens for us to enjoy the great display of this phone longer.
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Rio 2 and Rio 1
The Rio 2 looks slimmer and smaller despite having the same screen size. :) |
Overall, the display quality of the Rio 2 can go toe to toe even with some phones on the mid-range level. I actually even liked it better than higher priced MyPhone Infinity Lite and even MyPhone Infinity. (though the Infinity has more ppi) It's very good when watching movies, taking photos, social media, viewing photos and browsing.
Battery Life
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| Battery life of Rio 2 |
Another great thing about this phone... At 2,800 mAh battery life of the Rio 2 is superb! I was able to use it for almost 24 hours on my average usage. (WiFi or 3G is open all the time, 12:45 - 12:25 pm) On looping video and gaming, it lasted me a little under 6 hours that's actually very good. It also has that battery saving feature when you're battery hits the 15% mark and it's very effective. At 1 percent I still able to squeeze in 5 mins before my unit died. In general, the battery life of the Rio 2 is a solid upgrade over the old Rio due to the additional 800 mAh and the help of Android 5.0 Lollipop power optimization.
Audio Quality
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| The audio enhancer and volume booster |
Speakers - The speakers located below of the Rio 2 performed on an above average level. The sound was very clear, crisp, full bodied and has that good amount of details. The loudness of this speaker was also very good as it can fill a small room with decent loud audio very well. However, it has one major weakness for me, the sound distorts when you crank up the volume at more than 80%. If you want cleaner audio from the speakers, better turn of the volume booster to lessen the distortion at max volume.
Output / Compatibility - As expected MyPhone devices are always decent sounding when it comes to audio output. Then the Rio 2 came and took it to a whole new level. To my ears this is a surprising well rounded balanced sounding portable DAP. The bass part is fast and tight, the mids are very clear / full and the highs have that above average extension and sparkle. The sound signature is comparable to the SKK Lynx due to its great balance and brightness level, except this has more depth and has a slightly clearer instrumental separation.
The Rio 2 also has a sound enhancer that can make your smartphone sounds more fun and dynamic. However, I prefer to turn it off because it sounds a lot better and more natural. Though I believe that casual listeners will prefer to turn it on for that additional "wow factor".
Compatibility-wise, I didn't have a problem with the Rio 2. All the in ear monitors I tested from Brainwavz S0, MA750i, Capella SP11, Westone UM Pro 10 worked well. There are just who may find some treble happy earphones a bit too peaky with this just like what I experienced with the Westone. Then I was surprised how well this was able to drive the Havi B3 Pro 1 properly even at just 70%.
Update: Bluetooth-wise I was also able to use it perfectly with the Bluebuds X
As of this writing, this is by far the best sounding MyPhone device I've heard beating the Storm and Infinity. From memory, I also liked this better than the dolby powered ZTE Blade Vec 4G and on par with the wolfson enabled Nexus 5.
Update: I also discovered that this is one of the few phones that can play 192 KHz / 24 Bit high resolution songs averaging 100 MB per track.
Microphone - I was able to record the audio of my surroundings very well with this unit. I believe that it uses just one microphone, but that microphone is very clear and can even catch even the small noises in your surroundings. (See sample video below)
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| The best sounding free local IEM with mic so far |
Free IEM with Mic - Now this is a sweet surprise! For a freebie, MyPhone included a good sounding IEM in this package. It has a U shape type of sound sig that's warm and smooth. The bass extends quite deep, has that sub bass rumble when needed and doesn't overwhelm the vocals. Speaking of the vocals this has a good enough amount of clarity for most. The highs also reaches some parts of the spectrum that's not present with most free IEM. It also has decent performance when it comes to the microphone part.
This is actually very close sounding to the set included with the Lenovo Vibe ZX2 which I actually like. It's still far from a HiFi IEM and not as good as the Pistons 2 and Quadbeat 2, but this one is actually enjoyable and is clearly better than all the free earphones I've heard from a budget local phone.
