Verykool Spark S505-The unlocked Verykool Ignite S505, doesnt look being a budget phone at first glance. At just $200, its a bargain, but its sleek profile and reliable feel give the item a leg in place over other devices in its price range. The design, however could be the main story the following as its features, others than the two SIM card slot machine games, are forgettable.

The Spark could be the latest smartphone in Verykools lineup, a brandname that hails via San Diego-based InfoSonics. Earlier Verykool models happen to be disappointing -- the s470 Black Globule is clunky and also pricey, while the only standout feature on the RS90 Vortex is that it is waterproof. However, the Spark rises above its predecessors with a price that much better matches its specs. The Spark will come in the US and also Latin America, but understand that it doesnt assistance 4G LTE communities.

It could be easy to miscalculation the Verykool Spark for just a Samsung Galaxy S4 -- both use a rounded corners plus a smooth back cover with a textured design. Therere both around identical thickness, and on the front, they look alike.

However, the Spark has several of its own traits. First, it has an all-plastic body, and even though the silver accent throughout the edge of the telephone looks like material, its not. You can find no physical buttons within the front display, along with the thin but notable volume rocker and also power/lock button consume the right side. The phone is bigger than the S4, which means its slightly harder to hold on to one-handed, and once you hold the phone for a ear for a call, you may need to adjust your grip to reach the volume important factors.

Legally, the Spark can be 5. 64 ins tall, 2. seventy eight inches wide, and 0. 32-inch thick (143. 50 x 71. 60 x 8. 25 mm), with a weight of 3. 5 oz (100 grams). Its at the size where the item just barely suits into small pants pockets, but it easily slips in to a purse or book bag.

The smooth, polycarbonate back protect slightly wraps throughout the sides of the telephone, and its particularly hard to pry away from to reveal the internal slots and battery pack. Behind it, theres two SIM card slots, one regular sized and one micro, plus a microSD card slot for approximately 32GB of storage. You need to take out the battery to access either SIM slot machine, or the microSD, which is annoying.

The Spark has a 5-inch, 1, 280x720 pixel (293 ppi), touchscreen display screen thats bright, colorful, and easily readable in direct sunlight. It could be sharper, but for just a midtier phone, it is quite good. That screen size will give you plenty of space to learn to read Web pages and also play games. Curiously, the phone comes with a screen protector previously installed, which is a nice touch you do not see with other phones. You also get yourself a replacement screen protector.

Software

The Ignite is running Operating system Jelly Bean four. 2, which is almost two years old and several steps behind the existing Android KitKat four. 4. That means its needs to look outdated and tired close to todays top cell phones. However, Verykool says the telephone will eventually get an upgrade for you to KitKat.

The operating-system looks like stock Android, but with a few modifications via Verykool, including tools to handle your SIM greeting cards, such as picking out which card you need to use for messages or calls and data, and switching between your two when youd like.

The Spark comes with a handful of software, such as a file manager, a setup guide, and also an app referred to as OOBE (short intended for out-of-box experience). Additionally, there is social-messaging app WhatsApp, productiveness suite Kingsoft Office, and video-calling iphone app Skype. It comes with almost all of the stock Google software, such as Google30mail, Google Play, and also Maps. Others, such as Play Music, and also Chrome are lost, but you may download them individually.

Another modification can be a paired-down setup method, which helps get those phone ready to make use of by selecting the language and placing the date and also time. However, the Spark doesnt ask you to log in along with your Google account or develop a new one, which youll need in order to download apps via Google Play. You will need to head to settings to provide your account by hand.

Theres also a persistent search bar at the top of each home display screen that looks similar to the standard Google look for bar from Jelly Bean, but once you tap it, it raises a bare-bones look for app thats similar to the Google look for widget in Operating system 2. 2 Froyo. Even so, if you touch the microphone icon, it brings in place Google voice look for. This is puzzling, because the phone comes with more recent version associated with Google search, which include Google Now, nevertheless, you cant get to it from that house screen widget. You also cant get rid of that search bar until you install a diverse launcher or flash a fresh ROM. To work with Google Now, you can swipe up on the bottom of the screen.

