Oukitel K6000 Pro Review

Oukitel K6000 Pro is an improved variant of the K6000 model. Both are from the already well-known K series of Oukitel smartphones, which pack large batteries and provide much needed autonomy in today's busy way of life. Every component of the device is placed there with one thing in mind - power efficiency. This includes the LTPS display, the two camera sensors, both of which have as a main feature reduced power consumption, and the chipset. Coupled with Android 6.0 Marshmallow's proprietary Doze mode, all this should provide serious battery autonomy. So let's check whether the smartphone lives up to expectations.

Specifications

Oukitel K6000 Pro is built around a 5.5-inch IPS display employing the LTPS technology. It has an FHD resolution and is protected by a 2.5D curved Dragontrail 2 glass. The device's body has a thin aluminum alloy frame and under its hood ticks a MediaTek MT6753 chipset. This 64-bit SoC includes eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.3GHz and a 450MHz tri-core Mali-T720 MP3. Its work is backed by 3GB of single-channel, LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 800MHz. The on board-storage measures 32GB and can be expanded. The smartphone has a dual-SIM card tray, which can be used with two micro-SIM cards with a SIM card and a microSD card for more storage. It supports quad-band 2G GSM, dual-band 3G WCDMA, and penta-band 4G LTE Cat. 4 networks along with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi HotSpot, Bluetooth 4.0, HotKnot, Cast screen, GPS/A-GPS. The camera department of the smartphone includes a 13-megapixel PureCel OV13850 primary shooter with an f/2.0 lens and a dual-LED flash. It is software interpolated to 16-megapixel, while the 5-megapixel selfie snapper with an OV5670 sensor is interpolated to 8-megapixel. Both sensors are very power efficient. In terms of audio, the model features a 6th generation Class K Audio Amplifier AW8736 with no-crack-noise (NCN) technology, ultra-low distortion and constant large volume. The lights are kept on by a beefy 6000 mAh battery by SCUD. It arrives with a fast charger and is coupled with MediaTek Pump Express Plus tech for fast charging. A complete list of the specifications of Oukitel K6000 Pro can be found here.

What's in the box

Oukitel K6000 Pro arrives in a box with an orange top with the company's logo and a white body with a list of the basic specifications of the model on its bottom. Besides the smartphone itself, inside the box are placed a quick guide and warranty certificate, a pin for the SIM tray, a screen protector and a wiping cloth, a silicone protector for the back, a standard USB cable, a reverse OTG cable, and a fast charger.

Design and build

Oukitel K6000 Pro features Oukitel's signature fine crafted design and solid build. You get a device that is relatively bulky, as it weighs 214 grams and is 9.8 mm thin. But hey, there is a 6000 mAh battery inside! Actually, it does not feel awkward at all and fits perfectly in the hand as its width and height are quite manageable - 76.7 mm and 154.3, respectively. The body has a thin and elegant aluminum frame made by using CNC and anodic oxidation processes, which make it lighter, yet tougher. On the front, the Dragontrail 2 glass seamlessly blends into the frame with its 2.5D curved edges, providing protection against scratches and cracks. The model is available in a silver with a white front, dark grey and gold variant. The gold variant has been announced in the end of May, almost 6 months after the official announcement of the model and less than 2 months after the official launch of the device in the market. We are reviewing a silver unit with a white front. In addition, the smartphone is IP64 certified. IP stands for "ingress protection". The first number shows the level of protection against contact and 6 is the highest one meaning "Complete protection against contact, Protection from infiltration of dust". The second number shows the level of waterproofing and 4 means that the device can withstand splashes of water. 9 is the highest level in this regard. The guys from Oukitel have made a video of dropping the K6000 Pro into a muddy puddle and then opening it to see there is no water inside.

Controls

Oukitel K6000 Pro has a classic layout in terms of controls. On the front above the display are positioned the front-facing camera, earpiece and light/proximity sensor. Below the display are three capacitive buttons, which are not backlit. This can be a problem in places without enough light as sometimes the buttons are not visible. On the left of the home button is the menu/options one and on the right is the back button. On top of the device sits a 3.5 mm jack, while at the bottom is the USB port with a noise-cancellation mic. On the left side is mounted a hybrid, dual-SIM tray, which can be used either with two micro-SIM cards, or with a micro-SIM card and a microSD card. On the left side are the volume up-down button and below it is the power one. At the top end of the backside is the rectangular camera module - centrally positioned, with a vertically placed dual-LED flash to its left. Above the camera is a tiny hole, which most probably is the second noise cancellation mic. Below the camera is the round-shaped fingerprint sensor. At the bottom end to the left is the speaker grille with a single speaker inside.

