There is a lot of excitement around the Mlais M52 Red Note. It is has just exited the pre-order stage and is very, very hot. Why? It is a very cheap MTK6752 device that has very good specifications all round. It can be bought for just $150USD, which is insanely low considering its specifications. If the Mlais M52 Red Note can live up to its hype and its specifications, I predict that Mlais will create very significant waves in the chinese phone industry. You can get the phone here: Gearbest – Mlais M52 Red Note. With the coupon code “GBM52” you can get the price down even further to $136USD! Crazy. Keep on reading after the break!
Key Specifications | |
5.5″ 1280×720 IPS Display | MTK6752 Octa Core 1.7GHz |
2GB RAM + 16GB ROM | 13MP + 8MP Camera |
Android 4.4.4 Kitkat | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
Bluetooth, GPS | WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 |
3200mAh Battery | FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600 |
SIM, MicroSIM, MicroSD | 166g, 152 x 7.8 x 8.2mm |
Unboxing the Mlais M52 Red Note
The Mlais M52 Red Note came from GearBest in a plain brown box. It contained the blue Mlais box as well as some protective bubble wrapping. It had the usual contents, earphones, a microUSB cable and a charger. It seems like all the pre-orders have been given extra goodies as well! I got 2 extra removeable back covers as well as a flip case which can be seen in the picture above. If they continue to do this for all orders, that is a lot of value in this little box.
Note: Instead of giving me a North American charger, they gave me a European charger instead.
Hardware
The Mlais M52 Red Note’s design certainly doesn’t make you think of the word “beautiful”. However, it definitely isn’t ugly either and doesn’t attract undue attention to itself. In fact, it seems that Mlais is trying to make a copy of the Xiaomi Redmi Note. At 152 x 78 x 8.2 mm, the Mlais is very close in size to the Xiaomi. The design of the phone is square, with rounded corners. It has 3 capacitive buttons below the screen that look suspiciously similar to the Xiaomi Redmi Note’s capacitive buttons. The buttons light up bright red in colour.
The power button and the volume button are located on opposite sides of the phone and they feel firm and snugly fit into the body of the phone. It has the benefit of not feeling like it will break after pressing it 50 or more times.
The back of the phone features its 13MP camera, the LED flash and the Mlais logo at the bottom. Mlais continues the trend of having the camera protrude from the back of the phone, forcing you to be more careful to avoid damaging the camera. However, it protrudes a lot less than other phones like the Ulefone Be Pro, so its not as bad as other cell phones.
The removeable back cover is made of glossy plastic that is of average quality and somehow feels rubbery as well. While most glossy plastic found on smartphones feel cheap and low quality, the plastic on the Mlais surprisingly doesn’t feel too bad. However, like most glossy plastic, it captures and retains oil from your hands very easily, after using this phone for a day, the back felt sticky and yucky. However, the phone is easier to grip because of the rubbery texture the glossy plastic contains. Removing the back cover reveals the SIM slot, the MicroSIM slot, the SD card slot and the removeable battery.
There is a decorative speaker grille across the back of the phone while the speaker itself is only on the left side.
The Mlais feels quite well made and feels quite good as well. The 5.5″ screen again is a little large for my small hands but still feels quite comfortable due to the curved edges. However, the bezels are a little large, making the phone look quite chunky and the glossy plastic is an oil magnet. The phone itself has pretty good build quality and feels very durable. This phone definitely won’t win any beauty contests (is there even a beauty contest for cell phones?) but it’s build quality isn’t bad at all.
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Great review 🙂 thanks for sharing.
Im glad that this phone is having more and more good opinions because it worth them 😀
Soon im going to order my own Mlais M52.
Do you know maybe is gearbest still sending with phone that extra covers and flip case ? Because when people asked about this even 2 weeks ago gearbest replied they dont
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I don’t believe so, I think it was just for preorders. Regular sales won’t have them anymore. If they do, that would be great though.
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Thanks.
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Bought mine just after pre-sales, arrived as stock, no extras, the cover asked for and a 3rd party uk charger adapter.
