Oukitel is a China-based smartphone manufacturing company which has released a couple of big battery phones recently. They’ve released the Oukitel K4000 device which we reviewed not long ago, and the company has also unveiled the K6000 and K10000 devices as well. The K4000 sports a 4,000 mAh battery, while the other two pack in 6,000 mAh and 10,000 mAh units, respectively. We’re here to take a look at the K6000 model today, a low to mid-range smartphone which sports a really sturdy build. Now, is the phone worth its price tag? Well, let’s find out, shall we.
Specifications
As far as specs go, the Oukitel K6000 can be considered a low to mid-range device, its SoC is definitely entry-level, while the phone does sport 2GB of RAM and its specifications aren’t all that bad overall, as long as you’re not a heavy user or anything like that. The device features a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) IPS OGS 2.5D curved panel, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card). The phone is fueled by MediaTek’s MT6735 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.0 GHz which comes with a Mali-T720 GPU for graphics.
The 8-megapixel (interpolation to 13MP) sensor is available on the back of this device along with a dual-LED flash, while there’s a 2-megapixel (interpolation to 5MP) snapper located up front. Now, there’s a 6,000 mAh non-removable battery located inside of this device, and judging by its display and processor, it should keep the phone going for quite some time, though we’ll find that out later in this review. The Oukitel K6000 offers 4G LTE connectivity (4G: FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz) while it ships with Android 5.1 Lollipop. The device also offers reverse charging capability, which means you can essentially use it as a portable battery source to charge other devices, presuming you purchase a proper cable. The Oukitel K6000 measures 153.4 x 77 x 9.7 mm, and it’s not exactly the lightest device around.
Display
The Oukitel K6000 features a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) IPS OGS display. Now, this display is plenty bright, and it also offers great viewing angles. The HD sharpness level is going to be more than enough for the vast majority of you, but keep in mind that there’s a blue-ish tint present on this display. If you compare it to a different panel, you’ll notice the blue-ish tint, especially if there’s a white background present, or any type of white content. Considering the fact this is an IPS OGS panel, the blacks aren’t exactly black, but that is to be expected.
As far as touch sensitivity goes, you won’t have any problems here, but do keep in mind this display is not as sensitive as the one you’ll find in flagship models. This is something you’ll notice if you’ve used a device which sports a better digitizer, if not, you shouldn’t be worried about it, the sensitivity is quite alright. All in all, this display is quite average, and we’re quite familiar with this panel, a ton of China-based smartphone OEMs have actually utilized it in their devices, especially entry and mid-range ones.
Hardware And Build
This handset is sturdy, very, very sturdy in fact. Oukitel actually advertise this device as a replacement for a hammer, they’ve used it to bash nails into wood, and even though we’re not recommending you do that at home, this device can apparently do it. The phone is heavier than regular smartphones, but keep in mind there’s a quite hefty 6,000 mAh battery on the inside, which is the reason why this handset isn’t exactly light. The phone also sports a CNC metal frame and all in all, it feels quite substantial in the hand.
The phone’s design is… well, I’d say regular. There are three capacitive buttons below the display, and the physical buttons are made out of metal as well. They are quite tactile, and offer a nice feedback. The loudspeaker is placed in the bottom part of the phone’s back, and the 3.5mm headphone jack can be found up top. The battery here is non-removable, which makes sense considering its size and the fact that this device is made to be extremely sturdy. As far as build goes, the Oukitel K6000 is definitely not for everyone.
Performance And Memory
As far as performance goes, the Oukitel K6000 was quite impressive. Now, this phone utilizes an entry-level MediaTek MT6735 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.0 GHz, which is less than impressive, but you really wouldn’t notice that in your day-to-day use. Thanks to the relatively stock build of Android 5.1 Lollipop, the phone is able to offer really smooth performance. Everything from web browsing, watching YouTube, taking images, multitasking… was very smooth, and the phone was quite a joy to use actually.
This is definitely not a gaming machine, not even close, but the phone was able to run pretty much every game I threw at it, and quite well at that, as long as you don’t require the highest graphical settings. I’ve played Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat 5 and a number of less graphics-intensive games, and didn’t occur any problems during my testing. Thanks to the phone’s 6,000 mAh battery, you don’t even have to worry about battery life while gaming, which is a plus for sure.
Benchmarks
As is usually the case in our reviews, we’ve used three benchmarking tools here, AnTuTu, Geekbench and 3D Mark. The phone scored 24,714 on AnTuTu, which isn’t exactly commendable, but you really can’t expect much considering the limited MT6735 chip which is included here. The Oukitel K6000 hit 474 points in Geekbench’s single-core test, and 1,337 points in the multi-core test in the same application. In case you’d like to see more details in either of these applications, including 3D Mark, check out the gallery down below.
