The Ice 2 display shows 1280x720 pixels and is an IPS-matrix with no air gap. Taking into account the cost of the smartphone, many users would like to see Full HD resolution in such a Highscreen, but technological realities are making their own adjustments. Oddly enough, in smartphones with a diagonal of 4.6 inches and above, only the HTC One M7 and a few Vertu smartphones offer 1920x1080 resolution. Neither the Xperia Z3 Compact nor the iPhone 6 have bothered to fit the cherished 1080p into compact smartphones.

Therefore, the Ice 2 display should be considered in comparison with its “classmates”. In this regard, it shows itself well: the clarity of the picture is at a height, the anti-reflective coating and the aforementioned absence of an air gap minimize the amount of glare on a sunny day, and the brightness level roughly corresponds to the same HTC One M7. The viewing angles are great, the picture only darkens slightly when the tilt of the smartphone approaches the limit values.

Unusual is the obvious shift of the picture towards warm shades, and some users will be upset by the multitouch indicators - the display supports only 5 simultaneous touches.

Iron

Highscreen Ice 2 is based on the MediaTek MT6592 chip. "People's eight-core" was introduced back in November 2013: it became a high-profile event in the mobile industry, after which Qualcomm "strained" and even released an anti-advertising video with criticism of its competitor and the eight-core in general.

The guys from California really had a reason to get nervous - already at the start MT6592 was on a par with the Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T. Previously, mobile eight-core processors used big.LITTLE technology, when 4 economical cores were used in low load mode, and in power-intensive applications they were replaced by a quartet of productive cores. MT6592 was one of the first mobile processors capable of using all 8 cores at once. But sensible optimization for such a number of threads in Android has not yet happened, so the muscular MediaTek chip has become "good" and settled in smartphones of the middle price segment.

The eight MT6592 cores are based on the economical Cortex-A7 architecture and operate at 1.7 GHz. The video accelerator is a quad-core Mali 450MP, clocked at 700 MHz - a mediocre solution in terms of gaming performance. But the video accelerator received hardware support for video playback up to Ultra HD resolution in H265 format.

The chip does not support work in 4G networks - the corresponding modification with the MT6595 index was released by MediaTek only in mid-2014, and it is still poorly distributed among smartphone manufacturers.

Smartphones running MT6592 are roughly equivalent in terms of performance to modifications Samsung Galaxy S4, Xiaomi Mi2S or LG Nexus 4.

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At the end of last year, the company "Vobis-Computer", which owns by the Highscreen brand, presented on the Russian market the flagship smartphone Ice 2, which favorably differs from the previous models of the company with a glass body, a second display for notifications and a dedicated Wolfson 8918C audio chip. The novelty went on sale at a price of 14,990 rubles, which, given the weakening of the ruble, is not so much. Whether the device is worth its money - we find out in the review.

Specifications Highscreen Ice 2:

• Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), WCDMA (900/2100 MHz)
• Platform (at the time of announcement): Android 4.4 KitKat
• Display: 4.7 ", 1280x720 pixels, IPS OGS, 312 ppi, Gorilla Glass 3
• Additional screen: OLED, 23 x 5 mm
• Camera: 13 MP, autofocus, flash, Sony IMX214 sensor
• Front camera: 2 MP
• Processor: 8 cores, 1.7 GHz, MediaTek MT6592
• Graphics: Mali-450 MP4
• RAM: 2 GB
• Internal memory: 16 GB
• Memory card: microSD
• Two SIM slots
• Bluetooth 4.0
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11b / g / n)
• Audio chip Wolfson 8918C
• Battery: built-in, 2500 mAh
• Dimensions: 138 x 67.6 x 8.7mm
• Weight: 135g

Unboxing and video review

Complete set and design

The phone comes in a fairly stylish package that includes a block charger(1A), a cable with a kind of light bulb that glows red or blue when charging, a wired headset with vacuum headphones and a flat wire, a metal clip for removing SIM cards, instructions and a warranty card. The smartphone is packed in a shipping bag and pasted over with films, the front of which suggests turning the device over and evaluating its second screen. Of course, the screen is a loud saying. Here we have a small OLED display that can display notifications and alerts.

Highscreen Ice 2 comes in arctic white, galactic chameleon blue with sparkles and night gray. The latter can be called the most calm and versatile.

