Review of Highscreen Omega Prime S. Ultra-thin Android smartphone with 4 covers

Many of you are probably familiar with Highscreen products. Some people like the products, some don't. However, we must admit that it is of quite high quality and looks good, although the design is not unique, but it is time-tested and pleasing to the eye. And it’s worth noting that the build quality and performance are at a fairly high level. But today we are not conducting a general review of Highscreen technology, but will draw your attention to a specific model, namely Omega Prime S. A typical representative of devices from this manufacturer with a couple of interesting “tricks” that many will like.

In my opinion, it’s worth making a slight digression and saying that due to the huge amount of advertising, many users have a negative attitude towards this manufacturer, but this is somewhat biased, because the products are really good and can compete with many brands in the same price category. And who do you think is the official face of the brand? You'll never guess, because it's Nikita Dzhigurda! Yes, yes, this outrageous personality advertises Highscreen smartphones. Well, now let's move on directly to the new product.

▌TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The smartphone is based on the modern Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset with a 4-core processor and Adreno 302 graphics, which improves the efficiency of applications and games, and also reduces power consumption.
The smartphone is equipped with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of built-in expandable microSD card. Screen:

4.7″, 1280x720 px, HD, OGS, IPS
Processor:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 MSM8212 (Cortex-A5, 1.2 GHz, 4 cores)
Video accelerator:
Adreno 302
Operating system:
Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean)
RAM:
1 GB
User memory :
8 GB + microSD slot
Camera:
front - 2 MP, rear - 8 MP
Communications:
2 SIM cards (GSM/GPRS/EDGE + UMTS/HSPA+)
Additionally:
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, OTG, accelerometer, compass, light and distance sensor
Battery:
1800 mAh
Dimensions:
135.8×67.2×7.2 mm
Weight:
100 Grams
Price:
8,000 rubles

Review of the Android smartphone Highscreen Omega Prime S

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Specifications
• Packaging and equipment
• Appearance and design
• Display
• Firmware and software
• Hardware platform and performance
• Multimedia
• Memory
• Communications and wireless capabilities
• Autonomous operation
• Camera
• Comparison with competitors
• Conclusion

Introduction

The company Highscreen, well-known to Russian users (and our readers), has for some time lowered the intensity in terms of introducing new models of mobile devices, recently introduced another interesting smartphone - Omega Prime S.
This is an update to last year's device. However, by the end of 2014, the first Omega Prime, with its low-resolution screen and other already unremarkable characteristics, was outdated, so it is not surprising that the manufacturer prepared a replacement for it.

Unlike its competitors, Highscreen actively uses in its devices not only chips produced by MediaTek, but also Qualcomm. So Omega Prime S is built on the basis of Snapdragon 200. Although this is an entry-level solution, it is from the current line.

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Already from the very first official image it is clear that the distinctive feature of the devices of this line has been preserved - the presence of interchangeable back panels of different colors in the set.

But this smartphone is not the only thing interesting about them. So, for 7000-8000 rubles we are offered a device with a 4.7″ diagonal screen and HD resolution (1280 x 720), built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 (MSM8212) and equipped with one gigabyte of RAM.

Specifications

Unlike most of its brothers, Highscreen Omega Prime S uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 SoC, in the 2013 modification - MSM8212, with an Adreno 302 video accelerator on board. It cannot be said that the device is very impressive in terms of price-quality ratio - at least on paper. Let's take a closer look at the smartphone.

Packaging and equipment

Highscreen Omega Prime S comes in a small box made from recycled cardboard.

On the front part, traditionally for Highscreen products, a diagram of the device is printed indicating its main components.

After opening the package, the first thing we see is the device itself, and the included accessories, as usual, are located at the bottom, under the box divider.

Highscreen Omega Prime S comes with:

• Charger;
• Micro-USB cable;
• Quick user guide and warranty card;
• Stereo headset;
• Four interchangeable back panels (black, yellow, white, red).

With the exception of replaceable panels, the equipment is standard, nothing special.

Appearance and design

Highscreen Omega Prime S is made in the classic form factor for modern smartphones - a candy bar with a touch screen.

The dimensions of the device are 67.2 x 135.8 x 7.2 mm, weight – 100 g.

It is worth noting the small thickness and light weight of the device, although with such a screen diagonal the dimensions could be smaller and the frames around the display thinner.

The manufacturer got it right with the weight and thickness - if the smartphone were a little lighter and thinner, the device would feel like a “toy”, but everything is fine - the gadget fits comfortably and confidently in the hand.