Camera

The Spark comes with a 12-megapixel back camera plus a 2-megapixel front-facing video camera. However, this phone shows the volume of megapixels doesnt usually matter, because the camera consistently opportunity mediocre photos.

Just like the Verykool Black Globule, the Sparks video camera couldnt consistently produce sharp, well-lit pictures. Though the camera has an autofocus, as well being an option to touch the screen to target manually, both close-up and also wide shots are not always in concentrate, despite my best efforts to switch that.

.

The camera is sold with various shooting processes, including HDR, panorama, and also smile shot, which captures a photograph when it detects someone is smiling.

The Spark information video in 1080p, nevertheless, as with even now photos, the concluded videos you throw wont wow you. When you switch on the camcorder in the phones camera iphone app, it starts taking immediately, which found me off-guard. Theres also a tiny pause button to prevent recording, but its so small you might miss it.

Another issue Weve with the camera is how the back lens is located at the top edge of the telephone, which makes the item hard to shape shots, especially close-ups. Holding the telephone with two hands and wrists, to get a gradual landscape shot, my fingers often protected the lens, and it felt awkward to hold on to the phone so one of these didnt get in the manner.

Call Quality

I tested the Sparks call excellent on T-Mobiles network in San francisco bay area using a prepaid SIM card, along with the phone impressed me. Overall, calls was clear, though voices are not as natural as Id like. There was a number of minimal distortion and also extraneous noises, but overall, the phone carried out well. My calling partner could notice me well, with very little background noise, even outdoors with a lot of ambient noise.

Many phones have a problem with speakerphone calls, producing distorted audio tracks and struggling to get your voice despite having the microphone near your mouth. Even so, the Verykool Ignite did well the following too -- over a call, my assessment partner sounded deafening and clear, and he said i always sounded the very same, even when I held the telephone down and faraway from me.

Whats amazing is that, with full volume, calls within the speaker sounded obvious, but when playing music or even a video at greatest volume, the audio sounded blown-out from time to time.

Overall Performance

The Spark uses a 1. 3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor thats adequate for winning contests, streaming video, and also launching apps. You may not notice it emotion snappy, but it isnt especially sluggish sometimes. However, the video camera app is gradual to load, an indicator of the low-end processor. Other apps, such as Gmail, Facebook, and the game Riptide GP2 took a few seconds to open at the same time.

The phone is sold with just 512MB associated with RAM, and 2GB associated with internal storage, which will refill fast with a lot associated with photos or download a lot of apps. You can add up to 32GB of extra space through an SD card.

The Spark has a 2, 000mAh battery pack, which, frankly, doesnt keep you going for very long. Verykool says the telephone can survive intended for 240 hours, or 10 days, upon standby, and features just five time of talk time period over 3G. If you arent using the telephone much, you can reach least a full day out of it, but once you start launching a number of apps, using the camera, or browsing the online world, the battery will start to drain quickly. On the typical day, where by you check your current email, play a number of games, read on the net, and browse your social network apps, youll likely must top off your battery at some point, or else it will be dead by the evening.

The Spark is built to run on 3G facts networks, but I was able to pick up HSPA, a young version of 4G, on T-Mobiles network in San francisco bay area. Over that link, websites took various seconds to heap, and apps may take several moments to download. Though LTE isnt easily obtainable in every market, Id still want to have that capability on the phone.

Summary

The Verykool Spark is a great deal at $200 off-contract, is actually the dual-SIM selection, it can be used worldwide. Though I could notice selling well in emerging markets, the us is another report. The market heres already full associated with low-cost devices that contain better internal guts and it is feature set, while fitting due to the price, has simply no stand outs.

Nonetheless, if the dual-SIM feature can be a must for you, the Verykool Spark is among the better choices around, compared to the Verykool Black Pearl along with the Yezz Andy A4. 5. Even so, if youre just interested in a low-cost Operating system device, Motorolas Moto Gary costs $199, as well, and features much better internal specs plus a better camera.

GENERAL

CELLULAR

BRAND

SHOW

GENERAL