Shock and water protection in a slim design

The Cubot KingKong ES smartphone was released for users who need an inexpensive, durable device with protection from shocks, falls and moisture, but who are not ready to put up with the huge dimensions and weight of most Chinese armored phones. For some reason, it so happens that if a smartphone receives a protected case, then it will definitely receive a monstrous battery, which will undoubtedly turn it into a thick, thick brick. Moreover, the Chinese are stuffing everything they have in their warehouses into such smartphones: built-in projectors, laser rangefinders, infrared cameras and even thermal imagers. Some may need this, but most are not ready to overpay for unnecessary functions and want to get a simple and inexpensive secure device. This is what Cubot KingKong ES is: the most affordable smartphone without unnecessary bells and whistles, one of the cheapest armored cars on the market.

It is worth understanding that the Cubot KingKong ES is an inexpensive phone for communication and the Internet, so you definitely shouldn’t expect cool camera shots or 120 fps from it in Genshin Impact. To identify the target audience, I suggest you immediately familiarize yourself with the technical characteristics.

As for the price, at the time of writing the review it is $102, you can check the current price Here.

video version of the review

The equipment is normal: there is a cable and a charger, as well as a whole stack of various instructions, information booklets and thanks personally from the head of the company, the chairman of the People's Republic of China and the employees who turned the nuts when assembling the device.

As a bonus, protective glass was added to the package. By the way, there was also a protective film on the screen, but I took it off almost immediately, because it got scuffed from change in my pocket literally in the first few days.

The charger is as simple as possible, with a power of 10W.

Accordingly, the charging time extends to more than 3 hours. In general, the charging algorithm is a little strange. At the beginning, the smartphone takes the maximum 10W and charges at a normal pace:

• 30 minutes – 21%

• 1 hour – 41%

• 1 hour 30 minutes – 60%

• 2 hours – 77% (here the power begins to drop)

• 2 hours 30 minutes – 91%

• 3 hours – 99%

At this stage, you can, in principle, remove the smartphone from charging, because then the power drops to 1.5W, of which part comes from the controller and part from the notification indicator (LED).

If you still leave it to charge until the end, the time will increase to 4 hours 11 minutes. But there is no point in this unless you charge your smartphone overnight. That is, in fact we have from 0 to 99% in 3 hours and from 0% to the “cutoff” – 4 hours 11 minutes.

You won't be able to charge your smartphone faster, even if you use a more powerful charger. That is, in our case, power limitation occurs through the controller itself; there is no support for fast charging protocols.

Appearance and features

Let's look at the appearance of Cubot KingKong ES. The smartphone inherits the general features of rugged smartphones and combines bright decorative elements with a brutal, angular design. The reinforced corners are designed to absorb impacts when falling; the plastic in such places is “softer” and more reminiscent of dense rubber. The back looks unusual and interesting, but the designer’s idea is not entirely clear to me. The area with the cameras is designed in the style of a dial, and in the central part there is a carbon fiber insert.

The texture of carbon always looks interesting and is appropriate in protected devices. But why only a small window?

The logic of placing the second markers on the camera’s “bezel” and why there was a round platform in the first place is also not entirely clear.

Overall, the smartphone looks very interesting and definitely doesn’t feel like a budget device, which it essentially is. What is more important here is the general attitude towards the design: you either immediately like it or not.

The side parts are reinforced with metal plates, which add +100500 to the survivability of the smartphone.

I was able to verify this while walking through a rocky area, when, while trying to take a photo, the smartphone fell out of my hands and fell edge-on onto a sharp stone, having traveled a couple more meters. There was a small scratch on the metal plate (it can even be seen in the photo), and a small “kick” appeared on the SIM card cover. And that's all. If my main Galaxy Note 10 Plus had been there instead, it would have shattered into myriads of fragments, and subsequent repairs would naturally not be cost-effective. In general, if your work or lifestyle involves certain risks for your smartphone, then you should take a protected device, at least as a “replacement device.” Now I noticed that some people began to buy such smartphones as a second device for fishing, hunting, etc., while in “civilian” life the main use is an iPhone or an expensive flagship on Android.

To control the smartphone, there are separate volume buttons and a lock button with a built-in fingerprint scanner. Unlike the under-screen sensor, this one works well with wet or even dirty hands. Recognition speed is instant. On the opposite side there is another programmable button to which you can assign up to 3 tasks (short press, long press and double tap). All buttons are made of metal, are clearly visible tactilely and are pressed with a distinct click.

