WickedLeak Wammy Note Review

VERDICT:

It’s hard to recommend the WickedLeak Wammy Note at Rs. 11,000. It offers what the competition does but doesn’t bring anything new to the table. We have devices like the Magicon mNote or the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 that are better value for money. We suggest you take a look at the competition before making your purchase decision.

Today we have with us the WickedLeak Wammy Note. Not only does it have the word “Note” in its name, but it looks just like the first generation Samsung Galaxy Note and sports the same wallpaper. Does it manage to copy the performance as well?

Build and Design
Just like the WickedLeak Wammy Sensation looks like a copy of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Wammy Note looks like the Samsung Galaxy Note. One look at the device and you would be forgiven for thinking that it is a Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 (the first generation Galaxy Note).

On the face the WickedLeak Wammy Note has a 5-inch display that is quite big. It’s clear that WickedLeak doesn’t want you to mistake this device as the Galaxy Note as there is “WickedLeak” clearly written at the rear of the device. Below the display is the physical home button that also doubles up as the multitasking button. To the left of this button is the capacitive menu button and to the right rests a capacitive back button. Very Samsung Galaxy Note-like!

The rear of the Cloud Z5 has the same matte textured black finish that is found on the Note and that isn’t a bad thing as it adds to the grip of the device. At the top of the device we have the on/off/sleep/wake button whereas to the right we have the volume rocker. The bottom houses the microUSB port that is used for charging as well as data transfer. There is also a button on the left of the device that looks like the power button but it doesn’t do anything. It looks like this button is there just for show.

At the bottom, we also have what looks like the housing of a stylus. Pull it out however and you will be surprised to see that it is an antenna for analogue TV that is built into the device. The WickedLeak Wammy Note isn’t too heavy at 192 grams but it isn’t the lightest phablet out there.

For a Rs. 11,000 device, the Wammy Note feels very well built, but we have seen similar build quality from sub-Rs. 10k devices. It has taken design cues from an already successful device so there isn’t much we can crib about here.

Features and Specifications
To start with the specifications, the WickedLeak Wammy Note has a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels (186 ppi). It is powered by a 1GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM and runs on Android 4.0 ICS straight out of the box. The best part is that the OS is a vanilla experience. There is no skin overlaying it. The phablet has 4GB built-in storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card.

The rear of the Wammy Note has an 8MP camera with an LED flash and the front has a VGA camera for video calling. The device doesn’t come with any preloaded apps apart from the analogue TV. For the most part of our testing, the Analogue TV didn’t run and we really didn’t expect it to either.

The specifications under the WickedLeak Wammy Note’s hood are quite average when compared to other budget phablets, especially since some of them boast of dual-core processors.

Performance
For a Rs. 11,000 phablet we thought it would be an average performer and we weren’t disappointed with what the device offered us. The colours on the display are quite well represented if you are looking at browsing the web and using the phone for everyday work. But play videos on the device and you will be disappointed. The colours looks very washed out especially on full brightness and the black levels seem non-existent.

The touchscreen of the WickedLeak Wammy Note too isn’t the most responsive. After a few days use, we started noticing lag as well as a lack of responsiveness. This was rectified with a quick restart.

The audio output from the loudspeaker isn’t great, but it isn’t bad either. In terms of calls the loudspeaker is a tad softer than we’d like and is good for apps. It is also quite soft when it comes to videos.

In terms of the raw performance, it competes with the other mid-range phablets, the Spice Stellar Horizon and the Mercury MagiQ. You can take a look at the benchmark scores below.

From the above benchmark scores it is clear that the Wammy Note falls between the two competing devices. It isn’t the worst with its raw performance, but it isn’t the best either.

To call the Wammy Note the poor man’s Galaxy Note would be an misconception. It doesn’t bring anything new to the scenario apart from a larger display. Watching videos on the device too wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Browsing the internet on the WickedLeak Wammy Note is quite a good experience and zooming into text and the scaling of websites is smooth too. You can even access office on the go via apps and working on them is quite comfortable courtesy – big display. The keyboard is a two-thumb job as it is very difficult to type with one hand.

Now comes the two of the most important questions – battery life and call performance.

A 2000mAh battery powers the Wammy Note, which is a standard. We have seen the Zync Cloud Z5 that has a 2500mAh battery, so the Wammy Note doesn’t have the best battery in its class. In the real world usage test, the device can last a little over a day with above average use. The background sync was always on and we used to device for a lot of social networking, some messaging and calls.

Just like the other budget phablets, the Wammy Note boasts of dual-SIM capabilities and the call quality from the device was good. There was however those occasional moments when we faced some random call drops.

Bottom Line
For Rs. 11,000 it’s hard to recommend the WickedLeak Wammy Note. It offers what the competition does but doesn’t bring anything new to the table. We have devices like the Magicon mNote or the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 that are better value for money. We suggest you take a look at the competition before making your purchase decision.