we have seen our fair share of China brand smartphones. most of them are beautiful and you can see the efforts put into packaging, UI and stuff, but the recently announced and long-awaited Smartisan T1 smartphone might very well redefined smartphone beauty as we know it. on paper, it appears to be an absolutely classy device, from the handset to the included accessories to the packaging – everyone single component is built to impress and beckons you to part with your hard earned dough. it runs on an Android 4.4-based OS known as the Smartisan OS that promised a unique UI, presented through a pretty 5-inch Full HD IPS display (4.95-inch, to be exact), clad in Gorilla Glass 3, both front and back, for protection against scratches.
under the hood, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC touting 2.5GHz quad-core processor and an Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB internal storage, and a 2,570 mAh battery. interestingly, Smartisan chose to include a Texas Instrument OPA2604 audio chip, san any additional DAC chip, to offer HiFi quality audio reproduction. on the imaging aspect, its rear camera is a 13MP shooter fitted with Sony Exmor RS sensor with five-element lens and f/2 lens, working alongside Fujitsu’s Milbeaut Mobile processing engine, AcuteLogic’s auto white balance software, as well as ArcSoft’s scene recognition plus noise reduction technology. at the front, it has a 5MP item, boasting OmniVision OmniBSI image sensor, four-element lens, f/2.4 and 88-degree wide angle lens. HD recording at 30 fps and Full HD, also at 30 fps, comes as standard for the front and rear cameras, respectively.
there is another interesting bit here. Smartisan is also touting the T1 as an ambidextrous device where the hard buttons, namely the volume, brightness (yes, it is has a physical brightness control button), Android three-button control, can mirrored to suit both right- and left-handed users. the ambidextrous feature, though subtle, is nevertheless a welcome touch. other worthy details include GPS and GLONASS, dual-band wireless ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, 3G radios covering GSM and WCDMA 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, and of course, the garden variety of sensors. the 3G Smartisan T1 will be launched in China in July for 3,000 RMB (about US$480) for the 16GB model and 3,150 RMB (around US$505) for the 32GB version. unfortunately, there is no word on any plans for the device to cross the borders to other parts of the world for now.