At the end there is a USB connector, which, similar to a SIM card slot, is closed with a rubber plug. The plugs are very tight and the first few times I had to use considerable force to close them tightly. Over time, the rubber developed a little and the plugs began to open/close a little easier. However, it is very difficult to do this without an additional device, so the included tool turned out to be very useful.

You can listen to music only with wireless headphones, as there is no audio output here. Or use an adapter from type-C to 3.5 audio, which is not very convenient with a plug. There are no questions about the sound quality in the headphones. Usual quality, like any other non-flagship smartphone. There is one audio speaker and is located on the back. The ringtone sound is loud; the volume is more than enough to watch videos. In terms of quality, it is naturally mediocre: the sound lacks volume, and the frequencies are dominated by the upper register.

Another small but interesting element is the lanyard hook.

But of course, the main feature of the Cubot KingKong ES rugged smartphone is its thickness of 12.8 mm. In fact, it is only slightly superior to ordinary civilian smartphones in a case, making the smartphone convenient to carry in your pocket in everyday life. Holding the smartphone in your hand also doesn’t feel like a brick, and the weight of the device, 268 g, is quite acceptable. In fact, the smartphone has the dimensions of an ordinary smartphone, but at the same time has received strong armor. And this is exactly what many users lacked, because most rugged smartphones are almost 2 times heavier and much thicker, equipped with “extra” functions and, as a result, cost 2–3 times more. And then try to fit this monster into your shorts pocket in the summer. In the best case, it simply won’t fit in there; in the worst case, you’ll have to pull them up every 100 meters so as not to end up in just your underpants 🙂

Now let's look at the front part. Of course, here we will see huge (by modern standards) screen frames. This is due to the security of the display and if the frames were ordinary, the screen would crack to hell when it fell on the stones, of course. I really like the protruding silhouette of the case, which resembles ears. In addition to the external component, these ears are also aimed at protecting against a fall on the end. The screen is also well protected, as it is slightly recessed relative to the frame of the case. If you stick on a protective glass (included), it will level out the difference, and dust will not get clogged in the corners. But at the same time, protection from an unpleasant encounter with asphalt will remain.

The front camera in the form of a drop takes up very little space from the display. And now I want to draw your attention to something that will make perfectionists’ hair stand on end. Pay attention to the earpiece, which is strongly shifted to the left. Is this also possible?

By the way, the smartphone is equipped with a notification indicator (it’s already old school). Previously, this was a very important element, without which the smartphone was doomed to be useless and burned in the firebox. Now, with the advent of smart watches and bracelets, it itself has become practically useless.

As for the display itself, it uses a 6.56″ IPS matrix with a resolution of 1612 x 720, i.e. HD+. A regular budget display with an “Asian” white balance setting, where cool shades predominate. If you wish, you can correct this moment from the settings by making a shift to warm colors. Among the pleasant things, we can note the refresh rate increased to 90 Hz and a good maximum brightness of around 650 nits, which is enough for outdoor use.

The detail of 269 ppi is confusing only on paper; in real life, excessive pixelation is not visible, even small text has sufficient detailing. So, for a regular 15.6″ laptop with Full HD resolution, this figure is 141, but no one’s eyes have bled yet. Color rendering is neutral, there are no visual deviations.

At an acute angle, the glow effect appears and the black color fades into gray, which is normal for IPS displays. Contrast and brightness also drop slightly.

Filling with white showed no deviations, no dead pixels, and good backlight uniformity.

Filling with black showed minimal highlights in the corners, but overall a very good level for a smartphone with an IPS matrix, and especially a budget phone.

The ripple factor is at its minimum values ​​at all brightness levels.

The display is flicker-free and easy to see, and slight modulation occurs at very high frequencies. That is, it can be used for reading, including in the dark (in this case, it is also worth activating the night backlight, which will reduce the intensity of blue light).

Software part

The stock version of Android 14 is responsible for the software part: a minimal set of standard applications, the absence of any additional add-ons and “improvements.” On the one hand, this is boring, because famous manufacturers like Xiaomi or Samsung have long been offering their shells with significantly expanded capabilities both in terms of functionality and appearance. On the other hand, this is good, because a clean system is as simple as possible for the user and is not burdened with unnecessary bells and whistles that load the RAM. When it comes to speed, the smartphone is really fast and thanks to the 90 Hz refresh rate, it runs smoothly and responsively. However, sometimes there are slight micro freezes out of the blue, which is of course due to the low-power Unisoc chipset. However, speaking in general, the smartphone fully works out its value and demanding more from it would be arrogance.

