The Newman N2 is Newman’s latest, quad-core flagship phone. While availability is still quite scarce, we have been lucky enough to get our hands on one for a full in-depth review.
UPDATE: I have updated some details since first posting this review. I have updated the firmware to version Newman_N2_00.22, which has boosted Antutu benchmarks and also fixed the problem with focus when capturing video (see below).
Newman have been manufacturing consumer electronics for years, and are well regarded as one of the leading manufacturers of MP3 and MP4 players, as well as portable data storage devices here in China.
Last year they decided to take the plunge and make their first Android phone, the Newman N1, which sold like hotcakes. The N1 was followed by the entry-level Newman NX, and now for 2013 a new flagship phone has launched, the Newman N2.
- Newman N2 and HTC One X comparison.
- Comfortable rubberised rear.
Newman N2 Specification Table
| Newman N2 | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Samsung quad-core Exynos 4412 1.4Ghz |
| GPU | Mali 400 |
| RAM | 1GB |
| Supported Networks | 2G: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 WCDMA: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 |
| Cameras | Front: 2 mega-pixel Rear: 13 mega-pixel |
| Memory | 8GB Built-in |
| Battery | 2500mAh |
| Wi-Fi/GPS/FM/ | GPS/FM/Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n/b/g) |
| Expansion | Micro SD |
| Available | Now |
| Price | China: 1499 Yuan (pre-order) International: $299.99 (now) |
Newman N2 introduction
I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Newman N2, as this latest flagship phone looked absolutely stunning on paper. With a quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor and 1GB RAM, we should see blisteringly quick performance.
The large 4.7-inch 720HD display sounds visually stunning, and speaking of visuals, a 13 mega-pixel rear camera is bound to excite the inner photographer in all of us.
But, how does the N2 stack up as a complete unit?
Newman N2 Unboxing
Design and general feel
The design of the Newman N2 isn’t as stylish as the original N1, but the generic rectangle, and neatly beveled edges are a welcome sight after seeing all the Samsung inspired designs on the market.
The phone doesn’t get the super narrow screen borders we are starting to see on other phones, but the smaller 4.7-inch screen means the N2 still manages to feel comfortable and is easy to grip.
I’m not a fan of glossy back panels on phones. They don’t fill me with confidence when trying to text one handed and they attract fingerprints and marks much easier than other finishes, thankfully the N2 doesn’t suffer from this as the rear is coated in a grippy rubberised finish.
At 10.5mm the N2 isn’t the thinnest phone on the market, but it still manages to feel comfortable, and seems thinner, thanks to the curved edges which taper at a pleasing angle. The extra girth also allows for a good size 2500mAh battery.
Front, rear and sides – functional not flashy
I generally like N2′s subtle, understated looks, which give the phone a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” persona. After a quick glance, most people (potential theives included) wouldn’t realise that the N2 is practically a Samsung Galaxy S3 with a more affordable price tag!
The front side has 4 capcative buttons to navigate through the Android 4.0 ICS OS, with a 4.7-inch IPS 1280 x 720 display sitting directly above. The capacitive ‘chin’ buttons and larger bezel of the screen might not give the air of a 2013 flagship device, but they work as well as on-screen controls and thinner edges (plus we will likely see these updates on the Newman N3 or N4).
- 2500mAh battery.
- SD card expansion.
- Single micro sim.
- N2 with rear panel removed.
On the left side we have a micro USB for charging and transferring files, and at the top we have a small recess where we can prise the rear panel off to access the SIM, SD card slot and battery.
The N2 has 3 physical buttons, a power/lockscreen button, volume rocker and a shutter button, all of which are located on the right hand side and can be easily used single handed.
Nothing is found along the bottom edge of the phone, but the microphone can be seen just where the glass of the display and beveled plastic edge meet.
Headphones (not included) are plugged in via the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone.
From the back we can see a subtle Newman logo, small speaker and the 13 mega-pixel camera and LED flash. Again the design is functional rather than flashy, and while other manufactures might be tempted to label that 13 mega-pixel sensor, Newman have left it blank.
