M-HORSE Pure 2 Hands-On Review: a Tri-Bezel-Less Budget Smartphone From Last Year

On this occasion, we will know first hand the second version of a Smartphone that caused us a very good impression for an excellent quality/price ratio. We are facing the M-HORSE Pure 2, a phone that is in several aspects an evolution with respect to its predecessor. If you already liked the M-HORSE Pure 1 wait to know what the M-HORSE Pure 2 can offer us. A step forward for this Chinese firm that is committed to continuing offering high benefits at reduced prices.

With the M-Horse Pure 2, a new manufacturer is once again honoring us. M-Horse is not really new, but the manufacturer is almost unknown. The current Pure 2 unites the classic midrange hardware in a high-quality case. A somewhat weak-breasted Octa-core processor, “only” HD display in 18: 9 format and a compulsory fake dual camera should lead to success in the lower middle class. If this calculation works, you will learn in the following review.

The M-HORSE Pure 2 is one step above the Pure 1, and may also be a large part of the mid-range. We see how there are improvements in RAM and ROM, Larger screen, Better processor. Best photo cameras. Only with these reasons do we know that we are facing a Smartphone that can make people talk; if you are interested now you can buy it now for only $165.87 from Gearbest. Big thanks to M-Horse for providing this M-Horse Pure 2 Review unit 

Specification

Unboxing

I received it in a completely sealed cardboard box. Inside was the box of the mobile and so that a piece of protector did not move much that made it fit well inside. The box is made of matte white cardboard with the logo of M-Horse and the screen-printed model, the logo is also found on all sides of the box. In the back, we find the main features of the Pure 2 Smartphone, a sticker with the serial number and the IMEI’s and the web address of the brand.

As soon as we open the box we find the mobile protected by a protective plastic that wraps it completely and in which we see written the characteristics and model in front and behind the elements that it has, like cameras, flash…

In the box of M-HORSE Pure 2 we find the basic elements, with some novelty, inside we find: M-Horse Pure 2 Smartphone, Power Charger, Silicone Case, Screen Protector, Quick User Guide, Warranty Card USB Cable Type C and USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack for the headphones since it has no jack.

Design

The New M-Horse Pure 2 comes with a very modern look. It is a bit heavy with 210g in the hand. However, the extra weight comes from the glass back, which M-Horse donated the Pure 2. The smartphone is available in blue or black. On the homepage of M-Horse, you can also see a white version in the snow, which will hopefully appear later.

The device is a bit thicker than expected. It measures 8.3mm as promised by M-Horse, but without the superb dual camera. As already mentioned, the Pure 2 comes with its modern, elegant and solid design. The Pure 2 is manufactured with an aluminum alloy chassis that makes it more resistant. Nothing else to take it is appreciated the quality of the materials. Its touch is soft and there is no sensation of squeezing between the fingers. It has a very attractive and careful design at the same time giving it an elegant appearance.

The dimensions of the manufacturer are pretty much in line with my measurements. The Pure 2 is 156.5 mm long and has a width of 75mm(without buttons, which protrude 0.6 mm). The thickness is 8.3 mm and the camera protrudes further 0.9 mm out of it. Unfortunately, the newest litter from M-Horse has not landed in the slimmest category of low-budget smartphones but feels very robust and of high quality. The smartphone cannot bend over the corners and is optimally stiffened!

At the transitions of the sides to the front and back glass one can feel a slightly sharp edge. However, I have not noticed this negatively in the handling. The bumps of the frame are an impeccable and very clean process. The device makes a high-quality impression!

On the front, there is the “bezel-less” screen, which only has a slightly larger edge at the bottom to leave some space for the selfie camera. Above is a black stripe, which is about twice as wide as the lateral one. There loudspeakers and sensors are installed.

On the right side are all physical buttons. There is the on / off button and just above the volume and quiet button installed. The buttons have a solid pressure point and the feel is very good. Unfortunately, you hear the buttons wobble a bit if you shake the smartphone strong.

On the back is in the upper left corner of the dual camera and in the top center of the round fingerprint sensor, The location of the camera on the back of the device as well as the physical aspect of it reminds us much the iPhone X. The dual camera places its lenses in the upper left, and it does so vertically, one on top of the other. Placing the flash right between them. As we say, in the purest iPhone X style. The design of the back of the device is very elaborate. The polished glass finish in gloss with the fingerprint reader perfectly integrated into the body. And the location of the rear camera offers the device a very “premium” look. Something we can not say about the location of the front camera. Again, for supposed space problems, manufacturers place the front camera on the bottom of its front panel.

