Since Fudzilla believes 2015 is the year of commoditised Android, we decided to review some inexpensive phones from China, and quite by accident the Mlais M52 was the first such device we had a chance to review. We didn’t expect much, but at the end of the day we were genuinely impressed.

The Mlais M52 is inspired by the Xiaomi Redmi Note, while the new Mlais Note M4 takes its cue from the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. This means it’s designed to look like a premium device, but cost as much as a Moto G.

While the Mlais M52 is all about delivering as much performance as possible on a tight budget, the M4 Note is trying to imitate a premium product with a much more expensive build, but it costs just $10 more. This means the company had to save a couple of bucks elsewhere, namely on hardware.

As a result, the Mlais M4 Note ships with a less powerful MediaTek MT6732 quad-core processor in lieu of the octa-core MT6752. It also has a somewhat smaller battery, 2400mAh vs 3150mAh, but Mlais invested the proceeds of the hardware diet wisely.

The M4 features a CNC milled steel frame. The camera housing and buttons are metal as well. The removable back has a soft, faux leather finish similar to the Galaxy Note 4, and the whole package is topped off by a sheet of 2.5D glass on top of the 5.5-inch IPS panel.

Like the M52, the M4 ships with 2GB of memory and 16GB of internal storage, along with a 13-megapixel camera. Not bad for a $159 device, so let’s see if the premium makeover really worked.

 

Design and Build Quality

By now it should be obvious that the M4 Note is a clone of the Galaxy Note 4, with only a few minor differences. We are no fans of clones, but the M4 has a few things going for it. While the M52 mimicked the Xiaomi Redmi Note, the design was more or less generic and it could get away with it, but the M4 Note is a spitting image of the Galaxy Note 4. The design is unoriginal and Mlais didn’t try to make it original. On the upside, the Galaxy Note 4 is a good looking phone, and so is the Mlais.

But what about the build quality?

At $159 you really can’t expect the same level of craftsmanship as you would get on a $600 flagship device, but Mlais did a good job. In fact, it did a damn good job considering the tight budget. The metal frame looks and feels great, and so do the buttons. The gently curved glass also helps, and the removable rear cover feels good, too.

It’s not perfect though. There are some minor issues like the jagged edge on the camera rim which points to a less than perfect CNC finish, but this sort of stuff is only visible upon closer examination and does not change the fact that you’re getting a steel frame and metal buttons on a $159 device. Overall, the build quality is truly impressive at this price point.

The volume rocker is located at the right, while the power button is on the left.

Both buttons feel great, as does the home button.

Of course, they’re not on par with the Galaxy Note 4, but they are very good. There’s not a lot of travel and you get a pleasing click.

The micro USB and 3.5mm audio ports are located at the top. There’s nothing at the bottom, save for the microphone.

If you want to access the memory card and SIM slots, you’ll have to peel off the back cover. It provides quick access to the slots and the removable 2400mAh Li-Poly battery.

You can also replace the back with a flip cover, with a similar faux-leather finish. It’s just $5, but it looks and feels good. Both covers offer a lot of grip and stand up to fingerprints and grease.

Since the device has a big, steel frame, there’s virtually no flex. The rim is cold to the touch and gives off a premium vibe. The soft finish on the back helps, too. Overall, the tactile experience is very good – the Mlais Note 4 simply doesn’t feel like a $159 device. The casual observer would probably think it costs twice as much, or more.

You get a choice of two colour options, white and black.

 

Mlais M4 Note Specs and Performance

The trade-off is that you get a somewhat slower SoC, which saves a few dollars for the metal frame.

The M4 Note ships with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, but since it has to deal with a 720p panel and plain Android, it doesn’t really have to work hard. Throw in 2GB of RAM and you end up with a snappy device, although it’s really not designed for gaming.

FDD-LTE support is on board as well, along with more or less standard connectivity and sensor suites.

Let’s take a closer look at the Mlais M4 Note spec:

• SoC: MediaTek MT6732, 28nm HPM
• CPU: Four 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.5GHz
• GPU: ARM Mali-T760 MP2 at up to 500MHz
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 16GB internal storage (partitioned), microSD slot up to 64GB
• Display: 5.5-inch 720p IPS OGS laminated panel, 2.5D glass
• OS: Android 5.0
• Rear camera: 13-megapixel sensor, f/2.2 aperture
• Front facing camera: 8-megapixel sensor
• Battery: 3200mAh lithium polymer, user-replaceable
• Dimensions: 156 x 80 x 8.4mm (6.13 x 3.14 x 0.33in)
• Weight: 160g
• WiFi and Bluetooth: 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors: ambient light, direction, accelerometer, compass, proximity, pressure, GPS, A-GPS
• SIM card: dual SIM (micro and standard SIM), dual standby
• Network support:
• 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
• 3G WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100MHz
• 4G FDD-LTE: B1/3/7/20 800/1800/2100/2600MHz

The spec does not appear too impressive on paper, but it's good for the money. The MediaTek MT6732 is used in numerous $100-$200 designs. On the whole, it tends to outperform the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 in most scenarios. In some tests, it manages to beat the mid-range Snapdragon 615 as well.

