Looking like a trimmed-down version of Mlais M7, Mstar S700 has some decent specifications, at least on paper, but are these enough to keep skeptics at bay?
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Mstar (not to be confused with the Taiwanese chipset maker Mstar Semiconductor, which was bought by MediaTek in June 2012) currently has three devices in its portfolio (M1, S100 and S700), and all three of them seem blatant copies of Mlais phones, but with some specifications altered slightly. More precisely, S100 looks a lot like the M52 Red Note, M1 resembles M4 Note, and saying that the S700 and M7 are just like two drops of water, at least in terms of design, would be a major understatement. While many of us would be quick to judge, the truth is that Mstar is Mlais’ OEM
All in all, the S700 packs some specs that I’ve seen in countless other Chinese smartphones: a 5.5″ HD display, MediaTek’s 64-bit MT6752 chipset that houses an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.7Ghz and a slightly underclocked Mali760 MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM, a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP selfie snapper in the front, everything put together in a metal-framed body. Even the fingerprint scanner isn’t that much of a novelty anymore, but it’s great to see that this security feature has been added. As I said, on paper, these specs may look great, but I’d suggest waiting for some hands-on reviews before taking the plunge.
Mstar must have thought that the best way of promoting S700’s fingerprint scanner is to paste some text over an image of Hardwell at Ultra Music Festival. The company even went as far as to give Press Touch ID (as all other manufacturers call this type of fingerprint scanner) another name, so what we’re dealing with here is known as an Mtouch fingerprint scanner.
What’s really disturbing is Mstar’s claim that the 13MP camera on the back of the device is as good as a DSLR. Even if it sported a Sony sensor, as Mlais M7 does, I wouldn’t even have dreamed of making such a comparison. Judging by the promotional pictures, the S700 features an OmniVision sensor, and I’d even suspect the cameras of having interpolated resolution, as even the Mlais’ first two devices did. Another aspect I’m not so sure about is the battery’s 3,000mAh capacity, which sounds a bit unrealistic, too. Call me a skeptic, but I think that Mstar and Mlais devices differ through much more than 1GB of RAM.
Mstar S700 is available in black or white, and GearBest currently sells it for $159.99, or $137, if you apply the coupon code S700 at checkout. If for some reason you want to stay up to date with what this company does, check out its Facebook page.
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