The SIM card slot can also be found on the left side of the device. This seems a bit lose and protrudes partially 0.1 mm out of the edge. With inserted SIM, this “effect” is no longer so tragic. A notification LED is unfortunately not available.

Display

The beautiful HD 5.99-inch display responds very well to up to 5 simultaneous touches. The brightness is sufficient to remain readable in the sun. The colors on the display are very good from a frontal view. However, if you look diagonally from the side into the display, the view turns a little green or reddish. Since this discoloration is only very light and occurs only from a relatively oblique angle, this is a negligible vulnerability of the display.

The IPS screen with an aspect ratio of 18: 9 solves in 1440 x 720 pixels and brings HD + quality. If I keep the Pure 2 next to my Samsung S8, which has a very high-resolution screen, you can see a clear difference. Especially texts and edges are not quite as fluid and small pixels can be recognized on the Pure 2. In everyday life, however, this hardly bothers and you get used to the “lower” resolution very quickly. The big advantage of this is that the screen consumes less battery than a high-resolution version. Also, the contrast is a little worse on the Pure 2 and the black is not quite 100% darkened like an AMOLED display.

The screen glazing consists of a 2.5D glass that has a bigger and a few small scratches on my 2-week test. So scratch-resistant glass is not. In addition, fingerprints remain on the display as if they were made of adhesive! These are incredibly hard to remove even though I had completely dry hands. The glass back of the M-Horse also has the same “effect”.

Unlocking and Operating

Unlock the Pure 2 on the fingerprint, which worked perfectly in the test. Unlocking with your finger takes about 0.3 seconds and feels fast enough. Since we already had much worse fingerprints in this price category.

By and large, I was very pleasantly surprised by the M-Horse Pure 2! To the beautiful Pure 2 was enclosed a clear silicone cover, which has at the corners light bumper against falls. I think the case is very good and will continue to use it, as the bumpers and extra grip increase protection against falls. The supplied screen foil is useless and cannot be glued on without bubbles. Even between the film and the protective film, plastic parts were included, which already contaminated the film in the packaging. Also here is a USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone adapter, because the smartphone, unfortunately, no direct headphone jack.

The playback via Bluetooth is easily possible and qualitatively perfect. I also had no breaks at a normal distance to the smartphone. The supplied power plug is unfortunately in the UK format and therefore is not usable in Europe. At least the USB-C cable is usable!

Hardware & Performance

In the Hardware section and the power of the device we also find a remarkable evolution with respect to the Pure 1. More power, newer processor, and greater RAM and ROM memory make the quality jump become more and more remarkable. The difference is noticeable in an even greater response and fluency. As for the processor, the M-HORSE Pure 2 has a MediaTek MT6750. A 1.5 GHz Octa-Core with 64 Bit architecture. Processor trusted by brands such as LG for its model K10, X Power 2, among others. Or Huawei with its Honor V9 and Honor 6C Pro. Unlike the first version of the Pure that mounted a MediaTek MT6737h.

The centerpiece is the MT6750 from MediaTek. The Octa-Core consists of 4 ARM-A53 cores taken at 1.5GHz and 4 others at 1.0GHz. This has the advantage that the slow-clocked cores take over the standard tasks and thus save battery. If power is needed, the faster cores will be added. The MT6750 is supported by the Mali-T860 GPU.

This combination is already familiar to us and will also be found in many lower-middle-class devices that will be released soon. Combined with rich 4GB of RAM, the system has reached 40k above at AnTuTu. That is enough for the normal smartphone user completely. Only with compute-intensive games, such as NOVA 2 or Asphalt 8, you will have to sacrifice graphics quality. When using simple apps like Whatsapp or Youtube the system shows a very good speed with minimal load times. The M-Horse Pure 2 comes with 64GB memory and Android 7.

For those who do not know these programs, say that a benchmark is a tool that executes a standardized test that is performed on a device. These tests score (usually weighing various results obtained) the performance of a device so that the final score can be used to compare the overall performance of several devices in a simple and direct way. This processor obtains acceptable results in the benchmark tests, but for casual users, it will be more than enough. AnTuTu scores 40,835 points in 6.xxx Version and 51,848 Points in 7.xxx Version, while Geekbench rates the performance of a single core in 608 and multi-core in 2517.