Of course, it can’t match mid-range and flagship parts, but the chip offers adequate performance. The GPU isn’t very fast, but has no trouble dealing with the 720p panel. With 2GB of RAM, the Mlais offers a smooth user experience. We also suspect the pure Android approach helps, as there’s no bloat to deal with.

Let’s take a look at some numbers.

In Antutu, the Mlais M4 Note scored 32734 on the first run and upwards of 31000 on consecutive runs. It’s a good score, as the MediaTek SoC outperforms the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 and even the mid-range Snapdragon 615.

Basemark OS II is more of the same, as the Mlais outperforms the HTC Desire 820 and ZTE Blade S6, both based on the Snapdragon 615.

In 3D Mark Ice Storm, the MediaTek chip scored an underwhelming 4989, but it still managed to beat the Snapdragon 410.

The MediaTek MT6732 is a good all-round performer, although it can’t come close to proper mid-range and high-end chips in GPU performance. This means it’s not that good for gaming, but realistically you can’t do a lot of gaming on a 5.5-inch device with a 2400mAh battery.

Looking at the big picture, if you’re really not into gaming or imaging, mid-range and even entry-level chips can offer a fair amount of performance. For many users, they should be enough. Paying twice as much simply to get a faster GPU and a marginally faster CPU doesn’t make much sense for many consumers, especially in emerging markets.

 

Audio, Display and Camera Quality

The M4 features a laminated 5.5-inch IPS display in 1280x720. This amounts to 267ppi, so it’s not quite Retina-class density, but it’s not that far off (the iPhone 6 has a 326ppi display).
What’s more important than sheer numbers is the subjective feeling – and we’re pleased to report it’s good.

The colours are quite good and there’s a blueish tint, so the whites are on the cool side. It reminds us of AMOLED whites (although it’s an LCD). A few other LCD devices we had on hand displayed warmer tones. There are no colour temperature controls though, just in case you like a warm tint.

Viewing angles are good, so is contrast. Blacks look good too, on par with some pricier 720p and 1080p devices we had a chance to test. The screen is rather reflective, which is an issue in well-lit environments, but it’s no worse than most mid-range devices.

The rear speaker is loud and sufficient for content consumption or hands free calls. As for telephony, there’s no noise-cancelling microphone, but call quality is good.

The earpiece is loud and clear, and we didn’t hear any complaints from the other end, either. Not much to say here, it's an average phone.

The main camera features a 13.3-megapixel sensor and an f/2.2 aperture. The sensor is not bad, but the relatively slow aperture doesn’t do it any favours. The camera app is nothing spectacular, but it's fast and gets the job done. It can also be launched with a "C" gesture on the lock screen.

In daylight, the camera produces good results, since the sensor gets a lot of light to play around with. There’s not much to complain about, we’ve seen inferior cameras on much more expensive devices. However, in low light the camera struggles due to the f/2.2 aperture, so you end up with a fair amount of noise. Let's see some day and night indoor snaps.

Daylight shots were excellent in terms of detail and noise, as our 100% crop proves. However, the colours aren't very vivid and dynamic range is limited.

However, once the sun goes down, the slow aperture forces the camera to shoot at high ISO and you end up with a lot of noise and not much in the way of detail. 

A slow aperture is also not a good thing for HDR. We tried HDR on a sunny day, facing the sun, but even with that much light we ended up with a lot of HDR ghosting. This pretty much renders HDR mode pointless for dynamic scenes, although it can improve quality in some situations (provided you don’t have people walking through the frame, or branches and leaves fluttering in the wind etc.)

With too much backlight, the camera struggles and captures washed out colours with a blue tint. As you can see, HDR can boost the range, but with a lot of ghosting. 

The camera can capture 1080p video in fine mode, but it doesn’t capture much more detail than the 720p mode. In addition, audio is all over the place. Videos end up with a lot of audio noise.
The front camera offers average quality. Image quality is not a problem if a lot of light is available, but once the sun goes down, you’ll end up with a lot of noise.