Weight and size
The N2 weighs in at 5.35oz (152g) which is about average for a phone with a 4.7-inch display and is similar in weight to a Motorola RAZR HD. Some of you are going to want the phone to be lighter and closer to the Nexus 4′s 4.9oz (139g), but I’m more than happy with the weight as it affords the Newman a larger battery and SD card slot.
I’m also happy with the overall size, although I do believe Newman could shave a good amount off the phone if they had a narrower bezel and built in battery, but again we will have to wait for a next generation model for that.
- Comfortable rubberised rear.
- Newman N2 and HTC One X comparison.
- N2 Boot up.
- Easy to reach power button.
Display
After unpacking the N2, inserting the battery and powering the phone on my first words were “Wow, this screen is good!”. If offers bright colours, and give images a natural and not over saturated look.
I did notice, however that although the screen is an IPS model viewing from certain angles wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped for. I believe is down to the maximum brightness of the phone not being as high as I would have liked, and hope Newman can rectify this with future firmware updates.
The overall low brightness of the screen also affects viewing the phone outdoors. The day’s which we tested it outside weren’t bright summer days, yet we still struggled at times when the sunlight did hit it.
Entertainment
Gaming: Gaming on the Newman N2 is fantastic, which comes as no surprise due to that 1.4Ghz quad-core Samsung Exynos CPU and 1GB RAM. I tested a few games including Riptide GP, Angry Birds and Jetpack Joyride, none of which caused the Newman N2 any headaches.
Video: Video is handled just as well, and the Newman N2 happily can play 1080 HD video all day long without a hicough.
Speakers: The speaker quality on the N2 is solid if not mind blowing. If anything it is a little on the quiet side for a Chinese phone, which generally tend to be pretty loud. Obviously you’re not going to find super bass from a built in speaker on a phone priced as competitively as the N2, but for gaming or sharing the odd movie with friends it performs an adequate job.
Camera
Still photography
One of the major selling points of the N2 is it’s rear 13 mega-pixel camera and I can confirm it takes some really beautiful photos. Take a look at the samples below to see for yourself, and if you want full size untouched Newman N2 photos then download the file here.
Although the auto focus on the N2 is a little slow at times, the quality of the images it manages to capture really knocked my socks off! A phone of this price just isn’t meant to be able to produce stunning still images like this, but the N2 kept grabbing great photos time and time again!
Night Photos
I tend not use a flash when taking photos, but the LED on the Newman proved to generate enough light to enhance photos, rather than make them look washed out. Just watch where you place your finger, as I sometimes found the flash to reflect of my skin and add glare to photos.
If I have to complain about one thing though, it’s the burst mode for capturing a number of images in succesion. As it is now, the phone won’t start taking photos for a full 2 seconds after pressing the shutter when on burst mode, and when it starts you don’t know how long it is going to keep shooting for. It’s completely unusable and I hope it get’s sorted with the Jelly Bean 4.1 update.
Video capture
The N2 is capable of capturing 1080 HD video which, had I been able to get filming correctly, would happily use as a back up, spur of the moment video camera. However, when shooting video the automatic focus struggles to keep still and constantly refocuses. No matter which setting I had the camera on I just couldn’t produce one piece of usable film!
Newman please fix this, as it really detracts from what a great stills camera the N2 has to offer!
UPDATE: After updating to 00.22 (which I did with a simple over the air update) the problem with focus has completely gone away! Video capture is now very smooth and much improved over the previous firmware! It’s great to see Newman are addressing issues with firmware updates! Great job!
I’ll will try to upload some sample footage later today.
Newman N2 1080 video sample.
Performance
Performance was never going to be an issue with the N2. Pages loaded quickly when browsing the web, the games I tried barely made the hardware sweat and the overall responsiveness of the phone felt snappy and instant. UPDATE: I followed advice commenters had and updated the firmware to version Newman_N2_00.22, the N2 now performs even better!
Antutu: I ran Antutu on the phone to get an idea of how it compares to similar devices, and it came away with a benchmark of 13792. After updated Antutu score increased drastically and the N2 now scores a very impressive 16313!
Nenamark2: Nenamark results were good too with the Newman N2 managing 54.9 FPS.
NOTE: If you would like me to run any other benchmarks please let me know and I’ll add the results here.