The front and back panels of Ice 2 are covered with Gorilla Glass 3. This is pretty cool for a mid-range device. The frame is made of plastic - a metal construction would be more appropriate here, the sensations from a smartphone were immediately more "flagship". As it stands, Ice 2 feels good quality, but simple enough, which is reminiscent of the Huawei Honor 6.

The front side is given for a 4.7 "IPS-display without an air gap. It is very high-quality and solid, the black color merges with the front panel, the image is as if on the surface of the screen, the viewing angles are not satisfactory, and the inversion is quite small. display by double tapping, which, again, is not so often seen in mid-range devices. touch buttons backlit controls. The left point is responsible for functions, the right one for returning to the previous screen, the central ring transfers to the home desktop and, with a long hold, shows the last running programs. The center button also has a built-in 7-color LED that displays notifications from various applications and the status of the smartphone during charging / discharging. Above the screen is a 2-megapixel front-camera and a conversational speaker.

The layout of the controls is non-standard and raises questions. For some reason, the power button migrated to the upper end, closer to the 3.5 mm audio jack. You will always have to reach for her. And if it is not necessary to do this to unlock the screen (it saves a double tap on the display), then to lock it, you will have to do this, which is inconvenient. The volume control buttons are in their usual places, above them there is a slot for microSD memory cards. On the opposite side there are slots for two micro-SIM cards. The bottom end is dedicated to a microUSB port and a microphone. The second microphone is located on the back panel, above the same second display. Here you can also see a fairly loud, but average quality multimedia speaker (overlaps on the table), a 13-megapixel camera and a flash.

As you already understood, the design of the smartphone is non-separable (a 2500 mAh battery is hidden inside), the device seems to be very strong and monolithic. It feels like in the hand Sony Xperia Z of the first generation, only without any incomprehensible films and with a simpler frame. In general, the Highscreen has turned out to be a very solid and high-quality smartphone in appearance and touch, which is not a shame to pick up even for a sophisticated lover of gadgets. And what about the program?

Software

Highscreen Ice 2 is based on Android base 4.4.2 KitKat, has a Google Start launcher and minimal additions from the manufacturer. This is the already mentioned doubletap for unlocking the screen, as well as several other chips that can be found in the settings. The main one is, of course, the second display and its parameters. Here you can set the intervals for automatically turning on the OLED panel, select the displayed notifications from required programs and services, and activate the weather display. The main disadvantage of the second display, in this case, is the lack of the possibility of its permanent operation, as is done in the YotaPhone 2, for example. Of course, a much larger screen is used there, and the display technology is completely different, but the essence is roughly comparable - showing notifications and important information... It turns out that in the second display there is not so much sense - the whole necessary information can be checked on the main screen without waiting for the additional one to be turned on. Perhaps the constant activity or the inclusion of an additional panel is implemented through tapping in one of the upcoming updates. It would be nice.

In the sound settings, you can note the sound enhancer for the headphones and the speaker volume booster. In the screen settings, you can turn on the ClearMotion video smoothness enhancer, show notifications on the lock screen, two-tap unlock, and customize light notifications (7 colors with different speed flicker and a choice of applications). There is a power saving mode in the battery settings that limits the processor frequency to lower the temperature of the device and increase the time autonomous work... Otherwise, we have an ordinary Android smartphone with basic programs. Of the applications preinstalled by the manufacturer, there is only 4Sync cloud storage, upon registration in which you can get 128 GB of memory for storing any data as a gift.

Camera

The phone uses a 13MP autofocus camera module with a Sony IMX214 sensor. The interface of the application is very advanced and is not limited only to the basic settings (for example, there is a shooting mode with both front and rear cameras). Focusing in photo mode is carried out both automatically and by touch, with the latter option by default immediately after that takes a picture (this can be turned off if desired). It's nice that when you touch, the exposure is immediately adjusted, not all flagship smartphones other brands still do it.

In video mode, only touch focus is available, but there is a photo shooting while recording. In the settings there is an option to enable electronic image stabilization, but it does not work the best way(everything floats). As for the quality of photos and videos, it is quite average for a photo (strong grain and noise) and below average for a video. Examples in front of your eyes.

Benchmarks and performance

The smartphone is built on the basis of the MediaTek MT6592 chipset with an 8-core processor and a frequency of 1.7 GHz, has 2 GB of RAM and a Mali-450 MP4 graphics accelerator. The filling is generally typical and adequate for the middle class. The main thing is that the smartphone works smartly, the lags are minimal, and even with the simultaneous installation of a large number of applications, the phone does not go into deep thought. Still, Highscreen did the right thing by choosing a panel with HD resolution over Full HD.