Overall, the results are quite good for such an inexpensive device. HDR might not work well, low light images suffer from a lot of noise, but your standard snap in daylight looks good.

 

OS, UI and Everyday Use

Like we said, the Mlais M4 ships with near-stock Android 5.0, so if you’ve ever used a Nexus or Moto, you should feel at home. You get the Google Now launcher and that’s it. Some apps have been tweaked, like the camera app and stock browser, but you can go ahead and replace them with Google apps if you really want a pure Android experience. One slightly annoying feature is the stock lock screen, which is available with just nine different backgrounds (different to homescreen wallpapers).

Now for some bad news. There are a few software quirks. We experienced a couple of app crashes, and YouTube was the worst offender. The phone also features an app permission manager which starts on launch and may cause some confusion for first time users. Luckily the company rolled out a 130MB software update that addressed most of these of these issues and activated lock screen gestures (although the double tap gesture still didn't work on our unit).

There is no bloat. On start-up, you’ll just get a single pane of apps in the app drawer and you’re free to do what you want with the device (most people will obviously start by downloading a few more Google apps).

We really don’t have much to say about the OS and user interface – it’s practically pure Android and that’s it.

We also tried out the GPS and got good accuracy indoors. However, getting an indoor lock sometimes took upwards of 20 seconds, although it’s quite a bit faster outdoors. Changing orientation can lose the fix, but it’s usually regained in a matter of seconds. The GPS works, it’s not great and sometimes it takes a while to lock when you launch it, but it gets the job done.

As for the rest of the package, we have no complaints about the ergonomics, connectivity or battery life (which was average).

The Mlais M4 is an easy phone to live with. There’s no learning curve since it uses a familiar UI and a (very) familiar hardware layout. Everything is where you’d expect it to be, and there are no surprises.

Peeling off the soft rear cover is a breeze, but you will have to remove the battery to access all SIM and microSD slots. There’s nothing wrong with that, and seeing an oversized phone with a metal frame and user-replaceable battery is a refreshing change.

The thin 2400mAh Li-Poly battery offers limited capacity considering the size of the device, but then again it does not have to deal with a huge processor and high-res screen. Most users should have no trouble getting a full day of use, plugging it in overnight. The good news is that idle power management appears to be quite good (remember, there’s no bloat on board), so the Mlais doesn’t burn a lot of power when it’s tucked away in your pocket, or resting on your nightstand. Battery life is adequate, although not spectacular.

The flip cover works as advertised and we’re sure a lot of users will like it. The quality is pretty good, it offers a degree of protection for the screen if you’re one of those people who chuck their phones in pockets full of change and keys.

It can display and analogue or digital clock, and can be used to control the music player.

 

Conclusion

While Mlais has been around for just a few months, we are starting to like the company’s no-nonsense approach. It’s all about balancing build quality, performance and value. This is true of most small brands, but few of them get it right, especially just six months into their existence.

Although we were truly impressed by the build quality, as was everyone who got a chance to see and feel the device, it doesn’t change the fact that the design is unoriginal, a blatant clone of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. We know a lot of people don’t even bother considering clones for a number of reasons. It’s a pity, because the Mlais is a good device and doesn’t deserve to be associated with dirt cheap knockoffs. Unfortunately, the carbon copy design does it no favours.

On the upside, the Mlais M4 Note is a good device, with decent hardware and top notch build quality. It’s not the fastest thing around, but it doesn’t have to be. The M52 is for performance geeks on a budget, while the M4 is designed for people who place an emphasis on premium build quality, but don’t want to spend a fortune to get it.

At $159 with shipping via GeekBuying (or $152 using coupon LTRTCYDR), the M4 offers good value for money. If you don’t measure the quality of your phone by benchmark scores or pixel density, but rather by build quality and practicality, the M4 makes perfect sense. Big brands don’t offer devices with premium build quality at this price point, and most Chinese brands tend to market value phablets with the best possible spec, clad in plastic.

While the M4 is a Samsung clone, it’s unique in the fact that it offers a premium look and feel on a budget. That’s just not something you see often, so we can recommend it to anyone who would rather hold a stainless steel phone in their hand than a cheap looking plastic phone that scores 10,000 more in Antutu.

Mlais M4 Note Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Stainless steel frame
• Premium look and feel
• Value for money
• Good display with slightly curved glass on top
• User-replaceable battery
• Near stock Android 5.0

Cons:

• Minor software glitches (namely double tap gestures)
• Unoriginal design
• Average battery capacity – a bigger unit would have attracted even more consumers