Zopo Speed 8 hands-on: Zopo at MWC 2016

Zopo Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 is the world's first smartphone to feature MediaTek's flagship Helio X20 SoC. In case you're not familiar with this beast - it's the first with a deca-core processor (yes, that's 10 CPU cores).

But first things first. The Zopo Speed 8 has a 5.5" IPS 1080p display and rocks a 21MP Sony IMX230 camera with phase-detection AF and a dual-tone flash. There is an 8MP selfie shooter with a front LED flash too. The inbuilt storage is 32GB, expandable of course, while the battery is the beefy 3,600mAh.

The Speed 8 has a USB Type-C connectivity port, supports fast charging and LTE connectivity.

We stopped by at Zopo's booth and grabbed a Speed 8 for a quick hands-on.

ZOPO Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 is made of matte plastic, which is very nice to the touch and immune to fingerprints. It feels very sturdy too. The glossy silver frame, on the other hand looks like it might start chipping and showing other signs of wear and tear very quickly. It may look like a metal frame at first, but it's a plastic lookalike.

We like the silver accents around the earpiece, the rear camera, and the fingerprint scanner on the back. The biometric sensor is placed perfectly there, right at your index fingertip.

Zopo Speed 8

The phone isn't the thinnest there is, but it hits a good spot when it comes to weight. It feels right in the hand, not too light and not too heavy, and offers a nice grip thanks to the matte finish. We liked its clean design and handling.

ZOPO Speed 8

The Zopo Speed 8 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with little to no customizations, and the experience is very close to the pure Android we are used to in the Nexus line of smartphones. The OS was snappy and ran without hiccups although we didn't actually test how it will handle heavy apps.

ZOPO Speed 8

And now, the Helio X20 chipset. It has a 10-core 3-cluster processor - 2x Cortex-A72 @ 2.5GH + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz. The GPU is Mali-T880 MP4, and there are 4GB of RAM. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge utilize the same GPU in their Exynos models, but it's Mali-T880 MP12, which means three times as many cores as the Helio X20's GPU.

We ran a few benchmarks on the Zopo Speed 8. The single-core performance meets the expectations but the multi-core performance falls somewhat short. We suspect GeekBench 3 isn't reading all three clusters of CPU cores and will need an update.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  2320
• Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge
  2108
• Zopo Speed 8
  1625
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  1490
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1466
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  1363
• Lenovo Vibe X3
  1266
• Meizu m1 metal
  883

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge
  6395
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  5422
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  5158
• Meizu MX5
  5110
• Meizu m1 metal
  4825
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4759
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  4537
• Zopo Speed 8
  4128
• Lenovo Vibe X3
  3644
• HTC One A9
  3209
• Oppo R7s
  3206

We can't be sure whether the rest of the benchmarks were properly gauging the 10-core processor either.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge
  114250
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  89345
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  83167
• Zopo Speed 8
  68654
• Lenovo Vibe X3
  66762
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  64591
• HTC One A9
  60324
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  45474
• Oppo R7s
  35959

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  1789
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1529
• Zopo Speed 8
  1471
• Lenovo Vibe X3
  1413
• Meizu MX5
  1252
• Meizu m1 metal
  1039
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  1018
• HTC One A9
  944
• Oppo R7s
  930

The GPU test Basemark X shows the quad-core Mali-T880 isn't the best performer out there, but it should perfectly handle everything on its 1080p display, even the heaviest of games.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  26333
• Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge
  24862
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• Lenovo Vibe X3
  15599
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  15290
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• Zopo Speed 8
  9311
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  8540
• Meizu m1 metal
  8526
• HTC One A9
  6617
• Oppo R7s
  5302

You should note this is a pre-production unit, and the performance will improve when it's finalized. Those benchmark apps most probably need an update to support the new chipset too.

Finally, we weren't able to test the camera performance. On a positive note, you can use the fingerprint scanner as a hardware shutter when taking selfies.

Zopo Speed 8 will be available for purchase globally this April from Zopo's online shop.