According to the results of synthetic tests, performance is demonstrated comparable to the flagships of the first half of last year, such as the HTC One M7 and Samsung Galaxy S4, for example. In AnTuTu 5.6, the device scores 32,009 points, in Geekbench 3 - 444/2394, in Vellamo - 1949/1461/888, in Basemark OS II - 533, in GFXBench T-Rex for HD / Full HD - 15/12 fps, in 3DMark Unlimited - 7037 points, Epic Citadel High Quality - 59 fps. As you can see, the graphic part pumped up the most, that is, it will not always be possible to play the most modern toys in maximum quality.

Thanks to the press service of Vobis Computer (Highscreen trademark), I got a Highscreen Ice 2 smartphone with an additional screen on the back of the phone. Unlike Highscreen Spade (), it has a more glamorous design, smaller screen size (4.7 inches). The same processor and video processor, support for two SIM cards, good photo optics (13 Mp and 2 Mp). But the memory is twice as much - 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of ROM. There are also many interesting features in Highscreen Ice 2, which I will discuss in the "pros" section. Everything is good in this smartphone, but it is not cheap, an infection.

Cons of Highscreen Ice 2
1. Price (16,990 rubles). No matter how good a smartphone is, the more expensive it is, the fewer people who want to buy it. Especially in times of crisis.
2. The battery could have been larger. But this is a perennial smartphone problem. In this case, the battery is non-removable and will only last for six to seven hours of continuous online video. Read more about the opening hours below.
3. No LTE support. The maximum theoretical speed is 21 Mbps (3G, HSPA + technology). For 17 thousand rubles, I would like to see support for 4G.
4. The power button is located on the top edge. This arrangement will take some getting used to.
5. The body is one-piece. The back cover does not open and you have no access to the battery. To insert a microSIM or microSD, you need to use a special paper clip (included) or something similar (for example, a needle). In the field, you cannot change your SIM card or memory card.

Pros of Highscreen Ice 2
1. Nice design: you can safely put "five". There is a zakos under the popular iPhone smartphone 6. A wide plastic border (like metal) runs along the perimeter of the phone, the back side imitates a stone with fine sparkles.
2. The screen and the back of the phone are protected by Gorilla Glass 3. And the glass, in turn, is protected by thin bezels. The oleophobic coating is also worth mentioning, which prevents the formation of marks on the screen. Fingerprints on the screen are almost invisible. And on the back side they are not visible at all.
3. Good 4.7-inch IPS display. Resolution 1280 × 720 pixels, 16 million colors. Pixel density: 312 ppi. Individual pixels are not visible. When the smartphone is tilted, the colors are practically not inverted or distorted. The screen is very responsive and supports up to five simultaneous touches.
4. Of course, memory, like money, can never be too much, but 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of ROM are great. This means that the smartphone will not slow down if you open many applications and tabs in the browser. It also means that about 10 GB (initially available volume) will be available to you for your content. If you can't fit, photos, videos and music can be stored on a microSD card up to 32 GB.

5. Support for two SIM cards and Dual SIM Dual Standby technology, which allows both SIM cards to be in call standby mode. However, there is only one transceiver.
6. Good hardware: MT6592M eight-core processor (1.7 GHz), Mali-450MP4 quad-core video core (700 MHz). See below for test results.
7. Not a bad 13 megapixel main camera. There is autofocus and LED flash. You can evaluate the quality of photos by downloading the following archive (29 Mb, link).
8. Pleased with the lack of additional pre-installed applications and skins. All these programs and "decorations" only take up useful memory space, which is often not enough.
9. Every buyer of Highscreen Ice 2 gets 128 GB of free SYNC cloud storage.

10. Highscreen Ice 2 has some interesting features. Let's list them all in order.
Firstly, this is an additional monochrome LED screen, which displays different information: time, date (day of the week), charge level, weather (you need to configure the city of residence), missed events (configurable for all applications). The volume and frequency of the displayed information is configured in the "Oled" menu.
Secondly, the display turns on by double-clicking on the screen. Double tap on the lock screen turns off the display.
Thirdly, the central button is made in the form of a circle with color indication for different notifications (low battery, missed call, application notifications). Configurable under Display> Light Notifications. For each notification, you can choose one of the seven available colors, as well as the flicker speed: fast, medium, slow, very slow and no flicker.
Fourth, the USB cable has LED indication. It glows red during charging and blue when full charge is reached or idle (when the cable is not connected to any gadget). It is immediately visible when the smartphone is 100% charged.

