Kata F1S Review

Are you on a budget and don’t like to spend big chunk of your money for the high end smartphones? You might want to consider this budget friendly smartphone from Kata. Kata F1s is already out in the market and with the price of P4,499 it will be easy for you to decide. Check out our review below to see how it performed during our three weeks honeymoon.

The challenge is to use Kata F1s as my default phone. I will use it daily. I upload photos in either Facebook or Instagram, post updates on Twitter, Facebook, check e-mail, take photos, capture short videos, Viber and SMS.

Like I mentioned in our initial impression, I am basically worried about the battery life of F1s and it was proven to be true.

What’s in the box

You’ll find the basic stuff in the box — a headset, a USB cable, the wall charger, warranty card and manual, the battery and the unit. The packaging has never changed, F1s is packed inside a white box.

Design and Build

It is a small form factor smartphone, with only 4.5-inch qHD Display but it is packed with a specs that you need —  Android KitKat 4.4 powered by a 1.3GHz Quad Core CPU, Cameras has 8MP Rear and 5MP, 1G of RAM and 8G of internal storage which can be expanded using a microSD drive. You can add more storage up to 32G.  Additional storage can only be used to store photos and videos, apps can’t be installed there. 🙂

Kata F1S is a smartphone you can carry in your workplace, in school, in the gym, anywhere. It has plain yet descent design. The power button is on the right side and the volume rockers on the left. The audio and microUSB ports are located on top. The case has the carbon fiber finish but its a plastic material. It curves in the edges helping the user to grip the phone properly.

Software and UI

Out of the box Kata F1s has the latest Android OS, Kitkat 4.4. Swiping through the screen is smooth you cant notice any lag but you will be disappointed to know that the OTG function will not work on this version of the Kitkat. Fail. But there is always a work around, you can transfer your movie files to your microSD and still watch it in your Kata F1s. Hack.

Kata is known to have the stock Android on its phones so customization is up to the end users. You can download lots of launchers in the Google Play, themes, keyboard, wallpapers and a lot more.

As for me, the first cuztomization I did was to download the Ai Keyboard because the stock keyboard is too small for me. Too small that it is very difficult to type.

Camera

Kata is known to have great camera, I am witness to the previous models, the M1 and M2. Kata F1s has 8MP with autofocus and 5MP for selfie photography. Here’s one I took from our recent trip to Singapore.

Here is a sample of the video capture.

Sharpness is inconsistent.

But with sufficient lighting, it can take real good macro shots.

Selfie shot is a lot better with 5MP front camera.

Performance

I can’t ask for more for a smarpthone that is less than P5,000. Like I mentioned earlier you have to customize it to fit your lifestyle. I had to download a keyboard because the default one is very small for my fingers.

Benchmark

Antutu gave a high score of 18,405.

Battery Life

You have to either bring your powerbank or order a spare battery from Kata. With the data turned on it only lasted for 3 hours with me. On Wi-Fi only mode it lasted around 5 hours.

Conclusion

Don’t ask for more. Just enjoy the features like the camera of the F1s and I strongly recommend to bring your powerbank with you on a daily basis, or purchase a spare battery.

I never experienced an app crashing during the review. An overheat problem was encountered and the system gave a notification which you can either stop or snooze.

If you own Kata F1 the upgrade to F1s is recommended. The affordable price of P4,499 will not hurt your pocket.