If i was to nit pick with this phone the battery is poor and the charger socket feels a tad loose as the rear of the case is the support for the charger socket.
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How long does it take to charge the battery fully from 0 to 100% ??
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There’s something wrong with mine, I charged it overnight and it only went to 91%. I’m going to try again.
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As i know that is problem with all latest china phones Elephone P6000 and lots of other have that problem too but after a couple of charges its just disappears 😀
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I see, funny thing is that I’ve never had that before, this is the first phone that has happened.
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Well, then i propably know nothing 😀
Hmm, in total you are the guy who tested lots of phones have more experience and know more than me 😀
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Hy
i preordered this phone, and its shipped before few days…..
Are you like a regular , normal buyer or you present your self to gearbest like a mobile device reviewer?
Because when i ask GB for this flipcase they said that dont came with the package that they send to me, and they dont havet for buying on their site, they will have maybe next week like some member on xda say , he contact with GB support …
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So apparently I thought that everyone who preordered got the extras, but it seems like not everybody gets it. I’ll ask gear best what’s going on. No I’m a mobile device reviewer
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http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6578990853.html?orderId=66551724708194
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ok, tnx for effort, and hope you will tell us what they said….
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How’s the voice and ear piece quality during calls?
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Good enough, nothing special, but not terrible either
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One of the clearest voice quality i have owned. And my previous phones before this were the OnePlus One and the LG G3,
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Wow that’s high praise for the Mlais, I compared it to my THL5000 and my friend’s Note 2 and the Mlais was just about there.
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Great review. I ordered it, too. Hope they’ll ship lollipop soon.
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Somwhere i readed there gona be lolipop uptade about 10 April.
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Hello, Does it has gorilla glass protection? What is the ppi? Which of these phones has the best picture quality; mlais m52, elephone p6000,ulefone be pro, Leagoo elite 2, and jiayu f2? I really need a cheap phone with good pictures quality. Am waiting for your camera review.
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I have only used the Mlais and the Ulefone, but the Mlais has better picture quality than the Ulefone. However, I believe that Elephone makes better cameras than all of these other manufacturers combined.
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ppi is 320, i think the Mlais, coupled with Miravision it is really a vivid bright screen IMHO.
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Whoa, seriously man ? 😀 320 ? Its around 260 ppi 😀 But yeah, with miravision it looks better.
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Antutu says 320 Dpi
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I’m quite sure that it’s because of miravision, the software that makes the screen look better than the specs say it should.
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that very well could be.
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Great review,I ll been waiting for your update in antutu and battery time. Please can you tell us the screen size?, i mean screen protector. By the way can you upload a came video sample? Thank you.
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Hey the screen size is 5.5″. No problem, I’ll try.
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Is it possible to root?
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Someone has rooted the Mlais but their phone immediately died, so currently there is no safe way to root.
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I saw review where some guy rooted by IRoot.
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I bought this phone last minutes ago from GB and get discount by entering coupon code as shown here and buy flip case together. I hope I will receive it ASAP so I can give my review here
Thanks Zi Jin Cheng for your review
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Hi Zi Jin, thanks for reply . I will never buy stuffs from Gearbest. I brought the phone in march 2015. When I received the phone, speaker problem which I could not use, can’t hear from speaker, the battery recharging time more than a day, sometimes only charged max to 77% and canNot charge more. The charger adapter is not North American use. I informed after sales of those problems, which is a hassle to me, toldme either I return the product at my shipping cost or refund with deduction. my brother told me that I should file complaint so I file a complaint. Gearbest told me because I got the phone for two months. With this phone that I got, it really give me a lot of hassle. yes the phone seems to be cheaper with all the functions but the quality of the phone and the customer service I get, I will never buy things again from Gearbest. With the money I paid for this phone, I could get a phone that is functioning. Thanks for your review.
do you only do review for Gearbest product?
Thanks and have a good day.
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The camera is very weak, the front camera is better than none. GPS only works up to 163 km / h. But the phone is fast. I had AnTuTu 46600
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Haha, I love how you mentioned that the GPS only works up to 160km/h.
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