Battery and run time
The battery capacity is 2,500 mAh.

Test 1. Watching online videos on YouTube over Wi-Fi. Brightness on "auto", volume in the middle, listening through headphones, Mobile Internet, GPS, Bluetooth are disabled.
In this mode, Highscreen Ice 2 worked for six and a half hours. Not bad.

Test 2. Watching movies through a media player. Brightness on "auto", volume in the middle, listening through headphones, all communication modules are disabled (airplane mode).
In this mode, the smartphone lasted about nine hours. Also an acceptable result.

The charger has an output current of 1 A. Full charging time from the standard charger is 2.5-3 hours. The smartphone is charged linearly: 1 hour - 50%, 2 hours - 80-85%, 2.5 hours - 100%.

Synthetic test results
AnTuTu Benchmark 5.6 (complex test) - 32 450 (for comparison, the result of Hisghscreen Spade is 31,690)
Quadrand Standad Edition 2 (complex test) - 14 195 (13 885)
3DMark (Ice Storm test) - 6 875 (6 790)
3DMark (Ice Storm Extreme test) - 4 850 (4 710)
Epic Citadel (3D test) - 59,2 fps (-)
The performance difference between the Spade and Ice 2 is a few percent (within the margin of error).

Main features of Highscreen Ice 2
CPU: 8-core processor MT6592M (1.7 GHz)
Video processor: 4-core Mali-450MP4 (700 MHz)
RAM: 2 GB
Built-in memory: 16 GB
MicroSD support: up to 32 GB
Wireless modules: 3G / Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 4.0
Speed ​​of mob-go internet: up to 21.6 Mbps
Screen type, number of colors: IPS, 16 million
Screen size: 4.7 "", 1280 × 720
Cameras: 13 MP (4224x3168) and 2 MP (1600x1200)
Video camera: 1920 × 1080
Battery: 2 500 mAh
Working hours: 6-6.5 hours (watch online video)
Size, weight: 135x67.6x8.7 mm, 135 g
Android version: Android 4.4.2
SIM-lock: not
Device price: RUB 16,990 (

Smooth, mostly square, of the same weight. Choosing one among them is already so problematic that many simply leave the store with a headache from ripples in their eyes. But Highscreen Ice 2, an overview of which we offer you in this article, compares favorably with the background of modern smartphones. There are several reasons for this.

The main "feature"

The smartphone, which is reviewed here, has one distinctive feature- the second screen. Not the same as that of the Russian YOTA gadget, but a small one on the back panel. But very much needed! The mini-display in scrolling text shows the most basic data that users so often need: time, date, battery charge, basic data from selected applications, notifications about missed calls and messages. Such a simple thing that many smartphones lacked so much! Now there is no need to constantly turn on the backlight on the phone in order to find out all this data.

A little about the company and the brand

Highscreen is a Russian-Chinese brand that has been actively developed relatively recently. In 2009 the company began to produce budget smartphones that have pleased many users around the world. Stable work and high-quality gadgets competed with eminent and well-known brands.

Screen

The screen diagonal of Highscreen Ice 2, the review of which will be of interest to all potential buyers, is only 4.7 inches. This is slightly less than the usual five for 2015. But the lack of these 0.3 inches is paid off by the presence of a second screen. It is located on the back cover, which is made of high quality non-slip plastic coated with protective glass... The color rendition of the device is simply excellent, according to experts. All colors are rich, bright, but natural. No yellowness or undue acidity noted. Everything is pleasing to the eye. In addition, the viewing angles of the Highscreen Ice 2 Galaxy are extremely good: no darkening or color drops are observed.

Setting up Oled

This refers to the small rear screen. The user can independently choose which information and with what frequency will be shown on the display. By itself, it is small - 23 by 5 mm. But this is quite enough. Moreover, the smartphone does not "eat" the battery from this. That is, the second display is very ergonomic, even if the data transmission frequency is set to maximum. Highscreen Ice 2, reviews of which will be presented below, it is thanks to the second screen that it compares favorably with competitors in its price category.