Battery Life
To give you a true indication of how long the battery lasted in the Newman N2, I’ll first explain my (bad) phone habits. I leave 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS on all the time. Reasons being that I want email’s pushed to me as I get them, and I take a lot of photos and want the location to be stored without having to change settings.
For test purposes I also browsed the web quite a bit, streamed video from Youku and played a few levels of Riptide GP during my lunch. From my experience with the Newman N2, I found the phone to be able to last me through quite an intensive work day, with enough juice to get me home before needing a top up.
I’ll continue to test the battery life this week with different services turned on and off, and using the phone for different purposes from day to day to get a better idea of how it performs and add an update with my findings.
Conclustion
The Newman N2 had me excited before I tried it and now after some time with it I’m even more excited!
It’s a good looking, great size phone with a large responsive screen. Performance is outstanding, fast graphically intense games are handled with ease, the N2 just begs for more!
And that rear camera! Wow! (if you are taking stills that is) for a phone of this price to come with a 13 mega-pixel rear camera is one thing, but for it to perform as well as this does is just an amazing bonus! In fact quality isn’t far off my dedicated Sony point and shoot which cost 1000 Yuan more and doesn’t offer the same quality screen, and smartphone features!
There are a few niggles I hope Newman will fix such as the problem with the burst shutter function, and the constant refocusing when capturing video, but hopefully this and screen brightness will be addressed when Android 4.1 Jelly Bean rolls out.
For the price, 1499 Yuan (in China) $299.99 internationally, it is one of the best Chinese phones we have ever tested, and if gaming, video and browsing the web and spur of the moment photography are your main priorities I see no reason why you shouldn’t consider picking one up, I certainly am!
Thanks to Android-Sale and to Newman for arranging our review unit.
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Great review Andi!! Are you shure this phone support WCDMA 850mhz and 1900mhz?? android-sale says: 2100mhz only, Pandawill says: WCDMA 850/2100MHz. Im very confused and I wanna this phone! Greetings from Argentina!
Here you go official Newman specs page: http://www.newman.mobi/n2.php glad you liked the review
it took ages 
Great review of a great phone!
Could you confirm is its really WCDMA: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 ?
In my country, Argentine, we use 850/1900.
I can’t use the translator for the images of the Newman specs page.
same here, I really want this phone!
Same here please I appreciate if you could help me with this issue
http://www.newman.mobi/goods.php?id=40
Scroll to the bottom and in the right bottom corner of the spec sheet it translates the frequencies. WCDMA: 850,900,1900,2100
I was thinking about n2, but suddenly got spare money and bought xiaomi mi2 32gb for $440:) Friend ordered 16gb version for 400. Few weeks back my friend bought for his father jiayu g2 512mb for $123 from antelife(after my advice). but anyelife sent him g3:)
Amazing deal- my friend test it now and he says that it is great!
Wow awesome deal!
Hi, Andi, good job
This is best, professional review I ever visited
Thanks Shine;)
well the phone really looks amazing on paper, too bad they didnt utilize dual sim as in N1… but it definitely goes on my radar for a chinese phones worth looking into
Dual SIM is built-in feature of MTK chipsets. N2 has Exynos chipset and only one SIM is possible.
Don’t forget that the Freelander I-20 is identical to this phone, and will even run the N2 firmware. You can also root either phone using a GS3 Exynos4 exploit (can be found on XDA Developers) as the processor is the same. The best site I’ve found so far in terms of information for rooting, firmware updates, fixing camera issue etc… is here:
http://vondroid.com/forums/newman.128/
I personally have some signal issues with the phone but I’m getting ready to flash the updated N2 firmware which should sort the problem (version 00.23 just came out).
Hey Andy! Any idea on how to get this phone shipped to India. Which website sells this. Great review by the way. Cant wait to get my hands onthis phone.
Hi Trey, check out the end of the article. Android-sale sent us our review unit, I imagine they can ship to India.
I ordered mine and according to the seller, has already been posted. Let’s see.
Hi,
nice review. I would order one if i’m not already own it
For your camera problem theres a firmware update (0.22) which should fix this problem. Also the overall performance is quite better (16580 points in Antutu). Nice to read that 0.23 is out now.
