陈繁leon Foreword · The bar for budget phones rises: Budget phones have arguably been the volume-driving weapon of recent years, with a new model appearing almost every month. If it isn’t Lenovo launching a 599-yuan phone last month, it’s Meizu releasing the 999-yuan Meilan this month, or Redmi getting its next generation refresh the month after. Manufacturers seem tireless at the thousand-yuan tier, but because of the price limits, today’s budget phones are not all that different from one another. Consumers are getting more and more rational, and now that budget phones barely differ, getting users to choose ours means we have to be far better than the competition in some respect. And the thousand-yuan segment is iterating too, making every detail better: the most visible upgrades this year are 1080P screens, 4G, bigger storage, 3000mAh large batteries and so on. 
TCL also launched the 么么哒 3N (M2M) not long ago. Speaking of 么么哒 phones, I’m sure everyone is familiar with them — this is a brand-new brand that only launched at the end of March this year. The name “么么哒” is very fresh and cute, it feels more intimate and more human, and it leaves a deep impression. The TCL 么么哒 3N basically pushes the thousand-yuan spec sheet to the top: a MediaTek MT6752 true octa-core 64-bit processor, 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM, a 5.5-inch 1080P screen, and a built-in 3500mAh battery. Of course it supports the China Mobile 4G version, dual SIM dual standby, and memory expansion is a given too, yet the price is only 899 yuan. So how does the experience hold up after all that hardware upgrading? Let’s take a look:Design · Faux brushed metal finish:
If you have seen a 么么哒 phone before, you will probably be a little disappointed by the new model’s looks, because overall it isn’t much different from its predecessor. If you insist on finding a big difference, it’s that the body’s four sides are now curved and more rounded, a little less stern and a little more soft, and that the color lineup uses champagne gold for the first time. The TCL 么么哒 3N measures 152.3 *76.4 * 7.95mm, and although it is less than 8mm thick, it still feels a bit big in the hand.
For the screen, the TCL 么么哒 3N abandons the 720P panel that users so disliked on big screens, and instead uses a 5.5-inch 1080P HD screen that is very rare at the budget tier, with a pixel density of 401PPI and OGS full-lamination, so the display is very clear and sharp, and the color temperature is fairly neutral as well. The “resting screen aesthetics” are done well too: on standby, it’s hard to tell where the screen ends and the bezel begins on the front of the TCL 么么哒 3N, which looks very pretty.
Up top there’s still the earpiece and the front camera, and the three traditional capacitive keys below the screen look especially large. Unfortunately they aren’t backlit, though there seem to be few breathing-light keys at the thousand-yuan tier, so the manufacturer apparently felt this was money it could save.
The back cover of the TCL 么么哒 3N is made of polycarbonate plastic, and the champagne-colored cover in Fanfan’s hands has a subtle brushed-metal texture, throwing off slivers of light when it reflects, and because it is understated it doesn’t feel nouveau riche. This material isn’t slip-resistant, but it doesn’t easily pick up fingerprints, so friends with oily hands can handle it easily too.
The TCL 么么哒 N3 uses a 13-megapixel camera, and you can see a silver decorative ring around the camera, which is definitely a visual plus. The TCL logo is printed below the LED flash, and the loudspeaker sits at the bottom of the body. The speaker is a horizontal long-row speaker with very densely packed holes, and the dots on either side do a good job of preventing the volume from being muffled when the phone is set down on a desk, preserving the speaker’s volume as much as possible.
The phone’s frame also uses a brushed-metal finish, creating a metallic feel on a plastic body. Of course the texture is different, but we also don’t need to worry about metal affecting the signal. The side buttons are distributed fairly sensibly: the left side is left empty, while the volume key, power key and other physical buttons are all on the right side. The physical keys are well placed — your finger reaches them without any strain — and the key feedback is full and firm. A 3.5mm headphone jack and the charging port sit at the top and bottom of the body respectively.
The TCL 么么哒 N3 uses a unibody design. Usually opening the SIM tray on a unibody phone requires a SIM pin, but the TCL 么么哒 3N’s tray is more user-friendly: no pin needed, just press the bump on the tray cover. The tray is a pop-out design — we simply press down on the “bump” end to open it. The tray also seals nicely; when closed it effectively keeps out light splashes and dust. There are still plenty of small problems in use though — for example, the tray sits quite deep, so if you don’t have fingernails or a sharp object to help press it, pulling the SIM card in and out becomes very difficult. On the plus side, the TCL 么么哒 3N supports TD-LTE dual SIM dual standby, which everyone probably knows by now, and both card slots support China Mobile’s 4G network, with no distinction between primary and secondary — either one can activate 4G data.System · Lewa-flavored 么么哒 2.0:The TCL 么么哒 N3’s ROM is a collaboration with the third party 乐蛙, using 乐蛙OS 5.1, a deeply customized system based on Android 4.4. Anyone who plays with phones is surely familiar with 乐蛙OS; it’s good in both looks and functionality, and counts as one of the better Chinese ROMs. 乐蛙OS 5.1 can’t really be called fully flat — it sits somewhere between skeuomorphic and flat, and the icons look a bit large and slightly out of proportion, but none of this hurts the user experience. The 乐蛙OS style is actually quite ingratiating: fresh, natural and clean overall, with soft fonts, and after turning on large fonts, older users should be quite fond of it. 
