THL 4400 Review: 4 days of battery, but at what cost?


We review the THL 4400, an ultraphone that hopes to annihilate daily charging and bring more juice to you when you need it.

Do you remember back in the day? When cell phones managed to survive several days, sometimes even weeks without recharging the battery? Well, these days golden days of mobile phones could be coming back as smartphone makers strive to extend battery life. One of THL’s answers is the THL 4400, a smartphone with huge battery and some power saving spec choices.

The THL 4400 has been available in China a little over a month. This 5-incher tries to reduce power consumption by using the quad-core MT6582 mid-range processor and packs a 720p display  hooked up to a 4400mAh lipo cell to boost battery life.

THL 4400 Review: Packaging & Design

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A plain white box is all that separates the THL 4400 from the outside world. On the simple packaging is the familiar THL logo and also a sticker listing the specification.

THL are very generous with what’s in the box. Upon opening the package the THL 4400 is the first item to greet you and as you move down through the layers of the packaging you come to an instruction booklet, screen protector, protective case, flip cover, USB cable, earphones, a charger and even a small Android figure/OTG adaptor. It’s good to see a nice range of accessories are included.

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We’ve got the white version of the phone and to be honest the design is nothing really special. It is not ugly, but no one is going to award the designers an prize, and your friends aren’t likely to be jealous of the simple bulky design. Function is the key here and with this in mind it has what it needs and nothing more.

No surprises on the front, which is actually quite nice. There is a notification LED, front camera, illuminated buttons and receiver. An interesting design feature is the recessed lower section of the phone that houses the main microphone.

Around the device a silver frame can be seen, which on closer inspection appears not to be made from metal. The sides also hold the usual on/off switch, volume rocker, headphone jack and USB. The USB does the usual data and charging duties, and also has OTG support. Build is not quite to scratch and the loose-fitting hardware buttons means the phone actually rattles if shaken.

Like the rest of the phone the rear is made from plastic which has a textured finish for added grip. The rear is obviously home to the main camera, there is also an LED flash, THL logo and an external speaker in the base.

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Pulling the rear off is as simple as can be. Just pop your nail under the gap and pull it off. Inside you have access to the dual SIM card slots (both normal size SIM cards) and an SD card slot. You can also get a look at the huge 4400mAh battery, however it is a built-in unit and securely clamped down with screws.

THL 4400 Review : Screen

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The THL 4400 features a 5-inch IPS / OGS screen operating at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. If you ask why they didn’t use a 1080p panel the answer is the processor simply does not support higher resolutions. There is also the fact that a 720p display is easier on the battery life too which helps. In use a 5-inch 720p panels also looks pretty good, even in today’s world of 2K phones.

Pixels are small enough so you won’t see them during normal usage. Unless you are using your phone 4cm away from your nose that is. The quality of the panel is fine considering the price tag. Colors are reproduced nicely, but sometimes a little too intense. The brightness is extremely high at maximum settings and enough for outdoor use without needing to squint and maneuver out of the sunlight. Viewing angles are very good, confirming the screen really is using an IPS panel. The digitizer which is made from Gorilla Glass 2 is also working perfectly fine and precise, without needing excessive pressure to get it to register touches.

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THL 4400 Review: ROM and Performance

To get a real and fair feel for the tHL 4400, the phone became a daily driver for me. In that time I had a few of positive and negative experiences.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the ROM. Based on Android 4.2, THL haven’t really had to “rush” this one out so it surprises us a little when key features simply don’t work. In my experience the official YouTube app, for example, is simply unusable. It either fails to work or is too laggy for video to be watchable. This is annoying but hardly means the phone is unusable, but that is only the tip of it! As it is, the THL 4400 has just 1GB of memory, nothing in this day and age! What makes matters worse is that it does not seem possible to install applications on an SD card with the stock ROM! Depending on what you hope to use the THL 4400 for this could be a real deal breaker, well until the issue if fixed by THL or a third-party that is.

Read Also:  Counterpoint Research, MTK, TECNO and Editor at Large from Forbes Magazine Compared Notes on The Changing Forces in Premium Smartphone Domain

As far as my testing went, the rest of the ROM worked as it should. The system runs fine on the quad-core MT6582 with 1GB RAM, and most daily duties can be handled without the phone slowing down or freezing up. Gaming is ok until you get the more power-hungry ones with advanced graphic and processor needs, but this is the same for any phone running this chip and RAM combination.

