The back has the camera, LED flash, and the speaker. The back is a smooth textured matte cover with the Happy Mobile logo on it plus the speaker holes at the bottom.
The bottom part of the phone contains the mic, also the capacitive buttons are located here too. So far the touch is okay as well as the buttons, although I just hope to the future versions these will be on-screen buttons like the Nexus phones.
The top side have the micro USB port and the 3.55mm audio jack port.
The right side have the volume rocker and the power button and the left side has no buttons or holes in it.
Again from another perspective, the camera, LED flash, micro-USB port and the 3.55mm audio jack plug in on the top side.
UI, Apps & OS
So far the overall UI of the Happy Mobile D-Lite Plus 2 is an eye candy, it has a set of unique icons that differs from the its current Android Lollipop stock version. Overall, it the Operating System (OS) feels much like an Android Kitkat, as the UI I think overlay the default stock UI.
There are few pre-loaded apps like Facebook, music player, web browser, calendar and other Google default apps. There are quirky 3D and interactive widgets available too, you can see below:
The way the OS feels like an Android Kitkat is because its notification system, settings, switching between apps do look like an Android Kitkat, although benchmark readings proves it to be a Lollipop version of the OS.
Overall the UI is good, I just personally prefer if just feels more like the stock Lollipop UI.
Camera Quality
As for the camera, the Happy Mobile D-Lite Plus 2 is better than it's brother Neo Lite in terms of quality, which you can see the review here. I personally think it has a better camera as it has more details and colors in its shots. The camera quality is quite decent for its price as you can see below the different raw camera samples taken:
Under Sunlight / Outdoor shots:
As you can see, the lower the resolution (about 40% or 1024x768 pixels) when a photo is viewed, the better it is to see. If viewed on the 100% full crop of the image, you can see that it is a bit noisy and blurry. So far the picture quality is good for social media sharing or to the internet as long as there is a good source of light when taking a picture.
The camera has no focus feature as you can see in this picturem the flower is blurred as it is not focused on it, also there's no way to manually do that.
Indoors - Well lit room, no flash
As you can see, the quality of the photos starts to degrade once an artificial light or other than the sun is the light source. If shooting at night, its advisable to have a well lit room.
Indoors - low light shot with flash
The flash is okay as long as it is close to the subject as you can see below, although the colors are a bit washed out.
Here is the problem, when in a low light situation and you're a bit far to take a photo, the LED light is a bit weak for the camera sensor to capture a good image. The pictures below shows almost no color or a weak color of green (wall) and brown (the set).
By the way, if you'd like to see the RAW files, you can download the unedited sample photos here.
Sound Quality
Although the sound quality is not that great but it is decent, by the way, I'm using an Urbanears Humlan headphones to test the sound quality of the phone (not the stock earphone that came with the unit as it's not really good to hear). One funny thing is that a Taylor Swift Last Christmas song is preloaded as a test music when you get the phone, so yey for the Swift's fans. Another plus for this is that it has a built-in FM radio.
Battery Life
The battery life is real good, especially on stand-by mode. It has a 2,000mAh battery and powers up a small body to power so it gives more juice into it. It can last a day or two in moderate use and can last upto a week or more when on stanby-mode.
Performance & Benchmark Tests
Geekbench score:
- Single core: 255
- Multi-core: 455
Quadrant Standard score: 3516
Nenamark score: 36.9fps
MutiTouch tester: 2 touch points only
For some reason, I could not install the pre-requisite app of the Antutu benchmark app from PlayStore so its not included in this list. As for the Geekbench, it scored 255 for single-core test and 455 in the multi-core test. Nenamark scores its frame rate of 36.9fps which is a bit low, but this phone is not intended for heavy gaming, most casual non-3D games would run just fine like the Clash of Clans, Clash Royale or Tetris. As for the Quadrant Standard, it scores it 3516 which is above the old modeled smartphone Motorola ATRIX 4G. Personally, I'm not expecting this phone to have a high scores, as the processing power is only a dual core, 1GB RAM and no dedicated GPU for graphics, it is intended for casual use for everyday tasks.
The smartphone is powered by a MediaTek MT6572 with a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and 1 Gigabyte RAM (memory). As far as the hardware goes, it's an outdated specification, but it is compromised with the Android Lollipop operating system (OS) to perform better. During my weeks of test, there are sometimes occasional lags and random app crashes but its normal for phones to have that time to time, so far its not happening always. A piece of advice though, don't play or use heavy graphics apps to the phone as it may crash a lot as it may not hold the processing and the graphics power.
Happy Mobile D-Lite Plus 2 Specifications
- Display: 5-inch qHD IPS
- CPU: 1.3 GHz Dual-core
- RAM: 1GB
- Camera: 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera
- Storage: 4GB ROM (internal storage), expandable up to 32GB
- Networks: 2G, 3G, Quadband
- SIM: Dual-SIM, Dual Standby
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth
- Others: Aluminum Border
- OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop
- Battery: 2,000mAh, removable
- Colors: Black, Gold & Silver
- SRP: Php2,999
Verdict
The Happy Mobile D-Lite Plus 2 is an affordable, beautiful entry-level smartphone. It does not feel cheap, it is remarkable phone for its price. D-Lite Plus 2 is best for people who are not much care for high-spec'd phone but still kicks for its look and functions that it can deliver.
Pros
- Camera is better than Neo Lite
- A good 5-inch qHD display
- Pretty loud speakers
- Aluminum border design
- Good battery life on moderate use
- Android Lollipop OS
Cons
- Camera quality drops in low light conditions
- Low internal storage (4GB in total)
- Dual-core only
Overall Rating: 3.6 out of 5