Design

All users unanimously come to the conclusion that the Highscreen Ice 2 smartphone, the review of which is useful to study before buying, looks very unusual and beautiful. The rear (Corning third generation) protects the smartphone from damage if used carelessly. For example, when you fall. By the way, not many firms use Corning Gorilla Glass for the back cover. The front glass is also made of this material. The color range is presented in four shades: blue (noble dark), white, gray and black. The speaker is located at the bottom of the rear panel, in the middle. This ensures that the sound is even and loud enough. The main camera is located in the upper left corner, which is also very convenient. The brand name is printed on the entire back panel. And since it is rather big in itself, it looks very beautiful and stylish. Smartphone Highscreen Ice 2 really looks very different from its competitors.

CPU

But he is far from perfect. The manufacturers have installed a slightly outdated eight-core MediaTek MT6592 processor with a clock frequency of 1.7 Hz on the device. By the way, she smoothes out such an unpleasant moment. Due to the high frequency, the gadget works perfectly. All modern demanding games and applications work quickly and without lags. It is noteworthy that the Highscreen Ice 2 Galaxy smartphone has proven itself well in multitasking. Applications, even in the background, work stably without causing discomfort to the user. And all the necessary notifications can be seen on the second display if desired.

Device memory

The Highscreen Ice 2 phone has 2 GB of RAM. This is already a standard figure for 2015. Modern applications and games require more and more RAM, so it is really necessary to have it. And here the Russian-Chinese smartphone did not disappoint. Even games that are very demanding in terms of settings work without any problems. And apps too. Although some still have to be manually "downplayed" by the settings. Built-in storage of information in a smartphone 16 GB. And this is also a standard indicator. For those who lack the declared 16 GB (of which about 14 GB are available), a memory card slot will help. More precisely, the slot is double - it can be used either for an SD card or for a second SIM card. At the discretion of the user.

External camera

Here, too, everything is quite standard and expected - 13 megapixels. The camera itself is slightly recessed into the back cover, but the metal edging protrudes above it so that the pictures do not turn out to be overexposed. Next to the camera is a noise suppressor and a speaker. Everything together works great. Pictures are obtained in high definition, without unnecessary noise and distortion. Of course, you cannot compare with flagship cameras, since the Highscreen Ice 2 has a matrix not the strongest. But the pictures are still of high quality and beautiful. Autofocus works smoothly, without braking or freezing, there are enough shooting modes with a head. Those who need more effects should pay attention to photo editors.

Front-camera

But it is too small - 2 megapixels. Highscreen Ice 2 Blue, like any other in this series, does not allow you to take the clearest selfies. But for communication via video communication, this is enough. And with a firm hand and the right lighting and selfies are good enough for a 2 megapixel. Photo editors can add a special charm to blurry photos. And by the way, standard settings enough for this.

Communication standards

Well, here it is also not very modern - there is no support for 4G and LTE. All previous ones are supported without problems. Of course, new communication standards do not work everywhere in Russia yet, but this moment is not far off, so the lack of 4G can be considered a serious disadvantage for Highscreen Ice 2 (Gray, Blue, White or Black). This will not be enough in a year or two.

Battery

Its capacity is 2500 mAh. In general, a good result, given that there are still two screens. Albeit one and very ergonomic. With such a processor and the maximum brightness of the screen, the battery is quite enough. It is noteworthy that when the Internet is always on ( wireless wifi or built-in 3G) and the average workload of the phone is enough for the whole day. This means that you will not have to rush in search of an outlet if something happens. Well, for those who play games constantly, we can advise you to purchase an external drive, which will always be at hand.

Equipment

Many modern manufacturers have begun to save a lot on this. But Highscreen Ice 2, reviews of which will help you make the right choice, compares favorably today. So, the branded box contains:

• Detailed instructions in several languages ​​(including Russian).
• A clip to open the memory card and sim card slot.
• Stereo headset (more about it below).
• Charger (the "plug" itself).
• USB cable (aka the wire to the "plug").
• Smartphone.

The box itself is made of thick cardboard, which depicts a model in an icy haze (Ice, after all). It looks impressive and presentable.

About the headset

Most often, users save on it. But not Highscreen. This is a really high-quality headset that you don't want to change to another. It fits comfortably in the ear and provides good sound. And with the right one, the media player turns out to be a very good music player. And this is also very important for many users. Replacement earbuds are available separately for the headset.