Overview iLA Silk - the first budget smartphone to Android 8.1

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Packaging and appearance
• Display and Audio
• Performance
• autonomy
• Camera
• Software
• results

Young Chinese brands is now easy. To find a place under the sun, they have to offer products of better quality than the Xiaomi, and at a lower price than the Leagoo, Bluboo, Doogee and other third-tier firms. And do it not in the form of a one-time action, and for a long time. Only then can we break in disbelief, disdain for the basic masses of users.

Company iLA working in the Chinese market since 2012, and even included it in the top ten most successful manufacturers. However, in the international arena it is completely unknown, so that all of the above refers to it in full. It seems that the engineers and marketers iLA aware of the complexity of the task before them, so do everything possible to their new smartphone able to surprise even the most inveterate skeptics.

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Specifications

Most Chinese smartphones and even the lower middle price range are built on MediaTek platform. These chips are attracted by the low price, but for a variety of characteristics of inferior solutions from Qualcomm. Therefore, users have become accustomed to low-cost smartphone - a device on the chip MediaTek.

iLA Silk - exception to this rule. It uses a Snapdragon 430 - one of the best chipset for budget smartphones to date. It includes 8-core ARM Cortex-A53 and graphics Adreno 505 series five-hundredth. The performance of this ligament is quite comparable with the top processors 2014-2015, in what we have seen in testing.

The memory subsystem does not cause any complaints. 4 GB of RAM is not so often found in entry-level smartphones, so it can be safely attributed to the strengths of the iLA Silk. Roughly the same can be said about the amount of internal memory.

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Packaging and appearance

The smartphone comes in a velvet box in blue. On its cover there is a nice silk embroidery in the form of traditional Chinese ornaments. Her appearance on the box is not accidental. The fact that the company has been supporting the iLA traditional forms of Chinese folk art, so the use of elements of ancient crafts in the design of their products.

In the same velvet embroidered style should be issued a complete cover. However, we, unfortunately, did not get, because we got a pre-test sample smartphone. But the charger, the connecting cable and the protective film were in place.

First impression - very light and thin device. Side faces seem to metal, but the back cover is made of plastic. It has a glossy coating, which fingerprints. However, they wear just one click on any soft surface such that the iLA Silk - one of the few glossy smartphone that really can be worn without a protective cover.

Also beautiful brilliant coating can enjoy the rear cover on the eyes of the main chamber and the flash located in the upper left corner. Located in the center of all fingerprint reader, and directly beneath it - the company logo. By the way, fingerprint recognition works almost perfectly. If you are not missed by the sensor, the smartphone you will know exactly.

The layout of the traditional controls: the right side - the power button and volume buttons; left side - combined tray for SIM card and memory card, from the bottom - connector for headphones socket for recharging, microphone, speaker.

Appearance and assembly iLA Silk left the most positive impression. This is a very slim stylish and pleasant to use smartphone, design, materials and quality of the execution of which are as good as a brand new gadget from Huawei or Oppo. And certainly superior in this respect comparable to the price series smartphones Xiaomi Redmi.

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Display and Audio

In iLA Silk set 5.7 inches screen size with an aspect ratio of 18: 9. The smartphone can not be called frameless, but due to the elongated shape of it looks modern.

The display resolution is 1440 × 720 pixels, nevertheless quite a clear picture. If you feel that this is not so, detach the protective film. At the same time you will be able to feel the charm of the put oleophobic coating.

For color reproduction have no complaints, as well as to the corners of the review. But the maximum brightness level might be and more - on the street when the direct solar illumination using smartphone uncomfortable. But lovers of nightlife can be satisfied. Removing the brightness control to the minimum and activating a special reading mode will not have to worry for your eyes.

As for the sound, it is not much different from the brothers. The external speaker sounds good, but he was, in our opinion, is not enough volume. Listen to music on headphones can be, but the pleasure of hearing the owners thin unlikely to get.