One useful thing to note is the standard image setting in terms of color temperature, with which you can reduce the saturation of cold tones and move the spectrum to the warmer side. There's also a video enhancement feature that boosts brightness and contrast in specified apps.

There are 3 positions for setting the refresh rate: forced 60 Hz to save battery, forced 90 Hz for better smoothness, and automatic mode, which automatically selects the refresh rate depending on what is happening on the smartphone. For example, the smartphone itself will turn on 60 Hz when watching a video on Youtube and return to 90 Hz when going to the main screen. There are also settings for the notification light, various gestures and a “pocket” mode, but this is also standard history for Android 14.

But as for the smartphone settings itself, you can assign up to 3 different actions to the smart button. For example, a long press will turn on the flashlight, and a double press will launch the camera. A useful thing, and the Chinese have been using additional buttons on their smartphones for many years. The iPhone only got to this point last year…

You can also find a memory expansion function, which, using the drive, will add 10 GB to the total amount of RAM, increasing its total amount to 16 GB. As I have already said many times, this function is of little use, because the speed of the drive is still not enough for normal operation as a RAM. But in case of a total lack of RAM, this function can be useful. However, for a budget device, 6 GB of real physical RAM should be quite enough, unless you open 100 tabs in the browser. In general, the firmware is as simple and clear as possible; there is an over-the-air update. If serious bugs are discovered, you can hope for an update with bug fixes. There have been no updates yet, but the smartphone only recently went on sale.

Benchmarks and tests

The smartphone runs on an 8-core Unisoc Tiger T606 chipset, which cannot offer the user either high performance or particular efficiency. Its only advantage is its low cost, which allows you to make your carrier as accessible as possible. The chipset allows you to comfortably work with light applications like instant messengers or social networks, watch videos from YouTube or TikTok, and also use a browser. You don't even have to think about games. Something simple, a smart device will certainly handle it, but modern projects like Genshin Impact or Call of Duty will not provide comfortable FPS even with low graphics settings. In general, no one is considering such devices for gaming; it is a utilitarian tool for communication and the Internet in aggressive conditions of use, nothing more.

Actually, the results of popular benchmarks confirm the above with their modest numbers.

The 128 GB drive has good speed qualities, which affects the overall performance. Launching applications, working with the file system – everything is at a decent level. The storage capacity is enough to download several seasons of a TV series, an impressive collection of music onto your smartphone, and generally not deny yourself anything. And if this is not enough, there is support for working with micro SD memory cards.

Navigation is present in the form of support for GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou systems. The signal seems to be seen well, but the accuracy is average, around 5 – 6 meters. There is a magnetic compass.

Camera

I had absolutely zero expectations from a smartphone camera for 100 bucks, so in some ways it pleasantly surprised me. In daylight, the camera produces readable images.

In automatic mode, the saturation and contrast are too high; to avoid this, you need to turn off the HDR mode.

In low light, the risk of getting a blurry photo greatly increases, so after pressing the button, it is better to hold the camera still for a couple of seconds. When shooting at night, detail drops noticeably, and post-processing of images is practically absent.

Autonomy

Cubot KingKong ES is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 5100 mAh, which is the “average room temperature” in 2024. This is not a monster of autonomy, but it can provide a couple of days of work. For me it easily lasts for 2 days in the mode: calls + cart + browser. But this is without getting stuck into videos and games. Purely as a communication tool. I used to watch YouTube non-stop. At maximum brightness in full-screen mode with Full HD quality, the video played for 9 hours and 1 minute. When brightness was reduced to 50%, playback time increased to 16 hours. In mixed operating mode (Work 3.0 test), the smartphone worked continuously for 13 hours 49 minutes. Nothing Phone (2a) with the same battery lasted 16 hours 24 minutes in this test, but it also had a much more energy-efficient chipset and an OLED screen. So the operating time is quite adequate for its hardware and battery size.

Results

Cubot KingKong ES is an inexpensive rugged smartphone in a relatively thin body. We can say that this is a modern device for communication and the Internet, which is not afraid of harsh conditions: dirt, moisture, as well as accidental shocks and falls. At the same time, it looks quite adequate and even a little sporty, especially against the backdrop of huge nut crackers, which most often only cause smiles from outside observers. To hell with them, let them smile, but not everyone wants to carry around a huge thick brick with a searchlight, projector and hadron collider. Also with a price similar to this very collider… Here is a super affordable device that you won’t mind if something happens. An armored car like this for a hundred bucks so that you can work with it in the workshop, take it on fishing trips, and give it to small children without fear. At the same time, in everyday life it will not look like a dinosaur if you want to read the news in transport or run maps to navigate in an unfamiliar city.