One small problem with my N2 is that sometimes (after Update on 0.22) it loses the network (2G/3G) connection and dont find any network until i restart the phone. Hopefully this is fidex with the new Firmware.
But a great phone for a great price!
Totally agree and glad to here those problems have been addressed
Hi, You paste wrong numbers in the Camera fields – its 3 MP front and 13MP rear. Please update Your firmware – it’s already version 23 out from Newman and it giving 16200 – 16400 points in Antutu benchmark. Camera operation in video mode has been fixed and it doesn’t hunt for focus wildly.
Keep in mind that there is specific procedure in updating, but You can find al the info on the net.
This is really an amazing phone for the money!
That’s awesome news! The phone is fantastic!
http://www.newman.mobi/n2.php Official specs,
2 mega-pixel front, 13 mega-pixel rear
hi can any one test the gps thanks
Awesome Andi, thanks for the in depth review!
I know you have posted a link to the official specs a few times but just about everywhere that actually sells the N2 seems to suggest that it only supports WCDMA: 2100mhz. Is there some way to test the supported frequencies? Alternatively can you get in touch with Newman on your readers behalf and double check that it supports the other frequencies as well?
Wow, that’s awesome! Could you try running Quadrant, Browsermark, and Vellamo on it?
Yep will do
Andi, where are my benchmarks?
Nice review Andi. Would you prefer N2 over Xiaomi’s M2?
Other than RAM, I guess N2 is a decent deal. How good you find the screen of N2 over M2
The N2 is awesome if you can’t stretch to the M2, but if you can afford the extra I’d go for the Xiaomi.
Very good review Andy, hard work will always be rewarded, we need more reviews like this!!
Next one is already on the way
GooPhone i5
great news!!! you’re really talented to write reviews
Hi Andi ,
I am very interested in buying this phone but out off by one thing. I have just read that if you up date to latest version 0.23 you lose google play store and a couple of other google apps. Surely it would be in the chinese interest to make sure google play store get’s put on all new phones to help them sell to other eu countries..Unfortunatley i’m not clued up to rooting and would be frightened to death of bricking a brand new phone.
Best Regards
Tony
Hi Tony,
its true that you lose the Playstore after Updating to 0.23. But there are two ways to get them back. First is to make a FULL Backup with titaniumBackup before updating.
The second option is to install the Store and the other missing Gapps yourself. If you go this way you get the sync for calendar and contacs as well as a benefit. Just follow the way i describe in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2082275&page=4 all you need to know are the infos in my 2 entrys (Stefanw13). In my first Post is the link to the missing Gapps, for root search for ExynosAbuse on xda. The second post contains a lik to a youtube video with a excellent desciption how to install the apss.
Sir,i m residing in India so from where can i purchase Newmen N2 ?
Ofcourse online. You stay in India, so you should well know that our country is well away from all good phones. Only craps at high cost are sold here.
Hey Suraj,
you can try on aliexpress :
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-newman-n2.html?shipCountry=us&manual=y&CatId=5090301.
I guess they are reliable. android-sale.com is another reliable source.
Andi, any other reliable site to deliver it in India.
Very good review and professional. At last a review that is sharp and on the spot what a buyer would need. But. I will not touch a Newman again since my N1 because of the inferior support for their products, sorry, not even N2 has JB yet. That tells I’d look for something else.
This is quite interesting note. That is why my latest purchase was android 4.1 Jelly Bean (Zopo ZP950) instead of Android 4.0 (Freelander i20 inspired by Newman N2). Though the f number is F/2.8, this Zopo phablet produces very good images. And the GPS is also not so bad (15 satellites viewed and 10 satellites used for calculation). But i don’t buy it from China as there is a local retailer who imports it in our country. Now, i am planning to buy another Zopo phone (wish that their quad core phone will be announced this month). Hopefully all other manufacturer will invest more in their software department to always catch up with Android development. Who do you think will be the first Chinese manufacturer to give us Android 4.2?
You got a MTK6577 instead of an Exynoxx 4412? I would think that a quad core on 4.0.3 is more worth it than a dual core on 4.1.1? Maybe it was the screen size?