Android 7.0 OS

As for the software, note that it has Android 7.0 Nougat. And that is free from uncomfortable layers of customization. Therefore we will have access to all the configurations and personalizations offered by an Android of the purest. Something we like and appreciate. In the menu of this M-HORSE Pure 2, we have come across something that strikes us. Although some may be considered a failure, it will be easily solved with future updates.

Strange launches are easy to install on your smartphone, and third-party keyboards did not cause any problems. On the whole, the smartphone is very user-friendly. There is enough power for gaming, working, multitasking and communication, and I have never been limited in the operation of the system. Of course, smartphone gamers should resort to a more powerful device if they frequently want to play the latest titles.

Camera

Equipped with a dual camera on the back, which has a 13MP + 2MP sensor should have the Pure 2 the price range correspondingly sharp and color natural images. The trigger is extremely fast and the focus takes hardly half a second. So it’s fun to test and I’ve tried pretty much everything this camera has to offer. I also found that the 2MP sensor, which is below the centered LED lamp, has no function. Whether it is covered or not does make a difference in bright, normal or diffused light. The lens is also not responsible for the 2x zoom, which is made digital. However, we already had some phones with fake dual camera in the test lab and I think: As long as the result of the pictures is correct, there can be a fake lens installed. The images can be interpolated from 13MP directly on the smartphone to 16MP. The difference of 13MP and interpolated 16MP, I have noted in the example images.

As far as the quality of the recordings is concerned, it’s best to take a look at the test pictures and judge for yourself whether the quality is sufficient for you. Of course, you can not expect DSLR quality with a 120 Euro mobile phone. For its price range, the M-Horse Pure 2 beats well.

The selfie camera is not bad either. She does what she is supposed to do and offers good, sharp and color-true selfies. A slight gray haze is present in the pictures, but that applies to almost all low-budget phones. Somewhat getting used to, however, is the position of the camera, as it is located at the bottom of the front. For the usual selfie mode, the device must be turned 180 ° upside down. This may be the case with third-party apps like Whatsapp, Snapchat, and co. cause problems because these apps do not always support the 180 ° turn of the smartphone. As an image generator, the selfie camera has an 8MP sensor, which can be interpolated up to 13MP. It also triggers relatively quickly and usually focuses very well. Only in the dark are the pictures a bit reddish or bluish.

Connectivity and Communication

The M-Horse Pure 2 is a dual-SIM mobile phone. You can use two Sim cards at the same time. Equipped is the SIM slot with a hybrid card which 2 Nano SIMs or a SIM and micro SD card up to max 256GB can record . There are supports all major 3G and LTE bands. I had a very good reception in the open air as well as in buildings. The wifi is fantastic and supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz Networks. The only drawback is the missing Wifi call, which is already considered as standard these days. The built-in GPS works perfectly. I even used the review unit as a mountain navigation and was never disappointed.

Unfortunately, as already mentioned, the headphone connection was omitted. The built-in speakers are relatively loud and a bit dull in sound. However, a rollover of the notes never takes place. The sound quality I would call mediocre. The device has an acceleration, brightness and a proximity sensor installed. These all work flawlessly.

Battery

The Pure 2 is a 3600mAh battery. This can be loaded with 1.85A. A charge of 14% to 100% takes in our test with the original UK plug 2h and 40min. This is not record-breaking, but just acceptable. After only 1h the device was charged from 14% to 73%. With normal use of about 3 to 4 hours of display-on, the device provided me with plenty of power for the whole day and I never had to run to the outlet during the day. Unfortunately, we could not play through our battery benchmark cleanly, because the PC-Mark app crashed again and again. When streaming video through YouTube, the Pure 2 consumed one hour of Full HD video and half brightness, 16% battery, This value is average and acceptable. All in all, the M-Horse Pure 2 is equipped with a good battery, which also provides one-day battery life for power users.

Conclusion

M-Horse has achieved an improvement of its predecessor with the new edition of the Pure. I was convinced by the smartphone in the test. The hardware is consistent and the camera has surprised me positively. Also from the side of the processing, the smartphone is very convincing and it also makes a high-quality impression. If you are looking for a cheap mobile phone with a large 6-inch display, then the M-Horse Pure 2 may be the right one! However, there are also a few flaws in the device that should be considered. So the cell phone with a weight of 210g is quite heavy. In addition, the system showed in the test period quite a few children’s disease and also the scratch-prone glass on the front and back should not go unmentioned. Who can live with these little flaws? if you are interested now you can buy it now for only $165.87 from Gearbest.