The white and black back covers are made of matte plastic, the yellow and red ones are made of glossy plastic. The device hardly slips in the hand, but it gets worse - the front panel and all back covers quickly collect fingerprints, but they are not so easily removed.

The manufacturer does not provide information about the glass panel, but judging by the tactile sensations, the display is protected by a plastic panel coupled with a protective film attached from the factory.

On the front side at the top there is a speaker, light and proximity sensors, and a front camera.

At the bottom there is a block of three touch keys “Menu”, “Home” and “Back”. The backlight is white and is bright enough for comfortable use.

On the back of the smartphone at the top there is an eight-megapixel main camera eye, an LED flash and a grille behind which the external speaker is hidden.

At the bottom of the back cover is the Highscreen logo.

On the left side of the case there is a single volume rocker.

On the right side there is a power/lock button.

The 3.5 mm jack and microUSB are on top, the microphone is on the bottom of the device.

To disassemble the smartphone, just carefully pry the cover behind a special recess. After that we get access to the battery and slots: two microSIM and a slot for a memory card (MicroSD). The battery is removable.

There is a theoretical possibility of “hot” swapping SIM cards, but a sticker near the slots warns that doing this while the phone is on is prohibited.

The device cannot surprise you with its build quality, but everything is done well - there are no strong gaps or creaks around the perimeter. The design is worse - the smartphone looks faceless, the situation is slightly improved only by the unusual design of the touch keys and colored rear panels.

▌PACKAGING AND EQUIPMENT

Omega Prime S comes in a very stylish box. I don’t know who came up with this design, but it is quite original and attractive, although, to be honest, simple. The box material is recycled and tightly compressed cardboard without any coloring. Just cardboard. On the front edge of the box there is a cross-section of the device and some technical information about it; just above is the company logo and the name of the device.

On all four side edges of the box, in splendid isolation, there is a black manufacturer’s logo, and only the name of the device in a red color variant keeps it company.

There is good news on the back of the box, and to be specific, the owner of this device is provided with 32 Gigabytes of 4SYNC cloud storage for free use, that is, for nothing. In my opinion, a very nice bonus. Also on the back side at the top is the company logo and the name of the device, below is a barcode and a QR code, reading which will take you to the manufacturer’s website.

The rather pleasant design of the box immediately creates a good impression and puts you in a positive mood, and the absence of unnecessary details makes it possible to focus on the main thing. Well, now let's look at the contents of the box.

And inside the box, under the lid in a plastic box, lies the device itself. In general, Prime S is wrapped in a plastic bag, but for photogenic purposes I removed the bag.

The first feature of this device is its packaging. In addition to the standard USB cable, charger, headphones and warranty card with instructions, the kit includes three more replacement caps: red, yellow and white. The manufacturer itself positions this smartphone as a “chameleon”. Now, if you start to get tired of your phone, you can simply change the cover. This is very important for girls, because now you can choose the color of the lid to match your outfit or vice versa.

Now let's talk in more detail about the configuration, let's start with the charger, headphones and USB cable. All components are packed in bags to avoid mechanical damage, and the headphones and USB cable are additionally wrapped in polyethylene for greater compactness.

The USB cable is long enough, so there should be no inconvenience in using it. The headphones are ordinary tablets, the sound is very mediocre, but quite acceptable.

Now let's focus on the lids. It's no secret that many manufacturers have resorted to similar solutions. Some made devices in a bunch of different colors, others sold additional covers separately. Yes, a couple of years ago I came across devices with replaceable covers included, but for some reason they always stuck to the same color scheme and differed only in the design. So Highscreen brought something new and fresh to the mobile device market. As I already said, the Omega Prime S comes with three caps. All of them are made of high-quality plastic and even after many replacements of the lids, the locks on them remain quite tight.

It is worth noting that in fact there are only two colors for the lids: black and white. This is due to the available colors of plastic, the rest of the caps are coated with a different colored varnish or something like that, so you need to be careful and try not to scratch the yellow and red caps.

Initially, a protective film with some information about the device is glued to the device screen.

If you pull the white stripe, this film will peel off, and underneath it is another, completely transparent, protective film.

Most likely, this was done due to the fact that the manufacturer saved on protecting the display. But, in my opinion, this is not a drawback, because many people stick film on the screen to protect it from scratches and prolong the freshness of the device.