Display

Oukitel K6000 Pro features a 5.5-inch LTPS IPS display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. We have already explored the low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) technology as a preferred one for big displays with large resolutions and pixel densities. The screen is protected by a Dragontrail 2 Glass. It is 30% harder than a standard Dragontrail glass and 8 times harder than the soda-lime glass (the one used in windows, bottles and so on). It has 2.5D curved edges, which fit perfectly with the thin metal frame. Working with the display feels very pleasant, indeed. It is fast and responsive, with vibrant colors and crisp visuals. At a first glance, the display of Oukitel K6000 Pro leaves the impression of being very bright. At 100% of brightness its white luminance value is high - 552.705 cd/m², which matched with the low black luminance value - 0.277 cd/m², end up in a contrast ratio of 1995:1, which is very high as well. The screen has almost the same static contrast ratio at 25% of brightness, while at 75% and 50% it is around the 1700/1800:1 mark, and at 0% brightness drops twice to 930:1. What is more interesting, is that the temperature of the white point exceeds 12000K at all brightness levels and cannot be measured precisely. This means that the colors look cold. The viewing angles are OK in terms of color preservation, but there's a significant loss in brightness. A more interesting fact is that the display covers almost entirely correctly the sRGB color space with very light deviations.

Brightness	White luminance	Black luminance	Contrast	Color temperature
100 %	552.705 cd/m2	0.277 cd/m2	1995 : 1	>12000 K
75 %	368.338 cd/m2	0.206 cd/m2	1788 : 1	>12000 K
50 %	256.794 cd/m2	0.148 cd/m2	1735 : 1	>12000 K
25 %	166.47 cd/m2	0.082 cd/m2	2030 : 1	>12000 K
0 %	18.61 cd/m2	0.020 cd/m2	930 : 0	>12000 K

OS, UI and software

Oukitel K6000 Pro runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. It is almost in stock variant and is coupled with Oukitel's custom skin. On the home screen you get the two rows of docked apps and if you install more, which have to be accessed from the home screen, they will appear on a second, third and so on screen, reachable by swiping forwards and backwards. You can choose between two Themes, named Classical and Sensation. They can be accessed from the Widgets and Wallpapers menu, which opens up after a long press on an empty space on the home screen, from the Settings menu and via the Themes icon in the list of apps. The Volume, Notifications and Quick Settings menus look and are accessed in a standard way. The latter includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options, Cast screen and HotKnot, DND and Airplane mode, Audio profiles and Location, Flashlight and Portrait/Landscape screen rotation. In terms of performance, there are no issues with the software that we've noticed. Everything works fine, including the app permissions system. The Settings menu of Oukitel K6000 Pro is pretty straightforward and if you have prior experience with an Android 6.0 device, you will get around with it quickly. The Wireless & networks section comes first and lacks the Turbo download feature, but includes as a separate menu HotKnot. HotKnot is also deeply integrated as a sharing option with any other app on board that works with files (the camera, video, gallery, etc.). The Device sub-section manages a plethora of features including the Display, Sound, Apps, Storage, Battery, Memory, and of course the gesture management, which is separated in Gesture Motion and Gesture Unlock. The Float Gesture is listed as a separate menu and besides the standard floating dot you're already familiar with from other devices, you also have an option to open the Gestures Builder. It allows you to draw a gesture of your choice and assign it to a special task/app. In addition, the final section - System, includes the Smart Somatosensory menu, which has an extensive list of options how to interact with the device via gestures. Of course, in this section you also get the standard Date & time, Scheduled power on & off, Accessibility and About Phone. The Personal section of the Settings lets you adjust the Location, Security, Accounts, Language and Backup & reset options. Here are also included the Fingerprint menu and the Google menu. The latter has become a standard feature in Marshmallow smartphones. As per standard for Marshmallow devices, on the home screen is placed a classic App Tray icon. When clicked it opens up the list of apps. Typically for Oukitel, you get only the most basic set of apps pre-installed, including the Google ones - Gmail, Google Now, Maps, Play Store, Photos, and Voice Search. The only off-standard thing is the existence of a Themes app and a Wireless update icon. The list of apps orders them alphabetically, but the top row of most frequently used ones (typical for the stock OS) is missing.

Networks, calls and connectivity

Oukitel K6000 Pro supports quad-band 2G GSM (850, 90, 1800, 1900 MHz), dual-band 3G WCDMA (900, 2100 MHz), and penta-band 4G FDD-LTE Cat. 4 (800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz) networks. It works with two micro-SIM cards in a dual standby mode, but the second slot may be used for a microSD card in case you need more storage. The smartphone behaved perfectly as long as it concerns reception and call quality. There have been no issues with the other types of connections it provides. It supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi HotSpot. During the test period it was capable to get Wi-Fi signal even in areas with generally weak signal. Bluetooth connections with other devices have also been established without problems (Bluetooth 4.0). The model supports USB On-the-Go, which works perfectly and is a very convenient feature. Moreover, it arrives with a reverse OTG cable, so it can power other devices. Additional connectivity functions of the device include HotKnot and Cast screen. As long as it concerns GPS/A-GPS service, the smartphone managed to detect navigation satellite quickly and with great accuracy of up to 2 meters.

