Newcomers FAEA have taken the Chinese phone scene by storm this year. With phones like the FAEA F1 Penguin and FAEA F2 it is easy to see why. Check out our unboxing photos of first impressions of the FAEA F2 here.
If you have just got to this post thinking “Oh no, the review hasn’t been completed!” don’t worry the review is finished and will be posted this week. Before that though let us take a look around the FAEA F2 in these hands on and unboxing photos.
FAEA F2
Chinese phones have gone through a very fast evolution. A few years ago Chinese handsets were poor quality knock-offs of popular brands, then came the iPhone clones, the Samsung era, and now we have landed at a time where Chinese manufacturers are finding themselves!
We’ve had great performing and affordable Chinese phones for a few years now, but we are now finally seeing really great design too! I’ve never really been a fan of the Samsung design, which is what most Chinese phone makers strive for, so when something like the FAEA F2 comes along it’s a breath of fresh air!
FAEA haven’t been entirely original with the F2 though, there is a definate nod towards the HTC One here and Meizu feature in the design with the pulsing capacitive home button.
The F2 is a very handsome phone especially this black model with red high lights! I will actually go as far to say that the FAEA F2 is one of the best looking Mediatek powered phones we have ever reviewed! And certainly one of the best of 2013 so far!
FAEA F2 Unboxing
The FAEA F2 packaging is simple and stylish. The simple white design with red highlights and interesting angles is certainly a hint at what is lurking inside the box. It would have been nice if the black phone came in a black and red box, but were hardly going to criticise FAEA for that.
Lifting the lid we get to see the phone with protective screen cover (for shipping only) and a small instruction leaflet.
Removing the phone and foam padding we can also find the USB data cable, charger and NFC tag. No earphones are included.
Taking the FAEA F2 out and flipping it over shows us the removable plastic rear casing which also has a protective plastic film.
It’s always a satisfying feeling to remove the protective film of a new phone and see the device underneath, it’s even more of a treat when the phone looks this good!
The front of the FAEA F2 features a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS, OGS display from Sharp. A pixel density of 441ppi is spot on for a phone of this size and resolution. Just above the display is 5 mega-pixel front camera.
There are no surprises around the phone. A 3.5mm headphone jack lives in the top.
Anodized red power and volume controls live along the right and left edges, and it’s nice to see that FAEA have put have put more thought in to the physical controls of the flagship phone than they did on the F1 Penguin.
On the bottom we have a micros USB for charging and transferring data. You can also make out the arched design of the F2 which helps to create a comfortable grip in your hand.
A large external rear speaker and 13 mega-pixel rear camera and dual LED flash are the only details on the rear of the phone, along with the white FAEA printed logo.
The rear is removable and from the inside we can see the F2 has room for 2 x SIM cards, SD card expansion, and there is an NFC chip built-in to the removable back.
A 2300mAh battery provides enough juice of a hard day of phone calls, web browsing, photos and a bit of gaming, but if you are a heavy gamer you will want to carry a spare with you.
Booting the phone up brings the FAEA logo then your typical Android lock screen.
The FAEA F2 we have for review is running Android 4.2.1 which is pretty close to stock and very similar to the ROM which Zopo use on their phones.
FAEA F2 impressions
When we first opened the phone up last week we were impressed with the look and feel. The screen is great and the rear camera is capable of some of producing excellent photos. Our only gripe is the flex in the handset! It is no worse than a Zopo phone however in the case of the FAEA F2 flexing the phone can actually result in the rear of the phone popping off! Rather annoying for such a great looking phone!
We’ll post the full review of the FAEA F2 with video before the end of the week.
Thanks to FAEAmobile for sending us this review unit.
Thank you Andi, I was waiting for this as the last item in my sorted list.
Waiting for the complete review like Neo n003.
Thank you.
Damn I wish I could buy this in India!
Will they ever release the 2GB version, Andi?
Yes, it’s the FAEA F2S
This one? http://www.faeamobile.com/faea-f2s.html
The spec sheet said it only has 1GB of ram though?
I guess the 2GB RAM version has been delayed then…
Hey Andi, will there be a review for the FAEA F2S?
I own a Faea F2s and I can only warn all gizchina readers that the rom is very very buggy, almost unusable!
Cheers for that. Can you tell me what problems you have had? The F2 has been pretty good overall.
I also own a Faea F2s and I haven’t had any problems whatsoever. The screen is really good, the phone is more fast enough for normal use, although I haven’t used it for gaming, and it is indeed a smart looking phone. The only problem I have is the battery life. The phone still uses a fair bit of energy when in standby, which can be a problem.
@Andi It lags a lot if i enable GPS and Google location services, this is because the com.google.locator process crashes every 10 seconds and generated a core dump on mtklog folder.
It seems that installing official gapps package with custom CWM recovery solved this dependency problem, but I’m testing this homemade solution.
Obiouvsly Faea do not even answered to my posts about the problem except saying that I could disable the GPS location service!!!
@Xephasis The GPS problem caused high CPU load and so high battery drain!!!
No problems with the F2S here.
Seems to has less flex then the F2. So they did something good.
The GPS as fast to get a fix. The initial fix to a while.
Don’t have real problems with navigation and CPU load.
But I’m not using Google or google maps. I’m using Sygic.
If they changed the GPS.conf it would have help.
Agree with the battery consumption on standby. Thats higher then it should be.
Only thing I miss is Asahi or gorilla glass.
Wow, it looks very handsome indeed. I’m really excited for the full review now 🙂
Looks a lot like the UMI S1 (MIZ etc), though with a different front panel (and Full HD screen plus NFC of course)
As quad core 1080p phones go, this is for sure a notch above design wise.
On the website the rear of the black one has a black FAEA logo which looks even smarter. Not 100% sold on the highlights being in red, otherwise great, even with slightly wider than avg. bezels. I often wonder why all phones don’t look so clean. Shame the battery isn’t just a little more capacious.
@Andi, when will you do full review of new zopo phablet?
Hey andi you said its one of the best mtk phones you reviewed, how about comparing the built quality and looks against the jiayu g4 thick(3000mAh) ?
Which one would you pick FAEA F2 or Neo N003?? And why?
Ow interesting question. Have a Neo N003 and an F2S here.
If it had the build quality and the battery of the Neo N003 and the design of the F2S it would be the perfect phone an a worthy competitor to Xiaomi.
But it still and ‘IF’……..
So there is no perfect phone…maybe exept from Xiaomi…but this is different price level 😉
Hello,Which phone is better, FAEA F2S or UMI X2 MTK6589T,32G,RAM: 1GB
Both are about 230$,Thanks
Am happy with my F1, so the F2S is my next buy as soon as the 2Gb version is out.
In the official website , the color difference is there
plz check
http://www.faeamobile.com/faea-f2-techspec
were as the original the RED strip is only for the volume rocker button and the power button.
Is there any other version ? or color ?