Cloudfone Excite Prime 2 Unboxing, First Impressions

Cloudfone has released the awaited sequel to the Excite Prime smartphone called the Excite Prime 2, sporting a more premium look with added hardware that boasts to be better than the competition. Here’s your first look at the device.

Inside the box are the usual contents of a retail unit — the phone itself, a USB cable, a charging adapter, a clear jelly case, a screen protector, a pair of Cloudfone-branded earphones (hey, doesn’t this remind you of those Spotify earphones from before?) and extra silicone earbud tips, and manuals.

Looking at the device from the get-go makes you realize that the Excite Prime has evolved into something different from last year. The front has the usual sensors, the eight-megapixel front camera with an accompanying LED Flash and the 5.5-inch display. The navigational buttons are still on-screen and the chin helps when holding the phone in a landscape position for gaming.

The front is enclosed with a 2.5D curved glass screen that feels just right.

The sides are an extension of the unibody clamshell back cover and offer a nice grip, partly due to its construction that provides a curve on the sides of the back, nearing to the edge. The volume key and power/lock button with micro-concentric designs are located on the right side, while the microUSB and 3.5mm audio ports are at the bottom and top, respectively.

Flipping the device over, we have the 13-megapixel rear camera that does protrude from its golden-colored polycarbonate back shell, emblazoned by a chrome ring as with other Cloudfone devices. The sole LED Flash sits below it, as well as the back-firing speaker which is located towards the bottom of the device.

The 13-megapixel rear camera offers decent shots with an updated interface to boot. As such, it takes really good photos with decent amounts of detail and true to life colors. Here are a few first shots from our warm-colored studio:

Meanwhile, our AnTuTu Benchmark test gave us a 28,552 score. That’s something we’ll look into, as the Excite Prime also nearly got the same benchmark score.

Cloudfone Excite Prime 2 specs:
5.5″ HD IPS OGS Sharp display @ 1280 x 720 px, 267ppi
2.5D curved glass and Corning Gorilla Glass protection
1.3GHz 64bit Quad Core MediaTek MT6737
Mali-T720MP2
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
expandable via microSD
13MP f/2.0 Sony IMX135 AF rear camera w/ LED Flash
8MP f/2.0 front camera w/ LED Flash
4G LTE w/ 700MHz support
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
WiFi
Bluetooth
USB-OTG
Android 7.0 Nougat
3,000mAh Non-Removable battery

The Cloudfone Excite Prime 2 retails for Php5,999USD 102INR 8,666EUR 97CNY 744 and is now available in stores. With a higher price tag to boot, is it deemed to be a proper successor to the YugaTech Reader’s and Editor’s choice for Budget Device of 2016? We’ll find out as we take this for a spin and a full review in the coming days.