Kata i4 Review

We had the new smartphone from Kata — the Kata i4 that is powered by an octa-core processor, has 2G of RAM, and a non-expandable 32G of storage. Kata i4 has a new look — some say it is similar to the Alpha series of Samsung, other think that it is a Lumia. That is because of the metal that surrounds the body of the i4, making it look premium compared to the previous models they had in the past.

Design and construction

I am not sure if this is the first smartphone from Kata with a unibody design. Unlike the previous models that I reviewed, the M1, M2, F1s, and i3S, i4 is the only that has unibody design. While I like the M1 the most because of the camera and long battery life, the i4 has a fresh and expensive look.

The micro-USB port for charging and transferring files is located at the bottom of i4, the power button is conveniently located on the right side while the two-button volume rocker is on the left side. On top is the 3.5mm audio port including the micro-SIM tray.

The back is a plastic cover with the signature logo of Kata printed. The center has the 16MP camera and beside it is the LED flash. The bottom part is the speakers. It does affect the audio playback a bit, but it does not mean it goes totally mute while playing and laying on its back. The back cover is a fingerprint magnet, by the way.

Display, UI and Apps

The 5-inch display of Kata i4 with 720 x 1280 screen resolution is good enough. It has crisp and clear display and with auto-brightness feature, it can adjust to any level any time of the day. Kata managed to include few of its home-grown apps but not to a point of having lots of bloatware. I specially like Hotspot and Wipeout apps. The Hotspot app will make your life easy when you want to share your Internet to your friends. However configuring it has to be done using from the phone’s settings menu.

The Wipeout app is the version of Kata for bringing out the running apps in the background. Unlike the Android feature that can let you choose individual apps to close or retain, Wipeout will close all apps running. You can use this if you want to clear some memory.

Kata also came up with their own Contacts app. It is a lightweight at only 1.6mb, and it present a clear and simple layout of your contacts. It syncs with your Google contacts as well.

In case you don’t like to use the Apps by Kata, you can always disable them from the Settings menu.

The Kata i4 has 32G storage. Out of the 32G, 22G is the space usable for your storage. The 10G partition is for apps.

Benchmarks

You can refer to our initial review to check the benchmark results.

Camera

Here are samples photo recently taken using the Kata i4.

Close up shot, ambient lighting only. Click here for the high-res copy.

In a studio setting with continuous light setup and white backdrop, here’s the output of Kata i4.

And here’s one shot on a broad daylight. Check out the high-res copy here.

Indoor shot with available light. High-res copy here.

And here’s the recent sample short video we took.

Battery life

I had it the longest at 15 hours — this is a mix of WiFi-only and data turned on when I am away from my home office. When data is turned on, the i4 can last you about six hours.

Others

Kata i4 does not have LED notification. However, the capacitive buttons have LED making it easier to use in the evening or dark areas like cinema. The NFC feature is another plus with Kata i4. I tested it with other NCF-capable smartphones and it worked without any problem.

Conclusion

Kata has been successful in improving their smartphone line up. Kata i4 is by far the best-looking smartphone they have now. They have been generous in this model with the 32G of storage, plus you also get another 35G of cloud storage from Kata and a free Powerbank that comes with your purchase of i4. The 16MP and 8MP camera will make you really happy with the quality of photos it can produce. A plus factor from Kata in the i4 model is adding the NFC feature — this is best when you have NFC-enabled devices such as speakers, and transferring media. Currently, Kata i4 is priced at P9,799 which is not bad at all.

Kata i4 Specs

– 5-inch Super HD Display
– MTK 6592 Octa core 1.7GHz
– 2GB RAM
– 32GB Internal Storage
– Android 4.4 KitKat
– 3G/HSPA+
– Camera: 16MP Auto-focus, 8MP
– YAMAHA Professional bass speakers (8 ohm)
– Single SIM
– 2300mAh

Source: http://www.digitalspidey.com/2015/02/kata-i4-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Digitalspidey-Reviews+%28DigitalSpidey.com+%C2%BB+Reviews%29

Price : Php 9,799