Mlais M52 Specs and Performance

As far as the specs go, we already covered the basics, but before we proceed let’s take a closer look. It’s worth noting that a lot of Chinese companies churn out 5.5-inch phablets with relatively good specs, but few match the M52 in terms of price/performance. Actually few isn’t the right word, because we can’t think of a single one. Basically you’re getting a good mid-range spec for the price of a low-end device.

Here is the full Mlais M52 spec:

• SoC: MediaTek MT6752, 28nm HPM
• CPU: Eight 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.7GHz
• GPU: ARM Mali-T760 MP2 up to 695MHz
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 16GB internal storage, microSD slot up to 64GB
• Display: 5.5-inch 720p IPS OGS laminated panel
• OS: Android 4.4.4 (Android 5.0 OTA coming soon)
• Rear camera: 13-megapixel sensor, autofocus
• Front facing camera: 8-megapixel sensor, 83 degree FOV, f/2.0 aperture
• Battery: 3200mAh lithium polymer, user-replaceable
• Dimensions: 152 x 7.80 x 8.2mm (5.97 x 3.07 x 0.32 inches)
• Weight: 158g
• WiFi and Bluetooth: 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors: ambient light, proximity, gesture, gravity, GPS, A-GPS
• SIM card: dual SIM, micro and standard
• Network support: 
  2G GSM:850/900/1800/1900MHz
  3G WCDMA:WCDMA850/900/1900/2100MHz
  4G FDD-LTE:B1/3/7/20 (800/1800/2100/2600)(Standard)

You’ll probably agree that this is quite a spec sheet for a $149 phone. In fact, on paper the Mlais M52 looks like it could take on much more expensive devices, and to be honest it performs like a much more expensive phone.

The MediaTek octa-core SoC backed by 2GB of RAM devoured AnTuTu and scored upwards of 40900 in several consecutive tests, indicating that throttling is not an issue. Lack of custom skins and bloatware also helps make the phone feel responsive and quick. The ZTE Blade S6 powered by the Snapdragon 615 scores 28125, which is obviously significantly slower. Bear in mind that the Snapdragon 615 is shipping in some rather pricey phones like the Galaxy Alpha A7 and HTC One M8s.

In GeekBench the phone scores 810 in single-core score and 3947 in multi-core test. We did notice that when the battery goes down to below 15 percent, the score gets cut in half, suggesting automatic power saving takes a toll on performance. The Mediatek MT6752 SoC's main competitor, the octa-core Snapdragon 615, scores 620 in single and 2852 in multi-core test.

Overall, nobody will complain about the performance, and we mean nobody – the phone is roughly as fast as 2013 Android flagships and can wipe the floor with similarly priced devices (mostly based on quad Cortex-A7 parts).

In Antutu, the MT6752 performs quite well and outpaces the Snapdragon 800 and 615.

In 3D mark, flagships based on Snapdragon 8xx silicon pull ahead with a wide margin, courtesy of much more powerful GPUs.

Basemark also favours big quad-cores.

Quadrant was the only test in which the Mlais lost to the ZTE Blade S6, based on the  Snapdragon 615. However, it was a close call.

Performance is not everything, so what about the subjective feeling? What about the display and audio quality?