Cubot KingKong 5 Review

Overview and specifications

The Cubot KingKong 5 was released as a more affordable version of the KingKong 5 Pro. The vanilla variant retains the same display, chipset, design, and rear cameras. It loses the 25MP front camera for an 8MP one, the stereo speakers, and the 8000 mAh battery for a 5000 mAh one. There is also less storage compared to the Pro version. Here are the complete Cubot KingKong 5 specifications and here's a detailed Cubot KingKong 5 and KingKong 5 Pro comparison.

What's in the box

The Cubot KingKong 5 arrives in a black, rectangular box with the brand and model name imprinted on the lid along with a photo of the device. The box contents are as follows:

• Smartphone
• Basic in-ear headphones with a USB-C plug
• 5V/3A charger (EU plug)
• USB Type-C cable
• SIM tray pin
• Documents

Design, build and controls

The Cubot KingKong 5 is lighter and more compact compared to the KingKong5 mainly because it houses a significantly smaller battery. Its design is also changed. While retaining the signature orange outline of the front and the back, the body of the KingKong 5 has an octagonal shape with sharp corners. On the other hand, the KingKong 5 Pro has curved corners. Both devices also have similarly sculpted rear shells, but with lots of different details to ensure design diversity. Metal in the core, tough polycarbonate for the casing, and shock-absorbing rubber for key places are used for the KingKong 5. The model is IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810G certified. According to Cubot, it can survive drops from up to 1.5 meters and can withstand a 30-minute soak in up to 1.5 meters of water. The device is 78.6 mm wide, 160.3 mm tall, 15 mm thick and weighs around 265 g. The width is higher than the average for a smartphone with a 6.1-inch display. The height is lower than average. The thickness is typical for a device of that size with a 5000 mAh battery. The front is dominated by the display, which has a U notch for the front camera. The top bezel houses the light and proximity sensors (to the left of the notch), LED notification light, and the earpiece is tucked in the frame just above the display. The bottom bezel is bare and there's an onscreen navigation bar above it, which you can remove and use gestures instead. On the back, there's a triple camera module with the three lenses vertically aligned in the top left corner with the dual-LED flash placed to their right. There's a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well. The bottom part features two openings but only one covers an actual speaker. The left frame houses the hybrid, dual-SIM tray and the Volume Up/Down button. The right one is where the Power button and the customizable button are located. The top frame is bare and the bottom one is where the USB Type-C port with a protective cap and a microphone hole are placed.

Display

The Cubot KingKong 5 features a 6.088-inch IPS display with a resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels. From the Display Settings, you can switch on/off the Dark Theme, manage the Night Light (reading mode), switch on/off the Adaptive Brightness toggle, choose a wallpaper, screen timeout, font size, display size, screen saver, manage the LED notification light and lock screen options. The maximum brightness of the display is 511.616 cd/m² measured on a fully white screen. The temperature of the white point is 10453K. The CIE diagram demonstrates a color space coverage that's not properly calibrated to match exactly 100% of the sRGB color space but it's close enough. The display panel has a traditional vertical striped RGB subpixel arrangement.

OS, UI and software

The Cubot KingKong 5 runs on almost stock Android 11. The icons, floating screens, notification cards, and quick settings shade all have an angular design with sharp corners. The model supports app shortcuts, Google Discover, At a Glance, notification dots, conversations, bubbles, and history, screen time management, gesture settings, etc. The pre-installed apps include the usual Google and Android applications. No bloatware at all. The Settings features customized icons for the various menus which are not grouped thematically and the layout is more compact.

Mobile, wireless, and wired connectivity; sensors

The Cubot KingKong 5 is equipped with a hybrid, dual-SIM tray that can accommodate either two Nano-SIM cards and a microSD card and a Nano-SIM card. The tray is located on the left frame and has a protective cap. Compared to the Pro version, this model supports fewer network bands according to Cubot: 2G GSM (2/3/5/8), 3G WCDMA (1/8), 4G FDD-LTE (1/3/5/7/8/19/20), and 4G TDD-LTE (B40). The wireless connectivity options of this smartphone include Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Display. The smartphone also supports NFC and works with GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou. A USB Type-C 2.0 port with OTG support is also provided. The connectivity options also include Android Auto in case you have a smart car that supports it as well as Nearby Share.

