Hotwav Cyber X Pro Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

HOTWAV Cyber X Pro - brutal technologies

Rugged smartphones at the turn of the middle and high price segments have undergone great changes over the past few years. Developers do not hesitate to experiment with the functionality of such phones, improve their technical characteristics and photo capabilities. So, the Chinese company HOTWAV pleased its fans with the new Cyber X Pro, which is actually the flagship of the developer. And let you not be confused by its more than a modest price tag, the gadget is really capable of surprising.

Specifications HOTWAV Cyber X Pro:

• 6.78-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2460x1080 pixels, a refresh rate of 60 hertz (90 hertz is stated);

• 0.96 inch secondary AMOLED screen;

• MediaTek Helio G99 processor;

• 12 GB RAM, 256 GB ROM, microSD card slot;

• 10200 mAh battery, 33 W fast charging

• 181.8 x 85.1 x 17.5mm, 380g

• 108 MP main camera, f/1.9, 84°, 1/1.52", Samsung ISOCELL HM2, 8 MP wide-angle camera, f/2.2, 120°, 1/4.00", OmniVision OV8856, 0.3 MP depth sensor;

• front camera: 16 MP, f/2.2, 83°, 1/4.00", Samsung ISOCELL 3P3;

• Android 13;

• IP68;

• NFC

The smartphone begins to deliver the first positive emotions already with its bundle. Inside the black cardboard box, not only the phone itself is waiting for us, but also:

• USB Type-C cable;

• OTG cable;

• USB Type-C adapter for wired headphones (3.5mm);

• tempered protective glass, as well as dry and wet wipes;

• a needle to open the SIM card tray;

• 33W charger;

• user manual (there is also a Russian language).

Not every protected device can boast of such a set. The quality of the components is beyond question.

The appearance of the novelty will turn out to be imperfect, but memorable. Let's start with the obvious flaws. These include large display bezels and huge dimensions of the device, due to both moisture protection according to IP68 standards and an extremely capacious battery. There are many more advantages to the exterior. A stylish block of three photomodules, an additional AMOLED display for displaying the time and some notifications, a back panel stylized as leather, a side fingerprint scanner - it's hard not to praise the final design. On the upper side there is a microphone hole, on the left side there is a SIM / MicroSD card tray, a separate programmable button, on the bottom there are holes for the second microphone and for the speaker, on the right side there are volume and power buttons in addition to the fingerprint sensor. As a result, HOTWAV Cyber X Pro will not disappoint any fan of rugged smartphones with its appearance.

The main display is a 6.78-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2460x1080 pixels. There are no problems with image clarity visible to the naked eye, but there is no increased refresh rate and, as a result, smoothness. Fortunately, the performance of the technical characteristics allows you not to think about the jamming of the operating system. The margin of brightness is quite high, if you wish, you can see the displayed image even in the direct rays of the summer sun, even if its visibility is noticeably reduced. At angles of inclination, the image is not distorted, but decently fades. Auto brightness causes mixed emotions. 95% of the time it functions correctly, but sometimes the system overestimates it to the maximum. There is an oleophobic layer, albeit not the most effective. The developer declared a screen refresh rate of 90Hz, but the corresponding item in the menu to activate it was never found. All applications launched were running at 60 frames per second. As a result, the IPS display leaves a positive impression, although it shows the manufacturer's attempts to reduce the cost of the smartphone.

Special mention deserves an additional AMOLED display, with a diagonal of just under one inch. You can configure its performance in the settings (BackScreen). Unfortunately, this sub-item is not translated into English, but in order to achieve full functionality, it is recommended to set the settings as shown in the screenshot. There are also several types of interface and call display. Thus, an additional display is a fully functional and useful feature that partially replaces the Always-On Display technology.

The smartphone runs on Android 13 without any special add-ons. The interface is smooth, intuitive, no critical bugs were found during the use of the device. Of the minuses, we highlight the lack of translation of some settings menu items and problems with the performance of the MirPay application. The device will be able to pay in the hypermarket only with the help of the less functional SberPay. The fingerprint scanner and face unlocking of the smartphone work correctly.

The technical characteristics of the novelty were the MediaTek Helio G99 processor, 12GB of RAM and the Mali G57 MC2 video adapter. The bundle can hardly be called new, but it remains relevant in smartphones of the middle price segment. Let's consider the performance of the chipset in more detail.

In the AnTuTu Benchmark v10.0.1 test, the HOTWAV Cyber X Pro scored 371650 points. You can find detailed information about passing the test in the screenshot above.

The device received 730 points in single-core and 2037 points in multi-core GeekBench 6 benchmark.

The CPU Throttling Test benchmark was run for 30 minutes with 100 threads. The smartphone demonstrates a performance of 189.42 GIPS, the drop in test results was 20%. It can hardly be called significant; in games, it is not necessary to observe a serious drop in the frame rate during long gameplay sessions. The heating of the device after passing all the tests is not strong, the back cover feels warm, but not hot.

Let's move on to gaming tests. PUBG Mobile is one of the most popular shooters on Android to this day. There is a merit in this as well-thought-out gameplay, as well as high-quality graphics. The drawing range reaches several hundred meters, so projects need a fast processor. With medium graphics settings, the gameplay was extremely smooth, friezes, lags were observed in rare situations when loading a part of the location. However, this is more of a gaming issue than a lack of CPU performance.