Most of the front edge of the smartphone is occupied by a large, 4.7-inch display. Thanks to OGS technology and the use of an IPS matrix, the display practically merges with the side frames and creates a monolithic effect.

Above the display in the upper left corner there is a front camera with a resolution of 2 megapixels, to the right there is a light sensor, and in the middle there is a speaker for conversations.

Touch control buttons, as is customary in the company, are located outside the main screen. They are somewhat non-standard for Android devices, but overall they look good. However, there is one caveat: the buttons do not provide any information about what they do.

The right side only got the unlock/power button.

On the left is the volume button. This form factor is standard, so there is nothing special in the arrangement of mechanical buttons.

On the top edge of the Omega Prime S there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and to the right is a microUSB connector. This means that it is not convenient to talk on a smartphone when the charger is connected - the cable gets in the way.

A small hole for a microphone is hidden on the bottom edge.

Now let's look at the back surface of the device. The edges of the cover are rounded, so that the device is comfortable to hold in your hand. There are no unnecessary elements on the back of the Omega Prime S, just everything you need.

In the upper left corner there is an 8-megapixel main camera, and next to it is a flash LED.

The company logo is printed at the bottom, and the hole for the speaker is located at the bottom.

Now let's remove the cover. Let's go from top to bottom.

At the very top we see two slots for microSIM and a slot for microSD.

The main part is occupied by a large but flat 1780 mAh battery.

Even lower is a small speaker.

There are no complaints about the assembly and quality in general. There is no play or creaking, all boards are covered with plastic, which is attached with small screws. Overall, I liked the design of the smartphone, it didn’t excite me, but I liked it. Prime S, despite its large display, fits comfortably in the hand, the control buttons are located right under the fingers, so the phone is very easy to operate with one hand. Also convenient is its small thickness, only 6.9 mm, and weight, only 100 grams (at first I thought that it didn’t have a battery, that’s why it was so light. But no, I opened the lid and saw that everything was in place).

▌DISPLAY

Omega Prime S is equipped with a 4.7-inch IPS touchscreen display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. The screen is bright enough, but in sunny weather it becomes difficult to distinguish anything on it. True, this drawback also applies to other Highscreen devices. It’s also worth saying that a film is glued to the display, therefore, the matrix is ​​not protected by the reliable Gorilla Glass. The display supports multi-touch up to 5 touches, and is also equipped with a light sensor to automatically adjust the screen brightness to ambient lighting.

The IPS matrix gives natural colors and decent viewing angles. Overall, the panel feels of average quality, with excellent sensitivity and good color rendition.

In general, the display leaves only positive emotions; the only thing I didn’t like was its low brightness.

▌CAMERAS

Omega Prime S has two cameras: front and main. The front camera resolution is 2 megapixels, suitable only for Skype, no more.

The main camera resolution is 8 megapixels. The pictures come out quite good, nothing more. All settings are familiar, you can understand the options in no time.

There are functions familiar to modern smartphones - HDR mode, the option to create panoramic images, touch focus, adding geotags.

Description

Omega Prime S is a smartphone that combines a low price, good performance, and a nice design. This device is equipped with replaceable color panels that come with the phone. When you buy this phone, you get a nice gadget whose quality is almost in no way inferior to more famous models.

▌SOFTWARE PLATFORM

The Prime S comes pre-installed with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean without any significant additions. Even the menu background remained black, although many manufacturers replace it with the desktop background. But no one bothers to install another launcher with a set of icons.

Among the pre-installed applications, it is worth highlighting the flashlight, file manager and 4SYNC cloud storage.

By and large, there is nothing interesting here. Everything is standard, everything is usual, but that’s even good. The rigor of the operating system supports the overall rigor of the device.

operating system

Highscreen Omega Prime S runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The additions are minimal, these include a flashlight application, 4Sync cloud storage (remember about the 32 GB of freebies), a file manager and a utility for creating a Wi-Fi access point.

The list of wallpapers is diluted with non-standard images. Definitely, no other brand has such an unambiguous indication of the “nationality” of a smartphone, in this case a photograph in a birch grove.

The presence of a Qualcomm chipset is emphasized by two things. Firstly, the music player add-on is “Snapdragon Audio+”, which includes an equalizer and a couple of sound controls. Secondly, BatteruGuru is a tool for automatically applying different energy saving scenarios.

The speed of the system does not cause any complaints, quibbles are possible only at the level of rare animation slowdowns; we did not find any global problems.