Performance

Performance-wise, Oukitel K6000 Pro relies on a MediaTek MT6753 chipset, which includes a 1.3GHz octa-core CPU and a 450Mhz tri-core Mali-T720 MP3 GPU. This SoC does a perfect job in providing the power you need for multitasking, while still being pretty power efficient. Of course, no one would expect that heavy-graphics games and apps will go fluently, but this is not the purpose of the chipset anyways. Yet, you may enjoy games and apps that are not very demanding in terms of graphics. The AnTuTu and Geekbench 3 results are of no surprise, either - 37353 and 535/2533, respectively. The on-board LPDDR3 RAM measures 3GB. It is single-channel, clocked at 800MHz and definitely helps the device to run smoothly through its day-to-day tasks. The internal memory is 32GB and can be expanded. Of it 26.49GB are available to the user. The Androbench results show excellent reading speeds and very good writing speeds. The smartphone has several integrated sensors such as proximity, light, accelerometer, and Hall (orientation) sensor. There is a fingerprint sensor as well, placed on the back below the camera. The app that manages is it standard. Saving a fingerprint ID is easy and unlocking the phone via the sensor is very quick and convenient.

Cameras

Oukitel K6000 Pro's primary camera features a 13-megapixel OmniVision OV13850 PureCel sensor, which offers a 40% reduction in power consumption compared to the previous generation of OmniVision sensor. It has an optical size of 1/3.06", a 1.12 Вµm pixel and operates at 30fps for zero shutter lag. It is coupled with an f/2.0 lens and dual-LED flash. The output images are software interpolated to 16-megapixel. The front-facing unit packs a 5-megpaixel OV5670 PureCel sensor with a 1.12 Вµm pixel, but the photos are software interpolated to 8-megapixel ones. This sensor is very power efficient as well by consuming 35% less power than its previous generation and has an additional ultra low power mode. The camera app of the smartphone is really basic and unaltered. It allows you to adjust the exposure, scene mode, white balance, ISO, and other standard properties. You can also choose to take photos not with a 16MP resolution, but with their native one, which is advisable.

Primary camera

Secondary camera

Audio

In terms of audio, Oukitel K6000 Pro is equipped with a 6th generation Class K Audio Amplifier AW8736 with no-crack-noise (NCN) technology, ultra-low distortion and constant large volume. It has an integrated K-Chargepump booster circuit, which maintains the power output even if the battery voltage goes down. We tested the audio of the device by using the RightMark Audio Analyzer software and the TASCAM US-2x2 audio interface. The overall result is Very Good and the smartphone excels in frequency response. However, it shows an Average result in THD + Noise and a Good only result at measuring the total harmonic distortion and the IMD at 10 kHz. The absolute values and the estimations are typical for an average smartphone audio setup.

Test	Value	RMAA rating
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB	+0.03, -0.10	Excellent
Noise level, dB (A)	-93.8	Very Good
Dynamic range, dB (A)	93.8	Very Good
THD, %	0.013	Good
THD + Noise, dB (A)	-75.2	Average
IMD + Noise, %	0.018	Very good
Stereo crosstalk, dB	-79.2	Very good
IMD at 10 kHz, %	0.021	Good
General performance		Very good

Battery

Oukitel K6000 Pro packs a 6000 mAh Li-Pol battery, which is non-removable. It is made by SCUD - one of the top and most reliable battery manufacturers in China. According to the specifications the accumulator should provide up to 46 hours of talk time and 360 hours of standby time. It arrives with a fast charger with output of 5V;7V;9V/2A and a reverse OTG cable, meaning you can use the smartphone as a power bank for charging other devices. The battery is also coupled with MediaTek's Pump Express Plus. It is an alternative to Qialcomm's Quick Charge 2.0. During the testing, the 6000 mAh battery charged from 0% to 100% for 2 hours and 17 minutes! In order to charge the first 50% it needed a solid hour. The PCMark test showed 12 hours and 59 minutes work battery life, which is really impressive and entirely lives up to expectations. The test has been performed with the brightness level calibrated at 200 cd/sq.m. as recommended by Futuremark.

Final thoughts

Oukitel K6000 Pro will definitely appeal to those of you who are looking for a reliable smartphone with a big battery that does not drain fast and charges quickly. On top of that it has a nice display, classic design, solid build, and IP64 certification coupled with a very affordable price currently starting from $150. There are not many smartphones in the market with a 5.5-inch FHD display and a 6000 mAh battery (or larger) that are protected against dust and splashes of water, so the K6000 Pro is definitely worth a serious consideration.