MLAIS Note Pro - Octa core Android Phablet

I've just purchased this Phablet MLAIS Note Pro to replace my two years old Samsung Galaxy Y Duos. It's working fine but I wanted to get a bigger screen so the same phone can be used as a 'mini tablet' during travel. Without much 'talk' will jump in to the experience.

1. Screen: It comes with 5.5" screen, 720P display, and 320ppi. Screen looks pretty neat and sensitive too. Compared to iPhone, the screen is more bright, and colours are more saturated. No qualms and I am quite happy with it. Positive marks here
2. Performance: No complaints, memory is 2GB and processor is octa core mediatek clocked at 1.7Ghz. For my usage, this is more than sufficient. Positive marks here
3. Call Quality/microphone: Yes, this is a drawback. Often the other party hear my voice coming from a well. It improves a bit with headset but overall this area can be improved. So I'll go with Neutral
4. Battery: When I use the phone for zero calls, zero texts but as a hotspot, the battery gives me a full day. i.e. approx 8 hours. This is great but the moment I start making some calls or reading something on the screen, the battery goes like the taxi meter in Sydney. It drains almost a pointer every minute. The phone comes with 3200mah but must be some thing wrong with the software or processes. I've dimmed the display to bare minimum but still I can run the phone only for 4 hours of reading or watching video. This is a big negative to me
5. Connectivity: No LTE. But UMTS(3G) is good enough for me with download speeds of ~ 3 Mbps. In Sydney I managed to get 11Mbps on Optus network, while in Singapore the throughput dropped to 3Mbps in City area. Upload is not bad either. There are other features like NFC, which I am still trying to find how that is useful to me or what purpose they achieve. Acceptable
6. Camera: Not a great fan/doesn't really take too many snaps. I've tried to take few snaps using the front camera, and I am surprised with the quality. They are a bit grainy, but good quality pic. Acceptable
7. Others: Looks are great and the phone build quality is great. It doesn't feel like a budget phone at all. The phone came with a screen protector on top of a gorilla glass, a sub-par eatpiece, cables etc. Good thing is I purchased a cover/case together from China, so I am not going to spend a fortune on accessories. There are some minor issues (bloat ware, software update etc) but as the name says, they are minor. Acceptable

Overall, I am happy with the phone and considering the US 200 price I paid for phone+case with NFC+addl battery, I must say this is a great value for money. 

Some tips/comments:

• Get a good headset/ear piece. 
• 1st SIM slot is Micro SIM and supports 3G. 2nd SIM is regular SIM. So keep a SIM adapter can be handy to change the slots when you travel. 
• Custom ROM is not available at XDA and drivers are not available from MLais site. Note that the website is in Chinese. Limited support options

The folks at XDA are quite keen to get hold of this phone and overall there is a tremendous interest in the phone. So I am sure, we can see custom ROMs cooked very soon. Hopefully that can solve the battery issues.