What about USB OTG and MHL? Is It possible? Also, some words about the GPS will be much appreciated.
Thanks for your efforts! ^^
Andi,
does it really have 1GB ram?? on many youtube videos it shows about 750mb of ram in Antutu . Please confirm…
Hi Andi, very good review. I’m looking forward to buy one if it recieves jb. Do you know when the jellybean update will arrive? I asked on xda but nobody knew about timing
Hi Stefan ,
Thanks for the info the video looks pretty good . I will now consider buying this phone.. Just going to wait a little longer before I make my final decision. I want to have a look at the Oppo 5 before making up my mind.
Thanks once again for the information..
Hi Andi,great review dude
Ist this screen as bright an sharp like Meizu and Jia Yu?
Who had 300+ PPI
Overall this Phone are awesome but I ‘m curious how sharp colour of the screen
Thanx
Hi Andi,
Based on that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9iZ9PgHEc packaging of the phone should look like a book… Why yours is just a black box? Do we have any info if Newman changed packaging?
Yes, I’ve also seen packaging that looks a lot like the Meizu Mx and Mx2 boxes for the N2, not sure why our test model came in a different box.
make a quadrant benchmark please.
Hi Andi, any chance to upload an uncompressed 1080p of the N2?
Hi,
thanks for the great review! Please could You check for me the camera?
Can You make 16×9 wide-screen pictures wit it? I heard the Notification LED is lighted only when charging. No new messages signalization. Could You please confirm it?
Thank You!
Hi Andy I’ve got now this wonderful phone. How can I update teh firmware?
Either OTA or you can check out this great resource http://vondroid.com/threads/newman-n2-freelander-i20-official-firmware.4782/
Hello Andi,
first of all many thanks for great review.
My question is, what is this 00.22 update and can (and then how) the android version be updated?
Regards
Robin
Wow. Now I can say I’m impressed. Way better than most of phones the media insists to advertise to get inside our pockets.
It sounds like a nice deal, but I have the misfortune of buying things then face the customs fellas. We’re allowed to buy ONLY up to 50 bucks per order. Otherwise, they’ll just fine right away making the total price up to or even double it the apparel. Sucks bro. =(
It happened only once. I just wish it doesn’t happen again.
Andy!! Is out the new version 00.24 ,can you try it on your N2?
It seems that Newman support a lot their devices!
Thanks for the heads up. I still have the N2 until tomorrow so I’ll update it and let you know any differences I notice.
thanks you Andi!!! :
No worries
Andi . Thanks for review. Your website has best info regarding chinese phones .
I am confused between Huawei Honor 2(2GB) & Newman N2 .Please suggest
My budget is 350$
Amol it’s my pleasure. It’s a hard choice. The N2 is a bargain! Performance is great and the camera is fantastic. The Honor is slightly more but lower camera specs, however it is a larger known brand tricky one…
Newman N2 – 1080p Video sample:
Nice review. I ordered a newman N2 after reading through your review and I am enjoying it. However, I do not know how i can get replacement batteries for it since the phone is not being sold in my country. Any ideas?
Firmware update 0.24 is out!
Hey Andi loving the reviews of the Newman n2 n the Xiaomi M2 thanx a lot 4 those however i’m a bit f a noobie in the 2g/3g frequency department. Could you tell me if the phones would support 3g networks of tata docomo in India or airtel in India?
also would has any1 imported to india ? did customs screw u over with additional taxes ? what import method did u use ?
It will work JUST fine in India on Docomo.
AND customs WILL screw you!! I got screwed when I ordered ZP100.
1600…#$@#$!
I wonder why this Newman scores +16000 on Antutu and Xiaomi M2 scores less when it has better specs (ram, cpu, much better GPU…). Has Newman better scores in others benchmarks than Xiaomi too?
hi, i have a question: when using this phone do you get charge for data? i dont want to get a data plan, which is why i am asking…
Hi andi. Just got my freelander i20 which is the same just was on sale P: can you review the new update?
Hi Andy,
I have just received the Newman N2 phone 2 days ago and the next day it shows some problems. The phone keeps on restarting right away and never opens, it continues restarting over and over again every 15 seconds! It never ends… Removed the battery but keeps restarting before the opening page…
I know you’re not tech support but do you have any idea on how to solve this issue? Anyone?