Call Quality - For me the Rio 2 is one best local handsets you can use for calls. It's very clear and loud. The voice was actually very detailed which can make you hear the person you are talking with very well.
Given all those traits, I love the audio quality of this phone. The Rio 2 is a decent IEM driver for those who don't have a dedicated DAP, has a nice earphone freebie and has a pretty good speaker audio quality.
To my delight, camera quality of this handset performed very well that's actually better than what I expected. Even at just 8 MP, the new Rio 2 uses a well optimized f/2.2 Sony IMX 179 sensor w/ blue glass was able to produce high quality photos. It's very sharp, vivid, natural looking and can perform well even in low light conditions. To my eyes this can even compete to the likes of much pricier handsets and has better colors and details against to the 16 MP shooter of the Infinity and can compete very well with the flagship Liquid X1. The the selfie camera is also very good, detailed and was able to perform well in different lighting conditions even if the lighting isn't that good. The shutter speed is also quite fast at less than a second on both the rear and front shooters. The videos that this phone was able to capture was at an above average level and very good for casual users. I was able to record 1080p videos on the rear camera and 480p with the front facing camera at 30 frames per second. Overall, I'm very sure that most of you will be surprised on how good is the camera of the Rio 2 at this price point. :)
Performance
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| Sample game |
For an non-upgraded quad core phone and GPU, the Rio 2 performed very well. It was able to run most of my apps smoothly with little to no lag at all. The UI of the Rio has no app drawer and super lightweight. I just changed to to Google Now immediately as I'm more used to it. That Android 5.0 Lollipop covered up the lack of an octa core processor very well with this phone. Opening, closing and switching from one app to another is very fluid and as fast if not faster than the Acer Liquid X1 and SKK Lynx.
Casual gaming mode
However, even if I love the way it performed on a casual / light to moderate usage. I was disappointed that MyPhone did not upgrade the processor and GPU of this phone. In result it was not able to run the heavy games super smoothly such as the "2K14" and "Modern Combat 5 Blackout". Don't get me wrong, it can run most heavy games available in the apps store, but it won't be as fluid compared to phones with higher CPU and GPU. For casual gaming I was able to run my favorite games like the "Subway Surfers" and "Into the Dead" very well. I also observed that it heats up when used quite heavily in games and 3G.
Google answers with voice!
Going back to the up side of this unit, the cellular signal of the phone is quite strong making it great for calls and 3G, has a some lovable gestures and it was able to top the benchmarks of the old Rio by a good margin and most phones that uses this type of CPU setup.
Update: When it comes to the internal storage, the system of Rio 2 eats up 3.1 GB out of 8 GB which is quite large. I also noticed that there are several bloatwares (pre-installed) apps that cannot be un-installed. (Rooting is necessary to remove the pre-installed apps you don't need them)
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| The system might be update-able, has some quick launch gestures like the double tap to wake |
Benchmarks
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| Benchmarks |
Antutu - 19,236
Geek Bench - 1110 (Multi Core), 351 (Single Core)
Vellamo - 1,575 (Browser)
Quadrant - 5,640
Pro's - OTA ready, best in class display, Android 5.0 Lollipop, surprising good audio quality, excellent free earphones, camera, durability, outstanding battery life and great form factor
Con's - No OTG (hopefully there will be a software update), GPU and CPU was not upgraded, Heats up in heavy gaming, several bloatwares
Verdict
This is a very great phone for casual users and those who love to take photos, but don't have that much budget. It's still a good upgrade over the old Rio as it can provide a smoother and better experience. The Rio 2 is a very capable handset with sturdy build quality, sexy form factor, above satisfactory audio output, long battery life, best in class display and good camera. However, I would have liked the Rio 2 better if this has a little bit more gaming power, more capable processor and priced a bit more cheaper. While I believe that the Rio 2 is a good buy, it is currently facing some tough competition in the sub 5.5K category.
