Prestigio Multiphone 5508 Duo Quick Review

Prestigio, which is a new brand that recently entered Philippines from a few months back, is a European company that offers a wide range of electronics from car accessories to TVs. They sent us their octa-core phone — the Multiphone 5508 Duo, to try out how it would fare against existing handsets in the country.

The Multiphone 5508 Duo flaunts a 5-inch display with HD resolution at 1280 x 720. It results to 294ppi which is in the range of well-proportioned resolution and display size. The entire panel is also reinforced with Dragontrail glass which is tough against scratches and crashes.

The smartphone still lingers on capacitive buttons that do not light up at all — something I personally consider really helpful for when there are no lights and you’re still not familiar on which button is which or when you simply don’t know where to press.

The company, with its research and development hailing as far as Prague, makes sure the device just doesn’t have a touch of premium design but rather exudes it in its entirety. It has a unibody design which is made of brushed metal and is sealed together so tight it’s almost hard to see the gap that separates the materials.

It’s obvious that the company has alloted time and effort not only in the materials used, but also in making the handset as elegant as possible. Placed right smack in the middle is Prestigio’s emblem that screams to be noticed for its intricate details.

Sporting a 13-megapixel rear camera, the 5508 Duo is supported by dual LED flashes which should give ample lighting when shooting at night or indoors with low-lighting.

The power and lock screen button and 3.5mm audio jack are together up top, looking sleek  with its chrome appearance.

Down below are the microUSB port for charging the device or transferring files and a pinhole for its microphone.

The speaker grille is located at the back panel and was made by puncturing tiny holes into the metal cover.

It supports dual SIM cards which are alternately located on separate trays at the upper right and left side of the device.

Together with the left SIM tray is the volume rocker which is positioned at the middle part of the side panel. For us, the placement was limiting since it was easy to reach when we use our right hand, but takes extra time for left-hand usage.

As you surely have noticed, Prestigio made its Multiphone 5508 Duo an attention magnet with its classy look and detailed craftsmanship. Specs-wise, it’s important to note that the phone has been launched sometime in July of 2014 this is why its internals are outdated and falling behind compared to recent releases.

Running on a 1.7GHz MediaTek octa-core processor, the device was actually an adequate performer. We used it both for work and play — we wrote notes on it, forwarded emails, and previewed files online. We also downloaded and ran Dead Trigger 2 which the phone rendered smoothly and without lags.

What we noticed, though, was that typing on its keys are a hit and miss. For about 40% of the time we mistyped letters when chatting or texting. As for its display, we liked how its brightness was able to go really bright, compared to other devices that we’ve tested before. This makes the screen really visible even under direct sunlight.

Meanwhile, here are the benchmark scores for the Multiphone 5508 Duo:

• AnTuTu: 33,377
• Quadrant Standard: 14,277
• Vellamo: 1,436 (Multicore), 1,025 (Metal), 2,192 (Chrome Browser)
• 3DMark: 4,836 (Ice Storm Extreme)
• PCMark: 2,369 (Work Performance)

Testing out its battery performance, we ran PCMark’s battery test that puts the device on a loop of function that imitates real-life usage. The smartphone lasted a minute shy of 5 hours of continuous task-processing.

As a daily phone, we would say the Multiphone 5508 Duo is a reliable device that can handle both gaming and productivity on-the-go. Battery life isn’t that spectacular, but still pretty decent as we have seen handsets in this range that are more of an underperformer than this.

Still, with a price tag of Php13,899USD 237INR 20,078EUR 226CNY 1,725, we believe this would be a hard sell to the mass market here in the country — simply because there are a lot more other options in this price bracket that offer beefier specs. Although one main advantage of this phone is that it’s one of the few devices today that isn’t made in China.

Prestigio Multiphone 5508 Duo specs:
5-inch HD IPS display @ 1280 x 720 resolution, 294ppi
Dragontrail glass
1.7GHz MediaTek octa-core processor
Mali-450MP4 GPU
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
13MP rear camera with Sony IMX 179 sensor and LED flash
5MP front camera
Wi-Fi 802.111b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
3G
USB-OTG
Android 4.4 KitKat
2300mAh battery
142.5 x 70.8 x 8.3mm (dimensions)
129 grams (weight)