For those of you who like to see performance measured in numbers, here are a few benchmarks which I ran while reviewing the phone.

THL 4400 Review : Connectivity

2G and 3G reception is really good on the THL 4400. During the revew I didn’t encounter any issue with dropped phone calls and found the phone to have strong 2G and 3G signals throughout my time using it. Audio quality of calls isn’t as good as we hoped, and the lack of noise cancellation is a huge loss here.

THL appear to have designed and placed the antennas for the THL 4400 just as they should. Bluetooth works fine with a range f around 12-14 meters. Enough for a bluetooth speaker while having a BBQ outside. GPS is also surprisingly good for a Mediatek powered phone. The first lock took just 40 seconds and cycling trips made with the device were logged and recorded accurately.

WIFI on the other hand isn’t as good as I would have hoped. The signal strength drops rapidly as soon as you move away from your router. It never really became unusually bad, but your are probably going to experience a few WIFI signal problems once you start moving around your home.

THL 4400 Review : Battery

Now we finally come to the feature that makes the THL 4400 so interesting, and this is of course the battery. As mentioned before the handset comes with a 4,400mAh non-replaceable lithium polymer cell. Combine that with the low energy screen, and processor and we should be looking at some serious battery life.

In my tests, and depending on what you use the THL 4400 for, it is possible to get an amazing 4 days of battery life out of the phone on a single charge! Even with heavy usage including gaming, video playback, GPS navigation and all that energy-sucking stuff, the phone lasts two full days easily. The average screen-on time we reached was 13 hours. Considering the fact that the THL 4400 does offer plenty of processing power as a mid-range phone, these figures are quite insane.

But of course, such a huge battery also has some downsides to it. For some it might be the high weight of 160g, which really is a lot for a 5-inch phone. But for pretty much everyone it will be the time it takes to charge the battery from 20% to 100%. Depending on the power supply, this takes between 4 to 6 hours. But considering the long battery life you get in exchange, this is still acceptable, at least for me.

THL 4400 Review : Camera

The THL 4400 gets an 8 mega pixel rear camera and a 5 mega pixel front camera. The rear camera can take pictures interpolated up to 13 mega pixels. While it would create amazing pictures in terms of colors, it is not as good as phones with similar sensors. Pictures lack depth of field and show a lot of noise in low light conditions. The LED flash is not of any help, as it is way too dark. The front camera surprisingly is a little better and creates quite sharp images, enabling you to take selfies with an acceptable quality. If you aim to use this phone as a suitable camera replacement, you are not going to be impressed!

THL 4400 Review : Conclusion

The THL 4400 is not without its problems, but for $170 is is the most feature packed phone available, and for battery life it simply cannot be beat. In the review we have pointed out a few issues, such as WIFI, lower than expected camera quality, and issues with apps and storage, these are the main points of concern, but they are also points which could be improved with future ROM updates. The problems is can we trust THL to bring the fixes to the phone in a timely manner?

As it stands though, I would recommend to stay clear of the THL 4400. If there are updates which do fix the problems I will revisit this review and update the points, but for now the phone is a little to buggy for me to recommend. Perhaps the slightly more expensive THL 5000 is a better alternative with more memory, larger battery and higher performance?

THL, you could be on to a real winner here! But until you get these issues fixed the THL 4400 isn’t going to win you any fans

Thanks to Pandawill.com for providing us with the THL 4400.

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40 Comments

  1. Manish
    August 12, 2014

    Please review the THL5000 handset as well.

  2. POY
    August 12, 2014

    Which should I get? A thl 5000 or a note 3 with zero lemon 10000mah battery?

    • desponent
      August 12, 2014

      Well do you want a big thick brick that last a week or a mid-sized phone that last half a week and more?

  3. claude
    August 12, 2014

    Chris thx a lot for ur nice review…

    i was waiting for the THl 5000 review…. hope the next time

  4. Guest
    August 12, 2014

    Please review the THL5000 handset as well.

  5. eliHd
    August 12, 2014

    Thl 5000 definitely worth getting.

  6. POY
    August 12, 2014

    Which should I get? A thl 5000 or a note 3 with zero lemon 10000mah battery?