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Performance

Although smartphone iLA Silk refers to the budget segment, its performance will not make the owner nervous and angry. All applications open quickly, switching between programs is instantaneous. Performance test results say that the smartphone will easily cope with any standard task, whether it's surfing, watching videos, playing music or chat on the web.

And fans of computer entertainment rejoice. Almost all the popular games of recent years work without lag and slowdown. Including car racing series Asphalt, tank battles in WoT Blitz, multiplayer shooter PUBG and other demanding on the hardware game. Although some graphics settings have to slightly lowered to squeeze the extra frames.

Special mention deserves the GPS speed. Man enjoyed a long time before the devices on chips MediaTek, can greatly surprised satellites speed and reliability of detection of reception signals which demonstrates iLA Silk. Even indoors smartphone sees up to ten satellites and surely connected to several of them.

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autonomy

battery capacity iLA Silk - 3000 mAh. This is not a record achievement, but given the small thickness of the shell, and I must say thank you for it. Especially in the Chinese smartphone is not as important statement capacity as the ability to dispose of it properly.

With this gadget I have everything in order. In idle state it consumes minimal power, and when the load gets evenly and smoothly.

In the test, PCMark Battery Life phone lasted 7:00 41 minutes, which is a good result. Recall that this test measures the time for reducing the battery from 100 to 20% when continuously on the screen. At this time, the device performs a variety of tests that simulate normal user activities: surfing, watching videos, photo processing, opening documents.

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Camera

The smartphone double set the main camera, whose resolution is 13 modules 2 and Mn. Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not have a model of the sensor, and test programs were not able to clarify this issue.

As you can see, under normal lighting conditions the camera behaves well. The photo is the contrasting and clear, with the correct color and white balance. It is important that the images do not spoil integrated noise reduction, so that even at the highest magnification artifacts are not too conspicuous. Let's face it - work iLA Silk camera during the day we were pleasantly pleased.

In low light conditions the quality, of course, much worse. Gadget tries to shoot at slow shutter speeds and high ISO settings. Therefore, even a slight trembling of the hands of the photographer leads to lubricated parts and noise. However, if you find a firm footing, you can try yourself in the evening even landscape shooting.

Special mention deserves bokeh mode, which in the majority of the Chinese smartphone only for show. The iLA Silk it really works! All to be honest cunning software algorithm analyzes the data from both cameras, calculates the desired depth of field and creates beautiful photo with a blurred background.

In addition, there is an interesting shooting mode called UbiFocus. It allows you to take a picture, and only then specify which area should be in focus.

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Software

Software The smartphone is no less important than iron. Most Chinese second-tier smartphone with these great problems. However, this does not apply to the iLA Silk.

Surprisingly, the gadget out of the box running the latest Android 8.1.0. And this at a time when most of the new devices from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and other giants have not yet started to receive the corresponding update, and some of them hardly ever once see Android Oreo.

The operating system in the smartphone installed without any changes and improvements. No additional software, no self-made decorations, which then still had to be removed. And for this I want to say a big thank you to programmers iLA.

It is also necessary to praise the good work of the operating system and installed software. Despite the freshness of Android Oreo, developers were able to fully adapt it for your device. Programs run fast, smooth animation, no bugs and slowdown shell during testing is not noticed. The Russian translation is complete.

The smartphone supports and install the update over the air and over the test time managed to get a few patches. We do not know how much is enough fuse company to support the device, but a good start.

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results

Usually inexpensive smartphone obscure Chinese brand can not expect anything good.

However, during our short acquaintance I showed some great smartphone. Its strengths include the stylish appearance, slim body, solid performance fingerprint scanner and quality photos. But the trump card - the processor is powered by Snapdragon processor and a fresh version of Android, which is still not soon gets to the devices, even well-known brands.

ILA have turned out quite balanced device that fully justifies its price. If the company will be able to release at least a couple more of such quality smartphones, it certainly will be able to win the favor of users and take their place in the market.

At the time of writing iLA Silk smartphone article cost is 11 692 rubles.

The author expresses his gratitude to the company iLA for providing the test device.