GOOPHONE i5 N2 : THE REAL DEAL REVIEW

The past week has seen the much anticipated Goophone i5 N2 reaching customers including me. There are also several youtube video reviews by Colonel Zap and also Mayiandjay so I will not be making any youtube video reviews. Many people are saying how close it looks to the iPhone 5 even the operating system but in terms of functionality, I am disappointed. I will however share my experience of this phone with all you interested buyers because this phone is not for everyone.

Firstly, this phone is meant for the Chinese market so there are many apps in Chinese. Also, the google play store is not included and neither are the rest of the google apps or gapps.  There is a chinese playstore included that resemble the Apple app store but you will not be able to search for apps if you don't know chinese.

There is a recovery built in but somehow it doesn't work. Goophone has provided a working recovery but it is in Chinese ( I have built an English CWM recovery for this phone. HERE )
Therefore, if you want to buy this phone, be prepared to do some firmware flashing and you must be able to locate some usable rome to test. I will include some rome here as well.

Secondly, the Android ICS 4.0.4 has been heavily skinned and is very laggy. The Settings controls have been modified to look exactly like iOS and can be very confusing to find certain menus and switches, for example, to add google account or modify your google account, you will need to look at Settings > iCloud. Settings > Privacy has the backup and factory reset functions. In Settings > General > Location services is where the GPS switches are located. There is no Storage and Apps menu. UPDATE: I found the storage and apps menus hidden in some other settings menu.

After switching on all switches, I am still unable to pinpoint my location on Google Maps (in a newer rom) And GPS sucks. All I manages to get was only one satellite with a very weak signal. The compass however works well.

Because the Android UI has been modified heavily, some of the apps do not work well with the modified Android. Some apps even crashed the Settings app when the app request a settings change.

The camera produce fairly good pictures and videos but you will need to install another camera app like the LG camera pro to get full resolution pictures as the stock built in Apple styled camera takes low resolution pictures....maybe 3mp pictures.

I am sure there will be more and more improved roms as time goes on but at this stage this phone is only meant for experienced folks that know how to do firmware flashing.

On the positive side, this is a very beautiful phone and if you order from Fastcardtech, you can request for the one with the apple logo.
The thickness of the phone is no doubt 7.6mm. I measured it at 7.8mm with the factory installed screen protector on.
 The camera flash is powerful for it's size and can produce good looking pictures and videos with the correct camera app.
The screen is brilliant and is 100% IPS. It is most likely using the Gapless screen technology ( OGS ) as the screen images seem to be on the top glass itself. Brightness is good and colors are rich.

There is a pure Android ICS rom also available for this phone and I will test it out. It will run faster and more responsive without all the glitches because of the iOS modified skin. I probably will do a youtube review if I find the Android ICS ROM ( Lewa ROM ) fast and stable. UPDATE: ROM NOT NOT RELEASED YET.
 18 Feb.
If you like to play with gadgets and have the knowledge to do the rom flashing, you will find this phone very fun. But if you just want a phone that works out of the box then you have to look elsewhere unless you read and write chinese fluently without Google apps.