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Properly that was fast. Only a day after launching in China, the MOONDROP MIAD 01 5G smartphone with HiFi audio options has now launched worldwide.
The Android-powered smartphone is on the market now from HiFiGo for $399. It might present up at different shops quickly: MOONDROP says the telephone needs to be accessible from “licensed shops” and eCommerce web sites.
MOONDROP is a Chinese language firm finest identified for making HiFi audio merchandise together with headphones, earbuds, and amplifiers. The MOONDROP MIAD 01 is the corporate’s first smartphone, but it surely’s additionally one of the vital uncommon smartphones I’ve seen shortly due to its emphasis on HiFi audio options.
At a time when most smartphone makers are dropping headphone jacks altogether, the MIAD 01 has two headphone jacks: one with assist for 3.5mm unbalanced audio cables and a second for 4.4mm balanced cables. This permits for increased energy output, which helps you to use headphones that wouldn’t usually work effectively on units with 3.5mm jacks solely. It might additionally allow you to use longer audio cables with out worrying about sign interference.
However the headphone jacks are simply one of many telephone’s HiFi audio options.
MOONDROP additionally outfitted the MIAD 01 with twin Cirrus Logic MasterHiFi DACs (digital to analog converters), a 6-layer audio circuit with gold coating and an unbiased LDO energy provide. The corporate says the result’s assist for dynamic vary as much as 132 dB and a signal-to-noise ratio as excessive as 117 dB.
The telephone additionally helps 100-levels of digital quantity controls, and ships with MOONDROP Audio Heart Software program that allows you to management audio options (and brings assist for spatial audio algorithms).
However it is a telephone and never only a media participant. So let’s check out the remainder of the specs for the MIAD 01:
| MIAD 01 Specs | |
| Show | 6.7 inches 2460 x 1080 pixels Curved AMOLED 120 Hz refresh price 1920 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming |
| Processor | MediaTek Dimensity 7050 2 x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.6 GHz 6 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 2 GHz Mali-G68 MC4 graphics |
| RAM | 12GB LPDDR4x |
| Storage | 256GB UFS 3.1 microSD card reader (as much as 2TB) |
| Rear cameras | 64MP major 8MP wide-angle LED Flash |
| Entrance digital camera | 32MP |
| Audio | 3.5mm unbalanced + 4.4mm balanced jacks Stereo audio system Twin Cirrus Logic MasterHiFi DAC 6-layer gold-plated audio circuit 132 dB dynamic vary 117 dB signal-to-noise ratio |
| Ports | 1 x USB 3.1 Sort-C (5 Gbps) 2 x audio jacks 1 x microSD card reader |
| Wi-fi | WiFi Bluetooth (SB/AAC/LDAC codecs supported) NFC 4G LTE / 5G Twin SIM Twin Standby (or single-SIM + microSD card) |
| Community bands | GSM: B2/3/5/8 WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 LTE: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/28(A+B)/38/40/41/66 5G: N1/3/5/7/8/20/28/41/77/78 |
| Battery | 5,000 mAh |
| Charging | 33W (wired) |
| Safety | In-display optical fingerprint sensor |
| OS & Software program | Android 13 (ships with out Google Cell Providers, which customers can set up manually) |
| Weight | 202 grams |
| Value | $399 |
All informed, the MOONDROP MIAD 01 appears to be like prefer it affords respectable bang for the buck. It’s cheaper than mid-range telephones just like the Google Pixel 7a, however affords semi-premium options like a 120 Hz FHD+ AMOLED show, 12GB of RAM, and a pretty big battery. It additionally has a quicker USB port than most mid-range telephones, and premium audio options that assist it stand out within the crowded mid-range smartphone house.
However that is nonetheless not a telephone for everybody. It’s a telephone made for audiophiles, not of us who’ve already deserted wired headphones for wi-fi for the comfort issue.
And it’s the first telephone from an organization that’s by no means made a smartphone earlier than. It ships with Android 13, which was first launched almost two years in the past and MOONDROP isn’t making any guarantees of future OS or safety updates (though the corporate does promise to deliver updates to its Audio Heart app).
The telephone additionally ships with out Google Cell Providers certification. Meaning it doesn’t include the Google Play Retailer, Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, or different Google apps and providers.
MOONDROP implies that it is a promoting level, as a result of it implies that the telephone ships with none Google information monitoring (and certainly, there are some area of interest corporations that make some extent of promoting telephones with Google-free variations of Android within the title of privateness). Customers can at all times sideload apps or set up a third-party app retailer.
However MOONDROP additionally notes that customers who need to use Google Cell Providers can set up it themselves (the steps needs to be much like those I’ve written up for manually putting in the Google Play Retailer on Amazon Fireplace tablets, (besides you’ll need to use Google Providers Framework model 13).
Nonetheless, the MOONDROP MIAD 01 presents an attention-grabbing worth proposition as a tool that stands out in a crowded area attributable to specialised {hardware} and software program geared toward audio fans… but additionally as a tool from an organization with no confirmed observe report of offering ongoing assist for a tool as complicated as a smartphone. Oh, and MOONDROP additionally doesn’t appear significantly assured within the telephone’s digital camera high quality.
So whereas I’d hope that the corporate will proceed to assist this system for years to come back, it’s in all probability finest to consider whether or not it does every little thing you need it to do proper now earlier than spending $399 on one.
through Head-Fi discussion board and @MoondropLab