Phone Calls And Network
A smartphone really isn’t much use to anyone if you can’t use it for making phone calls, right? Well, you’ll be glad to hear that this phone did rather well in this regard, though I’d say it’s capabilities are quite limited and average. Earpiece is alright, though it could be both louder and clearer, and the microphone seems to be passable. People we’ve called did say that we sounded alright, but have noticed the difference from the previous phone we’ve used to make phone calls through (the LG G3). I’ve actually decided to test the phone from the other side as well, and the microphone did seem to be alright, but nothing more than that.
As far as network connectivity goes, I did not experience any issues here. Using both 4G and Wi-Fi one the device was painless, and even Wi-Fi hotspot worked just fine for the half an hour it was used to provide internet connection to two additional devices. Just make sure this device supports your 4G LTE bands, and you’ll be good to go in this regard.
Battery Life
Battery life is most definitely one of Oukitel K6000’s main selling points. This handset sports a non-removable 6,000 mAh battery on the inside, which in combination with its entry-level 64-bit quad-core SoC and a 720p display, can handle quite a bit of abuse before it dies on you. After 3 hours and 26 minutes screen-on time, the battery level was at 69%, that concluded the first full day of my testing. After the second day, screen-on time was at 6 hours and 57 minutes mark, and the battery life was at 36%. Now, this is great battery life, as you can tell, and if specs are not an issue for you, and are looking for a solid performer with great battery life, the Oukitel K6000 could definitely be a device for you. Most users will quite probably be able to get more than 3 days of usage out of this phone without a problem, but considering I’m a heavy user, the device died on my the third day around 7PM. For full disclosure, my testing included some light gaming, lots of web browsing and messaging, a couple of phone calls, lots of e-mails and watching YouTube.
Software
You’ll be glad to hear that Oukitel K6000 really isn’t bloated at all. This handset ships with Android 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed, and even though Oukitel did add some gestures (including air gestures as well), the device sports no additional bloat. There’s also the ‘Float Gesture’ option which will essentially offer you an always running on-screen dot which will be placed on top of your content, no matter what you’re running. Once you tap this dot, you’ll be able to scroll through a number of options like ‘float music’ and ‘float video’ which will pop up a window for music and video controls, and you’ll also be able to lock your screen and what not. Imagine this to be a shortcut of sorts for various actions and it can be really useful if you don’t mind that small dot being present all of the time.
As far as general gestures go, you’ll be able to lock / unlock your display by double tapping the capacitive home button, slide down while the display is locked to fire up the camera, slide up to unlock and so on. The aforementioned ‘air gestures’ don’t really work that well though, so you can forget about using those, at least until Oukitel releases a new update or something. Everything else performs really well though and you shouldn’t have any problems as far as software on this device is concerned. The general set of gestures works great, and is quite useful, and the same can be said about the ‘Float Gesture’ option.
Sound
The loudspeaker on this smartphone is plenty loud, but could be sharper. You can’t really expect all that much at this price point, but I have to say I’ve used far worse loudspeakers on significantly more expensive devices. If you’re not looking for the sharpest speaker, you’ll be happy to know this one is quite adequate, keep in mind however, that it’s rear-facing, which is always a minus in my book. Another thing to keep in mind here is the fact that the display can easily be muffled by your index finger while you’ll holding the device in landscape mode, you’ll have to adjust your grip ever so slightly. Once you plug in your headphones, you’ll get a solid sound output as well, though don’t expect miracles here. If you’re not a sound buff, this phone will do just fine, but if you’re looking for a sound-oriented device, the Oukitel K6000 is certainly not for you.
Camera
The interpolated 13-megapixel snapper on the back of the Oukitel K6000 is not really that good. Now, when it comes to the camera, managing your expectations is an important thing, especially when it comes to such affordable handsets. I was expecting this snapper to be somewhat better than it is, to be quite honest. The vast majority of images turned out too dark, the details were missing, images were not sharp enough, etc. I tried using touch-to-focus in order to get better images in certain scenarios, but that did not help, it only made things worse. For some reason, touch-to-focus tends to overexpose images, it completely ruins the white balance. Grain is also present in images which are taken in low-lit conditions, which was to be expected though. This camera can take a passable image in great lighting conditions, but everything aside from that is a no-go. This is a solid device in many aspects, but, unfortunately, the camera is not one of them.
Conclusion
There you have it, this is the Oukitel K6000. This handset costs around $120, and can be purchased via a number of China-based resellers, like GearBest for example. Considering the price, this is actually a very solid handset, especially if you need a durable smartphone with great battery life. Its specifications might not be great, but the phone performs really well, which is ultimately the only thing that matters, right?