The Cubot KingKong 5 arrives with an expansive set of sensors which includes an accelerometer, magnetic field, orientation, gyroscope, proximity, gravity, linear acceleration, rotation vector, game rotation vector, significant motion, step detector and step counter, geomagnetic rotation vector. There's a side-mounted fingerprint sensor positioned below the power button on the right frame. It is fast and accurate.

Performance

The Cubot KingKong 5 is equipped with the 12nm MediaTek Helio A25 (MT6762V/WD) chipset that is built on TSMC's FinFET production process. It houses an octa-core CPU with four 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 core and another quartet of those but clocked at 1.5GHz. The graphics department is handled by an IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU clocked at 600 MHz. There are 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage onboard. The latter can be expanded via a microSD card. Other smartphones with a Helio A25 SoC which we have reviewed are the Cubot KingKong 5 Pro, Doogee N30, and the Blackview BV6600. The AnTuTu 8 score is 86,731 points. The AnTuTu 9 score is very low for this chipset, simply because it can't pass the 3D part of the test and gets zero points for it. The Geekbench 5, PCMark Work 3.0, and 3DMark Sling Shote results are typical for other smartphone based on the same system-on-chip.

Rear cameras

The Cubot KingKong 5 has the same cameras as its Pro sibling. It is equipped with a triple-camera module on its back. The main one uses a 48MP Samsung S5KGM1 sensor with a 1/2" optical format and a 0.8 μm pixel size. The camera has an f/1.8 aperture and shoots FHD videos at 30 fps. The second rear camera is a 5MP macro one with an f/2.2 aperture, 1/5" optical format, and a pixel size - 1.12 μm pixel size. Device Info reports three supported sensors for this camera - Samsung S5K5E2, GalaxyCore GC5035, OmniVision OV5670. Finally, there's the 0.3MP depth-sensing unit which uses either a GalaxyCore GC030a or a GalaxyCore GC032a sensor. The cameras are aided by a dual-tone LED flash.

Selfie camera

The front-facing camera of the Cubot KingKong 5 uses an 8MP GalaxyCore GC8034 sensor paired to an f/2.2 lens. The camera shoots photos with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels and 1080p videos at 30 fps.

Battery Tests

The Cubot KingKong 5 has a 5000 mAh Li-Pol battery and arrives with a 10W (5V/2A) fast charger. All battery tests we run on the devices we review are developed by us and performed with the screen of the device being calibrated to 200 cd/m². Battery-saving features are disabled. The battery of our review unit charged in full for 3 hours and 21 minutes with the provided USB cable and charger. Almost the same time was required to charge the 8000 mAh battery of the KingKong 5 Pro but with a 15W charger. The charging process develops at a steady pace until the battery regains 80% of its capacity - that happens in 2 hours from the start. After that, charging slows down a bit and even more so, after the 90% is reached 15 minutes later. It takes one hour and 6 minutes to fully charge the device. The battery's temperature starts at 27°C and gradually increases to reach its peak of 38°C in 40 minutes. It immediately drops to 37°C and maintains this level for one hour and 10 minutes. After that, the battery temperature sharply decreases to reach 28°C in the end. During our intensive browsing test, the battery of our review unit lasted for 11 hours and 30 minutes. The discharging process begins a bit slow but in 10 minutes it speeds up maintaining a steady pace until the battery drops to 2% o fits charge - that's 20 minutes before the end. The battery temperature starts at 33°C, reaches 35°C in 10 minutes, and remains at this level for 8 hours. After that, it continues to increase slowly, measuring 37°C in the end. The video test for battery life uses a 1080p video at 30 fps with a ~20Mbps rate. Our review unit's score from this test is 14 hours and 12 minutes. The discharging process follows the same pattern with a slower start and end. The battery temperature starts at 28°C, reaches 34°C in 1 hour, and remains at this level for the next 5 hours. After that, it increases to 35°C and remains at this level until the end. For the 3D Graphics/Gaming test, the YEBIS OpenGL ES 3.0 3D Tech Demo is used. The result from this test is 8 hours and 24 minutes. The discharging pattern is a bit different with a steady pace from the start until the end. The battery temperature starts at 27°C. After an hour and a half, it reaches 40°C and maintains it until the end.