▌WIRELESS NETWORKS

Of course, Omega Prime S is equipped with a Wi-Fi and GPS module, and also supports the 3G cellular network standard. Let's start with the Wi-Fi module. He made me extremely happy. It catches a large number of networks, the signal is good and stable. The test confirms this. It's next to the router.

It's on the street.

Now let's move on to the GPS module. It also supports GLONASS. Satellites are located in a matter of seconds; the device does not lose them during navigation. By the way, sometimes he even sees the Chinese Beidou navigation system.

Omega Prime S allows you to use two SIM cards.

Both SIM cards work stably, without interruptions. During the entire time I used the phone, there were no problems with the wireless modules.

Performance

Highscreen Omega Prime Mini SE, however, like its predecessor, is based on the chipset of the American company Qualcomm, only the new product has a much more modern chipset. The Highscreen Omega Prime Mini used Qualcomm MSM8225Q Snapdragon S4 Play (ARM Cortex-A5, 45 nanometers), which includes a 4-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, as well as an Adreno 203 graphics processor. The new product is based on a 28- nanometer Qualcomm MSM8212 Snapdragon 200, which is also based on a 4-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 processor, and a more modern graphics accelerator - Adreno 302.

That is, the new product boasts a more refined technical process (and therefore reduced power consumption and heat dissipation) and architecture (increased performance). In the Android Highscreen environment, Omega Prime Mini SE works quickly, without lags, and even copes quite well with modern 3D games - Asphalt 8, Dead Trigger 2 and others like them. Below are the results of the most popular synthetic tests:

Now about autonomy. The battery capacity of the Highscreen Omega Prime Mini SE is exactly the same as its predecessor - 1600 mAh, which is far from a record. Highscreen Omega Prime Mini in a fairly active mode of operation is able to last about a day without recharging. The new product “asks” for a power source less often - in exactly the same mode of use, the battery life is approximately 1 day. There are obvious advantages of a newer, more powerful, but more economical chipset.

The capacity of the built-in flash drive is 4 GB, of which approximately 1 GB is occupied by system files. Therefore, to use your smartphone comfortably, you will have to get a memory card. It should be noted that Highscreen Omega Prime Mini SE supports MicroSD cards up to 32 GB inclusive. Unfortunately, the device did not recognize the 64 GB card.

Another difference between Highscreen Omega Prime Mini SE and its predecessor is the navigation module. Let us remind you that last year’s Highscreen Omega Prime Mini worked only with the American GPS system, but the new product has a combined module – GPS/GLONASS, that is, the domestic navigation system is also supported. The usual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are, of course, also available. We also note support for the operation of two SIM cards, everything here remains standard - one radio module, so if you make/receive a call, the second SIM card becomes unavailable, but in standby mode both cards are active.

▌PERFORMANCE

Omega Prime S is equipped with a 4-core Qualcomm MSM8212 processor with a frequency of 1200 MHz, paired with an Adreno 302 graphics chip. This pair provides quite acceptable performance. Not to say that the device produces stunning results, but this is quite enough for the average user. But why do we need empty words? Let's look at the test results.

As I already said, the performance is not very good, but acceptable. Now let's look specifically at processor performance. But the result is quite predictable.

Despite a fairly good processing frequency and four cores, the processor does not produce very good performance. Graphics performance is no better.

To summarize, we can say that performance is not the strength of this device, from which we can conclude that this device is more of a “workhorse” than a multimedia center.

But this is all theory, so let's move on to practice. In games, the device behaves well, although it begins to heat up from the effort. But you can play dynamic games. DEAD TARGET - A good first-person shooter for Android, with a crowd of scary monsters.

In “running games” the device shows itself on the good side, although it heats up quite well. Running Shadow is a combination of a runner and an RPG in the fantasy genre. The game combines simple game mechanics typical of this genre and a mystical plot full of intrigue and mysteries. Well, the graphics here are not very good, so the device soon cooled down.

In games, Omega Prime S behaves quite acceptable. As I already said, this device is mostly intended for work, not for games.

▌BATTERY, CHARGING, OPERATING TIME

The Omega Prime S has a lithium-ion battery. Not the most durable solution, which, however, is not reflected in the operating time of the device. The device holds its charge quietly for two days, but that’s if you make calls, surf the Internet, etc., but if you play, it’s enough for a day.

There is also a special BatteryGuru program that helps you use battery power more efficiently. There are a lot of settings there, including at what time to allow applications to update.