    • desponent
      August 12, 2014

      Well do you want a big thick brick that last a week or a mid-sized phone that last half a week and more?

  7. claude
    August 12, 2014

    Chris thx a lot for ur nice review…

    i was waiting for the THl 5000 review…. hope the next time

  8. eliHd
    August 12, 2014

    Thl 5000 definitely worth getting.

  9. Rich Almoney
    August 12, 2014

    Another PoS MediaTek based Chinese phone. Seriously, 40 sec for GPS lockup? Loss of WiFi signal, outdated Android OS, inferior camera, apps missing or not working at all… right, wait for a ROM update. But of course, without OTA capabilities, you’ll have to know how to ‘Flash’ the phone with Chinese written software. Xiaomi – China’s #1 selling smart phone company doesn’t have a single MediaTek phone in there line-up (yes, they had the RedMi Note but recently discontinued the model and upgraded the MTK chip with a Snapdragon LTE capable chip). These cheap Chinese phones aren’t worth the aggravation. Do yourself a favor and either buy a comparable Moto G 4G (now about $225 on Amazon) or buy a quality Chinese phone – which are ALL based on the Snapdragon chip – OPPO, OnePlus, Xiaomi, ViVo, ZTE and Huawei are all making excellent phones. Look up ‘The Phone Guy THL 4400’ on YouTube for a good unbiased review. I hope THL finally got it right with the 5000 model.

  10. Yury
    August 12, 2014

    THL phones are always buggy with no updates. It is low level quality phones like Jiayu. And this will not change.

    • SuperDope
      August 13, 2014

      looks like somebody who can’t afford 200 dollar and up devices, STFU!

  11. geekwannabe
    August 12, 2014

    I was looking for a potential review of THL 5000 since it was released in China. Was interested in the performance of the big Amprius battery with quick charge (as advertised by THL). In the above review battery life is good but I cannot tolerate the charging time of 4 to 6 hours for a battery size of 4400 mAh! Imagine the time it would take to fully charge the THL 5000!

    Will anticipate future reviews of THL 5000 and Mi4 especially on charging time. If they cant beat the VOCC then its the Find 7A for me come phone replacement time… Quick charging is a must have especially come 2015!

    • Brooklyn701
      August 13, 2014

      Dude… start being real… I mean is it so hard to charge the phone over night or do you only sleep 10 min a night? Jesus some people…. really…

      • SuperDope
        August 13, 2014

        LOL, ikr? geesez fuck!

        • geekwannabe
          August 13, 2014

          I don’t know about you guys but I am really sick of charging phones from flat/low bat to full DAILY. I even carry two phones now so when one is charging I could use the other phone. VOCC will make me really happy indeed.
          Besides phones fast charging will definitely improve the EV scene as well. A real game changer I would say. Why not?

  12. Rich Almoney
    August 12, 2014

    Another PoS MediaTek based Chinese phone. Seriously, 40 sec for GPS lockup? Loss of WiFi signal, outdated Android OS, inferior camera, apps missing or not working at all… right, wait for a ROM update. But of course, without OTA capabilities, you’ll have to know how to ‘Flash’ the phone with Chinese written software. Xiaomi – China’s #1 selling smart phone company doesn’t have a single MediaTek phone in there line-up (yes, they had the RedMi Note but recently discontinued the model and upgraded the MTK chip with a Snapdragon LTE capable chip). These cheap Chinese phones aren’t worth the aggravation. Do yourself a favor and either buy a comparable Moto G 4G (now about $225 on Amazon) or buy a quality Chinese phone – which are ALL based on the Snapdragon chip – OPPO, OnePlus, Xiaomi, ViVo, ZTE and Huawei are all making excellent phones. Look up ‘The Phone Guy THL 4400’ on YouTube for a good unbiased review. I hope THL finally got it right with the 5000 model.

  13. Guest
    August 12, 2014

    THL phones are always buggy with no updates. It is low level quality phones like Jiayu. And this will not change.

    • SuperDope
      August 13, 2014

      looks like somebody who can’t afford 200 dollar and up devices, STFU!

  14. geekwannabe
    August 12, 2014

    I was looking for a potential review of THL 5000 since it was released in China. Was interested in the performance of the big Amprius battery with quick charge (as advertised by THL). In the above review battery life is good but I cannot tolerate the charging time of 4 to 6 hours for a battery size of 4400 mAh! Imagine the time it would take to fully charge the THL 5000!

