14 DAY TRIAL // Dual-camera phones are the next big thing, and titans Apple and Samsung, which most often set the new trends in terms of technology adoption, have already launched their own models featuring two different lenses for improved photography skills.
It goes without saying that the iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 are right now two of the best dual-camera smartphones money can buy, but the price tag one has to pay isn’t really something that can be ignored. The top configurations reach or even exceed $1,000, and for a significant number of customers, that’s way too much for a phone.
This is where Chinese phone makers are getting a second chance, as they’re typically masters of cloning features and devices created by more famous companies and selling them at half their original price.
The Cubot Rainbow 2 is at this point one of the most, if not the most, affordable dual-camera phone on the market, as you only have to pay 75 pounds from Amazon. And what you get is certainly worth your attention.
The device comes with the said dual-camera setup, as well as with a 5.0-inch display, a MediaTek chip, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD card support, and a few other features that we’re going to discuss in the hardware section.
A quick look at Cubot’s website could convince those uninitiated that this is one of the best smartphones right now, especially because just like many other manufacturers out there, it uses fancy words to describe its capabilities. But as always, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so let’s find out together what the Cubot Rainbow 2 is all about.
DESIGN
The Cubot Rainbow 2 is by no means an eye-candy device, though for the money you pay, it certainly serves its purpose well.
The design of the phone is generic, to say the least, and it features the traditional Android device look when viewed from the front. There’s the 5-inch screen that takes the biggest part of the front, along with navigation button at the top, a front-facing camera at the top placed alongside the earpiece, a microphone and… a front-facing LED flash. This should help take better selfies in low light, though this is only true on paper.
The rounded sides and the metallic frame do provide a better look, but the back plastic cover feels rather cheap, despite the company’s decision to make it a bit glossy, probably in an attempt to obtain a more exquisite design a la iPhone. The dual-camera setup at the top is what catches the attention, with no other striking element on the back.
There is no physical button and fingerprint sensor, so overall, the Cubot Rainbow 2 is a pretty basic phone in terms of design. There are no bells and whistles like glass, aluminum, fingerprint sensors embedded into the screen or things like that, but the Rainbow 2 still feels good in the hand.
The phone measures 144 x 72 x 7.9 mm and tips the scales at 156 grams, which is what you’d normally expect from a device this size – the Samsung Galaxy S8, for instance, which measures 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm, so it has nearly the same dimensions, has a weight of 155 grams.
HARDWARE
It goes without saying that when discussing the technical specs of the Cubot Rainbow 2 it’s essential to have in mind that the model we’re talking about costs less than a hundred bucks, so it just make sense to come with hardware that’s not exactly the best right now.
#Display
The display of the phone is a 5.0-inch HD IPS unit with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels, 294 PPI and 1300:1 contrast. While on paper this certainly sounds impressive, this isn’t the feeling you get when using it and the display perfectly emphasizes this is a low-budget device.
“No protection.”
The screen lacks the contrast and the vivid colors that you might be expecting, but at some level, this is something that makes sense given its price.
On the other hand, it’s important to note that there’s no protection, like Gorilla Glass or anything else, so it’s quite easy to shatter the display. A protective glass could come in handy, but it could impact response time, which isn’t great in the first place.
#CPU, GPU, RAM, storage
Of course, since the phone costs less than $100, Cubot couldn’t go for a Qualcomm chip, which is traditionally a bit more expensive, so it opted for a MediaTek MT6580A quad-core chip clocked at 1.3 GHz. The processor is paired with just 1GB RAM, while the GPU is the Mali 400 MP. Storage comes in just option with 16GB, with microSD cards up to 256GB also supported.
All of these translate to rather disappointing performance, and the phone often feels slow and using it for anything else than browsing the web and chatting on WhatsApp is a nightmare.
The processor obviously can’t handle more demanding tasks and the limited amount of RAM drags it down in an evident manner. Of course, you can’t expect more from such a cheap model, but on the other hand, Cubot promises its phone can do a lot more, though this isn’t entirely accurate.
Browsing the web is OK unless you open more than 3 or 4 pages/tabs at the same time, and the same for YouTube vids. Full HD clips load pretty fast, and in most of the cases, you should be fine using the phone if you don’t mind waiting a couple of seconds every now and then for apps to load.
#Camera
Without a doubt, the camera is one of the most exciting parts of the Cubot Rainbow 2, as the parent company installed a dual-lens system, just like on the iPhone 7 Plus.
But as compared to Apple’s device, what you get is substantially less advanced, so the dual-camera system is a 13MP + 2MP configuration with auto-focus, f/2.0 and LED flash. Of course, it all sounds good on paper, but in real life, the results are terrible.
Again, this is nothing very shocking from a device that costs less than a hundred bucks, but since it’s a dual-camera phone, you might be tempted to expect otherwise. Photos lack colors, focus is years behind what you get from the typical low-budget phones, and in anything else than perfect lighting you can barely see something in your photos.
There is also a front-facing camera and, surprisingly, it comes with its own dedicated Flash, but since it’s a poor-quality 5-megapixel sensor, results aren’t impressive either.
#Battery
In terms of battery, you get a 2,350 mAh unit that lasts for about 20 hours, though it’s worth mentioning that you shouldn’t try running very demanding tasks too often because it easily shows its limits. If you stick with browsing the web, emails, and instant messaging, you could be able to get through the day easily.
Charging takes place via a micro USB connector, and that’s not surprising at all since a USB Type-C would have increased the price by a few extra bucks. Also, there’s no fast charging or wireless charging system, but no surprise here.
And yet, there’s something that needs to be mentioned here: while the Cubot Rainbow 2 does come with a removable back cover, you can’t actually remove the battery itself as well. That’s odd, to say the least, but removing the back cover is needed to be able to insert a SIM card and a memory card.
Of course, the phone lacks waterproofing and all the other bells and whistles of more expensive phones, so that’s about it in the hardware section.
SOFTWARE
One of the most surprising things about the Cubot Rainbow 2 is that it comes with Android 7.0 out of the box. The problem, however, is that the parent company hasn’t released a single software update since the debut of the phone and it’s very unlikely to focus too much on such updates in the coming months or years.
This is one of the bigger problems with relatively unknown phone manufacturer, as most of their models end up becoming obsolete due to the lack of software updated. Even though some of the phones are pretty capable, bugs that users come across are fixed at a painfully slow pace and sooner or later, buyers end up switching to a different device.
“Android 7.0.”
The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is probably the best example in this case, as it’s been crowned the best phone at this year’s MWC, but hasn’t received a single update in the last couple of months. Sony appears to be spending more time on other things, most likely working on new devices, rather than on improving software of its latest flagships, and this is what’s expected to happen with models like Cubot’s too.
On the other hand, Android 7 runs quite smoothly on the Rainbow 2, though the smartphone obviously shows its limitations when trying to deal with more demanding tasks like games. This is the kind of phones that can only be used for basic things like browsing the web and chatting with friends because anything beyond that requires better hardware.
What deserves to be praised is the lack of bloatware, as unlikely other Chinese makers, Cubot is offering the phone with a clean Android ROM.
