One of the biggest complaints of smartphone users is battery life. With mobile computing capacity increasing every quarter, smartphone juice hardly changes. Sure there are some breakers such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but do you really need a device that expensive just to experience a longer usage time on a device?
Introduced last year, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is the smartphone to beat in the battery department. It even has a reported mutiple-day life, outperforming even devices from major manufacturers.
So how did we find the device? Was it fast? Was it great? Did its “3X THE POWER” battery promise stand? Read our Cloudfone Thrill 430x review and find out for yourself.
Design
The first thing you’ll notice when holding the Cloudfone Thrill 430x (rebranded Innos D9) is its gorgeous screen and thickness, not that I mind. The second thing would probably be its stealthy, black design. Both make for a great combination on an Android device.
The front of the device sports a 4.3-inch qHD IPS capacitive display, three soft-touch haptic buttons, a front VGA camera, a proximity sensor, and a aesthetically pleasing earpiece grill. Sadly the Cloudfone Thrill 430x doesn’t have any notification LED. It would’ve been more gorgeous if there was.
The rear shell of the smartphone—also aesthetically pleasing—bears a smooth scale-like pattern with the 8MP camera lined with a chrome coating. The dual-LED flash and the speaker grill sit right beside it. At the lower portion of the device is the Cloudfone logo.
At the top side of the device is where the 3.5mm audio jack is found. At the right side, the sleep/wake button and a dedicated camera button are located. The nondescript volume rocker is located at the top-left side of the Thrill 430x. And lastly, the USB/charger port is positioned at the bottom.
As mentioned above, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is a little hefty, but it won’t be significantly noticeable unless you’re really picky about smartphone thickness. Handling is great as well since you have a lot of area to grip onto.
Display
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x sports an HD IPS capacitive display at 960×540 resolution and is 5-point multitouch. It’s the first ever local qHD device, followed closely by the Cherry Mobile Flame.
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| Cloudfone Thrill 430x vs Cherry Mobile Flame |
The screen of the device is fine, lively, and has great color saturation. But as with all hi-res displays the device’s homescreen and drawer UI bears excruciatingly small text. Fortunately you can adjust text size at the Settings menu.
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x operates on a stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich UI. It runs snappy from home to drawer, page after page.
The display on the Cloudfone Thrill 430x at sleep mode is clear black and could be mistaken for an OLED.
Performance
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon MSM8625 processor and 768MB of RAM (553MB usable). There sometimes are some minor lags from home to drawer transition, but that’s basically it. And without further ado, here are the benchmarks of the device.
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x manages to score a fantastic 2924 on the Quadrant Standard benchmark. It’s the highest local scorer on this specific benchmark as of this writing.
The more updated AnTuTu benchmarking app meanwhile gives it a 6258, exactly within the expected range of local dual-core devices.
Lastly, Qualcomm’s Vellamo tests give the Cloudfone Thrill 430x a 1256 and a 364 respectively, also within the expected range of such devices.
Crunching all these numbers up, the numbers say the Cloudfone Thrill 430x would perform as expected like other similar devices. But benchmark results aside, experience is subjective. From a personal point of view this device is more refined, from the display to the UI to the performance. There are no bugs that needs patching and everything works straight out of the box. The Cloudfone Thrill 430x spells quality.
The native browser of the device renders frames poorly. Google Chrome is recommended instead.
Audio and Video
The 540×960 qHD display of the Cloudfone Thrill 430x definitely brings an edge in the video department. Playing off HD videos with quick scene transitions bring barely noticeable pixelation. You really have to look carefully to notice it.
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x‘s sound department is also great. The sound via the loudspeaker is loud and audible you can actually play quality music through it (not that you can’t with other devices, but the quality is noticeable).
The stock headphones of the device is neat. Although not as great sounding as other more expensive pairs, it’s definitely acceptable. Just cover them with good earphone foam jackets and you’re good to go.
The earpiece of the 430x delivers properly audible sound. Calls come through decently.
Gaming
Playing casual games via the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is as smooth as silk; Temple Run, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, just pick your poison. These games, paired with the fantastic display, makes you feel like playing on a high-end Android. Plus, being the 5-point multitouch it is, you’ll get to slice as many fruits as you can.
More graphics-intensive games such as Dead Trigger and Shadowgun: Deadzone are compatible with the device. No ghosting, no crashing, no freezing. You can play them at low or even medium graphics settings with moderate stuttering. Just don’t expect to survive a life or death situation. Chances are you’ll always be the one dying.
Camera
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x sports an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash. It has a dedicated camera shutter that will do an autofocus and a snap for you. Sample photos of the device below:
Photos taken lack warmth, color saturation, and overall liveliness. Nothing a few built-in and third party filters can’t fix. To its credit though, its flash is bright and has quick capture time.
Battery Life
The biggest feature of the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is its battery. With 4160mAh under its hood, this device probably has the world title for the biggest juice capacity ever. That’s half the reason why it’s that bulky.
Well, did its “3X THE POWER” guarantee stand as promised? Let’s just say by utilizing the device’s power-saving features to the fullest, you can get by 50 hours easy. But as for regular usage (i.e. WiFi/3G, max brightness, SMS, voice calls, casual gaming), the device last 25-plus hours clean. That’s really something, considering the majority of local Android devices nowadays require powerbanks or extra batteries for continuous usage.
No charger issues were observed while charging. Apparently older chargers were the ones with “exploding” issues. New batches are good and doesn’t have this problem.
Other Features
3G – Behaves as expected. No problems observed here. SIM1 only;
Dual-SIM dual standby – An initial prompt will come up when sending a message to a number. After that initial prompt, the device will make that SIM the default SIM for that specific number. I personally prefer being prompted at every message sent because its ideal for situations that may arise e.g. I ran out of prepaid credits on SIM1. I’ll be instantly able to use SIM2 instead because of the SIM prompt without going to Settings and changing my SIM preferences.
Verdict
The Cloudfone Thrill 430x brings to us what the majority of current local Android devices can’t afford: a stellar battery life and an awesome qHD display. But those come with a price: it’s thick and bulky. It’s definitely designed with endurance in mind, and probably isn’t for your casual smartphone user.
If you don’t mind a piece of brick in your jeans pockets and if you’re tired of charging your Android every 6 hours, the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is for you. You can say it’s a great device with a great price.
Cloudfone Thrill 430x Specifications
OS: Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwiich
Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8625 Snapdragon S4 processor
Memory: 768MB of RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD expandable up to 32GB
Display: 4.3-inch qHD Sharp ASV capacitive display, 960 x 540 resolution, ~256ppi, 5-point multi-touch feature, AGC Sodaline Screen Protection
Camera: 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, 0.3-megapixel VGA front camera, 720p HD video recording
Battery: 4160mAh Li-ion battery
Dimensions: 124.4 x 65.4 x 14.2mm, 180 g
Color: Black, White (New)
Features: Dual-SIM dual standby, quad-band
Price: P7,777
Cloudfone Thrill 430x Review