    Will anticipate future reviews of THL 5000 and Mi4 especially on charging time. If they cant beat the VOCC then its the Find 7A for me come phone replacement time… Quick charging is a must have especially come 2015!

    • Guest
      August 13, 2014

      Dude… start being real… I mean is it so hard to charge the phone over night or do you only sleep 10 min a night? Jesus some people…. really…

    • SuperDope
      August 13, 2014

      LOL, ikr? geesez fuck!

    • geekwannabe
      August 13, 2014

      I don’t know about you guys but I am really sick of charging phones from flat/low bat to full DAILY. I even carry two phones now so when one is charging I could use the other phone. VOCC will make me really happy indeed.
      Besides phones fast charging will definitely improve the EV scene as well. A real game changer I would say. Why not?

  15. andrew lee
    August 12, 2014

    Hey guys, I have been using the thl 5000 for bout a week now in Canada and it seems to be great. I use it pretty heavily and been tweaking it within my knowledge. It doesn’t rattle from the buttons as the 4400 etc
    If u have questions about it, check out my review on XDA forums or redflagdeal forums.

    • Daniells Wabuge
      February 9, 2015

      Hello,
      How is the loudspeaker and headphone use on THL5000? I have seen a few videos on youtube that the speaker faults after a few days of use and audio output via the headphone jack is low and of poor quality. Kindly clarify on these issues.

      How about battery heavy usage?

  16. andrew lee
    August 12, 2014

    I have not had any problems with running apps of all sorts, so I wonder if reinstalling the YouTube app would work

    My review:
    http://forums.redflagdeals.com/chinese-phone-thread-1517351/4/#post19450921

  17. andrew lee
    August 13, 2014

    Hey guys, I have been using the thl 5000 for bout a week now in Canada and it seems to be great. I use it pretty heavily and been tweaking it within my knowledge. It doesn’t rattle from the buttons as the 4400 etc
    If u have questions about it, check out my review on XDA forums or redflagdeal forums.

    • Daniells Craig
      February 9, 2015

      Hello,
      How is the loudspeaker and headphone use on THL5000? I have seen a few videos on youtube that the speaker faults after a few days of use and audio output via the headphone jack is low and of poor quality. Kindly clarify on these issues.

      How about battery heavy usage?

  18. andrew lee
    August 13, 2014

    I have not had any problems with running apps of all sorts, so I wonder if reinstalling the YouTube app would work

    My review:
    http://forums.redflagdeals.com/chinese-phone-thread-1517351/4/#post19450921

  19. murak
    August 13, 2014

    How is the flip Case?

  20. Carlos
    August 13, 2014

    Good Review, here is a measurement of the real capacity of the battery:

    http://nergiza.com/thl-4400-el-smartphone-con-mayor-bateria/

  21. murak
    August 13, 2014

    How is the flip Case?

  22. nofok
    August 13, 2014

    I have Thl 5000, charger is 1,5amp so full charge take 3,3 hours. after 2 weeks no problem with the phone

  23. Carlos
    August 13, 2014

    Good Review, here is a measurement of the real capacity of the battery:

    http://nergiza.com/thl-4400-el-smartphone-con-mayor-bateria/

  24. Guest
    August 13, 2014

    I have Thl 5000, charger is 1,5amp so full charge take 3,3 hours. after 2 weeks no problem with the phone

  25. Surfer
    September 6, 2014

    I bought this phone and I am deeply disappointed. The battery malfunctions. It does not charge to full, even after 12 hours of charging. And it depletes very fast ! to 80% after only 10 minutes of normal phone use. Also, there are problems with settings. It crashes quite often !

  26. Guest
    September 6, 2014

    I bought this phone and I am deeply disappointed. The battery malfunctions. It does not charge to full, even after 12 hours of charging. And it depletes very fast ! to 80% after only 10 minutes of normal phone use. Also, there are problems with settings. It crashes quite often !

  27. luciaelena vlahava
    April 29, 2017

    Please, where can I find a replacement battery for thl4400?? I urgently need one, and up to now I can’t find one!!

  28. luciaelena vlahava
    April 29, 2017

    Please, where can I find a replacement battery for thl4400?? I urgently need one, and up to now I can’t find one!!