乐蛙OS 5.1 is quite practical when it comes to off-screen gestures and smart motion sensing. For example: besides double-tapping to wake the screen, it also supports writing letters on the screen while it’s off to quickly launch the corresponding app. Fanfan tried it a few times and it worked well — bundled apps respond fairly quickly, while third-party apps are noticeably slower. Smart motion sensing is mostly about “air gestures”: we can complete the corresponding operations without touching the screen, for example sweeping a palm across the screen while it’s on to unlock it.
The TCL 么么哒 3N integrates T-show, a new news aggregation page with an all-new “waterfall” layout. Swipe left from the home screen to wake it; it presents trending content in waterfall-style tiles and lets you pick the categories you like. It’s light reading — read it whenever and wherever you want. All of the content comes from highlights around the web, curated and pushed to everyone. Of course, once you’ve developed particular reading interests, the TCL 么么哒 3N will automatically push related content based on your preferences, and the content is updated fairly frequently.
The TCL 么么哒 3N has another very nice feature — 么么哒 2.0, which lets you transfer files between phone and phone, or phone and computer, with zero data usage. The app shares the phone’s name, “么么哒”, which is perhaps where the phone got its name. Simply put two phones with the 么么哒 app installed on the same network segment and data transfer is done; it supports any type of file, and can even transfer already-installed apps. Free from the shackles of a data cable, for lazy people like us it couldn’t be more practical. In addition, 么么哒 2.0 also supports connecting to Apple devices and computers.
The TCL 么么哒 3N comes with a security center that provides virus protection, security blocking, junk cleaning, auto-start management and notification management, solving messy app problems for users in one go. It also provides a power-saving management system that can automatically run smart power-saving, best used while you sleep at night; with a large battery plus a decent power-saving system, it brings us a longer battery life experience.
In fact, the TCL 么么哒 3N brings a great many nice little features as well, such as color temperature adjustment so we don’t fear warm or cool screens, and a Messages icon that occasionally wriggles like jelly when there are new texts.
Performance · Strong octa-core with solid battery life: Hardware strength is a very important point for budget phones — you need decent performance at a low price, and thankfully MediaTek is there to handle that. Although the TCL 么么哒 3N doesn’t have luxurious hardware like a Snapdragon 805, it has upgrades across screen, processor, memory and storage. The TCL 么么哒 3N carries a 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 octa-core processor clocked up to 1.7GHz. Running memory is upgraded to 2GB and body storage is raised to 16GB as well. That’s a pretty good configuration for the price: it keeps the system running smoothly while leaving enough storage headroom for multitasking. Judging by actual benchmark results, it really surprised me a bit — it hit a high score of 40000+ on AnTuTu. 
Beyond those benchmark numbers, I also tried a few games on the TCL 么么哒 3N. Asphalt 8 ran very smoothly, with no crashes or screen ghosting along the way. But when I tried Fish Hunter 3, the wallpaper behind everything went black — a bug. MediaTek processors still have compatibility problems in some games.
On battery life, the TCL 么么哒 3N has a built-in 3500mAh battery, a capacity that already exceeds the standard of most budget phones today — plenty of flagships don’t have one this big either. In actual use, two days of everyday use should be no problem at all.Camera · Decent by day, needs work at night:The TCL 么么哒 3N uses an 8MP front camera and a Sony 13MP IMX214 stacked rear camera. In the shooting interface, besides the usual filter effects, HDR and panorama, you can also manually adjust exposure compensation, white balance and other parameters. The interface looks a bit dated and could use more design effort in the future. 
The TCL 么么哒 3N’s daytime imaging is pretty good. The overall saturation of the photos is nice and the color reproduction is fairly true. In some scenes with large differences in lighting there is smearing, while white balance control in big scenes is passable.
Focus speed is on the slow side in macro shots, and it occasionally focuses inaccurately — though it’s certainly much better than the 599-yuan Lenovo Lemon.
When shooting still objects, you can see that the image resolution is quite good, the color rendering is fairly true with high fidelity, and it looks full-bodied; the colors and exposure of the photos are just right.
Noise control and color reproduction at night fall a bit short, and both noise suppression and glare handling need further work.
For selfies, the front camera is a full 8MP, so it can take high-quality selfies, and paired with beauty mode it’s pretty good.Conclusion · Flawed but still a bargain:Taken as a whole, the TCL 么么哒 3N really can be said to set a new benchmark for budget phone hardware. In terms of design the 么么哒 3N is still fairly conservative, but it blends in fashionable color combinations so the whole device doesn’t feel cheap. The system leaves a so-so impression but is still very solid and practical. On the hardware side, the 1080P HD screen, octa-core 64-bit processor, 4G network, and 13MP Sony IMX214 camera all add a lot of points to the TCL 么么哒 3N. There’s also the very interesting 么么哒 2.0, which gives us a simpler way to transfer files. Of course the TCL 么么哒 3N still has plenty of problems, such as a SIM tray that sits too deep and less-than-ideal photo quality; these aren’t huge issues, but they still deserve attention. A phone priced under a thousand yuan really does live up to its price, and we needn’t nitpick over a budget phone — otherwise what would high-end phones be for? Right? 
Pros: 5.5-inch 1080P screen Both card slots support 4G 2GB RAM, 16GB storage 3500mAh battery
Cons: MediaTek processor compatibility is average The card tray sits too deep, hard to swap cards System experience is lacking Photos are not ideal
