Oukitel is one of many China-based smartphone OEMs. This is not a big company, by any means, but they did manage to release a number of interesting devices thus far which managed to catch our attention. The Oukitel U10, which we reviewed a while back, is definitely a solid device. That handset offers great specifications, build and performance, and doesn’t cost all that much at all. Since then, Oukitel has released the K4000 handset, which we’ll take a look at today, and the K6000 is going to be released soon. Both of these smartphones are big battery phones, and the K10000 which is going to land soon as well, will sport a huge 10,000mAh unit. That being said, we’re here to take a closer look at the Oukitel K4000, a mid-range smartphone which sports a 4,000mAh battery on the inside. So, let’s see what this handset has to offer, shall we.
Specifications
Let’s kick things off by listing the specifications of this device. The Oukitel K4000 features a 5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) display which is extremely tough with up to 9H hardness and more than 800MPa stress value. The Oukitel K4000 is fueled by MediaTek’s MT6735 64-bit quad-core SoC running at 1.0GHz along with a Mali-T720 GPU for graphics. This handset also packs in 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card up to 32GB). The Oukitel K4000 sports an 8-megapixel snapper (13-megapixel interpolated) on the back, below which you’ll find an LED flash, and a 5-megapixel shooter (8-megapixel interpolated) is available up front.
This handset does offer dual-SIM capability (2 x Micro SIM) and 4G LTE connectivity is also a part of the package (FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz). The 4,000mAh battery is located on the inside of this handset, and is one of the main selling points of Oukitel K4000. It is also worth mentioning that the battery is removable, and as far as battery life goes, we’ll talk more about that later on. Android 5.1 Lollipop comes pre-installed on this device, and it’s almost stock, Oukitel did add some of their very own features (mostly gesture), and you’ll find some additional apps pre-installed here which we’ll talk about a bit later. The Oukitel K4000 measures 143 x 71 x 11mm, while it weighs 208 grams.
Display
As already mentioned, the Oukitel K4000 sports a 5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) panel up front, and we’re quite familiar with this IPS panel. Many China-based smartphone OEMs have used this panel in the past, and the results here are pretty much identical to what we’ve seen before in terms of image quality. The vast majority of consumers won’t have any objection to this panel, its colors are quite balanced, and viewing angles are quite good as well. Now, considering this is an IPS panel, and a quite affordable one at that, the blacks aren’t exactly black, and that’s quite noticeable, especially if you’ve used a more premium IPS panel or any AMOLED display for that matter.
What about touch sensitivity? Well, that part I was rather pleased with. I’ve used quite a few devices with crappy digitizers on which I couldn’t type normally, the Oukitel K4000 is luckily not one of those devices. The touch sensitivity on this device was quite good, though not excellent. I was able to type without issues and the display managed to register pretty much every tap, no matter how fast it was. The display is well balanced, and as I mentioned in the beginning, most people won’t have absolutely any objection here, as long as you manage your expectations, you’ll be good.
Hardware And Build
This is actually the most interesting part of this smartphone. The first thing you’ll notice when you take this phone out of the box is how heavy and thick it is. The Oukitel K4000 weighs 208 grams, and is 11mm thick. You’ll notice that weight when you hold the device, definitely. Now, this device is so heavy for a reason, not only does it sport a 4,000mAh removable battery on the inside, but it’s also extremely durable.
Oukitel decided to create a number of videos in order to promote this device, and pretty much every one of them boasted about this device’s battery life and durability. The company actually hit the device with a hammer, used it as a hammer, and even decided to use a power drill and make a hole in the middle of its display. The phone did just fine in first two tests, but it eventually gave up when encountered to a power drill, of course.
Now, we did not do a full durability test of this handset, but I did decide to test at least one of the things Oukitel boasted about. I decided to use this phone as a hammer, so I basically found a piece of wood, took a nail and pound on it a little bit until it was safely inside the aforementioned piece of wood. The phone did just fine, but I really didn’t push it too hard, not nearly as much as Oukitel did. All in all, Oukitel K4000 is a well-built device, and it’s quite sturdy. Not only is it quite durable in general, but you can spill some water on it and it’ll do just fine.
Performance And Memory
The Oukitel K4000 isn’t exactly a powerhouse smartphone, nor is it supposed to be. This handset is fueled by MediaTek’s MT6735 SoC, which is an entry-level quad-core processor clocked at 1.0GHz. The Mali-T720 GPU is here as well, and you’ll also find 2GB of RAM on the inside. Now, some of you might say that these specs are simply not enough for the smooth operation of this phone, but you’d be wrong. The Oukitel K4000 performed better than I expected, the general usage of the phone was quite a nice experience. The phone was able to perform multitasking without a hitch, though you can expect an occasional lag, nothing too annoying though.
I tried out a couple of games on this device as well, and for the most part, it did well in that regard as well. The Soccer Zombies game is not exactly graphically demanding, but the device ran it just fine. Dead Trigger 2 also performed really well here, though I didn’t mess with the ‘medium’ graphics settings which the phone chose, the game performed admirably on such settings. Modern Combat 5 also ran just fine, though the settings weren’t exactly turned all the way up. All in all, the phone performed really well, and I don’t think you’ll have any issues in this regard, at least not the vast majority of you. If you’re a gamer though, this phone is clearly not for you, but as long as you don’t expect too much in this regard, it will perform just fine in the gaming department as well.
Benchmarks
As usual, benchmarks are not exactly the best showcase of how well the phone will perform, and this case is no exception. Because of the MediaTek’s MT6735 64-bit quad-core SoC which is included in this device, the Oukitel K4000 really didn’t manage to offer great results in benchmarks. Well, that really doesn’t reflect the phone’s general usability, considering it performed great in general use, as I’ve mentioned in the previous paragraph.
