First Week Impressions

CARBON 1 MK II Carbon 1 MK II: Product Latest
#1

I’ve had the Carbon 1 Mark II for a week and using it as my primary driver. My impression of the device can be summarized as this:

“Using the Carbon 1 Mark II is like stepping into the future. This device does so much right and makes many great decisions with the design and functionality. The biggest flaw is the MediaTek processor and it’s limitations. With a better processor, this device would be nearly perfect.”

Pros:

  • Fantastic screen, the best I’ve ever seen. Carbon chose an AMOLED screen which makes me love this device so much. The contrast and colors are fantastic.
    Compared side-by-side with the iPhone, the Carbon’s screen displays much more vibrant colors.
    Perhaps it’s the custom and thin glass that makes the screen so amazing.
  • Amazing finish. The finish feels really good. It’s smooth and feels much more natural than aluminum or glass. The finish is very smooth and it just feels so good.
  • Light up Carbon logo. The logo is really cool and a fantastic demonstration of the engineering precision. It also lights up yellow or green as a charging status indicator.
  • Fast processor. The MediaTek processor is fast enough for all the tasks. I’ve experienced no lag with any operations.
  • Thinness. This phone is thin and that makes a notable improvement to using the phone.

Cons:

  • The biggest flaw is the MediaTek processor’s poor networking capabilities. Networking is really slow and there are often network timeouts and the connection speed is 5-10 times slower than my Qualcomm phones. There’s also no APTx bluetooth for music playback.
  • Camera. Camera is hard and I appreciate that Carbon has invested effort into making the camera useable. The camera is fortunately useable. The front camera takes really good selfies. Unfortunately, the backend camera has trouble with autofocus and blurs out detaills.
  • Charging heat. The top of the phone gets to 110 F when charging and has issues with heat dissipation.
  • Speaker volume. There’s a mono-speaker that doesn’t get loud enough.
  • Edges. The edges are a bit rough and could use a bit more coating. There might be wear issues down the road.

Neutral:

  • Batteray Life - I get 33 hours of mixed use and 8 hours of heavy use. The battery life will be lower than people are used to if they come from other devices. A large contributor to the phone’s weight is the battery so I’m fine with sacrificing a bit of battery life for a thin and light phone.
  • Phone Calls - Wifi calling works, the call quality is good, works well as a phone!
  • Weight - surprisingly, this phone doesn’t feel that light. Perhaps it’s the size of the phone affecting the weight distribution but it doesn’t feel light. I don’t notice the weight of the phone so this goes in neutral.

I wanted to share my quick impressions to congratulate the team on making so many fantastic decisions. Because of the great AMOLED screen, the material coating, and the quality, the Carbon 1 Mark II is a great phone!

5 Likes
#2

Just remembered, another pro is the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Thank you Carbon for not cheapening out. Having 8GB instead of 6 and 256 GB instead of 128 is just so nice and makes the device feel more premium.

1 Like
#3

Very glad to hear your constructive feedback @rayliverified

  • Regarding Camera Auto Focus: the next update we should have this problem fixed, stay tuned.
  • Charging heat: also we are tuning that, however, it should be safe even if it’s heating.
  • Weight: I am very surprised to hear that :open_mouth: , I think I know what you mean also, Carbon smartphone has a minimalist shape maintaining it’s weight-to-shape ratio. However, try to hold your other phone after few days, you would feel the difference :wink:
  • AMOLED: yes, we invested heavily in finding a great AMOLED with TP and GG6 (Victus) glass. I am also very happy with our display :grinning:

Thanks again for being part of Carbon’s family.

Best,
Firas.

1 Like
#4

I have an idea about what could be causing the network issues.

The good news is that mobile network speeds are great. I have unlimited so I can just use mobile. It’s the Wi-Fi speeds that are very slow unfortunately.

Curiously, Wi-Fi speeds are slow in one direction. From the screenshots below, you can see that it’s either upload or download speeds that are nonexistent. It’s like one channel blocks the other. Either upload speeds are quick or download speeds are quick but not both.

Does that give any clues as to what’s going on? Has anyone else also reported network speed as an issue?

Screenshot_20210512-223247~2
Screenshot_20210512-223247~21080×464 126 KB

Screenshot_20210512-223324
Screenshot_20210512-2233241080×2160 344 KB

#5

Overheating issue while charging is fixed in the latest update!
Thanks Carbon team :heartpulse:

#6

I received my Carbon a couple of hours ago and still need to get used to it.I ordered it spontaneously almost two weeks ago after watching a video on youtu.be and some research on the internet.
I realize a new company presenting a new bold concept will have teething problems so I’ll keep my comments to the point.By the way I’m one of the people who actually uses a cell phone to make calls.I don’t take photo’s,I dont shoot videos and I don’t use it for gaming.
Occasionally I go online but only if I don’t have a laptop close by.I would say I’m a moderate phone user.I don’t spend my life constantly connected to communication devices.
My first overall impression is good.The phone is very light.Has a good quality screen and is well made.The only problem I have is the fingerprint sensor which is not as sensitive as I would wish it should be.
But that’s all at this point.
I think the Carbon is too expensive and I hope the price’ll come down as soon as the brand is established.Beginnings are always hard and I think we all should be patient.I like the vision,idea and the concept of the phone and don’t regret I ordered a Carbon.
A heads up from London guys.
Go on with your good work,you got a fan here and I’ll introduce all my friends to this great product.

2 Likes