Thanks! Apo
What do you mean of micro sim? Can you explain further. i’m from philippines. My Simcard is from Globe Telecom. Thanks
Hi! You wrote about the low brightness of the display. I have a Nexus S now. Do you think brightness of Newman is lower than Nexus S? I have the S-LCD version, not the AMOLED. Thanks!
Hey Andi,Vellamo the Newman please,and Quadrant too would be nice.
Hello, got the freelander i20, and was a big disappointment , set the apn to my provider, it has 3g connection in the display ( only white not blue ) no data was send or received and i heard more with same problem, but no solutions! Sure looks nice those high scores but thats useless !
This was my 5th chinese phone, and never had those problems, my zopo 900 was better but unfortunately broke the screen. Sold the freelander.
Now pre ordered a jiayu g4 advanced, thats even better with 2G ram and 3000 mah battery.
Unfortunately, the official N2 specs site is fully on Chinese (language I don’t speak/read) so it’s impossible for me to actually tell if the phone works on 850 on 3G, too bad, I was really looking forward to buy this phone…
Andi, I received the phone today, but he does not care, have pressed a little (red LED), but still has not called. Need to wait for the battery charging all power on?
That is odd. So the phone does not turn on at all? I suggest you contact the people you bought it from.
Hi Andi. Great review! Its convinced me to buy the phone but before I do so I wonder whether I might trouble you with a couple of questions. Does the phone come with a lot of manufacturers’ software and, if so, can it be removed? Also, can I safely assume that it will be possible to have Google Play installed on it? I ask because I have seen it suggested that some of the phones coming out of China have to be rooted to enable this.
Many thanks for your time
Chris
Hi Chris, glad you liked it! I can only speak for the N2 we got for review (some stores might load apps and software on for you) but it was clear of any ‘Junk’ apps, and I don’t remember any Chinese apps on it. Google Play is installed as standard. It’s a great phone! Hope you enjoy it!
I wouldnt advice anybody to waste money on this poor product
I got the phone call, it was just lack of battery.
After 1 week with him, I can say that I have nothing to regret, is very fast and the housing is well made.
Its weak point is still the Android has some bugs that need to be corrected and your version is updated, but Newman has been working on it and then releasing new updates coming.
Julian can i ask? where did you bought the n2? what online store. thanks. i would love to buy that phone
Julian. i just like to ask where did you bought your N2. is it online? what store would that be. Because i wanted this phone too but i want it to buy on the reliable online store. thanks
Hi any more information on the battery life? seems like a great phone but had been waiting for the Jiayu G4, which do you think will be better?
I like the side lock on this
The battery lasts enough. I liked the quality. WhatsApp + wifi + internet has taken about 1 day. To game lasts about 6 hours or so.
It takes too much to charge. Anyway so I have not bought another problem when a battery runs out, use the other.
Great review. I’m so gonna buy this phone! Too bad it has to ship all the way from China… But it’s going to be worth it!
Hello, thanks for your review!
Can you make a benchmark vs Samsung S3 i9300 also? It should be the “brother” with almost the same hardware (CPU/GPU).
Thank you in advance.
can you run a glbenchmark test, and cpu,gpu scroes for antutu
I would not advice anybody to buy this crap. I bought it in January and right now, the screen no longer shows. Many people have the same complaint about it. It is a waste of money and a poor product too.
A great review which mostly persuaded me to try this phoen out.
I’ve now had the phone since February and am very impressed. Performance is great, with a very responsive and vibrant screen. Gaming is brilliant. System stability is generally good. Support through the previously mentioned Vondroid forums is also very good. With a couple of minor tweaks to the Google Play store you can get all apps available for the Samsung S3!
Generally speaking the phone is fantastic value for money. Sure it’s maybe not quite as stable as an S3, or firmware updates may not be issued as promptly as by the big name brands, but i’d say you get 90% of the benefits for about 60% of the cost, which in my mind is a bargain!! Highly recommended. (and it’s also nice to have something a bit different than the crowds!)
hi andy do you know when jb update will be availble?
(I would really want google speak on my voice:))