If you are, however, interested in taking a look at Oukitel K4000’s benchmark results, check out the gallery down below where you’ll find AnTuTu, Geekbench and 3DMark results. As far as AnTuTu results are concerned, the phone scored around 20,000 points each time I ran the benchmark. This is a really modest score, but is more than enough to make the phone perform well, and will almost certainly be enough for the vast majority of people who intend to purchase such an affordable device.
Phone Calls And Network
What good is a phone if you can’t use it for phone calls, right? Well, the Oukitel offered decent results as far as phone calls are concerned, but it wasn’t great. I’d say that the phone call quality is passable here, but nothing that is worth bragging about. I was able to both call others and receive calls on this device without interference, the sound wasn’t great, but it was good enough. What I did notice, however, is that the volume of the earpiece tends to change in the middle of a call sometimes, I haven’t experienced that for a long time, and it happened to me a few times while using this handset.
This is not a major issue, and I’m not sure if it happens only on this particular model, or is it affecting all phones for that matter. If you do tend to make tons of phone calls, you should keep this in mind and try to dig deeper in order to see if others are affected as well. Everything else was in order basically, the microphone is quite solid, and the overall connectivity via both data and Wi-Fi networks was consistent, I didn’t experience any problems with 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi during my testing. I wasn’t able to push this phone to the max as far as 4G LTE speeds go, because my network in kind of limited in this regard.
Battery Life
Now, as far as battery life is concerned, this phone is a trooper. One of the main selling points for the Oukitel K4000 is its battery life, and you should have any problems as far as that is concerned. I was able to get through the day even when I was pushing the phone to its limits, even though I have to say I was expecting even more due to the 720p display that is being used in this device. Anyhow, let’s take a closer look at the stats, shall we.
If you take a look at the gallery below, you’ll notice that the phone was at around 26% late at night before I put it on a charger. I managed to squeeze out around 4 hours and 40 minutes of screen on time during that period, and I’ve really pushed the device, hard. I played some games, browsed the internet, did tons of messaging and YouTube, phone calls as well. The device took all that pretty well, and its performance was on par as well. All in all, if you’re looking an affordable handset with really good battery life, the Oukitel K4000 is definitely one of your options.
Software
The Oukitel K4000 ships with Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, which is a good thing. Oukitel really didn’t pre-install a whole lot of bloat or anything of the sort, though you’ll see some design changes here, mostly in-app. As far as the notification shade, settings and a number of other parts of the software are concerned, this is stock Android. This is one of the reasons Oukitel K4000 manages to perform as it should, and it’s definitely a huge plus for this handset.
If you’ve ever used a Chinese handset by Cubot, Ulefone, UMi, or any other similar brand, you’ll be right at home here. The Oukitel K4000 has a fairly similar software offering to all of those OEMs, and many more of them out there. Oukitel did pre-install some of its own software in here, like the Gesture options. You can, for example, double tap the capacitive home button in order to wake up the device, and you can do the same in order to lock it. All of these gestures can be disabled in settings by the way.
Sound
So, what’s the sound quality like on the Oukitel K4000? Well, generally speaking, okay, but I did stumble upon some problems. First and foremost, let’s talk about the loudspeaker. Now, the speaker is plenty loud, could be crisper, but sure is loud enough. That being said, the speaker is actually too loud on the minimum setting. Yeah, that’s right, if you tune it all the way down to the last line, the sound will be too loud, at least that’s the case on my phone. You simply cannot get it to be as silent as it should, the lowest volume setting here is nowhere near where it should be.
Now, as far as headphones are concerned, I didn’t have any issues. I’ve tried out the wired connection as well as Bluetooth one, and the sound was just fine. I didn’t experience much distortion, aside from one instance which lasted 1 second or so. The sound was loud enough, though it could be much cleaner to be honest, but it’s not all that bad, I’ve seen far worse to be honest. All in all, the Oukitel K4000 is definitely not a sound-centric smartphone, but it’s good enough for most people in this regard.
Camera
The Oukitel K4000 has an 8-megapixel snapper (13-megapixel interpolated) on the back, and a 5-megapixel camera up front. The rear-facing snapper is quite capable in decent light, the colors could be better overall, it tends to provide somewhat colder images than it should, but it’s quite solid overall. When the light isn’t that good, however, it doesn’t perform that well, as expected. Don’t get me wrong though, if you do your best and shoot the same image a couple of times you’ll be able to get it to look somewhat decent, but this sensor just doesn’t let enough light to enter the image. So, think of the rear-facing camera as being passable, but nothing special.
The front-facing shooter is… well, completely average, even slightly below average I’d say. The images lack details and are nothing to brag about, that’s for sure, but it will do more than a good job if you shoot selfies from time to time, and the same goes for video calls. The flash is available on the back of the device as well, and as it’s the case with most LED flash units (especially single-tone ones), it manages to light up the image, but it also ruins it at the same time. The will turn out unnatural, and you’ll probably opt not to use flash, at least in most situations.
Conclusion
So, is the Oukitel K4000 worth the asking price? Well, I’d say yes, especially if you’re in the market for an affordable device with really solid battery life. Now, keep in mind that Oukitel K4000 has its drawbacks, as does every device at that asking price. The phone does perform really well though and that is the most important thing. Now, keep in mind that the device is quite heavy because of that huge battery on the inside, and the sheer fact that it’s sturdy overall. Battery life is not the only reason you should consider getting this device, if you don’t baby your phone, Oukitel K4000 will serve you well, it’s made to last as far as build goes.
Buy the OUKITEL K4000 4G Smartphone