Genshin Impact will soon be three years old, but even today you can not find such a beautiful, technologically advanced game project with such a thorough study of the open world. At maximum graphics settings, the game is easy to confuse with a different PS4 title, however, the corresponding presets are only available on smartphones with flagship processors. On HOTWAV Cyber X Pro, it is recommended to set low graphics settings and a frame rate of 45 frames per second. The gameplay cannot be called perfectly smooth, however, friezes occur only when loading a new part of the location, while noticeable drops in FPS are observed only in large-scale battles with an abundance of special effects. You can and even need to get acquainted with the project on the phone in question.

A collection of great games can be found in the PSP handheld console library. To run them, the PPSSPP emulator was installed on the device. Hits such as Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, Burnout Revenge, Twisted Metal Head-On function perfectly at 3X rendering at the original resolution of the console. The picture is clear, smooth, there are no subsidence of the framerate.

The autonomy of the gadget from a single battery charge of 10200mAh was also tested. Benchmark PCMark Battery Test 3.0 shows a result of 20 hours 4 minutes, this is a result well above average. With everyday use, you can count on about 2.5 days of active use of the device. As for the speed of charging the battery, everything is not so simple here. The power of the charger at 33W is only enough for the battery to gain 100% capacity in about 3 and a half hours.

The photographic capabilities of the main cameras should be considered in terms of the quality of the main 108-megapixel Samsung HM2 sensor. The daytime photos he took are very good, considering the price tag of the HOTWAV Cyber X Pro and its belonging to the middle price segment. Detailing is very good, the module tries to gently blur the background if necessary, to preserve the natural reproduction of colors. Of course, sometimes artificial intelligence adds contrast. Autofocus is correct, there were no problems with it. But the camera does not always determine the exposure correctly, especially if bright and dark objects coexist in the photo. In manual mode, adjusting the exposure is also not easy. With small steps, the changes are minimal, but as soon as the slider is moved a little more, we see either overexposure or a too dark picture. We hope that this will be corrected with updates. When the lighting deteriorates, noises begin to appear in the photographs, blurring is possible, which is the norm for photomodules without optical stabilization. But at the same time, it’s hard not to see the camera’s efforts to preserve detail, competently brighten the frame. Thus, the photo capabilities of the gadget left positive emotions.

The front 16-megapixel photomodule suffers from exposure problems much more. Sometimes you can get an unexposed selfie with only a few takes. At the same time, there are no problems with detailing the frames, both the texture of the skin and the color rendition of the environment are correctly transmitted.

A single speaker is responsible for the sound in the device. Unfortunately, it is not able to surprise with the sound quality. The maximum volume of 85 dB (up to 89 dB in peaks) is not bad, but some competitors are ready to replace inexpensive Bluetooth speakers with their more or less balanced frequency response and lack of distortion. HOTWAV There is no separate headphone jack. This is modern fashion. The Mifo O5 II Gen 2 TWS headphones connected to the phone via the AAC codec, AptX is not provided, which is disappointing. As a result, we get the sound of wireless headphones, inferior to that of the OnePlus 9RT and Realme GT2 smartphones. The difference is noticeable mainly in the quality of the upper frequencies. Thus, you should not expect excellent sound from the device, but the buyer will definitely not be left without his favorite music.

The quality of the connection did not raise any complaints. No difference was found between the HOTWAV Cyber X Pro and the previously mentioned phones from BBK. The voice of the interlocutor is recognizable, there are no distortions, there are no complaints about the quality of the microphone. GSM connection reception is also decent and completely similar to that of OnePlus and Realme. But the Internet connection is slightly weaker. Where the above gadgets still retained 4G, the device was already switching to 2G / 3G. WiFi connection is stable even 6-7 meters from the source through 2 walls.

The smartphone can also be used as a GPS navigator. Below you can see the results of the GPS test indoors and in relatively open areas (high-rise buildings). The results are good, the error is relatively low.

GPS indoors

GPS in the open air

The SIM card tray opens with a special hook needle, but the opening system itself is not very well thought out. Not every user will be able to do without small scratches.

We list the main advantages and disadvantages of the considered smartphone.

Pros:

• pleasant appearance for a smartphone with moisture protection;

• not devoid of brightness and clarity of the image IPS-display;

• current processor MediaTek Helio G99, 12GB of RAM;

• impressive 256GB of ROM, which can be expanded with MicroSD cards;

• convenient side fingerprint sensor;

• additional AMOLED display;

• huge 10200mAh battery;

• NFC support;

• good photographic capabilities of the main 108-megapixel photomodule.

Minuses:

• excessive body dimensions and, as a result, poor ergonomics;

• problems with setting the required exposure for cameras (especially for the front);

• the presence of problems with the software (some menu items are not translated, SberPay does not work).

As a result, HOTWAV Cyber X Pro is a durable, functional and extremely long-lasting smartphone that can go through fire and water with its user. Only not the most optimized software can spoil the impression of the device. In other parameters, namely the quality of the display, performance, network reception, autonomy, photo capabilities, the gadget is not inferior to competitors in the price category and definitely deserves attention.

For the smartphone provided for review, we express our gratitude to the HOTWAV Official Store.